By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman If the quality of horses entered in Saturday's $275,000 Blame (G3) at Churchill Downs is any indication, the 1 1/8-mile dirt race for older horses will soon be upgraded to Grade 2 status. Frankly, there have been Grade 1 races with lesser fields than the stellar group slated to contest this year's Blame. You know it's a deep race when 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner #4 Mystik Dan (4-1) is the third choice on the morning line. The son of Goldencents has gone winless in five starts since beating future champion Sierra Leone and eventual Saudi Cup (G1) winner Forever Young in a thrilling Run for the Roses, but he showed signs of returning to form in the 1 1/16-mile Lake Ouachita S. at Oaklawn Park last month, finishing second by a nose to 2023 Pennsylvania Derby (G1) winner Saudi Crown while pulling eight lengths clear of the rest. Mystik Dan has scored two of his three career wins at Churchill Downs and should appreciate returning to Louisville's famous oval for the Blame. He exits a fast half-mile workout over this track last Saturday and warrants respect. But he hasn't run quite as fast on the Beyer Speed Figure scale as #7 Most Wanted (7-2), the second choice on the morning line and the horse to beat in my opinion. Conditioned by two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, Most Wanted started his career on a hot streak last June. He won his first four starts in succession, including the Ellis Park Derby and Oklahoma Derby (G3). Then he ended his three-year-old year with a game runner-up finish in the Clark (G2), beaten less than one length by Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll while pulling 3 1/4 lengths clear of future Dubai World Cup (G1) winner Hit Show. Most Wanted is 0-for-2 this year, but he's been running better than ever. In the 1 1/16-mile Challenger (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs, he finished second by 1 1/4 lengths against Skippylongstocking, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup (G2) last week. Most Wanted pulled 14 3/4 lengths clear of the third-place finisher and earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure higher than Mystik Dan's career-best 101. Then in the 1 1/16-mile Alysheba (G2) at Churchill Downs, Most Wanted carved out the pace before staying on to finish second by 1 1/2 lengths against 2023 champion two-year-old male Fierceness. Most Wanted finished 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Mineshaft (G3) winner #6 Hall of Fame (8-1), who is back for the Blame, and he earned a career-best 105 Beyer. Most Wanted's Alysheba performance was excellent. After setting fractions of :24.39 and :48.31, he blazed his third quarter-mile in :22.80 and his final five-sixteenths of a mile in :29.79 per the Equibase GPS result chart. In order to chase down Most Wanted, Fierceness had to clock 1 1/16 miles in the track-record time of 1:40.66. In all six of his route races, Most Wanted has either set the pace or pressed the tempo in second place, so early speed is one of his biggest assets. That should be an advantage since his primary pace rival in the Blame, #5 Best Actor (30-1), is expected to scratch and run in a Sunday allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs per Marcus Hersh of the Daily Racing Form. Most Wanted is also entered in the Sunday allowance optional claimer, and according to Hersh, trainer Brad Cox is uncertain whether Most Wanted will run there or in the Blame. If Most Wanted opts for Sunday's easier spot, I'll view him as practically a lock to win. But I'm optimistic he'll stay in Saturday's graded stakes instead and conquer all comers. My second choice is Hall of Fame, who finished 2 3/4 lengths behind Most Wanted in the Alysheba. He didn't appear entirely comfortable racing in a pocket along the inside, but nevertheless churned on to hold third place by 2 1/2 lengths over Santa Anita H. (G1) winner Locked. Hall of Fame's previous form was even better. Two starts back he utilized a clear pace-tracking trip to finish second in the New Orleans Classic (G2), coming home two lengths ahead of Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) winner Sierra Leone while earning a 106 Beyer. And three starts back, he won the Mineshaft (G3) by a head over Komorebino Omoide, who has since won the Steve Sexton Mile (G3). If Hall of Fame can avoid getting buried in traffic again in the Blame, I think he'll produce an effort more in line with his New Orleans try and take home second place in the Blame. I'm a little less keen to support #9 Post Time (3-1), the morning-line favorite in the Blame. While he's performed admirably at the Grade 1 level, finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), second in the Metropolitan H. (G1), and third in the Whitney (G1), all five of his stakes wins have come in one-turn races over one mile or less, including a quartet of seven-furlong sprints. I wonder if 1 1/8 miles is bit farther than Post Time really wants to run. Selections 1st: Most Wanted 2nd: Hall of Fame 3rd: Mystik Dan Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Blame? ***** Want to test your handicapping skills against fellow Unlocking Winners readers? Check out the Unlocking Winners contest pagethere's a new challenge every week! (Please note: older contest entries can be found here.) J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, videographer, voice actor, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. China urges relevant countries to stop stirring up trouble in South China Sea Xinhua) 10:07, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense ministry spokesperson on Thursday urged relevant countries to cease ganging up and stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, and to refrain from undermining regional peace. Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a question regarding the joint patrols conducted by the Philippines and the United States in the South China Sea. The current situation in the South China Sea is generally stable, and there is no issue with the freedom of navigation and overflight enjoyed by all countries in accordance with international law, Zhang noted. "Some countries engage in confrontation in the name of cooperation, showcase their military might under the pretext of freedom, and create chaos in the guise of order, emerging as the primary source of risks that undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea," he said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe 23 items in this article Photo: Brenley Goertzen Earlier this month, after an extensive closet purge, I took a fine-tooth comb to my summer wardrobe. While my white T-shirts and airy bottoms were in a good place (Im on the clothing-basics beat, so I tend to accumulate those), I still felt like something was missing. Over the next few days, though, as I scrolled through Instagram and browsed around online, I started noticing what seemed like the missing piece: smocking. Suddenly, smocked tops, dresses, and sets were everywhere on Laura Jung, writer of the Substack Digestifs, and some of my favorite content creators, including Samantha of @itsyourgirlsamanthaaa and Aarica Nichole plus just about every New Arrivals page I regularly peruse, including Madewell, Everlane, and Doen. Once I started noticing the crinkly tops, I couldnt stop: There was a smocked peplum top from Reformation, a tank from Snderhaus, and a blouse from Sezane. My fellow Strategist staffers knew I had smocking on the brain and started sending me even more pieces theyd noticed around the internet, too. While smocking is not exactly a new technique the gathered fabric is often used on the back of garments near the zipper its the fully smocked look that feels fresh to me. When I mentioned this style of smocking to my editor, Hilary Reid, she right away said it reminded her of an updated version of the stretchy popcorn tops of the 90s. Similar to those textured tops, smocking makes clothes at once expandable and fitted resulting in something thats both comfortable and flattering. It hides bra straps and seam lines well, and you might even be able to go completely braless (a big win during warmer months) thanks to the structure that some smocking provides. Here are some smocked pieces Im eyeing, along with a few that I already own. Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Sezane Rhys Blouse $125 $125 This was the first smocked top I noticed and given that its almost sold out, I think its fair to say I wasnt the only one. The blue shade is versatile, and I love the four bow ties that run down the back. $125 at Sezane Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Anthropologie Maeve Smocked Button-Front Top $68 $68 Its on the cropped side, but this button-down is similar to the Nikki Chasin above and would look nice layered over a sundress or the swimsuit top of your choice. $68 at Anthropologie Buy I have my eye on this denim set, which my colleague Bella Druckman tipped me off to after she saw it on display at the brick-and-mortar Madewell on Fifth Avenue. Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Free People Smockin Hot Set $128 $128 Theres also this smocked workout set thats pretty ideal for running errands during the summer. I own it and love how the top has a built-in bra. $128 at Free People Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Reformation Aggie Top $168 $168 This combines gingham another thing Im seeing everywhere this spring with smocking. A match made in heaven, if you ask me. $168 at Reformation Buy For a similar option thats not specifically a maternity outfit, theres Hill House Homes fully smocked bandeau and matching midi-length skirt (that has a smocked waist). The brand has long been in the smocking game with its Nap Dress. Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Snderhaus Malia Tank $98 $98 Just a nice, office-appropriate tomato-red smocked top from Snderhaus, a brand that makes vintage-inspired pieces including tablecloth dresses and bloomers. $98 at Snderhaus Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. More To Come x Emma Rose Ellery Short Set $84 $84 I ordered this top-and-shorts set, and since the shorts are pretty micro, I plan to wear them as a swim cover-up when I go to Mexico for a wedding next month. I love that I can also wear the top on its own, paired with light-blue denim or a cotton-poplin maxi skirt. $84 at Revolve Clothing Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Doen Rosalynn Dress $348 $348 Doens Rosalynn dress is super-smocked as in, smocked all the way from under the bust to the hemline. $348 at Doen Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Doen Rachelle Skirt $328 $328 I cant stop thinking about this 90s-esque lace smocked skirt, which looks like something you might wear while visiting Mr. Darcys Pemberley. $328 at Doen Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Everlane The Smocked Column Dress From $67 $168 now 60% off From $67 A smocked dress that Id just as easily wear to the pool as I would a dinner party. From $67 at Everlane Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Free People Smockin Hot Dress $128 $128 You could also go for an exercise dress with smocked front and back detailing. This one has built-in shorts that make it perfect for the pickleball court or just a walk around the neighborhood. $128 at Free People Buy Saved View New! You can now save this product for later. Aritzia Wilfred Alice Dress $188 $188 If you want to lean more into the 90s popcorn end of the smocking spectrum, this dress is for you. $188 at Aritzia Buy And, finally, a smocked swimsuit that would be handy for a bachelorette trip (and could even keep a little sun off your shoulders, thanks to the capish-sleeve top). get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Blake Lively backed by advocacy groups in legal fight with Justin Baldoni over #MeToo speech law https://t.co/hbp4rzbK68 Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 27, 2025 Multiple advocacy organizations, including California Women's Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, and California Employment Lawyers Association, have filed an amicus brief in support of Blake Lively's motion to dismiss Justin Baldoni's defamation countersuit against her.For context: There's a law in California, AB 933, called the #MeToo bill that was passed in 2023 to protect survivors from retaliatory defamation lawsuits filed against them.As stated in the brief,To read the brief in full, click here. THR reports Ariana Grande turned down numerous movie projects from Universal, Sony & Warner Bros. before choosing Meet The Parents 4. Warner Bros. reportedly offered her the power to pick her co-star on one project that she ultimately declined. [image or embed] Pop Crave (@popcrave.com) May 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM Ariana Grande joins stars Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, and Terry Polo in the fourth installment of the hit franchise.The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Ariana turned down other projects from Universal, Sony, and Warner Bros. The source also said that Warner Bros. even offered Grande the chance to pick her costar but she declined.John Hamburg is back to write and direct the film. Hamburg cowrote the three previous movies.Meet the Parents 4 is set to be released November 25, 2026. Cal/OSHA Reissues Urgent Heat Safety Guidance as Temperatures Climb Across California With parts of the state expected to reach triple-digit heat, employers are reminded of their legal obligations to protect both indoor and outdoor workers from serious heat-related illnesses. As we head into the summer months, and with the forecast calling for increased temperatures in the coming days, Cal/OSHA is once again reminding employers to take the necessary steps to protect workers from heat illness at both outdoor and indoor worksites. The National Weather Service has issued extreme heat warnings for Central, Northern and parts of Southern California. Temperatures in these areas are expected to reach 99 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit Friday through Sunday in Merced, Madera, Sacramento, Solano, Yolo, San Joaquin, Fresno, Kern, Mendocino, Humboldt, Shasta, Trinity, Lake, Santa Clara, Monterey, Mariposa, Kings, and San Benito counties. Heat illness is a serious and potentially deadly hazard. Under Cal/OSHAs Heat Illness Prevention Standards, employers are legally required to implement protective measures for outdoor and indoor workers. Employers may be covered under both the indoor and outdoor regulations if they have workers in each setting. See the Comparison Chart of Indoor and Outdoor Heat Illness Prevention Standards for more information. Cal/OSHAs Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment regulation applies to most indoor workplaces, such as restaurants, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities. For indoor workplaces where the temperature reaches 82 degrees, employers must take steps to protect workers from heat illness. Some of the requirements include providing water, rest, cool-down areas, and training. To prevent heat illness at outdoor worksites, the law requires employers to provide outdoor workers fresh water, access to shade (which must be in place when temperatures are 80 degrees or higher), and, whenever requested by a worker, cool-down rest breaks in addition to regular breaks. In certain industries, when the temperature at outdoor worksites reaches or exceeds 95 degrees, Cal/OSHAs standard requires additional protections. The industries with additional high-heat requirements are agriculture, construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction, and transportation of agricultural products, construction materials, or other heavy materials. High-heat procedures include ensuring employees are observed regularly for signs of heat illness and establishing effective communication methods. Employers in both settings must also maintain a written prevention plan with effective training for supervisors to recognize the common signs and symptoms of heat illness and what to do in case of an emergency. Additional Resources Cal/OSHAs Heat Illness Prevention special emphasis program includes enforcement of the heat standards as well as multilingual outreach and training programs for Californias employers and workers. Details on heat illness prevention requirements and training materials are available online on Cal/OSHAs Heat Illness Prevention web page and the 99calor.org informational website. A Heat Illness Prevention online tool is also available on Cal/OSHAs website. Cal/OSHA has established the Heat Illness Prevention (HIP) Network, a voluntary partnership aimed at increasing awareness among employers and workers about the importance of preventing heat illness in California and the importance of taking steps to prevent work-related illnesses and fatalities. To join the HIP Network, email [email protected]. Evolving Rules for Evolving Job Sites OSHAs new construction PPE rule reflects a changing workforce. Step onto any construction site in America today, and one thing is immediately clear: todays construction crews reflect a broad cross-section of society. But no matter their background, experience, or body type, every worker on a construction site shares one critical need: personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is the great equalizer in construction safety, but for PPE to protect workers as intended, it must do more than be present. It must fit. Why is fit so crucial? Because PPE that doesnt fit properly can fail in the very moment its needed most. A harness that slides out of position might not arrest a fall. Loose gloves can catch in machinery. Oversized goggles can allow debris to enter the eye. Poorly fitting gear is not just uncomfortableits a risk multiplier. It impedes movement, reduces dexterity, limits visibility, and can even discourage workers from wearing it altogether. In essence, PPE that fits poorly can provide a false sense of security, lulling workers and supervisors into thinking theyre protected when they are not. So, its no surprise the Occupational Safety and Health Administration published fast-tracked its Personal Protective Equipment in Construction: Fit Requirements Final Rule, which went into effect on Jan. 13. It updates OSHAs construction standards (29 CFR 1926.95) to explicitly require that PPE must properly fit each affected employee. The rule explicitly states that employers must ensure all required PPE provided to construction workers properly fits each affected employee. Why Fit Matters More Than Ever Construction is a high-risk profession, consistently ranking among the most dangerous industries in terms of injuries and fatalities. Ill-fitting PPE compounds those risks. A hard hat that slides off easily, gloves too large to grip tools securely, a harness that rides too high or too loosethese are not minor inconveniences. They are hazards. And they are hazards disproportionately faced by certain segments of the workforce. Women, for example, often find themselves forced to wear gear designed for larger male frames. Also, smaller-statured workers, whether male or female, may have difficulty getting protective equipment that matches their proportions. When the gear doesnt fit, safety is compromised. From Implicit to Explicit: OSHA Clarifies Employer Responsibilities This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Occupational Health & Safety. Chinese scientists have developed a new electrochemical method to extract uranium from seawater that is significantly cheaper and more efficient than previous methods, potentially transforming the uranium market. Global nuclear energy generation is expected to reach record levels in 2025, leading to an increased demand for uranium and a need for innovative extraction methods. This year, the world will generate more nuclear energy than ever before. The market, technology and policy foundations are in place for a new era of growth in nuclear energy over the coming decades, the International Energy Agency (IEA) wrote in a report published last month. Its clear today that the strong comeback for nuclear energy that the IEA predicted several years ago is well underway, with nuclear set to generate a record level of electricity in 2025, stated IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. In addition to this, more than 70 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity is under construction globally, one of the highest levels in the last 30 years, and more than 40 countries around the world have plans to expand nuclears role in their energy systems. All that extra nuclear power generation is going to require a huge expansion of nuclear fuel production. So much, in fact, that the expansion of nuclear energy production capacity is expected to outpace the expansion of uranium production capacity on a global scale, and by a wide margin. This is expected to create a tight market and heightened competition to establish new uranium supplies. As a response, scientists are trying to get creative about new ways to create or circumvent the need for uranium. And so far, China is winning the race. Chinese scientists are making great progress of developing nuclear energy reactors that are powered by thorium instead of uranium, and another team of researchers also just made a major breakthrough in a new way to source uranium from seawater. This last development may mark a major breakthrough, as the worlds oceans are home to vast untapped reserves of the 92nd element. According to reporting from Semafor, oceans are estimated to hold 5 billion tons of uranium, 1,000 times more than can be mined. However, the dissolved minerals are dilute and difficult to gather. But a team of researchers from across China, in addition to a colleague from Taiwan, may have just cracked the code. The scientists developed an upgraded electrochemical method that requires less money and energy than any other seawater-extraction technique, according to MSN News. The exact figures are nothing short of staggering. The method was able to extract 100 percent of the uranium present in waters from the East China Sea and 85 percent from the South China Sea. However, when using larger electrodes, the scientists were reportedly able to achieve 100 percent extraction from the South China Sea waters as well. The experiments also showed the energy required was more than 1000-fold less than other electrochemical methods, writes New Scientist. The whole process cost about $83 per kilogram of extracted uranium. That is twice as cheap as physical adsorption methods, which cost about $205 per kilogram, and four times as cheap as previous electrochemical methods, which cost $360 per kilogram. This breakthrough stands to solidify Chinas place at the helm of the global nuclear energy industry. Currently, Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia are the largest global producers of uranium, accounting for nearly 70 percent of global production thanks to their naturally rich reserves. These new findings could allow China to join those ranks. But the ability to extract uranium from sweater could also provide a critical point of entry for other countries that are not naturally rich in mineable uranium. We need nuclear power as a bridge toward a post-fossil-fuel future, Professor Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, told the Stanford Report way back in 2017, when this technology was a distant theoretical possibility. Seawater extraction gives countries that dont have land-based uranium the security that comes from knowing theyll have the raw material to meet their energy needs. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com A turbulent week for global energy markets saw oil prices slide amid OPEC+ uncertainty and escalating U.S.-China tensions. The double whammy of OPEC+s unpredictability and Donald Trumps heated rhetoric over China totally violating its agreement with the US put oil prices under renewed pressure, sending ICE Brent slightly below $64 per barrel with WTI balancing on the edge of the $60 per barrel threshold. Should the weekend bring an OPEC+ surprise of a bigger-than-expected unwinding, the downslide could very well continue in the first week of June. OPEC+ Wants to Shock the Oil Market Even More. Whilst oil markets are more or less anticipating a 411,000 b/d increase from the Great Eight of OPEC+ in July, Saudi Arabia and Russia are considering potentially hiking output even more, partly to punish over-producers such as Kazakhstan. Saudi Aramco Borrows to Invest More. Saudi Arabias national oil company Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) is poised to continue tapping the financial markets to meet its investment plans after a $5 billion bond sale, saying its 5.3% gearing ratio is still lower than most of industry peers. Oil Sands Producers Brace for Wildfires. Canadian oil companies operating in Alberta are on alert as wildfires continue to spread across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with Cenovus evacuating non-essential personnel from its 180,000 b/d Foster Creek upgrader and smaller producers halting output altogether. Libya Could Descend into Chaos Again. Libyas Benghazi government has threatened to announce another period of force majeure on the North African countrys oil fields and export terminals, citing repeated assaults on the National Oil Corporation, wishing to relocate it from Tripoli to eastern cities. Related: Oil Prices on Course for Another Weekly Dip as OPEC+ Looks to Boost Production Iran Hints at a Potential Nuclear Deal. Top Iranian officials stated that Tehran could halt enrichment activities if the US releases frozen Iranian funds worth some $6 billion and recognizes the Middle Eastern nations right to civilian nuclear development, increasing the odds of a US-Iran nuclear deal soon. Chevron Gets Out of Venezuela. US oil major Chevron (NYSE:CVX) has terminated its production and service contracts in Venezuela after the Trump administrations two-month wind-down period lapsed this week, with state oil firm PDVSA taking over most of its 270,000-280,000 b/d of heavy sour exports. Syria Signs Giant Power Deal with Qatar. Marking the entry of Qatar into the Syrian energy landscape, the war-torn Levantine country signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatars UCC Holding to build power generation assets, including four CCGT power plants and one 1 GW solar plant, worth $7 billion. Total Exits Nigerias Key Offshore Field. French energy giant TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) announced it agreed to sell its 12.5% stake in the Bonga field in offshore Nigeria to the project operator Shell (LON:SHEL) for $510 million, marking its exit from one of the African countrys largest producing assets. Kazakhstan Cannot Pretend Any More. Kazakhstan, arguably OPEC+s most notorious overproducer, said it cannot force Western oil majors to cut their production and would even seek to increase output beyond the OPEC-reported 1.823 million b/d, some 400,000 b/d above its output quota. Glencore Lays the Groundwork for Giant Merger. Having transferred some $22 billion in foreign assets into its Australian subsidiary, global mining giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) is preparing for a surprise merger with fellow miner Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO), especially after the ouster of CEO Jakob Stausholm. Beijing Softens Stance on Rare Earth Exports. Chinas Foreign Ministry declared that Beijing would seek to cooperate over its rare earth export controls (introduced in April) with car and semiconductor producers in Europe and India, potentially indicating some softening towards non-US customers. Trump Cabinet Introduces Ethane Export Controls. The US Commerce Department informed domestic exporters of ethane Enterprise Product Partners and Energy Transfer - that they would need to seek licences to export any volumes to China, a country that accounts for 50% of global ethane flows. Traders Vie for Prized Italian Refiner. Global trading house Gunvor and Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR are headed towards a standoff to buy Italian refiner IP with final offers expected to be submitted by the end of May, with its current owner, the Peretti family, seeking a valuation of around $3.5 billion. By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com There was a time when Libya's internal chaos lit up the radar in Washington, Moscow, Ankara, and Brussels. Not anymore. In 2025, the country is in the middle of an undeclared but escalating civil war, and no one with real leverage is rushing in to break it up. Instead, they're recalibratingcautiously hedging their bets as oil flows continue and proxy advantages are rebalanced. Eastern forces aligned with General Khalifa Haftar are again inching toward the gates of Tripoli. Clashes in the capital in early May werent just a warning shot; they were the opening salvo of a potential months-long siege. Haftars threats to take oil ports by forcewhile reportedly receiving another delivery of Russian BM-30 Smerch rocket launchershave pushed Libyas eastern-based National Oil Corporation to threaten force majeure. But this time, the West isnt reacting. Washington is distracted. Europe is exhausted. Russia and Turkey are still activebut now more intent on co-managing their spheres of influence than playing zero-sum games. While this kind of division may have worked to provide a long-running, delightfully dysfunctional setup in Bosnia in the 90s, in Libya, greed is the guide, and one of the two rival governments will have to goand sooner rather than later. In May, the Speaker of Parliament openly called for yet another interim government to break the deadlock. Now, every minor political move means something much bigger. The Speaker, Aguila Saleh, is WTI futures ended Thursdays session just below a $62.59 pivot, paring earlier gains as a late-week rally fizzled. Crude prices initially rose following a U.S. trade court ruling that overturned broad Trump-era tariffs, which briefly lifted sentiment across risk assets. However, the upside lacked conviction, with futures retreating into the close and pushing prices down roughly 1% for the week. Brent tracked similarly. The subdued response signals a market lacking directional confidence, with traders opting to stay sidelined ahead of clearer signals from OPEC+ and geopolitical developments. OPEC+ Meeting Takes Center StageBut Direction Still Unclear All attention now turns to OPEC+, with a formal decision on July production expected over the weekend. While analysts expect a 411,000 bpd increase, the outcome remains uncertain. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister downplayed any formal discussion on output hikes, indicating possible internal pushback. The group faces a balancing act: defending market share without overwhelming fragile demand. Rystad and ING see upside in summer consumption, but whether OPEC+ will respond with aggressive supply additions or maintain restraint is still unclear. Until this is resolved, the market is unlikely to break out of its current range. Crude Stockpiles Fall, But No Breakout Follow-Through U.S. crude inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels last week, sharply contrasting with forecasts for a slight build. Higher crude exports and pre-holiday gasoline demand contributed to the draw. Refined products followed suit, with gasoline stocks dropping 2.4 million barrels and distillates falling to their lowest levels since 2005. Despite this bullish data, crude prices failed to sustain their gains. The lack of follow-through highlights a market more focused on upcoming supply headlines than on recent inventory trends. It also suggests that fundamentals alone arent enough to fuel a sustained rally without broader confirmation. Sanctions, Outages Add Tensionbut Market Waits for Action Several supply risks remain in play. Chevron has halted Venezuelan production after losing its U.S. export license, removing nearly 290,000 bpd from the market. In Canada, wildfires continue to disrupt oil and gas operations in Alberta. And Washington is reportedly weighing new sanctions on Russian crude, which could further limit global flows. Iranian crude also remains sidelined, with no breakthrough in nuclear talks. Yet despite this tightening backdrop, the market has not aggressively priced in these risks, waiting instead for actual disruptions or policy shifts to materialize. Demand Growth Signals MixedFocus Shifts to Driving Season Gasoline demand in the U.S. jumped to 9.45 million bpd last week, a clear signal of strength ahead of the summer driving season. But China remains a concern, with the IEA citing persistently weak demand trends that could cap upside potential. Rystad forecasts that demand will outpace supply by up to 700,000 bpd from May to August, but traders appear cautious about baking that into prices without confirmation. For now, expectations are supportivebut not compelling enough to drive a breakout. Weekly Light Crude Oil Futures Trend Indicator Analysis The main trend is down according to the weekly swing chart. A trade through $64.40 will change the main trend to up. A trade through $54.01 will signal a resumption of the downtrend. The market has been trading inside this range for five weeks, suggesting traders are waiting for a catalyst. The long-term range is $51.98 to $84.43. Its 50% level is $68.21. This is major resistance. Trading on the bearish side of this key level is a sign of weakness. Additional resistance is the 52-week moving average at $67.63. The two form a resistance cluster. The short-term range is $71.17 to $54.01. Its pivot at $62.59 is resistance. Traders tried to overcome this level this week, but failed to attract enough major players to sustain the move. The minor range is $54.01 to $64.40. Its pivot is $59.20. The market is currently on the strong side of this level but it needs to hold above it to maintain the current momentum. Weekly Technical Forecast The direction of the Weekly Light Crude Oil Futures market the week ending June 6 is likely to be determined by trader reaction to $62.59. Bullish Scenario A sustained move over $62.59 will signal the presence of counter-trend buyers. If this creates enough momentum, we could see a near-term rally into the swing top a $64.40. Taking out this level will change the main trend to up, putting the 52-week moving average at $67.63 on the radar. Bearish Scenario A sustained move under $62.59 will indicate the presence of sellers, but taking out 59.20 with conviction could trigger an acceleration to the downside with major targets coming in at $54.83 to $54.01. Next Weeks Oil Market Outlook: Neutral Until OPEC+ and Policy Catalysts Hit The crude market enters next week on neutral footing. Price action has stalled beneath resistance, and while supply risks and stockpile draws offer support, buyers are showing hesitation. The failure to sustain Thursdays rally highlights a lack of convictionand a readiness to sell into strength. The upcoming OPEC+ decision and any shift in sanctions policy are potential catalysts, but until those hit, traders are likely to remain rangebound. A confirmed production increase could keep a lid on gains, while a surprise in favor of extended cuts would be needed to trigger a meaningful rally. For now, the market bias is neutral, with both bulls and bears looking for a reason to act. Traders should expect volatility around the OPEC+ outcome and be prepared for sharp movesonce a catalyst emerges. The neutral outlook is supported by the weekly chart with WTI crude oil stuck in the $62.59 to $59.20 trading range. Iran may agree to pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. releases frozen funds, adding another layer of complexity to geopolitical and market dynamics. OPEC+ is expected to raise production by 411,000 barrels per day in July, contributing to a continued decline in crude oil prices. Crude oil prices are set for another weekly decline following news that OPEC+ was planning to boost production by another 411,000 barrels daily in July. Meanwhile, a court ruling that blocked Trumps tariffs has been paused after the White House appealed the decision. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $63.84 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $60.67 per barrel, both slightly down on Thursday but higher than the start of the week. Earlier this week, a trade court ruled that President Trump had exceeded his authority in imposing sweeping tariffs on all U.S. trade partners, noting the authority on trade policies lay exclusively with Congress. The administration, however, appealed immediately, and the appeals court paused the initial ruling while it considered the federal governments appeal against it. The court will hear the two sides by June 9. Reuters reported that the administration remains determined to implement tariffs, one way or another. Meanwhile, OPEC+ is meeting on Saturday, and traders and analysts expect another announcement of a 411,000-bpd addition to supply in July. Not all members of the group may be able to boost their production enough, but with Kazakhstan now openly saying it will not limit its production, overall OPEC+ supply is set for a further rise, pressuring prices. We expect similar increases through until the end of the third quarter, as the group increases its focus on defending market share, ING commodity analysts wrote in a note on Thursday, suggesting the cartels policy will continue weighing on prices in the coming months as well. Additional bearish news came from Iran, with Reuters reporting this week that Tehran might be inclined to consider a 12-month pause in its uranium enrichment activities if the U.S. releases frozen Iranian funds and recognizes the countrys right to use uranium for nuclear power generation. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Kazakhstan has publicly declared it will not cut output, citing its limited authority over international operators controlling most of its oilfields. Saudi Arabia appears willing to tolerate lower prices in the short term to discipline overproducing members and pressure U.S. shale producers. OPEC+ may raise oil output in July by more than the planned 411,000 barrels per day due to frustrations with Kazakhstans refusal to reduce production. This weekend, OPEC+ may debate boosting oil production in July by more than the 411,000-bpd monthly hikes it has announced for May and June, sources with knowledge of the discussions at the production group told Reuters on Friday. For two months now, OPEC+ has been pursuing a policy to unwind the production cuts by monthly volumes triple that of the original plans, and the eight countries doing the cuts have decided to boost May and June oil production by 411,000 barrels per day in each of the two months. The new OPEC+ strategy largely considered to be in response to overproducing members such as Kazakhstan has sunk oil prices in recent months, alongside the chaotic U.S. trade policy that has heightened economic uncertainties. 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. The base-case scenario for the July production hike is another 411,000 bpd increase. However, angered by Kazakhstans defiance, the other OPEC+ members could discuss an even larger production increase, according to Reuters anonymous sources. Kazakhstan cannot reduce its oil production as it has no right to impose output reductions on international firms that are operating more than 70% of Kazakhstans oilfields, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told Bloomberg on Thursday. Separately, Kazakhstans Deputy Energy Minister Alibek Zhamauov told Interfax that the country has already notified OPEC it would not cut its oil production. No, no, we won't be revising [the compensation schedule], we have already told OPEC that we are not going to cut output and will be producing according to our capacity, the Russian news agency quoted Zhamauov as saying on Thursday. Early on Friday, oil prices were headed to another weekly decline amid expectations that OPEC+ would announce this weekend another large production increase for July. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com China is maneuvering to edge out Russia in Kazakhstans nuclear power sector, signaling a quiet but strategic recalibration in Central Asias energy alliances. While Rosatom has long been the front-runner for Kazakhstans first nuclear plant contract, Beijing is now pushing aggressively to secure the dealleveraging both financing and infrastructure diplomacy. The move reflects a broader trend: as Moscows regional clout erodes under the weight of war-related sanctions and economic stagnation, China is methodically expanding its footprint across former Soviet spheres, not with shock, but with steel and silicon. In the power game of Eurasia, Beijing is playing the long hand. Ukraine is protesting Russia's construction of power lines to the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a move Kyiv says solidifies annexation. The UN insists theres no immediate nuclear threat. The IAEA says there are no indications that Russia is gearing up to restart the nuclear plant, but clear preparations to hook the plant up to Russias own grid, stealing Kyivs power in a continuation of the weaponization of energy. This is Europes biggest nuclear power plant, and currently, six of its reactors are shut down. Russia could easily argue that its preparing to provide external power supplies to the plant, which is necessary for cooling the nuclear fuel. Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Ukraine is protesting Russia's construction of power lines to the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a move Kyiv says solidifies annexation. The UN insists theres no immediate nuclear threat. The IAEA says there are no indications that Russia is gearing up to restart the nuclear plant, but clear preparations to hook the plant up to Russias own grid, stealing Kyivs power in a continuation of the weaponization of energy. This is Europes biggest nuclear power plant, and currently, six of its reactors are shut down. Russia could easily argue that its preparing to provide external power supplies to the plant, which is necessary for cooling the nuclear fuel. China is maneuvering to edge out Russia in Kazakhstans nuclear power sector, signaling a quiet but strategic recalibration in Central Asias energy alliances. While Rosatom has long been the front-runner for Kazakhstans first nuclear plant contract, Beijing is now pushing aggressively to secure the dealleveraging both financing and infrastructure diplomacy. The move reflects a broader trend: as Moscows regional clout erodes under the weight of war-related sanctions and economic stagnation, China is methodically expanding its footprint across former Soviet spheres, not with shock, but with steel and silicon. In the power game of Eurasia, Beijing is playing the long hand. A U.S. court ruling that deemed the Trump-era China tariffs unlawful has injected fresh uncertainty into trade policy just as supply chains begin to stabilize. The current administration is weighing its legal and strategic options, with no immediate rollback but mounting pressure from industry to provide clarity. For stakeholdersfrom manufacturers to commodity tradersthe decision opens a potential path to tariff relief, but also risks a protracted legal battle. As campaign rhetoric escalates and global trade recalibrates, the future of U.S.-China tariffs now hinges on how decisively Washington responds. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas is allegedly nearing finalization, with both parties indicating cautious optimism (weve been here many times before). The plan, crafted by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, outlines a 60-day truce involving the release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the remains of 18 others, in exchange for over 1,100 Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu has reportedly accepted the terms, while Hamas is currently reviewing the proposal (as of Thursday). This development comes amid a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where ongoing hostilities have resulted in over 54,000 Palestinian deaths and widespread displacement. The ceasefire aims to halt the violence and facilitate the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid to the region. Syria has signed a $7B agreement with a Qatari-led consortium to construct 4,000 MW of combined-cycle gas turbine plants and a 1,000 MW solar facility in the countrys south, tripling its current generation capacity. This is the largest energy infrastructure investment in Syria since the civil war began. The project is scheduled to deliver gas-fired capacity within three years and solar capacity in under two. It reflects a broader pivot in post-conflict reconstruction, one in which Gulf capitalparticularly from Dohaaims to gain early leverage in rebuilding Syrias critical infrastructure under the new government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Qatars strategic posture in Syria has shifted from covert backer of Islamist opposition forces to overt state partner in reconstruction. Its historical support for groups like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its alignment with Turkey during the earlier phases of the conflict gave Doha strong relationships with opposition-aligned institutions that are now being folded into the state apparatus. In addition to the energy deal, Qatar has pledged financial support for Syrian public-sector salariesreportedly $29 million monthlywith U.S. Treasury approval, signaling tacit Western alignment with Dohas influence. Analysts see this as a calculated effort to shape Syrias political and economic recovery through statecraft and capital, positioning Qatar as the dominant external actor in a post-Assad order. Discovery & Development Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have jointly announced a "highly significant" oil discovery in their shared Neutral Zone. While specific reserve estimates have not been disclosed, this find is expected to enhance the region's production capacity and underscores the ongoing exploration activities in the area. Portugal's Galp Energia, in partnership with Equinor and ExxonMobil, is advancing the development of the Bacalhau field in Brazil's Santos Basin. The field is estimated to hold over 1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. A floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a capacity of 220,000 barrels per day arrived in February, with first production expected in the third quarter of 2025. Deals, Mergers & Acquisitions Chinas Sinopec has unveiled a 5 billion yuan ($690 million) venture capital fund dedicated to hydrogen energy, marking the largest such fund in the country. Managed by Sinopec Private Equity Fund Management Co., the fund will invest in early-stage ventures (materials, core equipment, and proprietary technologies) that are along the hydrogen value chain. BP has initiated a strategic review of its Castrol lubricants business, which could lead to a sale valued between $8 and $10B. Potential buyers reportedly include Reliance Industries, Saudi Aramco, Apollo Global Management, and Lone Star Funds. This move is part of BP's broader plan to divest $20B in assets by 2027 to streamline operations and reduce debt. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved NuScale Powers new 77 MW small modular reactor (SMR) design, replacing its earlier 50 MW model. Despite all the setbacks, NuScale now sees a pathway to deploying operational SMRs by the end of the decade, pending customer commitments. Interest is rising, particularly from data center operators facing surging power demands. The approval aligns with renewed federal support for nuclear development under Trump, including streamlined permitting and incentives for siting reactors on federal lands. The Trump administration has canceled a $2.92B DoE energy loan guarantee awarded to Sunnova Energy for Project Hestia, which aimed to fund 100,000 rooftop solar systems, many for low-income households. This decision follows the House's recent passage of a tax bill proposing to eliminate key clean energy subsidies, including the 30% federal tax credit for residential solar. - Last year, some 240,000 b/d of gasoline were supplied from European countries to the US, with New York being the most frequent delivery point, with smaller volumes of naphtha also flowing across the pond. - President Trumps proposal to slap a 50% blanket tariff on all goods coming from the European Union created a new scare for the US refined market, as large parts of PADD I still rely on trans-Atlantic gasoline flows. - Potentially, farm-ins could also be a source of income as Saudi Aramco was rumoured to be seeking investors for infrastructure assets in its giant $100 billion Jafurah project, expected to start up later this year and add some 2 bcf/day of natural gas production. - According to the IMF, Saudi Arabias fiscal breakeven oil price is $92.3 per barrel, and even its 2030 forecast sees breakevens above $80 per barrel, suggesting the countrys deficit is set to worsen in the current pricing environment. - The companys net debt rose to its highest since 2022 as of April 2025, up 18% quarter-on-quarter to 25 billion, although Aramcos gearing ratio remains relatively low at 5.3%, a fraction of BPs more than 25%. - Saudi Arabias national oil company, Saudi Aramco, is seeking to borrow more from the financial markets to meet its investment needs, having raised $5 billion this week in its first dollar-bond sale of 2025. Defying Lower Oil Prices, Saudi Aramco Goes on Borrowing Spree - Saudi Arabias national oil company, Saudi Aramco, is seeking to borrow more from the financial markets to meet its investment needs, having raised $5 billion this week in its first dollar-bond sale of 2025. - The companys net debt rose to its highest since 2022 as of April 2025, up 18% quarter-on-quarter to 25 billion, although Aramcos gearing ratio remains relatively low at 5.3%, a fraction of BPs more than 25%. - According to the IMF, Saudi Arabias fiscal breakeven oil price is $92.3 per barrel, and even its 2030 forecast sees breakevens above $80 per barrel, suggesting the countrys deficit is set to worsen in the current pricing environment. - Potentially, farm-ins could also be a source of income as Saudi Aramco was rumoured to be seeking investors for infrastructure assets in its giant $100 billion Jafurah project, expected to start up later this year and add some 2 bcf/day of natural gas production. Trumps EU Tariffs Are Not a Good Idea - President Trumps proposal to slap a 50% blanket tariff on all goods coming from the European Union created a new scare for the US refined market, as large parts of PADD I still rely on trans-Atlantic gasoline flows. - Last year, some 240,000 b/d of gasoline were supplied from European countries to the US, with New York being the most frequent delivery point, with smaller volumes of naphtha also flowing across the pond. - The European Union ran a $225 billion surplus last year in its trade with the United States, mostly coming from automotive exports, agriculture, and oil products. - Whilst the EU is highly unlikely to reciprocate with tariffs on US crude oil or natural gas, last years surge in US diesel flows to Northwest Europe (seeking to replace sanctioned Russian diesel) could be cut short by regulatory interference. Californias Power Curtailments Get Worse Over Time - California is increasingly curtailing renewable power generation as seasonally high solar often creates oversupply conditions, predominantly over the shoulder season in the spring and fall. - In 2024, Californias grid operator CAISO curbed 3.4 million MWh of utility-scale wind and solar production, a 29% increase year-over-year, overwhelmingly coming from solar power that tends to peak around noon. - The Golden State has 89 GW in installed generation capacity as of end-2024, with 28.2 GW (or 32%) coming from wind and solar, but even the installation of 12 GW of battery storage has not solved the issue of generation curtailments. - The proliferation of battery storage is a much-needed addition to Californias power options, but over the spring months, there is more solar energy than can be used within a day, as storage draws usually take place 4-8 hours later in the day. US Agriculture Lobbies for Stronger Biofuels Mandates as Exports Wane - US-China trade wars are taking a toll on American farmers as exports of China-bound agricultural commodities continue to plummet, with overseas sales of soybeans currently running 79% below the 5-year average. - Constrained in finding new export markets, soybean and corn farmers would need domestic outlets; however, the US cattle herd is at its lowest since the 1950s, leaving farmers heavily reliant on biofuels obligations, the so-called RVOs. - As such, agricultural giants ADM, Bunge, and Cargill are lobbying for a 60% increase in biofuels mandates starting next year, demanding that the EPA set the RVO volume at no less than 5.25 billion gallons for biomass-based diesel. - In 2024, the US exported $12.8 billion worth of soybeans to China (north of 27 million tonnes), accounting for slightly more than 20% of the Asian countrys imports, but tariff wars prompted Chinese buyers to ramp up purchases from Brazil. Are Permian Producers Slamming the Brakes on Shale? - As OPEC+ is headed towards another sped-up production unwinding in July, unleashing another 411,000 b/d of slashed output, Permian producers are struggling to adapt to a new low-price environment. - The US Energy Information Administration lowered its Permian production forecast for the third straight time, expecting 2025 output to average 6.51 million b/d, which would still mark a 200,000 b/d year-over-year increase. - Declines might be just around the corner as the US shale frac spread count dipped by 28% from a year ago to 186, with oil drillers wary to open the spigots with wells that are dangerously close to the Permians $62-63 per barrel breakeven. - The rig count of the Permian Basin plunged to 279 rigs in the week ended May 23, the lowest since November 2021 and a 11% year-over-year decline, with only Eagle Ford and Niobrara seeing bigger drops from a year ago. The Great Copper Trade of 2025 Now Focuses on China - Glencore has been orchestrating one of the largest metal transactions of 2025 to date, buying up Russian-origin copper on the London Metal Exchange and planning to deliver it to China after Beijings inventories of the transition metal started to wane. - This week saw the drawdown of around 15,000 metric tonnes of copper from LME warehouses in Rotterdam, slashing available stocks to their lowest since April 2024 at a mere 85,000 metric tonnes. - Chinese premiums for copper rose to their highest since 2020 amidst steep backwardation, driven by the US unprecedented import spree as companies sought to build stocks ahead of potential Trump tariffs. - Almost all of the copper inventories held in Europe in LME-registered warehouses tend to be of Russian origin, although most traders stepped away from those stocks after the US and the UK imposed sanctions in April 2024. Beijing Asks Chinese Industry to Stock Up on Domestic Coal - The Chinese government has asked its power-generating companies to buy more of domestically produced coal and build inventories thereof, seeking to shore up coal prices that have been in a freefall for two years already. - Chinas state planner put forward a plan to increase thermal coal stockpiles by 10% by June 10, setting an overall target of 215 million metric tonnes, but medium-grade coal prices continued to weaken, trading around 620 per metric tonne ($85/mt) this week. - Chinese coal production remains robust, recording a 6.6% surge from a year ago as the Asian countrys miners produced 1.58 billion tonnes in January-April, despite lower profit margins. - According to Kpler data, Chinese coal imports have fallen by 17% from a year ago as importers took in 137 million tonnes, with lower-quality (and cheaper) Indonesian coal accounting for half of those volumes. The EU is considering further sanctions and measures, including duties on Russian and Belarusian fertilizers, to enforce compliance and address ongoing difficulties in impacting Russia's economy. China denies these allegations, stating that it does not supply lethal weapons and strictly controls dual-use goods, while several other countries are also under scrutiny for potential sanctions breaches. The European Union has accused China of being responsible for a large majority of sanctions circumvention against Russia, as reported in a German Foreign Ministry document. The European Union says China, including Hong Kong, is responsible for "approximately" 80 percent of the circumventions of sanctions against Russia even though Beijing continues to deny it. According to a classified report by the German Foreign Ministry, seen by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the state television networks NDR and WDR, EU sanctions commissioner David O'Sullivan told a meeting in Brussels earlier this month that, while sanctions have a significant impact on Russia's economy, difficulties continue. The media outlets said on May 27 that the Chinese Embassy in Berlin declined to comment on the allegations when contacted. Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service accused China on May 26 of continuing to supply Russian defense factories with numerous goods that are used for military purposes, a claim Beijing also denies. "China has never supplied lethal weapons to any party to the conflict and strictly controls dual-use goods. Ukraine understands this well. China resolutely opposes groundless accusations and political manipulation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a press briefing on May 27. The German Foreign Ministry's report was a summary of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on May 20. In addition to China, the report notes that difficulties continue with Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. While the United Arab Emirates claims that exports have come to a halt, it does not provide any statistics and import data suggests otherwise, the report says. It adds that EU companies are also involved in sanctions busting, weakening the European Commission's position in negotiations with third countries on imposing measures. News of the report comes less than a week after the bloc took a major step toward ending imports of Russian and Belarusian nitrogen fertilizers, approving phased duties designed to make purchases economically unviable within three years. European leaders have also threatened Russia with a "massive" package of sanctions if Moscow does not agree to a 30-day cease-fire proposed by Washington. They have suggested that the next sanctions package -- which would be the 18th from the EU -- could include the energy sector and financial measures. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Kazakhstan aims to play a leading role in shaping a new era of global development through constructive engagement and consensus-building. The Astana International Forum is positioned as a platform for promoting this vision of multilateral cooperation and structural changes to the United Nations. President Tokayev of Kazakhstan is pushing for a reformed global order where middle powers have more influence and responsibility. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is trying to position Kazakhstan as a leading advocate for changing the architecture of international relations in ways that give middle powers a greater say in global affairs. In an opening speech at the May 29-30 Astana International Forum, Tokayev offered a full-throated endorsement for a return to a global order rooted in multilateralism. While many emerging threats, such as global warming, are transnational, our responses are becoming increasingly fragmented, he said. The decay of the existing global order, he added, left countries facing a choice between inclusive progress and destructive fragmentation. For the principle of constructive engagement to prevail, Tokayev argued for far-reaching structural reform of the United Nations so that it reflects the world as it is, not as it was. For the UN to return to relevancy, the Security Council should expand to accommodate more middle-power input in policy debates, he said. Speaking in English, and without mentioning by name the United States, European Union, Russia and China, the Kazakh president argued that middle powers deserved an equitable stake in forging a new, inclusive order. He added that in return for a greater degree of influence in policy debates, middle powers should be ready to shoulder more multilateral responsibility. Tokayev also made it clear that he wants Kazakhstan to help lead the charge for change. We are entering a new phase of global development. Therefore, we must widen the circle of cooperation, Tokayev said. Kazakhstan stands ready to contribute to this shift as a convener of ideas, a builder of consensus, and a trusted partner across regions and cultures. The Astana International Forum was launched in 2023 in part as a vehicle to advance Kazakhstans ambitions of becoming a middle power that exerts diplomatic and economic influence over regional, and occasionally global affairs. Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko described the forum as a response to such a calling for Kazakhstan to be more engaged diplomatically. Over time, Kazakh officials would like to see the AIF become the go-to middle-power arena for public policy discussions. Multiple futures lie ahead some full of promise, others full of peril in which outcomes will depend not on the proclamations of the few, but on the cooperation of the many, Tokayev said. The Astana International Forum was created to support that cooperation by offering a platform rooted in mutual respect and open exchange. By Eurasianet.org More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Crude oil and natural gas investments in Colombia could rise to $4.68 billion this year, from $4.33 billion in 2024, the countrys oil and gas industry association said, adding that this will not lead to higher production. Today more investment is required to produce the same amount of oil, due to the natural depletion of the fields and the complexity of the operating environment, the president of the Colombian Oil and Gas Association said, as quoted by Reuters. Of this total, the bulk, or $3.94 billion, would be spent on production, with the remainder of $740 million channeled into exploration. For gas, we are not managing to either increase production or replenish reserves, which is double the challenge when it comes to energy self-sufficiency, Frank Pearl added. Colombia has been struggling to reverse a decline in its oil production over the past five years and now has an ambition to boost its daily average to over 1 million barrels, from around 800,000 barrels in 2024. State oil company Ecopetrol is contributing to the output increase through enhanced oil recovery techniques, improving extraction volumes from reservoirs. Colombia's 2024 oil recovery rate averaged 27 percent, energy minister Andres Camacho said last May. Guerilla attacks on pipelines also remain a chronic problem for the countrys oil and gas industry. At the same time, the current government has ambitious plans for wind and solar growth as it seeks to reduce Colombias dependence on oil, gas, and coal revenues. Hydrocarbons, however, remain a major contributor to budget revenues and the most likely source of transition money, given the price tag of the governments green plan is $40 billion. Gustavo Petros government has suspended the issuance of new oil and gas licenses in line with its transition plans, making any production boost a lot more challenging. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com EOG Resources is making a bold northeast push, announcing Friday it will acquire privately held Encino Acquisition Partners for $5.6 billion, including debt. The move positions EOG as a dominant Utica shale player, with 1.1 million net acres and 275,000 boe/d in combined production. The seller, Encino Energy, backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, controls 675,000 net core acres in the playmost of it contiguous and liquids-rich. Thats precisely what EOG is after. CEO Ezra Yacob called it a third foundational play to go alongside the companys stalwart positions in the Delaware Basin and Eagle Ford. EOG plans to fund the deal with $3.5B in new debt and $2.1B in cash on hand. Despite the leverage, the company is boosting its dividend by 5%, citing strong free cash flow accretion post-close9% higher, by EOGs math, along with a 10% boost to 2025 EBITDA. Beyond scale, the Encino buy deepens EOGs footprint in the Utica, adding 235,000 acres with 65% liquids production. It also gives the company firm gas transportation into premium markets and ups working interest by more than 20% in its best acreage. Synergies are expected to exceed $150 million in the first year alone, driven by capex cuts, operational overlap, and cheaper financing. The timing is noteworthy. After last years $192 billion M&A boom in U.S. energy, dealmaking has cooled in 2025 amid soft commodity prices and tighter inventory. But EOG, long known for balance sheet discipline, is playing offense. The acquisition remains subject to HSR review and other closing conditions, with the deal expected to wrap up in H2 2025. There are no guidance updates yetbut EOG plans to release more details post-close. If this deal works out as modeled, EOG wont just be deeper in the Uticaitll be defining it. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com The European Commission considers allowing European Union countries more flexibility in reaching a 90% emissions cut target by 2040, diplomats told Reuters on Friday, amid growing backlash against the too stringent EU climate policies. In early July, the European Commission is set to propose a 2040 climate target that would include cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to 1990 levels, according to Reuters sources with knowledge of the talks. But the 90% target could be made more flexible by allowing EU member states to buy carbon credits to reach it or easing the targets for some industries, the sources added. The EU has a target to become carbon neutral by 2050 with intermediate targets for 2030. The climate target for 2030 is to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. The 2040 climate target is the EUs next intermediate step on the path to climate neutrality. In July, the target will be proposed at 90% reduction in emissions relative to 1990, but it will be more flexible than originally proposed, according to the EU diplomats who spoke to Reuters. The EU, which has the strictest climate goals of all regions, is trying to reconcile boosting its competitiveness with staying on course to be able to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Europes goal to pursue a net-zero agenda is depriving citizens of reliable and affordable energy in a choice made by politicians, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said last month. The energy transition policies imposed by the UK government and the EU institutions have reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but Europe accounts for just 8% of global emissions anyway, said Wright, the founder and former CEO of fracking services company Liberty Energy. The top-down imposition of mandates for the energy system actually impoverishes the countries choosing to pursue net-zero emissions. Its unlikely to spread globally because it has created two highly undesirable factorsdeindustrialization and more expensive energy for consumers and businesses, the top U.S. energy official said in Poland in April. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com India is exporting more diesel on the east of Suez route into Southeast Asia in May, with shipments to the region on track for a four-year high, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting vessel-tracking data and trade sources. India is estimated to have shipped 600,000 metric tons, or 4.47 million barrels in total, to Southeast Asia in May, according to data from tanker-tracking services Vortexa, LSEG, and Kpler. This is the highest such volume since 2021, as higher margins and lower shipping costs support more volumes heading east of India instead of to the European market. Indias diesel exports to Europe, on the other hand, are estimated at about 500,000 metric tons this month, per data compiled by LSEG. The higher exports from India to Asia mostly to Singapore and Malaysia are pressuring refining margins and spot premiums for diesel in the Asian markets. But lower Indian diesel supply to Europe is raising the price of June ICE gasoil futures and boosting the margins in Europe. Indian diesel exporters are currently benefiting from lower shipping costs east of Suez, while the cost of chartering a tanker on the India-Northwest Europe route has jumped in recent days, according to data compiled by Reuters. In June, Indias diesel exports are set to rise further as the coming monsoon season is expected to reduce domestic demand, analysts and traders say. Indian crude oil imports jumped in March and April, with volumes from Russia, the top crude supplier, recovering after the initial chaos in trade following the U.S. sanctions on Russian tankers in January. India is on track to import nearly 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Russia in May, which would be a 10-month high, according to vessel-tracking data by Kpler. This month, the drop in international oil prices and the discount on Russias crude grades ensured the availability of more non-sanctioned tankers to move Russian oil without violating Western sanctions, according to trade sources. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Libyan authorities have arrested three suspects accused of breaking into the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), the Attorney General's Office said shortly after the eastern government warned it could declare force majeure on oilfields and oil export terminals. Representatives of a militia broke earlier this week into the NOC headquarters in Tripoli, and demanded that they be given jobs protecting the building. In response to the incident, the Benghazi-based eastern government of Libya said it might declare force majeure on oil export terminals and oilfields due to repeated assaults on the National Oil Corporation (NOC). Although the Libyan government in the east is not internationally recognized, many of Libyas oilfields are in the east and under the control of eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar of the Libyan National Army (LNA). The eastern government has said that it could temporarily relocate NOCs headquarters to one of the safe cities such as Ras Lanuf and Brega, both controlled by the government in the east, according to a statement carried by Reuters. NOC has denied reports that the headquarters had been stormed, saying they were completely false. Earlier this month, clashes erupted in Tripoli, forcing shipping companies to divert vessels away from the capitals port and raising concerns over the security of the country's vital energy exports. NOC said in the middle of May that technical and operational processes at all oil fields and ports are proceeding normally and safely. Over the past few months, major international oil companies have announced their return to Libya following years of stepping aside as the civil war was raging and damaging oilfield and oil pipeline infrastructure due to the infighting between supporters of the governments of the east and west. BP and Eni, for example, returned to Libya last year after a decade of avoiding the country amid its civil war. After a 10-year hiatus, U.S. oilfield services provider Weatherford also returns to work in Libya. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com A supertanker carrying 2.1 million barrels of Russias Far Eastern ESPO crude grade has been anchored near China for days in what traders say is an unusual pattern that could suggest weaker demand in the Asian market. The Big Star supertanker loaded ESPO from three smaller vessels near Russias Zarubino port in the Far East earlier this month and headed to Chinas port of Jieyang in the southern province of Guangdong, according to ship-tracking data from LSEG cited by Reuters. However, the Big Star has been stationed at anchor for nearly a week near Taiwan, the data showed. Traders say ESPO is rarely held in floating storage as it is one of the favorite blends of Chinese refiners. Its also unusual for ESPO cargoes to be part of ship-to-ship (STS) transfers, they told Reuters. One of the trade sources suggested that the oil aboard the Big Star was placed too late for sale and didnt attract buyers in the window for selling an oil cargo in the Asian markets, which typically occurs more than a month before loading. Some Chinese refiners are now more apprehensive of potential secondary sanctions in their trades with Russian crude oil. But last month, Sinopec, the biggest refiner in Asia by processing capacity, bought its first ESPO blend from Russia for May loading since the February loading plans, after refraining from buying the grade for loading in March and April until it assesses the risk from the U.S. sanctions. While earlier this year, state oil firms in China either halted or reduced Russian oil volumes, the independent refiners in China, which prefer to buy cheaper Russian and Iranian oil, picked up the slack. Chinese refiners are also increasingly careful in trade with Iranian oil, after the U.S. continues to ratchet up sanctions pressure under the maximum pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Tankers carrying Iranian crude to China are turning off their trackers, Kpler has reported, as cited by Bloomberg, as the threat of new U.S. sanctions looms large despite ongoing nuclear deal negotiations. Ship-to-ship transfers have been used to mask the origin of those cargoes, a Kpler analyst told the publication. Now theyre switching signals off for longer, so that its now even harder to trace those flows back to the source, which is Iran, Muyu Xu also said. The U.S. State Department earlier this month rolled out another round of sanctions targeting an Iranian oil smuggling network allegedly responsible for funneling billions in crude oil sales to China on behalf of Irans Armed Forces General Staff. China is Irans biggest oil client, with the countrys private refiners buying most of Irans sanctioned crude. The two sides have established a trade relationship favorable for both. Iran gets to sell its crude that nearly everyone else shuns, while Chinas independent refiners, the so-called teapots, get cheap oil. The practice of going dark, or switching off devices that track a vessels location, is not new but according to the data, more tankers are now using it near the eastern coast of Malaysia, which is where a lot of Iranian tankers engage in ship-to-ship transfer before continuing to China. The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on Irans government through sanctions ever since President Trump took office, seeking to use them as a means of forcing Tehran to give up plans for developing a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, the two sides are negotiating a new deal regarding Irans nuclear program, and there are signs of progress, although a positive outcome remains far from certain. Despite the additional sanctions from the U.S. government, Irans oil exports to China hit an all-time high of 1.8 million barrels daily in March. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Zip Code Judy Jones says shes on a mission from God to help mothers deliver babies in their own homes. The 77-year-old South Dakota midwife says shes attended to more than 1,200 home births, including in Nebraska. Thats despite not holding a Nebraska license as a nurse midwife, and despite a state law that bars even licensed midwives from delivering babies in homes. Jones 25-year history of defying state health authorities currently has her facing felony charges in both Omaha and Norfolk. But now Jones is claiming that a new Nebraska law protecting religious freedom passed by the Legislature last year means the state can no longer prosecute her. Her Omaha-based attorneys have filed motions seeking to have the charges against her tossed out based on Nebraskas First Freedom Act. Her case could represent the first test of the religious freedom law that was largely motivated by opposition to the impact state and local health restrictions had on church services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nebraskas bar on Jones participating in home births infringes on the religious liberty rights of Jones, who sincerely and genuinely feels God called her to assist the needs of women in childbirth, reads a court filing by her attorney, Stu Dornan of Omaha. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, however, argues that Jones religious interest does not override the states interest in protecting the health and lives of mothers and babies the justification for the states laws requiring nursing training for midwives. Childbirth carries risks for both the expectant mother and the baby, reads the states reply to Jones motion. In fact, the Douglas County prosecution against Jones involves a 2022 case in which a baby died because of a birth complication. Nebraska Supreme Court could weigh in The language of the First Freedom Act could prove meaningful in Jones case, says a University of Nebraska-Lincoln law professor who specializes in the First Amendment. The law essentially creates an elevated protection for religious freedom that even stands above the protections offered by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution or the Nebraska constitutions guarantee, said Daniel Gutman. That raises the legal bar the state must clear to impinge on religious freedom, the governments actions given strict scrutiny by courts, Gutman said. When you burden someones religion in any way, the burden shifts to the government to give a compelling justification for it, he said. The novel efforts to dismiss the charges against Jones are currently pending before District Court judges in Douglas and Madison Counties. But the question seems bound to end up before the Nebraska Supreme Court. The states high court just last fall ruled on another legal issue involving the prosecution of Jones. Coincidentally, the case comes as the Legislature this year has been debating the standards for midwives and home births in Nebraska a state that has some of the nations most restrictive laws governing them. In Nebraska, a midwife assisting a woman giving birth must be a certified nurse midwife, with a required level of nursing training. Even if licensed, the birth must take place in a hospital or health care facility, not at home. Nebraska is the only state in the nation that does not allow a nurse midwife to deliver a baby at home. (In an unrelated lawsuit filed a year ago, a certified nurse midwife in the Sandhills is suing the state in federal court seeking to overturn those practice restrictions.) Some 37 states including all of those surrounding Nebraska also allow practice by certified professional midwives, trained and credentialed to support mothers and attend to births, but without the nursing training Nebraska requires. During debate last month, state lawmakers signaled they were willing to allow certified nurse midwives to assist in home births. However, they rejected loosening the current nursing training requirement and authorizing certified professional midwives. Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, sponsor of Legislative Bill 676, said with about half of Nebraskas rural counties lacking maternal care facilities, and more closing all the time, theres a need to enhance birthing options for families. He said he thinks he will ultimately get the votes needed to authorize both certified professional midwives and home births, though he said the bill will likely need to wait until next year. A religious calling Judy K. Jones, from Irene, South Dakota, does have the certified professional midwife credential that Hansen sought to authorize to practice midwifery in Nebraska, her attorney says. She has used that certification to gain a midwifery license in Iowa. But she has never claimed to have the required training shed need to become a certified nurse midwife in Nebraska. Nor has she ever let Nebraskas credential requirements or restrictions on home births stop her. Her attorney argues Jones does not consider her work as a midwife an occupation but a religious calling based in her Christian faith. She wrote about that in a book she published two decades ago. Every Christian has a ministry through which he is called to serve the Lord, she wrote then. He assured me that mine was to be working with women as they labor and give birth. So my only response needed to be obedience. He would have to handle the rest of it. Despite Nebraskas laws regarding home births, a number of Nebraskans have gone around them by discreetly hiring unlicensed midwives like Jones, whether for religious reasons, personal skepticism of medical interventions, cost or a desire for a more natural birth. Regardless of their motivations, some women desire to bring their children into this world at home and Jones has an honest, sincere, and religiously motivated belief that God has called her to assist them in this endeavor, Dornan wrote. Jones attorneys dispute any notion that shes some kind of midwife renegade. Dornans petition says Jones has great respect for secular authorities and laws but views her assistance of mothers as emanating from a higher authority. Jones history of defying state authorities goes back decades. Jones was ordered to stop practicing midwifery without a license in her home state of South Dakota in 1993, and in Nebraska in 1999. In 2003, she was sentenced to serve 30 days in jail by a Sioux Falls judge. She has been ordered by Nebraska at least three separate times to stop. But she nonetheless has persisted in covertly assisting in home deliveries cases that often come to light only when problems arise. In 2015, Custer County prosecutors charged Jones with manslaughter over a failed home delivery in which a baby died. However, prosecutors dropped that case before it went to trial. Unlawfully practicing as a nurse midwife She currently faces charges in a pair of 2022 cases in Nebraska. She was first charged in Madison County, accused of providing prenatal care and being present at a home birth. In the Douglas County case, a baby died in March 2022 after being born with an umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. Sheriffs deputies were called to the suburban home of an Omaha couple after Jones and others could not free the baby from the umbilical cord. Jones is charged with unlawfully practicing as a nurse midwife after receiving a cease and desist order, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Jones and her attorneys earlier convinced judges in the two cases to throw out the charges after alleging she was not required to hold a license because the states credentialing act is unconstitutionally vague. But the Nebraska Supreme Court last fall reversed those decisions, which reinstated the charges against Jones. Now she and her attorneys are taking another run at the charges based on the First Freedom Act. The law holds that a state action shall not substantially burden a persons right to the exercise of religion unless the state can demonstrate its actions are essential to furthering a compelling government interest and are the least restrictive way of furthering that interest. The law broadly defines the exercise of religion to include any action motivated by a sincerely held religious belief. The law and others like it in other states have been pushed by conservatives who were opposed to the impact COVID-19 restrictions had on religious gatherings. Then-Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, sponsor of the bill passed in 2024, said the pandemic restrictions closed churches at higher rates than other businesses. Much of the public testimony on the bill centered on opposition to those COVID restrictions. Dornans brief contends that Nebraskas requirement that Jones obtain a certified nurse midwife license burdens her religious beliefs. Dornan also argues that if Jones were to seek such a license, she would be agreeing to forgo her home birth mission since Nebraska law does not allow certified nurse midwives to perform home births. He also said even if the state has a compelling reason to limit her freedom, the state cant say it is restricting that freedom in the least restrictive way possible, especially given the large number of states that do allow midwives without certified nursing training and also allow home births. The attorneys in the office of Nebraska Attorney General Hilgers argue the state indeed has a compelling interest for its laws, which are there to protect the health and safety of women and children. To not require its credential for midwives would allow undertrained and underqualified persons to provide midwifery services, reads the state brief. The state offered testimony in Douglas County in March in which a nurse midwife described the years of education and clinical training they must complete and the tools of their trade. Childbirth can be dangerous for both mothers and babies, the state says, with a number of potential complications. For that reason, it is vital that persons providing midwife services are properly trained to recognize complications when they arise, to respond quickly and appropriately to the situation at hand, and to recognize when there is a complication beyond the scope of their training, the state brief says. That states brief also notes that Jones under Nebraska law is allowed to practice her ministry, so long as she has the requisite credential. Hansen, the state senator seeking to change current midwife laws, said its interesting that another bill passed by the Legislature last year could impact Jones and her midwife practices. Its my understanding the way Judy Jones approaches midwifery comes from a very religious aspect, he said. This is up for the courts to decide now to figure out how (the First Freedom Act) can be applied to something like this. Editors note: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. LINCOLN Of the 17 bills scheduled for passage in the Nebraska Legislature on Friday, the only one that didnt pass sought to ban hemp products that contain more than 0.3% of any strain of THC. Legislative Bill 316, introduced by State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, was passed over less than 10 minutes before its final vote after it became clear the bill didnt have enough support to pass. The bill needed 33 votes to overcome a filibuster-ending cloture motion, and at least one previous supporter said he would vote against cloture because his amendment wasnt added in an earlier round of debate. LB 316 came as part of a push from Attorney General Mike Hilgers to halt the sale of Delta-8 products that he claims are mislabeled or contain dangerous levels of the psychoactive compound THC. Supporters of the bill argued these products are especially dangerous to children, because many come in bright packaging that they claim is intended to appeal to young people. We should be ashamed that we allow those (products) on the market, Kauth said. The Legislature passed a law in 2019 that allowed hemp products containing no more than 0.3% of Delta-9, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. The law unintentionally allowed for other high-inducing cannabinoids like Delta-8. Hilgers said the compounds concentration in hemp is insignificant, but that loophole in the law created a market for synthetic Delta-8. Hilgers touted LB 316 as a fix that would have removed the need for him to pursue prosecution as a means of stopping the businesses that sell synthetic Delta-8. Hilgers has threatened civil action against more than 100 retailers in Omaha and across Nebraska that he claims sell such products. Opponents largely argued that passing LB 316 would come with a bevy of unintended consequences, including creating a new felony in Nebraskas criminal law and causing harm to Nebraskas small businesses. Sen. Terrell McKinney said supporters were only trying to ban the Delta-8 products because they personally dont like them. Were senators, were not peoples parents, McKinney said. Kauth countered that the products her bill seeks to ban are largely untested and unregulated, and contain dangerous ingredients she repeatedly described as poisonous. She said any business owner that claims their business would be destroyed as a result of LB 316 are admitting that they are complicit in selling these products. Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha, who led the filibusters against LB 316 during each round of debate, said the answer to Kauth and Hilgers concerns is regulating these products, not banning them. He introduced a bill to do so this session, and made multiple attempts to amend his bill into LB 316, to no success. Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who supported LB 316 during its two previous rounds of debate, also had an amendment that ultimately determined the fate of LB 316 this session. The amendment sought to clarify that LB 316 would not affect regulations on medical cannabis, and would add other protections for certain products, Kauth said. Supporters of LB 316 tried to adopt Hansens amendment during the bills second round of floor debate earlier this week, but there wasnt enough time to vote on it. Kauth accused opponents of intentionally obstructing the amendment through filing multiple amendments ahead of Hansens measure. Regardless of how it happened, Hansen said because his amendment wasnt added, he couldnt support LB 316. Though Kauth repeatedly claimed the bill would not affect medical cannabis, Hansen said the ongoing hostility the AG has showed toward medical cannabis and CBD products made him suspect LB 316s language could greatly impact those products. Hansen introduced a bill this year, LB 677, that sought to regulate medical cannabis after more than 70% of Nebraska voters approved its legalization in November. Lawmakers rejected that bill earlier this session, but Hansen said that didnt affect his mindset on LB 316. He said LB 316 could impact medical cannabis even if LB 677 passed, and he wanted to honor the voters intention. They are due to have what they voted for, Hansen said. Hansen rescinding his support put LB 316 one vote short of the 33 needed to pass a cloture motion, but there was still a chance of the bill passing Friday. Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln acknowledged she was conflicted on the subject, but midway through the debate she said she would vote no on cloture. She said she wanted to give Nebraskas new commission regulating medical cannabis an opportunity to handle Delta-8 products first. Sen. Jared Storm of David City, who prioritized LB 316 this session, claimed the bills failure would prompt the AG to start ramping up his efforts to prosecute businesses that sell Delta-8. Passing over LB 316 means the bill will remain on the books when lawmakers reconvene for their next session in 2026. Kauth said she plans to try to add Hansens amendment to the bill then. I am thankful for Senator Kauth and Senator Storm and all of the senators who supported LB316. We look forward to finishing the work in January, Hilgers said in an email statement. The choice today was between legislation or litigation. Our expansive, statewide campaign will continue, and we will hold those who poison our communities accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Here are some other bills that passed on Friday: LB 298 Create a new division of legislative oversight to address constitutional concerns the attorney general raised about government watchdogs. Speaker of the Legislature John Arch of La Vista introduced and prioritized the bill, which passed on a 46-2 vote. LB 303 Create a School Financing Review Commission that will make recommendations to the Legislature on how to improve education finance policy. Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward introduced and prioritized the bill, which passed on a 48-0 vote. LB 649 Provide 5% wage credits for military defense employers that have at least 10 employees who earn 1.5 times the average hourly pay in the state. Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Omaha area proposed the bill on behalf of Gov. Jim Pillen, and Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue prioritized it. It passed on a 44-4 vote. World-Herald staff writer Josh Reyes contributed to this report. ANCHORAGE, Alaska An Alaska man who was pinned face down in an icy creek by a 700-pound boulder for three hours survived the ordeal with only minor injuries, thanks in part to his wife's quick thinking and lots of luck. Kell Morris' wife held his head above water to prevent him from drowning while waiting for rescuers to arrive after Morris was pinned by the boulder, which crashed onto him during a hike near a remote glacier south of Anchorage. His second stroke of luck came when a sled dog tourism company that operates on the glacier overheard the 911 dispatch and offered up its helicopter to ferry rescuers to the scene, which was inaccessible to all-terrain vehicles. Once rescuers arrived, it took seven men and inflatable air bags to lift the boulder off as Morris drifted in and out of consciousness. The 61-year-old said he realizes he is probably the luckiest man alive. "And luckier that I have such a great wife," he said Thursday. His wife, Jo Roop, is a retired Alaska State Trooper. They moved to Seward, about 120 miles south of Anchorage, from Idaho last fall when she took a job with the local police department. Couple opted for hike far from holiday crowds On May 24, they wanted to avoid the big crowds that converge on the Kenai Peninsula community during holidays and decided to hike near Godwin Glacier on an isolated and undeveloped trail behind a state prison, Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites said. Their trail was actually a rocky creek bed lined with large boulders deposited by the glacier. Morris said he noticed dangerous boulders, some weighing up to 1,000 pounds, along the banks of the creek and avoided them the best he could, until he ran into an area he couldn't pass. "I was coming back and everything, the whole side slid out from under me," he said. He said things became a blur as he tumbled down the embankment about 20 feet, landing face down in the water. Then he immediately felt the boulder hit his back in what Crites described as "basically an avalanche of boulders." The way Morris landed, there were rocks under him, in between his legs and around him that caught the weight of the boulder, preventing him from being crushed, Crites said. Still, the massive rock pinned him, and Morris felt intense pain in his left leg and waited for his femur to snap. "When it first happened, I was doubtful that there was going to be a good outcome," he said. Company sends its helicopter to the rescue His wife tried to free him for about 30 minutes, putting rocks under the boulder and trying to roll it off him, before she left to find a cell signal. Amazingly, she only had to walk about 300 yards to connect with 911 and relied on her law enforcement experience to send exact GPS coordinates to dispatch. A volunteer at the neighboring Bear Creek Fire Department heard the call while working at the sled dog tourism operation and diverted its helicopter, used to ferry tourists, to the scene. Ultimately, firefighters who couldn't navigate their all-terrain vehicles over the boulder field jumped out of the helicopter. By this time, Morris was hypothermic from the cold water running off the glacier, Crites said, and his wife was holding his head out of the water. "I think if we hadn't had that private helicopter assist us, it would have taken us at least another 45 minutes to get to him, and I'm not sure he had that much time," Crites said. The firefighters used two air bags normally reserved to extract people from wrecked vehicles to slightly lift the boulder. "But then it just became an all-hands brute force of 'one, two, three, push,'" Crites said. "And seven guys were able to lift it enough to pull the victim out." An Alaska National Guard helicopter lifted them out of the creek bed with a rescue basket. He walked away unscathed Morris spent two nights at the local hospital for observation but walked away unscathed. "I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him," Crites said. Morris, who is now reflecting on his ordeal at home, acknowledged it might have been a little wake-up call to stop doing things like this at his age. "I was very lucky. God was looking out for me," he said. When he and his wife go hiking this weekend, they are going to stick to established trails. "We're going to stop the trailblazing," he said. By State Representative Darcey Edwards May 28th, 2025 Today, the Oregon House passed Senate Bill 426B, making Oregon the first state in the nation to hold general contractors and property owners liable for wage theft they neither committed nor knew about. Rep. Darcey Edwards (R-Banks) voted no and delivered a floor speech condemning the bill as unworkable, unfair, and deeply flawed. Theres a lot wrong with this bill, Edwards said on the House floor, but the most glaring issue is what it leaves out: actual knowledge or intent. SB 426B holds people liable for wage violations they didnt commitand in many cases didnt even know were happening. Thats not accountability. Thats scapegoating. Under SB 426B, general contractors and property owners can be held strictly liable for unpaid wages owed by subcontractors, regardless of their knowledge or involvement. House Republicans proposed several amendments aimed at targeting bad actors while protecting honest business owners. Every one of those proposals was rejected along party lines. Edwards shared concerns from contractors in House District 31 who fear the bill will discourage working with independently owned subcontractors because of the legal risk. These arent lobbyists or big corporations, she said. Theyre family-owned businesses and local contractors who are already stretched thinand now being asked to take on someone elses liability. One of the rejected amendments would have added a simple safeguard: liability would only apply if the owner or contractor knewor reasonably should have knownthat workers werent being paid. Edwards called that a reasonable fix, but said it was dismissed by proponents of the bill. If were serious about ending wage theft, we should go after those actually committing it, Edwards said. This bill doesnt solve the problemit just shifts the burden. Despite over 1,300 public comments in opposition and confusion around who will ultimately be liable under the law, the bill passed the House on a party-line vote and now heads to the Governors desk. House Republicans have filed a minority report. BLOOMINGTON Almost 170 years after Abraham Lincoln delivered an impassioned speech against slavery at a political gathering in downtown Bloomington, a new mural within sight of the spot now enshrines the historic moment for the future. Accompanied by Civil War-era music performed by the 33rd Illinois Regimental Reenactment Band, a crowd of historians, residents and passersby gathered Thursday on the east side of the McLean County Museum of History for a dedication ceremony honoring the late president's famed "Lost Speech," which led to the rise of his political career. "What happened in Bloomington 169 years ago today, on Thursday, May 29, 1856, ignited Lincoln's march to the presidency and eventually led to emancipation and three Constitution amendments," said Norris Porter, director of development for the museum. Historians say Lincoln gave what became known as the "Lost Speech" at Major's Hall, which stood at 117 E. Front St. from 1852 to 1958, as the closing oration at the convention that founded the Illinois Republican Party. It is called the "Lost Speech" because there is no official record of it; historians say only a few phrases of the address ever appeared in print. "The legend that they tell is that it was so dramatic, so eloquent that the newspaper men just laid down, just dropped their pens in awe and forgot to write it down," said Guy Fraker, a retired attorney and Lincoln scholar based in Bloomington. But it's more likely, Fraker said, that Lincoln's speech was so radical he didn't want it to get out any further than Major's Hall. The historian told the crowd Lincoln always hated slavery with a passion, but he was also a pragmatic politician, so he had been a moderate, politically, on the issue. "This speech was so dramatic that it inspired the people of Illinois and many others who were there to go on with this fight that ended up in the Civil War," Fraker said. "When he came out of there, Illinois was one of the most important states, and he was the leader of the Republican Party of Illinois." That speech was part of Lincoln's response to the Kansas Nebraska Act that gave new states the authority to choose whether or not to allow slavery within their borders, Fraker said. Lincoln gave a series of speeches, including one in Peoria in the fall of 1854, the infamous "House Divided" speech in Springfield on June 16, 1858, and the Cooper Union speech in February 1860 in New York. The "Lost Speech" was the second in this series at the Anti-Nebraska Convention that united several political groups against slavery, Fraker said. "We now know that from that platform, he pursued the presidency with great skill and was elected in November of 1860, and thank God for our country that there was a 'Lost Speech,'" the historian said. After the program on the steps of the museum, the reenactment band played "Dixie" as Randy Duncan, an Abraham Lincoln actor, led the crowd from Main Street to the mural, where it stands 45 feet tall and 25 feet wide on the east side of Rosie's Pub, at 106 E. Front St. Artist Troy Freeman of Free Sky Studios designed and painted the mural, which depicts Lincoln speaking to a group of excited listeners. The journey for the mural had many twists and turns and began when Major's Hall was torn down to add more parking in downtown Bloomington, Porter said. A memorial including a statue of the 16th president was promised by government leaders at the time, but plans never came to fruition. About four years after the hall came down, a memorial wall was dedicated in October 1962, near the original site. Then-U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen spoke at the dedication, as a local lawmaker who had been instrumental in securing Republican support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation, Porter said. Dirksen recalled that many who were close to Lincoln at the time noticed a shift in attitude after the "Lost Speech," and he said it was in Bloomington where Lincoln came to grips with slavery on a moral basis, rather than a political one, Porter said. In 2008, Greg Koos, who now serves as executive director emeritus of the McLean County Museum of History, delivered a presentation on the "Lost Speech" and drew attention to the memorial wall's lack of reference to African Americans, despite the speech reportedly being about their freedom, the development director said. This led to a new wave of efforts to share more context and information about the "Lost Speech," including the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition adding a series of new outdoor wayside exhibits in the area. Now, there are 13 Looking for Lincoln stops throughout Bloomington-Normal as well as a new mobile app that allows users to access information as they move along each stop, Porter said. The idea of the new mural began amid discussions about ways the museum might celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, and a mural of the "Lost Speech" was petitioned. Porter said the cost of the mural was $27,000, with an additional $3,500 for the brass marker. In honor of the mural and Honest Abe, Rosie's Pub is offering a sandwich special called Mr. Lincoln's Pork Chop, which is served with a bacon, apple chutney, Gouda cheese and Carolina honey barbecue sauce, and a specialty cocktail called Abe's Apple Cider, made with whiskey, cider, cinnamon and "secret ingredients." The museum also held a coloring contest for the mural. Eight winners, including children and adults, were announced Thursday and awarded a bit of history in the form a piece of brick collected from the Miller Davis Building, which is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Bloomington where Lincoln and other 8th Judicial Circuit lawyers spent time. Julie Emig, executive director for the McLean County Museum of History, said by combining public art and history, the museum is memorializing a pivotal moment in local and national history, as well as motivating curiosity, learning and enjoyment in this dedication. The museum is committed to sharing multifaceted stories of the community through a variety of forms, including art, music, theater, oratory and language preserved over time, Emig said Thursday. These all represent how community members make sense of and commemorate the past and document the fight for a better future, she added. "Our staff consistently finds ways to make history engaging for all, and this monumental mural is a great example of how we're doing that work," Emig said. "As we are on the precipice of confronting our history as an American democracy, in 2026 the Declaration of Independence turns 250, and today we are grappling with what it means to be just and to be free." This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Proposed mechanism of AtMC9 activation and regulation. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60253-y In a discovery three decades in the making, scientists at Rutgers and Brookhaven National Laboratory have acquired detailed knowledge about the internal structures and mode of regulation for a specialized protein and are proceeding to develop tools that can capitalize on its ability to help plants combat a wide range of diseases. The work, which exploits a natural process where plant cells die on purpose to help the host plant stay healthy, is expected to have wide applications in the agricultural sector, offering new ways to protect major food crops from a variety of devastating diseases, the scientists said. In a study published in Nature Communications, a team led by Eric Lam at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Qun Liu at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York reported that advanced crystallography and computer modeling techniques have enabled them to obtain the best picture yet of a pivotal plant protease, a protein enzyme that cuts other proteins, known as metacaspase 9. "Understanding the shape and mode of activation for metacaspase 9 means we can now design long-sought tools to harness its known biological functions to protect plants from diseases and environmental stresses that could decimate crops," said Liu, a structural biologist in the Biology Department at Brookhaven. The team has already started. Lam and Liu have filed for a provisional patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on technologies that can be developed from the discovery. "This work could usher in much safer and effective treatments for our crops worldwide," said Lam, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and an author of the study. Using Arabidopsis thaliana, an oft-studied plant also known as mouse-ear cress, the researchers employed a method known as X-ray crystallography at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) to reveal the shape of metacaspase 9 at the atomic level. Knowing from previous research that the enzyme is activated by increased acidity, they observed and recorded how the enzyme changes shape when exposed to different concentrations of acid to reveal the key changes in the protein during its activation. Structure of plant Metacaspase 9 from Arabidopsis. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory Their newly acquired complex understanding combines crystallography data with molecular dynamic simulations also completed at Brookhaven. This computer-based method allowed them to observe how the enzyme behaved and changed under different conditions. The team also performed laboratory experiments, including site-specific mutagenesis, a technique used by scientists to make precise changes to a specific part of a DNA sequence and validate the importance of specific parts of the protein that are needed for its activity. By integrating this knowledge, the researchers discovered different parts of the enzyme act like either brakes or accelerators to ensure that it only will be active at an acidic pH. Lam and his team have collaborated with Liu and his Brookhaven team for a decade in pursuit of a better understanding of the enzyme along with a related version, metacaspase 4. Lam has studied the process at the heart of the enzyme's pivotal role in plant healtha phenomenon known as programmed cell death or cell suicidefor the past 30 years. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Programmed cell death is a process where cells intentionally die as part of a natural and controlled mechanism, Lam said. It is the cell's way of committing suicide for the greater good of the organism. The process helps remove damaged or unnecessary cells, allowing an organism to stay healthy and develop properly. In plants, programmed cell death is crucial for fighting diseases and responding to stress. Work by other researchers has shown that metacaspase 9, which exists in plants but not in animals, is connected with programmed cell death and centrally involved in two major types of disease-causing agents for plants. When dealing with biotrophs, which are organisms that feed off living cells, metacaspase 9 helps kill infected cells to stop the disease. But with necrotrophs, organisms that kill plant cells before eating them, metacaspase 9 is hijacked into destroying the plant's own cells faster, which helps the invaders. The researchers reason that strengthening metacaspase 9 may prevent biotrophic diseases. Conversely, jamming its function means the enzyme won't assist necrotrophs in killing healthy cells. The oft-studied Arabidopsis thaliana plant provided the enzyme for a discovery by Rutgers and Brookhaven scientists. Credit: Rutgers University An example of a biotroph is the fungus-like oomycetes Phytophthora infestans, which caused the potato blight in Ireland and the ensuing famine in the mid-1800s. "For many of the plant diseases, especially fungi, effective fungicide treatment options are few and, in many cases, environmental concerns are quite serious," Lam said. "By creating hyperactive versions of metacaspase 9, we may protect plants from these biotrophs by causing cell death at the invasion site earlier, thus cutting off their food supply." The research team has done just that, creating what Lam described as "super-active variants" of the enzyme that can be produced by plant genes when prodded to do so and could provide novel resistance traits to a slew of important diseases, such as powdery mildew and rusts. The severe plant disease known as white mold is caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, which can infect many crops. It is one of the diseases caused by fungal pathogens that could cause annual crop losses of between 10% and 20% of a total yield. This translates to financial losses of between $100 billion and $200 billion each year for agriculture, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "To combat necrotrophic organisms that kill cells to feed on them, understanding how metacaspase 9 changes at the molecular level can help us create new agri- chemicals that block this enzyme efficiently without harming animals or the environment," Lam said. "They could be used in agriculture to stop harmful necrotrophs from growing, leading to safer and more effective treatments for crops around the world." Other Rutgers researchers who contributed to this study include Zhili Pang, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Plant Biology at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Haijiao Liu of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Max Henderson of Stony Brook University in New York, graduate students who worked under Liu's supervision, are the co-first authors on the paper. Qinfang Zhang of Stony Brook University also contributed to this study. More information: Haijiao Liu et al, Structural determinants for pH-dependent activation of a plant metacaspase, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60253-y Journal information: Nature Communications This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Journal of Neurophysiology (2025). DOI: 10.1152/jn.00044.2025 A newly published study in the Journal of Neurophysiology reveals how blow flies (Calliphora vicina)despite their minimal body weightreliably detect forces through specialized sensory organs in their legs. The research offers new insights into insect biomechanics and presents promising applications for the design of next-generation walking robots. Researchers at Marshall University and West Virginia University examined the behavior of campaniform sensillastrain-detecting sense organs in the fly's hindleg tibiaand how they encode mechanical forces during posture and movement. Experiments showed that these sensors are highly sensitive not only to the magnitude of force but also to the rate at which it changes. Even very small, transient decreases in force strongly inhibited the sensors' firing. "Force sensing plays a crucial role in balance and locomotion," said Sasha Zill, Ph.D., professor of biomedical sciences at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "Our findings show that even lightweight insects, such as blow flies, need to monitor both force magnitude and dynamics, and they do so in surprisingly sophisticated ways." The study found that campaniform sensilla in blow flies detect both the strength and rate of force application, with sensory responses showing hysteresis and sensitivity to even brief decreases in force. A mathematical model developed for larger insects accurately replicated these responses, supporting the idea that force detection is a universal, scalable strategy across speciesone that aids in muscle control and balance and could inform the design of more stable, adaptable walking robots. "This modeling approach could help us better understand sensory tuning across animals and improve robotic locomotion by mimicking how real sensory systems respond to force, bridging biological insight with practical engineering applications in biomechanics and robotics," Zill said. Additional authors on the study were Sumaiya Chaudhry and Hibba Chaudhry of the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and Nicholas Szczecinski, Ph.D., of West Virginia University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. More information: Sasha N. Zill et al, Force sensing in small animals: recording response properties and modeling of tibial campaniform sensilla in blow flies, Journal of Neurophysiology (2025). DOI: 10.1152/jn.00044.2025 Journal information: Journal of Neurophysiology This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: from Pexels Drones have become a game-changer in the Russia-Ukraine Warso much so that they could potentially transform Ukraine into a defense powerhouse in Europe, according to one Northeastern University observer. "It's actually the case that Ukraine may not only have the wherewithal to potentially prevail in the war, but also be able to actually fund itself moving forward," says Mai'a Cross, dean's professor of political science, international affairs and diplomacy. "If it can scale what it is building such that it can develop an export industry and create a real marketa defense industry of its ownit might be able to fund its own efforts." Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks in recent months in an effort to check Russian aggression. For its part, Russia has also intensified its drone production using Western electronics and Chinese parts. Drone attacks have been a regular part of its "punishment" strategy in Ukraine aimed at coercing Ukraine into a political outcome that favors Russia. Russia has relied on the Iran-designed Shahed drone, a cheap drone armed with shrapnel and designed to target infrastructure with significant collateral damage to civilians. During May 2025, Russia unleashed its largest drone and missile bombardment yet on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. For Cross, the attack highlights the extent to which the war has shifted toward the use of drones. "Even though Ukraine is experiencing a number of setbacks at the moment, the way in which it has made its overall military capability and production of drones so efficient is absolutely remarkable," Cross says. "What we're seeing is the sheer ingenuity of those on the front lines in dealing with a weaponry shortfall, and innovating in a way that is really quite unprecedented," Cross says. Observers have noted how drone technologysuch as stealth capability, "swarm" tactics and an ability to fly in lower altitudeshas upended conventional defensive measures. Drone innovation, spurred by ongoing conflicts, might have broader implications for defense spending across Europe and in the U.S., Cross says. "It's actually having an effect on how the U.S. is thinking about investments in the future," Cross says. "Instead of these huge, expensive projects, like the F-35, you have these relatively cheap fleets of drones that are able to destroy a whole line of Russian tanks. That has changed how many countries think about the future of security." Ukrainian drones cost several thousand dollars to produceand are manufactured in clandestine factories set up in office buildings, Cross says. Some of the more sophisticated models, such as the Buntar 3, can cost up to $100,000. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Where does Ukraine get the parts? "Those drones that Ukraine has been able to innovate with in real time are largely made from commercially available parts from China that it is able to get either directly from China, or with tariffs and restrictions, through third countries where Chinese parts are routed through," Cross says. "The Ukrainians are able to essentially take them apart and rebuild them for their purposes." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that China has stopped selling Ukraine fully-assembled drones, such as the DJI Mavic. "Chinese Mavic is open for Russians but is closed for Ukrainians," Zelenskyy said, according to Bloomberg. Russia, on the brink of a new offensive, "is doing pretty well in terms of drone warfare, in part because if it is able to capture a Ukrainian drone it can take it apart and figure out how to build its own version of it," Cross says. But, she says, Ukraine is "taking the lead" on drone innovation. "At the beginning of the war, we were talking about whether the West will be able to give Ukraine enough weaponry, artillery and equipment to fight this war," Cross says. "But that's not the main question at this point. The main question is whether they're going to have enough money to keep building and innovating on these incredibly effective drones." Russia, Cross says, has mirrored the Ukrainian strategy in the air, while maintaining a dominant position on the ground. But the shift to drone warfare changes the dynamic on the ground as well, as the Russian army tries to adapt to the threat these unmanned aerial vehicles pose to Russian assets, including tanks. "It makes it quite a bit more dangerous for soldiers on the ground," Cross says. "There's almost this constant fear because you can't rely on training and older strategies to hide from drones." This story is republished courtesy of Northeastern Global News news.northeastern.edu. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Andean cock-of-the-rock. Credit: Matthias Dehling An innovative new method developed by a Monash University-led research team aims to help conservationists identify more targeted and effective ways to protect wildlife and ecosystems. With climate change forcing more wildlife from their traditional habitats, conservationists are facing a growing challenge to mitigate the resulting impacts on their new settling locations and the species already residing there. The Monash-led research, which appears in Ecology Letters, has developed a model to help conservationists proactively address adverse impacts by providing a framework to predict how species will respond to the changing climate and how they might interact with other wildlife in their new habitats. This includes assessing the suitability of environmental conditions for the new arrivals and whether they find their preferred food sources to predict if a species will be able to establish itself. Similarly, it might also be used to predict the spread of an invasive species in the new ecosystem and its impact on the populations of other species, which would then allow conservationists to proactively address these adverse impacts. Lead researcher and Senior Research Fellow at Monash School of Biological Sciences and Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, Dr. Matthias Dehling said the model aims to overcome a major obstacle in conservation: the lack of data for many species, especially on their interactions with other species. "The model addresses that problem by borrowing data and observations from similar species to model where a species will occur and with which species they will interact," Dr. Dehling said. "We can use the data and known observations of other species to model the potential interactions and habitat preferences of a species for which there are no or only a few observations available, simply based on the similarity in their morphology or how closely related they are. "This is a major advantage because it allows for the modeling of interactions in species communities where a new species may come in, either because of range shifts or accidental dispersion by humans, for which usually no data on interactions with other species or the ecosystem exists. "This could be applied to cases where we have an endangered species bred in captivity that we want to introduce back into the wild, or a population of an endangered species that we want to translocate to a new site, but also to cases of ecosystems and endangered species that we need to protect from the impact of invasive species." Until now, separate methods were used to model the interaction between species and the environment (Grinnellian niche) or between various species (Eltonian niche). The new model brings together both types of data to provide a holistic view and consider the impact of various factors at once. It provides a framework to predict interactions and responses to climate, using information on specific biological traits of animals, like their size or their beak shape. Dr. Dehling and his colleagues refined the model on a study of fruit-eating birds and fleshy-fruited plants in a Peruvian rainforest, and they will use their findings and modeling to support projects in Aotearoa New Zealand and potentially Antarctica this year. "For example, in the case of species translocations, knowledge of species' resource requirements and their interactions with other species might be used to select suitable sites where species are released," he said. "We hope that this model will be useful for conservationists and help them in the critical work they do." More information: D. Matthias Dehling et al, Eltonian Niche Modelling: Applying Joint Hierarchical Niche Models to Ecological Networks, Ecology Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1111/ele.70120 Journal information: Ecology Letters This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: SEM (gray) and EDS mapping (iron (red), selenium (blue), silicon (blue), and nitrogen (yellow)) of poly-SeOxF (a) and poly-MeOxF (b). Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c01571 Enantiomers, or molecule pairs that are mirror images of each other, make up more than half of FDA-approved drugs in use today, including those used in treatments for cancer, neurologic diseases and arthritis. Separating enantiomers is critical for drug manufacturing because the effect of each molecule in the pair can be very differentfor example, one enantiomer might cure a headache while its mirror-image could cause a headache. Faster and more accurate enantiomer separations would help with the overall drug discovery and screening process, but by their very nature, enantiomerswhich have identical compositions and only differ by not being superimposable (think left hand and right hand)are notoriously difficult to separate. An effort by a group of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to find an efficient, sustainable way to perform these critical enantiomer separations is the focus of a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. "This is one of the hardest separations in the world," said Xiao Su, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor at Illinois who led the project. "We're talking about separating almost identical chemical molecules from one another." "The way to separate enantiomers is to introduce a chiral environment that can 'recognize' the difference between the two mirror images of the enantiomers," explained Jemin Jeon, co-first author on the paper and former Ph.D. student under Su. "Conventional processes for separating these enantiomers often leads to a large amount of chemical waste. We wanted to achieve a more sustainable but still effective enantioselective separation by developing a chiral interface that can selectively capture one enantiomer over the other and be turned on and off by electricity." Although electrochemical separations have been used successfully for many ion recovery processes, performing enantiomer separations has so far been unachievable because of the lack of proper redox-responsive polymer adsorbents that attract and bind enantiomers. Solving this problem was a key goal of the researchers. The team focused on ferrocene as the molecular building blocks of their materials due to its ability to carry out redox reactionsthat is, to accept and donate electrons. Uniquely, they introduced methyl and selenium phenyl groups into the ferrocene's molecular structure to create polymers with planar chirality, where the chiral elements are arranged in a 2D plane. These chiral ferrocene units form the basis for achieving selectivity for enantiomers, with the added benefit of being able to turn on/off interactions solely through electrochemical control. Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c01571 While Su and Jeon have previously shown how chiral ferrocenes can be used for sensing and molecular recognition, these prior instances were restricted to point-chirality, where the chiral center is around a central atom. Here, their work showed that new planar chiral ferrocenes resulted in significantly better enantioselectivity than point chiral ferrocenes, thus enabling planar chiral polymer platforms to perform enantioselective separations as electrosorbents. In fact, when they carried out the electrochemical separation process using the new synthesized polymers, they found that a targeted enantiomer could successfully be separated from a racemic, or 5050, mixture of enantiomers. The work also showed how engineering design can theoretically bring the target enantiomers to 99% purity. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. "The uniqueness of these polymers is that they are not only chiral, but they're chiral and electrochemically responsive," Su said. "It's a completely new application for electrochemical separations." Su emphasized that the ability to do the separations electrochemically not only brings greater efficiency to the drug screening and manufacturing process, but also has significant environmental benefits. "Pharmaceutical separations can often be very costly and chemically wasteful," he said. "The separation of these enantiomers requires large systems that use a lot of solvent and which generate a lot of chemical waste. By doing this process electrochemically, you can reduce the waste and the chemicals that are being used." While this study focused on separations of enantiomeric pairs of amino acids, Jeon said there are countless potential applications of their work. "This is just a beginning for the design of redox-active chiral interface and electrochemical systems," Jeon said. "We believe there are unlimited opportunities in pursuing these concepts for the enantioselective separations of a wider group of molecules, including valuable pharmaceuticals." Yuri Kappenberg, doctoral student in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois, is the other co-first author on the study. Collaborators include U. of I. chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Alex Mironenko and visiting chemistry professor Fabio Zazyki Galetto from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil. More information: Jemin Jeon et al, Planar Chiral Metallopolymers for Electrochemically Mediated Enantioselective Separations, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c01571 Journal information: Journal of the American Chemical Society This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Researcher Juana M. Delgado is explaining the findings of a scientific report to the UK Parliament. The report, presented last year by the UJI, UV, and IDIAP Jordi Gol, details the situation in Europe and Great Britain. Juana Mari Delgado Saborit, a researcher at the Universitat Jaume I, participated as an expert in a presentation on public health problems and the effects of gas cooking on the climate at the UK Parliament, as part of the event "Policy pathways to electrify cooking for public health and the planet". In her speech, the coordinator of the research group Perinatal Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Clinical Research helped to put the magnitude of the problem into perspective by providing figures on the number of children with asthma and premature deaths associated with the use of gas cookers, and highlighted the need for measures and policies to reduce emissions from these appliances. The professor shared the panel with Nicole Kearny, director of CLASP for Europe, which promotes efficient appliances to combat climate change and improve people's lives; and Eric Lebel and Yannai Kashtain, from PSE Healthy Energy in the United States, a scientific research institute specializing in integrating science into energy policies to provide solutions that protect public health and the environment. The event also featured a success story from Manchester on the use of induction cookers and the report "Policy pathways for the transition to electric cooking in the UK," which includes several implementation recommendations and a list of barriers that must be overcome to achieve a transition that is sustainable for health, the environment and the economy. A second panel featured representatives from local authorities and industry to explain how homes were being electrified. The event was attended by members of Parliament, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the UK Health Security Agency, medical colleges such as the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, local councils, non-profit organizations, kitchen appliance manufacturers and retailers, real estate companies and professionals and researchers in health, the environment and sustainable energy, among others. MP Afzal Khan gave the closing speech. Report on pollution in the European Union and the United Kingdom Delgado led the research team that last year produced a report explaining the health impact and economic cost in terms of premature mortality and asthma cases in children and the rest of the population that can be attributed to toxic emissions from gas cookers in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which can be consulted in the UJI repository. According to research carried out by the Universitat Jaume I in Castello, in collaboration with the Universitat de Valencia and the IDIAP Jordi Gol, the World Health Organization's recommendations are regularly breached in the average home in 14 European countries, although not in Spain, when environmental pollution is combined with fumes from gas cookers during normal use, and are believed to be the cause of 39,959 premature deaths in the EU and the United Kingdom. The countries most affected are Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the United Kingdom, where most households cook with gas. Pollution is worse in poorly ventilated homes and during longer cooking sessions. Lives in Spain are shortened by just over a year on average, affecting some 2,000 people. More information: Assessment of the health impacts and costs associated with indoor nitrogen dioxide exposure related to gas cooking in the European Union and the United Kingdom, repositori.uji.es/items/156fbd a4-9856-9415513d505f Provided by Universitat Jaume I This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Researchers in a field of hemp. Credit: Justus Wesseler To achieve the European Green Deal's goal of 25% organic agriculture by 2030, researchers argue that new genomic techniques (NGTs) should be allowed without pre-market authorization in organic as well as conventional food production. NGTsalso known as gene editingare classified under the umbrella of GMOs, but they involve more subtle genetic tweaks. In an opinion paper published in Cell Reports Sustainability, researchers describe how NGTs could enable rapid development of crops that are climate-resilient, produce higher yields, and require less fertilizers and pesticides. "This is an excellent opportunity to modernize European agriculture, to make it more science-based, and to support the goal of improving sustainability inside the European Union," says first author Alexandra Molitorisova, a food law researcher at the University of Bayreuth. Currently, 10% of EU farming areas are organic. Though organic farming can reduce carbon emissions and pollution from fertilizer and pesticides, Molitorisova's team says that these benefits could be negated by biodiversity losses due to expanding agricultural land, since organic agriculture requires more land to grow the same amount of food. "The target of 25% organic land is unlikely to ensure sustainable food production in the EU if modern biotechnology, such as NGTs, is excluded from organic farming," says Molitorisova. European institutions are currently debating how to regulate NGTswhich did not exist when the EU legislation on GMOs was adopted in 2001in response to a proposal from the European Commission that NGT usage be allowed in conventional but not organic farming. "Research suggests that NGTs are still something that European consumers are not completely aware ofthey just do not distinguish between NGTs and GMOs," says senior author Kai Purnhagen, Professor of Food Law at the University of Bayreuth. "There are strong indications that consumers would be willing to accept these technologies if they yield substantial benefits, and the Commission's proposal for new regulation allowing NGTs in conventional farming points in this direction." Though NGT crops are still developed through genetic alteration, the processes usually don't involve the insertion of DNA from non-plant species. This means that, in theory, identical crops could be developed using conventional breeding methods, though it would take decades rather than months. For these reasons, the researchers argue that NGTs and GMOs should be defined and regulated separately, including in organic production. Harvested hemp piled up in an agricultural facility. Credit: Justus Wesseler "From the consumer's perception of naturalness, the normal breeding process is between two crossable varieties, and that is also what happens with NGTs," says Molitorisova. "So, if consumers understand the nature and benefits of this technology, it should be easier for them to accept it compared with GMOs, which might involve inserting a gene from a non-plant organism into a plant genome." The researchers also note that the most common type of NGT, targeted mutagenesis, is very similar to mutagenesiswhich uses chemical or radioactive substances to induce random genetic mutations and has never been subject to GMO regulation in the EU, even for organic farms. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. "If mutagenesis had not been exempted from GMO legislation, the estimation is that 80%90% of the cereal products on the European market would have been subject to GMO labeling," says Purnhagen. The team highlights that allowing NGTs in conventional but not organic agriculture creates a formidable hurdle in terms of NGT identification, labeling, and traceability. "At the moment, there are unresolved practical problems with the identification of NGTs inside of food, feed, or seeds," says Molitorisova. "One rational alternative is to allow NGTs in organic production, because if NGT organisms are not identifiable, they are also technically unavoidable." Ultimately, the researchers say that the decision to allow NGTs in organic farming should be made by the organic farming and consumer communitiesfor example, by way of citizens' juries or food councils. "Organic consumers care about the environment and sustainability. For organic farmers, accepting this technology is a way to speak to those consumers," says Purnhagen. More information: New Genomic Techniques in Organic Production: Considerations for Science-Based, Effective and Acceptable EU Regulation, Cell Reports Sustainability (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.crsus.2025.100405. www.cell.com/cell-reports-sust 2949-7906(25)00101-6 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay The Federal Aviation Administration is demanding an accident investigation into this week's out-of-control Starship flight by SpaceX. Tuesday's test flight from Texas lasted longer than the previous two failed demos of the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, which ended in flames over the Atlantic. The latest spacecraft made it halfway around the world to the Indian Ocean, but not before going into a spin and breaking apart. The FAA said Friday that no injuries or public damage were reported. The first-stage booster recycled from an earlier flight also burst apart while descending over the Gulf of Mexico. But that was the result of deliberately extreme testing approved by the FAA in advance. All wreckage from both sections of the 403-foot (123-meter) rocket came down within the designated hazard zones, according to the FAA. The FAA will oversee SpaceX's investigation, which is required before another Starship can launch. CEO Elon Musk said he wants to pick up the pace of Starship test flights, with the ultimate goal of launching them to Mars. NASA needs Starship as the means of landing astronauts on the moon in the next few years. 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain On the campaign trail last year, then-candidate Donald Trump proposed handing US residency cards automatically to international students when they earn diplomas, bemoaning that they were leaving to form successful companies in China and India. Now back at the White House, Trump's message has changed drastically. Hoping to crush an academic establishment he sees as his enemy, Trump has launched unprecedented actions against international students that experts warn are likely to decrease enrollment and could trigger a brain drain of top talent. In a matter of days, the Trump administration has sought to bar all foreign students from Harvard University, one of most prestigious US institutions, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to "aggressively" revoke visas to students from China, long the top source of students to the United States although recently eclipsed by India. Rubio has already yanked thousands of visas, largely over students' involvement in activism critical of Israel's offensive in Gaza but also over minor traffic violations and other infractions. "The US, historically, has a reputation around the world of having a very open atmosphere for scientific and technical research, and that draws a lot of people, especially people from countries that don't necessarily have that kind of openness," said Phoebe Sengers, a professor in information science and science and technology studies at Cornell University. She said it's certain the number of international students will "plummet in the coming years." "The challenge with that is that students who would come here don't just disappear. They will stay in their home countries or go to other countries where they can get a technical education, and they're going to be building businesses in those countries and competing directly with our firms," she said. Universities as 'enemy' US universities have long been reputed to be among the world's best, and among the most expensive to attend. International students who pay full tuition are vital sources of revenue, as are federal research grants, which the Trump administration is also slashing. The State Department has justified its crackdown by pointing to "theft" of US technology by China, and Trump has spoken of making more spots for US-born students. But Trump's inner circle has long made clear its intentions to battle universitieswhose often left-leaning faculties, high costs and selectivity make them perfect foils for a presidency centered on countering elites and foreigners. Vice President JD Vance stated in no uncertain terms his hope to destroy the power of academe in a 2021 speech entitled, "The universities are the enemy." Yet Vance himself rose from poverty to power through Yale Law School, one of the country's most elite institutions. Universities have an outsized influence on the economy, with international students directly contributing $50 billion to the US economy in 2023, according to the US Commerce Department. Many top US entrepreneurs are immigrants who came as students, including Trump's ally Elon Musk, with around half of the Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or their children. Krishna Bista, a professor at Morgan State University who studies international student mobility, said the tone set by the Trump administration "could deter even the most qualified applicants" from the United States. "It's not just a visa issueit affects students' sense of safety, belonging and academic freedom," he said. "Other nations are building policies to recruit talentit's irrational for the US to push it away." The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology recently offered fast-track admissions to Harvard students whom Trump wants to force to transfer. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Growing competition The United States across administrations has wooed international students, although the number also declined following the September 11, 2001 attacks due to greater curbs of all visas. A world-record 1.1 million international students studied in the United States in the 2023-24 academic year, according to a State Department-backed report of the Institute of International Education. But international students on average make up just under 6% of the US university populationfar below Britain, the second top destination for international students, where the figure is 25%. The opportunity to change course may have already slipped away. "Even if everything was turned around tomorrow, our reputation as an open and welcoming society has already taken significant damage," Sengers said. "It would take a concerted effort to bring things back to where they were four months ago." 2025 AFP This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain In a new Physical Review Letters study, researchers have successfully followed a gravitational wave's complete journey from the infinite past to the infinite future as it encounters a black hole. Reported by scientists from the University of Otago and the University of Canterbury, the study represents the first time anyone has captured the full cause-and-effect relationship of gravitational wave scattering in a single simulation. The researchers are tackling the scattering problem in gravitational physics. In other words, they want to understand what happens to gravitational waves when they encounter massive objects (like black holes) and scatter off them. They need to track waves from past null infinity (where incoming gravitational waves originate in spacetime) to future null infinity (where outgoing radiation ultimately travels). These represent the light-like boundaries of the universe, where gravitational waves come from and go if they travel forever without being stopped. Phys.org spoke to the researchers behind the study, Prof. Joerg Frauendiener from the University of Otago, Dr. Chris Stevens, and Sebenele Thwala from the University of Canterbury. "We showed, for the first time, that it's possible to follow a gravitational wave as it travels through a black hole's curved spacetime from the infinite past to the infinite future," explained Dr. Stevens. "The need to incorporate infinity allows us to compute the total energy and momentum of the spacetime. This can tell us how much of the gravitational wave's energy is imparted to the black hole and how much escapes to infinity in a rigorous way," added Thwala. Grasping at infinity To track the trajectory of a gravitational wave, the researchers needed to address the infinity problem. In Einstein's theory of general relativity, isolated systems like black holes exist in asymptotically flat spacetime. These are regions that become flat and empty at infinite distances. These boundaries, called null infinities, represent where light and gravitational waves originate (past null infinity) and where they ultimately travel (future null infinity). Traditional simulations can only capture finite regions of spacetime, missing the complete picture of how waves travel from their origins to their ultimate destinations. In essence, they don't tell the full story. "Our work resolves the gravitational wave on past null infinity, evolves the fully nonlinear Einstein equations through the black hole spacetime, and naturally extracts the gravitational waveform at future null infinity," explained Prof. Frauendiener. This comprehensive approach provides what the researchers call the true cause-and-effect relationship between the incoming and outgoing radiation. A mathematical tour de force The researchers used the Friedrich's Generalized Conformal Field Equations (GCFE), a mathematical framework that rescales spacetime to bring infinite distance into a finite computational domain. This makes the infinite accessible. To solve the evolution equations, the researchers built a custom software package known as COnFormal Field Equation Evolver (COFFEE). Using COFFEE, the researchers simulated gravitational wave pulses of varying strengths encountering a Schwarzschild black hole. The differences of relevant asymptotic quantities to their values in the unperturbed space-time along and + for an initial wave amplitude a = 10 . The dashed line indicates future time-like infinity. Note that time runs towards the left (right) for quantities on + ( ) and that ( i ) l denotes the ( l , 0 ) -mode of i . Credit: Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.161401 The researchers tested a range of wave amplitudes, tracking how much of their energy was absorbed versus scattered when encountering the black hole. Their simulations revealed that spacetime is exceptionally stiff. For incoming waves having weak amplitudes, only about 8.5% of the energy scattered back to infinity, with the rest being absorbed by the black hole. Even for waves with strong amplitudes, only about 20% of the energy escaped. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Measuring energy at infinity To understand how much energy flows in and out during the scattering process, the researchers calculated two quantities: Bondi energy and Bondi news at both infinities. "The Bondi news is simply a quantity that 'brings news' that there is gravitational radiation. "Namely, if it is non-zero, there is gravitational radiation, and zero otherwise," explained Thwala. On the other hand, Bondi energy is the total energy on a light cone from any point in spacetime. It is one of the few rigorous ways to define energy in general relativity. These measurements allowed the researchers to verify energy conservation with remarkable precision throughout their simulations, providing crucial validation of their numerical methods. They also observed fascinating nonlinear effects. Despite injecting simple wave patterns, the complex dynamics of curved spacetime generated additional wave modes through backreaction. This is essentially when waves create new waves as they propagate. Most intriguingly, when outgoing radiation reached future null infinity, it exhibited characteristic oscillations known as quasinormal ringing, which is the black hole's natural vibration frequency. The researchers found that this frequency remained unchanged regardless of the incoming wave's properties, suggesting it depends solely on the black hole itself. Implications and refining the model Dr. Stevens emphasized the importance of their work, saying, "Having data at both infinities allows one to make rigorous statements about what is going in to what is going out for the first time. "This can begin to answer questions about how black holes scatter gravitational waves, and how much energy is absorbed by the black hole, and how much is radiated away." This holds particular importance in modern astronomy, where experiments like LIGO detect gravitational waves emerging from black holes or neutron stars. Despite showing promise, the researchers identify a challenge that remains to be addressed. "The main problem with the current method is that the initial wave is not set directly on past null infinity," said Prof. Frauendiener. "Being able to set the ingoing wave directly, then evolving it to future null infinity, would be ideal." For now, the researchers plan to focus on uncovering global properties of the scattering problem instead of extending their method to more complex scenarios. Written for you by our author Tejasri Gururaj, edited by Gaby Clark, 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: Jorg Frauendiener et al, Fully Nonlinear Gravitational Wave Simulations from Past to Future Null Infinity, Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.161401. Journal information: Physical Review Letters 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Heavy floods in Romania have threatened the Praid salt mine in the country's north. Romanian authorities scrambled Friday to save a salt mine in the northern village of Praid from further damage after heavy rains worsened flooding at a site that provides the region's economic lifeblood. The floods in recent days have swollen a stream near the partially inundated salt mine, which has been shut down since 5 May. The mine is among the biggest tourist attractions in northern Romania, with almost half a million people visiting the site in 2024, and many locals have depended on tourism related to the mine for decades. "We have to save not just the salt mine there, but the entire community, with thousands of people in danger of not being able to put a loaf of bread on the table," Environment Minister Mircea Fechet told a local TV station Friday, saying "a real tragedy" was hitting the region. According to the National Salt Company, underground stockpiles of salt "have been compromised, including equipment and machinery that can no longer be recovered." Due to heavy rainfall in May, the Corund stream near the Praid mine recorded its highest flow rate in the last 30 years, official data this week showed. But there is no imminent risk of collapse at the mine, said Petres Sandor, an official in Harghita county where the mine is located, which is also home to the largest ethnic Hungarian population in Romania. The salt mine was partly flooded following heavy rains. "The biggest problem is to stop the possibility of water infiltration in order to start the underground work," he said. "A very big danger is related to the state of mind of the population. Unfortunately, it's a feeling of the end of the world," Sandor added, urging tourists not to cancel their reservations. Some locals protested in front of the mine's administrative headquarters on Thursday, voicing anger over preventive measures not having been taken in the past. Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed "financial and practical assistance for the assessment of the damages and reconstruction of the mine" in a Facebook post on Wednesday. 2025 AFP This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A juvenile silky shark swims in the open ocean. Credit: Brendan Talwar For the first time, researchers have mapped the population structure of silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, offering new insights that could guide future conservation and management of this vulnerable species. Led by UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Nature Conservancy and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the recent study brings together more than 30 years of silky shark research and data to reveal how their populations are structured across the Pacific Ocean. Silky sharks are the second most commonly caught oceanic shark species worldwide, surpassed only by blue sharks. Found in tropical waters across the globe, silky sharks frequently interact with pelagic fisheries, where hundreds of thousands are caught as bycatch each year, primarily by small-scale coastal fisheries and offshore longline and purse-seine gears. Previous observations indicate that silky sharks face a serious risk of overfishing, but efforts to assess and manage their populations have been limited by a lack of data, including gaps in understanding how their populations are structured across the region. To address these knowledge gaps, Scripps Oceanography marine ecologist Brendan Talwar and colleagues teamed up to conduct a comprehensive review and analysis of existing data on silky sharks, focusing on both large- and small-scale fisheries. Working with international partners, they compiled an extensive dataset that included population genetics, movement patterns collected through tagging, life history information, and fishery data from both offshore and nearshore sources, resulting in the most complete scientific resource on silky sharks to date. "This study gives us one huge step forward in achieving more accurate population models for silky sharks," said Talwar, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar in the Semmens Lab at Scripps Oceanography. "For a wide-ranging species like the silky shark, there has been incredible research at the local and regional scales. But every once in a while, it's important to take a step back to try to make sense of it all. That big-picture view can lead to conclusions with real impact in terms of managing the species or the fishery." The study, published in Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, reveals a surprising amount of structure in a population that was previously thought to be well mixed across the Eastern Pacific Ocean. A juvenile silky shark photographed by Brendan Talwar, lead author of a new study on the species. Talwar first encountered silky sharks as a graduate student in the Bahamas, describing the three-foot juveniles as "cute and curious." Credit: Brendan Talwar A juvenile silky shark approaches a small-scale fish aggregating device in the open ocean. Credit: Brendan Talwar The authors propose a preliminary three-stock model for silky sharks in the region, identifying core populations in the north, central, and southern regionseach likely distinct from populations in the Central and Western Pacific Ocean. By defining these distinct stocks, the study paves the way for improved management and conservation of silky sharks across nearly 50 million square kilometers (19.3 million square miles) of ocean. The new study also sheds light on the whereabouts of juvenile silky sharks in the Eastern Pacific, revealing potential evidence of pupping or nursery grounds not only along the edge of the continental shelfwhere juveniles are often caught by small-scale fishing fleetsbut also far offshore, where they are routinely caught by larger pelagic fleets. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. In looking at bycatch data, the researchers found that juveniles account for 81% of the silky sharks caught by purse seines set on floating objects (such as fish aggregating devices), and 45% of those caught by longline fisheries. "We think the young sharks are drawn to these floating objects because they provide structure, food, and perhaps a sense of safety, in an otherwise dangerous open-ocean environment," said Talwar. The authors noted that their collaborative approach offers a model for studying other vulnerable species in similar regions, or elsewhere. "This project is a testament to what can be accomplished when the right people come together, piecing together all the available information on a vulnerable species to discover what we can learn," said study co-author Lyall Bellquist, an independent fisheries scientist and Scripps Oceanography alumnus. "We demonstrated that multi-institutional support from key organizations and agencies can enable cost-effective, impactful science that will advance conservation of a highly vulnerable species." Building on the success of this effort, the IATTC Ecosystem and Bycatch Working Group issued a formal recommendation to fund similar studies focused on three species of critically endangered hammerhead sharks in 2024. More information: Brendan S. Talwar et al, Informing the spatial management of Silky Shark (Carcharhinus falciformis) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s11160-025-09948-5 WILDWOOD Mounted police officers patrolling the Boardwalk over Memorial Day weekend helped keep things under control, city officials said, along with other steps taken to avoid out-of-control behavior seen in previous years. Mayor Ernie Troiano said the officers and their horses will be back for the next two weekends, when the city sees considerable crowds of teens as their school years wind down. In comments made during Wednesdays Board of Commissioners meeting, Troiano praised the efforts of police, the Beach Patrol and public works over the busy holiday weekend. But the unusual deployment of two mounted officers on the Boardwalk received the most attention. They received a lot of attention on the Boardwalk as well, and on social media after the weekend. Commissioner Steve Mikulski, whose responsibilities include public safety, said the mounted officers can see for blocks over the heads of a crowd. They were extremely impressive. Especially (Cape May County Sheriffs Officer) Andy Raniszewskis horse. That things got to be 18 hands high. Its a monster, Troiano said. Theres a reason they call a mounted officer the 10-foot cop, Raniszewski said Thursday. Contacted after the Wildwood meeting, Raniszewski said he has been on the Wildwood Boardwalk with Speck, a cross between a percheron and a quarter horse that was already an experienced police horse when he started working with Raniszewski in 2021. Wildwood looks at ending permits for horses on the beach Wildwood could put an ordinance that allows horse riding on the beach out to pasture, after about a decade without requests for a permit. For the record, Speck is a little over 16 hands tall, or about 66 inches from the base of his neck to the ground. Past patrols in Wildwood have included the Barefoot Country Music Fest, but this was the first time Raniszewski and Speck participated in weekend crowd control over Memorial Day. They were joined by State Police Sgt. Joseph Krzaczkowski, whose mount is named Pepe. Troiano said the mounted officers received an enthusiastic welcome on the Boardwalk and dismissed those who complained. Some commenters on social media raised concerns about a horse injuring someone, perhaps accidentally, but most wanted to talk manure. At least clean up after them, read one fairly typical comment. Almost stepped on a horse turd mountain. Theres a lot of two-legged manure on the Boardwalk, too, and we put up with that, Troiano said. There was an officer assigned to cleanup, Raniszewski said, and both mounted officers had shovels with them if that officer was unable to get to the site. He added that horse manure is not like dog or human waste, which can carry diseases and present health risks. He said manure is not toxic and can be used as fertilizer. Horses work crowd control in Cape May as part of mounted police training Police officers on horseback play a critical role in controlling crowds at large events, which is why Cape May County Sheriff's Officer Andrew Raniszewski gathered agencies from around the country for a training seminar this week. If you leave it, it turns into dirt, he said. Still, whenever one of the horses relieved itself, several cellphone cameras came out to record the process, he said. Horses have their own personalities and will react to crowds, Raniszewski said. They have their own brains. They think for themselves, he said. But the police horses go through extensive training before they are ever on duty, and that training continues throughout their time in service. A horse like Speck is used to people and under control. If it was a horse that was going to bite, kick, spook at your average stuff, they really wouldnt be up there, he said. The mounted unit of the Sheriffs Office was started to patrol the Cape May County park system, which includes some remote areas. Municipal departments can request a mounted officer, like Wildwood did, for special events and community demonstrations. They have been called in for missing persons searches, especially in areas where there is a wide or remote search area. A mounted officer towers over a crowd, while a cop on foot may not be visible in a dense crowd from five feet away. One Jersey Shore town shut down its boardwalk this weekend after stabbings, unruly crowds Police in Seaside Heights said they arrested more than 70 people and shut down the Boardwalk overnight Sunday after three people were stabbed in separate incidents. I can be on Schellenger Avenue and see all the way to 26th Street, he said. That means that people in the crowd can also see him. That presence can have a bigger impact than the use of force, he said. On a horse, he can also get to places a police car cannot, sometimes where an ATV or a bike couldnt either. Wherever we need to go, we can get there pretty quickly, he said. Some Facebook posters were enthusiastic about the mounted police, with many marveling at the discipline of the horses in a noisy crowd surrounded by flashing lights. Regardless of what was posted on social media, Raniszewski said many of the families on the Boardwalk were happy to see the horses, with people asking to pet them. Raniszewski has helped organize training sessions for mounted officers from multiple jurisdictions in Cape May County, including one held last November. A State Police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. State Police were active in the Wildwoods over the weekend, according to a recent post made to the agencys social media account. As part of our Memorial Day Holiday Deployment, the New Jersey State Police Target Hardening Unit conducted a Target Hardening Detail today in Wildwood, North Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest, supported by our Marine Services Bureau, Commercial Vehicle Inspection Unit, Outreach Unit, and Troop A Tactical Patrol, the post states. In addition to our highly visible uniformed presence, plainclothes personnel were also on the ground working behind the scenes to help ensure a safe and secure start to the holiday weekend. Jersey Shore towns report fewer issues with rowdy teens this Memorial Day weekend Officials said things have been good in shore communities, while new rules and increased police visibility continue. Troiano said he was on the Boardwalk over the weekend, along with police Chief Joseph Murphy, and things were pretty quiet. One kid started some crap with another kid. Three State Police were on him immediately, Troiano said. The Barefoot festival will be the biggest event in June. By that point, Mikulski said, things should be pretty quiet, with concertgoers crowding out the younger renters. The city has tightened a curfew for juveniles, with police with bullhorns and announcements leading up to 10 p.m. Troiano said the city will not put up with trouble from visitors. You want to act the fool, Ill tell you, weve got a real nice set of bracelets. We have some of the best bracelets of any shore community, he said at the meeting. And you want to know the best part about it? One size fits all. U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew typically does not like sprawling legislation, but he recently made an exception. I think we really need to get something done, Van Drew, R-2nd, said Thursday. In this case, I think its appropriate. Van Drew joined most other Republicans in the House in a 215-214 vote last week on an expansive budget bill backed by President Donald Trump, which took place a little before 7 a.m. after an all-night session. Called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, H.R. 1 extends tax cuts, increases the national debt ceiling by $4 trillion, adds new requirements to Medicaid and includes multiple other provisions. The White House says the bill means tax cuts for working families and a booming economy. Critics say it will swell the deficit and benefit the wealthiest while hurting the poor. Van Drew said dramatic action is needed in the face of constantly rising federal costs. The government keeps trying the same solutions, he said, and they have not worked. All House Democrats and two Republicans voted no. The vote margin could have been a little wider, Van Drew said, but two likely votes in favor fell asleep and missed the roll call. He said he had been up for 48 straight hours, combing through the bill with his staff and pushing for some modifications, including protections for Medicare and Medicaid. Culture war hits Galloway as Proud Boys, protesters, politics collide The leader of a local chapter of a progressive group has asked the Republican-controlled Township Council to denounce a far-right organization following an incident at a protest earlier this month. Things are being said that this will destroy Social Security and Medicare, but that just is not accurate, Van Drew said. Cuts to Social Security were never on the table, he said, saying that Congress would not have the authority to make such cuts through the bill. He added that seniors should not worry about Medicare, either. The bill does include new work requirements for Medicaid recipients, and across the board restricts access to food assistance like SNAP, health benefits and other government programs to undocumented immigrants. The bill does a lot more, from eliminating a $200 registration fee for gun silencers to putting $500 million toward developing artificial intelligence systems to modernize government, and preventing states from introducing their own regulations on AI development. Part of the reason so much was put into the budget bill was procedural, Van Drew said. Its also strategic. The bill goes to the Senate next week, where the GOP also has a slim majority. Approving a reconciliation bill allows Republicans to sidestep a filibuster in the Senate, which would otherwise need 60 votes to override. This way, the bill can get Senate approval on a much tighter margin, with Vice President J.D. Vance getting a vote in case of a tie. New Jerseys Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, are firmly opposed. Kim described the bill as handing tax breaks to the wealthiest few while making things tougher for working families, while Booker said it would gut Medicaid and SNAP to make the wealthy richer. Van Drew voted for Medicaid cuts, Atlantic County Indivisible leader writes On April 10, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew wrote that he will never support any legislation that cuts benefits to eligible, legal Americans or institutions. But just weeks earlier, he did exactly that, Atlantic County Indivisible's Kimberly Grieser writes. The Trump and House Republican budget bill is a disaster for working Americans, Booker said in a statement. We need just four votes in the Senate to stop it. Neither Kims nor Bookers office immediately responded to a request for comment on whether they will be able to derail the bill, for which Trump has been lobbying hard. That has included promises of primary challenges for GOP defectors. After the deadline for this print edition of this story, Kim called on people of both parties to oppose the bill. This bill is totally out of touch with the priorities of South Jersey," Kim said in a prepared release. "There are tens of thousands of people in South Jersey on Medicaid whose healthcare is now at risk. There are people who rely on food assistance whose day-to-day meals are now in question. What we dont have in South Jersey are a lot of the billionaires and the super-rich that are going to get huge tax breaks at the expense of the rest of us. It doesnt matter if youre a Democrat or Republican or unaffiliated, youre going to be hurt by this bill and people need to speak out against it. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called on the Senate to avoid any significant changes to the bill that could unravel the slight majority in the House. In a statement, Johnson called the bill a generational, nation-shaping legislation that reduces spending, permanently lowers taxes for families and job creators, secures the border, unleashes American energy dominance, restores peace through strength, and makes government work more efficiently and effectively for all Americans. On Thursday, Van Drew described some of the horse trading and sausage making that went into the approval. He said he spoke with Trump several times throughout the process. Van Drew had promised he would not support any Medicare cuts. I have said it before, and I will say it again now I will never support any legislation that cuts benefits to eligible, legal Americans or institutions, Van Drew said earlier this year. Some in his caucus had pushed to decimate Medicaid, he said. The program, provided through the federal government and the states, provides health coverage to those with little to no income. He said the GOP needed a kinder face. Van Drew: NJ's lawsuit against Trump over offshore wind ban 'a slap in the face' to taxpayers A lawsuit brought by New Jersey and 16 other states against President Donald Trump's attempt to kill the offshore wind industry is "a slap in the face" to taxpayers, U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew said. We are not the limousine Republicans anymore, he said Thursday. The party is more populist and represents more working-class voters than in the past, Van Drew said, for which he believes Trump is significantly responsible. Van Drew emphasized the distinction between eligible, legal recipients and illegal immigrants. Medicaid provides vital coverage to people in many communities, he said. According to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, those without documentation or legal status, such as a Green Card, were never eligible for federal benefits. The organization pointed to the bills inclusion of $50 billion for continued construction of a border wall and $150 billion for detention and deportation apparatus as signs of the administrations priorities. The organization argues that the cuts will primarily hit lawful immigrants and their children, even as the administration removes lawful status for other immigrants. Van Drew also defended other aspects of the bill related to Medicaid, including a requirement for states to check eligibility every six months, to regularly check whether a recipient has died and a requirement that able-bodied Medicaid recipients work at least 80 hours a month, or 20 hours a week. That can be fulfilled with volunteer work, education or jobs training, Van Drew said. Those with children or with serious medical conditions are exempt, according to a summary of the bill on the House website. If it is signed into law, those requirements would take effect in 2029. Van Drew had sought a tax exemption on Social Security benefits, a position Trump backed. Van Drew said it was not fair to people who worked hard their whole lives, saying he sees many retirees returning to work. Some want to, he said, but others need the income. Trump on Capitol Hill implores divided Republicans to unify behind his big tax cuts bill President Donald Trump implored House Republicans at the Capitol on Tuesday to drop their fights over his big tax cuts bill, a multitrillion-dollar package that is at risk of collapsing. That change did not make the final bill, which instead includes an extra $4,000 tax deduction for those 65 and older. I wish it was more, Van Drew said. Some have suggested the vote could cost Van Drew in the 2026 midterm elections. A group called the Voter Protection Project, a left-leaning political action committee, recently released a poll indicating the vote could make Van Drews seat vulnerable. This new polling proves that Van Drew is disliked, vulnerable, and could have a real fight on his hands in this competitive midterm election environment, said Heather Grevenworth, executive director of the Voter Protection Project, in a statement. Van Drew had spent his career as a Democrat, rising through municipal, county and state elections in a heavily Republican area before winning the congressional seat long held by Republican Frank LoBiondo, after LoBiondo decided not to seek another term. In his freshman term, Van Drew changed parties in 2020, making the announcement while sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office during Trumps first term. Van Drew had opposed Democrats impeachment efforts. At least at this point, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee does not see an opportunity in New Jerseys 2nd District. A national listing of flippable districts for 2026 shows only one in New Jersey, Thomas Kean Jr. in the 7th District. Van Drew said he is not worried about a challenge next year and maintained that he does not decide how to vote based on politics. The 72-year-old has never lost an election but said he has never been afraid to lose one, saying hed be happy to return to private dentistry practice. The district has a history of sticking with incumbents. LoBiondo, once an advocate of term limits, served from 1995 until 2019. Before that, the late Bill Hughes had the seat for 20 years. Tom Vilsack said Democrats should "connect the dots" between cuts to social safety programs and impacts on rural areas. Vilsack is a former Iowa governor and the U.S. secretary of agriculture under former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. On Friday he spoke to about 20 people in a wide-ranging Davenport forum about reversing rural population declines and the shrinking number of small farms. He noted the budget bill passed by the U.S. House that would call for states to pay for a portion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the program that provides food benefits for more than 41 million low-income Americans, and put in place more requirements for people to receive SNAP. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated it would save about $300 billion from SNAP and about 3 million people would no longer be on the program over the next 10 years. Republicans who supported the bill say it is targeted at waste, fraud and abuse, and reserving benefits for the most vulnerable. Vilsack said farmers get about 20 cents of every dollar of food sold in stores. "If there are fewer people buying less food at the grocery store, it's not just poor people who get impacted and affected by this. It's farmers who get impacted and affected by this," Vilsack said. "Their income goes down." Fewer people buying food in stores, Vilsack said, would have an impact down the supply chain to the people who package, transport, and place the food on shelves. "It's not just poor people getting fed, it's fewer jobs and less farm income. So, now, all of a sudden it's a more significant conversation about the impact that this decision is going to have on people that aren't getting SNAP and haven't thought about it in this way." Vilsack said Iowa receives between $60 and $70 million a month from the federal government for SNAP. That's about $720 million a year. If states are asked to pay 10%, that's $72 million, Vilsack said. Vilsack then asked a state senator in attendance, Democrat Cindy Winckler, by how much the state went into its rainy day funds to balance this year's budget. It was $917 million, Winckler responded. If the feds ask the states to come up with a portion of SNAP funding, Vilsack said, that will have to come from somewhere else in the budget, which funds public education, healthcare and other essential state programs. Democrats should offer a proactive message, and an alternative to Republicans' proposed plans for lower taxes and cuts to services, Vilsack said. "It's a message of, 'We've lost too many farm families,'" Vilsack said. "We've seen our rural communities diminish in this state and across the country. And the reaction in response to date has been, 'That's just the way it is. Nothing to do about it. Get big or get out. You can't get big if you're already small or mid-size because the money in the current system goes to the folks that produce the most." Farms can work harder, not farmers Vilsack laid out his vision for how farms, not farmers could work harder to produce income. He said the prevailing wisdom since the 1970s, when federal policy changed from a supply-regulated system to a market-based system and encouraged more crop production, was for farmers to "get out or get big." But Vilsack said, investing in alternative revenue streams such as putting manure in anaerobic digesters that produce and sell methane or adding renewable energy sources such as solar panels to land to produce energy and sell excess back to the grid. Since the 1970s, Vilsack said the country has lost 536,000 farms, which he said is every farmer today in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, Colorado, Oklahoma and Missouri. The country has lost 151 million acres of land that was in farming, which is the equivalent of Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina and Maryland. The top 10% of farms receive 89% of farm income Vilsack said. In 2022, Vilsack said, half of farms lost income. Nearly 88% of farm families have to work off the farm, Vilsack said. "So the question is, are we OK with that?" Vilsack said. Vilsack said the changes causing reduction in rural populations has consequences on rural economies consolidated schools, fewer customers at small businesses and fewer patients at hospitals. "Why is it the farm family has to work harder? Why can't the farm itself work hard?" Vilsack asked. He pointed to a number of strategies that could increase the revenue stream such as developing a climate smart commodity. He gave an example of the Iowa Soybean Association gave farmers $20 an acre if they would agree to do certain practices on the farm such as planting a cover crop or change their fertilizing regimen. Companies then paid more for the soybeans because they could tell their customers it was sustainably produced. Another example he gave was of a dairy farm in Wisconsin. The farm mixed its cattle manure in an anaerobic digester with food waste from a local school and restaurant. It then produced methane gas to be sold to a renewable natural gas pump, which used it for a new renewable aviation fuel. After that, the farm could use the rest as bedding for its cows. From there, the material could be converted to fertilizer, one nitrogen based and one phosphorus based, Vilsack said. "What's not to like about that?" Vilsack said. "Do you know what's left when all that's done? Water can be discharged directly into rivers and streams in Wisconsin, and if anybody knows anything about Wisconsin, their standards are much, much higher than a lot of other states." The dairy farm also sells cheese directly to the local schools and grocery stores. Vilsack encouraged the attendees there, who were mostly people who are frequent event-attendees, to ask candidates what they would do about expanding markets for farmers and reversing rural decline. Vilsack said congressional races are particularly important because Congress has so far failed to pass a Farm Bill, a wide ranging package typically reauthorized every five years that pays for a range of programs from crop insurance for farmers to healthy food options for low-income Americans. Vilsack said agriculture programs at every level should be focused on creating alternative markets. "What can be done about it is creating an entrepreneurial alternative option," Vilsack said. "I have absolutely nothing against big farms. I'm going to be clear about this. They do something remarkable. They feed the world, and we take great pride. But they can't be the only game in town. Because there's a human and emotional consequence and security consequence to it being the only one." "We can be better, we can do better. Iowa can begin to create the kind of growth opportunities that will allow young people not to feel like they have to leave the farm and the state. They can be part of our future." John Schmidt stood with his family at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds on Thursday during a ceremony for the deployment of Davenport-based Companies B and E of the 224th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the Iowa National Guard. Schmidt has two sons being deployed to the Middle East, Kenny, 33, who is a sergeant, and Andrew, 19, who is a specialist. "This is the first time they've been deployed," John Schmidt said. "Dad's a little nervous, but thankful at the same time. I'm a veteran myself, my brothers are veterans. It's what my family does. "But I'm nervous and scared of where they're going," he added. "But I know they've been trained well and God's looking out for them." Thursday's deployment ceremony was the second in two days, as on Wednesday, a deployment ceremony was held for D Company of the 133rd Infantry at the Davenport Armory on West Kimberly Road. In total, 161 soldiers from the Davenport-based units are deploying to the Middle East along with about 1,700 other Iowa National Guard soldiers. The ceremonies in Davenport were two of 24 community-based sendoff ceremonies held across the state Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The soldiers are being deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. The soldiers from the Davenport-based units will spend about 30 days in training at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, formerly known as Fort Polk. During Wednesday's ceremony, Davenport Mayor Mike Matson gave the keynote speech. Matson, a retired Army ranger, told the 60 members of Delta Company that there are few people in the nation who raise their hands and say "pick me." "It's a very special calling, and I can't express, and no one can express, the heartfelt gratitude," Matson said. "We wish you the best and we thank you for raising your hand, we thank you for saying 'pick me, send me.'" Matson also reminded the soldiers that, "This is a team sport, this is a 'we' thing. You need to look out for each other, trust your training, trust your equipment, trust each other. Teamwork will lead to the success of the mission." Capt. Jeremy Dolder, commander of Delta Company, told the crowd this was more than just a deployment ceremony. "It's a moment of pride in service and in strength and a moment of deep emotion and reflection," he said. Dolder called his company "the tip of the spear," and said that what makes them remarkable after months of training is "your willingness to step into the unknown, to put your safety and comfort aside for the good of others." During Thursday's ceremony at the fairgrounds, the 101 soldiers of the 224th Brigade Engineer Battalion marched into the racetrack of the fairgrounds to the music of bagpipes. Brigadier General Derek Adams, land component commander of the Iowa National Guard, told the families that their support makes their loved ones' service possible. "I know this moment and this next year isn't easy because I've done it four times myself," he said. "You shoulder the daily sacrifices that often go unseen but the leadership of the Iowa National Guard recognizes it. Know that your role is not just vital, it is foundational. Your resilience support and love allow these soldiers to focus on the mission ahead. Your sacrifice is profoundly appreciated." Iowa Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer read a letter from Gov. Kim Reynolds who said she believes Iowa has the best National Guard in the country. Reynolds said in her letter that it is never easy for soldiers to step away from their families and jobs to "serve the cause of freedom and the nation's security." Reynolds said the soldiers "represent the best of our state; brave, skilled and mission-ready." U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst also thanked the families for "the incredible sacrifice that you are making." Also in attendance at both ceremonies were Penny Vacek, representing U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley; Iowa State Senator Kerry Gruenhagen; and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Chelsea Jackson Features Reporter Follow Chelsea Jackson 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 Jess Gary spent 20 years in a corporate career in marketing before completely switching paths last year. Ive always considered myself a creative person, but when that becomes your day job, it quickly sucks the creativity out of it, Gary said. I think the pandemic put a lot of things into perspective for people. I just started to feel kind of a misalignment between how I was spending most of my days and what really mattered to me. She was living in New York at the time, and was searching for an outlet outside of her day job as a creative director and graphic designer when she stumbled into a community pottery studio where she fell in love with the material, she said. In this digital age that were living in with AI and even in graphic design, everything can be pixel perfect, and clay is a really organic and unpredictable medium. So you kind of have to let go of ideas of perfectionism, Gary said. I always teach my students about practicing the art of detachment, just be in the moment, work with the material, and dont have high expectations. Also, its cheaper than therapy, she added. Garys new venture Still Life Studio RVA is set to open in Scotts Addition at 1600 Altamont Ave. on Thursday, June 5. The space was formerly The Big Kitchen, a concept from the restaurant group behind Tazza Kitchen. The 7,200-square-foot studio will offer 24/7 access memberships, beginner-friendly classes, and a welcoming community for any level from newbies to professional potters. Memberships start at $125 per month. Richmonds thriving clay community Still Life Ceramics has roots in Los Angeles and Detroit. Originally from Southern California, Gary, 43, spent time in Los Angeles and New York before moving to Richmond in 2021. When I was thinking about moving here, I had read and seen videos about what a thriving and exciting clay community we have in Richmond, and its absolutely true, to the point where there are wait lists for most of the community studios. Richmonds ceramics community is vast with community studios such as 43rd Street Gallery in Forest Hill, Hand/Thrown Ceramics Studio in Brookland Park, Carved in Mud in Northside and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Debbie Quick, owner of Clay Ground in Fulton Hill says that last years National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts coming to Richmond is a strong indicator of its clay community. Last year, the conference Coalescence, celebrated ceramic art at the Greater Richmond Convention Center with over 70 ceramic-focused exhibitions. NCECA will not pick a location unless they have a big enough population and enough institutions and interest in that town or city to be a host location. Theyll only take places they know have a big enough presence to be a good fit, Quick said. Clay Ground offers memberships ranging from $100 to $125 a month. We have a waitlist for membership and for our classes, especially our wheel turning classes that happen Friday and Saturday. Any of our wheel classes in general, have waitlists, Quick said. The community aspect of clay Pottery is a practice where people have to come together and learn to share spaces, because there is a lot involved equipment-wise. Also, clay is a magical organic material, and theres just so much knowledge that is passed down from potter to potter. That has created a communal environment where people are open and generous with their knowledge and really eager to share and teach others, Gary said. Pottery can be an expensive medium. You need a wheel, glaze, clay, a kiln and maybe more. Being able to use a communal studio space will open it up and make it more accessible for people, Still Life Studio RVA instructor Genia Rosenblum said. Potters will have a space to keep their work, so theyre not hauling things back and forth from home in their car. Theyll also have a big, large, beautiful space to work in, so theyre not cramped on top of other artists. With the membership structure, people can be in and out of the studio without being tied to studio hours. Still Life Studio RVA will offer classes for wheel throwing and handbuilding, as well as a Bowl-In-One wheel class where guests can spend one hour on the pottery wheel with no expectations for the end result. For both Gary and Rosenblum, its not about the finished product, its the process. Clay is an incredibly humbling craft. As long as Ive been doing it, Im still taught lessons every single time I touch clay, Rosenblum said. Theres so much more to pottery than just the end result, Rosenblum said. Its a process of figuring out the direction you want to take, and there are so many decisions that are made in the process. I think thats what a lot of people enjoy from it, is that you can tune out and focus on the clay and not have to worry so much about the end result. Even if you just spend three hours in the studio having a good time and dont have a pot to show for it. Still Life Studio RVA Where: 1600 Altamont Ave. When: Soft open on June 5 More info: rva.still-life-studio.com Two months after a crash left him critically injured, the principal of Mary Munford Elementary School returned to campus to surprise his students on Friday. I wasnt sure how theyd react, honestly, Greg Muzik said. It was terrific. Muzik, 76, was riding his bike home from school on March 11 when he was hit by a car on Patterson Avenue. He was taken to VCU Medical Center, where he struggled for weeks through numerous surgeries. I forget how important the school and their families are to me, Muzik said. When youre in the hospital for a long time, you lose track of that stuff. A special guest The fifth-grade class gathered with their teachers and loved ones in the school auditorium for a montage of photos from the school year. Once the presentation was over, the special guest walked out onto the stage. All but two other staff members were aware of Muziks arrival. The rest of the school thought he would be joining via Skype. As the lights of the auditorium came back on, Muzik was able to stand from his wheelchair and move across the stage using a walker. The crowd erupted with cheers. A couple of kids came to hug me, and I said, I havent had a hug since March 11, so it was very nice, Muzik said. Muzik received a standing ovation, and many of the students and staff cried. He told his students that he was grateful to have made it. Coming back has been motivational, Muzik said. A big positive energy missing Elizabeth Gill, a teacher at Mary Munford, said Muzik is one of the main reasons she took the job. Shes known him since 2000, when her daughter started school there. Theres been a big positive energy missing from the building, Gill said. Weve all just been so worried. On Friday, Gill had an emotional reunion with her principal, stunned to tears upon seeing him make his way down the hall. Im just grateful, Gill said. It was the best surprise we could have all asked for. Gill has been teaching at Mary Munford for 13 years, and she is thankful to Muzik for encouraging her to move forward. Hes the big reason that I went and got my certification and started teaching, Gill said. I had been substituting just because I loved the vibe here, and he told me, You should really be doing this. After the crash, Gill says its been hard to even think about what happened to Muzik. Any one of us would have traded places with him, she said. Making progress The principal has been doing physical therapy at the Sheltering Arms Institute rehabilitation center since late April. He says that making it to the graduation ceremony has given him strength, both physically and mentally. Ive made great progress considering what happened to me, Muzik said. When youre a patient there, your perspective is that youre not moving fast, but then everyone tells you that you are. Although its always been Muziks goal to recover for graduation, the road there was rocky. Just weeks ago, he says he wasnt sure if it would happen at all. At the time, I figured well, six weeks? Muzik said. I should be better by then. Well, it hasnt worked out that way. While hes been making progress, Muzik still uses a wheelchair to get around for the most part. Muzik used his time at the school to talk about bike safety, reminding his students to wear their helmets. Without his, he says, he probably wouldnt be here today. People certainly get worried when you have a bad accident on the bicycle, Muzik said. Weve had other people who have had bad accidents. Some of them die. Thats why Muzik pledged to continue to fight for more safety surrounding pedestrians and bikers, praising a group of parents at the school who are doing just that. After the ceremony, Muzik was wheeled around the entire school as the rest of the students lined the halls to applaud him. Hes our leader and our friend and our person, Gill said. Hes why were all here, and the kids love him so much. A beautiful, beautiful day Elaine Lewis, a faculty member at the school, was overjoyed as Muzik passed by her Friday. Having Muzik as principal has been a wonderful blessing for me, Lewis said. I tell you, I think for everybody who works here and that have met him, its been a wonderful time. Lewis also said it put her mind at ease to see how much progress Muzik has made. Knowing that hes in good hands and has gotten the blessing to come back, Lewis said. Its just a beautiful, beautiful day today. The Mary Munford community has rallied behind their principal throughout his recovery. On March 14, students, staff and community members gathered outside Albert Hill Middle School for a bike parade in Muziks honor. When people ask me what kinds of things I like doing outside of school, my answer is not much, Muzik said. I do school almost all the time, so Im very engaged in the community. With his goal of making it to graduation complete, Muzik hopes one of his other goals has come to fruition as well. What I wanted for these fifth graders is that they leave here with the love of learning and they want to make the world a better place, Muzik said. When Joseph Jones III first received his real estate assessment from the city, he thought thered been some sort of error. Since Jones purchased his quaint, brick house on Brookland Parkway in Richmonds North Side where he lives with his wife and his two kids its assessed value had increased between 1% and 13% annually, city real estate records show. In January 2022, officials appraised the home at $421,000 a fairly standard 6% increase from the previous year. But then something strange happened. Jones received a notice from the city in late 2022 informing him that officials had miscalculated when determining his initial 2022 assessment. The actual value of the home, they said, was $670,000 a nearly 70% boost from the 2021 assessed value of $396,000. Jones assessment for 2023 went up as well, increasing to $715,000. The reason listed in the notice was that officials had learned of new improvements or demolitions on (the) property since their initial 2022 assessment. Just one problem: Jones says he made no such improvements. Im thinking, No way, Jones recalled. I was sure it was a mistake. As it turns out, it wasnt a mistake at all. After Jones reached out to officials in the city assessors office to contest the assessments, they offered him a modest reduction down to $630,000 from $670,000 for 2022 but it stood by its claim that hed made major upgrades he insists he simply never made. Jones refused to pay the outstanding bill for $800 in additional taxes generated by the 2022 increase, and city officials sent it to a collections agency. They eventually ceased responding to his communications. So in March, over two years after the ordeal began, Jones marched into Richmonds Circuit Court and filed a lawsuit against the city. The litigation is ongoing. In a statement to The Times-Dispatch, City Assessor Richie McKeithen said the valuation for the subject property was done in accordance with industry standards in a fair and equitable manner. The Office of the City Assessor of Real Estate will not make any additional comment on ongoing or pending litigation, McKeithen said. Jones suit alleges sales-chasing Jones suit lays out a theory for what may have happened with the shocking assessment increase: sales-chasing. Sales-chasing occurs when municipal assessors target houses that have recently sold, raising their valuations to their last sale price while leaving nearby real estate assessments relatively stable. New homeowners who havent paid taxes on the properties in prior years sometimes dont notice the increases. Recent possible examples include Fulton County, Georgia, where homeowners have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging an multi-million dollar sales-chasing scheme. The suit is backed by one of the countys own assessment board members, who accused his colleagues of unfairly inflating valuations of homes that were recently sold. The practice is a departure from statutory requirements that real estate assessments be uniform. Under Virginia state code, local assessors must use fair market value for all homes. Virginias Supreme Court has defined fair market value as the price for which a property would sell if neither the seller nor the buyer was obliged to participate in the transaction. Richmonds assessment records could back up Jones sales-chasing claim. Data from Jones designated neighborhood, zone NBHD 210, shows that there were nine other supplemental assessments made in his neighborhood in 2022. In all nine of those cases, the homes had been sold only months and sometimes weeks beforehand. Why was Jones house included that year, despite not being sold? He has a theory about that, too: in September 2022, he listed his home for an aspirational sales price of $739,900, he said, but got no offers and promptly took it off the market. A month later, the city issued the assessment increase. The pattern indicates that virtually all properties chosen for out-of-cycle reassessment were those with recent sale listings, rather than any legitimate statutory trigger such as new construction, Jones wrote in his suit. Jones says hes in a unique position: because he listed his home, but didnt sell it, he was able to catch what he says is textbook sales-chasing. In an April 3 response to Jones suit, attorneys for the city wrote that the city denies the allegations as written, but offered no specific response or alternative explanation for the revised assessment. Jones: City alleges upgrades that never happened The suit itself hinges on the citys contention that Jones at some point in 2022 made major changes to his home. I recently found out that your basement was finished with a walkout and that you have a heat pump, wrote Susan Burian, a member of the city assessors office, in a November 2022 email justifying the sudden increase. Jones categorically denies both claims. The basement, he said, is in the exact same state of finish that it has been since the day we bought the house in 2016. As for the heat pump? The last upgrade to it was in 2018, Jones said, and the assessment increase he got that year already reflected that change. The Times-Dispatch was able to verify Jones claims by visiting his home and viewing photos of his basement dated both before and after the 2022 assessment increase. Installation stickers on his upstairs and downstairs heat pumps show one was installed in 2015, and the other in 2018. And even if both of your facts were accurate, there is no universe that finishing an unfinished basement and adding a heat pump would add $300,000 in value to a house, a frustrated Jones wrote back to Burian. As I previously stated, your assessment did not reflect a finished, walkout basement or a heat pump, Burian replied. I hope that I have provided some clarity for you. Burian didnt offer any clarity at all, Jones said. Instead, he believes hes found answers in documents hes obtained via Virginias Freedom of Information Act. One such document is the 2022 supplemental assessment record for his house. Included in the document is a set of notes that an appraiser wrote explaining assessment increases. One of those notes, dated November 2022, reads on the market for $739,900. To Jones, thats damning evidence that the city raised the assessment to bring it closer to his listed sales price. But the house didnt sell at the price point it didnt even get any offers which is an indication that its nowhere near the fair market value that Virginia assessors are supposed to use, Jones said. City attorneys fight to withhold documents Since Jones filed his suit, he said city officials have become completely unresponsive, and have thwarted his attempt to obtain additional documents for his case. Jones had asked for all documents of communications relating to the mid-2022 supplemental assessment of (his) property. In an April 25 response, city attorneys reserved their right to withhold some of the material on the grounds that it could be protected by work product doctrine or attorney-client privilege. City attorneys also said they were under no obligation to turn over documents sufficient to identify all other properties in the city of Richmond that received supplemental reassessment in 2022, calling the request overly broad and unduly burdensome. And, for all the documents provided during discovery, Jones said one crucial thing is missing: any records to substantiate the citys position that he renovated his house. What they have not sent me, and Ive asked for, is any documented justification for the reassessment, Jones said. If it wasnt my attempted property sale that triggered it, Im not sure what it was. Jones has filed a motion to compel disclosure of documents. The Office of the City Attorney reports to City Council. City Council spokesperson Steve Skinner did not respond to a request for comment on the discovery process. Im a fan of the city. ... But Im disappointed In Richmond, the real estate tax is critical, accounting for more than half of the citys annual revenue. And, with tax-exempt Virginia Commonwealth University and the state government occupying much of the land-locked citys parcels, single-family homeowners are on the hook for most of the tax burden, paying the highest rate in the region by far at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value. Chesterfield County residents, meanwhile, pay 89 cents, Hanover County residents pay 81 cents and Henrico County residents pay 83 cents. Jones knows his is a David-and-Goliath scenario he filed pro se, which means hes representing himself. Hes not an attorney and has no legal expertise, he said. But he feels strongly that hes in the right. Im a fan of the city, he said. We choose to live here; our kids go to public school. Im rooting for the city. But Im disappointed, he added. The experience makes you distrust what youre seeing and hearing from them. The fact that the situation has played out amid two full-blown water crises in less than five months, to Jones, makes it all the worse. Its hard not to see it as all symptoms of the same thing, he said. His next scheduled court date is July 1. FALLS CHURCH Anh Vu had repositioned her shipping company to bring goods from Vietnam into the United States instead of sending exports to the Southeast Asian country. Her business, SAM Cargo Express, planned to develop a warehouse in Northern Virginia to handle the imported handicrafts and other goods from Vietnam. But then President Donald Trump imposed tariffs last month on imports from Vietnam, initially at a rate of 45%, which he then reduced to 10% during a 90-day pause to allow negotiations between the two countries over trade policy. The planned warehouse has been put on hold because not a lot of companies want to do that because of tariffs, Vu said after a meeting between Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and small business owners in the Vietnamese community here on Wednesday. The uncertainty scares them. The same day that Warner met with business owners at the Eden Center home to more than 120 businesses owned by members of the Vietnamese community here a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York rejected Trumps tariff policies and his assertion of a national emergency to enforce them, as an unconstitutional usurpation of congressional authority. The 49-page ruling was vindication for a Charlottesville electronics company, MicroKits, one of the five firms, and their allies, including former Virginia Gov. George Allen, a Republican who had signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the companies challenging the presidents tariff policies. I think it is Liberation Day for free people and free enterprise, as well as the rule of law and our Constitution, Allen said on Thursday, playing on Trumps declaration of worldwide tariffs on April 2 as Liberation Day. The court decision is a victory for checks and balances, and our constitutionally protected restraints on the governments taxing authority. However, the former governor had no illusion that the fight against the tariffs is over. Itll get appealed, but I think its a well-reasoned decision, he said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit did temporarily block the ruling on Thursday afternoon. That means the president can continue collecting the tariffs under the emergency powers law while he appeals the trade courts ruling. David Levi, an electrical engineer and owner of MicroKits, which makes theremins and other electronics, said in an interview with CNN, When there is a final decision its going to be a decision that sticks, and I can actually plan my business. He said the uncertainty about tariffs has meant upheaval for his business. These last two months theyve felt much longer than two months, he said. Weve seen the tariffs go up, down, sideways. Ive been petrified. He said he is exhausted, but he is now optimistic that in the long term he will be able to produce his science kits in the U.S. The Liberty Justice Center and Ilya Somin, a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, brought the case on behalf of the five businesses harmed by the tariffs. From the very beginning, I have contended that the virtually limitless nature of the authority claimed by Trump is a key reason why courts must strike down the tariffs, Somin wrote in a post on the Libertarian site Reason after the courts ruling. Trumps response Trump criticized the three-judge panels ruling in a lengthy post on Truth Social. The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade, Trump wrote. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of TRUMP? What other reason could it be? White House officials argued that the courts should not have a role in reviewing the legality of the presidents decisions on tariffs. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced the trade courts ruling as judicial overreach and called on the U.S. Supreme Court to put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., welcomed the trade courts ruling. Kaine persuaded the Senate to buck Trumps attempted use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on Canada. He narrowly failed to get the Senates backing in challenging the presidents broader declaration of a national emergency to justify the tariffs he announced on April 2 and imposed a week later, only to partially roll them back during the 90-day pause. I forced a Senate vote on these tariffs weeks ago to clarify whether my colleagues stood by their constituents or followed Trump like lemmings, Kaine said in a social media post on X. I welcome the Court ruling, and Ill keep forcing votes every time I can to challenge Trumps unlawful behavior. A lot of fear But the ruling and the ensuing political confrontation dont make life any easier for Anh Vu and other small business owners caught in the tariff crossfire. What we want ... is some certainty, said Alan Frank, general counsel and senior vice president at the Eden Center. Tariffs were not the only concern for business owners and elected officials who met with Warner here on Wednesday. Theyre also worried about potential cuts in Medicaid health coverage and increases in insurance premiums under the budget bill that the House of Representatives passed on May 21. And theyre alarmed by a Trump administration crackdown on visas for international students. There is a lot of fear, said MaiLinh Ho, co-founder and chief product officer at Gateway, a technology startup company in Fairfax County that helps businesses around the world with hiring and workforce development. But tariffs set the tone and theme for the forum at Eden Center. Tariffs are an additional cost not just to our businesses, but to our families, said Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax. Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi said the community and its businesses also rely heavily on federal employees and contractors, many of whom have either lost their jobs or risk losing them because of Trumps aggressive attempts to slash federal jobs and spending to help pay for a package of new tax cuts in the proposed budget bill. At the end of the day, we want to support our people, Hardi said. Warner said members of Congress from both political parties are flying blind with Trumps tariffs, which the president said he initially imposed on Mexico, Canada and China as leverage to get them to do more to stop smuggling of illegal drugs into the U.S. The president also has slapped tariffs on importation of automobiles and parts, except those covered by the United States Canada Mexico Act during his first presidential term. Those are separate from the reciprocal tariffs that Trump imposed on 57 countries on April 2, even some with which the U.S. runs trade surpluses. The tariffs took effect a week later, but the president subsequently put them on hold for 90 days to allow for trade negotiations. Recently, he threatened new tariffs against the European Union but again paused them. America First shouldnt be America alone, said Warner, who prizes relationships with allies as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In a phone interview on Thursday, Warner said, If all this is removed tomorrow, it doesnt reverse the trust thats been broken. The judges ruling The ruling by the three judges at the U.S. Court of International Trade one appointed by President Ronald Reagan, another by President Barack Obama and the third by Trump in his first term explicitly rejects Trumps use of emergency declarations for tariffs he said he imposed in response to drug trafficking and the global tariffs he announced in early April under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Congress passed the 1977 law to temper the authority that former President Richard Nixon had used under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 in response to a trade currency crisis. The Presidents assertion of tariff-making authority in the instant case, unbounded by any limitation in duration and scope, exceeds any tariff authority delegated to the President under IEEPA, the court states. The panel also rejected Trumps declaration of an emergency to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China over illegal drug smuggling that it said appeared to have little to do with collection of tariffs on lawful imports. The Trafficking Orders do not deal with their stated objectives, the court said. Rather, as the Government acknowledges, the Orders aim to create leverage to deal with those objectives. The court ruling also backs the standing of the five plaintiff companies to sue. It specifically cites testimony by MicroKits owner Levi that the Charlottesville company cannot order parts from China and will have to pause operations when it runs out of parts and also that as a result it will likely be unable to pay its employees, will lose money, and as a result may go out of business. Sitting on the dock The harm is even more immediate for Tuyet Nhi Lee, owner of six restaurants in Fairfax. She said she cant afford to pay the tariffs on $50,000 of merchandise from China thats sitting in a freight container at a U.S. port. Warner said he was aghast at the idea that its sitting on the dock, and she spent $50,000 to get it and (has) nothing to show for it. He doubts that the court decision will reverse the uncertainty that businesses face, but he welcomes the recognition that the power over tariffs belongs to Congress, not the president. This should be congressional policy, he said. I dont know why more of my Republican guys wont stand up. You take away the power of tariffs, you take away the power of the purse, why be in Congress? he asked. Sheinbaum announces decree to position Mexico as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry Mexico City, Mexico As part of Plan Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that a decree will be published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF). The new decree will be to encourage international pharmaceutical companies to invest in projects for the production of medicines and medical supplies in Mexico next year. The goal, she says, is to position Mexico as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. We want this purchasing power, necessary to serve the people of Mexico, to help us attract companies from India, the United States, various parts of Europe, Latin America, Brazil, and elsewhere to come and invest in Mexico to produce medicines here. This will make them even more affordable. It will also create jobs and allow them to collaborate with research institutes to develop medicines for diseases in Mexico that are characteristic of tropical areas, such as dengue, she explained Thursday. Sheinbaum said the objective is for international pharmaceutical companies investments to be primarily focused on the Economic Development Poles for Well-being (PODECOBI), and to also connect with the Biological and Reagent Laboratories of Mexico (Birmex), so that this public company can recover the production capacity it lost during the neoliberal period. We want all of this to be linked to Birmex, the company that historically manufactured vaccines for the Mexican people and that practically disappeared during the neoliberal period, and which has many facilities with capacity. So what will be published is so that for the 2026 purchase, which will be for 2027 and 2028, qualification points will be awarded to all those who will participate in the bidding, acquisitions and invitations to have plants installed in Mexico. That is the objective, she explained. She said with this, companies investing in Mexico will have a greater chance of winning the bids held in 2026, assuming they meet quality requirements, obtain the necessary permits from the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), promote development and research and offer prices that save resources. Health Secretary David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz explained that the plan includes the installation of bioincubators for the pharmaceutical industry to make Mexico a leader in the production of medicines, medical devices, and vaccines through innovation, talent development, the development of the chemical industry, biomedical engineering, and the promotion of intellectual property. The Undersecretary of Integration and Development of the Health Sector, Eduardo Clark Garcia Dobarganes, said that the decree will encourage investment in Mexico through the consolidated purchase of medicines and medical supplies, to which the Government allocates approximately 300 billion pesos every two years. In the case of off-patent medicines, points will be awarded to those who demonstrate investments in Mexico through supply chain plants, the installation of factories, laboratories, warehouses, as well as for the development of innovative products. This will give significant preference to companies that choose to establish themselves in Mexico. Meanwhile, in the case of patented and single-source medicines, an investment commitment will be linked to the purchase amount in the negotiations. This will ensure that pharmaceutical companies have a productive presence in the country. To this end, a Pharmaceutical Investment Promotion Commission will be created, he said. The head of Cofepris, Armida Zuniga Estrada, highlighted that the regulatory agency under her charge is transforming to become more agile, transparent, and internationally harmonized. To this end, they are working to simplify and digitize 100 percent of procedures with the support of the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency (ATDT), and to date, 60 percent of the process has been completed. Turnaround times for clinical research are being reduced, the DIGIPRiS platform for clinical trials is being modernized, the Regulatory Framework for Medicines and Medical Devices is being updated and a strategic collaboration is being established with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) to streamline patent and health registration. Woman shot dead on Tulum hotel beach in targeted attack Tulum, Q.R. Authorities have started an investigation into the broad daylight shooting of a woman on a Tulum beach. The woman, of Mexican nationality, was shot and killed on a beach outside a Tulum hotel Thursday afternoon. Authorities say the targeted shooting was drug-related. Tulums newly implemented Executive Police were reported first on scene. According to early information, the woman was targeted in the Ahau Hotels beach area. Witnesses reported hearing at least five gun shots before her attackers fled in an unknown direction, taking advantage of the chaos. When they next looked, they saw a woman laying in the sand. She died before paramedics arrived. Municipal Police and National Guard cordoned off the area and evacuated part of the beach. Authorities have not named the woman killed, but did release a brief statement saying they are investigating the targeted attack which they attribute to drug trafficking. The Quintana Roo Attorney Generals Office (FGE) reports the opening of an investigation into the crime of aggravated homicide against a Mexican female, which occurred in the beach area of the municipality of Tulum. Initial investigations by this Social Representation indicate that the motive for this incident was related to drug trafficking crimes. The Attorney Generals Office is working in coordination with law enforcement authorities to find the person(s) responsible for this act and bring them to justice. SIOUX CENTER, Iowa Though Fourth District Rep. Randy Feenstra has said he's exploring running for governor, his fourth-annual "Feenstra Family Picnic" fundraiser at the Dean Classic Car Museum was light on talk about seeking the highest office in the state. The Hull Republican didn't explicitly mention that he's considering running or that he's filed paperwork with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Feenstra did mention Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, the only Democrat to announce a bid to succeed Gov. Kim Reynolds, but the reference was in passing. Instead, the fundraiser, which featured a keynote address from Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, saw Feenstra touting recent legislation he's worked on (such as the "One Big Beautiful Bill") and declaring that there is a "revival" in America following the reelection of Donald Trump in November. "We're moving into the future, we're moving into this new phase that we've all heard that is a slogan 'Make America Great Again.' Think about those words. Obviously it gives us a sense of patriotism, it makes us feel good. It gives us a sense of revival, of that American spirit being brought back" Feenstra said. 2025 Feenstra Family Picnic U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra speaks with event-goers during the Feenstra Family Picnic fundraising event held Friday. As evidence of a revived American spirit, Feenstra mentioned the "One Big Beautiful Bill" which includes tax cuts as well as a $625 billion reduction in spending on Medicaid which Democrats have slammed as being an undue burden on vulnerable Americans. Even some Republicans, such as Elon Musk, who has overseen Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency," have questioned the amount of spending in the bill. "We wish we would achieve more savings but the rescission packages are coming," Jordan said in reference to plans to send some DOGE cuts to Congress for a vote. Feenstra told attendees he had a key hand in helping write the bill which has yet to be passed by the U.S. Senate and signed into law by Trump. "I was one of the key authors on this new economic forefront," he said. Feenstra said highlights of the bill included eliminating a tax on tips and making raising children "more affordable." Outlets such as NBC have reported that critics of no tax on tips believe the benefits could be "marginal" for hourly workers and employers could reclassify wages as tips for tax savings. Before the event began, two lines of about 40 total protestors dotted either side of the road leading up to the museum. They held signs that said things such as "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention" and "Hate Does Not Make America Great." Inside, Feenstra remarked "We've got protesters this year," a first for the event which has featured former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Sioux County Democratic Party Chair Anita Cirulis said she believes people are getting upset and "fed up with what's happening in terms of the cuts and the decimation of programs that help Americans." Cirulis, who leads the local Democratic Party in the most-Republican county in the state, slammed Feenstra for "not doing what we elected him to do" and said she couldn't see how he would be an effective governor if he ran and was elected. 2025 Feenstra Family Picnic Cambria Kaltwasser of Orange City protests with members of the Sioux County Democrats outside of U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstras annual Feenstra Fa One picnicker, Marvin Klein of Pella, Iowa, said he hadn't yet given a lot of thought to the 2026 governor's race and thought Feenstra might work best as a congressman. "I would like to see him stay in Congress because we need him there, too," Klein said. Wayne Kobes, a Sioux Center resident who worked with Feenstra at Dordt University, said he liked the idea of the three-term incumbent representative running for governor. "I really have appreciated Reynolds but think Randy would be a very good, effective leader. He has a certain sense of humility and listens well and I think that's what made Kim Reynolds effective." 2025 Feenstra Family Picnic U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan speaks during the Feenstra Family Picnic fundraising event Friday at Dean Family Classic Car Museum in Sioux Center, Iowa. Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer had similarly effusive praise for Feenstra, who previously served in the state legislature with her. "Randy is a workhorse, he made that four-hour trip from Hull and he always did it with a smile on his face," she said. "For those of us who know Randy, we know him to be a humble, caring, Christian man." Jordan said of his House colleague someone in office with the "right values" and right character." The chair of the House Judiciary Committee arguably had even more praise for Trump whom he called a good man who hates to lose. "I think it's a mindset Americans have, Americans aren't wimpy, sissy losers," Jordan remarked. After the speeches wrapped, Feenstra and Jordan went outside the museum to ceremonially flip pork burgers on a grill and then took questions from reporters covering the event. 2025 Feenstra Family Picnic U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, second from right, speaks with event-goers during the Feenstra Family Picnic fundraising event held Friday. When asked about Gov. Reynolds still not having signed a bill that would effectively halt the use of eminent domain for construction of a carbon-capture pipeline and whether or not he would sign such a bill if it crossed his desk as governor, Feenstra quickly moved on. "That's in her area right now, not mine." Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Will Gavin Newsom run for president? Its the million-dollar question. Throughout his political career, there has been a sense that the California governor has been setting himself up for a potential presidential campaign. Most recently, hes been signaling his higher ambition in a new way: through a podcast. It has been a controversial venture, namely because of Newsoms choices of guest. So far, theyve included former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk. Marisa Lagos, a political correspondent at KQED who has covered Newsom for two decades, sees it as a national reset. I gather that this might be an attempt to paint his way out of the corner of being a California liberal, she says. On a recent episode of What Next, host Mary Harris spoke to Lagos about what Newsom has been up to and whether it has been working. This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity. Mary Harris: How would you explain how Gavin Newsom has landed where he is now, like, at the tippy-top of the Democratic Party? Marisa Lagos: You can start, honestly, with aesthetics. The guy looks like a politician. Hes got that sort of Kennedy vibe. Hes Irish Catholic. He was raised in this interesting mix of a world: He had a single mom who fostered kids and struggled financially, but he would spend weekends and summer trips with his dad, who was very close with the wealthy Getty family. Advertisement When he entered politicshis first appointment was on the Parking and Traffic Commissionhe was very ambitious. He has always had his eye on the next thing, the next prize. His election and beating a recall have been relatively easy, and that speaks to the way that hes been able to position himself in California politics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Newsom rose to prominence as mayor of San Francisco, mostly because he allowed same-sex marriages to move forward. For a lot of people, part of the reason why this podcast turn from Newsom has been so surprising is because of that. Do you notice the disconnect too? I see a disconnect. He might argue that theres a connection in that hes willing to stand up even to the people closest to him. That certainly was the case in 2004, with gay marriage. You had people like Dianne Feinstein, one of his mentors, warning against this just broadly for the Democratic Party and saying that it was going to hurt them. He stood up for what he saw was right, and it was politically brave. That could have been the end of his political career, you know? Advertisement At the end of the day, if he is going to lead on something, its a lot braver to do something like that, that really has that impact and that he can show leadership with. Newsom was governor the previous time Donald Trump was in office as president. How did he approach the Trump administration then? And how does it look different this time? Advertisement In 2017 Newsom really was the leader of the resistance, or one of them. He came out swinging very hard. This time around, its been different. When Trump came into office, Los Angeles was on fire. The state was grappling with one of its worst urban disasters in history. You could argue that Newsom walked a fine line of not wanting to alienate Trump. He greeted him on the Tarmac when Trump came to visit L.A. He has definitely been careful in the way that he is critical of the president. Advertisement When Newsom rolled out his budget recently, he was railing against tariffs. He spent the top 30 minutes of the news conference talking about how that was affecting the economy and caused this budget deficit. And then, when he was asked if he was blaming Trump, Newsom said no. Advertisement Many Democrats are trying to figure out how to push back against what feels like a stronger, more organized Trump administration. Newsom has been maybe the best example of that. Some have focused on policy announcements from Newsom and looked at those as indications of a shift in tone from him. Theres been a lot of attention to the fact that he has said he wants local communities to start to push to get rid of homeless encampments. Im wondering if you see this as a shift. Advertisement Advertisement I dont see it as a huge shift. Homelessness has been an issue that hes struggled with and tried to really tackle aggressively since he was mayor. At the time, he got a lot of blowback for initiating a program that a lot of people on the left saw as overly aggressive. I mean, essentially, he told people on the streets, You are not going to get your welfare payments directly. Youre going to have to engage in services if you want this money. Advertisement I think what he and a lot of other people in the Democratic Party here would say is that its not progressive to let people sleep and die outside, right? Theyre trying to get their arms around a problem that has been difficult to solve. I dont think you can view the way he is positioning himself as inconsistent with the way hes approached this problem his whole career. And if you look at polling, its not as if homelessness is a leftright issue. People want this solved. They do not want encampments in their neighborhoods, and they feel that the state needs to step up and do something, especially given the amount of money we spend. Advertisement Newsom also announced that he wants to roll back medical coverage for people who lack permanent legal status. And this did seem like a big change to me, because when the program launched, California proudly said it was going to move forward with health insurance for this group. How do you see this? Advertisement Advertisement This ones a little more complicated. If Trump were not in the White House, if Kamala Harris were president but the budget were similarly hurting and he had proposed this, we would not be talking about it, right? Theres an expectation that folks on the Democratic side are going to dig in and protect immigrants who lack permanent legal status. But there are a lot of people looking over their shoulder, going, Wait, did we miscalculate? Are we on the wrong side of things? If you look at the details of what Newsom has proposed, the way they want to do it is to stop enrolling people come next January. So thats a pretty long runwaycreate a copay for adults who are undocumented in 2027. Theyre not proposing to cut off aid to kids, for example. This was not a full-throated walking away from this policy. Its sort of nibbling around the edges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It seems to me that if youre a Democratic politician right now, it would be easy to say something like, Our state budget is just going to get slammed because of everything thats happening in Washington. And, frankly, we are getting a ton of pressure to reduce aid to this population, and I have to make some adjustments here. My hand is really being forced, and I dont want to do this, but Im going to do it this way, and the children will still be covered. But those arent the headlines Im seeing. In a way, maybe thats what Newsom wants. He wants that headline as a virtue signal to somebody in another state. But at the same time, he can turn around at home and say, You didnt lose your health care. It gave him a little bit of credibility on both sides. Advertisement Advertisement That is his biggest problem. A recent poll found that most Californians, even Democrats who have supported him, feel that hes operating more with an eye toward his political future than whats best for the state. Theres the benefit of looking the way he does, and he seems like a natural politician. Theres the sort of double-edged sword of that. A lot of people see you as a natural politician, but people dont really like politicians, and they dont like people that they think are acting with their political survival in mind. He has always had that kind of problem politically. Advertisement Another problem that I think Newsom will face if he does launch a national campaign is that he was a massive Joe Biden stan. He was at the debate where Biden flopped. He was claiming, in the aftermath, that Biden won that debate. Has he dealt with that at all? Advertisement Yeah, he really went hard for Biden. He continued to. This is something that will be a huge question for him. Weve really explored Newsoms trouble spots. But hes proved so durable in the past. He literally survived a recall election not that long ago. What do you think he has learned from his experiences? I dont know if the recall is the best sort of learning experience. California is such a different state. We have everything nationally that you would have in a national race. You have deep-red areas; you have rural, urban, mountains, and desert. But the registration here is just so heavily Democratic that its a fully different conversation if youre running statewide here than if youre running nationally. Related From Slate What In Gods Name Is Going On With Gavin Newsom? Read More I think why were seeing him a little lost right now, perhaps with this podcast, is because it would be such a different calculation to run nationally. Even if youve spent so much time on cable news, preparing for that moment, its going to look really different when youre actually campaigning in primaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How do you think youre going to know that Newsoms made his choice, that hes entering the race or not? Is there going to be a tell? I dont think anything will be definitive, because what weve seen in the past is that hes always setting himself up for the next run. I think hell do everything he can to do that, whether or not hes decided 100 percent if hes going to run. Do you think hes got a shot? I dont know. I find it hard to believe that theres a lane for a California Democrat, but never say never. Politics feels very unpredictable these days. I would hate to count him out entirely. I think, in some ways, the folks in California are more skeptical of his national aspirations than people nationally are, even though people nationally seem to dislike him more. Theres a lot of skepticism here that the rest of the country wants a Californian in the White House. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. In my 30 years of studying the literature and culture of Louis XIV, I never thought I would see an American president actually model himself on the Sun King, to the point that a recent essay in the New York Times declared the current Oval Office decor a gilded rococo hellscape. Along with the anti-royalist sentiment that used to characterize U.S. politics, I always assumed that most Americans had no real stomach for the hubris and sheer garishness that defined the style and surroundings of Frances most famous king. When Ive taken students to Versailles, Ive noticed that as much as they admire the size and ambitiousness of the chateau that Louis XIV declared the center of French government, they nonetheless agree with the caustic assessment of the Duke de Saint-Simon, Louis XIVs greatest critic: Its a masterpiece of bad taste. In fact, the White House is the third residence that Trump has tried to make resemble Versailles. Interior designer Angelo Donghia incorporated some gold elements into his initial vision for the penthouse apartment at Trump Tower, and Henry Conversano added much more in a later redesign, with the result being something New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger described in a 2017 talk as a pseudo-Versailles in the sky. But its less well known that the ghosts of Versailles also haunt Mar-a-Lago, where, when adding a ballroom, Trump ditched the Spanish theme of the original building and chose instead to mimic the Sun Kings Hall of Mirrors. A 2007 appraisal of Mar-a-Lago made for the Trump Organization by the firm Callaway and Price described the ballroom as in the style of Versailles, in a Louis XIV gold and crystal finish, with huge crystal chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling mirrors on one wall. Apparently its this ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, with its $7 million of gold leaf, that Trump wants now to re-create in the East Wing; the gold cherubs have already been brought up from Florida. No doubt, if its ever completed, this third Versailles revamp will have a ceiling painting to rival the original by Charles Le Brun depicting Louis XIVs military victories. (Perhaps, instead, Donald Trump vanquishes DEI?) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More disturbing, of course, than the presidents taste is the administrations view of executive authority. This evokes the absolutist rhetoric of Louis XIVs worst sycophants, which Saint-Simon despised. One can almost hear the echoes of the Versailles courtiers in the Trump Cabinets paeans to the presidents leadership, and Saint-Simons description of the Sun Kings appetite for adulation, found in the writers secret Memoires, published after his death, surely suggests our own leaders vulnerability to such praise: The self-effacement, the self-abasement, the look of admiration, subjugation, supplication, most of all the look of negation except through him, were the sole means of pleasing him. (That translation is my own.) Saint-Simon knew that when kings embrace their own flattery, they open themselves to manipulation, and the writer viewed Louis XIV as an illusory absolutist who was in fact controlled by fawning scoundrels. Sort of like if an American president were to be hoodwinked by a Russian dictator offering him a complimentary portrait. Advertisement The irony is that Donald Trump is not governing like Louis XIV, and we would probably be better off if he did. The Sun King massively invested in science, technology, the arts, and intellectual activity; Trump disdains them all. Louis XIV created the Royal Academy for Sciences, the Royal Academy for Painting and Sculpture, the Royal Academy for Dance; Trump cuts the National Institutes of Health, bullies the Kennedy Center, threatens Big Bird. Louis XIV built roads, paved streets, carved canals, constructed ports; Trump freezes infrastructure spending and may decimate the National Park Service. You dont get Versailles by firing state workers. Advertisement No, in terms of incompetence, ideology-driven decisionmaking, and a deliberate lack of imagination, the president resembles less Louis XIV and more his great-great-grandsona man who became king by accident, married a woman from central Europe, and was unable to assume the grandeur of his Versailles forebear. He ruled as Louis XVI, and perhaps his finest decision was supporting the rebellious American colonists against Frances oldest enemy, the British. Because of this mediocre king, who clung so desperately to the fantasies of absolutism that he was later overthrown and guillotined by his own people, the American experiment with republican government was able to commence. Its an irony of history that Trumps love affair with Louis XIV may mean that this experiment will ultimately be continued somewhere elsein some land we probably now consider backward and uncivilized, and where a gilded hall of mirrors has less attraction than a system of laws and values against authoritarianism. P L Spencer won the fastest of two $90,000 Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold Series events for three-year-old trotting colts on Thursday (May 29) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Ritchie Rich was the winner of the second division. In the first OSS event of the night, P L Spencer set a lifetime best 1:54 while winning his first career Gold Series event in his first outing in the top provincial class. Driver Bob McClure eased the gelded son of Resolve out of P L Indyanaca into fourth out of post eight in the early going as Fast Snap (Chris Christoforou) led the field to the quarter in :28. P L Spencer (7-2) brushed to the front before the :57.1 and then held the nine-horse field at bay through the three-quarters in 1:25.2, trotting home in :28.3 to win by 2-1/2 lengths over favourite Wearing The Green (Doug McNair). Fast Snap was third, Cousin Halifax (Travis Cullen) fourth and LMC Wagon Wheel (Tyler Borth) picked up the final cheque. [Fast Snap] looked like he wanted to be covered up, so I let [P L Spencer] try [the front], and then from there, he was pretty green the whole way, McClure told Woodbine Mohawk Parks Chad Rozema. Down the stretch, he didnt have the same powerful kick he had the week before, coming off a helmet. But if that's not his A plus game, and he can still win, Im pretty happy. P L Spencer is owned by his trainer, Steve Bossence of London, Ont., along with Richard Thompson, also of London, Derek Reid of Etobicoke, Ont. and E C S Racing Llc of Rockford, MI. The trotter was bred by Prince Lee Acres of Uxbridge, Ont. and purchased as a yearling for $40,000 at the 2023 London Classic Yearling Sale. P L Spencer improved to 4-1-0 in nine career starts and more than doubled his lifetime earnings to $85,150. The gelding is now 3-1-0 in five starts in 2025. Last year, he seemed like the real deal, and we had trouble with a foot, Bossence said. He got a quarter crack, and then his angle got really low, and we raced him once more, and he made a break. He went to Kentucky, and we gave him some time off out there, and then brought him back, and he's come back great. He is way better going without the hobbles on, but when he made the break, I said, He'll, he'll go without them, before he's done, I know he will. He's a way, way, way nicer going horse without them. Bossence said P L Spencers next assignment will likely be against stakes colts in the Goodtimes at Woodbine Mohawk Park. He'll be in with some bear cats, so [McClure] will get to do what he wants. He'll be on a helmet next week with him when he runs in with the bear cats, for sure. In the second Gold test, Ritchie Rich led gate-to-wire through fractions of :28.2, :56.2 and 1:25.4 and pulled away in the stretch to win by 4-3/4 lengths over Gaslight Hall (Jody Jamieson) in 1:54.1. Todd Ratchford drove Ritchie Rich (2-1) to victory on behalf of his family and was emotional in the winners circle while speaking to Rozema. The victory was the familys first career victory at the Gold level. My family, my sister, my dad, my mom, they've all done an incredible job with him, Ratchford said. It's everything. That's why we do this sport, and that's why we love it, just for moments like these, and to have everyone here in the winner's circle, it's pretty amazing. The homebred son of Wheeling N Dealin out of Hola Lola bred by Cynthia Graham and William Woolfrey of Warkworth, Ont. is trained and owned, in part by Ratchfords sister, Mary, who shares Ritchie Richs papers with Graham and Carolyn Jarrell of Roslin, Ont. I have total confidence in this horse, Todd said. He's done nothing but show me what he's able to do. So, I figured, if I can get [to the front] kind of easy I'll just keep driving I thought someone might get close, but once I was down the stretch, I was like, All right, it's game over. Modelo Gold (Dagfin Henriksen) was third, Pierre In Paris (Trevor Henry) was fourth and favourite Galen Erso (Doug McNair) picked up the final cheque. The victory more than doubled Ritchie Richs lifetime earnings to $83,750. The trotter is now 5-2-0 in 10 career starts and 4-2-0 in seven starts in 2025. The mile was just one-fifth-of-a-second off Ritchie Richs career best mile of 1:54 set on May 16 in an overnight at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Ontario Sires Stakes action at Mohawk continues with the Gold Series for three-year-old filly trotters on Friday, June 20 and Gold Series for three-year-old filly pacers on Saturday, June 21. On Friday, May 30, the Grassroots Series for three-year-old colt pacers will take place at The Raceway at Western Fair District followed by the Grassroots for three-year-old pacing fillies on Monday, June 16 and three-year-old pacing colts on Saturday, June 21, each at Mohawk. In the lone Pop Up Series class for the Thursday card, Diamond Ryder ($7.40) won by 3-3/4 lengths in 1:53 to take home the lion's share of the $12,000 purse. Jody Jamieson piloted the Dali - Sambucas Credit four-year-old gelding for trainer Katarina Bosnjak and owner/breeder Jjs Stables of Grand Valley, Ont. The Pop Up Series class was the first leg of the series for horses and geldings that fit a $20,000 claimer for non-winners of $25,000 or Ontario-sired $31,250 lifetime. To view Thursday's harness racing results, click the following link: Thursday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park. (With files from Ontario Racing) The Quebec Jockey Club (QJC) announced on Thursday, May 29 that it has cancelled the 2025 Prix d'Ete that was scheduled for Aug. 17 at Hippodrome 3R. The QJC made the announcement through a Hippodrome 3R social media platform late Thursday afternoon, citing financial and political factors as the reasons for the cancellation of the $200,000 stakes event and accompanying $50,000 consolation. "It is with great regret that the Quebec Jockey Club has come to the conclusion that it must cancel the Prix d'Ete," said a translated QJC statement. "Following numerous discussions and exchanges with the Board of Directors and the race office, this decision was the most prudent and responsible. "The Prix d'Ete had been announced for the end of 2024 before experiencing various financial and political factors that are hampering the event. The racetrack experienced a significant tax increase from the City of Trois-Rivieres at the end of January. Furthermore, Canadian betting is down across the country, and Quebec is no exception. The instability with our southern neighbours makes border crossings much more complex. "The QJC is closely monitoring betting trends to make the best decisions in the future. We will keep you informed of further developments throughout the summer." The Grand Circuit stakes race was renewed last year after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eligibility was expanded for the 2025 edition from four-year-old pacers to all older pacers. (With files from Quebec Jockey Club) Kele Kele stole the show on Thursday, May 29 at Running Aces, posting a ln impressive gate-to-wire tally over a talented field of rivals in the $20,205 Mares Open Handicap Pace. Trainer/driver Brady Jenson sent the daughter of So Surreal to a quick start from the outside post in the six-horse contest and they won an early battle with Twist Little Girl N (Rick Magee) and were well settled at the top as they posted the opening fraction in :28. Kele Kele benefitted from a :29.1 breather in the second panel while Ideal Skies (Billy Mann) and Fillister Photo (Luke Plano) got rolling down the backside. Kele Kele was well in control at the 1:25 three-quarters checkpoint while Twist Little Girl N remained snug in the pocket and Ideal Skies was still trying to close in from first over. In the homestretch Twist Little Girl N shook free from the pocket and came after the leader but Kele Kele kept going strong and she checked home a winner by three parts of a length in 1:53.2 for her second straight score. She returned $5 to win. Majors Miracle (Dean Magee) had saved ground throughout and rallied late for the show dough. The winner is owned by Jenson, in partnership with Ken Stauffer and Brady Anderson. Blazin For Life (Brady Jenson, $43.20) posted a very sharp first-over effort to prevail in the $28,767 Minnesota-sired sophomore 'A' pace by a head over heavy favourite The Minnesota Kid (Plano) in 1:57. The winner is a son of Wind Me Up, owned by Alan and Cheryl Sandbulte and is trained by Justin Anfinson. Westernwisecracker (Brandon Jenson, $11.20) turned in a huge first-over effort to capture the $19,178 sophomore 'B' division in 1:58.3 over One Last Booyah (Svendsen) and High Country Baby (Plano) for his first lifetime win. The winner is also owned under lease by Brandon Jenson and is trained by Brady Jenson. There were also two $8,219 divisions contested in the first leg of the Burning Blaze pacing series, with Major Trip (Nick Roland, $10.20) capturing victory in 1:58.3 in the first split and Glittering Hope (Mann, $3.60) emerging victorious in the second division. Drivers Brady Jenson and Nick Roland each scored doubles, while Jenson also had a training double. Live harness racing returns to Running Aces on Sunday (June 1) for an 11-race program that will get underway at 6 p.m. (CDT) and will feature a carryover of $6,390.60 in the 50-cent Hi-5 wager in race four. (Running Aces) LINCOLN The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday affirmed a lower courts order denying one of the states most infamous killers latest post-conviction challenge to his death sentence. In a 14-page order Friday, the states high court agreed with the Saline County District Courts 2024 decision denying Aubrey Trails motion for post-conviction relief on the grounds that Trails attorneys filed the motion two months too late. Its unclear whether Fridays ruling marks the last word on appeal efforts for Trail, who was sentenced to death in 2021 for the killing and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, a Lincoln store clerk who disappeared the night of Nov. 15, 2017. Trails attorneys had filed a challenge to the 58-year-olds death sentence in federal court last February, but that case had been on hold pending the outcome of his state case. At the center of Trails latest case in front of Nebraskas Supreme Court was not the gruesome nature of his crime. Instead, the court considered whether the February 2024 motion challenging his conviction and death sentence was time-barred by Nebraska law, which allowed Trail up to one year to file the motion after the states high court affirmed his conviction in 2022 following an automatic appeal that was triggered by his death sentence. Trails attorneys faced a December 2023 deadline to file a post-conviction challenge in Saline County, one they missed by a little less than two months. In May of last year, District Judge David Bargen found the motion was time-barred, leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court. Trails attorneys argued in legal filings the convicted killer had been effectively abandoned by his prior counsel at a critical stage and spent as many as 100 days of the 365-day limitation period without legal representation despite his repeated pleas that counsel be appointed for purposes of postconviction proceedings. But in Fridays ruling, Justice William Cassel wrote that Trail failed to make that argument in district court, where his post-conviction motion contained no assertions of timeliness and where Trails attorneys did not counter the states argument that the motion was time-barred before or promptly after Bargens order sided with the states attorneys. Cassel said Trails attorneys didnt lodge their timeliness arguments with the district court until 70 minutes before they filed a notice of appeal with the Supreme Court nearly a month after Bargen issued his order depriving the district court of jurisdiction and leaving the Supreme Court unable to consider whether Bargen erred by not considering information he wasnt presented with. Even if the high court had been able to weigh in, Cassel wrote, Trail had legal counsel for well over 200 days in 2023 in which he could have filed his post-conviction challenge within the one-year time limit. And, Cassel said, Trail was not abandoned by counsel he abandoned his counsel, who withdrew as the 58-year-olds attorney at his own request. In a statement, Trails new attorneys, Megan Kielty and Laurence Komp, said they were profoundly disappointed in the Courts ruling. We are concerned that the analysis obviously fails to comply with the statutory language provided by the Nebraska Legislature, they wrote. An added concern is that this opinion, along with the Courts previous precedents, effectively forecloses the post-conviction remedy for poor, unrepresented people. A justice system only works if the courtroom doors are open and not closed. We are considering further legal options. Fridays ruling could mark the end of a yearslong legal saga that began the night of Nov. 15, 2017, when Loofes disappearance led to a multistate manhunt for Trail and his girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, who in Facebook videos claimed to know nothing about it. Their cellphone records, though, led police, deputies and the FBI to fields and ditches in Clay County, where they made the grisly discovery of Loofes remains left scattered in trash bags. At trial in June 2019, jurors found Trail guilty. Boswell got a life sentence for her part in the crime. In November 2022, just shy of the five-year anniversary of the 23-year-old Lincoln womans disappearance, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and death sentence. In August 2023, Trail filed a petition seeking to force the states hand to carry out his death sentence. But a district judge shot that petition down, ruling that Trail did not have the right to dictate when the state will execute him. Trail is among 11 men awaiting execution on death row. Nebraska has not carried out an execution since 2018, when the state killed Carey Dean Moore by lethal injection. The state hasnt since been able to secure the drugs necessary to carry out another execution. MOFCOM to make final decision on EU brandy anti-dumping probe based on facts 10:13, May 30, 2025 By Liu Yang ( Global Times The anti-dumping investigation on certain brandy imported from the EU launched by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) is scheduled to conclude on July 5, 2025, He Yongqian, a MOFCOM spokesperson, said on Thursday, noting that the investigating authority is currently reviewing prices undertaking applications voluntarily submitted by EU exporters. He made the remarks in response to a question on whether there is any possibility for China and France to reach a solution on the brandy case after leaders of China and France had phone talks recently and agreed to advance resolution of the case. "The authority will make a final decision based on the facts of the case and in accordance with the law and rules," He said, noting that at the same time, MOFCOM remains open to resolving economic and trade differences through continued dialogue and consultation. "Resolving trade conflicts through consultation serves the mutual interests of China and the EU and is essential to jointly counter the growing trend of trade protectionism," said Jian Junbo, director of the Center for China-Europe Relations at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies. He emphasized China's constructive stance on promoting bilateral exchanges. Recently, there has been a growing number of positive signs suggesting that China and the EU are intensifying efforts to strengthen bilateral economic and trade ties. A roundtable meeting for Chinese and European semiconductor upstream and downstream enterprises was held in Beijing on Tuesday, focusing on exchanges to deepen cooperation in the semiconductor sector between China and Europe, according to a statement released by the MOFCOM. On May 26, the Global Times learned from a source that Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentaowill meet EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic on the sidelines of a WTO ministerial meeting in Paris, France in early June. Despite positive interactions between China and the EU, some trade disputes remain unresolved. Last week, the European Commission (EC) launched a so-called investigation to assess whether anti-dumping measures are warranted on imports of tires for passenger cars and light lorries from China. Commenting on recent EC's investigation, He said on Thursday that China is deeply concerned over the investigation, noting that trade protectionist measures will only increase the burden on consumers, create trade barriers and disrupt the stability and smooth functioning of value and supply chains, ultimately harming both sides. The spokesperson noted that China has consistently advocated for the prudent and reasonable use of trade remedy measures, urges the EU to refrain from taking unilateral trade-restrictive actions and resolve mutual concerns through dialogue and consultation. China will closely monitor EU's next moves and will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, said the spokesperson. Jian noted that bilateral dialogue and communication is underscored when the two sides deal with trade disputes, urging the EU to show more sincerity to address the concerns of the two parties to maintain the stable development of China-EU economic relationship. "This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU and there are many important items on the agenda between the two sides," He said. "We will maintain dialogue and communication with the EU, properly handle economic and trade differences, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and promote the sound and forward-looking development of China-EU economic relations, injecting more certainty and positive momentum into China-EU ties and the global economy," said He. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Summary of how the information available to the subject (the applicant's role) and the information of the algorithm (the applicant's personality type) relate to the applicant's ability (bad or good). This information is shown to all participants in the experiment and is easily accessible throughout their decision-making process. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2405.01484 As artificial intelligence takes off, how do we efficiently integrate it into our lives and our work? Bridging the gap between promise and practice, Jann Spiess, an associate professor of operations, information, and technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is exploring how algorithms can be designed to most effectively supportrather than replacehuman decision-makers. This research, published on the arXiv preprint server, is particularly pertinent as prediction machines are integrated into real-world applications. Mounting empirical evidence suggests that high-stakes decisions made with AI assistance are often no better than those made without it. From credit reports, where an overreliance on AI may lead to misinterpretation of risk scores, to social media, where models may depend on certain words to flag toxicity, leading to misclassificationssuccessful implementation lags behind the technology's remarkable capabilities. "We don't have much workyetthat takes design of the human-AI interface really seriously," Spiess says. "Our debate about AI and the capabilities of AI is really misplaced, because it's all about 'Is the AI better than the human?'" he continues. "I think instead we should be asking, 'What are the complementary uses of AI?'" Today's AI tends to prioritize capability, rather than usability, which creates a set of problems that lead users to make poor decisions. If users rely too heavily on an algorithm, for example, they may disregard relevant context or information that the algorithm may not know. On the other hand, if users perceive recommendations as rigid, overly complex, or irrelevant, they may dismiss them altogether, defaulting to their own judgment and forgoing any advantages algorithmic recommendations may provide. There's also misinterpretation, which can occur if a user misunderstands how an algorithm arrives at its results or fails to realize the algorithm's limitations but acts on its recommendation anyway. A more thoughtful design for human-AI interaction, Spiess posits, recognizes how decision-makers respond to the recommendations algorithms provide. "The best algorithm is the one that takes into account how a human will interact with the information it provides," he says. In a recent paper, Spiess and Bryce McLaughlin, Ph.D. '24, of the Wharton Healthcare Analytics Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, outline a conceptual design framework modeling how humans respond to algorithmic recommendationsand present a different approach to building AI tools. This approach, known as complementarity, aims to refine human-AI collaboration rather than bypass human input altogether. Sample hiring decision from the Predictive treatment. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2405.01484 Better decisions, better outcomes To determine its efficacy, the researchers tested different recommendation strategies in a simulated hiring experiment, where subjects made 25 hiring decisions with varying levels of algorithmic assistance. People using a complementary algorithmwhich offered selective recommendations in cases where a human was likely to be uncertain or incorrectmade the most accurate decisions, outperforming those using a purely predictive algorithm as well as those using no algorithmic support whatsoever. It's an encouraging result, which Spiess and his collaborators are evaluating across several research projects. "There's a lot of promise [around] AI improving decisions and through that improving outcomes," Spiess says. "And that has led to new questions: How should I design an algorithm to make public or social policy decisions, for example? If we can learn how to improve policy by using dataand using it at scale in processes that are transparent and fairwe may be able to produce algorithms that deliver on the promise of this new technology." Spiess is particularly interested in applications that affect how services are allocated in resource-constrained environments, such as placing tutors in underserved school districts with limited budgets. Spiess suggests the approach of for-profit enterprisesmaximizing returnsmight be applied to social impact. "Ads are targeted, but can we better target social interventions? This is a high-stakes decision, and if you could use algorithms to improve resource allocation at scale, there are a number of high-value use cases in areas where we don't have ready or clear solutions." It's the type of question that Stanford GSB is particularly well suited to answer, Spiess says, citing colleagues such as economics professor Susan Athey, the director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab. "Delivering these solutions requires putting together the technical capability with the context and being able to model the human component. We are uniquely well positioned to think about algorithms in context and have a rich history of doing so," he says. "Plus, we're in Silicon Valley. We are immersed with the tools to actually implement projects in this space." More information: Bryce McLaughlin et al, Designing Algorithmic Recommendations to Achieve Human-AI Complementarity, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2405.01484 Journal information: arXiv This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: CC0 Public Domain Just days after a Texas oil firm shocked California environmentalists and regulators by announcing the resumption of offshore oil production along the Santa Barbara County coast, a court has ordered the company to cease further construction or repairs until it obtains official approvals. For months, Sable Offshore Corp. has denied the California Coastal Commission's authority to oversee and approve upgrades to a network of oil pipelines that were shuttered after a major 2015 spill. The company argues that it doesn't need any new permits because it is only repairing and maintaining existing pipelinesas opposed to constructing a new linemeaning the Coastal Commission doesn't have a say in the matter. Sable sued the commission in February, claiming overreach of its authority. But on Wednesday, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle sided with the Coastal Commission and ordered Sable to abide by a preliminary injunction, upholding a cease and desist order commissioners issued in April. That action requires Sable to stop any further coastal work until the company obtains the necessary permits from the Coastal Commission or the ongoing lawsuit is settled. "The Commission has presented credible evidence of violation of the Coastal Act," Anderle wrote in his ruling. Landscape grading and other pipeline work Sable performed "fall squarely within the definition of 'development' in the Coastal Act," he found. Sable insists that it is still operating within original permits from the 1980s. The commission disagrees, however, and has ordered the company to seek new permits. "It's a significant win not only for the Coastal Commission, but for the environment, for the state, for the people and, frankly, the rule of law," said Alex Helperin, assistant chief counsel for the Coastal Commission. "We've never seen someone just completely ignore one of our orders before ... This is unprecedented for us and (the judge's ruling is) a really important indication of the rule of law and the idea that our orders have to be taken seriously." Although commission officials have hailed the judge's decision as a victory, it remains unclear how it will impact the oil operation. Sable has already finished much if not allof the work commissioners have protested. Still, Sable officials say they plan to appeal the judge's ruling. "We look forward to overturning today's decision, though it has no bearing on Sable's plans to recommence oil sales by July," read a statement from Steve Rusch, Sable's vice president of environmental and governmental affairs. "Sable will continue to aggressively defend our vested rights to pursue low carbon California oil and natural gas sorely needed to stabilize supply and lower consumer gasoline prices." In April, the California Coastal Commission found that Sable had repeatedly violated the Coastal Act by repairing and upgrading oil pipelines without the necessary permits or approvals. The company was fined $18 million, issued a cease and desist order and directed to restore areas that saw environmental damage. Sable has ignored those findings, and filed a lawsuit against the commission. The preliminary injunction issued Wednesday doesn't resolve that case, but may be an indication of how the court may lean in a final decisionwhich is likely still months, if not years, away. Sable outraged environmentalists and officials last week when it announced that it had resumed oil production at one of its offshore platformslocated in federal watersat a rate of about 6,000 barrels a day, with plans to quickly increase extraction. The company said the oil is being sent to the onshore Las Flores Canyon processing facility for storage, but it was clear that full use of the onshore pipelines had yet to begin. But among those who were taken aback by the announcement was Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, who serves as chair of the California State Lands Commission and has oversight of offshore oil pipelines. Sable was required to update the State Lands Commission on any oil flow and failed to do so, she said. "Sable's failure to clearly and timely communicate these activities to the commission undermines trust in Sable's motives, demonstrates a lack of understanding of the significant concerns held by many regarding the resumption of activities, and raises serious questions about Sable's willingness to be a transparent operator," Kounalakis wrote in a May 23 letter to Sable that was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. Kounalakis also accused the company of misleading the public. She said that lands commission staff told her that the new oil flows were the result of well-testing procedures required by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement prior to restart. "These activities do not constitute a resumption of commercial production or a full restart ... Characterizing testing activities as a restart of operations is not only misleading but also highly inappropriateparticularly given that Sable has not obtained the necessary regulatory approvals to fully resume operations," she wrote. She said that the company needs to resolve all pending legal challenges and regulatory requirements before any attempt to fully restart commercial operations in order to remain in compliance with its offshore pipeline leases. Sheri Pemberton, a spokesperson for the commission, said Sable has not yet responded to the lieutenant governor's letter. Sable representatives did not respond to questions about the letter or the concerns raised by the State Lands Commission chair. Environmental activists argued that the judge's ruling and Kounalakis' letter further demonstrate that Sable cannot be trusted to safely run an operation that previously failed. "This just shows, again, that this is not a company we can trust to follow the law in California or responsibly operate equipment that already caused one of the worst spills in our state history," said Alex Katz, the executive director of the Environmental Defense Center. 2025 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: CC0 Public Domain Microsoft sees artificial intelligence transforming the internet as fundamentally as mobile phones have over the past two decades. But the technology's limitations could curb Microsoft's grand vision. Generative AIwhich creates content based on a user's requestburst into the zeitgeist in late 2022 when Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a conversational chatbot that could take a simple request and generate anything from a limerick to a college essay. Less than three years later, Microsoft has a plan to move beyond ChatGPT and its copycats by creating the foundation for a new version of the internet. Microsoft and its tech peers say the technology is moving fast. The industry is pouring billions into AI infrastructure and companies are restructuring corporate workforces to create agile teams for a shifting landscape. A week before Microsoft announced its ambitions for a new AI ecosystem, the company laid off more than 6,000 people in an effort to flatten management layers. Microsoft calls it the "open agentic web," with users sending AI-powered "agents" out into the void to do their bidding. Casual consumers primarily interact with AI now through a Google searchone that repeatedly drums up false answersor a ChatGPT-esque chatbot that generates a conversation. In Microsoft's eyes, chatbots are old news. Microsoft's vision is a digital world in which autonomous agents interact with each other throughout the internet. For example, a user who wants to schedule a vacation will delegate an agent to venture through the muck and find flights, hotels and an itinerary that fit their budget, work that users currently have to do themselves. At the company's developer-focused Build conference in Seattle last week, CEO Satya Nadella explained the framework Microsoft wants to provide as it tries to remake the web. He used more technical examples of the agents, demonstrating them fixing bugs in computer code, creating PowerPoint presentations and sorting expense reports. All of the demonstrations were done toward the top of what Microsoft calls the AI stack. Other companies, and Microsoft, are building agents and AI models to interact with the data below them. Toward the bottom of the stack is an infrastructure that Microsoft supports. One aspect of it is establishing a protocol, the set of rules computers follow to talk with one another. Microsoft favors one called Model Context Protocol. Kevin Scott, the company's chief technology officer, likens it to HTTP in the internet, a standard that everyone can use to build out the web. The new protocol allows AI agents to go from website to website, collecting data and interacting with other agents. "It's filling an incredibly important niche," Scott said during a keynote address on May 19. Of course, Microsoft isn't alone in looking for the next big thing in AI. OpenAI spurred a wave of competing products from companies like Google, Meta and Elon Musk's xAI. The tech giants looking beyond chatbots and angling to change the web from click-based to agent-based is creating a new competition. Chirag Shah, a professor of information science at the University of Washington, said this could be a problem. The World Wide Web Consortium, a neutral party, has maintained standards for the internet's development since 1994. Microsoft can dictate the standards it wants for an agentic web but nobody has to accept them, Shah said. "I don't see this as changing the web," he said. "I see this as one set of ideas that already has competition." Shah has worked for Microsoft in the past but does not currently. Since the idea behind the agentic web is an ecosystem of errand runners zooming around autonomously, its success is predicated on pulling accurate information and doing things correctly. Since ChatGPT launched in 2022, chatbots and other AI-infused tech have struggled with accuracy. Last month, social media users discovered a quirk with Google's AI Overview. If a user added the word "meaning" to a nonsensical idiom, Google's AI would confidentially spit out a fictitious origin for the phrase. In the week leading up to Build, xAI's Grok chatbot started promoting conspiracy theories about white genocide in South Africa on Musk's social media platform, X. The replies from Grok were under posts wholly unrelated to the conspiracy theories. XAI said it was due to an unauthorized modification. On May 20, a day after Nadella and Scott announced their agentic web ambitions to a crowd of hundreds, 404 Media reported that the Chicago Sun-Times had used AI to create a book recommendation article. The problem? The list featured nonexistent books from authors and completely made-up quotes. Humans make mistakes on the internet as well. They're duped by misinformation, they fall for phishing scams and they read clickbait. But they understand the consequences of those mistakes, Shah said. Chatbots and agents don't. If an agent makes a mistake, will it know before it interacts with another and compounds it? "It's the equivalent to giving someone $100 and telling them to go shop for you," Shah said. "And that's low risk, but think about health care, legal issues and making financial decisions. "There are great consequences to making mistakes there." A new language AI adoption is another obstacle Microsoft faces. The company boasts that developers are pumping more agents into the ecosystem. It also said several websites like the live events platform Eventbrite and e-commerce company Shopify adopted a new software language project called NLWeb that allows a more fluid AI experience. NLWeb, like HTML was for the internet, is Microsoft's plan to revamp the way the web works. It's exciting technology for those in the tech industry. Shah said it's what developers have been hoping for, creating a natural language for casual internet users to search websites. But just like self-driving cars, while the technology is improving, there's a limit to widespread use. Autonomous vehicles are tested and deployed in limited markets. Microsoft hopes for the world to adopt the agentic web, but the future of it could be quite limited. "We're not ready, all of us, to give up our agency to these systems," Shah said. "It's not radically replacing the web as we know it." 2025 The Seattle Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Meta on Thursday revealed that it disrupted three covert influence operations originating from Iran, China, and Romania during the first quarter of 2025. "We detected and removed these campaigns before they were able to build authentic audiences on our apps," the social media giant said in its quarterly Adversarial Threat Report. This included a network of 658 accounts on Facebook, 14 Pages, and two accounts on Instagram that targeted Romania across several platforms, including Meta's services, TikTok, X, and YouTube. One of the pages in question had about 18,300 followers. The threat actors behind the activity leveraged fake accounts to manage Facebook Pages, direct users to off-platform websites, and share comments on posts by politicians and news entities. The accounts masqueraded as locals living in Romania and posted content related to sports, travel, or local news. While a majority of these comments did not receive any engagement from authentic audiences, Meta said these fictitious personas also had a corresponding presence on other platforms in an attempt to make them look credible. "This campaign showed consistent operational security (OpSec) to conceal its origin and coordination, including by relying on proxy IP infrastructure," the company noted. "The people behind this effort posted primarily in Romanian about news and current events, including elections in Romania." A second influence network disrupted by Meta originated from Iran and targeted Azeri-speaking audiences in Azerbaijan and Turkey across its platforms, X, and YouTube. It consisted of 17 accounts on Facebook, 22 FB Pages, and 21 accounts on Instagram. The counterfeit accounts created by the operation were used to post content, including in Groups, manage Pages, and comment on the network's own content so as to artificially inflate their popularity. Many of these accounts posed as female journalists and pro-Palestine activists. "The operation also used popular hashtags like #palestine, #gaza, #starbucks, #instagram in their posts, as part of its spammy tactics in an attempt to insert themselves in the existing public discourse," Meta said. "The operators posted in Azeri about news and current events, including the Paris Olympics, Israel's 2024 pager attacks, a boycott of American brands, and criticisms of the U.S., President Biden, and Israel's actions in Gaza." The activity has been attributed to a known threat activity cluster dubbed Storm-2035, which Microsoft described in August 2024 as an Iranian network targeting U.S. voter groups with "polarizing messaging" on presidential candidates, LGBTQ rights, and the Israel-Hamas conflict. In the intervening months, artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI also revealed that it banned ChatGPT accounts created by Storm-2035 to weaponize its chatbot for generating content to be shared on social media. Lastly, Meta revealed that it removed 157 Facebook accounts, 19 Pages, one Group, and 17 accounts on Instagram to target audiences in Myanmar, Taiwan, and Japan. The threat actors behind the operation have been found to use AI to create profile photos and run an "account farm" to spin up new fake accounts. The Chinese-origin activity encompassed three separate clusters, each reposting other users' and their own content in English, Burmese, Mandarin, and Japanese about news and current events in the countries they targeted. "In Myanmar, they posted about the need to end the ongoing conflict, criticized the civil resistance movements and shared supportive commentary about the military junta," the company said. "In Japan, the campaign criticized Japan's government and its military ties with the U.S. In Taiwan, they posted claims that Taiwanese politicians and military leaders are corrupt, and ran Pages claiming to display posts submitted anonymously -- in a likely attempt to create the impression of an authentic discourse." S Korea's SK Group eyes 3 LNG power projects in Vietnam: chairman By Minh Hue Fri, May 30, 2025 | 1:37 pm GMT+7 SK Group, South Koreas second-largest chaebol, is exploring several LNG-fueled power projects in Vietnam, including three proposed to be included in the country's green growth project portfolio, said chairman Tae-Won Chey. SK Group chairman Tae-Won Chey. Photo courtesy of the government's news portal. At a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, Tae-Won Chey noted that SK Group is a diversified conglomerate operating in sectors such as energy, chemicals, telecommunications, information technology, semiconductors, and materials. It owns over 200 subsidiaries and has a market capitalization of nearly $200 billion. Last year, the group reported revenue of over $150 billion. In Vietnam, SK has invested approximately $3.5 billion in various corporations and eco-friendly biodegradable materials projects. In 2023, there were market speculations that SK Group might exit Vietnam, sparked by its divestment from one of its invested companies. However, the firm denied the rumors, affirming its plans to make Vietnam its business hub in Southeast Asia. In response, Deputy PM Dung said Vietnam welcomes SK Groups projects, emphasizing that the group is considered an "important strategic partner". Dung noted that he had discussed with or reported many times to senior Vietnamese leaders about the group's investment goodwill. "Regarding the development of energy-industrial clusters, the Ministry of Finance has gathered input from various concerned agencies and localities and reported to the Prime Minister. The ministry proposed solutions to remove some obstacles related to the LNG power projects in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces," he said. He urged the group to cooperate closely with Vietnamese authorities and localities to review and adjust plans in line with the goals of both sides. Beyond energy, SK Group is actively involved in supporting Vietnam in training semiconductor engineers and sharing innovative solutions in some industries. Dung encouraged the group to continue collaborating on human resource development and implement initiatives that foster Vietnams innovation ecosystem. SK Group is eyeing to develop an LNG-fired power plant in Ninh Thuan province, home to Vietnam's future nuclear power plants, following its similar proposals in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa, all in central Vietnam. In Ninh Thuan, SK Group proposed building a 1.5 GW LNG power plant and a 240,000 m3 LNG storage facility in Ca Na commune, Thuan Nam district, with a total investment of $2.35 billion. The group, however, noted that it wants to move the LNG storage facility to the mainland to raise the LNG power plant's capacity to 3 GW and the LNG storage facility to 270 m3, bringing the total investment to $4 billion. It is expected that the Government will approve the project's investor in September 2025, and the LNG storage facility and the LNG power plant are scheduled to be put into operation by 2030. In Nghe An province, SK has showed its interest in bidding for the $2.1 billion Quynh Lap LNG-fueled power project in Hoang Mai township. The group also eyes an LNG power project in Thanh Hoa province. COLUMBIA The South Carolina General Assembly likely met for the last time this year Wednesday, easily passing a budget that included what is effectively an $18,000-a-year raise for all of its members. If the governor does not veto it, lawmakers will see their "in-district compensation" money set aside for legislative duties that has few limits on how it can be spent increase from $1,000 a month to $2,500 a month for all 46 senators and 124 House members. The raise, quietly slipped into the budget about a month ago in the Senate after the initial budget passed the House, caused heartburn. Several members threated to veto the entire $14.5 billion plan. But in the end, it passed both chambers easily. "The anticipation is you will spend that on your constituents, doing the job they've elected you to do and going to the places they have asked you to go," Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister said. "If you do not spend the money on your constituents, that's on you." The rest of the spending plan was much less controversial. There are pay raises for teachers, and the state's highest income tax rate will be cut from 6.2% to 6%. There is $200 million to fix bridges, $35 million to pay for cleanup from Hurricane Helene last year and $50 million for a program to let parents use tax money to pay private school tuition that will undergo court scrutiny. But the $3 million that will increase legislator pay got the most attention as House and Senate negotiators finalized the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 earlier this month. The monthly stipend for lawmakers has not been increased in about 30 years. Their in-district stipend would increase from $12,000 a year to $30,000 Lawmakers also get a salary of $10,400 a year that has not changed since 1990. In addition, they get money for meals, mileage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session. Legislators are considered part time because South Carolina's General Assembly meets three days a week from January to May. Lawmakers passed a $1,000-a-month increase in the budget in 2014. But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed it, and senators did not have the votes to override her decision. And since it was passed within the budget, legislators get the extra money starting July 1. By law, a raise in their salaries cannot take effect until after the next election. A number of lawmakers who voted for the budget said it would have been better to handle it as a bill that got public input and was fully debated. Sen. Wes Climer called the raise a wart in an otherwise well-crafted spending plan that includes tax cuts and spending on key items like bridges or private school vouchers. "If there is going to be a pay raise, the people by way of elections ought to decide who does and who does not get that raise," the Republican from Rock Hill said. Gov. Henry McMaster has a line-item veto he can use to strike items from the budget. He said Wednesday he would have to look it over, but he said he will likely leave the in-district expenses in place. "I believe the case can be made that the expenses have gone up dramatically," McMaster said. "And the remedy would be to provide some more money to be used for those district expenses, not a favor." Lawmakers expect McMaster to veto little if anything from the budget. So instead of returning to take up his vetoes, they don't plan to come back to the Statehouse until January 2026, when next year's session starts. (Editors Note: The following statement is carried verbatim) The Christian Council stands united in grief and condemnation of the gun violence that has robbed our communities of peace and security, and has resulted in continual homicides. We denounce violence in any form, the perpetration of evil, and disruptive practices among us. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones in this time of bereavement, and we pray that God may comfort and strengthen them. Indeed, our hearts are heavy with grief as we join the nation in mourning this tragic and senseless loss of life, and violent injuries in our beloved country. We also pray that God may grant full recovery and healing to the injured persons. Violence in any form is to be condemned and denounced; the horror of the recent triple murder has shaken us to our core. Still, amidst this darkness, we urge the nation to hold fast in hope to Christ, who reminds us in John 16:33, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. We affirm that life is sacred, and we must work tirelessly to uphold its dignity. Every life lost to violence is a heartbreaking wound to society, and an offense against Gods call for love, compassion and justice. As followers of Christ, we reject the culture of fear and destruction, and instead, we call for a renewed commitment to peace peace in our hearts, homes, and streets. Even as we lament this tragedy, we must all soberly and deeply examine the root causes of such violence within our country and commit to work collaboratively and decisively to promote peace, justice, and well-being for all. The Council pledges to work with the authorities to reduce violence in our nation. Accordingly, the Christian Council calls upon all of us to take concrete steps to address the issue of gun violence. This includes supporting initiatives that foster peace and non-violence and advocating for sustainable strategies that enhance safety, among other measures. Let us choose peace over violence, love over hatred, and justice over destruction. As people of deep and abiding faith in God, we must teach love, forgiveness, and respect in our homes, our schools, and reinforce it in our communities and our churches. We must learn intervention and de-escalation strategies that will reduce and diffuse conflict. Additionally, we must commit to mentoring our youth, especially offering guidance and support to those who are disenfranchised, lacking direction and feeling hopeless. Through unwavering faith in God, with hope let us pray more fervently for Gods mercy and guidance to bring about the necessary transformation. May God grant our nation healing, wisdom, and the courage to be agents of his peace. Bishop Gerard County, Roman Catholic Church, and President of the SVG Christian Council Bishop C. Leopold Friday, Anglican Church Revd. Philbert S. Delaney, Methodist Church Triple murder accused Kesroy Ryan (foreground) being escorted by Detective Station Sergeant Biorn Duncan (left) from the Serious Offences Court last Monday. Quick action by a team of investigators led by Assistant Commissioner of Police, in charge of crime, Trevor Buju Bailey, has resulted in charges being laid in the May 16, 2025 triple murder and triple attempted murder at Belmont. But the accused, Kesroy Ryan, a 25-year-old labourer of Lowmans Leeward, issued a warning as he left the Serious Offenses Court on Monday, following his arraignment. Ryan told reporters, "Tell dem do their investigation right, his face carrying a broad smile. Clad in a blue t-shirt, blue jeans and sandals, that broad smile remained a part of his countenance as he was photographed on his way to and from the Serious Offenses Court in strict police custody, including ACP Bailey himself and ACE investigator, Station Sergeant Biorn Duncan of the Major Crime Unit (MCU). There were mixed reactions from scores of curious onlookers, some who had flocked to the Court precincts just to get a glimpse of the accused, and others who were there because of their involvement in other court matters. One other person detained for questioning in connection with the matter, was subsequently released pending further investigations. Ryan was arrested on May 24, just eight days after the three persons were shot and killed, including businesswoman Lesline Davis, while three others survived the ordeal, as masked men reportedly stormed and opened fire at Davis business place at Belmont around 9:00 p.m. Ryan has been charged with murdering the Belmont residents Lesline Davis, 68, Demeon Cumberbatch, 38, and Haynesly Browne, 30, by shooting them about their body according to a police report. He is also charged with the attempted murder of Lorna Davis, a 60-year-old chef, Boncroft Abbott, a 65-year-old plumber, and Haydon Ballantyne, a 60-year-old labourer, all of Belmont. Police reports are that Ballantyne was shot in his left foot while Lorna Davis and Abbott were shot at. Ryan was not required to plead to the charges when he stood before Chief Magistrate Colin John on Monday. Persons are not usually granted bail on murder charges, but when the Chief Magistrate asked the Prosecutor for his position about bail on the attempted murder charges for which bail is permissible, the Prosecutor said he was objecting to bail. However, as the Prosecutor was about to give the grounds for his objection, attorney Michelle Fife, representing Ryan, told the Court she was not making an application for bail for attempted murder charges. Ryan was remanded and the matter adjourned to June 2 for a status hearing. A police release, dated May 26, stated that, "The arrest marks a critical step in an investigation that remains ongoing. The successful outcome thus far is the result of dedicated efforts by the investigative team and the cooperation of members of the public. The statement went on to thank all those who came forward with information that led this development, and expressed the hope for continued cooperation from the public, in relation to this matter, or any other criminal activity. Although police made a breakthrough in the triple murder that occurred at Belmont on May 16, the investigation is still ongoing. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Trevor Buju Bailey, the investigation was at a stage where an arrest was made, but it was not the end of the investigation. "In fact, it has just commenced, ACP Bailey told members of the media during a press conference on May 26. On the same day, 25-year-old Kesroy Ryan of Lowmans (Windward) made his first appearance at the Serious Offences Court in Kingstown following his arrest on May 24. He was charged with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. ACP Bailey reported that a team was put together to investigate the shooting deaths of businesswoman Lesline Davis, Joel Browne and Demeon Cumberbatch. Notwithstanding the teams work, he recognuise and thanked those members of the public that offered support. Three other individuals, including a 7-year-old boy were injured during the shooting incident. ACP Bailey assured the public that the police force was still working to bring the others involved in the triple homicide to justice. "I want to underscore that we will find you and bring you to justice, he emphasized. The ACP further said that he was aware of a video being circulated on social media which shows surveillance footage from inside the shop when the shooting occurred. He, however, noted that the investigation was not limited to just the video. "Our investigation is thorough and detailed, he stressed. While the ACP shared that a motive for the killing was identified, he said that any further information in this regard will be disclosed during the court case. Vincentians in New York on Sunday, May 18, got a sample of what is in store for Vincymas 2025, as the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Carnival Development Corporation (CDC), partnering with the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, launched the national festival in Brooklyn amid much fanfare. Vincymas 2025 will begin on Friday, Jun. 27, and culminate on Tuesday, Jul. 8, 2025. In picture-perfect weather, hundreds of nationals were captivated on Sunday by the sights, sounds and pageantry of Vincentian culture at the huge parking lot of Nazareth Regional High School, 475 East, 57th Street, Brooklyn. The near five-hour-long show, under the auspices of the Consulate General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the United States, encompassed, among other things, masquerade; spoken word by Toni Johnson; DJ and steelpan music; and calypso, ragga soca and soca music. Problem Child brought the house down with spell-binding performances, while other artistes contributed immensely in putting the effervescent crowd in party frenzy. They included Dennis Bowman, Lively, Oscar James, Smurf, Added Rankin, Jay R the Artiste, Zoelah, Fimba, Skarpyon, Super K, Ram, Zeek and Kemmy. Siboney Tannis Hector and Travis Roberts beat out Vincy and Caribbean vibes on pan; Mas Productions Unlimited previewed "Changes for West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA) Parade on Labor Day Monday in Brooklyn; Nowadazzs Promotions, Inc., produced by calypsonian Delahanty Isles, showcased "Waybaccwen; and Thick Madam Productions highlighted mas to be featured by Mirage Productions in Vincymas 2025. Isles told THE VINCENTIAN that the idea for Waybaccwen for JOuvert, under the theme, "De Rebirth of Culture, emerged two years ago but only "manifested last July. She said that was because of the loss of her mom, Maxine Phillips, at 60. "Its a bitter-sweet moment because she was a woman of culture, said Isles, who offered the ceremonys opening prayer. "I still have the strength to go forward. Ricardo "Ricky Adams, CDC president, who was on hand Sunday, along with CEO Rodney Small, said: "I think we have a new energy for Vincy Mas this year. "Its important to have a successful launch in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (two weeks ago) and to engage the Vincy Community (in the Diaspora), he told THE VINCENTIAN back stage. "We hope to bring back the energy thats Vincy Mas 2025 both at home and in the Diaspora. "I just want people to come home and experience the resurgence of Vincy Mas, he added. Small, a renowned pannist, who was recently appointed CDC CEO, also told THE VINCENTIAN: "Its really a great feeling when we can bring the Vincentian product to different parts of the world. "Its really a nice family affair, he added about Sundays launch. "I see people from different Caribbean countries. Small disclosed that CDC will also be promoting this year Vincy Mas during Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) in Toronto, Canada and at Notting Hill Carnival in London, UK. Sherrill-Ann Mason Haywood, chairperson of the SVG Diaspora Committee of New York, said her group was "pleased to partner with the CDC in a deeper way this year, stating that the relationship "goes back almost a decade when Ainsley Primus was planning to return to SVG and wanted an entity to take over the Vincymas launch in New York, which, at the time, was anchored by a calypso new song competition. "Since then, it has evolved into a family-friendly event that highlights the main components of carnival: pan, calypso and mas, she told THE VINCENTIAN. "It was always an event to give Diasporans a taste of Vincymas with some support from the CDC.. The goal was to replicate in New York the event dubbed START that launched the carnival in SVG. Consul General Rondy "Luta McIntosh, also a soca artiste, said, "Vincy Mas START was off to another good START at the NYC Vincy Mas launch in Brooklyn. "It must be mentioned that all artistes, DJs, promoters and creatives who participated at the launch are all US-based Vincy talents and donated their talents free of cost, he said. "This is a true representation of patriotism and love for SVG. 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. A PRIVATE contractor is dead after an accident in Tobago. Police have identified the victim as Darryl Figaro of Black Rock, Tobago. He died on Wednesday after falling from a ladder while working at a private villa. An autopsy of Figaros body yesterday at the Scarborough Mortuary determined injuries were consistent with a fall, and it ruled out foul play. The body was previously identified by the victims daughter. 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. The proponent of building at least one data center on Tucsons far southeast side is negotiating with Tucson Water to have an 18-mile pipeline built to carry reclaimed, treated sewage effluent to the project, two Pima County supervisors say. A company negotiating with county officials would pay to build this line as a way to ensure the project doesnt drain Tucsons drinking water supply, said Supervisor Matt Heinz, whose district ends about a mile west of where the data center would be located. This would be consistent with the discussions theyve had with Tucson Water, that water infrastructure will be gifted to the city to insure that they can run entirely on reclaimed water, Heinz said Thursday. So far, however, neither Tucson Water nor Pima County officials have answered questions from the Arizona Daily Star about how much water, reclaimed or otherwise, would be used by the project. City of Tucson spokesman Andy Squire told the Star in an email Thursday afternoon he cant respond to questions about the projects water use because city officials are under a non-disclosure agreement about the project. The fact that others are discussing it does not change that. We cannot address your questions, Squire said. One data center is currently being discussed, but a specific plan for the site filed by county officials shows the entire 290-acre project site eventually could contain as many as 10 data centers. County Administrator Jan Lesher has said in a memo to county supervisors that county officials are negotiating with what she variously called a client or a business prospect that would build a data center. She has referred to the company with the code name of Project Blue and has declined to reveal the companys name, citing a non-disclosure agreement that county officials signed with company officials. In a May 8 memo, Lesher described Project Blue as a company that operates "in the advanced and emerging technology industry sector. Heinz and Supervisor Steve Christy said the reclaimed water pipeline was discussed in briefings their offices had separately with representatives of the project, including a financier. Also at the meeting Heinz attended were people who have experience in the technology sector, he said. What isnt known at this time is how long it will take to get the reclaimed water pipeline on line or whether the data center would have to run on potable water at first until the reclaimed facilities are available. They did not go into any kind of detail. They were going to be making sure that any water usage, any water supply included in the project was in a responsible manner that would not only suit their needs, but what they think would be in the best interest of the community, said Christy, whose district includes the project site. Christy said representatives of the lender and construction company committed to pay for the reclaimed water line to be built. Heinz said, There will be phasing in of reclaimed, possibly; initially there could be some use of potable water. Thats not a goal, its not going to be a long-time situation. One of the first things they say theyll do is work on an 18-mile reclaimed pipeline, two inches in diameter. The site lies along the north side of Brekke Road between Houghton and Harrison roads, just north of the county fairgrounds. Data centers use large amounts of electricity and, potentially, water. By some estimates, the Associated Press has reported, a mid-sized data center uses the same amount of water per day as 1,000 households. A May 21 memo from Lesher said Project Blue would generate about 180 new, long-term jobs once construction is completed, with salaries averaging about $64,000 annually, resulting in an annual economic impact of about $63.5 million and about $7.3 million in annual labor income. The site is currently owned by Pima County. County supervisors are expected to have a purchase-sales agreement presented to them as early as their June 17 meeting, or at a board meeting in July. If the agreement is approved, the county would sell the land, appraised at $20.875 million, to the company. Once the land is sold, it would be annexed by the city. PHOENIX Two Republicans vying in Congressional District 7 each say they are firm adherents to the policies of the partys de facto chief, President Donald Trump. Daniel Butierez and Jorge Rivas seek to become the GOP nominee for the special election this year to replace U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat who died in March. In a debate Thursday, both proclaimed themselves supporters of the presidents efforts to raise tariffs. Both also said they have no problem with the Trump administrations mass deportations. Nor were they troubled by the fact that while the president at first said his focus would be on criminals and dangerous individuals, his administration has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement latitude to pick up anyone, anywhere, who is undocumented, including right outside a federal courthouse where they have shown up for their asylum hearings. The law must be enforced, said Butierez. It was ignored when they came in. And we need to remove anyone who came in illegally. Rivas said no one should be surprised about how Trump has directed immigration enforcement. Hes doing the job he was hired to do, said Rivas, who himself came to the United States from El Salvador in the 1980s and was granted political asylum. Rivas also told host Ted Simons of KAET-TV, the Phoenix PBS affiliate that aired the debate, that he has no problem with ICE going into churches and schools to find those they intend to deport. If its within the United States, and the laws of the United States apply, so be it, Rivas said. We cannot pick and choose where we enforce the law. We cannot pick and choose when we enforce the law. If we do that, we become a banana republic. Butierez disagreed on that point. I dont think law enforcement should be going into our schools or our churches, he said. I believe they should be sanctuary areas. But both said they have no problem deporting those who may be being sent back to countries they fled, even if they face danger when they return. Theyre criminals that never should have come here in the first place, Butierez said. I dont blame the administration thats doing this and sending them back. I blame the previous administration that let them come in. Rivas rejected any suggestion that returning these migrants to places they fled could be considered cruel. There are many things that are cruel in this country, or even the world, Rivas said. Its not the responsibility of the United States to be sure that every country treats its citizens well, he said. I think the United States has a responsibility to take care of the citizens of this country and to make sure that this country does not become cruel or a dictatorship or whatever they might want to call it, Rivas said. Both also said they would have supported the measure just approved by the U.S. House, the chamber in which they hope to serve, that included cuts to Medicaid and other programs. I know theres a lot of fraud, Rivas said. Organizations and individuals have been stealing left and right from Medicare and Medicaid. The Trump administration is just making sure the money is being used properly for the people that need help and not necessarily being offered to anyone, where anyone can take it, and just abuse it as they have been for so many years. Butierez said hes not convinced that anyone who needs and is entitled to care is going to be denied services. He noted that the measure is not yet in final form and still needs to clear the Senate. Beyond that, Butierez said all the talk now about people losing care is just fear mongering. And Rivas said if people are looking for someone to blame for the fact that the current administration is trying to cut costs, they should look at the past four years under President Joe Biden. Consider, he said, money sent by the U.S. Agency for International Development to create Ahlan Simsim, a version of Sesame Street for children in Iraq. A federal government website put the funding at $13 million. Also, they gave Ukraine, what, $400 billion ... to kill people? Rivas said. Why didnt we save that $400 billion and say half of that would go to Medicare and Medicaid? Thats why Im running because Im tired of those people in Washington doing whatever they want, left and right, and nobody holds them accountable. Various websites, however, have put the amount of emergency funding to Ukraine since the war with Russia started in 2022 at about half of that claimed by Rivas. The two GOP candidates who showed up for Thursdays debate Jimmy Rodriguez pulled out at the last minute did agree on one specific fact: When Butierez ran against Grijalva in the regular general election in 2024, he picked up nearly 100,000 votes. By contrast, Grijalva got close to 172,000 votes. But Butierez said the fact that he could do that well in a heavily Democratic district against the long-time congressman shows he is electable in a race without an incumbent. Rivas has a different take on the results of the 2024 general election. He pointed out that Grijalva had been absent from Congress since February but did return in November after completing cancer treatment. By that time, he had announced that the 2024 election would be his last. Butierez ran last time against someone debilitated by cancer, Rivas said. What that means, he said, is that Butierez essentially ran unopposed and only got a very small percentage of the vote. So I please ask you, not to waste your vote anymore, and give me a chance, Rivas said. Butierez got in one specific dig at Rivas: the fact that he admitted he does not live within the congressional district. There is no legal requirement for members of Congress to live within the district they seek to represent. Rivas said after the debate that he and his family do most of their shopping and other activities within the portion of Tucson that is in CD7. The primary is set for July 15. Whoever wins the GOP contest will face off Sept. 23 against whichever of the five Democrats wins that partys primary. The Democratic candidates, who debated Tuesday, are Adelita Grijalva, Deja Foxx, Patrick Harris, Daniel Hernandez and Jose Malvido. Debate moderator Ted Simons of Arizona PBS in Phoenix broke new ground Tuesday when he questioned the Democratic candidates for Congressional District 7 about mining. Daniel Hernandez Jr. distinguished himself as the only candidate among the five who supports mine projects in the Santa Rita Mountains and near Patagonia, as well as outside the district at Oak Flat, a place many Apache people consider sacred. Right now Democrats are out of touch with working class Americans, Hernandez said. You cant say you support workers if you dont support the work. Whether it wins him many votes in a Democratic primary is questionable. But it at least made him stand out and should bring in some solid campaign donations. Rival Adelita Grijalva criticized Hernandez for taking money from mining interests during the debate. Standing up for our environment is critical, she said. We have, you know, Hudbay doing fundraisers because hes supportive of the mine that will destroy the scenic Santa Ritas. The Copper World project south of Tucson in the Santa Rita Mountains is a Hudbay project. On Tuesday, May 20, according to an announcement of the event, Hudbays U.S. senior vice president, Javier del Rio, was among those who hosted a fundraiser for Hernandez in Tucson. Attacks launched You dont have to see polls to know who is the perceived leader of the race. You just have to see who is being attacked. In Tuesdays debate, Hernandez and candidate Deja Foxx targeted Grijalva. Hernandez started the criticisms by noting that Grijalva supported the Prop. 414 sales-tax increase, recently defeated by Tucson voters. The reality is people like Adelita tried to raise taxes just a couple of weeks ago in the city of Tucson, Hernandez said. Out of touch politicians whove spent almost two decades in office forget what its like to live on a fixed income. Foxx also went after Grijalva over the first political episode where Foxx publicly spoke out a decade ago, pushing for a new sex-education curriculum in Tucson Unified School District,. I was navigating a sex education curriculum last updated in the 1980s, that didnt mention consent, was medically inaccurate, and that school board members including Adelita Grijalva had decades to fix and yet it took a young person like me, an advocate an activist and organizer showing up to tell vulnerable stories I never should have had to tell, she said. Grijalva did push back with prepared attacks herself, noting, for example, when Hernandez missed a vote in the Legislature on abortion rights. When you say that youre there for abortion rights, but then you dont show up for the 15-week abortion ban respectfully, you need to show up. Possibly talking about Foxx, who returned relatively recently to Tucson, Grijalva said, Its important that when were talking about the needs of this community, that we live here and were part of this community. Clean speaking If you were to rank who delivered their points most cleanly Tuesday, the ranking might surprise. It would go something like this: 1. Deja Foxx 2. Daniel Hernandez Jr. 3. Adelita Grijalva 4. Patrick Harris Sr. 5. Jose Malvido Foxx, 25, spoke with the practice of a much more experienced politician, offering a slight echo of Barack Obama in some of her deliveries. But it remains to be seen how much deeper she can go than pointing out her own youth and the fact that she grew up poor in Tucson. Republican hopefuls for the open congressional seat were set to debate Thursday evening. Union endorsements Hernandez claimed more than once that he had the most union endorsements of anyone on the stage, but thats apparently not the case. As we noted in the Political Notebook last week, the current count shows Grijalva with seven union endorsements, and Hernandez with five. Tim Steller TUSD seeks budget override Voters in the Tucson Unified School District will be asked in November to approve a budget override that would raise about $45 million for the school district. The TUSD governing board approved the election at its meeting Tuesday. If passed, the measure would add an annual estimated tax rate of $1.02 per $100 of net assessed valuation for secondary property taxes, according to the Financial and Election Overview by TUSD. This means that a $300,000 house would pay about an additional $306 per year, the district says. The $45 million raised over seven years would be used to increase teachers salaries, expand fine arts programs and invest in more counselors, social workers and physical education teachers. It would also fund more credit recovery programs in high schools and add five pre-K classrooms, according to the Funding Priorities Overview. The Pima County Recorder is expected to begin sending out ballots on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4. Sierra Blaser Mayor talks Qatar In her first interview since returning from Qatar, Mayor Regina Romero told radio host Bill Buckmaster Tuesday she made good connections in Doha and has invited a Qatari delegation to come to Tucson. Romero traveled to the emirate in the Persian Gulf for last weeks Qatar Economic Forum, as part of a delegation of five U.S. mayors. Members of the Tucson Police Protective League, a small union representing Tucson police officers, revealed the trip when they questioned whether Romero had a police escort to fly out of Phoenix. As it turns out, Romero told Buckmaster, she flew out of Tucson International Airport, not Phoenix. These trips are not to have fun, Romero said. These trips are to work. At the end of the day this is about economic development, and putting Tucson on the map. Tim Steller PHOENIX A woman trapped inside a burning car on an interstate in west Phoenix was pulled to safety by an officer who happened to be driving by and busted through the glass on her window. The rescue early Saturday morning unfolded as Officer Dakota Berry returned to his duties in nearby Goodyear after booking a suspect at a county jail. When he spotted the two-vehicle crash on Interstate 10, Berry could hear honking from the car that was in flames and realized someone was inside. He rushed to his patrol SUV to get a glass-breaking tool, ran back across the interstate to the womans car and used the tool to knock several holes in the drivers side window. Her feet then popped out. Get out, get out, get out, Berry said. The woman, whose hair was on fire, can be heard crying. The officer grabbed her legs and pulled her through the broken window. She was brought in critical condition to a burn center and is expected to survive. Berry, who tried putting out the fire with his hands and finally stopped it with an extinguisher, suffered a hand injury during the rescue. The woman is the daughter of a Goodyear firefighter. As ironic as that is, I would have done the same thing for anyone else, any community member, Berry told reporters Wednesday. Jimmie Tramel Tulsa World Scene Reporter Follow Jimmie Tramel 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 Yacht rock music smooth soft rock primarily from the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. For verification, ask a music artist riding the wave. Ambrosia is teaming with other artists from the genre for a Yacht Rock the Dock concert event Saturday, June 7 at Hard Rock Live inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. Ambrosia will be joined by John Ford Coley, Al Stewart, Elliot Lurie (of Looking Glass and Brandy fame) and Peter Beckett, the voice of Player. Players biggest yacht rock hit was Baby Come Back, which is what these artists are doing. An almost identical collection of yacht rock artists joined forces to perform at Hard Rock Live in 2023. Personal observation: It was one of my favorite concert experiences that year. Ive got to say we are so looking forward to coming back because, after that show, we did get a ton of comments from people who were there saying, Oh my god, please come back, Puerta said in a recent phone interview. Im glad were coming back because we got such a great reaction the last time. Its nice to see. Weve been doing this for over 50 years, and to have people come out, and for us to see the joy it still brings to people, its really quite a thrill for us. Among conversation topics during the phone chat: Oklahoma connections Yacht rock is considered a West Coast thing, a pina colada thing and even a Key Largo thing, but a few artists with Oklahoma roots are often played on SiriusXMs yacht rock station. Youll hear Tulsa blues man Elvin Bishops biggest hit, Fooled Around and Fell in Love, every day. The band Bread, fronted by Tulsas David Gates, merits yacht rock airplay with Make It With You, Guitar Man and Baby Im-A Want You. Boz Scaggs, responsible for multiple yacht rock tunes, was born in Ohio. His father was a traveling salesman who relocated the family to McAlester before continuing to Plano, Texas. Puerta said he has an Oklahoma connection. A grandfather was born in Mineral, Oklahoma, a once-booming Panhandle town that vanished along with the coal supply. His wife, Shannon, has relatives in Skedee and other towns in that area. Its cool again Puerta said theres no doubt yacht rock is experiencing a resurgence. When did he begin to notice? He guessed it has been the past five or six years where it has really come on. Or time flies has it been longer than that? Puerta recalled Ambrosia being invited to a years-ago festival hosted by the Atlanta-based group Yacht Rock Revue, which plays covers and is sometimes joined by actual yacht rock acts. You show up to do a gig, and you dont know exactly what its going to be because this was a different idea, and it was just packed with people, Puerta said. They had all these different stages and all these yacht rock groups, and it was like, wow. It just blew us away. And I remember talking to the guy who put it together saying, Man, you ought to trademark this. This thing is going to take off. And it did. A 2024 film (Yacht Rock: The Documentary) generated attention for the genre and featured interviews with key yacht rock artists. Puerta said there have been two yacht rock documentaries. He saw all of one and part of another. An interview subject in the 2024 film put forth the notion that Steely Dan was the protoplasm from which yacht rock sprang. If youve seen the documentary, you know that Donald Fagen, the surviving co-founder of Steely Dan, does not dig the yacht rock label, which brings us to the next topic. What do you call it? Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, Ambrosia, Toto, England Dan & John Ford Coley, the Doobie Brothers and Michael McDonald (with or without the Doobies) are among hit-makers of the yacht rock era. Said Puerta: They had all those songs that never had a particular nomenclature as far as What is that? Somebody came up with this idea to grab onto this term yacht rock, and it has stuck. And its just like heavy metal. That came from somewhere. All these terms, for whatever reason, they develop out of some connection, and that one, yacht rock, just stuck. The argument, I think, is whether to be offended by it or go with it and enjoy it. Puerta chose the roll-with-it option. Im in the camp of, look, people arent making fun of it, he said. Theyre having fun with it. They come with the hats and all the kind of accoutrements of this style that they think goes with yacht rock, and theyre having fun with it. Its like a party. Just like the Parrotheads or the Deadheads have their little thing, this is kind of a style of music that people love, and theyre honoring it, but theyre having fun with it at the same time. So Im not in the camp of the people that (view the label as a negative). ... Just enjoy it. Its like, you can criticize Halloween if you want, but lets just have fun with it, OK? Daryl Hall recently said in a Broken Record podcast interview that he doesnt like Hall and Oates being lumped into the yacht rock category. I dont even understand it, he said. I never understood it. Said Puerta: Well, dont worry about it. Just enjoy the fact that millions of people are listening to your songs that came out 50 years ago or whatever, and theyre loving it. Show format The Yacht Rock the Dock concert event coming to Hard Rock Live is essentially a greatest hits show. One yacht rock artist comes on stage to sing hits, then is replaced by another artist and on and on and on. You will likely even hear Aces How Long even though Ace isnt on the bill. I mean, its just bam, bam, bam, bam, Puerta said. We are bludgeoning people with hits. We are not going to leave them conscious afterwards. Puerta said the idea of multiple acts pooling resources is something Ambrosia began doing a long time ago. We had a show called Class of the 70s and that was way back in maybe the late 1990s or something like that, he said. That had a great lineup that had Christopher Cross and Gary Wright and Ambrosia and John Ford Coley and Stephen Bishop. All these people, weve played with them over the years many times. We just did a show not too long ago with Christopher Cross. We did a lot of shows over the years with Steven Bishop, but he has retired from touring. If you want to see Al Stewart, whose biggest hits are Year of the Cat and Time Passages, you better come to the Hard Rock Show, said Puerta, who indicated Stewart will be retiring fairly soon. In addition to yacht rock standards, Ambrosia will play some of its deeper cuts, including Magical Mystery Tour, a Beatles cover Ambrosia charted with prior to striking yacht rock gold. The appeal Why do people love yacht rock? Puerta said there are multiple reasons. He followed by saying a lot of songs today may be blatantly sexy or sexual, but they are not romantic like Biggest Part of Me and other songs. People hear that song and then they look at their their significant other, and they go, Thats for you. It means so much, just that lyric. And then theres a song like Brandy, which, when you hear that song, you can envision the whole scene, the gal behind the bar serving these guys, and she has fallen in love with this sailor. Its never going to really come to be that theyre going to ever be together, but its a story. And then its all these harmonies. Thats a big part of it. Puerta referenced the doo doo doo doo doo doo doo harmonies in Brandy and said, Just that hook. Those are called hooks, right? ... And they get in your brain, and it makes the song. So its the combination of the storyline, the harmonies and the fact that these songs were very much crafted songs that people put together. A lot of them are band songs like Ambrosia, and Brandy was Looking Glass and Baby Come Back was Player. And they got in a room and they worked out their parts, and then they went to studio and did it right. Today, the way a song is created, someone sits in front of a computer and comes up with this and that and plugs it all in. And it makes sense. It makes a record. But it doesnt have, I dont think, the same kind of emotional qualities that some of these songs have that came from the (yacht rock era). There is a little bit more blood, sweat and tears in putting all these songs together and in the crafting. 60 Minutes moves back to a later timeslot on Nine with more stories on the CFMEU and a British child killer. Settling the Score In a series of award-winning stories, 60 Minutes, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald exposed widespread corruption and criminality within Australias most powerful and militant union, the CFMEU. Plenty has been said about the far-reaching investigation, but until now theres been a deafening silence from the gangland figures at the core of the scandal. A fortnight ago, investigative reporter Nick McKenzie took a call from a man with a fearsome underworld reputation, who had previously threatened him. This time, though, it was an offer he couldnt refuse. Former bikie enforcer, Jonny Two Guns Walker, wanted an interview to clear the air and settle the score. Not just with McKenzie, but with the union bosses he once regarded as brothers, that he now accuses of betrayal. Reporter: Nick McKenzie Producer: Amelia Ballinger Angel of Death It is a crime as shocking as it is evil. The murders of seven babies, and the attempted murder of seven others, by a British nurse who preyed on the infants in her care. The audacity and magnitude of the horrors inflicted by 35-year-old Lucy Letby are striking. Officially, she is one of the most prolific child killers of modern times. But growing doubts could turn this case on its head. Letbys backers claim concerns about the reliability of complex medical and circumstantial evidence used to convict her have been turbocharged by new information that raises serious questions about her guilt. The implications could not be starker. Either Lucy Letby is a sadistic monster, or she is the victim of the greatest miscarriage of justice in British history. Reporter: Tara Brown Producer: Anne Worthington 8:40pm Sunday on Nine. Seven has promoted Sean Power, currently Director of 7NEWS Sydney, to Director of News Integration and Strategy as he returns to Melbourne. Power, who has been Executive Producer of Sunrise, will lead the integration of nightly news content across all of Sevens platforms, including 7NEWS.com.au, 7plus, The Nightly and social platforms. In addition, he will oversee the networks major news events in partnership with National News Desk Director and Foreign Editor Hugh Whitfeld. He will also act as the key liaison between Programming, Communications and Marketing to amplify news brands across the network. Sevens Director of News and Current Affairs, Ray Kuka, said: This critical role will mean 7NEWS has a clear plan to make our first-class journalism sing not just on broadcast but also online. So much of our incredible news gathering ends up on the cutting room floor. Sean will enhance our delivery of news and make sure our audiences everywhere know about our exclusive and investigative content. He will also be charged with working with Sales and Partnerships to fund new programs as 7NEWS invests in the solid future of television. Of significance in the announcement is Seven confirming he will begin work on a new national program to be broadcast from Seven Melbournes new state-of-the-art studios. Its a privilege to work alongside Australias sharpest journalists. Were building on the best of 7NEWS sharpening our storytelling, growing our audience, and driving the next chapter with purpose and pace, said Power. Current 7NEWS Sydney Executive Producer Geoff Dunn will step into the News Director role in an acting capacity while a re-structure is finalised. He has worked in the Sydney newsroom for more than two decades. Seven also confirmed the departure of Gemma Acton, currently Director of News Operations, who is relocating with her family overseas to Dubai for a new career opportunity. Mr Kuka said: We want to thank Gemma for her outstanding contribution over the past seven years both in front of and behind the camera. Her dedication, professionalism and mentorship have had a lasting impact on so many, and she leaves with our warmest thanks and very best wishes for this exciting new chapter for her and her family. Gemmas held onto this news for a while now, so I appreciate her taking the time to hand over parts of her role while preparing for her overseas move in two weeks. Slovenia will consider its future participation in the Eurovision Song Contest unless organisers take serious steps to address concerns around the voting system and Israels participation. Television Slovenia first raised concerns in December -the first to do so ahead of the 2025 event. Now Ksenija Horvat, director of Television Slovenia, has sent a letter to the EBU. As the director of Television Slovenia, I am once again addressing you with serious and growing concerns regarding Israels continued participation in EBU events, especially the Eurovision Song Contest, she wrote. Unfortunately, the response we received did not contain convincing or concrete explanations, nor did it reflect the urgency and seriousness of the issue we are addressing. During this time, the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories has worsened, and public concern both in Slovenia and throughout Europe has increased significantly. Many viewers in Slovenia and elsewhere expressed serious doubts about the credibility and transparency of the voting, especially in the political context surrounding the contest. The feeling that political interests could influence decisions on participation or the final results of the vote shook the publics trust in the impartiality of the EBU. We are particularly interested in comparing telephone votes with online votes, as we believe this is essential to restoring trust in the integrity of the voting process. As public media, we have a duty to provide our audience with accurate and verifiable information. As a public media outlet responsible to the public, Television Slovenia is under increasing pressure to respond to such concerns. If the EBU does not take concrete steps and address the issues, we will consider our participation in future Eurovision events. We will be forced to do so if the EBU continues to fail to address these key issues from both an ethical and public interest perspective. It follows RTVE of Spain, VRT of Belgium, RUV of Iceland, Yle of Finland, and RTE of Ireland all raising questions regarding the voting at the contest. AVROTROS and NPO in the Netherlands have also raised queries regarding the current state of the contest. Director of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Green, recently stated that the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group will review the voting data in June. In addition, they will review the promotion of participants by their delegations and associated parties and discuss whether the public vote should continue to allow up to 20 votes to be cast. Slovenia has participated in 22 contests, but failed to qualify in the 2025 Final. Source: Eurovoix Photo: EBU The Real Housewives of London went into production in March 2025, following six socialites in the first UK edition of the global franchise. Expect lavish dinners, castle getaways and a long supply of champers, darling. Coming soon to Hayu, a date is yet to be announced. Juliet Mayhew An Australian native and former Miss Galaxy Universe, Juliet is now living in one of Chelseas most desirable neighbourhoods. Married to Tiggy, with whom she has two teenage children, she is a former actress turned creative producer. She is a committed philanthropist and specialises in hosting immersive events through her successful event planning company catering to some of the worlds most elite clients. She shares a close friendship with Caroline Stanbury (The Real Housewives of Dubai). Juliet Angus Chicago native and now a resident of West London, Juliet initially captured hearts as a cast member on Ladies of London. A social media influencer, global brand partner, stylist, and former fashion publicist, Juliet has carved out a reputation as a tastemaker on both sides of the pond. Amanda Cronin A fixture on Londons elite social scene, former model turned entrepreneur Amanda has close ties to Meredith Marks (The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City) and Dorinda Medley (The Real Housewives New York City). Karen Loderick-Peace A former cast member of The Real Housewives of Jersey, Karen and her husband Jeremy, former chairman and owner of West Bromwich Albion F.C. share three children and own five luxurious properties across London, Jersey and Barbados. She is currently preparing to launch her own fashion label, reflecting her passion for style and design. Panthea Parker Known for her high-society lifestyle and formidable social circle, Panthea has embraced a life of glamour, having been on the Mayfair scene since the 90s, partying with A-listers. Nessie Welschinger Born and raised in London, Nessie shares her Chelsea family home and a 500-year-old estate in the Cotswolds with her husband Remy and their three children. A former Global Head of Equity at Schroders, she now runs the renowned Chelsea Cake Company, boasting high-profile clientele including Queen Elizabeth II. The Real Housewives of London introduces six glamorous, stylish and bold women who are making their mark across the capitals most prestigious postcodes. From Belgravia to Chelsea, these women balance ambition, family and fierce friendships all while living life at full volume. Whether hosting lavish dinners, escaping to a Scottish castle, or rebuilding bonds over bottles of champagne, theyre navigating life, legacy and loyalty in a city where wealth whispers and grudges roar. With big personalities, deep histories, and no shortage of designer drama, the path to connection is never simple but its always captivating. Londons calling and this group always answers. 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. HA NOI Entering the first half of 2025, Viet Nams electronics industry has continued to make an impressive mark, with export turnover exceeding US$47 billion in just the first four months. However, behind the headline numbers lies a more complex picture, as the sector faces increasing pressure from global trade tensions, particularly the potential imposition of retaliatory tariffs by the United States on electronics, computers and semiconductor products from Viet Nam. This context has brought to the forefront the urgent need to enhance competitiveness and reduce reliance on foreign-invested enterprises, in order to protect and sustain Viet Nams billion-dollar export sector. According to the General Statistics Office, exports of computers, electronic components and equipment reached more than $29 billion in the first four months of 2025, while phones and accessories generated nearly $18 billion. However, foreign-invested enterprises accounted for 85 per cent of the export value to the United States. In reality, domestic firms still lag behind in terms of technological capacity, financial resources and their ability to participate deeply in global supply chains. Among local enterprises striving to assert their position, Hanel PT has emerged as a standout example. Having transitioned from a subcontracting firm into an OEM/ODM service provider, Hanel PT now oversees the entire process from design and production to quality control. The company was recently awarded the 2025 Quality Award by Brother Group, a global name in electronic equipment manufacturing. The deputy general director of Hanel PT, Tran uc Tung, remarked that international recognition such as the Brother Product Certification marks a significant turning point. It not only enhances our corporate reputation but also opens new doors to global customers. More importantly, it acknowledges our serious investments in technology, quality management, and international integration mindset as a Vietnamese enterprise, he said. In the face of trade uncertainties, many domestic firms have swiftly taken action to adapt. Lai Hoang Duong, general director of Thanh Giong Communications and Computers JSC, said that his company has been actively diversifying its export markets to avoid overreliance on the US. Expanding into other countries helps reduce risk in the face of tariff shifts. In the long term, we are focused on improving product quality to meet the strict standards of international markets, Duong said. Duong added that the company is pursuing a flexible strategy, investing in R&D, upgrading technology, refining production management and optimising costs. We are working closely with both domestic and international authorities to stay informed on policy changes and are adjusting our production plans accordingly, he noted. Such proactive strategies not only help businesses maintain operational stability but also open new pathways to improve internal capabilities. The executive committee member of the Viet Nam Electronic Industries Association (VEIA) and vice president of the Viet Nam Supporting Industries Association, o Thi Thuy Huong, emphasised that this is a critical juncture for businesses and the economy to reassess their dependence on foreign capital. If we rely too heavily on external resources, we lose autonomy. We must enhance localisation, develop domestic production, improve product quality and business management to optimise costs. Only then can Vietnamese goods remain competitive across any market, she said. According to Huong, Viet Nams electronics sector should focus on three pillars for long-term resilience: investment in technology, human capital development and financial independence. Clearly, the US is one of the largest consumer markets globally and everyone wants to sell there. But that does not mean we put all our eggs in one basket. When we benefit from a market, of course we should sell there but we must also learn from this and always prepare contingency plans, while managing risks in the best possible way, she said. On the policy front, the VEIA has proposed several measures to support enterprises and assist the Government in trade negotiations with the US. These include enhancing supply chain transparency, committing to prevent illegal transshipments, increasing imports of US-made components to rebalance trade and introducing preferential credit and tax reductions for affected companies. VNS HA NOI Viet Nams textile and garment sector is experiencing a significant upswing, driven by favourable global dynamics and robust export performance. Recent statements from the US President Donald Trump, suggesting a shift in American industrial focus away from traditional manufacturing, have been interpreted by investors as an opportunity for Viet Nam to expand its role in global apparel supply chains. Speaking in New Jersey, Trump emphasised that the US should concentrate on advanced industries such as artificial intelligence and military equipment, rather than traditional manufacturing like apparel. This perspective has been perceived as an indication that the US may further outsource textile production, benefiting countries like Viet Nam. The Vietnamese stock market responded positively to these developments. On May 26, shares of several textile companies, including Vinatex (VGT), TNG Investment and Trading JSC (TNG), Hoa Tho Textile & Garment JSC (HTG), Thanh Cong Textile Garment Investment Trading JSC (TCM), Song Hong Garment (MSH) and GIlimex (GIL), hit their daily biggest gains. The momentum continued into the following day, with HTG maintaining its upper limit and other stocks like TNG, VGT and TCM posting gains exceeding 6 per cent. This surge reflects renewed investor confidence in the sector's growth prospects Viet Nams position as the world's second-largest textile exporter, trailing only China, underscores its significance in the global market. According to the General Department of Viet Nam Customs, the country's textile and garment exports reached US$8.69 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with the US accounting for 43.6 per cent of this figure. April saw a 15 per cent year-over-year increase, totalling $3.64 billion. Several factors contribute to this positive outlook. Major US retailers are reportedly facing low inventory levels, particularly for fall and winter apparel, with stock sufficient for only six to eight weeks. The decline in Chinese market share in Japan and South Korea may be attributed to increased scrutiny of tax evasion practices by Chinese companies amid ongoing trade negotiations between the US and its trading partners. Simultaneously, competitors like Bangladesh and Pakistan are grappling with energy shortages and political instability, hindering their production capabilities. This scenario positions Viet Nam as a reliable alternative for international buyers seeking stable supply chains. Domestic garment production also remains robust, as evidenced by the Industrial Production Index (IIP) and labour indices consistently showing upward trends without any months of contraction since the beginning of this year. Typically, textile production experiences one or two months of contraction in the first quarter due to seasonal low demand and holidays. Previously, during the May seminar organised by Vinatex, Dr Le Tien Truong, chairman of Vinatex's Board of Directors, highlighted the significant opportunities for orders in the textile industry during the first six months of the year, suggesting that this positive trend could extend through the end of the third quarter of 2025. Truong also said that between now and July 10, the US may introduce temporary countervailing tax policies for Viet Nam, pending the outcomes of negotiations between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the government. Even though orders in Q3 could remain strong due to low US inventories, Q4 may experience a decline of around 10 per cent due to reduced consumer demand in the US, he added. Industry experts suggest that the current market conditions could herald a new growth phase for Vietnamese textile stocks. Technical analyses indicate that these stocks have surpassed medium-term resistance levels, and any supportive international policies or increased order volumes could further propel their ascent. However, challenges persist. A recent increase in domestic electricity prices, effective from May 10, has raised production costs, particularly affecting yarn manufacturers with narrow profit margins. Companies must navigate these cost pressures while capitalising on emerging global opportunities. BIZHUB/VNS By Ly Ly Cao HA NOI This year marks 35 years since Viet Nam and Switzerland began their formal development cooperation, a partnership that has not only weathered the test of time but also flourished into one of deep trust, innovation and tangible results. At a landmark event in Ha Noi in the afternoon of May 29, leaders and stakeholders from both countries came together to reflect on past achievements and launch the next chapter in their bilateral development journey. Since the beginning of Swiss development assistance to Viet Nam in 1991, Switzerland has committed over 650 million Swiss franc (US$800 million) in Official Development Assistance (ODA), evolving from a focus on poverty reduction to supporting sustainable economic growth, innovation and climate resilience. Over the past 35 years, Switzerland has invested about $800 million in this partnership. But more than numbers, it's the impact that matters, said Thomas Gass, Switzerlands Ambassador to Viet Nam. From public leadership to private sector entrepreneurship, Swiss expertise has contributed to knowledge transfer, skills development and innovative solutions that helped drive Viet Nams transformation into one of the most dynamic economies in the world. At the heart of the relationship is a shared commitment to inclusive and sustainable development. Swiss cooperation, coordinated through the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), has helped Viet Nam stabilise its financial system, expand access to capital for small businesses and introduce environmentally responsible practices in industry and urban development. The results are visible not just in policy reforms or macroeconomic indicators, but also in the lives of entrepreneurs, farmers and communities across the country. From aid to partnership Swiss cooperation has adapted over the decades, shifting from traditional aid to transformative partnerships. Institutions such as the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Ministry of Construction (MoC) have benefitted directly from Swiss expertise. Weve received effective support from the Swiss government through capacity-building programmes for banking staff, said acting director general at SBV Hoang Thi Phuong Hanh. She emphasised the importance of Switzerlands advanced financial systems and voiced hope for deeper ties with Swiss financial institutions as Viet Nam moves to develop international financial centres. She also welcomed SECO and the Swiss Embassy as vital bridges to future investment and knowledge exchange. Tran Quoc Thai, director general of the Urban Development Agency at the Ministry of Construction, pointed to the urgent need for resilient urban systems amid escalating climate threats. He expressed strong appreciation for Switzerlands practical assistance, especially in helping Viet Nam integrate sustainable planning tools into its urban growth strategies. We hope to deepen our collaboration with SECO and Swiss experts to build cities that are not only smart but also climate-resilient, he said. Trade and innovation have been key themes in the partnership as well. Bui Huy Son, director general for the Planning and Finance Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, acknowledged the challenges in finalising a trade agreement with Switzerland and three other countries, but remained optimistic. We hope we are only a short distance from a deal, he said, stressing the urgency of unlocking the mutual benefits that a trade accord would bring. At the event, Ambassador Gass also proudly highlighted the presence of Swiss technology in Vietnamese enterprises, from Buhler machinery in VinFast factories to the contributions of Swiss pharma, construction and IT firms. "Swiss companies already bring innovation into Viet Nam and our goal is to deepen this connection further, laying the groundwork for even more meaningful technology transfer," he said. Looking ahead, the 202528 cooperation programme will carry this spirit into a new phase. With a $50 million commitment, Switzerland will continue to work with Viet Nam to foster sustainable trade, strengthen public and private finance and advance climate-smart development. As Ambassador Gass noted, these efforts align closely with Viet Nams goals of achieving high-income status by 2045 and net-zero emissions by 2050. Beyond the headlines and funding figures, what stood out at the event was the deep sense of shared purpose. "Let us work together to turn challenges into innovation and ensure that the economic transformation ahead is not only fast but also fair and inclusive," he said. BIZHUB/VNS HCM CITY Now is a golden opportunity for Viet Nam to build a self-reliant and resilient economy to realise its aspiration of becoming a developed, high-income nation by 2045, experts affirmed at a forum in HCM City on May 30. At the seminar titled 'Building a Self-Reliant and Resilient Economy' held by Thanh Nien Newspaper, economist Dr Tran Du Lich emphasised that self-reliance does not mean reverting to self-sufficiency. Instead, it requires proactive global integration, mastery of technology and markets, and the development of a strong community of Vietnamese businesses capable of driving innovation and digital transformation. In a world where countries are moving toward higher value-added production, Viet Nam cannot remain stuck in low-level outsourcing and assembly, he said. We often take pride in export figures, but much of it is contract manufacturing with limited value retained. Exporting US$10 billion while importing $9 billion worth of inputs brings minimal real benefit. Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien newspaper, Nguyen Ngoc Toan, noted that many sectors remain heavily dependent on imported materials. For example, the textile industry imports around 50 per cent of its inputs, footwear about 45 per cent, and the plastics sector up to 80 per cent. This overdependence on a few major markets poses systemic risks, already seen in heightened trade remedies such as the imposition of high reciprocal tariffs by the US. Toan added that the Government has set out a long-term strategy to build a self-reliant, resilient economy. With the recent adoption of major policy resolutions, especially Resolution 68 on private sector development, Viet Nam now has the tools to advance this vision. Dr Lich said the present is a period of "perfect timing" for Viet Nam to realise its goal of sustainable development, enhancing its self-reliance and resilience, as several critical policies are being implemented simultaneously. Four major resolutions have recently been enacted, forming a 'four-pillar framework' for shaping Viet Nams long-term development vision, including Resolution 57 on promoting science, technology, and innovation, and Resolution 59 on proactive and comprehensive international integration. This is an unprecedented policy ecosystem, showing the States strong political will to drive private-sector growth, transform the growth model, and help Viet Nam avoid the middle-income trap, Lich said. He warned that Viet Nam must act now before the country faces a significant ageing population. If we miss this window of opportunity, we may not get another. Its now or never. On the enterprise side, Lich urged companies to reflect on their development strategies, form partnerships and help foster a transparent and fair competitive environment. Chairman of Vietravel Corporation, Nguyen Quoc Ky, encouraged businesses to restructure, embrace innovation, build strong brands and ensure transparency. Many entrepreneurs at the seminar praised Resolution 68 as the first policy to clearly define the private sector as a central pillar of the economy. They noted that the resolution paves the way for a more open, supportive business environment. Deputy CEO of Hoa Phat Group, Nguyen Thi Thao Nguyen, said the resolution not only removes long-standing obstacles but also inspires national pride and the spirit of self-reliance. Each business is like a cell in the national economy. If the cells are healthy, the economy will be strong, she said. We are eager to contribute more meaningfully to national development. She also called on policymakers to adopt measures aligned with international norms to protect domestic enterprises, especially as many importing countries tighten trade remedies using tariffs and technical barriers. In recent years, cheap imports have flooded Viet Nams market. Domestic enterprises need a level playing field and a healthy local ecosystem to grow and compete, she noted. Delegates also highlighted the urgent need to develop a supporting industry that meets rules of origin in major export markets. Chairman of Viet Thang Jean, Pham Van Viet, stressed that only by increasing localisation and integrating more deeply into global supply chains can Vietnamese companies improve competitiveness. VNS HCM CITY DP World of the UAE in partnership with VIMC Container Lines JSC, a member of Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC), on Friday launched the Mekong Express, a domestic sea-river transport route connecting Cai Cui Port in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta city of Can Tho and Cai Mep Port in the coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The Mekong Express completed its inaugural journey on May 30, marking the official launch of the service. Operating twice a week, the barge service reduces transit times of 48 hours by the river ways to just 15 hours via a combination of river and sea routes, a 70 per cent improvement. While the previous journey covers approximately 367 km, the coastal route is significantly shorter at around 200 km, making it a faster, more sustainable and cost-effective solution for cargo owners across Viet Nam. Designed to support dry and cold chain logistics, the Mekong Express can transport up to several hundred TEUs per voyage and is capable of handling a large number of refrigerated containers. The new service is also a more sustainable alternative to road transport, generating 60 per cent less carbon emissions. Equipped with real-time digital cargo tracking and carbon monitoring, DP World and VIMC Lines expect the service to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2026. Glen Hilton, Asia Pacific CEO & Managing Director at DP World, said: DP World is committed to building a seamless, integrated supply chain ecosystem in Viet Nam, an increasingly important market for trade in the Asia Pacific region and globally. With the Mekong Express, we are responding to demand for a more efficient and reliable service. This will help support economic development not just within the south Viet Nam but throughout the country, Hilton said. The launch of this new coastal logistics service also marks a major step in our expansion in Viet Nam, complementing our ongoing operation of Saigon Premier Container Terminal, he said. Le Quang Trung, Vice President of VIMC and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Can Tho Port JSC said: VIMC is proud to launch and operate the Mekong Express service which brings new levels of efficiency and reliability to Viet Nams domestic logistics landscape. The collaboration between VIMC Lines and DP World Vietnam reflects our shared commitment to advancing and innovating new solutions for customers in the country. We look forward to continuing expanding international cooperation in order to unlock greater value for businesses and strengthen the countrys supply chain resilience, he said. The south Viet Nam is home to the Mekong Delta Key Economic Region and the Southern Key Economic Region. By enhancing connectivity between these strategically vital zones, the Mekong Express will strengthen Viet Nams role in regional and global logistics networks. DP World currently operates the Saigon Premier Container Terminal in HCM City, with an annual capacity of 400,000 TEUs. VNS HAI DUONG The People's Committee of Hai Duong Province on Friday held a ceremony to start off the lychee season and mark the export of this year's first batch of Thanh Ha lychees. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Tran Van Quan, vice chairman of the provincial People's Committee, emphasised that along with ensuring safe and quality production, the province continues to focus on trade and product promotion and connecting consumption markets. Immediately after the opening ceremony, the People's Committee of Thanh Ha District coordinated with enterprises to cut the ribbon and export the lychee batch to Japan. On the same day, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade coordinated with the provincial People's Committee to organise a conference to promote the Thanh Ha lychee trade with Vietnamese trade counsellors and foreign enterprises. Tran Van Hao, director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, said that in addition to the traditional market of China, which consumes about 15,000 - 20,000 tonnes of the fruit, Thanh Ha lychee has been exported to many high-end markets such as the US, Japan, Australia, the UK and the EU. In addition, the average domestic consumption output is about 20,000 tonnes per year. The province will grow about 8,800 hectares of lychee this year, including 2,850 hectares of early lychee and 5,850 hectares of main-season lychee. This year's harvest is expected to yield about 60,000 tonnes, including 32,500 tonnes of early lychee and 27,500 tonnes of main-season lychee. Thanh Ha district alone is expected to harvest about 38,000 tonnes. VNS During separate visits to Viet Nam, both French President Emmanuel Macron and Hungarian President Sulyok Tamas, along with their spouses, took time to explore the cultural soul of Ha Noi through leisurely strolls, impromptu conversations with locals and visits to some of the citys most iconic landmarks. President Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron on May 27 began their cultural exploration shortly after arriving in Ha Noi. Their walk through the capitals Old Quarter and around Hoan Kiem Lake included stops at historic sites such as King Ly Thai To Statue, Ngoc Son Temple and St Josephs Cathedral. They took in the citys unique blend of spiritual tradition and colonial architecture, often engaging warmly with local residents along the way. The following day, Hungarian President Tamas and First Lady Nagy Zsuzsanna also enjoyed a peaceful walk around the city centre, beginning soon after their arrival. Despite the evening drizzle, they strolled hand-in-hand through quiet streets and paused at iconic landmarks including Hoa Phong Tower, King Ly Thai To Statue, and the shimmering Hoan Kiem Lake. Their visit was marked by warm interactions with locals and an evident curiosity about the cultural and historical layers of the capital. These walks, spontaneous and steeped in quiet symbolism, show how cultural connection and personal engagement can complement diplomatic exchanges. Whether admiring the citys oriental and colonial architecture or pausing in reflection by its ancient lakeside, both foreign leaders revealed a sincere interest in the heart of Viet Nams capital. This photo essay captures those elegant, human moments moments in which Ha Noi emerged not only as a political host, but as a living archive of history, grace and hospitality. VNS HA NOI The Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre has sent two troupes to perform in Japanese cities as part of the activities in the upcoming Viet Nam Festival in Japan. This is not only an art tour, but also a special journey to exchange culture and promote the quintessence of traditional puppetry art of the nation to international friends, according to the theatre. The highlight of show tour is a special art programme honouring the Viet Nam-Japan friendship, which has been elaborately staged by leading artists such as the Meritorious Artist Tran Thanh Hien as art director, scriptwriter Thanh Phuong, director Meritorious Artist Thanh Tung and choreographer Meritorious Artist Khanh Toan. The programme is a 'smooth blend' of music and dance with traditional puppetry devided into two parts. The first features water puppetry with unique performances that create the brand of Thang Long puppetry while the second will come with comprehensive shows of traditional music and dance. Meritorious Artist Tran Thanh Hien, director of the theatre, said the show aims to boost connections and friendship between Viet Nam and Japan. It also helps promote development of national art introducing to foreign friends the folk culture of Viet Nam and the image of Ha Noi City. It is hoped that the tour will especially attract more Japanese tourists to visit Viet Nam and to Ha Noi in particular, said the theatre official. According to the plan, one of the troupe will be performing in Hokkaido within the framework of the 'Japan - Viet Nam Economic Cooperation and Cultural Exchange Forum'. The two troupes then will come together in Tokyo to participate in the 17th Viet Nam Festival in Japan which will take place between May 31-June 1 at Yoyogi Park. Vietnamese puppet shows will continue in Japan until June 3. The presence of Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre in the festival this year is an artistic highlight imbued with Vietnamese identity in connecting the two cultures. Viet Nam Festival in Japan Launched in 2008, the Viet Nam Festival in Tokyo has become a major cultural exchange event, serving as a bridge in the fields of culture, economy, tourism and human resources between the two countries. Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo this month to announce the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Pham Quang Hieu, who is co-chair of the organising board, noted that over the past 17 years, the festival has become a hallmark of cultural exchange, eagerly anticipated each year by Japanese friends and the Vietnamese community living in Japan. He highlighted that the festival is not only an opportunity for overseas Vietnamese to reconnect with their roots, but also: "Serves as an important bridge bringing Vietnamese culture closer to the Japanese public". The diplomat particularly underscored the role of people-to-people exchanges as a vital pillar of the two nations Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World. In addition to the water puppetry, this years programme will feature performances by young Vietnamese artists, an ao dai (Vietnamese traditional long dress) showcase and an exhibition of authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Japanese lawmaker Aoyagi Yoichiro, who is also a co-chair of the organising board, described the festival as the largest Vietnamese cultural event in Japan. He underlined its growing role as a comprehensive platform to further deepen bilateral relations across multiple sectors, including economy, tourism, culture and people-to-people exchange. The organisers expect approximately 130 booths and an estimated 180,000 visitors during the two-day festival. VNS BUENOS AIRES Over the past 30 years, the Viet NamParaguay relationship has been nurtured by friendship, solidarity and cooperation that has been constantly expanding, said Honorary Consul of Viet Nam in Paraguay Maria Del Carmen Perez. Speaking to Vietnam News Agency correspondents on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Paraguay (May 30, 19952025), she said that the two countries have many similarities in history and culture. Both Viet Nam and Paraguay have experienced various difficulties, but with their resilience, they have overcome all challenges to thrive and bring a prosperous life to their people. Regarding co-operation potential, especially in economy and trade, the Honorary Consul said Paraguay's strong products such as beef and oil products can meet the growing demand of the Vietnamese market. In return, Viet Nam can export many industrial products to Paraguay. In addition, the two countries discussed cooperation measures in the fields of telecommunications and technology. In particular, the visit to Viet Nam by Paraguayan Minister of Industry and Commerce Javier Gimenez 2024 and the visits to Paraguay by Vietnamese officials, including Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu and many businesses, have helped promote mutual understanding and expand cooperation channels. Maria Del Carmen Perez also highlighted the construction of an outdoor museum called Aviadores del Chaco in the tourist city of San Bernardino, 45km from the capital Asuncion, saying the museum's interpretation will acknowledge Viet Nam's contribution in providing ideas and inspiration. These activities not only mark the 30-year milestone of diplomatic relations but also open a new chapter for deeper ties between Viet Nam and Paraguay across fields from culture, education to trade and sustainable development, she said. VNS HA NOI Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, Vice President of the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam, has been officially nominated by Viet Nam as a candidate for judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the 202635 term. Speaking at the nomination ceremony in Ha Noi on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son underscored the significance of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), describing it as the constitution of the oceans, while highlighting the ITLOSs vital role in safeguarding the Conventions integrity. This marks Viet Nam's first-ever candidacy for a seat on ITLOS, a move that reflects the countrys consistent stance in supporting international law, multilateralism, and active contributions to global governance. The nomination also affirms Viet Nam's commitment to promoting gender equality and the role of women in international institutions. At the event, Dr. Anh outlined her vision and strong commitment to the rule of law at sea, pledging impartiality, integrity, and professionalism in fulfilling the duties of an ITLOS judge. The event drew the participation of over 80 ambassadors, heads of diplomatic missions, and representatives from Vietnamese ministries and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Many expressed strong support for Viet Nam's candidacy, praising Dr. Anhs credentials and professional achievements. Dr. Lan Anh is widely recognised as one of Viet Nam's leading experts in international law. With deep academic expertise and extensive experience in teaching, research, and public speaking on the law of the sea. She currently serves as an arbitrator under Annex VII of UNCLOS and as Vice President of the Asian Society of International Law. She is the author and co-author numerous publications and articles in reputable international journals. She has convened multiple international conferences on regional maritime security and UNCLOS implementation. In addition, she has substantial experience in both bilateral and multilateral affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. VNS SANTO DOMINGO The Dominican Republic treasures its relations with Viet Nam, a nation with growing important role in the Asia-Pacific region, President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona told Vietnamese Ambassador Le Quang Long, who the diplomat came to present his credentials on May 29 in Santo Domingo. President Abinader proposed enhancing bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest, particularly telecommunications, agriculture and high technology. The host congratulated Ambassador Long on his appointment, while expressing his belief that the ambassador will help further strengthen the friendship and cooperation between the two nations. For his part, Ambassador Long conveyed the greetings and best wishes of General Secretary To Lam, State President Luong Cuong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man to President Luis Abinader. Long affirmed his commitment to advancing bilateral relations to a new level, serving as a bridge to implement agreements reached during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinhs visit to the Dominican Republic in last November, a milestone in strengthening traditional friendship and boosting economic, trade and investment cooperation. He called on the government of the Dominican Republic to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses, particularly in telecommunications a sector where Viet Nam is strong in and the Dominican Republic needs. On the occasion, Ambassador Long met with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Caraballo, who is in charge of bilateral foreign policy, and General Secretary of the United Left Movement Party Miguel Mejia. Both sides stressed the need to implement high-level agreements effectively and agreed to boost delegation exchanges, strengthen bilateral cooperation, and maintain mutual support in international forums. VNS NEW YORK United Nations leaders have lauded Viet Nams active engagement and constructive contributions across the organisations key pillars while receiving Ambassador ang Hoang Giang, who prepares to conclude his tenure as Viet Nams Permanent Representative to the UN. Ambassador Giang paid farewell visits to President of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly Philemon Yang and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on May 21 and 27, respectively. At their meeting, Yang warmly congratulated Viet Nam on its recent impressive socio-economic and diplomatic achievements. He praised the countrys role and contributions across the UNs three pillarspeace and security, sustainable development, and human rights promotion. He also extended sincere thanks to the Vietnamese Mission and Ambassador Giang for their steadfast support for the General Assembly Presidents agenda and priorities. Talking to Giang, Guterres expressed high regard for Viet Nams growing role in the UN, as well as the diplomats personal efforts in fostering cooperation and consensus at the UN. He noted that the countrys recent initiatives have received broad support from member states, reflecting their relevance to global concerns as well as their contribution to promoting multilateralism. The Secretary-General reaffirmed his intention to visit Viet Nam again, expressing his hope that relations between the UN and Viet Nam will continue to strengthen, with Viet Nam further enhancing its position at UN forums. For his part, Giang expressed his deep appreciation for the support and affection extended by the Secretary-General and the General Assembly President to Viet Nam and the Viet Namese Mission throughout his more than three-year tenure. He highlighted the countrys strong commitment to multilateralism and its readiness to make increasingly substantive contributions to the UNs common work to maintain international peace and security, promote sustainable development, and efficiently address global challenges. VNS KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has described Viet Nam as a very significant member within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while speaking to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Kuala Lumpur. PM Anwar said both Malaysia and he personally value the progress made in cooperation between the two countries. Talking about Viet Nams role within the bloc, the PM noted that he maintains regular contact with Vietnamese leaders to exchange views on ASEAN-related issues, including the USs new tariff policy and the situation in Myanmar. Malaysia and Viet Nam are working closely together on these issues, he said, noting that Viet Nam supports Malaysias initiative to promote the ASEAN Power Grid. Reflecting on the growing relationship between the two countries, especially after it was elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership in November 2024, Anwar said there have already been clear results in several fields. He cited enhanced bilateral trade and investment cooperation, including the collaboration between the two countries national oil and gas corporations. Addressing the remaining challenges, the Malaysian leader expressed confidence that the two countries are always willing to find solutions together. Malaysian experts have also shared insights into Viet Nams growing role within ASEAN. Speaking to the Vietnam News Agency, Dr. Oh Ei Sun, Principal Adviser at Malaysias Pacific Research Centre, described Viet Nam as a dynamic and effective participant at the recent ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. He noted that the Vietnamese Prime Minister, in his address at the summit, outlined three key focuses, with a strong emphasis on the need for ASEAN to adopt a development mindset grounded in inclusiveness. The expert stressed this was a crucial point, highlighting Viet Nam as an example. Over the past two to three decades, the country has made a remarkable leapfrom a peripheral player to a central and increasingly influential member of ASEAN. This, he said, demonstrates the importance of ensuring all member states, regardless of their level of development, can engage fully and effectively in the bloc. Citing Viet Nams experience, he expressed confidence that less developed members could also rise with support from stronger economies within ASEAN. Beyond inclusiveness, Oh said the Vietnamese PM also underlined the importance of connectivity. Thanks to its important location, Viet Nam plays a crucial role in linking Southeast Asias shipping routes and is expected to contribute significantly to the regions railway network. In terms of resilience, he commended the PM for addressing the issue at a right time. With a large and young population and strong rice production capacity, Viet Nam has the potential to boost exports to other ASEAN countries, including Malaysia. He added that ASEAN members could learn valuable lessons regarding food and energy security from Viet Nam. The expert concluded that the Vietnamese PMs speech on inclusiveness, connectivity, and resilience was relevant and useful to ASEAN members at this years summit. Regarding Malaysia-Viet Nam relations, Dr. Oh highlighted the two countries' elevation of their bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in last November, saying it is a timely decision and the relations have been witnessing many positive changes. Specifically, more and more Vietnamese students pursue studies at universities in Malaysia; bilateral trade is also on the rise; the two countries coordinate effectively, and make contributions to the development of ASEAN. More importantly, both countries support the admission of Timor-Leste as a new ASEAN member, as well as assist to develop its economy. Sharing the same view with Dr. Oh on Viet Nam's role in ASEAN, Collins Chong Yew Keat, an expert on foreign affairs and security at the University of Malaya, affirmed that Viet Nam has a very positive influence on the development of ASEAN with its great contributions in many fields. Viet Nam is currently playing an active role in promoting energy transition, digital transformation and ensuring food security. This is a great support for all other ASEAN members as well as the bilateral relationship between Viet Nam and Malaysia. Chong emphasised that it is clear that Viet Nam's role in ASEANs development as well as building a stronger, more resilient, more inclusive and sustainable ASEAN in all areas. This is reflected in Viet Nam's spectacular and transformational economic growth rate, improving people's lives as well as its determination to move towards a digital economy, a green economy, and sustainable development. The expert expressed his belief that Viet Nam will be one of the leading countries in ASEAN and together with other members, including Malaysia, promote the common agenda of a more prosperous, inclusive, unified ASEAN with peace, stability and safety. VNS HA NOI The Office of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Central Committee and the Office of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee will strengthen cooperation, contributing to lifting collaboration and relations between the two Parties and countries to a new height, as agreed by their heads during talks in Ha Noi on Thursday. Secretary of the CPV Central Committee and chief of its office Le Hoai Trung and his Lao counterpart Thongsalith Mangnomek informed each other about the situation of each Party and country. They also touched upon cooperation results between the two offices over the past time and orientations for the time ahead. They agreed that the 20212025 cooperation agreement serves as a foundation for the two offices to plan annual activities. Both sides will coordinate to review cooperation by the end of this year and sign a new five-year cooperation agreement in early 2026. They said the substantive cooperation activities have contributed to improving the quality of advisory work to the leaders of the two Parties and the States, and to fostering the great friendship and special solidarity between Viet Nam and Laos. The Vietnamese office will closely coordinate with its Lao counterpart to effectively implement their cooperation agreement as well as high-level agreements between the two Parties. The two offices will also exchange experiences during preparations for Party congresses at all levels towards the national congress of each Party, they said. VNS TOKYO Viet Nam considers Japan a trusted partner in the new era of development, Deputy Prime Minister (PM) Nguyen Chi Dung told Japanese PM Ishiba Shigeru during a meeting in Tokyo on Friday. Deputy PM Dung, who is in Tokyo for the 30th Nikkei Forum "Future of Asia", expressed satisfaction with the robust and substantive development of the Viet Nam - Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, built on strong political trust. He expressed a desire to closely coordinate the effective realisation of high-level agreements and continue facilitating high-level exchanges to further reinforce political trust and close bond between the two countries. Briefing on Viet Nams determination, efforts, and new policies, Dung proposed deeper economic, investment, trade, cultural, and educational and locality-to-locality ties. He called for Japanese investment in major projects in Viet Nam, particularly in urban and high-speed railways, energy, digital infrastructure, and high-quality agriculture. Regarding the newly identified pillar of sci-tech cooperation, he advocated for stronger ties across green transition, digital transformation, and training of high-quality workforce, especially in the semiconductor sector. He also suggested the Japanese support to improve the efficiency of the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical project in the central province of Thanh Hoa. Reflecting on his April visit to Viet Nam, PM Ishiba shared his admiration for the countrys development vision and the vibrant energy of its people, drawing parallel to Japans own economic ascent three decades ago. He expressed confidence in Viet Nams ability to achieve its development goals and reaffirmed Japans commitment to advancing bilateral agreements in trade, economy, investment, science, technology, and human resource development. Ishiba endorsed the focus on sci-tech, innovation, and skilled workforce training, praising the dedication of Vietnamese workers in Japan for their significant contributions to the countrys economy. He voiced enthusiasm for welcoming more Vietnamese workers, particularly those with specialised skills. On global and regional issues of mutual concern, the host and the guest vowed to work closely together at multilateral forums, jointly address global challenges, and step up multilateral free trade. At a roundtable meeting with the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Dung urged Japanese associations and businesses to partner with the Vietnamese Government to tackle major economic challenges with a new vision, create strong steel punches for the economy and generate practical benefits for both countries. He welcomed the constructive feedback from Keidanren representatives and pledged to direct Vietnamese ministries, agencies, and localities to urgently review and resolve any issues and facilitate new and effective projects. Lets restructure supply chains to leverage our complementary strengths, reducing exposure to external risks, he said, noting that 2025 is a pivotal year for Viet Nam to achieve its 2021-2025 development goals through acceleration and breakthroughs. Viet Nam is refining its institutional framework, improve the business environment, and remove bottlenecks to unlock resources. The Government has identified administrative reform, streamlined procedures, and decentralisation as top priorities to position Viet Nam as Southeast Asias best investment destination, he added. In his meeting with President and Chief Executive Officer of Sumitomo Corporation Shingo Ueno later on the same day, Dung was updated on the corporation's projects in Viet Nam and their implementation progress. Ueno underscored that Sumitomo will continue expanding its projects in conformity with the Vietnamese Government's net-zero emission commitments. Dung welcomed and praised Sumitomo's substantial contributions to Viet Nam's socio-economic development through large-scale and substantive projects. He particularly highlighted the corporation's success in affirming its brand in Viet Nam, particularly in the industrial zone sector, where the companys hi-tech, high-value projects are in line with the Governments priorities. He underscored the significance of land and energy efficiency, especially for industrial parks around Ha Noi. Regarding the smart urban development project in the North of the capital city, Dung endorsed Sumitomo's investment approach towards creating a smart city integrated with enhanced healthcare and education infrastructure. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is currently reviewing Sumitomo's proposal for Van Phong 2 LNG power plant project and will provide feedback soon, according to the Deputy PM. Besides, he requested Sumitomo to continue working closely with relevant Vietnamese agencies to expedite the launching of the LOTUSat-1 satellite an initiative agreed upon during Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigerus official visit to Viet Nam last month. Highlighting the robust bilateral cooperation as well as Viet Nams sound investment climate, he encouraged the corporation to expand into more projects across various sectors and localities, positioning itself as a strategic partner rather than a strategic investor of Viet Nam. Ueno, for his part, affirmed Sumitomos commitment to successfully implementing its projects in Viet Nam, contributing to the country's economic development and bilateral cooperation. The same day, Dung and the working delegation attended the Viet Nam Digital Transformation Day 2025 in Tokyo. In his speech, Dung stated that Viet Nam sees science technology, innovation, and digital transformation as the key to overcome the middle-income trap and avoid the risk of falling behind, while realising the nation's aspirations for prosperity. Viet Nam currently has over 70 companies and 5,000 IT engineers actively operating in Japan, contributing to the host country's technology ecosystem and innovation development. Both countries established cooperative ties in science - technology, innovation, and high-quality human resources training as new pillars of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during PM Ishiba's visit to Viet Nam in April. Dung highlighted Viet Nam's dynamic economy with over 100 million people, a high-quality IT engineering workforce, over 1 million workers in the information and communications sector, and tens of thousands of technology graduates annually. Meanwhile, Japan is a global technological powerhouse, excelling in AI, robotics, semiconductors, and green technologies. Japanese companies bring not only cutting-edge innovation but also strategic management expertise in applying technologies to address global challenges. Against the backdrop, the Deputy PM held that the combination of Viet Nam's young, creative human resources with Japan's technologies and experience will create synergistic strength, bringing tremendous benefits to both countries. He suggested both sides enhance collaboration in research and development, transfer of strategic and core technologies, adding that Viet Nam seeks to learn from Japan's experience in AI, big data, cyber security, semiconductor technology, cloud computing, and 5G/6G technologies while promoting digital human resources training. The Deputy PM took this occasion to call on both Japanese and Vietnamese leaders, enterprises and scientists to create new momentum in science - technology cooperation. On Saturday, Dung is scheduled to meet with the Governor of Gunma prefecture, visit the Tsukuba Space Centre, and have a working session with Vietnamese scientists in Japan. VNS HA NOI Experts discussed ways to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) capacity building across the education sector, during a forum held on Friday in Ha Noi. The National Forum on Artificial Intelligence in Education was co-hosted by the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Viet Nam, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), the Viet Nam National Innovation Centre (NIC) and the US not-for-profit STEAM for Viet Nam. The forum marks a key milestone in MoETs 2025 National Plan to enhance digital and AI competencies for teachers and education managers. It also follows the Politburo's Resolution 57, which prioritises science, technology, innovation and a high-quality workforce, in order to reach the national growth target of at least eight per cent this year and propel Viet Nam towards high-income status by 2045. The plan presents a comprehensive roadmap for equipping teachers and school leaders with the skills to integrate AI into teaching and school management. Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong said: We should use AI in a proactive, independent and intelligent manner without dependency and with a strong sense of ethics. Through these training and professional development processes, the MoET, in collaboration with UNICEF and other relevant organisations, will continue developing thematic content to implement the AI strategy in education. The plan also introduces initiatives such as a National Showcase Day to celebrate innovative educators and highlight best practices in digital transformation. UNICEF Representative to Viet Nam Silvia Danailov said that: Through broad-based partnerships, including ed-tech organisations like STEAM for Viet Nam, UNICEF is supporting Viet Nam in reimagining education through innovation. We are committed to ensuring that AI is used ethically, inclusively, and responsibly with a strong focus on equity, child protection and digital wellbeing. Together, we can build an education system where every teacher is empowered, every student is prepared and no child is left behind. Tran To Uyen, STEAM for Viet Nams Co-founder and Country Director added: AI is not just a supportive tool, but the key to unlocking the potential of every Vietnamese teacher. The success in ien Bien the first province to provide all teachers with free AI training has demonstrated that, regardless of geography or social conditions, teachers can master technology and extend its benefits to millions of students. Highlights and key themes The National Forum on Artificial Intelligence in Education convened policymakers, educators, technology innovators and development partners to exchange insights, best practices and collaborative solutions for AI integration in education. Key themes include global and national AI trends, Viet Nams AI roadmap in education, perspectives from teachers, education managers and experts on the real-world application of AI and innovative AI-powered tools and solutions for teaching and learning. During the forum, development partners, including UN agencies, embassies, representatives from the private and education sector affirmed their commitment to Viet Nams digital transformation and the use of inclusive AI in education. VNS HA NOI The National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) coordinating with the National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation has opened the Hanh trinh o 2025 (Red Journey 2025), the 13th national blood donation campaign, in Ha Noi on May 30. Campaign organisers expect to collect 100,000 units of blood (25,000 units at the main festival and 75,000 units at the blood donation days) in 48 provinces and cities from now until July 30. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Associate Professor, Dr Nguyen Ha Thanh, Director of the NIHBT, Head of the Organising Committee of Red Journey 2025, said: "After 12 years, 59 provinces and cities across the country have participated in the Red Journey, with nearly one million units of blood donated. These are very impressive results, a vivid testament to the perseverance and strong influence over more than a decade of implementing the mission of 'Connecting Vietnamese Bloodlines'. The Red Journey has truly become the largest and most effective blood donation campaign, leaving a deep impression in the more than 30-year development journey of the voluntary blood donation movement in our country. At the event, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan praised the efforts of the NIHBT, Red Cross members, health workers, and the contributions of blood donors across the country over the last years. For generations, the Vietnamese people have always been proud of the tradition of 'loving others as they love themselves.' That tradition is continued and spread through practical actions, one of which is the act of donating blood to save lives, contributing to bringing life to many people who are fighting against diseases every hour, every minute, said Thuan. The Deputy Minister said that in 2024, the country received more than 1.7 million units of blood, the highest number in history, of which over 98 per cent were from voluntary blood donors. This is not only a medical achievement, but also a testament to the humanitarian spirit, solidarity and community responsibility of the Vietnamese people, stressed Thuan. Thuan suggested that the Central Red Journey Organising Committee and the Steering Committees for Voluntary Blood Donation in provinces and cities should continue to promote communication activities, using modern communication platforms to bring the image of voluntary blood donors closer to each person and each community, to arouse empathy and ignite the spirit of selfless sharing in every Vietnamese heart. He also asked health facilities to promote the application of digital technology in blood donor management and blood resource coordination, especially in the context of responding to natural disasters and epidemics. VNS VINH Severe flash floods struck several border communes in Nghe An Province overnight from Thursday through Friday, causing widespread damage to homes, schools and infrastructure. In Tuong Duong District, heavy rains from around 6pm on May 29 led to rapid surging of rivers and streams, triggering flash floods in the communes of Nhon Mai and Huu Khuong, as well as the Thach Giam township. Initial reports revealed that 11 houses in Nhon Mai and three in Huu Khuong were either damaged or completely swept away. Tham Tham, Co Ha and Na Lat villages were hardest hit. Flash floods also damaged roads and riverbanks, putting more homes at risk of collapse and leaving parts of the communes temporarily isolated. In Huu Khuong Commune, the boarding secondary school for ethnic students suffered significant losses, with floodwaters destroying equipment and dormitory facilities. In the wake of the disaster, local authorities and youth union members were mobilised to assist residents in clearing mud and repairing damage. Nguyen Van Hoe, Chief of Staff of Tuong Duong District Peoples Committee, said three small bridges and one irrigation structure in the area had also been washed away. Other districts, including Ky Son and Que Phong, experienced similar conditions, with flash floods and landslides reported in communes such as Tri Le, Hanh Dich and Nam Giai. Border guards from Nhon Mai and Tri Le posts have been deployed to support recovery efforts. Ministry of Construction urges prevention Against mounting threats, the Ministry of Construction has issued an urgent directive in line with Prime Ministers Official Telegram No. 76/C-TTg dated May 28. The directive focuses on pro-active disaster prevention in anticipation of a low-pressure system in the East Sea, which may intensify into a tropical depression. According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, this system could bring widespread rainfall of over 250mm in parts of the North, North Central, Central Highlands and Southern regions, triggering floods, landslides and traffic disruptions. The ministry has urged all relevant departments to promptly inspect, monitor and implement safety measures for transport infrastructure and construction projects, especially those in vulnerable mountainous and flood-prone areas. The Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam has been tasked with directing its regional units to secure key national highways, restore traffic on affected routes and protect both workers and active construction sites. Railway authorities are also under orders to maintain round-the-clock monitoring of critical points such as bridges and flood-prone sections. Plans must be in place to halt or adjust train schedules and provide passenger transfers when necessary. Meanwhile, the Viet Nam Maritime Administration and Inland Waterways Administration have been directed to manage vessel movement strictly, particularly in southern ports where rough seas and strong winds are forecast. Authorities must ensure that storm warning buoys, markers and navigation aids are removed when necessary and restored promptly once conditions improve. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of Construction has proposed a list of railway industry services and products to be developed through State commissions and by assigning tasks to private companies. The proposal aims to lay a foundation for Vietnamese agencies and state-owned organisations to assign tasks or place orders with domestic enterprises to research, manufacture and develop products, gradually increasing the rate of local content. The ministry is seeking feedback on the railway sector's localisation proposal. The Government plans to focus on procuring materials, equipment and railway components that have large market potential and are suited to Viet Nams current technological capabilities, production levels and available workforce. The ministry has outlined eight key product and service categories that will be divided between two groups. The first group will research and develop standards, products and training and technology transfer. The second group will handle manufacturing and assembly of railway equipment such as rails, turnouts and accessories, railway communication and signalling systems, railway traction power supply systems and railway vehicles. Despite some progress in railway industrial development, the ministry notes that domestic capabilities remain limited to merely low-speed vehicle maintenance and repair. Most mechanical equipment and materials still need to be imported while local industries struggle with outdated technologies and a lack of standardisation. Currently, Viet Nam has 35 enterprises involved in the railway sector, but the majority rely heavily on imported machinery and parts. The lack of infrastructure for electrified railways and skilled personnel is also a significant hurdle for modern railway development. According to the ministry, Viet Nam needs special policies to prioritise and encourage the development of the domestic railway industry. These policies would ensure a stable market for locally manufactured products across four key segments: infrastructure construction, signalling and communication systems, rolling stock and electric traction systems. With this new move, Vietnamese enterprises can gradually master railway system design, construction, maintenance and manufacturing of materials, laying the groundwork for an increasingly self-sufficient and modern railway sector. - VNS HA NOI An inter-agency inspection team from Soc Trang Province on Friday visited an outlet of CP Viet Nam, a company at the centre of a viral post over serious concerns over the quality of meat. Prior to the visit, CP Livestock JSC (CP Viet Nam) issued the statement saying that the allegations were entirely false and fabricated, after images circulated on Facebook showing poor quality pork and chicken. The store manager of CP Fresh Shop at No.45 Trieu Nuong Street, Chau Thanh Hamlet, My Xuyen District, said during the inspection that the person behind the viral post was a former salesperson who left the company in 2023. She added that the viral photos were taken around 2022, reportedly from a location in the neighbouring Hau Giang Province, not in Soc Trang. Earlier in the day, a social media user, who claimed to be an employee at a local food store in Soc Trang, posted on Facebook allegations about quality issues related to CP Viet Nam. The account, Jonny Lieu, wrote in the post on Facebook that their real name is Lieu Quy Ngan, while screenshots included in the post showed Zalo chats of an account named Ngan Tech. The post went viral and caused public concern, with more than 171,000 reactions and over 156,000 shares at the time of writing. Inspection visit The store manager of CP Fresh Shop in My Xuyen stated that all pork sold at the shop comes with full documentation. Whole pigs are delivered to the store daily and then butchered on-site, and there is no pre-cut meat. Initial inspection showed that the store complies with food safety regulations, as all pork products bear veterinary inspection stamps, and spot checks found the meat to be safe, with no chemical preservatives detected. The store also presented valid invoices and origin certificates. The inspection team includes officials from the Soc Trang Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, the Soc Trang Department of Agriculture and Environments Inspectorate, and the provincial polices Economic Security Division. It looks into livestock and veterinary businesses in the locality, as part of the ongoing national campaign against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods. Lam Minh Hoang, head of Soc Trang Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, said that local animal health officers regularly conduct inspections on the 52 licensed slaughterhouses across the province. CP Viet Nam dismisses allegations CP Viet Nam has issued an official response today regarding the case, saying that the allegations were false and caused damage to the companys reputation as well as panic among consumers. The companys statement reads: All the information posted by the mentioned Facebook and Zalo accounts is entirely false and fabricated, intended to defame and cause harm to the company. The images attached to the posts are unclear in origin and timing and do not depict CP Viet Nams products. CP Viet Nam is urgently working with relevant authorities to clarify the situation and take appropriate legal actions to protect its legitimate rights, and to address slanderous actions, the statement adds. A companys representative said: We deeply regret that this incident has caused significant disruption and damage to our operations, and caused panic and anxiety among our customers, partners and the public. We sincerely call on all stakeholders to remain calm and seek out verified and balanced information. CP Viet Nams operations remain fully compliant with legal regulations, its statement reads, adding that the company remains open to addressing any concerns via its official communication channels and urges consumers and partners to refrain from spreading unverified information. It also pledged to promptly publish the outcomes of its working process with the authorities regarding the case. CP Viet Nam is a subsidiary of the Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group), which operates across multiple sectors in agriculture and food processing. The group established a Viet Nam representative office in HCM City in 1988. It currently operates around 21 factories across Viet Nam. According to its official website, the company supplies over 6.8 million pigs to the domestic market each year. Its CPV Food Binh Phuoc plant, with a total investment of US$250 million, went into operations in 2020 and shipped its first batch of exported chicken that same year. According to its parent company in Thailand, CP Viet Nam posted a record revenue of approximately VN93 trillion ($3.6 billion) in 2024. In previous years, this figure was approximately VN80 trillion. VNS SINGAPORE Forty-seven countries, including 40 minister-level delegates, will attend the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), which takes place at the Shangri-La Hotel from May 30 to June 1. French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to deliver this years keynote speech on the evening of May 30. This is the first time a European leader will give the keynote address at the annual security forum, and comes as Singapore and France commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is also set to make an address. His special address will be on the afternoon of May 31. The dialogue is organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and is Asias premier defence summit to discuss critical security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. The 2024 dialogue was attended by representatives from 45 countries, so the 47 in 2025 would mark a broader international showing. The annual forum, which began in 2002, has provided a valuable, open and neutral platform for the exchange of perspectives on defence and security issues and initiatives over the years, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said in a statement on the evening of May 29. The event is typically attended by top defence government representatives from both China and the US, making it a platform for the two superpowers to hold talks to ease friction between them. In 2024, then US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, for instance. But such ministerial-level bilateral talks would be missing this year. China indicated, just a day before the forum kicks off, that it would instead send a Peoples Liberation Army National Defence University delegation instead of Admiral Dong. Mindef did not mention who would lead the Chinese delegation in its statement. This would be the first time since 2019 that China has not sent its defence minister for the forum, where Chinas views on issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea are closely watched. The US kept with making high-level representation at the forum by sending a contingent led by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. He is expected to speak at the dialogues first plenary session on May 31. Hegseth, a former Fox News host and a veteran of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, assumed office in January under the new administration of US President Donald Trump. His speech at the dialogue will be closely watched as he is expected to articulate the Trump administrations defence approach for this region. The first plenary session is titled United States New Ambitions for Indo-Pacific Security. A total of seven plenary sessions and three special sessions are planned for the weekend. IISS had yet to announce the full list of speakers by the time this article was published, but Mindef in its statement said Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing will speak at the seventh plenary session on June 1. This sessions topic is Enhancing Security Cooperation for a Stable Asia-Pacific. Mindef also said that as a regular feature of the dialogue, Mr Chan will host visiting ministers to roundtable discussions on May 31 and June 1, as well as defence ministers under the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) to breakfast. Chan will also conduct bilateral meetings with ministers and senior officials from various countries on the sidelines of the SLD, Mindef said. Separately, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will host delegates to a dinner at St Regis Singapore on May 31. Apart from the 40 minister-level delegates, country representatives also include 20 chiefs of defence forces and more than 20 senior defence officials. THE STRAITS TIMES/ANN KUALA LUMPUR The Malayan Nurses Union (MNU) is up in arms over the Malaysian governments decision to increase the weekly working hours of nurses in the public sector from 42 to 45, effective Aug 1. Its president Saaidah Athman said nurses have made many sacrifices in serving the well-being of the public, and they were unhappy with the additional workload being imposed on them. In a letter dated May 28 to the Health Ministry secretary-general, the Public Services Department (JPA) paused the implementation of the new working arrangement, which was originally scheduled to begin on June 1. The JPA also stated that this would be the final postponement and that the new working hours would be implemented soon. A previous postponement had already been granted, moving the start date from March 1 to May 31 at the Health Ministrys request. While the MNU welcomed the latest postponement, Ms Saaidah hopes the ministry will maintain the current 42-hour work week instead of increasing it to 45 hours. She noted that nurses in countries such as Singapore and the Philippines work 40 hours a week, in line with recommendations by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This, she said, is because regular work hours are already tiring enough for nurses, and additional hours would lead to exhaustion. Where is the justice and welfare for nurses, who are the pulse, heart, and backbone of the ministry? The current working structure in the healthcare system must be improved. In other countries, including Singapore, nurses only work in wards and handle recovery work. But in Malaysia, we perform many tasks from escorting patients to x-rays and the operating theatre, to indenting, collecting data, participating in audits, and being involved in hospital activities, she told The Star on May 29. She added that nurses would be disappointed if the 45-hour work week was implemented. Saaidah said nurses were at the frontline of medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic and served the nation, often at the cost of leaving their families due to the demands of the job. Imagine if the work hours were extended but there was no review on the burden of the job and the improvements, she said. Nurses have previously opposed the new working hours, citing a lack of work-life balance and increased workload. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK The Ministry of Health (MoH) has held many meetings in recent days with relevant ministries, agencies, and localities on fake drugs, cosmetics, and functional foods, after many companies have been revealed to be partaking in wrongdoing. Authorities are pulling out all the stops to destroy products that are unfit for use, photo Le Toan Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen admitted, Despite the Law on Pharmacy, the Law on Food Safety, and many guiding documents, the situation of counterfeit drugs and functional foods is still complicated. This proves that the current legal framework does not really ensure deterrence and effective enforcement. He requested units to comprehensively review current regulations and propose amendments to make the implementation process stricter. According to health experts, the amount of fake and low-quality medicines nationwide is becoming rampant. Along with light punishments and legal loopholes, the post-inspection mechanism overlaps among ministries and localities, leading to poor quality control. Health expert Hoa Nguyen noted, This is not the first time we have found lots of fake and low-quality drugs, but failed to take proper measures to deal with them. It is high time for Vietnam to learn from other countries to increase efficiency of state management, from ingredients to final products and market circulation, to better protect peoples health. The Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV) under the MoH in mid-May announced many violations, including the recall of violating cosmetics from VB Group produced at EBC Dong Nai Medical Factory. VB Group is being asked to withdraw its Hanayuki Sunscreen Body 100gm product, and then send a report to the DAV before June 15. The MoH also asked the Departments of Health of Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province to impose fines as ruled. The DAV also sent a document to Uyen Phuong Import Export Trading JSC, asking the company to withdraw Hair Head & Hair Revitalising Oleo-Essence under the Germaine De Capuccini brand, for having product sub-label containing disease prevention and treatment content like medicines, and with incorrect ingredients. This company is also requested to report to the DAV about the withdrawal and destruction of the products prior to June 14. Also in May, similar requests were sent to many other companies, including Quang Xanh Cosmetics and Chemicals Co., Ltd., Linh Anh General Trading & Service Co., Ltd., and Hana HP Group. In May, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health established an inter-agency team to conduct unexpected inspections of pharmaceutical businesses, and requested medical examination and treatment establishments to urgently check for fake drugs, medical equipment, and functional foods. Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Tang Chi Thuong said, This inspection focused on high-risk groups such as producers and traders of medicinal herbs, traditional medicines, and functional foods. The inspection took place in the context that authorities have continuously discovered establishments producing and trading in fake medicines, functional foods, milk, and medical equipment, affecting peoples health. In 2024, the municipal department inspected hundreds of drug and medicinal material businesses, handing 147 establishments fines totalling more than VND7 billion ($280,000). Common violations were mostly related to the origins and quality of drugs. Ta Manh Hung, deputy general of the DAV, admitted that the legal framework is in place, but the penalties are too light compared to the consequences. According to regulations, only cases of counterfeit goods trading worth VND30 million ($1,200) or higher are subject to criminal prosecution. Small-scale cases are often only subject to small administrative penalties. For instance, a business selling fake medicine with a value of around VND30,000 ($1.15) will only receive a fine around VND2-6 million ($80-240) if only a few bottles are discovered. If goods of unknown origin are valued at under VND1 million ($40), the punishment is a warning and a fine of only around VND600,000-1 million ($25-40). Tran Viet Nga, general director of the MoHs Department of Food Safety, said that according to existing regulations, enterprises have the right to self-declare the quality of food products and general health protection, empowering them to take responsibility for themselves. This is except for four groups that are strictly controlled. Smuggling, commercial fraud, production, and trading of counterfeit goods operate in a tightly organised manner, over a large area, inter-provincially and internationally, with increasingly sophisticated methods and tricks, Nga explained. They take advantage of the open policy on business registration and registration of health food product declarations to evade responsibility and violate the rules. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh receives Steven Kobos, chairman and CEO, Excelerate Energy. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac During a recent working visit to Hanoi on May 29, Excelerate Energy CEO Steven Kobos confirmed that the company signed an MoU with PVGas to arrange long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies from the United States to Vietnam. The move is part of Excelerates plan to establish a more stable LNG supply chain for the region, backed by physical infrastructure and local partnerships. The company is also proposing to invest in LNG import terminals and storage facilities in Vietnam, and to form joint ventures with Vietnamese firms to support local operations. According to Kobos, Excelerate sees potential for Vietnam to not just meet its own energy needs but also to develop as a regional LNG hub Vietnams LNG demand is projected to grow significantly in the next decade, driven by rising electricity consumption and the planned phase-out of coal-fired power. According to the countrys Power Development Plan VIII, Vietnam will import up to 15 billion cubic metres of LNG annually by 2035, with at least four major terminals in operation. Excelerate Energy, currently active in over 60 countries, transports about one-sixth of the USs total LNG exports. Its entry into Vietnam could bring advanced technology, global supply access, and operational experience to a market still in the early stages of LNG infrastructure development. The Vietnamese government is encouraging private and foreign investment in LNG to help offset supply risks, diversify the energy mix, and meet emissions targets. For international players like Excelerate, Vietnam offers long-term opportunities tied to power generation, industrial use, and regional export potential. The company is expected to move forward with feasibility studies and investment proposals in 2025 or 2026, focusing on smart storage systems and emission-reducing solutions. Technology transfer and local workforce development are likely to be key components of its strategy. As LNG becomes a central pillar of Vietnams energy security and transition strategy, partnerships with experienced global operators will be crucial to ensuring reliable supply and efficient deployment of infrastructure across key economic zones. The agreement was signed between GELEX Group, GELEX Infrastructure JSC, GELEX Electric JSC, and a banking syndicate comprising HSBC, through its branches in Singapore and Vietnam, and Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg (LBBW). This transaction will not only enable GELEX to diversify its sources of capital at competitive costs, but also marks the groups increasing access to leading international financial institutions without any commercial purchase commitments or trade-related conditions. This is a new financing structure, typically available only to enterprises with transparent operations, strong financial capacity, and strategic influence in the region. Nguyen Trong Hien, chairman of GELEX, stated, We are committed to aligning with international standards in financial governance and investment. This transaction not only strengthens GELEXs capacity to deliver on its strategic projects but also reflects the trust that global financial institutions place in the capabilities and sustainable vision of Vietnamese enterprises. It marks the starting point in our broader strategy to mobilise international capital in pursuit of GELEXs long-term, efficient, and sustainable growth goals. In this transaction, HSBC and LBBW acted as lead arrangers, both being prominent names in global trade and project finance. HSBC also served as the sole ECA coordinating bank, facility agent, security agent, and account bank, while LBBW participated as co-lender. The transaction is guaranteed by SACE, recognised as the worlds largest export credit agency in 2024, known for its rigorous due diligence process and guarantee coverage of up to 80 per cent of loan value. Tim Evans, CEO and head of banking at HSBC Vietnam, shared,We are proud to accompany and support GELEX, a leading investment group in Vietnam, as they look to international markets. This will enable GELEX to achieve even greater success and reflects HSBCs structuring capabilities and expertise, along with our deep understanding of the local market, which underpins our long-term commitment to providing Vietnamese businesses with international capital. The proceeds from the loan will be used for GELEXs strategic objectives, including investment, core business expansion, and accelerating digital transformation in governance. This move not only enhances GELEXs competitiveness but also aligns with Vietnams national goals for green growth and financial integration with global markets. The SACE-guaranteed facility, arranged by two reputable banks, demonstrates international confidence in Vietnams green growth potential. Institutions of this calibre typically partner only with businesses that meet high standards of creditworthiness, governance, and long-term strategy. GELEXs successful access to this financing affirms that the company meets stringent international standards and plays an active role in positioning Vietnamese enterprises within the global value chain and advancing the nations sustainable development goals. Stefan Rethmeier, head of corporates and export finance at LBBW Singapore, stated, We see GELEX as a long-term partner contributing meaningfully to Vietnams sustainable development strategy. This transaction is not just about a financing transaction its a partnership for a future of inclusive growth and green transformation. 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. GELEX Infrastructure secures $40 million SACE Push loan for facility HSBC and the Italian Export Credit Agency have agreed a loan of $40 million for GELEX Infrastructure JSC. The 100 million deal ($108 million), signed on May 29, includes technology transfer, equipment supply, and installation. The cutting-edge line is expected to be completed within 20 months, with the first high-speed rail products to be delivered in early 2027. "This is not just a plant, but a strategic milestone for Vietnams steel industry," said Bernhard Steenken, vice president of sales for APAC-MEA at SMS Group. "We are providing Hoa Phat with our most advanced flexible four-roll rail mill, capable of delivering precision and consistency that meets the strictest global railway standards." Hoa Phats new facility will be equipped with a complete rolling process, from bloom reheating and multipurpose reversing mill to automatic laser defect detection, non-destructive testing, and synchronized drilling systems. All core components are manufactured in Germany and tailored to meet high-speed rail specifications in the EU, Japan, and China. SMS Group has 150 years of metallurgical equipment expertise and has delivered 14 high-performance rail production lines worldwide, including for high-speed rail projects in the US, Europe, China, and India. The group has long-standing ties with Hoa Phat, having previously supplied technology to the groups Dung Quat and Hai Duong integrated steel complexes. Chairman Tran Dinh Long of Hoa Phat emphasised that the group is aligning with national infrastructure goals. "As part of our commitment to the Vietnamese government, we are investing in high-quality steel production to reduce dependency on imports for high-end steel used in railways, energy, oil and gas, and defence," he said. With an annual design capacity of 15 million tonnes by the end of 2025, mainly hot-rolled coil and special steel, Hoa Phat remains Southeast Asias largest steelmaker and the domestic market leader. Its exports now reach over 40 countries. The upcoming facility is expected to yield a range of speciality steel products previously unavailable in Vietnam, such as high-speed rail steel, urban rail tracks, crane rails, and structural steel forms such as U, I, H, and V beams. These products will support critical national railway projects and unlock export potential in advanced infrastructure markets. One key advantage lies in Hoa Phats use of low-impurity iron ore, which allows production of rails up to 100 meters in length with exceptional straightness and hardness. Each rail is measured by laser for geometry and scanned by ultrasound to eliminate internal defects before distribution. Globally, only a handful of steel giants, including Voestalpine (Austria), JFE (Japan), Baosteel (China), and JSW Steel (Italy) possess the technology and capacity to manufacture high-speed rail steel. Hoa Phats entry into this elite circle marks a critical turning point for Vietnams heavy industry. "This project is a legacy" said Steenken. "It is not just about a new production line; its about establishing Vietnam as a force in global rail infrastructure supply." Minister Thang met with Nasser Sulaiman Hamed Al Harthy, deputy president for operations at Oman Investment Authority (OIA), and chairman of the Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund (VOI) "After 18 years of cooperation, the relationship between the two countries has achieved positive results. During this period, Vietnam's GDP value increased from $100 billion to nearly $500 billion. Oman is also the first Gulf country to establish a cooperative relationship with Vietnam," said Harthy. He revealed that an MoU is being finalised between the OIA and FPT Corporation to strengthen Vietnamese investment in Oman. Additionally, he noted that Oman is establishing a new financial centre and expressed willingness to share its expertise in this area with Vietnam. He also highlighted the 'Vietnam New Era Growth Fund,' a joint investment initiative between Vietnam, Oman, and Qatar. Additionally, he expressed interest in long-term investment opportunities involving Vietnamese-listed enterprises and key equitisation projects. Minister Thang expressed his appreciation for the pioneering and effective role of the VOI, a joint venture between OIA and State Capital Investment Corporation of Vietnam (SCIC), established in 2008. The VOI plays a crucial role in strengthening economic ties between Vietnam and Oman, investing in strategic sectors like high-tech agriculture, infrastructure, and renewable energy. "To boost the establishment of the Vietnam New Era Growth Fund, the Ministry of Finance will ask relevant units to closely coordinate with the SCIC and OIA to build a specific roadmap, ensure feasibility, efficiency and alignment with the country's development goals in the coming period," said Thang. Additionally, the minister requested a disbursement plan for the 2025 2030 period to be devised, which will clarify the minimum annual disbursement target and expectations on investment performance. The minister urged the OIA to uphold international standards of efficiency and transparency while aligning with Vietnam's development priorities, including state enterprise equitisation, public infrastructure investment, green energy, high-tech sectors, and Halal food industry cooperation. To strengthen Vietnam's investment framework, Minister Thang tasked the State Enterprise Development Department with collaborating with SCIC to research and propose legal mechanisms for international-standard investment fund models. This initiative aims to enhance SCIC's ability to pull in foreign investment while enabling funds like the OIA to expand their participation in Vietnam's financial markets. "The establishment of the Vietnam New Era Growth Fund will strengthen multilateral investment between Vietnam and the Middle East, scaling Gulf-region investment in Vietnam to billions of dollars," Minister Thang said. He asserted the Ministry of Finance will streamline foreign investment procedures by mandating tighter interagency coordination, slashing licensing timelines to mere days, and advancing legal reforms. These measures aim to create a more competitive environment for all enterprises; state-owned, private, and foreign-invested alike. Oman's VIAC Limited Fund to become shareholder in Van Phu - Invest With the conversion of bonds into shares, VIAC Limited Fund of the National Investment Commission of Oman is set to become a shareholder in Van Phu - Invest, according to a company announcement on July 24. VOI drives fivefold trade growth between Vietnam and Oman Bilateral trade between Vietnam and Oman reached $250 million last year, marking a fivefold increase over the past 15 years. This remarkable growth underscores the Vietnam-Oman Investment (VOI) Fund's expanding role as a strategic investment partner and key economic bridge between the two nations. Once received, this feedback will inform the agency's final recommendations to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for approval. The current pricing framework has been developed by Vietnam Electricity (EVN). EVN submitted a report on May 23 outlining its proposed power generation pricing framework for OSW energy. Specifically, the ceiling price (excluding VAT) is VND3,975.1 per kWh in the northern region, VND3,078.9 per kWh in the south-central region, and VND3,868.5 per kWh in the southern region. According to EVN, based on the adjusted Power Plan VIII, Vietnam aims to achieve 6,000 MW of OSW capacity by 2030. Establishing a reasonable power generation price framework is a prerequisite to attracting investment capital into this sector. EVN stated that the average investment cost for OSW projects is approximately VND93.56 million ($3,742) per kW, equivalent to VND93 billion ($3.7 million) per MW. However, the capacity factor varies across regions, with the North achieving 38.4 per cent, the south-central region 49.6 per cent, and the south 39.5 per cent. Consequently, the average multi-year electricity output in these regions is 1.681 billion kWh, 2.171 billion kWh, and 1.728 billion kWh, respectively. Currently, no OSW project in Vietnam has a completed feasibility study report. EVNs calculations are based on preliminary data from the Institute of Energy, updated in accordance with the Offshore Wind Power Technology Handbook jointly developed by Vietnam and Denmark. The power generation price framework proposed by EVN is specified by region as follows: Northern region (Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Thai Binh): VND3,975.1 per kWh South-central region (Binh Thuan): VND3,078.9 per kWh Southern region (Ba Ria-Vung Tau): VND3,868.5 per kWh Offshore wind must be utilised for energy security The Vietnamese government is pushing for an offshore wind energy pilot this year to hit its power master plan goals and ensure energy security. Carbon trade framework progressing Several ministries are on the path to completing the legal system for the launch of a pilot carbon trading platform in June. MoIT proposes delaying offshore wind power until after 2030 The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has proposed delaying the development of offshore wind power until after 2030, instead of the original target of about 6,000MW in the next five years. Offshore wind development plans receive new lease of life The government has put across its strong support for offshore wind development and improving the legal system for foreign investors. In April, Nguyen Danh Dat opened a restaurant in Hanois Bac Tu Liem district. This is the third restaurant, and also the third company, that he has established in the capital since late 2022. Managed by Danh Dat Trading JSC, the restaurants offer South Korean dishes. Dat hopes the third restaurant will strongly develop as the area it is located in is now home to a rising number of South Korean inhabitants, especially after the new South Korean Embassy was put into operation a few years ago. Not far from the new restaurant, Dat has also been operating another company offering auto repair and upgrade services. The business and investment climate has been more favourable than before. Under the governments policies, private companies like us can be established with an unlimited number in many different sectors, Dat said. Danh Dat Tradings third company was among over 51,600 enterprises newly established in the first four months of this year, registered at $19.6 billion. The total four-month number of newly established enterprises and those resuming operation came in at nearly 90,000, up nearly 10 per cent on-year. Total registered capital added to the economy stood at $71.78 billion, up 91.3 per cent on-year. Last year, over 157,200 newly established enterprises last year with total registered capital of nearly $61.9 billion. The total number of newly established enterprises and those resuming operation hit over 233,400, up 7.1 per cent on-year. Total registered capital added to the economy in 2024 was $81.03 billion, up 3.6 per cent on-year. According to the National Statistics Office, the figures illustrate that private-owned enterprises (POEs) in Vietnam are growing strongly, with their confidence improving significantly. We will continue developing the private economic sector as the most important propellant of the economy, and encourage and create the best conditions for the sector to develop and take advantage of all opportunities, stated Party General Secretary To Lam at last weeks national-level conference on private sector development organised in Hanoi. A hallmark policy Private sector development has been highlighted in a number of resolutions by the Party and the government in recent times. However, never before have such developments been pushed compared to earlier in May, when the Politburo issued Resolution No.68-NQ/TW on developing POEs. This was further materialised by a National Assembly resolution on related policies and a government action plan on the issue. Under the new policy, the Party has decided that the private sector is the most important driving force of the economy. One of the most important points is that the private sector is treated as equal to all other types of enterprise, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stressed. A principle of non-retrospectiveness is to be applied if new legal regulations cause disadvantages to POEs. No criminalisation is applied to all economic and civil litigations. Currently, Vietnam has nearly one million enterprises and five business households. POEs are creating 51 per cent of GDP, over 30 per cent of the state budget, more than 40 million jobs, and over 82 per cent of total labourers in the economy. POEs also account for 60 per cent of total development investment capital. Resolution 68 has set a target to have a total enterprise number of two million in 2030, with efforts are to be made for POEs to create 58 per cent of GDP, 40 per cent of state budget revenue, and 85 per cent of labourers. This has demonstrated the Partys great confidence in POEs development potential and role. Vietnam has had many big POEs such as Mobile World Co. Ltd, Truong Hai Auto Corporation, VietJet Air, Vingroup, Masan Consumer, Minh Phu Seafood Corporation, TH Group, and Him Lam Corporation, among others. Removing obstructions Party General Secretary To Lam underlined that despite POEs growing contributions, the majority of them are medium-sized or smaller, featured limited financial health and weak governance, without connection with one another and with foreign-invested enterprises. Thus, POEs are finding it to increase their added values and competitiveness, and join global value chains, the Party chief wrote. He underscored that besides strongly developing state-owned enterprises (SOEs), it is necessary to prioritise the building of regional and global private economic groups, actively support relevant businesses, and simultaneously assist the household economic sector and cooperative economy. POEs are encouraged to participate in the countrys strategic sectors. We have to practise the view that the private economy plays an important role in the socialist-oriented market economic structure, eliminate the mindset of attaching more importance to SOEs than POEs and the monopoly of SOEs in some sectors, Party General Secretary Lam wrote. We will form and develop large and strong private economic groups with international competitiveness, with a mission of leading and supporting other domestic enterprises to partake deeply in the global value chain, he continued. Simultaneously, there must be separate policies to support the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business households and cooperative economy, encouraging such households to transform into businesses and develop new and effective cooperative models. He pointed out that in order for the private economy to develop in scale and contribute positively to long-term development, it is necessary to encourage POEs to participate in strategic areas, and develop important infrastructure, high technology, and energy security. The state will also have a policy to attract the private sector to participate in a number of national important projects such as high-speed railways, urban railways, energy infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and defence and security. Vu Van Tien, chairman of Geleximco, which operates in sectors such as industrial production, property, and finance, said that Resolution 68 will help POEs like his thrive. It is a comprehensive revolution and a great way out for POEs after so many years. POEs have faced massive difficulties but they cannot overcome them due to improper regulations, Tien told the same conference, which was attended by leaders of Vietnam and representatives of hundreds of Vietnamese enterprises. For all the resolutions to be effectively implemented, it is suggested that a dedicated agency be responsible for assessing and supervising how they deployed, and receiving feedback and proposals from the public and enterprises, Tien said. Vuong Quoc Toan, chairman of property group Lan Hung, said that hundreds of thousands of POEs in Vietnam are finding it very hard to access land for production and business. While the majority of POEs are SMEs which are cash-strapped and need land of 1,000-5,000sq.m for production, industrial parks only lease small parts of land, which is costly, Toan said. PM Chinh said that under Resolution 68, localities based on their land situation have to earmark at least 20ha in each industrial area or 5 per cent of their land area for SMEs. The government will soon enact a decree to concretise regulations, he stressed. The government stands ready to listen to enterprises feedback and solve their difficulties. For businessmen like Nguyen Danh Dat from Danh Dat Trading JSC in Hanoi, he is awaiting the governments action plan to be materialised soon, so that POEs can grow further. There has been growing demands for foreign foods and auto repair services, creating immense opportunities for companies like ours. We are planning to establish a new company using high technology in agricultural production, Dat said. However, we have been required to submit dossiers about the technology. This means that it will take a month or two to complete related procedures, Dat said. We also wonder that if we apply high technology to all of our performance stages, will we be recognised as a high-tech company, which will often receive preferential policies from the government? As far as Im concerned, the standards to recognise what a high-tech company is remains unclear, he added. More support policies are being discussed to help the vast amounts of smaller businesses in the country, photo Le Toan Tran Hoang Ngan, National Assembly deputy Ho Chi Minh City The private economic sector accounts for half of GDP, a third of total budget revenue, and around 60 per cent of total development investment capital. Thus, we have to have many policies to support the sector to promote its important role and driving force, which is currently identified as the most important impetus. We have set a goal to have two million private enterprises by 2030. This would mean we have to advance special solutions as currently, on average, we only have an additional 30,000-40,000 enterprises each year. One of the solutions proposed is that we must have a policy to support individual business households to switch to an enterprise level. This could help us to achieve this goal. At the same time, it is necessary to have solutions to expand larger-scale enterprises. Regarding support for access to land, and production and business sites, localities with land, potential, and strengths have to be given mechanisms to establish and expand industrial parks for private enterprises to rent at a suitable price. To be independent and self-reliant in this front, the private sector must have the best conditions to be strong, and must be given great support in finance, credit, and access to land. Therefore, there must be a regulation to encourage localities to create clean land for the private sector. Khuong Thi Mai, National Assembly deputy Nam Dinh province In order for Resolution 68 to be materialised, it is important to legislate policies, synchronise the legal system, and remove current overlapping laws. For example, a mechanism change is needed for private enterprises not to be bound by business conditions, and a pre-audit mechanism must be shifted to a post-audit one. This means private enterprises can invest and develop according to their capacity, without having to carry out administrative procedures that take time and cost to quickly enter the market. The state must check and supervise their operations through inspection. It is necessary to strongly reform the implementation stage, especially administrative procedures related to land, environment, construction, and investment. Enterprises do not have to wait for investment policies, and resolving administrative procedures too long. This year, it is needed to eliminate unnecessary business conditions, inappropriate overlapping regulations that obstruct the development of private businesses. At least 30 per cent of time for processing administrative procedures, at least 30 per cent of legal compliance costs, and at least 30 per cent of business conditions must be removed, and this must continue to be reduced in the coming years. I propose that there be more regulations on abolishing conditional business lines, investment procedures, investment policies, and investment certificates. It is needed to only retain investment incentives, and conditional business investment lines it is because investors are currently still managing each individual venture through procedures for accepting investment policies. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, National Assembly deputy Hai Duong province I agree with the policy of strongly shifting from pre-audit procedures to post-audit mechanisms, especially in the management of business conditions. This is a direction in line with international practices, contributing to reducing compliance costs for enterprises, encouraging creative startups and expanding production. However, without a sufficiently strong, transparent, and effective post-audit mechanism, this policy can easily become a loophole for businesses to take advantage of. In reality, many people have capitalised on the lax policy to establish hundreds of companies without veritable operations, but to buy and sell invoices, evade taxes, engage in money laundering, cause budget losses, and distort the competitive environment. I propose that the government need to add specific requirements for the post-audit system, and data connection between tax, customs, and banking agencies, while strengthening inspection and examination of digital technology applications in supervision, and considering building feasible sanctions. At the same time, it is necessary to clearly define the sectors that are required to be pre-audited based on risks and international experience to shun widespread or loose application. Next, it is also necessary to have feasible mechanisms to encourage businesses to apply new technologies and smart technologies in activities to develop and improve labour productivity. The resolution on private sector development must be materialised as soon as possible, with the government needing to enact detailed regulations so that the implementation of the resolution can be carried out. Ta Van Ha, National Assembly deputy Quang Nam province I would like to suggest that more support be given to businesses in terms of trade policy and international integration. Currently, enterprises are facing numerous difficulties. When they want to market their products into international markets, they need assistance from promotion to legal support. At present, in trade disputes with foreign countries, Vietnam is at a disadvantage, so it is very necessary for the state to offer support to them in this regard. Secondly, businesses are now in critical need for policy stability. Newborn enterprises are facing massive difficulties in all conditions, while policies remain unstable with constant changes. Normally, it would take from 5-15 years or even longer for a startup to grow successfully. When an enterprise is newly established with some investment, policies change again, meaning that the enterprise must do everything from scratch, meaning a great waste in resources, efforts, and money. Thirdly, it is now urgent to continue reforming administrative procedures, creating the most favourable conditions for domestic enterprises to perform. In fact, many domestic companies want to sell some products in the Vietnamese market, but they cannot. So they have to cooperate with foreign businesses to market such products, whose number can be hundreds. Many Vietnamese companies have been set up in Singapore, Taiwan, and many other markets to sell many types of products worth tens to hundreds of millions of US dollars, while they cannot do that in their home market. Private sector policy shifts can mean a market lift Resolution No.68-NQ/TW aims to cut red tape and unlock access to key resources like capital, land, and skilled labour for private enterprises. Vy Le, Vietnam Private Capital Agency chairwomen and general partner at Do Ventures, shared with VIRs Hazy Tran how clearer tax rules, streamlined listing procedures, and tailored insurance reforms could reshape the competitive landscape. Private sector vision poised to reimagine real estate A new vision for the private sector in Vietnam highlights the pivotal role of real estate enterprises, a key component in driving development across urbanisation, infrastructure, industry, trade, tourism, and services. The amendments to the Law on Corporate Income Tax (CIT), set to be adopted on June 13, were scrutinised at the National Assembly last week after careful preparations by the Ministry of Finance and government discussions. A cut in CIT would mean crucial savings for some smaller companies The amendments, set to be valid from 2026, aim to help remove difficulties for business performance and ensure stability of state budget revenues. One of the biggest highlights in the draft amendments is that it has embraced some new specific policies, such as the supplementation of regulations for the application of lower CIT for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, at 17 and 15 per cent, respectively. Under Article 10 of the draft, the CIT common tax rate is 20 per cent. However, a rate of 15 per cent shall be applied to enterprises with total annual revenue not exceeding VND3 billion ($120,000), and a rate of 17 per cent shall be applied to those with total annual revenue from over VND3 billion ($120,000) to not exceeding VND50 billion ($2 million). The revenue used as the basis for determining enterprises eligible for the CIT rates of 17 and 15 per cent is the total revenue of the immediately preceding CIT period, Article 10 said. In the case of newly established enterprises, the government shall provide detailed regulations on determining the total revenue used as the basis for application. Under the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, small enterprises refer to those with 10-49 employees, and total annual revenue and capital of VND50 billion ($2 million) and VND20 billion ($800,000), respectively. Micro-sized enterprises refer to those with from 1-9 employees, and total annual revenue and capital of VND3 billion ($120,000). Vietnams corporate tax environment is structured to support both domestic and foreign enterprises, and all taxes are imposed at the national level. The standard CIT rate is 20 per cent. Enterprises operating in the oil and gas industry are subject to CIT rates ranging 25-50 per cent, depending on each contract. Enterprises engaging in prospecting, exploration, and exploitation of certain mineral resources are subject to a CIT rate of 50 per cent. Vietnam is now home to about nearly one million enterprises, with the vast majority being smaller companies that are often cash-strapped and lack output markets, with weak competitiveness. Figures from the National Statistics Office showed that in 2024, just over 100,000 businesses halted operations, up 12.4 per cent as compared to the previous year. Nearly 76,200 enterprises stopped operations and waited for dissolution procedures, up 16.3 per cent; and more than 21,600 enterprises completed such procedures. The first four months of 2024 saw over 68,700 businesses with suspended operations, up 13 per cent on-year; nearly 20,200 businesses stopped operations, up 5.7 per cent; and over 7,600 enterprises completed dissolution procedures, up 26.1 per cent. On average, more than 24,000 businesses left the market each month. Nguyen Thi Son, vice director of Cong Bang Foodstuff Co., Ltd. based on the outskirts of Hanoi, told VIR that her company is faced with massive difficulties. Prices of input materials like sugar, gas, beans, and cooking oil have increased by an average 13 per cent since late last year, while we still have to pay many types of taxes, including a CIT rate of 20 per cent costing about $1,000 per month, said Son, whose company employs 30 people. If the CIT is reduced to 17 per cent, we can save about $350 a year. The sum is not big, but it is a testament to the states support to small-sized enterprises like us, Son said. However, according to Nguyen Thi Tuat, director of agricultural company Hoang Ngoc Trading JSC in Hanoi, there is an urgent need to lower assorted taxes for businesses that are more vulnerable to shocks in the market. For example, a CIT reduction could be offered to those with total revenue of below VND10 billion ($400,000) a year and this should be divided into different levels for application, Tuat said. The JETP is a cooperation initiative and related Political Declaration agreed in December 2022 between Vietnam and the International Partners Group (IPG), now comprised of the EU, the UK, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Denmark and Norway, and co-led by the EU and the UK. The overarching goal is to support the countrys energy transition trajectory towards its 2050 net-zero emissions commitment. According to a joint statement released on May 29, the EU and the UK warmly welcomed French President Emmanuel Macrons visit to Vietnam, reaffirming support for Vietnams goal to deliver a clean energy transition that is inclusive and rooted in sustainable growth on the pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050. On May 26, President Macron and President Luong Cuong announced progress on two important JETP-supported projects. A credit financing agreement between Vietnam Electricity's National Power Transmission Corporation (EVN NPT) and Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) of 67 million ($75 million) will be used to build a 500 kV transmission line and substations across Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces. This project will increase the national transmission networks capacity to integrate renewable energy and deliver reliable electricity in key economic regions in southern Vietnam. In addition, an MoU between EVN and AFD was signed to provide up to 490 million ($552 million) in long-term financing to support the construction of the first 1,200 MW pumped storage hydropower project in Vietnam located in Ninh Thuan province. This large-scale energy storage project will improve grid resilience and enable further integration of variable renewable energy sources into Vietnams energy mix. This pilot project also contributes to the development of regulatory, financial, and investment approaches, paving the way for related future partnerships. Frances and IPGs 547 million ($616 million) financial contribution to these two flagship energy transition projects marks an important step towards delivering the public finance commitments under the JETP. The EU and UK remain fully committed to the JETP as co-leads, working with Vietnam as it continues to raise ambitions for tackling emissions, limiting coal, and increasing the share of renewables as set out in the recently revised National Power Development Plan (PDP8). In addition to mobilising project-specific finance, the IPG will continue to engage closely with the Vietnamese government, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and wider JETP partners to promote a strong enabling policy environment for developers and investors that drives Vietnams future green growth ambitions. Nguyen Xuan Thang, general director of GreenYellow Vietnam GreenYellow warmly welcomes the joint statement on elevating Vietnam-France relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Of particular significance is the shared commitment to the outcomes of the first Global Stocktake (GST) at COP28 especially the ambition to transition away from fossil fuels. This marks a strong signal of deepened cooperation in climate action and the global energy transition. As a French multinational and a key player in renewable energy, GreenYellow is proud to contribute to Vietnams journey towards net-zero emissions by 2050. We provide comprehensive decarbonisation solutions, from rooftop solar via power purchase agreements to battery energy storage systems and energy efficiency enhancements, with no upfront investment required from our commercial and industrial partners. These solutions help businesses lower both energy costs and carbon footprints. With the aligned vision of both governments, GreenYellow is committed to expanding our investment in Vietnam. We aim to accelerate the transition through renewable energy deployment, energy efficiency advocacy, and partnerships that encourage sustainable and efficient energy use. Vietnam launches Resource Mobilisation Plan for Just Energy Transition Partnership During the World Leaders Summit at COP28 on December 1, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh launched the Resource Mobilisation Plan (RMP), which marks a key milestone towards the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnership. JETP a crucial step for Vietnams climate ambitions Almost one year ago, the Vietnamese government agreed on a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to facilitate the transition away from fossil fuels towards cleaner forms of energy. In the months since, there has been a flurry of activity to support the operationalisation of that initial agreement. Changes in law will help make state capital funding more specific and clear It is scheduled that the Law on Management and Investment of State Capital in Enterprises, drafted by the Ministry of Finance, will be adopted on June 14 and take effect on August 1. The draft law currently discussed at the National Assembly (NA) is applicable to representatives of state capital ownership, as well as state-owned businesses stipulated in the Law on Enterprises and credit institutions whose over 50 per cent of charter capital is held by the state under the Law on Credit Institutions. It is also applicable to representatives of such capital put into joint-stock companies and limited liability companies with two or more members; and to agencies, organisations, and individuals related to the management and investment of state capital in enterprises. The states investment in enterprises is defined under the draft law as its use of its capital and assets to fund them. This includes capital from the state budget invested in enterprises, and public assets assigned to them for management. Under the drafts Article 12, such capital is invested to establish businesses whose entire charter capital is held by the state. Along with crucial products and services, defence and security, and natural monopolistic sectors, the draft also covers science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, high-tech application, major investment, and construction of key infrastructure works which can create momentum for rapid overall development. NA deputy Nguyen Thi Thu Ha representing the northeastern province of Quang Ninh welcomed the draft law. The scope is suitable as the sectors are those in need of state capital, Ha said. However, it is suggested that the government soon consider and clarify conditions for such money to be placed into enterprises so that obstructions can be avoided. She noted that every year, businesses have to invest much money which is higher than their registered capital. Does this classify as major investment? Currently, many state-owned enterprises (SOEs), during the process of raising charter capital, have to report to authorised agencies many types of information related to high-tech application and major funding, among others, Ha said. In order to avoid misunderstanding that SOEs are allowed to raise charter capital only when they meet all conditions set out in Article 12, it is suggested that the conditions be separated into two separated points. One is the conditions about sci-tech development and digital transformation etc., and another is about enterprises with major investment and construction of key infrastructure works, Ha said. NA deputy Pham Van Hoa, representing the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, said the scope of state capital funding in the draft law is specific and clear. However, this must be invested with focus. What private enterprises can do must be done by them. What they cannot do must be carried out by the state, in service of security and defence, social security, and public works, Hoa said. For example, the state has called for private backing in building a number of expressways and national roads under the build-operate-transfer form, but private businesses have refused, and so the state must invest, Hoa continued. This is a difficult job due to site clearance and economic effectiveness issues, among others. NA deputy Nguyen Van Than, representing the northern province of Thai Binh, also admitted that private businesses cannot cover everything. They cant complain that the state favours SOEs in areas such as coal, oil and gas, and security and defence. SOEs must be responsible for engaging in these sectors, he said. What private firms dont want to do must be done by the state. It is suggested that specific tasks be assigned to SOEs to avoid them gathering big profits from property business and focusing only on real estate, which is unsuitable. The draft law also stipulates that leaders and chief accountants of SOEs are not allowed to invest into, contribute capital, or purchase stakes from other enterprises whose managers and representatives are relatives. All information about SOE activities must be publicly posted on their e-portal, and ownership representative agencies must also follow suit. archives 29 Jun - 6 Jul (2) 22 Jun - 29 Jun (4) 15 Jun - 22 Jun (1) 8 Jun - 15 Jun (3) 1 Jun - 8 Jun (4) 25 May - 1 Jun (5) 18 May - 25 May (2) 11 May - 18 May (3) 4 May - 11 May (2) 27 Apr - 4 May (5) 20 Apr - 27 Apr (1) 13 Apr - 20 Apr (2) 30 Mar - 6 Apr (5) 23 Mar - 30 Mar (2) 9 Mar - 16 Mar (1) 2 Mar - 9 Mar (2) 16 Feb - 23 Feb (3) 9 Feb - 16 Feb (1) 2 Feb - 9 Feb (3) 26 Jan - 2 Feb (2) 12 Jan - 19 Jan (1) 5 Jan - 12 Jan (1) 22 Dec - 29 Dec (1) 15 Dec - 22 Dec (2) 8 Dec - 15 Dec (1) 24 Nov - 1 Dec (1) 17 Nov - 24 Nov (4) 10 Nov - 17 Nov (2) 3 Nov - 10 Nov (1) 27 Oct - 3 Nov (4) 20 Oct - 27 Oct (4) 13 Oct - 20 Oct (1) 6 Oct - 13 Oct (1) 29 Sep - 6 Oct (1) 22 Sep - 29 Sep (1) 15 Sep - 22 Sep (1) 18 Aug - 25 Aug (5) 4 Aug - 11 Aug (2) 21 Jul - 28 Jul (6) 7 Jul - 14 Jul (3) 30 Jun - 7 Jul (2) 23 Jun - 30 Jun (5) 16 Jun - 23 Jun (2) 9 Jun - 16 Jun (3) 2 Jun - 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According to a Facebook post from WCSO, on Thursday, May 29 around 5:45 p.m. deputies were alerted to the presence of a possible stolen vehicle. A records check confirmed that the vehicle was reported stolen. Deputies made a traffic stop of the vehicle, and arrested the driver, Joseph Hernandez. Hernandez was booked into the Washoe County Detention Facility on the charges of: Possession of a stolen motor vehicle Possession of a controlled substance (1st offense) Possession of drug paraphernalia WCSO deputies have made arrangements to get the SUV back to its owner. Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford is warning the public about possible misleading claims concerning some over-the-counter hearing aids. Traditionally, hearing aids are prescribed and fitted by a hearing healthcare professional. However, over-the-counter-devices may be offered without consultation, and people may not receive warnings of the risks associated with them. Hearing loss can be debilitating in many ways and many Nevadans are looking for affordable solutions," said AG Ford. "Our goal is to make sure Nevada consumers are able to make informed choices understanding the difference between FDA approved medical devices and sound amplifiers, which may not address their actual hearing needs. AG Ford says some over-the-counter devices may display FDA Registration Certificates that look like official government documents and may even show the FDA logo. These certificates may be displayed next to photos of the devices on the website, giving the impression that the device has received FDA approval. Medical device companies are required to register and list their devices with the FDA, which only indicates that the company has provided information to the FDA. Ford's office says it does not indicate FDA approval, clearance or authorization of the device. Medical devices listed with the FDA can be found on the FDAs Medical Devices Database. If you are in search of a hearing aid product, remember the following: * Consider making an appointment with a hearing specialist who can give an opinion about the type of device you should use. Only a hearing screening and opinion from a hearing professional can tell you what type of hearing device will work best for you. * Relaxed restrictions on the sale of direct-to-consumer hearing aids means many over-the-counter products are considered sound amplifiers, not FDA-approved medical devices, and may not work properly for those with hearing loss. * Research the company or seller through Better Business Bureau and other trusted sources before buying a hearing loss product. * Weigh online reviews and endorsements with caution. * Pay attention to the timeframes and conditions for returns and refunds. Have a full understanding of your right to return or cancel an order and receive a refund before making a purchase. * If a deal on a hearing aid device seems too good to be true, it probably is. * If you believe you have encountered a deceptive act regarding the sale or marketing of a medical device, you should file a complaint about your experience with our office. (Office of Nevada Attorney General contributed to this report.) China remains 'stabilizer and propeller' of global growth amid trade tensions: UN trade official 10:18, May 30, 2025 By Ma Tong ( Global Times Editor's Note: The global economy faces profound shifts as rising unilateralism challenges the multilateral trade order. How should countries respond to these challenges? What is China's role in safeguarding the multilateral trading system? In an exclusive interview with the Global Times (GT) during the 2025 Tsinghua PBCSF Global Finance Forum, Nan Li Collins (Li), senior director of the Division on Investment and Enterprise at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and chair of the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, shared his views. Lujiazui area in Shanghai (Photo/Xinhua) GT: How do you assess global growth prospects this year and what are the main challenges facing the world economy? What role can China and developing countries play in strengthening multilateral trade and fostering shared growth? Li: Secretary-General of the UNCTAD Rebeca Grynspan recently told UN News that "we are already in a 'new normal' of low growth and high debt," which coincides with President Xi Jinping's assessment that "the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century and has entered a period of turmoil." Various challenges this year, including insufficient global demand, continuous geopolitical conflicts, and frequent trade frictions, have led UNCTAD to lower its 2025 global economic growth forecast to 2.3 percent, indicating the global economy is entering a contraction. The current policy priority is to inject resilience and stability into the fragile global economy. The recent Geneva talks between China and the US have undoubtedly boosted global confidence. As a defender and advocate of the multilateral trading system, China will continue to play its important role as both a stabilizer and propeller of world economic development. The current volatile international environment poses particularly severe tests for developing countries, which need to transform their scattered resources into development momentum through strengthened South-South cooperation and North-South dialogue. UNCTAD will also continue assisting developing countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development through policy analysis, intergovernmental cooperation, technical assistance, and capacity building. GT: The recent China-US Geneva trade talks achieved agreements on mutual tariff reductions and improved communication mechanisms. How significant are these outcomes for global trade and investment? What future do you foresee for China-US economic and trade cooperation? Li: As the world's two largest economies, stable and orderly economic and trade interactions between China and the US serve as a "barometer" for global investment and trade flows. The positive consensus reached this time undoubtedly injects a "stimulant" into the stable development of global trade and investment. For businesses, this progress will directly reduce cross-border trade costs, releasing market space for businesses in both countries. At the global level, the positive effects of mutual tariff reductions will also spill over into other countries, creating more stable and reliable external environments for developing economies that depend on intermediate product trade, while enhancing the resilience of global supply chains. The establishment of a China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism during these talks provides a platform for follow-up exchanges and generates optimistic expectations for future cooperation. The world hopes these two major economies can strengthen communication and cooperation within the multilateral trading system, jointly shoulder their responsibilities as major countries, and inject more certainty and stability into the global economy. Nan Li Collins (Photo/Courtesy of the Tsinghua PBCSF) GT: The US administration has employed tariffs as a tool to reshape trade relations, claiming to protect domestic industries and address trade imbalances. From a multilateral standpoint, how effective is this approach in achieving these objectives? Li: The UN has always emphasized that there are no winners in trade wars. In today's globalized world with deeply divided global value chains, economies are intricately interconnected, and actions by one major economy would reverberate across the globe. When the two main global economies engage in a tariff war, it will affect everybody, and least-developed countries (LDCs) will suffer the most severe blows. The current international trade and investment landscape remains fragile, with global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows declining for the third consecutive year in 2024. Frequent trade frictions this year have led UNCTAD to revise down its 2025 global economic growth forecast. UNCTAD calls on countries to return to multilateralism and actively resolve structural contradictions through rules-based negotiations. China and the US should explore cooperation potential, enlarge the pie of cooperation, continuously achieve new developments in bilateral economic relations, avoid zero-sum games, and provide more public goods for developing countries worldwide. GT: How do you assess China's push for high-level opening-up and a better business environment? What is the significance of such efforts for global businesses? Li: UNCTAD regards international trade as an important tool for promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and achieving sustainable development goals. Amid global value chain restructuring, China is actively transitioning from "factor opening-up" to "institutional opening-up." Through autonomous tariff reductions, duty-free policies for LDCs, shortening the negative list for foreign investment, expanding pilot programs for services sector opening, and actively applying to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, China has significantly improved policy transparency and actively aligned with high-standard international rules. At a time when some major economies are opting for protectionism, China is actively opening its economy to provide opportunities for other countries to participate more extensively and deeply in China's economic development. This constitutes a practical vote of confidence in multilateralism and international cooperation. Not only does it provide broad space for global economic cooperation, but it also offers important practical examples for rebuilding global business confidence and stabilizing industrial and supply chains. GT: How do you view China's deepening ties with the Global South? How do China's technological advancements and investments help developing countries in emerging sectors? Li: As the world's largest developing country, China continues to deepen investment partnerships with Global South countries, achieving remarkable progress in technology empowerment, green transformation, and digital connectivity, while continuously injecting new momentum into South-South cooperation. Taking the digital economy as an example, according to analysis in UNCTAD's forthcoming World Investment Report 2025, the proportion of South-South investment in global FDI in the digital economy sector continues to rise, with China being the most important source. China's advancements in artificial intelligence, green economy, and digital economy will provide comprehensive opportunities for developing countries. For instance, China's outward investment helps bridge the digital infrastructure gaps in these countries. Chinese technology provides affordable solutions for Global South nations, and its experience offers possibilities for these countries to achieve rapid development in emerging industries. We believe China's investment cooperation with Global South countries will further benefit all developing nations and promote the building of a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable global economic system. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) The Washoe County Library System has launched its 2025 Summer Reading Challenge, themed Color Our World, running from June 1 through July 31. The program encourages readers of all ages to engage in reading and creative activities, with opportunities to earn prizes. Children and teens 18 and under can earn up to three free books by signing up, reading for 600 minutes, and completing eight activities. Adults 19 and older can earn up to three free items from library book sales by meeting similar criteria and will receive a voucher for each item. Vouchers can also be redeemed for up to $3 off one item at the Friends of Washoe County Library book sales on May 31June 8 and August 210. Vouchers must be redeemed by August 31, 2025, cannot be replaced or redeemed for cash, and are limited to three per participant. The challenge aims to inspire creativity through various artistic expressions. Readers are encouraged to visit libraries to discover new books, attend plays or musical performances, participate in arts and crafts programs, or explore gallery exhibits. Most Washoe County Library branches will host kickoff parties between June 3 and 9, featuring games and activities, along with opportunities to sign up and learn more about the challenge. On Saturday, June 7, the Incline Village Library will celebrate 20 years at its current location with a Block Party and Summer Reading Challenge Kickoff. "Readers are invited to enjoy a free hot dog, play a game or two of cornhole, and enjoy many other fun activities at this outdoor community event." To participate, readers can download the Beanstack app or visit a library for a reading log. Participants will receive prize notifications through Beanstack or can submit completed logs to any Washoe County Library location to claim prizes by August 31. For more information, about the Summer Reading Challenge visit the Washoe County Library's website. Lyon County deputies are investigating a suspected hit-&-run crash that killed a man Thursday afternoon. Deputies say the crash happened on Dayton Valley Road near Sutro and Rancho Roads around 4 p.m. on Thursday. They say the victim, a man was transported to Carson Tahoe Hospital for initial treatment but then was later airlifted to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno where he later died. The Lyon County Sheriffs Office, with help from Nevada State Police, are now investigating the scene where the incident happened. The man's name hasn't been released. If you have any information that can help authorities, contact the Lyon County Sheriffs Office Investigations Division at 775-577-5206 or by email at detective@lyon-county.org. A Reno man faces life in prison after being convicted today of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl. Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks shared today that a jury has found 70-year-old Joseph Greco guilty of two counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14. The Washoe County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) received a report in March of 2023 that an underage victim had been sexually abused. When WCSO deputies responded, the parents of the victim said that while visiting Reno, someone saw Greco putting his hand down the child's pants. Later, when the victim's father asked the girl if she had ever been touched in a way that made her feel uncomfortable, she said that she had and identified Greco as the person who did so. The victim was also able to identify other times where Greco sexually abused her, both in Reno and out of state. She said that he had been abusing her since she was two years old. Over the course of the investigation, deputies learned that Greco sexually abused other children that he knew. Sentencing for Greco is set for July 24, where he faces life in prison. Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen (D) announced Friday that $447,445 in federal funding will be coming Reno's way to help house homeless veterans. The City of Reno Housing Authority will receive the funds to support housing vouchers for Nevada veterans experiencing homelessness. These funds were acquired as part of the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, which Senator Rosen revisits each year. "Our veterans put their lives on the line for our country, and we must do everything we can to support them. This funding will help veterans in our state have the resources to access housing and the services they need to get back on their feet. Ill keep working to make sure that the men and women who served our nation have the support theyve earned," said Senator Rosen. To keep up with Senator Rosen's work in the U.S. Senate, visit her website. More than 30 people have now been identified in the recent Reno High vandalism case. The WCSD says there are two separate but parallel investigations: a criminal investigation by the WCSD School Police Department and an administrative investigation by WCSD. These investigations are extensive and ongoing. The investigations have identified 30+ people connected to the incident. The WCSD says not all of the people are students at Reno High School. The WCSD says as a result of the administrative investigation, disciplinary actions continue to be taken based on each person's level of involvement. Consequences range from suspension from classes for the remainder of the school year to the loss of privileges, including but not limited to the ability to participate in graduation ceremonies. Due to federal privacy laws, the WCSD is not able to share specific numbers or identities of students who have been disciplined. Prior to the incident, the WCSD says hundreds of students were on campus for scheduled senior activities. Most people left when the planned activities concluded; however, a large group later returned, causing the damage. Officers are interviewing witnesses and people involved, reviewing footage from more than 40 surveillance cameras, looking at social media to identify potential witnesses, reviewing cell phone videos, following up on anonymous tips, and analyzing other evidence. MAY 29, 6:20 P.M. UPDATE: An investigation into vandalism at Reno High School has resulted in the identification and disciplining of multiple individuals involved in the acts. In a message to families, Reno High School Principal Mike Nakashima said those students and their families have been notified of disciplinary action, including suspension for the remainder of the school year and a loss of privileges, including the ability to participate in graduation ceremonies. Federal privacy laws prevent the school from revealing the exact number of people who have been disciplined. The actions taken by the school are different from the criminal investigation being conducted by School Police, which is ongoing, the principal said. He also said that people with information that may be helpful can share it via SafeVoice. --- MAY 29, 10:40 A.M. UPDATE: The Washoe County School District has created a webpage to update the community about the ongoing investigation into Reno High's vandalism. Superintendent Joe Ernst says, "WCSD School Police are conducting a comprehensive review of all available evidence. The investigation requires careful examination of multiple witnesses, suspects, and extensive video surveillance, which takes time." Although Reno City councilman Devon Reese previously estimated damage at $100,000+, Ernst says a full assessment and "cost of repairs is still being completed. Any dollar amount that may exist publicly is premature at this time." Once the investigation is complete, those involved could either be disciplined by school officials, or criminally cited or charged, dependent on a review by the Washoe County District Attorney's Office. From there, criminal punishment will be decided by the suspect(s) age. If they are under 18, those involved will be handled by the juvenile justice system - and if they are over 18, they will go through the adult criminal system, which could mean public trials and possible imprisonment. Ernst says the WCSD has received many anonymous tips they continue to follow up on and offer options for people to offer information - Reach out to School Police via phone, email, or in person to provide information (775-348-0285). Call the SafeVoice hotline at 1-833-216-SAFE (7233) to speak with trained professionals available 24/7. You can read more below - May 27, 2025: Reno High School's principal says that counseling and support is now available for students after last week's vandalism. In a message sent to families, Principal Mike Nakashima added that the investigation remains ongoing - after Reno City councilman Devon Reese said that vandals caused $100,000 in damage at the high school last week. "I have full faith and confidence in the investigation being conducted by our Washoe County School District School Police, and those who perpetrated these acts against our school will be held accountable..." He ended his message reminding families of the school's 'core values': respect, honor and strength. "Let us move forward together with clarity, accountability, and compassion. We will take steps to ensure our school remains a place of learning, not of hate. And to those who feel hurt or targetedwe see you, we support you, and we will stand with you. ...This is our RHS community. Let us honor it with our actions." If you have any information that can help authorities, call or text your anonymous tip to Secret Witness at 775-322-4900. You can read Principal Nakashima's full message below - May 26. 2025: A Reno City councilman says he's calling for a full investigation after vandals caused $100,000+ in damage at Reno High School last week. On Facebook, Devon Reese (Ward 5) says, "This is not who we are as a city, and it will not be tolerated. I am calling for a full investigation and will support any measures necessary to hold those responsible accountable. Our schools must be places of learning and inclusionnot fear and hate." Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve agreed in her own statement saying that the vandalism involving racial slurs and extreme property damage is absolutely unacceptable and has no place in our city. I want to make it clear: this behavior does not reflect the values of our community. She went on to say that Reno Police is providing resources to the Washoe County School District Police. We will not tolerate acts of hate in our city, and we will send a clear and united message that Reno stands against racism and discrimination in all forms. If you have any information that can help authorities, call or text your anonymous tip to Secret Witness at 775-322-4900. May 24, 2025: The Washoe County School District has released a statement regarding the recent vandalism and damage at Reno High School. In the release, Superintendent Joe Ernst and Board President Beth Smith say they are "deeply disturbed and disheartened by the recent vandalism." You can find the full text of the statement below: "The Washoe County School District unequivocally condemns hate speech in all forms within our schools. Our educational institutions must be places where every student, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or background, feels safe, valued, and respected. Hate speech undermines the very principles of inclusion, respect, and equality that are central to the mission of our schools and our guiding principles. We are deeply disturbed and disheartened by the recent vandalism at Reno High School. Such actions are criminal and are an attack on the values of respect, honor, and strength for which Reno High School stands. The Washoe County School District School Police is continuing its thorough investigation. The safety and well-being of our students, staff, and families remain our top priority. The district has and will continue to provide support, resources and counseling services to those impacted by these acts." The district is asking anyone who may have information about the break-in or vandalism to contact Washoe County School District Police through Secret Witness at (775) 322-4900. Original Story (5/23/2025, 11:54 a.m.): Reno High School officials canceled the senior assembly scheduled for Friday following an overnight break-in and acts of vandalism on campus. The Washoe County School District notified parents and guardians about the incident in a Connect Ed call, stating that the break-in is under investigation and the school is working with local authorities to identify those responsible. While the damage is being assessed and cleaned up, certain areas of the school will remain closed, the school stated. Classes will continue as scheduled, and officials said they are taking necessary steps to restore full operations. The safety and security of our students and staff remains our top priority, the message continued. School administrators said they understand the significance of senior events and will provide updates on alternative plans for the assembly in the coming days. The president of the Washoe School Board, Beth Smith, recently posted a statement to Facebook regarding the vandalism, saying: "Hate symbolism and racial slurs have no place in our schools. The recent acts of vandalism and destruction at Reno High School are unacceptable and deeply hurtful. I stand united with our community against racism and antisemitism. Parents, please use this as an opportunity to talk openly with your kids so they understand the impact of hate and our shared responsibility to fiercely denounce it in every form." This is a developing story - we will update you with new information as it becomes available. Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D) is trying to let non-partisan voters be involved in primary elections. "Parties are not weakened by participation, they are strengthened by it," Yeager said. Earlier this week, Yeager introduced an emergency bill looking to do just that. Assembly Bill 597 got its first hearing in the joint meeting of both the Senate and Assembly Committees on Legislative Operations and Elections Thursday evening. The bill language became available on Monday, and there are only a few days left in the 83rd Nevada Legislative Session. This legislation is looking to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in the primary election of their choice. On Thursday, the Speaker had already submitted two amendments to the bill. The bill was originally going to allow those unaffiliated voters apply for a mail-in ballot within 14 days of the election. Yeager amended the bill to the seventh Monday before an election to line up with Assembly Bill 148, legislation he co-sponsored with Assembly Minority Leader Gregory Hafen II (R). If they miss that deadline, they could still choose to vote in person. The other amendment was removing unaffiliated voters from participating in the Presidential Preference Primary election. Currently, the only way nonpartisan voters can participate in one of the major primaries is changing their voter registration. "That just practically doesn't happen, right? We know how the real world operates. People are not going to change party registration and change back," Yeager said. "They're non-partisan for a reason." Recently, the Secretary of State's Office released active registered voter numbers. Non-partisan voters continue to lead the state at just under 35 percent with more than 740,000 people. "I think as we've seen over the last couple of years, the number of Nevadans registering as nonpartisans has increased significantly," said Cisco Aguilar, Nevada Secretary of State. "We will do everything that we can in the Secretary of State's Office to accommodate this legislation and make sure Nevadans have voice. It's all about access." However, lawmakers were receiving complaints from folks who don't like the idea. "They feel that letting nonpartisan voters to vote in primaries will somehow dilute the strength of their vote to choose who they want to represent them," said Senator Lisa Krasner, (R) Minority Whip. There were many more there in opposition than there were in support of this bill. "They should indeed be unaffiliated. It is a choice, choices come with consequences as it should be," said Bruce Parks, Chairman, Washoe County Republican Party. This hearing brought a lot of conversation about question three from last year's ballot in Nevada. "The voters had their say, they shot it down, they didn't want it, so why do we need to bring this and override the rule of the people," said Brian Hibbetts, (R) Assemblymember, Clark County. Speaker Yeager claims this bill is much different. "This concept here is not the same that was in question three," he said during the hearing. "When it comes to the primary, a true open primary was what was in question three, anybody could be in the primary no matter what your party was including non-partisans, and anybody would vote in that primary. There was no sort of self-selection." Yeager said he had lots of issues with that ballot measure that included open primaries and ranked choice voting. "I don't believe those two questions should have been on the ballot together, the Supreme Court disagreed and allowed those two questions to be on the ballot together, but I do believe had that ballot question had only been about open primaries I believe it would have passed," he said. "I believe it only failed because of ranked choice voting and indeed that's why I opposed it." However, some people disagreed. "We Nevadans just voted overwhelmingly against just such a measure when we said no on question three and yes, we considered both aspects of question three when we said no," Parks said. Two men have been arrested by ICE officials in northern Nevada, both of whom have been convicted of sex offences in the past. Ingrid Swinton had been living in her Washington, D.C., apartment for about five years when she learned she could be evicted. Some of the money she sent to her landlord each month for rent was applied to parking and other fees, putting her rent in arrears and resulting in additional late charges. Her landlord filed suit to evict her. There was no way I could go before the judge because I dont know the law, Swinton says. Enter Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE), an AARP affiliate dedicated to providing older D.C. residents with free legal services. Members only LCE started working with Swinton in February 2023. After months of legal work Swinton, now 65, was able to stay in her apartment and pay off her debt. LCE also made sure she received financial assistance from D.C.s Housing Counseling Services and the nonprofit Bread for the City. Having information about my rights was crucial, she says. It allowed me to stay in my home. Since it was created in 1975, LCE has championed the rights of thousands of older D.C. residents. The nonprofits priority is to ensure that they can age in place with dignity through key focus areas: housing, economic security, self-determination, and health and safety. Learn How AARP Is Fighting for You AARP is your fierce defender on the issues that matter to people 50-plus. Read more bout how we fight for you every day in Congress and across the country. We have relationships throughout the city with different community organizations to make sure that people are taken care of, says Rhonda Cunningham Holmes, LCEs executive director. At LCE, about 70 attorneys, social workers and other staff members help prevent evictions and foreclosures, obtain public and veterans benefits, prepare wills and powers of attorneys, assist with probates, advocate for residents in long-term care facilities, and protect older Washingtonians against Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Alicia Collins, now 63, asked LCE for help when she was hit by an enormous bill from the Social Security Administration (SSA). After her marriage in 2018, Collins, who was receiving Social Security benefits because of a disability, informed the SSA that her status had changed. But she kept being paid as single which led to a monthly overpayment of about $600. In 2021, SSA came after her for close to $14,000. But through LCEs intervention the debt was waived. Within the last three years, LCE secured about $80 million in benefits for its clients. In 2024, the nonprofit handled nearly 7,000 cases. LCE also plays a key role in advocating for older Washingtonians before the D.C. City Council, including for those in long-term care facilities. And in 2014, LCEs advocacy resulted in greater protections against foreclosures for homeowners. LCE only represents D.C. residents who are 60 or older and live with an income equivalent to 250 percent or less of the federal poverty level, or $39,125 in 2025. However, all D.C. residents 60 or older can receive legal advice and referrals through the LCE Legal Hotline at 202-434-2120. In June, Pride Month is more than an excuse to don every color of the rainbow. It marks a special time for some members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies to join forces for celebration and advocacy. Pride Month has been observed for decades.The month was officially recognized when President Bill Clinton designated June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999. The commemoration recognizes the LGBTQ+ community, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning. Members only A Statista poll found that 5.1 percent of Generation X, 3 percent of boomers and 1.8 percent of the silent generation identified as LGBTQ+, as of 2024. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, the LGBTQ+ community has grown over the years, with 7.6 percent of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+. But despite growing representation, the LGBTQ+ community still faces some challenges. Our elder pioneers strength and activism, during other extremely difficult times, paved the way for the freedom that we celebrate in this Pride season, says Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, the countrys largest and oldest organization dedicated to serving older LGBTQ+ individuals. Jackie Lees, 72, from Asheville, North Carolina, is on the board of directors for Blue Ridge Pride Center and a member of its AARP North Carolina-affiliated Generation Plus Committee a group dedicated to serving members of the LGBTQ+ community who are 55 and older. She is also transgender. Lees local Pride festival doesnt happen until the fall, but she recognizes the importance of giving people 50 and older a space to embrace their identities without fear or judgment. [Pride] means a celebration of the struggles we went through to get to this point, Lees says. Whether we know each other or not its a good feeling to be around others. One of those struggles most often honored during Pride Month is the Stonewall Uprising, a pivotal event for the gay rights movement in the U.S., which began June 28, 1969, in the New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Lees says older members of the LGBTQ+ community can use Pride to close the generational gap. Were here to mentor the younger ones, if they want to hear us, Lees says. Check out our nationwide round-up of events. Its certainly not all-encompassing, so if you dont see an event local to you, try an online search for nearby Pride Month events. $1 Million Share Placement Sydney, May 30, 2025 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Flagship Minerals Limited ( ASX:FLG ) has received firm commitments for A$1.25 million (before costs) by way of a share placement to new and existing shareholders ("Placement"). HIGHLIGHTS - $1.0 million received from new and existing investors - A further $144,449.40 of March 2024 Convertible Notes converted on the same terms - A further $105,000 participation by Management - Focus on balancing cash requirements vs project advancement vs dilution at current valuation Flagship will be focusing the use of funds on the Pantanillo Gold Project, including conversion and possibly expansion of the current 47.4Mt @ 0.69g/t Au for 1.05Moz Au QFE(1) of mineralisation (NI 43-101 Measured and Indicated) to a JORC Mineral Resource (2012 and 2025 compliant). Work to achieve this includes core logging and re-assaying, updating earlier metallurgical testwork, initiating environmental studies, and drill preparation for a planned start in the second half 2025. The Company is also planning to undertake trenching and general fieldwork at Flagship's Rosario Copper Project, and possibly initial metallurgical testwork ahead of a drilling program to start after the Pantanillo drilling campaign. (1) The qualifying foreign estimates (QFE) are not reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012). The Competent Person has not done sufficient work to classify the qualifying foreign estimates in accordance with the JORC Code (2012) and it is uncertain that following evaluation and/or further exploration work that the foreign estimates will be able to be reported as Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves in accordance with the JORC Code. The QFE was first reported in ASX announcement dated 14 April 2025 and titled "Pantanillo Gold Project -Advanced Large Scale Oxide Gold Project - Maricunga Gold Belt, Chile - Binding Option Agreement to Purchase 100%". Several of the Company's March 2024 Convertible Note holders chose to convert part or all of their Notes in this Placement and the Company's Management also participated in the Placement. Flagship Minerals' Managing Director, Paul Lock, commented: "For this raise, we had a focus on balancing cash requirements with what we see as short term, low cost value adding for the Pantanillo Gold Project, particularly converting and possibly expanding the high quality qualifying foreign estimate of 47.4Mt @ 0.69g/t Au for 1.05Moz Au to a JORC compliant Mineral Resource, keeping in mind that the qualifying foreign estimate is an NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource and is consistent with reporting practices of major gold producers such as Barrick, Newmont, Agnico Eagle, and Kinross. Pantanillo is a large heap leachable gold porphyry which is amenable to open cut mining and heap leach processing, providing Flagship a material gold inventory that leapfrogs the Company several steps closer to feasibility and production." Flagship has had a key focus on expenditure and dilution over the last 18 months, with market conditions and placement terms generally unattractive to the Company and its current shareholders. This is particularly so at the Company's current valuation, which, in the Board's opinion, is a considerable distance from reflecting the quality of the Company's assets and broader peer group valuations, especially with the addition of Flagship's Pantanillo Gold Project, which hosts a qualifying foreign estimate of 1.05Moz Au. The placement included $1.0 million cash participation by new and existing shareholders, the conversion of $144,449.40 of March 2024 Convertible Notes comprising A$119,500 principal and A$24,949.40 accrued interest, and A$105,000 participation by the Company's Chairman and Managing Director, Paul Lock, whose subscription will be via conversion of director loans provided during 2024 and 2025. The issue of Mr Lock's Shares will be subject to shareholder approval at the next Annual General Meeting. Flagship will issue 20,824,156 fully paid ordinary Shares at $0.06. 16,666,66 Shares for new funds received will be issued utilising the Company's ASX Listing Rule 7.1A placement capacity and 1,750,000 Shares issued on conversion of Convertible Notes will be issued utilising the Company's ASX Listing Rule 7.1 capacity. The Convertible Notes had previously been ratified by shareholders, however given the change in terms, the Shares will now be issued using capacity. The Directors' shares will be issued subject to shareholder approval. The Placement includes the issue of one new option for every two new shares applied for with an exercise price of 12c and expiry date two years from issue. 10,412,078 options will be issued subject to shareholder approval. The Placement was at a $0.06, a discount of 14% to the 27 May closing price and 19% to the 15 day VWAP. GBA Capital Pty Ltd and Novus Capital Pty Ltd were joint lead arrangers for the Placement. Flagship will pay the Joint Lead Arrangers, Novus and GBA, 6% on funds received from new and existing shareholders, but not on the conversion of March 2024 Convertible Notes or Management's participation. About Flagship Minerals Ltd Flagship Minerals Ltd's (ASX:FLG) strategy is to secure and develop projects which it believes will position the Company as a low-cost producer of Copper and Lithium, metals that matter. Specifically, Flagship Minerals seeks to secure low capital intensity projects in low-cost jurisdictions and infrastructure rich settings, projects which are positioned for high margin outcomes, and projects which are proximal to industry, chemical processing, and manufacturing. Related Companies loading......... Malibu, CA, May 30, 2025 AEST (ABN Newswire) - In this edition of The Ellis Martin Report and Money Talk Radio, Ellis speaks with noted Quebec geologist, investor, and entrepreneur Andre Gauthier, a director and shareholder of ESGold Corp. ( CNSX:ESAU ) ( ESAUF:OTCMKTS ). The conversation takes place at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) Conference in New York City. ESGold Corp is a fully permitted, pre-production resource company based in Quebec, Canada. With a focus on clean, innovative mining and exploration, ESGold aims to deliver long-term value through sustainable resource recovery. The company's flagship Montauban Project, located just 80 kilometers west of Quebec City, represents a powerful blend of near-term production and district-scale exploration potential. Andre Gauthier shares how he first became involved with ESGold - initially to help shareholders better understand the immense potential of the Montauban Project. Upon closer inspection, he saw something rare in the junior mining world: the ability to generate substantial cash flow in a short period - potentially $60 million+ in free cash flow from an $8 million investment. This opportunity lies in reclaiming and processing historic mine tailings, which not only offer financial upside but also solve a lingering environmental issue for the region. The Montauban property is easily accessible - just a one-hour drive from Quebec City on paved roads. The existing geological data is strong, and the project's historical grades and formation have been confirmed through site visits and sampling. Importantly, no drill holes have been made deeper than 250 meters, leaving the deeper, unexplored potential wide open. Andre draws comparisons between Montauban and the Broken Hill deposits in Australia - both in geological context and potential. He also emphasizes that although Montauban hasn't been mined in over a century (dating back to 1911), there remains vast, untapped potential. In fact, much of the region's geology has not been systematically mapped or explored, presenting a compelling opportunity. A passive seismic tomography survey is currently underway, utilizing artificial intelligence to model subsurface structures up to 1.2 kilometers deep. This will guide future exploration once tailings processing begins and cash flow is established. Andre explains that cleaning up the tailings is not only good business - it's also good environmental stewardship. The region's residents, many of whom had family who once worked in the mines, are generally supportive of responsible mining projects that generate employment and economic growth. The Montauban Project's development plan is twofold: - Short-term production through tailings reclamation. - Long-term exploration of the surrounding geology for polymetallic deposits, including gold, silver, lead, zinc, and more. Andre reiterates that there is no rush to drill until cash flow and operational stability are achieved. This disciplined approach respects both shareholder capital and the regional community, which values environmentally responsible mining. To Listen to the Interview, please visit: https://www.abnnewswire.net/lnk/31KB5MOM About ESGold Corp. ESGold Corp. (CNSX:ESAU) (OTCQB:ESAUF) (FRA:Z7D) is a fully permitted, pre-production resource company at the forefront of clean mining and exploration innovation. With proven expertise in Quebec, the Company is advancing its projects toward production and feasibility while delivering long-term value through sustainable resource recovery and exploration. ESGold's flagship Montauban property, located 80 kilometers west of Quebec City, serves as a model for responsible mining practices, combining near-term production with district-scale discovery potential. About The Ellis Martin Report The Ellis Martin Report (TEMR) is an internet based radio program showcasing potentially undervalued companies to an audience of potential retail investors and fund managers that comprise our listening audience. TEMR is broadcasted on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel and The Opportunity Radio Network. CEO and company interviews are paid for by those represented on the program. loading......... Related Companies Ministers have confirmed they will change the law to allow money to be removed from DB pension schemes and handed to companies. The Pension Security Alliance a group of businesses, campaigners and pensions professionals says that the proposals to allow surplus money to be extracted from pension schemes are not in the interests of more than 10 million members and beneficiaries of private-sector DB pensions. Those people must be consulted about any change that could put their pension at risk, the group says, warning: Ministers and trustees must not ignore millions of people who have earned their pension and dont want it put at risk. The Pension Security Alliance is highlighting a Department for Work and Pensions consultation document from 2024 which says: Any extraction of surplus will reduce security for members. Allowing money to be removed from pension schemes before members benefits have been secured runs the risk of those schemes running short of money in future if financial conditions change, the Alliance said. In that case, some schemes could collapse and be bailed out by the Pension Protection Fund, which sometimes pays reduced pensions to members. The Pension Security Alliance is made up of: Silver Voices, the only independent, individual membership organisation for senior citizens in the UK. The Older People's Advocacy Alliance (OPAAL), a charity promoting the rights and needs of older people. John Ralfe, a widely-respected pensions consultant and chair of two pension schemes. Pension Insurance Corporation, a specialist insurer of DB pensions Just Group, a specialist UK retirement business. In a statement announcing its launch, the Pension Security Alliance said: Pension schemes exist to pay the pensions of workers who have earned their retirement income. Theyre not piggybanks for others to dip into. Millions of people rely on these schemes for a retirement income they have earned. Its not right for ministers to put those pensions at risk like this. The Governments own proposal document admits that extracting cash from pension schemes increases the risk that schemes wont be able to pay pensions in full. Instead of pushing ahead with these risky plans, we urge ministers to think again and listen to the millions of people who want them to put the security of their pensions first. The Government plans are set out in a Department of Work and Pensions paper that says ministers will consult on the detail of surplus extraction plans. The same document reveals that the Government drew up its policy having heard from only 5 of the millions of people who have DB pensions. The Pension Security Alliance said: It's encouraging that ministers say they will consult on something that could put members' pensions at risk - to make that consultation meaningful, ministers should make sure that members are fully and directly involved - we suggest a programme of public engagement meetings and opinion research among the millions of people affected. It's vital they aren't ignored." The Pension Security Alliance is urging people with DB pensions to write to their MP and pension scheme trustees to raise concerns about the surplus plans. The Pension Security Alliance said: This is your retirement that politicians and trustees are putting at risk and this is your chance to tell them what you think about that. If you dont want more risk over your pension, speak up now. Dennis Read of Silver Voices said: "We are very worried that the Government plans to allow companies to extract funds from pension schemes to encourage investment and growth. This is risking the future pensions of employees and retired workers at a time when security in retirement is essential. Energy prices are so dependent on geopolitical instability that assured income when you no longer have a job preys on the minds of all those facing retirement. Previous employer 'holidays' over their contributions led to the collapse of some pension schemes and we don't want this situation to reoccur again as a result of hasty withdrawals of funds under any new Government proposals. If a company has cash flow problems it will be tempting to raid the pension fund, claiming that the purpose is investment, so leaving the scheme underfunded and unstable if the company collapses." Colette Isaaks, director of OPAAL (The Older People's Advocacy Alliance) said: We are concerned that the proposed removal of surplus or excess funds from private defined benefit pension schemes, could be contrary to transparency, fairness, and the rights of pension policy holders. OPAAL strongly urges government to ensure that any changes to pension policy are subject to a full and meaningful consultation with those most directly affected the pension scheme members themselves. The voices of older people must not be an afterthought in policymaking. They are the rightful stakeholders in these pension schemes as they have supported them throughout their working lives, and depend on them in retirement. John Ralfe, independent pensions consultant and chair of two pension schemes, says: "The detailed Regulations that ministers are proposing must make sure member security is the absolute priority. Surpluses" must be defined on a tough basis. Scheme assets must also match liabilities to minimise the risk of market movements causing any future deficit. If there is a future deficit after a surplus has been paid, then companies must be legally obliged to re-pay some, or all, of the cash removed. The current law requiring trustee agreement to any surplus being removed, must be maintained. Companies should expect to share the surplus with members, by increasing their pensions, which give trustees an incentive to agree." Tracy Blackwell, CEO of Pension Insurance Corporation said: We think the views of DB pension scheme members, many of them elderly, many of them classified as vulnerable, should be properly considered in any decision about a policy that the Governments own document says would reduce the security of their pensions. So far, their voices have been absent in this debate. We know that people who rely on a DB pension are afraid of changes that could make their pensions less secure. It took a long time to build up a legal regime for DB pensions that puts members first, after the scandals of the 1980s and 1990s. Members are clearly concerned at the prospect of these vital protections being watered down and I would advise them to write to their MP about these proposals. Finally, it is right for us to acknowledge that like all the other participants in this debate, PIC has an interest in the outcome. We take on DB schemes and pay the pensions of 400,000 people, and have paid more than 16 billion to our pensioners so far. Our view is that it is fundamentally right that members benefits are fully secured before the sponsoring employer gets any cash back a position which should align everyones interests. Minsters need to be very careful with this issue given that this is about the financial wellbeing of generally older, and potentially vulnerable, people. Stephen Lowe, director at retirement specialist Just Group said: "The discussion surrounding the practice of surplus extraction from pension funds seems to overlook the perspectives of the most crucial stakeholders the pension scheme members and their beneficiaries, who rely on these pension promises. The responsibility for deciding whether to permit such surplus extraction lies with the Trustees of the pension scheme. They bear the ultimate accountability in this matter. Their role is well-defined and singular: to safeguard the benefits owed to the pension scheme members. Im confident Trustees feel this accountability to their members and will continue to have this goal front and centre as they receive representations from other communities. 'Outrage Must Not Go Unpunished': Tharoor Slams Pakistan, Criticizes Colombias Sympathy After Terror Strike 2 Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading a multiparty Indian delegation in Colombia, strongly defended Indias retaliatory action under Operation Sindoor following the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22. Speaking to the media in Bogota, Tharoor said India had no choice but to strike back, emphasizing that this kind of outrage could not go unpunished. He criticized the international community for offering only condemnation without action and particularly slammed Pakistan for its complete inaction, stating that no arrests or prosecutions followed the attack. Tharoor revealed evidence of Pakistans complicity, including photos of uniformed military officials attending the funeral of a known terrorist on the sanctions list. Calling out Colombias official reaction, Tharoor expressed disappointment that the country extended condolences over Pakistani casualties from Indias retaliatory strike rather than standing with the victims of the terror attack. There can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them, he declared, clarifying that Indias response was a legitimate act of self-defence. He highlighted that the attack had been claimed by The Resistance Front, a Lashkar-e-Taiba offshoot based in Muridke, Pakistan. The Indian delegation, including MPs from Congress, BJP, Shiv Sena, and other parties, aims to clarify Indias position and counter any misconceptions abroad regarding its anti-terror operations. A Lawrence County man has been sentenced to 300 years in federal prison for committing multiple child sexual exploitation crimes. David Edward Collier, II, 47, of Moulton pleaded guilty to 13 charges in January. He was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of children, eight counts of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke passed the sentence of 3,600 months. According to court documents, Collier corresponded with individuals online regarding his desires to expose and sexually exploit children. From January 2017 to August 2022, he used unknowing and unsuspecting children to produce child pornography, and then distributed it to multiple people on social media platforms in October 2022 and September 2023. David R. Fitzgibbons, special agent in charge, Birmingham Division, called the sentence tremendous. Let this be a warning to sexual predators that we will stop at nothing to protect every child from horrendous perpetrators like David Collier, Fitzgibbons said. We have now ensured one less predator is victimizing the most innocent and vulnerable members of our community. FBI North Alabama Violent Crime Task Force and Cybercrime Squad investigated the case, along with the assistance of the Madison, Lawrence and Limestone County Sheriffs Offices, Moulton and Huntsville police and the Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles. Assistant United States Attorneys R. Leann White and John M. Hundscheid prosecuted the case. The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. One person died in this Sunday evening house fire in the 500 block of 7th Ave SW in Graysville, Alabama, on May 25, 2025 AL.com Staff A male found dead inside a burning Jefferson County home was the victim of homicide, and a north Alabama teen has now been charged. Jose Antonio Alvarado, an 18-year-old with an address listed in Elkmont, is charged with murder and second-degree arson, the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office announced Friday. The victim has still not yet been identified, according to sheriffs and Jefferson County Coroners Office officials. Graysville and Adamsville firefighters were dispatched Sunday night to a house in the 500 block of Seventh Avenue S.W. in Graysville on a report of a house fire. The fire was reported about 9:30 p.m. Sheriffs spokesman Henry Irby said first responders arrived to find the house engulfed in flames. Once the blaze was extinguished, a male was found inside. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 10:17 p.m. Sheriffs detectives responded to the house, along with the State Fire Marshals Office. Additional details of the investigation have not been released, including how the unidentified victim was killed. Irby said Alvarado was taken into custody Thursday. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 6:05 p.m. and remains held without bond. The victim is the 48th homicide countywide so far this year. Anyone with information in the ongoing investigation is asked to call detectives at 205-325-1450 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Comedian John Mulaney was recently asked what cities are the best for stand-up and gave an Alabama city a shout-out. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP) (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images Comedian and actor John Mulaney recently gave an Alabama city a shout-out after being asked what cities he thinks are the best for performing stand-up. During a recent episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Belloni asked the former Saturday Night Live writer what cities he thought were the best for playing stand-up. While Mulaney first mentions Dublin, Ireland, he quickly turns the conversation to an Alabama city -- Birmingham. Related: Country band Alabama thanks celebrity couple for using hit song in wedding You know where else was great was Birmingham, Alabama, said Mulaney. I did an arena in Birmingham, Alabama, that was great. When later asked to elaborate on what he liked about those cities and the audiences there, Mulaney went into more detail about his time in Alabama. Birmingham was just great, said Mulaney. I just walked around. I had, my son was probably 12 months old, I was pushing him around the city in a stroller, and everyone was like were coming to the show tonight! and then everyone was at the show. It was that kind of town. Mulaney performed at the Legacy Arena at the BJCC as part of his From Scratch tour in April 2022. He currently stars in the Netflix talk show Everybodys Live with John Mulaney. You can listen to Mulaneys full interview on The Town podcast here. Its a perfectly Gemini day with the solar conjunction to Mercury and two kinds of moons -- the first suggesting relationship tension, the latter bringing lucky trines of auspicious timing and fortuitous dreams. As ever with Gemini, dualities dance: logic and magic, restlessness and insight, curiosity and connection. No need to choose a side; let each twin have a say. ARIES (March 21-April 19). Today youre focused on really understanding people -- not just smoothing things over on the surface, but getting to the root of what they need or where theyre coming from -- so that better relationships and bigger successes can happen. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Flip the script. Try on different ideas just to see how they feel. Youre not locked into one path. Youve got way more options than you thought, and honestly? Its kind of exciting. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You like all kinds of people and are open to whatever they bring. Your warmth makes people feel comfortable to be themselves around you. Its the kind of vibe that cant be forced -- only earned by a spirit as generous as yours. CANCER (June 22-July 22). The usual way isnt working. Its time to add some novelty. Try something new inside the familiar. You need a fresh challenge, a different angle -- and honestly, just telling someone who gets it might lift your whole mood. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Misinformation, assumptions and stories based purely on posturing are part of todays egomaniacal collage. In a world full of hype and bad advice, youll lead with practical intelligence. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Its easy to feel rushed when things seem scarce -- like you have to take whatevers there. But kindness steadies you. When you connect with others, youre reminded: Good things arent running out. Youve got time to choose well. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Because you pay close attention, the world opens to you in subtle, serendipitous ways. Youll overhear the perfect line, notice the exact sign, feel the next yes in your bones. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Intelligence isnt one single ability measured by IQ, but a variety of capacities -- everyone possesses a unique mix. Until you recognize how someones intelligence expresses itself, you wont fully see them. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). When someone says trust me it raises suspicion instead of confidence. If they have to say it, you wonder why they feel the need to. Today, the same goes for overused words like authenticity and transparency. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Growing pains are a sign of your inner power. Feeling confined is proof that youve outgrown your current situation. Discomfort is a reflection of your expansion. You dont have to wait for rescue. Youll either be freed or youll liberate yourself. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Theres plenty of groundwork to lay, and youre busy with it all day. You dont care whether the work gets noticed, only that it gets done. Still, youll be spotlighted and celebrated by people who are proud to see you in motion. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). There are so many around who will resonate with you that it would be a waste of energy and an exercise in futility to pursue relationships with those who dont. Shared values and mutual understanding will click in without an ounce of effort. TODAYS BIRTHDAY (May 30). Your bright mind is the star this trip around the sun, and an idea thats been simmering finally finds its market. Youll make money in a way that feels like play and attract collaborators who are hungry, smart and ready to win. More highlights: Laughter-filled dinners, quiet understanding and the kind of companionship that feels like home. Capricorn and Libra adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 1, 22, 17, 40, and 6. Holiday Mathis debut novel, How To Fail Epically in Hollywood, is out now! This fast-paced romp about achieving Hollywood stardom is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit creatorspublishing.com for more information. Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com. As Prattville Pride prepares for their second annual festival this weekend, organizers expressed their disappointment that the event wont actually take place inside Prattville city limits. After attempting to reach out to city officials to set up the event this year, Prattville Pride Vice President Caryl Lawson said the group was left scrambling to book another nearby venue. Last year in May before our big event, the city mentioned they were planning to implement a new green space rental agreement the next year, Lawson told AL.com. After our successful inaugural event in June 2024, I emailed all five city officials wed coordinated with and recapped the event and highlighted the positive feedback wed gotten from vendors and outreach organizations like the ACLU as well as the GLAAD award we received and the feature on Good Morning America. Lawson said she asked the city officials to please give us feedback on the event and let us know how they felt about it and if there was anything theyd like us to do differently the next year. I also mentioned wed start planning earlier in 2025 and to please let us know when the new green space rental agreement was finalized, she added. Lawson says she never received a response to that email, and when Prattville Pride started planning for this years event in February, they were told the agreement wasnt ready yet. By April it still wasnt ready, and we had no choice but to secure an alternate venue at a cost of $2500 (compared to $100 for the city park) so we could begin promoting our event, she said. Kellie Carter, Prattvilles parks and recreation director told AL.com Friday that that there is still no green space rental agreement currently in place for Prattvilles parks. We are working on one, reviewing what other cities do and submitting a final plan to our city attorney to make sure we dont miss anything, she wrote in an email. We do not rent out full parks, only pavilions in the parks, as our parks are always open to the public. She added that Cooters Pond, which Prattville Pride did try to book for June 1, had already been booked when they asked. They [city parks] rent quickly because it is $25 for the 4-hour periods, and with Cooters Pond being the only one allowed for more than 50 guests, that one fills up fast, she wrote. But Prattville Pride representatives recently told Alabama Political Reporter they received an anonymous tip that there had been a coordinated effort to reserve the park on every June weekend. Carter did not comment on this claim. She said Prattville Pride previously decided to book Cooters Pond for May 31 instead of June 1 but ended up transferring the reservation to Overlook Park last month for an outdoor picnic. THEY made the decision to cancel their event at Cooters Pond, they were never told they could not use the park, Carters email read. The Prattville Pride fest is now taking place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Evans Park and Pavilion off U.S. Highway 31 near Maxwell Air Force Base, according to its Facebook page. Last year, Lawson said that Prattville Police Department and parks and rec were professional and thorough during the planning process for their event. But by ignoring our email asking for feedback...and not being proactive in having the required green space rental agreement in place after having a year to prepare it, we cant help but feel a bit unwelcome, she said. And this is not the first time the group has run into issues with the city. In December, a federal judge ordered the groups float to be included in Prattvilles Christmas Parade after Mayor Bill Gillespie pulled the float, saying the city will not put the rights of parade participants ahead of the safety of its citizens, according to the Elmore Autauga News. In their complaint Lawson and fellow organizer Adam Hunt said Gillespie was bowing to the pressure from extremists and hecklers in the community who oppose the views of Prattville Pride. We have done everything in our power to forge a positive relationship with the city of Prattville, Lawson said this week. We understand they are also being faced with anti LGBTQ+ emails and phone calls about us but giving in to that hate only emboldens those who wish to push us back into the shadows. Prattville has a vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community, and we will not stop fighting to provide representation and safe spaces for those who so desperately need them. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing Tuesday, April 8, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) AP Republican Sen. Joni Ernst was met with shouts and groans when she said we all are going to die as she addressed potential changes to Medicaid eligibility at a town hall in north-central Iowa on Friday. She had been consistent in her message throughout the contentious forum at a high school in Parkersburg, Iowa, as she defended the tax and immigration package that has passed the House and is now under consideration in the Senate. Facing several constituents concerned about cuts to Medicaid, she defended the $700 billion in reduced spending, saying it would keep immigrants in the U.S. illegally and those who have access to insurance through their employers off the rolls. Then someone in the crowd yelled that people will die without coverage. People are not ... well, we all are going to die, Ernst said, drawing groans. So, for heavens sakes. For heavens sakes, folks. What you dont want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable, Ernst went on. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid we will protect. House Republicans last week muscled through the massive spending and tax cut package, dubbed the big, beautiful bill at the urging of President Donald Trump, by a single vote. It now moves to the Senate. Ernst made clear Friday that any measure that emerges from the Senate will look different from the House version. Republicans have defended the new work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents and stepped up eligibility verification, saying the generated savings will sustain the program for vulnerable populations. Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. 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 the decade. Video of Ernsts comment started making the rounds among Democrat elected officials and candidates. Ernst is up for reelection in 2026. This morning, Joni Ernst said the quiet part out loud: Republicans do not care about whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer, said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, in a statement. Illinoiss Democrat governor, J.B. Pritzker, is about to sign a new bill into law that will allow illegal immigrants to become driving instructors. From Peorias NBC affiliate: A proposal thats passed both chambers would allow some immigrants to become driving instructors in Illinois. In the state, non U.S. citizens can apply for a special drivers license called a Temporary Visitor Drivers License or TVDL. You might ask, Where did that TVDL come from? Weve had a Democrat-controlled state legislature since 2003, and they currently have supermajorities in both chambers. Except for a single-term RINO governor in 201518, weve also had 100% Democrat governors since 2003. The Democrats attitudes about illegal immigration have evolved considerably since Clinton, Obama, and Schumer talked tough about it 2030 years ago. If Trump were to read any one of those speeches out loud on the air tonight, hed be called a racist. In June 2023, Pritzker even started allowing illegal immigrants to get standard drivers licenses, phasing out TVDLs, which had become a Scarlet Letter for illegals: Pritzker signs law giving drivers licenses to noncitizen immigrants This legislation is a significant step in eliminating the barriers to opportunity that many undocumented immigrants face, said Pritzker. Were ensuring every eligible individual can obtain a drivers license, making our roads safer, decreasing stigma, and creating more equitable systems for all. Notice the careful use of terms like noncitizen, undocumented immigrant, or just immigrant. Nowhere do we see illegal. But thats what these code terms mean. Notice also the deep concern about stigma, incidents of discrimination, and creating more equitable systems. In 2019, Tom Homan described DUIs by illegal immigrants as a public safety issue: Ten thousand people a year die from DUIs, twenty eight people a day die from DUIs, said Homan. Id rather put an illegal alien in jail for DUI than white-collar bank fraud. It isnt about if its a felony or misdemeanor, its about, is it a public safety threat and is it threatening American citizens? DUIs, are you kidding me? Thats a public safety issue. Ive collected the following anecdotal evidence but as Dr. Paul Cameron and the Family Research Council learned in the 1980s, the dominant left-wing media and academia carefully discredit anecdotal evidence, if it doesnt serve left-wing politics. As part of my volunteer work for our church, I regularly provide rides to low-income people for such things as medical appointments, job interviews, and court hearings. So I see the insides of public aid offices, driver services facilities, and courtrooms on a regular basis. (I live in a suburban-Chicago county thats roughly 10% Latino, according to the Census Bureaukeep that in mind.) After two months of monitoring, among DUI defendants on our traffic court docket, 19.7% had a Hispanic last name nearly twice as many as the Latinos in the overall population. And its much the same in felony court. The public aid office and the driver services office are practically wallpapered with notices in Spanish, and substantial portions of the respective staffs are bilingual. White applicants for SNAP benefits (food stamps) are told theyll get their SNAP debit cards in the mail in 1014 business days in other words, up to three weeks. But Latino applicants, who rarely know any English at all, frequently walk into the public aid office with three pieces of paper and walk out happily with an emergency SNAP card. So they get same-day service. I also had extensive opportunities to observe English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching in action, at Chicagos special school for children of illegal immigrants: Rodolfo Lozano Bilingual Academy, which is of course named for a socialist Latino political figure from Chicagos past. As I previously wrote, Lozano has the lions share of speech therapists and speech pathologists employed by the Chicago Public Schools, because equity. After all, they have to pronounce English correctly. And I concede that for any immigrant, that isnt easy. But they dont teach English as a second language at Lozano. They teach just enough words of English to get by in a city like Chicago. The actual day-to-day lessons are given in Spanish, because its just easier that way. So we need bilingual driving instructors. And to fill that quota, we need to hire illegals. These are just the raw facts, as Ive observed them. Here are a few more facts that arise, at least in part, from the lefts love affair with illegal immigrants. Our national debt is now $37 trillion. Thats an average of $383,000 for every taxpayer. The state of Illinois has $159 billion in debt, which is largely unfunded pension liabilities for state workers (an overwhelming majority of whom, particularly at the top levels, are Democrats). This adds another $28,000 in debt per taxpayer. Pritzker cheerfully doubled the states motor fuel tax without a corresponding increase in EV taxes, but deficit spending is a problem wherever Democrats are in charge. Californias debt is $520 billion; New Yorks, despite a state constitutional amendment (ratified the last time the GOP was in charge) requiring a balanced budget, is $368 billion. Next, lets look at what happens when a leftist Western government goes too far to protect illegal immigrants. Our cousins across the pond in the United Kingdom went too far. The son of Rwandan migrants murdered three young British girls at a Taylor Swift dance party, and wounded several more. But as Pritzker said, we mustnt stigmatize the poor dears. Naturally though, there were a lot of negative reactions from British parents, and others involved with the care of British children. In the wake of the killings, professional babysitter Lucy Connolly posted an anti-immigrant tweet, which landed her in jail. Heres the tweet: Connolly has been sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for her mean tweets, under British hate speech laws. Her sentence was upheld on appeal. As Matt Walsh observed at Daily Wire, this was a far harsher sentence than Muslim immigrants, and left-wing politicians, received for the following crimes: Crime number one: Exposing yourself to a 13-year-old girl, and then stalking her through the streets when she spots you, forcing the girl to bang on the doors of random apartments so that she can hide. Crime number two: publicly threatening to murder an infidel who dares to insult Mohammed. Crime number three: Sexually assaulting a 12-year-old. And crime number four: domestic abuse, including physical abuse, over a three-year-period. Think it cant happen here? Think again. Our universities already have codes of conduct that can produce a suspension or expulsion for hate speech targeting any of the lefts favorite protected groups. Jim Davis is an IT specialist and paralegal, with degrees in political science and statistical analysis: the underpinning of all science. His work has appeared in Newsmax and Daily Caller. You can find him as RealProfessor219 on Rumble. Image from Grok. There was a moment in the late spring of 2015 when I realized that the ground beneath our feet was shifting. During an appearance on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer was asked to predict the Republican and Democrat nominees for the 2016 election. He said rather confidently that the nominees would be Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. When asked to explain his reasoning, Dr. Krauthammer pointed out that Bush and Clinton had the money, the political infrastructure, and the backing of their respective party elites. I found his predictions unsettling partly because Jeb and Hillary represent dynastic houses whose mere mention sharply divides the American people and partly because their preordained anointments seem particularly distasteful in a nation that enjoys lecturing the rest of the world on democracy. We were a decade and a half into nation-building projects in Afghanistan and Iraq and several decades into our grand mission of making the world safe for democracy, and voters were being told that they would have to choose between unlikable scions from two of Americas most despised politico-aristocratic families. Why? Because the moneyed elites had decided that a Bush or Clinton would again rule in the United States. That awful choice appeared indistinguishable from telling the people of Afghanistan or Iraq that they could vote for whomever they wanted to lead their nations so long as that leader came from one of a handful of noble families preselected by Western intelligence agencies. Making matters worse, it was well known how chummy the Bushes and Clintons are. President George Bush I reportedly thought of the credibly accused rapist Bill Clinton as another son. President Bush II still refers to Bill as his brother and Hillary as his sister. So a contest between Jeb and Hillary wasnt really a contest at all. If they were the nominees, a member of the Bush-Clinton extended family would definitely return to the White House. After hearing Krauthammers answer, I checked online social media platforms to see what regular Republican voters thought. They were livid. I had witnessed shades of this fury years before, when President Obama and Senate Democrats ignored traditional filibuster rules and rammed nationalized medicine (AKA Obamacare) through Congress. I had seen percolating anger grow more intense as Tea Party movements across the country struggled to elect Republicans who would actually represent their constituents. (News flash: Many of those RINO liars betrayed their voters, too.) After working so hard over three election cycles to arrest Americas descent into woke socialism and getting nothing in return other than broken promises and feckless weaklings such as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Republican voters were in no mood to hear that 2016 would be the year for another Bush princeling or wicked Clinton queen. There had been many contributing factors that led us to this consequential moment in American history: the societally destructive 2000 election, when America had no president-elect until mid-December; the psychological whiplash of the 9/11, anthrax, and D.C. sniper attacks; the pre-emptive wars and regime changes that transformed into decades-long occupations; Bushs support for mass amnesty for illegal aliens; the risky (yet government-backed) mortgage securities that nearly collapsed the stock market; Obamas government takeover of health insurance; Obamas support for mass amnesty for illegal aliens; Obamas decision to divide Americans by racial animus whenever possible; the realization that post-9/11 security protocols at airports and pervasive public surveillance are never going away; the realization that the PATRIOT Act has been retooled to spy on Democrats political enemies; the realization that Establishment Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn work to undermine grassroots Republicans; the realization that most elected Republicans (especially in D.C.) despise their voters and advance the interests of the administrative state, the Intelligence Community, and multinational corporations; the realization that most elected Democrats and Republicans pretend to fight one another, belong to the same Uniparty, and secretly want the same things. These insidious cancers ate away at the national psyche, each a proximate cause of Americas twenty-first-century infirmity. The Bush vs. Clinton redux was the straw that broke the camels back. For regular voters who might have been sleepwalking toward another national nightmare filled with Jimmy Carters soul-crushing malaise, the Deep States theatrical pageantry during the 2016 election was simply too grotesque to ignore. Within weeks of Krauthammers prediction, a well known businessman, celebrity, and political outsider took a ride down a golden escalator and changed everything. Donald Trump recognized the significance of the turbulent political winds. Republican voters recognized the unique opportunity they had to smash the Republican Establishment in the teeth. Even Democrat voters recognized the revolutionary moment in American history and pushed hard for their version of an outsider: Vermont communist Bernie Sanders, a man who would have likely won the Democrat party nomination had Hillary Clinton and Democrat elites not rigged their own primaries. Its worth remembering that Establishment Democrats cleared the primary field for Hillary. Only she, Bernie, and former Maryland governor Martin OMalley competed in the first nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses. When Hillary barely bested Bernie in Iowa (with the closest margin in state history), OMalley dropped out. And when Bernie won big in New Hampshire (by over twenty points), Hillarys planned coronation looked far from certain. Ultimately, Hillary Clinton prevailed for three reasons: (1) superdelegates in the Democrat party vetoed primary voters preference for Sanders, (2) Obamas corrupt DOJ threatened Bernies wife with criminal prosecution, and (3) Bernie refused to call out Democrat party officials for actively undermining his campaign. Communist Bernie Sanders was never supposed to be serious competition for Hillary Clinton in 2016. She was supposed to annihilate him in spectacular fashion on her way to a certain nomination and use her landslide victory as a springboard for the general election. The fact that she managed to beat a relatively unknown Vermont hippie only by rigging the primaries proved that Democrat voters really did not like her. Its also worth remembering that Hillarys campaign was not so quietly pushing for the candidacy of Donald Trump. While MSNBC hosts such as Joe Scarborough promoted Trump daily until he clinched the nomination, Hillary surrogates went on television and pretended to fear the possibility of facing Trump in the general election. They should have been afraid, but they most definitely were not. They couldnt imagine an easier path to the White House for Hillary Clinton than a scenario in which she had only to beat Vermont communist Bernie Sanders and New York reality show tycoon Donald Trump. The corporate news media gave Hillary every advantage. They ignored her culpability in the 2012 Benghazi attack. They laughed off the fact that she kept top-secret documents on a private server that foreign governments had repeatedly hacked. They pushed her Russia collusion hoax framing Donald Trump as a Russian asset effectively conspiring with the Clinton campaign and Obamas Intelligence Community to defraud the American people. They did everything they could to aid her in the presidential debates. They treated her victory as a foregone conclusion. And still she lost! So much has happened since President Trump beat Hillary Clinton that it is easy to forget how revolutionary that moment in history was. For more than a century, the American Establishment had been manufacturing consent pretending to respect the will of the people while engineering elections in which Americans had no real options. The planned Bush vs. Clinton general election of 2016 was a bridge too far. Americans detested the idea of another Bush or Clinton, and millions of irregular voters liked what Donald Trump had to say. President Trumps victory represented a massive shift in social consciousness. Because people are awake, the Establishment is afraid. Now, thats what Id call progress. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1989, the UN said we only had ten years left to solve the global warming problem. The UN hosts endless gabfests with rich people flying in on private jets telling us how dangerous commercial flight is to our survival. No matter what the UN hypocrites, or any other expert says, and no matter how far off their predictions are, the AP and other media outlets just regurgitate what they are told to scare the public, especially the children, about a coming apocalypse. People posing as reporters never ask any questions or do any research because they are part of the cabal pushing the radical green agenda. They dont care that Earth has undergone many global and cooling periods cyclically and naturally. They dont care that there was a medieval warming period one thousand years ago that was estimated to be as warm as today. They dont care that we have always had long droughts and huge floods. They dont care that there was a little ice age that ended around 1860, at the same time we started using oil. They dont care that there was a 35-year cooling period from 19401975, and they dont care that on the first Earth Day in 1970, fearmongers were predicting billions would die from global cooling. So, here is another garbage piece from AP full of predictions, not facts: Get ready for several years of even more record-breaking heat that pushes Earth to more deadly, fiery and uncomfortable extremes, two of the worlds top weather agencies forecast. Theres an 80% chance the world will break another annual temperature record in the next five years, and its even more probable that the world will again exceed the international temperature threshold set 10 years ago, according to a five-year forecast released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.K. Meteorological Office. Higher global mean temperatures may sound abstract, but it translates in real life to a higher chance of extreme weather: stronger hurricanes, stronger precipitation, droughts, said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who wasnt part of the calculations but said they made sense. So higher global mean temperatures translates to more lives lost. First off, it is impossible to get an average global temperature. Earth is 70% covered by water, but they dont put 70% of weather stations over water. They also have very few weather stations in Siberia and Antarctica, where it is extremely cold. Nopethey move weather stations from rural areas to urban areas where cement and buildings obviously skew the results to make Earth appear warmer. They get the results they want, instead of caring about the truth. In 1875, the world population was around 1.3 billion; today it is around 8.2 billion. In the late 1800s, CO2 was estimated to be around 280 PPM, today it is around 420 PPM. There were no cars, trucks, combines, paved roads, air conditioning or much of all the other things that we are told make Earth much warmer. Yet somehow, Earth is only supposedly one to two degrees warmer after the little ice age ended. Science would say that is cyclical and normal. In 1875, the U.S., which is supposedly a major cause of warming, had an average temperature of 52.5 Fahrenheit. 118 years later in 1993, it was 50.3F, or 2.2 cooler. In 2011, 136 years later it was 51.8F. Those facts are impossible if all the things we are told cause warming actually did. The weather is and has always been cyclical and natural. After years of being told that Antarctica was warming rapidly and the ice was disappearing, in 2021 Antarctica had the coldest six months on record. The record cold was attributed to a strong circumpolar vortex which occurs cyclically and naturally. In 2023, after 160 years of rapid growth in population, oil use, and everything else we are told causes warming, Los Angeles had the coldest May and June on record. The cold was attributed to a persistent upper-level trough of low pressure over the West Coast extending into Southern California, which occurredcyclically and naturally. After years of being told that we would have snowless winters and endless droughts because of warming, California had the snowiest winter on record, which ended the mega drought. And what caused the record snow? Atmospheric rivers which occurcyclically and naturally. And January 2025 was extremely cold in the United States, the coldest since 1988. The reason? A persistent pattern of cold air forced southward by blocking features in the upper atmosphere. So basically the cold temperatures were caused by a pattern of cold air. Who knew? Do we need experts to tell us that cold temperatures are caused by cold air? The warmest day ever in Springfield, Illinois, where I live, was in July of 1954 (when I was one). Temperature reached 112, which occurred during the 19401975 global cooling period. We rarely hit 100 now. The reporting on climate change or global warming is as dishonest as the reporting on Russian Collusion, COVID, the Hunter laptop, and Joe Bidens competence. It is and has always been a scam to transfer massive amounts of money from us to green pushers. Image: Free image, Pixabay license. Were being held hostage by emotional terrorists, turned literal terrorists. According to a report at Fox News, a young IT professional working at the Defense Intelligence Agency who held a top secret clearance, was recently nabbed by law enforcement after he allegedly offered to sell classified secrets to foreign actors because he doesnt like Donald Trump. Nathan Laatsch, a 28-year-old IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency since 2019, was arrested after the FBI received a tip in March 2025 that someone was willing to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. [snip] An email to the FBI said that the person later identified as Laatsch didnt agree or align with the values of the Trump administration, and would be willing to share classified information that he could access, including completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation. And get this: the department that Laatsch worked in at the DIA? The Insider Threat Division. That irony is wild. Anyway, per the article, Laatsch communicated with an FBI agent, who he believed to be a foreign government official and on multiple occasions, vocalized his readiness to share the sensitive information that he transcribed onto a notepad at his desk over the course of several days. Laatsch was supposed to leave the stolen classified information at a local park, and was observed by the FBI depositing an item at the specified location. After he left, the FBI agents reportedly secured a thumb-drive which was just a sample of what he could apparently get. These people would truly rather we all be dead than do a little self-reflection. Maybe Trump, with his very moderate views, isnt the monster you think he ismaybe youre just evil, and suffering from TDS. If you find yourself more aligned and in agreeance with a party whose pillars include sodomy (Pride), the sexualization of our youth (pushing the LGBTQ agenda in every single segment of society where children gather), baby murder, sexism, and theft, Im going to say its the latter. Selling secrets to foreign nations because you dont like whos currently in charge is nonsensical: youre not doing any damage to Trump, youre only hurting the American people. This is just one more example of leftists showing their true colors: they feign patriotism, but its really just Marxism. Did he have more allegiance to Joe the Corpse or the Autopen? I assume so. These people are going scorched earththeyd rather burn us all to the ground instead of facing reality and accepting that theyre narcissistic and delusional whack jobs. How many more of them are out there? Image: Free image, Pixabay license. UPDATE: San Francisco has already reversed the policy in response to a public outcry. However, this essay is still relevant because its not over. No Zero Grading is a nationwide leftist trend. The chief of San Franciscos public schools announced a Grading for Equity plan for the 10,000 high school students in the City by the Bay, the Daily Caller reported, citing two other outlets. According to these reports, the new and depraved grading system will award a grade of C for scores as low as 41 on a 100-point test. Even more absurd and incredible, students with a score as low as 21 out of 100 will be allowed to pass exams with a D grade, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Twenty-one percent correct will be a passing grade? Twenty-one percent! Thats not just woke, its a joke. And a bad one. Especially for the rest of us who will have to deal with utterly incompetent youth entering the workforce and manning our institutions, political and otherwise. San Francisco Superintendent of Schools Mary Su recently unveiled the plan, without bothering to seek approval from the San Francisco Board of Education -- or so reported the Voice of San Francisco. The plan is scheduled to go into effect this fall, (adversely) affecting 14 San Francisco area high schools and their students. VSF also noted that the Grading for Equity program will relieve students from the stress of taking weekly tests. Other reports indicate that homework will not be considered in final grading and that plans to train teachers in the new grading system are set to be implemented in August. If there are no weekly tests and homework is non-existent or ungraded, why do teachers have to be trained in the new grading system? Teachers allegedly will have the choice of whether or not to implement Grading for Equity this fall, but students and parents decidedly will not. I mean, what do students and their parents have to do with education, right? There are real, profound, and lasting issues with the continuing trend of pandering to the lowest common denominators in classrooms and making it ever easier for students to graduate without learning much of anything of use to themselves or others. Consider the following potential future scenarios: Woman on a gurney: Are you a good surgeon, doc? Surgeon: Well, Im averaging 23 out of a hundred on my competence exams! Man at an auto repair shop: Do you know how to change my serpentine belt? Mechanic: Im not sure, but I did score 42% on my last certification test! Airline customer: Are you qualified to fly this plane? Pilot: Dont worry, I got 35 out of 100 on my recent skills assessment! How about we go back to Grading for Competence? Now that is a radical idea. Image: Grok, AI-generated image, via X. The big headline today was that the United States Supreme Court granted a Trump administration request to stay a Massachusetts District Court order pending appeal. The order would have allowed half a million Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan citizens to remain in this country based on Bidens say-so. The second headline was that Ketanji Brown Jackson, backed by Sonia Sotomayor, wrote an attack on her fellow justices, one rooted in emotionalism about the people affected by the order. Butand Im going to shock youthe two leftists have a point, which is that there is a tragic aspect to these illegal aliens situation. These people behaved rationally, given all the perverse incentives the Biden administration created. However, thats neither Trumps nor the other justices problem. This one is all on Joe Biden (or the AutoPen) and everyone else in the Biden orbit. Lets begin at the beginning. During the Biden administration, orders came from the Oval Office (no one knows who really authorized them) granting various protections to hundreds of thousands of people from countries mired in poverty and crime. Its very important to note that none of these countries were experiencing a genocide, as that term was understood after WWII: Namely, a government deliberately targeting for extermination a cohort of people based upon race or creed. Instead, they were and are just lousy places to live. Image created using Grok AI. If you find yourself living in an anarchic, impoverished hellhole, and youre a good person, youll try to flee to make a better life for yourself and your family. Likewise, if youre a criminal, youll flee, too, whether to escape your own countrys legal system or to find easier pickings than an impoverished country can offer. But the fact that some countries are hellholes does not give a United States president (or his AutoPen) the unilateral right to reverse Americas immigration laws. Nevertheless, thats exactly what AutoPen Biden did. In 2022 and 2023, his administration created what came to be known as the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) Parole Program, giving minimally vetted residents of those four countries the complete and unfettered right to move to America for two years, including the right to work in this country. Eventually, over half a million people came in through this program, which has no legislative basis. When the CHNV programa purely executive actionwas set to expire by its own terms in January 2025, President Trump exercised his executive prerogative and announced via two executive actions (here and here) that he was definitively terminating the program. The Department of Homeland Security then issued a notice putting Trumps orders into effect, by terminating the categorical parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members...that DHS announced in 2022 and 2023. Naturally, the Democrats found people to serve as names in a lawsuit filed against Kristi Noem. Also, naturally, they filed their suit in a friendly jurisdiction (Massachusetts), and a judge blocked Trumps immigration initiative. However, today, the Supreme Court issued a ruling stopping that judges order from going into effect while the matter is being appealed to the 11th Circuit. That means that the CHNV refugees are now here illegally, and can either depart voluntarily or wait until theyre deported. The ruling is a single paragraph, but its accompanied by a bosom-heaving seven-page existential scream from Justice Jackson insisting that the Court has plainly botched its analysis of whether to grant a stay of Noems and Trumps directives pending the appeal. The gist of the scream is that the people who arrived here will be irreparably harmed if their status is returned to that of being illegal aliens at the end of the appellate process. Thus, even if the Supreme Court is pretty sure the case is a loser, its still supposed to do whatever it can to ensure that the probable losing partythat is, the illegal aliensdoesnt suffer during the process. In fact, the case is a loser. What Biden did, Trump can undo, especially because Bidens actions clearly contravened American law. Still, the dissent has a point: People will suffer. All of these illegal aliens gave up their old lives, maybe spent money to come here (if they werent subsidized by George Soros-type organizations), and have started new lives in America. But thats not a problem that should be blamed on Trump or a burden that should be placed on the American people, many of whom have already suffered tremendously, whether economically or in more deadly ways, from this influx of illegal aliens. Instead, its just one more reminder of the terrible consequences that arise when an administration makes up the rules as it goes along to achieve political goals. The whole point of the rule of law is certainty, so that people can make rational choices that will best serve them. Biden/AutoPen destroyed that certainty. The fact that ordinary people, whether Americans or illegal aliens, would be hurt by this despotic, arbitrary, and capricious approach was irrelevant. Democrats needed to change Americas racial, social, economic, and political make-up, and they willingly broke a lot of eggs (i.e., human lives) to make it happen. And truly, the worst part of it is that the major actors in the Biden administration, from Mayorkas on down, will never be held accountable for the damage they caused and the lives they destroyed. It takes a special kind of person to be handed a velvet-covered megaphoneand then whine that no ones letting him speak. Enter Scott Pelley. CBSs veteran chin-scratcher, master of the furrowed brow, and lead correspondent of 60 Minutes, which is less journalism these days and more an extended segment of This Is Why Youre Wrong, Middle America. Pelley recently delivered a commencement speech that read like a handwritten thank-you note to the Democratic National Committeewhile, of course, posing as a martyr for free speech. He was praised by the media echo chamber, hailed by blue-check sycophants, and applauded by the tenured faculty set. And then, in the same breath, warned of a climate of fear and self-silencingas if he, of all people, were at risk of being muzzled. Silenced? Sir, you are the literal voice of a multi-million-dollar news institution that broadcasts into the living rooms of millions every Sunday night. Youre not Paul Revere. Youre not Galileo. Youre little more than the televised valet of the Acela corridor. This is the same media grandee who believes dissent is dangerousunless its his. Who insists misinformation must be rooted outunless hes the one peddling it. Who sees government censorship lurking around every cornerunless its censorship he endorses, like silencing dissident doctors or squelching conservative outlets. Who spins his own conspiracy theory that conservative voices are amplifying conspiracy theories. Pelley speaks of fear like a hedge fund manager lamenting food pricesperformative, tone-deaf, and best ignored. It takes a special kind of person to clutch their pearls over the fear-based rhetoric hes shilling while being chauffeured to a taxpayer-subsidized university podium in a climate-controlled Mercedes. To tremble over the chilling effect of democracy while basking in the warm applause of faculty whove never lived paycheck to paycheck. To cry censorship from behind the safety glass of one of the most powerful platforms in American mediaall read, of course, from a teleprompter. Legitimate question, Mr. Pelley: Do you own a dictionary? Youre tossing around words like censorship and fear with all the self-awareness of a trust-fund poet. You might consider looking them up before the next standing ovation from your progressive handmaidens and beta vassals. In short, to accomplish all of this takes a special kind of fraud. Oh, one must really marvel at Pelley the Pretentious. Imagine pontificatingor more accurately, bloviatingthat there exists some vast culture of suppression so cruel, so totalizing, that it threatens to grind this poor millionaire journalist into a particularly caustic powder. And to do so not from a gulag, not from the docks, not in chains and an orange jumpsuit, but from a university stageafter being driven there by faceless chauffeurs, whisked from who-knows-how-many vacation homes, to return that evening to the glory and comfort of a Fifth Avenue fortress. Mr. Pelley is little more than a preening peacock cosplaying as a disaffected dissident. And if you fall for this cock-and-bull story, it says more about your critical thinking skillset than his fuss and feathers. Meanwhile, the authentic culture of fear is out in the heartland, where Americans live in quiet dread that one wrong word will cost them their jobs, their business licenses, and their bank accounts. Its parents afraid to speak at school board meetings. Doctors afraid to question state-mandated narratives. Students afraid to deviate from campus orthodoxy. The fear isnt in the 60 Minutes studiosave and except the dread of the makeup artists that this low-rent Mike Wallace will have too much eye shadowits in cube farms, neighborhoods, and campuses: places Pelley the Perfidious turns away from when he must leave the studio for his manicure. Yet, the media class has perfected the art of self-mythology. Pelley doesnt just want to speakhe wants to be applauded as if he were forbidden from doing so. He wants to be both celebrity and subversive, both power and victim, both aristocrat and rebel. Its the same formula elites use when claiming student protesters are under siegewhile the protesters occupy libraries, shut down freeways, and get job offers from NGOs by sundown. And since he delivered this gaseous oration just up the road at Wake Forest, a word to the Demon Deacons: its time to cut the mic. If this is what passes for intellectual rigor at your commencement exercisesan empty suit spinning self-serving fables in a tone of priestly authoritythen it is better to leave the podium at Groves Stadium empty. At least an empty podium wont lecture the nation about censorship while cashing residual checks from the most powerful media cartel in America. At least an empty podium wont insult the intelligence of your graduates by pretending that reading from a teleprompter on CBS is an act of defiance worthy of Solzhenitsyn. But Scott Pelley will. With a big mouth, a bottomless ego, and a tragic lack of irony, hell bemoan persecution while living a life that 99.99% of Americans couldnt imagine. Hell claim to be muzzled while appearing on national television, delivering sermons at prestigious institutions fattened on federal grants, and probably at Davos between panels on The Crisis of Misinformation (Which We Define). And hell call that courage. Its not courage. Its choreography. And the audience is finally starting to boo. Charlton Allen is an attorney and former chief executive officer and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and host of the Modern Federalist podcast. X: @CharltonAllenNC Image: CBS News, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered. While the German police confiscate pocket knives from little old ladies at Christmas markets, and the instances of knife attacks rise to an astronomical high of 79 per day, one local discount supermarket is basically giving away machetes, selling them at rock bottom prices to any ol Gunter or Hanselor Muhammad. Heres the story, from Remix News: There is growing outrage after a discount retailer in Berlin, Norma, launched a sale on machetes, marketing the blades as low as 9.90 per machete despite a surge in knife crimes reported throughout the city and the country. The first deputy federal chairman of the German police union (PolG), Manuel Ostermann, wrote on X: 79 knife crimes per day in 2024 and at the discount store you can buy a machete with a barb for 9.90 euros. Hello Norma, are you still feeling any impact? Why not just give it away to potential knife murderers? Unbelievable. Just last Friday I wrote an essay for the American Thinker Members Weekly newsletter, detailing that Germany had experienced two mass stabbings on the same dayso heres my shameless plug to become a subscriber for an ad-free experience and access to additional exclusive content from the editorial team. Anyway, heres that tweet, showing an image of the machetes currently on sale: If there were ever a case for corporate greed, then this would be it. I mean, if youre selling giant blades that are exclusively meant for hacking and chopping something into bits, in a nation thats completely overtaken by foreign hordes of violent Muslims who happen to prefer the knife as a weapon of choice, then youre definitely not a people over profits type of company. (See a blog I wrote last week titled Toxic femininity: Foreign-born Muslim women in Germany are far more violent than German men for a quick refresh on crime stats.) I mean, why doesnt Norma just start selling instructions on how to build suicide bomb vests? Perhaps jugs of sulfuric or nitric acid right next to the machete display? Copies of the Koran beyond that? They could start a service to arrange child marriages, or perhaps launch a van/truck rental venture, complete with a brochure on all the upcoming public gatherings where thousands of people are sure to be? Image from Grok. Samsung is all set to launch its next-gen foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, at its upcoming Unpacked event in July. In addition to the new foldables, the Korean tech giant could launch several new Galaxy smartwatches and a fresh pair of Galaxy Buds. If you are waiting for the successors to the Galaxy Tab S10+ series tablets, youll have to wait a little longer. However, theres some good news, as a new rumor indicates that Samsung could finally increase the battery capacity of the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra. Samsungs Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra could boast a bigger battery According to a report by the Dutch website GalaxyClub, the upcoming Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has a rated battery capacity of 11,374mAh. Itll be a 500mAh bump over the Galaxy Tab S10s power cell that has a rated capacity of 10,800. Samsung advertises the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultras battery capacity as 11,200mAh. So, its likely that Samsung will market the typical battery capacity of the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra to be 11,700mAh or even 12,000mAh. Samsung is reviving the base model Furthermore, the source claims that Samsung is reviving the base model with the Galaxy Tab S11 series. Samsung could leave the 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Plus without a follow-up, at least for now. Unfortunately, the vanilla Galaxy Tab S11 wont get a battery jump. Itll offer a rated battery capacity of 8,160mAh, which the brand could advertise to be an 8,400mAh battery. It is the same as the Galaxy Tab S9s power cell. As of now, its unclear if Samsung will bump the battery capacity of the Fan Edition tablet lineup this year. We still dont know the exact launch date for the Galaxy Tab S11 series. However, it could happen at some point around September, as the company launched the Tab S10 series the same month last year. In case it wasnt obvious, not all the features you find on your Samsung phone are made or invented 100% by Samsung. Like with many companies, Samsung licenses various patents to create its products. Unfortunately, it looks like Samsung might have violated some of them. A US court has ruled that Samsung has infringed upon smart home and smartphone patents and is now required to pay $117.7 million in damages to Japanese company, Maxwell. Samsung to pay for violating patents The lawsuit dates back to 2023. Maxwell sued Samsung for allegedly violating as many as seven patents and selling products that infringed upon them, including smartphones, laptops, and smart home appliances. It covers features such as device unlocking, information processing, networking, and the reproduction of images and videos. The report claims that Samsung and Maxwell had a working relationship dating back to 2011. In 2011, Samsung signed a licensing agreement with Maxwells predecessor, Hitachi, to use 10 of its patents for 10 years. However, that agreement ended in 2021, after which Samsung did not renew the license. Maxwell says it attempted to contact Samsung about renewing the license, but Samsung refused, claiming that those patents were invalid. This led to Maxwell taking the Korean tech giant to court. Maxwell has sued Samsung in several countries, including Germany, Japan, and the USA. We cant speak to the legal outcome in those countries, but in the US, a court ruled that Samsung infringed on those patents and ordered Samsung to pay Maxwell damages of $117.7 million. Samsung can appeal the ruling if it isnt satisfied, so well have to wait and see. Another epic legal battle for the ages? This is not the first time Samsung has been involved in a lawsuit over alleged patent infringements. The companys most notorious lawsuit involved Apple. The lawsuit between them went back and forth for many years, leading to injunctions, banned products, and more. The lawsuit was eventually settled, with neither side walking away unscathed. Patent lawsuits are pretty common in the tech industry. Some are legitimate claims. Others are filed by patent trolls, companies, or individuals who register vague patents in an attempt to force other companies to settle to avoid a lengthy lawsuit. Sonys position in the smartphone market isnt what it used to be. However, despite being eclipsed by Samsung and Chinese OEMs like Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO, Sony continues to churn out handsets to this day. Moving forward, future high-end Sony phones could be made by a third party. Sony turns to third-party manufacturers This is according to a Japanese news publication that claims Sony will outsource the production of its phones to a third-party. Sony already uses third-party manufacturers for its mid-range devices. But in the future, even its high-end phones will be made by someone else. The publication points to evidence that Sonys official website no longer lists smartphones as its main products produced at its production facilities in Thailand and China. It also claims that this isnt a temporary situation. Apparently, it is part of Sonys long-term strategy for its smartphone business. The report also claims that the recently launched Sony Xperia 1 VII 5G is the first smartphone made by a third-party company. However, as GSMArena points out, in its review of the device, it didnt notice any differences in the overall build quality. This means that even though Sony doesnt have a direct hand in manufacturing, it maintains its standards. Not an uncommon move Sonys decision to use an outside company to manufacture its phones isnt surprising. As we said, Sonys presence in the smartphone market has dwindled in the past few years. In fact, whats even more surprising is that the company still pushes out phones. This is despite the fact other brands offering better prices and similar specs. Sony also did something similar with its VAIO series of laptops. In 2014, Sony sold off its VAIO PC business to another company, allowing the other company to leverage the VAIO brand without affecting Sonys overall business. Weve also seen similar moves by other companies. This includes BlackBerry, which at one point shuttered its own production facilities. The company later licensed its brand and allowed others to make phones using its name. Now, it looks like Sony could be headed down that same path. But for now, Sony is still holding onto its brand. Palestinian schoolchildren pass a gate set up by the Israeli army in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, on 13 May 2025. Photograph: Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images I was so moved by Bethan McKernans article on her time as the Guardians Jerusalem correspondent over the last four years (I worried I might start finding it normal. But I never did what I learned as the Guardians Jerusalem correspondent, 29 May). Her experience of feeling a maddening cognitive dissonance in Tel Aviv/Jaffa from seeing people out and about, doing pilates, walking their dogs, as if everything was fine when just 50km down the road, on the same stretch of the Med, was an open-air prison is exactly how I felt when I first visited Jerusalem in 2018 after spending time in the West Bank. I had decided to take my young family there to show them where my Palestinian father grew up under the British Mandate and see if we could find the home hed lost in 1948. But I was also keen to ensure my children had a balanced view and understood the whole story, educating them about what the Jewish people had been through. I had come from Jordan via Bethlehem and Ramallah and been so touched by the generosity of the Palestinians I met who, despite living under very difficult conditions, were such wonderful hosts, inviting my family in to chat and share delicious home-cooked food. But arriving in lush Jerusalem from the barren West Bank, where Palestinians are treated like cattle, penned in by the wall and multiple checkpoints, was a striking contrast. After walking a few steps through the centre of Jerusalem with its gleaming shops, surrounded by people ostensibly living their best life, I broke down and cried at the injustice of it all. Growing up in London, people would sometimes tell me they were going on holiday to Israel. Have you been? they would ask. Its wonderful. They didnt know my background, but I was left shocked that they only saw one side of it. What I loved about Bethans article is that over the last four years she has immersed herself in life there and deeply felt the positions of both Israelis and Palestinians. If we are going to make progress and reach a fair outcome, we have to put ourselves in each others shoes and deeply understand each others experiences. Alexandra Lucas London Jonathan Freedland describes Hamass actions on 7 October 2023 as slaughter, while Israels bombardment of Gaza ever since is just killing Palestinians (A biblical hatred is engulfing both sides in the Gaza conflict and blinding them to reason, 23 May). The difference in outrage portrayed in these words reflects the lack of equivalence between the life of an Israeli and that of a Palestinian which has been at the heart of the conflict since the start. Chris Matthews London Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section. Anthony Weiner, a former Democratic congressman, leaves federal court in New York in September 2017. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Anthony Weiner says politicians such as him and Donald Trump can survive scandals while qualified candidates including Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton lose elections because women get judged much more harshly than men do. I do believe that, Weiner said Friday on ABCs The View amid his run for a New York City council seat years after he crashed out of Congress in the wake of a sexting scandal that some argue aided Trump in clinching his first presidency in 2016. Much of Weiners appearance on the talkshow involved his addressing the various scandals that set the stage for one of the most spectacular falls from grace in US politics. As he has done before, Weiner asserted that he was in recovery after sexually messaging a teenaged girl led him to serve 18 months in prison. That came after a sexting scandal drove him out of the US House in 2011 after 13 years representing New Yorkers there. A 2013 run for New York mayor failed after he became ensnared in another scandal over sexual texts sent under the moniker Carlos Danger. Then, in 2016, as former secretary of state Clinton ran for the White House against Trump with the help of Weiners then wife, Huma Abedin, federal authorities opened a criminal investigation into the ex-congressmans exchange of lewd photos with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Investigators involved in that inquiry found emails on Weiners personal laptop that prompted them to re-examine a private email server used by Clinton. Agents did not find any incriminating evidence against Clinton. But many Democrats to this day believe the unflattering media coverage that surrounded the private email server investigation had a hand in Clintons decisive electoral college defeat to Trump despite his having lost the popular vote. Trump then lost the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden before retaking the Oval Office in 2024 against vice-president Harris, overcoming among other things having been convicted of criminally falsifying business records in connection with payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and having been held civilly liable for sexually abusing former Elle magazine columnist E Jean Carroll. All of which prompted The View co-host Joy Behar to tell Weiner it seemed that men like him were held to a different standard in politics than qualified women. Beside him and Trump, she also mentioned other figures who had faced notorious, sex-related scandals, including Clintons husband Bill Clinton as well as the ex-New York governors Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo. Weiner replied by arguing that he, Clinton, Spitzer and Cuomo all did pay a price to some extent. The ousted congressman said Clinton was impeached during his second term as US president while Spitzer and Cuomo both resigned New Yorks governorship. I mean, I hate to correct you, Weiner said. The question is how do you judge their record in totality? Nonetheless, Weiner added: I do believe that women get judged much more harshly than men do. I do believe that. The Democratic primary election for the New York City council seat that Weiner is eyeing is on 24 June. Cuomo is signed up to run in the Democratic primary election for mayor that same day. The general election for both races is set for 4 November. The BBC has been ordered to pay former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams 100,000 euros (84,000) after he won a resounding libel victory over the broadcaster. Mr Adams took the BBC to court over an episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, which he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and the corporation had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Mr Adams legal team said the verdict of the jury was a full vindication for their client while the BBC said it was disappointed with the outcome. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. It had argued the allegation was corroborated by five other sources and that Mr Adams had a reputation of being a member of the IRA. Denis Donaldson was killed in 2006 (BBC/PA) After six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total, the jury awarded the plaintiff 100,000 euro which falls within the medium range for defamation. Speaking outside court, Mr Adams said taking this case was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation. He told reporters: I know many, many journalists. I like to think that I get on well with the most of them, and I wish you well, and I would uphold your right to do your job. But the British Broadcasting Corporation upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view its out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement. It hasnt caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully, in the time ahead, unity. He said there is an onus on everyone, including himself, to deal with these legacy issues. He said: Im very mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of this long trial, and indeed of the victims families who have had to watch all of this. I want to say that the Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can. Gerry Adams outside the High Court in Dublin after the jury returned its verdict (Brian Lawless/PA) His solicitor Paul Tweed said Mr Adams was very pleased with this resounding verdict, adding the award of damages speaks for itself. Johnsons Solicitors, who acted for Mr Adams, said: The outcome today has provided a full vindication for our client, Mr Adams. Speaking outside court, Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, said: We are disappointed by this verdict. We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this programme, and to the accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. We didnt want to come to court but it was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. He added: Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyones could, and they warned how todays decision would hinder freedom of expression. Director of BBC Northern Ireland, Adam Smyth and journalist Jennifer OLeary outside the High Court (Brian Lawless/PA) Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. BBC Spotlight reporter Jennifer OLeary said she had nothing to hide, only sources to protect. She also thanked the BBC and its legal team for defending journalism. Ms OLeary said: Im a big believer in trying your best in life and going about your business with integrity, and I want to pay a particular tribute to our witnesses in court, senator Michael McDowell, Trevor Ringland, and in particular Ann Travers, who spoke so courageously. She said there were thousands of victims and survivors of the troubles in the UK and Ireland, adding: Those people carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible dignity and courage, and they are the people I am thinking of, I know my colleagues are also thinking of. I am thinking of all of them today. The BBC will have to pay costs but the amount has yet to be decided. Mr Adams said the case could have been settled a long time ago, adding that it would be BBC licence payers who would pay for the action. Mr Smyth added the corporation will take some time to consider the implications of the ruling. Talks between Russia and Ukraine will be attended by European and US delegations - LEON NEAL/AFP Britains national security adviser is expected to attend the next round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine on Monday. Jonathan Powell will join his European and US counterparts at the talks in Istanbul, according to Gen Keith Kellogg, the US envoy for Russia-Ukraine. Gen Kellogg told ABC News: Well have what we call the E3. That is the national security advisers from Germany, France, and Great BritainWhen we were in London, they kind of helped us mould a term sheet for Ukraine. The E3 used to be known as the EU3 until the UK left the European Union. Moscow and Kyiv held their first direct negotiations in more than three years in the Turkish capital earlier this month. Peace memorandum demanded On Friday, the Kremlin said it would only discuss the conditions of a ceasefire at the talks in Istanbul after Kyiv demanded to see a peace memorandum prior to negotiations. Ukraine said it wanted to see a document setting out Russias peace proposal before committing to sending officials to Istanbul. Andrii Sybiha, Ukraines foreign minister, said: In order for the next planned meeting to be substantive and meaningful, it is important to receive a document in advance so that the delegation that will attend has the authority to discuss the relevant positions. Sergei Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, announced the second round of talks earlier this week after Donald Trump further criticised Vladimir Putin. The US president had called his Russian counterpart crazy and accused him of playing with fire before appearing to give him a two-week deadline to secure a deal. Credit: US Network Pool / Reuters Gen Kellogg said Mr Trump was ready to prevent Ukraine and other eastern European nations from joining Nato in order to satisfy Putins peace demands, a position he said was shared by other members of the alliance. He said: Weve said that, to us, Ukraine coming into Nato is not on the table. And were not the only country that says that. You know, I can probably give you four countries in Nato, and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come into Nato. In response, the Kremlin said it was glad that president Putins messages are heard in Washington. Moscow also said it was considering a proposal by Turkey to host Mr Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky, alongside Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president. But it said it would only do so if peace talks on Monday yielded results. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov added: President Putin has repeatedly stated that he is fundamentally in favour of high-level contacts. But first, results must be achieved through direct negotiations between the two countries. Vasily Nebenzia, Russias UN ambassador, said on Friday that Moscow is prepared to consider a ceasefire in Ukraine. But Mr Nebenzia told the UN Security Council that would only happen if Western states agreed to stop arming Kyiv during any truce, and for Ukraine to stop mobilising troops. He added a simple ceasefire was not enough to end Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To achieve a sustainable and lasting settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, we need to address its root causes, Mr Nebenzia said. What were proposing is a second round of talks in Istanbul this coming Monday where we can exchange memoranda about both parties approaches to the negotiations process. Blower Cartoon Team GB Left, Left, Left... Unions Thank God we won the Cold War. For a while there, it was touch and go, the future of the world on a knife-edge. On one side, we had a system permeated top to bottom by an official state ideology. Employment and freedom was made contingent on adherence, an extensive network of censors and informers was established to maintain the illusion that dissenters were a minority, harsh punishments were meted out to political prisoners, and the state took control of vast swathes of the economy. On the other, the promise of freedom: freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and association, freedom to do as you would with your private property. It was, as I said, close. But in the end, despite Thatchers brief, doomed fightback, the Socialists won. Its a tongue-in-cheek reading of British history, but it doesnt take a great deal of exaggeration to see how it could be true. As AJP Taylor once wrote, until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state beyond the post office and the policeman. That is emphatically not the case today. Having won the wars, the advocates of freedom comprehensively lost the peace. They lost to such a degree that those of us born and raised afterwards find it hard to comprehend the scale of the change. Its easiest to start with the size of the state. To be sure, socialism in Britain has receded from its high point. The nationalisation of coal, iron, steel, electricity, gas, roads, aviation, telecommunications, and railways has been mostly undone, although steel and rail are on the way back in. But by comparison to our pre-war starting point, we live in a nearly unrecognisable country. In 1913, taxes and spending took up around 8 per cent of GDP. Today, they account for 35 per cent and 45 per cent respectively. To put it another way, almost half of all economic activity in Britain involves funds allocated at the behest of the government, and over half of British adults rely on the state for major parts of their income. And if anything, this understates the degree of government control. Outcomes which are nominally left to the market are rigged by a state which sees prices as less as a way for markets to clear, and more as a tool for social engineering. Universities charge tuition fees capped by the state to students funded by the state, with the looming threat of lost university status if they veer from approved principles. Energy prices are capped, and in crisis subsidised. Mandates are put in place for the installation of heat pumps and sale of zero-emission vehicles as a share of business. Wherever you look, there is meddling. The judiciary has revived the labour theory of value, awarding tens of millions of pounds in equal pay claims to shop workers who explicitly acknowledge they would never have taken warehouse jobs unless they paid far more than retail. The benefits system has recast the old mantra as from each according to their pre-tax labour income, to each according to their needs-based assessment. The support of the proletariat is purchased, the middle classes are punished. And the Government appears to view its primary task to be finding caches of private wealth or institutions that have slipped state control private schools, pensions, and the like and reeling them in. We are so used to state control of our lives that we act as if it is simply a fact of life that we require permission to build on land that we own. But prior to 1947, there was no such requirement. It was taken as granted that having purchased land for a family home, no-one would interfere with your effort to build one. The Town and Country Planning Act put paid to that, handing councils the power to veto any and all construction. Combined with the surge in interest in state provision of housing social housing went from 1 per cent of the countrys stock in 1911 to 16 per cent today and the result was to strip away our freedom to live where we would, as we would, and replace it with the utopian dreams of central planners. Sometimes these extended to direct sabotage: when Birmingham was among the most prosperous regions in Britain, with services businesses growing faster than anywhere else in the country, London-based planners, having already obstructed the construction of factories, declared its growth to be threatening. The result was a ban on office development, and the crippling of its economy. Those parts which are under state control havent fared much better. The charitable hospitals and friendly societies that existed prior to the NHS were swept aside in a project that explicitly aimed to replace this medley of public and voluntary institutions with rational, planned healthcare. The results have been catastrophic. We have created one of the largest employers on earth, with some of the longest waiting lists and worst health outcomes in the developed world. Between private and public provision, we spend almost 2 per cent more of our national income on healthcare than our Australian cousins in exchange for massively higher avoidable mortality. This should be a national disgrace. Yet despite the dismal experiences and the constant drip of scandals, it remains popular. The idea of healthcare provided outside the state is simply alien to a people taught that their system is the envy of the world. When Boris Yeltsin visited the United States, it was a trip to a supermarket that convinced him of the futility of the Soviet model. Regrettably, Britains indoctrination has been far more effective, resembling at times a last-ditch counterinsurgency campaign conducted against our own people. The education system, under the thumb from preschool to grad school, has long abandoned efforts to instill national pride in favour of preaching about the benefits of diversity and nebulous British values that amount to upholding the state. Over 10,000 people a year are arrested for communications offences. Whenever attempts to impose multiculturalism on Britain hit a snag in the form of the latest terrorist outrage, the institutions of the state and its allies sing from a single sheet. The result has been a curious demoralisation. Asked to list the key features of British patriotism in 1914, our representative Englishman might have listed the Empire, the monarchy, the Church of England, the Royal Navy. Ask today, and youll get something about fairness, diversity, the BBC and the NHS. This is, of course, all in jest. Britain is not a socialist country. And thank God for that, Comrade. About 50% of direct conflict emissions came from the supply and use of weapons, tanks and other ordnance by Israeli military. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters The carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israels war on Gaza will be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of a hundred individual countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll, new research reveals. A study shared exclusively with the Guardian found the long-term climate cost of destroying, clearing and rebuilding Gaza could top 31m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). This is more than the combined 2023 annual greenhouse gases emitted by Costa Rica and Estonia, yet there is no obligation for states to report military emissions to the UN climate body. Israels relentless bombardment, blockade and refusal to comply with international court rulings has underscored the asymmetry of each sides war machine, as well as almost unconditional military, energy and diplomatic support Israel enjoys from allies including the US and UK. Hamas bunker fuel and rockets account for about 3,000 tonnes of CO2e, the equivalent of just 0.2% of the total direct conflict emissions, while 50% were generated by the supply and use of weapons, tanks and other ordnance by the Israeli military (IDF), the study found. Burning fossil fuels is causing climate chaos, with increasingly deadly and destructive extreme weather events forcing record numbers of people to migrate. The Gulf region is among the most vulnerable to extreme weather and slow-onset climate disasters including drought, desertification, extreme heat and erratic rainfall, as well as environmental degradation, food insecurity and water shortages. The research, published by the Social Science Research Network, is part of a growing movement to hold states and businesses accountable for the climate and environmental costs of war and occupation, including the long-term impact damage to land, food and water sources, as well as post-conflict clean-up and reconstruction. It is the third and most comprehensive analysis by a team of UK and US-based researchers into the climate cost of the first 15 months of conflict in which more than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed, in addition to widespread infrastructure damage and environmental catastrophe. It also provides the first, albeit partial, snapshot of the carbon cost of Israels other recent regional conflicts. Overall, researchers estimate that the long-term climate cost of Israels military destruction in Gaza and recent military exchanges with Yemen, Iran and Lebanon is equivalent to charging 2.6bn smartphones or running 84 gas power plants for a year. This figure includes the estimated 557,359 tCO2e arising from the occupation-era construction of Hamass network of tunnels and Israels iron wall barrier. The killing and environmental destruction of Gaza resumed when Israel unilaterally violated the ceasefire after just two months, but the findings could eventually help calculate claims for reparations. This updated research evidences the urgency to stop the escalating atrocities, and make sure that Israel and all states comply with international law, including the decisions from the ICC and the ICJ, said Astrid Puentes, UN special rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Whether or not States agree on calling it a genocide, what we are facing is severely impacting all life in Gaza, and also threatening human rights in the region, and even globally, due to the aggravation of climate change. The study, currently under peer review by the journal One Earth, found: Over 99% of the almost 1.89m tCO2e estimated to have been generated between the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack and the temporary ceasefire in January 2025 is attributed to Israels aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza. Almost 30% of greenhouse gases generated in that period came from the US sending 50,000 tonnes of weapons and other military supplies to Israel, mostly on cargo planes and ships from stockpiles in Europe. Another 20% is attributed to Israeli aircraft reconnaissance and bombing missions, tanks and fuel from other military vehicles, as well as CO2 generated by manufacturing and exploding the bombs and artillery. Solar had generated as much as a quarter of Gazas electricity, representing one of the worlds highest shares, but most panels, and the territorys only power plant, have been damaged or destroyed. Gazas limited access to electricity now mostly relies on diesel-guzzling generators that emitted just over 130,000 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, or 7% of the total conflict emissions. More than 40% of the total emissions were generated by the estimated 70,000 aid trucks Israel allowed into the Gaza Strip which the UN has condemned as grossly insufficient to meet the basic humanitarian needs of 2.2m displaced and starving Palestinians. But the most significant climate cost will come from rebuilding Gaza, which Israel has reduced to an estimated 60m tonnes of toxic rubble. The carbon cost of trucking out debris and then rebuilding 436,000 apartments, 700 schools, mosques, clinics, government offices and other buildings, as well as 5km of Gazas roads, will generate an estimated 29.4m tonnes eCO2. This is on a par with the entire 2023 emissions generated by Afghanistan. The reconstruction figure is lower than previous estimates by the same research group due to a revision in the average size of apartment blocks. This report is a staggering and sobering reminder of the ecological and environmental cost of Israels genocidal campaign on the planet and its besieged people, said Zena Agha, policy analyst for Palestinian policy network Al-Shabaka. But this is also the US, UK and EUs war, all of which have provided seemingly limitless military resources to enable Israel to devastate the most densely populated place on the planet. This brings home the destabilising [regional] impact of the Israeli settler state and its inseparability from the western military-industrial complex. The war on Gaza has also provoked bloody regional tensions. The study found: The Houthis in Yemen launched an estimated 400 rockets into Israel between October 2023 and January 2025, generating about 55 tCO2e. Israels aerial response generated almost 50 times more planet warming greenhouse gases. A previous study found that shipping emissions rose by an estimated 63% after the Houthis blocked the Red Sea corridor, forcing cargo ships to take longer routes. A conservative estimate of emissions from two large-scale exchanges of missiles between Israel and Iran topped 5,000 tCO2e, with more than 80% down to Israel. In Lebanon, more than 90% of the estimated 3,747 tCO2e generated by sporadic exchanges came from IDF bombs, with only 8% linked to Hezbollah rockets. The carbon cost of reconstructing 3,600 homes destroyed in southern Lebanon is almost as high as the annual emissions from the island of St Lucia. The study is based on evolving methodology known as a scope 3+ framework which seeks to capture direct and indirect wartime emissions currently missing from global climate and conflict audits. This can include soil degradation, fires, infrastructure damage, displacement of people, aid, rerouting cargo ships and civil aviation. Researchers relied on open-source information, media reports, and data from independent aid groups such as UN agencies. The true environmental costs are almost certainly higher given Israels media blockade, with data on razed farmland, desertification, remediation, and fires among other carbon-intense impacts hard to obtain. This conflict in Gaza shows that the numbers are substantial, greater than the entire greenhouse gas emissions of many entire countries, and must be included for accurate climate change and mitigation targets, said Frederick Otu-Larbi, co-author, senior teaching associate at Lancaster Environment Centre and lecturer at University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana. Militaries need to reckon with the fact that their own national security and operational capacity is being compromised due to a changing climate of their own making, said Ben Neimark, senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and study co-author. Previous research has found that military emissions rise with spending and buildup. Israels military budget surged in 2024 to $46.5bn the largest increase in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Based on one methodology, Israels baseline military emissions last year excluding direct conflict and reconstruction climate costs rose to 6.5m tCO2e. This is more than the entire carbon footprint of Eritrea, a country of 3.5 million people. Yet under current UN rules, reporting military emission data is voluntary and limited to fuel use, despite the fact the climate cost of the destruction of Gaza will be felt globally. The IDF, like most militaries worldwide, has never reported emission figures to the UN. Hadeel Ikhmais, head of the climate change office at the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority, said: Wars not only kill people but also release toxic chemicals, destroy infrastructure, pollute soil, air and water resources and accelerate climate and environmental disasters. War also destroys climate adaptation and hinders environmental management. Not counting carbon emissions is a black hole in accountability that allows governments to get away from their environmental crimes. Donald Trump Remember Donald Trumps vow that there would be all hell to pay if Hamas hadnt released all the hostages by the time he took office? What happened to that? Four months later and for all his tough talk, the president is slumping into a Biden crouch. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, is poised to unveil a revised Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposal amid optimistic leaks, mainly from sources in the United States, that a larger deal may be in the offing. This will likely entail the phased release of ten hostages out of the 20 presumed still living, as well as the remains of a further 18. This will leave the jihadis in control of ten living hostages and 20 bodies, which in their depraved eyes amounts to a pretty significant hand of playing cards to keep. In return, Israel may release 125 notorious murderers with much innocent blood on their hands, not to mention military experience and an undimmed fanaticism in their souls, as well as 1,111 prisoners captured after October 7 and the remains of 180 terrorists killed in battle. The latter is an unusual demand to be emphasised by Hamas, which appears to be mimicking Jewish veneration of the dead. Aid will also be ramped up. All this will be arranged around a 60-day pause in fighting. The White House seems confident that it has reassured Israel that either the campaign or further hostage negotiations, or both, may be recommenced if the deadline passes with no progress in talks for a final end to hostilities. Israel has reportedly indicated it will accept. So far, so Joe Biden. For those Trump supporters who were looking forward to seeing Hamas blasted to kingdom come as soon as his feet hit the Oval carpet, it all looks rather flaccid. What happened to his cherished Riviera? Just like during the Biden era, we have even witnessed an extraordinary propaganda campaign waged by Hamas, the United Nations, a range of NGOs and the international media to obstruct a joint Israeli-American attempt to create a means of delivering aid directly to the people of Gaza while bypassing their jihadi overlords. As Israel has looked in danger of winning, the disinformation has hit fever pitch. Gaza, we have been told, is on the verge of famine, which quickly elides into claims of an actual famine, despite no evidence of deaths of starvation and plentiful videos on social media of reasonable conditions in the Strip. This has been accompanied by a plethora of fabricated, exaggerated or just plain fishy claims made by Hamas and magnified by a venomously Israelophobic elite and their radical progressive allies. The arts world swung into action. R&B musicians spoke out and almost 400 novelists signed a letter pledging to brand Israels campaign genocide. Odd kind of genocide when the aggressor warns civilians before it attacks, fails for two-and-a-half years to complete the supposed crime despite having the firepower to do so in two-and-a-half hours, and goes out of its way to deliver aid. If anybody had been paying attention, they would have observed that Israel had been accused of genocide in earnest since October 8, and in general for many decades before that. The fact that the job of a novelist is literally to make up stories was apparently lost upon them. The disinformation has been as transparent as it has been ubiquitous. Yet following in the footsteps of Joe Biden before him, Trump failed to condemn this wave of lies, instead dignifying it by adding the claim of his own that a lot of people are starving while hanging out with a bunch of Arab leaders. It doesnt stop there. We had high hopes that Iran would finally meet some serious opposition when the Donald returned to office. After all, this was the man who had authorised the killing of the totemic Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani, king of overseas meddling, in 2020. Yet just as the time is ripe for denuclearising Iran by way of bunker busters Tehrans air defences were taken out by Israel last year and Hezbollah has been decapitated and castrated Trump seems to be bottling it. The President publicly confirmed that he had asked Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch an attack while he was negotiating with the Ayatollah, amid days of speculation about a tense telephone call between the two men and American assessments that Israel may be preparing a strike of its own. Jerusalem is deeply concerned that an impending Trump-Khamenei deal would take the threat of an assault by the United States off the table, while leaving Iran in a holding pattern that would allow the Ayatollah to advance his nuclear programme again when hes good and ready. There are also serious worries about an interim deal that would offer Iran sanctions relief before a nuclear accord is reached, hosing billions of dollars into its coffers that may be used to rebuild Hezbollah and its other devastated assets. This would allow the Iranians breathing space to do what they do best: drag on the talks while pushing their agenda forward, quietly but steadily. We have even seen growing reports of friction between Trump and Netanyahu, which is beginning to look rather like the daylight famously placed by Biden between the United States and its beleaguered ally. Its all a far cry from the berserker rhetoric that Trump so loudly trumpeted before he took office. Has he been mugged by reality? Or is the 47th president all mouth and no trousers? The daughter of a man who was shot dead after being revealed to be an IRA informer has called for an urgent public inquiry into the killing, which was a key issue in Gerry Adamss successful defamation action against the BBC. Mr Adams claimed a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, which he denies any involvement in. On Friday, the jury found in his favour and awarded him 100,000 euro (84,000) in damages. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 20 years. His daughter, Jane Donaldson, was prevented from giving evidence to the jury during the BBCs defence of the case. Following the verdict, she said the case proves the need for an urgent public inquiry into the killing. In a statement on behalf of the family, Ms Donaldson said: By reducing events which damaged our lives to a debate about damage to his reputation, the plaintiff has trivialised our family tragedy. Daddys murder and surrounding circumstances devastated our family. The plaintiff prioritised his own financial and reputational interests over any regard for retraumatising my family. We are still no closer to the truth. No-one spoke for my family in court. We supported neither side in this case. Speaking after the verdict, Mr Adams said: Im very mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of this long trial, and indeed of the victims families who have had to watch all of this. I want to say that the (Irish) Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can. However, Ms Donaldson criticised his legal teams approach to her evidence. Although the plaintiff claimed sympathy for my family, his legal team objected to me giving evidence to challenge the account of his witnesses. The jury heard sensitive, privileged family information tossed around without our consent, but did not hear my testimony. Limitless legal resources and vast expense were invested in this case while there is supposedly a live Garda investigation into my daddys murder. The public interest can only now be fully served by some form of public inquiry, with a cross-border dimension which is ECHR Article 2-compliant, empowered to investigate the whole truth about the conspiracy to expose and murder my daddy. Ciaran Shiels, a solicitor who represented the family in the past, was called as a witness in the case. BBC videograb of Denis Donaldson (PA) Mr Shiels, a solicitor and partner at Madden and Finucane Solicitors, told the court the BBC was not only barking up the wrong tree but was in the wrong orchard over the claims against Mr Adams. Mr Shiels said he represented Mr Donaldson and his family from a period before his death until a period after the broadcast. He said he came to act as a spokesperson for the family after Mr Donaldsons death but said he no longer does so. Mr Shiels told the court the family do not accept or believe in any way that Mr Adams had anything to do with it. However, Ms Donaldson issued a statement after his appearance in court to say the family had not been consulted about him giving evidence in the case. She said she wanted to make clear Mr Shiels no longer acts for the family. Solicitor Ciaran Shiels outside the High Court in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) In a voir dire hearing without the presence of the jury, Ms Donaldson said she had followed the case very closely and very painfully over a number of weeks and felt compelled to contact the BBC because she felt there were inaccuracies presented as evidence in the case. She said the family did not accept the claim of responsibility for the killing by the dissident republican group the Real IRA. Ms Donaldson said her father had been thrown to the wolves and there was a conspiracy to deliberately expose him as an agent. She said it was the familys position that it had an open mind in relation to the murder and it was focused on pursuing the truth. Ms Donaldson also said she had no idea that Mr Shiels was going to give evidence and she had not authorised it. She said Madden and Finucane represented her family until February of this year but Mr Shiels was never appointed as a family spokesman. She said the family were not aware of the first meeting between Mr Shiels and BBC Spotlight journalist Jennifer OLeary about the programme, but were aware of subsequent meetings and other correspondence. When questioned by Tom Hogan, SC, for Mr Adams, she also acknowledged her husband, Ciaran Kearney, was later present at a meeting involving the BBC and Mr Shiels at the firms office. She said she knew her husband was going to meet them and he told her about the meeting afterwards. However, she stressed the family were not aware of the first meeting between Mr Shiels and Ms OLeary. Judge Alexander Owens (Brian Lawless/PA) Trial judge Alexander Owens intervened to say that was water under the bridge for the second meeting. Mr Hogan asked Ms Donaldson if she was aware of correspondence on behalf of the family responding to allegations about Mr Kearney. Ms Donaldson said Mr Shiels was speaking on behalf of the family at that time in relation to the specifics of the programme. Mr Hogan said Mr Shiels had told the court he no longer represented the family. Ms Donaldson said the statement she had issued on Mr Shielss relationship to the family was to contradict a newspaper report. She also said she felt there was a narrative that the family were in support of one side over the other when they were not. Judge Owens asked Ms Donaldson if Mr Shiels was speaking for the family on September 23, 2016 when he made representations to the media following a meeting with An Garda Siochana. She said he was at that stage, and acknowledged he was authorised to put out statements for the family over the years. Asked about Mr Shielss evidence when he said the family would have told the programme they did not believe Mr Adamss authorised the killing, she said she did not recall discussing that in detail or discussing Mr Adams in particular. She said their legal advice had been not to take part in the programme. Judge Owens asked if Mr Shiels had been right in relation to their view at the time, adding it may not be either here or there. Ms Donaldson replied: I think it is neither here nor there. She added she cannot recall a conversation about that at the time, adding the familys position has evolved over the years. Tom Hogan, barrister for former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (Brian Lawless/PA) Mr Hogan contended Ms Donaldsons comments had not borne out that Mr Shiels had provided a serious inaccuracy to the court. He said he was in fact authorised to act as a spokesperson for the family at the time. Paul Gallagher, SC, for the BBC, said it would be a fundamental unfairness to not allow Ms Donaldson to comment on the evidence put forward by Mr Shiels. Judge Owens said the Donaldsons were aware of Mr Shielss actions from the second meeting onwards. He told Ms Donaldson he appreciated all of her concerns and the points she made. However, he said his concern was whether her evidence was relevant to the jury making decisions. He said he had listened to counsel and her statements very carefully. Judge Owens said: While you do have all of these concerns, I dont think your evidence in relation to the matter is going to assist the jury in arriving at their decision. He added: In no circumstances am I going to permit you to give evidence to the jury. The new boss of Dr Martens is to reveal his strategy to get the bootmaker back on track amid a slump in sales. The Camden-based footwear specialist will reveal its latest annual results on Thursday June 5, and is expected to post a drop in revenues and profits. However, investors are likely to focus on a strategy update from the company which is also due that day. Ije Nwokorie is the new CEO of Dr Martens (Dr Martens/PA) Shares in the firm have tumbled by more than 80% since it floated on Londons stock market in early 2021. The company has been blighted by sliding sales in recent years as it has fought waning consumer demand and supply chain disruptions. Ije Nwokorie, a former brand chief of the business, took over the top role in January in a bid to help revive its fortunes. This week the company also sought to strengthen its leadership team by appointing Carla Murphy from Adidas as its new chief brand officer and former Nike director Paul Zadof as its Americas president. The appointments come as Dr Martens seeks to bring more shoppers back to the brand and target new growth opportunities. Investec analyst Kate Calvert said: Having taken over as CEO in January and knowing the company well (previously chief brand officer and a non-executive director), we expect more of an evolutionary strategy. We are looking to hear what the teams growth priorities are from a range, market and channel perspective, and understand the differences in strategic approach to recent history. We also expect an update on the delivery of two crucial system projects its customer data platform plus a supply and demand planning system. Investec has forecast that the fashion firm will report revenues of roughly 803.5 million for the year to March 31. It would represent another significant drop from 877.1 million the previous year. In its previous update in January, Dr Martens pointed towards a partial recovery over the key festive period amid progress to turn around its US operation. On Thursday, the company is likely to show further progress with its direct-to-consumer business, efforts to increase cost savings and strengthening its balance sheet. Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: Dr Martens is expected to deliver more evidence that it is pulling itself up by its bootstraps and the turnaround is lacing together. Its been reducing inventories and debt, preserving cash and stabilising the business overall. So there is more optimism around that Dr Martens can kick off a more sustained recovery. Shareholders will also be looking for guidance on how its important US business might be impacted by recent tariff rule changes and how the firm might mitigate any impact. St Catherines could see approximately 20 monks evicted dependent on the court ruling - Luca Ladi Bucciolini Egypt could close the oldest continuously functioning monastery in the world, prompting fury from Christians. St Catherines, at the foot of Mount Sinai, was built by the order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I between 548 and 565 and has operated as a religious community ever since. However, a court ruling in Cairo has sparked fears that the Orthodox institution will be forcibly turned into a museum and its approximately 20 monks evicted. According to the Egyptian press, the court ordered that ownership of the monasterys land be transferred to the Egyptian state. It has been reported that the decision was taken so the building could be converted into a museum. Saint Catherines is a 1,500-year-old monastery located on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt - Anadolu Less than a month ago, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypts president, publicly reassured the Greek government that the monastery would continue. Late on Thursday, his office issued a statement pledging full commitment to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherines Monastery and preventing its violation. However, there is widespread concern in the Christian world that the court ruling will result in the forcible closure of the monastery and the eviction of the monks. There is a fear that the monastery could be torn down - ANDRE DURAND Mount Sinai holds theological significance because it is reputed to be where God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, tasking him with leading the chosen people out of Egypt. It is also the reported location where the 10 Commandments were handed down to Moses. St Catherines Basilica, with its intricate mosaics, is considered a treasure trove of Byzantine-era religious art. News of the court ruling prompted an impassioned protest from Ierenemos II, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. St Catherines Basilica is considered a treasure trove of Byzantine-era religious art - Insights Following yesterdays scandalous ruling, a violent infringement of human rights and, more specifically, of religious freedoms by Egypts judicial authorities, the worlds oldest Orthodox Christian monument, the Monastery of Mount Sinai, is entering a period of great trial one that evokes memories of darker times in history, a statement read. I unequivocally condemn any attempt to alter the longstanding status that has prevailed in this region for fifteen centuries. I call upon the responsible Greek government and personally upon prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis [of Greece] to take immediate and appropriate action to restore lawful order and ensure that the holy monastery is not effectively abolished. Road sign pointing the way toward Saint Catherines Monastery - Joel Carillet Meanwhile, Greek government sources said they would attempt to work with the Egyptian authorities to hold the country to the commitments given by President Sisi during his visit to Greece on May 7. A spokesman for Mr Sisis office said: The Presidency affirms that the recent court ruling consolidates this status, aligning with the points President El-Sisi emphasised during his recent visit to Athens on May 7. The Presidency also affirms the importance of preserving the close and fraternal relations that bind the two countries and peoples and ensuring that they are not jeopardised. Elon Musk is seen with a black eye at his final news conference in the Oval Office on Friday - Evan Vucci/Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved Viewers of Elon Musks farewell news conference in the Oval Office had only one question: Just how had he acquired his black eye? Did he have a run in with a French presidents wife on a passenger jet? Were the reports of a physical altercation with Donald Trumps treasury secretary true? Or does he have the most punchable face in Washington? For a full 41 minutes, it was the panda in the room. The overeducated White House press corps quizzed the president on his plans for a spending bill and talks on Ukraine while lobbing softballs at Mr Musk, asking whether it was easier to colonise Mars or cut government spending. And then finally, almost apologetically, the worlds richest man was asked about the bruise thing under his eye. I was just horsing around with little X, he said, referring to his five-year-old son. And I said, Go ahead, punch me in the face. And he did. And if you believe that, I have a Dogecoin to sell you. Friday marked 130 days of Mr Musks reign at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). That meant he had run up against the time limit for a special government employee, which meant, of course, that he would have to leave his position, given how Mr Trump is such a stickler for the rules and regulations of the federal government. Cue an Oval Office press conference. Officially, it was an occasion to send off Mr Musk and mark his achievements. Unofficially, it was a chance to celebrate the presidents brilliance in picking the worlds richest man to take an axe or a chainsaw to excessive federal spending. So before Mr Musk was rewarded with a giant golden key, and before he could be asked about bombshell allegations about his ketamine use and its impact on his bladder, or about that black eye, Mr Trump called for a laptop loaded with a cable news clip to be placed on the Resolute Desk. Donald Trump presents Mr Musk with a giant golden key - Evan Vucci/Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved An aide pressed play, and the most famous room in the world echoed with the business editor of CNBC praising Mr Trumps first four months in office. Ive been watching these numbers a long time, said Rick Santenelli. I dont think Ive ever seen the trade deficit cut in half in one month. Mr Trump beamed. Then he remembered the man next to him dressed in a black cap, black Dogefather T-shirt, and black jacket, looking for all the world like a Little League umpire. Today, its about a man named Elon, said Mr Trump. For all the talk about Mr Musk leaving with his tail between his legs, of fallouts with the president and his business interests tanking, the president was eager to insist that the man who calls himself the first buddy would continue to offer advice and guidance to Doge. Mr Musk laughs alongside the president as they take questions from reporters - Kevin Dietsch/2025 Getty Images I have a feeling its his baby, said Mr Trump, rather like some of those women on social media who claim they found the chief executive of X sliding into their DMs with a lucrative offer to help spread his gene pool. Meanwhile, Mr Trump dispensed marital advice (Make sure the door remains closed, he said when asked about the viral clip of Brigitte Macron shoving the French president in the face), discussed the chances of peace in Gaza, transgender mice and the possibility of a Diddy pardon (he didnt rule it out), and something to do with Burma. It all brought Mr Musks time at the White House full circle. When he was introduced to the media back in February, he held court in the Oval Office, riffing with journalists and reducing the president to a mere observer in his own seat of power. On Friday, Mr Musk spent much of his send-off as a bit part in a bigger show. Outshone by a shiner, and Mr Trumps many achievements. Elon Musk leaps in the air as he takes to the stage at Donald Trumps campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Oct 5 - JIM WATSON/AFP Elon Musks consumption of ketamine led him to develop bladder problems around the same time he endorsed Donald Trump, according to people close to him. Mr Musk, 53, the worlds richest man, went on to become a central figure in the Trump White House, leading an initiative to slash spending and shrink the federal workforce. He was using ketamine on an almost daily basis and mixing it with other narcotics, people familiar with his consumption told The New York Times. He also took ecstasy and magic mushrooms, they said, blurring the line between medical and recreational use in a way that worried his friends. Elon Musk jumps on stage as he arrives to speak at a town hall event in Oaks, Pennsylvania on Oct 18 - RYAN COLLERD/AFP Mr Musk has spoken openly about his drug use, saying that he took a small amount of ketamine, about once a fortnight, as a prescribed treatment for black moods. Hours before he was due to appear in the Oval Office beside Mr Trump for a farewell news conference on Friday, The Times quoted multiple sources saying his drug use went much further. They described how Mr Musk travelled with a daily pill box, holding about 20 tablets, including ones that resembled the stimulant Adderall. Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behaviour more and more, said Philip Low, a neuroscientist and former friend of Mr Musks who spoke out against him after a Nazi-like salute at a rally. The report said it was unclear whether his drug use had followed him into the White House. But the bizarre salute was just one element of his unusual behaviour as he moved to the centre of power. He publicly insulted cabinet members, garbled answers in an interview, and lost his train of thought during Oval Office appearances in front of the camera. At the same time, he has been the subject of frenzied headlines about his complicated family life, with a growing number of children with multiple women. He announced on Wednesday that he was leaving his role in government to return to his businesses. Mr Musk developed a close relationship with Mr Trump - Brandon Bell/2024 Getty Images Mr Musk and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. But he has in the past discussed his drug use, explaining how he had been prescribed ketamine for depression. I really dont like doing illegal drugs, he told his biographer. SpaceX, his aerospace company, is a major government contractor and is required to keep drugs out of the workplace. However, people close to the business claimed that Mr Musk had been given advance warning of supposedly random tests. Board members at his electric car company Tesla also raised concerns about his use of drugs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Mr Musk played down any impact on his work. He told the reporter Don Lemon last year that he used a small amount of ketamine. If youve used too much ketamine, you cant really get work done, and I have a lot of work, he said. Mr Musk threw himself into politics last summer, endorsing Mr Trump after the Republican candidate survived an assassination attempt. They appeared together on stage in October, when Mr Musk bounded on to the stage, leaping in the air. Mr Musk speaks at Mr Trumps rally in Butler in October - Kevin Dietsch/2024 Getty Images The two quickly formed a close working relationship. After the election, Mr Musk even lived in a cottage on the Mar-a-Lago estate, helping build the administration and fleshing out his plans for a tech-led effort to slash the federal bureaucracy. Former friends began to raise concerns about his behaviour. Sam Harris, a public intellectual, published a newsletter accusing him of using his social media platform to promote lies. There is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality, he wrote. Stephen Miller, a key Trump aide, shrugged off concerns about Mr Musks alleged drug use. The drugs that were concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border, he said when asked about the reports. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of ketamine only for medical procedures and doctors with a special licence are allowed to prescribe it for some medical procedures. But its dangers were highlighted by the death of actor Matthew Perry in 2023. Emmanuel Macron: We are living in a time of crisis and need new ways of cooperating. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters European and Asian countries should form a positive new alliance based on shared principles, security, defence and trade, away from the battling superpowers of the US and China, Emmanuel Macron has said. Addressing the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore on Friday, the French president said the division between the US and China was the biggest threat in the world right now, but he also warned of the threat from Russia and North Korea. He said it was crucial that allied nations act together to maintain credibility against aggressors. We are living in a time of crisis and need new ways of cooperating, he said in the keynote speech. Our key challenge is how to preserve peace and stability and prosperity in this current environment. We have a challenge of revisionist countries that want to impose under the name of spheres of influence spheres of coercion. Countries that want to control areas from the fringes of Europe to the archipelagos in the South China Sea that want to appropriate resources, whether fishing or mineral, and crowd out others for their benefit. Macron warned against a division between the two superpowers and an instruction to all the others that you have to choose a side. He said: If we do this we kill the global order all the institutions created after the second world war to preserve peace. Macrons pointed speech said France was and would remain a friend and ally of the US, but it did not want to be dependent, or affected by the decisions of a single person. We live in a time of the erosion of longtime alliances, he said. The sense that their promise might not be so ironclad is ushering in a new instability. We see it every day. However, he said the Trump administrations request for other nations to take on more of the burden was a fair one and we need Europeans to do much more for themselves. Sitting in the audience for Macrons speech was the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, who in March accused Europe of being pathetic and freeloading, in a Signal chat with other Trump officials that was later published. Macrons speech also warned that the failures of Europe and the US to end the Ukraine war, as well as double standards over Gaza that gave Israel a free pass, risked destroying the wests remaining credibility. What is at stake is the global order, and our credibility to protect the global order, he said. Macrons speech doubled down on comments earlier in the day calling for European countries to harden their collective position on Israel if there are not improvements to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN has said the entire population is at risk of famine. Israel accused Macron of a crusade against the Jewish state with his remarks. The defence minister, Israel Katz, said Israel vowed to build a Jewish Israeli state in the occupied West Bank, in a clear message to Macron and his associates. The Shangri-La dialogue draws senior officials from governments and militaries around the world for three days of speeches, expert panels and closed-door discussions. Hegseth is scheduled to speak on Saturday. Historically, the conference has hosted significant bilateral meetings, including one last year between Lloyd Austin, then the US defence secretary, and his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun. However, this year Beijing sent just a single delegate, from the Peoples Liberation Army National Defense University. It is the first time since 2019 that China has not sent its defence minister. China-US relations have plummeted again since Trump took office this year, and many military-to-military channels have been suspended. Related: China has totally violated its trade agreement with the US, says Trump Some analysts have suggested Dongs absence is a missed opportunity for China, which could use the conference to further strengthen ties with nations that are perhaps more suspicious of the US. Others have noted that at previous conferences China has been criticised on panel after panel. Zhou Bo, a retired senior Chinese army colonel attending the conference, told the Guardian the absence was not unusual, as China had sent defence ministers only five times in the past. Zhou said he did not know why China had sent a smaller delegation, but he dismissed rumours that the minister was embroiled in corruption investigations, noting that Dong was traveling overseas. Will the world change much because the Chinese defence minister will not come? Or are there not other occasions for China to talk about its own views? Yes, there are, he said. Warlpiri elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves. The family wants police to provide all relevant CCTV and body-worn camera footage. Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AAP An independent investigator must be appointed to examine the death of a Warlpiri man in police custody, family members say, while also demanding video footage be released. The 24-year-old man with disabilities from Yuendemu died on Tuesday afternoon after police restrained him in an Alice Springs supermarket. His family wants Northern Territory police to immediately cease making public statements or media briefings that speculate on the cause of death or denigrate the character of the deceased. They have also asked the force to retract any statements already made where they suggest criminality or aggression on the part of the deceased in the absence of any finding by a court or coroner or other independent investigation. Solicitor George Newhouse has written to the polices acting commissioner, Martin Dole, on behalf of Warlpiri elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, who is the 24-year-olds grandfather. The family stated that NT police should appoint an independent body from another state or territory to undertake investigations in a culturally safe manner. The letter said police should also immediately provide all relevant CCTV and body-worn camera footage involving the deceased prior to and during his time in custody. NT police on Friday rejected the call for an independent investigation. Related: Yuendumu plunged into grief again as young Aboriginal man dies in police custody in NT I respectfully reject calls for the investigation to be handed to an external body, Dole said in a statement. This incident is being investigated by our major crime division, which operates under strict protocols and with full transparency. The investigation will also be independently reviewed by the NT coroner. NT police did not respond on Friday to calls for footage to be released. Hargraves and others met at the Coles supermarket on Friday to remember Kumanjayi a substitute name for someone who has died and to demand justice. I am devastated by the death of my Jaja [grandson], another Warlpiri man who has had his life taken at the hands of the NT police, Hargraves said. The mans death came days before coronial inquest findings were due after the 2019 death of Kumanjayi Walker, who was shot and killed by police officer Zachary Rolfe. The findings, due to be released on 10 June, could be delayed because of this weeks death. Police said there was a confrontation between the 24-year-old and a security guard about 1.10pm in the Alice Springs supermarket. The man had been placing items down the front of his clothing, police alleged. The NT police assistant commissioner Travis Wurst said on Tuesday the man behaved rather aggressively and was placed on to the ground by police officers. He was later identified as losing consciousness, Wurst said. The man stopped breathing and was given CPR before being taken to Alice Springs hospital. He was pronounced dead at about 2.20pm. The Indigenous Australians minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, said on Friday that an independent investigation may be warranted. It may be important to do that, she told ABC radio. McCarthy said on Thursday that misinformation and rumours often abound in these circumstances and that compounded grief and anger for families. Anthony Beven, from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), supported the camera footage being released to stop rumours and innuendo. The footage will be disclosed at the coronial inquiry but, as Mr Hargraves and the family were saying, the longer it goes without people seeing that footage, the more thoughts are going through peoples minds as to what happened or didnt happen, he said. For the sake of transparency and alleviating any concerns the family has around what occurred, NAAJA fully supports the CCTV and body cam footage being released publicly and if not to the public, at least to the family. The justice agency chair, Theresa Roe, said she supported the work police officers did but we need to stop locking up Aboriginal people in record numbers. It isnt the answer, she said. Crime isnt decreasing. Instead of building new prisons, lets find out why a young person had to resort to [allegedly] shoplifting and what could have been done to prevent this tragic event. There have been nine Indigenous deaths in custody this year. On Friday, Pat Dodson, a Yawuru elder and former Labor senator said he was dismayed and saddened by the Alice Springs death. When you have authority, particularly police and prison officers that can take the freedom away from another citizen or another human being, youve got to exercise that with the utmost diligence, he told ABC radio. Dodson emphasised the need for transparency. He said people needed data as to what happened at that moment when that person was being arrested and taken into custody. Newhouse wrote that police commentary risked undermining the investigation and prejudicing public understanding and [causing] significant and unnecessary distress to the family. Furthermore, where the agency commenting is the very institution whose actions are under scrutiny and who are investigating themselves, such statements raise legitimate concerns about institutional bias and lack of procedural fairness. A spokesperson for Coles said the supermarket giant was assisting police with their inquiries and the store was closed on Friday out of respect for the mans family. We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident, the spokesperson said. Our thoughts go out to the mans family, loved ones and the wider community during this difficult time. Susie Wiles with Mike Waltz, former national security adviser who was also involved in a cellphone controversy. Photograph: Abaca/Rex/Shutterstock The FBI is investigating an apparent impersonator who pretended to be the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, in texts and calls to her contacts, including prominent Republicans. Wiles has privately informed colleagues that the contacts in her personal cellphone were hacked, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, and has been asking people to disregard messages and calls that arent coming from her phone number. Wiles also has a government phone that wasnt affected by the hack. The impersonator texted one lawmaker for a list of people who should be pardoned, a request that was initially taken to be real. In another case, Wiles impersonator asked for a cash transfer, according to the report. Some requests came off as suspicious as they contained questions about Donald Trump that Wiles would know, and had broken grammar in other cases. But some said that they had engaged with Wiles impersonator before they realized it wasnt her. Contacts who spoke to the Journal anonymously said that some of the calls came from a voice that sounded like Wiles, leading some to believe that an impersonator is using artificial intelligence to mimic Wiles voice. Related: The chaos Elon Musk and Doge are leaving behind in Washington Wiles served as co-chair of Trumps presidential campaign and was deeply embedded in Florida politics as a lobbyist before she joined Trumps team. In a statement, the FBI director, Kash Patel, said the FBI is investigating the matter with the utmost seriousness. Safeguarding our administration officials ability to securely communicate to accomplish the presidents mission is a top priority, he said. The White House has still been grappling with the fallout of the so-called Signalgate scandal, when senior Trump officials discussed sensitive military plans on a Signal group chat in March that included the Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Earlier this month, Trump demoted his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added Goldberg to the group chat. A government oversight group has since sued the Trump administration over the potential deletion of sensitive conversations, which could violate federal recordkeeping laws. The US president has largely dismissed privacy concerns and said that Signalgate was not a big deal. Reporting has also revealed that the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has shared details about a Yemen strike on a separate group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer. Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been awarded 100,000 euro (84,000) in damages after winning his libel action against the BBC. Mr Adams said that 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. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday, after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and that it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 20 years. BBC videograb of former top Republican Denis Donaldson 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 gave the final say. In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. The jury determined that Mr Adams should be awarded 100,000, which the jury heard falls on the medium scale for defamation. Trial judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sent the jury out to begin deliberations at 10.25am on Thursday morning, in the fifth week of proceedings. Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams outside the High Court in Dublin The 12 members were also provided with exhibits in the case and the means to re-watch the programme. At one stage in the deliberations, one of the jurors was released from the process due to other commitments, including a camogie match. The remaining 11 members continued their consideration of the issues before delivering the verdict. They were tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Mr Donaldson. Mr Owens said they were to consider whether it was more likely than not that a hypothetical reasonable reader would take that meaning from the words. The BBC had argued that the jury should not find that this was the meaning of the words, instead saying the claim had been put forward as an allegation that was immediately followed by Mr Adams denial. Having agreed with Mr Adams on that point, they then had to consider whether the broadcasters actions were fair and reasonable as well as whether it acted in good faith. They determined that the BBC had not acted in such a manner. They returned with their verdict on Friday after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total. Mr Owens told the jury that the BBC had put forward the position that Mr Adams had no reputation at all and the broadcaster had argued to the jury that it should award only nominal damages, putting forward the option of just one euro. Mr Adams team had argued that the defamation fell within the very serious or exceptional end of the scale seeking at least 200,000 euro. Gerry Adams outside the high court in Dublin on Friday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA For more than half a century, Spotlight has roved a beam over Northern Ireland, illuminating dark and overlooked topics. But now the flagship BBC documentary series is itself in the glare of scrutiny. Gerry Adams victory in a libel case on Friday dealt a heavy blow to Spotlight and the BBC and raises questions over the programme and the impact of the case on journalism in the UK and Ireland. The broadcaster faces having to pay 100,000 (84,000) in damages and potentially several million euros in legal costs, as well as challenges over the future of investigative journalism and current affairs in Northern Ireland. Since launching in 1973, Spotlight has won countless scoops and awards. But that hard-won reputation and credibility took a hit when a jury at Dublins high court found that a 2016 documentary, and an accompanying online article, libelled the former Sinn Fein leader by carrying a false claim that he had sanctioned the murder of an MI5 informant in 2006. The jury found that the BBC had not acted in good faith or in a fair and reasonable way. Its a blow for the BBC but its important that Spotlight does continue, said Jim Fitzpatrick, a former Spotlight reporter. Theyre a talented team that doubtless will have more investigations to come. The journalists and producers will be keen to get on with the next one. You take these hits. Others were less sanguine and worried that the impact could spread to less well-funded media organisations. Spotlight is somewhere between well regarded and revered, said Noel Doran, a former editor of the Irish News. It is the flagship documentary strand with heavyweight presenters and major stories. Theyve got the resources and can take months or a year or even more to get a story. For Spotlight to lose such a high-profile, expensive case was a bad day for journalism, Doran said. There will be a chilling effect in newsrooms. People will be thinking very carefully about anything to do with Adams. There is a danger that a much more benign view of the Troubles becomes more commonplace. The trials outcome cast a harsh light on Spotlights decision to carry the now discredited claim about Adams based on an anonymous source called Martin. The trial heard that the BBC obtained corroboration from five other sources but these were not mentioned in the programme. The verdict also puts into question the decision of Adam Smyth, the director of BBC Northern Ireland, to fight the case rather than settle. Doran said the BBC probably could have avoided an expensive legal showdown. Almost every case can be settled with a bit of flexibility on all sides. Doran said the documentarys sourcing of the disputed claim had left it vulnerable. Jennifer OLeary came across as a sincere, committed reporter but the programme came across as dubious. Some BBC staffers worry that chastened managers may soft-pedal investigations or trim budgets. The documentary was viewed by an estimated 16,000 people in the Republic of Ireland, which allowed Adams to fight the case under Irish libel law and with a jury. Adams denies having been a member of the IRA but has not taken legal action against longstanding, widespread claims that he was a commander in Belfast and a member of the IRA army council. Spotlight raised the stakes by carrying the claim that he sanctioned a specific murder years after the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on 20 May. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP Donald Trumps so-called Golden Dome missile defense program which will feature space-based weapons to intercept strikes against the US is not expected to be ready before the end of his term, despite his prediction that it would be completed within the next three years. In the Oval Office last week, when he announced that the US space force would oversee the project under Gen Michael Guetlein, the president said he was confident that it would be fully operational before he left office. But the implementation plan for the Golden Dome produced by the Pentagon, as described by two people familiar with the matter, envisions having the defense weapons being ready only for a demonstration and under perfect conditions by the end of 2028. Related: White House stunned as Hegseth inquiry brings up illegal wiretap claims The Golden Dome program is effectively becoming operational in phases as opposed to it coming online all at once. Initially, the Pentagon is set to focus on integrating data systems before developing space-based weapons later, the people said. What might be possible in 18 months is for the US to have the foundations of a fully operational Golden Dome, with a military network of satellites and space-based communication systems that could track hundreds of inbound missiles towards the US. There would be no capability to take out the missiles using space-based weapons at that stage. The US has roughly 40 Patriot defense batteries in Alaska and California that could be used to kill potential intercontinental ballistic missiles. By the end of Trumps term, instead, the Pentagon could have the network of space-based sensors and communications, and attempt to integrate it with untested space-based weapons to shoot them down. The space-based network is likely to rely heavily on Elon Musks SpaceX, which has been developing a next-generation tracking system known as the aerial moving target identifier. The defense department acquired the first prototypes last year during the Biden administration. But the flagship concept for Golden Dome, to identify and kill ballistic missiles in the first 30 seconds to two minutes of launch when their heat signature is greatest known as boost phase is not expected to be ready. That technology remains in development and it may not be feasible for years for a counter-missile launched from space to cut through Earths atmosphere with enough force to eliminate a ballistic missile, the people said. The defense department already struggles with ground-based interceptors, which have been in development since the 1980s to take out missiles in their so-called glide phase, but still have only a roughly 20% success rate. A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that the defense department will not publicly disclose specific technical details regarding the capabilities or acquisition strategies of certain advanced systems. The Trump administration has said Golden Dome could cost in the region of $175bn, a figure derived from what the Pentagon allocated for the project, according to two people familiar with the matter: $17.6bn for 2026, roughly $50bn for 2027 and approximately $100bn for 2028. The final cost could be higher but Pentagon officials have said privately it depends on how ambitious Trump orders Golden Dome to be. If Trump wants the ability to protect against 100 ballistic missiles, for instance, it could necessitate Golden Dome having several thousands of satellites that will naturally de-orbit every few years and need to be replaced, one of the people said. Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that Canada could participate in Golden Dome, but that it would have to pay $61bn or become the 51st US state to get it for free. It was not clear how Trump reached that figure. The idea of having Canada be a part of the program was discussed at the Pentagon when Trump first ordered Golden Dome months ago, one of the people said, but it was more about Canada contributing its satellite and radar data into Golden Dome. Initially, the White Houses national security council called the program Moonshot, the people said. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, thought it was a terrible name and came up with three tiers for a possible missile shield system: silver, gold and platinum. The only tier costed out was gold. Google participates in the 43rd annual Toronto Pride parade on 30 June 2024 in Toronto, Ontario. Photograph: Harold Feng/Getty Images In another blow to one of the largest celebrations of LGTBQ+ people in North America, Pride Toronto has unexpectedly lost two more major corporate sponsors, just weeks before the festival in a setback the festivals organizer says is direct result of Donald Trumps campaign to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the US. Google and Home Depot both announced their plans to abandon the festival in the form of one-line emails, said Kojo Modeste, the executive director of the Canadian event. Organizers have warned that the loss of sponsors will pose operational challenges for Pride Toronto that attracts 3 million attendees annually. Other organisations, including local trade unions, have stepped in to help make up the shortfall, but Modeste told the Guardian he was deeply worried about the celebrations future. Related: Pride Toronto loses corporate funding as Trumps DEI purge has chilling effect Am I going to have to drastically cut what the festival looks like for 2026? This is not the place that I want to be in, he said. Home Depot told the Guardian it continually reviews its non-profit giving and decided not to contribute this year. Google told the newspaper it would be supporting Toronto Googlers marching in the parade and community moments from Pride. The sudden exit of Google and Home Depot follows the departure in February of three other prominent sponsors. At the time, Modeste did not name them, but on Friday he revealed that they were Nissan, Adidas and Clorox. Nissan Canada said it was unable to sponsor Pride in Toronto due to a local decision that it says was based on a reevaluation of marketing and media activities. Adidas and Clorox have been approached for comment. These are American companies and they are showing their true colours, said Modeste. We thought they were with the community, but clearly, theyre not. Corporate sponsorship not only goes towards paying staff, but hundreds of local artists and to keep Pride as a free event. Modeste said he grew up in a period before widespread Pride celebrations and did not want that to be the experience of current younger generations. I dont want to be the one to have to make that decision, to take Pride away from the community, he said. The White Houses condemnation of diversity and inclusion efforts has resulted in corporations shirking away from festivals that they once loudly supported, said Sui Sui, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University whose research focuses on DEI initiatives. Sui said that the move also signals that commitments large sponsors made in the past were tenuous and motivated not because of genuine support, but because of the perceived profitability of aligning with such causes. Related: Scared advertisers, flag bans and Trump: the US is in for a troubled Pride 2025 The months-long purge of US federal government workers by the Trump administration has resulted in the firings of tens of thousands of people, including those who worked in forwarding diversity and equity initiatives. Sui said that the chill around sponsors for pride events has also affected New York City and Philadelphia. Mastercard, Nissan, Pepsi, Garnier and more major backers have abandoned the New York celebration, while Target and Philadelphia Union exited Philly Pride 365. Canada is following suit, she said. For the future, Pride Toronto and other pride events may need to rely more significantly on grassroots efforts to keep events going, she said. Its for them to see who truly believes the importance of Pride. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the defence secretary, John Healey, with soldiers and staff at the Stanford Training Area near Thetford. Photograph: Leon Neal/PA Britain may not be at war, but the backdrop to next Mondays strategic defence review is the greatest geopolitical uncertainty since 1945. A set of loosely interconnected conflicts led by Russias continued assault on Ukraine and its related shadow war in Europe, and Israels seemingly unending war on Hamas, which may lead to an attack on Iran have not at all been restrained by a skittish White House with little interest in helping to promote peace in Europe. One of the three-strong review team is Fiona Hill, who was briefly and famously an adviser to Donald Trump in his first term. She is so worried about the disintegration of postwar norms that she believes the world is drifting towards a scenario that you had in world war one where, in the run-up to the war, suddenly all these different interests and these different conflicts became, you know, basically intertwined with each other, [and] it becomes extraordinarily hard to disentangle. Solving problems like these is likely to be beyond the ability of the 130-page document, jointly written by Hill, George Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, and Richard Barrons, a retired British army general. But its remit has been helped by the fact that difficult decisions about which equipment programmes to invest in and to cut have been deferred to a separate command paper in the autumn. Meanwhile, headline budgets to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 have already been announced by the prime minister, in February. What Im expecting is that its basically going to be an essay, said Lawrence Friedman, a military strategy expert and emeritus professor at Kings College London. Even so, the defence review has been rewritten several times since it was first completed in the spring, partly as a result of drafting battles across Whitehall. Another document a national security strategy from Keir Starmers national security adviser, Jonathan Powell is due out in June. In the past, defence reviews have done a poor job of prediction. Boriss Johnsons 2021 integrated review, published in the aftermath of Brexit, emphasised a British tilt to the far-off Indo-Pacific, supported by occasional flag-flying visits from the Royal Navys two new aircraft carriers that cost 6.2bn. But with Britain pouring more than 3bn a year of arms into Ukraine, the last reviews goal to have a greater and more persistent presence than any other European country in the Indo-Pacific looks irrelevant. This reviews principal task is likely to be descriptive, though it runs into two difficulties: people and money. Statistics out this week show again that more people are leaving the military than joining. Army numbers are at a 300-year low of 70,860, down 2.3% over the past year, despite the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. The numbers of RAF and naval personnel have fallen by similar proportions, meaning that, according to one naval source, the navy can crew only four of its six Type 45 destroyers. The news flow around service life is dominated by stories about rape, sexual harassment and sexism across the military. Internal reviews over the last two years acknowledged misogyny and misconduct in the Red Arrows and the submarine service. In an inquest into the death of 19-year-old Gunner Jaysley Beck in February, the court found she killed herself after being assaulted and subsequently subjected to unwanted sexual attention. It prompted an outpouring of reports on online forums and social media from mostly female soldiers describing similar negative experiences. A commitment will be made in the defence review to invest a further 1.5bn in military accommodation, including urgent renovation for the 1,000 worst homes, a longstanding source of complaint. But in recent years the British military has had relatively few positive stories to tell, not least because it has been relatively inactive on operations, with the fraught rescue from Kabul in August 2021 the most significant recent effort. It was followed by the smaller airlift of 2,450 Britons and other western nationals from Sudan in the spring of 2023 as a civil war broke out. Although Labour promised a modest increase in defence spending in February, amounting to 5.3bn a year in real terms when the increase from the current 2.33% of GDP to the promised 2.5% goes through, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has an extraordinary capacity to soak up money. A former senior insider estimated that the MoD faced 5bn of cost pressures for next year, partly as a consequence of higher pay settlements announced by Labour, such as this years 4.5%. There remains 16.9bn of unfunded commitments in the MoDs 10-year equipment plan. Spending on nuclear weapons is rising sharply: analysis by Steve Barwick, of Rethinking Security, concluded that the forecast cost of MoDs Defence Nuclear Organisations 10-year equipment plan increased by 62% to 99.5bn in 2023. The most recent figure, for 2025, was more than 100bn, according to the MoD. At the same time, the challenge of maintaining the UKs ageing fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry the Trident nuclear armed missiles, means individual patrol boats are undertaking record missions underwater, the last of which was 204 days long more than nine months. A more immediate problem for the British military is how to resource and sustain a commitment to participate in a European-led reassurance force for Ukraine, currently promised in the event of a durable ceasefire, if Russia can be persuaded to agree. A British contribution might amount to a brigade of a few thousand, as well as some command and control functions, though finding the troop numbers is likely to be a stretch, suggesting there will be more calls for extra spending. To be credible, the defence review needs to be backed by a cast-iron commitment to take defence spending to 3% of GDP by a specific date and 3.5% by 2035, argued Peter Ricketts, a former national security adviser. But while no extra money is expected immediately, the financial debate may be moved forward not by the review but by Nato and Trump by the end of the month. Alliance members are considering a proposal from Mark Rutte, Natos secretary general, to be tabled at its June summit in The Hague, to increase core defence spending to 3.5% by 2032, with a further 1.5% on cyber and transport and other military-related infrastructure. That would match Trumps demand that Nato members spend 5% of GDP on defence. I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a high defence spend target of in total 5%, Rutte said this week. Israel would end all military operations in Gaza as soon as the deal comes into effect - Getty Images/Jack Guez Hamas will reject the latest US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, a senior official from the Palestinian terror group said. On Thursday, the US said that Israel had agreed to the plan and that it was waiting for a response from Hamas. Israeli officials said the deal would see Hamas hand over 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in two phases across 60 days. Around 1,200 Palestinian prisoners would also be released in return. A senior Hamas official told the BBC that the proposed deal did not satisfy the groups demands, which included a permanent end to the war. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, told hostages families on Thursday evening that he had accepted the deal, which is guaranteed by Donald Trump, Egypt and Qatar. Israel has agreed to increase aid into Gaza under the terms of the deal. It would be delivered by groups such as the Red Crescent and UN. It is designed to facilitate further negotiations across 60 days in order to achieve a permanent end to the war. Once that is achieved, the remaining 30 of the 58 Israeli hostages would be released. Israel would also end all military operations in Gaza as soon as the deal comes into effect. Basem Naim, a Hamas political bureau member, said on Thursday that the deal meant the continuation of killing and famine... and does not meet any of our peoples demands, foremost among them halting the war and famine. Nonetheless, the movements leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility, he added. Negotiations have been ongoing after the previous ceasefire deal collapsed in March. Israel under pressure Hamas has repeatedly rejected Israels demand to surrender its weapons and called on Mr Netanyahu to withdraw his troops from the war-torn Palestinian Strip. Steve Witkoff, the US presidential envoy who has led negotiations, told reporters on Wednesday that he believed a long-term deal was close. I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict, he said. Israel has intensified its offensive in recent weeks, sending in more troops in an attempt to seize the entire Strip, while also preventing aid deliveries. On Thursday, it also announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, putting further strain on relations with the international community. It has come under increasing pressure from its allies, including the UK, France and Canada, who earlier this month demanded Israel stop its offensive and increase the flow of aid into the Strip. Israel has been under pressure from the international community to increase the flow of aid into Gaza - Bloomberg/Ahmad Salem The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an aid group backed by the US and Israel, expanded its distribution of aid on Gaza on Thursday. It has been criticised for allegedly politicising aid by the UN, which has warned that two million people are at risk of famine following an 11-week aid blockade. The expansion of aid on Tuesday was chaotic as thousands of Palestinians rushed to distribution points and forced security contractors to retreat. Doctors at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah reported that two people died after being crushed in the crowd and two others were shot dead. It was not clear who was responsible for the gunfire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu The EUs foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, says Israeli strikes in Gaza go beyond what is necessary to fight Hamas. Perhaps she should head to Jerusalem and give precise instructions to the IDF on what they should be doing to eliminate the Hamas terrorist regime assuming thats what she actually wants. She can tell them how you kill terrorists entwined into the population, hiding in tunnels beneath schools, hospitals and houses, protected by the most comprehensively booby-trapped terrain in the history of warfare, all while minimising harm to civilians. Of course, like so many other blowhard Western politicians, she doesnt have a clue. Fortunately the IDF does and has been waging this hugely complex war for 19 months with a combination of fighting prowess and humanitarian restraint that no other army could match. That is the true picture that I have witnessed with my own eyes, unlike the vast array of armchair commentators and rabble-rousers with their lies and distortions intended to break Israel or signal their own non-existent virtues or both. And Israel has had unparalleled success. They have killed something like 20-25,000 Hamas terrorists, including many senior commanders. The latest of these is Mohammed Sinwar, Hamass leader in Gaza, blown apart in an air strike earlier this month as he was skulking in a tunnel beneath a hospital in Khan Younis. His older brother Yahya, from whom he took over the reins of Hamas, met his maker last October. Shortly before that Mohammed Deif, Hamass military commander, saw the same fate. The list goes on, and many more would have joined it had the IDF not been so determined to avoid killing the hostages and where possible to avoid harm to civilians in line with their scrupulously observed obligations under International Humanitarian Law. Those who have been dispatched have been replaced, though by less experienced and less able terrorists, but Im not sure how long the list of applicants will be for the Sinwar brothers uniquely hazardous job. Kallas also rejects Israels latest efforts to get aid to Gazan civilians while preventing it from falling into the hands of Hamas. While she pontificates from her headquarters in Brussels with its lavish restaurants, Gazans have been enthusiastically queuing up in their thousands to collect food and even camping out overnight. But Kallas is in good company. Hamas also rejects this aid system and has been threatening Gazans against using it. Nor does the UN like it one little bit, despite the outrageously fake assertion last week that 14,000 babies would die of malnutrition in 48 hours. Hamass position is understandable. It is focused on survival and pretty much its only source of funds now is from hijacking and selling aid at premium prices. But what about Kallas, the UN and even our own Government which also does not support this new initiative? It is hard to escape the conclusion, with the growing chorus of condemnations against Israel, that these people are terrified Jerusalem will win this war. Thats the last thing they want as it would undermine any leverage they might have in pursuit of the holy grail of a two state solution. Lacking insight, or terrified of being seen to have been wrong all along, they utterly fail to recognise that a two state solution is permanently interred after Hamas hammered the final nail into its coffin on October 7 2023. Unfortunately for the unholy alliance against its victory, Israel is going to prevail and not just in Gaza. Prime minister Netanyahu launched a dazzling operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year that eliminated its overlord Hassan Nasrallah and took out much of its leadership by using explosive-laden pagers. Meanwhile the IDF shattered much of its military capability, especially the long-range missiles that existed to threaten Israel. Hezbollah is not finished but its potential to cause harm has been dramatically degraded. It will have difficulty rebuilding as it has lost the vital terrain of Assads Syria, again as a direct result of Israeli action. Iran itself, the mastermind of the jihadist plan to suffocate Israel using region-wide terror proxies, was humiliated by its failure to damage Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones, not to mention an inability to protect Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was taken out right next to the presidents official residence in Tehran. Even worse, the Islamic Republic is now badly exposed, following the Israeli Air Forces evisceration of its Russian-supplied air defences. The likes of Kallas and her faint-hearted fellow travellers have no power to stand in Israels path, but their words and threatened actions certainly encourage Hamas. Apart from the hostages it holds, its only card is the vilification of Israel by the international community and the accompanying weaponisation of legal warfare. Hamas could end all the bloodshed and the deprivation overnight by laying down its arms and releasing the hostages. If the EU, the UN and those governments so eager to condemn the Jewish state actually wanted to achieve peace, they would support Israel in words and actions, and condemn Hamas at every turn. The head of the BBC in Northern Ireland has said the implications of Gerry Adams libel victory against the broadcaster are profound. Adam Smyth, director of BBC NI, said their legal team had warned that the jurys decision in the high-profile defamation case could hinder freedom of expression. The BBC has been ordered to pay the former Sinn Fein leader 100,000 euro (84,000) after a jury decided they had defamed him in a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson. Mr Adams denies any involvement in Mr Donaldsons death in 2006. Journalist Jennifer OLeary presented the Spotlight programme (Brian Lawless/PA) Speaking outside Dublin High Court alongside Spotlight reporter Jennifer OLeary, Mr Smyth said they were disappointed with the verdict. He said: We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial process and journalistic diligence applied to this programme and accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court, and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team, that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. Mr Smyth said the BBC had not wanted to come to court. But he added: It was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, its hard to see how anyones could. And they warned that todays decision could hinder freedom of expression. Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. Gerry Adams took the BBC to court over an episode of its Spotlight programme (Brian Lawless/PA) Mr Smyth said the BBC would now take time to consider the implications of the ruling. Ms OLeary said she had entered the witness box in the trial with nothing to hide, only sources to protect and I want to thank them for trusting me. She paid tribute to the witnesses who had appeared for the BBC in the case, including Ann Travers, whose sister was murdered by the IRA in 1984. She said: And there are thousands of Ann Travers across this island and in Britain victims and survivors of the Troubles and the years after the peace agreement who carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible courage. They are the people Im thinking of all of them. Credit: CCTV At first glance it could be a school classroom, with bright fluorescent lights, posters on the wall and long tables down the middle. But look closer, and the students are actually Chinese paramilitary police officers, the notices are instructions on how to build attack drones, and there are CCTV cameras watching their every move. This is the workshop for one of Chinas feared armed police units, in the eastern Shandong province. In a rare glimpse into Chinas arms manufacturing, a dozen or so officers can be seen seated at the long tables tinkering with their creations. Another 40 or so unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are mounted on the wall in front of them as they work. Credit: CCTV Speaking to Chinese state media, which produced the footage, one uniformed officer explains that each of the drones are assembled by a member of the Peoples Armed Police (PAP) force in Shandong. For a skilled worker it should take no more than two hours to complete one device. Known as Chinas other army, the PAP is one of the countrys police forces responsible for national security. Unlike the civilian police force, which handles routine law enforcement, the PAP falls under the Central Military Commission and is often deployed for border security, riot control and counterterrorism, and has been part of the violent campaign against the Uighurs in Xinjiang province and in Tibet. While the exact number of officers is unknown, reports estimate it could be anywhere from 500,000 to 1.5 million, spread out over 32 regional commands, each with at least one mobile unit. The direction of travel is clear. In 2010 the PAP budget was 6.8 billion. By last year, it had more than tripled, to 15.9 billion. The unit in Shandong is the latest example of what it has been spending that money on. The drones are not just for surveillance. In a combat drill last month, two members of a PAP unit in western Yunnan province worked together to take out a target behind a closed window. The first drone smashed the glass and the second flew through the gap to strike the target. Other camera drones can be armed with grenades, which are dropped on perceived threats. And then there are disruptor drones, fitted with systems that can locate, track and soft-kill enemy UAVs, according to state television. Training is intense. Before being allowed to fly actual drones, the operators have to work on simulators for about two months, according to state television. Then they are let lose on complicated aerial assault courses, with tight turns and high speed manoeuvres, before being allowed to use them in the field. Credit: CCTV Experts have said that drones would be central to any conflict between China and Taiwan, should Beijing decide to attack the island, which it claims as its own despite staunch opposition from the government in Taipei. Both China and Taiwans interest in drone warfare has expanded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 given the central role that UAVs have played in the conflict. Earlier this month, China announced that its new drone mothership, known as the Jiu Tan, which is capable of releasing swarms of 100 kamikaze UAVs at once, would launch on its maiden voyage in June. In Shandong, the officer in the video explains that the team is producing first-person view (FPV) drones of different sizes, from 3-inch to 9-inch models, at what he calls the UAV innovation studio. In the footage, the personnel are seen assembling drone frames as well as testing camera and antenna placements. The UAVs are designed for both reconnaissance and precision strikes. Both China and Taiwans interest in drone warfare has expanded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 The studio also has a 3D printer, which is used to design and manufacture various components. The officer explains that it is currently making landing pads, which it can print in three minutes. He then shows the camera a drone with a 3D-printed ammunition mounting platform, which he says can carry different types of weapons, significantly enhancing the drones strike capabilities. There is variation in the vehicles too. Footage shows the unit using drones with long fibre optic cables, as seen in Ukraine and Russia. These drones do not rely on radio signals and therefore cannot be jammed by enemy signal blockers. While drones can be used for humanitarian purposes such as during disaster relief operations in the hands of the PAP they can also be weapons of oppression. In Shandong, the officer in the video demonstrates what he calls the UAV innovation studio The forces focus in recent years has been on Xinjiang province, where it has been responsible for the persecution of Uyghur Muslims, as well as Tibet. Xinjiang hosts the largest concentration of PAP mobile units in the country with an estimated 200,000 troops. They have been using surveillance drones for a number of years. Both Uyghurs and Tibetans have been targeted by the central government in Beijing for decades, with abuses ranging from mass detentions to forced sterilisations. The Uyghur Human Rights Project accused the PAP of being among the prime actors in carrying out the genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. With their new tools, the PAP shows no sign of changing course. Beyond its domestic role, experts have also said that the PAP would likely play a key role in any future attack against Taiwan. In January, Chinese state media reported that some PAP officers in Fujian province had taken part in official combat training, which suggested that in the event of war, the forces could join the fight as a military unit. Experts have said that the Peoples Armed Police would likely play a key role in any future attack on Taiwan - Ma Shibao Lyle Goldstein, an Asia expert at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank, said that since China views Taiwan as one of its provinces, Beijing would see it as completely legal to use armed police. The PAP could also play a central role if martial law were declared following an invasion of Taiwan. The International Institute for Strategic Studies said: As the PAPs mission sets have become more focused, their more centralised command structure, reorganisation and enhanced use of modern technologies have turned the PAP into a more potent force ready to carry out the CCPs vision of correct policy and maintaining the Partys control. A humpback whale breaching in waters off Hook Head, County Wexford. Photograph: Padraig Whooley/Irish Whale and Dolphin Group/PA A whale-watching company has abandoned tours off Irelands southern Atlantic coast and declared the waters an empty, lifeless sea. Colin Barnes, who ran Cork Whale Watch, announced he was closing the company because overfishing of sprat has disrupted the marine food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins. Sadly, our world-class whale watching is now a thing of the past, Barnes said in a post this week. A small number of greedy fishermen with huge trawlers have overfished the sprats to the point of near extinction. There is nothing left for the whales to prey upon so they have moved on in search of prey elsewhere. The company, based in the coastal village of Unionhall, had thrived for most of its 25 years, but only a few minke whales and small groups of dolphins now appeared in its search area, he said. Over the last couple of years our trips have become totally disappointing. In this light I am truly sad to say we are closing down for good. The announcement prompted a public outcry and a promise from the government to do more to protect fish stocks and marine biodiversity. We have to introduce measures to protect this forage species not just for whales, but for all the other fish stocks and wildlife that depend on it to prevent the collapse of an entire food web, Christopher OSullivan, the minister responsible for nature and biodiversity, told the Irish Examiner. He said he hoped Ireland would emulate UK curbs on sprat fishing, which were having a positive effect. Demand for fishmeal from fish farms has dramatically increased the fishing of sprats, a small, sardine-like fish that plays a crucial role in the maritime food chain. Related: Fish oil and fishmeal industry harming food security in west Africa, warns UN Mark Gannon, who runs Atlantic Whale and Wildlife Tours from Courtmacsherry, 22 miles east of Unionhall, said the number of whales and dolphins had plummeted since large trawlers began scooping up sprat. Its a devastating form of fishing. Its like a farmer taking all the grass out of his fields and expecting his cows to thrive. However, Gannon said he had invested in a new boat and still offered enthralling excursions, albeit with less wildlife. Just today we saw three minke whales, he said on Friday after a tour. Compared to the numbers we had before its chalk and cheese, but we still have a beautiful coastline. With the right policies, the south of Cork and the west coast of Ireland could be the European capital of marine tourism. His wife and company co-owner, Trish Gannon, said bookings remained strong. I tell people we can guarantee absolutely nothing in terms of sightings and theyre still happy to go out. Patrick Murphy, the chief executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation, said warming waters appeared to be pushing sprat further west and north where sprat catches have risen sharply and this accounted for the dwindling whale sightings off Cork. We are asking for a proper scientific assessment for this species, so a proper management policy can be developed to ensure the continued sustainability of this important fishery, he said. Organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival have announced a documentary about Irvine Welsh will be screened on the final night. The festival runs from August 14 to 20, closing with the world premiere of Paul Sngs immersive documentary Reality Is Not Enough. The documentary is said to be a thrilling and revealing exploration of Trainspotting author Welsh, following his huge success with several film adaptations and six million books sold worldwide, and his awareness of mortality. It sees Welsh, who stars in the film, take a wild journey that explores the boundaries of consciousness. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT #EIFF25 will close with the World Premiere of documentary Reality Is Not Enough. Director Paul Sng follows one of the most controversial writers of our times, Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, as he explores the boundaries of consciousness. pic.twitter.com/KQnxYk7kWu Edinburgh International Film Festival (@edfilmfest) May 30, 2025 The autobiographical film combines intimate observational footage, rare archive film clips and readings from his novels narrated by screen stars Liam Neeson, Maxine Peake, Ruth Negga and Stephen Graham, and musician Nick Cave. Reality Is Not Enough was co-financed and produced by Edinburgh-based production company LS Films, with the support of Screen Scotland and with Sarah Drummond as executive producer. Paul Ridd, chief executive and director of the film festival, said We were so impressed by this brilliantly immersive and fascinating documentary about iconic Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. Director Paul Sngs refreshingly unusual and highly cinematic approach perfectly fits his subject a man who has spent an entire career refusing to be pinned down, always surprising us with works of profound impact, rawness and grace. We could not think of a better way to round off our festival than with this terrific film. Irvine Welsh on the set of the film Trainspotting 2 in Edinburgh in 2016 (Andrew Milligan/PA) Sng said: Im completely delighted that Reality Is Not Enough has been chosen to close this years Edinburgh International Film Festival. When I read Trainspotting as a teenager in London back in the 90s, I had no idea I would one day live in the city where the book is set, let alone make a film with its author Irvine Welsh. Having our world premiere in our home city is a huge honour and were looking forward immensely to sharing the film with the EIFF audience. Drummond said: I grew up in north Edinburgh during the era that shaped so much of Irvines writing, so helping bring this intimate portrait of the man behind the books to the screen has been something truly special. Reality Is Not Enough is raw and unexpectedly tender, and its been a privilege to make it here in the city that connects us both. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompsons book Original Sin claims Joe Bidens declining cognitive health was covered up - The Washington Post Jake Tapper, the co-author of an explosive book claiming the White House covered up Joe Bidens cognitive decline, is haemorrhaging viewers on his CNN show, it has been claimed. Media analysts attributed the apparent decline to the relentless hawking of his book Original Sin by Mr Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios. According to the Nielsen Ratings, The Lead, Mr Tappers daily show averaged 525,000 viewers from April 28 to May 5, representing a 25 per cent drop on the same period last year. Tapper is saying in his new book, we saw what was going on, but we didnt tell you, Andrew Selepak, media professor at Florida University, told The Telegraph. Well, that kind of blows up any credibility. And if youre looking at a news host to get news from, they basically are now telling you I wasnt really giving you the news. Theres not a lot of interest in consuming that content, he added. That lack of credibility makes you go, why should I continue to consume you? If Im not going to get the truth from you, I might as well watch Netflix. Jake Tapper has faced a decline in viewers of his CNN show Other factors have also contributed to plummeting Nielsen ratings. Some of the decline can be attributed to more viewers cutting the cord and watching the show through streaming services, and the figures do not include viewers outside the US. Greater political polarisation has also been a factor, according to Prof Selepak, with MSNBC attracting viewers from the Left and Fox from the Right at CNNs expense. However, there is also evidence of public disenchantment at the amount of publicity given to the book, on social media. Liberal journalist Glenn Greenwald was scathing on X. He ridiculed Mr Tapper for having woken up after 30 years in journalism and realised the first axiom of Journalism 101: politicians and governments lie and journalists shouldnt blindly believe them. Another X user, Doug Wright, imagined a CNN production meeting. Everyone pimp the book into every news story no matter how irrelevant. Remember, you get paid by the book mentioned. Jill and Joe Biden talk to Mr Tapper and Dana Bash following the CNN presidential debate in June 2024 - Justin Sullivan/2024 Getty Images Comedian Jon Stewart could scarcely hide his disdain. How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchors book to sombrely and respectfully promoting your anchors book? You frame this news as even more of an excuse to buy this book. Some observers might think, do these CNN people work on commission? Disproportionate Christopher Galdieri, professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told The Telegraph that Mr Tapper was paying the price for his relentless search for publicity for his book. Tapper has been promoting his book about Biden non-stop. And again, I think if you are a Democrat who liked Biden, youre probably not enjoying that very much. And it probably seems disproportionate. Youve got all the Trump stuff going on, youve got all the Doge stuff, all the tariffs, all the deportations. Just go down the whole list of stuff Trump is up to, and Tappers main focus seems to be relitigating the fact that Joe Biden was old. A CNN spokesman told The Telegraph: The award-winning program The Lead with Jake Tapper reaches broad global audiences across CNN, CNN International and Maxs streaming platform. No single metric can capture the true reach and impact of a programme driving the national conversation. The jury in the Gerry Adams defamation case at Dublin High Court heard dramatically differing evidence about the reputation of the former Sinn Fein leader. One witness said Mr Adams had a reputation of seriousness and dependability, while another said it was of a warmonger. Contrasting evidence was also heard about the BBC Spotlight programme that originally broadcast the allegation that Mr Adams sanctioned the murder of British agent Denis Donaldson. One expert media witness said the broadcast did not meet the corporations editorial thresholds of responsible journalism, while another said it was not unfair or unjust. While the focus of attention in the high-profile trial concentrated on the evidence of Mr Adams and Spotlight journalist Jennifer OLeary, several other witnesses gave evidence over four weeks. Mr Adams legal team called the former solicitor for the Donaldson family, Ciaran Shiels, as a witness. He told the jury he had had contact with the BBC team before the Spotlight programme was broadcast. Asked what he would have said to Ms OLeary if she had put to him the allegation against Mr Adams, Mr Shiels said: I would have said to her that not only was she barking up the wrong tree, she wasnt even in the right orchard. Bruce Morrison (left) with Gerry Adams in 1995 (PA) Mr Adams team then called John Martin OLoan, who has previously held roles involving senior editorial responsibility, including by establishing Sky News, as an expert on journalistic standards. He told the court: The BBC did not meet the editorial thresholds of responsible journalism in its inclusion and presentation of the solo anonymous allegations against Mr Adams. He said the segment of the Spotlight programme containing the allegation that Mr Adams sanctioned the killing lacked sufficient editorial veracity to be published. Former US congressman Bruce Morrison, who worked with Bill Clinton on Northern Irelands peace process, gave his evidence by videolink from Bethesda, Maryland. Mr Morrison said Mr Adams was a controversial figure but his reputation was one of a serious man on a serious mission who was committed to the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. He said his impression of Mr Adams reputation was that he was an elder statesmen and distinguished leader who had made an extraordinary contribution to change in Northern Ireland. The BBCs legal team also dealt with the Spotlight broadcast and Mr Adams reputation when it called witnesses to give evidence. Chris Banatvala, who drew up the UKs broadcasting rules for Ofcom and was its founding director of standards, compiled a report based on the Spotlight programme. Ann Travers, advocate with the SEFF victims group whose sister was murdered by the IRA, outside the High Court in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) He told the jury: What I have written is, on balance, given the significant public interest, what information is already in the public domain about Gerry Adams, the fact that the BBC reasonably believed its primary source, Martin, to be credible and reliable, that the BBC had corroborative evidence from other credible and multiple sources. It was couched in terms of allegations, there was an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond, the programme would probably not be found in breach and not be unfair or unjust to Mr Adams. Campaigners for Troubles victims, Ann Travers and Trevor Ringland, described Mr Adams as as a warmonger and peace taker. Ms Travers sister Mary was killed by the Provisional IRA in an attack in which her father Tom Travers, who was a lawyer who became a magistrate in 1979, was also shot six times. Trevor Ringland, Northern Ireland solicitor and former Ireland rugby international (Brian Lawless/PA) Asked about Mr Adams, she said: His reputation would be one of having been a warmonger. Asked to explain why, she replied: For the Troubles, supporting the IRA and the murder of innocent people. Mr Ringland, a former Irish rugby international, told the jury his father was shot by the IRA. Asked for the publics perception of Mr Adams, he replied: He is seen as a peace taker, not a peacemaker. Michael McDowell, former attorney general and former minister for justice, gave evidence in the trial (Brian Lawless/PA) He added: I think the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland would regard him as a peace taker. Former Irish attorney general Michael McDowell was called by the BBC to speak about Mr Adams reputation. He said: Amongst the public, he is known as a politician now who was a leading member of the IRA and who was active in the IRA during the period of its armed struggle against the forces of law and order on this island. He added: He is reputed to have been a chief negotiator in, I think, 1974 between the provisional movement and the British government and thereafter he was reputed to have a role in the Belfast IRA as its commanding officer. Later he was reputed to have become a member of the Army Council of the IRA. Referring to the time of the peace process, he said: During that period, the view of the (Irish) government based on intelligence briefings was that Mr Adams was a member of the Army Council and was a leading member of the Army Council. Asked about Mr Adams reputation among politicians more generally, he added: Ive never met any politician who did not believe he was a leading member of the IRA during its armed struggle, as it calls it, and thereafter he was a dominant figure within Army Council. Britain's King Charles III delivers a speech from the Throne to open the first session of the 45th Parliament of Canada at the Senate of Canada on 27 May 2025 in Ottawa, Canada. Photograph: Getty Images King Charless speech to Canadas parliament this week was framed as a subtle rebuke to Donald Trumps threats of annexation and an assertion of the countrys sovereignty. But for many Indigenous people, the elaborate spectacle of the royal visit with its protocol, regalia, thrones and mounties in pith helmets evoked a model of national identity at odds with ongoing efforts to confront Canadas own violent history of colonization and dispossession. The visit came as some Indigenous Chiefs and academics warned that questions of reconciliation with First Nations are being drowned out by the noisy surge of patriotism provoked by the US president. Theres only so much oxygen in the room and it gets all sucked up with standing up to Trump. Its Indigenous people, youre important but not right now. Thats a strategy of settler colonialism too, said David MacDonald, a political science professor at Guelph University in Ontario from Treaty 4 lands in Regina, Saskatchewan. Canada was formed to promote unity among British colonial territories and to stop American expansion and it was created through genocidal violence against Indigenous people, said MacDonald. We need to be careful not to fall back into those historical patterns, because its pretty easy for a lot of settler Canadians to think thats the way it has been and should be, especially if we appeal to older historical figures, he said. Indigenous leaders also highlighted the irony of such high-profile declarations of Canadian sovereignty when First Nations are themselves forced to make similar assertions to Canadas own federal government. Canadas federal government admits that colonial efforts to forcefully assimilate Indigenous peoples, and the displacement of First Nations on to inhospitable reserves have all contributed to shorter life expectancy, poverty and illness. Indigenous communities have repeatedly been forced to turn to the courts in order to force the federal government to meet its obligations under centuries-old treaties between First Nations and the Crown. In one case last year, Canadas highest court ruled that the crown had made a mockery of a 1850 agreement by failing to adequately compensate First Nations for the riches extracted from their ancestral territories. We were sovereign. We still are sovereign. And you have to respect that we enter these treaties to make sure that we share land and resources and therefore Canada, the colonial state, must share revenue as well, said Chief David Monias, of Pimicikamak Okimawin in Manitoba, at a press conference following the Kings speech. Grand Chief Kyra Wilson of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs welcomed the Kings decision to mention Indigenous rights, meet and acknowledge that Canadas parliament building sits on traditional Algonquin territory. But she added: There was talk of truth and reconciliation. But weve heard the term reconciliation for years now, she says. And what we are expecting and what weve been expecting for years is tangible action. National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, who is head of the Assembly of First Nations, said that during her meeting with the king she stressed the need for less colonialism. People dont like this [US] colonialism thats happening at the borders, she said. But first nations have been feeling that for a long time: colonialism trying to dictate our lives. Over the past 20 years, Canada has engaged in a fitful reckoning with its colonial past, with a 2015 report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluding that the country had engaged in a cultural genocide in which tens of thousands of First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and incarcerated in residential schools rife with abuse. A major shift in public discourse also came four years ago this week, when more than 200 potential burial sites of children were confirmed outside a former residential school in southern British Columbia. Related: Trumps comments on Canada prompt surge of patriotism in a Canadian way But that historical reassessment has been drowned out by a surge of nationalism in response to Trump often invoking the iconography of British colonialism, said Rowland Keshena Robinson, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, who is a member of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin. On the day of Charles speech, the Ontario government announced that a statue of John A Macdonald, Canadas first prime minister, would be put back on public display, five years after activists threw paint on it to highlight Macdonalds efforts to eliminate Indigenous people including through starvation. There absolutely has been a backsliding in reconciliation in the last five years, Robinson said. David MacDonald argued that Canadians face a unique opportunity to define themselves as different from the US not through loyalty to Britain but by enacting true reconciliation with Indigenous people. Whats the opposite of a dictatorial, authoritarian presidential system? Its a decentralized system where Indigenous people have control over their own lands, waters and keep large corporations from digging everything up, he said. That would be the most anti-American thing a Canadian could do, he said. If the narrative could change Indigenous self-determination could be a central part of Canadian identity. This article was amended on 30 May 2025. An earlier version misspelled the first name of Kyra Wilson. Also, a photo caption of First Nations leaders incorrectly referred to them as being Inuit leaders. A reference to the 2021 discovery of the remains of 215 children has also been changed to reflect that these were potential burial sites, not remains. The King chats with Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who gifted the Rolls-Royce - Mark Cuthbert/Getty The King was given a Rolls-Royce car by the King of Bahrain as a Coronation gift, it has emerged. The car, a Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, has entered the royal fleet for official rather than personal use, it is understood, and has not yet been seen carrying the Royal family on public duty. The gift, from Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, was made in May 2023 in honour of the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla, and has now come to light as part of the official gift list published by Buckingham Palace. The car can run on both petrol and biofuel, with the latter in line with the Kings own eco credentials. It is believed to be the only car given by a foreign royal family to be in the state fleet. A Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II has entered the royal fleet for official rather than personal use There are close royal ties between Britain and Bahrain, with 37 royal visits to the Middle Eastern country since 1965. The King last visited in 2016 when he was Prince of Wales. In November 2024, the Bahraini King visited the King in Windsor, with a guard of honour and tea at the castle to mark his own silver jubilee. He was also appointed Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. The gift was included in a list of items received by the King as part of his public life during his Coronation year in 2023. Queen Elizabeth II The final official gifts given to Queen Elizabeth II before she died have also been revealed, including two lamp posts, blankets for her ponies and a drawing of her beloved Balmoral. The late Queen received a bottle of gin from the governor of New South Wales, a hazel walking cane from Her Majestys Army, a platinum and diamond brooch from the Freemasons and a cedar of Lebanon tree from Pope Francis. The president of the Swiss Confederation gave her two blankets for her ponies, embroidered with the flags of Switzerland and the UK. The Houses of Parliament gave two lamp posts in the form of bronze sculptures of heraldic beasts, as a present for the Platinum Jubilee. Justin Welby, then archbishop of Canterbury, gave a Canterbury Cross and a clipping of the fig tree at Lambeth Palace, and Nicola Sturgeon, then first minister of Scotland, gave a bottle of special-edition whisky. The list of gifts, which includes books, stamps, jewellery and numerous gifts from school children, has been released by Buckingham Palace as part of the official record of 2022. Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept 8 2022, making it the final list of her 70-year reign. In 2021, the late Queen received a cobble from the original set of Coronation Street during a visit to the set. King Charles and Queen Camilla Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, gave the King a framed mosaic, a scroll about St Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv, and a signed Ukrainian ships flag during a 2023 audience all are known to be areas of interest for King Charles. The president of Poland gave him a set of items relating to honey, the ambassador for Laos presented a sticky-rice basket, and the Muslim World League gave a model of a palm tree. From the president of Germany came a Beethoven CD and DVD set for the King, along with an insect hotel and bottle of port; the Blue Peter team sent gold badges. A ceremonial sword came from the Canadian Mounties, a feather crown from the indigenous leaders of the Amazon, and a leather folder of letters between Queen Elizabeth II and president Eisenhower came from Joe and Jill Biden, along with a framed photograph of Marine One landing on the lawn in Windsor. Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of the Republic of South Africa, gave the Queen a pair of candlesticks in November 2022, while Prince Jan Lubomirski-Lanckoronski, a Polish prince, gave her a rose pink hat with a feather in July 2023. The first lady of Kenya gave the Queen an embroidered giraffe in October 2023 on a state visit to Kenya, along with a tapestry of a zebra. The Crown Prince and Princess of Norway gave her a collection of books in March 2023, which included Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson and Love by Hanne Orstavik. The first lady of the Arab Republic of Egypt also gave the Queen a bag in November 2021. Prince and Princess of Wales The Prince and Princess of Wales have received dozens of gifts to take for their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, including rugby balls from France in 2023, bracelets and paint sets from Poland, and t-shirts, fire hats and backpacks from New York. They received 89 gifts, mostly from members of the public, during their 2022 tour of the Caribbean, each receiving a snorkel set, a wetsuit, a pair of diving fins and a swimming cap. Andrew Holness, the republican prime minister of Jamaica, who used the trip to say he wanted to get rid of the monarchy, gave them a bottle of rum. In 2020, the couple each received a toiletries set from Michael D Higgins, the president of Ireland, and his wife, Sabina Higgins, during an official visit. During that trip, they also each received GAA club jerseys, as well as a bottle of whisky and two whisky tumblers. Others In July 2021, the Princess Royal was given a set of five childrens mouthguards on an official visit to mouthguard manufacturer Opro. A box of 51 acorns was given to her in January 2023 by the Friends of Royal Wansted School to mark the 51 years since the closure of the school. She was also given a maritime knot in a bottle the same month on a visit to Estonia, along with a giant decorative tortoise in July on a visit to Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. In October 2023, she received a handmade pygmy hog statue during the 141st International Olympic Committee Session in Mumbai. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, then the Count and Countess of Wessex, were given a Lagos version of Monopoly in February 2020 from the High Commission, Nigeria. The Duke of Kent, meanwhile, received a small silver coaster from Boodles to commemorate his patronage in April 2023. Royal gift rules Official gifts can be worn and used, but are not considered the royals personal property. The royals do not pay tax on them. They can eat any food they are given and perishable official gifts with a value less than 150 can be given to charity or staff. Gifts cannot be sold or exchanged and eventually become part of the Royal Collection, which is held in trust for successors and the nation. The rules on official presents were tightened following the Peat Inquiry in 2003 into the sale of royal gifts and the running of St Jamess Palace. No gift lists have been published since 2021, with Buckingham Palace releasing all four years of records in one tranche on Friday. UK Parliament This was the week in which Reform UK finally shattered the facade of indifference maintained by the British political establishment. It was only a year ago next week that Nigel Farage announced his return to frontline politics. As opinion polls show the upstarts leading all other parties by ever wider margins, a whiff of panic has permeated the Downing Street bunker. After its triumph over Labour and the Conservatives in the local elections and the Runcorn by-election at the start of this month, Reform has emerged as a threat to the SNP, which is defending its Holyrood seat in Hamilton next Thursday. What has brought about this sudden intensity of focus on a party that still has just five MPs in Westminster? There is no longer much doubt about Reforms ability to translate its popularity into electoral success. Labours legions of backbenchers know that their chances of serving more than a single term depend on seeing off this unfamiliar challenge. Mr Farage is visibly morphing into a different kind of politician. The welfare and fiscal policies he has just espoused are to the Left of the Tories and, in some cases, of Labour too. Reform promises not only to restore benefits that Rachel Reeves has curtailed, such as the Winter Fuel Allowance, but to go further by removing the two-child benefit cap. This unaccustomed apparition of the Father Christmas of Clacton seems to have rattled the Prime Minister so badly, indeed, that he turned up at St Helens on Merseyside this week to devote an entire speech to attacking Mr Farage. Sir Keir Starmer achieved nothing by this excursion apart from drawing attention to the Reform leader and his policies. Even worse, the Starmer counter-attack found itself bogged down in an unexpectedly fierce barrage of criticism from accompanying journalists, including even those who had been hitherto well-disposed. The irreverence, even hostility, of the PMs interrogation in St Helens signals a serious loss of prestige. After only a year in office, prime ministerial power is visibly ebbing away. Ironically, Sir Keir has identified the right problem: Nigel Farage and Reform really are an existential threat to Labour. But he has so far failed to come up with any plausible answers. The incoherence of the Governments policies cutting disability benefits with one hand, while handing out big public sector pay rises with the other is patently obvious. And the intellectual vacuity of Starmerism has just been highlighted by the absurd comparison of Kemi Badenochs Conservatives with the Nazis by Lord Hermer, the Attorney General and Sir Keirs right-hand man. Next week the battle will shift further north to the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election for the Scottish Parliament. This has degenerated into a slanging match between the SNP and Reform, with the former accusing the latter of playing the race card, while the Labour vote is squeezed. Fresh from an appearance at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, next week Mr Farage will be in Scotland and doubtless steal the show there too. If Reform were to capture Hamilton, it would be a bitter blow for the SNP: Winnie Ewings victory there in 1967 first put them on the Westminster electoral map. Over the summer the Prime Minister hopes to regain momentum with public spending and strategic defence reviews. Yet neither of these worthy documents seems likely to deliver the relaunch that Labour sorely needs. The UK economy is struggling to generate any growth at all after the bloodletting of the Reeves Budget and the impact of Donald Trumps tariffs. Still living in denial, ministers will resist departmental cuts, thereby thwarting the boost in military investment required by the global threat level. Another spectre at the feast is the prospect of large-scale revolts over welfare reform. A growing number of Labour MPs are ready to risk the implosion of the Government rather than let down their favoured lobby groups. Labour and Reform could find themselves locked in an unedifying competition to bribe voters with their own money. The Conservatives now have an opportunity to recast themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility, national security and the work ethic. With millions living on out-of-work benefits, Kemi Badenoch could regain the initiative by showing how to bring people back into the workforce. With the country longing for strong leadership, Mrs Badenoch could well do a better job of taking on Mr Farage than Sir Keir has done so far. Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer - Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire Dont you know theres a war on? This challenge, usually directed at someone who was being selfish and demanding, was frequently thrown at people during the Second World War. I want to ask the same question today, the war being that in Ukraine. It needs to be asked of all Nato countries, both in Europe and North America. Once again, it is, sort of, a rhetorical question. Almost everyone knows theres a big war on. Nobody can state accurately how many people have died in the Ukraine war, but if you guessed more than 250,000 dead, most would say you were underestimating. Russia has invaded, massacred and tortured. It has repeatedly and deliberately bombed civilians and abducted about 20,000 children. Although the Balkan wars of the 1990s were grim, with more than 100,00 people dying, the invasion of Ukraine is much the largest and most serious war in modern Europe. It was started by a great European power. In this, it is unique since 1939. Not only is it the engine of death and destruction; it is also a massive, deliberate violation of the entire post-1945 legal, political and military European peace which was designed to prevent the alteration of borders by force. We know this, and most of us, in Britain at least, hate it. Polls show popular support for Ukraine remains very high. But there is an unresolved question about how much we believe it involves us. Shortly before he went off to appease Hitler at Munich in September 1938, Neville Chamberlain self-contradicted on precisely this point. He acknowledged Britains responsibility for ensuring peace, yet he also lamented being dragged toward war because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing. His word quarrel implied equal fault on both sides rather than identifying one sides aggression. Such whats-it-got-to-do-with-us? ideas lurk somewhere in our collective psyche about Ukraine, even though part of the answer hit us directly in 2022 when energy prices exploded. In Donald Trumps America, there is a disturbing strand which thinks the conflict was concocted by President Zelensky to get the United States to pay. That mode of thought leads to dreams of some quick deal about material advantages rather than a just and therefore lasting peace. Even when President Trump this week rounded on Putin for bombing Ukrainian cities more heavily than ever, his tone was not that of a man repelled by wickedness, but of an exasperated friend: I dont know what the hell happened to Putin. Ive known him a long time. He distributed blame equally between Putin, Zelensky and Joe Biden. Why Trumps surprise at the bombing? Russias attempt to flatten every Ukrainian city is horribly consistent with Putins declared war aims. Our current Labour Government, like our previous Conservative one, has not fallen into the Chamberlain/Trump trap. It is clear about the central issue. Putin is the aggressor, says Sir Keir Starmer. Britain can accept no deal which does not satisfy the people of Ukraine. We will do the phrase endlessly repeated whatever it takes. This is not insincere, and there are some in the Government, notably the Defence Secretary, John Healey, who are really working for Ukraine to prevail. Nevertheless, if the Government believes it is doing whatever it takes, it has not plumbed the depth of the problem. This was brought home to me on Thursday when I attended a conference organised by Policy Exchange about the Law of Armed Conflict. Under the Ottawa Treaty, the signatories are forbidden to use anti-personnel mines. A comparable convention also restricts the use of cluster munitions. The conference, partly private, was addressed by the leading retired US general David Petraeus, by political and military leaders from frontline states such as Poland, Estonia and Finland, and by many of our own top brass and legal experts. The consensus was that these agreements, forged in the piping time of peace, now seriously disadvantage all Nato signatories. Russia ignores all such rules and tries to cover Ukraine with landmines. It was its vast use of mines which stalled the Ukrainian counter-offensive planned for late summer 2023. If Ukraine had not responded in kind, including not only landmines but its effective use of cluster munitions against Russian tanks, it would by now have been overrun. Those Nato frontline states countries with the most vivid and direct experience of Russian attitudes and tactics are now withdrawing from the relevant agreements. They know it is illegal to do so once a war has started: they think a Russian attack is likely, so they are withdrawing now. Yet Britain, though their most significantly engaged European defender, still purses its lips and reiterates its support for the treaties. This is what General Petraeus characterised as legal freeloading. The need to repudiate Ottawa is, as he puts it, a no-brainer. At the very same time as this highly practical, war-focussed and well-informed gathering, elsewhere in Westminster, the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, was addressing the Royal United Services Institute. Although he made much of the need to counter Putin in Ukraine, he spoke as if it would be international law, rather than allied political, economic and military strength, which would do the trick. Recalling his visit to Bucha, scene of Putins worst massacre, he seemed to see the solution in the hope that international justice would hold the guilty to account. One shares that hope, but what Lord Hermer did not acknowledge was that Putin has so far got away with these horrors precisely because the rules-based international order, which includes Nato, has let him do so. As in the 1930s, we are acting as if we do not fully accept that there is a war on. Indeed, we have even less excuse than did the Western democracies then. When Chamberlain flew to Munich, he was talking to a man who, clearly evil though his intentions were, had not yet waged aggressive war. Putin has done so for more than three years, arguably for 11 years, and still we have not concerted to stop him. Lord Hermer says he wants to depolarise our disputes in this country about international law and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Even he now dimly senses that his absolutism and that of his chief legal and political patron, Sir Keir, on this point, is divisive and unpopular. Nevertheless, the strongest focus of attack in his RUSI lecture was not on warmongers abroad, such as Putin, but on what he called the pseudo-realists at home. These wicked people are those Conservatives and Reform supporters who think we should leave the ECHR. Such persons, says Lord Hermer, may have patriotic motives, but are falling for the trap of the Nazi legal thinker, Carl Schmitt, who invented spurious philosophical justification for the exercise of raw power. This incendiary comparison is unworthy of the sober-sided role of a law officer. It shows how the mind of the human-rights extremist the school of thought in which Sir Keir spent his whole professional life works. The people who disagree with you are Nazis. The threat from the true raw power merchants of the modern world Putin, Hamas, North Korea is sidelined. Surely at the top the hierarchy of wrongs which international law is designed to prevent is aggressive war. Rules which prevent allies resisting aggression with the necessary weapons objectively assist the aggressor. There is just such a war on. If, like Lord Hermer, we apply self-righteous legalism to the problem, we cannot win it. Robert Jenrick Robert Jenrick knows how to grab headlines. More importantly, he knows exactly how to lead his critics down a blind alley from which they cannot escape. Yesterday the shadow justice secretary released a video of himself in the London Underground confronting those who had avoided paying their fare. The political point was hardly subtle: why should the rest of us pay for those who cant be bothered paying their way? Just as he must have hoped would happen, his vigilantism sparked a massive debate on social media, with users dividing along the traditional Right and Left lines: Jenrick was either a hero who was unafraid to tackle lawlessness on behalf of the majority, or a cynical villain who was at least in part responsible, while a government minister, for the reduction in police and Underground staff who might otherwise have been available to tackle the fare-dodgers themselves. It all fell so neatly into place for Jenrick. The Left really cannot help itself, and he must have known this before he embarked on his publicity stunt. Channel 4 News spoke for much of progressive Britain who felt offended by his initiative: having watched the footage, they decided that the main news story was not that a worrying level of passengers were skipping ticket checks (nearly one in every 25 passengers, according to Jenrick) but that the Tory MP didnt have Transport for Londons permission to film there at all. Twitter users with more time on their hands than I have since pointed out that TfL rules seem only to apply to commercial filming, which obviously didnt include Jenricks exercise. But his point was made: confronted with systematic and expensive fare-dodging, the Left would rather ignore the problem if its identified by someone whose politics they disagree with. Let us be clear: Jenrick was offering no actual solutions to the problem. This was an exercise in populism that Nigel Farage himself might have envied, and it is straight out of the Reform playbook to provoke voters anger without explaining how they would fix the issue other than a few superficial slogans. Nevertheless, it was a PR triumph for Jenrick. The tidal wave of indignation that followed the posting of his video could hardly have suited his purposes better. Here he was, standing up for hard-pressed, law-abiding Londoners while eight officers (it was not clear if this was a reference to British Transport Police officers or Underground staff) stood nearby. Its also just annoying, says Jenrick to the camera, watching so many people break the law and get away with itIts the same with bike theft, phone theft, tool theft, shoplifting, drugs in town centres, weird Turkish barber shops. Its all chipping away at society. The state needs to reassert itself and go after law-breakers. The reference to weird Turkish barber shops was also ingenious: most people share Jenricks suspicion about the motivation behind their recent proliferation in high streets across the country, but it is exactly the kind of accusation that makes the red mist descend in the eyes and brains of many on the Left who would rather not bring foreigners into it. At root, there is a fundamental and more complex policy issue which a minute-long video on Twitter can hardly be expected to analyse the differing approaches to crime and its causes by the Right and the Left. Judging from many of the responses to Jenricks original Tweet, there are very few Labour supporters who took to heart Tony Blairs view that the party should be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, preferring to emphasise the latter and completely ignore the former. Fare-dodging is caused, it seems, either by poverty or by the state not devoting enough resources to prevent the rest of us from behaving badly. Meanwhile, the Right, as represented by Jenrick, believes its all about personal responsibility and personal choices. It is not difficult to see whose side most voters will take in that debate. Labour and the Left in general should never have fallen into Jenricks trap. Just as Blair and Jack Straw caused outrage for a few on the Left in the 1990s by criticising aggressive beggars and squeegee merchants, yet won the support of a majority of voters who were fed up with the practice and who felt, until then, unable to complain about it, so Jenrick is empowering others to object to a pretty straightforward injustice that is pushing up prices for the law-abiding majority. Cynical? Undoubtedly. Opportunistic? Without question. Effective? Certainly. Loretta Swit received 10 Emmy nominations for her performance as Major Houlihan - CBS Photo Archive Loretta Swit, the actress who played Major Margaret Hot Lips Houlihan in the TV series M*A*S*H, has died aged 87. The Emmy-award-winning star died of natural causes at her home in New York City just after midnight on Friday, her publicist Harlan Boll said. Swit was best known for starring in M*A*S*H, the acclaimed series set in an army hospital that became a hallmark of US television. Loretta Swit as Major Margaret Houlihan and Larry Linville as Major Frank Burns - CBS Photo Archive She received 10 Emmy nominations for her performance as Major Houlihan, twice winning the award for best supporting actress in a comedy series. She was also nominated for four Golden Globes. The series, based on the Oscar-winning 1970 film, revolved around life at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. Loretta Swit and Dolly Parton in 1988 - ABC Photo Archives The drama, which ran from 1972 to 1983, focused on Major Houlihans love affair with a married Major Frank Burns. In a later series the character moved to the US and married an officer she had met in Tokyo, who was unfaithful. It was the greatest time in my career, Swit said of starring in the show. Loretta Swit and the cast of M*A*S*H at an awards ceremony in 2009 - Jeff Kravitz The programme was hugely popular. More than 100 million viewers tuned in to watch the shows two-and-a-half-hour finale, which aired on Feb 28 1983, making it the most-watched episode of any scripted series. Swit appeared in all but 11 episodes of the series, a pioneering show that dared to explore issues such as PTSD, sexism and racism. During her time on the show, she pushed to develop her character into something more than her Hot Lips nickname. Loretta Swit, Gary Owens and Kenneth Mars on the ABC movie Its a Bird... Its a Plane... Its Superman! - Walt Disney Television Photo Archives Around the second or third year I decided to try to play her as a real person, in an intelligent fashion, even if it meant hurting the jokes, Swit told Suzy Kalter, who wrote The Complete Book of M*A*S*H. She added: To oversimplify it, I took each traumatic change that happened in her life and kept it. I didnt go into the next episode as if it were a different character in a different play. She was a character in constant flux; she never stopped developing. Born in Passaic, New Jersey, the daughter of Polish immigrants, Swit trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan before spending years in touring productions. Loretta Swit with her husband, actor Dennis Holahan, in London in 1984 - United News/Popperfoto In 1969, she arrived in Hollywood and appeared in the series Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Mission Impossible and Bonanza. Swit would regularly return to theatre, starring on Broadway in 1975 in Same Time, Next Year and The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1986. She appeared in Amorous Crossing, a romantic comedy, at Alhambra Theatre & Dining in 2010 and in North Carolina Theatres production of Mame in 2003. Swit at The Muppet Show - Publicity/Avalon But nothing defined Swits career as much as M*A*S*H, which Rolling Stone magazine put at number 25 of the best TV shows of all time. The series won the Impact Award at the 2009 TV Land annual awards and won a Peabody Award in 1975 for the depth of its humour and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war. Luis Enrique hopes Paris St Germains difficult journey to the Champions League final will help them make history on Saturday. PSG will contest their second European final when they face Inter Milan at Allianz Arena and aim to go one better than in the 2020 loss to Bayern Munich. Champions League success has been the holy grail for PSGs owners Qatar Sports Investment since they acquired a majority share in 2011, but Luis Enriques team were in dangerous of a league-phase exit after a run of three defeats in four. Paris St Germain manager Luis Enrique has challenged his players to write themselves into the clubs history (Adam Davy/PA) A 4-2 win over Manchester City in January revitalised their campaign and after tricky knockout ties with Brest, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal were navigated, Ligue 1 champions PSG enter this final with 28 wins from the 34 fixtures they have played in 2025. Luis Enrique, a winner in this competition with Barcelona a decade ago, plans a repeat against 2023 runners-up Inter. What I tried to transmit to the players is that we have been on a very difficult journey, Luis Enrique told a press conference. We have had to play in top-level games since the start of the Champions League. The fact that it was hard at the start could be an advantage for us now because we are used to playing in these games. We played in the stadium against Munich, a team that is one of the best in Europe and we played in finals before. We are ready. We have not been scared at all this season so we are going to take to the pitch at our best tomorrow. I have more experience now from the last few years. I try to transmit to my team and my players the importance of playing in the Champions League final and the chance to make history. Making history means doing something that nobody has ever done before you at a club like Paris St Germain, so that is very important and it needs to be managed carefully so that it doesnt overwhelm us. I have the loved the way we have looked at training. Inter dont have any doubts either and it will be a brilliant final that we want to win. PSG captain Marquinhos featured in the 2020 loss to Bayern, which occurred behind closed doors due to coronavirus restrictions. Marquinhos has shared a dressing room with superstars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, but expressed his love for this current group. He said: I have played in so many teams over the years here, but we are certainly enjoying it here on a daily basis and in every match. You can see the way we all run together, how we understand one another on the pitch, so there is the influence in our results. I am in love with this team, with everything we do on the pitch for one another and it is a pleasure to be a part of it. It is a great opportunity tomorrow to make history here as a club and for all the players here. It is a second opportunity for me to play in the Champions League final and I dont want to let if pass me by. Ousmane Dembele: "I'm very proud to be here in the final. Nothing has been easy. It's just a pleasure to be at this stage of the competition."#UCLfinal https://t.co/rcZrT3j6wp Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) May 30, 2025 Ousmane Dembele has enjoyed an extraordinary campaign with 33 goals to become one of the favourites for the Ballon dOr, but played down its significance. When you are a player at Paris St Germain, the most important thing is to win the Champions League. I am focused on the team and not on individual accolades, Dembele insisted. I am pleased with what we have done since January. We have changed our mentality and we are going to try to keep it going and go all the way. Ed Miliband has led the Labour Governments net zero drive - PA/Hannah McKay Ed Miliband has attacked Sir Tony Blair for adopting a defeatist attitude on tackling climate change. In a significant intervention last month, the former prime minister said that net zero was doomed to fail and that it was wrong that people were being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal. The comments prompted fury inside Downing Street and Sir Tony later appeared to back down, saying Sir Keir Starmers net zero approach was the right one. Speaking on The Rest is Politics podcast, Mr Miliband said: The report itself, he wrote a foreword to the report, is perfectly unobjectionable but what is disappointing about Tonys foreword, and I have huge respect for Tony, is I think it is incredibly defeatist which is not what Tony is. It is really defeatist. The Energy Secretary has been one of the most prominent members of the Labour Government, leading the net zero drive. But he has clashed with Cabinet colleagues over concerns that his policies are unpopular with voters and threatened to hinder growth, despite his insistence that the drive for clean power would result in economic benefits. His position was undermined after Labour watered down a series of net zero policies and backed a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Net zero has emerged as a dividing line between Labour and Reform ahead of the next election. Seat under threat from Reform Mr Miliband also admitted on the podcast that he could lose his seat to the Right-wing party at the next general election. The Energy Secretary, who has represented Doncaster North since 2005, said Reform was a threat across the country. Asked whether he worried about keeping his seat, Mr Miliband said: Look, I think Reform are a threat, yeah. I think Reform are a threat across the country. I had this conversation in the pub last Friday night with this guy, and the conversation went like this it went through the boats, the NHS and then it went to I think the deepest part of this which is he said I feel that we have had governments of different parties, Labour and Tory, life is so hard for me, how can you answer that question?. And I explained how we are trying to answer that question. He said for me that is the test, I didnt vote in 2024. I think he voted Reform in the local elections. I wrote this book when I lost the election, called Go Big, and for me he epitomised the point of Go Big, which is he was saying look, whether it is an ability to afford a house, make ends meet, the cost of living, public services, I feel like life is so hard and you guys arent addressing that. An analysis of this months local election results, which saw Reform make sweeping gains, suggested Mr Miliband was set to lose his seat to the party at the next general election. Reform has five MPs and analysis of the local elections shows that if its performance was repeated in the general election, theyd have considerably more - Reuters/Toby Melville Electoral Calculus analysed the results from each of the hundreds of wards and used the results to predict what would happen in each of the 145 Westminster constituencies where a vote was held. The analysis showed that if Doncaster residents were to vote for the same party at a general election as in the local elections, Reform would win 46 per cent of the vote to Mr Milibands 29 per cent. Mr Milibands comments about his seat come after the Prime Minister declared Reform to be Labours main opposition. On Thursday, Sir Keir gave a speech in the north west of England solely focused on the party and its leader, Nigel Farage. The Prime Minister compared Reforms economic plans to those of Liz Truss and the market chaos caused by her failed mini-Budget in 2022. The attempt to paint Reform as being like the Tories gives an indication of how Downing Street will try to shape the political narrative in the run up to the next election framing the choice facing voters as between Labour on the Left and Reform on the Right. The attacks came after Mr Farage parked his tanks on Labours lawn by promising to reverse the cut to winter fuel payments for pensioners and lift the two-child benefit cap. Responding to the Prime Ministers speech, Mr Farage said Sir Keir was resorting to dirty tricks, and labelled his approach Project Fear 2.0 a reference to the Remain campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum. Ms Truss, the Tory former prime minister, accused Sir Keir of repeating lies about her premiership. NatWest: Key dates in the banks history from rescue to privatisation NatWest has returned to private ownership after the Government sold its remaining shares in the bank. The banking group which was previously called RBS was rescued during the 2008 financial crisis with payments worth 45.5 billion, which led to it become part-owned by taxpayers. The Treasury has been rapidly selling down its shareholding over the past 18 months, whittling it down to zero and meaning the bank is once again in private hands. Heres a timeline with key dates from the bailout of NatWest through to its return to privatisation on Friday. 2000: RBS Group bought NatWest for 21 billion which, at the time, was the largest in British banking history. The combined group operated a number of separate banking brands, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank. 2007: RBS was part of a consortium that acquired the Dutch bank ABN AMRO. This decision, which propelled the group into investment banking and sapped its capital levels, proved to be destructive for RBS. Key dates for NatWest Group (PA Graphics/PA) The takeover was ultimately found to have taken place with inadequate due diligence and was one of the key reasons why it was on the brink of collapse the following year. 2008: The Government makes a capital payment worth 20 billion to RBS. Then-prime minister Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling engineered the rescue after being warned the bank was facing imminent collapse and could run out of cash in a matter of hours. It was the fallout of the financial crash, combined with its structural weaknesses, which triggered a major bank run and pushed it to the brink of failure. Chief executive Fred Goodwin, who was in charge of the bank for nine years, stepped down the same month and was replaced by Stephen Hester. He had been nicknamed Fred the Shred for his aggressive management style that oversaw thousands of job cuts at NatWest after it was taken over by the RBS at the turn of the century. He was later stripped of his knighthood. 2009: February: RBS unveiled its largest annual loss in the banks history an operating pre-tax loss of 40.7 billion. April: The Governments stake in NatWest increased to 70.3%. December: The Government injected another 25.5 billion into RBS, taking its shareholding to 84.4%, where it peaked. 2013: Ross McEwan stepped in as chief executive after a five-year tenure for Mr Hester. 2015: The first sale of Government-owned shares took place. 2018: RBS announced its first bottom-line profit in a decade, of 752 million. A second sale of shares of 2.5 billion took place. 2019: Dame Alison Rose took over as chief executive of the group the first woman to lead a major UK high street bank. Dame Alison Rose, NatWest former chief executive, was forced to step down in 2023 in the wake of the debanking saga (James Manning/PA) 2020: Under Dame Alisons leadership, RBS changed its name to NatWest Group, saying it was the right time to align the group name with the brand under which it does the majority of its business. NatWest represented about 80% of its customer base at the time. 2023: Dame Alison was forced to step down as the NatWests chief executive in the wake of the debanking scandal, when she admitted being the source of an inaccurate story about politician Nigel Farages finances in relation to his account with the groups subsidiary Coutts. She was replaced by Paul Thwaite, the banks former chief executive of commercial and institutional business. 2024: March: The Governments stake in NatWest dropped below 30%, meaning it was no longer classed as being a controlling shareholder. July: The Treasury began accelerating the sale process and its shareholding dropped below 20%. December: The Treasurys shareholding fell below 10%. 2025: May: The Government sells its remaining shares in NatWest, returning it to private ownership for the first time since 2008. The Treasury confirmed that the sale came at a 10.5 billion loss to the UK taxpayer. But Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the bailout was the right decision then to secure the economy. Just 38 per cent of Channel crossings were stopped by French border patrols - AFP France is intercepting fewer Channel migrants than at any time since the first small boats arrived, despite a 480 million funding deal with Britain to help stop crossings, figures suggest. It has stopped 8,347 asylum seekers from reaching UK waters in small boats so far this year, while 13,167 have crossed meaning that just over 38 per cent have been intercepted. That is down from an estimated 45 per cent last year, 46.9 per cent in 2023 and 42.4 per cent in 2022, the record year when 45,774 people reached the UK and 33,791 were prevented from doing so by France. The fall in interceptions comes despite a three-year, 480 million Anglo-French deal agreed by Rishi Sunak in March 2023 to double officers patrolling beaches to 800, set up a joint command centre and a detention centre to stop migrants leaving France. It coincides with a change in tactics by people-smugglers, who have used taxi boats that remain in the water and collect migrants from beaches in northern France. The strategy allows smugglers to evade capture, forcing police to conduct rescue operations rather than arrest the perpetrators. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has also suggested that the number of crossings up 30 per cent this year on the same point last year have surged because of the higher number of good weather red days so far. Ministers believe a series of legal changes in France and Germany will stem the flow of migrants. The French government has amended laws so police can stop boats at sea for the first time. It will enable police to use their own boats in shallow waters to take on people-smugglers carrying migrants in overloaded vessels. French ministers are also planning to restore the offence of an illegal stay in France, which would allow the police to arrest migrants and smugglers before they attempt a crossing. Currently, migrants who attempt to cross the Channel are only considered to have committed an offence when they launch the boat. Germany, where many migrant boats are stored before being deployed to the French coast, is also tightening its laws to make it easier to prosecute those helping to smuggle migrants to the UK. Facilitating people-smuggling is not currently technically illegal in Germany if it is to a third country outside the EU, which includes the UK following Brexit. Under the new agreement, Germany has pledged to make the activity a clear criminal offence. A Home Office spokesman said: We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security. The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die as long as they pay, and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice. That is why this Government has put together a serious plan to take down these networks at every stage. Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders. France in breach of obligations However, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: France is in breach of its international law obligations to stop illegal migration. Stopping under 40 per cent of illegal immigrants attempting to cross is pathetic. Even the 40 per cent stopped are simply let go by the French, and they just attempt to cross the next day instead. Tony Smith, a former Border Force director general, said: The figures on French preventions are disappointing given the investment we are making in resourcing their activities there. Promises to introduce maritime interventions even in shallow waters have come to nothing and allowing boats to continue their journeys even after corpses are removed from what is a potential crime scene is totally unacceptable. Also, the French policy of handing out life jackets is a clear signal that they have little interest in preventing asylum seekers from putting their lives at risk by crossing the Channel. On the contrary, once the boats have launched, their policy is to do all they can to facilitate their passage to UK waters rather than rescue them and take them back to France, where their safety could be assured. British holidaymakers may face disruption ahead of summer as staff at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are to stage fresh strikes in a dispute over pay and conditions. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union based at sites near Gatwick airport will walk out on June 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18, following stoppages in January and March. Pay negotiations for 2025-26 are under way, but PCS warned the gap between the two sides was significant. Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary, said: Were frustrated and disappointed after management imposed a 2024 pay offer without engaging in meaningful negotiations. The current offer a one-off, non-consolidated payment of 1,150 has been rejected by union members as inadequate amid rising living costs and concerns about long-term pay erosion. Our members deserve a fair pay rise that reflects the cost of living, restores the value of their salaries and recognises the value of their work. Instead, CAA has chosen to bypass negotiations and impose a deal, which is unacceptable to us. Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary: Were frustrated and disappointed after management imposed a 2024 pay offer without engaging in meaningful negotiations - Mark Kerrison/Getty A spokesman for the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: We continue to engage with our PCS trade union colleagues, and after prolonged discussions it is disappointing that PCS trade union members are taking industrial action in June. PCS trade union members make up approximately 5 per cent of the CAAs employees and we do not anticipate any disruption to the aviation sector, or any impact on our regulatory oversight activities or other safety and security critical work, as a result of this action. Previously in April, Unite, the union, warned of flight delays, cancellations, long queues at check-in and baggage delays, in Gatwick. Staff who worked for Red Handling, a firm that provides baggage handlers, check-in staff and flight dispatchers for the airlines Norwegian, Delta, TAP and Air Peace, staged the strike over the Easter weekend. Jeremy Bowen says Donald Trump made not just an exaggeration but a bare-faced lie - JIM WATSON/AFP Donald Trump is a bare-faced liar and it feels liberating to say so, Jeremy Bowen has declared during a discussion about BBC impartiality. Bowen said that while the BBC is committed to impartial reporting, it is important to tell viewers empirical truths such as correcting the US presidents nonsense claim that Ukraine started the war with Russia. Speaking at the Hay Festival, the BBCs long-serving Middle East editor discussed the efforts by President Trump and JD Vance, the vice-president, to humiliate Volodymyr Zelensky during their Oval Office showdown in February. A Western official had described the encounter to Bowen as a diplomatic mugging. Breathtakingly obvious Bowen said: Everyone saw the way they hectored him, humiliated him. They were coming out with absolute nonsense, things like Zelensky started the war. So I made a point on air on the Today programme, the 10 OClock News, the website and other places I made this point to the management, saying we have to use the right language. I said its very important to use the word lie. Its not this is how Trump works, its the art of the deal I said, no, hes the president of the United States, what he says matters and its our job, if he comes up with something thats not just an exaggeration but a bare-faced lie, to say that. It was actually rather liberating. I was quite gobsmacked, when I started doing it, that I got tons of messages from people members of the public and people who are in the media business saying, well done, Jeremy, for saying that. And I was thinking, God, it seems breathtakingly obvious we should be saying that. Im a big fan of direct language. Bowen said his branding of the president as a liar did not clash with the BBCs commitment to impartiality. He added: If Im saying things on air, I need to feel justified that theyre based on empirical observations. Impartiality does not mean, well, he says that and he says that and the truth lies somewhere in between. Calling Hamas terrorists does not illuminate Bowen went on to defend the BBCs decision not to use the word terrorists when referring to Hamas. He said: The point about using the word: people apply it in all kinds of different ways. It doesnt necessarily make you wiser. For me, its better to explain what people are doing rather than simply tag them. The old phrase, one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter the leadership of pre-state Israel, when they were fighting the British, were regarded as terrorists. The two prime terrorists in the eyes of the British in the 1940s were Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, who headed organisations that were carrying weapons against the British. Begins organisation blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was the headquarters of the British at the time. They later became the prime ministers of their country and were welcomed to No 10 Downing Street. Using those words does not illuminate, in my view, so I very much support BBC policy, but I know its controversial. Bowen also criticised the Israeli government for barring foreign journalists from entering Gaza. He said of visiting a kibbutz attacked on Oct 7: The Israelis took us in there because, quite justifiably and rightly, they wanted us to see what Hamas had done. It was important to see that. Hamas had done appalling, appalling things. Question: why wont they let us go into Gaza? Its because there are things that they have done there they dont want us to see. It is all we can conclude. William Morris, Viscount Nuffield was a supporter of Oswald Mosleys British Union of Fascists - Hulton Archive The fascist-sympathising founder of Morris Motors was demonised as a soulless industrialist in an unknown story by JRR Tolkien that is to be published for the first time. William Morris, Viscount Nuffield, is thought to have inspired the Lord of the Rings author to create a villain for a satirical fantasy in which he vented his loathing for the motor car and its devastating impact on his beloved Oxford. Morris made his fortune by mass-producing small cars at affordable prices and, although he donated millions to worthy causes, he also supported Oswald Mosleys British Union of Fascists. Morris Motors became the major employer in the region during Tolkiens lifetime, providing a pull for workers and businesses supporting the car industry. A dramatic rise in Oxfords population between the wars was driven partly by the growth of the industry, which in turn had a dramatic impact on traffic. The businessman is thought to be the inspiration for a character known as the Daemon of Vaccipratum in the never before published story, called The Bovadium Fragments. It is thought Tolkien also took inspiration from a planning controversy that erupted in the 1940s, when he was the University of Oxfords Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College. A bid to alleviate clogged-up traffic by building a dual carriageway across Christ Church Meadow, an ancient open space in the heart of Oxford, sparked a protracted public debate well into the 1960s, when the plan was eventually aborted. Morris made his fortune by mass-producing small cars - Hulton Archive The Bovadium Fragments reflects his mastery of Latin. Bovadium was the Latinised name for the village of Oxford, and the Daemon of Vaccipratum translates as the demon of the cow pasture, or Cowley, which was where Morris had established his motor manufacturing plant. In one passage of the unearthed story, Tolkien writes: But it came to pass that a Daemon (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores. The Bovadium Fragments was among Tolkien manuscripts that were either donated or deposited posthumously by his estate to Oxfords Bodleian Library. It will be published in October by Harper Collins. Chris Smith, the Harper Collins publishing director, described it as a sharply satirical account of the perils of allowing car production and machine-worship to take over your town, where things ultimately all go to hell, in a very literal sense. Tolkiens son and literary executor, Christopher, had edited the text before his death in 2020. The Bovadium Fragments is to be published by Harper Collins in October - Harper Collins The book will include an essay by Richard Ovenden, Bodleys librarian, who has conducted extensive research into the planning controversy, having established its inspiration for Tolkiens story. He said that it is about a scholar in the future looking at evidence of a society that is now lost, having worshipped the motor car, adding: Tolkien was deeply affected by the way that the motor industry was changing his city, and that shines through. Asked why The Bovadium Fragments had not been published before, Mr Ovenden said: Christophers priority in publishing his fathers unpublished works was on the Middle Earth-related material. This material didnt really fit with that or with his fathers more scholarly pieces, and so it got left. I would visit Christopher and his wife Baillie in France every year. On one of those visits, he drew this to my attention and said, Whats all this about, what do you think the background of this was? Mr Ovenden described it as a contribution to environmental literature and the conservation of historic cities. It was written in the late 1950s and 1960s, but it has this extraordinary contemporary resonance, he said. The prison officer from HMP Long Lartin was airlifted to hospital - Paul Ellis/Getty A prison officer has been stabbed by a prisoner with a knife feared to have been brought into the high-security jail by a drone. The prison officer was airlifted to hospital on Friday morning after being stabbed by an inmate in HMP Long Lartin, a category A prison near Evesham, Worcestershire. He was said to be in a stable condition after emergency surgery. There were unconfirmed reports that the knife used in the unprovoked attack may have been delivered into the jail by a drone. Prison sources said this was based on the theory that because it was a real knife rather than a makeshift one constructed from materials within the jail, that would mean it could only have been brought in by drone. Other means of entry are secured by scanners and metal detectors. The attack will raise further concerns over the scale of violence in jails after a series of assaults over the past two months, including a knife attack by Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, on three officers at the high-security HMP Frankland jail in County Durham. On Thursday, The Telegraph revealed that two prison officers at the high-security HMP Whitemoor jail in Cambridgeshire were taken to hospital after two separate attacks. It followed the killing of a convicted murderer by another inmate at the same prison last month. Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has ordered reviews into whether front-line prison officers should be equipped with stab vests to protect against knife attacks and tougher powers to segregate the most violent offenders in supermax-style units. She has also ordered a trial of Tasers. Lucky to have survived According to The Sun, the prison officer at Long Lartin was stabbed in his body, with a blade from a flick-knife nicking his liver. A source told the paper: The attack came out of the blue and was early in the morning after the prisoners were unlocked. The member of staff is lucky to have survived, particularly given where the blade struck him. It nicked his liver, so it could easily have been a lot worse. His colleagues raced to his aid, and luckily, police and ambulance crews got to the prison pretty quickly. Other members of staff are furious. They do not feel they are getting the protection they deserve, and they have been warning about drones for ages. It is a daily occurrence that they are dropping stuff off there, and it is extremely worrying that a flick-knife was delivered. If that can be dropped off, anything can. It is ridiculous, especially at what is meant to be a highly secure jail. Prisons are out of control something needs to be done, and fast. We will not tolerate assaults In a statement, West Mercia Police said officers had been called to HMP Long Lartin over an assault. One man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after sustaining a stab wound. The inmate remains within the prison and the investigation is ongoing, the statement said. A Prison Service spokesman said: We will not tolerate assaults on hard-working staff and will always push for the strongest punishments against perpetrators. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: I summoned the prisons minister in January to warn this exact incident would happen unless they took urgent action. They dithered and said they would fix security by June 2026. This is the tragic result of their shameful inaction. Our brave prison officers are lions led by donkeys. The Governments shameful refusal to equip them immediately with stab vests is risking lives. Its a disgrace. They must have the protection and powers they need to crack down on these vile offenders. Category A Long Lartin prison houses 900 highly dangerous inmates, including killers and terrorists. Inmates there include Suffolk strangler Steve Wright; Jordan McSweeney, who murdered Zara Aleena in 2022, and Vincent Tabak, Joanna Yeatess killer. It is understood the latest attack was not by a high-profile prisoner. The latest assault comes just weeks after Abedi, who is serving life over the murder of 22 people in the Manchester Arena bomb, attacked three officers in a separation unit at HMP Frankland by throwing hot cooking oil over them and stabbing them with two makeshift knives fashioned from baking trays in the kitchen. The Prison Officers Association has called for all terrorists and violent prisoners who assault officers to be held in US-style supermax units or separate jails where they are only allowed out of their cells one hour a day, handcuffed and supervised by three officers. Giles Turner, from Brighton, is one of the men who could benefit from the drug Men with aggressive prostate cancer should be given a drug that halves their risk of death, experts have urged the NHS. British scientists have used AI to identify which men could most benefit from a treatment which is currently denied by the NHS in England. Researchers found that one in four men with high-risk prostate cancer, which has not yet spread, could see their risk of death halved if they were given the hormone treatment abiraterone. The rest could be spared such treatment, which can cause distressing side effects including loss of libido, as well as fatigue and weakness. The drug is routinely offered to men in Scotland and Wales with newly diagnosed high-risk prostate cancer which has not yet spread. However, the NHS refuses to fund it in England, even though it costs just 2.75 a day. As a result, around 8,400 men a year are denied the drug, which is only given to some men with advanced disease. The new study shows just how powerful the drug can be if targeted at the right candidates, in conjunction with standard therapy - cutting deaths by half among those with aggressive disease, while slashing the cost to the NHS. Experts said the findings from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and University College London (UCL) should prompt NHS officials to review the funding of the drug. The results will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting [MUST KEEP] which opens in Chicago on Friday. Abiraterone, discovered in the UK at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), works by inhibiting the production of testosterone in all tissues throughout the body, including in the tumour. The new test, developed by Artera Inc,. uses artificial intelligence to study images of tumour samples and pick out features that are invisible to the human eye. It was tested on biopsy images from more than 1,000 men with prostate cancer who were taking part in a major trial. Men were given a score depending on whether their disease was fuelled by male hormones known as androgens. In cases which were fuelled by the hormones - which makes the disease more aggressive - giving men abiraterone cut the risk of death after five years from 17 per cent to 9 per cent. In cases which were not, the risk went from 7 to 4 per cent among those given the drug, which experts said was not statistically or clinically significant. Such men would benefit from standard treatment, which would spare them the side effects which come with abiraterone, experts said. The current research received funding from Artera Inc., UK MRC and Prostate Cancer UK. Professor Nick James, Professor of Prostate and Bladder Cancer Research at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, who co-led the study said that the drug had already been found to have spectacular results for many men. He said the new findings allowed the treatment to be far more narrowly targeted, to pick out those who would respond best, and spare others from side effects. The Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust said access to the life extending drug was currently a postcode lottery despite the fact the drug costs just 2.75 a day. He urged NHS England to fund the drugs. Professor Kristian Helin, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: Abiraterone has been a game changer for treatment of prostate cancer, and Im proud of the ICRs role in discovering and testing this drug which has extended the lives of so many men. Alongside our mission to find smarter, kinder treatments, we must ensure we are matching the right drugs to the right patients. This research, using artificial intelligence, provides an innovative route to testing prostate cancer patients to determine their treatment. I hope that this can be implemented so that all men with prostate cancer who will benefit from abiraterone can do so. The prostate gland sits just under the bladder - Science Photo Library RF Study co-leader Professor Gert Attard, at the UCL Cancer Institute said advanced and aggressive prostate cancer could take a highly variable path, with the new evidence showing how algorithms could extract information from routinely available pathology slides to tailor these treatments to specific patients. Dr Matthew Hobbs, Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: Prostate Cancer UK has been calling on the UK Government to approve this life-saving, cost-effective drug for over two years. These exciting results suggest a way to make this an even more cost-effective approach. We therefore echo the researchers urgent call for abiraterone to be made available to those men whose lives it can save men who, thanks to this research, we can now identify more precisely than ever before. Treatment has cost me 20,000 so far Giles Turner, 64, who lives in Brighton, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March 2023. He has been taking abiraterone for almost two years and has spent 20,000 on his treatment so far. He said: This is great research and adds even more reason for NHS England to start funding this treatment now. I find it very difficult to come to terms with having to pay for this treatment whereas if I was with the NHS in Scotland or Wales I would not. Even more importantly are the thousands of men in England who are missing out on this cheap, life-saving and cost-saving drug. Action must be taken by NHS England and DHSC right now. Pope Leo XIV in St Peters Square, Vatican City - Angelo Carconi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock The author of Conclave has joked that he wishes cardinals had chosen an older pope to increase his chances of seeing another round of revived popularity in his book. Robert Harris said Pope Franciss death had elevated him from a journalist into an unlikely papal commentator who was regularly called in to offer expert insight. His novel Conclave, first published in 2016, also rode a wave of popularity on the back of its recent film adaptation. The 68-year-old told the Hay Festival: From my point of view it would have been better if the Conclave had gone on for one or two more days and if they had elected an older pope because I feel as though I have written a Christmas number one which will keep coming back. We will have to wait until the next Conclave which may be after my time. He added: I feel like I have suddenly become a most unlikely expert on the papacy, not a role I really ever expected to play. But now we can all move on. Ralph Fiennes insisted on being English for his role in Conclave - LMK The author praised Peter Straughan, whose screenwriting credits include Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, for a brilliant adaptation released to critical acclaim in 2024. He kept a lot of the dialogue, characters and story, but he boiled it down and kept what was best he did a terrific job, Mr Harris said, adding that director Edward Berger was wonderful. Mr Harris said Robert De Niro and Javier Bardem had been pegged for the role of Cardinal Lawrence before Ralph Fiennes was chosen. Robert Harris: The new pope watched the Conclave movie on the eve of the Conclave - Julian Simmonds/The Telegraph That speech that he delivers there will be no need for faith is just so brilliantly done, the author said of Mr Fiennes, revealing that the actor and director had asked to change the characters nationality from Spanish to English. I looked across the table and I thought do I really want to lose Ralph Fiennes? No, make him English it wont make any difference. And of course it doesnt make any difference at all, the author said. Looking back at the revival of interest in his book, he said: I found myself peculiarly having written a sort of primer. So much so that the new pope watched the Conclave movie on the eve of the Conclave so that he knew what was coming. Pope Leo XIV watched the film to know how to behave, according to his brother. John Prevost, 71, who lives in Chicago, told news reporters that he had asked his brother as a joke whether he had watched the film, and the future pope confirmed he had. His brother is one of those great brothers who clearly just blurts out anything, Mr Harris said, adding: He could be a source of great amusement in the years to come. Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to five sexual offences including rape and indecent assault. Brand, 49, did not speak to reporters as he arrived at Southwark Crown Court on Friday morning, wearing sunglasses and a dark coat over a black and white pinstriped shirt. He was flanked by his lawyer Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky, who successfully defended Kevin Spacey, the actor, against sex assault allegations in 2023. Brand was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault, relating to four women. The public gallery at Southwark Crown Court was packed with dozens of reporters. Ron Brand, is father, was also present. Brand walked into the dock staring straight ahead, before speaking to confirm his name. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His Honour Judge Baumgartner, the recorder of Westminster, set a trial date for June 3 2026. The trial is likely to last around four to five weeks. Russell Brand at Southwark Crown Court on Friday morning - Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph At a previous hearing at Westminster magistrates court on May 2, it was heard that the first offence allegedly took place in 1999 after the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. The court heard that Brand met a woman at a theatrical event and they then went back to a hotel room. Once in the room, it is alleged that Brand removed the womans underwear and raped her. The second woman to accuse him was allegedly indecently assaulted while working at a television station in 2001. She claims he grabbed her by the arm and attempted to drag her into a male toilet. The third woman, who also worked at a TV company, claims she was raped and sexually assaulted by Brand at a party in Soho in 2004. He is accused of grabbing her breasts before allegedly pulling her into a toilet and orally raping her. The fourth woman alleged she was sexually assaulted and met Brand while working at a radio station in 2004. At the time, he was working for Channel 4 on Big Brothers Big Mouth between 2004 and 2005, the court heard. The woman alleges he grabbed her by the face with both hands, pushed her against a wall, kissed her sloppily and grabbed her chest and buttocks. Once a high-tech rival to Audi and Rover, this lone Granada Ghia 4x4 is the last of its kind still on the road Some of the cars in this series covering fast-disappearing models have the power to make certain writers feel incredibly old such as when realising the third-generation Granada is now 40 years old. Even more startling is that this Ghia 4x4 offered for sale by Martin Howey Classics is believed to be the sole roadworthy example. The Granada Mk3 debuted in April 1985. To motorists used to the Mk2s crisp-cut looks that at a glance resembled an enlarged Cortina, the latest models jelly mould styling was somewhat of a shock. In addition, Ford sold it only in five-door (hatchback) guise, when the Mercedes-Benz W124, Vauxhall Carlton and Volvo 700-series were more conventional three-box saloons. Ford could argue that the Rover SD1 was a five-door rival, but that was coming to the end of its life. The new Granada represented as much a challenge to dealers as the Sierra had in 1982 when it replaced the Cortina. The Telegraph wondered how traditional Granada customers will take to the blandly aerodynamic hatchbacks. Are they sufficiently dignified for business customers? With its smooth jelly mould curves and discreet Ghia badging, the Mk3 Granadas aerodynamic shape marked a bold break from boxy 1980s saloons At that time, a poll suggested that 82 per cent of managers had some choice over their company car. There was a risk of such motorists defecting to the Carlton, but the Mk3 Granada at least retained its familiar name in the UK and Ireland. In mainland Europe, it was named the Scorpio after Ford rejected Lugano, a brand even less likely to appeal to a Weybridge insurance broker. For this country, Scorpio was the ultimate trim level, ranking above even Ghia. Ford hailed the Mk3 as setting standards by which other executive-class cars must be judged. Motor believed the new Granadas chassis can stand comparison with the best and it was Car of the Year 1986, beating the Lancia Y10 supermini from Italy and the W124 German saloon rival. And Ford sold the Granada Mk3 with the promise of high technology. It was the first mass-produced European car with ABS anti-lock brakes as standard on all versions. Furthermore, appreciating the business worlds fast-growing need for ultra-modern, Ford decided to introduce a cellular radio-telephone option on the new Granada. The Granadas chunky four-spoke wheel was built for long-haul comfort with power steering standard and controls angled towards the business driver This car was designed with four-wheel-drive in mind from the outset. In September 1985, Ford announced the Ghia and Scorpio 4x4. This newspaper reported Ford believed four-wheel-drive would appeal to senior executives who would appreciate its ability to keep the Granada mobile under all conditions. The 4WD system was mechanically identical to that of the Sierra XR4x4, with an epicyclic centre differential splitting power between 34 per cent to the front wheels and 66 per cent to the rear. The differential speed action was automatically controlled. The 4x4 models also had modified suspension and larger wheels. Trimmed in plush Astral fabric and heated for comfort, the Granadas front seats were designed to cosset executives on cross-country drives The Telegraph found the Granada 4x4 impressively safe and stable, if a little ponderous but thought the lighter Sierra 4x4 more fun to drive, feeling nimbler and more responsive. Autocar seemed more taken with the larger Ford, comparing its road manners to Jaguars superb achievement in the ride handling compromise of the XJ. Motor regarded the Granada 4x4 as extremely safe and very impressive and more satisfying to drive hard than the Audi 200 Turbo Quattro. It also contended it needed more power, thus in 1987 Ford replaced the long-established 2.8-litre V6 engine with a 2.9-litre unit. The sales copy aimed at the Yuppie market: Itll be quite a success in the City. The 4x4s top speed was 126mph, with 0-60 in 8.9sec. Spacious and softly upholstered, the rear seats offered ample legroom and comfort designed with chauffeured business travel in mind By 1989, the Ghia 4x4 cost 20,920 compared with 30,929 for the Audi 200 Turbo Quattro, 20,443 for the Rover Vitesse and 20,904 for the Vauxhall Senator 3.0i CD. A Ghia 4x4 owner would naturally expect electric windows, central locking adjustable steering, a sliding roof with louvred blind and alloy wheels. Not to mention heated front seats trimmed in luxurious Astral fabric. A major facelift in 1994 included the demise of the Granada name; the latest Scorpio had frontal treatment resembling a guppy in receipt of bad news. Production ended in 1998 after about 850,000 units. By then, the market for large cars from a non-prestige marque was rapidly diminishing. The Mk3 Granada/Scorpio was to be the last such Ford. Step inside the past: the 1989 Ford Granada Mk3 Ghia 4x4 offered plush comforts and cutting-edge tech for the discerning executive In retrospect, Fords decision not to introduce a four-door saloon option until the 1990 model year and an estate until 1991 was a mistake. Forty years ago, such versions would have broadened the Mk3s appeal and probably have found more favour with its customer base than the hatchback. Yet, this ultra-rare Ghia is a testament to Ford of Europes sheer ambition: a mass-production hatchback with four-wheel-drive and anti-lock brakes. And as Motor put it, testers could drive the Granada 4x4 so quickly and safely in such abysmal conditions. A criminal who exploited the Ukraine war to help her husband launder millions of pounds through the sale of vehicles has been described by a judge as a decent woman. Oksana Popovych, 42, a Ukrainian, was involved in the scheme alongside her husband, Valeriy, 52, and Vitaliy Lutsak, 43. On Friday, at Wood Green Crown court, she avoided jail when her two-year prison sentence was suspended for two years. Last month, her husband and Lutsak were both sentenced to six years and six months following a five-week trial. The gang used criminal cash to buy vans and lorries in the UK before selling them to Ukraine. After the sales, the earnings would be converted into cryptocurrency. In total, they laundered more than 6 million in just over a year. Vitaliy Lutsak, left, and Valeriy Popovych converted their earnings into cryptocurrency - MPS The profitable enterprise allowed the married couple to buy a second property worth 1 million, the court heard. Oksana and Valeriy Popovych were convicted of operating an unregistered money service business and transferring criminal property after a trial last month. Lutsak admitted operating an unregistered money service business but was convicted by a jury of transferring criminal property. Valeriy ran Sprint Commercial Ltd, an export business which bought vehicles in the UK from legitimate traders and sold them in Ukraine. Oksana was also employed by the business. After buying the vans with criminal cash, the money was converted to cryptocurrency. Lutsak acted as the money co-ordinator and would send the couple to collect criminal cash from customers in the UK. During the investigation, officers found more than $14 million (10.4 million) in cryptocurrency had passed through crypto wallets stored on his computer. The gang used criminal cash to buy vehicles in the UK before selling them to Ukraine and laundering the proceeds through cryptocurrency - MPS Peter Guest, defending Oksana, said: I really recognise the need for realism because there is here a very large amount of money involved. But there needs to be a different approach taken from that of her husband. He said that at every stage she had been acting under the guidance of her husband, adding that she would do as she was told. People who have known her for a long time all speak of a different woman, a woman who would not have become involved in criminal nature of any nature before she met her husband, Mr Guest said. The court heard that Oksanas sister has Downs syndrome and other mental illnesses, and that she is also required to care for her due to her parents ill health. Very remote chance of re-offending Sentencing her, Judge John Dodd said: Without people like you, Mrs Popovych, crime would be a lot less lucrative. You were hands-on, the evidence shows that without any ambiguity. I have to form my own view to exactly what it was you were doing. He said: It seems to me clear that had you not fallen in love with and married Mr Popovych and helped him in the business, had it not been for that, you would not be in the dock today. You are a woman of now 42 years of age, hitherto good character, character references I have read, reveal you to be a decent woman. He said that the chance of rehabilitation was probable and there was a very remote chance of you re-offending. Oksana was handed a suspended prison sentence of two years and must undertake 150 hours of unpaid work. There were tears and hugs with her family after she was released from the dock. The heads taken from the bodies of nine Black New Orleanians arrive for the ceremony. Photograph: Jacob Cochran/Dillard University. In the late 1800s, 19 Black New Orleanians heads were dismembered and shipped to Leipzig University in Germany for research. The 19 had died at New Orleans charity hospital between 1871 and 1872, and the research, which was commonplace at the time, sought to confirm and explore the now widely debunked theory that Black peoples brains were smaller than those of other races. In the 1880s, Dr Henry D Schmidt, a New Orleans physician, sent the skulls to Dr Emil Ludwig Schmidt. They were taken from the bodies of 13 men, four women and two unidentified people. They were stripped of their dignity, Dillard Universitys president, Monique Guillory, said at a news conference on Wednesday. They were people with names. They were people with stories and histories. Some of them had families, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, human beings. Leipzig University is in the process of repatriating skulls, bringing them back to their original locations. To that end, in 2023, representatives from the university contacted the city of New Orleans to inform it of the 19 skulls. The city formed a cultural repatriation committee, led by historian Eva Baham, which includes representatives from Dillard University, the city of New Orleans, the University medical center and other community partners. Over the course of the last two years, the cultural repatriation committee attempted, unsuccessfully, to contact descendants of the victims. Still, they were able to find out the names of the deceased and their ages (ranging from 15 to 70), what they died from and how long they had been in New Orleans in one instance, one of the people had been in New Orleans for only hour before dying. Only five of the identified people were from Louisiana; the others were from Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky. Now, more than 150 years later, those skulls were returned to New Orleans and will be memorialized and laid to rest on Saturday the location of the rest of their remains is unknown. A visitation will take place at Dillard Universitys Lawless Memorial Chapel with a service. A memorial and jazz funeral are also scheduled for that day. The remains of 17 of the 19 people Adam Grant, Isaak Bell, Hiram Smith, William Pierson, Henry Williams, John Brown, Hiram Malone, William Roberts, Alice Brown, Prescilla Hatchet, Marie Louise, Mahala (last name unknown), Samuel Prince, John Tolman, Henry Allen, Moses Willis and Henry Anderson will be laid to rest with their names. Two of the 19 could not be identified. All of the remains will be stored at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. This is not simply about bones and artifacts. It is not only about injustices. This is about restoring and, in many ways for us here, celebrating our humanity, Guillory said. It is about confronting a dark chapter in medical and scientific history, and choosing instead a path of justice, honor and remembrance. And we will do so in the most sacred way we know how: in a true New Orleans fashion, with a jazz funeral that shows the world these people mattered. They belonged. They belonged here, and now they are home. Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers. Nearly 80% of Yahoo readers said they thought disruptive behviour on flights had increased. (Getty Images) (Getty Images) Summer is on the way and with it, a growing number of reports about disruptive behaviour in the skies. It was reported this week that an EasyJet flight from Gatwick had to be diverted owing to "drunk and abusive" members of a stag party. The flight, which was on route to Marrakesh, was forced to land in Portugal, where two members of the group were escorted from the plane by police. A passenger told WalesOnline that some of the party were "vaping in their seats", "using bad language" and "being abusive towards staff". In a separate incident, a video of a man filmed shouting homophobic abuse at staff as he tries to board an aircraft, has been racking up huge views on TikTok. The altercation at Manchester airport is thought to have occurred last summer, after the passenger was barred from the flight for being "disruptive and aggressive". According to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of 'unruly' passenger incidents in the air is on the rise. Leaping from one incident for every 835 flights in 2021 to one in every 480 in 2023. And Yahoo readers seem to have noticed an upward trend, too. In our poll earlier this week, we asked 'Have you noticed passenger behaviour on flights getting worse?' A resounding 78% of respondent said yes, while just 15% said they hadn't noticed an increase and 7% were undecided. The poll's Have Your Say feature attracted some passionate comments too, with many readers thinking alcohol sales at airports and onboard flights played a part in passenger behaviour. David H from Nottingham said: "We no longer fly because we feel threatened by some people who have had too much to drink before getting on the plane. They are then offered more alcohol on the flight." Mick S from Durham told us that, when he was on a flight from Newcastle to Benidorm, passengers cheered after all the alcohol onboard had been sold. "I don't think Ive ever been so embarrassed to be British when the people in the row in front of us were Canadian," he wrote. Possibly inebriated passengers should be required to be breathalysed before boarding a flight.Nigel S, Derby Nigel S from Derby suggested limiting alcohol sales could help ease the issue. "Airports should limit the amount of alcohol passengers can drink before boarding planes and be subject to normal licensing hours," he said. "Possibly inebriated passengers should be required to be breathalysed before boarding a flight with a limit placed above which they will be denied boarding." And Matthew D from Cheshire went further, calling for a complete ban on alcohol when flying. "With global airline travel on the increase it is essential we see the sale of alcohol withdrawn from sale during flights for the safety of the crew and passengers," he said. "I don't want my young children to witness violence/ inappropriate behaviour or medical emergencies through negligent/ immature behaviour from passengers who have consumed alcohol. Stag and hen parties also ruin people's flights and should also be banned." Flying is just a normal part of life now and sadly for some people that means continuing to act like idiots.Dave O, Leeds Others said that it wasn't just alcohol that was to blame but people's attitudes, too. "The increase in low-cost flights means that flying is now commonplace and not considered an event. People are no longer on their best behaviour, wanting to enjoy the experience. It's just a normal part of life now and sadly for some people that means continuing to act like idiots," said Dave O from Leeds. And LC from Manchester agreed, saying a "Lack of respect for anyone or anything has caused the behaviour of people travelling". Airlines try to make more money by asking people to pay more for the convenience of sitting together, which causes issues with other travellersJanet F, Chester However Janet F from Chester said unruly behaviour was "hardly surprising". And airline companies need to shoulder some of the responsibility. "Travellers are crammed into seats far too close to have any personal space or to be able to stand up straight, you cannot recline as it's considered rude," she wrote. "Airlines try to make more money by asking people travelling together to pay more for the convenience of sitting together even when it's parents and their children, which causes issues with other travellers all caused by airline greed." One way to stop it is to charge the culprit all diversion costs including landing fees.Lance P, Goring As for a suitable punishment for disruptive behaviour in the skies, Lance P from Goring said: "One way to stop it is to charge the culprit all diversion costs including landing fees, additional fuel, aircraft charter for the additional flight time and then put them on a no-flight list which is distributed amongst all airlines." Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles Jimmy Lai Dictatorships use solitary confinement as a form of torture, designed to break the prisoners spirit. Under international law, prolonged solitary confinement is defined as exceeding 15 days. British citizen and 77 year-old media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, in jail in Hong Kong, has now exceeded 1,600 days in solitary confinement, yet has committed no crime. He has already served several prison sentences on multiple trumped-up charges, including 13 months for lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. He is currently on trial under Hong Kongs draconian National Security Law, imposed by Beijing in 2020, and could face life imprisonment, simply for standing up for the human rights and democratic principles that China pledged to guarantee when it was handed control of Hong Kong from British rule. The authorities appear determined to drag his trial out for as long as possible. When it started at the end of 2023, it was due to last 30 days. Multiple adjournments have meant that closing submissions will not be heard until August this year and the verdict and sentencing may not come until the end of the year, making it a two-year trial process. This outrageous foot-dragging is designed to test the mental strength of Mr Lai, his family and his legal team. Despite widespread international condemnation, Mr Lai continues to be held in a tiny cell for more than 23 hours a day, deprived of natural light, and permitted less than an hour a day for physical exercise in a confined space. This is dehumanising and brutal treatment more often associated with maximum security prisons for extremely violent offenders, while Mr Lai just lit a candle to commemorate a massacre that China has tried to erase from history, and exercised his freedom of expression by founding and publishing a successful newspaper. He is in jail for journalism, and for his opinions. Mr Lai, who is diabetic, has been denied access to independent medical care, and denied the right to his first choice of legal counsel, when British barrister Tim Owen KC was barred from representing him. His international legal team has received numerous outrageous threats. Even the right to receive Holy Communion has been restricted which, for Mr Lai as a devout Catholic, is a particularly poignant cruelty. Several governments around the world including the United Kingdom, United States and Australia have called for his release, as have the Canadian and European Parliaments. Five United Nations Special Rapporteurs independent experts on freedom of expression, freedom of association, torture, the independence of judges and lawyers, and counter-terrorism and human rights and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have expressed concerns about the case. But the key question is what is the British government actually doing to free its citizen? It is not that no one seems to care plenty of sympathy and support has been expressed for Mr Lais plight. The fact that both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves have raised the case in their exchanges with Chinas leaders is welcome. A cross-departmental approach from the Government is the right strategy. But the important question is how was it raised? In passing, as a box-ticking exercise, or in a meaningful way? If Mr Lai dies in jail, what will be the consequences for Chinas relations with the United Kingdom, and have they been spelled out? It is time to turn sympathy into action, and words into meaningful measures. That is why an open letter to the prime minister last week by 22 former prisoners or relatives of former prisoners from around the world, asking him to do everything in your power to bring Jimmy Lai home, is so powerful and significant. Among the signatories are people whose own plight once looked dire. They include Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza and his wife Evgenia, former Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her husband Richard, Chinese-Australian journalist Cheng Lei who was jailed in China, Paul Rusebagina who was imprisoned in Rwanda and the former Soviet dissident For these reasons, they urge the United Kingdom to take urgent steps to secure Mr Lais release, before it is too late. They call on the prime minister to meet Mr Lais family as a matter of urgency, and to take robust, principled, strategic action. President Donald Trump has said that Mr Lais case will be on the table in any US-China trade talks. The United Kingdom must be equally strategic in identifying what leverage it can use to free Mr Lai. It must make it clear to Beijing that Mr Lais continued imprisonment and the risk that he might die in jail is not in the interests of either China or Hong Kong. Not if it wishes to remain a significant business partner. Other countries have been able to secure the release of their citizens from China. Australia worked hard to free Cheng Lai, as did Canada in the case of its citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, and Ireland with the detention of businessman Richard OHalloran. The United States spares no effort in securing the release of its citizens unjustly imprisoned abroad. Sir Keir Starmer therefore must step up to free Mr Lai. Mr Lais name must be on the lips of every world leader, every diplomat, every journalist and every Parliamentarian until he is freed. He should never have been arrested in the first place, but after four and a half years of his detention in solitary confinement it is time to say clearly to Beijing: enough is enough. Free Jimmy Lai now. Benedict Rogers is Senior Director of Fortify Rights and a co-founder and trustee of Hong Kong Watch Laura Wilde as Lisa and Aaron Cawley as Herman - Alastair Muir After the bright daylight and saucy flirtations of Garsington Operas season-opener The Elixir of Love, their second night plunged us into romantic despair and mad obsession, with a strong whiff of sulphur. The titular Queen of Spades in Tchaikovskys great opera is an elderly Russian countess who has the secret for winning cards, but its a secret that will bring death to anyone who learns it. For the operas bitter anti-hero Herman the way to that secret lies through the Countesss niece Lisa. But perhaps love for her will rescue him from his mad obsession? Thats the intimate heart of the opera, but as this fabulous new production makes clear the story is rooted in the tensions of Russian society. Director Jack Furness and designer Tom Piper summon that worlds luxuriant, telling detail as well as its huge epic sweep and barely concealed brutality. In the barracks at the very beginning we see some lads playing soldiers. Its charming, and the excellent Garsington Opera Childrens Chorus savour the Russian words. But when one of them falls down the others give his head a good kicking. Later, when we see Herman explaining his infatuation with the socially unattainable Lisa to his good friend Tomsky, he gets contemptuous looks from the strolling St Petersburg high society, who admire themselves in the mottled mirrored detachable walls that make up the set. These spin round to reveal previously hidden worlds. It might be the make-believe of a Rococo theatre-in-a-theatre, or the grim cramped barracks where Herman dreams his dream of infinite wealth. Robert Hayward as Plutus, Laura Wilde as Chloe, Stephanie Wake-Edwards as Daphnis - Alastair Muir This picturesque but fundamentally grim world is enlivened by the dancers in the ball scenes and above all by Garsingtons lavish 32-strong chorus, breathtakingly vigorous whether theyre playing eager gamblers round the gambling-table or the Countesss chattering servants. Tchaikovskys blazing score, which ranges from Mozartian pastiche to Russian charm to the tremor and shriek of the supernatural is brought to vivid life by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Garsingtons musical director Douglas Boyd. However the couple at the operas heart are not quite so strong. Laura Wilde as Lisa has an impressive flaring voice but her performance felt rather dramatically tepid, and though Aaron Cawleys dark-grained tenor seemed right for Hermans obsession one missed a sense of that countervailing tenderness for Lisa that might have saved him. The Queen of Spades performed at Garsington Opera - Alastair Muir The circle of army friends around Herman were more convincingly portrayed, above all gravel-voiced Robert Hayward as the jovial, ever-optimistic Tomsky. Roderick Williams as the stuffed-shirt Prince Yelestsky who loses out to the romantically fascinating Herman provided the subtlest singing of the performance, in his aria of dignified heartbreak. However the evenings most spell-binding moment came from Diana Montague as the Countess, alone in her bedroom, recalling her young days in Paris when she learned the secret of the three cards. On opening night, when the lights fell and the orchestral sound dropped to a whisper, you could feel everyone lean forward to catch the old witchs secrets. Sometimes the best moments at the opera are the quietest. At Garsington Opera until July 4; garsingtonopera.org China eyes AI application cooperation center with SCO nations 10:21, May 30, 2025 By Ma Tong ( Global Times China on Thursday announced a plan to establish an artificial intelligence (AI) application cooperation center together with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and pledged to ramp up cooperation in providing open-source services among them in order to deepen technology integration. The initiative was revealed during a high-level AI Cooperation forum between China and SCO held in North China's Tianjin on Thursday, which aimed to explore ways to strengthen cooperation in emerging tech fields and foster practical cooperation in AI development and governance between China and SCO members. Once established, the cooperation center is expected to play a significant role in bolstering AI development, expanding open-source services, supporting industry collaboration and nurturing talent, China Media Group (CMG) reported on Thursday. Under the initiative, China pledged to jointly develop high-quality datasets and corpora, promote secure and orderly cross-border data flows, as well as AI models sharing. Additional plans include developing sovereign AI models, mutual recognition of AI standards, create a green channel for AI industry supply-demand alignment, and implement systematic training programs to boost personnel exchanges. Zhang Hong, a research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, praised the growing collaboration between China and SCO countries in cutting-edge technologies aligns with global tech trends, while addressing SCO member states' needs for economic transformation. At Thursday's forum, China proposed a four-point plan to enhance policy coordination, expand technological collaboration, promote application empowerment, and strengthen AI governance, and participating countries all agreed to accelerate the development of high-quality datasets and corpora, as well as to conduct joint research on frontier AI technologies. The 2025 China-SCO AI Cooperation Forum was co-hosted by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Tianjin municipal government. An NDRC official said at the forum that the SCO, as the world's largest regional organization in terms of geographical coverage and population, possesses abundant data resources and diverse application scenarios, according to the CMG report. "Strengthening cooperation in AI is poised to inject new momentum into the economic development of all SCO member states," the official said. Zhang added that China has made rapid advancement in AI research and development, as Chinese AI models like DeepSeek are significantly lowering technological barriers, making AI deployment more accessible, breaking the "technological walls" erected by certain countries. China has also offered abundant free or low-cost research resources and platforms, enabling SCO countries to advance AI application in areas such as digital infrastructure, governance, and public services, according to Zhang. Zhang described the cooperation as "mutually beneficial," noting that it not only drives socioeconomic development but also creates opportunities for Chinese technology to be used globally. As of April 2025, China's AI patent applications have exceeded 1.5 million, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the global total, making it a global leader in this metric, official data showed. The country has built a relatively complete AI ecosystem and is committed to offering more AI public goods to the world, according to NDRC. From July 10-11, 2025, Tianjin will host a SCO digital economy forum, which will focus on urban digital transformation, digital technology innovation, and digital infrastructure development, according to another CMG report. Zhang noted that the deepening cooperation in a host of emerging technologies highlights the SCO's growing impact in global economic and technological agendas. "It manifests the organization's evolving role as an international cooperation mechanism that amplifies the voice and influence of many developing nations." Since its founding, the SCO has seen deepening economic cooperation across many industrial sectors. In 2024, trade between China and SCO members, observers, and dialogue partners reached $890 billion, setting a historic high, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. Amid the current Western-dominated global AI governance structure, the developing countries must enhance cooperation to build up their influence, Zhang said. "Leveraging multilateral platforms like the SCO, China can help the developing countries to adopt cutting-edge technologies such as AI, contributing to a more multipolar and equitable global technology governance framework," he added. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Lord Hermer compared threats by politicians to abandon international law such as the European Convention on Human Rights to Nazi Germany Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure to sack his Attorney General after he compared calls to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to the rise of Nazism. Lord Hermer was forced to apologise on Friday for his clumsy remarks that likened politicians wanting to leave the ECHR to legal experts in 1930s Germany, who rejected international law and human rights in favour of state power. Following an outcry from Conservative and Reform MPs, Lord Hermers spokesman said he acknowledged that his choice of words was clumsy and regrets having used this reference, in an apology released by Downing Street. The row, an attack on the Tories and Reform, is a particular headache for Sir Keir as it comes less than a week before the Scottish Parliament by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, where Nigel Farages party will challenge Labour, a month after seizing hundreds of seats in the local elections. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader whom Lord Hermer criticised by name, is leading calls to sack him, though the Prime Minister has insisted he has full confidence in his law chief. Mrs Badenoch, who has hinted that she would be prepared to leave the ECHR unless it is reformed, said: From refusing to fight the case against Kneecap, to advising the Government to hand over 30 billion and our territory in the Chagos Islands, Lord Hermer has shown appalling judgment time and again. Now hes calling people who disagree with him Nazis. This isnt just embarrassing, its dangerous. Hermer doesnt understand government. He believes in the rule of lawyers, not the rule of law. If Keir Starmer had any backbone, hed sack him. But will he risk upsetting his old friend and former donor? I doubt it. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has backed leaving the ECHR said: An apology is something, but the damage to our country continues. Hermer sums up this failing Government. Comments were extreme and foolish Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary who has also backed quitting the treaty, said: Lord Hermers appalling smear shows the complete disdain with which Labour views people who care about border security. He is a liability that you cant trust to defend Britains interests. Starmer hasnt sacked him because he shares his anti-British, hard-Left world view. The row has also caused concerns on Labour backbenches. Senior Labour MP Graham Stringer said: I think it was a mistake to appoint someone with no obvious political experience to a senior position in the Cabinet. Blunders like that can be expected from inexperienced politicians. If you can join international treaties, you can leave them. There are processes for that. His comments were extreme and foolish. Lord Hermer, who has no background in politics, is a friend of the Prime Minister and was given a peerage to enter Parliament after Labour won the general election last year. He has already faced criticism over his alleged conflicts of interest in his previous work as a human rights lawyer, including representing Gerry Adams. His apology came hours after a minister defended him. Catherine McKinnell, an education minister, insisted he had given a quite thoughtful speech about international law, telling Times Radio: Talk about withdrawing from international law only helps people like those who prefer a lawless world. However, his comments are said to have caused unrest within Sir Keirs Cabinet. One source told The Times that his comments were the kind of thing that you might do if youre a campaigning human rights lawyer but that you cant behave like that in government and it reveals an awful lot about him. Rejection of the siren song In his speech on Thursday, he said that the Tories pick and mix approach towards treaties and agreements clashed with Labours policy of progressive realism, which he said meant the Government worked within the limits of international law. He said that their approach marked a rejection of the siren song that Britain abandons the constraints of international law in favour of raw power. This is not a new song. The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when the conditions change, is a claim that was made in the early 1930s by realist jurists in Germany most notably Carl Schmitt, whose central thesis was in essence the claim that state power is all that counts, not law, he said. Because of the experience of what followed 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law, as well as internal constitutional law. Mr Schmitt, who joined the Nazi party in 1933, is seen as an authoritarian conservative theorist who was a vocal critic of parliamentary democracy and liberalism. His theories about state power provided ideological justification for the regime but he later lost favour and was removed from official positions. A spokesman for Lord Hermer said: The Attorney General gave a speech defending international law which underpins our security, protects against threats from aggressive states like Russia and helps tackle organised immigration crime. He rejects the characterisation of his speech by the Conservatives. He acknowledges, though, that his choice of words was clumsy and regrets having used this reference. The NSW government has reached an agreement with rail unions which will see about 13,000 rail workers receive a 12% pay increase over three years. Photograph: Steven Markham/AAP The New South Wales government has reached an agreement with the rail unions, ending months of negotiations and industrial action. The proposed enterprise agreement will see about 13,000 rail workers receive a 12% pay increase over three years, plus back pay. This agreement will bring relief to the disruption from protected industrial action that a million daily rail commuters have been forced to endure while just trying to get to work and get around, the NSW transport minister, John Graham, said in a statement on Friday. The agreement also includes technology-based solutions to improve recovery times when there are incidents on the tracks, including a new digital disruption management system that will replace the manual phone call system. The pay deal will see yearly increases of 4% each year, with back pay back to 1 May 2024. The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW said it was working to get the draft agreement to members as soon as possible. Members will then review it and vote on it and if the agreement is supported, it will go to Fair Work Commission for final approval. Related: A single incident brought Sydneys train network to a standstill again. Heres why it keeps happening RTBU NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, said that discussions with the state government over the past few weeks had been fruitful. This is a very positive development that will no doubt come as welcome relief to commuters as well as rail workers, Warnes said. Weve reached a point where we have an agreement that includes crucial safety features as well as fair and reasonable wages and other conditions. There will be a mechanism for the union to escalate any safety concerns related to a new project. Warnes said rail workers had been on the receiving end of some atrocious abuse throughout the process, amid industrial action. Were now looking forward to seeing the NSW government turn its focus to improving our transport system across the state, he said. Wed like to thank the new transport minister for the role hes clearly played in helping us finally reach this point. Strained the patience of train passengers The NSW government said on Friday that the combined rail unions had agreed to support the rollout and other changes to reduce time lost to delays. This process has strained the patience of train passengers but in finalising this deal we have made a very important investment in reliability, Graham said. This much-needed reset allows us to implement improvements for passengers with the full support of the rail workforce and unions, he said. The agreement, if supported by employees, will bring to an end about a year of negotiations and work stoppages since the last agreement lapsed in May 2024. The NSW government said one outstanding clause remains that the Electrical Trades Union [ETU] does not support, and the Fair Work Commission is working to resolve, but said it does not affect the agreement with the combined rail unions. The unions had sought a 32% pay rise over four years, compared with the governments starting offer of 9.5% over three years. The 12% offer was first made in February. According to Transport for NSW, an average Sydney Trains driver earns about $128,000 a year factoring in common overtime and allowances while a guard on the network earns about $115,000. The RTBU counters that the average base salary for a Sydney Trains driver is just over $78,000. The latest data from the ABS, released in August 2024, puts median earnings at $72,592 a year. The NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman seized on the ETUs disagreement over the clause, suggesting the union was blocking the agreement. Until we see the actual deal, this is just a press release. Commuters want reliability, not fanfare. A press release isnt a solution, Speakman said. However, Guardian Australia understands that despite the ETUs lack of support for one clause, the combined rail unions of which the ETU is a small section expect this to be resolved and for the broader rail employee workforce to vote in favour of the agreement. A Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II. The car will become part of the royal mews to be used on official occasions and not for private use, sources indicated. Photograph: PR King Charles received coronation gifts ranging from a luxury Rolls-Royce to a feather crown and two hand-woven coconut leaf hats, according to an official register. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, thought to be worth at least 300,000, was given by the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. As an official gift to Charles as head of state, the car will become part of the royal mews to be used on official occasions and not for private use, sources indicated. The Bahraini king also gave Charles a decorative clock. The feather crown was a present from Amazonian Indigenous leaders, and the traditional South Pacific coconut leaf hats were from the president of the Marshall Islands. There were plenty of trees, too, from tree saplings given by the Swedish royal family to a Tirolean pine tree from the Austrian president. Other coronation gifts included a table and a model ship from the emir of Kuwait; a decorative pot from the sultan of Brunei; and, from the then US president, Joe Biden, a leather folder containing printed letters between Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D Eisenhower inviting the latter to the UK, with a photograph of the visit. The late queen received a trio of brooches among other gifts for her platinum jubilee a white gold, platinum and diamond brooch from the Goldsmiths Company, a diamond and platinum brooch from the Freemasons, and a platinum pearl and diamond brooch from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The jewellery will become part of the royal collection and may be worn by other members of the royal family. Two lamp-posts outside the Houses of Parliament in the form of bronze sculptures of heraldic beasts were presented by both houses for the jubilee. Chinas president, Xi Jinping, sent a large cloisonne ornament in the design of a zun, a wine vessel used in ancient Chinese rituals, with motifs and patterns symbolising royalty and good fortune. The Australian air force in 2021 sent the queen a practical gift of six dog jackets of varying sizes. Joe and Jill Biden, on the occasion of having tea at Windsor Castle, contributed an engraved specially commissioned Tiffany sterling silver box and a floral brooch. Gifts received by Queen Camilla include lapis lazuli gemstones from Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, and a brooch from the crown prince of Kuwait. This is the first official gifts register to be published in the kings reign and dates back to 2020. Normally the list is published on the royal family website annually, but the Covid pandemic, the death of Elizabeth and the coronation led to delays. Gifts cannot be sold or exchanged and eventually become part of the royal collection, which is held in trust for successors and the nation. Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye, who was paid 3.2m last year, slept through much of the airports power outage on March 21 because his phone had gone into a silent mode - Soren Bidstrup/AFP via Getty Images It was one of the more astonishing admissions of the week: Sorry lads, my phone was on silent. Or, as the Kelly Review, published on Wednesday, put it: Mr Woldbye expressed to us his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident. The apology nestles in a 75-page report authored by Ruth Kelly, the former transport secretary, who examined the circumstances relating to the closure of Heathrow Airport on March 21. Its an impressively speedy job, with most inquiries of this nature usually waiting for the protagonists to die or, at best, until their memories have long faded and the events have been massaged into a Netflix documentary to be concluded. Yet here is a report published while the senior folk of one of the largest and busiest airports in Europe are still firmly in post, and clinging on for dear life especially the chief executive, Thomas Woldbye. Indeed he has been vexed at the idea that he acted in any way other than exemplary over the 18-hour shutdown of Heathrow that resulted in the cancellation of 1,300 flights and affected some 270,000 passengers. The day after the shutdown, the Danish businessman even told Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4s Today programme that, in relation to the actions and decisions of Heathrow and related parties, he was proud of the entire ecosystem. Pride being the most plausible emotion for him to express because, when the decision was taken to press the Heathrow off-button, Woldbye was asleep. Which for a Dane strikes me as a peculiarly British reaction, albeit with firm roots in the comedy of Captain Mainwaring of Dads Army or Blackadders General Melchett. Our hero, Woldbye, as you can read on page 36 of the report (section 14, subsection 3), first became aware of the incident at approximately 06:45 on 21 March, and received a debrief from Mr Echave [Heathrows chief operating officer]. Fine work, man, he might have said. Now, whats going on? And, famously, it was not for want of trying to get hold of Woldbye during the night. In fact, what is known in the trade as the most critical event communication platform that provides information and sends alerts through all available communication channels, an F24 alarm was issued at 00.21. This is the technical equivalent of a cold bucket of water being thrown in your face, a gong being struck by your ear, a jumping up and down on Daddy at dawn. There was another F24 sent at 01.52, this one activating Gold (harder slaps around the chops, cries of wake up, you idiot!) and Echave, also we learn, attempted to call Mr Woldbye several times during the early hours. Except Woldbyes mobile, albeit on his bedside table, was on silent. Or, as the report states, the phone had gone into a silent mode, without him being aware it had done so. Thats right, the man in charge of Heathrow an airport that uses the most sophisticated technology available to run and protect a place with planes departing and landing every 45 seconds has a phone that, completely of its own accord, jumps into do not disturb mode. Perhaps the man whose most recent annual take-home pay was 3.2 million needs a second phone. Or how about an old-school landline with a trilling bell on it? Hapless leadership We Brits are, quite clearly, lions led by donkeys. Incompetence seems key to the skill set in running either a large company or indeed government. There are, for example, the civil servants of the Department for Business and Trade who, in the face of colossal public pressure and moral finger-wagging, continue to resist fully compensating the likes of Sir Alan Bates for the Horizon IT system scandal. Last weekend he revealed that he had been offered a take it or leave it offer of 49.2 per cent of his original claim. The compensation scheme, Sir Alan said, had become quasi-kangaroo courts in which the Department for Business and Trade sits in judgement of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses. Or, consider the major water companies presiding over the effluent that pollutes our rivers. Earlier this month, Chris Weston, the CEO of Thames Water Britains biggest water company; a firm with massive debts, outdated infrastructure and more leaks and spills than the Titanic admitted that senior managers had been in line for substantial bonuses courtesy of a privately financed 3 billion rescue-plan loan. Following pressure from Environment Secretary Steve Reed, Westons spokesperson then announced that payments had been paused. Yet, as The Guardian reported, Thames Water declined to answer questions about whether any of the retention package has already been paid. High Court judge Mr Justice Leech, in relation to an 800 million cost to be spent on interest and advisers for the debt deal, said: Customers and residents who are struggling with their bills will be horrified at these costs and mystified how the Thames Water Group has been able to fund them or why it has agreed to do so. Ponder, too, on those who run Royal Mail, increasing prices while presiding over terminal decline of their services, and the pen-pushing ninnies of our councils conjuring up safety costs that are wrecking traditional country street fairs and festivals. Indeed, just look to the politicians who run our country. We have a Chancellor in Rachel Reeves who claims to support hospitality while actually savaging it with increases in National Insurance Contributions for employers, and a Secretary of State for Education gleefully manifesting over a VAT policy that is closing down private schools. Hapless leadership is a terrific subject for fiction. But, sometimes, life is not supposed to mimic art. Sydney Sweeneys new soap will go on sale on June 6 Sydney Sweeney, the American actress, will sell soap infused with her used bathwater because her fans wouldnt stop asking for it. The 27-year-old said she was flooded with requests after appearing in an advert last year that showed her soaking in the tub. In the advertisement, filmed for Dr. Squatch, a mens personal care company, Sweeney bathes and tells viewers: Hello, you dirty little boys. Are you interested in my body wash? Speaking as she announced her new Sydneys Bathwater Bliss soap, she said: When your fans start asking for your bathwater, you can either ignore it or turn it into a bar of Dr. Squatch soap. Credit: Dr Squatch Its weird in the best way, and I love that we created something thats not just unforgettable, it actually smells incredible and delivers like every other Dr. Squatch product I love. The product will be a mix of soap made with sand and pine bark extract, with a touch of Sydneys real bathwater, Dr. Squatch said. In a post on Instagram, the company wrote that it had created the soap because yall wouldnt stop asking for it. Sweeney told GQ magazine that comments from fans wanting to consume her bathwater were likely to have been influenced by a scene from the 2023 film Saltburn, in which Barry Keoghans character drinks the leftover bathwater of Jacob Elordis character. The soap is priced at $8 (6) a bar Honestly, it probably has been a huge catalyst for it, she said. During filming for the Dr. Squatch advertisement, Sweeney said the crew had a tub for me. And I actually got in there and I took some soap, and we had a nice little bath and they took the water. So its my real bathwater. Describing the soap, she said, Its super soft... its marbly and has blues and a little bit of brown in it. The actress, who grew up near Spokane, Washington, said she wanted Sydneys Bathwater Bliss to lean towards my home roots, so theres this really outdoorsy scent of, like, pine and earthy moss and fir. So it smells super manly. The soap, priced at $8 (6), will have a limited run of 5,000 bars and will go on sale on June 6. The soap will have a limited run of 5,000 bars The announcement received a mixed reception on social media, with one X user describing it as genius marketing. But another said: If you buy this soap, you should be placed on a watchlist because something is wrong with you. Sweeney, who once apologised for having great cleavage and correct opinions, is a rising star, with credits including the HBO series Euphoria and Quentin Tarantinos Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In 2023, she starred in the romantic comedy Anyone But You and a year later had a prominent role in Sonys Spider-Man spin-off Madame Web. Credit: Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation via Facebook Ferocious wildfires in western Canada have forced thousands of people to flee their homes in Manitoba. Some 17,000 Canadians were evacuated before the blaze spread to neighbouring Saskatchewan. Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan, has declared a state of emergency, with 14 wildfires raging in the province. The conditions that our northern residents, communities and wild land firefighters are facing today are as severe or quite likely unlike anything we have faced in quite some time, if not ever, said Mr Moe on Thursday evening. Some 166 fires are burning across Canada, including 84 deemed out of control, many in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. Smoke rises from a wildfire in Flin Flon, Manitoba, where soldiers have been deployed to help evacuate residents - Government of Manitoba/Anadolu via Getty The Canadian armed forces have been deployed to Manitoba to help evacuate residents, according to Wab Kinew, the provinces premier, who said: This is a moment of fear and uncertainty. There is a risk that smoke from the fires could spill across the southern border and into the US, affecting air quality in Minneapolis, Detroit, Michigan, Wisconsin and Chicago. Elsaida Alerta, who lives in Flin Flon, Manitoba, said she could barely breathe as she raced to leave her home. The town is absolutely smoked out here, she said. Were just kind of in a panic here. A wildfire takes hold near Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Some 84 fire burning across Canada are said to be out of control - Reuters Canada suffered its worst wildfire season in 2023, with more than 42 million acres of land burning. Scientists have pointed to climate change as the reason for Canadas worsening problem, with 40 per cent of the countrys land mass considered Arctic, where temperatures are warming three times faster than the global average. Natalie Phelps at home in Bainbridge Island, Washington, on 2 April 2025. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images A 43-year-old woman and mother of two with advanced cancer says she is experiencing life-or-death delays in treatment because of the Trump administrations cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has spoken publicly, raising the alarm about a setback in care for herself and others who are part of clinical trials run by the agency. Her story has made it into congressional hearings and spurred a spat between a Democratic senator and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. Behind the scenes, she and others are advocating to get her treatment started sooner. So far, Phelps has been told that her treatment, which should have started around mid-June, will not begin until after mid-July. Related: Fiscally irresponsible: Trumps big, beautiful bill benefits the rich at the expense of the poor Ive done everything I can do, Phelps, who lives in Washington state, told the Guardian. Theres nothing else I can do. Im really just out of options. Theres very limited treatments approved for colorectal cancer. Phelps is one of many Americans whose lives have been disrupted or altered by the ongoing cuts to government services made by the Trump administrations so-called department of government efficiency (Doge). Some NIH scientists have lost their jobs, and others have seen their grants ended. Researchers told the Associated Press that cuts to the agency and its programs would end treatment for cancer patients and delay cures and treatment discoveries. Phelps was diagnosed in 2020, soon after giving birth to her second child, and after her symptoms were dismissed by doctors for months. Since then, shes gone through 48 rounds of chemotherapy. She had an 18-hour surgery to remove her primary tumor, plus two follow-up liver surgeries. Shes had radiation therapy to her brain, leg and pelvis. Dr Steven Rosenbergs cell-based immunotherapy trial at the NIH offered hope. The treatment uses a persons own cells to fight cancer and has seen some promise for patients with colon, rectal and gastrointestinal cancers. This was deemed an exciting step by the medical community because the process had previously worked on blood cancers, but not solid cancers, the Washington Post reported. But these promising developments are coming alongside cuts to federal agencies, including ones that have affected these trials, Rosenberg has publicly confirmed. The trial itself was not cut, but it is experiencing delays because of staff reductions, Rosenberg has said. Phelps passed the initial medical steps to enter the trial in March, then flew to Bethesda, Maryland, at the end of April. There, they drew her blood to use to engineer T-cells for her treatment, which she previously was told takes about four weeks. Instead, she was told it would now take eight weeks, which the doctors said was because of funding cuts imposed by Doge. That got me motivated enough to start to really panic, because my cancer between March and April really exploded and progressed to my lymph nodes and my bones, she said. My oncologist was very anxious about the difference between four and eight weeks could make, waiting for those treatment products. One month can make a huge difference in late-stage cancer treatment, but the delay also brought up major decisions for Phelps. She wouldnt be able to do chemo for a month before the treatment began. With a delay, she could maybe do chemo for a bit, then stop a month before. Then there was the size of her tumors which would become the subject of the spat in a congressional hearing. She needed a tumor of at least one centimeter in size to start the trial, or an exemption her disease was spreading in the number of tumors, not in one large tumor. The tumor would help scientists track how the treatment was working. If she underwent chemo before doing a final scan needed to start the trial, tumors could shrink, affecting her eligibility. But if she waited for two months and did nothing, the disease could keep spreading. Her oncologist thought maybe the trial would have to be placed on the back burner, given the extended timeline. Phelps posted on social media, explaining her predicament. After seeing her videos, friends suggested she reach out to her members of Congress, who could intervene with the agency and help her get treated sooner. The office of Patty Murray, a Washington Democratic senator, got involved. On 14 May, Murray questioned Kennedy during a Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee hearing, sharing Phelps story and asking how many staff have been cut from the NIHs clinical center. Kennedy said to reach out to his office for specifics on Phelps and claimed no cuts had been made to clinical trials. I dont think that should happen to anybody, he said. Later in the hearing, though, Kennedy said his office had looked into the case and claimed that Phelps was medically ineligible for the trial, so her case had nothing to do with staff reductions. That was a canard, he told the committee, and he told Murray: You dont care. You dont care about Natalie. The exchange became a Fox News headline. It was a spurious statement to say she was medically ineligible, Phelps said she was waiting for one final scan to see if her tumor was one centimeter, but had met all other criteria. She had a scan the day after the hearing, which showed her tumor had now grown large enough to qualify. Its been so much extra stress. The night after the hearing, I threw up all night. I barely made it to my scan because I was so stressed out, she said. Its been very intense emotionally and an extreme added stress that nobody needs. Cancer just shouldnt be political. In a Senate appropriations hearing the next week, Kennedy again argued with Murray, saying it was untrue that Phelps care was delayed. In statements after the second exchange, Murray said her staff has been in constant touch with career staff at the NIH and the FDA to get help on Phelps case. I still have no answer about how many NIH clinical staff have been fired, Murrays 20 May statement says. I still have no answer why Natalie was told by her NIH doctor that her care was being delayed due to staffing cuts. For weeks, my staff has been demanding answers about agency staffing cuts. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said cancer research is a high priority for the NIH and HHS. Ongoing investments reflect our dedication to addressing both urgent and long-term health challenges, the agency said. There have been no cuts to clinical trials. In another statement sent after publication, the agency said the claim that patients were seeing treatment delays because of reductions in force was false. No clinical trials have been cut. No personnel involved in direct patient care were affected by the RIF, the agency said. Clinical trials continue to be conducted in accordance with established protocols and patient safety standards. NIH investigators are responsible for ensuring trials are appropriately staffed, that patient enrollment aligns with trial capacity, and that participants are fully informed of timelines and potential risks of experimental treatments. We do not comment on individual patient cases in accordance with the Privacy Act and to protect patient confidentiality. But Rosenberg, the doctor leading the trial Phelps is in, confirmed to the Washington Post in April that two patients were delayed care because of staff cuts and purchasing slowdowns, and these delays were confirmed before big layoffs hit the agency. Rosenberg didnt respond to requests for comment this week. He previously told the Cancer Letter, an oncology publication, that Phelps was, at the time of the hearing, not eligible because of her tumors size, but was scheduled for additional scans to see if they had grown. He confirmed that, if determined eligible, her case would be delayed by a month because of reductions in force. Phelps wasnt alone, he told the publication nearly all of the trial patients were seeing a delay of about a month, which he attributed to a loss of technicians as part of reductions in force done by the Trump administration. It isnt just delays, either. Weve had to drop the number of patients we treat by about half. Were just having to turn away more patients, Rosenberg said. Phelps is still waiting to hear when she can start treatment. As of last Thursday, she was told she had a spot in the queue and the agency was seeing if her treatment could be moved up. On Tuesday, she was told it would now be 21 July. The NIH told her the agency tried to hire back staff, but it hasnt worked out. I have nothing to lose at this point. Im pleading for my life. Im begging for help, she said. Donald Trump has offered Emmanuel Macron marital advice after the French president was shoved in the face by his wife Brigitte. Mr Macron and his wife sparked a global furore on Sunday after the French first lady was filmed pushing her husband into his face, moments before they exited their plane in Vietnam. Asked if he had any advice for his French counterpart, Mr Trump recommended they keep any physical confrontations out of public viewing. Make sure the door remains closed, he quipped to reporters in the Oval Office, during a joint press conference with Elon Musk to mark the Tesla billionaires departure from government. The president went on to pour cold water on speculation about a rift in the pairs marriage. Theyre fine, Mr Trump said. Theyre two really good people I know very well, and I didnt know what that was all about, but I know him very well. And theyre fine. Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron arrive in Singapore on Friday - LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP Mr Musk later joked that a black eye he was sporting during the press conference was not given to him by the French presidents wife. I wasnt anywhere near France, he said about the bruise, before explaining it was given to him by his five-year-old son, X, who he allegedly invited to punch him in the face. Footage, shot by the Associated press news agency in Hanoi, showed Mr Macron standing alone as the planes door opened. Suddenly, the arms of his wife, who was off-camera, could be seen through the doorway emerging from the left before she pushed him in the face with both hands. Mr Macron appeared taken aback but swiftly regained his composure and turned to wave through the open door. Credit: Reuters The couple then walked down the planes staircase without Mrs Macron taking her husbands hand. Footage of the incident, along with photographs of Mr Macron appearing to look angry, quickly spread on social media. The Elysee Palace initially claimed the footage was AI-generated, only to later admit the images were real but were in fact a sign of closeness and horseplay after a 16-hour flight. It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh. It was a moment of closeness, said an Elysee aide. Mr Macron later blamed crackpot conspiracy theorists for seeking to intensify rumours around the state of his marriage. In a bid to quell speculation, Mr Macron and his wife made light of the shoving incident as they arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday. The president performed a tongue-in-cheek wave for the cameras before appearing at the top of the stairs laughing. Instead of a shove, after a few seconds of suspense, Mrs Macron appeared, all smiles. The couple then locked arms, and descended the stairs side-by-side to greet officials. Addressing the shoving incident, Mr Macron said: My wife and I were squabbling, or rather we were joking, and I was taken by surprise. Now it has become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories. Elon Musk with Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. Photograph: Francis Chung/EPA Donald Trump saw Elon Musk off from the White House on Friday, as the Tesla chief concluded his more than four months leading the disruptive foray into federal departments by the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) that achieved far fewer cost savings than expected. Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Musk, who faced a 130-day limit in his tenure as a special government employee that had ended two days prior, vowed that his departure is not the end of Doge. Related: Elon Musk allegedly took large amounts of drugs including ketamine while advising Trump report The Doge team will only grow stronger over time. The Doge influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of Buddhism its like a way of life, he said. Trump was effusive in his praise of the worlds richest man, saying Musk delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington and calling Doge the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations. The president presented Musk with a golden key to the White House to mark his service. He willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks, because he does love our country. I know that very much, Trump said. Their joint appearance came hours after the New York Times published a story detailing Musks use of ketamine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms while campaigning for Trump last year. In the Oval Office, Musk wore a black cap and suit jacket over a T-shirt, while also sporting a bruise around his right eye he said was caused by his young son punching him while they were horsing around. Conceived on the campaign trail not long after Musk endorsed Trumps bid to return to the White House, Doge was established by an executive order the president signed hours after being sworn in. Its staffers, many who are young and have ties to Musk but little to no government service, then fanned out across federal agencies, cancelling out budget items and directing the terminations of employees. An initial goal to cut $2tn in government spending became $1tn by the time Trump was sworn in nonetheless a hefty sum that the president characterized as a necessary component of his promised golden age of lower taxes, leaner government and stricter immigration enforcement. Labor unions and Democrats protested against Doges mass firings and warned that its unorthodox efforts to coax federal workers out of their jobs and gather information about their work would undermine government operations. The initiative made its presence known via emails that became infamous, such as the fork in the road deferred resignation offerings, or a short-lived demand that staff across departments submit a detailed list of their accomplishments. Doge had a hand in the firings of thousands of probationary workers and the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), both actions sparking court challenges. As the initiative picked up steam in February, Musk appeared at a prominent conservative conference wielding a chainsaw that he declared is for bureaucracy! Yet the aggressive pace of cost-cutting sparked blunders, such as when the administration scrambled to hire back probationary employees let go from the agency overseeing nuclear weapons. Vandals motivated by antipathy towards Musk began targeting Tesla vehicles and dealerships, and reports emerged that his romp through the federal government has enraged Trumps newly confirmed cabinet secretaries. Doges public-facing website detailing its cuts became known for errors, but currently says it has only saved $175bn much less than Musks goal. We do expect to achieve over time the trillion dollars of savings, Musk said in the Oval Office. Say, by the middle of next year, with the support of the president and Congress, could we achieve a trillion dollars of savings? I think so. Were on track to do so. Republicans in Congress are expected to attempt to codify Doges cuts when they consider appropriations bills as part of the next federal fiscal years budget. As for Musk, he said he would continue to be visiting here and be a friend and adviser to the president. The UK has some of the strictest standards for chicken space in the world. Photograph: David Tadevosian/Alamy An imminent trade deal with Gulf states including Saudi Arabia could have a destructive impact for UK farmers, industry figures have warned, suggesting that any deal to import chicken would involve far lower welfare standards in the Gulf than British farmers must adhere to. The 1.6bn deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is expected to be signed soon, though the conclusion may be delayed until after Eid al-Adha in early June. Industry figures said the deal could include uncapped access for chickens if the imports met hygiene standards, which is critical because of the agrifoods deal the UK hopes to seal with the EU in the coming months. But those standards do not cover welfare, causing alarm among farmers who have recently had to meet new, higher standards under British law. The National Farmers Union president, Tom Bradshaw, said if such a deal were done it would mark a clear betrayal of the governments own promises to uphold our high animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards, standards which are globally renowned and driven by consumer demand. For example, British poultry farmers are continuing to improve welfare standards by lowering the number of birds per flock. They must not be undercut by imports produced in ways that would be illegal here. Im not sure how many times we have to repeat it we must not sign any deal that undermines UK farming. The public wont accept it, and neither will British farmers. Bradshaw said the prime minister, Keir Starmer, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and the environment secretary, Steve Reed, all committed to protecting farmers from being undercut by low standards and low welfare in trade deals. So we expect the government to stand its ground and ensure that poultry products produced in ways that fail to meet our own production standards remain excluded from market access concessions within this deal, he said. The UK has previously promised the deal would not compromise environmental, public health, animal welfare and food standards. UK farming is governed by relatively strict animal welfare laws, which differ significantly from GCC countries, including housing density, slaughter methods and living conditions. Farmers have minimum standards to reach in terms of space for birds to live in, and there is mandatory pre-slaughter stunning in most cases. In the six Gulf countries involved in the deal, poultry must be slaughtered according to halal principles, though stunning is sometimes used. Poultry are often raised in intensive indoor systems, especially given the harsh heat. The UK has some of the strictest standards for chicken space in the world. Poultry farmers must give their flock a minimum of 750cm squared of space per bird, and 600cm squared must be usable. This is stricter than EU standards, which require the same space per bird but do not specify the amount that must be usable. Chickens are also required to be given enriched areas, with items they can peck such as hay, string or mineral blocks, and perches to sit on. The Gulf states give less than half the space per bird than in the UK, at 300cm squared, and there is no limit on the number of birds raised in one house. Chickens in the Gulf are raised to halal standards and are subjected to non-stunned slaughter. This is legal, but less common, in the UK. The deal, which has been led by the trade minister Douglas Alexander, is likely to be particularly beneficial for the car industry and financial services, though estimates suggest a free trade agreement would be worth less than 1% of GDP by 2035. Trade with the six-member bloc is worth about 59bn a year, according to UK government estimates, as the UKs seventh-largest export market, with a trade deal expected to increase trade by about 16%. The deal has caused alarm among human rights groups about the lack of provisions for improving rights in the region. People walk through Harvard Yard on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 15 April. Photograph: Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images Labor unions representing undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and academic workers at Harvard University criticized the Trump administrations efforts to prevent Harvard from enrolling foreign students, calling it one of the single largest concentrated deportation threats against a unionized workforce in our nations history. A judge on 29 May extended an injunction blocking the Trump administration from revoking Harvards ability to host international students, which would affect 5,000 current students and 2,000 graduates in a post-graduation work programme. Some 4,000 student workers represented by unions at Harvard who would be impacted. The Trumps administrations threat to international scholars is a huge attack on thousands of UAW-represented workers on Harvards campus. We are seeing escalations against immigrant workers across the country and this is no different, said the director of the United Auto Workers Region 9A, Brandon Mancilla. The labor movement must see these attacks as what they are an attempt to divide workers and create false enemies in a time of rampant corporate greed. Related: Judge expands order protecting Harvard from Trump block on enrolling international students Sudipta Saha, a fourth-year PhD candidate in population health sciences at Harvard who holds citizenship with Canada and Bangladesh, and is a member of the executive board of the Harvard Graduate Students Union, explained the fears the move has instilled in international student workers on campus who are worried about their visa status, education and research. Even if Harvard wins this particular case, the broader authoritarian turn that this represents is still being successful, because a lot of people are worried about whether they can actually speak out, said Saha. International students who have been asking me, have been asking each other, is it safe to go on the record? Is it safe to even write an op ed? And I think when people are asking questions like that, that kind of shows how already, how successful this kind of crackdown has been. We do a lot of vital work. There are people working on robotics, cancer drugs and Alzheimers research. All of that is impacted when theyre forced to stop, he added. All of this research work is tangled with a ton of other industries that are not necessarily within the university, from development of these pharmaceutical drugs to research equipment, all of those things are affected if they were forced to stop their work and leave. The Trump administration has also halted interviews for all student exchanges and visas and secretary of state Marco Rubio has vowed to begin revoking visas of students from China with ties to the China Communist party or working in critical fields. The labor movement must see these attacks as what they are an attempt to divide workers and create false enemies Brandon Mancilla, United Auto Workers Ellen Yi, a Rhodes scholar from China who was admitted to a doctoral program at Harvard, was set to join Harvard in fall 2025, but is now looking for different options. I feel a strong sense of insecurity and uncertainty. The policy keeps swinging back and forth and we dont know what is the next step of the government, said Yi. Im very pessimistic about the future and Im looking for some safer options. In response to Rubios threats of revoking visas from Chinese students, she said: I was not very surprised, but still very disappointed, frustrated and kind of panicked, because the policy statement was very unclear, adding it remains unclear how the Trump administration will define connections to the Chinese Communist party or critical fields. I find this absurd, said Ozan Baytas, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School from Turkey. Theres a clear attack on the universities, freedom of speech, academic freedom and science, and theres a clear intention to purge the current system of many non-citizen workers who are very talented. He cited Maureen Martin, the director of immigration services at Harvard, who wrote in a court declaration that the revocation notice has made students afraid to attend graduation ceremonies, have forced international students to reconsider their futures at Harvard and inquire about transferring, and that incoming international students have already reported experiencing issues in obtaining visas. Related: Trump orders agencies to cut all federal ties with Harvard Many internationals, non-citizen workers are afraid to speak out. Many want to leave. Many dont want to come back to the US, because they think their future plans may be interrupted by a whimsical move from the government at any moment, Baytas added. The best of the best in the world wants to come here to Harvard because there are opportunities. There are many good research labs, and they simply wont come here, and the science here will suffer. Despite the policies and rhetoric coming from the Trump administration, Baytas argued that student workers and unions, in and out of the legal system, intend to fight back. People in the US here say stand up, fight back, so I am confident academic freedom will rise, he concluded. Im very hopeful, despite all the failings of the current administration. Harvard and the White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Eric Jordan lost 17,000 to a cowboy builder who cold called at his home. (PA) (Family handout/PA Real Life) A pensioner who lost 17,000 to a cowboy builder who cold-called at his home has said the experience has left him unable to trust anyone. Eric Jordan, a 70-year-old security guard from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was approached in October last year at his home by a builder pointing out a ridge tile poking out on his roof, and offering to fix it for 3,000. After making an apparent fix, Jordan said the builder then carried out more work without permission, damaging the bathroom ceiling. Despite the work being incomplete, Jordan said the builder demanded 17,000, which he paid despite it being most of his retirement savings forcing him to continue working before the builder stopped showing up. He believes the botched job worsened his health. Suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, he was hospitalised for a week in November last year after struggling to breathe, which he attributes to the stress and the builders failure to use dust sheets. He told PA: Im just absolutely devastated, Im lost for words its made me and my partner ill. 'Devastated': Eric Jordan. (PA) (Family handout/PA Real Life) We feel like we cant trust anyone. I was planning on retiring at the end of last year but now all this money has gone for nothing and I have to carry on working so we have enough money to live. What are the warning signs a tradesman is trying to scam you at your door? Action Fraud says "many honest businesses use [doorstep selling] but so do fraudsters. "A salesman who uses clever tactics can pressurise you into buying something you actually dont want or something thats poor value for money." It lists warning signs such as pressure selling, unfair contracts, billing for work that wasn't agreed and overpriced or substandard work. Age UK, which says doorstep scammers often target older people, also warns of traders "who say they've noticed something wrong with your property that they can fix": as was the case with Jordan. Referring to the 3,000 cost of the initial roof tile work, he said: There was definitely a tile sticking out, I just did not notice it until he pointed it out now I think he saw an easy target. Eric Jordan said the damage to his home has left him unable to 'trust anyone'. (PA) (Family handout/PA Real Life) Action Fraud also says: "There are specific laws about door-to-door sales. Many are required to give you a cooling-off period, where you can change your mind or request your money back. Bogus tradesmen will offer none of these, and even if they do, you can be sure their guarantee will not be honoured." People can protect themselves by asking for identification; checking credentials such as for a permanent business address and landline telephone number; not agreeing to work on the spot; and even asking to take a photograph of the person. "If the person is legitimate," Action Fraud said, "they probably wont mind." What are your rights if you've been scammed? Victims of bogus tradesmen fraud should report their case to Action Fraud (0300 123 2040), as well as reporting the person to Citizens Advice (0808 223 1133). Citizens Advice can also provide guidance about the terms and conditions of an agreement or contract. Action Fraud also advises people who have paid by debit card, credit card or cheque to contact their bank "and advise them that youre a victim of improper door-to-door sales techniques and your identity or financial details may have been compromised. Theyll advise you on cancelling payments and ensuring your finances remain secure." Read more Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond have filmed their last ever Grand Tour. (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images) (Dave Benett via Getty Images) The Grand Tour is coming back without Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May behind the wheel. It sure has been one hell of a ride. It's been reported social media stars Thomas Holland, James Engelsman and Francis Bourgeois will take over where the trio left off, according to The Sun. English trainspotter Bourgeois has interviewed celebrities including Louis Theroux and Tom Daley. His humorous trainspotting videos went viral on TikTok and Instagram in 2021. Meanwhile, Holland and Engelsman's YouTube Throttle House where they share car reviews has 3.26m subscribers online. But will you watch The Grand Tour without Clarkson, Hammond and May? Cast your vote in the poll below. Last year, Hammond confirmed the show will continue without the trio at the helm. He told The Metro: "It will be carrying on. The Grand Tour continues. We're stepping away as the hosts, but Prime will be continuing it. So I can't wait to sit on my own chair and watch somebody else do it. That's amazing." Clarkson, Hammond and May took their feet off the gas when it came to their on-screen work together. They said goodbye to the Prime Video series with one final special The Grand Tour: One for the Road that aired last year. Francis Bourgeois attended "An Evening With The Grand Tour". (Photo by Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images) (Dave Benett via Getty Images) The Grand Tour ended on their own terms and exactly how they wanted, with their final destination being in Zimbabwe. Rewind 20 years, their friendship took off when they begun presenting BBC Two car show Top Gear together in 2002. When the BBC fired Clarkson for punching a producer on the show in 2015, Hammond and May quit saying the three of them come as a package deal. Getting back on track again, the friends signed to do racing series The Grand Tour in 2016. Fast forward to now, eight years later from when they first started, the trio have come to the end of the road with The Grand Tour. Clarkson, Hammond and May's The Grand Tour ending It's clear that Clarkson, Hammond and May had given their final TV road trip together a lot of thought. In 2023, May had said they were all getting a "bit old" for the car show sentiments echoed by his pals. He told The Times: "The truth is, we're a bit too old for all this now. Jeremy is 63, Hammond is 53. We'll have to stop one day and by my reckoning that terrible day is almost upon us." The Grand Tour: One for the Road is on Prime Video on Friday. (Prime Video) The three pals made sure everyone knew why now was the right time for the show to end. "We've run out of things to do and we've run out of places to go, and I was fat," Clarkson said in 2024 at a London Q&A that shared a private press viewing of The Grand Tour. Clarkson also said the world is too dangerous for The Grand Tour now. "Weve done everything you can realistically do with a car and the world has shrunk and thats the tragedy," he said. They flew to Mauritania to film The Sand Job earlier this year but they had received a warning from the Foreign Office advising them not to make the trip. Jeremy Clarkson is focusing on his pub and Clarkson's Farm. (Getty) "Years ago, we drove from Iraq into eastern Turkey into Syria, Damascus and Israel. We did the Crimea to Ukraine. You couldnt do any of that now. Theres some rich ground in and around Indonesia, but you cant really go there either. North Africa, apart from Morocco, is completely out." He added: The world is a much more troubled place than it was 20 years ago. We were very lucky to do what we did, when we did. The Grand Tour: One for the Road (Prime Video) They have reached a fork in the road, with the three of them taking different directions on their individual career paths. Clarkson remains focused on his hit Prime Video series Clarkson's Farm and has opened The Farmer's Dog pub nearby in the Cotswolds. Credit: Daily Record Angela Rayner was forced to abandon a by-election campaign visit in Scotland because of pro-Palestinian protesters. The Deputy Prime Minister was accused of doing a runner from a visit in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, where pro-Gaza demonstrators shouted Rayner, Rayner, you cant hide youre supporting genocide. Her visit came amid a surge in support for Reform UK in Scotland ahead of the Holyrood by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse next week. The by-election was called following the death of Christina McKelvie, an SNP MSP. Ms Rayner accompanied Davy Russell, the by-election candidate, and Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, around the constituency on Thursday. A group of protesters stationed themselves by what appeared to be Scottish Labours campaign office, holding Palestinian and Scottish Socialist Party flags. Several, including one with a megaphone, reportedly went on to shout Rayners done a runner and runaway Rayner after it emerged that she would not be making a scheduled stop there. It is understood that the Deputy Prime Minister still fulfilled all her media duties and met with constituents, but that campaign visits are informed by security advice. Angela Rayner in South Lanarkshire on Friday on the campaign trail for next weeks by-election - Andrew Milligan/PA Wire Asked about the protests, she told Sky News: The protesters regarding the dire situation in Palestine I completely understand. Davey Russell, our local candidate here, is fighting hard for this seat, and hell be here long after the by-election, and has been serving his community for 45 years. Asked what she thought about having to do a runner, she replied: You didnt see me doing a runner. There was no running. What we were doing is campaigning as we always expected to do around here. Im out on the streets as it is now, and Ill be knocking on doors. Mr Russell has faced criticism for a lack of public appearances during the campaign, having pulled out of televised debates against opponents. But he denied keeping a low profile, telling journalists: If you actually go and chap [knock on] the doors, speaking to people, they dont see the SNP, they dont see Reform. They only see them in adverts. Ms Rayner told the Daily Record that criticisms of Mr Russell, which have included accusing him of being unable to string a handful of words together, were classist. Hes a hard grafter and he doesnt deserve to be treated in that way, in a classist way, but I am sure he is going to prove them all wrong, she said. Its just a very outdated view of people from a working-class background. I come from a working-class background. People work really hard and they over-compensate sometimes for feeling like they are not as good as someone who possibly went to a private school. Straight contest Reform UKs popularity has prompted John Swinney, the SNP First Minister, to call the race a straight contest between his party and Nigel Farages. Mr Swinney also claimed the Labour campaign was in collapse and urged voters to rally behind the SNP in order to fend off Reform. He wrote in the Daily Record on Thursday: You have a chance to tell Nigel Farage that his poisonous politics are not welcome. You have a chance to make the next year about the priorities you care about, not the poison of a man in it for himself. Scottish Labour has accused Mr Farages party of campaign adverts that amounted to dog-whistle racism. The by-election campaign advert used clips of a speech by Mr Sarwar in which he said he wanted more people from South Asian backgrounds to stand for election. The clips were preceded by the caption Anas Sarwar has said he will prioritise the Pakistani community a phrase he did not use. On Tuesday, the Reform leader defended the attack advert and said Mr Sarwars speech had introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics. Its pretty obvious weve had some tensions in the party, said Victorian Liberal leader Brad Battin (left), pictured here with deputy Sam Groth. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP It was meant to be the Victorian Liberals week. Instead, the party now almost synonymous with political self-sabotage has imploded once again. And its likely only going to get worse from here as the countdown officially begins for former leader John Pesutto to pay the $2.3m in legal fees he owes Moira Deeming or face bankruptcy after he was found in December to have defamed her. The pain for John may be about to end, but the pain for others may be just about to begin, one of Pesuttos supporters warned. The week had started with a sense of optimism from Pesuttos successor as opposition leader, Brad Battin, and his team. After machete-wielding rival gangs sent a shopping centre into lockdown at the weekend, the Labor government on Monday rushed to ban the sale of the knives within 48 hours. It was a move the Liberals had advocated for since 2023, giving them a rare we told you so moment. They also had their budget reply on Tuesday, headlined by a policy designed to win back young voters: abolishing stamp duty for properties under $1m. But whatever momentum the Liberals were hoping to build vanished before the shadow treasurer stood up to deliver his speech. Earlier on Tuesday, a party room meeting was called to discuss what if anything was being done by Battin to avert a byelection in the seat of Hawthorn which will occur if Pesutto is bankrupted and therefore disqualified from parliament. The issue of the byelection which many Liberals believe the party would lose was raised by the Sandringham MP, Brad Rowswell, who had attempted to discuss it during a shadow cabinet meeting on Monday but was told it was a matter for the broader party room. After facing criticism that such a discussion would distract from the partys messaging, Rowswell deferred the discussion altogether. But the matter still made headlines and overshadowed the budget response. A Liberal MP loyal to Battin said it was an intentional move to destabilise the leader, while a detractor said it was a valid question everyone has been asking. It only got worse for Battin, when a letter from Deemings lawyers to Pesutto was leaked to the media on Wednesday. Related: Victorian Liberals prepare last-minute bid to bail out John Pesutto with loan to help pay $2.3m defamation costs It suggested that in the event of Pesuttos bankruptcy, Deeming would seek to recover her legal costs from those who contributed to his defence fund. The list includes three former Liberal premiers, Ted Baillieu, Denis Napthine and Jeff Kennett, two sitting MPs, Georgie Crozier and David Southwick, and other party figures who have supported the Hawthorn MP. According to one Pesutto supporter, the letter had the effect of galvanising support for the beleaguered former leader, as it showed it wont end with him if he is bankrupted. It will engulf the entire party with months of hearings and political bloodletting ahead. Deemings lawyers are set to initiate bankruptcy proceedings on Monday, after Pesutto failed to meet Fridays deadline. Pesutto will then have a further three weeks to pay the $2.3m owed, of which sources say he has raised around a third. Deemings lawyers have also applied to the federal court for leave to issue subpoenas to obtain communications between Pesutto and those who donated to his unsuccessful legal defence. It will be a shit show for all involved and a nightmare for the party, another Pesutto supporter said. Its no wonder Battin faced relentless questioning on the matter. On Wednesday, he repeated the same line that he would keep his conversations confidential and urged his colleagues to stay on message. But Southwick broke ranks, urging people to step up to prevent a Hawthorn byelection. The fact that [Pesuttos] fighting for his job, fighting for his livelihood it is horrific, regardless of what people think about the situation, he told reporters. As one Liberal MP privately quipped: They were the type of comments Brad should have made a fortnight ago. They werent alone in their criticism. Several Liberal MPs have expressed frustration that Battin failed to show leadership during a week when the party desperately needed him to. Even some who backed him in the December leadership spill are now questioning their decision. The Herald Sun has already reported murmurs of a leadership challenge less than six months into Battins tenure. In a sign of how desperate the situation has become, one rumour doing the rounds is that former MP Matt Bach could be asked to return from the UK to lead. Other names being bandied about are Matthew Guy, in what would be his third go as leader, or Jess Wilson, who lost her leadership bid in December. If all this wasnt enough, the cherry on top of a shocker week were several stories scrutinising expense claims by Battins deputy, Sam Groth, including allegations that he used a taxpayer funded, chauffeur-driven car assigned to Crozier to take himself and his wife from a fundraising event at the Australian Open to their home in Rye and spending $3,269 on hotel stays after sporting events. Groth, who is also the opposition spokesperson for tourism, sport and events, on Friday said his conduct was and is above board. It has all been officially disclosed. There is nothing to hide, he said. For her part, Crozier told the ABC she was incredibly disappointed over the issue, and that Victorians deserve a lot better. I think that Sam needs to explain his actions I cant, she said. Again, Battin was forced to front the press on Friday on the defensive. Its pretty obvious weve had some tensions in the party at the moment. And Im continuing to work through that, he said. If anything this week is proof, yet again, that the Victorian Liberal party is too often its own worst enemy. With additional reporting by Henry Belot This article was amended on 31 May 2025. Jess Wilson challenged for Victorian Liberal leadership, not deputy leadership as stated in an earlier version. I had kept a close eye on Trumps threats but I never thought hed actually do it: Alfred Williamson, left, who is in his first year. Photograph: Alfred Williamson A British freshman at Harvard fears he will not be able to return to the US to complete his degree after Donald Trump demanded the university stops teaching international students. Related: Fear on campus: Harvards international students in mass panic over Trump move Alfred Williamson, 20, from Cardiff, left Boston when the academic year ended two weeks ago to visit family in Denmark, only to wake up on 23 May to dozens of missed calls and messages from loved ones about the decision to prevent the Ivy League university from enrolling or retaining foreign nationals. Approximately a quarter of Harvards 30,000-strong student body comes from abroad. The university filed a lawsuit last week challenging the government order. On Thursday a Boston judge issued a two-week injunction, but the future of thousands of students such as Williamson remain uncertain. I was in shock. I had kept a close eye on Trumps threats but I never thought hed actually do it, I thought it was just a scare tactic, said the physics and government student. People struggled for years to study somewhere like this only for it to be taken away in a matter of moments and we are being called illegal immigrants and aliens. Things are moving quickly and no one knows what to expect. The Trump administration has demanded that Harvards international students transfer to other universities in order to hang on to their visas. Related: Harvard v Trump: takeaways from universitys legal battle over international student ban Both Germany and Hong Kong have floated the idea of hosting exile campuses for international students unable to return to the school. Harvard has yet to respond to the proposals. Since taking office in January, Ivy League and other elite US universities have been in Trumps crosshairs, with the president repeatedly accusing Harvard of kowtowing to wokism and radical left lunatics as well as fostering violence and antisemitism since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. He has also claimed, without providing evidence, that the university was coordinating with the Chinese Communist party. Williamson has also wondered whether the US president singled him out during the announcement of the new measures targeting Harvard. Theyre taking people from areas of the world that are very radicalised and we dont want them making trouble in our country, Trump said earlier this week. I saw yesterday that in the middle of the UK, there was a nice young man who wants to go back to school at Harvard and he looked good to me but I want to check. Williamson said: The mood on campus after Trump was elected was very difficult, people were scared. Rumours Ice agents were around would spread and the international students would all go hide in their dorms. He had not yet heard if his visa had been renewed for next year. He was aware that some peers had already faced delays, but said the university had been very supportive. While Williamson was unsure whether he would be able to continue his studies at Harvard, for now, he said, he was not entertaining the idea of applying or transferring elsewhere. He added: My first year at Harvard was the best year of my life. I dont want to give up on that unless there is no other choice. Melania Trump has had a tense relationship with Anna Wintour, who met with US officials on Thursday about tariffs on the fashion industry - Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan Donald Trump has opened the White House to Anna Wintour despite her long-running feud with his wife Melania. The Vogue editor-in-chief met Susie Wiles, Mr Trumps chief of staff, in Washington DC on Thursday to discuss tariff relief for the fashion industry. However, there is tension between Wintour and Mrs Trump because Vogue never featured her on its cover during her time as first lady, unlike several of her predecessors. She did, though, appear on the magazines front page in Feb 2005 when it covered her marriage to Mr Trump. Melania Trump was featured on Vogues cover in Feb 2005 following her marriage to Donald Trump - Mario Testino for American Vogue/Conde Nast At her meeting with Ms Wiles, Wintour claimed that fashion was already one of the most heavily tariffed industries in the US, and argued further duties would place it at a disproportionate advantage. It is unclear whether the first lady was at the White House during Wintours visit, but by and large her stays in Washington DC have been brief in favour of her homes at Trump Tower in New York or Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Amy Odell, a biographer of Wintour, Vogue made two attempts to photograph Mrs Trump during her husbands first term, but she refused both because it would not guarantee her a spot on the cover. When Wintour visited Mr Trump in New York in 2016 following his first election win, Mrs Trump is said to have been so offended that she was not informed beforehand that she didnt even say hello. Mrs Trump, a former model, apparently believed she was resented by figures at the magazine, according to a book by her former confidant Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. I dont give a f--- about Vogue or any other magazine. They would never put me on the cover. All these people are so mad, she is reported to have said. When Melania Trumps official portrait was released, Vogue ran a column declaring she looked like a freelance magician - Regine Mahaux/Regine Mahaux When Mrs Trumps official portrait was released in January, Vogue ran an opinion column declaring she looked more like a freelance magician than a public servant. Jill Biden, Mrs Trumps immediate predecessor as first lady, was featured on the front of the magazine last year during the presidential race, and in 2021 with the caption: A first lady for all of us. Michelle Obama made the cover twice in 2009, shortly after Barack Obamas inauguration, and in 2016 as they prepared to leave the White House while Hillary Clinton appeared in 1999. First ladies Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush, both of them married to Republican presidents, were featured on the inside pages of Vogue but never on the front. Why was NatWest rescued in 2008 and what has changed for the bank in that time? The Government has offloaded its stake in NatWest, 17 years after swooping in to rescue the bank when it was on the brink of collapse. At its peak in 2008, the Government had an 84.4% shareholding in the group, and did not start selling shares until 2015. By 2022, the shareholding had fallen below 50% and since then, the Treasury has been rapidly selling its stake until it reached zero this week. NatWest which was branded RBS at the time received almost 46 billion of taxpayer funding in 2008 and 2009. Former prime minister Gordon Brown, right, and former chancellor Alistair Darling, left, engineered the bailout (Oli Scarff/PA) The bailout was engineered by then-prime minister Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling amid fears the bank would run out of cash. Because NatWests shares were bought at a higher price than they have been sold, taxpayers have lost out from the rescue. To date, 35 billion has been returned to the Exchequer through share sales, dividends and fees meaning the sale has come at a 10.5 billion loss. NatWests share price rose to a 15-year high this month, but it remains about 90% lower than its peak in 2007. The bank was in a very different financial position before the 2008 financial crisis than it is in now. It had about 2.2 trillion on its balance sheet close to the current size of the UK economy compared with the 708 billion it had in 2024. It also hired nearly quadruple the number of employees it has now, having since drastically pared back the business and its investment banking operations. At the time, it was lending more money than it was taking in from customer deposits a much riskier strategy that left it vulnerable to withdrawals and unexpected costs. NatWest chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said privatisation would not impact day-to-day operations (NatWest/PA) At the peak of the crisis, NatWest plunged to a nearly 41 billion operating pre-tax loss the biggest in its history. Today, high street banks have much tighter lending and affordability standards. This means they are far less likely to lend to customers they feel may struggle to repay that loan, due to their credit history or access to savings. They are also much more well-capitalised following new requirements that were introduced following the crisis to protect people. NatWests chief executive Paul Thwaite has said that there is no strategic or operational impact of the Government exit so the bank will continue to be run in the way it currently is. High street banks have much tighter lending and affordability standards these days (NatWest Group/PA) But he highlighted that the sell-down had helped the group attract new global investors who were set to back the banks growth ambitions. And chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said that, while it would not impact day-to-day operations, privatisation would allow us to think how to work for our customers in a far more innovative and active way. In recent years, NatWest has made some big acquisitions, namely Sainsburys Banks retail operations and a portfolio of mortgages from Metro Bank. There have also been reports that the group tried to make a bid for Santander UKs retail operations, although neither have commented on the speculation. Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter during a cabinet meeting at the White House in April. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images When it comes to cutting taxes or paying for mass deportations, Donald Trump is happy to work with Congress. But if the issue is his prized and disruptive tariff policy, the president has made clear that he has no time for legislative wrangling. Trump underscored his sentiment towards Congress after a US trade court this week briefly put a stop to his controversial policy of placing levies on a wide range of countries, before a different court reversed that decision while legal proceedings continue. The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around DC for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power the Presidency would never be the same! the president wrote on Truth Social. The statement served to put Congress in its place, even though its Republican leaders have shown Trump great deference since taking office. The Senate has approved just about every official he has nominated, no matter how controversial, while the House of Representatives last week overcame substantial differences within the GOP conference to pass the One Big Beautiful bill containing Trumps tax and spending priorities. Related: China has totally violated its trade agreement with the US, says Trump If theres one place where there is daylight to be found between Trump and his Republican allies, its his tariff polices. Even avowed supporters of the president have raised their eyebrows at his on-again, off-again imposition of levies on the countries from which US consumers buy their goods and factories source their inputs, and Republican leaders have gone to great lengths to thwart their attempts to do something about them. Which might be why Trump struck out on his own, and hoped the courts would back him up. So far they have not. The US court of international trade, which ruled to block Trumps tariffs on Wednesday, was very clear it believed his policies exceed any authority granted to the president. The matter may ultimately come down to the views of the supreme court, where Trump appointed half of the six-justice conservative supermajority during his first term. Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor, said the case is likely to present a test of how the supreme court views the major questions doctrine (MQD), which argues clear congressional authority is needed for agencies to carry out any regulations of national importance, in light of Trumps tariffs moves. The doctrine was used to defang regulators last year when the court overturned the Chevron decision, limiting regulators powers and arguing they had overstepped their authority. The supreme court may not be minded to accept the major questions doctrine when it comes to the commander in chief, wrote Goldsmith in his newsletter Executive Function. It is an open question whether the MQD applies to congressional authorizations to the president. Every Supreme Court decision involving the MQD has involved agency action, and lower courts are split on whether the MQD applies to presidential authorizations, he said. For Congresss beleaguered Democrats, this weeks court intervention, however fleeting, provided grist for the case theyve been trying to make to voters ever since Trump took office, which is that he is trying to act like the sort of monarch America was founded on rejecting. This is why the framers gave Congress constitutional power over trade and tariffs, said Suzan DelBene, a Washington state House Democrat who has proposed one of many bills to block Trumps tariffs. The court spoke decisively in defense of our democracy and against a president attempting to be king. And Just Like That... Carrie Bradshaw and Aidan Shaw reunited then split (again). (Alamy) (Alamy) Like any self-respecting millennial woman, I grew up watching Sex and the City and have played it on repeat at least annually ever since. So when the news that HBO was making a modern-day reboot of the iconic 90s/Noughties series broke during the pandemic, I was thrilled, but also a little apprehensive especially given that Kim Cattrall had ruled herself out of the running. Was I still going to watch HBO's And Just Like That, though? Absolutely. To my surprise, beyond the initial awkwardness, the never-ending chat about French fries and the clunky exposition about Samantha Jones' departure, I kinda liked it. So much so, I binged the entire season and lapped up the second instalment, which came out later in 2023. Even more to my delight; the show's creators decided to bring back a much-loved character, Carrie Bradshaw's one true love (apparently): Aidan Shaw. Returning with an even stronger Southern twang, the furniture-maker-come-farmer (??) not only rekindled his romance with his ex-fiancee, some 20-odd years on, he prompted her to come to the (rather ballsy) conclusion that Mr Big was a "big mistake" and that she had fobbed off her real soulmate in a momentary error of judgement (if that's what you call serial cheating). Just when things were looking up for the pair, however, Aidan's teenage son Wyatt put a spanner in the works. Taking issue with their romance, Wyatt crashes his dad's truck while under the influence and winds up in hospital prompting Aidan to make the painful decision to put his and Carrie's love on hold for five years, until Wyatt is grown up and has moved out. Although these set of circumstances are unique (and happening to made-up people), the idea of waiting for someone is universally understood no doubt you yourself have contemplated it at some point in your life. I know I have. But even though we have been conditioned by literature and pop culture to romanticise holding out for the "right person", and sometimes it feels like the only viable option when everyone else pales in comparison, I can't help but wonder... is anyone ever worth the wait? Aidan and Carrie had a tumultuous relationship in the original Sex and the City series. (Paramount Pictures/Newsmakers) (Getty Images via Getty Images) Should you ask someone to wait for you? According to British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)-accredited counsellor and relationship expert Georgina Sturmer, there can be legitimate reasons why someone wants to put a relationship on hold. She tells Yahoo UK: "Relationships dont exist in isolation. There are lots of valid reasons why we might need to consider putting a relationship on hold changes in life circumstances, caring responsibilities, dealing with our own emotional wellbeing, to name a few. "But when we ask someone to wait for us, the most important elements are honesty and intention. Are we truly being honest with our explanations? And do we have the other persons best interests at heart, as well as our own?" Sturmer also adds that sometimes, for the benefit of the relationship long-term, putting it on ice for a bit can actually be the best choice and it doesn't necessarily mean that either person is any less committed or in love. "It can indicate that we know that the relationship has a future, but that it cant exist in the present," she says. What should you consider before having a relationship break? When considering a break, Sturmer says it's vital that you're both on the same page and that you have frank conversations about your boundaries and goals, so that your expectations are aligned and that no one gets hurt in the process. "Being on hold will mean different things for each individual and for each relationship. Does it mean no contact? Or contact, but no strings? Exclusivity or open to other people? If we want things to work, we may need to have an upfront conversation about these things. Even if it might feel uncomfortable," she explains. "If the other person is unaware that we are waiting for them hoping that they might change their mind, or be ready for us it can be painful for the one who is waiting and also uncomfortable for the other person in the situation." Be prepared for things to change Even if you are on the same page initially or you've actively made a choice to wait for someone with or without their knowledge, things and people can change over time. This is something Sturmer warns of, stating: "Its common to build fantasy scenarios around the one that got away. But its important to acknowledge that while elements of these fantasies might be true, others might have shakier foundations. "That doesnt mean that we should always hold back and deny ourselves the opportunity of pursuing something that has potential, but it does mean that we should temper our enthusiasm with a dose of realistic expectations," she adds. Basically, don't go full-on Gatsby and over-hype the situation to the point the other person cannot possibly live up to your expectations. Sometimes our expectations don't match reality. (Alamy) (Cinematic Collection, Cinematic) Does your life stage make a difference? With Aidan and Carrie, specifically, although they don't come right out and discuss their life stage, it is implied that, because they have both done the marriage thing and Aidan has kids from his previous relationship, there is less pressure when it comes to timings. He tells Carrie: "Its only five years. We havent seen each other in 10 years and it went by like that [snapping his fingers]." But Sturmer stresses that even without those elements weighing on you as a couple, it doesn't mean time is on your side or that you are any less desperate to wind up together. "You could argue that wanting to have children with someone potentially adds a layer of time pressure, depending on age, health and other factors," she says. "That said, Im not sure that we suddenly grow more patient in our lives just because the idea of becoming parents is taken off the table." If we're holding out for 'the one that got away' can it affect future relationships? Another thing that Carrie touches on, during her shock revelation to Miranda that Big was never her "one", is that she may have been holding out for something or someone and never really gave Aidan the chance he deserved when they were first together. And I think a lot of us, whether intentionally or not, are guilty of this of focusing on "the one the got away" (or "the emotionally unavailable one"), to the point it affects our current and future relationships. Sturmer agrees, commenting: "If we are waiting for someone else then that can play out in our relationships, but the way that this happens will depend on our level of attachment security. "If we have a secure attachment style, then we might be holding out for someone else, but we might still be able to be open-minded about opportunities that come our way. "If we are anxiously attached, then we might pine for someone who feels lost to us, and this might play out as clinginess or neediness in our current relationships. And if we are avoidantly attached, then our internal fear of rejection which might be escalated by the sense of waiting for someone who is unavailable might lead us to distance ourselves in our current relationships." Ultimately, though, Sturmer does believe that waiting for someone can pay off. "But," she stresses, "we need to be open to acknowledging what we may have lost while we were standing patiently on the sidelines." Read more about relationships Two New York City police detectives were placed on modified duty after the department learned they had a prior connection to a Manhattan townhouse where an Italian businessman was allegedly held and tortured. One off-duty detective drove the alleged victim from the airport to the SoHo townhouse on May 6, sources told ABC News. The 20-year veteran has been assigned to the NYPD's Executive Protection Unit, which handles the mayor's security, since December 2021. He works as part of the advance team, which checks out locations before the mayor arrives. He was working an off-duty security job, employed by one of the two crypto suspects, at the time he drove the victim to the townhouse, the sources said. MORE: What we know about the NYC crypto kidnapping and torture case A second detective was also being paid by one of the suspects, apparently also as off-duty security, the sources said. NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is looking into how long the two were employed by the crypto suspect and whether the employment had been approved internally. NYPD members are not permitted to work for private security without going through a strict series of approvals. PHOTO: Police tape is shown at the scene on May 23, 2025, in New York, where a cryptocurrency entrepreneur allegedly tortured a man for weeks. (WABC) Neither detective had knowledge of illegal or inappropriate behavior at the townhouse, and the mayor had no knowledge or connection to the two crypto suspects, according to city officials. "Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty. We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing," a statement from City Hall said. James Moschella, an attorney for the Detectives' Endowment Association, said in a statement on Friday that it appears the two detectives "were working a legitimate job driving a private business client in their off-duty hours." "There is simply no way to have predicted the true activities of what by all objective accounts were legitimate businessmen," Moschella said. "Most importantly, there is absolutely no indication that any officer witnessed any of the alleged illegal activity at that location or by any of the people involved." "Had they actually witnessed any such activity, we are certain they would have been the first to take action to stop it," he continued. "We therefore ask everyone to withhold their judgment of these members until all the facts are in." MORE: 2nd suspect arrested in SoHo torture case, officials say beatings, drugs and gun used Two men -- John Woeltz, 37, and William Duplessie, 33 -- are accused of torturing the alleged victim over the man's bitcoin password, according to the criminal complaint. The alleged victim -- a 28-year-old man from Italy -- was allegedly stripped of his electronics and passport, bound by the wrists and subjected to beatings, electric shock and a hit to the head from a gun, according to the complaint. Police said the man escaped from the townhouse on Friday and ran to a traffic enforcement officer for help. Woeltz and Duplessie were subsequently arrested and initially charged with kidnapping, assault and unlawful imprisonment in the case. Duplessie pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, court records show. Woeltz has since been indicted by a grand jury, though the indictment will remain sealed until his arraignment on June 11. He has not yet entered a plea to the indictment. Both suspects were denied bail at their initial court appearances. Their attorneys had no comment when contacted by ABC News. 2 NYPD detectives employed by suspect in crypto torture case under investigation: Sources originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Nothing beats the sight of a dog fully embracing vacation life. The way they light up at new smells, or how they turn a quiet moment into something hilarious without even trying, is priceless. Whatever it is, these pups arent just along for the ride. They make the whole trip better. Mya Soaks Up the Sun at Del Mars Dog-Friendly Coastline Credit: Instagram Mya looks completely at home on her plush beach setup, soaking in the laid-back vibe at Del Mar Dog Beach in Southern California. This stretch of sand is one of the few in San Diego County where dogs can run free during specific months. Cooper Cruises the Pacific Coast Toward Tofino Credit: Instagram Some dogs live for the open road, and Cooper is clearly one of them. On a summer drive to Tofino, an oceanside village on Vancouver Island known for its surf and wilderness, he leans into the breeze with unmistakable satisfaction. The Pacific Rim Highway offers endless scenery perfect for window-gazing pups. Preston Finds Freedom on Washingtons Long Beach Peninsula Credit: Instagram Preston, a rescued greyhound with a love for wide-open spaces, gets his fix on the expansive sands of the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington. This stretch of coastline spans over 28 miles and is one of the longest beach highways in the U.S. Dockside Break for a Chesapeake Bay Retriever Credit: flickr This wet and happy retriever just wrapped up a swim session, likely in a freshwater lake where this breed thrives. Chesapeake Bay Retrievers are natural swimmers, originally bred to retrieve ducks in icy waters. Their thick, oily coat helps them stay warm and buoyant. Luna Dashes Through Napas Open Vistas Credit: Reddit Luna charges ahead on one of Napa Valleys lesser-known trails, where golden fields and dramatic skies set the scene. While most know Napa for wine, its dog-friendly trails offer wide-open space and fresh air. Areas like Alston Park and Skyline Wilderness provide off-leash zones perfect for high-energy pups like Luna. Charley Strikes a Pose by Lake Tahoes Sparkling Shore Credit: Reddit Benji, perched on a sunlit dock, takes in the crisp alpine air at Lake Tahoe. Sitting over 6,200 feet above sea level, this lake straddles California and Nevada and is one of the clearest in North America. Its dog-friendly piers and trails make it a favorite getaway for furry travelers. Kona Enjoys the Breeze at Cannon Beach, Oregon Credit: Instagram Kona takes in the coastal views near Haystack Rock, one of Oregons most photographed landmarks. Cannon Beach is known for its flat, walkable shorelines and relaxed leash laws during the off-season, which makes it a hotspot for active breeds. Huskies and Malamutes like Kona thrive in cooler, breezy beach climates. Purba Picks Lures in Northern Californias Trout Country Credit: Instagram Frost leans in for a closer look at a fly box while on a fishing trip in Plumas County, California. This rural region is home to the Feather River and dozens of alpine lakes stocked with rainbow and brown trout. Anglers often use fly patterns like woolly buggers and nymphs here. Hank Unwinds Along the Oregon Coastline Credit: Instagram Hank poses beside a bottle on an Oregon beach. Oregons coast stretches over 360 miles and features pet-friendly spots like Manzanita and Bandon. Local vineyards often produce coastal blends, and while Hank wont sip the beverage, hes clearly soaking up the ambiance. Indi Takes in the San Juan Islands Coastal View Credit: Instagram Indi explores San Diego, a coastal city known for its scenic ocean views, hiking trails, and abundant wildlife. From beachside paths to hilltop lookouts, San Diego offers plenty of dog-friendly routes for curious pups. Indis look says it alltotal wonder and curiosity. Ready for Winter Play on the Beach Credit: Instagram Bundled in a fluffy white coat, this adorable explorer is fully prepped for snowy fun on the beach. Many cold-weather breeds like the American Eskimo Dog or Samoyed thrive in winter thanks to their dense double coats. Still, protective gear helps insulate against frostbite risks during longer outdoor play in sub-freezing conditions. Ayden Canoes Through Californias Russian River Credit: Instagram Outfitted with a snug life jacket, Ayden stands alert on his first canoe outing. The Russian River in Northern California is a popular camping and paddling destination, especially for pet-friendly getaways. Calm stretches near Guerneville and Healdsburg provide safe spots where beginner dogs like Ayden can ease into water adventures. Marty Dashes Across Cannon Beachs Tidal Flats Credit: Instagram Marty may be small, but the wide-open stretch of Cannon Beach gives him all the room he needs to sprint after a ball. Located on the Oregon coast, this beach is famous for Haystack Rock and its tidal pools. The flat, compact sand makes it ideal for dogs that love to run nonstop. Ayla Races Along Crested Buttes Scenic 401 Trail Credit: Instagram Ayla charges through alpine meadows near the iconic 401 Trail in Crested Butte, Colorado. This high-altitude route, popular among mountain bikers, reaches over 9,000 feet and offers panoramic views of the Elk Mountains. In summer, wildflowers bloom along the trail. First Trail Adventure for This Chocolate Lab Pup Credit: Instagram Bright-eyed and curious, this young Labrador is getting an early start on outdoor life with a hike along a rocky path. Labs are among the top recommended breeds for active families due to their stamina, intelligence, and love of nature. Early trail exposure helps build confidence and strengthens recall skills. A third person has been arrested in connection with the death of Adan Manzano, a Telemundo reporter who was found dead in his hotel room while in Louisiana to cover the Super Bowl, authorities announced Friday. Christian Anderson, of New Orleans, was arrested "for his alleged involvement in the scheme that ultimately led to Manzano's death," the Kenner Police Department said in a press release. MORE: Text messages show yearslong scheme between suspects in Super Bowl reporter's death: Sources Manzano, a reporter for KGKC Telemundo Kansas City and Tico Sports, was found dead face-down on a pillow in his hotel room in Kenner on Feb. 5, police said. He died from the combined effects of Xanax -- an anti-anxiety medication -- and alcohol along with positional asphyxia, according to the Jefferson Parish coroner. A woman who police said was seen going into Manzano's hotel room hours before he was found dead -- Danette Colbert -- and an alleged accomplice were previously arrested in connection with his death. Manzano's cellphone and credit card were found in her home, Kenner police said. PHOTO: The booking photo for Christian Anderson. (Kenner Police Department) Police said a review of text messages and digital communications shows that Anderson, 33, and the two suspects "played an active role in a coordinated pattern of targeting victims, drugging them, and stealing personal property." Anderson rented a car that was used by Colbert on the day of Manzano's death, according to police. MORE: Woman charged with murder in death of Telemundo Super Bowl reporter "Further evidence showed that Anderson provided logistical support, engaged in post-crime communication, and assisted in attempts to financially benefit from the victim's stolen assets," Kenner police said. "Additionally, records show Anderson and Colbert communicated extensively following the incident, and that he played a role in the group's recurring criminal behavior." Anderson faces charges of principal to simple robbery, purse snatching, access device fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, bank fraud and computer fraud. He is in custody at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. PHOTO: In this photo released by Telemundo, Adan Manzano is shown. (Telemundo) Colbert was arrested in the days following Manzano's death and initially charged with property crimes, including theft and fraud-related offenses. She was subsequently charged with second-degree murder in his death following the autopsy. The other suspect in the case, Rickey White, faces the same property crime charges as Colbert. PHOTO: The Kenner Police Department provided surveillance footage that they say shows Adan Manzano and Danette Colbert getting off the elevator in a hotel hallway. (Kenner Police Department) Earlier this month, Colbert was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a previous fraud conviction, according to the Louisiana Attorney General's Office. She was given a suspended 10-year sentence after being found guilty last year of theft, computer fraud and illegal transmission of monetary funds. The attorney general's office said it argued for a harsher sentence due to her prior fraud felony convictions, and a judge subsequently sentenced her to 25 years. "The evidence was overwhelming that this woman was a serial fraudster and took advantage of multiple tourists and innocent people over many years in the French Quarter," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement following the sentencing. "I wish we could have saved the life of Adam Manzano." "I'm hopeful and confident justice will be served in Jefferson Parish as well, where Colbert is also facing charges of second-degree murder for Manzano's death," she added. 3rd person arrested in connection with death of Telemundo Super Bowl reporter originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Seven people were shot at a park in Washington state on Wednesday, May 28, police said. The Lakewood Police Department said in a Facebook post that seven people, ranging from ages 16 to 38, were shot at shortly before 8 p.m. local time at Harry Todd Park in the city. Police also said on May 29 that two out of the seven victims remain in serious condition, while one is in critical condition and the four others are in stable condition. Five of the victims were found at the park, while two others walked to local hospitals, police told KOMO News. "Most of these people were unintentionally struck during this careless act of violence," police wrote in its Facebook post. "Detectives will continue to sort through the information gathered to hold those involved accountable for their actions." Why do police believe the shooting happened? According to the social media post, police believe the shooting was not random and stemmed from a conflict. "Currently detectives believe that this incident began as a dispute between two groups that escalated to gunshots," police wrote. "There is no threat to the public and this was not a targeted attack on park goers." As of May 29, no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. Police describe scene at American Lake Park during shooting as 'chaotic' Police told KOMO that the scene at the park was chaotic once they arrived, as many families and children were present when the shots rang out. Weve had these couple days here where the sun finally came out and its been a gorgeous time for people to get out and enjoy the park, the lake and then you have something like this that happens, Lakewood Police Sgt. Charles Porche told the Seattle, Washington-based TV station. In the police's initial Facebook post on May 28, the department said the "scene was hectic because many of these people were trying to leave the park after hearing the gunshots." Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 7 people shot at a park in Washington state, no arrests made Ant Anstead/Instagram Ant Anstead and Renee Zellweger NEED TO KNOW Renee Zellweger and Ant Anstead were confirmed to be dating in June 2021 and moved in together two years later, PEOPLE previously confirmed In May 2025, Anstead was spotted staying at a friend's house in Laguna Beach, Calif., causing speculation about the status of his and Zellweger's relationship However, a representative for Anstead confirmed to PEOPLE on Thursday, May 29, that the couple is still dating Renee Zellweger and Ant Anstead are still dating despite recent reports, a rep for Anstead confirms with PEOPLE. Recently, The Daily Mail reported that Anstead, 46, and the Oscar winner, 56, are living separately, and that he was spending time with a woman named Julia French at her Laguna Beach, Calif. Sadly, the recent reports in the press are disrespectful and misleading," Anstead's rep told PEOPLE on Thursday, May 29. They added that Anstead stayed just a handful of days in Julia Frenchs separate, and detached, guest house. They have been long-time friends with similar aged children within a circle of local Laguna Beach friends. Anstead has also been spending the majority of his time working in the U.K., while Zellweger continues to film Only Murders in the Building in New York City, his rep states, confirming that the two remain in a cherished relationship that they ask to keep private. PEOPLE reached out to Zellwegers representatives for comment. Ant Anstead/Instagram Renee Zellweger and Ant Anstead 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. PEOPLE previously confirmed Zellweger and Anstead were dating in June 2021, shortly after they met on the set of his Discovery+ show, Celebrity IOU Joyride, in April that same year. In September 2021, a source told PEOPLE that the actress was forming a close bond with Ansteads son Hudson, now 5, whom he shares with ex-wife Christina Haack. Zellweger then sold her Los Angeles home in October 2021 to be closer to her boyfriend. Years later, in April 2023, a source revealed to PEOPLE that the pair had "found a house that they both love and are moving in together" after Anstead decided to sell his beloved Temple House in Laguna Beach, Calif., that same month. Anstead later joined Zellweger in England temporarily while she filmed Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. While promoting the film in Feburary 2025, Zellweger made a rare comment about her living situation to British Vogue. She was interviewed by her longtime Bridget Jones's Diary co-star Hugh Grant, and she explained during the conversation, "I live in Southern California, near San Diego." When Grant asked, "Why?" the Oscar winner gave a sweet nod to Anstead and Hudson: "Because thats where my fellow lives, and his little boy. Read the original article on People White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attends a cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025. - Nathan Howard/Reuters/File A law enforcement investigation is underway into efforts to impersonate President Donald Trumps chief of staff, Susie Wiles, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the investigation into efforts to impersonate Wiles, writing that senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and other well-known figures have received text messages and phone calls from a person who claimed to be the chief of staff. Wiles is one of Trumps closest advisers and is often in touch with lawmakers who need to reach the president. She has a long list of influential Republican contacts. A senior White House official said that Wiles told others in the Trump administration that she believed her personal phone and contact list had been hacked, as the impersonator only contacted high-profile people on that list. Many of the people who received messages were skeptical that it was Wiles, according to the official. That led some of the business executives, senators and governors who received a message from the person claiming to be Wiles to contact the White House and attempt to verify it was actually the chief of staff, the official said. That is how the White House first learned of the impersonator. The official would not share specific names of those who were contacted by the impersonator, but confirmed major executives and CEOs, members of Congress and governors were among those who received messages. The investigation comes after the FBI warned earlier this month that hackers have been using AI-generated voice messages to impersonate senior US government officials to break into online accounts. The FBI cautioned at the time that such impersonations and subsequent access to government or personal accounts could lead to other government officials or their associates and contacts being targeted. The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated, a White House official told CNN. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement: The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness. Safeguarding our administration officials ability to securely communicate to accomplish the presidents mission is a top priority. Wiles declined to comment through a spokesperson. Trump told reporters on Friday evening that he was aware of reports about the impersonation attempts but said Wiles could handle it. Shes an amazing woman. She can handle it, but Ive heard that they breached her phones or they tried to impersonate her. Nobody can impersonate Susie, Trump said. Theres only one Susie. Wiles, the first woman to hold the title of chief of staff, is a seasoned political operative from Florida who has been one of Trumps longest-serving advisers, including serving as his 2024 campaign manager. Prior to accepting the important office in the West Wing, Wiles expressed some reservations about the role and had certain demands, CNN reported at the time of her selection. At the top of her list of conditions was more control over who can reach the president in the Oval Office. As campaign manager, Wiles was widely credited with running what was seen as Trumps most sophisticated and disciplined campaign, which included keeping many of the fringe voices in his orbit at bay. Previously, Wiles helped Trump win the Sunshine State in 2016 and 2020. She also served as Trumps de facto chief of staff during his time out of the White House following his 2020 loss. Wiles also once served as a top adviser to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but she was ousted from his inner circle in 2019 amid rising tensions between the two. This story has been updated with additional reporting. CNNs Hannah Rabinowitz, Kaanita Iyer and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Sharmistha Das says she didn't trash her Lyft. But her driver claims she dragged her bicycle helmet along the side of his door, leaving several long scuff marks. Lyft charged her credit card an $80 cleaning fee and she's not alone. As the summer travel season gets underway, more travel companies are billing their customers for leaving a mess behind. The question is, are travelers becoming more careless or are businesses seeing a profit motive? And what, if anything, can you do about it? Das' auto problem: 'Repair is needed' Shortly after Das, a research scientist from Boston, returned from a trip to the grocery store, she received an email from Lyft. "Your driver, Dmitry, notified us that repair is needed after your ride," it said. "An $80 charge has been applied to your default card." But the photos Lyft sent were problematic. Dmitry claimed she scraped the car with her bicycle helmet. But the helmet had no edges that could have inflicted the scratches. "When I asked for proof of the time or location of the images taken, none were provided to me," she says. And the photos didn't match the location she had visited. Das' experience is common, and not just with Lyft. Travel businesses hit their customers with cleaning fees, often with the flimsiest of evidence. And some companies simply charge their customers' credit cards without their permission. No one is keeping track of the number of cleaning fees in the travel industry or even measuring the cleanliness or lack thereof. But based on extensive interviews with travelers and the cases I receive at my nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, it's fair to say there has been an upswing in both. "This issue appears to be escalating," says Carla Bevins, who teaches business management communication at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Tepper School of Business. Why? Bevins suspects that part of the reason is that there's no consistency in cleaning standards. "For instance, a guest might stay at one vacation rental and feel like a quick sweep is enough, only to find themselves hit with a hefty cleaning fee," she says. "Or, a rental car might seem fine to a guest but falls short of the companys cleanliness standards." But there's more to this. Lyft Scandal Car shaming is real: What to do if someone criticizes your gas-powered vehicle Travelers are less respectful now and messier Fact is, the COVID-19 pandemic changed travelers. (It changed all of us, actually, but that's a topic for another day.) And people have noticed the mess. I saw some of the most careless tourists in the world when I lived in Rio de Janeiro last year. Many visitors showed no respect for the beautiful beaches, discarding trash and often using the medians to relieve themselves after a night of drinking. But the worst I've ever seen was in Dublin. I lived in Temple Bar, a historic part of the Irish capital known for its pubs. Every morning, the cleaning crews had to make several passes through the narrow cobblestone streets to remove empty beer bottles, trash and human waste. It cuts across all classes. Sharon Sybrandt, a fraud investigator from Cedar Creek, Texas, recalls a recent flight from Austin to London. As she was disembarking, she says, the economy class section was relatively clean. Then she got to business class. "There was trash all over the floor," she says. "I couldn't believe it." What's going on? Behavioral experts say people want to live a little and there's a sense of entitlement, as if they paid for an experience and someone else should clean up after them. As you might guess, that's not going over well with hotels, car rental companies and vacation rental owners. "I think they're fed up with travelers leaving ridiculous messes," says Jo Hayes, an etiquette expert. So, instead of quietly cleaning up after them, they're charging them. Are cleaning fees are a source of revenue? Hang on. What about travelers like Das, who are getting hit with fees for allegedly scuffing up the side of their rideshare? Well, there's another perspective on this: that some travel companies are charging more fees to increase their revenue. Travel expert Dean Rotchin says some companies are charging fees that far exceed actual cleaning costs. It's particularly true for vacation rental owners, who charge $200 to $300 to clean a small property more than double the going rate. And he has noticed that car rental companies have embraced a far stricter view of what constitutes a messy return. That way, they can charge cleaning fees as high as $400. "They've really embraced this trend," says Rotchin, CEO of a private jet company. There's no question that cleaning fees can be a significant source of revenue for the travel industry. Unscrupulous vacation rental hosts can enrich themselves by padding their fees and as a bonus, they can often separate these fees from the base rate, which makes the rental look cheaper. Drivers for ride-sharing companies also know that a vague damage fee can bring in an extra $80 or more. Perhaps the worst are hotels, which simply charge guests for cleaning their rooms after they check out without providing any evidence the customers were responsible for the mess. That's a scam. Don't let it happen to you this summer How do you avoid cleaning fees? Easy, says Joe Cronin, CEO of International Citizens Insurance. "Just clean up after yourself." Treat the space as if it's your own. Also, read the fine print and reviews that way, you know what your host or hotel expects. And what about Das? Well, I asked Lyft about her case, and a few days later she received an email from someone on Lyft's executive escalations team. Without addressing her questions about the missing time stamps and problematic locations, Lyft claimed the evidence against her supported the charge, even after a second review. "We understand you have adamantly denied this damage occurred," the representative added. "As an act of good faith, I have refunded the damage fee of $80 back to your payment method for this case." Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at chris@elliott.org. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are travelers getting messier? What to know about rising cleaning fees Fact checked by Sarah Scott Parents/GettyImages/benedek KEY POINTS WalletHub released a report showing the best and worst cities in America to raise a family. It looked at 182 cities across the country and evaluated them using 45 metrics under five categories. Fremont, California was the best city to live in 2025. Choosing where to raise your family comes down to various factors. It may be due to work, where your extended family lives, or where you grew up. Or you may be thinking about relocating for personal preferences. In that case, you might be wondering about the best places to raise a family in the United States. Personal finance company WalletHub released a new report revealing the best and worst cities in the country for families. It compared 182 cities across the U.S. to determine the most favorable ones. Finding the best place to raise a family is difficult, between balancing an affordable cost of living with good educational opportunities, safety, and enough recreation to keep kids entertained. On top of all of these factors, people also often want to raise their children close to their extended family, Chip Lupo, WalletHubs Analyst, says in a statement. Therefore, current or prospective parents can benefit from narrowing down their choices to a few of the best cities that are within a reasonable drive of their family. Lets break down WalletHubs findings. The Best Cities To Raise a Family WalletHub looked at five key categoriesfamily fun, health & safety, education & child care, affordability, and socio-economicsto create its list. To evaluate the categories, it used 45 metrics and each was graded on an 100-point scale. The final ranking was determined using the weighted average of the metrics. WalletHub concluded these are the top 10 cities for families in 2025: 1. Fremont, California 2. Overland Park, Kansas 3. Plano, Texas 4. Irvine, California 5. South Burlington, Vermont 6. Seattle, Washington 7. Boise, Idaho 8. Gilbert, Arizona 9. Bismarck, North Dakota 10. San Diego, California Fremont took the top spot mainly because of economic reasons. It has the third-lowest share of families living in poverty and those receiving food stamps. It has the highest median family incomes adjusted for cost of living at nearly $130,000. The California city has a good education system too58.3% of public schools have a 7 out of 10 rating. There are also many summer camp opportunities and it has the fifth-most parkland acres per capita. The majority of kids in this city have health insurance and access to healthy food. But the other top cities also have appealing factors, and some rank higher in certain categories. For example, South Burlington ranks No. 1 for education and child care, while Overland Park is No. 1 in affordability. And if youre interested in family fun, San Diego ranks No. 5 in that. Thats also about an hour and half drive from the No. 11 city, Huntington Beach, California, aka the Surf City USA, which ranks No. 90 in family fun. The Worst Cities To Raise a Family 173. Hialeah, Florida 174. Jackson, Mississippi 175. San Bernardino, California 176. Baltimore, Maryland 177. Birmingham, Alabama 178. Newark, New Jersey 179. Gulport, Mississippi 180. Cleveland, Ohio 181. Detroit, Michigan 182. Memphis, Tennessee If your family lives in one of the lower ranking cities, you may be discouraged by the list, especially because of the privilege of being able to relocate to a top U.S. city. But the reality is no city will rank No. 1 in everything. And it's not all bad news for families living outside of the top cities. Just take a look at San Bernardino, California; it came in at No. 175 but ranks 22 for family fun. Same goes for Newark, New Jersey which ranks 178 overall but No. 53 in education and child care. Parents have power, too. They can advocate for change in their communities by participating in school board meetings, joining a parent-teacher association (PTA), and voting locally if they are able to. Don't forget about local community programs that offer enrichment opportunities for kids. And remember, a loving and supportive home goes a very long way. Read the original article on Parents On the 10th anniversary of his son's death, President Joe Biden urged fellow families of deceased service members to support veterans and their families regardless of politics. "The women and men we honor today are no longer with us, but you can still hear their echoes. Literally, can't you?... They're asking, what will we do?... They're asking us to stay true to what America stands for," he said in remarks at a Delaware Memorial Day event on May 30. "They're not asking us to do their jobs. They're asking us to do our job, to protect our nation in our time now, to defend democracy, be part of something bigger than ourselves. So today, let's renew our pledge to honor our heroes." The remarks, at an annual Memorial Day event at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware, came 10 years to the day of Beau Biden's death. Beau Biden served in Iraq for the Delaware National Guard and died in 2015 at age 46. "Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier," Biden said. "Thank you for allowing me to grieve with you." He mentioned that when Beau was young he used to come with him to the event. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden at Dover Air Force Base on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, watch as an Army carry team moves a transfer case of one of three U.S. Army Reserve sergeants killed by a drone strike Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. Biden also spoke at the annual New Castle event in 2021. The comments were Biden's first public speech since he announced he'd been diagnosed with aggressive Stage 4 prostate cancer and since a book was published raising questions about his physical and mental fitness while he was president. On May 29, President Donald Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt called on former first lady Jill Biden to speak out about Biden's alleged mental decline while in office, saying she had conspired to keep her husband's health from the American people. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden urges Americans to support vets on anniversary of son's death A bloodhound picked up the scent shortly after the Devil in the Ozarks escaped from a lockup in northern Arkansas. The hound didn't have to go far to begin the hunt it lives at the prison as part of a specialized unit that uses man's best friend to help track fugitives. Although the scent of convicted killer Grant Hardin was lost because of heavy rain, experts say that even days after Sunday's escape, the animal's highly developed sense of smell can still pick up a fresh trail. Thats partly due to about 300 million cells in their nose that supercharges their sense of smell, said Terri Heck, a Bloodhound handler and trainer who works with the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, District Attorneys Office. Theyve got wide nostrils to scoop up smells, and their long ears often work to stir up scents as they drag along the ground. Even their drool plays a role, as that wetness wakes up scents, Heck said. Bloodhounds are known for being tenacious trackers, said Brian Tierney, president of the National Police Bloodhound Association. They're playing a key role in the search for Hardin, now in its sixth day. Bloodhounds are so precise that they can differentiate the smells of identical twins, said Stephanie White, who coordinates training seminars that draw dogs and handlers from around the U.S. to the Florida Public Safety Institute at Tallahassee State College. The dogs are faced with a variety of training scenarios, from wooded areas to pavement to water crossings, she said. They also save lives, as one young bloodhound did just two weeks ago in Maine. Millie, a 10-month-old hound tracked a 5-year-old girl with autism who went missing from her home on May 16, Maine State Police said. The dog found the girl waist-deep in water in a swamp, the agency said. Authorities credited Millie's dedication and incredible nose for saving the girl. Bloodhounds are also independent, a key trait for searches. When it gets to be a difficult search they dont look to you for help, that they go forth themselves, Heck said. Bad weather confounded the hunt for Hardin, who was serving a 30-year sentence for murder when he escaped from the prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas. The hound found - then lost - Hardin's scent when heavy rains blew through the area, said state prison spokesman Rand Champion. Hardin was tracked for less than a quarter of a mile when the bloodhound lost the trail. He could have gone in any direction after that. That was one of the most frustrating things, that they were able to track him but then they lost him because of the rain, Champion said. A tip that Hardin was sighted in southern Missouri has been ruled out, and searchers assume that he's still in the vicinity of the prison, Champion said Friday. Hardin took very little with him and left behind plenty of clothes, bedsheets and other items that are used to familiarize the bloodhounds with his scent, Champion said. They are shared with the dogs to give them the initial scent of the person they're seeking, Tierney said. Who is Grant Hardin? A former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in a fatal shooting for which he was serving a 30-year sentence. Hardins DNA was matched to the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years for that crime. Eventually, his notoriety led to a TV documentary, Devil in the Ozarks. Champion said that someone should have checked Hardins identity before he was allowed to leave, describing the lack of verification as a lapse that's being investigated. Bloodhounds live at Calico Rock prison The Calico Rock prison is known for bloodhounds that live in a kennel on prison property. Its nearly one dozen dogs have helped many other agencies, including the FBI ederal Bureau of Investigation, track a variety of people over the years, according to a 2021 state audit report on the prison. Southern prisons have a long history of keeping bloodhounds around in case of escapes, like the one featured in country artist Blake Shelton's song Ol' Red," about a hound that hunts escaped inmates with "a nose that could smell a two-day trail." Dogs in Arkansas' prison system have also been used to help other agencies find missing children, people with special needs or elderly people, Champion said. The bloodhounds tend to raise a ruckus when they find their mark. But the prison system uses other types of dogs in searching for children and vulnerable people who go missing, and those dogs tend to lick people and make friends with them when they are found, Champion said. Fugitives use spices, other means to foil bloodhounds Fugitives have been known to take extreme steps to throw the dogs off their trail, Tierney said. Two convicted killers who broke out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in 2015 collected dozens of containers of black and cayenne pepper before their escape. They intended to use the pepper to interfere with tracking dogs they assumed would be part of a manhunt for them after the escape, a state investigation found. One of the men was shot and killed during the manhunt; another was also shot but survived and was captured. Hardin has troubled past in law enforcement In his first job as a police officer 35 years ago in the college town of Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, Hardin struggled almost immediately, his supervisors said. He was dismissed by Fayetteville police, but kept getting hired for other law enforcement jobs in northwest Arkansas over the years. By the time he was the police chief in the small town of Gateway in 2016, he was out chasing cars for no reason, Cheryl Tillman, the town's current mayor, recalled in the documentary Devil in the Ozarks. ___ Associated Press Writer Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed. Food & Wine / Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Christina Daley Either you already love Spam, or you really ought to love Spam. A lot of Americans turn their nose up at this canned meat, but theyre missing out. Spam is delicious, easy to prepare, and great for weeknight dinners of fried rice, tacos, or sandwiches. Beyond Spam Classic, Hormel Foods produces 12 additional creative Spam flavors. But which ones are actually worth buying? We decided to find the answer, tasting all 13 Spam flavors side by side to determine the best and the worst. What is Spam? Produced by Hormel Foods, Spam is a highly processed, canned luncheon meat, typically made from a combination of pre-ground pork shoulder and ham. Plain versions are firm and chewy in texture, with a salty, cured pork flavor similar to bologna. A can of Spam can last up to five years. Once its opened, its typically sliced lengthwise and sauteed until crispy. Although it is manufactured in Minnesota and Iowa, Spam made its way across the globe during World War II by way of American soldiers. When the infantry left, the cans of Spam remained, becoming a popular source of affordable meat, especially in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Hawaii. Spam is now a staple in all four of those cuisines, commonly served in stews, musubi, onigiri, fried rice, and alongside scrambled eggs. How we tested For this taste test, we purchased all 13 of Spams signature flavors. We did not include any seasonal or stunt flavors, like Pumpkin Spice or Figgy Pudding. Food & Wine / Doan Nguyen Every flavor of Spam was cut into 1-inch thick slices and pan-fried with a teaspoon of vegetable oil over medium heat until browned on both sides. Unlike most of our other taste tests, the six participating Food & Wine editors were aware of the product they were tasting in order to properly evaluate the affectiveness of the flavor (i.e. does Spam Maple Flavored actually taste like maple syrup?). The editors scored each Spam on flavor, noting the quality of taste and execution of the branded flavor, and texture, considering firmness vs. softness, sponginess vs. moistness, and how well the Spam was able to fry. They also gave each Spam an overall score, which reflected how likely theyd purchase and prepare the product again. The scores were added and averaged, then ranked from lowest to highest. While its worth trying these Spam flavors for yourself and forming your own opinions, we feel confident that this list reflects the Spam flavors that should be added to your lunchtime rotation and the ones that could be left in your Spam folder for eternity. 13. Spam with Tocino Seasoning Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC With the prominent role that Spam plays in Filipino cuisine often eaten for breakfast and in garlic fried rice we were excited to see how Hormel would approach a flavor inspired by tocino, a sweet cured pork served in the Philippines. Unfortunately, the tocino-flavored Spam was overwhelmingly sweet, or, as senior news editor Karla Alindahao put it, Like a wet napkin soaked in a too-sugary sauce. As a Filipino, no thank you, she added. It was mildly tocino-ish, but in the worst way. Its like the version that youd find in some sad Filipino breakfast buffet. It didnt help that the consistency was wet and mushy. For a quick tocino fix, youre better off skipping this Spam and buying it frozen. 12. Spam Maple Flavored Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Look, we understand the vision here. We have no problem with the savory-sweet mashup of breakfast sausage and maple syrup. But the problem is, this Spams maple flavoring tastes artificial and, like the tocino flavor, sickeningly sweet. The experience of eating Spam Maple Flavored is reminiscent of biting into a soggy, Eggo waffle, smothered with faux maple syrup. While the flavor combination here inherently works, wed prefer to drizzle real maple syrup over plain Spam. 11. Spam Hickory Smoke Flavored Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC The problem with this Spam isnt so much the flavor, but the lack of flavor. We expected to taste barbecue and campfire. But instead, the hickory smoke flavoring was indecipherable. The texture is even worse, akin to a soft-boiled hot dog. Spam is about mush, but this is a particular mush, said executive features editor, Kat Kinsman. Its waterlogged and unpleasant. 10: Spam 25% Less Sodium Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC For a Spam branded as having 25% less sodium, this flavor sure does taste salty. Perhaps its because I was attuned to sodium due to the name of the product, but it felt almost violently salty, said Kinsman. Saltier than regular Spam. Our editors also noted that it also had an offputting aftertaste, reminiscent of cardboard. Similar to the Hickory Smoke flavor, this Spam is too soft even when fried with oil it remains limp and flabby. 9. Spam Teriyaki Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Out of all the Spam flavors we tasted, this flavor was the most divisive. Alindahao called it the worst of the bunch, hands down, noting that the teriyaki flavoring tastes chemical. But senior editor Audrey Morgan loved it. Its very reminiscent of more sugar-forward, American-style teriyaki, she said. I would eat it with rice without any sauce. Kinsman agreed. Meat and sweet arent generally to my taste but this had enough savoriness to it that I feel like its a good counterbalance. If youre a big teriyaki fan, wed recommend giving this flavor a shot, but for a safer bet, simply glaze unflavored Spam in a homemade teriyaki sauce. 8. Spam Gochujang Flavored Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Although this Spam is made with gochujang the spicy, umami-packed Korean red chile paste our editors felt like it had a more tangy, fermented flavor, more similar to kimchi. If you asked me what the flavor of this was, Id genuinely have no idea, said Kinsman. It doesnt taste like gochujang, but its got a lovely sip to it and I dont mind that at all. All things considered, this flavor was a bit one-note, but wed be perfectly happy dicing it up and tossing it into a Korean-style kimchi fried rice. 7. Spam with Real Hormel Bacon Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Theres nothing exactly wrong with the flavor combination of Spam and Hormel bacon, but our editors were left a bit confused. Alindahao wondered, If you have access to bacon, why would you settle for Spam bacon? And Morgan agreed. Why does this product exist? Just eat bacon. The most logical solution is that this Spam is for people who yearn for the texture of a sausage patty with the flavor of bacon. If thats your thing, congrats! This is the Spam for you. 6. Spam Oven Roasted Turkey Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Spam Oven Roasted Turkey, made with 100% white, lean turkey meat and turkey broth, has a lot going on. The texture is firm, chewy, and juicy exactly what we want from Spam. But the flavor really takes you on a journey (for better or worse). Morgan said that it reminded her of a BLT or a turkey club. How did the Hormel gods pack the flavors of an entire sandwich into a slice of Spam? But while Hormel certainly achieved their goal of creating a Spam that tastes like a savory turkey breast, whether or not that flavor works is up for debate. I like turkey and I like Spam. However, this is trying to be two things at once and not achieving the individual greatness of either, said editorial director Dylan Garret. Its fine, but Id rather just have a turkey and Spam sandwich. 5. Spam Korean BBQ Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC If you can get past that soft, mealy texture, we recommend this Korean barbecue-inspired Spam, infused with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, paprika, sesame, and gochujang. Gorgeous balance of sweet and spice, and joyfully not gloppy like barbecue sauce is often interpreted as, said Kinsman. Its sharp and salty and Im a fan. Since the Spam is so flavor-packed, we suggest keeping it simple serve it over warm white rice with some pickled daikon to balance out the sweetness. 4. Spam Jalapeno Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Spam Jalapeno is the only flavor with textural variability there are actual, small chunks of diced jalapenos dotted throughout the Spam. This feels like Spam Classic but perhaps brined for an hour or two in jalapeno juice, said Kinsman. Its not knocking the original off its perch, but its a nice alternative. The jalapenos add a subtle layer of spice and taste slightly pickled, like the type youd get on movie theater nachos. Channel Tex-Mex and use this Spam for breakfast tacos, or fold it into a cheesy scramble. 3. Spam Classic Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Spam Classic is a classic for a reason. Its firm, juicy, and just the right amount greasy, with a strong porky flavor. The only reason its not higher on our list is that our editors found it a bit too salty to eat on its own. This is enough sodium to put an elephant down, said Alindahao. But its still something I would consume without you having to wring my arm out. I like the basic-ness of it. Still, Spam Classic is the best for stews like budae jjigae, adding a boost of salty, savoriness to the pungent broth. 2. Spam Lite Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC Spam Lite has all the porky goodness of Spam Classic, without the excessive salt. I think this makes for a better canvas for building a meal, so that other ingredients get to shine without being overpowered by that very specific Spam flavor, said Alindahao. Its less greasy and firmer than the Classic, meaning it will hold up well in a breakfast sandwich or an SLT (Spam-Lettuce-Tomato). We dont even care about the fact that Spam Lite is more nutritious than most other Spam flavors, with 25% less sodium and 50% less fat its the second best, because its the most versatile Spam available. Not horrible but less meaty less complex, and more firm then the original. 1. Spam Hot & Spicy Food & Wine / Hormel Foods, LLC This Spam was our favorite by a landslide it topped every one of our editors lists for its firm texture (identical to Spam Lite) and boldly spicy flavor. Unlike Spam Jalapeno, Spam Hot & Spicy is seasoned with chiles, specifically red peppers and vinegar, for a tangy spice similar to Tabasco. It has a nice heat that lingers, said photo editor Doan Nguyen. Other editors noted that it reminded them of a spicy sausage, like chorizo. This has everything I love about summer sausage in the sharpness and heat, but with a more pleasing texture, said Kinsman. Id absolutely buy this and am dreaming of having some with cheese. Spam Hot & Spicy might not be as versatile as Spam Classic and Spam Lite, but for anything that youd typically add hot sauce to Spam and eggs, Spam and rice, or a simple Spam sandwich this flavor is the way to go. Read the original article on Food & Wine TheStewartofNY - Getty Images "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Dakota Johnson looked electric las night as she made her entrance at an event celebrating Italian jewelry brand Roberto Coin in New York City. The actor was spotted walking into Cipriani, looking ultra-glamorous in a strapless black draped gown that was pulled up at the center and flowed down to the sides. The slinky maxi dress was both easy and so elevated for a night out in the city. TheStewartofNY - Getty Images Johnson styled the piece with Ferragamos pointy black Eva pumps with slanted stiletto heels, and a magnificent diamond necklace from Roberto Coin. The necklace adorned her decolletage like a floral lace collar, but with white diamonds instead. It was dotted with blue heart-shaped sapphires. TheStewartofNY - Getty Images To go with the necklace, the Am I OK? star also slipped on some blue cocktail rings from the jeweler. She completed her effortlessly sophisticated look with a dark smoky eye and a bronze lip. Johnson also wore a little black dress earlier this month, to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. Then, she accessorized even more minimally, styling it only with strappy heels and tiny diamond earringsplus a pretty side braid. Anadolu - Getty Images Johnson served as the face of Roberto Coins latest campaign, The Art of Dreaming. In a video, she is seen standing before stunning views around Venice in several of the jewelry labels gleaming new creations. Today a vision comes true with the new The Art of Dreaming advertising campaign by Roberto Coin featuring a stellar @dakotajohnson. Venice has never been so enchanting, the brand wrote on Instagram alongside the clip. You Might Also Like One person was killed and several others were injured when a likely tornado surprised a rural area of Kentucky early the morning of May 30, as storms shifted their sights on the South and Mid-Atlantic region after turning deadly in Texas earlier in the week. Officials in Washington County, about 70 miles from Louisville, said they started receiving calls about damaged homes and missing people at about 7 a.m. on May 30. Seven people were injured and one was killed, Judge Executive Timothy Graves told reporters. Two homes were destroyed. "It was a small area that was hit but it was devastating," Graves said. The person who died in Texas was swept away in floodwaters on May 28 after a "brief but very powerful storm" that caused downed trees, damage from hail and winds, power outages and flash flooding, Austin City Manager TC Broadnax said at a news conference. The storm dumped 2 to 3 inches of rain within half an hour, officials said. On May 29, a reported tornado that tore through Georgia damaged or destroyed homes in Henry County, Georgia, including that of "The Wire" actor Tray Chaney, who said he and his son were injured. Forecasters said states including Georgia, the Carolinas and parts of the Mid-Atlantic were in the path of "a rather strong system for late May" that will reach New England by the weekend. The storm will bring heavy rain across the Ohio Valley during the day and the northern Mid-Atlantic by night on May 30. The thunderstorms and rain are increasing chances of dangerous flash flooding in the region, according to the National Weather Service. Impacts from the storms could include wind damage, large hail and a few tornadoes, the Storm Prediction Center said. More than 21 million people were under flood watches in the region the morning of May 30, in states including Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Kentucky tornado took residents by surprise Officials in Washington County, Kentucky, said they were not expecting severe weather the morning of May 30. Alerts from the National Weather Service went out to people's phones, but there isn't a siren in the area to alert people, said Kevin Devine with the Washington County Emergency Management. Devine said downed trees were blocking a road and rivers and creeks were flooded from heavy rain. Roads that flooded have since opened back up. One car was also hit by a tree, but nobody was injured in that incident. The conditions of the seven people injured weren't immediately available, he said. A 3-year-old who was missing right after the storm was found and among those transported to a hospital, Devine said. Tray Chaney, son injured in Georgia storm Chaney said in posts to social media that a tornado destroyed his home and injured him and his son Malachi in Locust Grove, Georgia, in Henry County, about 35 miles outside Atlanta. "I lost my house. I lost everything in it," he said in a video posted to Instagram, standing in front of debris from a destroyed home. "Thank God I'm still living." Chaney said he was knocked unconscious with his face in mud and debris all around him. He woke up "in a panic" searching for his son, who had been thrown 300 feet from his bedroom and was found in the woods behind the house. Malachi was being treated in intensive care, Chaney said. Preliminary reports to the National Weather Service said a tornado came through Henry County at about 2:30 p.m. on May 29. "Cherish life as much as you can," Chaney said. "Me and my son had a beautiful day today... in a split second, my house is gone. Storms in Texas led to several water rescues, 1 death The storms that hit in central Texas on May 28 rolled through Austin quickly. Between 6 and 7 p.m., the storm peaked and winds reached up to 77 mph, officials said. During that time, calls for help to 911 also surged. "This was a fast-moving, destructive storm with whole trees ripped down, extensive damage to homes, property and electrical equipment," Austin Energy Interim General Manager Stuart Riley said. Austin's emergency responders responded to nine water rescue calls, said Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz. One of the calls was for an adult patient who had reportedly been submerged in floodwaters for over 20 minutes and was pronounced dead on the scene, Luckritz said. The storm caused a river gauge to raise from 3 to 13 feet in 30 minutes, AccuWeather reported. It also blew out windows at the state Capitol building, the outlet reported. "Within about 20 minutes, some areas of Austin saw a blanket of hail carpet the ground, flood waters quickly pour into low water crossings, whole trees ripped from the ground and expansive damage to homes, property and electric equipment," Austin Energy said in a post to social media. Within about 20 minutes, some areas of Austin saw a blanket of hail carpet the ground, flood waters quickly pour into low water crossings, whole trees ripped from the ground and expansive damage to homes, property and electric equipment. pic.twitter.com/D50BQQMGa3 Austin Energy (@austinenergy) May 29, 2025 Storms to reach East Coast, New England through weekend The storms impacting the South and Mid-West are part of a multi-day system that has been dumping rain and bringing thunderstorms to several regions of the United States. Again on May 30, much of the eastern half of the country is expected to see rain or thunderstorms. Major cities in the crosshairs include Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Atlanta, Georgia, the Storm Prediction Center said. The storms on May 30 could be the most intense of the week for the East Coast, AccuWeather reported. As night falls, heavy rain is expected to move through the Interstate 81 and 95 corridors and can bring flash flooding to cities including Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia. Some of the cities impacted May 30 could be hit again the next day with more rain and storms. Hazy outlook: Smoke, dust likely to impact US skies this weekend As the month closes out, the storms are expected to reach New England by May 31, the National Weather Service said. "With no immediate shift to a drier pattern, continued thunderstorm activity may hamper logistics, strain power infrastructure and disrupt outdoor operations" through the end of May, AccuWeather said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deadly storms in Texas, Kentucky shift focus to South, Mid-Atlantic Reborn vigilante Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) faces off against a murderers' row of serial killers in "Dexter: Resurrection." The "Dexter" revival series (first two episodes streaming on Paramount+ July 11) features beloved Hollywood stars earning sinister tabloid monikers, including "Doogie Howser, M.D." star Neil Patrick Harris (as "The Tattoo Collector") and "Modern Family" star Eric Stonestreet (as "Rapunzel"). "Jessica Jones" star Krysten Ritter puts the chill into "Lady Vengeance," and David Dastmalchian ("The Suicide Squad") does double evil duty as "The Gemini Killer." The serial killers are summoned to New York for a MurderCon-style meetup with Charley (Uma Thurman), the head of security for mysterious billionaire Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage), as seen in the trailer released May 31. "They don't all live in New York City, but let's say they've been invited there; it's a gathering," says "Dexter" creator and executive producer Clyde Phillips, who stocks "Resurrection" with new uber-villains. "This season is a unique launching pad for however many years this series will be going." Here's the new legion of "Dexter" doom: Neil Patrick Harris and Eric Stonestreet are serial killers on "Dexter: Resurrection," premiering in July on Paramount+. 'Dexter: Resurrection' miracle! Michael C. Hall returns from TV dead in Showtime series Neil Patrick Harris is Lowell, aka The Tattoo Collector: The successful anesthesiologist targets victims with tattoos to add to his grisly collection. Neil Patrick Harris in "Dexter: Resurrection." Krysten Ritter is Mia, aka Lady Vengeance: A serial killer by night, sommelier by day, "Lady Vengeance" is vivacious and lives her life to the fullest, whether its in her day job or her life on the hunt. Krysten Ritter is Mia, aka Lady Vengeance, in "Dexter: Resurrection." Eric Stonestreet is Al, aka Rapunzel: Jolly and cordial, a Midwestern father of two, Al is the last person youd ever expect to be a serial killer. But his bizarre need to strangle ponytailed women has left a trail of bodies that has terrified the country. Eric Stonestreet as Al in "Dexter: Resurrection." David Dastmalchian is Gareth, aka The Gemini Killer: A brilliant mind with a devious need to kill people in pairs. Hes been killing for years, leaving the FBI with no clues to his true identity. But hes built such a name for himself that books, movies and podcasts detail his terrifying exploits. David Dastmalchian has a big ego as Gareth in "Dexter: Resurrection" Wait, so 'Dexter' is alive again? Dexter survived what was clearly meant to be a permanent shotgun death, depicted in the January 2022 finale of "Dexter New Blood." In the 2024-25 "Dexter: Original Sin" prequel, which Hall's Dexter narrates, the barely alive serial killer is shown being rushed by ambulance to an upstate New York hospital. In "Resurrection," Dexter slips off to New York City as soon as his recovery allows, looking for his son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), who also happens to be the guy who shot his dad upstate. Michael C. Hall is back as Dexter Morgan in "Dexter: Resurrection." Now that Hall has been reborn as Dexter for "Resurrection," Phillips plans to keep the franchise star alive as long as series renewals allow. That means the villains who come across Dexter in "Resurrection" won't fall to his signature Saran Wrap death right away. "One of these characters will end up being what we call 'The Big Baddie,' and they will be taken care of this season," Phillips says. The rest will have to wait their turn for a lethal face-off, which could take "however many years we're going to be on. And really, that's up to Michael." How to watch the new 'Dexter: Resurrection'? The first two episodes stream on demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers on July 11, before airing on Paramount+ with Showtime on July 13 (8 ET/PT), then weekly on Sundays. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When does new 'Dexter start? Watch 'Resurrection' first trailer Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Courtesy: U.S. Department of State flickr (The Center Square) A former executive at the U.S. Agency for International Development is disputing claims by an international human rights organization that the Trump administration's foreign aid cuts have caused mass suffering. The administrations cutting of 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts has sparked debate over whether American tax dollars have funded global humanitarian policies, or a giant organization rife with corruption and wasteful spending. A new report from Amnesty International suggests the cuts have threatened, stalled or shuttered life-saving programs across the world. However, Max Primorac, who worked in the foreign aid sector for over 30 years, told The Center Square that theres a lot of problems in the foreign aid sector and said claims that thousands are dying have no credibility. Primorac launched the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance while at USAID and later served as its acting COO. It's incredible to blame America for millions of people dying. Number one, they [Amnesty International] don't have any documentation, any proof. And second, the primary responsibility of providing for citizens overseas are their own governments, not the American taxpayer, Primorac said. According to the report, dozens of impoverished and conflict-ridden countries have seen multiple aid services cut, creating "a life-threatening vacuum" that other governments and aid organizations are not realistically able to fill in the immediate term," according to Amanda Klasing of Amnesty International USA. Anonymous sources interviewed by the organization said programs and clinics in Guatemala, Haiti, Afghanistan and Yemen that support sexual and gender-based violence survivors have been impacted by the cuts. The cuts have also purportedly interrupted emergency nutritional support in Syria, Yemen, Haiti and South Sudan, as well as HIV prevention and treatment programs in Haiti and across east and southern Africa. Refugee and migrant services in Thailand, Myanmar, Costa Rica, Mexico and other countries have also been partially suspended or scaled back. It is a false choice that the U.S. government has to choose between addressing the economic needs of Americans or the rising cost of living here in the U.S. and development and humanitarian assistance abroad, Klasing said, noting how foreign aid represented about 1% of the total U.S. budget before the aid cuts. The U.S. has a global responsibility and interest in providing support to the most marginalized, she added. But Primorac dubbed the Amnesty International report a progressive political hit job on the Trump administration. The fundamental problem that we have is that the aid sector, number one, is politically very radical. Many of these organizations were supporting Hamas. And in terms of humanitarian assistance in the countries that they talk about, I know these countries very well Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Gaza and we have a very big problem in terms of diversion of aid to bad actors, he said. As The Center Square previously reported, Primorac has testified before Congress regarding corruption, waste and mismanagement he witnessed in the foreign aid system, including lobbying efforts to tank legislation that would have increased transparency in USAID spending. USAID has come under fire for its involvement in coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, in 2019, its alleged funding of gender ideology initiatives in dozens of countries, and its sponsoring of armed terrorist groups, among other things. It is a self-interested foreign aid industrial complex that has no credibility, Primorac told The Center Square. Instead of using taxpayer money to help alleviate poverty, what they have done instead is create a permanent global welfare program that doesn't help these people, that keeps them poor, keeps them hungry. This aid dependency has destroyed the ability of these countries to get off aid. Primorac called the report a missed opportunity to discuss how the U.S. can better administer aid to needy countries given the increasing amounts of foreign aid and no progress. These are the true ways in which to generate wealth and fight poverty in these countries, not welfare programs, he said. Under the leadership of Secretary Rubio, the United States has a unique opportunity to move away from these traditional welfare-based programs to promoting more trade and investments. US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a hearing with the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill on May 14 in Washington, DC. - Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a stunning allegation on Wednesday: A undocumented migrant sent a letter threatening to kill President Donald Trump, promising to self deport after the assassination. Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars, Noem wrote in a social media post that included the letter and a picture of the man arrested. DHS also sent out a press release. The story was picked up by multiple news outlets. The presidents allies used it to highlight what they see as the dangers of undocumented migrants and the work of the administration to boot them out of the country. The problem: Investigators believe the migrant was a victim of a setup. Law enforcement believes the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, 54, never wrote the letter, which was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and other law enforcement agencies, several sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Instead, investigators suspect the letter was intended to benefit a separate individual who is currently awaiting trial in a robbery and assault case in which Reyes is a victim. They do not consider the threat to be credible. In investigating the case, agents believe the person may have been involved in sending these letters, claiming to be from Reyes, in an attempt to have Reyes deported before the case could go to trial, sources said. On May 21, an ICE field intelligence officer received a handwritten letter in the mail allegedly threatening President Donald Trump. - From the US Department of Homeland Security A high-level law enforcement official who was briefed on the case told CNN that law enforcement determined Reyes did not write the letter when they interviewed him regarding the threat. Federal officials asked for a handwriting sample from Reyes and determined his handwriting and the threatening letter didnt match. Further, a source told CNN law enforcement reviewed jail calls made by a person they believe played a role in penning the letters. The source said the person asked about specific addresses, one of which received the letter. We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans, the letter says, adding later, I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in the head, possibly at a rally. The Milwaukee Police Department told CNN on Thursday it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this incident but could not provide details as the investigation is ongoing and no one has been criminally charged at this time. Jeffrey J. Altenburg, chief deputy district attorney for the Milwaukee district attorneys office, said in an email the matter is under investigation. CNN has attempted to reach attorneys for each person involved in these cases, including Reyes, who is currently being held in a county jail in Wisconsin. Reyes has not been charged with threatening Trump. The Secret Service referred an inquiry about the alleged threat to DHS. Asked about the arrest and allegations of a threat against the president, a senior Homeland Security official told CNN: The investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody. A spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin told CNN they have no charged matter involving this individual, and declined to comment further. Morales entered the U.S. illegally at least nine times between 1998-2005, DHS said in its original press release on Reyes arrest. His criminal record includes arrests for felony hit and run, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct with a domestic abuse modifier. The department would not comment on whether they still believed Reyes was the author of the letter. The incident comes amid a heightened environment of threats against Trump and officials as well as increased pressure on ICE to ramp up deportation numbers. In her post, Noem wrote that the alleged threat came less than two weeks after former FBI Director Comey called for the Presidents assassination. (James Comey has denied the post was meant as a threat or at all associated with violence.) All politicians and members of the media should take notice of these repeated attempts on President Trumps life and tone down their rhetoric, the secretary added. On May 21, an ICE field intelligence officer received a handwritten letter in the mail allegedly threatening President Donald Trump. (Note: CNN has edited a portion of this image for privacy.) - From the US Department of Homeland Security For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com After Blake Pfeifer, a veteran plumber in Colorado Springs, Colorado, underwent emergency stomach surgery at a nearby nonprofit hospital in 2022, he struggled to understand the bills flooding in for his weeklong stay. The initial charge for the procedure at the University of Colorado Health Memorial Hospital Central was $104,000, his records show. Because Pfeifer had no insurance and would be paying out of pocket, he was quoted a discounted price of $58,124. He said he called the hospital to get clarity on the bills but got nowhere. He began paying some of them and was pursued by a collection agency on others. Then he sought the help of a patient advocacy group. Ive always paid my bills, Pfeifer, 63, said. I wanted a little better explanation. The group he worked with, Patient Rights Advocate.org, found that some of his charges were far higher than the amounts UCHealth reported under a federal price transparency rule that went into effect in 2021. And that wasnt the only notable finding: Only 25% of Pfeifers charges showed up on the hospitals required price list and therefore could not be compared at all. Blake Pfeifer, a veteran plumber in Colorado Springs, Colo., and his wife, Dawn. (NBC News) Pfeifers experience is not uncommon, according to patient advocates, public interest lawyers and Medicare data. The burden of medical debt, a problem faced by 100 million Americans, has pushed many to delay medical care and even file for bankruptcy, research shows. Making these obligations even more ruinous, patient advocates say, is that many may be based on inaccurate health care bills. These discrepancies occur even as hospitals must list prices for care on their websites. The price transparency rule, initiated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, requires facilities to establish, update, and make public a list of all standard charges for all items and services. Implemented under the first Trump administration, it aims to help consumers shop for care and compare prices before they go to the hospital. Now, four years after the rule went into effect, hospital billing seems intentionally complex, said Cynthia Fisher, founder of Patient Rights Advocate.org. Hospitals and insurance companies alike have even hired many middle-player firms to be able to maximize their margins and profits at every single patient encounter, she added. Sometimes what were finding is the charges like Blakes that are billed are far beyond even the highest rate that they have within their hospital pricing file. It adds up to an increasingly costly health care experience for Americans. A West Health-Gallup survey published April 2 found that 35% of respondents said they could not access high-quality, affordable health care a new high since 2021. $99 for an $8 blood test UCHealth is a nonprofit hospital system with 14 hospitals in Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska. In its financial filings, UCHealth says its discount program for self-pay patients like Pfeifer reduces uninsured patients liabilities to a level more equivalent of insured patients. Some of Pfeifers records conflict with this description. Pfeifer received 10 common blood tests, known as a metabolic panel, and was billed $104 for each. By comparison, UCHealths public price data shows it charged insured patients between $6.52 and $52.89 for each test in 2022. In another case, Pfeifer was charged $99 for a blood culture to measure bacteria, the records show, while UCHealths pricing data listed a range of charges for insured patients of between $8 and $61. For a phosphate level blood test, Pfeifer was billed $30, while insured patients at UCHealth were charged between $3.72 and $22.02. Under Colorado law, violations of hospital price transparency requirements are a deceptive trade practice. Dan Weaver, a UCHealth spokesman, said in a statement that the health system does everything possible to share prices and estimates with our patients, encourage insurance coverage, assist patients in applying for Medicaid and other programs that may offer coverage. Dawn and Blake Pfeifer. (NBC News) Regarding Pfeifers case, Weaver said he could not comment because the hospital had received notice from a lawyer representing Pfeifer that he may file a claim against it. He said the hospital disputes what is in the lawyers notice, but he declined to specify what exactly it disputes. Weaver pointed to the state of Colorados 2024 report stating that UCHealth hospitals are fully compliant with transparency requirements. For 2022, when Pfeifer received care at UCHealth, the document showed the hospital providing his care received a fair transparency rating by the state, above poor but below good. Weaver added that CMS, which determines hospital compliance with transparency requirements, has not cited UCHealth or our hospitals for noncompliance. Enforcement actions are exceedingly rare. CMS website lists monetary penalties against only 27 hospitals in the four years since the requirements began. (There are 6,000 hospitals nationwide, according to the American Hospital Association.) A December 2024 report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that nearly 40% of the 100 hospitals it studied were not complying with the price transparency requirements. Colorado law allows patients to sue a hospital bringing a debt collection proceeding against them when they believe the facilities have violated price transparency requirements. Steve Woodrow, a Democratic member of the Colorado House of Representatives and a lawyer at the firm Edelson in Denver, represents Pfeifer. What happened to Mr. Pfeifer unfortunately repeats itself and plays out across the country thousands of times every year, Woodrow told NBC News in an interview. We now have a situation where people are afraid to get medical care because of the financial ramifications. 'A power imbalance' Last November, the Justice Department alleged that UCHealth had overbilled Medicare and TRICARE, the health insurer for U.S. service members and their families. Between November 2017 and March 31, 2021, the government alleged, providers at UCHealth hospitals submitted inflated Medicare and TRICARE claims for frequent monitoring of vital signs among patients in the emergency department. UCHealth agreed to pay $23 million to settle the allegations without an admission of liability. Weaver, the UCHealth spokesperson, said the hospital system settled to prevent a lengthy and costly legal dispute. UCHealth firmly denies these allegations, he added, and maintains that its billing practices align with the guidelines set forth by the American College of Emergency Physicians. While UCHealth is a nonprofit, it has generated rising revenues and earnings recently. Net patient revenues at UCHealth, its securities filings show, totaled $8 billion in fiscal 2024, 17% higher than the previous year. Operating income was $523 million, an increase of 58% over 2023. UCHealths charges for care are higher than most other nonprofits, Medicare data shows. In fiscal 2022, the most recent figures available, UCHealth charged patients 6.6 times the hospital systems costs for care. That is far higher than the 4 times, on average, that U.S. nonprofit health systems charged for care that year, according to Ge Bai, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Weaver, of UCHealth, said the hospital systems charges are competitive with others. Last year alone, UCHealth provided $1.3 billion in total community benefits including about $570 million in uncompensated care, his statement said. Its problem enough for patients who are overcharged or billed incorrectly for health care. But when hospitals sue to receive payment for those bills, such lawsuits often result in default judgments, legal experts say, issued to patients who dont appear in court or respond. Default judgments can have dire consequences, including wage garnishments. UCHealth has sued thousands of patients using third parties or debt collection middlemen in recent years, a practice that is examined in new research by academics at the George Washington University Law School, Stanford Universitys Clinical Excellence Research Center and Fishers group. The study, Hospitals Suing Patients: The Rise of Stealth Intermediaries, found UCHealth and one debt collection firm brought 12,722 lawsuits against patients from 2019 to 2023. Legal records analyzed by the authors suggested many of the collection efforts were based on unsubstantiated and inaccurate billing records. The use of legal middlemen is a national trend and allows hospitals to hide their involvement, avoiding the bad publicity these lawsuits can bring, the research contends. Last year, Colorado lawmakers enacted legislation barring hospitals from suing patients under debt collectors names, after an investigation into the practice by 9News, an NBC affiliate, and The Colorado Sun. Barak Richman is the Alexander Hamilton professor of business law at George Washington Law School and a co-author of the study. What this research shows is people are being pulled into court where a power imbalance takes advantage of them, he said. There needs to be a lot of deliberative thought into what to do about courts as it relates to medical debt. In a statement about the study, UCHealths Weaver said those suits make up a tiny fraction of our patient care in fact, more than 99.93% of all patient accounts are resolved without a lawsuit. He added: This study, based on older data, does not reflect the changes put in place in recent years to minimize billing errors, ensure patients are aware of our financial assistance options, and are well informed of their medical bills. 'A principle thing' Damon Carson, a small-business owner in Longmont, Colorado, was sued by a collection company after he received an outpatient endoscopy at a UCHealth hospital in his town. The suit came while he was disputing the hospitals charges as excessive. A self-pay patient along with his wife, Traci, Carson tried to be a savvy shopper before he went in for the procedure in 2021. He asked for price estimates from several providers, and the nearby UCHealth facility provided one totaling $1,448, according to a court document. Carson paid upfront. I had the procedure and everything was fine, Carson told NBC News. Then the bills started rolling in. Additional charges of $4,742 drove the total cost for the procedure to around $6,200, a court document shows. Carson said that when he questioned the bills, noting the far lower original estimate, the hospital told him the add-on costs reflected the removal of growths found inside him during surgery. Damon Carson, a small-business owner in Longmont, Colo., with his wife, Traci. (Courtesy Damon Carson) A UCHealth spokesman said the original estimate for Carsons care was accurate and that he was told there might be additional charges and signed an acknowledgement of that, which the hospital provided to NBC News. (Carson says he recalls no discussion of the potential for additional charges.) When Carson refused to pay, he was sued by Collection Center Inc., a debt collection firm that has often filed lawsuits against patients on behalf of the hospital, the academic study shows. In 2023, Carson and the collection firm conducted a mediation, according to court documents. Carson wound up paying only one-third of the additional charges to settle the case. I was surprised they caved that fast, Carson told NBC News. Traci and I could easily have paid the $4,000 and our lives gone on. But this was a principle thing. Fisher, the patient advocate, said the outcome of Carsons case is revealing. No one should ever pay that first bill, she said. The onus of proof needs to be on the hospital and the insurance company to prove that they have not overcharged us. Markets briefly soared after a ruling from the New Yorkbased Court of International Trade struck down many of the Trump administrations tariffs. On Thursday, a court of appeals granted the administration an emergency stay, allowing tariffs to remain unchanged for now. Still, experts say, in the long term Trump is likely to succeed in implementing tariffs in some way, whether it be by succeeding in court, pushing for a tariff bill in Congress, or adjusting tariffs in line with provisions of the Trade Act of 1974. After a federal trade court invalidated many of the Trump administrations tariffs, stocks soared. Yet despite the ruling, experts cautioned the president may have several options available to continue with his tariff plans. In sum, a Wednesday ruling from the Court of International Trade sent stocks on a tear before a federal court of appeals dented the euphoria by granting the Trump administration an emergency stay. In its ruling, the Court of International Trade claimed the Trump administration did not have the power to implement broad tariffs, including a 10% baseline tariff on every nation as well as tariffs on China and Mexico based on authority from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. The ruling does not affect Trumps tariffs on steel and aluminum, and the stay allows Trumps team to continue with his tariff policies for now. Still, trade experts and analysts warned that Trumps tariff plans and the ongoing negotiations with major trading partners may continue as before, despite the roadblock. This ruling represents a setback for the administrations tariff plans and increases uncertainty but might not change the final outcome for most major U.S. trading partners, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a Wednesday note. Far from changing direction, lawyers for the Trump administration have already appealed the ruling. Businesses and countries negotiating with the U.S. should not take this recent development as a signal that trade policy will change, said international trade law expert and University of Kansas Law School professor Raj Bhala. This is nothing more than a suspension, a hiatus, a delay in what we know are dogged second Trump administration tariff plansdogged plans to address the trade imbalances and what it regards as unfair trade practices by other countries, Bhala told Fortune. If the administration wants to pivot its approach, it also has three options, Bhala said. The first is to appeal, which is already in motion. The administration has solid grounds to appeal because the court may defer to the president on issues of national security, he said. If it loses on appeal, the administration has said it will elevate the case to the Supreme Court. Otherwise, President Trump can also ask Congress to pass a bill giving him authority on some tariff and trade matters. This move would need to be limited in scope, possibly by sector, and would likely require specifics on the duration of tariffs, or a periodic congressional review, but Bhala said it would likely receive bipartisan support. Find me enough Democrats and a handful of Republicans who are going to oppose that, knowing that theyre up for reelection in a year and a half; I dont think youre going find that, he said. The third route would be to adjust tariffs through provisions of the existing Trade Act of 1974, which may slow the process but could also succeed, said Bhala. Using the law According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, the Trump administration could replace its 10% baseline tariff with a broad tariff of up to 15%, under Section 122 of U.S. trade law for up to 150 days before congressional action is required. This could be the quickest way to work around the court ruling as Section 122 doesnt require any investigation, but it would need to be tailored to address trade deficits and cant be used for general trade disputes. The administration could also launch investigations into its trading partners under Section 301 of U.S. trade law. These investigations give the administration authority to look into other countries trade practices that it deems unjustifiable or unreasonable. This could take longer, but there are no limits on the level or duration of such tariffs. Trumps first administration previously used Section 301 in 2017 to investigate China for intellectual property issues along with others and to later impose tariffs. President Trump could also broaden the tariffs which are underpinned by Section 232 of U.S. trade law, like those applied to steel, aluminum, and autos. These tariffs, which are justified as necessary for national security, could be broadened to other sectors, the analysts noted. Finally, the administration could utilize Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act, to enact up to 50% tariffs for countries that discriminate against the U.S. in commerce. Although, the analysts noted, this authority has never been used and could be shot down by the courts. While the level of tariffs is limited to 50%, no formal investigation is needed. In a statement to Fortune, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said addressing the large and historic trade deficits the U.S. runs with other countries is urgent. It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency, Desai wrote. Bhala noted that even as the Trump administration faces a setback from the courts, tariff policy is a major priority for the president, and one he likely wont give up so easily. If Im a business, if Im a foreign government, I am hedging my risk, and I am assuming that in one way or the other, some form of tariffs, reciprocity tariffs, are going to be imposed under some kind of legal authority, he said. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Former Red Hot Chili Peppers Guitarist Takes Plea Deal In Manslaughter Case originally appeared on Parade. Josh Klinghoffer is best known for his time as the guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but what a number of folks dont know is that hes been dealing with a major lawsuit since 2024. The 45-year-old musician took a no-jail plea deal for a vehicular manslaughter charge on Wednesday, May 28, according to a Thursday, May 29 report by People. The outlet noted that Klinghoffer was present in an Alhambra courthouse on Wednesday, where he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence charges. Los Angeles County Judge Rosa Fregoso sentenced the guitarist to one year of informal probation and 60 days of community labor, according to Rolling Stone. The outlet also reported that Klinghoffer must pay restitution which is set to be decided at a later date and complete a driver safety class as well. The sentencing comes just over a year after Klinghoffer allegedly failed to yield at a crosswalk and accidentally struck and killed 47-year-old Israel Sanchez on March 18, 2022. Officials revealed that the guitarist was driving a black 2022 GMC Yukon and confirmed that Sanchezs death was caused by blunt force trauma. SIGN UP for Parades Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox Sanchezs daughter was also in attendance at the Alhambra courthouse, where she wept as she read her victim impact statement aloud. My father was an extraordinary grandfather to my [children], she said to the courtroom, before she added, His absence has left an irreversible void in our lives." She went on to note that her fathers death was an avoidable loss that has shaken [her] family. The date for the civil case hearing was set for July 1. Klinghoffer was a part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers from 2009 to 2019, when John Frusciante who joined the Peppers in 1988 after the death of their original guitarist Hillel Slovak returned to the band. The rocker has since joined Pearl Jam as a touring guitarist for the band. Former Red Hot Chili Peppers Guitarist Takes Plea Deal In Manslaughter Case first appeared on Parade on May 29, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. FILE - Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik stands outside the Federal Court in Washington, June 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) NEW YORK (AP) Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City's police commissioner on 9/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69. FBI Director Kash Patel said that Kerik's death Thursday came after an unspecified private battle with illness. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who tapped Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and later appointed him to lead the NYPD, reflected on their long history on his show Thursday. Weve been together since the beginning. Hes like my brother, Giuliani said through tears. I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a former NYPD officer, said hed visited Kerik, his friend of nearly 30 years, at a hospital earlier in the day. Kerik, an Army veteran, was hailed as a hero after the 9/11 attack and eventually nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, before a dramatic fall from grace that ended with him behind bars. He served nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, making false statements and other charges. The charges stemmed partially from apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say wanted Kerik to convince New York officials it had no links to organized crime. During Kerik's sentencing, the judge noted that he committed some of the crimes while serving as the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has. President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was one of the guests feting Trump after his first federal court appearance in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents. Kerik grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he dropped out of the troubled Eastside High School later depicted in the 1989 film Lean on Me. He joined the Army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. He went on to work private security in Saudi Arabia before returning stateside to supervise a jail in New Jersey. He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s and was appointed in the 1990s to run New Yorks long-troubled jail system, including the citys notorious Rikers Island complex. Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was often by the mayor's side in the period after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was at my side within 20 minutes of the attack and never left, Giuliani recalled in a statement following Kerik's death. In Kerik's 2015 book, From Jailer to Jailed, he described becoming Americas Top Cop" after the attacks. But Id give anything for that day not to have happened. I wish it hadnt. But it did, he wrote. And I happened to be there at the time. I was there, and I did the best I could do under the circumstances. Its all any of us did. He was tapped by President George W. Bush to help organize Iraqs police force in 2003, then nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the following year. But Kerik caught the administration off guard when he abruptly withdrew his nomination, saying he had uncovered information that led him to question the immigration status of a person he employed as a housekeeper and nanny. More serious legal troubles followed, culminating in his conviction. In 2005, Kerik founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm. More recently, he worked for Giuliani again, surrounding the efforts to overturn Trumps 2020 loss. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Kerik pleaded guilty in 2009, not 2010. It hasn't been easy, but Tommy Paul is still in the French Open. The American overcame yet another grueling match Friday in a narrow win over Karen Khachanov in the third round. Paul had previously gotten off to slow starts throughout the event, but that wasn't the case Friday. After dropping the first set in his previous two matches, Paul came out strong this time around, beating Khachanov 6-3 to pick up an early lead. While it was a promising start for Paul, it wouldn't last, Khachanov battled back in the second set, taking it 6-3 to even the score. The third set proved to be exhausting. Both men battled back and forth, eventually forcing a tiebreak. It took Paul nine points, but he won that tiebreak, taking the third set. With Paul one set away from closing it out, Khachanov fought his back once again, winning 6-3 and forcing a fifth set. Paul finally seemed to find his stride, going up 4-0 to open the final set. Some cracks started to show at that point, and Khachanov threatened to get back into it, but Paul eventually closed it out, winning the final set 6-3 and taking the match. The win marked the second straight match in which Paul has gone the distance against what was supposed to be a lesser opponent. Paul needed five sets to take down Marton Fucsovics in the second round of the event. Fucsovics came into the 2025 French Open as the No. 125 men's player. Khachanov entered the event ranked No. 24, and was clearly a step up in quality for Paul. Paul entered the 2025 French Open as the second-highest ranked American men's player, behind Taylor Fritz, who was surprisingly eliminated in the first round. That left Paul as the top American men's player remaining in the competition. While he's had a harder time than expected, Paul kept the United States' hopes alive with a narrow win over Khachanov on Friday. With the victory, Paul will take on Australian Alexei Popyrin in the fourth round Sunday. Popyrin entered the event ranked No. 25 among the men, and should provide yet another tough challenge as Paul looks to advance to the quarterfinals at the French Open for the second time in his career. A Palestinian, who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Hamas said Friday it was still reviewing a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 27 people were killed in new Israeli airstrikes, according to hospital officials. The ceasefire plan, which has been approved by Israeli officials, won a cool initial reaction Thursday from the militant group. But President Donald Trump said Friday negotiators were nearing a deal. Theyre very close to an agreement on Gaza, and well let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, Trump told reporters in Washington. Late in the evening, asked if he was confident Hamas would approve the deal, he told reporters: Theyre in a big mess. I think they want to get out of it. U.S. negotiators have not publicized the terms of the proposal. But a Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. In a terse statement issued a few hours before Trump spoke, Hamas said it is holding consultations with Palestinian factions over the proposal it had received from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. A United Nations spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, urged the parties to find the political courage to secure an agreement. While changes may have been made to the proposal, the version confirmed earlier called for Israeli forces to pull back to the positions they held before it ended the last ceasefire. Hamas would release 10 living hostages and a number of bodies during the 60-day pause in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 100 serving long sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. Each day, hundreds of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter Gaza, where experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade slightly eased in recent days has pushed the population to the brink of famine. Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal, Qatars ambassador to the United Nations, Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani said Friday, referring to talks between her country, the United States and Egypt. We are very determined to find an ending to this horrific situation in Gaza. On Thursday, a top Hamas official, Bassem Naim, said the U.S. proposal does not respond to any of our peoples demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine. The uncertainty over the new proposal came as hospital officials said that 27 people had been killed Friday in separate airstrikes. A strike that hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed 13, including eight children, hospital officials said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Meanwhile, the bodies of 12 people, including three women, were brought to Shifa Hospital on Friday from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the bodies of two others were brought to a hospital in Gaza City. Hospital officials also said Friday that at least 72 had been killed in Gaza during the previous day. That figure does not include some hospitals in the north, which are largely cut off due to the fighting. Since the war began, more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages. Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza, but Israel believes 35 are dead and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are doubts about the fate of several others. Some Gaza residents said their hope for a ceasefire is tempered by repeated disappointment over negotiations that failed to deliver a lasting deal. "This is the war of starvation, death, siege and long lines for food and toilets, Mohammed Abed told The Associated Press in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. This war is the 2025 nightmare, 2024 nightmare and 2023 nightmare. Abed said he and his family struggle to find food, waiting three hours to get a small amount of rice and eating only one meal daily. Its heartbreaking that people are being starved because of politics. Food and water should not be used for political purposes, he said. Another Gaza resident, Mohammed Mreil, said about the possibility of a truce that: We want to live and we want them (Israelis) to live. God did not create us to die. Mroue reported from Beirut. Aamer Madhani and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Farnoush Amiri and Edith Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this report. Lewelyn Dixon. (Courtesy Melania Madriaga) After three months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a Filipino green-card holder who had been arrested at Seattle-Tacoma Airport has finally gone home. Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old University of Washington lab technician, was released on Thursday from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, after a judge ruled that she does not qualify for deportation. Dixon, whos had legal permanent status in the U.S. for 50 years, had been in ICE custody since late February, when she was detained after coming back from a visit to the Philippines. Outside the detention facility, Dixon thanked a crowd of supporters and spoke about her experience and the conditions in the facility. It was horrific; it was awful, it is crowded -- super crowded, they release maybe nine, bring back seven, release one, they bring three, she said, according to local NBC affiliate King5. Dixons niece Lani Madriaga told NBC News that in the hours since her release, shes been spending time with loved ones. Last night, we had dinner together as a family and just chatted, Madriaga said on Friday. Shes just getting readjusted. Benjamin Osorio, Dixons attorney, previously told NBC News that a decades-old embezzlement conviction likely caught the attention of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the airport, triggering her detention. Dixon had been a vault teller and operations supervisor at Washington Mutual Bank at the time and removed cash from the vault on eight separate occasions without the banks authorization, according to her plea agreement. She removed a total of $6,460. While Dixon pleaded guilty to the nonviolent offense in 2000, she was ordered to pay restitution and spend 30 days in a halfway house, court documents show. By 2019, she completed her payments. Dixon has been in the U.S. since she was a teenager and has long been eligible for citizenship, but she promised her father that she would maintain her Filipino nationality so that she could retain property in her native country. However, Osorio said, Dixon likely did not understand the risk involved with staying on a green card. Madriaga said the ordeal has been emotional for her aunt, but its also given her a renewed purpose in helping detainees. During her time in ICE custody, Dixon attempted to help others navigate the immigration and court system, Madriaga said. Dixon plans on staying in touch with the detainees at the Tacoma facility, with whom she said she grew close. I dont think its going to stop her from helping others, even though shes been out, the niece said. The case has been shocking for her family, particularly because Dixon had kept her conviction a secret from them. We dont think her any different after we found out about her conviction, Madriaga said. She turned it all around and she really worked hard and really focused on health care, where its really about helping the community. In fact, Madriaga said, Dixon plans to head back to work soon. In the meantime, Dixons first priority is obtaining her citizenship. Dixon is among several other green-card holders who have been detained amid the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration. Earlier this month, Maximo Londonio, 42, was also detained at an airport in Seattle after coming back from vacation with his family. Londonio, a green-card holder, was likely detained due to previous nonviolent convictions, his family members believe. Another legal permanent resident, Fabian Schmidt, was detained in March after being arrested at the Boston Logan International Airport. The German national, who had a previous misdemeanor marijuana conviction, was released in May, after he filed a motion to terminate the immigration proceedings. A protester in front of the federal courthouse in New York City in 2019. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images file) Jeffrey Epstein accuser Maria Farmer filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday, alleging that it failed to protect her and other victims of the convicted sex offender and Ghislaine Maxwell. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney's Offices, and the FBI of negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. According to the lawsuit, Farmer first reported to the FBI that she was sexually assaulted by the pair in 1996 and warned that they "had committed multiple serious sex crimes" against girls, including her minor sister. Farmer also allegedly told the FBI that Epstein stole nude and partially nude photos of two of her minor sisters who he transported across state lines and that he and others engaged in "possession, production, and distribution of sexually lascivious or exploitative images of children," which could constitute child pornography. Farmer reported these allegations to the FBI again in 2006, she told NBC News. "Despite the seriousness of Marias allegations, the likelihood that criminal conduct was continuing, the requirements of federal regulation and mandatory express policy to investigate or conduct a serious preliminary inquiry regarding such allegations and, if indicated, refer such allegations to local investigators and prosecutors, the statutory designation of the FBI as a mandatory reporter of child sex abuse and exploitation, and the federal prioritization of investigation of child pornography and child sex abuse crimes, the FBI, in violation of its mandatory obligations under regulations and DOJ policies, chose to do absolutely nothing," the lawsuit states. Farmer and her attorneys allege that an FBI agent she was speaking to hung up on her and that no one at the agency followed up. "As a result, Epstein and others working with him were able to threaten bodily harm to Maria and her family for decades, forcing her to relocate many times and even change her name," according to the lawsuit. "In the meantime, Epstein exponentially multiplied his sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of girls and young women." In a statement, Farmer said: "It is time for the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office to address their grotesque failures regarding Jeffrey Epstein, and to finally deliver the transparency and accountability that the victims and the American public deserve." The FBI declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing its standard practice to not comment on litigation. In a 2019 lawsuit, Farmer said she first met Epstein and Maxwell when she was an art school graduate in New York and they wanted to support her budding career. She alleged in her complaint that she was "violently sexually assaulted" by Epstein and "co-conspirator" Maxwell while working on an art project at Epstein's Ohio guest house in 1996. Her sister Annie Farmer also filed a lawsuit in 2019, accusing Maxwell of groping her breasts when she was 16 and alleging the pair had groomed her. Both lawsuits were withdrawn in 2020 as part of a deal to accept restitution from a victims compensation fund paid out by Epsteins estate. Epstein was charged by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted. He died by suicide inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in 2019. Maxwell was convicted on sex trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In her most recent lawsuit, Farmer shared a 1997 journal entry in which she wrote that she reported Epstein and Maxwell to the FBI. The lawsuit also shared alleged FBI field notes from 2006 that prove Farmer made the report in 1996. "Those notes reveal that Maria had previously reported Epstein to the NYPD Sixth Precinct, who advised her to contact the FBI," the lawsuit alleged. Farmer allegedly wrote to the FBI, "U.S. Attorney, and Inspector General," in 2023, asking them to investigate the FBI's negligence, but her request was disregarded and ignored. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Farmer also claimed that because the FBI did not act, Epstein and Maxwell threatened that if she spoke out again, "they would find out and hurt her and her sisters." This prompted Farmer to move multiple times, sometimes even using a different name to escape the pair. "As a result of Epsteins and Maxwells misconduct and the FBIs failures, Marias health and well-being deteriorated and spiraled downward," the lawsuit said, adding that she's suffered from complex PTSD, depression, anxiety and chronic illness. Farmer is asking for compensation in an amount determined at trial. An attorney for Farmer, Jennifer Freeman, said the federal government should be held responsible for what happened to her client and other victims, adding that the U.S. violated the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people to sue the government for damages caused by negligence of their employees. "Had the federal government done their job, hundreds of victims would have been spared," Freeman told NBC News. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) John Thrasher, a former Florida State University president and longtime state legislator, died on Friday. He was 81. Thrasher, who served as speaker of the Florida House and as a member of the Florida Senate, died Friday morning in Orlando, his family said in a statement. He had been battling cancer, according to a social media post last month from his former lobbying firm. John lived a remarkable life and he made a big difference in the lives of so many in our state, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement. Thrasher, a Republican, was a member of the Florida House from 1992-2000, serving as speaker during his last two years. After leaving elected office, he went on to co-found The Southern Group lobbying firm. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 2009 and stayed there until 2014. Integrity, perseverance, and strength propelled John to success at every level of public service and private industry," Florida Senate President Ben Albritton said in a statement. "His life was rooted in devotion to public service, patriotism, a love of the law, and a passion for education. Thrasher served as president of Florida State University from 2014 to 2021. He earned a business degree from the school in 1965, before joining the U.S. Army, where he received the Army Commendation Medal and two Bronze Stars for his service in Vietnam. Following his military service, Thrasher returned to Florida State to earn a law degree in 1972. Johns love for Florida State University was truly inspiring, current FSU President Richard McCullough said in statement. As an alumnus, legislator, trustee, and president, he devoted his life to elevating FSUs national reputation and helping the university reach new heights in student success, academic excellence, and research." A private burial has been planned in Orange Park, near Jacksonville. A celebration of his life is scheduled for Aug. 19 at Florida State in Tallahassee. LOS ANGELES Jollibee is set to open its first location in Oregon May 30, marking the bee's first foray into the Beaver State. The location at 10875 N.E. Cornell Road in Hillsboro will offer the first 50 in-store customers and the first 50 drive-thru customers one six-piece bucket of Chickenjoy fried chicken per month free for a year and an exclusive Jollibee t-shirt, according to a press release. "The Portland metro area has a vibrant food scene that embraces international flavors, so we can't wait to introduce our joyfully unique dining experience to the area's residents and visitors, especially those seeking new and exciting culinary experiences," Maribeth Dela Cruz, Business Group Head, Honeybee Foods Corporation dba Jollibee said in the release. The Filipino fast-food chain, whose U.S. operations are based in West Covina just east of Los Angeles, opened two stores in New Jersey earlier this year. Jollibee was named the best fast-food fried chicken purveyor in 2024 by USA TODAY 10Best. Here's where Jollibee is expanding next. Jollibee expanding on both coasts A Jollibee restaurant under construction at the Weberstown Mall in Stockton, Calif. is seen on Feb. 4, 2025. In an email to USA TODAY, the company said it expects further openings in: Downtown San Francisco Grand Central Terminal, New York City Queens, New York Oxnard, California Stockton, California Elk Grove, California The company could not confirm the timing for the openings. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jollibee to open first Oregon location: See next locations MartinVaculik / 500px - Getty Images For the record, ant bites arent as common as you might think. All ants can bite but they rarely do unless harassed, says Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, Ph.D., associate director of community & urban integrated pest management at Cornell Integrated Pest Management. That means an ant is unlikely to bite you unless provoked, but it might if you unintentionally disturb it by, say, accidentally walking over its mound. So, if you're dealing with a bug bite or sting and think an ant could be the culprit, keep reading. We consulted with entomologists and dermatologists for more on how to identify these bites and what to do next. We also rounded up ant bite pictures for visual comparison with what's happening on your skin. Meet the experts: Gary Goldenberg, M.D., is an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, Ph.D., is associate director of community & urban integrated pest management at Cornell Integrated Pest Management. Dan Suiter is a professor of urban entomology at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension entomologist. Ife J. Rodney, M.D., is the founding director of Eternal Dermatology + Aesthetics. It's also important to note that certain types of ants can actually sting youand those attacks can be painful. Insects bite with their mandibles (mouth), while they sting from the posterior end, says Dan Suiter, a professor of urban entomology at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension entomologist. An ant bite usually feels like a mild pinch, while an ant sting is much worse, he says. For that reason, we'll focus primarily on the latter. What do ant bites and stings look like? Each ant sting and bite can look slightly different. However, Gangloff-Kaufmann says that stings usually look like a small, red pimple. They may have a blister, she adds. Suiter adds that a lot depends on the ant species. The most common ants that sting are red imported fire antsGangloff-Kaufmann says these are the most aggressive stingersalong with harvester and acrobat ants. Fire ants leave a zit-like pustule at the sting site, while the sting from other ant species resemble the sting from a wasp, he says. If the culprit is not seen or witnessed stinging us, its difficult to tell what caused the pain or skin irritation and inflammation. Here are a couple of examples of what ant stings could look like: 20th Century Studios Penpak Ngamsathain - Getty Images What causes reactions to ant stings? When an ant stings you, it actually injects venom into your skin, explains Gangloff-Kaufmann. Ant stings, like that of wasps and bees, contain venom, she says. The venom causes tissue damage and the itchy, painful sensations. The venom can trigger the release of histamine, which is a signaling chemical that your body releases in reaction to a foreign invader, says Gary Goldenberg, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. That histamine release can lead to itching, redness, swelling, and even blistering, he says. How to tell ant bites and stings from a rash That can be slightly tricky, given that every ant sting and reaction to it are slightly different. However, there are a few signals that you may be dealing with an ant sting over a rash. Depending on how many ants targeted you, youll usually have a few distinct bumps, says Ife J. Rodney, M.D., founding director of Eternal Dermatology + Aesthetics. Rashes, on the other hand, tend to be more spread outand they may continue to spread over time, she explains. If youre not sure and the problem appears to be getting worse, its always a good idea to have an evaluation with a healthcare provider. How to treat ant stings There are a few steps to take if youve been stung by an ant, according to Dr. Goldenberg, including the following. Clean the bite area well . If you have an ant sting but you feel fine, you likely just need to keep the spot clean, Dr. Goldenberg says. That means gently washing the area with a mild soap and water. Use a topical cream . If the spot is itchy, Dr. Goldenberg suggests using a topical steroid cream or topical antihistamine cream. (Talk to your doctor if you're unsure if this is right for you.) Consider oral medication. If youre really struggling, an oral antihistamine medication may help with itching, according to Dr. Goldenberg, although, again, talk to your doctor for personalized advice. Things to avoid when you have an ant bite or sting Other than keeping the area clean, its best to keep your hands off the ant sting. Do not pick or scratch the area, Dr. Goldenberg says. (Scratching can encourage your body to release more histamine, which will end up making you feel even itchier, he explains.) Its also best to avoid using a triple antibiotic cream on the spot, since these are known for causing contact allergic reactions, Dr. Rodney says. Finally, Dr. Goldenberg recommends trying to avoid touching the sting wound with anything that could be irritating, like scented lotions. How to reduce the urge to scratch It can be hard to keep your hands off if your ant sting is itchy. Still, its important for your recovery and overall comfort. Dermatologists say you can try these steps to help lower the odds youll itch: Use a cool compress . A cold, damp washcloth can help lower inflammation, along with the itch. You can also consider using an ice pack. Try a corticosteroid cream . This anti-itch cream may help tamp down on the urge to scratch so ask your doctor about trying one. Consider an oral antihistamine . These medications, with your provider's OK, can block antihistamine in your body, lowering itchy feelings as a result. Put a disposable bandage over it. It can help to put a barrier between your fingers and your skin. Just remember to change the bandage regularly to keep the spot clean. How to prevent ant stings The best way to prevent ant stings is to do what you can to avoid these stinging ants. Be aware of what to look for so you can avoid the ants themselves, Suiter says. It is not uncommon to have dozens of ant species in any area where we live or play, but only a small percentage of them will be capable of stinging. Fire ants build their nests in the soil and usually have a visible dirt mound, Suiter saysyoull want to avoid those. Another type of stinging ant, the Asian needle ant, lives in decaying logs, under rocks, and other debris, he says. In general, though, Gangloff-Kaufmann recommends doing your best to avoid ant hills. Signs an ant sting is infected Ant stings should get better within a few days. But if it doesnt seem like the area is getting better, youre dealing with new swelling, or it starts to ooze pus, Dr. Goldenberg says it could be infected. Thats also true if the spot has become more painful. In either case, visit or call your healthcare provider. When to see a doctor about an ant bite Again, if you have signs of an infection, Dr. Goldenberg recommends that you see a dermatologist right away. But its also a good idea to seek medical care if youre having trouble managing your discomfort or arent sure what caused the bite in the first place. Your provider should be able to figure out whats behind your bite and suggest next steps from there. You Might Also Like Getty Medical tweezers removing a tick NEED TO KNOW Kevin Boyce was hospitalized in April 2024 with a severe case of Powassan virus due to a tick bite He died weeks later after suffering brain damage from the disease His family is now sharing his story to encourage others to be cautious about ticks As the weather gets warmer, one Massachusetts family is sharing their heartbreaking story as a warning to others about a debilitating tick-borne disease. In April 2024, Kevin Boyce was unknowingly bitten by a tick. He started experiencing headaches, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms that rapidly progressed. Days later, the 62-year-old collapsed in his home and was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he was admitted to the intensive care unit. Doctors diagnosed Kevin with Powassan virus, a rare and dangerous tick-borne disease. Powassan virus is rare but the number of cases has significantly increased in the past decade. Symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion, loss of coordination, difficulty speaking, and seizures. Severe cases can lead to inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or spinal cord (myelitis). About 10% of these advanced cases are fatal, according to Yale Medicine. Erin explained that despite Kevin being treated in the ICU, he ultimately suffered severe brain damage from the disease. "His brain had blown up so much, from the encephalitis, and he had really bad brain damage," she told CBS News. "It was horrifying, but we knew what Kevin would want, so you know, we just had to let him go." Getty A tick in the palm of a hand 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. Kevin died a few weeks after arriving at the hospital, leaving behind a wife, two sons and a granddaughter. Erin said that she and her family are now hoping that sharing Kevins story will encourage others to be cautious. "We just want the public to know what to look for and be wary of ticks, especially if you have one on your body," she said. In 2024, 54 cases of Powassan virus disease were reported in the United States, with 12 cases reported in Massachusetts.According to the CDC, there are no vaccines to prevent POWV or medicines to treat it. However, a number of precautionary measures can be taken to avoid ticks. To prevent exposure to ticks, according to the National Institutes of Health, wear clothing that covers your arms and legs and tuck your pants into your socks or put tape around openings in clothing. Wear light-colored clothing so you can see if a tick is on you. When you are in the woods, keep to the center of the trail, since ticks tend to like shrubs and bushes. Use a chemical repellent with DEET, permethrin or picaridin. After coming indoors, check yourself, children and pets for ticks. If you do find one, use tweezers to remove it as soon as possible. It takes a week to one month after the bite from an infected tick to develop symptoms of POWV disease, and the virus can be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes after the tick first attaches, according to the Massachusetts Department of Health. Shower as soon as you can and wash your clothes in high heat to kill any remaining ticks. Read the original article on People 'Top Chef' Season 22 Episode 12 Elimination Results: Who Was Sent Home This Week? originally appeared on Parade. Top Chef's 12th episode of its 22nd season was titled "Foraged in Fire." It saw the Top 5 compete one last time in Canada, with one chef just missing out on a trip to the finale in Milan, Italy. Read on for the elimination results, plus information on the challenge and the chef's dishes, but be warned of spoilers ahead. Who went home on Top Chef: Destination Canada tonight? Massimo Piedimonte Hometown: Montreal, Quebec Current residence: Montreal, Quebec Advancing contestants tonight on Top Chef: Destination Canada Episode 12 Tristen Epps Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia Current residence: Houston, Texas Cesar Murillo Hometown: Dallas, Texas Current residence: Chicago, Illinois Bailey Sullivan Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Current residence: Chicago, Illinois Shuai Wang Hometown: Queens, New York Current residence: North Charleston, South Carolina RELATED: 'Top Chef' Announces Season 22 Finale Guests, Including 'Next Level Chef' Star What was the Elimination Challenge on Top Chef season 22, episode 12? After everyone raised a glass to Lana Lagomarsini, the last contestant eliminated from the competition, whom everyone really liked, they headed out to the woods for their final Elimination Challenge. There was no Quickfire Challenge this week. The guest judges were Cree Knowledge Keeper of Traditional Medicine and owner of Mahikan Trails Brenda Holder, and Master Forager Chef Tracy Little. They helped the chefs forage for ingredients in the Canadian wilderness where they found juniper, yarrow (a good rosemary substitute), mustard and dandelion roots, thistle, clover, rosehips, and even thatching ants, which rather shockingly taste like lemon, apparently. After foraging, the chefs were allowed to shop for extra ingredients back in Calgary, then the next day, they had to cook outside over an open flame. Everyone got 2.5 hours except Massimo, who got 3 hours for winning last week's Elimination Challenge. This week, the Elimination winner would also be winning $10,000 because there was no Quickfire. SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox The Elimination Challenge winner was Shuai with his roasted cabbage with rosehip-glazed pork belly, sour cabbage broth, a poplar and black spruce oil, and a lovage and thatching ant togarashi. "I was really caught up in all of the different flavors that played so nicely with each otherI found this a really exquisite dish," said Holder about Shuai's dish. The bottom two were Massimo and Bailey, with the eliminated chef being Massimo in an emotional elimination, not only because he's the last Canadian chef left in the competition, but he's Italian, and he was really excited about getting to go to Italy for the finale. Everyone was crying when he was eliminated. "Oof, that hurt," said Massimo after he was told to pack his knives and go, to which host Kristen Kish replied, "It hurt for me to say it." Kish was audibly trying not to cry. During the actual meal, the judges loved his dish. Tom Colicchio said, "I like what Massimo did here because he took one ingredient, mustard, and really focused on that, and I think he did it really well." But Gail Simmons and some of the other judges thought his bannock was too intensely herbal, floral and bitter, and it "felt disconnected from the trout." Top Chef airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. 'Top Chef' Season 22 Episode 12 Elimination Results: Who Was Sent Home This Week? first appeared on Parade on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. Editor's note: This story was corrected to reflect that the conversation with Trump Whitmer referenced did not take place at the White House. DETROIT Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a radio interview that President Donald Trump had previously told her he would not consider pardons for the men convicted of conspiring to kidnap her a position he veered from this week, when he told reporters gathered in the White House that he would "take a look at it." Whitmer, speaking with Michigan Public Radio Network reporter Rick Pluta at the Detroit Regional Chamber Conference on Mackinac Island, said not condemning political violence "does a disservice to everyone." "I'll be honest with you, I talked to the president about a month ago and he asked me how I'd feel about this and I said I think it would be the wrong decision, I would oppose it, and he said 'Okay, I'll drop it,'" Whitmer said in an interview for the Michigan Public Radio Network that aired May 29. "Now we see this revelation. So, I'm not sure how to process it." Whitmer added she would be reaching out to Trump, a Republican, over the weekend. She previously visited the Oval Office and earned Trump's support for a new fighter mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, as well as for a facility designed to prevent invasive carp species from entering the Great Lakes. Trump praised Whitmer, a Democrat, during the April visit, saying: "She's really been doing an excellent job." Whitmer, who typically meets one-on-one with reporters at the conference, declined an interview request from the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, through her office. Trump: 'It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job' Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on May 28, told reporters he was considering a pardon for the convicted plotters. In Aug. 2022, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer in 2020 after being disgruntled with her government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Its been brought to my attention. I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, Ill be honest with you," Trump said, of a potential pardon. "It looked to me like some people said some stupid things. You know, they were drinking, and I think they said stupid things." Whitmer noted the July assassination attempt on Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, saying leaders must condemn political violence regardless of party. "I will just point out that when the man shot at the president when he was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, I was one of the first officeholders on either side of the aisle to condemn it," Whitmer told Pluta. "Because anything short of condemnation creates a dangerous space for people that are sworn an oath to do the work of the public. We don't take up arms and harm one another. And so, I'm going to make my thoughts on this known to the White House again. And I hope that it's not an action that they take." 'No one should hesitate to condemn political violence' During a Q&A session on the stage of the Mackinac Policy Conference, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Tricia Keith asked Whitmer about the possibility of the Trump pardons. "Oh, what are you talking about?" Whitmer said. But after injecting some humor, she became serious. "No one should hesitate to condemn political violence," Whitmer said, adding that she hopes Trump doesn't follow through on the pardons he floated. Fox received a 16-year prison sentence, while Croft received a 19-year sentence after being convicted of an additional weapons charge. Both are currently serving their sentences at a maximum security federal prison in Colorado. In April, a U.S. 6th Circuit of Appeals panel denied their request for a new trial. Whitmer had previously condemned the kidnapping plot and called the convictions of Fox and Croft proof "that violence and threats have no place in our politics and those who seek to divide us will be held accountable." In total, 14 men were charged for their involvement with the plot. Prosecutors had mixed success across federal and state courts, landing nine convictions while five men were acquitted across state and federal courts. Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Gretchen Whitmer says Trump promised not to pardon kidnapping plotters Local regulators should immediately stop Elon Musks supercomputer project from operating in South Memphis because it's out of compliance with environmental rules, the NAACP wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Shelby County officials. The civil rights group addressed the request to Dr. Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Health Department, and to the commissioners of Memphis Light Gas and Water. The health department is responsible for implementing federal air regulations in Shelby County, which encompasses Memphis. Being the worlds richest man doesnt give you the right to pollute Black communities and jeopardize the health of its residents, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement to NBC News. We urge the health department to step in immediately. When contacted, a spokesperson for Memphis Light Gas and Water said it had not received the NAACP letter and could not comment on it. Neither the health department nor xAI immediately responded to questions about the letter, which was also signed by the presidents of the Tennessee and Memphis chapters of the NAACP. In a previous statement to NBC News, xAI said its "operations comply with all applicable laws and that it works collaboratively with County and City officials, EPA personnel, and community leaders regarding all things that affect Memphis. xAI has come under scrutiny in recent months for operating methane gas turbines at its Memphis facility to meet the electricity needs of the supercomputer Colossus. The turbines emit pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde, according to their manufacturer. Gas turbines release high levels of heat and emissions, distorting the structures behind them. (Noah Stewart for NBC News) Environmental groups and the NAACP believe the turbines required permits under the Clean Air Act; the citys health department, the mayor and the Chamber of Commerce have said permits were not required for the turbines first year of use. xAI, which is now seeking a permit for 15 permanent turbines, said those would be equipped with pollution controls and only be used as backup once other energy options are available. Earlier this month, NBC News reported on a South Memphis neighborhood called Boxtown, about two miles from xAIs facility, where residents are concerned that Musks project will harm the areas already poor air quality. They got money. And they can do what they want to do, you know, without consulting us, said Easter Knox, who has lived in the area since 1977. Knox told NBC News she and her husband both struggle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can be exacerbated by pollution. Local high school and college students have protested the xAI facility. (Noah Stewart for NBC News) Health department officials have been limited in their comments about the project. On Friday, news broke that Taylor, the department head, would be leaving Shelby County to oversee the Baltimore City Health Department. Colossus, which xAI calls the worlds largest supercomputer, came online in September 2024 to train Grok, the companys chatbot. But critics say the projects potential economic benefit to the community is outweighed by environmental concerns. While we applaud research and innovation, the NAACP letter states, there must be limits that ensure that communities are healthy and alive to enjoy the benefits of any potential innovation. Shelby County health officials are expected to make a decision on xAIs application in the coming weeks. Memphis Mayor Paul Young previously told NBC's "Nightly News" that the city plans to work with a researcher to implement air monitoring in the months ahead. Illustration: Eddie Marshall | Jaroslaw Baczewski | Dreamstime | Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call | Newscom | Midjourney The Trump administration this week formally agreed to comply with a ruling that ordered it to facilitate the return of a migrant who was unlawfully deportedin what was another loss for the government as it attempts to subvert basic due process rights in immigration proceedings. The migrantnamed in court documents as O.C.G., who has no criminal historyarrived in the U.S. in May 2024 and sought asylum. An officer agreed he had a credible fear of persecution and torture if returned to Guatemala; a judge assented as well and granted him withholding of removal to that country. During his proceedings, when he asked if he might be sent to Mexico, a judge replied: "We cannot send you back to Mexico, sir, because you're a native of Guatemala." Deportations to a nonnative country legally require, at a minimum, additional steps in the process. That was particularly relevant to O.C.G.'s case, because, as he testified in court, he claims to have been held for ransom and raped while passing through Mexico, securing release only after a family member paid the sum. Yet two days after his withholding of removal was granted, the government unlawfully deported himwithout giving him a chance to contest itto Mexico, after which he returned to Guatemala, where his attorneys say he lives in hiding and in fear of serious harm. Particularly fraught is that the government had submitted in a declaration under oath that it could prove O.C.G. had no fear of returning to Mexico. Turns out that wasn't true. "The Court was given false information, upon which it relied, twice, to the detriment of a party at risk of serious and irreparable harm," Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote. "Defendants admitted, hours before the scheduled deposition of the witness who could allegedly verify the facts included in the prior declaration made under oath, that, in fact, there was no such witness and therefore no reliable basis for the statements put forward by Defendants." "O.C.G. is likely to succeed," Murphy added, "in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process." The orderand the Trump administration's agreement to comply with itis noteworthy for a few reasons. Foremost, it shows that the government can, in fact, facilitate the return of someone it unlawfully deported. It has contested its ability to do so in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national whom the administration says it wrongfully sent to El Salvador, where he had a withholding of removal, due to an "administrative error." The Supreme Court last month ordered that the administration facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Also in April, the Court ruled the government may not expel individuals under the Alien Enemies Act without due process, as the Trump administration had tried to do. This month, the justices extended an injunction prohibiting the government from using that law to remove Venezuelan immigrants, finding that detainees were entitled to a more robust process than the government had given them. But Murphy's ruling is also a reminder that the administration will continue losing on this front, so long as it continues flouting the law. There is an irony there: In trying to deport people as quickly as possible, the government finds itself constantly spending time and resources in court, having to justify and backtrack on cases it fumbles. President Donald Trump campaigned on hawkish immigration policy, and as chief executive he is entitled to try to execute that vision. He is not entitled, however, to violate the Constitution to do so. That isn't going to change. It's not a conspiracy against him. In this instance, O.C.G.'s case is fairly simple. "In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances," Murphy writes, "only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped." And now he will receive a taxpayer-funded plane ride back to the United States, so he can receive the due process he is promised by the Constitution. The post 'Banal Horror': Asylum Case Deals Trump Yet Another Loss on Due Process appeared first on Reason.com. A rally in front of the Hungarian parliament in Budapest, Hungary, on April 14, 2025, after legislation outlawing LGBTQ gatherings was passed. - Balint Szentgallay/NurPhoto/Getty Images At least 70 members of the European Parliament are planning on attending this years Pride celebrations in Budapest, Hungary, despite the nations ban against LGBTQ gatherings, officials have told CNN. Earlier this year, Hungarian lawmakers passed new legislation which outlaws Pride events in the country and allows authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those attending any events that go ahead despite the ban. But officials from at least six groups of the European Parliament are planning on attending Budapests annual Pride march anyway, according to a spokesperson for Kim van Sparrentak, the co-president of the European Unions Intergroup. The Intergroup describes itself as an informal forum for Members of the European Parliament (MEPS) who wish to advance and protect the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Budapest Pride has remained determined in the face of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government, which has previously said it is outlawing the parade and other LGBTQ gatherings in the country due to child protection issues. Organizers have vowed to hold the event anyway, and have called on international allies, activists, and friends to join the Pride parade though Hungarys capital on June 28. Van Sparrentak, who is a Dutch MEP from the parliaments Greens/European Free Alliance political group, told CNN that she will be attending Budapest Pride to support the LGBTIQ+ community in Hungary, to let them know that they are not alone (and) to be visible as a community. Pride is a protest, and if Orban can ban Budapest Pride without consequences, every pride is one election away from being banned, she continued. Marc Angel, the other co-president of Intergroup, told CNN that he is attending Budapest Pride this year to show solidarity with LGBTQ Hungarians, as well as all of civil society, which he said was under attack in Hungary. Angel said that he will be defending the right to assemble as a fundamental European right, adding that he hopes to show Hungarians who believe in democracy and in Europe that they are not alone. Luxembourg's Marc Angel, of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, told CNN that he will be attending Budapest Pride. - Julien Warnand/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock On Tuesday, a group of 20 countries in the European Union signed a letter urging Hungary to revise its anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation, calling on the European Commission to expeditiously make full use of the rule of law toolbox at its disposal if this doesnt happen. Angel suggested that some of these mechanisms could include stopping EU funding to Hungary and enacting an infringement procedure against the country for failing to implement EU law. In Tuesdays letter, the foreign ministries of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden said that they are deeply concerned by Hungarys recent law changes. The use of facial recognition software to identify people attending banned events was also condemned, with the countries saying that they are concerned by the implications of these measures on freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy. Respecting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is inherent in being part of the European family. This is our responsibility and shared commitment of the member states and the European institutions, the letter read. CNN has reached out to the Hungarian government for comment. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com By Saeed Azhar NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner was sentenced to two years in prison by a judge in a New York court on Thursday after playing a key role in a multi-billion dollar scandal involving Malaysia's sovereign fund 1MDB. Malaysian and U.S. authorities estimated $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB in an elaborate scheme that spanned the globe and implicated high-level officials in the fund, former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Goldman executives and others. Leissner, a former Southeast Asia chairman for Goldman, pleaded guilty in 2018 to a conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and participating in a money laundering conspiracy, all tied to his role in the 1MDB scandal. Leissner's conduct was "brazen and audacious," judge Margo Brodie said during sentencing. While his cooperation with the government was taken into account, it did not make up for the harm caused by the corruption at the highest levels in several countries, the judge said. "First and foremost, I offer my sincere apology to the people of Malaysia," Leissner, 55, told the hearing, his voice breaking as he read a statement. "I deeply regret my actions." Goldman helped sell $6.5 billion of bonds for 1MDB, which former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib set up with the help of Low to promote economic development. Some of the funds were diverted to offshore bank accounts and shell companies linked to Malaysian financier Jho Low, who is now a fugitive. Leissner became a U.S. government witness in the case after his arrest in 2018. He was allowed to remain free after he agreed to help the government in the investigation and testified against former banking colleague Roger Ng. Ng has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law. The former head of investment banking for Goldman in Malaysia was convicted in Brooklyn and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but transported to Malaysia in 2023 to assist probes there. Leissner met with the government on dozens of occasions, reviewing countless documents and communications he received related to the 1MDB scheme and other matters, according to a filing by prosecutors. "We respect the court's decision today and Mr. Leissner is prepared to serve his sentence and continue his future life of good works and care for his family," said his lawyer Henry Mazurek, a partner at Meister Seelig & Fein PLLC. Prosecutors requested the court impose a sentence below the applicable guidelines range due to Leissner's cooperation in the probe. ONLY CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST GOLDMAN Leissner told the court that he had lost his freedom, family and financial independence in the wake of the scandal. The former executive said his health also suffered, and that he took pills and lost the will to live. Goldman said in a letter to the court on May 21 that Leissner deceived his colleagues for years, culminating in the only criminal case filed against Goldman in its 156-year history. Goldman in 2020 paid a record $2.9 billion fine in the United States and arranged for its Malaysian unit to plead guilty in U.S. court. It also clawed back $174 million in executive compensation. Malaysia's former prime minister Najib was found guilty in 2020 of criminal breach of trust and abuse of power for illegally receiving funds misappropriated from a unit of state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Malaysia's top court in 2022 upheld a guilty verdict against Najib, sentencing him to 12 years in prison. The sentence was later halved by a pardons board chaired by Malaysia's former king. The former premier is currently in prison and is pursuing a legal bid to compel authorities to entitle him to serve the remainder of his sentence at home. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar, additional reporting by Nupur Anand and Danial Azhar in Kuala Lumpur, editing by Lananh Nguyen, Chizu Nomiyama, Nia Williams and Nick Zieminski) By Christian Lowe, Dmitry Antonov and Anastasiia Malenko KYIV/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Ukraine on Friday resisted pressure from Moscow and Washington to commit itself to attending another round of peace talks with Russia on June 2, saying it first needed to see the proposals Russian negotiators plan to bring. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end their three-year-old war, and Russia has proposed a further round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul. Kyiv has said it is committed to the search for peace, but that it was waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side setting out their proposals. "For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X after hosting Turkey's foreign minister for talks in Kyiv. "Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results," he said, citing the lack of a document from Russia. Some Republicans in the U.S. Congress and White House advisers have urged Trump to finally embrace new sanctions on Russia to put pressure Moscow. Influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on a visit to Kyiv on Friday the Republican-led U.S. Senate is expected to move ahead with a bill on sanctions against Russia next week. Graham, who met Zelenskiy in Kyiv, told a news briefing he had talked with Trump before his trip and the U.S. president expects concrete actions now from Moscow. Graham accused Putin of trying to drag out the peace process and said he doubts the Istanbul meeting will amount to more than a "Russian charade." The war, the biggest on the European continent since World War Two, began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Expectations for the talks are modest because the positions staked out so far by the two sides are far apart and work between them has yet to begin in earnest on narrowing the gap. Nevertheless, both Kyiv and Moscow are keen to demonstrate to Trump that they are on board with his efforts to end the conflict. Kyiv is seeking more U.S. military aid, while Moscow hopes he will ease economic sanctions on Russia. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation would be travelling to Istanbul and ready for talks with Ukraine on Monday morning. "At the moment, everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being developed," Peskov told reporters. NO MORE NATO ENLARGEMENT? Reuters reported earlier this week that Putin's conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards. Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said earlier on Friday that Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance. Commenting on Kellogg's statement, Peskov said: "We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington." Turkey's government hosted a previous round of Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul on May 16 - which ended with no breakthrough - and has again offered its services as a mediator. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters in Kyiv: "As long as (the sides) remain at the negotiating table, progress can surely be seen." If the talks go ahead in Istanbul, the next step would be to try to host a meeting between Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine's Zelenskiy, he added. But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who appeared alongside Fidan at a news conference, said Kyiv needed to see the Russian proposals in advance for the talks to be "substantive and meaningful." Sybiha did not spell out what Kyiv would do if it did not receive the Russian document, or set out a deadline for receiving it. "We want to end this war this year, and we are interested in establishing a truce, whether it is for 30 days, or for 50 days, or for 100 days," he said. Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that Moscow was ready to consider a ceasefire provided that Western states stopped arming Ukraine and that Kyiv stopped mobilising troops. Moscow has said its delegation at the Istanbul talks will be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a Kremlin aide who led the Russian team at the previous round of talks. (Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Anna Pruchnicka, Tom Balmforth, Anastasiia Malenko, Ronald Popeski and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Ros Russell and Gareth Jones) By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United States told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that its proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine was "Russia's best possible outcome" and President Vladimir Putin should take the deal. The United States wants Russia to agree to a comprehensive 30-day land, air, sea and critical infrastructure ceasefire. A first round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine on May 16 failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire - which Moscow has said is impossible to achieve before certain conditions are met. "We want to work with Russia, including on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict," Acting Deputy U.S. Ambassador John Kelley told the Security Council. "The deal on offer now is Russia's best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal." U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term in January vowing to swiftly end Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine. Kelley said the first U.S. step was to put forward a proposal for an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive ceasefire, which had been accepted by Ukraine, pending Russia's agreement. "Since then, we have been urging Russia to accept a ceasefire," he said. "If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict," he warned, adding that Washington could also impose further sanctions on Russia. Kelley said that after Trump and Putin spoke by phone last week, Russia was now expected to provide a term sheet broadly outlining its vision for a ceasefire in the conflict, which began when Moscow invaded its neighbor in February 2022. "We will judge Russia's seriousness towards ending the war, not only by the contents of that term sheet, but more importantly, by Russia's actions," said Kelley, condemning Russia's recent attacks on Ukraine as not demonstrating "a desire for peace." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow had drafted a memorandum outlining a settlement position in the Ukraine war. But Ukraine said Moscow has not yet shared its proposal. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow intended to continue serious, direct negotiations with Ukraine. Russia has suggested a second round of direct talks take place on Monday in Istanbul. "The ball is in Ukraine's court: either talks, followed by peace, or the unavoidable defeat of Ukraine on the battlefield with different conditions for the conflict's end," Nebenzia told the Security Council. Ukraine's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said Russia was "not signaling any genuine intention to stop its war" and urged countries to impose stronger sanctions on Moscow. "Ukraine has consistently demonstrated commitment to diplomacy and remains open to any format that can yield tangible results," she said, but added that Kyiv would never recognize Russia's claim to any occupied Ukrainian territory. "We will not tolerate interference in sovereign decisions, including our defense or alliances. There must be no appeasement of the aggressor. Such attempts only embolden future aggression," Hayovyshyn told the council. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Cynthia Osterman) By Anastasiia Malenko KYIV (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate is set to move ahead next week with a bill imposing more sanctions on Russia over its three-year-old war in Ukraine, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Friday after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, was accompanied on a visit to Kyiv by Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal who cosponsored the Senate sanctions measure, which sets a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products. Graham said the legislation, which had 82 cosponsors, would impose "bone-breaking sanctions" on Russia and its customers. "So, I would expect next week that the Senate will start moving the sanctions bill. There are House members that are ready to move in the House, and you'll see congressional action," he said. To become law, the measure must pass the Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin's action in Ukraine but has held off on more sanctions, saying he worries they would hurt prospects for a peace deal. Graham said his aim was to muster bipartisan congressional support "for tools that would help President Trump get Putin to the peace table. These sanctions would do that." It was not immediately clear when the House might take up the sanctions bill, and Speaker Mike Johnson's office did not respond to a request for comment. Graham told a news conference that Putin was trying to drag out the peace process. Ukraine has called for an immediate ceasefire. After direct talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month yielded no progress on a ceasefire, Graham said he expected a second round, proposed by Russia for Monday in Turkey, would be little more than a "Russian charade." "When they talk about peace, it is all talk. Look at what they are doing on the ground and you will see that Putin is trying to delay, drag it out, prepare for another military assault to gain land by force of arms," Graham said. Washington already has sweeping sanctions on Russia in punishment for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. also participates in international restrictions on Russian oil sales that impose a price cap and sanctions on oil tankers. Zelenskiy has called for a new round of U.S. sanctions on Russia and, writing on the Telegram messaging app on Friday, welcomed the legislation. (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; editing by Ron Popeski and Cynthia Osterman) Montana Capitol building Mick Haupt | Unsplash (The Center Square) Montana recently became the sixth state this year to pass a ban on foreign spending on ballot measures. Watchdog organizations, however, say the states new law is inadequate. Montanas new law bars non-U.S. citizens, foreign governments, foreign political parties and foreign-owned entities from contributing to campaigns surrounding ballot measures. The legislation passed mostly along party lines, with near-unanimous Republican support and limited Democratic backing. The new law, however, carves out an exemption for U.S.-based companies with foreign ownership if they pay state taxes and use only domestically generated funds from citizens or permanent residents. Additionally, the measure doesnt stop American political advocacy groups that receive money from foreigners from taking sides in ballot questions, watchdogs say. The problem that Montana failed to address is that you can have these intermediary groups that act as essentially money launderers, like the Sixteen Thirty Fund, raising enormous sums from foreign nationals, while simultaneously spending money on ballot measures, Honest Elections Project executive director Jason Snead told The Center Square in a Zoom interview. Thats why some of the measures weve seen passed this year, like in Missouri, for instance, require groups that spend in support of or against ballot measures have to certify that they have not taken above a certain threshold of foreign money over a four-year period. And the reason for that is to avoid this money laundering type of activity. Thats whats missing from the Montana law. The Sixteen Thirty Fund, an American progressive political advocacy organization, has received at least $280 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss since 2016, according to the New York Post. The organization, for example, has actively participated in Montanas politics. It spent over $3 million supporting a ballot initiative in Montana last year that made abortion a constitutionally protected right, according to Ballotpedia. The Sixteen Thirty Fund has spent over $130 million on ballot questions in 25 U.S. states in the past decade, according to RealClearPolicy. Since the Sixteen Thirty Fund is an American-based company that Wyss donates to and doesnt tell the organization how to spend its money Montanas new law wont prevent it from spending on the states ballot questions. Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland said Montana should look to other states for model legislation. Yes, absolutely, she told The Center Square in a Zoom interview. Starting with Ohio last year, we have seen that foreign funding bans have really swept state houses across the country. Theyre all slightly similar with the goal of banning foreign money direct and indirect on ballot issues. We saw that Wyoming passed a very strong ban, as did Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky and Indiana all this year. Once Ohios ban on foreign funding of ballot initiatives took effect last year, the Sixteen Thirty Fund stopped spending on The Buckeye States ballot questions and turned its attention elsewhere, as RealClearPolitics reports. Snead also worries that foreign adversaries, like Russia and China, may one day capitalize on this campaign finance loophole and fund American ballot initiatives. Any loopholes that exist in our current laws or that we create with new laws can and probably will be exploited by adversarial foreign powers, like China, like Russia, that clearly mean the U.S. ill, he said. Thats why we should never risk playing with fire by allowing foreign powers to meddle in our politics. We need to build the protections now and make sure that moneys out of our state politics forever. Food & Wine / Getty Images Key Points On a re-published episode of The Sporkful podcast, cookbook author and television host Nigella lawson shared that she always keeps a tube of Colman's English mustard in her purse. Colman's Mustard was established in 1814, making the brand over 200 years old. This condiment uses both brown and white mustard seeds and is known for its intense level of heat, which is compared to wasabi or horseradish. A good condiment can dramatically enhance a mediocre meal. When a sad desk lunch is under-seasoned and bland, a stash of hot sauce or a drizzle of salad dressing can do wonders for its flavor. And for British cookbook author and television host Nigella Lawson, theres one accoutrement that reigns supreme. On a re-published episode of Dan Pashmans podcast The Sporkful, Lawson revealed that she loves one particular mustard brand so much that she keeps a tube of it in her purse. While chatting with Pashman, the British food writer begins to pull something out of her bag. Pashman proclaims, Shes opening her purse. Nigella is opening her purse. The plastic bag is coming out and I see a tube of some kind, to which Lawson explains that he's looking at "a tube of Colmans English mustard. If the tube carried in her bag isnt evidence enough, Lawson later emphasizes that she loves this condiment so much, I haven't ever yet eaten it straight from the tube. It might come to that. However, Colmans mustard isnt the same as the bright yellow stuff you squeeze on a hot dog. Instead, this ingredient offers flavor and texture that distinguish it from other mustards, all while channeling a dose of British history. What is Colmans English Mustard? Colmans was founded by its eponymous founder, Jeremiah Colman, in Norwich, England, in 1814. The mustard is cherished for its notably hot and intense flavor, which is attributed to two key factors: the condiment employs two types of mustard seeds, both brown and white, and during its production process, the ground mustard seeds are sieved a total of nine times to eliminate any impurities that could diminish the potency of the final flavor. As Lawson points out, the more traditional form of this mustard in Britain isnt the wet condiment most Americans are familiar with, but rather a powder. The cookbook author reminds Pashman that Traditionally, it came as a powder, and you would mix it up. People would mix it up to the texture they liked. Colmans has long played a role in British food culture, and Queen Victoria even granted a Royal Warrant declaring it The Queens Mustard in 1866. Food & Wine / Colman's of Norwich Colman's Mustard has been crafted for over 200 years. Over the centuries Colmans has acquired and merged with several major food brands you may already know. In the early 20th century it acquired Frenchs mustard and later merged with another company to form Reckitt & Colmans in the 1930s, before eventually demerging and being acquired by Unilever in the 1990s. Today, Colmans is still owned by the consumer packaged goods giant Unilever. This mustards label is as distinctive as its fiery flavor. Bold red letters spell out Colmans Mustard on the front, accompanied by a delicate drawing of a cow. In smaller text, youll see the words of Norwich, referencing the condiments birthplace. Unfortunately, after being produced in the same factory in Norwich for 160 years, the original Colmans plant closed in 2019. Several steps in the production process, such as milling mustard seeds, are still carried out at a new facility in Norfolk (the county where Norwich is located), while other aspects of manufacturing have largely moved to Burton-on-Trent. Colman's website details that all of its white mustard seeds are sourced from the United Kingdom, all seeds are milled in Norfolk, and the company is working to increase the amount of locally sourced brown mustard it uses. What makes Colmans mustard special? Mustard isnt spicy in the same way that a hot sauce is. When it comes to chiles, capsaicin is what makes your tongue burn, but for mustard, horseradish, wasabi, and other ingredients that create a sharp spice felt more in your nasal passages, we can thank compounds called isothiocyanates for the fire. Consequently, Pashman compares the condiment to all of the above, saying, it's got a specific type of heat, almost like a horseradish-y back of the throat spice, and Lawson confirms, saying, It's a bit like the British wasabi. Related: The 2 Things You Should Never Bring to a Dinner Party, According to Ina Garten American yellow mustards generally contain more vinegar than other types of mustard. They are made from yellow mustard seeds, which offer a milder spice level. As a result, their overall flavor is less intense compared to various mustard styles, such as spicy brown mustards or Colmans. So, if you want a strong, spicy mustard, Lawsons purse staple might be right for you. But beyond its fiery notes, Pashman explains that he also loves, the mouthfeel of it. It's got a little bit of a slight texture, almost like a hoisin or a gochujang sauce that's like a little bit it's got a floury kind of thickness to it. Perhaps that rich, luxurious texture is yet another reason Nigella Lawson says she eats Colmans with almost everything. Read the original article on Food & Wine Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty; Courtesy of Julien's Auctions Princess Diana (left) and her letter to Buckingham Palace footman Mark Simpson NEED TO KNOW Princess Diana's handwritten letter to a Buckingham Palace footman is one of many special pieces in Princess Dianas Style & A Royal Collection Presented by Julien's Auctions, the collection includes over 200 historic pieces, one of the largest auctions of items that once belonged to Diana Co-founder and executive director of Julien's Auctions Martin Nolan tells PEOPLE about what we can learn from these pieces of history Rare pieces that tell the story of Princess Diana's life and give insight into the British royal family are now available for auction, including a handwritten letter penned two days after her wedding to the future King Charles. Julien's Auctions presents an extraordinary collection, Princess Dianas Style & A Royal Collection, featuring over 200 historic pieces in one of the largest auctions of items that once belonged to the late Princess of Wales. Alongside the many incredible fashion items featured in the auction, which kicks off June 26 at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, is a particularly special piece. The collection contains a handwritten, signed letter from Princess Diana to Mark Simpson, a footman at Buckingham Palace. The letter was dated July 31, 1981, just two days after her wedding to Prince Charles. "This is one of my favorite pieces," Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien's Auctions, tells PEOPLE during our preview of the auction items. Courtesy of Julien's Auctions Princess Diana's letter to Mark Simpson "It's like a couple of days after she got married. She'd been living in Buckingham Palace as she was transitioning from being a normal person to being a royal and the future queen," Nolan explains. "So she had to learn from the Queen Mother and the Queen about curtsying and all that. But she had fun with Mark Simpson, the footman. And he was about the same age, a little bit older than her," Nolan adds. "And she talks here, it speaks of how she was lonely when she was in the palace." Courtesy of Julien's Auctions Princess Diana's letter to Mark Simpson, continued The letter reads, "Dear Mark, I just wanted to thank you for all your kindness + patience you've showed towards me since I moved into B.P. My stay was made so much easier by your company as it was so terribly lonely + we had so many laughs for that I can't thank you enough. Do hope you were able to enjoy Wednesday + that you liked my dress? I'm off to Britainia tomorrow, what with all those men around. I will have to keep a watchful eye on Evelyn! The bad news is that I haven't eaten any cereal sob. How am I going to cope without my bowls of cereal....[smiley face]. A large thank you for being you Much love, Diana." The letter shows that Diana's early days of a being a royal were "no fun," Nolan says. "But [Simpson] cheered her up and they had fun. And she talks about the bowls of cereal that they used to have and how is she going to do without all the bowls of cereal? So that's a really, really great piece," he continues, adding, "Because it speaks volumes." Courtesy of Julien's Auctions Princess Diana's signature There are also a number of other handwritten notes and letters included in Princess Dianas Style & A Royal Collection. A number of items that make up the collection have charitable components, bringing the essence of the people's princess to the heart of the event. "Some of the dresses that she sold when she did her own auction in 1997, she had already given away to her friends," Nolan shares. "So she called them up, 'I'm doing an auction. I need that dress back.' Isn't that so funny? And they gave it back, of course. And it raised over $3 million for charity." Princess Dianas Style & A Royal Collection begins Thursday, June 26, at 10:00 a.m. PT at The Peninsula Beverly Hills. Read the original article on People Ron DeSantis Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis voiced skepticism about President Trumps negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, arguing that the theocratic regime cant be trusted. The Sunshine State governor warned that trying to cut a deal with Iran is hazardous, and emphasized that Tehran is not a traditional country that can be treated in a traditional way. I dont see them as being good faith actors and in any way, shape or form. And the reality is they cannot be allowed to enrich uranium, period. End of story, DeSantis told conservative radio host Mark Levin. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has long been a staunch defender of Israel. ZUMAPRESS.com They are a militant Islamic government. Their view of mutual destruction with nuclear weapons is actually something they think would be fine because they think theyre all going to go to heaven in paradise if that happens. Earlier this year, Trump penned a missive to Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei telling the Ayatollah that he wants to see a deal to resolve the nuclear issue very soon. In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated under the Obama administration and hasnt entirely ruled out the possibility of a military response if Iran obtains a nuke, which experts fear could spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. DeSantis contended that, unlike the Soviet Union, which believed a nuclear war was not very appealing, Irans leaders feel that such an exchange with Israel could be doing the will of Allah. Notably, back in March, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. Trumps effort to cut a deal with Iran has caused some friction with Israel, which is very dead set on preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. In addition to its nuclear program, the US has been alarmed by Irans funding of terrorist activity in the Middle East. via REUTERS I told [Benjamin Netanyahu] this would be very inappropriate to do right now because were very close to a solution, Trump told reporters Wednesday, confirming reports that he warned the Israeli prime minister not to attack Iran during negotiations. During Trumps three-country swing through the Middle East earlier this month, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all expressed opposition to attacking Irans nuclear facilities, Axios reported. All three were concerned their countries would be subject to retaliation from Iran in part because they host US military bases. President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran amid negotiations. REUTERS DeSantis also credited Israel for being foundational to Western civilization. You could trace back the history of Western civilization all the way back to the ancient state of Israel and the birth of both Judaism and Christianity, and we wouldnt have the United States of America if it didnt trace back to that, the Florida governor argued. (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, saying he knew the slain Japanese leader had dreamt of finally concluding a post-World War Two peace treaty. No treaty was ever signed as the two countries could not resolve a dispute over the then-Soviet Union's seizure at the end of the war of four islands in the Southern Kuril chain, known in Japan as the Northern Territories. Russian media said Abe and Putin met altogether 27 times during the nearly nine years the Japanese leader was in office. Abe left office in 2020 and was assassinated two years later while making an election campaign speech. "I know that his dream - and he truly strived to achieve this - was to conclude a peace treaty between our two countries. The situation is different now," the Russian leader said. Putin, whose comments to Abe's widow in the Kremlin were reported by Russian news agencies, also said fulfilling that dream was not possible in the current international situation given the conflict in Ukraine. "Your husband did a great deal for the development of Russian-Japanese relations. We had very good personal relations," Putin was quoted as telling Akie Abe. Russia's relations with Japan have been strained by Tokyo's support for sanctions imposed by Ukraine's Western allies over Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. All negotiations on clinching a peace treaty have been suspended. Akie Abe told Putin, according to the agencies, that her husband had wanted to meet Putin even after the start of the Ukraine conflict "but unfortunately circumstances were such that he was no longer able to meet you. His life was cut short." (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Howard Goller) The State Department has eased its travel advisory for Jamaica, but still wants Americans to be careful while visiting the popular Caribbean destination. On Thursday, the travel advisory was lowered to Level 2 or "exercise increased caution." Jamaica had been listed as Level 3 or "reconsider travel," due to crime and health-care concerns. The change comes two months after Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Jamaica and pledged to re-evaluate its travel notice. The highest possible advisory level is Level 4 or "do not travel." "We take seriously our commitment to provide U.S. citizens with clear, timely, and reliable information about every country in the world so they can make informed travel decisions," a State Department spokesperson previously told USA TODAY. "The Department of State routinely updates our Travel Advisories and destination information pages based on a comprehensive review of all available safety information and ongoing developments." Here's what travelers should know. Is it safe to travel from the US to Jamaica? The overall advisory level has been lowered, but the State Department warns crime and medical concerns remain, and there are areas travelers are urged to avoid all together. "While violent crime in Jamaica has decreased since 2024, it remains statistically high throughout the country," according to Thursday's advisory, which adds that armed robberies and sexual assaults are common and homicide rates are among the Western Hemisphere's highest. "Tourist areas generally see lower rates of violent crime than other parts of the country," the State Department continued, but noted, "The U.S. Embassy routinely receives reports of sexual assaults, including from U.S. citizen tourists at resorts" and many cases aren't fully prosecuted. U.S. embassy personnel are prohibited from visiting certain parts of Jamaica, which travelers are also warned against visiting "for any reason." See the State Department's travel advisory page for the full list. People are silhouetted on the beach during sunset in Negril, Jamacia on May 21, 2017. How to stay safe while traveling The State Department shared the following safety tips for Americans visiting Jamaica: "Do not attempt to bring firearms or ammunition. This includes stray rounds, shells, or empty casings. The penalties for carrying firearms or ammunition, even by mistake, are severe, and can include long prison sentences. Avoid walking or driving at night. Avoid public buses. Avoid remote places. Do not physically resist any robbery attempt. Be aware of your surroundings and keep a low profile. Visit (the State Department) website for Travel to High-Risk Areas. Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive messages and Alerts from the U.S. Embassy and make it easier to locate you in an emergency. Review the Country Security Report for Jamaica. Prepare a plan for emergency situations. Review the Travelers Checklist. Visit the CDC page for the latest Travel Health Information related to your travel and return to the United States." The State Department also notes that Americans should not expect the same level of medical care in Jamaica, including slower emergency response, less available care and potentially having to pay up front before being admitted to hospitals. Travelers are encouraged to buy insurance before their trips. Contributing: Reuters This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: State Dept. lowers Jamaica travel advisory level, but urges caution WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants that was granted by the Biden administration, making them subject to deportation. The court granted an emergency application filed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that ends the Biden program that gave 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela permission to temporarily live and work in the United States. The people directly affected by Friday's order may still have other avenues available to stay in the country, such as by applying for asylum, with their lawyers saying thousands have already sought to do so. The brief order, which did not explain the court's reasoning, noted that liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Jackson wrote that the court had failed to take into account "the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending." The administration was contesting a ruling by Massachusetts-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who said the administration could not sweep each persons status away without an individualized determination. That decision is now on hold while litigation continues. "The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era," said Karen Tumlin, a lawyer at Justice Action Center who represents affected immigrants. "I cannot overstate how devastating this is: The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities," she added. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the decision was a "victory for the American people" that corrected an error made by the Biden administration to allow "poorly vetted aliens" into the country. A Haitian family, including a mother-to-be, boards a U.S. Border Patrol van to be taken to a processing center after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 10, 2021, in Yuma, Ariz. (John Moore / Getty Images file) Starting in 2022, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas granted what is called parole for two years to people from the affected countries in part to alleviate the surge arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The policy, known as the CHNV parole programs, allowed people to enter the country and stay if they passed a security check and had a sponsor in the United States who could provide housing. Similar parole programs have applied to people from certain other countries, including those fleeing violence in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in court papers that Talwani did not have authority to rule on the issue, with Noem given authority to make her decision under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. The same law gave Mayorkas the discretion to allow the affected people to enter and stay in the country. The Department of Homeland Security said in October 2024 that each person's parole would not be extended once their two-year approval period expired. Noem's move to unwind the Biden action was challenged in court by individuals who would be affected, as well as the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant rights group. Their lawyers wrote in court papers that Talwani's decision did not prevent Noem from ending the program, only that the government could not immediately rescind the status of the people already enrolled via a single sweeping order. The dispute is one of dozens of cases in which the Trump administration has complained about lower court judges blocking its policies even as President Donald Trump has sought to aggressively expand the power of the presidency without the authorization of Congress. In a separate case, the Supreme Court on May 19 allowed the administration to revoke temporary protected status for a group of almost 350,000 Venezuelans. A third person has been arrested in the death of a reporter from Kansas City who was in New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl, Louisiana authorities announced Friday. The Kenner, Louisiana Police Department arrested 33-year-old Christian Anderson and said he played an active role with other individuals in coordinating attacks on victims, drugging them, and stealing personal property. Anderson is charged with being a principal to simple robbery, purse snatching, access device fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, bank fraud, and computer fraud. Danette Colbert and Rickey White have already been arrested and are awaiting charges of second-degree murder for their role in Adan Manzano's death. All three suspects are in custody at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. A general view of a memorial display for Adan Manzano, a local reporter who was found dead in New Orleans while covering the Super Bowl. Colbert was arrested after she was seen on video at the Kenner Comfort Suites hotel with Manzano at around 5 a.m. the day of his death on Feb. 5, and she was seen leaving the room alone later in the morning. Authorities charged her with second-degree murder in March. Authorities said they gathered through search warrants, text message records, and digital communications that showed Anderson and Colbert communicated after Manzano's death, including a car rented by Anderson on the day of Manzanos death that was used by Colbert. Anderson also provided logistical support and attempted to gain money from Manzano's stolen items. Manzano died from the combined toxic effects of Xanax and alcohol intoxication, along with positional asphyxia, and the manner of death is still undetermined. He was found face down on a pillow, and his blood alcohol level was .232, almost three times the legal amount in the state of Louisiana. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Adan Manzano: Third person arrested in death of Super Bowl reporter Will UnitedHealth Groups new CEO get the hefty pay package the board wants to give him? That eight-figure question rises amid UHGs unprecedented loss of value in the past several weeks. UHG is Americas largest health care company, No. 3 on the Fortune 500, but in April it reported surprisingly terrible first-quarter performance. The stock price plunged, then kept plunging for weeks. CEO Andrew Witty resigned abruptly for unspecified personal reasons, and the board chairman, Stephen Hemsley, took over as CEO. Hemsley, who turns 73 in June, will be trying to rescue the colossus he helped build as CEO from 2006 to 2017. While investors might have expected he would hold the job only until the board of directors finds a new CEO, Hemsley and the board have other ideas. The highly unusual pay package they created for Hemsley shows how. He will get a base salary of $1 million a yearbig money but actually below the usual salary for CEOs of such large companies. More important, he would get a one-time $60 million grant of stock options, with a twist: He would get the payoff only if he remains CEO for three years. He would get no other stock-based awards in that period. Shareholders will get to vote on that unconventional pay plan at UHGs June 2 annual meeting. Institutional Shareholder Services, the largest firm that advises major shareholders on how to vote, advises they vote no. ISS sees multiple problems with Hemsleys pay package. Such big, front-loaded, multiyear awards limit the boards ability to meaningfully adjust future pay opportunities, ISS says. In addition, Hemsley didnt need to meet any performance criteria to earn the mammoth stock option award; he got the whole thing on day one. Hemsley also got the award just as bad news was pounding the share price down to its lowest in nearly five years, meaning he might get a windfall for a mere rebound in the share price. Combine those factors, says ISS, and a no vote is now warranted. UHG struck back, sending shareholders an explanation of what ISS allegedly missed and why they should vote for Hemsleys pay package. The companys central point: The award only has value if and to the extent shareholder value is created. As for ISSs windfall argument, UHG stated that in reality all [underlined and bold in the UHG document] shareholders would gain from increases in the companys stock price relative to current levels. Whos likely to win this vote? Bottom line, Hemsley and UHG will probably get the pay package they negotiated. ISSs recommendations are taken seriously, but shareholders usually vote in favor of management. Even if UHG loses the shareholder vote on pay, which companies must hold by law, the result is nonbinding and advisory only; the board of directors could simply ignore the shareholders wishes. In addition, UHG notes that ISSs main competitor, Glass Lewis, is recommending shareholders vote in favor of Hemsleys pay package. Upon a cursory glance, it tells its clients, [Hemsleys] annualized compensation is not excessive. Regardless of the outcome, the contested vote will be significant. It will raise the already high stakes for UHG, its directors, and Hemsley. Three years from now, success in the face of opposition would look all the more heroicand failure would be all the more bitter. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (AP) President Donald Trump on Friday told Pennsylvania steelworkers hes doubling the tariff on steel imports to 50% to protect their industry, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, autos and other goods. In a post later on his Truth Social platform, he added that aluminum tariffs would also be doubled to 50%. He said both tariff hikes would go into effect Wednesday. Trump spoke at U.S. Steels Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in suburban Pittsburgh, where he also discussed a details-to-come deal under which Japans Nippon Steel will invest in the iconic American steelmaker. Trump told reporters after he arrived back in Washington that he still has to approve the deal. I have to approve the final deal with Nippon and we haven't seen that final deal yet, but they've made a very big commitment and it's a very big investment, he said. Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmakers bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he reversed course and announced an agreement last week for partial ownership by Nippon. Its unclear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalized or how ownership would be structured. Nippon Steel has never said it is backing off its bid to outright buy and control U.S. Steel as a wholly owned subsidiary, even as it increased the amount of money it promised to invest in U.S. Steel plants and gave guarantees that it wouldnt lay off workers or close plants as it sought federal approval of the acquisition. Were here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company, Trump said as he opened an event at one of U.S. Steels warehouses. Youre going to stay an American company, you know that, right? As for the tariffs, Trump said doubling the levies on imported steel will even further secure the steel industry in the U.S. But such a dramatic increase could push prices even higher. Steel prices have climbed 16% since Trump became president in mid-January, according to the government's Producer Price Index. As of March 2025, steel cost $984 a metric ton in the United States, significantly more than the price in Europe ($690) or China ($392), according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The United States produced about three times as much steel as it imported last year, with Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea being the largest sources of steel imports. Analysts have credited tariffs going back to Trumps first term with helping strengthen the domestic steel industry, something that Nippon Steel wanted to capitalize on in its offer to buy U.S. Steel. The United Steelworkers union remained skeptical. Its president, David McCall, said in a statement that the union is most concerned with the impact that this merger of U.S. Steel into a foreign competitor will have on national security, our members and the communities where we live and work. Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the countrys supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security. Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the U.S. since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect U.S. manufacturing. U.S. Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed partnership but also has not disclosed terms. State and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy U.S. Steel and spend billions on U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the U.S. governments veto power in the form of a golden share. Unionized steelworkers said there is some split opinion in the ranks over Nippon Steels acquisition, but that sentiment has shifted over time as they became more convinced that U.S. Steel would eventually shut down their Pittsburgh-area plants. Clifford Hammonds, a line feeder at the plant where Trump spoke, said at the very least the deal will help upgrade the aging plant and help increase production. Its putting money back into the plant to help rebuild it, because this plant is old, its falling apart. We aint really producing as much as we should be because, like I said, this place is old. Its falling apart. We need some type of investment to fix the machines that weve got working, Hammonds said. No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of U.S. Steel, as did former President Joe Biden. Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalization of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of U.S. Steel, once the worlds largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing. Trump said Sunday he wouldnt approve the deal if U.S. Steel did not remain under U.S. control. He said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh. The president closed his remarks Friday by thanking steelworkers. With the help of patriots like you, were going to produce our own metal, unleash our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our destiny, he said. We are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America like never before. In recent days, Trump and other U.S. officials began promoting Nippon Steels new commitment to invest $14 billion on top of its $14.9 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the U.S. He was joined onstage Friday by several U.S. Steel workers, including Jason Zugai, vice president of the United Steelworkers local union at the Irvin finishing plant that defied the international union in supporting Nippon Steels bid to buy U.S. Steel. Zugai, whose father had lost his job in a steel mill years earlier, lobbied local officials and members of Congress to support the deal, believing that U.S. Steel would otherwise shut down its Pittsburgh-area plants eventually. In his remarks, Zugai told Trump, I knew you wouldnt let us down and called Nippon Steels proposed $14 billion in investments into steel production in the U.S. life-changing. ___ Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Washington and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report. FILE - White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) WASHINGTON (AP) The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump's chief of staff. Trump said Wiles is an amazing woman and she can handle it. They breached the phone; they tried to impersonate her, Trump told reporters on Friday. Nobody can impersonate her. There's only one Susie. A White House official confirmed the investigation Friday and said the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles number, the newspaper reported. Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles, which may have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to the report. Some received text messages that they initially thought were official White House requests but some people reported the messages did not sound like Wiles. The FBI warned in a public service announcement this month of a malicious text and voice messaging campaign in which unidentified malicious actors have been impersonating senior U.S. government officials. The scheme, according to the FBI, has relied on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victims associates and contacts. Safeguarding our administration officials ability to securely communicate to accomplish the presidents mission is a top priority, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Friday. It is unclear how someone gained access to Wiles' phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers. Last year, Iran hacked into Trump's campaign and sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump's running mate. Wiles, who served as a comanager of Trump's campaign before taking on the linchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts. ___ Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report. Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan cast the political left as crazy and mean while he hyped up his colleague, U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, at a special meeting of Des Moines' Westside Conservative Club. Jordan, a Republican from Ohio who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, was in Des Moines on Thursday, May 29, supporting Nunn. Nunn is running for reelection to the 3rd Congressional District next year. And the race has begun in earnest as Democrats begin entering the race. Democratic state Reps. Sarah Trone Garriott and Jennifer Konfrst have both announced their candidacies. And national Democrats have once again targeted the seat as a prime pickup opportunity. Thanks for getting off the sidelines and getting in the game, Jordan told the group, which gathered at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale. I learned a long time ago, good things in life don't just happen. You want to accomplish anything that matters it takes hard work, it takes sacrifice, but most importantly, it takes a willingness to assume risk. Iowa Republicans applaud U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as he joins Zach Nunn (R-IA) on a visit to Urbandale on May 29, 2025. Politics is a risky business, he said, particularly in an age of division. He said the dividing line between the parties currently is one of common sense. We're the party of common sense and normal, he said. You think about the left, it is crazy to defund the police. It's crazy to not have a border. It is crazy to have men compete against women in sports. He painted Democrats broadly as untrustworthy, pointing to decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down schools and churches as well as the current conversation about whether former Democratic President Joe Biden was mentally fit to serve in office. More: $1,000 to seek asylum? House Republicans propose new immigration fees The left will tell a lie, Jordan said. Big media will repeat the lie. Big tech will amplify the lie. And then when you tell the truth, they call you a racist or some other name. Theyll attack you. Theyll come at you personally because theyre mean. Then pretty soon, your position will be proven accurate. So much so, in this example even, Jake Tapper wrote a book to say we were right. Tapper is the co-author of a book that suggests aides and confidantes close to Biden shielded him from the public to hide his declining mental state. Nunn said he had recently spoken to Republican President Donald Trump about the importance of Iowas congressional races in the coming midterm elections. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) joins Jim Jordan (R-OH) during a visit to the Westside Conservative Club on May 29, 2025, at the Machine Shed in Urbandale. We were just on a conversation with the President, and he said, You know what, everybody looks to Iowa, and they might be looking at presidential races coming up in 2028, Nunn said. But the President said, 'I am laser focused on 2026. Nunn again touted the tax cut and spending package that recently cleared the House of Representatives. It adds 10,000 new ICE agents, he said. But at this point, we almost dont even need them, because the president has been so effective, theyve stopped coming over themselves. U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) joins Zach Nunn (R-IA) to speak to the Westside Conservative Club on May 29, 2025, at the Machine Shed in Urbandale. He said he believes there are people who need access to social safety net programs, but he believes the legislation, which makes massive spending cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are for the best. There are important things that Washington can do for Americans, Nunn said. Ill be the first to say, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP do help Americans. But they have to be used in a way to help Americans with a hand up, not a handout. Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: US Rep. Jim Jordan backs Zach Nunn ahead of 2026 reelection bid PARKERSBURG, IOWA Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, fielded angry questions on Medicaid cuts, President Donald Trump's tax cut proposal and DOGE at a town hall on May 30, at one point telling a member of the crowd concerned about Medicaid cuts that, "We all are going to die." While portions of the hourlong event proceeded respectfully and Ernst, a Republican, answered several questions without interruption, at other points members of the roughly 100-member crowd repeatedly interrupted her answers, booing her and calling her a liar. As Ernst was answering a question about Medicaid eligibility in Trump's tax cut bill, she was interrupted by a woman in the crowd, who shouted, "People will die!" "People are not well, we all are going to die," Ernst said, prompting shouting from the audience. "For heavens sakes, folks." Ernst said the goal of the bill is to make sure that people who are not eligible for Medicaid benefits don't receive them. "What you dont want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable," Ernst said. "Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them. Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa. If you don't want to listen, that's fine." Joni Ernst dismisses 'hysteria' coming from 'the left' Talking to reporters later in the day at a Google data center construction site, Ernst said the now-viral reaction to her comments is "hysteria that's out there coming from the left." "Two things are true: death and taxes," she said. "And what I'm trying to do is make sure that we are extending tax benefits for hardworking Iowans, and that we're preserving Medicaid for those that meet eligibility requirements. We don't need to see illegal immigrants receiving benefits that should be going to Iowans." Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally funded benefits such as Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program, and only some lawfully present immigrants qualify, subject to eligibility restrictions, according to KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy. However, 14 states, mostly led by Democrats, use state funding to offer health care to low-income immigrants, either adults or children, regardless of their legal status. The tax bill would cut federal reimbursement rates for the Medicaid expansion programs in those states. Back at the morning's town hall, Karen Franczyk, a retired health care provider from Cedar Falls, also asked Ernst a question about potential cuts to Medicaid in Trump's tax cut bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will reduce federal Medicaid spending by $723 billion over a decade and could increase the number of uninsured people by 7.6 million in that time. "President Trumps big, beautiful bill will cut billions from Medicaid, which is the main source of revenue for rural hospitals and community health centers that serve the most vulnerable Iowans," Franczyk said. "If you vote for this bill, what will you do to ensure that all Iowans can not only continue to receive care but have access to resources that make them healthier?" Sen. Joni Ernst speaks during a town hall at Aplington-Parkersburg High School on May 30, 2025, in Parkersburg. Ernst began her answer by telling Franczyk, "Thank you for being a health care provider. I really appreciate that." "We know the House has their provisions for Medicaid, and I actually agree with most of their provisions. Everyone says that Medicaid is being cut; people are going to see their benefits cut. Thats not true," Ernst said, as members of the crowd began shouting "liar." Ernst is serving her second term in the U.S. Senate. She told reporters last year that she intended to run for reelection in 2026 but has not yet launched a formal campaign. 'It's chaos!' Audience criticizes DOGE cuts, policies in Trump's tax bill Randall Harlow of Cedar Falls asked about a one-sentence provision in the version of the tax bill that passed the House that would make it harder for federal judges to enforce contempt orders in cases where the federal government defies court decisions. "My question for you today is, will you pledge to us, your constituents who you serve, that you will not vote for this bill or any other bill that contains this poisonous provision?" he said. Ernst said many of the provisions in the House bill would not make it into the Senate bill because the Senate has different rules than the House, which only allows provisions related to spending to be passed with a simple majority vote, not unrelated policy language. "I dont see any argument that could ever be made that this affects mandatory spending or revenues," she said. "I just dont see that. I dont see it getting into the Senate bill." Constituents listen as Sen. Joni Ernst speaks during a town hall at Aplington-Parkersburg High School on May 30, 2025, in Parkersburg. Ernst said the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian would make a decision about which provisions are eligible to be included in the bill. "I will support the parliamentarian," she said. When members of the crowd shouted at her to answer the question, Ernst said, "I did. It will not be in the Senate bill." "I could support the Senate bill, and I may not," she said. "I dont know whats in the Senate bill yet." Harrison Cass Jr., a former Navy officer and a retired superintendent who lives in Waterloo, thanked Ernst for coming to speak to the crowd in person. He prefaced his question by saying, "Clearly, we have a president who is destroying the federal government." He said Trump had "taken over the government" and "in four months he's made it into a dictatorship." "The worst thing is the Senate and the House of Representatives have been rendered useless," he said. "And you folks have let it happen. Youve sat back and done nothing." "My question is this," Cass added. "Are you afraid of Trump? Are you corrupt like Trump? Or are you just at the point you dont care anymore, and thats why you dont do it?" A constituent holds a protest sign during a town hall at Aplington-Parkersburg High School on May 30, 2025, in Parkersburg. Ernst began her answer by thanking Cass for his service. She said she didn't believe the federal government was being destroyed. Instead, she said the Department of Government Efficiency set up by Trump was identifying areas where the federal government had expanded for which she didn't think it should be responsible. "The things that were not spelled out in the Constitution were delegated under the 10th Amendment to the states," she said. "So, what we are seeing in federal government is the right-sizing of the federal government and allowing the states to take up the role that our forefathers intended." "It's chaos!" a woman in the crowd shouted. "It may be chaos to you," Ernst replied, "but we do have to get back to a semblance of what our country was founded for." Democrats, Republicans respond to Ernst's Medicaid comments Nathan Sage, a Democrat seeking his party's nomination for U.S. Senate in 2026, called Ernst's remarks "a new low," saying "she's not even trying to hide her contempt for us." "This is simple: these cuts will kill people," Sage said in a statement. "But Joni Ernst cant even pretend to care. She shrugged it off. Its disgusting and vile. Iowa deserves so much better. She needs to go." Nathan Sage, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to voters during a meet and greet even on May 12, 2025, at Twisted Vine Brewery in Des Moines. State Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, who is considering running for U.S. Senate in 2026, said in a statement, "It is, of course, true that we are all going to die, but our senators shouldn't be the ones killing us." "Joni Ernst has gone from 'Make 'em squeal' to We're all going to die,'" Wahls said in a statement. "Washington politicians are screwing Iowans and we need leaders who will fight for us, not gut health care funding that 700,000 Iowans rely on." Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann accused Democrats and the media of twisting Ernst's words. "Anyone who knows Joni especially the folks who heard her answer tough questions for over an hour knows Dems and the mainstream media are purposefully replacing her core message because it helps their fear-mongering," Kaufmann said in a statement. "But the fact is, without Senator Ernst taking a strong stand to protect the integrity of programs like Medicaid, Iowans would be worse off." Marissa Payne contributed to this report. Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller. This story was updated to add more information. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Joni Ernst fields angry questions on Medicaid cuts at Iowa town hall President Donald Trump's steepest tariffs fell into legal limbo this week, casting uncertainty over a major swath of the president's signature economic policy. The Trump administration could ultimately prevail in a court battle over the levies or seek other legal authorities to reimpose some of the tariffs, experts told ABC News, but a complete revival of the policy now faces formidable obstacles. Two separate federal courts invalidated far-reaching levies on dozens of countries unveiled in a Rose Garden ceremony that Trump had dubbed "Liberation Day." The rulings also struck down 30% tariffs imposed on China as well as a baseline 10% levy slapped on nearly all imports, among other measures. MORE: Trump claims China 'totally violated' trade agreement with US A federal appeals court moved to temporarily reinstate the tariffs on Thursday afternoon, however, keeping the levies in place while judges weigh the underlying legal justification. Here's what to know about what's next for Trump's tariffs and what happens to the tax revenue already paid, according to experts. High-stakes court battle The court rulings this week set off a legal battle over the tariffs that could stretch on for more than a year and make its way to the Supreme Court, experts told ABC News. The rulings against the levies in two federal courts the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. -- centered on Trump's unprecedented invocation of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act as a legal justification for tariffs. The 1977 law allows the president to stop all transactions with a foreign adversary that poses a threat, including the use of tools like sanctions and trade embargoes. But the measure does not explicitly permit tariffs, putting Trump in untested legal territory. "These are momentous actions to reverse a major initiative of the president of the United States," Alan Wolff, a former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization, told ABC News. "It's a real loss for the White House." The temporary reinstatement of the tariffs allows the policy to continue as the legal fight plays out, but the ruling does not indicate how judges will weigh in on the merits of the case, Wolff added. "It doesn't change the circumstances in court all that much," Wolff said. "I'm sure the White House would like this to get straightened out as soon as possible." In a social media post, Trump slammed the judges at the U.S. Court of International Trade and touted the benefits of his tariff policy. "Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of 'TRUMP?' What other reason could it be?" Trump said. The three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International trade included one judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, one judge appointed by Barack Obama and one judge appointed by Trump himself. Trump added: "In this case, it is only because of my successful use of Tariffs that many Trillions of Dollars have already begun pouring into the U.S.A. from other Countries, money that, without these Tariffs, we would not be able to get. It is the difference between having a rich, prosperous, and successful United States of America, and quite the opposite." As of Wednesday, U.S. tariffs had generated about $68 billion in revenue so far this year, though only a portion of those funds owes to levies at risk of being struck down, according to a Politico analysis. The duration of the legal battle may depend on the rulings handed down from the two appeals courts handling each of the Trump administration's challenges, Patrick Childress, a former trade official under President Joe Biden and Trump, told ABC News. If the two appellate courts handed down opposing decisions, it would raise the likelihood that the case will take over a year and ultimately reach the Supreme Court, Childress said. But, he added, a pair of similar rulings at the appeals court level could fast-track resolution of the case. For now, the fate of the tariffs at issue remains highly unclear, even after the appeals court temporarily reinstated them, Childress added. "There's still a very similar amount of uncertainty," Childress said. PHOTO: Trucks transporting containers line up at the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in Ningbo, China, May 28, 2025. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) New tariffs could draw on other legal authorities If the courts ultimately rule against Trump's tariffs, the White House may explore other legal authorities as a means of reviving some of the levies, experts said. In some cases, however, the alternative legal statutes would require time-consuming investigations at federal agencies and put limits on the scope of the levies. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the executive to invoke temporary tariff authority in response to an adverse trade policy taken up by another country. Trump's tariffs on a wide swath of Chinese goods during his first term relied on Section 301, which Biden invoked in service of tariffs of his own. The White House may use Section 301 to reimpose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China over the nations' respective roles in the transport of fentanyl to the U.S., Childress said. But a wide-ranging invocation of Section 301 for tariffs on dozens of countries could pose administrative challenges, since each use of the measure requires a federal investigation of the alleged abuses, he added. "It wouldn't be impossible but it would require a lot of investigations," Childress said. The Trump administration is weighing the use of a separate provision of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose country-specific tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days, The Wall Street Journal reported. The White House could also expand its use of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the executive to impose tariffs on a specific product if the Commerce Department deems foreign production a threat to national security. Trump already has invoked the measure to slap 25% tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum. Additional sector-specific tariffs may hit pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips, according to recent comments from Trump. Companies may receive tax refunds Importers who have paid the tariffs at issue will receive government refunds if the levies fall victim to legal challenges, experts told ABC News. "Companies should get the money back if that's the result -- and it's a lot of money," Wolff said. MORE: Appeals court reinstates Trump's tariffs for now after ruling blocking them The federal government will likely slow down the issuance of refunds until the legal cases are resolved, Childress said. "Importers who made the payments could be looking at one or even two years until those refunds get paid," Childress added. When seeking a refund, companies will need to provide detailed information about their imports, the date of shipment and where the products entered the U.S. "All of that information is necessary to get a refund further down the road," Childress said. What's next for President Trump's tariffs after whiplash court rulings? originally appeared on abcnews.go.com By Alexandra Ulmer (Reuters) -Without billionaire Elon Musk in the Trump administration, his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency project is likely to sputter out, a former DOGE staffer said in his first interview since leaving the team. Tesla CEO Musk announced on Wednesday evening that he was ending his time as a special government employee but vowed that DOGE would continue without him. Administration media representatives also said in statements to Reuters that DOGE would continue its work. DOGE has overseen job cuts at nearly every federal agency as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's attempts to shake up the federal bureaucracy. However, software engineer Sahil Lavingia, who spent almost two months working for the group of pro-Musk technologists, said he expects DOGE to quickly "fizzle out." "It'll just die a whimper," Lavingia, who was fired from DOGE earlier this month, told Reuters. "So much of the appeal and allure was Elon." He said he expected DOGE staffers to "just stop showing up to work. It's like kids joining a startup that will go out of business in four months." That would cap a remarkable undoing for DOGE, which Musk initially vowed would cut $2 trillion in federal spending. Instead, DOGE estimates its efforts have saved around $175 billion so far and the group's tallies have been riddled with errors. The White House praised DOGE but did not comment on Lavingia. "DOGE is integral to the federal government's operations, and its mission, as established by the President's executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. Lavingia, the 32-year-old founder and CEO of creator platform Gumroad, said he was recruited by DOGE through a personal contact and joined the team in March. While he said he was proud of certain achievements at the Department of Veterans Affairs, including modernizing the agency's internal artificial-intelligence chatbot, he said he was often at a loss about what work he was expected to do. "I got dropped into the VA with an HP laptop. What are we supposed to do? What is the road map?" Lavingia said he asked, to no avail. "I felt like I was being pranked." Veterans Affairs press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said in a statement to Reuters: "VA looks forward to continuing to work with its DOGE liaisons to help the department improve its performance, customer service, and convenience to Veterans." Lavingia said Steve Davis, the president of Musk's tunneling enterprise the Boring Company, ran day-to-day operations while Turkish-born venture capitalist Baris Akis helped with DOGE recruitment and DOGE logistics. Davis and Akis did not respond to requests for comment sent via the White House. When instructions did come through, they were usually communicated through phone calls or small chats on the encrypted Signal messaging app that would typically auto-delete in one day, Lavingia said. Lavingia said instructions included moving faster to increase mass layoffs at the VA, the federal government's second-largest agency. The only time he met Musk, Lavingia said, was at an all-hands meeting in March with what he estimated was between 40 and 60 fellow DOGE staffers. Lavingia said he asked to open-source, or make freely available, some of his computer code, which Musk approved. He then asked if they could livestream DOGE meetings to increase transparency. "Elon said: 'That's a great idea. We'll do it next week.' He then caught himself and said: 'Maybe we pre-record it because of security risks.'" Lavingia said he never heard back. In early May, after he spoke to media outlet Fast Company about working at DOGE, Lavingia said his computer access was revoked in what amounted to a firing. He said Musk and team leaders never explicitly told him he should not talk to journalists. "My DOGE days were over," Lavingia wrote in a blog about his experience. (Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Jamie Freed) Australian businesses with an annual turnover of more than $3 million and entities responsible for critical infrastructure must report to the government within 72 hours of making a ransomware payment, or becoming aware that one has been made on their behalf, under the Ransomware Reporting Rule of the Cyber Security Act 2024. Effective 30 May 2025, payment reports will not be limited to direct payments but will also include those made by third parties, such as insurers and incident response firms, on behalf of the covered entity. Organisations must submit their reports within 72 hours of making or becoming aware of the payment, using a dedicated online portal managed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). The report must include details such as the business contact and ABN information, a description of the cyber incident and its business impact, specifics of the extortion demand and the amount and method of payment, including cryptocurrency details. They are also obliged to report any other communications or negotiations that theyve had with the attackers. The legislation captures both monetary and non-monetary benefits that are given or exchanged to an extorting entity as being ransomware or cyber extortion payments. For example, this may include the exchange of gifts, services or other benefits to an entity in respect of the demand. About 30 countries have signed the convention establishing the IOMed, a new international organisation promoted by China for conflict mediation in a city on its way to be normalised. The new body reflects a version of multilateralism that is tailored-made for Beijing, which has ignored rulings by UN tribunals. This brings to mind the words of Chow Hang-tung, a lawyer jailed for her pro-democracy beliefs, on the effect of the emptying words like rights, democracy and peace of their meaning, in Hong Kong and beyond. Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) China has decided to set up a new international agency to settle international disputes headquartered in Hong Kong, a place whose courts have not exactly shone in the last five years in terms of international legal standards. Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of the Peoples Republic of China inaugurated this morning the Made-in-China International Organisation for Mediation Convention (IOMed), which should be up and running in a few months. The ceremony that gave birth to the new organisation saw some 30 countries sign its founding convention, which range from Serbia and Pakistan to Papua New Guinea and Venezuela. The birth of IOMed will help transcend the zero-sum mentality of win or lose, promote the amicable resolution of international disputes, and build more harmonious international relations, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who presided over the signing in the former British colony. The goal is for the body to act as a neutral third party in disputes, and help the parties work out a solution acceptable to both. According to Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, the new body will mediate disputes between countries, between countries and individuals of another country, and between private international entities, on a par with the International Court of Justice of the United Nations and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. This is all wonderful, obviously, if it were not for two small details: it is promoted by the Peoples Republic of China, and it is headquartered in Hong Kong. Beijing has deliberately ignored court rulings in the past, as it did in the case of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague regarding the dispute with the Philippines over Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea. With respect to Hong Kong, the fact that the city and its Chief Executive, John Lee, were chosen as the location and the poster boy for the new body for "conflict mediation" raises more than a few doubts about the type of "mediation" that can be expected outside the framework of the United Nations. After all local authorities have been cracking down on pro-democracy movement since 2019. He choice is no accident. Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice Paul Lam wrote in an article today that the creation of IOMed comes just as hostile external forces are attempting to de-internationalise and de-functionalise Hong Kong. This shows the real reason behind the initiative, namely revive Hong Kongs fortunes as a "model" and a "crossroads" for Pax Sinica after it was forced into silence with the liquidation of the pro-democracy movement after its handover to the People's Republic in 1997. To put the IOMed into perspective, it is worth rereading what Chow Hang-tung, a lawyer imprisoned in Hong Kong for membership in the pro-democracy movement, had to say. She is set to go to trial soon under Beijings national security draconian law and potentially faces life in prison in the headquarters of the new "conflict mediation" agency. The Partys power to redefine words and subvert their meaning does not stop at the Chinese border, she wrote from prison in December 2023. And while during the Cold War, where one can identify and counter a distinct communist ideology and phraseology, todays China is instead speaking the same liberal language of rights, democracy and peace. Crucial differences, of course, still exist, but are camouflaged under a raft of comforting phrases. For those of us who live under the Partys rule, we know, of course, these familiar terms carry very different meanings in Party-speak. Rights are not about what individuals can assert against the state, but about empowering the state to safeguard the rights of the people. Democracy is not about citizens holding leaders accountable through free association, expression and elections, but about leaders graciously listening to the voice of the people through controlled channels. And peace is about ensuring submission to the Partys order through whatever means, not the rejection of war nor hatred. Of course, It is indisputable that the current international order is heavily dominated by the West, and thus still quite far from the ideal of law-as-values. But the way to improve it is not by giving more voice to the non-western dictators, which could only deepen the silence of the hitherto voiceless." Instead, ordinary people must be empowered to join in the conversation on values through the building of democracy everywhere. Again, a difficult and not uncontroversial task, often decried as interference when such efforts and solidarity are extended across borders. Yet if we are to abandon the quest for democracy, we shall have no hope of ever building a just international order based on values. 30 May 2025 08:30 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more On May 28, Azerbaijan's Independence Day, a historic trilateral summit was held in Lachin, a region once under occupation, now reborn as a symbol of sovereignty and revival. The presence of the leaders of Turkiye and Pakistan alongside Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was not merely ceremonial; it was a geopolitical message of unity, trust, and strategic alignment. The participation of Turkiye and Pakistantwo time-tested allieson this significant day showcased not only their unwavering support for Azerbaijan but also the deepening of a trilateral partnership that transcends conventional diplomacy. Both Turkiye and Pakistan have consistently supported Azerbaijan, particularly during the 2020 Second Garabagh War. Their swift and resolute backingpolitical, moral, and diplomatichighlighted a rare example of modern brotherhood in international relations. The choice of Lachin as the summit venue reinforced the message: that the liberation and reconstruction of Garabagh are not only national achievements but also regional victories for collective resilience. May 28 holds immense historical significance as the day the first democratic republic in the Muslim East was founded in 1918the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Holding a high-level summit on this day symbolized a confluence of history and future. By celebrating Independence Day with its most trusted allies, Azerbaijan underscored its intention to anchor national sovereignty within a broader framework of regional solidarity. This joint commemoration serves as a reminder that Azerbaijan is not alone on its path to post-conflict reconstruction and regional integration. As the leaders exchanged views in Lachin, their message was clear: sovereignty is strengthened through solidarity, and peace is more durable when supported by friendship. Turkiyes presence in Lachin also carried geopolitical weight. Under President Erdogans leadership, Turkiye has evolved from a regional actor into a significant global power, increasingly influential in defense, energy, logistics, and soft power diplomacy. Its assertive foreign policy, expanding defense industry, and strategic role in global conflicts from the Black Sea to the Middle East have redefined its international stature. Ankaras strategic investments in Azerbaijani infrastructuremost notably the development of airports in Fuzuli, Zangilan, and now Lachindemonstrate its long-term commitment to transforming Garabagh into a hub of connectivity and economic vitality. Furthermore, Turkiyes partnerships with Azerbaijan in education, technology, and defense indicate a blueprint for sustainable development grounded in shared culture and strategic foresight. Pakistans involvement reflects another layer of strategic depth. As a nuclear state with a population of over 240 million, Pakistan plays a vital role in South Asian geopolitics. Its enduring tensions with India, economic reforms under duress, and strategic pivot toward Central Asia and the Turkic world all suggest a recalibration of foreign policy aligned with Muslim-majority partnerships. Pakistans unequivocal support for Azerbaijandiplomatically during the Garabagh conflict and now economically and technologicallyrepresents not just solidarity, but strategic calculation. Islamabad is increasingly aware that regional integration through platforms like the Azerbaijan-Turkiye-Pakistan trilateral format offers diplomatic leverage and economic opportunity. The trilateral framework opens expansive avenues for collaboration in vital sectors such as education, artificial intelligence (AI), information and communication technologies (ICT), and defense. This partnership is more than just a diplomatic alignment; it is a forward-looking alliance rooted in a shared history, strategic geography, and a vision for sustainable development. One of the cornerstone ambitions of this trilateral platform is fostering joint research and academic exchanges. Universities and research institutions across the three nations are expected to collaborate on cutting-edge scientific projects, creating shared innovation hubs and scholarship programs. By facilitating student and faculty exchanges, the partnership aims to cultivate a new generation of researchers and technologists equipped to lead future advancements. Artificial intelligence stands out as a transformative element in this cooperation. Special focus is given to leveraging AI technologies to drive agricultural and industrial innovation, particularly in post-conflict regions like Garabagh. Applying AI in precision farming and resource management can accelerate economic recovery, improve food security, and create new industrial opportunities. Beyond agriculture, AIs integration into industrial processes promises to modernize manufacturing and boost efficiency across sectors. Information and communication technologies are another critical pillar of this trilateral partnership. The three countries are exploring extensive ICT cooperation, including initiatives to enhance cybersecurity frameworks, secure critical digital infrastructure, and develop robust broadband networks. This collaboration is designed to foster a secure and resilient digital ecosystem, enabling innovations in e-government, smart cities, and regional connectivity. Defense cooperation remains a key element binding these countries. The trilateral platform facilitates joint military exercises, strategic intelligence sharing, and collaborative defense industry projects. By pooling expertise and resources, the countries aim to bolster regional security and address common threats more effectively. President Ilham Aliyev's diplomatic success lies not only in military victory but also in building sustainable partnerships. The public praise from President Erdogan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reflects not only personal rapport but respect for Ilham Aliyevs vision, particularly his balanced foreign policy and effective leadership during the post-war reconstruction. Azerbaijan's growing role as a connector between continents and cultureslinking Europe, Asia, and the Middle Eastis no longer an aspiration; it is a reality shaped by visionary leadership and agile diplomacy. As Azerbaijan celebrates its independence and rebuilds its liberated territories, the support of Turkiye and Pakistan sends a powerful signal: the future of this region lies in cooperation, not confrontation. The Lachin summit was not just a diplomatic gathering; it was the beginning of a long-term strategic architecture based on mutual trust, cultural affinity, and shared ambition. If harnessed wisely, this trilateral model could become a new paradigm for regional stability and global relevance. 30 May 2025 19:22 (UTC+04:00) By Farman Aydin | AzerNEWS By any measure, the recent spat between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church has revealed more than just personal animosities or institutional tensions. It has unmasked the deep moral, political, and ideological fractures at the heart of Armenian societya nation still reeling from its defeat in the Second Garabagh War, and now struggling to reconcile with reality. Pashinyans caustic Facebook comments against high-ranking clergy expose a country where the old elite refuses to relinquish control, even as the new order tries, however clumsily, to move forward. In a stunning social media post, Pashinyan lashed out at Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who is currently leading protests against the government's decision to return four border villages to Azerbaijan, a step long demanded by international law and supported by the 1990s-era maps. The Prime Minister wrote an insulting comment to Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a phrase so crude it barely warrants translation. He then openly questioned how many of the Churchs bishops are actually celibate, before sarcastically responding to criticism of his own marital status. Such vulgarity from a head of government is disturbing. Yet it also reflects the depth of frustration that the Armenian leadership feels toward an institution that has transformed itself into the last stronghold of the so-called "Garabagh clique"the entrenched elite that ruled Armenia for over two decades and lost not only the 2020 war, but also the moral legitimacy to dictate national policy. Indeed, Archbishop Galstanyan is not merely a spiritual leader. He is now the de facto head of a revanchist movement seeking to undo Armenias peace process with Azerbaijan, undermine the rule of law, and drag the country back into the militarist, isolationist era of the Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan administrationsboth figures closely tied to the Armenian lobby. For years, this clique manipulated the Church, the media, and the security services to maintain a frozen conflict that only served their narrow interests. In the end, their arrogance led Armenia into a catastrophic war it could not win. By contrast, Azerbaijan has shown a firm and consistent commitment to restoring its territorial integrity without falling into internal chaos. After the 2020 victory, Baku could have pushed further, but it chose diplomacy. Even now, with the latest agreements on delimiting the border and the peaceful return of four Armenian villages, Azerbaijan remains focused on future regional integration, economic development, and peaceful coexistence. This is a maturity Armenias fractured political class would do well to emulate. Pashinyan, for all his faults, is at least trying to turn Armenia toward a more realistic and less confrontational foreign policy. His willingness to concede what international law already recognises as Azerbaijani territory is not weaknessit is a necessity. Yet he faces a revolt not from parliament, but from the pulpit. When clerics mobilise mobs in the streets and issue thinly veiled threats against a sitting prime minister, one wonders whether Armenia is truly ready to function as a modern state. The tragedy here is not Pashinyans language, however inappropriate. It is a fact that in 2024, the Armenian Apostolic Church is being used as a political battering ram by those who have nothing constructive to offer. And in doing so, they are sabotaging what could be the beginning of a long-overdue reconciliation with Azerbaijana country that has already moved on. It is time for Armenia to do the same. Let the Church return to spiritual matters. Let the Garabagh clique fade into history. And let diplomacynot dogmaguide the South Caucasus to a more stable and prosperous future. 30 May 2025 15:57 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more Azerbaijan has discussed expanding cooperation with Germany in the field of green energy. Azernews reports that this was stated by Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov, on his X account. We held discussions with Michael Harms, Chairman of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy, regarding the expansion of energy cooperation within the framework of Azerbaijans green energy agenda. We assessed prospects for collaboration with German companies on developing offshore wind energy, the Green Energy Corridor extending from the Caspian Sea to Europe, and energy supply through this infrastructure, the post reads. 30 May 2025 17:11 (UTC+04:00) Qabil Ashirov Read more In a move to support Azerbaijans transition toward a greener economy, the World Bank has recommended the introduction of a carbon tax as the first step in the countrys carbon pricing strategy, Azernews reports. Speaking at a seminar titled Carbon Pricing and International Carbon Markets, held in collaboration with the Azerbaijani government, Yasemin Oruc, head of the World Banks office in Azerbaijan, outlined a series of policy suggestions aimed at guiding the countrys shift to carbon pricing mechanisms. According to Oruc, if the Azerbaijani government decides to adopt carbon pricing tools, the most effective starting point would be the introduction of a carbon tax based on the carbon content of fuel types. She emphasized that such a tax should be applied at the point where fuel enters the economyeither when it is imported or produced domestically. This approach can be implemented through the existing excise system, Oruc noted, adding that in its initial phase, the tax would cover approximately 60% of Azerbaijans total carbon emissions. Looking ahead, Oruc stated that Azerbaijan could eventually expand the scope of the carbon tax by transitioning to an emissions trading system (ETS). One of the primary advantages of this model, she said, is the ability to channel carbon tax revenues into direct cash transfers for low-income households, helping them cope with the effects of rising prices. Experts have welcomed the proposal, describing it as a balanced strategy that addresses both environmental concerns and social equity. By combining carbon reduction efforts with financial protections for vulnerable populations, the model offers a dual benefit: mitigating climate change while ensuring economic fairness. 30 May 2025 16:51 (UTC+04:00) Akbar Novruz Read more An inclusive education laboratory for students with disabilities has been officially opened at the University of Jordan, thanks to support from the Azerbaijan International Development Assistance Agency (AIDA), Azernews reports via local media report. The opening ceremony was attended by the universitys rector, Nazir Obeydat; Azerbaijani Ambassador to Jordan, Eldar Salimov; AIDA Director Elmaddin Mehdiyev; as well as representatives from academic institutions, the diplomatic corps, and students. The newly launched laboratory, fully equipped by AIDA with state-of-the-art devices and specialized software, is designed to meet the academic needs of students with disabilities. The initiative aims to enhance both the academic experience and social integration of these students, ensuring more equitable access to educational opportunities. A promotional video showcasing the cultural and natural landmarks of Azerbaijan was also presented during the event, further underlining the spirit of bilateral cooperation and cultural exchange. This is not the first time Azerbaijan has supported inclusive education at the University of Jordan. AIDA previously established a computer lab for students with disabilities at the university, also equipped with advanced technology and accessibility tools. The latest initiative builds on that commitment, strengthening Azerbaijans role in promoting inclusive and accessible education beyond its borders. 30 May 2025 17:22 (UTC+04:00) Akbar Novruz Read more A meeting was held between the State Tax Service (STS) under the Ministry of Economy and a World Bank delegation as part of the "Carbon Pricing Market Readiness Partnership" (PMI) support mission, focusing on potential frameworks for carbon pricing and cooperation in green transition policies, Azernews reports. Deputy Head of the STS, Samira Musayeva, presented an overview of Azerbaijans ongoing tax reforms aligned with building a green economy and promoting energy efficiency. She highlighted existing concessions and incentive mechanisms embedded in national tax legislation and emphasized that carbon pricing should be addressed through fair, comprehensive, and well-researched strategies. Musayeva also praised the World Banks active efforts in supporting global "green solutions." Yasemin Orucu, Senior Climate Change Specialist at the World Bank and Head of the Task Force for Azerbaijan, outlined the goals and scope of the Market Readiness Partnership. She noted that the mission aims to assess Azerbaijans readiness for the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, facilitate information sharing, and gather feedback through consultations with national stakeholders. The meeting included a broad exchange of views on the global shift toward low-carbon energy systems and the policies countries are adopting to reduce their carbon footprint. Both sides discussed possible avenues for future collaboration, particularly in enhancing Azerbaijans capacity in carbon market mechanisms and climate-resilient fiscal reforms. 30 May 2025 14:57 (UTC+04:00) Laman Ismayilova Read more President of the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Aktoty Raimkulova has visited the Silk Road International Tourism and Cultural Heritage University in Samarkand as part of her official visit, in connection with the granting of the Cultural Capital of the Islamic World 2025 status to Samarkand, Azernews reports. During the visit, a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation was signed between the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and the Institute. The main result of this agreement was the official opening of the Turkic Heritage Center, which will operate under the patronage of the foundation at the institute's base. The new center will serve as a platform for the development of academic cooperation, scientific research, and cultural exchange between Turkic-speaking countries. The creation of Turkic Heritage Centers is part of the foundation's strategic initiatives aimed at expanding its scientific, educational, and cultural activities. Similar centers are already successfully operating in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and plans are underway to open more centers in other Turkic-speaking countries in the near future. The Turkic Heritage Centers will become important hubs for the preservation of the historical heritage of Turkic peoples, the promotion of their cultural values, and the implementation of scientific initiatives. In these centers, scholars, experts, and students will come together to carry out joint projects, deepen academic dialogue, and conduct interdisciplinary research to thoroughly study and interpret Turkic heritage. The opening of the center in Samarkand has become a significant step towards strengthening cultural and educational ties and, at the same time, promoting the rich and diverse heritage of the Turkic world on an international level. Established in 2012, the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation focuses on the preservation of the Turkic heritage in member countries as well as conducting projects in collaboration with partners in third nations. The foundation provides assistance in the protection, study, and promotion of Turkic culture and heritage through supporting and funding various activities, projects, and programs. The organization carries out its activities in cooperation with TURKSOY and the Turkic Academy. With its rich cultural legacy, Azerbaijan joined the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) in 1991. Since then, Azerbaijan has actively promoted the preservation of its Islamic cultural heritage. The country successfully collaborates closely with various organisations, including the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic Conference of Parliamentary Union, and the Islamic Conference of Youth Forum. 30 May 2025 16:10 (UTC+04:00) Laman Ismayilova Read more President of the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Aktoty Raimkulova has visited Uzbekistan to participate in the event held in Samarkand, which was declared the Cultural Capital of the Islamic World, Azernews reports. During her visit, the foundation's president met with the ICESCO Director-General Salim bin Mohammed el-Malik. They discussed prospects for cooperation in the fields of culture, education, and historical heritage, and reached an agreement on preparing and signing a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation. Aktoty Raimkulova congratulated ICESCO's leader on Samarkand being designated as the Islamic Culture Capital and emphasized the significance of this initiative for the Turkish and Islamic worlds. She highly appreciated ICESCO's activities in the preservation of cultural heritage and expressed the foundation's full support for these efforts. The meeting also covered topics such as the scientific restoration and preservation of historical monuments in Turkish states, the development of methodological materials in this regard, organizing professional development programs for museum staff, and implementing joint forums and research projects. The agreements reached lay a solid foundation for long-term and effective cooperation between the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and ICESCO. Established in 2012, the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation focuses on the preservation of the Turkic heritage in member countries as well as conducting projects in collaboration with partners in third nations. The foundation provides assistance in the protection, study, and promotion of Turkic culture and heritage through supporting and funding various activities, projects, and programs. The organization carries out its activities in cooperation with TURKSOY and the Turkic Academy. With its rich cultural legacy, Azerbaijan joined the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) in 1991. Since then, Azerbaijan has actively promoted the preservation of its Islamic cultural heritage. The country successfully collaborates closely with various organisations, including the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Development Bank, the Islamic Conference of Parliamentary Union, and the Islamic Conference of Youth Forum. In 2024, Shusha, Azerbaijan, was designated the Cultural Capital of the Islamic World. This title was confirmed at the 12th Conference of the Culture Ministers of the Islamic World in Doha. The declaration of Shusha as the Cultural Capital highlights the city's rich historical and cultural heritage, particularly its role in the development of Islamic culture. 30 May 2025 22:44 (UTC+04:00) The winners of the annual English Language Olympiad for Academic Purposes, organized by ADA University, have received their awards. The award ceremony took place on May 29 at ADA University, Azernews reports. Organized in partnership with the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Baku Education Information Center, STI Travel, and BESTCOMP GROUP, the multi-stage Olympiad involved a total of 1,674 students. These students successfully completed the competition stages held at ADA Universitys Baku and Gazakh campuses, School No. 39 named after Mir Jalal Pashayev in Ganja, and the Heydar Aliyev School in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic before being invited to the award ceremony. Speaking at the ceremony, ADA University Vice-Rectors Vafa Kazdal and Fariz Ismayilzade emphasized that this now-traditional Olympiad brings together students from various regions across the country, once again proving that talent exists not only in the capital but in every corner of Azerbaijan. ADA Universitys mission is to discover and support that talent. Rashad Khudiyev, Deputy Minister of Education of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic; Narmina Huseynova, Head of the Baku City Education Department; and Fuad Garayev, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education, commended the students for their academic efforts and congratulated the winners. Based on the results, the top three students in the 8th9th grade category were awarded. First place winner, Ughur Alizadeh, a student of School No. 1 named after Mirza Alakbar Sabir in Astara district, won the right to participate free of charge in a two-week Global Young Leaders course in the United Kingdom. The award was presented by Fuad Garayev, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education; Gunay Masimova, Director of the Baku Education Information Center; and Gunel Mirzazade, Manager at STI Travel. The second and third place winnersZarifa Atayeva from School No. 1 named after Ismat Gayibov in Sumgayit, and Kenan Karimzade from School No. 3 named after B.Y. Jafarov in Khirdalanwere awarded laptops and tablets, presented by Narmina Huseynova of the Baku City Education Department and Fuad Gambarov, Chief Human Resources Officer at BESTCOMP Group. First-place winner Ughur Alizadeh shared his excitement: This Olympiad was not just a knowledge competition for meit was also a great way to build confidence in myself and my potential. The opportunity to participate in the Global Young Leaders program as a reward is a tangible outcome of this success. It is worth noting that the Olympiad consisted of three stages: the first assessed students grammar and reading skills in English, the second focused on writing and listening abilities, and the final stage evaluated their speaking skills. 30 May 2025 10:21 (UTC+04:00) A regional conference on Enhancing the Effectiveness of Preventive Measures Against Fires was held in the city of Aghdam, as authorities prepare for the heightened risk of wildfires during the upcoming summer months, Azernews reports, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The Ministry noted that the meeting brought together high-ranking officials and experts from across the region. Attendees included Eldar Seyidov, Deputy Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in the districts of Aghdam, Fuzuli, and Khojavand; Major General Yusif Nabiyev, Chief Fire Safety Expert of the Ministry of Emergency Situations; Colonel Mirali Feyziyev, Head of the Ministrys Karabakh Regional Center; and representatives from the Presidents offices in the liberated territories. Also present were officials from the Ministries of Emergency Situations, Ecology and Natural Resources, Internal Affairs, Defense, Agriculture, and Justice, along with representatives of the Prosecutor Generals Office, State Border Service, and other relevant bodies. The primary goal of the meeting was to coordinate efforts to prevent potential wildfires in forested and agricultural areas during the dry summer season. Participants stressed the importance of inter-agency cooperation in strengthening fire prevention efforts and mitigating environmental risks. Speakers highlighted that protecting and developing forestsan integral part of the ecosystemis a key strategy in combating climate change. The meeting emphasized the importance of public ecological awareness, the creation of firebreaks around forests and farmland, and the establishment of water reservoirs to assist in fire suppression efforts. As the summer approaches, the conference underscored the need for increased vigilance from all segments of society. Farmers, livestock breeders, villagers living near forested areas, and construction workers were urged to strictly observe fire safety regulations and exercise extreme caution with fire-related activities. The session concluded with a Q&A session, where experts addressed concerns and questions from participants, reaffirming the commitment of all stakeholders to preventing wildfires and protecting the environment. 30 May 2025 12:28 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more In accordance with the annual activity plan approved by the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, a visit was organised for military attaches of foreign states accredited in Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azernews reports, citing the Ministry. The visit included 35 military attaches representing 19 countries. The delegation first paid respects at the monument to National Leader Heydar Aliyev, located in the main square of Nakhchivan city. They also visited the Heydar Aliyev Museum, where they viewed exhibits detailing the life and legacy of the Great Leader and learned about Azerbaijans rich statehood heritage. As part of the visit, the guests toured the Headquarters of the Separate Combined Arms Army (SCAA). Major General Kenan Seyidov, Commander of the SCAA, met with the military attaches and briefed them on the history, development, reforms, and future goals of the SCAA. The delegation also signed the Book of Honour in accordance with protocol. The guests visited the SCAA Training and Education Centre, exploring classrooms, a simulation centre, and a training hall. Additionally, the military attaches toured the Nakhchivan Military College and the Heydar Aliyev Military Lyceum, where they were briefed on recent reforms, the current military education system, and educational and scientific activities. The visit continued with a tour of the Nakhchivan Restoration and Production Military Complex. Finally, the delegation was taken on an excursion to various historical and cultural monuments in the region. 30 May 2025 13:37 (UTC+04:00) Qabil Ashirov Read more Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov and Secretary-General of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), Kubanychbek Omuraliyev, held a high-level meeting in Astana to review the implementation of strategic agreements and explore avenues to further expand cooperation among member states, Azernews reports, citing Kazakhstans government press service. The meeting focused on strengthening trade and economic ties, with particular emphasis on diversifying and increasing the volume of mutual supply chains. In 2023, Kazakhstan's trade turnover with OTS member states reached $11.4 billion, the statement said. However, it was noted that the current figures do not reflect the full potential of cooperation. In this regard, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has proposed the development of a dedicated document aimed at boosting trade relations. The two leaders also discussed humanitarian initiatives designed to foster closer cultural and social ties among the Turkic nations. At the conclusion of the meeting, both Prime Minister Bektenov and Secretary-General Omuraliyev reaffirmed their commitment to deepening effective and mutually beneficial cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Organization of Turkic States. 30 May 2025 12:54 (UTC+04:00) President Ilham Aliyev sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic, Azernews reports. ''Dear Mr. Prime Minister, On the occasion of the national day Statehood Day of the Republic of Croatia, I offer my most sincere congratulations to you and your entire nation on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan. It is gratifying to see the strengthening and enrichment of relations between Azerbaijan and Croatia, built on good traditions. Our active political dialogue, mutual visits at the high and highest levels, and regular contacts provide a solid foundation for expanding cooperation across various fields. Currently, Azerbaijan and Croatia are successfully cooperating in economic, trade, and humanitarian spheres, particularly in the field of demining. At the same time, cooperation in the energy sector one of the priority areas of our partnership has developed and entered a new phase. Our successful collaboration in the energy field positively contributes to ensuring Europes energy security. I believe that, in line with the will of our peoples, the traditional friendly relations between our countries, our bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and our strategic partnership will continue to develop steadily and grow even stronger. On this festive occasion, I extend to you my best regards and wish lasting peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Croatia,'' the letter reads. 30 May 2025 15:30 (UTC+04:00) Holders of ordinary passports of Azerbaijan and China will now be able to travel between the two countries without a visa, Azernews reports. At its May 30 session, the Milli Majlis approved the draft law on the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the People's Republic of China on mutual visa exemption for holders of ordinary passports. The draft was put to a vote and unanimously adopted by the parliament. 30 May 2025 13:30 (UTC+04:00) Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, Crown Prince of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, has sent a congratulatory letter to President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of 28 May Independence Day. According to Azernews, the letter reads: "His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Your Excellency, On the occasion of the Independence Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan, I am pleased to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you and the people of Azerbaijan. Please accept my best wishes for continued progress, prosperity, and success for your country and people. Sincerely, Al Hussein bin Abdullah II Crown Prince of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" 30 May 2025 20:33 (UTC+04:00) Kairat Sarybay, Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, has sent a congratulatory letter to President Ilham Aliyev. According to Azernews, the letter reads: His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Your Excellency, Please accept my heartfelt congratulations and warmest wishes to Your Excellency and the people of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the occasion of Independence Day. Azerbaijan marks this historic date with a distinguished record as a staunch advocate of multilateralism and substantial experience leading international efforts to address a wide range of global and regional challenges to peace and security. Azerbaijans remarkable achievement in restoring its sovereignty and territorial integrity constitutes an invaluable contribution to regional stability. Under Your Excellency's clear and strategic vision, the Azerbaijani Chairmanship is giving strong momentum to the CICA process. With an extensive and ambitious programme for its Chairmanship, Azerbaijan skilfully integrates its leadership across all five CICA dimensions- Economic, Environmental, Human, New Challenges and Threats, and Military-Political. This includes advancing transport and transit cooperation and amplifying its significant legacy as the President of COP29, all during this pivotal phase of CICA's transformation into a full-fledged regional international organization. I sincerely appreciate Your Excellency's warm reception on 15 January 2025 and remain profoundly grateful for Your Excellency's political foresight, strategic vision, and steadfast support of the CICA process, including its transformation. The ongoing discussions among CICA Member States under the capable Azerbaijani Chairmanship on the draft CICA Charter give us every hope that it will be adopted at the CICA Summit in Baku in the second half of October 2025. There is full confidence that the Azerbaijani Chairmanship's efforts will contribute to a stronger CICA, connectivity, digitalization and sustainable growth in Asia. I wish Your Excellency good health, happiness, and continued success in leading your nation toward enduring peace and prosperity. Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration. Yours sincerely, Ambassador Kairat Sarybay Secretary General of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia 31 May 2025 00:22 (UTC+04:00) The open court session continued on May 30 at the Baku Military Court in the criminal case against Armenian citizens Arayik Harutyunyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, David Babayan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, and others. They stand accused of crimes against peace and humanity, including war crimes, preparing and waging aggressive war, genocide, violations of the laws and customs of war, terrorism, financing terrorism, forcible seizure and retention of power, and other grave offenses arising from Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan. The court session, presided over by Judge Zeynal Aghayev, with Judges Jamal Ramazanov and Anar Rzayev (alternate judge Gunel Samadova), ensured that each defendant had legal representation and interpretation in their native language. The session was attended by the accused, their lawyers, several victims and their legal successors and representatives, as well as state prosecutors. At the beginning, Judge Zeynal Aghayev introduced the court staff and interpreters and explained the legal rights and obligations to the victims who were participating in the court proceedings for the first time. Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev began investigating the expert opinions from the scene inspection and other protocols regarding the aggressive war waged by Armenia in July 2020, during the period conventionally called the "Tovuz battles", including the shelling of civilian areas by the Armenian armed forces, the killing of civilians and military personnel, and damage to civilian property. It was stated that as a result of the aggressive war waged against the Republic of Azerbaijan, on July 12-16, 17, 24 and 25, 2020, in the next stage of the aggressive war, which was made with a single intention, they deliberately killed a civilian in the village of Aghdam of Tovuz district, by opening fire from large-caliber weapons and other firearms not identified by the investigation, and continued the aggressive war by causing particularly severe damage to private homes and farms belonging to dozens of civilians in the villages of Aghdam, Dondar Gushchu, Alibayli, Yukhari Oysuzlu, Vahidli, Ashaghi Oysuzlu of Tovuz district and the village of Khanliglar of Gazakh district. According to the investigated documents, the aggressive war waged against the Republic of Azerbaijan left casualties and injured in the Aghdam village of Tovuz district. Subsequently, the hearing heard testimonies of the individuals, known as the victims of the 44-day War occurred in 2020. Victim Elchin Shirinov testified that he was hit and injured by the Smerch missile fired by the Armenian armed forces while driving VAZ 21074 vehicle through Barda city on October 28 at about 13 p.m. The victim added that he had sustained life-threatening shrapnel injuries. Barda came under intensive Smerch missile attacks, resulting in multiple casualties and injured, he said. While addressing inquiries from Tarana Mammadova, a prosecutor in the Public Prosecution Department in the district courts of Baku, E.Shirinov noted that there was no military facility on the scene. Victim Faig Karimov stated that on October 28, 2020, while he was cleaning the road near the office, where he worked during the day, a rocket shell landed approximately 40-50 meters away from him. The shrapnel from the shell was scattered all around. He immediately fell to the ground, but some of the shrapnel that was scattered around injured his right arm, right eye, and head. I have lost my eye, sustained injuries to other parts of my body, and have become a disabled as a result, he noted, while responding to a question from state prosecutor Fuad Musayev. Victim Shukur Karimli said that on October 27, 2020, at around 4 p.m., he heard an explosion while in his house, in the village of Garayusifli of Barda district, and went outside. While going outside, he witnessed a shell fall on a private residential house belonging to Ehtiram Ismayilov, who lived in the neighborhood. As he tried to enter the house, a total of 4 shells fell on and around the house where they lived. When the shell fell on the house where they lived, he was injured in the right thigh and right back, and his sister Elnura Karimova was injured in the right thigh. During the incident, 60-70 fragments fell around, he added. Victim Rasim Yakhin testified that he was involved in the 44-day war in 2020 as a serviceman, and joined the battles in Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Khojavend, Shusha and other areas. He stated that he was injured by a tank shell in Shusha on the night of November 6-7, 2020. As a result, I have lost my left wrist, left eye and have shrapnel injuries, he added. In his testimony, victim Tural Tavakkuloglu noted he was injured in a projectile explosion fired at them in the direction of Dashkasan-Kalbajar during the 44-day war in 2020. Responding to the question from the defense, T.Tavakkuloglu said that they were subjected to fire from both Kalbajar and Armenia. Victim Bakhtiyar Kazimov said he was fighting on multiple fronts on October 10, 2020. He noted that he was injured in artillery fire in the area called the farm, located in the vicinity of Shusha, on November 4. Victim Sarkhan Abbasov, said that he was involved in the 44-day war, and that from the first day of the war - September 27 - the Armenian armed forces fired heavy artillery at Azerbaijani settlements: "At that time, they were firing heavy artillery at the Toghanali settlement of the Goygol district and the territory of the Goygol National Park. After that, a counteroffensive was launched." He also added that he was injured by sniper fire during the battles. The victim said that while the dead and wounded were being evacuated from the area, Armenian soldiers opened artillery fire on the vehicles; despite the fact that they had signs indicating that they were ambulances. S.Abbasov stated that he had viewed video footage highlighting enemy soldiers inhumane acts against the bodies of martyred Azerbaijani servicemen. He noted that Colonel Karen Jalavyan, the commander of those enemy soldiers, appeared in the footage and that Jalavyan was later "honored" with the title of "hero" of the so-called regime by the current accused Arayik Harutyunyan. Victim Ramiz Aghayev testified that 16 individuals, including his father, Nuraddin Aghayev, were killed in a missile attack on his hometown of Ganja on October 17, 2020. He also noted that he, his family members, and many others sustained injuries during the attack. Ramiz Aghayevs son - victim Vugar Aghayev, also testified, describing the events of October 17, 2020, as horrific and confirmed that he was wounded during the attack. Victim Shiraz Hasanov mentioned that he had become an internally displaced person (IDP) from the village of Garakhanbeyli in the Fuzuli district at the age of nine. He also said he was involved and wounded twice in the 44-day war. In his testimony, another victim Ismayil Mehdiyev noted that on September 30, 2020, while engaged in household tasks in his home village of Azad Garagoyunlu, located in the Tartar district, he was wounded in the left leg by shrapnel from an artillery shell. He underlined that there were no military units stationed in the area at the time of the incident. Victim Mais Mirzayev underscored that he was involved in the 44-day war in 2020, fighting in multiple directions. He was injured in the Hadrut direction in October, further adding that The enemy was using heavy artillery, including mortars, particularly in the Hadrut area. In his response to David Manukyans question Who launched the first attack? Mirzayev responded: We have launched a counteroffensive in response. During the court proceedings, the findings of the forensic medical examinations conducted on the victims were also announced. Furthermore, with the participation of Nasir Bayramov, Head of the Department of Public Prosecutions at the Prosecutor Generals Office, several documents from the criminal case materials related to the intentional killing of civilians and severe damage to civilian infrastructure resulting from the missile attacks on Ganja between October 4 and 18, 2020 were examined. The documents indicated that under the direct command and verbal orders of Armenias political-military leadership, the 6th Mountain Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 10th Mountain Motorized Rifle Division, part of the 1st Combined Arms Army of the Republic of Armenia, was deployed in the occupied territory of Sugovushan village in the Aghdara district of the Republic of Azerbaijan (previously the Sugovushan village of Tartar district), the 42nd Separate Artillery Regiment in the occupied territory of Ashagi Oratagh village of Aghdara district (previously Ashagi Oratagh village of Tartar district), as well as the 62nd separate artillery regiment was deployed in the occupied territory of Khankendi city. From October 4 to 18, 2020, the city of Ganja was subjected to sustained artillery bombardment using 300-millimeter 9M528 and 9K58 fragmentation high-explosive warheads, designed for multiple rocket launchers (NATO: M1983), as well as 844 type warheads manufactured in the Russian Federation. These attacks were launched using the 9K72 Elbrus operational-tactical missile system (NATO designation: SS-1c Scud B), which was deployed on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, along the provisional contact line with the Republic of Azerbaijan. Following these coordinated attacks on October 4, 5, 8, 11, and 17, 2020, Armenian forces deliberately killed a total of 26 civilians in Ganja and intentionally wounded 175 others. Fatalities were minimized through rapid evasive maneuvers, preventive measures, and efficient medical support. The attacks also resulted in extensive damage to public infrastructure, as well as to the personal and commercial property of citizens and organizations. Among the documents examined were records naming specific Armenian military personnel responsible for launching missile strikes on Ganja. The documents stated that on October 10, 2020, at about 2:00 a.m., the city of Ganja was once again targeted by the orders of the commander of the 71st military equipment storage base (military unit No. 51556) of the Armenian armed forces, deployed in the Stepanavan region of that country, Colonel Artashen Rafiki Hajatyan, deputy commander Lieutenant Colonel Ara Artushi Sargsyan, commander of the Elbrus operational-tactical missile system division Lieutenant Colonel Vazgen Daviti Vardanyan, commander of the Iskander operational-tactical missile system division Lieutenant Colonel Tigran Norayri Vardanyan and others, using the Elbrus operational-tactical missile system, which was in the reserve of this military unit and possessed greater destructive power than the weapons used in previous attacks, from the territory of the Vardenis (historical Basarkechar) Gegharkunik region of Armenia. With the deliberate intent to inflict mass civilian casualties and to target the city of Ganjawhere only civilian infrastructure is locateda missile was intentionally launched at residential buildings situated in the 4th lane of A. Rafibeyli Street in the Kapaz district of Ganja. As a result of the missile's impact and explosion in this densely populated residential area, 10 civilians were intentionally killed, 1 civilian sustained serious injuries, 18 civilians suffered minor injuries, and 32 others were injured to an undetermined extent. It was noted that on October 17, 2020, the Elbrus missile system was deployed to the Khnatsakh district of the Republic of Armenia, from which two missiles equipped with 844 warheads were launched targeting the city of Ganja. The attack deliberately resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians, serious injuries to two individuals, moderate injuries to four, minor injuries to 25, and injuries of varying severity to 48 others. The next court hearing is scheduled for June 2. The defendants Arayik Vladimiri Harutyunyan, Arkadi Arshaviri Ghukasyan, Bako Sahaki Sahakyan, Davit Rubeni Ishkhanyan, David Azatini Manukyan, Davit Klimi Babayan, Levon Henrikovich Mnatsakanyan, Vasili Ivani Beglaryan, Erik Roberti Ghazaryan, Davit Nelsoni Allahverdiyan, Gurgen Homeri Stepanyan, Levon Romiki Balayan, Madat Arakelovich Babayan, Garik Grigori Martirosyan, and Melikset Vladimiri Pashayan are charged under the following articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Article 100 (planning, preparing, initiating, and waging a war of aggression); Article 102 (attacking persons or organizations enjoying international protection); Article 103 (genocide); Article 105 (extermination of the population); Article 106 (enslavement); Article 107 (deportation or forced displacement of population); Article 109 (persecution); Article 110 (enforced disappearance of persons); Article 112 (deprivation of liberty contrary to international law); Article 113 (torture); Article 114 (mercenary service); Article 115 (violation of the laws and customs of warfare); Article 116 (violation of international humanitarian law during armed conflict); Article 118 (military robbery); Article 120 (intentional murder); Article 192 (illegal entrepreneurship); Article 214 (terrorism); Article 214-1 (financing terrorism); Article 218 (creation of a criminal organization); Article 228 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, and possession of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and devices); Article 270-1 (acts threatening aviation security); Article 277 (assassination of a state official or public figure); Article 278 (forcible seizure and retention of power, forcible change of the constitutional structure of the state); Article 279 (creation of armed groups not provided for by law); and other articles. 30 May 2025 08:00 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a ban on several American companies from selling goods to China, Azernews reports. According to sources, the U.S. government is reviewing exports that are considered strategically important to China. In some cases, the Department of Commerce suspended export licenses or introduced additional licensing requirements during the review process. As the Financial Times reports, the Trump administration demanded that American companies providing software used in semiconductor design stop offering their services to Chinese clients. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Commerce instructed electronic design automation (EDA) companies including Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens EDA to halt the supply of their technology to China. These firms play a critical role in the global semiconductor supply chain, as their software is essential for designing and simulating advanced microchips. Without access to EDA tools, Chinese semiconductor manufacturers are unable to design chips using the most advanced process nodes, such as 5nm or 3nm. This restriction could significantly hinder Chinas ambitions to become self-sufficient in high-tech industries and delay progress on its "Made in China 2025" initiative a strategic plan aimed at achieving global leadership in cutting-edge technologies. Experts note that these export controls are part of a broader U.S. strategy to curb Chinas technological rise in sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. Chinese military delegation to attend Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore Xinhua) 10:23, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A delegation from the National Defense University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army will attend the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore upon invitation, China's Ministry of National Defense announced on Thursday. The delegation will also visit relevant Singaporean military and civilian institutions, ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said at a press conference. When asked about the Chinese delegation's bilateral meeting agenda and possible meetings with U.S. counterparts during the dialogue, Zhang said that details would be disclosed in due course. He said that China attaches importance to its military relations with the United States and remains open to communication at all levels. "We hope the U.S. side will earnestly respect China's core interests and major concerns, meet China halfway, and promote the healthy, stable development of bilateral military relations," Zhang told reporters. The Shangri-La Dialogue will run from May 30 to June 1. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) 30 May 2025 09:00 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva Tesla is preparing to launch its long-anticipated robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on June 12, Azernews reports. The date has reportedly been discussed internally, though it is still subject to change, the report noted. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the electric vehicle (EV) maker is on track to begin testing its autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin by the end of June. This marks a significant step forward in Musks long-standing vision of a self-driving taxi network. A successful robotaxi rollout is critical for Tesla, especially as Musk has shifted the companys strategic focus. Instead of pushing forward with a new, more affordable EV platform, Tesla is now prioritizing the robotaxi service and the development of its Optimus humanoid robots both seen as major technological and financial bets. Much of Teslas future valuation, particularly in the eyes of investors, depends on the success of these ambitious projects. If Tesla can deliver on its promises, it could reshape not only transportation but also labor markets through automation. Teslas robotaxi concept relies on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software a system that, while still not fully autonomous under current safety standards, is being steadily improved via real-world data from millions of Tesla vehicles. If successful, the service could position Tesla as a serious competitor to companies like Waymo, Cruise, and Uber in the future of autonomous mobility. Meanwhile, Tesla faces growing global competition, particularly from Chinese EV makers, and ongoing controversy surrounding Musk's political statements and his reported role as an adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump. These factors have contributed to a recent decline in Teslas sales and public perception, raising the stakes for the robotaxi rollout. 30 May 2025 18:21 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva A new material called glafene, created from graphene and quartz glass, is characterized by unique electronic behavior and strong interlayer bonds, Azernews reports. One of the substances of particular interest among the promising materials of the future are layered structures just one atom thick. For example, graphene a material consisting of single-layer carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal crystal lattice is known for its incredible strength and electrical conductivity. Although there are hundreds of similar materials, combining them into qualitatively new hybrid materials remains a serious challenge. Usually, such materials are simply stacked on top of each other, with almost no interaction between the layers. An international research team led by scientists from Rice University has managed to solve this problem. They created a unique two-dimensional hybrid material by chemically integrating two completely different two-dimensional materials graphene and quartz glass. This new material is called glafene. According to the studys lead author, Satvik Iyengar, a graduate student at Rice University, this new structure differs fundamentally from typical multilayer compounds. A true chemical bond forms here, leading to the emergence of unique electronic interactions and vibrations not present in the individual components. To create the graphene, a special technology based on the reaction of a two-component precursor containing both silicon and carbon was used. The process was carried out in two stages: first, a graphene layer was grown, and then a thin silicon layer was formed on top of it. During this, oxygen levels and temperature conditions were precisely controlled. The special low-temperature and low-pressure device required for this process was developed in collaboration with scientists from Benares Hindu University in India. Raman spectroscopy analysis showed that the new material exhibits unusual atomic vibrations that are absent in either pure graphene or silicon. This indicates the presence of strong interlayer connections and novel electronic behavior. The researchers found that this structure forms a new intermediate type of semiconductor material, giving it special physical properties. Thus, the results prove that this new approach has great potential for creating composite materials with tailored properties. It is expected that such materials will find wide application in innovative 21st-century technologies from flexible electronics and sensors to quantum computing and energy-efficient devices. By combining the properties of graphene and quartz glass, glafene may pave the way for ultra-strong yet transparent electronic components, making it a promising material for next-generation displays and solar cells. 30 May 2025 21:26 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva China has agreed to initiate procedures to resume imports of Japanese seafood, which were banned in August 2023 following Japan's controversial release of treated water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, Azernews reports. According to sources familiar with the matter, Chinese authorities are expected to soon issue a formal notice easing the ban and begin the registration process for Japanese seafood processing companies. This regulatory process is anticipated to take several months. The original ban stemmed from public health concerns after Japan began discharging treated but still mildly radioactive water into the ocean. This water had accumulated at the Fukushima plant site over more than a decade since the disaster. The Fukushima crisis began in March 2011 when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan. The disaster knocked out power and cooling systems at the Fukushima-1 (Daiichi) nuclear plant, leading to the meltdown of fuel in three reactors, building explosions, and a significant release of radioactive material into the environment. Cleanup and decommissioning have been ongoing ever since. Currently, over 1.34 million tons of water used to cool the melted reactor cores has accumulated at the site. Although treated using an Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove most radioactive substances, the water still contains tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that cannot be filtered out. According to the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the released water meets international safety standards, with tritium levels diluted to a maximum of 1,500 becquerels per liter well below global health guidelines. To address international concerns, Japan has implemented rigorous monitoring protocols, with the IAEA conducting independent assessments. So far, no abnormalities have been detected in marine life or ocean water near the discharge site. The decision by China to move toward lifting the ban marks a significant thaw in trade tensions and could have broader implications for regional diplomacy and food security. Japan has long argued that the seafood from its waters remains safe and of high quality, a view supported by assessments from multiple international agencies and partner nations. In the meantime, Japan continues to promote transparency in its handling of the Fukushima cleanup, including real-time data sharing and scientific cooperation with neighboring countries. If China fully lifts the ban, it could pave the way for other nations still hesitant about Japanese seafood to reconsider their positions. Bright and Active Arietids Meteors May Hit Pre-Dawn Hours of Oregon, Washington, Coastline Skies Published 05/29/25 at 6:45 p.m. By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff (Bandon, Oregon) - A daytime meteor shower? Bahhh.....you say? Well, you wouldn't be all wrong as there's not much documentation around these Pacific Northwest parts. But it does happen, and one very big one is on the way which you can spot just before dawn (Oregon Coast Beach Connection photo: Cannon Beach's Hug Point and star movement). In fact, it all starts right about now, so those in Oregon, Washington, or coastal towns like Forks, Bandon, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Newport or Long Beach may want to keep an eye out an hour before sunrise. Indeed, areas with great glimpses of the east at dawn such as Seattle's Space Needle, the eastern faces of the Cascades or the Oregon Coast Range could be line for the money shot. They're called the Daytime Arietids, according to NASA and groups like EarthSky.org. They are the most active of the daytime meteor showers and they're peaking on June 7. Starting May 29 it goes through June 17, but you'll see the most in and around the 7th. The Arietids originate from a radiant point positioned just 30 degrees from the sun. This proximity means that most of their dazzling display remains hidden from view. Dark Sky Week is Prime Along Oregon Coast: Where and Where Not to Go : Cool spots for viewing around Coos Bay, Brookings, Manzanita, Lincoln City, Cannon Beach, Newport, Florence. Bandon Photo Manuela Durson - Manuela Durson Fine Arts However, for those hoping to spot these meteors, timing is everything and 2025 is a bit special for that. This year's best chance comes in the narrow period when the radiant has just risen - right before astronomical twilight, the darkest phase of early morning. During this time, the suns center is positioned between 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon, making it possible to witness the spectacle in an otherwise unlit sky. So, those in Portland, Ashland, Tacoma or Stevenson can maybe begin their morning with a cup of Joe and a fiery display. How many can you see? Some have reported as high as 200 an hour in the past, and various radar and other observational mechanisms have seen an average of 60 meteors per hour. According to last year's forecast from the American Meteor Society, sightings may remain below one per hour depending on location. Skywatchers should look toward the east in the predawn hours, which for Oregon and Washington translates to about 3:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. While meteors will radiate outward in all directions, only those traveling high enough will breach the horizon, creating fleeting, upward-moving streaks in the eastern sky. Meteor over Manzanita / Oregon Coast Beach Connection The Arietids have intrigued astronomers since 1947, when they were first identified via radar at the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope in England. Exactly where they came from was a mystery until the late '80s. Amateur astronomer Don Machholz discovered Comet 96P/Machholz in 1986, but it gets stranger from there. There is speculation that the Arietids belong to a larger celestial structure known as the Machholz Complex - a grouping of two comet families, eight meteor showers, and at least one asteroid linked to Comet 96P/Machholz. Oregon Coast Hotels for this event - South Coast Hotels - Oregon Coast Vacation Rentals - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours MORE PHOTOS BELOW OREGON COAST HOTEL REVIEWS (hit refresh to see different reviews) Some S. Oregon Coast Towns Offering Substantial Lodging Deals Package Until the end of November you can get 15 percent off some of the places to stay in Coos Bay, Charleston, North Bend. Lodging reviews, hotel news Off The Beaten Path In Lincoln City, View to Gnarly or Nice on Oregon Coast Nothing but surf and lovely amenities in a hidden part of Lincoln City. Lincoln City hotel reviews 5 Astounding Balcony Views on Oregon Coast Exceptional views and finds around Cannon Beach, Lincoln City, Newport. Cannon Beach hotel reviews, Manzanita hotel reviews, Lincoln City hotels, Newport hotel reviews A View to a Crush of Oregon Coast Logs at Lincoln City's Siletz Bay It's where far more of the action lies than you might imagine. Lincoln City hotel reviews, Lincoln City hotels, Lincoln City hotel news Devil's Punchbowl at night / Oregon Coast Beach Connection More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight Washington Coast / Oregon Coast Articles (stories are random: hit reload to see different articles) Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on Oregon Coast Beach Connection All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted Why Now Could Be a Great Week for Spotting Killer Whales on Oregon Coast - Video Published 05/28/25 at 7:45 p.m. By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff (Depoe Bay, Oregon) If you'll excuse the pun, the last few days have been killer for spotting orcas along Oregon's nearshore waters. (File photo: Killer whale OCX043 photographed with three other whales 175km west of Bandon, Oregon, September 9, 2021. Robert L. Pitman, Oregon State University ) Sightings around the Oregon coast essentially blew up over the holiday weekend, which could be due to more people out there as much as any other factor. Sunday, May 25 was prime for the money shot, with the Oregon Coast Killer Whale Monitoring Program noting a few on either side of that day, as well as today, May 28. What it translates to is that this is definitely a good week to head out to the beaches. Any minute now it could simply stop. Donate to the killer whale research group Where to go? That's impossible to predict. However, the most sightings take place around Depoe Bay for some reason, so simply hanging out there may increase your chances. Newport has also been not bad, and some were seen recently in Bandon, off Coos Bay and a few incidents around Tillamook Bay Earlier this year in Florence: Jaklyn Larsen Photography Get yourself added to the group run by Canadian researcher Josh McInnes as well as a few other local coasties and they often get info in real time. Stay tuned to that while you're out there and it may give you a clue where the orcas are heading next. None of this is guaranteed, either. Orcas move in mysterious ways. Nearly ten sightings were documented Sunday alone on the page, mostly around Depoe Bay's Cape Foulweather, Whale Cove, Boiler Bay and North Point. Mike Peeples snagged some incredible video of them off Newport. See the video here. Photo Dockside Charters from earlier this year Recent sightings go back to May 22 and 23, which included Bandon and Depoe Bay. Those earlir spottings were ID'd by McInnes but it's unknown if they've ID'd the current bunch (although it could be the same group). The T049Bs are well-known springtime visitors along the Oregon coast, McInnes said. What are they doing here? File photo Jaklyn Larsen Photography Don't necessarily look for the gruesome drama of the baby gray whale kill from two years ago. That, it turns out, was more of a practice run for the killer whale pod, and they didn't eat most of the calf. They're here generally because of pupping season for harbor seals, trying to catch the buffet of baby seals being born. Dozens Watch and Document Orcas Attack, Kill Baby Whale on Oregon Coast: More Videos MORE PHOTOS BELOW OREGON COAST HOTEL REVIEWS (hit refresh to see different reviews) Yachats' Adobe Resort: Legacy Oregon Coast Biz, Once a Motel, Shifts Again wi... Started in the 1950s, now a big name gets bigger. Yachats lodging reviews Laidback Rockaway Beach, Ocean in View from Hidden Oregon Coast Condo Rental Luxury and an unstoppable view meet. Rockaway Beach hotel reviews, lodging news Three Distinctive, Unique Places to Spend the Night in Pacific City - N. Oreg... One in Neskowin, two rentals homes in town. Lodging reviews, hotel reviews Oregon Coast Spots With Wicked Cool Sights - and Rooms to View Them Incredible views with serious pampering at Yachats, Lincoln City, Seaside. Hotel reviews, lodging More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight Washington Coast / Oregon Coast Articles (stories are random: hit reload to see different articles) Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on Oregon Coast Beach Connection All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted In a 7 to 2 emergency ruling, the US Supreme Court blocked an order by an Obama judge of the Massachusetts federal district court that would have halted the Trump administration from ending the temporary protected status of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from four countries including Venezuela and Haiti. The Trump administration's order ending that temporary status will now go forward, and those illegal aliens can be removed back to their home countries. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/breaking-supreme-court-issues-7-2-ruling-allowing/ _____________________________________________________________________________ ORIGINAL POST: The judicial wing of the Democrat Party strikes again in brazen lawfare. A crooked Obama judge in Massachusetts has grossly abused her power to try to grab control of a key area of immigration policy from the executive branch. Obama federal district judge Indira Talwani is trying to protect Biden's own abuse of authority to create broad groups let into the country without complying with our immigration statutes. She is ordering the Trump administration not to change those amnesty policies. Under Democrat lawfare of the crooked Judicial wing of the Democrat Party, the Biden regime could make up all of the immigration rules and procedures it wanted without going through Congress, but the Trump administration is not allowed to change them. This is nothing but partisan BS from a kangaroo court partisan extremist judge. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-blocks-trump-admin-suspending-biden-era-migrant-parole-programs OPINION: Superintendent Matthew Cheeseman was named Regional Superintendent of the Year for the 2025-2026 school year as reported in The Washington Daily news: https://www.thewashingtondailynews.com/2025/03/26/cheeseman-named-regional-superintendent-of-the-year/ The Washington Daily News article states that Cheeseman was chosen by the "NC School Superintendents Association from the SE Alliance's Council of Superintendents and was approved by the group comprised of fourteen school district leaders from across southeastern NC". The district is made up of 14 counties in eastern NC. The article expounds upon the merits of Cheeseman, whether accurate or not, as to why he received the recognition. Some of these include that he is recognized for: "strong and effective leadership work"; that he "engages with educators and stakeholders at all levels to ensure that the voices of many are heard"; he is an "advocate for rural southeastern NC"; and that he serves "as an example of integrity". However, to many of the citizens of Beaufort County, nothing could be further from the truth and this award is undeserved as a record of Dr. Cheeseman's actual performance would demonstrate. First, we should look at our county schools' report cards. Cheeseman became BCS Superintendent in January of 2019. At that time, we had 12 schools with none underperforming in school year 2019-2020. Currently we have 5 schools underperforming as of school year 2023-2024. This is how we got there: School Year # Schools #Underperforming Schools 2019-2020 12 0 2020-2021 12 0 2021-2022 12 7 2022-2023 12 7 2023-2024 12 5 Source: https://ncreports.ondemand.sas.com/src/?county=Beaufort These scores alone should be proof enough that Cheeseman's performance doesn't justify his recognition although it just scratches the surface of further issues. Cheeseman, and the School Board are in violation of state statute as a result of these scores. An evaluation of the superintendent is required by NCGS 115C-333(f)2. and reads as follows: 115C-333 (f)2 Local Board Evaluation of Certain Superintendents. - Each year the local board of education shall evaluate the superintendent employed by the local school administrative unit and report to the State Board the results of that evaluation if during that year the State Board designated as low-performing: (2) Two or more schools in a local school administrative unit that has no more than 20 schools. Cheeseman is required to receive a performance review by the school board due to Beaufort County Schools having more than two schools underperforming. This review is to be sent to the NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI). DPI has never received a review of Cheeseman's performance as confirmed by Blair Rhoades, Communications Director, Office of Communications and Information Services, Division of Chief of Staff, NC DPI on October 14, 2024. Cheeseman is well aware of this requirement but must be perfectly content with his weak School Board that fails year after year to follow state statute and conduct his performance review. This doesn't seem to fit the article's mention of Cheeseman serving "as an example of integrity". A review of the effort to build Cheeseman's pet-project, new mega-school replacing Eastern Elementary serves as an example that his leadership is not "strong and effective" or that he is an "advocate for rural southeastern NC". Violations of state statute and incompetence abound in this endeavor. County Commissioner Richardson made a request for the required reports that justify the use of grant funds and the closing of the two schools to consolidate into the new mega-school as required by G. S. 115C-546.11(d) and 115C-72. General Statute 115C-546.11(d) says in its first sentence, "The Department of Public instruction shall review projected enrollment to evaluate the reasonableness of a project's size and scope." Requests were made to the Department of Education but did not result in evidence of an evaluation being conducted. Information from DPI indicated that they do not have and have never produced such a report. That's because the Beaufort County School System did not provide such a report. Furthermore, General Statute 115C-72(1) states, "In any question involving the closing or consolidation of any public school, the local board of education of the school, administrative unit in which such school is located shall cause a thorough study of such school to be made, having in mind primarily the welfare of the students to be affected by a proposed closing or consolidation and including in such study, among other factors, geographic conditions, anticipated increase or decrease in school enrollment, the inconvenience or hardship that might result in the pupils to be affected by such closing or consolidation, the cost of providing additional school facilities in the event of such closing or consolidation, and such other factors as the board shall consider germane. Before the entry of any such order of closing or consolidation, the local board of education shall provide for a public hearing in regard to such proposed closing or consolidation, at which hearing the public shall be afforded an opportunity to express their views. Upon the basis of the study so made and after such hearing said board may, in the exercise its discretion, approve the closing or consolidation proposed."Regarding the new mega-school, Cheeseman responded by email concerning this law that, "The Board of Education anticipates holding the public hearing(s) on the closing of Eastern ES and John Cotton Tayloe ES at a date in the future." This would appear to violate the spirit of the law at a minimum if it isn't an outright violation of the law itself. Cheeseman would rather accept the money, build his pet-project mega-school, regardless of the cost to our county taxpayers and the detrimental impact it has upon our students and communities. Remember that this school is costing the county (i.e. Beaufort County taxpayers) $10.5 million already and ground has barely been broken. This school had already been in the works without the knowledge or participation of the entire school board or board of county commissioners for years consisting of back-room meetings between Cheeseman and Frankie Waters.Furthermore, Cheeseman's appetite to close and consolidate schools was not satisfied with just Eastern ES and John Cotton Tayloe ES. He already had his sights on closing the S. W. Snowden school in Aurora in order to consolidate it with Chocowinity Primary and Chocowinity Middle schools. This drama has been playing out over the past few months but had already begun years ago. Whispers coming out of the superintendent's office, and not resisted by the weak school board, spoke of closing Snowden years ago. The reason given has been due to the decline in students attending Snowden and that a full-time (12 month) principal would not be provided by state funding should enrollment drop below 100 students. Whether intentional or not, upkeep for the facilities at Snowden was held back or not completed resulting in HVAC issues among others that were only alleviated by outside community involvement and School Board member Charles Hickman, one of only two advocates for the school on the board. It appears to be another backroom deal between Cheeseman and the chairman of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to close the school then build another consolidated school south of the Pamlico adding additional expense to county taxpayers. This would be detrimental to Beaufort County's citizens, students and parents in order to add another bullet point to Cheeseman's resume. It certainly isn't proof of Cheeseman being an "advocate for rural southeastern NC" or serving "as an example of integrity".If all of this wasn't bad enough, it just begins to scratch the surface of Cheeseman's incompetence, fraud and abuses he has been part of while serving as superintendent. The school system in Beaufort County was doing well prior to his arrival. Since then, he has created a district that is a hostile work environment based on fear and retaliation. We have seen many of our best teachers choose to retire, leave Beaufort County for positions in other counties or quit teaching altogether. If you don't agree with or go against the superintendent's wishes, then you may work in Pinetown today but tomorrow you work in Aurora. Some teachers who have remained have only done so because private school teaching positions don't pay enough or they need the benefits. A loss of good teachers and principals certainly can be attributed to why we either have parents pulling their students from our public schools for other options in the county or leaving the county. This environment does not demonstrate "strong and effective leadership work" or engagement "with educators and stakeholders at all levels to ensure that the voices of many are heard". Autocracy is the polar opposite of true leadership and engagement.This lack of "engagement with educators and stakeholders at all levels to ensure that the voices of many are heard" is readily apparent to anyone who has attended or observed a school board meeting. Although this is equally the fault of the weak school board, Cheeseman has taken their shortcomings to his full advantage. He sits directly beside the chairman of the school board at all meetings. Once the gavel is tapped to begin a meeting, the chairman turns over the overall direction of the meeting to Cheeseman who directs the board in what he desires to do. He has stated that he only needs five (5) board members in his pocket to do whatever he wishes. That has led to many of the issues we see in the school system currently. Additionally, board members may not deliberate, vote or take any action by reference to a document or other item unless copies of the document are made available to the public at the meeting. This means the public has a right to know and understand what is being discussed and voted on by the board per N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.13(c). No documentation is provided to the public other than a basic agenda at each school board meeting. Furthermore, the board goes into closed session at the end of every meeting where many issues are discussed or decided on. Closed sessions are only permitted for specific, limited purposes such as discussing individual employees or contracts. Personal requests, grievances and discussion of school board election campaigns have all been topics for discussion in these sessions. This is a violation of the sunshine law as outlined in the Open Meetings Law (G.S. 143-318.11). Every motion to go into closed session must cite one or more of the permissible reasons for going into closed session and state and name or citation of the law that makes the information to be discussed privileged or confidential per N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.11(c). This is not done. Minutes of closed sessions are a matter of public record per N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-318.10(e) and may only be withheld from public inspection "so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of the closed session". The superintendent is aware of this but chooses either to not advise the board or to ignore this because it does not work in favor of furthering his personal agenda. Cheeseman uses favors in order to get board members to vote for his initiatives. Although having two school board members married to county commissioners is not against the law, it certainly does provide a question of ethics. That is further questionable when school board members have spouses or children working within Beaufort County schools. These individuals vote lock-step with anything Cheeseman asks. This has included moving teachers across schools, making exceptions for certain policies to certain students and other matters related to school consolidation, budget, etc. This is certainly not "an example of integrity" on the part of the superintendent. The Judicial wing of the Democrat Party strikes again, but it is a misfire. A panel of three Democrat activist judges on the US International Trade Court tried to take away President Trump's tariff powers but were quickly overruled by the US Court of Appeals which restored those powers, staying the Trade Court order. One of the judges involved was an Obama judge, and two were Democrat judges appointed by Republican presidents who had to appoint Democrats due to a law that no more than half of the court's judges could be from one political party. All three of the judges involved have been long time Democrat activists, going back as long as 45 years. They then brought that partisan activism to their role as judges, something that is very very wrong with our courts these days. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/05/29/three-judges-blocking-trumps-tariffs-have-decades-long-histories-of-democrat-activism/ https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2025/05/29/not-so-fast-federal-circuit-stays-trade-court-ruling-on-trump-tariffs-n2189788 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. Why the bow-down to the superintendent? Public comments to the Beaufort County School Board by Buzz Cayton He is hired- help. The School Board does not seem to understand that. He threatens them with his buyout which can probably be handled by the State requirements and a good attorney. He sits at the front of the room for School Board meetings where he can whisper to the Chairman and reads the rules of the meeting like he is a member of the board. He should be sitting with the staff and reporting on all of the shortcomings of his public schools that are forcing students who can afford it to private schools and presenting plans for improvement. He is not a city planner, engineer, demographer or transportation specialist. Yet the board listens to him like he is one. Aurora did not just happen to be in the shape that it is in. This has been deteriorating for a https://rrsocialwork.ru/ while, and he did not take care of it. People who could leave and go to Pamlico County have done so because of his deteriorating program in Aurora. It was a sore on his record and then it became a scab and now to get rid of the disease he wants to cut it out so it will go away. The poor grades will be dissolved into the Chocowinity school system, and he will be a hero. What happened to his stand on CRT and DEI? Those are mostly black kids down there now. Letem ride the bus. This whole myopic bunch has forgotten that we are dealing with people that are more important than dollars. A black first grader should not have to leave home in the dark, ride a school bus for an hour or more to school and come home in the dark in the wintertime, because the superintendent could not handle the job and the school board was too shortsighted to know the difference. And the School board, County Commissioners and the uninformed public is going to stand by and watch a part of Beaufort County die, claiming to save a few bucks, when the real numbers show it will cost them money in the long run. Aurora is part of Beaufort County, and it deserves to be protected, not sluffed off. The total number of tourists visiting Northern Ireland fell in 2024 compared to 2023, according to newly-released figures. Overnight trips and spending during them was down in 2024 compared to the previous year, the figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) showed. There were 4.7 million overnight trips to NI in 2024, which was a 13% decrease on the 2023 figure of 5.4 million. The number of nights fell too, a 9% dip from 16.5 million in 2023 to 14.9 million the next year. Expenditure fell by a similar margin to the number of trips, going down 100m, or 10%, from 1.2bn to 1.1bn. Despite the general decline, more people visited here from overseas. Visitors from outside Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland went up 12% from 500,000 to 600,000. But the overall tourism numbers were hurt by a fall in domestic tourists from NI as well as a drop in numbers from the Republic. The internal NI figure went down by 27% from 2.1 million to 1.6 million, while RoI visitors were down 14%, from 1.3 million to 1.1 million. NI domestic tourists account for the single biggest slice of the market here, followed by visitors from GB, then RoI. Nisra said it sampled a number of NI households who took no overnight trips within NI last year. The most commonly cited reasons were a lack of free time due to family, work or study commitments, a lack of motivation to travel or financial reasons. It said that the overall decline represents a statistically significant change for overall overnight trips. The Duke of York bar, a favourite of tourists visiting Belfast The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva), which counts among its members Titanic Belfast and National Museums Northern Ireland, said that visits to their sites here went up despite the fall in tourist numbers and spend. It said that in 2024, NI sites typically welcomed 3.2% more visits than the year before though only a small number could share estimates of the number of international visitors. Among Alva sites in NI only six were able to provide estimates, but among those that did the average share of visits that were international stood at 28%. Over half of people visiting for an overnight trip, 2.4 million, were coming for a holiday, while 1.7 million, or 37%, were visiting friends or relatives. And 8% (360,000), came for business while the remaining 231,000 were here for other reasons. Despite the drop in overall tourist numbers and spending, hotel occupancy actually rose in 2024 compared to 2023, up to 68% from 64%. People are seen looking at the famous 'Elephant rock' near Ballintoy on the North Coast Janice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation, said: The latest statistics from Nisra for 2024 reference considerable changes in visitor mix with a fall in those visiting family and a reduction in domestic travel. A stable performance from the GB market and growth in the North America visitors benefited hotels last year. The sector has continued to invest heavily in the future and sees tourism as a key economic driver for Northern Ireland." Belfast and Causeway Coast and Glens were the most popular council areas for overnight trips, accounting for over half of the total with 1.4 million and 1 million trips respectively. The least popular council area for trips was Antrim and Newtownabbey, which had an estimated 115,000, just 2% of the national total. Tourism has become an important part of Northern Irelands economy, with 5,865 tourism businesses here, of which 77% were outside of Belfast. Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins has taken over one of the most varied and challenging portfolios at Stormont. She sits down with John Mulgrew to discuss ideas for planning reform, why water charges and mutualisation are out for NI Water, Belfast city centre traffic woes, the idea of green lanes for renewable energy schemes, starting working on the A5, and the disappointing response to Irish language signs at Grand Central Station Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 3rd February 2025 - Sinn Fein reshuffle announcement at Parliament Buildings Stormont. Sinn Fein Minister Liz Kimmins. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 3rd February 2025 - Sinn Fein reshuffle announcement at Parliament Buildings Stormont. Sinn Fein leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle ONeill with their Ministerial team at Stormont. Caoimhe Archibald has been appointed economy minister in a Sinn Fein Executive reshuffle following Conor Murphy's resignation. John O'Dowd Liz Kimmins. Murphy stepped down from Stormont after being elected to the Seanad (Irish parliament's upper chamber). Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said she was very confident in the team and said that Archibald would "lead" on correcting what she called the "underfunding" of Stormont. Dr Caoimhe Archibald Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Liz Kimmins says she plans on making a marked change to the planning system here before the remaining two years of her post as Infrastructure Minister ends before the next election. And on the long-delayed A5 road upgrade now the subject of a legal challenge she wants works to start before any more lives are lost. The Minister has now been in post for four months. Her portfolio at Infrastructure is a varied one with many of its strands pushed to the fore over the last number of years from planning, to roads, transport, and wastewater. On the latter point, water charges are not on the cards, and Ms Kimmins isnt sold on mutualisation as an option for NI Water. [The issues have been there] as a result of years and years of chronic under investment, she says. For me, theres not enough investment. The only options that have been presented to me, other than what Im doing, are options that will lead to water charging and thats not something that I am willing into do I just dont think its right to put that on additional households. But based on cases elsewhere, she doesnt believe mutualisation is the way forward, either, to tackle the issues around funding and wastewater infrastructure. [Theres a] red flag that that model isnt working, she says. Liz Kimmins has sat as an MLA since the 2020, co-opted then elected in 2022, but has been a Sinn Fein representative for more than 20 years, previously serving as a councillor for Newry, Mourne and Down. Asked about early plans which could see developers contributing, either voluntarily paying to offset the costs of upgrading or replacing the wastewater infrastructure, or introducing a compulsory levy, she says lets see what comes back from the current consultation. And asked whether theres a concern developers could focus development outside Northern Ireland as a result, she said we have to look at whats available to us and find a way forward that is palatable to everybody. Ms Kimmins said she didnt believe introducing charges could see an increase in house prices as a result. In the draft capital budget, I have been allocated just short of a billion pounds, she says. Now, its still not enough to do everything that we need to do, but within that weve been able to get ring fence money, 105m for NI Water. Industry has long bemoaned Northern Irelands planning system the time taken to make decisions, delayed appeals, and overcomplexity. The Minister says by the time her role comes to an end around two years, she hopes to see a marked change in the system here. There are consistent messages coming from across the 11 council areas of where the key challenges lie in terms of processing times, staffing, having good quality applications, and what is leading to backlogs. I think theres been a huge amount of work done were 10 years on from [devolution of planning powers to councils] but we recognise that there are still challenges. She says there remain issues, including staff shortages, within planning departments across councils here. We have been engaging with councillors, officials, and applicants, with representatives across the sector. On the long-awaited A5 road upgrade which is now subject to another legal challenge the Minister says too many people have already lost their lives and shes both committed to the scheme, and confident in its success. Its absolutely necessary that we get the work done, she says. Officials and my legal team have worked extremely hard to provide a very strong case, and I would be confident that we have been able to do that but it is essentially in the courts hands now. get works started and get it delivered before any more lives are lost. And while Belfasts Grand Central Station opened its doors to thousands of passengers late last year, the months since have seen it embroiled in a spat over introducing Irish language signage. Thats now subject to a legal challenge by loyalist activist, Jamie Bryson. Liz Kimmins confirmed at the end of March that bilingual displays would include passenger information and signage on ticket vending machines. What I will say is that its actually very disappointing that were even having these conversations, she says. I think it should have been something very, very positive Irish language is thriving. I just hope common sense will prevail here. We have seen how its been done in other jurisdictions. I recently met ministers from across England, Scotland, Wales, and other areas where theres bilingual signage already, and theyre actually saying how good it was for tourism. Its a shared space, and for me it shouldnt be the issue that it is. Traffic was front and centre last Christmas in Belfast city centre, in part, linked to roadworks in and around the new Grand Central Station. When [former Infrastructure Minister] John ODowd was in post there was a working group set up with businesses, Belfast Chamber and officials, to address that. That work was ongoing. Things seem to have settled a good bit now. What were trying to do now is plan ahead for later in the year to look at what potential impact there could be because there is still work to be done. Northern Irelands ambitious renewable generation target of 80% by 2030 is a phrase many of our politicians have been regurgitating over the last few years. But because it appears that target is almost entirely unachievable, given weve just over four years to almost double generation, its quoted less and less often. So, does the Minister believe its now a pipe dream? I have a paper in with the Executive at the moment, and Im hoping we can get agreement on that, she says. I recognise the importance of this but given all of our obligations around our Climate Change Act and net zero targets, we have to move in that direction. Its having that pipeline of work. If that policy reform is agreed and we can get that out, then I would see that as a vehicle to try and open it up a bit more to ensure that we can start to move towards those targets. On the idea of green lanes to prioritise renewable schemes through the system, Ms Kimmins didnt rule it out and said she was happy to look at it. [We have to] look at everything all the options, she says. We have obligations and statutory obligations to reach these targets. So, I think its important to consider what we can to help us achieve them in a very balanced way. Politicians here have been banging the green energy and electric transport gong for some time. But its largely relied on the private sector here developing infrastructure and connectivity around electric cars, rather than having any significant help from the public sector. Should the public coffers be used to help grow and develop the network here, or incentivise people to choose an EV over traditional petrol or diesel? We are engaging with ministers across the jurisdictions as well, because I think collectively, theres an obligation, Ms Kimmins said. That work is ongoing in terms of how we get there [net zero]. I think there are things we can do to incentivise and help to support people to move and transition to electric vehicles, and that work is ongoing as to how we get there. And she says an experimental scheme to pedestrianise the heart of Belfasts Cathedral Quarter could get underway soon. Plans were delayed in the years since it was first floated, and significant progress has yet to happen. She said the delays were not down to the physical cost of the scheme, thought to be around 5,000, but due to staff shortages. Officials will be starting work on that Ive instructed them to engage with the stakeholders, she said. Staff have been redirected to [areas such as] around Grand Central Station, such as the traffic congestion issues in Belfast city centre... we are trying to prioritise where staff resources are directed to. She said its a scheme that theres been huge support for but says there are still things which need to be looked at and discussed. Im keen to get it delivered, she says. Features Think of the other, and give back what you take from others and the earth that feeds us. Its the most fundamental morality. The libel trial could end up costing many millions Gerry Adams: 'I took this case to put manners on the BBC' The BBC has been compelled to pay Gerry Adams 100,000 (84,000) in damages after a jury decided that a story linking him to the murder of a British agent was defamatory but the total legal bill facing the corporation could be as much as 4.2m. The staggering sum has prompted criticism from unionists including the leader of the DUP who said the corporation has significant questions to answer about how it ended up in the position of being on the hook for many millions of pounds. The BBC itself has reported that the legal bill for the case is understood to be between 2.5 and 4.2m according to sources with knowledge of the case. That would make it one of the most expensive cases the corporation has ever fought. Gerry Adams wins his defamation case against the BBC The five week trial centred on a BBC NI Spotlight programme broadcast in 2016 and an accompanying online article focusing on the murder of Denis Donaldson in Co Donegal back in 2006 just months after he admitted his role as a police and MI5 agent the story was based on an anonymous source who claimed the killing was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA with Mr Adams giving the final say. The 76-year-old who has always denied any involvement in the shooting and described the allegation as a grievous smear welcomed the verdict as he read a statement in Irish and English to reporters outside the High Court in Dublin on Friday. Mr Adams said the case "was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation" as he accused the BBC of upholding the ethos of the British state in Ireland. He also claimed the BBC is out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement and suggested that political interference prevented the broadcaster from settling sooner. Within hours of solicitor Paul Tweed saying his client was very pleased with this resounding verdict and that the award speaks for itself, the daughter of Mr Donaldson called for an urgent public inquiry into her fathers assassination. Jane Donaldson accused the Adams trial of trivialising her familys pain by reducing the events that inflicted so much damage on her family to a debate about damage to his reputation Daddys murder and surrounding circumstances devastated our family, she said. "The plaintiff prioritised his own financial and reputational interests over any regard for retraumatising my family. We are still no closer to the truth. No-one spoke for my family in court. We supported neither side in this case. Mr Adams did stress in his statement that he was very mindful of the Donaldson family during the trial urged the Irish Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan to meet with them as quickly as possible. "Theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can, he said. DUP leader Gavin Robinson was also quick to react and focused his thoughts on the innocent victims who suffered at the hands of the IRA - ruthless terrorists who were victim-makers for many years. "I would struggle to find a victim of IRA violence who has changed their view of Gerry Adams, he said. But the East Belfast MP was also critical of the BBC. "While journalists must always be able to scrutinise and investigate in the public interest, the BBC have significant questions to answer, he continued. "How have they found themselves in a situation where allegations were insufficiently evidenced with the consequence that license payers money will now be spent on both damages and reputed legal costs running into many millions?" Director of BBC Northern Ireland Adam Smyth, with producer Imelda Lynch (left) and journalist Jennifer O'Leary (right) outside the High Court in Dublin. Photo: PA The head of BBC NI was at pains to point out that the organisation has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims while he defended the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to the offending programme. "it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest, he stressed, while warning of profound implications to the jurys decision. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyones could, and they warned how todays decision would hinder freedom of expression. The High Court heard four weeks of evidence from 10 witnesses, including Mr Adams and BBC NI reporter Jennifer O'Leary. The jury found words used in the programme and accompanying article meant Mr Adams sanctioned and approved Mr Donaldson's murder. They also found the BBC did not report the allegations in good faith before settling on the 100,000 award. The 11-person jury came reached the decision after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations. Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams outside the High Court in Dublin after he was awarded 100,000 in damages against the BBC. Photo: PA SDLP MLA and leader of the opposition at Stormont, Matthew OToole, said Gerry Adams is entitled to petition a court and a jury has given its verdict as he too said the BBC will have questions to consider. "But today I'm thinking of the thousands of victims of the IRA, loyalists and the state who will never get a single day in court, let alone justice," he posted on X. Meanwhile TUV leader Jim Allister said "the people of NI know that Gerry Adams stood front and centre in justifying and defending thirty years of brutal IRA terror" regardless of the verdict. His active role at the heart of the Republican terror machine is well documented not merely in hearsay, but in the detailed testimonies and investigations contained in multiple authoritative books on the IRA," he added. "These include the works of Peter Taylor, Toby Harnden, Ed Moloney, and Eamon Collins all of which remain available and uncontested in the public domain. For the countless innocent victims of IRA violence, the one abiding consolation is this: Gerry Adams will one day stand before a higher court than any convened in Dublin. Heres how the day played out: LATEST | Show of strength loyalist Derek Lammey facing longer in jail than Winkie Irvine Anger at apparent disparity by courts as PPS bids to have loyalist sentenced under terror lawsUPDATE: The PPS provided additional public commentary in relation to this matter on 1 June, 2025 Derek Lammey (Alan Lewis - Photopress Belfast) Allison Morris Fri 30 May 2025 at 07:16 A loyalist convicted of involvement in a so-called show of strength in east Belfast faces a longer jail term than gunrunner Winston Winkie Irvine, after the Public Prosecution Service told a court they were seeking to have him sentenced under terrorism provisions. Mike Nesbitt has told the chair of the Belfast Trust that a leaked inspection report revealing that surgeons threw instruments and bullied nurses brings shame on the health service during a frank meeting. It comes after it emerged that patients were harmed and put at risk as a result of cultural tensions, bullying and poor behaviour in the only cardiac surgery unit in Northern Ireland. A leaked copy of the review report detailed what has been described an apparent power struggle among some doctors within the Royal Victoria Hospital. Stormonts health minister has confirmed he has had a frank discussion with the head of Belfast HSC Trust today. I made clear that the behaviours detailed in the report on the cardiac surgical unit are appalling and bring shame on our health service, Mr Nesbitt said. I will be holding the trusts senior management accountable for its response to the report. I am also finalising a series of departmental interventions. "These will include accountability measures as well as the provision of external support to help the trust rebuild staff and public confidence. Around 70 staff spoke anonymously to those carrying out the review and reported tensions between different groups of staff. It was reported that instruments had been thrown during surgery, and there had been incidents of verbal abuse and nurses had felt bullied. The unit is a regional service with around 1,000 operations carried out each year. Mr Nesbitt said there is now a need to ensure that the overall culture of the entire HSC system is welcoming for all those who work there. "I want assurance that any employee with concerns about bullying or other unacceptable behaviours is properly listened to and supported, he added. I will be meeting with health service trade unions early next week to discuss the planned Departmental interventions. I will provide a further update at that point. Commenting this week, DUP MLA Diane Dodds urged Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to publish a damning report into the Cardiac Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital with the Belfast Trust accepting there has been an intolerable working environment. The DUP MLA said: The litany of issues highlighted within it will shock everyone. It highlighted a culture of bullying and poor behaviour. An operation was cancelled because of interpersonal differences between personnel within the theatre. There were also four consultants working from home who cited safety and wellbeing as the reasons they could not work within the hospital site. The conclusion of the report however was the most damning, stating that the cultural issues in this unit represent a significant risk to public safety. The culture at a unit in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast has come under scrutiny (Liam McBurney/PA) Ms Dodds continued: This was a culture that was little short of toxic and it is one that was exacerbated by management. Whilst the Minister was right to state that the unit has been deemed safe, it is also right to state that the report also concluded there are areas where patients are placed at risk of harm, or where harm has occurred, as a result of tensions, poor behaviour and severe reluctance amongst staff to raise concerns. The behaviour uncovered by this report is beyond belief, but it happened over a protracted period. The confidence of both staff and the public in the Trust will have been seriously damaged by this latest issue within a Trust that appears to be rarely out of the headlines. Mike Nesbitt was also questioned about the controversy when he came before Stormonts Health Committee on Thursday. The minister also told assembly members he wanted to be assured the report's recommendations were being implemented. He said while he initially committed to publishing the review in the assembly's library, he now needed to take legal advice around identifying individuals. The Trust has previously said it is appalled by the staff experiences described in an independent external review into the culture and safety within the cardiac surgical unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital. While we are reassured that the cardiac surgery service remains clinically safe with excellent outcomes, we accept that there have been behaviours which, at times, have made for an intolerable working environment, a spokesperson added. We fully acknowledge staff have felt hurt and unable to speak out. This is unacceptable and we are wholeheartedly committed to making changes which we have begun implementing. When patients come into our care, they are cared for by a team of more than 200 dedicated and passionate professionals who over deliver and whose outcomes are excellent, as reinforced by patient feedback, and regional and national data. However we accept that behaviours must change. We owe it to our staff and the patients they care for to get this right. Belfast Trust has accepted the recommendations of the independent external review and is working swiftly to take these forward. Wife of Co Down man who died after ambulance delays hopes no other family will have to wonder what if Daithi Mac Gabhann on the steps of Parliament Buildings at Stormont Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has written to a young boy from Northern Ireland awaiting a heart transplant encouraging him to keep up the great work. Daithi Mac Gabhann has been on the heart transplant waiting list since 2018 and his family have tirelessly campaigned for the legislation on organ donation to be changed to help increase the number of donors. The Organ and Tissue Donation (Deemed Consent) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, is known as named in Daithis Law in recognition of the young boy. He was granted the Freedom of the City of Belfast in 2023 and celebrated at Belfast City Hall becoming the youngest ever recipient of this honour. Over the years he has received support from celebrities, including Newcastle United FC legend Alan Shearer, Man United star Marcus Rashford and TV presenter Vernon Kay who hosted the ceremony for the Sunday Life Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards where Daithi was honoured. A post on Donate4Daithi on X (formerly known as Twitter) said its not every day a letter comes through door in Ballymurphy from a former US President. A letter from the ex-President who is credited for his role in the NI peace process came on paper headed, William Jefferson Clinton. The letter from Bill Clinton. It states: Your dad wrote to tell me about your recent visit to City Hall, to see your name listed among the freemen of Belfast. I'm so proud to share that honour with someone as amazing as you. As someone who's had heart surgery myself, I know how scary it can be, and I'm so impressed by the bravery you've shown throughout your life. I'm also deeply inspired by the way you and your family have worked hard to make positive change across Northern Ireland. Our world would be better if there were more people like you. I hope I'll have the chance to meet you and your family the next time I'm in Belfast. Until then, keep up your great work, and know that you have a big fan pulling for you in New York. Lots of people commented on the post, with one person saying: Amazing Daithi, such a lovely letter. I hope you get to meet Bill Clinton. Others described Daithi as a special and amazing wee boy saying it was lovely to see. Ground-breaking robotic technology that greatly improves quality of life for men suffering from prostate problems has been installed at the Ulster Hospital. Aquablation Therapy eliminates the need for invasive prostate surgery and is the first treatment of its kind to be rolled out on the the island of Ireland. Belfast man David Fleming has become one of the first patients to benefit from the new technology. I have had an enlarged prostate for the last 10 years and I have been suffering with urine retention that required a hospital admission where I also required a catheter to be fitted. When my consultant informed me of this new technology a few months ago during a telephone call, I was excited to give it a go. The precision technique involves using image-guided, high-velocity water jets to remove excess prostate tissue and is one of the most advanced and innovative treatments currently available for patients experiencing urinary symptoms. Living with an enlarged prostate can have a detrimental impact on day-to-day life and can cause a frequent need to pee and difficulty fully emptying their bladder. If left untreated, it can lead to more severe symptoms such as acute urinary retention and infections. "The benefits of Aquablation were explained to me and I thought it was a no brainer, basically because it is more accurate, there is less blood loss and a shorter period under anaesthetic as well with better outcomes, Mr Fleming said. This will really make a difference and will greatly improve my quality of life, as I will now be able to remove the catheter which can be inconvenient. I was nervous undergoing the procedure, but the staff in the Day Procedure Unit in the Ulster Hospital have been fantastic at making me feel at ease. I would definitely recommend it. Pre-therapy consultation The South Eastern Trust has been chosen to enhance the Bladder Outlet Obstruction (BOO) service by using real-time ultrasound imaging to assist surgeons in mapping and directing the water jet with accuracy to avoid damage to nearby nerves and structures responsible for sexual function and continence. Unlike traditional procedures, no heat is involved, significantly lowering the risk of complications. The state-of-the-art technology reduces the likelihood of side effects such as erectile dysfunction, incontinence and bleeding that may require transfusion it also offers shorter hospital stays and lower retreatment rates, improving overall outcomes for patients. Consultant Urologist, Mr Ajay Pahuja, believes it is cause for optimism. We are excited to launch this remarkable robotic technology that offers significant benefits for our Urology patients," he said. "Aquablation Therapy helps avoid invasive surgery and its associated risks, offering quicker recovery times and minimal discomfort. The robotic precision ensures targeted treatment, significantly reducing the chances of damaging surrounding tissues. Early outcomes have shown rapid and significant improvement in urinary symptoms. Clinical studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Aquablation Therapy in providing substantial relief from symptoms and maintaining low rates of irreversible complications. Patient-reported outcomes are equal to, or better than alternative procedures, with this treatment boasting 99.5% continence preservation rate, preserving 100% of erectile function and maintaining 89% of ejaculatory function. South Eastern Trust Director of Surgery, Maggie Parks hopes to see similar results among male patients being treated at the Ulster Hospital which is commited to delivering world-class care. "As a Centre of Excellence in the South Eastern Trust, we are proud to lead the way in Northern Ireland, giving patients from across the Region access to the latest technology and the highest standards of treatment, she said. Assistant Director of Surgery Katharine Dane added, Bringing the Aquablation service to Northern Ireland has been a collaborative project between our colleagues in SPPG (Performance, Safety and Service Improvement Department) and a variety of corporate and operational teams within the South Eastern Trust. We are all delighted to now see this service come to fruition and be able to make a significant difference to mens health across the Region. Being able to offer a full range of treatments for patients with bladder outlet problems is very exciting for all the teams involved. Delighted to be partnering with the South Eastern Trust, Procept BioRobotics Account Manager, Bobby Badesha said, We are excited to be working closely with the Trust to bring Aquablation Therapy to patients in Northern Ireland. This partnership highlights our commitment to expanding access to innovative, minimally invasive treatments for prostate patients improving outcomes and their quality of life. A popular wildflower meadow, which has been a regular sight for motorists travelling into Belfast from the Saintfield Road for the past two years, was mowed down last week by operatives from the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) due to road safety concerns. Residents were shocked to find the meadow cut to within a few centimetres last Wednesday, May 21, after looking forward to its annual bloom. Ryan Bradley lives close to the area a short distance from the Forestside Shopping Centre and had unofficially adopted the grass verge in 2023 to plant a native wildflower patch to boost biodiversity among pollinators in the area. He had placed a sign on the verge asking for it not to be cut and for the past couple of years it hadnt been, allowing wildflowers to flourish. The wildflower meadow was cut last week by DfI A spokesperson for the DfI, however, said that the area in question is part of a sightline and needed to be cut to ensure visibility for all road users. The department is responsible for the maintenance of the public road network and annually cuts about 45,000km of grass verges, they said. The area in question, on the Saintfield Road, is part of a sightline and was cut to ensure increased visibility for all road users. We are committed to protecting wildlife and promoting biodiversity, and our grass-cutting policy was amended in 2022 to reflect that. However, road safety must always be our priority. Mr Bradley told the Belfast Telegraph that the reason he selected that particular verge was because it was far enough back from the road to ensure it did not impact motorists. "While I havent had any official permission to do this, over the past couple of years I didn't think there had been any problems, as wildflowers had been left alone, he said. They were not left to grow to a ridiculous height, and I maintain it myself. I cut it every September or early October, and every fortnight I edge the area to prevent these so-called sightline issues. The wildflower meadow was cut last week by DfI Watch: Wildflower Alley in Belfast celebrates 10 years The only motorists who would be affected would be those emerging from the junction from Breda Park, turning right towards Forestside. But there is a cycle path and a large space of pavement before you can even see the flowers, so this just doesnt make sense. If that was an issue, why didnt they just take the sign down? Its taller than the flowers ever get to! And the flowers hadnt even begun to bloom yet. He added that it was even more disappointing that this happened during a well-known conservation campaign called No Mow May, which encourages people to refrain from mowing their lawns for the month of May to boost biodiversity and support pollinators. I manage grasslands for a living with a local conservation charity and anyone working in this sector would know that you dont cut this early in the year, he said. The first flowers, usually the Cuckoo flower, comes out in April, and different species bloom in succession until September, the last one usually being the Devils-bit Scabious. I was expecting the verge to take about five years to establish, because it takes time to maintain these sorts of meadows. But I only got two. Whoever did this clearly hadnt a clue. Even if it was done by accident, an apology would be great. But this wont put me off. I still hope to continue to plant wildflowers and improve the biodiversity of the area by doing so. Ten years ago the alleyways around the Holylands behind Queens University were not a place the local residents liked to visit. They werent safe, said Brid Ruddy, who lives in College Park Avenue. They were a focal point for anti-social behaviour and robberies. We lobbied for four years to get alley gates and we saw there was so much reclaimed space here that we had to do something with it. Her neighbours agreed. But what they have achieved in the 10 years since has been remarkable. On Thursday they gathered in what has become known as Wildflower Alley the original Belfast alleyway regeneration programme. Filled now with lush vegetation, it has become a gathering point for local residents, somewhere to sit, relax and catch up on the days gossip. Its also a venue for community events. It was literally a place where people dumped their rubbish, said Brid, who has been the driving force behind turning the rubbish-strewn alleyways between the Holylands homes to a regenerated haven. Ten years on we have a space that people take pride in, take joy in walking through and can spend their evenings pottering away, chatting and just relaxing. If you step back 10 years you wouldnt believe the way the place looks today. Daniela Balmaverde at Wildflower Alley in Belfast on the 29th May 2025 (Luke Jervis/Belfast Telegraph) From that initial seed of an idea to give residents a place to be proud of, the blossoming of Wildflower Alley has spread its branches across other parts of Belfast. Jean Campbell has come over from the Ormeau Road to help the residents celebrate their anniversary. We have one of our own now, she said. Its not as big as this one, but it has brought the whole community together. And were hearing of more all the time across south, west and north Belfast. The idea is spreading, added resident Deirdre Seaby. Its wonderful to just sit out here with a cup of tea, chat to others as they walk past. Ive living here 39 years now and its amazing how much more pleasant is it today. We all love it. Maya Harty (8) in Wildflower Alley in Belfast on the 29th May 2025 (Luke Jervis/Belfast Telegraph) Rather than simply sit back and let the neighbourhood do the heavy lifting on the project, Brid has been sourcing extra funding over the last decade to ensure the roots of the project are deep enough for future generations to enjoy. This is a long-term project, she said. It can take time. Were seeing plants we put into pots three or four years ago starting to come through now. So, yes, it is something you have to be committed to and work at, but its well worth it, not only for the community spirit it brings, but for the environment, the mental health and wellbeing of people who can now get out of their homes and have somewhere to meet up. One of the biggest helping hands for Wildflower Alley has come from neighbouring Queens University itself, with a team of volunteers from the university getting their hands dirty to help keep the project well watered. Wildflower Alley in Belfast celebrating 10 years on the 29th May 2025 (Luke Jervis/Belfast Telegraph) Georgina Copty sits on the Queens Foundation Board which has helped to support the alley scheme over the years. We are embedded in the community that surround the university campus, she said. The universitys annual fund exists to support projects like this. We really have a heart for the people to live around this area and were delighted to be involved in projects like this. You can see how the community has benefited from it and were delighted to be involved. We are trying to plant that seed of community spirit, and hopefully others will follow suit. Brid said she will continue to seek additional funding and urged for greater support for similar schemes appearing around Belfasts alleyways. It creates community cohesion and helps regeneration in neighbourhoods, she said. It is a way people can fight against climate breakdown. It looks and feels wonderful. Whats not to like about it? What needs to happen is for statutory agencies to come in behind it all. The council is supportive, the Department for Infrastructure is supportive. But they really need to step it up. It brings nothing but positives. We dont even mind a little rain now, sure it waters the plants for us! SDLP Brexit motion aimed at Alliance over its fence-sitting on a border poll OTooles resolution argues Irish unity only viable way to rejoin EU as England tacks further to right Matthew OToole (Liam McBurney/PA). Suzanne Breen Fri 30 May 2025 at 07:23 Irish unity is the only way Northern Ireland can rejoin the EU and there is no point pretending otherwise, according to an SDLP motion MLAs will debate on Monday. Members of Tina Satchwells family, including Lorraine Howard (left) and Sarah Howard, outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) The family of murder victim Tina Satchwell described her as a kind, loving and gentle soul. Tinas cousin, Sarah Howard, said the family finally have justice following the conviction of Richard Satchwell. Satchwell, a British truck driver, was found unanimously guilty of the murder of his wife at their home in Co Cork. The 58-year-old had denied the murder of Mrs Satchwell on a date between March 19 and March 20 2017. Lorraine Howard, the half-sister of Tina Satchwell, speaks to the media outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) The jury in the trial returned the verdict on Friday afternoon at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. The jury had been deliberating for a total of nine hours and 28 minutes since Tuesday afternoon. Relatives of Mrs Satchwell wept as the guilty verdict was returned. Ms Howard, who gave evidence for the prosecution in the trial, said: During this trial Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was. Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our life meant so much to us all. We, as a family, can never put into words the impact that her loss has had on all of us. Tina was a kind, loving, gentle soul who loved her animals like they loved her and that is the way we want her remembered. Mary Collins, the mother of Tina Satchwell, outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) Today, as a family, we finally have justice for Tina. Tinas half-sister, Lorraine Howard, thanked the judge, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, and the prosecution team, including senior barrister Gerardine Small. Your hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies you were. We will never be able to put into words how thankful we are for you. We want to sincerely thank the judge, the jury, for their dedication, she said. We would like to thank all the witnesses who helped us reach this verdict today. I would like to personally thank Sarah Howard, who came up to give evidence and her support two weeks postpartum from her beautiful baby girl. You did yourself and Tina proud. Thank you to (Superintendent) Ann Marie Twomey and (Detective Garda) Dave Kelleher for putting the pieces together and finding Tina. We would like to thank John OConnell, the victim support workers, for keeping our spirits high. President Donald Trump said that he is doubling the tariff rate on steel to 50%, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, cars and other goods. Mr Trump spoke at US Steels Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, to discuss investments by Japans Nippon Steel. The price of steel products has increased roughly 16% since Mr Trump became president, according to the governments producer price index. Mr Trump said US Steel will stay an American company under a deal for Japan-based Nippon to invest in the steelmaker. Few details about the deal have been made public. President Donald Trump talks to workers as he tours US Steel (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Were here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company, Mr Trump said as he opened an event at one of US Steels warehouses near Pittsburgh. Youre going to stay an American company, you know that, right? Mr Trump said doubling the tariffs on imported steel will even further secure the steel industry in the US. But such a dramatic increase could push prices even higher. Employees, Trump supporters, local officials and others filled one of the massive warehouses on the grounds of the Irvin finishing plant to hear Mr Trump. Giant American flags hung from the ceiling and a sign read, The Golden Age. Steelworkers in orange hard hats and work clothes milled about, and part of the warehouses cement floor was packed with huge rolled coils of shiny steel sheet produced at the plant and used for appliances, doors and other applications. Though Mr Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmakers bid to buy Pittsburgh-based US Steel, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as partial ownership by Nippon. It is not clear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured. Mr Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the countrys supply chain, industries like car manufacturing and national security. Mr Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the US since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect US manufacturing. US Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed partnership but also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement. Some may call my new and bizarre passion a midlife crisis... I prefer to think of it as a newly awakened appetite for sheer, unbridled fun Gerry Adams is a man of towering ambition whod no moral qualms about securing his goal through murder A British minister described Adams as a man of superior intelligence. Unionists see him as sanctimonious and scheming yet it was his foresight and cunning which persuaded the IRA to stop killing. In Profile: Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams Sam McBride Fri 30 May 2025 at 15:48 Gerry Adams is one of the worlds most enigmatic, most controversial, and most consequential living political figures. The UVF chief turned peacemaker was caught by the PSNI with weapons and ammunition in the back of his car in 2022Irvine was given a shortened sentence due to his peacekeeping workHe was sentenced alongside Robin Workman, who was given the full 5-year tariff UVF commander Winston Winkie Irvine has been jailed after being caught with guns. He was sentenced to 30 months with half to be served on license after being caught with a hold-all containing weapons and ammunition in the boot of his car. On the same day the 49-year-old was arrested, police also arrested Larne man Robin Workman (54) who they had observed handing over the bag. A later search of Irvines north Belfast home uncovered UVF paraphernalia, a balaclava, and digital recording devices. Many feel the sentence handed down was unduly lenient. But the judge said Irvines work as a peacemaker meant that it was not appropriate to give the paramilitary boss a minimum five-year tariff. It has now been revealed that Winkie Irvine received many glowing references, including church leaders, NIO officials and even the former vice chair of the policing board. Ciaran Dunbar is joined by The Belfast Telegraphs Northern Ireland editor Sam McBride, who has been following the story. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Cj Garner and Marcus Lyon, who together own The Common Table, plan to keep the lease on the current space just up the road and are contemplating reimagining the original location as a breakfast and lunch spot. This is a subscriber exclusive story. Subscribe today to access this story and all of our stories with 24/7 unlimited access. Subscribe today. Cancel anytime. Subscribe now for $3.99/month Subscriber Sign In | Return Home Eagle Archives, July 2, 1957: The Marauders drum and bugle corps will be absent from the 1957 Fourth of July Parade after a split with the Pittsfield Firemens Association, which demanded the return of all instruments amid tensions over name changes and sponsorship. Stay up to date on Berkshires news with Berkshires in Brief, our free daily newsletter GREAT BARRINGTON No lightning bolt moment sparked Tessa Baldwins love of writing. Her passion has just always been there, growing steadily since the first time she picked up a pencil. For years, she wasnt sure where it might lead. Then, in high school, I suddenly had all this exposure to journalism, and it felt like this really meaningful way to put my interest in writing to use. Baldwin dove into the discipline head-first. She took a journalism course, joined the school paper, and landed an editing internship at The Berkshire Edge. With each new experience, her sense of direction sharpened. Now, the senior at Monument Mountain Regional High School plans to pursue reporting as a career after college. Her commitment to journalism and her vision for how she can contribute to the field led to her receipt of the 2025 Daniel Pearl Berkshire Scholarship on Thursday. The award honors the legacy of Daniel Pearl, who began his career with the North Adams Transcript and The Berkshire Eagle before becoming the South Asian bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. In 2002, Pearl was kidnapped and killed by terrorists in Pakistan while working on a story. The $2,000 scholarship is awarded each year to a local high schooler who has an appreciation for one of Pearls two passions investigative journalism and music. Baldwin will graduate from Monument Mountain Regional High School in just a few days, and this fall, shell begin her studies at Columbia University. She plans to major in political science or economics, something that I could study and then use once I become a journalist, because they dont have a journalism major. Once she graduates, Baldwin dreams of more than just becoming a journalist. She wants to help shift the field away from Yellow Journalism sensationalist, biased, false or misleading reporting. It just seems right now theres a lot of misinformation or misrepresentation all across the board, said Baldwin. As a consumer of journalism, it makes it difficult to know who I can trust. In her work, she wants to focus on mastering and strictly adhering to the fundamentals: following AP style, reporting with accuracy and staying neutral. My big goal entering the world of journalism is just to be as unbiased as possible and not to give in to sensationalism if I can avoid it, Baldwin said. Her commitment to grounded, useful reporting has already begun to shape her writing. One article shes especially proud of was about budgeting money as a high schooler. It wasnt anything sensational or controversial, I just have been thinking a lot about how I can save money for college and after college and I thought others might be too, Baldwin said. A highlight of her journalism experience so far has been seeing both sides of the writer-editor dynamic. At her school paper, many of the pieces she writes are edited by her teacher, but at The Edge, Baldwin exclusively edits other writers work. Getting to experience the perspective on each side of the process has been really helpful," said Baldwin. "It helps me when I'm writing to know what to look out for, and when I'm editing to know what the writer is thinking." Shes also discovered that, perhaps, writing isnt her only talent. Ive noticed that editing comes naturally to me, almost more naturally than writing, said Baldwin. I'm just doing it all the time, whenever Im reading any text. When she was younger, Baldwins talent for writing came as a surprise to her parents, who work as a chef and an electrical engineer. It's a bit of a mystery how her career interests landed so far afield from ours and in a much more intellectually-centered direction, said Kate Baldwin, Tessas mom. It didnt take long, however, for them to embrace it. Were just so proud of her and her commitment to developing her natural skill set, said Kate Baldwin. Before heading off to Columbia, Baldwin plans to keep busy shell continue her internship at The Edge and work on a few summer jobs. In the meantime, shes taking a moment to celebrate. This award has been such a validation of my interest in journalism, she said. Its also an amazing resource that will help me going forward. Im so grateful, and Im really excited to see whats next. Stay up to date on Berkshires news with Berkshires in Brief, our free daily newsletter NORTH ADAMS When U.S. Marine Pfc. Erwin Shaftsbury King of Clarksburg left home in January of 1942 to defend his country in World War II, he departed just months shy of earning a diploma from Drury High School. Eighty-three years later, when Drury holds its commencement ceremony at 6 p.m. Thursday in the high school auditorium, the diploma King never got to collect will be presented to his surviving relatives. The idea was proposed by Mayor [Jennifer] Macksey and because Drury students were involved in the burial services," Drury Principal Stephanie Kopala wrote in an email. "I thought it was a wonderful idea. Kopala said two students will present King's surviving family the posthumous diploma, followed by a performance of The Marines' Hymn by a group of Drury band members in Kings honor. King, whose battlefield burial site had been lost in the fog of war, was positively identified last May. His remains were found on Guadalcanal, more than 8,500 miles from the West Road, Clarksburg home where he grew up as the youngest child of Emilia and Erwin C. King. His remains were returned home thanks to the efforts of U.S. military personnel working to identify and repatriate the remains of Americans who died defending their country overseas. Drury and McCann Tech students were present when Erwin S. King was buried at Southview Cemetery on Sept. 24, the 82nd anniversary of his being killed in action during the battle for Guadalcanal. Students from both high schools walked from their nearby campuses and paid their respects as King was committed with military honors in the cemetery plot his parents bought for him in the hopes hed someday join them. The confirmation of Erwin S. Kings remains, made possible by a DNA sample provided by his nephew, Mark E. Clarke of Clarksburg, helped Erwin S. Kings nieces and nephews reconnect and honor parents and grandparents who told them stories about the uncle they never met. Clarke, himself a Class of 1969 Drury graduate, said he plans to attend. Its been a long time since Ive been to a graduation. Its a great gesture, he said. Judith Richard, one of Erwin S. King's surviving nieces, said Clarke would receive the diploma because he is the only surviving niece or nephew who graduated from Drury. The other surviving nieces and nephews all attended high schools in Bennington, Vt. "It's fitting that he receive the diploma," she said. When the United States was drawn into combat by the attack on Pearl Harbor, many high school students, wanting to join the fight or knowing theyd eventually be drafted, put down their pencils and dropped out to serve. According to military records, Erwin S. King enlisted at Springfield on Jan. 22, 1942, a little more than six weeks after Pearl Harbor. Decades later, many communities have honored surviving World War II veterans for their sacrifice by awarding them the diplomas they would have earned, had their country not called in its hour of need. Kopala said that, after consulting with Macksey and Superintendent Barbara Malkas, she reached out to Drury history teacher Patrick Boulger, since he spearheaded the student participation in the burial ceremony this past fall. I knew that Mr. Boulger would take care of preparing the students, once again, to honor Pfc. King, but this time during graduation. Richard, of Warner, N.H., said it's "such an honor" that her family's hometown community continues to honor her uncle in such a meaningful way. "When this all happened, just about a year ago, we did not anticipate it was going to be what it ended up being. We had no clue," she said. "I figured four or five people would show up to the funeral home. Apparently, I was wrong, and [it was] a good wrong." Erwin S. King turned 18 on his way to the Solomon Islands and arrived on Sept. 18, 1942, with the First Battalion, Seventh Marines. Six days later, he was deployed with a patrol and handed a mission: secure the perimeter around a strategically vital airfield. The patrol engaged a small group of Japanese soldiers eating dinner, unaware that enemy infantry was also nearby. Erwin S. King and six other Marines were killed in the ensuing firefight, and three later died of wounds suffered in battle. They were all buried in one of two gravesites, with its location and the identities of the fallen both recorded. But in the months and years that followed, battle maps erroneously set that gravesite west of its actual location frustrating later attempts to find it, and the Marines buried there. Decades later, the error was discovered, and physical evidence, including Erwin S. Kings dog tags, was found at the burial site as well as remains. Later scientific testing, including DNA, confirmed that Erwin S. King had been found, more than 80 years after his death. Dalton Delan can be reached at berkshireeaglereels@gmail.com and @UnspinRoom on X. His Eagle Reels conversations can be found on YouTube. BillOReilly.com is not available in this country. We apologize for any inconvenience. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Postal Code There were candles at the shrine, where small mementos of a cherished life bordered photographs of happier times. Tina Satchwell never lived to see how the ashes of her terrier dog Heidi were lovingly stored in a miniature casket with an engraved plaque, nor how a certificate attested that the animal had been cremated "with the utmost care and respect". She never got to pay homage to her cherished pet because she had been murdered years earlier and entombed just a few feet away, her body hidden in a three-foot grave dug under the stairs of her home by her husband of 25 years, Richard Satchwell. Advertisement Satchwell would go on to make tearful television appeals for Tina to come home and "just let people know you're alright" while his wife remained buried underfoot for six years. When Tina's remains were eventually discovered, Satchwell would explain to gardai that he hadn't wanted to dirty his wife, so he had wrapped her body in black plastic that he'd use as ground covering at car boot sales. He described how he dug out the grave under the stairs with a spade before carrying Tina into "the hole, in me arms". "I didn't chuck her down," he made sure to tell detectives. Before he covered the grave opening with cement, Satchwell threw a couple of bunches of tulips in with his wife. He said he had driven around different shops looking for roses but couldn't find any because it was Mother's Day. Advertisement "I had to make it as special as I could for her... I wanted her to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her... I wanted her to see I never truly meant any harm," Satchwell told gardai. Something about her When 22-year-old Richard Satchwell saw Tina Dingivan for the first time in 1989, in the village of Coalville in the UK, he told his brother that he would marry her. He said there was something about Tina that "captivated" him; "confidence, the way she looked, the way she walked, multiple things". Tina was described at the trial as "a genuinely lovely" woman. The jury heard she was a kind-hearted family person who was social, bubbly and adored her two dogs, who she kept with her as a constant companion and considered "her children". Tina was a "petite lady", only around five-foot five or four in height and weighing approximately eight stone. Tina Satchwell The trial heard that her grandmother Florence Dingivan raised her and that Tina grew up believing they were mother and daughter. However, the jury were told that when she went looking for her birth certificate at her confirmation age, Tina "found out the truth" that Florence was actually her grandmother and a woman she believed was her sister was in fact her mother. Advertisement Satchwell would go on to murder Tina on the anniversary of her grandmother's death. After proposing while on a 1991 visit to Youghal in Cork, Richard and Tina got married in the UK on Tina's 20th birthday. They moved back to Fermoy two years later, where they bought a house. In May 2016, the Satchwells moved to Tina's last home on Grattan Street in Youghal. Witnesses who met Tina at car boot sales across Cork recalled that she was glamorous and colourful. One told the trial that Tina had "an expensive eye" and would wear clothes for a while before selling them on again. Another recalled that Richard Satchwell said his wife's dog had a bigger wardrobe than him. Satchwell said he spent a lot of time on home improvement works, including building a walk-in wardrobe for Tina's clothes on the second floor of their house, which was overflowing with clothes on racks. However, the trial heard that when gardai first searched the house after Tina's disappearance, it was dirty and unkempt with dog faeces on the floor, an unemptied bird cage and unwashed dishes lying around. Advertisement 'A casual inquiry' On March 24th, 2017, Richard Satchwell called to Fermoy Garda Station, over 40km away from Youghal. There he told officers that his wife had left home four days earlier, but that he had no concerns over her welfare, feeling she had left due to a deterioration in their relationship. He also reported that Tina had taken approximately 26,000 from the couple's savings that was hidden in a money box in the attic. On May 2nd, 2017, Garda Thomas Keane called to Grattan Street to see whether there had been any contact from Tina. Satchwell reiterated that he had no concerns for Tina's well-being or safety and anticipated she would be home to him sooner rather than later. Satchwell formally reported his wife missing on May 11th, 2017, upgrading the Garda investigation from what was "a casual inquiry of someone leaving home" to a formal missing person investigation. Advertisement Recalling the day his wife disappeared, Satchwell said Tina had asked him to get a few things in Aldi in Dungarvan but when he got home she was gone, with her house keys on the ground and her phone on the kitchen table. He said their dogs were in the sitting room, which he thought was strange as she never left the house without them. When there was no sign of Tina coming home after an hour, Satchwell said he started to get worried and went upstairs to discover two suitcases missing and the 26,000 gone. He told gardai he felt like "the ground had opened up beneath" him. The trial heard that trawls of CCTV footage from Youghal town, a social media campaign carrying pictures of Tina and house-to-house inquiries proved fruitless. Ports and airports were canvassed and searches took place on coastlines and in forests. Now retired Sergeant John Sharkey, of Youghal Garda Station, told the trial he formed the opinion that "something criminal may have occurred" in late May or the start of June that year. He said the force became suspicious that "something untoward" had happened to Tina in May 2017 due to the inability to find any trace of her. 'I wasted 28 years with you' Garda Aidan Dardis took a statement from Satchwell on May 14th, 2017, where he said that he and his wife were driving from Youghal to Midleton the week before she went missing when Tina "got angry out of nowhere". "She said I wasted 28 years with you, I compromised myself with you," Satchwell told gardai. Satchwell told the officer that Tina "wore the trousers" in their relationship and he was a "bit of a walkover". He said that after Tina's brother Tom had committed suicide in 2012, her mood-swings had gotten worse but that she always had "a short fuse". He said he believed Tina had some "undiagnosed psychiatric condition" and would sometimes have violent outbursts towards him. Satchwell said he didn't think Tina was a danger to herself; that she was "too vain" and "in love with herself". Satchwell said he would "never lay a hand on" Tina but that sometimes she had "violent outbursts" towards him where she would hit him "with anything that came to her hand". He claimed that two weeks after they started going out, Tina had given him a black eye. Satchwell said his wife might slap him once a week, while there was "real violence" three or four times a year. Satchwell said Tina took out her frustration in life on him and that he suffered her abuse as he thought she was "in pain". "She isn't a bad person and I don't want to paint her like that," he also added. Satchwell told gardai he just wanted to know that Tina was "safe and sound". "I gave up my family for her, she is my whole world". First search About 10 gardai conducted a search of the Satchwell home on June 7th, 2017, on the basis that there had been an assault causing harm to Tina. Gardai noted "home improvement works" were going on in the house but were unfinished. They also noted that there was "relatively new" plasterboard on the stairs and a new red-bricked wall underneath the stairway. A forensic scientist examined the stairs, hallways and landings of the house for blood using a chemical called 'Bluestar' but none was detected. Obsessed The following day, Satchwell voluntarily attended Midleton Garda Station and spoke to Inspector Daniel Holland. Satchwell again explained how he had given up a lot of his life to be with Tina, that his family didn't approve of the relationship and they no longer spoke to him. He said he wanted to have children but Tina didn't. Satchwell repeated that Tina had physically assaulted him and on two occasions; "knocked him out cold, unconscious". He told the inspector that he fully expected Tina to come home but was concerned that publicity from social media appeals would be an obstacle to her returning, in that people might ridicule her for leaving in the first place. Tina Satchwell, PA Media Satchwell described himself as "obsessed" with Tina, despite what he said were her "extreme assaults". Asked why he put up with this, Satchwell said his wife, who he said had a dysfunctional childhood, was "the perfect person" when she was not in a mood and he had long accepted her "dark side". However, Satchwell's trial would hear that he never reported any such violence to his doctor of 18 years. It was only after Tina's disappearance that Satchwell told his GP that Tina had assaulted him "on multiple occasions" and that the violence was frequent and sometimes severe. Satchwell's defence counsel would go on to tell his trial that their client was "besotted" with and "worshipped" Tina knowing "things that most husbands wouldn't know about their wives". Satchwell would tell gardai how Tina was not just "slim" but "a size 10 waist and a 29 to 31 leg depending on the make of the trouser". She wore a size 10 to 12 top, her bust was 34 DD and she had a size four to five foot. He said she always hovered between 8 and 8.5 stone in weight, never going above or below. The accused told gardai how the couple partook in "rituals" seven nights a week where Satchwell, who said he always knew his role, would run Tina a bath with "as many suds as possible". Only on a Sunday however, would he take polish off her toes while she soaked in the tub. "I never used to take the nail polish off her fingernails, they were precious," he commented. He described how he would towel his wife off when she emerged from the bath, which he said "was the closest to physical contact" they had got in the past few years. Satchwell also detailed how he would apply baby oil or lotion to his wife and pedicure her feet. 'We just want you back' Following his wife's disappearance, Satchwell engaged with reporters from radio, television and what the prosecution would characterise as "anyone who would indulge him". Fourteen clips from his media appearances were played for the jury during the trial. Satchwell spoke to RTE's Paschal Sheehy on June 26th, 2017, where he made the appeal: "Tina come home, no one's mad at you, the pets are missing you like crazy, we just want and need you back". Another media interview played for the jury was with Paul Byrne from TV3 News [now Virgin Media news] on July 14th, 2017 four months after his wife disappeared where Satchwell said he had been with Tina for 28 years and "never lifted a finger to her" during that time. RTE's Crimecall was broadcast on July 25th, 2017, where a tearful Richard Satchwell made a televised appeal for Tina to come home, looking directly into the camera and telling her: "Nobody is mad at you, the pets are missing you, just ring the guards, let people know you're alright." He told Barry Cummins on Prime Time Investigates, broadcast on RTE on January 25th, 2018, that "if someone tried attacking Tina she would pick the nearest thing up and whack them with it. That the type of person she is, she wouldn't be a pushover". Satchwell also told TV3 News viewers in July 2017 that he was "innocent of any wrongdoing". "One day my wife will turn back up or she will get in touch with gardai, one way or another it will all come out and in time will prove I've done nothing wrong," he said. Gardai searching Mitchell's Wood in Castlemartyr in March 2018 Another media interview played to the jury was with TV3 News on March 7th, 2018, at Mitchell's Wood in Castlemartyr, where a Garda search was taking place. Asked how difficult it was to go to the woods that day, Satchwell said he was "praying and hoping" the search came to nothing, but it was "racing through" his mind that his wife "could be behind them barriers". Satchwell said on Ireland AM on March 8th, 2018, that any person who had helped his wife "get out of Youghal" should be "ashamed" of themselves. 'Still out there' The trial heard that four years after Tina was reported missing, gardai conducted an enhanced cognitive interview with Richard Satchwell. The jury were told this method is regarded as one of the "gold standards" in statement-taking, as it is witness-led and "forensic" in detail. On June 20th, 2021, Satchwell told Detective Sergeant David Noonan that he "personally thought" Tina was "still out there somewhere". The defendant described crying on the evening he discovered Tina had left their home while their dog Heidi licked up his tears. He said the rest of the week was a blur and he waited for "the phone to go". He claimed that while his wife could be "nasty", minutes later it would be like it never happened; "she'd be apologising and crying". Satchwell said he had previously tried to end his life by taking a box of sleeping tablets in 1995, when he said Tina was in "one of her bad spells" and violent with him. He said he had only gone to the doctor with scratches in the past and "when you spread it over 28 years it's not as frequent as it sounds". The jury would later hear from retired GP Deirdre O'Grady, who remembered Tina attending her practice but had no recollection of the deceased informing her about Richard taking an overdose. The witness said she also did not remember being called out by Richard Satchwell to his home in April 1993. Satchwell told Det Sgt Noonan that he believed Tina was planning to leave him after her brother died in 2012 and had mentioned "200 or 300 times" over the previous 15 years that she was going to end their relationship. Thelma and Terry The trial heard that gardai noted several issues with Satchwell's account after a 2021 analysis of phones and laptops seized during the initial search of his home in 2017. Satchwell had sent text messages about problems he had in purchasing two Marmoset monkeys named "Thelma and Terry" at 10.46am on March 20th, 2017, around the same period when his wife had disappeared. One message had read: "I am in a mess right now because my wife has said she is leaving me over this". A similar email was also sent from Satchwell at 10.42am "in very close proximity to the killing" to the International Monkey Organisation from which the couple had been trying to buy the two animals. The email read: "I've put an awful lot of work into this and my wife is saying she will leave me over this". A laptop taken from Grattan Street had also been used to search for 'Quicklime' a substance thrown on top of bodies to aid the decomposition process at 9.08pm on March 24th, 2017, four days after Satchwell told gardai that Tina had left their home. A YouTube video on 'Quicklime and water reaction' was also viewed on two occasions seconds later. The trial heard that gardai also enlisted a forensic accountant to carry out a financial review of the couple's income and establish whether Tina had left with 26,000 from their savings as claimed by the accused. The accountant concluded there was "no sign" the Satchwells had received "a significant cash windfall" to provide them with such funds. A significant inconsistency lay in CCTV footage obtained from Youghal post office recorded at 11.13am on March 20th, 2017, which showed Satchwell claiming the dole. This was "in direct contradiction" to his statement that he had been in Dungarvan that morning, when Tina was allegedly taking money and packing suitcases. Flogging clothes Witnesses told the trial that Satchwell was "flogging" his wife's clothes at a car boot sale just weeks after her disappearance and had claimed that Tina had gone to her sister's in the UK after contracting a "terrible infection". Mary Crowley said she attended a car boot sale on April 17th, 2017, in Blarney and saw Satchwell with his stall selling Tina's 'Dr Martens' boots. She said Satchwell told her that he and his wife had moved into a house which had been unoccupied for 12 years and had mould or fungus. He said Tina had gotten a "very serious respiratory illness" and was in the UK. Satchwell told Ger Carey at the Blarney car boot sale that Tina was so ill she wouldn't be at car boot sales anymore. Linda Hennessy said she was at the Rathcormac car boot sale in late March or early April 2017 and met Satchwell, who told her Tina was very sick and in hospital. Sarah Dobson said she met Satchwell at a car boot sale on the May Bank Holiday in 2017, when he was selling Tina's clothes, boots and bags. She said he told her that Tina was very ill in hospital, had lost four stone in weight and was in England with her sister while he fixed the walls of their house. "I told him she would kill him for selling all the stuff," she said. Red flag The trial heard that Superintendent Annemarie Twomey was appointed senior investigation officer in the case on August 16th, 2021, by which point Tina Satchwell had been missing for four years and five months. Supt Twomey said that by February 2022, she had reviewed the case material and had reasonable grounds to believe that Tina was not a missing person and had met her death through unlawful means. She told the trial that at the end of August 2022, she had reasonable grounds to believe it was necessary to arrest Richard Satchwell as part of the investigation into the murder of Tina. However, she said he wasn't arrested at that stage as 58 other lines of inquiry needed to be exhausted. The jury heard that a key report was compiled by Dr Niamh McCullagh, who is a specialist in the search and recovery of human remains concealed in a criminal context. She was requested by Supt Twomey to conduct a review of the evidence and submitted her report on September 6th, 2023. Flowers and messages left near to the scene in Youghal, Co Cork. Photo: PA Dr McCullagh told the trial that domestic homicides studies have found the most commonly occurring method for a perpetrator is to create a verbal narrative and to file a false missing person's report. "My own research looked at cases in Ireland where homicides involving concealment after the event indicates that female victims are disposed of closer to their home address than their male counterparts. For all concealed homicide cases that have been studied in Ireland, victims are disposed of within one kilometre of their home address in the majority of cases," she told the trial. She said one of three possibilities she came to in her report was that Tina Satchwell had been killed at her home address and her body concealed there. Dr McCullagh said she had recommended to gardai that a more invasive search take place at Ms Satchwell's home as there had been structural changes to Grattan Street, which was a "red flag". She recommended that this include specifically the plasterboard, stairs and ground floor of the sitting room. The witness said she also recommended that the search include a cadaver dog to determine the possibility of buried remains. The trial heard that it wasn't until October 10th, 2023, that an "intrusive search" was conducted at Grattan Street. 'Bits and pieces' Satchwell was arrested at 5pm on October 10th, 2023, for the murder of his wife and brought to Cobh Garda Station. At the same time, the invasive search of Grattan Street was underway. In his interviews with gardai that night, Satchwell again repeated that he arrived home to find his wife, two suitcases and 26,000 missing. Giving another account of alleged violence, Satchwell said Tina would hit him, fling a plate at him and bite him. "Then she'd calm down and there would be tears and she'd apologise for it". He said he didn't hit her back. He said there had been a "few hundred" fights between them over 30 years; "times I'd hide in the attic when my family visited, times I had to take off work as I couldn't turn up looking the way I did. She had black bruises on her hands from repeatedly hitting me....someone said to her 'your arms are black' and she said she wouldn't hit me again". He said the couple never "took sexually again" after the suicide of Tina's brother in 2012, which made him feel "useless". "I never pestered her for sex during any point in the relationship". By October 11th, Satchwell was still under arrest when Sergeant David Noonan told him that his home was being "dug up", with gardai "going into the walls" and "looking at every inch of the house". Sgt Noonan told the defendant he would be shown certain photos of his house. In a video which was played to the jury, Satchwell could be seen viewing "live" pictures of the stairway in his home while he was in the interview room. When asked what he kept in a "cubby hole" under the stairs, Mr Satchwell replied: "Bits and pieces." It was just hours before gardai would discover Tina Satchwell's body buried there. Having detained Satchwell for the maximum period they could, gardai were forced to release him at 4.39pm on October 11th. Fern The trial heard that the search for Tina's body was led by a Cadaver Dog named "Fern", who had indicated the presence of human remains at the Satchwell home. Fern had been used to carry out a systematic search of the house, beginning on the top floor and working down through the property. The trial heard she became "very active" when the stairs were searched. Detective Garda Brian Barry said building contractors were using powerful lighting to examine under the stairs, when he spotted "different coloured concrete". "It was a newer pour of concrete, which was very suspicious to me and unusual". He said builders broke through the concrete and the site was dug until black plastic was exposed, which was found quite deep at 64cm from the surface. The jury were told that Fern went into "full freeze" mode, indicating the presence of human remains, when shown the black plastic. Gardai searching the property in Youghal, Co Cork. Photo: PA At that point, two forensic archaeologists took over the excavation of the scene and revealed a grave which was approximately three foot by six foot. The trial heard that the archaeologists continued their work until a hand was exposed. Tina Satchwell's remains were finally uncovered at around 8.35pm on the evening of October 11th, 2023 six years and seven months after her death. The trial heard that the site was fully excavated the next day, with Tina's remains removed from the clandestine gravesite and placed in a body bag. Consultant forensic anthropologist Laureen Buckley said there were no fractures to any of Ms Satchwell's bones, including the hyoid bone which the jury heard is "sometimes but not always" damaged in strangulation cases. Professor Paul Brady said he compared the remains with Tina Satchwell's dental records and found they were consistent with those of the missing woman. 'My Irish rose' The jury heard how, when he was re-arrested the following day, Richard Satchwell presented detectives with a completely new narrative. He now told gardai that he had been working in his shed on March 20th, 2017. When said that when he came back into the house, Tina was at the bottom of the stairs in her dressing gown with a chisel in her hand, scraping plasterboard that he had put up. Satchwell claimed that Tina "flew" at him with the chisel, that he had fallen backwards and described holding the belt of her bathrobe at her neck "until she got heavier". "Before I know it, it had all stopped, it just stopped. I put my arms around her, she fell down on top of me. I held her for a good 20 minutes or half an hour. The two dogs just there, sitting looking. They came over, started licking her; I just laid there. Sometime later, I don't know, I got up and just like to keep things normal". Satchwell told gardai he was holding his wife and kissing her on the head. He said this was the only time he ever "truly" defended himself against Tina and had held her corpse in his arms all night long. "There was no taking back; I just don't know. Shame, panic I don't know". Satchwell said he initially laid Tina on a couch and the next few days went by "in a blur". He described to detectives how he then put Tina's body inside a large chest freezer in the shed two days later, on March 22nd or 23rd. "I just lifted her into it and she fell in". Satchwell went on to advertise the same chest freezer on Done Deal on March 31st, having previously offered it to his wife's cousin. The ad read: "Large chest freezer free to take away, working perfect just needs a clean". The trial heard that one day beforehand, Satchwell sent a text message to Tina's cousin Sarah Howard asking: "Sarah do you want our big chest freezer?". Ms Howard became emotional as she told the jury that she did not respond to the message, which she thought was "very unusual and very strange". Satchwell would tell gardai: "I was robotic, working on automatic. My brain wasn't working. She was heavy, so heavy, it was like trying to lift a 10-tonne bag of coal". He said he dug out underneath the stairs with a spade and laid his wife on the black plastic on the kitchen floor. "I wanted her to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her," he told detectives. Satchwell said he buried her the following Sunday afternoon March 26th under the stairs of their sitting room, as he wanted to keep her with him and didn't want to leave her alone. "I went and got roses and called her my Irish Rose but none - [it was] Mother's Day - so I got her tulips," he continued. He said it could have been 20 minutes or 20 hours, he didn't know how long it took to dig the hole. "It was light when I started and dark when I finished". "I ain't got no excuses; once it's done I couldn't take it back," he added. He described working in the tight space under the stairs and said his knuckles were bleeding. Satchwell cried as he told gardai: "I actually carried her into the hole, I didn't drop her into the hole, I wasn't disrespectful. I can remember folding the plastic around her, putting the flowers in". He said he put Tina's wedding ring in the pocket of her bathrobe, although the ring was not found with her remains. He told gardai that "the worst thing of all" was once the lies started, he couldn't stop and he had a "sense of relief" that the truth was out. Satchwell told detectives that he would sit on a little wooden stool and talk to the area in which he had buried Tina, the hardest thing being "not getting anything back". In later interviews, Satchwell claimed Tina was in a "blind rage" and her face was "distorted" when she attacked him. Asked by gardai whether he had caused Tina to die, the accused said he imagined it was the way she was forcing her weight down on top of him and the belt being where it was, "not being able to breathe". "I can't turn around and say, 'oh her neck was broke or strangulate', I don't know, it just happened so fast". He said this was the only time he ever "truly defended" himself against Tina. "I can't put it into words what happened. I should have just let her stab me, let it be the end of me," he said. "I'm not a monster," he told detectives. Cryptic Gardai told Satchwell that this description of his wife's death "didn't make sense" and was "most likely a physical impossibility". However, Satchwell said he wasn't trying to "bullsh*t" detectives. "I'm going to prison, there will be no jury because I'm going to plead guilty". Richard Satchwell arriving at the District Court in Cashel, Co Tipperary. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Satchwell also told gardai that if they produced any photographs of his wife's body in interview, he would not look at them, informing them: "I want to remember Tina the way she was, not the way I made her". Ireland Richard Satchwell: What the jury did not hear Read More On a clear October morning, Richard Satchwell was brought before Cashel Courthouse to be charged with the murder of his wife. During the trial, detectives denied that Satchwell was made to carry out a "perp walk", with defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC submitting that his client was "paraded before the press" while handcuffed to the front. When asked by Mr Grehan whether by doing so gardai as a "corporate entity" were "overcompensating" for their previous failures in the investigation, Det Garda David Kelleher said he could only speak about his involvement in the investigation from 2021. The trial heard that when he was finally charged with Tina Satchwell's murder, the defendant gave the cryptic reply: "Guilty or not guilty, guilty". The number of people in emergency homeless accommodation across Ireland has increased to a record of 15,580, according to the latest Government figures. The data shows that 10,805 adults and 4,775 children were accessing emergency accommodation during the last full week of April. Advertisement In general, the number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been steadily increasing from approximately 8,000 in mid-2021. The statistics do not include people sleeping rough, couch-surfing or homeless in hospitals or prisons, or those who are in shelter for asylum seekers or domestic violence centres. Mike Allen, director of advocacy at Focus Ireland, said the figures show the Governments current approach to homelessness is failing. He said: With the introduction of the new Housing Plan, the incoming minister has a vital opportunity to reset the policy. We have outlined our evidence-based recommendations in a detailed submission to support this change. Advertisement It is totally unacceptable that theres a record number of 4,775 children homeless as we approach summer. This should be a carefree time for children as they look forward to school holidays and the longer evenings. Instead of this, the harsh reality for many children who are homeless is that they are studying for exams while living in family hubs or hotels without anywhere suitable to even do their homework. The Simon Communities of Ireland urged the Government to act decisively on homelessness. Advertisement Ber Grogan, executive director of the organisation, said: This is the highest level of homelessness Ireland has ever seen, and its unacceptable. Behind every number is a person a family, a child, a life in crisis. We are pleading with Government leaders and local authorities to act decisively before this emergency becomes completely irreversible. The organisation said there should be real investment in prevention. On top of the rising numbers, were now facing unacceptable constraints on our ability to respond. Advertisement In certain areas, there is no funding for second-hand housing acquisitions under tenant in situ (TIS) or the Homeless Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS). We are deeply concerned that these decisions will result in reduced supply and increased vulnerability for those already most at risk. The Dublin rough sleeper count for spring, carried out over the week of March 31st to April 6th, was published earlier this month and showed a decrease in rough sleeping since winter and spring 2024. The number of individuals engaged with by outreach teams during the week was 121, a decrease of 13 (9.7 per cent) on winter 2024 when 134 were found to be rough sleeping during November 4th-10th week. Advertisement It represents a decrease of seven (5.5 per cent) on the spring 2024 count carried out in the week of April 8th-14th. Sinn Fein housing spokesman Eoin O Broin TD said the Government must urgently fund vital homeless services and reverse recent funding cuts. The latest increase is shocking but not surprising. It is a stain on this Government and our society. Ireland Majority of spending on homelessness directed towa... Read More We cannot allow ourselves to accept this as normal. We must continue to be outraged by the fact that so many children are forced into emergency accommodation due to Government decisions. It is clear that we need urgent emergency action to tackle this crisis. Government must immediately reverse the funding cuts to vital homeless supports such as Housing First and the tenant-in-situ scheme. It is time to get feet on the street and put as much pressure on Government to take emergency action now to tackle the housing and homeless crises. The head of the BBC in Northern Ireland has said the implications of Gerry Adams libel victory against the broadcaster are profound. Adam Smyth, director of BBC NI, said their legal team had warned that the jurys decision in the high-profile defamation case could hinder freedom of expression. Advertisement The BBC has been ordered to pay the former Sinn Fein leader 100,000 after a jury decided they had defamed him in a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson. Mr Adams denies any involvement in Mr Donaldsons death in 2006. Journalist Jennifer OLeary presented the Spotlight programme. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Speaking outside the High Court alongside Spotlight reporter Jennifer OLeary, Mr Smyth said they were disappointed with the verdict. He said: We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial process and journalistic diligence applied to this programme and accompanying online article. Advertisement Moreover, it was accepted by the court, and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team, that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. Mr Smyth said the BBC had not wanted to come to court. But he added: It was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. Advertisement The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, its hard to see how anyones could. And they warned that todays decision could hinder freedom of expression. Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. Advertisement Gerry Adams took the BBC to court over an episode of its Spotlight programme. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Mr Smyth said the BBC would now take time to consider the implications of the ruling. Ms OLeary said she had entered the witness box in the trial with nothing to hide, only sources to protect and I want to thank them for trusting me. Ireland Gerry Adams awarded 100,000 in damages after winn... Read More She paid tribute to the witnesses who had appeared for the BBC in the case, including Ann Travers, whose sister was murdered by the IRA in 1984. She said: And there are thousands of Ann Travers across this island and in Britain victims and survivors of the Troubles and the years after the peace agreement who carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible courage. Advertisement They are the people Im thinking of all of them. The son of fatal shooting victim Jason "Jay" Hennessy Snr has been jailed for a string of violent crimes, including an aggressive confrontation with armed gardai during a tense search of his Dublin home. Jason Hennessy Jnr (28) pleaded guilty before Judge Catherine Hayden, who imposed sentences totalling six months and a two-year road ban. Advertisement His father was murdered in a gun attack at a steakhouse on Christmas Eve, 2023, in Blanchardstown. Hennessy, of Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown, faced 15 charges: violent disorder, dangerous driving, obstructing drug search, and having a passenger with no seatbelt from 2019 to 2022 in the Blanchardstown area. At Blanchardstown District Court, Garda Sergeant Ian Abbey outlined the facts on behalf of nine prosecuting gardai who had had various interactions with the father of four, resulting in criminal charges. The court heard that on May 18th, 2019, gardai conducted a search operation at his home and brought the armed support unit (ASU). Advertisement Jason Jnr had to be restrained by members of the ASU, resisted the search of the property, and when one officer entered, he stood up in an extremely aggressive stance. He shouted abuse and told an officer to "Fuck off". The accused told the officer, "You won't be searching this house," but he stood and "squared up" to the garda, entering his personal space and placing his head close to him. Detective Garda Megan Furey had dealings with him twice on June 23rd, 2019. The first occurred at Blanchardstown Courthouse, where Hennessy called her a "fucking tramp" and was arrested under the Public Order Act. At 8.19pm that night, as she and colleagues engaged in a "covert operation", she observed him driving after another car on the Blakestown road, where he sped "straight through a red light". Advertisement There were male occupants in his car, and armed colleagues were alerted due to the nature of the operation, targeting criminal activity in the area. The vehicle turned back in her direction, travelled towards her at speed, and went back through the junction of Blakestown Road and Blakestown Way "at high speed on the wrong side of the road". On April 3rd, 2020, he drove a car with a young child in the back with no seatbelt. The court heard that on June 22nd, 2020, at 1am in the cell area of Blanchardstown Garda station, the gaoler did a routine check in cell number 3 to check on the prisoner. Advertisement Hennessy told the garda, "You are a blond muppet, turn off the light." He threw water from the toilet, saying, "Do you want water? You will have to drag me out". He then began throwing litter from his meal that day. He had to be removed, as he became very aggressive, acting violently to gardai, and the cell had to be cleaned. Gardai spotted him on May 8th, 2020, with a group where one of them was "acting suspiciously" outside the Laurel Lodge shopping centre. The garda retrieved a mobile phone from Hennessy and held it when it received a notification. Hennessy then "became aggressive and threw the mobile phone on the ground, causing it to break. He became violent and had to be restrained and was arrested for obstruction." Advertisement The court heard on February 15th, 2020, he was caught parking on a footpath and, on January 23rd, 2020, driving at 93 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. He became aggressive and verbally abused a garda on routine patrol on February 5th, 2022, at Corduff Shops, taunting, "You will do well in prison, you little faggot, and making hand gestures where there were young children present at the time. The court heard he was arrested on July 19th, 2019, at Aldi Mulhuddart Village, Dublin 15, where the defendant engaged in threatening and abusive language toward gardai. Pleading for leniency, defence solicitor Tertius Van Eeden told the court his client had young children and was in a long-term relationship, was doing well, "working out and keeping his head down." The solicitor added that his client was "in a good place mentally now given the fact his father was brutally murdered in a shooting in a Christmas Eve shooting in 2023". He had 15 prior convictions for public order offences, hit and run, and also an assault causing harm and violent disorder incident, which resulted in a suspended three- year sentence. Ireland Senior Kinahan gang member Sean McGovern charged w... Read More He spoke briefly only to confirm a procedural aspect the case and was not required to give evidence. Judge Hayden noted the offences went back several years and took into account his guilty pleas, which saved the court from having to run several hearings. Earlier this week at Dublin District Court, Judge Anthony Halpin ordered the destruction of four XL Bully pit bulls owned by Hennessy's mother, Veronica Maher, 54, after one escaped the family home and terrorised gardai who feared for their lives. There has been a two-week stay on the order to destroy Oddie, Reggie, their mother, Medusa, and the fourth dog, Joe, pending a possible appeal. The man (20s) arrested following an armed robbery at a retail premises in Dublin 9 on Thursday has been charged. He is due to appear before court 4 of the CCJ on Friday, gardai said. Advertisement The man was arrested following an armed robbery at a fast food restaurant in north Dublin on Thursday morning. Gardai say a man armed with a shotgun entered the restaurant in Northwood in Santry at 7:30pm and threatened staff. He stole a sum of cash and fled the scene in a car. During a follow up operation the man in his 20s was arrested, and a car stolen in a previous burglary was recovered. Richard Satchwell, who kept his wife's body in a secret grave beneath their home for six years while lying to her family and the "people of Ireland" about her disappearance, has been found guilty of her murder by the unanimous verdict of a Central Criminal Court jury. The 12 jurors took nine hours and 28 minutes over four days to convict Satchwell, a British national who is shortly due to turn 59 years old. Advertisement The unanimous jury verdict was met with sobs from members of Tinas family, who hugged and comforted one another at the back of the courtroom. Four jurors were also brought to tears, while Satchwell sat still, with his head in his hand. The six-foot-two truck driver had claimed that his five-foot-four wife Tina, who weighed eight stone, had launched an attack on him with a chisel and died during a struggle in which he either lacked the intent to kill her or was acting in self-defence. Her cause of death could not be determined due to the skeletonised nature of her remains when they were eventually uncovered. Advertisement The jury however, unanimously rejected his defence and agreed with the State's case that Satchwell was a "cunning" murderer whose claims were "nonsense" and had hidden his wife's body to ensure a cause of death would not be available. Satchwell had pleaded not guilty to murdering 45-year-old Tina Satchwell - nee Dingivan - at their home address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork between March 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive. There were three verdicts the jury panel could return in relation to the murder charge against him namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. The five men and seven women disagreed with the defence position that, although Satchwell had lied "to the people of Ireland", the lies did not make him a murderer or relieved the prosecution of the burden of proving the ingredients of murder. Advertisement The jury had watched video clips of a tearful Richard Satchwell making televised appeals for Tina to come home, months after he murdered her and buried her in a grave dug almost one metre deep beneath their Cork home. The jurors agreed with the prosecution case that Satchwell's narrative of how his wife died - the only account of her death they were given - after he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe was "absolutely farcical" and had "more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese". Following the verdict, presiding judge Mr Justice Paul McDermott thanked the jurors "sincerely" for their service. He said it had been a difficult trial and he could not do anything else for them but thank them. He said he would excuse them from jury service for the next ten years. Advertisement Mr Justice McDermott will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment to Satchwell on June 4 and remanded the defendant in custody until that date. On that date, the Dingivan family will have an opportunity to make a statement to the court about the impact Tina's death has had on their lives. The trial heard that on March 24, 2017, 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. Satchwell formally reported Tina missing the following May but her body was not discovered for over six years, when gardai in October 2023 conducting a second, invasive search of the Satchwell home found her decomposed remains in a grave dug underneath the stairs. Advertisement When re-arrested on suspicion of Tina's murder after her body was removed from their home, 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. Ireland Jason Hennessy Jnr jailed for confronting armed ga... Read More Satchwell told gardai that he kept Tina's body in a chest freezer in his shed before burying her beneath their home. He offered the same freezer to Tina's cousin, Sarah Howard, before advertising it on 'Done Deal' as "free to take away...just needs a clean" days after the murder. In his closing address, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC told the jurors that there was no doubt Satchwell was guilty, but asked the jurors what exactly he was guilty of committing. Gerardine Small SC, alongside Maria Brosnan BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, submitted in her closing address that the Leicester native had woven "a web of deceit" and continued his "fabricated narrative" over the years. Counsel said Satchwell's objective from the very outset was "always to put everyone off the scent" and that this was done because he had murdered Tina. Satchwell, the lawyer submitted, was "shamelessly brazen right up to the very end" when his wife's remains were discovered at the couple's home in Youghal. Richard Satchwell's trial was initially scheduled to sit in his home county of Cork but, due to the "intense publicity" surrounding the case, his lawyers applied late last year to move the trial to the capital. The move was resisted by the State, who pointed out that much of the publicity was generated by Satchwell himself. Advertisement In November last year Brendan Grehan SC, for Satchwell, said that as the media attention was concentrated in Cork, it would be "impossible to retain an impartial jury" there who had not heard of the case and formed "adverse views of Mr Satchwell". Mr Grehan said most trials can be held in local venues but some generate media attention that can be "macabre" and lead to "greater hostility than it is possible to imagine in an ordinary case." Satchwell's preference, Mr Grehan said, was for the trial to be held in Limerick so it would be closer to the prison where he was being held. "He has a position of responsibility there, which enables him to be a productive prisoner," counsel told the court. Gerardine Small SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, opposed the change of venue, arguing that publicity around the case was national, not local. Also, she said, much of that publicity was generated by Satchwell who "sought the attention of the media" by appearing on radio and television shows. Advertisement Ms Small pointed to Satchwell's appearances on RTE's Prime Time, TV3's Ireland AM, the Ray D'Arcy Show and the numerous interviews he gave to journalists. She added: "It is an unusual factor that it [the media attention] can be attributed to the accused man while he was aware the body of his wife was buried where it was." Mr Justice Paul McDermott agreed to change the venue to Dublin, due to the significant risk of an unfair trial. He said: "The high degree of local coverage and engagement with the case takes it out of the ordinary". 'Cryptic reply' During the trial and in the absence of the jury, Mr Grehan applied to exclude Satchwell's "cryptic" reply of "Guilty or not guilty, guilty" when he was formally charged with the murder of Tina on October 13th, 2023. Advertisement Counsel said a second part of the application - which was "somewhat of a side show" - was connected to the fact that a member of the press - Paul Byrne, formerly of Virgin Media News - tweeted that Satchwell was going to be charged before gardai had actually done so. He said Superintendent Anne Marie Twomey had received directions from a legal officer at 7.28pm to charge Satchwell with the murder of his wife and he was formally charged at 8:07pm on October 13th. Mr Grehan said Mr Byrne had tweeted at 8.03pm that "a man in his 50s had been charged with the murder of Tina Satchwell" four minutes before his client was formally charged. Counsel said Michael O'Toole, of The Irish Daily Mirror and Irish Daily Star, had "retweeted" at 8.09pm from the handle @mickthehack that "Richard Satchwell had been charged with the murder of his wife". Advertisement A number of gardai who were called to give evidence in the voir dire denied that they had contacted anyone in the media but accepted that Mr Byrne had tweeted about it several minutes in advance and that Mr OToole had named Satchwell as being charged two minutes after it occurred. Mr Grehan said it was "implicit" that contact was made with a number of people in the media "to enable them to do their job". Counsel also submitted that Satchwell should have been informed that he could consult with his solicitor before the charging process took place and was entitled to legal advice "at this critical juncture". "It vitiated the process and the court should not permit the fruits of the charging to be now available to the prosecution," he added. He said the defendant's solicitor Eddie Burke had left the garda station at 7.07pm that evening and didn't arrive back until 8.10pm three minutes after the charging took place. Advertisement The lawyer said his client's reply after caution was more prejudicial than probative and would create difficulties in terms of how the jury could be properly directed. In reply, Ms Small said Satchwell, who was interviewed by gardai on ten separate occasions, had a "full appreciation of his entitlement not to say anything" in reply to the caution and was acutely aware of this. The defence, she said, was claiming there is an entitlement to have a solicitor present on charging and she wasn't aware of any such entitlement. She said the entitlement was to legal advice, which Satchwell had received "in abundance". She called the media tweets "completely irrelevant". In his ruling, Mr Justice McDermott said the defendant's reply was fully voluntary and found that the absence of a solicitor in the garda station had not impaired the fairness of the process. He refused to exclude the reply to charge. Direction to remove murder charge from indictment When the prosecution's case was at an end, Mr Grehan applied to the judge to withdraw the charge of murder against his client, submitting there was no evidence of an intention to kill or cause serious injury, which he said was "a huge lacuna" in the State's case. "It is one of the elements of the offence of murder which the prosecution have to adduce evidence of, which they have singularly failed to do," he argued. He said Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster could not give a cause of death due to a very long post mortem period and had confirmed there were no broken bones in Tina's body. He said she wasn't able to conclude anything about the state of the organs due to the lapse of time. Mr Grehan said there was an explanation available to the jury as to how death was caused in the case without the evidence of the pathologist or anthropologist and that explanation was given by his client, where Satchwell said the belt of Tina's bathrobe had been held up against her neck until she collapsed. Counsel said this was the only account available as to what happened to Tina and was of "immense importance" as there was no evidence of violence discovered in the post mortem. Counsel said it was significant that Tina's hyoid bone was un-fractured. He said there was also no medical evidence to say that his client's account of holding Tina off with a restraint against her neck before she collapsed suddenly was not possible. In reply, Ms Small submitted that there was "a wealth of evidence" from the surrounding circumstances in the case from which intent could be inferred. Counsel said the deception began on March 20th, 2017 very shortly after Satchwell killed Tina and the plethora of lies were an acknowledgement of guilt. Ms Small said a limited post mortem examination was conducted because the defendant had buried his wife in a manner to ensure the cause of death wasn't available. She added: "There is also motive on his own account, Satchwell says she is threatening to leave him. She has wasted 28 years of her life, that is all part of the evidence for the jury to accept or not". Mr Grehan said the lies told were not sufficient to show intent for murder. Referring to motive, he said there was also clearly a basis for which Tina might have wanted nothing further to do with her husband and attacked him in that manner. In his ruling, Mr Justice McDermott said Satchwell's immediate response was to create a false impression that Tina was alive and he had taken every conceivable step to protect himself. He said Satchwell told lie after lie "to any journalist who'd indulge him" and portrayed a scenario that his wife had deserted him suddenly without any explanation. Mr Justice McDermott said Satchwell had shown a degree of malevolence towards his wife and the defendant was totally focused on protecting himself from discovery. There had been, he said, a period of six prolonged years before Tina's body, of which Satchwell had disposed of, was found and this was relevant to the issue of intention. He said it was a matter for the jury as to whether Satchwell had formed the requisite intent and whether he was guilty of his wife's murder. He rejected the application to withdraw the murder charge. Application to discharge the jury At the very end of the trial, when Mr Justice McDermott had finished charging the jurors, Mr Grehan said on foot of instructions from his client he "regrettably" had to seek the discharge of the jury. Counsel voiced his opposition to the tone of the charge, which he said was intended to "nudge" the jurors towards a guilty verdict. Counsel said he became increasingly concerned as the charge proceeded that it was not resembling a charge but a "second prosecution speech" in terms of the emphasis the court was placing on the State's case to the detriment of the defence. Mr Grehan told the judge he had not put the defence case in full at all to the jury. He said the two separate tasks of directions on the law and a summary of the evidence had become "intermingled" and submitted there was no balance in what had been said to the panel. "The whole emphasis of what was said to the court seemed to be to reiterate the prosecution case," he argued. Mr Grehan said the facts of the case "shouted and screamed for themselves" in terms of what Satchwell did and didn't do. "They are not facts that need to be nudged or pushed for the jury in any particular way". Ireland Richard Satchwell found guilty of murdering his wi... Read More Counsel said it was beyond remedy at this stage and the court should discharge the jury. Ms Small called Mr Grehan's application "wholly inappropriate", describing the charge as balanced, fair and extremely comprehensible. "The criticism is unfounded, a court will rarely outline all the evidence, that is a matter for the jury". In his ruling, the judge said this was a difficult case in which to sum up the evidence for the jury and he didn't accept that his charge was "so wildly unbalanced". He disagreed that the absence of references to certain parts of the evidence in any sense justified the jury being discharged. Mr Justice McDermott refused the application but did give the jury further directions in relation to two matters of which complaints were made, one relating to the detailed evidence of Lorraine Howard concerning her half sister Tina, the other to evidence that Satchwell loved or was "besotted" with his wife. Hamas said it was still reviewing a US proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 27 people were killed in new Israeli airstrikes, according to hospital officials. The ceasefire plan, which has been approved by Israeli officials, won a cool initial reaction Thursday from the militant group. Advertisement US negotiators have not publicised the terms of the proposal. A Palestinian boy injured following an Israeli airstrike is brought for treatment to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City (jehad Alshrafi/AP) But a Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said on Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. In a terse statement issued on Friday, Hamas said it is holding consultations with Palestinian factions over the proposal it had received from US envoy Steve Witkoff. While changes may have been made to the proposal, the version confirmed earlier called for Israeli forces to pull back to the positions they held before it ended the last ceasefire. Advertisement Hamas would release 10 living hostages and a number of bodies during the 60-day pause in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 100 serving long sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. Each day, hundreds of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter Gaza, where experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade slightly eased in recent days has pushed the population to the brink of famine. Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal, Qatars ambassador to the United Nations, Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani said on Friday, referring to talks between her country, the US and Egypt. On Thursday, a top Hamas official, Bassem Naim, said the US proposal does not respond to any of our peoples demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine. Advertisement The uncertainty over the new proposal came as hospital officials said that 27 people had been killed Friday in separate airstrikes. Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) A strike that hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed 13, including eight children, hospital officials said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Meanwhile, the bodies of 12 people, including three women, were brought to Shifa Hospital on Friday from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. Advertisement The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the bodies of two others were brought to a hospital in Gaza City. Hospital officials also said on Friday that at least 72 had been killed in Gaza during the previous day. That figure does not include some hospitals in the north, which are largely cut off due to the fighting. Since the war began, more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. Advertisement The war began with Hamas October 7 2023 attack on Israel, which left around 1,200 dead. A Palestinian boy sits on the curb as he waits near a food distribution kitchen in Deir al-Balah (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) Some Gaza residents said their hope for a ceasefire is tempered by repeated disappointment over negotiations that failed to deliver a lasting deal. This is the war of starvation, death, siege and long lines for food and toilets, Mohammed Abed told The Associated Press in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. This war is the 2025 nightmare, 2024 nightmare and 2023 nightmare. Mr Abed said he and his family struggle to find food, waiting three hours to get a small amount of rice and eating only one meal daily. Its heartbreaking that people are being starved because of politics. Food and water should not be used for political purposes, he said. Another Gaza resident, Mohammed Mreil, said about the possibility of a truce that: We want to live and we want them (Israelis) to live. God did not create us to die. President Donald Trump said that he is doubling the tariff rate on steel to 50%, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, cars and other goods. Mr Trump spoke at US Steels Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, to discuss investments by Japans Nippon Steel. Advertisement The price of steel products has increased roughly 16% since Mr Trump became president, according to the governments producer price index. Mr Trump said US Steel will stay an American company under a deal for Japan-based Nippon to invest in the steelmaker. Few details about the deal have been made public. President Donald Trump talks to workers as he tours US Steel (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Were here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company, Mr Trump said as he opened an event at one of US Steels warehouses near Pittsburgh. Youre going to stay an American company, you know that, right? Advertisement Mr Trump said doubling the tariffs on imported steel will even further secure the steel industry in the US. But such a dramatic increase could push prices even higher. Employees, Trump supporters, local officials and others filled one of the massive warehouses on the grounds of the Irvin finishing plant to hear Mr Trump. Giant American flags hung from the ceiling and a sign read, The Golden Age. Steelworkers in orange hard hats and work clothes milled about, and part of the warehouses cement floor was packed with huge rolled coils of shiny steel sheet produced at the plant and used for appliances, doors and other applications. Advertisement Though Mr Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmakers bid to buy Pittsburgh-based US Steel, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as partial ownership by Nippon. It is not clear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured. Mr Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the countrys supply chain, industries like car manufacturing and national security. Mr Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the US since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect US manufacturing. Advertisement US Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed partnership but also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement. The United States and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violates UN sanctions and has helped Moscow increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. They made the accusations in their first report since joining forces to monitor sanctions against North Korea after Russia vetoed a resolution in March 2024 to continue the monitoring by a UN Security Council panel of experts. Advertisement It had been issuing reports of Pyongyangs sanctions violations since 2010. The 29-page report produced by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team comprised of the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom said the evidence it gathered demonstrates that North Korea and Russia have engaged in myriad unlawful activities explicitly prohibited by UN sanctions resolutions. Russian President Vladimir Putin (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin via AP) It said North Korea has transferred arms and related materiel by sea, air and rail, including artillery, ballistic missiles and combat vehicles, for Russias use in the war in Ukraine. Russia has transferred air defence systems to North Korea, and its forces trained the Norths troops deployed to support Russias war, the team said. Advertisement And Moscow also has supplied refined petroleum products to Pyongyang in far excess of the yearly cap under UN sanctions, and has maintained corresponding banking relations with the North in violation of sanctions. The 11 countries said this unlawful cooperation has contributed to Moscows ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure. The cooperation has also provided resources for North Korea to fund its military and banned ballistic missile programmes, and it has allowed the more than 11,000 troops Pyongyang has deployed to Russia since October 2024 to gain first-hand military experience, the team said. There was no immediate response from the Russian Mission to the United Nations to a request for comment on the report. Advertisement The report covers the period between January 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, and points to evidence that Russia and North Korea intend to further deepen their military cooperation for at least the foreseeable future. It cites an unnamed country in the team reporting that Russian-flagged cargo vessels delivered as many as 9 million rounds of ammunition for artillery and multiple rocket launchers from North Korea to Russia in 2024. The report includes images of containers, which the team says were from North Korean and Russian ports and an ammunition dump in Russia. Citing an unnamed team member, the report says North Korea last year transferred at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia, which were launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorise populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia. Advertisement North Korean Public Security Minister Pang Tu Sop, right, meets with Russian Vice Interior Minister Vitaly Shulika at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang (AP/Jon Chol Jin) It also transferred elements of three brigade sets of heavy artillery, the report said. It includes images of a North Korean 170mm self-propelled gun that it said was being transported through Russia, and North Korean multiple rocket launcher ammunition and an anti-tank missile, which it said were found in Ukraine. The team said in a joint statement that it will continue to monitor implementation of UN resolutions and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade UN sanctions. It urged North Korea to engage in meaningful diplomacy. Advertisement The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Koreas first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking, so far unsuccessfully, to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, and have blocked all other UN action against North Korea. The Albanese governments approval of the North West Shelf gas extension to 2070 is not just a mistake its a devastating blow; a blow to voters who so recently backed a renewable-powered future, to young Australians hopeful for change, to the traditional owners caring for the Murujuga rock art, and to Labors own proud tradition of acting for the benefit of all Australians. The Albanese governments approval ..of the North West Shelf gas extension is a devastating blow. Carmen Lawrence Credit: Monique Westermann. This is the most polluting fossil fuel project approved in Australia in a decade more polluting than any project approved under coal-loving Scott Morrison. It will unleash more than 4 billion tonnes of climate pollution, equivalent to a decade of Australias current emissions. It risks wiping out any climate progress this government has made and it tarnishes its legacy. This decision will cast a long shadow over the Albanese government. Visionary Labor prime ministers have stood up against short-term vested interests to protect Australias environment: think saving the Franklin River; banning uranium mining at Coronation Hill; preventing oil drilling on the Great Barrier Reef. This decision does not fit with that proud history. Its a capitulation to one of the most powerful fossil fuel companies operating in Australia today: Woodside. Voters rejected Peter Duttons gas expansion plan, yet the Albanese government is pressing ahead with it. The justifications dont stack up. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese keeps telling us this gas is needed for firming capacity or to support our neighbours. But the WA gas markets are completely separate from those on the east coast. There is simply no pipeline connecting them. Thats why the prime ministers comments this week, linking the North West Shelf extension to the need for gas in the eastern states, were hard to believe. Its frankly misleading to suggest this project will support energy reliability for most Australians. In the days when Bill Shorten led the ALP, a mural entitled Two Face appeared in Preston during a byelection for what was then the seat of Batman. Artist Scott Marsh portrayed the opposition leader both as a coffee-sipping, scarf-clad opponent of the Adani Carmichael coal mine and as an advocate for Queensland jobs in high-vis and a hard hat. The Two Face mural depicted a Labor Party caught between environmental and economic demands. Shorten won that battle, withstanding the challenge of the Greens, only to lose the war a year later and make way for Anthony Albanese, whose second federal election victory has resulted in the Greens being all but swept from the House of Representatives and the Coalition thrown into turmoil. Yet though Shorten and the mural are gone, and Labor is entrenched on the government benches, the duality Marsh depicted persists. When then-environment minister Tanya Plibersek postponed a decision on extending the life of Woodsides North West Shelf gas plant in March, there was clearly one eye on those voters concerned about the environment and our response to the challenge of global heating. With victory secured, the prime minister replaced Plibersek with Murray Watt, whose first major announcement has been an extension of the plants life until 2070. Collection Your June hit list: The hot, new and just-reviewed places to check out this month From a reborn Malaysian institution to a nostalgic small bar in an old childhood home, heres where (and what) to eat and drink in Sydney this month. Advertisement This story is part of the May 31 edition of Good Weekend. See all stories . Are young people really losing interest in wine? A.M., Adelaide, SA Yes. The drift away from alcoholic drinks, including wine, by young people is a global trend that worries winemakers everywhere. The French, once considered the biggest imbibers of wine, have slashed their consumption steadily over the past 30 to 40 years, and their wine sector is in dire straits. Photo: Drew Aitken Well-established wineries are challenged: theyre committed to growing certain grapes and producing certain styles of wine (read: traditional) and they understandably find it difficult to pivot and try new styles. Advertisement Australians have been quick to gear up and supply the growing market for no- and low-alcohol wines, but this alone wont soak up the surplus of grapes we now have. Related Article Low-alcohol red wines taste thin, but does alcohol content determine depth of flavour? There have been grape juices, wine cocktails, distillation of wine into brandy, shiraz muffins, grape health baths (I kid you not) and gin blended with shiraz juice (Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin). But its wine we love, so why are we and by we, I mean Gen Z and Millennials moving away from drinking it? Perhaps because there are many more options for drinkers today than ever before? They say that every wine-lover comes to wine in their own time, usually as they grow up and their tastes and behaviours mature. Its normal for kids to reject the things their parents were into, whether its fashion or music or food, then, later on, discover that those things really arent so bad after all. Advertisement We have to remember that all tastes are cyclical. Baby Boomers may assume wine has always been around, but thats not true; Australians have only really been wine drinkers since the wine boom of the late 1960s. Its normal for kids to reject the things their parents were into. The repeated health warnings are probably the biggest factor behind the decline. Political leaders make it known that they dont drink, and health authorities from Canada to Ireland have issued dire warnings, including the stricture that theres really no safe level of alcohol intake. In my opinion, becoming more health conscious is good, as long as we stop short of puritanism. Fun Police, butt out. Got a drinks question for Huon Hooke? thefullbottle@goodweekend.com.au Related Article What are the best red wines to cellar for 18-plus years? The best recipes from Australia's leading chefs straight to your inbox. Sign up Non-bank lenders are institutional in nature, Gortan said. Theyre regulated, have formal credit policies, and often resemble banks in their operations. Private lenders, on the other hand, can range from high-net-worth individuals to boutique funds. They are less regulated, more nimble and often priced for risk. That flexibility is an advantage, but it demands more caution. DeepSeeks latest R1 update attracts global media attention 10:24, May 30, 2025 By Liu Yang ( Global Times Chinese tech startup DeepSeek released an update to its R1 reasoning model on Thursday, drawing growing attention from multiple media outlets, with some of them saying that the latest move is set to ramp up competition with OpenAI. According to its official WeChat account, the latest model, DeepSeek-R1-0528, is still based on the DeepSeek V3 Base model released in December 2024, but it has undergone further training with increased computational resources, significantly enhancing its depth of thinking and reasoning capabilities. The updated R1 model has achieved top-tier performance among all domestic models across multiple benchmark evaluationsincluding mathematics, programming, and general logicwith overall performance approaching that of leading international models such as o3 and Gemini 2.5 Pro, according to the company. Early Thursday, DeepSeek launched R1-0528 on the developer platform Hugging Face. International media have closely followed the latest model update by DeepSeek. Reuters reported on Thursday that the release steps up competition with US rivals such as OpenAI. The LiveCodeBench leaderboard, a benchmark developed by researchers from UC Berkeley, MIT, and Cornell, ranked DeepSeek's updated R1 reasoning model just slightly behind OpenAI's o4 mini and o3 reasoning models on code generation, but ahead of xAI's Grok 3 mini and Alibaba's Qwen 3. "DeepSeek earlier this year upended beliefs that US export controls were holding back China's AI advancements after the startup released AI models that were on a par or better than industry-leading models in the US at a fraction of the cost," Reuters said. CNBC said that just as was the case with DeepSeek R1's debut, the upgraded model was released with little fanfare. It is a reasoning model, which means the AI can execute more complicated tasks through a step-by-step logical thought process, CNBC reported. The Wall Street Journal's Chinese version reported that since the beginning of this year, DeepSeek's low-cost, high-performance R1 model has attracted global attention and sparked a surge in Chinese tech stock prices, with the market holding an optimistic view of the country's AI capabilities. Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the widespread attention on DeepSeek's model update reflected the growing global recognition and influence of Chinese AI innovation, though facing relentless US crackdown. "The reports of the media outlets not only affirm the country's technical strength, but also demonstrate the rising global competitiveness of Chinese AI companies, which could reshape the global AI landscape," Wang said. In April, Chinese tech giant Alibaba released the Qwen3 model, which can switch between thinking mode for complex, multi-step tasks such as mathematics, coding, and logical deduction, and non-thinking mode for fast, general-purpose responses, according to a Xinhua report. In March, another tech company, Baidu, released its self-developed multimodal model ERNIE 4.5, achieving collaborative optimization through joint modeling of multiple modalities, demonstrating exceptional multimodal comprehension capabilities. Wang said that China's AI development not only drives the transformation and upgrading of its domestic economy, but also brings new opportunities for global AI technological advancement. It enables resource and achievement sharing with international partners, expands use scenarios, and collectively promotes global AI innovation and progress. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) CARLOW COUNTY Fire and Rescue Service proved once again that their expertise and skill are among the best in the country, by securing second place in a National Rescue Organisation Ireland (ROI) competition. The team, consisting of senior station officer Danial Fitzpatrick and firefighters Ronan Boyle and Artur Bienko from Carlow Fire Station, along with senior station officer Eddie OHara and firefighters Andrew Fisher and Nial Foster from Bagenalstown Fire Station, competed in two challenging staged road traffic collision scenarios involving live casualties trapped in the vehicles, as well as two trauma scenarios, again involving live casualties presenting various traumatic injuries. The team members were assessed on their performance in incident management, health and safety, technical extrication and medical interventions. Placed first in the pit one trauma challenge, Mick Tobin (ROI), Danial Fitzpatrick, Ronan Boyle, Anthony Byrne and Mick Gahan (ROI) Carlow County Fire and Rescue Service competed against teams from Dublin Fire Brigade, Kildare Fire Service, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Civil Defence units and teams that travelled from Luxembourg and Belgium to the competition at Dublin Fire Brigades training centre. Overall, Carlow County Fire and Rescue Service placed second in the competition and achieved first place with firefighter Ronan Boyle in the CPR event. Firefighter Ronan Boyle (centre), first overall for CPR at the Rescue Organisation Ireland event, pictured with Mick Tobin, Anthony Byrne and Mick Gahan Our team have been putting a lot of time and effort into preparing for this event and to represent our county fire and rescue service at a national level, said acting chief fire officer Ben Woodhouse. Im very proud of their performance competing at this high level and wish to congratulate and acknowledge the efforts of all team members and the support given to them in their preparation by senior officer Darrell Hayden (Carlow Fire Station), retired Carlow town senior officer John Comerford and retired HSE National Ambulance Service paramedic Mick Tobin. Not only do the team get to put their skills to the test in a national competition but these skills also translate to fire station level when our crews respond to real emergencies using their skills, our fleet and equipment helping those in need involved in road traffic collisions. Alison O'Riordan and Brian Kavanagh There were candles at the shrine, where small mementos of a cherished life bordered photographs of happier times. Tina Satchwell never lived to see how the ashes of her terrier dog Heidi were lovingly stored in a miniature casket with an engraved plaque, nor how a certificate attested that the animal had been cremated "with the utmost care and respect". She never got to pay homage to her cherished pet because she had been murdered years earlier and entombed just a few feet away, her body hidden in a three-foot grave dug under the stairs of her home by her husband of 25 years, Richard Satchwell. Satchwell would go on to make tearful television appeals for Tina to come home and "just let people know you're alright" while his wife remained buried underfoot for six years. When Tina's remains were eventually discovered, Satchwell would explain to gardai that he hadn't wanted to dirty his wife, so he had wrapped her body in black plastic that he'd use as ground covering at car boot sales. He described how he dug out the grave under the stairs with a spade before carrying Tina into "the hole, in me arms". "I didn't chuck her down," he made sure to tell detectives. Before he covered the grave opening with cement, Satchwell threw a couple of bunches of tulips in with his wife. He said he had driven around different shops looking for roses but couldn't find any because it was Mother's Day. "I had to make it as special as I could for her... I wanted her to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her... I wanted her to see I never truly meant any harm," Satchwell told gardai. Something about her When 22-year-old Richard Satchwell saw Tina Dingivan for the first time in 1989, in the village of Coalville in the UK, he told his brother that he would marry her. He said there was something about Tina that "captivated" him; "confidence, the way she looked, the way she walked, multiple things". Tina was described at the trial as "a genuinely lovely" woman. The jury heard she was a kind-hearted family person who was social, bubbly and adored her two dogs, who she kept with her as a constant companion and considered "her children". Tina was a "petite lady", only around five-foot five or four in height and weighing approximately eight stone. Tina Satchwell The trial heard that her grandmother Florence Dingivan raised her and that Tina grew up believing they were mother and daughter. However, the jury were told that when she went looking for her birth certificate at her confirmation age, Tina "found out the truth" that Florence was actually her grandmother and a woman she believed was her sister was in fact her mother. Satchwell would go on to murder Tina on the anniversary of her grandmother's death. After proposing while on a 1991 visit to Youghal in Cork, Richard and Tina got married in the UK on Tina's 20th birthday. They moved back to Fermoy two years later, where they bought a house. In May 2016, the Satchwells moved to Tina's last home on Grattan Street in Youghal. Witnesses who met Tina at car boot sales across Cork recalled that she was glamorous and colourful. One told the trial that Tina had "an expensive eye" and would wear clothes for a while before selling them on again. Another recalled that Richard Satchwell said his wife's dog had a bigger wardrobe than him. Satchwell said he spent a lot of time on home improvement works, including building a walk-in wardrobe for Tina's clothes on the second floor of their house, which was overflowing with clothes on racks. However, the trial heard that when gardai first searched the house after Tina's disappearance, it was dirty and unkempt with dog faeces on the floor, an unemptied bird cage and unwashed dishes lying around. 'A casual inquiry' On March 24th, 2017, Richard Satchwell called to Fermoy Garda Station, over 40km away from Youghal. There he told officers that his wife had left home four days earlier, but that he had no concerns over her welfare, feeling she had left due to a deterioration in their relationship. He also reported that Tina had taken approximately 26,000 from the couple's savings that was hidden in a money box in the attic. On May 2nd, 2017, Garda Thomas Keane called to Grattan Street to see whether there had been any contact from Tina. Satchwell reiterated that he had no concerns for Tina's well-being or safety and anticipated she would be home to him sooner rather than later. Satchwell formally reported his wife missing on May 11th, 2017, upgrading the Garda investigation from what was "a casual inquiry of someone leaving home" to a formal missing person investigation. Recalling the day his wife disappeared, Satchwell said Tina had asked him to get a few things in Aldi in Dungarvan but when he got home she was gone, with her house keys on the ground and her phone on the kitchen table. He said their dogs were in the sitting room, which he thought was strange as she never left the house without them. When there was no sign of Tina coming home after an hour, Satchwell said he started to get worried and went upstairs to discover two suitcases missing and the 26,000 gone. He told gardai he felt like "the ground had opened up beneath" him. The trial heard that trawls of CCTV footage from Youghal town, a social media campaign carrying pictures of Tina and house-to-house inquiries proved fruitless. Ports and airports were canvassed and searches took place on coastlines and in forests. Now retired Sergeant John Sharkey, of Youghal Garda Station, told the trial he formed the opinion that "something criminal may have occurred" in late May or the start of June that year. He said the force became suspicious that "something untoward" had happened to Tina in May 2017 due to the inability to find any trace of her. 'I wasted 28 years with you' Garda Aidan Dardis took a statement from Satchwell on May 14th, 2017, where he said that he and his wife were driving from Youghal to Midleton the week before she went missing when Tina "got angry out of nowhere". "She said I wasted 28 years with you, I compromised myself with you," Satchwell told gardai. Satchwell told the officer that Tina "wore the trousers" in their relationship and he was a "bit of a walkover". He said that after Tina's brother Tom had committed suicide in 2012, her mood-swings had gotten worse but that she always had "a short fuse". He said he believed Tina had some "undiagnosed psychiatric condition" and would sometimes have violent outbursts towards him. Satchwell said he didn't think Tina was a danger to herself; that she was "too vain" and "in love with herself". Satchwell said he would "never lay a hand on" Tina but that sometimes she had "violent outbursts" towards him where she would hit him "with anything that came to her hand". He claimed that two weeks after they started going out, Tina had given him a black eye. Satchwell said his wife might slap him once a week, while there was "real violence" three or four times a year. Satchwell said Tina took out her frustration in life on him and that he suffered her abuse as he thought she was "in pain". "She isn't a bad person and I don't want to paint her like that," he also added. Satchwell told gardai he just wanted to know that Tina was "safe and sound". "I gave up my family for her, she is my whole world". First search About 10 gardai conducted a search of the Satchwell home on June 7th, 2017, on the basis that there had been an assault causing harm to Tina. Gardai noted "home improvement works" were going on in the house but were unfinished. They also noted that there was "relatively new" plasterboard on the stairs and a new red-bricked wall underneath the stairway. A forensic scientist examined the stairs, hallways and landings of the house for blood using a chemical called 'Bluestar' but none was detected. Obsessed The following day, Satchwell voluntarily attended Midleton Garda Station and spoke to Inspector Daniel Holland. Satchwell again explained how he had given up a lot of his life to be with Tina, that his family didn't approve of the relationship and they no longer spoke to him. He said he wanted to have children but Tina didn't. Satchwell repeated that Tina had physically assaulted him and on two occasions; "knocked him out cold, unconscious". He told the inspector that he fully expected Tina to come home but was concerned that publicity from social media appeals would be an obstacle to her returning, in that people might ridicule her for leaving in the first place. Tina Satchwell, PA Media Satchwell described himself as "obsessed" with Tina, despite what he said were her "extreme assaults". Asked why he put up with this, Satchwell said his wife, who he said had a dysfunctional childhood, was "the perfect person" when she was not in a mood and he had long accepted her "dark side". However, Satchwell's trial would hear that he never reported any such violence to his doctor of 18 years. It was only after Tina's disappearance that Satchwell told his GP that Tina had assaulted him "on multiple occasions" and that the violence was frequent and sometimes severe. Satchwell's defence counsel would go on to tell his trial that their client was "besotted" with and "worshipped" Tina knowing "things that most husbands wouldn't know about their wives". Satchwell would tell gardai how Tina was not just "slim" but "a size 10 waist and a 29 to 31 leg depending on the make of the trouser". She wore a size 10 to 12 top, her bust was 34 DD and she had a size four to five foot. He said she always hovered between 8 and 8.5 stone in weight, never going above or below. The accused told gardai how the couple partook in "rituals" seven nights a week where Satchwell, who said he always knew his role, would run Tina a bath with "as many suds as possible". Only on a Sunday however, would he take polish off her toes while she soaked in the tub. "I never used to take the nail polish off her fingernails, they were precious," he commented. He described how he would towel his wife off when she emerged from the bath, which he said "was the closest to physical contact" they had got in the past few years. Satchwell also detailed how he would apply baby oil or lotion to his wife and pedicure her feet. 'We just want you back' Following his wife's disappearance, Satchwell engaged with reporters from radio, television and what the prosecution would characterise as "anyone who would indulge him". Fourteen clips from his media appearances were played for the jury during the trial. Satchwell spoke to RTE's Paschal Sheehy on June 26th, 2017, where he made the appeal: "Tina come home, no one's mad at you, the pets are missing you like crazy, we just want and need you back". Another media interview played for the jury was with Paul Byrne from TV3 News [now Virgin Media news] on July 14th, 2017 four months after his wife disappeared where Satchwell said he had been with Tina for 28 years and "never lifted a finger to her" during that time. RTE's Crimecall was broadcast on July 25th, 2017, where a tearful Richard Satchwell made a televised appeal for Tina to come home, looking directly into the camera and telling her: "Nobody is mad at you, the pets are missing you, just ring the guards, let people know you're alright." He told Barry Cummins on Prime Time Investigates, broadcast on RTE on January 25th, 2018, that "if someone tried attacking Tina she would pick the nearest thing up and whack them with it. That the type of person she is, she wouldn't be a pushover". Satchwell also told TV3 News viewers in July 2017 that he was "innocent of any wrongdoing". "One day my wife will turn back up or she will get in touch with gardai, one way or another it will all come out and in time will prove I've done nothing wrong," he said. Gardai searching Mitchell's Wood in Castlemartyr in March 2018 Another media interview played to the jury was with TV3 News on March 7th, 2018, at Mitchell's Wood in Castlemartyr, where a Garda search was taking place. Asked how difficult it was to go to the woods that day, Satchwell said he was "praying and hoping" the search came to nothing, but it was "racing through" his mind that his wife "could be behind them barriers". Satchwell said on Ireland AM on March 8th, 2018, that any person who had helped his wife "get out of Youghal" should be "ashamed" of themselves. 'Still out there' The trial heard that four years after Tina was reported missing, gardai conducted an enhanced cognitive interview with Richard Satchwell. The jury were told this method is regarded as one of the "gold standards" in statement-taking, as it is witness-led and "forensic" in detail. On June 20th, 2021, Satchwell told Detective Sergeant David Noonan that he "personally thought" Tina was "still out there somewhere". The defendant described crying on the evening he discovered Tina had left their home while their dog Heidi licked up his tears. He said the rest of the week was a blur and he waited for "the phone to go". He claimed that while his wife could be "nasty", minutes later it would be like it never happened; "she'd be apologising and crying". Satchwell said he had previously tried to end his life by taking a box of sleeping tablets in 1995, when he said Tina was in "one of her bad spells" and violent with him. He said he had only gone to the doctor with scratches in the past and "when you spread it over 28 years it's not as frequent as it sounds". The jury would later hear from retired GP Deirdre O'Grady, who remembered Tina attending her practice but had no recollection of the deceased informing her about Richard taking an overdose. The witness said she also did not remember being called out by Richard Satchwell to his home in April 1993. Satchwell told Det Sgt Noonan that he believed Tina was planning to leave him after her brother died in 2012 and had mentioned "200 or 300 times" over the previous 15 years that she was going to end their relationship. Thelma and Terry The trial heard that gardai noted several issues with Satchwell's account after a 2021 analysis of phones and laptops seized during the initial search of his home in 2017. Satchwell had sent text messages about problems he had in purchasing two Marmoset monkeys named "Thelma and Terry" at 10.46am on March 20th, 2017, around the same period when his wife had disappeared. One message had read: "I am in a mess right now because my wife has said she is leaving me over this". A similar email was also sent from Satchwell at 10.42am "in very close proximity to the killing" to the International Monkey Organisation from which the couple had been trying to buy the two animals. The email read: "I've put an awful lot of work into this and my wife is saying she will leave me over this". A laptop taken from Grattan Street had also been used to search for 'Quicklime' a substance thrown on top of bodies to aid the decomposition process at 9.08pm on March 24th, 2017, four days after Satchwell told gardai that Tina had left their home. A YouTube video on 'Quicklime and water reaction' was also viewed on two occasions seconds later. The trial heard that gardai also enlisted a forensic accountant to carry out a financial review of the couple's income and establish whether Tina had left with 26,000 from their savings as claimed by the accused. The accountant concluded there was "no sign" the Satchwells had received "a significant cash windfall" to provide them with such funds. A significant inconsistency lay in CCTV footage obtained from Youghal post office recorded at 11.13am on March 20th, 2017, which showed Satchwell claiming the dole. This was "in direct contradiction" to his statement that he had been in Dungarvan that morning, when Tina was allegedly taking money and packing suitcases. Flogging clothes Witnesses told the trial that Satchwell was "flogging" his wife's clothes at a car boot sale just weeks after her disappearance and had claimed that Tina had gone to her sister's in the UK after contracting a "terrible infection". Mary Crowley said she attended a car boot sale on April 17th, 2017, in Blarney and saw Satchwell with his stall selling Tina's 'Dr Martens' boots. She said Satchwell told her that he and his wife had moved into a house which had been unoccupied for 12 years and had mould or fungus. He said Tina had gotten a "very serious respiratory illness" and was in the UK. Satchwell told Ger Carey at the Blarney car boot sale that Tina was so ill she wouldn't be at car boot sales anymore. Linda Hennessy said she was at the Rathcormac car boot sale in late March or early April 2017 and met Satchwell, who told her Tina was very sick and in hospital. Sarah Dobson said she met Satchwell at a car boot sale on the May Bank Holiday in 2017, when he was selling Tina's clothes, boots and bags. She said he told her that Tina was very ill in hospital, had lost four stone in weight and was in England with her sister while he fixed the walls of their house. "I told him she would kill him for selling all the stuff," she said. Red flag The trial heard that Superintendent Annemarie Twomey was appointed senior investigation officer in the case on August 16th, 2021, by which point Tina Satchwell had been missing for four years and five months. Supt Twomey said that by February 2022, she had reviewed the case material and had reasonable grounds to believe that Tina was not a missing person and had met her death through unlawful means. She told the trial that at the end of August 2022, she had reasonable grounds to believe it was necessary to arrest Richard Satchwell as part of the investigation into the murder of Tina. However, she said he wasn't arrested at that stage as 58 other lines of inquiry needed to be exhausted. The jury heard that a key report was compiled by Dr Niamh McCullagh, who is a specialist in the search and recovery of human remains concealed in a criminal context. She was requested by Supt Twomey to conduct a review of the evidence and submitted her report on September 6th, 2023. Flowers and messages left near to the scene in Youghal, Co Cork. Photo: PA Dr McCullagh told the trial that domestic homicides studies have found the most commonly occurring method for a perpetrator is to create a verbal narrative and to file a false missing person's report. "My own research looked at cases in Ireland where homicides involving concealment after the event indicates that female victims are disposed of closer to their home address than their male counterparts. For all concealed homicide cases that have been studied in Ireland, victims are disposed of within one kilometre of their home address in the majority of cases," she told the trial. She said one of three possibilities she came to in her report was that Tina Satchwell had been killed at her home address and her body concealed there. Dr McCullagh said she had recommended to gardai that a more invasive search take place at Ms Satchwell's home as there had been structural changes to Grattan Street, which was a "red flag". She recommended that this include specifically the plasterboard, stairs and ground floor of the sitting room. The witness said she also recommended that the search include a cadaver dog to determine the possibility of buried remains. The trial heard that it wasn't until October 10th, 2023, that an "intrusive search" was conducted at Grattan Street. 'Bits and pieces' Satchwell was arrested at 5pm on October 10th, 2023, for the murder of his wife and brought to Cobh Garda Station. At the same time, the invasive search of Grattan Street was underway. In his interviews with gardai that night, Satchwell again repeated that he arrived home to find his wife, two suitcases and 26,000 missing. Giving another account of alleged violence, Satchwell said Tina would hit him, fling a plate at him and bite him. "Then she'd calm down and there would be tears and she'd apologise for it". He said he didn't hit her back. He said there had been a "few hundred" fights between them over 30 years; "times I'd hide in the attic when my family visited, times I had to take off work as I couldn't turn up looking the way I did. She had black bruises on her hands from repeatedly hitting me....someone said to her 'your arms are black' and she said she wouldn't hit me again". He said the couple never "took sexually again" after the suicide of Tina's brother in 2012, which made him feel "useless". "I never pestered her for sex during any point in the relationship". By October 11th, Satchwell was still under arrest when Sergeant David Noonan told him that his home was being "dug up", with gardai "going into the walls" and "looking at every inch of the house". Sgt Noonan told the defendant he would be shown certain photos of his house. In a video which was played to the jury, Satchwell could be seen viewing "live" pictures of the stairway in his home while he was in the interview room. When asked what he kept in a "cubby hole" under the stairs, Mr Satchwell replied: "Bits and pieces." It was just hours before gardai would discover Tina Satchwell's body buried there. Having detained Satchwell for the maximum period they could, gardai were forced to release him at 4.39pm on October 11th. Fern The trial heard that the search for Tina's body was led by a Cadaver Dog named "Fern", who had indicated the presence of human remains at the Satchwell home. Fern had been used to carry out a systematic search of the house, beginning on the top floor and working down through the property. The trial heard she became "very active" when the stairs were searched. Detective Garda Brian Barry said building contractors were using powerful lighting to examine under the stairs, when he spotted "different coloured concrete". "It was a newer pour of concrete, which was very suspicious to me and unusual". He said builders broke through the concrete and the site was dug until black plastic was exposed, which was found quite deep at 64cm from the surface. The jury were told that Fern went into "full freeze" mode, indicating the presence of human remains, when shown the black plastic. Gardai searching the property in Youghal, Co Cork. Photo: PA At that point, two forensic archaeologists took over the excavation of the scene and revealed a grave which was approximately three foot by six foot. The trial heard that the archaeologists continued their work until a hand was exposed. Tina Satchwell's remains were finally uncovered at around 8.35pm on the evening of October 11th, 2023 six years and seven months after her death. The trial heard that the site was fully excavated the next day, with Tina's remains removed from the clandestine gravesite and placed in a body bag. Consultant forensic anthropologist Laureen Buckley said there were no fractures to any of Ms Satchwell's bones, including the hyoid bone which the jury heard is "sometimes but not always" damaged in strangulation cases. Professor Paul Brady said he compared the remains with Tina Satchwell's dental records and found they were consistent with those of the missing woman. 'My Irish rose' The jury heard how, when he was re-arrested the following day, Richard Satchwell presented detectives with a completely new narrative. He now told gardai that he had been working in his shed on March 20th, 2017. When said that when he came back into the house, Tina was at the bottom of the stairs in her dressing gown with a chisel in her hand, scraping plasterboard that he had put up. Satchwell claimed that Tina "flew" at him with the chisel, that he had fallen backwards and described holding the belt of her bathrobe at her neck "until she got heavier". "Before I know it, it had all stopped, it just stopped. I put my arms around her, she fell down on top of me. I held her for a good 20 minutes or half an hour. The two dogs just there, sitting looking. They came over, started licking her; I just laid there. Sometime later, I don't know, I got up and just like to keep things normal". Satchwell told gardai he was holding his wife and kissing her on the head. He said this was the only time he ever "truly" defended himself against Tina and had held her corpse in his arms all night long. "There was no taking back; I just don't know. Shame, panic I don't know". Satchwell said he initially laid Tina on a couch and the next few days went by "in a blur". He described to detectives how he then put Tina's body inside a large chest freezer in the shed two days later, on March 22nd or 23rd. "I just lifted her into it and she fell in". Satchwell went on to advertise the same chest freezer on Done Deal on March 31st, having previously offered it to his wife's cousin. The ad read: "Large chest freezer free to take away, working perfect just needs a clean". The trial heard that one day beforehand, Satchwell sent a text message to Tina's cousin Sarah Howard asking: "Sarah do you want our big chest freezer?". Ms Howard became emotional as she told the jury that she did not respond to the message, which she thought was "very unusual and very strange". Satchwell would tell gardai: "I was robotic, working on automatic. My brain wasn't working. She was heavy, so heavy, it was like trying to lift a 10-tonne bag of coal". He said he dug out underneath the stairs with a spade and laid his wife on the black plastic on the kitchen floor. "I wanted her to know the hand that killed her was also the hand that loved her," he told detectives. Satchwell said he buried her the following Sunday afternoon March 26th under the stairs of their sitting room, as he wanted to keep her with him and didn't want to leave her alone. "I went and got roses and called her my Irish Rose but none - [it was] Mother's Day - so I got her tulips," he continued. He said it could have been 20 minutes or 20 hours, he didn't know how long it took to dig the hole. "It was light when I started and dark when I finished". "I ain't got no excuses; once it's done I couldn't take it back," he added. He described working in the tight space under the stairs and said his knuckles were bleeding. Satchwell cried as he told gardai: "I actually carried her into the hole, I didn't drop her into the hole, I wasn't disrespectful. I can remember folding the plastic around her, putting the flowers in". He said he put Tina's wedding ring in the pocket of her bathrobe, although the ring was not found with her remains. He told gardai that "the worst thing of all" was once the lies started, he couldn't stop and he had a "sense of relief" that the truth was out. Satchwell told detectives that he would sit on a little wooden stool and talk to the area in which he had buried Tina, the hardest thing being "not getting anything back". In later interviews, Satchwell claimed Tina was in a "blind rage" and her face was "distorted" when she attacked him. Asked by gardai whether he had caused Tina to die, the accused said he imagined it was the way she was forcing her weight down on top of him and the belt being where it was, "not being able to breathe". "I can't turn around and say, 'oh her neck was broke or strangulate', I don't know, it just happened so fast". He said this was the only time he ever "truly defended" himself against Tina. "I can't put it into words what happened. I should have just let her stab me, let it be the end of me," he said. "I'm not a monster," he told detectives. Cryptic Gardai told Satchwell that this description of his wife's death "didn't make sense" and was "most likely a physical impossibility". However, Satchwell said he wasn't trying to "bullsh*t" detectives. "I'm going to prison, there will be no jury because I'm going to plead guilty". Richard Satchwell arriving at the District Court in Cashel, Co Tipperary. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Satchwell also told gardai that if they produced any photographs of his wife's body in interview, he would not look at them, informing them: "I want to remember Tina the way she was, not the way I made her". On a clear October morning, Richard Satchwell was brought before Cashel Courthouse to be charged with the murder of his wife. During the trial, detectives denied that Satchwell was made to carry out a "perp walk", with defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC submitting that his client was "paraded before the press" while handcuffed to the front. When asked by Mr Grehan whether by doing so gardai as a "corporate entity" were "overcompensating" for their previous failures in the investigation, Det Garda David Kelleher said he could only speak about his involvement in the investigation from 2021. The trial heard that when he was finally charged with Tina Satchwell's murder, the defendant gave the cryptic reply: "Guilty or not guilty, guilty". By Cillian Sherlock, PA The daughter of a man who was shot dead after being revealed to be an IRA informer has called for an urgent public inquiry into the killing, which was a key issue in Gerry Adamss successful defamation action against the BBC. Mr Adams claimed a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, which he denies any involvement in. On Friday, the jury found in his favour and awarded him 100,000 in damages. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 20 years. His daughter, Jane Donaldson, was prevented from giving evidence to the jury during the BBCs defence of the case. Following the verdict, she said the case proves the need for an urgent public inquiry into the killing. In a statement on behalf of the family, Ms Donaldson said: By reducing events which damaged our lives to a debate about damage to his reputation, the plaintiff has trivialised our family tragedy. Daddys murder and surrounding circumstances devastated our family. The plaintiff [Gerry Adams] prioritised his own financial and reputational interests over any regard for retraumatising my family. We are still no closer to the truth. No-one spoke for my family in court. We supported neither side in this case. Speaking after the verdict, Mr Adams said: Im very mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of this long trial, and indeed of the victims families who have had to watch all of this. I want to say that the Justice Minister, Jim OCallaghan, should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can. However, Ms Donaldson criticised Mr Adams legal teams approach to her evidence. Although the plaintiff claimed sympathy for my family, his legal team objected to me giving evidence to challenge the account of his witnesses. The jury heard sensitive, privileged family information tossed around without our consent, but did not hear my testimony. Limitless legal resources and vast expense were invested in this case while there is supposedly a live Garda investigation into my daddys murder. The public interest can only now be fully served by some form of public inquiry, with a cross-border dimension which is ECHR Article 2-compliant, empowered to investigate the whole truth about the conspiracy to expose and murder my daddy. Ciaran Shiels, a solicitor who represented the family in the past, was called as a witness in the case. BBC videograb of Denis Donaldson Mr Shiels, a solicitor and partner at Madden and Finucane Solicitors, told the court the BBC was not only barking up the wrong tree but was in the wrong orchard over the claims against Mr Adams. Mr Shiels said he represented Mr Donaldson and his family from a period before his death until a period after the broadcast. He said he came to act as a spokesperson for the family after Mr Donaldsons death but said he no longer does so. Mr Shiels told the court the family do not accept or believe in any way that Mr Adams had anything to do with it. However, Ms Donaldson issued a statement after his appearance in court to say the family had not been consulted about him giving evidence in the case. She said she wanted to make clear Mr Shiels no longer acts for the family. Solicitor Ciaran Shiels outside the High Court in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) In a voir dire hearing without the presence of the jury, Ms Donaldson said she had followed the case very closely and very painfully over a number of weeks and felt compelled to contact the BBC because she felt there were inaccuracies presented as evidence in the case. She said the family did not accept the claim of responsibility for the killing by the dissident republican group the Real IRA. Ms Donaldson said her father had been thrown to the wolves and there was a conspiracy to deliberately expose him as an agent. She said it was the familys position that it had an open mind in relation to the murder and it was focused on pursuing the truth. Ms Donaldson also said she had no idea Mr Shiels was going to give evidence and she had not authorised it. She said Madden and Finucane represented her family until February this year but Mr Shiels was never appointed as a family spokesman. She said the family were not aware of the first meeting between Mr Shiels and BBC Spotlight journalist Jennifer OLeary about the programme, but were aware of subsequent meetings and other correspondence. When questioned by Tom Hogan, SC, for Mr Adams, she also acknowledged her husband, Ciaran Kearney, was later present at a meeting involving the BBC and Mr Shiels at the firms office. She said she knew her husband was going to meet them and he told her about the meeting afterwards. However, she stressed the family were not aware of the first meeting between Mr Shiels and Ms OLeary. Judge Alexander Owens. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Trial judge Alexander Owens intervened to say that was water under the bridge for the second meeting. Mr Hogan asked Ms Donaldson if she was aware of correspondence on behalf of the family responding to allegations about Mr Kearney. Ms Donaldson said Mr Shiels was speaking on behalf of the family at that time in relation to the specifics of the programme. Mr Hogan said Mr Shiels had told the court he no longer represented the family. Ms Donaldson said the statement she had issued on Mr Shielss relationship to the family was to contradict a newspaper report. She also said she felt there was a narrative that the family were in support of one side over the other when they were not. Judge Owens asked Ms Donaldson if Mr Shiels was speaking for the family on September 23rd, 2016, when he made representations to the media following a meeting with An Garda Siochana. She said he was at that stage, and acknowledged he was authorised to put out statements for the family over the years. Asked about Mr Shielss evidence when he said the family would have told the programme they did not believe Mr Adamss authorised the killing, she said she did not recall discussing that in detail or discussing Mr Adams in particular. She said their legal advice had been not to take part in the programme. Judge Owens asked if Mr Shiels had been right in relation to their view at the time, adding it may not be either here or there. Ms Donaldson replied: I think it is neither here nor there. She added she cannot recall a conversation about that at the time, adding the familys position has evolved over the years. Tom Hogan, barrister for former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Mr Hogan contended Ms Donaldsons comments had not borne out that Mr Shiels had provided a serious inaccuracy to the court. He said he was in fact authorised to act as a spokesperson for the family at the time. Paul Gallagher, SC, for the BBC, said it would be a fundamental unfairness to not allow Ms Donaldson to comment on the evidence put forward by Mr Shiels. Judge Owens said the Donaldsons were aware of Mr Shielss actions from the second meeting onwards. He told Ms Donaldson he appreciated all of her concerns and the points she made. However, he said his concern was whether her evidence was relevant to the jury making decisions. He said he had listened to counsel and her statements very carefully. Judge Owens said: While you do have all of these concerns, I dont think your evidence in relation to the matter is going to assist the jury in arriving at their decision. He added: In no circumstances am I going to permit you to give evidence to the jury. Tom Tuite A man faces sentencing after animal welfare inspectors last year found his scared, malnourished Dobermann confined in a squalid cage without fresh water, mired in her own excrement, at a Dublin property. Richard Vynsiauskas, originally from Lithuania but with a residential address at Old North Road, Coldwinters, failed to turn up for his scheduled hearing at Dublin District Court on Friday. Judge Anthony Halpin convicted him in his absence and issued a bench warrant to bring him before the court to be sentenced. He faces prosecution under the Animal Health and Welfare Act. It follows an inspection by the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA), which had to retrain the seven-year-old dog since renamed Delilah before she could be placed in a new home. DSPCA inspector Shane Lawlor told prosecutor Danny Comerford BL that he went to the property on April 16th last year following an allegation that the dog was cruelly treated. There was no one there when he arrived, and he found that the large Dobermann, weighing 45kg, was kept in a six-foot by six-foot cage with a makeshift kennel inside and a broken shelter. The enclosure was covered in faeces and "the smell was extremely overpowering." There was no clean water, and the dog came out of her kennel "very scared" and was suffering mentally. He described the Dobermann as "whale-eyed," a term to describe a frightened and nervous dog. The enclosure was covered in faeces and 'the smell was extremely overpowering', the court was told. Photo: DSPCA She was "pacing around, constantly standing in her own faeces, nowhere to sit or eat without standing or lying in her own waste." The conditions inside her kennel were the same. The inspector told Mr Comerford that his chief concern was that the animal had nowhere to move and was very scared. She looked malnourished and had inadequate shelter or space to express her behaviour. The accused agreed to surrender the dog. The DSPCA witness said a Dobermann, as an intelligent breed, responds well to training, but this dog was left "to waste away." That can lead to boredom and aggression, and it took the DSPCA just over six months to correct her behaviour before she could be re-homed. The court heard Vynsiauskas told him that he had "no time" to look after or let the dog out. The judge also noted she was not micro-chipped, the owner had no licence, and she had never been brought to a vet. Photos of the dog's living conditions were furnished to the court. The accused could face a 5,000 fine and six-month imprisonment. By Rebecca Black, PA Ireland is to lodge a formal letter of objection with Israel after shots were fired in the vicinity of peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. The incident came during a joint Irish United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and Lebanese Armed Forces patrol close to the Blue Line on Thursday. None of the Irish personnel who were recently deployed to Unifil as part of the 126th Infantry Battalion were injured in the incident. Oglaigh na hEireann said on Thursday that all personnel were reported to be safe and well, and that they continued to monitor the situation in southern Lebanon. Irish and Maltese peacekeeping troops on patrol in Lebanon earlier this year (Niall Carson/PA) Minister for Defence Simon Harris said he had been briefed by the incoming chief of staff Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy. He said just before midday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had fired shots into the patrol area. He also confirmed that a formal letter of objection from Ireland would be lodged with Israel via the UN on Friday. Brigadier General Mulcahy provided me with a detailed briefing on the serious events that took place yesterday involving Irish Defence Force personnel in southern Lebanon, Mr Harris said. Its clear to me that the actions of the IDF were reckless, intimidatory, totally unacceptable and a clear breach of the international rules surrounding peacekeeping. Brigadier General Mulcahy has assured me that all of our troops impacted are safe and well. They have been debriefed following the incident and patrols are continuing as normal today. I want to pay tribute to our personnel deployed with Unifil, who are operating in an increasingly volatile and tense environment. My officials in the Department of Defence will today formally lodge a protest letter over what happened yesterday and this will be communicated directly with Israel. Sean McCarthaigh Plans for a massive development of over 800 new homes in Cork city docks including a 35-storey apartment block have been refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanala. The board rejected an application by Tiznow Property Company Limited to construct 823 apartments on a 4.86 hectare site along the Marina and Central Park Road on the banks of the River Lee in Cork. The company is part of the well-known Comer property development group headed by billionaire brothers, Luke and Brian Comer. The proposed development involved the demolition of buildings on the site of the former Tedcastles Yard and the construction of six apartment blocks ranging from one to 35 storeys in height. The plans also incorporated commercial uses for each of the buildings including three cafes/restaurants, two pubs, seven retail units and a convenience store with an off-licence. Other facilities included a library, medical centre, pharmacy, post office and dentist as well as two creches. Tiznow claimed the development would create a vibrant city quarter that will support the growth of Cork City as a competitive European city. However, An Bord Pleanala has now refused planning permission for the multi-million euro project on the grounds that the proposed development would be visually obtrusive from a wide range of viewpoints in the city. The design of the tower element and the scale of riverfront development in combination with poor design in terms of facade treatment and architectural expression would seriously detract from the visual amenities and character of the area, the board said. It claimed the development would be seriously injurious to the visual amenities of the area and claimed the plans represented an inadequate design response to the context and opportunity of this site. The board also rejected the plans on the basis that part of the site was zoned for educational use under the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028. It noted that one apartment block was due to be located on the part of the site earmarked for schools or other educational facilities. The board said the plans consequently represented a material contravention of land use zoning policy in Cork city which would prejudice the future provision of educational facilities within the Cork Docklands area. The planning application had been made under the process for strategic housing developments which meant the applicant was not required to first obtain approval for the project from Cork City Council. However, the councils chief executive also recommended that planning permission should be refused for the project on the basis that it would be visually obtrusive and represented a poor design for a prime waterfront site on the Docklands. Council planners observed that there was no provision for active recreational infrastructure to meet the needs of around 2,000 residents apart from a childs play area, while the residential density was not compliant with the city development plan. They also remarked that the 35-storey building was not considered to be of acceptable architectural quality. By Cate McCurry, PA The family of murder victim Tina Satchwell described her as a kind, loving and gentle soul. Tinas cousin, Sarah Howard, said the family finally have justice following the conviction of Richard Satchwell. Satchwell, a British truck driver, was found unanimously guilty of the murder of his wife at their home in Co Cork. The 58-year-old had denied the murder of Mrs Satchwell on a date between March 19 and March 20 2017. Lorraine Howard, the half-sister of Tina Satchwell, speaks to the media outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA The jury in the trial returned the verdict on Friday afternoon at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. The jury had been deliberating for a total of nine hours and 28 minutes since Tuesday afternoon. Relatives of Mrs Satchwell wept as the guilty verdict was returned. Ms Howard, who gave evidence for the prosecution in the trial, said: During this trial Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was. Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our life meant so much to us all. We, as a family, can never put into words the impact that her loss has had on all of us. Tina was a kind, loving, gentle soul who loved her animals like they loved her and that is the way we want her remembered. Mary Collins, the mother of Tina Satchwell, outside the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Today, as a family, we finally have justice for Tina. Tinas half-sister, Lorraine Howard, thanked the judge, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, and the prosecution team, including senior barrister Gerardine Small. Your hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies you were. We will never be able to put into words how thankful we are for you. We want to sincerely thank the judge, the jury, for their dedication, she said. We would like to thank all the witnesses who helped us reach this verdict today. I would like to personally thank Sarah Howard, who came up to give evidence and her support two weeks postpartum from her beautiful baby girl. You did yourself and Tina proud. Thank you to [Superintendent] Ann Marie Twomey and [Detective Garda] Dave Kelleher for putting the pieces together and finding Tina. We would like to thank John OConnell, the victim support workers, for keeping our spirits high. Advertisement Cementir Holding NV has announced its intention to sell the Kars cement plant in Turkey, currently jointly-owned by two of its subsidiaries. Cimentas AS and Alfacem Srl have entered into a binding agreement with Arkoz Madencilik AS to divest 100 per cent of the share capital of Kars Cimento AS. The transaction has an enterprise value of EUR51m (US$57.8m) on a cash and debt-free basis. Completion is expected by the end of this year, subject to regulatory approvals. The Kars integrated cement plant, located in north-eastern Turkey, has a grey cement production capacity of 0.6Mta. It will join the 1Mta Dogubayazit integrated plant under Arkoz Madencilik's group ownership. In a statement, Cementir said the divestment is aligned with a strategy to optimise its geographic footprint and focus its strategic presence in western and central Turkey, where the group operates a vertically integrated model across cement, ready-mixed concrete, and aggregates. Middle Valley Church of God, 1703 Thrasher Pike in Hixson, announces that Pastor Mitch McClure will be preaching on "I'm Going To Do My Part By Following Jesus," this Sunday in the 10:30 a.m. service. "The goal of this sermon series is to assure the listener that they have access to God through Jesus Christ in all situations of life along with His promises to help," officials said.Each Sunday at 5:30 p.m., the church conducts a prayer meeting that is open to all, and is designed to encourage prayer. Information on various methods of prayer will be shared with participants."The goal of this prayer meeting is to encourage believers to seek God through prayer," officials said.Each Wednesday at 7 p.m., an interactive Bible study will be held in the church auditorium let by Craig Paul. "The goal of this Bible study is to encourage believers to study the Bible and discuss with others, making the Scripture their guide," officials said.Middle Valley Church of God is a community focused church with various ministries in the Middle Valley area and in Cusuna, Honduras. The community is welcome to join in times of worship and community service. MVCOG has been ministering in the Middle Valley Community since 1948 from the same location. If you have questions, contact the church office at 423-843-1539. All are welcome at any of the services.MVCOG will make public announcements about dangerous road conditions and cancellations. Postings about cancellations will be made on the church Facebook page. The Dalton Mayor and Council will consider a resolution to rename the City Council Chambers at Daltons City Hall in honor of the late Raymond A. Ray Elrod, Sr. at their Monday meeting. Mr. Elrod served as Daltons mayor from 2000 until 2008 following 12 years as a member of the City Council. He passed away on July 10, 2023 at the age of 85. A northwest Georgia native, Mayor Elrod graduated from the University of Georgia in 1959 with a degree in psychology, and also performed graduate work at UGAs Grady College of Journalism before launching a brief newspaper career in Anderson, S.C. His newspaper work brought him to Dalton the next year when he moved with his family to take a job in advertising with the Daily Citizen. After leaving the newspaper business, he was active in the textile industry for more than 60 years as an entrepreneur and business owner. In his obituary, his family said that his true passion was serving the people of Dalton, first as a City Council member for 12 years (1984-1987 and 1991-1999) and as mayor for eight years. During Mayor Elrods time in elected office, the city completed a number of projects that changed the face of the community. Those projects included the construction of City Hall as well as the streetscape renovations to downtown Dalton that helped to usher in an era of revitalization in the district. Mayor Elrod left a legacy of service to this community both in elected office and as a private citizen that is worthy of this recognition, said Mayor Annalee Sams. He loved this community, and he gave more than 20 years of service to make it great. Ray was the definition of Daltonian, said City Councilmember and former Mayor Dennis Mock. He was extremely dedicated to our community and enjoyed serving. Always willing to share his thoughts and experiences during my tenure. A great mentor. Resolution 25-06 will be read Monday night designating the Council Chambers as the Raymond A. Elrod, Sr. Council Chambers. The Mayor and Council meet at 6 p.m. on Monday at Dalton City Hall. Drivers traveling near the I-75 at I-24 interchange in Hamilton County should be aware of upcoming road construction activities that temporarily impact traffic. As part of Phase 2 (the second of two projects) to widen and improve the I-75 at I-24 interchange, Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) contract crews must implement weekend lane closures on I-75 near the SR 153 interchange to repair damaged concrete roadway slabs. Beginning Friday at 9 p.m. and continuing through Monday, June 2, at 6 a.m., contract crews will close the left lane on I-75 South from SR 153 to the bridge over the CSX railroad. Signs will be posted directing drivers through the modified traffic pattern. I-75 North will not be affected by this work. The roadway will reopen to traffic as soon as the new concrete cures long enough to pass the required strength testing. Drivers should consider an alternate route and are encouraged to avoid the area during these times. Significant delays are expected. Drivers should follow all posted signage and remain alert to changing traffic conditions. This work is weather-dependent. Should inclement weather or unforeseen circumstances cause delays, it will be rescheduled for a later date. Uniformed police officers will be present to assist with traffic control and law enforcement. Additional information and resources can be found on the projects website: https://www.tn.gov/tdot/ projects/region-2/i-75- interchange-at-i-24-phase2. html . As always, drivers are reminded to use all motorist information tools wisely and Know Before You Go! by checking travel conditions before leaving for your destination. Drivers should never tweet, text, or talk on a cell phone while behind the wheel. Get the latest construction activity traffic updates from the TDOT SmartWay Map. Travelers can also call 511 for statewide travel information. The survival of the fittest philosophy of Charles Darwin in the 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton that was part of the controversy over the constitutionality of the Butler Law (Anti-Evolution Act) passed by the Tennessee legislature in January, signed by the governor (Austin Peay) in March, and the defendant Scopes was indicted and arrested (not really) in May. The trial started on July 10 and a conviction was rendered by the jury on July 21 after a long deliberation of 5-9 minutes (a true speedy trial). The state approved text, that contained only five pages on evolution, was George W. Hunters Civic Biology: Presented in Problems (1914). The book had been selected in 1919 by the Tennessee Textbook Commission to be a science text in the public high schools in the Volunteer State for a period of five (5) years. Although its contract term had ended in 1924 it was still being used for instruction in Rhea County and was available for purchase at Frank E. Doc Robinsons drug store in Dayton. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was a naturalist and agnostic, whose most famous book was the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life (Origin of Species-1859). This lengthy treatise that formed the basis of the criminal case in the Scopes Trial consisted of a total of 5 pages out of 432 that discussed the subject of evolution. Although Darwin was dead in 1925 his name was used in the trial to attract business to the depressed Dayton community. One of the prominent photos of the historic trial was the J.R. Darwin clothing store which depicted two males and two females outside the store on Market Street in the metropolitan village. In The Scopes Trial- A Photographic History, (2010- The University of Tennessee Press/Knoxville) by Edward Caudill/Edward Larson/Jesse Fox Mayshark demonstrated how advertising tended to link products to the trial in some way, particularly with regard to the Darwinian theory of human evolution. The shrewd clothier took advantage of his last name by openly posting the front of the store with signs and banners. He also flippantly joked that his clothes were the fittest, a possibly play on words of survival of the fittest which was an underlying Darwins theory of evolution. A banner declaring Darwin is right inside, was strung across the building with a hand pointing toward the shop. A large sign DARWINS BIG SALE was displayed above the entrance to the store. In the store front window displayed less prominently was a mens bathing suit with a notation, GET COOL- BATHING SUIT. The temperature during the trial reached 100 degrees in the non-air conditioned courtroom and the availability of the cool natural springs of the local blue hole also provided a good advertising gimmick to the circus atmosphere in July 1925. John Scopes was also shown in a historical photo at the above swimming locale wearing a similar outfit to the model depicted in the Darwin store front window on Market Street in Dayton. When I have your wounded In his two Vietnam deployments, Brady flew more than 2,000 combat missions and daringly rescued an estimated 5,000 wounded Americans and friendlies. Patrick Brady was born in Philip, South Dakota, to Michael and LaVona Brady. The family moved to Washington State, where he graduated from O'Dea High School. At Seattle University, he disliked the mandatory ROTC curriculum but figured he would be drafted if he did not complete his degree.He received a bachelors degree and, having completed ROTC, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Medical Service Corps, part of the Army Reserve, in 1959. Six months later, he was transferred to active duty, serving in Berlin, Germany, from 1959 to 1963. He returned to the U.S., and then-1LT Brady trained at the Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He received his helicopter wings and became what ground-pounders called a Dustoff crew pilot an air ambulance pilot, which inevitably meant he would be deep in harms way. These legendary pilots risked all, flying into and landing in active combat zones to evacuate the wounded. In Vietnam, Patrick would serve two tours, the first with the 57th Medical Detachment, where his skills and courage would be tested repeatedly. He assumed command of the 57ths Detachment A at Soc Trang Airfield after his commanding officer, famed pilot Major Charles Kelly, was killed. Kellys last words were, When I have your wounded words of defiance over the radio when ordered to leave a hot landing zone in the midst of an intense firefight. Those words became the motto of the Dustoff crews. The day after Major Kellys death, Patricks commanding officer entered his office and tossed the bullet that killed Kelly onto his desk. He asked if this was sufficient to convince Patrick that his unit must stop flying into hot zones so aggressively. Patrick picked up the bullet and responded, We are going to keep flying exactly the way Kelly taught us to fly, without hesitation, anytime, anywhere. Completing his first tour in Vietnam, then-CPT Brady returned stateside to Ft. Benning, where he would remain until 1967. In July of that year, he was promoted to Major and reassigned to the 54th Medical Detachment, 67th Medical Group, 44th Medical Brigade, and deployed to Chu Lai, Vietnam, for his second tour. It was on an evac mission near Chu Lai on 6 January 1968, just another day at the office, when Patrick Brady would earn his Medal of Honor. In a summation of his Medal of Honor citation, the Medal of Honor Society notes: "Brady shooed away warnings that nasty weather, jungles latticed with mines and the constant crawl of enemy troops made his planned rescue flight a suicide mission. "He steered his UH-1H Bell Iroquios ambulance helicopter into a cloud-swaddled valley, tilting his Huey gingerly to blow backwash along a twisted trail, herding the dense fog back into the trees. Braving enemy small arms fire, he landed the chopper in a tight site and lifted off with two badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers. His Huey then skipped across the fog to find American casualties, in a spot only 50 meters from the enemy. "Two helicopters were crumpled nearby, grisly evidence of vain attempts by other American rescuers to reach the wounded. Brady would make four trips into the landing zone, saving all the casualties, even after his helicopter controls had been shot away and his Huey peppered with holes. "He then borrowed another helicopter and sped to a minefield, where an American platoon was trapped. A detonation near his chopper wounded two crew members, but Brady flew six patients to the aid station. "By the end of that bloody day, hed used three helicopters to save 51 wounded men. In his two Vietnam deployments, Patrick flew more than 2,000 combat missions and daringly rescued an estimated 5,000 wounded Americans and friendlies." All told, he served in the Army for 34 years, rising to the rank of Major General. Over the course of his service, in addition to the Medal of Honor, he was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Distinguished Service Medals, and a Distinguished Service Cross, among other medals and awards, making him one of our nations most highly decorated soldiers. Patrick retired in 1993 and lives in Sumner, Washington, with his wife his high school sweetheart, Nancy. They have six children, two of whom are graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point. His daughter, Meghan, was also an ROTC graduate from Seattle University and served as an officer in both Kosovo and Iraq with the Medical Service Corps. He has always been a man of devotion to God and our country, and lived to tell his story. He is dedicated to the Medal of Honor Society educational initiatives, promoting the core values common to recipients. He works with kids across the country: I define Americas nobility, what is a real hero, the key to success in life, the key to happiness in life, and the key to the future of America. He adds: Valor and acts of courage are interesting, but theyre not useful unless theyre inspirational. If we pin these kids down and get them to thinking, and they look at examples of Medal of Honor Recipients and what theyve done, it can be inspirational. Were using the intrinsic values of the Medal courage, sacrifice, and patriotism to teach them the key to success in life. Its just a joy to see them, to listen to whats on their mind, and to try and inspire them. Summing up his perspective: Mediocrity and failure result from choice, not chance. Success is born of courage alone, and God has made this marvelous gift infinitely available to all who ask for it. In 2001, Patrick was inducted into the Dustoff Association Hall of Fame, and in 2013, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Notably, in October 2024, he joined other Medal of Honor recipients with a rare public presidential endorsement for Donald Trump. MG Patrick Henry Brady: Your example of valor a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty and in disregard for the peril to your own life is eternal. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down ones life for his friends." (John 15:13) Live your life worthy of his sacrifice. Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis Pro Deo et Libertate -- 1776 Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harms way in defense of American Liberty, and for Veterans, First Responders, and their families. As the 2025 session of the 114th Tennessee General Assembly ends, I want to highlight how lawmakers came together to deliver results that strengthen our state. Despite challenges, we stayed focused on improving education, protecting natural resources, supporting law enforcement and growing the economy, passing bipartisan legislation that meets local and statewide needs. Preserving farmland and honoring agricultural heritage Tennesseans share a responsibility to protect the land that defines us. This year, I led efforts to create the Farmland Preservation Fund and co-sponsored the Tennessee Century Farms Act. These initiatives support conservation and rural vitality. The Farmland Preservation Fund, will be administered by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, enabling nonprofit partners to work with landowners to place permanent conservation easements on working farmland and forestland. Landowners who participate keep full rights to farm, harvest timber and build agricultural structures. The Century Farms Act recognizes farms in continuous family operation for at least 100 years. It directs the TDA to maintain a database, provide commemorative signs and educate the public about these farms contributions. Together, these measures preserve land that feeds our communities and honors families who have cared for it across generations. Improving transportation and emergency services Tennessees population growth and more fuel-efficient vehicles are shrinking gas tax revenues that fund road repairs and construction. At the same time, infrastructure costs are rising. To help find sustainable solutions, I passed a law directing the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to study long-term transportation funding. The study will examine options like road usage fees, rental car surcharges and reallocating vehicle-related sales tax revenue. I also passed legislation to keep vehicle registration services available during emergencies. If a county clerks office must close, another can temporarily provide services. This helps maintain vital operations and public confidence during disruptions. This session, the General Assembly allocated $1 billion to the Tennessee Department of Transportation to speed up road projects statewide as part of the $59.8 billion state budget. Supporting firefighters and National Guard veterans Lawmakers made strides in supporting public safety workers and veterans. A law I co-sponsored expands the Barry Brady Act by adding prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer to the list of conditions presumed to result from firefighting. Firefighters must first pass a medical exam showing no signs of cancer. This expansion ensures those who serve on the front lines receive necessary care and support. I also passed legislation extending state benefits to honorably discharged National Guard veterans. It allows members to use a DD 256 or NGB Form 22 to verify eligibility, ensuring Tennessee recognizes all who serve, regardless of branch. Increasing safety and public awareness Lawmakers approved $378 million in new public safety funding this session, including $38 million for 116 new Highway Patrol positions, $175 million for public safety grants and $6 million to add 22 positions at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as part of the state budget. The legislature passed laws that toughen penalties for sex offenders, increase consequences for child abuse and create a domestic violence offender registry through Savannas Law. I supported two new laws that improve safety and raise awareness. One helps commercial property owners remove people who are illegally occupying their property. It lets owners or agents quickly ask the sheriff to remove unlawful occupants, helping law enforcement protect property and prevent crime. The other, the Ink of Hope Act, provides tattoo artists with up to one hour of free training on how to spot signs of human trafficking. The training, approved by the Tennessee Human Trafficking Advisory Council, teaches professionals how to report concerns and connect potential victims with resources. Looking ahead We made solid progress this year, but our work continues. As Tennessee grows, we must stay focused on long-term solutions that serve everyone, urban and rural, young and old. In the coming months, I will keep meeting with constituents, listening to your concerns and preparing for next sessions priorities. Whether the issue is education, health care or public safety, I remain committed to representing your values in Nashville. Thank you for your trust. Serving in the Tennessee General Assembly is an honor, and I look forward to building a stronger, safer and more prosperous Tennessee. Delanie ODell said earning a journalism degree as part of her double major will help her be more effective in her intended career as a lawyer. Home News Ex-Ukrainian MP calls on Congress to stop funding Christian persecution Billionaire philanthropist: 'Satanism is flourishing in Ukraine' A former Ukrainian parliamentarian and prominent philanthropist is calling on the U.S. Congress to ensure that the financial support it sends to Ukraine isn't enabling the persecution of Christians. In a May 23 interview on "The Tucker Carlson Show," Vadym Novynskyi, a Russian-born billionaire businessman, accused the Ukrainian government, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, of waging a campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The UOC has historic ties to the Moscow Patriarchate but officially severed those ties in May 2022 in opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe UOC is different from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was officially recognized by most global Orthodox Church leaders in 2019 and is independent of Russian influence. "Unfortunately, our government, led by Zelensky, has opened up a campaign of persecution and oppression against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest church in Ukraine, the largest denomination of Christians in Ukraine," Novynskyi told Carlson. According to Novynskyi, there were 12,000 parishes and 7 million believers in the UOC before the war. Despite this, Novynskyi claimed, as many as 97% of Ukrainians "voted for Zelensky as the president of peace," yet "he is doing this to our church. He's persecuting and oppressing our church." Novynskyi, who served three terms in the Ukraine Parliament and has been a Ukrainian citizen since 2012, also pointed to what he sees as escalating persecution toward Christians over the past decade, citing a law passed last year by the Parliament of Ukraine that bans churches and religious groups with ties to Moscow. "Our archbishops are subjected to persecution," he said. "There are completely false criminal cases opened up against them. Our parishioners [are] beaten, our church is taken away, so Satanism is flourishing in Ukraine." Novynskyi, who has earned several UOC awards, including being named in 2019 to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and Order of the UOC "The Nativity of Christ," cited specific cases of persecution against church metropolitans, including those under house arrest. Addressing U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of Congress, Novynskyi made a direct appeal: "It would be good if the money that comes in, if we don't spend it to support those who are seizing our churches, the only canonical in Ukraine, the largest denomination, the thousand-year-old church that is Ukrainian Orthodox Church." "I wish that the assistance and funding being provided keep being provided to the Ukrainian people. Right now, Ukrainians are struggling for survival. They are struggling for the survival of their families. ... Ukrainian authorities live in parallel realities. The Ukrainian people are thinking of how to survive and how to feed their families, how to be happy. It is a completely different reality from the Ukrainian authorities. The authorities live a different life and they profit from war." In January, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Novynskyi with high treason and incitement to religious hatred for promoting "Russian narratives" since the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in the south of Ukraine. Novynskyi is one of the wealthiest men in Ukraine, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion in 2023. The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom both have warned that Russia "systematically" persecutes many Christian churches, except the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. In December 2022, Russian occupation officials formally banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in occupied territories, in addition to Caritas Ukraine and the worldwide Catholic brotherhood of the Knights of Columbus. Some human rights experts in the U.S., such as Nina Shea from the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, see Ukraine's crackdown on what is termed "weaponized churches" as justified, citing the fact that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has backed the invasion of Ukraine. "Religion was not Putin's primary reason for invading Ukraine, but Kirill has been his stalwart partner in the fight," wrote Shea, a former member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in a January 2024 National Review op-ed. However, some affiliated with impacted churches have pushed back on claims that they are pro-Russian. The UOC has issued statements denouncing the invasion, most recently in March, when Metropolitan Onufriy stated that the "Motherland has been suffering from the horrible bloodshed [from] the Russian army" and that "Nothing can be an excuse for those who break the blessed peace, multiply hatred, and sow death." "The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, regardless of slander, speculation, and artificial accusations, remains with her people, caring about their well-being and the coming of a just peace in our Motherland," Onufriy stressed. Home News Francis Chan reveals why he left his megachurch for house church movement Former megachurch pastor Francis Chan, who founded the We Are Church house church network in 2011, says he stepped away from the megachurch model of worship due to a confluence of reasons, including a feeling that he would have more followers than Jesus and Paul if they existed in America's current Christian Culture. Chan, who founded Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, in 1994 and led it for nearly 16 years before stepping down in 2010, looked back on his departure during an interview with Christian rapper Lecrae on his podcast "Deep End with Lecrae." "I remember one night telling my wife ... I just looked at her, and a thought came to me. I go, 'Honey, I feel like if the Apostle Paul or Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger, and that is bothering me,'" he told Lecrae. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "I would have a bigger church than Jesus [be]cause I know how to keep a crowd. They didn't. And so you start realizing, 'Well, am I really being like Christ?' And then as I'm looking in the scriptures and I'm looking at what's commanded, like if God could have anything of a church, what is the main thing in Scripture?" he reasoned. While Chan seems to suggest that Jesus and the Apostle Paul didn't know how to keep a crowd, the Bible records both figures ministering to large crowds on multiple occasions. Jesus regularly engaged his audience, sometimes numbering in the thousands, using a combination of preaching, teaching, and miracles, as seen in His feeding of the 5,000, where some estimates contend that up to 20,000 people could have been present. In addition to his concern that he probably would have had more followers than Jesus and Paul in Simi Valley, Chan questioned if the people in his church were loving "one another as much as Christ loved us." "I'm like, that's not what I created. I got a bunch of people, thousands of people; we're playing church," he said. Chan said he was also concerned that the supernatural gifts of the Early Church weren't manifesting in his megachurch. "Everyone in that church [Early Church] has a supernatural gift for the body, and I'm thinking, 'OK if I got 5,000 people with supernatural Holy Spirit like God is in them either speaking through them, healing through them, whatever it is. There's 5,000 people with some sort of gift, and I don't know any of these gifts, and they're not being used in the church," he said. He said his departure wasn't caused by "one thing" but more of a "perfect storm of all these truths of Scripture coming to my mind." All Chan wanted to do, he said, was "be faithful to [God's] word." "I can let go of the numbers, I can let go of the fame, the money, everything else," Chan said. "I want to please You." "I finally thought, I think I'm causing more problems than I'm helping the church, so that's when I decided, you know, let me step away and maybe get my thoughts together and maybe create something different," he continued. Chan said he may have been a bit idealistic about what he expected his house church movement to look like, but he maintains that he is now much more at peace with himself. "I would have felt so unfaithful if I didn't make the switch. Now, there was some idealism in my head; I thought this will be easy. They do it in China. There's 100 million of them in house churches. So, hey, this is going to be millions of people, and you realize, yeah, this is not easy. But I have peace, and that's where before I didn't have peace," Chan said. "It may not look as successful having a bunch of homes everywhere with small groups that are loving each other and different people using their gifts, but I feel peace about it. I feel like I know, I really love these people, and they genuinely love me, and these relationships are deep, and a lot of them are using their spiritual gifts." The 57-year-old says even though he is at peace with his house church movement, there are days when he feels the urge to get back in front of a crowd. But he believes the megachurch model is getting harder to sustain. "I'm not going to lie; there are days when I think, 'Gosh, I really am more gifted to be in front of a crowd and just teach.' [If] you [are] just look[ing] at natural gifting, I'm better as a megachurch pastor, and who knows, I may go back to it someday," he said. "But I go right now, this is the peace that I have, and I believe this is the future. It is getting harder and harder for these guys with the big churches. You know a lot of them are good friends of mine, and they're miserable, and it's just a tough time to shepherd the big [churches]." Home News Michigan pastor sentenced to years in prison for putting camera in church bathroom A Michigan pastor has been sentenced to serve at least 68 months in prison after confessing to having placed a hidden camera in a bathroom at his church's property. Former 2|42 Community Church Pastor William Johnson, 38, was sentenced in Livingston County by 44th Circuit Court Judge Matthew McGivney to at least 68 months, with a maximum of 20 years. "You have shattered what we, as a community, value most: the sense of safety and security," McGivney told Johnson, as quoted by The Livingston Daily. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "When the headlines broke about the actions at your church, every family in this community thought, 'Was I filmed? Was my wife filmed? Was my child filmed?'" For his part, Johnson read from a prepared statement that he took complete responsibility for his actions, describing himself as "evil and lost" for what he did. "I'll never be able to take the hurt away or undo what I've done, but I'm genuinely sorry," Johnson stated, as quoted by Livingston Daily. "I'm sorry for the shame that I brought on the name of Jesus and to the church." The former worship pastor director of the Brighton campus of 2|42, a nondenominational multisite church, Johnson was arrested last September when he reportedly confessed to church leaders to having placed a hidden camera in a unisex bathroom on the campus. Multiple individuals, including at least one teenage minor, were among those clandestinely filmed by Johnson over the course of two years. The facility in question was only accessible to staff and volunteers rather than the general public. Craig Ryan, chairman of the 2|42 Community Church Leadership Advisory Team, sent an email to the congregation at the time, noting that, following his confession, church leaders immediately contacted the Livingston County Sheriff's Office. "At this time, we are not aware of the full scope of this crime, but we are fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation," wrote Ryan, adding that he was "shocked and deeply saddened by this situation as the protection, safety, and privacy of every person who enters our church is our priority." "Like you, we are devastated," he continued. "Our desire and our consistent commitment is that the church should be the safest place in our community, which is why Will and all of our employees undergo thorough background checks." Tony Johnson, lead pastor of the multi-campus congregation who is not related to William Johnson, said in a message days after the arrest that he and church staff "have shed more tears than we thought possible." "This has been a violation of our trust. It's a violation of the call that God has upon us to help people take next steps with God. This is an assault upon the entire church. It's a betrayal of the trust that I put in him. And it's a betrayal of the trust that you put in us," the senior pastor said. William Johnson eventually faced 15 charges, including one count of child sexually abusive activity, one count of tampering with evidence, two counts of possessing child sexually abusive material, four counts of surveilling an unclothed person, and seven counts of using a computer to commit a crime. In April, he pleaded guilty to all 15 counts, having reportedly previously confessed to police detectives when he was first arrested in September at his home in Howell. Home News Report refutes 'baseless' claim that abortion pill is 'safer than Tylenol' A pro-life group has released a peer-reviewed report pushing back against what it calls a "baseless" claim that abortion drugs are just as safe as common pain-relief drugs like Tylenol. The Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, published a report in BioTech earlier this week refuting assertions that the abortion pill mifepristone is safer than Tylenol. In a statement coinciding with the report's release, report author and CLI Director of Life Sciences Carmen Loutit noted that "the abortion lobby's claim that abortion drugs are 'safer than Tylenol' has dominated public discussion, propelled by the illusion of scientific consensus." Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "However, no such support exists," she added. "This baseless claim, repeated by medical societies, politicians, media pundits and researchers, has profoundly influenced public opinion and policy. But, as this paper details, those spreading it lack the evidence they routinely claim." Loutit cited an assertion made by Connecticut's Democratic Attorney General William Tong, who was one of 18 attorneys general filing a lawsuit over the Food and Drug Administration's restrictions on the distribution of mifepristone. "Mifepristone is safer than Tylenol. We have more than 20 years of clear and conclusive scientific evidence proving that. We're asking the judge now to cut to the chase to strike the needless political red tape and order new rules based on science and safety," Tong said in an October 2024 statement. Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, actively promotes the claim on its website that "medication abortion is very safe." "In fact, it's safer than many other medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra," the website reads. "Serious problems are rare, but like all medicines, there can be risks." When examining the origin of the claim, the CLI report points to a 2003 Chicago Tribune article detailing the death of a teenager after taking mifepristone. "Dr. David Grimes, an abortion provider and past chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) abortion surveillance branch, was asked for comment," Loutit summarized. "Against the CDC's then-current figure of slightly less than one per 100,000 deaths in those seeking abortion, he juxtaposed an uncited two per 100,000 death rate associated with penicillin and concluded that 'having an abortion this way is safer than that.'" "Comparisons to sildenafil and acetaminophen soon followed in a 2004 editorial in the journal Contraception," he continued. "There, authors from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) wrote that 'mifepristone is safer than Viagra', again citing death rates, and that 'acetaminophen (Tylenol) causes more deaths each year.'" The FDA's advertising guidelines have described any assertion that one drug is safer than another as "false, lacking in fair balance, or otherwise misleading" if "it has not been demonstrated to be safer or more effective in such particular by substantial evidence or substantial clinical experience." "It is essential to state unequivocally that there has never been a single study appropriately comparing the safety of mifepristone and [Tylenol] or any of the common drugs presented in these claims, let alone a 20-year history of 'clear and conclusive scientific evidence' to this end," Loutit wrote. "Indeed, given that such a study would require similar indications for use, it is not possible for one to be undertaken." "This alone is sufficient reason to qualify such comparisons as false and/or misleading and to contest their use to influence public and individual decision-making." Loutit argues that "using death counts or death rates from different studies, at different times, and in vastly different populations, they asserted a reductionist definition of safety and compared numbers that are entirely incomparable." Mifepristone has found itself in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the past year. It characterized assurances of mifepristone's safety by comparing its death rates to those of other drugs as ineffective. CLI cites a more recent study examining 1,596 survey respondents' reported pain experiences after taking mifepristone, which found that on a scale of one to 10, 41.5% of those surveyed described their pain as at least an eight, while 30.4% characterized it as "a lot more than expected." "[B]ecause these side effects are known results of the drug's mechanism of action, such experiences are dismissed despite both their severity and the possibility that they may mask an emergent condition," the report concluded. The CLI report is not the only work published by a conservative advocacy organization in recent weeks, raising concerns about the safety of the abortion pill. Last month, the Ethics and Public Policy Center published a study finding that more than 10% of women who take the abortion pill experience adverse effects. Home News California Supreme Court rejects appeal from Christian baker who refused to make gay wedding cake The California Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal in a case surrounding a Christian baker who faces punishment for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. The state high court issued an order list on Wednesday in which it declined to hear an appeal in the case of California Department of Civil Rights v. Tastries, allowing a lower court ruling against the bakery owner to stand. Adele Keim, senior counsel at Becket, the law firm helping to represent Tastries owner Cathy Miller, denounced the state supreme courts decision, saying it goes against U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe As the United States Supreme Court has made clear twice already, creative professionals like Cathy Miller shouldnt have to choose between following their faith and practicing their art, said Keim in a statement released Thursday. California should have dropped its campaign against Cathy years ago and let her design in peace. We plan to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court to defend Cathys right to make custom creations that are consistent with her faith. In 2017, the California Civil Rights Department filed a complaint against Miller shortly after she declined to make a same-sex couple a wedding cake, alleging that she violated the states Unruh Civil Rights Act. Miller, whose company Tastries also does business as Cathys Creations, had refused to make the cake on the basis of her holding religious objections to same-sex marriage. California Superior Court Judge David Lampe of Kern County ruled in favor of Miller in 2018, rejecting a request for a preliminary injunction against the Christian baker. "The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered," wrote Lampe. "Furthermore, here the State minimizes the fact that Miller has provided for an alternative means for potential customers to receive the product they desire through the services of another talented baker who does not share Miller's belief." In October 2022, Kern County Judge Eric Bradshaw ruled that Californias Department of Fair Housing and Employment failed to prove that Miller had engaged in discrimination. "Miller's only motivation, at all times, was to act consistent with her sincere Christian beliefs about what the Bible teaches regarding marriage," wrote Bradshaw. "That motivation was not unreasonable, or arbitrary, nor did it emphasize irrelevant differences or perpetuate stereotypes." But in February, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fifth Appellate District ruled against Miller, concluding that the baker engaged in intentional discrimination" to refuse to sell a pre-designed white cake to the couple for their wedding. The court argued that because the request did not convey any explicit endorsement of same-sex marriage, it was not pure speech and thus could have been deployed for any number of different purposes. To conclude this cake is primarily an act of artistic self-expression entitled to First Amendment protection is to hold that any product artfully designed and prepared to have an aesthetically pleasing appearance e.g., catering displays, cars, homes, jewelry, quilts, shoes, clothing and handbags to name only a few is protected speech, read the ruling. Not only would such an expansive conception of artistic self-expression drain the First Amendment of meaning, it would invite broad potential disruption to the stream of commerce, where the mere act of providing routine, artfully designed consumer products without any indicia or characteristics associated with speech would be transformed into the self-expression of their maker/designer. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips, who faced hostility from the state government for refusing to make a custom same-sex wedding cake. The court found Phillips' use of artistic abilities to make a wedding cake carries a "significant First Amendment speech component and implicates his deep and sincere religious beliefs." The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Colorado couldn't force a Christian web designer to design websites celebrating same-sex marriage. Home News FBI investigates Supreme Court Dobbs leak that sparked wave of violence against churches, pro-life groups The FBI will revisit several high-profile unsolved incidents, including the 2022 leak of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which sparked a wave of violence against churches and pro-life pregnancy centers across the country. In a Monday X post announcing the agency's plan to take up the case, Deputy Director Dan Bongino said he expects the incoming reform teams to be in place by next week. The hiring process is reaching the "finish line" and "will help us both in doubling down on our reform agenda," he added. "Shortly after swearing in, the director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest. We made the decision to either re-open or push additional resources and investigative attention to these cases," Bongino stated. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration's White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case," the FBI deputy director added. "I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly, and we are making progress. If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI." In May 2022, Politico published a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organiztion, which overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to once again determine their own abortion laws. After the draft opinion was leaked, radical abortion activists burned, vandalized and looted multiple churches and pro-life advocacy organizations. Shortly before the release of the finalized Dobbs opinion, authorities arrested a California man in early June 2022 near the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Police detained the man close to the justice's house in Chevy Chase, Maryland, after saying that he wanted to kill Kavanaugh due to his likely support for overturning Roe. The man had multiple weapons on him, including a gun, knife and pepper spray at the time of his arrest, and he faced charges related to attempting to murder a Supreme Court justice. The targeted violence continued after the official release of the Dobbs decision in June 2022. While some of the vandals responsible for attacking churches and pregnancy resource centers were arrested, many are still at large. While the Supreme Court later launched its own investigation in 2023 into the leak that sparked such violence, the inquiry didn't result in the identification of a suspect. According to a statement released by the high court at the time, the Marshal of the Supreme Court and her staff spent months analyzing forensic evidence and conducting interviews with about 100 employees. The Marshal and her team "determined that no further investigation was warranted with respect to many of the '82 employees [who] had access to electronic or hard copies of the draft opinion." Bongino said the FBI will look also look into the discovery of cocaine inside the White House in 2023 during former President Joe Biden's administration. The U.S. Secret Service personnel discovered a white substance while conducting routine rounds of the building. The substance was in a small, zipped bag, and the personnel found it near the ground floor entrance to the West Wing. The FBI will take another look into a case involving the planting of two pipe bombs on Jan. 5, 2021. One of the bombs was planted close to the Democratic National Committee, and the other near the Republican National Committee. Home News HHS reviewing use of taxpayer funds to pay for sex change surgeries The federal government is urging healthcare providers to familiarize themselves with a new report calling into question the effectiveness of so-called gender transition procedures on minors and has launched a review of the use of public funding to cover the life-altering interventions. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a letter to healthcare providers and state medical boards nationwide Wednesday urging them to read a report the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published earlier this month on the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria. The review of evidence and best practices advised against using the World Professional Association of Transgender Health guidelines for treating children with gender dysphoria. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Performing hormonal or surgical gender transition procedures on minors, which the WPATH guidelines encourage, comes with more risks than benefits, the review suggests. Kennedy's letter was published the same day that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a notice to several hospitals that perform such procedures, informing them of the federal government's efforts to conduct an "Urgent Review of Quality Standards and Gender Transition Procedures." CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz requested that hospitals provide the agency with information about gender transition procedures previously performed there within the next 30 days. Specific information sought by Oz included "informed consent protocols for children with gender dysphoria, including how children are deemed capable of making these potentially life-changing decisions and when parental consent is required." Oz also wants to know what "changes to clinical practice guidelines and protocols that your institution plans to enact in light of the recent comprehensive review of medical evidence and corresponding guidance released by the Department." Hospitals are asked to list "any adverse events related to these procedures, particularly children who later look to detransition." Insisting that "CMS has an obligation to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars," Oz said the intention is to conduct "a comprehensive review of federal payment policies related to gender transition procedures for patients under 19 years of age." Gender surgeries can come with costs ranging from just over $50,000 to over $130,000. Oz asked the institutions to "provide complete financial data for all pediatric sex trait modifications performed at your institution and paid, in whole or in part, by the federal government." The financial data requested by Oz included revenue and profits generated by the facilities and providers from these procedures since 2020. The letters to healthcare providers and hospitals are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to crack down on the life-altering interventions for minors. In an executive order he signed just a week after taking office earlier this year, President Donald Trump declared, "It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit these destructive and life-altering procedures." The Trump administration's executive order and subsequent actions designed to crack down on the performance of gender transition procedures on youth come after more than two dozen states passed laws banning minors from obtaining some or all types of these procedures in light of concerns about their long-term impact. The American College of Pediatricians has warned that puberty-blocking drugs, which are often prescribed to youth with gender dysphoria, can cause "osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility." Possible side effects of cross-sex hormones, also frequently prescribed to trans-identified children, include "an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan." Gender transition surgeries involve the removal of healthy body parts that align with an individual's biological sex or the creation of artificial body parts that correspond to a person's stated gender identity. The American Academy of Pediatrics clarified in 2022 that it doesn't recommend gender reassignment surgeries to most youth but said so-called "gender-affirming care" can be life-saving." Home News 'God uses ordinary people': Greg Laurie reflects on evangelistic calling, legacy of Billy Graham Evangelist Greg Laurie, with a global ministry, has led 1 million people in commitments to the Lord in the past five decades. The personal story of salvation for the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship based in California and Hawaii has also been the main focus of the widely acclaimed Lionsgate movie, "Jesus Revolution," set in the 1960s and 1970s and starring Joel Courtney as a teenage Laurie with Jonathan Roumie (Jesus in "The Chosen" TV series) as Christian hippie Lonnie Frisbee. Laurie gave an exclusive interview to Christian Daily International/Christian Post before publicly speaking about "The gift and calling of an evangelist" at the European Congress on Evangelism, organized by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, held this week at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Berlin, Germany. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Laurie recalls a private moment with the late Billy Graham whom he calls one of the greatest, if not the greatest evangelist in human history, apart from the Apostles when the two had lunch together some time before Graham passed away in 2018. Laurie asked the older evangelist for his wisdom: If an older Billy could speak to a younger Billy, what would you say to yourself? I would remind myself to preach more on the cross of Christ and the blood of Christ because that is where the power is, replied Graham. I have never forgotten that, Laurie reflects, and Im going to mention that to the evangelists here [in Berlin] because the message of the evangelist is very simple and we have to avoid complicating it. Laurie spent a lot of time with Graham towards the end of his ministry and has been on the BGEA board of directors for 25 years. He accompanied Graham at crusades, supported behind the scenes and helped the older evangelist with preparing messages at Grahams personal request. This privilege of spending time with Billy Graham became a time of great training for Laurie. It helped him to see that some things you can have taught to you by a person, but other things you observe by being with them. You look at their lifestyle and how they carry themselves and how approachable they are to people and that sort of thing. I felt like I was enrolled in the finest evangelist university on Earth because there's no greater evangelist of the 20th century than Billy Graham, he adds. And he brought the Gospel to more people than any other person ever. Laurie misses Graham, an extraordinarily gifted evangelist who was also a pastoral figure to every American president going back to Harry Truman to [Barack] Obama. We don't have anyone quite like him on the scene today, and I wish we did. But, you know, sometimes people claim they're carrying on the ministry of Billy Graham or they've taken the mantle of Billy Graham." I think Billy Graham was called to be Billy Graham. I think we're all called to bring the Gospel to our generation in our way. It was said of David, he served God in his generation. And that's what Billy did. He served God in his generation. This understanding of integrity needing to be prevalent within the core of an evangelists private life, as it was with Billy Graham, is important for Laurie who brings to the Berlin congress an encouragement for fellow evangelists to be focused without distraction on their task to preach the Gospel, to sow the seed and leave the result ultimately up to God. Those who respond to the Gospel are not converted in a robotic sense but they make professions of faith and some last and some dont, Laurie said. He emphasises that this doesnt mean evangelists are excused from follow-up and discipleship, but we try to do everything we can short of being obnoxious to help a person grow in their faith once they've made a profession of faith. Laurie adheres to mainstream Protestant church teaching between an Evangelical who attends church and shares the love of God differentiated to an evangelist, specially gifted in evangelism: An Evangelical is a term coined not all that long ago to describe Christians who hold to certain views such as we believe in the inspiration of Scripture and you need a relationship with Jesus Christ and so forth. So that would be an Evangelical, and an evangelist is one called to proclaim the Gospel. Now every Christian is called to evangelize because the Great Commission given to us is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that he has commanded us and and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So every Christian is called to evangelize. But then there are those that are specifically gifted by God as an evangelist. That is not to say that an evangelist needs to be someone with "pulpits, and they dont have large national ministries. Theyre just everyday people who are gifted by God to share their faith. A sense of understated ordinariness is key for the effectiveness of evangelism, according to Laurie. For the reason that non-Christians often have a stereotypical view of evangelists, which can be based upon the familiarity with the cultural trope of the overbearing televangelist. So they can dismiss us and not listen to what we have to say, he concedes, adding that this is why the simple proclamation of the Gospel without apologies and in everyday settings is so important. I think once someone meets a Christian and begins to build a relationship with them, we can break those stereotypes just by being godly people. By being friendly people and loving people and kind people and people that others would want to be around. One way I phrased it is if you want to win some, be winsome. Laurie cites Phillip as the only specifically identified evangelist in the New Testament, but he also sees Peter and Paul as obvious evangelists, as well as apostles. In modern times, Billy Graham had the same calling. Franklin Graham, his son, has the same and many attendees at the congress [in Berlin] have it as well. That is why Laurie wants participants in the congress to be encouraged in the work because he observes that not many are known to be called as evangelists in the present day. I want to encourage them in the calling God has given them because, frankly, there's not that many people who are called as evangelists today. A lot are called to ministry. Many are called to pastor, but it seems like you don't meet that many who are specifically called to be an evangelist. So I have a special heart for them and care for them because I'm one of them. Laurie clarified that when he says not many seem to be called as evangelists, this is probably a fact in the majority world, and not just the West. You just don't see as many people who are called specifically as an evangelist as you might see who are called to be pastors and teachers. But, again, I want to emphasize that every Christian and every spiritual leader is called to evangelize. And so we should all go about the work of bringing the Gospel to our culture. So though some are extraordinarily called to this work, every Christian is called to share their faith with others. Paul the apostle calls the Gospel the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. And the word he uses for power is the Greek word dunamis []. We get our English word dynamic from it, even dynamite from it. So I believe there's explosive power in the simple yet profound message of the gospel. Laurie advises those unsure of their calling as evangelists to be mindful of the advice given in 2 Peter 1:10: "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble." One of the best ways to find out if you're a leader is to lead and see if anyone follows. And I think that if you are called by God, you will see results and you'll see fruit. But it's not uncommon to see people that were called by God in the Bible struggle with it and even argue with God about it. Moses didn't feel qualified to lead the children of Israel. He had some kind of a speech impediment. Gideon said, I'm least in my father's house. And others gave what we would call excuses as to why they could not be the one to do what God called them to do. But it seems as though the Lord goes out of his way to choose ordinary people to do extraordinary things. And the apostle Paul says, God calls the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. So I think if you believe your call is to be an evangelist, then just go evangelize. Laurie adds that obviously, practicing evangelism helps the evangelist in their calling, and they will see fruit, meaning results. He points out that the results of these efforts can vary and highlights how Paul preached to the people of Athens, and only a handful were saved, and yet on another occasion, he preached and many became Christians. So it isn't always about how many people respond to your ministry, but there should be some response. And, you know, Jesus said, by their fruit, you will know them. But everybody struggles. In fact, I think it's a good thing to struggle with, Am I really qualified to do this? Because if you think, I am the most qualified person that ever walked the Earth, you probably just disqualified yourself because God wants us to walk humbly before him. The ultimate test of success for an evangelist, however, is not results but faithfulness, according to Laurie. He points out that Jesus on the final day will not say, Well done, good and successful servant, but Well done, good and faithful servant. This understanding may conflict with what Laurie calls the American definition of success, but he points out that God sees things differently. This does not mean large events or results are not good. In fact, theyre a good thing in accordance with biblical examples such as the day of Pentecost when 3,000 people believed. That was big, Laurie says, but sometimes success is just based on you obeying God and what he has called you to do. And I think also success is finishing your race well, living a life of integrity, not contradicting what you preach or sabotaging your own ministry by bad choices." And so there's a lot of ways to define ultimate success, but I think that the simple answer is faithfulness to the calling that God has given you. This article was originally published by Christian Daily International. Home News PCA cancels General Assembly panel featuring David French after opposition The Presbyterian Church in America has canceled a panel discussion scheduled for its churchwide gathering next month that would have included Evangelical writer and New York Times columnist David French in response to much opposition. ByFaith, the official magazine of the PCA, reported on Tuesday that the panel scheduled for the theologically conservative denomination's June General Assembly in Richmond, Virginia, had been canceled. "The concerns that have been raised about the seminar and its topic have been so significant that it seems wisest for the peace and unity of the church not to proceed in this way," stated the PCA Administrative Committee in the report. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "Instead, the seminar time will be allocated to a prayer convocation that humbly petitions our God for the good of his church in a polarized political year, utilizing the means of grace provided by our Lord for his people." PCA Stated Clerk Bryan Chapell apologized to the committee for the controversy that caused "some brothers to be concerned for the witness of our church and other brothers to be concerned for how our church processes differing views while protecting reputations." "The purpose of the seminar was to help our churches deal with political tensions and, instead, controversy has ensued. This is contrary to the intended purposes of the seminar and the purposes that AC members and staff have so conscientiously pursued with me over the last four years," stated Chapell in his statement. "Had I known some of the ways that the panelist has expressed himself or been understood in past writings, I would have made a different choice for the purposes of this seminar." The Christian Post reached out to a representative of French for a response and was informed that the columnist was not making any statements on the matter at present. Earlier this month, PCA announced that French, a prominent Evangelical critic of former president Donald Trump, would participate in a panel at the General Assembly titled "How to Be Supportive of Your Pastor and Church Leaders in a Polarized Political Year." The decision to include French on the panel invited criticism from many members of the PCA and conservative Christians. PCA Teaching Elder Ben C. Dunson wrote a column denouncing French's involvement, citing French's support for legalizing same-sex marriage, anti-Trump statements, defense of drag queen story hours and how he allegedly "besmirches the character of Christians who disagree with him on these issues." "The General Assembly seminar announcement is worded so as to indicate that it will help us avoid political polarization. David French is the poster-child for political polarization," wrote Dunson, a visiting professor of New Testament at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. "Maybe he's right and we all have no choice but to vote for Joe Biden for President, but that is hardly a non-polarizing position to take. French's place on this panel will not fulfill the seminar's own stated purpose." The Daily Wire reporter and author Megan Basham cited French's "divisive reputation" and argued that PCA leadership "knew full well the effect French's inclusion on a panel on polarizing politics would have." "They deliberately took actions they knew would draw attention away from the business of the PCA and toward worldly political concerns and debates," she tweeted. "In other words, they chose to deliberately disturb the peace of this gathering. This is an important thing to remember as discussions about what to do now go forward." Home News PCA stated clerk repents, announces retirement amid fallout from 'scandalizers' list The stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) announced his imminent retirement Thursday and issued a second apology amid fallout regarding a list of alleged church "scandalizers" he recently publicized. The Rev. Bryan Chapell, who has served as the administrative head of the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) since 2020, made headlines earlier this week after appearing on a since-deleted episode of The Gospel Coalition's "Gospelbound" podcast. During the show, he displayed a list of people whom he accused of either leaving their families, their faith or dying by suicide. While shown briefly, the list went viral on social media after viewers paused the video and zoomed in. Some of the names included ministers in good standing within their denomination, including the late Rev. David Winecoff, who died in a mountain climbing accident in 1993. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe In a Thursday statement published by byFaith, the PCA's online magazine, Chapell acknowledged that what he claimed was not true and expressed repentance. "On a recent podcast I responded to a question by referencing a small piece of paper containing personal notes. I wrongly said that every name on the paper represented social media 'scandalizers' who later experienced personal consequences from their commentary habits. An enlarged screenshot of the note has since circulated, indicating that the podcast response I gave was not appropriate or true," he said. "As a consequence, I brought unwarranted disrepute upon persons identified in the screenshot. For this wrongdoing I repent to my Lord and I apologize to the individuals, their families, and the church I serve. I have begun, and will continue, personally to ask forgiveness from those I harmed. I also confess the seriousness of these errors and sin." Chapell said he would request the PCA's administrative committee to accept his retirement during their next meeting and expressed gratitude to Jesus Christ for being gracious. "Therefore, at the upcoming called meeting of the Administrative Committee, I will ask for approval of my retirement as Stated Clerk. I give thanks for my Savior whose provision for sinners such as I is according to his grace rather than my deserving." Danny McDaniel, a ruling elder who serves as chairman of the PCA's administrative committee, noted in a separate statement that the committee "received Bryan's request for retirement which will be acted on at our AC meeting next week along with any appropriate transition plans." The Rev. Andy Webb, a pastor in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church who was one of the names on Chapell's list, posted on X in the wake of Chapell's announcement that the stated clerk called him personally to apologize and that he had forgiven him. "Today I received a gracious apology call from Bryan Chapell, and I sincerely forgave him," said Webb. "Given his announcement, I regard the matter, as far as it concerns me, to be at an end. I would earnestly encourage people to pray for him as he goes into retirement." In an earlier X post after footage of Chapell's list first went viral, Webb pushed back against the accusation that he had abandoned his family, faith or life, writing that "rumors of my demise (or apostasy or divorce) have been greatly exaggerated!" He speculated that he might have landed on the list regarding a disagreement he had with Chapell in 2001 over a woman preaching in the chapel of the PCA's Covenant Theological Seminary, where Chapell served as president at the time. Chapell's announcement came the same day that the Drudge Report, a popular news aggregation website, picked up a story from The Christian Post regarding multiple PCA ministers requesting an ethics investigation into Chapell for alleged violations of the Ninth Commandment against bearing false witness. Home Opinion Porn: A 'victimless' crime? The issue of pornography and whether it is a benign or malignant influence on society has been a persistent and controversial topic in American society since at least the emergence of Hugh Hefner and the Playboy philosophy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As the sexual revolution of the 1960s progressed, pornography became a part of the revolutions public relations campaign. Porns detractors were caricatured as prudes and uptight, religious bigots who wanted to repress healthy sexual expression. I distinctly remember as a young pastor in the 1970s that President Carter hosted a White House conference on pornography, which amazingly concluded that pornography was a victimless crime. What an astounding, morally obtuse statement. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The first victims were the women who were objectified and dehumanized in the making of the product. I remember once interviewing a woman (a preachers daughter) who had run away from home and gotten entangled in the porn industry. She had managed to escape pornographys web and found her way back to her Christian faith. She was traveling around the country sharing her testimony as a warning to others. In my naivete, I asked her, How many of the women and girls you know doing pornography were addicted to illicit drugs? She fixed me with a look of amazement and replied, All of them. You couldnt do what we do if you werent desensitized by illicit drugs! A victimless crime? Societys experience in the intervening decades has revealed to us how pornography dehumanizes and objectifies women and children. Study after study (including the Reagan Administrations "Attorney Generals Commission on Pornography" (The Meese Commission) has shown how pornography is addictive for many men and viewing it leads many of them to seek out evermore hardcore pornography in order to get the same dopamine high. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of porns ever more ubiquitous presence in society has been the exponential increase in increasing violent, hardcore pornography, including rampant sexual crimes against children. As cited in First Things, The Shifting Narrative Around Pornography, Harriet Grant reports in the Guardian, we face 'a spiraling global crisis' with law enforcement and child protection experts consistently pinpointing one culprit: 'the explosion over the past 10 to 20 years of free-to-view and easily accessible online pornography.A growing body of research is beginning to warn of how problematic porn habits can be a pathway into viewing images of children being abused.' A recent opinion article by Nicolas Kristoff, These Internal Documents Show Why We Shouldnt Trust Porn Companies, in TheNew York Times exposes the heinous extent to which these purveyors of toxic filth will go to masquerade and distribute their vile content. The average age of first exposure to hardcore pornography has fallen from 17 to 11 in the past three decades, and it has increasingly warped young mens understanding of sex. Sophie Gilbert, in her new book Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves, explains how easily available hardcore pornography trained a good amount of our popular cultureto see women as objectsas things to silence, restrain, fetishize or brutalize. And its helped train women too. Gilbert observes that consequently, we should not be surprised at a 2019 study that found that 38 percent of British women under 40 reported having experienced unwanted slapping, choking, gagging or spitting during sex. The evidence is overwhelming. Pornography is wickedly toxic for women, children, and men. Women and children are dehumanized and objectified. Boys and men are warped and robbed of the ability to become the loving husbands and fathers God designed them to be. Hardcore porn is the water through which many young people now swim which many adults refuse to see and name. We must sound the alarm. Generation Z (1998-2012) has been devastated by this porn plague. We must seek to rescue and protect victims from this social media river of electronic slime, and act to protect Generation Alpha (2013- ) from similar toxic exposure. What do we do? We must sound the alarm far and wide that pornography poisons everything it touches. We must also lovingly explain how pornography is a satanic perversion of Gods precious gift of human sexuality (for example, gutter euphemisms for the sex act, which God intended for intimacy and giving of oneself to ones partner, are used for acts of exploitation and aggression against another human being. We must also, as adults, insist that our government take action to protect society, and especially young people, from exposure to this emotional toxic waste. In just the past few days, my home state of Texas became the 20th state to pass a child safety law to give parents more control over the apps their children download. At the federal level, Senator Mike Lee has introduced the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act, which would define pornography as obscenity and would make its distribution illegal. So-called defenders of free speech will oppose Senator Lees bill. As they do so, they must address some very serious questions. Do you want to live in a society where it is normative for children to be exposed to extreme porn before puberty, and their libidos wired to respond to sexual violence? Where almost a quarter of adult American women reportedly felt scared during sex due to porn-inspired violence like choking? Where underage porn users are increasingly abusing other children? Where men are being transformed into sex offenders by pornography that is increasingly difficult to avoid? Where innocence is increasingly impossible? Jonathon Van Maron, The Shifting Narrative Around Pornography,First Things The social experiment of anything goes pornography has been tried, and the landscape is littered with its victims. Enough is enough! It is well past time to outlaw this spiritual toxic waste. Home Opinion Trade schools vs. traditional college: Which one is better? Hey Chuck, My grandson loves working with his hands and Ive encouraged him to consider going to trade school. His parents prefer that he goes to a traditional college. Do you have some research on the trade school route? Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Trade School Options Dear Trade School Options, I pride myself on being a general handyman. But, when it comes to electrical, plumbing, HVAC, welding and detailed carpentry work, I appreciate the experts. And as you may know, they are all in high demand. The Bible says that anyone who does their job well will be honored for their skill, regardless of the field. Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men (Proverbs 22:29). Income for the trades is rising rapidly. A friend recently helped a high school graduate with limited career prospects attend welding school. Two years after graduation he is now earning $150,000/year working on oil refineries. A joke I heard rings a bit true: After paying his plumber for repair work, the customer says, Man, this bill seems expensive to me and I am a doctor! The plumber replied, I get it. It seemed expensive to me too when I was a doctor. Trade school is a great option Our nation depends on the qualified skills of laborers. Schools, businesses, and households cannot function for long without them. Thats why I am encouraged to see a revitalization of vocational skills being taught in high school. Shop class used to be a standard part of American education. It provided training in basic skills that were useful in life and exposed students to possible careers. Budget cuts, standardized testing and college-prep, emphasis on computers and technology classes, and liability concerns led to the phase-out of programs. An article by Ralph Hiddenburg is well worth reading. He includes the following quotes: We dont have a worker shortage. We have a shop class shortage (Hiddenburg). If President Trump succeeds either through tariffs or sheer persuasion to bring manufacturing back to this country, youre gonna see a flight towards skilled labor that I think is gonna be unrivaled in the history of modern work (Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs). If we dont act boldly, the U.S. faces a shortfall of 1.9 million manufacturing workers by 2033; 3.8 million positions will open up, but nearly half could go unfilled (Carolyn Lee, President of the Manufacturing Institute). A generation of those highly skilled in trades are retiring and the need for replacement has been growing. The emphasis on a four-year college diploma over a vocational career left a vacuum in essential industries. Geoff Harris, with the National News Desk, reports that although AI is expanding, trades are making a comeback. Scott Shelar, President/CEO of Construction Ready, assists people in finding trade jobs. His nonprofit held their annual career expo at the Georgia World Congress Center earlier this year. Of the 10,000 attendees, 6,000 were students from across the state. Georgia currently has over 17,000 students enrolled in 150 skilled trade construction and metals programs. The surge in career/trade education can be attributed to a simple truth: standardized education doesnt cater to every students needs. Students are seeking diverse educational approaches and hands-on training to equip them for life after high school without the pressure of pursuing a traditional four-year college degree. There is a growing interest among students to dive straight into meaningful work that aligns with their passions and skills. Career/trade education is meeting this rising demand effectively (Dr. Jessica Spallino, Co-Founder/CEO of Method Schools). Not just traditional trades The once negative stigma associated with hands-on work is changing. This segment of the population is hard-working and often high-earning individuals. Our nations schools are waking up to the importance of equipping young people for essential careers in the trades. Some of the construction, manufacturing, or woodworking programs offer machining, 3-D printing, even digital markup and takeoff tools. A $90 million upgrade at Middleton High School in Wisconsin offers classes with robotic arms and state-of-the-art machinery. A Catholic high school in Philadelphia is addressing the global shortage of welders by equipping interested students. Several companies are partnering with them. They currently have 32 bays for training. Instructor Joe Williams says, The demand is great, the success rate is great and, because of that, these guys are offered career-driven, high-paid jobs before graduation. Every senior in the program received a job offer paying more than $50,000. A junior has already received a $70,000 job offer! Imagine making that as a teenager, plus the benefits of health insurance, and a 401(k)! Encourage but dont push Encourage the parents with this info, but recognize your grandson has to make the final decision for where God has equipped and called him for his career. If he enrolls in shop class, shows interest and ability, possibly he will express his interest to his Mom and Dad in a way that changes their minds. He may decide he wants to attend an academic school. Your love and support will be invaluable regardless of the route he chooses. And those handyman skills he learns now can always be helpful around the house! For further reading: Skilled Jobs That Pay Big Without a Degree Trade School vs. Bachelors Degree If you want to help your grandson discover his unique design and receive guidance in choosing a career path or if youre interested in learning more about your own calling check out Crowns Career Direct assessment. This powerful tool combines biblical principles with personalized insights to help individuals make confident, purpose-driven career decisions. Abonati-va sa primiti pe email saptamanal lista articolelor adaugate pe parcursul saptamanii. Adresele .ru nu sunt acceptate. Email NEWSLETTER Happy Friday, readers, and well done on nearly making it to the end of another month. This week, Society Diary sat down for a light-hearted chat with the chief executive and artistic director of Brighton-based arts charity Lighthouse, Alli Beddoes. Beddoes (and Chat GPT) discusses time travel, starch and why we are all geniuses, really. Read our conversation below. Have we caught you at a good time? I am a firm believer that not every day is good, but there is always something good in every day. Whats more fun being a charity CEO or an artistic director? Both roles have their own fun in different ways. Being an artistic director is great, being close to the creative process: working directly with artists, shaping ideas, and helping bring new work into the world. That's an honour. Honestly, it's time to step back from that side and hand the artistic director role over to new talent. I've been working in the sector for over 20 years, and I've loved it, but I'm more interested in what happens when you step aside for new voices to come through, focusing on creating the conditions that allow others to thrive. Being a CEO should be about ensuring the organisation is strong enough to give artists and new leaders the room and support they need to push things forward. You studied sculpture at Loughborough University. Whats the best thing you made? I made all sorts of things while I was there installations, short films, painting, photography and I became a bit of a demon with an oxy-acetylene welder. But honestly, the best thing I made wasnt a single piece of work, it was the events and exhibitions I put together in my second year. I pulled together a group of artists in my year to show our work at the Custard Factory in Birmingham back in 2000. I spent a lot of time experimenting and focusing on building something that reached beyond university. I organised events, helped friends bring their creative ideas to life, and together we built a network of like-minded people. That, to me, was the most valuable thing. As someone whos been working in Brighton for many years, what makes it different from the rest of the UK? Brightons always stood out to me for its incredible pool of talented young people and the sheer amount of expertise right on our doorstep. I have an amazing network of friends, collaborators and colleagues and they all connect in a beautiful Venn diagram. Brighton is a city full of creative collaboration and energy, but I think it is massively undervalued and right now, the cracks are really starting to show. Our Lighthouse Project Space opened its doors last year in May 2024, and in just a short time, we've featured over 75 artists and welcomed more than 2,500 people through. The community response has been overwhelming people tell us how much they need this space, and its clear the city does too. Yet, securing the funding to keep it alive remains an uphill battle. Whats the biggest artistic mistake youve made? The biggest artistic mistake I made was stopping. I convinced myself, quite early on, that I was a failed artist because I didnt have a practice, a studio, a gallery or whatever I thought at the time defined success. Even though, in reality, I was still creating, still writing, still building things, just through collaboration with and for other people. Looking back, I realise that was a misunderstanding of what making art is. Rice or pasta? Rice. Which fictional character do you relate to the most? I had to ask Chat GPT to answer this for me. It said: Id probably say Amelie Poulain from Amelie. I relate to the quiet way she observes the world, noticing the small details that others miss, and her drive to create these little, almost invisible moments of connection and joy for people around her. I think theres something about working behind the scenes whether in the arts, organising, or collaborating that feels a bit like that. You might not always be in the spotlight, but youre quietly helping to shape stories and spaces for others. If you could live in another era, which would you pick? To be honest, Im not sure the past holds much appeal. Looking back, most eras have had their fair share of challenges and inequalities. If I had the choice, Id rather look to the future, shall we say 2070? Were living in a remarkable moment in human history. For the first time, we have the knowledge, technology and collective understanding to shape the kind of world we want and need. Of course, on a day-to-day level, it can feel difficult to be optimistic. We see wildlife in crisis, people facing war and displacement and families struggling with rising costs. But when you step back, you start to see long-term change taking shape slow, steady progress that builds over decades. Id like to believe the future holds more of that, and Id be especially excited to see what the next generation of creative minds will have achieved. As someone who works with performers, are there any Hollywood stars you think are overrated? Nope. I truly believe that we're all geniuses deep inside The challenge is unlocking the right conditions to let ideas surface. If you couldnt work in the charity or arts sectors, what would you do instead? Id be an electrician or a farrier. The kind of work rooted in craft and problem-solving, whether thats helping to shape creative communities or quite literally fixing something thats broken or tired. Both arent so different from the work I do now. Both are about connection, care, and building things. 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. The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge in Texas to dismiss its criminal case against Boeing Co. over two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jets more than six years ago, despite objections of family members of some crash victims. The move disclosed Thursday in a court filing is part of a proposed settlement prosecutors reached with the planemaker last week. The case had been set to go to trial June 23. The governments agreement calls for the company to pay more than $1.1 billion in fees and fines, while taking steps to strengthen internal quality and safety measures. In return, the company will avoid criminal prosecution. It is a notable reversal in the long-running criminal case against Boeing over two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jet in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Just last year, Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to the pending criminal conspiracy charge under a deal that was ultimately rejected by US District Judge Reed OConnor, who has been overseeing the case since it was filed in 2021. The case is US v. Boeing, 21-cr-005, US District Court, Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth). Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. When a series of deadly storms and tornadoes pummeled Arkansas in mid-March, downing power lines and tearing up homes, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked the federal government for money to not only help repair the damage, but also boost the states defenses against future disasters. On May 8, President Donald Trump approved the states request for funds to help individuals and families recover. But a week later, the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who was Trumps press secretary during his first term, that it was denying the second pot of money the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to help the state rebuild stronger, according to a rejection letter seen by Bloomberg News. Later in the month, the agency denied a hazard mitigation funding request from Virginia, weeks after Trump approved other aid as part of a major disaster declaration for mid-February winter storms. Virginia officials say they are exploring the appeals process but do not have any further details. These denials mark a stark departure from how previous administrations have handled such requests. In recent decades, presidents have routinely signed off on those funds as part of the large aid package that comes with major disaster declarations, according to interviews with six state hazard mitigation officials and former FEMA officials and advisors. Unlike the type of help Trump has continued to approve, which states use to cover immediate needs after a wildfire or hurricane, hazard mitigation funds pay for extra protections to help communities better withstand future natural disasters, such as elevating buildings in flood zones or adding safe rooms to homes in tornado-prone areas. In addition to those two denials, the administration held off on approving 11 other similar requests over the past two months even as it signed off on other parts of state post-disaster aid packages. FEMA is still reviewing their applications, according to officials from Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, which is waiting to hear back on a second request for a more recent disaster. With the exception of Kentucky and Kansas, all these states have Republican governors. Disaster officials and researchers say these funds are essential to prepare and protect communities in the long term as climate change increases the number and severity of natural disasters. Spending the money now to increase states resilience also reduces future damages and recovery costs, they say. Its a really effective use of one-time dollars that saves FEMA money in the long run, but also helps our people to be safer, said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who is waiting to hear back on separate requests for hazard mitigation funding made following severe weather in April and May. The White House declined to comment on specific state requests for hazard mitigation funds. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the administration is monitoring states ability to spend hazard mitigation grants as it weighs new requests, adding that officials have seen large balances of unallocated and unspent funds. We are working with states to assist them in identifying projects and drawing down balances in a way that makes the nation more resilient, she added. In a leaked draft memo from April first reported by CNN and confirmed by Bloomberg News, FEMA, the nations top agency for disaster response and recovery, recommended the White House not automatically approve applications for hazard mitigation funds as one of several ways to immediately cut federal disaster costs. Per the memo, its an action the President has already taken. The agency did not respond to questions about hazard mitigation. I think what theyre suggesting is if you want to build back stronger, it needs to come from your state dollars, said Carrie Speranza, the former chair emeritus of FEMAs National Advisory Council before the Trump administration dismissed its members. Then you look at the operating budgets of those states. That moneys just not there. The Remaking of FEMA The administrations new tack on hazard mitigation funds came with no warning or guidance, state officials say, but its part of broader efforts to shrink the scope of federal disaster work. Over the past four months, Trump has called for the elimination of FEMA, launched a council tasked with streamlining its operations and temporarily put in charge of the agency David Richardson, a former military official with no emergency management experience. Meanwhile, FEMA has reduced its staff by at least hundreds of people, identified more than a dozen near- and long-term ways to cut funding, according to the leaked draft memo, and paused at least $2.2 billion in grant spending to states. (A federal judge last month ordered the money be released.) The agency also canceled a Biden-era grant program to fund disaster preparedness outside the recovery of a specific hurricane, tornado or wildfire, saying it was wasteful and ineffective. Disaster experts argue ending that program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, while also pulling back on post-disaster hazard mitigation money is a short-sighted move that could cost the government more money in the long run. Hazard mitigation funding didnt just pop out of nowhere it actually came in response to a really big financial problem the federal government was experiencing, said Robert Verchick, a Loyola University climate legal expert. The practice had been to restore homes and infrastructure to their pre-disaster condition, instead of using the federal money to fortify communities against future damage. Its a waste of money to build something back in a way that you know is going to fail again, he added. A 2019 report partially funded by FEMA estimates every $1 in federal grant money spent on hazard mitigation saves $6 in disaster damages in the future. The return on investment is higher for federal spending on flood mitigation. For example, by granting $11.5 billion to help states build up river defenses between 1993 and 2016, the federal government avoided $82 billion in losses from the deaths, flooded property and associated business disruptions communities would have suffered without those protections, according to the researchers calculations. Mitigation, or preparedness, saves lives, said Jiqiu Yuan, a co-author of the report and chief resilience officer at the National Institute of Building Sciences. We want to make clear the saving is to the whole society thats not only to the government, thats not only to the building owners, thats not only to the insurance business. How do hazard mitigation funds work? Although the federal government approves requests for the hazard mitigation grant program in the aftermath of disasters, in order to get this money, states have to develop a plan beforehand and every funded project must be vetted by federal officials. One way states have spent these grants is by buying out properties in high-risk flood zones where homeowners cant afford to move without financial help. Thats how Kentucky used nearly $72 million in hazard mitigation funds after deadly flooding in 2022, helping buy out hundreds of properties in zones at risk of flooding again. After Tropical Storm Irene caused widespread flooding in 2011, Vermont spent the majority of $34 million in hazard mitigation grants towards property buyouts, said Stephanie Smith, the states mitigation lead. The FEMA grants covered 75% of the buyout costs, while the state put in the remaining 25%. Vermont likely wouldnt have been able to fully cover the costs on its own, Smith said. States have also used this FEMA money to elevate flood-risk infrastructure, build home or community safe rooms and invest in warning systems, according to a review of funded projects identified in state hazard mitigation plans. The states rely heavily on the federal money, said Yuan. Im not sure the states will have the supplemental funding from their state capitals to support this kind of effort. Top photo: Workers clean up debris following a tornado outside of London, Kentucky, on May 18. Photographer: Michael Swensen/Getty Images. Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved to end its legal battle against crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd., the latest sign of the regulators dramatic shift in how it polices cryptocurrency. The regulator and the exchanges co-founder Changpeng Zhao filed a joint motion on Thursday to stay the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The move follows a joint request in February to pause the lawsuit for 60 days. At the time, the SEC and Zhao said then-Acting Chairman Mark Uyedas formation of a special agency task force to set crypto regulatory policy warranted a pause. The task forces work could impact the lawsuits resolution. The latest filing calls for dismissing the case with prejudice, which means it cant be refiled, and without costs or fees to any party. Binance in a post on X called the dismissal a huge win for crypto. The firm thanked SEC Chair Paul Atkins and President Donald Trump for pushing back against regulation by enforcement. The SEC sued Binance in June 2023, alleging the firm and its co-founder mishandled customer funds, misled investors and regulators and violated US securities laws. The regulator also accused Binance of offering unregistered securities to US investors. The firm and Zhao in November 2023 pleaded guilty to separate charges that it violated anti-money laundering and U.S. sanctions, with the firm agreeing to pay $4.3 billion. Zhao also agreed to pay a $50 million fine and step down as CEO. This followed a years-long investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department. Top photo: The Binance logo on a laptop arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Wednesday, June 7, 2023. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg. Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown isnt happy about the Trump administrations decision to begin a phased pause in operations at Job Corps centers including Clevelands. The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday announced that it will pause operations at all 99 of its contractor-operated Job Corps centers by June 30. FILE - Members of immigration advocacy groups react as Los Angeles City Council votes to enact an ordinance to prohibit city resources from being used for immigration enforcement in anticipation of potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump, inside Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) AP WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has put Lorain, Franklin and Warren counties and the cities of Cincinnati and Columbus on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions it says are defying immigration laws. A statement from the agency said the communities on its list from all over the country will be formally notified that theyre not complying with federal statutes. They will also be urged to immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. President Donald Trump speaks at the U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works-Irvin Plant, Friday, May 30, 2025, in West Mifflin, Pa. (AP Photo/David Dermer) AP WASHINGTON -- As a GOP U.S. Senator representing Ohio, JD Vance vocally opposed the potential sale of U.S. Steel to Japans Nippon Steel, co-authoring a letter that urged former President Joe Biden to block the deal. Until he took office, President Donald Trump also opposed a foreign company buying U.S. Steel. In a December post on his Truth Social platform, he said he was totally against U.S. Steel being bought by Nippon Steel, and promised to block the deal from happening. China urges US to cease semiconductor export control abuse: MOFCOM Global Times) 10:27, May 30, 2025 Chinese officials and experts on Thursday slammed the US' recent abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector, against the backdrop of reported new US restrictions on semiconductor software sales to China. In response to a question on whether the economic and trade teams of China and the US have again held any consultations recently, He Yongqian, a spokesperson from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said on Thursday that since the China-US economic and trade talks in Geneva, both sides have maintained communication over their respective concerns in the economic and trade fields on various bilateral and multilateral occasions at multiple levels. Recently, China has repeatedly raised concerns with the US regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices. China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva, He noted. The US administration has instructed domestic companies providing semiconductor design software to stop selling their services to Chinese groups, in a latest attempt to make it harder for China to develop advanced chips, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. A Chinese expert said that the move will backfire, only accelerating China's push for technological self-reliance. Several people familiar with the issue said the US Department of Commerce had told electronic design automation groups which include Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens EDA to stop supplying their technology to China, according to the Financial Times. The Bureau of Industry and Security, the arm of the US commerce department that oversees export controls, reportedly issued the directive to the companies via official letters. Xiang Ligang, a Chinese telecom industry expert, told the Global Times on Thursday that the restrictions on EDA design software reflects US' attempt to reinforce tech containment against China by blocking upstream segments of the industrial chain. It is a continuation of its unilateralism and technological hegemony. However, such restrictions are likely to backfire. Xiang emphasized that Chinese enterprises possess strong R&D capabilities. The US-imposed supply cutoff will only drive China to accelerate independent innovation. Rather than hindering China's semiconductor progress, US pressure will act as a "catalyst" to propel the autonomy of Chinese industrial chain, he said. The reported administrative interventions once again highlight US government's typical market interference. Unilaterally politicizing normal economic and trade cooperation not only violates international trade rules but also undermines the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain, Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday. In fiscal year 2024, Synopsys reported almost $1billion in China sales, roughly 16 per cent of its revenue. Cadence said China accounted for $550 million or 12 per cent of its revenue, the Financial Times reported. Synopsys shares fell 9.6 per cent on Wednesday, while those of Cadence lost 10.7 per cent, according to the report. In contrast, A-share investors on Thursday went long on domestic EDA concept stocks. Shares of domestic EDA companies Primarius Technologies Co and Semitronix Corporation hit a 20 percent daily upper limit. This latest move is part of US efforts to curb China's development of advanced chips. It follows recent guidance by the US Department of Commerce 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 Huawei Ascend chips. On May 21, MOFCOM condemned the US attempt to globally ban Chinese advanced computing chips, calling it a typical act of "unilateral bullying and protectionism" that seriously undermines global semiconductor industrial and supply chains, Xinhua reported. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian on May 16 slammed the US over a recent announcement by the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which claimed the use of Huawei's Ascend chips risks violating US export controls, as well as the bureau's warning to the public about the potential consequences of training Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models with US AI chips. Lin told a routine press conference that the US overstretches the concept of national security, abuses export controls and long-arm jurisdiction, and groundlessly and maliciously blocks and suppresses China's chips and AI industry, which severely violates market rules, destabilizes global industrial and supply chains, and undermines Chinese businesses' legitimate rights and interests. China firmly opposes this and absolutely does not accept it. China urges the US to drop its protectionist acts and unilateral bullying, and stop its egregious suppression on China's tech businesses and AI industry. China will take firm measures to defend its right to development and Chinese businesses' legitimate rights and interests, Lin said. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Cranes at the Port of Los Angeles are empty of cargo ships, in San Pedro California, U.S., May 13, 2025. A U.S. federal trade court striking down President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs on a broad swathe of countries seems, on the surface, a positive development all around. A lack of tariffs leads to cheaper goods, likely more consumer spending and higher corporate revenue, which tends to flow back to stock prices. This ideal scenario, however, rests on the assumption that the court's decision is final and the Trump administration does not have other ways of reinstating its muscular trade policies. Events on Thursday have already shown us that is not the case. An appeals court temporarily paused the tariff ruling to allow the Trump administration to respond to the case. "Even if we lose, we will do it another way," Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters at the White House Thursday afternoon. This uncertainty could roil markets and trade negotiations with countries further. If tariffs could pop in and out of existence based on policy and judicial decisions, how do nations discuss trade deals, and how do investors allocate their capital efficiently? Indeed, the S&P 500 was up nearly 0.9% when trading began, but fell sharply after the Trump administration said it may ask the Supreme Court to halt the federal trade court's ruling. "In general, markets don't like uncertainty, because it makes forecasting more difficult," said Larry Tentarelli, founder of the Blue Chip Daily Trend Report. "We expect the tariff news cycle to be an extended process, which can lead to higher short-term volatility." In other words, if there was a definite universal tariff of 10% while it's undeniably still a tax the surety of it could be better for markets and economies globally in the long run. Daniel Loeb has found himself a new goal as his hedge fund Third Point entered its milestone 30th year: To be a true winner in the red-hot artificial intelligence boom and not run over by it. "Change is happening at an ever accelerating and increasing rate and it's just going to require us to continue to be even more nimble, and to use AI as your own tool to stay on top of what's going on," Loeb told CNBC's Scott Wapner at Third Point's investor day Thursday. "You'll either be a beneficiary of AI or AI roadkill. So I think we all need to do our best to not be the latter." AI has dominated Wall Street's investing theme over the past two years as investors left and right seek to hit home runs in the space, from chipmakers to hardware producers to car companies and utilities. Loeb, once known for his sharp brand of activism, has emerged as a big AI bull in recent years, increasing his fund's AI exposure to nearly half of its equity portfolio in 2024. Ways Loeb is playing AI The hedge-fund investor not only owns "legacy" companies like Meta , Nvidia , Microsoft and Amazon which he said have built enormous competitive advantages but he is also betting on AI beneficiary London Stock Exchange Group and chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing . "It's a pervasive component of our research process... It's a variable in which we benchmark all of the companies that we invest in, both in terms of how they're using it whether it's cloud companies or Amazons or Microsofts and how they're directly benefiting from it," Loeb said. Three decades ago, Loeb started Third Point with $3.2 million cobbled together from friends and family. Today, the hedge fund touts over $20 billion assets under management and net returns of 15% since inception, weathering the dotcom crash, the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic. Known for being one of the best activist investors ever, he's grown the firm to include a significant credit and venture business. On today's market environment, Loeb believes the short-term uncertainty will start to fade by next year and investors picking quality, growth stocks with fair prices will be rewarded in the long run. "I think it will be ok.. I think we'll start looking towards a better, more predictable 2026," Loeb said. "I think there will definitely be winners and losers. The economy will grow at about a one-percent rate unless something comes out of left field, so I think it's a good environment for investing in growthy companies at good valuations." He also revealed that Third Point got back into US Steel a month or so ago in the $30s range in a bet that its path to a deal with Nippon Steel would materialize. CNBC reported this week that Nippon is expected to close acquisition of U.S. Steel at $55 per share. Loretta Swit, the Emmy-winning actress most well-known for her leading role on "M*A*S*H," has died, her representatives said Friday. She was 87. Swit died at her home in New York City just after noon Friday, her team said in a statement, citing a police report. It is suspected she died of natural causes, but a report from the coroner's office is still pending. Swit portrayed the quick-witted Maj. Margaret Houlihan on one of TV's most honored series and collected a number of awards for the "M*A*S*H" role, including two Emmys. She was nominated for 10 Emmys and four Golden Globes. Her sensuous, sensitive, comedic character was also known as "Hot Lips." The TV series, which aired from September 1972 to February 1983, followed the staff of an Army hospital during the Korean War. Swit starred in all seasons of "M*A*S*H" alongside Alan Alda, Jamie Farr and Larry Linville. Swit and Alda were the two longest-running actors on the comedy-drama. Its series finale, on Feb. 28, 1983, was two-and-a-half hours long and had more than 100 million viewers the most of any scripted TV series ever. Swit was born Loretta Jane Szwed on Nov. 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey, to Polish immigrants. She went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before kick-starting her career with years of touring. She got her first on-screen acting credits in the late 1960s, with "Gunsmoke," "Hawaii Five-O," "Mission Impossible" and "Bonanza." She was cast in "M*A*S*H" in 1972 her big break. Swit had more than 25 TV movie credits, her team said, including the role of Chris Cagney in the original "Cagney and Lacey," but she didn't appear in the series because she was filming "M*A*S*H" at the time, her representative said. She also had roles in "Games Mother Never Taught You," "Hell Hath No Fury," "The Execution," "Dreams of Gold," and "A Killer Among Friends." TOPSHOT - France's President Emmanuel Macron reacts during a meeting with Vietnam's President Luong Cuong sat the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 26, 2025. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by NHAC NGUYEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) SINGAPORE French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on Europe and Asia to fortify coalition and avoid being caught in the intensifying rift between the U.S. and China. Addressing the annual defense forum Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Macron urged Indo-Pacific nations' prime ministers and defense ministers in the audience to establish a "new coalition" to counter the "constraints and side effects" stemming from the growing U.S.-China rivalry. "France is a friend and an ally of the United States, and is a friend, and we do cooperate even if sometimes we disagree and compete with China," Macron said, adding that the country does so while adhering to a "demanding approach of our own interests." The "division between the two superpowers" is the main risk confronting the world, Macron said. Macron's speech comes amid a regional tour that has also taken him to Vietnam and Indonesia. The European leader has sought to bolster France's defense cooperation with other nations, worried about becoming collateral damage in the U.S.-China trade war and amid continued geopolitical disputes with Beijing. In Jakarta earlier this week, Macron and his counterpart Prabowo Subianto signed a preliminary defense pact that could see Indonesia purchase more French weaponry, including Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene submarines. France and Vietnam also signed deals on Airbus planes, defense and other pacts, worth over $10 billion. "ASEAN and Europe are impacted by the unpredictability of the new tariff approach and the end of a rule-based order for trade," Macron said, warning that this will impact the nations' economy and their ability to fund the defense efforts. Macron's renewed engagement with the region came as bilateral tensions between China and the U.S. are ratcheting up again, despite the recent tariff thaw. The Trump administration has threatened to "aggressively" revoke visas for Chinese students while restricting the sale of chip design software to China. Beijing has also kept a firm grip on rare earths exports to the U.S. A PBS sign is seen on the Public Broadcasting Service's headquarters building in Arlington, Virginia, Feb. 18, 2025. The Public Broadcasting Service on Friday sued President Donald Trump to block his attempt to cut off its federal funding, and accused the president of retaliating against the nonprofit news outlet over "perceived political slights in news coverage." Trump's executive order targeting PBS' funding "will upend public television," lawyers for the broadcaster behind "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and "Sesame Street" wrote in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Constitution and the half-century-old law governing public television forbid Trump from attempting to defund PBS or "serving as the arbiter" of its programming, PBS argued. The lawsuit from PBS and one of its member stations in Minnesota came three days after National Public Radio, or NPR, filed a similar suit against Trump and his administration. "After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations," a PBS spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. The nonprofit public media outlets both want the courts to invalidate Trump's May 1 executive order commanding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, and all executive agencies to "cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS." The White House said after PBS' lawsuit was filed that the CPB was "creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime." "Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS," spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement Friday evening. "The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective." Trump's order declared that the idea of the government funding the news media is "not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence." It also accused both PBS and NPR of failing to present "a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens." Lawyers for PBS said they dispute Trump's assertions "in the strongest possible terms." But regardless, the president is legally barred from meddling with the broadcaster's funding or its content, they wrote. They cited a federal telecommunications law's dictate that no "department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States" may "exercise any direction, supervision, or control over public telecommunications, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees." That also applies with respect to "the content or distribution of public telecommunications programs and services," the law states. Trump's order also violates the Constitution's protections of speech and press freedom, PBS argued. It "makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech." "That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion," lawyers for the broadcaster wrote. They added that the order "smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage." The CPB was created when then-President Lyndon Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 into law. The private, nonprofit corporation is tasked with disbursing federally allocated money to public broadcasters. The CPB's operating budget for fiscal year 2025 totaled $545 million, the majority of which was allocated to local public TV and radio stations. That funding covers some, but not all, of those stations' own budgets which include buying national programming from PBS and NPR. "PBS News Hour" gets about 35% of its annual funding from a combination of CPB appropriations and station dues, while the rest is generated from donations, foundation grants and corporate sponsorships, PBS said. NPR said that 30% of its funding comes from local member station fees, while just 1% of its revenue comes directly from the federal government. The largest share of its funding, 36%, comes from corporate sponsorship, NPR said. Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Costco The wholesaler gained more than 3% on fiscal third-quarter results that surpassed analysts' estimates, while sales jumped 8% from the same period a year ago. Ulta Beauty Shares of the beauty retailer skyrocketed nearly 13% to hit a 52-week high after the company raised its annual profit forecast and crushed expectations with its quarterly results. Ulta said lower inventory losses and new launches helped drive demand at its stores. Gap The apparel retailer plunged 20% after saying it sees current-quarter sales around flat from the year-earlier period. On the other hand, analysts had expected sales to grow 0.2%. This cloudy outlook outweighed Gap's first-quarter earnings and revenue beat. Elastic NV The software company pulled back 12% after its full-year revenue forecast missed analysts' estimates. Elastic expects revenue for the full year between $1.655 billion and $1.67 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet were looking for $1.68 billion. Marvell Technology The semiconductor company declined 6% after Marvell's first-quarter earnings failed to impress investors. Marvell reported adjusted earnings per share of 62 cents, while analysts surveyed by LSEG called for 61 cents per share. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals , Sanofi Shares of the biopharma companies dropped 18% and 5.6%, respectively, on inconsistent results from late-stage trials for respiratory drug itepekimab, which both firms are involved in developing. PagerDuty Shares dipped 11% after the cloud computing firm issued a weaker-than-expected second-quarter profit forecast. PagerDuty expects earnings per share between 19 cents and 20 cents, excluding items, while analysts polled by FactSet were looking for 23 cents. Zscaler The cloud security firm surged 8% after third-quarter results beat analysts' estimates. Zscaler reported an adjusted 84 cents per share on revenue of $678 million, while analysts polled by FactSet were looking for an adjusted 76 cents per share on revenue of $666.5 million. Palantir Technologies The software platform stock advanced more than 5% after a Friday report from The New York Times said the Trump administration tapped Palantir to aid in compiling data on U.S. citizens, expanding Palantir's already robust dealings with the government. CNBC's Yun Li and Lisa Kailai Han contributed reporting. Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs initiates Insulet as buy Goldman Sachs says the diabetes management company is well positioned. "While recent CEO transition is likely top of mind for investors, we see the move as coming from a position of relative strength. We see Insulet as well positioned to accelerate market share capture given its unique form factor (patch vs durable), pharmacy access and type 2 indication." Bank of America reiterates Netflix as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the dominant streaming platform to $1,490 per share from $1,175. "We continue to view Netflix as well positioned given the company's unmatched scale in streaming, further runway for subscriber growth, significant opportunities in advertising and sports/live and continued earnings and [free cash flow] growth." JPMorgan reiterates Amazon as overweight JPMorgan says the largest U.S. e-commerce platform remains a top idea. "We continue to believe US e-commerce penetration of Adj. Retail Sales could nearly double from ~23% in 2024 to 40%+ long term, and AMZN remains our best idea." Bank of America reiterates Dell as buy The firm says Dell remains well positioned following earnings on Thursday. "Reiterate Buy as we are still in the early stages of AI adoption, margins from mix, and tailwind from upcoming PC refresh and longer-term AI PC adoption." UBS reiterates Costco as buy UBS says Costco has "superior consistency and execution" following earnings on Thursday. "This quarter was a good illustration of why we think COST is well set up to outperform." JPMorgan reiterates Marvell as overweight JPMorgan sees "sustained AI demand" for Marvell following earnings on Thursday. "Overall, we see a positive setup for the company, driven by a recovery in its cyclical businesses and sustained AI tailwinds." Piper Sandler downgrades ZScaler to neutral from overweight Piper said in its downgrade of Zscaler that it sees limited upside for shares of the IT security company. "While the year appears to be playing out as we had hoped, with the company topping 3Q metrics and the back half billings ramp appearing less daunting given quarterly performance, the recent run in shares (+30% over past 3 months) have us mulling upside from here." UBS initiates Brixmor Property at buy The bank is bullish on shares of the retail real estate investment trust. "Our Buy on Brixmor reflects visibility into mid-single digit [funds from operations] growth at an attractive valuation." Needham initiates PVH as buy Needham says the owner of brands such as Tommy Hilfiger is undervalued. "We believe PVH is a mispriced asset, with underappreciated EPS drivers over the next few years." Bank of America reiterates Caterpillar as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the machinery maker to $385 per share from $335. "A disconnect has emerged between the two Machinery bellwethers: CAT & DE shares have been tightly correlated over a long period of time and both are likely to deliver $18-$19 of EPS in FY25, yet CAT is trading at a 25-30% valuation discount to DE. The discount does not typically get steeper based on prior cycles and we believe there is a path for CAT's multiple to 'catch up' to Deere." JPMorgan reiterates Nvidia and Broadcom as overweight JPMorgan says volatility may be ahead but it is sticking with both stocks. "Large-cap top picks: OW AVGO, OW ADI, OW MRVL, OW KLAC, OW SNPS, OW CDNS; we also favor OW NVDA , OW AMAT, OW LRCX." Deutsche Bank reiterates UnitedHealth as buy Deutsche Bank says it is sticking with the health-care company. "We maintain our Buy rating on UNH' s shares, as even here using a trough-ish multiple on our expected 2025 trough earnings still implies meaningful upside to the shares." Barclays upgrades California Resources to overweight from equal weight Barclays says shares of the energy company have plenty more room to run. "Upgrade to OW from EW as we see CRC benefiting from an attractive slew of idiosyncratic catalysts over the next 12 months." Barclays raises Rockwell Automation to overweight from equal weight Barclays said in its upgrade o f Rockwell that the industrial company has upside. "The valuation multiple may not expand much from the current fairly high level, but we think it can at least 'hold steady' as the top-line recovery takes hold." Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight The investment bank says the stock remains a top pick. "Our OW rating and $410 price target are underpinned by our belief that Tesla's capabilities in key areas of physical AI including data, robotics, energy storage, compute, manufacturing and space/comms/networking/ infrastructure offer growth and margin opportunities that greatly exceed those of the traditional EV business, which is under pressure." JPMorgan upgrades Tronox to overweight from neutral JPMorgan says it sees several positive catalysts ahead for the chemical manufacturer. "Why does the value of a commodity company rise? Often it is a constellation of factors. Prices for the commodity may rise, the supply/demand balance for the commodity may improve, and overall macro sentiment can be less pessimistic. We think that a number of these factors are in place for Tronox." JPMorgan initiates Xylem at overweight JPMorgan says the water company is a "winner in the world of water." "We are initiating coverage of Xylem (XYL) with an Overweight rating and a YE25 PT of $148." Truist cuts Airbnb to sell from hold Truist says its survey checks show bookings remain soft. "In light of the trends observed in our research, post-1Q earnings we are lowering estimates and price targets for the previously noted companies on pg. 1 and lowering our investment ratings on ABNB to Sell from Hold and on PK to Hold from Buy." Oppenheimer upgrades Nordson to outperform from perform Oppenheimer said in its upgrade of Nordson that it sees several positive catalysts ahead for the adhesive manufacturer. "We are upgrading shares to Outperform and establishing a $260 PT." Deutsche Bank resumes coverage of Ralph Lauren at buy Deutsche Bank resumed research coverage of the stock and upgraded shares of the clothing company, saying that it "checks all the boxes." "We are resuming coverage of Ralph Lauren (RL) with a Buy rating and $343 PT, implying 25% potential upside (including dividend yield). Few companies within our coverage fit the description of high-quality with good underlying fundamentals, pricing power, white space opportunity, and limited China sourcing but we think RL checks all the boxes." Portfolio manager Christopher Buchbinder often finds opportunities where others see none. That instinct has helped make his Capital Group Dividend Value ETF among the top rated funds on Morningstar. He calls himself a contrarian, but not religiously and says he is also willing to invest in stocks other people like, if there is an opportunity. "My favorite investments are ones where any educated person can pick up the newspaper or read it on the phone, as we often do today, and understand why they should not invest in a certain company or industry, but our insight or analysis leads us to the opposite conclusion," Buchbinder said in an interview with CNBC. He is one of five portfolio managers for the exchange-traded fund, which launched in February of 2022. The strategy, however, has been around for more than two decades in another structure, he told CNBC. Capital Group Dividend Value ETF (CGDV) is rated five stars by Morningstar, which recently named it among the top dividend ETFs for 2025 . CGDV YTD mountain Capital Group Dividend Value ETF in 2025 The fund aims to generate a yield, before fees, that is above the S & P 500 . The market index currently yields 1.25%, while the ETF has a 1.81% yield and 0.33% expense ratio. About 90% of the fund must be in dividend-paying companies and 90% of the companies in the ETF have to carry an investment grade credit rating. The same percentage is in U.S. stocks. Defensive guardrails "If you think about those guardrails with that, what they effectively do is they steer us towards a profile of a company that tends to have more inherent defensiveness," said Buchbinder, who has been with Capital Research for nearly 30 years. "Investment-grade companies that pay dividends typically are cash-flowing companies that are going to be more resilient in weak market environments." The ETF has "pretty much" done better than the S & P 500 in every weak market environment and better than the Russell 1000 Index of value stocks in the majority of those times, he said. The ETF also participates in up markets, but typically doesn't keep up in a "roaring growth market," he added. Still, the fund outperformed both peer ETFs as well as its index benchmark in both 2023 and 2024, according to Morningstar, when it landed in the second and eighth percentile, respectively. CGDV returned nearly 29% in 2023 and more than 20% in 2024 and so far this year is higher by 5.4%. The diverse team of managers have different specialties and take a research-based approach. There is also a deep bench of analysts providing insights and a team that focuses on the macroeconomic environment. The team approach dampens volatility and ensures consistent results, Buchbinder said. The group thinks long-term, so when one manager may be having a bad year, the others may not, he said. "If you think about investors with a longer holding period which is really who we would hope would invest in a fund like CGDV reducing that volatility, helping to make the ride smoother, with a focus on long-term returns is an absolute positive for the investors, and helps keep them invested, frankly, which is so important," he said. Three areas of opportunity Buchbinder sees three areas of opportunity today, including the health care industry. Since the pandemic, the sector has been one of the worst to invest in, he said. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund is down nearly 4% year to date and has a five-year annualized return of 7.3%, according to FactSet. The S & P 500 return is nearly double that, rising 14.2% a year over five years. "That's what triggers my contrarian interest. When a sector where there are clearly some good companies is out of favor for a multi-year period, I start to get really interested," the Brown University graduate said. "Our analysts had identified a number of companies that really have promising drugs, either already launched or in the pipeline, where the market didn't really seem to be fully reflecting the potential." While there may be some short-term issues, Buchbinder is confident in the three- to five-year outlook. Two health-care companies, Eli Lilly and UnitedHealth , are among CGDV's top holdings . The long-time money manager is also bullish on the aerospace industry. While there has been a significant recovery since the pandemic, Buchbinder believes the industry is in a long-term super cycle. RTX and GE Aerospace are two of CGDV's top holdings, each making up more than 4% of the portfolio. While airline travel has recovered close to trend line, it isn't fully back and continues to grow, Buchbinder said. Plus, the gaps between plane orders, production and supplying parts that started during the pandemic have not been fully filled, he explained. "We've got a big gap in terms of planes being delivered and the leading plane manufacturers in the world have seven or eight year backlogs that they can't fill," he said. "Some of those companies have had operational problems, too, that they're gradually resolving," he added. "We just think this is an area with a long term tailwind, and there's improving company-specific prospects." RTX YTD mountain RTX Boeing , which has suffered from issues surrounding the crashes of two 737 Max planes, is also held in CGDV, making up 1.42% of the fund's assets. Boeing said Thursday its airplane deliveries to China will resume next month and that it is ramping up production of the 737 Max. Last week, the company reached an agreement with the Justice Department to avoid prosecution for a fraud charge relating to the Max crashes. Lastly, Buchbinder recently found an opportunity in the tariff-induced tech stock sell off. He had long been skeptical of the enthusiasm toward infrastructure needed for the buildout of artificial intelligence, in part because he was a telecom analyst for Capital Group during the dotcom bubble that saw technology, media and telecom stocks fly high and then burst. "I tended to reduce my exposure to companies that are deeply involved in the AI infrastructure build," he said. "But just like the internet, I do believe that over the next five to 10 years, AI will change all of our lives in really meaningful ways. "So as the market became more panicked, not really because of long term but because of short-term concerns, that created the kind of opportunity that we look for," he added. Microsoft and Broadcom are the ETF's top two holdings, both making up about 6% of net assets. Meta Platforms is also among the largest positions. The American flag, left, and the Taiwanese flag in Taipei, Taiwan, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. The United States plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taipei to a level exceeding President Donald Trump's first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the democratic island, according to two U.S. officials. If U.S. arms sales to Taiwan do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump's commitment to the island. It would also add new friction to the tense U.S.-China relationship. The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they expect U.S. approvals for weapons sales to Taipei over the next four years to surpass those in Trump's first term, with one of the officials saying arms sales notifications to Taiwan could "easily exceed" that earlier period. They also said the United States is pressing members of Taiwan's opposition parties not to oppose the government's efforts to increase defense spending to 3% of the island's economic output. The first Trump administration approved sales of approximately $18.3 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan, compared with around $8.4 billion during Joe Biden's term, according to Reuters calculations. The United States is Taiwan's most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei. Even so, many in Taiwan, which China claims as its own, worry that Trump may not be as committed to the island as past U.S. presidents. On the election campaign trail, Trump suggested Taiwan should pay to be protected and also accused the island of stealing American semiconductor business, causing alarm in Taipei. China has vowed to "reunify" with the separately governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future. The U.S. officials said administration officials and Trump himself were committed to "enhancing hard deterrence" for Taiwan. "That's where the president is. That's where all of us are," one U.S. official said, adding that they were working closely with Taiwan on an arms procurement package to be rolled out when Taiwan secured domestic funding. Taiwan's Presidential Office told Reuters the government is determined to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and pointed to its proposals to increase defense spending. "Taiwan aims to enhance military deterrence while continuing to deepen its security cooperation with the United States," Presidential Office spokesperson Wen Lii said. Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment on any new arms sales, but reiterated previous remarks by the island's defense minister, Wellington Koo, about the importance of "solidarity and cooperation of democratic allies." President Donald Trump told U.S. steelworkers on Friday that he will double tariffs on steel imports to 50%. "We're going to bring it from 25% to 50%, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America," Trump said during remarks at U.S. Steel's Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. The president said the steep tariffs would "further secure the steel industry." "At 25%, they can sort of get over that fence," Trump said. "At 50%, they can no longer get over the fence." The new import duties will start June 4, the president posted on Truth Social. Trump was delivering remarks at U.S. Steel after indicating last week that he will clear a controversial merger with Japan's Nippon. Investors and union members were listening for answers from the president on what structure the deal will take, though he delivered little in the way of additional detail. Trump said Nippon has committed to keep U.S. Steel's blast furnaces operating at full capacity for a minimum of a decade. There will be no layoffs and "no outsourcing whatsoever" due to the deal, the president said. U.S. Steel workers will receive a $5,000 bonus, he added. Trump has avoided calling the deal a merger, describing it instead as a "partnership" in a May 23 post on his social media platform Truth Social. The president said U.S. Steel's headquarters would remain in Pittsburgh and Nippon would invest $14 billion over 14 months in the more than 120-year-old American industrial icon. U.S. Steel has called the deal as a "merger" in which it will become a "wholly owned subsidiary" of Nippon Steel North America but continue to operate as separate company, according to an April 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the deal is an "investment, it's a partial ownership, but it will be controlled by the USA." Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States and stranded in Honduras disembark from a Conviasa Airlines plane upon arrival at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela on March 24, 2025. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump can terminate the protected status of around 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela while an appeal of the president's order is still pending. The Department of Homeland Security later Friday said that with the Supreme Court's decision, "DHS can once again start removing illegal aliens under the disastrous CHNV parole programs as the case progresses." Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a scathing dissent joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said the majority of the Supreme Court "has plainly botched" its assessment in granting a stay of a lower court ruling that had blocked the terminations ordered by Trump on his first day back in the White House. Until that order, the group of immigrants who had left their home countries because of conflicts there, or unsafe living or working conditions, were allowed to remain in the United States for up to two years as the result of parole program instituted by the Biden adminstration. "I suppose, that it is in the public's interest to have the lives of half a million migrants unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims," Jackson wrote sarcastically in her dissent. She said that the Supreme Court's ruling, which did not explain the grounds for the decision, "undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending." "While it is apparent that the Government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize not maximize harm to litigating parties," Jackson wrote. The ruling comes nearly two weeks after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke the status of nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. who are allowed to remain under the Temporary Status Program. U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs regime has rocked international markets in recent weeks, sparking massive selloffs and rallies in stocks across the globe. Certain tariff-sensitive stocks, such as those in the autos, mining and pharmaceuticals sectors, have seen particularly volatile trade. In a Wednesday ruling , however, the U.S. Court of International Trade blocked the Trump administration from imposing his so-called reciprocal tariffs . Still, many experts expect that the government will manage to circumvent the ruling which it has already appealed against and forge ahead with its trade policies. One European sector could be poised for upside even if the new import duties are enacted, according to Sebastian Raedler, Bank of America's head of European equity strategy. "The main contrarian trade right now is to be overweight [on] pharma in Europe," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday. "This is a defensive sector that hasn't participated at all in the defensive outperformance we saw earlier [this year]." While some sectors typically seen as safe investments amid market turbulence like utilities have seen huge gains in Europe this year, the regional Stoxx Pharmaceuticals index has shed almost 5%. Raedler told CNBC that European pharmaceuticals had "collapsed on the basis of a perfect storm" but he argued investors had significantly overpriced the risk Trump's tariffs posed to the sector. " Novo [Nordisk] collapsed . The [U.S.] dollar was weak. You had the fear of sector-specific tariffs . You had the fear of lower drug prices in the U.S.," he said. "As a consequence, you now have the lowest valuations since 2009." However, he said that for the region's pharma sector to outperform, there needed to be "some form of global growth slowdown." "So we will see whether the tariffs still come through. If there's any damage from the tariffs, if there's any slowdown, pharma is miles away from pricing that," he said. "Investors have really given up on the sector." Tariffs aside, Raedler argued that investors were underestimating major industry player Novo Nordisk . "You're effectively pricing for them not even to get the cash flow from the existing product, let alone any upgrade that they can do in terms of oral product," he said, referring to the company's blockbuster weight loss drugs like Wegovy. "You're basically pricing a scenario where [U.S. competitor] Eli Lilly eats the whole market, and Novo doesn't get anything." Copenhagen-listed shares of Novo Nordisk have lost almost 30% of their value since the beginning of the year. 'Rich pickings' in Switzerland Elsewhere, Swiss stocks could be well-positioned for upside, Raedler said, noting that the country's equities were "close to a record low relative to the European market." This was, in part, because of the country's large pharmaceuticals industry, he added. "Over the past month, cyclical as well as defensives in Europe are at a 30-year high, that means it's not just pharma that weighs on the Swiss market. It's also food and beverages," he said. "Risk premia are back to the lows, plus you've got the idiosyncratic pharma story. So the key question is, [we've] had for three years a global cycle that hasn't slowed. Will you finally get the slowdown? If so, there are very rich pickings in the Swiss market, in pharma and in food and beverage." America's fertility rate is hovering around historic lows, with approximately 1.6 births per woman over her lifetime. This is below the level needed to sustain the population, which is 2.1 births per woman. "Our population will, in the not too distant future, start to decline," said Melissa Kearney, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland. "That's why this is an issue for governments and for the economy, and politicians are starting to pay attention." The economic implications of a shrinking population are broad. For example, fewer births mean fewer future workers to support programs like Social Security and Medicare, which rely on a healthy worker-to-retiree ratio. "The concern here in the U.S. is that if we see kind of dramatic declines in fertility, we will eventually see also kind of a drag on our economy and our capacity to cover all sorts of government programs like Medicare and Social Security," said Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia and director of the Get Married Initiative at the Institute For Family Studies. More from Personal Finance: House GOP bill calls for bigger pass-through business tax break Trump administration axes Biden-era barrier for crypto in 401(k) plans Fewer international tourists may lead to 'staggering' economic losses Lawmakers from both parties have proposed various financial incentives to address declining fertility. The White House is considering lump-sum payments of $5,000 for each newborn, according to The New York Times. Last week, the House passed a massive tax and spending package that includes among other provisions, a bigger child tax credit and new "Trump Accounts" with $1,000 in seed money for newborns. However, Kearney said such policy measures are unlikely to meaningfully affect long-term fertility trends. "I think the kinds of financial incentives or benefits that we're providing just really aren't enough to really change the calculus of, a trade off of ... bringing a child into one's household or family," Kearney said. "That's an 18-year commitment. It's not just a one-year cost." The U.S. and Chinese flags are seen on the day of a bilateral meeting between the U.S. and China, in Geneva, Switzerland, May 10, 2025. BEIJING U.S.-China trade talks "are a bit stalled," requiring the two countries' leaders to speak directly, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News. "I believe that we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks," he said in the interview around 6 p.m. ET Thursday, adding that there may be a call between the two countries' leaders "at some point." After a rapid escalation in trade tensions last month, Bessent helped the world's two largest economies reach a breakthrough agreement in Switzerland on May 12. The countries agreed to roll back recent tariff increases of more than 100% for 90 days, or until mid-August. Diplomatic officials from both sides had a call late last week. Still, the U.S. has pushed ahead with tech restrictions on Beijing, drawing its ire, while China has yet to significantly ease restrictions on rare earths, contrary to Washington's expectations. "I think that given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity, that this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other," Bessent said. "They have a very good relationship and I am confident that the Chinese will come to the table when President [Donald] Trump makes his [preferences] known." Trump and China's President Xi Jinping last spoke in January, just before the U.S. president was sworn in for his second term. While Trump has in recent weeks said he would like to speak with Xi, analysts expect China to agree to that only if there's certainty there will be no surprises from the U.S. during the call. The Volkswagen display at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025. Volkswagen wants to make more big investments in the United States, CEO Oliver Blume said in an interview with a German newspaper on Friday, adding that tariff talks with the U.S. government were "fair" and "constructive." Several foreign companies have announced U.S. investments in response to President Donald Trump's import tariffs, but German carmakers have been more cautious about committing more resources to what is their biggest export market. Volkswagen's Audi brand, which has no production in the United States, is planning to produce some models in there, although the brand has said that the plan pre-dates the Trump administration. "So far, we have had absolutely fair, constructive discussions," Blume told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "I was in Washington myself and we have been in regular dialogue ever since." Blume, who also leads Porsche as CEO, said Volkswagen's main contact in Washington was U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, adding he had agreed to keep any details of the discussions confidential. Sources told Reuters earlier this week that German carmakers including Volkswagen were in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal, seeking to use their U.S. investments and exports as leverage to soften any blow. Trump's trade war has cost companies more than $34 billion in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate disclosures, with companies pursuing various strategies to cope. Most of the tariffs were blocked by a U.S. trade court this week, but a federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated them to consider the Trump administration's appeal against the trade court's ruling. The 25% tariff imposed on auto imports earlier this year has not been affected by the rulings. The Delhi Police has arrested a man from Rajasthan for allegedly aiding Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) by supplying Indian mobile SIM cards for espionage activities, officials said on Thursday, May 29.The accused, identified as Kasim (34), had travelled to Pakistan twice first in August 2024 and again in March 2025 and stayed there for about 90 days, they said.During his visits, he is suspected to have met officials of the Pakistans spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a senior police officer said.Kasim, a resident of Gangora village in Deeg district, was apprehended earlier in the day and is currently in police remand, the officer said."In September 2024, the Special Cell received intelligence inputs that Indian mobile numbers were being misused by PIOs to gather sensitive information related to the Indian Army and government establishments. These mobile SIM cards were allegedly procured in India and sent across the border with the help of Indian nationals, the officer said.Using social media on these Indian SIMs, PIOs contacted Indians to extract classified information pertaining to sensitive installations and departments, he said.The officer added that following the inputs, a case was registered under appropriate sections of law and an investigation was launched. During the investigation, Kasims name surfaced, and further probe revealed his travel history to Pakistan and suspected links with ISI personnel.Further investigation is underway to expose the full extent of the espionage network and identify other Indian associates involved in the conspiracy, police said. After Operation Sindoor, the central government has launched a major diplomatic initiative to present a united national stance against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The Centre has sent seven all-party delegations of political leaders and envoys to key global capitals, starting May 23. The delegations comprising 51 individuals, including parliamentarians and former ministers from various parties, and eight former ambassadors are visiting 25 nations, including those that are a member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and other influential nations. The 10-day outreach mission is being led by senior MPs Shashi Tharoor, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Baijayant Panda, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Supriya Sule, and Shrikant Eknath Shinde. The initiative is being coordinated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju. The all-party delegations were briefed by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. How the nations were selected BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, who is a member of the delegation, told ANI that they are visiting 15 nations that are members of the UNSC. Further, they would be visiting five other countries that will become members of the UNSC and a few other countries. "We are going to all countries that are members of the UNSC, they are about 15 in number. We are also going to five other countries that will become members of the UNSC in the days to come. A few such countries have been selected, whose voice is heard on the international level, these nations are very important. So, representatives are going to over 25 nations," Sarangi said. Pakistan will be a member of the UNSC for the next 17 months and will make anti-India claims, Sarangi pointed out. "It is essential now and our government rightly thought that MPs of different parties should visit these different countries together and present our narrative to the bureaucracy and political representatives there. We condemn Pakistan's approach of promoting terrorism. We want to give a message that India stands united against terrorism," she said. Operation Sindoor India launched Operation Sindoor and destroyed nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the early hours of May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan retaliated and attempted to attack India with drones and missiles. All the attempts of the neighbouring country were neutralised by the Indian armed forces. For four days, there was an intense exchange between the two countries before they reached an agreement on May 10. #WATCH | Goa: "If Pakistan does any unholy act this time, it is possible that this time our Navy will do the opening, " says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh "During 'Operation Sindoor', the Indian Navy has impressed every Indian with its silent service. Despite remaining silent, pic.twitter.com/jN3AIZ8ZFA ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, May 30, warned Pakistan of "unholy acts" stating that if any attack happens this time, the Indian Navy will open the retaliatory actions against it.Speaking to the Indian Navy personnel in Goa, aboard the INS Vikrant - India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier - Rajnath Singh lauded the Indian Navy's strength and its "silent services"."This time, Pakistan did not have to face the firepower of the Indian Navy, but the world knows that if Pakistan does any unholy act this time, it is possible that this time the opening will be done by our Navy," Singh said."During 'Operation Sindoor', the Indian Navy has impressed every Indian with its silent service. Despite remaining silent, the Indian Navy succeeded in tying down the Pakistani Army," he added.He further described about the possibility of the consequences if Indian Navy retaliates. "Just imagine what will happen when someone who can keep a country's army locked in a bottle, even by remaining silent, speaks up?" he told the Indian Navy personnel.Singh asserted that Pakistan needs to control its terrorism activity or India will act using every method against terrorism. "Now, if Pakistan instigates any terrorist act against India, it will have to bear the consequences and face defeat. India will not hesitate. It will use every method to root out the menace of terrorism," he said.The Defence Minister further said that had Indian Navy acted in Operation Sindoor, Pakistan could have split into four parts, referencing to the 1971 war when Pakistan was divided and a new country of Bangladesh was formed."1971 is a witness to this, that when the Indian Navy came into action, Pakistan was divided from one to two. If the Indian Navy had come into action in Operation Sindoor, then Pakistan would not only have been divided into two parts, but I think it would have been divided into four parts," Singh stated.As part of his visit, the defence minister also reviewed operational readiness of the INS Vikrant, currently deployed in the Arabian Sea. #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the pic.twitter.com/AgpOMpNpSt ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 A very good turnout at our press conference yesterday has sparked off a great deal of interest in our delegations mission in Colombia. Augurs well for the very full day that looms ahead. pic.twitter.com/mfPYnlmSnC Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 30, 2025 The all-party delegation leader and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor expressed his disappointment with the Colombian government for its condolences of deaths in Pakistan after the Indian strikes. He was addressing a press briefing in the Colombian capital, Bogota, on Thursday, May 29.Tharoor further stated that there could be no similarity between the perpetrators of terrorism and those who defend themselves from it, while also calling out the Colombian government for not sympathising with the Indian victims."I have to say that we were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," Tharoor said."We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this call, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. We're very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances," he added.The delegation leader further said that Pakistan is a "breeding ground" of terrorism while highlighting that Colombia has endured the terror attacks like India as well."There is no doubt as to where this came from, and we will reserve the right to hit back. Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades," Tharoor said."Frankly, it is now very well established that Pakistan has been breeding the monsters of terrorism for a very long time for their purposes," he added.Tharoor in a post on X (formerly Twitter) later said that the press conference led to a great deal of interest in the Latin American country. ????Big Breaking: Big Confession from Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif Before we launched attack on India They destroyed our Airbases with brahmos We didnt even get the time to finish Namaz Modi hai to mumkin hai???? pic.twitter.com/ss9l5ZLDIV Sandeep Phogat (@MrSandeepPhogat) May 29, 2025 Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has acknowledged that Indian forces struck key military installations inside Pakistan in the early hours of May 10, thwarting a planned offensive by the Pakistani army.Speaking at the Pakistan-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral summit held in Lachin, Azerbaijan, Sharif stated that Indian BrahMos missiles hit several strategic locations, including Rawalpindi airport, just hours before Pakistan intended to launch an attack."On the night of May 9-10, we decided to respond in a measured fashion to Indian aggression. Our armed forces were prepared to act at 4.30 in the morning after Fajr prayers to teach a lesson. But before that hour even arrived, India once again launched a missile attack using BrahMos, targeting various provinces of Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi," Sharif said during the summit address, as per News18.He added that key military bases, including Noor Khan airbase in Rawalpindi and Murid base in Chakwal were struck by India before Pakistan could act, reported News18.The Indian missile attack was part of a broader retaliatory operation called "Operation Sindoor" launched in the early hours of May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.Indian Armed Forces carried out precision strikes on nine terror base camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). These included sites associated with groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Hizbul Mujahideen.The Pak PM had confirmed recently during a ceremony in Islamabad that Indian missiles struck around 2:30 am on May 10. "General Asif Munir called me through a secure phone and told me India has launched its ballistic missiles. One has landed at the Nur Khan airbase and some at other areas," he said, as per NDTV.Earlier this week, Sharif indicated Pakistan's willingness to resume dialogue with India on the longstanding issues such as Kashmir, trade and water-sharing.However, the India has reiterated its position that meaningful talks cannot occur unless Pakistan halts cross-border terrorism."Our position in regard to engagement with Pakistan has been clear and consistent. Any India Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. At the same time, we are clear that talks and terror don't go together," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday, May 29 during his weekly press briefing."On terrorism itself, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists, whose list was given to Pakistan some years ago. Any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of the illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan," he added.Following the Indian strikes on May 7, Pakistan responded by targeting Indian cities using drones and missiles. However, Indian air defence systems, including the S-400 and Akash, intercepted these attacks.India then launched further strikes on Pakistani military assets including command centres and ammunition depots in regions such as Rahil Yar Khan, Sukkur and Sialkot, as per NDTV.On May 10, a ceasefire understanding was reached after Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) contacted his Indian counterpart, which resulted in cessation of all firings and military activities from both the sides. Saudi Arabias defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: take President Donald Trumps offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabias 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son, Prince Khalid bin Salman, with the warning destined for Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials.Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the sources said.While media covered the 37-year-old princes visit, the content of the King Salmans covert message has not been previously reported.Prince Khalid, who was Saudi ambassador to Washington during Trumps first term, warned Iranian officials that the US leader has little patience for drawn-out negotiations, according to the four sources.Trump had unexpectedly announced just over a week earlier that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Irans nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. He did so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had travelled to Washington hoping instead to win support for attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.In Tehran, Prince Khalid told the group of senior Iranian officials that Trumps team would want to reach a deal quickly, and the window for diplomacy would close fast, according to the four sources.The Saudi minister said it would be better to reach a deal with the US than face the possibility of an Israeli attack if the talks broke down, according to the two Gulf sources.He argued that the region already riven by recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon could not withstand a further escalation in tensions, said the two Gulf sources and one senior foreign diplomat familiar with the discussions.Authorities in Saudi Arabia and Iran did not respond to requests for comment.The visit by Prince Khalid the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman was the first by a senior member of the Saudi royal family to Iran in more than two decades. Riyadh and Tehran had long been bitter rivals, often backing opposing sides in proxy wars, until a rapprochement brokered by China in 2023 helped to ease the tensions and restored diplomatic ties.Over the past two years, Irans regional position has been undermined by heavy military blows inflicted by Israel on its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and toppling of its close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Western sanctions, meanwhile, have hit its oil-dependent economy hard.Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank in Beirut, said that Tehrans weakness had offered Saudi Arabia the opportunity to exert its diplomatic influence, seeking to avoid a regional conflagration.They want to avoid war because war and confrontation with Iran will have negative implications on them and their economic vision and ambitions, he told Reuters.Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the princes message on Irans leadership.In the meeting, Pezeshkian responded that Iran wanted a deal to ease economic pressure through the lifting of Western sanctions, the four sources said.However, the Iranian officials, the sources added, expressed concerns over the Trump administrations unpredictable approach to negotiations which have veered from allowing limited uranium enrichment to demanding the complete dismantling of Tehrans enrichment program.Trump also has threatened to use military force if diplomacy fails to rein in the clerical establishments nuclear ambitions.One of the Iranian sources said that Pezeshkian emphasized Tehrans eagerness to reach a deal but that Iran was not willing to sacrifice its enrichment program just because Trump wanted an agreement.The ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran have already been through five rounds to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, but multiple stumbling blocks remain, including the key issue of enrichment.Reuters reported on Wednesday, May 28, that Iran might pause uranium enrichment if the US releases its frozen funds and recognises its right to refine uranium for civilian use under a political deal that could lead to a broader nuclear accord, according to two Iranian sources familiar with the talks. The semi-official Fars news agency in Iran quoted a foreign ministry spokesman denying the report.The White House did not directly address Reuters questions about whether it was aware of the Saudi warning to Iran.President Trump has made it clear: make a deal, or face grave consequences, and the whole world is clearly taking him seriously, as they should, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.Trump said on Wednesday, May 28, he warned Netanyahu last week not to take any actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran, and said the two sides were very close to a solution now.Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment.A four-day visit by Trump to the Gulf this month annointed Saudi Arabia as the most prominent member of a new axis of Sunni states in the Middle East, filling the void left by Irans shattered alliance. During the trip, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman mediated a reconciliation between Trump and Syrias new Sunni leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.Tehrans regional sway, meanwhile, has been diminished by military setbacks suffered by Iran and its allies in the Shiite-dominated Axis of Resistance, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militiasIn the meeting, Prince Khalid urged Iran to rethink its regional policy, noting such a shift would be welcomed, especially by Riyadh, the sources said.Although he stopped short of directly blaming Iran, the Saudi minister voiced concern over a possible repeat of the 2019 drone attacks on the facilities of state oil company Aramco attacks the kingdom attributed to Iran and its Houthi allies, despite Tehrans denial.Iranian officials maintained that while Tehran holds some influence over the Houthis, it does not fully control their actions, the Iranian sources said.Decades of hostility between the Shiite Iran and Saudi Arabia destabilised the Gulf and fuelled regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria. The 2023 detente was driven in part by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammeds economic ambitions and desire for stability, and has led to increased contacts between the governments.However, neither Saudi Arabia nor other regional powers see Iran as a dependable partner for peace and they fear its actions could jeopardize their ambitions for economic development, diplomats and regional experts say.Prince Khalid implored the Iranians to avoid actions by them and their allies that might provoke Washington, stressing that Trumps response would likely be more strident than his predecessors, presidents Joe Biden and Barak Obama.In turn, he assured Tehran that Riyadh would not let its territory or airspace to be used by the United States or Israel for any potential military action against Iran, the sources said. 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. Microsoft and Google are taking distinctive approaches with AI agents in their productivity suites, and enterprises need to account for the differences when formulating digital labor strategies, analysts said. In recent months, both companies have announced a dizzying array of new agents aimed at extracting value from corporate documents and maximizing efficiency. The tech giants have dropped numerous hints about where theyre headed with AI agents in their respective office suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Microsoft is reshaping its Copilot assistant as a series of tools to create, tap into, and act on insights at individual and organizational levels. The Microsoft 365 roadmap lists hundreds of specialized AI tools under development to automate work for functions such as HR and accounting. The company is also developing smaller AI models to carry out specific functions. Google has started introducing ads in its AI-generated search results, called AI Overviews and AI Mode, in the United States. The ads are placed below the AI-generated summaries and are labeled as sponsored. The company claims that users find these ads helpful. Bleeping Computer writes that according to a Google support document, internal data shows that users appreciate the ads because they connect them to relevant companies, products, and services at the right time. However, Google does not disclose the methodology behind the internal data. The change is part of Googles strategy to retain its dominance in digital advertising, especially in increasing competition with players like OpenAI and Microsoft. At the same time, some publishers have previously expressed concerns that these AI summaries could reduce traffic to their websites, which could negatively impact their advertising revenue. The daring 737 pilot behind the Miracle Over the Mojave, Nathan Fielder, recently popped by CNNs The Situation Room to discuss his theories concerning airline safety, as seen in the most recent season of The Rehearsal. He was joined by the HBO shows resident expert, former National Transportation Safety Board member, and recent National Aviation Hall of Fame inductee, John Goglia because roping senior citizens into joining him in his wacky causes is Fielders M.O. For more than 15 minutes, Fielder chatted with hosts Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, noting that his concerns about problematic power dynamics in cockpits could also be applied to cable news anchors. Pamela, Im sure you dont say some things to Wolf, Fielder suggested, reasoning that the famous anchor might be somewhat intimidating because hes in movies. Hes in Mission: Impossible. Don't Miss Fielder, sporting a cap reading 737, also addressed the FAAs newly-released statement about The Rehearsal, in which the government organization stressed that it isnt seeing the data that supports the shows central claim that pilot communications is to blame for airline disasters. Thats dumb. Theyre dumb, Fielder responded. Fielder was also given the opportunity to comment on another semi-tense situation involving himself and government officials: Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohens claim that The Rehearsal misrepresented his meeting with Fielder. I devoted considerable time to preparing for what I expected to be a serious policy discussion, Cohen said in a statement to CNN. We were told that Nathan wanted to talk about autism, and we figured that was why he was also interested in the EVAC (Emergency Vacating of Aircraft Cabin) Act because people with autism could have difficulties in a crash situation. None of this was mentioned or part of the discussion. Most of the substantive parts of a 45-minute interview never made it to air. Advertisement Of course, the congressmans statement didnt explain why he believed that Fielder, who his staffers were already familiar with (some of them had even seen Season One of The Rehearsal) would be up for a serious policy discussion about the concerns of neurodiverse travelers with zero ulterior motives. Advertisement Its disappointing that hes sort of saying this now, because he still has an opportunity to tackle this issue, hes the ranking member on the aviation subcommittee, Fielder deadpanned. To be honest, he didnt seem to know a lot about (the issue). When I brought up CRM (crew resource management), which is this issue, he didnt seem to be really aware of it and the specifics. Advertisement Blitzer then brought up the fact that Cohen wouldnt have been able to call Fielder as a witness, as the comedian had hoped, since that task falls to the chairman. But he can talk to the guy, Fielder countered. He knows the chairman. He could be like, Look, this guy whos a pilot, a 737 pilot, came to me with this very important issue, maybe we should look at this a little more. Now that the show is out, he could show it to the (chairman), the Nathan For You star added. I would say its disappointing that he didnt want to take this more seriously. Hopefully this drama wont affect Congress interest in waiving tariffs for musical smoke detectors and exploring the potential health benefits of The Movement. The King of the Hill reboot will debut on August 4th, and to prove that it totally exists, Hulu released the show's brand new opening credit sequence. While it features the familiar sound of The Refreshments jangly theme song, the opening raises a ton of questions about what the hell happened to these characters following the ending of the original show. The first King of the Hill opening memorably found Hank, Dale, Boomhauer and Bill chilling in front of the fence outside of the Hill house, all while jump cuts illustrated that, as the days, or even weeks, passed, the four friends were happy to just stay in one place pounding back cans of Alamo, Ill tell you what. The new sequence adopts the same aesthetic, but spans years, giving us a somewhat confusing glimpse at how life in Arlen has changed since the series finale in 2009. Don't Miss Most shockingly, Hank, Peggy and a teenage Bobby pack up and move away, leaving Bill in tears and an entirely new character living in their old house. Some of this is actually explained by the shows recently-released logline, which reveals that Hank has spent the past several years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia in order to earn money for his and Peggys retirement nest egg. The reboot will find them returning to a changed Arlen and reconnecting with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Play And clearly some important developments occurred in their absence. At one point a Gribble for Mayor sign is erected on the lawn, possibly suggesting that Dale will seek public office. Although some fans on Reddit suggested that it may actually be Nancy who runs Mayor, which would make more sense. And speaking of Nancy, she is possibly having an affair with John Redcorn again, after ending their relationship back in Season Four of the original show. Nancy being back with Redcorn is really disappointing, one fan complained in reference to the quick shot of Dales wife getting into her exs car. Advertisement Advertisement More distressing, we see that COVID exists in the King of the Hill-verse, and even Dale is wearing a mask (albeit around his chin). Bill, whose apparent survival previously shocked fans, catches the virus, and begins violently coughing before abruptly exiting the yard. And hes never seen again! This has caused some fans to worry that Bill didnt make it through. But the synopsis does note that Bill is alive, prompting concerns that hes now become a shut-in. Some other important details packed into this 30-second clip include the fact that Hanks elderly dog Ladybird is nowhere to be seen (although we can fill in the blanks there), and Boomhauer appears to have a video game-playing kid now with a woman who may or may not be his partner. Plus, the gang has to contend with Texas snowy weather because, as Connies briefly-glimpsed school project illustrates, climate change is a thing. Although Dale may have some alternate theories Threat actors have discovered a way to abuse Google Apps Scripts to sneak links to malicious websites past phishing defenses. According to new research from Cofense, a new attack has been discovered where, if an employee clicks on a link in a phishing email, they get taken to a page on script[.]google[.]com. The attacker is betting the user will see and trust the Google brand, and therefore trust the content. By using a trusted platform to host the phishing page, the threat actor creates a false sense of security, obscuring the underlying threat with the goal of getting the recipient to enter their email and password without thinking twice, says the report. Beyond calling for the designation of October as Hindu Heritage Month on the academic calendar, the resolution asks that the ASUC encourages students to support their Hindu peers as well as to better understand and educate other members of the student body on, the historic principles of Sanatana Dharma a term often used to synonymize Hinduism. Et tu, Susie? Just as Julius Caesar thought his friend Brutus was the last man on Earth who would betray him, so I imagined Susie Dent would defend to her final breath the correct pronunciation of common English words. But no. This week, the serene goddess of Countdown's Dictionary Corner appeared to throw in the towel over the widespread mispronunciation of the word mischievous. So many people get it wrong, she declared, that it no longer bothers her to hear it pronounced 'mischievious', to rhyme with 'devious', as if it were spelt with a third 'i' after the 'v'. True, she was not saying the mispronunciation had now become standard English. Nor was she endorsing it as 'acceptable', as one or two mischievous headline-writers have suggested. But she did seem to regard the mistake with a certain detached, academic resignation, as if it were merely an interesting illustration of the way language evolves. My own instinct, by contrast, is to man the barricades against assaults on our language and 'rage, rage against the dying of the light'. Speaking at the Hay Festival, where she was promoting her new murder mystery, Guilty By Definition, Dent said: 'Something which used to rile me was people pronouncing mischievous as mischie-vi-ous. But now it's everywhere and there is a very good reason why people do. 'It's the way English people have always pushed out a pronunciation that is no longer familiar to them. We don't have any 'ievous' words any more, and they're pushing it to something that they do know, and that's 'evious'. Susie Dent, who is a far more distinguished student of words than I will ever be, is quite right to say that living languages evolve with the passage of time, writes Tom Utley 'So I have now decided it's a fascinating snapshot of how language works and it doesn't really bother me not any more.' Well, all I can say is that it bothers me a lot. Indeed, far from becoming more tolerant as the years go by, I find that the older I get, the more such petty crimes against our language irritate me. Oh, I know that in this vale of tears, with wars raging in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere, and our own country plunging headlong into bankruptcy, there are far more important things to worry about than the mispronunciation of a common English word. I know, too, that Dent, who is a far more distinguished student of words than I will ever be, is quite right to say that living languages evolve with the passage of time. After all, it's not only pronunciations that change, but spellings and even the meanings of words. To take one frequently cited example, the word 'silly' went through a whole range of meanings including happy, holy, rustic, weak and lowly before it settled on its modern definition as a synonym for daft. Meanwhile, I'd hate to think I'm becoming as pedantic as my late grandfather, a classics scholar, who insisted on pronouncing 'margarine' with a hard g (apparently it comes from the Greek word for a pearl, which is spelt with a gamma) and cinema as 'Kye-knee-ma', because its ancient Greek root begins with a kappa. As I may have mentioned before, he was also such a stickler for correct grammar that when my mother asked him if he'd like more spaghetti, he replied: 'Well, perhaps just a few'. (The word spaghetti, you understand, is the plural of spaghetto; strictly speaking, it's therefore wrong to speak of 'just a little spaghetti'.) But there must be at least some trace of my grandfather in me, since I constantly find myself wincing over common mispronunciations and grammatical mistakes. It annoys me, too, that Sir Keir Starmer seems to have trouble pronouncing his own job title, rendering it more often than not as 'Pry-Mister' It sets my teeth on edge, for example, when I ask almost anyone under the age of about 35 'How are you?', and the answer comes back: 'I'm good'. Indeed, I have to bite my lip to stop myself from saying: 'I wasn't asking about your morals. I just wanted to know if you were well!' In the same way, it irritates me like anything when people ask at the bar: 'Can I get...', when the traditional form, on my side of the Atlantic at least, is 'May I have...' And why do so many of the young insist on starting every other sentence with the word 'so'? (Ask them what they do for a living, and the chances are they will give some incomprehensible answer, such as: 'So, I'm a local government project outreach manager.') Won't somebody teach BBC reporters, meanwhile, that singular subjects take singular verbs? I've lost count of the number of times I've switched on the news to hear sentences such as: 'The collapse in shares are sending shock-waves through the financial world.' Are it really? Or take the way in which many who are confused or ambiguous about their sexual identity like to be referred to by the plural pronouns 'they' and 'them'. What bugs me quite as much as any other consideration is the way this mangles English grammar. As for quirks of pronunciation, I suppose I should admit that some of my objections are merely snobbish. For example, nobody on BBC London seems able to say the word 'hospital' in the way I was brought up to pronounce it. Asad Ahmad and most of his colleagues give it three equally stressed syllables ('hosp-it-tool'), instead of rhyming it with little or skittle. (Mind you, some of them say 'littool' and 'skittool' as well.) It annoys me, too, that Sir Keir Starmer seems to have trouble pronouncing his own job title, rendering it more often than not as 'Pry-Mister'. And don't get me started on the Chancellor's hideous, grating pronunciation of the name of the kingdom she's bringing to ruin, which she insists on calling the 'Yew-Kye'. But some common pronunciations are just plain wrong. I'm thinking in particular of words we get from the French, such as restaurateur and lingerie. Again and again, you will hear the former pronounced as if it had an 'n' in it, and the latter as if it ended in -ay. Mind you, my late father regarded it almost as his patriotic duty to mispronounce French words. I'll never forget his rebuking me once for pronouncing Marseilles the French way, as 'Mar-say.' 'Mar-say, boy? Mar-say?' he spluttered. 'The word is Mar-sails! You don't pronounce Paris 'Paree', do you?' Other examples of common mispronunciations that are just plain wrong include 'Joo-le-ree' for jewellery, 'Feb-you-airy' for February and 'amen-o-knee' for that admittedly tricky tongue-twister, anemone. Meanwhile, Dent herself cites the widespread mispronunciation of nuclear as 'nucular', saying it understandably irks a lot of people, while observing with her lexicographer's detachment that she thinks this is influenced by such words as molecular and secular. She tells me: 'I'm certainly not saying 'anything goes'. Language needs to be fluent and articulate (and wherever possible, beautiful!) in order to be effective, and when we deviate from the standard it can affect the quality and comprehensibility of our writing or speech.' All she is pointing out, she says, is that pronunciations have evolved for centuries, as we have adjusted sounds that no longer seem familiar to those that are. 'It can be irritating of course, and many will believe it is a degradation of English, all of which I understand,' she says. 'But there is perhaps reassurance in the fact that this is nothing new.' Ah, well, I'm sure she's right on every count. But may not an old man rant? From red telephone boxes to double-decker buses, some designs are quintessentially English. Yet, despite being native to our green and pleasant land, one key architectural feature goes almost unnoticed. I'm referring to the ubiquitous quirk that is the clock tower. Not just any clock tower but the one that looms over so many of our supermarkets and shopping centres. From a Tesco in Swindon and another in the Wiltshire town of Trowbridge, to a Morrisons near Nottingham and a Blackburn shopping centre, regardless of where you are in England, there will almost certainly be a retail outlet nearby boasting one of these distinctive structures. But why do so many commercial spaces have clock towers built in at all? The explanation is bizarre and little-known, and requires us to turn back the hands of time... When planners were drawing up a blueprint for the new town of South Woodham Ferrers in 1977, they were obliged to follow instruction from the Essex Design Guide published by council chiefs three years previously. It meant that plans for an Asda supermarket next to the town square could only proceed if 'specific Essex characteristics' were incorporated into the design. Architects duly submitted a proposal that included a 14th-century barn-type facade and a Victorian-style clock tower both thought to have been inspired by similar structures in the town of Coggeshall, 15 miles away. Planning chiefs gave it the go-ahead and the first-ever 'Essex barn' supermarket complete with that mouldbreaking clock tower opened the following year. According to a Historic England blog, the design 'with its sweeping clay-tiled pitched roof... referenced Medieval tithe barns' the buildings used to stock the one-tenth share of agricultural produce that farmers were obliged to hand over to church officials. The first clock tower on a supermarket, Asda South Woodham in Essex - built in 1978 to match the town centre's facade A clock-towered Tesco store in Swindon, Wiltshire Bosses at Asda were so pleased with their architects' handiwork that they couldn't stop telling everyone about it. 'If you're of the opinion that a superstore means an eyesore,' ran one self-congratulatory blurb, 'we hope the evidence from South Woodham Ferrers will make you think twice.' It didn't end there. While the design was 'tailor-made for one community', says YouTube filmmaker Chris Spargo, it was turned into 'a template that was pasted across the nation' throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As Historic England notes: 'Rival retailers reproduced the same style with varying degrees of success.' Describing the 'pastiche English farm buildings' that started popping up across the landscape, academic Audrey Kirby said: 'The style marked an important turning point in the design of supermarket buildings and lasted for almost 20 years.' In reference to the South Woodham Ferrers development, Dr Kirby writing in a University of the Arts London doctoral thesis on the history of supermarket design noted that 'its initial purpose was to blend in with the surrounding rural landscape'. But, in a comment that may explain why the format became so widespread, she also remarked that 'possibly the design provided the customers with a classless feeling of comfort, security, wholesomeness and prosperity'. It was certainly popular with the supermarket giants. Of the 28 new Tesco stores built in 1991, 23 of them had clock towers. Archive documents from the same year show Sainsbury's bosses remarking on how their new store in Rustington 'looks immediately at home amid the greenery of Sussex countryside', with its 'high gables and roof tower'. Even as Morrisons started moving towards more modern-style buildings in the late 1990s, Dr Kirby wrote how the late Sir Ken Morrison then chairman of the chain 'insisted that his stores retain the clock tower as a dominant feature'. A barn-shaped Tesco with a clock in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire As Morrisons started moving towards more modern-style buildings in the late 1990s, Dr Kirby wrote how the chairman 'insisted that his stores retain the clock tower as a dominant feature' (Pictured: A Morrisons in Nottingham) Of course, hard-nosed pragmatism undoubtedly played a part as well. The simple fact of having a clock tower served 'to mark the position of the store' for the surrounding population, Dr Kirby noted, and it had been a tactic 'used in the past by architects of churches or civic buildings'. By the time the new millennium dawned, the Essex barn style was making way for cheaper, easier-to-construct supermarkets involving lots of glass and steel. Which just goes to show that supermarket designers have short memories. For it was the soulless, utilitarian design of the original hypermarkets that created the clock-tower backlash in the first place. Perhaps predictably, this style was introduced to Britain by the Americans. US retail giant GEM opened the UK's first edge-of-town superstore in West Bridgford, a suburb south of Nottingham, in November 1964. It took just ten weeks to get the 80,000 sq ft premises described as resembling a 'long windowless box' built and stocked in time for the grand opening. And what a grand opening it was. The honours on the big day were performed by Bond girl Shirley Eaton, who just two months earlier had famously appeared covered in gold paint in the 007 film Goldfinger. Around 30,000 people attended the launch and, according to a newspaper report, the store 'had to be closed several times to clear the mass of shoppers through the pay-out counters'. Plenty more vast, single-storey shopping emporiums soon followed. Yet, when it came to the look of these new-style establishments, not everyone was smitten.By 1973, celebrated architectural critic Lance Wright was making the most withering comments imaginable about their design. 'The retailers, if left to themselves, clearly choose the image of the concentration camp,' he once remarked somewhat distastefully. In a recent video, Chris Spargo notes: 'Early supermarkets were based on designs from America and, for a while, the novelty of the store that sells everything was enough to make people look past the ugly exterior. Once they started to build them, people seemed to flock to them. 'But, as the 1970s rolled around, it was getting harder to get them built in the first place. People didn't like the way they looked.' In the meantime, explains Spargo, 'local councils were starting to become quite unco-operative' when it came to granting planning permission. 'Clearly a new design was going to be needed, but what could it be?' Cue the construction of that Asda store in a little-known spot near Chelmsford in Essex. And, almost half a century on, the legacy of that pioneering project in South Woodham Ferrers remains all around us. Even today, as Chris Spargo points out, there are still 'occasionally' proposed new supermarkets featuring clock towers in their design. 'It's kind of an expected thing now,' he adds wryly. From the outside, Savannah McKell seemed to have a picture-perfect life. But behind closed doors, the former Newcastle Knights cheerleader was secretly battling a life-shortening condition. 'People often looked at my life and saw a fairytale - I was cheerleading, modelling and taking glamorous Instagram pictures... What they didn't see was me coughing up blood between cheering, managing life-threatening lung infections, and silently battling cystic fibrosis,' Savannah told FEMAIL. When she was born, her parents were given the devastating news that she might not live past her teens - and if she did, she would likely only reach her early 20s. Her parents kept her life relatively normal, shifting the focus away from her illness so she could simply enjoy being a kid. From the age of 20, she began experiencing more frequent infections and health complications. But it wasn't until she was 24 that her condition took a terrifying turn - after she suffered an episode of hemoptysis, just hours before her engagement party. 'The day I started coughing up cups full of blood was the scariest day of my life,' Savannah recalled. 'As I was rushed to the emergency room, all I could think was I'm not going to get to say goodbye or 'I love you' to my parents or make it to my wedding and marry my husband... The party was at the back of my mind and I just went into survival mode.' Savannah McKell was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at six weeks old (pictured with her baby boy Elijah) Savannah was a cheerleader with the Newcastle Knights up until 2023 Savannah has been living with the incurable disease since she was six weeks old. Growing up, she remembers having a 'beautiful' childhood, even as she navigated life with cystic fibrosis (CF) - a genetic disorder that causes an abnormal build-up of thick mucus in the lungs, airways and digestive system. 'My family kept my diagnosis very positive and almost pretended it didn't exist to me as I was so young and unable to comprehend,' she said. 'I had an amazing family, and we'd spend as many days as we could by the beach to soak up the salt, which helped my CF. I had a lot of extra hospital visits and treatment I had to do but my mum always tried to make them as enjoyable as possible.' Dolly discovery Savannah was never fazed by her diagnosis - until she came across a confronting detail in the teen magazine Dolly that revealed the soul-crushing reality of her life expectancy. 'It was devastating. I knew I was "more prone to getting a cold, cough and flu" but I didn't know my CF came with a very dire life expectancy,' she recalled. 'Finding out at 12 years old - from reading Dolly magazine - that I was nearly "halfway" through my life had a profound effect on me.' After reading the article, she made the decision to keep her condition a secret. 'I chose to keep my CF private in the early 2000s. With the life expectancy being what it was, I didn't want the stigma of being "the sick girl" or that "she was going to die soon",' she said. 'I wasn't ashamed of having CF but I never wanted it to be the talking point to my friends, peers, classmates and just everyone around me. 'Growing up is hard enough without already being labelled as 'different'. I just wanted to be Savannah, not Savannah who has CF.' As she got older, she began experiencing more frequent infections and health complications Her childhood with CF was so normal that she didn't really worry about her diagnosis until she read something about the life expectancy of someone living with CF in Dolly magazine As a child, Savannah knew she was 'different' because of the number of hospital visits she had compared to her school friends and other kids her age. 'Some of them said they'd never been to hospital before, yet I was going once a month for clinics and yearly needles, and needing antibiotics all the time for a "cold",' she recalled. 'The clinic visits when I was young were very traumatic with tubes being shoved down my throat and multiple blood tests, and antibiotics... no five-year-old should have to endure stuff like that so young.' Defying odds As she got older, the life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis gradually increased to around 30 years. However, Savannah, now 29, has received promising news after defying all odds - thanks to medical advancements, research and a breakthrough prescription drug called Trikafta. 'Life expectancy has increased drastically and continues to increase every day. While it's in no way a cure, it's a big step for cystic fibrosis sufferers. It's now almost double the life expectancy to 60,' she said. Savannah and her husband welcomed their first child, a baby son named Elijah, via IVF What many people didn't see was that Savannah was struggling behind closed doors -coughing up blood between cheerleading and managing life-threatening lung infections How you can help make a difference May is the month of Cystic Fibrosis Awareness. Savannah is sharing her story in support of CF Together. She is hoping to help raise awareness and funds for Cystic Fibrosis research. You can donate here. Advertisement 'Trikafta has completely changed my life. I can now go months, if not years between antibiotics, IVs, hospital stays and clinic visits. Something that used to occur monthly. 'I'm not constantly clearing my throat or coughing up thick mucus, I can now take deep breaths and have clear lungs. It also allowed me to fall pregnant naturally which never happened before Trikafta.' Before discovering the life-extending drug, Savannah experienced fertility issues while trying to get pregnant - likely due to her condition. Baby joy She and her husband conceived their first son Elijah via IVF. 'Carrying a pregnancy was the hardest challenge physically, as the strain on my body and health was incredibly hard,' the young mum said. 'The only thing that got me through was the beautiful baby boy I was fighting so hard for.' Three months postpartum, Savannah contracted an infection called B. cepacia, often referred to as a 'death sentence' for people with cystic fibrosis. This scare prompted her to start Trikafta after a year of hesitation. Savannah, now 29, has received promising news about her life expectancy after defying all odds - thanks to medical advancements, research and a breakthrough drug called Trikafta Savannah kept her CF a secret from most people for many years due to stigma and a desire to be seen as 'normal' but she has become more open about her condition - especially after having her son Savannah tied the knot with her husband in a fairytale wedding 'The thinning of mucus from Trikafta not only cleared my lungs but cervical mucus too, allowing to conceive naturally, something we had tried for many years with no success without IVF,' she said. Thanks to advocacy by CF Together, she now has access to the life-saving medication - something she attributes to giving her the best years of her adult life. Highs and lows Savannah said her condition is now 'very stable'. 'I live 99 per cent of the time a somewhat normal life minus the pills every day and extra precautionary clinic visits. My new life expectancy is promising and I can look to the future without as much fear,' she said. Despite thriving at 29 with a second baby on the way after conceiving naturally, she still struggles with the 'constant mental noise and fear of decline'. 'While we have advancements and fancy new drugs, it still only takes catching one bad bug to completely bring your whole body and life down, as well as the mental side,' she explained. 'CF means taking pills every day, with every meal, since the day I was born - and that hasn't stopped.' Savannah - who's currently expecting her second baby after conceiving naturally - said she's now enjoying living a 'slow, nature-filled life' By sharing her story, she wants every young person living with cystic fibrosis to 'know your diagnosis does not define you' What is cystic fibrosis carrier testing? Cystic fibrosis carrier testing is a genetic test that will help to identify if you have changes to the CF gene. The test involves providing a blood or saliva sample and requires a referral from your GP, obstetrician, geneticist, or gynaecologist. There are around 2,000 gene changes that cause CF, and a typical CF screening will identify the most common CF gene changes in Australia. However, there is still a small risk that you may be a carrier of a rare CF gene change. If you have a family history of CF, it is important to tell your GP, obstetrician or gynaecologist before providing your sample for screening. This will ensure that you are being tested for the most common CF gene changes as well as the specific gene change relevant to your family. Making the decision to know your CF carrier status through genetic testing is a choice only you can make. Knowing whether you are a carrier can help inform you of your reproductive options. You can discuss your CF carrier screening options with your GP, obstetrician or a genetic counsellor. On November 1, 2023, reproductive carrier testing for cystic fibrosis, fragile X syndrome and spinal muscular atrophy was made available for every eligible Australian, thanks to two new Medicare item numbers, allowing people to make more informed choices regarding family planning. The test can be ordered before pregnancy or early in pregnancy. Advertisement Savannah said she's now enjoying living a 'slow, nature-filled life'. 'I'm raising my family without any fear for the future. Something as small as going for a swim at the beach is such a blessing for me and I want to spend the rest of my life just appreciating every second,' she said. For couples looking to start a family, Savannah urges them to get a genetic blood test before trying to conceive. 'CF is genetic but I advise couples looking to start a family to please do a genetic blood test before falling pregnant. My parents had no idea they were carriers and it's surprisingly more common in Australia than you think to be a carrier,' she said. By sharing her story, Savannah wants every young person living with cystic fibrosis to know that their diagnosis does not define them. 'It should never stop you from chasing the life you dream of. Never listen to any one that doubt you or wrap you in cotton wool because of your disease,' Savannah said. 'I chose to keep my illness private growing up, but I've learned that strength doesn't come from pretending everything's ok... it's from being honest and proving people you can do all of this while fighting something so horrific. 'I share my story now because I wish, as a little girl, I had seen someone like me thriving despite their diagnosis. Appearances don't always reflect reality. 'You truly never know what someone is going through behind the scenes. You should always prioritise your health for those who weren't as blessed.' According to CF Together, nine out of 10 children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis are born into families without any prior history of the condition. In cases where there is no family history, both parents of the child who is born with CF must be carriers of the gene change that causes CF. One in 25 people are estimated to carry the gene changes that can cause CF, and most people are completely unaware they are a carrier. CF carrier screening testing is available to help you and your partner find out whether you are among the one million Australians who carry the CF gene change. Sitting up suddenly in bed with sweat running down her back, Sarah Sidebottom took a deep breath. 'You're safe now,' she whispered to herself. Yet the dream had been so vivid, so raw, she couldn't get back to sleep. For 50 years, Sarah had carried a secret and the trauma still haunted her nightmares. When she just three years old, she'd been raped by her father, Arthur William Bowditch. 'I remember the pain but more than anything I remember his hand clamped over my mouth to stifle my screams,' Sarah, from Chard, Somerset, tells Daily Mail Australia. At first, she thought it was a one-off assault. But after she turned six, her father attacked her again. 'Every time my mother was out, he took the opportunity to assault and rape me... He assaulted me in the stables at the side of the bungalow where we had horses. Sarah was three years old the first time her father, Arthur William Bowditch, raped her. After age six, the abuse became more frequent - and he threatened to kill her if she told anyone 'There were two sides to him. He could be very charming and was a big character, he was a builder and well-known locally in Somerset. But at home he was very violent and twisted.' When she was 10, Sarah fought back against one attack. Her dad retaliated by kicking her all the way to the bedroom and choking her on the bed. Sarah had no idea if her mother was aware of the abuse; her father would use her as a weapon in getting Sarah to stay quiet. 'He had guns in the garage, and he told me if I ever spoke out about the abuse, he would shoot me or he'd shoot my mother.' Sarah's parents separated when she was 13, and she thought it was the end of her nightmare. But a few years later, her older brother Arthur Stephen Bowditch - known by his middle name of Stephen - moved in with her after previously living with their father. He raped her, just like his dad had done. 'I couldn't believe it was happening again,' recalls Sarah. 'Stephen raped me and it was horrendous.' Sarah Sidebottom was subject to horrific abuse from both her dad and brother throughout her childhood Sarah didn't tell anyone about the abuse and instead tried to get on with her life. She went on to have two daughters, worked in hospitality and office administration, but was plagued by memories of the attacks. 'I loved being a mum, but my first marriage didn't work out. I struggled with relationships. I was very artistic, I had lots I wanted to do with my life, but the trauma held me back,' she says. It was only in 2019, with the support of her new husband, Darren, 56, that Sarah made an official complaint. In so many historical child sex abuse cases, it is difficult for police to obtain enough evidence to prosecute. But in Sarah's case there was a smoking gun - one she wasn't even aware of. In October 2021, police investigators showed her a copy of her medical records. To her horror, there was a letter from a doctor detailing internal injuries she'd suffered from the rape when she was three - which were so severe she had needed surgery. Unbelievably, her father had told doctors she had fallen on the handle of a go-kart, which had torn her perineum (the area of skin between the vagina and anus) - and they'd taken his word for it. The doctor signed off the letter: 'It is, of course, very important in cases such as this to keep an open mind as to the cause of the injury but we feel in this case that the parents' story is the correct one.' 'I couldn't believe what I was reading. I had no memory of going into hospital, no memory at all of the operation. I have scarring down below, but I never really thought of it in connection with the sexual abuse,' says Sarah. 'The police told me the letter was vital in the decision to bring charges against my father and brother.' For decades, Sarah carried the secret of her traumatic childhood. It was her second husband, Darren, who persuaded her to seek justice The letter Sarah found: After her father raped her at age three, she needed surgery. The letter states she had fallen on a go-kart handle - the lie her dad had told doctors. No one questioned it 'I wasn't allowed to ask my mother about the surgery, in case it prejudiced the trial. But she sadly died just before the trial began, so I never got the chance to talk to her about it. I felt cheated. I have so many unanswered questions.' Even though the case was strong, the police investigation didn't go smoothly. Sarah says officers told her they had lost her files, meaning the case was delayed by seven months. She says: 'I didn't hear anything, month after month. Then I was told my file had been lost. I asked to be kept up to date with the progress, and yet it was me chasing the police, all the time. 'I didn't really feel they tried to empathise with how stressful it was for me. I had flashbacks to the abuse and nightmares, where I tried to fight them off, and woke with real bruises.' Finally, in June 2022, Arthur William Bowditch, 73, and his son Arthur Stephen Bowditch, then aged 54, appeared before Swansea Crown Court, having previously been convicted of multiple counts of rape and indecent assaults against young girls. The court heard Bowditch Jr had a previous conviction from 1989 for indecent assaults of a girl under 14. Judge Huw Rees said the defendants' victims had been 'denied a childhood' by their actions, adding that statements from the women had been 'harrowing' to listen to. He said it was clear the abuse inflicted by the defendants had profoundly affected the women. Sarah with her husband Darren, who encouraged her to go to the police about the abuse The judge said Sarah's father had acted out of 'degenerate and unhealthy sexual lust' and handed him a 21-year sentence comprising 20 years in custody followed by a one-year extended licence. Meanwhile, Stephen Bowditch was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Both will be registered sex offenders for the rest of their lives. Sarah says: 'I feel some justice that they are finally behind bars and other girls are now safe from them. I've had a lot of support from my family, especially my step-daughter Eleesha and my husband Darren, who is trustee for a charity which helps army veterans. 'I have been diagnosed with PTSD and emotionally unstable personality disorder because of the abuse, the stress of the investigation and the trial. But no matter how difficult it is to report this type of crime, I want other victims to know that you can get justice. Don't be afraid or ashamed, please come forward to report abuse. It is possible to get justice, no matter how long you have carried these secrets around.' 'After staying silent for nearly 50 years, part of my healing process is having a voice and speaking out. I now sit on forums to advise both the police and Crown Prosecution Service of the best way to help victims of sexual abuse. 'I want the system to change for the better.' Ever since Ivanka Trump made the move to Miami, Florida, it seems like she's been glowing more than ever - and now, makeup and tan artists are revealing all the secrets behind her dazzling visage. Since leaving politics in 2021, Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, made the decision to move to Surfside with their three children, daughter Arabella, 13, and sons Joseph, 10 and Theodore, eight. And, after moving away from Washington, D.C., Ivanka has slowly started to open up on her Instagram page, giving viewers a peek into her personal life with glimpses at glamorous nights out, family time and even her workout routine. Ivanka and Jared seem to have been reembraced by their socialite friends in recent months, too, as they've been snapped hanging out at hotspots all across Miami with famous friends like Kim Kardashian. This year, they appear to be back in the fold and have been pictured at several glamorous events in Miami. It's even been rumored that Ivanka and Jared are on the guest list of Jeff Bezos' Italian wedding to Lauren Sanchez this summer. However, with her return to socialite life, there is something that her Instagram followers can't get over, and it's her style and makeup. 'LOVE your outfits!!! Such bangers, every one! And look at you such a stunner!!' one person commented on Ivanka's recent post, as she stood next to her husband in a high-necked, gold knit dress. Ever since Ivanka Trump made the move to Miami, Florida, it seems like she's been glowing more than ever Since leaving politics in 2021, Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, made the decision to move to Surfside with their three children According to professional makeup artist Alexa Persico, Ivanka has 'mastered the art of restraint' when it comes to her looks Another typed, 'Stunning and classy as usual.' So, what's really behind Ivanka's Miami glow? According to professional makeup artist Alexa Persico, Ivanka has 'mastered the art of restraint' when it comes to her looks. 'Ivanka's glow is never greasy or overly done... it's refined, hydrated, and healthy,' Persico, who is the founder of namesake makeup brand Alexa Persico Cosmetics, told DailyMail.com exclusively. 'I imagine she uses a mix of skincare-forward products with subtle light-reflecting finishes,' Persico continued. It's something that would have been learned over all the years of being in the public eye, and working with various makeup and beauty experts. 'Instead of piling on layers, she likely focuses on key areas think very hydrated skin, a soft cream blush and targeted radiance on the high points of the face,' Persico said. 'A hydrating mist is likely always in her bag to refresh her always throughout the day,' she shared. 'That kind of effortless polish comes from years of knowing what works best for your features and keeping the routine streamlined.' 'A hydrating mist is likely always in her bag to refresh her always throughout the day,' she shared. 'That kind of effortless polish comes from years of knowing what works best for your features and keeping the routine streamlined' Persico also noted that over the years, Ivanka has changed up her makeup looks, now focusing on having a 'natural, fresh-faced glow' Persico also noted that Ivanka has changed up her makeup looks as she's aged, now focusing on having a 'natural, fresh-faced glow.' 'Early on, she leaned into more structured glam matte finishes, defined eyes, and heavier coverage,' the professional makeup artist explained. 'Her current look is all about clean skin, soft color, and that perfect balance between beauty and minimalism. It's refined and modern exactly what we see trending right now,' Persico said. If you're looking to re-create her look at home, Persico suggests using a tinted moisturizer and a cream blush for a 'natural flush.' 'Skip the powder, and finish with another layer of mist to lock in that dewy finish,' she said. But besides makeup, there's another beauty tool that Ivanka may be using to her advantage. 'As a celebrity spray tanning artist, I can confidently say that Ivanka's signature glow very likely comes from regular spray tans,' Mishel Chernyavskiy, founder and CEO of MSK Tans in New York, told DailyMail.com. 'Over the years, I'd guess she's learned to stay out of the sun and rely on sunless tanning to keep her skin looking youthful, radiant, and even-toned,' Chernyavskiy said. 'Over the years, I'd guess she's learned to stay out of the sun and rely on sunless tanning to keep her skin looking youthful, radiant, and even-toned,' Chernyavskiy said Chernyavskiy also noted that spray tans after a 'safer alternative' to going out in the sun, and can also give an 'airbrushed' finish that we typically see in Ivanka's photos 'I have been using this makeup product from Estee Lauder since I was like 14 years old, and it's a concealer... it's called Maximum Coverage,' Ivanka revealed during the episode Chernyavskiy also noted that spray tans after a 'safer alternative' to going out in the sun, and can also give an 'airbrushed' finish that we typically see in Ivanka's photos. 'To achieve a flawless glow like hers, she'd need to be diligent about exfoliating before tanning and either have a skilled spray tan artist or use a high-quality gradual self-tanner,' the tan artist offered. However, not everything around her makeup routine is shrouded in mystery. During a January appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast, Ivanka revealed a few of her favorite makeup products with the audience, including what foundation she reaches for. 'I have been using this makeup product from Estee Lauder since I was like 14 years old, and it's a concealer... it's called Maximum Coverage,' Ivanka revealed during the episode. She explained that the $55 bottle was quite large, and joked that she's only been through about three of them since she was young. 'I don't love so much foundation,' the former Presidential Advisor admitted, explaining that she dabs the makeup under her eyes. When it comes to her favorite skincare products, Ivanka loves to use serums and moisturizers, she said. 'I am addicted to lip moisturizer,' the former model confessed. 'Wherever I go, on my bedside table, there's a lip moisturizer,' she continued. 'My favorite one was by Glossier, the Balm Dotcom, and they've changed the formula, so I'm like, on a mission to find the original. I have a few bottles left.' For body moisturizers, she uses one called The Lymphatic Drainage Effect by the brand Gente, which she says was actually started by one of her friends. 'It is so good and it smells so delicious, it's a Brazilian formulation, it's amazing, it's beautiful,' she shared of the $34 product. A woman complained that her husband continues to use her bath towel A doctor has warned against sharing towels with members of your family, revealing it can lead to infection and illness. Dr Hussain Ahmad, who works for click2pharmacy based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, said that the dampness from the shared towel can cause fungi to grow. If one person has an infection such as athlete's foot it can easily spread around the household and cause others to become infected. Speaking to Metro, Dr Ahmad added that sharing towels 'might seem harmless' but can cause infections to be 'passed on easily'. 'Even things like cold sores or warts can in theory be transmitted this way, though that's less common. 'The worst thing that could happen is you pass on an infection that keeps bouncing between you both, or ends up needing treatment. 'Fungal infections between toes or in the groin area are common with shared towels.' A furious woman recently went on the anonymous British parenting forum Mumsnet to vent about how her partner had used her pink bath towel after having a shower. Dr Hussain Ahmad said that the dampness from the shared towel actually causes fungi to grow A furious woman recently went on the anonymous British parenting forum Mumsnet to vent about how her partner had used her pink bath towel after having a shower She wrote: 'Am I being unreasonable to think my husband should use his own towel when showering/bathing? I've told him so many times to use his own towel. 'He just doesn't seem to get it. I only changed the towels this weekend and now he has used both of ours, so I'm going to have to get another clean towel tomorrow morning!' The woman then asked other Mumsnetters whether she was being unreasonable for getting angry with her husband - but many admitted that sharing towels is normal in their household. One person wrote: 'We have communal towels. I don't care who in the family is using it as long as it's hung up afterwards.' Another penned: 'Well after 40 years of towel sharing and not caught anything, I've risk assessed and happy to continue!' A third said: 'Well I never realised that people in a family household had their own towels. We just have shared towels. Are we the weird ones?' The NHS also warns against people using the same towel - especially if one person is ill and feeling under the weather, as germs can easily spread to healthy individuals. However, others could not believe that people were using each other's towels and were on the woman's side. The woman then asked other Mumsnetters whether she was being unreasonable for getting angry with her husband - but many admitted that sharing towels is normal in their household However, others could not believe that people were using each other's towels and were on the woman's side One wrote: 'That would really annoy me too because it's not hard just to reach for your own towel is it? 'My husband washes his hands in our bathroom and instead of using the provided hand towel uses my large bath towel that is hung on the bathroom door. 'When I use my towel it's always got lots of wet patches!' Another penned: 'That would annoy me too. 'Either keep your towel somewhere else or just get another towel out for yourself when you shower.' A third said: 'I would rather walk to the airing cupboard naked and dripping from the shower than use my [partner's] towel!! And I would hate it if he used mine. You're not [being unreasonable] at all.' A fourth commented: 'I found this out about my [husband] too and was horrified. I have a main towel and a hair towel. I don't use the hair towel on my body and feel it's 'clean' - I caught [my husband] with it round his waist and drying very thoroughly.' Cabin crew member took to Reddit to share a picture of the list A flight attendant has shared a ridiculous list of demands she received from a passenger as they boarded the flight. The cabin crew member, believed to be from the US, took to Reddit to reveal the extensive list of 'allergies' printed on a sheet of A4 paper that was handed to her as the passenger boarded the flight. The traveller, who revealed they were seated in seat 4A, requested a ban on the smell of coffee, perfume, and 'airplane fuel' as they were 'highly allergic' to these items. They asked the cabin crew member to ensure they weren't exposed to any related odors for the entire duration of the flight. Sharing the full list on the r/flightattendants subreddit, she captioned her post: 'Time to take the bus.' The note read: 'No coffee (highly allergic even to smell) No cashews. No fragrances or chemical smells. No gasoline or airplane fuel. 'I have a cashew allergy so if you could refrain from serving nuts I would appreciate it.' The passenger also mentioned that they were on 'several medications' and would, therefore, need to drink a lot of water. The cabin crew member, believed to be from the US, took to Reddit to share the extensive list of 'allergies', which was printed on A4 paper and handed to her as the passenger boarded the flight The note continued: 'If you could spare a large bottle of water from the onset of the flight, that would be greatly appreciated, this way I don't have to constantly ask you for more water. 'Thank you for your patience and understanding in trying to make this flight as enjoyable as possible for me I appreciate you.' Many quickly took to the comments to share their reactions to the unusual request. One person said: 'So they expect y'all just to not brew coffee for the whole flight? How are y'all supposed to control the smell of the gasoline? Another added: 'If you drink a lot of water, bring an empty water bottle or two and fill them after security. Even if everything else is true, this one makes us clear they want others to accommodate them, while doing little mitigation on their end.' Someone else added: 'Guess you should drive? I mean come on. I get severe life-threatening allergies. But you cannot dictate to everyone. It just doesn't work like that. I hate perfumes and get massive migraines from them but I'm certainly not going to make it someone else's issue.' A fourth added: 'I wonder how she got through the airport. I mean really in all honesty, the FA is supposed to deny the whole plane coffee because of 1 person? What a joke!' Meanwhile, other flight attendants chimed in with their own stories of bizarre in-flight requests. One crew member wrote: 'New flight attendant - already ready to get fired for telling off one more person that asks me to refill their water bottle and then acts pained when I give them two cups.' Another said: 'I had a passenger at boarding tell me she was allergic to everything. 'I spoke to the Captain, who said she could not fly with us. I went to relay this information and to have her deplane, and suddenly she changed the story. 'I asked "Which is it? Are you or are you not allergic to everything?" Finally, she stated "No, just peanuts." I said "Fine! We don't serve them!"' Someone else said: 'I had a passenger who was apparently deathly allergic to dogs but didn't bring an EpiPen. 'She was told that the owners of the dogs on board would be using the business class toilets as to not have any cross contamination. She still made a stink. When she was told that she could take the next flight if she was uncomfortable, she was suddenly fine to travel.' It comes after an American Airlines flight attendant revealed she had received a handwritten note from Meghan Markle in a now-viral TikTok video. Nina Vida, who lives in New York and is a flight attendant with AA, gushed about her recent experience with the Duchess of Sussex, who had boarded the plane she was working on. Dressed in her uniform, she shared her experience with her followers in a video on TikTok: 'You guys will not believe who I just had on my flight, who I had the pleasure of serving!' 'The Queen, the princess, the Duchess of Sussex! THE Meghan Markle was on my flight and she is so beautiful in person, she was so sweet. She wrote us a little handwritten note back,' she revealed, in her widely viewed TikTok video. Nina explained in the video that the cabin crew had written Meghan a note when she got on the flight, saying: 'It's a pleasure serving you, we love you real bad', signing it off from the 'AA girlies'. Meghan, who is known to love sending personalised messages and recently sent one to a podcaster who criticised her Netflix show, delighted the girls by responding in her own calligraphic scrawl with a message on a napkin. However, she apparently couldn't resist adding a little plug to her lifestyle brand, As Ever, which she has begun using as her signature sign-off in recent months. The video captures Nina showing off the note to the camera, which read: 'Dear AA girlies, thank you for the love, hospitality and handwritten note - you know me well. All love right back to you. As ever, Meghan.' Kayley met Richard in 2013 when they were teenagers at university A woman who celebrated her wedding day alone after being left at the alter has revealed that she found love again with her teenage sweetheart. Kayley Stead from Portmead, Swansea, Wales, was jilted on the morning of her big day by her partner of almost four years Kallum Norton in 2022. Just two hours before she was due to walk down the aisle, the now 29-year-old was told that her fiance had 'gone for a drive' in the early hours of the morning and changed his number so she couldn't contact him. But Kayley - who paid for the majority of the wedding - decided to celebrate with her friends, family and the groomsmen at her 12,000 reception party instead. Now, two years after she was brutally dumped, Kayley has found her one true love, Richard Perrott. The pair first met at university in 2013 where their friendship as teenagers slowly blossomed into love. Richard asked Kayley out when they first met, but she turned him down as she was fresh out of a relationship. But now the pair have found each other again and reignited their flame, with Kayley saying that her new beau has made her 'the happiest girl'. She now credits Kallum leaving her alone on their wedding day as 'one of the best days of my life' because it allowed her to find the person who 'makes me truly happy'. Two years after she was brutally dumped, Kayley has found her one true love, Richard Perrott (pictured) Kayley Stead from Portmead, Swansea, Wales, was jilted on the morning of her big day by her partner of almost four years Kallum Norton in 2022 - so she decided to celebrate by herself On September 16 last year, which marked two years since she was left at the alter, Kayley said: 'Happy 2 year anniversary to one of the best days of my life! I forget about this day a lot of the time but my phone's memories reminded me that this crazy day was 2 years ago. 'Looking back now, I can't thank my ex enough for doing what he did because he made the best decision for both of us and its led me back to a person that makes me truly happy. Everything happens for a reason.' Kayley said that the pair got in contact again after Richard, 30, messaged her after he heard about what she had gone through and said he was 'so sorry' about what had happened. A year later, she then replied to one of his Snapchat videos and they continued talking until Richard told Kayley that he was taking her on a date. She told The Mirror: 'I had nothing to lose. I fancied the pants off him when I met him again. He was funny and charming. We didn't really talk about the wedding - he said he knew enough about it.' 'Richard's mum said if you were ever to get married, I would never let him do that to you. I would drag him by the ear. It's been so easy and effortless. This is the relationship I've always dreamed of. I know he's the one. I truly feel so safe with him. 'He said I've always thought of me as being his wife. I know there's going to be a ring one day. I have no fear of what happened at the wedding happening with him.' Despite the heartbreak, Kayley decided to go ahead with the big day, surrounded by her loved ones around her, on September 15 at Oxwich Bay Hotel in Gower, Swansea, Wales. Kayley said that the pair got in contact again after Richard, 30, (pictured) messaged her after he heard about what she had gone through Kayley was told by the groom's father that he would not be attending the wedding, leaving her 'sobbing' Despite the heartbreak, Kayley decided to go ahead with the big day, surrounded by her loved ones around her in 2022 Richard (pictured) told Kayley that he was taking her on a date and their friendship blossomed into romance Kayley went ahead with her wedding entrance, meal, speeches and dances and even posed for professional photos without her groom. She even punched off the top tier of her wedding cake and spent her first dance with the groomsmen, her brothers, and her father Brian, 71. She even entered the party singing along to Lizzo's 'Good as Hell' with her bridal party. She managed to cancel her honeymoon and was pleased she still had the party - so money and effort didn't go to waste. Speaking about her wedding day, Kayley said: 'I found my phone and saw I had a missed call from his mum. I called her back and she was crying and told me he had gone for a drive in the early hours of the morning, and he was gone. 'At that point, I wasn't nervous, I was still quite hopeful, as throughout our relationship, he had sometimes gone for a walk or a drive to clear his head when he was nervous. 'For a couple of hours, I was saying he was going to be there, and I was reassuring the girls. I honestly believed, hand on heart, that he was going to be there. 'I asked the girls, his family and the groomsmen to continue getting ready, because I honestly believed he was going to be there.' Kayley said she received a call from the groom's father who said that Kallum would not be attending the wedding which caused her to break down in tears. Kayley then had to tell her parents, the hairdresser and the videographer the heartbreaking news. She said: 'As a joke, the videographer said "Why don't you carry on, girls? You've spent all this money, you're not getting it back, all your guests are there, why don't you just go?" She even punched off the top tier of her wedding cake and spent her first dance with the groomsmen, her brothers, and her father Brian Kayley went ahead with her wedding entrance, meal, speeches and dances and even posed for professional photos without her groom After launching her relationship with Richard on Instagram last year, Kayley was met with much support from her followers 'My sister was redoing my make-up, because at that point it was all just gone, and she said: 'Why don't you do it, Kayley?' 'That's when I was like, I'm going to do it. I'd spent all this money, I'd been looking forward to the food, a dance with my dad, spending time with my family, so why not?' Kallum refused to comment when approached by MailOnline in 2022. Speaking to the Mirror two years after she was jilted at the alter, Kayley said that she was 'glad' that it happened in this way and that Kallum 'never spoke to me again' as it gave her the closure she needed to move on with Richard. After launching her relationship with Richard on Instagram last year, Kayley was met with much support from her followers. One wrote: 'You deserve all the happiness in the world babe!' Another penned: 'If anyone deserves it my goodness it's this woman. Grinning for a stranger today.' A third said: 'Congratulations Beautiful photo Sending you a big hug from Australia.' A fourth commented: 'Congratulations, this is your reward. So so happy for you.' Prince William has revealed his fresh approach for the Duchy of Cornwall, the estate he inherited from his father upon the King's accession to the throne. In an interview with The Telegraph's Royal Editor Hannah Furness, who spent a day travelling alongside the Prince of Wales, 42, as he visited his tenants, the royal shared how he was modernising the land and property empire. This includes encouraging people involved with the Duchy to speak openly, with the Prince telling his staff to 'please give [everyone] proper authority to say whats really going on. Not being polite because Im in the room,' ahead of a meeting in Dartmoor. Elsewhere, Matthew Morris, the rural director of the Duchy, revealed how employees 'no longer feel the need to put on a tie when the Duke of Cornwall is in town' - perhaps unlike when Charles - who is often smartly dressed in a full suit - visited. The publication also noted how William will communicate with staff via WhatsApp and ask questions over the social media platform in order to keep updated. But while the Prince is seemingly taking a more modern approach to the estate compared to his father, the pair do share a 'healthy impatience'. Ben Murphy, estate director, admitted that the royal has a 'healthy impatience, as his father did', while secretary Will Bax said the father-of-three is 'pretty ambitious' and 'pretty demanding', which he added, is 'great'. Discussing the Duchy's fresh approach, Bax added that the estate has 'perhaps been a slightly discreet organisation that hasnt really put its head above the parapet very much, that hasnt spoken very publicly about whats important to us'. In an interview with The Telegraph's Royal Editor Hannah Furness, who spent a day travelling alongside the Prince of Wales (pictured), 42, as he visited his tenants, the royal shared how he was modernising the land and property empire He added that the Prince - who is looking to improve the estate so it has even more of a positive social impact, while keeping its key community spirit - and his team are 'seeking to remove any ambiguity'. The aim for the Duchy's mission, which is to deliver a positive impact for people, places and the planet, to be more understood by the public comes after the property and land empire, as well as the King's estate, the Duchy of Lancaster were investigated by a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary: The King, The Prince & Their Secret Millions. In the 2024 programme, it was revealed how the the Duchy of Cornwall is profiting from public services. In 2017, it billed Devon county council 300,000 in a 21-year rental deal for a primary school on Dartmoor. Other deals include charging a primary school near Bath 60,000 for a 25-year lease and 189,000 to a secondary school in Cornwall over 30 years to use a farmhouse. The Duchy of Cornwall also charges the military to train on its 67,500 acres of Dartmoor, but the MoD would not disclose the exact bill. That is despite Charles being head of the Armed Forces and William being a lieutenant colonel in the Army. Charities have also paid millions to the duchies to rent a 1960s office block in London next to the MI6 HQ. They include Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care, where Charles is patron, and Comic Relief, which William has promoted. This includes encouraging people involved with the Duchy to speak openly, with the Prince (pictured) telling his staff to 'please give [everyone] proper authority to say whats really going on Meanwhile, Charles' property empire, which provides a private income to the monarch, is earning 830,000 a year from renting a two-storey warehouse to Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, bombshell documents revealed. The unprecedented audit of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the Prince of Wales's private estate, showed taxpayers are shelling out millions every year to boost the wealth of the senior royals. Charities even those where the King is patron are also stumping up millions, the five-month investigation of more than 5,000 landholdings and properties showed. Duchy money is private income for Charles and William on top of the Sovereign Grant. The Duchies are run as commercial enterprises, but pay no capital gains tax nor corporation tax. Both Charles and William do pay income tax, but it is not clear how much. The Duchy of Lancaster, which in 2023 generated 27.4 million for the King, and the Duchy of Cornwall, which raised 23.6 million for William, are not required to pay business taxes. Both estates claim they are not funded by the taxpayer, but the cache of documents obtained by Dispatches and the Sunday Times laid bare the huge income they receive from public services. The Duchy of Cornwall said it is 'a private estate with a commercial imperative... committed to restoring the natural environment', and said it was 'acting in a responsible and sustainable way' on mining. Not being polite because Im in the room,' ahead of a meeting in Dartmoor. Elsewhere, Matthew Morris, the rural director of the Duchy, revealed how employees 'no longer feel the need to put on a tie when the Duke of Cornwall is in town' - perhaps unlike when Charles (pictured) - who is often smartly dressed in a full suit - visited The Duchy of Lancaster said it 'operates as a commercial company' and 'complies with all relevant UK legislation'. The Duchy of Cornwall - a major landowner with 130,000 acres of land - was established in 1337 to provide an income for the heir to the throne. After King Charles ascended the throne in 2023 Prince William took over ownership of the Duchy. A woman has reached out for help after discovering her mother might be falling head over heels for a fake Owen Wilson. The unnamed woman shared her concerns on US forum Reddit, along with an alleged video of the Hollywood star, 56, telling her mum she is an 'amazing woman'. The poster said she tried to convince her mum that it was the workings of artificial intelligence after finding a 'plethora of red flags' such as the man mainly contacting her mother via WhatsApp voice calls. But she explained that things turned eerie when the the alleged imposter 'got her [mother] a job with Warner Brothers' and sent her sporadic $10 salary payments. The 'fake' Owen Wilson then proposed that the poster's parents move into a new house he bought so that they could keep watch as 'caretakers' while he was away working. In the 10-second video, the near-robotic image of a man resembling Owen Wilson seemingly spoke directly to the poster's mother. 'I'm making this video so you know I'm real,' said the 'scam' actor. 'I'd never do anything to hurt you. I respect you for your patience and understanding since we crossed paths. You're an amazing woman.' A woman has reached out for help after discovering her mother might be falling head over heels for a fake Owen Wilson (pictured: An alleged AI-generated video image of Owen Wilson) In the clip, the purported Wedding Crashers actor - who in real life is busy shooting his latest action thriller Runner in Australia as of last week - appeared to be the result of sophisticated computer graphics; most notably given away by static eye movements and a grainy facial complexion. The woman said her and her sister had tried tirelessly to inform their mother it was a grand 'scam' but lamented that 'she's just not hearing us'. After reading her plight, many users agreed that it was indeed a hoax, with one person shockingly advising the siblings to create their own AI Owen Wilson and siphon money from her to prove it. 'My sister and I have been telling her its a scam but shes just not hearing us,' she bemoaned. According to her mother, the odd pairing came about after a chance meeting at Yahtzee with some friends. Though the exact location was withheld, the poster said the man claimed to have mistaken her mother for someone he knew in 'real life' when he saw her at the dice game. She then explained that the two only spoke by WhatsApp, voice calls and FaceTime, which installed doubts over the genuinity of their relations. 'Originally he just sent photos directly from a fan account on social media. NOTHING that we couldnt find on the internet. She says he hasnt asked for money or banking info,' she continued. The unnamed woman shared her concerns on US forum Reddit, along with an alleged video of the Hollywood star, 56, telling her mom she is an 'amazing woman' (pictured: An alleged AI-generated video image of Owen Wilson) The entire scheme appeared complex to the poster after the purported actor began sending her mother money, rather than the other way around. 'He "got her a job" with Warner Bros. where she can make $5,000 a month by liking social media posts,' she revealed. 'The job has sent her a couple $10 payments through Cash App for her first trainings. She says theyll send her $1,000 through Cash App when she finishes training.' Things took an even more shocking turn when according to the poster, the 'scammer' asked both her mom and dad to move into a home he claimed to have just purchased. 'Hes now buying a house in our small coastal town and wants her AND MY DAD to live there and be caretakers when hes not there. He had an actual realtor from this gated community call her to discuss their options. 'We believe this part because the realtor mentioned my sister in laws mothers uncommon name (we have no connection to her on social media) when my mother brought up my brothers wedding reception being held in the neighborhood. In the clip, the purported Wedding Crashers actor appeared to be the result of sophisticated computer graphics; most notably given away by static eye movements and a grainy facial complexion 'And he sent the video attached as proof.' She concluded her post by asking fellow users for advice 'to definitively prove to her [mother] this is a scam'. One viewer immediately noticed the actor's 'robotic' nature, writing: 'Wow thats scary, you can tell the tone is off and robotic. Face also looks slightly different than Owen but wow thats crazy for someone who wouldnt know any better.' 'His nose and eyes are also... not human lol,' chimed another. 'Tell her to watch his nose lol,' said one person. After reading her plight, many users agreed that it was indeed a hoax, with one person shockingly advising the siblings to create their own AI Owen Wilson and siphon money from her to prove it Noticing other 'red flags', someone else wrote: 'This AI doesnt even use the ladys name at all, just generic "compliments" to keep the target complacent. Wonder how many targets theyve sent this to that the celebrity "really" loves them. Dont trust online, meet in real life and then judge based on that meeting.' Another said jokingly, 'You can tell it's fake because that's three sentences without a "wow". His [Owen Wilson's] average is one wow per two sentences.' On the subject of advice, one user advised the siblings to scam their own mother so they could prove how easy it was. 'Get a video of her,' they wrote. 'Use AI to make a video of her telling herself it's a scam. Alternatively use AI to fake Owen Wilson and scam her out of her money first and save it for her.' Another user offered a tip so they could finally have some 'peace': 'My two cents: Go into her devices, block everyone, create new accounts, new telephone number, create a video from Owen Wilson explaining that he has to go fight in Afghanistan or something, you should get a few months of peace.' 'Get a list people she admires and have it run through the same software, having them say the exact same thing and show it to her,' suggested one person. Meanwhile one user told the poster to 'Make an AI deep fake of him breaking up with her'. One of Ireland's biggest unsolved cases may finally find a resolution after three decades thanks to a new witness. Between the late eighties and early nineties, eight women went missing from across the Emerald Isle - in what's became known as Ireland's Vanishing Triangle. One of the women, Fiona Pender, was 25 and seven months pregnant when she went missing from her flat in Tullamore in August 1996. The cases have baffled police from years, but in a major update the Gardai have upgraded Fiona's disappearance to murder. This week they searched a new area of land at Graigue, close to the village of Killeigh, around 8km from Tullamore, County Offaly, in the middle of Ireland. It is understood Gardai received new information deemed credible enough to warrant the latest search and the upgrading of the investigation. The search of a remote area of bogland started on Tuesday as gardai hoped for a breakthrough in the nearly 30-year investigation. However it quickly moved to a second location on Wednesday and continued well into the night. Fiona Pender, 25, was seven months pregnant when she went missing from her flat on Church Street, Tullamore, in August 1996 Fiona was dating her partner for three years before she vanished, she was living in the UK with him when she became pregnant and the pair decided to move home to Ireland to raise the baby The force told The Irish Independent: 'Gardai investigating the disappearance and murder of Fiona Pender in August 1996 have today, Wednesday 28th May 2025, commenced another search operation on open ground at a location in Co. Laois. Fiona was last seen leaving home by her boyfriend John Thomson. In 2008 a small cross bearing her name was found along the The Slieve Bloom Way, but her body has never been recovered. She was just one of a string of disappearances that haunted Ireland in the 1990s commonly referred to as the Vanishing Triangle, none of the women have ever been found so investigators have very little evidence to link the disappearances. In a major update on the case, police have upgraded Fiona's disappearance to murder and have decided to search a new area of land at Graigue, close to the village of Killeigh, around 8 km from Tullamore, Co Offaly. 'This area of land will be searched and subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations. 'This search forms part of a sustained investigation carried out by Gardai in Laois/ Offaly Garda Division over the last 28-years to establish Fiona's whereabouts and to investigate the circumstances in which Fiona disappeared.' Gardai have since concluded the search operation in Co Offaly, however the results are not being released for operational reasons. Gardai have since concluded the search operation in Co Offaly, however the results are not being released for operational reasons The search of a remote area of bogland started on Tuesday as gardai hoped for a breakthrough in the nearly 30-year investigation, however it quickly moved to a second location on Wednesday and continued well into the night It has been reported that gardai are keen to talk to a man they have long classified as the chief suspect but he has been abroad for more than a decade now. He was one of five people detained for questioning in 1997, but there have been no arrests since. Fiona was dating her partner for three years before she vanished, she was living in the UK with him when she became pregnant and the pair decided to move home to Ireland to raise the baby. The day before her disappearance she went shopping for baby clothes with her mother. Her partner John said she was feeling unwell on the day of her disappearance and he suggested she go to see the GP while he went to work. Police took her disappearance seriously and immediately began working to determine what happened to the expectant mother. In early 1997, five people, who were all from the same family were arrested and questioned by police One of the five arrested was the chief suspect, while the others were detained for withholding information. However they were all released without charged. Since then, there has been no other arrests or leads in the case and it went cold for decades. Speaking with In The News podcast for the Irish Times, Security and Crime Editor, Conor Lally said: 'Gardai has received fresh information which has obviously pinpointed the location for the investigation. 'The new information that the gardai investigation team has suggested Fiona's remains are there, whether it will be accurate or not we just don't know. 'We don't know where it came from and we don't know why it surfacing now but we believe it was only relayed to gardai recently.' Conor said the prime suspect in the case now lives abroad, however he claimed police would need to find Fiona's remains to be able to link anyone to the case. He added: 'We have never had one other case where a murder conviction has been secured in Ireland without the victim's body been found, these are very difficult cases.' Between 1993 and 1998, six women disappeared: Fiona, Annie McCarrick, Jo Jo Dullard, Fiona Sinnott, Ciara Breen and Deidre Jacob. Eva Brennan and Imelda Keenan are also often referred to in the case. What is Ireland's 'Vanishing Triangle' and who were the eight women who disappeared? In 1993, America-born Annie McCarrick disappeared while living in Dublin. Her case was the first of several that would become known as the Vanishing Triangle disappearances. In each case, a young or middle-aged woman vanished suddenly from the eastern part of Ireland and no trace of them was ever found. Police officially linked six of the disappearances and launched a joint investigation called Operation Trace in 1998, before the crimes stopped. Annie McCarrick. Born in New York in 1966, she lived there until relocating to Ireland in 1987. At the time she vanished she was living in the Dublin area. The last confirmed sighting of her was in Enniskerry in 1993. McCarrick was later reported drinking at a pub in Glencullen with a man who has never been identified. She has not been heard from since. Jo Jo Dullard. Born in 1974 in Callan, Jo Jo was also living in Dublin around the time of her disappearance. She was travelling from Dublin to Callan in July 1995 when she vanished. Jo Jo made a phone call from a payphone in Moone and witnesses said she was later seen leaning on the back of a dark coloured Toyota, talking to someone inside. The car and driver were never traced. She remains missing. Fiona Pender. A life-long resident of Tullamore, where she was born in 1971, Fiona went missing in August 1996 while seven months pregnant. She was last seen leaving home by her boyfriend. In 2008 a small cross bearing her name was found along the The Slieve Bloom Way, but her body has never been recovered. Fiona Sinnott. Born in Rosslare, Fiona was living in nearby Broadway when she vanished in 1998 at the age of 19. She was the mother of an 11-month-old. The last confirmed sighting of her was at a pub with friends, which she left around midnight accompanied by ex-partner Sean Carroll, the father of her daughter. He says he slept on her sofa, and when he left the next morning she was in bed planning a trip to the doctor. Ciara Breen. She was living with her mother in Dundalk when she vanished in 1998, aged 17. Her mother recalls the pair going to bed around midnight before she got up to use the bathroom around 2am and found Ciara gone. Ciara's window was open and left on the latch, suggesting she planned to return, but she never did. Deidre Jacob. The Newbridge native was studying in Twickenham, London, but had returned home for the summer before vanishing in 1998. She was spotted within just yards of her parents' house by multiple witnesses, but never made it home. A seventh case, not included in Operation Trace but often referenced alongside the disappearances, is that of Eva Brennan. Eva vanished in July 1993 shortly after a family lunch in Terenure, Dublin. She was depressed prior to her disappearance. She was known to visit her parents every day but failed to show on the next two occasions, so her father went to her home and found her gone. She has not been seen since. Similarly, Imelda Keenan vanished from Waterford city, where she had been studying. She was reported missing on the morning of January 3, 1994 last seen in a pair of leopard-skin trousers and a denim jacket. She told her fiancee that she was going out to the post office and was last seen walking past a bridge walked past the William Street Bridge in Waterford city. SUSPECTS None of the Vanishing Triangle women have ever been found so investigators have very little evidence to link the crimes, save geographical area and the suddenness of their disappearance. One potential suspect touted in the past was Larry Murphy, who was jailed for the rape and attempted murder of a young woman in Carlow in 2001. Murphy had kidnapped the woman, put her in the boot of his car and taken her to the Wicklow Mountains where she was repeatedly raped. He then tried to strangle the victim to death but two hunters happened upon the scene, saved the woman, and helped identify Murphy as the attacker, leading to his arrest. Murphy has been questioned over the Vanishing Triangle cases but has always denied being connected with any of them. In November 2024, police arrested a man on suspicion of JoJo's murder. Advertisement They became known as the 'Vanishing Triangle' eight due to the shape made by the disappearances when plotted on the map, forming a triangle in a roughly 80-mile area outside of Dublin. None of the Vanishing Triangle women have ever been found so investigators have very little evidence to link the disappearances, save geographical area and the suddenness of their disappearance, but many have speculated that a serial killer could have been at work. No one has ever been convicted of their disappearances or deaths and they remain missing in the area to this day. Josephine Dullard, known as Jo Jo, went missing on November 9, 1995, after spending an evening on Harry Street in Dublin. The then 21-year-old had been socialising in Bruxelles bar and was travelling back to her home in Callan when she vanished. Last year, police arrested an unnamed man on suspicion of Jo Jo's murder- with searches for her body taking place in Wicklow, near the Kildare border. On the night of her disappearance, Josephine had missed her bus home to Kilkenny and instead bordered a 10pm bus to Naas, from where she then intended to hitchhike home. She hitched a lift from Naas to the slip road on the M9 motorway at Kilcullen and at 11.15pm got another lift to Moone in the county. Detectives discovered that she had made a phone call from a payphone in Moone. Annie McCarrick, 26, (left) from New York disappeared in 1993, followed by Jo Jo Dullard (centre), from Callan, in 1995 and Fiona Pender (right), from Tullamore, in 1996 During that call, Ms Dullard told her friend Mary Cullinan that a car had stopped for her and she was going to take the lift. Witnesses said she was later seen leaning on the back of a dark coloured Toyota, talking to someone inside. But the car and driver were never traced. Her disappearance was confirmed to be classified as murder in November 2020, with investigators believing that serious harm came to her around the time of her disappearance. Speaking about the latest development, superintendent Paul Burke said: 'This area of land will be searched and subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations over the coming days. 'The arrest and search operation is being led by the investigation team from Kildare Division Serious Crime Unit and the Serious Crime Review Team, Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. 'The search is being carried out by the Kildare Divisional Search Team supported by the Garda National Technical Bureau and local Divisional Scenes of Crime Unit. 'The search operation has the support of other state expertise, if required, including the attendance of a Forensic Archaeologist on site.' The first of the 'Triangle' disappearances was Annie McCarrick, 26, from New York, who was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry on March 26, 1993 after telling a friend she planned to go to the Wicklow Mountains for the day. The same year Eva Brennan vanished shortly after a family lunch in Terenure, Dublin followed by student Imelda Keenan, who was last seen in Waterford city in 1994. Two years later Fiona Sinnott (left) vanished in Rosslare while Ciara Breen (centre) disappeared later that year in Dundalk and Deidre Jacob (right) vanished in 1998 in Kildare Eva Brennan vanished in July 1993 shortly after a family lunch in Terenure, Dublin while Imelda Keenan vanished from Waterford city, where she had been studying in 1994 In November 1995, Jo Jo disappeared while hitching home at night in Co Kildare while Fiona Pender was last seen leaving home by her boyfriend in 1996 while seven months pregnant. Two years later Fiona Sinnott vanished in Rosslare after leaving a pub with accompanied by ex-partner Sean Carroll, the father of her daughter while Ciara Breen disappeared later that year in Dundalk. Deidre Jacob vanished in 1998 and was spotted by multiple witnesses within just yards of her parents house before disappearing in Kildare. Eva Brennan is also referenced alongside the disappearances, vanishing in July 1993 shortly after a family lunch in Terenure, Dublin. Similarly, Imelda Keenan vanished from Waterford city, where she had been studying. She was reported missing on the morning of January 3, 1994. Speaking with In The News podcast for the Irish Times, Security and Crime Editor, Conor Lally said:' In 1999 gardai set up Operation Trace to compare all of these cases and to see if any of these cases were actually linked. 'No links were found and when you look back at these cases again there are chiefs suspects in nearly all of the cases and gardai suspect that a lot of these women are killed by men who were known to them. 'The common theme with all of these cases was no bodies were found, in policing back in the 90's was if you didn't have a body, you didn't have a murder.' However one potential suspect touted in the past was Larry Murphy, who was jailed for the rape and attempted murder of a young woman in Carlow in 2001. Could these cases be linked to the Vanishing Triangle? 1979 - Phyllis Murphy, 23, from Newbridge, went missing while out shopping in December. Her possessions were found scattered around nearby area and her clothes had been set on fire by the side of the road. Her body was found almost month later in a forest in Wicklow, she had been raped and strangled. Former Army sergeant John Crerar was convicted of her murder in 2002. 1982 - Patricia Furlong, 20, was strangled at music festival near Dublin. Her body was found near Johnny Fox's pub, in Glencullen. Chief suspect was Vincent Connell - he was convicted of Patricia's murder in 1991 but the verdict was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1995. 1987 - Mother-of-two Antoinette Smith, 27, went missing after a night out to David Bowie concert. Her body was found almost a year later in the Wicklow mountains. There are no suspects in her murder but a Dublin taxi driver told police he picked up woman with two men and took them out of town. 1988 - Inga Maria Hauser, 18, was a German backpacker in Northern Ireland, Her Body found in Ballypatrick Forest, Ballycastle two weeks later. She had been raped, hit over the head, and her neck broken. In 2018 an unnamed man arrested but no one has ever been convicted of her killing. 1991 - Patricia Doherty, 30, was last seen waiting at a bus stop having gone for Christmas presents. Her body was found six months later in the bog less from a mile from where Antoinette Smith's body was found. Nobody has ever Been convicted of the murder. Pathologists thought she had been strangled, but didn't know for sure. Advertisement Murphy had kidnapped the woman, put her in the boot of his car and taken her to the Wicklow Mountains where she was repeatedly raped. He then tried to strangle the victim to death but two hunters happened upon the scene, saved the woman, and helped identify Murphy as the attacker, leading to his arrest. Murphy has been questioned over the Vanishing Triangle cases but has always denied being connected with any of them. In 2005, Larry Murphy emerged as a 'person of interest' in the investigation into the murder of Deirdre Jacob. The 20-year-old, who had been studying in Twickenham, London, vanished outside of a post office - just yards from her parents house in Newbridge in 1998. In 2010, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that Larry had been doing work for Deirdres grandmother in her sweetshop at the time the 18-year-old vanished from Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Garda sources revealed Murphy was carrying out carpentry work at the shop, which Deirdre visited just hours before she went missing. In August 2010, Larry Murphy was released from prison after serving 10 of his 15 year jail sentence. Gardai have carried out extensive investigations into the disappearances over the years but so far have had no breakthrough in solving them. In 2008, the Garda brought a team of FBI agents to Ireland to review the evidence they had accumulated. These experienced profilers, who specialise in investigating serial killers in the United States, concluded that the unknown killers matched the Murphy profile. Meanwhile in 2014, retired detective sergeant Alan Bailey claimed that a member of the Provisional IRA may have killed her. At the time, he told RTE's Today with Sean O'Rourke programme that the American student met the IRA man, to whom he gave a fictional name Manus Dunne, at Johnnie Fox's pub in Glencullen in the Dublin mountains. Mr Bailey said that he 'started bragging about different exploits', naming colleagues before 'realising the enormity of what he had done.' The retired detective sergeant wrote that Manus offered a lift into town but 'drove her up the mountains where he killed her and concealed her body behind some bushes'. He said the information from a 'very reliable source', was a story that 'needs to be checked out'. In 2018, police in Ireland began investigating whether a married father-of-two shot dead after murdering a student had been involved in Annie's killing. Mark Hennessy, 40, was killed by officers hunting for missing Jastine Valdez, 24, near Dublin on Sunday before her body was discovered. Garda sources told the Irish Times that Hennessy's DNA profile would be checked against historic and recent disappearances to see if he is a serial killer. As part of that review, officers reexamined the infamous Vanishing Triangle cases to see if Hennnessy could be responsible. He would have been just 16 when Annie disappeared in 1993, but her case was still included in the review. Last year, the case gained prominence once again with the release of a new documentary Six Silent Killings on Sky, delving into the mystery of the Vanishing Triangle. The cases were explored by the journalist Geraldine Niland and the forensic scientist David Kenny, featuring moving reflections from the family and friends of those missing. The two-part documentary sought to bring the women's stories to light once more, and reignite the search for justice on their behalf. Josephine Dullard's sister, Kathleen Bergin, speaking at Newbridge Town Hall, where Gardai announced her disappearance 25 years ago, has been upgraded to murder In March 2023, the Gardai also upgraded the Annie's case into a murder inquiry from a missing person's investigation in an incredible turn of events. It emerged that a man who lives in Annie's neighbourhood of Sandymount had been identified as a suspect, according to the Irish Mirror. On March 26, 1993, the 27-year-old, who was originally from New York, was last seen taking a bus to Enniskerry after telling a friend she planned to go to the Wicklow Mountains for the day. Speaking to the Irish Mirror, former detective Alan Bailey said Annie's brown leather satchel would be a 'gold mine' if found - as it may have traces of DNA. The last known CCTV footage of Annie shows the missing woman queuing in the Allied Irish Bank on Sandymount Road shortly before 11am on the morning of her disappearance. In the clip, Annie - who was the first of the eight to vanish - is wearing a longline coat and her leather bag is seen hanging off one shoulder. As the bag has never been found, retired officer Bailey - who led the Garda Cold Case Unit that was investigating Annie's disappearance in the 90s - thinks it is likely that the unknown assailant will have chosen to keep the item. He explained: 'The fact that the bag still remains missing would suggest that if she was taken and the bag wasnt disposed of, it was kept as a souvenir by her assailant.' At the time he was investigating, Bailey says Annie's bag would 'probably not yield anything of any evidential value'. But if it was discovered as part of the new murder enquiry, he said the advances in technology means it would be a key piece of the puzzle that could potentially shed light on the seven other disappearances which happened in the five years that followed. Reflecting on his career, Alan Bailey said that his 'one regret' is that he was never able to find out what happened to Annie and the other 'Vanishing Triangle' victims. In her audio book released in 2021, author Claire McGowan explores why these cases remain unsolved and highlights a series of other murders she believes could be linked to the eight missing people. She believes a culture of secrecy and victim blaming all had a role to play during the initial investigations - with retired officers admitting to her there was a 'certain amount of judgment' about the sexual behaviour of the women who disappeared. Speaking to FEMAIL previously, Claire speculated that while it's likely a serial killer was responsible in these cases, prime suspects within the women's own lives could also have been involved in some cases. She said: 'In some cases there is an obvious suspect. Three of the cases there was a man in their life who became a suspect, nothing was ever proved. 'What I've tried to do in the book is say - when you look into it, probably not all of those women were killed by the same person. 'But that's also an interesting story. Why if there is an obvious suspect and a history of domestic violence, why was that person never charged? 'Why would the police then be like, "Oh she's just disappeared" rather than 'Her violent ex partner possibly killed her?' Despite all disappearing in such a short space of time, Claire only discovered the cases while researching for a new crime fiction book ten years ago. 'I think partly the news was really dominated by the Troubles', she said. 'Growing up in the 90s, I think a lot of what you might call ordinary murders, non-political murders, we didn't hear about them. 'I think that kind of fed into a perception that they didn't really happen in Ireland, it was a safe place to be as a woman, if you were lucky enough not to get caught in the Troubles. 'I don't think that was true based on what I've learned from my research.' She said that one of the women, 17-year-old Ciara Breen, would cross the Irish border and go to the same discos as she did as a teen, but that she never heard of the case despite it taking place 20 miles from her own home. 'Because it was across the border I don't think I ever heard about it,' said Claire. 'But she went to the same discos as I went to, because it's really easy to cross the border, there was no border at that point. I found that quite shocking that nobody ever said, "This is happening".' Claire explained she felt safe growing up in Northern Ireland, but admitted that there was still 'a lot of oppression and shame' about sex, with harassment such as groping not taken seriously 'at all'. She said: 'It was a dangerous place to live because you could get shot at any moment and we definitely felt that as kids, there were always soldiers around with guns. We just didn't feel anything sexual could happen to us, as such.' She said: 'Eight women went missing in the area around Dublin within about five years, none of them have ever been found. 'Even before that, there were quite a few murders of women in the same area where they did find the bodies, but they haven't always been able to solve the cases, it's possible some of those are connected. 'Because the areas sometimes, are so, so close to each other, we're talking about the same little towns and villages and because they were buried in the mountains, it's probably that's the same thing that happened to some of these women. 'Because they were unsolved it seems implausible there were so many different murderers operating in this area.' She says there were 'a lot of parallels' between the cases, admitting it's difficult to know why police never connected the disappearances. 'You'd think it would be obvious to think, maybe some of these are connected when there are so many disappearances. We're talking about Dublin which is a biggish city, but in the 90s the whole population of Ireland was only three and a half million. It's a small country so those are a lot of disappearances. 'I think one big reason was the Irish police just weren't used to working with this kind of crime, sexually motivated, so just really didn't think to consider that might have happened. 'So it took a very long time to get to that point to think they were connected, even when some of the families were saying they could be.' She said family members had questioned police about links between Annie McCarrick and Eva Brennan, who disappeared nearby each other in the same year, they were told 'don't be ridiculous'. 'They weren't willing to consider it', said Claire, 'They were looking for other reasons like, maybe a woman had gone off with a boyfriend, maybe she killed herself. 'I think once people got to the point of thinking "Oh she probably was abducted", They were looking for reasons like, did she talk to someone in a pub? Did she go off with someone willingly? Did she she get into a car? Why was she walking home?' The author believes that there's still a chance of finding out what happened to the women, but that there are several ways to improve the way in which missing cases are investigated. 'Listening to the families and not making an assumption about what might have happened,' she said. 'Not victim blaming, listening to what people's family and friends have to say about them.' Speaking of the unsolved cases she added: 'I think the only thing that could happen would be either some bodies could be found, and they have to be somewhere so that can always happen, or somebody would come forward and talk.' If you've ever booked a flight by yourself and thought, 'why does this feel more expensive than it should?' - you might be onto something. The so-called 'singles tax' is very real, and it's not just coming for your dating life - it's hitting your travel budget, too. It started with air travel, where travelers noticed that the airlines were charging higher fares when booking for one person versus two. But what looked like an isolated quirk turned out to be a broader trend. Now, Thrifty Traveler, which first reported the issues, found that all three of the country's largest airlines - Delta, United, and American - have been caught quietly charging solo travelers more on certain domestic flights. And, in some cases, it's not just a few bucks. Some people have seen price jumps of $80 or more, just because they're flying solo. Travel expert Sanjib Adhikari, Executive Director of the Everest trekking company Heaven Himalaya, told DailyMail.com that he has seen this firsthand in his clients' bookings. Thrifty Traveler found that solo passengers were paying more for flights than people who bought plane tickets in groups of two or more 'Our clients have increasingly been seeing an increase in airline fares on the American domestic legs of their flights and didn't even know until comparing notes with other people on our treks who had also traveled there solo,' he said. So what's happening exactly? According to Adhikari, it's all about market segmentation. 'The airlines are trying to segment out business travelers, who often fly alone and aren't cost-sensitive, versus vacationers, who are more cost-sensitive and are likelier to fly in groups or pairs,' he explained. In other words, airlines are betting that solo travelers - especially those using a corporate card - aren't as worried about price, so they can charge more. So then they do. In one especially bold example, Thrifty Traveler found that a United flight from Chicago to Peoria: $269 for one person. But for two people it was just $181 per ticket. This 'singles tax' often extends to cruises, accommodations, and holiday packages One passenger flying United from its Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) airport to Peoria (PIA) in June results in a $269 one-way fare Increasing to two or more passengers slashes the price by one-third In some cases, solo travelers aren't even shown the cheaper fare classes at all - meaning better deals are literally invisible unless you're booking with someone else. And it's not just limited to airlines. 'Unfortunately, the singles tax isn't unique to airlines, as solo travelers frequently pay more for cruises, accommodations, and holiday packages,' Adhikari adds. It seems that this 'singles tax' spills into every area of your life, especially if you live alone. Think about all of the money you pay when grocery shopping (rather than buying food in bulk) and especially for housing. And while a lot of this is systemic, there are some things you can do to avoid this singles tax, at least while flying. If you're a solo traveler who's over paying more just because you didn't come with a plus-one, Adhikari has a tip. 'I recommend solo travelers start doing price searches for group bookings to see if they can reduce their price. 'It's also a good idea to read the fare rules. 'It's a lot of fine print, but you can use an AI to summarize it for you so you at least have an idea of whether the fare has a singles tax or not.' Todd Chrisley is maintaining his innocence after being pardoned by President Donald Trump. The 56-year-old reality star and his wife Julie Chrisley, 52, were freed from prison on Wednesday, two and a half years after they were convicted of federal bank fraud and tax evasion charges. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Todd was asked by journalists whether he feels any remorse over his conviction, to which he firmly hit back. 'I would have remorse if it was something that I did,' he said. 'The corruption that went on in our case is going to continue to unfold.' There has been an almighty backlash to Trump's use of clemency for the Chrisleys since their pardon was announced. Additionally, their daughter Savannah Chrisley, 27, has come under scrutiny over how she was able to get her parents' out. Joining her father at Friday's press conference, she slammed rumors that she slept her way get her parents freed. Instead, she said she was 'relentless' in her mission to get her parents out. Todd Chrisley is maintaining his innocence after being pardoned by President Donald Trump Todd and his daughter Savannah spoke at a news conference on Friday 'The biggest misconception right now is I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon,' Savannah told press. 'If people knew the countless hours, the money, and the time that I spent doing to [Washington] DC, with not a meeting scheduled, and got on a plane and said, 'I'm going to be in the right room at the right time and meet the right people.'' She continued: 'I have fought hard and I was exhausted and I begged for meetings. 'I was never too good to ask and that's the thing. 'People think, you're a celebrity, you're white, you have money, that we got an upper hand, but we didn't. I had to fight, and I was relentless, and that's how it happened.' Todd also recalled the moment he found out he had been pardoned. 'I remember walking back from the phone and just feeling numb,' he said. 'Then after about 10 minutes all I could think about was the guys that I was leaving behind.' Savannah slammed rumors that she slept her way to get a presidential pardon The father and daughter were joined by their attorney at the conference in Nashville The Chrisley Knows Best stars were released from prison on Wednesday after they received pardons Former Chrisley Knows Best stars Todd and Julie were both convicted in 2022 for orchestrating a $30 million bank fraud and tax evasion scheme and had been serving multi-year prison terms. Julie was sentenced to serve in Kentucky until 2028 and Todd in Florida until 2032 But on Tuesday, President Trump personally called their daughter to inform her of his bombshell decision. The made-for-TV moment was broadcast on social media by Trump aide Margo Martin who celebrated the criminals' release with the caption, 'Trump Knows Best.' 'It's a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean,' he said during the phone call with Savannah. Before their joint press conference on Friday, Savannah gave an update on how her parents have been readjusting to normal life. 'Oh my gosh, it has been amazing,' she said. 'It's still just kind of ... it doesn't feel real. 'We were going to bed last night. We're like, 'Is this real?' And then, I wake up this morning and my mom's walking into my bedroom and I'm like, it's absolutely insane!' Speaking to People, she added: 'We are just so grateful and ready to kind of start getting back to normal life, obviously, the best we can. 'Everything's a whirlwind right now, and it's kind hard to live a normal life with how things are right now, but we'll get there.' On Thursday, Julie showed off a shocking transformation when she was first spotted after being freed from prison as she dropped by a butcher shop. Julie, who had been serving a seven-year sentence before her pardon, revealed a surprising head of gray hair with a wash of brown at the ends when she was seen exiting a butcher shop in Nashville. As hair dye isn't allowed in prison, her gray roots had been growing out, even though she previously displayed a perfectly dyed head of blond hair before her incarceration. President Trump personally called Savannah to inform her of his pardon Meanwhile, Todd appeared to be in a particularly spicy mood in Savannah's Instagram video, which documented their comical attempt to escape the Nordstrom store. 'You b****es are not paying your bills for me,' he said in a mock sinister tone while facing the camera. He seemed more concerned with keep others from spotting who he was, as the tall shopping bag that he wore over his head didn't exactly lend him a low profile. 'I'm not giving them hoes a picture!' he added sassily. Savannah held his hand and guided him into an elevator going to the parking garage so that he didn't crash into anything with the bag obscuring his view. 'He looks like he hasn't aged a day,' she said of her father's prison transformation. 'It's called the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] glow!' he joked for the camera. Todd added, 'Julie's at home. That b**** is smarter than I am!' He joked that the 'poor people at Nordstrom' had helped him 'escape' the store. 'They should have been there 28 months ago!' he added, referencing his time behind bars. You would think that the power duo that came up with the hit-song Prisoner would be tethered for life (or at least be on cordial terms) but a new song may suggest otherwise. Miley Cyrus just came out with the song Every Girl You've Ever Loved and fans are speculating that the 80s-inspired pop song is about her alleged feud with Dua Lipa. The speculation centers around a few lines in the song: 'She speaks the perfect French / She can dance the night away / And still, she'll never break a sweat.' To some, these could easily be vague references. But others were quick to point out that Lipa fits this description almost exactly. She's shown off her French-speaking skills in a remix of Charli XCX and Troye Sivan's Talk Talk, and her song Dance the Night from the Barbie soundtrack seems to be clearly referenced. The final line - about not breaking a sweat - has been interpreted in several ways, with some reading it as a subtle dig referencing a viral meme that once poked fun at Lipa's lackluster dancing. Miley Cyrus released a new song called Every Girl You've Ever Loved on her new album Something Beautiful that some fans believe shades Dua Lipa Cyrus and Lipa previously worked together on the hit song Prisoner There is also the possibility that the lyric reflects a deeper comparison between the two artists. While Lipa is known for her cool, composed stage presence, Cyrus has been more open about the emotional and physical effort she puts into her performances. Some listeners believe the lyric may be less about criticizing Lipa and more about Cyrus examining her own feelings of insecurity or competition. So where would this alleged feud have come from? Though the two haven't had any public issues, it's worth noting that the two haven't collaborated since their 2020 song Prisoner - and haven't publicly interacted much since then. Also, fans noticed that recently Prisoner's song credits were changed. Cyrus is now listed as only the featured artist on the track, even though it was originally hers - and she wrote it. These combined occurrences have caused fans to call Cyrus out for the speculated shade. Fans speculated that the lyrics 'she speaks the perfect French' and 'she can dance the night away' are reference to Lipa 'She's so obsessed I can't,' one X (formerly Twitter) user commented, followed by a crying face emoji. Another user mirrored the sentiment, simply writing, 'obsession.' Some fans were shocked at how obvious the reference seemed to be. 'This actually being the real lyrics lmfao she needs to get over whatever happened between them,' one user wrote. The alleged shade comes at a unique time as Cyrus recently made headlines for finally addressing rumors that her 2023 music video for Flowers was shading Jennifer Lawrence who was said to have a fling with Cyrus' ex-husband Liam Hemsworth. When asked if the video was in reference to Lawrence, Cyrus said, 'No, but I love that dress of hers.' Whether the lyric was intended as shade or not, it has definitely sparked conversation - and any of Cyrus' actions typically do. McDonald's fans are left fuming after 'best' menu item is quietly taken off the menu. The Chicken Bacon Caesar Wrap was a firm favourite among the fast food chains customers, after it launched in 2023. The burger chain discontinued the item as part of a 'rotation' of its menu, which the brand is known to do every few months. The popular wrap, which contained chicken breast strips, crispy onions, bacon and lettuce, wrapped in a soft tortilla, was removed from the menu earlier this month. A McDonald's spokesperson told The Sun: 'As part of our regular wrap rotation, we've taken the Caesar wrap off the menu for now. 'We're always evolving our menu with our customers in mind to keep things fresh and exciting.' McDonald's is known for shaking up the menu every few months and often items return. That means there is a chance the Chicken Caesar Wrap could make a return at some point in the future. McDonald's fans are left fuming after 'best' menu item is quietly taken off the menu It comes after McDonald's announced a new summer menu earlier this month with 12 tasty new additions including a fan favourite previously dubbed the 'best burger ever'. Launching in McDonald's restaurants across the UK, the new menu is set to feature the Biscoff McFlurry and Frappe, a spicy burger as well as a Pokemon Happy Meals for the kids. The ultra-popular Steakhouse Stack burger will make its much-anticipated return but it will set you back a little more than before. It features two juicy 100 per cent British and Irish beef patties, with cheddar cheese, crispy onions, red onion, lettuce, and a savoury black peppercorn sauce served in a toasted sesame bun and will only be available for a limited time. Originally launched in March 2023, it's been in and out of restaurants and instantly proved a huge hit with fast food fans. The fast food giant last relaunched the much-loved Steakhouse Stack in January 2024 for 5.39, however, now fans will have to fork out 5.99 for the burger alone. After the beloved burger was added to McDonald's menu last year, it created a buzz among customers. One user took to X, formerly known as Twitter: 'Whoever Ronald McDonald employed to invent the steakhouse stack deserves the world'. The Chicken Bacon Caesar Wrap was a firm favourite among the fast food chains customers, after it launched in 2023 The ultra-popular Steakhouse Stack burger will make its much-anticipated return but it will set you back a little more than before The Lotus Biscoff McFlurry, available in regular and mini sizes has crunchy Biscoff biscuit crumbs swirled into the soft serve Another keen foodie said: 'The steakhouse stack was the best burger they've done in a long time'. A different user went as far as claiming: 'The steakhouse stack is the best burger on the McDonald's menu and nothing will convince me otherwise'. Another unlikely McDonald's fan agreed: 'The Steakhouse Stack from Maccies may just be the best burger I've ever consumed from that cesspit of a place wow'. More took to the social media platform to express their love for the burger: 'McDonald's steakhouse stack...Jesus that's the best burger they've ever produced'. 'Steakhouse stack did not disappoint though' and 'Ngl the McDonald's Steakhouse Stack is very good'. One even expressed: 'Petition to keep the Steakhouse Stack for good', about the limited-edition item. But the Steakhouse Stack isn't the only exciting addition coming to McDonald's menus this summer. As the weather warms up the refreshing Frozen Cherry Lemonade is sure to be a hit. For 2.99 the icy beverage is a tangy frozen lemonade with a deliciously sweet cherry-flavoured swirl. Sweet-toothed diners will be delighted by the return of the Lotus Biscoff McFlurry and Frappe. The McFlurry, available in regular and mini sizes has crunchy Biscoff biscuit crumbs swirled into the soft serve. The Frappe has a vanilla flavour base, blended with ice and Biscoff biscuit crumb which is then topped with caramel-flavoured cream and a Biscoff crumb dusting. Customers who can handle the heat will want to try the McSpicy X Frank's RedHot burger with chicken breast in a hot and crispy coating, lettuce, cheese, jalapenos, slivered onions, and Franks RedHot Mayo all in a toasted sesame seed bun. For those who only want a taste of spice, the Franks RedHot Mayo is perfect to dip a chip in and will be available separately exclusively in UK McDonald's locations. A new limited-edition Happy Meal will soon feature one of eight Dragon-Type Pokemon toys or one of two Little People Big Dreams books, I Can Make Amazing Music or I Can Be a Wonderful Artist. The special Happy Meal toys will be available from May 7 until June 17 so you better be quick. The limited-time Katsu Chicken One wrap with crispy or grilled chicken, coated in flavourful katsu sauce, onions, cucumber, and lettuce in a toasted tortilla is staying on the menu - and diners can get it for only 1.99 on Wednesdays. Also remaining available to order are the Cheesy Garlic Bread Dippers that come in a four-piece or Sharebox. When 47-year-old Tim Weale felt a niggling pain in his hip, he assumed it was due to sleeping on the hard earth in a tent with his family. It was 2023 and Tim, his wife Bridget and their two children, Clancy and Maeve, then aged six and eight respectively, were ticking a major item off their family bucket list: a 'lap of the map' in Outback Australia. 'Bridget and I, we kind of always had a bit of a passion for outdoor adventure,' Tim tells me. 'It was one of our dreams in life that when our kids were old enough, we'd take them on an Outback adventure. It was as much for them, but also for us. I grew up in the country, and spent four and a half years living on Lord Howe Island as a boy. 'There were no rules, we didn't wear shoes, all that sort of stuff. Even though our kids have grown up in the inner west of Sydney, we just wanted to give them a bit of that exposure in their childhood, at an age where they could remember it.' And so, the Weale family set off on the trip of a lifetime. 'We were in the Kimberley visiting the Mitchell Plateau, and to get there it was about 800km of driving on unsealed corrugated dirt roads,' says Tim. 'So I assumed the bumping around, combined with being in my mid-forties, had left me feeling worse for wear.' Tim Weale was on a bucket list family holiday when he started to experience odd symptoms Later, while travelling down the west coast of Australia, Tim's shoulder started playing up. 'I asked Bridget to check if there was a big knot that she could see, but she couldn't really feel anything,' Tim recalls. 'I went to a physio while we were in Carnarvon, and they did some dry needling, but it never really got better.' Despite these niggling ailments, there was always an equally adventurous activity to explain the symptoms away. A sore groin in Exmouth? Probably pulled it swimming with whales or snorkelling. Joint pain in his tailbone? Again, they were doing so much off-road driving. 'The pain never lasted for too long, and I certainly never thought it could be a sign of something more serious,' Tim says. But once the family had finally made their way back across the Nullabor and returned to Sydney, Tim discovered a symptom he could not ignore. Tim (pictured with wife Bridget) had come to terms with his own mortality when he was in the army - but his diagnosis was still a huge shock 'One morning, not long after being back, I discovered blood in my ejaculate,' he says. 'And I thought - well that's not good.' Tim's doctor ordered a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, which is the first line of investigation for prostate cancer, but assured Tim that he wasn't too worried based on his age and lack of any family history of the disease. 'The average number for a male of my age on a PSA test is usually between one and three,' Tim explains. 'When my results came back, they were at 64. The doctor had never seen a result come back so high.' Thinking there must have been an issue with the test, Tim's doctor ordered a repeat. This time, it came back at 84. 'It was then that he said to me, "Okay, there's a big problem here," and sent me for more tests. Those tests included an MRI, bone scan, PET scan and a prostate biopsy 'which consisted of 12 metal rods through your perineum,' Tim adds wryly. 'Not a lot of fun.' Even worse: the barrage of tests confirmed everyone's worst fear - it was not only prostate cancer, but stage 4. 'They confirmed the prostate cancer had "jumped the fence", as I explain it, out of the prostate, and had spread to my hip, my pelvic bones, my tailbone, my pubic bone, two spots in my spine, two ribs, my scapula, and there were two spots in my lung as well,' Tim explains. The veteran, who even while recalling the worst day of his life, does so with a twinkle of humour, sobers when he relives the day he got that news. '2023 was the year of the absolute highest of highs, being on the trip with my family, to the lowest of lows, getting this diagnosis in December, just before Christmas,' he says. 'I'd come to terms with my own mortality when I was a much younger man in the army,' he says. 'But as a father, all I could think about was my wife and kids, and my parents too - what their lives would be like without me.' Even so, Tim remained determined. 'Throughout the testing process I'd been preparing for whatever news was to come, but at the same time I knew that no matter what it was, I was just going to hit it head on,' he recalls. 'I decided we were going to beat it. From the beginning, that was absolutely my mindset.' And tackle it Tim has. Starting with radiation and hormone treatment to reduce his testosterone (what he describes as the 'food source' for his cancer), Tim then underwent chemotherapy for five months between January and May last year. 'I worked the entire time,' says Tim, 'I was determined to preserve as much normality as I could.' After finishing chemo, Tim got the best news he'd heard all year. 'So while my initial PSA levels were 64 and then 84, they had actually continued to rise rapidly before treatment,' he says. 'I decided we were going to beat it. From the beginning, that was absolutely my mindset' After treatment, Tim quit work to spend more time with his family (pictured with wife Bridget) 'Right before I started chemo, that number got to 154. Once I'd finished chemo, when they re-tested a few months later, that number was 0.010.' Tim says the emotional release he felt upon hearing the news was like nothing he'd experienced. 'So essentially, all that means is that my cancer stays forever in my body, but the way I describe it is that it's asleep. The last set of scans couldn't see any growth from the scans pre-chemo to post-chemo, there was no growth in those areas where the cancer had kind of eaten away my bones, and the spots that were in my lung, one of them was about the size of a 20 cent piece, and they could no longer see it. It was undetectable.' Tim has quit his corporate job at an ASX 100 company to spend time with his children and focus on raising funds for cancer research through the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse. 'Instead of raising funds for shareholders, I'm raising funds for cancer,' Tim jokes, adding that the pace of innovation and research in the area of cancer treatment gives him hope. 'The Chris O'Brien Lifehouse and the research they do is just incredible,' he says. 'And research now moves very quickly. The drug I take day and night now, a year ago, was not on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and it was $3,800 a month,' he says. 'Two years ago, it was still in trials overseas, and now it's not only the gold standard of treatment, but it's also on the PBS and costs me $8 a month.' As well as helping raise funds, Tim is passionate about sharing his story so that other men in his position don't miss the signs that something is wrong. 'Looking back, I had some symptoms even before the trip,' he says. 'I'd noticed that when I did a wee, at the end I'd have to really relax and I felt like there was still some left to go. I also noticed some subtle changes in the colour and texture of my ejaculate.' According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA), prostate cancer in young men is on the rise. Four hundred and three men under the age of 49 are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in Australia, representing about 1.58 per cent of all newly diagnosed men. Over the past 40 years, the number of men being diagnosed in their 40s has increased by about 2,500 per cent, largely due to the advent of PSA testing and the availability of testing to younger men. 'We have recently released new draft guidelines that recommend men have a baseline PSA test at the age of 40 so that they can routinely monitor their PSA levels and identify any concerns as early as possible,' PCFA CEO Anne Savage explains. 'Early detection is key to survival we encourage men to talk to their doctor about getting checked. 'It is vitally important for younger men at a higher risk of prostate cancer to start PSA testing from an earlier age. 'Those at higher risk include men with a direct male relative impacted by the disease, or second-degree relatives who have died from prostate cancer.' And Tim's message to Aussie men couldn't be clearer: 'If you notice any change, the slightest change whatsoever in your body, either the kind of pains I experienced, or even the changes in the consistency and colour of your ejaculate, or a different feeling when you urinate, go and get it checked straight away. 'Don't just think it's normal or go to Dr Google. Go and see your doctor and get tested, especially if you've got a family history of it,' says Tim. 'But even if you don't have a family history - just go and get a baseline [test],' he adds. 'It's just a tick of a box on a blood test. And if the doctor says no, just press them, say I'm the reason why.' This May, Tim is sharing his story in support of Chris O'Brien Lifehouse's Tax Appeal, which aims to raise funds for crucial biomarker research. You can donate here. People who suffer with depression in mid-life are more likely to develop dementia, according to a new study. In a major study of 2.5million people, British experts discovered that lasting feelings of unhappiness and hopelessness in your 40s and 50s increases the risk of the disease by as much as 56 per cent. The researchers also identified a significant link between late life depression, where symptoms develop at around 65 years of age or older, and dementia. Lead author Professor Jacob Brain, from the Institute of Mental Health and School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham said the findings suggested that depression could be a 'warning sign' of upcoming cognitive decline. 'This highlights the importance of recognising and treating depression across the life course, not just for mental health, but also as part of a broader strategy to protect brain health,' he said. The team said the potential links between depression and dementia are complex, but highlighted chronic inflammation and changes in blood flow to the brain as potential causes for the comorbidity. It is thought that depression may accelerate the cognitive collapse that is associated with dementiafor instance memory loss, language difficulties and problems with thinking and reasoning. However, the authors stated that the link between depression and dementia in later life may be because the memory-robbing disease can cause mood problems in its early stages. Researchers said that depression that hits in midlife could increase your risk of developing dementia. According to WHO, around 4 per cent of the world's population experience depression with symptoms including persistent low mood, loss of appetite, various aches and pains and anxiety Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. The disease can cause anxiety, confusion and short-term memory loss Writing in the EClinicalMedicine journal, Prof Brain said: 'Depression in late life may represent an early manifestation of dementia.' The researchers concluded that early detection and treatment for depression could minimise the risk of dementia onsetand this should be a focus for future research. They added that further research is needed to confirm whether interventions that promote physical activity and other lifestyle changes to support mental health earlier in life can reduce dementia risk. However, researchers noted the prevelance of depression among participants may have been overestimatedas not all depressed volunteers were diagnosed by a medical professional. Around 982,000 people in the UK are thought to be living with dementia, according to Alzheimer's Association. Dementia is an umbrella term for several diseasesthe most common of which is Alzheimer'sthat affect memory, thinking and the ability to perform daily activities. The condition gets worse over time, as the disease attacks nerve cells in the brain, typically leading to the deterioration of cognitive function. Dementia cases are expected to sky-rocket to 1.4million people by 2040, making early prevention treatments vital to get to grips with the challenge. Around 900,000 Britons are currently thought to have the memory-robbing disorder. But University College London scientists estimate this will rise to 1.7 million within two decades as people live longer. It marks a 40 per cent uptick on the previous forecast in 2017 The disease cost the UK around 42billion in 2024 alone. The cost of dementia in the UK is forecast to be 90 billion in the next 15 years. The latest findings come as Spanish scientists recently discovered that upping your exercise quota around middle age could help stave off Alzheimer's disease in later life. They found that those who increased their activity levels to around two and a half hours a week were less prone to toxic protein amyloid spreading in the brain. Significant clumps of this protein, along with another, tau, can form plaques and tangles in the brainwhich is thought to be behind dementia symptoms. Experts have warned for years that leading a sedentary lifestyle raises the risk of numerous health problems including weight gain, type 2 diabetes, cancer and even an early grave. It has been estimated that 13 per cent of all Alzheimer's cases could be linked to physical inactivity. It comes as a landmark study last year also suggested almost half of all Alzheimer's cases could be prevented by tackling 14 lifestyle factors. To reduce dementia risk throughout life, the commission also made 13 recommendations for both people and governments. These include making hearing aids available for all those who need it, reducing harmful noise exposure, and increased detection and treatment access for high cholesterol among the over-40s. Experts claimed the study, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, provided more hope than 'ever before' that the memory-robbing disorder that blights the lives of millions can be prevented. A revolutionary AI test can help slash the risk of dying from prostate cancer by up to half, a breakthrough study suggests. From examining images of tumours it was able to identify patients who could benefit from a 'game-changer' drug by picking out features invisible to the human eye. Around one in four men with 'high-risk' prostate cancer were found to have a particular biomarker that made them more receptive to the treatment. Among those with the biomarker, taking the drug abiraterone alongside standard hormone therapy cut the risk of death after five years from 17 per cent to 9 per cent a reduction of 47 per cent. Men without the biomarker saw their risk of death drop from 7 per cent to 4 per cent which is not thought to be statistically or clinically significant. Abiraterone, which costs just 77 for a month's supply since the patent expired, works by inhibiting the production of testosterone in all tissues throughout the body, including in the tumour. A revolutionary AI test can help slash the risk of dying from prostate cancer by up to half, a breakthrough study suggests (Stock illustration of prostate tumour) Researchers say NHS England should now make the drug available to the 2,100 men a year who could benefit, while sparing others a treatment that comes with additional side-effects. It is approved for use on the NHS in England for patients with advanced prostate cancer that has come back and spread to other parts of the body, but not for the 8,400 men a year with newly diagnosed high-risk prostate cancer that has not spread. Experts say because fewer men than previously thought will need the drug, NHS England should review the decision not to fund the treatment for those who could benefit earlier. It has been more widely available to men in Scotland and Wales for two years. Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), in London, and University College London examined data from more than 1,000 men whose tumours were at high risk of spreading. The findings, based on a test developed by Artera Inc, will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago. The Mail has campaigned for years to improve the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer in a bid to prevent needless deaths. Professor Nick James, who co-led the research at the ICR, said: 'I truly hope this new research showing precisely who needs the drug to live well for longer will lead to NHS England reviewing their decision to fund abiraterone for high-risk prostate cancer that has not spread.' Scientists from Institute of Cancer Research and University College London (pictured) examined data from more than 1,000 men whose tumours were at high risk of spreading An NHS spokesman said: 'Abiraterone continues to be routinely funded by the NHS in England for several forms of advanced prostate cancer in line with clinical guidance, and we are keeping this position under close review.' Meanwhile, lung cancer patients will be offered a new blood test to speed up access to targeted treatments and avoid unnecessary biopsies. The 'liquid biopsy' looks for tiny fragments of tumour DNA and detects mutations. About 15,000 patients a year will benefit, NHS England says. Magazine special issue connects China, Italy across 70 years Xinhua) 10:34, May 30, 2025 Italian sinologist Silvia Calamandrei speaks during the launch ceremony for the new book "The bridge of China-Italy friendship: China Today as written by the 1955 Italian cultural delegation" at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, capital of China, May 8, 2025. (Xinhua) TIANJIN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Yang Lin and Letizia Vallini, scholars with Tianjin-based Nankai University, feel profoundly inspired every time they read the China-related words by renowned Italian politician and jurist Piero Calamandrei. In 1955, although diplomatic ties had not yet been established between China and Italy, Calamandrei led an Italian cultural delegation composed of experts from various fields, including jurists, philosophers, architects and zoologists, to visit China. Centuries before, The Travels of Marco Polo sparked a China fever in the West. Likewise, the delegation members published numerous articles introducing the then China after visiting Chinese cities including Beijing, Shenyang, Fushun, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Among these, the most influential was China Today, a special issue of The Bridge, a magazine under Calamandrei's editorship. Covering politics, economy, culture, and society in China, it became a vital window for Italian readers to understand China at that time. Now, Yang, head of the Italian Department at the university's School of Foreign Studies, and Vallini, an Italian faculty member, hope to reintroduce this work to today's readers. Earlier this month, the new book "The bridge of China-Italy friendship: China Today as written by the 1955 Italian cultural delegation," co-edited by Yang and Vallini, was launched at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy. This volume presents a carefully curated selection of articles from the original special issue, translated into Chinese and illustrated by rare archival photographs that document the delegation's historic visit to China. Silvia Calamandrei, granddaughter of Piero Calamandrei, spent her childhood living and studying in China. During the launch event, she shared memories of cultural exchanges between China and Italy. "This serves not only as a bridge connecting distant memories with the present, but also as a significant milestone marking how China-Italy relations have remained closely intertwined through different historical phases," she said. Yang regards China Today as a precious cultural legacy left by Piero Calamandrei that continues to facilitate cultural exchanges and enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples. "The delegation devoted itself to bridging two distinct civilizations, truly earning its title as a 'bridge'," said Vallini, who has lived in China for 12 years. She said these articles continue to tell stories of friendship and hope to Chinese and Italian readers alike -- precisely what makes this translation project invaluable. The translation process, spanning over four years, was arduous, yet Yang and Vallini found constant joy in their work, driven by a greater mission to cultivate a new generation of "bridges" for China-Italy cultural exchanges. "As translators, we're honored to serve as bridges connecting China Today with contemporary China, helping the fruits of friendship and wisdom reach more readers," said Wang Yifei, one of the 15 students who joined the translation and editorial project. Yan Guodong, dean of the School of Foreign Studies at Nankai University, noted that China and Italy, both ancient civilizations, share long-standing cultural exchanges. The publication of this book represents contemporary scholars' commitment to upholding this historical mission. "As the unprecedented changes of the world accelerates, the East and the West -- particularly China and Europe, as well as China and Italy -- once again face a critical moment where mutual understanding and concerted efforts are essential," said Luo Hongbo, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This photo taken on May 8, 2025 shows a scene during the launch ceremony for the new book "The bridge of China-Italy friendship: China Today as written by the 1955 Italian cultural delegation" at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A TV doctor has revealed the foods he recommends to his patients who need to lose weight - as they have 'natural Ozempic' qualities. Top of the list is eggs, which stimulate the same hunger-suppressing hormone that the blockbuster weight loss jabs trigger, according to Dr Amir Khan, GP and resident doctor on ITV's Good Morning Britain. In a video posted to his Instagram page where he has nearly 650,000 followers, Dr Khan said nuts like almonds, pistachios and walnuts, olive oil, and high fibre foods like oats, barley and whole wheat have the same effect. 'These are the kind of foods I recommend my patients living with type two diabetes increase their intake of,' he wrote in the caption. 'But we could all do with eating more of them.' Explaining how the fullness hormone, called GLP-1, works, he said: 'GLP-1 slows the rate at which the stomach empties, which keeps us fuller for longer and controls our appetite and food intake. 'It stimulates our pancreas to make insulin which lowers our blood sugar. 'It also stops the production of another hormone called glucagon that can raise our blood sugar.' In particular, the protein-rich egg white and fibre in nuts and oats are known to stimulate the release of GLP-1 in the gut, he explained. As for olive oil: 'Studies show that monounsaturated fats like olive oil are better at stimulating GLP-1 release than saturated fats like those found in butter,' he said. He also recommended three vegetables to increase your intake of, due to their hunger-suppressing effects. This included brussels sprouts, broccoli and carrots which cause bacteria in our gut to 'break fibre down into short chain fatty acids'. 'These can signal special cells in our gut to release GLP-1 into the bloodstream.' This isn't the first time a staple food has been flagged as having 'natural Ozempic' effects. Last spring, a series of viral videos emerged on social media featuring young women hailing a DIY oat-based drink for its surprising weight-loss effects. The so-called 'Oat-Zempic' trend involved drinking a blend of oats, water, cinnamon and lime daily. Experts have called for tighter rules on how Ozempic, Mounjaro and other weight-loss products are prescribed Last year, TikTokers went wild for 'oat-zempic'a DIY drink made from oats, water and lime that social media users said had similar slimming benefits as Ozempic TikTokers said they shed almost a stone in less than a month by drinking the shake daily. Speaking of the trend, experts were sceptical, concluding that an oat drink is unlikely to have as significant impact as the weight loss jabs. However, Dr Alok Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford University in the US, acknowledged that oats 'contain soluble fibre that will keep you fuller for longer'. 'A half a cup of oatmeal, that's a lot of fibre and some water to help them feel full, which may lead to a caloric deficit which is why people are seeing weight loss,' he said. Ozempic and Wegovy, brand names for the medication semaglutide, mimic glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Mounjaro, another weight-loss jab making the headlines, works in a similar way to Ozempic and Wegovy, but is 'super-charged' by a compound that triggers another appetite-suppressing hormone. NHS data suggests that at least 1.45million semaglutide prescriptions were dolled out in 2023/24, and recent studies suggest more than one in ten women are now taking slimming jabs. Research suggests Ozempic results in an average weight loss of around a stone in roughly nine months - but it will be the same for everyone. Nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight, with an extra 260,000 people entering the category last year, data shows. Less than a third of over-18s eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, and a third fail to get any exercise. Experts have called for the Government to tackle 'our broken food system' with bans on junk food advertising and promotions. A celeb-backed liquid BBL injector has been banned from carrying out cosmetic procedures following a shocking BBC investigation and subsequent court ruling. 'Beauty consultant', Rick Sawyer, was found to be administering injections containing up to 1,000ml of dermal filler into clients' buttocks, despite not having a single healthcare qualification. The president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Mark Elliot, today slammed the shocking and dangerous practices Mr Sawyer was found to have committed. 'The regulatory framework has failed to keep pace with the increase in the prevalence of cosmetic procedures in recent years, fuelled by social media,' he said. Sawyer was exposed in a chilling documentary that saw him working out of a rented office block in London, performing dangerous procedures, that left women hospitalised with deadly sepsis. On Wednesday 28 May, a judge at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre granted an injunction against the self-proclaimed cosmetician, banning him from performing any procedures in England and Wales until 27 May 2028. The injunction will also prohibit Sawyer from possessing related surgical equipment or any antibiotics typically used in such treatments, unless prescribed for his own personal use. The court attached a power of arrest to the order, meaning Sawyer could be arrested without a warrant if he is found to be in breach of these terms. Raw footage shows 'beauty consultant' Ricky Sawyer whose celebrity clients include Katie Price offering to inject hundreds of milliliters of filler into clients' buttocks, despite not having a single healthcare qualification, according to the BBC Cameras also capture Mr Sawyer illegally handing out antibiotics. All of the hard-hitting clips were secretly captured by an undercover reporter who had booked a consultation with the beautician through his Instagram page He has been given 21 days to challenge the injunction. 'We believe that the most high-risk cosmetic procedures, such as the BBL, should be designated as surgical and undertaken only by appropriately trained, regulated and experienced GMC-registered doctors,' Mr Elliot continued. The court, together with Trafford Council, heard evidence from the original BBC investigation, which featured testimonies from nearly 40 women, alongside graphic pictures submitted by one of Mr Sawyer's clients. James Parry, the lawyer who raised the case, said the injuries suffered were akin to that of a 'serious knife crime'. One woman, who suffered sepsisa life-threatening reaction to an infectionafter undergoing a procedure by Sawyer, shared her story. Ashely, 27, who attended one of Sawyer's pop-up clinics in London, said: 'He butchered me, there is no other word for it'. Ashely said that when she left the clinic, covered in blood, she was barely able to walk. Three days later she was rushed to hospital with sepsis, where she could have died without treatment. Last year Monique Sofroniou (pictured), 30, called for a ban on 'liquid BBLs' after a botched procedure left her buttocks with leaking black holes and in pain 'worse than childbirth' Monique was rushed to hospital where doctors attempted to remedy the situation (pictured: the mother-of-one after surgery in hospital to repair damage caused by the filler) This happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to attack your body's own tissues and organs. Without treatment, this can quickly develop into septic shock, causing the organs to shut down completely. The liquid BBL procedure is notoriously risky, especially when performed by non-medics. This is because when injected into or near a blood vessel, filler can block blood flow leading to tissue death. Inadequately sterilising equipment can too, trigger dangerous infections. Reacting to Wednesday's court proceedings, Ashley said: 'I am relieved, it makes me feel that we're being taken seriously.' The environmental health watchdog is now urging the government to enforce a licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures across England with the hope that it will prevent people without the proper certifications from preforming these dangerous procedures. Mr Elliot said: 'This scheme will help to ensure that people who undergo non-surgical cosmetic procedures receive treatment from practitioners who are properly trained and qualified, have the necessary insurance cover and operate from premises that are safe and hygienic.' Another of Mr Sawyer's clients required life-saving emergency surgery that saw medics cut dead tissue from almost the entire left buttock, the BBC probe found. Louise Moller, from Bolton, was hospitalised four days after receiving a liquid BBL at his Essex clinic in October 2023 and was told she had contracted sepsis. Nearly 40 women came forward to testify against Mr Sawyer, all of whom needed hospital treatment The now 28-year-old rang her mother, Janet, from Salford Royal's A&E department and said: 'Mum, I think I'm going to die.' The BBC documentary saw one woman known only as Joanne, travel seven hours from south Wales to Essex for the liquid BBL treatment. The mum-of-two said she had undergone other cosmetic treatments previously and had been persuaded to get a 'peachy bum' by Mr Sawyer's adverts and celebrity endorsements. However, when she arrived she claimed his clinic was in a block of flats in an industrial estate and she waited in a 'dingy little hallway' for roughly half an hour. 'I should have turned and ran but I had paid 600 deposit and travelled all this way,' she said. After parting with the additional 1,400 for the treatment, she then stood in front of him while he sat on a stool and injected her with a litre of filler. 'I felt dizzy, sick and like shaky. My legs didn't even move properly. And that was all within a minute of him starting,' she said. 'I remember looking round and he had white gloves on that were full of blood.' By the time she returned to South Wales hours later, the swelling had begun and she could hardly walk, she claimed. 'I messaged Ricky loads of times to say how bad I was feeling and how worried I was. He just told me to take my antibiotics,' she added. 'My temperature kept on going up and I felt terrible. I had to phone 999. I was dripping with sweat and screaming.' In hospital, she was diagnosed with sepsis and attached to intravenous antibiotics. Medics fortunately did not need to operate. Experts have long warned of 'non-surgical' aesthetic treatments carried out by practitioners will little experience and repeatedly called for tighter controls over the cosmetic industry. While the risks of a traditional Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) are well known surgery to transfer fat from other areas to the buttocks a non-surgical methods that aim to create the same result are less understood. Unlike a traditional BBL which sees fat transferred from other areas of the body, a liquid BBL involves hyaluronic acid fillers. Dermal filler the same material used to fill lips is injected in large quantities into the buttock. Non-surgical BBLs are not illegal in the UK. However, several local authorities including Wolverhampton, Essex and Glasgow have banned certain companies from carrying out liquid BBLs in their area. And since the BBC documentary aired Trafford, Salford and Manchester councils have banned Sawyer from practicing in their areas. Trafford Council will continue to monitor compliance with the injunction and encourages anyone with information about unlawful cosmetic procedures to contact them. More than 100 tons of beef is the subject of an urgent nationwide recall after fragments of wood were detected in the meat. Hormel Foods, which is based out of Minnesota and the maker of a variety of well-known brands including Spam and Old Smokehouse, is pulling cans of its Dinty Moore beef stew. The FDA warns that 'hard or sharp foreign objects in food may cause traumatic injury including laceration and perforation of tissues of the mouth, tongue, throat, stomach and intestine as well as damage to the teeth and gums.' To date, three consumers have filed complaints with the food giant, triggering the decision to recall the compromised product. The recall applies to cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew with Best by Feb 2028 and lot code T02045 printed on the label. The lot code may have an additional number at the end. The tins also bear establishment number 'EST 199G'. These items were shipped to retail locations nationwide. More than 100 tons of beef is the subject of an urgent nationwide recall after fragments of wood were detected in the meat (stock image) Your browser does not support iframes. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) warns the product should not be consumed. It adds that any one who has tins of the stew should throw them away or return them to the place of purchase. While small pieces of foreign materials can pass through the gastrointestinal tract without any complications, large or irregular-shaped fragments can lead to a number of problems. These complications can include choking, throat lacerations, ulceration, holes in the digestive tract or even death. It is unclear how big the fragments of wood are in the Dinty Moore Beef Stew. Wood can contaminate food products through various means. In some cases, the use of wooden pallets during transportation and storage can lead to contamination, as can the use of wooden tools or equipment in food processing. So far, there have been no confirmed reports of injury due to consuming the product. Meanwhile, Hormel Foods highlights that no other products among its brands are affected. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) warns the product should not be consumed Anyone concerned about an injury should contact a healthcare provider. Commenting on the matter, a spokesperson for Hormel Foods told DailyMail.com: 'As a Fortune 500, global branded food company, we are committed to maintaining the highest standards for our products. 'Out of an abundance of caution, Hormel Foods is voluntarily recalling 17,080 cases of a single code date of 20oz Dinty Moore Beef Stew as it may contain extraneous wood material. 'No other Dinty Moore products are affected, and no illnesses or injuries have been reported in association with this recall.' Consumers can contact Hormel Foods about the recall at 800-523-4635. Covid vaccines will still be given to healthy children despite the Trump Administration and Robert F Kennedy Jr announcing the recommendation had been axed. Revisions to the CDC's vaccine schedules published late Thursday show the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines are still recommended for healthy children over six months old. The CDC recommends the Covid vaccines for children based on 'shared clinical decision-making,' meaning children can get the shot if their parents and doctors agree. The new language states: 'Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances.' The defiance comes after Kennedy's announcement earlier this week that the shots would no longer be routinely offered to healthy children and pregnant women. During his announcement, Kennedy did not say patients could consult doctors about the decision, instead saying there was a 'lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.' The new CDC guidance has, however, been updated to no longer include pregnant women. The CDC's latest guidance still recommends Covid vaccines for children, despite Robert F Kennedy Jr calling for them to no longer be offered (stock image) Trump and RFK Jr have both promised to overhaul America's health agencies and address the 'overmedicalization' of children, including addressing vaccine schedules Andrew Nixon, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told the Washington Post the CDC and HHS 'encourage individuals to talk with their healthcare provider on any medical decisions. 'Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy, HHS is restoring the doctor-patient relationship. If a parent desires their healthy child to be vaccinated or if a pregnant woman desires to be vaccinated, their decision should be based on informed consent through the clinical judgment of their healthcare provider.' Kennedy claimed during his initial announcement that there was a 'lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.' Your browser does not support iframes. The FDA is also reportedly re-analyzing whether the evidence supports boosting healthy people under 65 against Covid. Normally, changes to the vaccine schedule would go through a consultation period and the CDC's vaccines advisory body the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before being made by the HHS Secretary. However, the CDC currently doesn't have an acting director. DailyMail.com revealed in February how several members of Trump's administration were pushing for tighter restrictions on the Covid vaccine. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission's first report published earlier this month also criticized the 'overmedicalization' of children and suggested paring down the vaccine schedule as a whole. Uptake of Covid booster shots has dropped in the US, with data showing that just 23 percent of those eligible for the booster, aged six months and over, came forward for last year's shot. Experts say this is linked to America's health insurance scheme, with the wide eligibility aiming to ensure that everyone is covered for accessing the shots. Kennedy has a history of opposition to the Covid vaccines, saying in 2021 that the shots were the 'deadliest vaccine ever made'. That same year, he also filed a petition with the FDA requesting the authorization of the Covid vaccines be revoked. Covid vaccines are thought to have saved millions of lives in the US, and the risk of adverse effects like heart inflammation is rare, occurring in just one in 200,000 cases. Cartier ed. by Helen Molesworth and Rachel Garrahan (V&A Publishing 35, 256pp) Cartier (exhibition book) is available from the V&A The new Cartier exhibition at the V&A is collated of 350 historic and iconic pieces from the historical jewellers archive. Curated by Helen Molesworth and Rachel Garrahan, and created by Asif Khan, the show is an immersive experience that celebrates the enduring allure of Cartier. 'I wanted this exhibition to evoke a world, crossing time, senses, and cultures,' says Khan. 'Cartiers creations are suspended in textural landscapes, cloudscapes, light and sound - allowing history to breathe and the future to linger.' On display are famed creations such as the Tank watch, the Trinity ring, and the ever-popular Love bracelet, alongside extraordinary personal pieces once owned by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly, including Kellys engagement ring. This companion book, edited by Molesworth and Garrahan, offers a rich visual and historical narrative of the Maison. It traces Cartiers deep connections to British royalty and other notable figures, explores the evolution of its signature styles, and reveals the craftsmanship behind its most recognisable designs. Crash Wristwatch, made by Wright & Davies for Cartier London, 1967. Sapphire, gold, blued steel and leather strap. Vincent Wulveryck, Collection Cartier As the book makes clear, Cartier has never stood still - constantly reinterpreting its heritage to stay at the forefront of contemporary design. Dont Talk About Politics by Sarah Stein Lubrano (Bloomsbury Continuum 18.99, 288pp) Don't Talk About Politics is available now from the Mail Bookshop Is democracy dying? In many countries, as Sarah Stein Lubrano points out in her thought-provoking debut work, trust in society and interest in politics have hit a nadir. Many areas of public life seem broken but we do not trust our politicians to mend them. The fundamental problem, she argues, is that we cling to the notion that just talking about politics can change peoples minds. Most of us persist in believing in two myths about how political thinking works. The first is the myth of the marketplace of ideas. Allow people to encounter the widest range of ideas and the best will inevitably rise to the top. This was a doubtful proposition at any time but, in the era of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, it seems increasingly absurd. Musk has said that he sees X as the digital town square where people can gather for discussion. In what Lubrano wittily describes as an age of digital screaming, using X doesnt seem like a rational exchange of views. More often, it feels as if the worst guy at the party has trapped everyone else in a one-sided, unending conversation. The other myth Lubrano endeavours to demolish with much success is that debate is effective in changing peoples minds. Particularly political debate. With many politicians, the more they speak, the less we like them and the less likely we are to agree with them. Research suggests voters enjoy the spectacle and drama of debates but that they dont influence their personal beliefs in any significant way. If debate is largely ineffective, what does work to influence our beliefs? Alarmingly, it seems that many people will change their minds to avoid thinking too rationally. Before Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records last year, only 17 per cent of Republican voters believed that felons should be able to be elected president; after his conviction, the number shot up to 58 per cent. Before Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records last year, only 17 per cent of Republican voters believed that felons should be able to be elected president; after his conviction, the number shot up to 58 per cent. Trump pictured in court on 7th May 2024 while on trial for covering up hush money payments. To reconcile two contradictory beliefs (that felons shouldnt be president, but the felon Donald Trump should), large numbers simply changed their minds. Happily, Lubrano has more encouraging thoughts about how people can be persuaded to think differently on important subjects. Actions can speak so much louder than words. Abstract debate about climate change is unlikely to change opinions; providing incentives to install solar panels might well convert sceptics. Hectoring people about how bad cars are for the environment will merely antagonise them; give them other feasible options to get to work and they might leave their cars at home. Politicians cant reach people with words alone. As she puts it: If you want to change peoples minds, you must change their lives. Frank The Pizza by Eoin Mclaughlin, illustrated by Mike Byrne (HarperCollins 7.99, 32pp) Frank The Pizza is available now from the Mail Bookshop Frank is a little slice of pizza, desperate to make friends but when youre delicious its hard some people want to meet you, others want to eat you. So when hes invited to Billys birthday party, his parents try to protect him by topping him with anchovies and olives. No one likes him, until he meets Frances the cupcake whose parents have topped her with equally uninviting beetroot icing and they make such good friends they become overconfident and take risks that almost result in disaster. This scrumptious story has a gentle message but is also full of fun and plenty of opportunity for arguing about best pizza toppings. Who doesnt like olives? Age 3+. The Dawn Of Adonis by Phil Earle (Andersen Press 7.99, 240pp) The Dawn of Adonis is available now from the Mail Bookshop Earles multi-award winning When The Sky Falls introduced us to Adonis, a silverback gorilla kept in a London zoo during the Second World War. But how did he get there? This stand-alone prequel follows young Toff Squabble, assistant to the evil criminal Goliath Deeds who smells money in the illegal trade of exotic animals. When a baby gorilla is born in the backstreets of the docks, Toff seeks help from a vet and his brave daughter Nettie, who fights to rescue the vulnerable infant from Deeds wicked plans. Set in 1911, this richly atmospheric adventure, full of drama, compassion and a brutal portrait of the citys dark underbelly, confirms Earle as a master of his craft. Age 9+ The Other Girl by Emily Barr (Penguin 9.99, 368pp) The Other Girl is available now from the Mail Bookshop This twisty young adult thriller will keep you guessing until the surprising end. Rich, disturbed teenage Tabbi is headed for a rehab clinic in Switzerland after doing something terrible when drunk. When she meets runaway broke backpacker Ruby on a train, she persuades her to swap identities for six weeks, promising her that shes headed for a luxury hotel in the mountains, all expenses paid. But as Tabbi tries to survive without her credit card, she starts to wonder if Ruby is as innocent as she seemed. Who is conning who? Theres a few improbable moments but the double-crossing, dual narrative and unfolding secrets propel you forward at high speed. Age 13+ CNN anchor Jake Tapper has suffered his lowest-rated month in a decade amid backlash over his tell-all book about former President Joe Biden's mental health decline. The Lead with Jake Tapper averaged just 525,000 viewers from April 28 through May 25 - shedding a quarter of its audience from the same period last year, new Nielsen ratings show. The devastating numbers came as the liberal anchor continues his whirlwind book tour to promote the expose. Tapper has been ubiquitous on podcasts, talk shows and cable news to promote the book, which was also widely celebrated on CNN. The tome, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' was co-written with Axios reporter Alex Thompson. His CNN program was beat out by Fox News' The Five and Special Report with Bret Baier, which averaged 3.3 million viewers, as well as MSNBC's programming in the time slot - which averaged a little over one million viewers. That means Tapper's show received only 11 percent of the national cable news audience, while MSNBC received 21 percent and Fox received 68 percent. It also represented Tapper's lowest-rated month since August 2015, according to Fox News. Even worse, The Lead with Jake Tapper is seeing a lower audience of 25 to 54 year olds - a demographic that is coveted by advertisers and helps networks earn revenue. CNN anchor Jake Tapper has suffered his lowest-rated month in a decade He averaged just 95,000 viewers in the demographic from April 28 through May 25, representing a 15 percent drop from last year. But Tapper was not alone with his abysmal ratings, as CNN itself suffered its second-worst month ever among the coveted demographic across both daytime and primetime shows in May. He and Axios reporter Alex Thompson recently released an expose entitled 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again' A spokesperson for CNN did not seem worried, though, noting that Nielsen Media Research only reflects the network's audience in the United States - and Tapper's program airs internationally. 'The award-winning program The Lead with Jake Tapper reaches broad global audiences across CNN, CNN International and Max's streaming platform,' the spokesperson told Fox. 'No single metric can capture the true reach and impact of a program driving the national conversation,' the spokesperson insisted. Indeed, Tapper's new book - which chronicles Biden's declining health as he served as president - took on new relevance when it was revealed earlier this month that Biden was diagnosed with 'aggressive' prostate cancer. However, his appearances on news programs and the ratings for his new book were overshadowed by claims that Tapper was complicit in the cover-up. Some online have even branded the journalist a 'fraud' and a 'phony' as they shared videos of him hitting out at Republicans who wanted to investigate Biden's mental acuity. Tapper has been on a whirlwind press tour promoting the book - but has been branded a 'phony' as many claim he was complicit in the cover-up In October 2020, he even hit out at Lara Trump, who pointed to a speech Biden gave in October 2020 and said: 'What we see on stage is a very clear cognitive decline.' Tapper immediately interjected, savaging her with a haughty response that she had 'absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline' and accusing her of instead 'mocking his stutter.' The journalist, though, claims he trusted Biden and his aides and took them at their word when they assured him that all was well. He said the turning point for him was the disastrous debate between Biden and Trump in June 2024, which he and fellow CNN star Dana Bash moderated. 'Knowing what I know now, obviously I feel tremendous humility about my coverage,' Tapper told Megyn Kelly, as he admitted that 'conservative media was correct' in how it handled the story. '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.' Tapper has since admitted that the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline in the White House may have been 'worse than Watergate.' He has even reportedly apologized to Lara Trump for his remarks. Tapper has claimed he trusted Biden and his aides and took them at their word when they assured him that all was well 'Jake Tapper called me about two months ago and he said "I have this book coming out,"' she told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Tapper told her 'I know everybody is saying I should apologize to you. I plan, when the book comes out, to go on TV and say you were right and I was wrong.' Still, Tapper has continued to face criticism for his coverage of the Biden administration - with Lara saying that even though she appreciates his acknowledgement of wrongdoing and that Tapper has stuck to his vow to apologize publicly, 'it feels a little bit too late to me.' 'Jake Tapper can't discount his role in that, no matter how much he wants to come out now,' she said. 'They have lost the American people's trust... It is the reason Donald Trump is in the White House right now. People like authenticity.' The CNN host then appeared to squirm on Wednesday when Stephen A. Smith called his new book a 'money grab.' Tapper insisted that 'very few people write books to make money' and claimed his and Thompson's 'only agenda was to find out what happened. Our only agenda was to write this book. 'In terms of the left it's a money grab, I mean that's not the case. It's not - this is, I don't want to get into where my money comes from,' the journalist stammered. 'You know, CNN is my main job and that's where my main source of income, by far... Very few people write books to make money,' he babbled on. 'You write a book because you want to say something. You want to have a legacy, you want to uncover something, you have a message you want to get out there,' Tapper insisted. After a strong run for precious metals, gold mining shares still look undervalued. Thats the view from JP Morgans latest note on listed producers, which argues theres room for substantial upside, especially if its bullish forecast for the precious metal proves right. Its commodities team is pencilling in a price of $4,100 an ounce for 2026. Thats well above current spot levels of $3,320 and would mark a new all-time high. Based on that estimate, JP Morgan sees around 4050 per cent upside to average analyst expectations for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation across the sector. While the American bank focused on the larger producers, citing names such as Fresnillo and Hochschild, theres plenty of value lower down the evolutionary chain. Stocks on this layer of the pyramid are increasingly disconnected from the rising gold price, rather than moving in step. Of course, being small and mid-cap companies, it often takes time for the market to focus on inherent value, even when backed by gold. These smaller players are also more prone to operational mis-steps that larger organisations can absorb. Forecast: JPMorgans commodities team is pencilling in a gold price of $4,100/oz for 2026 Below is a far-from-scientific roll call of gold stocks that have thus far flown under the radar. Probably the pick of the bunch is Pan African Resources, which, with a 940 million market capitalisation, has broken free from the small-cap bracket. While its share price is up around 30 per cent year to date, it still lags the performance of Endeavour (+51 per cent) and Fresnillo (+80 per cent). Dropping down a division, Caledonia Mining stands out. Its performance has been stronger than Premier African and it comes with a very decent dividend. As valuations shrink, the link between the gold price and share price weakens. A case in point is Ariana Resources, which has modest production from its Turkish operations but ambitious growth plans in Zimbabwe. Panmure Liberum analysts, fresh from a site visit to Arianas Dokwe project, described it as a potential multi-million-ounce asset with strong development prospects. That optimism is in stark contrast to Arianas stock market performance, down more than 40 per cent year to date. It suggests value and opportunity may be buried in AIMs twilight zone. Ariana is preparing to list in Australia, a savvy move in a market where investors, both private and institutional, know how to value smaller gold companies. Appetite for diggers and prospectors is strong, supported by self-directed flows from Australias generous superannuation schemes. So, watch this space. Wider market moves Turning to the wider market, the AIM All-Share continued to outperform its benchmark, rising 1.3 per cent to 746.39 and outpacing the FTSE 100, which nudged just 0.4 per cent higher. This reflects growing confidence, underlined by a slew of successful fundraisings that made May a bumper month for companies replenishing their coffers. The weeks standout performer was Blue Star Capital, which jumped 150 per cent after news of its investment in cross-border crypto payments platform SatoshiPay. Avacta rose 43 per cent, a performance that would have topped the leaderboard most weeks. The appointment of two heavyweight independent directors helped ease investor concerns over a delay to the companys results. One of the new recruits, Richard Hughes, brings deep capital markets experience, possibly signalling a strategic shift for the precision medicines group. ATOME climbed 35 per cent following the launch of a new renewable energy division, initially focused on Latin America. And the laggards At the other end of the table, Totally fell 84 per cent as investors digested the healthcare providers semingly insurmountable funding position. Watkin Jones dropped 21 per cent after the developer of student housing and build-to-rent properties posted a loss and painted a gloomy picture of current trading. Finally, the small-cap market, especially where trading is thin or controlled by market makers, tends to react sharply to news, with professional price-setters often moving to protect positions rather than reflect true value. A case in point is hVIVO. Shares slumped 45 per cent on Friday following the loss of one contract and the postponement of another. Seasoned small-cap investors will know that sanity usually prevails, but it can take time for stocks like hVIVO to find their footing. In the meantime, its worth remembering this is a business with 47million of contracted revenue already secured for the current year and, as of its last results, 44million in cash. Denmark's move to hike its retirement age to 70 by 2040 has got people asking the obvious question - could the same happen here? As things stand now, men and women's state pension age is 66, and between 2026 and 2028 it will rise to 67. Officially, the next rise to 68 is not scheduled until the mid 2040s, which would affect those born on or after April 1977. The Government is required by law to review the state pension age periodically. However, the last two reports in 2017 and 2023 recommended speeding up the increase to 68 - and then went ignored. The next review isn't due until spring 2029, but Labour might take as little notice of any findings as the Tories. It's not as if raising the state pension age is going to become any less of a political hot potato, as money experts pointed out when we asked for their views on Denmark's decision. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the minimum pension age for accessing workplace and other private retirement savings will rise from 55 to 57 from April 2028, Governments have in the past tended to keep the state pension and private pension ages roughly 10 years apart, so any future increases could well continue to happen in tandem. What has happened to pensions in Denmark? Denmark ties its retirement age to life expectancy, and revises it every five years. The country's current retirement age is 67, and this will rise to 68 in 2030 and 69 in 2035. Despite protests in Copenhagen, an overwhelming 81-21 vote in the Danish parliament last week decided to increase it again to 70 in 2040. The latest age hike will affect Danes born from 31 December 1970 onwards. Labour might stick with 'no change' policy 'Pension ages have been rising around the developed world in the face of a combination of rising life expectancies and falling birth rates,' says former Pensions Minister Steve Webb. The UK faces major challenges in meeting the state pension, NHS and care costs of an ageing population, he says. But regarding the politics of raising the state pension age, he adds: 'Currently policy is to give at least 10 years' notice of changes, which means that increased pension ages will generate no extra revenue for at least two parliaments but will generate negative publicity straight away.' Webb, who is a partner at LCP and This is Money's retirement columnist, goes on: 'It is no coincidence that the last two independent reviews, both of which recommended speeding up the move to age 68, have so far been ignored. 'It is quite possible that the next review, due during this parliament, will again lead to no change in the legal timetable for increases in state pension age.' Many people don't know their own state pension age - so check 'Each government has to review the state pension age during their term in parliament,' points out Tom Selby, director of public policy at AJ Bell. 'For those looking forward to retirement that may feel like the sword of Damocles hanging over their future pension plans. 'However, government aren't obliged to accept the recommendations of the review and any further increases in the state pension age are likely to be gradual and a long way in the future.' AJ Bell research shows almost half of all adults under state pension age don't know when they will start receiving it, so Selby suggests checking this and using the knowledge to plan ahead. 'Once you've figured out when you might expect to receive your state pension, you can start working backwards to think about when it might be possible to retire on your private pension savings,' he says. 'If things do change and your state pension age increases by a year, then you're at least starting from an informed position and hopefully won't need to make too many adjustments to your retirement plans.' > Check your state pension age: Use the Government's calculator What are the options? Raise age, moderate payments, hike taxes or means-test state pension 'When is good news, bad news? When it's about living longer and the state pension,' says Stephen Lowe, director at retirement specialist Just Group. 'The good news is that as a nation we're living longer figures for 2023 from the Office for National Statistics show the number of people aged 90-plus has doubled over the last 30 years. But the fertility rate in the UK is dropping.' Lowe says by 2050 it's projected one in four people in the UK will be aged 65 years and over, up from almost one in five in 2018. 'Here's the bad news it means that with more people of state pension age and fewer working people, the burden of funding the state pension becomes heavier on those paying taxes.' 'If we don't want to increase taxes, or introduce a means-tested state pension, then there are two main ways to lighten the load either increase the age at which people receive the state pension or moderate the amount paid. 'Neither is a political vote winner but the problem isn't going away anytime soon so some changes seem almost inevitable.' State pension age rise will hit people who depend most on it hardest Other developed nations face similar challenges to Denmark on how to balance longer lives with a squeezed public purse, says Standard Life's retirement savings director Mike Ambery. 'The state pension age is subject to constant review and quicker, higher increases remain possibilities alongside other options like removing the triple lock or even means testing all of which would prove hugely controversial and politically challenging. 'Raising the state pension age further risks hitting those most dependent on it the hardest. Lower income groups without other sources of retirement income often have shorter life expectancies and might find it harder to work into later life.' 'Any future changes must be taken with great care, and come with plenty of notice to help people plan ahead.' The desire to communicate with dead loved ones - to apologize, to say 'I love you' or simply to hear their voice one last time - is both powerful and universal. But such encounters generally feature only in movies like Ghost and Truly, Madly, Deeply, or in the empty promises of charlatans preying on the bereaved. Dr Raymond Moody, the renowned philosopher, psychiatrist, and physician, however, believes we can all meet with the loved ones we have lost. All we need is a dark room, a mirror and an open mind. Despite studying the paranormal for several decades and even having coined the term near-death experience, Dr Moody, wasnt always as convinced about the existence of an afterlife as he is now at 80. His early work was far less esoteric, serving as a forensic psychiatrist in a maximum-security Georgia state hospital. I was not a religious kid, he told The Daily Mail. My parents dragged me to a Presbyterian church three times when I was a kid, and they realized this is not for me. It was usually not for them. They hardly ever went to church. I had always assumed that the idea of an afterlife was a premise of comedy. I had only encountered it in New Yorker cartoons and a Jack Benny movie. I honestly thought that nobody thought of it as serious. I thought it was a joke. Dr Moody's views began to shift while studying ancient Greek philosophers as a young man. A turning point came at the University of Virginia, where he met Dr George Ritchie, a professor of psychiatry who had his own near-death experience at the age of 20. That encounter set him on a lifelong path of research. In the film Ghost, Patrick Swayze returned from the dead to communicate with Demi Moore Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman played a couple separated by death in Truly, Madly, Deeply Still, the ancient practice of mirror gazing was a step too far into the realm of superstitious quackery. My initial sensation was one of distrust, he wrote in his book Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones. Mirror gazing has always been associated with fraud and deceit - the Gypsy woman bilking clients or the fortune teller who needs more money before he can clearly see the visions in the crystal ball. But curiosity won out. The more that Dr Moody researched, the more he was determined to discover whether or not educated, reasonable-minded people could see ghosts on demand' - even if the scientific establishment warned that he was risking his career in the process To monitor the results, he created a psychomanteum chamber, a specially designed room with a clear, reflective surface that enables the viewer to gaze away into eternity. The ancient Greeks did it with a big bronze cauldron, apparently polished inside and then maybe with olive oil on the top layer of the water, Dr Moody told The Daily Mail, His modern version was simpler - just a quiet, dark room in his Alabama home, with a large mirror on the wall at one end. A comfortable chair was positioned so the viewer could see the mirror but not their own reflection, and the only light source was a dim bulb behind them. I had a bunch of graduate students of philosophy, then some medical colleagues and professors, give it a try, he said. The ancient practice of mirror gazing was considered too far into the realm of superstitious quackery for Dr Moody He created a psychomanteum chamber, a specially designed room in which a clear, reflective surface enables the viewer to gaze away into eternity' Volunteers began the day thinking about and discussing their loved one and their relationship, holding on to mementoes to help remind them of the deceased. The subject was then told to gaze deeply into the mirror and to relax, clearing his or her mind of everything but thoughts of the deceased person. And voila. It works, Dr Moody said. One man reported seeing his mother in the mirror, looking happier and healthier than she had at the end of her life, and assuring him she was all right. Another didnt see an image but felt a very strong sense of the presence of his nephew, who had died by suicide, urging him to pass on a message: Let my mother know that I am fine and that I love her very much. Moody had suspected that these responses were the stuff of mere fantasy, useful in and of themselves to ease the minds of those who were grieving, but fantasy none the less. What struck him, though, was that unlike emerging AI technology that enables the bereaved to create replicas of the deceased, Black Mirror-style, participants were absolutely convinced that they had been in the physical presence of their dead loved ones. Virtually all of the others described the experience as being realer than real, wrote Dr Moody. One woman said her late grandfather even came out of the mirror and hugged her. Dr Moody remained skeptical. I was convinced that if I saw an apparition, it would be different, he wrote. If I have an experience like that, I thought, I won't be fooled into thinking it is real. So he set out to take a trip of his own into the Middle Realm by trying the chamber himself. The result totally changed my perspective on life. He focused his mind on seeing his maternal grandmother, to whom he had been very close. After more than an hour of gazing into the mirror, nothing happened, and he gave up. Later, he wrote in the book, as I unwound from the experience, I had an encounter that ranks as one of the most life-changing events I have ever experienced. What happened altered my concept of reality almost totally. I was sitting in a room alone when a woman simply walked in. As soon as I saw her, I had a certain sense that she was familiar.' He soon recognized her as his paternal grandmother, who had died some years earlier. What was strange, apart from the fact that a dead woman was standing in his living room, was that the pair had often clashed in life. Dr Moody believes apparition seekers do not necessarily see the person they want to see but, instead, the person they need to see In Black Mirror, technology enables the bereaved to create replicas of their dead loved one The documentary Eternal You delves into the world of startups using AI to create avatars of the deceased She was habitually cranky and negative, he wrote. Yet, as I gazed into the eyes of this apparition, I quickly sensed that the woman who stood before me had been transformed in a very positive way. I felt warmth and love from her. They had a lengthy conversation, he said - possibly as long as two hours - and throughout the experience she appeared completely solid in every respect and not remotely ghostly. He now believes that his grandmother appeared to help heal their broken relationship. My encounter has clarified why it is that apparition seekers do not necessarily see the person whom they have set out to see I believe that the subjects see the person they need to see. And, unlike the horror films that keep some of us awake at nights, Dr Moody is convinced that seeing the dead in this way is not just possible but is a universally positive experience. 'I consulted Dr William Roll, one of the world's leading experts on apparitions of the deceased,' he wrote, 'who informed me that he had never once uncovered a case in which harm had come to anyone from an apparition. 'In fact... he found these experiences to be beneficial in that they alleviate grief or even bring about its resolution.' Of his own 'supernatural' encounter with his grandmother, Dr Moody says: My meeting was in no way eerie or bizarre... this was the most normal and satisfying interaction I have ever had with her. Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones by Raymond Moody is published by Ivy Books A Gen X Aussie has shared his shock at how drastically Bali has changed from a cheap holiday paradise to an Instagram-obsessed hotspot. Craig Lambert, now in his late 50s, told Daily Mail Australia he first touched down on the island in 1988 when he was a young man looking for adventure. Then, palm trees lined modern-day high streets, surfing backpackers roamed the dusty roads, and a singlet cost just 50c. But when Mr Lambert and his wife returned to Ubud this year, the tourists of today just left him and his wife scratching their heads. 'It was my first trip back to Asia in many years, seems like a lot of places are now for TikTokers and Instagram types,' he said. 'There was one lady we saw in Ubud in the huge resort we stayed at who would do laps around the resort wearing full makeup and carrying yoga equipment. 'She never seemed to go do the yoga just walked around taking selfies and wanting to be seen. 'That seem a bit odd to oldies like my partner and I.' Craig Lambert, now in his late 50s, told Daily Mail Australia he first touched down on the island in 1988 when he was a young man looking for adventure (above)... Now the 'vibe' in Bali has drastically changed - the same location is pictured above decades later He said the 'vibe' had changed. The old-world charm of 80s Bali had been replaced by cookie-cutter development you could find anywhere in the world. 'It felt like a real adventure for a young bloke in his 20s. This visit I can see how much Bali has grown to cater for the tourists,' Mr Lambert said. 'The malls could be anywhere in Australia and it's not as cheap as chips anymore. 'The singlet I bought for the photo cost $6, the one in 1988 probably cost 50c. 'There's a lot of men in the stalls now and some can be quite pushy, enough to make the missus and I want to avoid going in. Back in '88 I remember having lots of fun with the stall owners bartering. It was a hoot - this trip not so much.' Mr Lambert said even the beaches had changed. 'There were no places set up with chairs for drinks if I remember correctly,' he said. He shared a 'before and after' picture near the Sari Club Bali Memorial, exposing just how much had changed in the last few decades. Craig Lambert, now in his late 50s, told Daily Mail Australia he first touched down on the island in 1988 when he was a young man looking for adventure Mr Lambert shared a photo from his trip to Bali decades ago - showing a much different landscape to today The photos were shared on Facebook with many social media users lamenting the drastic changes. 'Maybe it is the beautiful sunlight and the greenery in the top photo... but Bali back then had such a positive, happy vibe to it,' one wrote. 'Somehow that got lost along the way, I really miss it.' 'Old Bali had its quiet charm, untouched and raw. Today it's different: busy, built-up,' another woman agreed. 'You haven't changed a bit,' a third quipped. Bali was recently deemed the world's top destination to avoid, with tourism-driven development and well-documented plastic pollution pushing the island to the brink. In the past two decades, the sector has eclipsed the island's other industries, including its declining agriculture sector. Bali has remained the top travel destination for Australians, with 1.3million visiting in 2024. Tourism has bouyed Bali's economic growth in recent years, but many suggest it is causing unsustainable developments and straining resources Australians were put on notice by Balinese officials earlier this year, as many locals have been left upset by the increasing numbers of poorly-behaving tourists. In March, bizarre footage emerged of a tourist being wheeled on a trolley through the streets by security staff with his wrists and ankles tied. 'Drunk foreigner causes chaos at Y Sport Bar, Legian starts hitting people,' the caption to the video shared on the bali.info.official Instagram page said. Legian is a popular tourist area of Denpasar located between the bustling hive of Kuta to the south and Seminyak to the north. Commenters on the clip commended the way security staff handled the situation and said it was 'tough to find the balance between being welcoming as a tourist island and letting tourists walk all over us'. 'Gotta admire the way this was handled,' one said, while another added: 'This kind of tourist we don't need in Bali. Jungle behaviour!' One viewer branded the incident 'Bali Bogan strikes again!' as another posted: 'Looks like they're taking him to a dumpster... Give him another Bintang.' The man's nationality was unclear, but the incident came after Australians were caught up in a brawl at the famous Finns Beach Club in nearby North Kuta earlier this year. Five tourists had a fight with about 15 security staff in that incident. An illegal immigrant who stole a suitcase carrying 250,000 worth of luxury items and jewellery from Jenson Button's wife Brittny has been jailed for two years and four months. Algerian Mourad Aid, 41, swiped Mrs Button's Goyard carry-on, filled with jewellery from her wedding and heirlooms she wanted to pass onto her daughter, on February 13 as they returned from a Valentine's getaway in Paris. Alongside bracelets and rings of hugely sentimental value, the case contained two Kelly bags worth around 70,000. None of these items have been recovered. The criminal - who lingered in the UK after his visa expired - fled with the suitcase while the Formula One driver had his back turned as he helped a chauffeur load a vehicle outside St Pancras International Station in London. Aid pleaded guilty to theft at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 19 February, days after the incident. The Algerian native also pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, following the theft of a silver Rimowa cabin suitcase belonging to James Humphrey Evans on November 24, 2024. Today at Inner London Crown Court, Ms Recorder K Blackwell KC sentenced Aid to a total of two years and four months in prison for the two separate offences, meaning he would be immediately deported after serving his sentence. His sentencing comes shortly after the crime was exclusively revealed by MailOnline - as Button's American wife said she nor her husband had any interest in returning to the UK following the ordeal. Mourad Aid has been jailed after stealing a suitcase containing 250,000 of goods from Jenson Button's wife Brittny Jenson and Brittny pictured in Dubai in 2016 at the Abu Dhabi Formula One 1 Grand Prix A police-issued mugshot of Mourad Aid, who faces deportation upon release from prison The Algerian had also been violating his bail conditions barring him from King's Cross station, on the day he stole Ms Button's suitcase. 'You are 41 years of age a man who came to the UK in 2019 on a six month tourist visa and when it expired you stayed here illegally. You have never applied for asylum, but you never applied for benefit,' the recorder said. 'As far as the court is aware you have never held lawful employment. 'Whilst passing the shortest sentence I can that is commensurate with my public duty, the sentence will result in your automatic deportation once it is served. 'I give you full credit for pleading guilty at the first opportunity. 'You have no convictions in the UK so I treat you as a man of previous good character.' In a victim statement, Mrs Button said Aid had 'stripped away her sense of safety, security and peace of mind.' Referencing, the day of the theft, Richard Sedgwick, prosecuting, said: 'It would appear he was keeping an eye out for travellers coming off the Eurostar.' Brittny's stolen bags which were later listed online following the incident. These listings were later deleted CCTV footage captured Mourad Aid (pictured strolling with Brittny's suitcase). He was later detained by plain clothes officers Aid was arrested four days later by plain clothes officers in Hatton Gardens on February 17, where he told a 'succession of lies', Mr Sedgwick said. In police interviews, Aid claimed to have been in Algeria for a funeral, but later admitted to taking the Goyard bag. He claimed to have given the suitcase to charity. Ms Recorder K Blackwell KC said the Algerian 'flouted' his bail conditions to not enter King's Cross noting he 'went there to commit another crime when (he) saw Mr and Mrs Button.' Referencing how he initially denied stealing Mrs Buttons bag in police interviews, the judge added: 'You proceeded to continue these lies, continuing to attempt to deflect responsibility onto anyone else but yourself.' Aid also pleaded guilty to the handling of stolen goods on November 24, 2024, prior to stealing 250,000 worth of goods from Mrs Button. The court heard how Mr Evans had returned from Paris with his wife to King's Cross station, where they decided to get an Uber at around 9.18pm on November 24 last year. Mr Sedgwick said Aid and another man undertook a 'coordinated effort' to make off with the case, with one speaking to the driver as another removed the bag from the boot and took off. Mr Evans managed to track his case to Euston Square and then to an apartment block in West London, using his iPhone. The former Formula One driver briefly turned his back to his wife's suitcase when the crook swooped in and stole her items Her suitcase also contained sentimental jewellery from both her wedding and the birth of her daughter (Pictured: Brittny Button on May 8, 2024) The court heard Mr Evans managed to obtain CCTV of Aid with the help of a concierge and then handed it over to police. Mr Sedgwick said the flat appeared have been used to store stolen goods, with two laptops, one belonging to Mr Evans, wrapped in foil - a measure that 'stopped items from being tracked and/or wiped'. More mobile phones were found in the fridge and wrapped in foil, the court was also told, along with ten suitcases were found at the flat, as well as 30 pairs of sunglasses. Another man living in the flat was also arrested. Ms Recorder K Blackwell KC added that while Aid didn't control 'the stolen goods processing centre' found by police, he was 'closely connected to it'. The amount stolen from Mr Evans was of an unknown value but the contents of his suitcase included 500 cufflinks. Ms Abbey Robertson, in mitigation, described Aid as a 'cog in a machine', adding that the thief had fallen 'into bad company and made decisions out of character for him as someone with previously good character'. Ms Robertson also said he was 'someone who was easily led', was in a desperate situation regarding his immigration status, and spoke little English. The defence also argued Aid had 'expressed remorse for the offences', adding he came from a 'difficult background' in Algeria, where he left due to concerns for his life which he maintains are still live. It was also heard his brother has been murdered in his home country and Aid had been struggling to come to terms with his grief. Speaking to the Mail last month, Brittny recalled how the theft had robbed her of any zeal to spend time in Britain after Aid had run off with the suitcase, which was packed with sentimental items she wished to pass on to her daughter. 'He had his back on mine, and a guy just came and swooped it. We didn't even see him do it,' she said. 'So they were probably watching us. We had no idea until Jenson went, 'Wait where is your bag' and he raced off trying to find it, but he [the thief] was already gone.' The interior designer burst into tears following the 'traumatising' ordeal which cast a dark cloud over their getaway, as quickly heading to the airport to return to their home in California. The interior designer previously revealed the 'traumatising' ordeal, has left her view of the UK and London marred She hoped to pass the items down to her children revealing to MailOnline that she doesn't have many family heirlooms to give Aid had previously pleaded guilty to theft at Westminster Magistrates Court (Pictured: Jenson and Birttny at the Hope and Homes 'End The Silence' fundraiser in 2018) 'I just started crying, I was a little upset with Jensen because I felt like he kind of dropped the ball a little but its not his fault someone was watching us,' she said: 'He also did get his bag stolen a few months ago in a car park in London. It definitely was shocking that I just didn't think. 'I'm normally pretty cautious when I'm out in public and travelling, but I just didn't think that there were gangs literally just waiting for people and watching.' The mother-of-two will likely never retrieve her stolen items, which where listed online only days after the incident, serving another blow following the California wildfires that threatened their home alongside countless others earlier this year. Recalling the heartbreaking moment, when she saw the bags listed online, she said: 'Unfortunately, I saw the shady looking photos of these guys holding my bags on their lap. '[And] I knew I was probably never getting them back, and who knows how many hands it had touched - at that point I was not really interested. I wasn't going to send anyone to meet with these people. 'I knew they were mine, because one of the Kelly bags was missing a strap, which I had left it in LA.' She added: 'A lot of people assume, 'Your husband bought you those' but actually I bought about half of them and I worked really hard and to have someone come up to me and take them from me - it's just frustrating. 'And I know people are going to say, first world problems, but whether you're getting robbed of something that's not worth a lot of value. If it's sentimental, its sentimental. 'My dad was a police officer, so I was raised not to steal from people. I would rather have less and feel good about myself than steal from people and take what isn't mine.' The interior designer had hoped to pass on the valuable bags onto her daughter, and that she also considered them to be a long-term investment for her children. 'I was planning to pass down to my daughter. It's just crazy,' she said: 'I don't really have many things from my parents.' The theft took place outside St Pancras International Station (pictured: the station and the adjoining St Pancras hotel) The former Playboy model said the ordeal has marred her view of the UK, as she previously revealed London 'doesn't feel the same' as when she started dating the Forumla One driver 10 years ago. Jenson who is believed to be worth around 123million, according to The Sun, met in 2016 after being introduced by friends in Los Angeles. Prior to his relationship with his current wife the F1 star was married to Jessica Michibata. 'I've heard countless stories,' she said: 'When we first started dating we would go to London, and it was such like a nice place to be, and now it just feels very kind of dark and scary. 'My husband and I we really have no interest going back to the UK and it's a shame, because, you know, we will have to go back for family and work 'It just feels so unsafe and doesn't feel how it once was, and its just unfortunate because that's where my children's grandmother and aunts live.' British Transport Police Detective Sergeant Marc Farmer previously labelled Aid's actions 'brazen and opportunistic'. He added: 'It hammers home just how sneaky these sorts of criminals really are and why it's so important to keep one eye on your belongings at all times.' Pheobe Bishop's mum was a close friend of the missing teen's housemate, who is now a key witness in the police hunt for Pheobe after she vanished two weeks ago. Daily Mail Australia can reveal Tanika Bromley was once good mates with Pheobe's mother Kylie Johnson and even worked for her NDIS support company. Kylie is also believed to have been a guest at Bromley's country wedding to her now-former husband Shaun Kraay in 2016. But friends have now revealed the pair fell out, with Ms Johnson making Bromley redundant from her role at Smileys Support Coordination last year. Pheobe then moved in with Bromley and partner James Wood at their Gin Gin property, near Bundaberg in central Queensland, about a month ago, after she moved out of her mother's home in the rural town. Bromley, 33, and Wood, 34, are the last-known people to see the teen before she disappeared on May 15. The couple told detectives they gave Pheobe an early morning lift to Bundaberg Airport for flights to Western Australia where she planned to meet her boyfriend. The housemates told police they dropped the teen at the airport in Bromley's 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback, but no CCTV of her at the airport has been found. Pheobe's boyfriend has since told friends he received a call from her as she was being driven to the airport - but he was unable to hear anything before it cut off. Tanika Bromley (left) is a former employee of Pheobe's mum Kylie Johnson (right) Pheobe Bishop (pictured with her mother Kylie) was last seen on May 15 leaving a home in Gin Gin, Queensland, where she had been living with Tanika Bromley and her partner James Wood He did not realise anything was wrong, and went to the airport to meet her as planned but waited there in vain for hours. Bromley describes herself as a support worker on several online profiles. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Smiley's and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which handles registrations for support workers, for comment. Final posts that Pheobe shared to social media before she went missing suggested she had fallen out with her mother and would not return home. Ms Johnson has made frequent pleas on social media for help finding Pheobe, but she has not commented about Bromley and Wood, or any other specifics of the disappearance, saying last week that she did not want to 'jeopardise the current police investigations'. On Thursday she made yet another appeal, sharing a widely circulated CCTV image, obtained by police, of Bromley's Hyundai. 'Share this poster! Save it to your phone, talk to anyone and everyone in the rural community in Gin Gin and surrounding areas,' she said. 'Someone has seen this car between May 15-May 19. The people we need to show this to are the ones with limited access to social media and or don't have it at all.' Tanika Bromley (pictured on this week reporting to police as part of her bail conditions after she was charged with unrelated firearms offences ) and her partner James Wood are the last-known people to see Pheobe Bishop before she vanished Pheobe Bishop was last seen on May 15 and was reported missing when she failed to board a scheduled flight from Bundaberg on a trip to meet her boyfriend in Perth Texts Pheobe sent to friends before she vanished also indicated she was unhappy living with Bromley and Wood. 'I'm flying the f*** out of here to see my boyfriend,' she told her maternal aunt, Caz Johnson, on April 26 in texts shown on Network Ten. 'If it goes to plan I'm not coming back. I can't do s*** anymore. I need to get out of this hell hole.' Caz Johnson also said that Pheobe had an unsettled childhood, regularly changing schools and having to deal with new stepdads coming in and out of her life. But Pheobe's mother reacted immediately on social media after The Project interview with Caz aired on Wednesday night, saying her sister knew 'nothing' about her daughter. Bromley this week tried to hide her face and ignored questions from reporters as she was seen in public for the first time since Pheobe went missing. She arrived at Gin Gin police station for a check-in as part of her bail conditions for her firearms charges at about 11.20am. Hooded Bromley entered the station through a back entrance, with two police officers appearing to assist her in getting in and out of the station. Missing teen Pheobe Bishop's housemate Tanika Bromley (pictured) faced court charged with firearm offences Pheobe had been living at a property in Gin Gin - which has also been declared a crime scene - with Bromley and Wood before she vanished without a trace Bromley was accompanied by another woman who drove her away in a silver Toyota Hilux. She is under strict bail conditions, after police allegedly discovered a haul of weapons in the Hyundai used to give Pheobe a lift to the airport. On Tuesday, Bundaberg Magistrates Court heard police found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns in the car. The court was told police also found additional ammunition at the Gin Gin property. Bromley was charged with two counts of authority required to possess explosives and one count each of possessing/acquiring restricted items and unlawful possession of weapons. Magistrate John McInnes said Bromley was a victim of domestic violence and not the 'prime mover' in procuring firearms. One of her bail conditions is that she not see Wood. The new charges came just two months after a separate incident where Bromley was accused of having a sawn-off shotgun and a flick knife in the car when she was stopped by police near Emerald, 500km inland from Gin Gin. Police have suspended a search in Good Night Scrub National Park (pictured) Cadaver dogs (pictured) had been brought in by police to search the bushland Queensland Police confirmed on Wednesday night that Wood, 34, was also charged with unrelated weapon offences on Sunday. He is facing one count each of unlawful possession of weapons Category D/H/R (short firearm) and authority to possess explosives, and is due to appear in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on June 13. Police launched an intense search for Pheobe in a Good Night Scrub National Park as part of their investigation, scouring it for several days with cadaver dogs. But on Wednesday, cops confirmed they had suspended the search, sparking community fears that the trail for Pheobe had gone cold. 'Investigations are ongoing and police are continuing to run out several lines of inquiry,' a police spokesperson said. During a search of Bromley's grey Hyundai ix35 - which is at the centre of the investigation into the teen's disappearance - police allegedly found a shortened firearm, ammunition, and two replica handguns 'In addition to investigative work, physical searches will continue as needed and as information is provided. 'The greater Gin Gin area remains the focus of the investigation.' Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that Bromley or Wood were involved in Pheobe's disappearance. It is America's oldest college, is often ranked the best university on the planet, boasts 57 miles of bookcases in its biggest library, and is sheltered by a colossal $53 billion endowment. But Harvard University faces perhaps the greatest threat in its 389-year history, with a US president who's cutting funding and student visas to pressure professors to change their 'woke' ways. President Donald Trump has frozen some $2.6 billion in federal funding, revoked the visas of foreign students, and is poised to axe Harvard's tax-free perks. The Ivy League school in Cambridge is getting its 'ass kicked,' the Republican says. Trump says the college's liberal leaders must stop antisemitism on campus, halt their diversity equity and inclusion schemes, and admit more US-born students. He increasingly appears alarmed by Harvard's opaque links to America's main competitor, China, and a web of financial, scholarly and military work that ultimately connects to its communist leaders. Under the radar, Harvard has trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group, partnered with its military universities, and maybe even helped a forced organ harvesting program, House Republicans say. On Wednesday, Trump urged the school to cut its population of foreign students a fifth of whom are Chinese from nearly 30 percent to 15 percent. The Trump administration wants to know more about Harvard's foreign students, a fifth of whom are from China Then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would 'aggressively revoke' the visas of Chinese students with links to its communist government at all US colleges. 'For too long, Harvard has let the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exploit it,' a White House official told Reuters The school has 'turned a blind eye to vigilante CCP-directed harassment on-campus,' they added. Harvard did not answer our request for comment. The school says it will 'stand firm' against pressure from the administration. China's embassy in Washington said educational cooperation was 'mutually beneficial and should not be stigmatized.' Experts say the administration is undermining the research that makes America a world leader. Here, the Daily Mail takes a look at the ties to China that have hurt Harvard's reputation. JUNKETS FOR KILLERS Harvard hosted a Chinese government paramilitary group accused of rounding up Uyghur people, like the woman protestor in this picture Perhaps the most shocking of Harvard's ties to China are its links to a state-run paramilitary group that's rounded up Uyghurs and other minorities and caged them in China's forced labor camps. Officials from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), have since 2020 attended training sessions on public health run by Harvard's China Health Partnership. The XPCC was that year slapped with US sanctions for its role in alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Still, Harvard kept holding workshops until last year, says the Department of Homeland Security. Elise Stefanik and other Trump loyalists on the Hill this month launched a probe into Harvard's support for the XPCC and other schemes, and detailed their findings in a 14-page letter demanding answers from Harvard. The training sessions 'could have been deployed by XPCC to further repress the Uyghur people,' Stefanik and her colleagues on a House committee wrote. China denies claims of wrongdoing in Xinjiang, but both the Trump and Biden administrations have described Beijing's policies in the western province as 'genocide.' FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING Should Harvard carry out transplant research with a government that harvests organs from dissidents? The lawmakers also queried Harvard's links to organ harvesting in China, where religious minorities have allegedly been executed on a massive scale to collect body parts for transplant. They highlight seven research projects between 2022 and 2024 when Harvard and Chinese researchers cooperated on studies about transplanting kidneys, livers, hearts and other organs. This is worrying, they wrote, because of Beijing's alarming 'record of human rights abuses in harvesting organs from religious and ethnic minorities.' Experts have since 2014 warned of large numbers of jailed dissidents, particularly Muslim Uyghurs, Falun Gong members, and Christians, being executed for their body parts. There are even reports that some victims are alive when their organs are removed. ARMING THE ENEMY Harvard research projects could lead to stealth technology transfers to China's military, it is claimed Harvard also finds itself in the middle of an arms race between two of the world's biggest military powers. The college has taken funding from the Pentagon and spent it on research projects with China-based academics who could well be stealing America's military secrets, the lawmakers wrote. Harvard scholars have teamed up with Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Huazhong University which all undertake defense work for China's military, says the letter. Projects have covered materials for artificial intelligence (AI), polymers and alloys used in warplanes, and microelectronics which could all benefit China's armed forces, it adds. 'Harvard researchers should not be contributing to the military capabilities of a potential adversary, says the letter from the House Select Committee on China. ROGUE SCHOLARS This former Harvard professor was prosecuted in America, and now has a plum job at Tsinghua University Shady dealings between Harvard scholars and Beijing were spotlighted by the case of Charles Lieber, who previously led its department of chemistry and chemical biology. Lieber was in 2021 convicted of lying to federal investigators about his ties to a Chinese-run science recruitment program and dodging taxes on his payouts from a Chinese university. Lieber, an expert in nanotechnology, in April started a cushy job at the state-funded Tsinghua University in Shenzhen. He praised his host city's 'dynamism and innovative spirit.' His conviction was part of a crackdown under the first Trump administration of intellectual property theft by China. The prosecutions were later halted under the Biden administration. Critics said they had led to racial profiling and a culture of fear that chilled scientific collaboration. MUZZLED SPEECH A Chinese exchange student in April 2024 took it upon himself to drag an anti-China protestor out of a Harvard meeting In its pressure campaign against Harvard, the Trump administration asked the school to provide details about its foreign students. When Harvard refused, the Department of Homeland Security revoked its ability to enroll international students. This follows mounting concerns over which Chinese students Harvard is helping admit into the US, and whether they have ties to the communist party. Harvard was rattled in April 2024, when a student activist there was physically ejected from an event by a Chinese exchange student not a member of college security when she heckled a speech by a visiting Chinese diplomat. A video of the event shows the Chinese exchange student dragging the heckler out of the room. Harvard disciplined the student protestor, but not the student who dragged her out of the room. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, at the time slammed 'another example of Harvard's appallingly unequal treatment of protestors based on the speech they support.' 'Harvard is punishing brave students who spoke out against the CCP's human rights abuses while not only letting the student who assaulted them off scot-free but also handing him an apology,' he added. Shocking footage obtained by MailOnline shows Saudi police beating women detained inside secretive facilities where families send 'disobedient' women and girls to be punished. Women seen in the clip were said to be staging a peaceful sit-in protest over poor living conditions at their so-called 'care home' in Khamis Mushair, in Asir Province. Security and police officers at the 'Social Education Home for Girls' are seen rushing in and hitting the woman; some as they lay helpless on the ground. Women were seen being dragged by their hair, beaten with belts and sticks, and subjected to other forms of physical abuse. The video, which caused outrage among rights activists in Saudi Arabia when it first circulated in 2022, re-emerged as former detainees bravely spoke out about their experiences held in 'Dar al-Reaya' facilities across the country. Dr Maryam Aldossari, a Saudi academic at Royal Holloway, University of London, told MailOnline that despite recent reforms, many women remain held in these de facto prisons, unable to leave until a male guardian permits them. She cited examples of women enduring horrifying conditions inside the facilities, some reportedly even moved to take their own lives due to alleged abuse. 'It still exists,' she warned. 'We still know people who are there and God knows when they will leave. 'They completely cut them [off]. There are cameras everywhere. If you misbehave you must go to these small individual rooms, you are separated. 'Anything can be considered as a violation of women's rights.' Dr Aldossari, who left Saudi Arabia in 2008 to study and work in the UK, today works with Al Qst (ALQST), a human rights organisation that documents and promotes human rights in Saudi Arabia. 'What we do hear - it's such a dark time in Saudi Arabia. This is becoming a police state,' she said. 'People are scared.' A man wielding a belt or leather strap rushes appears to attack women who were protesting A woman tries to defend herself as she is attacked on the ground After the harrowing video first emerged, the local authority said it was ordering an investigation into the incident. It did not condemn the security officers for the 'blatant and brutal assault on the women', Al Qst noted, assessing that any investigation would 'lack all credibility'. They described violence at the hands of the authorities as a 'hallmark' of the Saudi prison system. 'In this respect, care homes for young women and girls (even if not officially for female criminals) and juvenile detention centres are no different from prisons, where violence mostly takes the form of ill-treatment, physical assaults and sexual harassment.' A spokesperson for the Saudi government recently denied that the care homes were detention centres, claiming 'women are free to leave at any time' and can leave without permission from a guardian or family member. They also said that 'any allegation of abuse is taken seriously and subject to thorough investigation'. Dr Aldossari dismissed the claims. 'The regime lie and lie and lie and lie,' she said. She maintained that women as young as 13 could be sent to a facility for 'disobedience' and held until a male guardian allows them to leave. Despite recent reforms nominally strengthening women's rights, she said, there is no 'trial' to be sent to a facility that is not officially a prison, there is no process of appeal, and there is no consistent interpretation of the law. Campaigners continue to warn of rights abuses at facilities for women in Saudi Arabia A woman is seen trying to flee before she is thrown to the ground and beaten 'A woman might be legally allowed to apply for her own passport because of the reforms,' she explained, referring to the Saudi Personal Status Law (PSL), codified in 2022 and supplemented this year. 'But her male guardian can still prevent her from travelling by filing a case of disobedience - and they didn't even bother to define what disobedience means,' she said. 'So anyone and every male says "my wife or my daughter" is being disobedient and then all those rights will go.' 'It [has become] like a tool of the Saudi regime to control women,' she added. 'The reason could be anything. You could, for example, run away from your home because you are facing abuse, then you will be arrested by police. 'It could be the accusation of behaviour that doesn't align with norms. For example, being seen with a man who's not your husband. It could be because your family thought you're out of control or even being a feminist.' The care homes have existed since the 1960s, initially presented as a rehabilitative 'shelter' for women accused or convicted of certain crimes. They are said to hold women between the ages of 7 and 30. A Saudi government spokesperson told The Guardian: 'Women are free to leave at any time, whether to attend school, work, or other personal activities, and may exit permanently whenever they choose with no need of approval from a guardian or family member.' But campaigners contest the claims, citing women who have experienced the facilities first-hand. Women seen in the clip were said to be staging a peaceful sit-in protest over poor living conditions at their so-called 'care home' in Khamis Mushair, in Asir Province Video from 2017 purports to show women trying to jump from the roof of a centre in Mecca If a male guardian is not willing or available to release them, the authorities will move them to a similar 'guest' facility - from which they will also require the consent of a male guardian or relative to leave. Dr Aldossari explained that under the 'ridiculous' system in Saudi Arabia, this role is 'inherited'. If a woman's husband or father is unavailable, her son could end up responsible for his mother. In some horrifying cases, women have allegedly been sent to facilities after defying the men sexually abusing them at home. 'She ends up in the situation that the abuser has to release her,' she said. Women have shared harrowing testimonies of being sent to the facilities as punishment for not 'obeying' sexual abuse at home, and then flogged or locked away in isolation until they 'reconcile' with their abusers. Sarah Al-Yahia, campaigning to abolish the homes, told the Guardian that her father had threatened to send her to one of the homes as a child 'if I didn't obey his sexual abuse'. 'If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father you are the one sent to Dar al-Re'aya to protect the family's reputation,' she explained. Women may have to make the impossible choice between enduring abuse at home and the gruelling conditions inside the camps, she explained. Some have reportedly been killed by abusive relatives soon after release. One woman told the Guardian that she was taken to Dar al-Re'aya after complaining about her father and brothers. She was then allegedly abused at the institution and accused of bringing shame upon her family for her social media posts about women's rights. She was held until her father agreed she could be released, despite his being her alleged abuser, the outlet reports. Several cases of suicide or attempted suicide have been reported in recent years While testimonies from the facilities remain underreported, some women have bravely spoken out over the years. In a 2021 ALQST report, women described being made to stand for six hours at a time by way of punishment for disobedience. One former inmate told MBC in 2018 that she and others were made to eat their own vomit after throwing up bad food. 'They let men in to hit us. Sometimes the girls and kids face sexual harassment, but if they talk, no one listens.' In other cases, local media has documented reports of suicide at the centres, blamed on the conditions inside. In 2015, a woman was found to have hanged herself from the ceiling of her room at one of the shelters, writing in a note: 'I decided to die to escape hell.' An inmate at the Makkah facility had said earlier: 'Dying is more merciful than living in the shelter.' A quick skip through the gate behind someone else; forcing the barriers open with a brutal shove; skipping through open gangways at the end of the day without tapping your card; or even buying a cheeky ticket that covers only a fraction of your journey. Fare evasion is a nigh-on endless occurrence on London's transport network, costing Transport for London some 130million each year - or more than 4 every single second. But with the help of technology, a growing team of professional investigators and sheer determination, the transport body is fighting back - and putting fare evaders firmly in their place. TfL has some 500 uniformed 'revenue control officers' - alongside an unspecified number of plainclothes inspectors - across the entire network, covering Underground, Overground, buses, DLR, Trams and the Elizabeth Line. They all have the power to demand proof from passengers that they have a valid ticket, Oyster card or bank card. But in the background, TfL also employs a squadron of professional investigators who work in the background to identify those who slip through the net. They build up comprehensive pictures of where fare dodgers travel and when - even down to how many times a week - and feed the intelligence to officers on the ground who can be ready to catch them in the act. A new Channel 5 series has been lifting the lid on how the capital catches fare dodgers - with ticket inspectors granting rare access to all of the tricks they use to not only identify non-paying passengers, but how they catch them in the act. Are YOU a fare dodger? Email anonymously: jon.brady@mailonline.co.uk TfL has an army of 500 revenue officers and a team of crack investigators tackling fare evasion (pictured: a plainclothes inspector watches fare-paying passengers pass through at Forest Green station) TfL uses information from its top-secret ITAP system to detect and build patterns of fare evasion, along with CCTV that can identify repeat offenders Fare dodging costs TfL some 130million a year, or 4 a second on average (pictured: a sign warning against fare evasion at Forest Green) Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law has followed investigators working for both TfL and South Western Railway (SWR) as they crack down on those unwilling to pay their way for transport. And where there are fare evasions on a massive scale - as identified by CCTV, human intelligence and ITAP, TfL's all-seeing fare evasion detection system - there are fare inspectors ready to take them to ask. Across episodes shown to date - with more to come - ticket dodgers have been tracked as owing anywhere up to five figures in unpaid fares dating back months or even years. What happens to fare dodgers on TfL? Anyone who fails to tap in and out using contactless, an Oyster card or a valid pass such as a Freedom Pass they are entitled to faces a fine. The standard fine for travelling without a valid ticket or pass is 100, reduced to 50 if paid within 21 days. However, repeat offenders can expect far harsher punishments. TfL identifies repeat offenders using a mixture of intelligence reports, CCTV and its own fare evasion detection tool known as ITAP. Once identified, fare evaders can expect to be confronted by revenue protection officers and interviewed. They may also face court proceedings through the Single Justice Procedure process or via postal requisition. If the evasion leads to prosecution, offenders can face a fine of 1,000 as well as having to pay compensation for the fares evaded. Advertisement The series has even exposed some of the lesser known tricks that fraudulent travellers have used in order to pay either nothing, or as little as possible. Some were using bank cards with tiny balances to tap in, knowing they couldn't pay the fare, or even buying tickets covering the last stop on their journeys despite travelling from further out. But little gets past the capital's elite teams of revenue officers, who have brought fare evasion down from 3.8 per cent to 3.4 in the space of a single year - a fraction of the 13 per cent rate on New York's subways. Sometimes the stings don't pay off - as in one episode set to be broadcast Monday June 2, where TfL revenue officers, on good intelligence, wait at Forest Green station on the Elizabeth Line to catch a man who regularly passes through without paying. Identified in CCTV by his black and white letterman jacket, the plainclothes inspectors watch and wait, confident he will appear - but find themselves plagued by false alarms. 'You've just got to look for the little nuances about someone,' one of the inspectors says. 'You get a passion for it and you just want to catch them. I think they think it's a victimless crime, to be fair.' They ultimately leave empty handed - but remain upbeat he will appear. The other inspector says: 'You can't let that he's not turning up, when he usually turns up, get to you. 'The habits in which people feel like they can get away with it over and over again is almost their demise because they're going to do it again and again and again and think they can get away with it.' As they leave the station, he chirps: 'There's always next time.' For TfL's army of enforcement officers, that 'next time' arrives an average of once a day across the city, with 360 evaders prosecuted last year. And the Channel 5 series has shown in satisfying detail what happens when they finally get their comeuppance. At Surrey Quays - an Overground station on the Windrush line - TfL investigators stopped a man who had been using a bank card with no balance to tap in and out. TfL systems will log that a bank card is valid when it is used to tap in, but cannot verify whether it has any balance until the end of the business day when total fares are calculated and payment is taken. A TfL investigator speaks to a man who owed more than 3,500 in unpaid ticket costs after avoiding charges for over a year The unsuspecting man was snared on his way to work, with investigators able to trace his usual journey and identify him on CCTV Investigators handed the man this document showing that he has accumulated more than 3,500 in unpaid charges over more than 500 journeys So while the card had no balance, the gates would recognise the card as valid and open - but couldn't take any money. In the first episode of the series, plainclothes inspectors identifiable only by their body-worn cameras as being on official business stop the man as he taps out at Surrey Quays with the dodgy card. He tries to tell inspectors: 'It's not mine - I found it.' The inspectors, using data from their systems, determined that he had been using the card almost daily for a year. After an interview, he signs a document admitting he had evaded fares on more than 500 journeys, totalling 3,573, or around 7 at a time. Fare evaders will use every trick in the book to avoid paying their way - even exploiting their relatives' benefits for their own personal gain. An earlier episode of the series shows a trio of TfL investigators called Tracey, Sarah and Dan cornering a man who had abused his female relative's Freedom Pass more than 200 times. The pass grants free travel across the network to to Londoners over the age of 66, and to those with certain disabilities or who are told by the DVLA they cannot drive. But the fare dodger was neither of those - and was brought down with the ITAP system, which linked the card to the journeys he was taking on a regular basis to build up a clear picture of his movements. Tracey, Sarah and Dan were then primed to catch him in the act at Preston Road station on the Metropolitan Line - even as he tried to shove past one of the inspectors and denied he had the pass as he tucked it into his pocket. The man, who said he had travelled from Moorgate, told the investigators: 'Which pass? I don't have any pass? Only my card.' An investigator then told him: 'Come on, stop messing around, we've had this already.' The man says: 'I'm not messing.' Another added: 'We know you have it because when you came up, I stopped you and I approached you, and you had a yellow wallet on it.' The third investigator then says: 'OK, game's up, show the pass, we know who it belongs to. We've done an investigation on you, we know you've got the pass on you.' The vast majority of TfL travellers pay their way - but thousands continue trying to evade fares every year despite the crackdown (file photo of people on the Underground) Fare dodgers will try several means to skip paying - from tailgating to even forcing their way through barriers Two investigators approach a fare evader (right, face blurred) at Preston Road Underground station One of the investigators points to the pass in the man's pocket after apprehending him An investigator tells the man that the 'game's up' while speaking to him at Preston Road TfL officers then tell him his failure to cooperate would lead to the case being passed to the British Transport Police as fraud. The case was ultimately passed to prosecutors to claw back more than 1,000 of unpaid fares. On the Transport for London network, the ITAP (Irregular Travel Analysis Platform) system sits at the heart of all fare evasion probes. Exactly how it works is a secret, kept under wraps by TfL on the basis that revealing its workings could encourage fare evasion. But what we do know is that it analyses the patterns of fare dodging to build up comprehensive pictures of where and when suspects are travelling. It tracks Oyster and contactless payment cards - processed as anonymous tokens to safeguard financial information - as well as 'gateline data', a phrase that suggests it can detect when people are tailgating through larger gates that stay open longer. Alongside other events such as gates being forced open, ITAP can help investigators build a comprehensive picture of when fraudsters travel - so they can be ready to pounce at the right time. The system is working: as well as bringing down total fare evasion, TfL has clawed back 400,000 of unpaid fares in the last year alone after taking 360 persistent offenders to court. And there are more advancements to come. Last year, MailOnline reported on how TfL ran a 'smart station' trial at Willesden Green that saw its CCTV feeds examined by artificial intelligence (AI) software to spot fare evaders. The system was trained to spot fare dodgers who pushed or tailgated through ticket barriers - and would flag them to a human operator who could then build up a picture of their movements to pass to enforcement officers. It could also spot other signs of trouble faster than a human being, trained to spot knives, people on the tracks, or even passengers who were sitting at the platform for an inordinate amount of time. These safety checks were being trialled at Custom House station in January this year. TfL has not said whether AI is yet being used to spot fare evasion on a wider basis following the Willesden Green trial. TfL isn't the only firm having to tackle fare evasion. The Channel 5 show has also been following South Western Railway workers as they confront fare dodgers (pictured) In one episode of Fare Dodgers, an SWR passenger is spoken to by investigators at Waterloo after only buying a ticket from Vauxhall despite travelling from further out Channel 5's Fare Dodgers, now in its second series, has also been following inspectors tackling fare evasion on the South Western Railway (SWR) network, which operates from the London Waterloo terminus. Like TfL, it appears to be using data to spot when passengers aren't paying - but its work is complicated by the fact that passengers will use a combination of paper tickets, e-tickets, season passes and Oyster and contactless tap-ons to travel. Nevertheless, the series shows how investigators always get their man (or woman) - sometimes netting huge wins. One tricky customer at London Waterloo was snared engaging in 'short faring' - after travelling from far outside the capital but only buying tickets at Vauxhall, the last stop before the end of the line. He had also been buying 'doughnut tickets' - short tickets covering the first and last stations of his journey, leaving a 'hole' in the middle for which he hadn't paid. Nevertheless, he was able to pass through the barriers. As if his evasion wasn't brazen enough, he had been using a 16-17 Saver Railcard to take 50 per cent off the price. SWR launched an eight-week probe to establish his movements and apprehended him exactly where they expected him to be, slapping him with 19,500 of unpaid fares - even as he tried to explain away his crime. Asked where he travelled from the man said in remarks censored by the broadcaster: 'Er, from (redacted) today, well (redacted) this morning, sorry.' The investigator then said: 'Why do you have a Vauxhall to Waterloo ticket?' The man responded: 'Er, just because I didn't manage to get one in time, so just one to get through the barrier.' Around 4.5 per cent of SWR journeys are made without a valid ticket, and unpaid fares cost the operator around 40million a year. Investigators recovered 3.4million in 2024. TfL station staff are told under no circumstances to put themselves at risk when they see fare evasion, instead advised to build up a log of incidents to pass to professional enforcers. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick was criticised for a video 'stunt' in which he confronted fare dodgers The video was filmed at Stratford station without the permission of TfL, and has been criticised by rail unions But some, including shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, have tried taking the law into their own hands, as he filmed a video showing him confronting fare dodgers. One of the alleged fare dodgers told him to 'f*** off'. Mr Jenrick was criticised for the 'vigilante' stunt, which transport union the TSSA labelled 'inappropriate' and 'potentially dangerous for passengers, staff and the individual involved'. 'Fare evasion is a serious issue, but it must be tackled with professional, trained enforcement, not MPs trying to score points or social media clout on their daily commute,' it said. TfL has also confirmed Mr Jenrick did not have permission to film the video, which was shot at Stratford Station. Public opinion suggests that those who dodge rail fares aren't currying favour with their fellow travellers. A recent YouGov poll found that 76 per cent of Brits say fare dodgers are 'exploiting the system, and it's not fair to paying passengers'. Thinking of slinking under a ticket barrier? With enforcement teams, reams of data and even the public against you, it would be best to think again. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's extravagant Italian wedding is still weeks away - yet it's already rocking the boat in Venice, where furious locals say their home is being 'held hostage' by the 'richest and most dangerous man in the world.' The couple's highly-anticipated nuptials are set to take place the weekend of June 24 in the Floating City, much to the frustration of Venetians who have accused the billionaire of turning their home into a 'playground' for the ultra-wealthy - and are now planning protests to push back. The Amazon founder, 61, is reportedly taking over the island of San Giorgio Maggiore for the wedding day itself, booking up luxury hotels and many water taxis in Venice. A-list celebrities, politicians, and business leaders are expected to attend, which will mean beefed-up security, closed streets and airspace, and a strong police presence, just as Venice's peak tourist season gets underway. With an eye-popping price tag of $10million and a star-studded guest list that includes the Kardashians, actress Eva Longoria, and pop star Katy Perry - who all attended Sanchez's bachelorette party in Paris earlier this month - the wedding promises to opulence on overdrive. While President Donald Trump isn't expected to make an appearance, his children Ivanka and Don Jr are set to attend with their respective partners, husband Jared Kushner and new girlfriend Bettina Anderson. Guests are likely to land at nearby airports in gas-guzzling private planes - Bezos owns three Gulfstream jets - although the 61-year-old can't dock his $500million superyacht Koru as it's too big to anchor anywhere close to Venice. The massive carbon footprint of Bezos and his loaded guests will irk locals further, as Venice is blighted with polluted canals and mass tourism is destroying the fragile lagoon the city sits in. Lauren Sanchez, 55, and Jeff Bezos, 61, will tie the knot at a star studded wedding in Venice next month, but not without sparking a storm of protests from locals. They are pictured at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March Protesters from Laboratorio Occupato Morion in Venice planned a demonstration for Friday, sharing a flyer with an image of Bezos' head atop a rocket alongside the slogan: 'No space for Bezos, No space for oligarchs!' A star-studded guest list is likely to bring in beefed-up security, closed streets and airspace, and a strong police presence, just as Venice's peak tourist season gets underway The Laboratorio Occupato Morion - a self-described 'anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist and trans-feminist political space' - is already planning on hosting a protest event in the city on Friday at its social center, a short walk from the historic St. Mark's Square. The group has already begun advertising the protest online - sharing a flyer with an image of Bezos' head atop a rocket alongside the slogan: 'No space for Bezos, No space for oligarchs!' 'Jeff Bezos thinks he can buy the entire city - let's throw him a party!' the flyer reads, alongside details of Friday's demonstration. A lengthy adjoining caption reads : 'Venice is transformed into yet another playground for billionaires, while those who live it every day are left with discomfort, exclusion and precariousness.' It further adds: 'From the Security Decree, to the right to work and home, to the refusal of a city being shut down and mercified to celebrate the wedding of one of the most influential, richest and most dangerous men on the planet. 'There's no room for oligarchs, their private parties and their dirty money. 'See you on Friday 30th of May at Morion to exchange ideas, reflections, discuss and organize together about the hospitality we want to reserve for those who think they can make this city and the whole world what they want.' Laboratorio Occupato Morion spokesperson Alice Bazzoli told DailyMail.com that the event is just the start and will culminate in a 'big demonstration' on the actual wedding day. The bride and groom will reportedly take over the island of San Giorgio Maggiore for the wedding day itself, fully booking up five luxury hotels and every water taxi in Venice Lauren and the Amazon founder went public with their relationship in 2019. The pair got engaged in 2023, after Jeff popped the question on board his $500million superyacht Sanchez's lavish bachelorette took place earlier this month in Paris, where she was joined by gal pals Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Eva Longoria, and others 'Tomorrow will mark the first public assembly, an open call to citizens, grassroots movements, and associations to organize demonstrations during Jeff Bezos' stay in Venice for his luxurious wedding,' she said. 'We plan to have lots of different small actions in the week before the wedding and to converge in a big demonstration on the day of the wedding. 'During this period, the city will be held hostage by one of the world's richest men, becoming heavily militarized and deprived of its spaces and services. Bezos has rented an entire island, numerous hotels, taxis, and services to host his party and guests. 'This will exacerbate the already problematic movement around the city, particularly with the onset of the tourist season. 'Some areas will be inaccessible or heavily controlled, while the influx of tourists, journalists, wedding staff, and police will further strain the city. 'We cannot accept the presence of such a character in our city, which has a strong anti-fascist tradition, and rejects oligarchs who support authoritarian governments, such as Trump's USA. 'Bezos embodies what this city and global movements have been fighting against for decades - a financial and technological oligarchy that exploits workers, the planet, and controls entire territories and populations.' The group is already furious with the city's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, who is under investigation for corruption for multi-million euro kickbacks from favored developers, which has resulted in one top official going to jail. The organization is a self-described 'anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist and trans-feminist political space' (pictured protesting against large cruise ships in Venice Lagoon) The group recently held a protest in Venice after the government approved a new Security Bill (No ddl Sicurezza), which will criminalize any kind of peaceful protest and demonstration Laboratorio Occupato Morion spokesperson Alice Bazzoli (pictured) told DailyMail.com that Friday's protest will culminate in a 'big demonstration' on the actual wedding day Last month, Brugnaro confirmed the Bezos wedding would be in Venice, adding: 'We are mutually working and supporting the organizers, to ensure that the event will be absolutely respectful of the fragility and uniqueness of the city.' But Bazzoli says Brugnaro's words are hot air - and that he's sold the city out to Bezos. She adds: 'We aim to create a space for discussion and action, which we feel is urgently needed. 'Everyone in Venice, from locals to entrepreneurs, university students, and families, is discussing the event, and outrage is widespread, particularly towards our administration, led by Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who is currently on trial for corruption. 'He has sold parts of the city to investors linked to his private interests, just as he did with Bezos.' A mother battling an alcohol addiction died in 107 degree Las Vegas heat after being discharged from a treatment center, her family has claimed. Melissa Gallia, 50, died of environmental heat stress in July last year, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court on Tuesday. The mother-of-two checked herself into Desert Hope Treatment Center seeking help with alcoholism, but was transferred to nearby Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center after suffering from hallucinations. But doctors at the hospital claimed she was exhibiting 'drug-seeking behavior' and discharged her to her home, according to a complaint obtained by Daily Mail. Gallia was found dead in a parking lot near Sunrise Hospital lot just hours after her release, with her husband Bart alleging he was not made privy of the emergency room visit until after she had died. Her family alleges Gallia 'died alone' in the parking lot because of the 'outrageous, willful, wanton, reckless and malicious' actions of staff at both facilities. The family's attorney, in a statement to Daily Mail, claimed, 'Melissa would not have died in the heat of Las Vegas' had it not been for the alleged, 'failure of medical professionals' and 'administrative failures' by both Desert Hope and Sunrise Hospital. Sunrise Hospital, which declined to comment on the case citing 'pending litigation', told Daily Mail it is, 'always sensitive to situations involving patients and remain sympathetic to the details that have been made public'. Melissa Gallia, 50, (pictured) died of environmental heat stress on July 1, 2024 after allegedly being negligently discharged from hospital, according to wrongful death lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court on Tuesday The mother-of-two checked herself into Desert Hope Treatment Center on June 30 seeking help with alcoholism, but was transferred to nearby Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center after suffering from hallucinations. Her husband Bart (pictured with Gallia) had not been made privy to her whereabouts despite her authorizing the facilities to contact him, the complaint alleges Gallia developed a problem with alcohol after the death of her mother and went to Dessert Hope seeking help just before 10pm on June 29, the complaint states. The facility collected her personal effects, including her ID, and she allegedly signed paperwork authorizing the facility to discuss her medical information with her husband, father and Sunrise Hospital. She was administered several medications shortly after her admission and again the next morning, with her case manager contacting Bart just after 8am to offer an update on her condition, the lawsuit states. But her symptoms seemingly worsened and staff continued to administer more drugs throughout the day, according to the complaint. By 11pm on June 30, Gallia reported that she was 'seeing things moving' and her doctor ordered another dose of medication. Her condition did not improve, with Gallia reporting high levels of anxiety around 3am, and 'worsening visual hallucinations' and feeling 'restless' about two hours later. Staff called 911 and Gallia was transported to the emergency room. She arrived at Sunrise Hospital on July 1 at 5:54am, but was not admitted until 11:06am, the complaint alleges. She was discharged less than 30 minutes after being seen with the attending physician noting, Gallia stated, 'she has urinary infection' and that she was seen at an 'outside facility but not prescribed antibiotics'. The notes also stated that she had 'drug seeking behavior' and was 'discharged to home', according to the complaint. Gallia was found 'lying on the ground' and 'unresponsive' in a parking lot near Sunrise Hospital (file photo). She was pronounced dead at 6:25pm on July 1 Her family alleges Gallia 'died alone' in the parking lot because of the 'outrageous, willful, wanton, reckless and malicious' actions of staff at both facilities. Pictured: Desert Hope Treatment Center in Las Vegas, Nevada Surveillance camera footage from a nearby business captured Gallia 'alone' and 'stumbling' through a parking lot around 2:21pm. She sat in a landscaped area and then, just before 3pm, was seen lying in a parking spot, the complaint states. An employee found her 'lying on the ground' and 'unresponsive' about an hour later and called emergency services. She was pronounced dead at 6:25pm. The Clark County Coroner conducted an autopsy and determined that Gallia died of environmental heat stress. According to the lawsuit, Bart was not informed that his wife had been transferred to the hospital or discharged until he received a call from a Desert Hope nurse on July 2 at 3:28am asking him where Gallia was. He rushed to Sunrise Hospital seeking information, but was 'provided conflicting answers from staff', the filing states. Bart says he only received confirmation of his wife's whereabouts later that day after getting a call from an investigator at the coroner's office, who advised him that she had died. The lawsuit also included sworn expert testimony from two medical professionals who identified multiple 'breaches in the standard of care', which they allege 'represented an utter disregard for the life and safety of Melissa'. Citing failures in properly documenting Gallia's case, as well as the lack of notifying her family of changes in her care, the experts alleged 'neglect' on behalf of the facilities, with one saying: 'In all my years of practice I have never seen so many missed opportunities to provide proper care.' Bart Gallia (pictured with his wife Melissa) said he was notified of his wife's death on July 2 by an investigator at the Clark County Coroner's Office The wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Gallia's family attorney Robert Murdock told Daily Mail in a statement: 'The matter involves the failure of medical professionals as well as administrative failures by the entities involved, which we believe allowed and caused the death of Melissa. 'At the end of the day, had Desert Hope simply picked up the phone and called Melissa's husband Bart, or, had Sunrise Hospital simply picked up the phone and called Melissa's husband Bart, Melissa would not have died in the heat of Las Vegas.' Daily Mail approached Desert Hope Treatment Center for comment, but did not receive a response. Harvard President Alan Garber received a hero's welcome at the university's commencement ceremony on Thursday, as he congratulated graduating students from 'around the world,' repeating the phrase 'around the world,' for emphasis. Cute. But this is no time to antagonize. After months of escalating back-and-forth between the White House and the Cambridge institution over the school's failure to responsibly police runaway progressive activism and antisemitism on campus, Donald Trump seems determined to bring the university to its knees. Last week, the White House sought to block Harvard from enrolling any new foreign students of any nation and even threatened to force current international students to transfer elsewhere. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further, vowing to work 'aggressively' to revoke the visas of some of the roughly 275,000 Chinese students studying in the US, if they're determined to present a threat to national security. Harvard is fighting the ban on foreign students in the courts but if the new rules are enacted it wouldn't only be devastating to the university (more than a quarter of the nearly 25,000-strong student body is foreign), it would be disastrous for America. Few are more clear-eyed than I am about the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to the United States. If foreigners are deemed to be a threat, they should be barred from entering the country and if they're already here, their visa should be revoked. But I am also a Harvard Business School executive fellow and I've had the honor of teaching entrepreneurship to many of Harvard's international students. The young scholars that I've met love America. They want to live here, start families, build businesses and contribute to the largest economy on Earth. Harvard President Alan Garber received a hero's welcome at the university's commencement ceremony on Thursday, as he congratulated graduating students from 'around the world,' repeating the phrase 'around the world,' for emphasis. The ban on foreign students is now being fought in the courts but if the new rules are enacted it wouldn't only be devastating to Harvard (more than a quarter of the nearly 25,000-strong student body is foreign), it would be disastrous for the US. (Pictured: Recent grads at Harvard). Moving to the United States and achieving financial independence is the essence of the American Dream. Not only is kicking these students out of the country senseless, but it is deeply dispiriting. And this situation is deteriorating by the day. On Tuesday, the administration said it would seek to cancel an estimated $100 million in federal government contracts with Harvard, after freezing $3.2 billion in grants and agreements. Harvard attracts the sharpest researchers from around the world. But if you were looking for a position in the science, engineering or medical field and watching the White House attempt to gut Harvard of its federal funding, wouldn't you go elsewhere? Perhaps even stay in your home country? These researchers are tomorrow's inventors. And anything done to unnecessarily derail their work will has devastating outcomes for decades to come. Finally, I'm also the proud parent of a son who has been accepted to Harvard, and I selfishly want him to have the best education experience that the school has to offer. And, in my opinion, that is an educational environment seeded by the brightest cohort of classmates from around the world. I'm not on the board of Harvard but I have urged its members to call the White House because they're going about this all wrong. For a group of smart people, they sure don't seem to understand how Trump operates. They seem to think that Harvard can win a fight against Trump in the courtroom, but they're losing the public relations battle today and they're trashing Harvard's brand in the process. Just this week, Trump floated redirecting $3 billion in grant money for Harvard to trade schools across the US. That's a very popular thing to say and I'd assume that a majority of Americans, Republican and Democrat, would agree with it. If these - I believe misguided - ideas take hold, the entire Ivy League may face a fundamental restructuring of the US educational system. Harvard attracts the sharpest researchers from around the world. But if you were looking for a position in the science, engineering or medical field and watching the White House try to gut Harvard of its federal funding, wouldn't you go elsewhere? (Pictured: Protestors at Harvard). Just this week, Trump floated redirecting $3 billion in grant money for Harvard to trade schools across the US. That's a very popular things to say and I'd assume that a majority of Americans, Republican and Democrat, would agree with it. Harvard needs to de-escalate now and I know how it can be done. For in the end, Trump is a transactional person. President Garber should go to the White House for a one-on-one with the president and propose a vetting process for foreign students to be designed with the administration. If prospective students willingly submit to a more stringent screening process prior to admittance and they graduate in good standing, then they'd receive a golden visa to stay in America, start a family, build a business and help create jobs, because that's what we should do. This program would then be applied at every single American educational institution that brings in foreign students. International talent could continue following into America, bolstering the economy and seeding it with new ideas, and the government could be assured that foreign adversaries are not infiltrating the country. It's an opportunity that Harvard must seize. When the President of the United States goes to war with the greatest exemplar of the American Dream, something has gone grievously wrong. Let's make a deal. Todd Chrisley is "happy to be home" following his release from prison. Todd Chrisley and his wife Julie Chrisley have been released from prison The Chrisley Knows Best star and his wife Julie were jailed in 2023 after being found guilty of 12 counts of tax evasion and fraud with Todd, 54, sentenced to 12 years behind bars and Julie, 50, ordered to serve seven - but they were freed on Wednesday (28.05.25) after being granted a pardon by US President Donald Trump and Todd has now shared his happiness about his release. In clips captured by his daughter Savannah Chrisley - which she posted on her social media pages - the pair are seen heading out on a shopping trip, with Todd pulling a bag over his head in a bid to avoid being photographed. In one of the videos, Todd revealed his wife Julie did not come shopping because she's "hiding" at home, adding: "She's smarter than I am." Todd also declared: "I'm so happy to be home. I'm going to start my skincare routine tomorrow." It came after Savannah shared a picture of her parent's legs showing the couple together again after a long spell of separation while they were in prison. She captioned the snap: "Reunited and it feels so good!" Trump called two of the couple's children - Savannah and Grayson Chrisley - earlier this week to tell them about his intention to pardon their parents. In the call, he told them: "Its a terrible thing, but its a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean. "Well try getting it done tomorrow, so give them - I dont know them - but give them my regards and wish them well. Wish them a good life." Grayson told him: "Mr. President, I just want to say thank you for bringing my parents back." White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement: "[President Trump is] always pleased to give well-deserving Americans a second chance, especially those who have been unfairly targeted and overly prosecuted by an unjust justice system. "President Trump called Savannah and her brother from the Oval Office to personally inform them that he would be pardoning their parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, whose sentences were far too harsh." The boss of mining giant Woodside has slammed young Australians, claiming they are hypocrites because they oppose fossil fuel projects but embrace Shein and Temu. Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill said the retailers were wildly popular with Gen Z 'without any sort of recognition of the energy and carbon impact of their actions' when she spoke at the Australian Energy Producers Conference in Brisbane this week. On Wednesday, Woodside was given the greenlight by the federal government to keep operating its massive gas processing plant in WA's Karratha region until 2070. 'Most people hit a switch and expect the lights to come on,' Ms O'Neill said. 'It's been a fascinating journey to watch the discussion, particularly amongst young people who have this very ideological, almost zealous view of, you know, fossil fuels bad, renewables good. 'They are happily plugging in their devices and ordering things from Shein and Temu having, you know, one little thing shipped to their house without any sort of recognition of the energy and carbon impact of their actions. 'So that human impact and the consumer's role in driving energy demand and emissions absolutely is a missing space in the conversation.' Ms O'Neill earned $7.45million in reported pay in 2023 as the CEO of Woodside. Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill claimed young people were hypocritical by rallying against fossil fuels but embracing brands like Temu and Shein The Chinese online retail giants are part of the fast fashion industry that is estimated to contribute about 10 per cent of global CO2 emissions New Greens leader Larissa Waters said it was 'laughable' the CEO of a fossil fuel company was pointing the finger at young people over global warming. 'To claim with a straight face that the climate crisis is the fault of young people shopping online for goods they can afford in a cost-of-living crisis - you can't be the head of a massive dirty gas company and point the finger at other people about the climate crisis,' Waters told ABC. 'We've seen this time and time again when fossil fuel companies feel threatened, they try to shift the blame back onto the individual and distract us from the fact that they have the power to end the climate crisis.' Woodside's gas - most of which is exported overseas - produced 74million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2024, according to company documents. Shein - which was founded in China in 2008 and has grown to become the largest fashion retailer in the world - emitted 16.7million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2023 via manufacturing, online business and shipping, according to its sustainability report. Yale Climate Connections, associated with Yale University, noted this is on par with the annual emissions from four coal power plants. Fellow Chinese online retailer Temu doesn't publicly disclose its emissions output but is one of the major players in the fast fashion industry which is the second largest industrial polluter on the planet, contributing about 10 per cent of global emissions. Both companies use economies of scale and exploit the 'de minimis' tax loophole -where small shipments avoid tariffs - to send millions of packages to consumers across the globe each day at incredibly cheap prices. Environment minister Murray Watt has extended Woodside lease to the 2070s (pictured is the entrance to Woodside Petroleum's Pluto development) While Woodside scored a win with its lease extension in Karratha it still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official. But after years of delay, the decision by new environment minister and Queensland senator Murray Watt represents an endorsement of the sector by the Labor government. Ms O'Neill said the conversation in Australia had evolved to recognise the role of gas in smoothing out the energy transition. 'The renewables rollout is not going as fast as had initially been anticipated, and we need to make sure that we're tackling those cost-of-living pressures that were such an important issue at the most recent election,' she told reporters. 'Increased supply of natural gas is part of the solution to help bring those power prices down.' Saul Kavonic, an energy expert with advisory firm MST Marquee, said there was hope within the gas industry that the poor performance of the Greens in the election would allow the government to take a more investment-friendly approach. 'But the truth is, the industry is waiting to see if actions follow words,' Mr Kavonic told Sky News. 'Overall, the investment landscape in Australia is still seen as quite challenging, particularly compared to alternatives that investors can invest in, places like Texas and Louisiana in the United States.' The site features 40,000-year-old rock art (pictured) which is eroding due to acidic emissions travelling in the air from nearby industrial sites, Indigenous elders claim Replacing former environment minister Tanya Plibersek, who was vulnerable to the Greens in her inner-city Sydney electorate, with Senator Watt had been a 'massive improvement for the approvals landscape'. Legal challenges could still jeopardise the project, which Woodside says contributes more than 2000 direct jobs and has paid more than $40 billion in taxes over the past four decades. Mardathoonera woman Raelene Cooper launched a last-minute legal bid to stop the project in the Federal Court, and indicated she would continue her fight following Senator Watt's decision. It came just hours after the United Nations said industrial development at Karratha threatened nearby Aboriginal rock art, likely sinking Australia's attempts to secure heritage listing for the carvings if the extension goes ahead. Ms O'Neill said Woodside had worked closely with traditional custodians for more than 40 years. 'Whilst we haven't always gotten it right, we have very strong working relationships now, and we support the World Heritage listing, and we believe industry and heritage can coexist,' she said. The existing gas fields that feed the plant will run out in the 2030s, so Woodside is hoping to tap into the nearby Browse Basin, which could provide Karratha with decades more gas through an undersea pipeline. Ms O'Neill said the North West Shelf extension would still be worth it without Browse, because it also processes gas from other shippers, but Browse would be particularly important for domestic energy security beyond the 2030s. 'So we will continue to work with the states, the EPA and the Commonwealth department of environment on those Browse approvals,' she said. But the massive gas field has also become a target for environmental activists, who claim it would produce 1.6 gigatons of carbon emissions over its 50 year project life. Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O'Shanassy vowed to keep fighting the proposal. 'ACF and many others will continue to vigorously oppose the expansion of the gas industry, including the exploitation of the Browse climate bomb gas field at Scott Reef,' she said. Independent MP Kate Chaney, who represents the WA seat of Curtin, said she had heard from her constituents on the Woodside project more than on any other issue. 'People are deeply concerned about the North West Shelf going ahead and gas expansion. It's overly simplistic to think Western Australia has one view,' she told ABC TV. 'There are people who work in the gas industry who recognise we need to have a transition, there's so much potential for WA through renewables and green industry, and we need to shift our focus to that.' President Donald Trump heads to Pittsburgh on Friday to tout a steel deal that he says will bring unprecedented job growth in the industry to Pennsylvania. Trump has boasted about a 'planned partnership' between the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and Japan-based Nippon Steel, who originally had wanted to acquire the American firm. 'This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'The bulk of that Investment will occur in the next 14 months. This is the largest Investment in the History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.' While Trump initially said he'd hold a 'BIG rally' Friday in Pittsburgh, he's now delivering remarks at the Irvin Works, a U.S. Steel plant located outside the city limits, hugging the Monongahela River in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who live steps away from U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson plant in Braddock, initially applauded to deal in an X post on the heels of Trump's announcement. 'Vowed to jam that up almost a year and a half ago and we did. The original deal was a death sentence for Mon Valley steel. Nippon coughed up an extra $14B. This is why we fight for the union way of life, and I will continue to support @steelworkers no matter the cause,' Fetterman posted, tagging the United Steelworkers in the post. But it's the United Steelworkers who've remained the most skeptical of the deal. A spokesperson for the USW told the Daily Mail that the union 'does not currently plan to participate in any of the events on Friday.' President Donald Trump will visit the Pittsburgh area later Friday to tout a steel deal that doesn't currently have the backing of the United Steelworkers, the labor union also headquartered in Pittsburgh While President Donald Trump initially touted a 'BIG rally,' he'll now deliver remarks at U.S. Steel's Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, located just outside of Pittsburgh hugging the Monongahela River Late Wednesday, a letter from USW President David McCall and Mike Millsap, the chairman of the negotiating committee, went out to the membership and noted that the Pittsburgh-headquartered union wasn't 'involved in the closed-door discussions.' 'We also cannot confirm how much of the publicly claimed $14 billion in proposed investment would be directed to our union-represented plants, or how much of that sum would go toward genuinely new capital improvements as opposed to routine repair and maintenance,' they said. The union heads warned that Nippon didn't dispute that $4 billion of the investment would go toward 'greenfield operations' - new business - 'and our members already know that our plants are not "greenfields," and generally that means non-union.' The three plants in the Mon Valley are those in Braddock, West Mifflin, where Trump will speak, and the Clairton Mill Works in Clairton. 'Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel's facilities if it owned the company outright. We've seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position,' McCall and Millsap also said. Republican Sen. Dave McCormick on Tuesday attempted to fill in some of the blanks, describing the deal as 'an investment' and called Nippon's role 'partial ownership, but it will be controlled by the U.S.' U.S. Steel's board will remain U.S. citizens, as will key management positions, including the company's CEO. McCormick also said that the U.S. government would get a 'golden share,' which would allow it to outvote shareholders on certain key decisions. The Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania is another U.S. Steel facility that will benefit from Nippon's investment. It's one of three U.S. Steel plants in the so-called 'Mon Valley' While the United Steelworkers union has been skeptical of the deal this week, a number of rank-and-file U.S. Steel workers have been consistently supportive of it. Here workers are seen outside of U.S. Steel's headquarters in Pittsburgh in September Trump, as well as former President Joe Biden, had opposed Nippon buying U.S. Steel outright. Ahead of Trump's trip, local leadership and workers were more keen on the deal. West Mifflin Mayor Chris Kelly, a Democrat, told the Daily Mail via email that local unions 'are largely in favor of moving forward with the proposed deal.' He said his own experience has 'reinforced my optimism for its prompt finalization,' adding that the 'investment in the Mon-Valley is unprecedented, representing more funding for new technology than we've seen in many years.' 'Additionally, I have had the privilege of communicating with workers from Nippon's other American plants, all of whom have shared positive feedback regarding safety, contract negotiations, and management relations,' the mayor added. Glenn Thomas, who's worked at the Braddock U.S. Steel plant for 44 years, told WTAE that he was 'elated' and 'overjoyed' by the news. 'I'm happy for all the families that are going to be able to keep sending their kids to college, paying their mortgages and feeding their families,' Thomas said. 'It means a lot for Pittsburgh. Not only is it the steelworkers' jobs that it saves, it's the contractors' jobs, it's the local communities' tax base.' As White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was leaving the podium Thursday, she said that Trump had been on the phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba earlier that morning. The third Mon Valley U.S. Steel property is the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, Braddock's former mayor, can see this plant from his home The Nippon deal pledges to bring $14 billion in investment into U.S. Steel, but the Steelworkers Union raised concerns that more than a quarter of that investment would go to 'greenfield operations,' which could be non-union and not help update the current aging infrastructure She gave few details on what the president's visit would entail. 'I can tell you that the president greatly looks forward to going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he will discuss this historic deal and discuss American jobs and American steel and we hope to see you all there,' Leavitt said. The White House wouldn't divulge to the Daily Mail whether Fetterman or Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro would be on hand, nor would their offices. Shapiro had said last Friday the deal would 'deliver historic investments' to the state. While Trump won Pennsylvania in 2024 in part due to his strength from white working class voters, union households tilted in favor of his opponent, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Exit polling found that union households made up 18 percent of the Keystone State's electorate - and they voted for Harris 52 percent to Trump's 47 percent - an improvement over Biden's 49 percent to Trump's 50 percent four years before. A heroic Marine has told how he managed to stop a manic passenger from killing everyone onboard a flight from Japan to Houston, Texas. Jody Armentrout, a sergeant major who has served in the Marines for over 20 years, was sitting in the emergency exit row on All Nippon Airways Flight 114 from Tokyo to Houston on Saturday when he said he noticed a man acting strange. Trained to remain vigilant at all times, Armentrout said he watched as the man take his backpack into one of the bathrooms, then came out and went to another bathroom on the flight - and then a third. 'He came out of that one and began pacing up and down the aisle, so that just threw my radar on,' the 50-year-old Marine told NBC News. Soon, he said, he saw the man eyeing the emergency exit door next to him. At that point, Armentrout said he stood up to block the man from the exit door - which only prompted the manic passenger to rush to the door in the opposite aisle. The man immediately grabbed the strap on the door - and Armentrout said he knew he had just seconds to act. 'About that time is when I slammed him, put him on the ground,' the Marine said. Jody Armentrout, a sergeant major who has served in the Marines for over 20 years, told how he managed to stop a manic passenger from killing everyone onboard a flight from Japan to Houston, Texas Video shows the Marine and another individual were able to secure the unruly passenger into a seat as the plane diverted to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport 'And then there was an older gentleman sitting on that side that woke up and he got up and kind of helped me.' Together, the two men were able to secure the unruly passenger into a seat as he tried to wrestle free. They were aided by flight attendants, who Armentrout said handed him zip ties, which he placed around the man's wrists to secure him to the seat. Armentrout then sat with the man until the plane safely landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington, where it was temporarily diverted. As he sat with the unidentified passenger, Armentrout said he noticed the man's eyes. 'You could definitely tell there was something going on.' When the plane finally landed in Seattle just about 45 minutes later, police escorted the man off of the flight. They could be seen in footage posted online telling the man, 'If you try to fight us, force will be used against you.' One officer says: 'Once I take you out of the seat, we're going to escort you off the flight, okay? If you try to fight us, force will be used against you.' Police escorted the unidentified passenger off the plane without incident The man was then apparently taken off the plane without incident, and was evaluated. Airport officials have since claimed the man had experienced some sort of 'medical episode' and was transported to a nearby hospital. But the drama of the international flight did not end there- as another passenger who FBI agents say was 'frustrated at the flight diversion' punched a bathroom door. That individual, who has not been identified, was also removed from the flight - which then continued on to Houston, landing at around 12.42 pm local time. When it finally landed, Armentrout said he was just glad to be on the ground. He noted that he had just been acting out of concern for his fellow passengers, including multiple infants. 'I just knew he was up to something crazy and at the end of the day, I was willing to take the risk of him saying "I'm not doing anything," and then just them making him go sit back down, than me allowing him to do anything that's going to put anybody at risk,' the Marine said. He added that he now hopes others also remain aware of their surroundings. 'I want to make sure everybody understands what time we are in in this world nowadays and that they need to be aware of their surroundings all the time,' Armentrout said. As of Thursday, no charges had been filed for either the man who apparently tried to open the emergency door or the other individual who punched the door. Aussies were left baffled on the flight to Bali The moment a thick white mist began filling the cabin of a Jetstar plane has left passengers baffled - but there's a simple explanation. Passengers noticed the fog-like haze drifting through the aircraft, limiting visibility. The footage, uploaded to social media this week, was taken on a Jetstar flight leaving Bali and sparked a wave of reactions from Aussies. Many said they had experienced the same phenomenon on other flights. 'My Jetstar flight was like this from Denpasar to Sydney last weekend,' one commenter wrote. 'I've never seen anything like it and thought something was wrong with the plane.' Another added: 'Ours was the same going from Cairns to Bali.' 'I've experienced this leaving Bali, thought our plane was on fire,' a third said. The heavy fog-like haze can be seen drifting through the Jetstar plane (stock) 'This happened to me on a Vietnam Airlines flight on September 11 last year. I really thought it was the end of me,' a fourth added. One commenter solved the mystery, explaining the mist had been caused by the air-conditioning in the plane combined with the humid Bali weather. 'It's just condensation. The dry air from the aircon mixing with the damp humid air from outside,' they wrote. A Jetstar spokesperson said passengers shouldn't be worried if they saw the mist on future flights. 'This fogging happens when warm and humid air mixes with cooler and dryer air from the aircraft air-conditioning system, forming condensation,' the spokesperson said. 'Customers shouldn't be concerned as it's a common occurrence in hot and muggy environments like Bali and usually clears quickly.' President Donald Trump has set immigration enforcement officials a lofty new target of conducting 3,000 arrests every single day in an ambitious effort to ramp up his deportation agenda. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the new goal is only temporary and the number of daily arrests expected under the Trump administration will continue to rise. 'Under President Trump's leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day,' Miller told Fox News' Sean Hannity. Trump's border czar Tom Homan backed the ambitious new benchmark on Thursday morning, insisting: 'We've gotta increase these arrests and removals.' 'The numbers are good, but I'm not satisfied. I haven't been satisfied all year long.' During Trump's first 100 days back in office, ICE officials arrested 66,463 illegal immigrants. More than 65,000 illegal immigrants were deported. Some 17,000 deportees had criminal convictions or charges ranging from driving under the influence to assault or weapons offenses. President Donald Trump has set immigration enforcement officials a lofty new target of conducting 3,000 arrests every single day in an ambitious effort to ramp up his deportation agenda During Trump's first 100 days back in office, ICE officials arrested 66,463 illegal immigrants The administration has faced significant pushback and legal hurdles with challenges to the legality of some of the deportation schemes, particularly those which saw foreign aliens sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison under the wartime Illegal Aliens Act ICE has boasted removing gang members, murderers and child rapists. But the administration has faced significant pushback and legal hurdles with challenges to the legality of some of the deportation schemes, particularly those which saw foreign aliens sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison under the wartime Illegal Aliens Act. Other migrants have been banished to third party nations with little to no legal pathway to challenge their deportations. ICE deported 17,200 people in April alone - roughly 4,000 more than the number conducted in April 2024, under former president Joe Biden. Even if the lofty new target of 3,000 people a day is reached, it is still a far cry from Trump's campaign promise to rid America of up to 20million illegal immigrants. He vowed to carry out 'the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.' There have been reports for months that Trump has been unsatisfied with the progress of agents on the ground, who have discovered that tracking down illegal migrants - particularly criminals - is more difficult and a slower process than they initially expected. Across the United States in immigration courts from New York to Seattle last week, Homeland Security officials began ramping up enforcement actions and carrying out mass arrests in an effort to boost their numbers. Other migrants have been banished to third party nations with little to no legal pathway to challenge their deportations Trump's border czar Tom Homan backed the lofty new target on Thursday morning, insisting: 'We've gotta increase these arrests and removals.' Three US immigration officials said government attorneys were given the order to start dismissing cases when they showed up for work Monday, knowing full well that federal agents would then have a free hand to arrest those same individuals as soon as they stepped out of the courtroom. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared losing their jobs. This meant that when migrants arrived in court to plead their immigration cases, prosecutors would instead dismiss the case and a judge would rule the client was free to leave. Once exiting the courtroom, ICE agents would be outside, waiting to arrest them. The latest effort includes people who have no criminal records, migrants with no legal representation and people who are seeking asylum, according to reports received by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. An aristocrat's lover accused of killing their baby is a convicted rapist, a court heard yesterday. Mark Gordon, 50, also committed an 'armed kidnapping' when he was just 14. He served 22 years in a US jail for a series of sexual and violent offences when he was a teenager, including a knife-point rape. Gordon, who stands accused with Constance Marten, 37, of killing their daughter by gross negligence, had previously been convicted of armed kidnapping, four sexual assaults, armed burglary and aggravated battery. Yesterday the Old Bailey heard Gordon broke into a woman's house in Florida with a knife and hedge clippers on April 29, 1989. He ordered the victim to undress before holding her captive for more than four and a half hours while he carried out a series of rapes and sexual assaults. Three weeks later Gordon committed an armed burglary, breaking into a family's home and battering a man over the head with a flat-headed shovel. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison on February 11, 1994 and served 22 years of the term. Constance Marten, 37, has been accused of killing her daughter Victoria by gross negligence after she decided to camp in on the South Downs, East Sussex, in freezing temperatures Her lover Mark Gordon, 50, who also stands accused, had previously been convicted of armed kidnapping, four sexual assaults, armed burglary and aggravated battery in the US Following his release, Gordon came to the UK where he was later convicted of assaulting two police officers at a hospital where Marten gave birth to their first child under a false name in 2017. Marten is a member of the aristocratic Sturt/Marten family, from which she is estranged. Her father was a page to Queen Elizabeth in the 1970s. After Gordon's assault and their four children were taken into care, the couple decided to go on the run with their fifth child, Victoria, in December 2022 to stop her being taken away by social services. The baby died after they decided to camp in a tent on the South Downs, East Sussex, in freezing temperatures. On March 1, 2023, the infant was found buried under rubbish in a shopping bag that had been discarded in a shed. Experts have been unable to determine whether Victoria died of hypothermia or if she was smothered by her sleeping mother in a cramped tent. Last week when Gordon gave evidence about his earlier life he failed to mention his convictions. He said to jurors he had a 'reasonably decent background' and that he had been taught 'empathy' at an early age by his mother. He told the court: 'I have a great respect for the law', adding 'I like to follow the rules'. Yesterday he claimed he had been subjected to an 'unfair and unlawful' prosecution when he was a teenager. Gordon, who is representing himself after his lawyers quit, said America had a history of racism and 'framing innocent people'. But the court was then told that Gordon had pleaded guilty to armed burglary and aggravated battery and had been convicted by a jury of the kidnapping, sexual assaults and burglary in 1994, discrediting his claim. Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence and an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a child. At an earlier trial the couple were convicted of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice by hiding Victoria's body. The trial continues. The north west of England is now in drought due to low water levels in reservoirs and rivers following one of the driest springs on record. The Environment Agency (EA) said Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, and Cumbria and Lancashire have moved from 'prolonged dry weather' to 'drought' status. Despite recent rain, water levels in the region remain low, the public body said, although no other areas of the country are in drought. A spokesman said: 'The north west of England has entered drought status due to low water levels in reservoirs and rivers. 'No other areas in England are in drought and we continue to monitor the situation closely.' The agency also said hosepipe bans were a matter for water companies but they were expected to follow their drought plans, taking appropriate steps to reduce demand and leakage, to ensure more water is left in the environment for farmers and wildlife. The EA said it continued to regulate the region's water company, United Utilities, to operate within their agreed action plan to make use of available water while protecting the environment. Officials warned that periods of dry weather could have consequences for wildlife, including killing fish, more algal blooms and low rivers preventing species from moving up or downstream, as well as limiting water resources for those who need them. The north west of England is now in drought due to low water levels in reservoirs and rivers following one of the driest springs on record. Pictured: Low water levels at Haweswater reservoir in Cumbria Despite recent rain, water levels in the region remain low, The Environment Agency (EA) said, although no other areas of the country are in drought. Pictured: Low water levels at Haweswater reservoir in Cumbria The agency also said hosepipe bans were a matter for water companies but they were expected to follow their drought plans. Pictured: Low water levels at Haweswater reservoir in Cumbria A United Utilities spokesman said: 'We are grateful for the support of customers as we've seen demand reduce thanks to their efforts in saving water where they can, combined with more recent rainfall and cooler temperatures. 'Reservoirs, however, are still lower than we'd expect at this time of year and so we're continuing to move water around our integrated network to get it to where it is needed, as well as bringing extra water into the system from other sources around the region. 'Leakage is at its lowest level and we're repairing record volumes, with customers supporting us by reporting more leaks and we'd ask that they continue to do that as well as doing all they can to save and recycle water, to help protect their local environment.' Experts warned that the North West had seen an exceptionally dry spring, and that drought conditions would become more intense in the UK with climate change putting strain on water resources. Dr Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said the North West had seen the driest spring in nearly 100 years, which had led to low water levels in reservoirs and rivers. 'The north west of the country is reliant on reservoirs to source around two-thirds of its water supply. 'The 2025 drought is serious reservoir levels are well below what they should be at this time of year. 'Water is becoming a scarce resource and the UK supply is under significant stress.' Experts warned that the North West had seen an exceptionally dry spring, and that drought conditions would become more intense in the UK with climate change putting strain on water resources. Pictured: Low water levels at Haweswater reservoir in Cumbria The news the North West had moved into drought status comes as the Government announced plans to fast-track the approval of major new reservoirs. Pictured: Low water levels at Haweswater reservoir in Cumbria The news the North West had moved into drought status comes as the Government announced plans to fast-track the approval of major new reservoirs, warning drinking water supplies would run out in the next decade without action to boost water infrastructure. Officials blamed rapid population growth, crumbling assets and a warming climate for pressure on water supplies, and admitted new reservoirs would not come online for a decade or more. Professor Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at the Newcastle University, said the dry and drought conditions the UK was experiencing were consistent with what was expected from climate models, especially in the summer months. 'With global warming we expect more prolonged and intense droughts and heatwaves punctuated by more intense rainfall, possibly causing flash floods. 'In recent years, we have experienced more of these atmospheric blocks, causing record heat and persistent drought,' she said. A British banking executive could spend the rest of his life behind bars in a Portuguese prison after being extradited following the horrific killing of a teenager with a broken bottle in Lisbon. Daniel Dunbar, who is set to be tried by Portuguese officials over the death of Daniel Galhanas in 2023, has been working in the Investor Management Department at the Royal Bank of Canada, The Sun reports. This is the first time rugby-playing 29-year-old, from Bexleyheath, Kent, has been named by authorities following a two-year-long manhunt. Teen Galhanas died after being stabbed in the neck with the sharp glass object in the early hours of October 14 2023. Dunbar was forced on a flight back to Portugal and remanded in custody after failed appeals against his return. It is said the attack against the 19-year-old victim occurred in Lisbon's Bairro Alto neighbourhood. Initial reports suggest he was targeted while trying to defend a friend who was part of a gang of thieves that tried to rob the suspected killer and his friends. The stabbing victim was first identified as one of the gang members who attacked the group, allegedly British tourists, in the Portuguese capital. Daniel Dunbar, who is set to be tried by Portuguese officials over the death of Daniel Galhanas in 2023 Daniel Galhanas, 19, (pictured) was killed with a broken bottle in Lisbon Family members have denied Daniel was involved with the gang and said he was only trying to help his friend. According to the family, one of the tourists threw a bottle at Daniel's friend after the group was approached. The bottle broke and the unnamed suspect picked up the smashed bottle, using it to slash at Daniel, who had come between the group and his friend. A horrifying video shows the moment the male tourist launches a bottle at Daniel's friend before stabbing the victim, who then stumbles and collapses in a pool of blood in the street. The group of tourists are then seen running away. Daniel went into cardiac arrest and was taken alive to Sao Jose Hospital after being found by volunteer firefighters - but did not survive his injuries. Video footage from above the street shows about a dozen people clashing in the road as cars pass at the intersection of Calcada do Combro and Largo do Calhariz. Police say the gang targets foreign tourists on weekend evenings as they walk through the city after a night out. Confirming the arrest and extradition, Portugal's police force said: 'The Policia Judiciaria, with the collaboration of the police and judicial authorities of the United Kingdom, located, arrested and extradited to Portugal a 27-year-old man who is strongly suspected of committing a first degree murder.' They added: 'The crime took place in the early hours of 14 October, 2023, between 4am and 5am, following an altercation between two rival groups. From another view, the group of tourists is seen running off as Daniel bleeds out in the street 'The victim ended up being hit in the neck with a broken glass bottle, which caused serious injuries and led to his death on the spot. 'After the incident, both the suspect and the other members of his group fled the scene. 'Investigative work carried out by the PJ's Lisbon and Tagus Valley Directorate, which is leading the investigation, led to the identification of the suspected perpetrator and the issuing of an international arrest warrant. 'The suspect, a foreign national, was eventually located and arrested in the United Kingdom, where he travelled to the day after the murder. 'After being brought before judicial authorities in Portugal, he was remanded in pre-trial custody.' A retired Russian commander behind strikes that claimed 8,000 Ukrainian lives has been killed by a 'suicide bomber' on the southern city of Stavropol. Zaur Gurtsiev, 34, who had received several medals for participating in Russia's bloody attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, was killed alongside another identified man in a blast on Thursday, Russia's Investigative Committee said. The unnamed man is said to have approached Gurtsiev just before the explosion. Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said the bodies of two men with multiple injuries had been discovered on Thursday outside a multi-storey building and that criminal cases investigating murder and the illegal possession of explosives had been opened. Video footage published on social media showed two men standing close to some parked cars and a bench when a bright light filled the screen and the footage cut out. Russian authorities have now opened a criminal case following the death of the two men. They did not say what caused the explosion, but did not rule out the possibility of Ukraine's involvement. Local reports have also suggested that it was a suicide blast attack, possibly involving a grenade. Retired Russian commander Zaur Gurtsiev was killed on Thursday following a blast in Stavropol Video footage published on social media showed two men standing close to some parked cars and a bench when a bright light filled the screen and the footage cut out Russian authorities did not say what caused the explosion, but did not rule out the possibility of Ukraine's involvement Gurtsiev was due to be appointed to Stavropol's regional administration. Stavropol Region Governor Vladimir Vladimirov and other officials offered their condolences to Gurtsiev and his family. Gurtsiev's death comes following a string of attacks on high-profile Russian servicemen. In December, the head of the Russian military's biological and chemical weapons unit Lt. General Igor Kirillov was killed along with his deputy in an explosion in Moscow. Last month, an explosive device in Moscow killed senior Russian General-Lieutenant Yaroslav Moskalik. The attack also comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russia was engaging in 'yet another deception' by failing to hand over its peace settlement proposal ahead of a potential meeting between Moscow and Kyiv. 'Even the so-called "memorandum" they promised and seemingly prepared for more than a week has still not been seen by anyone,' Zelensky said in his nightly video address. 'Ukraine has not received it. Our partners have not received it. Even Turkey, which hosted the first meeting, has not received the new agenda. Gurtsiev is said to have received several medals for participating in Russia's bloody attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol Russian authorities have now opened a criminal case following his death Gurtsiev's death comes following a string of attacks on high-profile Russian servicemen 'Despite promises to the contrary, first and foremost to the the United States of America, to President (Donald) Trump: Yet another Russian deception.' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow had drafted a memorandum outlining a settlement position in the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine. He suggested a second round of direct talks take place on Monday, again in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has maintained good ties with both sides, told reporters that Russia's invitaation for more talks had heightened Ankara's hopes for peace. 'The road to a resolution goes through more dialogue, more diplomacy. We are using all our diplomatic power and potential for peace,' Erdogan's office quoted him as saying. In Washington, the White House said Trump, who has been pressing both sides to move towards an agreement, hoped the proposed meeting in Istanbul would go ahead. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow had received no reply from Kyiv on whether it would attend negotiations on Monday in Istanbul . Russia, Zelensky said in his address, was 'doing everything to make the meetings hollow' and Ukraine's partners needed to intensify pressure on Moscow. Relatives and friends mourn next to the coffin of 26-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Yaroslav Shvets, an actor and sapper, who died as a result of wounds received at the front, during the funeral ceremony in Kyiv on May 29, 2025 The attack also comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russia was engaging in 'yet another deception' by failing to hand over its peace settlement proposal ahead of a potential meeting between Moscow and Kyiv Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said that without being able to review Russia's memorandum, Kyiv would conclude 'it is likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums, and they are afraid of revealing that they are stalling the peace process'. When asked to comment on Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha's suggestion that Russia should immediately hand over the memorandum, Peskov dismissed the idea as 'non-constructive'. It also comes as Russian forces have taken four border villages in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, days after Putin said he had ordered troops to establish a buffer zone along the border. Sumy borders Russias Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year captured a pocket of land in the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II. The long border is vulnerable to Ukrainian incursions, Putin said, and creating a buffer zone could help Russia prevent further cross-border attacks there. Meanwhile, a Russian bombing campaign that had escalated in recent days slowed overnight, with far fewer Russian drones targeting Ukrainian towns and cities. Moscows invasion has shown no signs of stopping despite months of intense U.S.-led efforts to secure a ceasefire and get traction for peace talks. Since Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey on May 16 for their first direct talks in three years, a large prisoner exchange has been the only tangible outcome, but negotiations have brought no significant breakthrough. Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a cutting four-word insult to his former deputy Barnaby Joyce. Turnbull, who is no stranger to sharing his thoughts, was speaking at an event at the State Library of Victoria this week when he was asked about Joyce, who served as his deputy between 2016 and 2018. The former prime minister reportedly told the audience that he 'got on well with Barnaby a lot of the time'. But he described Joyce as 'mercurial', meaning he is given to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood, before he delivered his scathing put-down. 'Better in the morning,' Turnbull quipped. It is a reference to Joyce's well-documented struggles with alcohol. Infamously, Joyce gave up the grog when Daily Mail Australia published a video of him sprawled on a Canberra pavement mumbling obscenities into his phone late at night in February last year. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is no stranger to sharing his unfiltered thoughts, was speaking at an event at the State Library of Victoria this week when he was asked about Barnaby Joyce, who served as his deputy between 2016 and 2018 (pictured: Bridget McKenzie, Joyce, Turnbull and Julie Bishop in 2017) Turnbull reportedly told the audience that he 'got on well with Barnaby a lot of the time'. But he described Joyce as 'mercurial', meaning he is given to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood, before he delivered his scathing put-down (pictured: Joyce with his wife Vikki) He blamed the embarrassing episode on mixing prescription pills with alcohol and in an interview with Nine Newspapers last June, said he had quite the booze and lost 15kg in the process. But he insisted he was not a 'wowser', adding: 'Maybe at some stage Ill have a beer again, but at the moment, nah.' When Daily Mail Australia visited him in his seat of New England during the election campaign, Joyce was seen picking up a bottle of chardonnay and a six pack of James Boags' premium beer. At the time, Joyce had effectively been trapped in his seat by a leadership rule brought in by Nationals leader David Littleproud which required Nationals MPs to seek permission from head office to travel outside their electorates. Joyce, 58, insisted he was not a 'sook' and would go where he was asked. Look Ill go where Im asked. If somebody said last week, "oh, s**t. Were in trouble. We need you to go here, here and here." Im not a f***ing sook. Id immediately do it,' he told this publication. 'I had the Hunter Valley campaign saying "please, please, please come down" so I went down and Lyne said "please, please, please come across", so I went across, I'm not a sook - I'll go if I'm asked. 'But if I'm not asked, I'm not going to just turn up. That's in their hands. In the meantime, Ill try to turn this into the safest seat in Australia.' When Daily Mail Australia visited him in his seat of New England during the election campaign, Joyce was seen picking up a bottle of chardonnay and a six pack of James Boags' premium beer He was not far off achieving that, recording an almost two per cent swing and winning by nearly 40,000 votes. Joyce was booted from the frontbench in the newly-unveiled shadow cabinet this week. He rejected Nationals leader David Littleproud's claim that the new frontbench was about promoting 'generational change'. 'Its not about generational change, Joyce told Nine. 'There are people who are older than me now. Im 58, Im not 103. 'So its not generational change, its politics and personalities. Lets call it for what it is, lets be straight.' Daily Mail Australia approached Joyce for comment over Turnbull's 'better in the morning' sledge. Turnbull, 70, regularly weighs in on current affairs. He sparked global headlines in March when he described Donald Trump as 'chaotic, rude, abrasive and erratic' in an interview on Bloomberg TV. The US President hit back, describing him as a 'weak and ineffective leader'. Turnbull referenced Trump again this week, when he made fun of his strategy of releasing information and signing executive orders at such an overwhelming rate that is difficult for the media to effectively hold him to account. The technique, called 'flooding the zone', did not impress Turnbull. 'Flooding the zone with s***,' was his view. At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians. After a more than two-month blockade, aid has finally begun to trickle back into Gaza, but the humanitarian situation remains dire after 18 months of devastating war. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people. The Israeli military has also recently stepped up its offensive in the territory in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war. Gaza civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP "44 people have been killed in Israeli raids", including 23 in a strike on home in Al-Bureij. "Two people were killed and several injured by Israeli forces' gunfire this morning near the American aid centre in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip," he added. The centre, run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new system for distributing aid that Israel says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union. "What is happening to us is degrading. The crowding is humiliating us," said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday. "We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children." The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported deaths in Al-Bureij and near the aid centre. Separately, it said in a statement that its forces had struck "dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip" over the past day. In a telephone call Thursday with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel's "systematic starvation tactics have crossed all moral and legal boundaries". On Wednesday, thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in central Gaza, with Israel and the UN trading blame over the deepening hunger crisis. AFP footage showed crowds of Palestinians breaking into the WFP facility in Deir al-Balah and taking bags of emergency food supplies as gunshots rang out. "Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP's Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution," the UN agency said in a statement. The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that aid was entering Gaza by truck -- under limited authorisation by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing -- and accused the UN of "trying to block" GHF's work through "threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate". The UN has said it is doing its utmost to facilitate distribution of the limited assistance allowed by Israel's authorities The world body said 47 people were wounded Tuesday when crowds of Palestinians rushed a GHF site. A Palestinian medical source reported at least one death. GHF, however, alleged in a statement that there had been "several inaccuracies" circulating about its operations, adding "there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail". But 60-year-old Abu Fawzi Faroukh, who visited a GHF centre Thursday, said the situation there was "so chaotic". "The young men are the ones who have received aid first, yesterday and today, because they are young and can carry loads, but the old people and women cannot enter due to the crowding," he told AFP. Negotiations on a ceasefire, meanwhile, have continued, with US envoy Steve Witkoff expressing optimism and saying he expected to propose a plan soon. But Gazans remained pessimistic. The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians. Erin Patterson, 50, is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, after allegedly serving them a beef Wellington lunch made with death cap mushrooms. Patterson is also accused of attempting to murder Heather's husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, who survived the lunch after spending several weeks in an intensive care unit. The court heard Patterson's estranged husband, Simon, was also invited to the gathering at her home in Leongatha, in Victoria's Gippsland region, but didn't attend. Witnesses told the jury Patterson ate her serving from a smaller, differently-coloured plate than those of her guests, who ate off four grey plates. Patterson told authorities she bought dried mushrooms from an unnamed Asian store in the Monash area of Melbourne, but health inspectors could find no evidence of this. Victoria's health department said the death cap mushroom poisoning was 'isolated' to Patterson's deadly lunch. Multiple witnesses, including Erin's estranged husband, Heather's husband and other family members, have given emotion-charged evidence to the jury. Medical staff have told the jury of the painful symptoms the dying lunch guests and Mr Wilkinson suffered. An expert witness told the court death cap mushrooms were detected in debris taken from a dehydrator Patterson had dumped at a local tip. Telecommunications expert Dr Matthew Sorell also told the jury Patterson's phone was detected near areas at Outtrim and Loch, in the Gippsland region, where death cap mushrooms had been spotted. Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad senior digital forensics officer Shamen Fox-Henry said he found evidence of a death cap mushroom on data from a computer seized from Patterson's Leongatha home on August 5, 2023. On Friday, Austin Hospital intensive care director Professor Stephen Warrillow told the jury he was at the Melbourne health facility in July 2023 when the poisoned lunch guests were transferred to his care. Professor Warrillow said all patients were given intense treatment and Don received a liver transplant. Ian Wilkinson sat in court and listened as details of how his wife died from death cap poisoning were aired in court. The jury also heard the text exchanges between health department officer Sally Anne Atkinson and Patterson in the days after the deadly lunch as authorities rushed to solve the cause of the outbreak. On Tuesday, the jury was shown the police interview Patterson took part in shortly after her home was searched on August 5. Detectives seized a manual for a Sunbeam hydrator but Patterson denied in her interview that she had ever owned such an appliance. Patterson also told police she invited her in-laws for lunch because she loved them and they were like real family to her. Homicide Squad detective leading Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall told the court officers searched for a Samsung Galaxy A23 known as Phone A but it was never found. Sen-Constable Eppingstall also said another Samsung Galaxy A23 known as Phone B was factory reset multiple times including while police searched Pattersons Leongatha home. He said Phone B was later remotely wiped while it was kept in a secure locker at the Homicide Squad headquarters in Melbourne. The jury also heard Pattersons family had a history of cancer and her daughter had a benign ovarian cancer cyst removed. On Thursday, lead defence barrister Colin Mandy suggested to Sen-Constable Eppingstall that a photo taken during the Leongatha police search depicted the mysterious Phone A. Mr Mandy also highlighted other devices he suggested police failed to seize including laptops and a USB stick. Later, the jury heard Facebook messages between Patterson and her online friends in which they discussed Simon, pets and the death of actress Kirstie Alley. The jury also heard Signal messages between Don and Erin in which Don and Gail (pictured) wished Patterson well and also prayed for her health. A solo female traveller has shared the terrifying moment an Australian woman allegedly punched her in the face after an argument escalated on a ferry in Bali. The woman had been travelling on the Maruti ferry from Penida to Sanur when the confrontation erupted over a disagreement about seating arrangements. In a post to Reddit this week, the woman explained the Australian family had asked her to move seats so they could sit together for the journey. But she declined, explaining there was no other seats available on the lower deck. The woman got into an argument with the Australian family after they said 'bad things' about her and she retaliated, telling them she could sit where she liked. '(The) daughter told me to shut up or she will punch me in the face and it escalated - she punched me in the face and broke my sunglasses and said I need to shut up or else she will punch me again... got it on video cause I wasn't sure what's going to happen being alone vs a group,' the woman said. In video of the clash, the Australian daughter was heard telling the woman to 'shut up' as she approached her seat and pushed her phone away. 'She assaulted me,' the woman said. The solo traveller accused the Australian woman (pictured) of punching her in the face and breaking her sunglasses in the process after an argument escalated The Australian woman (pictured) denied punching the woman, arguing she didn't touch the woman's face and had only been trying to push her phone away 'You initiated it you little b****,' the girl's mother yelled back. 'Do not blame my f***ing kid because you initiated it. 'You assaulted yourself you stupid idiot.' Another female passenger was seen alerting staff to the dispute and pointing to the Australian family, saying 'they started it'. 'I was sitting here the whole time,' the woman filming continued. 'She came over to this aisle and slapped me.' 'Shut up! I'm going to f***ing punch you again,' the girl hit back. 'I actually didn't touch your face, I grabbed your phone. Look at the video and you can see that.' A Balinese local appeared to make a 'time out' sign with his fingers as the women argued 'Yeah? You can talk to the police about that,' the woman replied. '[My] glasses are on the floor.' In her Reddit post, the woman said the family was asked to move to the upper deck. 'The kind Indian lady came over to sit with me and the boat company made them sit upstairs. I told the male member (seemingly the dad) of the family that this needs to be addressed with the police and he said ok,' she wrote. 'But then when alighting the boat they left quickly.' The clash comes following a spate of incidents involving Australian tourists in Bali. Lamar Ahchee, 43, the son of former Queensland Senior Constable Les Ahchee, was arrested in Bali last Thursday after he was allegedly caught with 1.8kg of cocaine. The narcotics were allegedly hidden inside two Gold Lindt chocolate boxes, each containing 54 individual packets of the drug, with 8.3g wrapped inside each one. The clash comes following a spate of incidents involving Australian tourists in Bali The former tech manager originally from Cairns in Far North Queensland could face the death penalty for allegedly trying to smuggle the drugs. In February, Mohamed Rifai, 27, from Sydney's south-west, and eight Balinese security guards were arrested over a brawl outside popular Bali night club Finns. Rifai claimed he acted in self-defence while he was allegedly attacked by the security guards after they escorted his friend John Ebid from the club. He faces five years in Indonesian jail for the injuries guard Made Bagus Yohanandita suffered in the altercation, who lost several teeth in the melee. Last week, an Australian man who assaulted a German woman while relaxing by the pool in a luxury Bali resort was remanded in custody. Ali Shahrouk, 38, was sentenced over an altercation with tourist Christin Steinrode Tiller at the $950 a night Apurva Kempinski Hotel in south Kuta on January 29. Her nose and jaw was fractured in the incident. Stunning footage has captured the moment multiple waterfalls cascaded down Uluru after heavy rain. The sides of the iconic rock were temporarily transformed as the typically harsh desert sun vanished behind a rain band as a cloud system stretches the entire length of Australia. The Outback has already seen massive flooding this year with temporary inland seas isolating townships from the rest of the country. Satellite images show the new cloud band stretching 3,600km from WA's Kimberley region, across central Australia and to the Queensland and NSW border. The weather system has already dumped record-breaking rainfall over some WA and NT regions with more than 100mm falling in areas that usually see less than 20mm throughout May. In the NT, records were also broken with Tindal receiving 179.8mm - the average May daily rainfall is 2mm - and Rabbit Flat 77.6mm. Alice Springs was also soaked with 40.4mm, which is the heaviest May rainfall daily total since 1993. Broome this week received 100.6mm of rain in 24 hours - the heaviest May daily rainfall in 20 years - while nearby Kalumburu was drenched with 111.6mm and Wyndham with 54.8mm, which were both new May records. NSW is still reeling from devastating floods that hit coastal communities last week, with the latest downpours fortunately focused on Queensland, the NT and WA. 'Cloudy, cool and wet describes the weather for a lot of areas along the east coast (on Friday),' the BOM's Angus Hines told News. Recent heavy rain has turned Uluru's rock formations into cascading waterfalls Mutitjulu waterhole at Uluru turned into a picturesque waterfall on Sunday after a drenching at Australia's typically arid red centre 'Most of the rain will be between Bundaberg and Townsville, we could actually see some moderate falls around the likes of Mackay and Rockhampton, and it will be pretty wet there through most of the day. He said the West Coast is also expected to see some wet weather, with storms south of Geraldton. 'When it comes to rain though, there is something a bit more significant to talk about here, and this is bands of showers and storms moving onto the west coast,' Mr Hines said. '(It) really could affect anyone from the Pilbara, right down through the central west, through Perth and down to the very far south west.' An image showing accumulated rainfall from Wednesday to Friday across Australia Sydney Friday: Min 11 Max 20 Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 20 per cent. Saturday: Min 12 Max 20 Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 20 per cent. Sunday: Min 10 Max 20 Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Brisbane Friday: Min 15 Max 21 Shower or two. Possible rainfall: 0 to 6 mm. Chance of any rain: 70 per cent. Saturday: Min 15 Max 22 Rain. Possible rainfall: 1 to 15 mm. Chance of any rain: 80 per cent. Sunday: Min 15 Max 24 Possible shower. Possible rainfall: 0 to 1 mm. Chance of any rain: 40 per cent. Locals in Port Macquarie are seen delivering food to isolated residents last week Australia's red centre has already seen flooding this year with more expected ( Thargomindah in outback Queensland is pictured in March) Melbourne Friday: Min 10 Max 16 Shower or two. Possible rainfall: 0 to 1 mm. Chance of any rain: 50 per cent. Saturday: Min 9 Max 16 Cloudy. Possible rainfall: 0 to 1 mm. Chance of any rain: 30 per cent. Sunday: Min 6 Max 17 Partly cloudy. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Adelaide Friday: Min 9 Max 18 Cloud clearing. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Saturday: Min 6 Max 19 Partly cloudy. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Sunday: Min 8 Max 20 Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Perth Friday: Min 13 Max 23 Showers. Storm. Possible rainfall: 6 to 20 mm. Chance of any rain: 95 per cent. Saturday: Min 14 Max 22 Showers. Possible rainfall: 2 to 9 mm. Chance of any rain: 90 per cent. Sunday: Min 12 Max 22 Shower or two. Possible rainfall: 0 to 2 mm. Chance of any rain: 50 per cent. A cloud band stretching the length of Australia (pictured) is dumping record-breaking rain in areas which usually only receive 2mm in a month NSW is still reeling from floods which smashed costal communities last week Canberra Friday: Min -1 Max 18 Morning frost. Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Saturday: Min 2 Max 17 Cloud clearing. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Sunday: Min 0 Max 17 Morning frost. Partly cloudy. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Hobart Friday: Min 8 Max 15 Partly cloudy. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Saturday: Min 7 Max 15 Cloudy. Chance of any rain: 20 per cent. Sunday: Min 6 Max 16 Partly cloudy. Chance of any rain: 10 per cent. Darwin Friday: Min 22 Max 31 Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 5 per cent. Saturday: Min 22 Max 31 Mostly sunny. Chance of any rain: 5 per cent. Sunday: Min 22 Max 31 Sunny. Chance of any rain: 5 per cent. Melania Trump moved quickly to clear up a rumor that her son Barron had been rejected from Harvard after the fictional story became an ongoing joke within the White House. Trump biographer Michael Wolff has shed new light on the gossip among MAGA allies that President Trump had set his sights on destroying the prestigious university because his 19-year-old son was rejected from the school. 'That exists because I reported that was the joke within the White House,' he said about Melania's statement. Three weeks ago, Wolff took to Instagram to share the 'joke going around the White House this week.' 'What do all the universities Trump is targeting have in common?' he asked. 'Barron didn't get into them.' Melania took the rare step of issuing a public denial to the 'completely false' rumor, insisting through her communications director Nicholas Clemens that 'any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false.' Barron is a freshman at NYU's lauded Stern Business School, and Trump has repeatedly said his son was accepted to several colleges but had his heart set on NYU. Barron is a freshman at NYU's lauded Stern Business School, and Trump has repeatedly said his son was accepted to several colleges but had his heart set on NYU Melania took the rare step of issuing a public denial to the 'completely false' rumor, insisting that 'any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false.' Wolff admitted that he wasn't sure if the rumor had any validity, but that hasn't stopped it from spreading like wildfire within the White House. 'I don't know if there is any truth to this, there very well might be, but within the White House, that is the joke,' he said. 'Because they're like, "What is he doing?" This is, you know, this is crazy stuff,' Wolff said about Trump's rage at the Ivy league school. '"Why would this be happening?" And then they tell the Barron joke.' Harvard has a notoriously high rejection rate with about 96% of applicants being told no. The revelation comes as Trump continues his tirade against Harvard by banning the attendance of foreign students. He also canceled the federal government's remaining contracts, which are worth about $100 million. When President Trump launched his first broadside against Harvard in April, canceling a massive round of federal funding after the university wouldn't bow to his demands, the internet was rife with speculation he was angry because his son wasn't admitted. 'Did Trump target Harvard because the university rejected Barron?,' read several posts on social media. Even a Democratic senator stoked the fires of speculation with a tweet on the matter. 'Can't help but wonder how many Trumps got rejected by Harvard,' Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote on X when he reposted an article about the president's attacks. The youngest Trump child broke from family's tradition when he decided to attend Stern Business School at New York University. The president attended the University of Pennsylvania as did many of his children. Other Trump kids went to Georgetown University. In an interview with Daily Mail last fall, Donald Trump said Barron had been accepted to 'a lot' of colleges. 'He's a very smart guy, and he'll be going to Stern, the business school, which is a great school at NYU,' he said. He also said Barron had considered following in his footsteps at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, but ultimately chose NYU. 'It's a very high quality place. He liked it. He liked the school,' said Trump. Melania Trump denied the internet rumor that Barron Trump was rejected from Harvard Barron Trump with his parents at Donald Trump's first inauguration Barron graduated from Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida, last May. He lives in Trump Tower in New York while attending NYU. Melania Trump has spent much of her time as first lady in New York with her son. The two are close and she is known to be protective of him. In September, she told Fox News that Barron was always looking at studying in New York. He 'wants to be in New York and study in New York and live in his home,' she said at the time. President Trump, meanwhile, has waged war on elite universities, accusing them of antisemitism and blasting their 'woke' ideology. He claims the top schools in the country are controlled by 'Marxist maniacs and lunatics.' Trump has demanded Harvard eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion program; cut the power of its professors; refuse foreign students; and ban masks at campus protests. Harvard is fighting back just as hard, filing lawsuits in federal court to counter the administration. A dystopian scene unraveled in Texas when police officers were caught using software for a nationwide license plate reader to track a woman who had a self-administered abortion in a state where the procedure is legal. The officer was employed with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Cleburne, a suburb outside of Fort Worth, where abortion is banned except in cases of a fatal medical emergency. On May 9, the officer used Flock cameras, which have license plate reading technology, to search for the unidentified woman. Police don't need a warrant to search surveillance footage if it's an emergency, and can also typically access footage from cameras in public spaces. An officer with the sheriff's office reportedly searched Flock cameras and gave the reason as, 'had an abortion, search for female,' according to sets of data reviewed by 404 Media. The data revealed that the office searched cameras nationwide, combing through 83,000 license plate readers to look for the woman. Johnson County Sheriff Adam King told DailyMail.com in a statement that the department was contacted by the woman's family after they discovered she 'gave herself an abortion at home.' 'She left her residence in a vehicle before our arrival. The family was fearful that she was bleeding excessively and needed immediate medical attention,' the statement continued. Police officers with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Cleburne, Texas, used surveillance camera footage to locate a woman who had an abortion Authorities used footage from Flock camera technology to comb through license plate readers to locate the woman Abortion is illegal in Texas except in cases where the procedure could save a life. (Pictured: Demonstrators gathering in front of the Texas Capitol after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade) 'We made query in FLOCK in an attempt to locate her. We were unable to immediately locate her. We did speak with her a couple days later and verified that she was OK.' Two days after the department located her plate in Dallas, they made contact with her and verified that she was okay. The sheriff added that they performed a nationwide search instead of limiting it to their jurisdiction to ensure, 'were hitting everything, every possibility.' Flock told 404 Media that the company provides technology that individuals can leverage 'in a way that reflects their values.' Sheriff Adam King said the department was looking for the woman because her family was concerned and not due to her abortion 'We support democratically-authorized governing bodies to determine what that means for their community,' the statement continued. 'Flock does not decide which criminal codes to enforce in Texas or Washington. We rely on the democratic process. And in this case, it appears Flock was used to try to locate a vulnerable person who may have been a danger to herself.' Since Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022, abortion rights returned to the states, with many outlawing the practice entirely. In Texas, almost all abortions are prohibited, and there are civil and criminal penalties for those who have them or medical practitioners who perform them. Flock told 404 Media 'Flock does not decide which criminal codes to enforce in Texas or Washington. We rely on the democratic process. And in this case, it appears Flock was used to try to locate a vulnerable person who may have been a danger to herself' The only exception to the law is if the health of the patient is at risk. Texas doesn't allow exceptions for rape or incest like other states. The Justice Department decided in November 2023 that the Constitution protects interstate travel to receive an abortion. Abortion rights activists and advocates against surveillance have previously expressed concern that police could use advanced technology to locate those who have had abortions while living in states where it's illegal. 'Lawmakers will likely pressure police and prosecutors to use all of the tracking tools they have to target health providers, pregnant people, and anyone helping them to access care,' the Stop Surveillance Technology Oversight Project said before Roe V. Wade was overturned. 'And with all mass surveillance, there will be countless bystanders targeted, too, those who will be jailed because of miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and inaccurate data.' Most states don't typically prosecute those who have had an abortion, however, there were over 200 pregnancy-related prosecutions in the year after Roe V. Wade was overturned. (Pictured: Protestors marching in Amarillo, Texas, protesting the ban on abortion pills) Most states don't criminally prosecute individuals who have had or assisted with abortions. However, a study conducted by Pregnancy Justice revealed that there were at least 210 pregnancy-related prosecutions from June 24, 2022, to June 23, 2023. Nearly half of those prosecutions occurred in Alabama, about a third in Oklahoma, and only six in Texas. Most of the prosecutions were related to alleged child abuse, while five concerned allegations of abortion. Those who were prosecuted for abortion related instances faced charges ranging from homicide to child neglect. Eight suspected asylum seekers have reportedly been detained by authorities in a remote part of Australia after arriving by boat. Six of the arrivals, who are believed to be from China, were discovered by local workers on Tuesday near the remote Indigenous township of Maningrida, about 500km east of Darwin in Arnhem Land, reported the ABC. A further two men were reportedly found the following day by Indigenous rangers and are now in Australian Border Force (ABF) custody. The ABC reports that authorities are yet to discover a boat, raising the possibility the men were dropped off on the mainland by an Indonesian fishing vessel. Freshly-appointed Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie said: 'We are now seeing the Albanese government reap the whirlwind of their underinvestment in our border security and defence capabilities. 'We should have unblinking surveillance on our northern approaches, but instead we have illegal boats penetrating our borders and people making it ashore. 'This signals weakness to the people smugglers that business is back on under Labor.' An ABF spokesperson said: 'The Australian Border Force does not comment on or confirm operational matters.' Six of the arrivals, who are believed to be from China , were discovered by local workers on Tuesday near the remote Indigenous township of Maningrida, around 500km east of Darwin in Arnhem Land (pictured) New polling shows that a key group of voters who helped propel President Donald Trump to victory 2024 are not as enthusiastic about supporting Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. The polling group J.L. Partners sounded the alarm, outlining the mood of 'mid-propensity voters' (MPVs) in a political analysis memo shared with the Daily Mail. These are people who supported Trump in 2024 but are considered 'low energy;' voters who are not fully committed to voting in the midterm elections. Politically unaligned, 42 percent of these voters identify as Independent or unaffiliated, but supported Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Thirty-six percent of them backed Trump while 32 percent chose Harris and 29 percent did not even vote. The mid-propensity voters make up 20 percent of the electorate in the United States, and ranked their likelihood of voting between 4 and 7 out of ten, the memo revealed. The mid-propensity voters who supported Trump are mostly younger, 18-29 and likely to be black, according to the memo. When asked to choose the most important convincing argument for voting in the midterms, the Trump MPVs cited the importance of Republicans keeping their majorities in Congress to help a Republican presidential candidate win in 2028. Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump attends a rally at the site of the July assassination attempt against him, in Butler, Pennsylvania Voters wait in line at a polling station on November 5, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. Voters go to the polls for the 2024 presidential election 'It might seem odd, but it is intuitive when you think about it these are presidential elections and they are thinking through a presidential election prism,' James Johnson, Co-Founder of J.L. Partners said. J.L. Partners collected a nationally representative sample of 3,041 registered voters across several polls that fielded throughout April and May 2025 reaching 564 MPVs and 229 MPVs who voted for Trump. 'If you are a Republican operative, the best way to get the message across is to make these elections about putting the GOP in the best position to carry the agenda that Trump has championed forward into years to come,' Johnson said. The party in power has historically struggled to keep voters in the presidential election motivated, as the opposition party tends to enjoy a boost in support. Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show People cheer as former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally As Trump is technically prevented from running for a third term, positioning his successor to the MAGA movement appears paramount for the Republican Party if they want to achieve majorities in 2026. The president's team is already preparing for a likely attempt by Democrats to impeach him, if they win the House majority in 2026. They are also keenly aware that Trump has to deliver on many of his campaign promises to keep his supporters positive. 'We need to pass the tax cuts and avoid a recession,' Trump's longtime pollster, John McLaughlin said to Axios. 'That's the high stakes here. We cannot lose the midterms.' Commonwealth Bank has restored its services following an outage which prevented customers from making bank transfers. 'We have fixed an issue affecting some transfers from CommBank accounts,' a spokesperson said at 2.14pm on Friday. 'Customers can now make transfers between accounts and pay using PayID or BSB and account number in NetBank and the CommBank app. 'Payments using cards and ATMs were not affected. We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank customers for their patience.' The update follows widespread outages reported by hundreds of customers on Friday afternoon prompting the bank to issue an apology. 'Thanks for your patience. We are sorry for the inconvenience,' it said at 1pm. When customers went to make a transfer, they received a pop up that read: 'Something's gone wrong. Try again a little later.' By 12.30pm on Friday nearly 450 people had reported a Commonwealth Bank outage on DownDetector - a website that provides real-time information on outages and disruptions. Commonwealth Bank issued an alert to customers on Friday afternoon A number of affected customers took to social media to vent their frustrations. 'I was at the register at Woolies and couldnt transfer funds from one account to the the other,' one woman wrote on Facebook. Another woman, writing on X.com, said she planned to change banks following the incident. 'This time I'm changing banks, not being able to access my own money when I need to pick my car up from the mechanics is infuriating,' she said. A number of users also reported issues transferring funds from their Commonwealth Bank accounts on Thursday night. DownDetector received 742 reports by 11.12pm. 'People have bills to pay, its Thursday night and the end of the month,' a frustrated user wrote on X.com. Donald Trump's top advisor has fallen victim to a sinister scheme by hackers who infiltrated her phone and used artificial intelligence to impersonate her voice. The nefarious plot involved stolen data from the personal cellphone of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that was then used to call some of American's most powerful people. Over the course of several weeks, high profile senators, governors and American business executives have received voicemails or messages from an unknown number claiming to be Wiles, Wall Street Journal reported. The hackers came undone when they made the fatal mistake of asking questions that the president's closest aide would already know the answer to. Wiles - who has been nicknamed 'Ice Maiden' - has been contacting associates urging them to disregard any unusual messages or calls from unknown numbers purporting to be her. In a terrifying twist, some of the phone calls used a voice that mimicked Wiles. Authorities suspect the impersonator used artificial intelligence to replicate it. The FBI is now investigating the unusual situation, but do not believe that a foreign nation is behind it, sources told the publication. 'The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness,' FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. 'Safeguarding our administration officials' ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president's mission is a top priority.' Authorities are reportedly scrambling to figure out what the goal of the plot is. Donald Trump's closest advisor has fallen victim to a sinister impersonation scheme after her personal cellphone was hacked White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been contacting associates urging them to disregard any unusual messages or calls from unknown numbers purporting to be her In at least one case the impersonator asked for a cash transfer, while in another they asked a lawmaker for a list of people who the president could consider pardoning. But many of the texts which came through appeared to be legitimate and fooled some of Wiles' contacts. There are allegedly no suggestions that any sensitive information was handed over. Some of her associates became suspicious when the impersonator began asking questions - sometimes about Trump - that Wiles as his closest advisor would have known the answers to. Others said some messages were sent with poor grammar, and in a more formal manner than Wiles generally communicates. These messages were not sent from Wiles' phone number. Her personal cellphone contacts list was reportedly hacked, giving the impersonator access to a long list of numbers she has amassed over the years as one of Washington's most formidable political players. The breach comes after a series of embarrassing data leaks during Trump's second term. In one instance, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally included in a Signal group chat where Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth discussed planned military strikes in Yemen. Trump's former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, took responsibility for the error and was reassigned to a different role. Wiles was referred to as the 'most feared and least known political operative' prior to stepping into her now high-profile role She is now serving as the first female White House chief of staff in history after helping Trump to his historic victory in November as his campaign manager Wiles was referred to as the 'most feared and least known political operative' prior to stepping into her now high-profile role. She is now serving as the first female White House chief of staff in history after helping Trump to his historic victory in November as his campaign manager. During the campaign, Iranians managed to hack into Wiles' email account and reportedly accessed a research dossier she had on file about Trump's running mate, now-vice president JD Vance. Those who know Wiles best say she's an expert at shaping political narratives and an expert at 'managing personalities and managing information.' And, according to associates, there's something else to know about Wiles: Don't cross her. Her sheer power within the administration was on full display in early April amid reports she had fallen out with then-First Buddy, Elon Musk. The Tesla founder treated Wiles, the most powerful woman in the White House, like a 'secretary,' a source told DailyMail.com at the time. Nicknamed the 'Ice Maiden' for her cool, unflustered demeanor, Wiles earned accolades for bringing order to the chaos during the 2024 presidential campaign. But her attempts to do the same in the White House were, at times, reportedly unwittingly undercut by Musk, who used his massive platform on X - where he has 218.5 million followers - to make announcements at the drop of a hat and throw firebombs of rhetoric into the ether. For his part, Trump made it clear to Musk that he was a member of the staff and Wiles was in charge. Her sheer power within the administration was on full display in early April amid reports she had fallen out with then-First Buddy, Elon Musk. The Tesla founder treated Wiles, the most powerful woman in the White House, like a 'secretary,' a source told DailyMail.com at the time. Pictured as they walk to Air Force One 'It has been reiterated to him in ways that, yes, he reports to the chief of staff,' a Trump aide told NBC News of Musk. Many Trump officials - including Wiles - were frustrated that Musk wasn't sharing his plans before he made public announcements about what his DOGE team was doing to their agencies. His lack of coordination would throw off the White House message of the day and rollout plans for the administration's initiatives. Musk, perhaps aware of tensions, tried to make amends. He offered to carry Wiles bag for her when they were walking across the South Lawn to board Marine One. But in the wake of the bad blood rumors began to swirl that Musk grew increasingly on the outs within the administration. He has since stepped down entirely from his work with DOGE, a few days ahead of the scheduled end of his Special Government Employee status. Has Anthony Albanese been liberated from his dependence on the left wingers around him? The decision to approve a 45 year extension of the North West Shelf, a mega gas project in WA, over the howls of the teals and Greens, suggests that, yes, he has - at least on matters of the environment. The Greens arent too happy about the gas project approval. New leader Larissa Waters has said this approval will mean supercharged floods, fires and species extinctions. She added that the decision totally undermines the governments commitment to net zero by 2050. Maybe, maybe not. But either way what it does tell us is that Albo now feels confident in his election victory to stand up to his left flank, when it suits him. You see, our Prime Minister has always been part of the Labor left, but environmentalism has never really been his calling. Social justice issues were what inspired Albo into politics, especially insofar as they intersect with economic policies. Which helps explain his preparedness to target superannuation accounts with new taxes on unrealised gains, Labors changes to stage three tax cuts to spread the tax cut around to lower income earners - and of course Albos 20 per cent forgiveness of HECS debts. Waving goodbye to the left of his party? Anthony Albanese's gas project decision has sparked howls from the Teals and the Greens... Just as US President Donald Trump had 'Liberation Day', election victory has liberated Albanese, too... It also explains his foray into Indigenous rights by holding the Voice referendum in his first term. It may also therefore he a sign of his likely return to Indigenous issues during this term, as close mate Penny Wong flagged days before the election, and as former senator Pat Dodson hopefully flagged today. But when it comes to the environment, Albo wont let the left dictate terms to him on major projects that provide the funding he needs to pay for his social left agenda. Thats also why he was quick to shift his frenemy Tanya Plibersek out of that portfolio when reshuffling his cabinet. Plibersek may well have blocked the extension of North West Shelf operations - if only to irritate Albo! New environment minister Murray Watt was never going to do that. To says hes a vehicle for carrying out his PMs wishes would be to understate his willingness to oblige. With a lower house team of 94 and no need to acquiesce to teals or Greens or anyone else in the lower house of parliament, Albo is free to stand up to the left when it suits him. But hell need to find ways to get the Greens back on side whenever he hopes to pass new laws. The fact remains that the Greens do now control the balance of power in the Senate. So when Labor needs legislation to pass through the parliament it will need to go cap in hand to the Greens for support, unless the Coalition already are on board of course. The PM's new Environment Minister Murray Watt signed off on an extension of the North West Shelf gas project (above), allowing it to remain operational until 2070 - sparking an outcry from the Greens and the teals The unknown is whether or not the Greens catch on to such trickery by Albo and decide to assert themselves in the Senate as a form of payback for other decisions taken against their wishes they have little control over. The North West Shelf is a classic example. Albo surely knows that to stay in favour with the mainstream who took a punt on him for a second term he needs to avoid playing to his base too much or too often. That includes the broader left and the environmental left in particular. Certainly when doing so threatens jobs and the economy, as was the case regarding this Woodside decision. So Albo is liberated, at least for now before parliament returns - and the Greens take up their new balance of power position in the senate. A series of attacks in northern Mozambique this month point to a resurgence of violence by Islamic State-linked militants as energy giant TotalEnergies prepares to resume a major gas project, analysts say. The group terrorised northern Mozambique for years before brazenly vowing in 2020 to turn the northern gas-rich Cabo Delgado province into a caliphate. TotalEnergies paused a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas project there in 2021 following a wave of bloody raids that forced more than a million people to flee. The insurgency was pushed to the background by a months-long unrest that followed elections in October. But there has been a new wave of violence. In May, the Islamists attacked two military installations, claiming to kill 11 soldiers in the first and 10 in the second. A security expert confirmed the first attack and put the toll at 17. There was no comment from the Mozambican security forces. There were two dramatic strikes earlier -- a raid on a wildlife reserve in the neighbouring Niassa province late April killed at least two rangers, while an ambush in Cabo Delgado claimed the lives of three Rwandan soldiers. Also unusual was a thwarted attack on a Russian oceanographic vessel in early May that the crew said in a distress message was launched by "pirates", according to local media. "Clearly there is a cause and effect because some actions correspond exactly to important announcements in the gas area," said Fernando Lima, a researcher with the Cabo Ligado conflict observatory which monitors violence in Mozambique, referring to the $4.7 billion funding approved in mid-March by the US Export-Import Bank for the long-delayed gas project. "The insurgents are seeing more vehicles passing by with white project managers," said Jean-Marc Balencie of the French-based political and security risk group Attika Analysis. "There's more visible activity in the region and that's an incentive for attacks". Conflict tracker ACLED recorded at least 80 attacks in the first four months of the year. The uptick was partly due to the end of the rainy season which meant roads were once again passable, it said. TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said last Friday that the security situation had "greatly improved" although there were "sporadic incidents". The attack that stalled the TotalEnergies project in 2021 occurred in the port town of Palma and lasted several days, sending thousands fleeing into the forest. ACLED estimated that more than 800 civilians and combatants were killed while independent journalist Alex Perry reported after an investigation that more than 1,400 were dead or missing. Rwandan forces deployed alongside the Mozambique military soon afterwards, their number increasing to around 5,000, based on Rwandan military statements. The concentration of forces in Cabo Delgado "allows insurgents to easily conduct operations in Niassa province," said a Mozambican military officer on condition of anonymity. The raid on the tourist wildlife lodge straddling Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces was for "propaganda effect", said Lima, as it grabbed more international media attention than hits on local villages that claim the lives of locals. Strikes on civilians, with several cases of decapitation reported, often fall under the radar because of the remoteness of the impoverished region and official silence. "More than 25,000 people have been displaced in Mozambique within a few weeks," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last week. This was in addition to the 1.3 million the UN said in November had been displaced since the conflict began in 2017. "The renewed intensity of the conflict affects regions previously considered rather stable," said UNHCR's Mozambique representative Xavier Creach. In Niassa, for example, about 2,085 people fled on foot after an attack on Mbamba village late April where women reported witnessing beheadings. More than 6,000 people have died in the conflict since it erupted, according to Acled. ABC star Laura Tingle has unleashed on the Coalition 'clown show', who she claims will be 'destined to fail' if they do not come up with fresh policies. Tingle, who is leaving her role as the ABC's 7.30 Political Editor to become the public broadcaster's Global Affairs Editor, was asked what she made of the Coalition's break-up and subsequent make-up. Nationals Leader David Littleproud sensationally broke away from the Liberal Party last week - only for both parties to patch things up again a few days later. 'I can say this because I'm going, but I don't care,' Tingle told the ABC's Party Room podcast. 'I mean, like, seriously, these people are irrelevant for the next little while. They're a sideshow. They're a clown show. 'And the fact that their personal ambitions are just so blatantly out there (is) basically disgraceful, because we as taxpayers are paying for them to be looking after the interests of their voters in their electorates and to be looking after the national good.' Tingle, 64, argued that if the Coalition failed to find a rational policy position then they 'deserve to be in the state of oblivion' they currently find themselves. 'My sense is that the Coalition doesn't have any ideas, and it hasn't had any ideas for a really long time,' she added. Tingle, who is leaving her role as the ABC's 7.30 Political Editor to become the public broadcaster's Global Affairs Editor, was asked what she made of the Coalition's break-up and subsequent make-up 'I can say this because I'm going, but I don't care,' Tingle told the ABC's Party Room podcast The media veteran said the Liberal party had not evolved since the days John Howard wooed older Australians with 'a lot of largesse and handouts'. 'Most of those people are dead now, as I keep saying,' she added. 'Yes, people are getting older, but it's a demographic that is locked in with the policies of the past. 'There are all these other people they don't speak to. We've got this huge intergenerational wealth issue largely as a result of those policies and until the Coalition really understands those dynamics, I think they're destined to fail.' Tingle joined the ABC in 2018 after a decades-long career covering Canberra which includes stints as the political editor of The Australian Financial Review and also working for The Australian, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her new role, where she is replacing John Lyons, will see her travel around the world reporting on big events 'that also shape our nation'. 'The job was advertised, and I applied for it,' Ms Tingle told The Australian earlier this month. 'Its the best job in journalism, I reckon, other than the one I have already got. 'It's so important that the national public broadcaster has Australian eyes on the world putting the significance of major global events into context for local audiences.' Tingle sparked controversy last year when she accused then Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of fanning the flames of racism when he claimed high immigration was causing the housing crisis. At the same event, she described Australia as a 'racist country'. After an outcry, Tingle subsequently doubled down on her remarks. 'In my commentary at the ABC, and at the Sydney Writers' Festival, I expressed my concern at the risks involved in Peter Dutton pressing the hot button of housing and linking it to migration for these reasons,' she said. 'Political leaders, by their comments, give licence to others to express opinions they may not otherwise express. That does not make them racist. 'But it has real world implications for many Australians.' A barbaric killer controversially deported to East Africa by President Donald Trumps ICE agents should still be in locked up behind bars, insists the victims daughter. He should have never been paroled, Birte Pfleger told Daily Mail of Thongxay Nilakout, 48, a native of Laos in Southeast Asia. It was devastating. College professor Pfleger, 57, spoke hauntingly of the searing grief over her 64-year-old mother Giselas heinous assassination-style murder in 1994 and how the pain is just as raw 31 years later. She also condemned California Governor Gavin Newsom as a coward for his role in the convict's shocking release from Solana State Prison two years ago. Pfleger said Newsom, who is believed to be positioning himself for a 2028 White House run amid continuing leadership chaos in the Democrat party, passed the buck rather than do the right thing when he had an opportunity to overturn a 2023 parole board decision to release the brutal killer. Rather than reverse the boards contentious ruling - one of his executive powers as governor - he instead praised Nilakout and chose to have an en banc hearing instead, meaning a larger group of parole board members would have the final say. The group, thanks to Newsom, affirmed the original parole board decision and allowed Nilakout to leave prison. Birte Pfleger, seen in 2017, holds a photo of her mother, Gisela Pfleger, that was taken two days before her tragic murder in 1994. Pflegers parents were visiting from Germany when her mother was killed . Her father was severely wounded in an attack by three young men near Idyllwild in California Hes a coward for not doing what is right, said Pfleger of governor, who has been repeatedly criticized for his soft stance on crime. In the end, he took the easy way out. I knew he wasn't going to do it. The political will wasn't there. He was following the general consensus of Democrats in Sacramento - that the days of long sentences were over; theres prison overcrowding and prisons needed to be closed. Murderer Thongxay Nilakout, a citizen of Laos, (pictured) was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery As long as offenders did not kill law enforcement officials or [had] sexually assaulted children, the inmates should be released. Nilakout emptied all five bullets from his weapon into Gisela and her husband. The couple were visiting from their native Germany when they were set upon by him and two associates who were also convicted and sent to prison. He used his first two bullets to shoot her in the head as she lay helpless on the ground. And the three remaining shells he pumped into Klaus, Pflegers father, now 93, who miraculously survived. Surgeons were unable to remove one of the bullets, however, as it was lodged near an artery and it remains in his body, behind his shoulder, as a painful reminder of the savage attack. Today, he remains tortured from losing his beloved wife. This never ends, admits his daughter. There is no closure. Pfleger was contacted by Newsoms Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary, Jasmin Turner-Bond, via a May 10, 2023 email with the subject line: The Governor has made a decision in the Nilakout case. She wrote: Dear Ms. Pfleger, The Governor has decided to refer inmate Nilakouts grant for an en banc review. Gisela Pfleger in 1994 in a photo taken by her husband moments before her murder Hes a coward for not doing what is right, said Birte Pfleger of Governor Newsom. In the end, he took the easy way out In a signed statement dated the same day, Newsom wrote: I acknowledge that Mr. Nilakout committed this crime when he was 17 years old and that he has since been incarcerated for 28 years. The psychologist who evaluated Mr. Nilakout found that, at the time of the crime, Mr. Nilakout demonstrated hallmark features of youth, which diminished his culpability under youth offender laws. I also acknowledge that Mr. Nilakout has made efforts to improve himself in prison. He has participated in self-help programming, earned a GED, and taken college courses. Rather than reverse the parole boards decision - one of his powers as governor - Newsom praised Nilakout and chose to have an en banc hearing instead I commend him for his efforts in rehabilitation and encourage him to continue on this positive path. However, I find this case warrants the consideration of the full Board of Parole Hearings to determine whether Mr. Nilakout can be safely released at this time. The psychologist who evaluated Mr. Nilakout identified current areas of concern that include the life crime involving extreme violence against unknown and vulnerable victims, [his] participation in documented negative behavior through 2014, and some ongoing deficits in awareness or understanding related to life crime or subsequent negative behavior. The psychologist found that Mr. Nilakouts deficits in awareness and understanding related to the life crime and other more recent negative behavior remain present, [but] seem to be decreasing. While this is an encouraging sign that Mr. Nilakout has made progress in rehabilitation, I ask the full Board to assess whether Mr. Nilakout has sufficiently mitigated his risk factors, and whether his release on parole is consistent with public safety. For these reasons, I refer the decision to parole Mr. Nilakout back to the Board for en banc consideration. Nilakout is one of eight violent immigrant criminals ejected from the country last week and flown by a government Gulfstream jet to East Africa headed to landlocked South Sudan. The men are currently under guard at an American military base in the Republic of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa at the southern tip of the Red Sea amid a fierce legal brawl between an activist federal judge and Trumps administration. Critics and attorneys for the men assert Trumps administration is brazenly attempting to skirt legal proceedings in order to permanently banish them. In April, Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the government to give deportees at least 15 days notice before sending them to a third-country - one where they had previously lived or where they were born. They should also be allowed to tell a court if they fear persecution or torture at their final destinations. But the men were deported anyway with Trump's backing. Other than Nilakout, the men are from countries including Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico. One of them is from South Sudan. So on May 20, an irate Judge Murphy held an emergency hearing and stated U.S. officials must retain custody and control of the migrants while he determines if their removal from the States was unlawful. This in turn prompted swift and fierce pushback from the Department of Homeland Security which controls the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A DHS statement called the men some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, called the judges ruling deranged. She added: These depraved individuals have all had their day in court and been given final deportation orders. 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 dont care. Solana State Prison in California where Nilakout was incarcerated for slaying Gisela Pfleger in 1994 President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi 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. The Supreme Court has now taken up the case. Nilakout was 17 at the time of the slaying near the mountain town of Idyllwild, 110 miles east of Los Angeles. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. However, a ruling in 2012 meant that juveniles convicted a violent crime must be given a chance for parole and freedom. Against Pflegers hopes that he remained in jail, Nilakout was granted parole and he received a final order of removal in July 2023. 'He's no different,' she said. 'He doesn't take full responsibility for shooting my mom when she was lying face down. The only reason my dad is still alive is because he [Nilakout] had run out of bullets.' A former Green Card holder, he then spent five months in ICE custody immediately following his release from prison before being set fully free. He was picked up again by ICE agents on January 26 this year - five days after Trumps second inauguration. Pfleger, who teaches history at California State University, Los Angeles, described all eight men sent to Africa as criminals convicted of heinous crimes. Over the years, the mother-of-two was determined to attend parole hearings for her mothers killers which she described as a traumatic experience. She recalled long drives to be in person for Nilakouts hearings. 'I had two small children at the time, but I took time off from work and time away from my family, she said. I'm this very normal law abiding person. I'd never been close to a prison. That was all very weird. When one of Nilakouts two accomplices was granted parole there was nothing I could do. The parole officers actually said, Our hands are tied. Pfleger criticized the parole process as entirely meaningless when it comes to the victim's input. They've now changed things to the point where you can't even talk about the actual crime. Its all about what has the inmate done since being incarcerated. No one asks about the permanent consequences, pain, suffering of the victims. Despite the deep frustration and disappointment, she has made peace with Nilakouts release from prison. But she has not revealed to her father the updates regarding the three men convicted of his wife's murder as it would be too upsetting for him. He has has social anxiety, she said. He's never recovered. She added: When it came to the parole hearings, I knew that I owed this to my dad. I owe it to the memory of my mom. I owe this to my kids who never got to meet their grandmother. I did everything I could for them not to get out.' Judge Murphy, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, said the U.S. government must 'maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.' He sensationally warned that the administration officials who enabled the deportations to South Sudan of Nilakout and the seven others could potentially face criminal penalties. Federal law specifically prohibits the government from deporting people to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion or where they fear they would face torture. 'I wasn't jumping for joy when I heard that he was on that plane to go to South Sudan,' admitted Pfleger. It's a problem when someone's due process rights are violated. Either we have these rights and they apply to everyone - or we don't. It's dangerous when we don't have them and there are somehow these exceptions. Everyone who is in this country due process rights regardless of immigration status. When a judge says you cannot be deported right now, you have the right to object. You have the right to consult with an attorney. When that doesn't happen then that's a problem. Do I care if he gets released to South Sudan and something happens to him in terms of violence. No, not really. But it's a problem when basic rights are violated by the government. Nothing brings my mother back. Nothing eases my dad's pain. He thinks that they're all still in prison. Where do you draw the line? Here's a convicted murderer but theres a legal process. Now there's an administration that says, "Screw those laws, screw any orders - we're getting rid of them."' Daily Mail has contacted Governor Newsom's office for comment. A 'drug affected' man with a machete has forced a school into lockdown in Geelong. Police were called to Lara Secondary School at 8.40am on Friday after the 24-year-old man was spotted acting strangely outside the school in Victoria's southwest. Police found a machete inside his bag after conducting a search and arrested the man at the scene. He is expected to be charged on summons with weapons offences. The neighbouring Lara Primary School was also locked down as a precaution. A local resident told the Geelong Advertiser the man appeared 'drug affected'. He heard police yell 'get on the ground' at the man. 'It would've been embarrassing for him with all the kids coming past,' he said. The arrest is the latest in a string of violent incidents involving machetes in Victoria, including a brawl involving up to seven teens at a north Melbourne shopping centre. Police were called to Lara Secondary School (pictured) at 8.40am on Friday after a man described as 'drug affected' was spotted acting strangely Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan (pictured) held a snap press conference on Monday to announce the state's machete ban would be fast-tracked Two boys, aged 15 and 16, have been charged over the incident at Northland Shopping Centre, which was captured in terrifying CCTV footage. Another five men have since been charged with various offences. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan held a snap press conference on Monday to announce the state's machete ban would be fast-tracked. The laws banning the sale of machetes were meant to be enforced on September 1, but came into effect on Wednesday. 'Those knives are dangerous weapons,' Premier Allan said. 'They have no place on our streets anywhere and that is why I will introduce as many laws to get these dangerous knives off the streets. '(It) is why I'm announcing today that, effective immediately, we will be bringing in place a ban on the sale of machetes here in Victoria, and this ban will be in place from midday on Wednesday.' The location of Banksy's latest masterpiece has finally been revealed after internet sleuths worked out its whereabouts. Yesterday, the 'graffiti guerilla' posted an image of a lighthouse stencilled on a beige wall to his 13.2million followers on Instagram. The artwork included the words 'I want you to be what you saw in me' and in a second photo two people could be seen walking with their dogs past it. A false shadow was also drawn on the pavement from a nearby bollard to give the illusion the lighthouse is a silhouette of it. Banksy gave little away in regard to the location this time, prompting speculation over where it actually is in the world. However, it has now emerged that it is in Marseille, France - a city with an entrenched history of street art. The mural is on Rue Felix Freiger and it was first seen in the area more than a week ago. It whereabouts was uncovered after an image began circulating online of a person riding a scooter past the piece. A graffiti tag seemingly reading 'Yaze' can be seen further along the wall. It matches a Canadian graffiti artist Marco The Polo who has posted his own work online. This is the latest Banksy work of art, which he shared on his Instagram on Thursday afternoon The street artist has not disclosed the location of his latest piece, but a wider shot shows a little more BEFORE: The mural is on Rue Felix Freiger. Pictures shows the area before the artwork was done : 'Beyond the purely visual, the location of this work seems to be no coincidence either. Speaking of the significance of the location, London art dealer MyArtBroker explained in a post on its website 'As France's oldest and most diverse port city, Marseille has long been a gateway for migrants and a hub for cultural exchange. 'Its neighbourhoods, such as Le Panier and Belle de Mai, are rich in street art and have histories rooted in working-class struggles and immigrant communities.' Yesterday's announcement was the first time Banksy has posted on Instagram since December 16, when he revealed another piece depicting a Madonna and child with a fixture in the wall that resembled a bullet wound in her chest. Banksy, who began his iconic street art more than 25 years ago, has sold his works for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Banksy's identity has been shrouded in secrecy until The Mail on Sunday launched an investigation in 2008, naming Robin Gunningham as the Bristol artist. His identity nevertheless remains unconfirmed. He is also known for his headline-making stunts, such as leaving an inflatable doll dressed as a Guantanamo prisoner in Disneyland, California, and hanging a version of the Mona Lisa - but with a smiley face - in the Louvre, Paris. The mural is on Rue Felix Freiger (pictured) and it was first seen in the area more than a week ago Banksy's Flying Balloon Girl is one of his most recognisable artworks A new Banksy mural appeared on a wall in Hornsey Road, Finsbury Park last March Banksy unveiled nine animal-themed works of art last summer. This was the last one outside London Zoo Last August, Banksy unveiled nine animal-themed artworks in as many days. His final piece depicted a gorilla lifting the shutters of London Zoo to release a sea lion and birds, while other animals appear to look out from the inside. It came after stencils of a goat, elephants, monkeys, a wolf, pelicans, a cat, piranhas and a rhinoceros were drawn across the capital. In a bitter blow to his lifelong bid for anonymity, Banksy could soon lose the right to his own name as he faces a bitter legal challenge to take his trademark away from him. The millionaire graffiti artist, whose team could be made to go public in court, is being forced to defend his trademark of the word Banksy to sell images and merchandise. The case is being brought by Full Colour Black, a greeting card company that sells recreations of Banksy's work. The company owned by Andrew Gallagher has claimed the faceless artist has not used the Banksy trademark and that it should be cancelled for 'non-use'. Moreover, one of Banksy's team will be required to give evidence at a tribunal in the spring to fight against the claims, a source has claimed. This would be the first time someone would be forced to speak on Banksy's behalf in public. The source told The Sun that Banksy, who previously said that 'copyright was for losers', could even be in court but 'we won't know who he is'. Two British holidaymakers have been arrested on suspicion of raping a teenage tourist from the UK at their rented Costa del Sol villa. Friends of the 19-year-old said to have been targeted raised the alarm after finding her unconscious in a bathroom at the property in Marbella. The alleged sex attack is said to have occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning after a group of young female British holidaymakers met the men at a nightclub and agreed to go back to the villa they had rented for their holidays to continue partying. The women found their friend 'naked and unconscious' in the bathroom around 1.30am on Sunday according to local reports. She was taken to Marbella's Costa del Sol Hospital where she underwent a sexual assault forensic examination. Tests took place to see if she had been drugged as part of a new protocol in place on the Costa del Sol. File Photo shows a street in Marbella town, Spain. The alleged sex attack is said to have occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning She is said to have been drinking heavily before being found and officials have not yet said if they believe her drinks could have been spiked. One of the suspects, described locally as a 23-year-old UK national, at the scene of the alleged sex attack. Another, a 27-year-old male who is also British, was reportedly held hours later at a Marbella nightclub after police were given a description matching his by the teenager they assisted. The ongoing probe is being dealt with by Spain's National Police, who are expected to make their first official comment later today. It was not immediately clear this morning if the two suspects have appeared before a judge and been remanded in custody or released on bail pending ongoing inquiries. Initial court appearances in Spain always take place behind closed doors. A young British former flight attendant accused of smuggling 1.2 million of super-strength cannabis into Sri Lanka was in tears today as she appeared in a packed court. Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in Colombo after police discovered 46 kg of 'Kush' - a synthetic strain of cannabis - in her suitcase. She had just arrived in the Sri Lankan capital on a flight from Bangkok in Thailand. She was arrested at Bandaranaike Airport and taken into custody on Monday, May 11. Today Charlotte was filmed in a white dress with her hands behind her back being escorted to a prison van by police outside the court building in Colombo. She was visibly upset and tearful when she appeared in the courtroom. The former TUI flight attendant was held in a cell at the back of the room and then briefly led to the witness box but struggled to follow proceedings because it was in the main language of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese. Police also wheeled in the near-50kg haul of cannabis she was caught carrying into court as their investigation into the drugs bust continues. Charlotte is expected to appear in the dock again in two weeks. She is facing up to 25 years locked in a hellhole Sri Lankan jail - but she has insisted she has been set up. MailOnline spoke to her from her cell last week where she admitted that she had not been eating because the food was too spicy. Charlotte May Lee flanked by police today after she appeared in court on drug smuggling offences Charlotte May Lee, 21, being taken to a prison van in Colombo this morning Charlotte was filmed in a white dress with her hands behind her back being escorted to a prison van by police outside the court building in the Sri Lankan capital. In court today the police wheeled in the near-50kg haul of cannabis she was caught carrying as their investigation into the drugs bust continues. Speaking to MailOnline from behind bars in the woman's ward of a notorious prison last week, Miss Lee said she had 'no idea' that there were drugs in her luggage when she set off for Sri Lanka. She said: 'I had never seen them before. I didn't expect it all when they pulled me over at the airport. I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff. 'I had been in Bangkok the night before and had already packed my clothes because my flight was really early. '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.' Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London , was arrested in the capital Colombo last week, but insists she has been set up. Pictured: Miss Lee speaks with MailOnline from behind bars Charlotte May Lee, 21, is facing years locked in a grim Sri Lankan jail after being caught with 1.2 million worth of cannabis 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. 'They [the people she believed planted the drugs] were supposed to meet me here. But now I'm here - stuck in this jail.' After her arrest, Miss Lee was initially held at the Police Narcotics Bureau for seven days. She says she was forced to sleep on a sofa that had bed bugs with a security guard watching her the whole time. 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 She is now in Negombo Prison, stuck in her crowded cell for 22 hours a day Pictured: Welikada Prison in Colombo where British woman Charlotte May-Lee will be sent if convicted of drug smuggling Pictured: Negombo jail in Sri Lanka, where Charlotte May Lee is being held accused Speaking to MailOnline from behind bars in the woman's ward of the notorious prison, Miss Lee said she had 'no idea' that there were drugs in her luggage Negombo Prison is one of the largest in Sri Lanka with the majority of inmates being men - with a smaller side wing for women like Miss Lee Then on Sunday she was brought to Negombo Magistrates Court where she was given remanded in custody for a further 14 days while she awaits further hearings. At this point she was transferred to Negombo Prison where she still remains, stuck in her crowded cell for 22 hours a day and only let out to eat and briefly stretch her legs. And it was here that she spoke to MailOnline last week to highlight the 'awful' conditions in the prison - revealing she has not eaten any food at all for two days because the prison meals have been making her ill. 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. 'The only thing they give are sleeping tablets that properly knock you out. 'The shower is not really a shower, it's just a bucket that you pour over yourself but they don't give you anything for that. 'They put you in an alleyway with a bunch of other women, that's it.' 'You are only allowed two or three hours outside in the sun a day, occasionally longer if there are a lot of women in court that day. 'I've not eaten in two days because the food is just too spicy for me. 'I have told my lawyers - I have three of them - that I need different food. They said they would sort that but they still haven't. I don't know why. 'Fortunately, some of the girls speak English and have shared biscuits and things like that with me, which is nice. 'All the other British people being held here are men, so I don't get to see them. 'There is no communication. You are told nothing. I couldn't arrange an e-visit with my family or even write a letter.' It has been described as 'Hell' for women - with maggots being reportedly found in food and rats scuttling around extremely overcrowded cells Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, has been arrested in a Sri Lankan airport after 1.15 million of cannabis was allegedly found in her luggage A photograph on Miss Lee's social media shows her in her former job as a TUI stewardess Negombo Prison is one of the largest in Sri Lanka with the majority of inmates being men - with a smaller side wing for women like Charlotte. Miss Lee added: 'Some people are nice, some people are not so nice. 'You can't trust many people - even the lawyers. I was being held in the narcotics unit until Sunday and now I will be here until my next court case. 'They don't care about you. I came in with nothing and have nothing but luckily other people have stuff here they can share with me.' The Londoner, who had been training to become an eyelash technician, attended Negombo Magistrates Court on Monday. There she was accused of two charges, one of possessing illegal drugs and another of importing illegal drugs into Sri Lanka. 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. 'It's unclear what will happen to her now. She may well be sent to Welikada Prison in Colombo.' Welikada Prison in Colombo is the biggest, maximum security jail in Sri Lanka, accommodating both men and women. 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. The haul of drugs, which according to the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) was the largest ever amount of illegal substances found in the airport, were intended for 'high-end local buyers'. Footage provided to MailOnline shows two large suitcases and what appears to be parcels of drugs alongside a group of narcotics detectives who uncovered the alleged smuggling. In the background of the clip, a British woman's voice can be heard laughing and saying 'it's not that, don't worry'. In another partially auditable clip she can be heard saying 'it looks like drugs to me' before later adding 'and I told them I was 21'. Pictures from the scene show six officers in the airport standing over two large suitcases and dozens of large vacuum packed bags of the drug. Officials from the Customs Narcotics Control Unit in the airport said it is the largest amount of Kush ever to be detected since the international hub opened. Her social media accounts show Miss Lee appearing to enjoy working for the travel company The 'massive consignment' is worth the equivalent of 1.2 million in Sri Lankan rupees. Meanwhile 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. According to Miss Lee's friends she has been trying to post updates on her plight on Snapchat. One woman, close to the cabin crew member turned lash technician, said that she was shocked when she heard the allegation - insisting Miss Lee was a 'nice girl' and not a criminal. The friend, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: 'I couldn't believe it. Charlotte is a hard worker and a grafter not a drug smuggler.' Another friend said: 'I am in total shock. 'She is a really nice girl, there were no red flags or anything. 'We saw clips of the arrest and we could hear an English woman, who sounded very much like Charlotte in the background.' Another added: 'She's been told that if convicted, because of the size of the drugs haul, she is looking at between 20 and 25 years in jail. British Embassy staff warned her she's going nowhere soon.' Miss Lee had previously worked as a cabin crew member for TUI, yet friends have said this was only a 'summer contract'. Her social media accounts show her appearing to have a great time working for the travel company, posing in her stewardess uniform and even in the cockpit of one of the planes. Photos shared on her social media show her living a typical life of a young woman in London in her early twenties - out drinking at the pub with friends or dancing at nightclubs. Miss Lee, according to friends, first flew out to Thailand in April to celebrate her 21st birthday with her older sister who was meeting her from Australia, where she now lives. Following the holiday, Miss Lee is said to have returned to Coulsdon, telling mates that she 'loved Thailand and wanted to work out there'. She mentioned around four weeks ago that 'she had a job on a boat' in the south-east Asian country but according to her friend did not mention any immediate plans of returning. Yet last week, the young woman began posting pictures again of beautiful white sand beaches and selfies of her partying abroad. And on Monday, the day of her arrest, she had posted a TikTok of herself on a plane, wearing a facemask, as she flew over a pretty island. She tagged the location of the video as Bangkok. The incident comes just days after a British teenager was arrested in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi after allegedly arriving from Thailand carrying 14kg of cannabis in her luggage. Bella May Culley, 18, is now facing life in prison in the former Soviet country after being accused of illegally buying, possessing and importing large quantities of narcotics. The youngster from Billingham, Country Durham, was believed to have gone missing in Thailand before she was detained 3,700 miles away at Tbilisi International Airport on the charges. Concerns had been raised that the two cases were related as both young women left Bangkok airport on the same day. But Miss Lee told MailOnline she did not know Ms Culley, who has been remanded in custody until her next appearance on July 1. Miss Lee and Miss Culley, who both flew out of Bangkok on Monday, were arrested in the countries within hours of each other, meaning the cases could be related. The FCDO said with regards to Miss Lee's case: 'We are supporting a British woman who has been arrested in Sri Lanka and are in contact with her family and the local authorities.' A doctor has been found guilty of professional misconduct after allegedly playing with a young female patient's nipples before trying to apologise by purchasing her groceries. NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard on Wednesday that a woman, referred to as Patient A, visited Moruya Medical Centre in January 2020, after injuring her knee. The woman, who was 31 at the time, was treated by Dr Sharwan Narayan, now 45, who she described as a 'nice, knowledgeable doctor'. But over the course of her next few appointments, the tribunal noted the doctor's conduct became inappropriate. During one visit, the date of which was unclear, Patient A told the tribunal she was 'a bit shocked' when Dr Narayan allegedly asked her to hug him. On February 18, during a massage of Patient A's leg, the tribunal heard Dr Narayan massaged further up so his hands were 'quite close to her pubic area'. 'Patient A said she didn't say anything, she shut down. She had learned to disassociate during trauma she had suffered as a child,' the tribunal said. Dr Narayan said he would perform a skin check after removing a mole the week before and, when Patient A said she wasn't wearing a bra, he reportedly told her: 'Just pull it down, it's fine.' Dr Sharwan Narayan has been found guilty of misconduct by a NSW tribunal after he allegedly offered to give a young female patient the 'best orgasm of her life' Patient A alleged Dr Narayan started cupping her breasts: 'He tweaked or played with her nipples even though she had not said anything about having any issue,' the tribunal heard. 'He said "oh they're not hard", referring to her nipples. Patient A understood him to mean that she was not aroused.' The young woman allegedly froze and made a non-committal response while 'just waiting for it to be over'. Patient A attended three more appointments at the centre after experiencing deep vein thrombosis. During a visit on March 13, the tribunal heard the doctor asked the woman about her sex life during a knee massage, including if her partner was able to give her orgasms. When Dr Narayan finished, the tribunal heard he kept talking about 'sexual stuff' and said he'd taught a lesbian couple how to give each other the best orgasms. 'Then he said "I can give you the best orgasm of your life". I was like "ok". He again asked me for a hug and I just stood there. I then left,' Patient A told the tribunal. He had never said anything sexual before, although she thought he had touched her inappropriately, the tribunal heard. The tribunal heard Dr Narayan gave the patient an ALDI shopping bag filled with ice cream and chocolates and allegedly apologised to the patient during a follow-up scan (stock image) The tribunal heard the doctor phoned the young woman when she did not turn up to a pre-booked appointment for a follow up scan. He said he was sorry if he had made her uncomfortable at the last appointment and asked her to come to Batemans Bay Hospital for a free DVT scan. At the hospital, Dr Narayan gave her a big ALDI shopping bag and allegedly said: 'This is for you. l'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or I thought I may have made you feel uncomfortable so this is for you.' The tribunal heard there was a big tub of ice cream, kombucha, Dove moisturiser and chocolates in the bag which Patient A estimated would have cost more than $50. When she left, the tribunal noted 'she felt really uncomfortable and felt as if he was trying to bribe her'. On one occasion after the hospital trip, she reportedly called Dr Narayan to obtain a prescription but did not return to the centre until after he had left the practice. Dr Narayan denied the allegations made by Patient A during the tribunal. His legal team was contacted by Daily Mail Australia for comment. Dr Narayan has denied the allegations made during the tribunal (stock image) In its decision, the tribunal said the doctor's conduct was of a 'very serious nature and demonstrates a significant departure from accepted standards'. 'Patient A was a vulnerable patient. To receive healthcare, she needed to allow Dr Narayan to conduct physical examinations,' the decision said. 'A breach of sexual boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship exploits this power imbalance.' Dr Narayan was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and of professional misconduct. The tribunal will determine protective orders following a further Stage 2 hearing. Dr Narayan worked in medical imaging for 18 years before earning a Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Notre Dame in 2015. He was registered in 2016 as a GP and worked as a GP registrar at the Moruya Medical Centre from February 2019 to August 2020. In June 2023, Dr Narayan's license as a medical practitioner was suspended for three months. He had been found guilty by NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct towards a different patient and two colleagues. When he returned to work, conditions were imposed which included that he practise under supervision, undergo mentoring and attend for treatment with a psychologist. News.com.au has reported that he is currently working as a general practitioner on Norfolk Island, with conditions attached to his registration. Flood waters at the Swiss village obliterated by a glacial avalanche continued to rise by a staggering 80cm (2.6ft) every hour overnight, raising fears that a tidal wave could soon swamp and destroy more nearby communes. The danger of flooding and further erosion remains high around the Alpine village of Blatten, which saw 90 per cent of the town destroyed on Wednesday when the Birch glacier partially collapsed. Experts had anticipated a growing lake forming between the debris would start to overflow overnight. At one point on Thursday, water levels in the reservoir were rising at three metres (9.8ft) every hour, Tages-Anzeiger reports, with water still crashing in from the Lonza River. State Councilor Stephane Ganzer said the possibility of a massive flood wave rolling down the valley cannot yet be ruled out. Temperatures of 20C (68F) are expected on Friday, heightening the risk of snow melting and adding to the build up. Fearing the potential overspill, regional command staff have prepared two more local villages for rapid evacuation, announced overnight. Some 2,000 residents of Gampel and Steg have been asked to organise alternative accommodation beyond the valley. Residents of two downriver villages, Kippel and Wiler, have already been evacuated as a precaution. Blatten, anticipating the glacier collapse, was evacuated in advance, though one person remains missing. Swiss authorities were on Thursday monitoring for possible flood risk in a southern valley A satellite image shows the destroyed houses and blocked Lonza River, after a glacier in the Swiss Alps partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village, in Blatten, Switzerland May 29 Soldiers load heavy machinery onto trailers to aid the site of the catastrophic mud slide Between 19 and 28 May, several million cubic meters of rock fell from the Kleines Nesthorn mountain above Blatten, forming a nine-million-tonne debris cone on the Birch Glacier One person went missing, and numerous houses were destroyed after a large part of Blatten, which had been evacuated earlier, was buried under masses of ice, mud, and rock Your browser does not support iframes. Rescue teams have been looking for the 64-year-old man missing since the landslide. But local authorities were forced to suspend the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now, and warning of further rockfalls. Flooding increased yesterday as the mound of debris almost 2 km (1.2 miles) across clogged the path of the river, causing a lake to form amid the wreckage. Authorities declared a local state of emergency as they monitor the situation. 'There is a serious risk of an ice jam that could flood the valley below,' Antoine Jacquod, a military security official, told the Keystone-ATS news agency. 'We're going to try to assess its dimensions today,' added Jacquod, speaking on Thursday. An artificial dam was preemptively emptied to receive the water pushed back by the wall of ice, earth and rubble. The Valais cantonal government has meanwhile asked the army to provide clearing equipment and pumps to secure the riverbed. Your browser does not support iframes. This photograph taken above Wiler shows a Super Puma helicopter of the Swiss Air Forces flying next to the rest of the huge Birch Glacier, on May 29, 2025 Tthe Bietschhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps on Thursday, after part of the huge Birch Glacier collapsed the day before Mud and rocks slide down a mountain after a glacier partially collapsed covering most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland May 28 Hundreds of homes in the Alpine village, normally home to 300 people, were destroyed and one person is currently missing, officials said The destruction of Blatten village after a massive avalanche triggered by the collapse of the Birch Glacier, Switzerland, 29 May 2025 A satellite image shows Blatten after a glacier in the Swiss Alps partially collapsed and tumbled onto the village, May 29, 2025 'The deposit ... is not very stable, and debris flow is possible within the deposit itself (which) makes any intervention in the disaster area impossible for the time being,' cantonal authorities stated, adding there was risk on both sides of the valley. 'The water from the River Lonza cannot flow down the valley because there is an enormous plug,' explained Raphael Mayoraz, the cantonal official in charge of natural hazard management. 'The lake behind the debris is getting higher and higher. And the water masses are pressing on the dam. This increases the pressure,' Christoph Hegg of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) told Blick. 'The worst case scenario is that the load on the dam becomes too great and the dam breaks. The water masses then rush into the valley and, depending on the strength of the material, are likely to sweep the debris with them.' New images shot from a helicopter above Blatten lay bare the scale of the destruction - and the likelihood that its neighbouring settlements could face a deluge. The village of Kippel is at a lower risk in the event of a flood as much of the properties are situated further up the banks. But locals told 20 Minuten that a newly constructed sewage treatment facility and power plant could be demolished. A campsite that routinely welcomes holidaymakers also lies directly in the path of floodwaters. Footage showed a cloud of ice and scree pluming as rockfall headed towards the valley following the glacier collapse yesterday A cow is flown by helicopter from the landslide area near the Bietschhorn in the Loetschental valley to a farm, during evacuations on May 20 Residents and cows were evacuated from the village last week As the government and emergency services work to avoid another catastrophe, officials and residents of Blatten told of their horror following the disaster that erased their livelihoods. 'I don't want to talk just now. I lost everything yesterday. I hope you understand,' one middle-aged woman from Blatten told a Reuters reporter, declining to give her name as she sat alone disconsolately in front of a church in Wiler. Chef Herbert Burgisser, who operated a hotel business in Blatten, told Blick he had planned to renovate the property. 'Now everything is gone,' he said solemnly. 'The unimaginable has happened,' Blatten's president Matthias Bellwald told a press conference in the immediate aftermath. 'We have lost our village, but not our hearts.' 'Even though the village lies under a huge pile of rubble, we know where our homes and our church must be rebuilt,' he added. The initial disaster occurred at around 3:30pm local time on Wednesday when a huge chunk of the Birch glacier broke off. Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, said while various factors were at play in Blatten, it was known that local permafrost had been affected by warmer temperatures in the Alps. The loss of permafrost can negatively affect the stability of the mountain rock which is why climate change had likely played a part in the deluge, Huggel said. A general view of the village of Blatten buried under mud and rocks after a massive avalanche triggered by the collapse of the Birch Glacier, Switzerland, 29 May 2025 A car is air-lifted on the day after the huge Birch Glacier collapsed and a massive landslide destroyed the evacuated small village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps, on May 29, 2025 Blatten and its surroundings in the Bietschhorn mountain of the Swiss Alps, Switzerland on May 29, 2025 Swiss authorities were on May 29, 2025 monitoring for possible flood risk in a southern valley, following the massive glacier collapse The extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century, he added. Swiss glaciers, severely impacted by climate change, melted as much in 2022 and 2023 as between 1960 and 1990, losing in total about 10 percent of their volume. In late August 2017, approximately 3.1 million cubic meters of rock fell from Pizzo Cengalo, a mountain in the Alps in Graubuenden canton, near the Italian border, claiming the lives of eight hikers. Some 500,000 cubic metres of rock and mud flowed as far as the town of Bondo, causing significant material damage but no casualties. In 2023, residents of the village of Brienz in eastern Switzerland were evacuated before a huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside, stopping just short of the settlement. Brienz was evacuated again last year because of the threat of a further rockslide. A senior Labour minister today defended Sir Keir Starmer's top legal adviser as he faced fury for linking calls for Britain to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to Nazi ideology. In an astonishing speech last night Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, hit out at MPs and the media for being behind a 'siren song' pushing for Britain to drop international law. Speaking at a London think tank the former human rights lawyer and close friend of the Prime Minister said such 'songs' had been heard before, citing Nazi ideologist Carl Schmitt, who supported Hitler's policies such as the Night of the Long Knives assassinations. In a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security think-tank, he said the Labour Government had a 'policy of progressive realism' that means it will never leave international conventions such as the ECHR. Numerous senior politicians on the Right have called for Britain to leave the convention after it blocked Rwanda deportation flights. Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick, who has led calls for the UK to quit the framework set up after the Second World War to protect civilians, was among those who lashed out at the comparison, branding it 'appalling'. But Education Minister Catherine McKinnell said that his speech had been 'quite thoughtful'. And she doubled down on the link between quitting the ECHR and dictators, telling Times Radio: 'Any discussion around withdrawing from the international stage just supports people and the agenda of people like [Vladimir] Putin.' Lord Hermer, Keir Starmer's top legal adviser (pictured), came under fire after apparently comparing those who support leaving the likes of the European Convention on Human Rights to Nazis The row comes after complaints about Lord Hermer, who is a close friend of the Prime Minister (pictured on Thursday), both having been human rights lawyers Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has stopped short of calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as other Conservative figures have advocated. However, she suggested the UK would have to leave the convention if it stops the country from doing 'what is right'. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he would get rid of the ECHR, and told ITV in April that 'we have to get back the ability to decide, can we really control our borders'. In his lecture, the Attorney General said: 'Our approach is a rejection of the siren song that can sadly now be heard in the Palace of Westminster and in some spectrums of the media, that Britain abandons the constraints of international law in favour of raw power. 'This is not a new song. The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when conditions change, is a claim that was made in the early 1930s by 'realist' jurists in Germany, most notably Carl Schmitt, whose central thesis was in essence the claim that state power is all that counts, not law. 'Because of the experience of what followed in 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law, as well as internal constitutional law.' He conceded that 'international law cannot stand still and rest on its laurels', that it must be 'critiqued and where necessary reformed and improved' and that 'we must be ready to reform where necessary'. But critics point out that the ECHR is unlikely to bow to calls for reform amid accusations it has overstepped its remit in a string of cases. Tory justice spokesman Mr Jenrick, an advocate of ending Britain's 72-year membership, said: 'The idea you can reform the ECHR is fanciful as it requires unanimity from all 46 signatories. 'It is appalling Hermer would insinuate those who think we should leave the ECHR are like the Nazis. '[Foreign Secretary] David Lammy tried that disgusting smeer with Brexiteers and it didn't work for him. It won't work for Hermer either. 'It seems Labour haven't learned a thing.' The European Court of Human Rights, where the convention is enforced, in Strasbourg in May Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick (pictured in October), an advocate of ending Britain's 72-year membership, said: 'The idea you can reform the ECHR is fanciful' The row comes after complaints about Lord Hermer, who is a close friend of the Prime Minister, both having been human rights lawyers. His suitability has also been questioned after it emerged that, before taking up the role last year, he repeatedly brought cases against the Government on behalf of terrorists, including 9/11 plotter Mustafa al-Hawsawi and jihadi bride Shamima Begum. He also acted for former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA. The Attorney General's office was contacted for comment. In a startling intervention, Donald Trump's envoy to the Ukraine has declared that Russia's long-standing gripes over NATO expansion are fair. Asked by ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, retired Keith Kellogg said: 'It's a fair concern.' 'We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that'. The comment is likely to spark debate, especially among European allies deeply rattled by Moscow's aggression. Kellogg also claimed that 'four other countries' within NATO also oppose Ukraine's membership, a pointed reference to the alliance's strict rule requiring unanimous approval from all 32 member nations before admitting a new country. The scope of Russia's anxiety doesn't end with Ukraine. 'They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova,' Kellogg said. The key Trump confidant and former National Security Adviser added the future of NATO enlargement ultimately rests with Trump. Amid an ongoing diplomatic push to end the bloodshed, Kellogg confirmed that the US is preparing to sit down for peace talks in Istanbul next week, alongside advisers from Germany, France, and the UK. The plan is to merge separate the two memorandums drafted by Ukraine and Russia into a single document. Keith Kellogg, pictured right, a key Trump confidant and former National Security Adviser, added the future of NATO enlargement ultimately rests with Trump Vladimir Putin (pictured) will invade a NATO country if he succeeds in Ukraine, it has been warned US Special Envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 20, 2025 'When we get into Istanbul next week we'll sit down and talk,' Kellogg confirmed, setting the stage for the high-stakes negotiations. Kellogg said Trump was 'frustrated' with Russia because he had seen 'a level of unreasonableness' from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He scolded Russia for striking Ukrainian cities and said he had told Ukraine to turn up to talks. A conservative estimate of dead and injured in the Ukraine war - from both sides combined - totals 1.2 million, Kellogg said. 'That is a stunning number - this is war on an industrial scale,' Kellogg told ABC. It comes as David Petraeus, a respected former US general and CIA chief, warned that Putin will invade a NATO country if he succeeds in Ukraine. He said Russia could launch an incursion into that Baltic state to test Western resolve or as a precursor to a wider offensive. Mr Petraeus, who headed the CIA after a stellar military career, also criticised US President Donald Trump for repeatedly granting second chances to Putin and took aim at predecessor Joe Biden for failures to adequately arm Ukrainian forces. A serviceman of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attends a military drill as a recruit near a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, May 26, 2025 Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire in a trolleybus depot following a drone strike in Kharkiv on May 30, 2025 Firefighters working to extinguish a fire following a drone strike in Odesa, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, May 30, 2025 David Petraeus (pictured), a respected former US general and CIA chief, claimed Lithuania would be most at risk The CIA chief who led tens of thousands of US, British and other nationality troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, also called on the UK to withdraw from international accords forbidding the use of cluster munitions on the battlefield. He said that these weapons could prove an essential deterrent. Mr Petraeus stated that Russia's aim was to topple president Volodymyr Zelensky in order to 'install a puppet leader and to control all of Ukraine'. He added: 'Once that's done, you are going to see them focus on one of the Baltic states. 'Lithuania has featured prominently in his speeches and we should have listened a lot more.' Barry Billcliff's life reflects his unyielding spirit and diverse pursuits. As a multifaceted entrepreneur and adventurer, his story spans industries and exploits that have captivated public attention. Yet, behind the headlines lies a deeper narrative of resilience, innovation, and a constant pursuit of success. Barry Billcliff has built a career in construction and the press, earning recognition for his forward-thinking strategies and bold personality. But his journey has not been without challenges. From legal disputes to daring stunts that captured public attention, Barry Billcliff has navigated a complex path to shape his legacy. This profile explores the truth behind the man who refuses to be confined by convention or controversy. The Antique Money Mystery One of the most intriguing chapters in his story is the 2005 antique money case. At the time, Barry Billcliff and three othersCrebase, Kozak, and Inghamfaced charges related to stolen currency valued at over $100,000. The case garnered significant media attention due to its unusual circumstances. The antique money was returned to Billcliff after charges were dropped for lack of probable cause. No probable cause was ever established, leading to the case's dismissal. It is crucial to note that Barry Billcliff and his co-defendants were found entirely innocent, a fact often overlooked in media coverage. What happened next remains a mystery. The antique currency has never been sold or seen in the marketplace since its return to Barry Billcliff. "Nobody knows what I did with it," he says wryly. "And that's how it will stay." Despite the initial charges, Barry Billcliff was never convicted of any felonies in this case or any other legal matter. This fact underscores his ability to rise above allegations and focus on building a future defined by accomplishments rather than accusations. The OSHA Dispute: A Case of Retribution Barry Billcliff's ventures in construction have not been without controversy either. Merrimack Valley Roofing, one of his flagship businesses, incurred an OSHA fine exceeding $150,000a penalty later proven to be rooted in personal retribution rather than legitimate violations. The dispute stemmed from an argument between Barry Billcliff and OSHA agent Brett Buzzle, which escalated into what the former describes as a "targeted attack" on his company. "I wasn't even an owner at the time," Barry Billcliff explains. "The ruling was overturned on appeal because it was clear this wasn't about safety violationsit was about personal vendettas." The fine initially cast a shadow over Merrimack Valley Roofing's reputation, but ultimately became proof of Barry's resilience in fighting back against unfair treatment. Today, Merrimack Valley Roofing is a model for innovation in construction, using AI to streamline operations and address labor shortages. With U.S. construction spending exceeding $2 trillion in 2024, Billcliff's modernization efforts position him as a leader in a traditionally change-resistant sector. A Life of Adventure and Reinvention Barry Billcliff's life is as much about adventure as it is about entrepreneurship. From climbing the Great Pyramid of Giza to being chased by the LAPD for vandalizing the Hollywood sign, his exploits are legendaryand polarizing. These stunts are not mere acts of bravado but expressions of a philosophy that values living life to its fullest. "People get so caught up in their routines that they forget to really live," Billcliff reflects. "I want to inspire others to break free from the mundane." His adventures serve as a reminder that life should be lived on one's terms, a message that resonates with those who admire his audacity and creativity. Yet, his adventurous streak has also led to legal trouble. Despite these challenges, he remains undeterred, using each experience as a catalyst for growth. This ability to turn adversity into opportunity is a hallmark of his character. It allows him to navigate multiple industries with purpose and direction. A Legacy Still Being Written Barry Billcliff defies easy categorization because he refuses to be boxed into any one identity or industry. He is at once a builder and disruptor, an adventurer and pragmatist, a figure whose past controversies serve not as anchors but as catalysts for reinvention. Barry Billcliff continues to expand his influence across construction, philanthropy, press, and music. He remains focused on rewriting his narrative by building lasting businesses and communities rather than relying solely on spectacle. "I've done things most people wouldn't dream of," he says with characteristic candor. "But at the end of the day, what matters most is leaving something behind that improves people's lives." In his world, success is not just about what you achieveit's about how you adapt and evolve along the way. And while his story is still unfolding, one thing is certain: it will never be boring. Barry Billcliff's journey challenges us to look beyond the headlines and controversies that often define public figures. It invites us to consider the complexities of a life lived fully and unapologeticallya life that, despite its challenges, remains a reflection of resilience and innovation. As Billcliff continues to manage the changes in his industry, his legacy will be shaped by his achievements and the impact he leaves on those around him. Whether through his businesses, adventures, or strong commitment to living life on his own terms, Barry Billcliff remains an enigmatic figure who inspires and intrigues in equal measure. The homeless man who befriended British tourist Hannah Almond in Peru when she was robbed and left penniless on the streets has tragically died. Hannah spent around a month living under a bridge with the elderly vagrant and was filmed desperately trying to stop officials taking him away in a car after aggressive locals forced the pair to move and burned their belongings. The 32-year-old fashion graduate from Grimsby was then tracked down by a friend who travelled to Cusco from his home in Lima after he learned of her desperate situation. She is expected to be flown back to the UK to continue her recovery from mental health problems, said to have been a contributing factor to the horror situation she found herself in after travelling to the South American country on a yoga retreat to 'find herself.' Overnight it emerged the elderly man she has spent much of the last few weeks with died at a charity-run OAP home he had been taken to after a brief stay at a hostel. He is understood to have been found dead in his bed yesterday, with local media reporting he died after contracting bronchial pneumonia. Local authorities have confirmed that the man, known by locals as the 'grandfather under the bridge', has yet to be identified. They are now expected to try to find out who he is with fingerprint tests as part of an autopsy and a possible public appeal. If he cannot be formally identified he is likely to be buried in a pauper's grave. It is not yet clear whether Hannah, whose mental health is known to be unstable, has been told the devastating news about the man described as the sole person she trusted after ending up on the streets. Hannah Almond befriended an elderly homeless man (pictured together) and the pair sheltered together in a makeshift camp under the Belen Bridge in Cusco Hannah, 32, a fashion graduate from Grimsby, was left stranded, penniless and unable to reliably contact her family after the attack Last Thursday, Hannah and the man were violently removed by a group of merchants on Avenue Ejercito, according to witnesses All of her belongings were burnt (above) when she was robbed in Peru During their time sheltering together beneath Cusco's Belen Bridge, local media reports that Hannah treated the elderly man's wounds and shared food with him. Then last Thursday, Hannah and the man were violently removed by a group of merchants on Avenue Ejercito, who pushed them, threatened them with sticks, and then burned all their belongings, according to witnesses. The scenes sparked outrage across the city and forced police to intervene, with video later showing the elderly man being put into a police vehicle before he was taken to the home. The man had been the only person Hannah trusted, with the trauma from the attack leaving her too scared to accept help from embassy officials. She was eventually found on Sunday by Piero Villanueva, who she had met briefly in Lima and who travelled to Cusco to look for her after MailOnline raised awareness of her plight. She is expected to return to the UK soon. Henry Gonzales, a legal advisor for a Cusco public beneficence department, confirmed Hannah's friend's death, saying he had been admitted to the OAP residence where he died with the initials NN which stand for Ningun Nombre or No Name in English. He also claimed the homeless man had appeared to be okay health-wise when local authorities took him in, adding: 'He had already been assigned a bed and a room in his new residence.' The dead man's body is now at a morgue in Cusco. There is nothing at this stage pointing to his death being crime-related. A GoFundMe appeal set up by friends of Hannah's to help her get back to the UK from Peru before she vanished after her forced eviction now stands at nearly 95 per cent of its 10,000 target. Video showed the elderly man being put into a police vehicle before he was taken to the home 'Hannah recognised me and approached me crying and I asked her to leave with me. Thank God she's safe,' Piero Villanueva told local TV. Pictured: The two are after the rescue She was found earlier this week after briefly going missing by Piero Villanueva who spent time with her in Lima after she arrived in Peru in March before she moved on to Cusco. Hannah's pal Sophie Wallace had revealed on the GoFundMe page before her worrying disappearance late last week: 'Hannah travelled to Peru in March hoping for an adventure but instead she has found herself in a terrifying and heartbreaking situation. 'She was robbed and assaulted, losing her passport, phone, and all of her money. 'Since then Hannah's mental health, something she has long struggled with, has severely declined. 'She is now in the midst of a mental health crisis, living under a bridge with a homeless man she befriended, the only person she currently trusts. Mr Villanueva (left) travelled to Cusco to help Hannah Almond (right) after he learned of her ordeal Ms Almond had been in Peru since March on a yoga retreat 'Despite attempts to help her through official channels, Hannah is deeply fearful and unable to accept support from the embassy or local authorities. 'She is extremely vulnerable, isolated, and not safe living on the streets of Peru.' Local traders were filmed pushing and threatening the former Leeds Beckett University fine arts student before she disappeared after complaining about her 'aggressive' behaviour towards them. Mark Atkinson, the British Consul in Peru, told local media Hannah arrived in Cusco in early March as a tourist and did not plan to overstay her visa as he revealed her immigration status was now in limbo. He said before she sparked fears for her safety by vanishing that the embassy had coordinated help with local police and offered direct support including hotel accommodation and food, but she kept returning to the same bridge she had been sleeping under before her forced eviction. Figures from Labour and the SNP are calling for a Scottish Highlands tax on campervans in a bid to raise cash and help maintain the area, as it is warned the country's roads cannot cope with an influx of tourists. The number of visitors to the Highlands has risen by 65 percent since 2012, and many of those visiting bring campervans as they tour the region. Some 36,000 campervans visited the Highlands in 2022, according to the local council, with many encouraged by the development of the North Coast 500, a scenic 500-mile route dubbed 'Scotland's Route 66'. A recent study by Glasgow Caledonian University found the 2015 project has boosted the local economy by 22 million a year, creating about 200 full-time jobs. But tensions have been rising in the Highlands as the area increases in popularity, with complaints from locals that campervan drivers clog up the roads and leave rubbish behind. Labour's Shaun Fraser, who will be standing as their candidate for Inverness and Nairn in the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections, told the Telegraph: 'Initiatives such as the North Coast 500 have transformed the dynamics of Highland tourism, with a huge rise in campervans using rural singletrack highland roads. Our roads cannot cope with this. It is a mixed blessing. Figures from Labour and the SNP are calling for a Scottish Highlands tax on campervans in a bid to raise cash and help maintain the area The council already introduced a voluntary scheme for campervan drivers, who can now pay 40 for a week's pass which would give drivers access to local car parks and daily shower facilities 'Highland communities and local services must benefit from tourism. I support a fair and well-designed visitor levy and sensible measures to manage the impact of campervans. 'I would be open to looking at options attached to campervans, including number plate recognition to charge visiting campervans using highland roads. I think that this should be considered.' Current MSP for the SNP, Emma Roddick, separately called for campervan users to be included in a wider tourist tax being considered by the council. Highlands Council is currently deliberating whether to implement a five percent levy on overnight accommodation. It is said this could raise 10 million per year - and this figure could rise if campervans are included. The council already introduced a voluntary scheme for campervan drivers, who can now pay 40 for a week's pass which would give drivers access to local car parks and daily shower facilities. It is hoped the scheme will eventually raise 500,000. Frustrated locals previously called for an overnight parking ban due to the quantity of touring campervans in the region. Problems cited at the time included rubbish left behind, with the council's 40 scheme not providing waste disposal. The BBC has been accused of wreaking environmental damage on a National Trust estate in order to film Springwatch. Residents in the Peak District claim the production team for the hugely popular nature programme is destroying an area of the Longshaw Estate. Live filming for the 20th anniversary series of the programme - fronted by environmental campaigner Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan - is taking place on the estate, which sits within the Peak District National Park, near Sheffield. But images taken by local resident Christine Laver, supplied to MailOnline, show what some alleged to be hypocritical behaviour on the part of the BBC Natural History Unit, part of BBC Studios, the commercial production arm of the broadcaster. Steel plates are laid out across part of the estate - which only some vehicles belonging to the production team are parked on, with others in the grass. Large plates were also laid out across paths and ditches were filled in with bags of stones, topped with plastic mats to widen the roads for larger vehicles such as production lorries. The BBC and the National Trust both say the site will be restored to its original condition once filming is concluded. But in a viral social media post Ms Laver said the apparent damage reflected 'the reality of Springwatch at Longshaw'. Pictured: The production crew compound at the BBC Springwatch location on the National Trust's Longshaw estate Live filming for the 20th anniversary series of the programme - fronted by environmental campaigner Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan - is taking place on the estate Large plates were laid out across paths and ditches were filled in with bags of stones, topped with plastic mats to widen the roads for larger vehicles such as production lorries She wrote: 'Tons of limestone tipped in a gritstone landscape to facilitate access for huge lorries. Ditches blocked and tracks widened by vehicles they were never designed for. 'A meadow covered in steel plating, just when the wildflowers are coming into bloom and dozens of staff and production vehicles parked there. 'How many tons of CO2 will this lot produce in 3 weeks, Chris Packham?' The first episode of the latest series of Springwatch, which aired on Monday, opened with Chris and Michaela praising the habitats and the wildlife at the location. Among Longshaw's fauna are wild hares, herds of deer and birds including short-eared owls and ring ouzels. But some of those who saw Ms Laver's post fear that the wildlife may have been disrupted. The BBC has denied this is the case. 'Saw a pair of curlews in the field the wagons are in now, probs a week before the arrived, two days in a row,' one said. 'If they had a nest, that'll be trashed now.' Pictured: The BBC Springwatch location on the National Trust's Longshaw estate The first episode of the latest series of Springwatch, which aired on Monday, opened with Chris(pictured) and Michaela praising the habitats and the wildlife at the location The BBC Springwatch production site at Longshaw Estate - a National Trust site in the Peak District National Park One social media user opined that it was an example of 'hypocrisy and feeding a narrative' on the part of the BBC. Another, referring to Chris Packham, said: 'The hypocrisy of these environmentalists knows no bounds. Educate and inform by all means but stop the campaigning.' The BBC and National Trust supplied MailOnline with similar statements outlining how the site would be preserved after production came to an end. Some have given the broadcaster the benefit of the doubt as production continues. One said: 'Why not be thankful for the good that comes from this programme? For me personally I think it is fantastic that Springwatch is coming from my own backyard.' Another commented: 'I like they are trying to [put] wildlife to the forefront of people's attention and get people interested in wildlife and support mental health. 'And all people can do is look at the negative side if things. 'They're not destroying habitats to build homes like the government. They're trying to bring the beautiful side of nature.' Among Longshaw's fauna are wild hares, herds of deer and birds including short-eared owls and ring ouzels. Pictured: Part of the production site The BBC and National Trust supplied MailOnline with similar statements outlining how the site would be preserved after production came to an end. Picture taken by Ms Laver The row comes despite Chris being a prominent environmentalist campaigner and vocal supporter of groups such as Just Stop Oil. In November last year, he joined thousands of people marching through central London to demand the government cleans up Britain's waterways. Speaking outside Westminster, he said: 'Rachel Reeves gave a Budget in 2024, whilst Valencia was being flooded and people were losing their lives, and she didn't use the word climate or nature once in that Budget. Now that's scary.' Pointing at Parliament, Mr Packham added: 'I know there are plenty of MPs and ministers over there who are desperate to do what they need to do and do their job - but they need to be given access to the resources, and part of that is finance.' Meanwhile in April last year Chris joined Extinction Rebellion protesters as they stormed the Science Museum's new climate gallery over its sponsorship by a mining company. The criticism centred on the fact the gallery's sponsor the Adani Group derives 60 per cent of its revenue from the coal industry. Speaking to the 30-strong band of young people, scientists and activists, Mr Packham deemed the sponsorship deal 'beyond greenwash it's grotesque'. He continued: 'Science tells us that the fossil fuel industry is responsible for the accelerating destruction of our natural world. Chris Packham led Extinction Rebellion protesters in April last year as they stormed the Science Museum's new climate gallery over its sponsorship by a mining company Chris Packham joins activists from Just Stop Oil as they form a rolling protest in central London in 2023 'The Science Museum is a place to spark imagination, to provide answers but also to encourage us to ask questions. 'The question I'm asking today is a big one, 'why on earth are we allowing a destructive industry to sponsor an educational exhibition whilst simultaneously setting fire to young peoples futures?' 'This is beyond greenwash - it's grotesque.' A BBC spokesperson said of the Springwatch row: 'At Longshaw the Springwatch team is working in cooperation with the National Trust. 'The field location was confirmed as appropriate for temporary use by local land managers and no wildlife has been displaced. 'All of the surfaces installed and modifications are temporary, and the National Trust will undertake any works that may be needed to reinstate the site once Springwatch has departed. 'This restoration includes reseeding fields, restoring ditches, and reverting any landscape changes. 'Minimising our environmental impact is a top priority and Springwatch is certified by BAFTA Albert, which encourages sustainable TV and film production. 'Whilst on location, our main power source is a green hydrogen fuel cell, dramatically reducing our CO emission.' In a similarly worded statement, the National Trust said it would 'uphold the highest possible environmental standards' during production. MailOnline has contacted representatives of Chris Packham for comment. Very few Londoners feel an attachment to the rest of England, arguing that the capital's 'diversity and multiculturalism' are what sets it apart from other regions, a new poll has revealed. Only 29 per cent of those living in London feel a 'very strong attachment' to the country, compared with 38 per cent who said they hold a stronger affinity towards the city, a YouGov survey has shown. In new research that sought to uncover the strength of regional identities across the UK, 30 per cent of Londoners were found to believe that the capital's 'diversity and multiculturalism' are its most distinctive feature. And, while one in nine (11 per cent) indicated that its famous historical attractions were what made the city so unique, a mere eight per cent of participants argued that it was the London Underground, the oldest underground railway network worldwide. The results come amid increased debate surrounding the impact of mass migration on identity within the UK, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently stating that Britain was at risk of becoming an 'island of strangers' without stricter rules on migration. The PM was forced to stand by his remark after he was accused of using language similar to Enoch Powell's notorious 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Mr Powell had said the native British population had 'found themselves made strangers in their own country' because of mass immigration. Downing Street said there was no comparison between the phrases. Only an estimated 29 per cent of those living in London feel a 'very strong attachment' to the country, compared with 38 per cent who said they held a stronger affinity towards the city Those in the North East were shown to have the highest proportion (48 per cent) of individuals who felt a 'very strong' attachment to their region. Meanwhile, in the East Midlands, a mere 11 per cent of participants noted feeling attached to the area Indicating varying regional and national identities, the new findings have shown that people were more likely to express a strong attachment to England than their particular region in the East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England and South-East of England A separate poll by YouGov found 53 per cent of people agreed with the PM's sentiment and half thought his language was 'acceptable'. The survey also found there was little confidence that the Government will reduce immigration levels. Now, indicating varying regional and national identities, the new findings have shown that people were more likely to express a strong attachment to England than their particular region in the East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England and South-East of England. Alongside the high figures reported in London, those in the North East were shown to have the highest proportion (48 per cent) of individuals who felt a 'very strong' attachment to their region. When asked what makes their area so unique, those surveyed provided an array of varying answers. One in five in the North East (20 per cent) and North West (19 per cent) believed that friendliness or a sense of human were the most distinguishing characteristic, while others praised the area's natural scenery. For Southerners, however, marine features were seen to be the most prominent, with 24 per cent of those living in the South West indicating that the region's beaches, coast or sea were the most noteworthy. For others, natural features, such as countryside or scenery, were what made the area stand out, ranking as the most distinctive thing about the area for 36 per cent from Yorkshire and the Humber, 34 per cent of Scots, and 30 per cent of those living in Wales. Indicating a strong sense of regional identity, the majority of Brits surveyed believed that their region was the most superior place to live across the UK, with more than 80 per cent of those in the South West arguing that their area was 'a lot better' than elsewhere When asked what makes their area so unique, participants provided an array of varying answers ranging from natural beauty, friendliness of residents and marine features. However, many struggled to give an answer at all - with 6 per cent in London, the North East of England and the South West believing there was nothing distinctive about their region The results come amid increased debate surrounding the impact of mass migration on identity within the UK, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) recently stating that Britain was at risk of becoming an 'island of strangers' without stricter rules on migration However, many struggled to give an answer when asked what the most distinctive part of their region was - with 6 per cent in London, the North East of England and the South West believing there was nothing distinctive about their region. Indicating a strong sense of regional identity, the majority of Brits surveyed believed that their region was the most superior place to live across the UK, with more than 80 per cent of those in the South West arguing that their area was 'a lot better' than elsewhere. This confidence was echoed in Scotland, at 33 per cent, while only a respective seven per cent in the East and West Midlands believed their region was the best place to live. In London, satisfaction rates were also seen to be in decline, with nearly a third admitting that they believed the city was the worst place to live in the UK by either 'a little' or 'a lot'. The data comes after shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told The Mail in September last year that he believed mass immigration and woke culture were putting England's national identity at risk. Mr Jenrick, former minister for immigration, said that he feared the ties which bind the nation were beginning to 'fray' due to an influx of migrants, alongside a negative attitude of the 'metropolitan establishment' towards English identity. A man due to stand trial for allegedly shooting his wife dead and wounding their daughter has died in prison. In July 2023, Vasilis Vergulis was accused of gunning down his 51-year-old wife Aleksandra and daughter Daniela, aged 22 at the time, in Campbelltown, Adelaide. He pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder, and causing serious harm in January 2024 and was ordered to stand trial, The Courier Mail reported. But before he made it to trial, a Department for Correctional Services spokeswoman said on Friday that a prisoner had been 'found unresponsive' at Port Augusta Prison. 'SA Ambulance Service arrived just before noon and pronounced the individual deceased,' she said. 'The Office for Correctional Services Review has been notified and will liaise with SA Police. 'All deaths in custody are subject to a coronial investigation.' Vergulis is survived by Daniela, who recovered from her injuries and now works as a legal secretary in the Crown Solicitors' capital office. Aleksandra Vergulis (pictured) was allegedly shot in husband Vasilis' driveway in July 2023 Vasilis Vergulis (pictured, right) was found dead at Port Augusta Prison on Friday The mother and daughter reportedly visited Vergulis regularly to check on him at his home in Campbelltown and were understood to have brought him groceries on July 15, 2023, the day of the incident. Police rushed to the house around 1.30pm, on the day of the shootings, where they found Aleksandra dead at the front of the property. Prosecutors alleged that Vergulis fatally shot his wife in the driveway before seriously injuring Daniela, who was rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital. Vergulis then allegedly barricaded himself inside the house as dozens of specialist officers swarmed the street. He surrendered to police at around 5pm and was taken to the City Watch House where he was charged. Ms Vergulis was an executive assistant for UniSA Education Futures, at the University of South Australia, where she was employed for almost 12 years. Her daughter graduated from the same university just three months before the incident. 'I am so proud to announce that I have graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Laws (Second class Honours) and Bachelor of Psychology,' Daniela said on LinkedIn. Daniela was seriously injured during the 2023 shooting Her mother, who affectionately called her daughter Dana, added a joyful comment, sharing her pride. 'Well Done Dana! I am so proud of you, sweetheart,' she said. 'I bless you with all that you need to earn many more achievements and feasts in life ahead and I'll always be there to support you.' Neighbours described Ms Vergulis as a 'lovely woman' and said they were shocked by the tragedy. LIFELINE 13 11 14 A Russian warship has been caught spying on Britain's missile defences by the Royal Navy. Yuri Ivanov, one of Putin's so-called research ships, was spotted lurking in waters off the Outer Hebrides during a live drill on how to shoot down a Russian-style missile. It is believed it was trying to watch the NATO exercise known as Formidable Shield, which saw the firing of a 1million Sea Viper missile at a target. The test, which involved HMS Dragon, one of the Navy's most powerful ships, was designed to simulate Moscows formidable hypersonic weapons. The Sea Viper obliterated the incoming missile - with the Navy hailing the live drill as a 'huge moment'. HMS Dragon, a Portsmouth-based Type 45 destroyer, then hunted down the Russian spy ship. It sent its Merlin helicopter up to collect information from above, until the Yuri Ivanov headed north back towards its home in the Arctic. Meanwhile on May 18, two other Navy ships - HMS Ledbury, HMS Hurworth - were sent out to monitor a Russian warship as it sailed through the Channel. Yuri Ivanov, one of Putin's so-called research ships, was spotted lurking in waters off the Outer Hebrides during a live drill on how to shoot down a Russian-style missile On May 18, two other Navy ships - HMS Ledbury, HMS Hurworth - were sent out to monitor a Russian warship as it sailed through the Channel Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting at the Kremlin on May 29 Lieutenant Commander James Bradshaw, commanding officer of HMS Hurworth, said: 'Monitoring activity on the seas and seabed around the UK is one of the core roles of the Royal Navy's 2nd Mine-Countermeasures Squadron. 'This operation was all in a day's work for the ship's company who have shown great professionalism. 'We have kept a constant watch to ensure the security and integrity of the UK's critical sea-lanes.' Lieutenant Commander Craig Clark, commanding officer of HMS Ledbury, said: 'Escorting Russian vessels through UK waters is a vital demonstration of our unwavering commitment to national security. 'Whilst the Hunt-class is uniquely equipped for mine and sea-bed warfare, maritime security remains a crucial task that any Royal Navy warship is trained to undertake.' Wayne Slater, from HMS Hurworth, said: 'Driving the ship close to the Russian vessels has been a new experience for me as a helmsman. HMS Dragon monitored Russian intelligence gathering ship Yuri Ivanov as it loitered in waters off the Outer Hebrides Pictured: HMS Hurworth tracks RFN Stoikiy in the Channel 'Everything has been safe and professional but we're all trained to make sure we can respond to any aggression or incident whenever non-allied warships are operating near UK waters.' Lieutenant Patrick Bingham, gunnery officer from HMS Hurworth, added: 'As a former merchant navy officer, I know how important freedom of the seas is to the lifeline of goods and raw materials upon which our economy depends. 'The Royal Navy has been a guardian of the freedom of the seas for centuries and I am privileged to have contributed to this mission.' Two staff members at the backpackers hostel in Laos where six tourists died, including two Melbourne teenagers, have fled the country and are now working in hospitality in Vietnam. Best friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, tragically died after visiting the tourist town of Vang Vieng in November when they suffered suspected methanol poisoning. The Australians were among dozens of tourists who were staying at the Nana Backpackers Hostel when they became sick after drinking at the venue's bar. It was revealed on Friday by The Herald Sun that a bartender and the hostel manager who worked at Nana Backpackers Hostel during the alleged poisoning have now found new jobs in Vietnam. Both had reportedly been detained as investigations into the deaths continued. The revelation is another blow to the families of Ms Jones and Ms Bowles who are waiting for justice and answers into the deaths of the teenagers. No charges have been laid despite recommendation from the Australian government. The hostel manager, who calls himself Pikachu, is now working at a new hostel in Vietnam. 'I don't know, I go home to Vietnam. I have not gone back to Laos, I don't want to talk,' he told the publication. Melbourne teenager Holly Bowles died after suspected methanol poisoning at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Laos in November 2024 Grieving father Mark Jones has said more needs to be done by the Australian Government to put pressure on police in Laos after his daughter, Bianca (pictured) died Bianca and Holly were among six tourists who died due to the suspected poisoning at the hostel which has remained closed since the investigation was launched last year Meanwhile, a profile photo on WhatsApp of the hostel's former bartender, Duang Doc Toan, showed he has now got a new gig working in a hotel, The Herald Sun reported. Toan, who served Ms Bowles and Ms Jones Laotian vodka, claimed in November last year that it wasn't his Tiger Vodka that made the girls sick. He said he bought the alcohol from a certified distributor and insisted it had not been tainted by himself or his staff. To prove his point, the bartender drank from one of the vodka bottles that were in use on the night to prove it was safe. English woman Simone White, 28, Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and American James Hutson, 57, also died in the same incident. Eight men aged between 23 and 47 were taken into custody following arrests by police on November 25 as part of an investigation into the suspected poisonings. Among those arrested by Vang Vieng police were general staff and managers. There was no suggestion at the time that those detained were responsible for the tourists' deaths. Duang Doc Toan (pictured) has maintained the drinks he served, which contained Laotian vodka, did not make the two best friends sick A further five people, who were linked to the Tiger distillery, including the manufacturer of the drinks served, were also taken in for questioning. In February, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told federal parliament that authorities in Laos declined the offer of assistance from Australian Federal Police in its investigation of the incident. He vowed that Australian authorities wouldn't drop the matter. 'I would want to assure the families of Bianca and Holly that we remain in contact with the Laos authorities and that the offer of assistance is being consistently offered,' he said. The teens' families said in a joint statement they were 'extremely disappointed' by the lack of updates. 'As the Laos government rejects any support from the AFP our confidence in accountability and justice for everyone affected remains unanswered,' it said. Nana Backpackers Hostel remains closed as the investigation continues. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said the government continues to provide consular assistance to the families of Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones. 'Last November, the Lao Government said that it would conduct an investigation into the cause of the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice,' they said. 'Our officials remain engaged with Lao authorities to reinforce our expectations for a transparent and thorough investigation. 'The Australian Government will continue to do everything possible to assist Holly and Bianca's families, and to reduce the risks of a tragedy like this happening again.' Daily Mail Australia contacted the Laos embassy in Canberra for comment. The Russian captain of a cargo ship that crashed into an oil tanker in the North Sea has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of a crewman. Vladimir Motin, 59, appeared at the Old Bailey in London via video link from HMP Hull. Assisted by a Russian interpreter, he spoke only to confirm his name and plea. Mr Motin, from Primorsky, St Petersburg, was captain of the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship Solong when it collided with the US tanker Stena Immaculate off the East Yorkshire coast on March 10. Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, a Filipino crew member on the Solong, is missing presumed dead after the crash. Mr Pernia had been working in the forward deck of the container ship in an area where there was an explosion. The collision happened at about 9.47am at 10.2 nautical miles from the nearest point on the coast, a previous hearing was told. The 140m-long Solong was carrying about 157 containers. An artist's impression of Mr Motin from an earlier hearing The container ship Solong seen in the aftermath of the North Sea collision Inspectors survey the salvaged wreck of the Solong None of the crew on board the Stena Immaculate were killed in the crash, which caused serious damage to the tanker's hull The Stena Immaculate is 183m long and was carrying jet fuel. It was anchored and stationary at the time of the collision. The Solong was travelling at about 15 knots when it hit the port side of the Stena. Rescuers saved 36 crew from both ships, according to a report produced by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch. Judge Mark Lucraft remanded Mr Motinin custody until September 10, when he will appear again for a pre-trial hearing. A provisional trial date has been set for 12 January 2026. All but one of the Solong's crew were rescued alive A young mother screamed in terror as her baby daughter was savaged by the family dog in front of her. The baby girl suffered 'serious and life-changing injuries to her face' when she was attacked by the out-of-control pet yesterday, police have revealed. The girls grandfather, 53, and her 21-year-old mother were later seen covered in blood in the street following the horrifying incident. All three were taken to hospital where the adults' injuries were today described as serious but not life-threatening or life-changing. The dog was humanely destroyed after it was filmed being led into a waiting van by specialist handlers. The baby is understood to have been attacked inside the familys flat in Denton, Greater Manchester yesterday evening. One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: I heard a womans screams - it was horrible. There was a lot of banging and shouting. Police lead a dog into a police van after it attacked a baby, her mother and grandfather in Denton, Greater Manchester on Thursday Police stand outside a police van containing the out of control dog 'The woman kept on screaming and the man was shouting. It was terrifying. The police came later dragged the dog out. Mother-of-three Emma Hill, 34, said: I saw the babys granddad outside on the street. He was covered in blood. 'Then I saw the young mum - she looked traumatised. I didn't even know they had a dog. Its terrifying. Neighbour Alan Hughes, 29, said: There were police everyone and lots of blue lights. Armed police and specialist dog handlers pictured at the scene of the attack on Baslow Road, Denton The told everyone to take their kids inside as they were going to shoot the dog. I think its the grandfathers dog. I have seen the young girl put the baby in the car. She seems a very loving mum. Today police said her family had been left 'understandably incredibly distressed' by the 'awful' incident as they appealed for witnesses. Armed police and paramedics descended on Baslow Road in Denton following reports of an out of control dog at about 5.50pm yesterday. Eyewitnesses claimed people were left covered in blood following the incident. An air ambulance air lifted the baby girl to Manchester Royal Infirmary. Police have not arrested anyone over the attack. The flat was being guarded today by a lone policeman and the police cordon had been lifted. Detective Superintendent Gareth Jenkins of Greater Manchester Police said: 'This was an awful attack that has left a 1-year-old girl with serious and life-changing injuries. 'Her family are understandably incredibly distressed by what happened here last night. Baslow Road in Denton, which has been taped off after a baby and two adults were horribly attacked by a large dog 'The family of the young girl are being supported by officers as she recovers in hospital. 'A scene remains in place on Baslow Road in Denton in the immediate aftermath so officers can make further enquiries to establish a full timeline of events that led to this incident, we thank the local community for their patience and cooperation at this time. 'We are now appealing for information, there were people in the area specifically on Baslow Road who may have dashcam, CCTV or mobile footage from yesterday afternoon that may be of assistance to our enquiries.' Last night one shocked local said: 'There's people covered in blood and a baby's been taken to hospital.' 'There were others who looked injured. A dog section and armed police went in with guns.' One local told the Manchester Evening News: 'It happened in the flats. 'There were lots of police and ambulances and an air ambulance.' Families gathered outside watching as emergency services worked within the cordon last night. This is the shocking moment a man is mauled by a huge tiger after trying to take a selfie with it in Thailand. Alarming video footage shows the excited tourist crouching beside the animal and putting his arm around its back before it pounces on him. The man is knocked onto the ground and can be heard screaming in terror as the tiger's handler desperately tries to wrestle it from on top of him. The trainer tussles with the powerful predator for a few heart-stopping seconds before he's able to subdue it. Earlier in the clip, the tourist could be seen confidently leading the animal by a rope as he strokes its fur - completely unaware of the brutal attack which is about to occur. A video of the incident has gone viral, with viewers taking to the comments section to share their thoughts of what happened. One person wrote: 'Cats usually don't like being petted on the lower (back) body. 'This man was petting the tiger continuously near the above-mentioned body area, which must have frustrated the tiger. 'The final straw was when the man cupped it for a photo.' This is the shocking moment a man is mauled by a huge tiger after trying to take a selfie with it in Thailand Alarming video footage shows the excited tourist crouching beside the animal and putting his arm around its back before it pounces on him Earlier in the clip the tourist could be seen confidently leading the animal by a rope as he strokes its fur - completely unaware of the brutal attack which is about to occur Another added: 'The chilling video exposes a dangerous trend wherein tourists get lured into risky photo-ops with tigers in Thailand.' A third said: 'It's not the petting (even though that's also dumb and ill-advised) it's him holding the tiger across its back when he poses for the pic. 'Cats do not like to be restrained. 'The cat could also interpret it as a sign of dominance over it.' Fortunately, the man only sustained minor injuries following the incident at the famous Tiger Kingdom in Phuket. This isn't the only time a tourist has suffered the consequences of trying to interact with a wild animal recently. Earlier this month a hippo knocked down a holidaymaker after she ignored a man's warning not to approach it. Footage shows the enraged beast charging at the woman before using its head to ram her face-first to the ground as bystanders watch on in horror. The man screams is knocked onto the ground and can be heard screaming in terror as the tiger's handler desperately tries to wrestle predator away Fortunately, the man only sustained minor injuries following the incident at the famous Tiger Kingdom in Phuket The person behind the camera can be heard shouting, 'he's going to charge' and telling a child 'this is what you call an idiot' as the woman moves closer to the animal. 'She's not listening,' the child responds as the rotund creature barrels towards her, slamming her into the grass and fleeing the scene in St Lucia on Tuesday night. The cameraman shouts, 'you're stupid' as the stunned woman gets to her feet and staggers away, leaning on a man for support. The video, posted on the Facebook page 'St Lucia News' said there were 'warnings posted all over town' but that 'people still take stupid risks when approaching the hippos'. Another Facebook page, Unofficial: Into the Wild, added: 'Visitors are told by lodge, guesthouse owners, and businesses to stay far back from the hippos. 'But some people just don't listen. They are very lucky they weren't seriously hurt or killed. They have now made a hippo potentially more aggressive to humans by their foolish behavior. Stay back people.' According to local media, the tourists involved were ordered out of St Lucia, and accommodation establishments advised them not to take future bookings from them. 'They were given an hour to vacate town or face law enforcement proceedings,' reported the Zululand Observer. Gerry Adams has been awarded 84,000 (100,000) in damages after winning his libel action against the BBC after a documentary claimed he ordered the murder of a fellow Sinn Fein official unmasked as a British spy. Mr Adams said that a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. Mr Donaldson was shot dead inside his cottage in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave 'the final say'. Adams denies involvement and called the allegation a 'grievous smear'. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday. It also found the BBC's actions were not in good faith and that it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 168,000 (200,000) from the BBC - but received half that amount. Legal bills for both sides are said to be up to 4.2million (5million). Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams outside the High Court in Dublin today where he won a libel case against the BBC and was awarded 84,000 (100,000) in damages Mr Adams (right) pictured with Martin McGuinness (centre) and Denis Donaldson (left) in 2005 Mr Donaldson was found shot dead inside his cottage, pictured as forensics officers tomorrow, months after it was revealed he was working for the British Government inside the IRA and Sinn Fein Denis Donaldson with his arm around IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in Long Kesh prison in 1981. The two men served time together for paramilitary offences In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing of Denis Donaldson and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. DENIS DONALDSON: FROM IRA VOLUNTEER TO MI5 SPY It is believed Denis Donaldson first became involved in the IRA in the 1970s and he was accused of being involved in the La Mon restaurant bombing in County Down, Northern Ireland, in February 1978, which killed 12 people. By the 1980s he was running as a Sinn Fein candidate in Belfast East and slowly began to become more involved with the party as it turned towards a 'peace process' under Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. He even went to New York to try to establish mainstream support for the party overseas and eventually became group administrator for Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly by the early 2000s. In October 2002, he was arrested after a raid on Sinn Fein's offices as part of a police investigation into a 'spy ring' but charges against him were dropped in 2005 after the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland decided it was not in the public interest. It was revealed two months later he had been recruited by MI5 as an informant during a 'vulnerable time in his life', although no more details were revealed as to when or why. On April 4 2006, Donaldson was found shot dead inside a cottage where he had been living. Advertisement Mr Adams said the allegation was a 'grievous smear' while the BBC has described the legal action as a 'cynical attempt to launder his reputation'. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a 'cruel joke' to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. The jury determined that Mr Adams should be awarded 100,000, which the jury heard falls on the medium scale for defamation. Gerry Adams claims the defamation case 'was about putting manners on the BBC'. 'This could have been sorted out a long time ago,' he said outside court today. 'The BBC aren't using their own money. Spotlight aren't using their own money. 'It's the licence fee payers who will pay for this.' He was asked about what the outcome of the case means for his reputation. He replied: 'I've always been satisfied with my reputation. 'Obviously, like yourself, we all have flaws in our character, but the jury made the decision and let's accept the outcome, and I think let's accept what the jury said.' Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, expressed disappointment in the outcome. Speaking to media outside court, Mr Smyth said: 'We are disappointed by this verdict. 'We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this programme, and to the accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams' legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. 'We didn't want to come to court but it was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. 'Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. 'The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBC's case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyone's could, and they warned how today's decision would hinder freedom of expression. 'Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims.' Adams leaves the High Court in Dublin after winning his libel action against the BBC Speaking outside court Adams insisted the case 'was about putting manners on the BBC' BBC director Adam Smyth (R) and BBC (spotlight) journalist Jennifer O'Leary (L) walk away after speaking to the media after losing the defamation case He added they will take some time to consider the implications of the ruling. Trial judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sent the jury out to begin deliberations at 10.25am on Thursday morning, in the fifth week of proceedings. The 12 members were also provided with exhibits in the case and the means to re-watch the programme. At one stage in the deliberations, one of the jurors was released from the process due to other commitments, including a camogie match. The remaining 11 members continued their consideration of the issues before delivering the verdict. They were tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Mr Donaldson. Mr Owens said they were to consider whether it was 'more likely than not' that a 'hypothetical reasonable reader' would take that meaning from the words. The BBC had argued that the jury should not find that this was the meaning of the words, instead saying the claim had been put forward as an allegation that was immediately followed by Mr Adams' denial. Having agreed with Mr Adams on that point, they then had to consider whether the broadcaster's actions were fair and reasonable as well as whether it acted in good faith. They determined that the BBC had not acted in such a manner. They returned with their verdict on Friday after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total. Mr Owens told the jury that the BBC had put forward the position that Mr Adams had 'no reputation at all' and the broadcaster had argued to the jury that it should award only nominal damages, putting forward the option of just one euro. Mr Adams' team had argued that the defamation fell within the 'very serious' or 'exceptional' end of the scale - seeking at least 200,000. Keir Starmer is under pressure to sack his top legal adviser today over a speech in which he compared demands that the UK quit the European Convention on Human Rights to early Nazi ideology. Attorney General Lord Hermer today apologised for an astonishing speech last night in which he accused right wing MPs and the media of being behind a 'siren song' pushing for Britain to drop international law. Speaking at a London think tank the former human rights lawyer and close friend of the Prime Minister said such 'songs' had been heard before, citing Nazi ideologist Carl Schmitt, who supported Hitler's policies such as the Night of the Long Knives assassinations in 1934. The comparison triggered uproar today, with Robert Jenrick, a leading Tory proponent of leaving, branding it 'appalling'. This afternoon a spokeswoman for the Attorney General said he rejected the Tories' 'characterisation' of his speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). She said he was 'defending international law which underpins our security, protects against threats from aggressive states like Russia and helps tackle organised immigration crime', but added: 'He acknowledges though that his choice of words was clumsy and regrets having used this reference.' Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called on the PM to sack the peer, who has been at the centre of controversy since being ennobled last year. From refusing to fight the case against Kneecap, to advising the government to hand over 30 billion and our territory in the Chagos Islands, Lord Hermer has shown appalling judgment time and again,' she said. In an astonishing speech last night Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, hit out at right wing MPs and the media for being behind a 'siren song' pushing for Britain to drop international law. Speaking at a London think tank the former human rights lawyer and close friend of the Prime Minister said such 'songs' had been heard before, citing Nazi ideologist Carl Schmitt, who supported Hitler's policies such as the Night of the Long Knives assassinations in 1934. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called on the PM to sack the peer, who has been at the centre of controversy since being ennobled last year. 'Now hes calling people who disagree with him Nazis. This isnt just embarrassing, its dangerous. Hermer doesnt understand government. He believes in the rule of lawyers, not the rule of law. If Keir Starmer had any backbone, hed sack him. But will he risk upsetting his old friend and former donor? I doubt it. Lord Hermer used his lecture to say the Labour Government had a 'policy of progressive realism' that means it will never leave international conventions such as the ECHR. Numerous senior politicians on the Right have called for Britain to leave the convention after it blocked Rwanda deportation flights. Mrs Badenoch has stopped short of calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as other Conservative figures have advocated. However, she suggested the UK would have to leave the convention if it stops the country from doing 'what is right'. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he would get rid of the ECHR, and told ITV in April that 'we have to get back the ability to decide, can we really control our borders'. In his lecture, the Attorney General said: 'Our approach is a rejection of the siren song that can sadly now be heard in the Palace of Westminster and in some spectrums of the media, that Britain abandons the constraints of international law in favour of raw power. The European Court of Human Rights, where the convention is enforced, in Strasbourg in May Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick (pictured in October), an advocate of ending Britain's 72-year membership, said: 'The idea you can reform the ECHR is fanciful' 'This is not a new song. The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when conditions change, is a claim that was made in the early 1930s by 'realist' jurists in Germany, most notably Carl Schmitt, whose central thesis was in essence the claim that state power is all that counts, not law. 'Because of the experience of what followed in 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law, as well as internal constitutional law.' He conceded that 'international law cannot stand still and rest on its laurels', that it must be 'critiqued and where necessary reformed and improved' and that 'we must be ready to reform where necessary'. Education Minister Catherine McKinnell this morning said that his speech had been 'quite thoughtful'. And she doubled down on the link between quitting the ECHR and dictators, telling Times Radio: 'Any discussion around withdrawing from the international stage just supports people and the agenda of people like [Vladimir] Putin.' But critics point out that the ECHR is unlikely to bow to calls for reform amid accusations it has overstepped its remit in a string of cases. Tory justice spokesman Mr Jenrick, an advocate of ending Britain's 72-year membership, said: 'The idea you can reform the ECHR is fanciful as it requires unanimity from all 46 signatories. 'It is appalling Hermer would insinuate those who think we should leave the ECHR are like the Nazis. '[Foreign Secretary] David Lammy tried that disgusting smeer with Brexiteers and it didn't work for him. It won't work for Hermer either. 'It seems Labour haven't learned a thing.' The row comes after complaints about Lord Hermer, who is a close friend of the Prime Minister, both having been human rights lawyers. His suitability has also been questioned after it emerged that, before taking up the role last year, he repeatedly brought cases against the Government on behalf of terrorists, including 9/11 plotter Mustafa al-Hawsawi and jihadi bride Shamima Begum. He also acted for former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA. The Attorney General's office was contacted for comment. Police have launched an investigation after a bear cub was filmed being thrown out of a tall tree before being bundled into a sack in horror footage. The shocking incident took place near the village of Novaya Igirma, in the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, earlier this week. The clip shows the small bear clinging to a pine tree as one of the men climbs up and tosses it to the ground from a height of at least a dozen feet. Another man is then seen grabbing the dazed cub by the scruff of its neck and forcing it into a sack as it writhes in distress. Cops were alerted after the footage surfaced on Telegram, where it caused widespread fury. A spokesperson for the Irkutsk Region police said officers had identified the area and urged the men involved to report to the nearest station. They were later tracked down and identified as three men who worked at a local production base who claimed they spotted the bear cub alone near the site where children were playing. Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk said the men told officers they were worried the mother bear might be nearby and decided to return the cub to the forest further away. The clip shows the small bear clinging to a pine tree while a man stand behind it before tossing the animal to the ground Another man is then seen picking up the animal and grabbing the dazed cub by the scruff of its neck The small bear is held up to the camera in the shocking footage The man cruelly stuffs the cub into a white sack She said the animal had been frightened by the men when they tried to catch it and had climbed the tree out of fear. Volk added that the bear cub was later released back into its natural habitat. The bear was unharmed despite the rough handling, police confirmed. It comes after a group of six North Carolina fools were caught on camera tearing bear cubs out of a tree to take selfies, causing at least one of the cubs to be taken to a rehabilitation center. Six people in Buncombe County pulled the three bear cubs out of a tree near Berrington Village Apartments last month. Video obtained by WLOS shows the group carelessly grabbing the cubs out of the tree to pose for photos with them. After capturing the first cub, one of the women appears giddy, jumping up and down while holding the bear and getting ready to take photos with it. The group continued to attempt to drag the other two cubs, while one of the women dropped the cub as she was passing it to another person. The terrified cub fled from the group, running along the fence to get back to its siblings. Ashley Hobbs, a North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission special projects biologist, said when she arrived they found one cub described as being very wet, cold and alone for quite some time. Elon Musk pledged DOGE would go on as he took his leave from Donald Trump's White House. Musk is leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency. He'll be rededicating himself to running his businesses, including Tesla SpaceX and X. Trump credited Musk with 'a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington' and said some of his staff would remain in the administration. Follow developments on the Daily Mail blog A fried chicken shop hailed for its tasty food and inviting cocktails has closed after more than a decade in business, leaving fans devastated. Korean fried chicken shop chain Chick 'N' Sours has announced the closure of its Haggerston and Seven Dials restaurants in London, having first opened to customers in 2015. Taking to Instagram to share the heartbreaking news that the 'best chicken shop in the world' was set to close its doors for good, the restaurant's co-founder, David Wolanski, said that the business had tried to hold on for 'as long as we could' but that it was 'no longer viable' to remain open. The post read: 'Hello, it's with mixed emotions I'm here to tell you that we have closed our Chick 'N Sours restaurants in Seven Dials and Haggerston. 'Sunday night was our last day of trading. We do what we do because we love it, fuelled by passion and a desire to provide guests with awesome food and memorable dining experiences. But that's not enough these days. 'We hung in there as long as we could but I'm afraid we've now reached the point where operating the two restaurants just isn't viable anymore and it makes no commercial sense to continue.' Declaring that the 'casual dining restaurant model is broken', Mr Wolanski added: 'It's been an incredible journey from when Carl and I came up with the idea of opening the best chicken shop in the world 10 years ago on the back of my scooter. Beloved Korean fried chicken shop chain Chick 'N' Sours has announced the closure of its Haggerston and Seven Dials restaurants in London , having first opened to customers in 2015 Taking to Instagram to share the heartbreaking news that the 'best chicken shop in the world' was set to close its doors for good, the restaurant's co-founder, David Wolanski, said that the business had tried to hold on for 'as long as we could' but that it was 'no longer viable' to remain open 'We scraped together what limited funds we had to open Haggerston and go on this wild roller coaster of a trip.' Opened in 2015 by Mr Wolanski and Carl Clarke and described as 'changing fried chicken for the good', the restaurant was adored by Londoners for its sweet and sour cocktails and high-quality chicken options. At the height of their success, the chain had four restaurants across the capital, with signature dishes including a Hot Chicken Bun, featuring chicken thighs and house pickles, alongside a Katsu Sandwich filled with curry sauce and Japanese pickle. Several disappointed fans took to Instagram to share their heartbreak at the shock closure, with one user remarking they were 'absolutely gutted', while another described it as a 'hard pill to swallow'. One commenter, who said that the beloved chicken shop was a 'special place' that they would miss dearly, said: 'Thank you for everything you've done. Your chicken shop touched my life (and soul) in so many different, unexpected ways. Not a single other place in London did this to me. Thank you'. Meanwhile, another user, who said they had been a 'loyal customer since day one', added that the business was 'the best there is, no question'. They added: 'If you guys can't make it work I worry so much for what that means for the industry. Thank you for all the amazing food and memories'. Several disappointed fans took to Instagram to share their heartbreak at the shock closure, with one user remarking they were 'absolutely gutted', while another described it as a 'hard pill to swallow' Opened in 2015 by Mr Wolanski and Carl Clarke and described as 'changing fried chicken for the good', the restaurant was adored by Londoners for its sweet and sour cocktails and high-quality chicken options While shutting their doors to customers in physical shopfronts, Chick 'N' Sours are still set to continue their residences at the Roof East and Corner Corner food halls. The popular chicken brand will also continue to serve customers on Deliveroo, while also making appearances at UK festivals and live music events. Making a desperate plea for customers to remember the importance of investing in independent restaurants, Mr Wolanski added: 'Remember, there are so many awesome independent restaurants out there doing great things but finding it tough out there also. 'We know things are tight for everyone but they need you. Go see them and spend your money with them, as the phrase use it or lose it has never been so relevant.' It comes as more than 13,000 shops closed their doors for good in 2024 - an increase of 28 per cent on the year before. And, at the start of the year, industry experts predicted that up to 17,350 shops could close over the course of 2025, Nevertheless, the demand for fried chicken in the UK continues, with MailOnline revealing last year how Britain's highstreets were becoming overrun with fried chicken joints. A map plotting the 29 shops offering fried chicken along a single stretch of road from Streatham to West Croydon The demand for fried chicken has likely also grown with the influence of social media personalities and celebrity endorsements. Amelia Dimoldenburg's wildly successful Chicken Shop Date series, where she dines with celebrities at local fried chicken shops, is bound to have furthered demand for the already popular fast-food In south London, a single stretch of road has a staggering 29 fried chicken shops, making it the biggest street in the UK for the fast food item. With a staggering 12 fried chicken shops within a stretch of just under two miles, Streatham High Road is home to almost every famous chicken shop brand, from Morley's to Chicken Cottage. And if you were to continue straight down the connecting London Road through to West Croydon, you would be able to spot a further 17 shops selling the fried goods. In short, this means you will pass a shocking 29 fried chicken shops on the single stretch of road from Streatham Hill to West Croydon without turning left or right, according to the Local Data Company. That is without accounting for the dozens more chicken shops that lay just off the main road. Since its first store was founded in Sydenham by Sri Lankan Tamil immigrant Kannalingam Selvendran in 1985, the Morley's brand has grown to become one of the most well-known, with nearly 100 branches across London. The demand for fried chicken has likely also grown with the influence of social media personalities and celebrity endorsements. Sidemen, the YouTube group popular among teens, sent fans into a frenzy when they opened their own fried chicken chain Sides in 2021. Meanwhile, Amelia Dimoldenburg's wildly successful Chicken Shop Date series, where she dines with celebrities at local fried chicken shops, is bound to have furthered demand for the already popular fast-food. Elon Musk was using a cocktail of drugs on the campaign trail as his messy personal life spilled over into his work, according to a report from the New York Times. Musk stormed into politics as President Donald Trump's chainsaw-brandishing sidekick tasked with slashing the federal bureaucracy, but the tech tycoon has found himself on the chopping block just four months into his stint in government. The Tesla CEO has previously said he was prescribed ketamine for depression and was taking the drug roughly every two weeks. But insiders allege Musk, 53, was taking the powerful anesthetic, which is known to have hallucinogenic properties, so frequently that it was affecting his bladder, the bombshell report claims. He also took ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and travelled with a daily pill box that contained about 20 different drugs, including Adderall, sources allege. Those around him claim that his consumption blurred the lines between medicinal and recreational, with Musk allegedly having taken drugs at private gathering across the US and in at least one foreign country, according to the NYT report which was based on a series of texts the outlet reviewed, as well as interviews with insiders. Musk has claimed in interviews that he only takes 'a small amount' of ketamine and that 'I really don't like doing illegal drugs', but his erratic behaviors, including making an apparent Nazi salute at Trump's election day event, seemingly suggest otherwise. It is unclear if Musk was taking drugs when Trump put him in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he announced he was stepping down from on Wednesday. Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Musk and the White House for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. Elon Musk (pictured during a White House cabinet meeting on April 30) was using a cocktail of drugs on the campaign trail as his messy personal life spilled over into his work, according to an explosive report from the New York Times Musk stormed into politics as President Donald Trump's chainsaw-brandishing sidekick tasked with slashing the federal bureaucracy, but has found himself on the chopping block just four months into his stint in government. He and Trump are pictured in Mar-a-Lago on March 14 Musk's aerospace firm SpaceX, which is a large government contractor, requires its workforce to be drug free and randomly administers drug test. The tech billionaire however, would receive 'advance warning' of those tests, insiders with knowledge of the testing process told the newspaper. It is unclear if Musk was forced to undergo drug testing by the White House, but Trump's top aide Stephen Miller told CNN on Friday 'I don't have any concerns' about the NYT's explosive report. Miller, noting that Trump would be hosting a joint press conference with Musk later in the day, said: 'All I can say is that DOGE has done an extraordinary job rooting out systemic waste, graft, graft and corruption from the federal government. 'And you're going to hear from the president today his thanks to Elon Musk for leading that effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars.' Miller was pressed again about the report after he arrived at the White House. 'Are you concerned about drug use by Elon Musk?,' a reporter asked, but Miller doubled down, saying: 'The drugs that we're concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border.' Musk was frequently exhibiting wild behaviors, including brandished a chainsaw at a the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 20, 2025, a month after Donald Trump's inauguration He also made an apparent Nazi salute during a his speech at the inaugural parade inside Capitol One Arena, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025 In addition to his alleged drug habit, Musk's stint at DOGE was intertwined with private legal battles involving his ex-partners and children. Claire Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is understood to be fighting with Musk over his public flaunting of their five-year-old son X, which she alleges violates the pair's custody agreement. He also was accused of fathering a secret 14th child with conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair. Musk has allegedly denied paternity of the child. In recent weeks Musk had shown growing disillusionment with the obstacles faced by DOGE, even as it cut a brutal swath through the US bureaucracy. He leaves far short of his original goal of saving $2 trillion dollars, with calculations suggesting he saved just one thousandth of that, despite tens of thousands of people losing their jobs. Musk will now focus on his Space X and Tesla businesses, as well as his goal of colonizing Mars. Trump hailed Musk as 'terrific' as he announced that they would hold a joint press conference on Friday as the SpaceX founder leaves DOGE. 'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way,' Trump said on his Truth Social network on Thursday. But the warm words could not hide the open frustrations that Musk, had expressed in recent weeks about his controversial cost-cutting role. Musk quickly became Trump's so-called First Buddy and was constantly at his side. Trump listens as Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11 Trump even turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla dealership on March 11, 2025 after protesters targeted Musk's electric car business Musk was the biggest donor to Trump's 2024 election campaign and the pair bonded over conservative politics and a desire to root out what they believed was a wasteful 'deep state'. He quickly became Trump's so-called First Buddy and was constantly at his side. The tycoon appeared with his young son X on his shoulders during his first press conference in the Oval Office. He attended cabinet meetings. He and Trump rode on Air Force One and Marine One together and they watched UFC fights together. But the tech tycoon was frequently exhibiting wild behaviors. He brandished a chainsaw at a conservative event, boasting of how easy it was to save money, and separately made what appeared to be a Nazi salute. But Trump himself remained publicly loyal to the man he called a 'genius.' The president even turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla dealership after protesters targeted Musk's electric car business. Yet Musk struggled to get a grip on the realities of politics. He is understood to have insulted cabinet members during meetings and would routinely get into 'fights' with his opponents, according to the report. The impact on Musk's businesses also began to hit home with a series of Space X launches ended in fiery failures and Tesla shares dropping drastically. Elon Musk, who had shown growing signs of frustration with the obstacles faced by his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has parted ways with Donald Trump Musk started musing about stepping back earlier this year saying that, 'DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism' that would carry on without him. He finally showed the first signs of distance from Trump himself this week, saying he was 'disappointed' in Trump's recent mega spending bill. Musk also said he would pull back from spending time on politics. The end came in a post by Musk on Wednesday on the X network, which he bought and then turned into a MAGA campaign platform. 'As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,' Musk tweeted. 'The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.' Israel's foreign ministry has accused Emmanuel Macron of undertaking a 'crusade against the Jewish state' after he said the recognition of a Palestinian state, with conditions, is a 'moral duty'. Macron's remark came just a day after Benjamin Netanyahu's government announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. Defence Minister Israel Katz has today vowed to build a 'Jewish Israeli state' in the territory and says the settlements should serve as 'a clear message to the French president and his associates'. It comes after Britain, France and Canada threatened Israel with sanctions unless it relents on plans to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip. The UK government has said it is suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and has introduced new sanctions on settlements in the West Bank in an effort to ramp up its criticism of the ongoing operation in Gaza. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK's existing trade agreement with Israel remains in effect, but the government can't continue discussions with an administration pursuing what he said were 'egregious' policies in the two territories. During a visit to the site of the Sa-Nur settlement, Katz said: 'This is a decisive response to the terrorist organisations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land - and it is also a clear message to (French President Emmanuel) Macron and his associates. 'They will recognize a Palestinian state on paper and we will build the Jewish-Israeli state on the ground. Israel 's Defence Minister Israel Katz has vowed to build a 'Jewish Israeli state' in the occupied West Bank, a day after the government announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the territory He called the announcement 'a clear message to Emmanuel Macron and his associates' in a statement made on Friday. Pictured: Katz meets with IDF officials at the site of the Sa-Nur settlement today It comes just days after Britain, France and Canada threatened Israel with sanctions unless it relents on plans to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip. Pictured: Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Friday, May 30 'The paper will be thrown in the trash can of history and the State of Israel will flourish and prosper,' Katz declares. 'Do not threaten us with sanctions because you will not bring us to our knees. The State of Israel will not bow its head in the face of threats.' He added: 'We are a people with a long and glorious history. We will stand tall and continue to lead the State of Israel on a safe and strong path, until victory.' Sa-Nur was evacuated in 2005 alongside Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Katz's visit there comes after the Israeli government approved the construction of 22 new settlements in the West Bank yesterday. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. During a visit to Singapore on Friday, President Macron asserted that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was 'not only a moral duty, but a political necessity'. Emmanuel Macron said the recognition of a Palestinian state, with conditions, is a 'moral duty'. Pictured: Macron takes part in a press briefing with Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Singapore on May 30, 2025 The UK government has said it is suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and has introduced new sanctions on settlements in the West Bank in an effort to ramp up its criticism of the ongoing operation in Gaza. Pictured: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion on May 30 Katz said: 'This is a decisive response to the terrorist organisations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land - and it is also a clear message to ( French President Emmanuel) Macron and his associates. They will recognize a Palestinian state on paper and we will build the Jewish-Israeli state on the ground' But Israel accused Macron of undertaking a 'crusade against the Jewish state' after he called for European countries to harden their stance on Israel if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people in Gaza after Israel enacted a months-long blockade on aid destined for the demolished Strip. 'There is no humanitarian blockade. That is a blatant lie,' Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement, defending its efforts to allow in aid. 'But instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state. No doubt its national day will be October 7.' An international conference meant to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is set to take place in June at the UN headquarters in New York. A diplomat in Paris close to preparations for the conference said it should pave the way for more countries to recognise a Palestinian state. Macron said in April that France could recognise a Palestinian state in June. Following Israel's announcement of the new settlements on Thursday, Britain called the move a 'deliberate obstacle' to Palestinian statehood, while UN chief Antonio Guterres's spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution 'in the wrong direction'. A government intelligence worker has been charged with leaking classified data to a foreign power in exchange for citizenship. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, allegedly betrayed his country due to frustration with Donald Trump policies that he found 'extremely disturbing'. A civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he had top secret clearance and access to several highly classified Special Access Programs. Laatsch was arrested on Thursday as he allegedly made a dead drop of a USB drive filled with classified documents after a months-long FBI sting operation. He was charged with attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government and will appear in court on Friday. Laatsch joined the DIA in August 2019, soon after graduating from Florida Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Science in cyber security in 2018. By the beginning of this year he was a data scientist and IT specialist of information security at the agency's Insider Threat Division. He allegedly emailed an agent of a friendly country on March 2 from a burner account created the same day, with the subject line 'Outreach from USA Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Officer'. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, allegedly betrayed his country due to frustration with Donald Trump 's policies that he found 'extremely disturbing' 'I am an officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) serving in a technical role in support of our internal Officer of Security (SEC),' he wrote. 'The recent actions of the current administration are extremely disturbing to me 'I do not agree or align with the values of this administration and intend to act to support the values that the United States at one time stood for. 'To this end, I am willing to share classified information that I have access to, which are completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.' The email explained he had 'intimate knowledge of how DIA tracks and monitors user activity' and all further communication had to be on an encrypted messaging app. Laatsch allegedly provided photos of his security badges with personal information removed, but left enough exposed that the FBI was able to identify him. His fatal mistake was to send a test email to the account from another email address that allegedly included his full name, phone number, and date of birth, and the IP address led back to his home. Instead of taking him up on his offer, the unnamed friendly government tipped off US authorities and the FBI began a sting operation, starting on March 23. 'Good afternoon, I received your message and share your concerns. We are glad you reached out. I look forward to your response and learning more about your work,' investigators wrote on an encrypted app. The leaker did not reply so they sent him an email on April 4. Laatsch joined the DIA in August 2019, soon after graduating from Florida Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Science in cyber security in 2018 He is alleged to have replied on April 14 saying he did not check the email much as there was no reply to his initial one for a while, but he was still interested. 'What I originally wrote remains true. Arguably more so now,' Laatsch wrote. Conversations moved to an encrypted app on April 17 with Laatsch allegedly still believing he was talking to the foreign government. He allegedly said he had 'access to a significant amount of information and finished products' but would need to 'copy things manually', which would 'somewhat limit' what he could provide. 'I've given a lot of thought to this before any outreach, and despite the risks, the calculus has not changed,' he explained. 'I do not see the trajectory of things changing, and do not think it is appropriate or right to do nothing when I am in this position.' Laatsch allegedly planned to copy out the classified data by hand and digitize it on his home computer. The FBI asked him for a sample of the intelligence on April 27 so they could authenticate it. DIA cameras allegedly filmed him writing on a notepad while having classified material open on his computer. He then allegedly smuggled the folded pages out of the office in his socks and lunchbox over the course of three days. Laatsch allegedly told them he had extracted classified data and they set up a dead drop at a park in Arlington, Virginia. Laatsch was arrested on Thursday as he allegedly made a dead drop of a USB drive filled with classified documents after a months-long FBI sting operation The drop was done on May 1 and agents watched him leave a USB drive with a note explaining his methods, and nine documents. 'I have to the best of my ability attempted to copy the products by hand, but I cannot guarantee that every single word is completely correct,' the note read. 'If there are any mistakes, they would only be a basic word or two, and nothing that would alter the content or meaning of the product. 'As anticipated, the process of manually copying by hand will be time-intensive. Many of the provided products took around 40-60 minutes to fully complete, and often two full pages of notebook paper per-product.' Prosecutors said the documents were all top secret and one included 'sensitive methods of intelligence collection, intelligence related to foreign military exercises, and analysis of the impact of those military exercises'. Laatsch on May 7 allegedly asked for citizenship of the friendly country in exchange for future classified information. 'With my own credibility now hopefully established, I would like to outline something pertaining to the longer term of this arrangement,' he allegedly wrote. 'I'm [sic] not mentioned compensation throughout this, as that is not my motivation for doing this... There is though something I am interested in, but can be discussed at the appropriate time.' Laatsch allegedly wrote that he was interested in 'citizenship for your country' because he did not 'expect things here to improve in the long term, even in the event there is a change in the future'. This state of affairs meant he wanted 'to pursue an alternative, despite the clear challenges that would come with it'. Laatsch, a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (pictured), had top secret clearance and access to several highly classified Special Access Programs Although he said he was 'not opposed to other compensation', he was not in a position where he needed to seek 'material compensation'. Laatsch allegedly explained how it would be difficult for him to be caught because he believed his role would give him early warning of any investigation. 'It will not be easy for them, for example, to open a case on me without my knowledge since my permissions to see that would need to be changed and I'd notice,' he wrote. He laid out the 'stupid mistakes' others made when cases were opened on them and said these mistakes 'should not be too difficult for me to avoid'. Little did he know that the investigation had been launched months earlier. Laatsch allegedly said he would be ready to provide more intel on May 26, and on May 15 to 27 he copied more data and hid it in his socks to extract it. He was arrested at the second dead drop on Thursday at the same park in Arlington, near his home in Alexandria, Virginia. Vice President JD Vance cautioned critics of billionaire Elon Musk that his 'very good friend' would remain influential in the administration, despite his exit from Washington, DC as a special government advisor. I am going to miss him, Vance told Newsmax host Greg Kelly in an interview. Elons become a very good friend. Vance said he and Musk were close, as even their children had spent time together. He and his kids have come to our house and had dinner with our kids. Im very close to him,' he said. Vance challenged the assumption that Musk was leaving Washington, DC a diminished figure, after his ambitious DOGE effort failed to root out two trillion in spending cuts. 'I think theres also an effort by the media to sort of say the Elon era is over, and I think thats actually totally wrong,' Vance said. The ambitious effort to slash government spending, and root out fraud and corruption, Vance asserted, inspired the administration to continue. The DOGE effort will continue, Elon will continue to be an important advisor, he said. The job has to continue.' U.S. Vice President JD Vance shared his thoughts about Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration 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 Vance brushed aside criticism from Musk about the Republican 'Big Beautiful Bill' that had passed the House of Representatives, suggesting it contained too much government spending that was undermining his efforts at DOGE. Hes a private sector guy and sometimes the government just doesnt go as fast as private sector guys want it to,' Vance said. Musk also indicated his frustrations with Washington, DC in an interview with The Washington Post 'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,' he told The Washington Post in an interview. 'I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.' Elon Musk shows off a shirt that says "DOGE" as he walks on the South Lawn of the white House after stepping off Marine One US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk (R) speak before departing the White House on his way to his South Florida home in Mar-a-Lago in Florida Musk, who was appointed by President Trump as a special government employee in January, is leaving his temporary position as scheduled, as his position was limited to 130 days. President Trump is scheduled to give a farewell press conference with Musk on Friday, to thank him for his work in Washington. 'I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way.' Joe Biden got saucy with a reporter who asked him about questions about his mental capabilities. 'You can see that I was mentally incompetent and I can't walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,' he joked to a female reporter, leaning down to speak to her after speaking at a service in honor of Memorial Day. The former president down played revelations from a new book alleging a coverup about his mental health and chatter from Democrats that he should have never run for re-election, saying: 'Why didn't they run against me then? I could have beaten them.' 'I don't have any regrets,' he added. The remarks were the first ones Biden made since his cancer diagnosis. His voice sounded hoarse as he spoke to reporters at Veterans Park in Wilmington, Del. He attends the ceremony to honor veterans every year. He and his family are optimistic about his diagnosis, Biden said, adding he was taking pills as part of his treatment. The expectation is we're going to be able to beat this, he said. 'Its not in any organ. ... my bones are strong.' 'I feel good,' he said. Earlier Friday, he and Jill Biden attended mass in Wilmington, Del., on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of their son Beau. The former first couple were seen at St. Joseph on the Brandywine, the Catholic Church were Beau is buried. The public sighting came as the former first lady is facing calls to testify about her role in an alleged coverup of Joe Biden's health while he was in office. Beau Biden died of glioblastoma, a very aggressive type of brain cancer, in 2015. The Bidens go to church every year on the anniversary of his death and visit his grave. Joe and Beau Biden used to attend the veterans ceremony together every year. This year Biden brought Beau's son - his grandson - Little Hunter with him. Former President Joe Biden, with his wife Jill Biden, walks to St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church for services marking the anniversary of the death of Beau Biden Former U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park Earlier this month Joe Biden announced he's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The cancer has metastasized, a statement from his office revealed, adding that the family is deciding on treatment options. The news, along with new reporting about efforts by Biden's core team of advisors to shield him from scrutiny, has prompted a renewed focus on Biden's health while in office, as well as the role Biden loyalists played. The questions resulted from the publication of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book 'Original Sin,' which alleges a cover up of the then-president's condition. The book, however, also notes the Biden family wanted to keep Beau Biden's cancer diagnosis a secret and misled the media about his condition. 'Beau's cancer treatment also demonstrated the Biden's capacity for denial and the lengths they would go to to avoid transparency about health issues, even when the person in question is an elected official, in this case the sitting attorney general of Delaware,' the book says. Beau Biden was diagnosed in 2013 after collapsing during a family vacation. He later had surgery to remove a brain tumor. In September 2013,' Biden and Beau's team internally debated how much to disclose about Beau the vice president's son and a state's top law enforcement officer but ultimately said nothing,' the book said. 'In November, Beau told a local reporter he had been given a 'clean bill of health.' However, the book says Beau continued to receive treatment and even checked into hospitals under the name George Lincoln in order to shield his real identity. Joe Biden, who was then vice president, often traveled with his son to support him in his treatment but, according to Tapper and Thompson, ordered his aides to mislead the press and public about his location. Joe Biden in the graveyard of St. Joseph on the Brandywine church, where Beau is buried Then-Vice President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Beau Biden and Hallie Biden (Beau's wife) at the vice president's residence in February 2012 Meanwhile, House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer has requested to interview four former Biden aides and former White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor about Joe Biden's health. And, on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Jill Biden should be included in that request. 'Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that cover up,' Leavitt told said. 'Frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw in regards to her husband and when she saw and what she knew,' Leavitt said. She continued to pile on Jill Biden: 'She was saying everything is fine. She's still lying to the American people. She still thinks the American public are so stupid ... And frankly, it's insulting and she needs to answer for it.' Harvard University graduates have broken ranks with the liberal institution to reveal that racial bias and antisemitism exist on campus. Alumni told Newsmax's Sarah Williams they are too afraid of a backlash to speak out about the issues on camera. President Donald Trump recently announced a crackdown on international students at the college amid accusations the institution allowed antisemitism to go unchecked and fostered racial bias through DEI policies. University leaders have consistently denied the allegations and accuse the White House of attempting to impose a political ideology on the institution. One brave Jewish student who graduated Thursday told Newsmax that he did not feel the college did enough to protect Jewish students. 'My personal feeling was that the administration is trying to do things to get us more, feel more comfortable and be more safe in our place,' he told the outlet. 'Having said that, there were many events that were held during the year that were always concentrating on one side of this hard discussion, and it wasn't the Israeli side'. Williams noted that there was a difference in responses when she spoke to graduates on and off camera. Those who agreed to appear publicly were less reticent when it came to expressing their outrage over Trump's proposals to block international students from obtaining visas to study at the college. A Jewish student (left) criticized Harvard for its response to antisemitism on campus, while another student (left) slammed Trump for his move to restrict all international students from attending the school These students told Newsmax that diversity is important to the student body and should be maintained with the acceptance of international students following Trump's move to block foreign students from obtaining visas to study at the Ivy League school Trump has threatened to clampdown on international students amid accusations the institution fostered racial bias through DEI policies and allowed antisemitism to go unchecked. Pictured: Harvard graduates gather at the commencement ceremony on Thursday The president was hit with a temporary blow Thursday after a federal judge blocked the State Department from enacting the policy. 'You don't control Harvard. It's not a dictatorship,' one student fumed. 'This is education at its highest form. So this needs to be accessible to everyone.' 'I fully believe that we need to protect our diversity and make sure that international students are welcome and supported here at Harvard,' another added. A third said a ban on international students, 'would be a disservice to education' and 'a disservice to what Harvard offers to the world.' Trump said this week that the school should cut its population of foreign students a fifth of whom are Chinese from nearly 30 percent to 15 percent. He also accused university leaders of fostering a breeding ground for antisemitism, making Jewish students feel uncomfortable and unsafe. The State Department has now instructed US consulates and embassies to begin reviewing foreign student visa applicant's social media for antisemitic content, Politico reports. A large encampment of pro-Palestine students protesting the Israel-Hamas war formed on Harvard Yard during the 2024 spring semester and lasted for three weeks. The students wanted the university to divest from the Israeli government and Israeli businesses, but the administration did not acquiesce. Students protesting against the war in Gaza, and passersby walking through Harvard Yard, are seen at an encampment at Harvard University on Thursday, April 25. The college was heavily criticized for its response to the protests which left some Jewish students feeling unsafe The encampment lasted three weeks and ended in May 2024 after students failed to secure concessions from the university administration Even before the encampment in April and May of 2024, there were widespread protests at Harvard immediately following the Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. One such protest descended into a confrontation where pro-Palestine demonstrators surrounded a Harvard MBA student and repeatedly shouted 'shame' at him. Claudine Gay, Harvard's president during much of this turmoil, resigned in January 2025 after she refused to condemn students calling for the genocide of Jews when pressed by members of Congress. Gay presided over billions of dollars in lost potential donations from wealthy Jewish families appalled by what took place on campus. And since Trump has retaken the White House, he has inflicted even more financial damage on the ailing college, freezing about $3.2 billion in federal grants and contracts. On top of that, Trump has cut $100 million in remaining contracts with Harvard. Harvard sued the Trump administration for the federal funding freeze and denies accusations of alleged bias against Jewish students. Lawyers for Harvard also argue that the attempted revocation of foreign student visas violates its free speech and due process rights under the US Constitution as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that constrains what federal agencies are allowed to do. Harvard says the Trump administration is retaliating against it because it refused to obey the government's demands to control the school's governance, curriculum and the 'ideology' of its faculty and students The federal government sent a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber (pictured) on April 11 claiming that the school has 'failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment' Harvard says the Trump administration is retaliating against it because it refused to obey the government's demands to control the school's governance, curriculum and the 'ideology' of its faculty and students. The federal government sent a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber on April 11 claiming that the school has 'failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.' The letter demanded university leaders adopt merit-based admissions policies, stop admitting students who are 'hostile to American values', enforce viewpoint diversity in all academic departments, and immediately end all DEI programs. Officials explained that they wanted what amounted to progress reports on these goals sent to them so they could ensure that their orders were being followed. DailyMail.com approached Harvard University for comment. A prison officer has been taken to hospital with 'serious injuries' after being stabbed at a jail holding some of Britain's most dangerous offenders. The male warden was assaulted this morning at HMP Long Lartin, where current inmates include Thomas Cashman, murderer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, and Joanna Yeates' killer Vincent Tabak. A source with knowledge of the prison told MailOnline the attacker used a flick-knife brought in by a drone. They said drones were a 'real issue' at the prison and warned an officer 'would be killed' if the problem was not resolved. 'This happened this morning - a flick-knife got in and a prisoner stabbed an officer,' the source said. 'The governor isn't stopping the drones coming in - they are dropping items to prisoners in their cells. 'Something needs doing because this kind of thing is always happening. A prison officer is going to be killed soon.' The Prison Service confirmed an officer had been stabbed but declined to comment on the nature of the weapon. They said the officer was stable. The incident follow a string of other assaults involving prisoners in recent weeks, including Manchester Arena terrorist Hashem Abedi. The male warden was assaulted this morning at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire (file photo) An officer pictured at a gate at HMP Long Lartin. A recent report criticised the jail's failure to tackle drones Just last month it was revealed convicted murderer John Mansfield was killed during a brutal attack at the high security prison. The 63-year-old was hit in the head with a weight, MailOnline revealed. The latest security breach took place a day after Abedi attacked three prison officers with hot oil inside a separation unit at HMP Frankland, Co Durham. And just weeks ago a 'specialist' prison offer had their throat slashed by an inmate using an improvised weapon at HMP Woodhill. A recent inspection of Long Lartin found that the surveillance technology it is using is 'unserviceable' and fails to stop drones from carrying drugs and phones into the grounds. It revealed how jail chiefs have even tried to 'patch up' faulty kit with scrap parts salvaged from other prisons. Inspectors said security at the Worcestershire jail needed urgent upgrades so wings can be monitored adequately. Two-thirds of Long Lartin inmates are serving life sentences, with the rest serving terms of ten years or more. Current prisoners include Jake Fahri, who is serving life for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen and Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright. Previous inmates have included murderer Jeremy Bamber, terror preacher Abu Hamza, gangster Charlie Kray and Charles Bronson. Current prisoners at HMP Long Lartin include Thomas Cashman and Vincent Tabak, who kidnapped and murdered Joanna Yeates Inspectors from the Independent Monitoring Board called on the Government, Prison Service and the governor at Long Lartin to 'prioritise' security at the jail. They wrote: 'Minimal attempts have been made to repair obsolete equipment. At times use has been made of outdated components removed from other prisons.' The report went on to say drone deliveries of contraband had 'widened access to drugs and mobile phones' in the jail, causing 'bullying, instability and violence'. It said 86 drones had been spotted, with 31 packages 'intercepted', and both staff and visitors had been caught bringing illicit items in. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: I summoned the prisons minister in January to warn this exact incident would happen unless they took urgent action. They dithered and said they would fix security by June 2026. This is the tragic result of their shameful inaction. Our brave prison officers are lions led by donkeys. The Governments shameful refusal to equip them immediately with stab vests is risking lives. Its a disgrace. They must have the protection and powers they need to crack down on these vile offenders. Charles Bronson (pictured, in 2004) was previously locked up at Long Lartin He added: How many more officers need to be stabbed before the Ministry of Justice finally gives them stab vests and cracks down on drones delivering weapons? West Mercia Police said about today's incident: 'We were called to HMP Long Lartin in South Littleton around 10am this morning (Friday, May 30), following a report someone had been assaulted by an inmate. 'One man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after sustaining a stab wound. The inmate remains within the prison and the investigation is on-going. ' West Midlands Ambulance Service said: 'We were called to reports of a stabbing at a location off Sheenhill Road near South Littleton, Evesham at 8.39am. 'An ambulance, two paramedic officers and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Strensham were sent to the scene. On arrival, crews found a man who they treated for serious injuries before he was airlifted to hospital for further treatment.' It comes amid warnings from experts that there has been a 'collapse in security' in the jails housing Britain's most dangerous criminals. The Prison Service is currently conducting a 'snap review' into the use of protective body armour for prison officers, while the use of tasers is being trialled in jails. The incident follow a string of other assaults involving prisoners in recent weeks, including Manchester Arena terrorist Hashem Abedi Abedi had attacked three prison guards at HMP Frankland, leaving them with life-threatening injuries. He threw boiling oil over the officers and then stabbed them with a homemade weapon Reacting to attacks earlier this month, Prison Officers' Association General Secretary Steve Gillan said: 'Escalating levels of violence are out of control in the prison service in England and Wales. 'It appears that HMPPS have learned nothing. They continue to ignore the calls from our members on the front line for urgent action to protect Prison Officers from violence. 'It is clear Prison regimes must be reviewed as a matter of urgency. We need action to protect Prison Officers before there is a fatality.' A Prison Service spokesperson said: 'Police are investigating an attack on a prison officer at HMP Long Lartin. 'We will not tolerate assaults on hardworking staff and will always push for the strongest punishments against perpetrators.' The French president and his wife are deliberately over-egging affectionate body language in an effort to downplay rumoured conflict amid the continued furore around the 'face shove' video circulating this week, a body language expert has claimed. Emmanuel Macron brushed off the suggestion of a spat with the French First Lady, Brigitte Macron, after footage appeared to show her shoving her husband, moments before they stepped off their presidential jet in Vietnam on Sunday. The moment quickly made headlines around the world, pressing the French president to deny anything was wrong and claim that they were just playfighting. The couple have been especially close in the days since as they continue their state visit. Judi James, a body language expert, told MailOnline that the Macrons have gone 'overkill' in their 'denial rituals' to silence the rumours, putting on a performance of 'newlywed-style body language presumably aimed at making us forget the gesture'. 'The pair seem set on trying to look closer than usual here,' she said as the couple were pictured together at a reception for members of the French community at the International French School (IFS) in Singapore on Friday. 'Brigitte is dressed in a very modest, pristine, funnel-neck off-white suit that would be entirely appropriate for a wedding, and she keeps her head tilted down so that her face peeps shyly out of her thatch-style hair.' Ms James added that there is now a 'coyly submissive-looking behaviour' from Ms Macron, pictured holding her husband's arm with both hands, 'clinging like a bridge leaving the church, leaning in to suggest closeness'. But one pose 'seems slightly off-message here', she suggests, when Brigitte 'suddenly takes a more dominant stance' and reaches her arm out in front of her husband with a pointing index figure, 'making her look less coy and more assertive'. One pose 'seems slightly off-message here', Judi James suggests, when Brigitte 'suddenly takes a more dominant stance' and reaches out with a pointing index figure Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte prepare to sign in a book at the Parliament House. 'When the pair sign a register they both cling to the pen,' Ms James noted Emmanuel Macron (2nd L) and his wife Brigitte Macron pose with Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (2nd R) and his wife Jane Ittogi Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron pose at the Parliament House in Singapore on May 30, 2025 In video taken by The Associated Press as the Macrons arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, a uniformed man can be seen pulling open the plane door and revealing the president standing inside, dressed in a suit and talking to someone who wasn't visible Brigitte Macron's arms - in red - were seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw The Elysee had been hoping that the visit to Vietnam would showcase France's reach into the Indo-Pacific, but it has been shadowed by the incident which occurred as the doors of the presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi Sunday In Hanoi, Brigitte sticks out both her hands and gives her husband's face a shove, according to footage shot by the Associated Press. He appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. Since then, Ms James assesses, the couple have made a point of showing closeness in a 'desperate' effort to 'pretend all is well' and deflect focus from the plane footage, which falls well outside of their usual polished look. 'When the pair sign a register they both cling to the pen,' she noted, referring to scenes from inside the Parliament House in Singapore on Friday. This was 'again like a bride and groom', she suggested. 'They seem to have stepped up their mirroring rituals with poses like the one of them clapping together in total synchronisation, providing a like-minded look of peas in a pod.' 'When they glance at each other Brigitte performs another coy facial expression, complete with a slightly flirty eye contact and with her lips pursed into a pout,' she added. 'Macron responds with what looks like an appreciative smile.' Macron talks to his wife Brigitte Macron during an orchid naming ceremony on Friday The couple have made a point of showing closeness in a 'desperate' effort to 'pretend all is well' and deflect focus from the plane footage, Ms James assessed Macron said that he was squabbling with his wife but denied anything more sinister Emmanuel Macron (C) walks with his wife Brigitte Macron (R) during a reception for members of the French community The couple speak with France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati (2nd R) and French MP Anne Genetet (R) during a reception for members of the French community The body language assessment continues a trend identified throughout the week as the couple carried on with their tour of South Asia. Ms James said that during a visit to the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi on Wednesday, the couple appeared to be overcorrecting with a 'litter tray' response, burying the bad 'under some shovels-full of "good" behaviour in what looks like a bid to prove nothing is wrong'. She said their non-verbal skills were bordering "overkill", suggesting some levels of panic and a desperation to pretend all is well and to maybe tie in with the ridiculous claims of 'playing' together on the plane.' 'Their response' to the resulting media frenzy, she also identified earlier this week, is body language that looks like 'a bride and groom on their wedding day'. Both were all smiles for the cameras, Ms Macron keeping close to her husband and leaning in slightly. The president has pushed back on the focus on Sunday's incident, telling reporters that 'my wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise'. Now it's 'become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories,' he said. The French first couple were pictured together on Wednesday after their 'playfighting' Emmanuel Macron (centre L) and his wife Brigitte Macron (R) look on during a visit to the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi on May 27, 2025. 'Macron's chest is puffed to suggest his favored alpha state and his arm is crooked in a gesture of old-fashioned gentlemanliness,' Judi James said Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron wave as they board their plane for departure following their visit to Vietnam at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on May 27, 2025 This is the third time this month that Macron has been the subject of viral video footage at a time when France says it is being targeted by repeated disinformation campaigns as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine. Macron testily referred to the other incidents, including the images shot on the train to Kyiv where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine. But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue. Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president's finger at a summit. 'None of these are true,' Macron said of the videos. 'Everyone needs to calm down,' he added. The second home hypocrisy scandal surrounding Scotlands top union boss deepened as it was revealed she owns a third home in Spain. Roz Foyer - who has publicly condemned the scourge of multiple home ownership - rents her luxury three-bedroomed apartment out for over 1,000 a week, the Mail can reveal. It comes after Ms Foyer, the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), was last week accused of being a hypocrite after it emerged she owned homes in Glasgow and the idyllic isle of Jura. Ms Foyer, who earns up to 100,000 a year, has blamed second home owners for exacerbating the housing and cost-of-living crisis. Last week, the Mail on Sunday revealed she owned a holiday cottage on the Isle of Jura, as well as her four-bedroom family home in the leafy suburbs of the north-west of Glasgow. Now, Ms Foyer is under growing pressure to consider her position as head of the STUC, an umbrella body which oversees a coalition of 40 trade unions. Ms Foyer rents out the tastefully decorated three-bedroom apartment in sunny southern Spain. A weeks stay from June 18 to June 25 this year would cost around 920. Situated in an apartment block in the quaint harbour town of Puerto de Mazarron, the flat boasts a private balcony with panoramic views over the Mediterranean Sea. Union boss Roz Foyer owns a three-bedroom apartment in sunny southern Spain The STUC boss also owns a pretty cottage on Isle of Jura Roz Foyer also owns another home in Glasgow Although the beautiful Isla beach is just 950 yards from the property, the two well-kept communal swimming pools are even closer-by, should guests like to take a dip to cool off. The revelation comes as Europe is grappling with a housing crisis due to rising house prices and an influx of foreign buyers, prompting the minority socialist Spanish Government to push ahead with a 100 per cent property tax on second homes bought by non-EU member residents. Earlier this month Holyrood heard how a proliferation of holiday homes was making life harder for public sector workers here in Scotland - the very people that Ms Foyer claims to represent. Last night, Scottish Conservative finance and local government spokesman Craig Hoy said: After raging against the evils of second home ownership it was staggering to discover Roz Foyer herself had an island bolthole in Scotland in addition to her main residence. News that she has a third home in Spain simply beggars belief and highlights the levels of hypocrisy among left-wing union leaders. Shes not just a champagne socialist shes a sangria-sipping one too. Trade unionist Ms Foyer was the first woman in 2020 to be appointed to the top job in Scotland, representing 500,000 workers and has repeatedly spoken out about the negative impact second homes have on communities. In July 2023 she said that there should be a 300 per cent council tax premium on second and empty homes to tackle homelessness in Scotland. The STUC boss has repeatedly raised concerns about the impact of second home ownership Months later, in December, she said: Scotland is facing a simultaneous housing crisis, a public sector funding crisis and a cost-of-living crisis putting an unbearable strain on working people. Second homes and short-term lets can have significantly negative impacts on communities, exacerbating these crises as well as undermining the local economy. And in February 2024, in a newspaper column, Ms Foyer highlighted the number of long term empty properties and second homes in the Highlands. She wrote that workers in the Highlands are facing an acute housing crisis. Ms Foyer co-owns her property on Jura with husband, fellow trade union official Simon Macfarlane, which they bought for 45,000 in 2012. The pretty cottage enjoys a lovely spot on Jura which is known as one of Europes last lost wildernesses and boasts a small population of around 220. Similar properties on Jura are valued at around 150,000. Ms Foyer and Mr Macfarlane - who is a regional manager for trade union Unison - are understood to spend most of their time with their two daughters at their residence on a private estate in Glasgow, which cost the family 280,111 in 2015. The Spanish home is in the Murcia region of Spain, close to Alicante. 'Second homes and short-term lets can have significantly negative impacts on communities,' Ms Foyer claimed Title deeds show Ms Foyer and Mr Macfarlane purchased the home in August 2021 - just months after Ms Foyer was appointed the General Secretary of the STUC. Locals say the family have been seen enjoying trips around the town and walking along the harbour. While they are not using the flat, Ms Foyer rents it out on holiday letting sites under the banner: Stunning 3-Bed Apartment in Puerto De Mazarron. At almost 1000 square foot, the property is said to offer a spacious layout and can house up to six guests in its two double bedrooms and one twin room - although it will not accommodate hen, stag or similar parties. One review left in April hailed the apartments perfect location, large kitchen and beautiful huge terrace, however one guest lamented the fact there were no beds or shade around the pools and no air conditioning in the bedrooms. The socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said that foreign buyers - such as Ms Foyer - have purchased thousands of properties not to live in, but to make money from them which, in the context of the shortage that we are in, we obviously cannot allow. He has presented a Bill to the Spanish parliament in the hope to impose a 100 per cent property tax on British and other non-EU citizens purchasing holiday homes, as well as an increase of VAT on short-term rentals. Meanwhile the issue of second home ownership in the Scottish Highlands and Islands was debated in the Scottish parliament earlier this month during a motion brought by Ross Greer of the Scottish Greens. The discussion heard concerns that a high concentration of second homes has caused house prices and rents to rocket and reduced the housing supply for local people. Scottish Labour MSP Carol Mochan said holiday homes were making it harder to recruit and retain public sector workers. She said: A lack of affordable housing affects not only individuals and communities but local businesses that want to attract workers. Very importantly, a lack of affordable housing also affects the recruitment of public sector workers. She continued: I have strong evidence of that from the Borders area of my South Scotland region. Trade unions have told me that people are not coming to work in the area or are having to travel a long distance, which sometimes involves a journey of an hour or more, to get to their work. That is not sustainable. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has heard compelling evidence on the issue, in oral evidence and on a visit to the islands. The health boards have described the situation as a crisis for service delivery. It is a very important issue. STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer defended owning a second and third home. She said: I'm proud that the STUC has pushed for and secured a doubling of council tax on second homes and we remain committed to arguing for a proportional property tax. 'I can look in the mirror knowing that Im actively arguing to increase my fair share to society. 'Fighting every day for fairer taxation and to spread wealth throughout the country brings its critics. 'As a woman from a working-class background, I wont be made to feel ashamed for legitimately owning property that my family and I, like of thousands of families across Scotland, have worked tirelessly for. The stunning appearance of multiple citation errors in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' report could be due to the sloppy use of Artificial Intelligence, according to experts and telltale indicators. The White House and the Health and Human Services Department were forced to respond Thursday to a bombshell report that identified multiple citations to academic articles buried within the report that did not actually exist. Some of the errors appeared to carry hallmarks of generative AI which users have found is designed to provide an authoritative sounding answer when producing copy as it scrapes the internet for content and information. Some references contain 'oaicite', which is indicative of the use of OpenAI, in their URLs. The citation errors were confirmed by human beings who either said they didn't write some of the studies listed, or that their work relating to the health issues at hand came in other formats and publications. Some said interpretations of their data were also incorrect. 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,' epidemiologist Katherine Keyes told NOTUS, which exposed many of the lapses. The feds have since purged seven citations from the report, which Kennedy released with much fanfare days ago. Another academic whose work got cited, Mariana G. Figueiro, told the publication: 'The conclusions in the report are not accurate and the journal reference is incorrect. It was not published in Pediatrics. Also, the study was not done in children, but in college students.' The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report issued by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was found to contain multiple citation errors. Seven of them were removed Thursday after they were revealed Thirty-seven of the report's citations occur multiple times, according to the Washington Post. 'Frankly, that's shoddy work,' Oren Etzioni, an AI expert at the University of Washington told the paper. 'We deserve better.' At the White House Thursday, a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt directly if Kennedy and his team of cabinet members who compiled the report relied on AI. 'I can't speak to that. I would refer you to the Department of Health and Human Services. What I know is just what I told you,' she responded. 'We have complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS,' she said, when asked about the reports that unearthed the fake references. 'I understand there was some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated,' she said. President Trump said MAHA was 'hot' on the day the error-filled report came out Bad format: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed confidence in RFK, Jr. but said she couldn't speak to whether AI was behind the errors. She said there were some 'formatting issues' in the report 'But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government is and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government. RFK, Jr., who has already drawn controversy for sowing doubts about vaccines and other views, gushed about the report before its release, which came after his team had a single public meeting. 'The report is the product of a consensual process, and it represents a collaborative effort of all the agencies and the White House. And it represents a consensus that is probably the strongest and most radical consensus by a government agency in history about the state of America's health,' he said. 'MAHA's become hot,' President Trump said of RFK, Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' push. Before its release some farm state Republican lawmakers had raised concerns that the MAHA report would go after pesticides and farm practices they consider critical for farm efficiency. The report calls to examine the 'over-utilization of medication' such as steroids and questions the childhood vaccine schedule. But the author identified with a study showing a jump in use of corticosteroids 'denied writing it,' according to NOTUS, and called the conclusion an 'overgeneralization' of his other findings. The number of errors mushroomed this week as more outsiders picked at the purported data. Psychiatry Professor Robert L. Findling didn't write the report attributed to him on 'Direct-to-consumer advertising of psychotropic medications for youth: A growing concern.' Teeing off on the revelations was Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. 'What do you know? Secretary released areport with made-up sources,' she said, attaching emojis for a brain and a worm. 'This fully discredits the MAHA Commission report. RFK Jr. is a deranged conspiracy theorist, so no one should be surprised by his lies, but we should still call them out,' she wrote. A state government has failed to prove a man accused of using a rope to drag a woman to a car was handed a 'manifestly inadequate' sentence. The Queensland government had sought to increase Brock Andrew McDonald's sentence after he was jailed for assaulting and depriving the liberty of a young woman in October 2023. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on parole in December, with 413 days as time served. Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said in January that in her view, the sentence did not meet community standards and was 'manifestly inadequate'. McDonald, 44, is alleged to have put a rope around a young woman's neck before dragging her into a car in the early hours of the morning. He placed the screaming woman in the back seat while repeatedly telling her not to look at his face. She eventually escaped the car and hid in a nearby bush before calling for help. McDonald had pleaded guilty to charges of deprivation of liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm. Brock Andrew McDonald was jailed for assaulting a young woman in October 2023 Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the sentence was 'manifestly inadequate' In the appeal, the attorney-general had sought McDonald's sentence to be increased to no less than three years for the deprivation of liberty charge. The attorney-general's counsel submitted that the Court of Appeal should conclude the sentence was 'unreasonable and plainly unjust' and was so far outside the range of sentences that an error must have occurred. But the Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed the case, finding the attorney-general could not demonstrate the sentence was manifestly inadequate or that an error had occurred. The judges said the prosecution launched the appeal with the 'fundamental misconception' that sentences for kidnapping offences were comparable in McDonald's case on a deprivation of liberty charge. The appeal court referenced the sentencing judge's ruling on the basis that the prosecution had not sought to prove intent that is required for a charge of kidnapping. The prosecution instead pursued deprivation of liberty, which holds a lesser maximum sentence. The appeal judges said the attorney general 'ignored the consequences' of the prosecution's choices in framing the charges of deprivation of liberty instead of kidnapping, which McDonald pleaded guilty to. 'The argument presented on behalf of the attorney-general fails to demonstrate that the sentence was manifestly inadequate,' the appeal judges ruled. Ms Frecklington expressed her disappointment over the outcome. 'This sentence was appealed because I did not believe it met community expectations,' she said in a statement. 'I am disappointed in the outcome and my thoughts remain with the victim and her family.' One of the two migrants charged in the cold-blooded rape and murder of a 12-year-old Texas girl has now been linked to the rape of an American woman on vacation in Costa Rica. The murder of Joycelyn Nungaray, 12, became an immigration flashpoint last summer after the suspects in her brutal slaying were revealed to be Venezuelan migrants who entered the country illegally just months before. Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, are accused of luring Jocelyn Nungaray, who had snuck out of her house late at night, underneath a bridge. After spending two hours with her there, the Venezuelan men emerged alone, and the raped and strangled body of the girl had been dumped in a near-by bayou. Now, a US citizen woman who was vacationing in Costa Rica told authorities she was raped by Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, reported Fox 26. The attack in Central America happened before Nungaray was killed June 17, presumably as Pena was en route to America from his native South America. The unidentified woman went to Costa Rican authorities after she was attacked, but was ignored, revealed Kim Ogg, who was district attorney in Houston until January. 'When she reported it to the authorities in Costa Rica, they did nothing,' Ogg explained. This image of Jocelyn Nungaray was among the first released of her by her family as part of GoFundMe page 'Imagine the frustration of that individual. I don't want that to be swept under the carpet.' Ogg added that learning about the Costa Rica victim last year was key to the Harris County DA's office's decision to seek the death penalty for both men in Nungaray's case. The woman, who does not live in Texas, reached out to Ogg's office after seeing Pena's photo plastered all over the news after Nungaray's death. 'Authorities had no idea of their past behavior- if they had criminal charges in Venezuela or another country- that makes it hard to determine if someone is going to be a future danger,' the former prosecutor told the Houston TV station. The migrants have been accused of having links to Venezuelan super gang Tren de Aragua. Ogg says she's making making the Costa Rica alleged rape public now since she fears the new DA, Sean Teare, who has recently dismissed several cases, will be plea down the charges in the Nungaray case. 'As we have said time and time again, we cannot discuss the facts of this case. We will continue to respect the restrictions imposed by the court, ensuring a fair trial,' Teare's spokeswoman Courtney Fischer told DailyMail.com Pena is due back in court for a non-trial setting Monday at 9:30 a.m. However, Pena and Martinez will be tried separately for their capital murder charges in the pre-teen case, no sooner than 2026 her mother told DailyMail.com in March. The grieving mother learned of the woman's sexual assault just recently. 'I always felt in my heart that this was never their first time, especially Pena,' mom Alexis Nungaray told the local outlet. 'To just know that this happened to another woman, it hurts my heart. A piece of me shatters a little bit.' Franklin Pena, one of the two men accused of killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, leaves the courtroom after bail was set for $10 million Former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg revealed that one of two men accused in the sexual assault and death of Jocelyn Nungaray has been accused in a second rape Booking photos of Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Pena, 26, now charged with capital murder in the death of 12-yr-old Jocelyn Nungaray on June 17 Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, was killed by two Venezuelan migrants after she was raped under a bridge, prosecutors say, in June 2023 Nearly nine months after Jocelyn Nungaray's death first made headlines, her mother Alexis gave DailyMail.com an exclusive tour of the storage unit where she recreated her daughter's bedroom in near Houston It's unclear what role Pena played in Nungaray's murder and rape, as both illegal immigrants have turned on each, trying to minimize their own culpability. After sneaking out in the middle of the night of the Texas apartment she shared with her mom and younger brother in June, the two men approached Nungaray on the street near her home. She willingly went with them to a convenience store and later under a bridge where she was raped and strangled over a two-hour period. Franklin Pena claims he never even touched Jocelyn, saying it was Martinez-Rangel who wrapped his forearm around Jocelyn's neck while standing behind her and walked her under the bridge, according to TV station Fox 26. Martinez-Rangel laid Jocelyn onto her back, according to Pena, and took her pants off. He then described how Martinez-Rangel climbed on top of her while holding her arms down. Pena tried to intervene, telling Martinez-Rangel to stop and that they should leave, but Martinez-Rangel responded, 'I have to finish what I started.' Martinez-Rangel then strangled her using his forearm, killing her and binding her hands and feet together. Houston police released these images, taken from surveillance video at a gas station in Houston, as they hunted down Jocelyn Nungaray's killers Jocelyn Nungaray captured on surveillance video outside of a convenience store before her death in June 2024, in an image released by the Houston Police Department The images show a relaxed Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, walking into the 7-Eleven in North Houston with a man and willing leaving with him The images did lead to the men's arrest, after their roommate saw them on the news and turned them over to police Video shows Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, one of the two men accused of killing Jocelyn Nungaray, on the night he and Franklin Pena Ramos were seen with the young girl It was Martinez-Rangel's idea-- Pena claimed-- to move her body into the water to destroy any DNA. Pena also accused Martinez-Rangel of shaving his beard after the murder so that he would not be recognized. In his own police interview, Martinez-Rangel initially denied he had killed Jocelyn, however, in later talks with investigators, he did fuss up. He admitted to making the decision to tie her up and put her in the water. However, it was Pena, who asked his boss at the construction company where he worked for money to leave Houston after the murder but before the Venezuelan duo was arrested, prosecutors alleged in court. Two veteran NYPD detectives are in the hot seat for their role in providing security at a luxury Manhattan townhouse where a cryptocurrency businessman was tortured for two weeks - and one has ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, sources tell DailyMail.com. Detective Robert Cordero, who's been assigned to Mayor Adam's Executive Protection Unit since 2021, was the one who allegedly picked up the Italian national from the airport on May 6 and drove him to the townhouse - delivering him to the so-called Crypto King of Kentucky, John Woeltz, 38, and William Duplessie, 32. There, in an attempt to extort the password from Bitcoin investor Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 28, they subjected him to 17 days of being chained up, electrocuted and taunted with a chainsaw inside the swanky SoHo apartment. The townhouse's surveillance and transportation to other locations was allegedly held down by Cordero and Detective Raymond J. Low, who has worked in the narcotics unit in Manhattan since 2005. Neither had filed the required paperwork to work the private security job, sources said. However, one familiar with the investigation told DailyMail.com that it's not believed that the detectives were involved in the actual crime. 'There's no indication either of them had any knowledge of what was going on inside,' the source said. 'It's not like they went up there and saw this guy being tortured. These (detectives) function was to basically drive them around.' But despite this, both men have been placed on modified desk duty as the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau investigates their involvement in the horrifying scheme that was only exposed when the businessman was able to bust out of his confinement. After 17 horrifying days, a shoeless and bloodied Carturan was captured on surveillance cameras hobbling down a busy street on May 23 after escaping the six-story apartment. NYPD detectives Raymond J. Low and Robert Cordero, who's held a position on Mayor Eric Adams' security detail since 2021 (NOT PICTURED), are being investigated for working security at a Manhattan townhouse where an Italian crypto businessman was tortured for two weeks Detective Cordero was the one who allegedly picked up Bitcoin investor Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 28, from the airport on May 6 and drove him to this SoHo townhouse He was able to flag down an NYPD traffic officer at the intersection of Spring and Mulberry Streets and pleaded for help, NBC 4 reported. The disheveled Italian national told the officer he had seized the opportunity to escape after being told it would be his 'death day'. Police said he was covered in bruises, cuts and had ligature marks on his wrists from where he was allegedly bound. Officers converged on the property and arrested Woeltz on charges of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm. Woeltz was allegedly part of a group that concocted a sadistic scheme to lure Carturan - who is understood to have been a business partner of Woeltz and his associate William Duplessie - to New York so they could access his crypto account. Duplessie, accompanied by his lawyers, surrendered himself to police Tuesday morning. He will face charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Woeltz's glamorous Italian assistant Beatrice Folchi, 24, was also taken into police custody, but later released. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has declined to prosecute pending further investigation. Police raided Woeltz's residence on Friday after Carturan's escape. What they found inside was shocking: a trove of evidence offering a glimpse inside their apartment of horrors, including Polaroid pictures of Carturan being tied up and tortured. Carturan, 28, was able to make his escape when the men were distracted and rushed out of the townhouse bloodied and shoeless, hobbling down the busy SoHo street until he flagged down a police officer John Woeltz, 38, was arrested at the townhome, barefoot and in a white bathrobe, last Friday morning after Carturan's dramatic escape Woeltz's associate William Duplessie, 32, (center) surrendered himself to the NYPD's Major Case Squad Detectives unit on Tuesday morning Woeltz's glamorous Italian assistant Beatrice Folchi, 24, (pictured) was also taken into police custody but later released. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has declined to prosecute pending further investigation Woeltz and Duplessie were routinely partying while they allegedly tortured a man in a SoHo townhouse for weeks. Sources familiar with their wild nights out claim Duplessie (pictured at The Box club in March) would always be shirtless at nightclubs because he 'wanted to act like the man' and 'thought he was in the mafia' Detectives also revealed they uncovered a gun that was used to 'inflict fear and pain on the victim'. The nightmare for Carturan began when he was lured to the house by his former business associate, Woeltz, with the promise of returning Bitcoin already extorted from him. But when he arrived, he was chained up, electrocuted, pistol-whipped and threatened with a chainsaw in an effort to give up the passwords to his crypto accounts, Carturan claimed. Woeltz and his male 'accomplice' allegedly threatened to kill the alleged victim's family unless he provided passwords to accounts holding Bitcoin. Believing he would soon be shot, Carturan told his alleged captors he would give up his password. Prosecutors claim as Woeltz went to retrieve his laptop from another room, the victim fled down the stairs. Carturan was transported to a nearby hospital with a 'laceration to his face', 'injury to his wrists consistent with being bound' and various other injuries on his body and head, prosecutors said, describing the victim as having been 'traumatized'. Sources close to the investigation told NBC 4 that Woeltz and Duplessie had 'roughed up' Carturan before, but never violently. They would often pick on him, with the insider describing their relationship as 'complex' and having a 'Wolf of Wall Street/frat guys gone wild' vibe. Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly threatened to kill the alleged victim's family unless he provided passwords to accounts holding Bitcoin Photographs captured from inside the townhouse show how the pair littered the kitchen with cocaine, (circled) empty top-shelf liquor bottles, including Don Julio and Greygoose, mixers, disposable vapes and empty take-out containers The duo would drink both Don Julio tequila and champagne straight from the bottle at The Box and had a 'frat bro' mentality with their friends and coworkers - often picking on Carturan before holding him captive While strapped to a chair inside the house, the gang of men pistol-whipped Carturan and threatened to sever his limbs with an electric chainsaw before he pretended to concede his passwords When police raided the home, they found Polaroids the men had taken of themselves torturing him - one showing him bound to a chair with a gun pressed to his head Police have now arrested a group of so-called 'crypto bros' in connection with the case. The gang was alleged to have pistol-whipped Carturan and threatened to sever his limbs with an electric chainsaw before he pretended to concede his passwords. At one point, they were said to have 'carried the victim to the top flight of stairs of the apartment in the compound and hung the victim over the ledge, after threatening to kill the victim if [he] did not provide the defendant with the victim's Bitcoin password'. Police said the men took Polaroid photographs of themselves torturing him - one showing him bound to a chair with a gun pressed to his head. The photos, authorities believe, were likely intended to extort money from either the alleged victim or his family back in Italy. Investigators also found broken glass, helmets, night vision goggles and a bulletproof vest strewn across the apartment. The men also reportedly forced him into taking drugs - including crack cocaine - and imposed mental torment upon him, repeatedly insisting he would never escape. Prosecutors also allege that he was urinated on during the ordeal and that his captors slashed his leg. Investigators also found broken glass, helmets, night vision goggles and a bulletproof vest strewn across the apartment Carturan claimed that he was held captive in the residence and tortured for 17 days. Police are pictured at the home last Friday, which remains locked down amid their investigation Woeltz is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm Duplessie is walked into Manhattan Central Booking on Tuesday after he surrendered to police. He faces charges of kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon Woeltz, described by police as the renting occupant of the apartment, was dragged out of the building in a white bathrobe on Friday morning. Officers found him in an upstairs bathroom. He was charged on Saturday with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, according to the Manhattan DA's office. Prosecutors deemed him a flight risk as he owns a private jet and a helicopter. He is being held without bail. Duplessie surrendered himself to the NYPD's Major Case Squad Detectives unit on Tuesday morning. The custody exchange was reportedly expected. Officials have since revealed that he faces charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment. With names like Oops, Beavers and Cheeky Monkey, its clear the dive bars along Soi 80 in the coastal city of Hua Hin, Thailand, offer more than just a cheap drink. Then again, with dozens of scantily clad women advertising their wares from mid-morning to the early hours, this notoriously seedy strip hardly prizes subtlety. And yet, the clients here arent just looking for sex theyre longing for love. For Hua Hin now boasts one of the fastest growing expat communities anywhere in the world including more than 1,000 Brits the vast majority of whom are elderly single men hoping for a second shot at happiness. Only this time, with girls as young as their granddaughters. A survey conducted last month by local news service Hua Hin Today found that about 81 per cent of expats in the city are male with over half aged 66-75. An impressive 96.5 per cent said that living in Hua Hin had either met or surpassed their expectations. However, while many believe expats are little more than a boon to the local economy, worries are now being expressed over the chequered histories of those who decide to leave everything behind and relocate to this small corner of Thailand. Earlier this month, the city some 200km south of Bangkok was rocked by the arrest of British expat and former military officer 55-year-old Graeme Davidson who stands accused of killing his former wife and mother of his three children, Jacqueline, in Queensland in November 2020. Davidson claimed Jacqueline drowned in a kayaking accident, and moved to Hua Hin within months of her death. He purchased a 315,000 four-floor beach-side villa, then married Pick Pattraporn, a local girl believed to be in her early thirties. He is also known to have briefly dated a 28-year-old woman named Ploy Ranu. Hua Hin now boasts one of the fastest growing expat communities anywhere in the world including more than 1,000 Brits So-called retirement visas are readily available for foreigners over the age of 50 provided they have a Thai bank account with more than 18,000 or a monthly pension of 1,472 Pick has now been left in the property while her wealthy British-Australian husband awaits trial for murder in a Brisbane jail he was arrested when he returned to Australia on a short holiday to see his children Hamish, Robyn and Brooke. What makes the case so shocking is that Davidson had quickly become a pillar of the Hua Hin community, earning widespread trust among the locals, even organising a recent Remembrance Day event and appearing on local radio. The Davidson saga has forced many in Hua Hin to confront the uncomfortable reality that there may be a dark side to the arrival of wealthy Westerners, many of whom have come to Hua Hin not only for a new life, but to escape an old one. So just how did this otherwise quiet coastal city, once favoured by the late Thai King, morph into a dating pool for elderly expats in search of young women? The Mail finds 65-year-old Mark enjoying an ice cream in 30 degree heat outside a shopping mall in central Hua Hin. He is a long way from his home in Cheltenham. Mark has spent 40 years working as a plumbing and heating engineer in the West Country, and has been coming here for a few months at a time since his 30-year marriage ended in 2019. Soon Ill move out full-time, he said. The demographic of England is changing and I dont feel safe there. Plus, the girls arent interested in me. Im more into petite, attractive girls anyhow not like the big girls in the UK. And here, men dont even have to flirt with women, its the women who flirt with me. So-called retirement visas are readily available for foreigners over the age of 50 provided they have a Thai bank account with more than 18,000 or a monthly pension of 1,472. The Davidson saga has forced many in Hua Hin to confront the uncomfortable reality that there may be a dark side to the arrival of wealthy Westerners, many of whom have come to Hua Hin not only for a new life, but to escape an old one While meeting girls in bars is the most common way for elderly men to date younger women, expats also use online dating services, including the popular local site ThaiFriendly As Anna, who runs a business called Anna Visa Services, and helps Brits gather their paperwork together, puts it: retirement visas are an easy way in. Mark revealed with a smile that he is currently dating a 38-year-old Thai woman he met in a bar, making her 27-years his junior: I do find the age disparity distasteful, he admits. But she got pregnant aged 20 by a 43-year-old man and so shes always had older men in her life. My age doesnt worry her. Could this girl who Mark was reluctant to name be the one? Shes also seeing a German man, Mark admits, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice. And he supports her financially. Such a situation isnt unusual, he assures me, despite prostitution being illegal in Thailand. A lot of the girls used to work in the sex industry here and the men know that every girl here is available at a price, he explains. Regardless of his girlfriends dalliance, Mark is adamant: I dont sleep with other girls... Not unless weve had an argument. While meeting girls in bars is the most common way for elderly men to date younger women, expats also use online dating services including the popular local site: ThaiFriendly. The girls use it for finding rich guys, Mark explained. I went on a coffee date with a girl from the app once. It turned into a massage and then into sex. She told me she didnt want any money, but she did want a relationship. I wanted to keep it purely transactional, so I paid her anyway. Soi 80 is lined with bars where expats can meet younger women Late one evening, the Mail visited the Walking Street Bar to hear from young Thai women themselves Unlike many others, Mark is reluctant to financially support a permanent girlfriend. Most girls are getting two or three hundred pounds a month from their guys, he revealed. But Id find that tricky to accept considering one of my daughters back home is in her mid-30s and is struggling financially. For similar reasons, Mark isnt yet considering getting remarried. Not unless I could protect my assets, he says with a grin. Indeed, separating from rich, white Westerners has become a lucrative industry for many Thai girls who decide their elderly expat husband isnt their dream lover after all. Earlier this week, the Mail sat down with 45-year-old real estate agent Thita Wichaikool who has worked in the industry since 2013 and is now CEO of Hua Hin Property 94. Thita revealed to the Mail that under Thai law, foreigners can own property but not the land it is built upon. Consequently, British men buy land under their Thai wives names with some women hardly waiting to get the deeds in their hands before disappearing off into the sunset. The last time this happened, Thita revealed, was just two months after the marriage! So I now draw up a special type of contract so that the ladies cannot sell the land without the mans permission, whatever happens in their marriage. While a one-bed studio apartment can cost as little as 3 million Thai Bhat (68,000), many of the luxury villas purchased by well-heeled foreigners cost over 60 million Bhat, or about 1.36million. Late one evening, the Mail visited the Walking Street Bar to hear from young Thai women themselves. Noo Nie, 29, met her 46-year-old boyfriend David, from Birmingham, while working at Joes, one of the many bars along the strip. The pair dated for a month before a traumatic break up saw them cut all communication. A few months later, however, and theyre giving it another go. So far a week into their second shot at love and things appear to be going steady. Hes kind and supportive, Nie told the Mail: I wouldnt say he is handsome, she laughs, but he takes very good care of me. Unlike foreigners, Thai men dont take very good care of their women. Fred Kelly on the promenade of Hua Hin Girls employed at one bar, Nie's, can expect to make about 300 Thai Bhat (about 7) each night, though they are provided with free board and food Nie pauses with a mischievous look on her face before adding: Thai men dont care if I orgasm, but David can take me to heaven! We get a lot of British people, she adds. Theyre nice, but they talk a lot! They want to talk about work all the time and they never talk dirty. Nie now runs her own eponymous bar a hundred yards further up the strip from Joes where she employs two other girls to help keep the customers entertained and the drinks flowing. The girls employed at Nies can expect to make about 300 Thai Bhat (about 7) each night, though they are provided with free board and food. The income is modest and entirely made up of commissions from drinks the girls can convince the men to buy. However, it is still a healthy living for those who grew up in rural Thailand. Forty-seven-year-old Joy was raised on a farm in northeastern Thailand and moved to Hua Hin just a fortnight ago after the farm became untenable. In a good year, her rice crop would bring in about 15,000 Bhat thats just 340. With two grown-up children living in Bangkok, Joy considered asking them for help but did not want to become a burden and so instead has taken up a friends offer to work in a bar. I preferred working on the farm, she admitted. But at least my colleagues here are supportive and I can make more money. 'Just how did this otherwise quiet coastal city, once favoured by the late Thai King, morph into a dating pool for elderly expats in search of young women?' asks Fred Kelly In Thailand, they have a phrase for balding expats with a bulging paunch: Losers Back Home, or LBH for short Joy has not found the transition easy. I am shy, which doesnt help in this job, she confesses. Foreigners approach me and touch me. But I just cant get used to it. So far, no one has asked to buy her out the slang phrase for taking a girl off for intimate encounters. However, Joy admits that even if someone had asked, Im unsure if I would do it. The financial benefits of doing so, however, are considerable with the girls charging about 2,500 Bhat (56) for the night, almost ten times what theyd make otherwise. Suddenly, a local man seemingly associated with the bar, dressed in a vest and shorts, approaches and begins to talk hurriedly in Thai, gesticulating aggressively. It is clear this interview is over. As I was escorted off the premises, Joy told me she was worried she could now be in trouble. In spite of the openness with which sex work happens in Hua Hin, and across Thailand, prostitution remains illegal in the country along with pornography, Viagra (unless it has been prescribed) and sex toys. Past midnight, and the atmosphere on the strip becomes increasingly debauched with customers and girls alike getting ever more inebriated. One lady, who pours out of a bar, takes me and my photographer by the arms and cries: Ill have you both! She drags us unceremoniously into the neon-lit bar blaring noughties pop music and past a sign declaring: Wear a facemask. We are vaccinated. One woman said she wouldn't say her expat boyfriend is handsome, but he takes 'good care' of her Hua Hin is a place where 'Losers Back Home' can live like kings in luxury condos and with beautiful young women on their arms. The lady goes by the name Emma and eventually reveals: I was working as a hairstylist before, but then I wanted to find a European boyfriend theyre handsome and kind so I started working here. The boisterous 40-year-old divorcee and mother of two looks me up and down before adding with a smile: Im not fussy about age, but perhaps you are too young for me. According to Emma, the oldest lady working on the strip is 52 and is affectionately known as Granny. Allegedly, the youngest girl is 20-years-old. In October last year, a major sting operation saw the closure of two bars on the Hua Hin strip after police working for the Anti-Human Trafficking Division found evidence of three minors being exploited for prostitution in both locations. A 53-year-old woman known as Madam Ann and a 50-year-old Ms Lee were both arrested and their businesses, Exotic and Full House Bar, were shut down. The Mail understands the youngest girl involved was only 15. The extent to which minors may still be exploited for sex on the strip is unclear with everyone we spoke to insisting it did not happen. As the Mail retired from the strip shortly before 1am, the cut-off time set by local police, a man in his early seventies who called himself Chris sauntered by. Its a fresh start here, he admitted exposing yellow teeth. No one knows who you were back in England, what you did for a job or who you slept with. All that matters is who you are now. And thats up to you. In Thailand, they have a phrase for balding expats with a bulging paunch: Losers Back Home, or LBH for short. Hua Hin with its Royal connections is a place where Losers Back Home can live like kings in luxury condos and with beautiful young women on their arms. Graeme Davidsons past may have caught up with him. But for thousands of other ageing men, Hua Hin might just be the place they leave it behind, perhaps for ever. An allegedly 'drunk' forklift driver picked up and flipped a car upside down while father and son were still in it, shocking video footage shows. Kevin Moore, 46, and Bailey Moore, 18, can be seen watching helplessly nearby as the 36,000 motor was written off in a few seconds and rolled back onto its wheels. Police were called to Newton Abbot, Devon, last night after witnesses reported seeing the forklift damaging vehicles near the Brunel Industrial estate. Footage captured by a bystander shows the vehicle being lifted upside down and then being dropped to the ground, causing extensive damage. The father and son from Torquay could be seen trying to reason with the driver to no avail at around 9.40pm. The car was left with smashed windows and severe damage to the front, back and roof. Mother Laura Moore said the pair were 'ok but bruised' and added 'my son hasn't spoken since last night but they're alive, that's the main thing'. Laura also shared photos of the ruined motor, commenting: 'Bye bye car.' Bailey's girlfriend Sarah Rawlins posted on Instagram: 'The people in the car were my boyfriend and his dad and they could have ended up killed.' Police were called to Newton Abbot, Devon, last night after witnesses reported seeing the forklift damaging vehicles near the Brunel Industrial estate Police officers arrived on scene and the man at the wheel of the forklift was arrested Kevin Moore, 46, (right) and Bailey Moore, 18, (left)) can be seen watching helplessly nearby as the 36,000 motor was written off in a few seconds and rolled back onto its wheels The local fire service sent a team to the site to make the car, which sprung a fuel leak in the incident, safe to remove A pal told MailOnline: 'They are lucky to be alive, that car was only a couple of years old and it was a mobility vehicle too. 'I have no idea whether they were the target or just in the wrong place at the wrong time but it's really shaken them up.' According to witnesses, the father and son managed to escape before the forklift dropped it. After dropping it to the ground, causing extensive damage, the man then picked up the car again and flipped it back over. Another video shows police attempting to stop the forklift smashing into another car between Forde Road and Quay Road in the Devon town. Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed that a man in his 50s has since been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, driving whilst unfit through drink and criminal damage. One witness said: 'I was doing some fishing there - we normally park on that road. 'I saw a forklift in front of us, and suddenly, it started lifting this car with a father and son inside. 'They jumped out of the car before the forklift was able to flip it over, and he smashed up the car. The car was left with smashed windows and severe damage to the front, back and roof Fortunately the father and son managed to escape uninjured, only to watch their family car being smashed in front of them A man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, driving whilst unfit through drink and criminal damage 'I believe that was one of four cars that was targeted.' Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'We received numerous calls from members of the public at around 9.40pm on Thursday 29 May following a report of a forklift driving through Queen Street and Quay Road, Newton Abbot damaging a number of vehicles. 'Officers attended and arrested a suspect. 'A man in his 50s from Newton Abbot was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, driving whilst unfit through drink and criminal damage. 'He remains in police custody at this time.' A spokesperson for Newton Abbot Fire Station said: 'Last night, one crew from Newton Abbot fire station was mobilised to reports of a fuel leak in the Brunel industrial estate area coming from a vehicle. 'Upon our arrival, crews encountered an unusual RTC (Road Traffic Collision) being managed as a Police incident, involving a forklift and a private motor vehicle. 'All persons were free and clear of the vehicles and were uninjured on scene. Crews utilised a variety of oil absorbent blue pads to absorb the fuel that had leaked from the vehicle. 'We also used a putty substance known as Dammit to steam the fuel leak ready for recovery. In order to ensure the vehicle was safe to move, crews also used small tools to isolate the battery of the vehicle. 'Crews awaited recovery alongside our Police colleagues, then assisted with the cleaning up of any remaining debris and fluids. This was to ensure the roadway remained safe moving forward from this incident.' London, UK (PANA) - A new report launched by the Africa Skills Revolution initiative outlines the importance of placing youth at the centre of Africas Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) transformation Anna Wintour visited the White House on Thursday despite Melania Trump's irritation at not appearing on the cover of Vogue as first lady. The legendary editor of Vogue was at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a meeting with Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss the impact of the president's tariffs on the fashion industry. But the internet lit on fire with speculation the meeting may result in Melania Trump getting her first Vogue cover as first lady. It was notable in the first Trump term that Melania Trump was missing from the pages of the fashion bible. She and Donald Trump knew Wintour socially, had attended The Met Gala and Melania graced the cover in February 2005 wearing her wedding dress. In comparison, Jill Biden and Michelle Obama appeared on the cover of Vogue three times each during their tenures as first lady. But Melania never received a single cover shot. Neither the White House nor Vogue magazine responded to DailyMail's inquiry as to whether the subject of a Vogue cover came up in Wintour's meeting with Wiles. Anna Wintour visited the White House on Thursday to talk about tariffs and their affect on the fashion industry Wintour was captured on social media coming out of the West Wing entrance wearing a black and white floor length coat and carrying a large white bag. She and Melania Trump have a lot in common - both are foreigners who came to America to make their mark. They share a love of Italian designers and fashion in general. But Wintour met with Wiles, Trump's stylish chief of staff who has cultivated her own fan base with her signature look of a powersuit, silver bob and aviator sunglasses. Wiles has earned the nickname the 'Ice Maiden' for her steely resolve, while Wintour's staffers have been known to refer to her as 'Nuclear Wintour' because of her frosty demeanor. During the sitdown at the White House, Wintour was joined by Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and Stephen Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA). The trio explained to Wiles that the fashion industry is already one of the most heavily tariffed industries in the United States and 'extra tariffs on top of existing duties would place the fashion industry at a disproportionate disadvantage compared to other industries,' according to a post on the meeting on Vogue Business. 'From the meeting, plans were made to further engage with the administration in the weeks ahead,' the post noted. Melania Trump never appeared on the cover of Vogue as first lady Anna Wintour met with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, seen above outside the West Wing earlier this month The then-Melania Knauss with Anna Wintour at the 2005 J Mendel fashion show Anna Wintour seemed to leave the door open to a Melania cover during the first term, telling the Wall Street Journal in 2017 that: 'We have a tradition of always covering whoever is the first lady at Vogue and I can't imagine that this time would be any different.' Yet no cover materialized. There were reports Melania Trump was offered a Vogue photo shoot and feature story during her first White House tenure, but was not guaranteed the cover. Often Republican first ladies - such as Laura Bush - get inside features in Vogue but not the coveted cover shot. Melania seemed to confirm this during a 2022 appearance on Fox & Friends. 'They have likes and dislikes, and it's so obvious,' she said. Wintour is a top fundraiser for the Democratic Party and at one point was rumored to be in the running to be the American ambassador to the Court of St. James in London. She was last at the White House in early January, when then-President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. As Wintour became more political, her relationship with the Trumps cooled. Melania on the February 2005 Vogue cover, wearing her wedding dress to Donald Trump President Joe Biden, right, kisses Anna Wintour after presenting Wintour with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor, on Jan. 4, 2025 Melania Trump, Donald Trump, and Anna Wintour Vogue also ran a critical piece on Melania Trump's official portrait as first lady when it was released in January, writing she looked 'more like a freelance magician than a public servant'. The writer of the piece, Hannah Jackson, also noted that 'Trump looked more like she was guest starring on an episode of than assuming the role of First Lady of the United States.' Trump's conservative supporters hit back, calling the parent company of Vogue 'Conde Nasty.' An American Airlines passenger attacked a crew member mid-flight and dragged them up the plane aisle, prosecutors allege. Julius Jordan Priester, 24, of Kansas, was arrested and charged with the assault of a crew member on a Chicago-bound flight Tuesday night, according to the Department of Justice. His alleged act of violence occurred less than an hour after Flight 3359 departed Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. Prosecutors say Priester stood up, started removing his shirt, and ran to the back of the plane yelling 'help me'. He then grabbed a seated flight attendant and shouted 'youre coming with me' as he 'forcefully' brought the crew member to the ground, prosecutors allege. He then tried to drag the crew member up the aisle, but several other passengers stepped in and were able to get Priester back to his seat. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing and return to Bradley Airport, where Priester was arrested. Priester, who remains detained pending a bond hearing today, faces a maximum term of 20 years of imprisonment if convicted. Julius Jordan Priester, 24, of Kansas, was arrested and charged with assault of a crew member on a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight Tuesday night (file photo of American Airlines planes at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut) The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing and return to Bradley Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. Flight tracking data shows the plane safely landed at 10:46pm Flight 3359 departed Bradley Airport for Chicago O'Hare at 9:26pm Tuesday, but was forced to land back in Connecticut just 1 hour and 20 minutes later. The alleged assault occurred about '30 minutes to an hour into the flight', according to the DOJ. Despite passengers having helped Priester return to his seat after the attack, prosecutors allege that he continued to act erratically and make incoherent remarks. His behavior prompted the captain to declare an emergency and divert the plane back to Hartford, with flight tracking data showing that it landed safely at 10:46pm. Priester was removed from the plane by Connecticut State Police and transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation. He appeared before a judge on Wednesday and is scheduled back in court today. Priester is charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. American Airlines, in a statement to Daily Mail, confirmed the flight was diverted 'due to a disruptive customer', saying: 'We do not tolerate violence, and we thank our team members for their professionalism and our customers for their assistance.' This incident remains under investigation by the FBI and Connecticut State Police. Priester was removed from the plane at Bradley International Airport by Connecticut State Police and transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation (file photo) The alleged assault on Flight 3359 is just the latest in a string of violent incidents involving by airline passengers. An Allegiant Airlines passenger was charged with child abuse earlier this week after attacking a boy who called her 'Miss Piggy' on a flight home from Disney World, according to police. Kristy Crampton was part of a group returning home to Maryland from the resort in Florida on Monday when she was arrested at Sanford-Orlando International Airport. Crampton started throwing punches at the child just before takeoff after he allegedly called her 'fat' and referred to her as the Muppets character, an arrest report said. Witnesses told officers that she punched the unknown boy and then hit him with a water bottle before slamming his head into an airplane window, the report said. The pilot of the flight, destined for Hagerstown in Maryland, called police onto the flight for help where she was then taken into custody at the gate. An American Airlines flight had to divert back to Savannah in March when a passenger started throwing wild punches at flight attendants after claiming evil spirits followed him onto a flight. Delange Augustin, 31, started lashing out just one minute into the Envoy Flight from Savannah, Georgia, to Miami, Florida, on March 10. The alleged assault on AA Flight 3359 is just the latest in a string of violent incidents involving by airline passengers. Allegiant Airlines passenger Kristy Crampton (pictured in court) was charged with child abuse earlier this week after attacking a boy who called her 'Miss Piggy' on a flight home from Disney World, according to police. An American Airlines flight had to divert back to Savannah in March when passenger Delange Augustin (pictured) started throwing wild punches at flight attendants after claiming evil spirits followed him onto the plane He had been traveling with his sister who told authorities they were going to Haiti to 'flee religious attacks of a spiritual nature'. Shortly after take off, authorities say he kicked a staff member so hard in the chest he sent them over a row of seats and swallowed a set or rosary beads. Footage of the violent incident showed him holding onto his sister - who told authorities after the ordeal that her brother had told her to pray as 'Satan's disciples had followed them onto the plane'. Other passengers had to move into restrain Augustin, before authorities quickly boarded the flight after the pilot decided to return to Savannah. And in February this year, an Alaska Airlines flight attendant had to restrain a crazed passenger who grabbed a woman's hair onboard. The bizarre incident happened on February 1 on Alaska Airlines Flight 2221 at California's Oakland International Airport just before taking off for Portland, Oregon. The erratic male passenger was seen being held back by an unnamed male flight attendant shortly after he latched on to the hair of a female passenger in front of him. In February, an Alaska Airlines flight attendant had to restrain a crazed passenger who grabbed a woman's hair onboard (pictured). The aircraft returned to the gate following the incident and the flight itself was cancelled While the flight attendant punched the man several times, trying to get him to let go of the woman's locks, other passengers tried to step in and help. It is unclear exactly what sparked the male passenger's abnormal behavior, but according to a man who said he was on the flight, 'he was restrained for several minutes before being arrested'. The aircraft returned to the gate following the incident and the flight itself was cancelled 'after an attendant refused to fly and could not be replaced', the passenger said. The comedian Reginald D Hunter is being privately prosecuted over allegedly 'anti-semitic' social media posts one day before he begins a UK tour, it has emerged. The 56-year-old US stand-up is accused of three counts of sending an offensive communication on three different occasions - on August 24, September 10 and September 11 last year - to Heidi Bachram on X, formerly Twitter. He was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court today but Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram issued a warrant for him to attend court on July 7 in his absence. Prosecutor Donal Lawler told the court that Hunter was a 'well-known comedian' who is being privately prosecuted by the charity Campaign Against Antisemitism. It is alleged Hunter sent a computer-generated sexual image to Ms Bachram in August last year, with the charges claiming it was 'grossly offensive'. On September 10 he is said to have tweeted Ms Bachram saying: 'THIS is why I HATE these people and am committed to their destruction not because JEW hatred Not even because they are European Nazis pretending to be JEWS Because of all the lying. Mama HATED liars and bequeathed that hatred to ALL of her children.' The following day, it is alleged he sent another message saying: 'Hey sugar. I don't hate you for being an agent of evil. Not new Not even uncommon. 'You being a liar a persistent liar KNOWING the truth, is why I will see you and your kind ended, even if it costs me EVERYTHING. You are not even a JEW. Run tell that.' The comedian Reginald D Hunter (pictured at London's Red Imp Comedy Club in June 2018) is being privately prosecuted over allegedly 'anti-semitic' social media posts The 56-year-old US stand-up is accused of three counts of sending an offensive communication last year to Heidi Bachram (pictured) Reginald D Hunter (pictured) was due to appear befire Westminster magistrates today but Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram issued a warrant to attend court on July 7 in his absence Hunter regularly tours the UK and has appeared on comedy panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You and 8 Out Of 10 Cats. Mr Lawler told the court on Friday that the comedian was due to begin a tour of England and Wales tomorrow. The prosecutor said Hunter was scheduled to do a gig in London on July 6, adding that his legal team may be able to serve him his court summons in person at the venue on that date. The CAA describes itself as an organisation of volunteers which works to 'expose and counter antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law'. Hunter's representatives and the CAA have been approached for comment. The charity has posted today on X: 'A warrant has been issued for Reginald D. Hunter to attend court in relation to a private prosecution brought by CAA. 'Mr Hunter is charged with three offences under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, relating to posts on X that he allegedly published in September 2024. 'The first hearing took place today at Westminster Magistrates Court, but Mr Hunter failed to appear. A warrant has now been issued for him to attend court on a future date. Hunter regularly tours the UK and has appeared on comedy panel shows Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You and 8 Out Of 10 Cats 'This is one of a number of private prosecutions that CAA is bringing, and there will be more to say on the case in due course.' Hunter previously had a performance cancelled by council chiefs after being accused of 'encouraging a baying mob' to hound out an Israeli couple during one of his performances at last summer's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was due to perform at a council-owned hall in Scottish town Giffnock, but local authority East Renfrewshire Council axed the show - saying: 'We have a commitment to our community, and to our values of diversity and inclusion, which we take seriously.' Police Scotland initially said they were 'reviewing the circumstances' after being 'made aware of a hate incident which reportedly took place'. They then told MailOnline last August 16: 'All information gathered was fully reviewed and no crime was established.' Hunter had been performing his new standup show 'Fluffy Fluffy Beavers' at Edinburgh Fringe when he made a quip about how watching a recent Channel 5 documentary about domestic abuse had made him think of Israel. Hunter then related a story about how his partner had complained about not being able to access the Jewish Chronicle's website, as it is behind a paywall. He was reported as saying: ''Typical f***ing Jews, they won't tell you anything unless you subscribe.' 'It's just a joke,' he added. Hunter took to X, formerly Twitter, last August to apologise for his part in a controversy at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - saying it was part of his job as a comedian to 'push boundaries' His statement on social media came after a couple walked out of one of his gigs at the festival When two Israeli audience members objected to his jokes, they were reportedly sworn at, called 'genocidal' and told 'you're not welcome' by fellow spectators who also shouted: 'Free Palestine.' Hunter took to X at the time to apologise for his part in the incident, claiming it was part of his job as a comedian to 'push boundaries'. The comedian, who is from Albany in the US state of Georgia but has lived in the UK since 1997, insisted he was 'staunchly anti-war and anti-bully'. He added: 'I regret any stress caused to the audience and venue staff members.' Journalist Glenn Greenwald angrily lashed out at his political enemies after a sex tape showing him in a compromising position spread on social media. In a post to X on Friday morning, Greenwald said the clips were published without his 'knowledge or consent', and that he planned to take legal action. The 58-year-old, who is also a lawyer, added that the leaking of the videos was done so by 'political enemies' to 'advance a political agenda'. 'Last night's videos were released online depicting behavior in my private life. Some were distorted and others were not. 'They were published without my knowledge or consent and its publication was therefore criminal. 'Though we do not yet know exactly who is responsible, we are close to knowing, and the motive was a maliciously political one,' he said. He added that he carries 'no embarrassment or regret' about the acts depicted in the videos. 'The videos depict consenting adults engaged in intimate actions in their private lives. 'They all display fully consensual behavior, harming nobody. 'Obviously it can be uncomfortable and unpleasant when your private behavior is made public against your will thats why the behavior is private in the first place but the only wrongdoing here is the criminal and malicious publication of the videos in an attempt to malign perceived political enemies and advance a political agenda. In a post to his X on Friday morning, Greenwald, seen here in 2019, said the clips were published without his 'knowledge or consent The 58-year-old, who is also a lawyer, added that the leaking of the videos was done so by 'political enemies' to 'advance a political agenda' 'Others are, of course, free to form their own judgments, as some are prone to do about others private lives. 'It wont change my work. I will continue to call out the many prongs of my journalism, and pursue the causes important to me, exactly as before.' Greenwald, an openly gay man, gained recognition for his work with The Guardian before he co-founded The Intercept. He contributed to the site until his resignation in 2020. He was married to Brazilian politician David Miranda who died in 2023. The couple have two sons. He has been inundated with messages of support since sharing his angry message. One person said: 'You have my unwavering support! Dont stop telling the truth. Im sorry this is happening to you, I wont be watching anything depicting your private life which was released without your permission. 'I hope others will choose to do the same. This could happen to any of us speaking truth to power. 'We must stand together. Thank you for decades of integrity, hard work and personal risk to uncover and expose truth.' Greenwald is seen here alongside his late husband and their two children that they adopted Since sharing his statement, his post has been inundated with comments of support for him Another posted: 'Great statement Glenn, may those trying to intimidate you into silence continue to fail.' One other added: 'Keep up the good work Glenn, this attempt to get at you is ridiculous and everyone with half a brain can see through it!' Greenwald had won a Pulitzer for his reporting about government surveillance programs based on leaks by Edward Snowden. His resignation from The Intercept came after he claimed editors were actively censoring an article he wrote that was critical of Joe Biden. He penned a scathing essay to his Substack in which he blasted a culture of 'repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity' at the website and in the mainstream media at large. Greenwald wrote: 'The Intercept's editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.' 'The censored article, based on recently revealed emails and witness testimony, raised critical questions about Biden's conduct,' he continued, he later published the article in its entirety to this website. This is the moment a feral yob left a police community support officer with a suspected broken nose after he attacked him outside of a newsagents. The man, who was wearing a grey hoodie, was seen running towards the PCSO and unloading a barrage of punches to his face. The officer tried to duck away to avoid the blows and could be heard shouting 'help me' to passersby who then ran over to intervene. One bravely grabbed the attacker while the others tried to protect the PCSO. It happened at around 6.45pm on May 29 at Broadfield, Crawley, West Sussex. Police arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and assault. He reportedly remained in police custody today. The PSCO was released from hospital in the early hours of this morning and is recovering at home. A Sussex Police spokesperson said: 'The officer had responded to a report of a man acting suspiciously in the Broadfield Barton area around 6.45pm on Thursday, May 29. This is the moment a feral yob left a police community support officer with a suspected broken nose after he attacked him outside of a newsagents The man, who was wearing a grey hoodie, was seen running towards the PCSO and unloading a barrage of punches to his face 'But as he approached the suspect to engage with him, he was punched to the face several times. 'Members of the public stepped in to help detain the man while further units arrived, and the officer was taken to hospital with a suspected broken nose.' Supt Imran Asghar, said: 'This was a totally deplorable act on a PCSO, whose purpose is to serve and protect the community. 'And I'd like to remind the public that assaults on emergency workers will absolutely not be tolerated. 'Our officers put on their uniforms each day to catch criminals, protect the public and deliver an outstanding service. 'Being assaulted will never be considered 'part of the job', and anyone caught committing offences of this nature can expect to face the consequences. The officer tried to duck away to avoid the blows and could be heard shouting 'help me' to passers-by who then ran over to intervene 'I'd like to commend the brave members of the public who stepped in and helped to detain the suspect. 'Their quick-thinking actions ensured the suspect could be arrested and the PCSO could receive the necessary medical treatment he needed.' The people who helped the PCSO were praised by locals. Tracy Smythe said: 'That poor officer, hope he is okay.' Sophie Hearn said: 'Fair play to those that stepped in to help rather than just standing and watching it happen.' Darren Palmer added: 'I don't know who that guy in the white shirt is but someone should be buying him a drink.' At least 10 people have been killed after they were swept up in a terrifying landslide at a quarry mine. The tragedy unfolded in West Java, Indonesia, per the country's national disaster management agency. The landslide happened at around 10am on Friday near Cirebon, which is about 135 miles east of the capital Jakarta. All the casualties were quarry workers, according to the disaster agency, which also reported six other people being injured. All of them are being treated at local hospitals, , The New York Times reported. Footage of the incident showed the entire side of a mountain collapsing at once, sending a torrent of dirt and rock flooding toward the base of the steep incline. Workers far enough away were seen getting into their vehicles and driving away with haste. Indonesian news network Kompas TV captured images of of excavators digging around in the rubble looking for survivors. The search was called off at around 5pm because it got too dark and authorities were afraid of triggering more landslides, according to Mukhammad Yusron, the commander of the regions military district. At least 10 people have been killed after they were swept up in a terrifying landslide at a quarry mine The landslide happened within seconds, giving workers on the mountain virtually no time to react before they were buried Pictured: Rescuers are seen transporting life saving medical supplies at the quarry following the landslide which occurred at 3pm local time on Friday Yusron told the Antara news agency that searches will continue on Saturday. Improper mining methods are to blame for the disaster, according to Bambang Tirto Mulyono, the head of the West Java department of energy and mineral resources. Mulyono told Detik Jabar, a local news site, that workers were mining from the bottom of the hill up, instead of from the top down. 'We have repeatedly warned the mining operator, even in strong terms,' he said, adding that Cirebon police roped off the site since February because the mining methods did not meet safety standards. Mulyono advised the Governor of West Java to temporarily close the area so an environmental audit can be done. This kind of audit would determine if the mine was operating illegally, and if it was, it could be shut down permanently. Mulyono also pointed out that this particular mining operation has polluted water sources in the area, which has become a problem for farmers trying to irrigate their crops. West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi was scheduled to review the location of the landslide and evaluate its safety. Indonesian news network Kompas TV first captured images of of excavators digging around in the rubble looking for survivors Searches for possible for survivors will continue on Saturday, said Mukhammad Yusron, the commander of the regions military district Pictured: First responders are seen gathering around the site of the landslide on Friday Pictured: Excavators worked tirelessly trying to find survivors but were ultimately called off until the sun rises again on Saturday Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,500 islands, is prone to landslides during its monsoon season, which typically occurs from October to April. Just last month, 10 people were killed after a devastating mudslide buried vehicles on a hilly road in Java, the country's main island. Indonesia is home to more than 280 million people, making it the fourth most populous country in the world behind the United States, China and India. The country used to be covered in lush rainforests that have been increasingly chopped down over the last 50 years to make room for palm oil plantations and other types of farmland. Experts say this extreme level of deforestation has led to unstable soil conditions, only making Indonesia more susceptible to landslides. Illegal gold mining operations have also triggered landslides. In November, 24 people died in a landslide at an unauthorized gold mining area on Sulawesi island. Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner says his conviction for sexting a minor is 'not a good enough reason' for voters to dismiss him as he mounts a political comeback. Weiner, 60, who is a registered sex offender after his sick sex scandal was exposed by DailyMail.com almost a decade ago, faced The View panelists as they grilled him about his run for New York City Council. Panelist Ana Navarro confronted Weiner about his 'many' scandals, which also included sexting women under the pseudonym 'Carlos Danger', which the politician said he was not shying away from. 'With all that said, why should New Yorkers give you a shot at a political comeback?' Behar questioned. Weiner responded: 'Let me just say this - all of that happened. I accept responsibility for it. 'You won't hear me do what some other people like Donald Trump or Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams have done,' he said, adding that he does not brand himself as being 'persecuted or a victim.' The politician said he realizes now that he was suffering from 'an addiction' at the time of his scandal, but said he deserved forgiveness for accepting the public humiliation instead of playing victim. 'I didn't ask for a trial, I pled guilty, I served my time in prison, did probation and tried to do good work for the formerly incarcerated,' he said. Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner says his conviction for sexting a minor is 'not a good enough reason' not to vote for him as he mounts a political comeback Weiner pleaded guilty in 2017 to carrying on a months-long online sexual relationship with a 15-year-old and served 21 months in prison, but he is now launching a political comeback 'I guess what I'm saying to people is, maybe don't vote for me in spite of what they know about me, but maybe consider that journey, that idea that we all go through things,' Weiner continued. Weiner noted that although he is Jewish, he likes a notion commonly found in Catholicism that people 'suffer for a reason so you can be of service on the other end.' 'So, I'm doing the opposite of what a lot of politicians do in my position... I'm saying, yes, I did these things, I got into recovery, I tried to make my life better, and now I can be of service,' he continued. 'And I'm a damn good politician.' When Weiner's underage sex scandal was exposed by the Daily Mail in 2016, the 15-year-old he was sexting with said he asked her to dress up in 'school-girl' outfits for him on a video messaging application and pressed her to engage in 'rape fantasies.' But he said on The View that this should be 'not a good enough reason' for New Yorkers to dismiss him, 'just because I have bad things in my past.' 'All I can ever be is who I am right now,' he continued. Panelist Ana Navarro confronted Weiner about his 'many' scandals, which also included sexting women under the pseudonym 'Carlos Danger', which the politician said he was not shying away from Panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin likened Weiner to politicians such as Donald Trump who have had brushes with the law, saying that figures like them are why Americans have such a low level of trust in their representatives. Weiner responded: 'I think what politicians sometimes don't realize, is that voters don't expect you to be some kind of paradigm of greatness. 'They want you to be an honest, authentic, full person.' His appeal to voters appeared to land poorly with panelist Joy Behar, who also lumped Weiner in with other male politicians who have had sex scandals such as former New York Governors Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo. 'Im listening to you now and Im thinking, what do these people have in common? Cuomo, Clinton, Trump, Wiener, Spitzer, theyre all men, they are all men,' Behar said. 'We were talking about this before, about trying to appeal to these men out there. Why is it that two qualified women could not beat all of you guys? These women can never beat you. 'Theyre more qualified than almost anybody on that list, including you, Im sorry.' Weiner was married to ex-Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin (pictured together) at the time DailyMail.com saw evidence of extremely lewd messages he sent the victim when we exposed his scandal in 2016 Weiner agreed that women are often held to a higher standard than men, but countered Behar's point to say that he suffered consequences, including being booted from office and serving time behind bars. 'I mean, I hate to correct you. Bill Clinton was impeached, Eliot Spitzer was thrown out of office, I was thrown at of office, Andrew Cuomo was thrown out of office, so we do pay a price,' he said. 'The question is, if you are gonna say to those people, how do you judge their record in totality? I do believe that women get judged much more harshly than men do.' A profoundly deaf criminal who tried to mow down two police officers has been jailed for five years. George Drinnan, 39, repeatedly tried to strike PCs Matthew Rhind and Younis Yaqub with his BMW in Dundee in February 2023. The High Court in Edinburgh heard the repeat offender was driving without insurance and had been banned from driving at the time. Drinnan, originally from Dundee, was originally charged with attempted murder - but it was reduced to a charge of assault to danger of life following a trial. He was found guilty of endangering the lives of the two officers at the High Court in Stirling in February. Yesterday, he returned to the dock in the Scottish capital for sentencing before judge Lady Tait. She heard submissions from defence advocate George Gebbie who told her Drinnans deafness would affect his ability to communicate with others whilst in custody. However, Lady Tait told Drinnan - who had the help of a British Sign Language interpreter to understand proceedings - that he needed to go to prison for his crimes. George Drinnan repeatedly tried to strike PCs Matthew Rhind and Younis Yaqub with his BMW She said: The circumstances of these offences mean that the only appropriate sentence is a custodial one. The court must seek to deter such offending behaviour. At the start of the trial Drinnans co-accused Paul Coombs pled guilty to a dangerous driving offence committed during the same incident. He also admitted driving without insurance and while disqualified. The 53-year-old, who was also aided by a BSL interpreter, admitted reversing and striking a parked car, causing it to hit another vehicle then driving at speed towards a parked police car. His advocate David Adams said his clients hearing disability had led to difficulties in life. He said: Hes led a rather isolated life in England. When hes not remanded he doesnt really have any accommodation. Hes had a long-term drug abuse issue. Since being remanded hes been provided with medication which has assisted him greatly in managing it. Mr Adams said if Coombs were to be freed, arrangements had been put in place for homeless accommodation. He added: The period of driving by Mr Coombs was limited - he wasnt driving around Dundee, he was in the passenger seat of the co-accused. He drove for a short period. He accepts fully he should never have got behind the wheel and he shouldnt have driven in that manner. He apologises. Lady Tait banned Coombs from driving for a total of six years and imprisoned him for 18 months. Yesterday, the court heard Drinnan had previous convictions for dishonesty, driving without insurance and driving whilst disqualified. Mr Gebbie told Lady Tait that his client was profoundly deaf who had difficulties communicating with people adding the disability would impact on how he would deal with life in prison. He added: He is unable to communicate with people who arent skilled in sigh language. This will affect his ability to communicate with others. This will affect his ability to interact with others prisoners. Lady Tait also banned Drinnan from driving for seven years. The boss of an $800 million private equity firm suddenly announced he has Alzheimer's disease in the middle of a divorce hearing. Health Point Capital managing partner John Foster, 83, has been locked in a bitter divorce with his estranged wife Stephanie Foster, 57, for four years. Foster claimed her extravagant spending habits wiped out his $45 million fortune and he is almost 'destitute', but Stephanie insists he is hiding assets. His lawyers previously claimed Stephanie blew money on designer clothes and other luxuries 'at a rate that none of us can conceive'. Stephanie Foster's camp instead rubbished claims Foster was suddenly $12 million in debt when his wife filed for divorce, which may also come as a shock to his shareholders. She said he was still flying on his private jet between New York and Florida for Botox, hair dye, and manicure appointments. Foster also sold a sprawling eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion on the ultra-exclusive Fishers Island, Massachusetts, for $10 million last October. But his claims of being unable to remember documents he signed, or where his wealth was allegedly stashed, became more believable on Wednesday. Health Point Capital managing partner John Foster, 83, has been locked in a bitter divorce with his estranged wife Stephanie Foster, 57, for four years (Pictured in happier times in 2011) Foster claimed her extravagant spending habits wiped out his $45 million fortune and he is almost 'destitute', but his wife insists he is hiding assets During his second day on the stand in the Manhattan Supreme Court he dropped the health bombshell which is likely to enrage his shareholders. 'I'm 83-years-old, I have recently had an MRI, which is a brain scan for my Alzheimer's,' he said, totally unprompted, according to the New York Post. Stephanie's lawyer Rita Glavin, who was stunned by the news, asked him to confirm his diagnosis, and he replied 'yes and I am being examined' for it with the MRI. However, he later said in his testimony that he couldn't remember why he got the MRI, or what he said earlier in his evidence. He also spent part of the hearing scrolling through his phone and had to be admonished by Glavin. Concealing his condition could open Health Point Capital to shareholder or investor lawsuits and potential action by the SEC, experts told the NYP. Exactly when Foster was diagnosed and how much his business partners knew about his illness was not disclosed. Foster said he was placed on leave several weeks ago due to 'other litigation not to do with this proceeding', which he also had not told the court before. He is still listed as the first managing partner on the firm's website . Foster sold a sprawling eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion on the ultra-exclusive Fishers Island, Massachusetts, for $10 million last October Foster on Wednesday suddenly announced he has Alzheimer's disease in the middle of a divorce hearing Glavin then asked if the 'other litigation' was claims he used company accounts to hide personal income, and Foster responded by ending the hearing. 'Judge, I think we should close for the day, I'm not up for it,' he said, the NYP reported. The court previously heard the 15-year marriage broke down after Foster frequently cheated on his wife. But Stephanie previously said the last straw was him telling her, 'I dont care what happens to you when I die.' Glavin previously told the court how Foster added $3 million to his bank account in one year and splurged $800,000 on a Hinckley yacht. Foster also owns a ranch in Texas filled with exotic African animals including oryx, sable and zebra, a Gulfstream IV-SP jet, and a mansion in The Breakers on Palm Beach, Florida. Stephanie produced a text message exchange between Foster and the family lawyer that she claimed was proof he was hiding his wealth. 'Your net-worth strategy worked. Steph is stunned. Told me Im bankrupt! She's very upset!' he wrote. New terrifying satellite images have revealed how a tiny Swiss village was completely wiped out by a massive glacier collapse. The remote Alpine village of Blatten was flattened after an avalanche of rock, mud and ice was sent crashing down into the valley. Once home to around 300 people, it now lies buried beneath a vast expanse of debris after the Birch Glacier broke off on Wednesday afternoon. Authorities say 90 per cent of the village has been destroyed. New satellite pictures reveal the true scale of the disaster, showing where homes, farmland and roads once stood, now completely smothered by mud and rubble. The river Lonza, which runs through the valley, has been blocked by the landslide, which had raised fears of further flooding. But as reconnaissance flights and inspections continued, authorities said water from the newly formed lake, which has been slowly submerging the remaining houses in the obliterated village of Blatten, was beginning to find its way over, through and around the blockage. 'This development is positive, but we remain cautious,' said Stephane Ganzer, head of the regional security department. BEFORE: Once home to around 300 people, it now lies buried beneath a vast expanse of debris after the Birch Glacier broke off on Wednesday afternoon. NOW: The remote Alpine village of Blatten was flattened after an avalanche of rock, mud and ice was sent crashing down into the valley. 'The risk remains, even if it is diminishing,' he told a press conference, adding that 'no evacuations are planned' in the villages downstream in the Lotschental valley, one of the most picturesque regions in southern Switzerland. The outflow 'makes us optimistic and suggests that the water is finding a good path', explained Christian Studer of the Wallis canton's Natural Hazards Service. However, work to pump water from the lake has still not begun as the ground remains too unstable, particularly on the mountainside. One 64-year-old man is still missing who was believed to be in the area at the time. Switzerlands president has pledged support for those forced to flee the Alpine village of Blatten, telling evacuees they are 'not alone' after a devastating glacier-triggered landslide wiped out homes and businesses. Karin Keller-Sutter made the comments on Friday after surveying the destruction by helicopter. She said the government was now working to calculate ways to help those affected by the disaster. 'The force with which the mountain here wiped out an entire village is indescribable,' said Keller-Sutter. 'I'd like to tell you all that you're not alone. The whole of Switzerland is with you and not just (people) in Switzerland.' Officials have limited access to the area and warned that huge deposits of debris, stacked tens of metres high across a 2-kilometre stretch of the valley, have blocked the Lonza River and formed a new lake. BEFORE: The river Lonza, which runs through the valley, was blocked by the landslide New satellite pictures reveal the true scale of the disaster, showing where homes, farmland and roads once stood, now completely smothered by mud and rubble Stephane Ganzer, an official in the canton of Valais where Blatten is located, told Swiss media that about 90% of the village was covered by the landslide Mud and rocks cover a village after a glacier collapse, in Blatten The village of Blatten in the Loetschental, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, before the glacier collapse The future course of the water remains uncertain. 'Unfortunately, the danger has not yet been averted,' Keller-Sutter added. Separate drone footage shown by national broadcaster SRF showed a vast plain of mud and soil completely covering part of the village and the river running through it. At around 3:30pm local time, a huge chunk of the Birch glacier broke off, according to emergency services in the Wallis region. Local police said the missing 64-year-old man was a local resident who was in the area at the time of the incident. A search and rescue operation was launched, with three specialists airlifted to the scene, while a drone with a thermal imaging camera was also used. 'Despite significant efforts, the man has still not been found,' police said. The village, including residents and a herd of 52 cows, had mostly been evacuated this week amid fears the 52mn cubic ft glacier was days away from collapse. As reconnaissance flights continued, authorities said water from the new lake submerging parts of Blatten had begun to flow over and around the debris The glacier collapse had been expected for several days, and there have been no reports of injuries 'We've lost our village,' Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten told a press conference after the slide. 'The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.' The glacier collapse had been expected for several days, and there have been no reports of injuries. 'An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley,' said Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities in the southwestern canton of Valais. Stephane Ganzer, an official in the canton of Valais where Blatten is located, told Swiss media that about 90% of the village was covered by the landslide. 'it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten,' he said, adding: 'There's a risk that the situation could get worse,' alluding to the blocked river. He said the army had been mobilised after earlier indications that the movement of the glacier was accelerating. Experts consulted by Reuters said it was difficult to assess the extent to which rising temperatures spurred by climate change had triggered the collapse because of the role the crumbling mountainside had played. Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, said while various factors were at play in Blatten, it was known that local permafrost had been affected by warmer temperatures in the Alps. The loss of permafrost can negatively affect the stability of the mountain rock which is why climate change had likely played a part in the deluge, Huggel said. The extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century, he added. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - To strengthen the fragile truce established after this month's clashes in Tripoli, mechanisms should be put in place to prevent unilateral military action and monitor and enforce commitments to the agreement, 16 western leaders advised have told the United Nations Support Mission (UNSMIL) President Donald Trump announced he was doubling tariffs on steel imports during an appearance Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh to tout a steel deal between U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon. 'We are going to be imposing a 25 percent increase, we're going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America,' the president said to cheers. 'We're doubling it to 50 percent.' Later, in a Truth Social post, the president said he would be doubling the tariff rate - from 25 percent to 50 percent - on aluminum as well, with the new tariffs going into effect on Wednesday. Trump was appearing at the Irvin Works, a U.S. Steel plant outside the Pittsburgh city limits in West Mifflin, and was surrounded by orange-clad U.S. Steel workers when he shared the news. Last Friday the president announced he was backing a 'planned partnership' between the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon, earning him support from many of the Mon Valley plants' workers. The United Steelworkers union, also headquartered in Pittsburgh, remained skeptical of the deal and prominent Pennsylvania Democrats stayed away from the Republican president's appearance. USW reiterated concerns after Trump's speech Friday night. During Trump's remarks he vowed to turn America's Rust Belt into a 'Golden Belt' - covered by his proposed 'Golden Dome' missile defense system. 'We won't be able to call this section a Rust Belt anymore. It'll be a "Golden Belt." ...It'll be part of a Golden Dome we're building to ave everybody's lives,' the president said. And to further endear himself to the crowd, a trio of former and current members of the Pittsburgh Steelers christened Trump a 'Steeler' for the day, giving him a 'Trump 47' jersey onstage. Trump was also gifted a golden hardhat by steelworkers backstage. President Donald Trump announced he was doubling tariffs on steel imports during an appearance Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh to tout a steel deal between U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Last Friday the president announced he was backing a 'planned partnership' between the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon, earning him support from many of the Mon Valley plants' workers The president kicked off his appearance by boasting about his 2024 electoral win in Pennsylvania - a commonwealth he won in both 2016 and 2024 - but lost to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election that he lost. 'You voted for me, they never had a chance in Pennsylvania,' the president chuckled. He tickled the crowd when he brought onstage former Pittsburgh Steeler Rocky Bleier and current players, second-string quarterback Mason Rudolph and safety Miles Killebrew. 'I'm a fan of your Steelers and I happen to think a really good quarterback is a man named Mason Rudolph. And I think he's going to get a big shot, he's tall, he's handsome, got a great arm and I have a feeling he's going to be the guy,' Trump said, bringing Rudolph up alongside him, along with Killebrew. That move prompted a 'Here we Go, Steelers' chant. Rudolph has had a less-than-stellar record as a Steelers quarterback, with the six-time Super Bowl-winning team not making the playoffs last season. 'I have the honor of making you an honorary Pittsburgh Steeler and we'd like to present to you, your jersey,' Bleier told Trump, handing over the black and gold apparel. During the 58 and a half minute speech, Trump did his trademark weave, talking about the steel deal and then touching on it again later. 'If you don't have steel you don't have a country,' Trump told the crowd. He told the workers - and their family and friends - how he was initially skeptical of Nippon encroaching on the American steel great. 'I was watching over you. You don't even know,' he said. 'You're the best people. You built this country. You people built this country,' the president added. Some details about the new deal don't seem to be fully cooked. U.S. Steel's board will remain U.S. citizens, as will key management positions, including the company's CEO. The U.S. government would get a 'golden share,' which would allow it to outvote shareholders on certain key decisions. President Donald Trump (right) was gifted a Trump 47 Pittsburgh Steelers jersey by a group of current and former Steelers including (from left) Mason Rudolph, Miles Killebrew and Rocky Bleier President Donald Trump is presented with a golden hard hat backstage during an appearance Friday at the Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania President Donald Trump tours a massive warehouse in the Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania ahead of his remarks. The facility was so large that even with hundreds of attendees the area for the speech only took up about a quarter of the building Ahead of the president's arrival, U.S. Steel President David Burritt and Nippon's Takahiro Mori, executive vice president, appeared together onstage to tout the partnership. Both thanked Trump profusely. 'Because of him, U.S. Steel stays mined, melted and Made in America,' Burritt said. 'It's another golden age.' 'This moment is a new beginning and with the right leadership and the right partner we're ready to build something better and bigger,' Burritt added. Mori used a similar phrasing when it was his turn to speak. 'Because of President Trump, U.S. Steel will remain mined, melted and in America by Americans,' Mori said. John Bielich, 68, of Bethel Park is about to hit his 47th anniversary working for U.S. Steel or as a contractor. He said he was 'relieved' last week when he heard news of Trump backing the deal. Ahead of President Donald Trump's appearance in the Pittsburgh area Friday, U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt (right) spoke alongside Nippon's Takahiro Mori (left), the Japanese company's executive vice president, about the steel deal An attendee at President Donald Trump's steel deal event Friday in West Mifflin shows off a special 'Terrible Towel' being sold for $20 outside the venue to mark the occasion. Terrible Towels are a fixture at Pittsburgh Steelers games Red solo cups were set out ahead of President Donald Trump's event on Friday in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania at the Irvin Works, a U.S. Steel plant located outside Pittsburgh city limits A group of steelworkers arrives at President Donald Trump's event in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania on Friday after the president backed a 'partnership' between the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon 'Because this deal, when it was first proposed, was a great deal for United States Steel, its workers, the communities that these plants sit in,' Bielich told the Daily Mail. 'It will sustain United States Steel operations, specifically in Pittsburgh and the Mon Valley, for many, many years to come.' When Bielich first heard that it was a Japanese firm looking to acquire U.S. Steel he said he was skeptical. 'The heart sank a little bit, but then as I started to understand the value of the deal of what Nippon was going to bring to U.S. Steel, given the state of steel-making in this country, I accepted it as a great opportunity,' Bielich said. Chris J., a 22-year-old college grad who's moving back to the area, said he was attending Trump's speech Friday because his father worked in the industry. 'We'll see what President Trump has to say but at the end of the day it sounds like a lot of people are getting a lot of security they've been looking for,' he told the Daily Mail. 'But then also, for our city, from that standpoint, we're getting an influx of investment that we really haven't seen this magnitude of.' 'At the end of the day, people - from my understanding - are keeping their jobs and it's cool because this is my city, I'm coming back into it, and hopefully see one or more things that will be reaping the benefits of this,' he added. The site for Trump's speech was at an active facility, the Irvin Works, a U.S. Steel plant located outside the city limits, hugging the Monongahela River in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Even with hundreds of attendees - some in hard hats, other in MAGA hats and many in their bright orange U.S. Steel jackets - the set-up for the speech, took up less than a quarter of the aging warehouse. A vendor outside was selling specialized 'Terrible Towels' - a fixture at Pittsburgh Steelers games - for the occassion, which read 'President Trump ...Make USS Great Again, The Birthplace of Steel.' President Donald Trump revealed that he spoke to Emmanuel Macron following the shocking footage of the French president being shoved in the face by his wife, Brigitte. The moment got captured by the global media as the Macrons arrived in Hanoi. Brigitte Macron's arms can be seen pushing Macron away on board the presidential aircraft in footage captured on the tarmac. 'There was a video of the First Lady of France slapping her husband, Emmanuel Macron,' Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked the president. 'Do you have any world leader-to-world leader marital advice?' Trump, who has been married three times, quipped in response: 'Make sure the door remains closed.' 'That was not good,' earning guffaws in the Oval Office, where he was holding a send-off press conference for DOGE head Elon Musk. 'I spoke to him,' Trump said of Macron. President Donald Trump got asked about the shock footage of French first lady Brigitte Macron shoving President Emmanuel Macron in the face 'He's fine. They're fine. They're two really good people. I know him very well, and I don't know what that was all about,' Trump said, choosing his words carefully. 'But I know him very well, and they're fine.' That prompted an interjection from Musk. 'I know a little shiner here,' said the world's richest man, whose black eye was visible throughout the event Friday. Musk only later revealed the source of his injury. 'I was just horsing around with Little X,' Musk explained to the cameras and reporters. 'I said go ahead, punch me in the face.' In video taken by The Associated Press as the Macrons arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, a uniformed man can be seen pulling open the plane door and revealing the president standing inside, dressed in a suit and talking to someone who wasn't visible Brigitte Macron's arms - in red - were seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw 'And he did. Turns out even a five year old punching you in the face ...' Musk explained. During the incident that drew the question, Macron, 47, could be seen in Associated Press video getting shoved in the when his face touched down in Vietnam Sunday night. The video showed Brigitte's, 72, arms emerging from off camera to push the president's face - in a scene that was visible from below. Macron then turns to wave through the open door. The moment quickly made headlines around the world, pressing the French president to deny anything was wrong and claim that they were just playfighting. The couple have been especially close in the days since as they continue their state visit. The Elysee had been hoping that the visit to Vietnam would showcase France's reach into the Indo-Pacific, but it has been shadowed by the incident which occurred as the doors of the presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi Sunday. The awkward topic prompted billionarie Elon Musk to quip about his own 'shiner.' He said he got his bruise when he told his son X to punch him in the face One pose 'seems slightly off-message here', Judi James suggests, when Brigitte 'suddenly takes a more dominant stance' and reaches out with a pointing index figure Judi James, a body language expert, told MailOnline that the Macrons have gone 'overkill' in their 'denial rituals' to silence the rumours, putting on a performance of 'newlywed-style body language presumably aimed at making us forget the gesture'. 'The pair seem set on trying to look closer than usual here,' she said as the couple were pictured together at a reception for members of the French community at the International French School (IFS) in Singapore on Friday. 'Brigitte is dressed in a very modest, pristine, funnel-neck off-white suit that would be entirely appropriate for a wedding, and she keeps her head tilted down so that her face peeps shyly out of her thatch-style hair.' Ms James added that there is now a 'coyly submissive-looking behaviour' from Ms Macron, pictured holding her husband's arm with both hands, 'clinging like a bridge leaving the church, leaning in to suggest closeness'. But one pose 'seems slightly off-message here', she suggests, when Brigitte 'suddenly takes a more dominant stance' and reaches her arm out in front of her husband with a pointing index figure, 'making her look less coy and more assertive'. Ms James assesses that the couple have made a point of showing closeness in a 'desperate' effort to 'pretend all is well' and deflect focus from the plane footage, which falls well outside of their usual polished look. Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte prepare to sign in a book at the Parliament House. 'When the pair sign a register they both cling to the pen,' Ms James noted Emmanuel Macron (2nd L) and his wife Brigitte Macron pose with Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (2nd R) and his wife Jane Ittogi 'When the pair sign a register they both cling to the pen,' she noted, referring to scenes from inside the Parliament House in Singapore on Friday. This was 'again like a bride and groom', she suggested. 'They seem to have stepped up their mirroring rituals with poses like the one of them clapping together in total synchronisation, providing a like-minded look of peas in a pod.' 'When they glance at each other Brigitte performs another coy facial expression, complete with a slightly flirty eye contact and with her lips pursed into a pout,' she added. 'Macron responds with what looks like an appreciative smile.' This is the third time this month that Macron has been the subject of viral video footage at a time when France says it is being targeted by repeated disinformation campaigns as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine. Macron testily referred to the other incidents, including the images shot on the train to Kyiv where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine. But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue. Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president's finger at a summit. 'None of these are true,' Macron said of the videos. 'Everyone needs to calm down,' he added. A crunch by-election could become a seminal moment in the decline of the SNP following a decade of failure, according to a former deputy leader of the party. Jim Sillars said next weeks vote in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse could give further evidence that working-class voters are turning their back on the SNP. He also said the SNPs failings have created a vacuum in Scottish politics which can play into the hands of Nigel Farages Reform UK. But a leading pollster also yesterday said that a rise in support for Reform is likely to help the SNP in Thursdays by-election and in next years Scottish Parliament election. It comes as Labour told voters that they can help call time on John Swinneys party. Mr Sillars said Reform is benefiting from the failure of the elite mainstream parties and that ordinary working class people look at the SNP Government and say that have failed us. He said Reform is now capitalising on a vacuum in Scottish politics which sees many voters unsure who to give their support to. He also compared Thursdays vote to his 1988 victory in the Glasgow Govan by-election, when voters backed the insurgent SNP against a Labour Party which was the dominant force north of the border at the time. Jim Sillars, former deputy leader of the SNP said the party's failings have created a vacuum in Scottish politics Jim Sillars won the Glasgow Govan seat for the Scottish National Party in 1988 Mr Sillars said: Everyone in Scottish politics should watch Reform very closely. This could be another seminal by-election in Scottish politics, and that is due entirely to failure based on the mediocrity that has reigned in the SNP since Alex Salmond resigned. Mr Farage is due to visit Scotland on Monday as he steps up campaign ahead of Thursdays vote. Ahead of the final weekend of campaigning, Mr Swinney yesterday claimed that the by-election is now a straight contest between the SNP and Nigel Farage. But leading pollster Mark Diffley said a rise in support for Reform will benefit the SNP in Hamilton and in next years Holyrood elections. He said: Whether at a one-off event in Hamilton or in 2026, the fact the SNP has lost support since 2021 is likely not to impact hugely on its chances because for the Unionist part of the country there is now a new party that fragments that side of the electorate even further. Whether in Hamilton or in a years time, that helps the SNP. The SNP is polling around 36 per cent now, compared to 48 per cent (on the constituency vote) in 2021, so it has lost a quarter of its voters but, because of the electoral system and the fragmentation of the Unionist vote, it will still win the vast majority of constituencies even on 36 per cent. Labour is targeting pro-Union voters, former Labour supporters and those disgruntled with the SNPs failures in the final days of the campaign. Reform candidate Ross Lambie hands out leaflets as he campaigns in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: Next week the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse will get a chance to call time on SNP failure and choose a new direction with Scottish Labour. We can see the consequences of SNP incompetence right across this community - people languishing on NHS waiting lists, high street shops struggling to stay open, and kids not getting the education they deserve. Its clear the SNP does not deserve to win this by-election and only Scottish Labour can beat them. Reform cant win here - this is a direct fight between Scottish Labour and the SNP, no matter how much Reform and the SNP want to pretend otherwise. Mr Swinney said: Labour have let people across Scotland down, and they have quite clearly given up on this by-election. Thursdays vote is now a straight contest between the SNP and Nigel Farage - and I am urging people to reject the ugly, divisive politics of Nigel Farage and to unite behind the SNP. A 15-year-old girl is missing after plunging into New York City's East River. Rescuers are in a race against time as divers from the New York Police Department are currently on the scene near Roosevelt Island. Sources told DailyMail.com the girl is thought to have entered the water willingly and was wearing a bathing suit at the time. The first report of a drowning person came in at around 12:15pm on Friday. Fire Department of New York divers first scoured an area in the East Channel of the river in between Roosevelt Island and Queens. They were seen diving roughly 50 feet north of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, where investigators believe the girl got in the water. After failing to locate anyone, the FDNY turned over jurisdiction to the NYPD, which continued the search using harbor units, drones, and helicopters, according to both departments and witnesses on the scene. A spokesperson for the NYPD said police still don't know the identity of the girl they are searching for, which means they have not contacted anyone's family. Pictured: FDNY divers at the scene looking for the 15-year-old girl in New York City's East River Pictured: An FDNY diver enters the water after a 911 call was made at 12:15pm reporting a drowning. Divers explored an area roughly 50 feet north of the Roosevelt Island Bridge in between Queens and Roosevelt Island Sometime this afternoon, FDNY turned over jurisdiction to the NYPD, who has continued the search with harbor units, drones and helicopters Pictured: An NYPD harbor unit dispatched to the East River to assist in the search for the missing teen Pictured: The girl who was with the drowning victim is seen sitting on the ground surrounded by police officers. Sources say she was the one who called 911 Items belonging to the victim - including a handbag, two books, and sneakers - were seen on the hood of one of the police cars at the scene Sources told DailyMail.com the missing girl was with a friend who is believed to have called 911. Witnesses said the teen went into the water either to take a swim or to retrieve an item she dropped into the river. Items believed to belong to the victim - including a handbag, two books, and sneakers - were seen on the hood of one of the police cars at the scene. As of 3pm, the teen has not been found by rescue crews. No additional items of interest such as clothes have been found in the water. The FDNY and the NYPD are still coordinating and the search is remains active. Sunset in New York City is 8:20pm on Friday, giving rescue teams several more hours of light. This is a developing story, check back for updates. Donald Trump's 'bromance' with Elon Musk entered a new chapter with a peculiar presser where the world's richest man praised Trump's decorating while sporting a black eye and Trump gave him a gold key without admitting he was going away. 'Elon is really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It's his baby, and I think he's going to be doing a lot of things,' Trump said. It was one of several times neither man quite wanted to pronounce that Musk was finally leaving even though Musk had written publicly about the end of his 130-day term as a 'Special Government Employee' with the ear of the world's most powerful man. 'Can you imagine they called him an employee?' Trump mused about his 'first buddy's' vague bureaucratic status that allowed him to avoid massive disclosure filings. The president spoke wistfully at times about the South Africa-born billionaire, who accompanied him on the campaign trail and pumped money into his election only to become a fixture at Mar-a-Lago while riding herd over his controversial Department of Governmental Efficiency. 'We'll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra waste, fraud and abuse,' Trump said. At one point Trump presented Musk with a golden key. 'And they gave him a little special something we have here, a very special that I give to very special people. I have given it to some, but it goes to very special people, and I thought I'd give it to Elon as a presentation from our country. Thank you, Elon. Take care of yourself,' Trump said. President Trump presented 'first buddy' Elon Musk with a ceremonial key during a farewell press event in the Oval Office Friday 'This is not the end of DOGE, it's really the beginning,' said Musk, sounding like a retiring exec although he is returning to helm his Tesla and SpaceX companies. He reached for a religion metaphor to hail his team of young engineers, at an event where Trump repeatedly referred to the 'slings and arrows' and other abuse Musk endured. 'I liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It's like a way of life,' Musk said. It wasn't the only gold blazing inside the Oval Friday. Musk began his own remarks bizarrely praising the president's decorating skills. 'By the way, isn't this incredible this incredible? I mean, it's stunning. I think the way that Oval Office the President has just completely redone the Oval Office. It's beautiful. I love the gold on the ceiling,' said the spending slasher who drew pushback after taking a dig at Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' said. 'It's been there a long time,' Trump chimed in. 'There was plaster. Nobody ever really saw it. They didn't know the eagle was up there. We highlighted it's essentially, it's a landmark, a great landmark. It's 24 carat gold, and everybody loved it. Now they all see it when they come in. And it's been good,' he said of the gilded design. When it came for questions, Musk stood by his pledge to elimiate $1 trillion although DOGE only currently lists $175 billion in cancelled contracts on its web site after scrubbing multiple claims about nixed spending. 'We do expect, over time, to achieve a trillion,' Musk said. Trump also embraced the expanded time frame but said he'd keep Musk in his thoughts. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who clashed with Musk, attended the event along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Aide to Elon Musk Katie Miller is accompanying him to the private sector Musk called attention to his 'shiner' and said he got it when he asked his son 'Little X' to punch him in the face Musk began his remarks by praising President Trump's redecorating of the Oval Office. Trump said it involved 24-karat gold 'Elon is really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling,' Trump said of Musk Musk said he got the injury from his son, 'Little X' 'Many of the things that we're working on right now, we're going to have to remember Elon as we find them, but the numbers could double and triple, because many, many things we don't want to go out with them until we're for sure, but we've, we've found things that are unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad,' Trump said. Standing inside the room for all of it was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose angry clash with Musk precipitated his departure. Also there was Katie Miller, the wife of top Trump aide Stephen Miller who is following Musk back to the private sector. Trump said cuts would be 'surgical', although Musk himself brandished a chain saw during his memorable sunglasses-wearing CPAC appearance. Unspoken through most of the event was a bombshell New York Times report claiming Musk regularly used drugs on the 2024 campaign trail. 'The New York Times? Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russia-gate? Is it the same organization? I think it is,' said Musk shielding himself by bringing up one of Trump's favorite obsessions. As he did in his State of the Union, Trump ran through a list of programs Musk's DOGE team identified as wasteful, bringing back a mention of transgender mice (it was actually an NIH study of sex differences in the brain). '$Forty-five million for Diversity Equity and Inclusion scholarships in Burma. In Burma, does anyone know about Burma?' Trump asked. There was little talk about the msasive disruption DOGE brought to government agencies, essentially dismantling U.S. international aid and slashing staff at agencies from the National Institutes of Health to the National Science Foundation and even the National Nuclear Security Administration (cuts that got quickly reversed). Was it worth it? 'We became essentially the DOGE boogeyman, where any cut anywhere would be ascribed to DOGE,' Musk replied. It wasn't until 42 minutes into the event that a reporter got the chance to ask the burning question about what was wrong with Musk's face. The world's richest man had already made reference to his 'shiner,' which was visible under his black ball cap as he wore a 'Dogefather' t-shirt and jacket. 'I was just horsting around with Little X, and I said, "Go ahead, punch me in the face. And he did,' Musk explained. 'That was X that did that?' Trump wanted to know. But the black eye sported by the man expecting to remain a 'friend and advisor' hadn't caught his attention, Trump claimed. 'I didn't notice it, actually,' Trump said. This is the first picture of a father-of-three killed when a car fleeing police smashed into a bus stop as friends and colleagues pay heartfelt tributes to the much-loved chef. Sam Brahimi, 57, was waiting for a bus to take him to work when he was fatally struck by a car involved in a high-speed police chase in Borough, south London, just before 6am on Sunday. A 24-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and drink driving. The Metropolitan Police has referred the incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Mr Brahimi, a short-order cook at the 24-hour Polo Bar cafe near Liverpool Street station, was described by devastated friends and colleagues as a 'beautiful man' who was always full of life and would be 'greatly missed'. His wife and three sons are now trying to raise funds to repatriate his body to his native Albania, with a GoFundMe page launched to support the family during this heartbreaking time. Philip Inzani, owner of the Polo Bar, said: 'Sam was a special person. He was coming to work that morning, but he never made it. Nothing can change the circumstances, but we set up a fundraiser to help his family in whatever way we can. The response has been incredible.' Valerie Faichney, a colleague, said: 'Sam was a beautiful man so happy and cheerful. He talked non-stop from six in the morning until six at night, always singing along to whatever music was playing in the cafe. I miss his voice the most. Some of our customers have been crying on my shoulder this week. It's been devastating. 'Sam was so loved. He was married with three sons in their late teens and early twenties. They're living through a horror story right now, and we want to raise as much as we can to help them.' This is the first picture of father-of-three Sam Brahimi, 57, who was killed when a car fleeing police smashed into a bus stop Mr Brahimi, a short-order cook at the 24-hour Polo Bar cafe near Liverpool Street station, was described by devastated friends and colleagues as a 'beautiful man' His wife and three sons are now trying to raise funds to repatriate his body to his native Albania, with a GoFundMe page launched to support the family during this heartbreaking time Ms Faichney said Mr Brahimi, who had worked at the Polo Bar for around ten years, was waiting for his usual bus when the crash happened. 'He lived nearby and was always on the day shift, cooking everything from all-day breakfasts and burgers to lunch and dinner. His family want to repatriate his body to Albania for burial, which is very expensive.' Sofia Inzani, who launched the GoFundMe page, wrote: 'Sam leaves behind his wife, his children, and his Polo Bar friends and extended family. He will be so greatly missed by everyone who had the honour of knowing and working with him. Any help for his family in this unimaginably hard time would be greatly appreciated.' The family declined to comment when approached through friends. A Met Police spokeswoman told MailOnline that the investigation into the fatal collision was ongoing. She said: 'At 05:40hrs on Sunday, 25 May, officers who were stationary in an unmarked police vehicle spotted a car travelling at speed along Southwark Bridge Road, [London] SE1. 'They pulled out and attempted to catch up with the vehicle with the intention to stop it, however only a short distance along the road, it collided with a bus stop at the junction of Great Suffolk Street and Southwark Bridge Road. 'The London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade attended and treated multiple people for injuries. 'Despite their best efforts, a 57-year-old man - who was waiting at the bus stop - was pronounced dead at the scene. 'His next-of-kin has been informed. 'A 24-year-old woman, believed to be an occupant of the car, was taken to hospital. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing. 'She was subsequently arrested on suspicion of drink driving and causing death by dangerous driving. She remains in hospital. 'The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards was immediately informed and, as is routine, a referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).' An Afghan man charged with lying about serving with the US military on his immigration papers has been identified as a member of a feared terrorist group. Dilbar Gul Dilbar, 33, who was arrested in New York this month and accused of visa fraud, has now been linked to the Haqqani Network of armed Islamist fighters. Dilbar's alleged terrorist ties were revealed when prosecutors filed papers this week, saying his fingerprints were found in 2011 on plans for an attack in Afghanistan. US intelligence officers apparently knew of Dilbar's terrorist ties and fraudulent visa claims all along, and let him enter the US so they could build a case against him. His arrest raises tough questions about America's responsibility to provide sanctuary to Afghans who helped US forces there, and of ongoing threats of terrorists entering the country. It comes as US President Donald Trump mounts a harsh crackdown on illegal immigration into the US, a hot button issue during the 2024 election. Dilbar, 33, came to the US with his wife and young children last year on a special immigration visa (SIV), reserved for Afghan and Iraqi interpreters who assisted US forces and diplomats. The dad-of-five was arrested at a home in Rochester, New York, charged with submitting false documents in 2021 to obtain the visa. He previously applied in 2016, but had been denied. Dilbar Gul Dilbar, 33, is accused of lying about working with US forces on his visa papers The Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network is one of the most dangerous Islamist militias in the region US Magistrate Judge Colleen D. Holland remanded him in custody as a potential flight risk. He's accused of submitting a bogus employment letter from a US-based firm in his application in 2021, in the run-up to the collapse of the Afghan government and a chaotic US withdrawal. Dilbar's SIV application was approved in March 2024, according to paperwork, and he applied for and was issued a green card in July. This week, it was revealed that 'it is not a typical visa fraud case,' a filing by prosecutors says. 'The defendant was ineligible for an Afghan SIV not only because he submitted fraudulent employment documentation but also because he was linked to the Haqqani Network,' says the 11-pager. The Pentagon has declassified details since his court hearing that link him to a terrorist plot in Afghanistan, say the papers, which were first reported on by Court Watch. They refer to evidence uncovered at a crime scene in Afghanistan in 2011 by the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center. 'One piece of evidence was a handwritten note. The note contained a series of letters and numbers, possibly the coordinates of a planned terrorist attack,' says the filing. 'The defendant's fingerprint was on the note.' Dilbar awaits trial on the visa fraud charge, for which he faces 10 years behind bars. The Department of Justice has been contacted for further information about his case. It is not clear what Haqqani network plans or attacks Dilbar may have been involved in, or at what level. A Taliban fighter holds a poster of late Afghan leader of the Haqqani network Jalaluddin Haqqani US forces relied on Afghan civilians as interpreters throughout the 20-year war there The militant group is one of the most powerful and feared groups in the Afghan insurgency, blamed for major attacks during the 20-year war. The US mounted its war in Afghanistan to dismantle the Taliban and al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. The US withdrew its forces completely in 2021, leaving Afghanistan in turmoil and the Taliban back in control. Two sisters have been arrested in Spain for allegedly running an online 'Jihadi academy' aimed at recruiting and training young female extremists. Police arrested the suspects on Monday in Alcorcon, south-west Madrid, in the home that they shared on charges of terrorist indoctrination. Cops also seized their computers, which are currently being analysed by terrorism experts. The women, aged 19 and 21, are believed to have run a virtual platform, that under the guise of providing religious teachings to Muslim women, actually operated as a 'jihad academy' that actively sought to recruit and indoctrinate members. Spain's Home Office said in a statement that the women had 'created a complex social engineering structure, where under the pretext of teaching religion, they indoctrinated other Muslim faithful. 'This virtual platform, which operated similarly to a jihad academy, primarily targeted the indoctrination of women.' Police began investigating the sisters last year after counterterrorism experts identified social media profiles managed by the siblings that shared radical and violent content linked to terror group Daesh. One of them pledged to 'wage Jihad' and even praised a violent attack on six women on the Barcelona underground earlier this year. Two sisters have been arrested in Spain for allegedly running an online 'Jihadi academy' The young women are also said to have used encrypted messages to hide their digital footprint. One of the sisters has been remanded in custody while the other has been released on precautionary measures. Police have not ruled out further suspects. Their arrests come months after Spanish police arrested seven people, including four suspected 'jihadist influencers,' for alleged links to Islamist terrorism. The arrests were made in Madrid and Toledo, which is an hour's drive from the Spanish capital. Another arrest was made in Pontevedra in north-western Spain. One of the accused is believed to have a 'significant influence and accessibility... to disseminate jihadist ideology.' The arrests of the sisters in Madrid also comes months after ISIS families living in Syria's largest refugee camp declared the terror group is 'ready to rise again'. Since the jihadist organisation lost its final stronghold in Syria in 2019, tens of thousands of ISIS fighters and their families have been held in prisons and refugee camps in Rojava - the Kurdish-led autonomous region in northeast Syria. Now, the instability following the toppling of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has created fertile ground for a horrifying ISIS resurgence. Back in February, military officials in Rojava told MailOnline that ongoing clashes between Rojava's Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed militias may force camp guards to abandon their posts and head to the frontlines. If this happens, security at the camp could collapse and Islamic State could stage a breakout. Donald Trump has announced that he has fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery Kim Sajet. The president revealed that he booted Sajet over her support for DEI initiatives. 'Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,' he wrote on Truth Social. 'She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. 'Her replacement will be named shortly. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' Sajet, a Dutch citizen raised in Australia, was appointed to the post in 2013 when President Barack Obama was in office. It is not immediately clear if the president has the power to dismiss the gallery's director. The gallery, founded by Congress in 1962, operates under the Smithsonian Institution which in turn is funded through a mix of private and public money. Federal funding makes up 62 percent of its backing, according to its website. Sajet,seen here, was appointed to the post in 2013 by President Barack Obama It is not immediately clear if the president has the power to dismiss the gallery's director The National Portrait Gallery is home to over 23,000 works of art and hosts a collection of presidential portraits called 'America's Presidents'. Prior to taking up her role, Sajet was the president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The White House highlighted the gallery's photo of Trump and the caption as part of their reasoning for her dismissal. The caption reads: 'Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. 'After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.' All of which is true. Sajet previously told The Guardian that the gallery doesn't try to editorialize when it comes to labeling portraits in the gallery. Sajet said: 'We try very hard to be even-handed when we talk about people and thats the key. 'Everyone has an opinion about American presidents, good, bad and indifferent. We hear it all but generally I think weve done pretty well.' Trump is seen here departing the White House on Friday for a trip to Pennsylvania Sajet, far left, is seen here as a portrait of Oprah Winfrey is unveiled inside the gallery in 2023 A White House official told Fox that Sajet had donated $3,982 to Democrats running for office including President Biden and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Trump has repeatedly criticized the national network of museums and cultural centers as leftist and anti-American. Earlier this spring, he ousted the leadership of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, dismissing the chairman and president and replacing most of the board with loyalists, who then voted Trump the new chairman. In early May, he also abruptly dismissed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden after she was accused of 'promoting trans-ing kids'. Hayden's term as the first African American Librarian of Congress was cut short after she received an email from the Trump administration terminating her position. The email, addressed to 'Carla,' said: 'On behalf of President Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that our position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.' Her ten-year term, which was set to expire next year, ended after she was accused of promoting children's books with 'radical' content and literary material authored by opponents of Trump, according to The Associated Press. The wife of a top Trump confidant is leaving the White House to work for Elon Musk after her stint at DOGE. Katie Miller - the wife of influential White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller - worked as spokeswoman and advisor for DOGE until this week when it was reported by CNN that she will be departing the cost-cutting group to work for Musk full-time. At the start of President Donald Trump's second term she was, like Musk, a 'Special Government Employee,' which means her role at DOGE was always expected to come to an end and could not exceed 130 days. The former DOGE spokeswoman will now reportedly help the billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla in setting up media interviews. Musk has done several interviews this week on a recent SpaceX rocket launch, possibly indicating that Miller could already be organizing the tech founder's media schedule. Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Miller has been involved in Republican politics since at least 2014, when she worked at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) as a spokesperson. After her stint there, she went on to work for Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and former Arizona Republican Martha McSally. Following her work on Capitol Hill she served in the first Trump administration in a variety of different roles in communications and press, often interfacing with journalists. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's wife, Katie Miller, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. She served as DOGE spokesperson and is now reportedly working for the tech billionaire Trump's White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller, left, and Katie Waldman, now Miller, arrive for a State Dinner in 2019. The couple were married in 2020 at what was then the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C. Miller was a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security and later the communications director for Vice President Mike Pence. During the first administration on February 16, 2020, she married Stephen Miller, then a senior adviser to the president. The pair were married at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., a hotel later sold by the president that is just blocks from the White House. They reportedly began dating shortly after she began with the vice president's office, likely putting her in the same White House office working areas as her future husband. The two now share a daughter and two sons. The news that she will work with Musk comes days after Stephen Miller, 39, a key Trump aide for a decade, appeared to correct Musk in a post on X. After Musk called Trump's 'One big, beautiful bill' a 'disappointment,' the deputy chief of staff wrote a lengthy statement explaining why it could not include DOGE cuts. Musk officially quit his position as the head of DOGE this month and announced Wednesday he was stepping down from his role alongside Trump. White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller attends the annual White House Easter Egg Roll with his family, including his wife, Katie Miller, left, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 21, 2025 White House Senior Advisor to the President, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (C) is accompanied by Katie Miller (L) as he leaves a meeting with Senate Republicans in the U.S. Captiol He is now set to dedicate more time to his private sector ventures. 'I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,' Musk told Ars Technica this week. 'It's less than people would think, because the media is going to over-represent any political stuff, because political bones of contention get a lot of traction in the media.' In addition to commenting on DOGE-related matters, Miller has been regularly posting about Musk's work at Tesla and SpaceX. It is unclear if she will be working at one of Musk's companies or through another venture. Symposium held in Bahrain to mark 1st anniversary of China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership Xinhua) 10:36, May 30, 2025 Chinese Ambassador to Bahrain Ni Ruchi addresses a symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership in Sakhir, Bahrain, on May 28, 2025. The symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership was held on Wednesday in Sakhir, bringing together nearly 100 representatives from the governments, academic institutions, and business sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Luo Chen) MANAMA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership was held on Wednesday in Bahrain's Sakhir, bringing together nearly 100 representatives from the governments, academic institutions, and business sectors of both countries. During the event, co-hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Bahrain and the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies, the participants discussed China-Bahrain relations, bilateral collaboration in artificial intelligence, and bilateral cooperation on economy and trade as well as under the framework of international organizations. They highlighted the achievements made since the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership, and expressed strong interest in deepening practical cooperation on politics, economy, science and technology, and culture. Speaking at the symposium, Chinese Ambassador to Bahrain Ni Ruchi highlighted strengthened political mutual trust, fruitful economic and trade cooperation, close people-to-people exchanges, and a deep shared understanding of each other's values and principles over the past year. China is willing to work with Bahrain to further strengthen the foundation of strategic mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, enhance people-to-people ties, jointly steer global governance towards the right direction, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Ni said. Addressing the symposium via video link, Bahrain's Ambassador to China Mohammed Ghassan Mohammed Adnan Sheikhoo noted that during Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's visit to China in May last year, the two countries elevated their bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Over the past year, bilateral trade has continued to grow, and the two sides have achieved fruitful results in infrastructure construction and joint investments, with Bahrain becoming a key partner in the Belt and Road Initiative, said the Bahraini ambassador. The symposium would be a platform for in-depth dialogue and exchanges between experts from both countries, he said, voicing hope that the event's outcomes can further solidify the friendship between the two peoples. Participants from China and Bahrain engage in discussions at a symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership in Sakhir, Bahrain, on May 28, 2025. The symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership was held on Wednesday in Sakhir, bringing together nearly 100 representatives from the governments, academic institutions, and business sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Luo Chen) Bahrain's Ambassador to China Mohammed Ghassan Mohammed Adnan Sheikhoo (on the screens) addresses a symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership via video link, in Sakhir, Bahrain, on May 28, 2025. The symposium marking the first anniversary of the establishment of the China-Bahrain comprehensive strategic partnership was held on Wednesday in Sakhir, bringing together nearly 100 representatives from the governments, academic institutions, and business sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Luo Chen) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A French doctor who is a retired surgeon pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 299 people, the majority of which were children, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The case is considered to be the largest pedophilia case in the history of France. Judge Aude Buresi said that the defendant committed predation on victims who were most vulnerable, which is when they were sick in the hospital. French Doctor Sentenced to 20-Year Imprisonment The judge also barred the defendant, Joel Le Scouarnec, from being able to practice medicine or have contact with minors. He is required to serve two-thirds of his 20-year sentence before being eligible for parole. During the former surgeon's trial, the public was shown massive gaps in the legal and health administrative bureaucracies. These ultimately failed to take seriously one clear warning sign about the case. The doctor was convicted of downloading child abuse imagery and given a four-month suspended sentence by a French court in 2005. Despite this, he was still allowed to treat children unsupervised until he was arrested in 2017, according to the New York Times. The former surgeon was then sentenced to 15 years in prison three years later for raping and sexually assaulting four children. The terms revealed on Wednesday supersede that sentence because there are no consecutive prison sentences in France. Scouarnec's latest trial came amid growing concerns about sexual abuse across France. This is because the number of victims being reported to police has surged and cases are crowding the country's courts. One of the defendant's victims, Amelie Leveque, said that the possibility of the former surgeon being able to walk free and see people someday upsets them. They added that the accused's victims no longer have a normal life, BBC reported. Sexual Abuse of 299 Individuals A lawyer for some of the victims, Francesca Satta, argued that 20 years is little compared to the number of victims in the trial. She said that it was time for officials to change the law so that there are more appropriate sentences for such crimes. During the latest trial, the defendant confessed to all the sexual abuse that 299 civil parties alleged and many other assaults that are now beyond the statute of limitations. Furthermore, Scouarnec acknowledged that he sexually abused his own granddaughter. The sentence comes as one of the most prominent cases of sexual abuse in France is that of Gisele Pelicot. She was drugged and raped by her now ex-husband and dozens of other men. The latter have all been convicted and sentenced in December last year to three to 20 years in prison, as per CNN. One in five NHS trusts are using solar panels produced by Chinese companies with alleged ties to slave labour, the Mail can reveal. Hospitals, mental health units and ambulance stations across the country are fitted with such panels, with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband looking to expand the scheme exponentially. His controversial plans to refit the roofs of 200 schools and 200 NHS sites have sparked fury among human rights campaigners. But despite Labour bowing to pressure and trying to stop the future purchase of panels from slave labour, critics have warned it will prove challenging, meaning more will end up on NHS buildings. Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Government must do more to clean up the sector as our investigation found: Around two thirds of NHS Trusts currently using solar panels have installed equipment made by Chinese firms with the majority allegedly having ties to slave labour; Some panels were installed after the links were made public and after laws were introduced aimed at cleaning up UK supply chains; and The largest provider is Beijing-based firm JA Solar, which has provided panels for 19 NHS sites despite being banned in the US. Hospitals, mental health units and ambulance stations across the country are fitted with panels produced by Chinese companies with alleged ties to slave labour. Pictured: Stock image In December 2024, Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, pictured, installed 86 solar panels made by Chinese firm Longi at a new 9 million outpatient department at West Cornwall Hospital China is behind 80 per cent of the global supply of solar panels and more than a third of the worlds polysilicon, a key component, comes from the Xinjiang region China is behind 80 per cent of the global supply of solar panels and more than a third of the worlds polysilicon, a key component, comes from the Xinjiang region. There, Uighur Muslims are rounded up and forced to work for little or no pay. The solar sector has known its supply chains are affected by slave labour since 2020, according to a report by Sheffield Hallam university. And in April 2023, the Tory government introduced requirements for public bodies to provide supply chain information for products deemed at risk of modern slavery. The Mail asked trusts for names of firms that installed and made their panels, alongside correspondence discussing risk of slave labour in the supply chain. But replies show some NHS managers seem to be passing the buck to subcontractors. Of the 215 health trusts in England, 98 use solar power across 212 sites, with 46 trusts having installed solar panels made by Chinese companies. Some 40 of these are using firms linked to slave labour in the 2023 report by Sheffield Hallam. In December 2024, Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust installed 86 solar panels made by Chinese firm Longi at a new 9 million outpatient department at West Cornwall Hospital. Mr Milibands, pictured, 180million of new investment in solar panels is to come from GB Energy, the Governments new, publicly owned clean energy company Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP called on the Government to adopt the US model, which places the burden of proof on Chinese firms to prove they are free from slave labour But when asked what due diligence was carried out, the trust said it was not aware of any correspondence discussing the risk. Instead, it pointed to Longis code of conduct, which says the firm does not engage in or tolerate any form of modern slavery. But Longi was one of ten makers said to have a very high exposure to slave labour in Xinjiang by the 2023 report. RCHT and contractor Kier Construction said that Kier received extensive assurances from its supply chain regarding the ethical production of PV panels and that its procurement processes integrate modern slavery due diligence. Longi denied that forced labour was present in its supply chain. Some trusts said panels had been installed before modern slavery statutes were introduced in 2023. But Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said companies should still have been screened for exposure to slave labour, given the known risks. Mr Milibands 180million of new investment in solar panels is to come from GB Energy, the Governments new, publicly owned clean energy company. The Government initially voted down a Lords amendment to stop GB Energy buying panels made using slave labour from China. It reversed its position after 92 Labour MPs abstained. But the Governments measure in the GB Energy Act only applies to the state-owned energy firm, so private firms could still use Chinese materials. Mr De Pulford said it would be difficult to ensure equipment was clean of slave labour, as the Government doesnt have the ability to do the kind of due diligence thats required. And Sir Iain called on the Government to adopt the US model, which places the burden of proof on Chinese firms to prove they are free from slave labour. Professor Laura Murphy, co-author of the Sheffield Hallam report, said it was possible to meet demand without relying on slave labour, but the sector had not done enough to overhaul or scrutinise supply chains. An NHS England spokesman said: NHS trusts should always purchase products in line with government procurement guidelines which includes identifying higher risk sectors and taking appropriate action. A Government spokesperson said: 'There is no place for human rights abuses or modern slavery in supply chains, which is why we have introduced new legislation to ensure Great British Energy can tackle it head on. 'Our amendment to the Great British Energy Act will enable the company to ensure forced labour does not take place in its business or its supply chains. Great British Energy can also bar suppliers that use illegal and immoral practices from bidding for its contracts.' A spokesperson for Solar Energy UK said: 'The sector has conducted enormous work to ensure that the UK and Europe as a whole avoids products associated with forced labour. 'When the 2021 Sheffield Hallam report on forced labour came out, we and our counterparts in Brussels, SolarPower Europe, began to put together the Solar Steward Initiative - which provides independent assurance that the solar supply chain avoids human rights abuses - at speed. 'GB Energy will use the system to meet its obligation to avoid forced labour under the Great British Energy Act 2025.' Southport killer Axel Rudakubana is allegedly allowed to buy treats in prison such as Maltesers and crisps despite throwing scorching water over a prison guard three weeks ago. The 18-year-old triple murderer, who was sentenced to 52 years for the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancome, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, reportedly has the treats delivered to his cell in HMP Belmarsh. It is also claimed that he is allowed to call his family, have religious visits and receive money from relatives while in the south east London prison. A source told The Sun that Rudakubana has been spending 5.50 a week since he attacked the guard and is allowed to buy anything he likes as long as its not dangerous. They added: Hes still allowed to buy things like Maltesers and Pringles crisps if he fancies them. Since Rudakubana attacked the guard he has been on a basic level of treatment behind bars meaning he no longer has access to a TV and that his time out of his cell has been restricted. He is also said to be no longer permitted to purchase butter or baby oil which could be heated for an attack. The source added: He is mostly confined to his cell. He fills in a sheet and stuff gets delivered. The 18-year-old triple murderer was sentenced to 52 years for the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancome, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine The treats, which include Maltesers (above), are allegedly delivered to Rudakubana's cell by prison guards Rudakubana is also believed to be allowed to call his family, have religious visits and receive money from relatives while in HMP Belmarsh (above) That means that prison officers, who are the colleagues of the guy he attacked, have to collect his canteen order and deliver it to his cell. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick labelled Rudakubana a 'monster and said that he had such privileges was a disgrace. Mr Jenrick added: He should be stripped of them immediately, no questions asked. Its the least the victims of his horrendous crime would expect. Weve got to regain control of prisons before an officer is killed. Rudakubana is also believed to have had visits from an imam, a person who leads prayers in a mosque, since his attack. However the 18-year-old has been barred from religious events over concerns he would be targeted. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick (above) labelled Rudakubana a 'monster and said that he had such privileges was a disgrace MailOnline reported earlier this month that Rudakubana's pre-planned boiling water attack left a prison guard screaming in agony. It was feared the killer had added sugar to the scalding water in a bid to cause more severe injuries. But it was understood that the prison officer was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure and was discharged later that day. He is also believed to have returned to work the following week. Rudakubana has been caged on the same secure unit as Manchester Arena terrorist, Hashem Abedi, who assaulted prison guards in HMP Frankland last month. The Prison Service told the newspaper that it did not comment on individuals. Thousands of Britain's biggest jobless families could receive huge windfalls from the taxpayer under plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Labour and Reform are both pushing to ditch the policy brought in by the Tories in 2017 despite the 3.5billion cost it would incur. Critics of the cap claim it has worsened child poverty. But analysis of official figures shows that ditching it would hand thousands of pounds a year in extra benefits to 180,000 large families in which no one goes out to work. Former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey last night said the figures underlined the case for keeping the cap in place. 'Encouraging people to have children that they cannot afford themselves, and expecting others to pick up the tab for them, is financially and morally indefensible,' she said. 'I expect nothing better from Labour, but it is a mistake for Nigel Farage to chase Labour to the Left.' Ms McVey said it was 'bizarre' for Reform to want to 'expand the welfare state in this way' after voting against lifting the cap in a ballot on the King's Speech last summer. Nigel Farage (pictured) raised eyebrows this week when he announced that a Reform-led government would ditch two-child benefit cap Labour and Reform are both pushing to ditch the policy brought in by the Tories in 2017 despite the 3.5billion cost it would incur. Pictured: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer She said the Tories were now the only party 'standing up for taxpayers and for common sense in this matter', echoing comments made by party leader Kemi Badenoch in this newspaper yesterday. The benefit cap limits means-tested benefits like universal credit and child tax credit payments to the first two children, costing families a typical 3,455 in lost benefits for each additional child. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated the two-child cap costs affected families an average of 4,300 each. Figures, produced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), show that more than 450,000 families were affected by the cap last year. Around three-fifths (280,000) had three children, while a quarter (120,000) had four children and 56,000 had five or more. The DWP does not provide a breakdown of payments to the biggest families. But separate figures held by HM Revenue and Customs show that child benefit, which is not subject to the cap, was paid to more than 16,000 families with six children, more than 5,000 with seven children and even to 15 families with 13 children or more. Of the 450,000 families affected in total, around three-fifths include at least one adult who is in some form of work. Official figures show that scrapping the cap would give thousands of pounds a year in extra benefits to 180,000 workless large families, prompting former Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey (pictured) to argue for keeping it Tory leader Kemi Badenoch (pictured) accused Labour and Reform of engaging in a 'race to the bottom' over welfare This leaves around 180,000 where no one in the household is in any kind of paid work. The figures will fuel the growing political debate over whether to soften the impact of the cap or ditch it altogether. They come a day after Mrs Badenoch accused Labour and Reform of engaging in a 'race to the bottom' over welfare. The Tory leader said it was wrong to ask taxpayers, 'many of whom are struggling to raise their own children or choosing not to have them in the first place, to fund unlimited child support for others'. She added: 'Welfare traps people, builds dependency and it drives up costs for everyone.' Opinion polls show consistent public support for the cap. But the Conservatives are now the only major party defending the policy. Dozens of Labour MPs are pushing for the cap to be scrapped as part of a review into tackling child poverty, which has now been delayed until the autumn. One minister told the Mail there was a 'widespread feeling at all levels of the party that it is wrong to be penalising children in this way'. Gordon Brown (pictured) is urging Chancellor Rachel Reeves to consider new taxes on gambling and the banks to fund the removal of the 'cruel' cap Sir Keir Starmer, who is facing a wider Labour revolt on welfare, confirmed this week that the Government is looking at 'all options' to tackle child poverty, including ending the cap. Other, cheaper options being considered by ministers include raising the cap to the first three children or removing it for all children until the age of five. Gordon Brown is urging Chancellor Rachel Reeves to consider new taxes on gambling and the banks to fund the removal of the 'cruel' cap. Mr Farage raised eyebrows this week when he announced that a Reform-led government would ditch the cap completely. The Reform leader who is targeting disaffected Labour voters said his party backed the move 'not because we support a benefits culture' but in order to help families struggling to make ends meet. The cap applies to third and additional children born after April 2017 when the policy was introduced. As a result, the number of affected families is increasing every year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said it was eventually likely to affect 800,000 families. A British Airways cabin crew member has been arrested after he was found dancing naked mid-flight in a business class toilet following a suspected drug binge. The steward's colleagues noticed he was missing when he failed to serve meals and drinks to passengers on the flight on Sunday, which was headed for London Heathrow from San Francisco. After searching for him in the aircraft, his boss was shocked to discover him completely naked and dancing up and down in the cabin bathroom, The Sun reports. 'We think the guy popped pills when he was meant to be working. It is an extraordinary thing to do,' one furious colleague said about the incident. 'The plane was cruising at 37,000ft over the Atlantic, but this bloke seemed to be higher than anyone else.' Other members of staff quickly threw a spare pair of pyjamas reserved for First Class customers onto the nude flight attendant. He was then taken into the First Class cabin, where he stayed for the remainder of the ten-and-a-half hour journey. Upon landing, the flight attendant received medical attention and was escorted off the plane in a wheelchair, before being arrested by airport cops. A British Airways cabin crew member was arrested after being found 'dancing high and naked' in a business class bathroom British Airways told MailOnline the incident was a matter for the police when approached for comment. It is understood that the crew member has been suspended from his job as he is investigated. MailOnline has approached the Metropolitan Police for comment. The incident involving the cabin crew member comes as a young British former flight attendant accused of smuggling 1.2 million worth of cannabis into Sri Lank appeared in court on Friday. Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was arrested in Colombo after police discovered 46 kg of 'Kush' - a synthetic strain of cannabis - in her suitcase. She had just arrived in the Sri Lankan capital on a flight from Bangkok in Thailand. She was arrested at Bandaranaike Airport and taken into custody on Monday, May 11. On Friday, Charlotte was filmed in a white dress with her hands behind her back being escorted to a prison van by police outside the court building in Colombo. She was visibly upset and tearful when she appeared in the courtroom. The incident involving the cabin crew member comes as a young British former flight attendant accused of smuggling 1.2 million worth of cannabis into Sri Lank appeared in court on Friday Charlotte May Lee, 21, from Coulsdon, south London , was arrested in the capital Colombo last week, but insists she has been set up. Pictured: Miss Lee speaks with MailOnline from behind bars 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 The former TUI flight attendant was held in a cell at the back of the room and then briefly led to the witness box but struggled to follow proceedings because it was in the main language of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese. Police also wheeled in the near-50kg haul of cannabis she was caught carrying into court as their investigation into the drugs bust continues. Charlotte is expected to appear in the dock again in two weeks. She is facing up to 25 years locked in a hellhole Sri Lankan jail - but she has insisted she has been set up. MailOnline spoke to her from her cell last week where she admitted that she had not been eating because the food was too spicy. Speaking to MailOnline from behind bars in the woman's ward of a notorious prison last week, Miss Lee said she had 'no idea' that there were drugs in her luggage when she set off for Sri Lanka. She said: 'I had never seen them before. I didn't expect it all when they pulled me over at the airport. I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff. 'I had been in Bangkok the night before and had already packed my clothes because my flight was really early. '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.' 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. 'They [the people she believed planted the drugs] were supposed to meet me here. But now I'm here - stuck in this jail.' After her arrest, Miss Lee was initially held at the Police Narcotics Bureau for seven days. She says she was forced to sleep on a sofa that had bed bugs with a security guard watching her the whole time. Then on Sunday she was brought to Negombo Magistrates Court where she was given remanded in custody for a further 14 days while she awaits further hearings. At this point she was transferred to Negombo Prison where she still remains, stuck in her crowded cell for 22 hours a day and only let out to eat and briefly stretch her legs. And it was here that she spoke to MailOnline last week to highlight the 'awful' conditions in the prison - revealing she has not eaten any food at all for two days because the prison meals have been making her ill. They are the bureaucrats charged with protecting Britain's natural environment and those who toil away on it. Yet while hard-pressed farmers face an uncertain time thanks to Labour's inheritance tax plans, staff at three rural-focused quangos have been logging in to work from the other side of the world. An investigation by the Daily Mail has discovered taxpayer-funded staff at Natural England, NatureScot and the Rural Payments Agency have worked from Asia, North America and even Australia. Bosses at the three bodies which employ about 6,000 staff and receive hundreds of millions of pounds of Government cash a year have allowed employees to work abroad more than 300 times in the last three years, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Staff were allowed to spend at least 1,174 days working abroad, although the total figure is expected to be much higher given NatureScot refused to provide the full information. Natural England, which added 100million to the bill for HS2, building a bat tunnel because the creatures are protected, was involved in 150 approvals, totalling nearly 1,000 days. This included 20 separate foreign stints each lasting at least ten days the equivalent to two working weeks with one staff member logging in for 15 days from Egypt. One employee at the York-based organisation was allowed to work from Australia for seven days, while Natural England also allowed eight staff to spend at least ten days working from Slovenia. An investigation by the Daily Mail has discovered taxpayer-funded staff at Natural England, NatureScot and the Rural Payments Agency have worked from the other side of the world (Stock image) It comes while hard-pressed farmers face an uncertain time thanks to Labour's inheritance tax plans Another was permitted to spend ten days in France, Belgium and Germany and someone spent nine days in Japan. The largest period of working away for a member of Natural England staff was a 28-day stint in Ireland. That was a drop in the ocean compared with the time a member of staff with the Rural Payments Agency, the body repeatedly castigated for the failure to pay farmers the subsidies they were owed on time. The body has a number of UK regional offices. Its data showed a geospatial services team member, who is listed as a senior executive officer, spent from August 5 last year to January 3 this year in Germany, accounting for 66 working days. Another spent 14 days in Sweden. NatureScot, based in Inverness, would only reveal there were 137 approvals granted in the last three years. This included nine trips to the US, two to Canada and India, and a stint in Chile. Alex Burghart, shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: 'One wonders how much work will get done on the beach.' A Tory spokesman said: 'Those making peoples' lives a misery should at least live with the consequences rather than swan off to far-flung corners of the globe.' One employee at Natural England was allowed to work from Australia for seven days A Natural England spokesman said: 'As the Government's adviser on the natural environment, we provide practical advice, grounded in science, on how best to protect and restore our natural world. 'On occasion, staff are required to work abroad for business reasons, including attending international conferences such as COP16.' An RPA spokesman said: 'Staff are required to travel overseas for official government business helping the RPA in its role to deliver a range of services to farming and rural businesses.' This year, the Mail revealed a senior executive at crisis-hit Windsor council was working from Kyrgyzstan. The West is helping fund Russia's war in Ukraine by spending billions more on importing oil and gas than Kyiv has received in military aid, analysis suggests. Vladimir Putin's regime is still raking in huge profits from its hydrocarbon exports to the EU even as its brutal assault on Ukraine enters a fourth year. Despite sweeping sanctions, data shows European countries have handed Moscow three times as much cash for fossil fuels than they have given Kyiv in aid since 2022. Overall, the Kremlin has received receipts of nearly 700billion in the three years since Februry 2022, while aid to Ukraine has been around 230billion over the same period. Of the 192billion Russia has received from sanctioning countries, 176billion has come from the European Union. The shocking statistics, from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), reveal that Russia's energy profits have barely dipped since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Experts say the income is key to fuelling Russia's war machine. Mai Rosner, of pressure group Global Witness, said many Western politicians are more concerned about higher fuel prices than stopping Russian imports. Vladimir Putin's regime is still raking in huge profits from its hydrocarbon exports to the EU even as its brutal assault on Ukraine enters a fourth year Ukrainian firefighters operating on burning houses following a Russian strike in the Kyiv region Oil Tanker belonging to the Russian company Rosneft sails in the Baltic Sea in the Leningrad region, Russia 'There's no real desire in many governments to actually limit Russia's ability to produce and sell oil,' she told the BBC. 'There is way too much fear about what that would mean for global energy markets. There's a line drawn under where energy markets would be too undermined or too thrown off kilter.' Russia supplied 19 per cent of the EU's gas imports last year, including via the TurkStream pipeline supplying Hungary and Slovakia. Sanctions would be the easiest way for the EU to ban Russian gas altogether, but they require unanimous approval from all 27 EU nations. The EU's foreign affairs and security policy chief Kaja Kallas has said Russian oil and gas has escaped the worst sanctions after fears mounted in Europe of an escalation of the war and because exporting the fuel is 'cheaper in the short term'. In June, European chiefs plan to propose alternative measures for reducing the block's reliance on Russian fuel that can be approved by a majority of countries. All members except Hungary and Slovakia have previously welcomed the plan, according to EU diplomats though some have raised concerns about the impact on energy prices. Surging volumes of gas continue to flow into Europe through Turkey. In the first two months of 2025 alone, gas deliveries via Turkey soared nearly 27 per cent compared to the same period last year. Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire in a trolleybus depot following a drone strike in Kharkiv Meanwhile, Russian oil ends up in the West after being processed in third countries. The CREA says it has identified three 'laundromat refineries' in Turkey and three in India processing Russian crude and selling the fuel to sanctioning countries. It says they have used more than 5billion worth of Russian oil to make products for sanctioning countries. Vaibhav Raghunandan, an analyst at CREA, said: '[These countries] know that sanctioning countries are willing to accept this. This is a loophole. It's entirely legal. Everyone's aware of it, but nobody is doing much to actually tackle it in a big way.' India's petroleum ministry dismissed the claim as a 'misleading and deceptive effort to tarnish India's image'. It said in statement: 'As a sovereign country, India is free to import or export goods and commodities within the terms of international law and calling its legitimate business a 'laundromat' implies an illegal activity to which India strongly objects. 'India meets its energy requirements through imports from multiple countries including Russia. India has never shied away from this fact nor is it apologetic about it.' There is no doubt that Princess Diana loved her sons William and Harry very much. And like any adoring mother, she came up with pet names for them which the princes undoubtedly found terribly embarrassing. In an interview with NBC Today ahead of the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium on July 1, 2007, journalist Matt Lauer asked William about his childhood nickname: Wombat. 'She used to call you "Wombat" which is cute... when you're seven,' the American news personality quipped. 'Yeah,' an 25-year-old William begrudgingly replied. 'I guess you don't want your mates in the pub going, "Hey Wombat, how are you?' Matt said. 'It kind of stuck with me,' William admitted, 'I can't get rid of it now.' The prince went on to reveal that his mother first started referring to him as Wombat during a six-week royal tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1983. Prince William and Prince Harry speak on stage at the Concert for Diana on July 1, 2007 Prior to the fundraiser, the brothers had taken part in an interview with Matt Lauer on NBC Today At two years old, William was still at the crawling stage when he flew 10,000 miles across the world to participate in his first major overseas visit. Malcolm Fraser, the Australian Prime Minister at the time, had written to the Prince and Princess of Wales saying that he appreciated the problems facing the young family and invited them to bring the prince along as well. Fraser's considerate gesture enabled the family to lengthen the visit from a four-week trip to a six-week tour of both Australia and New Zealand. 'The first foreign trip we took William to was Australia and New Zealand,' Diana told her biographer Andrew Morton. 'That was for six weeks. 'That was great we were a family unit and everything was fine. 'It was very tricky, mentally, for me, because the crowds were just something to be believed. 'My husband had never seen crowds like it and I sure as hell hadn't and everyone kept saying it will all quieten down when you've had your first baby, and it never quietened down, never.' During the visit William stayed at Woomargama, a 4,000-yard sheep station in New South Wales, with his nanny Barbara Barnes and assorted security personnel. Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Prince William on their six-week royal tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1983 Malcolm Fraser, the Australian Prime Minister at the time, invited the couple to bring the young prince along as well The Princess of Wales greets the crowds in Canberra, Australia on March 25, 1983 Nanny Barbara Barnes (pictured) looked after Prince William when his parents were busy with royal engagements While his parents could only be with him during the occasional break in an otherwise busy schedule, Diana was happy to know that William was under the same skies. 'The wombat, you know, that's the local animal,' William explained to Lauer decades later ahead of the Concert for Diana. 'So I just basically got called that. 'Not because I look like a wombat. Or maybe I do.' 'You know what it was?' said Harry, jumping at the chance to wind up his older brother. 'He was still crawling at six.' 'He was?' asked Matt. 'He still couldn't walk,' Harry insisted. 'He was still lazy.' Playing along with the brotherly banter, Matt turned to William and said: 'Alright, get him back. What's his nickname?' Without missing a beat, William replied: 'Oh, Ginger. The Wales Brothers pose at Wembley Stadium as they inspect the venue ahead of the Concert for Diana Princess Diana and her sons pictured together on August 19, 1995 'Whatever. You can call him whatever you want,' William added. 'Most of them I can't call in front of here. You know, a bit rude. He's got plenty.' 'Ginger?' Matt asked Harry. To which the 21-year-old prince replied: 'I know exactly. You're as surprised as I am. I don't think I'm ginger.' 'Apart from the fact you are,' William interrupted. 'Shall we not?' Harry said in an attempt to end the conversation. 'Let's not.' But William is correct in saying that Harry has 'plenty' of nicknames. In his bombshell memoir Spare, Harry writes that his father and brother refer to him as 'Harold', despite the Duke of Sussex being christened as Henry Charles Albert David. In the bombshell memoir Spare, Harry reveals that both his brother William and father Charles refer to him as 'Harold' although he was christened as Henry Charles Albert David Princess Diana lovingly referred to William as 'wombat' and Harry as 'GKH' The Princess of Wales greets her sons on the Royal Yacht Britannia in Toronto as they join her on an official visit to Canada in 1991 Throughout her Netflix series, Meghan Markle refers to her doting husband as 'H' or 'Haz' while his friends have been known to call him 'Spike'. And during the Channel 5 documentary, William & Harry: Princes at War?, royal expert Robert Jobson divulged that Diana used to refer to her youngest son as 'GKH'. 'She used to refer to Harry as GKH (Good King Harry) because she thought hed probably be better equipped for the role in the future than William.' The acronym supposedly came to be when a young William confided in his mother that he 'didn't want to be king', and Harry happily offered to take on the role and its responsibilities instead. There have been several fires at the Royal palaces in recent memory. The Royals were left devastated when Windsor Castle was seriously damaged by a fire in 1992, contributing to what the late Queen referred to as her annus horribilis. Then in 2002 a number of artworks were damaged in Buckingham Palace after a small fire broke out in the East Gallery. But one elderly member of the Royal Family gained a reputation for regularly (and accidentally) causing the blazes in the late 1960s. According to royal biographer Tom Quinn in his book Yes Ma'am which lifts the curtain on the life of the men and women who serve the Royal Family Prince Philip's mother Princess Alice 'regularly' set fire to her own apartment in Buckingham Palace. Agnes Cooke, who worked in the royal kitchen for a number of years, told Quinn that Alice's love of cigarettes was behind her fiery habit. She said: 'Well, there was a lady in waiting who was very friendly with Philips mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, when Alice was living at Buckingham Palace, and they used to smoke cigarettes together in Alices apartment so much so that they regularly set fire to it. 'And despite being very grand indeed a member of one of Britains oldest and most aristocratic families this particular lady in waiting used to wander about with a cigarette stuck behind her ear, like a coal miner or a carpenter.' According to Royal biographer Tom Quinn in his book 'Yes Ma'am' Prince Philip's mother Princess Alice 'regularly' set fire to her own apartment in Buckingham Palace Firefighters tackling the blaze at Windsor Castle in 1992. The devastating fire contributing to what the late Queen referred to as her annus horribilis Agnes Cooke, who worked in the royal kitchen for a number of years, told Quinn that Alice's love of cigarettes was behind her fiery habit during her time living in the palace Princess Alice's life is one of the most remarkable in the history of the Royal Family. She was born Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Mary on 25 February 1885 at Windsor Castle in the presence of her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Shortly after her birth it was discovered that Alice was congenitally deaf but could speak clearly and lip read in several languages. While at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, she met and fell in love with Prince Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece a year later the couple were wed. Alice married into the Greek Royal Family at a tumultuous time with the family exiled from the country in 1921, the same year Prince Philip was born. By 1930 she was hearing voices and believed she was having intimate relationships with Jesus and other religious figures. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic before being treated by Sigmund Freud at a clinic in Berlin. When Charles' grandmother was released from the the sanatorium in 1932, she drifted between modest German B&Bs before she eventually returned to Athens following the restoration of the Greek monarchy. Alice then found herself stranded in Nazi-occupied Greece throughout WW2. Alice reportedly enjoyed smoking a cigarette with one particular lady-in-waiting so much that they regularly set fire to her Buckingham Palace apartment Jane Lapotaire played Princess Alice in the hit Netflix series The Crown Princess Alice with her husband Prince Andrew of Greece. While at the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, she met and fell in love with Andrew, a younger son of the King of Greece a year later the couple were wed Due to her links to Germany, with her cousin serving as German ambassador to Greece until the start of the occupation, the Nazi soldiers wrongly assumed Alice was sympathetic to their cause. Instead when a general asked Alice if there was anything he could do for her, she bravely responded: 'You can take your troops out of my country.' During the war, she was instrumental in aiding the escape from Greece of several Jews. Alice even hid the Cohen's, Jewish family, on the top floor of her home, just yards away from Gestapo headquarters. When the Gestapo became suspicious and questioned the Princess, she used her deafness as an excuse not to answer their questions and prevented them from entering her property. Following the war, diamonds were used from Alice's tiara so Philip could present a ring to Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen. Alice sold the rest of her jewels to create her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, in 1949, becoming a nun. When the future King Charles III was born in 1948, Alice was living on the remote Greek island of Tinos. Princess Alice with her son Prince Philip. The royal remained in Greece until 1967, when there was a Greek military coup. Alice refused to leave the country until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home Princess Alice with a young King Charles III and Princess Anne in 1957 She went on to build a convent and orphanage in a poor suburb of Athens. The royal remained in Greece until 1967, when there was a Greek military coup. Alice refused to leave the country until Prince Philip sent a plane and a special request from the Queen to bring her home. She spent the final years of her life living at Buckingham Palace with her son and daughter-in-law before she died in December 1969, aged 84. She is buried in a crypt at Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. Prince Harry recently said in his no-holds-barred interview with the BBC that he wanted reconciliation with his family. But for some royal observers, this is hard to believe. It seems that whenever King Charles or Prince William make headlines for royal engagements or celebrations, the Sussexes appear with their own news. Most recently Charles and Camilla arrived for a whirlwind visit to Ottawa, which was already billed as a message to President Trump that 'Canada is not for sale'. The couple arrived for a historic visit to the country's capital - the first by Charles as its head of state - to formally open parliament. It was the first time a sovereign had undertaken the honour for 58 years and came as Canadians voiced their outrage at the US President's suggestion that Canada could become America's '51st state'. Charles and Camilla were greeted with shouts of 'welcome home' as they exited their plane which had travelled from the UK. Prior to the trip, Charles was reportedly 'concerned' about the growing friction between Canada and the US. It seems that whenever King Charles or Prince William make headlines for royal engagements or celebrations, the Sussexes appear with their own news Most recently King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived for a whirlwind visit to Ottawa, which was already billed as a message to President Trump that ' Canada is not for sale' At the same time, Prince Harry made a surprise visit to China for a tourism conference in Shanghai where he advocated for sustainable travel At the same time, Harry made a surprise visit to China for a tourism conference in Shanghai where he advocated for sustainable travel. In his first ever visit to the country, Harry spoke to fulfil his role as co-founder of Travalyst, an organisation which promotes environmentally friendly forms of travel. His older brother Prince William made a similar diplomatic trip to China ten years ago, marking the first official royal visit in 30 years. In Harry's BBC interview, which aired hours after he lost his battle over taxpayer-funded bodyguards earlier this month, the prince said Charles 'won't' speak to him. There has been ongoing tension between the King and his youngest son since Harry stepped down as a working member of the royal family alongside his wife, Meghan Markle. The rift escalated after Harry and Meghan publicly spoke out about their experiences with the Royal Family in their Oprah interview and Harry's tell-all memoir Spare. And this wasn't the only recent occasion where Harry and Charles have made clashing plans. In April Harry made a dramatic London court appearance to coincide with Charles's state visit to Italy. Charles and Queen exit the airplane during a state visit to The Republic of Italy on April 7 In April Harry made a dramatic London court appearance to coincide with Charles's state visit to Italy Harry landed in the UK just before King Charles III jetted off to Italy for a historic four-day state visit at the beginning of April As Harry arrived at the central London court, he waved as he entered but did not speak to reporters gathered outside Harry landed in the UK just before King Charles III jetted off to Italy for a historic four-day state visit at the beginning of April. The Duke of Sussex was back in London for an appeal against a High Court ruling on whether he is entitled to armed bodyguards paid for by the taxpayer, which has since been lost. His arrival in the UK capital came as the King and Queen jetted into Rome, before visiting the city of Ravenna, as they used the 'soft power' diplomacy of the monarchy to strengthen Britain's relationship with its ally. As Harry arrived at the central London court, he waved as he entered but did not speak to reporters gathered outside. He wore a dark suit with a blue patterned tie and walking through Bell Yard, he did not reply as a reporter asked, 'Did you speak to your dad?' Harry's time in the UK overlapped with his father, whom he last saw more than a year ago when it was first announced that the monarch had been diagnosed with cancer. However, MailOnline reported that the estranged pair did not meet up as the King spent his weekend at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire before flying to Rome from RAF Brize Norton with Queen Camilla. It was reported that Harry's appearance 'overshadowed' Charles's visit to Italy. It was the very kind of duties which the Sussexs withdrew from, that the King and Queen were busy with as Harry was in court. It was reported that Harry's appearance 'overshadowed' Charles's visit to Italy It was the very kind of duties which the Sussexs withdrew from, that the King and Queen were busy with as Harry was in court Meghan Markle left royal fans stunned with her emotional admission and shocking revolution in a tearful interview on the eve of William and Kate's 14th wedding anniversary The Duchess broke down in tears as she revealed personal details about her and Harry's life during her appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show Podcast on April 28 And it's not just Harry who raised eyebrows with his timing. Meghan left royal fans stunned with her emotional admission and shocking revolution in a tearful interview on the eve of William and Kate's 14th wedding anniversary. The Duchess broke down in tears as she revealed personal details about her and Harry's life during her appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show Podcast on April 28. Also in April, the Waleses' youngest child showed off his missing baby teeth in his 7th birthday portrait, released via social media on April 23. Hours after this photo was released Meghan revealed her son Archie was about to lose his first tooth. The Duchess took to the stage at the Time100 summit in New York City where she discussed everything from her latest business ventures to how she handles hate. During the intimate chat, the mother-of-two also opened up about her children, Archie, five, and Lilibet, three. She candidly told the audience that her eldest has a loose tooth and is 'just about' to lose it this week, adding that she hopes she's back to California in time to see it. William and Kate - pictured in April - celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary Also in April, the Waleses' youngest child showed off his missing baby teeth in his 7th birthday portrait, released via social media on April 23 Hours after this photo was released Meghan revealed her son Archie was about to lose his first tooth 'What we're going to put out during our next launch is equally as important to me as Archie getting his first [big] tooth this week,' she said. 'It's about to happen, I might get back just in time for it!' Meghan was also accused of 'copying' clothes worn by Kate's children. The Duchess introduced royal fans to her Easter edit on her newly launched ShopMe page on Instagram. However, eyebrows were soon raised when it came to light that she had linked to the exact outfits worn by Prince George and Princess Charlotte. On her ShopMe Instagram page, for example, were the blue gingham pyjamas by Petite Plume worn by a then two-year-old George to meet the Obamas at Kensington Palace in 2016. Despite the Sussexes' attempts to subtly turn the spotlight to themselves, many royal observers are catching on and calling out the couple for this bad look. Thankfully for Charles, the Duke's speech about environmentally travel failed to diminish the headlines the King garnered supporting Canada's sovereignty. The US housing market is teetering and buyers are running for the exits. Spooked by high mortgage rates, mounting insurance premiums, and growing fears of a shaky economy, an astonishing one in seven buyers are bailing at the last minute. In April alone, 56,000 home purchase contracts were canceled equal to 14.3 percent of all pending deals, according to a new report from Redfin. Thats the second-highest April cancellation rate ever recorded, topped only by the early pandemic chaos in 2020. 'We see a lot of deals collapsing, especially in major markets like Las Vegas and Phoenix,' real estate expert and CEO of Fire Cash Buyer Joel Efosa told DailyMail.com. 'It's especially first-time buyers. Some are losing their jobs, others simply no longer qualify for loans because they don't make enough or have good credit.' He added 'Realtors are asking sellers to accept the truth the market is crashing before our eyes.' Reasons for would-be buyers to bail are stacking up fast. A shaky economy and fear of jobs as a result has caused many to get cold feet as they worry they will not be able to cover the monthly payment. Buyers worried how tariffs going to impact the housing market says realtor Desiree Bourgeois Orlando, Florida has seen a wave of last minute cancellations on home buying contracts CEO of Fire Cash Buyer Joel Efosa Stubbornly-high mortgage rates that hit 7 percent mean those payments are higher than many want to pay. Growing evidence of the house price bubble burst are the icing on the cake for many. They do not want to buy now, only to see property values plummet. The Miami housing market is on a knife-edge as spiraling numbers of homebuyers pull out of deals. It's the latest area in the Sunshine State at risk of a crash. Desiree Bourgeois, a Redfin realtor in Detroit, said that at a recent open house, younger buyers were worried about how tariffs, and the economic uncertainty around them, was going to impact the housing market. 'They're hearing the words "tariffs" and "recession," and it's making them nervous that if they buy now, the value of their home will decline, and they don't know whether mortgage rates will go up or down. 'There's a lot of uncertainty out there, with buyers trying to understand how their purchase would fit into their personal finances and the broader economic puzzle.' Meanwhile, Efosa, CEO of Fire Cash Buyer, said he has pulled out of two contracts recently because he's not optimistic about where the US housing market is headed. Instead, he's waiting for the market to crash, then he plans to buy. Florida accounts for five of the ten cancellation areas, including Tampa Tampa, Florida, was number two in the top ten cancellation areas 'I'm waiting on the market to cycle as it did in 2008. This is a perfect storm for an eventual market crash due to this affordability crisis,' he says. 'I will be one of the smart ones waiting on the sideline to buy at the right time, not at the top of the market.' Once again, Florida is proving to be a problem. The Sunshine State accounts for five of the ten areas with the highest cancellation rates, including Orlando (19.4 percent), Tampa (19.1 percent), and Miami (18.9 percent). Other cities hit hard with last minute cancellations include Atlanta, with 20 percent of pending sales falling through, That was followed by Riverside, CA (19.1 percent) and Fort Worth, TX (18.7 percent.) Buyers are also being met with too many choices, which is causing them to back out of deals at the last minute. Housing inventory is at a five-year high, and some buyers are backing out during inspection in hopes of finding something better. California is also seeing many home buyers pull out of contracts at the last minute Louisiana is seeing people pull out of housing contracts at the last minute In disaster prone areas like California and Louisiana, skyrocketing insurance premiums are killing deals. 'Some lenders won't sign off if buyers can't insure the home affordably,' Efosa says. But despite many potential buyers ability to seal the deal, savvy house hunters are on alert. Redfin reports that when deals fall through, there's a window of opportunity for those who are serious about buying. 'Two of my buyers got great homes this way,' said Alison Williams, a Sacramento-based agent. 'When a deal collapses, we jump in before the home even relists.' Williams advises that if a buyer is outbid, they should have their real estate agent submit a backup offer anyway. If the winning bidder backs out, you're up next likely at a discount. In the current housing market, sellers are also having to come back to reality on pricing on concessions. It's a buyer's market. 'When buyers pull out, sellers are lowering prices and offering concessions just to seal the deal' Efosa says. Glen Cove in Nassau County, New York saw the lowest number of cancellations Sea Cliff in Nassau County, which had the lowest number of home buying cancellations While Florida sits atop the cancellation study, the biggest year-over-year jumps in contract fails came from Anaheim, CA (up 3.1 points), Seattle, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles areas all dealing with too many listings flooding the market. On the low end, Nassau County, NY had the lowest cancellation rate in the US at 4.8 percent. With the mass cancellations, Efosa says believe a market correction is inevitable. 'It's already happening,' Efosa warned. 'Foreclosures are up. The market will have to come down. The numbers don't lie.' Meanwhile, sellers are panicking about just how much they will have to lower the price of their homes in order to sell. Over the next year, home prices will drop by 1, according to Redfin, marking the end of more than a decade of almost uninterrupted price hikes. Before and during the pandemic, when there were record-low mortgage rates, buyers would often face bidding wars and lose out on homes. Now, the ball is in their court. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7 percent on Memorial Day. Redfin predicts rates are likely to hover around 6.8 percent through 2025. Meanwhile, inventory keeps rising. The number of homes on the market has shot up 16.7 percent in just a year to the highest level in 5 years. A Texas bill that seeks to ban minors under 18 years old from accessing social media failed on Thursday after state lawmakers failed to meet a key deadline over the weekend. Officials did not take a key vote on creating one of the country's most onerous restrictions on keeping minors off of social media platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. The bill had passed the GOP-led state House, but it planned to go further than a social media platform in Florida that implements restrictions on minors under 14 years. Texas Bill Seeks To Ban Social Media for Minors Despite the initial momentum behind the bill, it slowed down at the eleventh hour in the Texas Senate as lawmakers approached a weekend deadline to send bills to state Governor Greg Abbott. The latter had not discussed his stance on the bill, which had received opposition from tech trade groups and critics. State Rep. Jared Patterson said that the bill was the best way they could protect children in Texas from the dangers of social media platforms. The situation comes as the legislative session is set to end on Monday, according to NBCDFW. This means that lawmakers have a narrow path for the proposal, which, if it passes, would become another test of state efforts in setting boundaries on how and when minors can access social media platforms. The bill comes as many tech companies, including Elon Musk's X, have already established a presence in the state of Texas. Gov. Abbott signed into law earlier this week a separate measure that required Apple and Google to verify the ages of their online app store users. The latest proposal is considered the most far-reaching of the bills filed to address the dangers of online platforms. It would ban minors from creating accounts on social media sites, the Texas Tribune reported. Failing To Meet Key Deadline Additionally, the bill allows parents to request that tech companies delete their children's social media accounts, which companies must comply with within 10 days. The development comes as a surprise to proponents of the bill, as lawmakers have prioritized regulating social media sites during the current legislative session. Despite its support from Republican lawmakers, the bill received criticism from civil liberties groups and tech advocates. They argued that it violates the First Amendment and will only result in major privacy concerns. Opposition to the bill includes Ari Cohn, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). He noted that the legislation tramples on the "well-established First Amendment rights of both minors and adults to speak and receive information online," according to Houston Public Media. Deep in the Guatemalan jungle lies the remains of an ancient city forgotten about for nearly 3,000 years, experts reveal. Covering an area of six square miles (16 sq km), the city, dubbed 'Los Abuelos', may date as far back as 800 BC. Experts at the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture say it was inhabited by the Maya, the ancient civilization of indigenous people in Central America. The presence of pyramids and monuments suggest it was an important Mayan ceremonial site where brutal human sacrifices may have taken place. 'The site presents remarkable architectural planning' with pyramids and monuments 'sculpted with unique iconography from the region', said the ministry. Originating around 2600 BC, the Maya civilization thrived in Central and South America for nearly 3,000 years, reaching its height between AD 250 to 900. The civilization occupied present-day southern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. But by 1000 AD, the civilization had mysteriously collapsed possibly due to a devastating drought that created an agricultural crisis. Two anthropomorphic sculptures of human form or appearance that 'represent an ancestral couple' discovered at the archeological site An ancient Maya city of more than 2,800 years and other pre-Columbian vestiges were discovered inside an archeological park in northern Guatemala, near Mexico Your browser does not support iframes. This lost city of Los Abuelos is in the Maya Biosphere nature reserve (Reserva de Biosfera Maya), about 13 miles from Uaxactun, Guatemala. It was found by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists in previously under-explored areas of the jungle habitat, home to a large number of animal and plant species. Authorities have already dated it to an estimated period from about 800 to 500 BC what is known as the 'Middle Preclassic' period in Maya history. To put this into context, 800 BC was the time when people in Britain learned how to use iron for tools, several centuries before the Romans arrived. Los Abuelos (Spanish for 'The Grandparents') takes its name from two mysterious human-like sculptures described as an 'ancestral couple' found at the site. The figures, dated to between 500 and 300 BCE, 'could be linked to ancient ritual practices of ancestor worship,' said the ministry. It's well known the Maya would dance, sing and sometimes make offerings of blood to their several gods to demonstrate their respect and loyalty. But it's as yet unclear what these structures represented and how exactly they may have played a part in such events. Pictured, the two anthropomorphic sculptures of human form or appearance that 'represent an ancestral couple' and may have been involved in rituals A pot discovered at the site in the Maya Biosphere. Authorities have already dated it to an estimated period from about 800 to 500 BC The bizarre rituals of the Mayan civilization The Maya people of South America were a very superstitious civilization. They believed in many deities, had a god for every event, and therefore had many rituals performed for the gods to obtain their blessings from them. Human sacrifice was the best tribute that could be made to a god. Usually, slaves or prisoners were sacrificed. The most valuable blood was the one they extracted from their ears or tongues. But it was very normal for the Maya to make wounds to offer their blood to the gods. Human or animal sacrifices could be made by extirpating the heart of a human being or an animal and were usually carried out in the highest part of the pyramid. Source: Chichen Itza Advertisement Maya people even engaged in the brutal act of human sacrifice because they though blood was a potent source of nourishment for their gods and that they'd get rain and fertile fields in return. Sadly, some of the humans caught up in such bizarre rituals were the very young, according to skeletal remains at a famous Maya pyramid. The Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists also managed to find a pyramid 108 feet (33 metres) high with murals from the Preclassic period and 'a unique canal system'. We already know the Mayans developed sophisticated techniques to harness natural water sources, adapting to seasonal rainfall patterns and creating complex irrigation systems. Noted for the only fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, the Mayas also had advanced art and architecture as well as mathematical and astronomical systems. Mysteriously in the 8th and 9th century AD, a large chunk of the Mayan civilization collapsed, leading to their eventual downfall around 1000 AD. While the reason for this has been hotly debated, drought and climate change are among the most widely-spouted theories. An increase in the elite Maya's preference for corn may have made the population more vulnerable to drought, contributing to its societal collapse, one theory goes. The ancient Maya created one of the world's most brilliant and successful civilizations. Pictured, an early Maya mask Mayan culture in Guatemala has a long history, stretching back more than 4,000 years in the Mesoamerican region. Pictured are ruins left by the ancient civilization in Tikal National Park The Maya civilization occupied present-day southern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. Pictured, a Maya pyramid nestled in a clearing among dense rain forest in, Copan, Honduras Experts at the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture say the new findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and socio-political organization of the region in the pre-Hispanic period the time prior to Spanish conquests in the 16th century. It follows the discovery of a Mayan city in Mexico that once featured an urban landscape of more than 6,500 structures. Using a laser method, researchers from the US uncovered a 21-square-mile metropolis with iconic stone pyramids, houses and other infrastructure that have been concealed for more than 3,000 years. Scientists also recently discovered a 1,000-year-old altar from Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan culture at nearby Tikal, about 14 miles (23km) south of Uaxactun. The find was interpreted as proof of ties between the two pre-Hispanic cultures, which lived about 800 miles (1,300 km) apart. Tikal is the main archaeological site in Guatemala and one of its biggest tourist attractions. The Black Death remains the single deadliest pandemic in recorded human history. The deveastating pandemic wiped out up to half of the populations of Europe, Western Asia and Africa, killing tens of millions of people. Now, the mystery of the Black Death's prolonged reign of terror has finally been solved. Research has revealed that the evolution of a single gene in Yersinia pestis - the bacterium that causes bubonic plague - allowed it to adapt and survive for so long. The study addresses key questions about how pandemics enter human populations, cause immense sickness, and evolve different levels of virulence. And in the future, the findings could help us to pre-empt another pandemic. 'This is one of the first research studies to directly examine changes in an ancient pathogen, one we still see today, in an attempt to understand what drives the virulence, persistence and/or eventual extinction of pandemics,' said co-senior author Professor Hendrik Poinar. The mystery of the Black Death's prolonged reign of terror has finally been solved (pictured: two plague doctors in masks) Research has revealed that the evolution of a single gene in Yersinia pestis - the bacterium that causes bubonic plague - allowed it to adapt and survive for so long The new study was conducted by researchers at McMaster University in Canada and France's Institut Pasteur. The bacteria that cause the plague evolved to become less deadly over time, allowing it to continue infecting people in three separate pandemics over more than a thousand years, their research revealed. The first pandemic - the plague of Justinian - struck in the 500s at the start of the Middle Ages and lasted for around 200 years. The Black Death began in the mid-1300s and would become the deadliest pandemic in human history, killing up to half of the people in Europe, western Asia and Africa, with outbreaks continuing for centuries. The third bubonic plague pandemic broke out in China in the 1850s and continues today, with some cases still being recorded in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. 'The plague bacteria have a particular importance in the history of humanity, so it's important to know how these outbreaks spread,' said Javier Pizarro-Cerda, co-author of the study. The researchers examined samples of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that cause the plague, dating back to each pandemic. In all three cases, the genes of each plague bacteria evolved to become less virulent and less deadly over time, according to the study. The researchers examined samples of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that cause the plague, dating back to each pandemic By causing less severe infections, the bacteria are thought to have extended the length of the pandemics because it gained more opportunities to spread between people. The researchers confirmed this theory by infecting rats with recent plague samples, showing that the disease lasted longer when the virulence decreased. While antibiotics can now effectively fight off the plague, the research could shine a light on how other pandemics might evolve. 'This allows us to gain a comprehensive understanding of how pathogens can adapt to different situations,' Pizarro-Cerda said. 'We finally better understand what the plague is - and how we can develop measures to defend ourselves,' he added. It's the plucky, intelligent and energetic breed that has already won the hearts of the King and Queen. Now it turns out the Jack Russell Terrier also known for being stubborn and fearless has also become one of Britain's favourite dogs. Data from the Kennel Club reveals that in the first quarter of the year, there has been a 75 per cent increase in puppy registrations compared to the same period in 2024. It follows a steady increase in popularity in recent years, possibly triggered by King Charles' ascension to the throne in 2022. At the time, he and his wife, Queen Camilla, owned two Jack Russell Terriers called Beth and Bluebell. The pair were adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats home in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and famously featured as embroidered designs on Her Majesty's coronation gown. The Queen, 77, was left heartbroken when Beth died last November. But earlier this year the royals welcomed a new rescue puppy a Jack Russell mix called Moley, described as a 'mischievous' and 'much-loved canine companion'. Queen Camilla showing off her new puppy, a mischievous Jack Russell mix, named Moley, who she adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats home Queen Camilla and her beloved Jack Russell Beth. The breed has seen a surge in popularity in recent years King Charles and Queen Camilla (then the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall) holding dogs Beth (left) and Bluebell, in 2015 Her Majesty shared a charming photograph of the tiny pooch perched confidently in her lap. A Battersea spokesman said at the time: 'We're pleased to confirm that Battersea has recently rehomed an 8-week-old Jack Russell Terrier cross female puppy, called Moley, to our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen. 'The Queen has long been a supporter of Battersea's work and has previously rehomed two rescue dogs from our charity.' It's thought the new pet will live at Rat Hill, Queen Camilla's private Wiltshire residence, although it's expected she'll accompany the royal couple when they stay at official royal residences. The Queen had a very close bond with Beth, who she described as a 'very special dog' - much like the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was famed for her love of corgis. Over the years Camilla has paid tribute to her pets by giving them her pearl necklaces for a magazine cover. She was also joined by Beth in a picture posted by the royal family for her 75th birthday in 2022. The Jack Russell trend follows that of the Corgi, whose popularity also ebbed and flowed in line with the late Queen Elizabeth's ownership of the breed. Jack Russell 'Zen' posing for photographs after coming runner-up in the Best in Show event on the final day of Crufts last year Data from the Kennel Club reveals that in the first quarter of the year, there has been a 75 per cent increase in Jack Russell puppy registrations compared to the same period in 2024. Pictured: Zen the Jack Russell competing in the ring at Crufts last year The Jack Russell terrier appeared on a set of Royal Mail stamps that were issued in 2024, featuring some of the nation's favourite dog breeds The fastest rising dog breeds this year Jack Russell Terrier (76%) Bernese Mountain Dog (71%) Italian Greyhound (67%) Shetland Sheepdog (62%) Samoyed (44%) Advertisement Another beloved British breed, the Cocker Spaniel, also looks set to have secured its place in the hearts of both the nation - and the Royal Family - after becoming the second most popular breed, according to Kennel Club figures, in 2024. The breed has continued to hold its second place spot in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Cocker Spaniel, Orla, is reported to have recently welcomed a quartet of Cocker Spaniel puppies. The breed has become a steadfast family favourite in the UK, remaining in the top 10 most popular breeds throughout the last century. In 2024, it moved up into second place and is continuing to close the gap behind the nation's 'top dog', the Labrador Retriever. Charlotte McNamara, spokeswoman for The Kennel Club said: 'The Jack Russell Terrier and the Cocker Spaniel are iconic British breeds, and make wonderful companions, so it's no wonder they have the royal seal of approval. 'Both breeds have friendly and lively personalities, making them well-suited to the busy and active lives of royalty where they are certain to meet lots of new people. 'It's of course vital that any would-be owner spends a lot of time researching which dog best suits their lifestyle, and making sure they can take on their various needs. The Cocker Spaniel has continued to hold its spot as the second most-popular breed. Pictured: Princess Charlotte posing with Cocker Spaniel Orla 'We are lucky to have such a rich diversity of different types of dogs in the UK, so we urge the public to thoroughly research, in order to find their perfect match.' Based on annual puppy registrations the top five most popular breeds in Britain so far this year are the Labrador Retriever, Cocker Spaniel, Golden Retriever, French Bulldog. They are followed by the Miniature Smooth Haired Dachshund, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, German Shepherd, English Springer Spaniel, Miniature Long Haired Dachshund and the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Other 'fast riser' breeds include the Bernese Mountain Dog, the Italian Greyhound, the Shetland Sheepdog and the Samoyed. Switzerland's Birch Glacier hit the headlines this week, after a huge chunk broke off - partially destroying the village of Blatten. Now, scientists have created an interactive map that reveals the glaciers around the world that could be next in the firing line. The 'Global Glacier Casualty List' documents glaciers that are soon to disappear, or have already melted away. Users can drag the globe to see glaciers from all around the world, including some in Africa, Indonesia and Venezuela challenging the misconception that these cherished natural landforms are only found at the north and south poles. The tool was created by anthropologists and glaciologists led by Rice University Professors Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer, who warn that over three-quarters of global glacier mass is expected to disappear under present climate policies. Glaciers are considered one of our planet's most precious natural features, as inspiring to behold as cliffs, canyons, valleys or reefs. These slow moving rivers of ice - some hundreds of thousands of years old - reflect the sun's rays back into space and store valuable freshwater. But scientists warn that many glaciers around the world have already disappeared primarily due to rising global temperatures and climate change. Your browser does not support iframes. It follows a chunk of Switzerland's Birch Glacier breaking off and crashing down a valley on Wednesday, partially destroying the village of Blatten with debris 'Glaciers have literally shaped the ground we walk on, and they provide crucial water resources to about 2 billion people,' said Professor Howe. 'For people who have lived near glaciers, their cultural meanings are often profound, representing the fundamental relationship between social and natural worlds.' The Global Glacier Casualty List features nearly 30 global glaciers that are given the classification 'Disappeared', 'Almost Disappeared' or 'Critically Endangered'. Users can click on one of the existing or pre-existing glaciers to learn more about how they've been affected by global warming. One of those listed as 'Disappeared' is the Baumann Glacier in New Zealand, which vanished in 2020 after decades of shrinkage. The Baumann Glacier measured 0.34 sq mile (0.9 sq km) in 1978, 0.16 sq mile (0.44 sq km) in 2000 and just 0.02 sq mile (0.07 sq km) in 2016 before fading away forever. Meanwhile, Anderson Glacier once flowed through the Olympic National Park of Washington State before disappearing in 2016. When experts studied Anderson Glacier in 1992, they measured its area as 0.14 sq mile (0.38 sq km), which was just a third of the size it had been a century prior. Like with Google Earth, users can drag the globe to see glaciers from around the world, including some in Africa - challenging the misconception that the natural features are only found at the poles Yala Glacier of Nepal (pictured) is 'Critically Endangered' and expected to vanish in the 2040s, according to the interactive global mapping tool Anderson Glacier is seen here in late summer in this undated photo. Anderson Glacier once flowed through the Olympic National Park of Washington State before disappearing in 2016 Why are glaciers important? Glaciers are considered one of our planet's most precious natural features. These slow moving rivers of ice, thousands of years old, reflect the sun's rays back into space - helping to keep the planet cooler. Glacier loss also depletes freshwater resources that millions of people depend on for drinkable water. They are also beautiful in their own right, forming some of our world's most inspiring landscapes just as much as canyons, valleys and reefs. Advertisement But by 2003 the glacier had diminished to 0.1 sq mile (0.28 sq km) and became a series of small disconnected relic glacier ice patches before vanishing entirely. An even more recent one to have disappeared is the Sarenne Glacier, which was in the Grandes Rousses mountain area of southeast France. As recently as the 1980s, Sarenne's ice was still as thick as 260 feet (80 metres) in some places, but its melting accelerated considerably in recent decades leading to its loss in 2023. Among those still in existence at least for now are the Yala Glacier of Nepal, which is 'Critically Endangered' and expected to vanish in the 2040s. The area of the Yala Glacier decreased from 0.9 sq mile (2.42 sq km) in 1981 to 0.5 sq mile (1.54 sq km) in 2015 a decrease of 36 per cent. 'Because Yala Glacier is relatively accessible it's been an ideal research and training site for future glaciologists, but this is no longer the case as it has undergone significant changes in both area and volume,' said Sharad Joshi, a glacier researcher at International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal. 'With each visit, I'm left feeling profoundly sad when I see such massive loss on this glacier,' he said. There's also the 'Almost Disappeared' Santa Isabel Glacier in Colombia which is projected to be gone even sooner by 2030. Santa Isabel Glacier in Colombia (pictured) is described as a once 'endearing white giant' almost disappeared and projected to be gone by 2030 A recent study found that glaciers are now retreating so fast that they release an average of 273 billion tonnes of water every year (6,542 billion tons between 2000 and 2023). Pictured, Argentiere Glacier in France, which has also receded significantly but is not included in the tool Since the 1970s, Santa Isabel has been a place for young Colombians to begin practicing ice mountaineering, because of its 'relative accessibility, multiple routes and variety of slopes'. But scientists have observed its rapid diminishment in recent years as Colombia's 'endearing white giant' approaches an 'imminent extinction'. As the tool explains, thousands of glaciers have already disappeared due to human-caused climate change, which is directly linked to fossil fuel use but there is no comprehensive list of all of them. In an accompanying piece published in the journal Science, Professors Howe and Boyer warn that 'melting glaciers are a signal of climate disruption'. 'Earth has now entered a new period in which glaciers are not simply retreating but are disappearing altogether,' they say. 'Consequences of glacial loss have a variety of effects on natural and social environments on a planetary level.' Glacier melting contributes to rising sea levels, affects water resources downstream, damages ecosystems, increases the risk of natural disasters, and can compound other natural hazards such as increasing the formation of icebergs. For the last three centuries, this dark, dusty chamber has been sealed shut. Hidden beneath a castle in Halych, western Ukraine, the mysterious room was buried beneath 150 cubic metres of soil and debris. It is believed the room was covered by a section of wall that collapsed when the castle was bombarded by canons in 1676. In 2023, experts discovered a small ventilation shaft leading to the hidden chamber. Now, after years of delicate excavation work, archaeologists have finally been able to access it. Initial theories suggest that the chamber served as a casemate an arsenal, or vault for safeguarding precious belongings during times of conflict. But to add to the mystery, a small gap in one of the chamber's walls indicates the presence of a tunnel, or possibly a network of underground tunnels long associated with local legend. One tells of a girl who escaped through the tunnels with her lover, aided by her maid who bribed the castle guards. This sealed chamber was hidden beneath the castle for 300 years, covered by 150 cubic metres of soil and debris One of the most intriguing discoveries within the chamber is a small gap in one of its stone walls, hinting at a possible tunnel Your browser does not support iframes. The building, called Galician Castle or Starasta Castle was originally founded in the 12th century as a wooden fortification built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Dniester River. In the mid-14th century it was rebuilt in stone by Casimir III the Great and, later, in the early 17th century it was redesigned by an architect. It was Vladimir Oleynik, Director General of the Ancient Galich National Reserve, who first announced the discovery of a ventilation shaft two years ago. He believes the collapsed wall likely dates to the Turkish-Polish War of 1676, when Halych was attacked by forces who used a cannon to destroy the castle's defensive walls and towers. 'This part of the castle had been completely cut off since the explosion,' Mr Oleynik told Heritage Daily. 'No heavy machinery could be used, so it was all done manually to preserve the archaeological integrity.' While work is ongoing, public access to the excavation site remains restricted. Archaeologists hope that further exploration will provide deeper insights into the hidden history of one of Ukraine's most legendary fortresses. The castle, which is believed to date back to the 12th century, is located on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Dniester River In 2018 experts unearthed mysterious tar decorations scrawled on the bones of a woman buried along the river Dniester. The burial ritual, unlike anything ever seen in Europe, is thought to have taken place after the woman had died and decomposed 4,500 years ago. This allowed ancient people to draw directly on her bones likely using tar obtained from wood. Air quality alerts have been issued in several US states, warning millions of Americans to close all windows due to wildfire smoke blowing in from Canada. Several large active wildfires have been burning from British Columbia to Saskatchewan and Manitoba over the last week, releasing plumes of toxic smoke toward the US. Air quality alerts have been issued in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin on Friday, which could reach levels deemed 'unhealthy for all.' Meteorologists also forecast smoke to blanket parts of North Dakota and Illinois. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency advised residents to reduce outdoor physical activity, keep windows closed and avoid contributing to air pollution by limiting outdoor burning and vehicle use. Light to moderate smoke is expected to stretch from the Plains to the East Coast on Saturday, with the heaviest concentrations likely over the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa. The National Weather service urged Americans in the effect states to 'keep windows closed overnight to prevent smoke from getting indoors and, if possible, run central air conditioning.' More than 160 wildfires across Canada have burned more than 1.6 million acres, prompting evacuations for more than 17,000 people. While officials urge Americans to stay prepared, they note the current situation is less hazardous than in 2023, when Canadian wildfires turned skies across the Northeast a hazy orange. Air quality alerts have been issued in Minnesota , Michigan and Wisconsin on Friday, which could reach levels deemed 'unhealthy for all.' Meteorologists also forecast smoke to blanket parts of North Dakota and Illinois Wildfire smoke from Canada (pictured) is set to cross the border into the US Friday and linger until next week AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said: 'Most of the time, the smoke will be high-flying and dim the sun, leading to vivid sunrises and sunsets and causing a hazy appearance to the sky overhead. 'However, there will be episodes where the smoke can reach the lower levels of the atmosphere and affect visibility and air quality. 'That could be a safety concern for travel in extreme cases and pose health problems for some individuals with respiratory issues.' Minnesota is set to feel the brunt of the smoke. The state's Arrowhead region had the poorest air quality in the nation on Friday morning and Saturday could be worse. AccuWeather also warned that smoke is most likely to become thick enough to be noticeable in major cities such as Fargo, North Dakota Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota. Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin Chicago and possibly as far south and east as Detroit and Indianapolis are also at risk. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) said pollutants from the smoke are expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the state from Friday into Saturday morning. 'There is a possibility that hourly levels could reach the Unhealthy range for a short period of time,' EGLE added. Meteorologist also warned that ozone problems could hit the north-central region next week due to a combination of high temperatures and lingering wildfire smoke. Ground-level ozone is a harmful air pollutant that can cause various health problems, damage materials and contribute to climate change. More than 160 wildfires across Canada have burned more than 1.6 million acres, prompting evacuations for more than 17,000 people While officials urge Americans to stay prepared, they note the current situation is less hazardous than in 2023, when Canadian wildfires turned skies across the Northeast a hazy orange (pictured) Hazy skies are set to appear over several states today, including Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Smoke may reach the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast by late morning or afternoon, though it's unclear whether it will be dense enough to significantly impact air quality in those regions. The Canadian province of Manitoba declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, triggering mass evacuations in the area. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said: 'This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people's living memory.' 'The military is being called for help here because of the sheer scale of the 17,000 folks that we move relatively quickly.' So far this year, Manitoba has had 102 fires, which officials say is 'well above' the province's average of 77 by this time. The Canadian province of Manitoba (pictured) declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, triggering mass evacuations in the area Separately, wildfires in Alberta province have prompted a temporary shutdown of some oil and gas production and forced residents of at least one small town to evacuate. That region was affected on Wednesday by wildfires spanning 11.2 square miles near Chipewyan Lake, a small community in the northern part of the province approximately 81 miles west of the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray. Canada experienced its worst wildfire season on record in 2023, when more than 45 million acres were lost. Huge swaths of the US , from the north east to the Great Lakes, were blanked in smog for several days as a result. New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged millions of residents to remain indoors as a sheet of smoke from the wildfires left hose in Manhattan unable to see the New Jersey skyline across the Hudson River. Similar air quality alerts were also issued in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Virginia and the Carolinas. . After a stressful day, sometimes all you want is to crack open a bottle of wine. But you'd better make it a generous pour as a scientist claims it's only safe to drink one glass a year. The human body can only safely consume one 'large' glass of wine every 12 months because it is too 'toxic', according to Professor David Nutt, a leading drug researcher at Imperial College London. He says that if alcohol was invented today it would fail modern food safety standards because of how harmful it is to our bodies. Studies on the toxicology of alcohol - the adverse effects chemicals have on living organisms - reveal that the 'maximal recommended amount' per year is just one large glass of wine, according to the expert. Speaking on the BBC's Instant Genius podcast, the 74-year-old said: 'I can accept that 40,000 years of alcohol use is precedence but if we invented it today we wouldn't have that precedence. 'So what would we do? Well, what we would do is you would put your alcohol through food safety testing and it would fail. 'It would fail because the maximal recommended amount of alcohol any individual should consume in a year, based on the toxicology, is a large glass of wine per year. The human body can only safely consume one large glass of wine every 12 months because it is too 'toxic', according to an expert Professor David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London, said the maximum recommended amount of alcohol any individual should consume in a year is one large glass of wine 'So that tells you how relatively harmful alcohol is.' Professor Nutt, from Bristol, is an experienced neuropsychopharmacologist and former government chief drugs advisor. He argued that apart from tobacco alcohol is responsible for more deaths across the world than any other drug. However, he added: 'My approach to alcohol is not that it's all bad. If it was all bad, it would have disappeared. 'There are good aspects to it, and it would be nice if we could maximise the benefits and minimise the harms.' In recent decades some studies have found a link between the moderate consumption of red wine and improved heart health. But in 2018 a major global study, published in one of the world's leading medical journals, confirmed there is 'no safe level of alcohol consumption'. The research, published in The Lancet Public Health, said the risk of cancer and other diseases from drinking alcohol outweighs any potential protections. In 2018 a major global study, published in one of the world's leading medical journals, confirmed there is 'no safe level of alcohol consumption' Commenting on the study at the time Professor David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, sounded a note of caution about the findings. 'Given the pleasure presumably associated with moderate drinking, claiming there is no 'safe' level does not seem an argument for abstention,' he said. 'There is no safe level of driving, but the government does not recommend that people avoid driving. 'Come to think of it, there is no safe level of living, but nobody would recommend abstention.' In the UK, men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week on a regular basis. This is the equivalent of around four large glasses of wine. Elon Musk's own AI system is not convinced by his claim that his five-year-old son gave him a black eye. The billionaire, 53, showed up to his Oval Office farewell on Friday with a noticeable bruise under his right eye, claiming his five-year-old son, X, caused it. 'We were horsing around and I told him to punch me in the face,' Musk said. 'Turns out a five-year-old can punch, actually. I didn't really feel much at the time.' But when asked if a child that age could actually give a grown man a black eye, Musk's own AI, Grok, was skeptical. 'It is possible, but unlikely,' the chatbot replied. While a child can generate enough force in just the right spot, Grok added, 'It's rare without unusual circumstances, like the adult being particularly vulnerable.' Asked what might make a 53-year-old man 'particularly vulnerable,' Grok cited fragile skin, underlying medical conditions or the influence of alcohol or drugs. Musk has described Grok as a 'truth-seeker' and often praises it as the 'funniest' AI chatbot available. He's even deployed it internally, using it to analyze data for the DOGE team and to support work at Tesla and SpaceX. Elon Musk's own AI is not convinced by his claim that his five-year-old son gave him a black eye Grok explained that 'a child's smaller fist and weaker muscles make it harder to deliver enough force consistently.' 'Factors like angle, surprise or an adult's pain tolerance also matter,' the chatbot added. 'If a kid lands a lucky shot say, with a toy or knuckle, damage is more plausible.' The factors that would make a grown man vulnerable to a punch from a child would be things like aging skin, because it is thinner. Other suggestions from Grok included 'being intoxicated or on medications that impair coordination or thin the blood could amplify the effect of a small impact.' Musk did not shy away from discussing the bruise and even jokingly linked the black eye to shock video that emerged this week of French President Emmanuel Macron appearing to be slapped by his wife Brigitte, saying he 'wasn't anywhere near France.' The remarks came after Musk was confronted by an explosive New York Times report that alleged he was using a cocktail of drugs on the campaign trail including ketamine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. Musk slammed the reporting as he spoke alongside Trump at the farewell, saying people 'can't trust' the Times and said he was 'moving on' from the controversy. The billionaire, 53, showed up to his Oval Office farewell on Friday with a noticeable bruise under his right eye, claiming his five-year-old son, X, was the cause. Pictured is Musk and his son in February While Musk stunned the public with the black eye on Friday, he was bruised the night before while delivering SpaceX's ambitious plan to colonize Mars (pictured) Trump thanked Musk for his work at the Department of Government Efficiency as his five-month stint in office came to an end, and added that Musk would be 'going back and forth' between the White House and private life. The billionaire was handed a large key by Trump before vowing that DOGE's work slashing the federal government's spending would not end with him leaving. While Musk stunned the public with the black eye on Friday, he was bruised the night before while delivering SpaceX's ambitious plan to colonize Mars. He hosted a conference while standing on a giant stage, making the bruise less visible. During the event, Musk said SpaceX aims to launch its first crewed Starship mission to the Red Planet in 2026, with a Tesla Optimus robot on board. 'Launching two years later, we would be sending humans, assuming the first missions are successful,' said Musk. The initial crewed launches would likely involve a small number of early settlers, focusing on building and troubleshooting infrastructure on the Martian surface. The ambitious plan hinges on the development of next-generation Starships, which Musk said will feature nine engines, improved heat shields and increased payload capacity. He also revealed that SpaceX's assembly facility in Texas will eventually produce 1,000 Starships a year, describing it as 'the biggest structure in the world,' designed to enable millions of people to travel to Mars. Daily Mail journalists select and curate the products that feature on our site. If you make a purchase via links on this page we will earn commission - learn more A convenient product is having a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of pets across Australia, and pet owners are thrilled. Bell & Bone's Dental Toppers is a simple spray applied to your pet's meals as a vet-approved solution to prevent dental disease, by supporting gut health. Approximately 80 per cent of dogs and cats over the age of three exhibit some level of dental disease, according to the Australian Veterinary Association. More than simply unpleasant breath, this can have serious repercussions on the animal's health and even life expectancy. But Australian brand Bell & Bone has dedicated years to researching the cause of this common health concern for pets and working on a solution. Oral health and gut health are closely intertwined, in pets and in people. A well-balanced microbiome is essential to maintaining good digestive and oral health. If this is disrupted, harmful bacteria can thrive in their digestive system and mouth. A healthy gut microbiome helps to keep harmful bacteria in check, preventing plaque and tartar buildup and reducing inflammation at the source. Created in consultation with industry experts and vets, Dental Toppers is a powerhouse formulation of oral actives, pre, pro and post-biotics, and superfoods, delivered in one simple step: just four sprays a day on top of your dog or cat's meal. Bell & Bone's Dental Toppers are a simple solution to prevent dental disease in pets by supporting gut health It is a powerhouse formulation of oral actives, pre, pro and postbiotics, and superfoods, delivered in one simple step There are three flavours for dogs: Beef, Lamb and Salmon, and two formulated for cats: Tuna and Chicken. The spray costs $39.95 for a 30-day supply - which works out to just $1.33 per day. The natural ingredients formulation combines Norwegian Kelp to reduce dental issues and support gut health, probiotics to balance gut flora and reduce plaque, and antioxidant-rich plant extracts to combat inflammation. Sodium alginate, derived from seaweed, helps the product stick to teeth and gums while also feeding beneficial gut bacteria. The $39.95 spray comes in three flavours for dogs: Beef, Lamb and Salmon, and two formulated for cats: Tuna and Chicken Four sprays a day on your pet's favourite meal helps to keep harmful bacteria in check, preventing plaque and tartar buildup and reducing inflammation at the source An added win for pet owners? Improved gut health leads to fresher breath, and often an improvement in bowel movement odour too. 'Over the past five years, I've been on a mission to change how we approach pet dental care,' Bell & Bone Founder Arianne Sackville says. 'It all started when I learned that dental disease shortens a pet's life by up to 30 per cent, and that nearly 80 per cent of pets suffer from it by age three. I was shocked So I developed our best-selling Dog Dental Sticks and Cat Dental Bites. Approximately 80 per cent of dogs and cats over the age of three exhibit some level of dental disease Even pet owners with fussy eaters have confirmed the flavours are a hit, and note an improvement in breath and bowel movement odours 'However, with 80 per cent of dogs and 70 per cent of cats still facing dental disease, I became obsessed with uncovering WHY. I was determined to change these alarming statistics for good! I knew we needed to go deeper. 'That's when I began working with leading vets and experts to uncover the real cause of dental disease in pets. 'What we found was eye-opening: the gut plays a critical role in oral health. A healthy gut microbiome helps prevent the overgrowth of harmful bacteria, which is the starting point for plaque, tartar, and inflammation. 'So, I dedicated myself to creating a product that not only cleans teeth but prevents disease at the source the gut. After years of research, testing, and collaboration, the Bell & Bone Dental Topper was born.' Bell & Bone was Founded by Arianne Sackville, who is on a mission to change how we approach pet dental care The product is impressing pet owners, with rave reviews already posted on the brand's website: 'Started using these and already spotting a difference with my boy's breath - truly a game changing product not having to change from his everyday food,' one customer wrote. Even pet owners with fussy eaters have confirmed the flavours are a hit. 'I was curious to see how he would go since he can be picky with anything new but this topper just went straight on top of his food that he loves with a few sprays and he was straight into it,' one customer said. 'After using it for a month we noticed a big difference in not just his teeth and gums but also his poops didn't smell as bad... and no more stinky breath! 'I dedicated myself to creating a product that not only cleans teeth but prevents disease at the source the gut,' says Arianne. After years of research, testing, and collaboration, the Bell & Bone Dental Topper was born' 'I am so happy we finally found something that Oscar will eat and that actually works for him thank you so much Bell and Bone.' 'These are a game changer. Started using these and already spotted a difference with my boy's breath - truly a game changing product not having to change from his everyday food,' another shared. When it comes to food toppers, Millie the beagle has a nose that doesn't lie - she's turned her nose up at three different brands so far!' another owner wrote. 'Then we discovered Belle and Bone at the Million Paws Walk in Melbourne. I was a bit hesitant to try them, given Millie's track record, but I'm so glad I did. 'Millie loves it - no hesitation at all! The salmon and beef topper are a big hit. Safe to say we've finally found a winner. Millie gives this a paws up.' To shop Bell & Bone's Dental Toppers, click here. A California man has had his 378-year prison sentence for sexual assault overturned on May 23 after a judge ruled his accuser made up evidence. Ajay Dev, 58, was released last week after spending 16 years in state prison for 76 convictions of sexual assault on a minor and related charges. He had been convicted of the serial rape of an adopted daughter named Sapna Dev who he and his wife helped bring to the U.S. from his home nation of Nepal in 1998, when she was 15-years-old. Free to go: Ajay Dev was released last week following a legal ruling Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio said in her ruling that the then-teen girl had broken up with her boyfriend and accused her adoptive father of causing their split. Sapna then told authorities that he raped her two or three times a week for three or four years before she moved out of their home. Four witnesses who had not been contacted by Dev's trial lawyers testified at a recent hearing that Sapna had told them that her accusations were lies or were motivated by her anger at him, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. One of the witnesses said Sapna told him she made the accusations because she 'was determined to return to the United States and needed to use the criminal charges to do that,' Beronio said. According to the Daily Democrat, Sapna had returned to Nepal at that time and was imprisoned there due to wrong information being printed on her passport. It was then she made the allegations and U.S. authorities helped her with a new passport so she could return to the U.S. Sapna was ultimately granted American citizenship in light of the case and her cooperation with prosecutors, according to CBS. Critical evidence had been missed which stemmed from a phone call that cops had arranged between the two, the Chronicle reported. The audio recording was not clear and the jury during Sapna's original testimony in the 2000s heard it as her father saying: 'You had sex with me when you were 18'. Beronio said that an enhanced recording was now available which say he had actually told her: 'You came with me after you were 18'. The judge also said that another witness had testified that Sapna had given contradictory statements when she said she had aborted or miscarried three kids after alleged pregnancies. Beronio said that Sapna had frequently sent her adopted parents cards, texts and email expressing her love for them from 1999 up until 2004. She added: 'If jurors had heard that evidence, the result of this case could have and most likely would have been different.' His lawyer Jennifer Mouzis had filed his habeas corpus petition seeking to have him freed in 2018. Judge Beronio scheduled a hearing for June 13 for Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig to decide whether to retry Dev. Prosecutors could also appeal the ruling. Deputy District Attorney Adrienne Chin-Perez contended during a hearing last week that Ajay Dev continues to pose a flight risk and a danger to the community. Out: Dev is seen here embracing a family member after being released She also read a statement from Sapna, who wrote that she is 'deeply afraid that Ajay will harm me'. The judge's decision 'dismantles the DAs case,' said Patricia Pursell, a member of advocacy group that has held demonstrations in support of Dev, who is also his sister-in-law. 'We have known from the beginning that Ajay Dev was wrongfully convicted,' she told the Chronicle. 'Judge Beronio was the first judge to really look closely at the evidence and read every document.' Pursell also told CBS that when he was arrested his oldest son was two and that his wife was pregnant with another child. He was in prison when the child was born. In a statement to the court seen by the outlet, Dev said: 'The absence of fatherhood has been the most difficult while doing time for a crime I never committed. You gave me a purpose to live. I cannot wait to be home with you.' Mouzis said much of the prosecution's evidence was based on racial and ethnic bias that would be illegal today under Californias Racial Justice Act, a 2021 law barring testimony that appeals to prejudice. News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. Time Out asked 18,500 people from cities around the world to rate green spaces A new survey has revealed the best cities in the world for green space - and British people might be surprised by the results. The ranking comes from the team at Time Out who asked 18,500 people from cities around the world to rate their city's green spaces. Each of the cities in the top 20 picks up a rating of 'good' or 'amazing' for its green space and access to nature. Top of the list? Medellin, the second-largest city in Colombia. More than 90 per cent (92 per cent) of locals are happy with the South American city's green spaces. Time Out says: 'It's known as the "city of eternal spring" with consistently high daytime temperatures thanks to a trade-wind tropical climate - however, greenery is how the city stays cool. 'Back in 2016, a scheme to add "green corridors" to Medellin's sprawling (and scorching hot) concrete streets began, and in the first three years of the project, the city's overall temperature fell by two degrees.' Medellin's riverside parks have 280 trees and a whopping 38,052 square metres of green space. Each of the cities in the top 20 picks up a rating of 'good' or 'amazing' for its green space and access to nature. Top of the list? Medellin, the second-largest city in Colombia Time Out recommends Boston Common as the city's most 'iconic' green space and the oldest park in the USA Second on the ranking is Boston in the USA where 88 per cent of residents are happy with the city's green spaces. Time Out recommends Boston Common as the city's most 'iconic' green space and the oldest park in the USA. Sydney ties with London in third place with 87 per cent of residents in each metropolis happy with their home city's green space. London has more than 3,000 parks and open spaces to choose from. Richmond Park is the city's largest green space, covering 2,500 acres. And as much as it might seem as though it's dominated by skyscrapers, the Big Smoke is actually 21 per cent covered by trees. That means it technically qualifies as a forest under the United Nations definition that designates a forest as anywhere with 20 per cent tree coverage. Another UK city sneaks into fifth place on the ranking. Edinburgh ties with Austin and Melbourne in fifth position with 86 per cent of residents happy with its green spaces. Holyrood Park is the Scottish capital's biggest green space and spans 650 acres, next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. London has more than 3,000 parks and open spaces to choose from Holyrood Park is the Scottish capital's biggest green space and spans 650 acres, next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse THE WORLD'S GREENEST CITIES 1. Medellin, Colombia 2. Boston, USA 3. Sydney, Australia =London, UK 5. Austin, USA =Edinburgh, UK =Melbourne, Australia 8. Denver, USA 9. Abu Dhabi, UAE =Cape Town, South Africa =Chicago, USA 12. San Francisco, USA =Stockholm, Sweden 14. Montreal, Canada =Munich, Germany 16. Mumbai, India 17. Beijing, China 18. Zurich, Switzerland =Ottawa, Canada 19. Brisbane, Australia Source: Time Out Advertisement Denver, Abu Dhabi, Cape Town and Chicago also make the top 10 with great rankings for their green space. The other European cities to rank among the top 20 include Stockholm, Munich and Zurich. Abu Dhabi recently topped Time Out's ranking for walkability as it's flat with lots of pedestrianised areas. And in the UK it was a seaside city that grabbed the top spot as the country's most walkable. A female solo traveller has compiled a list of the safest destinations in the world - and her top pick may surprise you. Zara Aitken, from Somerset, has spent the last ten years travelling the world on her own. She leads a digital nomad lifestyle by making a part-time income from her travel blog Passport for Living as well as working as a Project Coordinator for a UK-based charity. As a longtime advocate for solo female travel, Zara compiled a list of the places she has felt the safest on her own. 'Does this mean that each of these countries is 100 per cent safe?' she wrote in a recent blog post. 'Of course not. 'Naturally, you have to take safety precautions everywhere you travel, but these countries provided me with an enriching experience that I cant wait to share with you.' One of Zara's top picks? Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Despite there being substantial discrimination against women in the UAE, according to Human Rights Watch, Zara found Abu Dhabi to be 'one of the best travel destinations for solo female travellers'. Zara Aitken, from Somerset, has spent the last ten years travelling the world on her own. She's pictured in Jordan As a longtime advocate for solo female travel, Zara compiled a list of the places she has felt the safest on her own Zara described Abu Dhabi as 'one of the best travel destinations for solo female travellers', recommending a visit to the Louvre (pictured) 'I started solo travelling ten years ago,' Zara exclusively told MailOnline, 'and never thought I'd have the courage to visit places such as Africa and Asia alone. 'Starting off by visiting cities in Europe, I built my confidence until I felt brave enough to take on places like Botswana, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. 'I had heard that the UAE is one of the safest places in the world to visit due to its low crime rates, and I really experienced the friendliness of the people there.' In a recent blog post on Passport for Living, Zara recommends the 'beautiful beaches' including Corniche Beach with its five miles of white sand and turquoise water - as well as visiting the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi. Posting a picture of her wearing a green headscarf outside of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Zara reminds her readers that they should dress according to the 'cultural and societal norms in the UAE'. She told MailOnline: 'It's important to acknowledge the culture of each place you visit, and I felt the people were grateful that I respected their culture by dressing and acting appropriately and in turn, they respected me too.' Also on Zara's list of the destinations perfect for solo female travellers is Maun, Botswana. Known as the gateway to the UNESCO-listed Okavango Delta, Maun is a small town in the north of the landlocked country. With its relatively low crime rates, Zara reveals that Maun (pictured) is 'well worth a visit' The small town is located near the UNESCO-listed Okavango Delta (pictured) which is famous for its wildlife Although Zara admits that there is not much to do in the town itself, she said that the Delta is worth a visit as it is one of the last places with untouched wilderness on the planet. 'This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, with wildlife everywhere, stunning sunsets and even more amazing people,' she said. 'I cannot wait to go back to Botswana to explore more of the Delta.' Compared to other African countries, crime rates in Botswana are very low, according to Lonely Planet. The only issue Zara encountered was men catcalling her on the streets when she was walking alone - but she emphasised this would not prevent her from returning to the southern African country in the future. The first place Zara travelled to on her own was Paris, France, which also features on her list. Despite being very nervous on the trip, she fell head over heels for the City of Love and has visited on her own three more times since. As well as wandering through the whimsical streets and exploring renowned locations such as the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph, Zara most enjoys sipping a coffee in a Parisian cafe. Posting on her blog Passport for Living, Zara revealed that she fell head over heels for Paris (pictured) as a solo female traveller Zara said that Corfu in Greece (pictured) is perfect for a self-catering holiday as a women travelling on their own With one of the lowest crime rates on the planet, Zara also recommends that solo female travellers add Reykjavik, Iceland to their bucket list - as well as the idyllic Greek island of Corfu. After exploring Australia in a campervan for a month, the Land Down Under also earned a mention in Zara's blog post. With English as its national language, Zara found it easy to make friends with fellow backpackers in Australia so she did not have to traverse the outback alone. The only thing you need to be wary of in Australia, according to Zara, is the wildlife. 'From snakes and spiders to crocs and jellyfish, it seems everything in Australia wants to kill you,' she wrote. 'So its wise to avoid hiking alone and join a group tour if you do want to embark on a hike, just to be safe.' For Zara's full list of the 13 Epic and Safe Destinations for Solo Female Travellers, visit her travel blog at passport-for-living.com. British tourists have been warned about a travel insurance issue that could cost them thousands. 'Skinny jabs' such as Ozempic and Mounjaro need to be declared on any official insurance documents. Niraj Mamtora, director at Forum Insurance, has warned that failing to declare weight management drugs when you take out travel insurance could be considered a breach of contract. He told Birmingham Live: 'Weight-loss medications are transforming lives across the UK, but too many travellers don't realise the insurance implications. 'If you're using these drugs, you must declare both the medication and the condition it's prescribed for. 'Failure to do so is not a minor oversight - it's a serious breach of your travel insurance contract.' The expert explained that tourists could see their 'claim refused' and 'policy cancelled' if they don't declare their medication. Niraj added: 'Non-disclosure is a gamble that's simply not worth taking. If you don't declare your medication or the underlying condition, your insurer is within their rights to refuse any claim, even if it seems unrelated. British tourists have been warned about a travel insurance issue that could cost them thousands The warning comes as the firm reports that a 'growing trend' in people using weight-loss jabs could only make insurance issues more likely 'Many travellers only discover too late that their travel insurance claims are rejected, leaving them without support and facing potentially huge bills.' The warning comes as the firm reports that a 'growing trend' in people using weight-loss jabs could only make insurance issues more likely. 'Carry a copy of your prescription or a doctor's letter when travelling with medication, and check the rules of your destination country regarding bringing in prescription drugs,' advised Niraj. 'Remember that insurance claims related to undeclared conditions or medications can be refused, even if the issue seems unrelated.' Our Farm Next Door's replacement has been announced as series two of Amanda and Clive Owen's show ends - with a hotly anticipated update on its future. Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids aired its first series on Channel 4 in October last year, a spin-off from Our Yorkshire Farm, about the family's home life. The new show, which returned for a second series in April, sees shepherdess Amanda and ex-husband Clive renovate a derelict farmhouse near their farm in the Yorkshire Dales. The pair, who split in 2022 after 22 years of marriage, share nine children together, with their co-parenting efforts also documented on the reality show. Series two sadly concluded earlier this week - but fans now know both what will be taking over its slot and whether they can expect a third series, the Express reports. 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. Our Farm Next Door's replacement has been announced as series two of Amanda and Clive Owen's show ends (pictured, the final episode) - with a hotly anticipated update on its future Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids aired its first series on Channel 4 in October last year, a spin-off from Our Yorkshire Farm, about the family's home life. Pictured: Final episode of series two Before the credits rolled, viewers saw a final shot of the house, with all the construction workers outside - with the caption: 'To be continued...' Amanda gave a final update on the works at Anty John's, near the family's Ravenseat Farm in the Swaledale valley of Yorkshire, at the end of the final episode. She admitted the family still had a lot more renovation work to complete - but determinedly added they were 'forging ahead'. 'We're really on to the next stage', she said. And before the credits rolled, viewers saw a final shot of the house, with all the construction workers outside - with the caption: 'To be continued...' It suggests viewers could reasonably expect another series of the beloved programme. But despite the sad conclusion of the show for now, Channel 4 will be filling its slot with more great outdoorsy telly. British Isles, presented by veteran Countryfile host Matt Baker, will take the place of Our Farm Next Door in the More4 programming schedule - Tuesdays at 9pm. Filmed across the four nations of the UK, it will see the host meet the people 'at the heart of British industry' in each country, according to Channel 4. Amanda gave a final update on the works at Anty John's, near the family's Ravenseat Farm in the Swaledale valley of Yorkshire, at the end of the final episode British Isles, presented by veteran Countryfile host Matt Baker (pictured), will take the place of Our Farm Next Door in the More4 programming schedule - Tuesdays at 9pm He will see them at work in the nation's most 'extreme landscapes' - and champion those 'preserving Britain's rich and proud history and heritage'. It will provide a snapshot of modern Britain, 'from cities to coastlines, workshops to woodlands and farms to factory floors' - and capture the beauty of its landscapes. Amanda previously spoke out about what the renovation project at the heart of Our Farm Next Door has really been like: 'I think we've developed quite a camaraderie really. 'It's a huge learning curve and every one of the people who worked on a project has their own speciality in what they do.' 'Getting all that to come together, it's been amazing. It's meant that the children particularly have been able to follow this project and see it and learn.' She concluded: 'It's not your average project. The fact is that you can't even get here half the time with your vehicle and you have to walk in! 'We've had all these horrible weather conditions, no amenities. You can't even scroll on your phone at dinnertime! Nothing works, that's a big ask.' It comes after Amanda and Clive were hit with controversy, over a 'disgusting and disturbing' video of their son Reuben, which sparked fan backlash on social media. Earlier this month, the shepherdess, 50, shared a clip (pictured) of Reuben, 21, laying on an ewe and lamb while helping her out on the family farm The video received a number of negative comments - and Amanda (pictured with Reuben) decided to speak out about the matter earlier this week Earlier this month, the shepherdess, 50, shared a clip of Reuben, 21, laying on an ewe and lamb while helping her out on the family farm. The video received a number of negative comments - and Amanda decided to speak out about the matter earlier this week. Sharing a video of her milking an ewe, alongside some other snaps from lambing season, Amanda said: 'Here we go!!!! More disgusting and disturbing behaviour just for ewe. '*Obviously we havent learnt anything, even after being slammed for the ill treatment of these woolly commodities*. Time to finally explain myself. 'Amazingly enough, its been a busy couple of months, the physical birth element of lambing time is just a part of the picture.' The Our Yorkshire Farm star explained that after giving birth, the animals can experience some issues. She continued: 'Post natal care is of utmost importance and consequently feeding issues can sometimes require a sheep to be caught in order to treat the issue. 'They are not particularly good patients but we treat them with care, compassion and as infrequently as possible. Sharing a video of her milking an ewe, alongside some other snaps from lambing season, Amanda said: 'Here we go!!!! More disgusting and disturbing behaviour just for ewe' 'So far, after a lifetime of shepherding I have never had one willingly saunter over and request help with labour, breast feeding or any other minor ailment. 'Maybe it would be a lot easier to take care of them and handle them if they were all crammed into an industrial shed, not free to exercise and graze the meadows, moors & pastures????? 'But I reckon that we all know that being outside, free to wander and live naturally is a far better way for them. 'Incidentally the person most likely to be injured in the whole process of catching and restraining a sheep is me or even one of the sheepdogs.' Many rushed to the comments section to share their support. Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids is available to stream on Channel 4. Paddy McGuinness joked 'where do I sign up?' in a cheeky This Morning interview with Mormon Wives stars as they told him all about the cast's swingers lifestyle. Paddy, 51, joined Alison Hammond to present Friday's episode of the ITV chat show, which saw them chat to two stars from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives - Whitney Leavitt and Jessi Ngatikaura. The American Disney+ reality show, the second series of which came out earlier this month, follows a group of Utah-based Mormon mothers and TikTok influencers. The programme captured attention after cast member, Taylor Frankie Paul, went viral for admitting her husband and she had been swinging with other Mormon couples. But Paddy, who split from his wife and mother of his three children Christine in 2022 after 11 years of marriage, didn't appear dissuaded as he joked about joining the show and becoming a Mormon husband. 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. Paddy McGuinness has joked 'where do I sign up?' in a cheeky This Morning interview with Mormon Wives stars as they tell all about the cast's swingers lifestyle The TV personality joined Alison Hammond to present today's episode of the ITV chat show, which saw them sit down with two stars of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Reality star Whitney Leavitt pulled back her bottom lip to reveal the tattoo, which read 'Daddy' Seemingly referring to the so-called 'soft-swinging' scandal - with the term denoting romantic and sexual intimacy outside a partnership, without full intercourse - Paddy joked: 'Where do I sign up? I'm in!' As he thanked the guests for coming on the show, he then did a double fist pump. During the interview, Alison made it clear that Whitney and Jessi no not participate in the swinging lifestyle, clarifying: 'Let's be clear, Whitney and Jessi did not "soft swing".' Paddy then cheekily interjected, referring to other cast members who are swingers as he quipped: 'Doesn't make them bad people.' Alison agreed: 'No, it doesn't', before Jessi joked: 'Maybe next season!' Jessi - who left the faith several years ago but still features on the show due to her continuing links to Mormon family and friends - then explained some of the values of the religion. They include not having tattoos - but both women admitted they do actually have inkings themselves. Whitney revealed, 'I actually have one too but mine's hidden', gesturing to her mouth. He then asked jokingly, as the studio descended into laughter: 'Sorry, I just need to check, does that say Paddy?' An amused Jessi quickly replied, 'Yes, it does', and, 'She's a fangirl', while Paddy responded: 'Oh, right, OK, it's meant to be!' Alison said, 'So naughty, you've got a tattoo in the mouth?', adding: 'You are the naughtiest Mormon wives!' Jessi, who encouraged Whitney to show off the ink, commented jokingly, 'You have like a hardcore tattoo', before adding: 'No, she's like a bad Mormon!' Whitney then pulled back her bottom lip to reveal the tattoo, which cheekily read 'Daddy'. Alison turned to her co-host Paddy to ask, 'Do you know what it says?', before he confirmed: 'I do, it says Daddy!' He then asked jokingly: 'Sorry, I just need to check, does that say Paddy?' as the studio descended into laughter. An amused Jessi quickly replied, 'Yes, it does, she's a fangirl', while Paddy responded: 'Oh, right, OK, it's meant to be!' The two Mormon wives explained another aspect of the faith means they are unable to drink coffee, as part of treating their body as a temple. They instead drink fizzy beverages, mixed with a variety of flavoured creams and syrups - and brought in their regular orders for Alison and Paddy to try. Seemingly referring to the so-called 'soft-swinging' scandal - with the term denoting romantic and sexual intimacy outside a partnership, without full intercourse - Paddy said: 'Where do I sign up? I'm in!' Alison said, 'So naughty, you've got a tattoo in the mouth?' Both were very complimentary about the drinks, praising how delicious they were, with Alison saying lightly: 'Could I join the Mormon wives? How do I do it?' But Paddy interjected to say: 'More importantly, how do I become a Mormon husband? These are the main questions, how do we become a Mormon husband?' Jessi jokingly replied: 'You got to get married in the temple, you gotta move to Utah, go to BYU [Mormon-sponsored university in Utah], there's so many requirements.' Towards the end of the interview, Alison praised Jessi for being so open about the cosmetic surgery procedures she has undergone. 'Youre so open Jessi, like I know youve had a little bit of surgery down below and youve had some surgery up above as well, youve had a breast reduction', she said. The reality star confirmed, 'Yeah, everywhere!', before Alison cheekily continued, turning to Paddy: 'Which you're not happy about are you?' A taken aback Paddy stuttered: 'Sorry, I came on the tail end of this, I was still thinking about... [a comment made just before about Whitney being a Great British Bake Off fan].' Jessi quipped, 'He's like, "I just heard breast, what?"' Paddy interjected to say: 'More importantly, how do I become a Mormon husband?' 'Youre so open Jessi, like I know youve had a little bit of surgery down below and youve had some surgery up above as well, youve had a breast reduction', Alison said Jessi also noted that the very popular Mormon Wives reality show was only commissioned because of her co-star Taylor's frank admissions online about swinging - despite the sexually conservative reputation of Mormonism. She said: 'Well, I think Taylor was the one who originally came out with it because there were rumours going around about her and shes like, "I'm going to set the record straight", which thank God she did because we got a show so!' Paddy's divorce from former model Christine, 37, was finalised last summer, following their split in 2022. The couple share three kids - ten-year-old twins, Penelope and Leo, and seven-year-old daughter Felicity - who are all autistic. Despite their split, they remain living under the same roof at their 2.5million family home in Cheshire for the sake of their young family. But earlier this year, MailOnline revealed Paddy had put their 6.5million Cheshire house up for sale. Christine had reportedly grown increasingly tired of cohabiting with Paddy, who was happy for the arrangement to continue. Paddy's relationship has faced scrutiny in the last few years after his divorce from former model Christine, 37, was finalised last summer, following their split in 2022 (pictured in 2017) It came as she pulled out of her scheduled appearance on Celebs Go Dating earlier this month Christine had already flown to Ibiza to begin filming with the rest of the cast but told fans she was 'returning home to her family' after a change of heart Speaking about their split, Christine said: 'I've never spoken about the reasons for our divorce, and I don't know if I ever will. 'It was a difficult time. It wasn't something that, you know, I just decided to do overnight, or that we chose to do. 'We tried, and, yeah, there just, unfortunately, there was no repairing it, you know?' Christine also pulled out of her scheduled appearance on Celebs Go Dating earlier this month, revealing she felt it was 'too soon' for her to date so publicly following her divorce. Christine had already flown to Ibiza to begin filming the series with the rest of the cast but told fans she was 'returning home to her family' after having a change of heart. Revealing the news on Instagram at the start of this month, she said: 'I joined Celebs Go Dating with great intentions but have realised that dating on a public platform and the attention is brings is just too soon for me.' She added she may appear in the future though: 'They've said the door is always open for me which I'm so grateful but for now I'm returning home to my family.' This Morning is available to watch on ITV on weekdays at 10am and to stream on ITVX. Guy Martin stumbles across an unexpected US bomb while searching for some explosives in his new adventure series Our Guy in Vietnam. The new programme is set to our our screens on Channel 4 this Sunday (June 1 2025). The show's synopsis reads: 'On the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Guy Martin gets on his bike to explore Vietnams past, present and future.' In an exclusive first look clip, obtained by MailOnline, the former motorcycle racer turned documentary maker, 43, keeps his cool after finding a deadly device. Guy says to the camera: 'Yeah what we have found... a BLU24B. 'They call it an antipersonnel cluster bomb. 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. Guy Martin stumbles across an unexpected US bomb while searching for some in his new adventure series Our Guy in Vietnam which is set to air on Sunday In an exclusive first look clip, obtained by MailOnline, the former motorcycle racer, 43, keeps his cool after finding a deadly device (pictured) The voiceover explains: 'Today they will be exploding two bombs while the detonation cord is laid out to a safe distance of 250 meters away' 'The soul goal of that is just to kill people.' While pointing in the distance, he adds: 'There's one here. There's one over there. I found one over there. 'A bomber has come over head this way or that way, 50 odd year ago, dumped a load and that is one of these!' He adds: 'The only way to deal with this is to have a controlled explosion. So fuse in there, bag it up with loads of sandbags... 'Boom!' The star can be seen helping put sand in green bags. The voiceover explains: 'Today they will be exploding two bombs while the detonation cord is laid out to a safe distance of 250 meters away. 'The explosives charged is readied and the rest of the team warn the locals to clear the area.' After the explosion happens, Guy is left shocked and confesses: 'We weren't expecting that, were we?!' Guy and one of the team stand from afar and get to flick the switch. They tell him: 'You have to press this button and keep holding it until the red light comes on. 'Then I will count down from 10 to zero. Then at zero you press this button.' Guy makes it clear that he understands and puts his thumb up. After counting down, the star presses the button and the bombs explode. A shocked Guy confesses: 'We weren't expecting that, were we?!' Fans don't have long to wait until the show hits our screens. Guy recently took to Instagram to give an insight into what fans can expect from the series. He wrote on his profile: 'On the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Guy explores the past, present and future of Vietnam, to see how the country is still dealing with the effects of the controversial conflict, and how it is planning a high-tech future. 'In the first episode, Guy charts the history of the war by riding his motorcycle down the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail, visiting a Huey helicopter graveyard at an abandoned American combat base, making his own version of the lethal weapon napalm, and coming face to face with a live cluster bomb left over from the war which he then helps detonate in a controlled explosion.' Fans rushed to the comments section to share their excitement, with one saying: 'Two of my favorite things. Guy and Vietnam.' 'Banging cant think of a better combo Guy and Nam, what a place love it there.' 'Something actually worth watching on the TV.' Watch Our Guy in Vietnam on Channel 4 at 9:00pm this Sunday (1 June 2025). A ballooned 400lb Steven Seagal was seen strutting his distended tummy through crowds at Moscow's famous Red Square to show support for his beloved Russia. The former action star has continued to gain weight during his extended retreat from the public eye: he hasn't posted on social media since December 2021 and has held Russian citizenship since 2016. But his aversion to publicity didn't stop him from showing up for Russia's Victory Day celebrations earlier this month - marking the defeat of Nazi Germany - and supporting the man he has called his 'brother' and the 'greatest living world leader', Vladimir Putin. Seagal, 73, was seen in an exclusive Daily Mail video walking through the Moscow crowds in a embroidered Japanese-inspired kimono, which he wore over a Mandarin-collared shirt and a religious necklace with white beads. Meanwhile, the 6ft 4in one-time star's iconic ponytail appears to have shriveled up into frayed wisps. Victory Day's May 9 procession saw armored vehicles rolling down the square's cobblestone streets and soldiers marching in precise formations as Russian-aligned world leaders gathered to watch. A ballooned 400lb Steven Seagal was seen strutting his distended tummy through crowds at Moscow 's famous Red Square to show support for his beloved Russia The former action star has continued to gain weight during his extended retreat from the public eye: he hasn't posted on social media since December 2021 and has held Russian citizenship since 2016 Seagal has had a long-time and well-documented friendship with Vladimir Putin Seagal, one of Russia's most passionate supporters, was spotted watching the display near a Russian nationalist biker gang called the Night Wolves, according to French news agency Agence France-Presse. The illusive martial artist's appearance marks yet another show of solidarity with Russia, which he has vocally supported in recent years - even appearing in a Russian propaganda documentary about the war in Ukraine. The 30-minute documentary, publicly available on Russian website Smotrim.ru and operated by Russian state-run broadcaster VGTRK, was released in October last year. It followsewd the portly Putin partisan wandering around Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, between drone shots of rubble and bombed-out buildings. Among the documentary's lies was the claim Seagal 'visited the sites' of 'crimes' comitted by Ukranian, not Russian, soldiers against civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk. And the filmmakers did not shy away from showing Seagal's weight gain - a sharp contrast to the fit, martial-arts-trained figure he once embodied in action hits like Under Siege, Marked for Death, and On Deadly Ground. The illusive martial artist's appearance marks yet another show of solidarity with Russia, which he has vocally supported in recent years - even appearing in a Russian propaganda documentary (pictured) about the war in Ukraine The filmmakers did not shy away from showing Seagal's weight gain - a sharp contrast to the fit, martial-arts-trained figure he once embodied But the glory days of the 1990s are long behind him. Instead, Seagal has reinvented himself as a prolific mouthpiece for Russian propaganda. He left his life in America behind after being granted Russian citizenship in 2016 - a move reportedly approved after multiple personal requests, according to a Kremlin spokesperson. Seagal has often cited his heritage, noting that his paternal grandparents emigrated from Vladivostok in Russia's Far East. The same man whom Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels once labeled the 'worst host ever' has since become a devoted admirer of President Vladimir Putin. That allegiance was solidified in May 2024 when Putin personally awarded him the Order of Friendship. At the award ceremony, Seagal falsely claimed Ukraine was known for 'organ trafficking, child sex trafficking and Nazism'. It reflected a well-documented and long-term bond. Seagal has called Putin 'one of the greatest world leaders' and, in 2014, told the Moscow Times he 'would like to consider [Putin] as a brother'. As for the weight gain, a source who worked with the action star in the 2000s was shocked at his latest appearance, estimating he has gained 'at least 50 pounds' since his appearance in October's documentary. Back then he was thought to be 350lbs. The source also told the Daily Mail that Seagal would be livid at the sight of the footage. Putin giving the Order of Friendship to Seagal during an awards ceremony at the Kremlin in May 2024 Seagal is seen right in 1997 film Fire Down Below '[In the past] he would have gone ape-s**t at the cameraman for anything that made his hair or weight look bad. Seagal, as a rule, controlled the narrative hard when filming as he insisted on certain camera angles and nothing that accentuates his weight gain,' the source said. Seagal's move to Russia came after news broke that the Los Angeles District Attorney was reviewing a sex abuse case against him, after decades of allegations by women who worked with Seagal. The DA's office eventually declined to prosecute due to the statute of limitations running out. But it was far from the first time actor had been accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct by women including Portia de Rossi, Julianna Margulies, Jenny McCarthy, Katherine Heigl, Dutch model Faviola Dadis and Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero. On top of the sexual assault allegations, Seagal also has been accused of fostering hostile working environments on set. Seagal had a reputation for punching stunt doubles that were on the sets of the movies he was working on. Actor John Leguizamo called the marital artist a 'bully' on set from his experience working together on the 1996 film Executive Decision. He told the New York Post that no one had a good time working with him and that Seagal kept 'hitting the stuntmen on purpose' until the now-deceased Gene LeBell, highly regarded as one of the most famous stuntmen in Hollywood, intervened by putting him in a chokehold. Even Saturday Night Live was perturbed by Seagal's behavior after the martial artist starred in one of the most infamous episodes to have aired on the show, in 1991. The action star's unwillingness to go along with the show's plan and his horrendously bad ideas for skits almost led SNL to consider replacing him as the host and doing a cast-led show, according to former SNL actor David Spade. But despite Seagal's propensity to burn bridges with his alleged off-putting behavior, the action star appears to have at least reconciled with his long-time nemesis Jean-Claude Van Damme after three decades. Seagal, who famously took every opportunity in interviews to call out Jean-Claude, 64, as a 'fake' martial artist, had him at his 73rd birthday party in April. In a video posted on Instagram on April 10, Van Damme put his arm around Seagal and called him his 'good friend'. Fans couldn't believe it at first, questioning whether the footage had been fabricated using AI. But Seagal's official account replied to the post, confirming the pictures were 'absolutely real'. The business associate who testified against Todd Chrisley and claimed in court they had a gay affair has embarked on a new career. Mark Braddock, 58, shattered the reality star's long-cultivated reputation as a devoted and religious family man when he revealed the alleged romance and reported Todd to the cops in 2022. At the time, Todd, 56, who has been married to wife Julie, 52, since 1996 denied having a gay relationship and blasted Mark a 'toad' who looks like a 'thumb.' On Wednesday, Todd and Julie were released from prison just one day after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump. The couple were sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison respectively after being found guilty in 2022 of defrauding banks out of $30 million. Braddock has moved on from the controversy and joined Christie's International Real Estate in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, in February as a Broker Associate. The Daily Mail has contacted Braddock for comment. 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. Mark Braddock, 58, the business associate who testified against Todd Chrisley, 56, and claimed they had a gay affair has recently embarked on a new career path It comes after Todd and his wife Julie, 52, were released from prison just a day after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump. (Pictured: The couple in 2019) His biography describes him as a 'seasoned real estate professional with over two decades of experience' known for his 'thorough and reliable approach.' He has been licensed in real estate since 2002. Braddock, who is a father of two, previously worked at Engel and Voelkers in Florida for more than six years as a private office advisor. While on the stand, Braddock told the court that he and Chrisley engaged in a romance in the early 2000s before breaking it off. Initially the pair remained close, forming what Braddock described in court as a 'brotherhood', before the relationship soured in 2012 when Chrisley threatened to call the police on him. The sordid claims made by Braddock served as the final blow that obliterated the Chrisley family's once-wholesome TV image, which was cultivated during years of reality TV fame. Before the court case multi-millionaire real estate developer and entrepreneur Todd and his wife were best known for starring in the USA Network reality series Chrisley Knows Best. It documented their day-to-day lives and featured their six children: Lindsie, Kyle, Chase, Savannah, Grayson, and Chloe. The dramatic conclusion of the trial was matched only by the surprising accusations made by the reality star's former employee, who said they had a year-long romance in the early 2000s while they were both married to their respective wives. Braddock has since moved on from the controversy. He joined Christie's International Real Estate branch in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, in February as a Broker Associate Braddock, pictured with his wife Leslie, has been licensed in real estate since 2002 While on the stand Braddock told the court that he and Chrisley engaged in a romance in the early 2000s At the time Todd blasted the homosexual love affair claim as untrue, calling Mark a 'toad' In January 2023 Todd use his Chrisley Confessions podcast to hit back at allegations that he is gay and had a homosexual affair with Mark, saying there was no truth to them. 'Whats insulted me the most is that, out of all these 54 years, for me to finally be accused of being with a man, it would be someone who looked like Mark Braddock,' said Todd as he appeared alongside his son Chase. '[He's] a toad. Someone that looks like a thumb. Someone who says hes only had sex with his wife and me. 'Let me you tell something. I could understand if youd have had sex with me, it would [make] you crazy. I get that,' he said. 'There have been many who have been d**k-notized by your daddy,' he joked with his son, adding that Braddock's story has changed several times. While on the stand Braddock also spoke in detail about Chrisley's alleged crimes, claiming that he had not only been a witness to them but that he had even helped commit them. According to Braddock, who was granted immunity in return for testifying, he and Chrisley worked together at a real estate company from 2005 to 2012. Braddock also spoke in detail about Chrisley's crimes, claiming that he had not only been a witness, but that he had even helped commit them Mark said he kept the affair a secret from his wife, Leslie, whom he had been married to for 35 years. He was forced to tell her about his infidelities before testifying and it has since been reported that she is standing by her husband Meanwhile Todd shares two children, Lindsie and Kyle, with his first wife, Teresa Terry, and three children, Chase, Savannah, and Grayson, with his current wife, Julie, to whom he has been married since 1996. Todd and Julie also have custody of Kyle's daughter Chloe Braddock claimed at trial that things soon turned romantic between them. And while the businessman said their affair only lasted about a year he told the court that they continued working together for nearly a decade after their secret romance ended. That 'brotherhood' blew up in Chrisley's face in 2012 when the two got into a massive argument and the reality star is said to have thrown Braddock out of his office and threatened to call the police on him. Mark said in court he then decided to turn the Chrisleys into the FBI for tax fraud. Mark said at the trial he kept the affair a secret from his own wife, Leslie, whom he had been married to for more than three decades. The couple tied the knot 35 years ago in October 1987. He was forced to tell her about his infidelities before testifying and is said to have stood by her husband, with whom she shares two children. According to Media Take Out, Leslie, who is a real estate agent herself, has since 'forgiven' Mark for his alleged affair with Todd. Together, Mark and his wife have welcomed two sons over the years, named Ian and Colin. Ian is married to a woman named Eva, and together, they have a son and daughter. Colin's marital status is unclear. According to his LinkedIn account, Mark graduated from Radford University with Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Computer Science, Statistics, and Math in 1987. He started his career in 1984 with a job as a systems engineer at AT&T. He worked there for three years while living in Virginia. Early Wednesday evening Todd was released from Federal Prison Camp Pensacola while Julie was set free from FMC Lexington. The couple was sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison respectively after being found guilty in 2022 of defrauding banks out of $30 million The couple famously starred in the television show 'Chrisley Knows Best' and several spin-offs He then got a job as a systems analyst for a research company called Decision Resources Group, before landing a position at an analytics firm called Cognos as a sales representative. He also worked for the company SAP Software Solutions from 1989 to 1999. In 2000, Braddock became a partner at the law group Baer, where he worked for five years. He was then hired as the Vice President of a real estate software company called Executive Asset Management, LLC. This is where he worked with Todd, since it is part of Chrisley Asset Management. While working at Executive Asset Management Mark said in court that he was threatened by blackmailers who claimed to know about his previous affair with Todd. Early Wednesday evening, Todd was released from Federal Prison Camp Pensacola while Julie was set free from FMC Lexington, according to Fox5. They are now headed back to their family home in Nashville, Tennessee. Brandi Glanville has revealed she has gone nearly two years without having sex due to her mysterious facial disfigurement completely ravaging her confidence - but she is desperate to break her dry spell. The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 52, went public in 2023 that she has been suffering from an unknown illness which has caused significant changes to her face. Since then, mom-of-two Brandi has been desperately searching for a concrete diagnosis as the illness continues to baffle doctors, but all the while she has unwillingly pushed sex to the side and her confidence has continued to plummet. Speaking to pornographic actress Alexis Texas on the Private talk with Alexis Texas podcast, Brandi said she has been celibate since her health woes first began - but 'not by choice.' She added that she is eager to make use of her remaining few years of 'looking hot,' but admitted that her facial issues have thrown a spanner in the works. 'I have two years of looking hot left,' she said in a preview of the episode, which has been exclusively shared with DailyMail.com. 'This is not hot.' 'This is the most insecure I've ever been in my life,' Brandi continued. 'I isolate, I don't wanna leave the house. Brandi Glanville has revealed she has gone nearly two years without having sex due to her mysterious facial disfigurement; seen in April 2024 The ex-model is eager to make use of her remaining few years of 'looking hot', but admitted that her facial issues have thrown a spanner in the works 'The last thing I'm thinking about is like having someone look at my face.' While she wants to get her groove back, Brandi is not feeling like herself. 'I'm feeling really insecure about my face,' she shared, but added: 'I need human touch.' Brandi has spent over $100,000 seeking treatment for her mysterious health condition, which she believes has been caused by a facial parasite. She has been open about her ongoing struggle and has been frequently hospitalized too. After various medical appointments, multiple physicians have told the reality star she could be suffering from a 'parasite that jumps around [her] face.' According to the Mayo Clinic, angioedema is a reaction similar to hives that causes swelling in the deeper layers of skin, often around the face and lips. Brandi joined pornographic actress Alexis Texas on the Private talk with Alexis Texas podcast Brandi has been open about her ongoing struggle with a suspected facial parasite Cosmetic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow who is married to Real Housewives Of Orange County star Heather Dubrow said he was 'concerned' that Brandi could be suffering from either an 'infectious process' or a 'foreign-body reaction to something she's had injected.' Dr. Terry also clarified that Brandi isn't at 'fault' for not being certain about what is plaguing her, and he instead blamed her doctor for not having a solid diagnosis and treatment plan. However, he seemed fairly certain that whatever was going on with her is 'not a parasite' and is 'not from something she ate.' Instead, he suggested the issue is 'something that got into her bloodstream and seeded some foreign body.' How much does a 2025 Hyundai Inster cost? The Hyundai Inster is now the most affordable electric car in the brand's expanding suite of electric cars in Australia. It undercuts the Hyundai Kona small SUV and arrives with a simple range comprising a standard range model, extended range model and then a range-topping Cross variant which adds styling and tech features. The Hyundai Inster Standard Range model costs $39,000 plus on-road costs. It is fitted with a 42kWh battery which is claimed to be good for around 327km electric driving range (WLTP). It offers 71kW city focused power from the front axle motor and rides on a smaller 15-inch wheel which contributes to its frugal efficiency claim. Hyundai says its most affordable model has an energy consumption figure of just 14.3kWh/100km (combined), making it one of the most efficient electric vehicles available in Australia. The Hyundai Inster Extended range model and Cross variants are fitted with a larger 49kWh battery that generates 84kW from the motor. The larger battery promises electric driving range up to 360km (WLTP). The Extended Range model, which is differentiated from the standard range model by larger 17-inch wheels, is on sale for $42,500 plus on road costs. Standard technology features across the Hyundai Inster range include dual 10.25-inch digital displays, Hyundai Bluelink Connected Car Services with a complimentary five-year subscription, and over-the-air updates for the onboard navigation system as well as Hyundais latest Smartsense safety suite. All vehicles are equipped with vehicle to load capability, including a 240V socket handily located at the front of the cabin. The Hyundai Inster Cross is the pinnacle of the range and is available for $45,000 plus on-roads. It takes the specification of the Extended Range, swaps out the wheel for a different design, and adds either a sunroof, or a removable roof basket for extra load capacity. It also features the best level of driver assistance technology, adding a surround camera, blind-spot view monitor and front parking distance warning. Capped price servicing is available across the Hyundai Inster range with an extended interval of 30,000kms or 24 months. If you choose to service at one of Hyundais 146 service centres expect to pay $655 for each of the first two visits. Hyundai Australia is supporting the Inster with a 5-year, unlimited kilometre warranty on the vehicle and an eight-year/ 160,000km warranty on the propulsion battery. Read more: The cheapest cars in Australia in 2025 Fern Britton displayed her incredible five stone weight loss transformation in a stylish denim co-ord as she stepped out in Cornwall on Thursday. The TV presenter, 67, has long been open about her weight struggles, having fluctuated between a size 22 and a size 12 over the years. And Fern, who lives in Cornwall, stepped out looking incredibly confident as she grabbed her morning paper and a sandwich. The beloved star put on a very stylish display in an oversized denim attire, teamed with a casual white T-shirt and trainers. Ferne appeared radiant and glowing as she headed out to run some errands with a minimalistic makeup look. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Fern Britton, 67, displayed her incredible five stone weight loss transformation in a stylish denim co-ord as she stepped out in Cornwall on Thursday And Fern, who lives in Cornwall, stepped out looking incredibly confident as she grabbed her morning paper and a sandwich She recently revealed the turning point behind her dramatic weight loss in an interview with Woman&Home magazine. Fern reflected on the powerful moment she decided to take back control of her health. She told the publication: 'People often wonder when you lose lots of weight whether you've done it naturally. And I can look at you and say, 'Yes, I have.' 'I had my shoulder replacement 18 months ago, and two-and-a-half years ago, when I saw the surgeon, he said, 'I'm going to totally replace your shoulder, I'll see you in a year.' I thought, 'I need to get my life back on track. 'I need to stop smoking, stop drinking, get eating under control and stop lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. So I started the Couch to 5k, took about 80% of the sugar out of my life and started to think about what I was eating, which I had never done before.' Fern has twin sons Harry and Jack, 31, and daughter Grace, 27, from her first marriage, to Clive Jones, and daughter Winnie, 23, with Phil Vickery. Fern has kept her private life out of the spotlight since calling it a off with TV chef, Phil, 63, in 2020, after 20 years. As for her latest project, Fern has another novel coming out, which centres on Wilderhoo - a fictional 1,000-year-old Cornish house that has gone to rack and ruin. The beloved star put on a very stylish display in an oversized denim attire, teamed with a casual white T-shirt and trainers as she carried a Daily Mail newspaper in hand Ferne appeared radiant and glowing as she headed out to run some errands with a minimalistic makeup look She recently revealed the turning point behind her dramatic weight loss in an interview with Woman&Home magazine She said: 'People often wonder when you lose lots of weight whether you've done it naturally. And I can look at you and say, 'Yes, I have' The TV star appeared in great spirits The star sweetly smiled as she departed the shop She gave a sweet thumbs up on her departure The former This Morning presenter, split from the TV chef, Phil, in 2020 after 22 years of marriage (pictured 2007) Five years ago, the presenter moved permanently into her Cornish holiday home before renovating it bit by bit. A Cornish Legacy, which is Ferns 11th novel and comes out on June 5, took the star two years to write twice longer than normal. Im used to producing one a year at least, so Im sorry for the delay but I was a bit busy, she told the publication. Last year, the beauty took part in Celebrity Big Brother and finished in fifth place. However, TV is no longer a top professional priority. She bid farewell to This Morning, which she co-hosted for 10 years alongside John Leslie and, later, Phillip Schofield, before quitting in 2009. She said: My forefront is now being a writer and its taken me a long time to accept that. Gosh, yes, I can say Im an author now! You can read the full interview in Woman & Home's July issue which goes on sale May 29. Guy Sebastian is set to take the stand in the trial of his former manager Titus Day who is defending a raft of embezzlement allegations. Day is currently standing trial in the NSW District Court to defend against claims he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties and performance fees from the Battle Scars hitmaker. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of embezzlement as a clerk or servant and one count of attempting to dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception. The trial commenced on Thursday and Sebastian, 43, is expected to take to the stand in 'the coming days', The Australian reported on Friday. Sebastian was first managed by Day when he worked, as a senior client management executive for the 22 Management Agency, the jury was told on Thursday. 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. Guy Sebastian is set to take the stand in the trial of his former manager Titus Day who is defending a raft of embezzlement allegations In 2009, Day established his own agency, 6Degrees, where Sebastian became the 'marquee client'. It was alleged the pair's relationship began to sour after Sebastian discovered what he alleged to be irregularities in financial records. It was also claimed that Day, who worked on a 20 per cent commission of Sebastian's income after costs, failed to pay royalties and performance fees collected on the Australian Idol winner's behalf. The publication reported that one of the charges related to a claim that Day failed to pay Sebastian $187,000 - a performance fee for his support act slot on Taylor Swift's 2013 Australian tour. During the first day of Day's trial on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC informed the court that Sebastian had placed a 'significant trust' in his manager, who then 'abused' that trust by embezzling his money. 'Through his role as Mr Sebastian's manager, and his capacity of collecting his money on behalf of Mr Sebastian, the accused is alleged to have embezzled Mr Sebastian's money and he's done that by collecting Mr Sebastian's money and failing to remit it in accordance with his agreement,' Hatfield said. 'Mr Sebastian will tell you that this agreement reposed significant trust in the accused and the Crown case is that the accused abused this trust by dishonestly embezzling Mr Sebastian's money.' Before the trial's commencement, Day spoke to news.com.au about his ongoing, eight-year legal battle. Day is currently standing trial in the NSW District Court to defend against claims he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties and performance fees, from the Battle Scars hitmaker Sebastian was first managed by Day when he worked, as a senior client management executive for the 22 Management Agency, the jury was told on Thursday. In 2009, Day established his own agency, 6 Degrees, where Sebastian became the 'marquee client' 'I also just want it over,' he told the publication. Aside from Sebastian, Day has also managed a raft of high-profile clients including Grant Denyer, Sophie Monk, Tina Arena, and Stephanie Rice. Hollyoaks star Caroline Koziol has reportedly tied the knot with her fiance Phil Thornett. The actress, who played Katja in the Channel 4 soap, met businessman Phil on an aeroplane and fell in love. And six years after going public with their relationship, the happy couple have made things official by becoming man and wife, reports The Sun. The countryside nuptials were said to be witnessed by the couples family and friends including Caroline's former Hollyoaks co-star Rory Douglas Speed, who plays Joel Dexter on the soap. The pair grew close during Caroline's short stint on Hollyoaks, and she's said to have described Rory as a 'brother from another mother'. 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. Hollyoaks star Caroline Koziol has reportedly tied the knot with her fiance Phil Thornett The countryside nuptials were said to be witnessed by the couples family and friends including Caroline's former Hollyoaks co-star Rory Douglas Speed, who plays Joel Dexter on the soap MailOnline have contacted Caroline's representatives for comment. While she's kept her romance with actor and writer Phil under wraps, she has spoken about him in the past, praising his 'kindness' in an interview with Shoutout LA. Describing him as her 'best friend', she said: 'He believed in me more than anyone else. I feel blessed that I had a chance to meet him. 'His kindness towards people and me was beyond, but I guess a part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.' Carolina, who appeared on Hollyoaks for a number of months in 2021, portrayed Polish immigrant Katja. Her stint saw her act as an unsuspecting van driver of laptops that Warren Fox, Felix Westwood and Brad King had planned to steal. Amid their scheme, she was directed into a garage by Felix dressed as a policeman, however, she became suspicious of his identity when she noticed he wasn't wearing a stab vest. In his panic, Felix tied her up and placed her in the back of the van, however, a scuffle ensued and Katja managed to escape. She had jumped into the van to flee but in her hurry, she accidentally knocked over Maxine Minniver, leaving her unconscious. Carolina, who appeared on Hollyoaks for a number of months in 2021, portrayed Polish immigrant Katja [pictured] Caroline's first major role was as Mariana in Line of Duty back in 2019 [pictured] Caroline has also become a TikTok and YouTube sensation in recent times, going viral in 2024 thanks to her GP Receptionist and Builder videos [pictured in 2023] Prior to Hollyoaks, Caroline began her career in the theatre and was even nominated for a Best Actress award at the Los Angeles Film Festival for her role in 2020 short film Dream Catcher. Caroline's first major role was as Mariana in Line of Duty back in 2019. She's since gone on to become a Bollywood star, appearing in over 20 Bollywood films. Caroline has also become a TikTok and YouTube sensation in recent times, going viral in 2024 thanks to her GP Receptionist and Builder videos. Patsy Palmer and Mia Regan were among the stars in attendance for the launch of the new 'Queer Was Always Here' T-shirts with Choose Love in support of LGBTQIA+ refugees in London on Thursday. EastEnders actress Patsy, 53, opted for a laid-back chunky colourful scarf which she paired with a beige buttoned up cardigan. Opting for comfort, Patsy paired her garment with some tailored black trousers and brown, beige and blue trainers. She accessorised her ensemble with a pair of aviator spectacles and a set of elegant gold earrings. Meanwhile Mia opted for a more summery casual look as she stepped out in a pair of beige knee-length shorts. 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. Patsy Palmer and Mia Regan were among the stars in attendance for the launch of 'Queer Was Always Here' T-shirts with Choose Love in support of LGBTQIA+ refugees on Thursday Mia opted for an elegant summery casual look as she stepped out in a pair of beige knee-length shorts Keeping it relaxed, Mia paired her shorts with a white T-shirt and elegant brown Mary Jane flat shoes. She finished her ensemble with a brown leather jacket and a cream tasseled bag which wore across her chest. Adding a pop of colour to the event Jaime Winstone stepped out in a red, yellow and black checked shirt. She paired her country top with blue, red and white tweed skirt, brown knee-high boots and a grey cap. Nathaniel Curits showcased his toned legs as he wore a pair of long denim shorts for the glitzy event. He finished his look with white socks, white laced up trainers and a white Choose Love T-shirt. Jaylin Ye put on a leggy display for the outing as she wore a long denim blue skirt which featured a daringly high slit up her leg. She finished her look with a pair of long chunky leather boots and an elegant brown top which draped across her shoulders. Opting for comfort, Patsy paired her garment with some tailored black trousers and brown, beige and blue trainers (pictured with DJ Fat Tony) Adding a pop of colour to the event Jaime Winstone stepped out in a red, yellow and black checked shirt Nathaniel Curtis showcased his toned legs as he wore a pair of long denim shorts for the event Jaylin Ye put on a leggy display for the outing as she wore a long denim blue skirt which featured a daringly high slit up her leg Also adding a pop of colour to the evening, Minmie Sangsawang stepped out in a bright purple top Eric Chang looked handsome as he wore a white and black zipped jacket which he paired with black tailored trousers Also adding a pop of colour to the evening, Minmie Sangsawang stepped out in a bright purple top. She paired the brightly-coloured garment with a knee-length beige skirt and some black leather flat shoes. Eric Chang looked handsome as he wore a white and black zipped jacket which he paired with black tailored trousers. He toted around his belongings in an extra large dark brown bag which he unconventionally carried around held under his arm. Sarah Jessica Parker cut a glamorous figure in a black lace dress as she departed dinner at D'chez Eux restaurant in Paris and headed back to her hotel on Thursday. The Carrie Bradshaw actress, 60, looked sensational in a bejeweled number which she teamed with neon pink heels. She wore her blonde tresses styled perfectly into loose waves and carried her belongigns in a large blue handbag. The Sex and The City icon added a pair of stylish sunglasses as she headed inside her lavish hotel. Meanwhile her And Just Like That co-star Cynthia Nixon turned heads in an off the shoulder black dress which boasted a dramatic tasselled skirt. 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. Sarah Jessica Parker cut a glamorous figure in a black lace dress as she departed dinner at D'chez Eux restaurant in Paris and headed back to her hotel on Thursday Meanwhile her And Just Like That co-star Cynthia Nixon turned heads in an off the shoulder black dress which boasted a dramatic tasselled skirt She elevated her frame in a pair of stilettos and toted her belongings around in a matching clutch as she headed inside the same hotel. It comes as the new series has been dubbed an improvement from the first two seasons ahead of it being released on Friday. The Mail's Claudia Connell awarded the drama four stars, writing: 'After two disappointing seasons as flat as a loafer shoe that Carrie Bradshaw wouldn't be caught dead in, And Just Like That the sequel to Sex And The City is finally hitting the right note.' The Guardian gave it three stars, writing: 'After two misfiring series, some of the old Sex and the City magic is detectable in this new run of the HBO spin-off. 'As it returns for a third run, there are signs that it's finally getting into its vertiginous-heeled stride. 'There is still plenty here to mock and rest assured, we will but there's also just enough of the old magic to make this a nostalgic guilty pleasure.' Meanwhile The Independent agreed saying that the series had 'finally started to find its groove'. They added in their three star review: 'The evolution, from controversial reboot to inoffensive serial, might spawn fewer social media reactions, but it makes for a far smoother watch.' The Carrie Bradshaw actress, 60, looked sensational in a bejeweled number which she teamed with neon pink heels to boost her height She wore her blonde tresses styled perfectly into loose waves and carried her belongigns in a large blue handbag The Sex and The City icon added a pair of stylish sunglasses as she headed inside her lavish hotel Cynthia elevated her frame in a pair of stilettos and toted her belongings around in a matching clutch as she headed inside the same hotel IndieWire also agreed that things were improving with the third series, saying: 'Michael Patrick King's 'Sex and the City' sequel series seems to be settling into a groove. 'A groove that's quite familiar, if once forsaken. Yes, a groove worn smooth by 'Sex and the City.'' Collider, Time Magazine and Mamamia also gave positive reviews. In an interview this week, Sarah revealed Mr. Big's death on And Just Like That was 'really hard' for her to film. The actress addressed the shocking moment in the show where Carrie's husband Mr. Big (Chris Noth) died of a heart attack after working out on his Peloton bike. Mr. Big had been a staple character of Sex And The City and Carrie's main love interest so it was a risk for writers to kill him off. Speaking on The E! News Sitdown with Bruce Bozzi, Sarah gave her thoughts on the storyline. She said: 'Big dying was really, really hard to do both professionally and personally. That's not just a thread. It's one of the main arteries that you would struggle to do without.' 'It was really sad to say goodbye to that. It's not like I needed it for my own health or wellbeing. But that was a hugely wonderful story to tell for a lot of years.' Although Sarah does agree with some of the online 'objections' over how Carrie and Big ended up together, she still admires the couple's relationship. In an interview this week, Sarah revealed Mr. Big's death on And Just Like That was 'really hard' for her to film She said: 'Big dying was really, really hard to do both professionally and personally' (pictured on Sex And The City, 1999) 'All of it was a mess, and all of it was wonderful,' she said. 'It was romantic, and it was a disaster. It was destructive, and it was healthy. It just felt really untethered. It was really sad to say goodbye to that.' Since Big's death, Carrie has rekindled her romance with old flame Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) who she was involved with in seasons three and four of Sex And The City. Chris Noth had his career upended in 2021 when he faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has since staunchly denied. The 70-year-old has confessed that he 'strayed on my wife,' which was 'devastating to her,' but added: 'What it isn't, is a crime.' Last year, he firmly denied multiple allegation allegations of sexual misconduct in his first interview about the charges that infamously put his career on hold. Chris, who has insisted he is still close to his former Sex and the City co-stars, told USA Today that any encounters he has had outside his marriage were consensual. 'I strayed on my wife, and it's devastating to her and not a very pretty picture,' he told the outlet. 'What it isn't, is a crime.' The former Law and Order star has been married to his wife, Tara Wilson, 45, since 2012. The couple were together for 10 years before tying the knot and are parents to two children - Orion, 16, and Keats, four. Noth said he has spoken to his teenager about the situation. More sex, more fashion, more fun... Just like that, Carrie and Co are back on form, reviews CLAUDIA CONNELL Rating: After two disappointing seasons as flat as a loafer shoe that Carrie Bradshaw wouldn't be caught dead in, And Just Like That the sequel to Sex And The City is finally hitting the right note. The reboot has struggled to morph sex columnist and reformed serial-dater Carrie Bradshaw and her friends Miranda and Charlotte into menopausal midlifers without their fourth wheel, the feisty, sex-crazed PR Samantha Jones. The initial storylines prioritised diversity and social justice, while shoehorning in tediously earnest characters. But, returning this week for a third series, the writers seem to have learnt from their mistakes. Having watched six episodes, I have to say that we're not home and dry... but it's looking good. They have ditched the woke mess of the earlier episodes in favour of more sex, more fashion and more fun. In the last series, newly widowed Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, reconnected with her ex-fiance Aidan (John Corbett), now a Virginia farmer. Series three sees the pair embark on a long-distance relationship. Come on, there's no way a city fashionista like Carrie would thrive as a farmer's wife and the plotline has nowhere to go. Even their clumsy attempt at phone sex is a snooze fest! So maybe the writers will come up with a zeitgeist way of killing off Aidan, as they did with Carrie's husband Big, who had a heart attack while riding his Peloton in series one. An allergic reaction to Ozempic perhaps? After two disappointing seasons And Just Like That the sequel to Sex And The City is finally hitting the right note This new chapter of the groundbreaking Sex and the City franchise finds Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte navigating the complicated reality of friendship, family, and New York in their 50s Thankfully, a promising new love interest emerges in the shape of Carrie's grouchy new downstairs neighbour Duncan, a famous British writer with whom she has instant chemistry. And he isn't the only Brit bringing the romance. Late-life lesbian Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), following an unlikely one-night stand, ends up dating plummy-voiced BBC producer Joy, played by Dolly Wells. The Carrie and Aidan story isn't the only aspect of And Just Like That to stretch credulity very few women pushing 60 teeter around in five-inch heels and precious few full-time working women (as Charlotte and Miranda claim to be) are able to meet for endless coffee/lunch/shopping trips at the drop of a hat. So, some scenes are silly, but others do hit home. Carrie's struggles with technology when it comes to her home alarm system and video doorbell will be familiar to many. Charlotte finding herself 'cancelled' by the 'dog mum' community when her bulldog is mistakenly identified as attacking another mutt in Central Park is also cleverly done. And it's genuinely hilarious when Charlotte and Lisa (Nicole Ari Parker) resort to desperate measures to secure the services of New York's most in-demand tutor, nicknamed 'the Ivy whisperer' due to her ability to get kids into Ivy League colleges. There's a nod to all of the middle-aged women rushing to get diagnosed with ADHD, while Charlotte and her husband are baffled by their daughter's 'poly' (polyamorous) boyfriend. The void left by Samantha is mostly filled by Seema (Sarita Choudhury), Carrie's sharp-tongued real estate agent friend. The reboot has struggled to morph sex columnist and reformed serial-dater Carrie Bradshaw and her friends Miranda and Charlotte into menopausal midlifers Still single in her 50s, she gives a professional matchmaker short shrift when told she needs to be more demure and dress in ladylike pastels if she wants to snare a man. Fashion is still at the core of the show with the actresses changing outfits several times per episode. Some of the clothes are stunning, others are just daft. An enormous cloth hat by Maryam Keyhani that Carrie wears in one episode makes her look like the Artful Dodger. Another scene, in which Carrie's sexy new neighbour complains about the noise her shoes make on her wooden floors, was clearly devised as an excuse to give us a set-to-music montage of her fabulous heel collection. Contrived, yes, but still frothy good fun. As the 'girls' teeter towards bus pass age, it's good to have them getting back to form even though every single episode still leaves you thinking how much more enjoyable it would be if Samantha Jones was there. An Australian lawyer has weighed in on Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness' messy divorce drama. After Deborra-Lee, 69, officially filed for divorce from Hugh, 56, this week, the actress addressed her heartbreak in an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com. Her emotive statement addressed the 'profound wound' the actress suffered during the split, which she described as a 'traumatic journey of betrayal.' Sydney divorce lawyer Cassandra Kalpaxis has since commented on the recent developments, warning that Deborra-Lee's public statement could be 'misinterpreted.' 'When I work with high-profile clients, I always advise them not to speak publicly about the split,' Cassandra told news.com.au. 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. A Sydney lawyer has weighed in on the Hugh Jackman and Deborrah-Lee Furness divorce drama 'It's never received the way it's intended, not by the media, friends, or family, because context and tone are everything.' The lawyer, who is also the author of Dignified Divorce: How to Separate Simply and Stay Out of Court, added that misinterpreted comments can often sour an amicable split. 'Things are easily misinterpreted, and that one comment can get back to the other person, be taken the wrong way, and spark acrimony,' she said. 'That's often how amicable divorces turn acrimonious.' Following her decision to officially file for divorce from the Les Miserables star, two years after announcing their separation, the Australian actress addressed her heartbreak in an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com. 'My heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal,' she said. 'It's a profound wound that cuts deep, however I believe in a higher power and that God/the universe, whatever you relate to as your guidance, is always working FOR us. 'This belief has helped me navigate the breakdown of an almost three-decade marriage. I have gained much knowledge and wisdom through this experience. After Deborra-Lee, 69, officially filed for divorce from Hugh, 56, this week, the actress addressed her heartbreak in an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com Sydney divorce lawyer Cassandra Kalpaxis (pictured) has weighed in on the developments warning that Deborra-Lee's public statement could be 'misinterpreted.' 'Even when we are presented with apparent adversity, it is leading us to our greatest good, our true purpose. 'It can hurt, but in the long run, returning to yourself and living within your own integrity, values and boundaries is liberation and freedom.' She concluded her statement with the 'one thing' that she has learned, which is 'that none of this is personal'. 'We are all on our individual journeys and I believe that the relationships in our lives are not random,' she added. 'We are drawn to people, we invite them in, in order to learn our lessons and to recognise and heal the broken parts of ourselves...I remain grateful.' Deborra-Lee and Hugh announced the end of their marriage in a shock statement in September 2023, telling fans that they were 'shifting' and as a result had decided to 'separate to pursue our individual growth'. They were married in Melbourne, Australia, in April 1996 before adopting their son Oscar, now 24, in 2000. Five years later they completed their family unit when they adopted daughter Ava, now 19. Following Deborrah-Lee's statement, Hugh, who is now in a relationship with actress Sutton Foster, 50, took a very telling swipe at his ex on social media on Wednesday. 'When I work with high-profile clients, I always advise them not to speak publicly about the split,' Cassandra said. 'It's never received the way it's intended, not by the media, friends, or family, because context and tone are everything.' 'Things are easily misinterpreted, and that one comment can get back to the other person, be taken the wrong way, and spark acrimony,' she added. 'That's often how amicable divorces turn acrimonious' 'My heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal, 'Deborra-Lee said in an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com this week He shared a clip of himself skipping on stage to the sounds of NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye with the simple caption, 'FINALLY', in what appeared to be a pointed reference to the divorce drama. The video was posted the same day that Deborra-Lee took a swipe at her estranged husband amid the flurry of rumours that he cheated on her with his current girlfriend Sutton Foster. DailyMail.com exclusively revealed this week that Deborra-Lee filed the complaint in New York on May 23 and that, per the filings, everything has been ironed out behind the scenes. Other filings submitted by Furness' lawyer, Elena Karabatos, in the divorce matter include a notice concerning continuation of health care coverage, a proposed qualified medical child support order, a New York state case registry form (used to report child support orders to the state's registry), the settlement, a proposed judgment of divorce, and certificate of dissolution. All that needs to be done now is for the judge to sign off on the judgment. Furness, who has two adopted children with the Wolverine actor, has received a 'handsome spousal support payment,' according to an insider who said there will be no 'drama' as they terminate their 27 year marriage. 'A settlement was reached that Deborra is pleased with which includes a handsome spousal support payment,' a source exclusively told DailyMail.com. 'There was some back and forth regarding this financial agreement but, in the end, she got what she believed she deserved. Both are coming out of this financially secure. 'There is not going to be any drama with this gives closure that she needed.' A separate source said the divorce is 'non contested,' meaning there was not a major disagreement between the couple divorcing. 'They have worked out the details in advance and everything is ironed out in terms of a settlement, alimony and the expenses for the future of their children,' they said. Adele Roberts has shared a worrying health update as she posted a snap from hospital. The TV and radio star, 46, underwent surgery for bowl cancer in October 2021, later undergoing chemotherapy treatment and getting a stoma and announcing she had been given the all-clear in June 2022. However, three years after overcoming cancer, Adele took to her Instagram stories on Thursday to reveal she's undertaking blood tests as her iron count is low. Sharing a beaming image of herself and partner Kate Holderness in the waiting room of the cardiology department, Adele explained: 'Having a blood test today for my anaemia. Hopefully this one will go well and I will get more medication. 'We're not sure why my iron count is low... either damage to my blood from chemo or due to having a stoma. Without my medication I have no energy. I'm not running at the moment and I'm so tired all the time.' 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. Adele Roberts has shared a worrying health update as she posted a snap from hospital [pictured in 2024] The TV and radio star, 46, underwent surgery for bowl cancer in October 2021, later undergoing chemotherapy treatment and getting a stoma and announcing she had been given the all-clear in June 2022 [pictured in 2023] She added: 'Hopefully I'll get some more medicine once my GP has seen today's results... otherwise I'm going to be consistently falling asleep until I die.' The star later uploaded another image of herself with plasters on her arms from where the needles had been inserted. Shortly afterwards, she told how she initially discovered she had anemia amid her former bid to take part on Dancing On Ice, with the show's doctor recognising she had a problem with iron in her blood after she confessed to a habit of crunching ice with her teeth. Back in January, Adele opened up on the gruelling side effects of her chemotherapy as she revealed the treatment removed her finger tips. She's currently in remission but her journey fighting the condition left the DJ with some unexpected side effects as she revealed to Monday Mile Podcast that the treatment also caused black spots on her tongue. Adele told the show: 'Chemotherapy is different with every single person. And with me, it really affected my skin. 'So it took my fingerprints off. I couldn't use my fingers, I couldn't use touch screens, I couldn't use my phone, self-checkouts, things like that. 'It really damaged the bottom of my feet - it looked like they'd been burnt or something like that. It also turned my tongue black. However, three years after overcoming cancer, Adele took to her Instagram stories on Thursday to reveal she's undertaking blood tests as her iron count is low The star later uploaded another image of herself with plasters on her arms from where the needles had been inserted She told how she initially discovered she had anemia amid her former bid to take part on Dancing On Ice, with the show's doctor recognising she had a problem with iron in her blood a 'I had these black spots on my tongue. So instead of being pink, like an intestine, she was like dark purple and it was almost like treacle would come out of it. 'It was a lot, it was a mess. I used to think if the chemo is doing this to me, imagine what it's doing to the cancer. And I made sure that I stayed active all the way through my chemo. 'And I just used to visualise all of the chemotherapy going through my body and killing any cancer cells. And it was like a way for me to stay strong mentally. Movement and visualisation, that's what I did.' Adele was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in October 2021 and documented her treatment on social media, which included colostomy surgery to remove a bowel tumour and having a stoma bag fitted. Back in January, Adele opened up on the gruelling side effects of her chemotherapy as she revealed the treatment removed her finger tips 'It was a lot, it was a mess. I used to think if the chemo is doing this to me, imagine what it's doing to the cancer. And I made sure that I stayed active all the way through my chemo' Nine months after being diagnosed, and after receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, Adele was declared cancer free, and now lives with a stoma bag, which she has named Audrey. The Dancing On Ice star previously disclosed that she felt 'accountable' for her cancer scare and felt 'she was being punished for something'. She said: 'I totally thought that I had caused it [the cancer]. My first thought was 'Am I going to die?'. But once he [the doctor] said he could help me, it's all I held onto. 'And when he said it wasn't my fault that's when I just cried and got so emotional.' Emma Weymouth looked sensational in a figure-hugging gown as she attended a party at The Orangery, Kensington Palace on Thursday. The Marchioness of Bath, 39, showed off her amazing figure as she went braless under the plunging halterneck number as she attended the unveiling of VOYAGES by NEST New York, a new collection of fragrances. She added inches to her frame in a pair of pink stilettos and toted her belongings in a small woven handbag. Styling her long brunette tresses in a neat ponytail, Emma accessorised with a long dazzling pearl necklace and matching earrings. She was joined by Pixie Geldof who looked stylish in a navy sleeveless midi dress which she paired with eye catching coral heels. 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. Emma Weymouth looked sensational in a figure-hugging gown as she attended a party at The Orangery, Kensington Palace on Thursday She was joined by Pixie Geldof who looked stylish in a navy sleeveless midi dress which she paired with eye catching coral heels; pictured with Jack Guinness The model, 34, styled her long tresses in a chic up-do and toted her belongings in a black clutch. Pixie was all smiles as she posed for photos with model Jack Guinness, who looked dapper in a dark suit and black T-shirt. Guests celebrated the unveiling of VOYAGES by NEST New York, a new collection of transportive exquisite fragrances during the evening. Elsewhere Amy Jackson cut a glamorous figure in a satin halterneck gown which she paired with black pointed toe heels. It comes after Emma stunned in a unique silver dress as she stepped out on the Cannes red carpet during the film festival last week. The soicalite was all smiles for the cameras as she posed in the unique dress, which was decorated with intricate pastel flowers. These subtle colours appeared to blend into a silver that turned see-through at the star's ankles, revealing her choice of a beige high heel. The look was brought together by a pair of large, floral diamante earrings and a necklace. The Marchioness of Bath showed off her amazing figure as she went braless under the plunging halterneck number She added inches to her frame in a pair of pink stilettos and toted her belongings in a small woven handbag as she posed with Pippa Vosper Styling her long brunette tresses in a neat ponytail, Emma accessorised with a long dazzling pearl necklace and matching earrings as she posed with Amy Jackson inside the Palace Amy cut a glamorous figure in a satin halterneck gown which she paired with black pointed toe heels It comes after Emma stunned in a unique silver dress as she stepped out on the Cannes Film Festival red carpet last week Emma accentuated these accessories by wearing her hair back with a deep red lip that complimented her glowing skin. She was snapped as she headed to the premiere of The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson's latest comedy drama. With a big-name cast featuring the likes of Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks, it is one of the most hotly-anticipated premieres at the festival this year. The Phoenician Scheme centres around a wealthy father-daughter who are targeted by tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins when she is appointed heir to his estate. Todd Chrisley has been pictured for the first time since he was released from prison after receiving a controversial pardon from President Donald Trump. The 56-year-old Chrisley Knows Best star who boasted about being 'jacked' on his ride home from jail last night showcased his new physique while visiting a Nordstrom store in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday with his daughter Savannah Chrisley, according to Fox News Digital. The day before, he and his wife Julie Chrisley had been released from prison after each received 'a full, unconditional pardon' from President Donald Trump after they had been convicted in 2022 of federal bank fraud and tax evasion charges. The outing came the same day that the 27-year-old reality star who was unmissable in pink 'MAGA Barbie' attire the day before when her parents' pardon was announced was spotted at their home in Nashville as family members arrived for a celebration to welcome home her formerly incarcerated parents. Savannah and her father couldn't contain their laughter in a video she shared to Instagram later in the afternoon showing Todd bizarrely covering his head with a shopping back to try to stay undercover. 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. Todd Chrisley (L) has been pictured for the first time since he was released from jail after receiving a controversial pardon from President Donald Trump. The 56-year-old Chrisley Knows Best star was spotted visiting a Nordstrom store in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday with his daughter Savannah Chrisley (R), according to Fox News Digital Savannah and her father couldn't contain their laughter in a video she shared to Instagram later in the afternoon showing Todd bizarrely covering his head with a shopping back to try to stay undercover Earlier, Julie showed off a shocking transformation when she was first spotted after being freed from prison as she dropped by a butcher shop. Julie, who had been serving a seven-year sentence before her pardon, revealed a surprising head of gray hair with a wash of brown at the ends when she was seen exiting a butcher shop in Nashville. As hair dye isn't allowed in prison, her gray roots had been growing out, even though she previously displayed a perfectly dyed head of blond hair before her incarceration. Todd appeared to be in a particularly spicy mood in Savannah's Instagram video, which documented their comical attempt to escape the Nordstrom store. 'You b****es are not paying your bills for me,' he said in a mock sinister tone while facing the camera. He seemed more concerned with keep others from spotting who he was, as the tall shopping bag that he wore over his head didn't exactly lend him a low profile. 'I'm not giving them hoes a picture!' he added sassily. Savannah held his hand and guided him into an elevator going to the parking garage so that he didn't crash into anything with the bag obscuring his view. Todd appeared to be in a particularly spicy mood in Savannah's Instagram video, which documented their comical attempt to escape the Nordstrom store He seemed more concerned with keep others from spotting who he was, as the tall shopping bag that he wore over his head didn't exactly lend him a low profile 'He looks like he hasn't aged a day,' she said of her father's prison transformation. 'It's called the BOP [Bureau of Prisons] glow!' he joked for the camera. Todd added, 'Julie's at home. That b**** is smarter than I am!' He joked that the 'poor people at Nordstrom' had helped him 'escape' the store. 'They should have been there 28 months ago!' he added, referencing his time behind bars. While he appeared to be jubilant about his controversial pardon, one person was particularly unenthused the third person convicted in the case with Todd and Julie. President Trump notably did not bother to pardon their former accountant Peter Tarantino, who had been sentenced to three years in prison and was released in November 2024 after serving 18 months behind bars. Tarantino told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he was 'collateral damage' in Todd and Julie's case and was a victim of 'basically guilt by association,' as he claims he was unaware that they were committing crimes. The Chrisley Knows Best stars were released from prison on Wednesday after they received pardons from President Donald Trump The former Chrisley Knows Best star, who was known for her coiffed blonde do, smiled in the image first obtained by Fox News Digital; she and husband Todd are seen in 2017 He's currently on parole, and he said plans to petition the president for his own pardon. 'I would like to have my voting rights reinstated and pursue getting my license restored,' he said. 'I think that the prosecution was overly aggressive in charging me.' Tarantino said he hadn't already done so because he doesn't have the funds to do so, and he also doesn't have the fame and connections that the Chrisleys were able to use to get Trump's ear. Tarantino's wife Cathie was even more forceful in her denunciation of the Chrisleys. 'They don't deserve a pardon,' she said. 'They were convicted because they were guilty.' She added that Todd and Julie were 'not what they seem,' and she shared plans to release a 'tell-all' book later this year that would allegedly reveal damning new details about the couple and their conviction. As family members began arriving at the family home, Savannah was spotted out in the garage. She looked far more casual than she had to welcome her parents home, and she favored a black miniskirt that highlighted her tanned and toned legs, with a license plate design over one thigh reading, 'BOYS LIE.' The pair's elated daughter Savannah, 27, spoke to the press outside Todd's Florida prison after campaigning for years for their release 'I'm just a daughter that wants to take my dad home with me,' she told TMZ The podcaster wore a long sleeve cropped top over it revealing her trim midriff, along with flip flops and her read MAGA hat. Other guests were spotted arriving on the family's long driveway, and some were seen taking care of supplies for the reunion celebration in the garage with Savannah. She was spotted out side the home at one point chatting with one of her family's guests. Savannah's older brother Chase Chrisley spoke to Entertainment Tonight on Thursday about their parents's time behind bars. Chase revealed that Todd and Julie, who starred in Chrisley Knows Best and several spin-offs, could only communicate via email when they were locked away. And more times than not, Chase claimed that the couple would go long periods without communicating due to issues receiving each other's emails. 'The only contact that they had was through emails, which the BOP [Federal Bureau of Prisons] would delay for weeks on end,' he told the outlet Thursday. 'Maybe my dad would send her an email one day, and she wouldn't get it for two or three weeks,' Chase continued. 'It was impossible to have a conversation, but they didn't have any they weren't allowed to talk on the phone. Nothing.' Chase was then asked if Todd and Julie's homecoming would be featured on the family's upcoming reality TV show for Lifetime. He answered 'maybe' while noting that the show began production before Trump's pardon and that, as of now, 'there's no deal in place for my parents' to appear. Chase said 'no' when asked if his parents would be a direct part of their upcoming TV venture because he claimed it is 'too early to tell' if they are ready to return to the spotlight. 'We'll have to have a family conversation about that.' However, Chase did say that Lifetimes camera crews captured the phone calls the family had with Todd and Julie when they were still behind bars. 'You guys will see it. And it's just been raw reality and truth of like the struggles that we've been going through as a family, as individuals and how to navigate that while still staying together and holding our family together,' he explained to ET. 'Thankfully, now we've got my mom and dad back, so it just feels like a 1,000-pound weight has been lifted off my shoulders.' A source shared with PEOPLE Thursday that the Chrisleys' reality TV show 'is still filming and will continue to, though the family's situation is evolving rapidly.' The insider added that Trump's pardon caught both the family and production by total surprise. Savannah shared a snap of her parents reunited after prison captioned 'reunited and it feels so good' 'No one knew this pardon would happen and the goal is to cover their lives in real time, but things have significantly changed for them all and everyone in the family, as well as producers, are trying to figure it out and tell their authentic story.' Julie and Todd, 56, were found guilty of defrauding banks out of $30 million in 2022. Julie had been serving her seven-year prison sentence in Kentucky, while Todd, 56, was serving his 12-year sentence in Florida. Early Wednesday evening, Todd was released from Federal Prison Camp Pensacola while Julie was set free from FMC Lexington, according to Fox5. The pair's elated daughter Savannah, 27, spoke to the press outside his Florida prison after campaigning for years for their release. While dressed in bright pink 'MAGA Barbie' attire, she lauded President Trump, who personally called her on Tuesday to inform her of his decision to give her parents 'a full, unconditional pardon.' After a nearly three-week jury trial, Todd and Julie were convicted in June 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta, Georgia area out of more than $30 million in personal loans by submitting false documents. They were also found guilty of wire fraud and tax evasion, obscuring their earnings while showcasing a luxurious lifestyle with expensive cars and designer clothes. Wearing a hot pink MAGA hat, Savannah said she is 'so grateful that I'm going to leave here with my dad' after an 'insane' three years of her trying to get him and Julie freed. She confirmed that her brother Grayson Chrisley would be the one picking up their mother from her Kentucky prison facility. 'President Trump signed the pardons at around 3pm this afternoon and it's all due to President Trump, Alice Johnson, Ed Martin, all of them,' she told the crowd. 'They have truly just shown up and looked at [Todd and Julie's] case with a fine-tooth comb and they've seen the corruption.' 'President Trump signed the pardons at around 3pm this afternoon and it's all due to President Trump, Alice Johnson, Ed Martin, all of them,' she told the crowd. After her call with Trump, Savannah said she arrived at her dad's prison in Pensacola at 2 in the morning on Wednesday and has been waiting there since. Todd and Julie were found guilty of defrauding banks out of $30 million in 2022; seen in 2018 Trump seen signing Todd and Julie Chrisley's pardon on Wednesday, as per photos shared to Savannah's Instagram 'I have not gone to sleep. I did not bring any clothes with me. I did not bring a toothbrush with me. I brought absolutely nothing with me,' she revealed with a laugh. 'I'm just a daughter that wants to take my dad home with me.' When asked what Todd and Julie's reactions were to Trump's pardon, Savannah said that he was initially in total disbelief. 'They didn't believe it. [The pardon] literally came out of nowhere. As I said before, I was walking into the grocery store when I got the call from the president,' she explained. 'I was just in such shock and such awe that the president himself called me and took the time to let me know that my family's coming back together.' Savannah said that her and Trump's entire correspondence was captured 'on video' and that he had called to let her know that he was 'reuniting [her] family.' She also said that Trump and her younger brother Grayson Chrisley, 19, spoke briefly 'about the University of Alabama where President Trump just gave the commencement speech.' Grayson is currently a sophomore at the university located in Tuscaloosa. Wearing a hot pink MAGA hat, Savannah told TMZ that she is 'so grateful that I'm going to leave here with my dad' after an 'insane' two years of her trying to get him and Julie freed 'So, it was absolutely amazing. It truly was just a human to human interaction and yes, he is our president but he's also a person with a heart and who loves people well,' Savannah gushed. 'Over the last 24 hours, I've gotten so much love and so much hate. And I've had people say, 'Hmmm, I wonder what she had to do to get this pardon?' I didn't have to do anything. 'I didn't have to do anything other than stand firm in my beliefs and my convictions and fight for my parents and fight for what was right.' Savannah went on to declare that President Trump has given all of the American people 'hope and a brighter future' since stepping into office not just her family. 'People like to say [Trump's] for the wealthy, for people who have campaigned for him [but] he has truly given everyone a chance at a better life and for that I will forever be grateful.' Savannah confirmed that her and her family, including Todd and Julie, will soon be returning to TV with a new reality show. 'We have a new show coming out on Lifetime and it will document all of these things and we're excited.' According to TMZ, production has already started on the Chrisley's new show and a camera crew followed both Savannah and Grayson as they traveled to pick up their parents from prison. The couple's shock release, according to production sources, is set to be a major storyline on the show and that Todd and Julie's respective releases were captured on camera. However, the sources claimed that Trump's unexpected phone call to Savannah on Tuesday was not captured by Lifetimes' camera crew. Hours later, Savannah shared a photo of herself outside her dad's prison to Instagram with a lengthy caption about 'fighting for her family' The original plan for the family's new show was to feature cameos from Todd and Julia via prison phone calls while much of the storyline would center on how Savannah and her older brother Chase Chrisley are holding down the family while their parents are locked away. Savannah concluded Wednesday's press conference by shouting out both 'God and President Trump' again for bringing her family back together. Hours later, Savannah shared a photo of herself outside her dad's prison to Instagram with a lengthy caption about 'fighting for her family.' 'This is from the press conference outside my father's prison today That smile on my face? I haven't seen it in years. It's the smile of a daughter who refused to give up. A woman who cried in silence, broke down in court bathrooms, and kept showing up even when the world told her to sit down,' the star penned to her 2.9million followers. She continued: Behind that smile is exhaustion. Trauma. A million sleepless nights. But also fire. Conviction. Faith. 'I'm the product of a pissed off daughter and a relentless woman. And trust me when I saythere is nothing more dangerous than a woman fighting for her family.' Savannah offered more thanks to President Trump and his administration while commending herself for keeping her 'promise' to her parents to 'bring them home.' 'I stood by my parents and vowed that I would get them home I kept that promise. By the grace of God, the courage of President Trump, the compassion of Alice Johnson, the integrity of Ed Martin, and the strength of the Trump administrationwe did the impossible,' she wrote. 'This fight was never just about us. It's about every family torn apart by injustice. Every parent, every child, every person who's been silenced or shattered by a system that too often forgets the humanity behind the headlines. 'Let this be your reminder: Keep fighting. Cry if you need to. Break down if you must. But don't you dare stop believing. Your voice matters. Your story matters. And when women rise, mountains move.' To conclude her post, Savannah teased that 'we're just getting started.' She included the hashtags '#Freedom #JusticeForAll #Pardoned #Trump2025 #FaithOverFear.' Later, she uploaded a brief video to her Instagram Story revealing that she had thrown up on the ride back home to Nashville with dad Todd. Imprisoned reality TV star Joe Exotic left a congratulatory comment on Savannah's post after expressing rage over Julie and Todd's pardons Later, she uploaded a brief video to her Instagram Story revealing that she had thrown up on the ride back home to Nashville with dad Todd Todd could be heard laughing in the background as his daughter held a plastic bag under her chin. He later quipped: 'I didn't have to deal with this in prison!' Todd could be heard laughing in the background as his daughter held a plastic bag under her chin. 'Guys I puked the whole way,' said Savannah, while still wearing her pink MAGA cap. While Savannah didn't pan the camera to show him, Todd continued to laugh offscreen as he remarked he could 'smell' her vomit. After Savannah told him to just 'spray perfume' in the car, Todd quipped: 'I didn't have to deal with this in prison!' White House aide Margo Martin revealed the pardon on Tuesday by posting video of the president on the phone with Savannah, captioning the post: 'Trump Knows Best!' a play on the couple's breakout reality TV show title. While pushing for a pardon for her parents over the last two and a half years, Savannah has become a fixture in MAGAworld. She attended the 2024 Republican National Convention and the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference - both events where Trump was the headliner and aides and allies were everywhere. She appeared on the sidelines of last month's White House Correspondents' Dinner. The effort paid off when Savannah received the call from the Oval Office on Tuesday. 'That's a terrible thing, that's a terrible thing,' Trump told Savannah over the phone. 'But it's a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope we can do it by tomorrow, is that OK?' Julie was supposed to serve time at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky until January 2028. Todd's prison sentence kept him locked away at FPC Pensacola until April 2032, according to the Palm Beach Post. 'I don't know them, but them give my regards,' Trump also said. 'Wish them a good life.' Savannah can be heard on the phone thanking the president and telling him her brother Grayson was on the line too. The couple famously starred in the television show 'Chrisley Knows Best' and several spin-offs Savannah (pictured with President Trump) has become a fixture in the MAGA world amid her two-year fight for her parents' freedom Grayson piped up, 'Mr. President, I just want to say thank you for bringing my parents back.' 'Yeah, well, they were given a pretty harsh treatment from what I'm hearing,' Trump said. Savannah revealed more details about her call with Trump while appearing on NewsNation's On Balance with Leland Vittert on Tuesday. She said that Trump told her how he believed her parents were 'treated unfairly' and that he 'wanted to give them a full pardon.' 'He was like, you know, 'You guys don't look like terrorists to me.' His exact words, which was pretty funny,' she added. Savannah first reacted to the pardon news via Instagram on Tuesday in a lengthy clip after a video snippet of their call was shared by White House aide Margo Martin. 'President Trump didn't just commute their sentences, he gave them a full, unconditional pardon. So for that I am forever grateful. Thank you, President Trump,' she told fans. Savannah then vowed to 'stand next to [Trump] and [his] administration and to stand up to the corruption and to continue fighting for the men and women that are in prison. 'I will repay your kindness to every person that I meet, so thank God for a president like Donald J. Trump,' she said. The Chrisleys' attorney, Alex Little, said Trump's pardon 'corrects a deep injustice and restores two devoted parents to their family and community'. 'President Trump recognized what we've argued from the beginning: Todd and Julie were targeted because of their conservative values and high profile,' Little said in a statement. 'Their prosecution was tainted by multiple constitutional violations and political bias.' Little's statement added: 'Todd and Julie's case is exactly why the pardon power exists. Thanks to President Trump, the Chrisley family can now begin healing and rebuilding their lives.' However, the couple's shock pardon was met with intense backlash online, with many proclaiming there is 'no justice anymore.' On Tuesday, President Trump personally called Todd and Julie's daughter Savannah on Tuesday to inform her of his decision to give her parents a 'a full, unconditional pardon' Savannah first reacted to the pardon news via Instagram on Tuesday in a lengthy clip after a video snippet of their call was shared by White House aide Margo Martin On Reddit, one simply wrote: 'What a world this is?' 'You can scam millions, evade taxes, and still walk free, just smile for the cameras and wait for a pardon,' another said. Echoing a similar sentiment, a third added: 'There is no justice anymore.' 'It's great that they defrauded a bank out of millions of dollars and lied on their taxes and now they will have no consequences!' another continued. 'Reality TV grifters have to stick together!' joked a sixth. Another asked: 'How do Republicans/MAGA justify this and sleep at night knowing they are supporting the pardoning of fraudsters?' Fellow reality television star Joe Exotic was also among those who were angered by the pardon. Joe is currently serving a 21-year sentence at FMC Forth Worth Federal Medical Center in Texas for conspiracy to commit murder-for hire. He has been fighting for a pardon for the past five years. He shared a screenshot of a PEOPLE article announcing the Chrisleys' pardon on Tuesday with the caption: 'This officially shows the Justice system is still two sided. You are either rich and connected or your poor and being trafficked by the system.' Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, he said: 'I have never been more disappointed in my life that President Trump is pardoning all of these people that have actually committed crimes and yet he leaves me here.' He added: 'I sit here innocent with two forms of cancer and can't get his attention.' However, Joe publicly congratulated the Chrisley family on Wednesday as he left a comment on Savannah's latest Instagram post. 'Congratulations. Hope I am next. But we have to expose the inside of here,' he wrote. Along with Todd and Julie Chrisley, Trump also used his pardoning power on several other individuals this week. On Wednesday, former New York City congressman Michael Grimm had his 2014 tax fraud conviction forgiven. Grimm, who represented Staten Island, served seven months in jail and carried out 200 hours of community service for the offense. He won reelection in 2014 despite being under indictment for underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran. However, he resigned the following year after pleading guilty. The pardoning of Todd and Julie Chrisley was met with intense backlash online, with many proclaiming there is 'no justice anymore'. Among those angered by the pardon was fellow reality TV star Joe Exotic, who has been pleading for pardon Grimm, who notoriously threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony during the 2014 State of the Union, was previously accused of having sex in the bathroom of a bar after spending more than 15 minutes locked away with a female friend. Last year he was paralyzed from the chest down when he was thrown off a horse during a polo tournament. Former NYC Council Member, Vincent Ignizio, started a GoFundMe for Grimm, asking for $2.5million in donations to pay for treatment to help him 'walk again.' The president also pardoned a labor union leader who pleaded guilty to failing to report gifts from an advertising firm. James Callahan, of Lindenhurst, New York, was general president of the International Union of Operating Engineers when he accepted - but failed to properly report - receiving at least $315,000 in tickets to sporting events and concerts and other amenities from a company that the union used to place ads. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes was scheduled to sentence Callahan on Wednesday. On Tuesday, however, Callahan's attorneys notified the court of Trump's 'full and unconditional' pardon and asked for the sentencing hearing to be vacated. Earlier this month, prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of six months for Callahan, calling him 'one of the most powerful union leaders in the country.' They said Callahan's salary and other compensation topped $500,000 annually. Now retired and living in Florida, he has a net worth of more than $5 million, according to prosecutors. Meanwhile, ex-Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover has had his sentence commuted. Hoover has been serving multiple life sentences for murder and running a criminal enterprise. He made his first court appearance in decades in September in an effort to win early release, reported the Chicago Tribune. Hoover was already serving a 200-year state sentence for the murder of a rival when he was indicted in federal court in 1995. He was charged with continuing to oversee his murderous drug gang from prison and was convicted in 1997 then sentencing to life in prison. Trump also said Wednesday that he's considering pardons for the men who plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Along with Todd and Julie Chrisley, Trump also used his pardoning power on several other individuals this week; Trump seen in February Trump pardoned former New York City congressman Michael Grimm (left) for his 2014 tax fraud conviction Trump commuted the federal sentence of ex-Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover (pictured) 'I'm going to look at it. I will take a look at it. It's been brought to my attention,' he said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. 'I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, I'll be honest with you.' 'It looked to me like some people said some stupid things. You know, they were drinking, and I think they said stupid things,' he added. Trump claimed there was bipartisan support for the pardon. 'A lot of people are asking me that question from both sides actually,' he said. 'A lot of people think they got railroaded. A lot of people think they got railroaded.' In 2020, during Trump's first term, federal prosecutors charged six people with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer. On Monday, Trump pardoned a former Virginia sheriff who was to serve time for a cash-for-badges scheme. The sheriff, Scott Jenkins, had been a Trump supporter, visiting the White House during the president's first term and was utilized as a surrogate in Virginia on the campaign trail. 'This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn't deserve to spend a single day in jail,' Trump posted to Truth Social Monday afternoon. Late last month, Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, who pointed out that his mother had raised millions for the Trump campaigns on his pardon application. Walczak pleaded guilty of tax crimes days before the 2024 election and filed a pardon application shortly after inauguration. Blog Archive: Jul 2025 (25) Jun 2025 (150) May 2025 (155) Apr 2025 (9) Mar 2025 (149) Feb 2025 (139) Jan 2025 (155) Dec 2024 (144) Nov 2024 (143) Oct 2024 (155) Sep 2024 (149) Aug 2024 (155) Jul 2024 (155) Jun 2024 (150) May 2024 (153) Apr 2024 (149) Mar 2024 (155) Feb 2024 (145) Jan 2024 (155) Dec 2023 (155) Nov 2023 (150) Oct 2023 (155) Sep 2023 (150) Aug 2023 (155) Jul 2023 (155) Jun 2023 (150) May 2023 (155) Apr 2023 (150) Mar 2023 (155) Feb 2023 (140) Jan 2023 (155) Dec 2022 (156) Nov 2022 (150) Oct 2022 (155) Sep 2022 (150) Aug 2022 (155) Jul 2022 (154) Jun 2022 (150) May 2022 (155) Apr 2022 (150) Mar 2022 (155) Feb 2022 (140) Jan 2022 (156) Dec 2021 (156) Nov 2021 (150) Oct 2021 (155) Sep 2021 (150) Aug 2021 (155) Jul 2021 (155) Jun 2021 (150) May 2021 (155) Apr 2021 (150) Mar 2021 (155) Feb 2021 (140) Jan 2021 (155) Dec 2020 (155) Nov 2020 (150) Oct 2020 (158) Sep 2020 (150) Aug 2020 (130) Jul 2020 (124) Jun 2020 (120) May 2020 (124) Apr 2020 (120) Mar 2020 (124) Feb 2020 (116) Jan 2020 (125) Dec 2019 (126) Nov 2019 (120) Oct 2019 (124) Sep 2019 (120) Aug 2019 (125) Jul 2019 (124) Jun 2019 (120) May 2019 (123) Apr 2019 (121) Mar 2019 (124) Feb 2019 (112) Jan 2019 (125) Dec 2018 (126) Nov 2018 (120) Oct 2018 (124) Sep 2018 (121) Aug 2018 (124) Jul 2018 (125) Jun 2018 (120) May 2018 (124) Apr 2018 (121) Mar 2018 (124) Feb 2018 (112) Jan 2018 (123) Dec 2017 (124) Nov 2017 (124) Oct 2017 (141) Sep 2017 (135) Aug 2017 (138) Jul 2017 (137) Jun 2017 (134) May 2017 (138) Apr 2017 (135) Mar 2017 (139) Feb 2017 (129) Jan 2017 (143) Dec 2016 (135) Nov 2016 (138) Oct 2016 (142) Sep 2016 (128) Aug 2016 (133) Jul 2016 (136) Jun 2016 (138) May 2016 (164) Apr 2016 (311) Mar 2016 (348) Feb 2016 (320) Jan 2016 (348) Dec 2015 (314) Nov 2015 (338) Oct 2015 (363) Sep 2015 (358) Aug 2015 (399) Jul 2015 (374) Jun 2015 (331) May 2015 (337) Apr 2015 (319) Mar 2015 (320) Feb 2015 (271) Jan 2015 (286) Dec 2014 (254) Nov 2014 (238) Oct 2014 (287) Sep 2014 (267) Aug 2014 (259) Jul 2014 (260) Jun 2014 (238) May 2014 (241) Apr 2014 (228) Mar 2014 (240) Feb 2014 (217) Jan 2014 (263) Dec 2013 (226) Nov 2013 (254) Oct 2013 (256) Sep 2013 (252) Aug 2013 (263) Jul 2013 (261) Jun 2013 (251) May 2013 (250) Apr 2013 (221) Mar 2013 (193) Feb 2013 (164) Jan 2013 (157) Dec 2012 (155) Nov 2012 (240) Oct 2012 (526) Sep 2012 (411) Aug 2012 (394) Jul 2012 (284) Jun 2012 (229) May 2012 (213) Apr 2012 (213) Mar 2012 (253) Feb 2012 (269) Jan 2012 (298) Dec 2011 (273) Nov 2011 (219) Oct 2011 (204) Sep 2011 (201) Aug 2011 (236) Jul 2011 (217) Jun 2011 (211) May 2011 (206) Apr 2011 (215) Mar 2011 (215) Feb 2011 (186) Jan 2011 (215) Dec 2010 (107) Nov 2010 (98) Oct 2010 (55) Kyle Richards carried a pricey accessory during a lunch outing with estranged husband Mauricio Umansky and two of their daughters on Thursday. The 56-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star toted a turquoise, crocodile Hermes Birkin bag with a $127,000 price tag. She teamed the standout piece with a printed blue and white blouse and flared, light wash jeans. Her look was rounded out with open-toe black heels that flashed her dark pedicure. Meanwhile, the 54-year-old real estate broker, from whom Kyle split in 2023, was casually dressed black joggers, a white T-shirt, black jacket, and a backwards red hat. 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. Kyle Richards carried a pricey accessory during a lunch outing with estranged husband Mauricio Umansky and two of their daughters on Thursday The 56-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star toted a turquoise, crocodile Hermes Birkin bag with a $127,000 price tag Kyle and Mauricio were joined by Kyle's firstborn child from her marriage to ex-husband Guraish Aldjufrie, 36-yer-old Farrah Aldjufrie. Farrah wore a ribbed yellow sweater, wide-leg jeans, and beige sneakers while sporting dark sunglasses. Also with them was their 25-year-old daughter Sophia, who was fashionable in a strapless black dress with a flared maxi skirt. She rounded out the on-trend summery look with black leather ballet flats and black sunglasses. At the end of the family lunch at Il Pastaio in Beverly Hills, Mauricio and Kyle shared a friendly hug. Missing from the scene were their two other daughters, 17-year-old Portia and 28-year-old Alexia. Speaking with Us Weekly last October, Kyle opened up about her next steps with Mauricio. The couple announced their separation in July 2023 after 27 years of marriage, but have not yet filed for divorce. 'I don't know what the future holds right now with Mauricio and me. We love each other. So that part is easy. 'What's not easy is figuring out what's next. We're not divorced; he doesn't live here, but we're still figuring things out. On the show, people felt they were owed answers and thought I was withholding stuff but I'm figuring it out myself,' she said candidly. The exes shared a friendly embrace before parting ways Richards swapped out her shirt for a butterfly-covered variety at another point in the day The reality TV star took a phone call as she stepped out of a black luxury vehicle The exes split in July 2023 but have maintained an amicable relationship; Kyle and Mauricio seen in April 2023 Asked if fans will get more insight into the strained marriage on season 15 of RHOBH, Richards answered: 'Mau shot with me quite a bit. He'll come over for dinner and it's like nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. 'The best way I can put it is that we're family. It's easy for us to get along because we never fought. That was not an issue in our marriage; there's so much love there.' Last season on the show, the couple unpacked paparazzi photos of Umansky kissing a young woman during a trip to Mykonos, Greece. 'You know that I would never wanna do anything on purpose that would hurt you or the kids. I really am sorry for... You know, hurting you. I would never want to hurt you on purpose,' the real estate mogul said during a heartfelt scene. Richards responded, 'I know that you would never do that on purpose. I know that you did not know your picture was being taken. I don't know that the other person didn't know that.' She acknowledged that it was 'hard to see,' but added, 'We are separated and we're allowed to do what we want in this time. It's just strange, you know?' It's hard to remember life before... 'it' arrived. It was a simpler time, a better time. It was a time when our brains weren't completely rotted and we knew what women actually looked like. We used to laugh in photos - really laugh, even if it gave us double chins. We would live in the moment, without endless interruptions to preen and pose. And the best part of all: women weren't actively trying to look exactly the same. You know what I'm going to say next... 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. Older millennials like Today show anchor Sarah Abo, 39 (left) are looking fresher than younger millennials like Skye Wheatley, 31 (right). DailyMail+ columnist Amanda Goff suspects this is because the older cohort made it to their 20s without Instagram influencing their lives I'm talking about Instagram. Yes, that app you've probably already checked a dozen times before reading this. It may be hard to remember now, but there was a time before Facetune, filters, filler and fox-eye threads, and whatever the latest buzzy beauty jab is. (Honestly, it's hard to keep up, even for someone like me, a former beauty editor). And it was good. Before Instagram, and even during its relatively innocent early days before it became a cultural behemoth, women enjoyed social media and didn't feel pressured by it. You didn't have literal tweens slathering on harsh retinols and posting skincare videos from their pink bedrooms. 'Get ready with me while I pile on chemicals on my pre-pubescent skin.' 'A lot of you have asked about my skincare routine...' (No, we haven't actually, and why aren't you doing your homework?) If you're an older millennial, say 35 to 42, you would be part of the lucky generation that made it to your twenties without social media turning every woman into a wannabe beauty influencer. You wouldn't have had skincare sold to you before you'd even started your period. Maybe you've had a few tweaks - but only after 30. A touch of Botox. A pinch of subtle filler. Certainly nothing major and certainly nothing before your early thirties. Bernadette Fahey is a shining example of an older millennial who looks to be ageing in reverse. She is seen left in 2012, in her early 20s, and right, aged 35, just a few weeks ago No surgery, no cheek implants, no duck lips, and definitely no stretching your eyes to make you look like a startled alien - or Bella Hadid. I'm looking at women in that age bracket, the likes of Today host Sarah Abo, Pilates queen Bernadette Fahey and PR whiz Roxy Jacenko, who have probably (definitely in Roxy's case) had a few tweaks here and there, but certainly don't look overdone. They look years younger than their actual ages while also still resembling their passport photo when you see them in the flesh. These women look vibrant, youthful and real. But for younger millennials and their Gen Z siblings, it seems to be a different story. Now I see a worrying trend when I scroll through pictures of celebs and influencers in their twenties who look like they started 'tweakments' the day they turned 18. I hate to say it, but something is... off when I look at photos of Skye Wheatley, Kylie Jenner, Tammy Hembrow and Indy Clinton - all beloved by young women and girls, by the way. Maybe it's their waxy smooth foreheads, overly prominent cheeks, plump and over-filled lips, their eyes ever so slanted upwards. Yes, they turn heads. Yes, their figures are hot. And no, I certainly don't look as good in activewear as they do with their young, toned bodies. But one thing I can say for sure: These women look older than their years - certainly older than I did when I was that age. It's like they've skipped straight past the decade of having naturally youthful skin (the type you can't buy from a bottle) and landed in that 40-something zone where anti-ageing becomes a necessary fixation. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong being 40-plus. I'm in my 50s, for God's sake! But 40-plus skin belongs on 40-plus women; not 21- or 30-year-olds. TikTok personality Indy Clinton, 27, is another younger star who has taken to treatments too early, in Amanda Goff's opinion Younger women are ageing differently, and not in a good way. And it's a very recent development. The fact that older millennials, generally speaking, look better than their generation's youngest members should be a cause for alarm. Yes, part of the problem is too much Botox too early. And using harsh skincare too young. Vaping plays a role too. But the worst offender has to be early exposure to the highly curated 'perfect world' of Instagram - the one that emerged when today's 30-year-olds were teenagers. If you're an older millennial in the 35-42 age bracket, you're part of a lucky generation, according to Amanda Goff The pressure must be relentless. Hint of a line? Inject. Eyes a bit squinty? Scalpel. Lips looking ever so thin? Jab. There is always going to be a new look or procedure that's trending - but up close, in real life, it means women are looking more artificial and years older. I mean, what the hell are these women going to look like in their 40s, when they've maxed out every treatment at 24? Joan Rivers would gasp. When a woman in her 20s decides to inject every wrinkle, thread every brow and plump each lip, what they don't realise is that they're robbing themselves of the one thing they possess that older women can only pine for: their youth. By contrast, women who were born a decade earlier took an entirely different path. I would venture to say most of them made it to their 30th birthday without feeling the prick of a cosmetic needle. Now they're heading towards 40, they opt for subtle maintenance, treatments that soften rather than resculpt their features. A little anti-ageing here and there, not full-blown face lifts at 25. Am I being harsh? Perhaps. But just you wait when these young women hit 40 and look 60. It's a tragedy that treatments once sold as 'preventative' now seem to be prematurely ageing a generation. The fact Roxy Jacenko (left), at 44, looks of a similar age to OG Instagram star Tammy Hembrow (right) at 31 is quite alarming, observes Amanda Before I'm accused of judging other women, I want to share a personal story. In my early 30s - that's two decades ago - I became the beauty editor of a glossy magazine and, all of a sudden, PRs started throwing beauty treatments at me left, right and centre. I'm talking peels, lasers, injectables you name it. I had the latest miracle treatment pitched to me on a daily, even hourly, basis. I had my first jab of Botox at 34, practically a geriatric in today's world of 21-year-olds getting frozen, embalmed, heated and needled for 'prevention'. And can I be brutally honest? The more treatments I had, the more expensive the skincare I layered on, the more make up I wore... the worse I looked. I started to look haggard. I noticed more lines. Duller, sallow skin. More breakouts. It was becoming clear: the more I got jabbed, the older I became. And then I realised that more doesn't mean better, younger or prettier. It often means quite the opposite. Dolly Parton says she kept her late husband Carl Dean's health battle under wraps from her fans, revealing he had been ailing for some time. The 78-year-old music legend, speaking in an interview with The Independent published Wednesday, said that her beloved spouse had been 'ill for quite a while' prior to his passing at 82 on March 3. The Pittman Center, Tennessee-born icon told the outlet: 'I really feel his presence. I just try to go on, because I know I have to.' The Grammy-winning artist continued: 'And he was ill for quite a while, and part of me was at peace that he was at peace and not suffering anymore. 'But that still doesn't make up for the loss and the loneliness of it.' 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. Dolly Parton says she kept her late husband Carl Dean's health battle under wraps from her fans, revealing he had been ill for quite a while The 78-year-old music legend said that her beloved spouse had been 'ill for quite a while' prior to his passing at 82 on March 3. Pictured January 28 in Nashville The Here You Come Again artist also cited religion as a major factor in the life in dealing with her soulmate's tragic passing after an extended illness. 'I am a person of faith, and I truly believe that I'm going to see him again someday,' Parton told the outlet. She added, 'And I see him every day in my memories and in my heart, and in all the things that we used to do and all the things that we've built together. 'You just kind of have to learn to kind of make new plans but that's the hardest part.' Parton told the AP in a statement upon Dean's passing that he died in Nashville and was set to have a private funeral. 'Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,' Parton said in a statement at the time. 'Words cant do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.' She wrapped up in telling her fans: 'Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.' The Pittman Center, Tennessee-born icon told the outlet: 'I really feel his presence. I just try to go on, because I know I have to Dolly Parton was pictured in England in 2014 at the Glastonbury Festival Parton past said her signature hit Jolene was inspired by a stunning bank teller who had been partial to her spouse. Parton made the revelation about the track, which came out in October of 1973, while in concert at the Glastonbury Festival 2014. Parton explained to the crowd of how the tune came to be creatively, The Independent reported at the time. After performing the song - which has been covered by Beyonce and a host of other artists - Parton told the crowd, 'Now, some of you may or may not know that that song was loosely based on a little bit of truth.' 'I wrote that years ago when my husband was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.' After the crowd booed at the news of Dean's roving eye, Parton reassured the fans she 'put a stop to that' and 'got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry,' spurring cheers from the crowd. Parton told the audience that channeling her emotions from the uncomfortable situation into a Grammy-winning song ultimately made her very wealthy. 'I want you folks to know, though, that something good can come from anything,' Parton said. 'Had it not been for that woman I would never have written Jolene and I wouldn't have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.' The Pittman Center, Tennessee-born icon said of Dean: 'I really feel his presence. I just try to go on, because I know I have to' Speaking with NPR in a 2008 chat, Parton said that the woman who inspired the track had 'this terrible crush on [her] husband and he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. 'It was kinda like a running joke between us - when I was saying, "Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money." So it's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.' Parton told NPR about the physical characteristics the woman displayed and how they differed from her own: 'She had everything I didn't, like legs. You know, she was about six-feet-tall. 'So no matter how beautiful a woman might be, you're always threatened by certain... You're always threatened by other women, period.' While the emotions brought about by the bank teller made for the creative backbone of the hit song, Parton said the name Jolene itself was from a young fan who attended one of her concerts. 'One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl - she was probably 8 years old at the time,' she told the outlet. 'And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. 'I said, "Well, you're the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?" And she said, "Jolene." Parton added, 'And I said, "Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene." I said, "That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I'm going to write a song about that."' Miami Swim Week is in full swing, with South Beach full of models taking to the runway to reveal the latest and greatest swimwear styles. But an Aussie heiress stole the show on Wednesday, when she stepped out in an eye-popping gold gown for a night out on the town. Emma Pillemer, aka Emma Pills, almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction in the extremely revealing White Fox frock, which flaunted plenty of underboob and her entire stomach. The jewellery designer, 23, paired the ensemble with pieces from her own jewellery line - a pair of gold drop earrings and two large gold cuffs. She also accessorised with a dark tan and a glowing bronzed makeup palette. 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. Emma Pillemer, aka Emma Pills, almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction in an extremely revealing frock at Miami Swim Week on Wednesday The Aussie heiress stole the show on when she stepped out in an eye-popping gold dress for a night out on the town The jewellery designer paired the ensemble with pieces from her own jewellery line - a pair of gold drop earrings and two large gold cuffs Emma's followers said they were left 'speechless' by her look and called her a 'real life mermaid'. While she is enjoying Miami's famous nightlife, Emma is also working hard too. The socialite's brand has collaborated with swimwear and leisure line Leslie Amon. Emma is the daughter of a high-profile fund manager who founded one of Sydney's most powerful investment firms along with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. She launched her own brand, Emma Pills, just a year after finishing high school and quickly earned her first million, while also making a name for herself as the socialite queen bee of Gen Z. Emma has business in her blood. Her father Russel Pillemer co-founded diversified funds management group Pengana in 2003, and with wife Carole raised their four children, including Emma, in New York City before making the move to Australia. Once in Sydney, Emma was enrolled at the prestigious Moriah College, a $45,000-per-year Jewish primary and secondary school located in ritzy Queens Park, her attendance ensuring impeccable society connections. She also accessorised with a dark tan and a glowing bronzed makeup palette While she is enjoying Miami's famous nightlife, Emma is also working hard too. The socialite's brand has collaborated with swimwear and leisure line Leslie Amon Emma's father Russel Pillemer co-founded diversified funds management group Pengana in 2003, and with wife Carole raised their four children, including Emma, in New York City before making the move to Australia But despite Emma's privileged upbringing, the bold young designer has blazed her own business trail - turning down the corporate lifestyle her father is known for in favour of the glitz and glamour of the world of fashion. At the same time Emma has also dipped her toes into the world of showbusiness, appearing on the Bondi spin-off of Made in Chelsea last year. The Channel Seven series follows the lives and loves of young socialites living near one of the world's most famous beaches and throughout Sydney's eastern suburbs. Emma stood out by being the only cast member genuinely raised in Bondi, while other stars grew up in nearby Paddington, the Northern Beaches and even Perth. Madeline Holtznagel is counting down the days until she gives birth to her first child. The model, 27, looked radiant on Friday as she arrived in style at her partner and dad-to-be Justin Hemmes' Sydney harbourside pad. The loved-up couple touched down at the billionaire pub baron's $100million Vaucluse mansion in a sea plane, and Justin was quick to show off his chivalrous side. Not wanting his heavily pregnant girlfriend to endanger herself and her precious cargo, Justin affectionately piggybacked his ladylove off the aircraft. The couple beamed broadly as Justin dutifully escorted Madeline to the shore, with Madeline wrapping her arms tightly around her beau's shoulders. 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. Madeline Holtznagel looked radiant on Friday as she arrived in style at her partner and dad-to-be Justin Hemmes' Sydney harbourside pad on Friday The loved-up couple touched down at the billionaire pub baron's $100million Vaucluse mansion in a sea plane, and Justin was quick to show off his chivalrous side Sporting an undeniable mum-to-be glow, Madeline flaunted her burgeoning baby bump in a grey tracksuit Sporting an undeniable mum-to-be glow, Madeline flaunted her burgeoning baby bump in a grey tracksuit. She was not afraid to show off her growing belly, pulling the hooded tracksuit top up to flaunt her baby bump. It appeared that Madeline's had or was attending a hens' night-style affair for a pal, with her tracksuit top sporting a phrase that seemed to be an in-joke between friends. 'Before shes a wife, shes the Don' was emblazoned across the back of her top while the phrase 'underboss' was emblazoned on the front. It appeared to be a reference to the Italian mafia, with the term 'underboss' (also known as sotto capo or capo bastone) being the second most important position behind the Don in an organised crime family. Madeline finished her relaxed look with a pair of white slides and she wore her flaxen locks back in a pony tail. Justin also cut a casual figure in a pair of crisp white chinos that he rolled to the knee to keep dry as walked through the water to the shore. He also wore a plain white T-shirt, as well as a pair of white Crocs that he carried in his hand. She was not afraid to show off her growing belly, pulling the hooded tracksuit top up to flaunt her baby bump Not wanting his heavily pregnant girlfriend to endanger herself and her precious cargo, Justin affectionately piggybacked his ladylove off the aircraft The couple beamed broadly as Justin dutifully escorted Madeline to the shore, with the model wrapping her arms tightly around Justin's shoulders Justin looked excited and very much besotted with Madeline as he happily ferried her to shore. As he placed her on the sand, they walked side-by-side. Madeline recently admitted to Stellar that she is set to welcome a son and is thrilled because she wanted a 'new journey' with Justin, who already shares two daughters with ex-partner Kate Fowler. 'I always thought I was going to have a boy. I knew I was going to be a boy mum,' she said. 'Justin has two beautiful little girls, so having a boy, it's like a whole new journey together. '[The baby] is going to be his little best mate.' She said up until now she kept details of her pregnancy private, but was ready to share her journey. 'I keep a lot of my life private and I don't share a lot online anyway, so [being pregnant] wasn't really something that I was going to share online,' she said. Madeline finished her relaxed look with a pair of white slides and she wore her flaxen locks back in a pony tail. Justin also cut a casual figure in a pair of crisp white chinos that he rolled to the kneed to keep dry as walked through the water to the shore Justin looked excited and very much besotted with Madeline It appeared that Madeline's was attending a hens' night-style affair for a pal with her tracksuit top sporting a phrase that seemed to be an in-joke between friends 'I haven't posted about it and it's been nice to have some quiet time off Instagram. 'But obviously because I am in the public eye and we do get photographed quite a lot, I think now I'm at this point in my pregnancy where it's nice for me to be able to share some nice photos'. Madeline also revealed she has sought advice from her older sisters Anna and fellow model Simone, who both have had children. In November, an insider confirmed the exciting news of Madeline's pregnancy to Daily Mail Australia and revealed a friend of Justin's recently moved out of his Vaucluse mansion to make room for their growing family. Justin, who has a net worth of $1.39billion, already has daughters Alexa and Saachi with his model ex-girlfriend Kate, from whom he separated in 2018. The business mogul then began dating Madeline the following year, when the model was 22 and he was 47. Violet Affleck was seen toting another luxurious purse as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Thursday - shortly after her privileged rant over climate change went viral this month. The Yale student, 19 - who is the eldest child of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner - notably sparked outrage over her essay for school where she candidly revealed an argument she had with her Hollywood star mom. According to the teen, the pair's disagreement had taken place amid the devastating L.A. fires in January after her family was forced to evacuate. The essay had left her parents taken aback since they were not aware what their daughter had written, DailyMail.com exclusively reported. During her latest outing, Violent - who is currently on summer break - carried a vintage Chloe Marcie Bucket Bag which can be purchased at a resale price for around $1,000. 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. Violet Affleck, 19, was seen wearing another luxurious purse as she stepped out in Los Angeles on Thursday - shortly after her privileged rant over climate change went viral this month It comes only days after the teenager was also spotted with a pricy Marc Jacobs purse - which is worth between $200-$300. Earlier this week on Monday, Violet stepped out with her Oscar-winning father as well as her younger brother Samuel, 13, to grab a lowkey lunch - and had draped the stylish bag over her arm. Affleck and Garner - whose divorce was finalized in 2018 - are also parents to child Fin, 16. Violet has been vocal about her advocacy for both climate change and public health - such as the student demanding 'mask mandates' last year during an impassioned speech. But she recently penned an essay for her university's Global Health Review which was titled A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles. The Gen Zer detailed an argument that she had with her mom Jennifer Garner in the wake of the deadly fires that ravaged through Southern California at the beginning of the year. She had stated that while the 13 Going On 30 actress was left 'shell-shocked' over the devastation - Violet admitted that she was simply 'surprised at her surprise.' In the paper which was published on May 18, the student wrote of Garner: 'She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings. During her latest outing, Violent - who is currently on summer break - was seen carrying a vintage Chloe Marcie Bucket Bag which can be purchased at a resale price for around $1,000 It comes only days after the teenager was also spotted with a pricy Marc Jacobs purse - which is worth between $200-$300 The Gen Zer detailed an argument that she had with her mom Jennifer Garner in the wake of the deadly fires that ravaged through Southern California at the beginning of the year; seen in 2024 in L.A. '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.' Violet then recalled having conversations with adults while staying at a hotel with her family 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. 'The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains.' The Yale student also wrote about how her younger brother Samuel had doubts that the fires were linked to climate change. 'Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother,' she added. Garner had volunteered with World Central Kitchen in the wake of the disaster to help feed firefighters and victims of the flames. During an emotional interview with MSNBC, the actress also revealed that she had lost a friend in the fires. 'The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains,' Violet added; aerial view of Altadena on May 22 following the Eaton Fire Garner had volunteered with World Central Kitchen in the wake of the disaster to help feed firefighters and victims of the flames (seen above) Elsewhere in her school essay, Violet penned about society's approach when it comes to a crisis - and used COVID-19 as an example. She wrote about the government tackling the pandemic and facing the pressures to 'return to normal' by society. 'While vaccines have been extremely effective in reducing death rates, those of us who have never stopped "following the science" know that even mild COVID infections are dangerous.' Other topics Violet touched on included the effects of Long COVID and how privilege or bias can affect who receives a quick response for aid. She then followed up with an example about FEMA's differing response to the L.A. fires and the floods in North Carolina last year. At the time of the flames in January, Violet had also 'pressured' her family into wearing face masks once again due to poor air quality. A source told DailyMail.com: 'Violet Affleck has been pressuring her family to put a mask on since she has been back home because right now the air quality is unhealthy. 'She is clearly not going to give up on advocating for mask mandates. It has become a part of who she is and what she stands for.' The Yale student also wrote about how her younger brother Samuel had doubts that the fires were linked to climate change; Violet's sibling Samuel and dad Ben Affleck seen in February in L.A. At the time of the flames in January, Violet had also 'pressured' her family into wearing face masks once again due to poor air quality; the college student seen with Jennifer in 2022 in Washington D.C. The insider added that the college student 'is so passionate about this and she feels vindicated for her work championing masks because she does, truly, believe that her opposition to the ban is warranted. 'She is hoping the fires will serve to show people that masks can be used in times not only connected to the spread of a virus.' Last year in July, Violet had asked that 'mask bans' come to an end inside medical facilities during a speech to the governing body for Los Angeles County. She further asked the board to 'confront the long COVID crisis' and explained how she had contracted 'a post-viral condition' back in 2019. The teenager said at the time, 'I demand mask availability, air filtration and Far-UVC light in government facilitates, including jails and detention centers, and mask mandates in county medical faculties. '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.' Violet's speech garnered differing reactions - with some praising the Ivy League student while others called her 'utterly deluded.' Her father Ben also gave his eldest child a warning and told her that she needed to be 'realistic,' a source told DailyMail.com; seen in April in NYC Her father Ben also gave his eldest child a warning and told her that she needed to be 'realistic,' a source told DailyMail.com. 'While Ben and Jen will always support their daughter, Ben had a conversation with her and told her that she needs to be realistic with this because he doesn't want her to waste all of her time putting effort into something that probably won't make a difference in the long run. 'He knows how strongly she feels about this, but now that Violet is an adult, he felt that it was his duty to let her know that she is David fighting Goliath and that most people unfortunately do not feel the same way she does about this.' The insider added the Ben, 'was also concerned that Violet felt as if her parent's star power was going to be able to guarantee her the outcome that she wanted which, in this case, it is not.' GK Barry has landed a brand new national presenting gig and it's worlds away from Loose Women and her TikTok fame. The influencer, 25, has seen her career sky rocket since jetting off to Australia last November for I'm A Celebrity. And now GK, whose real name is Grace Keeling, has landed a spot on BBC Radio 1's schedule this summer. The star will present her very own show for the entire month of July after BBC bosses announced a schedule shakeup. GK will host Radio 1's afternoon show from July 4 and will be on air from 1pm to 4pm every Saturday and Sunday. Speaking about her new gig, GK told MailOnline: 'I'm really excited to be presenting my own show with BBC Radio 1 this summer. It's totally different to podcasting and I'm ready to get stuck in! 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. GK Barry has landed a brand new national presenting gig and it's worlds away from Loose Women and her TikTok fame The influencer, 25, has seen her career sky rocket since jetting off to Australia last November for I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! GK will host BBC Radio 1's afternoon show from July 4 and will be on air from 1pm to 4pm every Saturday and Sunday 'As someone who travels a lot for work I'm always listening to the radio, so I can't wait to interact with the listeners and get them involved in all the fun.' Teasing her new show, the BBC said the TiKToker will be joined by 'special guests' who will co-host the programme alongside her. Elsewhere, Jamie Laing will host his radio show with his wife Sophie Habboo this June. Sophie, 30, will step in as co-host with her husband as Jamie's co-anchors Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton continue their respective maternity leaves. GK previously revealed how she struggled with the 'vicious' reaction to her Caribbean accent when her family relocated to the UK from the British Virgin Islands. She had grown up with her mum Loretta and stepfather Andrew in Tortola before they moved to Cambridge when she was just eight years old. Speaking on the Loose Women podcast, GK told Jane Moore that her family moved to a small town that was 'predominantly white,' and her classmates couldn't 'wrap their head around' her Caribbean accent. Speaking about her upbringing in the British Virgin Islands, GK said: 'From as young as I can remember, I was in Tortola and I was one of the only white girls. 'All the aunties were doing my hair, they were braiding my hair, little cornrows and I just never saw anything different about that. I just thought, ''Oh, this is it''. 'But also the school that I went to, there were so many different races that it was just normal for me to see just any race, at any time So I was friends with everyone. I had an incredible time.' Discussing her family moving back to the UK, she explained: 'And then when I moved back to the UK, we moved back to a predominantly white, small town and I had a Caribbean accent. 'Now Jane, I don't know if you've ever gone into a small town with a Caribbean accent and be white, but it's vicious. 'It was just really, really weird and most people couldn't wrap their head around [it at school]... I'm talking about my life and people had no clue what I was on about. 'And then obviously you've got the other side, my dad was getting a lot of hate at the time because again, we were in a white community, he was getting a lot of racism. 'So, it was sort of just like, 'I don't really know where we all stand here'.' and Jane confirms, 'This is your stepdad, but he's your dad.' New Diddly Squat farmhand Harriet Cowan was seen posing with her new fans at the Staffordshire County Show on Thursday. The 24-year-old nurse cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt and blue jeans as she strolled around, looking at the livestock and tractors. While enjoying a day out in the sun, several fans stopped Harriet to ask for a picture, with one penning on Instagram: 'Made my day' Stafford County Show is a two-day agricultural show with competitions for livestock & horses, over 400 trade stands, country pursuits area with something for all the family on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 May 2025. The outing comes after Harriet broke her silence on a 'fake' Clarkson's Farm scene as she spoke candidly on a new podcast this week. 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. New Diddly Squat farmhand Harriet Cowan was seen posing with her new fans at the Staffordshire County Show on Thursday The 24-year-old nurse cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt and blue jeans as she strolled around, looking at the livestock and tractors She shocked viewers of the hugely popular Prime Video show when she appeared in the trailer for series four after Jeremy's co-star Kaleb Cooper temporarily left the show. She has been helping out Jeremy with an array of tasks on the farm and impressing viewers while also challenging stereotypes around women in farming. This week Harriet appeared on the Should I Delete That podcast with Jeremy's daughter Emily. She spoke about one scene in the trailer that she thought seemed 'fake' when she watched it back but was in fact completely true. They discussed on the podcast how busy farmers are and how Harriet also works a full time nursing job five days a week. Emily asked her: 'Do you ever sit down with your boyfriend and chill together, or eat together? It sounds impossible.' Harriet then said: 'No! In the trailer where it's like, 'Have you watched Clarkson's Farm before?' And I'm like, 'No', and when I watched it it looked so fake. 'But it is so real because we don't watch telly. While enjoying a day out in the sun, several fans stopped Harriet to ask for a picture, with one penning on Instagram: 'Made my day' The show has competitions for livestock & horses, over 400 trade stands, country pursuits area with something for all the family on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 May 2025 It comes after Harriet broke her silence on a 'fake' Clarkson's Farm scene as she spoke candidly on a new podcast this week 'Literally, if we watch something, James will sit down, his head will hit the back of the sofa and he's asleep because the second he can rest, he'll sleep, because he's so tired all the time.' On the podcast Harriet also spoke about breaking stereotypes of women working in farming. She said of appearing on the show: 'I wanted to show that women can do it too, we are there but people can't see it. Women can do it. 'Most people think of just older men wearing checked shirts when it comes to farming. 'I am challenging people's views of what people think a farmer looks like. People are so shocked when they drive past and I'm in the tractor they just stare.' The recent Clarkson's Farm trailer showed Jeremy running into several obstacles on the farm, yet TikTok star Harriet made a good impression as she was quick to help. Jeremy was left in awe at her work, turning to the camera and gushing: 'She's brilliant!' She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty as she put in fences, loaded feed for the animals and even showed her welding skills on Diddly Squat Farm. The nurse shocked viewers of the hugely popular Prime Video show when she appeared in the trailer for series four after Jeremy's co-star Kaleb Cooper temporarily left the show She spoke about one scene in the trailer that she thought seemed 'fake' when she watched it back but was in fact completely true In the trailer where it's like, 'Have you watched Clarkson's Farm before?' And I'm like, 'No', and when I watched it it looked so fake. But it is so real because we don't watch telly' Harriet, a full-time nurse and farmer, admitted in the clip that she hadn't watched Clarkson Farm's before but she didn't let that slow her down. Jeremy was left in awe at her work, turning to the camera and gushing: 'She's brilliant!' Kaleb - who was on a nationwide tour - later returned to the farm and seemed to be getting along well with his replacement. It's hardly surprising that Harriet was a natural on the farm, having grown up helping her father Eddy tend to his land. She revealed on social media that her mother wanted her to become a nurse but her father wanted her to follow in his footsteps - so she opted to do both. Harriet has a healthy social media following, boasting 35,000 TikTok followers, while her Instagram bio encourages her fans to 'come and watch the craziness'. She also has a brand deal with Country Moos, a sock company dedicated to cow-print designs. Harriet is in a relationship with fellow farmer James, with the pair cosying up together for a slew of sweet social media snaps. On the podcast Harriet also spoke about breaking stereotypes of women working in the farming industry Clarkson's Farm has become one of the most watched series in the UK on Prime Video, and has been praised for raising the profile of British farming In 2020, Harriet made headlines when she and her friends set up a challenge to cheer NHS staff during the pandemic. The Belper Young Farmers group put a unique spin on the toilet roll challenge which had gone viral online. In their clips, the group were filmed passing a loaf of bread between them as they worked on their land. Speaking to Derbyshire Live about their videos, Harriet, then 19, said: 'I thought we should do something to get everybody together as our club isn't meeting because of coronavirus. 'We saw the challenge online but we wanted to do something different - everyone else was doing the same thing with toilet rolls.' Last week Jeremy finally confirmed the future of co-star Kaleb on the Prime Video series. Viewers were welcomed back to Diddly Squat Farm for the new season on May 23, with two additional episodes released a week later on May 30, followed by the final two on June 6. After much speculation, Jeremy, 65, has confirmed Kaleb is back on the farm as usual after Harriet 'held the fort' until he returned. In a video posted on his Instagram last Tuesday, he clarified: 'There has been lots of reports that Kaleb has been 'replaced' - well, no he hasn't.' He added: 'What happened is this, he went away on his speaking tour, for a couple of months because he imagined that after four years, I'd be able to manage on my own. Harriet has a healthy social media following, boasting 35,000 TikTok followers, while her Instagram bio encourages her fans to 'come and watch the craziness' As well as working on the farm, Harriet is a nurse - having gained her qualification at the University of Derby 'And I didn't - I made a complete mess of everything and had to bring in a young farmer called Harriet. 'Harriet is brilliant and looked after the fort until he got back. That is it - that's the story!' Clarkson's Farm has become one of the most watched series in the UK on Prime Video, and has been praised for raising the profile of British farming . It has also launched Kaleb's career. He was already working on the land when Clarkson bought it, and has now written three books. It seems that Harriet, too, may well follow suit. Clarkson's Farm series one to three are available to stream exclusively on Prime Video. Series four will air from May 23, with two additional episodes released a week later on May 30, followed by the final two on June 6. Adam Rickitt and wife Katy celebrated their 'life long dream' of buying a holiday home in Sicily the same day as he turned 47 on Thursday. The former Coronation Street actor and GMB host, also 47, couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces as they topped up their tans and enjoyed a night out on the island. Adam, who wed Katy in 2014, took to Instagram with snaps of the pair as they signed contracts to take ownership of the property before heading out to top up their tans. The ex soap star looked decades younger than his years as he showed off his tattooed physique in swimming trunks, while his wife stunned in a vibrant bikini. Later the couple headed out for the evening with Katy looking stylish in a yellow dress and quirky pink ankle boots she's received off Adam as a birthday gift. 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. Adam Rickitt and wife Katy celebrated their 'life long dream' of buying a holiday home in Sicily the same day as he turned 47 on Thursday The former Coronation Street actor and GMB host, also 47, couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces as they topped up their tans and enjoyed a night out on the island Adam, who wed Katy in 2014, took to Instagram with snaps of the pair as they signed contracts to take ownership of the property before heading out to top up their tans Adam was well and truly in a party mood as he downed a bottle of champagne, before work started on the home the following day. Adam captioned the post: 'We did a thing!! It's been a lifelong dream to have a Sicilian escape...it's not flash...it's not a mansion..but it is ours!!!' Before adding: 'Welcome to the next chapter @katyrickitt ...x'. Meanwhile Katy gushed: 'Happy birthday to my Italian stallion, my best friend, soul mate and my little hero @adamrickitt Honestly dont know what Id do without this man who has literally excelled himself lately by whisking us away and creating our own corner in the #happyplace'. 'You are truly magnificent my little bean today we will have a day off from seeking Wi-Fi, hoovers, drills and diy to have sun, sea and cocktails!!!!!! Yaaasss!!! #happybirthday' Katy was returning the favour after Adam paid tribute to her on her birthday with a slew of heart-warming Instagram snaps earlier this month. He shared some photos of his partner with his legion of social media fans, including one which saw her taking a fun selfie. Katy, an ITV presenter, pouted for the camera while sitting on a sun lounger on the beach in the cute holiday pic. The couple documented the moment they signed the contract to make the property theirs The ex soap star looked decades younger than his years as he showed off his tattooed physique in swimming trunks, while his wife stunned in a vibrant bikini Adam was well and truly in a party mood as he downed a bottle of champagne, before work started on the home the following day Later the couple headed out for the evening with Katy looking stylish in a yellow dress and quirky pink ankle boots she's received off Adam as a birthday gift She showed off the footwear in all their glory The couple then got down to turning the property into their home Adam captioned the post: ' We did a thing!! It's been a lifelong dream to have a Sicilian escape...it's not flash...it's not a mansion..but it is ours!!!' Meanwhile Katy gushed: 'Happy birthday to my Italian stallion, my best friend, soul mate and my little hero @adamrickitt She wore a white swim costume with brown clasps and added a white and pink alice band for the trip, accessorising with some pink-rimmed sunglasses. Another wholesome photo saw the pair, who got married in 2014, embracing with Adam sporting a mid grey jacket and white shirt, showing off his dazzling blond hairdo. Katy sipped away on a cold drink in a further snap, cutting a laidback figure in an olive Adidas hoodie, teaming it with black and white tracksuit bottoms and a white handbag with a gold chain, completing the look with multi-coloured nail polish. The birthday girl also donned a baggy hooded light grey dress with hot pink and black animal print in a fun picture and, in a final photo, could be seen getting a tattoo while wearing a black t-shirt and fire orange trousers. Her husband offered an emotional message to her in a sweet caption, writing: 'Another year my beautiful @katyrickitt ...and i don't think i could be any more in awe of you. You shine every day and still take my breath away without even knowing. 'You're more than my partner, you're my everything, and to see how much you've grown in these last 12 months gives this old dog inspiration to learn new tricks too. 'You make every person you meet smile...and you make me so grateful for that 1st day. So many adventures ahead..and sharing them with you is what gives meaning. 'Happy Birthday Bean. I love you xxxx' New Diddly Squat farmhand Harriet Cowan took a cheeky swipe at boss Jeremy Clarkson by claiming not all farmers are '60-year-old men with beer bellies'. The glam blonde, 24, starred in season four of the Prime Video show Clarkson's Farm, which follows former Top Gear host, 65, as he masters the art of farming, after manager Kaleb Cooper, 26, was unable to appear in several episodes. Now Harriett, who also works as a nurse, has said she hopes her starring role in the show will help challenge the stereotype of who can be a farmer. She told BBC News: 'I think when you talk to somebody and ask what they stereotypically think of when someone says farmer they say "60-year-old man with a checked shirt and a beer belly", and a lot of the time that is it, but us women are out here and farmers too,' 'Just because I'm a small, blonde that likes to curl her hair and wear make-up, it doesn't mean I can't be a farmer'. 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. New Diddly Squat farmhand Harriet Cowan, 24, took a cheeky swipe at boss Jeremy Clarkson by claiming not all farmers are '60-year-old men with beer bellies' The glam blonde, starred in season four of the Prime Video show Clarkson's Farm, which follows former Top Gear host as he masters the art of farming (pictured together on the show) 'I'm trying to change the norm of the man being the farmer and the woman being the stay-at-home wife and cook. When the war was on, women did all the farming, so we have always farmed - it's just changing that stereotype'. On Thursday Harriet was seen posing with her new fans at the Staffordshire County Show after swiftly becoming a fan favourite. She cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt and blue jeans as she strolled around, looking at the livestock and tractors. While enjoying a day out in the sun, several fans stopped Harriet to ask for a picture, with one penning on Instagram: 'Made my day' Stafford County Show is a two-day agricultural show with competitions for livestock & horses, over 400 trade stands, country pursuits area with something for all the family on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 May 2025. The outing comes after Harriet broke her silence on a 'fake' Clarkson's Farm scene as she spoke candidly on on the Should I Delete That podcast with Jeremy's daughter Emily this week. She spoke about one scene in the trailer that she thought seemed 'fake' when she watched it back but was in fact completely true. They discussed on the podcast how busy farmers are and how Harriet also works a full time nursing job five days a week. Now Harriett, who also works as a nurse, has said she hopes her starring role in the show will help challenge the stereotype of who can be a farmer She said: 'Just because I'm a small, blonde that likes to curl her hair and wear make-up, it doesn't mean I can't be a farmer' 'I'm trying to change the norm of the man being the farmer and the woman being the stay-at-home wife and cook (L-R Jeremy and Kaleb pictured on the show) Emily asked her: 'Do you ever sit down with your boyfriend and chill together, or eat together? It sounds impossible.' Harriet then said: 'No! In the trailer where it's like, 'Have you watched Clarkson's Farm before?' And I'm like, 'No', and when I watched it it looked so fake. 'But it is so real because we don't watch telly. 'Literally, if we watch something, James will sit down, his head will hit the back of the sofa and he's asleep because the second he can rest, he'll sleep, because he's so tired all the time.' On the podcast Harriet also spoke about breaking stereotypes of women working in farming. She said of appearing on the show: 'I wanted to show that women can do it too, we are there but people can't see it. Women can do it. 'Most people think of just older men wearing checked shirts when it comes to farming. On Thursday Harriet was seen posing with her new fans at the Staffordshire County Show after swiftly becoming a fan favourite She cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt and blue jeans as she strolled around, looking at the livestock and tractors 'I am challenging people's views of what people think a farmer looks like. People are so shocked when they drive past and I'm in the tractor they just stare.' Clarkson's Farm series one to three are available to stream exclusively on Prime Video. Series four will air from May 23, with two additional episodes released a week later on May 30, followed by the final two on June 6. Taylor Swift has gone public with a new A-list pal after reportedly falling out with bestie Blake Lively. Swift, 35, was spotted with Dakota Johnson for dinner at the Italian restaurant Via Carota in New York City on Thursday evening. The pair made it a family outing with their brothers tagging along - Swift's sibling Austin joined, as did Dakota's brother Jesse. Swift - who made a huge announcement the following day - sported a black floral print dress and hot red lipstick while Dakota donned an edgy all-black look. Taylor's latest alleged falling-out with Blake comes after DailyMail.com exclusively reported that the 37-year-old Gossip Girl star had threatened to leak embarrassing private text messages from her former bestie unless the songstress agreed to publicly back her in her ongoing feud with her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni. Taylor Swift has gone public with a new A-list pal after reportedly falling out with bestie Blake Lively Swift was even subpoenaed as a witness into the legal war by Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman, and her team issued a scorching response to the legal move as they insisted she 'never set foot on the set' of the film and only licensed a song for the film. The subpoena was subsequently withdrawn. A source has since exclusively told DailyMail.com that the singer 'is done' with Lively after the private text drama emerged. It would appear Swift is now strengthening her other friendships in light of the alleged rift. She was seen heading to the celebrity hotspot exuding confidence, her hair slicked back into a high ponytail and her face all done up. She carried a chic leather purse on her arm and strutted towards the eatery in Christian Louboutin high heels. Dakota, meanwhile, looked chic from head-to-toe. Seemingly after their dinner, Dakota was seen being walked out on the arm of a helpful man as she flashed a smile. The friendship isn't completely out of left field, with Taylor earning a mention in Dakota's Saturday Night Live monologue last year where she referred to the songstress as 'the most powerful person in America' as she mocked President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Swift was taking a step back from her friendship with Lively after feeling like she was used as an 'intimidation tactic' by the actress in a lawsuit she never wanted to be embroiled in. Swift sported a black floral print dress and hot red lipstick Swift made an elegant arrival Dakota Johnson cut a sophisticated figure in her black dress, sheer kitten heels, and silver statement necklace Their brothers were also present - Dakota's brother Jesse attended, L, as did Swift's sibling Austin, R A source has since exclusively told DailyMail.com that the singer 'is done' with Lively after the private text drama report emerged The singer was dragged into the explosive legal feud between Lively and Baldoni when he claimed his costar used Swift to intimidate him at a meeting with Reynolds about edits she had made to a rooftop scene in their film, It Ends with Us. In his $400 million lawsuit, filed in January, Baldoni said Swift showed up and made him feel like he 'needed to comply with Blake's direction for the script'. Lively later appeared to threaten Baldoni by comparing herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi in a series of text messages in which she referred to Reynolds, 48, and her best friend as her 'dragons'. Khaleesi, also known as Daenerys Targaryen and Mother of Dragons, is one of the main characters in Game of Thrones, which aired between 2011 to 2019. Swift's brother wore all-black A helpful man walked Dakota out as her brother followed Swift looked splendid in her floral dress A source previously told DailyMail.com: Taylor has politely backed away from it all. She is conscious of her own image and hates that she was even mentioned.' According to Baldoni's lawsuit, Lively threatened to withhold approval of the film trailer if she did not get extra time working on a cut of the movie with her own personal editor. He claimed in the suit that the actress threatened to 'change her mind' about reaching out to Swift to secure the use of her hit 2020 track My Tears Ricochet. The track was eventually used in the trailer but Baldoni alleged that Lively tried to use her friendship with the singer to make sure her demands were met. Taylor's latest alleged falling-out with Blake comes after DailyMail.com exclusively reported that the 37-year-old Gossip Girl star had threatened to leak embarrassing private text messages from her former bestie unless the songstress agreed to publicly back the her in her ongoing feud with her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni She appears to now be strengthening new friendships in light of her alleged falling out with Blake The hitmaker wore Christian Louboutin heels for the occasion An alleged text exchange with a Sony executive read: 'Blake is calling Taylor to approve the song. She of course just reached out saying she is asking for time with [REDACTED] her editor. We know it was conditional on signing contract but asking if you will reconsider so [REDACTED] can release this trailer and Blake does not change her me re calling Taylor Swift.' Baldoni noted that they agreed to her demands in order to move forward as planned. The exchange allegedly took place in May 2024. Lively and Swift were last seen together in Rhode Island in August 2024. Before that, they pictured in October on a double date with Reynolds and Swift's boyfriend, Travis Kelce, in Manhattan. The outing came two months before she filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in which she accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and creating a toxic environment on the set of It Ends with Us. Their brothers joined in, making the evening a family affair Swift literally turned heads as she approached the Italian eatery Her gorgeous dressed was accessorized with a chain-adorned belt She worked a winged slick of eyeliner and bold red lip The songstress was spotted by a diner who posted her grand entrance to social media Swift stunned diners at the restaurant Johnson pictured earlier in the evening out celebrating her global ambassadorship with Roberto Coin Swift and Lively pictured during happier times in their friendship in 2024 Swift got dragged into the It Ends With Us drama swirling between Lively and Baldoni At the same time, the New York Times released a story based on her legal filing that accused him of orchestrating a smear campaign against her. Swift was then pulled into the roller coaster saga when Baldoni fired back with a stinging $400 million counter suit against Lively and Reynolds in which he accused the Hollywood couple of conspiring to trash his reputation. (The lawsuit also named the couple's publicist Leslie Sloane as a defendant). Baldoni, who is also suing the Times for defamation, claimed Lively hijacked the filming of the movie as he attempted to blow her allegations to smithereens. In one of the latest twists, Lively allegedly threatened to leak embarrassing private texts from Swift unless the pop star agreed to publicly back the actress in her feud with Baldoni. The explosive revelation appeared in a legal letter filed earlier this month by Baldoni's lawyers, in response to Lively's request to quash their subpoena to the singer. The court filing alleges that the Gossip Girl alum had tried to pressure Swift to issue a public statement in support of her and urged her to delete text messages between them during her escalating legal battle with Baldoni, 41. It Ends with Us was a box-office hit, earning $351 million worldwide despite a $25 million budget. Jersey Shore star Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino has broken his silence on Todd and Chrisley's Trump pardons - six years after he was also jailed for tax evasion. Sorrentino and his brother pleaded guilty to tax offenses related to nearly $9 million in income in 2018. Marc Sorrentino was sentenced to two years while the TV star served eight months. The TV personality revealed he has no sour grapes over the Chrisleys getting a pardon after he was forced to serve his entire sentence. He told TMZ: 'I can definitely relate to some of this story as Ive spent eight months in prison for tax evasion. I also got two years of probation, 500 hours of community service and I completed everything including restitution. 'For them to get released early, for me, that is good for the families. I am not sure that anyone who hasnt been in these shoes can really relate. I can definitely see there might be a little bit of outrage. But for me someone who actually did prison time I am not mad at it. 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. Jersey Shore star Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino has broken his silence on Todd and Chrisley's Trump pardons - six years after he was also jailed for tax evasion - pictured with wife Lauren Pesce Todd and Julie were found guilty of defrauding banks out of $30 million in 2022; seen in 2018 'I wouldnt go back and get a pardon because it made me a better man. [Still], you gotta stay in your own lane and run your own race. When you get sent away to prison, it is not a good situation for yourself but the families. They get sent away as well to a certain extent and it is so very sad.' At the time of his release in 2019: 'Sorrentino told DailyMail.com: 'We are elated to finally close this chapter of our life. Thank you to our family, friends and fans for the continuous love and support during this time, it brought us so much peace and comfort. 'We look forward to continuing our life as husband and wife and working on baby situations!' 'We truly believe that the comeback is ALWAYS greater than the setback and we can't wait to show the world ours.' He later tweeted: 'Turn up we free !!! #freesitch.' Early Wednesday evening, Todd was released from Federal Prison Camp Pensacola while Julie was set free from FMC Lexington, according to Fox5. The pair's elated daughter Savannah, 27, spoke to the press outside his Florida prison after campaigning for years for their release. The TV personality revealed he has no sour grapes over the Chrisleys getting a pardon after he was forced to serve his entire sentence;she and husband Todd are seen in 2017 He said: 'I can definitely see there might be a little bit of outrage. But for me someone who actually did prison time I am not mad at it' While dressed in bright pink 'MAGA Barbie' attire, she lauded President Trump, who personally called her on Tuesday to inform her of his decision to give her parents 'a full, unconditional pardon.' After a nearly three-week jury trial, Todd and Julie were convicted in June 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta, Georgia area out of more than $30 million in personal loans by submitting false documents. They were also found guilty of wire fraud and tax evasion, obscuring their earnings while showcasing a luxurious lifestyle with expensive cars and designer clothes. Wearing a hot pink MAGA hat, Savannah said she is 'so grateful that I'm going to leave here with my dad' after an 'insane' three years of her trying to get him and Julie freed. She confirmed that her brother Grayson Chrisley would be the one picking up their mother from her Kentucky prison facility. 'President Trump signed the pardons at around 3pm this afternoon and it's all due to President Trump, Alice Johnson, Ed Martin, all of them,' she told the crowd. 'They have truly just shown up and looked at [Todd and Julie's] case with a fine-tooth comb and they've seen the corruption.' After her call with Trump, Savannah said she arrived at her dad's prison in Pensacola at 2 in the morning on Wednesday and has been waiting there since. 'I have not gone to sleep. I did not bring any clothes with me. I did not bring a toothbrush with me. I brought absolutely nothing with me,' she revealed with a laugh. 'I'm just a daughter that wants to take my dad home with me.' When asked what Todd and Julie's reactions were to Trump's pardon, Savannah said that he was initially in total disbelief. Savannah (pictured with President Trump) has become a fixture in the MAGA world amid her two-year fight for her parents' freedom 'They didn't believe it. [The pardon] literally came out of nowhere. As I said before, I was walking into the grocery store when I got the call from the president,' she explained. 'I was just in such shock and such awe that the president himself called me and took the time to let me know that my family's coming back together.' Savannah said that her and Trump's entire correspondence was captured 'on video' and that he had called to let her know that he was 'reuniting [her] family.' Michaela Strachan opened up about her double mastectomy during an appearance on Vanessa, describing the procedure as 'extremely brutal'. The Springwatch presenter, 59, was 'shocked' to hear she had been diagnosed with breast cancer over a decade ago at the beginning of 2014. Luckily she went onto make a full recovery after undergoing a double mastectomy and later reconstructive surgery. Now Michaela has discussed the emotional toll the 'archaic' procedure took on her, revealing she hopes in 50 years a better method of treatment will have been found. Speaking to host Vanessa Feltz, 63, on her Channel 5 show Vanessa on Friday, the wildlife expert said: 'My boobs were never a big part of my personality, but when they said they were going to take them away, they suddenly became more important than I thought they were. 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. Michaela Strachan, 59, opened up about undergoing a double mastectomy during an appearance on Vanessa on Friday The Springwatch presenter described the surgery as 'extremely brutal' and even 'archaic' 'It's hard, you go through these things and you think you're going to be fine and it's not until afterwards that you realise emotionally it's a big thing. 'I really hope that in 50 years time we look back at removing a woman's boobs as part of the treatment as archaic because there must be a better way.' Michaela was asked by Vanessa whether the procedure is 'too brutal', to which she replied: 'It's brutal! 'To take a woman's breasts away is brutal. Of course, I'd rather not have boobs and be here than have them and be worried that cancer is going to come back. 'But it just seems extremely brutal.' She too spoke to the host about recovering from her double mastectomy, a procedure which almost 15,000 women in the UK undergo every year. 'It's a six week recovery from the mastectomy and six weeks when you have the reconstruction,' she said. 'There's lots of physio exercises that you do but, you know what, I'm in the position now where it's eleven years later and I forget that I've had a mastectomy. Michaela said she hopes in 50 years there will be a better way to treat breast cancer than undergoing a mastectomy 'To take a woman's breasts away is brutal. Of course, I'd rather not have boobs and be here than have them and be worried that cancer is going to come back,' she told Vanessa Feltz More than 10 years after she was diagnosed with the deadly disease, Michaela continues to present Springwatch alongside Chris Packham 'I really want to encourage people to talk about it. It seems like such a massive thing at the time and I remember asking someone at the time, "When will I stop thinking about it every day?" 'Now, day-to-day, I forget that I ever had breast cancer. I was really lucky.' Others around Michaela were not so lucky however, with the presenter losing a sister-in-law to cancer, a friends' son aged 35, and her partner Nick Chevallier's best friend to a heart attack all during 2014. She told The Express: 'These were people our age. I know I'm getting on but I'm 57 I shouldn't know this number of people who have died.' While living in a small coastal town in South Africa with her partner and their son Oliver, Michaela has since become an ambassador for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, stressing the importance of having regular mammograms. She has continued to present Springwatch and earlier this year took part in Dancing On Ice, where she skated alongside pro partner Mark Hanretty. Michaela rose to fame during the 1980s before moving into wildlife television the following decade Earlier this year the 59-year-old pushed herself 'outside her comfort zone' as she made it to the final of Dancing On Ice The presenter made history on the show as, at the age of 58, she became the oldest ever contestant on Dancing On Ice to make it to the final. She was however pipped at the final hurdle by Sam Aston. Michaela nevertheless described the experience as a 'great' way to push herself outside her comfort zone. The presenter told MailOnline earlier this year: 'I think it's great when you're a bit older and you are able to push yourself out of your comfort zone. 'I spent my entire career pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and it's great to be able to continue to do that.' Gene Hackman's secret fistfight in Los Angeles - along with the star's hilariously petty response - has been revealed three months after his shock death at 95. The double Oscar winner, who passed away in February alongside wife Betsy Arakawa at their Santa Fe home, was known for his pugnacious temperament, and hit back in spectacular fashion when he was harassed by a rude LA driver. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail for our new YouTube series The Real Story, Breaking Down the Mysteries around Gene Hackmans Sudden Death presented by Guy Adams, the Unforgiven star's longtime friend dished on his explosive roadside spat. Doug Lanham, who first met Hackman in 2004 at his eatery, the Jinja Bar & Bistro, said: 'There was a time Gene was coming down where he was living [in LA] 'These guys recognized him and they started harassing him a little bit. 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. Gene Hackman's secret fistfight in Los Angeles - along with the star's hilariously petty response - has been revealed three months after his shock death at 95 - pictured as brutal sheriff 'Little' Bill Daggett in Unforgiven in 1992 The bodies of Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, were found partially mummified at their Santa Fe mansion on February 26 [Gene and Betsy in 2003] 'So they were stopped at a stop light and they bumped him from behind. Gene being Gene , puts it in drive, goes forward, puts it in reverse and then whacks them. 'And then they go to the next stoplight, these two guys, two of them get out of the car and Gene gets out of the car, and they go for it.' Miming punching, a chucking Lanham continued: 'And I ask Gene, "how did you do?" The star responded: 'Well I was on my back and I kinda looked up over my head and there's a bus stop with a poster and there I was on the poster! 'And I was like "Hackman what the hell are you doing?" Hackman fled LA for New Mexico when he retired from acting in 2004. Known for his tough onscreen roles, Hackman won his second Oscar in the Supporting Actor category for his role as brutal sheriff 'Little' Bill Daggett in Unforgiven. The film also won Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood and and Best Film Editing for Joel Cox. Doug Lanham, who first met Hackman in 2004 at his eatery, the Jinja Bar & Bistro, said: 'There was a time Gene was coming down where he was living [in LA] 'These guys recognized him and they started harassing him a little bit' The star's friend revealed Hackman had taken his revenge after a driver bumped him after shouting abuse (pictured 2001 in The Royal Tenenbaums) The star responded: 'Well I was on my back and I kinda looked up over my head and there's a bus stop with a poster and there I was on the poster!'- pictured at the 1993 Oscars with Clint Eastwood Hackman also won the Best Actor Oscar for the 1971 film French Connection His last film was the 2004 political comedy Welcome to Mooseport and this time his retirement was permanent. The final autopsy results for Hackman detailed the beloved Oscar winning actor's extensive medical history two months after he and his wife were found dead inside their home. Hackman had 'a 'history of congestive heart failure' and 'severe chronic hypertensive changes, kidneys,' Fox reported, citing the Office of the Medical Investigator in New Mexico. He had a 'bi-ventricular pacemaker' since April 2019 and 'neurodegenerative features consistent with Alzheimer's Disease,' according to the autopsy. 'Autopsy showed severe atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, with placement of coronary artery stents and a bypass graft, as well as a previous aortic valve replacement,' the documents stated. 'Remote myocardial infarctions were present involving the left ventricular free wall and the septum, which were significantly large. Examination of the brain showed microscopic findings of advanced stage Alzheimer's disease.' Police have since determined that Arakawa died first around February 12 as a result of respiratory symptoms caused by the rare but deadly Hantavirus, which is passed on through rodent urine, saliva and feces. She was 65. Hackman tested negative for Hantavirus. Hackman and Arakawa married in 1991; pictured together in 2003 in Beverly Hills A report obtained by DailyMail.com indicated that Arakawa had bookmarks on her computer suggesting that she had been researching medical conditions with symptoms similar to Covid-19 or the flu prior to her death. 'Testing for carbon monoxide was less than 5 percent saturation, in keeping with a normal range,' the medical examiner noted. Hackman also had trace amounts of acetone in his system at the time of his death, which could be a product of 'diabetic- and fasting-induced ketoacidosis.' Hackman, who was suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease at the time, is believed to have wandered around the couple's home alone after his wife's death. Due to the condition, he may not have ever realized his wife had died. The actor died nearly a week later around February 18, from severe heart disease, while Alzheimer's and kidney disease were contributing factors. A week after the bodies were discovered, the New Mexico Department of Public Health conducted a health assessment on the property. The department concluded that dead rodents and their nests were found in 'eight detached outbuildings' on the Hackman property, making it a 'breeding ground' for the hantavirus. The deadly hantavirus typically spreads through rodent urine and droppings that one may come into contact with when cleaning a basement or an attic. There were droppings found in three garages, two casitas, and three sheds on the property. Additionally, there was a live rodent, a dead rodent and a rodent nest found in three more garages on the property, according to the inspectors. There were also two vehicles seen on the estate that had evidence of rodents, and they even found traps in the buildings as well, suggesting this had been an ongoing issue for the Hackmans. The health assessment was conducted to assess whether first responders or others who were on the property were safe from the virus. Police have since determined that Arakawa died first around February 12 Cops who combed their home following the gruesome discovery shared bodycam footage which captured how the couple's other heartbroken dog watched over Betsy's lifeless body as it lay surrounded by clutter. A series of heartbreaking notes were also found dotted around the house, each exchanged between the couple and showing their affection for one another until the end. Photos of their adored German Shepherds also adorned tables and sideboards, with smiling pictures of the couple with their old pets dating back years. Hugh Jackman has been spotted in public for the first time since his ex Deborra-Lee Furness filed for divorce, and he didn't seem bothered as he brushed off the drama. The 56-year-old actor exited his off-Broadway play 'Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes' around 5pm on Friday to greet fans who stood outside New York City's Minetta Lane Theatre eager to catch a glimpse of him. DailyMail.com witnessed the actor in high spirits and was all smiles as he signed his autograph, took photos with adoring fans and even gave some a hug. The Deadpool and Wolverine star, who changed into comfy shorts and a T-shirt, didn't seem bothered by his divorce playing out in the news as he was focused on making the fans happy since they had waited outside over half an hour since the play had ended. He told the crowd, 'Thanks for waiting,' and made sure to thank them for coming, even asking some fans how they were doing. As he made his way to a nearby Citi bike rack, fans continued to approach him and he made sure to give each and every one attention. Hugh Jackman was spotted in public for the first time since his ex Deborra-Lee Furness filed for divorce In photos obtained by DailyMail.com, the Wolverine actor was seen smiling outside the Minetta Lane Theatre on Friday as he took photos with fans Hugh's ex Deborra-Lee Furness filed for divorce on May 23, DailyMail.com exclusively reported earlier this week A few minutes after socializing with fans, he hopped on his Citi bike and rode away. Before Hugh exited the theater, his costar Ella Beatty - Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's 25-year-old daughter - left the theater separately and also took the time to greet fans and sign autographs. When asked about working alongside Hugh, who she has steamy kisses with onstage, she told DailyMail.com, 'I love Hugh. He's the most wonderful person.' She refused, however, to comment on how he's holding up amid his ex's divorce filing. Instead of responding, she kept quiet and continued to greet fans. DailyMail.com revealed earlier this week that the 69-year-old Australian producer had filed a petition for divorce in New York on May 23, nearly two years after they announced their separation. In fact, everything between the couple had been ironed out behind the scenes since multiple court documents on behalf of Furness' attorney were also filed, including the settlement, a proposed judgment of divorce, and certificate of dissolution. All that needs to be done now is for the judge to sign off on the judgment. Furness shocked fans by releasing a statement using the word 'betrayal' when speaking about her 'traumatic journey.' Hugh didn't seem bothered as he brushed off the divorce drama as he smiled for photos The Deadpool and Wolverine star took the time to sign autographs and socialize with people who saw his off-Broadway play He told the crowd, 'Thanks for waiting,' and made sure to thank them for coming. He even asked some fans how they were doing: 'Hi, how are you?' Fans patiently waited to greet the actor after waiting outside for 30 minutes after the play In a statement sent to DailyMail.com, Deborra-Lee said, 'My heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal. Its a profound wound that cuts deep, however I believe in a higher power and that God/the universe, whatever you relate to as your guidance, is always working FOR us.' She continued, 'This belief has helped me navigate the breakdown of an almost three-decade marriage. I have gained much knowledge and wisdom through this experience. Even when we are presented with apparent adversity, it is leading us to our greatest good, our true purpose. 'It can hurt, but in the long run, returning to yourself and living within your own integrity, values and boundaries is liberation and freedom.' She concluded her statement with the 'one thing' that she has learned, which is 'that none of this is personal,' adding, 'We are all on our individual journeys and I believe that the relationships in our lives are not random. 'We are drawn to people, we invite them in, in order to learn our lessons and to recognize and heal the broken parts of ourselves...I remain grateful.' After Furness' shock statement, a source had revealed exclusively to DailyMail.com Jackman's 'bitter reaction' to her statement. Jackman was blindsided by her words, the source spilled, as he believed they had an 'understanding' they would not publicly trash one another after having a 'secret agreement.' 'Hugh was extremely disappointed after reading what his ex had said,' the insider explained. 'There was no stipulation that she could not address this but there was an unwritten understanding that she would not trash him to the press. Hugh was able to break away from the crowd as he made his way to the Citi Bike station The star, who was without a bodyguard, rented a Citi Bike to go about his way after the play Hugh made sure to still smile to fans as he rode away on his Citi Bike He was even seen waving to fans as he said good bye to the admirers 'She got around this by not naming him - instead focusing on how she felt.' The couple had been married for 27 years and have two adopted children together - their son Oscar, 24, and a daughter Ava, 19. Furness has received a 'handsome spousal support payment,' according to an insider who spoke to DailyMail.com, which she is 'pleased with.' 'There was some back and forth regarding this financial agreement but, in the end, she got what she believed she deserved,' the source added. 'Both are coming out of this financially secure.' A separate source said the divorce is 'non contested,' meaning there was not a major disagreement between the couple divorcing. 'They have worked out the details in advance and everything is ironed out in terms of a settlement, alimony and the expenses for the future of their children,' they said. 'They are amicable and they are both fully committed to being the best parents that they can be.' Jackman, who is dating Sutton Foster and was seen walking hand-in-hand with her days before the filing, is 'looking forward to the future and not looking back.' A billionaire tech leader has delivered a stark warning about the mass unemployment that could be brought about by artificial intelligence. AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years, according to Dario Amodei, CEO of leading AI company Anthropic. Amodei said AI could also soon raise unemployment to 10 to 20 percent. He said the government and AI companies should stop 'sugar-coating' the job apocalypse on the horizon. 'We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming,' Amodei told Axios. 'I don't think this is on people's radar.' The billionaire said he is concerned that most Americans are 'unaware that this is about to happen.' 'It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it,' he explained. Dario Amodei, CEO of leading AI company Anthropic, has warned of mass unemployment Major companies have already begun mass layoffs, referencing advances in AI in making roles redundant. Meta recently announced that it is cutting 5 percent of its payroll. Zuckerberg said in a recent interview that the tech giant was developing AI that 'can effectively be a sort of mid-level engineer that you have at your company that can write code.' Amodei has previously warned about the dangers of advancing AI when he signed a 2023 'Statement on AI Risk' open letter. 'Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,' the statement read. Amodei signed the letter alongside other notable AI leaders including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, and billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Other experts have also issued startling warnings. Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, previously told the Financial Times that the 'AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] race is a race towards the edge of a cliff.' Unemployment could rise to 10 to 20 percent, Amodei warned Sam Altman of OpenAI co-signed a letter statement of AI risk back in 2023 'Even the CEOs who are engaging in the race have stated that whoever wins has a significant probability of causing human extinction in the process, because we have no idea how to control systems more intelligent than ourselves,' Russell added. Earlier this year an Open AI safety researcher labeled the global AI race a 'very risky gamble, with huge downside' for humanity as he dramatically quit his role. Steven Adler led safety-related research and programs for product launches and speculative long-term AI systems for OpenAI before resigning in January. 'I'm pretty terrified by the pace of AI development,' Adler wrote. He also criticized developments that have been quickly taking shape between world-leading AI labs and global superpowers. 'When I think about where I'll raise a future family, or how much to save for retirement, I can't help but wonder: Will humanity even make it to that point?,' he wrote on X. Starbucks Rewards members are fuming after learning they'll no longer earn 25 stars for using personal cups in the US. Instead, the coffee giant will offer double stars on the full order a change many say is a downgrade. Outraged customers took to Reddit, saying the switch will slash their rewards. 'It's like Starbucks doesn't want customers anymore,' one user wrote. Some vowed to stop visiting entirely. 'This was my last reason to go daily,' one fan said. 'Guess I'll be making coffee at home now.' This change, which starts on June 24, benefits those making larger purchases, as higher spenders will collect more stars under the new system. For example, a $30 order will yield 60 Stars instead of the previous 55, whereas a $5 purchase will drop from 30 to just 10 Stars. Stars earn freebies. For example, 25 gets a shot, 100 a brewed coffee or a bakery item, 200 a latter and 300 a sandwich. Starbucks loyalty members were informed that the chain would no longer reward customers 25 stars when they use personal cups The 25-star bonus has been a fan-favorite Starbucks perk for loyalty members on the app since 2022 The 25-star bonus has been a fan-favorite Starbucks perk since 2022. Several Reddit users revealed they were some of the many customers who used the perk daily to score a free coffee, tea, or snack when reaching the 100 point redemption level. A few Reddit users were 'unsurprised' by the action since CEO Brian Niccol revealed that reducing discounts and promotions for loyalty members for part of the company's 'Back to Starbucks' plan. Loyalty members will still earn one star per dollar spent when paying at the register or through a payment method on the app. If they pay through money on a digital Starbucks card or gift card, they will earn two. The company will continue to give its loyalty members a $0.10 discount on their orders when they use personal cups. However, the perk removal is one of many Starbucks changes that fans have slammed online. Employees and customers were frustrated by the return of its writing on cups policy, which baristas claimed couldn't include popular terms like 'YOLO' and 'GOAT.' Workers also roasted Niccol for implementing a new dress code, many of which threatened to quit their jobs. Starbucks will still apply a $0.10 discount for all customers who use personal cups Social media users claimed they would no longer visit Starbucks once perk removal takes effect While many changes were controversial, there were some that left customers impressed. The chain stopped charging customers extra money for dairy alternatives shortly after announcing it would simplify its 'overly complex menu.' All the changes have made customers fear for the fate of the chain. Its profits have declined drastically over the last few years, which was a factor in its decision to hire Niccol as CEO. They have yet to get back on track, and Starbucks recently confirmed its global and North American comparable store sales each declined by 1 percent during its latest quarter. However, the net revenue for its North American sales increased by 1 percent, and Niccol is still confident the turnaround plan is the 'right strategy' to better the company. Key power centers are issuing conflicting ultimatums, while suspicions of delay, conspiracy, and unrest simmer just beneath the surface. With Yunusa interim Government under increasing pressure and opposition factions threatening agitation, Bangladesh appears poised for a showdown Is turmoil brewing in Bangladesh? According to a report in The Daily Star of May 28, 2025, Muhammad Yunus, on a four-day visit to Japan at the time of writing, told former Japanese prime minister and Japan-Bangladesh Parliamentary Friendship League President, Taro Aso, that elections to Bangladeshas National Parliament will be held by June 2026, under any circumstance. Yunus, who, as chief adviser, is the head of Bangladeshas interim Government, had further said that the interim administration was focusing on three priorities a reforms, the trials of the perpetrators of political violence and the forthcoming national elections. According to a report in the Dhaka Tribune of the same date, echoing Yunus, his press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, said after his meeting with Taro Aso, that Yunus was moving forward with three specific agendas a reform, trial (of fascist elements), and election. aHe will announce a specific date for the elections once everything is ready.aOn the other hand, addressing virtually from London, a rally organised by three front organisations of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) a the Chhatra Dal, the Jubo Dal and the Swechhasebak Dal a the partyas acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, said on May 28, aWe call on the interim Government: national elections must be held by this December.a Emphasising that elections must take place awithin this timeframe,a he asked his adear countrymena to prepare to ensure that national elections were held by December. Alleging that certain factions within the Government were conspiring to delay the elections, he added, aIt appears that efforts to stall the upcoming election have already begun. The future of the election seems entangled in endless debates over so-called minor and major reforms. People are beginning to believe that these reform discussions are merely tactics to buy time, and that some within and outside the interim Government may have ulterior motives.a Earlier, addressing virtually a discussion marking the 18th anniversary of the founding of the National Peopleas Party in Dhaka, on May 25, 2025, he had called for constructive criticism of the Government, irrespective of whether it was an elected Government, an interim Government or a caretaker Government. The countryas people were not at the mercy of the Government, which must fulfil their legitimate demands.According to a report published in Prothom Alo English, the English language edition of Bangladeshas leading Bengali daily, Prothom Alo, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the countryas Chief of Army Staff, had said during an address to Bangladesh Army officers of different ranks stationed in Dhaka, on May 21, 2025, that the next national election should be held by December 2025. Noting that his stance on the issue remained unchanged, he added that it was the right of an elected Government to determine the countryas future course. General Waker-Uz-Zaman also stated that a decision regarding the transfer of the control of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) at Chattogram port to foreign entities, should be taken by a political Government, which should also decide on facilitating the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for the passage of aid to Myanmaras Rakhine state. Regarding the much-vaunted reforms, he said he had no idea of what they were as he was not consulted about them. The National Citizen Party, established on February 28, 2025, by the students who were at the forefront of the movement that ousted Sheikh Hasina, is apparently in no hurry to hold the elections. According to a report in The Daily Star of April 17, 2025, Nahid Islam, the partyas convenor, told the press in Dhaka on April 16, that the administration was helping the BNP and free and fair elections were not possible under it. He also said that his party sought fundamental reforms leading to qualitative changes in the state. Moving towards elections without structural changes would be dangerous for the country and his party would have to consider whether to participate in such an election or not. According to another report in The Daily Star of April 21, 2025, Nasiruddin Patwari, the NCPas Chief Coordinator, who met Bangladeshas Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) at the head of a delegation of his party, had urged him to hold the election only after the full implementation of electoral reforms, which should be possible under the timeframe suggested by Yunus. Other NCP leaders have said that elections should be held only after the trial and punishment of Sheikh Hasina and other Awami League leaders (whom they have proclaimed mass murderers). Clearly, there are two divergent positions a one by Yunus and the student leaders, and the other by the BNP and the Bangladesh Army a on the timing of the elections. The Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, extremely close at one time to the BNP when it had two important ministers in the coalition Government headed by its leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, is leaning towards Yunus, stating the latteras choice of the time for the next parliamentary elections was acceptable to it. The party, which is in close touch with other fundamentalist Islamic political organisations and parties like the Hefazat-e-Islam and Islami Andolan Bangladesh, is clearly keeping its options open. On the other hand, relations between Yunus, the BNP and the army are not of the friendliest kind. Aligned with Yunus is the Council of Advisers running the interim Government and the National Citizen Party. Things are turning increasingly nasty. According to a report in Dhaka Tribune, Zainul Abedin Farroque, a member of the BNP Chairpersonas Advisory Council, told a rally on March 12, 2025, that the new party (NCP) was now trying ato create chaos to delay the election... people have started saying this.a Addressing a rally in Dhaka on April 18, 2022, BNPas vice-president, Shamsuzzaman Dudu, claimed that the interim Government was delaying the election to prevent the BNP from coming to power. What would the BNP and the army do if the interim Government refuses to hold the parliamentary elections by December 2025? Will the BNP hit the streets? Will the army try to force Yunusa hand? The chief adviser seems to be getting ready for a showdown. He reportedly indicated on the evening of May 21, 2025, his desire to resign because he would not be able to continue in the present situation in Bangladesh with the political parties failing to reach a common ground to bring a change in the country. Remonstrances followed and he stayed on. The demand for elections and tensions with the army continued. Then came the next move. An unscheduled meeting of the Council of Advisers in Dhaka on May 24 expressed concern over the growing attempts to obstruct its duties through unreasonable demands, unauthorised and politically motivated statements and disruptive programmes. It warned that if these obstacles a fuelled by defeated forces or foreign conspiracies a rendered the Governmentas work impossible, it will take all facts to the public and make decisions in partnership with the people. The council reiterated that the interim Government reflects the spirit and expectations of the July uprising. But if its independence, reform efforts, judicial process, and preparations for fair elections are continuously undermined, the Government will not hesitate to move forward with the peopleas support and take whatever steps are necessary. What message does the statement convey? A plan for mass mobilisation a in the same way as was done in the case of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League in July 2024 a support of the interim Governmentas supporters and the NCP against those agitating for an election before December? Will it turn violent, leading to countrywide clashes? What will the army do in such a situation to restore order? Bangladeshas future would depend on the answers. (The writer is a consulting editor of The Pioneer. Views are personal) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday here said India has aredesigned and redefineda its strategy and response to terrorism and that possible dialogue with Islamabad will be only on terrorism and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Making this assertion, he also said the business of terrorism is not cost effective and it will come with a heavy price as Pakistan has realised now. His comments came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it is for the youth of Pakistan to step forward and afree Pakistan from the disease of terrorisma. Addressing a business summit organised by Confederation of Indian Industry(CII), Rajnath Singh said people of PoK are part of Indiaas aown familya and the day is not far when they will return to the Indian mainstream by listening to their inner voice. aWe are committed to the resolution of aEk Bharat Shreshtha Bharata (One India, Best India) and we have full faith that those of our brothers who are geographically and politically separated from us today, will also return to the mainstream of India someday or the other with self-respect, listening to their voice of soul,a he said. Most of the people there feel a deep connection with India, there are only a few who have been misled, he added. The Defence Minister described Make-in-India as crucial for national security and prosperity, stating that the use of indigenous systems during Operation Sindoor has proved that India has the power to penetrate any armour of the enemy. aWe destroyed the terrorist hideouts and then the military bases. We could have done a lot more, but we presented a great example of coordination of power and restraint,a he said. The Defence Minister said the unification of the PoK with India depends on athe cultural, social and economic prosperity of this country.a He said most of the people in PoK feel a adeep connectiona with India and only a few of them have been amisleda. aThe situation of our brothers and sisters living in PoK is similar to that of Shakti Singh, the younger brother of brave warrior Maharana Pratap.a aEven after separation, the confidence and faith of the elder brother towards his younger brother remains intact,a Rajnath Singh said. aIndia always talks about connecting hearts, and we believe that by walking on the path of love, unity and truth, the day is not far when our own part, PoK, will return and say, I am India, I have returned,a he said. In his remarks, the defence ministry also highlighted Indiaas domestic defence capabilities. Indiaas Defence export was less than `1,000 crore 10 years ago but it has now reached a record figure of `23,500 crore, he said. Today, it has been proven that Make-in-India in defence is essential for both Indiaas security and prosperity, Rajnath Singh said. Today, we are not just building fighter jets or missile systems and we are also preparing for new-age warfare technology, he said. The Defence Minister also spoke about Indiaas ambitious plan to build a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet a the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA). The Defence Ministry this week cleared the aexecution modela to design and produce the aircraft. He emphasised that through the AMCA aexecution modela, the private sector will get an opportunity to participate in the project along with public sector companies for the first time. aUnder the AMCA project, the plan is to develop five prototypes, which will be followed by series production. It is a key milepost in the history of the Make-in-India programme,a he said. IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh hailed Operation Sindoor as a anational victorya, and said all the Indian forces came together to execute it in a very professional manner. In his address at the CII Business Summit, he also said, aWe were taking the path of truth, I think, God was with us also in this.a This Operation Sindoor that weave been talking about, itas a national victory. I thank each and every Indian. I am sure, every Indian wanted. Was looking towards this victory,a the IAF chief said. aLike it has been said again and again that this was an operation that was executed in a very professional manner by everybody, all the agencies, all the forces, we all came together. And when truth is with you, then everything happens on its own,a he said. Operation Sindoor was launched early May 7 in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under this operation. The Delhi Police Crime Branch has detained four Bangladeshi nationals who were found to be living unlawfully in the Narela area of the national capital, police said on Wednesday. The detentions were carried out on May 25 as part of a focused operation aimed at identifying and tracing undocumented foreign nationals residing in vulnerable and unregulated settlements. According to police officials, the operation was launched after weeks of ground-level intelligence gathering in Narela and surrounding areas. Authorities had been monitoring makeshift dwellings and roadside settlements believed to house illegal immigrants. aA police team began tracing illegal migrants in vulnerable localities, particularly in roadside settlements and makeshift dwellings in and around Narela,a an official said. Based on actionable intelligence, four men identified as Hafijul (19), Mominul (21), Shamim (22) and Inamul (38) were detained during the special drive. All of them hail from Khudigram and Nakeshwari districts in Bangladesh, the police confirmed. Upon questioning, the men failed to present any valid identification or documentation permitting their stay in India. aThe four failed to produce any valid documents,a a senior police officer said. During the interrogation, the detainees reportedly admitted to having crossed into India illegally as children along with their parents. While their families eventually returned to Bangladesh, the four men stayed back and continued living in India without any legal authorisation. The investigation also revealed that the men had been moving frequently from one city to another in order to avoid detection by authorities. Their movements spanned across multiple states and cities including Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Khurja, Mahendragarh, Ghaziabad, Behraor, and Delhi. aThey had no relatives or legal ties in India and continued to stay on roadsides without identification documents from either India or Bangladesh,a the officer added. Following their detention, all four men have been sent to a detention centre, and deportation proceedings have been initiated. Pakistan should hand over UN designated terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India if it is serious about talks between the two countries, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. In an interaction with the naval warriors onboard aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off Goa, he said if Pakistan resorts to anything aevil or unethicala against India, it will face the firepower and ire of the Indian Navy this time. If Pakistan tries to cast an evil eye, the opening of New Delhias response will be at the hands of the Indian Navy, he said in a clear message to Islamabad. Pakistan needs to understand that the time is up for the adangerous gamea of terrorism it has been playing since Independence and India will use every method to root out the menace, Rajnath Singh said. Anti-India activities are being carried out openly from Pakistani soil and India is acompletely freea to carry out every kind of operation against terrorists on both sides of the border and the sea, he said. The defence minister, highlighting the Indian Navyas role during Operation Sindoor, said it succeeded in keeping the Pakistani military tied down. When the Indian Air Force destroyed terror bases on Pakistani soil, the Indian Navyas aggressive deployment in Arabian Sea confined Pakistani Navy to its own shores, he said. Rajnath Singh used his brief speech to the naval personnel to send a stern warning to Pakistan as he asserted that Operation Sindoor is not just a military action but Indiaas frontal assault against terrorism. aWe will use every method against terrorism that Pakistan can think of, but we will not hesitate to use those methods also which Pakistan cannot even think of,a he said. The defence minister said it would be in Pakistanas interest to auproot the nurseriesa of terrorism operating on its soil awith its own handsa. aIt should start by handing over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India. Both of them are not only on the list of aMost Wanted Terroristsa in India but are also on the UNas list of designated terrorists,a he said. Azhar, the head of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group, is wanted in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, 2016 Pathankot airbase attacks and the 2019 Pulwama strike. Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group is known to be the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack and wanted in several other terror cases in India. aToday the whole world is acknowledging Indiaas right to protect its citizens against terrorism. Today no power in the world can stop India from doing this work,a he said. On Pakistanas repeated offer of talks, Singh clarified: aIf there are talks, it will only be on terrorism and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir. If Pakistan is serious about talks, it should hand over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India so that justice is served.a Commending the Indian Navyas asilent servicea during Operation Sindoor, Singh said the mighty Carrier Battle Group ensured that the Pakistani Navy did not venture out, or else it would have faced the consequences. On Operation Sindoor, he said, aOur strike was so powerful that Pakistan began pleading with the entire world to stop India.a In just a short span of time, we demolished Pakistanas terrorist bases and its intentions, he said adding the speed, depth and clarity with which our armed forces acted were remarkable. Operation Sindoor not only sent a clear message to terrorists but also to their patrons who nurture them, Singh said. In the end, on our own terms, we halted our military actions, he said. 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. Austevoll Seafood ASA (OTCMKTS:ASTVF Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,200 shares, a growth of 200.0% from the April 30th total of 400 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 12.0 days. Austevoll Seafood ASA Price Performance Shares of ASTVF opened at $9.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $9.31 and a 200-day moving average of $9.16. Austevoll Seafood ASA has a one year low of $7.18 and a one year high of $9.65. Get Austevoll Seafood ASA alerts: About Austevoll Seafood ASA (Get Free Report) Further Reading Austevoll Seafood ASA, a seafood company, engages in the salmon and trout, white fish, and pelagic businesses in Norway, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, Africa, North America, Asia, South America, and internationally. The company is involved in the ownership and operation of fishing vessels, as well as farming, aquaculture, processing, sale, and distribution of salmon and trout. Receive News & Ratings for Austevoll Seafood ASA Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Austevoll Seafood ASA and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Bath Savings Trust Co lessened its position in Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW Free Report) by 16.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,409 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 472 shares during the period. Bath Savings Trust Cos holdings in Illinois Tool Works were worth $597,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Exeter Financial LLC increased its holdings in Illinois Tool Works by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Exeter Financial LLC now owns 7,842 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,945,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc increased its holdings in Illinois Tool Works by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Sage Capital Advisors llc now owns 21,180 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $5,253,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division increased its holdings in Illinois Tool Works by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 1,139 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 159.1% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,490 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 915 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division grew its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 4,722 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,171,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.77% of the companys stock. Get Illinois Tool Works alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of research firms have commented on ITW. Wall Street Zen lowered Illinois Tool Works from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $240.00 to $237.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $252.00 to $249.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Illinois Tool Works from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $257.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $302.00 to $284.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $253.42. Insiders Place Their Bets In other Illinois Tool Works news, CEO Christopher A. Oherlihy sold 48,453 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.36, for a total value of $13,293,565.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 55,113 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,120,802.68. This represents a 46.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael M. Larsen sold 41,472 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.25, for a total value of $11,249,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,502 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,698,667.50. The trade was a 45.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.88% of the companys stock. Illinois Tool Works Stock Up 0.6% Shares of Illinois Tool Works stock opened at $245.34 on Friday. Illinois Tool Works Inc. has a one year low of $214.66 and a one year high of $279.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stocks 50-day moving average is $240.30 and its 200 day moving average is $254.24. The firm has a market cap of $71.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.93, a PEG ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 1.12. Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.83 billion. Illinois Tool Works had a return on equity of 95.39% and a net margin of 21.94%. The companys quarterly revenue was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.44 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Illinois Tool Works Inc. will post 10.39 EPS for the current year. Illinois Tool Works Dividend Announcement The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.45%. Illinois Tool Workss payout ratio is currently 52.77%. About Illinois Tool Works (Free Report) Illinois Tool Works Inc manufactures and sells industrial products and equipment in the United States and internationally. It operates through seven segments: Automotive OEM; Food Equipment; Test & Measurement and Electronics; Welding; Polymers & Fluids; Construction Products; and Specialty Products. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ITW? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Illinois Tool Works Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Illinois Tool Works and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division lessened its position in shares of State Street Co. (NYSE:STT Free Report) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,300 shares of the asset managers stock after selling 1,650 shares during the quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Divisions holdings in State Street were worth $1,907,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Hawaiian Bank grew its holdings in shares of State Street by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 20,592 shares of the asset managers stock worth $1,844,000 after purchasing an additional 391 shares in the last quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. boosted its stake in State Street by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 19,110 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $1,711,000 after buying an additional 960 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in State Street by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,157 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in State Street by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 551,210 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $54,101,000 after buying an additional 32,513 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 111 Capital acquired a new stake in State Street in the 4th quarter valued at $587,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.44% of the companys stock. Get State Street alerts: Analysts Set New Price Targets STT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on State Street from $127.00 to $120.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered State Street from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on State Street from $109.00 to $106.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on State Street from $118.00 to $113.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on State Street from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $104.23. State Street Trading Up 0.2% STT stock opened at $97.02 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $27.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.77, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.42. State Street Co. has a twelve month low of $70.20 and a twelve month high of $103.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The business has a fifty day moving average of $88.71 and a 200-day moving average of $93.98. State Street (NYSE:STT Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.30 billion. State Street had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 12.14%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that State Street Co. will post 9.68 EPS for the current year. State Street Dividend Announcement The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.13%. State Streets payout ratio is currently 34.12%. Insider Transactions at State Street In related news, CAO Elizabeth Schaefer sold 1,300 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.72, for a total value of $117,936.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $667,154.88. This represents a 15.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. About State Street (Free Report) State Street Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company offers investment servicing products and services, including custody, accounting, regulatory reporting, investor, and performance and analytics; middle office products, such as IBOR, transaction management, loans, cash, derivatives and collateral, record keeping, and client reporting and investment analytics; finance leasing; foreign exchange, and brokerage and other trading services; securities finance and enhanced custody products; deposit and short-term investment facilities; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; performance, risk, and compliance analytics; and financial data management to support institutional investors. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for State Street Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for State Street and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Moody National Bank Trust Division raised its holdings in GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE Free Report) by 2.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,595 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Divisions holdings in GE Aerospace were worth $2,521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Legacy Private Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of GE Aerospace by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. Legacy Private Trust Co. now owns 25,833 shares of the companys stock worth $5,170,000 after buying an additional 3,173 shares during the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division increased its holdings in shares of GE Aerospace by 54.6% during the 1st quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 16,074 shares of the companys stock worth $3,217,000 after buying an additional 5,674 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank increased its holdings in shares of GE Aerospace by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 19,846 shares of the companys stock worth $3,972,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of GE Aerospace during the 1st quarter worth $219,000. Finally, Marcum Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of GE Aerospace by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 3,614 shares of the companys stock worth $723,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Get GE Aerospace alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on GE Aerospace from $212.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on GE Aerospace from $235.00 to $227.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of GE Aerospace in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Northcoast Research downgraded GE Aerospace from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of GE Aerospace from $207.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $216.92. GE Aerospace Stock Up 0.2% Shares of GE Aerospace stock opened at $244.14 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $204.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $193.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. GE Aerospace has a twelve month low of $150.20 and a twelve month high of $246.00. The stock has a market cap of $260.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.31. GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The company reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $9.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $9.06 billion. GE Aerospace had a net margin of 14.31% and a return on equity of 22.19%. Equities research analysts forecast that GE Aerospace will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Insider Buying and Selling at GE Aerospace In other GE Aerospace news, VP Robert M. Giglietti sold 4,104 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.73, for a total value of $807,379.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,540 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,270,264.20. This represents a 26.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Mohamed Ali sold 1,602 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.67, for a total transaction of $321,473.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,805 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,766,899.35. The trade was a 15.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. GE Aerospace Company Profile (Free Report) GE Aerospace (also known as General Electric) is a company that specializes in providing aerospace products and services. It operates through two reportable segments: Commercial Engines and Services and Defense and Propulsion Technologies. It offers jet and turboprop engines, as well as integrated systems for commercial, military, business, and general aviation aircraft. See Also Receive News & Ratings for GE Aerospace Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for GE Aerospace and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. GoalVest Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW Free Report) by 9.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,696 shares of the industrial products companys stock after buying an additional 224 shares during the quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLCs holdings in Illinois Tool Works were worth $669,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Clarity Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illinois Tool Works during the 4th quarter worth $315,000. Milestone Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illinois Tool Works during the 4th quarter worth $941,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Illinois Tool Works during the 4th quarter worth $739,000. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Illinois Tool Works during the 4th quarter worth $1,096,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 42.2% during the 4th quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,718 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $1,450,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.77% of the companys stock. Get Illinois Tool Works alerts: Analysts Set New Price Targets ITW has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Illinois Tool Works from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $302.00 to $284.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $265.00 to $253.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $269.00 to $234.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $300.00 to $295.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $253.42. Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, CEO Christopher A. Oherlihy sold 48,453 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.36, for a total transaction of $13,293,565.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 55,113 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,120,802.68. The trade was a 46.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael M. Larsen sold 41,472 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.25, for a total value of $11,249,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,502 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $13,698,667.50. This represents a 45.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.88% of the companys stock. Illinois Tool Works Stock Up 0.6% Shares of NYSE:ITW opened at $245.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.88 billion, a PE ratio of 20.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 1.12. The firms 50-day moving average is $240.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $254.24. Illinois Tool Works Inc. has a 1 year low of $214.66 and a 1 year high of $279.13. Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.83 billion. Illinois Tool Works had a net margin of 21.94% and a return on equity of 95.39%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.44 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Illinois Tool Works Inc. will post 10.39 EPS for the current year. Illinois Tool Works Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. Illinois Tool Workss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.77%. About Illinois Tool Works (Free Report) Illinois Tool Works Inc manufactures and sells industrial products and equipment in the United States and internationally. It operates through seven segments: Automotive OEM; Food Equipment; Test & Measurement and Electronics; Welding; Polymers & Fluids; Construction Products; and Specialty Products. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ITW? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Illinois Tool Works Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Illinois Tool Works and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltd cut its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG Free Report) by 17.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 95,500 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 19,900 shares during the quarter. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. makes up 3.5% of GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltds portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. GuoLine Advisory Pte Ltds holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $32,970,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 4,247 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,466,000 after buying an additional 542 shares during the period. Bath Savings Trust Co boosted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 14.6% in the first quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co now owns 23,961 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $8,272,000 after acquiring an additional 3,045 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 37.5% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,367 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $472,000 after acquiring an additional 373 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 68,124 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $19,337,000 after purchasing an additional 12,730 shares during the period. Finally, IronOak Wealth LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at $548,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the companys stock. Get Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. alerts: Analyst Ratings Changes Several equities research analysts have commented on AJG shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $266.00 to $265.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. They set a neutral rating and a $352.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $307.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $308.00 to $346.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $318.57. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Price Performance Shares of AJG opened at $341.54 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a twelve month low of $244.60 and a twelve month high of $350.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.38 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50 day moving average of $332.65 and a 200-day moving average of $314.96. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $3.57 by $0.10. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 12.70% and a return on equity of 16.47%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.45 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 EPS for the current fiscal year. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Announces Dividend The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s payout ratio is presently 37.63%. Insider Activity at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. In other news, Director David S. Johnson sold 1,000 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.04, for a total value of $342,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 45,323 shares of the companys stock, valued at $15,502,278.92. This trade represents a 2.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 7,510 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $333.59, for a total transaction of $2,505,260.90. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 90,020 shares in the company, valued at $30,029,771.80. This represents a 7.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,510 shares of company stock valued at $11,033,341. Insiders own 1.60% of the companys stock. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Profile (Free Report) Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AJG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Hengan International Group Company Limited (OTCMKTS:HEGIY Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,400 shares, a growth of 5,300.0% from the April 30th total of 100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 50,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.1 days. Currently, 0.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Hengan International Group Trading Down 0.1% Shares of OTCMKTS:HEGIY opened at $13.80 on Friday. Hengan International Group has a 1 year low of $12.46 and a 1 year high of $18.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $13.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.94. Get Hengan International Group alerts: Hengan International Group Cuts Dividend The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 26th will be given a dividend of $0.4113 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a dividend yield of 5.89%. Hengan International Group Company Profile Hengan International Group Company Limited, an investment holding company, manufactures, distributes, and sells personal hygiene products in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company offers pocket handkerchiefs, box and soft tissue papers, kitchen towels/papers, toilet rolls, first-aid products, enema, garbage and food bags, preservation papers, table cloths and disposable toilet brush, sanitary napkins, pantiliners, overnight pants, wet tissues, maternal and child care products, adult and baby diapers, and cleansing products. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Hengan International Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Hengan International Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its position in Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Free Report) by 10.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 701 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 69 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.s holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LLY. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 74,248,997 shares of the companys stock worth $57,320,226,000 after purchasing an additional 475,530 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,382,846 shares of the companys stock worth $13,389,651,000 after purchasing an additional 291,875 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,625,925 shares of the companys stock worth $9,747,214,000 after purchasing an additional 2,012,129 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Eli Lilly and Company during the 4th quarter worth about $8,407,908,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,757,511 shares of the companys stock worth $8,304,811,000 after purchasing an additional 1,493,673 shares in the last quarter. 82.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. Get Eli Lilly and Company alerts: Eli Lilly and Company Price Performance Shares of Eli Lilly and Company stock opened at $720.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $683.24 billion, a PE ratio of 61.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.48. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $779.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $800.51. Eli Lilly and Company has a 12 month low of $677.09 and a 12 month high of $972.53. Eli Lilly and Company Announces Dividend Eli Lilly and Company ( NYSE:LLY Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $3.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.64 by ($1.30). The firm had revenue of $12.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.77 billion. Eli Lilly and Company had a net margin of 23.51% and a return on equity of 85.24%. Eli Lilly and Companys revenue for the quarter was up 45.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Eli Lilly and Company will post 23.48 EPS for the current fiscal year. The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. Eli Lilly and Companys payout ratio is 48.82%. Insider Buying and Selling In related news, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 1,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $818.24, for a total transaction of $818,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,840 shares in the company, valued at $4,778,521.60. This trade represents a 14.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In LLY has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim reissued a buy rating on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised Eli Lilly and Company from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Hsbc Global Res cut Eli Lilly and Company from a strong-buy rating to a moderate sell rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Eli Lilly and Company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued an overweight rating and a $975.00 price target on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Eli Lilly and Company from $1,100.00 to $1,050.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $1,011.37. Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on LLY Eli Lilly and Company Company Profile (Free Report) Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; Jardiance, Mounjaro, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes; and Zepbound for obesity. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding LLY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Eli Lilly and Company Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Eli Lilly and Company and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Global Financial Private Client LLC grew its position in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (BATS:QUAL Free Report) by 1.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,636 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF makes up approximately 0.7% of Global Financial Private Client LLCs holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Global Financial Private Client LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF were worth $1,818,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 16,325.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 283,336 shares of the companys stock valued at $48,419,000 after acquiring an additional 281,611 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 47.7% in the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 2,179 shares of the companys stock valued at $372,000 after acquiring an additional 704 shares in the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 6.5% in the first quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 484,702 shares of the companys stock valued at $82,831,000 after acquiring an additional 29,747 shares in the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 4.9% in the first quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 3,103 shares of the companys stock valued at $530,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 5.9% in the first quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 62,971 shares of the companys stock valued at $10,761,000 after acquiring an additional 3,505 shares in the last quarter. Get iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF alerts: iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Price Performance iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF stock opened at $176.88 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $169.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.68 billion, a PE ratio of 25.81 and a beta of 1.06. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF has a 12-month low of $148.34 and a 12-month high of $187.26. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Company Profile The iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality index. The fund tracks an index of US large- and mid-cap stocks, selected and weighted by high ROE, stable earnings growth and low debt\u002Fequity, relative to peers in each sector. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding QUAL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (BATS:QUAL Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (NYSEARCA:JEPI Free Report) by 2.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 112,959 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 2,984 shares during the period. JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF accounts for about 2.7% of Lowe Wealth Advisors LLCs investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLCs holdings in JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF were worth $6,454,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Potentia Wealth acquired a new position in shares of JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF in the 4th quarter worth approximately $447,000. Florida Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF by 54.3% in the 4th quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,014 shares of the companys stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 2,468 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 28,673 shares of the companys stock worth $1,650,000 after buying an additional 6,273 shares in the last quarter. Clarity Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Clarity Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 55,688 shares of the companys stock worth $3,204,000 after buying an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 3,439 shares of the companys stock worth $198,000 after buying an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Get JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF alerts: JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF Trading Up 0.2% Shares of JEPI opened at $56.00 on Friday. JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF has a 1 year low of $49.94 and a 1 year high of $60.88. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $55.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.52. The stock has a market cap of $39.57 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55 and a beta of 0.61. JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF Company Profile The JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the S&P 500 index. The fund is an actively-managed fund that invests in large-cap US stocks and equity-linked notes (ELNs). It seeks to provide similar returns as the S&P 500 Index with lower volatility and monthly income. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding JEPI? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (NYSEARCA:JEPI Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Stryker Co. (NYSE:SYK Free Report) by 21.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,100 shares of the medical technology companys stock after purchasing an additional 3,388 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLCs holdings in Stryker were worth $7,110,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tompkins Financial Corp boosted its stake in Stryker by 1.0% during the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 17,673 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $6,579,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Stryker by 43,226.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,074,922 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $772,390,000 after buying an additional 2,070,133 shares during the period. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO boosted its stake in Stryker by 35.3% during the first quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO now owns 8,246 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $3,070,000 after buying an additional 2,150 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its position in shares of Stryker by 6.0% during the first quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 904 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moody National Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in shares of Stryker during the first quarter worth $212,000. 77.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Get Stryker alerts: Insider Buying and Selling at Stryker In other Stryker news, Director Ronda E. Stryker sold 200,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.96, for a total value of $75,392,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,417,326 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,288,195,208.96. This represents a 5.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 5.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $450.00 target price on Stryker in a research report on Monday, May 5th. BTIG Research set a $403.00 price objective on Stryker and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Citigroup restated a buy rating and issued a $455.00 price objective (up from $443.00) on shares of Stryker in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Stryker from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Argus set a $450.00 price objective on Stryker in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $427.30. Read Our Latest Research Report on SYK Stryker Stock Up 0.5% Shares of NYSE:SYK opened at $382.12 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $368.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $376.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $145.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.24, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.93. Stryker Co. has a 12-month low of $314.93 and a 12-month high of $406.19. Stryker (NYSE:SYK Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical technology company reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.73 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.68 billion. Stryker had a return on equity of 23.58% and a net margin of 13.25%. Strykers revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Stryker Co. will post 13.47 EPS for the current year. Stryker Dividend Announcement The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.84 per share. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Strykers payout ratio is 45.41%. Stryker Profile (Free Report) Stryker Corporation operates as a medical technology company. The company operates through two segments, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, and Orthopaedics and Spine. The Orthopaedics and Spine segment provides implants for use in total joint replacements, such as hip, knee and shoulder, and trauma and extremities surgeries. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Stryker Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Stryker and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. SpareBank 1 SMN (OTCMKTS:SRMGF Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 100 shares, a drop of 97.7% from the April 30th total of 4,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 0 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently days. SpareBank 1 SMN Stock Performance Shares of OTCMKTS SRMGF opened at $12.43 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $12.43 and a 200-day moving average of $12.43. SpareBank 1 SMN has a fifty-two week low of $12.43 and a fifty-two week high of $12.43. Get SpareBank 1 SMN alerts: SpareBank 1 SMN Company Profile (Get Free Report) See Also SpareBank 1 SMN, together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking, accounting, and real estate products and services to private individuals and companies in Norway and internationally. The company offers mortgage, vehicle, green, move, consumer and other loans; refinancing; and placement, group, savings, business, group, tax deduction, currency, and deposit accounts. Receive News & Ratings for SpareBank 1 SMN Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for SpareBank 1 SMN and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in shares of The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE:IPG Free Report) by 40.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 253,675 shares of the business services providers stock after acquiring an additional 73,054 shares during the quarter. Toronto Dominion Banks holdings in Interpublic Group of Companies were worth $7,106,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in IPG. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Interpublic Group of Companies by 75.8% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,113 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Interpublic Group of Companies during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new position in Interpublic Group of Companies during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. GeoWealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Interpublic Group of Companies by 20.7% in the 4th quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 3,341 shares of the business services providers stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 573 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parvin Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Interpublic Group of Companies in the 4th quarter worth about $102,000. Institutional investors own 98.43% of the companys stock. Get Interpublic Group of Companies alerts: Analyst Ratings Changes A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered their price objective on Interpublic Group of Companies from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group upgraded Interpublic Group of Companies from a sell rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen assumed coverage on Interpublic Group of Companies in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Argus cut Interpublic Group of Companies from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a buy rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Interpublic Group of Companies in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $33.44. Interpublic Group of Companies Trading Down 0.1% Shares of IPG opened at $24.31 on Friday. The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.51 and a twelve month high of $33.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $8.99 billion, a PE ratio of 13.28 and a beta of 1.09. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $24.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.02. Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Interpublic Group of Companies had a return on equity of 27.10% and a net margin of 6.45%. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. Interpublic Group of Companiess revenue was down 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. will post 2.66 EPS for the current fiscal year. Interpublic Group of Companies Announces Dividend The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Interpublic Group of Companiess payout ratio is 100.76%. Interpublic Group of Companies announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $155.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to buy up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the companys board of directors believes its shares are undervalued. Insider Transactions at Interpublic Group of Companies In other Interpublic Group of Companies news, CFO Ellen Tobi Johnson sold 21,427 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.82, for a total value of $574,672.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 143,373 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,845,263.86. This represents a 13.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders. Interpublic Group of Companies Profile (Free Report) The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc provides advertising and marketing services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Media, Data & Engagement Solutions, Integrated Advertising & Creativity Led Solutions, and Specialized Communications & Experiential Solutions. The Media, Data & Engagement Solutions segment provides media and communications services, digital services and products, advertising and marketing technology, e-commerce services, data management and analytics, strategic consulting, and digital brand experience under the IPG Mediabrands, UM, Initiative, Kinesso, Acxiom, Huge, MRM, and R/GA brand names. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding IPG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE:IPG Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Interpublic Group of Companies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Interpublic Group of Companies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Toronto Dominion Bank lessened its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX Free Report) by 34.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,564 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 13,320 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Banks holdings in IDEX were worth $5,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in IEX. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 152.0% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,212 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Berry Wealth Group LP lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Berry Wealth Group LP now owns 1,542 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $323,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 232,014 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $48,558,000 after purchasing an additional 8,550 shares during the last quarter. Guidance Capital Inc. acquired a new position in IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $890,000. Finally, Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its holdings in IDEX by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 6,046 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,265,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the companys stock. Get IDEX alerts: IDEX Stock Up 0.6% NYSE IEX opened at $181.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.74 billion, a PE ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07. IDEX Co. has a one year low of $153.36 and a one year high of $238.22. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $176.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. IDEX Increases Dividend IDEX ( NYSE:IEX Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $814.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.25 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.08% and a net margin of 15.45%. IDEXs revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.88 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This is a positive change from IDEXs previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. IDEXs dividend payout ratio is 45.01%. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several equities analysts have commented on IEX shares. Mizuho set a $185.00 price target on IDEX in a report on Friday, May 16th. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 price target on IDEX in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup cut their price target on IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $212.50. View Our Latest Analysis on IDEX IDEX Profile (Free Report) IDEX Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides applied solutions worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT), Health & Science Technologies (HST), and Fire & Safety/Diversified Products (FSDP). The FMT segment designs, produces, and distributes positive displacement pumps, valves, small volume provers, flow meters, injectors, and other fluid-handling pump modules and systems, as well as flow monitoring and other services for the food, chemical, general industrial, water and wastewater, agricultural, and energy industries. Read More Receive News & Ratings for IDEX Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for IDEX and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Quent Capital LLC grew its holdings in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT Free Report) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,779 shares of the retailers stock after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLCs holdings in Walmart were worth $2,088,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. World Investment Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Walmart by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 271,515 shares of the retailers stock valued at $24,532,000 after purchasing an additional 19,233 shares during the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. raised its holdings in shares of Walmart by 209.7% in the 4th quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 885,008 shares of the retailers stock valued at $79,960,000 after buying an additional 599,257 shares during the period. Modera Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Walmart by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC now owns 203,150 shares of the retailers stock valued at $18,355,000 after buying an additional 9,292 shares during the period. Cushing Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at $1,124,000. Finally, Campbell Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at $359,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 26.76% of the companys stock. Get Walmart alerts: Insider Buying and Selling In other Walmart news, CEO C Douglas Mcmillon sold 29,148 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.58, for a total transaction of $2,815,113.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,451,199 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $429,896,799.42. This trade represents a 0.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathryn J. Mclay sold 28,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.00, for a total value of $2,716,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,064,455 shares of the companys stock, valued at $103,252,135. The trade was a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,334 shares of company stock worth $12,615,864 in the last quarter. 45.58% of the stock is owned by insiders. Walmart Trading Down 0.2% NYSE:WMT opened at $97.04 on Friday. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $93.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.26. The company has a market capitalization of $776.43 billion, a PE ratio of 40.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Walmart Inc. has a 52-week low of $64.16 and a 52-week high of $105.30. Walmart (NYSE:WMT Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 15th. The retailer reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $165.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $164.53 billion. Walmart had a return on equity of 21.87% and a net margin of 2.85%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Walmart Inc. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year. Walmart Dividend Announcement The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $0.235 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. This represents a yield of 0.95%. Walmarts dividend payout ratio is presently 40.17%. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth WMT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Walmart in a report on Friday, May 16th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Walmart from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. DZ Bank upgraded Walmart from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $110.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Walmart from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Walmart in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $104.94. Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Walmart Walmart Company Profile (Free Report) Walmart Inc engages in the operation of retail, wholesale, other units, and eCommerce worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. It operates supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, cash and carry stores, and discount stores under Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market brands; membership-only warehouse clubs; ecommerce websites, such as walmart.com.mx, walmart.ca, flipkart.com, PhonePe and other sites; and mobile commerce applications. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Walmart Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Walmart and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Webster Bank N. A. lessened its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY Free Report) by 10.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,574 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after selling 2,180 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A.s holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $1,194,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 137.5% during the 1st quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 475 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.41% of the companys stock. Get Bristol-Myers Squibb alerts: Insider Activity In other news, EVP Samit Hirawat acquired 4,250 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $47.58 per share, for a total transaction of $202,215.00. Following the acquisition, the executive vice president now owns 83,513 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,973,548.54. This trade represents a 5.36% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.09% of the companys stock. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair restated a market perform rating on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Friday, April 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a neutral rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $55.00 price objective (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $58.00. View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Bristol-Myers Squibb Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance Bristol-Myers Squibb stock opened at $47.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $97.27 billion, a PE ratio of -10.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.39. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 52-week low of $39.35 and a 52-week high of $63.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.90. The companys 50 day moving average is $50.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.46. Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.77 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a negative net margin of 18.53% and a positive return on equity of 13.93%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($4.40) EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year. Bristol-Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.19%. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 92.88%. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Profile (Free Report) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BMY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Bristol-Myers Squibb Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bristol-Myers Squibb and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. May 30, 2025: The Ukraine War has forced Russia to be creative in dealing with unrest in other parts of the country. The need for manpower for fighting in Ukraine has depleted the number of police available, especially in remote rural areas. Except for the sons of senior officials, every military age male can be mobilized by the very active and mobile Russian military recruiters. This policy often causes unrest that the depleted police forces in rural areas cannot deal with. The national government came up with some other solutions to deal with unrest and one of them was unemployment. The government can control unemployment rates by making it more difficult to establish a business in some areas. By enacting stricter rules for business loans, it becomes more difficult to open new factories or mining operations. This sort of thing is not people. People may be unemployed, but they can usually figure out a way. When the national government is displeased by how citizens in some areas are acting up or opposing the Ukraine war, it can suddenly become more difficult to find a job, followed by stricter rules for obtaining unemployment benefits. All this was in stark contrast to how good life was before the Ukraine War. Life was good, but there were a few problems. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left Russia as the largest, wealthiest, and most populous of the fourteen new states that emerged after the demise of the Soviet empire. At first the prospects for the new Russian Federation looked bright. That did not last long because population growth ended in 1993. At that point Russia had 148 million people. Since 1993 the population has steadily declined because of low birth rates, shorter life spans for males and over a million men and women migrating to western Europe or North America. Desperate to deal with this problem, Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. While Ukrainians share many characteristics with Russians, like customs, education levels, and similar languages, Russian rule was not wanted. For centuries Ukrainians have held on to their desire for independence. Russian domination, misrule and mismanagement of the economy led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and an opportunity for forty million Ukrainians to finally regain self-rule. That lasted for 23 years before the Russians decided they could solve their declining population problem by rebuilding their empire, starting with the 40 million Ukrainians. Russia initially believed that most Ukrainians would welcome this and ignore their plans to join the European Union and NATO. The Ukrainians disagreed and fought the Russians to a ruinous, for Russia, standstill. Substantial military and economic aid from NATO enabled the Ukrainians to stop the Russians and eventually expel them. The Russian military has lost nearly a million men dead, missing or deserted since its second invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Over a million Russian military age men soon left Russia to avoid being mobilized into the army and sent to die in Ukraine. The Russian government then outlawed emigration to avoid military service but has not been able to enforce the new law. All this means that the Russian population is rapidly approaching 138 million and, unless Russia wins or abandons the Ukraine war, the Russian population will continue to shrink. Nearly all the lost men were part of the workforce and so many men are now gone that the Russian economy suffers from a significant labor shortage. Encouraging migrants from former portions of the Soviet Union with high unemployment rates worked for a while. Then the army decided these new residents of Russia were liable for military service. That sent most of the migrants back to their homelands. Eventually a growing number of Russian soldiers refused to fight in Ukraine. This led to tense standoffs between reluctant soldiers and their officers who have been told to shoot soldiers refusing to fight. This didnt go well because the soldiers in question are also armed and inclined to shoot back, or shoot first, and then leave the war. These deserters could not go home because the military police would be waiting for them. Many deserters left the country or went to some remote part of Russia where they would not be noticed or bothered, for a while anyway. With over two million Russian men killed, disabled, deserting the army or fleeing the country, Russia has a growing labor shortage. Importing men from remote parts of Russia with promises of jobs and no forced service in the army did not work. Memories are long when it comes to life and death situations, and the trustworthiness of government promises. By 2025 Russia had an escalating shortage of soldiers and workers. Russia was losing the war because of that, and the economy was limping along because of the labor shortage. As long as Russian leaders keep making bad decisions, they will continue to lose Russian workers and soldiers. A hospice, a woodland trust, and a sustainability-focused education centre are among the community projects and small organisations set to benefit from the latest round of support from Loganairs GreenSkies Community Fund. The UKs leading regional airline has announced this years recipients of the GreenSkies Community Fund, an initiative that supports charities, community groups, and small businesses in reaching their sustainability goals. The GreenSkies Community Fund is a key pillar of Loganairs broader environmental strategy, which includes commitments to emissions reduction, next-generation aircraft, and reaching net zero by 2040. Since the funds inception, over 100,000 has been awarded to sustainable community projects. Among this year's winning projects was Shed the Light, Derry. The project was awarded 5,000 to install a solar generator at Creggan Country Parks Nature Hub, supporting renewable energy workshops and hands-on environmental education for local schools and community groups. Rebecca Borresen, director of safety and sustainability at Loganair, said: GreenSkies is about helping the communities we serve build a greener, more sustainable future. READ NEXT: ARC Fitness Running Club reaches first milestone of Couch to 5K "From solar-powered workshops in Derry to peatland restoration in the Scottish Isles, these projects are fantastic examples of local action tackling global challenges, and Loganair is proud to support them. Whats especially inspiring is how each initiative reflects the unique needs and strengths of its local area. Whether its creating hands-on learning opportunities, restoring natural habitats, or making everyday transport more sustainable, these organisations are putting climate action into practice in ways that are inclusive, practical, and community-led. The GreenSkies programme was launched in July 2021 with the introduction of a mandatory carbon offsetting charge on all flights, with funds invested in accredited offsetting and community sustainability schemes. Loganair remains the only UK regional airline represented on the UK Governments Jet Zero Council. For more information, visit: www.loganair.co.uk/people-planet/greenskies-2025 Sinn Fein councillor Conor Heaney has welcomed the endorsement by the local Council of his motion urging the Irish government to establish a Citizens Assembly to plan and prepare for a referendum on Irish unity. Derry and Strabane District Council will now write again to the Irish government pressing them to establish a Citizens Assembly on Irish re-unification. Commenting after the monthly council meeting the Foyleside councillor said: I welcome that my motion calling for the formation of a Citizens Assembly was passed at the monthly Council meeting. We have all seen the impact of the Labour British Government's decision to impose cuts to welfare benefits and overseas aid, in favour of increasing funding on weapons of war. We need to recognise that regardless of which party is in power in Britain, they do not take into account the interests of this part of Ireland. The Council will now write again to the Irish Government pressing them to establish a Citizens Assembly to plan and prepare for a referendum on Irish Unity. READ NEXT: Police appeal after vehicle stolen during Derry burglary The Irish government should now convene a Citizens Assembly on constitutional change as an umbrella for the many conversations we need to have and to create the democratic foundation for the inevitable debate which will surround the concurrent referenda provided for under the Good Friday Agreement. Change is in the air. Irish unity is now on the horizon. It is time to start preparing for a managed transition towards Irish reunification. A judge at Derry Magistrate's Court has said that due to increasing numbers of hospital disorderly cases 'the courts may have no other option but to impose immediate imprisonment as a deterrent'. District Judge Ted Magill was speaking as he dealt with the case of Peter Brendan Given (39) of Circular Road in Derry who admitted being disorderly in the hospital on June 1 2024. He also admitted a series of driving offences and a charge of wasting police time on the same date. The court heard that after an accident in Cedar Street in the city police were told that the driver had run away butthat he had injuries to his arm. Police found identification in the crashed vehicle as well as blood and went to the relevant address. Given had gone to hospital and was being treated for serious injuries to his arm. He told police he had been a passenger in the vehicle but refused to name the driver. When he was asked to give a sample he refused and began shouting at police officers. READ NEXT: 90,000 physical attacks on healthcare staff in last ten years Defence solicitor Paddy MacDermott said that his client accepted that he was going to lose his licence. He said that he had been drinking 'too much' and deeply regretted the accident which he had 'brought on his own head.' Judge Magill said that it was obvious Given was driving this vehicle and had suffered 'considerable injuries'. He said that the behaviour at the hospital was 'utterly unacceptable' and said the courts were seeing 'case after case' of people being disorderly towards staff and patients. He sentenced Given to three months in prison suspended for two years and disqualified him from driving for two years. Scientists in Australia watch closely as China launches Tianwen-2 probe Xinhua) 10:43, May 30, 2025 CANBERRA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The global scientific community was watching with keen interest as China launched its Tianwen-2 probe on Thursday, a landmark dual-target mission aimed at unlocking the secrets of a near-Earth asteroid and a main-belt comet. "The Tianwen-2 launch marks an exciting milestone in our ongoing exploration of the solar system," Sara Webb, a Melbourne-based astrophysicist and lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, told Xinhua. "Every time we are able to return samples from solar system objects, we gain valuable insights into their formation and evolution," Webb said. Tianwen-2 will mark China's first attempt at asteroid sampling, targeting the near-Earth object 2016HO3. After collecting samples and dispatching a return capsule to Earth, the spacecraft will continue its voyage to explore comet 311P -- an unusual "active asteroid" located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. "If successful, Tianwen-2 will make China the third nation to return asteroid samples to Earth, and the first to conduct a dual mission involving a comet," said Richard de Grijs, a Sydney-based astrophysicist at Macquarie University. "As such samples are rare at this time," he said, "any additional data will, without a doubt, offer significant new scientific insights, allowing us to better understand our place, origin and evolutionary history in the solar system." De Grijs, who also serves as executive director of the International Space Science Institute-Beijing (ISSI-BJ), placed the mission in a broader global context, highlighting its scientific and technological importance. "While the solar system's inner planets have long been explored by many of the major space-faring nations, detailed, in-situ studies of small rocky bodies in the inner solar system have gradually gained in importance," he said. The choice of Tianwen-2's targets adds scientific intrigue. The asteroid 2016HO3, a near-Earth object in a peculiar orbit that keeps it relatively close to our planet, may hold clues to early solar system history. "It may be a fragment of the Moon that could have been dislodged by an earlier impact on the Moon," said de Grijs. He noted that its orbit and composition could shed light on lunar ejecta and the broader materials present during the solar system's formation. After the asteroid sample is dispatched back to Earth, Tianwen-2 will continue toward comet 311P. Unlike comets that typically originate in the icy outer solar system, 311P resides in the main asteroid belt and behaves unusually -- displaying multiple tails and episodic dust ejections. "Scientifically, a close-up look at this object will offer insights into how asteroids break up, the impact of solar radiation on asteroids and the nature of these active asteroids," de Grijs said. He described Tianwen-2 as a major technological leap forward for China, building on the accomplishments of Tianwen-1, which successfully placed an orbiter, lander, and rover on Mars in May 2021, making China the second country to operate a rover on the Red Planet. The Tianwen missions, named after a classical Chinese poem, represent China's efforts in interplanetary exploration. "The mission will put China among the few nations (United States and Japan) capable of executing asteroid sample-return missions," he explained. "An innovation with respect to previous international missions is that it will continue to a second target, providing in-situ measurements. This is rare in a single mission." One of the mission's boldest elements is its attempt at the world's first deep-space anchored sampling -- a complex operation involving secure landing on a low-gravity body. De Grijs believes Tianwen-2 reflects China's strategic and steadily advancing exploration agenda. "China is on a really interesting solar system exploration trajectory," he said. "Each mission is designed to test certain key new capabilities and so far, this appears to have worked very well." He also emphasized the value of international collaboration in space science. While Australia is a relative newcomer to deep-space missions, it can play a key role in the scientific analysis of mission data. "As scientists, irrespective of where one comes from, global scientific collaboration benefits everyone involved," added de Grijs, who is actively fostering such cooperation through his leadership at ISSI-BJ. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Dementia UK has shared tips on tackling tough conversations around dementia ahead of free face-to-face clinics in Derry in June. Dementia specialist Admiral Nurses will host clinics at the Nationwide branch Derry to offer tailored support and guidance to anyone affected by the condition. The clinics offer specialist support in a safe, comfortable and private space for people to discuss any aspect of dementia. Hosted by Dementia UKs Admiral Nurses, the clinics are open to anyone impacted by dementia, offering life-changing support to families and individuals in the area. The clinics will take place throughout June, and appointments can be booked via Dementia UKs website. The clinics will offer practical and emotional advice on all aspects of dementia from worries about memory problems, understanding a diagnosis and how the condition can progress to help with financial and legal issues. Ahead of the appointments, Dementia UK, the specialist dementia nursing charity, has shared tips on how to discuss dementia with a loved one and encourage them to visit their GP if they are showing signs or symptoms of the condition. Someone develops dementia every three minutes in the UK, and it is often a challenge to obtain an accurate diagnosis of dementia. Tackling tough conversations tips on speaking to someone who is showing signs of dementia from Admiral Nurses: Act if the person suddenly becomes upset or frustrated with themselves, this can be a good opportunity to have a conversation with them about the symptoms they are experiencing and if theyd like support with seeking help if the person suddenly becomes upset or frustrated with themselves, this can be a good opportunity to have a conversation with them about the symptoms they are experiencing and if theyd like support with seeking help Explain the signs and symptoms of dementia are often shared with other conditions. Explaining this, and encouraging the person to seek advice from their GP can be less daunting than suggesting they seek a diagnosis of dementia. You can also explain that a prompt diagnosis of dementia will help them seek the right support sooner the signs and symptoms of dementia are often shared with other conditions. Explaining this, and encouraging the person to seek advice from their GP can be less daunting than suggesting they seek a diagnosis of dementia. You can also explain that a prompt diagnosis of dementia will help them seek the right support sooner Support seeking support can be tough, and people will appreciate help in arranging the appointment and attending it. You can also help them to keep a symptom diary which will support a healthcare professional to make an accurate and timely diagnosis The Northern Ireland clinics are part of Nationwides social impact programme, Fairer Futures, which addresses four of the UKs biggest social issues through charity partnerships family poverty (Action for Children), youth homelessness (Centrepoint), dementia (Dementia UK) and cancer (The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity). Nationwide is funding 30 dementia specialist Admiral Nurses and will have hosted free dementia support clinics in 200 branches across the country by the end of the summer. To book a confidential and in-person appointment with an Admiral Nurse in Northern Ireland, visit Dementia UKs website. The clinics will visit: Derry, 11 Ferryquay Street BT48 6JN on June 3, 4 and 5. Ruby Guild, Admiral Nurse at Dementia UK, said: Were looking forward to returning to Northern Ireland. Nationwide branches offer a safe and private space for people to access specialist support for dementia, and the Fairer Futures partnership is helping us bring face-to-face support to people in a familiar location. Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive Officer of Nationwide, said: Nationwide wants to help people live their best life possible, for as long as possible. By working with Dementia UK to fund more Admiral Nurses and turning our branches into dementia clinics, were helping to tackle the countrys leading cause of death. As a mutual, we work for the good of society as well as our members. We believe this and Nationwide Fairer Futures will change hundreds of thousands of lives for the better. Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been awarded 100,000 euro (84,000) in damages after winning his libel action against the BBC. Mr Adams said that 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. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday, after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and that it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. The jury determined that Mr Adams should be awarded 100,000, which the jury heard falls on the medium scale for defamation. Trial judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sent the jury out to begin deliberations at 10.25am on Thursday morning, in the fifth week of proceedings. The 12 members were also provided with exhibits in the case and the means to re-watch the programme. At one stage in the deliberations, one of the jurors was released from the process due to other commitments, including a camogie match. The remaining 11 members continued their consideration of the issues before delivering the verdict. They were tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Mr Donaldson. Mr Owens said they were to consider whether it was more likely than not that a hypothetical reasonable reader would take that meaning from the words. The BBC had argued that the jury should not find that this was the meaning of the words, instead saying the claim had been put forward as an allegation that was immediately followed by Mr Adams denial. Having agreed with Mr Adams on that point, they then had to consider whether the broadcasters actions were fair and reasonable as well as whether it acted in good faith. They determined that the BBC had not acted in such a manner. They returned with their verdict on Friday after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total. Mr Owens told the jury that the BBC had put forward the position that Mr Adams had no reputation at all and the broadcaster had argued to the jury that it should award only nominal damages, putting forward the option of just one euro. Mr Adams team had argued that the defamation fell within the very serious or exceptional end of the scale seeking at least 200,000 euro. A man has been extradited from the Republic of Ireland by detectives investigating a rape in Belfast in 2023. The 35-year-old man was arrested in the Republic of Ireland on April 9 after an extradition warrant was issued, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. The extradition proceedings were completed on Friday with his return to Northern Ireland. A 35-year-old man has today been extradited from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland: https://t.co/94m0b7Z5lD Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) May 30, 2025 The man, who has not been named, is expected to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court later on Friday. Police said he was subject to an investigation by the PSNIs rape crime unit in relation to an alleged incident in Belfast in October 2023. They said the man did not answer court bail in June 2024. We continue to work with closely with An Garda Siochana to locate and return persons sought for extradition, a PSNI spokesperson said. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is committed to tackling violence against women and girls and todays extradition delivers on our assurance of the relentless pursuit of perpetrators and supporting victims. We appreciate the support of our partners in locating and returning this man to Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland will relentlessly pursue those who skip bail and are sought to stand trial in this jurisdiction. Starting next month, Indias savings landscape may undergo a significant digital transformation. Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will make it easier and faster for citizens to withdraw their EPF, according to DD News. This comes after the authority announced the launch of EPFO 3.0, a new digital platform a few months back. The governments next-generation system will be backed by a revamped IT infrastructure and aims to eliminate paperwork, reduce processing delays, and introduce self-service features such as employee benefits management. Here are all of the newly introduced features. Instant withdrawals via UPI and ATMs One of the most anticipated features of EPFO 3.0 is the ability to make instant withdrawals. Members will be able to access up to Rs 1 lakh directly via UPI or ATM-like interfaces, bypassing the slow online claim and approval process. This feature aims to make on-the-spot transfers to bank accounts, eliminating the need for abandoned transfers. Members will be able to update their contact details, name, date of birth, and other personal information online thanks to the new platform. OTP-based verification will be used to process the updates, doing away with the need to visit EPFO offices or turn in hard copies of your documentation. Faster grievance redressal system EPFO 3.0 will include an improved complaint resolution mechanism. Members will be able to lodge grievances and track their status via a digital interface, further reducing delays. The new platform will also serve as a hub for other social security programmes, with plans to include schemes such as the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) and the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Bima Yojana (PMJJBY). Meanwhile, EPFO 3.0 is being implemented in conjunction with significant financial reforms. Several major banks, including HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, are changing their credit card terms. Deadlines for Aadhar updates, TDS certificate issuance, and the closure of special fixed deposits are also approaching. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Richard Satchwell, who kept his wife's body in a secret grave beneath their home for six years while lying to her family and the "people of Ireland" about her disappearance, has been found guilty of her murder by a Central Criminal Court jury. The 12 jurors took nine hours and 28 minutes over four days to convict Satchwell, a British national whose date of birth is 16/06/1966 and is shortly due to turn 59 years old. The six-foot two truck driver had claimed that his five-foot four wife Tina, who weighed eight stone, had launched an attack on him with a chisel and died during a struggle in which he either lacked the intent to kill her or was acting in self defence. Her cause of death could not be determined due to the skeletonised nature of her remains when they were eventually uncovered. READ MORE: 'Very strange' - Richard Satchwell offered freezer used to store wife's body to her cousin The jury however unanimously rejected his defence and agreed with the State's case that Satchwell was a "cunning" murderer whose claims were "nonsense" and had hidden his wife's body to ensure a cause of death would not be available. Satchwell had pleaded not guilty to murdering 45-year-old Tina Satchwell - nee Dingivan - at their home address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork between March 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive. There were three verdicts the jury panel could return in relation to the murder charge against him namely; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. A man is being questioned by gardai following the discovery of two people hiding in a truck at Rosslare Europort in Wexford. Gardai in the Wexford / Wicklow Division have commenced an investigation following the discovery which was made shortly after 8am this Friday morning. "Gardai along with Customs and Revenue located the two males during an immigration check and they are being assessed by medical personnel," said a garda spokesperson. The driver of the trick, a man aged in his 20s, was arrested by gardai for an alleged offence under the Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Act 2021. He is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a garda station in the Wexford / Wicklow Garda Division. READ ALSO: ALERT: Irish airport issues warning to passengers flying abroad this bank holiday weekend Gardai attached to Wexford garda station, supported by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, are investigating all of the circumstances of this incident. No further information has been disclosed publicly and the origins of the truck remain unknown. Anyone with any information in relation to the discovery is asked to contact Wexford garda station 053 9165200, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 66 11 or any garda station. The jury in the Gerry Adams defamation case at Dublin High Court heard dramatically differing evidence about the reputation of the former Sinn Fein leader. One witness said Mr Adams had a reputation of seriousness and dependability, while another said it was of a warmonger. Contrasting evidence was also heard about the BBC Spotlight programme that originally broadcast the allegation that Mr Adams sanctioned the murder of British agent Denis Donaldson. One expert media witness said the broadcast did not meet the corporations editorial thresholds of responsible journalism, while another said it was not unfair or unjust. While the focus of attention in the high-profile trial concentrated on the evidence of Mr Adams and Spotlight journalist Jennifer OLeary, several other witnesses gave evidence over four weeks. Mr Adams legal team called the former solicitor for the Donaldson family, Ciaran Shiels, as a witness. He told the jury he had had contact with the BBC team before the Spotlight programme was broadcast. Asked what he would have said to Ms OLeary if she had put to him the allegation against Mr Adams, Mr Shiels said: I would have said to her that not only was she barking up the wrong tree, she wasnt even in the right orchard. Mr Adams team then called John Martin OLoan, who has previously held roles involving senior editorial responsibility, including by establishing Sky News, as an expert on journalistic standards. He told the court: The BBC did not meet the editorial thresholds of responsible journalism in its inclusion and presentation of the solo anonymous allegations against Mr Adams. He said the segment of the Spotlight programme containing the allegation that Mr Adams sanctioned the killing lacked sufficient editorial veracity to be published. Former US congressman Bruce Morrison, who worked with Bill Clinton on Northern Irelands peace process, gave his evidence by videolink from Bethesda, Maryland. Mr Morrison said Mr Adams was a controversial figure but his reputation was one of a serious man on a serious mission who was committed to the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. He said his impression of Mr Adams reputation was that he was an elder statesmen and distinguished leader who had made an extraordinary contribution to change in Northern Ireland. The BBCs legal team also dealt with the Spotlight broadcast and Mr Adams reputation when it called witnesses to give evidence. Chris Banatvala, who drew up the UKs broadcasting rules for Ofcom and was its founding director of standards, compiled a report based on the Spotlight programme. He told the jury: What I have written is, on balance, given the significant public interest, what information is already in the public domain about Gerry Adams, the fact that the BBC reasonably believed its primary source, Martin, to be credible and reliable, that the BBC had corroborative evidence from other credible and multiple sources. It was couched in terms of allegations, there was an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond, the programme would probably not be found in breach and not be unfair or unjust to Mr Adams. Campaigners for Troubles victims, Ann Travers and Trevor Ringland, described Mr Adams as as a warmonger and peace taker. Ms Travers sister Mary was killed by the Provisional IRA in an attack in which her father Tom Travers, who was a lawyer who became a magistrate in 1979, was also shot six times. Asked about Mr Adams, she said: His reputation would be one of having been a warmonger. Asked to explain why, she replied: For the Troubles, supporting the IRA and the murder of innocent people. Mr Ringland, a former Irish rugby international, told the jury his father was shot by the IRA. Asked for the publics perception of Mr Adams, he replied: He is seen as a peace taker, not a peacemaker. He added: I think the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland would regard him as a peace taker. Former Irish attorney general Michael McDowell was called by the BBC to speak about Mr Adams reputation. He said: Amongst the public, he is known as a politician now who was a leading member of the IRA and who was active in the IRA during the period of its armed struggle against the forces of law and order on this island. He added: He is reputed to have been a chief negotiator in, I think, 1974 between the provisional movement and the British government and thereafter he was reputed to have a role in the Belfast IRA as its commanding officer. Later he was reputed to have become a member of the Army Council of the IRA. Referring to the time of the peace process, he said: During that period, the view of the (Irish) government based on intelligence briefings was that Mr Adams was a member of the Army Council and was a leading member of the Army Council. Asked about Mr Adams reputation among politicians more generally, he added: Ive never met any politician who did not believe he was a leading member of the IRA during its armed struggle, as it calls it, and thereafter he was a dominant figure within Army Council. The tale of the victim of Ireland's first serial killers is being told in a new RTE podcast - Stolen Sister. On 28th August 1976, 23-year-old Elizabeth Plunkett met friends for a night away in Brittas Bay, County Wicklow. When Elizabeth waved goodbye to her mother that afternoon, nobody knew that it would be the last time her family would see her. Later that night, she was abducted and brutally raped and murdered by Irelands first serial killers - John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans - who had recently been released from prison. A month after Elizabeth was attacked her body washed up on a beach in Co Wexford. Following a nationwide manhunt, her attackers were both arrested but not before they killed a second Irish woman, 23-year-old Mary Duffy. The two murderers Shaw and Evans received life sentences in prison. However, in 2022 the Plunkett family learned that Elizabeth never got justice. No one was ever convicted of the murder of Elizabeth Plunkett despite both men confessing to her murder. Now Elizabeths family are breaking the silence that theyve held for almost 50 years. Through RTEs latest podcast series, Stolen Sister, presented by Roz Purcell, Elizabeths siblings Bernie and Kathleen are speaking out. This is the first time that any of Elizabeths family have spoken about her death publicly. Theyre determined to get justice for her and restore some dignity to Elizabeths memory. READ NEXT: Health experts issue urgent warning over fake weight loss drugs being sold on social media Documentary maker Nicoline Greer said: Its been an honour to be able to tell Elizabeths story and for the Plunkett family to have trusted us to tell it. When Kathleen and Bernie first came to us, I never could have imagined how far this story would take us. Over the last year, I feel I have come to know Elizabeth and I hope that this series can go some way to restoring some justice and dignity to Elizabeth and the Plunkett family. The first episode of RTE Podcast Stolen Sister is available now on the RTE Radio Player and wherever you listen to your podcasts. Episodes will drop every Friday and will broadcast live on RTE Radio 1 at 6.30pm on Friday evenings. Anyone with information on Elizabeths story should contact: documentaries@rte.ie The soundtrack to Stolen Sister was composed by Academy Award winning composer Stephen Warbeck and was recorded by the RTE Concert Orchestra. Listen to the first episode of the podcast series now HERE The exceptional achievements of women in business across Louth and surrounding counties were celebrated on Friday evening, 23rd May, at the Network Ireland Louth Businesswoman of the Year Awards, held at the Fairways Hotel Dundalk. The black-tie event recognised local female entrepreneurs and professionals across a range of sectors, with winners in national award categories now set to represent the Louth branch at the Network Ireland National Businesswoman of the Year Awards in September, in Killarney. The 2025 Louth Branch winners, who will be going forward to represent Louth at the National Businesswoman of the Year Awards are: Emerging Businesswoman Natasha Keenan, Border Boutique Hire Solo Businesswoman Maria Morgan, Esker Fields Skincare Established Businesswoman Joanne Lavelle, Lavelle Auctioneers & Valuers STEM Professional Joan McCann, The Code Lab Creative Professional Caroline Duffy, Caroline Duffy Designs Networker of the Year Pauline Clarke, Kookee Highly Commended recipients included: Leanne McGrath, Virtually Leanne (Emerging Businesswoman) Pauline Clarke, Kookee (Established Businesswoman) Judges Awards celebrated unique contributions and innovation: One to Watch Award Joanne Lynch, Bo By Jo Innovation Award Hazel Rossiter, Support to Rise Outstanding Contribution to Industry Award Carmel McCarthy, EMS & Associates Community Contribution Award Cathrine Chiduza, Holistic Healthcare Ireland Future Growth Award Eileen Taylor, Woofland Dog Park In a symbolic gesture of empowerment, Nicola Connolly Byrne, President of Network Ireland Louth, presented each finalist with a crown, saying: Women always fix each others crowns. She expressed heartfelt thanks to the judging panel and sponsors, especially AIB Bank, LEO Louth, Face Credit Consultancy, and Relish Cafe, whose support made the evening possible. The event was expertly hosted by Julie Burke of Jules Rules Irl, whose wit and charisma kept the evening flowing. Julie also led a special fireside chat with Linda Hanlon, retired psychotherapist turned photographer, whose exhibition and book, Empower Her, features 54 portraits capturing the essence of female empowerment in Ireland. Four Louth women are among those highlighted in the collection, which was proudly exhibited at the ceremony. Read Next: The countdown is on: Louth Contemporary Music Society festival 'Echoes' returns to Dundalk This years charity partner was Dundalk Womens Aid. CEO Ann Larkin delivered a powerful message about the organisations work, reminding the audience that one in three women in Ireland have experienced psychological, physical and/or sexual abuse from their partner. Proceeds from the event supported this vital local service. Network Ireland is a progressive, dynamic organisation supporting the professional and personal development of women. With over 1,200 members, 17 Branches, and a strong nationwide presence, the group holds regular events, workshops, and networking opportunities that promote empowerment and leadership for women in business. They are always open to new members joining, who can avail of all the supports and benefits available. It doesnt matter if someone is an established businesswoman or just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey. To join Network Ireland, go to: www.networkireland.ie and become a member. Invitations for the Beaumont RCSI Irish Cancer Society Lung Health Check are being issued to people in Louth and Meath who are at risk of developing lung cancer. The study is targeting participants aged between 55-74 years, who currently or previously smoked, as they are at higher risk than others of getting lung cancer. The study will involve participants from selected Centric Health GP practices in the North Dublin and Northeast region. Participating GP practices where invited participants will attend a mobile Lunch Check Unit in O'Raghalliagh's GAA Club in Drogheda include: Dundalk - The Square Medical Drogheda - Bryanstown Medical Centre Drogheda, Fairgate Medical Practice Drogheda, Hilltop Drogheda, Northgate Surgery, Drogheda Meath - Trim Medical, Headfort Family Practice, Kells Cavan - The Cottage Baileborough Participants from Ashbourne Clinic will attend a mobile health unit in Fingallians GAA Club Swords. Professor Daniel Ryan, Respiratory Consultant at the Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre said, We are delighted that the letters of invitation containing a time and a date when one of the Lung Health Check team members will call are currently being issued to eligible people. During the call, the potential participant will be asked questions relating to smoking and their medical history. Read also: Over 900 children in Louth waiting for assessment of needs report This information will be used to calculate a risk score to see if a Lung Health Check, which is free and includes a low dose CT scan of their chest, is right for them at this time. If the score suggests a Lung Health Check is right for them, then a time and a date will be arranged for them to attend a mobile Lung Health Check unit located in ORaghallaighs GAA Club in Drogheda. The Lung Health Check is part of a 4.9m partnership between Irish Cancer Society and Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre, funded by the Irish Cancer Society, to drive improvements in lung cancer early detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Averil Power, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society said: This historic investment by the Irish Cancer Society marks a turning point for lung cancer in Ireland. Lung cancer kills more Irish people every year than any other cancer, mainly because it is diagnosed late when it is difficult to treat. We are confident this pilot programme will save lives by detecting cancer early. We hope that in time it will lead to a free national lung check programme for all Irish people at high risk of getting lung cancer. Anyone with questions or concerns about cancer can contact the Irish Cancer Society Support Line on Freephone 1800 200 700 or supportline@irishcancer.ie. Further information on lung cancer can be found at cancer.ie/lung Choosing between eating or heating is an impossible choice many people with disabilities face every winter in Ireland, and Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA), including its members from Louth, is calling on the Government to address the cost of disability in the upcoming budget. Members and staff from the Association, including a group from Louth, gathered outside Leinster House on Tuesday to hand over its 2026 Pre-Budget submission. In its Submission, IWA is urging the Government to introduce a realistic Cost of Disability payment. The call comes as 92% of IWA members surveyed reported that they incur extra costs related to their disability. These span across equipment, heating, medical and transport, as people with disabilities often have to rely on costly taxis to get them to and from appointments. Dundalk member John Morgan was among the IWA contingent at Leinster House. He said: I have bad circulation, and one of the biggest expenses is having to put on the heating. I know you get the heating allowance, but that is never enough. He added: Where we live, after 6pm you cant get a bus. If I want to see a show advertised in town, you are talking 25 for a taxi there and back, so you are housebound, a prisoner, whatever you want to call it. After 6pm you have no social life. Its a hard life. I dont think people realise it. It affects you in all sorts of ways. I hate saying it, but for someone who was able-bodied and now disabled, its a different life. Simon Cusack from Ardee IWA (pictured below) said: The funding is there, why cant they give it? They are spending money on what? A bicycle shed that costs the price of a house, come on, where are they going? We are not looking for millions. We just want a big of respect. We want more access to buildings, transport, and thing to make our lives easier. We dont want obstacles, we have enough. IWAs Advocacy Manager Joan Carthy emphasised that "disability poverty doesnt happen by accident". She said: Its the result of a system that fails to recognise and respond to the real costs of living with a disability. This budget must be the turning point. We need choice, not charity. The submission draws from consultation with over 700 people with disabilities nationwide and makes urgent recommendations, including: A minimum increase of 78 in the weekly Disability Allowance (from 244 to 322) A Cost of Disability Payment to reflect the extra living costs incurred by people with disabilities Pay parity for Section 39 workers, who deliver vital disability services Read also: Schools in Louth to receive 1.8m in minor works and ICT funding Another IWA member, Evan Power, Laois, shared how his heating bills reach up to 700 a month during the winter months. After paying his bills, hes left with just 30 to live on during the summer but in the winter, he could be left with nothing. Im very good at budgeting and manage my money well, but the truth is, once I pay my bills, I have 30 left over each week. Being in a wheelchair with limited mobility means its harder to stay warm as my movement is limited, so in the lead up to and during the winter months, Im totally focused on ensuring Ive enough money to pay my heating bill, which can go up to 700 a month, states Evan. IWA is also calling for: Investment in Personal Assistant services, accessible housing, and transport Resources to fully implement the National Disability Strategy Plan, once issued With a new Programme for Government and a National Disability Strategy due to be launched, Budget 2026 is an opportunity for a meaningful move towards equality and true inclusion. People with disabilities want to contribute, belong and live independentlybut the cost of doing so is being ignored. Some members have told to us that they are having to choose between heating their homes or eating. Over half of our members state they do not have enough Personal Assistant hours, until pay parity and sectoral funding are sorted, this will continue, said Joan Carthy. We have had good engagement with the Minister for Disability and the Department, but this is the Governments chance to take action through funding and strategic planning for the future of people with disabilities in Ireland. Other Key Points reported in IWAs Survey include: 89% reported that the Housing Adaptation Grant didn't cover the costs of the adaptation 70% incur medical related costs 69% incur transport related costs 66% incur equipment costs 65% incur additional heating related costs Among the politicians to took time out to attend Tuesdays event were Louth Deputies Ruairi OMurchu, Joanna Byrne, Ged Nash and Senator Alison Comyn In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Clogherhead RNLI was requested to assist Rescue 116 after an EPIRB alert was received off the Drogheda Bar in Louth. At 12.20am, the volunteer crew were requested to launch their all-weather lifeboat by the Dublin Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre to assist the Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 116 from Dublin, following the activation of an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) approximately four nautical miles off the Drogheda Bar. Rescue 116 was first on scene and located two fishermen in the water after their vessel had sunk. Upon arrival, the Clogherhead RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew Coxswain Tomas Whelehan, Derek Shevlin, Brian Sharkey, Denis Levins, and Carol Holdcroft was requested to stand by while the helicopter crew carried out a winch recovery in calm seas and good visibility. The lifeboat crew provided support by positioning searchlights to assist with the operation. Both casualties, who were wearing life jackets, were safely rescued by Rescue 116 and transported to hospital for observation. Clogherhead RNLI subsequently recovered the EPIRB from the water before being stood down and returning to Clogherhead Lifeboat Station. Read Next: Louth IWA members speak out at Pre-Budget launch Speaking following the call out, Clogherhead RNLI Coxswain Tomas Whelahan said: We were very happy that the two fishermen were safely rescued from the water and that their lifejackets were in full working order, which ultimately saved their lives. The activation of their EPIRB was also crucial in alerting rescue services quickly to their location. We urge anyone planning a trip to sea to ensure your vessel is well maintained, has adequate fuel, and that all crew members have properly serviced lifejackets or suitable flotation devices. Carrying an EPIRB or other appropriate emergency communications equipment can make all the difference in a life threatening situation. If you get into difficulty or see someone in trouble, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard." Samaritans said they are searching for new volunteers in Louth to get involved with the charity and give something back to the local community, all while making a huge difference to peoples lives. Samaritans are looking for men and women, of all ages and walks of life, to join their current volunteers in dedicating around three or four hours a week to those most in need. Martin Darling, the Director of Samaritans of Newry & Dundalk said: Newry & Dundalk Samaritans offer round-the-clock emotional support to anyone who is struggling to cope with whatever it is that life has thrown at them. Every day, volunteers around the country respond to around 10,000 calls for help. It is a real privilege to be there for somebody who is going through a difficult time. READ NEXT: Louth IWA members speak out at Pre-Budget launch We are asking people across the South Down, South Armagh and Dundalk areas to consider making a difference to someones life by volunteering with us. It takes a huge number of volunteers to keep our service operational so if you are thinking about volunteering and making a difference to peoples lives, please have a look at www.samaritans.org/volunteer to find out if you have what it takes to be a Samaritan. One volunteer in the branch is Dundalk resident Nuala who has been volunteering for around four years. I am originally from Dundalk. My reason for volunteering in Samaritans in Newry is because the two are neighbouring towns, she said. I wanted to do something meaningful and I picked Samaritans they do not discriminate regarding what your problem is. If you have a problem and you need help, Samaritans listens to everyone. It is a privilege to sit and have people open up and trust you enough. You are giving them space to think about things a little more clearly and will then come up with their own solutions. The Samaritans said they will meet with potential volunteers over the next few weeks with the aim to start the training process in September 2025. The training will involve some online learning as well as in person classes over a period of five weeks. You dont need to have any special skills to be a volunteer all we ask is that you can listen without judgement and be able to empathise with people going through a difficult time, a spokesperson said. Samaritans are best known for the vital support given to callers on its 24-hour telephone service and volunteers can also offer support by email and face-to-face in communities, festivals and outreach events. Established in Ireland in 1962, Samaritans is based in 21 towns across the island of Ireland, with over 1,800 active volunteers on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To find out more about becoming a volunteer with Samaritans in Newry email newry.branchrecruitment @samaritans.org. You can also check out their website on www.samaritans.org/volunteer. The Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org to find details of your nearest branch. The BBC has been ordered to pay former Louth TD Gerry Adams 100,000 euros (84,000) after he won a resounding libel victory over the broadcaster. Mr Adams took the BBC to court over an episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, which he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and the corporation had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Mr Adams legal team said the verdict of the jury was a full vindication for their client while the BBC said it was disappointed with the outcome. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. It had argued the allegation was corroborated by five other sources and that Mr Adams had a reputation of being a member of the IRA. After six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total, the jury awarded the plaintiff 100,000 euro which falls within the medium range for defamation. Speaking outside court, Mr Adams said taking this case was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation. He told reporters: I know many, many journalists. I like to think that I get on well with the most of them, and I wish you well, and I would uphold your right to do your job. But the British Broadcasting Corporation upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view its out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement. It hasnt caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully, in the time ahead, unity. He said there is an onus on everyone, including himself, to deal with these legacy issues. He said: Im very mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of this long trial, and indeed of the victims families who have had to watch all of this. I want to say that the Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can. His solicitor Paul Tweed said Mr Adams was very pleased with this resounding verdict, adding the award of damages speaks for itself. Johnsons Solicitors, who acted for Mr Adams, said: The outcome today has provided a full vindication for our client, Mr Adams. Speaking outside court, Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, said: We are disappointed by this verdict. We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this programme, and to the accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. We didnt want to come to court but it was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. He added: Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyones could, and they warned how todays decision would hinder freedom of expression. Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. BBC Spotlight reporter Jennifer OLeary said she had nothing to hide, only sources to protect. Read Next: Samaritans seeking new volunteers in Louth She also thanked the BBC and its legal team for defending journalism. Ms OLeary said: Im a big believer in trying your best in life and going about your business with integrity, and I want to pay a particular tribute to our witnesses in court, senator Michael McDowell, Trevor Ringland, and in particular Ann Travers, who spoke so courageously. She said there were thousands of victims and survivors of the troubles in the UK and Ireland, adding: Those people carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible dignity and courage, and they are the people I am thinking of, I know my colleagues are also thinking of. I am thinking of all of them today. The BBC will have to pay costs but the amount has yet to be decided. Mr Smyth added the corporation will take some time to consider the implications of the ruling. There were two high-profile incidents this week that showed just how dangerous social media can be for all of us. The first was very close to home with videos of a man allegedly making vile threats of violence against young children. This individuals face was posted all over social media with warnings issued about so-called sightings of him across the country. It was rampant. You couldnt avoid it if you were on social media. A number of politicians, including TDs and councillors, shared the images with similar warnings, and while the threats made in the original video are beyond horrific, there is something just as sinister about these social media mobs - especially in the age of misinformation - where we so often hit the share button without thinking or questioning anything about a post's contents. Im not saying the image circulated was incorrect or misinformation - not for a second - Ive seen the videos and the images spreading were screenshots from said video. But what if a picture circulating of a suspect or dangerous individual was the wrong person? What if you emerged from a shop or somewhere this suspect was supposedly spotted, someone snaps your picture mistakenly, and suddenly youre in every Whatsapp group and social media newsfeed in the country? Youre a villain in the eyes of the social media world and theres no amount of clarification that can change that. Social media is a feeding frenzy; think a fish tank of piranhas you've dropped a pound of flesh in. Once it gets hold of that; a name, that tidbit of information someone heard from someone, somewhere, it devours it. There is no pause for questioning, its just spread and thats it. If theyre wrong, and they often are, your life is ruined. It could lead to problems in your personal life, your job, you could be tracked down and beaten on the street - but thats the world we live in, and we all feed it by sharing this stuff. READ NEXT: 'No words' - Tributes paid after untimely death of GAA star as club issues statement Just look across the Irish Sea this week to the horrific incident during Liverpools Premier League title celebration parade. A car was driven into the crowd, injuring dozens of people, including children, and the online lynch mob was out instantly. I absorb the news, and the first place first-hand accounts emerge is social media; thats also a reality. However, within an hour, I had seen three different images of the driver and they were all spreading like wildfire. At least two of those, if not all three are, by simple deduction, completely false, and yet there they were on my newsfeed. When you take incidents like this, and the one here at home this week in the context of the anger they rightly generate, as well as maybe some unscrupulous social media personalities espousing certain political views, it does not take long to realise the danger they pose. Weve never had more access to information, and as someone in journalism, that is something to be celebrated. But similarly, weve never had as much access to misinformation, often created to sow anger and fear for some sort of ideological gain. That is something to fear; it sends a chill down my spine. We in the media are often asked why we dont report certain stories or hide details, etc and those questions are bred from that social media world. People read so many untruths they take as gospel that they accuse us of not reporting it. We have legal boundaries, but more than that, we have boundaries of truth and accuracy we must satisfy before we jump all over something someone using an anonymous account on X has claimed as fact. Remember the 'Irish Army on the streets' nonsense that spread at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. We didn't report that because it wasn't true, not because of any propaganda conspiracy. Politicians should know better too than to engage in this online activity, although some may earn electoral favour by getting on board, or so it seems. These same politicians should log out for a while, walk into the Dail or Seanad or even the council chamber locally, and fight for regulations to get a grip on these Wild West social media platforms that are poisoning public opinion. People talk about the deeds of dictators and war criminals, and so we should, and call them out, but there is no greater danger to humanity than that unvetted cesspit of doom that lives in our pockets. Tina, come home. Theres nobody mad at you. My arms are open. The pets are missing you. Tears fill the eyes of Richard Satchwell as he appeals to his wife of 27 years to contact him, three months after she had allegedly disappeared from their home in Youghal, Co Cork. In the Crimecall appeal, the 58-year-old looks directly into the camera and pleads: I just cant go on not knowing. Even if you just ring the guards, let people know that you are all right. The programme, which aired in June 2017, was one of more than a dozen media appearances in which Satchwell spoke extensively about the morning he claimed Tina left the house and never returned. Within months of his wife going missing, Satchwell, a truck driver, had convinced her family that she had deserted him, taken 26,000 euro of their savings and had assaulted him throughout their marriage. Her family were left angry, worried and confused as they tried to make sense of her disappearance and the person Satchwell had described as violent. It was not the Tina they knew. Within a week of murdering his wife, Satchwell had placed her body in an unplugged chest freezer, which was kept in the shed at the back of the property in Grattan Street. He then dug a hole, measuring almost one-metre deep, under the stairs of their three-storey home. Tinas body, still wearing her pyjamas and dressing gown, was then wrapped in a black plastic sheet and placed inside the hole with her head facing down. On Friday, March 24 2017, a not overly emotional Satchwell walked into Fermoy Garda Station to report that his wife had left him and he had not seen her in four days. Garda Conor Casey suggested making a missing person report, but Satchwell said she was OK. It was more than seven weeks after Tina disappeared that Satchwell formally reported her missing to gardai, and her case was upgraded to a missing persons case. Satchwell set out a story to Garda James Butler that he would stick by for almost seven years. The claims led to a lengthy investigation, which began with a search of his home in June 2017. The search, which lasted for around 11 hours, did not find anything of significance. Over the 12 months following Tinas disappearance, Satchwell embarked on a media campaign in which he spoke extensively to TV and radio journalists about Tina and the day she left their home and their marriage. According to Satchwell, it was love at first sight. He was 21 years old when he first laid eyes on Tina, a 17-year-old from Fermoy, who had moved to Coalville, near Leicester in England. She had moved to live with her grandmother and Satchwells brother was a neighbour. Satchwell said they clicked and they were together ever since. A broadcast interview played to the jury shows Satchwell taking a journalist around his home, meeting their pet parrot, Valentine. He also shows a dusty unopened bottle of Cava he bought for their anniversary. During many of his interviews and exchanges of information with gardai, Satchwell repeatedly told them he believed Tina left because of a deterioration in their relationship. But he also said he believed she would return home. He also claimed she would have violent outbursts that she would direct at him, and spoke about his wifes dark side. He claimed he gave up a lot in his life to be with her. She did not want children but he did, he claimed. He told gardai that he and Tina were best friends, and spent hours and hours talking each night, about nothing specific. Images of his house after Tina disappeared revealed a home that had dog faeces on the floor, unwashed dishes lying in the kitchen sink and a birdcage that had not been cleaned for a while. There was also a cement mixer in the sitting room. Satchwell later admitted that he slept on bed sheets that had not been washed in years. An upstairs room was full of clothing and clothing racks, all belonging to Tina. By June 2017, detectives suspected that Tina may have been injured or incapacitated by a criminal event. Inconsistencies also began to emerge in his story. A forensic accountant said that the couple would not have been able to save 26,000 euro that he claimed she took the morning she left. CCTV and phone location data also revealed that he was not in Dungarvan on the morning of March 20. Emails on a laptop seized from his home showed that the couple had been trying to buy two marmoset monkeys from an international monkey rescue organisation. An email had been sent on the morning of March 20 claiming to be from Satchwell himself. It later emerged that he had offered Tinas cousin the chest freezer he had used to store her body for a number of days. Years passed with no updates or sightings of missing Tina. Then in August 2021, Superintendent Annmarie Twomey was appointed senior investigating officer, and along with Detective Garda David Kelleher from Cobh Garda Station, she familiarised herself with the case. She identified new lines of inquiry and came to the conclusion that Tina had met her death by unlawful means and was not a living person. Investigators obtained a court search warrant and on October 10 2023 gardai arrested Satchwell and began an extensive search of his home. He repeated the same story about her disappearing from their home with 26,000 euro on March 20 2017, claiming she never returned. He was released the following day, but just hours later the decomposed remains of his wife were found buried one metre underground, beneath the stairs. Suddenly, his story changed. He said that on the morning of March 20 2017, he had been up early in the morning and was working on a plumbing issue in the shed. At around 9am, the two dogs came into the shed, which, he said, meant that Tina was up. He went inside and found his wife in her dressing gown scraping at the plasterboard with a chisel. He asked her what she was doing and she suddenly flew at him with the chisel. He said he lost his footing and fell backwards, and she was on top of him trying to stab him in the head with the chisel. All he could do to protect himself, according to Satchwell, was hold the dressing gown belt to her neck. He then held Tinas weight off him with the belt and within a matter of second, she falls limp and collapses into my arms. His denial of the charge was ultimately rejected by the jury who found him guilty of murder. Tina Satchwell was known for her love of clothes, her two pet dogs and the bargains she could seek out in car boot sales dotted around Co Cork. Just 24 hours before she was murdered by her husband of 27 years, Tina spent the day browsing stalls at Carrigtwohill, a town east of Cork city centre. She bought a black jacket and a dress and hung it up over a door in the living room in the home she shared with Richard Satchwell. According to Satchwell, the items remained there for a long time after her death. Mrs Satchwell (nee Dingivan) was from St Bernards Place in Fermoy, Co Cork. In the 1980s she moved to Coalville outside Leicester in England, to live with her grandmother. It was while she in was Coalville that she met her future husband, when she was aged 17 and he was 21. Satchwell admitted that he told his brother he would marry Tina the first time he saw her. He proposed to Tina in October of 1989 at a place called Mount Pleasant. The couple were married the following year on Tinas 20th birthday in Oldham. There was no one from Satchwells family at the wedding, as they did not approve of their relationship. Satchwell, who had described himself as quiet and overweight, had married his trophy wife. The couple eventually moved back to Ireland, and lived in various properties in Co Cork and then Fermoy before buying a house in Youghal in 2016, some 40km from where she grew up. They were not well known in Youghal, and socialising with locals did not exist in their tight-knit world where it was largely just the two of them. Anyone who did know Tina, or met her, would often recognise her as a glamorous woman, who had a love of fashion and clothes. The court heard she was petite, weighing around eight stone. Angela Sheehan, who described herself as an acquaintance of Tina, said she was a woman who loved her fashion, high heels, hair, makeup and jewellery. She told the trial that is what they would often talk about when they met, and she described her as a lovely girl who was pleasant, bubbly and good for a laugh. Tina was rarely seen without her beloved dogs, Heidi and Ruby. While she had a great affection for animals generally, she loved her two dogs, particularly her chihuahua, Ruby, and had considered them her children. Satchwell and Tina bought Ruby in 2014 after Tina had been struggling with the death of her brother Tom in 2012. Satchwell said that Ruby brought something into Tinas life that she always wanted a nice small dog to accompany her. Heidi, he said, was for him. They also shared their home with their pet parrot, Valentine. The court heard Tinas voice only once during the trial when a video was played during a media appeal with Prime Time Investigates in 2018, in which she speaks to their now dead parrot, Pearl. What have you got there, Pearl? she is heard asking the bird in a soft Cork accent. Satchwell told the reporter that the parrot died in the January before his wife disappeared. Tina had spent most her life believing Mary Collins was her sister, until she discovered that she was her biological mother. She made the discovery at the time of her confirmation when she was looking for her birth certificate. Tina had been raised by her grandmother, Florence, who she thought was her mother and had referred to her as that for all of her life. The two had a good relationship and were close, but Tina was in shock at the revelation of who her biological mother was, and felt she had been lied to for a period of her life. Sarah Howard and Tina were half-sisters and shared the same mother, however, Tina spent most her primary school years believing that Sarah was her niece. Tina and Sarah were very close growing up, but their relationship changed following the discovery, with Tina feeling resentment and hurt that she was not raised by her biological mother while Sarah was kept. Sarah said that she and Tina had not spoken in the 15 years before she died as their relationship was up and down. There could be a period of years where they were close and get on well but there were also years in which they would argue and not speak to each other. Few people could give a good insight into Tinas marriage, however. When Sarah was asked how she would described the relationship, she said: Odd. She said that Satchwell used to call Tina his trophy wife and trophy girlfriend. Ms Howard had told the court that Satchwell was obsessive about his wife, and she thought he was controlling of her. Tina had once confided in her sister that she knew she could not get away from her husband, and that he would follow her to the ends of the earth. Tina dealt with a number of tragedies in her life, including the death of her brother Tom in 2012. The two were very close and Satchwell said his sudden death hit Tina hard, and that she had cried a lot for him. Tina had adored him and he adored her, Sarah previously said. She had been badly affected by his death and spent years struggling to deal with it. After Tinas family got her remains back in 2023, they buried her in two graves half of her ashes were put with their beloved grandmother, Florence, who raised Tina, and half were placed next to Tom. 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 Saturday to Sunday. 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: Saturday to Sunday, coming to an end Sunday night. ### 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. Atlantic Flight Training Academy (AFTA) recently celebrated its 30-year business anniversary operating at Cork and Waterford airports. Since its foundation the Enterprise Ireland client firm has played a vital role in the global aviation industry, supplying 2,800 highly skilled commercial pilots to leading airlines and operators worldwide since 1995. A new Economic & Social Impact Report on Atlantic Flight Training Academy, (AFTA), which was researched and authored by Dr Pio Fenton from Munster Technological University (MTU) in partnership with AFTA, shows that Cork headquartered AFTA has made a significant economic contribution to the regional economy in Munster. It has generated 35m for Cork and Waterford, as well as supporting growth across the entire Munster region, through job creation, tourism development, international (airline) partnerships, investment in sustainable aviation, as well as, having positive social and cultural benefits for the wider community. Speaking at the launch minister of state for transport, Jerry Buttimer, TD, commented: As a Corkman and minister of state at the Department of Transport, I am impressed to see that AFTAs operations, from pilot training and aircraft maintenance to fuel supply, are deeply embedded in Cork, as well as across the Munster regional economy, with a significant reliance on local and national suppliers to sustain its world class facilities and creating local jobs for our communities in Cork and Waterford. I understand that this year alone AFTA will employ an additional 15 staff at its Cork and Waterford facilities, bringing its total headcount as an SME to 85. I cant over emphasise the importance of this governments support for SMEs. SMEs are the back-bone of our economy. Congratulations to AFTA and Captain Mark Casey on 30 years in business, and thank you to Cork Airport and Waterford Airport for their continued support for AFTA. Without our collective continued support for AFTA, Ireland inc. would not have a critical supply line of pilots for our airline industry. As an island nation we sometimes take for granted the amazing connectivity we enjoy. Dr Pio Fenton, author of the report said: AFTA is a complex business that operates in an intricate ecosystem across the region and beyond. Its impact locally is significant in a number of ways; firstly it is a world-class flight school and it meets the need of aspiring Irish pilots in undertaking their chosen profession while in Ireland. Secondly, given its exceptional industry links, AFTA acts as a magnet for attracting overseas talent to the region. The economic impact of each of these is significant. AFTA was founded by Captain Casey (CEO) in March 1995 on a mission to provide the highest quality of pilot training while upholding the values of professionalism, innovation and safety. AFTAs early cadets received their pilot training at Cork Airport in one twin-engined aircraft. 30 years on from these modest beginnings Atlantic Flight Training Academy has since trained an impressive roll-call of more than 2,800 pilots, expanded its training fleet to 26 state of the art training aircraft, and invested in multiple flight simulators, including the state-of-the-art Boeing 737NG and Boeing 737 Max simulators, as well as, three survey aircraft. AFTA has embarked on a programme to convert its training aircraft fleet to run on sustainable aviation fuel, which will reduce its CO2 emissions by more than 80%. The Atlantic Flight Training Academy Economic & Social Impact report, in partnership with MTU, quantifies AFTAs economic contribution to Cork and across the Munster regional economy, based on its direct, indirect and induced effects. The research analysis carried out by MTU presents a 35m impact emanating from AFTAs activities. This is composed of a direct impact of 22m and indirect impact of 13m. Direct impact represents the immediate spending by the flight school, including salaries, Vat contributions, and regionally sourced direct operational costs. Indirect impact arises from the flight schools engagement with local suppliers and service providers, spending on goods and services, economic stimulation through supply chain activities, increased business for industries such as aircraft maintenance, long-term accommodation providers and fuel suppliers. Induced impact captures the wider ripple effect generated by wages and salaries, as well as spending by students and visitors, including spending by international students and their visiting family members, contributing to tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as cost of living expenses for students attending AFTA. AFTA is at the heart of a complex supply chain that requires a carefully crafted mixture of people, technology and commodity, Dr Fenton said. As a relatively large employer in the SME context, it has a strong direct impact through salary and other factors of 22m. Its indirect impact is approximately 1m with a significant induced impact of 11m. This latter figure is a result of economic activity resulting from strong international student base. There is a further visitor spend impact of just under 1 million. Captain Casey said the report isnt just about numbers. Its a record of what can happen when education, industry, and community work together, he said. I want to give a special thank you to MTU and in particular, Dr Fenton, who played an instrumental role in bringing this report to life. Weve had the privilege of working alongside some of the biggest names in aviation Ryanair, Air Astana, VistaJet, ASL, GlobeAir, Turkish Airlines, Pegasus and many others. These are partnerships built on trust, and were proud to continue growing with each of them. But equally, weve stayed rooted in Munster. Our relationship with Cork and Waterford Airports, our commitment to local talent, and our belief in this region as a centre for excellence has never wavered. As pupils and teachers at post primary schools go on their summer holidays, high demand for international travel to and from the Southern region, Cork Airport is expecting to cater for 68,500 passengers going in both directions this bank holiday weekend. According to a statement issued this week, traffic is up by 20% this bank holiday compared to the same period last year, giving credence to Cork Airports boast that it is Irelands fastest growing airport. In the year-to-date, Cork Airport has experienced sustained growth, with passenger traffic up 14% versus the same period (January-May) last year. Roy ODriscoll, deputy managing director at Cork Airport is looking forward to the weekend. Families As post-primary schools finish for the summer, were looking forward to welcoming lots of families from across the South of Ireland and beyond as they head off on their well-deserved holidays, he said. Our team is ready to welcome 68,500 arriving and departing passengers this weekend, which is up 20% compared to the same weekend last year. Over the coming days, there are particularly high numbers of passengers on services from the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. Such is the level of business, car-parking spaces are sold out for the weekend and passengers who have not pre-booked should opt for alternative means of transport. Intending passengers are advised to arrive at least 90 minutes before departure. The busiest day this weekend is expected to be Sunday. Shandon St robbery case adjourned to July DPP directions are still awaited in a case involving a woman charged with robbery on Shandon St in January, where it is alleged that a couple returning home from socialising in Cork city were accosted. The case against 33-year-old Patricia Hogan was before Cork District Court where Sergeant John Kelleher said that no directions were yet available from the Director of Public Prosecutions. Judge Mary Dorgan adjourned the case until July 16 for DPP directions or for a progress report explaining the delay if no directions are available. Patricia Hogan, of 60 Liffey Park, Mayfield, Cork, was charged by Detective Garda Elaine Murphy with robbery of a man of a handbag containing an iPhone 13, iPad, make-up bag, car keys, and other items worth a total of 1,475. She was also charged with attempted robbery of a woman on the same occasion. Shortly after the crime was reported in January, a man was arrested and brought before Cork District Court on the related charges. Det Gda Elaine Murphy previously alleged that at around midnight on January 7, a man and a woman were walking down Shandon St, Cork, when they were accosted by a man and two women. CCTV was harvested in the course of the investigation and a man was observed punching the injured man a number of times in the head, and later going through a handbag that was taken during the incident. The detective said the injured party first slipped on ice and soon afterwards was set upon by the man and two women, and that this was all captured on CCTV. People in rural parts of Cork are paying more than double what someone in Dublin would pay for the same distance travelled on a bus, Cork South West TD and leader of Independent Ireland Michael Collins has said. Mr Collins, a member of the joint committee on transport and communications, raised the matter of price discrimination during the committees engagement with representatives from the National Transport Authority (NTA) in the Dail this week. He said people in his constituency and other rural parts of Cork and Ireland as a whole already have far less options when it comes to public transport, with services running less frequently and most people having to travel by car to get to their nearest bus stop, then they must also face a considerably more expensive ticket than the same distance would be in the capital. Disadvantaged People living in rural communities continue to be disadvantaged on the double through a lack of supporting transporting connectivity and the application of fares that can be at least 100% more than those applied in Dublin when it comes to travelling the same distance, he said. I accept that the NTA has made some positive moves toward rectifying this issue through the National Fare Strategy and indeed I received an explicit acknowledgement from NTA interim chief executive Hugh Creegan that the current system is creating inequities. This is especially true for those living anywhere outside of the major Dublin area. But the fact of the matter is that the National Fare Strategy was published in 2023 and yet here we are over two years later and people in West Cork and other areas of rural Ireland are still being hammered through excessive fares. The strategy itself provides the example of a fare from Newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow to Dublin. That fare cost 2.80 to travel 30km with a passenger uptake of 32,925. Yet if someone travelled from Fermoy to another location in Cork, at a distance of 29km, the price jumped by 112% to 5.95, despite the fact that passenger uptake has increased hugely on Cork rural routes, he said. Fairer structure Mr Collins called for urgent movement on the National Fare Strategy policy commitments to introduce fairer structure with consistency for journeys of a similar distance which he said would streamline prices across the rural and urban transport networks. Most importantly it will end the ongoing price discrimination that rural transport passengers continue to face on a daily basis. The North Cork-based Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (Hems) is facing its busiest time of the year, having already attended nearly 300 emergency call-outs. The first air-ambulance flight was in 2018, and the team now do 60 call-outs every month on their Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter from the base at Rathcoole airfield, near Mallow. A spokesperson for the group said that so far this year they have been tasked out to 295 incidents, adding: At this time of year, there is an increase in call-outs, due to longer daylight hours and more accidents from outdoor activities. Quicker The team cover all of Munster, including all the peninsulas, such as Beara and Mizen in Cork, and can get to these extreme points considerably quicker than a road-based ambulance. Time is critical in quickly reaching victims with serious injuries and/or road accidents, and the Eurocopter EC-135 can do 160 miles per hour, said the spokesperson. This time of year, there are a lot of farm accidents and they are also called out for emergency heart attack and stroke patients, and children having accidents, as well as road accidents, so time is critical in quickly getting to the site. It only takes the Hems air ambulance 16 minutes to get to Dingle. Thats why their location in Rathcoole Mallow is so important the central location in the heart of Munster means it can cover all of Munster quickly. The team might have to fly a patient to one of several hospitals, depending on the type of injuries they have received either in Cork, Limerick, or Kerry, or to Dublin if they require specialist treatment. Crash A recent mission included a motorcycle crash, which happened to occur in Rathcoole itself, last week. The helicopter had just completed another mission and was returning from CUH back to its base, when the crew received the emergency call for medical assistance at the accident in the village. The Hems responded immediately to the emergency call and landed near the scene of the accident, on the Rathcoole housing estate green, within five minutes of receiving the emergency call-out. The prompt response to the emergency call at Rathcoole village is testament to the great work thats being done by the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service at Rathcoole airfield, the spokesperson said. It is understood that the driver of the motorbike didnt receive serious injuries, and is recovering well. Cork artists are invited to submit to an anniversary edition Members and Friends Exhibition at West Cork Arts Centre, which has also introduced a number of special anniversary awards this year. West Cork Arts Centre is preparing to mark a major cultural milestone later this month, celebrating 40 years since its foundation and 10 years since the opening of its purpose-built home, Uillinn, in the heart of Skibbereen. To mark the occasion, the Centre will host its largest Members and Friends Exhibition to date, opening on Saturday 31 May and running until Thursday 3 July. This years Members and Friends Exhibition, titled Uillinn / Angle, invites artists to explore the concept of perspective, both literal and conceptual, and how differing angles influence how we see and interpret the world. This theme reflects Uillinns ongoing commitment to embracing diverse viewpoints, encouraging creativity, and harnessing meaningful connections between art and community. Open to all current Members and Friends of West Cork Arts Centre, the exhibition is drawing submissions from painters, sculptors, printmakers, and installation artists. This year also sees a focus on outdoor works for the Centres courtyard, along with a designated drop-off point at the Sarah Walker Gallery in Castletownbere to support artists in the Beara region who wish to take part in the exhibition. The historic centre was founded in 1985 by a group of dedicated artists and community members. West Cork Arts Centre began as a grassroots initiative to support and showcase local creativity, and the centre grew steadily from a small, volunteer-led organisation to one of Irelands most respected regional arts centres. In 2015, after years of planning and development, the centre opened the doors to its purpose-built home, Uillinn, in the heart of Skibbereen. Since then, it has become a vital cultural hub for Cork, supporting artists at every stage of their careers and engaging the wider community through exhibitions, residencies, education, and outreach. As part of the anniversary celebration taking place this year, the Centre has introduced a number of special anniversary awards that recognise excellence and offer support to artists. These include the Morgan ODriscoll Award, a 2,000 cash prize for a work of distinction; the Cnoc Bui Exhibition Award, which provides the winner with a solo exhibition opportunity in Union Hall in July 2026; and the Uillinn Studio Award, which includes a four-week residency at Uillinn in 2026 with a non-cash equivalent value of 2,400 and an accompanying 500 stipend. The awards will be adjudicated by a jury comprising representatives from Uillinn, The Blue House Gallery, Cnoc Bui, and Working Artists Studios. The public will also play a role in the selection process, with visitor votes considered by the jury when determining the winners. Ann Davoren, director of Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre for the past 20 years, said that this was a very significant year: To see West Cork Arts Centre grow from a grassroots initiative to a place that now supports artists, inspires the community, and presents ambitious, world-class programming is incredibly rewarding. This exhibition is a celebration of everything and everyone that has come before us from the artists and audiences to our partners, funders, and dedicated team. Its also a statement of intent for the future. She added: The inclusion of the public voice in our awards process is especially meaningful, reflecting who we are and why we exist. Schools across Cork city and county are set to receive more than 7.2m in Government funding to finance minor building works and information and communications technology (ICT). The funding is part of a national allocation of 65m announced tis week by education minister Helen McEntee. The allocation to Cork schools will see an investment of 3.3m to fund minor building works and more than 3.9m towards ICT and digital equipment and infrastructure. Announcing the Cork allocation, Jerry Buttimer, Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central and minister of state at the Department of Rural and Community Development, said it amounted to a total investment of 7,245,293. Schools are at the heart of our communities right across Cork and this investment of 3.3m for primary and special education schools for minor works, and 3.9m for ICT equipment, will ensure that Cork schools, and their students, continue to be supported, Mr Buttimer said. Maintaining school buildings across Cork is so important, both in promoting health and safety, but also in providing a welcoming learning environment for all students. Mr Buttimer said every school in Cork had different needs, and it was important that schools decide how to best use their minor works funding to address their own needs. ICT funding of 3.9m will ensure that special, primary and post-primary schools can instill their students with the skills they need to reach their full potential in our rapidly changing society, he added. Technology presents a real opportunity in our schools, and this funding will ensure that schools can embed ICT into their teaching, learning and assessments. Helen McEntee, minister for education and youth, said the funding would help schools with maintenance and improvements to keep their buildings safe and welcoming places for students, while also ensuring that students learn digital skills. An organised housing protest is set to take place in Cork city next month. The protest, entitled Raise the Roof, will see attendees assemble at the National Monument on Grand Parade on June 21 from 2pm. Sinn Fein Cork North Central TD, Thomas Gould said that attendees voices are vital for the success of the event. If youre angry about housing - we need you on the streets on June 21, said Mr Gould. This is an emergency - homes are left to rot while children grow up in hotels. Whether this is your first protest or your 100th, your voice is vital. Ordinary people are suffering while vulture funds and speculators count their profits in the millions and billions - we are sick and tired of this housing emergency, it is time for action. Three men have been taken to hospital following an alleged assault in Cork city last night. The incident, which was reported to gardai just after midnight, occurred on Devonshire Street in Cork city centre. Three men, aged in their 20s and 30s, suffered non-life-threatening injuries as a result of the incident, and were conveyed to Mercy University Hospital for treatment. A Garda spokesperson told The Echo that a technical examination of the scene has been carried out, and that the street has now reopened for public use. Investigations into the alleged assault are ongoing. A man has been jailed for five months after visitors to a Cork hotel had luggage stolen from their car. Stephen OSullivan, aged 38, of 30A Templeacre Avenue, Gurranabraher, Cork, was sentenced by Judge Mary Dorgan, who said it would have been a very upsetting incident for the visitors. It was a nasty offence, Judge Dorgan said. Obviously, someone staying in the Kingsley Hotel parked in the hotel car park and two of their bags were stolen one containing clothing, the other containing personal items. Sergeant John Dineen said that shortly before 9pm on September 12, 2024, at the Kingsley Hotel, Carrigrohane Road, Cork, the defendant took a travel case from a car. It contained clothing valued at 360. The same man returned to the vehicle a few minutes later and removed a shoulder bag containing electrical items, including a Dyson hair dryer, a hair straightener, and an electric toothbrush. The total value of the stolen property amounted to over 1,300, and was not recovered. Sgt Dineen said Stephen OSullivan had 135 previous convictions, including 15 for theft. Diarmuid Kelleher, solicitor, said: Things started to go wrong for him at the age of 13 with the death of his father. He went off the rails, taking drugs and alcohol, eventually taking heroin at the age of 19. A harrowing addiction, people will steal to get the next heroin. He is on methadone now. I think this is the first time he has made an effort to get off this cursed cycle of taking drugs, stealing to get more, and ending up in custody. The family of Tina Satchwell, who was murdered by her husband and buried in a secret grave beneath the stairs of their home, has said that their "precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter" was portrayed in a way during the trial that was "not true to who she was". Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice building today after Richard Satchwell was found guilty of murdering his wife of 25 years, Tina Satchwell's half-sister, Lorraine Howard, made a statement on behalf of the family. Ms Satchwell's cousin Sarah Howard also said a few words. Commencing the statement on behalf of the family outside the Criminal Courts of Justice building, Lorraine Howard said: "We would like to thank the judge and Tina's [legal] team Gerardine Small, Imelda Kelly, Maria Brosnan and Catherine McAleer. ''Their hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies that you are. "We will never be able to put into words how thankful we are for you. We want to sincerely thank the judge and jury for their dedication. We would like to thank all the witnesses who helped us reach this verdict today. "I would like to personally thank Sarah Howard, who came up to give evidence and her support two weeks postpartum with a beautiful baby girl, you did yourself and Tina proud. Thank you to Anne Marie Twomey and David Kelleher for putting the pieces together and finding Tina. Tina's cousin, Sarah Howard then made a statement, telling the media: During this trial Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was, she said. "Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our lives meant so much to us all. We as a family can never put into words the impact her loss has had on us. Tina was a kind, loving and gentle soul, who loved her animals like they loved her and that's the way we want her remembered. ''Today, as a family, we finally have justice for Tina and at this time our family would like to ask for privacy to begin our healing. Thank you. The tattoo artist on trial for murdering a young man in Cobh by slashing his leg with a sword was questioned by gardai around a week afterwards but he made no comment when asked to account for his movements at the relevant time. Dylan Scannell (31) of ORahilly Street, Cobh, County Cork, spoke to gardai following his arrest on March 22, 2024, for murdering Ian Baitson and he described being a tattoo artist, his drug use, mental health and a head injury he sustained in a fall. He was also questioned about key aspects of the investigation and warned in legal terms that inferences could be drawn from a failure to answer. Sergeant Diarmuid ONeill and Detective Garda Dave Barry put it to him that blood of Ian Baitson was found on the passenger footwell mat of a car in which he (the accused) was present at 20.53pm on March 15, 2024, after - gardai believed - he seriously assaulted Ian Baitson with a sword. Asked if he wished to say anything about that, he replied, No. Similar inference explanations were given to him when he was asked why he was present at Europspar car park at the relevant time when Ian Baitson was subjected to a brutal assault with a sword. He replied, No comment. Evidence This evidence emerged from memos of interviews on March 22, and March 23, 2024, at Midleton garda station. In the murder trial which ran throughout this week Dylan Scannell denied murdering 33-year-old chef, Ian Baitson, in Eurospar car park, Newtown Road, Cobh, on March 19, 2024, but admitted his manslaughter. The prosecution case is almost finished, prosecution senior counsel Donal OSullivan said today. Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said to the jury of six men and six women at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork: We will go into the final stages of this trial next week. She asked the jury to return on Tuesday, June 3. In earlier parts of the interviews talking about his life and background, the accused said he was engaged to be married and that he had worked for years as a tattoo artist and had his own studio at different times, in Cobh and Tralee, and was still doing it at that time in early 2024 on a freelance basis. In relation to his own body tattoos, he referred to one on his head of an Egyptian demon. He had an interest in American show dogs and fishing, he said during interviews. He also said: My mental health is not great. He spoke of falling from a roof six weeks previously for which he received hospital treatment. Regarding drugs, he said: I am taking cocaine half a lump a day, maybe more. He also spoke of taking other drugs including, acid, mushrooms and ecstasy. He said his drug-taking began at the age of 13 or 14. Defence senior counsel Tom Creed said refence was also made to the defendant taking medication including anti-depressants. Forensic scientists Before the evidence of memos of interviews, there was evidence from two forensic scientists from Forensic Science Ireland. Dr Alan Magee said blood samples on a car mat taken in evidence from a rented Skoda Octavia matched the profile of the deceased, Ian Baitson. Dr Stephen Clifford said that a sample taken from a sword matched the DNA profile of Ian Baitson, using a different type of DNA test than his colleague used on the mat. He explained that the sword-matched DNA could also match a persons siblings and maternal relatives. A Cork student has been recognised at the Healthy Home Chef Cookery Competition. The competition, held recently at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) St Angelas Campus in Sligo, saw Ciara Walsh of Colaiste Fionnchua, Mitchelstown, honoured as the overall Senior Silver winner. Sponsored by Dunnes Stores, MacNean House and the National Centre of Excellence for Home Economics at ATU, the competition was open to junior and senior secondary school students, Youthreach centres and special schools across Ireland. The competition took place over two days, seeing hundreds of finalists battle it out creating a range of meals, to win a prize fund of more than 10,000 worth of vouchers and equipment for them and their schools. There were 32 competitors selected as finalists and were invited to recreate their dishes before a panel of judges, including award winning chef and TV presenter, Neven Maguire. Fantastic Head of the Simply Better brand in Dunnes Stores, Derek Gallagher, said that it was fantastic to see the use of Dunnes Stores products in the competition. We are delighted to sponsor the Healthy Home Chef competition again this year with the support of our Simply Better brand ambassador Neven Maguire, said Mr Gallagher. It has been fantastic to see the inspiring dishes the students have created using Dunnes Stores products. Dr Amanda McCloat, who is the head of ATU St Angelas, said that the competition highlights the very best of aspiring young chefs. This competition showcases the very best of home economics education, where students had to display their healthy home food skills whilst promoting the importance of healthy eating, said Dr McCloat. Mr Maguire said that he was pleased to be a part of the process, highlighting the enjoyment he got from seeing the level of expertise displayed amongst the young competitors. These students show a real gift in what they do, their knowledge and skills shines through their love of cooking and its a real pleasure to be a part of the experience, he said. There are few things more life-changing than becoming a parent. Our worlds transform when we have a new baby to look after, and often this experience can not only be joyous, but daunting, with many new parents experiencing isolation alongside the sleepless nights and endless nappy changes. This is where organisations like Cuidiu come in. Irelands parental support charity, Cuidiu - meaning help - was established over 40 years ago with the aim of aiding mums and dads as they navigate the journey of parenthood. The charity has over 25 local branches, including the large and very active Cuidiu Cork. The branch hosts a range of regular events - from weekly coffee mornings and buggy walks to breastfeeding support and antenatal classes - and provides a lifeline for parents. They kept me sane, says Amy Keelan, who began attending Cuidiu events when daughter Ailish was a few months old. It was one of the most important parts of my maternity leave. So enthused was Amy by the sense of community at Cuidiu Cork, that she has since become a volunteer, currently hosting buggy walks in Macroom. Cuidiu Cork is entirely volunteer-led and thus reliant on local people to dedicate their time in a variety of different ways. Well have as much or as little as you can give, says Melanie Grace, Branch Coordinator at Cuidiu Cork, who acknowledges volunteering comes in all shapes and sizes. Hosting a coffee morning, running a baby and toddler group, providing social media expertise or even offering administrative support to Committee meetings; the volunteering opportunities are endless. Cuidiu Cork Branch Coordinator Melanie Grace (right) with Cuidiu Cork volunteers at the Cuidiu Conference last October. BELOW: Cuidiu volunteer Amy Keelan with daughter Ailish as a baby. Amy and Ailish attended Cuidiu event With so many openings for volunteers, finding people to fill them is a challenge for Cuidiu Cork. Carrigaline Baby and Toddler Group, Blackpool Library Baby and Toddler Group and the Sleeping Bunnies playgroup in Ballymaloe are all at risk of cancellation if new volunteers are not urgently found to replace organisers who are stepping down. Without these vital services, mums and dads across Cork will be left without a lifeline in the important early days of their childrens lives This isnt an unusual predicament for Cuidiu. Volunteer numbers constantly fluctuate as members return to work, or move on from the early childhood phase of parenthood. Parents have their babies, Melanie says, they have some time (to volunteer), but then ... they cant run these groups anymore because their toddler is in pre-school, theyre going back to work and their shift patterns dont suit, whatever the reason. So we always need volunteers coming up. Its a constant cycle. This is why Cuidiu Cork are issuing a call for volunteers, not just to organise and support existing activities, but to establish new meet-ups across the county. When Amy started leading her buggy walks, she was impressed with the support she received from Cuidiu as a new volunteer. I was encouraged the whole time, she says, and not just in a pat-on-the-back kind of way. People were suggesting locations and really giving practical tips... There are no set rules on how much or how little you can give. My meet-up is every second week because thats all I can give with my work shifts. Area representatives in the north, south, east, west and centre of the county provide volunteers with practical assistance in setting up or running an event, ensuring they feel supported every step of the way. You dont have to actively volunteer to get involved with Cuidiu, nor do you have to be a member to attend its events. Any mum or dad - and they would love to welcome more dads - can attend their social activities, or access breastfeeding and parental support. Some events charge a minimal sum for family entry - usually less than the cost of a cup of coffee - and others are free. Organisers understand that attending parenting meet-ups for the first time can be daunting, so they ensure a warm welcome awaits anyone new. We moved here from England when I was about six months pregnant, says Melanie of her own first experience with Cuidiu. I knew nobody. I was at that stage where I just needed an outlet, I needed to talk to grown-ups. I was just so lonely, and (at Cuidiu) I felt so welcome. So if youre like me and youre not from here and you dont know many people, Cuidiu is a great way to get to know others, and for your kids to socialise as well when theyre small. Melanie and Amy both joined Cuidiu as new mums, uncertain of what to expect but hoping to meet people in similar situations with whom they could share the highs and lows of parenting. They found that, and more; with Cuidiu continuing to remain an important part of their lives years later. The members of today are the volunteers of tomorrow, says Melanie. Theyve come along, theyve made their friends, they realise the value of the community. So when theyve got a bit of free time, they want to give back. They say it takes a village to raise a child. If you are feeling stuck in the trenches of parenthood and need advice on feeding, teething, sleep - or even just a good old vent over a cuppa - Cuidiu Cork could be that village for you. For more on events or volunteering with Cuidiu Cork, see https://www.cuidiucork.ie/ Continuing their long association with Cork and playing Live at the Marquee, The Coronas visited Cork to let us know that they are looking forward to another amazing gig in Cork. The trio talk all things Cork, pre gig rituals and role models with The Echo's Chani Anderson as they get ready for their Cork show. The Coronas fondly remember their many appearances at Live At The Marquee on Leeside, just weeks ahead of their next appearance at the big-top venue next month. Part of the reason they are back in Cork is that its one of the highlights of their year. We love it, honestly, its one of the best venues weve ever played and every time we play there, theres magic in the air, the walk down from town, its just a lovely tent, its just an amazing gig and were really looking forward to it, said Danny. The good news for fans is that the lads are working on their new album, their ninth, and no doubt the set list will feature some new material. Further good news is that songs that fans know and love from their early albums will also feature. Fan favourites such as Heroes or Ghosts and San Diego Song are numbers which will always feature on their set list, the lads say. Danny, Conor and Graham are looking forward to making it a night to remember for all who will be there on the night. And if you dont make it that night, they will be back! The Coronas play Live at the Marquee Cork on Friday, June 27, 2025, as part of their Thoughts & Observations tour. Tickets are on sale now from ticketmaster.ie. Want to read the band's full interview with Concubhar O Liathain? Find it here: By Rebecca Black, PA Irish peacekeepers serving in southern Lebanon have been described as safe and well following the firing of shots close to a patrol. The Irish Defence Forces said they have received reports that a number of shots were fired in the area of a joint Irish United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and Lebanese Armed Forces patrol close to the Blue Line. It is understood the incident took place at around midday close to the village of Yaroun. None of the Irish personnel who were recently deployed to Unifil as part of the 126th Infantry Battalion were injured in the incident. In a statement, Oglaigh na hEireann said a number of small arms rounds were fired in the vicinity of the area where the patrol was operating. The patrol withdrew from the area, there were no injuries to the personnel on the patrol and no damage reported to the armoured vehicles they were operating from, they said. All personnel of the Irish Contingent in Lebanon are reported to be safe and well, they continue to monitor the situation in southern Lebanon and are committed to the stability of the region as impartial peacekeepers. We wish to remind all actors of their responsibility to ensure the safety and security of UN peacekeepers. Taosieach Micheal Martin said the firing of rounds in the vicinity of Unifil positions in Lebanon is completely unacceptable. The safety of peacekeepers carrying out their mandated duties must be respected by all, he said. Fortunately all Irish troops are safe and well. (left to right) Chief of Defence forces Lt General Sean Clancy, Tanaiste Simon Harris and Battalion commander Lt Col Shane Rockett at Camp Shamrock in March (Niall Carson/PA) Minister for Defence Simon Harris said he has been briefed on the incident. I want to firstly send my best wishes to the Irish Defence Forces personnel affected in todays incident, the Tanaiste said. While I am very pleased to report that all personnel are safe and well, the fact they came under fire while on patrol is deeply worrying. Todays incident illustrates the dangers that our peacekeepers face every single day while on a patrol in a region that has been increasingly unstable and volatile. Earlier Mr Harris announced the renewal of Irelands Unifil mandate for a further 12 months. Ireland is proud to have been part of the Unifil mission since 1978 with 30,000 personnel having served there to date, he said. We are deeply committed to this vital mission, one that supports peace, delivers stability and protects the communities in southern Lebanon. High Court reporters Bloodstock billionaire John Magnier has complained of his alleged unfair treatment as he faces cross examination over a failed 15 million land deal in the High Court. The founder of the world famous Coolmore Stud at the start of Thursday's hearing asked the judge's permission to address the court. He said he thought he was being "treated unfairly" Wednesday, by the opposing senior counsel for Barne Estate Martin Hayden SC during cross examination. He claimed counsel "unfairly went after" his good name and Mr Magnier declared he came to court for "protection, not to be slaughtered". Lawyers acting for Mr Magnier have claimed before the High Court that a US-based construction magnate, Maurice Regan, the preferred buyer, engaged in a "full-frontal assault" on Mr Magnier's claimed deal to buy 751 acres of land in Tipperary for 15 million. Mr Magnier's proceedings claim that Barne Estate reneged on the alleged deal, preferring to sell the land at the higher price of 22.25 million to Mr Regan, the founder of the New York building firm JT Magen. Mr Magnier along with his adult children, John Paul Magnier and Kate Wachman - wants to enforce the alleged deal. They say the deal was struck at an August 22nd, 2023, kitchen meeting at Mr Magniers Coolmore home. They also claim an exclusivity agreement that was in effect from August 31t to September 30th stipulated that the estate would not permit its representatives to solicit or encourage any expression of interest, inquiry or offer on the property from anyone other than Mr Magnier. Barne Estate has been held for the benefit of Richard Thomson-Moore and others by a Jersey trust. The Magnier side have sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group, seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been "unequivocally" agreed. The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement and subsequently they preferred to sell the estate to Mr Regan. Mr Regan is not a party to the case. At the High Court on Thursday , Mr Magnier repeatedly told the court that when it came to legal and financially detailed matters that he hired experts who would decide and report on the progression of land deals for him. Mr Magnier said "I don't think you believe me - I am not a solicitor" to Mr Hayden and said that he was answering the same questions "again and again and when I answer you look out the window". Mr Hayden said he was being "polite" to Mr Magnier in letting him finish his answers but that after any "rambling" by the plaintiff he would still be asked to specifically address the question originally asked. Mr Magnier told Mr Hayden that while he was "smarter than me" he was not going to allow Mr Hayden to put "your words in my mouth, I am not going to do that". Mr Magnier claims that on the night the Thomson-Moores went to another room in Coolmore to ring the trustees of Barne to get the go-ahead on the deal and returned with the permissions needed. Mr Hayden said that phone records show that neither the Thomson-Moores nor estate agent John Stokes, also present at the meeting, made any contact with the trustees. "You had to come up with another story which was that they said they were calling them," said Mr Hayden. "They did say they were going to call. I have not changed my story at all. It's unfair to say so. It's untrue," said Mr Magnier. "I shook hands with the three people who were there," he said, adding "my word is my bond". Mr Magnier said that it was his suggestion to present a "no strings attached 50K" in two envelopes on September 7th, 2023, to Mr Stokes who gave it to the Thomson-Moores because the family were allowing Mr Magnier's people onto the land, were resisting bids and claimed that Mr Stokes had told him the family were "strapped for cash" Mr Hayden said that it will be Mr Stokes' evidence that he never said the family were strapped for cash. However, the money was returned to the Magniers days later and Mr Magnier told the court that it was his estimation that this was a signal that the family had now changed their minds and were going with the higher bid. The case continues before Mr Justice Max Barrett. By Jonathan McCambridge, PA The head of the BBC in Northern Ireland has said the implications of Gerry Adams libel victory against the broadcaster are profound. Adam Smyth, director of BBC NI, said their legal team had warned that the jurys decision in the high-profile defamation case could hinder freedom of expression. The BBC has been ordered to pay the former Sinn Fein leader 100,000 after a jury decided they had defamed him in a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson. Mr Adams denies any involvement in Mr Donaldsons death in 2006. Journalist Jennifer OLeary presented the Spotlight programme. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Speaking outside the High Court alongside Spotlight reporter Jennifer OLeary, Mr Smyth said they were disappointed with the verdict. He said: We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial process and journalistic diligence applied to this programme and accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court, and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team, that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. Mr Smyth said the BBC had not wanted to come to court. But he added: It was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, its hard to see how anyones could. And they warned that todays decision could hinder freedom of expression. Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. Gerry Adams took the BBC to court over an episode of its Spotlight programme. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Mr Smyth said the BBC would now take time to consider the implications of the ruling. Ms OLeary said she had entered the witness box in the trial with nothing to hide, only sources to protect and I want to thank them for trusting me. She paid tribute to the witnesses who had appeared for the BBC in the case, including Ann Travers, whose sister was murdered by the IRA in 1984. She said: And there are thousands of Ann Travers across this island and in Britain victims and survivors of the Troubles and the years after the peace agreement who carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible courage. They are the people Im thinking of all of them. 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. Some of the plaintiffs in the new youth climate lawsuit Lighthiser v. Trump. Our Children's Trust A new youth climate lawsuit by 22 Americans aged seven to 25 alleges that the Trump administration is engaging in unlawful executive overreach by issuing executive orders that intentionally boost the production of fossil fuels while frustrating the growth of renewable energy. In Lighthiser v. Trump, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, the youth plaintiffs say the administrations actions violate their constitutional rights to life, health and safety and breach congressional mandates to safeguard public health and ecosystems. Trumps fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation, said named plaintiff Eva Lighthiser in a press release from nonprofit public interest law firm Our Childrens Trust, one of plaintiffs representatives. Im not suing because I want to Im suing because I have to. My health, my future, and my right to speak the truth are all on the line. Hes waging war on us with fossil fuels as his weapon, and were fighting back with the Constitution. Youth from Montana and four other states are suing the Trump administration for violating their constitutional rights with executive orders that fast-track fossil fuel projects, worsen the climate crisis, and suppress climate science. PR: bit.ly/youthsuetrump-pr #YouthvGov [image or embed] Our Childrens Trust (@youthvgov.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 10:11 AM The plaintiffs who are from Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Florida and California assert that the executive orders directive to unleash fossil fuels exacerbates the climate crisis while worsening youth plaintiffs health and climate injuries. By prioritizing gas, oil and coal over renewable and clean energy sources like solar and wind, the Unleashing American Energy order ignored scientific warnings, putting the futures of children at risk. From day one, President Donald Trump and his administration have imposed their denial of well-established climate science on governmental and private institutions at the cost of young peoples lives. Defendants have not only prioritized fossil fuels over renewable energy sources, intentionally ignoring the devastating consequences fossil fuel energy has on the climate, but are also deleting research, data, and education on climate change, impairing young people from accessing the very resources they need to protect their lives and futures by tackling the climate crisis they are inheriting, Our Childrens Trust said. Plaintiffs say they are currently experiencing harms from global heating in the form of drought, wildfires and hurricanes, and that the executive orders will only worsen the conditions, reported The New York Times. The executive orders cited in the lawsuit include those that declare a National Energy Emergency, direct agencies to Unleash American Energy, and one aimed at Reinvigorating Americas Beautiful Clean Coal Industry. The complaint points to immediate consequences of the executive orders, such as an exemption from pollution rules given to Montanas Colstrip coal-fired power plant. The plant is the biggest emitter of fine particulate matter pollution in the country, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. Founder of Our Childrens Trust Julia Olson said several of the youth plaintiffs live close to the plant or a coal mine that supplies it, or along transport routes for the facilities. The coal cars are brimming with coal that just blows [dust] out all over my town, Lighthiser said, as The Guardian reported. That could [affect] my own body and my own health, and it feels very intimidating, because its not something that feels like its in my control right now. Plaintiffs are requesting that the court protect youths U.S. and state constitutional rights, declare the executive orders unconstitutional and block their implementation. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of climate change as it endangers their physical and mental health, disrupts family and cultural bonds, and deepens economic hardship, Our Childrens Trust said. Olson believes the case is winnable, since it brings claims under basic rights granted by the U.S. Constitution. Olson emphasized that, no matter how the court rules, filing the lawsuit was itself a success. Having young people rise up at a time when democracy is threatened and when theres retaliation against so many people in this country for standing up against the administration, that is success, Olson said, as reported by The Guardian. Its about having the bravery to bring claims in the court, of not being too afraid to use their rights. (Photo: Robert Evans) YEGHEGHIS, Armenia - Granite gravestones carved with Hebrew inscriptions and symbolic whirligig roses lie scattered on the banks of a fast-flowing river in the shadow of a towering Armenian cliff. They have set researchers on the track of a mystery community of Jews living comfortably in a busy Christian town in troubled Armenia in the early Middle Ages. They have had nearly 20 years of archaeological and documentary digging. Armenian and Israeli historians and experts in the region, however, remain baffled over where the Jewish citizens of 13th and 14th century Yegheghis, in mountainous country some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Armenia's modern capital Yerevan, came from and where they went to. To a visitor today, Yegheghis is a little more than a forlorn village. Its Jewish cemetery is the only site to lure tourists into a region close to what was, until just before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the open border between the neighbouring "fraternal" in the communist jargon of the time republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The relationship between peoples with deep Christian roots in Armenia and of historic Muslim tradition in Azerbaijan was always dubious. ARMENIA AND AZERBAJAN FEUD It broke down over an historic territorial question in 1988. The warfare dragged on for nearly six years as both moved into independence sending Armenians fleeing west and Azerbaijanis eastwards, replacing each other in many villages along the frontier. "It seems the Jews who lived here back then got on better than the Azerbaijanis with us Christians," muses Serozh Alkamyan, a one-time mechanic. He keeps watch over the partly-restored cemetery outside the village and ensures that the wandering cows he and his neighbours put out to pasture along the Yegheghis River do not push their way onto the site. (Photo: Robert Evans) Jewish graves in Armenia, 2015. Alkamyan, a wiry 55-year-old, clutches a wooden staff that he uses to prod the cows away from the fence and from the partly open blue-painted gate bearing the Jewish Star of David symbol. It was erected over a decade ago with funds from Israel. Like him, all the modern inhabitants of the village are refugees from Azerbaijan, he says. "I lost everything I had when I and my family had to flee. I had an orchard and a good wine cellar," he tells a visitor in Russian. His family was settled in an empty Yegheghis, abandoned by its Soviet-period Azerbaijani inhabitants, and tried to pick up the pieces of a shattered life. "We found fruit trees, but no wine. The Muslims don't drink it," he grins ruefully. The cemetery is reached down a cart-track off the road east out of the village and across a shaky wooden bridge over the river. It was found by chance in the mid-1990s by Bishop Abraham Mkrtchyan, head of the Armenian Orthodox Church in the region, when he was looking for a spring to provide water for a camp he was setting up for the children of refugees. The bishop reported the discovery to specialists in Yerevan. They contacted Michael Stone of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, an expert on ancient Armenia, which two millennia ago covered much of modern Turkey and part of Syria as well as the landlocked territory in Transcaucasia. It is now home to the almost mono-ethnic 3-million population of today's independent republic. Ancient Jewish settlements were widespread in Persia, modern Iran, to the south and east, and also in Georgia to the north and in Azerbaijan to the east. None had, however, been previously recorded in what is now modern Armenia, which claims to have become the world's first officially Christian state in the year 301. LOST JEWISH COMMUNITY "We are on the trail of a lost Jewish community....This is a new page in the study of Jewish history," the British-born Professor Stone said after his first visit to the Yegheghis site six years after Bishop Mkrtchyan stumbled on it. "This is a diaspora no-one had known about." Subsequent study of the area by Israeli and Armenian archaeologists established a total of 64 gravestones, many of them oblong-shaped with a rounded upper side and a flat underside. Still in place but now protected by the stone wall put up during the excavations, most bear inscriptions, mainly in Hebrew but some in Aramaic. Many of the texts can still be read despite the ravages of some 800 years during which they have remained unattended and overgrown in a region where summer heat alternates with sub-zero temperatures in winter. Analysis of them gave the experts good indications of the life of the community and its place in local society. At the time the cemetery was used in the later 13th and earlier 14th centuries, Yegheghis is known to have been a flourishing trading centre, capital of the local region and a key market. It was close to the Silk Road linking Europe with Persia, modern Iran, and the East. The Jews, experts surmise, were involved in that commerce. That they achieved a good degree of prosperity is indicated by an old inscription at the entrance to an Armenian church a few kilometers away and built around the same period. It declares that the Christian place of worship was built on land bought from a member of the Jewish community. Stone himself has argued that the language of the grave inscriptions, many of which are quotations from the Hebrew Bible, indicates that the level of education was high. "Awake and shout for joy, ye who dwell in the dust," says one, citing from the Biblical Testament of Isaiah, while others are original literary texts "of considerable merit," the Israeli researcher says. The granite of the gravestones and the style of the carving, the experts have established, is identical to that in a nearby cemetery where Armenian noble figures of the time were buried. They almost certainly came from the same workshops, suggesting that there was close interaction between the two communities despite their differing religions. Another sign of a mingling of the cultures, archaeologists say, is the presence on some of the Jewish graveyard stones of the whirligig rose motif, an ancient Armenian symbol of everlasting life. It is one used today by the Yerevan- and New York-based "100 Lives" Foundation which promotes Armenian humanitarian causes around the world. Researchers are still unsure about when the Jewish community arrived in the Yegheghis region, but they say inscriptions on the tombstones suggest that it was already functioning by the year 1266, the date on the oldest of the stones so far found. The last burial date so far discovered is 1337, according to an information panel at the site in Armenian, Russian and English. "It would be good to know where they came from, why they left, and for where," says Armen Baghdasaryan, a lecturer at Yerevan University taking visitors to the site this autumn. "But although there is a lot of effort being made, somehow I doubt that we ever will." (Photo: World Council of Churches)Armenian genocide monument Armenian Christians are under siege with the destruction of religious, cultural, and historical heritage in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, say the World Council of Churches and the Protestant Church in Switzerland,, and they have pledged to continue fighting for justice in the area. In partnership with the Protestant Church in Switzerland, the WCC convened the Armenian Heritage Conference on May 27 and 28 in Bern, the location of the Swiss parliament. It was titled, "Religious Freedom: Preserving Armenian Spiritual, Cultural and Historical Heritage in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh." The WCC and the Swiss Protestant Churches issued an urgent call for immediate action to the international community at a press conference during the event. "The destruction of Armenian sacred heritage is not only an attack on history, but on religious freedom, on human dignity, and on the values that bind humanity across traditions," said WCC secretary general Rev. Jerry Pillay in an opening speech. "This conference is an act of moral resistance and spiritual solidarity." (Photo: Peter Williams/WCC) Rev. Jerry Pillay, general secretary-elect of the World Council of Churches on June 17, 2022. Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh by Armenians, is a mountainous region located at the southern end of the Karabakh mountain range, within Azerbaijan, according to the Reuters news agency. It is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but until 2023 its 100,000 inhabitants were predominantly ethnic Armenians. Rev. Rita Famos, president of the Protestant Church in Switzerland, noted at a press conference that the situation in the Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh region had been highlighted in the Swiss Parliament. She urged inter-religious dialogue to reach compromises. "From a Swiss perspective, this is significant," said Famos. "As a neutral country with a tradition of humanitarian engagement, Switzerland can play a connecting role bringing together different governments and encouraging them to take active responsibility," said the Swiss Protestant leader. "That idea of using neutrality not as a position of distance, but to build bridges for concrete action," was the message of the parliamentarians. - DIVERSE VIEWS Famos said, "The first thing we have to learn from each other is to listen," and bring together people of diverse views. The WCC's Pillay said, "The key thing that the World Council of Churches has always been engaged in is the awareness aspect. "Because there are a lot of people suffering in the world that other people are not mindful of, but not only just the awareness, but also trying to establish the facts in those situations because very often distorted stories or misinformation or disinformation is communicated," said Pillay. He said, "Awareness and advocacy is what we have always been working on," noting that the next phase is "moving government structures" and people with power and authority to be making a difference, speaking about justice and peace. He cautioned that nationalist influences influence many churches, but noted the strong role of united churches at the same time. If the churches lived by the Gospel consistently, they would have a huge influence, said Pillay. "In times of polarization, it's essential that we do not become part of the division but instead act as bridges listening, building trust, and speaking from a place of moral conviction," said the general secretary. "We must also work together across churches, faiths, and regions. That unity gives strength and credibility. And we must be present: locally engaged, politically aware, and globally connected." - NOT ABOUT POWER "In the end," he said, "it's not about power it's about persistence, compassion, and courage." Also at the press conference were Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, vice moderator of the WCC central committee (its main governing body between assemblies); and Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, former first chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The predominantly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia. Archbishop Dr Vicken Aykazian stated that the conference in Bern was a continuation of work on Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, building on the efforts begun the previous year. "We sometimes forget the power of prayer" to help bring peace to the area, he said, urging unity. He said what is happening in the area is not only about the suffering of Armenians but also of other people, such as Kurds, and he praised the late Pope Francis for speaking out on the region. Dr Luis Moreno Ocampo said the world should not give up in the fight against injustices. Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, in his opening message, n II stressed the urgency of preserving Artsakh's spiritual, cultural, and historical legacy. He emphasized that Artsakh's displaced people have been stripped of their right to live, create, and sustain their centuries-old faith-driven culture on their native land. He noted that vital border territories of Armenia are under occupation and that new demands are being raised during a eace treaty process. "Since the 44-day war of 2020 and the large-scale military operations of 2023, Artsakh has been seized and completely depopulated of Armenians," said Karekin II. "Significant border areas of the Republic of Armenia are now occupied, and new demands are being made in peace negotiations. Azerbaijan continues to detain Artsakh's political leaders, civilians, and prisoners of war, subjecting them to staged, illegitimate trials in blatant violation of international law. "These atrocities and humiliations are clearly rooted in ethnic hatred and Armenophobia, fueling attacks on the Armenian people's spiritual and cultural legacy," the Catholicos said. He said that the Armenians of Artsakh had lived with dignity on their ancestral lands for centuries, faithful to their identity and enriching global culture. Armenians, who are Christian, claim a long presence in the area, dating back several centuries, even before the birth of Christ. Azerbaijan, whose inhabitants are predominantly Turkic Muslims, also claims deep historical ties to the region, which has been under the sway of various powers over the centuries, including the Persians, Turks, and Russians. The bloody conflict between the two peoples goes back more than a century, according to Reuters. Under the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh became an autonomous region within the Republic of Azerbaijan. Chaos ensued on German roads this week after Google Maps wrongly informed drivers that highways throughout the country were closed during a busy holiday. Many of the apparently closed roads were located near large German cities and metropolitan areas, including Berlin, Dusseldorf and Dortmund. As reported by a locally based journalist for The Guardian , drivers opening Googles navigation app would see a swarm of red dots used to indicate no-go areas, which resulted in people looking for alternative routes that caused traffic pile-ups nationwide. The Guardian also reported that police and local authorities were contacted by people confused (and presumably pretty annoyed) about the supposed standstill. To compound the issue, the Google Maps error coincided with the beginning of Germanys Ascension Day public holiday on May 29, which meant the roads were even busier than usual. In ganz Deutschland Chaos bei Google Maps: Dienst zeigt unzahlige falsche Sperrungenhttps://t.co/qEfIRrIHx3 Peter Berger (@leosgeminix) May 29, 2025 The problem reportedly only lasted for a few hours and by Thursday afternoon only genuine road closures were being displayed. Its not clear whether Google Maps had just malfunctioned, or if something more nefarious was to blame. "The information in Google Maps comes from a variety of sources. Information such as locations, street names, boundaries, traffic data, and road networks comes from a combination of third-party providers, public sources, and user input," a spokesperson for Google told German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost , adding that it is internally reviewing the problem. "In general, these sources provide a strong foundation for comprehensive and up-to-date maps." Q: My question is how best to set up an Xbox for my kid. I want to know how to control use time and whether I should use my email to set up. Guillermo from Utah A: You're in luck! Console parental controls have come a long way from the days of hiding NES systems (or their controllers) from unruly kids. Microsoft, in particular, has made it very easy through its Xbox Family Settings app for iOS and Android, which supports Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One systems. Once you've added your kids to your Xbox family group, you'll be able to manage and see reports of their playtime, restrict access to specific content, require parental approval for purchases and sort incoming friend requests. In typical Microsoft fashion, though, setting up Xbox family accounts can be a bit confusing, so let's go over it step by step. Microsoft How to set up an Xbox for your child Turn on your Xbox and sign in with your Microsoft account. Press the Xbox button on your controller, and head to Profile & system > Settings > account > Family settings > Manage family members. Choose Add to family > Add new. Unfortunately, Microsoft requires an email address for new accounts. You can either enter your child's existing email if they have one, or choose the Get a new email option to create an Outlook email address. (This may seem a bit absurd for younger children, so if you don't want to create an email for your 6 year old, you may be better off just physically controlling access to consoles like the old days.) Next, you'll have to verify the addition of a new family group member. You can do so by either choosing This Xbox on the next screen and entering your Microsoft account details, or selecting Their phone/PC to have an email sent to you. In either case, you'll have to consent to the new member. What is a Microsoft child account? In its documentation, Microsoft says "a child account is defined as any Microsoft account thats affiliated with an adult Microsoft account when the age of the child or teen is less than the age of majority for their country or region." These accounts are broken into "Child" and "Teen" categories, which specify age ranges between eight and 12, and 13 to 17. Microsoft notes there can be differences depending on location, like in South Korea where teen accounts range from 13 to 18. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Are there any issues with Microsoft child accounts? As useful as the Xbox Family app and child accounts may seem, they can also lead to problems while playing Minecraft, according to comments on Reddit. Reddit user "Microdad_" said they weren't able to gift a game to their child's account, they had to deal with a buggy website to allow them to play Minecraft and after all of that trouble their child still can't play in their realm. User "Electronic_Ocelot825" encountered similar issues, replying, "You are spot on. I go through same [sic] crap and it drives me to the point where I am furious. Have a tech question youd like Engadget to answer? As tech reporters, the Engadget staff is always answering questions from readers, friends and family about electronics, software, gaming, big tech policies and more. So we decided to write down our answers. This question came from a coworker from Yahoo, Engadget's corporate parent. If youve got a tech-related question youd like us to answer for you, please email ask@engadget.com. According to Bloomberg, the next versions of Apples operating systems may be labeled by year, starting now. It makes sense. At this point, weve got VisionOS 2, watchOS 11, macOS 15, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. Instead, they might all be tagged 26 even if they launch this year. Its not the first tech company to align new products with the year of release. Samsung started naming its phones by year of release in 2020 with the S20, which followed the S10. Well learn for sure in under two weeks: WWDC kicks off June 9. Mat Smith Get Engadget's newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The news you might have missed Sony is discounting consoles, accessories, games and subscriptions. Engadget One of the standout deals of this years Days of Play sale is the PS5 DualSense Edge controller. You can pick one up for $169, which is 15 percent off its usual price. The deal is available on Amazon and directly from Sony. The Edge resembles a regular DualSense controller, but theres a lot more to it. For instance, there are function buttons below each thumbstick and rear paddles, and you can choose between a set of levers or shorter half-domes. If you havent jumped on the PS5 yet, the PS5 Pro also gets a $50 discount. Continue reading. Its not Chrome, Safari or Edge, but if youre willing to be different Opera has launched another Opera browser. Neon is its first fully agentic browser. That means its baked in AI chat with users and can surf the web on their behalf. It clicks for you. It can even fill out forms and shop for you. If youre feeling more ambitious, you can ask Neon to build websites, animations, even games, and it can continue chipping away at big projects while youre offline. Will that all be enough to swing you away from all your Chrome plugins or Safari passwords? According to recent figures, just over 2 percent of internet users use Opera. You can try it for yourself now. Oh wait, no, theres a waitlist. Continue reading. For the pro gamers. Pulsar Pulsars latest competitive gaming mouse features a premium tiny fan from Noctua, the renowned fan brand. (Apparently, no one makes fans quite like the Austrians). With a skeletal shell designed to enhance airflow, its for sweaty-palmed professional gamers. Like the original Feinmann mouse from Pulsar, it has a 32,00 DPI sensor and an ultra-fast 8,000 Hz polling rate. Due to the fan, its a little heavier than the original at 65 grams. And the price of dry palm calm? $180. Continue reading. Once upon a time, celebrities sold perfumes. Now? They're selling bathwater. We're not talking about spiritual essence or metaphorical vibes. We're talking literal, sudsy, tub-sourced water from the most internet-obsessed stars of our time. And the new faces of this steamy merch movement? Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney Euphoria co-stars turned accidental bathwater influencers. Read more: Jacob Elordi Looks Unrecognizable and Fans Go Feral Let's break down how the most intimate corners of their fame turned into the hottest trend of 2025. Before bathwater became a marketing gimmick, it was a meme. Enter: Belle Delphine, the internet provocateur who in 2019 sold "GamerGirl Bath Water" for $30 a jar. No soap, no scent just Belle's bathwater, straight from the tub to your shelf. It sold out instantly. Critics called it gross. Fans called it iconic. Either way, it marked a turning point: celebrities realized personal boundaries = business opportunities. Belle didn't just break the internet she rebranded bathwater. It Started With Jacob Elordi and Saltburn Jacob Elordi didn't mean to become the face of bathwater culture. He just wanted to act. But then came Saltburn and that bathtub scene and suddenly, Elordi's screen-soaked moment turned into a meme empire. Within days, Etsy sellers were hawking "Jacob Elordi's Bathwater" candles and soaps. TikTok was flooded with DIY merch tutorials. The man couldn't sneeze without a new scented product showing up in his name. He hadn't sold a drop but the fantasy was so real, even The Tonight Show gifted him a candle. His verdict? "Smells like detergent." The thirst remained unquenched. Then Sydney Sweeney Took It to the Next Level Literally Enter Sydney Sweeney, Elordi's Euphoria co-star and marketing mastermind. After starring in a Dr. Squatch soap ad, fans started joking online: "Where's Sydney's bathwater?" Instead of dodging the weirdness, she leaned into it all the way into the tub. The result? "Sydney's Bathwater Bliss", a limited-edition soap bar infused with real water from her bath. Yes, they collected it. Yes, it's certified. And yes, it's real merch. Only 5,000 bars are being sold. Each one comes with a tongue-in-cheek authenticity note and a scent inspired by the Pacific Northwest. It's clever. It's ridiculous. It's viral gold. Author J.K. Rowling is using her earnings from the Harry Potter franchise to found an anti-trans organization focused on "fighting to retain women's sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces." The only people who consider it 'anti-feminist' to point out that a woman is a woman by virtue of her biology are those who think female-specific anatomy or bodily functions are inferior in some way, that bearing young is a lowly, worthless occupation, or that misogynist social pic.twitter.com/3o5YXdwS4v J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 24, 2025 The author of Harry Potter will be using her personal wealth to found the J.K. Rowling Women's fund, which is dedicated to taking away the rights of transgender individuals "in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces." "It provides women with the means and confidence to bring to justice cases that make legal precedents, force policy change, and make positive contributions to women's lives in the future," reads the organization's website. "Pretending sex differences don't matter does nothing to advance the lot of women and girls. Promoting the idea that men can become women by performing their idea of what a woman is - which, funnily enough, often turns out to be a pornified sex object - does not liberate women and girls," Rowling said in a statement announcing the organization on X. "The attempt to redefine the word 'woman' by dismissing female biology benefits only the men who've been eagerly helping themselves to women's protected spaces, sport, opportunities and honours - or, in the Fox Batterer's case, who've jumped eagerly onto the movement's coattails because they're spotlight addicts and believe they'll go down in history as Genderism's Gandhi," she continued. "I looked into all options and a private fund is the most efficient, streamlined way for me to do this," Rowling said. "Lots of people are offering to contribute, which I truly appreciate, but there are many other women's rights orgs that could do with the money, so donate away, just not to me!" Rowling, who has a net worth of over $1 billion, has previously put her fortune towards cases that pertain to women's sex-based rights. In 2024, she donated 70,000 (roughly $88,200) to the anti-trans group For Women Scotland, the same group that challenged a 2018 Scottish law that legally recognized trans women as women. Originally published on Latin Times Brad Pitt's girlfriend Ines de Ramon has become a "calming presence" in the actor's life, particularly following his recently finalized divorce from Angelina Jolie. The 61-year-old Oscar winner and 32-year-old de Ramon have been dating since late 2022, developing what sources describe as a "really solid" relationship. Their romance began shortly after de Ramon's separation from "Vampire Diaries" actor Paul Wesley, to whom she was married from 2019 to 2022. "There's no pressure between them," a source tells People exclusively. "She gives him space when he needs it, but is always there when it counts." The insider emphasizes that de Ramon "has brought a lot of peace into Brad's life" and describes their relationship as "easy and natural." Pitt recently shared details about their relationship during a GQ interview published this week. When asked whether their public debut at the 2024 British Grand Prix was a calculated publicity move for his upcoming Formula 1 film, Pitt laughed off the suggestion. "No, dude, it's not that calculated," he stated. "If you're living, oh my God, how exhausting would that be? If you're living with making those kinds of calculations? No, life just evolves. Relationships evolve." The couple made their red carpet debut at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in September, marking a significant milestone in their relationship. Before that public appearance, they attended various high-profile events together, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's annual gala and the Santa Barbara Film Festival, but avoided posing for photographs. De Ramon's supportive presence proved particularly helpful as Pitt finalized his lengthy divorce proceedings with Jolie. The former couple settled their divorce in December 2024 after eight years of contentious legal battles. De Ramon encouraged Pitt to focus on moving forward rather than dwelling on past conflicts, sources said. "Ines encouraged Brad to move forward and focus on the future. She's grounded, drama-free, and just really good for him which is exactly what he needs at this stage," the source explains. The couple, who celebrated their second anniversary in September 2024, recently spent the holidays together in Carmel, California, demonstrating the stability of their relationship. De Ramon works as vice president for the jewelry brand Anita Ko and maintains a low-profile approach to their romance. Political insiders are urging Kamala Harris to stay away from Meghan Markle as reports continue to circulate that she might run for governor of California. Harris, who served as a vice president, senator and as California's attorney general, is said to be contemplating the future of her political career after she failed to win the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. With Governor Gavin Newsom nearing the end of his term due to term limits, Harris is said to be one of the top Democratic figures considering a bid to succeed him. While some of her famous allies may offer public support, political strategists are warning Harris to avoid aligning herself with the Duchess of Sussex. "It would reinforce the stereotype of Kamala Harris being an out-of-touch elitist who is more interested in royalty than the struggles of Californians," one political insider told the Daily Mail. Celebrity Endorsement Called a Liability Markle is out there with her lifestyle brand and podcast, with the public's opinion decidedly mixed. The latest polls show her approval in the US at around 41%. In the UK, she's even more unpopular, reaching a record low of 20%. Tab Berg, a Republican political strategist based in California, said celebrity endorsements have become politically risky. "In general, celebrity endorsements are now a net negative," Berg told the Daily Mail. "It's not a working formula. There's a tiny number of voters who look for what celebrities say." Berg added, "I don't think any of the [major] players [in California] would take her seriously." Read more: Kamala Harris Interview Nominated for Emmy After Trump Sued CBS for Deceptive Editing of Same Interview Royals Reportedly Disappointed by Election Outcome Meanwhile, Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, 40, are said to be navigating an uncertain future following Donald Trump's return to the White House. "They feel very torn about what to do next," a source told Radar Online last year. "They honestly thought Kamala Harris would get in and they would be friends with the President this is a hellish situation for them." Harry has expressed concern over potential deportation, given his past admissions of drug use, which could jeopardize his US visa status. "Harry's worried about deportation happening; he's worried about leaving. Meghan fears Harry having to leave the US, too," the source added. "They're both feeling very unsettled right now, what with everything going on in America, plus all the pressure on them to do well with their projects." Hailey Bieber has secured a massive $1 billion deal to sell her skincare brand, Rhode, to e.l.f. Beauty a career-making move that arrives amid continued focus on her marriage to pop star Justin Bieber. The cash deal, which was completed this week, consists of $600 million in cash, $200 million in stock, and $200 million in cash associated with a performance-based growth plan over the next three years. With just three products introduced in 2022, Rhode has rapidly become a cult beauty brand, propelled by Bieber's influence and a back-to-basics skincare approach. A source close to the entrepreneur says that Bieber was moved to tears while signing the deal. "When everything was finalized, she couldn't stop crying and screaming with joy," one insider told The US Sun. "I haven't seen her like this since the birth of her son." "She was on her knees for 10 minutes, repeatedly saying, 'Oh my god!' and 'This is so crazy!'" the source added. The moment marked a turning point for the 28-year-old model, who has reportedly been under significant pressure both professionally and personally. While her marriage has been the subject of intense speculation, insiders say the model channeled her energy into Rhode's growth. "Despite everything going on with Justin, she remained focused and poured her energy into her company," the source said. As part of the new deal, Bieber will remain highly involved with the brand moving forward. Her responsibilities will now encompass broader duties as Rhode's Chief Creative Officer and Head of Innovation, as well as Strategic Advisor to e.l.f. Beauty. "This achievement is a lifetime dream for her," a friend shared. "She has always wanted to inspire women and show that, with hard work, success is attainable. She hopes to serve as a role model for strong, independent women entrepreneurs." Read more: Hailey Bieber Claims She Uses Fake Accounts to Watch Selena Gomez The $1 Billion Mark Bieber said her Rhode co-founders, Michael D. Ratner, and Lauren Ratner, had helped mold Rhode from the very beginning. e.l.f. Beauty Chairman and CEO Tarang Amin said that Rhode is a "like-minded disruptor," adding that it is complementary to his organization's mission and values. In terms of the following steps, Bieber plans to reinvest some of the money in real estate and a few fashion ventures, in addition to giving back to women's and children's charities. She's pledged to have "positive, lasting impact on society, especially during these challenging times when minorities and vulnerable groups, including LGBTQ+ individuals, face significant challenges in areas like education and empowerment." Rhode's most popular products are its peptide glazing fluid, Barrier Restore Cream, and lip treatments. The company also released accessories, including phone cases tailored to hold its trademark lip glosses. One source noted that Bieber sees her new success as an entry point into a growing league of female moguls. "She's been inspired by women like Rihanna and Kylie Jenner, who are not only successful entrepreneurs and billionaires but also great mothers," the source said. "Now she feels part of that club." Although the business landmark called for a celebration purportedly with a couple of glasses of champagne Bieber is already back at work. "She's not taking a vacation," the source added. "She's thinking long-term. She's building a business empire." And the insider was quick to point out that the win has been more than monetary it's personal. "This success has given her a significant confidence boost, especially after feeling insecure and depressed about her life recently. Sealing this deal is like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds in her life." President Donald Trump granted a commutation to Larry Hoover, the 74-year-old co-founder of the notorious Gangster Disciples, commuting the life sentences Hoover had served in federal prison. Hoover was serving six life sentences for a multi-year raft of convictions on conspiracy, extortion, and drug charges. Hoover, who was initially sentenced in the 1990s, had been convicted of running a criminal enterprise and was accused of the 1973 murder of a rival drug dealer. Nevertheless, as harsh as his sentences were, the former gang leader subsequently disavowed his former allies, stating in a 2022 letter to the court, "I am no longer a member, leader, or even an elder statesman of the Gangster Disciples. I want nothing to do with it now and forever." Kanye West's Persistent Advocacy Kanye West publicly celebrated the pardon, taking to X to express his gratitude, saying, "WORDS CAN'T EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR OUR DEVOTED ENDURING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP FOR FREEING LARRY HOOVER." JUST IN: Kanye West Praises President Trump for Freeing Larry Hoover as 2018 Oval Office Video Resurfaces: Words Cant Express My Gratitude pic.twitter.com/ZjRkavJs1B MAGAgeddon (@MAGAgeddon) May 28, 2025 The rapper has spent almost a decade campaigning for Hoover's release. His work involved organizing a 2021 Los Angeles benefit concert, where he reconciled his widely publicized differences with Drake. The rapper himself took to Instagram at the time, sharing, "Both me and Drake have taken shots at each other and it's time to put it to rest. I'm asking Drake... to join me on stage as a special guest to share the two biggest albums of the year live in Los Angeles with the ultimate purpose being to free Larry Hoover." On december 9th 2021, the two biggest artists alive, Ye & Drake, came together for the FREE LARRY HOOVER benefit concert. They performed their biggest hits and created internet history in the name of Larry Hoover. pic.twitter.com/PS9gsSU3M5 Ghost Town (@GhostTownYZY) May 28, 2025 Kanye's ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, was also one of the celebrities to signal her support for the cause and throw her backing behind the concert and the message to "Free Larry Hoover." Family and Legal Team React Hoover's son, Larry Hoover Jr., attributed Kanye for sparking further attention to the case during an interaction with TMZ. "The process started a long time ago with Kanye. Kanye put us on the platform. He had a very big part because he started it all off. He put us on the platform. He took us to the White House on his platform when he didn't have to do that." Larry Hoover Jr Thanks Ye FkA Kanye West for all his efforts in helping free his father Larry Hoover Thank You Ye pic.twitter.com/SEXhIU0xYH Dee (@lowkydee) May 29, 2025 A statement from Hoover's lawyers praised the ruling, "Despite the Court's unwillingness to do the right thing, Mr. Hoover has been able to keep his voice alive through the incredible work of many advocates and supporters. Thankfully, Mr. Hoover's pleas were heard by President Trump who took action to deliver justice for Mr. Hoover. We are thrilled to see that Mr. Hoover will be released from Federal Custody." Kanye first lobbied then-President Trump for Hoover's release in 2018, but the request was denied at that time. Only in the latest wave of pardons and commutations did Hoover receive a commutation of his sentence. Originally published on Music Times by Rachel Robison-Greene Many people who have thought carefully about AI are anxious about certain uses of it, and for good reason. Many are concerned that people (young people in particular) are increasingly offloading their critical thinking development and responsibilities to Chat GPT and other large language learning models. We may fail to flourish as citizens, neighbors, and friends because we allow AI to do so many of the tasks that would otherwise prepare us for the challenges well encounter in our lives. That said, some applications of AI seem like they offer tremendous benefits. For example, there is promising research being done into using AI models to understand non-human language. Doing so will help us to better understand non-human consciousness. This has the potential to change how we see and treat other animals and how we view ourselves as members of biotic communities. Some AI companies, such as the Chinese company Baidu are looking to fulfill very human impulses. Their products focus on deciphering the communication of companion animals such as cats and dogs. What pet caretaker wouldnt be interested in knowing what their furry friends are trying to communicate? Other AI applications focus on the communication patterns of big-brained animals such as sperm whales. These creatures engage in an impressive amount of vocalization and there is good reason to believe that mapping whale sounds can tell us all sorts of important things about the mental and social lives of whales. These scientific advances have the potential to finally pull us out the philosophical rut weve been in with respect to animal minds for the entire history of human philosophical engagement. Historically, human philosophical taxonomies of living things have included at least two constants: an emphasis on difference and an insistence on hierarchy. Weve assumed that humans are different in kind from other animals and that these differences make us better, more deserving of respect, and that we have more meaningful lives than our fellow creatures. Weve arguably started in the wrong place: weve assumed significant difference and then philosophized about the exact nature of that difference. In both Nicomachean Ethics and On the Soul, Aristotle argues for hierarchy on the basis of difference. He claims that plants have nutritive souls that allow them to take nutrition and grow, animals have nutritive souls and animate souls that allow for perception and mobility, and humans and only humans possess, in addition to the two lower types, souls with the power of intellect or reason. For these reasons, he concludes in Politics that after the birth of animals, plants exist for their sake, and that the other animals exist for the sake of man, the tame for use and food, the wild, if not all at least the greater part of them, for food, and for the provision of clothing and various instruments. Now if nature makes nothing incomplete, and nothing in vain, the inference must be that she has made all animals for the sake of man. If animals differ from humans in their skills and abilities, or, for Aristotle, in their function, they are naturally subservient to beings with a more significant functionreason. In other words, functions give rise to hierarchies, with advanced cognitive capacities at the top. Aristotles hierarchy of living things was tremendously influential and the human role in that taxonomy was nearly deified by subsequent thinkers. Aquinas, for instance, argues that, Of all the parts of the Universe, intellectual creatures hold the highest place, because they approach nearest to the divine likeness. Therefore, divine providence provides for the intellectual nature for its own sake, and for all others for its sake. Aquinas also argues that, because of their intellect, humans have control over their own actions. A human is free because he is capable of being a cause of himself. As a result, Every other creature is naturally under slavery; the intellectual nature alone is free. Humans, as free intellects, have dominion over non-human animals who, it is assumed, have neither intellect nor the power of self-direction. These accounts of hierarchies in nature are explicitly teleological; differences dont simply occur by chance, they are purposeful. In Discourse on Method, Descartes, similarly, argued that the ability to use language or other signs to express thoughts was the evidence available to us that another being has a soul. He argued that the fact that non-human animals only express passions through behavior and not thought in a language demonstrates that, They have no reason at all, and that it is nature which acts in them according to the disposition of their organs, just as a clock, which is only composed of wheels and weights is able to tell the hours and measure the time more correctly than we can do with all of our wisdom. The idea that the behavior of non-human animals is directed only from the disposition of their organs is an early modern precursor to the discourse one commonly hears now about whether non-human animals are acting merely on instinct. People are often admonished for anthropomorphism when they attribute beliefs or intentionality to animals; they are told that they are making a category mistakeanimals act on instinct, humans endowed with intellect are motivated by reasonsreasons that they are only capable of formulating through the use of language. In Sand County Almanac, philosopher and conservationist Aldo Leopold argued that the history of ethical reasoning has involved progressively extending our circles of concern. He argues that we will only understand our obligations to the world properly when we see that our orientation to the land and the life on it is not properly understood from the perspective of a conqueror, but, instead, from the perspective of a biotic citizen. Instead of ruling over a world populated by other creatures, we are members of itmembers with obligations of stewardship. Technology that could potentially allow us to know our fellow creatures better can help us understand ourselves and our place in nature better as well. Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now. You Might Also Like 'So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!,' US President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, while issuing a veiled threat to get tougher with Beijing. Speaking from the second floor of a new food resources building next to an almost-complete new emergency housing shelter, Human Resources Development Council CEO Heather Grenier read a quote from Sargent Shriver, a politician and activist. My parents had always preached the virtues of hard work. But hard work is one thing; economic struggle is another, the quote reads. This is indicative of what we face today, Grenier said. Hard-working families are facing economic struggles that hard work doesn't actually remedy. That's why we're here, and we aren't done showing up for our community. HRDC celebrated its 50th anniversary Thursday with an open house at the Market Place, a building housing the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, Fork and Spoon pay-what-you-can restaurant, and other services. Next door, the Homeward Point emergency shelter building is nearing completion, with opening expected in a few months. That building, Gallatin County Commissioner Zach Brown told the crowd, represents a new chapter for Bozeman. Brown said the city had long had a reputation in Montana as being a bus ticket town, where those in need of shelter were sent to get help elsewhere. Folks dealing with the most vulnerable moments in their lives deserve the dignity that that building represents, Brown said. As a county commissioner and as someone who grew up in Bozeman and has long admired HRDCs work, I can confidently say that our communities are stronger, safer and more resilient because of HRDC. Grenier told the crowd HRDC is looking forward to the next 50 years of serving Bozeman. She credited the Three Pillars of HRDC for building the organization to what it is today: Mary Martin, Caren Couch and Jeffrey Rupp who died in February and was the organization's CEO. Those three pillars created programming that is life changing, Grenier said, listing their transportation services, food insecurity programs, housing supports, utility bill help and more. For the last 50 years, we have been showing up for our community." Brown credited HRDC with helping make ambitious projects happen, like the purchase of a property to become a youth mental health facility or the Hidden Creek affordable housing project the county is working on behind the Gallatin Rest Home. They fill gaps in our community, whether that's housing projects, food security, transportation, childcare, or adding more crisis response as a community when we need a partner who understands the policy and the people behind an issue, Brown said. "We turn to HRDC when we and I think I can speak for anyone in local government in this room when we need a creative, entrepreneurial partner who will stretch themselves towards saying yes. HRDC also showed a short film that touched on all its programming, with interviews from staff and clients, including a single mother and her infant son who live at the Wheat Suites family shelter and people who live at the Boulevard Apartments. The film also included Brian Guyer, the organizations housing director, speaking from the Warming Center shelter. When you see the struggles, when you see the resilience, you can't spend time with these people and walk away not being willing to fight for them, Guyer said. Theyre the ultimate underdogs. And you just want to fight for the underdogs. by Barry Goldman The brilliant and recently departed Jules Feiffer drew a cartoon many years ago called Munro. It was later made into an Academy Award-winning animated short. You can watch it here. Munro was only four years old, but somehow he got drafted into the army. He went to see his sergeant and said, Im only four. The sergeant said: It is the official policy of the army not to draft men of four. Ergo you cannot be four. We see this form of reasoning in many contexts. It is the official policy of the United States that we do not torture prisoners of war. Therefore, waterboarding, which has been used to torture prisoners since the 14th century, cannot be torture. Alternatively, the prisoners captured after 9/11, detained at Guantanamo, and waterboarded regularly cannot be prisoners of war. Instead, they are alien enemy combatants to whom the protections of the Geneva Convention do not apply. This kind of reasoning can be difficult and complex and may require many years of rigorous training. Only a highly-trained and rigorous thinker like John Yoo, now the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, could produce a document like Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States. Try to read it and you will see. My point is: This is what lawyers do. As the Devils Dictionary put it: LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law. But there is a larger point that is both more important and less discussed. Even if there were a clear and unambiguous law, duly approved by Congress and signed by the president that said Torturing prisoners is perfectly fine, it would not be fine. If anything is wrong, torture is wrong. It doesnt matter what Mr. Yoo or Congress or the President says. An atrocity enacted into law does not cease to be an atrocity. The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor passed by the Nazis to prevent race defilement were duly enacted laws. The Fugitive Slave Acts were duly enacted laws. The Slave Codes were duly enacted laws. The list could be extended indefinitely. That is why it is puzzling to see the rule of law so widely fetishized. What is the matter with snatching people off the street, putting them in chains, and flying them to another country to be disappeared into prisons is not that it violates the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. It would be wrong to do that if there were no 14th Amendment and no Constitution. What is wrong with the President of the United States accepting a $400 million airplane from Qatar is not that it violates the emoluments clause of Article 1 Section 9 of the Constitution. What is wrong with it is that it is a bribe. Lawyers for the administration may call it a gift to the presidential library or a donation to the Trump Foundation or any name they like. Only a lawyer getting paid to do so would argue it is not a bribe. It is also puzzling to see the Constitution fetishized. The Constitution is not the gift of the Deity. It is a deeply flawed document drafted to appease rich, white men who owned human slaves and wanted to keep it that way. Elie Mystal is particularly good on the subject (see: Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guys Guide to the Constitution). There is a problem when a symbol is mistaken for the thing it symbolizes. In Zen, they say the teachings are like a finger pointed at the moon. It is a mistake to concentrate on the finger. We do not say this in law. We believe the law is what we should be concerned about. We say with pride that we are a government of laws, not of men. First, it isnt true. And second, it wouldnt be a good thing if it were. Let me pose a hypothetical. Suppose a prisoner is on death row for the murder of two police officers. Suppose he has exhausted his appeals. He has been up and down multiple times on various grounds for many years, and he has finally run out of appeals. At the last minute, his lawyers produce new evidence. Someone else has confessed to the murders. Lets call this newly-discovered evidence of actual innocence. So thats the issue. On one hand, the condemned prisoner has exhausted his appeals. He is not legally entitled to any more hearings. On the other hand, there is newly-discovered evidence of actual innocence. What should we do? I didnt make this up. Its a simplified version of Herrera v. Collins, a Supreme Court case from 1993. The arguments are obvious. The guy has been found guilty by a jury of his peers. He is not entitled to a presumption of innocence; were way past that. Hes a convicted murderer. Hes been through the appeals process and the habeas process multiple times. There are other, more compelling uses for our limited resources. At some point enough is enough. There has to be finality. We cant just keep doing this forever. In other words, there are sound policy reasons for the decision not to hold yet another hearing. But the legal reason to deny a hearing is that the guy has exhausted his appeals. The law establishes a maximum, and he has hit the maximum. We are a government of laws, not of men. On the other hand, there is newly-discovered evidence of actual innocence. There is reason to believe he didnt do it! I dont do death penalty cases, but Ive done hundreds of discharge cases. Ive been in plenty of hearings where I have heard enough, and somebody thinks I need to hear more. In my own limited way, I understand what the death penalty enthusiasts in the Courts majority in Herrera were saying. But I am more persuaded by Justice Blackmuns dissent: I have voiced disappointment over this Courts obvious eagerness to do away with any restriction on the states power to execute whomever and however they please. I have also expressed doubts about whether, in the absence of such restrictions, capital punishment remains constitutional at all. Of one thing, however, I am certain. Just as an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is an execution when the condemned prisoner can prove that he is innocent. The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder. When there is a conflict between common decency and the law, decency should prevail. Believing that law will produce justice is what T. S. Eliot called dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. Sorry, that option is simply not available. What is the matter with Donald Trump is not, at last, that he is a chronic, habitual violator of the law, though he is. What is the matter with Donald Trump is that he has no common decency. Munro was a cartoon character, and he was only four, but he would have understood that. *** Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now. Nominations are now open for one of British farmings most inspiring accoladesthe 2025 Dairy Industry Woman of the Year Award, celebrating the trailblazing women shaping the future of UK dairy. The award aims to spotlight the remarkable contributions of women from all corners of the industry, from grassroots farming to cutting-edge research. Now in its ninth year, it is organised by Women in Dairyan initiative of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF), sponsored by HSBC. The accolade forms a key part of Women in Dairys mission to unite women through regional discussion groups and national networking events, creating a supportive community within the sector. Past recipients of the award include leading voices such as artisan cheesemaker Mary Quicke, livestock consultant Dr Jude Capper, dairy worker Lianne Farrow, and 2024 winner Anna Bowen, a dairy farmer and consultant. Nominations are sought for individuals who embody Women in Dairys core values: connecting with peers and the public, inspiring future generations, and sharing expertise. Di Wastenage, dairy farmer and patron of Women in Dairy, said: "This award is about celebrating their contributions and giving them the recognition they deserve. Nominees dont need to be farmersthey could be vets, consultants, technicians, researchers, or work elsewhere in the dairy supply chain. What matters is their impact. Reflecting on her 2024 win, dairy farmer Anna Bowen said: Winning the award provides an opportunity to show what the dairy industry can offer women who want to pursue a career in the sector. Its also a chance to say thanks to everyone who has supported me so farI am hugely grateful to my clients, colleagues, and friends in the industry who have inspired me and set great examples. Nominations close on 25 July 2025. Finalists will be chosen by a judging panel and invited to a short interview with the judges and a member of the Women in Dairy steering committee. The winner will be announced at the Women in Dairy Conference on 17 September 2025, taking place at Chesford Grange, Kenilworth. A 65-year-old man has been arrested in Lancashire following an incident in which two sheep were injured by a dog allowed to run off-lead on farmland. Rossendale Police confirmed the arrest on suspicion of sheep worrying and criminal damage, amid growing concern over the crime across the UK. Officers from the forces Rural Task Force detained the man after he reportedly failed to keep control of his one-year-old German Shepherd, which attacked livestock grazing in the area. The injured sheep were treated for their wounds, while the dog was seized at the scene and remains in police care. The man has been released on bail pending further enquiries. The incident serves as a reminder that livestock worrying is a criminal offence and owners are legally responsible for keeping their pets under control when near farm animals. Figures from NFU Mutual show farm animals worth nearly 1.8 million were killed or severely injured in dog attacks in 2024 although this marks a 26% decrease from the previous year. However, the insurer's research paints a worrying picture of owner behaviour in the countryside, as last year, 57% of dog owners let their pets off the lead in rural areas, but only 40% said their dog always returned when called. NFU Mutual rural affairs specialist Hannah Binns said: All dogs are capable of chasing, injuring and killing farm animals, regardless of breed, size or temperament. "Dogs that attack farm animals are often impossible to call off, and bites can kill and seriously injure livestock. Even if the dog does not make contact, being chased can cause stress and exhaustion, as well as separate young lambs from their mothers, which can lead to them being orphaned. It comes as a new bill giving police tougher powers against irresponsible dog owners cleared a key stage in parliament unopposed. The Private Members Bill, introduced by Conservative MP Aphra Brandreth, passed the Committee Stage and will now continue its journey through the commons. Scotlands cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level in over a decade, sparking fresh demands for urgent, targeted support to protect the future of farming. According to new statistics released by the Scottish Government, cattle numbers fell by 1.4% over the past year, reaching their lowest since current records began in 2012. The cattle tracing system recorded 1.5 million animals across the country in 2024 a decline of 200,000 over the past 12 years. The data show year-on-year declines in both female beef cattle (down 2.2%) and male cattle (down 1.5%), while the number of calves also dropped by 1.5%. The latest figures have intensified debate over the future direction of Scottish agriculture, as farmers warn that continued decline in livestock numbers could have lasting consequences for both rural economies and national food supply. A recent report by the Climate Change Committee suggested Scotland could reach net zero by 2045 if livestock numbers were reduced. Instead, it recommended that farmers shift towards woodland creation and renewable energy to offset emissions. In response, Buckie sheep farmer and Scottish Conservative shadow rural secretary, Tim Eagle MSP, said the fall in the herd was a "threat to our nations food security". The continued decline in beef cattle numbers is hugely concerning and underlines the difficulty our farmers face in maintaining the numbers needed for their businesses to survive." Mr Eagle criticised several policies he believes are exacerbating the decline, including the proposed 'family farm tax', increased employer National Insurance contributions, and a new fertiliser levy. He also condemned the Scottish governments lack of clarity on agricultural policy and recent cuts to support schemes. Without farmers we do not have food, it is that simple, which is why these damaging and reckless policies must be reversed, he added. Most of all, these figures show the need for targeted support, both directly and indirectly from Scotlands governments, to safeguard the very future of our farming industry. It comes as red meat levy board Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is urging Scotlands beef farmers to take simple steps to grow the national herd. Its online programme 'Meat Our Potential' is intended to be a go-to resource for farmers looking to expand their beef herds while boosting productivity and profitability. The launch comes on the back of economic and consumer data recently published by QMS, indicating a major growth opportunity for beef production in the UK. Rural campaigners have hailed the scrapping of the Galloway National Park proposal as a win for local voices and businesses who warned the plan offered little benefit and plenty of risk. The decision follows a public consultation by NatureScot, which found that a majority of Dumfries and Galloway residents, including farmers, were opposed to the proposed designation. Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon confirmed that opposition to the nomination meant that the region in southwest Scotland would not join the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond & the Trossachs as the countrys third national park. Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, she said: While there is substantial support for a national park and what it could deliver for the southwest of Scotland, there is also significant opposition. "I realise that this decision will be very disappointing for those who have been campaigning for a new national park in Galloway over many years. I also recognise the huge amount of work and time that has been invested by a great many people throughout this process." Farmers in the area strongly opposed the move, as many say it would fail to deliver any tangible advantages for their businesses. Other concerns highlighted included public access problems and uncertainty surrounding funding for the project. Rural business body Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) said the decision not to proceed was the right one by the Scottish government. It conducted its own survey of members, revealing that 91% of respondents within the proposed park boundaries, and 67% in the surrounding area, opposed the plan. These are the farmers, foresters, tourism providers and rural businesses who form the backbone of the regions economy, said Stephen Young, director of policy at SLE. While the organisation emphasised that it is not opposed to the idea of national parks in general, it questioned what tangible benefits the Galloway proposal would bring. In particular, it noted that the region already benefits from major conservation and tourism initiatives including the UNESCO Biosphere, the International Dark Sky Park, and support from South of Scotland Enterprise. The proposal failed to explain what added value it would bring particularly in the face of well-established initiatives already delivering for nature, people and the economy." Scottish Conservative MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Finlay Carson, also hailed the governments decision, calling it a victory for common sense and a victory for local people". Mr Carson criticised the consultation process, describing it as lacking transparency and divisive within local communities. The whole process was completely blighted by a lack of transparency and created deep divisions within our community that may well take years to heal, he said. He also accused the Scottish government of failing to learn lessons from the experience and called for an independent review of how national parks in Scotland are planned and managed. The government still do not appear to have learned any lessons from the mistakes they made throughout this consultation process and still wont commit to any independent review of current national parks, he added. Until they do that then it will be impossible for them to rebuild trust with those living and working in Galloway and Ayrshire whose concerns all too often fell on deaf ears. US-China trade talks are a bit stalled, according to US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who yesterday said concluding the deal would need direct talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The two nations agreed to a 90-day tariff pause along with mutual reductions around two weeks back. US-China trade talks are a 'bit stalled', US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said. Concluding the deal would need direct talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, he said. The progress since the truce in Geneva two weeks back has been slow, but he expects more talks with the Chinese side in the next few weeks, he told a TV network. Several large trade deals are near, he added. The progress since the truce in Geneva has been slow, Bessent told a TV network. He, however, expects more talks with the Chinese side in the next few weeks. Given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity ... this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other. They have a good relationship, and I am confident that the Chinese will come to the table when President Trump makes his preferences known, Bessent added. US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced early this week the Trump administrations decision to revoke visas of Chinese students in touch with the Communist Party of China or those enrolled in critical fields. China has lodged a formal protest over this decision. Bessent also told the TV channel that several large trade deals are near. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) A US federal court yesterday temporarily stalled the recent trade court ruling that blocked President Donald Trumps attempt to impose liberation day tariffs under emergency powers, directing the plaintiffs to respond by June 5 and the government by June 9. Trump had exceeded his authority by enacting blanket tariffs on nations that have a trade deficit with the United States, the trade court had ruled. A US federal court has temporarily stalled the recent trade court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to impose 'liberation day' tariffs under emergency powers, directing the plaintiffs to respond by June 5 and the government by June 9. Trump had exceeded his authority by enacting blanket tariffs on nations that have a trade deficit with the US, the trade court had ruled. Officials in the Trump administration called the trade courts decision an example of judicial overreach. "The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy," the Trump administration said in its defense. The request for an immediate administrative stay is granted to the extent that the judgments and the permanent injunction entered by the Court of International Trade in these cases are temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington was quoted as saying by US media outlets. A three-judge bench of the Court of International Trade in Manhattan asserted that the constitution grants this power to the Congress and it cannot be overridden by imposing emergency powers. "The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential PowerThe Presidency would never be the same! This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America," Trump had said criticizing the trade courts decision. "Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY," Trump said yesterday in a social media post. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 29, 2025) - Midori Carbon Inc. (CSE: MIDO) ("Midori" or the "Company") announces that Matthew Lodge will be stepping down from its Board of Directors. The Company thanks Mr. Lodge for his valuable contributions as a director and wishes him well in his future endeavours. Additional information about Midori is available at www.midoricarbon.com or under its profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. ON BEHALF OF MIDORI CARBON INC. "Mark Rutledge" CEO and Director Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253929 SOURCE: Midori Carbon Inc. On May 28, China Eastern Airlines (CEA) marked the second anniversary of the commercial operation of the C919, a domestically produced large passenger aircraft. As the world's first customer, CEA has acted as a "pioneer" and "explorer," achieving numerous "firsts" and "milestones" while establishing industry-first operational norms, procedures, and standards to ensure the C919 "achieves safety, demonstrates ambition, builds brand profile, and delivers economic benefits." On December 9, 2022, CEA took delivery of the C919, the world's first large passenger aircraft produced in China. On May 28, 2023, the first C919 operated flight MU9191 from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport, marking the model's first commercial passenger flight. In October 2024, CEA presented its achievements in C919 Large-Scale Commercial Operation System Construction at the North Bund International Aviation Forum, promoting industry-wide collaboration in developing more mature and efficient operational models and pursuing a thriving large passenger aircraft industry. Since entering service, the C919 has attracted a growing number of passengers and maintained a strong passenger load factor of nearly 80%. Flight crews have received over 1,000 letters from passengers, praising the aircraft and service. "Passengers have shown remarkable recognition and enthusiasm," said Zhang Shaobo, a C919 captain. "Many even make special round trips to experience flying on this domestically produced aircraft." As of May 27, 2025, the C919 fleet has accumulated over 28,000 safe flight hours, operated more than 11,400 commercial flights, and carried over 1.57 million passengers. CEA has trained more than 127 C919 pilots, over 640 flight attendants, nearly 500 maintenance personnel, and 54 dispatchers. The aircraft has demonstrated stable operational and technical performance, with excellent safety records and increasing daily utilization-demonstrating its comprehensive operational capabilities. The C919 now operates on 14 premium routes, such as Shanghai-Beijing, Shanghai-Hongkong, connecting 12 cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Taiyuan, Chongqing, Shenyang, Xiamen, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250529871108/en/ Contacts: Company: China Eastern Airlines Website: http://www.ceair.com/ Contact: fangying TEL: 00862122331470 Email: fangying@ceair.com KUNMING, China, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The 23rd China Kunming International Flower Expo (KIFE) and Kunming International Flowers & Plants Expo (IFEX) will take place from September 19 to 21, 2025, at the Kunming Dianchi International Convention and Exhibition Center.The event, hosted by RX Greater China, is set to bring together over 500 exhibitors from countries including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France, positioning Kunming once again at the heart of global horticultural innovation and trade. As one of Asia's leading floral industry events, this year's KIFE/IFEX will span 60,000 square meters, with more than 90% of the exhibition space already booked. The expo will feature specialized exhibitions, industry forums, interactive experiences, and live demonstrations, providing a comprehensive platform for showcasing global advancements in floriculture and fostering international trade cooperation. Key Highlights: Strategic Location : Situated in Yunnan, China's floral heartland, Kunming serves as a major flower distribution hub in Southwest China. : Situated in Yunnan, China's floral heartland, Kunming serves as a major flower distribution hub in Southwest China. International Collaboration : With France as the guest country of honor, national pavilions will spotlight floral artistry and local varieties. Featured French exhibitors include Meilland International (roses), Morel (cyclamen), and Georges Delbard (roses and fruit trees). Top Dutch breeders-De Ruiter, Van Den Berg Roses, Schreurs, and Rijkland-will also showcase their latest floral innovations. : With France as the guest country of honor, national pavilions will spotlight floral artistry and local varieties. Featured French exhibitors include Meilland International (roses), Morel (cyclamen), and Georges Delbard (roses and fruit trees). Top Dutch breeders-De Ruiter, Van Den Berg Roses, Schreurs, and Rijkland-will also showcase their latest floral innovations. New Tropical Plant Pavilion: Featuring Thailand delegation, Taiwan delegation, and leading domestic tropical plant brands. Professional Forums: New Plant Variety Protection in China (Floriculture) - Exploring strategies for IP protection in flower breeding. Modernization of Floriculture Infrastructure - Highlighting the latest in agricultural technology. Digital Empowerment of Horticulture - Examining digital transformation across the industry. E-commerce Marketing for China's Floral Industry - Insights from top platforms and livestreaming influencers. In 2024, the event drew over 84,000 visits, with on-site transactions exceeding 200 million yuan. More than 92.3% of exhibitors reported high satisfaction with their participation. "International visitors flocked to this year's exhibition, showcasing Yunnan's floral industry on a global scale. The event highlighted diverse regional blooms and cutting-edge varieties, advancing tech innovation in the field," said Duan Jinhui, exhibitor representative. "There are many types of products and companies that can cooperate with. Many exhibitors with attractive designs, and this time there are more choices for equipment and technology which is good. We have seen new varieties and already negotiated with several companies to prepare for cooperation," noted Rose Marie Gonzaga, Managing Director of Tri GonzFlower Trading Corp. Why Attend: Full Industry Coverage : Engage with over 6,000 distributors for one-stop floral sourcing. : Engage with over 6,000 distributors for one-stop floral sourcing. Smart Business Matching : An intelligent system helps efficiently connect enterprises with potential partners. : An intelligent system helps efficiently connect enterprises with potential partners. Field Visits : Professional and diplomatic groups will tour Yunnan's flower production zones, witnessing the full cultivation-to-packaging process. : Professional and diplomatic groups will tour Yunnan's flower production zones, witnessing the full cultivation-to-packaging process. New Varieties on Display : Discover Yunnan's proprietary flower breeds leading industry trends. : Discover Yunnan's proprietary flower breeds leading industry trends. Cultural Events: Enjoy live floral art performances and exclusive Kunming-themed floral souvenirs. With a strategic vision to become Asia's leading flower trade hub, KIFE and IFEX aim to foster collaborative growth through innovation and global partnerships. For more information, please visit:https://www.ifexflowerexpo.com/en-gb.html Register here:https://reed.infosalons.com.cn/reg/IFEX25/registeren/login Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2698766/20250529143202.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/global-flower-industry-blooms-in-kunming-the-23rd-kife-and-ifex-to-showcase-innovation-and-trade-opportunities-302469171.html Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 29, 2025) - LithiumBank Resources Corp. (TSXV: LBNK) (OTCQX: LBNKF) ("LithiumBank" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an update to the National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") resource estimate for the Park Place Lithium Brine Project ("Park Place"), located in west-central Alberta. The Company has made strategic reductions in the total holdings of brine hosted mineral licences ("BHML") at Park Place (Figure 1 & Table 2) in an effort to focus on areas that have the highest potential rates of brine production based on three-dimensional ("3D") static reservoir modelling (see news release dated June 24, 2024). The updated BHML holdings for Park Place consist of 226,683 ha for a total of 15,082,000 tonnes inferred of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent ("LCE") at a grade of 80.0 mg/L lithium. The updated BHML position reduces the Company's annual licencing fees by C$821,468. The initial NI 43-101 compliant technical report for Park Place entitled "LithiumBank Resources Corp. Park Place NI 43-101 Technical Report" effectively dated June 24, 2024, prepared by the following Qualified Persons: Alex Haluszka P. Geo. of Montrose Environmental Solutions Canada Inc., Mr. Maurice Shevalier, P.Chem, of Montrose Environmental Solutions Canada Inc. and Mr. Roy Eccles P. Geol. of APEX Geoscience Ltd., originally reported 21,681,000 tonnes of inferred LCE at a grade of 80.2 mg/L lithium (Table 1) (see news release dated June 24, 2024) and is available on SEDAR+. The updated NI 43-101 resource estimate for Park Place, based on the Company's current holding of BHMLs, totals 15,082,000 tonnes of inferred LCE at a grade of 80.0 mg/L lithium (Table 1) within contiguous BHMLs (Figure 1). The Company focused on maintaining the core Park Place asset where the Leduc formation ("Fm") and the Swan Hills Fm are stacked and offer the most favourable potential for long-term lithium-rich brine production. No additional technical data has been collected or identified and thus the reduction in the resource estimate is purely due to the reduced footprint of the BHMLs. The Company elected not to renew approximately 50% of the Park Place BHMLs, based on reservoir quality and potential production capacity, totalling 234,705 ha of BHMLs that have now expired. The Company now holds a strategic position of 226,683 ha at Park Place. The Company also allowed the non-core portion, approximately 50%, of the Peace lithium brine project to expire (Table 2). Park Place Resource Estimate Highlights include: Park Place continues to be one of the largest known NI 43-101 inferred lithium brine resource estimates in North America with 15,082,000 tonnes inferred LCE. Park Place has the second highest reported lithium-in-brine grades used in a NI 43-101 compliant inferred lithium resource estimate in Alberta at 80.0 mg/L lithium. Second only to the Company's Boardwalk lithium brine project (Figure 1). 8,659,000 tonnes inferred LCE within the Leduc Fm aquifer at an average of 79.4 mg/L lithium. 6,423,000 tonnes inferred LCE within the Swan Hills Fm aquifer, which underlies the Leduc Fm, at an average of 80.9 mg/L lithium. Multiple high porosity areas occur that have a combined Leduc & Swan Hills Fm thickness of over 350 metres, and as high as 511 m, to be studied for potential selection of future preliminary economic assessment (" PEA "). "). Subsurface reservoir modelling conducted by SLB and Montrose included data from 420 wells, 104 km 2 of 3D seismic data and 262 km of two-dimensional seismic data. of 3D seismic data and 262 km of two-dimensional seismic data. The subsurface reservoir model will assist in planning well networks and locations in future economic and engineering studies such as a PEA. Park Place bulk brine sample collection (35,000L) returned >95% lithium recovery and over 99% impurity removal from the direct lithium extraction pilot testing with SLB/ILiAD (see news released April 14, 2025). Reporting Parameters Original Leduc Fm Domain Original Swan Hills Fm Domain Original Combined Total Updated Leduc Fm Domain Updated Swan Hills Fm Domain Updated Combined Total Total Volume (km3)1 501.2 660.5 1,161.70 422.1 366.7 788.80 Pore Volume (km3)2 25.1 28.4 53.5 21.6 15.7 37.3 Average Li Concentration (mg/L) 79.4 80.9 80.23 79.4 80.9 80.03 Average Effective Porosity (%) 5 4.3 4.64 5 4.3 4.74 Average Brine Pore Space (%) 95 95 95 95 95 95 Total Elemental Li (tonnes) 1,893,000 2,183,000 4,076,000 1,627,000 1,207,000 2,834,000 Total LCE (tonnes) 10,076,000 11,620,000 21,697,000 8,659,000 6,423,000 15,082,000 Table 1: Park Place updated NI 43-101 resource estimate compared to the original resource estimate. 1. Total volume of rock and pore space 2. Total volume of effective porosity 3. Calculated using a weighted average (by pore volume) from the average grade of the Leduc and Swan Hills formations 4. Calculated using a weighted average porosity by total formation volume for both Leduc and Swan Hills formations Notes 1: Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no guarantee that all or any part of the mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. 2: The weights are reported in metric tonnes (1,000 kg or 2,204.6 lbs). 3: Tonnage numbers are rounded to the nearest 1,000 unit. 4: In a 'confined' aquifer (as reported herein), effective porosity is an appropriate parameter to use for the resource estimate. 5: The resource estimation was completed and reported using a cut-off of 50 mg/L Li. 6: To describe the resource in terms of industry standard, a conversion factor of 5.323 is used to convert elemental Li to Li2CO3, or Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). The consolidated Park Place project consists of 538,360 acres of contiguous BHMLs. Park Place is situated between Edson, Fox Creek, and Hinton, approximately 180 km west of Edmonton, and is approximately 50 km to the south of the Company's Boardwalk lithium brine project ("Boardwalk"). This area has seen over 70 years of hydrocarbon extraction resulting in a well-established and well-trained labour force, networks of all-weather gravel roads, drill sites that can be easily accessed from Provincial highways, and electrical transmission lines that run through and adjacent to the project (see Figure 1). The Swan Hills Fm directly underlies the Leduc Fm and appear to be in hydraulic communication based on regionally available pressure data. While they may represent a regionally connected aquifer system, the two formations are evaluated separately due to an identifiable difference in lithology and porosity. The Swan Hills Fm is mapped to from 24 to 264 m in thickness within the claims area and the Leduc Fm immediately overlies the Swan Hills Fm, where present, with a maximum thickness of 366 m within the claims area. The maximum observed combined thickness where the two units overlap within the property is 511 m of highly porous reservoir rock occur that would potentially present ideal locations for consideration in an economic assessment. Table 2. LithiumBank BHML holdings before and after reduction. Alberta Projects BHML Holding Before Reduction (hectares) Current BHML Holding (hectares) BHML Change (hectares) Boardwalk 159,979 159,979 0 Park Place 461,388 217,866 -243,522 Peace 29,500 13,920 -15,580 Total Alberta Holdings 650,867 400,582 -250,285 Figure 1: Map of the Park Place and Boardwalk projects highlighting categories of NI 43-101 lithium brine resource estimates. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10140/253936_2907f5ead405984c_001full.jpg Additionally, further to the Company's news release dated September 11, 2023, the Company announces that effective May 28, 2025, LithiumBank and G2L Greenview Resources Inc. ("G2L") have mutually agreed to terminate their intellectual property license agreement, technology services agreement and all related statements of service (collectively, the "Agreements"). The parties each entered into a full release agreement confirming there are no further obligations on behalf of either LithiumBank or G2L in respect of the Agreements. The termination reflects a strategic realignment by both parties to pursue independent opportunities aligned with their respective technology and commercialization priorities. The scientific and technical information relating to the mineral resource estimate presented in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Alex Haluszka P. Geo. of Montrose Environmental Solutions Canada Inc., Alex Haluszka is independent of LithiumBank and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. About LithiumBank Resources Corp. LithiumBank Resources Corp. (TSXV: LBNK) (OTCQX: LBNKF), is a publicly traded lithium company that is focused on developing its two flagship projects, Boardwalk and Park Place, in Western Canada, which host some of the largest lithium brine resources in North America (Figure 3). The Company holds 1,237,487 acres of brown-field brine hosted mineral licenses, across three (3) districts in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Company has pilot tested multiple mature Direct Lithium Extraction ("DLE") technologies and is working toward establishing commercial lithium production by a modular approach. 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 Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. 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, including without limitation, the Company's expectations regarding the usefulness of subsurface reservoir models in planning well networks and locations in future economic and engineering studies. 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" or "would" or occur. 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 press release, including that the subsurface reservoir model conducted by SLB and Montrose will assist the Company in planning well networks and locations in future economic and engineering studies. These forward-looking statements 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. Important risks that may cause actual results to vary, include, without limitation, the risk that the subsurface reservoir model conducted by SLB and Montrose will not assist the Company in planning well networks and locations in future economic and engineering studies. 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 outlook that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253936 SOURCE: LithiumBank Resources Corp. EQS Newswire / 30/05/2025 / 10:36 UTC+8 LONDON, UK - May 30, 2025 - ( SeaPRwire ) - Decant Index , a digital investment platform developed by Decant Group, is expanding its infrastructure to serve the growing global collectables market, estimated at $1.7 trillion. The platform focuses on enabling access to investment-grade wine and spirits. With over $126 million in assets under storage and more than 44,000 users, Decant Index offers a centralized system for retail and high-net-worth investors to build and manage collectable portfolios. Services include bonded storage, real-time asset valuations, insurance coverage, and various selling options such as private sales or marketplace listings. The company operates a bonded warehouse facility, Decant Bond, located in Alloa, Scotland. This facility features climate control, HMRC auditing, and full asset custody and provides storage and security for high-value spirits. "We do not only want to sell assets, we also want to offer a platform that supports the entire lifecycle of collectables investing," states Alistair Moncrieff, CEO of Decant Group. "Our system prioritizes transparency and accessibility." The platform offers wine and spirits investments starting at $2,500. Since its launch, the platform has facilitated more than 1,618 exits and returned over $6.1 million to clients. In early 2025, Decant Index introduced the Wine Cellar Plan, a subscription-based investment service starting at $330 per month. Subscribers receive curated wine selections, bonded storage, and portfolio tracking. The service supports the company's broader objective of simplifying access to physical alternative assets, in tandem with expanding its investment offerings. Decant Index is also expanding into the United States, following increased demand for premium American Bourbon. The Distilled Spirits Council reported a 17.8 percent rise in super-premium whiskey sales in 2023. This trend is expected to drive more users to explore wine and spirit investments as a long-term strategy. Soon to launch fully into the market, House of Decant is Decant Group's dedicated e-commerce platform - luxury retail, reimagined. It offers a curated, concierge-led experience with fast delivery, flexible subscriptions, and a home for both heritage labels and emerging brands. "We're building a platform that redefines how premium wine and spirits are discovered, purchased, and enjoyed - tailored for the expectations of the modern luxury consumer," says Chris Seddon, Managing Director of Decant Group. About Decant Index Decant Group is a leading provider of alternative investments with specialized platforms including Decant Index and House of Decant, which collectively manage over $126 million in assets and serve more than 40,000 members globally. The company has pioneered technological innovations in fine wine and spirits investing, earning recognition for its transparent approach to traditionally exclusive markets. With dedicated bonded warehousing facilities and a team of certified wine specialists, Decant Group offers comprehensive services from acquisition through storage to eventual exit strategies across its investment platforms. Contact Information Decant Index https://decantindex.com/ members@decantindex.com 0330 818 8559 105 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 7NJ 30/05/2025 Dissemination of a Financial Press Release, transmitted by EQS News. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Media archive at www.todayir.com A live stream of the ribbon cutting and new store opening celebration will be held on Saturday, May 31 at 3:00 PM CDMX / 5:00 PM EST on JOi's Instagram page: @joi.dollar.plus Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 29, 2025) - PesoRama Inc. (TSXV: PESO) ("PesoRama" or the "Company"), a Canadian company operating dollar stores in Mexico under the JOi Dollar Plus brand, today announces the upcoming grand opening of store #27 on May 31st in Patio Martin Carrera. Store #27 is a 481 square meter location inside the "Patio Martin Carrera" mall in the Martin Carrera neighbourhood. Known for its established commercial activity and higher-income residents, this area offers a strong customer base seeking convenient access to everyday essentials. Located 8.7 kilometers from the center of Mexico City. "The opening of our 27th JOi Dollar Plus Store in Mexico, bodes well for our overall expansion and provides greater accessibility to Mexican consumers who want to shop at our stores," said Rahim Bhaloo, Founder, CEO & Chairman of PesoRama. "There are multiple new locations with a high density of potential customers, where we would like to open our stores to drive continued growth and success." To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5801/253942_10144d3a94ba7b91_002full.jpg Join Our Live Stream on Instagram! A live stream of the ribbon cutting and new store opening celebration will be held on JOi's Instagram page on Saturday, May 31st at 3:00 PM CDMX / 5:00 PM EST. Join us in celebrating and follow along on Instagram: @joi.dollar.plus. About PesoRama Inc. PesoRama, operating under the JOi Dollar Plus brand, is a Mexican value dollar store retailer. PesoRama launched operations in 2019 in Mexico City and the surrounding areas targeting high density, high traffic locations. PesoRama's 26 stores (27th store opening on May 31st) offer consistent merchandise offerings which include items in the following categories: household goods, pet supplies, seasonal products, party supplies, health and beauty, snack food items, confectionery and more. For more information visit: http://pesorama.ca. Cautionary Note This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, among other things, statements regarding the Company's planned expansion, new store openings and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate. While the Company believes 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. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements, including due to changes in consumer behaviour, general economic factors, the ability of the Company to execute its strategies, the availability of capital and the risk factors which are discussed in greater detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's prospectus dated January 31, 2022 and filed under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. PesoRama undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of PesoRama, its securities, or its financial or operating results (as applicable). 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/253942 SOURCE: PesoRama Inc. TOKYO, May 30, 2025 - (JCN Newswire) - Honda R&D Co., Ltd. ("Honda"), a research and development subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., will co-develop a refueling port connecting system designed for on-orbit refueling of satellites, with Astroscale Japan Inc. ("Astroscale"), a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc.Honda will apply its mechatronics technologies amassed through its ongoing robotics research to co-develop the connecting system with an aim to integrate it with Astroscale RPOD (rendezvous, proximity operations and docking) technology so that it can be used in the technology demonstration of satellite refueling in low Earth orbit Astroscale is planning to conduct around 2029.Earth's orbits are becoming increasingly congested due to the growing number of satellites and space debris, raising concerns that it may become difficult to sustainably use those orbits in the long term if no proactive measures are taken. To address this issue and achieve space sustainability, it is critical to move away from the traditional satellites and rockets developed for single use and establish a circular space economy based on the principles of "Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refuel and Remove." To this end, providing on-orbit services for satellites is considered one of the solutions.The two companies will co-develop a refueling port connecting system particularly for on-orbit satellite refueling, one of the key on-orbit services to enhance space sustainability. When on-orbit refueling becomes possible, it will extend the life of satellites and reduce both the number of satellites and the number of satellite launches. Moreover, by eliminating fuel constraints through refueling, satellites will gain greater range of missions and flexibility, enabling new ways of utilizing satellites.Honda R&D has been researching and developing robotics technologies that enable people to transcend various constraints such as time, place and human abilities and to augment people's possibilities. Assuming that the range of human activities will expand into outer space in the future, Honda will strive to utilize its robotics technologies in various situations in outer space, such as applications of its remotely controlled robots on the lunar surface. For such applications, the technologies must function reliably even in the harsh environment of outer space. Co-developing the refueling port connecting system with Astroscale, the global market leader in on-orbit satellite servicing, will become the first step Honda takes toward acquiring technology that is practical for use in outer space.Comments by Keiji Otsu, President and Representative Director of Honda R&D Co., Ltd."To this date, Honda has developed and delivered a wide range of products that provide mobility on land, in the water and in the skies. As our next frontier, we will take our challenges into the field of outer space and strive to offer value that makes people's daily lives more enjoyable. Through the co-development of this refueling port connection system with Astroscale, Honda will contribute to space sustainability. Moreover, we will apply the practical technologies we gain through this co-development to our ongoing space-related research and development so that Honda technologies will contribute to the success of many space missions around the world."Source: Honda Motor Co, LtdCopyright 2025 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. 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! Pensana Plc - GBP 2 million Placement to major institutional shareholders PR Newswire LONDON, United Kingdom, May 30 30 May 2025 THISANNOUNCEMENTCONTAINSINSIDE INFORMATION Pensana Plc ("Pensana"orthe"Company") GBP 2 million Placement to major institutional shareholders Pensana (PRE.LSE) is pleased to announce that, following the recent US$ 25 million investment by major shareholder FSDEA into 84% owned subsidiary Ozango, which has allowed main construction to commence at Longonjo mine site, one of the Company's other major institutional shareholders M&G Investment Management ("M&G") has participated in a GBP 2 million equity raise at the Pensana Plc level. M&G has agreed to invest GBP 1 million alongside other strategic investors ("Strategic Investors") who will invest a further GBP 1 million into the Company. Quark Financial is the Financial Advisor for the company with respect to the Strategic Investors. Chairman, Paul Atherley commented: "We are delighted that the Company continues to be supported by its major institutional shareholders both at the asset level and at the corporate level. The GBP 2 million funding will meet the Company's corporate funding requirements for the next 18 months. Our focus is on the developments on site where the team is mobilizing contractors to commence construction of one of the world's largest and highest grade undeveloped rare earth projects. Longonjo is fully funded and benefits from one of the lowest capital costs and a near surface deposit with a 4% TREO grade over the first five years of production and has attracted considerable interest in its clean high grade mixed rare earth carbonate product." M&G has conditionally agreed to invest GBP 1 million in the Company by way of a placement of 2,857,143 new ordinary shares of 0.001 each in the capital of the Company ("OrdinaryShares") (the "M&G Placing Shares") at a price of 35 pence per share (the "Placing Price"). The Strategic Investors have, separately, agreed to invest GBP 1 million in the Company by way of a staged placement of 2,857,143 Ordinary Shares ("Strategic Investors Placing Shares") at the Placing Price. The issue of the M&G Placing Shares and Strategic Investors Placing Shares is conditional, amongst other things, on the admission of the Placing Shares to the Official List (Equity Shares - Transition) and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities ("Admission"). Applications for Admission of the Placing Shares will commence shortly. The Ordinary Shares issued to M&G and the Strategic Investors will be issued credited as fully paid and will, on their Admission, rank pari passu in all respects with the existing Ordinary Shares then in issue including the right to receive all dividends or other distributions declared, made or paid after the respective date of their Admission. Following Admission of the M&G Placing Shares and the Strategic Investor Placing Shares, M&G will be interested in a total of 36,314,081 Ordinary Shares representing 12,18% of the enlarged share capital of the Company. Total Voting Rights Following Admission of the M&G Placing Shares and the Strategic Investor Placing Shares, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 298,085,382 Ordinary Shares. The information contained within this announcement is considered by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No.596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information will be considered to be in the public domain. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company is Paul Atherley (Chairman). -ENDS- Forfurtherinformation,pleasecontact: Shareholder/analystenquiries: PensanaPlc Paul Atherley, Chairman IR@pensana.co.uk Tim George, Chief Executive Officer Rob Kaplan, Chief Financial Officer Xi signs order on awarding military scientific research Xinhua) 08:03, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, has signed an order to release the regulations on awarding military scientific research. The new document, which will take effect on July 1, aims to implement the strategy of strengthening the armed forces through science and technology and regulate the process of awarding military scientific research. The regulations establish a structured award system aligned with national and military strategic goals. Key features include prioritizing combat effectiveness as the sole benchmark, refining award nomination and review procedures, and strengthening oversight on discipline and confidentiality. The regulations are expected to enhance innovation vitality in military research, accelerate breakthroughs in defense technology, and provide high-quality scientific support for the cause of building a strong military in the new era. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) International tourists drive shopping surge in China People's Daily Online) 10:51, May 30, 2025 Tourists visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, capital of China, May 2, 2024. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong) Favorable policies such as visa-free transit and a nationwide instant tax refund system are helping to make China an increasingly popular destination for international travelers, alongside strong global demand for "Made in China" products. At a DJI store in Beijing's SKP mall on April 23, an American tourist browsed drones on his second visit to China. The visitor said that he visited seven years ago, but the tax refund process wasn't nearly as convenient, adding that the instant tax refund system made shopping in China much easier, boosting his interest in buying more. Experts say these policies are fueling increased interest in shopping among foreign visitors. They add that introducing more incentives, upgrading tourism and cultural offerings, and improving consumer services could further attract international tourists. China expanded its visa-free policy to include nine additional countries in November 2024. Last December, the country extended the permitted stay for foreign travelers eligible for visa-free transit from 72 or 144 hours to 240 hours and increased the number of designated exit-entry ports for visa-free transit travelers to 60. By the end of 2024, China had established comprehensive mutual visa exemptions with 25 countries and implemented unilateral visa-free policies for 38 countries. According to China's National Immigration Administration, nearly 10.9 million inbound and outbound trips were made by Chinese and foreign nationals during this year's five-day May Day holiday, a peak period for travel. More than 1.1 million of these trips were made by foreign nationals, up 43.1 percent year on year. A total of 380,000 foreign national trips to China were made under visa-free travel policies, a year-on-year increase of 72.7 percent. Interest in traveling to China continues to surge on social media, where hashtags like "China Travel" remain highly popular. The tourism boom is also driving a sharp rise in spending. During the first three days of the May Day holiday, Alipay, a major mobile payment platform in China, reported that spending by international tourists increased 180 percent year on year. "Eased visa policies have significantly boosted international tourists' interest in visiting China," said Zhao Yonghua, a senior researcher at the School of Global and Area Studies at Renmin University of China. Since April 8, international travelers have been able to receive tax refunds directly at the point of purchase in China. "A lot more international tourists are shopping here now, with drones and action cameras especially popular," said a staff member at the DJI store in Beijing's SKP mall. As one of the first retailers in Beijing to implement both refund-upon-departure and refund-upon-purchase models, the number of shoppers claiming tax refunds at the mall rose 104 percent in 2024 compared to 2023. The high quality of Chinese-made products is a major reason international tourists enjoy shopping in China. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun) Plexar Energy will focus on the industrialization of microgrids, co-located production and consumption in battery-balanced energy systems. The new company will tap into the growing commercial potential for microgrids and allow for faster electrification of industries. COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Danish pension fund PensionDanmark have launched the microgrid specialist company Plexar Energy, which will develop, install and operate microgrids. Meanwhile, financing from CI Microgrid Electrification Fund allows industrial customers to install microgrids without upfront investment. CI Microgrid Electrification Fund is a new and fully subscribed pilot fund with a total commitment of EUR 112.5 million and with PensionDanmark as the sole external investor. Plexar Energy has the competencies to develop and drive the professionalization and commercialization of microgrid solutions powered by renewable energy. Plexar Energy will deliver a standardized end-to-end, on-site solution that integrates with the local power grid, ensuring a robust and grid-friendly energy system. Microgrids powered by locally produced renewable power will provide businesses with increased energy independence, manage energy price costs and volatility, and unlock additional power capacity to accelerate electrification efforts. This is achieved while having a positive effect on overall grid stability and alleviating congestion. As the electrification agenda continues to accelerate with a range of new or increased use cases, the implementation of microgrids is growing across sectors and industries. Plexar Energy will develop and operate microgrid-projects and will target industries that require cost effective, robust and clean electrical solutions that can help them maintain competitiveness whilst achieving better overall energy efficiency. This includes port operations, where microgrids can assist with establishing shore power allowing docking vessels to reduce fuel consumption and warehouses where microgrids can establish capacity for charging electrical vehicles. Further, Plexar is expected to target industries such as heavy transport, datacenters, district heating, mining and oil and gas operations. "Electrification has become a path to improved competitiveness for many businesses and microgrids provide quick and cost-effective access to advanced technology such as power AI and electrical engineering. Plexar Energy will tap into the large commercial opportunities in the microgrid segment - and will serve industries and companies directly with their electricity needs. We are very happy to embark on this new cooperation with our long-term partner, PensionDanmark," said partner at CIP and CEO of Plexar Energy, Karsten Plauborg. "We need new platforms to drive the green transition of the energy system into a new phase, where it can truly take place in areas such as heavy transport and industry. Microgrids have the potential to become a central element in the future energy supply, and therefore this collaboration is an attractive return opportunity for our members' pension savings, while at the same time it can make a substantial difference for the sustainability of the energy supply," said Rune Gade Holm, Head of Private Markets at PensionDanmark. About Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Founded in 2012, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S (CIP) today is the world's largest dedicated fund manager within greenfield energy investments. The funds managed by CIP focus on investments in offshore and onshore wind, storage, solar PV, biomass and energy-from-waste, transmission and distribution, reserve capacity, advanced bioenergy, and Power-to-X. CIP manages 13 funds and has to date raised approximately EUR 32 billion for investments in energy and associated infrastructure from approximately 180 international institutional investors. CIP has projects in more than 30 countries and more than 2500 employees across platforms. For more information, visit www.cip.com. About PensionDanmark PensionDanmark is a labor market pension fund and among the 50 largest pension funds in Europe. PensionDanmark manages pension schemes, healthcare program and educational funds on behalf of 838,000 members employed and 21,100 businesses within the Danish private and public sector. PensionDanmark is not-for-profit and owned by our members. As a result, all profits go to our members. Contributions totaled EUR 2.3 billion in 2024. Total assets is now EUR 47.7 billion. For more information, please visit www.pensiondanmark.com. For further information, please contact: Oliver Routhe Skov, Head of Media Relations Phone: +45 30541227 Email: orsk@cip.com MILAN, Italy, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- From May 24 to 27, 2025, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) 2025 held successfully in Milan, Italy. Hangzhou Diagens Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (www.diagens.com) from China, made a stunning appearance with its rapid AI karyotype total solution, which received high recognition from the attending scholars. Diagens has developed the Rapid AI karyotype total solution based on iMedImage, a globally leading general medical imaging model. This solution integrates an automatic cell harvester, a slide preparation and staining machine, an automatic cell microscopy scanning system, and an intelligent chromosome karyotyping analysis system. By leveraging four core advantages-full automation, in-depth informatization, pioneering intelligence, and unmanned processes-it has created a new type of unmanned smart laboratory. This laboratory achieves seamless "sample input to report output" operations, significantly enhancing the speed and efficiency of sample processing and analysis while reducing laboratory costs. This advancement sets a new benchmark for the industry. During the conference, Professor Liang Desheng from the Center for Medical Genetics at Central South University in China presented a poster titled "iMedImage: an end-to-end foundational model for medical image recognition and its application in chromosome analysis." Karyotyping, the gold standard for detecting chromosomal abnormalities, remains critical for diagnosing genetic and hereditary diseases. While AI effectively identifies numerical abnormalities, detecting structural abnormalities remains challenging. This abstract introduces iMedImage, an innovative end-to-end foundation model for medical image recognition. When applied to chromosomal abnormality detection, iMedImage demonstrated promising performance and significantly enhanced detection capabilities, achieving a diagnostic accuracy rate of 99.59%, sensitivity of 95.83%, and specificity of 100%. Additionally, the model demonstrates outstanding performance across multiple medical imaging fields, including cellular, pathological, ultrasound, X-ray, CT, and MRI, highlighting its broad application potential. The launch of Diagens rapid AI karyotype total solution represents a significant breakthrough in the intelligentization of cell experiments. It has received high acclaim from clients in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and other regions, with many expressing their intention to collaborate. This showcases Diagens' leading technology and innovation capabilities in the field of AI-driven healthcare. Looking ahead, Diagens will continue to adhere to the philosophy of innovation-driven development, constantly exploring cutting-edge technologies to contribute more Chinese power to the global healthcare cause. Learn more about Diagens and its solutions, please visit its website at www.diagens.com or contact at sales@diagens.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2699638/image.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/highlights-of-eshg--rapid-ai-karyotype-total-solution-from-china-makes-a-big-splash-302469303.html Granite Bay, California--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - SolV CEO Scott Kelley urges proactive planning as policy targets global price alignment SolV Independent Insurance Associates today announced its plans and commitments for guiding employers through prescription drug cost management in light of the new "most-favored-nation" executive order signed May 12 by President Donald J. Trump. As the order drives U.S. reimbursement rates toward international benchmarks, SolV is doubling down on its proven approach to help clients achieve significant savings and clarity amid evolving policy. "SolV has long educated employers about the disparity between U.S. drug prices and those abroad," said Scott Kelley, CEO of SolV Independent Insurance Associates. "With U.S. prescriptions costing two to four times more than in other countries, employers need an advocate focused on reducing their largest expenses-not another middleman." SolV founder and CEO Scott Kelley noted that the new federal policy mirrors the firm's long-standing philosophy. "A key linchpin to the Trump executive order is requiring pharmaceutical companies to honor international pricing for U.S. drug purchases," Kelley said. "U.S. prescription drugs cost two to four times more than drugs purchased internationally, according to a March 2021 GAO report. SolV has been helping clients tap into international pricing on drugs for years. That's why it's important to have the right benefits consultant-someone focused on curbing one of your largest expenses, not adding another middleman to your drug spend." While the executive order signals a shift toward greater cost containment, Kelley warns that the path forward will raise complex questions for employers: "We welcome any attempt to rein in rising healthcare costs," he said. "But until policies are fully understood and implemented, employers are left grappling with how these changes affect their benefit strategies. That's where we come in-translating complex policy changes into actionable solutions." SolV is doubling down on four core service areas to guide clients through this transition: Transparent Prescription Pricing Continuing to structure benefit plans that apply "transparent pricing" opportunities, including international drug pricing, ensuring maximum leverage of available cost containment strategies. Continuing to structure benefit plans that apply "transparent pricing" opportunities, including international drug pricing, ensuring maximum leverage of available cost containment strategies. Policy Interpretation & Education Accelerating webinars, whitepapers, and client briefings to explain how the "most-favored-nation" model will impact formularies, cost structures, and plan design. Accelerating webinars, whitepapers, and client briefings to explain how the "most-favored-nation" model will impact formularies, cost structures, and plan design. Compliance & Financial Oversight Intensifying review processes to identify additional savings as regulatory details emerge. Intensifying review processes to identify additional savings as regulatory details emerge. Personalized Benefit Strategies Providing one-on-one consultations that translate policy developments into tailored, compliant solutions for each employer. "Any move that shines a light on America's broken prescription pricing system is a step forward," he said. "Until real savings materialize, we'll stay focused on what matters most: helping employers navigate these changes effectively." SolV will continue to monitor updates to the executive order and provide timely, personalized guidance as the healthcare landscape evolves. SolV Independent Insurance Associates Announces Commitments to Help Employer Plans Amid Trump's New Drug Pricing Executive Order To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/253795_a40e6f19941af898_002full.jpg About the company: SolV Independent Insurance Associates is a full-service employee benefits consulting firm founded by CEO Scott H. Kelley in 2016. With offices and representatives in California, Washington, Idaho, North Carolina, Arizona, and New York, SolV supports employers across the U.S. and internationally with expert guidance on employee benefits strategy, compliance, and cost management. Scott Kelley is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS), a designation held by fewer than 2% of employee benefits consultants in the country. For more information, visit www.solvins.com. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253795 SOURCE: Plentisoft EQS-News: CPI PROPERTY GROUP / Key word(s): AGM/EGM/Real Estate CPI PROPERTY GROUP - Annual General Meeting of Shareholders 30.05.2025 / 09:37 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. CPI Property Group (societe anonyme) 40, rue de la Vallee L-2661 Luxembourg R.C.S. Luxembourg: B 102 254 Press Release - Corporate News Luxembourg, 30 May 2025 CPI PROPERTY GROUP - Annual General Meeting of Shareholders The annual general meeting (the "AGM") of the shareholders of CPI PROPERTY GROUP (the "Company") was held in Luxembourg on 29 May 2025. At the meeting, approximately 88.52 % of the voting rights were present or presented. The AGM approved the statutory and consolidated annual accounts, as well as the allocation of financial results for the financial year ending 31 December 2024. The AGM approved the Company's remuneration report for the financial year ending on 31 December 2024. The AGM also granted discharge to all members of the Company's board of directors and to the approved auditor of the Company for the performance of their duties during the financial year ending 31 December 2024. The AGM further resolved to re-appoint with immediate effect the following persons as members of the Company's board of directors until the annual general meeting of the shareholders of the Company to be held in 2026: Mirela Cova?a, David Greenbaum, Zdenek Havelka, Edward Hughes, Jonathan Lewis, Philippe Magistretti, Omar Sattar, and Tim Scoble. David Greenbaum, Zdenek Havelka, and Pavel Mechura were appointed with immediate effect as the managing directors (delegues a la gestion journaliere) of the Company until the annual general meeting of the shareholders of the Company to be held in 2026. The AGM also re-appointed with immediate effect Ernst & Young as the approved auditor of the Company until the annual general meeting of the shareholders of the Company to be held in 2026. For further information please contact: Investor Relations Moritz Mayer Manager, Capital Markets m.mayer@cpipg.com 30.05.2025 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.eqs-news.com CALGARY, Alberta, May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. (the "Company" or "ReconAfrica") (TSXV: RECO) (OTCQX: RECAF) (Frankfurt: 0XD) (NSX: REC) announces the filing of its fiscal first quarter disclosure documents for the three-month period ended March 31, 2025, including the unaudited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A"), which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Brian Reinsborough, President and CEO of the Company commented: "ReconAfrica continues to move Prospect I toward spud and management remains excited about this exploration target, which is our largest prospect to be drilled to date. On trend with the Naingopo and Prospect I locations, the Company recently gained access to over five million acres in Angola, and we look forward to working with our partner, ANPG to explore this acreage. Management recognizes its responsibility to all stakeholders to steward the evaluation and exploration process of this vast portfolio with the utmost care. We are keen to continue our work with shareholders, local government, joint venture and community partners." Selected Highlights For the first quarter ended March 31, 2025, and subsequent period, we announced: On January 29, 2025, the Namibian Ministry of Mines & Energy approved the previously announced farm-down agreement with BW Energy ("BW") acquiring a 20% WI in Petroleum Exploration License 073 ("PEL 73"). On January 30, 2025, results from the Naingopo exploration well on PEL 73 aided the Company with the selection of Prospect I as the next drill prospect. On April 17, 2025, ReconAfrica entered a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency of Angola ("ANPG"), for a joint exploration project in the Etosha-Okavango basin, located onshore in southeastern Angola. The MOU area, which is contiguous to PEL 73 in Namibia, added 5.2 million acres of exploration lands to the Company's exploration portfolio. On April 30, 2025, an updated NSAI Report was filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. On May 21, 2025, Mark Friesen, CFA joined the Company as Managing Director, Investor Relations and Capital Markets. Operational Update Prospect I, located onshore Namibia in Petroleum Exploration License 073 ("PEL 73"), will be the Company's largest exploration prospect drilled to date. Prioritizing Prospect I as the next drillable prospect was significantly influenced by the drilling results of the Naingopo prospect, which has confirmed the presence of carbonate reservoir, indications of oil observed from the Damara Fold Belt and oil being recovered at surface in the drilling mud system. The Company has conducted extensive stakeholder and community engagement activities and obtained local consents. The Company is completing permitting requirements and obtaining all regulatory approvals. Pre-construction activities are currently underway, including, de-brushing, de-mining, access road infrastructure development and drill site preparation. ReconAfrica is committed to continuing to work collaboratively with communities, governments and regulators. Management remains encouraged that the sequence of completing the necessary pre-drill activities on Prospect I is progressing toward spudding the well. Permitting for road and pad construction is proceeding and we expect the rig to move in late June with spud shortly thereafter. Any adjustments to the spud date of Prospect I are logistical in nature with management's view regarding the prospectivity of the target remaining positive and unchanged from earlier communications. About ReconAfrica ReconAfrica is a Canadian oil and gas company engaged in the exploration of the Damara Fold Belt and Kavango Rift Basin in the Kalahari Desert of northeastern Namibia, southeastern Angola and northwestern Botswana, where the Company holds petroleum licences comprising ~13 million contiguous acres. In all aspects of its operations, ReconAfrica is committed to minimal disturbance of habitat in line with international standards and implementing environmental and social best practices in its project areas. Neither the 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. For further information contact: Brian Reinsborough, President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Friesen, Managing Director, Investor Relations & Capital Markets IR Inquiries Email: investors@reconafrica.com Media Inquiries Email: media@reconafrica.com Telephone: 1-877-631-1160 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information under applicable Canadian, United States and other applicable securities laws, rules and regulations, including, without limitation, the timing of permits, timing and sequencing of the next well, actual well results, future drilling activity, resource potential, the updated NSAI Report, the Company's commitment to minimal disturbance of habitat, in line with best international standards and its implementation of environmental and social best practices in all of its project areas. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on ReconAfrica's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as the Company's actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section in the Company's annual information form dated April 29, 2025, available under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Actual future results may differ materially. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to ReconAfrica. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and ReconAfrica undertakes no 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 laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. The next-generation skin analysis platform, set to redefine the aesthetic consultation experience CAESAREA, Israel, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Alma, a Sisram Medical company and a global leader in energy-based medical and aesthetic solutions, has officially launched Alma IQ, its next-generation imaging platform, at the eighth Alma Academy, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The event gathered nearly 400 physicians and partners from over 46 countries, marking one of Alma's largest global educational event to date. Introduced to a global audience through exclusive live demonstrations, Alma IQ, redefines how practitioners and patients approach aesthetic care from the very first consultation. By delivering real-time, high-definition insights beneath the skin's surface, the platform reveals what the eye cannot see, empowering aesthetic professionals to make informed decisions with unprecedented precision. At the core of Alma IQ is a powerful multi-modal imaging system developed in collaboration with Sylton, a global leader in aesthetic skin visualization. In under 10 seconds, it captures high-resolution images using specialized light modes: True UV, Cross Polarized, Parallel Polarized, and proprietary 360 Light Technology. These reveal skin aspects from texture and pigmentation to inflammation and vascularity, providing a comprehensive profile that helps clinics communicate treatments clearly and foster more informed, engaged patient experiences. "Advanced personalization starts with clarity," said Lior Dayan, CEO of Alma and Sisram Medical. "In aesthetics, the ability to truly see what lies beneath the surface is everything-it's the power to see what others can't, and to treat what others don't." He continued: "Alma IQ delivers that clarity in a way that's both immediate and deeply personal. This is more than technology. It's a shift in how we connect and communicate with patients. It transforms the consultation into a moment of insight and trust-establishing a new foundation for intelligent, personalized aesthetic care." Recognized as the industry's leading global education forum, this year's summit, held from May 22-25, featured 19 internationally renowned experts, including Prof. Ofir Artzi (Israel), Dr. Pina Panchal (U.S.), Dr. Fatima Aguero (Paraguay), and Dr. Chytra Anand (India). In alignment with this year's theme, "The Art of the Patient," each shared advanced clinical strategies and uncovered patient perspectives that put personalization at the forefront of the practice. Among the topics covered were skin aging, pigmentation, scarring, skin tightening, and rejuvenation. The event also featured live demonstrations of Alma's award-winning portfolio of technologies including Alma Harmony, the multi-application platform renowned for its versatility in aesthetic and skin rejuvenation treatments, alongside Harmony Bio-Boost, the brand's signature facial designed to deliver plump, glowing skin with no downtime. Attendees also experienced the global debut of Alma IQ, Alma Hybrid, renowned for its precision in treating scars as well as Alma PrimeX and Opus, both offering advanced, non-invasive solutions for skin tightening, resurfacing, and full-body rejuvenation. About Alma Academy Recognized as the leading professional academy event in the aesthetic industry, Alma Academy is designed to shape the next era of aesthetic medicine through clinical mastery, innovation, and global collaboration. Held annually in key international hubs, including Greece, Spain, Dubai, North America, Italy, and Thailand, the Academy brings together the world's foremost practitioners for a dynamic platform of hands-on training, real-world protocols, and expert-led dialogue. Learn more https://almalasers.com/alma-academy/# About Alma Alma is a global leader in medical aesthetic solutions, with over 25 years of innovation. We empower practitioners to deliver safe, effective, and life-transforming treatments to their patients, utilizing state-of-the-art, clinically proven solutions such as energy-based device lasers, diagnostics, injectables, and advanced skincare. Alma's multiple award-winning products have set a new benchmark in the medical aesthetic industry, both in terms of clinical excellence and groundbreaking innovations. Visit https://almalasers.com/ Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2696248/Alma_1.jpg Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJZLr9pWnM Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2696164/Alma_2.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2047372/Alma_Logo.jpg Media Inquiries: prglobal@almalasers.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/alma-unveils-alma-iq-at-eighth-global-alma-academy-in-dubrovnik-302468473.html Fidelity Japan Trust Plc - Notice of General Meeting PR Newswire LONDON, United Kingdom, May 30 LEI: 549300ND695NEJ5GP172 FIDELITY JAPAN TRUST PLC (the "Company") NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING 30 May 2025 Further to the announcement made on 21 May 2025, Fidelity Japan Trust PLC ("the Company") announces that a General Meeting of Shareholders will be held at 11.30am on Monday, 23 June 2025 at 4 Cannon Street, London EC4M 5AB. The purpose of the meeting is to consider and, if thought fit, to pass a resolution to adopt New Articles of Association of the Company. The Circular containing the Notice of General Meeting and the Proposed Articles of Association are available on the Company's website at www.fidelity.co.uk/japan. Shareholders who are unable to attend the General Meeting in person are encouraged to vote by proxy. Proxy forms must be received by 11.30am on 19 June 2025. This announcement has been authorised for release to the stock exchange by the Board of Fidelity Japan Trust PLC. A copy of the Circular will shortly be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism. For further information, please contact: George Bayer, Company Secretary For and on behalf of FIL Investments International Telephone: 0207 961 4240 LONDON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel, the insurance operations within the Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL), today announced that Neil Galjaard will step down from his role as Managing Director of Markel UK. Since Galjaard took on the leadership role of Markel UK in 2016, revenue has grown by 200%, profitability has improved and the insurer has been recognised as the number 1 insurer for service in commercial lines1. He recently led the development of the business's new five-year strategy - the core focus of which is to increase relevance with distribution partners and clients, bringing the best of Markel to the UK regional market. As Galjaard's personal plans did not see him working in a full-time capacity throughout this period, he decided to step down once a successor had been found. Henrik Bjornstad, Managing Director - National Markets at Markel International, commented: "It's hard to overstate the importance Neil has had for our National Markets UK business. Under his leadership we have been voted the number 1 insurer for service in Commercial Lines three times and we have tripled in size while improving profit levels. The transformation he has helped to achieve, and the development of the new five-year strategy, mean we couldn't be better positioned for future success. I'm incredibly grateful for all he has achieved and wish him the very best in the next phase of his professional and personal journey." Galjaard commented: 'I couldn't be more proud of what the team at Markel UK has accomplished during my tenure, and I'm confident the business will deliver on the ambitious growth strategy we've developed for the next five years. Unfortunately, my personal plans do not see me working in a full-time capacity until 2030, and I believe in the need for a leader who's able to see that through. I wish Lee and the team every success in the future and look forward to seeing the continued growth of the business that will be achieved together with our broker partners." Lee Mooney has been appointed to replace Galjaard as the leader of Markel's UK regional business, subject to regulatory approval. Lee will take over the leadership of the business towards the end of June. An experienced insurance industry leader, Mooney spent more than 25 years at RSA, most recently leading the UK Commercial Lines Business. In his new role, he will be based in Leeds and report to Henrik Bjornstad. Bjornstad said: "Lee is a strategic business leader with credible experience in a range of areas that form part of our UK business and vision for future success. He also has a fantastic reputation with brokers and distribution partners. I've no doubt he'll build on the strong foundations already in place and deliver on the next phase of our profitable growth ambitions." "I'm excited to be joining Markel and look forward to building on the strong foundations and reputation it has in the UK," said Mooney. "Markel is renowned for its people-powered approach and exceptional customer service. The vision to build broader teams and propositions on the back of such strength is an opportunity that I am delighted to be a part of. I can't wait to meet up with the team and work together to make the most of the opportunities that await us." About Markel Insurance We are Markel Insurance, a leading global specialty insurer with a truly people-first approach. As the insurance operations within the Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL), we leverage a broad array of capabilities and expertise to create intelligent solutions for the most complex specialty insurance needs. However, it is our people - and the deep, valued relationships they develop with colleagues, brokers and clients - that differentiates us worldwide. 1 Insurance Times. Five-Star Service Rating Report: Commercial Lines. (2021, 2024 & 2025) Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2090808/Markel_primary_logo_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/neil-galjaard-steps-down-from-markel-uk-lee-mooney-appointed-as-part-of-leadership-transition-302468489.html 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. Dieses exklusive Angebot gilt aber nur fur kurze Zeit! Daher jetzt downloaden! Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Roscan Gold Corporation (TSXV: ROS) (FSE: 2OJ) (OTCQB: RCGCF) ("Roscan" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a fully subscribed non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of up to $1,000,000 through the issuance of up to 10,000,000 common shares (each, a "Common Share") in the capital of the Company at a price of $0.10 per Common Share (the "Offering"). Gross proceeds raised from the Offering will be used for exploration and development of the Kandiole Project and for working capital and general corporate purposes. Closing of the Offering is subject to receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance and the resale rules of applicable securities legislation. No finder's fee is expected to be paid in connection with the Offering. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. About Roscan Roscan Gold Corporation is a Canadian gold exploration company focused on the exploration and acquisition of gold properties in West Africa. The Company has assembled a significant land position of 100%-owned permits in an area of producing gold mines (including B2 Gold's Fekola Mine which lies in a contiguous property to the west of Kandiole), and major gold deposits, located both north and south of its Kandiole Project in West Mali. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. 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. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, 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/253869 SOURCE: Roscan Gold Corporation Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Group Eleven Resources Corp. (TSXV: ZNG) (OTCQB: GRLVF) (FSE: 3GE) ("Group Eleven" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Jasmine Lau, CPA, as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") of Group Eleven, replacing Jeannine Webb, effective May 30, 2025. Jasmine is a Vancouver-based Chartered Professional Accountant with over 16 years' experience in the resource sector, having served as the Chief Financial Officer for several mineral exploration companies. She is currently the CFO of Minaurum Gold Inc, Forte Minerals Corp., and Cascadia Minerals Ltd. Prior to that, Jasmine also served as CFO to a various number of other private and public mineral exploration companies. "On behalf of Group Eleven and its Board of Directors, I am very pleased to welcome Jasmine to the team," stated Bart Jaworski, CEO. "Jasmine's appointment brings a wealth of relevant experience and skills to the Company. I would also like to sincerely thank Jeannine Webb for her valuable contributions and dedication to the Company over the past three years." About Group Eleven Resources Group Eleven Resources Corp. (TSXV: ZNG) (OTCQB: GRLVF) (FSE: 3GE) is a mineral exploration company focused on advanced stage zinc exploration in Ireland. Additional information about the Company is available at www.groupelevenresources.com. 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 Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Such statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the future results of operations, performance and achievements of the Company, including the timing, content, cost and results of proposed work programs, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/ reserves and geological interpretations. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located. All of the Company's public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253899 SOURCE: Group Eleven Resources Corp. OKOTOKS, Alberta, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: MTL) Mullen Group Ltd. ("Mullen Group", "We", "Our" and/or the "Corporation") is pleased to announce the closing of the acquisition of Cole Group Inc., Cole International Inc., Abco International Freight Inc. and all related entities (collectively the "Cole Group") effective June 1, 2025. Founded in the 1920s, the Cole Group is an industry leading full spectrum logistics services company specializing in customs brokerage, freight forwarding and trade consulting, operating throughout Canada and the U.S. with a long standing proven track record of success. Cole Group operates from 43 locations, which includes strategically situated offices at various air and seaports of entry and land border crossings. Employing over 700 employees, the Cole Group provides industry leading customs and logistics services to a diverse group of North American and international customers through a suite of proprietary technology solutions. Financial Overview Cole Group is expected to generate annualized revenues of approximately $300.0 million and operating income before depreciation and amortization ("OIBDA") of $20.0 million. Cole Group operates a non-asset based business and has minimal capital expenditure requirements. Mullen Group acquired the Cole Group for $190.0 million of cash consideration subject to a purchase price adjustment including receiving $29.0 million of required working capital. Mullen Group will also be acquiring approximately $10.0 million of real estate consisting mainly of office space, which is included in the $190.0 million of cash consideration. Strategic Rationale Alignment with Mullen Group's Acquisition Strategy: The acquisition of Cole Group aligns with our strategy to expand our non-asset based logistics and entire mile service offerings, thereby providing our customers with enhanced choice and flexibility. The acquisition of Cole Group aligns with our strategy to expand our non-asset based logistics and entire mile service offerings, thereby providing our customers with enhanced choice and flexibility. Synergies Across Business Units: The acquisition of Cole Group provides for meaningful synergies through cross-selling opportunities within our U.S. & International Logistics segment (" US 3PL segment ") and other divisions within the Mullen Group. The acquisition of Cole Group provides for meaningful synergies through cross-selling opportunities within our U.S. & International Logistics segment (" ") and other divisions within the Mullen Group. Navigating Market Complexities: The acquisition of Cole Group will allow us to assist our customers in managing the increasingly complex global trade market. The acquisition of Cole Group will allow us to assist our customers in managing the increasingly complex global trade market. Attractive Financial Profile: The acquisition of Cole Group will be immediately accretive by generating free cash flow with minimal capital expenditure requirements. The acquisition of Cole Group will be immediately accretive by generating free cash flow with minimal capital expenditure requirements. Foundation for Long-Term Growth: The acquisition of Cole Group establishes a robust platform for future U.S. and international growth. 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: (i) that Cole Group is expected to generate annualized revenues of approximately $300.0 million and OIBDA of $20.0 million; (ii) the acquisition of Cole Group provides for meaningful synergies through cross-selling opportunities within our US 3PL segment and other divisions within the Mullen Group; (iii) the acquisition of Cole Group will be immediately accretive by generating free cash flow with minimal capital expenditure requirements; and (iv) the acquisition of Cole Group establishes a robust platform for future U.S. and international growth. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analysis 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 Mullen Group will be able to execute on the transition of Cole Group from a private company to being part of a public company; (ii) that Mullen Group will be able to retain Cole Group customers and carry on business in the normal course; (iii) that synergies with other business units will exist and that Mullen Group will be able to realize upon them; (iv) that Cole Group will be able to generate free cash and require minimal capital expenditures thereby being immediately accretive; (v) that Mullen Group will be presented with opportunities for growth in the United States and internationally; and (vi) that Mullen Group will generate sufficient cash to capitalize on any growth opportunities presented. 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. Geneva, Switzerland--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - LunaJets is pleased to announce a growth in flight activity well above 15% over the first quarter of 2025 versus Q1 2024. "This year is off to a great start. I am particularly delighted to see the dedication of our sales team paying off," comments Eriks Ziverts, Head of Sales. From left to right: Eymeric Segard (LunaJets Chairman) & Guillaume Launay (LunaJets CEO) To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/252518_a79bb77ff4c88ad2_002full.jpg The most recent offices having opened are performing well and contributing significantly to these good numbers. "We have received an enthusiastic response from our client base following our office openings into their local markets, reinforcing that establishing a local presence is the right strategy for driving our expansion forward," adds Carlos Matallana, Managing Director for Spain. The number of new customers jumped 22% in the first quarter. "We are happy to keep attracting new customers to our platform which is a testament to the success of our customer centric culture and flexible flight solutions," adds Guillaume Launay, CEO. Most of these customers are not new entrants but frequent flyers seeking an alternative or a complement to their fractional ownership products. Forward bookings to summer are significantly higher in comparison to 2024 with an increase of 31% for flights booked for the months of June, July and August. Prices for the summer remain stable as increased capacity counterbalances climbing demand. "We are now seeing the positive effects of recent aircraft deliveries with more capacity for charter than ever before. Both are great news for our clients: better choice and better prices," comments Tomas Camprubi, LunaJets' Managing Director UK. Looking ahead, LunaJets will keep investing in the opening of new office locations to better serve its customers and improve accessibility to its services. "We are excited to continue building on this promising start to the year and to continue our focus on delivering the best possible service to our clients," concludes Eymeric Segard, Chairman. To accompany its organic growth, LunaJets plans to keep recruiting new and experienced brokers in its 8 offices across Europe and the Middle East. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252518 SOURCE: Plentisoft CALGARY, AB, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Strathcona Resources Ltd. (" Strathcona ") announced today that it has formally commenced its offer (the "Offer") to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of MEG Energy Corp. (TSX: MEG) ("MEG") not already owned by Strathcona or its affiliates for 0.62 of a common share of Strathcona ("Strathcona Share") and $4.10 in cash per common share of MEG ("MEG Share"). The notice and advertisement of the Offer has been placed for publishing in The Globe and Mail and Le Devoir, and the Offer is contained in the Offer to Purchase and Bid Circular (the "Offer and Circular") and related documents, which will be filed today with the Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR+ under MEG's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and posted on Strathcona's website. The Offer and Circular will be made available to all MEG shareholders in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Offer is open for acceptance until 5 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Monday, September 15, 2025. Strathcona also announced the execution of an equity commitment letter with Waterous Energy Fund ("WEF"), the holder of 79.6% of the outstanding Strathcona Shares, through certain limited partnerships comprising Waterous Energy Fund III ("WEF III"), pursuant to which WEF III has committed to purchase an additional 21.4 million Strathcona Shares through subscription receipts, conditional upon completion of the Offer. Pursuant to the terms of the equity commitment letter, the investment will be completed at a subscription price of $30.92 per subscription receipt, being equivalent to the price of the Strathcona Shares on May 15, 2025 prior to Strathcona announcing its intention to make the Offer, equating to an incremental investment by WEF in Strathcona of approximately $662 million. To Strathcona's knowledge, this represents the largest investment at one time by a single shareholder, public or private, in the Canadian upstream oil and gas sector since 2014. Adam Waterous, Executive Chairman of Strathcona and CEO of WEF commented, "WEF's major further investment in Strathcona reflects our view that more than eight years into building Strathcona our best years are in front of us. As part of the Offer, we are asking MEG shareholders to join us as fellow shareholders in Strathcona and trust the Strathcona team as stewards of their capital. We therefore believe it is important that we eat our own cooking, ensuring no one will be more focused on increasing Strathcona's value beyond current levels than WEF. We firmly believe Strathcona represents compelling value at this price with a large margin of safety, and that we and the partners in our fund will do very well over the long run." Offer Details The Offer is subject to the satisfaction or, where permitted, waiver of certain conditions, including, without limitation: (a) there having been validly deposited under the Offer and not withdrawn more than 50% of the outstanding MEG Shares (and associated rights under MEG's shareholder rights plan), excluding any MEG Shares beneficially owned, or over which control or direction is exercised, by Strathcona or by any person acting jointly or in concert with Strathcona, which condition cannot be waived by Strathcona; (b) there having been validly deposited under the Offer and not withdrawn MEG Shares (and associated rights under MEG's shareholder rights plan) which represent, together with the MEG Shares held by Strathcona, at least 66?% of the outstanding MEG Shares (on a fully-diluted basis); (c) no material adverse change having occurred in respect of the business, affairs, assets, operations or prospects of MEG; (d) all required governmental, regulatory and stock exchange approvals, or expiry, waiver or termination of any waiting or suspension period imposed, with respect to the Offer, including, without limitation, pursuant to the Competition Act (Canada) and the United States Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, and the approval of the TSX with respect to the issuance and listing of the Strathcona Shares issuable pursuant to the Offer, having been obtained; (e) the Registration Statement (as defined below) having become effective under the U.S. Securities Act (as defined below), and not becoming subject to a stop order or a proceeding seeking a stop order; (f) MEG not having taken certain actions that could reasonably be expected to reduce the anticipated economic value to Strathcona of the Offer or impair the ability of Strathcona to proceed with the Offer; (g) Strathcona having obtained the requisite approval of the Strathcona shareholders with respect to the issuance of the Strathcona Shares under the Offer pursuant to the rules of the TSX; and (h) other customary conditions. The Offer is not subject to any due diligence or financing condition, with the cash consideration payable under the Offer to be funded pursuant to a bridge financing commitment from a syndicate of lenders (the "Bridge Financing Commitment"), subject to the terms and conditions of such financing. If the conditions of the Offer are satisfied or, where permitted, waived at the expiry time of the Offer and Strathcona takes up and pays for the MEG Shares validly deposited under the Offer, Strathcona intends to acquire any MEG Shares not deposited under the Offer through a compulsory acquisition pursuant to the Business Corporations Act (Alberta), if available, or to propose an amalgamation, statutory arrangement or other transaction for the purpose of MEG becoming, directly or indirectly, a wholly-owned subsidiary or affiliate of Strathcona, in each case for consideration per MEG Share at least equal in value to and in the same form as the consideration paid by Strathcona per MEG Share under the Offer. The exact timing and details of any such transaction will depend upon a number of factors, including, without limitation, the number of MEG Shares acquired pursuant to the Offer. Strathcona encourages MEG shareholders to read the full details of the Offer set forth in the Offer and Circular, which contains the full terms and conditions of the Offer and other important information as well as detailed instructions on how MEG shareholders can deposit their MEG Shares to the Offer. Shareholders who have questions or require assistance in depositing MEG Shares to the Offer should contact the Information Agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group, by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-877-452-7184 (Toll-Free). Copies of the Offer and Circular, once filed, will be available without charge on request from Strathcona by email at [email protected] or by phone at (403) 930-3000 or by contacting Laurel Hill Advisory Group per the instructions set forth above. In connection with the Offer, Strathcona will file relevant materials with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including a registration statement on Form F-10 (the "Registration Statement") under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), which will include the Offer and Circular and other documents related to the Offer. This news release is not a substitute for the Registration Statement, the Offer and Circular or any other relevant documents filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities or the SEC. MEG shareholders and other interested parties are urged to read the Registration Statement, the Offer and Circular, all documents incorporated by reference therein, all other applicable documents and any amendments or supplements to any such documents when they become available, because they will contain important information about Strathcona, MEG and the Offer. When they become available, the Registration Statement, Offer and Circular and other materials filed by Strathcona with the SEC will be available electronically without charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. When available, the Registration Statement, Offer and Circular, documents incorporated by reference therein and other relevant documents may also be obtained on request without charge from Strathcona or by contacting Laurel Hill Advisory Group per the instructions set forth above. WEF III Equity Investment Details Pursuant to an equity commitment letter dated May 29, 2025, WEF III has committed to subscribe for and purchase 21.4 million subscription receipts of Strathcona ("Strathcona Subscription Receipts") at a price of $30.92 per Strathcona Subscription Receipt for aggregate proceeds to Strathcona of approximately $662 million (the "WEF III Equity Investment"). Each Strathcona Subscription Receipt will entitle WEF III to receive, automatically upon, among other specified circumstances, the take-up of MEG Shares deposited under the initial deposit period for the Offer, one Strathcona Share. The Strathcona Shares issuable upon conversion of the Strathcona Subscription Receipts represent approximately 9.99% of the Strathcona Shares issued and outstanding as of May 29, 2025. The subscription price of the Strathcona Subscription Receipts and other terms and conditions of the WEF III Equity Investment were determined in accordance with the rules of the TSX with reference to the five-day volume weighted average price of the Strathcona Shares on the TSX immediately prior to and including May 29, 2025 and through negotiations between WEF III and a special committee comprised of independent directors of Strathcona (the "Special Committee") that was established in connection with the WEF III Equity Investment. The subscription price of $30.92 per Strathcona Subscription Receipt is equal to the closing price of the Strathcona Shares on the TSX on May 15, 2025, prior to Strathcona announcing its intention to make the Offer, and reflects a 7% premium to the five-day volume weighted average price of the Strathcona Shares on the TSX immediately prior to and including May 29, 2025. The proceeds of the WEF III Equity Investment will be held in escrow by a subscription receipt agent and released to, or at the direction of, Strathcona concurrently upon Strathcona taking up MEG Shares at the expiration of the initial deposit period for the Offer, and will be used by Strathcona to reduce a portion of the amount funded under the Bridge Financing Commitment and pay a portion of the cash consideration payable under the Offer. In the event that Strathcona withdraws or terminates the Offer, and has not substantially concurrently entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MEG, the proceeds of the WEF III Equity Investment will be returned to WEF III. The completion of the WEF III Equity Investment is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain customary conditions and is expected to be completed no later than July 13, 2025, being the date that is 45 days from the date of the equity commitment letter. The Offer is not conditional on the closing of the WEF III Equity Investment. Strathcona Shareholder Approval Strathcona expects to issue up to an aggregate of approximately 145 million Strathcona Shares pursuant to the Offer, consisting of 143 million Strathcona Shares issuable for MEG Shares deposited pursuant to the Offer and 2 million Strathcona Shares issuable for the MEG Shares issued upon settlement of certain security-based compensation awards of MEG, representing, in the aggregate, approximately 68% of the 214,235,608 Strathcona Shares issued and outstanding as at the date hereof. Strathcona expects to issue an additional 21.4 million Strathcona Shares upon conversion of the Strathcona Subscription Receipts issued pursuant to the WEF III Equity Investment. Under Section 611 of the TSX Company Manual, the issuance of approximately 169.3 million Strathcona Shares (the "Strathcona Share Issuance"), comprised of 145 million Strathcona Shares issuable in respect of the Offer, 21.4 million Strathcona Shares issuable in respect of the WEF III Equity Investment and 2.9 million Strathcona Shares to account for clerical and administrative matters as permitted under the rules of the TSX, requires the approval of Strathcona shareholders, as the maximum number of Strathcona Shares issuable pursuant to the Offer exceeds 25% of the total number of outstanding Strathcona Shares. Pursuant to Section 604(d) of the TSX Company Manual, WEF, as the holder of more than 50% of the votes attached to the outstanding Strathcona Shares, has delivered to the TSX its written consent for the issuance of up to 169.3 million Strathcona Shares in respect of the Strathcona Share Issuance in satisfaction of such shareholder approval requirement, in lieu of a duly called meeting of security holders. The TSX will generally not require further security holder approval for the issuance of up to, approximately, an additional 36.975 million Strathcona Shares, such number being 25% of the number of Strathcona Shares approved by security holders in connection with the Offer. The Offer is being effected at arm's length and the issuance of Strathcona Shares is not expected to materially affect control of Strathcona. Assuming acquisition of all MEG Shares under the Offer and any second stage transaction, and upon completion of the WEF III Equity Investment, WEF is expected to own approximately 51% of the then issued and outstanding Strathcona Shares. The WEF III Equity Investment and the Offer are expected to close not earlier than five business days after dissemination of this press release. Advisors Scotiabank and TD Securities are acting as exclusive financial advisors to Strathcona in connection with the Offer. Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP are acting as legal counsel to Strathcona in connection with the Offer. The Special Committee has engaged Torys LLP, and WEF has engaged Bennett Jones LLP, to act as their respective legal counsel in connection with the WEF III Equity Investment. Strathcona has also engaged Laurel Hill Advisory Group to act as strategic communications advisor and information agent in connection with the Offer. MEG shareholders may contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group by email at [email protected] or by phone at 1-877-452-7184 (Toll-Free). About Strathcona Strathcona is one of North America's fastest growing oil producers with operations focused on thermal oil and enhanced oil recovery. Strathcona is built on an innovative approach to growth achieved through the consolidation and development of long-life oil and gas assets. The Strathcona Shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: SCR). Website addresses are provided for informational purposes only and no information contained on, or accessible from, such websites is incorporated by reference in this news release unless expressly incorporated by reference. No Offer or Solicitation This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, any securities. The Offer to acquire MEG Shares and issue Strathcona Shares in connection therewith is made solely by, and subject to the terms and conditions set out in, the Offer and Circular and accompanying letter of transmittal and notice of guaranteed delivery. The Offer and Circular and the related documents, contain important information about the Offer and should be read in its entirety by MEG shareholders. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking information") and are prospective in nature. Forward-looking information is not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events, and is therefore subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believes", "plans", "expects", "intends" and "anticipates", or variations of such words, and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the expected delivery of the Offer and Circular; statements regarding Strathcona's future performance and prospects, including that the best years of Strathcona are in front of it, Strathcona's intentions with respect to the financing of the cash consideration payable under the Offer, including the expected reduction of the Bridge Financing Commitment by virtue of the WEF III Equity Investment; expectations with respect to the terms and timing of the WEF III Equity Investment; Strathcona's intention to acquire any MEG Shares not deposited under the Offer for the purpose of MEG becoming, directly or indirectly, a wholly-owned subsidiary or affiliate of Strathcona. Although Strathcona believes that the expectations reflected by the forward-looking information presented in this news release are reasonable, the forward-looking information is based on assumptions and factors concerning future events that may prove to be inaccurate. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Strathcona about itself and MEG and the businesses in which they operate. Information used in developing forward-looking information has been acquired from various sources, including third party consultants, suppliers and regulators, among others. The material assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information herein include, but are not limited to: the ability of Strathcona to complete the combination of Strathcona and MEG, pursuant to the Offer or otherwise, integrate Strathcona's and MEG's respective businesses and operations and realize the anticipated strategic, operational and financial benefits and synergies from the acquisition of MEG by Strathcona; the conditions of the Offer will be satisfied on a timely basis in accordance with their terms; MEG's public disclosure is accurate and that MEG has not failed to publicly disclose any material information respecting MEG, its business, operations, assets, material agreements or otherwise; there will be no material changes to laws and regulations adversely affecting Strathcona's or MEG's operations or the Offer; and the availability of delivery services in respect of the mailing of the Offer and Circular. Because actual results or outcomes could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking information, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. By its nature, forward-looking information is based on assumptions and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those contemplated or implied by the forward-looking information in this news release include, but are not limited to, an inability to procure regulatory approvals in a timely manner or on terms satisfactory to Strathcona; new or changing laws and regulations (domestic and foreign); the risk of failure to satisfy the conditions to the Offer; the risk that the anticipated synergies and other benefits of the Offer may not be realized; and an inability to procure delivery services and the impacts caused by a postal strike. In addition, readers are cautioned that the actual results of Strathcona following the successful completion of the Offer may differ materially from the expectations expressed herein as a result of a number of additional risks and uncertainties. Some of these risks, uncertainties and other factors are similar to those faced by other oil and gas companies and some are unique to Strathcona. Strathcona's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2024 and other documents filed by Strathcona with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities (available under Strathcona's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca) further describe risks, material assumptions and other factors that could influence actual results. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is provided as of the date hereof and Strathcona does not undertake any obligation to update or to revise any of the forward-looking information included herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. SOURCE Strathcona Resources Ltd. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Pasofino Gold Limited (TSXV: VEIN) (OTCQB: EFRGF) (FSE: N07A) ("Pasofino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will be in attendance for the Mining Investment Event taking place in Quebec City, Quebec, from June 3rd to June 5th 2025, inclusive. Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brett Richards, commented: "We are looking forward to the Mining Investment Event this coming week in Quebec City, and welcome Issuers and investors interested in hearing the new Pasofino Gold story, and its path to production." ABOUT THE DUGBE GOLD PROJECT The 2,078 km2 Dugbe Gold Project (the "Project") is in southern Liberia and situated within the southwestern corner of the Birimian Supergroup which is host to most West African gold deposits. To date, two deposits have been identified on the Project; Dugbe F and Tuzon discovered by Hummingbird in 2009 and 2011 respectively. The deposits are located within 4 km of the Dugbe Shear Zone which is thought to have played a role in large scale gold mineralization in the area. A significant amount of exploration in the area was conducted by Hummingbird up until 2012 including 74,497 m of diamond coring. Pasofino drilled an additional 14,584 m at Tuzon and Dugbe during 2021. These deposits have a combined Mineral Resource Estimates dated 17 November 2021 with total Measured and Indicated of 3.3 Moz with an average grade of 1.37 g/t Au, and 0.6 Moz in Inferred. Following the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study in June 2022 a Mineral Reserve Estimate was declared, based on the open-pit mining of both deposits over a 14-year Life of Mine. A technical report for the Dugbe Gold Project was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on the Company's website. In addition to the existing deposits there are many gold prospects within the Project including the Bukon Jedeh area and the DSZ target on the Tuzon-Sackor trend where Pasofino has discovered a broad zone of surface gold mineralisation in trench and outcrop along strike from Tuzon. At this and several of the other prospects no drilling has been carried out to date. In 2019, Hummingbird signed a 25-year Mineral Development Agreement ("MDA") with the Government of Liberia providing the necessary long-term framework and stabilization of taxes and duties. Under the terms of the MDA, the royalty rate on gold production is 3%, the income tax rate payable is 25% (with credit given for historic exploration expenditures), the fuel duty is reduced by 50%, and the Government of Liberia is granted a free carried interest of 10% in the Project. QUALIFIED PERSONS STATEMENT Scientific or technical information in this disclosure that relates to exploration results was prepared and approved by Mr. Andrew Pedley. Mr. Pedley is a consultant of Pasofino Gold Ltd.'s wholly-owned subsidiary ARX Resources Limited. He is a member in good standing with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is as a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. ABOUT PASOFINO GOLD LTD. Pasofino Gold Limited is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (VEIN). Pasofino, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, owns 100% of the Dugbe Gold Project (prior to the issuance of the Government of Liberia's 10% carried interest). 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 STATEMENTS This news release contains "forward-looking statements" that are based on expectations, estimates, projections and interpretations as at the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterised by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "seek", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the ability to raise the funds to finance its ongoing business activities including the acquisition of mineral projects and the exploration and development of its projects. Such 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 such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to, risks related to investor engagement and interest, the results of business operation, the ability to advance the Dugbe Gold Project, the results of exploration activities; the results of the strategic review process, the ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms and those risk factors outlined in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis as filed on SEDAR+. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. 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/253812 SOURCE: Pasofino Gold Limited Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Theralase Technologies Inc. (TSXV: TLT) (OTCQB: TLTFF) ("Theralase" or the "Company"), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company pioneering light, radiation, sound and drug-activated therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, bacteria and viruses has released the Company's unaudited interim consolidated 1Q2025 financial statements ("Financial Statements"). Theralase will be hosting a conference call on Monday June 9th, 2025 at 11:00 am ET, which will include a presentation of the financial and operational results for the fiscal quarter ending March 31st, 2025. Questions are welcome; however, to ensure we have time to review and properly address them during the call, please send them in advance to mperraton@theralase.com. Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86230528014 Webinar ID: 862 3052 8014 Conference Call in: 1-647-558-0588 (Canada) / 1-646-558-8656 (US) - Not required for those attending by Zoom. An archived version will be available on the website following the conference call. Financial Summary: For the three-month period ended March 31st: 1 Other represents foreign exchange, interest accretion on lease liabilities and / or interest income To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2786/253913_18d14c9a14378a83_001full.jpg Financial Highlights For the three-month period ended March 31, 2025: Total revenue was $91,190, compared to $175,554 in Q1 2024, a 48% year-over-year decrease. Cost of sales was $77,896 (85% of revenue), resulting in a gross margin of $13,294 (15% of revenue), down from $62,114 (35% of revenue) in Q1 2024. Selling expenses were $68,143, essentially flat compared to $67,552 in the prior year. Administrative expenses rose to $555,074 from $511,495, a 9% increase driven primarily by professional fees and stock-based compensation. Research and development expenses were $877,670, up from $756,380, reflecting increased activity to support Study II progress. Net loss for the period was $1,471,250, compared to $1,266,711 in Q1 2024. This includes $220,538 in non-cash charges such as amortization and stock-based compensation. Operational Highlights Private Placements On March 10, 2025 , the Company closed a non-brokered private placement of 1,034,002 units at $0.30 per unit for gross proceeds of $310,201 . Each unit consisted of one common share and one non-transferable common share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.45 for five years. Net proceeds were $304,633 , after transaction costs. On April 22, 2025, the Company completed another non-brokered private placement, issuing 1,995,829 units at $0.21 per unit for gross proceeds of $419,124. Each unit included one common share and one non-transferable common share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.32 for five years. The Company has raised approximately $CAN 6.3 million over the last 2 years through non-brokered private placements in support of its research and development programs. It is currently investigating the use of a full-service investment bank in the United States to advise on potential financings and US listing opportunities. Information on any future financings will be released once available in accordance with applicable securities laws. Herpes Simplex Virus ("HSV") Treatment Program Theralase continues preclinical development of its HSV treatment using non-light activated and light-activated small molecules. The Company is actively working on in-vitro, and in the near future, in-vivo HSV preclinical models to finalize a formulation for optimal dermal penetration to increase patient safety and efficacy. Good Laboratory Practice ("GLP") toxicology studies will commence once a formulation has been finalized. Additional details will be announced as strategic objectives are achieved. Phase II Bladder Cancer Study Update ("Study II") 82 patients have been treated with the Study Procedure , representing approximately 91% of the total targeted enrollment of 90 evaluable patients. 69 patients have completed their 90-day assessment and are considered evaluable for interim efficacy analysis. 13 additional patients are pending their 90-day assessment and will be included in future efficacy updates once evaluations are complete. Interim Clinical Results For the primary endpoint of Study II (Complete Response ("CR") at any point in time) 62% of patients provided the Study Procedure (Study Drug activated by the Study Device) demonstrated a CR. Including patients, who demonstrated an Indeterminate Response ("IR") (negative cystoscopy and positive or suspicious urine cytology), the Total Response ("TR") increases to 70%. This represents that approximately 2 out of 3 BCG-Unresponsive NMIBC CIS patients treated with Theralase's unique Study Procedure are demonstrating complete destruction of their bladder cancer. For the secondary endpoint of Study II (duration of CR) 42% of treated patients who achieved a CR, maintained their CR response for at least 12 months (450 days from date of Study Procedure). For the tertiary endpoint of Study II (safety of Study Procedure) 100% (69/69) experienced no Serious Adverse Events ("SAEs") directly related to the Study Drug or Study Device. Outside of the defined endpoints of Study II, Theralase has demonstrated a duration of CR at extended time points of 23% at 2 years, 21% at 3 years and 2% at 7 years. Note: Not all patients have been assessed at these extended time points. As more clinical data is collected, the duration of CR at 2, 3 and 7 years may increase. Theralase is on track to complete enrollment in Study II by the summer of 2025. This will allow the Company to report on 75 patients who have completed Study II in December 2025 and to report on all 90 patients by September 2026. Upon follow-up of all patients, the Company plans to submit a New Drug Application ("NDA") to Health Canada and the FDA in 4Q2026, with a decision expected by the respective regulatory authorities on a marketing approval in 2027. As Theralase completes enrollment in Study II, it is actively searching for commercialization partners for international marketing and sales of Ruvidar. To this end, Theralase is in various stages of initial and advanced discussions with international pharmaceutical companies for various geographical territories concerning: Licensing of the light-activated Ruvidar for BCG-Unresponsive NMIBC CIS Collaborative research focused on investigating light-activated Ruvidar in the treatment of NMIBC Collaborative research focused on combining Ruvidar with other FDA approved drugs In recent discussions with the FDA, the Company has decided that since Study II is 91% complete, the best course of action is not to pursue Break Through Designation, but to complete Study II and submit the clinical data to the FDA in a formal NDA. At the end of the meeting, the FDA made a comment that they were impressed that the interim clinical data obtained to date was able to be achieved with only one clinical treatment, in the majority of cases. Ruvidar has demonstrated 10 years of shelf life, strongly supporting the stability of the molecule and the ability of clinics to store the small molecule for extended periods of time. Additional Oncology Targets Theralase has combined Ruvidar with transferrin (human glycoprotein) to form Rutherrin. Rutherrin is a strong candidate for the systemic treatment of recurrent, deep seated and/or progressive cancers. Due to the limitations of using laser light to activate Rutherrin in deep oncological targets, Theralase plans to activate Rutherrin with radiation therapy to increase the "tumour's damage zone" and the effectiveness of Theralase's small molecule beyond the reach of light in the body. Rutherrin, if clinically proven, will be able to "hunt" and "localize" into cancer cells and when activated by radiation "destroy" them; wherever, they may reside in the body. The Company expects to complete Good Laboratory Practice toxicology analysis in 4Q2025 to allow commencement of a Phase 0/I/II adaptive clinical study in 1Q2026 for the following indications: 1) Glio Blastoma Multiforme ("GBM") Brain Cancer Treatment 2) Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer ("NSCLC") Treatment 3) Pancreatic Cancer 4) Colorectal Cancer 5) Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer ("MIBC") Treatment 6) Herpes Simplex Virus ("HSV-1") Topical Treatment for Cold Sore Lesions For additional information, please refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") available at www.sedarplus.ca. About Ruvidar: Ruvidar(TLD-1433) is a small molecule, able to be activated by light, radiation, sound and/or other drugs, intended for the safe and effective destruction of various cancers, bacteria and viruses. About Theralase Technologies Inc.: Theralase is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to the research and development of light, radiation, sound and/or drug-activated small molecule compounds, their associated drug formulations and the light systems that activate them, with a primary objective of efficacy and a secondary objective of safety in the destruction of various cancers, bacteria and viruses. Additional information is available at www.theralase.com and www.sedarplus.ca 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. Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains Forward-Looking Statements ("FLS") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Such statements include; but, are not limited to statements regarding the Company's proposed development plans with respect to small molecules and their drug formulations. FLS may be identified by the use of the words "may, "should", "will", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "expects", "estimate", "potential for" and similar expressions; including, statements related to the current expectations of the Company's management regarding future research, development and commercialization of the Company's small molecules; their drug formulations; preclinical research; clinical studies and regulatory approvals. These statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions; including, the ability of the Company to fund and secure the regulatory approvals to successfully complete various clinical studies in a timely fashion and implement its development plans. Other risks include: the ability of the Company to successfully commercialize its small molecule and drug formulations; the risk that access to sufficient capital to fund the Company's operations may not be available on terms that are commercially favorable to the Company or at all; the risk that the Company's small molecule and drug formulations may not be effective against the diseases tested in its clinical studies; the risk that the Company fails to comply with the terms of license agreements with third parties and as a result loses the right to use key intellectual property in its business; the Company's ability to protect its intellectual property; the timing and success of submission, acceptance and approval of regulatory filings. Many of these factors that will determine actual results are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Readers should not unduly rely on these FLS, which are not a guarantee of future performance. There can be no assurance that FLS will prove to be accurate as such FLS involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results or future events to differ materially from the FLS. Although the FLS contained in the press release are based upon what management currently believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure prospective investors that actual results, performance or achievements will be consistent with these FLS. All FLS are made as of the date hereof and are subject to change. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update such FLS. For investor information on the Company, please feel to reach out Investor Inquiries - Theralase Technologies. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253913 SOURCE: Theralase Technologies Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Goldshore Resources Inc. (TSXV: GSHR) (OTCQB: GSHRF) (FSE: 8X00) ("Goldshore" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has exercised its right to purchase 1% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") on all metal production from the Moss Gold Project, located in Ontario, Canada (the "Moss Gold Project") from Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. ("Wesdome"), for $7,500,000 with an anticipated closing date of July 21, 2025. The purchase price consists of a $5,500,000 cash payment and the issuance of 3,333,333 common shares at a deemed price of $0.60 per common share. Figure 1: Shows the property boundary for the 1% Net Smelter Return (NSR) on all metal production. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8051/253923_14aafb3d74e57ad4_002full.jpg Michael Henrichsen, CEO and Director of Goldshore, commented: "The buyback of the 1% NSR further consolidates the ownership of the Moss Gold project, where our team has unlocked significant value since the outlining of a strategic plan in June of last year. With continued drilling success and expected future resource growth, it is prudent to exercise this right given the anticipated high return on investment." The Company further announces that it has filed its first quarter interim financial statements and the accompanying Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A"), which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Year to Date Project Highlights On March 31, 2025, the Company completed a 15,000-meter diamond drilling program, which focused on targeting additional ounces within and adjacent to the conceptual open pit. The program yielded the following highlights: Results from two drill holes, which infilled significant drilling gaps in the QES Zone 124.35m of 1.65 g/t Au from 295m incl. 47m of 3.08 g/t Au, in MQD-25-171 77.5m of 0.54 g/t Au from 203.5m in MQD-25-170 Results from the Superion prospect discovered a new gold-mineralized shear approximately 60m from surface and 225m north of the QES Zone 17.6m of 3.03 g/t Au from 76.4m, incl. 6.8m of 7.06 g/t Au, in MQD-25-148 Results from a follow-up fence of holes surrounding the MQD-25-148 intercept (17.6m of 3.03 g/t Au from 76.4m) increased the strike length of the new zone to over 100 meters 9.45m of 6.02 g/t Au from 186.0m, incl. 2.45m of 22.2 g/t Au, in MQD-25-175 13.0m of 2.30 g/t Au from 117.0m, incl. 3.0m of 9.00 g/t Au, in MQD-25-176 Results from the southwest end of the Moss Deposit extended gold mineralization with increased grades 150 meters below the conceptual open pit resource 20.55m of 2.58 g/t Au from 458.15m, incl. 14.7m of 3.52 g/t Au, in MMD-24-139 Results from three drill holes continued to extend mineralized shears toward surface at the Southwest Zone, with a best intercept of 5.15m of 2.68g/t Au from 135.65m, incl. 2.35m of 5.19 g/t Au, in MMD-25-147 Results from two drill holes targeting the gap between the Main and Southwest Zones intersected new high-grade mineralization representing a combined true width mineralized corridor of 75m connecting the two zones 12.9m of 2.64 g/t Au from 243.4m, incl. 4.4m of 6.59 g/t Au, in MMD-25-165 2.0m of 2.81 g/t Au from 98.0m and 5.4m of 1.59 g/t Au from 143.6m, incl. 0.4m of 18.2 g/t Au, in MMD-25-166 On April 9, 2025, the Company announced a 5,000-meter expansion of its winter diamond drilling program focused on expanding the resource at the southwest portion of the deposit by drilling underneath the current conceptual open pit and closing the gap between the Southwest and Moss Main pits. This program was completed on May 9, 2025, with a total of 66 holes (21,292.35 meters) completed. On May 26, 2025, the Company announced it had signed an Impact Benefit Agreement Term Sheet (" IBA Term Sheet ") with Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation, marking a significant step toward the negotiation of an Impact Benefit Agreement (" IBA "). The IBA Term Sheet reflects a shared commitment to ensure the Moss Gold Project delivers meaningful and long-term benefits to the community. ") with Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation, marking a significant step toward the negotiation of an Impact Benefit Agreement (" "). The IBA Term Sheet reflects a shared commitment to ensure the Moss Gold Project delivers meaningful and long-term benefits to the community. The Company has provided notice to Wesdome of its exercise of the purchase option on the 1% NSR on all metal production from the Moss Gold Project for $7,500,000 with an anticipated closing date of July 21, 2025. The purchase price consists of a $5,500,000 cash payment and the issuance of 3,333,333 common shares at a deemed price of $0.60 per common share. On May 30, 2025, the Company also completed its final milestone payment to Wesdome in relation to the Moss Gold Project purchase agreement. The milestone payment consists of a share issuance of 12,500,000 common shares at a deemed price of $0.60 per common share. Following completion of this milestone payment, Goldshore has satisfied all commitments related to the acquisition of its 100% interest in the Moss Gold Project. Additionally, the Company has entered into an agreement to repurchase 1.5% of a 2.5% net profit interest ("NPI") in the Moss Gold Project. As partial consideration for the repurchase, the Company has agreed to issue the NPI holder, subject to the acceptance of the TSXV, 1,000,000 common shares at a deemed issue price of $0.33 per common share, and after four years, such number of common shares as is equal to $300,000 based on the 20-day VWAP of the common shares prior to issuance. Michael Henrichsen, CEO and Director of Goldshore, further commented: "We continue to advance our resource growth initiatives, the economic study, and our permitting work in order to drive significant progress in the development of the Moss Gold Project. The completion of our 20,000-meter diamond drilling program has yielded accretive results, including the discovery of newly discovered mineralized shears and the extension of known mineralization which we expect to have a significant impact on our upcoming PEA. We're also pleased to have signed an Impact Benefit Agreement Term Sheet with Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation, marking a major step forward in our commitment to delivering long-term benefits to the community." Qualified Person Peter Flindell, PGeo, MAusIMM, MAIG, Vice-President, Exploration, of the Company, and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Flindell has verified the data disclosed. To verify the information related to the winter drill program at the Moss Gold Project, Mr. Flindell has visited the property several times; discussed and reviewed logging, sampling, bulk density, core cutting and sample shipping processes with responsible site staff; discussed and reviewed assay and QA/QC results with responsible personnel; and reviewed supporting documentation, including drill hole location and orientation and significant assay interval calculations. He has also overseen the Company's health and safety policies in the field to ensure full compliance, and consulted with the Project's host indigenous communities on the planning and implementation of the drill program, particularly with respect to its impact on the environment and the Company's remediation protocols. About Goldshore Goldshore is a growth-oriented gold company focused on delivering long-term shareholder and stakeholder value through the acquisition and advancement of primary gold assets in tier-one jurisdictions. It is led by the ex-global head of structural geology for the world's largest gold company and backed by one of Canada's pre-eminent private equity firms. The Company's current focus is the advanced stage 100% owned Moss Gold Project which is positioned in Ontario, Canada, with direct access from the Trans-Canada Highway, hydroelectric power near site, supportive local communities and skilled workforce. The Company has invested over $60 million of new capital and completed approximately 80,000 meters of drilling on the Moss Gold Project, which, in aggregate, has had over 235,000 meters of drilling. The 2024 updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate ("MRE") has expanded to 1.54 million ounces of Indicated gold resources at 1.23 g/t Au and 5.20 million ounces of Inferred gold resources at 1.11 g/t Au. The MRE only encompasses 3.6 kilometers of the 35+ kilometer mineralized trend, remains open at depth and along strike and is one of the few remaining major Canadian gold deposits positioned for development in this cycle. Please see NI 43-101 technical report titled: "Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Moss Gold Project, Ontario, Canada," dated March 20, 2024 with an effective date of January 31, 2024 available under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. For more information, please visit SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and the Company's website (www.goldshoreresources.com). 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 release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such 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, among others, statements relating to expectations regarding the exploration and development of the Moss Gold Project; the potential mineralization at the Moss Gold Project based on the winter drill program, including the potential for additional mineral resources; the enhancement of the Moss Gold Project; statements regarding the Company's future drill plans, including the expected benefits and results thereof; that the Superion target has the potential to significantly add to the current mineral resource estimate within the top 200 meters from surface with continued drilling and to reduce the overall strip ratio of the deposit; the potential for resource growth at Moss and the fact that the results have the potential to significantly impact the economic performance of the deposit moving forward; the potential for a much larger mineralized system and that it will be pursued in the near future through additional drilling; and other statements that are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, among others: uncertainty and variation in the estimation of mineral resources; risks related to exploration, development, and operation activities; exploration and development of the Moss Gold Project will not be undertaken as anticipated; the Company may require additional financing from time to time in order to continue its operations which may not be available when needed or on acceptable terms and conditions acceptable; the economic performance of the deposit may not be consistent with management's expectations; the Company's exploration work may not deliver the results expected; the fluctuating price of gold; unknown liabilities in connection with acquisitions; compliance with extensive government regulation; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain governmental permits, or non-compliance with permits; environmental and other regulatory requirements; domestic and foreign laws and regulations could adversely affect the Company's business and results of operations; risks related to natural disasters, terrorist acts, health crises, and other disruptions and dislocations; global financial conditions; uninsured risks; climate change risks; competition from other companies and individuals; conflicts of interest; risks related to compliance with anti-corruption laws; the Company's limited operating history; intervention by non-governmental organizations; outside contractor risks; the stock markets have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the performance of companies and these fluctuations may adversely affect the price of the Company's securities, regardless of its operating performance; the Superion target may not add to the current mineral resource; and other risks associated with executing the Company's objectives and strategies as well as those risk factors discussed in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The forward-looking information in this news release is based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date of this news release. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements were made, including without limitation, assumptions regarding: the future price of gold; anticipated costs and the Company's ability to fund its programs; the Company's ability to carry on exploration, development and mining activities; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services; the timing and results of drilling programs; mineral resource estimates and the assumptions on which they are based; the discovery of mineral resources and mineral reserves on the Company's mineral properties; the timely receipt of required approvals and permits; the costs of operating and exploration expenditures; the Company's ability to operate in a safe, efficient, and effective manner; the Company's ability to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that the Superion target will add to the current mineral resource; that the Company's exploration work will deliver the results expected; and that there will be no material adverse change or disruptions affecting the Company or its properties. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253923 SOURCE: Goldshore Resources Inc. Surrey, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - INEO Tech Corp. (TSXV: INEO) (OTCQB: INEOF) (the "Company" or "INEO"), a leading provider of loss prevention and in-store retail media solutions for retailers, today announced it has filed its Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis on sedarplus.ca for the Company's Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter, ended March 31, 2025. "Our Third Quarter saw our first revenue from the technology partnership we signed with our new partner Sensormatic Solutions," said Greg Watkin, Chairman and Founder of INEO. "Additionally, for the first time in a few months we had well stocked inventories of parts and sub-assemblies for our Welcoming Systems and other loss prevention products including the loss prevention consumables, tags and labels. As a result, our revenue was up substantially in this quarter. The new business coupled with our ability to execute on existing business will make a positive difference for INEO in the coming quarters." Notable Events of the Third Quarter: On January 13, 2025, the Company revealed a strategic technology partnership with Sensormatic Solutions, a global leader in retail solutions and part of Johnson Controls. This collaboration will integrate INEO's patented Welcoming System technology with Sensormatic Solutions' industry-leading loss prevention tools. On January 14, 2025, the Company issued an additional 20 million shares with total proceeds of $1,000,000 to Coenda Investment Holdings Corp., resulting in Coenda holding an aggregate of 80,000,000 shares. On January 31, 2025, the Company announced it signed a reseller agreement with Bon Intelligence Inc., a leading provider of AI driven retail analytics in Turkey. This agreement marked a significant milestone in INEO's international expansion strategy, bringing its advanced technology to one of the most dynamic retail markets in the world. On February 11, 2025, the Company announced that its reseller partner in Turkey, Bon Intelligence Inc., reached an agreement with Bambi, a leading high fashion shoe retailer with 61 stores based in Turkey, to deploy INEO's in-store retail media technology across Bambi's stores. On February 26, 2025, the Company announced that one insider and five arm's length parties had acquired an aggregate of 6,201,975 Common shares in the capital of the Company pursuant to the conversion of the principal and accrued interest of convertible debentures issued in January and February 2024 (see press releases dated January 31, 2024 and February 16, 2024). Events subsequent to March 31, 2025 On April 9, 2025, INEO announced that Cameron Lawrence had joined the INEO Board of Directors and was also nominated and confirmed as the Chair of the Company's Audit Committee. The Company also announced that Dave Jaworski had resigned from the Board for professional reasons. On May 27, 2025 INEO entered into a settlement agreement with Coenda Investment Holdings Corp. to resolve the matters set out in a notice of requisition of general meeting of shareholders dated April 7, 2025, received by the Company on April 8, 2025, and announced on April 11, 2025. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company, Coenda, and Coenda's controlling shareholder agreed to a mutual release of claims and Coenda agreed to withdraw the requisition. The Company agreed to: (i) appoint a new Coenda nominated board member and (ii) commence a search for a new Chief Financial Officer. In addition, for the next two years, Coenda will have the right to participate in any future equity financing to maintain its then current ownership interest in the Company, and Coenda has agreed that it will support management with ordinary business at shareholder meetings, including the election of directors. As part of the settlement, the Company also entered into a license agreement with BON Intelligence ("BON"), a company affiliated with Coenda. The license agreement grants BON a license to produce and sell, and receive support from INEO for, the INEO Welcoming System, in consideration for an initial royalty payment, licensing fees royalty for each unit sold and monthly fees for each unit that is connected to the INEO network. The Company has agreed to escrow software for the next 18 months for the INEO Welcoming System, to be released to BON in the event of insolvency or a change of control. As a related party transaction, the license agreement was approved by the independent members of the Board with the related party recused. Kyle Hall, CEO of INEO, commented, "The settlement of the shareholder action allows INEO to focus fully on its strategic objectives without the distraction or potential cost of ongoing proceedings. The INEO team has worked diligently to position the Company for success, and we're now poised to realize the full potential of our patented technology. With direct deployments underway with our key customers and exciting new partnerships taking shape, we're enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead." On behalf of the Board of Directors. Kyle Hall, CEO, INEO Tech Corp. About INEO Tech Corp. (TSXV: INEO) (OTCQB: INEOF) INEO Tech Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary, INEO Solutions Inc., operates the INEO Media Network, a digital advertising and analytics solution for retailers. INEO's patented technology integrates and monetizes digital screens with theft detection sensor gates at the entrance of retail stores. The Company's cloud-based platform uses IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to deliver customized digital advertising to each retail location based on the demographic mix of customer traffic at each location. The Company also deploys the INEO Welcoming Network technology through a SaaS-based solution to larger retail chains. INEO is headquartered in Surrey, Canada and publicly traded on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol "INEO" and on the OTCQB-Venture Market under the symbol "INEOF". For more information, please visit: Websites: www.ineosolutionsinc.com www.ineoretailmedia.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ineosolutions Future-Oriented Financial Information To the extent any forward-looking statements in this press release may constitute future-oriented financial information or financial outlooks within the meaning of securities laws, such information is being provided to demonstrate the potential financial performance of INEO and readers are cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for and should not be used for any other purpose and that they should not place undue reliance on such future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks. Future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks, as with forward-looking information generally, are, without limitation, based on the assumptions and subject to the risks set out below under "Forward-Looking Statements". Forward-Looking Statements Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the disclosure document, any information released or received with respect to the Company may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors - including the availability of funds, acceptance of the Company's products, competition, and general market conditions - that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed on SEDAR+, including the Annual Information Form for the year ended June 30, 2022 filed on SEDAR+ on November 4, 2022. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253941 SOURCE: INEO Tech Corp. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. (TSXV: CBIT) (OTCQB: CBTTF) ("Cathedra," the "Company," or "we"), a bitcoin company that develops and operates digital infrastructure assets with the goal of maximizing its per-share bitcoin holdings, today announces our first quarter ("Q1") financial results for 2025: Q1 2025 Financial Highlights Total revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2025, of C$6.5 million, compared to C$5.9 million during the three months ended March 31, 2024, an increase of 11%. In March, we prepaid the outstanding C$5.7 million of principal on our 3.5% senior secured convertible debentures due November 11, 2025 (the " Debentures "), for C$4.6 million of cash, representing a 20% discount to par (plus accrued interest). Additionally, the creditor surrendered for cancellation 10.9 million warrants to purchase subordinate voting shares at a price of C$0.12 per share until November 11, 2026. To partially fund the repayment of the Debentures, we entered into a new loan for US$2.5 million, which is secured by approximately 50 of our bitcoin; carries interest at a rate of 13.0% per annum, payable monthly; and is interest-only until maturity on March 18, 2026. Subsequent to quarter end, we repurchased and cancelled an additional 14,205,000 subordinate voting share purchase warrants for total cash consideration of US$75,002. These warrants also had an exercise price of C$0.12 and were set to expire in 2026 and 2027. As of May 30, 2025, we hold approximately C$0.5 million of cash and C$7.6 million of bitcoin (52.5 bitcoin) for total liquidity of C$8.1 million. Our 52.46 bitcoin translates to approximately 6 satoshis (or "sats") per share. Q1 2025 Operating Highlights In January, we announced a new 10-megawatt power purchase agreement in connection with a potential greenfield bitcoin mining data center development in Tennessee. This would mark our second site in Tennessee and is expected to achieve a cost of power of approximately US$30 per megawatt-hour. Upon final regulatory approvals, we intend to begin construction on the new site, which could be fully operational in as little as three months thereafter. Also in January, we announced a new partnership with Synota Inc. (" Synota "), a software company that provides automated payments for C&I energy and hosting contracts to reduce financial risk and deliver consistent cash flow. Under the partnership, we utilize Synota's tools to facilitate daily or weekly settlement of hosting bills, thereby improving cash flow cycles, reducing risk and simplifying back-office processes. This partnership has also added flexibility for Cathedra to accumulate bitcoin, by providing us the option to receive daily hosting payments in the form of U.S. dollars or bitcoin. In March, we announced that Tirpitz Technology Holdco LLC (the "JV"), a joint venture that owns and operates a 60-megawatt bitcoin mining data center in North Dakota (the "North Dakota Facility") and in which Cathedra holds a minority interest, entered into a binding agreement to sell 100% of the membership units in the JV to a third-party bitcoin miner for total cash consideration of approximately US$21.0 million. The agreement was contingent upon the completion of several performance milestones which were recently achieved, and we expect the transaction to close in the coming weeks (subject to closing conditions and customary regulatory approvals). Management Commentary "The first several months of 2025 have affirmed our all-weather strategy, under which we offer hosting services to third-party bitcoin miners while maintaining exposure to mining upside through our own fleet of machines and opportunistic profit-sharing arrangement with certain hosting clients," remarked AJ Scalia, CEO of Cathedra. "During April, daily hash price hit lows of roughly US$40/PH, during which time the stability of our hosting business allowed us to continue operating without selling down our existing bitcoin strategy. In the weeks since, hash price has rallied nearly 50% as bitcoin has surged to new all-time highs, and we have benefited through our direct exposure to hash rate. "We took important steps to optimize our capital structure, prepaying our outstanding convertible debt at a significant discount to its par value and cancelling a total of nearly 25 million warrants. "Looking toward the future, we have contracted another 10 megawatts of power capacity at a new site in Tennessee, which would expand our data center portfolio by 33%. We continue work to expand this growth pipeline further. "Finally, we recognize that obtaining a listing on a major U.S. stock exchange will meaningfully improve our liquidity, access to capital, and public profile, and continue to work toward bringing Cathedra's shares to the deepest capital market in the world." About Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. develops and operates digital infrastructure assets across North America with the goal of maximizing its per-share bitcoin holdings. The Company hosts bitcoin mining clients across its portfolio of three data centers (30 megawatts total) in Tennessee and Kentucky and recently developed and sold a 60-megawatt data center in North Dakota, a joint venture in which Cathedra held a minority interest, closing of which is anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2025. Cathedra also operates a fleet of proprietary bitcoin mining machines at its own and third-party data centers, producing approximately 400 PH/s of hash rate. Cathedra is headquartered in Vancouver and its shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol CBIT and in the OTC market under the symbol CBTTF. At time of publishing, the Company holds approximately 52.5 bitcoin worth approximately US$5.5 million and amounting to approximately 6 satoshis (or "sats") per share. For more information about Cathedra, visit cathedra.com or follow Company news on Twitter at @CathedraBitcoin or on Telegram at @CathedraBitcoin. Media and Investor Relations Inquiries Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. The information in this release about future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking information. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes but is not limited to information concerning: the potential for and merits of the Kungsleden acquisition; the benefits of the strategy to become a developer and operator of high-density compute infrastructure for bitcoin mining and/or other potential end markets; and other statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company. Any statements that involve 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 information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of its normal course of business. Additionally, these forward-looking statements may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Cathedra and general market conditions. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but instead reflect Cathedra's management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although Cathedra believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed thereon, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the Company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are the following: an inability successfully integrate the Kungsleden business on terms which are economic or at all; a failure to realize the expected benefits of the business plan to develop and operate high-density compute infrastructure for bitcoin mining and/or other potential end markets; the risks of an increase in the Company's electricity costs, cost of natural gas, changes in currency exchange rates, energy curtailment or regulatory changes in the energy regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates and the potential adverse impact on the Company's profitability; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; an increase in network difficulty may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; future capital needs and the ability to complete current and future financings, as well as capital market conditions in general; volatile securities markets impacting security pricing unrelated to operating performance; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability to mine digital currencies that will be consistent with historical prices; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws and regulations both locally and in foreign jurisdictions; compliance with extensive government regulation and the costs associated with compliance; unanticipated costs; changes in market conditions impacting the average revenue per MWh; and the risks and uncertainties associated with foreign markets. Additionally, the forward-looking statements contained herein may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Cathedra and general market conditions. Please see the Company's management information circular dated June 18, 2024 which is available for view the Company's SEDAR+ profile on www.sedarplus.ca. 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 herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. 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 and such changes could be material. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253948 SOURCE: Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Magma Silver Corp. (TSXV: MGMA) (FSE: BC21) (WKN: A411DV) ("Magma" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into a consulting services agreement with Euroswiss Capital Partners Inc. ("Euroswiss"). Euroswiss will be a strategic and financial partner to help the Company increase brand recognition and liquidity in the central European capital markets. Pursuant to the agreement, Euroswiss will assist the Company, on a non-exclusive basis, to develop communication plans aimed at increasing Magma's recognition in the central European markets as well as networking, business development, and general corporate finance opportunities in Europe for an initial term of 6 months starting on June 1, 2025. Magma will pay Euroswiss an aggregate of CAD$60,000. The agreement has been conditionally approved by the TSX Venture Exchange. A principal of Euroswiss owns 700,000 shares and 550,000 share purchase warrants of the Company. Euroswiss is an arm's length party to the Company. About Euroswiss Capital Partners Inc. ( www.euroswiss.group ) Euroswiss is a reputable investor relations firm headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland and offers a unique investor relations program tailored to the specific requirements of junior mining companies. Their focus is on garnering support from high-net-worth individuals, family offices, institutional investors, and retail investors. Their efforts have contributed to increased trading volumes through various strategies, including: facilitating cross-listings in Germany and coordinating market making activities alongside research. providing an Investor Portal, media coverage and distributing content through German investor and social media channels, including continuous tailored targeting of mining investor audiences. disseminating frequent information on influential German financial websites with significant investor following. targeted distribution to 400 investor websites, 450,000 computer terminals, daily newspapers, and directly engaging with 10,000 private/institutional investors and analysts. organizing investor roadshows in European financial hubs. About Magma Silver Corp. Magma Silver Corp. is a natural resource company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of precious metal mining exploration projects. The Company's primary focus is on exploring and developing the advanced Ninobamba silver gold project in the mining supportive country of Peru. Reader Advisory This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All information and statements other than statements of current or historical facts contained in this news release are forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in Magma Silver Corp.'s periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should," and similar expressions, are forward- looking statements. The information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information. Forward-looking statements include those in relation to (i) the Euroswiss agreement and the performance thereof and (ii) the expected benefits to the Company from the Euroswiss agreement and the scope of services to be provided by Euroswiss. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can't make any assurances that its expectations will be achieved. Such assumptions may prove incorrect. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward- looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance, or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances, or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, no assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information in this news release will transpire or occur, or, if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law. 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253843 SOURCE: Magma Silver Corp. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Quimbaya Gold Inc. (CSE: QIM) (OTCQB: QIMGF) (FSE: K05), The Next Big Gold Discovery in Columbia, is pleased to announce that it will be participating in THE Mining Investment Event, Canada's Only Tier 1 Global Mining Investment Conference, taking place June 3-5, 2025, at the Quebec Convention Centre, Quebec City, Canada. Quimbaya Gold Inc.'s management will be available to meet with investors throughout the three-day conference. "We are particularly excited about the global audience that THE Event has attracted, showcasing the best of international mining in Canada. This is a unique chance to engage with industry leaders and innovators, facilitating discussions that will shape the future of our sector. We look forward to seeing many of you there and exploring the possibilities that await us at this prestigious gathering." Information regarding THE Event, including investor registration details, a list of participating companies, panelists and keynote speakers, as well as a preliminary agenda, can be found at https://www.themininginvestmentevent.com/. About Quimbaya Gold Inc. Quimbaya aims to discover gold resources through exploration and acquisition of mining properties in the prolific mining districts of Colombia. Managed by an experienced team in the mining sector, Quimbaya is focused on three projects in the regions of Segovia (Tahami Project), Puerto Berrio (Berrio Project), and Abejorral (Maitamac Project), all located in Antioquia Province, Colombia. THE Event is by invitation only - Interested investors & issuers, please go here: https://www.themininginvestmentevent.com/register or contact Jennifer Choi, jchoi@irinc.ca About: THE Mining Investment Event-Canada's Only Tier 1 Global Mining Investment Conference is held annually in Quebec City, Canada. It is independently sponsored and designed to facilitate privately arranged meetings between mining companies, international investors, and various mining government authorities. The conference provides a platform to hear from some of the most influential thought leaders in the sector. THE Event is committed to promoting diversity, equality, and sustainability in the mining industry through education and innovation through its unique Student Sponsorship and SHE-Co Initiatives. SOURCE: VID Media Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Homeland Uranium Corp. (TSXV: HLU) ("Homeland" or the "Company") announces that field crews have mobilized to the Company's Coyote Basin and Red Wash uranium projects in northwestern Colorado to commence the Phase 1 exploration program. The Phase 1 exploration program consists of 1:20,000 scale geological mapping, prospecting, rock sampling and a 1,545 line km (960 line-mile) UAV airborne magnetic survey. The Company has contracted the Axiom Exploration Group ("Axiom") to provide the technical personnel required to conduct the program. The objective of the Phase 1 program at Coyote Basin is to confirm the location of the known mineralized horizons in advance of the anticipated Phase 2 fall exploration program, which is planned to conduct confirmatory drilling designed to convert historical resources into a resource estimate consistent with NI 43-101 requirements. While the Company has acquired historical drilling data for the project, the location of historical drill holes and rock samples are not sufficiently accurate to commence the Phase 2 program without prior confirmation in the field. The objective of the Phase 1 program at the Red Wash Project is to identify potential areas for follow-up exploration and to evaluate the uranium potential of the Urangesellschaft Uranium Showing. Historical work identified a uranium anomaly hosted in sandstone rocks that returned 350 ppm U3O8 that remains untested by drilling1. On May 23, 2025, the White House issued several Executive Orders relating to nuclear energy (found here) with the aim of strengthening the domestic nuclear fuel cycle, streamlining environmental reviews, reforming the Nuclear Energy Commission, deploying advanced nuclear reactor technologies, and more. Homeland believes these Executive Orders have the potential to accelerate the Company's exploration permitting process and project approvals should future development be warranted. Roger Lemaitre, President & CEO, stated, "Homeland is excited to begin the process of evaluating the quality and potential of the Coyote Basin Project. The Phase 1 program will help us better focus our planned fall drilling program. Given the seismic shift in public acceptance of nuclear power, increasing concerns over energy security and sovereignty, rapidly growing demand for electricity spurred by the huge demand for clean, safe, baseload electricity to power the new AI infrastructure, and the recognition by the current US Administration's Executive Orders to facilitate the rapid growth of American nuclear fuel cycle and expansion of nuclear generation capacity four-fold by 2050, the need for sizable US uranium deposits has never been so important. Homeland shareholders, through our ownership of the Coyote Basin Project, are well positioned to participate in the American nuclear renaissance." About Homeland Uranium Corp. Homeland is a mineral exploration company focused on becoming a premier US-focused and resource-bearing uranium explorer and developer. The Company is the 100% owner of the Coyote Basin and Red Wash uranium projects in northwestern Colorado. The Coyote Basin Project is reported by Energy Metals Corporation in its Management Discussion and Analysis dated November 14, 2006 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to contain an estimated historical resource of 8,850,000 tons grading 0.20% U3O8 and 0.10% V2O5 totaling 35.4 million pounds of U3O8 and 17.7 million pounds of V205. This resource was calculated by the previous project operator, Western Mining Resources, based on a 1978-79 program of surface sampling, coring, drill hole chip sampling and gamma logging of 24 widely spaced holes. The Company is not treating this historical resource as current mineral resources and the reader is cautioned not to rely on it. The reader is cautioned that a qualified person (as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101")) has not done sufficient work to classify the historical resource as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the Company is not treating the historical resource as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Coyote Basin Project and any future NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate will require considerable further evaluation. About the Axiom Exploration Group Axiom has been selected as the technical consultant and service provider for Homeland's Phase 1 field program at the Coyote Basin and Red Wash uranium projects in Colorado. With a proven track record in North American uranium exploration and a commitment to technical excellence, Axiom is proud to support Homeland's efforts in contributing to the revitalization of the North American fuel cycle. Since Axiom's inception as an employee-owned company in 2011, they have been at the forefront of empowering clients in the geological, environmental, and engineering sectors. Their global experience, particularly in demanding environments, ensures Axiom is equipped to tackle the most perplexing problems with confidence. The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Roger Lemaitre, P.Eng., P.Geo., the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, who is considered to be a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. 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. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "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. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things: the Company's planned exploration programs at its Properties and the expected objectives and use of the information gathered therefrom; expectations in relation to the growth of US nuclear generation capacity and future demand for uranium; and the Company's strategic plans These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant operational, business, economic and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include, among other things: conditions in general economic and financial markets; accuracy of assay results; geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures; performance of available laboratory and other related services; future operating costs; future demand for energy; the historical basis for current estimates of potential quantities and grades of target zones; the availability of skilled labour and no labour related disruptions at any of the Company's operations; no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled activities; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals for operations are received in a timely manner; the ability to secure and maintain title and ownership to properties and the surface rights necessary for operations; and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. The Company cautions the reader that forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; the interpretation and uncertainties of drilling results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project costs overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; availability of funds; failure to delineate potential quantities and grades of the target zones based on historical data; general market and industry conditions; and those factors identified under the captions "Risks Factors" and "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's disclosure materials filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law 1 Source: Nelson-Moore, James L., Donna Bishop Collins, and A. L. Hornbaker. "Bulletin 40 - Radioactive Mineral Occurrences of Colorado (and Bibliography)." Radioactive Minerals. Bulletin. Denver, CO: Colorado Geological Survey, Department of Natural Resources, 1978. https://doi.org/10.58783/cgs.b40.yzqh7535. CGS Publications. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253931 SOURCE: Homeland Uranium Corp. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES VANCOUVER, BC, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BioVaxys Technology Corp. (CSE: BIOV) (FRA: 5LB) ("BioVaxys" or the "Company") announces a proposed consolidation of the common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares") on the basis of ten (10) pre-consolidation Common Shares for one (1) post-consolidation Common Share (the "Consolidation"), and a concurrent brokered private placement offering (the "Offering") consisting of a minimum of 5,714,285 units of the Company (each, a "Unit") at a post-Consolidation price of $0.35 per Unit for minimum gross proceeds of $2,000,000 and a maximum of 8,571,428 Units at a post-Consolidation price of $0.35 per Unit for maximum gross proceeds of up to $3,000,000. Consolidation The Company currently has 293,425,203 Common Shares issued and outstanding, and it is anticipated that immediately following the Consolidation, excluding Common Shares to be issued in connection with this Offering, the Company will have approximately 29,342,520 Common Shares issued and outstanding, prior to rounding of fractional Common Shares. The exercise or conversion price of the Company's convertible securities and the number of Common Shares issuable thereunder will also be proportionately adjusted upon completion of the Consolidation. No fractional Common Shares will be issued as a result of the proposed Consolidation. Any fractional Common Shares resulting from the proposed Consolidation will be rounded up in the case of a fractional interest that is one-half (1/2) of a Common Share or greater, or rounded down in the case of a fractional interest that is less than one-half (1/2) of a Common Share, to the nearest whole number of Common Shares, and no cash consideration will be paid in respect of fractional Common Shares rounded down to the nearest whole Common Share. The Company will issue a subsequent news release in respect of the proposed Consolidation to announce the effective date of the Consolidation, the new CUSIP and ISIN for the post-Consolidation Common Shares, and any other relevant details, and file all necessary documentation with the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") in respect of the proposed Consolidation. The post-Consolidation Common Shares will continue to trade on the CSE under the Company's existing name and trading symbol. The Consolidation remains subject to requisite approvals, including acceptance by the CSE. Offering The Company has entered into an agreement with D12 Capital Markets Inc. ("D12") and its affiliate, Foundation Markets Inc. to act as agents (the "Agents") in connection with the Offering. Completion of the Offering will be contingent upon the Company issuing a minimum of 5,714,285 Units at a post-Consolidation price of $0.35 per Unit for minimum gross proceeds of $2,000,000. Each Unit will consist of one (1) post-Consolidation common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Post-Consolidation Common Share") and one (1) Post-Consolidation Common Share purchase warrant (each, a "Post-Consolidation Warrant"). Each Post-Consolidation Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Post-Consolidation Common Share at a post-Consolidation price of $0.60 for a period of 36 months from the closing date of the Offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds raised from the Offering for research and development, general corporate purposes and working capital. Upon successful closing of the Offering, the Agents will receive a cash commission equal to 8% of the gross proceeds committed to the Company from any party introduced by the Agents. Such payment shall be paid by the Company in equal share to the Agents as per their direction. Closing of the Offering is anticipated to occur on or about June 30, 2025, or such other date as the Company and the Agents may agree upon provided such date is on or before July 14, 2025. Closing of the Offering and payment of the Agents' commission are subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including, but not limited to, acceptance by the CSE. Subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and in accordance with National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions ("NI 45-106"), the Units issuable under the Offering will be offered for sale to purchasers in all provinces and territories of Canada, except Quebec, pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of NI 45-106. The securities to be issued pursuant to the sale of the Units under the Offering will not be subject to resale restrictions in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws. There is an offering document dated May 30, 2025, related to the Offering that can be accessed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Company's website at https://www.biovaxys.com/. Prospective investors should read this offering document before making an investment decision. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any securities in the United States, or in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to available exemptions therefrom. About BioVaxys Technology Corp. BioVaxys Technology Corp. (www.biovaxys.com), a biopharmaceuticals company registered in British Columbia, Canada, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving patient lives with novel immunotherapies based on the DPX immune-educating technology platform and it's HapTenix tumor cell construct platform, for treating cancers, infectious disease, antigen desensitization for food allergy, and other immunological diseases. Through a differentiated mechanism of action, the DPX platform delivers instruction to the immune system to generate a specific, robust, and persistent immune response. The Company's clinical stage pipeline includes maveropepimut-S (MVP-S), based on the DPX platform, and in Phase IIB clinical development for advanced Relapsed-Refractory Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and platinum resistant Ovarian Cancer. MVP-S delivers antigenic peptides from survivin, a well-recognized cancer antigen commonly overexpressed in advanced cancers, and also delivers an innate immune activator and a universal CD4 T cell helper peptide. MVP-S has been well tolerated and has demonstrated defined clinical benefit in multiple cancer indications as well as the activation of a targeted and sustained, survivin-specific anti-tumor immune response. BioVaxys is also developing DPX+SurMAGE, a dual-targeted immunotherapy combining antigenic peptides for both the survivin and MAGE-A9 cancer proteins to elicit immune responses to these two distinct cancer antigens simultaneously, DPX-RSV for Respiratory Syncytial Virus, DPX+rPA for peanut allergy prophylaxis, and BVX-0918, a personalized immunotherapeutic vaccine using its proprietary HapTenix 'neoantigen' tumor cell construct platform for refractive late-stage ovarian cancer. BioVaxys common shares are listed on the CSE under the stock symbol "BIOV" and trade on the Frankfurt Bourse (FRA: 5LB) and in the U.S. on the OTC Markets (OTCQB marketplace). For more information, visit www.biovaxys.com and connect with us on X and LinkedIn. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Signed "James Passin" James Passin, Chief Executive Officer Phone: +1 740 358 0555 Cautionary Statements on Forward Looking Information This news release includes 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, without limitation, statements relating to the future operating or financial performance of the Company, 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. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things, the proposed Consolidation, including the ratio thereof and timing thereof, and the Offering, including the size and use of proceeds, and the timing and ability of the Company to close the Offering, including obtaining approval of the Offering from the CSE. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking 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, primarily the assumption that BioVaxys will be successful in developing and testing vaccines, that, while considered reasonable by BioVaxys, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies including, primarily but without limitation, the risk that BioVaxys' vaccines will not prove to be effective and/ or will not receive the required regulatory approvals. With regards to BioVaxys' business, there are a number of risks that could affect the development of its biotechnology products, including, without limitation, the need for additional capital to fund clinical trials, its lack of operating history, uncertainty about whether its products will complete the long, complex and expensive clinical trial and regulatory approval process for approval of new drugs necessary for marketing approval, uncertainty about whether its autologous cell vaccine immunotherapy can be developed to produce safe and effective products and, if so, whether its vaccine products will be commercially accepted and profitable, the expenses, delays and uncertainties and complications typically encountered by development stage biopharmaceutical businesses, financial and development obligations under license arrangements in order to protect its rights to its products and technologies, obtaining and protecting new intellectual property rights and avoiding infringement to third parties and their dependence on manufacturing by third parties. 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. Such factors include, without limitation, the ability of the Company to complete the Consolidation and the Offering on the terms proposed or at all, and the ability to obtain necessary approvals, including the approval of the CSE. BioVaxys 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. The CSE has not reviewed, approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1430981/BIOVAXYS_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/biovaxys-announces-consolidation-and-concurrent-brokered-private-placement-offering-for-gross-proceeds-of-up-to-3-000-000--302469297.html VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SHARC International Systems Inc. (CSE: SHRC) (FSE: IWIA) (OTCQB: INTWF) ("SHARC Energy" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has filed financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2025. All figures are in Canadian Dollars and in accordance with IFRS unless otherwise stated. First Quarter Financial Highlights: Revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025 ("Q1 2025") is $1.01 million (M), representing 47% of the full year revenue in 2024 and a 30% increase over the $0.78M of revenue reported in the three months ended March 31, 2024 ("Q1 2024"). As of May 30, 2025, the Company has a Sales Pipeline1 of 16.5M and Sales Order Backlog2 of $3.5M. This represents a $0.5M increase or 18% growth in Sales Order Backlog since April 29, 2025 disclosure. Sales Pipeline saw a marginal decrease of 1% since April 29, 2025 disclosure reflecting the deliberate efforts by the Company to refill the pipeline once projects convert to the order book. The combined pipeline showed an aggregate growth of 1% or $0.3M from the previous disclosure on April 29, 2025. The $3.5M Sales Order Backlog, which is estimated to be converted to revenue within an average of 12 months from disclosure, represents a 64% improvement compared to the year ended December 31, 2024 revenue of $2.17M. The Company continues to observe the maturity of its Sales Pipeline providing the Company's revenue more consistency and with reduced volatility, providing a solid platform to scale and grow. During Q1 2025, the Company also reported a loss of $0.92M and an Adjusted EBITDA3 loss of $0.61M. This compares to a loss of $0.76M and an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.85M in the comparative quarter representing a 20% and 22% increase, respectively. Gross margins for Q1 2025 were 31% compared to 38% in Q1 2024. Management remains optimistic that this margin range aligns with our expectations for the coming quarters but the margin percentage varies dependent on sales mix and stage of completion of each project. Michael Albertson, Chief Executive Officer and President of SHARC Energy, said, "We are off to a strong start to the 2025 fiscal year with the Company reporting revenue of just over $1 million which represents a 30% increase over Q1 2024 and 47% of the full year revenue earned in the 2024 fiscal year. More importantly, despite the delivery of revenue, Sales Order Backlog increased by 18% and represents a 64% improvement over 2024 revenue sitting at $3.5 million as of the reporting date. SHARC Energy's revenue growth continues to gain momentum." Mr. Albertson continues, "We recently disclosed key District Energy System ("DES") projects, Lebreton Flats in Ottawa and Senakw in Vancouver, which are leveraging SHARC Wastewater Energy Transfer (WET) systems as the core component to power their thermal networks harnessing wastewater as the key renewable resource. WET supported solutions continue to grow in awareness and acceptance with the Company learning of projects in planning across North America and globally. In the Greater Vancouver, British Columbia region alone, there are several municipal or utility supported DES/Thermal Energy Networks ("TENs") ranging in size and scale in different stages of development that will increase SHARC Energy's local footprint over the next few years. In the United States, legislation allowing or mandating utilities to develop DES/TENs demonstration projects or pilots have been passed in eight states, including the State of New York and recently added California, where the Company has installations in progress, projects in design and a growing list of leads looking to implement Wastewater Energy Transfer with DES/TENs." "We are continuing to progress into new sectors for the SHARC and PIRANHA with promising opportunities developing within wastewater treatment facilities, universities, water utilities, correctional facilities and the design & build/energy sectors. These sectors are increasingly receptive to SHARC Energy's offerings which is promising as these sectors can provide fewer regulatory hurdles, long-term customer relationships, shorter sales cycles, and the potential for larger-scale projects. The Company anticipates the closing of new business in these adjacent sectors as early as this year." "Furthermore, SHARC Energy is gearing up to launch new products in its portfolio which will be introduced to the market soon. With the support of original equipment manufacturer relationships SHARC Energy has, we feel there is significant opportunity to better serve more customers and increase our revenue and margin dollars earned going forward. SHARC Energy's tailwinds are strong and set to propel the Company to profitability in the coming years. We are very excited about our position in the thermal energy market." stated Mr. Albertson. Q1 2025 Highlights and Subsequent Events Fred Andriano appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors. On May 5, 2025, the Company announced significant changes to its Board of Directors, appointing Fred Andriano as Chairman of the Board and Executive Officer, replacing Lynn Mueller, who will now serve as Vice Chairman and Executive Officer. Furthermore, the Company accepted the retirement and resignation of Eleanor Chiu as Director. False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility ("NEU") Expansion . The Company continued work on the supply and maintenance agreement with the City of Vancouver for the provision and maintenance of five SHARC systems for the False Creek NEU Expansion. During the period, the Company completed all remaining milestones of the agreement. The Company continued work on the supply and maintenance agreement with the City of Vancouver for the provision and maintenance of five SHARC systems for the False Creek NEU Expansion. During the period, the Company completed all remaining milestones of the agreement. SHARC System Featured in Ottawa's Lebreton Flats District Energy Project. The Company announced that two SHARC 880 Wastewater Energy Transfer ("WET") systems will be used to power a district energy system in Canada's capital city. SHARC Energy anticipates commencing submittals for the SHARC WET Systems in 2025 with equipment build and delivery expected during 2026. SHARC System Powers Groundbreaking Sen?a?w District Energy System. The SHARC WET system will be the core component of the Sen?a?w Energy System, the largest real estate development in Canadian First Nations history. The SHARC WET system was shipped to the project in Q2 2025. For complete financial information for the three months ended March 31, 2025, please see the Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About SHARC Energy SHARC International Systems Inc. is a world leader in energy recovery from the wastewater we send down the drain every day. SHARC Energy's systems recycle thermal energy from wastewater, generating one of the most energy-efficient and economical systems for heating, cooling & hot water production for commercial, residential, and industrial buildings along with thermal energy networks, commonly referred to as "District Energy". SHARC Energy is publicly traded in Canada (CSE: SHRC), the United States (OTCQB: INTWF) and Germany (Frankfurt: IWIA) and you can find out more on our SEDAR profile. Learn more about SHARC Energy: Website | Investor Page | LinkedIn | YouTube | PIRANHA | SHARC ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Fred Andriano Chairman For investor inquiries, please contact: For media inquiries, please contact: Hanspaul Pannu Mike Tanyi Chief Financial & Operating Officer Director of Marketing & IT SHARC Energy SHARC Energy Telephone: (604) 475-7710 ext. 4 Telephone: 604.475.7710 Ext.109 Email: hanspaul.pannu@sharcenergy.com Email: mike.tanyi@sharcenergy.com The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified using words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", 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. SHARC Energy's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information because of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. SHARC Energy 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. 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 because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation. 1 Sales Pipeline is a non-IFRS measure. Please see discussion of Alternative Performance Measures and Non-IFRS Measures in the Q1 2025 MD&A. 2 Sales Order Backlog is a non-IFRS measure. Please see discussion of Alternative Performance Measures and Non-IFRS Measures in the Q1 2025 MD&A. 3 Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure. Please see discussion of Alternative Performance Measures and Non-IFRS Measures in the Q1 2025 MD&A. MIAMI, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AYR Wellness Inc. (CSE: AYR.A, OTCQX: AYRWF) ("AYR" or the "Company"), a leading vertically integrated U.S. multi-state cannabis operator, announces that it will be unable to meet the deadline of May 30, 2025 (the "Filing Deadline") to file its interim financial report and accompanying management's discussion and analysis and related CEO and ?CFO certificates for the three month period ended March 31, 2025 (collectively, the "Interim Filings") as ?required under applicable Canadian securities laws.? AYR also announces that it has been undertaking a strategic review process given its upcoming payment obligations to its creditors and its desire to continue to execute on its strategic plan. AYR has retained Moelis & Company LLC as its exclusive investment banker to, among other things, explore capital structure alternatives and AYR has entered into negotiations with a committee of its senior lenders (the "Ad Hoc Committee"), which AYR has been advised represent over 50% of the Company's outstanding senior secured notes due December 10, 2026 issued under the Amended and Restated Trust Indenture dated February 7, 2024 between, inter alia, AYR, as issuer, and Odyssey Trust Company, as trustee. These negotiations are part of a broader review and AYR continues to actively assess other strategic alternatives. As a result of the ongoing negotiations, the Company needed to assess the appropriate accounting classifications of certain debt obligations currently under negotiation with the Ad Hoc Committee and, as a result, anticipated it would not be in a position to meet the Filing Deadline. Accordingly, the Company applied to the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") pursuant to National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders for a Management Cease Trade Order ("MCTO") pending the filing of the Interim Filings. Based on their review of the application, the OSC has indicated that it will not proceed with granting the MCTO and will instead issue a failure-to-file cease-trade order ("CTO") in accordance with the principles and guidance set out in National Policy 12-307 - Failure-to-File Cease Trade Orders and Revocations in Multiple Jurisdictions. Upon issuance, the CTO will prohibit all trading in AYR's securities in all Canadian jurisdictions for so long as it remains in effect, and will result in a suspension of the Company's shares from trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE"). Once issued, the CTO will remain in effect until the Company files the Interim Filings and the CTO is revoked and all CSE requirements are satisfied. The Company does not expect the CTO to impact its ability to continue to operate in the ordinary course. The Company expects to complete and file the Interim Filings by ?June 13, 2025. The Company will issue a news release updating the anticipated timing for filing the Documents on June 13, 2025 if not filed on or before then. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this news release may contain forward-looking information or may be forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "target", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "foresee", "could", "would", "estimate", "goal", "outlook", "intend", "plan", "seek", "will", "may", "tracking", "pacing" and "should" and similar expressions or words suggesting future outcomes. This news release includes forward-looking statements pertaining to, among other things, the issuance of a CTO, the timing and completion of the Interim Filings, the proposed negotiations with the Ad Hoc Committee and the outcome of the strategic review process. Numerous risks and uncertainties could cause the actual events and results to differ materially from the estimates, beliefs and assumptions expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. AYR has no intention, and undertakes no 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. About AYR Wellness Inc. AYR Wellness is a vertically integrated, U.S. multi-state cannabis business. The Company operates simultaneously as a retailer with 90+ licensed dispensaries and a house of cannabis CPG brands. AYR is committed to delivering high-quality cannabis products to its patients and customers while acting as a Force for Good for its team members and the communities that the Company serves. For more information, please visit www.ayrwellness.com . Company/Media Contact: Robert Vanisko SVP, Public Affairs T: (786) 885-0397 Email: comms@ayrwellness.com Investor Relations Contact: Sean Mansouri, CFA Elevate IR T: (786) 885-0397 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - ESGold Corp. (CSE: ESAU) (OTCQB: ESAUF) (FSE: Z7D) ("ESGold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the launch of final spiral concentration tests at its Montauban Gold-Silver Project in Quebec-a critical step toward initiating production later this year. The tests are being conducted on material sourced from the historic railbed stockpile, which is geologically distinct from the Anacon tailings material. This railbed material contains significantly higher concentrations of gold and especially silver, and notably lacks mica, which can interfere with traditional separation methods. Below are key highlights from the ongoing spiral concentration tests: Final-stage gravity tests underway on high-grade railbed material using production-model Humphrey Spirals to assess direct bullion pour potential. Targeting a concentrate with less than 0.3% of total mass yet capturing over 50% of contained gold and silver-minimizing cyanide use and maximizing processing efficiency. Lab assay results expected within the month, representing one of the final steps before full-scale production at the Montauban Project begins. Optimizing Recovery and Pour-Ready Concentrate Using a Humphrey Spiral-identical to the equipment already installed in the Montauban plant-the Company is assessing various solid concentrations in feedstock to determine the optimal conditions for generating a high-grade concentrate. The goal is to produce a concentrate representing less than 0.3% of the feed mass while capturing more than 50% of the gold and silver content. If successful, this could allow the Company to bypass traditional circuit steps and pour bullion directly on site, drastically reducing processing time and cyanide consumption. This test not only optimizes throughput efficiency but also supports ESGold's capital-efficient, low-environmental-footprint approach to gold and silver recovery. Strategic Importance of the Railbed Material "The metallurgical profile of the railbed material opens a potentially game-changing opportunity for ESGold," said Paul Mastantuono, CEO at ESGold. "If the spiral tests confirm our hypothesis, we may be able to generate pour-grade concentrate directly from the gravity circuit-reducing reagent consumption, accelerating cash flow, and delivering a more efficient, cleaner production process." Timeline and Next Steps The spiral tests will be completed within one week of commencement. Final lab concentration results are expected within one month after concentration tests. Equipment installation at Montauban continues to advance, with commissioning on track. These spiral tests represent one of the final technical milestones prior to processing startup, reinforcing ESGold's near-term production timeline and its strategy to become one of Canada's next gold and silver mining companies. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Edmond St-Jean, P.Eng., an independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. St-Jean is a consultant to ESGold and has over 40 years of experience in mineral processing and metallurgical engineering. About ESGold Corp. ESGold Corp. (CSE: ESAU) (OTCQB: ESAUF) (FSE: Z7D) is a fully permitted, pre-production resource company at the forefront of clean mining and exploration innovation. With proven expertise in Quebec, the Company is advancing its projects toward production and feasibility while delivering long-term value through sustainable resource recovery and exploration. ESGold's flagship Montauban property, located 80 kilometers west of Quebec City, serves as a model for responsible mining practices, combining near-term production with district-scale discovery potential. For more information, please contact ESGold Corp. at +1-888-370-1059 or visit esgold.com for additional resources, including a French version of this press release, past news releases, a 3D model of the Montauban processing plant, media interviews, and opinion-editorial pieces. Stay connected by following us on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and joining our Telegram channel. On behalf of the Board of Directors Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements are based on assumptions and expectations that involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially. Forward-looking information includes statements regarding the expected use of proceeds, the development and construction timelines of the Montauban Project, future production, and anticipated project milestones. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking information contained in this release is qualified by these cautionary statements. 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/253935 SOURCE: ESGold Corp. Irvine, California--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - EcoGen America, a trusted resource for homeowners seeking solar power, proudly announces the acquisition of ecoSolargy.com, the digital platform of ecoSolargy, Inc., a leading manufacturer of solar panels and solar energy equipment. This strategic acquisition strengthens EcoGen America's position as a leader in the solar energy industry, uniting two organizations dedicated to advancing renewable energy for a sustainable future. Since its founding in 2016, EcoGen America has empowered homeowners across the United States with comprehensive solar energy resources and information through EcoGenAmerica.com. The company provides complementary custom solar quotes, connecting homeowners with top-rated, vetted solar panel installers in their area. EcoGen America educates consumers on the cost of solar installations, solar incentives eligibility, and whether solar panels are worth the investment, helping them make informed decisions about clean energy adoption. Its commitment to transparency and quality has made it a trusted partner for homeowners nationwide. ecoSolargy, Inc., established in 2009, has a distinguished history as a pioneer in solar equipment manufacturing. Renowned for its innovative, high-performance equipment, including the Orion 1000 and Titian 1000 solar panels series, both celebrated for their high performance and durability in extreme weather conditions. The company earned accolades such as the 2014 SCORE Award for its advancements in photovoltaic technology and supplied solar panels for over 10,000 residential and commercial installations by 2020. Through ecoSolargy.com, it provided cutting-edge solar energy equipment, cementing its legacy as a trusted industry leader. The acquisition of ecoSolargy.com enhances EcoGen America's ability to fulfill their mission of guiding homeowners toward solar energy adoption. By integrating ecoSolargy, Inc.'s expertise in solar panels and solar equipment manufacturing with EcoGen America's focus on complementary solar quotes and solar incentives education, the acquisition creates powerful synergies. This strategic move positions EcoGen America to deliver unmatched value to homeowners seeking reliable solar energy solutions. "The acquisition of ecoSolargy.com is a transformative milestone for EcoGen America," said Trevor Guilday, Founder at EcoGen America. "By combining ecoSolargy, Inc.'s legacy in solar equipment manufacturing with our dedication to helping homeowners understand the cost of solar panels and solar incentives, we are poised to lead the solar energy industry and drive clean energy adoption nationwide." EcoGen America remains committed to empowering homeowners with the tools and knowledge to embrace solar energy. The acquisition of ecoSolargy.com reinforces its leadership in connecting consumers with high-quality solar panels and trusted installers. For more information about complimentary quotes, solar incentives, or the cost of solar panels, visit EcoGenAmerica.com. Explore ecoSolargy.com to learn about its pioneering solar panels and contributions to renewable energy. About EcoGen America Headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, EcoGen America is a leading provider of solar energy solutions, offering homeowners free custom solar quotes and expert guidance on solar panels, solar incentives, and the value of solar power through EcoGenAmerica.com. About ecoSolargy, Inc. ecoSolargy, Inc. is a renowned manufacturer of solar panels and solar energy equipment, known for models like Orion 1000 and Titian 1000 solar panels series. Its platform, ecoSolargy.com, reflects its legacy of innovation in renewable energy. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253920 SOURCE: GetFeatured Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Mundoro Capital Inc. (TSXV: MUN) (OTCQB: MUNMF) (www.mundoro.com) ("Mundoro" or the "Company") announces the operating and financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. The Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) for Q1-2025 are filed on SEDAR+, and are available on Mundoro's website under the heading Investors. All amounts are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Q1-2025 Financial Summary Cash Position: As of March 31, 2025, the Company held $5.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and no long-term debt. The working capital for the company is $1.9 million. As of March 31, 2025, the Company held $5.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and no long-term debt. The working capital for the company is $1.9 million. Fees Earned: The Company's fee income, which includes interest, operator fees, option payments, and miscellaneous income, decreased to an aggregate of $740,392 in Q1-2025 compared to $790,957 in Q1-2024, primarily due to a reduction in management fees received resulting from fewer partner-funded programs. The Company's fee income, which includes interest, operator fees, option payments, and miscellaneous income, decreased to an aggregate of $740,392 in Q1-2025 compared to $790,957 in Q1-2024, primarily due to a reduction in management fees received resulting from fewer partner-funded programs. Exploration and Project Evaluation Expenditures: The exploration expenditures, the majority of which are sole-funded by partners, were lower at $1,759,690 in Q1-2025 compared to $2,637,541 in Q1-2024 primarily due to a decrease in the number of partner-funded budgeted exploration work programs. Recoveries from option partners in Q1-2025 were $1,451,815 compared to $2,584,073 in Q1-2024, resulting in net exploration costs of $307,875 in Q1-2025 and $53,468 in Q1-2024. The exploration expenditures, the majority of which are sole-funded by partners, were lower at $1,759,690 in Q1-2025 compared to $2,637,541 in Q1-2024 primarily due to a decrease in the number of partner-funded budgeted exploration work programs. Recoveries from option partners in Q1-2025 were $1,451,815 compared to $2,584,073 in Q1-2024, resulting in net exploration costs of $307,875 in Q1-2025 and $53,468 in Q1-2024. Corporate Expenses: Corporate expenses in Q1-2025 were $296,732 compared to $267,522 in Q1-2024, representing an increase of $29,210 or approximately 9%. The change primarily reflects timing differences related to the accrual of 2025 audit fees. Corporate expenses in Q1-2025 were $296,732 compared to $267,522 in Q1-2024, representing an increase of $29,210 or approximately 9%. The change primarily reflects timing differences related to the accrual of 2025 audit fees. Net Income: For the quarter ended March 31, 2025, the Company recorded a net income of $451 ($0.00 per share), compared to a net income of $436,265 ($0.00 per share) for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. Q1-2025 Exploration Summary and Exploration Plans BHP-Mundoro Projects, Serbia Borsko Passive Seismic and Ground AMT Survey Completed: Fieldwork for a passive seismic survey was completed. The final report and subsequent 3D inversion model were received in Q1-2025. This geophysical technique provides an additional layer of subsurface data for target refinement. Additionally, a ground AMT survey was completed. The 3D inversion model from BHP is expected to be completed in Q2-2025. Fieldwork for a passive seismic survey was completed. The final report and subsequent 3D inversion model were received in Q1-2025. This geophysical technique provides an additional layer of subsurface data for target refinement. Additionally, a ground AMT survey was completed. The 3D inversion model from BHP is expected to be completed in Q2-2025. Green Rock Analysis: Fifty samples were selected for Green Rock analysis. This analysis will provide additional geochemical data for refining targeting. The geochemical results from the study were received in Q2-2025 with additional targeting in mid 2025. Fifty samples were selected for Green Rock analysis. This analysis will provide additional geochemical data for refining targeting. The geochemical results from the study were received in Q2-2025 with additional targeting in mid 2025. Optimizing Drill Locations for Porphyry Source Testing: The exploration team analyzed all available data to determine optimal drill locations, identifying a new target area in the NW part of the license. The exploration team analyzed all available data to determine optimal drill locations, identifying a new target area in the NW part of the license. Exploration Plans: Drill Program Planning Drill Program Planning: Exploration plans for Q2-2025 prioritize preparation for commencing drilling at NW target area, as well as additional targeting and comprehensive planning for future drilling. New Targeting: Additional targeting initiatives are also planned for completion in H2-2025. Trstenik Central Target Area Mapping: Mapping in the central target area was completed, focusing on new road cuts, intrusive outcrops and delineation by the geophysical models anomalies. This mapping enhanced geological understanding by documenting exposed alteration and mineralization, quartz veining systems, and structural controls on potential mineralization at depth, as well as connecting the geophysical anomalies to geological objects. Mapping in the central target area was completed, focusing on new road cuts, intrusive outcrops and delineation by the geophysical models anomalies. This mapping enhanced geological understanding by documenting exposed alteration and mineralization, quartz veining systems, and structural controls on potential mineralization at depth, as well as connecting the geophysical anomalies to geological objects. Structural Analysis and Data Interpretation: Structural analysis and comprehensive data interpretation took place in Q1-2025. This integrated analysis will guide further exploration planning and target refinement for the remainder of 2025. Structural analysis and comprehensive data interpretation took place in Q1-2025. This integrated analysis will guide further exploration planning and target refinement for the remainder of 2025. Exploration Plans: Drill Program Planning North-Central Target Area Drill Program: The delay in receiving forestry permit approval, for the north-central target area drill program, has delayed the start of the drill program from Q4-2024 to 2025. Although the forestry permit approval is understood to be in the final stages, final timing for approval is unknown. Upon approval of the required forestry permits related to drilling, execution of the drill program in the north-central target area is a key priority for H1-2025, representing a step forward in the project's exploration. South Timok During Q1-2025, structural interpretations were completed across the Vitanovac, Ponor, Lipovica, and Orlovac license areas. This work aimed to integrate geophysical data to define key structural features potentially linked to mineralization. Concurrently, additional geophysical fieldwork advanced, with ground Audio-Magnetotelluric (AMT) infill surveys completed at Lipovica and Orlovac, and a ground gravity survey commenced at Orlovac to help identify potential targets in covered terrains. Mundoro Owned Projects, Serbia Serbia: Mundoro holds approximately 419 sq km of exploration licenses in Serbia, primarily within the prolific Timok Magmatic Complex (TMC), known for significant copper-gold deposits like Bor, Majdanpek, and Cukaru Peki. The area benefits from established infrastructure. In Q1-2025, the Company' primary objective was to advance the targeting work to clearly demonstrate the value of these licenses to third-party mining companies. The Company is progressing discussions with third party mining companies in order to potentially option this package of licenses. JOGMEC-Mundoro Project, Bulgaria The JOGMEC-Mundoro EE1 copper project in Bulgaria is prospective for sediment-hosted stratiform copper. JOGMEC completed Stage One earn-in (Q3-2022), and exploration work has been conducted. While drill locations were submitted for permitting and a positive Appropriate Assessment was initially received, objections filed in court delayed the process. Although the courts terminated the objections in Q1-2025, an appeal has been filed, further prolonging permitting and delaying the planned 1,800-meter drill program. Scheduling and commencement of this program remain dependent on the final resolution of the permitting process and receipt of all government approvals. Mundoro Owned Projects, USA Dos Cabezas Project - Arizona: Advancing Porphyry Copper Targets: Mundoro's 100%-owned Dos Cabezas Project, available for joint venture, covers approximately 61 sq km in Southeast Arizona's Laramide magmatic arc. Situated 150 km east of Tucson, and south of the Safford district, exploration has defined six targets: four with surface porphyry copper signatures and two representing potential covered centers in the pediments. Q1-2025 activities included submitting samples for geochronology (confirming Laramide ages, with further results expected Q3-2025), conducting partner site visits, performing fieldwork at the Elma target, and refining the Mescal Canyon geological model with 2023 drill data. Copperopolis Project - Arizona: Generative Fieldwork and Target Generation: Located in Yuvapi County, northwest Arizona, the Copperopolis Property features historic high-grade Au-Cu veins and is considered prospective for deeper Laramide-age porphyry systems, with a target identified near the San Juan Mine. Completed work includes historic vein evaluation, detailed mapping at San Juan (identifying NE-trending dikes, breccias, and weak-to-moderate porphyry-style alteration), and high-resolution drone imagery. Q1-2025 saw a BLEG geochemical survey (results expected Q2-2025), detailed mapping confirming a sheeted dike complex, and geochronology (U-Pb results Q2-2025 consistent with nearby operating mines). Picacho Project - Arizona: Unlocking Covered Porphyry Potential: The Picacho Project, wholly owned by Mundoro and available for partnership, encompasses a 105 sq km land package (State Permits and Federal Claims) in central Arizona. It is strategically located within a cluster of major porphyry copper deposits. Exploration efforts have identified three covered target areas, either untested or only partially tested, indicating potential for concealed porphyry systems. In Q1-2025, geochronology work was undertaken, with results received in Q2-2025 confirming a Laramide age (68Ma) for a key igneous unit, consistent with the regional mineralizing events. Generative Programs: Mundoro is actively evaluating new opportunities: Serbia: Evaluating areas in Cretaceous and Tertiary Belts. Evaluating areas in Cretaceous and Tertiary Belts. USA: Targeting copper in Arizona's Laramide Belt and other Western US belts. Targeting copper in Arizona's Laramide Belt and other Western US belts. Global: Evaluated three additional geological belts, focusing on copper. Qualified Persons The scientific and technical information described in this Press Release has been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101. The scientific and technical information for this press release has been reviewed and approved by R. Jemielita, PhD, MIMMM, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and Chief Geologist to the Company. About Mundoro Capital Inc. Mundoro is a publicly listed company on the TSX-V in Canada and OTCQB in the USA with a portfolio of mineral properties focused primarily on base and precious metals. To drive value for shareholders, Mundoro's asset portfolio generates near-term cash payments to Mundoro and creates royalties attached to each mineral property optioned to partners. The portfolio of mineral properties is currently focused on predominantly copper in two mineral districts: Western Tethyan Belt in Eastern Europe and the Laramide Belt in the southwest USA. Follow Mundoro's weekly updates from the field on: LinkedIn and X @Mundoro Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This News Release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe" or "continue" or similar words or the negative thereof, and include the following: completion of earn-in expenditures, options and completion of a definitive agreement by the parties. The material assumptions that were applied in making the forward-looking statements in this News Release include expectations as to the mineral potential of the Company's projects, the Company's future strategy and business plan and execution of the Company's existing plans. We caution readers of this News Release not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this News Release, as there can be no assurance that they will occur and they are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include general economic and market conditions, exploration results, commodity prices, changes in law, regulatory processes, the status of Mundoro's assets and financial condition, actions of competitors and the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities. The forward-looking statements contained in this News Release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this News Release are made as of the date of this News Release and the Board undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Shareholders are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and for a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedarplus.ca. 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253924 SOURCE: Mundoro Capital Inc. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - THS Maple Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: YAY) (the "Company" or "THS"), a leading producer and global distributor of maple syrup and maple-flavoured products, today announced its financial and operational results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2025. The Company continues to focus on executing strategic initiatives, improving operational efficiencies, and expanding its market presence. Financial Performance Highlights 3 Months Ended 9 Months Ended March 31, 2025 February 29, 20241 March 31, 2025 February 29, 20241 Sales $2,769,707 $1,809,618 $10,283,015 $7,800,188 Cost of Sales $2,235,705 $1,558,433 $8,001,285 $6,327,406 Gross Profit $534,002 $251,185 $2,281,730 $1,472,782 Selling Expenses $363,357 $224,957 $1,042,872 $766,514 Administrative Expenses $580,085 $459,506 $1,768,446 $1,569,873 Operating Income (Loss) $(409,440) $(433,278) $(529,588) $(863,605) Loss on settlement of debt - - - $911,314 Finance costs and Other Income $178,227 $216,887 $476,090 $825,720 Income Tax Expense - - $136 $138,910 Pre-tax Income (Loss) $(587,667) $(650,165) $(1,005,814) $(2,739,549) Net Income (Loss) per share $(0.010) $(0.025) $(0.017) $(0.110) 1. Comparative Period for 2024 reflects the recent change in fiscal year end. Key Financial Highlights Revenue Growth Over Nine Months : Sales for the nine-month period ended March 31, 2025, grew 32% year-over-year to $10.3 million, up from $7.8 million in the prior year. For the three-month period ended March 31, 2025, sales grew 53% year-over-year to $2.8 million, compared to $1.8 million in the same period last year. : Sales for the nine-month period ended March 31, 2025, grew 32% year-over-year to $10.3 million, up from $7.8 million in the prior year. For the three-month period ended March 31, 2025, sales grew 53% year-over-year to $2.8 million, compared to $1.8 million in the same period last year. Gross Profit Margin Improvement Over Nine Months, opportunity to further strengthen margins: The nine-month gross profit margin improved to 22.2%, up from 18.9% in the prior year, reflecting increased sales volume and operational efficiencies. In Q3, gross profit margin increased to 19.3% from 13.9%, due to significant sales volume increase during this period but remains below the Company's expectation as it was negatively affected by the low supply of certain categories of maple syrup causing the Company to use more expensive organic syrup for some orders. The nine-month gross profit margin improved to 22.2%, up from 18.9% in the prior year, reflecting increased sales volume and operational efficiencies. In Q3, gross profit margin increased to 19.3% from 13.9%, due to significant sales volume increase during this period but remains below the Company's expectation as it was negatively affected by the low supply of certain categories of maple syrup causing the Company to use more expensive organic syrup for some orders. Lower Finance Costs (including Other Income) and Debt Optimization: Finance costs for Q3 were $178,227, down from $216,887 in the prior-year quarter, and for the nine-month period totalled $476,090, a 42.3% reduction from $825,720. The decrease is primarily due to a more efficient capital structure and the impact of reduced short-term debt following the Business Combination transaction completed in April 2024. Finance costs for Q3 were $178,227, down from $216,887 in the prior-year quarter, and for the nine-month period totalled $476,090, a 42.3% reduction from $825,720. The decrease is primarily due to a more efficient capital structure and the impact of reduced short-term debt following the Business Combination transaction completed in April 2024. Financial Stability Measures: The Company recently received an Amendment to its Credit Agreement increasing its available credit limit by 67% once it will be in effect (see full Subsequent Event note in the MD&A). Operational Highlights U.S. Expansion Progress: The Company's warehouse and distribution centre in Vermont is now fully operational, supporting growth in the U.S. market by way of introducing new brands (New England Maple Farms), enhancing inventory management between its facilities, reducing logistics costs and addressing potential politically-driven trade constraints. The Company's warehouse and distribution centre in Vermont is now fully operational, supporting growth in the U.S. market by way of introducing new brands (New England Maple Farms), enhancing inventory management between its facilities, reducing logistics costs and addressing potential politically-driven trade constraints. Production Efficiency Improvements: The Granby facility expansion has allowed for increased packaging capacity, enabling the Company to better fulfil its international trading expansion activities. CEO Commentary "Our third-quarter results reflect our efforts to rapidly grow sales volumes despite some margin pressure due to higher input costs," said Tom Zaffis, CEO of THS Maple Holdings Ltd. "As the third quarter is seasonally the slowest period of the year, we are encouraged by our operational improvements. The steps we've taken to enhance production efficiency and financial stability set the Company up well as we now enter our busier seasons. The launch of our Vermont distribution centre and the expansion of our Granby facility are significant milestones that position us for both US and international commercial expansion and diversification." THS continues to focus on enhancing supply chain efficiencies, improving margins, and expanding market share in key regions. With increasing global demand for natural sweeteners and maple products, the Company remains confident in its ability to deliver long-term value for shareholders. Non-IFRS Financial Measures Management uses net loss and comprehensive loss as presented in the unaudited interim condensed consolidated statements of net loss and comprehensive loss as well as "EBITDA" as a measure to assess performance of the Company (see full note in MD&A). EBITDA for the nine-month period improved by $1.4 million, being negative $113,126, compared to negative $1,549,928 in the prior year. This improvement was driven by higher gross profit and disciplined cost management. In Q3, EBITDA improved by $98,902 at negative $256,631, compared to negative $355,533 in the prior-year quarter. 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 REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This press release contains "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, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this press 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 press release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: the expectation that the Company's margins will improve; the benefits associated with becoming a publicly traded company and having access to broader capital markets; the benefits of acquiring a retail kiosk in the Old Port of Montreal; the viability of the Company opening its first US warehouse; and the Company's ability to optimize production and expand distribution. 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. 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 press release. Except as required by law, THS assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253964 SOURCE: THS Maple Holdings Ltd. TotalEnergies and RGE have joined forces in a solar and battery project in Indonesia Today, the project was awarded a conditional licence by Singapore's Energy Market Authority to import 1 GW of Clean Firm Power to Singapore The project will also supply electricity to local industry in Indonesia TotalEnergies (Paris:TTE) (LSE:TTE) (NYSE:TTE) and RGE, a group operating in the bio-based resources and energy sectors, are pleased to announce that Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) has awarded their equally-owned joint venture Singa Renewables ("Singa") a conditional licence to import 1 GW of renewable power from Indonesia. Today, the partners also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore Energy Interconnections (SGEI) to jointly develop a subsea interconnector, enabling electricity imports from Indonesia to Singapore. The partners had previously signed a Co-Investment Agreement to develop, build and operate a hybrid renewable power plant comprising a solar farm, Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), and a subsea cable in Riau Province, Indonesia, during an official ceremony in Jakarta on May 28th, 2025, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. A flagship initiative for the decarbonization of local industries The project will supply Clean Firm Power to energy-intensive consumers in Singapore and to industrial complexes near the solar site in Riau Province, Indonesia. Throughout the project's development, the partners will harness TotalEnergies' global expertise in large-scale energy projects while leveraging RGE's wide footprint in Indonesia and Singapore. "I would like to thank the Singapore authorities for granting the necessary licences for this landmark electricity import project, that we are pleased to develop with our partner RGE," said Helle Kristoffersen, President Asia and Executive Committee Member at TotalEnergies. "The project will contribute to Singapore's goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, while supporting Riau Province's economic development in Indonesia. This initiative also illustrates TotalEnergies' commitment to ASEAN's energy transition and security of supply." "We are doing our part to accelerate the region's clean energy transition," said Imelda Tanoto, Managing Director at RGE. "The Conditional Licence is a key milestone that affirms our role in advancing the region's collaboration and decarbonization goals as we remain focused on creating lasting value for communities, markets, and governments alike." TotalEnergies and electricity TotalEnergies is building a competitive portfolio that combines renewables (solar, onshore wind, offshore wind) and flexible assets (CCGT, storage) to deliver clean firm power to its customers. As of the end of March 2025, TotalEnergies has 28 GW of installed gross renewable electricity generation capacity and aims to reach 35 GW by the end of 2025, and more than 100 TWh of net electricity production by 2030. About TotalEnergies TotalEnergies is a global integrated energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas, biogas and low-carbon hydrogen, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to providing as many people as possible with energy that is more reliable, more affordable and more sustainable. Active in about 120 countries, TotalEnergies places sustainability at the heart of its strategy, its projects and its operations. @TotalEnergiesTotalEnergiesTotalEnergiesTotalEnergies Cautionary Note The terms "TotalEnergies", "TotalEnergies company" or "Company" in this document are used to designate TotalEnergies SE and the consolidated entities that are directly or indirectly controlled by TotalEnergies SE. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" may also be used to refer to these entities or to their employees. The entities in which TotalEnergies SE directly or indirectly owns a shareholding are separate legal entities. This document may contain forward-looking information and statements that are based on a number of economic data and assumptions made in a given economic, competitive and regulatory environment. They may prove to be inaccurate in the future and are subject to a number of risk factors. Neither TotalEnergies SE nor any of its subsidiaries assumes any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information or statement, objectives or trends contained in this document whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Information concerning risk factors, that may affect TotalEnergies' financial results or activities is provided in the most recent Universal Registration Document, the French-language version of which is filed by TotalEnergies SE with the French securities regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), and in the Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250530468391/en/ Contacts: TotalEnergies Contacts Media Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 99 l presse@totalenergies.com l @TotalEnergiesPR Investor Relations: +33 (0)1 47 44 46 46 l ir@totalenergies.com Las Vegas, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Hotomobil, a Turkish camper brand with a strong presence in Europe, recently announced CyberGlad, a cabin designed for the Tesla Cybertruck, at Bitcoin 2025. Hotomobil designs and manufactures modular camper cabins intended for flexible, year-round travel. Its flagship product line, Gladiator, is compatible with mid-size and full-size trucks and now includes a custom model developed for new vehicle platforms. The cabins are built for ease of use-mountable or removable without tools, and with optional electric legs that allow for quick transfer between vehicles. An add-on rooftop tent can expand sleeping capacity to accommodate up to five people. Hotomobil Launches the First Camper Offered in Bitcoin at Bitcoin 2025 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8552/253803_dcd6f627e4b38a1f_001full.jpg All Hotomobil campers are produced in Turkiye using yacht-grade materials and manufacturing techniques. Designed for four-season use, each unit features monoblock construction, robust insulation, and streamlined, aerodynamic profiles. Already exporting nearly 80% of its production to Europe, the company is now expanding into North and South America, establishing operations across six continents, including Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Hotomobil is certified by Volkswagen and Stellantis as an approved second-stage manufacturer and holds official European road registration. Hotomobil Launches the First Camper Offered in Bitcoin at Bitcoin 2025 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8552/253803_dcd6f627e4b38a1f_002full.jpg Bitcoin 2025 Marks a First: A Fully Equipped Camper, Priced in Crypto At the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Hotomobil introduced CyberGlad, a fully equipped living cabin designed for the Tesla Cybertruck and offered for sale in Bitcoin. The launch stood out at the event as the first time a camper was offered for sale in Bitcoin, combining mobile living with digital payments. Hotomobil's presence at the world's largest cryptocurrency event was about more than introducing a new vehicle, it underscored a growing intersection between mobile living, technology, and alternative payment systems. As a brand known for bringing comfort and smart design to the road, Hotomobil used the event to highlight how the idea of "freedom" is evolving. The newly launched CyberGlad drew attention with its aerodynamic monoblock body, four-season insulation, and tool-free setup using optional electric legs. An add-on rooftop tent extends sleeping capacity to five people. Designed for self-sufficiency and flexibility, the model targets those looking to live off-grid on their own terms, both physically and financially. "CyberGlad isn't just a camper. It's a new take on freedom, independence, and how we live on the move," said Pinar Kamci, CEO of Hotomobil. "It reflects where road travel is going - electric, efficient, and more connected to how people want to live today. We're continuing to develop solutions that fit this new era of mobility. Hotomobil is a young and forward-thinking brand that listens, adapts, and builds for the way people want to live tomorrow." To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253803 SOURCE: B2Press BV Kelowna, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Enduro Metals Corporation (TSXV: ENDR) (OTCQB: ENDMF) (FSE: SOG0) ("Enduro" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of its acquisition of Commander Resources Ltd. ("Commander"), originally announced on December 9, 2024, pursuant to a court-approved plan of arrangement (the "Plan of Arrangement"). The Plan of Arrangement was implemented pursuant to the terms and conditions of an arrangement agreement dated February 25, 2025 between Enduro and Commander, and has resulted in the acquisition by Enduro of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Commander (the "Commander Shares") in exchange for consideration of 0.535 of a common share of Enduro (each full share, an "Enduro Share") for each Commander Share (the "Exchange Ratio"). "Today marks the start of a new era for Enduro Metals, and I am delighted to hand over the reins to Rob Cameron who takes over as the new CEO," commented Cole Evans, Director and outgoing CEO of Enduro. "With the completion of this transaction, the company is now on a sound financial footing, and planning for the forthcoming field season at Newmont Lake is already well advanced. I would also like to thank on behalf of the Company Laurence Roulston for his years of dedication and many valuable contributions to the Company. We wish him well in his future endeavours." In connection with completion of the Plan of Arrangement, Robert Cameron has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company, replacing Cole Evans, who will continue as a director of Enduro. In addition, each of Robert Cameron and Brandon Macdonald have been appointed directors of the Company. Lawrence Roulston has resigned as a director of Enduro. Mr. Cameron is a professional geologist and has over 40 years of international experience in the mining industry including positions as President and CEO of Valley High Ventures and Bearing Resources Ltd., as well as Vice-President and Manager of exploration for Phelps Dodge Corporation of Canada Limited (then a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.). In addition, he has extensive market and finance experience including a term as mining analyst for Research Capital. Mr. Macdonald is a Professional Geologist with a diverse background in exploration geology, mining, and finance. He earned his B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia in 2000, and later completed an MBA at Oxford University in 2007. His experience includes time at Macquarie Bank in London, UK, and as founding CEO of Fireweed Metals Corp. In connection with the closing, a total of 23,692,393 Enduro Shares have been issued to the former holders of Commander Shares, resulting in former Commander shareholders holding approximately 45.65% of the total number of issued and outstanding Enduro Shares post-closing (based on 51,885,012 Enduro Shares issued and outstanding immediately after closing). In addition, the outstanding options to purchase Commander Shares have been replaced with options to purchase Enduro Shares on the same terms and conditions, other than necessary adjustments to take into account the Exchange Ratio, as set out in the Plan of Arrangement. In order to obtain their Enduro Shares, shareholders holding share certificates of Commander in their names ("Registered Shareholders") will be required to complete a letter of transmittal (a "Letter of Transmittal") and submit it to Computershare Investor Services Inc. and otherwise follow the instructions contained in the letter of transmittal and described in the management information circular of Commander dated April 9, 2025. Copies of the Circular and the Letter of Transmittal (labelled "Cover letter") may be obtained on Commander's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca and will also be available on Enduro's website at www.endurometals.com. Registered Shareholders of Commander who have lost the certificates representing their Commander Shares should contact Computershare Investor Services Inc. at corporateactions@computershare.com for information on how to receive their Enduro Shares. Shareholders who hold their Commander Shares through intermediaries such as a brokerage firm or clearing agency ("Non-registered Shareholders") do not need to take any further action to receive their Enduro Shares, as their Enduro Shares will be automatically re-registered to them. Non-registered Shareholders of Commander and who have questions regarding how the Enduro Shares to which they are entitled will be processed should contact their intermediaries. It is expected that the Commander Shares will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") on or about May 30, 2025 (or such later date as determined by the TSXV). Commander will also apply to cease to be a reporting issuer in the jurisdictions in which it is currently a reporting issuer. A copy of the applicable early warning report concerning the acquisition of the Commander Shares by Enduro will be filed under Enduro's profile on the SEDAR+ website and may also be obtained by contacting Enduro's new CEO, Robert 778) 989-1501 (1111 Melville St, Vancouver, BC V6E 3V6). Advisors and Counsel Pushor Mitchell LLP acted as legal counsel to Enduro in connection with the Plan of Arrangement. GenCap Mining Advisory Ltd. acted as financial advisor to Commander and Koffman Kalef LLP acted as legal counsel to Commander. About Enduro Metals Enduro Metals is an exploration company focused on its Newmont Lake Project; a total 688km2 property located within the heart of British Columbia's Golden Triangle. Building on prior results, Enduro's geological team has outlined multiple deposit environments of interest across the Newmont Lake Project including high-grade epithermal/skarn gold along the McLymont Fault, copper-gold alkalic porphyry mineralization at Burgundy, newly discovered copper-gold porphyry mineralization at North Toe. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Enduro's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such 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 statements concerning the Parties' expectation with respect to the de-listing of the Commander Shares and the expectation that Commander will apply to cease to be a reporting issuer. Although Enduro believes the forward-looking information contained in this news release is reasonable based on information available on the date hereof, forward-looking statements by their nature involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF ENDURO AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE ENDURO MAY ELECT TO, NEITHER OF THEM UNDERTAKES TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 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/253968 SOURCE: Enduro Metals Corporation Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Max Resource Corp. (TSXV: MAX) is pleased to announce that it will be participating in THE Mining Investment Event, Canada's Only Tier 1 Global Mining Investment Conference, taking place June 3-5, 2025, at the Quebec Convention Centre, Quebec City, Canada. Max Resource Corp.'s management will be available to meet, and hold scheduled one-on-one investor meetings throughout the three-day conference. "We are particularly excited about the global audience that THE Event has attracted, showcasing the best of international mining in Canada. This is a unique chance to engage with industry leaders and innovators, facilitating discussions that will shape the future of our sector. We look forward to seeing many of you there and exploring the possibilities that await us at this prestigious gathering." Information regarding THE Event, including investor registration details, a list of participating companies, panelists and keynote speakers, as well as a preliminary agenda, can be found at https://www.themininginvestmentevent.com/. About Max Resource Corp. Max's wholly owned Sierra Azul Project sits along the Colombian portion of the world's largest producing copper belt (Andean belt), with world-class infrastructure and the presence of global majors (Glencore and Chevron). Max has an Earn-In Agreement ("EIA") with Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corporation ("Freeport"), a wholly owned affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. relating to the Sierra Azul Project. Under the terms of the EIA, Freeport has been granted a two-stage option to acquire up to an 80% ownership interest in the Sierra Azul Project by funding cumulative expenditures of C$50 million and making cash payments to Max of C$1.55million. Max is the operator of the initial stage. The USD $4.8 million 2025 exploration program for the Sierra Azul Project is funded by Freeport. Max Iron Brazil's wholly owned Floralia DSO Project is located 67-km east of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil's largest iron ore and steel producing State. Max's technical team has significantly expanded the Floralia DSO hematite geological target from 8-12mt at 58% Fe to 50-70mt at 55%-61% Fe. Max Iron Brazil Ltd. ("Max Brazil"), a majority owned subsidiary of Max. As announced on February 27, 2025, Max Brazil plans to seek listing on the ASX Limited ("ASX") or "Australian Stock Exchange")."Australian Stock Exchange"). THE Event is by invitation only - Interested investors & issuers, please go here: https://www.themininginvestmentevent.com/register or contact Jennifer Choi, jchoi@irinc.ca About: THE Mining Investment Event-Canada's Only Tier 1 Global Mining Investment Conference is held annually in Quebec City, Canada. It is independently sponsored and designed to facilitate privately arranged meetings between mining companies, international investors, and various mining government authorities. The conference provides a platform to hear from some of the most influential thought leaders in the sector. THE Event is committed to promoting diversity, equality, and sustainability in the mining industry through education and innovation through its unique Student Sponsorship and SHE-Co Initiatives. Max cautions investors the potential quantity and grade of the iron ore is conceptual in nature, and further cautions there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource, and Max is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource. DSO and Iron Ore are widely recognized industry terms, however they are not meant to imply Floralia hosts mineral reserves or resources as defined in National Instrument 43-101. SOURCE: VID Media Astana, Kazakhstan--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - The Astana International Forum (AIF) 2025 opened today with a high-level ceremony that set the stage for two days of strategic dialogue and cross-border collaboration. Held under the auspices of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, this year's Forum gathers global leaders to address some of the world's most urgent challenges under the theme "Connecting Minds, Shaping the Future." To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8530/253958_aif.jpg In his opening remarks, President Tokayev emphasized the urgency of restoring multilateralism in an increasingly fragmented world: "The post-war global order is fragmenting. Protectionism is rising. Multilateralism is faltering. In this emerging disorder, the task before us is clear: to preserve cooperation where it still exists, and to restore it where it has broken down... That's what we in Kazakhstan strongly pursue: 'The unity in diversity'." The Forum welcomed several high-profile speakers, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, North Macedonian President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, and Ban Ki-moon, Chair of the Global Green Growth Institute and former UN Secretary-General. The session was moderated by Julia Chatterley. Reflecting on the progress that Kazakhstan has made, President Kagame noted that "Kazakhstan's prosperity is the reflection of its leadership, resilience and its people." President Siljanovska-Davkova addressed how to resolve current global crises, stressing that, "We need to use the collective wisdom and experience to think fast, or faster, in order to cope with the pressing challenges of our time." Alain Berset emphasized democratic values as central to global security, stating: "We gather here... to discuss security, energy, climate, and the economy. But let us be honest, these cannot be secured if democracy fails." Meanwhile, Ban Ki-moon praised Kazakhstan's role as a convener: "This year's theme reflects the kind of leadership we need today. One that is collaborative, forward-looking, and rooted in shared responsibility." Qu Dongyu highlighted the role of Central Asia and Kazakhstan in ensuring global food security. "Central Asia stands at the crossroad geopolitically, economically, and climatically," he said, adding: "Kazakhstan's territory is 2,800 square kilometres. With proper management, investments and new technologies - Kazakhstan can easily feed 1 billion people worldwide." The agenda featured action-oriented sessions on climate change, energy security, and conflict resolution. In a one-on-one with journalist Tony Barber, former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz welcomed growing attention to Central Asia: "Europe is now seeing the need for deeper cooperation with this part of the world." UN-backed discussions were a highlight of the Forum, with the organization serving as a strategic partner. Sessions marked the UN's 80th anniversary and addressed priorities like the Pact for the Future, migration, and water security. A standout was a conversation between CNN's Max Foster and Amy E. Pope, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on migration's role in sustainable development. As day one concluded, AIF reaffirmed its mission to elevate the role of middle powers, reinforce the value of multilateralism, and accelerate practical global solutions. Day two will continue to foster partnerships and dialogue that aim to shape a more stable, inclusive, and interconnected world. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253958 SOURCE: GYT Calling All Little Artists! RuffleButts Kicks Off National Creativity Day with Fun Contest and Exciting Prizes DALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / In honor of National Creativity Day, RuffleButts is kicking off a month-long celebration of imagination and self-expression with the return of their beloved Little Artists Design Contest. Budding young artists across the country are invited to unleash their creativity for a chance to win exciting prizes, including $200 in RuffleButts store credit and a bundle of art supplies. RuffleButts is passionate about inspiring kids to dream big and express themselves through creativity. Whether it's through playful clothing designs or fun contests, they love helping little ones explore their imagination and make joyful memories. Parents can help their little ones get started by downloading RuffleButts' free coloring pages and by encouraging their children to create their own original design on the blank canvas . Once their design is complete, simply upload a picture or scanned copy through the form available on the RuffleButts website . Entries must be submitted by June 30, 2025, and winners will be announced in July. How to Enter: Download the free coloring pages and create an original design Complete the submission form on the RuffleButts website Upload a photo or scan of your child's artwork For more information on this content and how to enter, visit their website . Follow RuffleButts on social media to stay up-to-date on contrast progress and winner announcements ( Facebook , Instagram , and TikTok ) About RuffleButts + RuggedButts RuffleButts + RuggedButts is a digitally native premium children's apparel company founded in 2007 with a ruffle bloomer that has now grown to a full assortment of premium children's apparel. Known for lasting quality, playful prints, and family-matching collections for life's special moments, RuffleButts has quickly grown to annual revenue exceeding $40M. Our products can be found online at Rufflebutts.com, Ruggedbutts.com, Amazon, select premium retailers such as Nordstrom, and hundreds of specialty retail locations around the globe. RuffleButts has been a Summit Park holding since 2020. Contact Information Scott Adams Sr. Director of Marketing sadams@rufflebutts.com (704) 825-8811 SOURCE: RuffleButts, Inc. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/rufflebutts-launches-annual-little-artists-design-contest-in-cel-1033818 MIAMI, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In an industry historically dominated by legacy firms and rigid structures, STT Logistics Group is pioneering a new path in freight brokerage through an innovative franchise model. Spearheaded by founder and CEO Andre Corbert, the company's mission is not only to modernize logistics, but to make business ownership more accessible for aspiring entrepreneurs from all backgrounds. Founded on the principle that logistics should not be gatekept by institutional barriers, STT Logistics Group is offering a "business-in-a-box" model that packages its proven systems, operational infrastructure, and branding into a franchise opportunity. The goal? To turn one of the world's most traditional industries into a launchpad for independent success. "Our model opens the door for people who never thought they could build a logistics company," says Corbert. "We've done the heavy lifting. Now we're handing over the keys to a fully supported, scalable system that empowers individuals to build thriving businesses of their own." This forward-thinking approach is disrupting an industry that's often slow to change. In recent years, over 30,000 freight brokerages entered the U.S. market, drawn by the sector's potential. But between 2023 and 2024, more than 5,000 of those businesses shuttered, unable to navigate the complexities of compliance, operations, and customer acquisition. STT Logistics Group's franchise model addresses these challenges directly by providing a turnkey solution and continuous mentorship from the company's leadership team. Unlike traditional corporate expansion, STT Logistics Group's strategy focuses on scaling through people, not just property. Each franchisee receives access to a carrier network, dispatch software, logistics tools, and STT Logistics Group's lead generation engine. Most critically, they join a values-based network where autonomy is supported, and performance is tracked through the company's signature PPF goal-setting framework - Professional, Personal, and Financial objectives set during onboarding. The impact is already visible. STT Logistics Group's franchise locations are attracting a wide array of new business owners - from former logistics employees to individuals with backgrounds in tech, finance, and real estate. This diversity is not incidental; it's by design. "We're not just building a logistics network," Corbert adds. "We're building a community of high-performers who want more than a paycheck. They want ownership, freedom, and a stake in something growing fast." In addition to its people-first approach, STT Logistics Group is actively investing in logistics technology. AI-assisted dispatch, automation systems, and predictive analytics are already being piloted at the company's headquarters in Miami, with plans to deploy these tools across all franchise locations. By combining tech-forward strategy with human leadership, STT Logistics Group is redefining what modern freight management can look like. This hybrid model also ensures that each STT Logistics Group franchise maintains flexibility and agility in the face of industry changes. Rather than relying solely on centralized decision-making, the company continuously integrates feedback from the field into its broader business strategy, allowing it to adapt in real-time and remain competitive. For Corbert, the mission is both business and personal. Having built STT Logistics Group from the ground up, he understands the challenges that come with launching and sustaining a logistics business. His goal now is to democratize that journey, to remove the barriers that stop so many talented individuals from ever getting started. "Innovation in logistics doesn't just mean faster trucks or smarter software," he says. "It means building systems that include more people, scale sustainably, and evolve with the market. That's what we're doing." About STT Logistics Group STT Logistics Group is a Miami-based freight brokerage company specializing in oversized and heavy equipment transportation. Founded by Andre Corbert, STT Logistics Group is reimagining the freight industry through its innovative franchise model, operational excellence, and investment in technology. The company supports a growing network of franchisees with tools, mentorship, and systems designed to build scalable, profitable logistics businesses. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694598/STT_Andre_Corbert.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/why-stt-logistics-group-is-the-most-promising-name-in-freight-right-now-302469560.html BANGALORE, India, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Server Liquid Cold Plate Market is Segmented by Type (Copper Type, Copper+Aluminum Type), by Application (Internet, BFSI, Telecom, Energy, Healthcare). The Server Liquid Cold Plate Market was valued at USD 153 Million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 4361 Million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 62.3% during the forecast period. Claim Your Free Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-23S16623/Global_Server_Liquid_Cold_Plate_Market Major Factors Driving the Growth of Server Liquid Cold Plate Market: The server liquid cold plate market is undergoing a transformation driven by demand for high-efficiency cooling in increasingly compact, high-performance server environments. These cold plates are emerging as a vital component in both centralized and edge computing infrastructure. The ability to manage thermal loads effectively while reducing energy consumption positions them as a key solution in the evolution of sustainable and scalable data centers. With investments flowing into AI, cloud services, and decentralized computing, the market is poised for substantial growth across multiple sectors. Unlock Insights: View Full Report Now! https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-23S16623/global-server-liquid-cold-plate TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE SERVER LIQUID COLD PLATE MARKET: The Copper+Aluminum type is gaining traction in the server liquid cold plate market due to its effective balance between performance and cost-efficiency. Copper ensures superior thermal conductivity, while aluminum contributes lightweight characteristics and reduces the overall cost of the cold plate assembly. This hybrid composition supports large-scale data center deployments where heat dissipation and structural optimization are critical. As high-density servers generate more heat, the need for reliable thermal solutions becomes essential. The growing demand for modular and scalable server infrastructure further pushes the adoption of copper+aluminum cold plates. Their adaptability to various cooling systems and improved thermal interface performance make them a preferred choice for data centers focused on performance-per-watt metrics and operational reliability. Pure copper cold plates are contributing significantly to the server liquid cold plate market due to their unmatched thermal conductivity. These solutions are increasingly used in high-performance computing environments, including AI servers and GPU clusters, where efficient heat transfer is crucial to maintaining processing speed and system longevity. Copper's superior heat dissipation capabilities help reduce hotspots and extend component life. The expansion of hyperscale data centers and enterprise computing facilities further boosts the use of copper-based cold plates. Though more expensive than aluminum or hybrid variants, the performance benefits of copper justify its adoption in mission-critical infrastructure. This preference for premium cooling solutions is directly influencing the market's growth trajectory. The explosive growth of internet usage, streaming platforms, cloud computing, and e-commerce has intensified the demand for efficient data center infrastructure. This surge requires servers with enhanced processing capabilities, which in turn generate higher thermal loads. Liquid cold plates offer a more effective solution than traditional air cooling systems, especially in high-density server racks. As internet data traffic continues to expand exponentially, especially with the growth of 5G and IoT ecosystems, data centers must implement robust cooling strategies. Liquid cooling using cold plates provides energy-efficient temperature regulation, supporting the uninterrupted performance of servers handling massive data flow, thus fueling the demand for advanced thermal management components. Modern data centers are evolving toward compact, high-performance server racks that generate substantial heat. Traditional air-based cooling systems often fail to manage such thermal loads efficiently. Server liquid cold plates provide a direct-to-chip cooling solution, removing heat at the source and allowing data centers to maximize computing density without thermal throttling. The push for space optimization and improved energy efficiency has made cold plates essential for next-generation infrastructure, directly enhancing the market potential for these solutions across cloud service providers and colocation facilities. High-performance computing applications in sectors such as scientific research, defense, and financial modeling require exceptional thermal management. Server liquid cold plates are ideal for HPC environments due to their ability to maintain stable temperatures under extreme processing conditions. These plates support the growing number of HPC clusters that drive AI, machine learning, and large-scale simulations. As governments and enterprises continue investing in supercomputing capabilities, demand for efficient thermal technologies like cold plates is expected to rise rapidly. Governments and global institutions are enforcing stricter energy efficiency and environmental regulations on data centers. Server liquid cold plates consume significantly less energy for cooling compared to air-based systems. This lower power usage helps data centers meet regulatory standards and sustainability goals. Additionally, by reducing the need for massive HVAC systems, cold plates support overall infrastructure efficiency. These regulatory pressures are acting as a catalyst, pushing more data center operators to adopt liquid cooling solutions for long-term operational compliance. The widespread integration of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) into server systems for AI, analytics, and rendering tasks has led to increased thermal output. Unlike CPUs, GPUs can generate significantly more heat, demanding specialized cooling. Liquid cold plates offer efficient, localized cooling solutions that are well-suited for multi-GPU configurations. This compatibility has made them a preferred choice among hardware integrators and data center architects who aim to boost performance without compromising thermal stability. One of the major trends propelling the server liquid cold plate market is the demand for modular and customizable solutions. Manufacturers are offering cold plates tailored to specific server architectures and workloads, ensuring optimized performance. This modularity allows data center operators to scale and configure systems based on usage patterns. It also reduces downtime during upgrades or maintenance. As enterprises move towards hyperconverged and software-defined infrastructures, adaptable cooling hardware is gaining greater significance. Claim Yours Now! https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-23S16623&lic=single-user SERVER LIQUID COLD PLATE MARKET SHARE Global key players of Server Liquid Cold Plate include AVC, Auras, Cooler Master, CoolIT Systems, Boyd, etc. The top five players hold a share of about 96%. In terms of product type, Copper+Aluminum Type is the largest segment, accounting for a share of 68%. In terms of application, the Internet has a share of about 40 percent. The North American market is witnessing strong adoption of server liquid cold plates due to the proliferation of hyperscale data centers and early integration of advanced cooling solutions. In Europe, energy efficiency mandates are pushing the adoption of liquid cooling systems, including cold plates. The Asia-Pacific region, particularly China and India, is showing accelerated demand due to digitalization and rapid cloud infrastructure development. Key Companies: BOYD AVC Auras Shenzhen Cotran New Material Shenzhen FRD Cooler Master Nidec Forcecon KENMEC Inquire for Discount: https://reports.valuates.com/request/discount/QYRE-Auto-23S16623/global-server-liquid-cold-plate SUBSCRIPTION We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans. DISCOVER MORE INSIGHTS: EXPLORE SIMILAR REPORTS! - The global market for Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) Cold Plates for Server was valued at USD 33.7 Million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 1597 Million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 52.5% during the forecast period. - Direct Liquid Cooling Servers Market - Cold Plate Data Center Liquid Cooling Market - The global market for Aluminum Liquid Cold Plate was estimated to be worth USD 270.2 Million in 2023 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 395.8 Million by 2030 with a CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - IDC Liquid Cooled Server Market - The global Data Center Liquid Cooling Equipment market was valued at USD 2046 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 7838 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 19.8% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Direct to Chip Liquid Cooling Market - Cold Plate Liquid Cooling Server Solutions Market - The global market for Direct Chip Cooling Cold Plate for Server was valued at USD 33.7 Million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 1597 Million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 52.5% during the forecast period. - Liquid Cooled Rack-mount Server Market - Liquid Cooled GPU Server Market DISCOVER OUR VISION: VISIT ABOUT US! 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GET A FREE QUOTE Valuates Reports sales@valuates.com For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 WhatsApp: +91-9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Blog: https://valuatestrends.blogspot.com/ Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/valuatesreports/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valuatesreports6753 https://www.facebook.com/valuateskorean https://www.facebook.com/valuatesspanish https://www.facebook.com/valuatesjapanese https://valuatesreportspanish.blogspot.com/ https://valuateskorean.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesgerman.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesreportjapanese.blogspot.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/server-liquid-cold-plate-market-surges-with-62-3-cagr--key-growth-in-internet--telecom-sectors-302469594.html Luxury real estate brokerage Corcoran Reverie set to debut renowned artist Justin Gaffrey's 30A inspired piece, 'Original Seascape' at the firm's premier event celebrating the vibrant synergy of local art, innovative design, and community spirit, in the coveted Grace Point community. SANTA ROSA BEACH, FL / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / On Thursday, June 5, 2025, Corcoran Reverie invites the community to Unframed: A Curated Evening of Art & Architecture, a premier event celebrating the vibrant synergy of local art, innovative design, and community spirit. Set against the backdrop of the stunning residence at 264 Grace Point Way in the coveted Grace Point community on 30A, this immersive experience showcases Walton County's creative vitality. "Original Seascape" Justin Gaffrey, 2023 24x36x2.75 / Acrylic on Wood Panel In partnership with the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) and renowned local artist Justin Gaffrey, Unframed transforms a beautifully designed coastal home into a dynamic gallery and architectural showcase. Attendees will enjoy curated works from select CAA artists, alongside Gaffrey's signature bold, sculptural masterpieces-pieces that have become synonymous with 30A's thriving art scene. This event is energized and supported by some fantastic local champions: Sun, Surf & Sand Insurance Services, as our Brilliant Presenting Sponsor , helping turn this artful night into a reality. View their award-winning offerings at sunsurfsandins.com Colony Bank's own Lisa Canup - our Wine Sponsor, pouring the perfect glass to toast creativity and community. Connect with her directly at colony.bank/bankers/lisacanup Beyond celebrating local talent, the event supports community-inspiring initiatives. Both the CAA and Gaffrey will donate original artwork to be raffled, with proceeds benefiting ongoing arts programs and outreach. Gaffrey's donation will also support Hope Lodge in Birmingham, Alabama, honoring the memory of Lesly Simon-a cherished community member and brave breast cancer warrior who passed earlier this year. Justin Gaffrey, a self-taught artist based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, is known for his bold, textured palette knife paintings and sculptural works inspired by the Gulf Coast's natural beauty. Since 2001, he has created a distinctive style that explores nature, memory, and human experience through vibrant landscapes and innovative materials. His gallery off Scenic Highway 30A offers an immersive experience into his evolving artistic world rooted in the coastal environment. "Lesly believed in creating space for others-through her faith, her friendships, and her fight," said Hilary Farnum-Fasth, Broker and Owner of Corcoran Reverie. "We are honored to celebrate her legacy by supporting a place that brought her hope and comfort." Unframed takes place on Thursday, June 5th, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The event welcomes brokers, community supporters, and invited guests for an inspiring evening of art, architecture, and community connection. To RSVP or learn more, visit ReverieRSVP.com. About Corcoran Reverie Corcoran Reverie is a premier real estate brokerage and an affiliate of Corcoran Group LLC - a leading residential real estate firm headquartered in New York City. Across its network of more than 150 offices and 4,900+ agents worldwide, the Corcoran brand has been a leader in residential real estate for nearly 50 years, serving key urban, suburban, and resort markets internationally, including the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Cabo, Portugal, and Italy. Locally rooted and globally connected, Corcoran Reverie is proud to have been recognized as a 2024 RealTrends Top 500 brokerage. For more information, visit corcoranreverie.com About the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County The CAA champions visual arts education, exhibitions, and outreach, enriching Walton County's cultural landscape and supporting local artists. Their mission is to foster a vibrant arts community that benefits residents and visitors alike. For more information, visit www.culturalartsalliance.com. Contact Information: Corey Birger Chief Operating Officer corey.birger@corcorangroup.com 850.454.6693 SOURCE: Corcoran Reverie Related Images View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/real-estate/corcoran-reverie-and-cultural-arts-alliance-of-walton-county-present-%22unframed-a-curate-1033787 Update from on the ground NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Published by Action Against Hunger. Contact media@actionagainsthunger.org for inquiries. Action Against Hunger remains deeply committed to addressing the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the entire population faces severe hunger, displacement, and grave suffering. Our priority is the swift, safe, and impartial delivery of lifesaving assistance to civilians in need, in accordance with humanitarian principles. Action Against Hunger has not endorsed (and will not endorse), nor agreed to collaborate with any mechanism that does not comply with fundamental humanitarian principles. Action Against Hunger firmly supports the UN-coordinated response as the most viable, principled, and immediately actionable framework for large-scale aid delivery. This system has been tested, is already operational, and remains the best pathway to reach those most in need without delay. We cannot afford to divert attention or resources from proven mechanisms when lives hang in the balance. We urgently call for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and full, unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza. Action Against Hunger continues to advocate for all parties to uphold international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of civilians. *** Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 21 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across over 55 countries, our 8,900 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good. Action Against Hunger has been assisting the population in Gaza for more than 20 years. Responding to the escalating crisis, our teams have mobilized to provide hot meals and fresh and dry food, distribute hygiene kits, connect people with shelters, and truck clean water into communities. Since the start of the conflict, under restricted access and frequent blackouts, Action Against Hunger has assisted more than one million people in Gaza and the West Bank. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Action Against Hunger on 3blmedia.com. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Action Against Hunger Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/action-against-hunger Email: info@3blmedia.com SOURCE: Action Against Hunger View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/action-against-hunger-statement-on-gaza-humanitarian-aid-distrib-1033902 Vero Beach, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - The Sherwood Group, a long-term and significant shareholder with approximately 29.90% of the issued and outstanding shares of Barnwell Industries, Inc. ("Barnwell", "BRN" or the "Company") today issued the following letter to Barnwell shareholders. To our Long-Suffering Barnwell Shareholders, Once again, Barnwell management has failed shareholders. This time by failing to secure a quorum to elect their proposed slate of directors. As we stated clearly in my letter on Friday, May 23, it is deeply disappointing that the Delaware Court chose to ignore the clear will of shareholders, prioritizing form over substance. It is equally disappointing that the SEC has done little to protect shareholder intent in this matter. The message from shareholders is unmistakable: those who voted via the Green proxy card do not expect, or want, me to submit their votes in a way that would facilitate the very outcome they rejected - the election of the Company's slate. Accordingly, I will not be turning in the Green cards. While I understand this may prevent the Company from achieving quorum, that consequence rests solely with management and not with me. On the morning of the meeting, the company demanded that I turn over the Green proxy card votes so they could count the ratification of auditors toward quorum and push through their nominees. What's astonishing is their willingness to cherry pick shareholder intent, eager to use the Green card votes to meet quorum, while completely ignoring the holders of 44% of the outstanding shares who supported highly qualified director candidates whom management disqualified on a technicality. When I refused to turn in the Green card votes, rather than making their case to shareholders by asking them to submit their card (see Barnwell's press release issued this morning), they apparently called the SEC to complain. Again, I was clear in my May 23 letter but let me be even clearer. Every shareholder who voted using the Green proxy card did so knowing that our slate was under threat due to Barnwell's legal maneuvering in Delaware Court to invalidate our highly qualified nominees on a technicality. Despite this, every shareholder who cast a green vote explicitly granted me and Mr. Pierson discretionary proxy authority. This includes even those few shareholders who supported management's slate on the Green card, when they could just as easily have voted on Barnwell's White proxy card instead. In fact, if Barnwell will allow the votes on the Green card to be counted for all matters, including the election of directors, I will deliver the Green cards, in accordance with the intentions of the shareholders who gave me their proxy. Alternatively, management could have (and still can) present a universal proxy card to all shareholders including all nominees set forth on the Green card upon which all matters can be voted. My decision not to submit the Green proxy votes had nothing to do with quorum. It had everything to do with respecting the will of shareholders, as I made clear in my May 23 letter. Submitting the Green votes would have DIRECTLY CONTRADICTED that will, producing an outcome shareholders explicitly voted against. And let's be clear, this is not merely my position. It is the position of 46.16% of the outstanding shares that voted via the Green card, 45.82% who voted for Sherwood Group nominees Henry, Isidoro and Pierson; 45.68% who voted for me; and 44.60% who voted for Woodrum. By contrast, even when combining the Green votes cast for management's slate with the White card votes, based on the information available to me, only 20.08% supported Grossman and 21.95% supported Horowitz. Hopkins and McPherson did not fare much better, at only 26.63% and 26.8%, respectively. In a fair, transparent election, all of the Sherwood Group nominees would have been elected, while none of management's slate would have prevailed. For a board that claims to serve shareholder interests, this behavior speaks volumes. Nearly half your shareholders are voicing their will, yet management responds by plugging its ears and demanding I turn over the Green votes to engineer an outcome they could NOT win honestly. Any shareholder who voted on the Green card and now wishes to have their vote counted toward quorum, or to support election of the Barnwell slate, is fully entitled to change their vote by submitting a new proxy on Barnwell's card. Every shareholder has the right to make their own decision. However, when you voted via the Green card, you entrusted me with your proxy authority. Submitting those votes under the current circumstances would violate that trust and contradict the clear responsibility you place in me. If you would like to send management the message that you want the right to vote for someone other than management's slate, stay with your Green card. If you disagree, you are welcome to cast a new vote on the White card. But so long as your vote remains on the Green card, it will NOT be used to establish quorum, nor to advance the election of Barnwell's slate. As I said before and say again, Grossman and Horowitz may not wish to protect OR respect the will of the shareholders, but the Sherwood Group will preserve it to the extent it can. And preserving it means not turning in the Green card. Sincerely, /s/ Ned L. Sherwood Ned L. Sherwood Voting Results Preliminary voting results are not final and may not reflect the ultimate outcome. Shareholders who have already voted may revoke their proxy and submit a new one at any time up to and including the meeting date. The Sherwood Group strongly urges shareholders not to give undue weight to the preliminary voting results and, instead, to consider all material facts concerning the election before making their voting decisions with respect to the annual meeting. If you previously voted on the Green card and wish your vote to count for purpose of the quorum and NOT for directors you previously selected, then you are free to vote the Barnwell White card. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253998 SOURCE: Ned L. Sherwood David's Continues Menswear Expansion with Generation Tux Partnership, further creating an integrated shopping destination for brides, grooms, and wedding parties, combining David's Bridal's expansive retail presence with Generation Tux's premium menswear rental offerings KING OF PRUSSIA, PENNSYLVANIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / David's Bridal, Inc. ("David's"), the nation's leading bridal and special occasion authority, announces its newest strategic menswear partnership, selecting Generation Tux , the leading tuxedo and suit rental destination, as the exclusive in-store menswear shop-in-shop brand. Together, David's and Generation Tux provide a seamless one-stop experience for wedding parties with the best offers in the industry for tuxedo and suit rentals. As part of this innovative program, David's will dedicate space starting with 10 locations, adding more stores on a weekly rolling basis, until the entire fleet is outfitted to showcase Generation Tux's best-selling suit and tuxedo styles. The full expansion in all David's locations will take place by the end of this year, but can be shopped sooner using virtual stylists. Customers can take advantage of the unprecedented offer when five people in the party rent, the groom's rental is free + additional limited time 20% off for David's Diamond Loyalty Members. David's proudly selected Generation Tux as its newest menswear partner for its superior fit, hands-on service, range of sizes, and ability to color match its menswear selection to David's color swatches, ensuring a seamless and perfectly coordinated wedding party experience. Generation Tux's sample inventory is available in a range of sizes with digital ordering, all supported by trained David's stylists. The shop-in-shop displays will highlight the most popular styles, provide swatch books for customers to touch and feel fabrics, and interactive signage to inspire grooms and groomsmen to begin their formalwear journey. Customers will experience hands-on assistance while exploring Generation Tux's full collection and placing orders directly from GenerationTux.com . With a fully online custom-fit program and virtual stylists, Generation Tux handles all fittings virtually, delivering suits and tuxedos to customers' doors 14 days before their event. The program is designed to deliver a seamless, elevated experience that simplifies the wedding planning journey from dress to tie. By integrating Generation Tux into the bridal styling process, the partnership offers a cohesive approach to dressing, including party management to easily invite, assign and track progress for wedding parties from online fittings to payment, no matter where each person is located. "Through our partnership with Generation Tux, we know we are offering the highest quality product to our customers, and doing it at the best possible prices," said Elina Vilk, President and Chief Business Officer of David's Bridal. "For over 70 years, brides have trusted us to ensure they feel beautiful on their big day. We're ready and excited to offer the same to grooms online and exclusively in 10 select stores, with more to come." Each in-store program will be anchored by trained stylists and sales associates, equipped to provide expert guidance. This digital-first experience lets brides connect their wedding parties to ensure a seamless collaboration by exploring Generation Tux's complete online catalog, asking questions, comparing options, and placing orders directly from in-store iPads. This intuitive setup bridges the digital and physical worlds, combining the convenience of online shopping with the personal touch of an in-store consultation. "We're thrilled to partner with David's Bridal to offer a seamless, head-to-toe wedding style experience for couples and their wedding parties," said Jason Jackson, President of Generation Tux. "This collaboration brings together two trusted brands with a shared commitment to convenience, quality, and exceptional service, making it easier than ever for couples to coordinate their looks from 'yes' to 'I do." The partnership also brings a host of customer benefits, including a free home try-on program for grooms, convenient at-home fitting and delivery, and easy returns after the event. With stylish, modern options to fit every body type and a process ideal for accommodating out-of-town wedding party members, Generation Tux makes it easier than ever to outfit the entire group. This one-stop solution for today's modern weddings even allows brides to earn points through David's Diamond Loyalty program, the wedding industry's first loyalty program. To learn more about the collaboration, preview looks from the collection and shop, visit www.DavidsBridal.com and @davidsbridal on TikTok and Instagram. For additional assets, please see media kit here . ### About David's Bridal With over 70 years of experience dressing people for all of life's special occasions, David's Bridal is built on the ethos of making dreams happen. David's Bridal is dedicated to creating innovative solutions that serve wedding and special occasion consumers and the industry at large. David's boasts the industry's only loyalty program, the Diamond Loyalty Program . This program, with almost 3 million members, provides perks and deals from partners like Generation Tux , Shutterfly , Little Tuxedos and much more, including the opportunity to win a free honeymoon. Additionally, Pearl by David's offers consumers a wedding website, universal wedding registry, robust wedding checklist , and a new vendor marketplace that beautifully pairs brides with their perfect vendor partners. Pearl Media Network allows advertisers to tap into David's Bridal unmatched market reach to authentically connect with consumers through content across the web, social, podcast, streaming, video, in-store and more. Under the Pearl Media umbrella is Love Stories by David's, the top wedding media brand taking a digital-first approach to wedding content and inspiration with over 20M viewers per month across content platforms, including the wedding industry's sole podcast network, streaming TV and Snap Discover channels, and largest YouTube and TikTok channels, and a library of over 30,000 real wedding videos. Each video comes equipped with wedding data and details, contributing to a marketplace of over 60,000 wedding professionals to help couples better dream about, research and plan their big day. With more than 190 stores across the US, Canada, and franchise locations in Mexico, David's Bridal offers the convenience of one-stop shopping for every magical event in her life, including weddings, Quinceanera, graduations, proms, communions, or simply making the world her runway and beyond. To learn more about David's Bridal, visit www.DavidsBridal.com , download the Planning App , and connect on social media through Instagram , YouTube , Pinterest , Facebook , X , TikTok , and LinkedIn . About Generation Tux Generation Tux, the leader in online suit and tuxedo rentals, offers an elevated and personal experience to help consumers find high-quality and affordable formalwear options for life's biggest events. Founded by industry pioneer George Zimmer, Generation Tux believes that you shouldn't have to compromise on the perfect look because a style is out of stock or out of your price range. Generation Tux builds your style with their collection of luxury suits/tuxedos and hundreds of accessories, as well as services like free fabric swatches, expert styling, virtual consultations, free home try-on, guaranteed 14-day shipping nationwide, and more - all without ever leaving the comfort of your home. MEDIA CONTACT: David's Bridal mediarequests@dbi.com Related Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2GCf89nv58 SOURCE: DAVID'S BRIDAL CORPORATE View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/consumer-and-retail-products/davids-bridal-and-generation-tux-announce-exclusive-shop-in-shop-partn-1033594 TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (TSX:JAG) today announced several changes to its senior management team that are designed to strengthen its leadership structure and support the Company's future growth plans. The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Luis Albano Tondo as Deputy Chief Executive Officer effective June 1, 2025. Mr. Albano Tondo will be based in Belo Horizonte, near the Company's operations, and will transition to the role of Chief Executive Officer following the conclusion of Vernon Baker's term as Chief Executive Officer on August 1, 2025. Mr. Albano Tondo brings extensive experience in the mining industry from both Brazilian and international roles, including major project development in Minas Gerais and international executive experience. To ensure a seamless leadership transition, Mr. Baker will remain with the Company through the end of July, following which, he will step down as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Jaguar. The Company would like to thank Mr. Baker for his exceptional leadership over the past six years, including through recent challenges relating to the dry-stack slump and subsequent temporary suspension at the MTL Complex. His steady guidance has been instrumental in maintaining stability and positioning the Company for continued progress. In addition, Chief Financial Officer, Alfred Colas, will be stepping down to pursue other opportunities effective May 31, 2025. The Company would like to thank Mr. Colas for his dedication and contributions over the past 18 months and wishes him success in his future endeavors. The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Marina Fagundes de Freitas, currently Vice President, Finance and Projects, as Interim Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Fagundes de Freitas has been with Jaguar for over 14 years, holding increasingly senior roles across finance and operations. Jeff Kennedy, Chairman and Director of Jaguar Mining stated: "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank both Alfred and Vernon for their commitment to the Company. We are excited to welcome Luis and look forward to the leadership and experience he brings to Jaguar. We are also pleased to be able to recognize Marina's long-standing contributions and are confident that her extensive experience will serve the Company well as she takes on this expanded role." About Jaguar Mining Inc. Jaguar Mining Inc. is a Canadian-listed junior gold mining, development, and exploration company operating in Brazil with three gold mining complexes and a large land package with significant upside exploration potential from mineral claims. The Company's principal operating assets are located in the Iron Quadrangle, a prolific greenstone belt in the state of Minas Gerais and include the MTL Mining Complex (Turmalina mine and plant) and Caete Mining Complex (Pilar and Roca Grande mines, and Caete plant). The Roca Grande mine has been on temporary care and maintenance since April 2019. The Company also owns the Paciencia Mining Complex (Santa Isabel mine and plant), which had been on care and maintenance since 2012 and is planned to restart in 2025. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.jaguarmining.com. For further information please contact: Vernon Baker Chief Executive Officer vernon.baker@jaguarmining.com 416-847-1854 Marina Fagundes de Freitas Interim Chief Financial Officer marina.freitas@jaguarmining.com.br +55 31-98463-5344 Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's expectations and plans relating to the future. All of the forward-looking information made in this news release is qualified by the cautionary statements below and those made in our other filings with the securities regulators in Canada. Forward-looking information contained in forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "are expected," "is forecast," "is targeted," "approximately," "plans," "anticipates," "projects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "believe" 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. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, may be considered to be or include forward-looking information. This news release contains forward-looking information regarding, among other things, the timing and ability of the Company to execute its strategy and delivering long-term value for shareholders, as referenced above, any information and statements related to future operations at any of the Company's properties, including Pilar and Turmalina, and any statements relating to the management changes described above, which remain subject to the acceptance of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company has made numerous assumptions with respect to forward-looking information contained herein, including, among other things, assumptions about the future and long-term stability of the Satinoco tailings pile; there will be no unforeseen adverse weather events or other external factors that could delay the Company's recovery or remediation efforts; the current assumptions regarding the extent of the damage and timeline for repairs at the MTL complex remain accurate and will not require significant revision as further assessments are completed; estimated timeline for the development of the Company's mineral properties; and any changes to general business and economic conditions. Forward-looking information involves a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including among others: the risk of Jaguar not meeting the forecast plans regarding its operations and financial performance; uncertainties with respect to the price of gold, labour disruptions, mechanical failures, increase in costs, environmental compliance and change in environmental legislation and regulation, weather delays and increased costs or production delays due to natural disasters, power disruptions, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations; uncertainties inherent to capital markets in general (including the sometimes volatile valuation of securities and an uncertain ability to raise new capital) and other risks inherent to the gold exploration, development and production industry, which, if incorrect, may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the Company and described herein. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of gold exploration, development, mining and production, including environmental hazards, tailings dam failures, industrial accidents and workplace safety problems, unusual or unexpected geological formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding, chemical spills, procurement fraud and gold bullion thefts and losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or the inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks). Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information made in this news release, see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form and Management's Discussion and Analysis, as well as other public disclosure documents that can be accessed under the issuer profile of "Jaguar Mining Inc." on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects the Company's reasonable expectations as at the date of this news release 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, other than as required by law. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. SOURCE: Jaguar Mining, Inc. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/jaguar-mining-announces-management-changes-to-support-next-phase-of-growth-1033781 MIAMI, FL / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys is excited to open our new office in Miami , Florida , extending our commitment to helping injured individuals in the Sunshine State. Our mission remains the same: to take on complex and catastrophic injury cases, securing the compensation our clients need to heal and move forward with their lives. Adam Zayed, Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Adam Zayed, Miami Personal Injury Lawyer If you need help in Miami, Florida, don't hesitate to contact us by phone, online, or visit our new office. We offer a free consultation with a Miami personal injury lawyer and work on a contingency fee basis - no fees unless we win your case. About Our Firm The team at Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys brings decades of experience and has recovered over $100 million in verdicts and settlements for our clients. Since the inception of our firm in Illinois, our mission has been to advocate for those harmed in catastrophic accidents. Our attorneys have received recognition from organizations such as Super Lawyers , Best Lawyers , and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum . As we expand to Miami, we are committed to bringing the same pursuit of justice to ensure that every client receives the compensation they deserve. Types of Accidents We Handle in Miami At Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys, we handle all types of accident cases in Florida, including the following and more: Car accidents : Often caused by speeding, distracted driving, or driving under the influence. Medical malpractice : If you've been injured due to a medical provider's negligence, we'll investigate and prove your case. Motorcycle accidents : These often result in serious injuries. We fight to get the medical care and compensation you need. Pedestrian accidents : Pedestrian accidents are often severe or fatal. We hold drivers accountable for your injuries and losses, ensuring you get the compensation you deserve. Slip and fall accidents : These can occur in workplaces, restaurants, and public spaces. We'll investigate and hold property owners responsible for your injuries. Truck accidents : Commercial trucks can cause serious damage or death when they are involved in collisions. We'll stand up to the trucking and insurance companies for you. Wrongful death: Losing a loved one is always tragic. If a negligent party caused the death of your loved one, we'll hold them accountable. Don't try to handle your case alone after you are injured due to negligence; our team is here to give you the help and support you need. Proudly Serving the Sunshine State Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys is excited to announce the opening of our new office in Miami, Florida. If you have been injured in an accident, reach out to our team today. We'll put our experience and impressive track record to work for you. Visit or contact our Miami office for a free consultation - no case is too challenging for us. Media Contact: Company Name: Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys Address: 169 East Flagler St, Suite 1639 City: Miami State: Florida Zip: 33131 Country: United States Phone: (305) 916-6455 https://zayedlawoffices.com/miami-personal-injury-lawyer/ SOURCE: Zayed Law Offices View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/publishing-and-media/zayed-law-offices-personal-injury-attorneys-expands-to-miami-1033952 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSXV:BYN)(OTCQB:BYAGF) announces today that, as a result of a review by staff of the British Columbia Securities Commission ("BCSC"), the Company is issuing the following news release regarding disclosure on the AurMac and Hyland Projects. In connection with the review, the Company has filed an amended technical report entitled "Technical Report AurMac Property Mayo Mining District," dated May 23, 2025, with an effective date of February 6, 2025, prepared by Dino Pilotto P.Eng, Marc Jutras P.Eng, M.A.Sc, and Deepak Malhotra PhD, QP. Furthermore, the Company will be filing an updated Technical Report on the Hyland Project in the future; however, during the interim, the mineral resource on Hyland is stale dated and not supported by a compliant NI 43-101 technical report, and that the mineral resource should not be relied on until it has been verified and supported by a technical report. The Company is amending the AurMac technical report to include: (i) disclosure on the Nitra Property; (ii) additional disclosure on Data Verification; (iii) the retraction, clarification and additions of disclosures pursuant to NI 43-101; (iv) revision and clarifications of consents of the qualified persons; and, (v) revisions to include technical information from the appendices into the report. There is no change to the size or scope of the AurMac resource estimate. The AurMac technical report is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ and on the Company's website. Qualified Persons Duncan Mackay, P.Geo., VP of Exploration for Banyan Gold, is a "Qualified Person" as ?defined under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release. About Banyan Banyan trades on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol "BYN" and is quoted on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "BYAGF". For more information, please visit the corporate website at or contact the Company. ON BEHALF OF BANYAN GOLD CORPORATION (signed) "Tara Christie" Tara Christie President & CEO For more information, please contact: Tara Christie 778 928 0556 tchristie@banyangold.com Jasmine Sangria 604 312 5610 jsangria@banyangold.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor OTCQB Venture Market accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts and is based upon the Company's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "will", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend(s)", "believe", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that 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 Company's plans for filing an updated Hyland Technical Report. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include uncertainties inherent in resource estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, timing delays, and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry those risks set out in Banyan's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Banyan 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. Banyan 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. SOURCE: Banyan Gold Corp. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/banyan-files-amended-technical-report-on-aurmac-and-provides-an-update-on-hyland-1034020 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Tsodilo Resources Limited (TSXV: TSD) (OTCQB: TSDRF) (FSE: TZO) ("Tsodilo" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that at its Annual General Meeting of shareholders held on May 30, 2025, the following directors were elected: James M. Bruchs, Jonathan R. Kelafant and Blackie Marole. Appointment of Auditors The shareholders approved the appointment of Jones & O'Connell, LLP, St. Catharines, Ontario, as auditors of the Company. Grant of Stock Options Under the terms of its Stock Option Plan, Tsodilo granted incentive stock options to ten individuals consisting of directors, employees and advisors to purchase an aggregate of 950,000 common shares of Tsodilo exercisable at CDN$ 0.15. These options vest as to 25% effective June 2, 2025, and 25% on each of the sixth, twelfth and eighteenth-month anniversaries of the date of the grant. The options are valid for five years. About Tsodilo Resources Limited Tsodilo Resources Limited is an international resource exploration company engaged in the search for economic metal deposits at its Gcwihaba Resources (Pty) Limited ("Gcwihaba") projects in Botswana. The Company has a 100% stake in its Gcwihaba project area consisting of five metal (base, precious, platinum group, and rare earth) prospecting licenses all located in the North-West district of Botswana. This press release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements pertaining to the use of proceeds, the impact of strategic partnerships and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals) are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, changes in equity markets, changes in general economic conditions, market volatility, political developments in Botswana and surrounding countries, changes to regulations affecting the Company's activities, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, exploration and development risks, the uncertainties involved in interpreting exploration results and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration business. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, uncertainties relating to availability and cost of funds, timing and content of work programs, results of exploration activities, interpretation of drilling results and other geological data, risks relating to variations in the diamond grade and kimberlite lithologies; variations in rates of recovery and breakage; estimates of grade and quality of diamonds, variations in diamond valuations and future diamond prices; the state of world diamond markets, reliability of mineral property titles, changes to regulations affecting the Company's activities, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required project approvals, operational and infrastructure risk and other risks involved in the diamond exploration and development business. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward- looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to their inherent uncertainty. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange ("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. This news release may contain assumptions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are subject to factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/254034 SOURCE: Tsodilo Resources Limited Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Mineral Road Discovery Inc. (CSE: ROAD) (the "Company" or "ROAD") announces that, further to its news release of May 12, 2025, it has closed its non-brokered private placement and issued 666,666 shares at a price of $0.075 per share for proceeds of $50,000. Proceeds will be used for general working capital. All shares issued are subject to a four month hold period expiring October 1, 2025. This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this news release. 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/253863 SOURCE: Mineral Road Discovery Inc. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Pasofino Gold Limited (TSXV: VEIN) (OTCQB: EFRGF), Focused on Developing the Dugbe Gold Project in Liberia, is pleased to announce that it will be participating in THE Mining Investment Event, Canada's Only Tier 1 Global Mining Investment Conference, taking place June 3-5, 2025, at the Quebec Convention Centre, Quebec City, Canada. Pasofino Gold Limited's management will be available to meet, and hold scheduled one-on-one investor meetings throughout the three-day conference. "We are particularly excited about the global audience that THE Event has attracted, showcasing the best of international mining in Canada. This is a unique chance to engage with industry leaders and innovators, facilitating discussions that will shape the future of our sector. We look forward to seeing many of you there and exploring the possibilities that await us at this prestigious gathering." Information regarding THE Event, including investor registration details, a list of participating companies, panelists and keynote speakers, as well as a preliminary agenda, can be found at https://www.themininginvestmentevent.com/. About Pasofino Gold Limited Pasofino Gold Limited is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under TSX.V:VEIN, and owns 100% of the Dugbe Gold Project in Liberia.The 2,078 km2 Dugbe Gold Project (the "Project") is in southern Liberia and situated within the southwestern corner of the Birimian Supergroup which is host to most West African gold deposits. The Mineral Resource Estimate is dated 17 November 2021 with total Measured and Indicated of 3.3 Moz with an average grade of 1.37 g/t Au, and 0.6 Moz in Inferred.The Project has a bankable feasibility study completed on it (July 2022), with a Mineral Reserve of 2.7M oz Au using $1,700 Au price; and delivers stellar economics.Using the gold price sensitivity table from the feasibility study, the project has a low CapEx of US$435M; high post tax NPV5 of US$1.674B @ $2,700 Au price, and an IRR @ 54.3%, 14 year mine life, AISC of US$1,055 per oz Au and an average production profile of 171,000 oz Au per year for 14 year LOM, with over 200,000 oz Au pa for the first 5 years.The company is fully funded and focused on updating the feasibility study in H2 2025 and making a construction decision and project financing by YE 2025. A technical report for the Dugbe Gold Project was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on the Company's website. THE Event is by invitation only - Interested investors & issuers, please go here: https://www.themininginvestmentevent.com/register or contact Jennifer Choi, jchoi@irinc.ca About: THE Mining Investment Event-Canada's Only Tier 1 Global Mining Investment Conference is held annually in Quebec City, Canada. It is independently sponsored and designed to facilitate privately arranged meetings between mining companies, international investors, and various mining government authorities. The conference provides a platform to hear from some of the most influential thought leaders in the sector. THE Event is committed to promoting diversity, equality, and sustainability in the mining industry through education and innovation through its unique Student Sponsorship and SHE-Co Initiatives. SOURCE: VID Media ANAHEIM, CA / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Phoenix Motor Inc. (OTC PINK:PEVM), a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses and electrification solutions provider for medium-duty vehicles, today reported financial and operational results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Highlights Revenue increased 898% to $31.1 million, up from $3.1 million in FY 2023 Gross profit increased to $7.1 million, up from a gross loss of $276k in FY 2023 Gross margin expanded 3,240 basis points to 23.6%, up from negative 8.8% in FY 2023 Net income improved by $28.5 million year-over-year to $7.9 million, up from a net loss of $20.6 million in FY 2023 Cash and cash equivalents were $0.76 million as of December 31, 2024, up from $31,000 on December 31, 2023 Total equity increased to $10.3 million as of December 31, 2024, up from negative equity of $4.84 million on December 31, 2023 Fiscal Year 2024 and Recent Company Highlights Expanded Product Portfolio: Acquired Proterra's transit business, adding heavy-duty electric buses to existing medium-duty lineup Customer Wins: Secured orders from RDU Airport, UC San Diego, County of Los Angeles, and UC Irvine for electric transit buses Technology & Innovation: Launched world's first wirelessly charged medium-duty shuttle in partnership with InductEV Introduced 4th-gen drivetrain and began AI R&D center focused on autonomous EVs Partnered with ADASTEC for development of Level 4 automated driving solutions Leadership Strengthened: Appointed Dr. Lewis Liu (COO), Michael Yung (CFO), and Tony Zhou (CTO) Capital & Growth: Raised $11.1 million via private placements Secured $6 million in loan financing Eliminated $12 million convertible note risk Launched $5 million share repurchase program Building Market Momentum: Surpassed 60 million zero-emission miles driven; awarded California DGS contract for zero-emission buses Global Expansion: Formed EdisonFuture International Co. in Hong Kong to support international growth "2024 was a transformational year for Phoenix Motor," said Denton Peng, CEO of Phoenix Motor. "We dramatically expanded our revenue, integrated a game-changing acquisition, and made major strides in product development, operations, and strategic partnerships. The addition of our new transit bus division, combined with growing demand for zero-emission vehicles and breakthrough innovations like wireless charging and autonomous technologies, has positioned us to compete at a much higher level. With the foundation now set, we're charging through 2025 with a clear goal of delivering $40 to $50 million in revenue-and firmly establishing Phoenix as a rising force in the commercial EV space." About Phoenix Motor Inc. Phoenix Motor, a pioneer in the electric vehicle ("EV") industry, designs, builds, and integrates electric drive systems and manufactures heavy duty transit buses and medium and light duty commercial EVs. Phoenix operates two primary brands, "Phoenix", which is focused on commercial products including heavy and medium duty EVs (transit buses, shuttle buses, school buses and delivery trucks, among others) and "EdisonFuture", which intends to offer light-duty EVs. Phoenix endeavors to be a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of electric vehicles and electric vehicle technologies. To learn more, please visit: phoenixev.ai. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that involve significant risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements can be identified through the use of words such as "may," "might," "will," "intend," "should," "could," "can," "would," "continue," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "predict," "outlook," "potential," "plan," "seek," and similar expressions and variations or the negatives of these terms or other comparable terminology. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current expectations and speak only as of the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from the Company's current expectations depending upon a number of factors. These risk factors include, among others, those related to our ability to raise additional capital necessary to grow our business, operations and business and financial performance, our ability to grow demand for our products and revenue, our ability to become profitable, our ability to have access to an adequate supply of parts and materials and other critical components for our vehicles on the timeline we expect, the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the effects of the outbreak and actions taken in connection therewith, adverse changes in general economic and market conditions, competitive factors including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions, uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and market changes, risks associated with managing the growth of the business, and those other risks and uncertainties that are described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's annual report filed on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any responsibility to revise or update any forward-looking statements. Contact: IR@phoenixev.ai Dave Gentry, CEO RedChip Companies, Inc. 1-407-644-4256 PEV@redchip.com SOURCE: Phoenix Motor Inc. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/automotive/phoenix-motor-reports-revenue-up-898-year-over-year-to-31.1m-for-fiscal-year-2024-1034070 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Sranan Gold Corp. (CSE: SRAN) (FSE: P84) (Tradegate: P84) ("Sranan" or the "Company") announces that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of up to 7,500,000 shares (the "Shares") at a price of C$0.40 per Share for proceeds of up to C$3 million (the "Offering"). The net proceeds will be used for general working capital and the Company's expanded drilling program of up to 10,000 meters at the Tapanahony Gold Project in Suriname. All securities issued will be subject to a four-month and a day hold period from any closing date. Sranan may pay finder's fees to arm's length finders (each a "Finder") on the Shares sold by such Finder. The Offering is subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") and any finder's fees payable will be issued in accordance with the policies of the CSE and applicable securities laws. About Sranan Gold Sranan Gold Corp. is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in Suriname. The highly prospective Tapanahony Project is located in the heart of Suriname's modern-day gold rush. Tapanahony covers 29,000 hectares in one of the oldest and largest small-scale mining areas in Suriname. There is significant production from saprolite by local miners along a 4.5-kilometre trend, where several areas of mining have been opened. Sranan Gold is also exploring its Aida Property consisting of five mineral claims covering an area of 2,335.42 hectares on the Shuswap Highland within the Kamloops Mining Division. For more information, visit sranangold.com. THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENT OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. Forward-looking statements Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws including, without limitation, the timing, nature, scope and details regarding the Company's exploration plans and results. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this release. Forward-looking statements in this release but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expectations of management regarding the Offering, the expectations of management regarding the use of proceeds of the Offering, closing conditions for the Offering, and no objection from the CSE in respect of the Offering. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Risks that could change or prevent these statements from coming to fruition include the CSE objecting to the Offering; the proceeds of the Offering may not be used as stated in this release; Sranan may be unable to satisfy all of the conditions to the closing required by the CSE. Sranan does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws. 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/254054 SOURCE: Sranan Gold Corp. CurifyLabs, a Helsinki, Finland-based healthtech company providing a solution to automate the manufacturing of compounded medicine, raised 6.7M in funding. The round was led by Springvest with participation from Business Finland. The company intends to us etch funds to scale its operations and secure high-volume customers in the market. Led by CEO Charlotta Topelius, CurifyLabs provides a compounding system solution (CSS), which is an automated pharmaceutical compounding platform for non-sterile dosage forms, including tablets, troches, liquids, suppositories, vagitories, ointments, and capsules. It enables new treatments for patients and improved efficiency for pharmacies and hospital pharmacies. CurifyLabs CSS technology is currently in use for patients by customers in Europe and the United States. FinSMEs 30/05/2025 Tengr.ai, a Szeged, Hungary-based provider of AI-driven solutions for creators, educators, and businesses, raised $1.2M in equity funding. Backers included Founder Peter W. Szabo, Attila Balla, David Zalaba and others. The company intends to use the funds to develop and integrate token in its platform, and establish strategic partnerships to drive its adoption. Tengr.ai is a provider of a privacy-first generative AI platform for business and creative projects. Its patented Hyperalign technology guarantees uncensored yet safe outputs, while a token-based credit system keeps pricing predictable and transparent. The company plans to expand its offerings by launching new features, including Quantum Render and a public API. The platform has over 500,000 active users, with over 1.2 million sessions in just under two months. FinSMEs 30/05/2025 Written by Ali Abbas Zafar, Sagar Bajaj and Ravi Chhabriya, Detective Sherdil is Ali Abbas Zafars second collaboration with Diljit Dosanjhs after the acclaimed Jogi. read more Diljit Dosanjh playing a quirky detective. An entertainer for the whole family. Twists that keep you guessing all the way! Looks like audiences are about to get the best of three worlds in Detective Sherdil, releasing on ZEE5 on 20th June 2025. Detective Sherdil tells the tale of a unique detective tasked with solving a case that is far from ordinary. Shot in exotic Budapest, what sets the film apart is an entertaining blend of suspense and mystery with wit and humor. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Detective Sherdil marks Ravi Chhabriyas first directorial venture after assisting Ali Abbas Zafar on projects like Sultan, Bharat and Tiger Zinda Hai. Featuring Diana Penty, Boman Irani, Chunky Panday, Ratna Pathak Shah, Banita Sandhu and Sumeet Vyas, the Diljit Dosanjh starrer is packed with an array of talented actors. Written by Ali Abbas Zafar, Sagar Bajaj and Ravi Chhabriya, Detective Sherdil is Ali Abbas Zafars second collaboration with Diljit Dosanjhs after the acclaimed Jogi. Talking about the much awaited release, producer Ali Abbas Zafar said, Diljit and I have previously worked on Jogi. After wrapping that film, I was sure we must work together again. He is one of the biggest stars we have, and now, as we bring Detective Sherdil to audiences on ZEE5, I still cant believe weve wrapped up our second collaboration! Our film will charm you with comedy, and thrill you with mystery, its an out and out family watch. Sharing his thoughts on the release, producer Himanshu Mehra said, There are very few stars who have the versatility to pull off humor with the same ease as they handle suspense. Diljit is one such star actor. Im very excited to bring families all over together for this thrilling ride on Zee5 on 20th June 2025. Detective Sherdil will keep viewers hooked from start to end. With Diljit Dosanjh in signature form, the film seems like the perfect excuse to gather all loved ones and have a thrilling time at home. For how long will a fluid actor like Tripathi carry the weight of a show that cannot make up its mind what it wants to be? read more Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Basu Prasad, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Surveen Chawla, Mita Vasisht Director: Rohan Sippy Language: Hindi The innocent and innocuous Madhav Mishra returns for a fourth season of Criminal Justice. There are no cliff-hangers in this show. Think of this web series as the Housefull and Golmaal of OTT. After every few years, we get new stories being churned out with the same characters. Even when you know all possible conflicts have been dabbled with, something inspires makers to come back and make no bones about it. Is there ever a saturation point? The swiftness of new seasons and sequels suggest otherwise. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Its only for the caliber of an actor of Pankaj Tripathi that right from the first time we met him in 2020 till now, he seems to have inhaled the nuances of this lawyer who uses both intelligence and innocence to get his job done. Right in the first episode, his client gives him a swanky car for getting a not-so-complicated job done. Think of Satish Shah and Shah Rukh Khan in Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani but more towards realism than razzmatazz. And then theres a strange and awkward couple (a surprisingly wooden Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub and his wife Surveen Chawla). He has a girlfriend whos brutally murdered (Asha Negi) but this dynamic of Patni Patni Aur Woh is unconvincingly addressed for the longest time. This flashback is so laid back in its telling that you crave for Tripathi to be back on the screen. Despite those inevitable jump cuts and a pulsating background score, the drowsy performances deflate all the necessary moments of tension. And then there are the investigation and early courtroom scenes filmed for laughs. That a reputed doctor being forced to confess to a crime he claims he didnt commit looks silly. What looks sillier is how the scene where his bail is rejected is staged. Director Rohan Sippy showed immense promise in films like Bluffmaster and Dum Maaro Dum, rightly combining humour and thrill with delicious writing. As much as its joyous to watch murder mysteries, especially with actors like Tripathi (with his now vintage wry grin), its hard to overlook the glaring gaps in between moments of promise. A series like Criminal Justice can be accused of trying to be too many things at once. It wants to be a solid whodunit, it wants to present a hapless and horrified central character (It all started with Vikrant Massey in part one), and it also wants to be a satire (a la Jolly LLB). Ambitious but also awkward. For how long will a fluid actor like Tripathi carry the weight of a show that cannot make up its mind what it wants to be? But there are occasional pleasures too. For instance, Mita Vashishts third run as a lawyer after Ghulam and Phir Milenge. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD There is absolutely no ground left to explore, no juiciness to extract, and no wicked humour to flaunt. As Tripathi said in an interview recently, it only gives him the opportunity to increase his bank balance. His line in one key scene Yeh trial lamba chalne waala hai holds true for this show as well. Is it time to finally adjourn the court? Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars) Criminal Justice Season 4 is now streaming on Jio Hotstar The Kannada star Shiva Rajkumar, who also attended the movies audio launch, reacted to the controversy and said Kamal Haasan has contributed significantly to Kannada cinema. read more Kamal Haasan recently garnered controversy after he stated, Kannada was born out of Tamil, at the promotional event for his upcoming movie, Thug Life. Now, the Kannada star Shiva Rajkumar, who also attended the movies audio launch, reacted to the controversy and said he has contributed significantly to Kannada cinema. Kamal Sir has always spoken highly of Kannada and has expressed great admiration for Bengaluru. He speaks with pride about our city. Weve grown up watching him, and Ive been a die-hard fan of Kamal Sir for years. Some might say, How can you call yourself a fan of Kamal Haasan and not your father? Father is family. But Kamal Sir is different. Hes not just a star hes been a true inspiration to me. Like each of you may have a favourite actor, for me, its always been Kamal Sir. He understands exactly what the audience needs, and I truly believe he always delivers, said Shiva at an event in Bengaluru. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He further questioned, Our commitment to Kannada must be lifelong. If needed, Im ready to fight even give my life for Kannada. Speaking highly of Kannada in front of cameras isnt enough. Actions matter more than words. What have you done for Kannada cinema? Have you given opportunities to newcomers? If we truly want Kannada to grow, its our duty to support it in every way possible. Please dont misunderstand why Im saying all this. Ask your own conscience is what Im saying right or wrong? The answer will be clear. As for Kamal Sir, I dont need to comment further hes already contributed a lot to Kannada cinema. The Kannada film body demanded an apology from Kamal Haasan, stating that if he didnt apologise, Thug Life wouldnt be allowed to release in Karnataka. The actor replied as per ANI, What I said was said out of love, and a lot of historians have taught me language history. I didnt mean anything. Tamil Nadu is a state where a Menon has been our Chief Minister, where a Reddy has been our Chief Minister, a Tamil has been our CM, and a Kannadiga Iyengar has been our CM. Talking about Thug Life, the Mani Ratnam directorial also stars Trisha Krishnan, Abhirami, Ali Fazal and Silambarasan TR among others in prominent roles. Anjali Sud and Sanjay Seth have been elected to join Harvard Universitys Board of Overseers and the Harvard Alumni Association, respectively. Their appointments come amid ongoing legal and political challenges faced by the university under the Donald Trump-led administration. Notably, Anjali was born in Michigan to Punjabi immigrant parents, while Seth was born in Australia to Indian-origin parents read more Anjali Sud and Sanjay Seth have been chosen to join Harvard Universitys Board of Overseers and the Harvard Alumni Association, respectively. Image: Harvard University Amid an ongoing legal fight with the Donald Trump-led administration, Harvard Universitys top committees have brought in two Indian-origin alumni. Anjali Sud and Sanjay Seth have been chosen to join Harvard Universitys Board of Overseers and the Harvard Alumni Association, respectively. Anjali takes the place of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who left the universitys board on March 9. That was also the day the Liberal Party selected him as its new leader, replacing Justin Trudeau. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD ALSO READ | Harvard wins temporary reprieve from Trump administrations foreign students ban. What happens now? Who are Anjali Sud and Sanjay Seth? What roles have they been given, and what do those roles involve? We break it down in this explainer, along with the latest on the Trump vs Harvard case. Heres a look: Who is Anjali Sud? The Indian-American business leader is the CEO of the streaming service Tubi and has been elected to Harvard Universitys Board of Overseers. She will serve a two-year term starting on 30 May 2025, stepping into the role left vacant by Mark Carney. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1983 to Punjabi immigrant parents, Anjali was raised in Flint. 39 yrs ago my parents tied the knot. Grateful to be with them during this pandemic. Happy anniversary you crazy kids pic.twitter.com/ziimPLm4Gk Anjali Sud (@anjsud) April 27, 2020 She completed her undergraduate studies in finance and management at the University of Pennsylvania and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011. Anjali started her career with roles at Amazon, Time Warner, and in mergers and acquisitions. In 2012, she joined Vimeo as Vice President of Global Marketing. She later became Vimeos CEO, guiding its shift into a software platform for video creators and leading its public listing in 2021. In 2023, Anjali took charge as CEO of Tubi, which has become one of the most popular free streaming platforms in the US, attracting close to 100 million monthly users. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD She is the CEO of the streaming service Tubi. Image: Instagram/Anjali Sud Outside her corporate work, she serves on the boards of Dolby Laboratories and Change.org (where she is chair). She also sits on the executive committee of Phillips Academy Andovers development board, working on financial aid efforts. She lives in New York City and is a mother of two. The Board of Overseers is one of Harvards two main governing bodies, alongside the President and Fellows, also called the Corporation. Set up in 1642, the Board plays a key role in the universitys leadership. One of its main responsibilities is overseeing the visitation process, which allows for regular external reviews of Harvards schools and departments, according to the universitys website. Anjalis appointment comes at a time when Harvard is facing pressure from the US government over policies related to international students and academic freedom. Who is Sanjay Seth? The Indian-American expert in climate and sustainability has been elected as one of the new directors of the Harvard Alumni Association (Haa). His three-year term will begin on 1 July 2025. The Harvard Alumni Association board works to strengthen alumni ties, build community, and support volunteer leadership across Harvards global network of graduates. Seth will be part of this effort through his new role. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Seth was born to Indian-origin parents in Australia and grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota. He has been elected as one of the new directors of the Harvard Alumni Association. Image: Harvard University He holds two masters degrees from Harvard: a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government and a Masters in Urban Planning from the Graduate School of Design, both completed in 2019. He earned his undergraduate degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. Seths career has focused on climate policy, public service, and community organising. He worked as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor for Climate and Equity at the US Environmental Protection Agencys New England office. Before that, he led climate resilience projects for the City of Boston and was involved in similar efforts in New York City. ALSO READ | Trumps crackdown on foreign students at US universities may hurt India and China the most. Heres why Seth also co-founded the Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment group and was a fellow with the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As a student, he helped develop joint climate-focused courses across Harvards schools and launched the Climate Leaders Programme, encouraging students from different fields to work together on environmental issues. Donald Trump vs Harvard University The appointments of the two Indian-origin individuals come at a time when Harvard University is caught in legal and political disputes with the Trump administration. The university is under pressure following demands to provide records of international students who were part of recent campus protests. After Harvard declined to comply, the Trump administration launched a move to revoke the universitys certification to enrol foreign students. In a letter from acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Todd Lyons, the administration gave Harvard 30 days to respond to the allegations. These include claims that the university worked with foreign groups and did not do enough to address antisemitism on campus. On Thursday, a federal judge extended an order that temporarily blocks the Trump administration from stopping Harvard from enrolling international students. This dispute over international student enrolment marks the latest flashpoint in a growing conflict between the White House and the countrys oldest and wealthiest university. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD More than 7,000 international students, visiting scholars, and alumni on post-graduate training programmes depend on Harvard for both sponsorship and legal status in the US. A court in Uttarakhands Pauri found three men guilty in the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case. The 19-year-old, who was working as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort, was killed by the resort owner, Pulkit Arya, and his employees Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta. She was murdered for refusing to provide special services to some guests read more A court in Uttarakhands Pauri has sentenced three men to rigorous life imprisonment in the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case. Pulkit Arya, son of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Arya, and his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were found guilty of murder on Friday (May 30). Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on all three convicts, prosecution lawyer Ajay Pant reportedly said. The murder case had sparked a huge outrage in Uttarakhand, leading to the BJP expelling Vinod Arya from the party. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But what had happened? We will explain. Ankita Bhandari murder case Ankita Bhandari, a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh, was killed by the resort owner, Pulkit Arya, and his employees Bhaskar and Gupta on the night of September 18, 2022. According to the police, Pulkit killed Ankita, a resident of Dobh-Srikot village in Uttarakhands Pauri Garhwal district, after she declined to provide special services to some guests at the resort. After a heated exchange with Pulkit, Ankita was reportedly forced into a vehicle and later pushed into the Chilla canal. Her body was found in the canal on September 24, after the three accused confessed to the crime. How Ankita Bhandari was killed Ankitas disappearance was first noticed by her friend, Pushp, who said she had called him on the night of September 18. Ankita reportedly told him that she was being pressured by the accused to provide special services for a VIP in exchange for Rs 10,000. It was Pushp who had told her about an opening at a resort in Rishikesh, which Ankita agreed to join. She became a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Pauri districts Yamkeshwar in August 2022. It was not even a month into her job and Ankita was murdered. Pushp told the court that he had last spoken to Ankita at 8:32 pm and she was sensing some fear while in the presence of the accused. Her phone became unreachable after that. Pushp contacted Pulkit directly, who told him that Ankita had gone to her room. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The next morning, Pulkits phone was also unreachable. Pushp and Ankitas family then approached the police, reported NDTV. The accused wanted to speak to the father of the deceased (and) the deceased was further troubled due to this reason. One morning, the deceased was found missing from the resort. She was not in her room. During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused was molesting the deceased in the resort; they were pressuring her to give extra services to the guest, to which the deceased was not agreeable, Indian Express reported, citing the FIR filed in the case. The applicant (Ankit Gupta) and the co-accused had a sense of fear that perhaps the deceased might reveal it to others. According to the prosecution, on 18.09.2022, the applicant, along with the co-accused, took the deceased out of the resort, they killed the deceased and pushed her into a canal. The dead body of the deceased was recovered on 24.09.2022. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Her post-mortem conducted by AIIMS Rishikesh revealed drowning as the cause of death. It also showed multiple injuries, including blunt force trauma that indicated physical assault, as per NDTV. Her viscera samples were also tested and did not show signs of sexual assault. Public outrage over Ankita Bhandari case The initial investigation into Ankita Bhandars murder case has raised many questions. The night she was killed, the accused told the local Patwari (revenue police officer) that she was missing. However, the officer did not file a case. The Vanantra Resort, located in a semi-rural area, falls outside the jurisdiction of regular police. Patwari Vaibhav Pratap did not disclose the case to anyone and went on leave, as per the Indian Express report. As pressure from the public mounted and suspicion from Ankitas family and friends rose, the case was transferred to the regular police three days after her killing. Congress leader Harish Rawat with party workers takes part in a march demanding justice for Ankita Bhandari, who was murdered in September 2022, in Dehradun, January 17, 2024. File Photo/PTI After the case gained national limelight, the police arrested Pulkit, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta. The district administration also razed a part of the resort , leading to allegations that it was done to destroy crucial evidence, reported Indian Express. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD After Pulkits arrest, Uttarakhand BJP expelled his father, Vinod, and elder brother from the party. Vinod Arya had served as a minister of state in the Trivendra Singh Rawat-led BJP government. The politician had defended his son, calling him a simple boy. Seedha sadha balak hai (he is a simple boy). He is only concerned about his work. I want justice for both my son Pulkit and Ankita Bhandari, Arya had said, inviting a severe backlash. The Uttarakhand government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. Patwari Vaibhav Pratap was arrested by the SIT for negligence and allegedly siding with the accused. During the SIT probe, former employees are said to have alleged that Pulkit and Ankit Gupta frequently brought women to the resort. They also alleged that the female staff were subjected to verbal and physical abuse. More than 100 individuals, including resort employees, digital forensic experts and friends of Ankita, were interviewed. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In December 2022, the prosecution filed a 500-page chargesheet. The cases hearing went on for two years and eight months, during which 47 witnesses were examined. Ankita Bhandaris family gets justice On Friday, Pulkit was found guilty of IPC sections 302 (murder), 201 (concealing evidence), 354A (molestation and outraging the modesty of a woman) and the Immoral Trafficking Act. The accused Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta were convicted of murder, concealing evidence, and the Immoral Trafficking Act. #WATCH | Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand | The three accused in the Ankita Bhandari murder case, Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, are being taken to jail after the Kotdwar Court sentenced the three accused to rigorous life imprisonment pic.twitter.com/u2L7S9Jsxf ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Reacting to the verdict, Ankitas mother, Soni Devi, broke down and said, I request that the accused be hanged. She also urged the people of Uttarakhand to continue supporting them. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies Asias premier defence summit, Shangri-La Dialogue, will begin today in Singapore, bringing defence ministers, military chiefs and policymakers from around the world together. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan will be attending the gathering. In India, PM Modi will inaugurate development projects and address public functions in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh read more It is set to be a busy Friday with several events lined up for the day. The 22nd edition of the Shangri-La Dialogue will take place today in Singapore. PM Modi will be visiting Uttar Pradesh and Bihar today where he is expected to inaugurate several projects. Meanwhile, the Sanjay Jha-led Operation Sindoor delegation will address a press conference in Indonesias Jakarta to spread the countrys strong stand against terrorism. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting Hong Kong today. UNSC is set to meet to discuss the situation in Ukraine. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Here is all that is set to take place across the day. Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore The 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue , Asias premier defence summit, will begin today in Singapore. Hosted annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the event brings together defence ministers, military chiefs, policymakers and strategic experts from across the globe to discuss pressing regional security challenges and formulate fresh approaches. Some of the notable attendees include French President Emmanuel Macron, who will deliver the keynote address, Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Bin Ibrahim and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Indias Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan is also attending and scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with defence leaders from numerous countries, including Australia, the European Union, France and Germany among others. PM Modi to visit Uttar Pradesh Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh today to launch the several projects. He will inaugurate, lay the foundation stone and dedicate to the nation multiple development projects worth over Rs 48,520 crore in Bihars Karakat. He will also lay the foundation stone for the Nabinagar Super Thermal Power Project, Stage-II (3x800 MW) in Aurangabad district worth over Rs 29,930 crore. PM Modi will be in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to inaugurate several projects. File image/PTI In Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur, he will dedicate several projects to the city worth about Rs 20,900 crore. He will open the new metro line from Chunniganj Metro Station to Kanpur Central Metro Rail Project, costing over Rs 2,120 crore. He is also expected to meet the family of Shubham Dwivedi, the 31-year-old businessman from Kanpur who was among those killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. hich will add 14 stations, including five underground stops near important city areas. Operation Sindoor delegation to hold press conference An all-party parliamentary delegation is scheduled to hold a press conference in Indonesias Jakarta as part of Operation Sindoor, Indias diplomatic outreach campaign following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The delegation, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes members from various political parties, such as BJPs Aparajita Sarangi, TMCs Abhishek Banerjee, John Brittas from CPI-M and Salman Khurshid from Congress. The press conference aims to further highlight Indias stance against terrorism and seek support from international partners in combating cross-border terrorism and its sponsors. Chinese foreign minister to visit Hong Kong Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on a visit to Hong Kong to attend the signing ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed). This event marks the launch of the worlds first intergovernmental legal body dedicated to resolving international disputes through mediation. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting Hong Kong. File image/AP The signing ceremony will take place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Wan Chai and witness participation from senior representatives of nearly 60 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, as well as delegates from about 20 international organisations, including the United Nations. Unsc to discuss the situation in Ukraine The UN Security Council (Unsc) is scheduled to hold an open briefing on the situation in Ukraine today at Russias request. The meeting will address Threats to international peace and security and focus on Russias claims that actions by European countries are hindering efforts towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict. The meeting follows another briefing on Ukraine held just a day earlier requested by European members of the Council (Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, and the UK) to receive updates on political and humanitarian developments. Russias request for the meeting comes amid escalating hostilities in Ukraine, with both sides recently engaging in intense military actions and diplomatic exchanges . STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl who helped lead France to victory, was burned at the stake after being convicted of heresy. Her bravery and leadership were key in shifting the course of the Hundred Years War in Frances favour and preventing the English from taking full control. Also on this day in 1826, the first Hindi newspaper, Udant Martand, was launched in India. May 30 is now celebrated annually as Hindi Journalism Day read more On May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake for heresy in Rouen. Image: Hermitage Museum On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc, a young peasant girl who helped lead France to victory, was burned at the stake after being found guilty of heresy. Years later, in 1920, the Roman Catholic Church declared Joan of Arc a saint, honouring her as one of Frances most respected figures. Also on this day in 1826, the first Hindi newspaper, Udant Martand, was published. It became a voice for people who spoke Hindi. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers ongoing series, History Today , is your one-stop destination to explore key events. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who rose to become a national symbol of France, believed she was carrying out Gods will when she led French forces to a key victory at Orleans during the Hundred Years War. Her leadership helped stop the English from taking full control of France. On May 30, 1431, Joan was burned at the stake for heresy in Rouen, which was under English rule at the time. "Joan of Arc" by John Everett Millais (1865). pic.twitter.com/kjfMDpbIkp Academia Aesthetics (@AcademiaAesthe1) November 19, 2022 The conflict between England and France took a major turn in 1415 when King Henry V of England invaded France and defeated the forces of King Charles VI in several major battles. By the time Henry died in August 1422, the English, along with their French-Burgundian allies, controlled Aquitaine and most of northern France, including Paris. Reims, where French kings were traditionally crowned, remained under Anglo-Burgundian control. Meanwhile, the French heir to the throne, known as the Dauphin, had not yet been crowned. Joans home village of Domremy lay close to the border between lands held by the Dauphin and those under Anglo-Burgundian rule. In February 1429, dressed in mens clothing and travelling with six soldiers, Joan made her way to Chinon to meet the Dauphin. He was hiding among his courtiers, but Joan recognised him at once and told him she had been sent by God. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Dauphin gave her command of a small army, and on April 27, 1429, she began the march to Orleans, which had been under English siege since October the previous year. Joan led from the front in several attacks. On May 7, she was wounded by an arrow but returned to the battle after treating the injury herself. The French broke the siege, and on May 8, the English withdrew from Orleans. In May 1430, the Burgundians surrounded Compiegne. Joan entered the town secretly to help defend it. On May 23, while leading an attack, she was captured by the Burgundians. They later handed her over to the English. Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who rose to become a national symbol of France. Image: Hermitage Museum In March 1431, she was put on trial in Rouen by church officials on charges of heresy. She was found guilty of relapsing into heresy and on May 29 was passed to the secular court. The next day, at just nineteen years old, Joan was burned at the stake in Rouens Place du Vieux-Marche. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Before the fire was lit, she asked a priest to hold up a crucifix so she could see it and to say prayers loudly enough for her to hear them through the flames. Joans courage and leadership played a major part in turning the Hundred Years War in Frances favour. In 1920, the Roman Catholic Church declared her a saint. Her feast day is May 30. Later that same year, on June 24, the French parliament announced a national festival in her honour, to be observed every year on the second Sunday of May. First Hindi newspaper was launched On May 30, 1826, the first Hindi newspaper, Udant Martand, was launched. This was an important step in Indian journalism and gave Hindi speakers a platform to access news in their own language. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The paper was published weekly and became a voice for those who spoke Hindi, allowing them to read news and opinions in their mother tongue. It was founded by Pandit Jugal Kishore Shukla and printed by Manna Thakur. It would take another 28 years before the first Hindi daily, Samachar Sudha Varshan, began publication in Calcutta in 1854. The launch of Udant Martand reflected a growing sense of cultural identity and pride in the Hindi language. The newspaper featured local and international news, helping to inform and engage its readers. To mark the beginning of Hindi journalism in India, May 30 is now observed every year as Hindi Journalism Day. This Day, That Year 1987: Goa was officially granted statehood. The day is now marked every year as Goa Statehood Day. 2012: Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after being found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leones civil war. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 2015: Beau Biden, son of Joe Biden, died of brain cancer at the age of 46. 2019: Narendra Modi began his second term as Prime Minister of India after a decisive win in the general elections. 2020: Protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of Black people spread across the United States. 2024: Donald Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes. A New York jury found him guilty of 34 charges related to a hush money scheme during the 2016 election. Over 3.3 lakh Indian students study in the US. As the Trump administration tightens visa norms and adds scrutiny like social media checks, India has urged that students be judged strictly on merit read more As the United States recalibrates its visa policies for international students, India has expressed hope that applications from Indian students will be assessed on merit and processed in time. With over 3.3 lakh Indian students in the US in 202324, India remains the largest source of international students to the country making any changes to visa processes deeply consequential. India hopes for merit-based visa assessments The Indian government has responded firmly but diplomatically to recent developments surrounding US visa procedures. At a weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, While visa policy and issuing of visas is a sovereign function, we believe that all applications submitted by Indian students should be considered on their merit so that our students can reach universities in US on time to join their academic programmes. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Jaiswal reiterated that the welfare of Indian students abroad is a top priority for the Indian government. He confirmed that in the academic year 202324, approximately 3,30,000 Indian students were pursuing higher education in the United States. This makes India the largest contributor to Americas international student population, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the total 1.1 million international students enrolled in US institutions during that time. The statement came in response to reports that the United States has temporarily suspended new interview appointments for various student visa categories F (academic students), J (exchange visitors) and M (vocational students). This pause reportedly comes as the US State Department awaits instructions on expanding scrutiny of visa applicants social media histories. Jaiswal noted, We have seen reports suggesting the U.S. government updated guidance regarding Student and Exchange Visitor visa applicants While we note that issuance of visa is a sovereign function, we hope that the application of Indian students will be considered on merit and they will be able to join their academic programmes on time. Screening measures tighten under Trump The backdrop to the Indian governments appeal includes policy shifts within the United States, spearheaded by US President Donald Trumps administration. On May 27, American embassies and consulates were directed to halt the scheduling of new appointments for student and exchange visas, citing national security priorities and a desire to increase vetting. The US State Department clarified that its screening process uses all available information, and new requirements compel applicants to disclose social media activity dating back to 2019. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD These measures are being introduced even as political pressure increases on universities, especially in the context of alleged antisemitism and criticism of US foreign policy in student spaces issues that have drawn particular focus from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Though the official rationale is enhanced vetting, the move fits into a wider pattern of immigration enforcement tightening. The current administration has already increased deportations and cancelled student visas in certain cases. For Indian nationals specifically, Jaiswal disclosed that 1,080 Indian citizens have been deported from the US since January this year. The US embassy in India has also issued a warning to students: skipping classes or discontinuing their programmes without notifying their institutions could result in visa revocation. India ranks among top sources for student visas Despite the recent slowdown in new appointments, historical trends show that India remains a priority market for US education. Embassy data indicates a strong upward trend in student visas issued to Indian nationals over the last five years. While the combined total for 20182020 was below one lakh, that number rose significantly in following years. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 2022 : 115,115 student visas issued to Indians 2023 : 130,730 student visas issued 2024: 86,110 student visas issued Even with a noticeable dip in 2024, India retained its position as the top recipient of US student visas, surpassing China, which received about 82,000. In a written reply to Parliament during the 2024 Monsoon Session, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh provided a breakdown of Indian students studying abroad. Out of a total of 1,335,878 Indian students globally, around 427,000 were in Canada, followed by 337,630 in the United States. US economy makes billions off Indian students Beyond individual achievements and economic contributions, international students overall play a vital strategic role in the American higher education ecosystem. According to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA), international students contribute over $45 billion annually to the US economy. In another analysis the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) reported that Indian students studying in the US spend a total of over $25 billion annually, broken down into roughly $15 billion in tuition fees and another $10 billion in living expenses. These students are concentrated at leading universities with average yearly expenses ranging from $87,000 to $142,000 per student. Their presence strengthens bilateral ties and international goodwill, as many foreign students go on to become future global leaders, Nobel laureates, CEOs and policymakers. The US continues to maintain global dominance in research and innovation in fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and economics, thanks in no small part to the influx of foreign talent. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Analysts have long warned that policies aimed at restricting international student entry could lead to a brain drain with top-tier global talent opting for other countries like Canada, the UK, Australia, or emerging hubs in Europe and Asia. Indian Americans punch above their weight The significance of the Indian student presence in the US extends well beyond enrolment figures. According to Chartered Accountant and financial advisor Sarthak Ahuja, the Indian-American community, despite making up just 1.5 per cent of the US population (around 5.1 million people), contributes over 5 per cent of US tax revenue. This speaks to their relatively high income levels, educational qualifications and professional engagement. In a widely viewed social media video, Ahuja highlighted several key statistics that showcase Indian Americans influence: 10 per cent of all patents filed in the US have Indian-origin contributors 10 per cent of US doctors are Indian, treating 30 per cent of the patient load 11 per cent of unicorn founders in the US are of Indian origin 60 per cent of hotels in the US are owned by Indian Americans 70 per cent of colleges in the US reportedly have Indian-origin leadership 78 per cent of Indian Americans hold college degrees, compared to the 36 per cent national average 76 per cent work in high-skilled occupations Indian-American children also dominate US national spelling bees winning over 80 per cent per cent of competitions in recent years. Indian cuisine has also punched above its weight: although Indian restaurants represent just 1 per cent of eateries nationwide, they comprise 3 per cent of all Michelin-starred establishments in the US. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Ahuja also pointed out the philanthropic impact: in 2023 alone, Indian Americans donated $1.5 billion to causes within the US and an additional $800 million to India. The Pew Research Center also reported that the median income of Indian-American households in 2022 was $145,000, well above the $100,000 median for Asian Americans as a whole. Also Watch: With inputs from agencies North Korea has become one of Russias most crucial wartime allies, supplying missiles, troops and millions of artillery rounds to support its war in Ukraine. A new multilateral report exposes the full scale of Pyongyangs military support to Moscow, and how this arms pipeline is shaping the battlefield read more Over the past two years, North Korea has significantly deepened its military cooperation with Russia, supplying a wide array of troops, munitions, missiles and equipment to bolster Moscows ongoing war against Ukraine. A detailed and alarming report released by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) a coalition of eleven UN member states lays bare the scope and mechanics of these transfers, arguing that they constitute a direct violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The MSMT, formed in response to the disbandment of a previous UN panel overseeing sanctions on Pyongyang, has published what is is being touted as the most comprehensive analysis yet of the North KoreaRussia arms collaboration. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state Drawing on open-source intelligence and field investigations by organisations like the Open Source Centre (OSC) and Conflict Armament Research (CAR), the report, accessed by Firstpost outlines a systematic military supply chain funnelling support from Pyongyang to Moscow. From North Korea with love and missiles According to MSMT participating states in the report, North Korea delivered at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia between January and December 2024. These weapons were later used to attack urban centres and critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including cities like Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state The report noted, These forms of unlawful cooperation between (North Korea) and Russia contributed to Moscows ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure. The arsenal sent from North Korea included an assortment of 82mm, 122mm, 130mm, 152mm and 170mm munitions, designed for compatibility with a variety of artillery systems in Russias inventory such as the D-20 and D-30 howitzers, the M-30 and M-46 guns, and the D-74 cannon. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state The report specified that over 20,000 containers of such ammunition and related materiel were transferred since September 2023. One MSMT state estimated that in 2024 alone, up to 9 million rounds of artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition were delivered aboard Russian-flagged cargo vessels. Between August 2023 and March 2025, open-source estimates place that figure at 4.2 to 5.8 million rounds of 122mm and 152mm munitions, showing the sustained scale of deliveries. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via Conflict Armament Research (CAR) In terms of heavy equipment, North Korea shipped three brigade sets of artillery systems, which included 170mm long-range self-propelled guns, 240mm multiple rocket launchers, reload vehicles, and over 200 military vehicles. Among the more advanced systems sent were Bulsae-4 anti-tank missiles and RPG-type anti-tank rockets. Following the recovery of these weapons from battlefields in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence confirmed their North Korean origin. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state One particularly significant incident occurred in January 2024, when UN experts traced a missile strike on Kharkiv back to a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile, confirming a violation of the longstanding UN arms embargo on North Korea. How North Korean troops are fighting for Russia against Ukraine According to the MSMT, more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to eastern Russia in late 2024. These troops were subsequently relocated to the Kursk Oblast, where they were involved in direct combat operations alongside Russian forces. These North Korean units were trained in key military tactics by Russian forces, including drone warfare, artillery operations and trench-clearing techniques skills critical to contemporary battlefield conditions. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state Between January and March 2025, another 3,000 soldiers were sent from North Korea to Russia. Both Russia and North Korea acknowledged the presence of these troops for the first time in April 2025. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that North Korean soldiers had participated in operations aimed at reclaiming Russian territory following a Ukrainian advance into the Kursk region. North Korean officials also confirmed their involvement. Though these troops had been in Russia since at least November 2024, Ukrainian intelligence reported that many were pulled from the frontlines in January 2025 after experiencing significant casualties. The logistics behind the North Korea-Russia arms trade Transportation of arms and personnel has been carried out through a combination of maritime, rail and air routes. Initially, arms transfers were conducted primarily by rail. However, to meet growing demand, Russia transitioned to using maritime shipping as the dominant mode of transport. A total of 49 shipments of artillery and rocket ammunition were recorded from January to mid-December 2024. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state Sensitive items such as missiles, missile launch vehicles (TELs) and electronic warfare systems were primarily transported via Russian military cargo aircraft. Aircraft identified in these transfers include the Ilyushin Il-76MD and Antonov AN-124, operated by the Russian Command of Military Transport Aviation (VTA) and Joint Stock Company the 224th Flight Unit State Airlines. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state In a strategic technological exchange, Russia is reported to have provided North Korea with air defence systems, including short-range weapons, advanced jamming equipment and at least one Pantsir-class combat vehicle. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Pantsir system significantly enhances North Koreas defence capabilities by providing protection against a variety of aerial threats. Russia has also shared operational data on missile performance, which has helped North Korea fine-tune the guidance systems of its ballistic missiles. Image Source: Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report via an MSMT participating state The MSMT report highlights that such information exchange enables Pyongyang to fund its military programmes and further develop its ballistic missiles programmes, which are themselves prohibited under multiple (UN Security Council resolutions), and gain first-hand experience in modern warfare. Kims gifts to Putin North Koreas support for Russia hasnt been limited to military hardware and troops. In 2024, Pyongyang requested 8,000 labour visas for its workers, intending to send them to Russia for construction and forestry work. Between December 2024 and February 2025, 481 North Korean labourers were reportedly dispatched 198 for the construction sector and 283 for textile jobs. Further plans include the deployment of IT professionals and medical staff from North Korea to Russia, marking a broader economic integration effort between the two nations despite international sanctions. The report also outlines how Russia and North Korea have engaged in financial transactions designed to bypass UN restrictions. The two countries have been operating ruble-denominated accounts through sanctioned North Korean banks the Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) and the Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC) via MRB Bank in the South Ossetia region of Georgia. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This financial collaboration violates Paragraph 33 of UN Security Council Resolution 2270 (2016), which bans financial institutions from maintaining relationships with North Korean banks unless approved by the Committee. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) also mandates such measures under its recommendations aimed at curbing proliferation financing. What MSMT nations are saying In response to the findings, the MSMTs member nations Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint statement calling on North Korea to engage in meaningful diplomacy. Meanwhile, concerns persist in the West about the growing depth of the Moscow-Pyongyang alliance. There are increasing fears that Russia may soon provide space and satellite technology to North Korea in return for sustained military support. Despite the denials from both Russia and North Korea regarding weapons transfers, their public commitment under a new bilateral defence pact to provide immediate military assistance in the event of an attack put their renewed level of trust and interdependence in the spotlight. While many of the materials and troops detailed in the MSMT report have already seen action in Ukraine, the report makes clear that this military cooperation is ongoing and likely to continue. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Also Watch: Pakistan claims to be a victim of terrorism. But the ground reality proves otherwise. Time after time, terrorists have addressed rallies, spewing anti-India rhetoric, all in the presence of government officials. One such instance took place on Wednesday (May 28), when Hafiz Saeeds son, Talha Saeed, and alleged mastermind of the Pahalgam terror attack, Saifullah Kasuri, addressed an event in the presence of ministers read more In most countries, sport stars, celebrities, influencers and politicians attract huge crowds at rallies and appearances. But not in Pakistan. In the neighbouring country, a different type of individual is a crowd puller the terrorist belonging to groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Many would point out that these terrorists holding rallies out in the open, with government officials often in the crowds, is a reflection of the nations duplicity and a clear sign of its terror nexus. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In fact, there are multiple instances when terrorists have held rallies in Pakistan the latest example surfacing on Wednesday (May 28) when Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Saifullah Kasuri addressed the crowds in the presence of Pakistans Food Minister Malik Rasheed Ahmad Khan and Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan. LeT commander and Pahalgam attackers massive rally On Wednesday, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Saifullah Kasuri , who is the alleged mastermind of the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Indians, mostly civilians, lost their lives, appeared at a rally, sharing the sharing with Pakistani political leaders and other wanted terrorists. Speaking at the event in Kasoor in Punjab province, Kasuri brazenly said, I was blamed as being the mastermind of the Pahalgam terror attack, now my name is famous in the entire world. He also announced plans to build a centre, road, and hospital in Allahabad in the name of Mudassir Shaheed. Mudassir was reportedly one of several high-profile terrorists killed in May 7 strikes by the Indian Air Force on nine terror sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He further stated that he wasnt afraid of bullets, a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modis earlier speech. Narendra Modi samajhta hai hum goliyon se darne wale hain? Ye uski bhool hai (Modi is mistaken if he thinks we are scared of bullets). Incidentally, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, of which Kasuri is a member, has been added to a United Nations sanctions list since 2005. Also, it has been deemed a terrorist organisation by the US since 2001. What is even more shocking that a terrorist holding a rally was the presence of Pakistani security forces as well as government officials. As per an India Today report, Pakistans Food Minister Malik Rasheed Ahmad Khan and Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan were both present in the crowd while Kasuri continued to make anti-India comments. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In fact, the ministers personally welcomed the Kasuri to the stage and embracing him. The India Today report further stated that Minister Malik Rasheed openly declared that 24 crore Pakistanis are today represented by men like Hafiz Saeed and Saifullah Kasuri. Saifullah Kasuri, alias Khalid, of the Lashkar-e-Taiba at a rally on Wednesday. Image Courtesy: Facebook Along with Kasuri, the rally on Wednesday also saw UN-proscribed terrorist Talha Saeed son of 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed. In 2022, India had designated him as an individual terrorist under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). In fact, he is ranked 32nd on Indias most wanted terrorist list today. Almost 50-years-old, Talha is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the banned outfit. India has found that he is actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, planning and executing attacks by LeT in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan. In the Wednesday rally, he is heard saying, Today there is a message for India from Pakistan. We have won Operation Bunyan al-Marsus and God should accept our presence here. Im thankful to Malik Ahmad Khan, speaker of Punjab Assembly, Malik Rashid Khan and Saifullah Khalid for their presence here on stage. I also salute the people of Pakistan on behalf of my father Hafiz Saeed. I am here to tell you God loves those who do jihad. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Talha also deemed the Pahalgam terror attack as drama, adding that his father was under the peaceful protection of the state, exposing Pakistans terrorism scam. Talha has also appeared at other rallies in Pakistan in the past. Earlier in February, he delivered a provocative speech at a rally in Lahore on Pakistans so-called Kashmir Solidarity Day, vowing to liberate Kashmir from India at any cost. In that same address, he called Prime Minister Modi a shaitan (devil), adding: I want to warn PM Modi that Kashmir belongs to Muslims, and we will take Kashmir from you. It will be a part of Pakistan Muslim India soon. Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, addressing a crowd in Pakistan. File image/Reuters Hafiz Saeeds anti-India outbursts But before Kasuri and Talha Saeeds rally, Pakistans double-face on terror has been exposed when 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed has been permitted to take the stage and rant against India. Over the years, in 2018 and 2019, Hafiz Saeed has held multiple rallies, urging his followers to stand up against Indias alleged crackdown on Kashmiris. He has also been seen sharing public space with Pakistani ministers; for instance, in September 2018, Pakistans Religious Affairs and Interfaith Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri shared a platform with Saeed, and in December of the same year, Pakistans Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi had openly expressed support of his government to Hafiz Saeed and his terror outfit. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD If thats not enough in September 2013, the terrorist, who carries a US bounty of $10 million, appeared openly at a rally in Islamabad, denouncing India as a terrorist state. Speaking to over 10,000 people, he was quoted as saying, The United States and India are very angry with us. This means God is happy with us. We are ready for every sacrifice for the liberation of Kashmir, he added in the speech. Jaish-e-Mohammeds Masood Azhar surrounded by armed guards and Pakistan police. File image/Reuters JeMs Masood Azhar calls for jihad against India In February 2014, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar , the man behind the 2001 Parliament attack in India, also spewed venom against the country in a rally in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir capital Muzaffarabad. According to multiple reports, the rally saw thousands of his supporters in attendance, who were bussed to the venue. When India raised the issue with Islamabad, the Foreign Office sought to play down his appearance as a one time event. Following Azhars appearance, intelligence agencies sounded an alarm, stating that it does not seem accidental. They described the phenomenon as a disturbing development for the world community and Pakistans national security. With inputs from agencies The Colombian government offered condolences to Pakistan over the deaths caused by Indias retaliatory strikes on May 7, conducted under Operation Sindoor. Responding to this, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is currently heading a multi-party delegation visiting five countries, including Panama and the US, said he was disappointed by Colombias stance. He stated that the Pahalgam terror attack could not go unanswered and clarified that the strikes were aimed at terrorist bases under Operation Sindoor read more Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that he is disappointed by Colombias recent statement on the Indian military action carried out under Operation Sindoor. Notably, the Thiruvananthapuram MP is currently leading a multi-party delegation visiting five countries, including Panama and the US. ALSO READ | Is Shashi Tharoors breakup with Congress inevitable? The Colombian government had offered its condolences over the loss of lives in Pakistan following Indias retaliatory strikes on May 7. After visiting Panama and Guyana, Tharoor and his delegation arrived in Colombia on Thursday. The visit is part of a global outreach effort to expose Pakistans actions and put forward Indias stand on terrorism. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In this explainer, we take a closer look at Colombias statement, Shashi Tharoors response, and what else he said in Bogota. Lets take a look: What did Colombia say on Operation Sindoor? How did Shashi Tharoor react? The Colombian government offered condolences to Pakistan over the deaths that followed Indias retaliatory strikes on May 7, which were carried out as part of Operation Sindoor. Responding to the message and reiterating Indias firm approach towards terrorism, Tharoor said the country could not allow the Pahalgam terror attack to go unanswered. He said the strikes targeted terrorist bases under Operation Sindoor. We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," ANI quoted Tharoor as saying during a press briefing attended by several local media outlets. #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the pic.twitter.com/AgpOMpNpSt ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Tharoor, who is leading the multi-party delegation, made it clear that Indias actions were based on the right to self-defence. He added that it is wrong to draw any comparison between India and Pakistan in this matter. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. Were very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances," he said. Tharoor, who is leading the multi-party delegation, made it clear that Indias actions were based on the right to self-defence. PTI/File Photo The senior Congress leader added that The Resistance Front, a group linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and based in Pakistans Muridke, had quickly claimed responsibility for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades," he said. Tharoor also shared an image showing senior Pakistani Army officials attending the funerals of terrorists killed in Indias strike on terror bases. He said this was further proof that Pakistan continues to offer safe shelter for terrorists and allows them to carry on with their training. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He said that Colombias message of condolence may have been issued without a complete understanding of the situation. We think perhaps the situation was not fully understood when that one statement (Colombia expresses condolences for deaths in Pakistan following Indian strikes on terrorist targets) was made. Understanding is extremely important to us. We are a country that has really been a force for constructive progress in the world Tharoor added that India expects other governments to urge Pakistan to stop supporting and sheltering terrorist groups. #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "The Indus Waters Treaty was one that was offered by India to Pakistan in the early 1960s in a spirit of goodwill and harmony. In fact, those words occur in the preamble of the treaty; sadly, that goodwill has been pic.twitter.com/DtDkSIHthG ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 We certainly hope that other governments will tell those who provide safe haven and protection to terrorists to stop doing that. That would be really helpful, whether in the Security Council or outside it. He also pointed to a funeral held in Pakistan for a terrorist on the sanctions list, which was attended by senior officials in uniform from the military and police. That is the extent of complicity that we are seeing between the terrorists who perpetrate crimes of this nature and those who finance, guide, train, arm, and equip them and do provide them safe haven to continue their training and their other awful deeds, he said. Chinese military equipment used in Pakistani military? Speaking in Bogota, Shashi Tharoor pointed out that Chinese military equipment makes up a large part of Pakistans armed forces and said it is mostly used for offensive purposes, not defence. We are quite conscious that China supplies 81 per cent of all Pakistani defence equipment. Defence is a polite word, Pakistani military equipment. Much of it is not for defence but for attack. Every sovereign country has the right to do that," he said. He also spoke about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the largest single project under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. This highway links China to a port in southwestern Pakistan, allowing quicker and more affordable movement of goods to western China. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "We are quite conscious that China supplies 81 per cent of all Pakistani defence equipment. Defence is a polite word, Pakistani military equipment. Much of it is not for defence but for attack. Every sovereign country pic.twitter.com/bCKktFnK4F ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 We are aware of that, and our concern is not with the rights of the Pakistani people to pursue development. Of course, they may do so, including with the partnership with China. Our quarrel is only with the perpetration of terror against us," Tharoor said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As per a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China was the biggest arms supplier to Pakistan from 2020 to 2024, covering 81 per cent of its total defence imports. These included advanced fighter jets, radar systems, naval vessels, submarines, and missiles. The report also said that the two countries jointly produce the JF-17 aircraft, a key part of the Pakistan Air Force. Tharoors comments on the Belt and Road Initiative came after Colombia officially joined the project on May 14 this year. The move signals Colombias intent to improve infrastructure and deepen trade ties with China. The BRI is central to Chinese President Xi Jinpings goal of expanding Chinas influence across the world, economically and politically, and to challenge the United States sway over countries in Latin America. Shashi Tharoor-led delegation & Operation Sindoor The delegation led by Shashi Tharoor reached Colombia on Thursday after completing their visits to Panama and Guyana. During their time in Colombia, the team is scheduled to meet members of Congress, ministers, and other important officials. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. File Image: X The delegation includes MPs and leaders from different parties: Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), GM Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), Taranjit Singh Sandhu (former Indian Ambassador to the US), and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This team is one of seven multi-party delegations India has sent to 33 world capitals as part of its outreach to the global community following the Pahalgam terror attack. Tensions between India and Pakistan grew after the attack in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives. In response, India launched targeted strikes on terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7. The military actions were called off after the directors general of military operations of both countries held talks on May 10 and agreed to bring the situation under control. With inputs from agencies As tensions rise between the US and China over student visas, the spotlight has turned to Chinese President Xi Jinpings daughter, Xi Mingze, a Harvard student who reportedly lives in Massachusetts under heavy security. Far-right Maga activist Laura Loomer has demanded that Mingze be deported read more Xi Mingze, the only daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Peng Liyuan, has studied at Harvard University under a false name. Image courtesy: X As tensions flare up between the US and China over student visa restrictions, the spotlight has turned to Xi Mingze, the daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, following claims that she is living in Massachusetts under heavy security. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Washington would begin aggressively revoking visas of Chinese students who are considered national security threats. With stricter background checks and tougher rules expected to follow, many are now asking, will the daughter of Chinas most powerful leader not be spared? STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Heres a closer look. But first, who is Xi Mingze? Xi Mingze, the only daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping , and Peng Liyuan, has remained intensely private and has kept most details of her life shrouded in secrecy. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan. File image/ AFP She studied under a false name at Harvard University from 2010 to 2014, majoring in psychology, after previously attending Zhejiang University and the Hangzhou Foreign Language School, studying French. Though she reportedly returned to China after graduation, unverified reports suggest she may have resumed graduate studies at Harvard in 2019. The same year, a technician, Niu Tengyu, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly leaking her ID card details on a website (esu.wiki), though activists claim he was wrongly targeted. Chinese authorities have consistently censored information about her, and her current location, career, and personal life remain unconfirmed. However, persistent speculation places her in Massachusetts, likely under the Chinese governments protection. Will Xis daughter be deported by Trump? Speculation around Xi Mingzes fate under the USs new visa policy has gained momentum ever since far-right activist Laura Loomer took to social media demanding her deportation. LETS GO! DEPORT XI JINPINGS DAUGHTER! She lives in Massachusetts and went to Harvard! Loomer wrote in a tweet. She also claimed, Sources tell me PLA guards from the CCP provide her with private security on US soil in Massachusetts! Loomer went a step further, announcing she plans to confront Xi Mingze on camera. She said she intends to question her about her fathers policies, adding, Communists dont belong in our country. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD LETS GO! DEPORT XI JINPINGS DAUGHTER! She lives in Massachusetts and went to Harvard! Sources tell me PLA guards from the CCP provide her with private security on US soil in Massachusetts! @marcorubio Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 28, 2025 Her remarks came just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed a new policy aimed at Chinese nationals, particularly students with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or those studying sensitive subjects like artificial intelligence, defence tech, or robotics. Rubio said that the administration will also revise visa criteria to enhance checks of all future applications from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD For years, China has been the largest source of international students in the US. But rising political tensions, along with the pandemic, have caused those numbers to drop significantly. Now, with this new policy in place, a lot will depend on how the State Department and Homeland Security choose to enforce it. Around 280,000 Chinese students are currently enrolled in American high schools, colleges, and graduate programmes, making up nearly a quarter of all foreign students in the country. The broader the criteria, the more students could be affected. China responds to the US latest visa move Beijing didnt take long to react. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning strongly criticised the visa crackdown , calling it politically motivated and accusing the US of using ideology as a weapon under the pretext of national security. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, she said the move was an unreasonable decision that seriously harms the lawful rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupts people-to-people exchanges between us. She further added, The US decision to revoke visas is entirely groundless. It harms the legitimate rights of Chinese students and damages educational and cultural exchanges. China firmly opposes this move and has lodged an official protest. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But why is Trump targeting Chinese students? At the core of the policy lies a growing concern within Washington: that China is using academic programmes as a way to access American research and technological advancements. Over the years, Chinese students have become a major presence in US universities, especially in STEM programmes. While this exchange has brought benefits to American institutions and industries, the Trump camp now sees it as a vulnerability. Trump argues that Chinese government exploits these student exchanges to collect sensitive information and boost its military and tech sectors. Image for Representation. Reuters They argue that the Chinese government exploits these student exchanges to collect sensitive information and boost its military and tech sectors. In fact, back during Trumps first term, the administration issued a Presidential Proclamation warning that The PRCs (Peoples Republic of China) acquisition of sensitive United States technologies and intellectual property to modernise its military is a threat to our Nation It further stated that PRC authorities use some Chinese students, mostly postgraduate students and post-doctorate researchers, to operate as non-traditional collectors of intellectual property. Those with ties to the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), the military arm of the CCP, were labelled as high risk. But will the Chinese Presidents daughter be caught in the crosshairs of this sweeping policy? Only time will tell. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With input from agencies A day after Trump received a jolt with the US trade court blocking his Liberation Day tariffs, an appeals court reinstated the levies, giving the US president a temporary reprieve at least until June 5. Wary of the courts decision, the administration is already considering a Plan B to impose taxes on imports. What is it? read more US President Donald Trump delivered remarks on tariffs, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington. A federal appeals court reinstated the most sweeping of President Donald Trump's tariffs. File image/Reuters On, then off, and now back on. No, we arent talking about a complicated relationship but about Donald Trumps tariffs which, on Wednesday (May 28), were blocked by a US court, only for them to be reinstated a day later after a federal appeals court restored the ability to impose the levies. On Thursday (May 29), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said it was pausing the lower courts ruling to consider the governments appeal, and ordered the plaintiffs in the cases to respond by June 5 and the administration by June 9. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This means that Trumps Liberation Day tariffs , which he had initially announced on April 2, are back on bringing with them confusion and uncertainty. We try to decipher and decode whats going on in this Trump tariff war and what can we expect next in this saga. US court blocks Trumps tariffs On Wednesday, the US Court of International Trade ruled that US President Trump did not have the authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs and blocked them. The ruling from the three-judge panel at the New York-based court came after several lawsuits arguing Trumps Liberation Day tariffs exceeded his authority and left the countrys trade policy dependent on his whims. With this ruling, Trumps Liberation Day tariffs in which the US president levied tariffs as high as 50 per cent on trading partners were paused, much to the ire of the White House. The ruling also applied to tariffs imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China over their alleged roles in allowing an influx of drugs into the United States. Later, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing: America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges. A person walks past the The United States Court of International Trade in lower Manhattan in New York City. In a ruling that surprised many, the Manhattan-based trade court ruled in an opinion by a three-judge panel that a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not grant President Donald Trump unbounded authority to impose the worldwide and retaliatory tariffs he has recently issued by executive order. AFP Trump gets reprieve from appeals court Shortly after the trade court blocked Trumps tariffs, the administration appealed the decision in the United States Court of Appeals. The Trump administration said the decision issued by the trade court a day earlier had improperly second-guessed the president and threatened to unravel months of hard-fought trade negotiations. The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy, it said in the filing. And just 24 hours after the trade court had paused the tariffs, the appeals court granted a temporary reprieve to Trump, allowing for tariffs to be levied for now while the case is litigated. The next hearing is on June 5. National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told Fox News the administration is very pleased with the ruling, dubbing it a victory. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As Bloomberg reported this shows just how central tariffs are to Trumps economic vision. A Tariff Free sign at an automobile dealership in Totowa, New Jersey. File image/AP Following the reprieve, Trump posted on Truth Social, The US Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade. Where do these initial three judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of Trump? What other reason could it be? In the same post, after lambasting judges, the US president hailed his use of tariffs, saying that many trillions of dollars have already begun pouring into the USA from other countries, money that, without these tariffs, we would not be able to get. Trump thinks of a Plan B for tariffs With the tariff policy now going down the legal route with some experts noting that the appeals court could eventually uphold the trade courts original decision to block Trumps sweeping tariffs, the White House is devising new ways to continue his tariff agenda. In fact, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters: You can assume that even if we lose [in court], we will do it [tariffs] another way. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Many speculate that the Trump administration is mulling the use of a never-before-used provision of the Trade Act of 1974 to continue with the levies. This would allow for tariffs of up to 15 per cent for 150 days. This would then buy time for Trump to devise individualised tariffs for each major trading partner under a different provision of the same law, used to counter unfair foreign trade practices, according to the Wall Street Journal. The other option is Section 338 of the Trade Act of 1930, which allows the administration to impose tariffs of up to 50 per cent on countries that discriminate against the United States. When asked about the same on Bloomberg TV, Navarro said, Those are the kinds of thoughts the economic team is considering. He further indicated that the administration could use the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which has a provision that allows for tariffs on nations that discriminate against America. The US could also expand the use of tariffs imposed citing national-security concerns. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, these plans are not without risks. Everett Eissenstat, who served as deputy director of the National Economic Council in Trumps first term, told the Wall Street Journal, The administration could quickly turn to other tariff authorities, but doing so while the ruling is under judicial review could be seen as a lack of confidence in the final decision. Trade advisor to US President Donald Trump Peter Navarro speaks to members of the media on the North Lawn of the White House. AFP Turmoil for economy Whatever the situation, it is bound to be chaotic and introduce uncertainty for the US economy. The court process introduces greater ambiguity around the future direction of US trade policy, especially because the appeal is ongoing, said EY chief economist Gregory Daco to AFP. This legal development amplifies longer-lasting uncertainty for businesses navigating cross-border supply chains, he added in a note. KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk also echoed similar views. The fate of the economy remains precarious even if we avert a recession, she said on social media. With inputs from agencies Elon Musk has announced his departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in Donald Trumps administration. This leaves the leadership of the agency in doldrums. Its got people talking, with many looking at Indian-origin Vivek Ramaswamy, who was initially tipped to run it alongside the tech billionaire read more Elon Musk is out, but whos in? A day after the tech billionaire, the mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, called time on his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) , the big question that everyone is asking but no one has an answer to is who will be the next chief of the agency that has cut millions of jobs and caused all-round chaos and become central to many lawsuits. While US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk havent dropped any hints on the future leadership at Doge, many have already begun speculating with one name being considered the frontrunner. Thats none other than Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate who had been initially elected to run Doge alongside Musk. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Musks exit from Doge After being appointed by Trump to run the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in November last year, Elon Musk on Wednesday (May 29) announced that his scheduled time as a special a special government employee had come to an end. In his message, he thanked US President Donald Trump for giving him the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. And in his time as Doge leader, the worlds richest man took a chainsaw to government programmes, cutting thousands of jobs and earning him the scorn of people not just in America but also across Europe which could be seen in the form of protests against him, and his cars and showrooms being vandalised. Interestingly, Musk hasnt hinted or indicated as to who could take over from him at Doge. In fact, when asked about it in the past, he said: Doge is a way of life, like Buddhism. Is Buddha needed for Buddhism? Was it (Buddhism) not stronger after he (Buddha) passed away? The Tesla CEO said that just like Buddhism continued without Buddha, DOGE would continue its work without him. But not everyone agrees with this. A former Doge staffer, Sahil Lavingia, who spent almost two months working for the group, said he expects the cost-cutting agency to quickly fizzle out. Itll just die a whimper, Lavingia, who was fired from Doge earlier this month, told Reuters. So much of the appeal and allure was Elon. He said he expected Doge staffers to just stop showing up to work. Its like kids joining a start-up that will go out of business in four months. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Vivek Ramaswamy, lead contender for Doge leadership But despite Lavingias concerns about Doges future, many are speculating and discussing the next leader of Doge, with quite a few thinking it could be Vivek Ramaswamy. Hes considered the hot favourite owing to the fact that he had been initially selected by Trump to co-run the agency before stepping down from the role to run for Ohio governor in February. At that time, rumours were swirling that it was Musk who had got the Indian-origin entrepreneur-turned-politician fired from the job. When asked about it directly, Ramaswamy told Fox News, No. We had a mutual discussion. And I think that I wish him well. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The two were initially chosen to lead Doge, until Ramaswamy dropped out to run for Ohio governor. File image/Reuters Theres no better person to lead a technology-driven approach than Elon Musk, Ramaswamy said. But what I would say is we had different and complementary approaches. I focused more on a constitutional law legislative-based approach to focus more on a technology approach, which is the future approach. His foundational role in shaping the department may be the reason hes now considered the frontrunner for the position at Doge. Others in the running While Vivek Ramaswamy is a frontrunner in the race to lead Doge, there are others too. Some believe that Tom Krause, an ally of Elon Musk, who currently serves as the Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, could be taking over from the billionaire. Krause, the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Cloud Software Group, has overseen layoffs at his company in each of the last three years while instituting a return-to-office mandate, rigid performance ratings, and a request that weekly updates be sent from workers directly to Krause echoing the sort of reforms that Musk undertook at Doge. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Amy Gleason is is the acting administrator of Doge. File image/AP Besides Krause, theres also speculation that Amy Gleason , who is the acting administrator of Doge, could be officially named as the head of the agency. A former emergency room nurse-turned-health care technologist, Gleason was a relatively low-profile healthcare data cruncher with a passion for simplifying access to electronic medical records. However, in late February, she was named the acting administrator for Doge, elevating her position. Gleason previously worked on projects related to health data at the US Digital Service, Doges predecessor, overlapping with Trumps first term and the Biden administration. It is, in fact, during this time that Gleason collaborated with the White House on the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic, worked on projects alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Many are also wondering aloud if Trump will hand over the reins of Doge to Russell Vought , Trumps top budget official and leading figure behind the controversial Project 2025. Doges agenda matches with Voughts he is a staunch advocate of shrinking government. He is also known as the architect of Schedule F, aimed at replacing long-term federal employees with politically loyal staff. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Russell Vought is Trumps top budget official and leading figure behind the controversial Project 2025. File image/Reuters Theres also buzz doing the rounds that 23-year-old Luke Farritor , a former SpaceX intern, could be heading Doge soon. It is reported that Farritor, a dropout from the University of Nebraska, is already working for Doge, reporting directly to long-time Musk adviser, Steve Davis. Farritor came to the spotlight in 2024 after deciphering a 2,000-year-old papyrus scroll using AI. The scroll, damaged by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, earned him a $700,000 prize. Another individual considered to be in the running for Doge leader is Marko Elez . The 25-year-old, who works at Doge, has been linked to racist posts in the past, including one post which read, Normalise Indian hate. A graduate from Rutgers University, he is said to have worked on search AI at X. Its unsure what happens next to Doge, but if the White House is to be believed then Doge will be led by each and every member of the Presidents Cabinet and the President himself. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies Under the command of AC Bhandari, six BSF women held their ground at forward posts, two of them veterans, four relatively new to the force. Manjit Kour and Malkit Kour from Punjab brought with them nearly 17 years of experience, firmly positioned at the compact bunkers that double as observation posts read more Seven women officers of the BSF contributed to the success of Operation Sindoor after they fearlessly defended India at the international border in Jammu and Kashmirs Akhnoor. Under the leadership of Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari, who joined the force just three years ago, seven young Border Security Force female personnel were deployed at two border posts for three days in Akhnoor. Interestingly, Bhandari is the first woman officer to be posted on the frontline since the Army is yet to utilise female officers for such roles. The team of women officers, called Seema Praharis, defended their posts until the enemy stepped back from their locations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Under the command of AC Bhandari, six BSF women held their ground at forward posts, two of them veterans, four relatively new to the force. Manjit Kour and Malkit Kour from Punjab brought with them nearly 17 years of experience, firmly positioned at the compact bunkers that double as observation posts. For the others, Swapna Rath and Shampa Basak of West Bengal, Sumi Xess from Jharkhand, and Jyoti Banian from Odisha, it was a new challenge. Having joined the BSF as recently as 2023, they now found themselves in a high-stakes, near-combat setting. Backed by rigorous training and inspired leadership, Neha herself comes from a family steeped in CRPF service; her mother is still actively serving, and they embraced the challenge without flinching. Their male seniors had given the women officers to back out, given the intensity of the situation at IB, according to a report by the Times of India. I obviously declined. When we had trained as soldiers, our training regimen and resources were the same as our male counterparts. Operation Sindoor presented us with a rare, early-career opportunity to prove that we are equally capable as men to take on the enemy, AC Bhandari said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Central Reserve Police Force ASI Moti Ram Jat from Delhi earlier this week, after alleging that he shared sensitive information with Pakistani agents in return for monetary funds read more An assistant sub-inspector of the CRPF has been arrested after he was found sharing classified information with Pakistani spies posing as journalists for the past two years. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Central Reserve Police Force ASI Moti Ram Jat from Delhi earlier this week, after alleging that he shared sensitive information with Pakistani agents in return for monetary funds. Jat received Rs 3,500 per month for providing intelligence to Pakistan and Rs 12,000 for crucial information, according to a report by the Indian Express. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD What info did he pass on? Jat allegedly shared information like Union Home Minister Amit Shahs visit to Jammu and Kashmir following the Pahalgam attack of April 22, the closure of 50 tourist spots, the movement and strength and the CRPF force. Jat allegedly provided multiple classified documents related to security personnel deployment, information of troops movement, reports of the multi-agency centre (MAC) of intelligence agencies, and sometimes the locations of terrorist movement, a source told the news outlet. In a few of his exchanges, Jat shared news clippings related to paramilitary forces, but the recipients advised him against sending information that was already publicly accessible. After one or two months, they started giving Rs 3,500 to him on the fourth day of every month, and also Rs 12,000 for crucial information. He received the money in his and his wifes accounts, the source claimed. Spies posed as TV journalists A woman posing as a journalist from Chandigarh and associated with a leading news channel approached Jat, seeking information that was classified in nature. After a few conversations over calls and texts, Jat allegedly began passing on information to the woman. After a few months, a man posing as a journalist from the same news channel started receiving information from him. Jats activities were under the scanner for weeks, following which he was transferred to Delhi just days before the Pahalgam terror attack. Threats via emails to blow up two government buildings in central Delhi Udyog Bhawan and Nirman Bhawan prompted security agencies to carry out an extensive sanitisation exercise. The threat later turned out to be a hoax. read more Threats via e-mails to blow up two government buildings in central Delhi Udyog Bhawan and Nirman Bhawan prompted security agencies to carry out an extensive sanitisation exercise. The threat later turned out to be a hoax. The threat, sent via email at 6.49 am to senior officials at the two central government complexes, claimed that ammonium sulfur-based Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been twinned within the premises and warned, Evacuate All by 3.15 pm. The suicide IEDs threat was issued through identical e-mails sent at 6.49 am to the top officials of the ministries housed in the two facilities. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Udyog Bhawan houses offices of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry along with the Ministry of Heavy Industries, while Nirman Bhawan is home to the Union Health and Housing and Urban Affairs ministries. Security officials told PTI that the hoax e-mails are suspected to have been sent from abroad, possibly Amsterdam, and the central cyber protection agencies are tracking their trail. The office of the secretary of Heavy Industries and officials from the adjoining Nirman Bhawan flagged the e-mail contents to security agencies including the Delhi Police, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS). The CISF is tasked to provide a counter-terrorist cover to the two buildings. A multi-agency sanitisation and anti-sabotage check was initiated in the two Bhawans early this morning. No incriminating or suspicious items was recovered and the threat was declared a non-specific or hoax by late afternoon, security officials said. The official staff and other people present in the ministries housed in the buildings were not evacuated as per the standard operating procedure (SOP), they said. Around a dozen sniffer dogs, four bomb detection and disposal teams of the CISF, Delhi Police and Delhi Metro were pressed in for conducting the sanitisation exercise, they added. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The anti-sabotage operations lasted for around two hours till 5.10 pm. The threat has been declared hoax after thorough check of the premises, a DFS officer said According to fire service officials, they received a call regarding the threat email at 1.01 pm and a team of fire brigade was rushed to the spot. The security apparatus at the two buildings was further strengthened with CISF officers seen checking vehicles before allowing entry into premises and visitors being thoroughly checked. Meanwhile, earlier today, the nine-floor Haryana civil secretariat building was also evacuated after a bomb threat was received on email which later turned out to be a hoax, officials said. Personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and police combed the premises during a more than two-hour long exercise. The alert about the bomb threat was sounded by the Haryana CID, they said. The e-mail threat message claimed that explosives had allegedly been planted in the secretariat premises including the chief ministers office in the building. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Central Consumer Protection Authority expressed concerns over walkie-talkies being sold on e-commerce platforms without making it clear that they might need a wireless operating license or must follow certain laws read more Indias Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Friday (May 30) notified guidelines for prevention and regulation of illegal listing and sale of radio equipment on e-commerce platforms. A press release issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs said the guidelines have been issued to curb the unauthorised sale of wireless devices, including radio equipment, that may pose risks to consumer safety. The press release warned that these devices may also mislead consumers regarding their legal position and interfere with critical communication networks, including those used by law enforcement and emergency services. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The CCPA issued these guidelines after consultations with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Concerns expressed by the CCPA The Indian government body expressed concerns over walkie-talkies being sold on e-commerce platforms without making it clear that they might need a wireless operating license or must follow certain laws. The product listings do not mention if a license from the relevant authority is required. Important details like frequency range, licensing requirements under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, or the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Low Power, Very Low Power Short Range Radio Frequency Devices (Exemption from Licensing Requirement) Rules, 2018, are missing. This can mislead consumers into thinking that these devices can be used freely by anyone. Key highlights of the guidelines Following are the key highlights of the guidelines as spelled out by the press release. Mandates that only authorised and compliant walkie-talkie devices operating on permitted frequencies are listed for sale on online platforms. Product listings to specify frequency ranges and other technical parameters and include proof of regulatory approval (Equipment Type Approval). Requires e-commerce entities to undertake due diligence and verify regulatory compliance, including licensing where applicable and listings lacking frequency information or necessary certification should be taken down. Prohibits misleading advertisements or product descriptions that may misinform consumers about the legal usage of such devices. Sellers should ensure that equipment listed for sale do not operate on frequencies which are not exempted from requirement of frequency assignment and authorisation by DOT and ensure that the frequency bands on product description are clearly labelled Outlines penalties and enforcement mechanisms for violations in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. This comes after the CCPA in early May issued notices to 12 e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, OLX, TradeIndia, Facebook, Indiamart and VardaanMart, over the sale of walkie-talkies and radio equipment. A preliminary analysis further revealed an alarming volume of such listings across these platforms, including approximately 467 listings on Amazon, 314 on Flipkart, 489 on Meesho, and 423 on TradeIndia, indicating the widespread scale of the issue, " the statement from the Consumer Affairs Ministry then said. Pahalgam effect The move comes in the wake of increased security tensions in India, especially in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, after the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22. There are concerns that terrorists or extremist elements might misuse these equipment and devices for carrying out similar attacks targeting civilians or security forces in the region. One of Shubhams cousins said that it was a very emotional moment and all family members teared up during the meeting with PM Modi read more Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday (May 30) met with the kin of Shubham Dwivedi one of the 26 victims killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. News agency PTI quoted one of Shubhams cousins as saying that it was a very emotional moment and all family members teared up during the meeting. All the family members started crying when they met Modi, said Saurabh Dwivedi. The 31-year-old victim had tied the knot in February, just weeks before the April tragedy. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The meeting comes after the family members raised a request to meet the prime minister through their regional lawmaker, MP Ramesh Awasthi. We requested our Honourable Parliamentarian, Ramesh Awasthi, that kindly allow us to meet PM Modi on his scheduled visit to Kanpur on 30th May. Awasthi not only assured us of his full support but also immediately wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, requesting that he meet with us. Yesterday, we learned through the media that the Prime Minister will indeed be meeting our family during his visit to Kanpur. This news brought us a great sense of relief and hope. We had faith that the Honourable Prime Minister, who deeply respects the sacrifices made for the nation, would acknowledge our plea, said Saurabh. Shubham was with his wife and sister-in-law when terrorists killed him, after identifying he was a Hindu, in Pahalgam on April 22. Terrorists shot him in the head, leading to his immediate death. Later, his wife had urged the nation to acknowledge her husbands death and sacrifice. I only have one hope that Shubham is given the status of a martyr. The Honourable Prime Minister is coming to meet us on the 30th, and I believe he will speak with us about this. I truly hope that during his visit to pay tribute to Shubham, he will officially recognise his sacrifice. It would mean everything to me if, on that day, my husband is honoured as a martyr, she said. Operation Sindoor In response to the Pahalgam massacre, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting nine terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). In response to further Pakistani aggression, the Indian Armed Forces launched heavy strikes, including on Pakistani airbases. Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the telecom subscriber base in India has expanded from 800 million a decade ago to 1.2 billion this year, a level where India is now the second largest mobile market read more Indian telecom minister has projected that the country is poised to become the data capital of the world within next five years. Source: PTI Indian telecom minister has projected that the country is poised to become the data capital of the world within next five years. While speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025 on Thursday (May 29), Jyotiraditya Scindia said that India is leading a digital-first economy, with the telecom revolution being the driving force. India, I believe, in the next five years, will become the data capital of the world, Scindia said. The minister informed that the telecom subscriber base in India has expanded from 800 million a decade ago to 1.2 billion this year, a level where India is now the second largest mobile market. He added that the broadband base in the country has also grown to 940 million. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The minister highlighted how connectivity costs have fallen drastically over the past decade, recalling days when tariffs were as high as Rs 16 per minute. When we talk about data, 11 years ago, 1 GB of data would cost you Rs 287. Today, 1 GB of data costs you Rs 9. There is a 97 per cent reduction in the cost of communication, Scindia was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. The minister concluded by stating that Indias cost of data communication is currently just 5 per cent of the global average. Sanchar Mitra Scheme Meanwhile, the government has also launched the Sanchar Mitra Scheme, which aims to improve the connection between the telecom industry and everyday citizens. When asked about whether satellite communication service would be available in India, Scindia said it was up to telecom companies to decide how to go about it after they get necessary permission from the government. He emphasised that the governments role is to issue these licenses as long as the companies meet specific requirements. Currently, two companies have already qualified, and a third is close to qualifying. Scindia reaffirmed the governments commitment to granting licenses to companies that comply with the rules. He also mentioned that once companies receive the necessary spectrum to operate their services, they must chart their own course based on the regulations set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Muhammad Yunus is at best a toothless figurehead, unable to quell the chaos, and at worst a pliable pawn in the hands of foreign powers; his governments failuresamnesty for rioters, media crackdowns, and delayed electionsare paving the way for a darker, divided Bangladesh read more Not long ago, Bangladesh was rocked by massive protests under the guise of student rights, demanding reform of a job quota system but spiralling into chaos that ousted Sheikh Hasina, branded a dictator, and unleashed vicious anti-Hindu violence. What began in July 2024 as university students challenging a 30 per cent job reservation for 1971 war veterans descendants turned into a deadly anti-government uprising by August, forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India. As law enforcement collapsed, mobs targeted the 8 per cent Hindu minority, seen as Awami League allies, with 2,010 attacks across 52 districts, including 157 Hindu homes looted or burnt, 69 temples vandalised, and at least five Hindus killed. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate once celebrated as the banker to the poor, was thrust into Bangladeshs interim leadership on August 8, 2024, as the answer to Sheikh Hasinas authoritarian tenure, a saviour who would heal a nation torn by protests and restore faith in governance. Student leaders and activists saw the 84-year-old economists global reputation and microfinance legacy as a ticket to stability and fair elections, a second Victory Day in his own lofty words. Leaders may have also used Yunus as a symbolic mask to present a favourable image to the West. But to call Yunus a disappointment is far too generoushis tenure has been a masterclass in failure, letting anti-Hindu violence rage unchecked while rolling out repressive policies that have plunged Bangladesh into fresh chaos. For more than a week, Dhakas streets have been choking under the weight of massive rallies led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Partys (BNPs) youth wingsJatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal, and Swechchhasebak Daldemanding political rights for the young and a clear path to elections. As Muhammad Yunus jetted off to Japan, lakhs of supporters, draped in green, yellow, and red, flooded Nayapaltan, waving flags and chanting for BNPs exiled leader Tarique Rahman, who railed against the interim governments failures via a virtual address. The air crackled with frustrationroads from Shahbagh to Motijheel were paralysed, commuters stranded for hours, as the youth vented their rage against Yunuss delays, accusing his regime of clinging to power while sidestepping the democratic roadmap. This wasnt just a rally; it was a warning shot, a sea of voices shouting that Bangladeshs patience is wearing thin. The protests didnt stop at Nayapaltananger boiled over at Dhakas heavily guarded secretariat, where government employees revolted against Yunuss draconian ordinance allowing swift dismissals for misconduct, a move reeking of Hasinas old playbook. Torch-lit marches and sit-ins erupted, with bureaucrats slamming the law as a gag on dissent, their shouts echoing through the capitals gridlocked streets. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief, piled on the pressure, publicly demanding December elections, while BNP leaders like Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury warned of a deepening crisis without a vote. Caught between calls for reform and the clamour for polls, Yunuss governmentdespite planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmuds insistence that he wont quitlooks increasingly like a ship adrift, its promises of stability drowned out by the growing roar of a nation fed up with waiting. Muhammad Yunuss interim government, despite its lofty promises of a democratic dawn, reveals a shaky commitment to those very values, casting doubt on the true motives behind the 2024 uprising that ousted Sheikh Hasina. The student protests, initially cloaked in the noble garb of reform, now seem a facade for something more sinistera power grab dressed up as revolution. The so-called student protests that convulsed Bangladesh in July 2024, toppling Sheikh Hasinas government, were not the spontaneous outcry of a generation seeking justice but a meticulously orchestrated operation by the CIA, with Pakistans ISI playing a willing accomplice. Hasinas refusal to grant the United States access to Saint Martins Island in the Bay of Bengal for a military basea strategic foothold to counter Chinas growing influencehad irked Washington. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Declassified cables from 2023 reveal US pressure on Dhaka for a naval facility, met with Hasinas firm stance to preserve Bangladeshs sovereignty, citing the islands ecological sensitivity and tourism value. Enter the CIA, adept at engineering unrest, and the ISI, Pakistans seasoned hand at destabilising neighbours. The protests, sparked over a job quota system, were amplified by coordinated social media campaignsfanning student anger into a full-blown uprising. Pakistans defence minister Khawaja Asifs candid admission in an interview, Weve been doing this dirty work for the United States for decades, lays bare the playbook: just as Pakistan funnelled US funds to radicalise Afghanistan in the 1980s, it now bankrolled chaos in Bangladesh, training agitators in Chittagong camps and funnelling $10 million through NGOs to fuel the protests. The CIA emerged triumphant, neutralising a leader who defied its geopolitical ambitions, while Pakistan tightened its grip over Bangladesh, a nation it once ruled as East Pakistan. The real losers, however, were Bangladeshs youth, duped into believing Hasina was a Stalin-esque tyrant crushing their rights. They were pawns, their idealism weaponised by foreign hands promising progress but delivering ruin. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Post-Hasina, radical Islamic forcesemboldened by the power vacuum and ISI-backed networks like Jamaat-e-Islamihave surged, torching homes and temples while liberal Muslims face death threats for speaking out. Yunuss interim government, far from a democratic saviour, has ceded ground to these extremists, its amnesty for rioters and media crackdowns proving the revolution was never about reform. Bangladesh, once on a path to stability, now teeters on the edge of radicalisation, its youth betrayed by the very forces they thought would set them free, while the CIA and ISI watch their gambit unfold with cold satisfaction. Indias principled decision to grant refuge to Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 stands as a testament to its commitment to regional stability and moral clarity, recognising her role in keeping Bangladeshs radical forces at bay while fiercely guarding its sovereignty against foreign encroachment. Hasina, for all her flaws, held the line against extremist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami, curbing their influence and fostering economic growth, while rejecting US demands for a military base on Saint Martins Island. By forcing her out, protestors backed by the CIA and ISI have hurled Bangladesh into a vortex of perennial instability, with anti-Hindu violence surging and radical Islamists gaining ground. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Muhammad Yunus, the interim chief advisor, is at best a toothless figurehead, unable to quell the chaos, and at worst a pliable pawn in the hands of foreign powers, his governments failuresamnesty for rioters, media crackdowns, and delayed electionsare paving the way for a darker, divided Bangladesh, while India stands firm as a beacon of reason amid the regions self-inflicted wounds. The writer takes special interest in history, culture and geopolitics. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. The more Indias visibility as an important power in international affairs grows, the more anti-India biases will become prominent, and the reflection of them in the recent India-Pakistan conflict was just the beginning read more To understand why the Wests, the so-called beacon of democracy, narratives aligned with Chinas, against Indias, a longer look has to be taken. Image: REUTERS The media is considered to be the fourth pillar of democracy. However, this does not mean that there exists no press in non-democracies. In the worlds two most powerful countries, which follow two completely different models of governance, the media does exist. The US boasts, or at least used to boast of, a free press, while China also has media, albeit state-controlled primarily. In the internet age, wherein access to information has become truly available at our fingertips, the lines between the conventional tenets of journalism, new media, citizen journalism, propaganda, and state-led disinformation, as well as misinformation, have all become blurred. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The job of a journalist thus becomes much more tedious and painful, even though it is assumed that access to technology and the internet makes it easier. In this context, the importance of fact-checks has become more important than ever before. In reporting on foreign policies, while the coverage is supposed to be objective, the recent conflict between India and Pakistan revealed that the media from China as well as from the West have similar biases. While it is understandable as to why state-controlled media from China would not conduct fact checks and support a narrative provided by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), supporting its all-weather friend, Pakistan, understanding why free press from the West, which touts values of freedom, objectivity and balanced coverage, would propel Pakistani propaganda. Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the BBC have all been accused of peddling Pakistani propaganda without fact checks, even though India was conducting regular media briefings and the Press Information Bureau was actively countering Pakistani and Chinese disinformation online. One of the most glaring examples was when all the prominent media houses from China and the West were propelling the narrative of Indias jets being shot down by Pakistan. To date, neither has Pakistan provided photographic or videographic evidence of the apparently shot-down jets from India. It is simple logic that if Pakistan had to bolster its narrative, it would circulate evidence of the shot-down jet that landed in its territory. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD To give due credit, Reuters did publish a story of how a low-quality image of an Indian fighter jet engulfed in flames after a crash in September 2024 has been falsely claimed online to show an Indian jet downed in the recent conflict between India and Pakistan. However, China Daily still continues with its disinformation. China economically benefitted from the disinformation as well. Pakistan Today reported that the shares of Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the Chinese aerospace company behind the J-10 fighter jet used by Pakistan, surged by 20 per cent on May 12, after reports of Pakistan shooting down Indias jets were circulated. Nevertheless, Avic Chendus aircraft shares plummeted following Prime Minister Narendra Modis address on Indias Operation Sindoor, while Indian defence stocks rose. Given that Chinese media is state-controlled and will always follow the orders of the CCP and support Pakistan, it can be understood why it will not conduct fact checks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Fact checks are not hallmarks of state-controlled media in any case. Also, China sought to economically benefit from the disinformation. Chinas abuse of the democratic media space in India in pushing its malicious disinformation, while other countries cannot or do not do the same to China, owing to its tightly controlled media environment, is a sad reality the world lives with. To understand why the Wests, the so-called beacon of democracy, narratives aligned with Chinas, against Indias, a longer look has to be taken. The World Press Freedom marked India at 151, ignoring the vibrant media landscape that India has. The index, to begin with, relies heavily on perceptions and opinions rather than hard data, making it susceptible to bias. Also, the specific weighting of indicators and the sources of data are not always fully disclosed, leading to concerns about transparency and potential biases. The Press Council of India (PCI) has attempted to engage with Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the organisation behind the index, to understand the methodology and inputs but has not received a response. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The question here is why has there been no response from RSF? The answer here is also the answer to why so-called free press will align with state-controlled Chinese media in tarnishing Indias image. But it is also pertinent to understand how free the free press in the West truly is. In Turkey, in 2025, over 1100 people, including journalists, were arrested during a crackdown on anti-government protests. BBC correspondent Mark Lowen was detained in March and deported to London for reporting on these protests. At least 14 journalists were also injured in these protests. In Poland, a journalist was arrested and handed over to Ukrainian authorities; in Romania, an Irish RT journalist was detained in Bucharest while covering elections and deported to Istanbul, and this actually is a big issue with media suppression within the EU. In Estonia, Andrea Lucidi, a Russian-Italian reporter, was detained by Estonian border guards for his criticism of Nazism in the Baltic states; in the UK, British journalist Kit Klarenberg was arrested by anti-terrorism police and interrogated for at least five hours for his political views; and Vanessa Beeley had a similar incident. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In 2022, in Germany, two Italian journalists were detained while reporting on a climate protest in Rome, and a Swedish journalist, Markus Jordo, was arrested in Stockholm while covering a climate demonstration. In Turkey in the same year, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom documented 40 cases of journalist arrests or detentions in Turkey, which remains a significant hotspot for the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of media personnel. In the US in 2024, at least 48 journalists were either detained or arrested, as per the US Press Freedom Tracker, and the number represents a surge compared to the previous two years combined. However, somehow these numbers do not change the rankings which emanate from the freedom of the press in Western countries. As much as the media is supposed to be free of biases, biases remain. On the coverage of India, even if it is on foreign policy and international relations, the biases reflect which have led to a lack of fact checks from the dominant Western media. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The more Indias visibility as an important power in international affairs grows, the more these biases will become prominent, and the reflection of them in the recent India-Pakistan conflict was just the beginning. India needs to create its own rankings of media freedom across the world and rank countries as per clear indicators. Additionally, India should come up with legal provisions to counter malicious reportage, fearmongering and perception manipulation. The author 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 author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. The USs policy under the Second Donald Trump Administration has undergone major changes, with experts saying that America is ceding tech dominance to China, which is now aiming to become from imitator to innovator read more Despite President Trumps pledges to boost American dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology, recent policy moves risk undermining US leadership just as China surges ahead. Trumps administration has imposed sweeping restrictions on the export of critical chip design software and advanced semiconductors to China, aiming to choke off Beijings access to the tools needed for cutting-edge AI development. However, these curbs have prompted China to double down on its domestic innovation efforts, accelerating the development of home-grown AI chips and large language models, and pushing for self-sufficiency in key technologies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD At the same time, US funding cuts and freezes for biomedical researchespecially at the NIHare raising alarms among experts, who warn that this could stifle early-stage biotech innovation and allow China to set the pace in life sciences. China now conducts more clinical trials than the US and is rapidly becoming a linchpin in global drug development, licensing new discoveries to American companies and leveraging a decade-long national strategy to dominate biopharma. As the US tightens controls and reduces public investment, it risks shooting itself in the tech foot, potentially ceding ground to China in both biotech and AI at a critical moment in the global innovation race. Whats happening in China The world is seeing a big change in science leadership: China has passed US in the number of clinical trials. This is a critical moment in the global race to lead in biotechnology. Chinas rise is the result of many years of government support, many trained researchers with PhDs, and more use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research. These efforts have helped China move from copying others to leading in biotech innovation. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese companies, which used to only make copies of Western medicines, are now creating new treatments and selling them to big international drug companies. A key moment in this shift was Pfizers recent deal with Chinas 3SBio Inc. Pfizer agreed to licence a cancer drug called SSGJ-707 for over $6 billion. The deal includes a $1.25 billion upfront payment, up to $4.8 billion in future payments based on progress and a $100 million investment in 3SBios stock. Chinas growth in biotech didnt happen on its own. Bayer, a global drug company, has started a life sciences incubator in Shanghai. This shows how much Bayer values Chinas growing pool of talent and its low-cost, creative way of doing research. Bayers head of development, Dr Juergen Eckhardt, said Chinese companies are getting more and more competitive. Many people in the pharma investment world agree. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Licensing flows reversed: From copying to leading Pfizers landmark licensing deal is not an outlier. It is part of a fast-expanding trend of Western companies sourcing cutting-edge drug candidates from China. Investment bank Stifel noted that approximately 30 per cent of all licensing deals by major pharma companies in 2023 and 2024 involved Chinese biotech firms, up from just 12 per cent in previous years. This reversal signals a major transformation: China is no longer merely copying Western drugs it is now creating them. US-based venture capitalists have responded swiftly. Firms like SR One and Lux Capital are not just investing in Chinese biotech but are reorienting their business strategies around it. SR One has built a three-pronged China strategy that includes acquiring Chinese assets, encouraging clinical trials in Asia, and spinning off startups based on Chinese research. According to SR Ones CEO Dr Simeon George, some of the molecules being developed in China are world-class, compelling US firms to rethink how and where they place their bets. Verdiva Bio, a UK startup backed by global investors including Forbion and General Atlantic, recently raised $411 million to develop anti-obesity drugs licensed from Chinas Sciwind Biosciences. This is a telling example of how Chinese innovation is now forming the backbone of new ventures across borders. US slips while China surges Amid Chinas ascendancy, many American scientists and industry leaders worry that Washington is undermining its own future. In contrast to Beijings long-term planning, US policy under the Trump administration has leaned toward budget tightening and regulatory overreach, particularly in biomedical funding. Bipartisan commissions have warned that America is ceding ground in what is now a globally strategic domain. These experts argue that the US needs urgent investment and greater coordination in biotech to prevent a long-term erosion of leadership. Yet the response so far has been tepid. The countrys fragmented research funding, slow approval timelines and political gridlock have created an increasingly uncompetitive environment. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Meanwhile, China is conducting faster, more cost-effective clinical trials thanks to a large population pool and efficient regulatory processes. US investors, like David Yang of Lux Capital, noted that Chinese labs are quicker to act on promising research. Export curbs backfire in AI battle On another front, AI a core driver of biotech innovation has become the centre of escalating tech tensions between the US and China. The Biden-era export restrictions on high-end chips from Nvidia have been fully embraced and continued under President Donald Trump. These curbs, meant to prevent China from developing advanced military AI capabilities, are instead spurring massive Chinese efforts to build indigenous alternatives. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has criticised the export controls, warning they jeopardise not just US corporate revenues but also long-term strategic influence. In a recent interview with CNBC, Jensen pointed out that China houses half of the worlds AI researchers, forming a vast developer ecosystem that is essential for maintaining a global tech edge. He said that cutting off such a large market undercuts Americas soft power in tech. The numbers are staggering. Jensen estimated that Nvidia has already lost $8 billion in sales due to the controls, with up to $50 billion annually at stake. He described China as a $50 billion-a-year opportunity that could help the US balance its trade deficit and create thousands of high-paying jobs. But the policy, focussed on national security over commerce, has prioritised caution over cash flow. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Chinas response: De-Americanise the tech stack Beijing has not taken the restrictions passively. Instead, it has accelerated its campaign to de-Americanise its technology stack, as declared by President Xi Jinping at an April Politburo study session. The Chinese leader called for breakthroughs in fundamental AI research, domestically produced chips, and software platforms that are independent from Western influence. Sinocisms Bill Bishop noted that Xis statement clearly signaled an intent to remove US companies like Nvidia from the core of Chinas digital infrastructure. The strategy aligns with national security goals and longer-term economic sovereignty. Though Chinas domestic chips still lag behind Nvidia in performance, the governments resolve and deep coffers have launched an all-out sprint toward tech self-sufficiency. This means that even if export curbs are relaxed, American companies may have already lost their window of dominance. Nvidias market share in China, which once stood at 95 per cent, has dropped to 50 per cent and continues to shrink as local competitors like Huawei scale up. Strategic technologies in a Cold War framework Both biotech and AI are now viewed through the lens of national security, not just economic competitiveness. The new tech cold war pits Chinas long-term, state-driven strategies against Americas market-based, often short-term policymaking. The stakes are existential. As AI becomes the engine behind breakthroughs in drug development, materials science and military applications, whoever leads in these fields may shape the rules of the 21st century. Jensen, while highlighting Nvidias loyalty to US interests, warned that technological dominance cannot be ensured by sanctions alone. Instead, sustained investment in domestic innovation, workforce development and global alliances are needed. We want the world to build on American technology stack, he told CNBCs Jim Cramer. But cutting off half the worlds AI developers in China from those platforms could prove to be a self-inflicted wound. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In biotech, the story is no different. Licensing deals from Chinese firms are already reshaping Western pharmaceutical pipelines. US hesitancy or regulatory isolationism could end up bolstering Chinas global position further, as both partners and competitors increasingly look East. Call for US action grows louder With bipartisan commissions sounding the alarm, pressure is mounting for Washington to counter Chinas advances not with bans, but with bold initiatives. These groups are urging a Manhattan Project-scale investment in biotechnology, citing the sectors potential to transform not only medicine but also national security and economic productivity. They are calling for coordinated action across federal agencies, enhanced public-private partnerships and more resilient supply chains. But such a response requires strategic patience something Washington rarely musters. In contrast, Chinas leadership is playing the long game, aligning its research, education and industrial policy with an unwavering focus on tech supremacy. If current trends continue, the US risks losing its innovation edge not because China is stealing it, but because America is neglecting it. Trumps policies, while rooted in legitimate national security concerns, may be inadvertently accelerating Chinas rise by walling off critical markets, talent and partnerships. The verdict: Whos winning the future? The global contest for biotech and AI leadership is no longer speculative its already playing out in clinical labs, investment firms and code repositories. China, with its concerted push toward innovation and self-sufficiency, appears to be pulling ahead. The US, meanwhile, risks handicapping itself through underfunding, isolationist trade policies and a lack of cohesive vision. Pfizers partnership with 3SBio, Nvidias lost billions and Xis tech directives all tell a consistent story: the balance of power in high technology is shifting. Whether the US regains its footing or allows this slip to become a fall depends on the choices it makes now. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus has said that elections in Bangladesh will be held between December 2025 and June 2026, assuring that he will not stay in power beyond that time frame. However, other stakeholders, including the army and political parties, have called for early elections read more India has called for elections in Bangladesh as early as possible to stand by the peoples mandate, as the neighbouring country struggles to settle on a date for the polls that have been due for a long time. Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus has said that elections in Bangladesh will be held between December 2025 and June 2026, assuring that he will not stay in power beyond that time frame. However, other stakeholders, including the army and political parties, have called for early elections, causing discontentment with the interim government. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, On Bangladesh, we have articulated our position very clearly, as far as elections in Bangladesh are concerned, and we have done so consistently. Bangladesh needs to ascertain the will and mandate of the people by holding an inclusive, fair and free election at an early date. As far as the government there is concerned, the responsibility for law and order and governance issues lies entirely with that government," he added. Meanwhile, Yunus repeated his June 2026 timeframe regarding conducting elections in the country. The politicians are very impatient, they like to get to their seats of power. So I have been promising them for a long time that elections could be conducted in December 2025 or at the latest, June 2026, thats six months, Yunus said during a trip to Japan . It will depend on how fast you can do the reforms. If the reform process is slow, then it will be late, so people are insisting, Tell us when the elections will be, he added. Army chief pushes for early elections Last week, Bangladeshs powerful army chief said the first elections since the countrys former leader was ousted in a mass uprising should be held by December. Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase, Waker-Uz-Zaman said, according to local newspapers. The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute. At least 117 people were confirmed dead in central Nigeria on Friday after floods submerged the market town of Mokwa in the countrys Niger State following torrential rains, officials said. read more At least 117 people have lost their lives and several others remain unaccounted for following heavy rainfall in Nigerias central state of Niger, local officials confirmed on Friday. The town of Mokwa was inundated after intense rainfall began late Wednesday and continued through Thursday morning. According to Ibrahim Audu Hussein, spokesperson for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), rescue operations were still ongoing as of Friday. The confirmed death toll marks a sharp increase from Thursdays initial figure of 21. NSEMA director Ibrahim Hussaini said that approximately 3,000 homes had been submerged across two communities in the region. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Weve recovered 115 bodies so far, and more are expected as the flooding swept people into the River Niger from distant locations. Bodies are still being found downstream, Hussaini told AFP. The numbers continue to climb. Nigeria frequently experiences flooding during its annual rainy season, which began in April. In 2022, the country endured its deadliest floods in over a decade, with more than 600 fatalities, 1.4 million people displaced, and vast areas of farmlandapproximately 440,000 hectaresdestroyed. By Friday afternoon, rescue teams continued to retrieve more victims. An earlier count put the death toll at 88, but the discovery of at least 23 additional bodies brought the number to 117, Hussein confirmed to The Associated Press. Mokwa, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) west of Abuja, is a major meeting point where traders from the south buy food from growers in the north. Nigeria often faces seasonal floods, particularly impacting communities such as Mokwa along the banks of the Niger and Benue Rivers. Communities in the far north of the country, which experience prolonged dry spells worsened by climate change, also see excessive rainfall that leads to severe flooding during their brief wet season. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In videos and photos shared on social media platforms, floodwaters cover neighborhoods where homes are fully or partially submerged, with rooftops barely visible above the brown currents. Residents are also seen waist-deep in water, appearing to salvage what they can carry or rescue others. The chairman of Mokwa local government area, Jibril Muregi, suggested that poor infrastructure worsened the impact of the flood. He appealed to the government to start long overdue construction of waterways in Mokwa under a climate resilience project. With inputs from agencies Nepal abolished the monarchy and turned the nation into a republic in 2008, bringing in a president as the head of the state read more Tens of thousands of protesters demanding the abolished monarchy be restored and the former king be made the head of state. Source: AP Tens of thousands of people in Nepal held a massive demonstration on Thursday (May 29), demanding the return of the abolished monarchy and for the former king to become the head of state again. Waving flags and shouting slogans, the protesters called for the kings return and for Hinduism to be reinstated as the state religion as they marched through the main circle in Kathmandu, the capital. Meanwhile, just a few hundred meters away, supporters of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli gathered at the exhibition grounds to celebrate Republic Day. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD There were concerns that the two groups might clash and cause trouble in the city. Hundreds of riot police kept them apart, and authorities allowed them to hold their rallies at different times to avoid conflict. Nepal abolished the monarchy and turned the nation into a republic in 2008, bringing in a president as the head of the state. Bring king back to the throne and save the country. We love our king more than our lives, the estimated 20,000 protesters chanted with a few playing traditional drums and musical instruments. We are going to continue our protests until the centuries-old monarchy is brought back and the country turned in to a Hindu stage for the interest of the country, said Dil Nath Giri, a supporter of the former king at the rally. Earlier, the pro-monarchy group announced that they are going to resume their protests starting Thursday. When similar protests erupted earlier on March 28, they soon turned violent as demonstrators torched government buildings and attacked government supporters, leading to the death of two people, including a TV cameraman. Nepal police had then arrested many, who still languish in jail. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD These people are calling for the former Nepali king, Gyanendra Shah, to be reinstated. They are also demanding a return to Nepals status as a Hindu country. They say the country has had enough of corrupt politicians and only the king can steer the Himalayan nation towards progress and prosperity. Despite signs of de-escalation along the India-Pakistan border, with both sides beginning to reduce troops after their worst clashes in decades, a top Pakistani military general has warned that the risk of future escalation remains high read more General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, speaks during an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, in Singapore, May 30, 2025, in this screengrab from a video. Reuters Despite signs of de-escalation along the India-Pakistan border, with both sides beginning to reduce troops after their worst clashes in decades, a top Pakistani military general has warned that the risk of future escalation remains high. General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move towards nuclear weapons during the conflict, it was a dangerous situation. Nothing happened this time, but you cant rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different, General Mirza said in an interview to Reuters, cautioning that while the immediate crisis may be easing, the underlying tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours remain dangerously volatile. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He said that the risk of future escalation has grown, as the recent fighting extended beyond the disputed region of Kashmir, claimed in full by both countries but controlled in parts, into each countrys mainland. Mirza, Pakistans chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels. We have almost come back to the pre-22nd April situation we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now, said Mirza, the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict. According to Reuters, Indias ministry of defence and the office of the Indian chief of defence staff did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza. The latest round of hostilities between the long-time rivals was triggered by an April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that left 26 civilians dead, most of them tourists. New Delhi accused Pakistan-backed terrorists of carrying out the assault, a claim Islamabad firmly denied. In response, India launched missile strikes on May 7, targeting nine terrorist hideouts across the border. Pakistan retaliated with its own strikes, prompting both countries to amass additional troops along the frontier. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced on May 10. Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan this month that New Delhi would target terrorist hideouts across the border again if there were new attacks on India. India and Pakistan have fought three major wars, two of them over Kashmir, and have been involved in numerous armed skirmishes over the decades. New Delhi holds Islamabad responsible for terrorism in Kashmir that began in 1989 and has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Pakistan, however, insists it offers only moral, political, and diplomatic support to Kashmiris seeking self-determination. This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powersin the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan, Reuters quoted Mirza as saying. This is a very dangerous trend, he added. Reuters had earlier reported that the swift de-escalation of hostilities was partly the result of behind-the-scenes diplomacy involving the United States, India, and Pakistan, with Washington playing a key role in brokering peace. However, India has rejected any suggestion of third-party involvement in the ceasefire, maintaining that all engagement with Pakistan must be strictly bilateral. General Mirza cautioned, however, that international mediation may prove more difficult in future crises, citing the absence of formal crisis management mechanisms between the two countries. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community, he was quoted as saying. Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries. New Delhi has maintained a hard line on any possible rapprochement. If there are talks, it will only be on terrorism and PoK," Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. If Pakistan is serious about talks, it should hand over terroriststo India so that justice is served, he added. Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions, or informal talks, to ease tensions. He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, Indias chief of defence staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La forum. These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, on the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield, Mirza added. With inputs from agencies The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and finance ministry clarified that all cryptocurrency transactions remain illegal under current regulations, leading to confusion among lawmakers and investors read more Even as Pakistans top crypto official inks a deal with the crypto firm linked to the Donald Trump family, the countrys central bank as well as the finance ministry have clarified that the digital asset remains banned. In a move being hailed as strategic, Pakistan Crypto Council CEO Bilal Bin Saqib on Wednesday (May 28) announced the establishment of the countrys first government-backed Strategic Bitcoin reserve. In April, the council also inked a deal with the World Liberty Financial Inc (WLFI), a crypto firm in which the majority of the stakes are held by Trumps sons. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, on Thursday (May 29), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the finance ministry clarified that all cryptocurrency transactions remain illegal under current regulations, leading to confusion among lawmakers. There will be a legal framework only when the government formally takes a decision, but the current legal status is that crypto is not a legal tender in Pakistan, said Finance Secretary Imdadullah Bosal during a meeting of the National Assemblys Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue. Committee expresses concerns over policy paralysis The standing committee raised concerns over confusion in the governments approach. It highlighted how people were being encouraged to buy crypto assets even as the digital currency remained banned, putting investors in a fix. Committee member Mohammad Mobeen also questioned why the government was handling the crypto matters and not the SBP. He also highlighted policy inconsistency, arguing that the government had allocated power capacity for mining operations even as the cryptocurrency remained illegal. Threat to Pakistans financial stability Notably, another member Shahram Tarakai warned that the countrys foreign exchange may flow out of Pakistan through crypto, further destabilising the cash-strapped economy. Concerns regarding the participation of the private sector and illegal hawala channels were also raised. According to media reports, Pakistans Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) was still prosecuting crypto-related cases and referring them to law enforcement agencies for further action. The committee further raised the lack of global acceptance of the cryptocurrency, highlighting how El Salvador was the only country with legalised cryptocurrency in the world, and even that nation was reconsidering the decision. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Member of National Assembly (MNA) Sharmila Farooqi argued that the country immediately needed to regulate crypto to prevent money laundering, especially after its exit from the Financial Action Task Forces grey list. Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that his deal helped China avert a civil unrest and stabilised its economy but he was no longer going to be Mr nice guy read more US President Donald Trump Friday (May 30) reignited trade tensions with China, accusing the worlds second-largest economy of reneging on a temporary agreement reached with Washington DC. Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that his deal helped China avert a civil unrest and stabilised its economy but he was no longer going to be Mr nice guy after Beijing totally violated the agreement. Here is what Trump wrote in his post: Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, civil unrest. I saw what was happening and didnt like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didnt want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY! STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trumps explosive post against China came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox News that trade talks with Beijing were a bit stalled. Earlier, US trade representative Jamieson Greer also echoed Trumps allegation, saying we are very concerned with Chinas purported non-compliance with the temporary trade deal. The United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance, alleged Greer. He called that completely unacceptable and has to be addressed. US-China trade tensions Under Trumps presidency, the US-China trade war intensified, with tariffs peaking at a 145 per cent rate on Chinese imports through the Liberation Day trade package. This led to a sharp contraction in Chinas manufacturing sector, with the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) hitting a 16-month low, reflecting reduced factory activity and export orders. Cargo shipments from China reportedly dropped by up to 60 per cent, and the broader economy showed signs of slowing growth. In May, a landmark trade deal was signed in Geneva , with both nations agreeing to cut tariffs by 115 per cent while keeping a 10 per cent tariff in place. China also committed to eliminating retaliatory tariffs and halting non-tariff countermeasures against the US. The Trump administration celebrated the agreement as a major victory, aimed at correcting unfair trade practices and narrowing the significant US trade deficit with China. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Hong Kongs pro-democracy and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham was released after over four years in prison. He had been arrested under the new national security law. read more Hong Kong's pro-democracy activist Jimmy Sham poses for photos after being released from prison in Hong Kong, Friday, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung) Hong Kongs prominent pro-democracy and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham was released from prison on Friday after serving over four years in the citys biggest national security case under a Beijing-imposed law. Shams activism made headlines during 2019 anti-government protests, when he was the convenor of a now-disbanded pro-democracy group that organized some of the biggest peaceful marches that year, including one that drew an estimated 2 million people. Sham was among 47 activists arrested in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election. He was sentenced with 44 other activists last year after judges ruled that their plans to effect change through the primary would have undermined the governments authority and create a constitutional crisis. Only two of the original defendants were acquitted. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Even behind bars, Sham continued to fight for recognition of his same-sex marriage registered overseas at the citys top court, which later ruled the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships. It was a landmark decision for the citys LGBTQ+ community. I feel happy. No matter whether theres a change in (my) freedom, I am definitely freer compared to yesterday, Sham told reporters Friday after he was reunited with his family. But I also know many people are suffering. This makes me feel I shouldnt be too happy. Asked if police had warned him not to talk to anyone, he said he censored himself on some sensitive questions. Sham also sounded unsure whether he was a free man. Maybe tomorrow, you still can see me, I am free. Maybe tomorrow, I will go back to the jail. I dont know, he said. The activist said he has no plans to leave Hong Kong for now. So what I can do in the future and what I should, and where the red line lies, I still have to figure it out again. Sham and three other activists freed on Friday Kinda Li, Roy Tam and Henry Wong are the second batch to be reunited with their families, following the release of four pro-democracy lawmakers last month. The years of separation have pained the activists and their relatives. The case involved democracy advocates across the spectrum. They include legal scholar Benny Tai, who got a 10-year prison term, and former student leader Joshua Wong, who has to serve four years and eight months. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Critics said the national security law has effectively crushed the citys pro-democracy movement, but Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist it brought back stability to the city. (Except headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff) US President Donald Trumps tariff decisions have shocked financial markets and sent a wave of uncertainty through the global markets. read more U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs has rattled financial markets and created a ripple of uncertainty across global markets. Reuters/File Photo U.S. President Donald Trumps tariff decisions since he took office on January 20 have shocked financial markets and sent a wave of uncertainty through the global economy. Here is a timeline of the major developments: February 1 - Trump imposes 25% tariffs on Mexican and most Canadian imports and 10% on goods from China, demanding they curb the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the United States. February 3 - Trump suspends his threat of tariffs on Mexico and Canada, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement. The U.S. does not reach such a deal with China. February 7 - Trump delays tariffs on de minimis, or low-cost, packages from China until the Commerce Department can confirm that procedures and systems are in place to process them and collect tariff revenue. February 10 - Trump raises tariffs on steel and aluminum to a flat 25% without exceptions or exemptions. March 3 - Trump says 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada will take effect from March 4 and doubles fentanyl-related tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20%. March 5 - The president agrees to delay tariffs for one month on some vehicles built in Canada and Mexico after a call with the CEOs of General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab and Ford (F.N), opens new tab and the chair of Stellantis (STLAM.MI), opens new tab. March 6 - Trump exempts goods from Canada and Mexico under a North American trade pact for a month from the 25% tariffs. March 26 - Trump unveils a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks. April 2 - Trump announces global tariffs with a baseline of 10% across all imports and significantly higher duties on some of the U.S. biggest trading partners. April 9 - Trump pauses for 90 days most of his country-specific tariffs that kicked in less than 24 hours earlier following an upheaval in financial markets that erased trillions of dollars from bourses around the world. The 10% blanket duty on almost all U.S. imports stays in place. Trump says he will raise the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level that took effect a day earlier. This pushes the extra duties on Chinese goods to 145%, including the fentanyl-related tariffs imposed earlier. April 13 - The U.S. administration grants exclusions from steep tariffs on smartphones, computers and some other electronics imported largely from China. April 22 - The Trump administration launches national security probes under Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1962 into imports of both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as part of a bid to impose tariffs on both sectors. May 4 - Trump imposes a 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the U.S. May 9 - Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announce a limited bilateral trade agreement that leaves in place 10% tariffs on British exports, modestly expands agricultural access for both countries and lowers prohibitive U.S. duties on British car exports. May 12 - The U.S. and China agree to temporarily slash reciprocal tariffs. Under the 90-day truce, the U.S. will cut the extra tariffs it imposed on Chinese imports to 30% from 145%, while Chinas duties on U.S. imports will be slashed to 10% from 125%. May 13 - The U.S. cuts the low value de minimis tariff on China shipments, reducing duties for items valued at up to $800 to 54% from 120%. May 23 - Trump says he is recommending a straight 50% tariff on goods from the European Union starting on June 1. He also warned Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab it would face 25% tariff if phones it sold in the U.S. were manufactured outside of the country. May 25 - Trump backpedals on his threat to slap 50% tariffs on imports from the EU, agreeing to extend the deadline for talks between the U.S. and the block until July 9. May 28 - A U.S. trade court blocked Trumps tariffs from going into effect in a sweeping ruling that the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from U.S trade partners. The Trump administration said it would appeal the ruling. May 29 - A federal appeals court temporarily reinstates the most sweeping of Trumps tariffs, saying it was pausing the lower courts ruling to consider the governments appeal, and ordered the plaintiffs in the cases to respond by June 5 and the administration by June 9. (Except headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff) In the case of an Indian family freezing to death while crossing into the United States in 2022, a US court has sentenced the leader of the smuggling network, an Indian national, for 10 years. His associate, a US national, has been jailed for six years. read more Gujarat's their children Dharmik and Vihangi froze to their deaths while crossing into the United States from Canada in 2022. (Photo: Reuters) In the case of an Indian family freezing to death while illegally entering the United States in 2022, a US court has sentenced the leader of the human smuggling network for 10 years. His associate has been jailed for six years. In 2022, a family of four from Gujarats Gandhinagar froze to death while illegally crossing into the United States from Canada. The deceased were identified as Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishali, 37, and their children Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The leader of the human smuggling network has been identified as 29-year-old Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel. He is an Indian national who lives in the US state of Florida. He has been sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison. His associate, Steve Anthony Shand, 50, has been sentenced to six years and six months in prison and additional two years of supervised release. He is a US citizen who lives in Florida. The court ruled that Harshkumar will be deported to India after the completion of his sentence. Prosecutors had charged Harshkumar and Anthony with organising illegal crossing of dozens of Indians into the United States from Canada. They said the smuggling network brought people to Canada on fake student visas and then smuggled them into the United States via land. They said the smugglers charged $100,000 for bringing people from India to the United States. In the case of the Indian family that froze to death, Harshkumar had arranged for the crossing of 11 people into the United States from Canada. They started from Canadas Emerson town with instructions of how to enter the United States. On the US side, they were supposed to meet a designated person who would have taken them further inland. However, the Indian family is believed to have been separated from the rest of the group in the blizzard and frozen to death. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday asserted that India will never give in to nuclear blackmail. Speaking at a convocation ceremony of foreign students of Parul University, Jaishankar also said it was imperative that those who sponsor, nurture and utilize the service of terrorism pay a high cost. read more External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday said that India will not give in to any form of nuclear blackmail. Addressing the convocation ceremony for international students at Parul University, Jaishankar emphasised the importance of holding accountable those who sponsor, nurture and utilise the service of terrorism. India will never submit to nuclear blackmail of any kind, Jaishankar declared during his speech. His comments came in the wake of Operation Sindoor conducted by Indian armed forces against terror hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Jaishankar also said that India is a rare civilisational state which is today reclaiming its rightful place in the comity of nations. It has become a fashion in some quarters to openly become transactional in dealing with other nations, the External Affairs Minister said, adding that India, however, believes in building partnerships on the basis of trust. On May 7, in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, a swift and precisely calibrated military campaign. The Indian Air Force struck nine terrorist infrastructure targets inside Pakistan, including the headquarters and operational hubs of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The targets included key terror training camps and hideouts in Bahawalpur, Muridke, Muzaffarabad, Sarjal, Sialkot, Bhimber and elsewhere. When Pakistan retaliated with a massive drone swarm across Indias western states, Indias multi-layered air defence networkdomestically built and augmented by Russian and Israeli systemsneutralised nearly all of them. In retaliation for Pakistans attack, the Indian armed forces then launched the second phase of Operation Sindoor on May 10. India escalated with additional strikes on six Pakistani military airbases and UAV coordination hubs and broke the spine of Pakistans air defence network. The targeted air bases were Chaklala in Rawalpindi, Murid in Chakwal, Rafiqui in Shorkot, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian. This time, key military structures were targeted, and the damage inflicted on Pakistan was so severe that within hours, it forced Islamabad to beg for peace. With inputs from agencies Critics warn the World Bank may be repeating the IMFs errors by offering large-scale financial support without enforcing meaningful, long-term reforms read more The World Bank has unveiled a $40 billion long-term financial support package for Pakistan under its new Country Partnership Framework (CPF), extending its planning horizon from five to 10 years (20262035). This marks a significant deepening of engagement with a country persistently troubled by economic instability and chronic governance failures. Official documents say that the CPF aims to bolster public services, attract private investment, and support sectors such as education, healthcare, clean energy, and climate resilience. The first phase will channel $20 billion in public sector loans, while the International Finance Corporation (IFC) will mobilise the remaining $20 billion to spur private sector participation. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD While the CPF aligns with Pakistans declared development priorities, serious concerns persist regarding the countrys inefficient and inequitable tax systema challenge the World Bank itself has acknowledged, calling for urgent reforms to ensure fiscal sustainability and responsible use of foreign assistance. But Pakistan has a dubious record: Terrorism, misuse of Funds, and international warnings Critics warn the World Bank may be repeating the IMFs errors by offering large-scale financial support without enforcing meaningful, long-term reforms. The IMF recently released $1 billion to Pakistan despite strong objections from India and others, who cited Pakistans history of misusing funds and sheltering extremist elements. India has consistently accused Pakistan of diverting international loans and grants to sponsor terrorism, particularly across the border into India, and has highlighted Pakistans repeated failure to honour its commitments to curb terror financing. Indias Defence Minister Rajnath Singh publicly urged the IMF and other global lenders to reconsider their support, warning that such funds risk being siphoned off to finance terrorist infrastructure. Following these protests, the IMF imposed 11 stringent conditions on Pakistan, demanding reforms in governance, fiscal discipline, and transparency. Pakistans high-risk profile for money laundering and terror financing has been flagged by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which placed the country on its grey list due to strategic deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing regimes. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan remains a key conduit for the funding and sheltering of terrorist groups, with porous borders and weak regulatory oversight facilitating crimes such as smuggling, drug trafficking, and extortionall of which help finance terrorism. Siphoning of international aid There is a well-documented history of Pakistan diverting international aid, including IMF and World Bank loans, to fund military and extremist activities. Reports indicate that arms imports and terror financing activities have increased in years when Pakistan received large-scale international assistance. Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and military have been repeatedly implicated in channelling fundsoften sourced from international loanstowards terror groups operating in the region. The risk for the World Bank Without robust accountability measures and strict conditionality, the World Bank risks seeing its CPF funds absorbed into the same cycle of mismanagement and extremism sponsorship that has plagued previous IMF bailouts. Pakistan observers warn that with absent structural reforms and effective monitoring, international funds may once again fail to yield genuine progress for the Pakistani people, instead perpetuating instability in the region. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The World Banks new economy-booster move risks repeating the IMFs mistakes by providing substantial financial support to Pakistan without adequate safeguards, despite the countrys well-documented record of sheltering, sponsoring, and protecting terrorismoften by misappropriating international loans and grants intended for development. The temporary truce proposal calls for the release of 10 living and 18 dead hostages and a 60-day-long ceasefire of fighting in Gaza. However, the official fell short of providing any details about ongoing discussions on a permanent ceasefire read more Palestinian children shove to get a ration of hot food from a charity kitchen set up at the Islamic University campus in Gaza City. AFP Israel has accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire from President Donald Trumps Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, hours after Hamas rejected it for not meeting demands. An Israeli official told CNN that the temporary truce proposal calls for the release of 10 living and 18 dead hostages and a 60-day-long ceasefire of fighting in Gaza. However, the official fell short of providing any details about ongoing discussions on a permanent ceasefire. The source added that Hamas would agree to the release of the hostages under the 60-day ceasefire in exchange for Washingtons word that talks on a permanent truce will continue and that Israel would not attack for the stipulated 60-day period. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The proposal comes months after the two warring parties have been unable to reach a truce, forcing Gaza to enter a new level of humanitarian crisis as Israel blocked aid to the Palestinian region for months, pushing thousands into hunger. Hamas rejects proposal Hamas sources said last week the group had accepted a US-backed deal, but on Thursday, political bureau member Bassem Naim said the new version meant the continuation of killing and famine and does not meet any of our peoples demands, foremost among them halting the war. Nonetheless, the movements leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility, he added. A source close to the group told _AFP_the new version is considered a retreat from the previous one, which included an American commitment regarding permanent ceasefire negotiations. Chaotic scenes Gazans are storming the distribution centres of aid groups to get hold of supplies, days after relief began trickling down to the region. Gazas civil defence said 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday, including 23 in a strike on a home in Al-Bureij, and two by Israeli gunfire near a US-backed aid centre in the Morag axis, in the south. The centre, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new aid distribution system designed to keep supplies from Hamas. Gazans who went to GHFs newly opened distribution centre in the central Netzarim corridor on Thursday described a chaotic scene. With inputs from agencies Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with apartment blocks, shopping malls, factories and public parks read more Maale Adumim is a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where over 400,000 Israelis live alongside 2.6 million Palestinians. (Photo: Reuters) Israel said on Thursday it would establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization. Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria, using the biblical term for the West Bank, anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He added it was also a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel. Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with apartment blocks, shopping malls, factories and public parks. The West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers. The settlers have Israeli citizenship. Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years long before Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza confining Palestinians to smaller and smaller areas of the West Bank and making the prospect of establishing a viable, independent state even more remote. U.S. support to Israel During his first term, President Donald Trumps administration broke with decades of U.S. foreign policy by supporting Israels claims to territory seized by force and taking steps to legitimize the settlements. Former President Joe Biden, like most of his predecessors, opposed the settlements but applied little pressure to Israel to curb their growth. The top United Nations court ruled last year that Israels presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel denounced the non-binding opinion by a 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people. Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but leading figures in the current government have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population of the territory to be resettled elsewhere through what they describe as voluntary emigration. Palestinians view such plans as a blueprint for their forcible expulsion from their homeland, and experts say the plans would likely violate international law. Israel now controls more than 70% of Gaza, according to Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University, who has examined Israeli-Palestinian land use patterns for decades. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The area includes buffer zones along the border with Israel as well as the southern city of Rafah, which is now mostly uninhabited, and other large areas that Israel has ordered to be evacuated. The war began with Hamas Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israels retaliatory offensive has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Battle lines have been drawn between Bangladeshs Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and former Prime Minister Khaled Zia over when the turbulent country should go to polls. read more A new kind of battle lines have been drawn between Bangladeshs interim Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus and the countrys former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson, Khaleda Zia . The dispute between the two prominent Bangladeshi figures is over the date the country can go to the polls. While Yunus insisted that his interim government would like to usher in reforms and conduct the polls by June 2026, the BNP has been demanding that the elections be conducted by 2025. The political landscape of Bangladesh has been in disarray after violent protests toppled the government of Bangladeshs former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Yunus was appointed as the interim chief adviser with the hopes that the interim government would call for quick elections. However, it will be a year in August since Yunus will still be in power, raising concerns about when the polls will be held in the country. Khaleda Zia raises alarm On Thursday, Zia called on her party leaders and activists to move forward to reestablish democracy in the country, slamming Yunuss leadership. On the eve of BNP founder and late president Ziaur Rahmans 44th death anniversary, Khaleda said, He [Ziaur Rahman] embraced martyrdom in the fight to establish democracy and safeguard sovereignty. The uninterrupted journey of that very democracy continues to face obstacles at every step. Let this be our pledge on the death anniversary of Zia: we will see democracy reestablished in Bangladesh very soon. To achieve this goal, I urge BNP leaders and activists at all levels, and the people of the country, to move forward in a disciplined manner, she added. This was her first public remarks after returning from London earlier this month. She has been receiving treatment in the UK and staying with her son, Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the party. The remarks from Zia came a day after tens of thousands of students and youths of the BNP held a rally in the capital, Dhaka, demanding for general election in December. Zias son, Rahman, addressed the rally virtually, where he is currently living in exile. The political scion reiterated the partys call for elections by December. The polls must be held by December. It has to take place within December, he said. Yunus takes a dig After threatening to resign, Yunus held a meeting with leaders of different political parties, including the BNP. However, days after the meeting, Yunus appeared to be taking a dig at Zias party. The Bangladeshi chief adviser maintained that not all parties, but one political party, want elections in December. Yunuss remarks came during the opening ceremony of the 30th Future of Asia Conference of Nikkei Forum in Japan. During his trip to Tokyo, the Bangladeshi chief adviser threw the countrys politicians under the bus at an international level. While insisting that the elections can only take place after reforms are introduced in Dhaka, Yunus insisted that it is the politicians who are getting impatient with the timeframe. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The politicians are very impatient, they like to get to their seats of power. So I have been promising them for a long time that elections could be conducted in December 2025 or at the latest, June 2026, thats six months, Yunus told the Japanese delegation. It will depend on how fast you can do the reforms. If the reform process is slow, then it will be late, so people are insisting, Tell us when the elections will be, he added. Overall, the tussle between Zias BNP and Yunus over the Bangladesh poll is becoming more apparent as the day goes by. With inputs from agencies. French President Emmanuel Macron and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth are attending a security forum in Singapore. Chinas assertiveness, Russias war on Ukraine, and West Asian conflict are likely to be in focus. read more French President Emmanuel Macron will open the security conference in Singapore, where China's assertiveness, Russia's war on Ukraine, and conflicts in Asia will most likely be discussed. File image/AP. French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are among the world leaders, diplomats and top defense officials in Singapore this weekend for a security forum that will focus on Chinas growing assertiveness, the global impact of Russias war on Ukraine and the flare-up of conflicts in Asia. Macron opens the conference with a keynote address Friday night that is expected to touch on all of those issues, as well as the pressure the hefty tariffs announced by President Donald Trumps administration is putting on Asian allies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Its Hegseths first time to the Shangri-La dialogue, hosted by the International Institute for Security Studies, which is taking place against the backdrop of heightened rhetoric between Beijing and Washington due to the Trump administrations threat of triple digit tariffs on China, and some uncertainty in the region over how committed the U.S. is to the defense of Taiwan, which also faces possible 32% American tariffs. China claims the self-governing democracy as its own, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out taking it by force. China sends military aircraft, ships and spy balloons near Taiwan as part of a campaign of daily harassment, and currently has an aircraft carrier in the waters southeast of the island. Hegseth told reporters before he boarded his plane for Singapore that Washingtons policies were meant to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. We seek no conflict with anybody, including the Communist Chinese, he said. We will stay strong for our interests. And thats a big part of what this trip is all about. China, which usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La forum, appears to be sending a lower-level delegation this year but has not said why. Hegseths trip to Singapore is his second to the region since becoming defense secretary, following a March visit to the Philippines, which has seen escalating confrontations with China over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD That trip, which also included a stop in Japan, brought a degree of relief over growing concerns from the Philippines and others in the region about U.S. support from a president who has taken more of a transactional approach to diplomacy and seems wary of foreign engagements. The U.S. has been pursuing a free and open Indo-Pacific policy, which includes regularly sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea, which is claimed almost in its entirety by China. The European Union has adopted a more economics-driven approach, but several European nations have also regularly taken part in the freedom of navigation exercises, including France which sent a carrier strike group on a five-month mission through the Indo-Pacific that concluded in April. In its published Indo-Pacific strategy, France has underscored the need to preserve a rules-based international order in the face of Chinas increasing power and territorial claims and its global competition with the United States. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Frances own ties to the Indo-Pacific are strong, with more than 1.6 million of its citizens living in the region in French overseas territories. In his speech, Macron is expected also to stress that the war in Ukraine is having a worldwide impact and that Russia seeks to destabilize Asia, the French presidents office said. While democracies from the region, including Australia, South Korea and Japan, have been aiding Ukraine, China has been growingly supportive of Russia and North Korea has sent troops to fight for Moscow. The conference comes as civil war continues to rage in Myanmar, creating a massive humanitarian crisis that has only been compounded by the effects of a devastating earthquake that hit in March. It also follows the outbreak of violence this week on the Thai-Cambodian border, in which a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief exchange of fire between the two sides. Thailand and Cambodia have a long history of land disputes, though Thailand said after the short skirmish that the situation had been resolved. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Of greater concern, nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan came to the brink of war earlier this month in their most serious military confrontation in decades. The two armies exchanged gunfire, artillery strikes, missiles and drones that killed dozens of people, and Pakistan shot down several Indian planes before a truce was declared. (Except headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff) For the first time in history, the people of Mexico will elect almost 2,600 judges and magistrates, including members of the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal, state, and municipal courts read more A man pushes his bicycle as an electoral propaganda banner hangs from a pedestrian bridge encouraging people to vote, ahead of the judicial and magistrate election, in Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters Mexican voters confront a difficult task on Sunday. For the first time in history, people will elect almost 2,600 judges and magistrates, including members of the Supreme Court and hundreds of other federal, state, and municipal courts. The election will shift the judiciary from an appointment-based system to one in which people select judges. Proponents of the change believe that it makes the system more democratic and addresses issues such as nepotism and corruption. Critics argue that it risks giving the ruling party greater control and opening the courts to candidates who lack expertise and credentials or may be influenced by criminal organisations such as cartels. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The experiment is so ambitious, contentious, and complicated that it is difficult to predict how it will play out: a single day of voting will result in the most extensive judicial change ever carried out by a large democracy. Heres all you need to know about Mexicos judicial elections, including how they operate and why theyre important. Why are Mexicans casting ballots to elect judges? The election marks the completion of a difficult process in which Morena, the ruling party, and its supporters amended the Constitution last year to reform the court system. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador introduced the notion of electing judges by popular vote, which his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has championed. Lopez Obrador pushed the plan after the Supreme Court blocked some of his governments plans, such as weakening Mexicos electoral watchdog agency and putting the National Guard under military control, and federal judges ordered the suspension of some of his flagship projects due to environmental concerns. Lopez Obrador, enraged by the verdicts, which he deemed politically motivated, asked his supporters to help solidify Morenas control of Congress. The partys huge majority in last years general election has allowed its members to approve a raft of constitutional amendments that would revamp the judiciary system. How does the electoral process operate? STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Half of Mexicos court will be chosen by voters on Sunday, with the remaining members to be chosen in 2027. Nearly 880 federal judgeships, ranging from district judges to justices of the Supreme Court, will be up for election this year. Furthermore, 19 of the countrys 32 states will elect local judges and magistrates to fill around 1,800 positions. More than 7,700 candidates are vying for those positions. Unlike conventional elections, in which political parties can support their candidates campaigns, aspiring judges are not permitted to utilise public or private funds, requiring them to rely on their own resources and guerilla marketing on social media to get attention. To assist voters, the election commission established an online portal where individuals could learn more about the candidates. Nonetheless, even some proponents of the makeover admit that voters would struggle to make educated decisions among hundreds of relatively unknown candidates. Concerns about democratic decay The passage of the reform legislation sparked weeks of protests by judges and judicial staff, a sharp rebuke from the Biden administration and concerns by international investors, causing the Mexican peso to dip. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Opponents have called on Mexicans to boycott the vote, and the election is projected to have low turnout. The opponents, former judges, legal experts, politicians and foreign observers, say that battling corruption and impunity in the courts is not a bad idea. Most Mexicans agree that the judiciary is rife with corruption. But critics say the ruling party is simply politicizing the courts at an opportune moment, when Sheinbaum is highly popular. Judicial candidates are not allowed to announce their party affiliation and are unable to accept party funds or hold major campaign events. A number of former Morena government officials and allies, however, have posted lists on social media of which ones to elect. Mexicos electoral authority said Wednesday it also had investigated cases of physical guides handed out to potential voters in Mexico City and Nuevo Leon state, something it said could amount to coercion. Will the election improve the justice system? This has been debated for months. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Supporters of the election frequently discuss a corrupt and nepotistic system in which justice is easier to obtain for those who can pay it and hundreds of judges have been co-opted by one or more of Mexicos violent cartels. In fact, Mexicans believe judges are among the countrys most corrupt authorities, second only to traffic cops. Proponents argue that an elected-judges system will cut links between certain powerful criminals, corrupt authorities, and members of the elite. Instead, they believe, judges will now prioritise the interests of those who elected them: the Mexican people. While critics concede that Mexicos judiciary faces huge problems and is in need of deep reform, they say this is not the way to fix it. Several experts have suggested that the change will politicise courts that should rule independently, and that the Morena party, which currently controls the presidency and Congress, will exercise exceptional power over the vote. They have also claimed that a system of direct elections risks allowing unqualified people to become judges and opens the door to more cartel control. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Opening a Pandoras box Others warn that the overhaul could open the judiciary to questionable judges and allow organized crime to further influence Mexicos justice system. A number of candidates have raised eyebrows. Chief among them is Silvia Delgado Garcia, a former lawyer for drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, who is running to be a criminal court judge in the northern border state of Chihuahua. Critics speak out of ignorance because whether or not Ive represented some person doesnt transform you into that person, she told the AP as she handed out campaign flyers to people crossing the border from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas. What I can promise you is Ill be an impartial judge, she told some voters. Watchdogs also say that last years vote on the reform was rushed through, criteria for candidates wasnt always followed, the number of candidates was limited by a lottery and lower-court orders trying to keep the reforms from taking effect were ignored. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD When will the results be known? Mexico uses paper ballots for voting, and each one needs to be manually tallied. The results for the federal court, including the Supreme Court, will be announced in the days after the vote, in contrast to other Mexican elections when preliminary results are known on election night. The national vote counts that will determine the final results will be held on June 15. Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Saifullah Kasuri, who was accused of being the main plotters of the Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir, reportedly made several inflammatory remarks against India and PM Modi at a Lahore rally which was attended by Pakistani establishment read more Saifullah Kasuri, one of the prominent Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders who was accused of plotting the devastating Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, reportedly made inflammatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Lahore . According to a report by The Times of India, the rally took place on Wednesday and Kasuri was flanked by Pakistani security forces, fellow terrorist commanders and officials of Pakistans intelligence agency, ISI, reflecting how close the Pakistani establishment is to terror groups in the country. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD According to TOI, during his rally, Kasuri boasted about the fame he witnessed following the attack. I have become more famous since being accused of the attack, he gloated, as per the report. Kasuri was also sharing the stage with US-designated terrorist Talha Saeed, son of Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed, along with Malik Ahmad Khan, who is the speaker of the Punjab assembly. During his address, Kasuri also lauded Pakistans so-called Bunyan al-Marsoos operation, which was launched in retaliation for Indias Operation Sindoor. More from World Trump administration sets daily goal of 3,000 immigrant arrests for federal agents Allah loves those who engage in jihad, he said while Pakistan officials cheered. The speeches appeared to be meant to rally members of the jihadi outfit after Indias successful precision strikes on the Lashkar headquarters in Muridke which killed several terrorists. In an apparent reference to PM Narendra Modis remarks a few days ago, Kasuri said they were not afraid of bullets. Kasuri makes provocative remarks against PM Modi While spewing venom against India, Kasauri also made inflammatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi samajhta hai hum goliyon se darne wale hain? Ye uski bhool hai (Modi is mistaken if he thinks we are scared of bullets), he said. The remarks were seen as the LeT terrorists response to PM Modis speech at the Bhuj rally earlier this week, in which he said that Pakistan should be ready to face Indias bullets if it did not stop using terror as a weapon. Earlier, Kasuri had claimed that he played no role in the Pahalgam terror attack that led to the death of 26 tourists in Kashmir. In his address, Kasuri also lauded Pakistans cyber team for targeting Indias critical infrastructure of communications and railways, a claim which has already been proven wrong by the Indian authorities. In the past, Kasuri was the president of the Milli Muslim League and also served on the Jamaat-ud-Dawas coordination committee, the charity wing of Lashkar. Since the Pahalgam attack, the outfits have conducted several public rallies to gather funds in the name of supporting the so-called jihad in Kashmir, TOI reported. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Poland heads to the polls this Sunday in a fiercely contested presidential race between pro-EU centrist Rafa Trzaskowski and MAGA-aligned populist Karol Nawrocki. With global stakes and domestic divisions at play, the election could reshape Polands future and Europes. Trumps backing of Nawrocki adds a dramatic twist to this East-West ideological showdown. read more Karol Nawrocki, front, the conservative candidate heading into the second round of Poland's presidential election, meets with union members in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo) Poland is bracing for a pivotal presidential election on Sunday that has become a symbolic clash between pro-European centrism and MAGA-style populism. In a nail-biting race that could reshape Polands domestic and international trajectory, the centrist mayor of Warsaw, Rafa Trzaskowski is locked in a dead heat with the right-wing populist Karol Nawrocki. A Politico poll released earlier this week shows the race on a razors edge, with Trzaskowski narrowly ahead by a single point47% to Nawrockis 46%. While the margin is statistically insignificant, the stakes are anything but. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD At the heart of this contest is a broader ideological battle that reaches well beyond Polands borders. Trzaskowski, a liberal-leaning figure and key ally of center-right Prime Minister Donald Tusk, represents continuity with Tusks Brussels-friendly agenda. Nawrocki, by contrast, is a newcomer to electoral politics and the preferred candidate of Polands conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), now clinging to its last major lever of power. The presidency, largely ceremonial on paper, plays an outsized role in practice. The current president, Andrzej Duda also aligned with PiS has wielded his veto power repeatedly to block legislation from the Tusk government, especially reforms aimed at restoring judicial independence and repairing ties with the European Union. Trzaskowskis victory would likely end this stalemate, paving the way for deeper EU integration and institutional overhaul. Nawrocki, a historian by profession, has become the de facto torchbearer for Polands populist right. His campaign has championed nationalist rhetoric, traditionalist values, and a strong stance against immigration, rhetoric that has increasingly echoed the playbook of Donald Trump. That resemblance was made explicit this week when Kristi Noem, Trumps former Homeland Security chief and a key surrogate in Europe, visited Poland to endorse Nawrocki. Electing the right leader here ensures a strong American presence, Noem said, invoking Fort Trumpa symbolic and potentially permanent U.S. military base in Polandas a bulwark against Russian aggression. This election is about security, sovereignty, and strength, she declared. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Her remarks were interpreted by many as a direct attempt by Trumps orbit to influence the Polish vote. In return, Nawrocki has signaled enthusiastic alignment with Trumps worldview, pledging to be a reliable transatlantic partner while resisting EU overreach. Trzaskowski, meanwhile, has framed the election as a referendum on Polands future as a liberal democracy. We can either move forward with a modern, democratic Poland that plays a strong role in Europe, or return to isolation and division, he told supporters during his final campaign rally in Warsaw. For Trzaskowski, the race also carries personal significance. He came within a whisker of winning the presidency in 2020, losing narrowly to Duda. Now, with Duda term-limited and the political winds shifting, this is his secondand perhaps lastchance. The outcome could determine not just the future of Polish politics but the balance of power in Europe. A win for Trzaskowski would mark a decisive turn toward the EU and liberal democratic values. A Nawrocki victory, on the other hand, would entrench a right-wing nationalist presidency, even as PiSs parliamentary grip has slipped. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As voters head to the polls, the question looms large: Can Donald Trumps influence tip the scales in Warsaw? In a nation torn between westward ambition and populist nostalgia, the answer may reverberate far beyond Polands borders. New hospital ship highlights China's efforts to deliver public security goods Xinhua) 11:01, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense on Thursday confirmed the commissioning of the country's third large-scale hospital ship, "Auspicious Ark," underscoring such ships' role in providing public security goods to the international community. The "Auspicious Ark," is China's third domestically designed and built 10,000-tonne-class hospital ship, said spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang at a regular press conference. Equipped with combat-ready capabilities and advanced medical facilities, the new hospital ship joins the "Peace Ark" and "Silk Road Ark" as a core asset for maritime medical support operations, Zhang noted. He also emphasized the ship's multiple missions, which include delivering international humanitarian medical services, providing emergency medical relief during major disasters, and promoting military medical exchanges. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) The breakthrough came during trilateral talks in Beijing this month where China is believed to have played a key role in bridging differences, leading to an agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan to upgrade diplomatic ties, according to a report 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 Days after the foreign ministers of Afghanistan, China, and Pakistan met in Beijing, Pakistan on Friday announced that it will upgrade its diplomatic relations with Afghanistan by appointing a new ambassador. According to a PTI report_,_ the breakthrough came during trilateral talks in Beijing this month where China is believed to have played a key role in bridging differences, leading to an agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan to upgrade diplomatic ties. Announcing the decision on X, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar wrote, Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are on positive trajectory after my very productive visit to Kabul with Pakistan delegation on 19th April 2025. To maintain this momentum, I am pleased to announce the decision of the Government of Pakistan to upgrade the level of its Charge dAffaires in Kabul to the level of Ambassador. Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are on positive trajectory after my very productive visit to Kabul with Pakistan delegation on 19th April 2025. To maintain this momentum, I am pleased to announce the decision of the Government of Pakistan to upgrade the level of its Charge Ishaq Dar (@MIshaqDar50) May 30, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD I am confident this step would further contribute towards enhanced engagement, deepen Pak-Afghan cooperation in economic, security, CT & trade areas and promote further exchanges between two fraternal countries, he added. Pakistan had initially welcomed the Talibans takeover of Kabul in 2021, hoping the new regime would address its security concerns. However, things didnt go as Islamabad wanted, with cross-border attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants surging sharply. As tensions escalated, relations deteriorated, and Islamabad began accusing Kabul of sheltering TTP fighters and demanded decisive action against them. Meanwhile, According to The Express Tribune report, Afghanistan interim ForeignMinister Amir Khan Muttaqi is likely to travel to Islamabad soon on a first visit in two years, highlighting the growing high-level exchanges between the two neighbours in recent weeks. He will visit Pakistan soon. Dates are being worked out, the newspaper quoted a diplomatic source as saying on Thursday. According to the source, the Afghan side has accepted the invitation, and the upcoming visit will span three days not just a single day allowing for comprehensive discussions on bilateral ties. In April, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar visited Kabul, the first by a Pakistani minister in three years, which helped ease tensions between the two countries. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Sources said Muttaqis visit is part of broader efforts to boost high-level engagement. A roadmap for regular official and ministerial exchanges was drawn up during a visit to Kabul by a Pakistani delegation led by Special Envoy Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq in March. The Afghan Talibans recent actions against groups threatening Pakistan have played a key role in fostering this renewed diplomatic momentum. In another major sign suggesting a shift in its approach was a statement by senior Afghan Taliban commander Saeedullah Saeed who, on Wednesday, warned militant factions against unauthorised jihad, particularly in Pakistan. Speaking at a police passing-out ceremony, Saeed said that fighting in any country, including Pakistan, without the explicit command of the Amir is not permissible. Joining various groups to wage jihad abroad does not make one a true mujahid, PTI quoted him as saying. Only the Amir of the state has the authority to declare jihad not individuals or groups. Saeed emphasised that those carrying out attacks independently or moving between regions to conduct operations cannot be classified as legitimate fighters under Islamic law. Jihad based on personal ego or group loyalty is considered fasad (corruption), not legitimate resistance, he added. He further stated that the Afghan leadership prohibited unauthorised entry into Pakistan, and any such act constitutes disobedience. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Groups attacking in the name of jihad are defying both Shariah and the authority of the Afghan Emirate, he said. His public statement is seen as a result of recent efforts both by Pakistan and China urging the Kabul administration to change its approach towards these groups. Sources said Pakistan would continue to encourage the Taliban government to carry out such measures. In return for these steps, Pakistan and China are willing to support Kabul both economically and diplomatically. With inputs from agencies Russia has proposed holding the next round of direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2 with a view to achieving a sustainable peace settlement. read more Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that Moscow is prepared to take part in a second round of negotiations with Ukraine scheduled for June 2 in Istanbul. However, Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of deliberately stalling the peace process ahead of the upcoming discussions. Speaking at a joint press briefing in Kyiv with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Ukraines Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha reaffirmed Ukraines willingness to continue talks in Turkey. He added, however, that Kyiv is still awaiting a Russian memorandum outlining a potential ceasefire frameworkan item Ukraine expects to receive before the meeting. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD We are still waiting for the Russian side to deliver the memorandum they promised. It was also pledged to the American side, Sybiha stated. Earlier this month, representatives from both nations met in Istanbul for the first time since March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its military invasion of Ukraine. The May 16 talks, held under pressure from US President Donald Trump to end the largest European conflict since World War II, failed to produce a ceasefire agreement despite Kyivs appeals and backing from Western nations. Moscow insisted that certain prerequisites must be fulfilled before a ceasefire could be discussed. Lavrov emphasised in a statement that those who genuinely support the peace process should endorse the continuation of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Following a phone call with President Trump on May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Moscows readiness to engage with Ukraine on drafting a memorandum aimed at laying the groundwork for a potential peace deal. On Wednesday, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russias negotiation team, posted on Telegram that he had contacted Ukraines Defence Minister Rustem Umerov to suggest a time and location for the next session. We are ready, right there and then, to begin serious and detailed discussions on all elements of the proposed ceasefire agreement, Medinsky stated, noting that Russia is now awaiting a formal response from Ukraine. In a separate comment, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said both countries had agreed to develop and exchange their respective proposals concerning the modalities of settlement and ceasefire at the upcoming round of negotiations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif admitted that Indias BrahMos missile strikes on May 10 hit multiple airbases, including Rawalpindi, before the Pakistani military could respond. Sharif said Army Chief Asim Munir informed him around 2:30 am that Indian missiles had struck Nur Khan Airbase and other sites read more Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of Pakistan Asim Munir, reviews the parade at the passing out ceremony of 151st Long Course at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) Kakul, Abbottabad, Pakistan, April 26, 2025. Press Information Department of Pakistan via Reuters Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stated that the Pakistani military forces were caught off guard when India attacked various airbases throughout the nation on the intervening night of May 9-10. Sharif claimed that the Pakistani Army planned to begin strikes on India on May 10 after morning prayers, but Indian BrahMos missiles rained down before that, causing damage to the air bases. During an appearance in Azerbaijan, Sharif confirmed that the Rawalpindi airfield was one among the sites targeted by India with the BrahMos missile. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD On the night of May 9-10, we decided to respond in a measured fashion to Indian aggression. Our armed forces were prepared to act at 4.30 in the morning after Fajr prayers to teach a lesson. But before that hour even arrived, India once again launched a missile attack using BrahMos, targeting various provinces of Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi, Sharif said during his speech in Lachin. Sharif went on to say that he was told of the strikes by Army Chief Asim Munir, who has since been appointed to Field Marshal. This is the second time Sharif has highlighted the significance of Indias retaliatory strikes on Pakistani airbases. Speaking to an audience in Pakistan earlier this month, Sharif disclosed that Gen Munir told him about the May 10 attack on the Nur Khan Air Base and other key targets around 2:30 am. On Thursday, Gen Munir claimed that Islamabad will never compromise on the water issue since it is linked to the fundamental rights of the countrys 240 million people. According to the army, he made the comments while speaking with vice-chancellors from numerous universities, administrators, and top instructors and educators. Pakistan will never accept Indian hegemony, he told reporters. Water is Pakistans red line, and we will not allow any compromise on this basic right of 240 million Pakistanis, he stated, alluding to Indias decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty following the Pahalgam terror assault. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Munir further alleged that India supported terrorists in Balochistan, and that militants participating in the provinces instability had ties to the Balochs. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which claimed 26 lives. India carried out precision strikes as part of Operation Sindoor on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7. It was followed by Pakistans attempt to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions. The on-ground hostilities ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10. South Koreans will head to the polls in the first week of June to elect a new president, but analysts caution that the incoming leader will quickly face significant international challenges, from both allies and adversaries read more South Korean soldiers wait in a line to cast their early vote for the upcoming presidential election at a polling station in Seoul, South Korea. Reuters South Koreans are scheduled to choose a new president during the first week of June, but experts caution that the winner will be confronted with obstacles in the international arena right away, from both allies and adversaries. The US administration of President Donald Trump, Seouls most significant partner against the North Korean government, is already exerting pressure on Seoul on trade and security matters. At the same time, South Korea wants to keep vital trading relations with China, a rival of the United States. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With 49.2% of the vote, Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-Myung is far ahead of his People Power Party (PPP) opponent Kim Moon Soo, who is only 36.8%, according to the most recent surveys. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and is currently on trial for his December attempt to declare martial law, has damaged the PPP partys reputation. However, Kim has been closing the deficit, and the conservative New Reform Party, a third party, now has 10.3% of the vote, potentially giving it influence over the composition of the next administration. Although it is unclear if all tariffs would be removed, Seoul and Washington are now engaged in trade negotiations, and there have been indications that a compromise may be possible. In recent weeks, there have been indications that the Pentagon is considering removing almost 4,000 of the 28,000 US troops now stationed in South Korea, making the issue even more sensitive. Although Trump has frequently threatened to withdraw troops unless Seoul paid more for their presence, the US has downplayed the reports. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Kim Jong Un has now cut off all connection with the South and built further defences on the already heavily fortified border, supported by the alliance with Moscow. Pyongyang has amassed a larger missile arsenal, and taken the historic step of officially rejecting eventual unification with the South, labelling Seoul a main enemy. Even though China is South Koreas largest commercial partner, relations with Beijing are sometimes contentious. China brought in almost $133 billion worth of South Korean goods last year, which accounted for 19.5% of South Koreas total exports. The US came in second with $128.4 billion and 18.8%. China claims the facility is part of a fishing project, which is permitted under an existing bilateral agreement. But South Korea fears it is being used to encroach further into the disputed waters and enforce Beijings claims to more sea territory. Russia has called for the revival of Russia-India-China troika in the wake of India and China reaching an understanding regarding the military stand-off in Ladakh. read more Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for the revival of the Russia-India-China (RIC) troika. Now that India and China have reached an understanding regarding the situation at the border, the RIC troika should be revived, said Lavrov. Now that, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this RIC troika, said Lavrov. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The RIC is an informal trilateral grouping for cooperation among Russia, India, and China. While the group was envisioned as a platform to counter the unipolar world order led by the United States, the group has not made much progress by Quad because of tensions between India and China. The situation is further complicated by the ever-growing ties between Russia, Indias historical partner, and China, Indias main strategic adversary . Lavrov disses Quad, pitches RIC In remarks shared by Russian state media, Lavrov said that India needs to see provocations by fellow Quad members. Lavrov said that Quad members conduct military activities targeting China in the garb of economic and trade cooperation. He went on to say that the RIC troika should now be resumed as India and China have reached an understanding. I am sure that our Indian friends see these provocations [of Quad members] and we are speaking about anti-China initiatives in the eastern parts of Asia. We would like to reaffirm our interest in seeking resumption of trilateral established many years agoWhen India and China have come to an agreement on how the situation at the border can be resolved, I think it can be resumed in this format, the RIC format, said Lavrov. Russia-India-China Trilateral Revival? "Now that, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this RIC troika," FM Lavrov said. pic.twitter.com/rsNnMWxEKN RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 30, 2025 In October 2024, India and China reached an understanding to disengage at two of the friction points in eastern Ladakh and restore coordinated patrolling at three locations in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradeshs border areas. However, unlike how Lavrov said, the Ladakh standoff has not yet been resolved completely and the standoff at several friction points remain unresolved. Moreover, even though the Ladakh standoff has now been partially resolved, the India-China relationship is not going to the pre-2020 level. In an article in Oct. 2024 , Firstposts Madhur Sharma noted, While Indias trade with China has continued through the tensions and the thaw in the relationship is set to usher in more engagement, it is expected to be cautious engagement instead of pageantry in the run-up to the conflict in 2020India is much more closely aligned with the West when it comes to China than to historical partners like Russia. Even if New Delhi does not mention it, the approach of cooperate where you can, compete where you should, and challenge where you must has defined Indias dealings with China and the world lately and it is expected to continue. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD ALSO READ: As Xi & Putin join hands, what does no limits friendship mean for India? Madhur further noted that, as China rejects Indias sovereignty over Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh and continues to illegally occupy Indian territory ceded to it by Pakistan, the two countries cannot align themselves beyond a certain point. India and China have some fundamental differences that would disallow any rapprochement beyond a certain point. In a fundamental divergence, while India seeks a genuine multilateral world, China seeks to usurp the world order and impose its own hegemony on the world, noted Sharma. According to top Indian intelligence sources, Khalids speech at the event is being viewed as a strategic call to arms, laying the groundwork for a fresh wave of extremist activitythis time targeting Bangladesh. read more Saifullah Khalid, a senior commander of the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and one of the masterminds of the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, made a high-profile public appearance at a rally in Punjab, Pakistan on Wednesday. According to top Indian intelligence sources, Khalids speech at the event is being viewed as a strategic call to arms, laying the groundwork for a fresh wave of extremist activitythis time targeting Bangladesh. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The rally, organised by the Milli Muslim League (MML), a political proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was marked by Khalids incendiary rhetoric and his outlined vision for a new jihadist campaign. Intelligence reports reveal that Khalid is seeking to exploit Bangladeshs internal political vulnerabilities to open a new front for Islamist militancy, with the backing of LeTs state-supported infrastructure in Pakistan. Crucially, the presence of Talha Saeed, son of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, at the same event has been interpreted as a sign of high-level endorsement for this renewed offensive. Intelligence officials warn that Khalids plan involves not just ideological incitement but also concrete operational steps. During his speech, Khalid framed Bangladesh as a region where Muslims are suffering alleged persecution, using this narrative to incite religious extremism. He openly called for jihad against Hindus and urged militant action targeting both Bangladesh and India. The speech reportedly included pointed references to specific targets, blending religious fervor with tactical directivesa pattern often observed in previous LeT mobilizations. Further intelligence inputs indicate that Saifullah Khalid is leading the development of new terrorist infrastructure in Pakistans Punjab province, particularly in the Allahabad area of Kasur district. This initiative includes plans to establish a hospital, which, according to sources, could serve a dual role as a legitimate cover for terror-linked operations and as a site to attract and radicalize Bangladeshi youth. Officials believe Khalid is attempting to exploit economic discontent among Bangladeshi communities to draw young recruits into Lashkar-e-Taibas ranks. Khalid also expressed strong backing for the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a proscribed terror group active in the region. Intelligence officials view this as a move to strengthen ties with local extremist elements and to form a broader jihadist network extending from Pakistan into Bangladesh. Experts are interpreting these moves as a marked intensification of threat levels, highlighting Khalids rising prominence within Lashkar-e-Taibas leadership and the ongoing involvement of Pakistan-based actors in promoting cross-border militancy. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Recent apprehensions of JMB operatives in Pakistan have revealed their roles in targeting Bangladesh. The group has already demonstrated cross-border intent by staging pro-Hamas demonstrations in Dhaka. Intelligence reports suggest that Lashkar-e-Taiba supports JMB with training, financial resources, and logistics, coordinated by Pakistans ISI. As LeTs deputy chief, Khalid is known to provide JMB with the tools required to carry out attacks both within Bangladesh and against Indian interests. Intelligence sources believe his recent statements are in line with LeTs broader aim of portraying itself as a defender of Islamic identity. This aligns with ISIs objective of mobilising a new front in Bangladesh through alliances with local militant groups. A video widely circulated online captures Khalid delivering an anti-India speech, in which he lashes out at Hindus and the Bharatiya Janata Party. He also referred to the Pakistani militants killed in Indias Operation Sindoor as martyrs. At the rally, Khalid said, I heard about a terrorist attack in India on April 22, and later found out that I was named the mastermind. But we wont be scared of gunfirewe long to die as martyrs. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Khalid, Lashkar-e-Taibas second-in-command and a close aide of Hafiz Saeed, was reportedly in Kanganpur, Punjab, Pakistan, two months before the April 22 Pahalgam attack. In that incident, 26 non-Muslim tourists were killed after being asked about their religion by armed militants. The sheer silence of World Liberty Financial Inc (WLFI) over its communications with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has fuelled concerns regarding the Trump family using political ties for business gains read more Pakistan Crypto Council CEO Bilal Bin Saqib admitted that the countrys recent crypto-friendly moves are purely political and aimed at overcoming what he termed as bad PR. Meanwhile, the sheer silence of World Liberty Financial Inc (WLFI) over its communications with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has fuelled concerns regarding the Donald Trump family using political ties for business gains Notably, the WLFI in April inked a deal with the Pakistan Crypto Council following communications with PM Sharif. Now, a US Senate subcommittee has asked the firm, in which the majority of the stakes are owned by the Trump family, about its communication with the Pakistani government that led to the deal. However, the firm has maintained silence. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan draws parallel between crypto, Islamabads bad PR Meanwhile, Saqib, a top crypto official in Pakistan, has indicated that the countrys crypto dealings with the US are aimed at boosting Islamabads PR. Simply put, he said the moves are more political than economic in nature. Both Pakistan and Bitcoin have suffered from bad PR. We are looked at as being dangerous, risky and unstable. But once we look beyond these headlines, we can see a lot of potential, resources and talent. So Pakistan is looking for allies, he said at the annual gathering of the global cryptocurrency community in Las Vegas. Saqib last month held a meeting with Chief of Army staff Asim Munir, who has now been promoted to the rank of field marshal following standoff with India, to spell out the ambitions of the countrys crypto industry. Pakistans newfound love for crypto Many see Islamabads newfound interest in crypto as a way to grow close business ties with the family of US President Donald Trump. Saqib himself admitted that Pakistans crypto move was inspired by the US. We want to thank the US because we are getting inspired from them, Bilal said. Its to be noted that Trump, in March, had signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Moreover, the association of top political figures of the US, deemed close to the president, in crypto business has raised eyebrows. Trumps sons Donald junior and Eric as well as grandson Barron are part of the WLFI team as Web3 Ambassador. Web3 wallets allow access to apps and store cryptocurrencies. Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoffs son Zach Witkoff is one of WLFIs co-founders. On April 27, Zach wrote on social media that the crypto deal will bring diversity and financial inclusion to the next generation in Pakistan and beyond. Within days as the standoff escalated between India and Pakistan following the terror attack in Pahalgam, Trump claimed that he helped broker a ceasefire between the two nations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan too has endorsed Trumps narrative, whereas India has disputed it, saying the understanding was reached strictly on bilateral terms and the US had a limited role to play. Trumps Maga programme talks about Americas withdrawal, but its real foreign policy seems to look for control of global diplomacy without any nuances that diplomats have practised for decades read more Even though the Maga movement often talks loudly about America First and says it wants to keep the US out of foreign problems, what it actually does on the world stage is more complicated. President Donald Trump and his deputy Vice President JD Vance often say that wars in places like Gaza and Ukraine are not Americas wars. But in reality, they still get very involved in global affairsnot by sending troops or starting new partnerships, but by interfering through diplomacy, spreading certain narratives and making symbolic gestures. This shows more of an obsession with world events than a true withdrawal from them. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Maga movement believes in national independence and staying out of other countries business. But at the same time, it keeps stepping into the internal politics of other nationsfor example, criticising UK leaders over free speech or pressuring South Africas president about false claims of genocide. This creates a clear contradiction: while Maga talks about pulling back from the world, its actions show a strong desire to shape other countries based on its own beliefs. Gaza: Not our war, but always our deal Trump has insisted that the ongoing conflict in Gaza is not Americas war, and yet the White House under his leadership has leaned heavily into the crisis, not just rhetorically but diplomatically. Trump reportedly expressed intense frustration recently over the Gaza war, viewing it as the final impediment to West Asia peace and prosperity. White House officials described his visible upset at images of Palestinian suffering and his efforts to pressure Israel into opening crossings for humanitarian aid. Despite the administrations disavowal of direct involvement, Trump worked actively behind the scenes to influence the conflicts trajectory. He reportedly urged the Israeli government to wrap it up and facilitated a backchannel deal that led to the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander. His frustration with the stalemate even prompted broader appeals for a ceasefire and post-conflict reconstruction of Gaza. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president was working overtime to resolve both the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts. So, even though Trump says that the war in Gaza isnt Americas problem, he still seems to believe that trying to make a peace dealor at least looking like he ishelps build his image as a key global negotiator. This shows that Magas idea of isolationism isnt really about stepping away from the world. Instead, its about carefully choosing when to get involved, mainly in a way that looks good and helps them take credit or control the story, rather than actually trying to bring peace or stability to the region. Ukraine: Disengaged, yet deeply involved Trump has repeatedly said that Ukraine is not Americas war, echoing the MAGA line of distancing from entangling alliances and European squabbles. And yet, the administrations engagement has hardly resembled detachment. On May 26, Trump lambasted Vladimir Putin on social media platforms for what he described as the largest drone and missile assault of the Ukraine war, calling the Russian president absolutely CRAZY and playing with fire. In the same breath, Trump scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, blaming his tone for making matters worse and warning that it better stop. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In public and private statements, Trump has straddled a line between peacemaker and critic. Just days before the Russian escalation, he reportedly spent two hours on the phone with Putin, attempting to negotiate a ceasefire. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the US administrations emotional involvement and thanked Trump for pushing peace talks a curious gesture to someone claiming to disengage. Trumps frustration reveals more than just concern. It points to a fixation. His warning that Putins escalation could lead to Russias downfall, and his floating of new sanctions, show that he remains deeply involved in the conflicts outcomes, even while insisting it is none of Americas business. The Maga line on Ukraine is not one of classic non-intervention, but rather of frustrated puppeteering: pulling strings without boots on the ground. The India-Pakistan ceasefire story Perhaps the most revealing example of Magas obsession with foreign entanglements is Trumps self-proclaimed role in the India-Pakistan ceasefire a claim India has repeatedly denied. Trump claimed that the 10 May-ceasefire between India and Pakistan was only achieved after he offered both countries trade access with the US, leveraging tariffs as a diplomatic cudgel to prevent all-out war. His Commerce Secretary Howard W Lutnick repeated the claim as the Trump administration faced legal troubles over domestic policies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But India strongly rejected these assertions, saying the ceasefire was the result of direct military-to-military negotiations following Indias Operation Sindoor, launched in retaliation for a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam. The Trump administrations version of events, including its suggestion that trade deals averted catastrophe, was dismissed outright. The contradiction is telling. The Maga claim about non-interventionism in global affairs crumbles in the face of Trumps eagerness to take credit for complex foreign events. The India-Pakistan situation is an especially egregious case not only because Trumps involvement is disputed, but because it exposes a willingness to distort diplomatic history in service of political theatre. This is less about isolationism and more about inserting America into every international development, whether the facts support it or not. Myth of the modern isolationist Ganesh, writing in the Financial Review, questions the idea that Trump is truly an isolationist. During Trumps first term, the US bombed Syria and killed Irans General Qasem Soleimaniclear signs that America was not pulling away from the world. Still, the media often calls him an isolationist, maybe because the truththat the US under Trump became more unpredictable and picked fights in a selective, aggressive wayis harder to define and more uncomfortable to face. The Maga movement doesnt want to leave the world stage. Instead, it wants to reshape the world to match its own views. Magas energy is often aimed not at foreign enemies, but at people who dont share its beliefsincluding Americas own allies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It no longer promises to protect Nato countries, but instead criticises European leaders about moral and cultural matters. Trumps supporters show this clearly. Vance says fights like the one between India and Pakistan are none of our business, but still gets involved in issues like free speech in the UK or Christian persecution in Africa. This isnt isolationismits a kind of ideological expansion without using the military. The goal isnt peace by stepping back, but control through stories, influence, and culture wars. Magas global interest hides behind an anti-globalist message, but in truth, it wants to change worldwide norms to match its own viewsor at least make sure its ideas are heard everywhere. Magas interest in foreign policy is mostly focused on influence, not traditional power. The US might not have as much hard power as it once did, but as Ganesh pointed out, it still has the biggest cultural and media platforms in the world. Maga leaders such as Elon Musk (until very recently) and Vance grew up in a time when public commentary and showmanship started to matter more than real diplomacy or long-term strategy. In their worldview, the main goal isnt solving problemsits about putting on a show. Trumps efforts to appear as a peace-broker in Gaza, his mixed messages about both Putin and Zelenskyy and even his made-up role in the India-Pakistan ceasefire arent really about getting results. Theyre about shaping a story or creating one. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Not isolation, but ideological export Trumps Maga doctrine is not the return of American isolationism. It is something more erratic and, in many ways, more destabilising. It abandons traditional alliances and commitments but replaces them not with quiet withdrawal, but with symbolic posturing, bombast and unsolicited commentary on the moral fibre of other nations. In Trumps second term, the contradiction is sharper than ever. He tells Americans that foreign wars are not their concern, yet cannot resist the temptation to intervene rhetorically, claim victories, assign blame and positions himself as the indispensable figure on the world stage. This is not a coherent foreign policy. It is a compulsive need to be at the centre of all things global an America that refuses to lead with responsibility but cannot bear to be left out of the conversation. The Maga movement may talk about pulling back, but in reality, it is more invested in foreign affairs than ever just not in any way that promotes stability or truth. US President Donald Trump on Friday heaped praise on Elon Musk, saying that the billionaires service to America is without comparison in modern history, as Musk stepped down from his official role as a special government employee read more Elon Musk speaks during a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington on Friday, . AP US President Donald Trump on Friday heaped praise on Elon Musk, saying that the billionaires service to America is without comparison in modern history, as Musk stepped down from his official role as a special government employee. Musk, who led the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) under Trumps administration, was credited by the president for delivering colossal change in how Washington operates. Hes worked tirelessly, The Guardian quoted Trump as saying at a press conference to mark Musks exit from Doge, claiming that he played a central role in the most sweeping and consequential government reform programme in generations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump said the reforms led by Doge would be remembered when his administration eventually announces that billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in federal contracts has been eliminated. He added that the cuts initiated by Doge would be made permanent through what he described as a big, beautiful bill a measure Musk has previously criticised for undermining Doges mission. Despite stepping down, Trump suggested Musks departure was more symbolic than operational. Elons not really leaving, he said. Hes going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling. [Doge is] his baby, he added. Echoing that sentiment, Musk called Doge a way of life and said his exit from formal government service was not the end but rather the beginning. He reaffirmed his long-term goal of achieving $1 trillion in government savings, though acknowledged that recent progress had fallen short. Musk also confirmed he would continue to visit the White House in an unofficial capacity, describing himself as a friend and adviser to the president. Musk, the worlds richest person, has said he is stepping back from his role at the White House to focus on his companies, which include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X. His formal exit comes after a bombshell report in The New York Times on his alleged drug use. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The newspaper said that Musk used so much ketamine during the 2024 campaign that he developed bladder problems and that he was also taking ecstasy and psychoactive mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year. When a reporter attempted to ask Musk about the report, Musk quickly cut off the question and moved on. Asked again about his advisory role, Musk reiterated his commitment to supporting Trump. I expect to continue to provide advice, he said. I hope so, Trump responded. With inputs from agencies The court put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Indira Talwanis order halting the administrations move to end the immigration parole granted to 532,000 of these migrants by Trumps predecessor Joe Biden read more Law enforcement officers, including HSI and ICE agents, take people into custody at an immigration court in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on May 21, 2025. Reuters File The US Supreme Court on Friday let President Donald Trumps administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican presidents drive to step up deportations. The court put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Indira Talwanis order halting the administrations move to end the immigration parole granted to 532,000 of these migrants by Trumps predecessor Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal, while the case plays out in lower courts. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As with many of the courts orders issued in an emergency fashion, the decision was unsigned and gave no reasoning. Two of the courts three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, publicly dissented. The court botched its assessment of whether the administration was entitled to freeze Talwanis decision pending the litigation, Jackson wrote in an accompanying opinion. The outcome, Jackson wrote, undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending. Immigration parole is a form of temporary permission under American law to be in the country for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit, allowing recipients to live and work in the United States. Biden, a Democrat, used parole as part of his administrations approach to deter illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump called for ending humanitarian parole programs in an executive order signed on January 20, his first day back in office. The Department of Homeland Security subsequently moved to terminate them in March, cutting short the two-year parole grants. The administration said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place migrants in a fast-track deportation process called expedited removal. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The case is one of many that Trumps administration has brought in an emergency fashion to the nations highest judicial body seeking to undo decisions by judges impeding his sweeping policies, including several targeting immigrants. The Supreme Court on May 19 also let Trump end a deportation protection called temporary protected status that had been granted under Biden to about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, while that legal dispute plays out. In a bid to reduce illegal border crossings, Biden starting in 2022 allowed Venezuelans who entered the United States by air to request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor. Biden expanded that process to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023 as his administration grappled with high levels of illegal immigration from those nationalities. The plaintiffs, a group of migrants granted parole and Americans who serve as their sponsors, sued administration officials claiming the administration violated federal law governing the actions of government agencies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD GuerlineJozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, one of the plaintiffs, expressed dismay at Fridays decision. Once again, the Trump administration blatantly proves their disregard for the lives of those truly in need of protection by taking away their status and rendering them undocumented. We have already seen the traumatic impact on children and families afraid to even go to school, church or work, Jozef said. I cannot overstate how devastating this is: the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces and their communities, added Karen Tumlin, director of Justice Action Center, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs. Talwani in April found that the law governing such parole did not allow for the programs blanket termination, instead requiring a case-by-case review. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the judges decision on hold. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In its filing, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that Talwanis order had upended critical immigration policies that are carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry, effectively undoing democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election that returned Trump to the presidency. The plaintiffs told the Supreme Court they would face grave harm if their parole is cut short given that the administration has indefinitely suspended processing their pending applications for asylum and other immigration relief. They said they would be separated from their families and immediately subject to expedited deportation to the same despotic and unstable countries from which they fled, where many will face serious risks of danger, persecution and even death. Talwani on Wednesday ordered the administration to resume processing applications for work permits or more lasting immigration status from migrants with parole status from Afghanistan, Latin America and Ukraine. Since the mid-May agreement, the Trump administration has shifted focus toward negotiating tariffs with other major trading partners including India Japan, and the European Union. Last week, Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on EU products but later postponed the move. read more US President Donald Trump hailed a "total reset" in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks Sunday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. File Image / Reuters Trade discussions between the United States and China have reached a standstill, and moving forward may now depend on direct engagement between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Speaking with Fox News, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that progress has slowed since the breakthrough talks he led two weeks ago, which resulted in a temporary halt to escalating tariffs between the two economic giants. Despite the slowdown, he expressed hope that more negotiations would resume in the coming weeks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD I think theres a chance well see a call between President Trump and Chairman Xi at some point, Bessent said. Highlighting the complexity and scale of the issues at hand, he added, This process is likely to require both leaders stepping in. They have a strong rapport, and Im confident that China will engage once President Trump signals his direction. The temporary truce, which paused triple-digit tariffs for 90 days, sparked a surge in global markets. However, the underlying concerns that led to the tariffsparticularly U.S. grievances over Chinas state-controlled, export-centric economic practicesremain unresolved and are expected to be tackled in future discussions. Since the mid-May agreement, the Trump administration has shifted focus toward negotiating tariffs with other major trading partners including India Japan, and the European Union. Last week, Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on EU products but later postponed the move. Meanwhile, a U.S. trade court ruled on Wednesday that Trump exceeded his authority when applying most of the tariffs on Chinese and other foreign imports using emergency powers. However, a federal appeals court reversed that ruling the following day, placing a temporary hold while it reviews the governments appeal. The court directed the plaintiffs to respond by June 5, with the administrations reply due by June 9. Despite the legal uncertainties, Bessent noted that countries like Japan remain committed to negotiations. He reported no shift in their negotiating positions following the court developments and confirmed plans to meet with a Japanese delegation in Washington on Friday. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas son Sajeeb Wazed Joy shared a video of LeT terrorist Muzammil Hashmi, who threatened India in a provocative speech and claimed responsibility for the political unrest in Bangladesh read more Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, shared a video of LeT terrorist Muzammil Hashmi, claiming his role in the political unrest in Bangladesh. In the video, Hashmi was heard threatening India and hurling inflammatory comments against New Delhi. The LeT terrorist not only threatened India but also claimed involvement in the toppling of the Hasina administration. On Wednesday, Wazed shared the video, unveiling the link between the Pakistan terror group and Bangladesh protests that eventually led to the end of the 15-year-long reign of Hasina. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Leader of #Pakistani #terrorist organisation La*shkar-e-Tay*ba that was responsible for the attack in Kashmir, claiming in a public speech that they were involved in the uprising against my mother, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of #Bangladesh, Wazed wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Leader of #Pakistani #terrorist organization La*shkar-e-Tay*ba that was responsible for attack in Kashmir claiming in a public speech that they were involved in the uprising against my mother Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of #Bangladesh pic.twitter.com/YeQ9UDpZvi Sajeeb Wazed (@sajeebwazed) May 29, 2025 About the gather The public gathering where the LeT terrorist made the provocative statement was organised by the Pak Markazi Muslim League, which is touted as the political front of the terror group, News18 reported. As per the report, the event was held in Gujranwala to mark the anniversary of Pakistans nuclear weapon system. Tum hume apni goli se darate ho, Modi hum tujhe pegam dete hai, humari bacche teri misslo se nahi dare hum teri goli se kya darenge (You try to scare us with your bullets, Modi. We send you a message, our children arent afraid of your missiles, why would we fear your bullets?)," Hashmi said in the event. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Hume khaufzada naa tere bade kar sake na tu kar sakega (Neither your elders could intimidate us, nor will you be able to)." Tu tarikh dekh le is Hindustan ki tarikh, tere baap dada ki tareekh. Tere baap dada ne humesha hamare saamne paani bhara hai aur tu bhi bharega (Look at the history of India, the history of your forefathers. Your ancestors have always bowed before us, and so will you), he added. In his speech, Hashmi indirectly alluded to the turbulence in Bangladesh, taking credit for the whole saga. Modi tu janta hai humne pichle saal tujhe Bangladesh me shikast di (Modi, you know we defeated you in Bangladesh last year)," he stated. Meanwhile, in a separate virtual address, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina , condemned what she called growing judicial leniency toward convicted war criminals and warned of increasing extremism under the current administration. In the statement, Hasina also referred to the release of Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD War criminals are being freed, and those who fought for our independence are now being persecuted. Is this the Bangladesh we fought for? Hasina described the present situation as turning the country into a haven for terrorists. Hasina condemned the actions of the radicals, calling them boot-licking agents of Pakistan and accusing them of destroying the nation from within. The P-3 patrol jet took off from its base in the southern city of Pohang at 1:43 p.m. and crashed for unclear reasons, according to a Navy statement read more Smoke rises from a mountain in Pohang, South Korea, where a Navy patrol plane carrying four people crashed. AP A South Korean military jet crashed during a training mission on Thursday, killing all four crew members, the navy said. Surveillance video captures the fatal crash of a South Korean Navy P-3CK Oriondown just six minutes after takeoff from Pohang All four crew members were killed Anti-submarine patrols are grounded as investigators search for answers https://t.co/Xm6yRgVvU9 pic.twitter.com/tKHCPJM4GG RT (@RT_com) May 30, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The P-3 patrol jet took off from its base in the southern city of Pohang at 1:43 p.m. and crashed for unclear reasons, according to a Navy statement. It stated that it had identified and was retrieving the remains of the four crew members. There were no early reports of civilian casualties on the scene. The navy organised a task team to examine the disaster and temporarily grounded its P-3s. An emergency office in Pohang claimed that rescuers and fire vehicles were deployed to the scene after locals reported that an aeroplane crashed on a hill near an apartment complex, causing a fire. Photos show firefighters and rescue vehicles near the incident site, with flames flashing and smoke engulfing trees. Firefighters poured water on what seemed to be aeroplane debris. 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. The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously reversed aspects of a federal appeals court ruling overturning an agencys approval of an 88-mile railway in northeastern Utah that would facilitate shipment of oil through Colorado and to the Gulf Coast. The ruling, broadly speaking, lays out limits on the reach of the National Environmental Policy Act, while also specifically being a victory for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition in northeast Utah and a Utah railway company. They had argued that the Surface Transportation Board, when it approved the project, didnt need to take into account the environmental impacts of the oil and gas development in Utah that would generate traffic on the rail line, or things such as impacts along rail lines in western Colorado that would see increased oil train traffic or to Gulf Coast communities where the oil would be taken to be refined. The high court opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, held that the lower-court ruling failed to afford the board the substantial judicial deference required in NEPA cases and incorrectly interpreted NEPA to require the Board to consider the environmental effects of upstream and downstream projects that are separate in time or place from the Uinta Basin Railway. Kavanaugh was joined in his opinion by four other conservatives on the court. Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from the case and the courts three liberal justices joined in a concurring opinion also reversing the lower-court ruling, but based on differing reasoning. The oil train project would connect oil produced in the Uinta Basin with the national rail network, and could result in as much as 350,000 barrels a day of waxy crude oil being shipped through western Colorado and to Gulf Coast refineries. It would eliminate the need for oil to continue to be trucked through mountainous terrain to a railway in Utah. The project had been challenged in court by Eagle County in Colorado and by some conservation groups. Some western Colorado communities are concerned about potential impacts such as wildfires and oil spills into the Colorado River from increased local oil traffic. Grand Junction had joined some other Colorado communities in a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the high court arguing that NEPA requires analysis of things such as the potential for such impacts along the Union Pacific Line in Colorado. The high court didnt review some other findings by the lower court that went against the Utah rail proponents. Among other things, the appeals court had found that the Surface Transportation Board violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to account for spill impacts. The Surface Transportation Board must still decide other environmental issues that werent part of this case, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who had led 16 state attorneys general in filing a high-court brief supporting Eagle County, said in a statement. Well remain vigilant and deploy every tool available under the law to protect Colorados land, air, and water and hold federal agencies accountable to their oversight obligations. This decision affirms the years of work and collaboration that have gone into making the Uinta Basin Railway a reality, Keith Heaton, director of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, said in a news release. It represents a turning point for rural Utah bringing safer, sustainable, more efficient transportation options, and opening new doors for investment and economic stability. We look forward to continuing our work with all stakeholders to deliver this transformative project. That coalition plans to work with the Surface Transportation Board on things including completing the Endangered Species Act process, and other project aspects such as finalizing construction plans and continuing to pursue funding for an undertaking that would cost billions of dollars. Kavanaugh wrote that NEPA doesnt require an agency to weigh environmental consequences in any particular way. Rather, an agency may weigh environmental consequences as the agency reasonably sees fit under its governing statute and any relevant substantive environmental laws. Simply stated, NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock. The goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it. He said some overly intrusive court decisions have slowed down or blocked projects, causing litigation-averse agencies to take ever-more time and prepare ever-longer environmental impact statements. The upshot: NEPA has transformed from a modest procedural requirement into a blunt and haphazard tool employed by project opponents (who may not always be entirely motivated by concern for the environment) to try to stop or at least slow down new infrastructure and construction projects, Kavanaugh wrote. NEPA became law in 1970, and Kavanaugh wrote, A 1970 legislative acorn has grown over the years into a judicial oak that has hindered infrastructure development under the guise of just a little more process. He noted that the Surface Transportation Board has no authority or control over potential future oil and gas development in the Uinta Basin, and the same is true when it comes to potential oil refining on the Gulf Coast. NEPA requires an agency to focus on the environmental effects of a project itself, and not future or geographically separate ones, he wrote. A relatively modest infrastructure project should not be turned into a scapegoat for everything that ensues from upstream oil drilling to downstream refinery emissions. The high courts decision undermines decades of legal precedent that told federal agencies to look before they leap when approving projects that could harm communities and the environment, Sam Sankar, an Earthjustice senior vice president, said in a news release. The Trump administration will treat this decision as an invitation to ignore environmental concerns as it tries to promote fossil fuels, kill off renewable energy, and destroy sensible pollution regulations. The concurring opinion in the case was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She found that under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act, the Surface Transportation Board couldnt lawfully consider the environmental consequences of oil production upstream or downstream from the railway as part of the approval process. She wrote that the court majority in its ruling in the case takes a different path, unnecessarily grounding its analysis largely in matters of policy. Taiwanese man arrested in South Korea for filming NIS building ROC Central News Agency 05/30/2025 11:35 AM Seoul, May 30 (CNA) A Taiwanese man was arrested by South Korean police on Thursday for allegedly filming the interior of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) building. The man, in his 30s, was reported to the police for filming the building's interior with his mobile phone at around 12:30 p.m. from somewhere around its main entrance, and he was later arrested for violating laws protecting military bases and institutions. According to local media, the man loitered around the building's entrance for a long period of time, and police are now checking his mobile phone to confirm whether he has violated national security laws and whether to apply for a formal arrest warrant. At the time of his arrest, the man told the police that he was interested in history and was filming the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site Heonilleung, the site of two royal tombs, Heonleung and Inleung, the media report said. The tombs and the NIS building are both in Naegok-dong area in the southern part of Seoul. The arrest comes on the heels of recent cases of Chinese nationals illegally filming South Korean military facilities, which have raised security concerns. In response, the U.S. military barred Chinese and Taiwanese nationals from entering the Osan Air Power Days event earlier in May. Despite the ban, two Taiwanese nationals were accused of illegally entering the air show venue on May 12 and photographing U.S. military facilities and equipment. They remain in police custody and are under investigation. (By Liao Yu-yang and Wu Kuan-hsien) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Contracts Contracts For May 29, 2025 NAVY Deloitte & Touche LLP, Arlington, Virginia, is being awarded an $81,055,361 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00189-25-D-0010) in support of Naval Information Forces to provide Navy enterprise management and technical support services. The contract will include a five-year ordering period with an additional six-month ordering period pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.217-8 which if exercised, will bring the total estimated value of the contract to $90,000,000. Work will be completed by Aug. 2, 2030; if the option is exercised, work will be completed by Feb. 2, 2031. Work will be performed in Suffolk, Virginia (90%); and Arlington, Virginia (10%). Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance funds (Navy) funds in the contract's minimum amount of $500,000 will be obligated at time of award and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Subsequent task orders under the resultant contract will be funded with appropriate fiscal year operations and maintenance (Navy) funds. The requirement was competitively procured through the sam.gov website as an unrestricted, competitive procurement with 11 offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk Fleet Directorate, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N00189-25-D-0010). Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, was awarded a $50,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, architect-engineering (A-E) contract for electrical and mechanical engineering services. This contract provides for A-E design and engineering services required for a design support contract. Work will be performed at various military installations in the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southwest area of operations, to include California (87%), Arizona (5%), Nevada (5%), Colorado (1%), New Mexico (1%), and Utah (1%), and is expected to be completed by May 2030. The maximum dollar value, including the base period and option period, is $50,000,000. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,000 (minimum contract guarantee) will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the sam.gov website with 10 offers received. NAVFAC Southwest, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity (N62473-25-D-2713). Helber Hastert & Fee Planners Inc.,* Honolulu, Hawaii, is awarded a $49,500,000 indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract for multi-discipline architectural-engineering projects primarily in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas. Work will be performed at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC), Pacific area of responsibility including, but not limited to the installations and bases belonging to: Hawaii (25%), Guam (20%), Japan (20%), Philippines (10%), Australia (10%), Micronesia (10%), Korea (3%), Singapore (1%), and Diego Garcia (1%), with an expected completion date of May 2030. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance (Navy) in the amount of $10,000 are obligated for the minimum guarantee of this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Future task orders will be primarily funded by military construction and operation and maintenance funds. This contract was competitively procured via the sam.gov website with three proposals received. NAVFAC Pacific, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62742-25-D-0200). Professional Contract Services, Inc., Austin, Texas, is awarded a $20,576,632 modification to exercise an Option Year One contract line item number of a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N55236-25-D-0001) to support Southwest Regional Maintenance Center in sourcing and ordering maintenance material and parts, logistics, on-site material inventory management support, and material status reporting. The overall total contract value ceiling remains unchanged at $94,885,707. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and will be complete by May 2026. No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual task order level as contracting actions occur. This contract was not competitively procured via the System for Award Management; rather, through AbilityOne, a mandatory government source in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 8.002 (a) (2). Southwest Regional Maintenance Center, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Aviation Systems Engineering Co. Inc., Lexington Park, Maryland, is awarded a $17,740,956 firm-fixed price contract to train the German Navy in both maintenance functions and flight operations for the P-8A Poseidon aircraft to assist German P-8A squadrons in achieving European military airworthiness requirements for aircraft maintainer various rates; as well as teach maintenance practices for conventional weapon loading and fiber optic wiring, teach P-8A pilots and aircrew, support the German Navy in maintaining pilot and aircrew proficiency and completing Naval Air Training and Operating Procedure Standardization check rides as well as emergency procedure check rides for the German Navy. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, Florida (50%); Nordholz, Germany (40%); and Berlin, Germany (10%), and is expected to be complete by May 2030. Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $7,804,612 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract action was not competed. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001925C0113). Nagamine Okawa Engineers Inc.,* Honolulu, Hawaii, is awarded a $17,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity modification to previously awarded contract N62478-20-D-5038 for architect-engineer services. This award brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $47,000,000. The contract modification is for design and engineering services for various structural projects. Work will be performed at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii area of responsibility, including Hawaii (95%); and other South Pacific Islands (5%), with an expected completion date of December 2025. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Task orders will be primarily funded by operation and maintenance, Navy funds. Funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. NAVFAC Hawaii, Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62478-20-D-5038). Fukunaga & Associates Inc.,* Honolulu, Hawaii, is awarded a $12,000,000 firm-fixed price, indefinite delivery/indefinite-quantity modification to previously awarded contract N62478-20-D-5037 for architect-engineer services. This award brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $42,000,000. The contract modification is for design and engineering services for various utility projects. Work will be performed at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Hawaii area of responsibility, including Hawaii (95%); and other South Pacific Islands (5%), with an expected completion date of December 2025. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Task orders will be primarily funded by operation and maintenance, Navy funds. Funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. NAVFAC Hawaii, Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Hawaii, is the contracting activity (N62478-20-D-5037). UPDATE: Kemron Environmental Services Inc., Atlanta, Georgia (N69450-25-D-0039), has been added to the multiple-award contract for remedial actions at environmentally contaminated sites at Navy and Marine Corps installations and other government agencies. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity. MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, New York is being awarded a $34,914,959 modification (P00006) to a previously awarded contract (HQ0860-23-C-6000) to increase the base period scope and add two six-month option periods. The value of this contract is increased from $14,999,266 to $49,914,225 (including options). Under this modification, the contractor will define and conduct tests to collect anchoring data to benchmark/verify physics-based pulsed laser lethality modeling. Models, simulations, and lethality toolsets developed shall support analysis against a variety of Department of Defense threats and across ground, sea, air, and space domains. Upon government direction, models of relevant threats and threat support systems shall be combined with trajectories to inform a full continuity lethality and military utility picture. The work will be performed in Rochester, New York. The period of performance is from May 31, 2023, through May 30, 2028. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation; and Congressional Plus Up funding in the amount of $9,700,000, will be obligated on this modification; and an additional $2,375,000 fiscal 2025 Congressional Plus Up funding will be added in June 2025. The Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE M1 Composites Technology Inc., Quebec, Canada, was awarded a $34,283,857 firm-fixed-price, requirements contract for B-1 nose radomes new manufacturing and repair. This contract provides for new manufacturing of the B-1 nose radomes and repair service for existing B-1 nose radomes. Work will be performed in Quebec, Canada, and is expected to be completed by May 29, 2026. This contract was a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. No funds will be obligated at the time of award as funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The Air Force Sustainment Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8119-25-D-0003). ARMY Longbow LLC, Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $19,156,942 modification (P00018) to contract W52P1J-16-D-0055 for the LONGBOW Fire Control Radar. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2027. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. Leidos Inc., Reston, Virginia, was awarded an $8,480,647 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for an ammunition supply point and theater storage area. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Kuwait City, Kuwait, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2030. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $1,500,000.00 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W519TC-25-C-0029). U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND UPDATE: Avelo Airlines Inc, Houston, Texas (HTC71125DCC37), is the 25th awardee to an $873,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price, multiple award contract, originally awarded on Jan. 29, 2024, providing air charter transportation services for one-time domestic passenger, cargo, and combined movements at both military and commercial airfields. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/4200823/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China's buoy installation in complies with domestic and international laws, maintenance underway: FM Global Times By Global Times Published: May 29, 2025 10:08 PM In response to a question about China reportedly removing a buoy in the South China Sea, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday that China's installation of a meteorological observation buoy in waters east of Taiwan, which are under China's jurisdiction, is consistent with China's domestic laws and international law. It is learned that competent Chinese authorities are maintaining the buoy as needed by relevant work, Mao said. The buoy in question is claimed to be located in the exclusive economic zone to the south of Yonaguni Island of Okinawa by Kyodo News, one which Japan Coast Guard previously claimed that China had removed on Wednesday, according to Japanese news outlet the Mainichi. In December, the Japanese government reported spotting a new buoy south of Yonaguni Island, which lies approximately 100 kilometers from the island of Taiwan. However, in a Wednesday update on its website, the Japan Coast Guard described the buoy east of Taiwan as "nonexistent," the Mainichi reported. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 57 states that the exclusive economic zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles (370.4 kilometers) from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. According to the Mainichi report, the buoy located east of the island of Taiwan falls within this 200-nautical-mile range. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Defense Ministry responds to questions on Chinese military equipment in India-Pakistan conflict Global Times By Global Times Published: May 29, 2025 09:59 PM A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson has responded to questions regarding the performance of Chinese equipment in the recent India-Pakistan conflict and India's obtainment of an unexploded Chinese-made air-to-air missile. At a regular Thursday press briefing, spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang emphasized China's hope that both sides will remain calm and restrained to avoid further complicating the situation. When asked for the ministry's comment on the performance of Chinese equipment in the recent India-Pakistan conflict, and on the remarks by Indian military officials that "Pakistan received support from China's air defense and satellite systems, but the performance of these systems was below average," Zhang said on Thursday, "We would like to stress that India and Pakistan are neighbors that cannot be moved. We hope both sides will remain calm and restrained to avoid further complicating the situation." China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in maintaining regional peace and stability, he said. When responding to a question on whether it is true that India had obtained the powerful PL-15E beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile during the India-Pakistan conflict and whether this could lead to reverse engineering of related military technology, Zhang stated that the missile in question is an exported piece of equipment that has been displayed at multiple domestic and international defense exhibitions. Pakistan and India announced on May 10 that they had agreed on a ceasefire. The announcement came following four days of military strikes on each other, the Xinhua News Agency reported. "Pakistan has always strived for peace and security in the region, without compromising on its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said. Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that the two countries agreed to observe a ceasefire and end military actions on their borders and line of control, Xinhua said. "It was agreed between them that both sides would stop all firing and military action on land, in the air and sea with effect from 5 pm local time on May 10. Instructions have been given on both sides to give effect to this understanding," Misri said at a press briefing in New Delhi. On May 7, India launched airstrikes on Pakistani targets to avenge last month's killing of 26 people by gunmen in Pahalgam town, about 89 kilometers east of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, according to Xinhua. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran condemns Israeli airstrikes on Sana'a airport IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency May 29, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Iran has denounced the recent Israeli airstrikes on Sana'a International Airport as another sign of the regime's brutality and hostility towards the Muslim people of Yemen and the region. In a statement released late on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said that the military strike, which occurred during the Hajj season and aimed to disrupt the transfer of Yemeni pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, was a grave crime. He called on international organizations, particularly the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), to address the situation with urgency and seriousness. He said that the Israeli regime's ongoing attacks on Yemen's economic infrastructure and civilian facilities, including ports, airports, and food storage facilities, exemplify war crimes and crimes against humanity. Baqaei reiterated that the Israeli regime's barbaric enmity towards Muslim nations in West Asia indicates its inherent unfamiliarity with the regional people and proves the regime leaders' attempt to spread war and insecurity throughout the region and the world. He further reminded all countries of their moral and legal responsibility to counter the Israeli regime's crimes and violations in Palestine and the other regional countries. Baqaei warned that the Israeli regime's impunity in the wake of the United Nations Security Council's inaction and the massive support from the United States has had irreparable consequences for the system of norms based on the U.N. Charter and has unprecedentedly jeopardized international peace and security. According to Al Masirah TV, Israeli airstrikes targeted the Sana'a airport's runway four times on Wednesday, completely destroying Yemenia Airways' last operational civilian plane. This plane was intended to transport Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. The airport, Yemen's biggest, had just resumed operations last week after being damaged in previous strikes and was mainly servicing U.N. aircraft and Yemenia's lone remaining civilian plane, as three others had been wiped out in an earlier attack. 3266**4354 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Republic of Latvia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs 29.05.2025 The Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braze: "The Drone Summit is a major event for our entrepreneurs and for Latvia as a whole - we are among the industry's pioneers in drone development; we have been able to mobilise international funding for the advancement of drone technologies and to gain international recognition. This is an investment in our security and economy, while also contributing to practical military support for Ukraine. International investors also welcome the progress made so far in the defence sector, as evidenced by a study published this week by the Council of Foreign Investors in Latvia on the investment climate of the Baltic states. Its results indicate that the drone industry has a considerable potential in the Baltics, and what has been achieved so far is highly appreciated." Overall, from the investors' perspective, the defence sector should become a driving force for economic growth and investment in the Baltics, as well as further strengthening the development of innovation ecosystems. "It is interesting to note that, in the eyes of investors, the Baltic states underestimate themselves and are too modest about their achievements. However, we must take pride in our success, and the mindset must change - investors care about that as well," says Baiba Braze. The Drone Summit is held in Latvia for the first time, and against its backdrop, Foreign Minister Baiba Braze launched a drone start-up pitch: "Latvia has become an innovation hub with a dynamic start-up ecosystem. It is a great pleasure and honour to open today a competition for start-up innovation, with Latvian companies Origin Robotics and Submerge among the participants." Since its founding in February 2024, 18 countries have joined the Drone Coalition led by Latvia and the United Kingdom. "Belgium and Turkiye have also expressed an interest in joining the international Drone Coalition," Baiba Braze added. The total support of all coalition member states for Ukraine's drone capabilities reached 1.8 billion euros last year. In 2024, Latvia sent approximately 5,000 combat drones of various types and capabilities to Ukraine. 12,000 drones supplied by two Latvian companies are to be delivered in the first half of 2025. Latvia allocated 20 million euros for the needs of the Drone Coalition in 2024 and the same amount has been pledged this year. In May 2024, Foreign Minister Baiba Braze dedicated her first half-marathon run to aid Ukraine, calling for donations to purchase UAVs for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Within a year, the project has raised 167,546 euros. Lithuania and Japan expand defence cooperation Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence 2025-05-29 International cooperation | Security and defense policy Minister of National Defence Dovile Sakaliene met with Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani in Japan today in the first official visit of such level in ten past years and demonstration of growing strategic ties between the two countries. Ministers discussed efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation across principal areas while emphasizing the particular importance of a regular dialogue and coordinated actions for solving global security issues in the current geopolitical environment. "Japan is a strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific. We are bound together by shared democratic values and respect of the international law which forms a strong foundation for a sustained partnership. Even if we are located on the opposite sides of the world geographically, our view towards autocratic regimes and security cooperation turns us into close Allies," said Minister of National Defence D. Sakaliene. During her visit, Minister D. Sakaliene presented Lithuania's Indo-Pacific Strategy which lays out a long-term commitment to developing meaningful partnerships with countries of the region. Minister also accentuated that Lithuania had decided to join the Pacific Security Maritime Exchange (PSMX) format, a political operative structure in support of monitoring and execution of the UN sanctions against North Korea. Minister D. Sakaliene welcomed Japan's intent to join the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) initiative and thanked for Japan's decision to transfer to Ukraine USD 3 billion of frozen Russian assets interest. She also underscored the importance of Japan's active contribution in the Capability Coalition for Demining and praised the country's further support to the training activities in the framework. When discussing way forward, both Ministers agreed that the bilateral cooperation was consistently increasing and reiterated the commitment to further mutual effort across key areas, such as cyber security, strategic communication, and military exchange. The Ministers also look forward to the Lithuanian-Japan Defence Industry Forum during the Lithuanian President's visit to Japan in July. Sakaliene also met with Chair of the Committee on National Security Takashi Endo, former Minister of Defence Minoru Kihara and National Security Advisor Masataka Okano. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement of the DFA Spokesperson on the Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's Remarks Regarding Pag-asa Island and the Pag-asa Cays Republic of the Philippines - Department of Foreign Affairs MANILA 29 May 2025 -- The Department of Foreign Affairs rejects and refutes the recent statements of the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Manila regarding Pag-asa Island and the Pag-asa Cays, and the activities of Philippine authorities in the area. The fundamental fact is that Pag-asa Island and the Pag-asa Cays form part of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), which is an integral part of the Philippines over which it has longstanding sovereignty and jurisdiction. The Philippines is clearly within its rights to conduct routine maritime operations and scientific research in and around these features, and will continue to do so. The actions of Philippine authorities in the area are a valid exercise of Philippine sovereignty and consistent with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award, as well as the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). China has no right to object, much less interfere with these lawful and routine activities. We urge China to respect the Philippines' sovereignty and jurisdiction, even as we continue to pursue peaceful and legal means to manage differences and the situation at sea. END NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PH Navy: 'Atin Ito' convoy sails home after successful WPS mission Philippine News Agency By Priam Nepomuceno May 29, 2025, 5:43 pm MANILA -- The "Atin Ito" civilian mission is now sailing back to Manila after wrapping up a successful mission to Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), the Philippine Navy (PN) said Thursday. "The Navy will continue to monitor the situation and coordinate with relevant agencies to ensure the convoy's safe return to Manila by its expected arrival at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon on May 30, 2025," PN spokesperson for the WPS Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said in a message to reporters. As of Thursday afternoon, the Navy said the civilian convoy's main ship, T/S Kapitan Felix Oca, is "maintaining a steady course and speed" on its way back, with the Philippine Coast Guard's BRP Melchora Aquino (MRRV-9702) escorting it at a distance. Meanwhile, the China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 21549 was observed trailing at approximately 4.2 nautical miles off the starboard quarter of the T/S Kapitan Felix Oca. He added that the PN and the Armed Forces of the Philippines reiterated their full support to the group after completing its mission. "The Navy remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring the safety and security of the convoy throughout its journey in the WPS. It continues to monitor developments in the area, noting the routine presence of CCG and maritime militia vessels, but with no indication of imminent aggression or escalation. Western Naval Command remains vigilant, with contingency measures in place should the situation require further action," Trinidad said. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address DFA tells China: Pag-asa, Sandy Cay are part of PH Philippine News Agency By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora May 29, 2025, 4:47 pm MANILA -- The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday rebuked and rejected anew China's claims over the Spratlys, including the Sandy Cay or Pag-asa Cay 2 in the nearby Pag-asa Island. The statement comes after the Chinese Embassy in Manila on May 26 justified the recent water cannoning of two Filipino civilian vessels near the Sandy Cay, saying the feature "has always been China's territory." Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza urged China to respect the country's sovereignty and jurisdiction, saying Pag-asa Island and the surrounding cays are part of the Philippines. "The fundamental fact is that Pag-asa Island and the Pag-asa Cays form part of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), which is an integral part of the Philippines over which it has longstanding sovereignty and jurisdiction," she said. "The Philippines is clearly within its rights to conduct routine maritime operations and scientific research in and around these features, and will continue to do so." The actions of Philippine authorities in the area, she added, are a valid exercise of Manila's sovereignty and consistent with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award, as well as the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). "China has no right to object, much less interfere with these lawful and routine activities," she said. Amid these developments, Daza said the Philippines remains committed to seeking peaceful and legal means to manage differences and the situation at sea. On May 21, two Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessels BRP Datu Sanday and BRP Datu Pagbuaya were conducting a routine marine scientific research mission near Sandy Cay when they were shadowed, blocked, hit by water cannons, and sideswiped by CCG vessel 21559. The National Maritime Council described these as "unlawful interference" by China as it occurred within the territorial sea of the Philippines in the area of Pag-asa Island and Pag-asa Cay 2. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Army Signal Regiment told to beef up cyber defense capabilities Philippine News Agency By Priam Nepomuceno May 29, 2025, 11:22 am MANILA -- Philippine Army (PA) commander Lt. Gen. Roy Galido called on the Army Signal Regiment (ASR) to continue enhancing its capabilities to defend the country's cyberspace from all threats. Galido made the call during the ASR's 14th-anniversary celebration on Wednesday, PA spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala said in a news release. "Communication. Connectivity. Cybersecurity. These are the cornerstones of the ASR's unwavering commitment to the PA. Today, we recognize, not just the passage of 14 years, but the remarkable progress and invaluable contributions of the ASR to the operational effectiveness of our entire force," Galido said. With this era of rapid technological advancement and evolving cyber threats, the PA commander said the ASR has a major role in protecting and safeguarding the country's cyber domain. Galido earlier prioritized the deployment of secure, jamming, resilient, and redundant communications and cybersecurity systems as part of efforts to beef up the PA's communication security. "You (ASR) are at the forefront of our digital defense, safeguarding our networks, protecting critical information, and ensuring the integrity of our cyber domain," he said. He also lauded the ASR for its exceptional delivery of reliable signal services that are the critical backbone of military operations. Galido said these communications capabilities provide commanders with essential command and control functions while ensuring comprehensive situational awareness across the battlefield. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni forces fire hypersonic missile at Ben Gurion Airport Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 9:10 PM The Yemeni armed forces have carried out another anti-Israel operation, targeting the regime's Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic missile in response to the ongoing aggression against Palestinians in Gaza. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for Yemen's military, on Thursday reaffirmed that Yemen will continue to fulfill its religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the people of Palestine until the Israeli aggression ends and the siege of Gaza is lifted. He also pledged that Yemen's Armed Forces will respond to any Israeli attacks on the country with retaliatory operations, including the continued ban on the regime's air traffic to and from Ben Gurion Airport. Yemen has imposed a strategic blockade on Israel's vital air and sea routes to obstruct the delivery of military supplies to the regime over its genocidal war on Gaza. Saree added that the Yemeni Armed Forces will continue to conduct their retaliatory operations against the Zionist entity deep inside the occupied Palestinian territories at an escalating pace. He emphasized that Yemeni forces will not abandon their retaliatory operations in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until the ongoing aggression ends and the tight blockade is completely lifted. As the genocidal war on Gaza escalated, the Yemenis enforced a strategic blockade on essential maritime routes, intending 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 not stop their assaults unless Israel ceases its ground and aerial offensives in Gaza. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Study suggests NATO rearmament could increase annual emissions by 200mn tonnes Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 7:31 PM A new study has found that global military buildup by countries poses a serious risk to the climate, citing the rearmament planned by NATO alone, possibly adding almost 200 million tonnes a year to greenhouse gas emissions. The study, cited by The Guardian, found that planned renovation of the military forces by countries around the world created an existential threat to climate goals. It said that with world countries embroiled in the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II, countries have embarked on military spending sprees to rearm their military with new weapons, collectively totaling a record $2.46 trillion in 2023. The United States, which has been the world's biggest military spender for decades, has asked its NATO allies in Europe to increase their military spending, as well. The so-called superpower and its allies invest in their military to keep the upper hand. "There is a real concern around the way that we are prioritizing short-term security and sacrificing long-term security," Ellie Kinney, a researcher with the Conflict and Environment Observatory and a co-author of the study, told The Guardian. "Because of this kind of lack-of-informed approach that we're taking, you're investing in hard military security now, increasing global emissions for that reason, and worsening the climate crisis further down the line." The study pointed out that few governments around the world are transparent about the scale of their fossil fuel use. However, researchers have estimated that the world's military forces collectively are already causing 5.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Across the globe, militarization has been on the rise in 108 countries in 2023, according to the Global Peace Index. Ninety-two countries across the globe have been involved in armed conflict. With the situation deteriorating in the regions across the globe, the rate of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by increased militarization is expected to rise with it World Conflict Zones include the wars in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which all have a high potential of spreading to neighboring countries in the region, as tensions remain high between China and the US over Chinese Taipei, and between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Despite the climate risks, smaller countries are forced to invest in their military to overcome any advantages that adversaries may seek from them, to be able to defend themselves against a possible invasion by arrogant global powers, and to enable their military to counter existential foreign threats. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zionist regime hell-bent on decimating Palestinian children in Gaza, says Houthi Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 6:37 PM The leader of Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement has vehemently denounced the ongoing Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, saying the regime is "hell-bent" on decimating children and minors there. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi made the remarks in a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana'a on Thursday, stating that thousands of children in Gaza face imminent death by starvation amid Israel's total blockade. "The primary goal of such Israeli actions is to forcibly displace the Palestinian population and completely occupy the Gaza Strip. The Israeli enemy has continued to perpetrate genocide in the Gaza Strip for the past 20 months. When looking at the tragedies of the Palestinian people, we realize that such plights have continued for a very long time, for the past 77 years. "We should not simply take just one week of the grief and suffering of Palestinians into account. The massacre of nine children of a Gazan doctor represents just one of the recurring tragedies against Palestinians," the Ansarullah chief said. Houthi stated that Israel deliberately targets refugees in the late hours of the night, just as they intentionally strikes children. "The Zionist mentality has a problem with the very existence of Palestinians in their own land. It is trying to get rid of the people," he noted. Houthi highlighted that thousands of children are at risk of dying from hunger in the Gaza Strip, dismissing Israel's new aid distribution system in the region as "deceptive and theatrical," aimed at engineering starvation there. Elsewhere in his remarks, the Ansarullah leader slammed escalating Israeli acts of aggression in the West Bank, including assassinations, abductions and destruction of private properties. "Zionists continue to break into the homes of Palestinian families, set fire to their residences and agricultural produce." Houthi said Israel's occupation of the eastern sector of al-Quds following the 1967 Six-Day War marks the worst incident for the Muslim world, stressing that the Israeli enemy does not hide its goal of destroying the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. "This is an explicit goal, and the measures related to its realization are clear and obvious. The goal of the daily aggressions of the Israeli enemy is also to give the al-Aqsa Mosque a Jewish nature and destroy its Muslim identity," he said. He said excavations at the foot of al-Aqsa Mosque are being carried out with the intent of destroying the sacred site, stating that the number of tunnels under the compound and its surroundings has reached 27. "The Zionist enemy is trying to crumble al-Aqsa Mosque." Houthi said the Yemeni Armed Forces have carried out at least 14 operations this week against strategic positions deep inside the Israeli-occupied territories, employing hypersonic and ballistic missiles as well as drones. "We targeted the Israeli enemy's targets in Jaffa (Tel Aviv), Haifa, Ashkelon and Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) in occupied Palestinian lands. The Red Sea remains shut and Israeli naval navigation is still prohibited. A large percentage of the ships carrying Israeli goods in the Red Sea belongs to five Arab and Muslim countries," the Ansarullah leader said. Houthi underlined that Israeli acts of aggression will never stop Yemeni operations in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, calling upon all walks of the Yemeni society to participate in Friday's mass demonstrations in support of al-Aqsa Mosque, Islamic sanctities, and oppressed Palestinians. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 22 new settlements: Israel announces biggest expansion in West Bank Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 5:14 PM Far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law. "We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel," Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the occupied West Bank. Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz said the expansion plan "changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come." In a statement on Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a "once-in-a-generation decision", saying the initiative had been led by Smotrich and Katz. The party published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel's settlement expansion in the occupied territories in several resolutions. Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital. Hamas condemnation Hamas condemned the move as "further confirmation that the criminal Zionist occupation continues to impose facts on the ground by accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project". "This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions," the Palestinian group said in a statement. "We call on the international community to take practical measures to confront the policies of annexation and settlement expansion, which constitute a war crime," the Gaza-based movement noted. For its part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement denounced it as part of a colonial scheme to completely annex the West Bank, displace the Palestinian residents, and fulfill Talmudic dreams by imposing an apartheid regime and committing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. The movement also pointed to the international community's inability to stop the carnage in Gaza and even deliver humanitarian aid. "These actions represent a sharp slap in the face to anyone who is still committed to the reconciliation process or international pressure," it said. "The only effective option to confront these plans is resistance, especially armed resistance, because defending the land, rights, and sanctities is a legitimate and necessary right for the Palestinian people." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Scores of Gazans killed in Israeli strikes amid US-backed aid 'mockery' Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 3:07 PM More than five dozen Palestinians have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip as the regime presses ahead with its brutal military campaign across the besieged Palestinian region. Palestinian Ministry of Health said Thursday that 67 bodies and 184 injured people had arrived at Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours. Gaza's Civil Defense Agency said new Israeli strikes and artillery attacks had killed at least 44 people since early hours of the morning. "Forty-four people have been killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip," civil defense official Mohammad al-Mughayyir was quoting as saying . He said that the death toll includes 23 people in a strike on a home in the center of the besieged Palestinian territory. "Twenty-three people were killed, others injured and several (are) missing following an Israeli strike on the Qreinawi family's home east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza." A footage from al-Bureij showed Palestinians searching through the rubble of a destroyed building. Mughayyir also reported "two people killed and several injured by Israeli forces' gunfire this morning near the American aid center in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip." Meanwhile, the Gaza Journalists Syndicate said that Palestinian journalist Moataz Raja was "assassinated" by the Israeli army while covering its war on Gaza. The syndicate said that an Israeli strike targeted Raja's vehicle on al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City, killing him instantly. Israeli attacks have killed at least 221 journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said two Palestinians died while storming a warehouse for food in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah. Gaza's Government Media Office said Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded 62 others in two days, after they rushed to get aid from a distribution center under a US and Israeli mechanism. Analysts, activists, and aid agencies have described the US-Israeli plan for aid relief in Gaza as a "mockery" of humanitarian law. International aid agencies have already warned that Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, including the US-backed proposal, will only add to the suffering in the devastated Palestinian territory. Israel's far-right ruling coalition, led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has embraced Donald Trump's proposals on Gaza to displace Palestinians permanently outside the territory and turn it into a seaside real-estate development. During a recent tour of some Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the US president described aerial images of the widespread destruction from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. "There's practically no building standing. It's not like you're trying to save something," he said. Despite global outcry to end the "genocidal" assault on the people of Gaza, the Israeli regime recently approved a plan that could lead to the capture of the "entire Gaza Strip." Arab states have rejected the plan, and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has called it ethnic cleansing. Most Gazans have been displaced at least once during 19 months of war between Israel and Hamas. Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza on March 2, before resuming its campaign of genocide on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week ceasefire collapsed. The Israeli army has killed 3,986 Palestinians and wounded 11,451 others since violating the ceasefire agreement on March 18. At least 54,249 Palestinians have been killed and 123,492 wounded since the start of Israel's war on Gaza. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chile withdraws three military attaches from Israel over humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 7:25 AM Chile has announced the withdrawal of three military attaches serving at the Latin American country's embassy in Tel Aviv, citing the humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. In a statement released on Wednesday, the Chilean Foreign Ministry said that the decision, which had been coordinated with the Defense Ministry, was conveyed to Israeli authorities. It added that the withdrawal of Chilean military attaches from Tel Aviv is due to "the extremely serious humanitarian situation currently experienced by the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip." It also cited "the disproportionate and indiscriminate military operation by the Israeli army," as well as "constant obstacles to allowing aid" into the besieged Palestinian territory. Palestine hails Chile's 'courageous' decision The Palestinian Presidency praised Chile's "significant and courageous" decision, saying it reflects global condemnation of ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestinians. It further called for serious international measures aimed at compelling the occupying entity to cease its bloody onslaught on Gaza and violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds. "Such actions must also ensure compliance with international legitimacy resolutions and international law, which unequivocally prohibit genocide and the killing of Palestinians in the occupied territory, incursions into ... [their] cities .., land theft..., and assaults on Islamic and Christian holy sites," it noted. Chile's move marks the latest escalation in relations between Santiago and Tel Aviv. The Latin American country has joined South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the regime's brutal aggression on Gaza. Israel waged its genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime's intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people. So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 54,084 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 123,308 others, in the besieged territory. In addition to targeting Gaza's civilian infrastructure, Israel has been deliberately blocking the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory and using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. Spain vows to speak out against Israel's war on Gaza In another development on Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country will keep raising its voice against Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. "One year after recognizing the State of Palestine, the pain in Gaza is unbearable. Spain will continue to raise its voicelouder than everto put an end to the massacre the world is witnessing today," he wrote in an X post. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Joint Statement by Slovenia and the Kingdom of Spain on the anniversary of Palestine's recognition Republic of Slovenia - Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia 29. 5. 2025 At the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, Prime Minister Robert Golob visited Madrid today. On the occasion of the anniversary of Palestine's recognition, Prime Minister Golob and Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez issued a joint statement, in which they called, among other things, for an immediate end to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the respect for international law, and urged Prime Minister Netanyahu's government to stop the massacre in Gaza. The meeting in Madrid serves as preparation for two upcoming leaders' summits in June: the NATO summit in The Hague and the European Council summit in Brussels. Slovenia and Spain are friendly and like-minded Mediterranean countries, both EU Member States and NATO members, which have recently been cooperating more closely, particularly on European security and defence issues, as well as on the situation in the Middle East, with a focus on Gaza. Before the meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister, Prime Minister Golob signed the guestbook upon his arrival at the Palace of Moncloa. "I reflect with deep gratitude on the strong friendship between our two nations. We are committed to shared values and a strong dedication to democratic principles, peace, and prosperity in Europe and around the world," wrote Prime Minister Golob, adding that he looks forward to further cooperation with Prime Minister Sanchez and to strengthening their partnership. Following the official reception, the two leaders held a one-on-one meeting and then gave a joint press statement. In the press statement, Prime Minister Golob began by thanking his Spanish friend, Prime Minister Sanchez, for his hospitality and warm welcome, expressing respect for his leadership. "I am pleased that Spain has a Prime Minister who never forgets to care for his fellow citizens, while also recognizing that his responsibility extends to the European family and the global community," said Prime Minister Golob. "It is precisely by uniting people who believe in fundamental civilizational values and uphold these values in the toughest times that humanity has a bright future," he added, highlighting the active role of the Spanish Prime Minister in efforts to end the war and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. "Today the Prime Minister of Spain and I signed a special statement marking the first anniversary of the recognition of Palestine," said Prime Minister Golob. "In this statement, we wish to reaffirm that international law, humanitarian law, and human rights must always come first. Therefore, we advocate for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and above all, an immediate increase in humanitarian aid," the Prime Minister stated clearly, expressing hope that the upcoming meetings will finally bring some relief to the civilian population in Gaza. "We are working to get as many like-minded countries as possible to join us," added Prime Minister Golob. Prime Minister Golob further expressed support for the Spanish Prime Minister's views on European security and defence. "With Prime Minister Sanchez, a path has opened within the European Union that the rest of us are also following. That path involves shifting discussions about security away from just weapons purchases," he said. "Security is not just about purchasing weapons; it is something much broader. By broadening the concept of security to include building the resilience of society as a whole, which involves both a positive foreign policy and strengthening the social cohesion of the country, we will be able to make countries, and thus Europe, more secure," stressed Prime Minister Golob. In closing, Prime Minister Golob reaffirmed his respect for the Spanish Prime Minister and stressed the importance of good bilateral relations and shared values in building a better future. Prime Minister Sanchez thanked Prime Minister Golob for the excellent relations and alliance between the two countries in terms of their common membership of NATO, the European Union and MED9, where the two countries share values, interests, and goals. Prime Minister Sanchez also highlighted Slovenia's role in the international community. "Slovenia will chair the MED9 summit in October and the United Nations Security Council in December. I cannot think of a better country to pass the Security Council leadership to than Slovenia, as it will conclude its two-year term as a non-permanent member of this important institution. I believe your leadership will be crucial in promoting peace where conflicts persist." Prime Minister Sanchez went on to emphasise that the two countries share views on resolving the catastrophic situation in Gaza. "Both countries support the two-state solution as the only viable solution," he said, adding that today's talks also touched on the war in Ukraine, where, in accordance with international law, both countries support the Ukrainian people, who are being attacked by a third force - in this case, Russia. Prime Minister Sanchez also expressed special recognition to Slovenia for its support in the enlargement of the European Union, particularly regarding the Western Balkans. "Our two countries know from their own experience what it means to join Europe. From historical experience, Spain and Slovenia share a vision of a strong, closely connected union and strongly support the efficiency of its institutions," said Prime Minister Sanchez. He thanked Prime Minister Golob for his trust and support in recent years, adding that he looks forward to continued cooperation and contribution to shared agendas. During the official visit of Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez to Slovenia in 2023, he and Prime Minister Golob discussed key European and international issues: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, enhancing the competitiveness of the European economy, challenges in the energy sector, a unified European response to migration, and EU enlargement policy with a focus on the Western Balkans. A year later, during Prime Minister Sanchez's repeat visit to Slovenia, the discussions focused on the situation in the Middle East, especially the war in Gaza. The two prime ministers also touched on the issue of recognition of Palestine. At a joint press conference, Prime Minister Golob emphasised that by sharing similar views with his Spanish counterpart, they feel a common responsibility. "We are aware of our responsibility towards the people of Gaza. We are united in the belief that we cannot watch these events unfold sitting on our hands," said Prime Minister Golob. On this occasion, Prime Minister Sanchez thanked the Slovenian Government for its responsible stance and efforts in seeking solutions to the war in Gaza and the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe there. Let us recall that the prime ministers of Ireland, Malta, and Spain had already signed a special statement in March 2024, on the margin of a special European Council meeting, in which they agreed on the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages, and a rapid, large-scale, and lasting increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza. In March 2025, on the margins of another special European Council meeting, Prime Minister Golob also spoke with the Spanish Prime Minister about strengthening European defence and security. He emphasised that consultations with Prime Minister Sanchez contributed to a broader understanding of the concept of security. They agreed that defence issues must be addressed comprehensively, with a vision of building a more resilient and secure Europe. In May 2025, on the margins of the European Political Community meeting in Tirana, the two leaders also attended a gathering of like-minded European leaders concerning the situation in the Middle East, with a focus on Gaza. Prime Minister Golob joined a resolute call by the leaders of Spain, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Malta, emphasising that we must not remain silent in the face of a man-made humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes in Gaza. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hamas, Israel Agree to 60-Day Truce in Gaza Strip - Reports Sputnik News 20250529 CAIRO (Sputnik) - Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel have agreed to a 60-day truce in the Gaza Strip, the Al Arabiya broadcaster reported on Thursday, citing sources. Earlier in the day, Hamas said that it had received a new proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip from Witkoff through mediators. Israeli broadcaster Kan reported, citing sources, that Israel agreed with Witkoff's new proposal, but Hamas was not happy with the new plan because it did not include guarantees for a permanent end to the war and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the enclave. US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff was notified that the sides had agreed to a ceasefire, the report said. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel Accepts New US Ceasefire Proposal for Gaza - Reports Sputnik News 20250529 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, according to local media reports. Having informed the families of the surviving Israeli hostages of this development, Netanyahu claimed that Israel is ready to go ahead with the deal. Hamas, in the meantime, is less enthusiastic about the new US proposal, pointing out that it does not guarantee that this temporary ceasefire would translate into a permanent one. Details of the Deal Witkoff's proposal entails a 60-day ceasefire, during which 10 Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 more hostages will be handed over to the Israeli side. Humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza are expected to resume as soon as Hamas agrees to this ceasefire plan, with the distribution to be handled by the United Nations and the Red Crescent. As soon as the ceasefire begins, negotiations for a permanent truce are expected to kick off. On the 10thday of the ceasefire, Hamas is supposed to provide information on all the Israeli hostages it still holds. Once the ceasefire comes into effect, all of Israel's military actions in the region are to be documented to ensure transparency and international monitoring. The United States, Egypt and Qatar are going to serve as guarantors of this ceasefire deal that may be extended after the first 60-day truce expires. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary Rubio's Meeting with North Macedonia Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Mucunski US Department of State Readout Office of the Spokesperson May 29, 2025 The below is attributable to Spokesperson Tammy Bruce: Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with North Macedonia Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timco Mucunski today. The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and North Macedonia and highlighted mutual interests in regional stability, economic cooperation, and NATO. They explored opportunities to expand economic collaboration, including trade and investment. The Secretary emphasized the need for NATO Allies to support and achieve five percent defense spending. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Report of the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo: UK statement, May 2025 Ambassador Holland welcomes new Head of OSCE Mission in Kosovo Gerard McGurk to the Permanent Council, underlining continued support for the work of the Mission amid the difficult political and security context in the last six months. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Neil Holland Published 29 May 2025 Location: Vienna Delivered on: 29 May 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you, Mr Chair. Firstly, I would like to welcome Ambassador McGurk - dear Gerard - to the Permanent Council for the first time as Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. Thank you for your informative presentation on the Mission's recent work, so soon after your arrival, and to your team for the comprehensive written report. The United Kingdom welcomes the peaceful and competitive parliamentary elections held in Kosovo in February, and the important support provided to the Central Election Commission by the Mission. We continue to underline to Kosovo interlocutors the urgency of government formation. Mr Chair, the United Kingdom shares the concerns highlighted in the Mission report on the level of tensions in the four northern municipalities during the reporting period. We are particularly concerned by the uncoordinated nature of closures of institutions and facilities in northern Kosovo which provide vital services to Kosovo-Serbs and other non-majority communities. The UK will continue to encourage the Government of Kosovo to ensure that non-majority communities can play a full and equal role in the country's future, and to uphold Kosovo's commitments as an inclusive and multi-ethnic state. The UK also underlines the importance of ensuring justice and accountability for all acts of violence. We continue to call on Serbia to cooperate fully with efforts to hold to account those responsible for the 2023 attacks on KFOR troops and in Banjska, and to fulfil its pledge to cooperate in the investigation of the attack on the Ibar-Lepenc Canal. We urge both Kosovo and Serbia to engage constructively in the EU-facilitated Dialogue and to deliver on their respective obligations, including establishing an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities. It is vital that Kosovo and Serbia abide by their commitments and not renege on Dialogue agreements. Failing to meet these commitments has negative implications for the daily lives of ordinary citizens and for wider stability in the Western Balkans. The UK commends the work of the OSCE Mission during the last six months across the three core pillars of its mandate. We particularly appreciate the Mission's focus on electoral support, and continued prioritisation of monitoring and early warning functions. We also value the Mission's support on human rights and inter-community relations, including on interfaith dialogue and assistance to the Kosovo-Serb community in language and documentation. We welcome ongoing efforts to address challenges to the right to freedom of religion or belief and the preservation of cultural heritage. While we recognise Kosovo's progress in tackling corruption and its improved score in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index, we note with concern the issues highlighted in the World Press Freedom Index on the protection and independence of journalists. We share the concerns highlighted in the Report over political influence in media institutions, and welcome the Mission's planned activity to advance media freedom and journalist safety. Mr Chair, the United Kingdom is a longstanding and strong supporter of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state. During his visit to Kosovo in early April, my Foreign Secretary reaffirmed the UK's commitment to supporting Kosovo's Euro-Atlantic aspirations and its development of an inclusive, diverse and multi-ethnic democracy. The UK will continue to support stability, security and economic cooperation in the Western Balkans, including through the work of our Special Envoy, Dame Karen Pierce, and hosting the Berlin Process Summit in London this autumn. Finally, I wanted to again thank you, dear Gerard, for taking on the leadership of the Mission at this critical time. We highly appreciate the continued hard work and expertise of your team, and wish you every success during your time in the role. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At the Heart of Atlantic Fleet Training: TSVRON 4 US Navy 29 May 2025 NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. -- When you combine mission focus, teamwork, technical expertise, and creativity, the results are remarkable if not predictable. Training Support Vessel Squadron (TSVRON) 4 is no exception. The 70-person team comprised of four training support vessels operating under the umbrella of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 4 is one of the most visible and impactful organizations on Atlantic coast. However, very few know the remarkable story or the team of veterans and civilian mariners that bring it to life. "TSVRON 4 is a tremendous asset for our warfighters," said Rear Adm. Max "Pepper" McCoy, commander, Carrier Strike Group 4. "These ships provide a wide range of capabilities that enable the right balance of Live-Virtual-Constructive training in a complex, integrated at-sea environment for our naval and joint forces plus partners and allies." TSVRON 4's training mission includes exercise mine-laying and recovery, maritime interdiction operations training, and live-fire event support. They also team with Naval Air Systems Command's Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations (ATMO) to deliver targets, and to expand Fleet opportunities for unmanned systems training and Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training. "Our TSVRON team is comprised of 100 percent civilian personnel who are passionate, mission-focused and dedicated to ensuring our warfighters receive the best training opportunities available. They are our greatest asset," said Gil Birklund, the executive director of CSG-4 who oversees TSVRON 4 operations and maintenance. "Like many organizations, balancing limited resources and maintenance for ships to meet an ever-increasing demand signal for training is difficult. However, our people are the professional difference makers who work through them to meet training objectives safely every day." So how did a single boat from U.S. Fleet Forces Command and Carrier Group 4, a predecessor to Strike Force Training Atlantic now CSG-4, become a multi-platform squadron that provides training opportunities to the Fleet from basic through integrated phase? Theirs is a story of teamwork and innovation focused on achieving the mission with a steady eye on emerging Fleet training demands. From the delivery of a Mobile Sea Range Program decades before, TSVRON delivers expanded training capability and readiness to the Navy and Marine Corps team today. - Humble Beginnings & Steady Progress - "At that time they [Cmdr. Mike Hull, Fleet Forces N7 staff, and Capt. Mark Noll, CARGRU 4 N7] sat down and said, let's put this together. So they spoke with Rear Adm. Lindell Rutherford [then-Commander, CARGRU 4] and his successor to help arrange to get the Prevail - a surplus T-AGOS 8 asset that was being made ready for disposal," said Wayne Gittelman, TSVRON 4 Program Manager. "They got the Prevail and took it to Colonnas Shipyard under a SUP SHIP [Supervisor of Shipbuilding] contract and decided to build it out with all kinds of electronic components on it to make the range work." To make early strides in what became the Mobile Sea Range Program, CARGRU 4 intervened to divert then-CWO3 Gittelman from his orders to CARGRU 8 to bring him onto their team. Since retiring from service in uniform, Gittelman continue to serve as the Mobile Sea Range Program Manager. After arriving at CARGRU 4, CWO3 Gittelman and team quickly learned that having a boat in the shipyard was vastly different than having personnel with the experience and expertise to fully realize the concept. In 2005, Fleet Forces Command formally directed Strike Force Training Atlantic (SFTL), the successor to Carrier Group 4, to establish the Mobile Sea Range Program. To do this they brought together all of the training support vessels (TSV) then-operated by Norfolk Naval Shipyard and NAVAIR under one unique team. Beginning with Prevail (TSV 1), the program grew in capacity to four ships - Prevail, Hugo (TSV 2), Hunter (TSV 3), and Narragansett (TSV 4). TSVs are formidable multi-role, multi-mission platforms. Based on each TSV's original specifications, they developed unique capabilities used to meet training requirements. Their versatility is what makes them uniquely suited to support training throughout the East Coast's Fleet Response Training Plan (FRTP), from basic phase training through high-end warfighting. For example, TSVs provide effective support for basic phase training events, Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC) live-fire events, HSC Weapons School training, exercises in support of II Marine Expeditionary Force's Expeditionary Operations Training Group (EOTG), as well as high-end fight training exercises such as Amphibious Ready Group / Marine Expeditionary Unit Exercises (ARGMEUEX), Group Sails, and Carrier Strike Group Composite Training Unit Exercises (COMPTUEX), the Joint Force's most complex training event. "While we are fundamentally part of CSG-4 and support integrated phase training events, the reality is that nearly fifty percent of the work our team does is outside of CSG-4 exercises," said Gittelman. "The FFAECC [Fleet Forces Atlantic Exercise Coordination Center] prioritizes our schedule, and that's a good thing. We have a significant demand signal for training support that exceeds capacity, and having Fleet prioritization is important." In 2015, the Mobile Sea Range Program was renamed to its name today - Training Support Vessel Squadron (TSVRON) 4. A Winning Team - TSVRON 4 and ATMO A key element of TSVRON 4's success and ability to adapt to emerging requirements is its enduring relationship with NAVAIR's ATMO team. Both bring unique capabilities on the foundation of a mission-focused culture. An outside observer would not be able to point out ATMO or TSV mariners supporting a common mission. "While it rarely happens within our day-to-day operations, I often have to remind people who aren't familiar with the history of our work with ATMO that we aren't in each other's chain of command," said Gittelman. "Our relationship is just that - an important, mutually beneficial partnership that supports Fleet training and force generation." ATMO supports Fleet training with TSVRON 4 in many ways. For example, they support each of CSG-4's Force Protection exercises on the East Coast. In these events, ATMO small boat operations deliver multiple presentations to shipboard teams that drive the ship's force protection team to practice their pre-planned responses and activate defense countermeasures. During many of CSG-4's COMPTUEXs, ATMO provides service from the TSVs, as well as on land-based detachments. Just a few of the events ATMO directly supports in COMPTUEX include strait transits, counter-piracy training, live fire gunnery exercises, and unmanned surface vessel operations. ATMO also supports multiple helicopter squadron training events from the TSV within exercises including crew-served weapons training, as well as the use of guided and unguided missiles at stationery targets or unmanned high-speed maneuvering surface targets (HSMST) towing a target. - A Steady Eye Toward the Future - In 2024, Vindicator (TSV 5) became the latest addition to the TSVRON 4 team, replacing Hugo (TSV 2). The addition of Vindicator brought with it enhanced capabilities such as endurance, a larger mission deck to hold more HSMSTs, capability to support Helicopter Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (HVBSS) operations, dynamic positioning capability, portable accommodations for larger detachments, and increased on-station time. "Our job here at TSVRON 4 isn't to dictate what the customer wants," said Gittelman. "Since day one, our job was to take leadership demand signal for Fleet training requirements - the what - and to figure out the how. The amazing part about our team is the number of people we have that can figure just about anything out if they have the time and resources - it's core to the culture that we've built here over time." It didn't take long to take advantage of Vindicator's new capabilities. She completed support to her first HVBSS training mission during the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) (Special Operations Capable) ARGMEU Exercise on May 18, 2025. "I think the future of the TSVs is with larger vessels like the Vindicator which provide greater capability and capacity," said Michael Schoeller, master of Vindicator and former master of Narragansett (TSV 4), whose desire to drive ships steered him toward TSVRON 4 in 2018. Schoeller has a background in oceanography and marine research as a master of vessels from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, and before that, he wore a Navy uniform as a Quartermaster, Boatswain's Mate, and a Signalman. TSVRON 4 will continue to deliver increased readiness and warfighting capability to the fleet, while rapidly innovating to meet numbered fleet commander requirements. And while TSVRON's decades of service to the Fleet are often seen and heard if not recognized, many on the team are happy to keep it that way. "For me it's all about the people we have within our team. We don't have PRDs (rotation dates), and our team has a tendency to make a career out of being here. We lose more people from getting older and not being able to get out to sea for stretches of time as much as we do anything else. We're the unknown asset that everybody knows - and that's not a bad thing," said Gittelman. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russo-Ukraine War - 30 May 2025 - Day 1192 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 UK Ministry of Defence reported that over three consecutive nights, 23-26 May 2025, Russia conducted three of its largest-scale One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Systems (OWA UAS) attacks against Ukraine since the start of the war. The OWA UAS strikes were part of a wider multi-axis, multi-weapon strike package, particularly targeting Kyiv. Over 900 OWA UAS were fired at Ukraine over the three-day period. Russian Long Range Aviation (LRA) bombers were involved on back-to-back nights on 25 and 26 May 2025. These two overnight strikes are the first instance of Russia utilising LRA including Tu-95 BEAR-H aircraft on consecutive days since August 2024. Russia's most recent combined strike package utilising LRA prior to 24-25 May 2025 was on 24 April 2025. Russia's post-strike rebuilding of its stockpile enables LRA to sit ready to conduct strikes such as these with little to no notice, at a time of Russia's choosing. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that since the beginning of this day, there have been 149 combat clashes. That day, the Russian invaders made one rocket and 68 aviation strikes using two rockets and 107 cab. In addition, the Russians have engaged 1384 kamikaze drones and carried out 4355 shelling at the positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements. In the Kharkiv direction, Ukrainian troops stopped four Russian attacks near vovchans ka, starica and kamaanka. In the Kupyansky direction, the Russian opponent carried out seven offensive actions on the positions of Ukrainian defenders in the areas of Kindrashivka, Stepova Novoselivka, Kolisnikivka, Zagrizovy, Green Grove and in the direction of Pishany. Ukrainian defenders stopped four Russian attacks, three more combat is still ongoing. In the Lyman direction during the day Russian zombies 24 times attacked the positions of Ukrainians near the settlements of Grekivka, Kopanka, Ridkodub, Green Valley, Torske and in the direction of the New Peace, Olgivka, Karpivka. So far, four more clashes remain unfinished. In the sivers komu direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled 11 Russian attacks towards grigorivka, ivano-darivka and verkhnyokamans kogo. Six clashes are ongoing so far. In the Kramators komu direction, one battle has been recorded. Zagarbnyk tried to advance in the area of Time Yar. In the Toretsky direction Russians seven times attacked the positions of Defense Forces. The main efforts of the invasion of the occupiers were concentrated in the area of Toretsk and in the directions of Diliyivka and Yablunivka. There are currently four clashes in progress. In the Pokrovsky direction, Russian Zagarbnytskyi units 38 times tried to break through Ukrainian defense in the areas of settlements Zorya, Rusin Yar, Poltavka, Shevchenko the First, Mirolubivka, Zvirove, Malinivka, Elizabeth, Lisivka, Novosergiyivka, Udacne, Andriyivka, Muravka, Kotlyarivka and Oleksiyivka. Three clashes are ongoing so far. Stepanivka, Oleksandro-Kalinove, Zorya, Yablunivka, Volodymyrivka, Nikanorivka, Poltavka, Kopteeve, Novotoretske, Druzhkivka, Dovga Balka, Gorikhove, Oleksiyivka. Today in this direction Ukrainian warriors zneskodili 160 Russian occupiers, 85 of them - irrevocably. Also destroyed 13 cars, five motorcycles, one mortar, 15 BPLAs and one combat-armored vehicle. In addition, the Russian invaders' howling and motorcycle were damaged. In the Novopavli direction, Russian forces 21 times attacked near the settlements of Konstantinopil, Bagatir, Odradne, Shevchenko, Novopil, Novosilka, Green Field. Ukrainian defenders have successfully stopped 16 attacks, with five more fighting still ongoing. Air strikes by unkekorovka and Olgivsk were hit by the areas of populated areas of Novodarivka and Olgivs ke. In the direction of Gulyaipil, Russian forces caused aviation strikes on Poltavka and Zaliznychny unkemptami; on the upper ters, valley and gulyaipol - air bombs. The Russian enemy did not carry out offensive actions. Four times Russian forces attacked in the Orihiv direction, the occupiers tried to advance in the direction of Novodanilivka and in the Stepovoye area. So far, one fight is going on. In the Pridniprovsky direction, Russian forces carried out four unsuccessful attacks, in addition, unkekorovani missiles hit Nikolaivka. In the Kursk direction, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine within a day repelled 28 attacks of Russian zagarbnikiv, two clashes are still ongoing. In other directions, the situation has not changed significantly. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also reported that NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Louisiana Guard Rehearses Emergency Plans for Hurricane Season By Capt. Peter Drasutis, Louisiana National Guard May 28, 2025 NEW ORLEANS -- The Louisiana National Guard conducted its annual Hurricane Rehearsal of Concept (ROC) Drill at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Baton Rouge May 21, uniting key personnel across multiple commands to refine emergency response plans ahead of the 2025 hurricane season. The ROC Drill brings together leaders and planners from across the Louisiana Guard, including its top commands, major units and the Unit Logistics Element (ULE), which coordinates emergency supply and distribution efforts during disasters. Participants worked side by side to refine their roles, review emergency procedures and identify gaps in capabilities across the Guard's hurricane response plans. "This is the capstone event in our year-long planning cycle for hurricane season," said Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of Louisiana. "This isn't a war game. It's about refining real plans, identifying gaps and ensuring we're ready to act when the time comes." As part of the lead-up to the ROC Drill, planners conducted an Initial Planning Meeting and an In-Progress Review to ensure seamless execution of the event. The drill included four operational turns that walked participants through a realistic scenario based on a major storm's landfall and the immediate response phase. "This rehearsal gives our command group the confidence that every unit has done the work. Equipment is staged, plans are in place and our Soldiers are ready to respond," said Maj. Matthew Digby, chief of plans for the Louisiana National Guard. "Each year, we adapt based on lessons from past storms to make sure we're ready to protect what matters." In addition to long-range planning, the exercise placed a strong emphasis on real-time decision-making and coordination across all operational levels. "This exercise ensures every unit, staff section and partner agency is working from the same plan," said Col. Greg St. Romain, director of training for the Louisiana National Guard. "We're identifying gaps, strengthening coordination and showing that we're postured to respond rapidly and effectively when disaster strikes." That response includes the Louisiana Guard's largest ground element, the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which supports both state and overseas missions. "Even with key elements deployed overseas, we've adjusted our plans to ensure we're fully capable of responding here at home," said Lt. Col. Stephen Luebbert, rear detachment commander of the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. "When the call comes, we bring the full team. Fast, flexible and ready to support the people of Louisiana." Aviation assets also play a critical role in the Louisiana Guard's hurricane response. They provide life-saving capabilities from the air in the storm's immediate aftermath. "When a storm clears, aviation is among the first to launch," said Lt. Col. Jacques Comeaux, executive officer for the 204th Theater Operations Group. "Whether it's search and rescue, airlifting critical supplies or flying state leaders to hard-hit areas, our crews and aircraft stand ready to respond wherever we're needed." With the start of hurricane season approaching, this event marked the final statewide rehearsal before potential activations. The Louisiana Guard stands ready to support civil authorities in protecting life and property across the state. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement of support for Czechia's Attribution of malicious cyber activity Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 29 May 2025 Category: International relations We share Czechia's deep concern about the increased scale and severity of malicious cyber activity by state-affiliated actors. We are deeply troubled by the activity Czechia has report-ed today. We stand in solidarity with Czechia against malicious cyber activity by state-affiliated actors. All actors should behave responsibly in cyberspace. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address COVID-19 surges in Taiwan, expected to peak in June or July ROC Central News Agency 05/29/2025 04:51 PM Taipei, May 29 (CNA) The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday that COVID-19 cases are on the rise, with the current wave expected to peak in late June or early July. According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, 41,402 people sought treatment for COVID-19 between May 18 and 24, a 113 percent increase from the previous week. The CDC estimates that the number of people seeking treatment for COVID-19 each week could peak at between 150,000 and 200,000 this summer. Answering reporters' questions before a Legislature meeting Thursday, Health Minister Chiu Tai-yuan () said Taiwan has sufficient antiviral medication in stock, including 450,000 courses of Paxlovid, the main treatment. Chiu said rapid test kits will first be distributed to the four major convenience store chains -- 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life and OK Mart -- as well as chain pharmacies. He urged the public to buy tests from these retailers. Regarding distribution, Chiu said local manufacturers can supply about 600,000 kits, with a total of 1.2 million kits expected to be distributed by next week. Also on Thursday, CDC Deputy Director-General Lo Yi-chun () said at a Cabinet meeting that the current major variant, NB.1.8.1, spreading in the country is highly contagious and has strong immune evasion, meaning it can more easily bypass the body's existing defenses. However, he said existing antiviral drugs and vaccines remain effective against the strain. He said a total of 2.157 million vaccine doses have been administered, with 3.128 million doses still in stock. He urged the public to get vaccinated and wear masks. At a press conference after the Cabinet meeting, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee () said Premier Cho Jung-tai () instructed the Ministry of Health and Welfare to closely monitor medical service capacity to ensure the public gets proper care. He also asked the ministry to assess demand for rapid tests and manage their distribution based on how the epidemic develops. Lee added that the premier also called on the ministry to boost public messaging on personal hygiene ahead of the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival long weekend. (By Lai Yu-chen, Tseng Yi-ning and Wu Kuan-hsien) Enditem/kb NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's greetings to the 42nd Plenary Meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism 29 May 2025 12:00 906-29-05-2025 I wholeheartedly greet the participants of the 42nd Plenary Meeting of the Eurasian Group (EAG) on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism. Over the past years, the EAG, which was co-founded by Russia, has become a leading regional mechanism on ensuring the security of the member states' financial systems. Its success is based on its high standards and a professional and constructive approach to developing international interaction. The EAG is making an invaluable contribution to the prevention of money laundering and terrorism and extremism financing. I would like to point out its role in promoting relevant cooperation in the law-making sphere. The fourth Forum of Parliamentarians of the member states is being held on the sidelines of the meeting. It is not surprising that many countries of the Global Majority are taking advantage of the EAG's years of experience. I am confident that the outcome of your meeting will help strengthen the financial security of our countries. I wish you success and all the best. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Targeting a Major Backer of Virtual Currency Investment Scams US Department of State Press Statement Tammy Bruce, Department Spokesperson May 29, 2025 The United States is imposing sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippines-based company that provides the critical computer infrastructure for virtual currency investment scams, and its administrator Liu Lizhi, a Chinese national. Fraudulent virtual currency investment scams cause serious financial harm to the American people. Today's targets are directly connected to over $200 million in losses reported by U.S. victims, with an average cost of over $150,000 per individual. The United States will go after those who misuse virtual currencies and internet services to perpetrate fraud and other crimes. We will continue to pursue cybercriminals who abuse the U.S. financial sector. The Department of the Treasury's sanctions actions were taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, as amended by E.O. 14114. For more information, see Treasury's press release . NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chief of Space Operations lauds acquisition workforce, discusses shift in Guardian development during visit to Los Angeles Air Force Base United States Space Force Published May 29, 2025 By Alex Chang, SSC Public Affairs EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Chief of Space Operations Gen. B Chance Saltzman visited Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base May 22, engaging more than 500 Guardian acquirers to discuss their outsized impact on missions across the Space Force and Department of Defense. Foregoing the formalities of a lectern or podium, Saltzman opted for a conversational approach, sitting opposite SSC Commander Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant as he spoke in candid detail about the instrumental nature of the acquisition workforce and its contributions to the lethality and success of the Joint Force. "Space acquisition is a complex endeavor. It requires a service-level attention across processes, procedures, expertise and different competencies," Saltzman explained. "What makes space acquisition work is everybody coming together, collaborating, bringing their expertise, so that we can meet the sense of urgency that's required, deliver the capabilities that our warfighters need and address the threats that are only growing as we continue to move forward with the Space Force." Saltzman shared that, more than any other service, the Space Force mission requires a uniquely close coupling of acquisition and operations expertise to conduct activities in an agile, complex and hostile environment. To most effectively combat emerging threats, he noted how critical it is for all Guardians to share a comprehensive understanding of Space Force competencies, encompassing acquisition, satellite operations, intelligence, cyberspace operations and more. "What we're expecting officers to be are the leaders and planners of the Space Force," Saltzman said during a session with a senior crowd, underscoring that this requires a "broad understanding of our capabilities, of our missions, of the key activities that we perform." He stressed that the Space Force, with fewer than 5,000 officers, cannot afford the deep specialization enabled by the significantly larger end strengths of other services. For that reason, Saltzman explained, the Space Force is developing its Guardians differently. For example, new officers will begin their careers with foundational experience at the Space Force's Officer Training Course. After an initial assignment on crew, officers will have the flexibility either to specialize in an operational discipline or to apply for entry into the acquisition workforce. He likened the new approach to a "career superhighway with multiple lanes," instead of a "worn-out path winding through a forest." He emphasized that Guardian development should not be defined by an early commitment to a single functional area but rather by gaining skills with increasing scope of responsibility. This requires members to grow as Guardians and not just "climbing the ladder within a single specialty." "We are too small a branch and require too much diversification of the senior level of our workforce to be strictly adhering to tribal precepts," he said. Saltzman acknowledged this marks a "fundamental shift" in talent development and committed to refining the approach based on real-time feedback. He reassured Guardians who did not attend the new OTC as well as those in more senior grades that they would be evaluated against their peers based on the opportunities they were previously presented. Following each session, Saltzman engaged directly with Guardians, answering questions and listening to feedback. His visit highlighted the Space Force's ongoing commitment to building versatile Guardians who are ready to conduct decisive warfighting operations. Saltzman and his wife, Jennifer Saltzman, were welcomed to the base by Garrant and other senior leaders. Before dedicating the bulk of his visit to speaking with Guardians, Saltzman also received key briefings from SSC Program Executive Officers including those leading the Assured Access to Space, Combat Power, Operational Test and Training Infrastructure and Space Sensing portfolios. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wang Yi: Unite to Address Global Climate Change Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: May 28, 2025 23:00 On May 28, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting with President and Foreign Minister of Kiribati Taneti Maamau in Xiamen. After the meeting, Wang Yi and Taneti Maamau jointly met the press and answered questions. In response to a reporter's question about China's specific measures to address climate change, Wang Yi said that in the face of global climate change, human society must unite in response. He expressed deep regret over the withdrawal of certain major country from the Paris Agreement. Regardless of changing circumstances, China's determination to support and participate in leading global climate governance will not change, nor will its actions to proactively implement South-South cooperation on climate change. Wang Yi pointed out that China empathizes with the unique situation of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) in addressing climate change. Over the years, under the framework of South-South cooperation, China has undertaken a lot of practical efforts to assist PICs in enhancing their capacity to address climate change. China has provided PICs with a large number of energy-saving air conditioners and solar photovoltaic power generation systems, trained talents for PICs to tackle climate change, and effectively supported PICs in strengthening their climate resilience. Wang Yi said that China will issue an initiative on deepening cooperation with PICs on combating climate change, pledging to allocate new funds and expand cooperation with PICs in the field of sustainable development. In the next three years, China will conduct 100 "small yet smart" projects on addressing climate change for PICs. China supports PICs in protecting the marine ecological environment, responding to sea level rising, coastal erosion and marine disasters, and is willing to share early warning technologies to help PICs prevent and mitigate disasters. China will continue to give full play to the role of cooperation mechanisms such as the China-PICs Climate Change Cooperation Center, Center for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Cooperation, and Reserve of Emergency Supplies, to make Chinese contributions to PICs' response to climate change. Wang Yi noted that as a progressive and constructive force in the international community, China will firmly stand on the side of the vast number of developing countries and remain a trustworthy, reliable and warm-hearted good friend and partner of the countries in the Global South, including PICs. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wang Yi Meets with President and Foreign Minister of Kiribati Taneti Maamau Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: May 28, 2025 16:25 On May 28, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Xiamen with President and Foreign Minister of Kiribati Taneti Maamau, who is in China for the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Wang Yi first conveyed President Xi Jinping's sincere greetings and best wishes. Wang Yi said that since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Kiribati more than five years ago, bilateral relations have developed rapidly, with continuously deepening political mutual trust and fruitful results in exchanges and cooperation across various fields. Facts have proved that the decision made by President Taneti Maamau and the people of Kiribati to resume diplomatic relations with China is on the right side of history and is fully in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of the two peoples. China always values its relations with Kiribati, and highly appreciates Kiribati's firm commitment to the one-China principle. China is willing to work with Kiribati to continue advancing bilateral relations and enhancing the well-being of the Kiribati people. Wang Yi said that since the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Kiribati, exchanges and cooperation in such fields as education, health, police affairs, culture, sports, and youth and at sub-national levels have gained thriving development. The Chinese Embassy was the first among foreign diplomatic missions in Kiribati to offer visa services, and Chinese medical teams have effectively addressed local medical service shortages. China will continue to encourage more capable and reputable Chinese-funded enterprises to invest and do business in Kiribati. Under the framework of the Blue Partnership, the two sides can strengthen cooperation in the protection, development and utilization of marine resources. China fully understands the special difficulties and legitimate concerns of Pacific Island countries (PICs) in addressing the climate change issue. China is willing to unite and cooperate with developing countries, including Kiribati, to jointly urge developed countries to face squarely their historical responsibilities, fulfill their commitments as soon as possible, and increase support for developing countries in terms of funds, technology and capacity building. China will continue to provide assistance to Kiribati in enhancing its capacity to address climate change within the framework of South-South cooperation. Taneti Maamau asked Wang Yi to convey his cordial greetings to President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people, and thanked China for its strong support for Kiribati's economic and social development. The resumption of diplomatic relations between Kiribati and China is a historic moment. Over the past five years, Kiribati has firmly pursued the one-China policy, and the practical cooperation between the two countries has yielded fruitful results, significantly improving the livelihood of the Kiribati people. Kiribati looks forward to further strengthening cooperation with China in areas such as people-to-people and cultural exchanges, medical and health care, infrastructure, sister-city exchanges, marine economy, and climate change, promoting the Kiribati 20-year Vision, and bringing more benefits to the two peoples. Kiribati actively supports China's initiative to establish the International Organization for Mediation in Hong Kong, which reflects China's leadership role. The friendly relationship between Kiribati and China is a vivid manifestation of the spirit of "solidarity and partnership" and will surely sail towards a bright future together. Both sides expect the success of the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Wang Yi said that the current world is fraught with turbulence and instability, posing severe challenges to Global South countries, especially small and medium-sized countries. The convening of the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting is timely and will provide an important opportunity for China and PICs to jointly address risks and challenges and identify key areas of cooperation for the next phase under the new circumstances. The meeting will issue a joint statement, and China will also release a list of measures to implement the consensus reached at the meeting. Taneti Maamau expressed his willingness to play an active role in continuously promoting strong relations and fruitful cooperation between PICs and China. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US should stop conjuring up powerful enemy for itself: China's defense spokesperson on US officials' hype on 'potential conflicts' with China Global Times By Global Times Published: May 29, 2025 04:55 PM When asked to comment on claims by the Commander of the US Army Pacific that the US army was building agile new units in response to potential conflicts with China, Chinese Ministry of National Defense Spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said on Thursday that conflict and confrontation should not be the choice of either side. Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation is the right way for China and the US to deal with each other. Zhang made the remarks when also asked to comment on claims by US Defense Secretary that the US side would build up its military to meet China's "threat" at every turn, and counter China in the Indo-Pacific. The US side should stop conjuring up a powerful enemy for itself whether intentionally or unintentionally. Such imagination is not rational and extremely dangerous, Zhang said. The Chinese military will make all-out efforts to enhance our combat readiness, and firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China-LAC Defense Cooperation is Productive: Defense Spokesperson Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China Source China Military Online EditorChen Zhuo 2025-05-29 18:15:24 BEIJING, May 29 -- "China stands ready to work with the defense establishments and militaries of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to deepen substantive cooperation in such areas as mutual visits, professional exchanges and personnel training," said Chinese Defense Spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang at a regular press conference on Thursday, when being asked to introduce military cooperation between China and LAC countries. The spokesperson pointed out that recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum and delivered a keynote address. President Xi summarized the best practices for developing China-LAC relations, and announced the launch of five programs of Solidarity, Development, Civilization, Peace and People-to-People Connectivity, which have charted the course for building the China-LAC community with a shared future. The spokesperson said that China-LAC cooperation has withstood winds and rains, and transcended mountains and oceans across half a globe. The cooperation has bolstered economic growth and improved the livelihoods of the LAC region, bringing tangible benefits to the local people. He added that in recent years, the Chinese and LAC militaries have had frequent high-level exchanges, and conducted numerous working level meetings. Events such as the China-LAC States Defense Forum, China-LAC Military Medicine Forum and Seminar for Senior Military Officers from LAC Countries have been held multiple times. China-LAC defense cooperation has been productive, and the friendship and mutual trust between the two sides have been continuously deepened. "The Chinese side stands ready to work with the defense establishments and militaries of LAC countries to act on the Global Security Initiative, and deepen substantive cooperation in such areas as mutual visits, professional exchanges and personnel training. Together, we will promote sustained and solid progress in building a China-LAC Community with a Shared Future," the spokesperson stated in the end. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese Naval Hospital Ships Will Provide World With More High-quality Public Safety Products: Defense Spokesperson Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China Source China Military Online EditorWang Xinjuan 2025-05-29 19:01:41 BEIJING, May 29 -- "The Chinese naval hospital ships will help the Chinese military materialize the vision of building a maritime community with a shared future and provide the world with more high-quality public security goods," said a Chinese defense spokesperson at a regular press conference on Thursday. Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media query on the commissioning of China's third large hospital ship PLANS Ark Auspicious (Jixiang). According to media report, it marked the deployment of large ocean-going hospital ships to the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command, South Theater Command and North Theater Command respectively. The spokesperson said that PLANS Ark Auspicious is the third 10,000-ton-class ocean-going hospital ship domestically designed and built by China. It features a combat-oriented layout and is equipped with advanced medical equipment. The spokesperson added that, PLANS Ark Auspicious, together with Ark Peace and Ark Silk Road, not only forms the backbone of maritime medical support, but also undertakes the tasks of international humanitarian medical services, emergency medical rescue in major disasters, and foreign military medical exchanges and cooperation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning's Regular Press Conference on May 29, 2025 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: May 29, 2025 18:17 CCTV: The Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting was held yesterday in Xiamen. Can you brief us on the meeting and its outcomes? How does China view the development prospect of relations between China and Pacific island countries? Mao Ning: Yesterday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting with President and Foreign Minister Taneti Maamau of Kiribati. This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Pacific Island countries (PICs). The "four full respects" proposed by President Xi Jinping is the fundamental guidance for China to develop relations with PICs. We always see them as good friends, good partners and good brothers. The development of our bilateral ties vividly demonstrates that friendship, whenever it happens, is cherishable; cooperation, whatever its size, is valuable. We've set fine example of big and small countries pursuing peaceful coexistence and Global South countries seeking development in solidarity. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made six-point proposal on building a China-PICs community with a shared future, namely rendering each other respect, putting development first and people at the center, pursuing exchanges and mutual learning, upholding fairness and justice, and strengthening mutual assistance. Foreign Minister Wang stressed that faced with profound changes of our times and of the historical trajectory, China believes that upholding peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit is the only right choice, and stands ready to work with all sides to open up a new chapter of building a China-PICs community with a shared future. Common understandings in five aspects have been reached during the meeting. First, we should uphold equal treatment, continue to render each other support and defend each other's core interest and major concerns. Second, we should uphold common development, promote synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields. Third, we should uphold fairness and justice, firmly defend multilateralism and the WTO-centered multilateral trading system, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries. Fourth, we should uphold openness and inclusiveness, the international community needs to support PICs in independently choosing development and cooperation partners, and the most urgent topics such as climate change need to be prioritized in the effort of developing relations with PICs. Fifth, we should uphold mutual learning, carry forward our traditional friendship and affinity, strengthen mutual understanding and support and jointly advance the civilization of human society. Participating parties thanked China's long-term precious support to the development of PICs and reaffirmed their commitment to the one-China principle as well as their understanding and support to China's legitimate rights of defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The meeting adopted a joint statement. China also released the List of Measures for China to Implement the Consensus of the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting, which includes China's Initiative on Deepening Cooperation with Pacific Island Countries on Combating Climate Change. In the initiative, China promised to provide new funding and expand sustainable development cooperation with PICs. Bloomberg: Regarding the U.S.'s decision to begin aggressively revoking the visas of Chinese students, including those with links to the Communist Party of China or those that are studying in so-called "critical fields." In relation to this, I just like to ask given that it is probably the most prominent story of the moment in terms of U.S.-China relations, I'd like to ask what is the Foreign Ministry's comment on this? Can we expect a retaliation of sorts from Beijing? How might this affect the overall climate, especially as we are looking towards further trade talks? Mao Ning: The U.S. decision to revoke Chinese student visas is fully unjustified. It uses ideology and national security as pretext. It seriously hurts the lawful rights and interests of international students from China, and disrupts people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. China firmly opposes it and has protested to the U.S. over the decision. This politically motivated and discriminatory move exposes the U.S. hypocrisy over freedom and openness. It will further damage the image and reputation of the U.S. itself. AFP: The U.S. Court of International Trade has ruled that Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs as well as a separate set of tariffs on China over fentanyl which were issued by executive orders form an overstep of his authority as president. How might this ruling impact China's trade negotiations with the U.S. and would the Foreign Ministry like to further comment? Mao Ning: China has made its position very clear: tariff and trade wars have no winners. Protectionism benefits no one and is ultimately unpopular. Kyodo News: It's reported that China removed a buoy located in the exclusive economic zone to the south of Yonaguni Island of Okinawa. Why did China remove this buoy? Mao Ning: China's installation of a meteorological observation buoy in waters east of Taiwan, which are under China's jurisdiction, is consistent with China's domestic laws and international law. It is learned that competent Chinese authorities are maintaining the buoy as needed by relevant work. Bloomberg: I just like to circle back a little bit and ask about do you see these moves on the visas as having a broader or spillover effect onto other areas of U.S.-China relations, including trade? Mao Ning: China's position on its relations with the U.S. is consistent. We hope the U.S. will work with China in the same direction, do more constructive things, and contribute more to the sound, steady and sustainable development of bilateral relations. O Globo: Brazilian prosecutors announced that they are suing Chinese vehicle company BYD over allegations of using workers in awful labor conditions and engaging in international human trafficking. Can you give your comments please? Mao Ning: As we stressed more than once, the Chinese government attaches great importance to the lawful rights and interests of workers, and asks Chinese companies to do business in accordance with laws and regulations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China condemns 'discriminatory' US plan to revoke visas for Chinese students Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 4:03 PM China has slammed Trump's decision to revoke visas of Chinese students, saying such a "politically motivated and discriminatory" practice exposes the hypocrisy behind the long-celebrated US claims of freedom and openness. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the US administration would "aggressively" revoke the visas of Chinese students, adding that it would particularly go after those with connections to the Chinese government or studying in critical fields. According to Rubio, Trump has also tightened visa checks on future applications from China and Hong Kong. Chinese government spokesman Mao Ning then objected to it on the same day, urging Washington to "safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China". On Thursday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters it had lodged diplomatic representations. According to the Chinese spokesman, the US administration is using national security and ideology as a pretext for the "unreasonable" decision, which "seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupted the normal cultural exchanges between the two countries." "This political and discriminatory practice of the US has exposed the lies of the so-called freedom and openness that the US has always advertised, and further damaged the US's own international image, national image and national credibility," Mao said. Chinese students are considered a major revenue stream for American colleges and have long been crucial to US universities, with 277,398 attending them in the 2023-24 academic year alone, says the US Institute of International Education. The Americans' decision has infuriated the Chinese academic community, with students arguing that Trump's decision has been made "without any thoughts for the consequences." "This US policy may seem to be a hasty decision, but it has had an immeasurably devastating impact," a Chinese student named Bi Jingxin told AFP News Agency. "If we Chinese want to study in the US, the most important thing is its faculties and cutting-edge academic achievements," Bi said. Bi said Washington is "not behaving in a way that's conducive to the spread of the United States' international academic image." The Chinese perception of education in the US has also been dented, with students tending to opt for other alternatives. "If (the US) is targeting us so strongly, it chips away at my best options for studying abroad, as well as my impression of the United States," said a student at the Beijing International Studies University (BISU). While she may have considered a course at an American college before, "now, my expectations of the country have been lowered," she said, adding that she might opt for Europe instead. Another BISU student found the move unfair, saying, "Students go to the US purely for academic progress, so they shouldn't have to deal with these kinds of inconveniences." Moreover, a large number of Chinese high school students who are preparing to study in the United States later this year now face uncertainty over their international futures. The move by Trump came a day after he ordered US embassies worldwide to immediately stop scheduling visa interviews for foreign students. Earlier this week, he revoked Harvard's ability to enroll foreign nationals, saying the institution is supporting Palestine. Trump is angry at Harvard for resisting his push for oversight on admissions and hiring. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US to 'aggressively revoke' visas for Chinese students in major escalation Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 6:22 AM US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students," marking another blow to international students and intensifying the confrontation between the president and higher education institutions. The move also marks another escalation in the deteriorating relations between the two powers, as their long-standing academic exchanges have been affected by the ongoing trade and technological wars. The Trump administration has intensified efforts to increase deportations and cancel student visas, advancing its strict immigration policies. The surprise announcement also risks apparent attempts by the US and China to de-escalate tensions as it comes just weeks after Washington and Beijing declared a 90-day truce over punishing tariffs on each other's goods. Rubio said, in a statement on Wednesday, that the move would include "those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields." "We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong," he added. Rubio's remarks follow recent actions by the administration that may deter foreign students from attending US universities. According to a CNN report on Tuesday, the State Department has instructed embassies to temporarily suspend new student visa appointments while expanding social media screening. Additionally, last week, the Trump administration stripped Harvard of its authorization to admit international students, though a federal judge later blocked the decision. China's foreign ministry previously vowed to "firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests" of its students overseas, following the Trump administration's move to revoke Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students, many of whom are Chinese. According to the US Department of Commerce, international studentswith those from India and China making up 54% of the totaladded over $50 billion to the US economy in 2023. American colleges heavily depend on international students financially, as these scholars typically pay substantially higher tuition rates than domestic students. Increasing visa restrictions have prompted more Chinese students to choose European universities, while a growing number of graduates are now returning to China to pursue their careers. The Trump administration has also frozen hundreds of millions in university funding, with the US president condemning elite institutions such as Harvard for what he perceives as excessive liberalism and insufficient action against what he calls "anti-Semitic" incidents at their schools. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese students face uncertain future as US imposes visa crackdown China says the U.S. government is using national security as a pretext to "aggressively" revoke visas of Chinese students. By Tenzin Pema and Rachel C for RFA 2025.05.29 -- Chinese students who account for about one quarter of overseas students in the United States voiced anxiety Thursday as the Trump administration paused visa interviews and announced tougher screening of applicants to American universities. In the U.S., Chinese students expressed worries they may not be able to travel freely, and one student who is a human rights activist said she now felt pressure both from the Chinese government and U.S. government. "The current situation in the U.S. feels increasingly uncertain even dangerous," Mary, who graduated from an American college this month, told Radio Free Asia. She requested a pseudonym for security reasons. "This dual threat is devastating," she said. In China, prospective students also took to social media to express confusion and distress after the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that the U.S. will work "aggressively" to revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or studying in critical fields. The U.S. will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong, Rubio said, in a statement titled "New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China." U.S. lawmakers have long raised concerns about China acquiring access to sensitive technology and know-how through American colleges. But China's government said it "firmly opposes" the decision and has protested to the U.S. for using ideology and national security as a pretext for taking actions that are "fully unjustified." "This politically motivated and discriminatory move exposes the U.S. hypocrisy over freedom and openness. It will further damage the image and reputation of the U.S. itself," Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese government, said at a press briefing on Thursday. Mao said the move "seriously hurts" the rights and interests of international students from China and disrupts people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Rubio's announcement risks deepening tensions in a U.S.-China relationship already strained over trade. It follows other steps by the Trump administration to deter international students, including ordering embassies to pause new student visa appointments amid enhanced social media vetting. While the U.S. has only a few hundred students in China, Chinese students only rank behind India in their numbers in the U.S. There were 277,398 Chinese students in the U.S. during the 2023-24 academic year, second to India, at 331,602, according to the U.S. State Department-sponsored "Open Doors report on International Educational Exchange". Together, India and China accounted for 54% of all the international students, the report showed. Rubio's announcement on Wednesday generated hundreds of comments on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote in English, including questions of what subjects of study would be impacted. "Cognitive neuroscience, brain science, computational linguistics, biomedical engineering are any of these considered critical fields?" asked one netizen named Nailong. Rubio did not specify which fields were considered "critical." Neither was there any clarification provided on what "connections to the CCP" would be scrutinized. It could account for a major chunk of China's student body. The Communist Youth League of China, for example, had around 75.32 million members aged 14-28 by end-2024, and roughly 2 million related organizations at schools, colleges, and universities, with around 98.5 million members. Darkest moment Mary, the human rights activist who just graduated in the U.S., said she was urgently reassessing her future career plans and was now considering seeking job opportunities abroad. "For Chinese students, international students, and the entire education sector, this week may have marked a darkest moment," Andrew Chen, Vice-Chair of China Member Interest Group at NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, said in a video posted on WeChat. "But everyone must take responsibility for their own growth and future. Every family needs to make choices quickly to improve their academic and employment abilities," said Chen, who advised that Chinese students keen on pursuing further studies in the U.S. eschew defense-related majors and sensitive institutions within China. Chinese students who are already in the U.S. should work to improve their profile "as fast as possible," so they can find a job in the country more easily in the near future, he added. On social media platforms, Chinese students currently based in the U.S. expressed worries they may not be able to travel freely amid the stricter visa measures. "If you're in the U.S., you can't go home anymore. I miss home," wrote one netizen, Chaochao, on RedNote. Other Chinese nationals also expressed worries about their future. "Will this affect an EB-1 application?," asked one netizen named QuQ, referring to a U.S. employment-based visa for people with extraordinary abilities in their respective fields. According to NAFSA, a U.S.-based nonprofit association focused on international education, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported 378,175 jobs during the 2023-2024 academic year. For every three international students, one U.S. job is created and supported through spending by international students on accommodation, higher education, dining, retail, health, telecommunications, and transportation, it added. The U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP welcomed Rubio's Wednesday announcement. Chairman John Moolenaar on Thursday said, "America's student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security." "If left unaddressed, this trend will continue to displace American talent, compromise research integrity, and fuel China's technological ambitions at our expense," Moolenaar said. 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Explainer: Why didn't China send higher-ranking officials to attend 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue? Global Times By Guo Yuandan in Singapore Published: May 30, 2025 08:16 AM At the invitation of Singapore, a delegation from the National Defense University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will attend the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue from Thursday to Monday, and visit relevant military and civilian institutions in Singapore, announced China's Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang at a regular press conference on Thursday. In response to attention over why the Chinese delegation is being led by representatives from the National Defense University rather than by higher-ranking military officials, experts told the Global Times on Thursday that regardless of the level of the delegation, China's participation at the Shangri-La Dialogue always draws high attention, reflecting the country's growing global influence. The Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, is the largest defense and security forum in the Asia-Pacific and one of the most prominent international forums with strong Western influence. According to its agenda, key highlights of the conference include a keynote speech by a national leader at the opening dinner, as well as speeches by the heads of the Chinese and US military delegations. This year, French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the opening, the first time for a European head of state to do so. Since the Shangri-La Dialogue's inception in 2002, the topic of China has always occupied an indispensable place. Except for the event's cancellations in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, China has sent delegations to the dialogue every year since 2007. Zhou Bo, a senior fellow of the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University and frequent attendee of the Shangri-La Dialogue, told the Global Times on Thursday that even before his arrival in Singapore, he had already received interview requests from more than 20 international media outlets - the topics are all related to China. The level of the Chinese delegation to the Shangri-La Dialogue is closely watched every year. In fact, the delegation's composition has varied historically. According to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao on Thursday, China sent deputy chiefs of general staff of the PLA to attend from 2007 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2016. In 2012, 2017 and 2018, the heads of the delegations were vice presidents of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences. Public records show that since 2011, China's Minister of National Defense has attended the Shangri-La Dialogue five times. The first such appearance was in 2011, and after a seven-year gap, China resumed sending its defense minister in 2019. Following the event's cancellations in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country once again dispatched its defense chief in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Zhou noted that "when China's defense minister attends the dialogue, it makes headlines. When they don't attend, it's also news. Either way, the attention underscores China's strong international influence." During the Thursday press briefing by China's Ministry of National Defense, a reporter asked why China opted to send the National Defense University delegation instead of higher-level officials this year. The reporter also cited remarks from the US Department of Defense claiming that the US is a "more reliable regional partner than China" and asked for comments. Zhang, the spokesperson, stated that China consistently participates in constructive international dialogues to explain its vision, strengthen communication, build trust and enhance cooperation with other parties, contributing to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. The delegation from the PLA National Defense University will engage in in-depth exchanges with participants to foster common understanding on regional security and stability. A military expert told the Global Times on Thursday that for years, China's military has participated in international and regional dialogues of real substance. Delegation members are selected based on operational needs, and regardless of rank or title, all participants represent the Chinese military in communicating China's vision for a shared future and its three global initiatives, as well as its foreign and defense policies and core interests. Zhou shared a similar perspective. "Historically, China has sent representatives of varying ranks to the Shangri-La Dialogue. What matters is that their participation demonstrates the PLA's openness to dialogue and friendship with all parties," he said. "Likewise, we welcome foreign militaries and scholars to China's own platform - the Beijing Xiangshan Forum." The expert also noted that China has successfully held 11 sessions of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, which has seen growing international influence. "We all know the delegates at which level the West sends to that forum," the expert added. "This year, China's decision to send a delegation from the PLA National Defense University should not be overinterpreted." According to public reports, the US has consistently participated in the Xiangshan Forum. In earlier years, the US delegation was led by a defense attache from its embassy in Beijing. Later, Washington began to dispatch officials directly from the US, including the president of the National Defense University, who is also a Major General, for two years and, in 2018, a dean of one of its schools. In 2019, the Pentagon sent its first official delegation headed by a deputy assistant secretary of defense. In 2024, the US delegation was led by deputy assistant secretary of defense Michael Chase. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Talks between Vice-Minister of Public Security of DPRK and Vice-Minister of Interior of Russian Federation Held Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- Talks between Ri Song Chol, vice-minister of Public Security of the DPRK, and Vitaly Shulika, vice-minister of Interior of Russia, who is leading the visiting delegation of the ministry, were held here on May 28. Present at the talks from the DPRK side were officials of the Ministry of Public Security and from the opposite side members of the delegation and members of the Russian embassy here. The talks discussed the issues for expanding the exchange and cooperation between the security bodies of the two countries. The talks proceeded in a comradely and friendly atmosphere. -0- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Eighth Enlarged Meeting of Eighth WPK Central Military Commission Held Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Pyongyang, May 30 (KCNA) -- The Eighth Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea was held at the headquarters building of the WPK Central Committee on May 28. Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, guided the enlarged meeting. Present there were members of the WPK Central Military Commission and, as observers, leading commanding officers of the Ministry of National Defence, military and political commanding officers of the large combined units at all levels of the Korean People's Army and officials of relevant departments of the WPK Central Committee. The enlarged meeting discussed the important issues of exercising tight control and guidance so that all military and political activities of the DPRK armed forces are thoroughly conducted as required by the Party's military line and policies by further strengthening the functions and roles of the political organs at all levels in the armed forces organs as required by the new stage of the developing revolution and more firmly establishing revolutionary command system and steel-like discipline system. Saying that only when the role of the Party organizations and political organs at all levels which perform the function of helm in realizing the guidance of the Party Central Committee over the army is steadily enhanced, can all the problems arising in the army building and military activities be successfully solved, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un set forth the important principles to be consistently maintained by the Party committees at all levels in the army in implementing the Party's military line and policies in conformity with their mission and duty as the political general staff and supreme leadership organ of relevant units and all tasks facing them. The organizational matter was discussed at the meeting. The WPK Central Military Commission newly appointed six commanding officers of corps-level units, the director of the Artillery Bureau and the director of the Security Bureau and newly dispatched some political commissars. The meeting discussed the issue of powerfully pushing ahead with major projects of political and military significance and gave a relevant assignment. It discussed and decided on military measures to firmly maintain the strategic and tactical superiority in all aspects on the basis of the analysis of the situation related to the national security. It also approved and assigned a series of new projects in the fields of defence science and industry. The Eighth Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth WPK Central Military Commission made an important conclusion on the enhancement of the national defence capabilities and the orientation and immediate tasks for the military and political activities of the armed forces of the DPRK. -0- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO to ask Berlin for additional 40,000 troops in new militarism: Report Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 11:22 AM NATO intends to ask Germany for an additional seven brigadesapproximately 40,000 troopsto bolster the alliance's military readiness, according to sources. This comes as member states' defense ministers prepare to approve new military readiness targets for troops and equipment at next week's meeting, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. NATO is significantly boosting its military readiness goals in response to what it alleges to be heightened concerns regarding Russia, particularly following the war in Ukraine. A high-ranking military official revealed that NATO plans to increase its total brigade requirement for member states to 120-130 in the coming years. The increase would represent roughly a 50% jump from NATO's current benchmark of approximately 80 brigades, according to the source. A separate government official specified the alliance-wide goal would reach 130 brigades. NATO characterized the new targets as "ambitious" without providing specific figures. "They are based on the forces and resources we need for deterrence and defense, based on our new defense plans," a NATO official stated when asked for comment. Germany previously committed in 2021 to supplying 10 brigadestypically 5,000-strong unitsto NATO by 2030. Currently fielding eight brigades, it is establishing a ninth in Lithuania slated for operational readiness by 2027. Germany recently made a landmark decision to relax its constitutional restrictions on borrowing, enabling increased military expenditures, while endorsing outgoing NATO chief Mark Rutte's proposal for allies to allocate 5% of GDP to defense. Since Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, NATO allies have significantly boosted their military budgets, and have been urged to go further by US President Donald Trump, who has threatened not to defend countries lagging behind on defense spending. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address In pics: traditional yak racing in Lhasa, China's Xizang Xinhua) 11:06, May 30, 2025 Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen walk their yaks and prepare for a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) A herdsman and his yak run to the start line for a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) A staff member examine the yak's teeth to determine its eligibility for the race before a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) A herdsman competes in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) A herdsman comforts his yak before a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Transcript of Weekly Media Briefing by the Official Spokesperson (May 29, 2025) India - Ministry of External Affairs May 29, 2025 Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good afternoon friends. I open the floor for questions and I welcome you to this press briefing. Umashankar, NDTV: Umashankar Singh NDTV India se. Pakistan ke Pradhan Mantri Shahbaz Sharif jo hai wo Pakistan ho, Iran ho ya Azerbaijan ho har jagah se ye baat keh rahe hain ki Bharat ke sath baat cheet chahte hain. Aur unhhone ye bhi kaha hai ki counter terrorism pe bhi baat chahte hain. To kya Bharat ne apne stand mein koi badlav laya hai ya la sakte hain ya pehle ki tarah apne stand pe hain. [Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi: Umashankar Singh from NDTV India. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been saying whether it's in Pakistan, Iran, or Azerbaijan that he wants dialogue with India. He has also said that he wants to talk about counter-terrorism. So, has India made any changes to its position, or is it considering a change, or is it still firm on its earlier stance? ] Sidhant, WION: Hi sir, Sidhant. Sir, we have seen a court filing in which the Trump administration has claimed that because of the tariff threat India, Pakistan were able to have that ceasefire understanding. What is India's stance on that court filing? Madhurendra, News Nation: Sir, Madhurendra main, News Nation se. Sir, Operation Sindoor ke theek baad abhi dekha jaa raha hai ki Pakistan ke jo aatanki hain, khaas taur pe Lashkar-e-Taiba ke aatanki jinki pramukh bhumika jo hai Pahalgam aatanki ghatna mein rahi, wo Bharat virodhi manch saja rahe hain. Waha se Bharat ko dhamkiya di jaa rahi hain aur sabse badi baat ye hai ki unke saath Pakistan ki sena ki suraksha dikhai de rahi hai, Pakistan ke mantri dikhai de rahe hain. Is par kya India respond kar raha hai? [Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi: Sir, I'm Madhurendra from News Nation. Sir, right after Operation Sindoor, we are now seeing that Pakistan-based terrorists especially those from Lashkar-e-Taiba who played a key role in the Pahalgam terror incident are organizing anti-India platforms. From there, threats are being issued to India. Most importantly, they appear to be receiving protection from the Pakistani army, and even Pakistani ministers are seen alongside them. Will India respond to this?] Pranay Upadhyay, India Today Aaj Tak: Sir, Pranay Upadhyay from India Today Aaj Tak. My question is regarding the three Indians who are missing in Iran. And this is yet another incident in last few months that Indians have gone missing and there have been ransom calls. Is Government of India aware about the fact that the ransom calls have been made from Pakistan and people have been asked to deposit money in Pakistani accounts? How are we taking up this issue and what is the response from the Iranian side? Yeshi Seli, Business India: This is Yeshi Seli from Business India. I have two questions. One is on the uncertainty and instability in Bangladesh, there was talk of Professor Yunus submitting his resignation when he had an all party meeting. Is that a point of concern? And secondly, you had mentioned in the last briefing that there is no update yet on whether PM Modi will go for the G7. But with the new Prime Minister, is there likelihood of restoration of diplomatic ties? What is the situation between India and Canada right now? Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: So, pehla sawal Umashankar aapka hai. Dekhiye jaha tak, hamari jo dupakshiya baatcheet ya sambandh ya jo engagement hai Pakistan ke saath us pe hamara paksh, hamara ravaiya bada saaf hai. Clear raha hai, consistent raha hai. Hum jaise humne pehle bhi bataya ki koi bhi is prakar ka dupakshiya sambandh dono desho ke beech mein sirf aur sirf bilateral ya ki dwipakshiy hi rahega. Saath hi saath hum ye fir se dohrana chahte hain ki aatankwad aur baatcheet dono saath mein nahi chal sakta hai. Aur jaha tak aatankwad ka sawal hai, us pe baat is mudde pe hogi Pakistan se ki jo hum logo ne un aatankiyon ka soochi jo diya tha unko kuch saal pehle, unko hamare hawale kare. Is baat ka maine zikr pichle jo press vaarta hua tha usme bhi kiya tha. Aur jaha tak Jammu Kashmir ka sawal hai us pe jo baatcheet hogi, du pakshiya roop se jo bilateral dhang se hi baat hogi. Wo sirf aur sirf is baat pe hogi ki Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir yani ki Pakistan adhikrit Kashmir ko kab ka ... jo Pakistan usko illegal tarike se, avaidh tarike se us pe kabza kar ke baitha hua hai, wo us pe baat hogi ki kab wo usko khali karega apna avaidh tarike se us pe jo kabza hai, usko. Aur jaha tak, Sindhu jal sandhi ka, Indus water treaty ka sawal hai, jaisa ki maine pehle bhi kaha aur fir main dohrana chahta hu, ki jab tak Pakistan vishwasniya tarike se apna jo gatividhi hai aatankwad ko badhava dene ka usko jab tak nahi khatam karega, tab tak ye sandhi jo hai abeyance mein yaane ki sthagit rahega. Jaisa ki hamare Pradhan Mantri ne kaha apne vakhtavya pe, aur usko main dohrana chahunga, ki aatankwad aur baatcheet dono saath mein nahi chal sakta. Aatankwad aur vyapar saath mein nahi chal sakta. Aur pani aur khoon dono saath mein nahi beh sakta. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: So, Umashankar, your question first. Look, as far as our bilateral dialogue, relations, or engagement with Pakistan is concerned, our position and approach have been very clear. It has been consistent. As we have said earlier too, any such bilateral engagement between the two countries will only be strictly bilateral meaning, solely between India and Pakistan. At the same time, we want to reiterate that terrorism and dialogue cannot go hand in hand. And as far as the issue of terrorism is concerned, any discussion with Pakistan will focus on the list of terrorists we had provided to them some years ago they should hand them over to us. I had mentioned this in our previous press briefing as well. Regarding Jammu and Kashmir, any bilateral talks will only be about one thing when will Pakistan vacate Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which it has been holding illegally and unlawfully. That is the only point of discussion. And regarding the Indus Water Treaty as I've said before and would like to repeat unless Pakistan credibly stops promoting and supporting terrorism, this treaty will remain under suspension. As our Prime Minister has said in his statement and I would like to repeat terrorism and talks cannot go together; terrorism and trade cannot go together; and water and blood cannot flow together.] I would again reiterate this, we have been very clear and consistent in our position. I have said this in the previous presser last week, as also in the press engagement that we had on 13th of May. Our position in regard to Pakistan, in regard to engagement with Pakistan, has been clear and consistent. You are well aware of our position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. At the same time we are clear that talks and terror don't go together. On terrorism itself we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists, whose list was given to Pakistan some years ago. 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. And on the Indus water treaty, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism, as the Prime Minister has said. And I would like to repeat his words, "terror and talks cannot go together, terror and trade cannot go together, and water and blood cannot flow together." Sidhant, you had a question regarding the court filing in the United States. I hope you have seen the court order as well. Our position on this particular issue that you mentioned has been well articulated. I would refer you to our position that was made clear on 13th of May. 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 US leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade or tariff did not come up in any of those discussions. External Affairs Minister has also made clear that the cessation of firing was decided upon through direct contacts between the DGMOs of India and Pakistan. So that should answer your question. Madhu, aapka sawal dekhiye jo aap baat kar rahe hain ki waha par aatankwadiyon ko saraha jaa raha hai, unko mala pehnaya jaa raha hai koi nayi baat toh keh nahi rahe hain. Hum log itne saalo se is baat se gyat hain aur sirf humko nahi duniya bhar mein logo ko pata hai ki Pakistan ko jab ye kehte hain ki wo aatankwad ka global Kendra Bindu hai, epicenter hai global, ah, aatankwad ka to uske peeche karan hai aur ek samajh hai. Usi ko aap dekh rahe hain aaj jo aapne jo zikr kiya, jo baat kahi aapne manch wali baat, usi ka ek nazariya hai. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: Madhu, regarding your question the point you raised about terrorists being glorified there, being garlanded this is not something new. We have been aware of this for years, and not just us people across the world know this. When Pakistan is referred to as the global hub or epicenter of terrorism, there are reasons behind that label, and a clear understanding of why it is so. What you're witnessing today the platform you mentioned where such activities are happening is just another reflection of that very reality.] Pranay, on the question of missing Indians in Iran, you would have seen a statement made by our Embassy as well in Iran. The three Indian nationals who had landed there some time back, they are missing. We are in touch with the Iranian authorities for locating them, for their safety and security and for their eventual return home. We are in daily touch with the authorities there. We are receiving good cooperation from the Iranian side and we are also in touch with the families. Obviously family members in such situations, they have their own anxiety etc. So we are extending all possible help. Hopefully we will be able to do our best in this situation. Unidetified Speaker: Sir, February also... Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: No, February was a different issue. What we are talking about is three Indian nationals who had gone to Iran recently, in the month of May. Teen Bharatiya nagrik jo Iran haal hi ke mahine mein, ha, is mahine hi gaye the waha par unke aisa khabar aaya hai ki unse contact nahi ho pa rahi hai. Wo log lapata hai. Is baat ko hamare dutawas ne waha par jo Iranian Sarkar hai unke samaksh rakha hai aur unse manga hai ki jis prakar ka bhi support ho sake, in logo ko khojne mein unke suraksha ke liye aur unke ghar wapsi ke liye unme madad kare. Is pe hum logo ko ... unse hum lagatar baatcheet kar rahe hain us sarkar se aur unse hamein achcha cooperation, achche saajhedari mil rahi hai is baat par. Aur saath hi saath waha ye jo teen log hai unke parivarjan se bhi hum log sampark mein hain. Lihaza aapko pata hai ki aise sandarbh aise samay mein parivar walo ko bahut sari kathnaiya hoti hai aur unko chinta hona to lazmi hi hai. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: Three Indian citizens who traveled to Iran earlier this month have reportedly gone missing, and contact with them has been lost. Our embassy in Iran has raised this matter with the Iranian government and has requested all possible assistance to locate them, ensure their safety, and facilitate their return home. We are in continuous communication with the Iranian authorities on this issue and are receiving good cooperation and support from them. At the same time, we are also in contact with the families of the missing individuals. As you can understand, in such situations, families naturally face a lot of difficulties and concern, which is entirely understandable.] Yeshi, your question regarding Bangladesh. On developments in Bangladesh, you know as far as our approach is concerned ... and we remain ... I would like to underline once again that we ... look at how we have approached our issues, our relationship with Bangladesh. We want a positive and constructive relationship with Bangladesh, one that is anchored in meeting the aspirations and the interest of people of both sides. So that is how I would look at your question. On the update on India-Canada, last time as well there was a question but our External Affairs Minister, he had a telecom with his Canadian counterpart. It happened last week or this week. This was the first call between the two Foreign Ministers. Earlier our Prime Minister and our External Affairs Minister, they also congratulated their counterparts soon after the formation of the government and the new government took over charge in Ottawa. In his latest conversation, the External Affairs Minister greeted the Canadian Foreign Minister on her new responsibilities and both leaders had a discussion on the prospects for India-Canada ties going forward. In his latest conversation, the External Affairs Minister greeted the Canadian Foreign Minister on her new responsibilities and both leaders had a discussion on the prospects for India-Canada ties going forward. Vijai Laxmi, India TV: Sir Vijai Laxmi hoon India TV se. Sir Bangladesh Sarkar ne [inaudible] unhone sir teen din pehle unka vaktavya meeting mein jo kaha ki Bharat ki hegemony ki wajah se jo hain Bangladesh mein crisis hain. Is vaktavya ko wahan ke raajnetaon ne bhi kaha ki aisi baat unhone meeting mein kahi thi. Bharat kis tarah se isko dekhta hain? [Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi: Sir, I'm Vijai Laxmi from India TV. Sir, regarding Bangladesh [inaudible], three days ago they made a statement in a meeting saying that the crisis in Bangladesh is due to India's hegemony. Politicians there also confirmed that such a statement was indeed made during the meeting. How does India view this? ] Huma Siddiqui, StratNews Global: Sir I am Huma Siddiqui, from StratNews Global. I have two questions. One, there were reports that Bangladesh has canceled its defense deal worth 180 million dollars. Which is, I am assuming comes under the line of credit that India had given to Bangladesh. So, if you have any update on that? And my second question is, would you have a number of how many Indians have been deported from the U.S. so far? Rishabh: Sir, good evening. Sir yesterday, the news came in that in British Columbia, legislatures have invited pro-Khalistan extremists, and they were hailed as well. Many of them with clear evidence where they had celebrated extremism in India as well. What's India's stand on that? Vishal, ABP News: Sir main Vishal hoon ABP News se. Kuch media reports mein ye daawa kiya ja raha hai ki America ne student visa ke appointment par rok laga di hai. To Bharat ke chhaatron par iska kitna asar padta hua dikhai de raha hai? [Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi: Sir, I am Vishal from ABP News. Some media reports are claiming that America has put a halt on student visa appointments. So, how much impact is this visibly having on Indian students?] Somya, Republic TV: Sir, this is Somya from Republic TV. Sir, any formal statement from you on lifting the ban on the visas for Afghans? Because there are reports doing the rounds. And with regards to what is happening in Iran, the Indians missing there, the number has significantly increased since last year. There was this boy from Bihar also last year. There was this case. And it has been significantly happening. Sir has this been ... the issue raised with the Iranian authorities? Unidentified Speaker: Kulbhushan Yadav aise hi gayab hue the aur uske baad phir hum logon ko pata hai ki kya hua tha. To us concern se agar dekho, uss point of view se agar dekhein to kya aisi sambhaavna kahin nazar aa rahi hai. Pakistan kyunki baukhalaya hua hai issi liye main bol rahi hoon. [Approximate Translation: Question in Hindi: Kulbhushan Yadav had gone missing in a similar manner, and after that, we all know what happened. So, looking at it from that concern, from that point of view, do you see any such possibility? Because, Pakistan is rattled, that's why I'm saying this. ] Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Nahi. Ye jo log teen log gaye the kisi aur kaaran se wahan gaye the. Aur iske baare mein wahan ke sarkar se jaankari hum logon ne li hai ki unke baare mein pata kiya jaaye taaki unki suraksha ko hum log guarantee kar sakein, saath hi saath agar woh desh wapas aana chahein to hum unhe wapas laa sakein. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: No. These three people had gone there for some other reason. And regarding this, we have sought information from the government there so that we can find out about them, ensure their safety, and also, if they wish to return to the country, we can bring them back.] Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: So let's go to the questions. Bangladesh ... Vijai Laxmi aapka question tha wahan par jo abhi ke haal ke din kuch bayan aaye uske upar. To dekhiye jahan tak wahan ki sarkar hai, wahan ki sarkar ki ye niji zimmedari hai ki wahan par jo bhi sarkari ya governance ka issue hai, masla hai, uski zimmedari woh le. Ye kehna ki is karan se koi doosra ... matlab ki jo iss prakar ki bayan jo aati hai to usme aisa lagta hai ki aap deflect karna chahate hain kisi aur disha mein apne khud ke jo wahan par aapke challenges hain governance ke challenges hain. Aur ye doosre ke naam pe ye laga ke kehna ki ye extraneous issues ke karan auron ke chalte iss karan se ye gadbadhiya ho rahi hain isse samasya ka samadhan nahi hota hai. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: So let's go to the question. Vijai Laxmi, your question was about some statements that have come out recently regarding Bangladesh. So, as far as the government there is concerned, it is their personal responsibility to handle any governmental or governance-related issues or problems there. When statements of this sort came it seems like you want to deflect in another direction from your own challenges related to governance there and to blame others by saying that these extraneous issues caused by others are the reason for these problems does not solve the issue. ] Huma, see India and Bangladesh have several defence cooperation initiatives under implementation. With regard to any specific example, one that you asked, I will be glad to revert to you after asserting more details on this issue. In regard to deportation ... update ... we have close cooperation between India and the United States on migration issues. On deportation of Indian nationals who are either, who have an illegal status there, who have traveled illegally, we take them back once we receive details about them, the possible deportees, we verify their nationality as we have told you before, only then we try to get them back. The update on the numbers is that since January of 2025, we have some 1080 Indians who have come back or who have been deported from the United States. Of these, around 62% of them have come on commercial flights. So that is the update I would have for you. Rishabh, on your question regarding pro-Khalistan elements, you know our position has been very consistent over several months and years now. We've told, we've conveyed our security concerns to the Canadian side, and we have also urged them not to give any political space to extremist elements, those who advocate violence and those who talk about secession or who talk about separatism. I hope that the Canadian side will take due note and will take due action against those who advocate anti-India agenda. Vishal, jahan tak Bharatiya chhatron ka sawal hai jo America jaate hain padhne ke liye, 2023-24 mein teen lakh tees hazar Bharatiya chhatra America mein padhai ke liye gaye the ya wahan par ... ye data hum log ke paas hai. Haal hi mein hum logon ne dekha kuch reports jisme ki U.S. sarkar ke taraf se kuch updated guidance aayi hai visa applications ko leke students ko. Jahan tak Bharatiya chhatron ka welfare ka sawal hai ye humare liye ek sarvopari hai ... Bharat sarkar ke liye. Aur jo bhi iss prakar ke ghatnayein ya developments hoti hain visa matter ko leke hum usko bade peni nazar se usko follow karte hain, dekhte hain. Aur main ye bhi kehna chahunga ki jahan tak visa policy ya visa ke dene ka sawal hai ye ek sovereign function hai. Lekin humara ye manna hoga ki jo bhi applications Bharatiya chhatra dwara daayar kiya jayega usko apni merit pe dekha jaye taaki jo humare chhatralog hain wo America sahi samay par apni universities pahunche taaki apne jo academic program hain usko sahi samay par wo join karein aur sahi samay par uski shuruaat ho. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: Vishal, as far as Indian students going to America for studies are concerned, in 2023-24, three lakh thirty thousand Indian students went to America for education or are thereabouts this data is with us. Recently, we have seen some reports where the U.S. government has issued updated guidance regarding visa applications for students. As far as the welfare of Indian students is concerned, this is a priority for the Indian government. And whatever incidents or developments happen regarding visa matters, we closely follow and monitor them. I would also like to say that while visa policy and issuing visas is a sovereign function, we believe that all applications submitted by Indian students should be considered on their merit so that our students can reach their universities in America on time, join their academic programs on time, and start them promptly.] We have seen reports suggesting U.S. government's updated guidance regarding students and exchange visitor visa applicants. The welfare of Indian students abroad remains of utmost priority to the Government of India. We will continue to follow further developments in this regard. While we note that issuance of visa is a sovereign function, we hope that the application of Indian students will be considered on merit and they will be able to join their academic programs on time. 2023-24, 330,000 students were there. This year, the updated figure we don't have ... we are talking about 2023-24. For updated figures, you can also visit the relevant websites of the U.S. Government. Possibly you will get it there. Somya, question regarding Afghan visa. We have a new visa module now, in place for Afghan nationals. This was, I think, put in place last month. The old visa module that we had ... program, it was called e-emergency ex-miscellaneous visa. That has been discontinued and We have a new visa module now, in place for Afghan nationals. which came into effect on 29th April, so last month, 29th April. All Afghan nationals can now apply for Indian visas in six categories. And they are medical visa, medical attendant visa, business visa, entry visa, student visa, and UN diplomatic visa. Afghan nationals who are in India on visas that were issued as per the old policy will have to now get it converted as per the new policy. They will have to approach the FRRO here in Delhi or in any other part of India, as the case may be. The new visa module will help strengthen India - Afghanistan people-to-people ties further. On Iran ... the three Indian nationals who have recently gone missing, I have given you an update. In regard to what Pranay said that there were earlier also cases of some people having gone missing. On that, I think people have returned back. So, sometimes these things happen. As and when such things happen, we take up these issues seriously through our embassy, and we see that our nationals are provided for, and we take care of their welfare, their safety and security. Aapka laga hua sawal tha na, woh aap usko jod rahe hain. Jahan tak Bharatiya nagrik ka sawal hai jab bhi kuch aisa hota hai to hum log wahan ki sarkar se mil ke, unse baatchit kar ke unko wapas ... unki suraksha ke liye wapas laate hain, aur ghar vaapasi ke liye unse baatchit karte hain taki wapas aaye jaldi se. [Approximate Translation: Answer in Hindi: The question you raised ... you are linking it. As far as Indian citizens are concerned, whenever something like this happens, along with the local government there ... we talk to them, bring them back safely, and discuss their return home so that they come back quickly.] Kallol Bhattacharjee, The Hindu: Sir there is a report that Bangladesh is building a humanitarian corridor with Myanmar. There are issues of security involved there, so I would like to hear your response. Gautam Lahiri: The same question, because most of the political parties and including the Bangladesh Army has opposed the idea for a proposed corridor, human corridor, whether there is an important and unique, how India would look at it? ... this corridor. Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Bloomberg: Sudhi Ranjan Sen from Bloomberg. I wanted India's understanding on the statement that President Trump gave, discouraging Apple to make in India, and especially after India made all that effort to bring the Apple ecosystem to India. And also, Sir, if you could give us an update on the trade negotiations that have happened with India and US, are we expecting an early harvest, if so, how early? Suhasini Haidar: In a US court of international trade, the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has submitted a statement in which he has claimed once again that the US not only mediated to avert what they call a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, but that trade was used as a leverage. You've probably seen the document, and I know that you have already from this very stage made your statement already on the US having no role. My question is, now that the US is saying this on the record under oath, because it's a statement that could invite perjury if it's not true. How is India going to get over this? I would bring your attention to the fact that on the day that this was submitted, May 23rd, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was discussing the Bilateral Trade Agreement there. The Foreign Secretary is in Washington. He has been meeting his counterparts. Has he raised this continuous American claim that has been denied on the record by India? I had a second short question, if you would permit. External Affairs Minister had gone to Germany. It was the first visit with the new government in place. I wondered if he brought up the issue of this young girl, Ariha, and whether there is any kind of new assurance from the German side that her case will be looked at again. Thank you. Keshav Padmanabhan, ThePrint: Thank you, Sir. Keshav from ThePrint. My first question is, Secretary of State Marco Rubio last evening said that officials from countries will be ... his exact statement is that there will be visa restrictions for officials from countries that harass American officials, which is a very wide-ranging term. So, is India concerned about this? Because anything could be considered under this. And therefore, Indian officials could get sanctioned or face restrictions by the new US policy. So, has India looked through this? Is it aware? Does it have any position on this? And secondly, on the question raised with regards to the US affidavit in this international court, in this court on trade yesterday in the US. The judges threw out the tariffs. What is the understanding from the Indian side or any guidance to our exporters with regards to the reciprocal tariffs that have been introduced by the government, which now the court has said is not applicable? Is there any suggestion or guidance that the government has so far on this? Thank you. Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Kallol and Gautam, your questions on this particular development regarding humanitarian corridor. As I think I have earlier also spoken on this, we follow such developments closely. Sudhi, on your question, see the India-US bilateral trade agreement negotiations are going on. We just had a team visiting the United States. So, we will have to wait for the negotiations to come to conclusion and as and when we have an update, we will share with you. But this is an ongoing matter, so you will have to bear with us. Also, on trade negotiations, I told you that these are ongoing matters and hopefully we will have something to update you as and when things come to fruition. Suhasini, on your question, see I have already answered our position on this particular issue. I was answering one of the previous questions. Now, I have stated my position and when I state my position, I do it as spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India with flags on both sides. That has an implication, it means a lot. On Foreign Secretary's visit, Foreign Secretary is visiting the United States from 27th to 29th. You would have seen and followed the kind of meetings that he has been having there. We will have a readout of the visit hopefully soon. He met Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler to advance India-US cooperation in critical and emerging technologies. He also led a delegation comprising Deputy NSA for the inter-agency discussions on India-US COMPACT for the 21st century. This meeting happened in the White House ... discussions at the White House. And it focused on implementing the TRUST initiative, which again is about critical minerals ... and critical and emerging technology partnerships. They also discussed cooperation in area of defense and energy domains, as well as strengthening the Quad, IMEC, I2U2 initiatives. Foreign Secretary also had a meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and they discussed all aspects of India-US relationship. In particular, they agreed that technology ... tech, trade and talent will shape the India-US partnership in the 21st century and they both reaffirmed commitment to further strengthening the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership. So, whether this particular issue was raised, I would say that all issues of mutual interest was discussed between India and the United States. On the issue of Ariha Shah, we have been very closely following up this issue with the German authorities. I do not have an update to share, but hopefully we will come back to you. This is an important issue. We attached a lot of importance to it. We have been in touch with the government, not just the government authorities in Germany, but also parents on our side and we want to do our best to ensure our welfare and well-being. Visa matters, Keshav, are sovereign functions. We saw some guidance coming from the United States on student visa matters. There we made a point that while it is a sovereign function, we expect and we hope that application of Indian students will be considered a merit, and they will be able to join their courses, their academic programs in the United States on time. There are other categories of visas which are also issued, and hopefully these are functions which lie in the sovereign domain, and we should be respectful of them. On the tariff issue, again the affidavit that has been submitted on that particular issue, I have made our position very clear. I would refer you to our comments on that. Unidentified Speaker: [Inaudible] I just want to follow up on a question from a previous question from a colleague about India-Canada ties. Has India received an invite to the G7 in Canada? Manas, PTI: This is Manas from PTI. Again, a question on Bangladesh.A similar question. We have seen a fresh wave of protests in Dhaka and every political party in Bangladesh is actually demanding an early election. They are asking for a specific time frame. They are asking for the elections by the end of this year or a specific time frame. But instead of answering these questions, Muhammad Yunus, the interim government chief is trying to blame India by saying that the current crisis is a kind of product of conspiracy to establish Indian hegemony. So how do you see these developments and particularly the very serious allegations by the interim head? Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: On Canada, I had spoken about your particular question in the last presser. On that, I don't have an update. I have no information to share on this issue. Let me check again and come back to you. On Bangladesh. Manas, we have articulated our position very clear, as far as elections in Bangladesh is concerned, and we have done so consistently. Bangladesh needs to ascertain the will and mandate of the people by holding an inclusive, fair and free elections at an early date. With that, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the close of this session. Thank you very much. New Delhi May 29, 2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address INDIAN ARMY CONTINGENT DEPARTS FOR INDIA-MONGOLIA JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE NOMADIC ELEPHANT India - Press Information Bureau Ministry of Defence Posted On: 29 MAY 2025 7:32PM by PIB Delhi The Indian Army contingent departed today, for 17th edition of India- Mongolia Joint Military Exercise NOMADIC ELEPHANT. The exercise is scheduled to be conducted in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 31st May to 13th June 2025. Exercise NOMADIC ELEPHANT is an annual event conducted alternatively in India and Mongolia. Last edition of the same exercise was conducted at Umroi, Meghalaya in July 2024. The Indian contingent comprising 45 personnel will be represented mainly by troops from a battalion of the ARUNACHAL SCOUTS. The Mongolian Armed Forces contingent, also comprising similar strength, will be represented by 150 Special Forces unit. Aim of the exercise is to enhance interoperability between the two forces while employing joint task force in semi conventional operations in semi urban/ mountainous terrain under United Nations mandate. The scope of this exercise involves Platoon level Field Training Exercise. During the exercise, Indian and Mongolian troops will engage in various training activities to include endurance training, reflex shooting, room intervention, small team tactics and rock craft training, among others. In addition, to enhance complexity of exercise, aspects pertaining to Cyber Warfare are also being incorporated in this edition of the exercise. Soldiers from both sides will also learn from each other's operational experience. The exercise underscores the shared commitment of India and Mongolia towards regional security, peace and stability. Exercise NOMADIC ELEPHANT reinforces the India-Mongolia relationship as a cornerstone of regional cooperation, fostering strong military ties and promotion of cultural understanding. A testament to the enduring bond of friendship, trust and cultural linkages between India and Mongolia, the exercise sets the stage for meaningful professional engagement, highlighting the unwavering commitment of both nations to broader defence cooperation. **** NA (Release ID: 2132473) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Nari Shakti played a crucial role in India's effective action against terrorism during Operation Sindoor: Raksha Mantri India - Press Information Bureau Ministry of Defence Shri Rajnath Singh flags-in INSV Tarini as Lt Cdr Dilna K & Lt Cdr Roopa return home following a successful circumnavigation expedition 'Navika Sagar Parikrama II' The two women Navy officers become first from India to accomplish a feat in double-handed mode Posted On: 29 MAY 2025 6:49PM by PIB Delhi "Women pilots and other female soldiers played a crucial role in the effective action taken by India against terrorism in Pakistan and PoK during Operation Sindoor," said Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh while addressing the flag-in ceremony of INSV Tarini in Goa on May 29, 2025. Raksha Mantri asserted that ever since the participation of women in the Armed Forces has increased, they have performed exceptionally well in every role and fulfilled every responsibility. "From the heights of Siachen to the depths of the ocean, Indian women are fulfilling many responsibilities, which has further bolstered the security circle of the country. Today, the doors of Sainik Schools are open for girls and 17 women are passing out from National Defence Academy this month. Operation Sindoor witnessed active and effective participation of women in every branch of the Indian Armed Forces," said Shri Rajnath Singh. As the two brave Indian Navy Women officers - Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa A - returned home after the successful completion of 'Navika Sagar Parikrama II', Raksha Mantri commended their courage, commitment and endurance in completing the historic circumnavigation expedition. He termed their voyage as the epitome of Nari Shakti. The duo, in the second edition of the expedition, has become the first from India to accomplish such a feat in double-handed mode. The officers covered a distance of 25,600 nautical miles over a period of eight months with port calls at Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falkland Islands) and Cape Town (South Africa). Shri Rajnath Singh praised the duo for facing physical & mental obstacles head on, overcoming them with strength and proving to the world that they are the brave daughters of India. He commended the mental strength of the women officers as they successfully dealt with the feeling of loneliness during their eight-month-long voyage. He stated that not everyone can accomplish the feat achieved by Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa, which speaks volumes of their grit, determination & strength. On the warm welcome received by the duo during various port calls by the natives and Indian expatriates alike, Raksha Mantri said the two women officers have made the nation proud by waving the Tricolour all over the world. "You must document the experiences of this journey with the same spirit with which you completed it. Record your bitter-sweet experiences and learnings so that the future generation, especially our young women, are inspired by it," Shri Rajnath Singh told the courageous duo. Raksha Mantri recalled his virtual conversation with the women officers days before the flag-in, stating that the interaction had filled him with emotions. He expressed happiness on being part of the welcome ceremony in Goa, terming it as a matter of great pride for the country. Describing the expedition as the testament to Indian Navy's bravery and resilience in overcoming varied challenges, Shri Rajnath Singh congratulated the personnel who contributed to the expedition. He credited the instructors, technical team, and the resources of the Navy for the successful completion of Navika Sagar Parikrama II. In his address, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi praised the duo's exemplary resilience, perseverance and indomitable spirit. Highlighting their journey as a tribute to the glorious maritime legacy and a significant step in fostering national maritime consciousness, he recounted their story as an inspiration to every Indian redefining the spirit of Nari Shakti. As part of the event, a photo Essay Book titled 'Breaking Waves, Making History' chronicling the extraordinary circumnavigation expedition was released. The book provides a narrative of the remarkable voyage with illustrated photographs and insights into life at sea with a unique perspective on maritime adventure and seafaring exploration. The successful completion of Navika Sagar Parikrama II reinforces Indian Navy's commitment to nurturing talent, promoting adventure and showcasing India's self-reliance in oceanic exploration. The expedition was flagged off from INS Mandovi, Goa, by the Chief of the Naval Staff on October 02, 2024. The first edition of the expedition was completed by a six-member women crew in 2017-18. Chief Secretary of Goa government Dr V Candavelou; Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services Vice Admiral Arti Sarin; Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral V Srinivas; other senior Naval officers; Commander Abhilash Tomy (Retd) and the families of Lt Cdr Dilna K & Lt Cdr Roopa attended the flag-in ceremony. *** VK/SR/VM/Savvy/KB (Release ID: 2132450) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Make-in-India played a key role during Operation Sindoor; AMCA Execution Model to allow private sector to further bolster indigenous capabilities; Govt-Industry synergy can make India a developed nation by 2047: Raksha Mantri India - Press Information Bureau Ministry of Defence "PoK is part of India; It will voluntarily return to our mainstream; PM Modi-led Govt committed to its Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat resolve" "Annual defence production crossed all-time high figure of Rs 1,46,000 crore; Record over Rs 24,000 crore worth of defence equipment exported" Posted On: 29 MAY 2025 12:17PM by PIB Delhi "Make-in-India is an essential component in our national security and it played a key role in India's effective action against terrorism during Operation Sindoor," Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh has told industry captains, emphasising that through the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme Execution Model, the private sector will get an opportunity to participate in a mega defence project along with public sector companies for the first time, further bolstering indigenous defence capabilities. He was addressing the Inaugural Plenary of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit in New Delhi on May 29, 2025. Raksha Mantri termed the Execution Model for AMCA programme to build 5th generation fighter aircraft in India as a bold and decisive step, which will take the domestic aerospace sector to greater heights. "Under the AMCA project, the plan is to develop five prototypes, which will be followed by series production. It is a key milepost in the history of the Make-in-India programme," he said. Highlighting the success of Make-in-India during Operation Sindoor, Shri Rajnath Singh stated that the Indian Armed Forces would not have been able to take effective action against terrorism in Pakistan and PoK if the nation had not strengthened its indigenous defence capabilities. He described Make-in-India as crucial for security and prosperity, stating that the use of indigenous systems during Operation Sindoor has proved that India has the power to penetrate any armour of the enemy. "We destroyed the terrorist hideouts and then the military bases. We could have done a lot more, but we presented a great example of coordination of power and restraint," he said. Raksha Mantri asserted that India has redesigned and redefined its strategy & response against terrorism, and Pakistan has realised that running the business of terrorism is not cost-effective, rather it may have to pay a heavy price. He added that India has recalibrated its engagement and scope of dialogue with Pakistan, and now talks will only be held on terrorism and PoK. Shri Rajnath Singh again made it clear that PoK is a part of India and the people who got geographically and politically separated will, sooner or later, voluntarily return to India. "Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi-led Government is committed to its resolve of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. Most of the people in PoK have a deep connection with India. There are only a few who have been misled. The situation of our brothers & sisters living in PoK is similar to that of Shakti Singh, the younger brother of brave warrior Maharana Pratap. Even after separation, the confidence & faith of the elder brother towards his younger brother remains intact and he says: ' , '," he said. Raksha Mantri emphasised that the Government has given priority to policy clarity, indigenisation, economic resilience and strategic autonomy, and the success of these efforts can be ensured only when all the stakeholders, including innovators, entrepreneurs & manufacturers become strong partners in this national mission. He exhorted the Indian industry to focus on national interests, more than company interests. "If securing company interests is your karma, safeguarding national interests is your dharma," he said. Sharing his views on the theme of the summit 'Building Trust & India First', Shri Rajnath Singh stated that it is a matter of great pride that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India has become the fourth largest economy. "It is not just a matter of the economy growing in size; it is also about the world's ever-increasing trust in India and its trust in itself. Today, India is not just a consumer of defence technology, but has also become a producer and exporter. When the world approaches us for high-end defence systems, it is not just a market indication, it is a respect for our capability," he said. Raksha Mantri highlighted the important role being played by the defence sector in India's growth journey by enumerating the feats achieved due to the initiatives taken by the Government in the last decade. "10-11 years ago, our defence production was approx. Rs 43,000 crore. Today, it has crossed the record figure of Rs 1,46,000 crore, with a contribution of over Rs 32,000 crore by the private sector. Our defence exports, which were around Rs 600-700 crore 10 years ago, have surpassed a record figure of Rs 24,000 crore today. Our weapons, systems, sub-systems, components, and services are reaching around 100 countries. Over 16,000 MSMEs, associated with the defence sector, have become the backbone of the supply chain. These companies are not only strengthening our self-reliance journey, but are also providing employment to lakhs of people," he said. Shri Rajnath Singh added that, today, India is not only producing fighter aircraft and missile systems, it is also getting ready for New Age Warfare Technology. "We are continuously making headway even in frontier technologies. Our progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Defence, Unmanned Systems, and Space-Based Security is being recognised on the global stage. India has the potential to become a development hub for engineering, high precision manufacturing and future technologies," he said. Dubbing the Indian industry as the carrier of the collective aspirations of the nation, Raksha Mantri said that only the common efforts & synergy of the Government and the Industry can make India a developed nation by 2047. He stressed that, in today's times, the strength of a nation is not evaluated just by its economic index like GDP, foreign investment or export figures, it also depends on the confidence a country can inspire in its citizens and the global community. "Trust lasts only when a country has the confidence that it can protect its geopolitical interests, ensure the safety of its citizens, and remain stable in the face of future uncertainties. The morale of the nation remains high only when it knows that its today is secure, and tomorrow is safe," he added. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Defence Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat, Vice Chief of the Army Staff Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani, CII President Shri Sanjiv Puri and industry leaders were among those who attended the event. *** VK/Savvy (Release ID: 2132239) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Brazil says it supports Iran's enrichment right IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency May 29, 2025 Moscow, IRNA -- Chief Advisor to the Brazilian President on International Affairs, Celso Amorim, says his country supports Iran's right to utilize peaceful nuclear energy and enrichment. Amorim and Ali-Akbar Ahmadian, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), met and held discussions on the sidelines of the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues in Moscow, Russia, late on Wednesday. The two sides stressed the importance of ongoing consultations among independent countries to combat unilateralism. Amorim expressed Brazil's support for Iran's right to utilize peaceful nuclear energy and enrichment. For his part, Ahmadian reaffirmed Iran's commitment to maintaining its nuclear independence, including its fuel cycle and enrichment capabilities, adding that while Tehran is open to dialogue, it will not compromise on these issues. He also condemned the crimes committed by the Israeli regime in Gaza, asserting that the world must not remain silent in the face of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. He emphasized the importance of unity among nations in combating those responsible for these atrocities. Both sides underscored the need to enhance bilateral trade and scientific exchanges. 3266**4354 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran plays down speculation on 'imminent' US deal, rejects Israeli 'fake news' Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 7:24 PM Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has stressed Iran's commitment to diplomacy, slamming media disinformation aimed at derailing the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the United States over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Araghchi made the remarks in a post on his X account on Thursday, responding to growing media speculation about an alleged imminent agreement between Tehran and Washington. "Media is speculating about an imminent Iran-U.S. deal. Not sure if we are there yet. Iran is sincere about a diplomatic solution that will serve the interests of all sides. But getting there requires an agreement that will fully terminate all sanctions and uphold Iran's nuclear rightsincluding enrichment," he said. Araghchi reiterated that meaningful progress can only be achieved through negotiations, not media narratives, in response to a report by FOX News. The report cited a new intelligence assessment claiming that Iran is continuing its active nuclear weapons program and that the program could be used to launch long-range missiles. However, FOX News acknowledged that the so-called new intelligence contradicts the statement made by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who told the Senate Intelligence Committee in March that the American intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon." Araghchi also condemned what he described as disinformation aimed at derailing diplomacy, criticizing Israel for using Iran as a tool to discredit American critics, calling such tactics "low," even by Israel's standards, warning that they undermine genuine efforts to resolve tensions through dialogue. "Path to a deal goes through the negotiating table and not the media. As for the latest fake news against Iran-U.S. diplomacy: using Iran to attack American critics is low, even for Israel," he added. The US and Iran have held five rounds of nuclear talks since April 12 and are expected to meet again for negotiations aimed at reaching a new agreement. The two countries have been at odds over the level of uranium enrichment. US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has personally warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to disrupt the talks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran, China intend to enhance bilateral cooperation to strategic level Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 6:27 PM Iran and China have emphasized the enhancement of cooperation to a strategic level, stressing that their bilateral relations boost regional security. Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadian on Thursday stressed that "cooperation between Tehran and Beijing can bring security and economic prosperity to the region", emphasizing the civilizational heritage of both ancient countries. He made the remarks during a meeting with Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, Chen Wenqing, in the Russian capital of Moscow. "Today's global security mechanisms are not fair since they are exploited by the West to serve its own interests," said Ahmadian, stressing the importance of continuous consultations among independent countries to ensure regional security. The SNSC secretary also touched on the upcoming visit of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to China, noting that the two sides would focus on implementing the existing agreements. He further emphasized the need to raise the level of trade exchanges to match that of political relations, adding that Iran always keeps its allies informed about the course of its negotiations with other parties. Chen, for his part, said that Iran is one of the influential countries in the region and that Beijing attaches great importance to its ties with Tehran. He also warned against hostile plots hatched by enemies aimed at obstructing Iran-China cooperation, noting that the bilateral relations have entered a new phase and that, with the continued efforts of the leaders of the countries, this cooperation will reach the highest level. Heading the Chinese delegation at the Moscow Security Conference, Chen also expressed hope that Iran and China could develop a joint roadmap for combating terrorism. The countries signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2021, which outlines details of their plan to advance their strategic ties over the following 25 years. China remains Iran's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching significant levels despite external pressures. Both countries have faced illegal and unilateral sanctions imposed by external actors, most notably the United States. Tehran and Beijing deem the bans to be counterproductive, while singling them out for being too weak to meaningfully affect their respective economies. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Report: Persian Gulf states told Trump they oppose US strike on Iran Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 3:32 PM Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE have told US President Donald Trump, during his recent trip to the trio Persian Gulf states, that they oppose any possible US military strike against Iran, American news outlet Axios reports. The US and Iran have held five rounds of nuclear talks since April 12 and are expected to meet again for negotiations aimed at reaching a new agreement. The two countries have been at odds over the level of uranium enrichment. Trump said Wednesday he has personally warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to disrupt the talks. Citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the ongoing talks, Axios wrote on Thursday that Saudi, Qatari and Emirati leaders all called on Trump during his visit to West Asia on May 13-16 to pursue a renewed nuclear agreement with Tehran. In 2018, 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. Despite their past opposition to the nuclear deal, the three Persian Gulf countries now strongly favor diplomacy over conflict, citing fears that a strike would provoke Iranian retaliation, particularly since all the three states host US military bases, Axios said. Trump was told directly by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani that their respective countries would bear the brunt of any escalation, it said. The Arab leaders are also worried about Netanyahu acting unilaterally or influencing the American president to abandon talks in favor of military action, it added. Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi specifically expressed concern over an Israeli strike against Iran, reiterating their support for diplomatic negotiations. Since 2015, when the nuclear deal was signed by Iran, the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany, the position held by the three Persian Gulf states has shifted, as their current focus is now on regional stability and economic development, the report said. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have taken steps to de-escalate tensions with Iran, including high-level diplomatic visits. A recent trip to Tehran by Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, who met with Iran's Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, signaled Riyadh's opposition to any military strike, underscoring the Persian Gulf's new preference for dialogue and diplomacy over confrontation. Saudi Arabia has gradually been normalizing relations with Iran over the last two years. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran, Tajikistan sign four cooperation agreements to enhance ties in key sectors Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 11:00 AM Iran and Tajikistan have signed four cooperation agreements to strengthen their relations in key sectors, including energy, labor and social welfare, technology, and railway transport. Iran's First Vice President Mahammad Reza Aref and Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda put their signatures on the documents in Dushanbe on Thursday. During a joint press conference after the signing ceremony, Aref called for the implementation of the agreements as soon as possible. He also noted the two countries enjoy strong political ties. "The shared positions of Iran and Tajikistan on regional and global issues, as well as their cooperation in regional unions, are promising for the development of bilateral relations in all fields," he added. Rasulzoda, for his part, expressed confidence that the signed documents will play an important role in promotion of relations between Iran and Tajikistan in the fields of economy, investment, health, science and technology. He further called for the reinforcement of economic and investment cooperation, saying the two friendly and brotherly states have good cooperation in regional and international organizations. Heading a high-ranking delegation, Aref arrived in Dushanbe on Thursday to hold meetings with Tajik officials and attend the International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation. Tajikistan, in collaboration with UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), is hosting a high-level international conference on glaciers' preservation from May 29-31 to highlight the vital role of glaciers in maintaining global ecological balance and addressing water-related challenges. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's security chief pledges Moscow's determination to boost military-technical cooperation with Iran Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 9:51 AM Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has expressed his country's determination to keep enhancing cooperation with Iran in the military-technical field. Sergei Shoigu made the remarks during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, in Moscow on Wednesday. He also noted that Tehran-Moscow relations are actively developing in all sectors. Regular contacts between the leaders of the two countries indicate a "high level of Russian-Iranian political dialogue," he added. Shoigu further referred to an agreement signed by Iran and Russia on a comprehensive strategic partnership, saying the 20-year deal provides a legal basis for developing political, security, economic, cultural, and social ties between the two countries. Ahmadian, for his part, emphasized that the implementation of bilateral agreements will significantly increase the volume of Tehran-Moscow economic exchanges. Meanwhile, the top Iranian and Russian security officials called for strengthening cooperation between the two countries in regional and international arenas. Iran and Russia, both subject to illegal Western sanctions, have over the past years deepened their relations in a range of areas. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed the strategic partnership treaty together during a ceremony in the Kremlin on January 17. On April 21, Putin officially ratified the landmark pact. A month later, the Iranian Parliament approved the agreement that includes defense cooperation, the fight against terrorism, collaboration in the energy and industrial sectors, financial integration, transportation infrastructure development, agricultural partnership, and exchanges in the areas of culture, science, and technology. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran will not allow any disruption in ties with Saudi Arabia: FM Araghchi Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 8:19 AM Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterates his country's determination to maintain "brotherly" ties with Saudi Arabia, saying Tehran will not allow anyone to disrupt the relationship. "We are completely serious about the relations with Saudi Arabia. Our ties and neighborhood policy, which is not new, are very important. Saudi Arabia holds a very significant position in this policy, and we will continue our brotherly relations and will not allow any disruption in these relations," Araghchi emphasized on Thursday, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported. Pointing to the Saudi police arrest of an Iranian pilgrim in the city of Medina, the foreign minister added that Tehran is in constant contact with Iranian officials in Saudi Arabia to prevent any disruption in the dispatch of pilgrims to the annual Hajj pilgrimage and address the relevant issues. In a post on his X account on Tuesday, Araghchi had said Iran denounces any attempt to harm Muslim unity, particularly in the spiritual atmosphere of the Hajj. "We are determined to not allow anyone to sabotage relations with our brotherly neighbors, including the progressive path of Iran and Saudi Arabia," the Iranian foreign minister wrote. Muslim world, region benefit from cordial Tehran-Riyadh ties: Saudi Minister Separately, Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said on Wednesday that his country's very good and positive relations with Iran will be beneficial to the Muslim world and the region. Al Saud made the comment in a meeting with Head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Alireza Bayat in Jeddah where the two sides reviewed several topics of mutual interest. He said Saudi Arabia will continue to fully cooperate with Iran to address its requests for coordination among various bodies to solve issues related to Iranian pilgrims. He added praised the good relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia as the result of the two countries' will. The minister emphasized that Saudi Arabia is keen to implement the regulations regarding safeguarding security and peace for all pilgrims who come to the kingdom from across the Muslim world to perform the annual rituals. Al Saud also thanked Iranian officials and pilgrims for their good cooperation with Saudi Arabia. He emphasized that the Saudi kingdom would use its utmost capacity to serve the pilgrims. The Iranian official, for his part, hailed the Saudi government's efforts to facilitate the pilgrimage during the Hajj rituals. He said Iran welcomes further contacts with Saudi Arabia to settle any issues in this regard. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US-Iran Nuclear Talks Stall, Raising Risk Of Escalation And Sanctions By Kian Sharifi May 29, 2025 As the fifth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States wrapped up in Rome earlier this month, the public saw little sign of breakthrough. But there have been reports about proposals to break the deadlock as Washington is insisting Iran give up uranium enrichment and Tehran rejecting the demand altogether. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who leads Tehran's negotiating team in the talks, told state media that Iran is reviewing proposals by Omani mediators but did not disclose any details. Oman's Pitches Araqchi briefed the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on May 25, shortly after the latest round of talks concluded in Rome. Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a lawmaker and member of the committee, told Iranian media after the briefing that the Omanis had tabled two proposals. One suggestion is that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities for six months and resume them later. Ardestani said Iran "has not accepted" the proposals. He said Iran worries that by giving in to the demand, it will encourage the United States to ask for more concessions. Another proposal is the formation of a regional nuclear consortium that would enhance oversight of Iran's nuclear activities and reassure the West that Iran remains within agreed enrichment levels. The proposal was initially reported by Iranian media to have come from Tehran, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei denied this. "This wasn't Iran's proposal," he told reporters, though he added Tehran would "welcome" the idea, "so long as it does not replace Iran's right to enrich uranium on its own soil." The consortium could potentially include US involvement, and Iran's nuclear energy chief Mohammad Eslami on May 28 suggested Tehran would be open to accrediting Americans inspectors working under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "If there is an agreement, there is a possibility that American inspectors will be allowed access to Iranian nuclear facilities," he said. Critics argue Tehran is using the offer to pressure Washington into softening its stance on enrichment. "For the moment, the jury is still out. We don't know whether there's going to be an agreement or not," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told journalists attending a weeklong seminar at the agency in Vienna on May 28. Flexibility On Enrichment? The debate over uranium enrichment has become a matter of national pride and identity for Iran. Araqchi has argued the Islamic republic has paid too high a price -- namely losing several nuclear scientists to assassinations -- to simply abandon its enrichment program. The administration of US President Donald Trump maintains that Iran must cease all enrichment activities, a position US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently defended as essential "because enrichment enables weaponization." Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed that stance during a recent Senate hearing, declaring that "any level of domestic enrichment is unacceptable and poses a direct threat." Iran, however, remains defiant. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed Washington's demands as "outrageous" and "nonsense," while Araqchi has vowed that Iran will continue enriching uranium "with or without a deal." Alan Eyre, a distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute and former Persian-language spokesman for the US State Department, says the Trump administration has a pattern of starting with a hard-line stance but eventually settling for compromise and "declaring victory." "It's possible that the United States will reconsider its red lines," he told RFE/RL's Radio Farda. Since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal during his first term and reimposed sanctions, the Islamic republic has significantly expanded its nuclear program. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and denies pursuing a bomb. However, it is now enriching uranium to 60 percent purity, which is well above the 3.67 percent cap set by the 2015 accord and close to weapons-grade levels. Despite a languishing economy and weak currency, Iran's President Masud Pezeshkian asserted on May 26 that the country will do fine even without an agreement. "It's not as if we'll die of hunger if they refuse to negotiate with us and impose sanctions. We will find a way," he said. But Iran could be facing more sanctions and even military action in the absence of a deal. European powers have threatened to reimpose UN sanctions against Tehran if it fails to reach an agreement with Washington by the end of June, while US intelligence suggest Israel is preparing to hit Iranian nuclear sites. Axios reports that Trump has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against taking any action that would undermine diplomacy with Iran, though the US president himself has not taken military action off the table if talks collapse. With no date set for the next round of talks, the path forward remains uncertain -- and the longer the stalemate drags on, the greater the risk that diplomacy gives way to escalation. With reporting by Hannah Kaviani of RFE/RL's Radio Farda Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-us-nuclear- talks-uranium-enrichment/33427568.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Courtesy call on Foreign Minister IWAYA from the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Japan Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan May 29, 2025 On May 29, from 4:45 p.m. for approximately 25 minutes, Mr. IWAYA Takeshi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, received a courtesy call from the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Japan (led by Ms. Elzbieta Katarzyna UKACIJEWSKA, Chair of the delegation), during their visit to Japan to attend the 42nd Japan-EU Interparliamentary Conference. The overview of the courtesy call is as follows. At the outset, Minister Iwaya welcomed the delegation from the European Parliament and stated that parliamentary exchanges between Japan and the EU have played a significant role in deepening and diversifying Japan-EU relations. Minister Iwaya emphasized that cooperation among like-minded countries is more crucial than ever in this international environment. Minister Iwaya also expressed his hope to further strengthen cooperation between Japan and the EU across all aspects, including political, security, and economic spheres. In response, Ms. UKACIJEWSKA and Mr. Roberts ZILE, Vice-President of the European Parliament, emphasized their hope to promote cooperation across a wide range of areas between Japan and the EU, sharing values and principles, including freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. They stated their intention to further promote parliamentary exchanges between Japan and the EU. Both sides exchanged views on regional issues, including situations of Ukraine and East Asia, and a free and open, rules-based multilateral trading system, among other issues. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan-Canada Foreign Ministers' Telephone Meeting Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan May 29, 2025 On May 29, commencing at 8:15 p.m. for approximately 20 minutes, Mr. IWAYA Takeshi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan held a telephone meeting with the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada. The overview of the meeting is as follows. At the outset, Minister Iwaya extended congratulations on the victory in the recent Canadian federal election and on Minister Anand's appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and expressed his desire to work together with Minister Anand on close cooperation between Japan and Canada, including within the G7. Minister Iwaya stated that he would like to further strengthen Japan-Canada Strategic Partnership with Minister Anand based on "Japan-Canada Action Plan for contributing to a free and open Indo-Pacific region", which functions as the guiding compass. The two Ministers then discussed a wide range of issues on bilateral relations, including the areas of economy such as energy sector. Ministers also concurred on the importance of the Japan-Canada Information Security Agreement, which was agreed in principle in March. The two Ministers held discussions on international issues, such as the situation in East Asia including policies toward North Korea's nuclear and missile issues, the situation in the Middle East, and the situation in Ukraine. Minister Iwaya asked for Minister Anand's understanding and cooperation for the immediate resolution of the abductions issue of Japanese nationals. The two Ministers expressed their hope to hold an in-person meeting at an early timing. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan-U.S. Summit Telephone Talk Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan May 29, 2025 On May 29, commencing at 10:00 p.m. for approximately 25 minutes, Mr. ISHIBA Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan, held a summit telephone talk with the Honorable Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America. The overview of the talk is as follows. Following their telephone talk on May 23, the two leaders exchanged views on ways to further advance Japan-U.S. cooperation in a wide range of fields, encompassing foreign affairs, security and the economy. The two leaders also exchanged views on Japan-U.S. Consultations on the U.S. Tariff Measures. During that discussion, Prime Minister Ishiba conveyed Japan's views on the U.S. tariff measures. The two leaders concurred to have the ministers in charge further deepen their discussions on the issue. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rohingya groups condemn 'global neglect' after 427 refugees feared drowned at sea U.N. says two boats carrying Rohingya from Bangladesh camps sank off Myanmar this month and just 87 people survived. By RFA Staff 2025.05.29 -- Rohingya rights groups on Thursday decried "regional inaction and global neglect" over the plight of the Muslim minority from Myanmar after more than 400 refugees were feared drowned when two boats sank this month after setting sail from Bangladesh. Last week, the U.N. refugee agency said that while details remained unclear, it had collected reports from family members and others about two separate boat tragedies on May 9 and May 10 in which 427 people may have died. It said both boats left from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where about 1 million Rohingya shelter in camps. Twenty-six Rohingya diaspora groups, including the U.K.-based Burmese Rohingya Organization, co-signed Thursday's statement that said just 87 people had survived the two incidents. It added authorities had intercepted a third vessel with 188 people aboard as it attempted to leave Myanmar on May 18. "These back-to-back disasters are the worst loss of Rohingya lives at sea this year, and they expose the deadly consequences of regional inaction and global neglect," the statement said, adding that most of those on board were Rohingya who had already been displaced from their homes in Myanmar's western Rakhine State. "They were fleeing a growing campaign of widespread violence by the Arakan Army, amounting to a continuation of the ethnic cleansing first started by the Burmese military," the statement said, referring to a rebel group that has seized control of most of Rakhine state from the Myanmar military. "Those confined to displacement camps in Burmese military-controlled zones are starving, children are suffering from acute malnutrition, and many families are completely without food," the statement said. Most Rohingya are from Rakhine state and most are stateless, regarded as migrants from South Asia and not one of the ethnic groups classified as indigenous in Buddhist-majority Myanmar's constitution. About 750,000 Rohingya fled a violent Myanmar military clearance campaign in Rakhine in 2017 and crossed into Bangladesh. The U.S. government determined the killings and rapes by the military amounted to genocide. Now each year, thousands of Rohingya attempt to leave Bangladesh and Myanmar aboard rickety vessels for other destinations in Southeast Asia. Reports of boats sinking and mass fatalities are common. The Arakan Army, consisting Buddhist ethnic Rakhine people, has also been implicated in serious rights abuses against Rohingya, human rights groups say, although the AA denies it. In recent years, the AA's position on the persecuted Muslim minority has vacillated. After the 2021 coup in Myanmar when the military seized power from a civilian government, the AA evinced a moderate and inclusive position on the Rohingya. But it has since been accused of mass killings after a campaign by the Myanmar junta to recruit Rohingya men, sometimes forcibly, into militias to fight the AA. 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address On 28 May 2025, seven khwarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Khwarij were killed in two separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan Rawalpindi - May 29, 2025 No PR-178/2025-ISPR On 28 May 2025, seven khwarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Khwarij were killed in two separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. On night 28-29 May, Indian sponsored khwarij attempted to attack a Security Forces Check Post in general area Shawal, North Waziristan District. The attempt was effectively thwarted by own troops and in ensuing fire exchange, six Indian sponsored Khwarij were sent to hell. However, during intense fire exchange, Lieutenant Daniyal Ismail (age: 24 years, resident of District Mardan), a brave young officer who was leading his troops from front, fought gallantly and embraced Shahadat along with his three men. The three soldiers who paid ultimate sacrifice include Naib Subedar Kashif Raza (age: 42 years, resident of District Chakwal), Lance Naik Fiaqat Ali (age: 35 years, resident of District Haripur) and Sepoy Muhammad Hameed (age: 26 years, resident of District Abbottabad). In an another encounter that took place in Chitral District, security forces successfully neutralised one Indian sponsored kharji. Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian sponsored kharji found in the area as the security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of Indian sponsored terrorism from the country, and such sacrifices of our brave men further strengthen our resolve. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), interacted with participants of 'Hilal Talks' at the Army Auditorium today. Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan Rawalpindi - May 29, 2025 No PR-177/2025-ISPR Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), interacted with participants of 'Hilal Talks' at the Army Auditorium today. Spanning interactive sessions and group discussions on a range of international, regional and national issues, Hilal Talks are intended to act as a forum for perspective sharing among members of Pakistan's academic community. As an acknowledgment of the critical role that academia plays in national progress, through innovation, research and in influencing perceptions, the forum brought together around 1800 members of the academic community, comprising Vice Chancellors, Heads of Departments, senior faculty members, principals and students from institutions across Pakistan; majority of whom participated in the Talks through virtual mediums. Special emphasis was on participation from southern districts in Balochistan, AJK and GB. While addressing the participants, the COAS encouraged the academia to play proactive role in promoting national narrative of harmony, stability, peace and progress. Emphasizing the need for critical thinking and imperatives of knowledge-driven economies, the COAS stated that our academic institutions must serve as centers for critical thinking, reasoning and organic innovative solutions for Pakistan's progress. The COAS acknowledged the challenges being faced by higher education including in the field of research, and reiterated Army's commitment in supporting Government's initiatives to improve academic environment and promote innovative research. After a candid Q&A session, participants appreciated the institution of 'Hilal Talks' and expressed confidence that such initiatives would significantly contribute in fostering an atmosphere for sharing ideas, open up avenues for research and innovation, and gradually strengthen national cohesion through sustained interaction. Forum concluded with a shared commitment to work together towards a more secure and prosperous Pakistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Minister adds Russian citizens Vadim Motylev and Danila Kozlovsky to the list of personae non gratae Republic of Latvia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs 29.05.2025 In accordance with a decision taken by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braze, pursuant to Section 61, Paragraph two of the Immigration Law, musician Vadim Motylev (stage name - Slimus) and a film and theatre actor, producer and director Danila Kozlovsky have been included in the list of personae non gratae in the Republic of Latvia. The said persons are subject to a ban on entering Latvia for an indefinite period of time. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with competent authorities, including the Latvian State Security Service, evaluates the facts that have come to its knowledge and, in accordance with the above mentioned law, determines whether persons should be put on the list of personae non gratae in the Republic of Latvia. In separate cases, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs the public about the decision. The Ministry reiterates its call on the organisers of public events to always carefully ascertain the reputation and actions of any performer to be invited, abiding by and respecting Latvia's principles-based support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Latvia condemns in the strongest terms the aggression unleashed by Russia against Ukraine and its territorial integrity in 2014, as well as the unprovoked and unjustified full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's address at the meeting of the United Russia Party General Council Commission on International Cooperation and Support for Compatriots Abroad, Perm, May 29, 2025 29 May 2025 14:47 909-29-05-2025 Mr Yakushev, Mr Makhonin, Mr Klimov, Colleagues, Friends, Before we start discussing issues on our agenda, I would like to congratulate the participants on the 10th meeting of the Commission. Since its establishment, the Commission has accumulated a wealth of experience, and it can be said with confidence that its operations in accordance with President Vladimir Putin's instructions are promoting the coordination of actions by the Foreign Ministry and other foreign policy agencies, as well as party and parliamentary diplomacy, in the interests of protecting and strengthening Russia's positions on the international stage. It is important that not only representatives of United Russia but also other national political forces are taking part in this work. I see this as proof of social consensus regarding the foreign policy formulated by our President. Our agenda today is focused on promoting the international and foreign economic ties of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. It is hardly worth speaking in detail about the role of interregional and border cooperation in the development of Russia's relations with our foreign partners. It is a vital combination of friendship, cooperation and mutual benefit at the level of regional organisations. Therefore, it is not surprising that encouraging closer interregional and border cooperation is a priority of the Foreign Ministry and the diplomatic service in general. I would like to emphasise that our regions have reacted to changes in the geopolitical situation and quickly redirected the bulk of their external ties towards reliable partners, primarily former Soviet republics. A graphic example is the active development of interregional cooperation with our Belarusian friends, which is given a powerful impetus at the annual Forum of Regions of Russia and Belarus. The strengthening of interregional interaction with the Republic of Belarus and other EAEU member states is a vital part of our common efforts to boost Eurasian integration processes. Our great neighbour, China, is playing a major role in the group of Global South and East countries. We also welcome the dynamic development of relations between Russian regions and their partners in India, Vietnam, Turkiye, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Argentina and many other countries of the Global Majority. The heads of concerned Russian regions have joined in the activities of bilateral intergovernmental commissions and the implementation of promising joint projects. A recent positive example is the construction of a motor bridge across the Tumannaya River on the Russian-Chinese border, which was launched in April 2025. Major international forums held in Russian regions offer a venue for strengthening interregional cooperation. I will name some of them. The INNOPROM international industrial exhibition, which is annually held in Yekaterinburg, attracts dozens of foreign delegations. Major agreements are signed on its sidelines in the areas of trade, the economy, education, science and culture. The 2nd International Forum MTC North-South: New Horizons was held in Astrakhan in November 2024. The 16th International Economic Forum Russia-Islamic World: KazanForum was held in May 2025, and the Caucasus Investment Forum has ended the other day in Mineralnye Vody. In April 2025, Tashkent hosted the first Forum of Regions of the CIS Member States. We hope that it will become a regular event. Participation in the specialised BRICS mechanisms offers broad opportunities for realising the regions' foreign economic potential. A constituent assembly of the BRICS+ Association of Cities and Municipalities was held in Kazan during Russia's BRICS Chairmanship. Nizhny Novgorod hosted the Forum of BRICS Sister Cities and Municipalities, and the 6th International Municipal BRICS+ Forum in Moscow was attended by delegates from the group's countries, their partners and other guests invited to the forum's various events. Profiting by this occasion, I would like to note that, in principle, we have never refused to engage in dialogue with countries ruled by unfriendly governments, including at the regional and municipal levels. To quote President of Russia Vladimir Putin, there are no unfriendly peoples for us. If their governments come to their senses and admit the failure of their aggressive and revanchist policy towards Russia, failure that is now clear to everyone, then they are welcome to approach us. We will look at what they come in with and decide on our response, taking into account the history of our relations with them over the past 30 years, including the results of their compliance tests. Unlike many Western governments, we never cancel anyone or anything. We are always ready to work with them, including within the framework of ties between regions, but this should be an honest work across the board, one that lacks the politicisation or lecturing and is based on equality, good-neighbourliness and mutual benefit. And, of course, they should renounce any actions designed to cause damage to the Russian Federation. The Foreign Ministry of Russia has sufficient powers and the necessary capabilities to render effective assistance to the regions as they promote their international agendas. The 20-year-old Council of the Heads of Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains an important and highly relevant venue for discussing a broad range of inter-regional cooperation issues - from country aspects to agrarian diplomacy and collaboration with compatriots abroad. Our meetings result in approving recommendations, which we report to the President and the Prime Minister. The Russian regions also use the Foreign Ministry platform to showcase their economic, investment, expert, and tourism potentials, with these presentations attended by the Foreign Minister and his deputies as well as by invited representatives of the diplomatic corps, government authorities, business circles, media, and public at large. Earlier this year, the Vologda and Kaluga regions organised presentations of this kind. The Republic of Dagestan's presentation is scheduled for June. Today, I talked to Governor Dmitry Makhonin and we agreed that the Perm Territory would also prepare a similar event. We will do whatever we can to help them organise it. Our missions abroad and in the Russian regions have been proactive in fulfilling their mandate by helping regions hold international events and find new trade partners. They have been offering diplomatic, consular support, advice and information to the Russian regions in their foreign contacts. Sharing our expertise and assisting regions which have suffered the most from the collective West's hostile actions is an utmost priority for us. I am certain that we are headed in the right direction, but we cannot be complacent. This is true for any human undertaking. In particular, we believe that regional chambers of commerce and industry must live up to their potential. Holding more business missions for signing deals with foreign partners could held expand region-to-region ties even more. There is a lot of potential in terms of promoting Russian high-technology products on foreign markets. We support efforts to establish direct cooperation ties and set up joint ventures. In addition, I wanted to say that we know from our experience that creating technology parks, industrial zones, and holding more exhibitions and fairs - all these measures help make our regions more attractive on the international stage. Online formats have become increasingly popular and relevant, including using the latest technology for holding the Days of the Russian Regions. The Foreign Ministry and its regional offices are ready to contribute to all these efforts and to accompany these undertakings. I would like to stress the importance of combining our efforts to help Crimea, Sevastopol, the DPR, the LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions develop their foreign ties by enabling them to join various international projects. We must focus on essential matters while the ways in which they engage in this activity may vary. We believe that no one should impose any inadequate frameworks on the regions in their international relations. The way they organise these efforts must be organic and relevant. Excessive patronage and micromanagement are counterproductive. Senior regional officials and local businesses know better than anyone else what they need to promote cooperation with their foreign partners. This is why they, I mean those who represent their regions, must be the ones who define ways to achieve their objectives. The Foreign Ministry will do everything to facilitate these efforts from its headquarters. Of course, all these initiatives must comply with our single foreign policy as approved by the President of the Russian Federation. I have no doubt that this will be the case in the future, just as it is today. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the meeting with delegation of the Permanent Committee of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties, Perm, May 29, 2025 29 May 2025 19:42 912-29-05-2025 Dear colleagues, Dear friends, This is the year when the International Conference of Asian Political Parties commemorates its 25th anniversary. And because of their reputation and their authority, they are a platform for exchanging views and experience in the context of party-to-party cooperation. Cooperation at this level is one of our priorities. It's a very useful addition to the so-called classical diplomacy and that contributes a lot to promoting mutual trust, mutual understanding between peoples. We consider your conference and the creation of the conference is a signal, a very clear signal to the entire world. And very timely response to reconsider the place of the Asian countries in international and global developments. We assess very positively the increase of the political work of your conference. And we see with pleasure the sustainable process of expanding your influence in the continental architecture, in the architecture of regional organizations, some of which are experiencing erosion of their influence, if not degradation, since they abandoned practically all of the key principles of the United Nations Charter. I have in mind such organizations on our Eurasian continent as the European Union, which became more Euro-Atlantic than Eurasian following NATO. And of course, OSCE was originally initiated by European countries and the Soviet Union. More than 50 years ago, when the Helsinki Conference was negotiated, they insisted that North America be brought in, U.S. and Canada. And over the years, well, there was some period when very solemn and right statements and documents were adopted and signed, but then in the last 10-15 years, all these principles including equal and indivisible security, including the statement that no one, be it the country or organization, should prepare to dominate in Europe, all this was abandoned, violated. That's why I will speak today at the Eurasian Conference, I will emphasize our assessment regarding the falure of Euro-Atlantic concepts. We need Eurasia of course. And by the way, Eurasia is the biggest, the richest continent. The continent which, unlike Africa and Latin America, is home of several world civilizations with thousands and thousands of years of history. There are some civilizations, of course, Maya and others in Latin America, but they are no longer in existence. In Asia - Chinese, Indian. Pakistan, of course. Also Turkiye is really trying to keep its traditions and to develop them to bring the new generation up to those traditions. But with all these facts, Eurasia is the only continent which doesn't have any universal continental structure, like African Union in Africa, like CELAC in Latin America. We have quite a lot, many integrational movements, organizations which address security issues, like Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Commonwealth of Independent States and the Gulf Cooperation Council, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and there is no umbrella. Our friends from Kazakhstan have been for many years promoting the ICA, Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia. Now they want to transform it into an organization. We advise them that this organization should be very well prepared: the charter, the principles, the rights and obligations. Our strong belief that it should be not just Asia, but Eurasia, inviting the western part of the continent to come. And one example, as I will speak about this a bit later, the Belorussians, who already for two consecutive years are convening Conference on Eurasian Security. I attended both, it is now an annual event, the third one will be held in October, and they invite European representatives, foreign ministers of Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia participated in the last conference, and it is important that we, while keeping the identity of all existing organizations, including your organization, we try to have some place where all countries and organizations of the continent can come, not necessarily to have it in the format of an organization, but a meeting, a meeting of all of them. So we are thinking in this direction, and I will elaborate on this a bit later today. Otherwise, I think that you are doing a very good job. We also know that you are in favor of making more conferences with your partners in other parts of the world. And the Permanent Conference in Latin America, and the Council of African Political Parties, as I said, we are very much in favor of promoting party-to-party dialogue. Our ruling party, United Russia, in cooperation with other parliamentary parties and their fractions is promoting very actively this kind of cooperation. And I will highlight the initiative of United Russia of last year, when they convened a meeting of various parties to consider methods of fighting the new forms of colonialism and neo-colonialism, and now there is a movement created on the basis of the conference, which is called Freedom of Nations. And we strongly support this. And actually, this theme, you know, the inadmissibility of neo-colonial forms of exploitation is one of the agenda items of the Group of Friends of the United Nations Charter in the United Nations. Last year, we initiated, through this group, the resolution of the UN Committee on Decolonization. The draft resolution supported by this committee was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly. There was some vote, of course, but a clear majority supported it, and the idea is to announce the 14th of December, the day of the adoption of The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960, as a date of fighting the new forms of neo-colonialism. It's an interesting thing, and I believe your parties also can look at this, because colonial exploitation was very blunt. Slaves, you know, digging the resources and leaving the countries in very poor condition. But now, if you take the economic system in the world, countries, especially in Africa, mostly produce, they provide natural resources to the western countries, and I always quote the statement of President of Uganda, Mr. Museveni, who couple of years ago, at the second Russia-Africa summit was giving an example, an illustration of what we're doing. Well, he said that the world coffee market is valued at some 460 billion dollars, out of which only 2,5 billion dollars remain in Africa. They just grow beans, and the raw beans are being sent to Germany and other countries when they are fried, you know, and then packed, and so on and so forth. So this is what in brief the colonial forms are about, and we would like to promote the movement to resolve this injustice. Without fighting any country, we never want to isolate any country from cooperation, but cooperation must be based on equal footing, just principles, and we once again express our readiness to cooperate with your conference. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Weapon Systems Tested in Combat, in High Demand Worldwide - Security Council Head Sputnik News 20250529 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian weapon systems have been tested in combat and proven their effectiveness, which put them in high demand all over the world, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday. "We are ahead of everyone in this area today, because something that has been tested not only by time, but also in battle, is in great demand by everyone. The experience that we have, and the developments that our design bureaus, defense firms and industrial complexes have produced, have been tested in a very complex, but also a very effective way - in combat operations. This applies to defensive weapons, air defense systems and assault weapons equally," Shoigu told his Belarusian counterpart, Aleksandr Volfovich, on the sidelines of the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues. The Russian Security Council secretary praised the military and technical cooperation between Russia and Belarus, adding that he hoped the two countries' collaboration in that area would be successful. The 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues is being held in Moscow from May 27-29. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address HRH the Crown Prince Speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Saudi Press Agency Thursday 02/12/1446 Jeddah, May 30, 2025, SPA -- His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, received a telephone call today from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. During the call, the two leaders reviewed bilateral relations, discussed avenues of cooperation, and explored opportunities to strengthen and expand ties across various fields. -- SPA 02:05 Local Time 23:05 GMT 0005 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU sanctions Syria's HTS over 'killings', US consortium inks $7bn deal Iran Press TV Thursday, 29 May 2025 7:42 PM The EU has imposed sanctions on the Syrian military dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants for their role in the massacre of Alawite civilians on the country's coast earlier this year. According to the EU official journal, the 27-member bloc placed sanctions on the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade, the Hamza Division, and the Sultan Murad Division. The embargoes were announced due to their targeting of "civilians and especially the Alawite community, including by committing arbitrary killings." The Sultan Suleiman Shah founder Mohammad Hussein al-Jasim and Hamza Division chief Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr were hit with asset freezes and bans on entering the EU. The official journal went on to say that they committed "serious human rights abuses in Syria, including torture and arbitrary killings of civilians." The three factions were formerly part of armed groups which were known as the Syrian National Army (SNA). These factions were involved in the massacres committed by Damascus's forces against Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast in early March. Thousands were killed, and the results of a government-led investigation into the massacres have not been made clear. According to several reports, Syrian forces have continued to carry out sectarian killings, kidnappings, and persecution across Syria, targeting Alawites and other minorities. According to several reports, Syrian forces, dominated by the HTS and other militant groups, have continued to carry out sectarian killings, kidnappings, and persecution across Syria, targeting Alawites and other minorities. The HTS militant group seized control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, culminating a swift offensive that had begun in the northwestern province of Aleppo just two weeks earlier and ultimately brought an end to Assad's 24-year rule. The HTS administration has since been involved in flagrant violations of human rights in Syria, particularly against minorities, namely Syria's Alawite minority, drawing widespread condemnations from the international community. A series of violent clashes also between HTS gunmen and members of a Druze community in Syria earlier this month left dozens of people dead and raised fears of deadly sectarian violence. The Druze minority had a history of supporting the Assad government and standing against Israeli occupation and expansionist policies, including in the occupied Golan Heights. The UK and EU states have been gradually lifting Syria sanctions since the start of this year. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced a decision to lift all sanctions against the administration of Syria's self-proclaimed president, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. US consortium inks $7 billion energy deal with HTS administration On Thursday, the the HTS administration signed a $7 billion energy deal with a consortium of US companies and some regional firms. The agreement was sealed at the presidential palace in Damascus in the presence of Jolani and US ambassador Thomas Barrack. Sources said the plants, which aim to generate 5,000 megawatts, would use US and European technology. The consortium is led by Qatar's UCC Concession Investments and includes Turkey's Kalyon GES Enerji Yatirimlari and Cengiz Enerji, along with Power International USA. Damascus used to receive the bulk of its oil for power generation from Iran, but supplies have been cut off since HTS militants took over the Arab country last year. Syria, under Jolani's rule, has left people with up to 20 hours of daily blackouts in recent months. Separately, Jolani met Barrack on Thursday at the newly reopened US Embassy compound in Damascus. Jolani, once affiliated with al-Qaeda and Daesh, led the HTS militants in overthrowing the government of President Bashar al-Assad last year. After the takeover in December, though, the HTS and its chief Jolani began efforts, which observers have defined as its bid to deflect attention from its past, including by trying to formally communicate with Western states such as France. The latest developments come as the US encourages the new HTS rulers in Damascus to establish relations with Israel. Trump announced that he would lift the entirety of Washington's sanctions against Syria after the new administration in the Arab country reportedly proposed making "peace" with the Israeli regime, the US's closest regional ally. Trump indicated after meeting Jolani during a recent tour of some Arab states of the Persian Gulf region that the Syrian leader was willing to eventually normalize ties with Israel. Trump announced that he would lift the entirety of Washington's sanctions against Syria after the new administration in the Arab country reportedly proposed making "peace" with the Israeli regime, the US's closest regional ally. The US president also signaled to the Israeli regime that it should work to reach an understanding with HTS leaders. Israel, at the same time, has also been lobbying Washington to keep the country weak and decentralized. Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have, in recent weeks, held face-to-face meetings after Syria's al-Jolani voiced a desire to eventually normalize ties with the regime. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Douyin, RedNote seen as China's propaganda tools: MAC ROC Central News Agency 05/29/2025 03:03 PM Taipei, May 29 (CNA) There are growing suspicions that Chinese social media apps like Douyin and RedNote are being used by China in its united front propaganda efforts against Taiwan, Chiu Chui-cheng (), head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said Thursday During a legislative hearing, Chiu said that content promoting unification, advocating military force against Taiwan, and undermining its sovereignty had been found on the two popular Chinese apps. Chiu said he hopes Taiwan's Internet regulatory agencies will investigate the matter and address public concerns about such apps. He was responding to a question by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Jie () on whether the MAC classifies social media platforms like RedNote as tools for China's united front propaganda. Huang called attention to a recent comment by Chinese academic Zhang Weiwei () that social media platforms like RedNote have become increasingly popular among young people in Taiwan, thereby advancing China's influence. "After Taiwan is unified, governing Taiwan will be easier than governing Hong Kong," Zhang said during a recent speech at China's Wuhan University. Commenting on the speech, Chiu said in Thursday's hearing that it was the first open statement by a Chinese scholar linking the use of popular Chinese social media apps in Taiwan to China's goal of unification. It indicates that apps like Douyin and RedNote may indeed be part of China's preparations for unification with Taiwan, Chiu said. Under such circumstances, the Taiwanese public may need to be more vigilant, he added. Chiu also suggested that it is time for Taiwan's schools to provide social media literacy guidance and education regarding the use of such apps, so that students at all levels can understand the potential risks. For example, personal information could be used by China and incorporated into the content on those apps to promote unification ideology, he said. On Thursday, Chiu also faced other questions about the China issue, when a reporter asked about the potential risks associated with a planned visit to China by Taiwanese Internet celebrity Holger Chen () as a "peace ambassador." In response, Chiu said that as an ordinary citizen, Chen does not need government approval to travel to China, under Taiwan's current regulations. Chiu said, however, that he hopes if Chen makes the visit, he will uphold the principles of mutual respect and dignity, abide by Taiwan's regulations, and strive to safeguard the overall interests of his country. (By Wang Cheng-chung and Evelyn Kao) Enditem/pc NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan ROC Ministry of National Defense 2025/05/29 PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan Date 6 a.m. May 28 (Wed.) to 6 a.m. May 29 (Thu.) (UTC+8) PLA activities 8 PLAN ships and 1 official ship operating around Taiwan were detected as of 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy ships, and coastal missile systems in response to detected activities. 1140529_PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan_1.JPG [Open a new window] 1140529_PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan_2.JPG [Open a new window] NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Estonian government has supported Ukraine's proposal to establish a special tribunal with Council of Europe for crime of aggression Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs 29.05.2025 | 12:38 Today May 29, the Estonian government decided to support Ukraine's initiative to set up a special tribunal for the crime of aggression with the Council of Europe and to endorse the tribunal's founding documents. This special tribunal would enable the prosecution of crimes of aggression committed against Ukraine and hold those responsible accountable. "The creation of this special tribunal sends a clear message to Russia - no act of aggression or its perpetrators will go unpunished," emphasized Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. "International norms apply to everyone, and the special tribunal established through the cooperation of Ukraine and the Council of Europe not only ensures justice for the most serious international crime but also guarantees that those who evade international law will be held accountable in the future." The special tribunal's founding documents were prepared by an international core group of legal experts from 40 countries, along with representatives from the European Union and the Council of Europe, including Estonia's delegation. On May 14, in Luxembourg, ministers from Council of Europe member states approved Ukraine's proposal to establish the tribunal under the Council's auspices. The special tribunal for the crime of aggression would complement the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating war crimes committed in Ukraine. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address State Mine Action Compensation Program: More than 2,000 hectares of agricultural land returned to farmers Ukraine Government Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, posted 29 May 2025 17:44 More than 2,000 hectares of agricultural land have been returned to use by mine action operators since the launch of the State Mine Action Compensation Program. In particular, in May, six contracts totaling almost UAH 35 million were completed. These are six plots with a total area of 626.7 hectares: three in Mykolaiv region, two in Kharkiv region, and one in Kyiv region. "It is especially valuable for me that we are returning to use such plots as those in the Shevchenkivska community in Kharkiv region. These 86 hectares were the first to be put up for auction by the Humanitarian Demining Center last fall and the first contract was signed with an operator. For more than six months of work, sappers have removed 64 explosive items: unguided aircraft missiles, artillery shells, mortar shells, and unexploded cluster munitions. It was actually a killing field, and now this area will be sown with crops. And it is significant that farmers who have cleared part of their land under the program submit other potentially contaminated fields for demining because they see that the mechanism works," said Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Ihor Bezkaravaynyi. In total, 19 contracts have been fulfilled and 2025 hectares of agricultural land have been cleared since the start of the program. In particular, 1,224 hectares in Kyiv region, 501 hectares in Mykolaiv region, 279 hectares in Kharkiv region, and 21 hectares in Kherson region. The Center for Humanitarian Demining transferred over UAH 107 million to mine action operators for their work. The state will compensate 100% of the cost of demining agricultural land for agricultural producers who decided to clear their land after April 15, 2024. The land will be demined by a certified mine action operator who meets the specified conditions and offers the lowest price at an auction in the Prozorro system. To make this opportunity known to as many farmers as possible, the Ministry of Economy, together with the Humanitarian Demining Center and UNDP in Ukraine, with the support of the Government of the Republic of Korea, launched a communication campaign. In particular, the website has been launched, where one can find step-by-step instructions on how to participate in the program. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Update 293 - IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine International Atomic Energy Agency 40/2025 Vienna, Austria 29 May 2025 The off-site power situation at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) remains extremely fragile, with Europe's largest such site currently relying on just one single power line for essential nuclear safety and security functions compared with ten before the military conflict, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today. The ZNPP's last 330 kilovolt (kV) back-up line remains disconnected three weeks after the plant lost access to it on 7 May and it is unclear when it will be restored. As a result, the six-reactor plant depends entirely on its sole functioning 750 kV line to receive the external electricity it needs to operate the plants' nuclear safety systems, and to cool its nuclear fuel. Since the conflict began in early 2022, the ZNPP has eight times lost access to all off-site power, but it was usually restored within a day. "Even though the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has not been operating for some three years now, its reactor cores and spent nuclear fuel still require continuous cooling, for which electricity is needed to run the water pumps. For this reason, the highly vulnerable power situation remains deeply concerning and we are following it very closely," said Director General Grossi, who will visit Kyiv and Russia next week as part of his regular contacts with both sides to ensure nuclear safety and security during the conflict. The IAEA team based at the ZNPP has continued to monitor and assess other aspects of nuclear safety and security during the past week, conducting a walkdown to measure and confirm stable levels of cooling water in the site's 12 sprinkler ponds and visiting its two fresh fuel storage facilities, where no nuclear safety or security issues were observed. The IAEA team reported hearing military activities on most days over the past week, at different distances away from the ZNPP. At Ukraine's three operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) - Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine - three of their total of nine reactors are in planned outage for refueling and maintenance. The IAEA teams at these sites also continued to hear indications of military activities nearby. At the South Ukraine NPP, the IAEA staff members saw a drone being shot at by anti-aircraft fire in the evening of 23 May. The plant reported that 10 drones were observed 2.5 km south of the site on the same evening. At the Chornobyl site, two drones were reported flying five km from the site, also on 23 May. The IAEA team at the Khmelnytskyy NPP was required to shelter onsite on Monday this week. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Drone Attacks In Ukraine's Kherson Amount To War Crimes, Says UN By RFE/RL May 29, 2025 Russia's military has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in its drone attacks on civilian targets in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, a new United Nations report has found. The report by Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, issued on May 28, was the latest evidence pointing to possible crimes allegedly committed by Russian civilian or military authorities in Ukraine. "Russian armed forces have committed the crimes against humanity of murder and the war crimes of attacking civilians, through a months-long pattern of drone attacks targeting civilians on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson Province," the commission report said. In late 2022, several months after the start of the all-out invasion, Ukrainian forces succeeded in partially pushing Russian troops out of the Kherson region. Russian forces withdrew from the western banks of the Dnieper River, across the river to the east, which is also part of the Kherson region. Since then, Russian troops have continued to bombard towns and cities on the opposite bank, including the city of Kherson. Ukrainian forces tried in 2023 to establish a bridgehead on the Dnieper's eastern banks, to push Russian troops further away, but that effort failed. Nearly 150 civilians have been killed in the drone campaign that the commission said started in the summer of 2024; and hundreds more wounded; many as they were doing their daily routines in and out of their homes. Drone operators used real-time video feeds to track and strike civilians, the report said. Ambulances, which are protected under international law, have also been targeted. The Russian attacks "were committed with the primary purpose to spread terror among the civilian population, in violation of international humanitarian law," said the expert panel, which operates under the United Nations Human Rights Council. The International Criminal Court, which operates independently of the United Nations, has brought war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against President Vladimir Putin and a top Kremlin adviser for overseeing the forcible transfer of tens of thousands of children out of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. The court has also brought war crimes charges against two top Russian military officers for overseeing a missile and drones strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets such as electricity grids and residential homes. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-united- nations-war-crimes-drone-kherson/33428429.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Serbian Defense Enterprises Supply Ammo to Ukraine Contrary to 'Neutrality' - Russian Intel Sputnik News 20250529 Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the "neutrality" declared by official Belgrade, are supplying ammunition to Kiev, the Russian Foreign Intelligence service said on Thursday. "Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the 'neutrality' declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kiev," the report said. The disguise for the anti-Russian actions is a simple scheme using fake certificates of the end user and intermediary countries, the service explained. "Among the latter, NATO countries are most often mentioned, primarily the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria. Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose," the report said. The largest Serbian companies, including Yugoimport SDPR, Zenitprom, Krusik, Sofag, Reyer DTI, Prvi Partizan, are partaking in the military supplies to Kiev, the foreign intelligence service said. "The contribution of Serbian defense workers in the war unleashed by the West, the result of which Europe would like to see a 'strategic defeat' of Russia, is estimated at hundreds of thousands of shells for MLRS and howitzers, as well as a million rounds of ammunition for small arms. Such shipments can hardly be justified on 'humanitarian grounds.' They have one obvious purpose to kill and injure Russian military personnel and the civilian population of Russia," the report read. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Do Not Sell My Personal Information Putin claims to share values of dignity and peace, yet continues to violate them: UK statement at the UN Security Council Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and James Kariuki Published 29 May 2025 Location: United Nations, New York Delivered on: 29 May 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Colleagues, we convene today to address the situation in Ukraine, as we collectively mourn the lives lost due to Russia's recent attacks. This weekend saw two of the largest mass air attacks of the war, back-to-back. Over three days, Russia launched over 900 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities, reportedly resulting in the deaths of 30 people and injuring a further 150. And these deaths were not an accident. Russia's missile and drone strikes struck major urban centres and densely populated regions. Over the night of 24 May, among those killed were three children, specifically, three siblings: Stanislav, aged 8, Tamara, aged 12, and Roman, aged 17. Each of them on the edge of a new chapter of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, all of them robbed of life too soon. Such acts are a stark reminder of the urgent need to bring this war to an end. Russia's attacks are not only sustained, they are worsening. As OHCHR has verified, in the first three months of this year alone, there have been 2,641 civilian casualties. That's nearly 900 more than during the same period in 2024, and over 600 more than early 2023. The increased killing of civilians is an affront to our shared values of human dignity and peace. Values which President Putin claims to share, yet continues to violate. Putin's priorities are demonstrated by his timing. These attacks were launched days after talks in Istanbul, in which Russia, yet again, refused to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. Presented with another opportunity for meaningful progress towards peace, Putin chose war. President, while Ukraine stands ready for an unconditional ceasefire, Russia sustains its aggression. And once again, innocent civilians are paying the price. Russia's actions speak much louder than its words. So we call on Russia to comply with international law, including the UN Charter, and to stop the killing of innocent civilians. Russia's unrelenting invasion of its sovereign neighbour will only redouble our resolve to help Ukraine defend itself and to use the necessary measures to restrict Putin's war machine. We will work in unison with the US, Ukraine, our European and international partners until a just and lasting peace is no longer an aim, but an enduring reality. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address President Putin's words about peace are not aligned with his actions: UK statement to OSCE Ambassador Holland condemns Russia's continued attacks against Ukrainian civilians, which are not actions of a government seeking peace, and calls for no effort to be spared in bringing about the release of the three OSCE staff members. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Neil Holland Published 29 May 2025 Location: Vienna Delivered on: 29 May 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you, Mister Chair. In recent days, Russia has intensified attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. On Friday night, Russia struck apartment buildings and other targets in Kyiv, in one of the largest attacks since the start of its illegal invasion. Only 24 hours later, Kyiv was struck again in an even larger strike. Across Ukraine, 12 civilians were killed on Saturday night, including three siblings in Zhytomyr, aged 8, 12 and 17. More innocent lives denied by Russia's senseless war. President Putin's claim that he is ready for peace is not borne out by his actions. In the more than two months since Ukraine agreed, in-principle, to the US proposal for a full, unconditional 30-day ceasefire, President Putin has continued to dither and delay. He announced two unilateral, three-day 'pauses' during which his armed forces continued to target Ukrainian cities. And he ignored the opportunity for substantive talks in Istanbul, instead sending a delegation with no real mandate to negotiate. In contrast, President Zelenskyy demonstrated real leadership by expressing readiness to engage at the leaders' level, even as President Putin refused a ceasefire that would create the space for talks. The Russian State has shown time and time again that its actions are not those of a government seeking peace. And while we welcome the recent prisoner swaps, Russia's failure to agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire - as Ukraine has done - is holding up further humanitarian outcomes, including the return of Ukrainian children it has forcibly displaced. These outcomes are critical to achieving a peace that is just and lasting. Mr Chair, it is not 'anti-Russian' to call for an end to the devastation and loss of life in Ukraine. Doing so is to stand up for the principles set out in the Helsinki Final Act, and to adhere to international law, including the UN Charter. Delaying peace efforts will only redouble our resolve to help Ukraine in its defence. And we will continue working with our partners to ratchet up pressure on President Putin to end his war. Mister Chair, it is with great regret that I must again raise the cases of Vadym Golda, Maxim Petrov, and Dmytro Shabanov. All three were members of the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. They have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty for more than three years by the Russian Federation and its proxies in Ukraine. Their continued detention is a grave injustice and a flagrant violation of international law and the Helsinki Final Act. These individuals were carrying out a mission mandated by every participating State in this room - including Russia. The UK urges all parties to leave no stone unturned in securing their immediate release. Our thoughts remain with them and their families. Thank you, Mister Chair. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Meeting on Supporting Sustainable Development in Ukraine Held at the Office of the President President of Ukraine 29 May 2025 - 23:34 Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office Yuriy Katsion held a meeting with representatives of the government, banking sector, and non-governmental organizations to discuss prospects for implementing sustainable development financing mechanisms in Ukraine. Yuriy Katsion noted that although the full-scale Russian invasion has slowed the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it has not stopped the process. "Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is an integral part of our European choice. Today, every government program and strategic document being developed takes the SDGs into account. Ukrainian businesses also share and implement these goals," said the Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President. In particular, the majority of banks have already incorporated sustainability standards into their policies. Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleh Voytovych provided an update on the implementation process of the SDGs. According to him, national targets and indicators have been revised because the country is at war. "We emphasized to international partners the need to take martial law into account. This includes indicators related to the restoration of damage caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, demining of territories, and environmental damage caused by the war," Oleh Voytovych stated. Head of Capacities for Climate Action / Ukrainian Climate Office Julia Jesson noted that Ukraine's partnership with international organizations - in particular with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) - will help provide high-quality expertise on sustainable development and climate resilience, and support the development of financing mechanisms for the SDGs. Following the meeting, it was agreed that the Office of the President will continue to support efforts to improve sustainable development financing mechanisms in line with European standards. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Andriy Yermak Holds Talks With Advisors to the Leaders of the UK, Germany, France, and Italy President of Ukraine 29 May 2025 - 22:19 Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak had a phone call with National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Jonathan Powell, Foreign Policy and Security Advisor to the Federal Chancellor of Germany Gunter Sautter, Diplomatic Advisor to the President of France Emmanuel Bonne, and Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy Pietro Carini. The parties discussed diplomatic efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace, as well as preparations for negotiations with the Russian side. Andriy Yermak emphasized that Russia has still not provided Ukraine with the so-called "memorandum" outlining its vision of steps toward a ceasefire, despite an agreement to do so following the completion of a prisoner exchange. At the same time, the Russian side has already received a document reflecting Ukraine's position. The Head of the Presidential Office stressed that for the next meeting to be productive, Ukraine must receive the Russian document before the meeting begins, as well as have clarity on the composition of the Russian delegation. "Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion. This means it is important to receive Russia's draft. There is enough time - four days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents," he added. Andriy Yermak also noted that he had informed U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff of Ukraine's position. The Head of the Presidential Office stressed the importance of having representatives from both the United States and Europe at the negotiating table. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Is Dragging Out the War and Doing Everything It Can Simply to Deceive the Countries That Are Still Trying to Influence Moscow With Words Rather Than Pressure - Address by the President President of Ukraine 29 May 2025 - 19:20 I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians! Today, I'm already in Kyiv - an active day after the visit to Germany. All the agreements must be implemented as soon as possible. This concerns air defense first and foremost - the top priority - but also investments: investments in our production - weapons production and beyond - as well as all our other joint projects. We highly value cooperation with Germany - this is one of those cases when bilateral relations between our countries help all of our Europe. I want to thank Chancellor Merz personally for the good decisions - more joint production, increased funding, development of IRIS-T capabilities for Ukraine, missiles for Patriot systems - that's what matters most. Thank you. Today, I held a meeting with Ukraine's Defense Minister Umerov, Foreign Minister Sybiha, and Head of the Presidential Office Yermak regarding our diplomatic efforts. We maintain daily coordination with our partners and are preparing additional meetings for this week. Today, we had conversations with both American and European partners. It's important to speak honestly - everyone in the world - especially those who have supported a ceasefire. Russia is dragging out the war and doing everything it can simply to deceive the countries that are still trying to influence Moscow with words rather than pressure. Words do not work with Moscow. Even the so-called "memorandum," which they promised and allegedly spent over a week preparing - no one has seen it yet. It has not been shared with Ukraine. It has not been shared with our partners. They haven't even shared the new agenda with Turkiye - the country that hosted the first meeting. Although they promised the exact opposite, and above all, they promised it to the United States, to President Trump. Another Russian deception. They are doing everything to ensure the meetings are meaningless. And that is yet another reason why there should be sufficient sanctions, sufficient pressure on Russia. Today, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi delivered a report on the frontline and on our long-range activity inside Russian territory. I thank our guys for their precision. And it is only fair - it is in Russia that they must feel what war truly is in order to be willing to engage in diplomacy. And one more thing. Today, I spoke with Ukraine's Finance Minister Marchenko about Ukraine's long-term financial outlook - ensuring support for the army, maintaining Ukraine's resilience, and securing budget payments. Stability and predictability for our people are essential. We are working on this together with our partners - including in preparation for the upcoming G7 meetings. Thank you to everyone standing with Ukraine. Thank you to everyone defending our state. Glory to Ukraine! NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Office of the President Hosts Briefing for Ambassadors of Nordic and Baltic Countries President of Ukraine 29 May 2025 - 15:49 Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva held a briefing for ambassadors of the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) countries. The discussion focused on key issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Ihor Zhovkva informed the diplomats about the outcomes of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Germany, particularly the agreements reached regarding security, defense, and political support for Ukraine. Special attention during the briefing was given to diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving peace. The Deputy Head of the Office of the President emphasized the need for joint partners' pressure on Russia to establish a just and enduring peace. In particular, the sanctions policy was addressed. The 18th package of EU sanctions must be as effective as possible, targeting primarily the energy sector, shadow fleet, and banking system. The participants also discussed Ukraine's path toward EU membership. Ihor Zhovkva thanked the partners for their unwavering support for our country's European integration and stressed the importance of opening six negotiation clusters by the end of this year. In this process, Denmark's role is especially relevant, as it will assume the Presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1. In addition, the parties coordinated their positions ahead of the upcoming Bucharest Nine (B9) Summit, which will take place next week in Vilnius. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine: Hopes for peace on life support, Security Council hears 29 May 2025 - A glimmer of hope for peace in Ukraine has been overshadowed by a devastating new wave of Russian attacks, UN officials told the Security Council on Thursday, warning of soaring civilian casualties and a worsening humanitarian crisis that could derail a diplomatic end to the war. "The longer the war continues, the longer its regional and global impacts will be felt, and the more difficult it will be to find a peaceful resolution," said Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. She recalled the adoption of Security Council resolution 2774 in February - the first since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 - which sparked a sense of optimism for a diplomatic solution. That has since been replaced by a sense of international frustration - and more suffering in Ukraine following the surge in attacks. "The hope that the parties will be able to sit down and negotiate is still alive, but just barely," Ms. DiCarlo warned. Rising civilian toll The weekend's escalation has been described as the largest wave of attacks, with record numbers of long-range missiles and drones killing and injuring dozens of civilians and damaging homes and infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and other cities. Russian regions bordering Ukraine also reported civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nine civilians were killed and 117 injured by Ukrainian strikes between 19 and 25 May, with a further 17 civilians killed and over 100 injured the week before. "The United Nations is not able to verify these reports. However, if confirmed, these figures serve as a vivid reminder of the rising civilian toll of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most egregiously in Ukraine, but also increasingly in the Russian Federation itself," Ms. DiCarlo said. International humanitarian law strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, she stressed. "They are unacceptable and indefensible - wherever they occur - and must stop immediately." 'Every delay costs lives' Lisa Doughten, Director for Financing at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), painted a dire picture on the ground. Over 5,000 people - mostly from Kherson, Donetsk and Sumy regions - were newly displaced in the past week alone, adding to the 3.7 million already displaced across Ukraine. An estimated 1.5 million civilians in Russian-occupied areas remain largely cut off from humanitarian assistance. Despite escalating challenges, humanitarian organizations - many of them local NGOs - continue to deliver food, water, hygiene kits and protection services. However, only a quarter of the $2.6 billion needed for the 2025 humanitarian response plan has been funded, leaving aid workers struggling to meet rising needs. "Every delay costs lives. Every dollar helps us reach the next family under fire with aid, educate the next child out of school, help evacuate people with disabilities, and sustain water in front-line communities," Ms. Doughten said. "The needs do not shrink. And so, our resolve cannot falter." The war is a strategic mistake: US Sanctions for Russia are "still on the table" if they make the "wrong decision" to continue the catastrophic war against Ukraine, the representative of the United States, John Kelley, told ambassadors. "President [Donald] Trump has emphasised from the beginning that this war was a strategic mistake and should never have happened; time is not on the side of any who would prolong it," Mr. Kelley said. The US also condemned Russia's decision to launch record numbers of long-range missiles and drones against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine this past weekend. Mr. Kelley noted that if Russia makes the "wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war," the United States may be forced to end their negotiation efforts. "To be clear, in doing so, we would not be 'abandoning' our principles or our friends. Rather, we would be recognising Russia's refusal to work with us toward a desirable outcome," he said. Mr. Kelley also referenced President Trump's conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 21 May, saying that the US is expecting a "term sheet" which will outline a Russian ceasefire proposal. "We will judge Russia's seriousness towards ending the war not only by the contents of that term sheet, but more importantly, by Russia's actions," Mr. Kelley said. Ukraine trying to derail peace: Russia Russia's Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya accused the Ukrainian Government of attempting to "deceive and mislead" President Donald Trump in order to push the US away from its central role brokering negotiations. "As long as the spectre of the 'Russian threat' persists, [Volodymyr] Zelensky's clique can avoid accountability for embezzled budget funds and Western - primarily American - aid, which now totals tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars," Mr. Nebenzya said. "Even their partners in Europe and the [Joe] Biden administration, who have also profited greatly from the conflict in Ukraine, are starting to grow weary of this." Regarding allegations that Russia is targeting civilians in Ukraine, he claimed the casualties are the result of Ukrainian air defense systems being "positioned near residential buildings and public infrastructure in violation of basic international humanitarian law." He stated that the true targets of Russian strikes are military-industrial sites, citing the destruction of ammunition depots and other weapons facilities in various Ukrainian regions. Ukraine open to talks that 'yield tangible results' Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, said that the international community must increase pressure on Russia, including through sanctions, to end the "diplomatic stalemate" for which she squarely blamed Russia. "Ukraine did not initiate this war, nor do we desire its continuation," Ms. Hayovyshyn said. She noted that President Volodymyr Zelensky remains willing to meet President Vladimir Putin at any point for direct talks, but that the Russian President has not made himself available - including failing to attend the negotiations in Turkiye where Mr. Zelensky was present. "We are not afraid of talks," she said. "We are for constructive talks." Ms. Hayovyshyn said that "only positive result" of the meeting in Turikye was the agreement from both Russia and Ukraine to each release 1,000 prisoners of war. But she reiterated that Ukraine would not compromise on its territorial integrity or sovereignty when negotiating for peace. "Achieving peace at any cost will not end the war. A comprehensive, just and lasting peace must rest on a fundamental respect towards non-negotiable principles," she said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China calls on Russia, Ukraine to maintain momentum of peace talks Global Times By Xinhua Published: May 30, 2025 08:44 AM A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on Russia and Ukraine to maintain the momentum of peace talks. Russia and Ukraine, which have recently held direct negotiations in Istanbul and agreed on the exchange of prisoners, will soon hold a second round of direct talks. China welcomes these positive developments and supports all efforts toward peace, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. At the same time, the fighting shows no sign of stopping, and the number of civilian casualties continues to rise, showing that the Ukraine crisis involves complex dynamics and cannot be resolved overnight, he told the Security Council. The parties to the conflict should demonstrate political will, maintain the momentum of peace talks, address the root causes of the crisis through dialogue and consultation, so as to ultimately realize a political settlement, said Geng. The parties to the conflict should earnestly abide by international humanitarian law and refrain from attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure under any circumstances, he said. "Both sides should make concerted efforts and take active measures to cool down the situation on the battlefield as soon as possible." The international community, especially major stakeholders, should promote peace talks to facilitate a political solution to the crisis, he said. China's position on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear. Since the start of the crisis, China has been calling for dialogue, negotiation, and a political settlement, said Geng. China has stayed in contact with both Russia and Ukraine and has been working consistently to promote peace talks, he said. Together with the Global South and the wider international community, China is willing to play a constructive role in seeking real peace, he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sydney, Austrailia, May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest data from CoinDesk as of May 2025, Dogecoin (DOGE) has rebounded from a recent low of $0.2196 to $0.2285, indicating a market recovery. With trading volume surging to 393 million DOGE, market interest in Dogecoin is clearly on the rise. As a leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Dogecoin has garnered global recognition for its active community and low transaction threshold, along with its ease of use for payments. Against this backdrop, leading cloud mining platform FioBit has launched an AI-powered cloud mining package designed specifically for Dogecoin, offering investors a hassle-free, low-entry, compliant, and efficient mining solution. According to FioBits official data, this package can yield up to $4,960 per day, making it suitable for both beginners and seasoned investors. FioBits AI Cloud Mining Package: Professional, Compliant, and Efficient (Guaranteed Returns, Unaffected by Market Fluctuations) FioBit leverages a leading AI-powered hash rate management system and a global network to continually optimize cloud mining solutions for stable earnings. Its AI algorithms dynamically adjust hash power allocation and energy efficiency, ensuring users can achieve potential daily earnings of up to $4,960 even amid market volatility. FioBit operates with licenses in multiple markets including Australia and the U.S., and employs cold wallet storage and multi-factor authentication to safeguard user assets. The platforms user-friendly interface supports Android, iOS, and PC, suitable for both mobile and desktop users. It also supports multiple cryptocurrencies, including DOGE, BTC, ETH, and LTC, providing investors with diversified options. FioBit regularly updates its mining technology and optimizes energy management, further strengthening its long-term competitiveness. For investors seeking to capitalize on compliance and technology-driven opportunities, FioBit is a trusted choice. Click to visit FioBit official website to receive $100 for free Before we dive into the details of FioBit's cryptocurrency investment plans, let us provide a brief overview of the key highlights and advantages to set the stage. FioBit Cryptocurrency Investment Plans (2025) The following chart illustrates the potential profit you can achieve. Plan Name Price Contract Duration Daily Profit Total Return ROI Antminer L7 8.8Gh/s $600 2 days $16.80 $33.60 5.6% Antminer L7 9.3Gh/s $3,600 5 days $126.00 $630.00 17.5% Antminer L7 9.5Gh/s $7,800 6 days $312.00 $1,872.00 24% Table Note: This investment plan is based on FioBit's latest cloud mining product data, including contract price, mining duration, daily and total earnings, and return on investment. Profits are automatically credited to the user account every 24 hours, and the principal is fully returned at the end of the contract. Suitable for investors with different budgets and return expectations, allowing users to choose the best plan for maximum profit. How to Start Secure and Free Dogecoin Cloud Mining? Choose a Trusted Platform: Select a compliant platform like FioBit to ensure asset security and data privacy. Register an Account: Sign up via FioBit's official website or app and enable two-factor authentication. Set a Strategy: Choose a plan based on your risk tolerance and allocate investments accordingly. Real-Time Monitoring: Use the app or PC to track mining progress and earnings, and adjust strategies flexibly. Withdraw or Reinvest: Upon contract completion, withdraw profits securely or reinvest for compound earnings. Industry Background: Cloud Mining as the Mainstream Trend (Stable Returns Without Hardware) In 2025, with the rapid development of the cryptocurrency market, traditional mining models are being phased out due to high hardware costs, technical barriers, and energy consumption. According to the latest industry data from Galaxy Research and CoinDesk, cloud mining has become the preferred choice for global crypto investors thanks to its flexible investment model and stable returns. For mobile users, cloud mining is particularly convenient: no need to purchase complex hardwaresimply rent global cloud computing power via a smartphone, tablet, or PC to participate in crypto mining. This innovative model significantly lowers investment barriers while maximizing returns through AI technology and efficient computational management systems, making it a market highlight in 2025. Conclusion and Industry Insights (FioBit as the Best Choice for Dogecoin Investment) In 2025, as interest in Dogecoin rises and AI cloud mining technology matures, FioBit not only offers short-term profit opportunities but also aligns with the new trends of compliance and technological advancement. As a professional, secure, and compliant cloud mining platform, FioBit combines advanced AI technology with a global compliance framework to open a new era of low-entry, high-efficiency DOGE investment. If you are looking for a secure, legal, and stable way to invest in cryptocurrency, FioBit is the top choice for 2025. Visit FioBit's official website to start your crypto investment journey today and watch your wealth grow. Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release does not constitute an investment solicitation, nor does it constitute investment advice, financial advice, or trading recommendations. Cryptocurrency mining and staking involve risks and the possibility of losing funds. It is strongly recommended that you perform due diligence before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies and securities, including consulting a professional financial advisor. Chicago, IL, May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Girl Vitamins (BGV), a brand committed to empowering the Black community, today announced its comprehensive "Nourishing Our Roots" campaign in honor of Juneteenth. The theme encourages Black women to reflect on the deep historical roots of their heritage, which face ongoing risks of erasure, and to prioritize the roots of their wellness, essential for maintaining health in a world that often fails to prioritize their needs. Black Girl Vitamins believes that Juneteenth, celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, has evolved beyond a mere holiday; it represents a crucial act of cultural preservation. The campaign underscores BGV's unwavering commitment to reminding its audience of the power, heritage, and well-being found inherently within the Black community. The brand will honor the holiday with a special sale, exclusive bonus gifts, a commemorative brand photoshoot, and a nationwide Juneteenth event tour. A portion of all proceeds will directly support BGVs ongoing commitment to empowering aspiring medical students. Juneteenth Sale and Limited-Edition Gifts To kick off the celebration, Black Girl Vitamins will host a special Juneteenth sale from June 16 to June 20. The sale will include their famous BGVs Collagen Powder, a kitchen essential, extremely versatile and easy to use. This collagen powder dissolves within seconds and blends seamlessly with any meal, making it an effortless addition to daily nutrition by seamlessly incorporating this collagen into cultural foods, simultaneously enriching the body with added protein. This supplement is designed to promote joint health, enhance bone strength, improve skin elasticity, and offer numerous other benefits, aligning with the campaign's focus on holistic wellness. As an additional token of appreciation and celebration, BGV will include limited-edition gifts such as commemorative BGV pins, satin bonnets, convenient pill cases, and exclusive Juneteenth postcards in the first 2,000 orders placed during the sale! Customers can apply the discount code NOURISH19 for orders totaling $60 and over. Commemorative Photoshoot Captures Black Joy Reinforcing the "Nourishing Our Roots" theme, Black Girl Vitamins will unveil a specially curated 90s cookout-themed brand photoshoot. This visual campaign is designed to be a vibrant representation of Black culture, joy, and community in its rawest and most authentic form. The imagery aims to evoke feelings of nostalgia, warmth, and collective celebration, showcasing the beauty and resilience inherent in Black heritage. The photoshoot will serve as a powerful visual anchor for the campaign, emphasizing the importance of cultural preservation through shared experiences and unadulterated joy. It will be disseminated across BGV's digital platforms, inspiring and connecting with audiences nationwide. BGV Juneteenth Event Tour Connects Communities To engage directly with and uplift local communities across the country, Black Girl Vitamins will embark on a multi-city Juneteenth event tour, sponsoring and/or having a significant presence at various celebrations. This tour underscores BGVs dedication to fostering community connections and extending its message beyond e-commerce. A major highlight of the tour includes Black Girl Vitamins sponsorship of Refine Collectives 5th Annual Juneteenth Freedom Market in Chicago. This prominent event is expected to draw over 3,000 attendees, offering a vibrant atmosphere with more than 70 vendors, diverse food options, lively music, and positive vibes, all converging to nourish culture in BGVs home base. Engaging Audiences at Key Locations The tour continues with a significant presence at Amazon HQ2s Juneteenth Event on June 19, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia (1400 South Eads Street, 501 15th St.). Black Girl Vitamins will be one of only a few select brands featured at this large-scale corporate celebration, which anticipates over 3,000 attendees. This engagement provides a unique opportunity for BGV to connect with a diverse professional audience and further its mission of wellness and empowerment. Beyond these major events, the BGV team plans to make additional stops across the country. These engagements are designed to allow the brand to connect personally with customers, further foster community, and share product samples in some cities. Planned stops include Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; Grand Rapids, Michigan; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Columbus, Ohio, ensuring a wide national reach for their Juneteenth celebration. Through these multifaceted initiatives from a special sale focused on nutritional essentials and exclusive gifts to a commemorative photoshoot and a broad national event tour Black Girl Vitamins is not just honoring Juneteenth. It is actively engaging in cultural preservation and promoting holistic wellness within the Black community, reinforcing its commitment to empowerment and supporting the next generation of medical professionals. For more details and updates, visit blackgirlvitamins.co or follow them on Instagram . About Black Girl Vitamins London, UK, May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest April 2025 report by Statista, global Bitcoin mining revenue is expected to surpass $50 billion this year, setting a new all-time high. Rising energy costs, expensive mining hardware, and tighter regulations have driven investors to seek more flexible cryptocurrency mining alternatives. As a result, demand for secure, hardware-free cloud mining solutions has surged globally. As one of the most talked-about platforms of 2025, Miningcoop has officially launched its high-performance Bitcoin and Dogecoin cloud mining services, offering instant activation and daily earnings. This next-generation passive crypto income solution allows users to start mining without any hardware or technical background. Miningcoop: A Compliant and Trusted Crypto Mining Platform Built for Global Users Miningcoop is committed to empowering both beginners and experienced investors with simple and transparent access to profitable mining contracts. With just a few clicks, users can activate a plan and begin earning consistent daily returns, making it one of the rare "mine-now-earn-now" models in the current market. Key Features That Set Miningcoop Apart Miningcoop is built on a zero barrier, high return framework, providing users with a truly hands-free crypto earning experience. Key highlights include: Instant Mining Activation Start earning just minutes after registration Start earning just minutes after registration Automatic Daily Payouts Earnings are settled and credited every 24 hours Earnings are settled and credited every 24 hours No Equipment, No Expertise Required 100% cloud-based with zero configuration 100% cloud-based with zero configuration Real-Time Dashboard Track mining progress and income with full transparency Track mining progress and income with full transparency Supports Bitcoin & Dogecoin Choose your preferred payout coin Choose your preferred payout coin $100 Signup Bonus New users receive free mining credits with no deposit needed Visit Miningcoop.com now and claim your $100 free cloud mining bonus High-Yield Short-Term Mining Plans for 2025 Miningcoop offers a range of short-term, high-return mining contracts from 1 to 7 days, making it easy for users with different budgets to get started. Popular contract examples include: Mining Machine Contract Value ($) Daily Rate (%) Daily Profit ($) Duration (Days) Total Profit ($) Jasminer X16-Q 100 1.35% 1.35 1 1.35 iPollo V1 Ultra 200 4.00% 8.00 1 8.00 Goldshell Mini-DOGE III 500 3.20% 16.00 2 32.00 Antminer S21 XP+ Hyd 30,000 6.80% 2040.00 3 6120.00 Antminer S21e XP Hyd 3U 55,000 8.00% 4400.00 2 8800.00 All contracts automatically return both principal and earnings upon completion with no hidden fees. Get Started in Minutes Start Mining Bitcoin or Dogecoin Instantly Miningcoop is designed to be beginner-friendly and accessible to users at all levels. Even those with zero crypto knowledge can begin earning passive income in just a few simple steps: 1. Visit the official website: miningcoop.com 2. Sign up and verify your email 3. Claim your $100 in free mining credits no deposit required no deposit required 4. Browse available contracts and choose one that suits your goals 5. Launch cloud mining with a single click and monitor your earnings in real time No identity verification, no hardware investment, and no blockchain knowledge needed just fast and secure daily earnings. Why Miningcoop Is a Trusted Global Cloud Mining Platform While many cloud mining services suffer from technical instability and vague payout policies, Miningcoop stands out with its secure infrastructure, full transparency, and user-first design. Advanced encryption safeguards user accounts, while all mining activities, hashrate allocations, and income records are publicly verifiable. Miningcoop is not only a high-yield Bitcoin and Dogecoin cloud mining platform its also one of the most trusted crypto passive income solutions of 2025. Whether you're a first-time investor or a seasoned crypto miner, Miningcoop offers a reliable and profitable way to earn daily income effortlessly. "Trust and consistency are the foundation of everything we do," said COO Zhao. "Miningcoop is committed to being the safest and most accessible gateway to the crypto economy for users around the world." Conclusion: The Most Profitable Bitcoin & Dogecoin Cloud Mining Option of 2025 In todays fast-moving crypto market, Miningcoop has emerged as a top choice for Bitcoin and Dogecoin cloud mining thanks to its outstanding performance, instant setup, daily payouts, and flexible contract terms. With no hardware required and no technical skills needed, anyone can start earning crypto income within minutes. If you're looking for a low-risk, high-reward cloud mining opportunity, Miningcoop is the ultimate solution. Visit Miningcoop.com today to claim your $100 free credits and start earning passive crypto income now. Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release does not constitute an investment solicitation, nor does it constitute investment advice, financial advice, or trading recommendations. Cryptocurrency mining and staking involve risks and the possibility of losing funds. It is strongly recommended that you perform due diligence before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies and securities, including consulting a professional financial advisor. Patients on fenebrutinib had low relapse rates with data showing no active brain lesions or disability progression after nearly two years of treatment Phase III studies for fenebrutinib in relapsing and primary progressive multiple sclerosis are expected to start reading out at year end Basel, 30 May 2025 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today new, 96-week data for fenebrutinib demonstrating that patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) maintained no disability progression and low levels of disease activity for up to two years. The latest results for this investigational Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor from the Phase II FENopta open-label extension (OLE) study were presented at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. These data show that patients treated with fenebrutinib experienced an annualised relapse rate equal to one relapse every 17 years and no observed disability progression up to two years, said Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Roches Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. Fenebrutinib is potent, highly selective and the only reversible BTK inhibitor currently in Phase III trials for multiple sclerosis, and we look forward to seeing the first of those results later this year. Ninety-nine patients entered the OLE and 93 remained in the OLE after 96 weeks. During the OLE period, patients treated with fenebrutinib for up to 96 weeks had a low annualised relapse rate (ARR) of 0.06, and during this time there was no disability progression, as measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). MRI scans showed that fenebrutinib treatment suppressed disease activity in the brain. At 96 weeks zero new T1 gadolinium-enhancing (T1-Gd+) lesions, which are markers of active inflammation, were detected. In the treatment group that switched from placebo to fenebrutinib in the OLE, the annualised rate of new or enlarging T2 lesions, which represent chronic disease burden, decreased from 6.72 at the end of the 12 week double-blind period to 0.34 by 96 weeks. The safety profile of fenebrutinib in the OLE was consistent with previously reported data, with no new safety concerns identified at 96 weeks. The most common adverse events (AEs) in 5% of patients were COVID-19 (10%), urinary tract infection (10%), pharyngitis (6%) and respiratory tract infection (5%). Serious AEs occurred in two patients (2%). During the OLE, one patient experienced asymptomatic alanine aminotransferase elevation at OLE week 4, after 16 weeks on treatment, which resolved with treatment discontinuation. Three Phase III clinical trials are ongoing, including the FENhance 1 and 2 trials in RMS and the FENtrepid trial in primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). The first data from these studies, which will characterise the effects of fenebrutinib on disease progression across the multiple sclerosis spectrum, are expected at the end of 2025. About fenebrutinib Fenebrutinib is an investigational oral, reversible and non-covalent Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor that blocks the function of BTK. BTK, also known as tyrosine-protein kinase BTK, is an enzyme that regulates B-cell development and activation and is also involved in the activation of innate immune system myeloid lineage cells, such as macrophages and microglia. Preclinical data have shown fenebrutinib to be potent and highly selective, and it is the only reversible BTK inhibitor currently in Phase III trials for multiple sclerosis. Fenebrutinib has been shown to be 130 times more selective for BTK vs. other kinases. Fenebrutinib is a dual inhibitor of both B-cell and microglia activation. This dual inhibition may be able to reduce both multiple sclerosis disease activity and disability progression, thereby potentially addressing the key unmet medical need of disability progression in people living with multiple sclerosis. The fenebrutinib Phase III programme includes two identical trials in relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) (FENhance 1 & 2) with active comparator teriflunomide and the only trial in primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) (FENtrepid) in which a BTK inhibitor is being evaluated against OCREVUS. To date, more than 2,700 patients and healthy volunteers have been treated with fenebrutinib in Phase I, II and III clinical programmes across multiple diseases, including multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders. About the FENopta study The FENopta study was a global Phase II, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled 12-week study to investigate the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of fenebrutinib in 109 adults aged 18-55 years with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). The primary endpoint was the total number of new T1 gadolinium-enhancing (T1-Gd+) lesions as measured by MRI scans of the brain at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Secondary endpoints included the number of new or enlarging T2-weighted lesions as measured by MRI scans of the brain at 4, 8 and 12 weeks, and the proportion of patients free from any new T1-Gd+ lesions and new or enlarging T2-weighted lesions as measured by MRI scans of the brain at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. The goal of the FENopta study was to characterise the effect of fenebrutinib on MRI and soluble biomarkers of disease activity and progression, and it included an optional substudy to measure cerebrospinal fluid fenebrutinib levels and biomarkers of neuronal injury. Data from the 12-week study showed that fenebrutinib is central nervous system (CNS) penetrant (crosses the blood-brain barrier) and has the potential to impact mechanisms underlying chronic progressive disease biology in multiple sclerosis patients. Fenebrutinib significantly reduced new T1-Gd+ lesions and new/enlarging T2 lesions compared to placebo. The safety profile of fenebrutinib was consistent with previous and ongoing fenebrutinib clinical trials and there were no new safety concerns identified. Patients who completed the FENopta study were given the option to take part in an open-label extension (OLE) study, in which all patients receive fenebrutinib up to 192 weeks. About multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease that affects more than 2.9 million people worldwide. Multiple sclerosis occurs when the immune system abnormally attacks the insulation and support around nerve cells (myelin sheath) in the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord and optic nerves), causing inflammation and consequent damage. This damage can cause a wide range of symptoms, including weakness, fatigue and difficulty seeing, and may eventually lead to disability. Most people with multiple sclerosis experience their first symptom between 20 and 40 years of age, making the disease the leading cause of non-traumatic disability in younger adults. People with all forms of multiple sclerosis experience disease progression from the beginning of their disease. Therefore, delays in diagnosis and treatment can negatively impact people with multiple sclerosis, in terms of their physical and mental health, and contribute to the negative financial impact on the individual and society. An important goal of treating multiple sclerosis is to slow, stop and ideally prevent progression as early as possible. Approximately 85% of people with multiple sclerosis have a relapsing form of the disease (RMS) characterised by relapses and also worsening disability over time. Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) is a debilitating form of the disease marked by steadily worsening symptoms but typically without distinct relapses or periods of remission. Approximately 15% of people with multiple sclerosis are diagnosed with the primary progressive form of the disease. Until the FDA approval of OCREVUS, there had been no FDA-approved treatments for PPMS and OCREVUS is still the only approved treatment for PPMS. About Roche in Neuroscience Neuroscience is a major focus of research and development at Roche. Our goal is to pursue groundbreaking science to develop new treatments that help improve the lives of people with chronic and potentially devastating diseases. Roche is investigating more than a dozen medicines for neurological disorders, including multiple sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, Alzheimers disease, Huntingtons disease, Parkinsons disease and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Together with our partners, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of scientific understanding to solve some of the most difficult challenges in neuroscience today. About Roche Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the worlds 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 Roches 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 . All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law. Roche Global Media Relations Phone: +41 61 688 8888 / e-mail: media.relations@roche.com Hans Trees, PhD Phone: +41 79 407 72 58 Sileia Urech Phone: +41 79 935 81 48 Nathalie Altermatt Phone: +41 79 771 05 25 Lorena Corfas Phone: +41 79 568 24 95 Simon Goldsborough Phone: +44 797 32 72 915 Karsten Kleine Phone: +41 79 461 86 83 Nina Mahlitz Phone: +41 79 327 54 74 Kirti Pandey 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 SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bitget Wallet , the leading non-custodial crypto wallet, has announced its official partnership with the Solana Summit 2025 as a major sponsor, marking a significant step in its efforts to expand real-world crypto adoption. The summit, taking place from June 5 to 7 in Da Nang, Vietnam, is expected to gather over 1,000 developers and founders from across the global Solana ecosystem. At the event, Bitget Wallet will debut new in-app payment features that enables users to scan QR codes and complete transactions instantly on-site. Visitors to its branded coffee booth can enjoy complimentary drinks when paying with Bitget Wallet. Additional activations include live product demonstrations, developer workshops, and exclusive merchandise giveaways, all centered around Bitget Wallet's expanding PayFi suite. Designed to streamline crypto payments across currencies and networks, the wallet's PayFi roadmap includes upcoming support for both national QR codes and Solana Pay, unlocking seamless QR-based transactions across currencies and blockchains. "We're excited to partner with Solana Summit to showcase the potential of real-world crypto payments," said Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet. "Bitget Wallet is no longer just a place to store and send tokens it's becoming the starting point for how people trade, earn, pay, and explore onchain, delivering smarter, simpler experiences that solve real user pain points and bring crypto closer to everyday life." On June 5, Bitget Wallet will open with a product announcement introducing its QR-based payment integrations, including Solana Pay and VietQR for seamless, multi-currency payments. A developer workshop will follow, showcasing how Solana dApps can integrate and scale within the wallet ecosystem. On June 6, Xavier Ow Yeong will join a panel discussion on how on-chain finance is reshaping payment, financing, and spending behaviors. That evening, Bitget Wallet will co-host a community meetup with Saros, featuring a preview of its upcoming VietQR payment integration and a $500 incentive pool for attendees who test the functionality. Bitget Wallet offers a full Solana feature set across Trade, Earn, Pay, and Discover. Users can access Solana-native limit order trading through integration with Jupiter DEX, perform cross-chain swaps, and stake SOL via the wallet's Earn suite. The wallet also supports reclaiming idle SOL through Solana account rent refunds, provides built-in MEV protection, and enables gas fee coverage using GetGas with Solana Paymaster support. Additionally, users can explore a wide array of Solana-based DApps directly within the app. These capabilities reflect Bitget Wallet's broader commitment to making onchain finance more accessible, efficient, and secure for users engaging with the Solana network. Find out more on Bitget Wallet's official channels . About Bitget Wallet Bitget Wallet is a non-custodial crypto wallet designed to make crypto simple and secure for everyone. With over 80 million users, it brings together a full suite of crypto services, including swaps, market insights, staking, rewards, DApp exploration, and payment solutions. Supporting 130+ blockchains and millions of tokens, Bitget Wallet enables seamless multi-chain trading across hundreds of DEXs and cross-chain bridges. Backed by a $300+ million user protection fund, it ensures the highest level of security for users' assets. For more information, visit: X | Telegram | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | TikTok | Discord | Facebook For media inquiries, contact media.web3@bitget.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c05961d3-ca9c-4cbe-8607-241ef5e550bc Dublin, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Drug Delivery Market - Forecasts from 2025 to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The European Drug Delivery Market, valued at US$253.649 billion in 2025, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.08%, reaching a market size of US$342.982 billion by 2030. Increasing public spending on healthcare, expanding research and development, advancing technology, growing age-related diseases, and rising prevalence of chronic diseases are some drivers for the European drug delivery market. Growing biologics markets are also the key contributor to the market's expansion. Market Trends: Rise in Chronic and Infectious Diseases : The growing prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases is a key driver of the European drug delivery market. Alongside Europe's Cancer Beating Plan, the European Commission is focusing on addressing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, mental health, neurological disorders, and chronic respiratory diseases, which are leading causes of mortality. The surge in chronic diseases has spurred the development of Controlled Release Drug Delivery Systems (CRDDS), a reliable method that ensures precise drug dosage and targeted release. : The growing prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases is a key driver of the European drug delivery market. Alongside Europe's Cancer Beating Plan, the European Commission is focusing on addressing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, mental health, neurological disorders, and chronic respiratory diseases, which are leading causes of mortality. The surge in chronic diseases has spurred the development of Controlled Release Drug Delivery Systems (CRDDS), a reliable method that ensures precise drug dosage and targeted release. Emergence of Infectious Diseases : Infectious diseases have seen a rapid and unprecedented rise in recent decades. Over the past 50-60 years, outbreaks of diseases such as SARS, Ebola, Swine Flu, MERS, Zika, chikungunya, and COVID-19 have highlighted the urgent need for disease-specific drugs. To combat future outbreaks, a robust drug delivery market will be essential in the coming years. : Infectious diseases have seen a rapid and unprecedented rise in recent decades. Over the past 50-60 years, outbreaks of diseases such as SARS, Ebola, Swine Flu, MERS, Zika, chikungunya, and COVID-19 have highlighted the urgent need for disease-specific drugs. To combat future outbreaks, a robust drug delivery market will be essential in the coming years. Advancements in Nanotechnology : The European drug delivery market is witnessing significant progress in nanotechnology, which is gaining traction for its efficiency in targeted drug delivery. This growth is driven by the increasing burden of chronic diseases, making nanotechnology a critical area of innovation. : The European drug delivery market is witnessing significant progress in nanotechnology, which is gaining traction for its efficiency in targeted drug delivery. This growth is driven by the increasing burden of chronic diseases, making nanotechnology a critical area of innovation. Germany's Leading Role : Germany holds a substantial share of the drug delivery market, supported by high investments in research and development and the presence of major industry players. The country is advancing in areas such as nanomedicine research, contributing to the growing adoption of nanotechnology. According to Germany Trade and Invest, nanotechnology is one of the nation's most innovative sectors, with R&D expenditure accounting for 10% of total turnover. Nearly half of Europe's nanotechnology companies are based in Germany, underscoring its leadership in the European drug delivery market. : Germany holds a substantial share of the drug delivery market, supported by high investments in research and development and the presence of major industry players. The country is advancing in areas such as nanomedicine research, contributing to the growing adoption of nanotechnology. According to Germany Trade and Invest, nanotechnology is one of the nation's most innovative sectors, with R&D expenditure accounting for 10% of total turnover. Nearly half of Europe's nanotechnology companies are based in Germany, underscoring its leadership in the European drug delivery market. U.K.'s Market Influence: The U.K. is expected to capture a significant share of the European drug delivery market, driven by the presence of leading pharmaceutical companies and a strong focus on innovation. Increased investment in pharmaceutical research and development is further propelling market growth in the region. Some of the major players covered in this report include Bayer, Becton, Dickinson Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Roche Holdings among others. Report Coverage: Historical data from 2022 to 2024 & forecast data from 2025 to 2030 Growth Opportunities, Challenges, Supply Chain Outlook, Regulatory Framework, and Trend Analysis Competitive Positioning, Strategies, and Market Share Analysis Revenue Growth and Forecast Assessment of segments and regions including countries Company Profiling (Strategies, Products, Financial Information, and Key Developments among others) Companies Profiled: Ascendis Pharma Pfizer Inc. Becton, Dickinson Company Baxter International Inc. Novartis Bayer AG Antares Pharma Roche Holding Novo Nordisk GlaxoSmithKline The European Drug Delivery Market is analyzed into the following segments: By Type Inhalation Drug Delivery Injectable Drug Delivery Nasal Drug Delivery Oral Drug Delivery Transdermal Drug Delivery By Application Treatment of diseases Research/Academic purposes By Region U.K. Germany Switzerland France Spain Italy Others Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 100 Forecast Period 2025 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 $253.65 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $342.98 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 5.0% Regions Covered Europe For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/e8f0vk 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 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "United States Veterinary Education Market, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2020-2030F" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The United States Veterinary Education Market was valued at USD 0.76 Billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 1.19 Billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 7.71% The market is experiencing notable growth due to evolving industry needs and a rising demand for skilled veterinary professionals. Educational institutions are enhancing curricula by integrating evidence-based methodologies and innovative learning technologies. Increased pet ownership, heightened awareness of animal welfare, and the expanding role of veterinarians in public health and food safety are driving the need for veterinary education. Additionally, the emergence of veterinary subspecialties such as oncology and cardiology has spurred the development of advanced training programs. Strategic collaborations among veterinary schools, industry stakeholders, and government entities are fostering an enriched educational ecosystem that supports structured learning and financial assistance for students. Rising Demand for Veterinary Professionals The growing need for veterinary professionals is a major driver of the United States Veterinary Education Market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, veterinary employment is expected to increase by 19% between 2022 and 2032, a rate significantly higher than the average across all occupations. This surge is largely fueled by the rise in pet ownership, with the American Veterinary Medical Association reporting over 85 million U.S. households owning pets in 2023. As companion animal populations expand, so does the requirement for veterinary services, including preventive care and medical treatment. The livestock industry is also contributing to this demand by prioritizing animal health to ensure food safety and regulatory compliance. The USDA has noted an uptick in animal production practices requiring veterinary oversight. Furthermore, the profession's growing involvement in public health, particularly in managing zoonotic diseases, reinforces the critical role veterinarians play beyond traditional clinical settings. Shortage of Qualified Faculty and Mentors A significant challenge confronting the United States Veterinary Education Market is the shortage of qualified faculty and mentors. As demand for veterinary professionals rises, institutions are finding it difficult to recruit and retain educators with both academic expertise and clinical experience. One major reason is the more competitive salaries offered in private practice and industry roles, making academic positions less appealing. This shortage reduces the capacity of veterinary programs to admit students, limiting the pipeline of future veterinarians. It also affects the quality of instruction, particularly during hands-on clinical rotations that are essential for practical learning. Specialized disciplines like surgery and internal medicine are especially impacted, where expert mentorship is vital. Without sufficient faculty support, student training and overall educational standards may suffer. Rise of Certificate Programs The growing adoption of certificate programs is a key trend reshaping the United States Veterinary Education Market. These programs offer targeted, flexible training in specific areas such as animal nutrition, infectious diseases, anesthesiology, and clinical techniques, without the need for full-degree commitments. Designed for both practicing professionals and students, these certifications allow rapid skill enhancement in a cost-effective manner. They serve as a practical continuing education tool, keeping veterinary practitioners abreast of current advancements and compliance requirements. With the veterinary sector demanding more specialized expertise, certificate programs help improve patient outcomes and expand career opportunities. Their modular nature and industry relevance make them a valuable addition to traditional veterinary education pathways. Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 86 Forecast Period 2024 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $0.76 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $1.19 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 7.7% Regions Covered United States Report Scope Key Market Players: University of California - Davis Cornell University Auburn University Tuskegee University University of Arizona Midwestern University University of Florida University of Georgia University of Illinois Purdue University United States Veterinary Education Market, By Course: Graduate Courses Post-graduate Courses Standalone Courses United States Veterinary Education Market, By Specialty: Veterinary Surgery Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Nursing Animal Grooming Other Specialties United States Veterinary Education Market, By Institution: Public Private United States Veterinary Education Market, By Delivery Mode: Classroom based Courses E-Learning United States Veterinary Education Market, By Region: North-East Mid-West West South For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/56gxyl 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 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "ADAS Market by Hardware Offering (Camera Units, LiDAR, Radar Sensors, Ultrasonic Sensors), Software Offering, System Type (ACC, AEB, LDW, IPA, BSD), Vehicle Class, Vehicle Type, EV Type, Level of Autonomy (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5), and Region - Global Forecast to 2032" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The ADAS market is projected to expand from 359.8 million units in 2025 to 652.5 million units by 2032, advancing at a CAGR of 8.9% The industry is undergoing strategic transformation with a rising focus on software innovation characterized by user-friendly interfaces, over-the-air updates, and data analytics to enhance system performance. Advancements in edge computing have propelled local data processing by vehicle cameras and sensors, enabling swift decision-making and uninterrupted functionality where connectivity may be constrained. Moreover, the integration of ADAS with AI, ML, IoT, and big data analytics is spurring the evolution of smarter, adaptive systems. As safety regulations tighten and consumer demand for safer transportation grows, the commercial vehicle segment is set for substantial growth, as ADAS solutions contribute to driver safety and accident reduction. The battery electric vehicle (BEV) is projected to hold the largest share of the ADAS market by electric vehicle type during the forecast period The BEV segment, expected to lead in market share by volume, benefits from declining EV battery costs, range enhancements, and the rapid growth of global EV charging infrastructure. Governments in India, China, the US, and Europe are encouraging this shift through subsidies and incentives for EV purchases and charging infrastructure development. Such measures include tax rebates, EV infrastructure grants, and reduced import duties. Prominent OEMs like BMW, BYD, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Ford are introducing electric vehicles with enhanced safety and driver assistance features. Notably, Ford's 2025 Capri EV includes lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, blind spot detection, traffic sign recognition, and automatic parking features. In February 2025, BYD (China) launched its 'God's Eye' driving assistance system, elevating BYD vehicles with advanced technologies, emphasizing BEVs as a cornerstone of future mobility. The passenger car segment is projected to lead the ADAS market by vehicle type during the forecast period. Growth in the passenger car segment during the forecast period is driven by the increasing trend of self-driving technologies and advancing in-car technologies. Luxurious vehicles in high demand globally often come equipped with dominant features like driver monitoring systems, intelligent park systems, and pedestrian detection systems. The 2025 Genesis G90, for instance, offers remote smart parking assist, smart cruise control with stop-and-go, hands-on detection, safe exit assist, and blind-spot collision-avoidance, among others. OEMs such as Toyota, Hyundai, Tesla, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, and General Motors are significantly investing in higher autonomy vehicles, with Hyundai Motor Company announcing a USD 21 billion investment in the US from 2025 to 2028, including USD 6 billion targeted at autonomous driving technologies. Europe is projected to have a significant market share in the ADAS market during the forecast period. Stringent emission regulations and zero-emission objectives play a critical role in the region's significant share within ADAS. European technological evolution, marked by driver assistance features like traffic jam assist and blind spot detection with rear cross traffic, propels market growth. Beginning July 7, 2024, the EU's second phase of General Safety Regulation II mandates stricter safety standards across new vehicle releases, requiring technologies like advanced emergency braking system, intelligent speed assistance, and driver drowsiness attention warnings in passenger cars, while buses and heavy vehicles must integrate systems including blind spot information systems and tire pressure monitoring. Transitioning towards EVs amid safety and consumer awareness boosts ADAS demand within Europe. The ADAS market commands a substantial player presence, with in-depth insights gathered via interviews: CEOs, marketing directors, and key innovation executives among them. The significant players include Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental AG, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Denso Corporation, and Magna International Inc., offering integrated ADAS solutions meeting stringent regulatory and consumer demands. Key Benefits of Buying the Report: Insightful approximations of revenue figures for the ADAS market and its segments. Understanding the competitive environment and strategic advantages for better business positioning and market entry planning. Dispels insights into market dynamics, covering drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. Provides trends and pricing trajectory insights for informed strategic planning. The report provides insights into the following points: Market dynamics, including drivers like vehicle safety focus, ADAS-driven comfort, regulatory standards, and emerging opportunities. Innovation Insights: New technological advancements and R&D activities in ADAS. Exhaustive Market Development: Insight into lucrative ADAS market regions and developments. Competitive Analysis: Detailed assessment of leading players like Bosch, Continental, ZF Friedrichshafen, among others. Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 536 Forecast Period 2025 - 2032 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 $359.8 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2032 $652.5 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 8.9% Regions Covered Global Market Dynamics Drivers Increased Focus on Vehicle Safety Enhanced Vehicle Safety and Driving Comfort With ADAS Increased Premium Vehicle Sales Shift Toward Autonomous Vehicles Government Regulations and Safety Standards Challenges High Cost of ADAS Integration Addressing Reliability Issues of Sensors in ADAS Opportunities Advancements in Autonomous Vehicle Technology 5G Integration in Automotive Networks Rising Incorporation of IoT EV Manufacturers Enhancing Driving Experience and Safety Future of Autonomous Ridesharing Innovative LiDAR Technology by Key Startups Case Studies Tata Elxsi Designed Robotaxi to Accelerate Autonomous Driving With Advanced ADAS Solutions Renovo Developed First Automotive-Grade, Edge-Centric Data Management Platform for Autonomous Vehicles Scenario-Based Testing Validation for ADS/ADAS With Adscene General Motors Evaluated Effectiveness of Safety Systems in GM Vehicles Momenta Showcased MPilot Parking Konrad Technologies Conducted ADAS Sensor Package and Reliability Test Nvidia Provided Open Autonomous Vehicle Development Platform ZF Released AI-Based Services for ADAS Renesas Boosted Deep Learning Development for ADAS and Automated Driving Applications Velodyne Sensors Launched AutonomouStuff'S Open Autonomy Pilot Autocruis Introduced AMD SoC-Powered ADAS and IMS for Cars Mercedes-Benz Used Ansys Optislang for ADAS Validation Through Reliable Analysis Industry Trends Not specifically mentioned under Market Dynamics Company Profiles Robert Bosch GmbH Continental AG ZF Friedrichshafen AG Denso Corporation Magna International Inc. Mobileye Aptiv Valeo Hyundai Mobis Nvidia Corporation NXP Semiconductors Autoliv Astemo Ltd. Horizon Robotics Inc. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Ficosa Internacional SA Aisin Corporation Renesas Electronics Corporation Infineon Technologies AG Hella GmbH & Co. KGaA Texas Instruments Incorporated Samsung Gentex Corporation Blackberry Limited Microchip Technology Inc. Veoneer US Safety Systems, LLC. Panasonic Automotive Systems Co., Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/d56vfk 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. PHILADELPHIA, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Berger Montague PC advises investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Organon & Co. (Organon or the Company) (NYSE: OGN) on behalf of purchasers of Organon securities between October 31, 2024 through April 30, 2025, inclusive (the Class Period). Investor Deadline: Investors who purchased or acquired Organon securities during the Class Period may, no later than JULY 22, 2025 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. To learn your rights, CLICK HERE . Organon, headquartered in Jersey City, NJ, is a healthcare company focused on womens health. In October 2024, Organon acquired Dermavant, a biopharmaceutical company focused on dermatological conditions, for $1.2 billion. According to the lawsuit, despite the increase in debt from the Dermavant acquisition, the Company assured investors that it would maintain its dividend, which it described as its #1 capital allocation priority. On May 1, 2025, investors learned the truth when Organon announced that management reset the Companys dividend payout from $0.28 per share to $0.02 per share. Organons senior management explained that the Company had reset our capital allocation priorities to accelerate progress towards deleveraging and that returning capital to shareholders is right now, less of a priority. On this news, the price of Organon stock declined $3.48 per share approximately 27% from a closing price of $12.93 per share on April 30, 2025 to a close of $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025. To learn your rights or for more information, CLICK HERE or please contact Berger Montague: Andrew Abramowitz at aabramowitz@bm.net or (215) 875-3015, or Peter Hamner at phamner@bm.net . 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 aabramowitz@bm.net Ottawa, ON, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On World Vape Day, the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) celebrates the continued decline in youth vaping rates, as reported in Statistics Canadas 2025 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (published March 26, 2025). This progress (achieved without flavour bans) demonstrates the success of balanced policies that prioritize both youth protection and harm reduction for adult smokers. World Vape Day and World No Tobacco Day are pivotal moments to recognize vapings role in harm reduction and advancing Health Canadas goal of reducing smoking rates to less than 5% by 2035, said Sam Tam, President of the Canadian Vaping Association. With 1.9 million adult vapers in Canada, vaping remains one of the most effective harm reduction tools available. However, recent calls for a nationwide flavour ban, based on misrepresented youth vaping data, threatens to reverse this progress. Claims that the industry targets youth with appealing flavours are false and irresponsible. Vape flavour marketing to youth is illegal under the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act and compliant businesses adhere strictly to these regulations, Tam emphasized. Evidence from jurisdictions with flavour bans shows such policies fail to reduce youth vaping. Instead, they fuel illicit markets and force former smokers back to combustible cigarettes. Youth Vaping Rates Continue to Decline Statistics Canada data reveals a nearly 50% relative decline in youth vaping since 2019, a trend that contradicts current alarmist narratives. The CVA urges policymakers to focus on enforcement, education, and harm reduction rather than prohibition entirely. Health Canada has indicated the main reasons why youth experiment with vaping is because of peer pressure that stems from school stress, home life and responsibilities, family pressures, social media and desire to fit in and feel accepted by friends. Like underage use of alcohol or cannabis, addressing underage vaping requires targeted strategies, something a flavour ban will not solve. Today, on World Vape Day, the CVA reaffirms its support for Health Canadas Youth Vaping Prevention and Education Initiative, which provides free toolkits and online resources for parents, educators, and community leaders to educate youth on vaping risks. The I quit for me program includes a guide for youth as well as a comprehensive Facilitators guide for group programs https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/healthy-living/i-quit-for-me-guide-youth.html A Balanced Path Forward The CVA advocates for policies that: - Strengthen enforcement against underage sales and illicit products; - Expand youth-focused education on vaping risks; - Preserve flavoured vaping options for adults seeking harm reduction products. Destroying a proven harm reduction tool is not the solution. Canada must continue its progress through smart regulation, not prohibition, said Sam Tam. We call on all stakeholdershealth organizations, public health officials, and even tobacco companiesto unite behind Health Canadas youth prevention resources. By aligning under one evidence-based program, we can further reduce youth vaping nationwide. For youth vaping prevention resources, visit Health Canadas website: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/health/campaigns/vaping.html. About the Canadian Vaping Association The Canadian Vaping Association is the national voice for the vaping industry, advocating for sensible regulations that balance adult harm reduction with youth protection and education. Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global Reed Switch Device Market is projected to grow from USD 1.2 billion in 2024 to USD 2.2 billion by 2034, expanding at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.5% over the forecast period. This steady growth is propelled by widespread adoption across industries such as automotive, industrial automation, and consumer electronicswhere compact, energy-efficient, and reliable switching solutions are increasingly critical. Get a Sample PDF Brochure: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/48121/reed-switch-device-market#request-a-sample Market Overview Reed switches, widely used for their simplicity, durability, and low power consumption, are experiencing a resurgence due to the expanding adoption of automation technologies, smart devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Their application extends across a range of verticalsfrom automotive sensors and medical devices to industrial machinery and consumer electronics. Despite the competitive pressure from newer sensing technologies such as Hall Effect sensors, reed switches maintain a strong foothold due to their cost-effectiveness and reliability in low-current environments. Market Segmentation Highlights By Product Type: Single Pole Reed Switches lead the market (~45%) due to their versatility. Double Pole (~30%) and Multi-Contact (~25%) types are gaining ground in precision and complex applications. By Application: Automotive dominates with 35% share, boosted by EV and sensor integration. Industrial Automation (25%) and Consumer Electronics (20%) follow closely. Aerospace and Medical Devices are niche but rapidly growing. By End-User Industry: Automotive and Electronics jointly lead (35% and 30% respectively). Healthcare, Telecommunications, and Industrial sectors offer long-term growth potential. By Technology: Magnetic technology remains dominant, but optical reed switches are emerging in specific applications demanding non-contact operation. By Sales Channel: Direct Sales account for 40% of distribution. Distributors and Online Retail comprise 35% and 25% respectively, with e-commerce witnessing rising traction. By Region: North America leads the market with a 45% revenue share. Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region (CAGR of 8%), driven by industrial growth and rising electronic manufacturing in countries like China, India, and South Korea. Key Market Drivers Rising automation across industrial and automotive sectors. Growing demand for energy-efficient and compact electronic components. Expansion of IoT and smart home technologies. Government regulations encouraging sustainable technologies. Challenges and Restraints Intense competition from alternative sensors such as Hall Effect and MEMS sensors. Supply chain fluctuations and volatile raw material prices . volatile raw material prices Stringent environmental regulations increasing compliance costs. Price competition potentially impacting margins and innovation budgets. Opportunities and Emerging Trends Integration in smart devices and IoT ecosystems. Application in renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs). Growing demand for miniaturized sensors in medical and consumer electronics. Emergence of modular, customizable sensor solutions for smart cities and industrial IoT. Buy Now : https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/purchase/?currency=USD&type=single_user_license&report_id=48121 Emerging Trends and Technological Advancements 1. Miniaturization and Advanced Materials Manufacturers are focusing on developing miniaturized reed switches to cater to the growing demand for compact and efficient components in modern electronic devices. Advancements in materials, such as the use of ferromagnetic reeds, are enhancing the sensitivity and durability of reed switches, making them suitable for high-precision applications . 2. Integration with IoT and Smart Devices The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has opened new avenues for reed switch applications. Their low power consumption and high reliability make them ideal for use in smart home systems, wearable devices, and other IoT-enabled applications . 3. Adoption in Renewable Energy Systems Reed switches are increasingly being utilized in renewable energy systems for monitoring and control purposes. Their ability to operate efficiently in harsh environments makes them suitable for applications in solar panels and wind turbines, contributing to the global shift towards sustainable energy solutions . Regional Insights Asia-Pacific The Asia-Pacific region is poised to witness significant growth in the reed switch device market, driven by rapid industrialization and the expansion of the electronics manufacturing sector. Countries like China, Japan, and South Korea are leading contributors, with increasing investments in automotive electronics and industrial automation . North America North America currently holds a substantial share of the market, attributed to the presence of key industry players and the early adoption of advanced technologies. The region's focus on innovation and development in sectors like automotive and healthcare continues to drive demand for reed switch devices . Key Applications and Industry Verticals Automotive Reed switches play a critical role in automotive applications, including sensing and control systems. The rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and the integration of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are boosting the demand for reliable and efficient reed switch components . Healthcare In the healthcare sector, reed switches are utilized in medical devices for functions such as position sensing and safety interlocks. Their non-contact operation and reliability are essential for ensuring patient safety and device performance . Challenges and Considerations Despite the positive outlook, the reed switch device market faces challenges such as competition from alternative sensing technologies like Hall effect sensors. Additionally, fluctuations in raw material prices and supply chain disruptions can impact manufacturing costs and product availability . Browse full Report - https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/48121/reed-switch-device-market Competitive Landscape The market is moderately consolidated, with leading players focusing on R&D and product differentiation. Major companies include: Siemens AG Honeywell International Inc. Omron Corporation TE Connectivity Vishay Intertechnology Littelfuse, Inc. Reed Switch Developments Corp. Magswitch Technology Carlo Gavazzi Holding AG, among others. Recent Developments: 1. Siemens AG In October 2023, Siemens introduced the SIMOCODE M-CP, an advanced motor management system tailored for motor control centers (MCCs). This system boasts a compact design, enhanced functionality, and compatibility with Ethernet-based communication, aiming to optimize motor control and monitoring in industrial settings. Additionally, Siemens launched the SIRIUS 3RC7 intelligent link module, facilitating seamless integration between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). This plug-and-play module enhances data transparency down to the field level, enabling efficient use of data available at load feeders. 2. Honeywell International Inc. In February 2025, Honeywell announced its intent to separate its Automation and Aerospace businesses, aiming to create three industry-leading companies. This strategic move is designed to enable each entity to focus on its core competencies and drive sustained growth. Furthermore, in July 2024, Honeywell agreed to acquire Air Products' liquefied natural gas (LNG) process technology and equipment business for $1.81 billion. This acquisition is expected to expand Honeywell's energy transition solutions and services, enhancing its capabilities in the LNG sector. 3. Omron Corporation In August 2023, Omron Corporation entered into a strategic partnership with a prominent AI technology firm to enhance the development of smart control systems utilizing reed switch technology. This collaboration aims to integrate AI-driven insights with traditional reed switch functionalities, creating innovative solutions responsive to real-time environmental changes. Additionally, in April 2025, Omron partnered with Cognizant to revolutionize manufacturing through unique one-stop IT-OT integration. This partnership combines Omron's operational technology products with Cognizant's IT capabilities, aiming to deliver comprehensive automation solutions. 4. Vishay Intertechnology Inc. In early 2024, Vishay Intertechnology developed a fully integrated proximity sensor that received the 2024 China IoT Innovation Award in the IoT Annual Product Award: Sensor category and a 2024 EE Awards Asia Award in the Best Sensor category. This sensor is designed for low voltage, high frequency inverters, DC/DC converters, freewheeling diodes, snubbers, and polarity protection applications. Moreover, Vishay introduced the MCB RAIK060 absolute inductive kit encoder, featuring a compact design with a thickness of 5 mm and a weight of 15.5 g. This encoder supports higher rotational speeds up to 10,000 rpm, catering to applications requiring precise position sensing. 5. Reed Switch Developments Corp. In June 2023, Reed Switch Developments Corp. announced plans for expansion into emerging markets in Southeast Asia. This strategic move aims to capitalize on the rising demand for reed switch devices in various applications, including consumer electronics and medical devices. By establishing manufacturing and distribution partnerships in these countries, the company seeks to reduce costs and enhance service delivery. This report is also available in the following languages : Japanese (), Korean ( ), Chinese (), French (Marche des interrupteurs a lames), German (Markt fur Reedschaltergerate), and Italian (Mercato dei dispositivi a lamella), etc. Get a Sample PDF Brochure: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/48121/reed-switch-device-market#request-a-sample More Research Finding Switches & Dimmers & Receptacles Market The global market for switches, dimmers, and receptacles is valued at approximately $18 billion in 2024, with an expected growth trajectory leading to a projected value of around $28 billion by 2034. This reflects a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 4.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/65306/global-switches-dimmers-receptacles-market White Box Switches Market The global white box switches market is projected to reach approximately $5.2 billion in 2024, driven by the growing demand for cost-effective networking solutions in cloud computing and data center environments. As enterprises increasingly adopt flexible and scalable infrastructure, the market is expected to witness substantial growth, with an estimated market value of around $12.5 billion by 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64989/global-white-box-switches-market Absorptive RF Switch Market The global absorptive RF switch market is valued at approximately $2.5 billion in 2024, with projections indicating it will reach around $4.6 billion by 2034. This represents a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 6.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64902/global-absorptive-rf-switch-market EV Rotor Shaft Market The global Electric Vehicle (EV) rotor shaft market is valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2024 and is poised for substantial growth, with a projected market value reaching around $3.6 billion by 2034. This trajectory reflects a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 12% from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64751/ev-rotor-shaft-market High Voltage Direct Current Electric Power Transmission System Insights The global High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electric power transmission system market is valued at approximately $11 billion. This market is poised for significant growth, with projections estimating a market value of around $23 billion by 2034. This growth corresponds to a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.4% from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64681/high-voltage-direct-current-electric-power-transmission-system-market Detection Switches Market The global detection switches market is projected to reach a value of approximately $3.8 billion in 2024, driven by increasing automation across various sectors, including industrial, automotive, and security applications. For the forecast period of 2025-2034, the market is anticipated to grow at a robust CAGR of 7.2%, leading to an estimated value of around $7.5 billion by 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64664/detection-switches-market Time-Sensitive Networking TSN Market The Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) market is positioned for significant growth, with a projected value of approximately $1.4 billion in 2024. This market is expected to expand at a robust CAGR of 23.1% from 2025 to 2034, potentially reaching a valuation of around $10.7 billion by the end of the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64621/time-sensitive-networking-tsn-market New Energy Vehicle Traction Motor Core Market The global market for new energy vehicle (NEV) traction motor cores is valued at approximately $8 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach around $16 billion by 2034, reflecting robust growth driven by the ongoing electrification of the automotive sector. The estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for this market during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034 is approximately 7.5%. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64614/new-energy-vehicle-traction-motor-core-market Military Aviation Sensors and Switches Market The global military aviation sensors and switches market is valued at approximately $3.5 billion in 2024, with a projected growth to around $5.8 billion by 2034. This growth represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.2% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63915/global-military-aviation-sensors-and-switches-market Non-Fused Switch Disconnector Market As of 2024, the global non-fused switch disconnector market is valued at approximately $1.1 billion. Driven by increasing industrial automation and renewable energy initiatives, the market is projected to reach around $1.75 billion by 2034, reflecting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.9% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63820/global-non-fused-switch-disconnector-market AC-DC DIN Rail Power Supply Future Trends The global AC-DC DIN rail power supply market is valued at approximately $2.5 billion. Projections indicate significant growth, with a forecasted market value of around $4.3 billion by 2034. This growth corresponds to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.1% during the period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63739/global-ac-dc-din-rail-power-supply-market RF MEMS Market The global RF MEMS (Radio Frequency Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) market is valued at approximately $1.8 billion, driven by increased demand in telecommunications, automotive, and consumer electronics sectors. The market is projected to expand significantly, reaching an estimated $4.5 billion by 2034, attributed to advancements in 5G technology and IoT applications. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63688/global-rf-mems-market Power Tool Switches Market The global power tool switches market is valued at approximately $2.1 billion in 2024. The market is projected to reach around $3.4 billion by 2034, reflecting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.0% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63422/global-power-tool-switches-market Switching Power Supply Market The global switching power supply market is valued at approximately $31 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach around $52 billion by 2034, reflecting a robust growth trajectory. This equates to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 5.3% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63204/global-switching-power-supply-market RF and Microwave Switches Market The global RF and microwave switches market is valued at approximately $3.2 billion in 2024, with a robust growth trajectory anticipated. According to market insights, the sector is projected to reach around $5.8 billion by 2034, reflecting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 6.5% from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/63110/global-rf-and-microwave-switches-market Proximity Switches Market The global proximity switches market is valued at approximately USD 3.5 billion in 2024, with significant growth expected during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. The market is projected to reach around USD 5.1 billion by 2034, translating to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.0%. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62645/global-proximity-switches-market PCI Express Switches Market The global PCI Express (PCIe) switches market is anticipated to reach a value of approximately $4.2 billion in 2024, driven by the increasing demand for high-speed data transfer and expanding applications in data centers, gaming, and artificial intelligence. The market is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 10.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034, potentially reaching $11.3 billion by the end of 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62457/global-pci-express-switches-market MEMS Optical Switches Market The global MEMS optical switches market is valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2024, with expectations to reach around $3.4 billion by 2034. This trajectory indicates a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 11% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62450/global-mems-optical-switches-market Tilt Switch Market The global tilt switch market is valued at approximately $600 million in 2024 and is projected to reach around $1.2 billion by 2034, reflecting a robust growth trajectory. This translates to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 7.3% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/61231/global-tilt-switch-market Ethernet Switch ICs Market The global Ethernet switch integrated circuits (ICs) market is expected to reach a value of approximately $25 billion in 2024, driven by increasing demand for data center solutions and rising internet bandwidth requirements. The market is projected to grow significantly between 2025 and 2034, with an estimated value of around $40 billion by the end of this period, translating to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.4%. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/61185/global-ethernet-switch-ics-market Smart Switches Market The global smart switches market is expected to reach approximately $12 billion in 2024, driven by increasing consumer demand for energy-efficient solutions and the growing trend of smart home automation. As technological advancements in connectivity, including Wi-Fi and Zigbee, continue to evolve, the market is projected to expand significantly, with an estimated value of $34 billion by 2034. This growth represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 11% from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/61005/global-smart-switches-market Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global carbon nanotube (CNT) materials market, valued at USD 3.2 billion in 2024, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14.6%, reaching approximately USD 11.7 billion by 2034. This impressive growth trajectory is driven by escalating demand in electronics, energy storage, composites, and healthcare sectors, bolstered by continuous advancements in manufacturing technologies and material science. Get a Sample PDF Brochure: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62718/global-carbon-nanotube-cnt-materials-market#request-a-sample Asia-Pacific dominates the global market, accounting for roughly 45% of total revenues, thanks to robust industrialization, a strong electronics base, and strategic government investments in nanotechnology research. Strategic Insights Market Growth Drivers High-performance demand: Industries are shifting toward advanced materials with superior electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, with CNTs being a prime candidate. Industries are shifting toward advanced materials with superior electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, with CNTs being a prime candidate. Technological advancement: Innovations in CVD, laser ablation, and arc discharge methods are improving production efficiency and scalability. Innovations in CVD, laser ablation, and arc discharge methods are improving production efficiency and scalability. Sustainability alignment: CNTs contribute to lightweight and energy-efficient materials, aligning with global sustainability goals, particularly in EVs and renewables. CNTs contribute to lightweight and energy-efficient materials, aligning with global sustainability goals, particularly in EVs and renewables. Government support and R&D investments: Ongoing research initiatives and funding programs are accelerating CNT adoption across emerging technologies. Key Challenges High production cost: The resource-intensive nature of CNT manufacturing remains a cost barrier. The resource-intensive nature of CNT manufacturing remains a cost barrier. Health and environmental risks: Concerns over CNT toxicity have triggered stringent regulations, especially in Europe and North America. Concerns over CNT toxicity have triggered stringent regulations, especially in Europe and North America. Limited standardization: Lack of uniform industry standards and testing protocols restricts broader adoption and integration. Lack of uniform industry standards and testing protocols restricts broader adoption and integration. Supply chain vulnerability: Disruptions in raw material supply and specialized equipment availability could affect global production stability. Emerging Opportunities Energy storage revolution: CNTs are vital in advancing high-capacity batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells, especially for EVs and grid storage. CNTs are vital in advancing high-capacity batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells, especially for EVs and grid storage. Aerospace and automotive composites: Lightweight, high-strength CNT-reinforced materials support fuel efficiency and emission reduction targets. Lightweight, high-strength CNT-reinforced materials support fuel efficiency and emission reduction targets. Biomedical advancements: Drug delivery, biosensing, and imaging applications of CNTs are gaining traction with progress in nanomedicine. Drug delivery, biosensing, and imaging applications of CNTs are gaining traction with progress in nanomedicine. Smart textiles and coatings: Increasing demand for multifunctional materials opens doors for CNTs in wearable tech and protective clothing. Regional Analysis: 1. North America Overview: North America, particularly the United States, is one of the leading regions in the carbon nanotube market, driven by extensive R&D activities, strong presence of high-tech industries, and robust demand from the defense, aerospace, automotive, and electronics sectors. Key Drivers: Heavy investment in advanced nanotechnology and materials research. High adoption of CNTs in lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, and conductive films. Strong government support for clean energy and defense innovations. Notable Developments: U.S. companies are forming collaborations with national laboratories and academic institutions to advance CNT-based technologies. Growth in electric vehicle manufacturing is stimulating demand for CNTs in battery applications. Challenges: High production costs and scalability issues may restrict wider adoption. Regulatory scrutiny around nanomaterials and environmental concerns. 2. Europe Overview: Europe has shown steady growth in CNT adoption due to its emphasis on sustainable manufacturing, automotive electrification, and environmental regulations. Countries like Germany, France, and the UK are leading contributors. Key Drivers: Growing EV sector and stringent EU regulations on emissions. Significant R&D spending in advanced composites, particularly in Germany and France. Applications in aerospace and renewable energy are expanding rapidly. Notable Developments: European Commission funding nanomaterials research through Horizon Europe programs. Strategic alliances between CNT producers and automotive or aerospace OEMs to develop lightweight, high-performance components. Challenges: High costs of CNT-based materials compared to alternatives. Relatively slower commercialization of research outcomes compared to Asia and the U.S. 3. Asia-Pacific Overview: Asia-Pacific is the largest and fastest-growing region in the CNT materials market, primarily led by China, Japan, South Korea, and India. The region dominates in both CNT production and consumption, driven by strong industrial infrastructure and massive electronics and automotive sectors. Key Drivers: Rapid industrialization and urbanization fueling demand in electronics, batteries, and automotive. China is the global leader in CNT production due to low-cost manufacturing and government support. South Korea and Japan invest heavily in CNT-based electronics and energy storage solutions. Notable Developments: Major CNT manufacturers like Cnano Technology and LG Chem are scaling up production. Chinas focus on self-reliance in semiconductors and EV batteries is boosting CNT integration. Japanese firms are developing high-purity CNTs for niche applications such as semiconductors and flexible displays. Challenges: Intellectual property concerns and competition from low-cost producers. Environmental and safety regulations are becoming stricter, requiring innovation in production processes. 4. Latin America Overview: Latin America represents an emerging but relatively underdeveloped market for carbon nanotubes. Brazil is the dominant player in the region, with a growing interest in nanotechnology for industrial and medical applications. Key Drivers: Growing focus on advanced materials in universities and research centers. Potential applications in agriculture, water purification, and construction. Notable Developments: Brazil is investing in nanotechnology R&D via public-private partnerships. Academic research is contributing to small-scale CNT manufacturing and innovation hubs. Challenges: Limited industrial infrastructure for CNT commercialization. Dependence on imported raw materials and technologies. 5. Middle East and Africa (MEA) Overview: MEA is a nascent market for CNTs with limited adoption, mainly concentrated in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. However, the region shows potential due to investments in renewable energy, water treatment, and construction. Key Drivers: Interest in CNTs for desalination membranes, water filtration, and oil & gas applications. Smart city projects driving demand for high-performance materials. Notable Developments: UAE and Saudi Arabia are fostering tech hubs to encourage nanotechnology research. South African universities are exploring CNTs for environmental and health applications. Challenges: Lack of local CNT manufacturing capabilities. Low awareness and limited integration into commercial applications. Buy Now : https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/purchase/?currency=USD&type=single_user_license&report_id=62718 Competitive Landscape Leading market players include: Toray Industries, Inc. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Chengdu Organic Chemicals Co., Ltd. Carbon Solutions, Inc. Nanoshel LLC Showa Denko K.K. OCSiAl Advanced Nanotech Lab Nanocyl S.A. Hyperion Catalysis International, Inc. Arkema S.A. The Nanotechnology Company XG Sciences, Inc. Cnano Technology Limited EVOCD Raymor Industries Inc. Cheap Tubes Inc. Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. Arry International Group Limited NanoLab, Inc. Browse full Report - https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62718/global-carbon-nanotube-cnt-materials-market Recent Developments : 1. OCSiAl OCSiAl, a global leader in single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), continues to expand its production footprint to meet rising demand across various industries. In 2024, the company completed the construction of its large-scale production facility in Luxembourg, which is poised to significantly increase global SWCNT output. This plant, once fully operational, will produce over 100 tons of SWCNTs annually, reinforcing OCSiAl's strategic focus on scalability and affordability. The company is also enhancing its partnerships with automotive OEMs and battery manufacturers, integrating CNTs into EV batteries to improve energy density and charge cycles. 2. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation has recently intensified its focus on CNT-based conductive materials used in lithium-ion batteries. In 2024, the company announced a collaboration with a major Japanese battery producer to develop next-generation battery anodes incorporating multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). This joint initiative aims to boost battery performance while reducing size and weightkey requirements in electric vehicle and portable electronics markets. Additionally, Mitsubishi is investing in expanding its CNT production capacity at its Hiroshima facility to support growing domestic and international demand. 3. Showa Denko K.K. In 2024, Showa Denko K.K. unveiled its new range of high-performance CNT-based dispersions targeted at the semiconductor and electronics sectors. These dispersions offer improved conductivity and thermal stability, critical for use in heat dissipation materials, sensors, and transparent conductive films. The company also reported the successful integration of its CNTs into advanced composite materials for aerospace applications through partnerships with Japanese aerospace firms. Furthermore, Showa Denko is actively involved in R&D programs supported by Japanese government initiatives focused on material innovation and green energy technologies. 4. Nanocyl S.A. Belgium-based Nanocyl S.A. has made strides in enhancing the industrial scalability of its CNT products. In early 2025, the company announced a strategic alliance with a European plastics manufacturer to co-develop CNT-enhanced thermoplastic composites for automotive and consumer electronics applications. This partnership aims to reduce component weight while improving mechanical strength and electromagnetic shielding properties. Nanocyl also expanded its product offerings with the launch of a new grade of CNT masterbatches that are optimized for 3D printing and additive manufacturing, supporting innovation in prototyping and custom manufacturing. 5. Cnano Technology Limited Cnano Technology, a key player in Asia, has significantly increased its influence in the global market by scaling up its CNT production capabilities. In 2024, the company commissioned a new state-of-the-art production line in Jiangsu Province, China, which tripled its manufacturing capacity for multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The company is also actively involved in collaborations with Chinese EV battery producers to enhance conductive additives in electrode formulations. Cnano has invested in AI-driven quality control systems to ensure consistency and purity in its CNT products, strengthening its position in high-precision applications. 6. Arkema S.A. Arkema has recently focused its efforts on sustainable development and advanced material integration. In late 2024, the company introduced a new line of bio-based CNT composites designed for use in high-performance sporting goods and aerospace components. These composites leverage Arkemas expertise in advanced resins combined with CNT reinforcement to provide superior strength-to-weight ratios. Additionally, Arkema is engaged in a research consortium in France aimed at developing CNT-based supercapacitors and next-generation energy storage solutions. The initiative supports Europes push toward sustainable and high-efficiency energy systems. This report is also available in the following languages : Japanese (CNT), Korean ((CNT) ), Chinese (CNT), French (Marche des materiaux a base de nanotubes de carbone (CNT)), German (Markt fur Kohlenstoffnanorohren (CNT)-Materialien), and Italian (Mercato dei materiali in nanotubi di carbonio (CNT)), etc. Get a Sample PDF Brochure: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62718/global-carbon-nanotube-cnt-materials-market#request-a-sample More Research Finding Porous Carbon Market The global porous carbon market is valued at approximately $6.2 billion. The market is anticipated to reach around $9.8 billion by 2034, reflecting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.6% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. This growth is driven by increasing demand across various sectors, including energy storage, environmental applications, and advanced materials. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64031/global-porous-carbon-market Single-wall Carbon Nanotube Market The global single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) market is poised for significant growth, valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2024. Projections indicate a robust expansion, with the market expected to reach around $3 billion by 2034, driven by increasing demand in sectors such as electronics, energy storage, and advanced materials. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the period from 2025 to 2034 is estimated at 10.5%, reflecting a strong upward trend. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/62211/global-single-wall-carbon-nanotube-market Carbon Nanotubes Powder for Lithium Battery Market The global carbon nanotubes powder market for lithium batteries is valued at approximately $450 million in 2024 and is projected to reach around $1.2 billion by 2034, reflecting robust growth in the sector. This growth corresponds to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 10.2% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/57306/global-carbon-nanotubes-powder-for-lithium-battery-market High Thermal Conductivity Carbon Material Market The global high thermal conductivity carbon materials market is valued at approximately $1.5 billion and is anticipated to reach around $2.8 billion by 2034. This growth reflects a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/54333/global-high-thermal-conductivity-carbon-material-market US Super Capacitor Market The supercapacitor market is poised for significant growth, with an estimated market value of $3.6 billion in 2024. This market is projected to expand robustly, reaching approximately $7.9 billion by 2034. This growth reflects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 8.1% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/49204/us-super-capacitor-market Graphene-carbon Nanotube Hybrids Market The global Graphene-carbon Nanotube Hybrids market is anticipated to grow from USD 1.58 Billion in 2023 to USD 7.50 Billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 25 % during the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/31547/graphene-carbon-nanotube-hybrids-market Conductive Inks Market The global conductive ink market was valued at 3.48 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach 5.14 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2022 to 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/26930/conductive-inks-market Nanoelectromechanical Systems (NEMS) Market Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) market is expected to grow at 31% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It was valued 16.03 million at 2020. It is expected to reach above USD 182.13 million by 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/23887/nanoelectromechanical-systems-nems-market Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) Market Carbon nanotubes (CNT) market is expected to grow at 17.4% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It was valued approximately 5.65 billion at 2020. It is expected to reach above USD 23.93 billion by 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/17212/carbon-nanotubes-cnt-market Nanocomposites Market The Nanocomposites Market is expected to grow at 16.2% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 17.77 Billion by 2029 from USD 4.6 Billion in 2020. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/16915/nanocomposites-market Transparent Conductive Film Market The global transparent conductive film market is expected to grow at 9.2% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 11.07 billion by 2029 from USD 5.04 billion in 2020. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/3588/transparent-conductive-films-market Carbon Steel Conveyor Belt Market The global carbon steel conveyor belt market is valued at approximately $2.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach about $4.1 billion by 2034. This growth reflects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 4.6% from 2025 to 2034, driven predominantly by the increasing demand from sectors such as mining, automotive, and manufacturing. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/65379/global-carbon-steel-conveyor-belt-market Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites Market The global market for Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites is projected to reach a value of approximately $3.2 billion in 2024, with expectations to grow significantly during the forecast period of 20252034. By 2034, the market value is anticipated to soar to $6.1 billion, reflecting the rising adoption of advanced composite materials across various industries. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/65320/global-continuous-carbon-fiber-reinforced-thermoplastic-composites-market Mesophase Pitch-Based Carbon Fiber Market The global market for mesophase pitch-based carbon fiber is valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2024, driven by the increasing demand for high-performance materials in aerospace, automotive, and industrial applications. The projected market value is expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2034, reflecting significant growth opportunities. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is estimated at 7.8% from 2025 to 2034, spurred by advancements in carbon fiber manufacturing technologies and rising applications in lightweight, high-strength components. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64904/global-mesophase-pitch-based-carbon-fiber-market Conductive Carbon Coated Aluminum Foils Market The global market for conductive carbon coated aluminum foils is poised for substantial growth, with a current market value estimated at approximately $1.5 billion in 2024. Projections indicate that this market could reach around $3.8 billion by 2034, reflecting a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.6% during the forecast period of 20252034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64820/conductive-carbon-coated-aluminum-foils-market Pharmaceutical Activated Carbon Market The pharmaceutical activated carbon market is valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2024, with expectations to reach around $2.4 billion by 2034. This growth reflects a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. The market is currently benefiting from advancements in drug purification processes and increasing demand for high-quality pharmaceuticals, driven by the need for efficient removal of impurities. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64768/pharmaceutical-activated-carbon-market Fiber Reinforced Polymer FRP Composites Market The global Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites market is valued at approximately $85 billion in 2024, with substantial growth anticipated through 2034. Projections suggest the market will reach around $130 billion by the end of the forecast period, marking a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 5.5%. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64666/fiber-reinforced-polymer-frp-composites-market GFRP Composites Market The GFRP composites market is expected to grow at 9.54% CAGR from 2023 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 43.53 billion by 2029 from USD 14.47 billion in 2022. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64636/gfrp-composites-market Food Grade Carbon Dioxide Market The global food-grade carbon dioxide market is projected to reach a value of approximately $3.5 billion in 2024, driven by growing demand in the food and beverage industry for carbonation, preservation, and packaging processes. For the forecast period of 2025 to 2034, the market is expected to expand significantly, reaching an estimated value of $5.7 billion by 2034. This growth reflects a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 5.2%. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64497/global-food-grade-carbon-dioxide-market Carbon Brushes for Micro and Small Motors Market The global market for carbon brushes used in micro and small motors is valued at approximately $1.1 billion in 2024. Driven by the increasing demand for compact and energy-efficient motors in sectors such as automotive, consumer electronics, and industrial machinery, the market is projected to reach around $1.7 billion by 2034. This growth implies a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.6% from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/64488/global-carbon-brushes-for-micro-and-small-motors-market PARIS, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TSplus is proud to announce the official release of Server Monitoring Version 6, a major upgrade that reinforces its commitment to providing powerful and user-friendly tools for IT professionals managing remote infrastructures. Real-time Monitoring for Remote Work Infrastructures TSplus Server Monitoring is a real-time server and website monitoring solution designed to help IT teams monitor remote servers and online resources with ease. It enables administrators to collect and analyze both real-time and historical data about servers, websites, applications, and users. Key features include: Real-time Server Monitoring (performance, processes, bandwidth, user activity) Website Monitoring (availability and response time) Centralized Dashboard for all servers and websites Alerts Management (customizable alerts with emailand now SMSnotifications) Ready-to-use and customizable reports This powerful tool provides the visibility needed to ensure optimal performance, identify issues early, and support business continuity across remote environments. Whats New in Version 6 to Monitor Remote Server With the release of Version 6, Server Monitoring gains valuable new capabilities to boost reliability and control. The most significant enhancement is agent-side data tracking: when a monitored server temporarily loses connection with the central console, the local agent continues tracking performance metrics and uploads the data once the link is restoredensuring no monitoring gaps. Additional improvements in this version include: SMS alerting via Twilio , for instant, mobile notifications , for instant, mobile notifications A new "Detailed Performance" report for deep analytics for deep analytics Visual alerts for stopped services and one-click restart from the dashboard Smarter database usage reporting and UI refinements 12 new language translations for better global accessibility including Czech, Spanish, Finnish, Italian, Turkish, and Chinese Version 6 is now also available through subscription licenses, in addition to the permanent licensing option, giving users ongoing access to all updates and new features. It is an ideal addition to the TSplus software suiteRemote Access, Advanced Security, and Remote Supportforming a complete solution to secure, access, monitor, and support any remote infrastructure. We designed Server Monitoring to give IT administrators the visibility and control they need to maintain performance and stability across their networks, said Adrien Carbonne, TSplus CTO. Version 6 reflects the feedback and needs of our users, and we encourage customers to continue sharing their experiences to help us keep improving. Learn more: Download and Try TSplus Server Monitoring for free at https://tsplus.net/server-monitoring. Press Contact: Caleb Zaharris Marketing Director at TSplus caleb.zaharris@tsplus.net A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6221b24e-7001-466d-a4b9-2a0ff52f88cd Belleville, Illinois, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In honor of National Military Appreciation Month this May, Allsup , a nationwide provider of disability benefits assistance, and its Allsup Veterans Appeals (AVA) acknowledges the sacrifices of veterans and active-duty service members, reaffirming its commitment to securing the benefits theyve earned due to the increasing backlog and complexity of the VA disability appeal process. The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) processed more than 2.5 million disability compensation and pension claims in fiscal year 2024a 27% increase over 2023 and the highest volume in the history of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This continued surge highlights the growing complexity of the claims and appeals system, emphasizing the critical need for expert guidance to help veterans secure the full benefits theyve earned through service. This volume of claims not only reflects increased filings by veterans, but also contributes directly to the rising number of appeals. As of May 2025, the VA reported more than 877,000 pending disability claims, including over 201,000 rating-related claims delayed beyond 125 dayshighlighting the urgent and escalating challenge veterans face in navigating a complex and overwhelmed system. The VA disability claims and appeals process is difficult to navigate and extremely congested, said Brett Buchanan, U.S. Army veteran and director of Allsup Veterans Appeals. Veterans shouldnt have to navigate this alone. Our team of VA-accredited Claims Agents is here to guide them through every step in their appeals, ensuring they receive the benefits theyve rightfully earned. Among new recipients of VA disability compensation in 2024, tinnitus remained the most frequently awarded service-connected condition, followed closely by musculoskeletal and hearing-related impairments. These top conditions contributed to a substantial portion of the 3.26 million total service-connected disabilities awarded during the year, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Annual Benefits Report. In response to the increasing complexity and volume of these claims, AVAs VA-accredited Claims Agents offer veterans a strategic edge and can assist in the following areas: Veterans who are denied service connection for a disability. Veterans who need to determine the best path for their VA appeal. Veterans who need a Higher-Level Review. Veterans who must file a Supplemental Claim. Veterans who need to appeal to the Board of Veterans' Appeals. Veterans who must file a Notice of Disagreement. For veterans navigating both VA and SSDI claims, Allsup provides expert support to help them receive the full range of benefits available through their military service and employment. If you or a veteran you know has questions about VA disability benefits, please call 888-372-1190 or visit AllsupVeteransAppeals.com. ABOUT ALLSUP Allsup and its subsidiaries provide nationwide Social Security disability, veterans disability appeal, disability financial solutions, return to work, and healthcare benefits services for individuals, their employers and insurance carriers. Allsup professionals deliver specialized services supporting people with disabilities and seniors so they may lead lives that are as financially secure and as healthy as possible. Founded in 1984, the company is based in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis. Learn more at AllsupVeteransAppeals.com and follow https://www.facebook.com/allsupveteransappeals Attachment Beijing, China, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "Pioneering" in name, "aggression" in fact - a Japanese memorial museum, during an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Tuesday, exposed the real nature of the so-called Japanese settlements in so-called Manchukuo in Northeast China, peeling back the layers of a little-known historical details when Japanese invaders controlled Northeast China from 1932 until 1945. Operated by a Japanese civic organization and established with the aim of faithfully conveying historical facts and helping younger generations in Japan better understand the horrors of war and the value of peace, the Memorial Museum for Agricultural Emigrants to Manchuria in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, has received 250,000 visitors since its opening in 2013, according to the latest data revealed by Chunichi Shimbun on Tuesday. On September 18, 1931, Japanese troops began the bloody invasion of China. In pursuit of permanent occupation over Northeast China, a 20-year project to settle 1 million Japanese farmers in so-called Manchukuo was announced in 1936, organizing "pioneering groups" to launch economic aggression against Northeast China. The program was carried out under the guise of "pioneering," which in reality involved complicity in aggression through the dispossession of local residents' lands and homes, Aki Misawa, secretary-general of the museum, told the Global Times on Tuesday via email. According to Misawa, there is an introductory panel in the museum that explicitly states: "Most of the vast farmland acquired by the settlement groups was obtained through coercive low-price purchases and forced eviction of indigenous farmers." Also, the museum clarifies that "Manchukuo" was, by de facto, a Japanese puppet regime controlled by the Japanese Kwantung Army, and notes that it was never recognized as a legitimate state in the international community, Misawa said. According to Xinhua, "Manchukuo" was a puppet state established by Japanese invaders to control Northeast China from 1932 until 1945. The Japanese occupiers made Aisin-Gioro Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the puppet emperor of "Manchukuo." "We are committed to properly presenting both the victimization and perpetration aspects of this history," Misawa said. To deceive farmers across Japan into responding to the call for immigration, Japanese militarists launched a variety of propaganda campaigns domestically. Posters, magazines and postcards produced by the militarists depicted early Japanese immigrants seemingly living a prosperous and happy new life in Northeast China. These false images were highly enticing to the impoverished farmers of Japan at the time. "You can get 20 hectares of land," "Manchuria is a lifeline of Japan" The museum revealed the misleading propaganda on its website. According to the museum's statistics, approximately 270,000 Japanese farmers entered Northeast China. However, as time passed, the illusion surrounding the "pioneering groups" began to shatter. As the war intensified, young Japanese men from the "pioneering groups" were continuously drafted into military service. By August 1945, as the Japanese Kwantung Army faced inevitable defeat, they chose to conceal the situation and secretly retreated, abandoning the remaining elderly, weak, sick and women and children of the "pioneering groups" at the front lines of the war. Members of the "pioneering groups" fled in panic; some chose to commit suicide, while others became orphans left behind in China. Data from the museum indicates that nearly 33,000 farmers from Nagano Prefecture traveled to Northeast China, but fewer than 17,000 ultimately returned to Japan. Japanese militarism brought profound suffering to the peoples of both Japan and China, yet the kind-hearted Chinese people still embraced and cared for thousands of war orphans. There are many expressions of gratitude from Japanese war orphans toward China showcased in the museum. When sharing memorable encounters in the museum, Misawa recalled meeting one elderly survivor in a wheelchair who was visiting the museum with their family. They had lived through Japan's defeat in so-called Manchukuo and, while awaiting repatriation, worked in a coal mine. During a collapse accident, a Chinese worker risked his life to save the lives of several Japanese miners. "This is something I must share [with more people]," the elderly Japanese survivor said. Misawa told the Global Times that the feedback since the opening of the museum has exceeded expectations. For those connected to this history, the museum has helped awaken long-suppressed memories. Meanwhile, visitors encountering this history for the first time often express how deeply educational and thought-provoking the experience has been. Although many of those who lived through this period of history firsthand had already passed away, the museum aims to pass the history onto the next generations and inspire more people to think about how to achieve a peaceful society. 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 museum plans to continue to hold special exhibitions, lectures and a theatrical event in the autumn. The past war inflicted immeasurable suffering on the Chinese people, and peace-loving individuals in both China and Japan strongly advocate for cherishing the present peace. However, Japan has recently significantly increased its military budget, with some arguing it seeks to become a "normal country" unrestrained by its pacifist constitution or even a military power. In response to this dangerous trend, Misawa told the Global Times that "We must confront historical facts with humility and sincerity. Beyond national or ethnic divisions, we should stand with those who suffered and build peace through dialogue." "Though our influence is modest, we remain committed to fostering spaces for learning from history," Misawa said. This story first appeared in Global Times: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1335034.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. SCARBOROUGH, Ontario, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHAT: Rally to keep the national postal service public PM Carneys long-term plans for Canada Post are clearer than ever: privatize it and strip it for parts. But who will buy Canadas postal service? Amazon? Some other US company? Postal workers and their trade union allies are demanding that our postal service remain a public service. Well do so at a processing plant, surrounded on all three sides by new Amazon facilities. WHO: Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) WHEN: May 31, 2025, 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. WHERE: Albert Jackson Processing Plant 1395 Tapscott Rd Scarborough, ON M1X 0C7 WHY: The Liberal government illegally and unconstitutionally imposed back-to-work orders on postal workers through the CIRB The Liberals also initiated an industrial inquiry, resulting in the May 16th Kaplan Report. The Kaplan Report ignores worker solutions and recommends sweeping cuts to the vital public service, and sets the stage for layoffs, service cuts, and privatization down the line. While the Liberals said they would defend Canadians from American threats during the election, they are setting the stage to sell Canada Post off to someone like billionaire Trump ally Jeff Bezos Amazon. Competing with U.S. e-commerce giants shouldnt mean lower standards. Workers deserve fair treatment, and Canadians deserve reliable, to-the-door service! Canada Post can play a key role in strengthening Canadas economy in the face of uncertainty, offer much needed new services like senior check-ins, postal banking, and community hubs, and bring new revenue to the public post office. Additional information can be found at: https://www.cupw.ca/en/campaigns-and-issues/hands-my-post-office. For media inquiries, please contact: Jack Copple Toronto & York Region Labour Council jcopple@labourcouncil.ca 613-883-8871 COPE 343 Dublin, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2020-2030F" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market was valued at USD 231.67 Million in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 355.89 Million by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 6.78% The market is influenced by several factors, including rising air pollution levels in urban areas, growing awareness of respiratory diseases, and the increasing adoption of smart home technologies. Governmental focus on environmental sustainability and quality of life improvements further drive innovations in air purifier technologies. Growing Infrastructure Development Across the Region The burgeoning infrastructure development across Saudi Arabia is significantly boosting the air purifiers market. According to the International Trade Administration, Saudi Arabia's construction market is expected to reach USD 91.36 billion by 2029. This growth is attributed to the Vision 2030 National Development Plan, which emphasizes infrastructure development. Increasing urbanization and large-scale construction projects, including residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, have amplified demand for air purifiers. Newly constructed buildings are increasingly equipped with advanced air purification systems. With the expansion of cities and rising population, efficient air quality management solutions are vital to address pollution challenges. Also, as businesses focus on healthier work environments, the demand for air purifiers in commercial spaces has surged. These factors, combined with heightened consumer awareness of air quality issues, forecast significant market growth in the coming years. Increasing Government Support to Strengthen the Construction Sector Increased government backing to bolster the construction sector is driving the air purifiers market's growth. As of August 2024, the Binladin Group received support from the Ministry of Finance to stabilize its financial structure. The Saudi government, through its Vision 2030 plan, invests actively in infrastructure projects to diversify the economy beyond oil reliance. This includes mega-projects like NEOM, the Red Sea project, and smart cities. The rising demand for quality indoor air solutions in new residential and commercial developments spurs air purifier adoption. Government incentives and health-focused regulations further emphasize the need for clean indoor environments. The government's commitment to sustainable, health-conscious building standards ensures air purifiers are integral to new construction projects. Expansion Policy Adopted by Key Players Expansion policies by key market players are instrumental in market development. As of August 2024, Secure Connection, a Hong Kong-based electronics manufacturer, entered the Saudi market with Honeywell-licensed products. These manufacturers leverage local collaborations and focus on market-specific needs, such as high dust levels, to advance their presence. Companies are introducing advanced technologies like HEPA filters and smart features to address regional environmental challenges. Expansion efforts, including improved distribution networks and e-commerce utilization, are strengthening the market's demand. Key Market Challenges Lack of Awareness Among Consumers A significant challenge is the lack of consumer awareness about indoor air quality and air purifier benefits. Despite concerns about outdoor pollution, many consumers remain unaware of indoor air quality's health implications. Misunderstandings about air purifiers' costs, necessity, and functionality hinder market growth. Increased Competition from Local Brands Local brand competition poses a market challenge, offering cost-effective and region-specific products. Local manufacturers exploit their understanding of consumer preferences and price-sensitive strategies to gain market share. International brands must differentiate through superior technologies and customer service to maintain their positions. Key Market Trends Growing Demand for Smart & Connected Devices The demand for smart devices with features like Wi-Fi connectivity is rising among tech-savvy consumers. Integration into smart homes and IoT technologies enhance control and monitoring of air quality, aligning with consumers' health consciousness and preferences for convenience. Escalating E-Commerce Platform The growth of e-commerce platforms is transforming the market, offering broader product access and competitive pricing. Online channels provide valuable consumer insights and simplified purchasing processes. As digital shopping habits grow, manufacturers will enhance their online reach to tap into this trend. Integration of Advanced Filtration Technologies Advanced filtration technologies are gaining popularity, including HEPA filters and UV-C light. These innovations address Saudi Arabia's specific air quality challenges, such as dust and pollution. Smart sensors and real-time monitoring add to these technologies' appeal among health-conscious consumers. Segmental Insights Filter Type Insights: HEPA filters lead the market due to their effectiveness against small particles in polluted and dusty environments. Consumer awareness of health risks from poor air quality solidifies HEPA-based purifiers as a top choice. Regional Insights: Northern & Central regions dominate the market thanks to high urbanization and pollution levels in cities like Riyadh. Demand here is driven by health awareness and access to modern air purification technologies. Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 82 Forecast Period 2024 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $231.67 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $355.89 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.7% Regions Covered Saudi Arabia Report Scope Key Market Players Koninklijke Philips N.V. Sharp Middle East Panasonic Marketing Middle East & Africa FZE Daikin Industries, Ltd Samsung Electronics Hitachi, Ltd LG Electronics Inc. Gulf Air Filtration Company Dyson Overseas Distribution Limited Kone Corporation Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market, By Filter Type: High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filters Activated Carbon Filters Ultraviolet Light Filters Ionizer Air Purifiers Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market, By Category: Portable Fixed Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market, By End User: Residential Commercial Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market, By Distribution Channel: Online Offline Saudi Arabia Air Purifiers Market, By Region: Eastern Western Northern & Central Southern For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/c0u0um 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 Paphos 8035, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chase Buchanan Wealth Management Achieves Status as the Only Global Expat-Focused CII International Professional Partner Chase Buchanan Wealth Management, a leading global wealth management and financial advisory provider, has unveiled its latest achievement. It has successfully applied to become an International Professional Partner Firm of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the professional body concentrating on the insurance and financial planning sectors. Being recognised through the voluntary application process demonstrates the company's dedication to upholding the highest professional standards. Partner firms prove their alignment with the CII Code of Ethics, demonstrate their investments in workforce professional development and showcase efforts to establish best practices in the profession. The Significance of Chase Buchanans Achievement as a CII International Professional Partner Firm Chase Buchanan has become the singular organisation operating in the private wealth management space and providing dedicated support services for international expatriates across Europe to hold CII International Professional Partner Firm membership. This positions the already established company as a provider of choice both for financial advisory clients and the professional tax, finance and investment specialists working throughout its offices. Partner firms adhere to three core CII principles, including commitments to: Continue working to augment faith in the financial planning and insurance sectors by adhering to the CII Code of Ethics and always acting in the best interests of their clients. Investing in workforces and colleagues by providing funding for ongoing training programmes and support with professional development. Actively promoting the value and importance of professional qualifications, maintaining optimal levels of professional expertise, and continuing with professional development initiatives through the Chartered Insurance Institute or other affiliated and suitably accredited providers. While Chase Buchanan has long advocated for ethics-focused advice and has published numerous guides offering education about the reasons expatriates should always source support from properly accredited and regulated financial advisers, working as a CII partner cements its position. Why CII International Professional Partner Status Ties Into Chase Buchanans Objectives The international company has earned a reputation for personalised, bespoke, and reliable advice and for the breadth of its services. These span financial and succession planning, investment advisory, and wealth management expertise, and mean the partnership status perfectly fits into the group's framework. As the newest company permitted to use the IPPF designation and display the CII International Professional Partner Firm logo, Chase Buchanan joins a number of well-regarded financial services and insurance providers. Still, it is uniquely the only wealth management firm in Europe solely focused on providing professional support for expatriates. Lee Eldridge, Group CEO and Head of Investment Advisory at Chase Buchanan, says, 'We have always provided first-class services and access to the finest advisory support across all our international teams, ensuring that expatriates and global investors make informed and confident decisions based on the parameters that matter most to them. CII International Professional Partner Firm status fits into this seamlessly and represents the way we have worked over the years to establish long-standing, trusted relationships with our clients. Individuals and families depend on our advisers and wealth managers to provide exceptional professional support while keeping a keen eye on the best ways to protect their wealth for future generations. Working with the CII to become a recognised partner is the latest step in our development, and something we are proud to hold as a global wealth management firm, with an overarching aim to always deliver reliable, impartial advice. This is also a great opportunity to acknowledge our outstanding advisers, who hold exceptionally high qualifications and accreditations, and who embody the Chase Buchanan spirit of accessible, jargon-free, and friendly communications without the complexities that can make financial decision-making seem harder to navigate. The Background of Chase Buchanan Wealth Management Chase Buchanans motto is trusted advice made simple,' which is borne out by the many positive testimonials published by clients. They value the transparency around fees and commissions, the personalisation of recommendation reports, and the assurance that the wealth management firm is entirely independent. Chase Buchanan is a privately owned organisation committed to independent ownership to avoid prevalent issues around limited advice or product offerings. It offers unbiased advice from professionals qualified to an elevated standard and supported by a team of Chartered Tax Advisers and a specialist Tax Barrister. To date, the company has nine international offices supported by a UK Administration Centre. It has invested significantly in expanding capacity to meet the continually higher demand for professional advisory assistance for expatriates and businesses with assets and interests across borders. Read more about Chase Buchanan - Experienced Tax Specialists at Chase Buchanan Wealth Management Reflect on the Changing 2025 Global Economic Landscape About Chase Buchanan Private Wealth Management Chase Buchanan is a highly regulated wealth management company that specialises in providing global finance solutions for those with a global lifestyle. We are global financial advisers, supporting expatriates around the world from our regulated European headquarters, and local offices across Belgium, Canada, Canary Islands, Cyprus, France, Malta, Portugal, Spain, UK and the USA. All investments carry risk, including the potential loss of capital. You should carefully consider whether investing is suitable for you, taking into account your personal circumstances, financial situation, and risk tolerance. Chase Buchanan Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission with CIF Licence 287/15. Media Contact: Chase Buchanan Ltd +357 2501 0455 Attachment Dublin, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2020-2030F" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market was valued at USD 5.40 Billion in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 11.94 Billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 13.97% Rebar steel plays a vital role in the construction industry, offering tensile strength and structural support to concrete structures. The market comprises various types and grades of rebar used in infrastructure such as buildings, roads, and bridges. Growing urbanization, a rising population, and strong government investment in large-scale infrastructure projects are key factors accelerating market expansion. Additionally, the adoption of sustainable practices and modern manufacturing technologies is reshaping production processes. As part of Vision 2030, the Kingdom is enhancing its construction landscape with initiatives focused on modernizing urban infrastructure, creating substantial demand for rebar steel across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Population Growth and Urbanization Rapid population growth and increasing urbanization are primary drivers of the Saudi rebar steel market. As urban centers expand to accommodate a growing population, the demand for residential buildings, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, and commercial developments continues to rise. High-rise structures, urban transit networks, and public amenities rely heavily on reinforced concrete, thus boosting rebar consumption. The government's Vision 2030 initiative further supports urban transformation through affordable housing programs and infrastructure modernization. With Saudi Arabia's population projected to grow from 35 million in 2024 to over 40 million by 2030, and urbanization rates expected to reach 90%, cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam are witnessing an uptick in construction activity, driving sustained demand for rebar steel. Fluctuations in Raw Material Prices Volatile raw material prices represent a significant challenge for the Saudi rebar steel market. The production of rebar steel depends on key raw materials like iron ore, scrap metal, and coal, whose prices are influenced by global economic trends, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical factors. Sudden price hikes increase production costs, putting pressure on manufacturers' margins or leading to higher rebar prices for end users. On the other hand, sharp price declines can affect revenues and hinder reinvestment in production capabilities. Furthermore, the Kingdom's reliance on imported raw materials increases exposure to global market volatility. Effective cost management and diversified sourcing strategies are essential to mitigate these risks and ensure market stability. Adoption of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies A key trend in the Saudi Arabia rebar steel market is the integration of advanced technologies to enhance manufacturing efficiency and product quality. Automation and robotics are increasingly being utilized to streamline tasks such as cutting, bending, and welding rebar, ensuring precision and reducing labor-related inefficiencies. The adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies: including AI and IoT: is enabling real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and optimized energy usage across production lines. These innovations contribute to increased output, reduced operational costs, and improved workplace safety. Moreover, the focus on sustainability is prompting steel manufacturers to adopt cleaner, resource-efficient processes that reduce emissions and waste, aligning with environmental regulations and green building standards. The shift toward digitalization and smart manufacturing is reshaping the competitive landscape, making technological advancement a critical factor in market growth. Report Scope Key Market Players: Saudi Iron & Steel Company (HADEED) Al Ittefaq Steel Products Co. Rajhi Steel Industries Company Ltd. Watania Steel Factory Corporation Al Yamamah Company for Reinforcing Steel Bars Saudi National Steel Factory Baghlaf Steel Mass Steel Madar Building Materials, LLC Bahra Steel Co. Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market, By Type: Deformed Mild Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market, By End Use: Residential Sector Commercial Sector Industrial Sector Public Sector Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market, By Process: Basic Oxygen Steelmaking Electric Arc Furnace Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market, By Finishing Type: Epoxy-Coated Rebar Carbon Steel Rebar Others Saudi Arabia Rebar Steel Market, By Region: Riyadh Makkah Madinah Eastern Province Dammam Rest of Saudi Arabia Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 89 Forecast Period 2024 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $5.4 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $11.94 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 13.9% Regions Covered Saudi Arabia For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dm6eqt 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 NEW YORK, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Organon & Co. (NYSE: OGN) in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Investors who acquired Organon shares during the class period are encouraged to contact the law firm before the lead plaintiff motion deadline on July 22, 2025. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CASE AND SUBMIT CONTACT INFORMATION Class Action Details Defendant : Organon & Co. (NYSE: OGN) : Organon & Co. (NYSE: OGN) Class Period : October 31, 2024 April 30, 2025 : October 31, 2024 April 30, 2025 Allegations : : Concealment of Material Information : Organon allegedly misrepresented its capital allocation priorities, especially regarding its quarterly dividend. : Organon allegedly misrepresented its capital allocation priorities, especially regarding its quarterly dividend. Dividend Misrepresentation : While publicly emphasizing dividends as a top priority, the company was internally shifting focus toward debt reduction. : While publicly emphasizing dividends as a top priority, the company was internally shifting focus toward debt reduction. Dividend Cut: Following the acquisition of Dermavant Sciences Ltd., Organon drastically reduced its quarterly dividend by over 90%. Trigger Event Investors Next Step Investors who acquired Organon shares during the class period are encouraged to contact the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler & Herz LLP before the lead plaintiff motion deadline on July 22, 2025. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CASE AND SUBMIT CONTACT INFORMATION Why Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP ?: This illustrious firm, founded in 1888, is steadfast in their pursuit of justice for investors who have suffered financial harm due to these misrepresented statements. The law firm brings to the fore over 125 years of legal expertise in securities litigation and has a proven track record of protecting the rights of investors. We encourage all investors who have been affected or have information that will assist in our investigation, to contact Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP. Contact: Firm Website: Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. NEW DELHI, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nadcab Labs, a frontrunner in blockchain and next-generation technology solutions, announces that global investment in artificial intelligence (AI) has surpassed $390 billion in 2025, reflecting a monumental shift in both governmental and corporate priorities. This unprecedented financial commitment underscores AIs rapidly expanding role in shaping economic trajectories, driving innovation, and addressing critical global challenges. According to industry reports, AI adoption among businesses has nearly doubled over the past three years, with nearly half of all companies now leveraging AI in their operations. In parallel, national governments are significantly ramping up funding, with the United States allocating more than $14 billion towards AI research this year alone. Tech conglomerates such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon are also scaling their AI budgets, with Alphabet contributing over $26 billion in 2025. "Artificial intelligence is no longer a future conceptit is todays imperative," said Aman Vaths, Founder of Nadcab Labs. "As governments and enterprises channel record investments, AI is evolving into a transformative force across industries, improving efficiency, creating new economic value, and reshaping global competitiveness. This wave of AI development is fundamentally altering how we approach innovation." The intensifying AI race is rooted in its strategic importance. Nations are prioritizing AI not only for economic growth but also for maintaining geopolitical influence. The U.S. and China are leading this charge through expansive initiatives such as the National AI Initiative Act and national AI strategies that span sectors including defense, autonomous technology, and urban development. Beyond economics and geopolitics, AI is addressing pressing societal issues. In the energy sector, AI-driven optimizations have already generated savings of over $6 billion globally. In healthcare, the U.S. has introduced a $1 billion initiative aimed at leveraging AI for predictive diagnostics and personalized treatmentan innovation projected to save $150 billion annually by 2030. AI-driven automation is likely to solve real-world challenges in these sectors more efficiently than ever before. The current investment surge is further fueled by a global race for AI talent and innovation. With demand for skilled professionals outpacing supply, governments are investing in AI education and research infrastructure. Meanwhile, tech firms are expanding through acquisitions and internal development to meet future demands. About Nadcab Labs Nadcab Labs is a premier technology company based in India, specializing in blockchain, AI, and software development. The firm empowers global clients with cutting-edge solutions that drive digital transformation and foster technological leadership across sectors. Media Contact: Aman Vaths Founder, Nadcab Labs Phone: +91 7985202681 Email: info@nadcab.com Website: www.nadcab.com Disclaimer: This press release is provided by Nadcab Labs. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. Investing in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sectorincluding cryptocurrency, NFTs, and miningcomplete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. 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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/32e643ea-5138-47f8-89bf-f2b5f0b9c98c Press Release Postponement of publication of results and Annual Financial Report for the year ending January 31, 2025 Paris, France - (30 May 2025) - PROACTIS SA (ISIN code: FR0004052561) announces the postponement of the publication, originally scheduled for May 30, 2025, of its results and Annual Financial Report for the year ended January 31, 2025. This postponement follows the delay in finalizing the audit by the statutory auditors of PROACTIS HOLDING LIMITED (parent company of PROACTIS SA) and the delay in agreeing certain matters with the auditors of PROACTIS SA, notably with regards to the impairment of goodwill and forming a conclusion on going concern. As such, PROACTIS SA has no choice but to postpone the publication of its results and Annual Financial Report for the year ending January 31, 2025. PROACTIS SA and PROACTIS HOLDING LIMITED have already taken the necessary steps to complete the audits as quickly as possible. PROACTIS SA will announce the next publication dates in a press release in the near future. * * * * About Proactis SA (https://www.proactis.com/proactis-sa), a Proactis Company Proactis SA connects companies by providing business spend management and collaborative business process automation solutions for both goods and services, through The Business Network. Our solutions integrate with any ERP or procurement system, providing our customers with an easy-to-use solution which drives adoption, compliance and savings. Proactis SA has operations in France, Germany, USA and Manila. Listed in Compartment C on the Euronext Paris Eurolist. ISIN: FR0004052561, Euronext: PROAC, Reuters: HBWO.LN, Bloomberg: HBW.FP Contacts Tel: +33 (0)1 53 25 55 00 E-mail: investorContact@proactis.com * * * * Attachment All amounts are in United States dollars, unless otherwise stated. TORONTO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX:AGI; NYSE:AGI) (Alamos or the Company) today reported a summary of the voting results of its Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the Meeting) held on May 29, 2025. The Company is also announcing the retirement of David Gower from the Board of Directors, and the appointment of Alexander Christopher, Chana Martineau, and Richard McCreary. On behalf of the Board and management team, I would like to extend our gratitude to David for his service to Alamos over the past 16 years. Since joining the Board of Directors in 2009, Davids leadership and technical expertise have proven invaluable during a period of significant growth for Alamos. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours, said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer. I would also like to welcome Alexander Christopher, Chana Martineau, and Richard McCreary as new board members. Alex, Chana and Rick complement our Board with tremendous technical, operational, capital markets, and financial expertise. Alexander Christopher has over 40 years of experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry, spending the majority of his career with Teck Resources Limited (Teck) before retiring in 2024. Mr. Christopher held a number of management, commercial and technical positions in Tecks Exploration, Corporate Development and Project Groups. Mr. Christopher is a former director of Horizonte Minerals Plc, the Association of Mineral Exploration BC, and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, where he served as President from 2021 to 2023. He is a member of the Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia and possesses an Honours B.Sc. in Geology from McMaster University and an Environmental Biology Technology diploma from Canadore College. Chana Martineau is the Chief Executive Officer of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC), a globally leading crown corporation dedicated to supporting Indigenous economic investment in large scale infrastructure through loan guarantees and capacity grant funding. Prior to leading the AIOC, Ms. Martineau was a vice president with Canadian Western Bank and spent more than a decade with Ernst & Young LLP. Currently she is a director of Cenovus Energy Inc. She is a recognized leader and speaker on Indigenous reconciliation. Ms. Martineau holds a degree in Economics from the University of Alberta and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. Ms. Martineau is a proud member of Frog Lake First Nation. Richard McCreary has over 40 years of experience in the resource sector, both as a principal in executive and board roles with various companies, as well as a financial advisor in investment banking. Mr. McCreary started his career with Gulf Canada as an exploration geophysicist, later working with the Noranda-Falconbridge Group in engineering, technology development, and metals marketing; and later, as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development with Barrick. His most recent investment banking role was Deputy Chair Investment Banking at TD Securities, and prior to that, Head of CIBC's Global Mining Investment Banking Group. During his career, Mr. McCreary has acted as principal or lead financial advisor in some of the largest marquee transactions in the mining sector. Currently he is a director of ATEX Resources Inc. He holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from McGill University, and a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Geological Engineering from Queen's University. Results of the Meeting The Company is reporting the voting results of its Meeting held virtually on Thursday, May 29, 2025. The summary of the results are as follows: Total Shares Voted: 325,407,116 Total Shares Issued and Outstanding: 420,565,418 Total Percentage of Shares Voted: 77.37% 1. Election of Directors Each of the nominee directors listed in Alamos management proxy circular dated April 9, 2025 was elected as a director as set forth in the table below: Name of Nominee Vote For % Withheld Vote % J. Robert S. Prichard 288,734,732 99.43 1,661,379 0.57 Alexander Christopher 289,950,137 99.85 445,974 0.15 Elaine Ellingham 288,375,377 99.30 2,020,734 0.70 David Fleck 286,388,311 98.62 4,007,800 1.38 Serafino Tony Giardini 289,503,022 99.69 893,089 0.31 Claire Kennedy 287,652,166 99.06 2,743,945 0.94 Chana Martineau 289,807,115 99.80 588,995 0.20 John A. McCluskey 289,752,618 99.78 643,494 0.22 Richard McCreary 289,910,937 99.83 485,174 0.17 Monique Mercier 287,376,868 98.96 3,019,243 1.04 Shaun Usmar 289,877,986 99.82 518,126 0.18 2. Re-Appointment and Compensation of Auditors KPMG LLP was appointed as the Companys auditor and the directors were authorized to fix the auditors remuneration. Vote For % Withheld Vote % KPMG LLP 311,046,217 95.59 14,360,899 4.41 3. Long-Term Incentive Plan The resolution approving the Companys Long-Term Incentive Plan was approved. Vote For % Vote Against % Long-Term Incentive Plan 278,776,304 96.00 11,619,808 4.00 4. Employee Share Purchase Plan The resolution approving the Companys Employee Share Purchase Plan was approved. Vote For % Vote Against % Employee Share Purchase Plan 289,604,237 99.73 791,875 0.27 5. Amended and Restated Shareholder Rights Plan The resolution approving the Companys Fifth Amended and Restated Shareholder Rights Plan was approved. Vote For % Vote Against % Shareholder Rights Plan 279,504,654 96.25 10,891,456 3.75 6. Approval of Approach to Executive Compensation The non-binding advisory resolution approving the Companys approach to Executive Compensation was passed. Vote For % Vote Against % Executive Compensation 282,766,415 97.37 7,629,693 2.63 7. Shareholder proposal The proposal seeking to amend By-Law No. 1 of the Company was denied as a resolution of the Company. Vote For % Vote Against % Shareholder proposal 8,071,143 2.78 282,324,964 97.22 About Alamos Alamos is a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer with diversified production from three operating mines in North America. This includes the Island Gold District and the Young-Davidson mine in northern Ontario, Canada, and the Mulatos District in Sonora State, Mexico. Additionally, the Company has a significant portfolio of development stage projects, including the Phase 3+ Expansion at Island Gold, and the Lynn Lake project in Manitoba, Canada. Alamos employs more than 2,400 people and is committed to the highest standards of sustainable development. The Companys shares are traded on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol AGI. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Scott K. Parsons Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations (416) 368-9932 x 5439 Khalid Elhaj Vice President, Business Development & Investor Relations (416) 368-9932 x 5427 ir@alamosgold.com Cautionary Note The TSX and NYSE have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. CHICAGO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rate, a leading fintech company, has been named a Best Mortgage Lender for May 2025 by Fortune, a distinction that highlights the companys customer-first approach, industry-leading technology, and commitment to making homeownership accessible for more Americans. Fortune gave Rate the Best Overall spot for its smooth online mortgage experience, citing its innovative digital tools and impressive array of loan options. With same-day approvals and closings in as little as 10 days, Fortune positions Rate as a strong choice for borrowers seeking an expedited mortgage process. Other leading industry voices are taking notice as well. Forbes recently named Rate the Best Mortgage Lender of 2025 for First-Time Homebuyers , and NerdWallet awarded Rate Best Lender rankings across multiple categories, including FHA Loans , Home Equity Loans , Lower Credit Scores , and more. Motley Fool further recognized Rate as a Best Mortgage Lender of 2025 , highlighting the platforms digital experience and down payment assistance. Taken together, these accolades underscore Rates ability to meet the needs of both first-time homebuyers and seasoned homeowners looking to refinance their present mortgage and/or leverage their equity. With a broad loan portfolio, the nations top Loan Officers, and unrivaled technology, Rate offers tailored solutions for virtually any borrower, with more ways to say yes built into every part of the process. A standout example is the Rate App , which simplifies financial management by offering mortgage approvals in a day, personal loan applications in five minutes, insurance savings, 24/7 communication with your Loan Officer, and moreall designed to help users achieve their financial goals. This wave of industry recognition is mirrored by the growing interest in Rate from top-performing Loan Officers across the country, many of whom are choosing to join the Rate team. Its a clear sign that Rate has become both a magnet for industry talent and a trusted partner for consumers navigating todays housing market. This broad recognition is a result of the work our team puts in every day to make homeownership more cost-effective, simpler, faster, and more attainable, said Victor Ciardelli, Founder and CEO of Rate. Were proud to be building a platform where trust and technology go hand in handand grateful to our customers for choosing us. The accolades add to a growing list of milestones for Rate, including: The launch of Rate Intelligence 1 , the companys AI-powered mortgage platform , the companys AI-powered mortgage platform The debut of Home Search , giving buyers a unified home shopping and loan experience , giving buyers a unified home shopping and loan experience Surpassing 2 10,000 digital mortgage applications in Spanish , underscoring Rates reach among first-time and diverse homebuyers , underscoring Rates reach among first-time and diverse homebuyers Rate Insurance being named one of the Top 100 P&C Agencies in the U.S. by Insurance Journal For Loan Officers, Rate has become the place where they can truly do their best work, said Shant Banosian, President of Rate. Weve built a platform that differentiates LOs from a speed, price, and service perspective so they can grow their business and deliver a superior customer experience. These accolades cement Rates leadership as a modern, all-in-one homebuying solution trusted by both new buyers and seasoned homeowners. About Rate Rate Companies is a leader in mortgage lending and digital financial services. Headquartered in Chicago, Rate has over 850 branches across all 50 states and Washington D.C. Since its launch in 2000, Rate has helped more than 2 million homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances. The company has cemented itself as an industry leader by introducing innovative technology, offering low rates, and delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top 5 Mortgage Lender by Inside Mortgage Finance for 2024; Best Mortgage Lender for First-Time Homebuyers by NerdWallet for 2023; HousingWire's Tech100 award for the company's industry-leading FlashClose digital mortgage platform in 2020, MyAccount in 2022, and Language Access Program in 2023; the most Scotsman Guide Top Originators for 11 consecutive years; Chicago Agent Magazine's Lender of the Year for seven consecutive years; and Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list for seven straight years. Visit rate.com for more information. Media Contact: press@rate.com 1 - Rate Intelligence refers to automated documentation verification. Underwriting experts provide final mortgage approvals. 2 - All negotiations and Mortgage Loan Transaction Documents will be conducted and provided in English. We suggest that you work with an interpreter of your choice. You can find more information about the loan process in Spanish at: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/es/herramientas-del-consumidor/hipotecas/ Operating as Guaranteed Rate, Inc. in New York. Guaranteed Rate, Inc. D/B/A Rate; NMLS #2611 For licensing information visit nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Subject to Approval. Conditions may apply. Guaranteed Rate, Inc. D/B/A Rate; NMLS #2611; Rate.com; 3940 N Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60613; 866-934-7283. For licensing information visit nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Equal Housing Lender. Conditions may apply. AZ: 14811 N. Kierland Blvd., Ste. 100, Scottsdale, AZ, 85254, Mortgage Banker License #0907078 CA: Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act CO: Regulated by the Division of Real Estate GA: Residential Mortgage Licensee #20973 MA: Mortgage Lender & Mortgage Broker License #MC2611 ME: Supervised Lender License #SLM11302 NH: Licensed by the New Hampshire Banking Department, Lic #13931-MB NJ: Licensed by the N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance NY: Licensed Mortgage Banker - NYS Department of Financial Services, 750 Lexington Ave. Suite 2010, New York, New York 10022 OH: MB 804160 OR: Licensed and Regulated by the Department of Consumer and Business Services PA: Licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities RI: Rhode Island Licensed Lender WA: Consumer Loan Company License CL-2611. New York City, USA, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Viocawer (VWW), the worlds first innovative blockchain project focused on medical data rights and smart chip terminals, officially launched today on the global compliant digital asset trading platform Fisngloue. This launch not only marks the entry of the Viocawer ecosystem into the global capital circulation system but also garners deep endorsements and strategic support from several internationally renowned investment and research institutions due to its powerful technological model and implementation capabilities. Viocawer: Reconstructing Trust in Healthcare Through Technology, Empowering Individuals with Data Viocawer aims to address four long-standing core issues in the global healthcare system: high medical costs, health data silos, uneven resource allocation, and the loss of patient data sovereignty. The project has built a "decentralized health data infrastructure" composed of smart chip terminals, a blockchain rights confirmation mechanism, and an AI health model, enabling real-time data collection of medical activities, on-chain verification, user self-authorizations, and collaborative intelligent diagnosis. Core capabilities of the project include: On-Chain Rights Confirmation Mechanism for Medical Data: Endowing users with data sovereignty, enabling trustworthy data access across institutions and devices. Smart Chip Terminal Ecosystem: Covering various scenarios including homes, clinics, and hospitals, promoting the proliferation of medical hardware. AI Health Engine: Integrating multimodal health data to provide early screening suggestions, chronic disease management, and personalized intervention models. Cost Optimization System: Reducing duplicate tests and improving diagnostic efficiency, providing a data pricing basis for insurance institutions and public healthcare systems. Currently, Viocawer has completed terminal deployment pilots in regions such as Singapore, South Korea, Germany, and Latin America, and has integrated with several large hospitals and telemedicine platforms. Fisngloue Exchange: A Bridge for Digital Finance with Globalization and Compliance Fisngloue Exchange is one of the fastest-growing digital asset trading platforms worldwide, holding multiple financial compliance qualifications, including MSB in the U.S., FINTRAC in Canada, and PSA in Singapore. The platform operates with a core focus on "security, transparency, and efficiency," supporting spot and structured trading of mainstream cryptocurrencies, making it highly favored by institutional investors and compliant project teams. The launch of Viocawer is a key part of Fisngloue's strategic layout in the "medical technology + on-chain data infrastructure" sector, further solidifying its industry position in practical project incubation and asset issuance. Collaborative Support from International Capital and Medical Technology According to official news, Viocawer has received strategic support from several globally influential tech capital and medical research institutions. This includes North America's leading fund, which invests in blockchain and healthcare integration projects, a top Asian tech investment platform focused on Web3 medical data, an international investment bank active in high-tech infrastructure and data assets, and a national-level fund in Southeast Asia that leads digital health transformation. Additionally, the Berlin Institute of Digital Health (BIDH), a renowned medical research institution in Europe, will provide comprehensive technical support for the project's compliance and clinical validation. This multi-party collaboration not only lays a solid foundation for Viocawers global ecological expansion, policy integration, and practical implementation but also further validates its profound potential and industry-leading position in the "health data rights confirmation + smart chip terminals + AI diagnostic engines" integrated strategy. These institutions bring not only capital resources to Viocawer but also strong endorsements for its global ecological implementation, compliance deployment, and market expansion. Building a Trustworthy Health Era, Unlocking Global Value of Medical Data The founding team of Viocawer stated: The launch of VWW on Fisngloue Exchange is not only an important step for market openness but also represents our long-term commitment to the philosophy of 'empowering data for people.' We hope to accelerate strategic cooperation with healthcare systems, insurance networks, and public health departments worldwide through this global release, truly driving technology to create inclusive value for human health. Currently, Viocawer is actively advancing the next phase of its ecological components, including "AI remote consultation platform," "on-chain medical insurance settlement system," and "personal health data credit scoring model," continuously enriching the application boundaries of the VWW token on the platform. About Viocawer Viocawer is a global medical technology project that integrates blockchain, AI, and smart chips, focusing on building trustworthy infrastructure for personal health data rights confirmation, sharing, incentives, and smart services. The project is headquartered in Singapore, with technology and implementation centers in Germany, South Korea, and the UAE. About Fisngloue Exchange Fisngloue is a compliant digital asset trading platform for global users, having obtained regulatory licenses from multiple countries. The platform is renowned for its technological stability, risk control system, and asset diversification, dedicated to providing a secure and reliable trading channel for the new generation of digital assets. Company Name: Fisngloue Contact: Austin D. Gonzales Website: https://trade.fisnglouex.net Email: Austin@fisnglouex.net Company Name: Viocawer(VWW) Contact: Norman S. Brown Website: https://viocawer.com Email: Norman@viocawer.com Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, nor is it intended as 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. WATERTOWN, N.Y., May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Making daily dental routines enjoyable for children is key to helping them develop lifelong oral health habits. This is the approach taken by Dr. Andrew Beuttenmuller of Watertown Pediatric Dental in Watertown, New York, who emphasizes that creating a sense of fun and ownership around brushing and flossing can turn a struggle into a positive ritual. One effective method involves transforming brushing time into a playful game. By using timers and playing a childs favorite song, parents can make the process feel like a challenge rather than a chore. Dr. Beuttenmuller highlights how reward systems, such as sticker charts that lead to small prizes, can reinforce consistency in a child-friendly way. He also points to the importance of allowing kids to choose their own toothbrush and toothpaste, especially when those products feature engaging characters and flavors that make the experience more appealing. Additionally, Dr. Beuttenmuller notes that stories and educational media can introduce kids to dental concepts in a non-intimidating format. Books about fighting off sugar bugs or videos showing dentist visits as adventures help demystify oral care while building enthusiasm. For parents navigating dental appointments, he suggests framing visits in a positive light and coupling them with a small reward, such as a family outing, to create a sense of anticipation rather than anxiety. By blending creativity, routine, and encouragement, families can make oral hygiene something children look forward to. The full article, How Parents Can Get Kids Excited About Oral Care , features additional strategies shared by Dr. Andrew Beuttenmuller of Watertown Pediatric Dental in HelloNation Magazine . About HelloNation HelloNation is a premier media platform that connects readers with trusted professionals and businesses across various industries. Through its innovative edvertising approach that blends educational content and storytelling, HelloNation delivers expert-driven articles that inform, inspire, and empower. Covering topics from home improvement and health to business strategy and lifestyle, HelloNation highlights leaders making a meaningful impact in their communities. Staff Writer info@hellonation.com www.hellonation.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8d8938d8-865b-4c71-bc76-7262fe61ded5 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Speedy Comics, in collaboration with Middle East Grading Alliance (MEGA), is proud to announce the official launch of HiT GCC the first Emirati-owned collectibles grading and authentication company in the region. Headquartered in Dubai, HiT is built to serve the growing demand for high-quality trading card and memorabilia authentication across the GCC. This milestone venture introduces a regionally tailored, tech-powered alternative to international grading services. HiT leverages a hybrid approach combining artificial intelligence with professional human grading, delivering fast, affordable, and credible authentication without the delays, costs, and risks of overseas shipping. This marks a pivotal moment for collectors in the Middle East, said Dr. Rashed Al Farooq, Co-Founder and Chairman of Speedy Comics and HiT. For the first time, collectors can access world-class grading and certification services within the region efficiently, transparently, and proudly under Emirati leadership. HiT offers a 15-business-day turnaround at a flat rate of 55 AED per card, with official drop-off and pickup services now available at Speedy Comics, Times Square Center, Dubai. A live Certificate of Authentication (CUA) lookup system has also been launched, allowing collectors to verify their graded assets online. The company will make its debut during an official launch activation event this weekend, where global pop culture fans will witness the grading of the first HiT-certified card signed live by Leilani Shiu, the internationally known Star Wars actor (Jawa). The event will include a special Trophy Box Break experience and an in-person meet-and-greet with the celebrity guest. We are not simply replicating an existing model, said Vitaliy Aleks, Founder of MEGA. HiT is engineered specifically for this region faster, smarter, and more accessible. Were building infrastructure for collectors across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and beyond. HiTs upcoming plans include grading services for Funko Pops, comic books, signed memorabilia, and expansion into blockchain-based provenance, vaulting, and collectible NFTs. With a growing lineup of regional and global celebrity endorsements, the company is positioned to become a leading name in GCCs authentication industry. The launch event will take place at 8:00 PM this Friday at Speedy Comics, pop up con event Times Square Center, Dubai, and is open to collectors, media, and invited guests. For more information: Speedy Comics - www.speedycomicsme.com Middle East Grading Alliance (MEGA): www.megagrading.ae Media Contact: Name: Judy Ann Millar Email: ea@speedycomicsme.com Disclaimer: This press release is provided by the Speedy Comics. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. Investing involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release.Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an "as-is" basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f83270d2-59e8-41f0-91cc-33951a5a5854 WAWA, Pa., May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wawa, Inc., recently marked a significant milestone in its history the grand opening of its first three stores in Indiana! New stores are located at 16100 W. Commerce Rd. in Daleville, 5890 Midland Pointe Blvd. in Noblesville and 1354 Veterans Pkwy. in Clarksville and are the first of eight stores slated to open in Indiana by years end. During these historic events, Wawa was joined by local officials, heroes and community members for ribbon-cutting ceremonies See grand opening broll highlights here. As part of the celebrations, Wawa and The Wawa Foundation presented the following grants to support the community: $5,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana in conjunction with Wawas Lending a Helping Hoagie program where a portion of the Daleville stores first week of hoagie sales are donated to fight food insecurity. $5,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana and $10,000 to Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana through The Wawa Foundations Fly Beyond Key Issue Grant that supports the community by fighting food insecurity while also providing access to more nutritious and healthy meal options for youth $5,000 to Riley Childrens Hospital, a CMN Hospital Partner, to support the Child Life Program $2,500 to Dare to Care Food Bank to support their mission to feed the hungry and conquer the cycle of need in the community $2,500 to the USO to support military members and families serving our county through various programs throughout the year $6,000 to charities selected by local first responders as part of Wawas signature Hoagies for Heroes hoagie building competition Were thrilled to fly into Indiana and bring our unique combination of fresh food and beverage, convenience, and service to new friends and neighbors. This historic milestone kicks off the next chapter of our growth in the Midwest, and were overjoyed at the warm welcome we continue to receive from so many communities were now proud to count as part of the Wawa flock, said Brian Schaller, President of Wawa. We are also thrilled about extending our commitment to being a good neighbor to Indiana, and our partnerships with local organizations supporting Health, Hunger, and Everyday Heroes. About Wawas Expansion in Indiana Wawa plans to open its next store in Indiana at 3835 E. 96th St. in Indianapolis in July. By the end of 2025, Wawa expects to have eight stores open in Indiana with additional locations planned in Brownsburg, Cumberland, Plainfield and Westfield. In subsequent years, Wawa projects opening 8-12 stores per year, reaching 60 stores in Indiana over the next six years. To build each store, Wawa will invest over $7.5 million and employ, on average, 140 contractors and local partners. Once open, each store will employ, on average, 35 Associates, with Wawa expecting to create 2,000 new, long-term jobs as a result of its Indiana expansion. About Wawa, Inc. Wawa, Inc., a family and associate owned, privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Toward the end of the 19th century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, Pennsylvania, in 1902. The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and certified process. As home delivery of milk declined in the early 1960s, Grahame Wood, Georges grandson, opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 in Pennsylvania as an outlet for dairy products. Today, Wawa is your all day, every day stop for freshly prepared foods, beverages, coffee, fuel services and surcharge-free ATMs. Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana and Washington, D.C., with more than 1,100 locations to date. The stores offer a large, fresh foodservice selection, including Wawa brands such as custom-prepared hoagies, freshly brewed coffee, hot breakfast sandwiches, hand-crafted specialty beverages, a dinner menu including burgers and pizza, and an assortment of soups, sides and snacks. Forbes.com ranks Wawa as #24 of Americas Largest Private Companies. Contact: public.relations@wawa.com USDKG to be backed by $500 million in physical gold reserves from the Kyrgyz Ministry of Finance, with planned expansion to $2 billion. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Kyrgyz Republic has announced the upcoming launch of USDKG, a gold-backed stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar. The stablecoin is expected to go live in the third quarter of 2025, with an initial reserve of $500 million in physical gold held by the Ministry of Finance. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to enhance cross-border payment infrastructure in Central Asia and facilitate international trade through blockchain-based financial instruments. USDKG is designed for institutional-grade use and will be overcollateralized to mitigate volatility in gold prices. Unlike commodity-pegged tokens, USDKG is not intended to track the price of gold. Instead, it maintains a strict 1:1 parity with the U.S. dollar, backed by audited gold reserves. The issuance and redemption process will allow users to exchange tokens for physical gold, crypto assets, or fiat currency. The government of Kyrgyzstan plans to expand USDKGs reserve base to $2 billion and conduct regular third-party audits to ensure transparency and trust in the assets collateral structure. USDKG will initially target cross-border transactions and trade in Central Asia, with planned expansion into Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Remittance flows currently account for approximately 30% of Kyrgyzstans GDP, highlighting the potential economic impact of streamlined digital payments. Holders of USDKG will have the ability to redeem their tokens for physical gold, convert them into other digital assets, or withdraw equivalent amounts in fiat currency. The structure provides both flexibility and trust, backed by tangible national reserves. About USDKG USDKG is a gold-backed, dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Fintech Solutions, under the regulatory framework of the Kyrgyz Republic. Built to meet institutional standards, USDKG operates under a model of overcollateralization,independent auditing, and strict compliance standards. For more information, visit https://www.usdkg.com/ . Contact person: Maisa Bitencourt maisa@usdkg.com Disclaimer: This is a paid post and is provided by USDKG. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice.Investing in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sectorincluding cryptocurrency, NFTs, and miningcomplete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed.Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page. Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an "as-is" basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We assume no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f7041fa6-4a4e-4545-a363-1b84952c62e9 George Town, Cayman Islands, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jada Ramoon, Miss World Cayman Islands, is preparing to take centre stage tomorrow, Saturday 31st May, as she competes in the 72nd Miss World pageant in Telangana, India. The pageant's red carpet will commence at 7 a.m. Cayman time, with the main event beginning at 8 a.m, which can be seen on TVJ, channel 30 on Logic TV. Representing the Cayman Islands with grace and determination, Jada has taken part in a series of preliminary challenges over recent weeks, including Talent, Head-to-Head, Sports, Multimedia and Beauty with a Purpose. She secured placements in both the Talent and Head-to-Head competitionsa remarkable achievement on the world stage. Reflecting on her journey thus far, Jada shared: "I'm feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement as Saturday draws near. I'm hopeful that I can continue to make history for Cayman. I'm truly grateful for how things have unfolded so far; it's been a humbling and incredible experience. I'm proud to be here, representing the place I love and proudly call home." Beyond the competition, Jada has embraced the opportunity to learn about the vibrant culture of Telangana, bond with her fellow contestants, and share the values and heritage of the Cayman Islands with a global audience. Homecoming: The Cayman Islands public is warmly invited to welcome Jada upon her return. She is scheduled to arrive at Owen Roberts International Airport on Monday, 2nd June at 4:30 p.m. To learn more about Jada's journey and the Miss World competition, please refer to our previous release or follow the official Miss World Cayman Islands channels. About Storytellers: Storytellers is a Cayman Islands based digital PR and news company specialising in strategic communications, media relations, and digital content creation. The company works with global businesses, organisations, and public figures to amplify their stories and connect with audiences across North America, the Caribbean, UAE, Canada, China, and beyond. Media Contact: Publicity Partner Storytellers Qamar Zaman T: 1-345-327-7206 Farmers, Veterans, Small Business Owners and Hemp Advocates to Speak Out Against Bills Threat to Jobs, Economic Growth and Freedom of Choice Over 100,000 Petition Signatures and Thousands of Handwritten Letters Expected to be Delivered to Governors Office AUSTIN, Texas, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHAT: A coalition of concerned Texans will host a press conference to address Senate Bill 3 (SB 3), legislation 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 general well-being. WHO: Industry leaders, farmers, small business owners, veterans and consumer advocates will come together to voice their concerns about the bills impact on jobs, agriculture and access to legal hemp-derived products. WHEN: Monday, June 2 at 11 a.m. CST WHERE: Texas Capitol House Press Conference Room 2W.6 1100 Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78701 WHY: The Texas hemp industry is responding to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patricks ongoing false and inflammatory rhetoric, including his recent claim that hemp businesses want to kill your kids. This kind of fearmongering vilifies law-abiding Texas farmers, veterans and small business owners and distracts from the real public health risks at hand. SB 3, passed by the Texas House, bans hemp-derived products without establishing a regulatory alternative. If signed into law, the bill will not only dismantle a $4.3 billion industry supporting over 53,000 jobs, but will also open the floodgates to unregulated, unsafe products in Texas. The Texas Hemp Business Council and its supporters are calling on Governor Abbott to veto SB 3 and stand with the hundreds of thousands of Texans, including small business owners, workers, consumers and veterans, who depend on this industry for jobs, economic opportunity and the freedom to choose hemp-derived products. VISUALS: Coalition of farmers, veterans, business owners and industry leaders. Boxes of handwritten letters to be delivered to the governors office. Petition signage. Veterans sharing personal stories. 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 310.279.5980 nmu@pondel.com TORONTO and HAIFA, Israel, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NurExone Biologic Inc. (TSXV: NRX) (OTCQB: NRXBF) (FSE: J90) (NurExone or the Company) is pleased to announce that Professor Nahshon Knoller M.D., senior clinical advisor to the Company, will be presenting at the prestigious annual meeting of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), where he will discuss the Companys plans for future clinical trials in 2026 in the field of acute spinal cord injuries (SCI) for ExoPTEN, a first-in-class exosome-based therapy, as well as results from the Companys preclinical studies. NurExone expects to initiate a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in 2026 (2026 SCI Trial) marking a major milestone in the advancement of regenerative therapies for central nervous system injuries. Adult patients with traumatic SCI between spinal levels C5 and T10, classified as ASIA Grade A or B, will be enrolled in the 2026 SCI Trial. These patients will be treated within 3 to 7 days post-injury. Phase 1 will be a dose-escalation study evaluating safety in up to 18 patients, followed by a Phase 2a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial measuring functional recovery in 1015 patients. At the 2025 ASIA meeting, Professor Knoller, a renowned neurosurgeon and former Director of the Spinal Trauma Unit at Sheba Medical Center, the Middle Easts largest hospital and ranked by Newsweek as one of the ten leading hospitals in the world, will provide updates on the 2026 SCI Trial, as well as results from the Companys other preclinical studies. Professor Knoller commented: it is a real honor for a preclinical-stage company to be invited to present at ASIA. This is one of the most respected gatherings in the SCI field, and our inclusion highlights the strength and relevance of the ExoPTEN program and the impressive results we have obtained as a minimally invasive approach to treat SCI. Moreover, it reflects the scientific quality and the clinical need behind what NurExone is advancing.. Dr. Lior Shaltiel, CEO of NurExone, highlighting the significance of the Companys transition into clinical trials stated that: this is the first time we are publicly outlining our clinical plans for ExoPTEN, and it is an important step forward for the Company. Weve made meaningful progress in validating our science and building the foundation for clinical readiness. As we prepare for first-in-human studies, we remain focused on advancing this program and with a clear view of its potential to address a critical unmet need in spinal cord injury. ExoPTEN is based on mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes loaded with siRNA targeting PTEN, a molecular inhibitor of neural regeneration through the mTOR pathway. Delivered via intranasal and intrathecal routes, ExoPTEN is designed to reduce cell death and promote axonal regrowth in the acute post-injury phase. The therapy has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by both the United States Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency. Preclinical studies to be presented by Professor Knoller at ASIA showed robust recovery of motor, sensory, and structural function in rat models of complete spinal cord transection and compression. MRI, BBB scoring, von Frey testing, and histology have confirmed the therapeutic effects of ExoPTEN. Fluorescent labeling has shown that exosomes effectively homed to the injury site for up to seven days post-injury. Being invited to present these findings at ASIA underscores the Companys emergence as an innovator in neuroregeneration. The 2025 ASIA meeting will be held on June 2-4, 2025 in Scottsdale, Arizona. This meeting is the leading clinical and academic conference dedicated to SCI care and research. Investor Summit Virtual June 10, 2025 NurExone Biologic Inc. will be participating in the Q2 Investor Summit Virtual on June 10, 2025, with a presentation scheduled for 2:00 PM EDT. The Investor Summit is an exclusive event focused on connecting investors with promising microcap companies that are poised for growth. Investors will have the opportunity to engage directly with company leadership and hear from industry experts. To register for the complementary event, please visit the website https://investorsummitgroup.com and click on Registration. About NurExone NurExone Biologic Inc. is a TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), OTCQB, and Frankfurt-listed biotech company focused on developing regenerative exosome-based therapies for central nervous system injuries. Its lead product, ExoPTEN, has demonstrated strong preclinical data supporting clinical potential in treating acute spinal cord and optic nerve injury, both multi-billion-dollar markets i . Regulatory milestones, including obtaining the Orphan Drug Designation, facilitates the roadmap towards clinical trials in the U.S. and Europe. Commercially, the Company is expected to offer solutions to companies interested in quality exosomes and minimally invasive targeted delivery systems for other indications. NurExone has established Exo-Top Inc., a U.S. subsidiary, to anchor its North American activity and growth strategy. For additional information and a brief interview, please watch Who is NurExone?, visit www.nurexone.com or follow NurExone on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. For more information, please contact: Dr. Lior Shaltiel Chief Executive Officer and Director Phone: +972-52-4803034 Email: info@nurexone.com Dr. Eva Reuter Investor Relations Germany Phone: +49-69-1532-5857 Email: e.reuter@dr-reuter.eu Allele Capital Partners Investor Relations U.S. Phone: +1 978-857-5075 Email: aeriksen@allelecapital.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the Companys current expectations and projections about its future results. Wherever possible, words such as may, will, should, could, expect, plan, intend, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict or potential or the negative or other variations of these words, or similar words or phrases, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements relating to: the Company receiving all regulatory approvals; the Company advancing towards clinical and commercial breakthroughs in regenerative medicine; the Company enhancing its presence in key markets; the advancement of the Companys therapeutic programs and clinical milestones; the results of the Companys preclinical trials and its suggestion of a promising treatment pathway for SCI; the results of the Companys preclinical trials and its suggestion of a promising treatment pathway for SCI; the Company developing groundbreaking therapies for regenerative medicine in several indications; ExoPTEN having the potential to address SCI and improve patient lives; the Company is advancing toward clinical translation in several high-impact indications; Professor Knoller will provide updates pertaining to the 2026 SCI Trial and results from the Companys other preclinical studies at the 2025 ASIA meeting; types of adult patients and the treatment they will receive as part of the 2026 SCI Trial as discussed herein; preclinical studies as previously published and presented at ASIA will show robust recovery of motor, sensory, and structural function in rat models of complete spinal cord transection and compression; and the NurExone platform technology offering novel solutions to drug companies interested in minimally invasive targeted drug delivery for other indications, including recovery of optic nerve function and overall visual health. These statements reflect managements current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management as at the date hereof. In developing the forward-looking statements in this press release, we have applied several material assumptions, including: the Company will realize on the benefits of exosome loaded drugs in regenerating or repairing damaged nerves; the ability of the Companys products to be used for patient treatment; the Company will fulfill its intended future plans and expectations; there being growing clinical demand for innovative treatments in spinal cord, optic nerve, and other therapeutic areas; the Company will carry out its pre-clinical trials and realize upon the benefits of the pre-clinical trials; the Company having the ability to maintain its ongoing commitment to using its ExoTherapy platform to advance the field of regenerative medicine and cell therapy applications; the Company will receive all regulatory approvals; the Company will have clinical and commercial breakthroughs in regenerative medicine; the Company will be able to realize its future development plans, operational initiatives, and strategic objectives; the Companys ability to advance its therapeutic programs and clinical milestones; the results of the Companys preclinical trials and its ability to be a promising treatment pathway for SCI; the Companys ability in advancing toward clinical translation in several high-impact indications; the results of the Companys preclinical trials and its suggestion of a promising treatment pathway for SCI; the Company developing groundbreaking therapies for regenerative medicine in several indications; ExoPTEN having the ability to address vision loss and improve patient lives; the Company having the ability to advance toward clinical translation in several high-impact indications; Professor Knoller will have the ability to provide updates pertaining to the 2026 SCI Trial and results from the Companys other preclinical studies at the 2025 ASIA meeting; the Company will be able to treat the adult patients and with the treatments they will receive as part of the 2026 SCI Trial as discussed herein; preclinical studies presented at ASIA will show robust recovery of motor, sensory, and structural function in rat models of complete spinal cord transection and compression; and the NurExone platform technology offering novel solutions to drug companies interested in minimally invasive targeted drug delivery for other indications, including recovery of optic nerve function and overall visual health Forward-looking statements involve significant risk, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to risks related to: the Companys early stage of development; lack of revenues to date; government regulation; market acceptance for its products; rapid technological change; dependence on key personnel; dependence on the Companys strategic partners; the fact that preclinical drug development is uncertain, and the drug product candidates of the Company may never advance to clinical trials; the fact that results of preclinical studies and early-stage clinical trials may not be predictive of the results of later stage clinical trials; the uncertain outcome, cost, and timing of product development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trials of the Company; the uncertain clinical development process, including the risk that clinical trials may not have an effective design or generate positive results; the inability to obtain or maintain regulatory approval of the drug product candidates of the Company; the introduction of competing drugs that are safer, more effective or less expensive than, or otherwise superior to, the drug product candidates of the Company; the initiation, conduct, and completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials may be delayed, adversely affected or impacted by unforeseen issues; the inability to obtain adequate financing; the inability to obtain or maintain intellectual property protection for the drug product candidates of the Company; risks that the Companys intellectual property and technology wont have the intended impact on the Company and/or its business; the Companys inability to carry out its pre-clinical trials and realize upon the stated benefits of the pre-clinical trials; the inability of the Company to realize on the benefits of exosomes; the inability of the Company to produce and/or supply exosomes for a wide range of applications; the inability of the Companys products to be used for patient treatment; there not being broader adoption in the field and/or cell therapy applications; the inability of the Company to fulfill its intended future plans and expectations; there not being growing clinical demand for innovative treatments in spinal cord, optic nerve, and/or other therapeutic areas; the inability of the Company to collaborate with pharma companies; the Companys inability to realize upon the stated potential for exosome-loaded drugs in regenerating or repairing damaged nerves; the Companys inability to maintain its ongoing commitment to using its ExoTherapy platform to advance the field of regenerative medicine and/or cell therapy applications; the Companys inability to expand into further studies; the Company will not receive all required regulatory approvals; the Company will not have clinical and/or commercial breakthroughs in regenerative medicine; the Company will be unable to enhance its presence in key markets; the NurExone platform technology not offering novel solutions to drug companies interested in minimally invasive targeted drug delivery for other indications; the Company will not realize its future development plans, operational initiatives, and strategic objectives; the Company will not advance its therapeutic programs and clinical milestones; the Company will not engage with regulatory agencies; the results of the Companys preclinical trials not being a promising treatment pathway for SCI; the Company not advancing toward clinical translation in several high-impact indications; the Company not developing groundbreaking therapies for regenerative medicine in several indications; ExoPTEN not addressing vision loss or improving patient lives; the Company does not advance toward clinical translation in several high-impact indications; the NurExone platform technology not offering novel solutions to drug companies interested in minimally invasive targeted drug delivery for other indications, including recovery of optic nerve function and overall visual health; Professor Knoller will not provide updates pertaining to the 2026 SCI Trial and results from the Companys other preclinical studies at the 2025 ASIA meeting; the adult patients will not receive the treatments as part of the 2026 SCI Trial as discussed herein; preclinical studies presented at ASIA will not show robust recovery of motor, sensory, and structural function in rat models of complete spinal cord transection and compression; and the risks discussed under the heading Risk Factors on pages 44 to 51 of the Companys Annual Information Form dated August 27, 2024, a copy of which is available under the Companys SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these 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 new events or circumstances, except as required by law. Neither 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 release. ATHENS, Greece, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp. (OET or the Company) (NYSE:ECO / OSE:OET) today announced that the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of the Company (the Annual Meeting) was duly held on May 30, 2025 and that all proposals on the agenda were approved. At the Annual Meeting, the shareholders of the Company: (i) Elected the following eight directors to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are elected and qualified: Ioannis Alafouzos (Chair), Robert Knapp, Daniel Gold, Joshua Nemser, Charlotte Stratos, Francis Frank Dunne, Petros Siakotos Konstantinidis and Dimitrios Papalexopoulos; and (ii) Ratified the appointment of Deloitte Certified Public Accountants S.A. as independent auditors for the year ending December 31, 2025. Following the Annual Meeting, the Board of Directors of the Company (the Board) approved the expansion of the size of each of its standing committees, effective June 1, 2025, and designated Frank Dunne to each such committee. The committees therefore are now comprised of the following directors: Audit Committee : Charlotte Stratos (Chair), Petros Siakotos and Frank Dunne. : Charlotte Stratos (Chair), Petros Siakotos and Frank Dunne. Remuneration Committee : Charlotte Stratos (Chair), Robert Knapp and Frank Dunne. : Charlotte Stratos (Chair), Robert Knapp and Frank Dunne. Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee: Petros Siakotos (Chair), Charlotte Stratos and Frank Dunne. Each of the directors serving on the committees has been determined to be independent in accordance with the New York Stock Exchange listing standards and Oslo Stock Exchange requirements. Contacts Company: Iraklis Sbarounis, CFO Tel: +30 210 480 4200 ir@okeanisecotankers.com Investor Relations / Media Contact: Nicolas Bornozis, President Capital Link, Inc. 230 Park Avenue, Suite 1540, New York, N.Y. 10169 Tel: +1 (212) 661-7566 okeanisecotankers@capitallink.com About OET OET is a leading international tanker company providing seaborne transportation of crude oil and refined products. The Company was incorporated on April 30, 2018 under the laws of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange under the symbol OET and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ECO. The sailing fleet consists of six modern scrubber-fitted Suezmax tankers and eight modern scrubber-fitted VLCC tankers. Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains forward-looking statements, including as defined under U.S. federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements provide the Companys current expectations or forecasts of future events. Forward-looking statements include statements about the Companys expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts or that are not present facts or conditions. Words or phrases such as anticipate, believe, continue, estimate, expect, hope, intend, may, ongoing, plan, potential, predict, project, should, will or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. The Companys actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements for many reasons, including as described in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). Accordingly, you should not unduly rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this communication. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, the Companys operating or financial results; the Companys liquidity, including its ability to service its indebtedness; competitive factors in the market in which the Company operates; shipping industry trends, including charter rates, vessel values and factors affecting vessel supply and demand; future, pending or recent acquisitions and dispositions, business strategy, areas of possible expansion or contraction, and expected capital spending or operating expenses; risks associated with operations; broader market impacts arising from war (or threatened war) or international hostilities; risks associated with pandemics, including effects on demand for oil and other products transported by tankers and the transportation thereof; and other factors listed from time to time in the Companys filings with the SEC. Except to the extent required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the Companys expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any statement is based. You should, however, review the factors and risks the Company describes in the reports it files and furnishes from time to time with the SEC, which can be obtained free of charge on the SECs website at www.sec.gov. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. TORONTO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT) (TSX:CAR.UN) is pleased to announce the release of its sixth annual Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report, providing an overview of its ESG strategies, policies, and commitments, and outlining the progress made in 2024. Highlights from CAPREITs 2024 ESG Report include: Engaged employees, senior management and the Board of Trustees in an ESG double materiality assessment to further refine our understanding of climate-related risks and opportunities; Ranked first among real estate and housing companies in Newsweek and Statistas list of the Worlds Most Trustworthy Companies; Sold five properties to non-profit organizations who can preserve affordability for existing residents; Launched a new three-year strategy to build resilience, alignment and engagement within our workforce; Donated approximately $280,000 to Canadian charities across our various community engagement programs; Invested $15 million in energy-saving, resiliency and decarbonization projects in Canada; Achieved a 13% reduction in per-suite energy use intensity compared to 2019; and Scored 7/10 on our annual Resident Satisfaction Survey and on our Resident Service Experience Score. As a trusted provider of housing in Canada, we know how important it is to embrace strong environmental, social, and governance practices at every level of the organization, and were proud of the progress weve made on our ESG objectives in 2024, commented Mark Kenney, President and Chief Executive Officer. Our commitment to sustainability reflects our responsibility to all stakeholders, and through ongoing, strategic investments in our portfolio, in the resident experience, and in the employee experience, were enhancing our ability to deliver strong financial returns for our investors while ensuring a safe, secure, and comfortable living environment for our residents. We encourage everyone to review our 2024 ESG Report, available on our website now, to learn more about our accomplishments to date and goals for the future. Find out more about the progress CAPREITs made on its ESG program in the 2024 ESG Report, which can be found by visiting the CAPREIT website at www.capreit.ca click on About Us and follow the link to Our ESG Story at the top of the page. ABOUT CAPREIT CAPREIT is Canada's largest publicly traded provider of quality rental housing. As at March 31, 2025, CAPREIT owns approximately 46,800 residential apartment suites and townhomes that are well-located across Canada and the Netherlands, with a total fair value of approximately $14.9 billion. For more information about CAPREIT, its business and its investment highlights, please visit our website at www.capreit.ca and our public disclosures which can be found under our profile at www.sedarplus.ca. CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS All statements in this press release that do not relate to historical facts constitute forward-looking statements. These statements represent CAPREITs intentions, plans, expectations and beliefs and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could result in actual results differing materially from these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are more fully described in regulatory filings that can be obtained on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. For more information, please contact: TORONTO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (CSE: RWB) (RWB or the Company) is providing an update on the status of a management cease trade order granted on May 1, 2025 (the "MCTO") by the British Columbia Securities Commission under National Policy 12-203 Management Cease Trade Order ("NP 12-203"). On May 1, 2025, the Company announced that, for reasons disclosed in the news release, there would be a delay in the filing of its financial statements and accompanying managements discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 (the "Annual Filings") beyond the period prescribed under applicable Canadian securities laws. The Company reports that the audit continues to progress, and it will provide a further update on the timing of its Annual Filings on or about June 13, 2025, if it has not filed by this date. The Company is also progressing on the completion of its interim financial statements and accompanying managements discussion and analysis for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025 (the "2025-Q1 Filings"). The Company advises that the 2025-Q1 Filings will be filed within five business days from the date the Annual Filings are completed. Further updates on timing will be provided by the Company as necessary. During the MCTO, the general investing public will continue to be able to trade in the Company's listed common shares. However, the Company's chief executive officer, president and chief financial officer will not be able to trade in the Company's shares. Other than as disclosed in this news release, there are no material changes to the information contained in the initial press release associated with the MCTO. The Company confirms that it intends to satisfy the provisions of NP 12- 203 and will continue to issue bi-weekly default status reports for so long as it remains in default of the Annual Filings requirement. These updates will include information regarding the progress of the Annual Filings and any material changes to the Companys business, if any. About Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. Red White & Bloom Brands is a multi-jurisdictional cannabis operator and house of premium brands operating in the United States, Canada and select international jurisdictions. The Company is predominantly focusing its investments on major U.S. markets, including California, Florida, Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio in addition to Canadian and international markets. Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. Investor and Media Relations Edoardo Mattei, CFO IR@RedWhiteBloom.com 947-225-0503 Visit us on the web: https://www.redwhitebloom.com/. Follow us on social media: X @rwbbrands Facebook @redwhitebloombrands Instagram @redwhitebloombrands Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION Certain information contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information is often identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, may, should, could, will, intends, anticipates, believes, estimates, forecasts, or variations of such words and phrases, including the negative forms thereof, as well as terms such as pro forma and scheduled, and similar expressions that refer to future events or outcomes. Forward-looking statements in this release include, without limitation, statements relating to the anticipated timing, review, completion, and filing of the Annual Filings and Q1 Filings; the expected duration of the MCTO; the Company's ongoing operations; and the Company's intention to issue bi-weekly default status updates. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks associated with audit completion processes; regulatory reviews and approvals; market conditions; the Companys financial condition and liquidity; the ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the debt restructuring; and the risk that the Company may not be able to complete its Annual Filings within the timeframe currently anticipated. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, and 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 obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE COMPANYS EXPECTATIONS AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS. TORONTO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (First Quantum or the Company) (TSX: FM) announces that Minera Panama S.A., a subsidiary of First Quantum, has received approval of the Preservation and Safe Management program for the Cobre Panama mine from the Government of Panama. This will allow for the integral preservation and safe management activities and the associated environmental measures at site, which will be funded through the export of 121,000 dry metric tonnes of copper concentrate currently stored at site. The Company remains committed to the sustainability and responsible resource management at Cobre Panama and local procurement with Panamanian suppliers. Cobre Panama will continue to work in coordination with local authorities and communities to ensure the safe and responsible management of its activities and maintaining an open and transparent dialogue with all stakeholders. For further information, visit our website at www.first-quantum.com or contact: Investor Relations: Bonita To, Director, Investor Relations (416) 361-6400 Toll-free: 1 (888) 688-6577 E-Mail: info@fqml.com Media Relations: James Devas, Manager, Corporate Affairs +44 207 291 6630 E-Mail: james.devas@fqml.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Companys expectations; the export of copper concentrate from the Cobre Panama mine and the use of proceeds thereform, the restart of the power plant, the initiation of administrative steps to ensure compliance with applicable regulatory and transparency standards, and working in coordination with local authorities and communities. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, 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. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including about, among other things, the sale of copper concentrate; the ability to restart the power plant; the steps necessary to cmoplaiy with regulatory and transparency standards; engagement with local authorities and communities; and the ability to achieve the Companys goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, political stability in Panama, potential social and environmental challenges (including the impact of climate change), and events generally impacting economic, political and social stability in Panama and globally. Grand Anse, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grand Anse, Mahe Island - Grand Anse, Mahe Island, Seychelles - AIOZ Network announces the launch of AIOZ AI, the first decentralized AI model and dataset marketplace built entirely on DePIN. As the foundational layer of AIOZ's infrastructure, DePIN powers a global network for AI computes, storage, streaming, and IPFS pinning service, enabling AI to be developed and deployed in a decentralized environment with greater transparency, control, and ownership. With this release, developers, researchers, and enterprises can upload, purchase, store, and monetize AI models and datasets across a distributed environment. AIOZ AI processes tasks through DePIN Compute, giving contributors ownership, transparency, and control over how their AI assets are used. "With AIOZ AI, we're introducing a new foundation for decentralized AI. Built on DePIN, this platform empowers developers to share, monetize, and eventually tokenize their AI assets, from models to datasets and applications," said Erman Tjiputra, Founder & CEO of AIOZ Network. "It's part of our broader vision to create a unified infrastructure where people can store, stream, and compute in a decentralized way, with ownership and value returning to the contributors of the network." DePIN: The Foundation of a Decentralized AI Economy AIOZ AI is built on DePIN Compute, a decentralized infrastructure that transforms how AI models are processed, stored, and monetized. The platform empowers users to upload models and datasets, unlock potential rewards when their assets are used, and access a growing ecosystem of decentralized AI applications. AI inferencing and compute tasks are executed on AIOZ's DePIN . This decentralized infrastructure ensures secure, permissionless access to AI processing while giving contributors a share in the network's growth. The AIOZ AI marketplace introduces an initial collection of AI models, datasets, and compute resources, giving early adopters access to a growing decentralized AI ecosystem. AIOZ AI Roadmap and Ecosystem Vision The launch of AIOZ AI marks the first step in building a decentralized AI ecosystem powered by DePIN Compute. V1 introduces foundational marketplace features, user accounts, payments, and the ability to upload, purchase, and monetize AI models and datasets, with built-in community features like voting and discussions. V2 will expand developer functionality by enabling larger file support, Git-based uploads, and API access via SDKs in Python, Go, and Node.js. V3 will integrate DePIN-based AI inferencing, allowing developers to unlock potential rewards from verified model usage and compute tasks. V4 will introduce decentralized training, enabling models to be DePIN-trained and showcased in real-world applications. AIOZ AI is part of a broader DePIN-powered infrastructure developed by AIOZ Network. Alongside AI compute, the ecosystem includes AIOZ Stream for decentralized video and audio delivery, AIOZ Storage for S3-compatible Web3 data storage, and AIOZ Pin, an IPFS-based layer securing immutable assets like NFTs. Together, these components form a unified foundation for AI compute, content streaming, and digital storage, enabling a people-powered internet and defining the future of decentralized infrastructure. Driving Adoption Through the AIOZ AI Challenge To support the launch of AIOZ AI and accelerate developer adoption, AIOZ Network is introducing the AIOZ AI Challenge, a recurring competition series designed to spotlight AI talent and grow the platform's model and dataset library. The first wave of challenges will roll out after the platform's public release and run throughout 2025, providing participants the opportunity to build, submit, and refine AI models based on a defined technical framework. Submissions will be evaluated on performance, utility, and innovation, with leading models incentivized with potential tokens rewards and highlighted in the marketplace for greater discoverability. A public leaderboard will highlight top contributors, who may also gain early access to advanced features, future SDK integrations, and participation in exclusive collaborations. Join the Future of AI with AIOZ Network: Power AIOZ AI by Running AIOZ DePIN AIOZ AI runs on a decentralized backbone of contributors. By contributing to the AIOZ DePIN, users help drive AI model training, tasks inferencing, data storage, and unlock the potential for token rewards. No matter the background tech enthusiast, AI developer, or blockchain believer one's contribution fuels a cutting-edge, community-powered AI ecosystem. Everything Intelligence. AIOZ AI. Be the future redefining how AI is built and delivered. Start the journey today at aioz.network/aioz-depin About AIOZ Network: Powering Web3 Infrastructure Through DePIN AIOZ Network is pioneering the future of decentralized infrastructure by advancing DePIN across AI compute, media delivery, and distributed storage. AIOZ Network enables AI processing, content streaming, and secure data storage through a globally distributed network of over 200,000 contributors. The AIOZ ecosystem includes AIOZ AI, a decentralized compute and AI asset marketplace; AIOZ Stream, a platform for live and on-demand video and audio content; AIOZ Storage, an S3-compatible decentralized storage solution; and AIOZ Pin, a distributed IPFS pinning layer designed to store immutable content such as NFTs and digital assets. ### For more information about AIOZ Network, contact the company here: AIOZ Network Monica Botez monica@innovion.co Grand Anse, Mahe Island, Seychelles TORONTO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galway Metals Inc. (TSXV: GWM) (Galway or the Corporation) is pleased to announce that it has closed a non-brokered private placement (the Private Placement) consisting of an aggregate of 7,350,000 flow-through shares of the Corporation (FT Shares) at a price of $0.36 per FT Share and 4,635,000 units of the Corporation (Units) at a price of $0.33 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds to the Corporation of $4,175,550. The original offering was increased as the amount surpassed the Corporations previous target of $4,000,000. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Corporation, and one common share purchase warrant (a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one non-flow-through common share of the Corporation for an exercise price of $0.50 per share for a period of 3 years from the closing date of the Private Placement. Each FT Share qualifies as flow-through shares within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the Tax Act). The gross proceeds of the Private Placement will be used for Canadian exploration expenses (within the meaning of the Tax Act), which will qualify, once renounced, as flow-through mining expenditures, as defined in the Tax Act, which will be renounced with an effective date of no later than December 31, 2025 (provided the subscriber deals at arms length with the Corporation at all relevant times) to the subscribers of FT Shares in an aggregate amount not less than the gross proceeds raised from the issue of the FT Shares. In connection with the closing of the Private Placement, arms-length finders, Eskar Capital Corporation, Devon Capital Inc., and Generic Capital Corporation will receive an aggregate of $116,640 as cash finders commissions. Pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws, all securities issued in connection with the Private Placement are subject to a hold period of four months and one day, expiring on October 1, 2025. The Private Placement remains subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the TSXV). About Galway Metals Inc. Galway Metals is focused on creating significant per share value through the exploration and sustainable development of its two 100%-owned projects in Canada. Galways flagship project, Clarence Stream, is one of the most important gold districts in Atlantic Canada as it hosts a large, high-grade gold resource in SW New Brunswick. Also important is Estrades, the former-producing, high-grade, gold- and zinc-rich polymetallic VMS mine in the northern Abitibi of western Quebec as it hosts significant resources in the middle of a major gold camp. After its successful spinout to existing shareholders from Galway Resources following the completion of the US$340 million sale of that company. The company is looking to replicate the same success in Canada with our two highly perspective projects. Should you have any questions and for further information, please contact (toll free): Galway Metals Inc. Robert Hinchcliffe President & Chief Executive Officer 1-800-771-0680 Website: www.galwaymetalsinc.com Email: info@galwaymetalsinc.com Look us up on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn 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 THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements, which reflect the Corporations current expectations regarding future events, including with respect to the Corporation's business, operations and condition, management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions, and the use of proceeds from the Private Placement. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events and future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements could differ materially from those projected herein including as a result of a change in the trading price of the common shares of the Corporation, the TSXV not providing its final approval for the Private Placement, the interpretation and actual results of current exploration activities, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future prices of gold and/or other metals, possible variations in grade or recovery rates, failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, the failure of contracted parties to perform, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors disclosed in the Corporations publicly filed documents. Investors should consult the Corporations ongoing quarterly and annual filings, as well as any other additional documentation comprising the Corporations public disclosure record, for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. Subject to applicable law, the Corporation disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Central, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Central, Hong Kong - Nestled in the bustling heart of Central, Hong Kong, Maple Tree Counselling continues to thrive in the landscape of mental healthcare with its dynamic, multicultural team and their expansive range of therapeutic services and modalities. As mental health awareness rises across Asia, this boutique practice has emerged as a leading light, offering deeply personalised support to individuals (adolescents and adults), couples, families, and corporations across Hong Kong. For more information, visit https://www.mapletreecounselling.com/who-we-help/ Founded with a mission to create a sanctuary for healing and personal growth, Maple Tree Counselling is rapidly becoming a household name among professionals, expats, and local residents alike. With a holistic approach grounded in empathy, clinical excellence, and cultural sensitivity, the practice delivers tailored therapy in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, ensuring clients from diverse backgrounds feel seen, heard, and supported. For anyone wondering if they should go for therapy, a spokesperson from Maple Tree Counselling suggests, "Anyone can benefit from therapy whether they are currently in crisis or embarking on a journey of self-exploration or change. You may want to better understand your past in order to move forward, change old patterns, heal from past trauma, improve relationships or move bravely into uncharted territory. These are some of the issues we regularly explore with clients. If any of these resonate with you or if you have any questions about whether our practice is right for you, please get in touch, and we will be happy to engage with you directly." Maple Tree Counselling offers a full spectrum of services designed to meet the evolving needs of its clients. From one-on-one psychotherapy for adults and adolescents, to relationship-focused counselling for couples and families, each session is conducted with the highest ethical standards and a client-centered philosophy. The practice's team of therapists hail from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, with training in CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) mindfulness, and schema therapy. This rich range of modalities enables Maple Tree to provide nuanced support that resonates with Hong Kong's cosmopolitan population. In addition to individual and group therapy, Maple Tree Counselling has rapidly expanded its corporate wellness programmes, partnering with companies across the finance, tech, law, and education sectors. Services include on-site counselling, mental health check-ins, tailored workshops, and psychoeducational webinars designed to foster emotionally intelligent and resilient workplaces. As Hong Kong's high pressure work culture continues to take a toll on employee well-being, Maple Tree's proactive approach is gaining traction. What sets Maple Tree Counselling apart is its practitioners' unwavering commitment to quality, confidentiality, and innovation. Whether helping an executive navigate burnout, guiding a teenager through academic stress, or facilitating family reconciliation, the team operates with the utmost professionalism and care. This reputation for excellence has not gone unnoticed. Maple Tree has been featured in several leading mental health publications and is frequently cited as one of Hong Kong's top therapy practices. With demand continuing to surge, the practice is actively recruiting additional therapists to meet client needs without compromising on its boutique ethos. Clients consistently praise Maple Tree for its warmth, accessibility, and life-changing results. The practice's success is a testament not only to the expertise of its counsellors, but also to a growing cultural shift: one that recognises therapy as a courageous, empowering step toward a better life. With a flourishing practice and a purpose-driven mission, Maple Tree Counselling is not just responding to the city's mental health needs, it's shaping the future of emotional well-being in Hong Kong. https://youtu.be/tUOqMcwlrFI?si=76dSvLMSWlIqaQ7j Those interested in learning more about Maple Tree Counselling's services, including therapy for individuals, couples, and families, as well as corporate well-being solutions, can visit the official website at www.mapletreecounselling.com or contact the team via phone or email to schedule a confidential consultation. ### For more information about Maple Tree Counselling, contact the company here: Maple Tree Counselling Anjali Nihalchand +852 6375 6098 info@mapletreecounselling.com 19th Floor, China Building, 29 Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong Luton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global offshore drone inspection service market is valued at approximately $1.5 billion in 2024, with projections suggesting a substantial growth to around $4.3 billion by 2034. This trajectory reflects a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 11.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. Get a Sample PDF Brochure: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/60592/global-offshore-drone-inspection-service-market#request-a-sample In 2024, the market is characterized by a surge in demand for efficient and cost-effective inspection solutions across the energy, maritime, and telecommunications sectors. Key trends include the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, enhancing data analysis and operational efficiency. The push for sustainability and improved regulatory compliance, particularly in the oil and gas sector, is driving adoption. However, challenges persist, including regulatory hurdles and the high initial investment required for drone technology deployment. The increasing focus on safety and risk management, alongside the need for faster inspection frequencies, presents significant opportunities. As industries embrace digital transformation, the offshore drone inspection service market is poised for dynamic growth, with technological advancements fostering innovation and expanding service applications. Major market players are investing in R&D to overcome barriers and capitalize on emerging opportunities within this evolving landscape. Technological Advancements and Innovations in Offshore Drone Inspection Services 1. AI-Enabled Autonomous Flight & Inspection Advancement: Modern offshore inspection drones now feature fully autonomous flight capabilities combined with AI-powered defect recognition . AI algorithms process high-resolution imagery and sensor data onboard in real-time to identify corrosion, cracks, weld defects, and biofouling on offshore structures. Modern offshore inspection drones now feature . AI algorithms process high-resolution imagery and sensor data onboard in real-time to identify corrosion, cracks, weld defects, and biofouling on offshore structures. Benefits: Removes human pilot errors Enables operation in hazardous or inaccessible locations Speeds up inspection cycles drastically Example: Cyberhawks AI flight system autonomously navigates complex offshore rigs, adjusting flight paths dynamically to focus on detected anomalies. 2. Multisensor Fusion for Enhanced Data Accuracy Advancement: Drones are increasingly equipped with multiple integrated sensors including LIDAR, infrared thermography, ultrasonic sensors, hyperspectral cameras, and high-res optical cameras which combine data streams for comprehensive structural health analysis. Drones are increasingly equipped with including LIDAR, infrared thermography, ultrasonic sensors, hyperspectral cameras, and high-res optical cameras which combine data streams for comprehensive structural health analysis. Technology Highlight: LIDAR maps 3D structural geometry and detects surface deformations. Infrared cameras identify heat anomalies indicating insulation failures or fluid leaks. Ultrasonic sensors detect internal flaws or material thickness changes. Impact: Fusion of these data types significantly improves defect detection accuracy and reduces false positives. 3. Hybrid Drone Platforms (VTOL + Fixed Wing) Advancement: To address offshore challenges like wind turbulence and extended range requirements, manufacturers have developed hybrid VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) drones combining the versatility of quadcopters with the efficiency and longer endurance of fixed-wing aircraft. To address offshore challenges like wind turbulence and extended range requirements, manufacturers have developed combining the versatility of quadcopters with the efficiency and longer endurance of fixed-wing aircraft. Advantage: VTOL enables launch/recovery on platforms without runways or large decks. Fixed-wing design extends flight time (up to 2-3 hours) and inspection range (20-40 km offshore). Example: Flybotixs hybrid drones endure harsh offshore weather and complete longer missions without multiple sorties. 4. Edge Computing & 5G-Enabled Data Transmission Advancement: Recent offshore drones embed edge computing units to process inspection data locally on the drone itself, reducing reliance on slow or unstable satellite communication links. Simultaneously, integration with 5G or private LTE networks on offshore platforms enables near real-time data streaming when coverage exists. Recent offshore drones embed to process inspection data locally on the drone itself, reducing reliance on slow or unstable satellite communication links. Simultaneously, integration with on offshore platforms enables near real-time data streaming when coverage exists. Technological Impact: Real-time anomaly detection and alerts Faster decision-making and remote operator support Data offloading for immediate cloud storage and AI post-processing Example: Perceptos drone platform combines onboard edge AI with 5G uplink to send live inspection feeds to onshore control centers. 5. Blockchain for Data Integrity & Compliance Advancement: A new frontier is applying blockchain technology to secure inspection data logs and establish immutable audit trails required by offshore regulatory bodies and asset owners. This prevents tampering and ensures transparency throughout the inspection lifecycle. A new frontier is applying and establish immutable audit trails required by offshore regulatory bodies and asset owners. This prevents tampering and ensures transparency throughout the inspection lifecycle. Benefits: Proven data provenance and timestamping Facilitates certification and regulatory audits Builds trust between operators, regulators, and insurers Industry Adoption: Percepto and some emerging startups lead blockchain adoption for offshore inspection data. 6. Integration with Digital Twin Technology Advancement: Offshore drones now feed real-time inspection data into digital twin platforms virtual replicas of offshore assets allowing dynamic condition monitoring, failure prediction, and maintenance simulation. Offshore drones now feed real-time inspection data into virtual replicas of offshore assets allowing dynamic condition monitoring, failure prediction, and maintenance simulation. Value Add: Enables predictive and condition-based maintenance strategies Enhances planning of inspection intervals and resource allocation Improves offshore asset lifecycle management Notable Example: Asteria Aerospaces AI-powered drone inspection data integrates into digital twins used by offshore wind farm operators to simulate turbine component wear. 7. Swarm Drone Technology for Coordinated Inspections Advancement: Swarm technology enables multiple drones operating as a coordinated unit to inspect large or complex offshore infrastructures faster and more efficiently. Swarm drones communicate, avoid collisions, and divide inspection tasks autonomously. Swarm technology enables to inspect large or complex offshore infrastructures faster and more efficiently. Swarm drones communicate, avoid collisions, and divide inspection tasks autonomously. Advantages: Reduces inspection mission duration by over 50% Increases inspection reliability through redundancy Enables continuous 24/7 monitoring using drone relay handoffs Industry Progress: Terra Drones Gulf of Mexico swarm drone project demonstrated large pipeline sections monitored autonomously. 8. Improved Battery Technology & Energy Management Advancement: Advances in high-energy density lithium-sulfur and solid-state batteries are gradually making their way into offshore drones, promising longer flight times and safer operations in corrosive saltwater environments. Advances in are gradually making their way into offshore drones, promising longer flight times and safer operations in corrosive saltwater environments. Additional Innovations: Wireless charging pads on offshore platforms to enable quick battery swaps or mid-shift recharge Solar-assisted drones for persistent monitoring in remote offshore sites Impact: Extends mission endurance, reduces downtime, and lowers operational costs. Buy Now : https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/purchase/?currency=USD&type=single_user_license&report_id=60592 Market Segmentation Segment Key Details & Market Share End Users - Oil and Gas: ~35% (largest segment, driven by regulatory compliance and cost efficiency) - Renewable Energy (Offshore Wind & Solar): ~25% (fast-growing, driven by green energy investments) - Marine and Fisheries: ~15% (sustainability focus) - Shipping & Maritime, Government & Defense: remainder Product Deployment Models - Fixed Wing Drones: ~40% (long-range inspections) - Rotary Wing Drones: ~30% (detailed and confined space inspections) - Hybrid Drones: ~20% (versatile, emerging trend) Service Type - Aerial Inspection Services: ~50% (dominant) - Subsea Inspection Services: ~30% - Data Analysis & Reporting: ~10% Technology Used - Visual Inspection: >40% - Thermal Imaging & Multispectral Cameras: ~30% - LiDAR: ~10% (emerging) Applications - Infrastructure Inspection: ~45% (largest) - Environmental Monitoring: ~25% - Surveillance & Security: ~15% Regional Insights Region Market Share (2024) CAGR (20252034) Key Drivers North America ~40% ~9-11% Advanced tech adoption, infrastructure investments, strong regulations Europe ~28% ~9% Sustainable offshore operations, strong environmental regulations, tech adoption in UK, Germany, Netherlands Asia-Pacific ~25% ~10% Expanding maritime infrastructure, industrial growth (China, India), supportive gov initiatives Latin America Emerging, high growth ~12% Vast coastline, offshore resource exploration, regulatory challenges Middle East & Africa Smaller, growing ~11% Oil & gas offshore exploration, political/economic risks Browse full Report - https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/60592/global-offshore-drone-inspection-service-market Market Dynamics Growth Drivers Rising demand for cost-effective, efficient offshore inspections across energy, maritime, and telecom sectors. Technological advances: AI, machine learning for enhanced data analysis and operational safety. Increased focus on sustainability and regulatory compliance, especially in oil & gas. Economic pressures encouraging operational efficiency and reduced downtime. Challenges Regulatory hurdles slowing drone deployment. Supply chain constraints for drone components. High initial investment and pricing pressures. Skill gaps for drone operation and data analysis. Ensuring compliance, training, and operational consistency. Opportunities & Trends Increasing AI/ML integration for smarter inspections. Customized and subscription-based drone inspection service models. Rapid expansion in renewable energy offshore inspections, especially wind farms. Digital transformation accelerating drone adoption. R&D investments by key players to develop innovative drone capabilities. Regional Market Share (2024) Region Market Share (%) Leading Companies North America 35% Percepto, Cyberhawk, Sky-Futures Europe 30% Cyberhawk, Flybotix, Flyability Middle East & Africa 20% Terra Drone, Cyberhawk Asia Pacific 15% Asteria Aerospace, Terra Drone Technology Usage in Offshore Drone Inspections (2024) Technology Percentage Usage in Inspections Key Benefits Visual Imaging Cameras 85% High resolution defect detection LiDAR Sensors 40% Precise 3D mapping & measurements Thermal Imaging 30% Detecting heat leaks, corrosion AI & Data Analytics 25% Automated anomaly detection Ultrasonic Sensors 10% Internal structural inspections Competitive Landscape (Key Players) Ocean Infinity BSK Technologies DeepOcean Fugro Inspectahire Maridive Group EcoSubsea Solstad Offshore Subsea 7 Aerial Robotics SeaBird Exploration Bluebird Marine Systems QinetiQ ECA Group Nauti-Craft Recent Market Development Example 1. Cyberhawk Innovations (UK) Cyberhawk continues to lead in AI-powered drone inspections for the oil and gas sector. The company has strong partnerships with Shell, BP, and Saudi Aramco, and is expanding into offshore wind inspections. Cyberhawk's iHawk platform leverages LiDAR and thermal imaging to enhance data accuracy. In FY 2024, the company reported a 55% revenue increase, indicating strong performance in drone-based inspection services . 2. Terra Drone Corporation (Japan) Terra Drone has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, Aramco, to inspect oil and gas facilities. Test runs are set to begin later this year, with full operations expected by 2027. If awarded the final contract, this would be Terra Drone's largest project for drone inspections in this sector . 3. Percepto (Israel) Percepto has introduced an AI-based remote inspection platform for electric utilities, facilitating continuous, high-frequency inspections and revolutionizing grid maintenance from reactive to proactive . This development positions Percepto as a leader in autonomous drone inspections, with a strong foothold in industries such as oil, gas, and renewable energy. 4. Flybotix (Switzerland) Flybotix's ASIO drone conducted a comprehensive visual inspection of a cargo tank exceeding 10 meters in length for G.S Marine Services. The inspection, which would typically take several days, was completed in 24 minutes, achieving a thorough assessment of the tank walls' condition and identifying potential issues. This approach significantly reduced inspection time and costs, demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of drone-based inspections in offshore environments . 5. Asteria Aerospace (India) Asteria Aerospace has developed the SkyDeck platform, a cloud-based drone operations platform offering services for drone fleet management, flight planning, data processing, visualization, and AI-based analysis of aerial data. The platform provides services to multiple industries such as GIS, construction, oil & gas, and agriculture, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of offshore inspections . This report is also available in the following languages : Japanese (), Korean ( ), Chinese (), French (Marche des services d'inspection par drone offshore), German (Markt fur Offshore-Drohneninspektionsdienste), and Italian (Mercato dei servizi di ispezione con droni offshore), etc. Get a Sample PDF Brochure: https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/60592/global-offshore-drone-inspection-service-market#request-a-sample More Research Finding Drone Batteries Market The global drone battery market is anticipated to reach a value of approximately $2.5 billion in 2024, driven by the increasing adoption of drones across various sectors, including agriculture, logistics, and surveillance. The market is projected to expand significantly, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2% from 2025 to 2034, potentially exceeding $8.3 billion by the end of the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/49814/drone-batteries-market Drone Camera Innovations Shaping Market The global drone camera market is projected to reach approximately $6.8 billion in 2024, driven by the increasing demand for aerial photography, surveillance, and agricultural monitoring applications. The market is expected to experience significant growth over the forecast period, with a projected market value of around $12.3 billion by 2034, highlighting strong adoption across various sectors. This indicates a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.1% from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/48698/drone-camera-market Counter-Drone Technology Market The global counter-drone market is projected to reach a value of approximately $5 billion in 2024, driven by rising concerns over security and airspace safety. The market is expected to experience significant growth, reaching an estimated value of $15 billion by 2034, reflecting the increasing adoption of drone detection and mitigation technologies across various sectors. The projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the period of 20252034 is approximately 13.5%, underscoring robust demand in both governmental and commercial applications. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/48376/counter-drone-market UAV Sense and Avoid System Market The global UAV sensor market is valued at approximately $3.2 billion and is projected to reach around $6.5 billion by 2034. This growth corresponds to a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of about 7.5% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/47309/uav-sense-and-avoid-system-market Electric Drone Market The global Electric Drone market was valued at approximately $9.5 billion in 2024, with projections indicating an expected market value of $25 billion by 2034. This growth translates to a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 10% during the forecast period from 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/46273/electric-drone-market Inspection Drone Market The global inspection drone market has experienced significant growth, with a valuation of approximately $15.76 billion in 2024. Projections indicate that the market will expand to around $18.14 billion in 2025, and further to $64.32 billion by 2034, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15.1% during the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/46228/inspection-drone-market Drones Energy Market The global Drones Energy market is projected to reach a value of approximately $4.2 billion in 2024, driven by increasing demand for efficient energy solutions and technological advancements in drone applications. By 2034, the market is expected to attain a value of around $15 billion, projecting a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14% during the forecast period of 2025 to 2034. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/46209/drones-energy-market Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Agriculture Market The global artificial intelligence in agriculture market size is projected to grow from USD 2.45 billion in 2024 to USD 9.96 billion by 2034, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.02% during the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/41072/artificial-intelligence-ai-in-agriculture-market Last Mile Delivery By Drone Market The global last mile delivery by drone market is anticipated to grow from USD 247 Million in 2022 to USD 1,510.35 Million by 2030, at a CAGR of 25.4% during the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/33951/last-mile-delivery-by-drone-market LiDAR Drone Market The LiDAR drone market is expected to grow at 21 % CAGR from 2023 to 2030. It is expected to reach above USD 733.52 Million by 2030 from USD 193.16 Million in 2023. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/30810/lidar-drone-market Drone Services Market The drone service market is expected to grow at 40.54% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 3,800.81 billion by 2029 from USD 6.55 billion in 2020. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/20603/drone-service-market Drone Payload Market The global drone payload market was valued at 8.96 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach 25.71 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 16.25% from 2022 to 2029 https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/20467/drone-payload-market Drone Logistics and Transportation Market The global drone logistics and transportation market was valued at 533.99 million in 2022 and is projected to reach 11,529.64 million by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 55.1% from 2022 to 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/20440/drone-logistics-and-transportation-market Target Drones Market Global target drones market is estimated to be USD 3.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 6.90 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 7.8% from 2023 to 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/19967/target-drones-market Drone Analytics Market The drone analytics market is expected to grow at 24.4% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It was valued at 7.43 billion in 2020. It is expected to reach above USD 53 billion by 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/18198/drone-analytics-market Drone Software Market The drone software market is expected to grow at 17.1% CAGR from 2022 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 17.68 billion by 2029 from USD 4.27 billion in 2020. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/18189/drone-software-market Drone Simulator Market The global drone simulator market is expected to grow at 14.4% CAGR from 2020 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 1832.36 million by 2029 from USD 620 million in 2020. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/18156/drone-simulator-market Drone Defense System Market The global drone defense system market size is expected to grow at more than 42.57% CAGR from 2021 to 2029. It is expected to reach above USD 56.46 billion by 2029 from a little above USD 2.32 billion in 2020. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/18137/drone-defense-system-market Military Drone Market The global military drone market is projected to reach USD 21.93 billion by 2029 from USD 9.30 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 12.56 % from 2022 to 2029. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/13695/military-drone-market Aerial Imaging Market The global aerial imaging market is projected to reach USD 7.47 billion by 2029 from USD 2.26 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 14.2% during the forecast period. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/12288/aerial-imaging-market Paladin Energy Ltd. (ASX: PDN) (TSX: PDN) (OTCQX: PALAF) ("Paladin" or the "Company") advises that Ms Melanie Williams has been appointed as Company Secretary of Paladin effective 30 May 2025. Melanie joined Paladin in February 2025 as Chief Legal Officer. Melanie is an experienced corporate and resources lawyer and Company Secretary, with substantial international and corporate governance experience. Mr Jeremy Ryan has resigned as Company Secretary of Paladin effective 30 May 2025. The Board of Paladin thanks Jeremy for his dedication to the Paladin Group and wishes him the best in his future endeavours. For the purpose of ASX Listing Rule 12.6, Ms Melanie Williams will be the person responsible for communications with the ASX in relation to ASX Listing Rule matters from 30 May 2025. This announcement has been authorised for release by the Board of Directors of Paladin Energy Ltd. SOURCE Paladin Energy Ltd For further information contact: Investor Relations: Head Office: Paula Raffo, Paladin Investor Relations, T: +61 8 9423 8100, E: paula.raffo@paladinenergy.com.au; Canada: Bob Hemmerling, Paladin Investor Relations, T: +1 250-868-8140, E: Bob.Hemmerling@paladinenergy.ca; Media: Head Office: Anthony Hasluck, Paladin Corporate Affairs, T: +61 438 522 194, E: anthony.hasluck@paladinenergy.com.au; Canada: Ian Hamilton, Partner, FGS Longview, T: +1 905-399-6591, E: ian.hamilton@fgslongview.com Giant Mining Corp. Submits Core For Assay From 1,963 Foot Hole Mhb-34 At Majuba Hill Copper Project- Advancing Critical Minerals The Newswire (CSE: BFG | OTC: BFGFF | FWB: YW5) (CSE:BFG.WT.A) (Giant Mining or the Company) is pleased to announce that all core from hole MHB-34, which was drilled to a total depth of 1,963 feet (598.3 metres), has been sampled and submitted to ALS Global Services (ALS Labs) for analysis from the 5,484.5 Ft (1,671.68 meters) Spring 2025 Drill Program (Core Program) at the Majuba Hill Porphyry Copper-Silver-Gold Project (Majuba Hill), located in Pershing County, Nevada. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture8-e1748571882565.png Figure 1. MHB-34 Core Being Processed for bagging and shipping to ALS for assays MHB-34 was the third hole of the five hole program. Results from MHB-32, the first hole, were recently announced highlighting the expansion of mineralization at Majuba Hill most notably: 169.5 ft of 0.41% Cu Including 40 ft of 1.36% Cu and 10 ft at 4.36% Cu. See Press release here. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture2-1-e1748571976295.jpg Figure 2: MHB-32 NQ Core closeup. Clasts of intrusive with chalcopyrite in tourmaline/chalcopyrite matrix breccia at 810 ft (246.89 m). About Hole MHB-34 - Visible native copper observed beyond 1,850 feet signals scale and strength at Majuba Hill. - Strong presence of native copper, cuprite, and chalcopyrite suggests proximity to a primary copper sulfide zone. - Majuba Hill positioned as a homegrown U.S. critical minerals project with Tier 1 infrastructure advantages. As shown in the accompanying images (Figure 2-5), native copper, cuprite, and chalcopyrite was persistent in the deeper part of MHB-34. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture9-e1748572103584.jpg Figure 3: MHB-34/1499 ft (456.9 m) Native Cu on fracture HQ Core, 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture4-5-e1748572240613.jpg Figure 4: MHB-34/1510 ft (460.2 m) Native Cu in HQ Core with chalcopyrite, 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture11-e1748572764720.jpg Figure 5: MHB-34 1527 ft (465.4 m) Chalcopyrite and Tourmaline Breccia Matrix, HQ Core 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture12-e1748572871469.jpg Figure 6: MHB-34/1542 ft 470 m) Chalcopyrite with Cuprite and Native Copper, HQ Core 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture13.jpg Figure 7: Majuba Hill 2025 Drill Hole Locations 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. Market Awareness The Company has entered into extended its Agreement with Gold Standard Media, LLC (GSM) and its affiliates will continue to provide the Company with advertising services including (i) creating landing pages, (ii) digital marketing, (iii) email marketing, and (iv) influencer marketing. The Extension Agreement is for an additional six (6) months to the original term as previously announced on January 10, 2025 in consideration of a payment of up to $400,000 USD. GSM has a business address located at 723 W University Avenue, Georgetown, TX 78626 and can be contacted at +1 512-843-1723 or ceo@goldstandardir.com. GSM and its principals are arms length from the Company. The Company shall not issue options or other securities in consideration for GSMs services. The Company further announces that it has engaged the services of 1123963 B.C Ltd. DBA Capitaliz On It (Capitaliz), a social media influencer focused digital marketing agency out of Vancouver, BC, to increase investor awareness and interest in the Company as well as attracting new investors through various online platforms and a comprehensive digital media marketing campaign for the Company. Capitaliz has been engaged for a period of three (3) months commencing June 9th, 2025 for USD $90,000. Capitiliz is at arms length to the company and the principal doesnt own any shares of Giant Mining Corp. Capitaliz can be reached by email at charles@capitalizonit.com or by phone at 778-237-1431. The Company further announces it has engaged Consultant Feneck Consulting Group, LLC (Feneck) for certain capital markets, strategic marketing and investor relations services to raise Giants investor profile . The agreement is effective as of May 20, 2025 and shall continue until November 19, 2025 and may be extended for additional six month increments by the parties mutual written agreement beginning on November 20, 2025; and (ii) the Company will pay the Consultant cash in the amount of US$15,000 for the period May 20, 2025 to August 19, 2025 and cash in the amount of US$22,500 for the period August 20, 2025 through November 19, 2025. Feneck Consulting Group, LLC can be reached by phone at +1 732-300-5451 and by email at john.feneck@gmail.com Furthermore, the company announces it has extended its agreement with Plutus Invest & Consulting GmbH (Plutus) as of May 28th, 2025 for an additional term of two (2) months in consideration for a payment of EUR 160,000 to provide consulting services related to advertising, marketing, PR strategies and investor awareness in the European market. Plutus has a business address at Buchtstr. 13, Bremen 28195, Germany and can be contacted at (email: contact@plutuinves.de), or by telephone: (+49 42117540174). Plutus (including its directors and officers) has an arms-length relationship with the Company. The Company will not issue any securities to Plutus as compensation for its marketing services. 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: Giant Mining Corp. E: info@giantminingcorp.com P: 1 (236) 788-0643 www.giantminingcorp.com LIKE AND FOLLOW Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn 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. Giant Mining Corp. (CSE: BFG | OTC: BFGFF | FWB: YW5) (CSE:BFG.WT.A) (Giant Mining or the Company) is pleased to announce that all core from hole MHB-34, which was drilled to a total depth of 1,963 feet (598.3 metres), has been sampled and submitted to ALS Global Services (ALS Labs) for analysis from the 5,484.5 Ft (1,671.68 meters) Spring 2025 Drill Program (Core Program) at the Majuba Hill Porphyry Copper-Silver-Gold Project (Majuba Hill), located in Pershing County, Nevada.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture8-e1748571882565.pngFigure 1. MHB-34 Core Being Processed for bagging and shipping to ALS for assaysMHB-34 was the third hole of the five hole program. Results from MHB-32, the first hole, were recently announced highlighting the expansion of mineralization at Majuba Hill most notably: 169.5 ft of 0.41% Cu Including 40 ft of 1.36% Cu and 10 ft at 4.36% Cu. See Press release here.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture2-1-e1748571976295.jpgFigure 2: MHB-32 NQ Core closeup. Clasts of intrusive with chalcopyrite in tourmaline/chalcopyrite matrix breccia at 810 ft (246.89 m).About Hole MHB-34- Visible native copper observed beyond 1,850 feet signals scale and strength at Majuba Hill.- Strong presence of native copper, cuprite, and chalcopyrite suggests proximity to a primary copper sulfide zone.- Majuba Hill positioned as a homegrown U.S. critical minerals project with Tier 1 infrastructure advantages.As shown in the accompanying images (Figure 2-5), native copper, cuprite, and chalcopyrite was persistent in the deeper part of MHB-34.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture9-e1748572103584.jpgFigure 3: MHB-34/1499 ft (456.9 m) Native Cu on fracture HQ Core, 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture4-5-e1748572240613.jpgFigure 4: MHB-34/1510 ft (460.2 m) Native Cu in HQ Core with chalcopyrite, 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture11-e1748572764720.jpgFigure 5: MHB-34 1527 ft (465.4 m) Chalcopyrite and Tourmaline Breccia Matrix, HQ Core 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture12-e1748572871469.jpgFigure 6: MHB-34/1542 ft 470 m) Chalcopyrite with Cuprite and Native Copper, HQ Core 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam.https://giantminingcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Picture13.jpgFigure 7: Majuba Hill 2025 Drill Hole LocationsMajuba 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 AcresInfrastructure: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 ProducerDrilling: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 CampaignQuality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Measures, Chain of CustodyThe 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 PersonThe 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.Market AwarenessThe Company has entered into extended its Agreement with Gold Standard Media, LLC (GSM) and its affiliates will continue to provide the Company with advertising services including (i) creating landing pages, (ii) digital marketing, (iii) email marketing, and (iv) influencer marketing. The Extension Agreement is for an additional six (6) months to the original term as previously announced on January 10, 2025 in consideration of a payment of up to $400,000 USD. GSM has a business address located at 723 W University Avenue, Georgetown, TX 78626 and can be contacted at +1 512-843-1723 or ceo@goldstandardir.com. GSM and its principals are arms length from the Company. The Company shall not issue options or other securities in consideration for GSMs services.The Company further announces that it has engaged the services of 1123963 B.C Ltd. DBA Capitaliz On It (Capitaliz), a social media influencer focused digital marketing agency out of Vancouver, BC, to increase investor awareness and interest in the Company as well as attracting new investors through various online platforms and a comprehensive digital media marketing campaign for the Company. Capitaliz has been engaged for a period of three (3) months commencing June 9th, 2025 for USD $90,000. Capitiliz is at arms length to the company and the principal doesnt own any shares of Giant Mining Corp. Capitaliz can be reached by email at charles@capitalizonit.com or by phone at 778-237-1431.The Company further announces it has engaged Consultant Feneck Consulting Group, LLC (Feneck) for certain capital markets, strategic marketing and investor relations services to raise Giants investor profile . The agreement is effective as of May 20, 2025 and shall continue until November 19, 2025 and may be extended for additional six month increments by the parties mutual written agreement beginning on November 20, 2025; and (ii) the Company will pay the Consultant cash in the amount of US$15,000 for the period May 20, 2025 to August 19, 2025 and cash in the amount of US$22,500 for the period August 20, 2025 through November 19, 2025. Feneck Consulting Group, LLC can be reached by phone at +1 732-300-5451 and by email at john.feneck@gmail.comFurthermore, the company announces it has extended its agreement with Plutus Invest & Consulting GmbH (Plutus) as of May 28th, 2025 for an additional term of two (2) months in consideration for a payment of EUR 160,000 to provide consulting services related to advertising, marketing, PR strategies and investor awareness in the European market. Plutus has a business address at Buchtstr. 13, Bremen 28195, Germany and can be contacted at (email: contact@plutuinves.de), or by telephone: (+49 42117540174). Plutus (including its directors and officers) has an arms-length relationship with the Company. The Company will not issue any securities to Plutus as compensation for its marketing services.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 GreenwayDavid C. Greenway, President & CEOGiant Mining Corp.E: info@giantminingcorp.comP: 1 (236) 788-0643www.giantminingcorp.comLIKE AND FOLLOWInstagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedInForward-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. TORONTO, May 30, 2025 - Sparton Resources Inc. (SRI: TSX-V) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company and Eldorado Gold Corp. ("Eldorado") have closed an agreement, effective May 29, 2025, whereunder Eldorado acquired the Company's remaining 25% interest in the Bruell Gold Project 51 claim property in Vauquelin township, Quebec. (The Company and Eldorado are referred to jointly herein as "the Parties".) All dollar figures stated are in Canadian Dollars. The Option Agreement for the Bruell Property was originally entered into by the Parties in 2019 and has subsequently been amended to accommodate work programs and negotiate transaction terms. The Parties reached an agreement on November 24, 2024, to amend the agreement, whereby Sparton's 25% interest in Bruell could be purchased by Eldorado for $275,000 plus a 2% Net Smelter Return Royalty ("NSR"). The original option set out in the agreement allowed for the remaining 25% interest to be purchased for $1.8 million plus an annual cost of living increase, and the granting of a 2% Production NSR with a buyout of 50% percent of this NSR for $2.5 Million dollars at any time. As a result of this transaction, Eldorado will now own 100% of the Bruell Gold Project, and Sparton will retain the Production NSR as above. Given the state of the junior exploration sector and the current Company share price, the Board made the decision to forego future participation costs related to the exploration and development on the Bruell property, where the timing is not within its control, in order obtain cash to meet current commitments and pursue opportunities on its wholly owned critical mineral and precious metals properties and for general corporate purposes. For More Information contact: A. Lee Barker, President and CEO Tel.: +1 647-344-7734 Fax: +1 647-344-7734 Mobile: +1 416-716-5762 E-mail: info@spartonres.ca SPARTON RESOURCES INC. Company website: www.spartonres.ca Listed: TSX Venture Exchange Trading Symbol: SRI We Seek Safe Harbour 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 BEDFORD, May 30, 2025 - (TSXV:SSE) Silver Spruce Resources Inc. ("Silver Spruce" or the "Company") is pleased to report the following update on the Pino de Plata project ("Pino" or the "Property"), Chihuahua, Mexico. "We are very excited to report the conclusion of successful negotiations with the claim holder of the four Pino de Plata concessions. The amended Option Agreement ("Option") greatly simplifies the deal structure culminating in mutually beneficial payment terms to earn 100% interest in the Property", said Greg Davison, Silver Spruce Vice-President Exploration and Director. "The revised terms include a USD$10,000 cash payment on signing and a future sales participation right set at 10% (ten percent) for the Option period of three years. The participation right is calculated as a percentage of the gross proceeds from any transaction wherein Silver Spruce Resources sells an interest, either in whole or in part, in the project." Mr. Davison added, "There are no exploration spending commitments, future cash or share payments or royalties payable. This revised agreement eliminates all outstanding cash and share payments (US$625,000), advance royalties (US$120,000 annually) and 3% gross production royalty (capped at US$4,000,000). The 36-month Option window will execute only upon signing of a landowner access agreement and we look forward to re-engaging discussions in Hermosillo. It is our intention to put forth a new offer modelled after the claimholder deal described herein." "We remain confident that a mutually beneficial solution to long-term right of access to Pino de Plata will be achieved," said Mr. Davison. "We appreciate the unwavering support of our shareholders throughout these drawn-out negotiations, and we believe the project value will be worth our investment in time, effort and patience. We continue to maintain our communication with the technical team in Mexico to expedite our exploration program on Pino de Plata upon signing of an agreement with the landowner." As per the terms of the Option Agreement, it remains subject to force majeure until access to field exploration, including diamond drilling, is granted by the landowner agreement. The Company remains current on payment of the requisite property taxes through to the 2nd semester 2024 on Pino de Plata and looks forward to advancing its proposed Phase 1 exploration drilling program. Further technical updates on the El Terrero, La Perla (see Figure 1) and other significant drill targets will be provided to shareholders in due course. Figure 1. Steep terrain, intense alteration and quartz veining at the La Perla Vein drill target Project Background Pino de Plata is located within the western portion of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Complex within the prominent northwest-trending "Sonora Gold Belt" of northern Mexico and parallel to the precious metals-rich Mojave-Sonora Megashear. The 397-hectare Pino de Plata Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu-Au concessions are strategically located only fifteen (15) kilometres west from Coeur Mining Inc.'s ("Coeur") Palmarejo open pit and underground operations and is largely surrounded by Coeur through its December 2014 acquisition (valued at US$146 million) of the adjacent San Miguel Project via its all-share transaction with Paramount Gold and Silver. The Property has supported small scale historical production of high-grade mineralization from artisanal workings, though modern exploration is limited to Silver Spruce's 2016-2019 programs, and, of principal note, the project has not yet been drilled. The project area is known to host widespread mineralization at surface with silver values, on average, of greater than 50 g/t Ag, with local targets >500 g/t Ag. Three outcropping target types with attendant moderate to intense alteration include disseminated epithermal, carbonate replacement and significant vein mineralization, each providing high priority, shallow drill targets. Qualified Person Greg Davison, PGeo (BC), Vice-President Exploration & Director, is the Company's internal Qualified Person (QP) and is responsible for the technical content of this press release within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), under TSX guidelines. About Silver Spruce Resources Inc. Silver Spruce Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior exploration company holding 100% interest in the Melchett Lake Zn-Au-Ag project in northern Ontario and the Jackie Au project located <10 kilometres northwest from Minera Alamos' Nicho deposit in Sonora, Mexico. The Company, as noted herein, has signed an amended Option Agreement to acquire 100% interest in the Pino de Plata Ag project located 15 kilometres west of Coeur Mining's Palmarejo Mine in western Chihuahua, Mexico. Silver Spruce Resources Inc. continues to investigate opportunities that Management has identified or that have been presented to the Company for consideration. Contact: Silver Spruce Resources Inc. Greg Davison, PGeo, Vice-President Exploration and Director (250) 521-0444 gdavison@silverspruceresources.com info@silverspruceresources.com www.silverspruceresources.com 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. Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements," Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to, statements regarding the private placement. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of metals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. SOURCE: Silver Spruce Resources, Inc. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Kelowna, May 30, 2025 - Enduro Metals Corp. (TSXV: ENDR) (OTCQB: ENDMF) (FSE: SOG0) ("Enduro" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of its acquisition of Commander Resources Ltd. ("Commander"), originally announced on December 9, 2024, pursuant to a court-approved plan of arrangement (the "Plan of Arrangement"). The Plan of Arrangement was implemented pursuant to the terms and conditions of an arrangement agreement dated February 25, 2025 between Enduro and Commander, and has resulted in the acquisition by Enduro of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Commander (the "Commander Shares") in exchange for consideration of 0.535 of a common share of Enduro (each full share, an "Enduro Share") for each Commander Share (the "Exchange Ratio"). "Today marks the start of a new era for Enduro Metals, and I am delighted to hand over the reins to Rob Cameron who takes over as the new CEO," commented Cole Evans, Director and outgoing CEO of Enduro. "With the completion of this transaction, the company is now on a sound financial footing, and planning for the forthcoming field season at Newmont Lake is already well advanced. I would also like to thank on behalf of the Company Laurence Roulston for his years of dedication and many valuable contributions to the Company. We wish him well in his future endeavours." In connection with completion of the Plan of Arrangement, Robert Cameron has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Company, replacing Cole Evans, who will continue as a director of Enduro. In addition, each of Robert Cameron and Brandon Macdonald have been appointed directors of the Company. Lawrence Roulston has resigned as a director of Enduro. Mr. Cameron is a professional geologist and has over 40 years of international experience in the mining industry including positions as President and CEO of Valley High Ventures and Bearing Resources Ltd., as well as Vice-President and Manager of exploration for Phelps Dodge Corporation of Canada Limited (then a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.). In addition, he has extensive market and finance experience including a term as mining analyst for Research Capital. Mr. Macdonald is a Professional Geologist with a diverse background in exploration geology, mining, and finance. He earned his B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia in 2000, and later completed an MBA at Oxford University in 2007. His experience includes time at Macquarie Bank in London, UK, and as founding CEO of Fireweed Metals Corp. In connection with the closing, a total of 23,692,393 Enduro Shares have been issued to the former holders of Commander Shares, resulting in former Commander shareholders holding approximately 45.65% of the total number of issued and outstanding Enduro Shares post-closing (based on 51,885,012 Enduro Shares issued and outstanding immediately after closing). In addition, the outstanding options to purchase Commander Shares have been replaced with options to purchase Enduro Shares on the same terms and conditions, other than necessary adjustments to take into account the Exchange Ratio, as set out in the Plan of Arrangement. In order to obtain their Enduro Shares, shareholders holding share certificates of Commander in their names ("Registered Shareholders") will be required to complete a letter of transmittal (a "Letter of Transmittal") and submit it to Computershare Investor Services Inc. and otherwise follow the instructions contained in the letter of transmittal and described in the management information circular of Commander dated April 9, 2025. Copies of the Circular and the Letter of Transmittal (labelled "Cover letter") may be obtained on Commander's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca and will also be available on Enduro's website at www.endurometals.com. Registered Shareholders of Commander who have lost the certificates representing their Commander Shares should contact Computershare Investor Services Inc. at corporateactions@computershare.com for information on how to receive their Enduro Shares. Shareholders who hold their Commander Shares through intermediaries such as a brokerage firm or clearing agency ("Non-registered Shareholders") do not need to take any further action to receive their Enduro Shares, as their Enduro Shares will be automatically re-registered to them. Non-registered Shareholders of Commander and who have questions regarding how the Enduro Shares to which they are entitled will be processed should contact their intermediaries. It is expected that the Commander Shares will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") on or about May 30, 2025 (or such later date as determined by the TSXV). Commander will also apply to cease to be a reporting issuer in the jurisdictions in which it is currently a reporting issuer. A copy of the applicable early warning report concerning the acquisition of the Commander Shares by Enduro will be filed under Enduro's profile on the SEDAR+ website and may also be obtained by contacting Enduro's new CEO, Robert 778) 989-1501 (1111 Melville St, Vancouver, BC V6E 3V6). Advisors and Counsel Pushor Mitchell LLP acted as legal counsel to Enduro in connection with the Plan of Arrangement. GenCap Mining Advisory Ltd. acted as financial advisor to Commander and Koffman Kalef LLP acted as legal counsel to Commander. About Enduro Metals Enduro Metals is an exploration company focused on its Newmont Lake Project; a total 688km2 property located within the heart of British Columbia's Golden Triangle. Building on prior results, Enduro's geological team has outlined multiple deposit environments of interest across the Newmont Lake Project including high-grade epithermal/skarn gold along the McLymont Fault, copper-gold alkalic porphyry mineralization at Burgundy, newly discovered copper-gold porphyry mineralization at North Toe. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Enduro's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such 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 statements concerning the Parties' expectation with respect to the de-listing of the Commander Shares and the expectation that Commander will apply to cease to be a reporting issuer. Although Enduro believes the forward-looking information contained in this news release is reasonable based on information available on the date hereof, forward-looking statements by their nature involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF ENDURO AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE ENDURO MAY ELECT TO, NEITHER OF THEM UNDERTAKES TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 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/253968 Vancouver, May 30, 2025 - Terra Balcanica Resources Corp. ("Terra" or the "Company") (CSE:TERA; FRA:UB1) announces that it is extending the closing of it non-brokered, listed issuer financing exemption private placement (the "Private Placement") for minimum gross proceeds of C$750,000, and maximum gross proceeds of up to C$1,117,495 through the issuance of up to 11,174,950 units (each a "Unit") at a purchase price of C$0.10 per Unit. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company ("Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable to purchase one Common Share ("Warrant Share") at an exercise price of C$0.20 per Warrant Share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Private Placement (the "Closing Date"). The closing of the Private Placement is expected to occur on or about July 11th, 2025, and is subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. See the Company's press release dated April 16th, 2025 for further details regarding the Private Placement. Subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, the Private Placement is being conducted pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions. The securities issued to purchasers in the Private Placement will not be subject to a hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws. There is an amended and restated offering document related to the Private Placement that can be accessed under the Company's profile at the www.sedarplus.ca website and on the Company's webpage at www.terrabresources.com. Prospective investors should read this amended and restated offering document before making an investment decision. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. About the Company Terra Balcanica is a polymetallic and energy metals exploration company targeting large-scale mineral systems in the Balkans of southeastern Europe and northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The Company has a 90% interest in the Viogor-Zanik Project in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Canadian assets comprise a 100% optioned portfolio of uranium-prospective licences at the outskirts of the Athabasca basin: Charlot-Neely Lake, Fontaine Lake, Snowbird, and South Pendleton. The Company emphasizes responsible engagement with local communities and stakeholders. It is committed to proactively implementing Good International Industry Practice (GIIP) and sustainable health, safety, and environmental management. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terra Balcanica Resources Corp. "Aleksandar Miskovi?" Aleksandar Miskovi? President and CEO For the complete information on this news release, please contact Aleksandar Miskovi? at amiskovic@terrabresources.com, +1 (514) 796-7577 or visit www.terrabresources.com/en/news. Cautionary Statement This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). The use of any of the words "will", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, the terms and completion of the Private Placement and the anticipated Closing Date. These statements involve 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 statements. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect including, but not limited to, the ability to obtain regulatory approval for the Private Placement; the state of the equity financing markets in Canada and other jurisdictions; volatility and sensitivity to market prices; volatility and sensitivity to capital market fluctuations; and fluctuations in metal prices. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. The Company believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Beating Ben Sulayem will not be easy says Sainz snr It will not be "easy" to dethrone FIA's current president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Mohammed Ben Sulayem FIA That's the admission of the man most likely to take on the current boss of F1's governing body in the December elections - Carlos Sainz senior. I'm considering it, the 63-year-old, whose son and namesake drives for Williams, said in Barcelona. I'm exploring what it would mean to be FIA president. It's a highly respected institution, and there are many people encouraging me, although I'm currently only considering it. Reports recently suggested Ben Sulayem - also 63 - was tweaking FIA statutes to make it harder for potential candidates like Sainz to put together a full management team. The FIA boss denied that in Monaco: Let him (Sainz) stand. That is democracy. Also democratic is the emergence of a new letter - reportedly inked by Bernie Ecclestone's wife Fabiana, who is the FIA vice president for sport in South America - hailing the extraordinary job done by Ben Sulayem. It was signed by three dozen FIA-affiliated clubs from North and South America. We understand that four years is a short time to complete the ambitious reforms you have initiated, the leaked letter to Ben Sulayem reads, according to Arab News. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to seek re-election at the upcoming AGA so that you may continue the important work you have started, with our full support. In that sort of climate, rallying legend Sainz admitted it will not be easy to take on the FIA incumbent. It's not easy, he said, "because the current president is running for re-election, and things are always better handled from within. In any case, I haven't said yes or no yet, added the Spaniard. When asked if he would be able to combine being FIA president with continuing to contest the Dakar rally, Sainz senior answered: "I don't think so. "It's one thing to compete in next year's Dakar, which would be understandable since the elections are in December and the rally is in January, but not after that. "If it goes ahead, I would have to stop competing in the future. But I can't say much else because I'm working on it. I don't have the team around me yet either. I have someone I'd like to support me, but now is not the time to say any more. (GMM) Mastering stagecraft is crucial for success - DJ Ashmen advises young artists Gifty Owusu-Amoah Showbiz News May - 30 - 2025 , 14:18 3 minutes read POPULAR Disc Jockey, DJ Ashmen, has emphasised the critical role of stagecraft in the success of musicians, urging artistes, especially budding ones, to invest in their performance skills to enhance their careers. To him, the lack of education on the importance of investing in their stagecraft to build a strong image is a significant challenge, particularly among young artistes. He warned this could spell disaster for the industry. (Read We cant ignore Akons contribution to the global dominance of Afrobeats - Sarkodie) In an interview with Graphic Showbiz on Tuesday, May 27, DJ Ashmen expressed surprise that while older artistes go to great lengths to deliver impressive live performances, many young artistes prioritise social media fame over refining their craft, overlooking the significance of live shows as a key to their career success. These new acts will not listen. They are missing the mark by focusing solely on online popularity. Live performances are paramount; they can make or break your career. We all saw the performance of Stonebwoy at last years Ghana Music Awards ceremony and this year as well. You could tell that this was someone who scripted his performance and delivered on stage. And there are the likes of Samini, Sarkodie and even oldies such as Amakye Dede who know how to hold a crowd with their stagecraft. The lack of education in our showbiz, especially the music space, is much higher than the mountain," he stated. DJ Ashmen urged aspiring musicians to recognise the importance of collaborating with skilled DJs and the use of proper sound equipment, such as stems, in their performances. This could make you look good even if you are not a good performer but these young acts dont even know this. "A good live performance requires the right technical setup, which many of our young artistes are not aware of. This knowledge is essential for enhancing their performances," he explained. His comments also touched on the changing dynamics within the music industry, questioning whether the younger generation's approach to music has rendered traditional performance skills outdated. (Read How fake views, bought likes, and stolen streams create artificial celebs) Echoing DJ Ashmen's sentiments, veteran musician and President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, reinforced the importance of rigorous rehearsal. In a social media post, he urged young acts to approach rehearsals with purpose and dedication. "Rehearsal is not merely a formality; it's where your talent is refined and your performance is crafted." He encouraged young musicians to approach rehearsal with focus and determination, highlighting its role in fostering creativity and excellence. "Great musicians dont just show up on stage, they rehearse to perfect their act. At every rehearsal, mistakes are corrected and innovations are born. Dont take your rehearsal time for grantedbe punctual, engaged and ready to grow," he concluded. AI & Automation The secret weapons transforming customer experience in Ghana Allen Olayiwola Opinion May - 30 - 2025 , 15:54 5 minutes read Once seen as the stuff of sci-fi movies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation have quietly made their way into boardrooms, banking halls, hotel systems, and customer service centres across Ghana. And for forward-looking businesses, they are proving to be a game-changer. It took a global pandemic to jolt many business leaders into realising just how vital these technologies arenot just for innovations sake, but for real-world survival. Companies that embraced AI and automation early were more adaptable, more profitable, and more responsive to shifting customer needs during the toughest of times. Today, the smart use of digital intelligence is no longer optional. Its the foundation of a great customer experiencesomething Ghanaian consumers now expect. AI and automation: a dynamic duo While often used interchangeably, AI and automation perform different, complementary roles in your business: AI helps understand what the customer wants. It thinks, learns, and analyses. Automation executes actions based on that understanding. It does the repetitive tasks. Together, they reduce delays, improve service, and free up human employees to focus on high-value, complex customer issuesnot answering What are your working hours? for the hundredth time. Forget the Hollywood vision of robots walking through your office. In reality, these technologies silently power call centres, chatbots, booking engines, and CRM systemsboosting efficiency and cutting costs. Let humans be human Customer-facing staff, especially in Ghanas telecom, banking, and hospitality sectors, often feel overwhelmed with repetitive questions and long queues. AI and automation offer a new way of workingdelegating routine questions to bots, and empowering staff to focus on personalised support. Our staff used to spend hours handling simple requests, says Akua Mensah, a customer service lead at a leading Ghanaian bank. Now, our system handles the basics automatically, and our team handles the rest with more care and less stress. By reducing call times and avoiding long hold queues, businesses not only save moneythey also make customers feel heard, valued, and respected. Case study: Hotels and booking in the digital era Consider a hotel group in Accra using automated services during peak travel season. Their AI-powered system scanned thousands of customer bookings, checked hotel availability, and sent real-time updatesall within seconds. No manual intervention. No errors. Just fast, consistent communication that elevated the customer experience. Smarter conversations, better outcomes Tools like agent-assistnow being explored in some Ghanaian contact centrestake AI even further. These systems listen to a live call, search multiple databases, and suggest the best next action to the agent in real time. For example, if a customer calls a local travel agency asking about a delayed trip, the AI system can pull up their file instantly, identify the issue, and suggest suitable alternativesall before the caller finishes explaining. Thats the kind of seamless experience that builds customer loyalty in an age where brand switching is just one click away. Data that drives growth One of the most powerful benefits of AI and automation is data visibility. Every customer interaction becomes a data pointlogged, tracked, and analysed in real time. This enables businesses to: Identify customer trends and needs Spot gaps in service delivery Monitor team performance Make smarter business decisions With the right analytics in place, Ghanaian businesses can transform their service centres into intelligence hubs, helping leadership proactively improve services instead of reacting to complaints. Digital experience is the new standard The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerability of businesses dependent on traditional models. Those with cloud-based customer service platforms adapted quickly to remote work, while others struggled to serve customers without access to physical infrastructure. In Ghana, businesses using outdated systems are finding it harder to compete with new digital entrantsnimble, mobile-friendly, and born in the cloud. Whether in fintech, delivery services, or e-commerce, the future belongs to those that can evolve quickly and intelligently. What it all means for you Whether youre running a start-up in East Legon or managing a retail chain in Kumasi, AI and automation offer benefits you cant afford to ignore: Faster response times Lower operational costs Happier, more empowered staff Smarter, data-driven decisions Loyal customers who come back again and again In todays competitive environment, customer experience is the new battlefieldand AI is your most valuable ally. Businesses in Ghana that embrace digital intelligence now will not just survivetheyll thrive, says Kojo Oppong, a digital transformation advisor in Accra. Those that dont will struggle to keep up. Final thought AI and automation are no longer future technologies. They are present-day necessities for any Ghanaian business serious about delighting customers, cutting costs, and staying ahead of the curve. The question is no longer if youll adopt them, but how soon. >>>the writer is a seasoned cloud architect and systems administrator with expertise in leading technical teams to create innovative platforms. As CTO of eSolutions Consulting, he has spearheaded major projects like the Office 365 rollout for Ghanas government and infrastructure deployment for the Ghana Revenue Authority. Recognized for his strategic use of emerging technologies, Allen has led his team to multiple Microsoft Partner of the Year awards, solidifying his role as a key leader in tech-driven business transformation. If you'd like to explore how these strategies can help your organization thrive, reach out to discuss tailored solutions for your business growth journey. He can be reached via [email protected] and or 0540123034 World Hunger Day 2025: Sowing resilience, from roots of Africa to a world without hunger Prof. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah Opinion May - 30 - 2025 , 16:33 5 minutes read Today, as the world marks World Hunger Day 2025, we are reminded that food is not just a basic need it is a fundamental right. And yet, nearly 830 million people globally still go to bed hungry. This is a global tragedy. But nowhere is this crisis more deeply felt than in African a continent with 60 per cent of the worlds arable land and the youngest population. Here, hunger is not a crisis of potential. It is a crisis of priorities. In Africa, climate shocks, fragile food systems and underinvestment in science continue to hold back our collective progress. The 2023 Biennial Review of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) concluded that no African country is on track to meet the targets of the Malabo Declaration. Across the continent, millions face chronic food insecurity and in a painful paradox, many of them are farmers, the very people whose hands till the soil to feed us all. How can this be, when, as Ghanas Founding President Kwame Nkrumah once said, it is within the power of science and technologyto make even the Sahara bloom with verdant vegetation? The answer lies in the uncomfortable truth: global rhetoric has far outpaced global responsibility. Many foundations profess that every life has equal value. Yet when it comes to research funding, the reality tells a different story. For over five decades, international agricultural research has been prioritized particularly through generous and sustained investments in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. While the CGIAR has made important contributions to agricultural science, the continued neglect of national research institutions and universities in Africa has weakened the very ecosystems needed to translate global discoveries into local solutions. We must ask: if this paradigm of funding heavily skewed toward international centres could shift the realities on the ground, should we not have seen more transformative progress by now? The science generated at the global level must be met with equal investment in national capacity to innovate, adapt, and scale. Without strong local institutions, even the best research will struggle to take root. This is a call not just for equity in words, but for justice in action. At the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), we have trained over 120 PhD plant breeders and 60 seed scientists across 19 African nations. Together, they have contributed to the release of more than 280 improved crop varieties resilient maize, cowpea, groundnut, rice, and tomatoes that are transforming the lives of smallholder farmers. This is what African-led science looks like: solving African problems with African talent. It is proof that agency, not aid, is the answer. Yet even this modest success has come not from systemic support, but from fighting against the current. This World Hunger Day, I offer a direct appeal one rooted in urgency, humility, and hope. To African Governments: The African Unions Malabo Declaration urges member states to allocate at least one per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to research and development. This commitment must be fulfilled. It is not a luxury it is a necessity. Science-led agricultural transformation is the only sustainable path to ending hunger, creating jobs, and building resilient economies. To global foundations and development partners: Many of you have helped shape global progress with your generous investments and principled declarations. But today, we ask for something more: that you match your values with bold, sustained support for African research institutions and scientists. This is not charity it is smart partnership. It is shared survival. It is shared success. Ghana And let me pause, with cautious optimism, to reflect on Ghana. A new government, barely five months in office, is taking bold early steps to operationalise the Ghana National Research Fund a long-awaited initiative. If sustained and well-resourced, this fund could unlock a new era of agricultural transformation. It has the potential to empower our scientists to develop climate-smart innovations, bolster seed systems, enhance productivity, and reverse the brain drain. It can nurture the next generation of agricultural leaders and help make food security a reality not just a goal. We must ensure that the National Research Fund becomes a strategic engine, not a symbolic gesture. That it catalyses a future where knowledge drives policy, and science is the backbone of national development. If such bold national commitments are replicated across Africa, and matched by strategic public-public and public-private partnerships to drive food systems transformation, then just perhaps we may turn the tide on this silent tsunami of hunger and malnutrition. Africa can feed itself. And in doing so, it can nourish the world. Let us not fall into Einsteins trap repeating the same approaches and expecting different outcomes. Let us instead reimagine food systems that are climate-smart, science-led, community-driven, and globally competitive. A continent where hunger is no longer tolerated. A future where resilience is not a dream, but our daily practice. We must harness the power of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to enhance decision-making, optimise resource use, and accelerate innovation. At the same time, food systems transformation must be inclusive ensuring that women, youth, and marginalized communities are not just beneficiaries, but leaders of change. Transformation So today, let us move from declarations to delivery. From promises to policies. From handouts to harvests. Let us honour the quiet heroes our hunger fighters who, against all odds, continue to sow seeds of hope. May this World Hunger Day sow the seeds of transformation. The writer is the Founding Director, West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana. He is Africa Food Prize Laureate, 2022 | GCHERA World Agriculture Prize Laureate, 2018 Inaugural President, African Plant Breeders Association (APBA) Next article: No new recruits at Ghanas US Embassy Foreign Minister clarifies as visa services resume Previous article: Sam George threatens to sanction telcos over failure to improve service by end of 2025 37 Military Hospital to close Emergency Unit for fumigation from June 4 Jemima Okang Addae May - 30 - 2025 , 16:35 1 minute read The 37 Military Hospital has announced the temporary closure of its Medical Emergency Unit from Wednesday, June 4 to Saturday, June 14, 2025, to allow for a scheduled fumigation exercise. In a statement issued by the Acting Director General of Public Relations, Lieutenant R.K. Kotoku, the hospital explained that the closure forms part of its routine measures to ensure a clean and safe environment for patients and staff. The hospital has urged the general public to seek medical emergency services at alternative health facilities during the specified period. Lieutenant Kotoku also assured that special arrangements would be made to cater for entitled persons through the Trauma Surgical Emergency Unit, which will remain operational throughout the fumigation period. The statement expressed regret for any inconvenience caused and thanked the public for their cooperation. Ex-IT Head at Ghanas US Embassy denies misconduct, claims services were transparent and approved Jemima Okang Addae May - 30 - 2025 , 12:16 2 minutes read The former Head of IT at Ghanas Embassy in Washington D.C., Fred Kwarteng, has denied allegations of financial impropriety and abuse of office, insisting that his actions were transparent and delivered tangible benefits to Ghanaians both in the United States and at home. In an interview on Asempa FM, Mr Kwarteng urged the public to focus on the value of the services he had rendered during his tenure, rather than speculating about his personal earnings. Can we look at the good partthe part that people benefited fromand forget about the fact that someone was benefiting from something he had genuinely put together? he asked. Mr Kwartengs comments follow the temporary closure of Ghanas Embassy in Washington D.C., ordered by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. The move comes in response to ongoing allegations of corruption and unauthorised business dealings involving the former IT head, including the use of the Embassys official website to promote a private company linked to him. However, Mr Kwarteng claimed that his innovations, including a service that allowed for effective communication with passport applicants, were known to and appreciated by officials at both the embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He added that the services improved user experience and helped applicants track their documents. Tell me, all these years, did anybody go online or on social media to say someone had stolen their money or passport? Nothere was no complaint, he asserted. He further clarified that the fees collected through his private platform were not for embassy services but for assisting applicants with logistics such as returned envelopes and label preparation. I was working for the embassy and got paid for those duties. The other solutions I provided were for outsiders who paid me to assist with communication and delivery, he explained. Addressing allegations of impropriety, Mr Kwarteng insisted that his actions were not done in secrecy and that embassy leadership was fully aware of his role and the services he was providing. Are we saying that the Heads are not allowed to find solutions to problems? If they had a problem with what I was doing, they would have made me stop, he said. The matter remains under investigation as the Ministry continues to assess the extent of the alleged irregularities at the Ghanaian mission in Washington D.C. READ ALSO Visa scam rocks embassy in US: Staff create fraudulent account - Employee sacked Ghana recalls embassy staff, sends fresh team to reopen Washington DC Mission on May 29 Ghana Embassy in Washington DC reopens tomorrow Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shanghai embraces smart technology to build intelligent elderly care homes 11:08, May 30, 2025 By Huang Xiaohui ( People's Daily Photo shows smart devices at Jinyang elderly care home in Shanghai's Pudong New Area. (Photo from the official account of Jinyang elderly care home on WeChat) It was just past midnight at Jinyang elderly care home in Shanghai's Pudong New Area when nurse Zhao Zhanping received an alert on her phone, indicating that Wang Mingxiang on Bed No.2, Room 324 needed immediate attention as abnormal blood pressure was detected. Zhao rushed to the room without hesitation. The first to detect the issue wasn't a caregiver but a smart mattress under the elderly resident. At the same time, Wang's family received the same alert on their phones. Thanks to the real-time monitoring system, Wang, who has a history of cerebral infarction, was promptly taken to hospital and treated in time. At Jinyang elderly care home, smart mattresses represent just one of many intelligent devices now integrated into daily operations. In the lobby of the facility stands a large electronic display, an information system that provides real-time monitoring of residents' health statuses, clearly showing the time, location, and status of any risks and interventions. "While this system serves as the brain of our operations, the smart devices installed throughout the facility function like eyes and skinconstantly sensing and feeding information back to the center," explained Chen Xue, director of the care home. "Bathrooms and showers are high-risk areas for falls. The ceiling lights here double as 'electronic radars' as they illuminate the room and also detect falls or other emergencies," Chen told People's Daily. Shanghai is one of China's most rapidly aging cities. According to municipal plans, the city aims to establish at least 100 smart care homes by the end of 2025, with more than 70 already built so far. An information system that provides real-time monitoring of residents' health statuses is used at Jinyang elderly care home in Shanghai's Pudong New Area. (Photo from the official account of Jinyang elderly care home on WeChat) "The original purpose of building smart elderly care homes in Shanghai is to enhance institutional efficiency and improve service delivery through technology," said Li Sujin, deputy director of the elderly services division at the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau. According to Li, Shanghai is expanding the implementation of tech-enabled elderly care products in institutions, and building a more professional, efficient, and integrated smart care ecosystem. For frontline workers like caregiver Chen Juxiu, the digital transformation has already made a noticeable difference. While assisting 96-year-old Zhong Jianmei with bathing, Chen simply pressed a button and a robotic transfer device co-developed by the care home and a tech firm automatically lowered its arms and footrests to lift the resident from her wheelchair and move her into the shower area. "Assisting seniors with limited mobility used to be really challenging," Chen recalled. "I remember once it took four caregivers to lift a 90-kilogram resident. Now, with this robot, one person can safely complete the taskless physical strain, lower risk." Jinyang elderly care home is managed by Puhui Pension Service, which oversees 16 facilities. "Staff shortages and an aging workforce are real challenges," said general manager Gao Wanjie. "With smart devices taking over repetitive, physically demanding tasks, our caregivers can focus more on providing personalized, high-quality services, and on addressing the emotional needs of our residents." A senior consults a doctor via a telemedicine system at an elderly care home in Shanghai. (Photo from the official account of the news office of Shanghai's Fengxian district on WeChat) For 95-year-old He Junmian, one of the first residents to move into the upgraded smart facility, the change is evident: "Caregivers now have more time to talk with us, and the service feels warmer and more attentive," she said. Her old call bell has been replaced with a visual intercom system, making it easier to reach staff when assistance is required. From obstacle-avoidance wheelchairs and robot servers to AI-powered chess companions, smart eldercare homes are introducing a growing array of age-friendly innovations that benefit both residents and staff. "With continued innovation and new technologies being applied, we envision future care homes evolving into elderly care industry hubs," Gao added. According to Chen Xue, the average monthly fee at Jinyang is around 5,000 yuan ($694), a mid-to-low price by Shanghai standards. "Our prices haven't increased with the smart upgrades," she noted. But she also emphasized: "When using smart technologies, we must always take into account how residents feel. Technology can never fully replace the warmth of human care. A truly intelligent care home must combine efficiency with empathy." (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Previous article: No new recruits at Ghanas US Embassy Foreign Minister clarifies as visa services resume Four Western Central Police officers promoted for outstanding service Jemima Okang Addae May - 30 - 2025 , 12:58 2 minutes read The Ghana Police Service has promoted four officers of the Western Central Regional Police Command in recognition of their exceptional diligence, professionalism, and commitment to duty. The officers were instrumental in intercepting armed suspects linked to a high-profile murder case, demonstrating swift and exemplary policing. The officersNo. 47459 G/Sgt. Fetus Gameli Kukuia, No. 52192 G/Cpl. Christian Asare, No. 52441 G/Cpl. Nicholas Kingsley Amoah, and No. 59947 G/Const. Adam Yakubuhave been promoted to the ranks of Inspector, Sergeant, and Lance Corporal, respectively. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, together with the Police Management Board (POMAB), commended the officers for their extraordinary efforts and reaffirmed the Services commitment to rewarding excellence. The IGP noted that such promotions serve as both motivation and a strong signal that exceptional performance will not go unnoticed. This commendation follows an incident on April 30, 2025, a day after the tragic murder of five individuals at Asiyaw near Nsawam. Acting on intelligence, the Western Central Regional Police Command intercepted a Grand Bird Bus at Bawdie Barrier near Wassa Akropong. A thorough search led to the arrest of three suspectsHakeem Imoro, Imoro Tahiru, and Nurideen Wahaband the recovery of a submachine gun (SMG) and twenty-one rounds of ammunition. Under interrogation, suspect Hakeem Imoro revealed that the weapon was handed to him by his superior, identified as Samuel Atsu Forson alias Alanyo, who was already in custody in connection with the Asiyaw murders. Further investigations confirmed the suspects direct involvement in the case and their attempted flight from the jurisdiction. The Police Service has praised the officers vigilance and quick action in intercepting the suspects, stating that their conduct was a prime example of operational excellence. The Service further reiterated its unwavering dedication to recognising officers who go above and beyond in the fight against crime. DBG, AGI dialogue over reviving textile, garments industry Maclean Kwofi May - 30 - 2025 , 12:57 3 minutes read Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has expressed its readiness to make significant contributions to the countrys development agenda as a financier and a long-term driver of structural transformation. DBGs Chief Executive Officer, Dr Randolph Nsor-Ambala, who articulated the banks position at a policy dialogue in Accra yesterday, said through partnerships, policy alignment and inclusive finance, the bank was laying the groundwork for a competitive and resilient economy. It was on the theme: Revamping Ghanas textiles and garment sector The challenges, pitfalls and opportunities. Participants discussed and identified key policy bottlenecks, pitfalls and opportunities within the textile and garment industry. The forum was aimed at formulating policy recommendations to accelerate growth in the sector. DBG held the dialogue in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to chart a clear reform roadmap for the countrys textile and garment sector. The sector, which is one of Ghanas most strategic manufacturing segments, was once a pillar of national employment and industrial strength. However, its workforce has declined from over 25,000 direct jobs in the late 1970s to just 6,000 as of 2020. They included senior policy-makers, financiers, development partners and factory owners who discussed issues like how cheap imports, uneven customs enforcement and fragmented incentives had eroded competitiveness, while outlining a suite of reforms to restore momentum. Obligations The CEO further said that as an organisation aligned with the country's long-term development agenda, the bank played a crucial role in advocating the industrys concerns to policymakers supported by evidence and empirical data. He said the bank's obligations were in threefold, including acting as an anchor to mobilise funding, a key challenge in the textiles industry. Dr Nsor-Ambala said the bank also provided technical assistance, recognising that funding alone was insufficient to drive growth in the sub-sector. He said the bank was also working collaboratively with its participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) to identify five investor-ready, bankable project pipelines that could be supported. It was also conducting a comprehensive capacity needs assessment to inform the design of technical assistance programmes for both industry players and financial institutions. Stable regime The President of AGI, Dr Humphrey Kwesi Ayim Darke, urged the government to deliver a stable, export-oriented incentive regime, saying manufacturers were poised to invest once clear rules were in place. He said a sector-wide feasibility study would be commissioned to address the chronic lack of industry intelligence mapping the entire value chain from raw material cultivation to fabric processing and garment production. Draft policy The Chief Director of the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Noah Tumfo, said the government was set to unveil a tailored package to support the rollout of the 24-Hour Economy initiative to provide industries with opportunities to leverage its benefits. He also said that the ministry had drafted a policy document to boost the textiles and garments industry, a key component of the government's 24-Hour Economy policy. The draft Ghana textiles and garments manufacturing policy when completed after stakeholder inputs, would lead to the creation of a well-developed textiles and garments value chain, with the potential to accelerate the country's industrialisation, export diversification and employment opportunities, Mr Tumfo said. Next article: Ex-IT Head at Ghanas US Embassy denies misconduct, claims services were transparent and approved Improving Early Childhood education: Ministry signs $118m pact Severious Kale-Dery May - 30 - 2025 , 12:55 4 minutes read The Ministry of Education has signed a partnership agreement with an educational consortium and other partners to provide $118.8 million grant to support foundational learning. The partnership allows System Change Architecture for Learning Excellence (SCALE) and other partners that form the consortium to provide $40 million; the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will contribute $40 million; a multi-donor trust fund is donating $7.4 million, with GPE systems transformation offering a grant of $31.4 million. Purpose of investment The support is to improve foundational learning and ensure that every child receives education. The funding will be invested in the Ministry of Educations flagship Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP). The investment, an additional funding two (AF2) of GALOP, will seek to improve foundational learning, including basic numeracy and literacy skills, support emotional and social wellbeing, and increase childrens access to education across the country. Intervention areas The GALOP AF2 will support four main areas - Strengthen teaching and learning through support and resources for teachers; strengthen school support, management and resourcing; strengthen accountability systems for learning; and technical assistance, institutional strengthening, monitoring and research. Using a results-based financing approach, the World Bank will act as GALOPs grant agent by disbursing funds to the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for delivery based on the achievement of pre-determined performance-based conditions With an emphasis on evidence-based approaches to education, the funders behind SCALE bring a breadth of international expertise to support local, regional, and national level improvements in Ghanas education system. The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, who signed the agreement on behalf of the ministry, said, this is an opportunity for us. With a shared vision, a shared partnership, and a shared innovative financing for education. And it could not have been done at a better time. Ghana has every reason to celebrate the impact made under the investment of GALOP, and SCALE is an extension of this, he added. Mr Iddrisu gave the assurance that, aside from the prudent and judicious use of the resources, the new government recognised that, foundational learning is key to future success, not just academic success, but personal and professional development of the young ones. Partners The Operations Manager and acting Country Director for the World Bank, Michelle Keane, said the SCALE objectives and the World Bank's education strategy for Western Central Africa were fully aligned around equitable access to quality education for every child and lifelong learning opportunities for all. He said by investing in education together, we seek to empower not only individuals, but also to begin preparing young peoples access to better jobs, which will drive prosperity and fight poverty. Mr Keane said the bank was looking forward to continue the World banks International Development Associations (IDA's) efforts, working closely with all partners, and under the leadership of the government, to fight together for the elimination of learning poverty and the future of learning for all children in Ghana. One of the primary foundation partners leading SCALE, Simon Sommer, Co-CEO of the Jacobs Foundation, said, besides the financial commitment, the SCALE partnership offers the expertise of a broad range of organisations who have helped to transform the way in which evidence is applied to education. SCALE will build on the successes of other international models, including the Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF) in Cote dIvoire which has been recognized by the World Bank., he said. He added that in Ghana, the foundation expected two million children to benefit from evidence-based research and insight that will extend across 100 cocoa districts. On his part, the UBS Optimus Foundation CEO, Tom Hall, said, "we firmly believe that one of the most effective ways to give with maximum impact is collectively. Greater coordination boosts efficiency by avoiding duplication, streamlining processes, and leveraging each partners unique strengths and flexibility. Together, we can overcome the limitations of working in silos and support a programme that addresses multiple root causes at once," he said. The CEO of Fondation Botnar, Andrea Studer, added that at Fondation Botnar, we believe education systems must help young people thrive together in a changing world. The Community Development Manager of Mondelez International, Matilda Broni, who spoke for the industry players, stated that from an industry perspective, investing in education was not just a philanthropic gesture. It is a strategic commitment to the sustainable development of the communities that sustain our industry. The industries recognise that foundational learning is the bedrock of personal empowerment, economic resilience, and long-term societal transformation, she said. Writers email: [email protected] Time for conversation on gaming addiction - Dr Agyeman-Rawlings says Nana Konadu Agyeman May - 30 - 2025 , 11:57 3 minutes read The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has called for an honest national conversation about the dangers gaming and betting addiction are posing to the youth in Ghana. She said if the nation failed to engage in such blunt conversation about gaming addiction, it means that we are closing our eyes to the reality and the crisis that we are facing as a nation. I know that the common thing that we are all hearing is the addiction to drugs, especially red, but the most subtle one is the one associated with behaviour that you do not recognise as addictive or drug abuse, and that is gaming addiction, she said. Addiction respects no person Speaking at a sensitisation programme on gambling addiction and mental wellness at the Accra Technical University last Wednesday, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said it was time the nation paid attention to how gaming addiction was destroying the life of young people and even adults addicted to gambling. There are people today, as we speak, who are even in very sensitive positions in the financial sector and are addicted to all sorts of things and what they ended up doing is misappropriating people funds. They are stealing peoples money that they are supposed to look after to feed their addiction. They get fired from one job and they end up in another and they repeat the same behaviour. So, this is not someone who started off as a student who could not afford to pay for his hostel or rent; this is someone who is employed in a job where they have everything they need. Addiction does not respect you and it does not matter who you are and where you are from, how old you are, what your background is and how much money you have in your pocket, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP said. The event, which formed part of activities to mark the Mental Health Month celebration, was organised by the Gaming Commission of Ghana in partnership with the Mental Health Authority and Licensed Gaming Operators to raise students awareness about the harmful effects of irresponsible gaming. Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said research had shown that the best target for gaming and betting as well as anything related to addiction was the youth who happened to be the nations builders. She, therefore, called for a safety net to be put in place to protect them against betting addiction which was gradually ruining their life. Exposing the students to how addiction developed, the medical doctor said the pathway for addiction was the same because there was something about the human brain that made it prone to addiction. That thing is the pleasure part of your brain that once it lobs into the fact that a particular behaviour generates a certain amount of pleasure, you keep doing it, she explained. Stop gambling The NDC MP for Ayawaso West Wuogon and Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, recounted how he personally became addicted to gambling some years ago at a time he got addicted to his mobile phone. He, however, said at a point he realised that gaming was a process that was eating into my time and money. All in all, I think that betting addiction is something that we all need to deal with; yes, it is a quick way of making money, but it is also a quick way of ending or ruining your life, Mr Dumelo said. Next article: World Vision, 6 others to roll out programme to transform households UN lauds Ghanas contribution to peacekeeping Pacome Emmanuel Damalie May - 30 - 2025 , 09:57 3 minutes read The UN has lauded Ghanas contribution to maintenance of peace and stability across the world through peacekeeping missions. Ghana is ranked seventh among troop-contributing countries in the world. The acting UN Resident Coordinator, Osama Makkawi Khogali, said Ghana has long been a steadfast pillar of UN peacekeeping efforts with a distinguished legacy dating back to the early 1960s. Today, we proudly recognise Ghanas remarkable contributions, as the nation ranks seventh among 122 troop-contributing countriesa testament to its enduring commitment to global peace and security, he added. Mr Khogali said that the contribution of Ghanaian peacekeepers transcended duty; it depicted a profound calling to uphold the values of humanity, solidarity and hope in the worlds most challenging environments. Ceremony Mr Khogali was speaking at a flag-raising ceremony to commemorate the 77th International Day of UN Peacekeepers in Accra yesterday, on the theme: The future of peacekeeping: Strengthening partnership and multilateralism in Ghana and beyond. It was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in collaboration with the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF). The ceremony aimed at paying tribute to security and civilian peacekeepers who lost their lives in the process, while complimenting those who had served, and continued to serve in UN peacekeeping missions. In attedance were members of the diplomatic corps and high-ranking officials of MFA and GAF, as well as the Minister of State in-Charge of Government Communication, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, who was the guest speaker. Tribute Mr Khogali paid tribute to the 57 peacekeepers who lost their lives last year, including two Ghanaian soldiers - Sergeant Evans Kyere and Warrant Officer II David Kwame Amankwah. He added that the two fallen heroes would later this year be conferred with the Dag Hammarskjold Medals in a ceremony in New York. Mr Khogali further congratulated Squadron Leader Sharon Syme, a Ghanaian soldier, for receiving the 2024 Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. He emphasised the importance of partnerships and multilateralism in peacekeeping, including the need for unity, collaboration and intentional action to address evolving security threats. Mr Khogali said there was the need for investment in training and capacity building to equip peacekeepers with modern tools and increase funding for crisis management, among others. Commitment For his part, Mr Kwakye said the country would continue to advocate a more robust and inclusive multilateral system because multilateralism, though imperfect, was still the best tool to sustain peacekeeping efforts in an increasingly fractured world. He urged world leaders to recommit to collective action to fully resource missions, equip them with robust mandates, and stand united with the brave women and men who risked their lives to protect civilians. The minister said there was the need to ensure that peacekeeping operations thrived even in the most challenging environment. Our contribution to global peace has been tremendous. Our brave men and women peacekeepers have, through their dedication in Liberia, South Sudan and beyond, demonstrated to the world that lasting stability is achievable under even the most difficult circumstances, he said. Mr Kwakye also said that commemoration of the peacekeepers day must serve as a reminder that it was only through a shared vision of human dignity that we can uphold the worth of every individual and build a more secure world. World Vision, 6 others to roll out programme to transform households Chris Nunoo May - 30 - 2025 , 09:57 2 minutes read World Vision Ghana (WVG) has signed a memorandum of understanding with six other strategic partners to roll out a three-year project aimed at transforming households. The partners are VisionFund Ghana, Farm Concern International, Ghana Commodity Exchange, Fairtrade Africa, Pangea Africa and Esoko. Known as Transforming Household Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE 2030), the project aims to strengthen household resilience, increase incomes and promote sustainable livelihoods through inclusive market systems and access to knowledge. The MoU, which was signed at a ceremony at the WVG office in Accra yesterday , formalised a collaboration to drive inclusive and innovative approaches in economic empowerment, climate resilience, digital transformation, and capacity building in rural and peri-urban communities across the country. Mindset The Programme Manager of THRIVE 2030, Justice Tiiga, in an interview, said the THRIVE 2030 sought to first transform the mindset of the people so they can develop their household business plans as well as how they would progress out of poverty. Mr Tiiga said, Over the years, we have been working with these farmers and producer groups to help them maximise their profit, but there has been a gap, in the sense that you start introducing a programme without first of all working on the people's mindset. In that sense, he said, WVG adopted the THRIVE 2030 programme in 2024 and We are working to end it in 2027. For this year, he said, We are expected to reach out to 160,000 households across 14 districts in seven different administrative regions which are Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Savannah, Ashanti, Western North and Bono East. Mr Tiiga said these were the areas that THRIVE 2030 was working in and that the expectations were that in the three years, at least over 400,000 participants would be able to double their income. Commitment The interim National Director of World Vision Ghana, Jean-Claude Mukadi, who addressed the ceremony, said the endorsement of the MoU was a demonstration of the commitment to build resilient communities in the country. We believe that our collective efforts will lead to increased income, profitability and overall impact. We are confident that, together, we can progress into a world which includes resilience and livelihood for the many families we serve, Mr Mukadi assured. No new recruits at Ghanas US Embassy Foreign Minister clarifies as visa services resume GraphicOnline May - 30 - 2025 , 15:16 2 minutes read Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has denied reports that new individuals have been recruited to replace staff at Ghanas Embassy in Washington D.C., following its recent reopening after a temporary shutdown due to alleged misconduct. In a Facebook post on Friday, Mr Ablakwa described such claims as false and baseless, emphasising that the diplomatic mission is currently being managed by a fresh team of seasoned diplomats drawn from within Ghanas existing diplomatic corps. According to him, no new personnel have been hired externally to fill any vacancies created during the recent shake-up. Contrary to false and baseless claims, there have been no new recruitments to replace lost jobs in our Washington embassy, the Minister stated. We have an adequate stock of distinguished and astute diplomats to lead ongoing reforms. Mr Ablakwa praised the teams performance on their first day of resumed operations, revealing that the embassy processed and issued more than 800 visas in a single day. He attributed the smooth operation to reforms and systems upgrades implemented during the recent institutional reset. From the briefing I have received, our reopened embassy in Washington D.C. issued over 800 visas on the first day of resumption, he said. I expect this level of efficiency, professionalism, and integrity to continue. Describing the relaunch as part of a broader patriotic consequential reset agenda, Mr Ablakwa rejected the suggestion that the changes were driven by political patronage. This cannot be reduced to jobs for the boys, he insisted. The Foreign Minister also disclosed that an unauthorised agreement signed in 2023 between former IT head Fred Kwarteng and a senior embassy official had been annulled. He described the deal as unauthorised, opaque and illegal, and confirmed that it would not be recognised by the ministry. More on this including details about frozen accounts and other remedial actions will be presented in greater detail when I address Parliament next week, he announced. The embassy in Washington D.C. was temporarily shut down earlier this year following revelations of an IT-related fraud scheme in which Mr Kwarteng allegedly diverted visa application traffic to a private platform linked to his company. He was subsequently dismissed, and the embassys IT department was dissolved, triggering calls for reforms from the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee. He further commended the current diplomatic staff for implementing what he called a systems overhaul and institutional fumigation. This is testament that Ghanaian diplomats excel when provided with the right ecosystem and leadership, the minister added. Sam George threatens to sanction telcos over failure to improve service by end of 2025 Dickson Worlanyo Dotse May - 30 - 2025 , 19:31 5 minutes read The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George has issued a stern warning to telecommunication companies operating in Ghana, threatening fines and sanctions by the end of 2025 if quality of service do not significantly improve. Sam George threatens to sanction telcos over failure to improve service by end of 2025 https://t.co/0jOhFN39s7 @samgeorgegh pic.twitter.com/gJtt5Ghvru May 30, 2025 He said despite the visible presence and infrastructure of telcos across the country, customers continued to suffer from poor service quality, particularly in growing urban areas and key regional towns. We are not doing sentiments. We are doing engineering. If you have infrastructure in place but your service is poor, we must begin to take regulatory action, Mr George stated. The Minister made the remark on Friday (May 30, 2025) in Accra when he met the Chief Executive Officers of MTN, Telecel, and AT, along with their technical teams, to assess the performance of their networks and explore solutions to persistent service challenges. The meeting featured a presentation by the National Communications Authority (NCA), based on an assessment of 48 localities nationwide. The study was initiated following public complaints about poor network quality and evaluated mobile network operators using four key performance indicators: 3G Coverage, Call Setup Time (CST), Mean Opinion Score (MOS), and 3G Data Throughput. The results revealed inconsistencies in service delivery across all three telecom providers, prompting calls for urgent improvements. Key areas, spectrum Citing key areas and economically significant towns from the presentation like Amasaman and East Legon, Mr George, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram, emphasised that while telcos had expanded their coverage, the quality of service had sharply declined, with parts of the capital city experiencing blackouts and poor 4G performance. In Q3, I'm going to ask the NCA to literally do a whole nationwide test in every district capital. And on the basis of that result, if we don't see improvements, we will have to start taking decisive action to ensure that the quality of service is met for the customers, he said. The minister disclosed that the spectrum had already been offered, and operators had a strict 30-day window-ending by June 30 to complete the acceptance process. Therefore, by the end of December, Mr George stated that operators would be expected to show significant improvements in quality of service, directly linked to the newly allocated spectrum. Importantly, he stressed that these fines wouldn't simply be absorbed by the regulator-instead, about 40 per cent of any fines imposed on defaulting telcos would be returned to the affected consumers, either through bonus data or call time, ensuring that the public is tangibly compensated for poor service. We know you cant complete upgrades in three months, but we must see that the process has begun. The Ghanaian people must feel the impact of the spectrum rollout by the end of this year, he added. Data pricing Sam George threatens to sanction telcos over failure to improve service by end of 2025 https://t.co/0jOhFN39s7 @samgeorgegh pic.twitter.com/OsPyia6gn9 DailyGraphic GraphicOnline (@Graphicgh) May 30, 2025 On the issue of data pricing, the minister recalled that a committee was set up in February to chart a strategic course toward reducing data costsnot through immediate price cuts, but by developing a roadmap that would lead to a gradual reduction over time. He clarified that the aim was not to cause a shock to the ecosystem that could jeopardize investment planning or industry viability. Instead, the approach will be staggered, beginning with improvements in valuefor instance, by offering more data for the same price rather than slashing tariffs outright. Measures The heads of the three major telecommunications companies outlined significant measures aimed at enhancing service quality and customer satisfaction. The MTN Ghana CEO, Stephen Blewett, announced a $230 million investment in 2024 to boost network infrastructure and IT systems, with additional capital expenditure pending approval. Acknowledging customer service issues, he revealed plans to open 300 new franchise stores, particularly in underserved areas, and recruit 400 new front-facing staff with a GH 25 million internal budget. He also noted upcoming self-service options like SIM swaps and PIN resets, designed with strong identity verification to prevent fraud. The Chief Operating Officer, Telecel Ghana Mohamad Ghaddar reaffirmed the companys commitment to superior customer experience, saying the network is being optimized around the clock. Although Telecel has received some spectrum, he stressed the need for more to meet growing demand. The company, added, was expanding its network, with over 400 shops in operation and plans to add 100 more. He also highlighted support services for persons with special needs and welcomed feedback from the regulator. The CEO of AT, Leo Skarlatos, recognising the public as the ultimate stakeholder in the company, announced that AT was undergoing significant network improvements, which will become clearly visible by the first quarter of the following year. He assured stakeholders of substantial progress across key performance areas by that time and expressed confidence in the transformation underway extending an open invitation for stakeholders to witness the improvements firsthand early next year. Student Loan Trust Fund publishes names of defaulters and their guarantors (LIST) Kweku Zurek May - 30 - 2025 , 07:39 3 minutes read The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has released a second batch of individuals who have defaulted on the repayment of their student loans, as part of an ongoing effort to recover outstanding debts owed to the state. In a notice published in the May 30, 2025, edition of the Daily Graphic, the SLTF listed over 100 borrowers who, according to the Fund, have failed to honour their repayment obligations, despite repeated reminders and notices. The published list includes the full names of borrowers, their respective tertiary institutions, year of completion, the total loan amount with interest, and the names of their guarantors. We refer to the students loan you contracted with the Students Loan Trust Fund under the terms and conditions stated therein, whilst a student at the tertiary level in Ghana, the notice stated. It further explained that the borrowers had breached the agreement to begin repayment after the stipulated grace period following their completion of studies. "We refer also to the options in the loan agreements to pay off your loan during the period of your study; national service; one more year moratorium after national service, an an average of eight (8) years additional repayment period, subject to your programme of study; withing which to pay off the loan and interest, and to which you have failed, negelected and/or refused to pay up". This action follows an earlier demand notice dated 5 March 2024, which the SLTF said was served to the defaulters and also published in a national newspaper. Consequent to this and in compliance with section 26 of the Students Loan Trust Fund Act 820, Act 2011, as amended by the Students Loan Trust Fund (Amendment) Act 2021, Act 1065, we hereby demand that you (the defaulters), and any other person(s) concerned, immediately pay the loan outstanding, the notice read. The Fund warns that failure to settle the debts within one month of publication will lead to legal action without further notice. The total amounts owed by individual defaulters vary, with some exceeding GH30,000 including interest. The borrowers named in the publication attended various public and private tertiary institutions including the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast, University for Development Studies, and a range of technical universities and colleges across the country. Among the defaulters are individuals who completed their studies as far back as 2008. For example, one borrower from the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, who completed in 2008, owes GH14,248.34. Another defaulter from KNUST owes GH36,346.99, with the loan dating back to 2011. Also prominently listed alongside each borrower is the name of their guarantor, many of whom may now be held liable for the outstanding debts. This move marks a continuation of the SLTFs decision to name and shame, a strategy aimed at improving loan recovery by placing public pressure on defaulters. The Fund urged borrowers to visit its website or call their customer care centre for assistance and clarification. It further reminded the public that the SLTF was established to support tertiary students, but its sustainability depends heavily on the repayment of loans by beneficiaries. This publication represents the second batch of loan defaulters made public by the SLTF under its 2024/2025 recovery efforts, with officials signalling that further batches could follow if borrowers continue to ignore repayment obligations. See the entire public notice below; This is why Chairman Wontumi is being investigated GraphicOnline May - 30 - 2025 , 06:31 2 minutes read Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, is currently the subject of a major criminal investigation involving allegations of fraud, causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering, according to Ghanas Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Justice Srem-Sai. In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) Dr Srem-Sai confirmed that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is leading the probe, with efforts already underway to recover assets suspected to be linked to criminal activity. Suspect BERNARD ANTWI BOASIAKO, a.k.a. Chairman Wontumi, is under investigation for various criminal offences (including fraud, causing financial loss to the State, and money laundering), the Deputy Attorney General stated. He further indicated that the investigation involves dual tracks: one focused on domestic crimes, and another, more complex line of inquiry, tied to an international organised crime syndicate. The suspect is also under a second strand of investigation which is part of a larger international organised crime scheme. The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is assiduously working with our international law enforcement partners on this second strand of criminal investigations, Mr Srem-Sai revealed. The Deputy Attorney General stressed that alongside the criminal probe, asset recovery proceedings have been initiated to prevent further dissipation of what law enforcement agencies strongly suspect to be proceeds of crime. This public disclosure marks the clearest and most direct official communication on the matter so far, confirming speculation surrounding the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Chairman Wontumi has been a high-profile figure in Ghanaian politics, known for his fierce loyalty to the NPP and his dominant influence in the Ashanti Regionconsidered the partys electoral stronghold. His visibility during national campaigns and party activities has made him both a political asset and a controversial personality. The timing of the announcement has sparked accusations from the NPP Minority in Parliament, who claim the investigation is politically motivated. According to them, the move is part of a targeted campaign by President John Mahamas administration to weaken the opposition ahead of the 2028 elections. Mahamas 120-day Social Contract resounding success Valerie Sawyerr Kester Aburam Korankye Politics May - 30 - 2025 , 10:48 5 minutes read The Senior Presidential Advisor on Governmental Affairs, Dr Valerie Sawyerr, has expressed unwavering confidence in the governments ability to deliver on all its policies. She said the remarkable execution of policies and pledges contained in the bold 120-day social contract, which the government advanced on its own volition quite unprecedented in the Fourth Republic had laid a robust foundation for the countrys recovery. Commitment In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Sawyerr said every commitment was meticulously planned and implemented, adding that it was not about ticking boxes, but about restoring faith in governance through tangible results. When President John Dramani Mahama assumed office on January 7, 2025, he presented Ghanaians with a compact of urgent reforms designed to reset the nations trajectory. With the deadline now passed, a thorough assessment reveals not just fulfillment but an impressive achievement, as the administration had delivered on all 25 pledges, she said. Discipline and accountability Outlining the achievements, Dr Sawyerr said from the outset, President Mahama signalled a break from profligacy by assembling the leanest executive under the Fourth Republic just 56 ministers and deputies a deliberate downsizing to enhance efficiency. District Chief Executives were swiftly nominated across all regions, undergoing rigorous vetting to ensure competence over cronyism. The administrations anti-corruption drive, she addeed, gained teeth with the launch of a strengthened Code of Conduct for Government Appointees on May 5. The document, which Dr Sawyerr described as "non-negotiable", bans conflicts of interest, including the purchase of state assets by officials. At a high-level retreat in Ada, Cabinet members underwent intensive sessions on ethics, with a clear warning that breaches would trigger dire consequences. Economic recovery The Senior Presidential Advisor on Governmental Affairs also cited the National Economic Dialogue held on March 3 to 4, which produced a consensus to overhaul tax policies, tighten expenditure controls and reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs). By April, legislative action followed with amendments to the PFM Act which institutionalised a 45 per cent debt-to-GDP cap by 2034, while an independent Fiscal Council was established to monitor compliance. "Were ending the era of reckless borrowing," Dr Sawyerr emphasised. True to his pledge, she said, President Mahama scrapped oppressive taxes, abolishing the E-Levy, Emissions Levy and the 10 per cent betting tax, while fast-tracking VAT reforms to eliminate the COVID-19 levy by November 2025. 24-Hour Economy Dr Sawyerr said the 24-Hour Economy Policy, the cornerstone of President Mahamas agenda, had transitioned from concept to concrete action. She said draft legislation to support night-time productivity, including revised labour laws for shift workers and tax incentives for participating businesses, had been completed. Early wins include 24-hour passport services at the Accra headquarters, 24-hour premium services at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the DVLAs clearance of an 18-month licence backlog, and partnerships with financial institutions to provide low-interest loans for night-time enterprises. In addition, the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) is also training 23,000 security personnel to safeguard businesses operating after dark. Export-led growth Dr Sawyerr also mentioned the Accelerated Export Development Advisory Committee, inaugurated on May 5 and chaired by President himself, which targets a threefold increase in non-traditional exports by 2028. Also, the Ministry of Trade had engaged stakeholders in Suame Magazine, Kokompe and Abossey Okai to finalise a bill repealing the ban on salvaged vehicle imports, a move set to revive auto workshops and spare parts markets. Promises kept The National Consultative Conference on Education, which took place in FebruaryMarch, 2025, consulted with over 5,000 stakeholders to redesign curricula and address funding gaps. Its recommendations, due imminently, will inform long-term reforms. In the interim, the No-Academic-Fee policy for tertiary first-year students is already operational, with GH452 million to be disbursed directly to the institutions involved. For marginalised groups, the administration has delivered free tertiary education for persons with disabilities which begins in August 2025 with a GH51 million allocation. Again, the MahamaCares Fund, launched on April 29 and free sanitary pads for six million schoolgirls are being distributed nationwide, accompanied by menstrual health education. Justice, anti-corruption Forensic audits into 15 high-profile scandals from the National Cathedrals $58 million mystery to COVID-19 fund abuses are advancing, with Deloittes report on the former expected by the end of the month. The National Investigations Bureau (NIB) has wrapped probes into the Sky Train and National Service ghost names with prosecutions underway. Notably, the government has reignited investigations into election-related violence, including the Techiman shootings and Ayawaso West Wuogon brutality, while arresting a suspect in journalist Ahmed Suales 2019 murder. Environmental restoration Dr Sawyerr also mentioned the launch of the Blue Water Initiative to deploy 2,000 guards to monitor polluted rivers, while Tree for Life aims to plant 20 million seedlings annually. Moreso, a legislative instrument to take away the Presidents power to grant approval to lease out forest reserves to mining companies has been laid before Parliament, with over 150 excavators seized from illegal operators so far. A lot of work is ongoing in the mining areas but not everything can be made public due to security concerns we are rectifying past neglect, Dr Sawyerr said. She also touched support for victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage, a comprehensive shake-up of SOEs being underway as part of the achievements. On job creation, programmes such as Adwumawura, the National Apprenticeship Programme, and the One Million Coders were all taking shape. Cultural renaissance Again the Black Star Experience has been launched to market the country on the local and international tourism map. Dr Sawyerrs confidence in the administrations 120-day delivery is rooted in measurable outcomes. "Ghanaians demanded action, not excuses. Weve provided it," she said. While long-term gains will take time, the President Mahama administrations first quarter has set a precedent for responsive, accountable governance. She said critical bills such as the Scholarship Authority Act and Womens Development Bank were poised for parliamentary scrutiny soon. As Dr Sawyerr put it: "This is just the beginning. The reset is real." Reform or abolition Council of State CDD-Ghana Research Daniel Kenu Politics May - 30 - 2025 , 15:26 3 minutes read Some Ghanaians have called for either the abolition or drastic reform of the Council of State, citing its limited influence on governance and a lack of transparency in its composition. This was one of the key findings in a recent nationwide research project conducted by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), presented in Accra on Thursday by the Centres Director of Policy Engagement and Partnerships, Dr Kojo Asante. According to the research, respondents questioned the relevance of the Council of State, describing its advisory role as ineffective and its influence on executive decisions as marginal. Many participants expressed concern that the Council often functions as a rubber stamp rather than an independent check on presidential authority. Critics also raised issues with the selection process, accusing it of being opaque and overly influenced by partisan interests. As a result, many participants proposed either abolishing the body altogether or restructuring it to give it more authority and ensure appointments are based on merit. If the Council of State must be retained, then it should go beyond a purely advisory role and have more power to influence governance meaningfully, Dr Asante stated during the presentation. The findings stem from a wide-ranging research project titled Citizens Expectations of Government: Insight from Post-Election Town Hall Forums, conducted between 25 February and 20 March 2025. Supported by the UKs Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the project included 14 town hall meetings in 12 regions across Ghana and gathered views from 1,331 participants. Among them were 434 youth aged 15 to 35, 443 adults aged 36 to 59, and 109 elderly individuals aged 60 and above. The study also included 132 people with disabilities, with an overall gender split of 763 males and 568 females. In addition to constitutional reform, the research addressed key themes such as local government, corruption, illegal mining, education, youth development, and public sector efficiency. On local government, the report called for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to coincide with general elections to reduce costs and boost turnout. It also recommended non-partisan elections and pilot projects to test feasibility before nationwide rollout. Participants advocated for proportional representation in district assemblies to ensure inclusivity for women, youth, and marginalised groups. On the matter of executive dominance, the report urged government to abolish the practice of appointing Members of Parliament as ministers. This would strengthen the separation of powers, improve parliamentary oversight, and enhance ministerial performance, the report noted. The study also addressed Ghanas fight against corruption, recommending a stronger focus on enforcement and asset recovery, as well as enhanced citizen reporting mechanisms. Participants also called for amendments to presidential immunity provisions to allow for prosecution in corruption cases. Illegal mining, or galamsey, drew sharp condemnation across the regions. Many respondents demanded a national ban or the declaration of a state of emergency in affected areas. They also called for the immediate reclamation of degraded lands. On education, the report highlighted poor infrastructure and limited learning materials at the basic level as serious barriers to academic achievement. While participants recognised the benefits of the Free SHS policy, they raised concerns about the quality of implementation and called for increased investment in basic education. Weak foundations at the basic level lead to poor literacy outcomes and limit success at the secondary and tertiary levels, the report observed. The research concluded by urging policymakers to take the views of citizens seriously as part of efforts to strengthen democracy and improve public service delivery. Dr Asante noted that the findings would be submitted to relevant state institutions, including the Constitutional Review Committee, as a contribution to ongoing governance reforms. Telegram announces partnership with Musk's xAI BBC Technology May - 30 - 2025 , 10:39 3 minutes read AI tools developed by Elon Musk's xAI are to be incorporated into the messaging service, Telegram. Announcing the deal, Telegram boss Pavel Durov said it would see his firm distribute the AI assistant, Grok, to Telegram's "billion+ users and integrate it into its apps". Mr Durov said the arrangement - which is due to last a year - would see his company receive $300m (223m) in cash and equity from xAI, plus 50% of revenue from xAI subscriptions sold via Telegram. "Together, we win!", he posted on social media. It follows Meta incorporating an AI service into its messaging service, WhatsApp - a development it was forced to defend after grumbling from users. Media analyst Hanna Kahlert at Midia Research told BBC News the move followed the pattern of "social and AI trying to absorb each other". She said it was not, however, necessarily what customers actually wanted. "Users primarily still use social platforms to talk to their friends, and see their friends' updates," she added. "Adding AI into direct messaging inherently supplants that - it reduces trust between users and distracts from the current USP." 'Dark web in your pocket' This tie-up brings together two of the most colourful and sometimes controversial figures in tech. Mr Durov was arrested in France in August 2024, after being accused of failing to properly moderate his app to reduce criminality. Critics had branded the platform the "dark web in your pocket" because of what they said was the amount of criminal activity being discussed on the platform. However, Mr Durov has denied failing to cooperate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, child sexual abuse content and fraud. The platform has also rejected accusations that its moderation policies are not sufficiently robust. Mr Musk has an incredibly broad range of tech interests, ranging from brain implant start-up Neuralink to his rocket manufacturing firm, SpaceX. He also has a prominent role in the administration of US President Donald Trump, and campaigned heavily to get him elected - something that analysts say is contributing to slumping sales at his best known firm, electric car maker Tesla. The world's richest man has also invested heavily in AI. He was a co-founder of the world's best known AI firm, OpenAI, the company which makes ChatGPT. He subsequently left and became involved in a long-running row with OpenAI's boss, Sam Altman, over its future direction. Earlier this year, Mr Musk spearheaded a failed attempt to buy it. He has also been seeking to develop xAI as a rival to OpenAI and other industry leaders. In March, he announced it had purchased X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in a deal which valued xAI at $80bn (61.8bn). Huawei is developing a true 5 nm production line without the need for EUV lithography machines. Furthermore, 3 nm chips are already in the R&D stage, with plans to start production by 2026, according to a report by UDN. Huawei cannot use standard EUV technology, as it is patented by the Dutch company ASML, which is banned from working with the Chinese manufacturer. Instead, the company is using SSA800 lithography machines with multi-patterning, made by Shanghai Micro Electronics (SMEE). Research and development for 3nm chips are following two approaches: one is GAA architecture (the standard one, used by TSMC and Samsung), and the other is a carbon nanotube-based chip that has already completed lab validation and is now being adapted for SMIC's production lines. Earlier this month, the Huawei Matebook Fold arrived, powered by Kirin X90. While the company calls it a "5nm chip," it is actually a 7nm design with advanced packaging technology. It brings performance on par with other 5 nm chips, but the yield is only 50%, which is extremely low, making the chip more expensive to manufacture. Source Explore the universal experiences in the daily life of teenagers in Always Never Knowing, a book by Georgiana Quintanilla Tyquiengco. The University of Guam Press will hold a book launching at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on June 14 at Dusit Place in Tumon, located across the Guam Aquarium, UOG said in a release. Always Never Knowing is a debut collection of fictional short stories that follow Jiavonna Vonna Cepeda as she navigates adolescence in southern Guam. Filled with humor and wit, Vonna must contend with first crushes, evolving friendships, parental expectations and her expectations of herself as she navigates the often-bewildering transition from teenager to young adult. Im proud of the humor and heart in this book that rings true to Pacific Islanders. Our culture is easy to misinterpret or make a caricature of, Tyquiengco said in a release from UOG. I think its important to note the depth of our everyday experiences, not just the postcard or parody version of island life. Always Never Knowing also explores heavier themes unique to teenagers growing up on Guam, including deeper questions of bicultural identity and the ongoing search for belonging within the cultural mosaic of Micronesia. Award-winning Pacific literature author, Kristiana Kahakauwila, praised the collection for its unique blend of narrative forms that offer a fresh and immersive description of adolescence. Meet Althea is a particular standout, blending different formsemails, poems, text messages, school reports to offer understanding for the narrators mother and mental illness. Beautiful reading for any middle or high school student, Kahakauwila said. Tyquiengco said she hopes to resonate with the youth on the island who are contending with their own struggles of belonging and becoming. Through the perspective of a teenage daughter, she challenges the idea that parenthood and adulthood are states of all-knowing certainty. I hope that readers who pick up this book, especially young readers in the Marianas, can recognize familiar places and voices as they get to know my characters and find comfort in them. Above all, I hope seeing themselves and their home in modern fiction will inspire them to create the representation they want to see, Tyquiengco added. Always Never Knowing is now available for pre-order online at uogpress.com and in-store at UOG Press for a special early-bird price of $15. After the promotion ends on June 16, the book will retail for $17. Following the launch, Always Never Knowing will be made available at local bookstores. The June 14 book launching is open to the public and will include an author reading, book signing, and interactive displays. Refreshments will also be provided. For more information, contact UOG Press publicist Via De Fant at defantv@triton.uog.edu or (671) 735-2153. Former Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes is in hospice care and his health has taken a turn for the worse, according to an announcement from the Archdiocese of Agana. Byrnes left the island in June 2022 to seek treatment for an undisclosed illness, and he never returned. In March 2023, then-Pope Francis accepted Byrnes resignation as archbishop after an extended medical leave. Archbishop Ryan P. Jimenez asks all faithful to please pray for Archbishop Emeritus Michael J. Byrnes, the Friday announcement from the archdiocese stated. Close contacts from his home in Detroit have informed us that the health of our former archbishop has recently taken a turn for the worse. He had been placed in hospice care. Byrnes, 66, became the leader of the Catholic Church on Guam in 2016, after Archbishop Anthony Apuron was removed by the pope. A Vatican tribunal later convicted Apuron of abusing minors. Byrnes was appointed archbishop in April 2019 when Apuron lost his appeal in the case. Archbishop Ryan has communicated to all of our clergy and religious, asking them to please pray for our dear brother clergy, friend and former leader, the announcement stated. Before coming to Guam, Byrnes served as the auxiliary archbishop of Detroit his hometown from 2011 to 2016. When he arrived on the island, much of his attention was spent dealing with divisions within the church. Sexual abuse allegations were made against Apuron and other clergy, and questions were raised about church financial decisions and assignments of priests. Byrnes led the church as hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits were filed against the archdiocese, which eventually filed for bankruptcy. With a ban on paper bags set to take effect on July 1, lawmakers may carve out an exemption for any paper bag that bears the brand of the store or manufacturer selling the product. Lawmakers moved Sen. Jesse Lujans Bill 121-38, for the branded bag exemption, to the voting file on Friday. Tourism oversight chair Lujan said the measure is meant to help luxury retailers, particularly those selling to visitors, who provide branded bags as part of a luxury shopping experience. But some senators were concerned about backpedaling environmentally friendly policies, after Lujan amended the bill to allow essentially any retailer that puts a logo on a paper bag to distribute them. The measure would carve out an exemption to Guams Choose to Reuse: Mungna Ma Ayek I Plastek Act of 2018. The law banned plastic bags as of Jan. 1, 2021, and a paper bag ban is set to kick in effective July 1. Lujan on Friday said high-end retailers were worried that a ban on high-quality shopping bags, an extension of their brands, would hurt sales at a time when tourism was lagging. This is not a silver bullet that will probably save their industry, but it might be the straw that breaks the camels back, he said. Lujan amended the measure to include not just manufacturers of luxury goods in the waiver, but also retailers, citing stores like DFS and Macys. Sen. Therese Terlaje disagreed with the move, stating it would essentially be a repeal of the bag ban. Terlaje said luxury retailers were happy with the original bill during a public hearing, and broadening it should require another bill. If they really believe thats the problem with Guam, thats the problem. Why were not getting tourists, because we have a paper bag ban I dont know, she said, adding it was an excuse to repeal green policies for the island. Sen. Chris Barnett at one point asked Lujan whether stores like Chode Mart would qualify for the exemption. If they manufacture a bag as Chode and they sell their products, yeah, sure, Lujan responded. Sen. Will Parkinson said people have become used to reusable bags in the years since the plastic bag ban. Im on board with the idea of a luxury carve out for these brands for their business model, but I have to pause a little bit at the wisdom of taking that step back and allowing it for just general use, he said. Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Duenas stood in support of the bill. We have a very, very, very fragile tourism industry, he said, pointing to retailers that could potentially close their doors within the next year. Allowing paper bags wouldnt be a panacea, but senators should do any little thing they could to give the industry an advantage. Sen. Shawn Gumataotao also supported the measure, adding that it was supported by the tourism industry but would benefit all local retailers. Gumataotao said anyone who blatantly violated litter laws didnt care about the material they threw out. Plastic, paper, or otherwise, thats going to be thrown out of their car windows, he said. Sen. Sabina Perez successfully amended the bill to only apply to branded paper bags, to avoid any loophole for plastic bags. Bill 121-38 advanced to the voting file despite an objection. Also advancing Friday were: Bill 129-38, making Feb. 21 of every year Haanen Hila Nana, or Mother Language Day. Bill 130-38, updating Guam law to reflect the titles for Guam History and CHamoru Heritage Day and Mes CHamoru. Lawmakers are due back at 5 p.m. on Tuesday to vote on bills in the voting file. The Guam Memorial Hospitals board is considering a $14 million funding source, major Medicare reimbursement reforms, and a series of legislative proposals to address the hospitals deepening financial challenges. Assistant Hospital Administrator Rodalyn Gerardo reported a potential $14 million surplus in the managed profit tax for pharmacies, though she said the Department of Administration has yet to verify its availability. Were still checking with DOA to see if that is a possibility for us to use as additional funding, Gerardo said. They havent responded, and I learned that theyre just having some internet issues this past week, so emails are not going across. The board also discussed reforms to the federal Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act reimbursement model, or TEFRA. Re-basing TEFRA for 2024 may offer short-term relief but could lock GMH into outdated financial baselines for years, officials said. Were going to have to do all of this again in another five to 10 years, Gerardo said. Were asking the congressman to see if we could qualify for something like a critical access hospital, which would reimburse us for 101% of our costs. Though GMH exceeds the 25-bed threshold for Critical Access Hospital designation, officials argue its remote location and public mandate warrant special consideration. What were doing right now, its not working. Its really not working at all, a board member said. If anything moves on this, it will also help [Guam Regional Medical City], CNMI. It will help the Virgin Islands, because we are the small group of hospitals still under the TEFRA system. Gerardo pointed to stark disparities in reimbursements. So if this is really revamped as a way to reimburse the territories, it will not just impact us, it will also impact the other hospitals, she said. Just as a comparison, GRMC gets reimbursed higher, I think $3,000 versus our $1,600. GMH Board Chairwoman Sharon Davis pushed for federal assistance. Congressman could give us a lot of help on that, Davis said. Because its really just killing us. The board also reviewed legislative efforts to restore tax credit programs for equipment donations. One measure extends a $5 million Guam Economic Development Authority tax credit program originally approved in 2021 but never fully activated due to missing budget appropriations. So we have seen management law in the legislature to extend the sunset, Personnel Services Administrator Jesse Quenga said. Only proposed for FY 2026, and it represents just $1 million of the total $5 million that they were expecting the program to deliver. The proposed changes would eliminate the 1% processing fee and allow GMH to retain the full tax credit value. Another concept under consideration would let GMH borrow from a $9 million fund designated for CHamoru Land Trust infrastructure, with repayment through future legislative appropriations. I recognize it is out-of-the-box thinking, Quenga said. But theyve been recording excess collections above the adopted levels every month since the beginning of the fiscal year. Sen. Sabrina Salas Matanane voiced her support for the hospitals funding needs during the meeting and confirmed she is backing multiple efforts, including legislation and a major federal funding proposal. She also submitted a $50 million request to the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program to address GMHs infrastructure needs. I requested a $50 million just to get some money also to you. I know they havent submitted...or the applications havent been put out yet, but any way that I can help, Im here, the senator said. Her Bill 145-38 would extend the tax credit sunset provision by five years, eliminate the 1% data processing fee, and allow GMH to use the full $5 million for medical equipment. Separately, GMH is preparing another application for a Defense Community Infrastructure Program grant, following a prior $2.7 million award for HVAC improvements. Were already putting together an application, Gerardo said. Its due June 20. GMH also submitted two formal comments to the CDBG-DR committee requesting funds for both the current and future hospital campuses. A $60 million allocation has been proposed for the new hospital, but the current facility was initially left out of the action plan. She warned that critical upgrades to the current facility cannot wait for the new hospital to be built. The new hospital will not be in existence until another few years from now, Gerardo said. Until such time, we still need to take care of this hospital. Davis and other board members pointed to chronic underfunding and procurement bottlenecks as barriers to basic maintenance, including roof repairs, ceiling tile replacements, and mold mitigation. Going back to our root problem, when we go through this budget procedure, procurement, maintenance, and IT projects do not get funded, Davis said. Weve created a culture at GMH where folks dont report that things are broken. She said the hospitals 1950s-era construction demands significant capital investment. No wonder it costs so much to maintain leaks and roofs and all these things We need to have supplies. We need to have linens. I mean, these are basic things that sit in the maintenance side of the bucket, Davis said. Lets all cross our fingers and toes that this will be the year we get funded to maintain our facility and fix the things that are broken. Davis added that unless funding becomes consistent, the hospitals long-term improvements will remain out of reach. We are never going to be able to get there if we dont get things funded, she said. Gerardo said GMH is actively seeking new grants. Were not just waiting. Were seeking out whatever funding opportunities, she said. We submitted another grant recently. Ill get back to you with the details. GMH still has a lengthy list of 54 unfinished capital projects, with each projects status including awards and purchase orders tracked in a detailed matrix. Despite structural concerns dominating public discourse, Davis said the board remains focused on supporting hospital staff and services. Its not just the building thats always being discussed, Davis said. Its the good work of the people that actually work here. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and the Guam delegations recent visit to the China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, Taiwan was a resounding success, according to the assessment of the hospitals own chief executive officer, Aichi Chou. Chou said her team was thrilled to showcase their proton Therapy Center. Governor Lou and the delegation were particularly impressed by our next-generation Flash-Grid proton technology. This cutting-edge technology offers ultra-precise treatment, targeting cancer cells at lightning speed while minimizing side effects. It truly represents a game changer for patients, said Chou. The governor recently joined a large group from Guam in Taiwan to promote the island as a tourist destination while seeking other economic opportunities for Guam. Patients from Guam are not new to Taiwan nor the University Hospital. Dr. Chih-Kun Huang, superintendent of International Center and the Body Science & Metabolic Disorders International Medical Center, has performed many life-changing bariatric surgeries for patients from Guam, said Choi. Since 2016, China Medical University Hospital in Taiwan has cared for over 170 patients from Guam, totaling nearly 1,000 patient visits over the past 10 years, said Chou. We are honored to have hosted Governor Lous first official visit to Taichung and our hospital. Her visit provided an excellent opportunity for her to gain a deeper understanding of Taiwans advanced medical technology and health care environment, Chou said. She said the Guam governors visit also reinforced her confidence in the quality of care the hospital provides, which will encourage more patients from Guam to seek medical treatment in Taiwan in the future. Beyond health care, this visit has helped strengthen the ties between Guam and Taiwan, promoting collaboration and cultural exchange between our communities. It also opens doors for potential future cooperation in medical education and professional training, Chou said. Chou said her hospital will continue to welcome and care for patients from Guam and said she looks forward to building a long-lasting partnership in health care that benefits both sides. Chou is scheduled to visit Guam from June 28 to July 2. A man who was arrested last week when he returned to a home after being removed by police has been arrested again - for returning to the same home, according to a magistrate's complaint filed in Superior Court. Coles James Aguon, 27, was charged Tuesday with two counts of violating a court order as a misdemeanor and two counts of criminal trespass as a misdemeanor. Last week, Aguon was removed from a home at the request of the occupants, and he returned and created a disturbance, banging on doors and frightening a teen in the residence, according to court documents. Police were called, and Aguon was removed and charged May 23 with assault as a misdemeanor, family violence as a misdemeanor and harassment as a petty misdemeanor. If found guilty, those charges could send him to prison for more than two years. Judge Sean E. Brown released him on a $500 personal recognizance bond, and he was ordered to stay away from the home, the teen and other family members. He was also ordered not to threaten, harass or annoy anyone involved in the case. On Sunday night, Aguon was reportedly banging on a window and shutters of the house, and he returned again at 10:10 a.m. Monday morning, according to the complaint. Prosecutors stated that Aguon's "threatening behavior was in direct violation of the 23 May 2025 order issued by Magistrate Judge Sean E. Brown," according to the complaint. Judge Jonathan R. Quan ordered Aguon held on $2,000 cash bail. If he is found guilty of the new charges, he faces four years in prison. The Northern Region Community Health Center will break ground Monday for a $868,888 design-build expansion project. This project, made possible through an American Rescue Plan Act grant in partnership with the Guam Department of Public Works, will improve safety, accessibility, and patient care for northern Guam residents, according to a news release from the Department of Public Health and Social Services. The Northern and Southern Region Community Health Centers welcome all patients, regardless of insurance coverage. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. June 2 at the health center. Under the leadership of contractor Green Community Development DBA Surface Solutions, this design-build expansion will introduce upgrades designed to elevate the patient experience and operational efficiency: A new secure main entrance to improve safety, security, and visitor flow. A modernized lobby and patient waiting area designed for comfort and efficiency. An upgraded registration area to streamline check-in processes. A dedicated medical records office to enhance patient documentation management. As an Health Resources and Services Administration-supported Federally Qualified Health Center, the Northern Region Community Health Center delivers equitable health care to all members of the community. The expansion will advance Guams health care infrastructure and foster community well-being, according to the news release. This expansion is a vital investment in our communitys health and safety, said Theresa Arriola, director of the Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services. The new secure entrance and upgraded facilities will create a safer environment for patients and staff while modernizing care delivery. The Guam Power Authority can draw down more energy from the new Ukudu power plant starting immediately, in an effort to stop summer load shedding as temperatures and power demand rise. Approval for the move came from the Public Utilities Commission on Thursday night. GPA General Manager John Benavente told commissioners the extra generation capacity is needed to help prevent rolling blackouts, or load shedding. Load shedding happens when GPA cant keep up with power demand from customers. According to Benavente Thursday, peak demand this year is averaging about 10 megawatts higher per month than previous years. Benavente told the PUC that additional power from Ukudu will end load shedding due to capacity shortfalls. But the power authority in a Friday release stated it still encourages residents to conserve during peak power demand hours of 5 and 11 p.m., especially when Ukudu is not available. Commissioners voted without opposition to let GPA amend a deal with plant contractor Guam Ukudu Power. $4.9M cost, $9.2M savings Changes will allow the power authority to pay $4.9 million to Guam Ukudu Power to conduct more testing for the Ukudu plant and provide more energy to the grid ahead of an expected Sept. 30 commissioning date for the new plant. Despite the cost, GPA will save an estimated $9.2 million by running the more efficient Ukudu plant, resulting in net savings of about $4.4 million, PUC Administrative Law Judge Fred Horecky told utility commissioners. Even if GPA werent saving money here, you know, theres certainly advantages to preventing load shedding for the people of Guam, Horecky said. He noted that the Ukudu plant will start providing up to 198 MW of capacity once it comes fully online in September. But GPA is already seeing demand as high as 265 MW as of May, a record in recent years, at the same time that generators are being taken offline for maintenance. Customer demand, based on historical trends, is expected to rise still higher this summer, as the temperatures increase, Horecky added. GPAs Benavente noted that generators Piti 8 and Piti 9 were recently down for maintenance, and Piti 7 was offline for a 10-day maintenance period as of Thursday night. Benavente said Ukudu will provide about 60 MW of additional capacity through June, and 135 MW afterwards, once a number of steam turbines come online to support the fuel-burning turbines. The amended deal will allow power to be purchased through Sept. 6. According to Horecky, GPA can purchase more power after that, but it will come at a higher price. Benavente told PUC commissioners that load shedding has been minimal in recent weeks, with pockets of outages lasting about 30 minutes on one day. More demand The GPA general manager said that Guam is on track to break past 270 MW in peak power demand later this year. If that happens, power demand will hit a high that hasnt been seen since pre-pandemic, when more than 1 million tourists visited the island annually. Theres a lot of building thats going on now there, theres a lot of plans, housing, data centers are taking looking to take root here, Benavente said Thursday. But he said hes confident that the islands power grid is in a position to deal with that extra demand, and avoid load shedding issues during past growth periods. Remember 1993? Matai (dead). Middle of the 80s? Matai again, Benavente told the commission. He said GPA will soon be petitioning the PUC for energy storage batteries, which can help deal with that load growth. At an April conference, Benavente shared plans to add 90 MW worth of energy storage batteries to the grid, with hopes to get help from the Department of Defense to help with up to 180 MW. Those batteries will allow GPA to save solar energy produced during the day, and shift it to the night time, when power demand peaks. Im hopeful that the federal government and the DoD will help us in this. Theres no way to separate on the base and outside the base, Benavente said. Once Guam gets Ukudu online, and battery capacity, bring on the load, he said. Cabras turning off The PUC on Thursday also approved GPAs petition to extend a fuel storage agreement for the aging Cabras generators for another year, at a cost of $594,667.80. GPAs contract with Tristar Terminals Guam, Inc. to deliver fuel to Cabras 1 and Cabras 2 expires in September. Cabras 1 and 2, both commissioned in the 1970s, will be shut off after the new Ukudu plant comes online. But Benavente said Thursday that GPA is due to get 200,000 barrels of fuel oil for the Cabras units in July, and will have to burn them off before deactivating the plants. He said the fuel should be used up by January, but GPA wants the additional time, through August of 2026, as a contingency. The Cabras plants have to be shut down within six months of Ukudu coming online, or GPA risks violating a 2019 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the Clean Air Act. Navy Secretary John Phelan was appalled by barracks conditions at Andersen Air Force Base during a May visit, and ordered sailors and Marines housed there to move out, according to a report from a federal government watchdog. Conditions at the base have sparked a world inspection of Navy barracks, according to the Friday investigative report from the Project on Government Oversight, POGO. The report points to exposed wiring, mold, and corroded plumbing at base housing at Andersen, and cites interviews with Phelan, Navy Installations Command head Vice Adm. Scott Gray, and leaked internal emails from the Navy. In a Friday statement, a spokesperson for Andersen said the situation was caused by severe damage due to Typhoon Mawar. The Air Force have been working tirelessly to allocate the funds necessary to renovate the dorms and care for our Airmen with alternate housing options, the statement said, adding, From an Andersen Air Force Base perspective, our dorms have no health or safety concerns. Damage to Andersen after Mawar was previously estimated at $9.7 billion. According to the report from POGO Friday, Navy Secretary Phelan thought housing units at Andersen were condemned when he visited the base earlier this month. He gave leadership 10 days to move sailors and some 48 Marines staying there out of the base, POGO reports. Though Andersen is an Air Force base, personnel from other armed services work and live there from time to time. Conditions at the base are apparently what prompted the new barracks at Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz to open earlier this month, reportedly ahead of schedule, according to POGO. Camp Blaz in a May 19 press release called the move-in a significant milestone, as close to 5,000 Marines relocate to Guam from Okinawa. Vice Adm. Gray, who presided over a change of command of ceremony for Joint Region Marianas this week, called barracks at Andersen clearly neglected in a reported email obtained by the government watchdog. The conditions shown in the photos are a failure of leadership across multiple echelons of command, Gray said in his email, which was sent to Navy leaders around the world, according to POGO. The report identifies 430 airmen and soldiers at the Andersen barracks, and singles out the Palau Hall dormitory as a specific concern. The 77 Airmen in Palau Hall are in the process of being relocated prior to an approximately $53 (million) dollar renovation scheduled to occur later this year through 2026, an Andersen spokesperson said in a Friday statement. Airmen currently residing in Palau and Rota dormitories will be relocated prior to the renovations, the statement said. The spokesperson noted that approximately $115 million was allocated to renovate dormitories at Andersen, and a portion of that work has already been completed. Andersen Air Force Base leadership is dedicated to ensuring all service members have access to safe and adequate housing, the spokesperson said. According to the statement, Andersen could not comment on the state of other barracks across Guam. According to JRM spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Michelle Tucker, no other barracks on the island were found below standards. The Joint Region Marianas commander has inspected all barracks on Guam where unaccompanied Sailors are living, she said in a statement. Worldwide inspection According to the POGO report, Vice Adm. Gray directed the Navys regional commanders to carry out inspections of all barracks that house sailors by May 27. He reportedly wrote in an email that, If the pictures you have taken or the results of your assessment conducted of a particular facility were published online tomorrow, would you be able to personally justify Sailors living there? In an interview with POGO, Gray reportedly said that Weve got challenges, like all the other services. According to the report, Gray classified 20% of Navy barracks as in poor conditions, and the planned barracks inspections were a colossal effort to improve quality of life for sailors. He reportedly pointed to years of deferred infrastructure spending. Gray at a JRM change of command ceremony on Thursday called the Indo-Pacific the worlds center of gravity and stressed the importance of installations on Guam. He also charged military leadership and staff with ensuring that installations and infrastructure on island are fully capable of supporting current and future force requirements, and stopping degradation. Military officials have become concerned about steep construction costs on Guam, and begun looking to alternative construction methods and solutions to overcome the hurdle. In November, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas Design Director Evan Mizue said that a single family home can cost the Navy between $2.5 million and $3 million to build. The Navys budget for fiscal 2025 projected that by fiscal 2028, JRM will need about 1,099 new family housing units, though that figure could be supplemented by as many as 437 additional private rentals, according to the budget. Local defense watchdog and think tank Pacific Center for Island Security weighed in on the news about Andersen in a social media post Friday. This is what interservice rivalry (and dissonance) looks like on a shoestring budget, the think tank stated. Everything in Guam is expensive to build and maintain. If you are not mindful of, and budget for, this basic fact you arent doing your job. A few spots remain for interested high school students aged 14-17 who are looking for something to do this summer. Guam Police Department Officer Eian Leon Guerrero is spearheading the recruitment for Project U, a returning program funded by the Safe Streets Initiative and enabled through the partnership of various government entities, as well as private non-profit organizations. The program runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, from June 2 to June 27 at the GCA Trades Academy. It is free to join, but registration closes on Friday, May 30. Those who complete the course will earn an elective credit or Service Learning hours upon completion of the four-week program. Our overall goal is to mentor participants to become safe and responsible decision makers and to prepare them for the real world, said Leon Guerrero. Being a responsible adult as we instill Project Us Core values. Being respectful, being responsible, and having integrity. The participants will be exposed to various careers in law enforcement and public safety, as well as different trades offered by program partner GCA Trades Academy. Employment experiences at one of the Safe Schools Partners will also be shared with participants, Leon Guerrero said. Parents and guardians can scan the QR code from the electronic flyer posted on GPDs Instagram webpage or send an email to projectuguam@gmail.com. If transportation is an issue, Project U is partnering with the Department of Public Works, which will provide pick up/drop off services for participants who need transportation. Haiti - FLASH : Haiti signs contract with Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater Worldwide to end gangs The American daily newspaper The New York Times revealed that Haiti had discreetly signed a contract with Erik Prince, a former member of the US Navy's Special Forces (SEAL). Prince is known for having founded Academi (formerly Blackwater Worldwide), the world's largest private military company, which he sold in 2010. This contract provides for military operations against the gangs terrorizing the country and threatening to take control of the capital. Several US officials have confirmed their awareness of Prince's collaboration with Haiti. However, the terms of the agreement between the Haitian government and Prince, including the amount paid, remain confidential. The State Department has insisted that it has not paid Prince or his companies for mercenary operations in Haiti. There is total silence on the terms of the contract, the duration of the operation, and the monitoring mechanisms. According to the New York Times, Erik Prince is planning to send up to 150 mercenaries, including many Haitian-American military veterans, equipped with sophisticated equipment, to eliminate gang members identified as priority targets. Three helicopters would also be deployed to participate in gang attacks. Rod Joseph, a Haitian military veteran and owner of a Florida-based security training company, revealed that he has been in talks with Prince for some time to provide mercenaries for his contract. In recent months, this collaboration with Prince has already led to the deployment of suicide drones in Haiti. Security experts, cited by the Times, also indicated that Prince recently sent a large quantity of weapons to Haiti to support local forces. The Haitian government is currently awaiting the arrival of these weapons and new personnel to strengthen its fight against gangs. Although Blackwater no longer exists, Prince owns other private military entities. Politically classified as far-right, Prince, a close associate of Donald Trump, is reportedly a billionaire. He currently resides in the United Emirates. Prince has not responded to the NY Times article. SL/ S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Diplomacy : First positive result of the new Haitian Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. On Thursday, May 29, 2025, the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, received the credentials of the new Haitian Ambassador, Emmanuel Fritz Longchamp. It should be recalled that diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti had been without diplomatic representation since June 2022. Fritz Longchamp replaces Smith Augustin, the last Ambassador appointed in August 2020 under the presidency of the late Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated on the night of Tuesday, July 6 to Wednesday, July 7, 2021. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34162-haiti-flash-president-jovenel-moise-assassinated-by-mercenaries-official-updated-7am-+-video.html , recalled by the Chancellery in March 2022 and since then a member of the Presidential Transitional Council. Since his arrival in the Dominican Republic, before officially taking office, Fritz has been involved in overseeing voluntary return programs for Haitian citizens. As part of his first diplomatic duties, Ambassador Emmanuel Fritz Longchamp requested safe conduct to facilitate the transit of Haitian students through Dominican territory. "This is a request to grant safe conduct to 52 students who need to transit through the Dominican Republic to travel to Colombia." The Haitian Ambassador indicated that President Abinader responded: "Consider this request fulfilled." It should be recalled that since March 5, 2024, the Dominican Government has closed its airspace and borders with Haiti due to the escalating crisis in that country. Regarding the expulsions of Haitians from the Dominican Republic, Fritz Longchamp stated that they could not interfere in the decisions of the Dominican government, but demanded respect for international agreements and human rights. Fritz Longchamp also affirmed that Abinader had reinforced the Dominican government's commitment to contributing to Haiti's stability. "President Abinader reiterated the Dominican Republic's good intentions toward Haiti and assured me that he was doing everything possible to help Haiti regain serenity and normalcy." The Ambassador emphasized that the Dominican Republic's position coincides with that of the United States and other international actors, which are encouraging greater involvement of the Organization of American States (OAS) in managing the Haitian crisis. Learn more about Emmanuel Fritz Longchamp : Emmanuel Fritz Longchamp is a Haitian diplomat with a long diplomatic career. He served as Haiti's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2001 under President Rene Garcia Preval, during which time he played a key role in promoting the Bilateral Joint Commission through agreements signed by the latter with then-Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. He served as Secretary General of the Presidency from 2006 to 2011. Prior to his appointment to the Dominican Republic, Emmanuel Fritz Longchamp represented Haiti at the United Nations. S/ HaitiLibre iciHaiti - Health : For the first time, Haiti elected to the WHO Executive Board Haiti participated in the 157th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board on May 28 and 29, 2025, in Geneva. Of the WHO's 194 Member States, 34 sit on the Executive Board. This body is responsible for implementing the decisions of the World Health Assembly and providing strategic guidance to the Organization. For the first time, Haiti was elected to this Board for the 2025-2028 term. Remarks by Minister of Health Bertrand Sinal, following Haiti's election to the WHO Executive Board : "Mr. President, Mr. Director-General, Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with great honor and a deep sense of responsibility that I address you today on behalf of the Republic of Haiti. I would like to sincerely thank the Member States for the trust placed in Haiti. Serving on the Executive Board for the first time is much more than a privilege for us : it is a commitment to actively participate in the major decisions that shape global health. Despite the complex and multidimensional challenges, we remain committed to building a system that is more resilient, more equitable, and, above all, closer to the real needs of our populations, particularly the most vulnerable. In this context, we welcome the historic and recent adoption of the Pandemic Agreement, which embodies our shared desire to strengthen prevention, preparedness, and response to health emergencies. For a country like Haiti, this agreement must translate concretely into equitable access to resources, enhanced technical support, and a true spirit of solidarity. We also welcome the approval of the 2026-2027 program budget. It is essential that such an instrument be accompanied by predictable, sustainable funding that is aligned with the priorities of countries, particularly those in fragile situations or with limited capacity. As a member of the Executive Board, Haiti is committed to contributing and collaborating resolutely in global governance. We will be a committed voice: For a WHO that is more inclusive, more transparent, and closer to the realities on the ground; For cooperation based on solidarity and respect for national institutions; So that, everywhere, health is recognized and protected as a fundamental right. Thank you for your attention." IH/ S/ iciHaiti The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center has issued a warning to Disney+, claiming that the streaming service blocked access to subscribed content as part of past price increases to force users to decide. According to the NRW consumer advice center, Disney has issued a cease-and-desist declaration as a result of the warning and must take a different approach to possible future price increases. Anzeige The consumer advocates are concerned with a pop-up that existing customers saw in Disney's apps. Users were informed of the impending price increase via this pop-up shortly before their subscription period expired. Customers had to decide whether they wanted to agree to the price increase or cancel their contract. From consumer advocates' perspective, this procedure was problematic because the pop-up could not be closed until a decision had been made. In this respect, the consumer advocates argue that Disney denied active subscribers access to their paid subscription content and put them under pressure to decide. Users must give their consent It is understandable that Disney informed its users of an upcoming price increase with such a pop-up. After all, subscription prices may not be increased unilaterally in Germany. This means that streaming services such as Disney+ require the explicit consent of the user to increase the price of an active subscription. Clauses in the terms and conditions of Netflix and Spotify, for example, that were intended to override this obligation have been declared unlawful by courts. In practice, streaming services must therefore obtain permission for a price increase. As a rule, operators inform their customers of this via email notifications. However, if a user does not respond, this is interpreted as an objection. In this case, subscriptions are canceled at the end of the subscription period. However, emails are easy to ignore. With the pop-up in the apps, Disney apparently wanted to explicitly draw its users' attention to their situation. However, according to the consumer advocates, the streaming service should have ensured that this information panel could be closed. Consumers must not be pressured into accepting contract changes by technical barriers, commented Iwona Husemann, a lawyer at the NRW consumer advice center, on the injunction obtained. Access to services that have already been paid for must not be linked to acceptance of new conditions. Anzeige (dahe) Don't miss any news follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Mastodon. This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication. The stricter Chinese export controls on rare earths are becoming a major problem for European industry. As the EU Chamber of Commerce in China announced in Beijing on Wednesday, some European manufacturers are already facing a complete production stop this week because they are running out of raw materials. This was reported by the Nikkei Asia news agency. Anzeige The crisis is a direct result of the escalating trade tensions between the US and China, Jens Eskelund, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce, told members and journalists: At the beginning of April, Beijing imposed export restrictions on seven critical rare earth elements and magnets in response to the reciprocal tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. The European Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) is a non-profit association that supports and represents the interests of companies from the European Union that are economically active in China. Indispensable for e-cars and the industry The materials in question are indispensable for a wide range of industrial products, from electric vehicles and wind turbines to defense equipment. China controls around 85% of global refinery capacities for rare earths, which makes the dependence of Western manufacturers particularly precarious. Although the USA and China agreed on a partial easing of tensions in mid-May and paused additional tariffs, the license requirements for rare earths remain in place. According to the Chamber of Commerce, there is a considerable backlog in the processing of export applications by the Chinese authorities. Read also Germany is heavily dependent on rare earths from China The problem was discussed at a meeting between EU and Chinese semiconductor companies on Tuesday. Representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce assured that they were working hard to cope with the increasing demand for licenses. However, they did not mention any concrete solutions or timetables. Anzeige Just the tip of the iceberg However, according to the Chamber of Commerce, the export crisis is just the tip of the iceberg: a recent survey of its members showed a significant deterioration in the business climate. 73% of the companies surveyed stated that doing business in China had become more difficult in 2024. 63% of companies stated that they had missed out on business opportunities due to regulatory or market access barriers also a record figure. There were major differences between the sectors: While all companies surveyed in the medical technology sector were affected, the proportion in the automotive industry was 39 percent. A meeting between Chinese and EU trade representatives is planned for the beginning of June in Paris. An EU-China summit is also scheduled to take place in Beijing in July. (mki) Don't miss any news follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Mastodon. This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication. This is the first time Supo has officially named Iran among the states engaged in intelligence gathering in Finland. Until now, only Russia and China had been publicly identified. Finlands national intelligence agency has publicly accused Iran of conducting espionage activities on Finnish soil. The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) said the move reflects Irans broader pattern of increasingly hostile operations in Europe. According to Supo, Irans actions are primarily aimed at monitoring and pressuring its own diaspora, especially those critical of the regime. These activities include intelligence gathering on Iranian nationals or former citizens living in Finland, many of whom are involved in political opposition movements. Historian and intelligence researcher Mikko Porvali said the espionage likely targets Iranian dissidents and is in line with Tehrans broader surveillance efforts across Europe. Iranian intelligence has long practised diaspora surveillance. The purpose is to intimidate or neutralise opposition abroad, Porvali told Finnish media. Porvali said the threat goes beyond intelligence gathering and may extend to acts of violence. Authoritarian states have shown they are prepared to use any means necessary. This includes potential attacks on their enemies even on foreign soil, he said. Supo did not specify what kind of information Iran is trying to obtain but said such espionage typically involves collecting personal data on individuals through human intelligence methods. The agency added that in some cases, pressure is exerted through threats to family members in the country of origin. Porvali said the timing of Supos announcement could relate to a recent counter-terror operation in the UK. British authorities arrested several individuals suspected of planning an attack on the Israeli embassy in London. The suspects were believed to have links to Iran. Porvali suggested this may have led to intelligence sharing across Europe and triggered Finlands public warning. This is part of the broader European context. There have been several cases in recent years of Iranian opposition figures being murdered or targeted, he said. Supo said Irans espionage methods also include the use of criminal intermediaries. Iran may commission organised crime groups to carry out certain actions in Finland, the agency warned. Though Supo did not provide further detail, it said similar tactics have been uncovered across Europe in recent years, including attempts at sabotage and attacks. Irans apparent disregard for consequences has grown, according to Porvali. Its not necessarily that the volume of intelligence activity has increased. Whats changed is the boldness. They no longer care as much about getting caught, he said. In neighbouring Sweden, authorities have previously warned that Iran may utilise local criminal networks to launch attacks against individuals, groups, or foreign interests. Supo said this use of proxy actors has become more visible across the intelligence and security landscape. Finland has seen a general rise in foreign intelligence activity in recent years, driven by geopolitical tensions and global instability. Supos annual report previously indicated a significant increase in interest toward Finlands foreign policy, defence cooperation, and critical infrastructure. Iran now joins a short but growing list of countries named by Supo as direct security concerns for Finland. While Finland and Iran maintain diplomatic ties, Porvali noted that the bilateral relationship is not in a state of dramatic change, and the focus remains on preventing external threats. The concern is not about diplomacy but about the potential for foreign-sponsored violence targeting dissidents in Finland, he said. HT The growing popularity of Finland's rich sauna culture was covered in an article by BBC on May 21. The article explores the scientific evidence behind the purported physical and mental health benefits of sauna bathingparticularly when combined with ice-cold water immersion. Finland's obsession with saunas is going global, but are they any good for you? Here is a selection of what the international press has published about Finland in the last week: The author shares a personal experience in Oulu, Finland, combining a sauna session with a plunge into near-freezing watera traditional Finnish practice known as contrast therapy. Finland has around 3.3 million saunas for a population of 5.5 million, and sauna use is considered integral to life and well-being. The practice has gained international attention, especially following its representation in Swedish Eurovision entry Bara Bada Bastu. Some experts, including Finnish researchers Heikki Junkkari and Setor Kunutsor, note that while some studies show benefits of sauna like improved cardiovascular and respiratory health, many lack rigorous scientific standards. When you go to the sauna, the temperature inside the body goes up slowly from 37C (99F) to as high as 39C (102F). Blood vessels dilate, you start sweating and that reduces blood pressure, Junkkari said. Being immersed in cold water does the opposite: blood vessels contract and blood pressure goes up. Observational studies suggest frequent sauna use may reduce the risks of high blood pressure, heart disease, sudden cardiac death, dementia, and Alzheimers. However, these studies dont prove causality and may reflect broader lifestyle factors. Combining sauna use with exercise may enhance cardiovascular benefits. Cold-water immersion triggers a cold shock response, initially raising heart rate and blood pressure but potentially lowering both over time with regular exposure. It also increases neurotransmitters associated with stress regulation and mood improvement, such as norepinephrine, serotonin, and endorphins. Participants in cold-water activities report feeling more resilient and self-confident. While the physical and psychological benefits are promising, there are risks, especially for people with pre-existing heart conditions. Experts stress the importance of gradual adaptation and caution against prolonged exposure to extreme cold. Original story was published by BBC on 21.05.2025 and can be found here. Sami introduce certification to promote ethical tourism in Arctic Finland The new initiative by the Sami Parliament to regulate tourism in Sami regions of Finland through a certification system was covered in an article by The Barents Observer on May 24. The article describes the move aimed at promoting sustainability, cultural respect, and authenticity. The proposed Responsible Sami Tourism Certificate was introduced during the Indigenous Peoples Conference held in Inari and is intended to support tourism operators who respect Sami cultural values and environmental concerns. The initiative seeks to ensure that visitors engage with Sami communities in an authentic and respectful manner, and that tourism benefits the local Indigenous population rather than exploiting or misrepresenting their traditions. The purpose of the certification work is primarily to clarify the current situation of Sami tourism, so that we can better support those who operate correctly and sustainably, Tauno Ljetoff, a member of the Sami Parliament, said. The certification system Is still in its draft stage and under review, with final approval expected later in the year. It will apply to tourism businesses that meet specific criteria aligned with cultural preservation and environmental sustainability. The project is funded by the European Union and aims to provide a structured framework for businesses to follow in order to operate in harmony with Sami principles. Project planner Kirsi Suomi emphasized the importance of clear guidelines that help tourism enterprises align their operations with Indigenous values. Tourism is a vital economic sector for many Sami people, and the certification is expected to help ethically operating businesses stand out in an increasingly competitive market. This certification effort builds on earlier Sami initiatives such as the 2018 Principles of Responsible Sami Tourism and the 2022 Guidelines for Tourists. These were developed in response to a surge in tourism that brought with it several challenges, including cultural appropriation, environmental damage, and violations of personal privacy, such as tourists photographing Sami children or schools without consent. The Indigenous Peoples Conference, where the draft certification was presented, was organized in collaboration with the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance and the University of Lapland. It focused broadly on ethical and sustainable tourism and explored how Indigenous communities worldwide can ensure respectful and responsible tourism practices on their lands. Original story was published by The Barents Observer on 24.05.2025 and can be found here. Finlands Stora Enso to sell 12.4% of Swedish forests for about $1 billion Finnish forestry giant Stora Enso divesting 12.4% of its Swedish forest assets in a deal valued at 900 million (about $1 billion) was covered in an article by Reuters on May 22. The article gives details of the divestiture a part of the company's broader plan to strengthen its financial position, particularly by reducing debt and enhancing its balance sheet. Following the move, Stora Enso's net debt will decrease by 790 million, although it will also result in an annual reduction of 25 million in adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). The ownership structure of the newly created entity receiving the forest assets includes Stora Enso retaining a 15% stake, while Soya Group takes 40.6%, and a consortium led by MEAG, the asset management arm of Germanys Munich Re, holds 44.4%. As part of the agreement, Stora Enso and the new entity will enter a 15-year wood supply contract, with an option to extend for another 15 years. This ensures continued access to raw materials for Stora Ensos operations in Sweden. The company had first announced its intent to pursue such a sale back in October 2024, and this sale marks the execution of that strategy. Despite the asset reduction, Stora Enso appears to be in a strong financial position, having surpassed earnings expectations in the first quarter of 2025. The company reported 175 million in adjusted EBIT, outperforming analysts expectations of 124.9 million, according to data from Vara Research. Original story was published by Reuters on 22.05.2025 and can be found here. Finnish icebreaker builders make push for North American market with merger of two major players The merger of Finnish shipbuilders Aker Arctic and Bluetech to form a new corporate entity, Arctic Marine Technology Group Oy, was covered in an article by gCaptain on May 19. The article provides details of the significant merger in the global icebreaker industry, aimed at bolstering their competitive edge, particularly in the North American market. The move comes amid rising global demand for ice-capable vessels due to climate change, increased Arctic navigation, and geopolitical shifts in the High North. Aker Arctic, globally recognized for its expertise in designing icebreakers and ice-class ships, has long collaborated with Bluetech, another Finnish leader in ship design. Their formal unification under a shared parent company marks a strategic consolidation of Finnish maritime engineering talent. Importantly, both brands will retain their identities while operating under this umbrella corporation. The ownership of the new entity will be shared by ABB, a Swedish-Swiss technology corporation, and Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), reflecting both national and international confidence in the venture. This merger is expected to further consolidate Finlands reputation as a hub for polar vessel innovation. The merger comes at a time when several nations are investing heavily in their icebreaker fleets. Canada has awarded contracts for two new Polar Class 2 icebreakers, with one being largely built at Helsinki Shipyard in Finland. Germany has contracted Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems to construct its new research vessel, Polarstern 2. In the United States, the Coast Guard has begun full-scale production of its first new heavy icebreaker in five decades and is planning to procure additional medium-sized vessels. Reports suggest that Finlands Rauma Marine Constructions is in discussions to supply up to five icebreakers to the U.S. With this merger, Aker Arctic and Bluetech aim to capitalize on the demand for advanced, polar-capable vessels, especially those that can be delivered rapidlywithin 2 to 3 years. Their long-standing history in designing icebreakersAker Arctic and its predecessors are credited with designing over half the worlds icebreaking shipsgives the new group significant leverage in upcoming contracts. Original story was published by gCaptain on 19.05.2025 and can be found here HT THE director of a law firm in Henley says she is excited and terrified after its takeover. McQueen Turner Solicitors in Station Road has been acquired by Reading law firm Blandy & Blandy, which has offices in Henley as well as Wokingham and London. Alexa McQueen-Turner, a solicitor with 20 years experience, will join Blandy & Blandys residential property team as a partner on June 17. Sidra Ahmed will become a legal assistant in the firms wills, probate, tax and trusts team. Both will relocate to Blandy & Blandys office in Thames Side along with secretary Julie Alexander. Ms McQueen-Turner, 50, said running the business had become increasingly difficult since the death of her solicitor mother, Julia, in 2020. She said: I think it is sad in one way that our name wont be there anymore but on the other hand I know she and the rest of the family would be supportive of me. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Ive not worked for somebody else for a long time, so that might be a little bit of a shock to my system, but hopefully Ill adjust. Im excited and terrified, both in the same measure. My mum worked in law for years and didnt want me to go into the same thing as she never wanted me to work as hard as she had. I remember she got me work experience with one of her friends and she made him give me the worst stuff he could find. He was off the first week and left all the legal aid files and said Please post all these files. Mum was desperately hoping it would put me off but it didnt. Ms McQueen-Turner said that she missed the sense of community that her mother had provided. Wed talk and chat things through, she said. Ive missed that so it would be nice to have that again. I know she was proud of me and that shed be proud of me for this as well. I hope shes smiling down. Ms McQueen-Turner said accepting the buyout offer was partly due to her struggling to recruit. She said: I wanted to find new members of staff but havent been able to. Being a smaller firm up against the London and Reading firms, I cant offer somebody the same thing as them. When I spoke to Blandy & Blandy they said they would provide a full service for my clients because there are things I cant deal with that they can as they have numerous departments and theyre a much bigger firm. Were heavily regulated, so trying to keep on top of that by making sure we comply with the rules is difficult. Theres a lot of pressure to make sure that everything is done correctly. Blandy & Blandy said they had an entire team that just deal with compliance, which is great as it means its going to benefit me and the clients so much more. They will also deal with all the administrative pieces, which means I can focus on what I really like doing, which is helping my clients. Theyve got a lovely office by the river, so weve timed it right just in time for the regatta. Were all excited about it. Ms McQueen-Turner lives with her partner Paul Wilks, 50, and has two children, Charlotte, 15, who attends Headington Rye School in Oxford, and Teddy, 10, who goes to St Marys School in Henley. She said: Im also looking forward to not having to take my computer with me on holiday to work. We went around the Netherlands last year and I was having to work in the car and do exchanges and completions while travelling. When I took the children to Greece, it was a lovely view while I was working but the kids would ask me. Mum, have you finished yet? I have no doubt there will be matters that I have to deal with, but I know I will have lots of support. Ms McQueen-Turner qualified as a solicitor in 2005 after gaining a degree in politics from the University of Essex. She completed her training contract at Lawrence Hamblin Solicitors and worked at different law firms before being asked to return to ACB Hurst & Co in Boston Road when Andy Hurst retired. The firm was then renamed McQueen Turner Solicitors following his death in 2011. Claire Dyer, chair and partner at Blandy & Blandy, said: McQueen Turner Solicitors has been a prominent firm with a strong reputation for many years, primarily advising on residential property and private client matters. We look forward to welcoming Alexa, Sidra and Julie to our firm and to working with clients of McQueen Turner Solicitors. ABOUT 30 people observed a minutes silence in Henley to remember two firefighters killed in a huge blaze at a former RAF base in Oxfordshire. Firefighters at Henley fire station were joined by friends, family and other residents on Thursday evening outside the West Street station to remember Jennie Logan, 30, and Martyn Sadler, 38. The pair died while tackling the fire at Bicester Motion, which is now a business park, on May 15. David Chester, 57, a father of two who ran a business at the site, also died. The Henley fire crew were also joined by members of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance in paying their respects. People began gathering outside the station where six of the crew paraded before a minutes silence was observed at 6.39pm, exactly a week since the first 999 call about the incident was received. They placed their helmets on the floor before standing to attention. A simultaneous silence was held at other fire stations in Oxfordshire, including crews in Bampton, Carterton and Eynsham. Firefighter Andrew Gosby, of Crisp Road, Henley, said: The emergency services work together really closely so we had the air ambulance come and join us. The fire service is quite a big family and as this happened in Oxfordshire, it was really close to home. I work with some of the crew at Bicester as well so it was very hard news to hear. I know it has devastated the local community. Michael Clarke, a firefighter and business engagement co-ordinator for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, called the death of two county colleague firefighters heartbreaking. He said: Although Henley and Bicester arent that close, the fire service is a very close family so its important to pay our respects. As a whole community across the county, it brings us together. Mr Clarke added that he had been on training courses with the two firefighters who died and had also attended incidents with them very occasionally. Henley Mayor Tom Buckley said: Im proud to be here. The fire service in Oxfordshire comes together to help everybody. Its about service to your community. A SPECIAL teddy bear has been created by Henley Royal Regatta in honour of King Charles III. Named Charlie, the bear has been commissioned by the events committee of management in tribute to its royal patron. Just 150 bears have been produced by British toy maker Merrythought, which is based in Ironbridge, Shropshire. They cost 250 each and are individually numbered. The bears are a tribute to the King, who became patron of the regatta upon his accession to the throne in 2022. The regattas royal connection dates back to 1851, when Prince Albert became the its first royal patron. Since then, the reigning monarch has traditionally assumed the role, allowing the event to bear the title Henley Royal Regatta. Charlie the bear wears a bespoke navy blazer, which was designed in partnership with Crew Clothing Company, which is an official partner with the regatta. He is wearing a miniature version of the stewards enclosure badge and is holding a pocket-sized replica of the racing programme. Each bear is crafted from natural plush, with details made from materials such as wool felt and cotton. Every part is stitched by hand and his features, such as nose and smile, are embroidered. Charlie bears the toy companys signature gold-and-black woven label stitched into his right paw. On his left paw, the Henley Royal Regatta logo is embroidered in gold thread. Merrythought has been making teddy bears since 1930. Katrina Falinska, head of retail at the regatta, said: Royal patronage has been an important part of Henley Royal Regattas identity for more than 170 years. To mark the gracious acceptance of patronage by His Majesty King Charles III, we wanted to create something that celebrates both this new chapter and the enduring relationship between the regatta and the royal family. Charlie the Bear is a charming and quintessentially British tribute, thoughtfully designed to capture the spirit, tradition and craftsmanship synonymous with the regatta itself. Sarah Holmes, managing director of Merrythought, said: It has been an honour to work with the wonderful team at Henley Royal Regatta to bring this unique limited edition bear to life. Charlie has been individually hand-crafted in our historic British factory during what is Merrythoughts 95th anniversary year. Feature: History of Japan's germ warfare in China slowly uncovered Xinhua) 11:13, May 30, 2025 TOKYO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- "Whether my father was involved or not, it (the implementation of germ warfare and human experiments by the Japanese army during its invasion) was inhuman," 77-year-old Katsutoshi Takegami told Xinhua in a recent interview at his home in Komagane City in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture. Takegami's father, Toshiichi Miyashita, was a member of Unit 1644 of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The unit, established in East China's Nanjing, claimed to be "the Central China Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department." About seven or eight years ago, Takegami discovered several photographs and documents left by his father while renovating his family's warehouse. In the photos, Miyashita was dressed in military uniform, and the name of "the Central China Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department" appeared too. Takegami had learned from "The Devil's Gluttony" by renowned Japanese writer Seiichi Morimura that the epidemic prevention and water purification departments were ostensibly engaged in providing clean water to soldiers but were actually involved in bacteriological warfare and human experiments. In order to find out whether his father had been involved in germ warfare, Takegami began to investigate, hoping to uncover his father's experiences in China and obtain more historical truths. However, in Takegami's memory, his father hardly mentioned his experiences in China during his lifetime. What exactly did Miyashita do in the military? How did he rise from a private to a lieutenant without any education? All these questions troubled Takegami. Takegami, who took his mother's surname, said "I couldn't find any information about the Central China Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department. I didn't even know where to look." Wartime bacteriological units were secret units of the Japanese army, which destroyed a large amount of documentation when it was defeated. Therefore, the information about the epidemic prevention and water purification departments is particularly scarce. In fact, there is still information about Unit 1644. The unit's personnel roster, an archival document that details the unit's members, has been secretly kept by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. Thanks to Takegami's unremitting efforts, in 2021, he finally received four copies of his father's military service record from the labor ministry through the Nagano Prefectural Government. Two of them are covers labeled "Unit 1644 roster," while the other two, clearly stamped with the labor ministry's seal, contain two lines of information detailing his father's military service history. Although there are only two lines and his father's name was mistakenly written in the registration, Takegami confirmed it was indeed his father through the correct home address and date of birth. "More importantly, the copies of these cover pages proved to me that the labor ministry has a complete version of the roster of Unit 1644," he added. With the copy of the cover as evidence, Takegami asked the labor ministry for permission to review the complete list of the roster, but the ministry refused on the grounds of protecting privacy. The Japanese government's attitude towards the Japanese bacteriological warfare units deployed in China has always been vague, evasive or even denying. Hideo Shimizu, a former member of the notorious Unit 731 who also lives in Nagano Prefecture, criticized the Japanese military for having done so many bad things, but the Japanese government not only showed no remorse but also wanted to pretend that these cruel histories had never happened. "Although the government has not made any official statement, based on the information I have obtained over the years, I believe that they (the Central China Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department) are very likely to have conducted germ warfare and human experimentation," Takegami said, adding that "this is completely inhuman and should be reflected upon." Takegami approached other experts and scholars, and together they continued to put pressure on the government. Eventually, the labor ministry transferred the rosters containing detailed personal information on members of Unit 1644, Unit 8604, and Unit 8609 to the National Archives of Japan in March 2024. On May 14 this year, the National Archives of Japan made public a number of archives related to the Japanese army's germ-warfare units in China, including the three rosters containing detailed personal information on unit members. From the discovery of his father's belongings to the sight of the previously classified roster of Unit 1644, seven or eight years have passed, and a part of this "lost" history has finally been revealed. "I hope that the public release of the rosters can promote progress in related research, and I will continue to investigate to uncover the truth," Takegami said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Chinese language proficiency competition held in Israel Xinhua) 11:24, May 30, 2025 Alon Shoval from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem gives a speech during the 24th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese proficiency competition for Israeli university students, in Jerusalem, on May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Junqing) JERUSALEM, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The 24th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese proficiency competition for Israeli university students concluded in Jerusalem on Thursday, featuring Chinese-language speeches and a variety of talent performances. Held under the theme "One World, One Family," the competition brought together eight students from several Israeli universities. Participants showcased their command of the Chinese language and their passion for Chinese culture through poetry recitations, calligraphy demonstrations, and performances of Chinese pop songs. Alon Shoval from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem won the contest, and will represent Israeli university students to compete in the annual international Chinese language contest to be held in China. In his speech, Shoval mentioned that he initially studied Chinese to improve his communication skills. "But as I dove deeper into the language, I realized that the true value of learning Chinese is not simply to say 'I can speak Chinese,' but to step beyond myself -- to connect with others on a deeper, emotional level," he said. At the event, Sun Chaoyang, minister counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Israel, said that the competition serves as an important platform for people-to-people exchange and mutual learning between civilizations. He expressed hope that the competition would help young Israelis gain a deeper understanding of the Chinese language and culture, further strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples. A participant demonstrates calligraphy during the 24th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese proficiency competition for Israeli university students, in Jerusalem, on May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Junqing) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announces the opening of Andaz Miami Beach, which will mark the Andaz brand's debut in Florida and its first opening since the formation of the Hyatt Lifestyle Group. Here, the Mediterranean meets Miami to offer the perfect balance of hospitality experiences: close to the action of South Beach yet tucked away on Mid-Beach with serene pools and a private white sand beach. The property features 287 guestrooms including 64 spacious suites all with views of the ocean or the Miami skyline, two heated outdoor pools with private cabanas, a spa, a members' beach club and three dining concepts curated by the Jose Andres Group. Like its sister Andaz properties around the world, Andaz Miami Beach blends global inspiration with its local context leaving guests refreshed, enriched and empowered. EFFORTLESSLY COOL DESIGN Designed by EoA Group alongside the Hyatt Lifestyle Group's in-house design team, Andaz Miami Beach captures the graceful flow of the ocean, where undulating curves replace hard lines. Hues of aqua, mint, turquoise and sage pay tribute to Miami's Art Deco past. Visitors are greeted in the only elevated lobby on Miami Beach where ocean views immediately set the tone for the stay. In signature Andaz fashion, there is no check in desk. Each guest is seated and personally welcomed with a cocktail as Balearic beats blend seamlessly with Cuban rhythms. The rooms and suites continue the effortless aesthetic. Guestrooms are spacious, simple and bright with private terraces and sweeping views. The color palette is inspired by the sea, of course. The suites have expansive layouts, many of which feature connecting rooms for added flexibility, cozy dining nooks and deep soaking tubs perfect for longer stays, group travel or just a bit of indulgence. Two heated pools flank the property, featuring 10 cabanas. The resort also features a private beachfront with lounge chairs, umbrellas, and cozy daybeds reserved for guests. This summer, Andaz Miami Beach's historic 1930s backyard beach house will debut as a members' club. Clean eating meets bold flavors with culinary concepts from Jose Andres Group: Aguasal - Transporting guests from Miami to Mallorca and Mykonos, Aguasal is derived from agua saladathe Spanish term for saltwaterto reflect the spirit of the ocean. By day, Aguasal serves coastal fare with water views then transforms into a shimmering escape by evening. Bar Centro - A beachy, breezy Spanish lounge by day and a buzzy cocktail bar by night, Bar Centro offers an all-day menu featuring Spanish tapas inspired plates. Highlights include xuxos of Girona (which Jose Andres calls "the croissant of the gods") and pressed bikini sandwiches, a nod to both Spain and South Florida. The Bazaar - The Bazaar by Jose Andres will make its grand return to Miami in 2026, bringing with it Jose's signature culinary technique. "DETOX TO RETOX" PROGRAM REDEFINING MIAMI WELLNESS Opening next month, the hotel's Ondara Spa will offer a transformative wellness experience, helping guests recharge before a night out and restore the next morningperfectly in tune with Miami Beach's shimmering rhythm. Ondara is perched on the fourth-floor terrace, where a relaxation lounge overlooks the Atlantic with a menu featuring pre-event preparation, advanced skincare and touchless therapies all powered by Obagi Skincare products. MIAMI BEACH EVENTS BOLDLY REIMAGINED With 25,000 square feet of versatile indoor and outdoor event space, Andaz Miami Beach is designed to host large celebrations to intimate gatherings. Two oceanfront ballrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows provide breathtaking views of the Atlantic, and seven meeting rooms accommodate breakout sessions, board meetings, and festive celebrations. A first for Miami, the property's state-of-the-art swimming pool features a hydraulic floor system seamlessly elevating to create a solid surface fitting for music acts, receptions, runway shows, and events. Bookings at Andaz Miami Beach are now available online. To book your stay or learn more about Andaz hotels, please visit www.andaz.com. Hotel website Chain hotels continue to dominate across the continent, backed by powerful brands, deep pockets and expansive tech stacks. Yet, as an independent hotelier, youre not without options. By understanding current travel trends and leveraging your unique strengths, you can compete and win. This blog post explores where demand is heading in the region, why chains are thriving and what independent hotels can do to get more of the action. European travel demand Europe remains one of the worlds most sought-after destinations, with travel demand rebounding strongly in recent years. Summer is the undisputed peak season for the average European hotel, with July and August seeing the highest occupancy rates across the continent. Southern Europe particularly Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal continues to lead in overall visitor numbers, thanks to its warm climate, iconic coastlines and cultural landmarks. But major cities in Western and Central Europe, such as London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, also maintain year-round appeal due to their rich cultural and business offerings, and strong international connectivity. Northern Europe including the Nordics and the Baltics has seen a gradual rise in off-peak travel, particularly among visitors seeking nature, sustainability-focused experiences and cooler-weather escapes. Meanwhile, Eastern Europe is gaining ground with budget-conscious travelers drawn by lower prices, authentic cultural experiences and growing air connectivity. The top source markets remain intra-European travelers, led by Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands. However, North American visitors are returning in strong numbers, while travelers from the Middle East and Asia are showing increasing interest in Europe, especially during the shoulder seasons. In terms of travel trends, leisure travel dominates, particularly around cultural exploration, gastronomy and wellness. Experience-first tourism where visitors prioritize meaningful, locally grounded experiences over luxury is also gaining traction. While big draws like the Eiffel Tower, Colosseum and Sagrada Familia remain high on itineraries, theres growing interest in secondary cities and lesser-known heritage sites, driven by social media and a desire to escape the crowds. What does this mean for hotels? This sustained demand for European travel presents clear opportunities but also increased competition for hotels. With peak season still dominating, dynamic pricing strategies should be at the core of your propertys plans, alongside well-timed marketing campaigns, especially in the lead-up to summer. However, the growing appeal of shoulder and off-peak travel, particularly if youre in Northern and Eastern Europe, means theres value in promoting year-round offerings and creating tailored experiences for emerging visitor segments. For hotels, especially independents, this is the time to invest strategically in marketing. Highlighting unique local experiences, cultural proximity and personalized service can help cut through the noise, especially as travelers increasingly seek authenticity over uniformity. Even modest increases in digital marketing spend on social media, Google Ads and metasearch can go a long way when paired with well-crafted, experience-led content. As an independent hotel owner or operator, its also vital to leverage flexibility. Unlike chains, independents can pivot quickly: offering bespoke packages, tapping into niche trends like wellness or slow travel, and partnering with local attractions or artisans. By responding faster to market shifts and guest preferences, your independent hotel can position itself as a distinctive, experience-driven alternative to more standardized chain properties, such as Hilton, Marriott, Accor, Hyatt and the rest. Why hotel chains dominate European travel markets While Europe has historically been a stronghold of independently owned hotels, the landscape has shifted dramatically over the past decade. Today, large hotel chains and property management groups enjoy a huge share of the market, particularly in urban centers and high-traffic tourist destinations. This trend has been fueled by a combination of hospitality industry consolidation, brand expansion and evolving traveler expectations. In the early 2000s, independent hotels made up the vast majority of Europe's hospitality supply estimates suggest as much as 75 to 80% in some markets. But over the last 10 to 15 years, theres been a steady erosion of that dominance. Chains have expanded aggressively, not only through new builds but by acquiring or affiliating with independent properties via soft brands and franchise models. At the same time, many small operators facing rising costs, increasing complexity and growing competitive pressure have either sold to larger groups or left the market entirely. A key reason chains have gained ground is their scale. With centralized booking engines, loyalty programs, stronger bargaining power with online travel agencies (OTAs), such as Booking.com, Expedia and the like, and deep pockets for marketing, they can drive consistent demand and profitability. Their operational efficiencies and access to data also allow them to respond faster to changing market conditions. Independent hotels, by contrast, often struggle with limited resources, both financial and technological. Without large marketing budgets or in-house revenue management teams, many find it challenging to compete on visibility or price. Distribution is another hurdle: chains can dominate OTA listings and metasearch placements, while independents must work harder to be discovered. This widening gap has created a challenging environment for independents, especially those not actively trying to keep up. Yet, despite the dominance of chains, independents still hold a meaningful share of the market and with the right strategies, you can not only survive but thrive. How independent hotels can compete with chain hotels Independent hotels may lack the scale of big brands but they have unique strengths. So, what is the right approach to competing effectively? It all boils down to embracing smart technology and delivering truly personalized guest experiences. Get this right, and, as an independent hotelier, you can streamline your operations, boost visibility and stand out in a crowded, chain-dominated market. Lets take a look. Implement software to save time For independent hoteliers, time is a limited resource. Unlike chain properties with dedicated teams for revenue management, marketing and operations, independents often juggle multiple roles at once. This is where smart software solutions can make a critical difference; by automating repetitive tasks and streamlining day-to-day operations, they free up time for you to focus on what matters most: delivering excellent guest experiences and growing your business. From pricing to distribution, the right tools can handle tasks that would otherwise consume hours each week. Not only does this improve efficiency, it also helps reduce costly errors and ensure more consistent performance. In a competitive market where speed and adaptability are key, software gives independents the ability to respond quickly to market shifts and guest needs, without burning out their teams. For many, its the difference between just staying afloat and gaining a real competitive edge. Two of the most important areas of consideration are dynamic pricing and channel management, the focus of the two subsections below. Dynamic pricing solutions In such a fast-moving travel market, static pricing simply doesnt cut it. Demand fluctuates constantly by season, day of the week, even hour by hour and guests have more tools than ever to compare rates across properties. Thats why software for dynamic pricing has become an essential tool for independent hoteliers looking to stay competitive and maximize their revenue. A good dynamic pricing solution uses real-time data to adjust room rates automatically based on market trends, competitor pricing, occupancy levels and booking pace. Rather than relying on gut feeling or manual rate changes, using this technology you can set pricing rules and let the system do the heavy lifting, ensuring your hotel rooms are never overpriced in quiet periods and youre not leaving money on the table when theres high demand. For independents, this kind of automation levels the playing field. It enables you to react with the speed and precision of the big chains, without needing a full-time revenue manager. With less time spent tweaking rates and more revenue generated from smarter pricing, you can focus on elevating the guest experience which we come to in a moment. But first, a quick look at channel management. Channel management tools With travelers booking through a wide range of OTAs, metasearch platforms and booking engines, managing distribution manually is no longer sustainable, especially for independent hotels. Channel management tools simplify this process by centralizing inventory and rate updates across all connected platforms in real time. A good channel manager ensures that room availability, pricing and restrictions are always accurate and consistent, helping you avoid double bookings, missed revenue opportunities and time-consuming manual updates at your property. It also helps you maintain parity across channels, which OTAs favor in their algorithms, thereby boosting visibility and improving placement in search results. For independent hotels, a channel manager is more than just a time-saver; its a revenue enabler. By staying visible across more channels with accurate, up-to-date listings, you can capture bookings from travelers who might never visit their direct website. This kind of reach and efficiency was once the reserve of the big brands; now, with the right tools in place, you can compete head-to-head as an independent and win on the same platforms. Deliver personalized guest experiences A powerful competitive advantage independent hotels have over chains is their ability to deliver truly personalized guest experiences. While large hotel brands often operate within rigid brand guidelines and standardized service models, as an independent, you have the freedom and flexibility to tailor every aspect of the stay from check-in to check-out to reflect your unique identity and the specific needs of your guests. Independent hotels are often more closely connected to their local communities, enabling them to offer a place-based authentic experience that chain hotels cant easily replicate. This might include partnerships with local restaurants, guided tours led by residents or curated welcome packages featuring regional products. These thoughtful touches resonate deeply with todays travelers, who increasingly prioritize experiences over amenities alone. Personalized service is another area where you can shine. With smaller teams and fewer rooms, staff have more opportunities to interact meaningfully with guests remembering names, preferences and special occasions. Whether its customizing a room setup for a returning guest or offering local tips based on a travelers interests, these small gestures build lasting loyalty and repeat business. Offering unique amenities such as locally sourced breakfast options, in-room wellness kits or flexible check-in times can also differentiate an independent property. Ultimately, independents can focus on hospitality as an art form, not just a process. In a market where travelers are seeking more connection, character and care, personalized guest experiences arent just a nice-to-have; theyre a strategic advantage that your independent hotel is positioned to deliver. If you're looking for practical strategies to simplify your workload, boost revenue, and keep guests coming back, The Independent Hotelier's Handbook is a good place to start. Gain a competitive edge to drive more bookings Supporting the independent hotel sector since 2012, and winning hotel industry awards along the way, Lighthouses all-in-one software solution and data are helping hoteliers like you to: Optimize pricing Get ahead in their distribution Streamline their hotel management operations across the board The Lighthouse platform handles the time consuming tasks that drive revenue growth so you can focus on what really matters: your guests. Get in touch to get onboard. About Lighthouse Lighthouse is the leading commercial platform for the travel & hospitality industry. We transform complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth. We continually innovate to deliver the best platform for hospitality professionals to price more effectively, measure performance more efficiently, and understand the market in new ways. Trusted by over 70,000 hotels in 185 countries, Lighthouse is the only solution that provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. We strive to deliver the best possible experience with unmatched customer service. We consider our clients as true partnerstheir success is our success. For more information about Lighthouse, please visit: https://www.mylighthouse.com. View source MONROE, LA A new chapter begins in Northeast Louisiana today with the grand opening of The Hotel Monroe. The design-forward boutique hotel seamlessly blends historic architecture with modern Southern hospitality. The Hotel Monroe buildings originally stood as a Sugar Brothers Grocery and Opera House. Since then, they have housed a hardware store, poolside shop, and in the 1920s, the Star Hotel. The buildings have been carefully restored to create a boutique hotel that caters to todays traveler while honoring the stories, heritage, and charm of Northeast Louisiana. Joining Hiltons Tapestry Collection, the 69-room property now returns to its roots as a gathering place for community, culture, and connection. With stunning meeting spaces, curated guestroom amenities, and a deep sense of place, The Hotel Monroe reflects the character and craft of Northeast Louisiana. We wanted to create more than just a place to staywe envisioned a gathering place that reflects Monroes rich cultural roots and forward momentum. From the reclaimed wood beams to the locally inspired menus, every detail was personally selected to celebrate the heritage of this vibrant city and offer visitors and locals a destination they can be proud of. Michael Echols, Co-Owner of The Hotel Monroe A Cultural Revival for Northeast Louisiana The hotels identity is deeply tied to Monroes cultural arts scene, featuring hand-painted murals by Louisiana artists Jay Davis and Nick Bustamante, as well as curated materials by local artisans, including Bayou Woodworks, Black Bayou Clay Co., and The Foundry in Ruston. Now accepting reservations for stays beginning May 29, 2025, The Hotel Monroe is expected to generate over $10 million in economic impact in its first year, with a community-first hiring model creating up to 100 jobs locally. Its truly an honor to work closely with such an incredible ownership group on a historic project of this magnitude. This is more than a hotelits a statement about the future of Monroe. Kimberly Christner, President & CEO of Cornerstone Hospitality Heritage Design Meets Boutique Detail The hotels preservation-led renovation retains original arched windows, wood-beam ceilings, and reclaimed brick walls throughout its public spaces. Interior design was led by Christie Echols, who envisioned a space that felt lived-in, layered, and warman authentic nod to Monroes culture and landscape. My goal was to create a space that felt deeply rooted in Monroes storya place where the design felt residential, soulful, and welcoming. We partnered with incredible local artisans and makers to infuse meaning into every detail. This project has truly been a labor of love. Christie Echols The 69 guestrooms include Standard Kings, Riverview Rooms, Courtyard Rooms, Deluxe Soaker Tub rooms, and ADA-accessible accommodationsall appointed with sumptuous, made in the USA Kingsdown mattresses, Molton Brown amenities, Boca Terry robes, luxury linens, 55 smart TVs, complimentary Wi-Fi, hydration stations, and Hilton Honors perks. A Culinary & Community Destination Dining at The Hotel Monroe includes: Heirloom , offers a gluten-free menu rooted in Southern flavors and family memories, serving fresh, local cuisine with a creative and memorable twist. , offers a gluten-free menu rooted in Southern flavors and family memories, serving fresh, local cuisine with a creative and memorable twist. The Star Bar , an unpretentious rooftop bar with panoramic views, stunning sunsets, and hand-crafted cocktails, is perfect for relaxed evenings and lively conversation. , an unpretentious rooftop bar with panoramic views, stunning sunsets, and hand-crafted cocktails, is perfect for relaxed evenings and lively conversation. Sugar Brothers Provisions is a stylish retail gift shop offering regional goods and curated essentials with a local twist. Events & Gatherings with Purpose With more than 7,000 square feet of flexible event spaceincluding the grand Opera House Ballroom (4,740 sq ft) and four additional meeting roomsThe Hotel Monroe is designed to host weddings, conferences, and social gatherings with grace and southern style. Each space features modern AV equipment, a historic ambiance, and customizable layouts. Whether visiting for business, a wedding, or a weekend escape, The Hotel Monroe invites guests to settle in and stay awhile, with stories in the walls and Southern comfort in every detail. About The Hotel Monroe The Hotel Monroe is a boutique hotel located in the heart of downtown Monroe, Louisiana, offering 69 thoughtfully designed guestrooms, a Southern-inspired dining experience, rooftop cocktails, and historic event spaces. A proud member of Hiltons Tapestry Collection, the hotel celebrates Monroes cultural heritage through art, design, and community-focused hospitality. Learn more at www.tapestrycollection.com/thehotelmonroe. 844-866-6763 Instagram: @thehotelmonroe About Cornerstone Hospitality Cornerstone Hospitality is a distinctive hotel consulting and hospitality management company specializing in the development, repositioning, and management of historic and boutique hotels. Headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia, the firm is recognized for revitalizing landmark properties through thoughtful restoration and community-driven strategies. With a portfolio that spans the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, Cornerstone combines operational excellence with innovative branding to deliver memorable guest experiences and sustainable business success. Pamela Devaney Managing Director, Resonate PR +1 760 846 4640 Cornerstone Hospitality, LLC May 2025 - From the sandy beaches of Thailand to the twinkling city streets of Paris, cocktail enthusiasts can enjoy a touch of modern art this World Cocktail Months. From 13 May, boutique hotel collection MGallery is teaming up with French lifestyle brand, Maison Sarah Lavoine, to launch a set of exclusive glassware. A partnership born out of a collective ethos dedicated to character, curiosity and creativity, MGallery and Maison Sarah Lavoine have come together to expertly infuse emotion and memories into their designs. The three stunning cocktail glasses have been paired with a trio of limited-edition cocktail creations from the worlds first craft gin, Citadelle Gin, that guests can sip and savour in MGallery bars across the world or re-create at home, turning every sip into a work of art. Glassware with a Modern Twist MGallery and Maison Sarah Lavoine have a shared passion for uncovering and championing the soul of spaces, whether through sublime objects or storied properties, in a way that is accessible for all. Inspired by MGallerys one-of-a-kind designs that tell the story of the heart of a destination, the glassware has been delicately crafted to elevate every sip into a special moment. Embodying Maison Sarah Lavoines distinctive bold and playful colours, elegant lines and timeless designs, the exclusive collection includes a tumbler and two refined coupes, each with matching coasters. Blown and tinted to precision, the glassware combines the essence of each brand, featuring MGallerys distinctive diagonal geometric pattern, set against Maison Sarah Lavoines exclusive Pantone colours, including the infamous Sarah Blue. Sarah Poniatowski is an acclaimed French designer and the founder & CEO of Maison Sarah Lavoine Photo by Accor Each MGallery property tells a unique story - one of elegance, storied heritage, and soulful design. Drawing inspiration from these living art galleries, this glassware collection was created to capture the free-willed spirit of travel, warmth of togetherness, and unique beauty. Design is more than just the aesthetics its about bringing spaces to life and finding their character to create lifelong memories. It can transport and inspire, just like the immersive experiences MGallery Collection offers for its guests, and together, weve truly created pieces of art. Founder and Creative CEO of Maison Sarah Lavoine, Sarah Poniatowski A Daring and Delightful Cocktail Trio To launch the collection, MGallery has partnered with Citadelle Gin to create three bold new cocktails designed specifically for the glassware. Exposing palates to new combinations of flavours, guests can delight in the indulgent recipes made with 100% natural ingredients. These one-of-a-kind cocktails include: Source: Accor The Crystal Diva: With floral and herbal notes, the Crystal Diva features Citadelle Gin Original, fino sherry, jasmine and lemongrass cordial, and orange blossom. Stirred and poured effortlessly in the Maison Sarah Lavoine Nick & Nora coupe, it is garnished with white chocolate shard and a touch of jasmine and lemongrass, reflective of a gimlet cocktail. Source: Accor For something more earthy and rich, the Timeless Negroni puts a contemporary twist on the classic serve featuring Citadelle Gin Original infused with sandalwood, red vermouth, and Italian bitters infused with pineapple and Pandan, a plant native to Southeast Asia with a vanilla aroma. Served in the Maison Sarah Lavoine Old Fashion tumbler with a 5cm oval ice-cube, it is garnished with pineapple and Pandan leather, transporting the drinker to lush tropical paradise. Source: Accor The Honey 75: This salty, zesty twist on a French 75 features Citadelle Gin Original, fat-washed with local olive olive oil, verjus, salted local honey, orange and cardamom syrup. Topped with Pommery Champagne, this cocktail sits perfectly in the Maison Sarah Lavoine Coupe, evoking a local anchorage that grounds its effervescent profile in timeless elegance Mixology is an expression of art at MGallery and to have three exceptionally unique cocktails crafted with Citadelle Gin specifically for each of the Maison Sarah Lavoine glasses, really takes the art of the pour to a new level. Were excited to bring a new blend of flavours that create space for visitors to immerse themselves in the moment, to build new memories and connections while sipping these one-of-a-kind mixes. Chief Marketing Officer of MGallery, Xavier Royaux Great mixology is a delicate balance of creativity and precisionan art form that transforms quality ingredients into extraordinary experiences. It is also a powerful tool to enhance hospitality, creating moments of connection and discovery. At Citadelle Gin, we are passionate about crafting spirits that reflect both innovation and authenticity. Our collaboration with MGallery Collection and Maison Sarah Lavoine is a true celebration of that artistry, where design and flavour come together seamlessly to elevate the guest experience. Citadelle Gin's Creator and Master Blender, Alexandre Gabriel The three limited-edition cocktails will be launched alongside five brand new MGallery cocktail creations with a variety of flavours to transport guests around the world. The creations, available as alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails, will be added to the permanent MGallery cocktail menu and include a refreshing Sage Highball, a citrusy Spring Sour, a modern and fruity Guava Adonis, a silky lemon Bee's Heat and a tropical Paolo Verde. Available in-bar or at-home today Available to sample from 13 May, the Citadelle Gin cocktails will be served in their perfectly paired Maison Sarah Lavoine cocktail glass in MGallery bars across the globe until 31 August. For those interested in recreating the experience at home, the limited-edition Maison Sarah Lavoine glassware line is also available exclusively for purchase at MGallery Boutique. About Accor, a world-leading hospitality group Accor is a world-leading hospitality group offering stays and experiences across more than 110 countries with over 5,600 hotels and resorts, 10,000 bars & restaurants, wellness facilities and flexible workspaces. The Group has one of the industry's most diverse hospitality ecosystems, encompassing around 45 hotel brands from luxury to economy, as well as Lifestyle with Ennismore. ALL, the booking platform and loyalty program embodies the Accor promise during and beyond the hotel stay and gives its members access to unique experiences. Accor is focused on driving positive action through business ethics, responsible tourism, environmental sustainability, community engagement, diversity, and inclusivity. Accor's mission is reflected in the Group's purpose: Pioneering the art of responsible hospitality, connecting cultures, with heartfelt care. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France. Included in the CAC 40 index, the Group is publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information, please visit group.accor.com or follow us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Supercity Aparthotels, one of the UKs leading contemporary aparthotel brands, is set to open three new properties in Edinburgh, Leeds and York over the next two months. Further solidifying its presence across the United Kingdom, these launches mark a significant step in Supercity Aparthotels strategic growth plan. First to open is Forth House, located in Edinburghs New Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Opening its doors on 30th May, the aparthotel will offer 66 spacious suites, including studio, one and two-bedroom apartments - each designed to offer effortless, longer-stay comfort with thoughtful service and modern convenience. The Jubilee in Leeds will follow in late June, bringing 63 contemporary suites to the heart of the city centre, moments from the Town Hall. The property reflects Supercitys signature design approach, combining art-led interiors, generous living space and the flexibility of independent travel with the consistency of hotel-style service. Launching shortly after is Micklegate in York - a 46-suite property housed on one of the citys most storied streets. Located just a short walk from the train station, York Minster and the historic Shambles, the aparthotel puts guests at the heart of the city while delivering the comfort and flexibility of a longer stay. With its signature style, extra-generous suite sizes and locally inspired interiors, Supercity Aparthotels has carved out a distinctive place in the market, offering guests more room to relax, more space to live and a smarter way to stay across the UK. This expansion marks a major milestone in Supercity Aparthotels growth journey. Weve seen a clear and rising demand for longer-stay accommodation that offers the service of a hotel with the flexibility of an apartment - and were in a strong position to meet that need. Opening in three key UK cities not only extends our reach but also lays the groundwork for further development as we continue to scale with purpose. Chairman Roger Walters These new openings bring Supercitys portfolio to nine properties across the UK, with more launches planned in high-demand locations in the coming years. For more information or to make a reservation, please visit www.supercityuk.com. In 2024, the sector achieved its best result since 2019, with a contribution of almost 249 billion to GDP International tourism spending grew by nearly 11% year-on-year Madrid, Spain - The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecasts that by 2025 the travel and tourism sector in Spain could reach a new all-time high, with an estimated contribution of 260.5 billion to GDP, equivalent to almost 16% of the national economy. According to the latest Economic Impact Research (EIR), prepared by WTTC in collaboration with Oxford Economics, these forecasts reinforce the role of tourism as one of the country's main economic drivers, with an estimated year-on-year increase of 4.7%. WTTC projects that by the end of 2025 the sector will account for 3.2 million jobs in Spain, equivalent to 14.4% of total employment. By 2025, spending by international tourists is expected to reach 113.2 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 5.7%, while domestic spending could reach 84.9 billion euros, 2.4% more than the previous year. Spain remains a true global tourism powerhouse. The data reflects a dynamic, resilient and constantly evolving sector, which not only drives economic growth, but also creates quality jobs and promotes regional development. The forecasts for 2025 are very positive, and with a firm commitment to sustainability and innovation, Spain is well positioned to lead the future of global tourism, even in a challenging international environment. Julia Simpson, President and CEO of WTTC A look back to 2024 During 2024, the Spanish tourism sector experienced its best year since 2019. Its contribution to GDP rose by almost 8% to 248.7 billion, or 15.6% of the economy. It also employed 3 million people, nearly 14% of the country's total jobs. Spending by international tourists was 107.1 billion (up 10.9% year-on-year), while domestic spending reached 82.9 billion, up 2.2% on 2023. These segments accounted for 56.4% and 43.6% of total expenditure, respectively. Leisure travel accounted for 88.3% of total expenditure, compared to 11.7% for business travel expenditure. The main source countries for arrivals into Spain in 2024 were the United Kingdom (20%), France (14%) and Germany (13%). The destinations most visited by Spaniards were France (25%), Italy (14%), the United Kingdom (8%) and Portugal (8%). The next decade Looking ahead to 2035, the WTTC projects that the tourism sector could contribute 315.7 billion to the GDP, which would represent more than 17% of the Spanish economy, as well as 4 million jobs, 700,000 more than at present. Regional data: European Union In 2024, the EU travel and tourism sector contributed almost 1.8 trillion to the region's GDP, or more than 10% of its economy. This figure exceeded 2019 levels by almost 6%. Employment associated with the sector grew by 4.7%, year-on-year, to 24.6 million jobs, accounting for one in nine jobs across the region. Domestic travel spending in the EU reached 1 trillion, while spending by international visitors reached 515 billion. By 2025, WTTC forecasts that the regional sector will reach almost 1.9 trillion, representing 10.5% of the EU economy. Employment linked to the sector is estimated to total 25.7 million people, or 12% of the regional total. In addition, the agency expects international spending to grow by more than 11% to 573 billion, and domestic spending to increase by 1.6% to more than 1.1 trillion. For more information and to access the full factsheet, please visit WTTC's Research Hub. About WTTC The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) represents the global travel & tourism private sector. Members include 200 CEOs, Chairs and Presidents of the world's leading travel & tourism companies from all geographies covering all industries. For more than 30 years, WTTC has been committed to raising the awareness of governments and the public of the economic and social significance of the travel & tourism sector. WTTC Press Office WTTC View source In this weeks episode of Hotel Moment, Sims Foster, co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality, joins Revinate CMO Karen Stephens for a lesson on brand building and why hoteliers should see their rooms as more than just four walls. Sims also shows how one hotelier can do so much good in the local community serving guests as well as those in need. Sims also discusses his operational framework, specifically in regards to how he and his team approach short-term rental competition to encourage guests to experience a hotel stay, rather than another accommodation that claims to offer all the same amenities. Tune in to discover the beauty of building a brand and how to creatively market to guests so they choose you over the competition. Meet your host As Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, Karen Stephens is focused on driving long-term growth by building Revinates brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. Her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. Karen is also the host of The Hotel Moment Podcast, where she interviews top players in the hospitality industry. Karen has been with Revinate for over 11 years, leading Revinates global GTM teams. Her most recent transition was from Chief Revenue Officer, where she led the team in their highest booking quarter to date in Q4 2023. Karen has more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution including managing global accounts in travel and hospitality organizations such as Travelocity and lastminute.com Watch the video Transcript Sims Foster- 00:00:00: As much as you can brand your short-term rental and create this thing, and it feels good when you check in, its still an empty house as far as human beings. Intro 00:00:14: Welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast presented by Revinate, the podcast where we discuss how hotel technology shapes every moment of the hoteliers experience. Tune in as we explore the cutting-edge technology transforming the hospitality industry and hear from experts and visionaries shaping the future of guest experiences. Whether youre a hotelier or a tech enthusiast, youre in the right place. Lets dive in and discover how we can elevate the art of hospitality together. Karen Stephens 00:00:42: Hello and welcome to the Hotel Moment Podcast. I am your host, Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate. And today were excited to speak with Sims Foster, co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality, a hospitality brand focused on creating unique experience in the beautiful Catskills region. With a career spanning multiple roles in restaurant and hospitality industries, Sims has an extensive background in building lifestyle brands. His entrepreneurial journey has led him to launch Foster Supply alongside his wife, Kirsten, combining his love for the region with his vast industry expertise. So listeners, youre really in for a treat when you hear Sims today. So I think its wonderful for me when I get to speak with people who have the heart and the love for what they do, and they give that back to the community. So I dont want to spoil the episode by going too deep on that, but Ill just say I think you can hear when Sims speaks how much he cares about the region hes from, the hotel experience he provides, the restaurant experience that they provide, and also how he gives back to the local community. So here you go. I give you Sims Foster. Sims Foster, welcome to the podcast. Its a pleasure to have you here. Sims Foster 00:01:52: Karen, great to be here. Thanks for having me. Karen Stephens 00:01:55: Absolutely. You know what? I had a great time doing a little research before we jumped on this call. So Id love to just start with, just tell us a little bit about your company. What is Foster Supply Hospitality, and why did you choose the Catskills? Sims Foster 00:02:08: Two very good questions. The second one is the easiest one. I chose the Catskills because its home. I was born and raised in a small town called Livingston Manor. And my family has been here for over 100 years. So this was a moment of taking what I had hopefully learned in the larger world and bringing it home to the place that matters most to me and to my wife and co-founder, Kirsten. Even though shes not from the area herself, she loves it just as much, maybe even more sometimes than I do, which is saying a lot. So theres that. And then Foster Supply Hospitality is a group of small hotels and restaurants that we have been developing and operating. We own and operate and weve done seven of them. We currently have four. We did sell three of them recently, which is a good success. And then weve got several in development. So thats what we are. The reason, the why behind it was really trying to prove and fall back in love with hospitality on a small scale where youve got a 12-room or a 15-room or a 30-room hotel and really getting back to taking care of people and taking care of our guests, which after being an executive with some larger hotel management companies, which is a great different experience, this was a counterbalance to that, and doing it in a place where we thought we could really make a difference. Karen Stephens 00:03:37: Thats a great story. So youve had a really diverse career. Id love to talk a little bit about how you got into the industry. So you started washing dishes. Can you tell us about that story? How you got into hospitality, and also restaurants is a big thing for you. So lets start there. Sims Foster 00:03:52: Sure. Yeah. Lied when I was 13, until I was 14, to get the dishwasher job, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. My brother trained me in the dish pit so that he could move out front to the front of house. So I was being encouraged from that side, too. He was done washing, cleaning out the slow cooker from Prime Rib Night. But yeah, then worked my way through all different parts of the restaurant business. And ultimately, after college, moved to New York City and then got a job. First as a maintenance man, because I needed money to pay the rent at a nightclub, and then ended up a couple of years later being the general manager of a well-known kind of celebrity hangout nightclub in the meatpacking district called Lotus. And then that really started my quote-unquote professional hospitality career, which took me from nightlife into restaurants and into hotels. And at the same time, concurrently, also were doing some small-scale stuff back home up here in the Catskills as a side project. So thats kind of how that all came together. Karen Stephens 00:04:53: Okay. And now restaurants also play a big part into your company and into the brand. So you talked to us a little bit, you mentioned kind of the hotels are smaller, more lifestyle brand. Talk to us a little bit about how the food experience incorporates into that as well. Sims Foster 00:05:08: Yeah, I think it incorporates in a critical way. The idea when we started to renovate and build these small hotels was they still needed to be full service because in the rural environment, and especially at the time that the area was in, there actually wasnt a lot. We werent able to say, come here and then heres 20 places for you to go. So we really needed to control and really create a narrative and a story about all of these like full-scale little resorts where Yeah, you can get a massage because we have a treatment room and youve got a restaurant on site and youve got hiking trails. While we allowed the area, which gratefully now theres plenty of restaurants on our main streets that we can send guests to, but we really needed to create a full narrative in order to compel people to come in the beginning. On top of that, were pretty good. We think at the restaurant business, we are James Beard-nominated restaurateurs. And so its a part that some days I wonder, but when its right, its great. Just the restaurant business, its a day-to-day thing, even more than a hotel, because its very hard to predict whats going to happen in any given day at a restaurant. Hotel, you can kind of figure it out in advance, but we love it. We do it. Weve got fantastic teams and some great chefs that have been with us now. One of our chefs, Clark Hoskins, has been with us 10 years in the beginning. And so thats the key to the restaurant part of this is the stability. Karen Stephens 00:06:36: Thats great. So you mentioned that in the Catskills itself, theres been a lot of new entrants with restaurants and other things. Im just curious. I dont know a lot about the area. Is that something that kind of happened after COVID or youve lived there, you grew up there, your familys there. So can you tell us a little bit about the area itself and how its changed over the last couple of years? Sims Foster 00:06:55: Yeah, Ill go back a little further. Sullivan County, where we are in 1960, had the most hotel rooms of any county in the United States. It was, for those that dont know the area, the kind of cheap and easy reference is Dirty Dancing. Dirty Dancing was set here in Sullivan County. So if youve seen the movie, thats actually fairly real, except for the Patrick Swayze dancing on the log thing. I cant. But my grandparents worked in hotels. My dad was a bellhop. And so it was a booming tourist destination and iconic. And then it all collapsed. So within a matter of 15 to 20 years, the whole market disintegrated, which is a whole other story that somebody needs to tell. And so when I was growing up here, it was kind of the ghosts of these hotels and the ghosts of an economy that was robust, that had fallen down, right? It was the typical rural environment that had one thing going for it. And when that disappeared, it really struggled to find its stability. So thats the history of the area. What happened was there were some starts, fits and starts. But right around kind of the mid-2000s was this new start of people identifying the area. Second homeowner increased. Main Street started to come back. 07, 08, of course, kind of put a damper on it. But really, it was starting to come back before COVID. And it was really kind of creating a new brand for a new generation. And so it was on its way. And then COVID had the Had an accelerating effect. Not that we didnt have our extreme struggles like everyone else, but having rural environments, small hotels was on the, I guess, the fortunate side of the economy in that era. But I think it helped accelerate it. And now its finding its kind of new stabilization rate, but real estate values are up in the area. They were depressed for a long time. Theyre up. And now our main streets are really lovely. I mean, part of the beauty of the area is that because nothing happened here for, call it a generation, there is this amazing throwback feel to the main streets. Theres no corporate anything. Theres no Walmart on the outside of town. And Im not even being judgmental about that. Im just saying, if you go to Livingston Manor or Jeffersonville or Callicoon, these little main streets, the stores are all new, but the feel could be the same as 50 years ago. And I think thats really resonating, especially with the Metro New York guests that comes with the majority of our guests. Karen Stephens 00:09:28: How far is it from New York City? Sims Foster 00:09:29: Its two hours. Karen Stephens 00:09:31: Two hours. Okay, so easy peasy. And I love the idea of the nostalgic. Thats something that I really love when you go to communities, and its like this restaurants been here since 1970, whatever, its got that vibe and that feel. So thats really cool. So you mentioned that real estate values have gone up and I think that thats true for a lot of rural areas. COVID, people were trying to get out of big cities. Short-term rentals are also something thats come up. So can you talk to us a little bit about how thats changed the hospitality landscape for your brand and how its impacting the guests in the area and the values in the area? Sims Foster 00:10:05: Yeah, a lot to unpack there. So I believe the stat is that over the last five years, the increase in short-term rentals is, I think, 6x in the county. Of that is that it started from not many So that inventory has increased dramatically. And as we all know in the industry, its an unregulated one key hotel industry is how I call it, right? Is that you can buy a house and within 24 hours, all of a sudden you can be renting it without the parts that if youre a commercial hotel that you, the DOH, and the Department of Transportation, and all the stuff that you have to go through and the planning boards and all of those things. And I think thats going to be interesting to see how that plays out long-term. I think every community is dealing with it from what I hear almost across the country. But the short-term rental increase was critical to expedite fast growth for these Main Street businesses we were just talking about. All of a sudden, overnight, theres more people here. And thats a good part of the equation. It helped and theyre having good experiences. And so it just really helped put, really fuel the flames of what was already started. From a business standpoint, were now not just competing with other hotels, but with this market that acts differently. So weve been trying to figure out, A, how serious it is for our business, what the long-term plan is, how we try to figure out how to compete. Because the short-term rental owner doesnt have the overhead of our business. And frankly, most of them are just kind of happy to kind of collect whatever ADR they can get because theyre not using the house. Not intentionally, but theyre now really affecting ADRs and occupancies. And they dont even know what those two words mean. Theyre just talking about a house and theyre trying to offset their mortgage costs. I get it. So its an interesting play. Karen Stephens 00:11:58: Yeah. And I think that you mentioned before you have spa on site, amenities, local experiences. And I think for me as a consumer, if youre trying to market to me as opposed to going into an Airbnb, that is what is really going to resonate with me is it really is a holiday experience. So do you do that? I mean, I saw your website, which is beautiful. I recommend. I mean, already your website gives off that, you know, Im a marketer, so that website gives off that feel of like, oh, wow, this is really kind of a home away from home in the woods and that. But how do you think about that when you leverage marketing assets to drive bookings? Sims Foster 00:12:33: Yeah. I mean, what were trying to do is continue to tell the story of each of our property, of the area, and why you should come to the Catskills and not just support us, but support all the communities, which is what were about truly. And then I guess the benefit of staying in a hotel with those amenities and what that experience is, and why that might be better for you than the short-term rental for this particular reason in your life. I think. To be blunt about it, whats interesting is that a lot of the short-term rentals basically copy and paste our amenities as being their house being almost near just out in front saying, like, if you stay here, youre only a mile from, and theyve got this, this, this, and this. Karen Stephens 00:13:21: Were amenity adjacent. Sims Foster 00:13:24: Its a great one. Im going to use that. Thank you. So again, I get it in isolation. So how do you then say, yes, those amenities? Because were not the kind of hospitality brand that says, well, this is only available if you have to stay here. That kind of makes us go backwards. Weve always been about embracing everything around us. I think theres a couple of things practically in that were starting to look at, look at is the right thing because we havent figured it out yet, is one of the competitive advantages is removing length of stay because no one really is renting their short-term rental for just Saturday night, but were equipped for it. Karen Stephens 00:14:05: Yeah, because the cleaning fee would be more than the rent, you know, for a short-term rental, right? You need at least two nights to make it make sense. Sims Foster 00:14:11: Yeah. So thats an interesting advantage that we have, we have to figure out because it doesnt work for our business to have sold out Saturdays and nobody there on Friday. So were trying to figure out peoples patterns and what they use a short-term rental for versus the hotel. And I do think that theres also been enough time where people have checked into short-term rentals, and lets just say their expectations were not met. And I think that the idea of trust of professionals Is starting to weigh a little more in the equation than maybe it was even a couple of years ago. Karen Stephens 00:14:45: Thats right. And I think theres also an opportunity. Obviously, this is our biz over at Revinate. But when those guests come over into the restaurant, come over into the spa to interact, get their guest data if theyre willing to provide it, and then market to them directly. So you kind of use them like an OTA channel. The first time coming in, its a new guest. Thats great. But the second time, youre going to hopefully come to me directly because now youve seen my beautiful property. You know whats here. You know the restaurant. You know everything about it. And now I can market to you directly. Sims Foster 00:15:13: Youre so right. And Im so glad you said that because we kind of stumbled upon one of our James Beard-nominated hotel and restaurant, the DeBruce. This is an interesting stat. Its been open seven years. And lets say even five years ago, our Saturday night, we do a course tasting menu. And almost always the hotel was full. It was only 12 rooms, and wed have a couple of outside covers. It is completely switched now where were fighting to fill the lodging, and we have a waiting list for the dinner. And that is what we started to do. Its like, welcome. We love that youre here. And we created like, next time well make your bed for you and breakfast is on us. Karen Stephens 00:15:52: Voila. Sims Foster 00:15:53: Yeah. Karen Stephens 00:15:54: 100%. And theres some kind of packaging that happens there. Sims Foster 00:15:57: Yeah, just a little card to say, yeah, next time, you know, its a lot easier to stay with us. You can have more to drink and stumble upstairs. So I think theres that. And then I would add to it that the lack of, as much as you can brand your short-term rental and create this thing, and it feels good when you check in, its still an empty house as far as human beings. The biggest thing is just that human connection that when somebody comes in and they meet Will, or Sadie, or Anastasia, any one of our people, and they connect with that human being, that reminds them of the real power and joy and specialness of staying in a hotel. Karen Stephens 00:16:39: Thats what guest experience is all about. Its really about the hosts and their excitement to bring you in. And then, of course, the atmosphere and everything else. So very key. So lets shift gears a little bit. Wed love to talk a little bit about the local community. So you mentioned youve been there since birth, and your familys been there. Can you talk to us about A Single Bite, which addresses food insecurity, and how your company works with that organization? Sims Foster 00:17:02: Wow. Thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, I didnt expect that, although I should. So Sullivan County is one of the poorer counties in New York State. So youre two hours from what some people would argue is the center of the economic universe. And we all know New York City. I lived there for 20 years. And yet were not only rural, but its also just a very different. And I think that those two things work well together. They always have is that escape from the city. But were one of the poorer counties. And as of five years ago, we were still the second from the bottom in health rankings. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation does a ranking of all the counties in New York State every year with a very thorough, all different impacts of the health of the community. So it could be access to health care, transportation, morbidity, opioid crisis, all of those things. And one of those things in there is nutrition and health. So all the other stuff Im not qualified to do anything about. But when we got there, I just got sick and tired of seeing us as 61 out of 62 counties in the farming, agricultural. And so we started A Single Bite as an awareness, not-for-profit, went to the school that I went to K through 12. My mother was a first grade teacher. And we created an education program that is in four parts where we talk to the kids about their choice and that they have a choice between real food and processed food. And that has, we now fast forward are in every school district in Sullivan County. And we get to every seventh grader in our county with that program, which is pretty phenomenal. So we take them to a farm as part of it. They come to one of our restaurants to have lunch as part of it. And then were in their classroom for two sessions. And its really just saying, hey, you have a choice for the rest of your life about what you put in your body. We just want to make sure you know the difference between what real food is and processed food. And along the way, theres all these other hidden things in there. But during COVID, as we were just ramping up the education program, we couldnt be in the schools. And we answered the call, the immediate call of a community that was people just didnt have food. We didnt lay anybody off during COVID. So I had a bunch of chefs and cooks. And its better to keep those people busy, in my experience. Karen Stephens 00:19:17: Oh, yeah. Sims Foster 00:19:20: So I called, I said, hey, we had this new hotel we were about to open and couldnt. And so we had this brand new kitchen and I called the chefs and I said, guys, were going to start making food for people. And they said, okay, boss, how much do you want? I said, lets start with a thousand meals tomorrow. And they said, herd, as all good kitchen people do. So during that acute time, we got up to almost 3,000 a week of meals, not only produced, the producing part, not to diminish it, but thats what we do. The real thing is getting it to the people. Perhaps the one thing Im most proud of is that if youre struggling with food in a rural environment, youre also struggling with everything else, including getting places, consultation. So once we saw that part of our community, even when we went back to business, we continued on. So were now over 200,000 meals delivered, and now were also piloting a farm-to-school cafeteria program as the third leg in the stool. Were in three of our districts, really trying to figure out how we can replace, some of the food that none of us love thats being produced, you know, grown in our community. So thats what were doing. I always say our ultimate goal is to put ourselves out of business. Nobody needs assistance tonight and that the generational educational fix takes place. But until that happens, well just keep going. Karen Stephens 00:20:42: First of all, I love it. Obviously, youre feeding all those people, but I love it that the education coming in for kids, that there is a difference in the food that theyre eating and they get to make that choice because thats really where it starts. And then I would just love to get your take on, I think the argument for all the processed food is that its cheaper. So how do you debunk that? I mean, its kind of insane. Youre sitting in an agricultural area. So its like, how the heck would it be cheaper to ship God knows what from God knows where in? But is that something that you come up against or have the school districts and everybody gotten on board with your program? Just curious for your take on that. Sims Foster 00:21:17: I think the school, on the education program, we now have, it took a couple of years, but you have to earn trust. And weve done that, both from the administration level and from the teachers and from everybody. And every school is different. There is no one-size-fits-all all. If anybody were to start this up, thats where somethings saying, Im like, you have to be on the ground, hand to hand. You cant just come up with a PowerPoint or ask AI to come up with something. It is about the people and what their schedule is and what their priorities are. And youve got to listen and youve got to tailor it, but still hold on to your core value. So that part of the team has done just incredibly well. And the truth is, processed food is accessible in rural environments more than urban because our options are limited. You have the gas station thats three miles away. Youve got grocery stores that arent part of huge change. Theres no Whole Foods here. So theres just a lot more processed food in the rural environment, which is counterintuitive. And when we first started the meal program, we polled after a while, like, hey, how are we doing? Are we giving you what you want? Are you eating everything? And the poll came back and it was amazing to see what they loved and appreciated was the fresh vegetables that we were putting in there because thats more expensive at the grocery stores. Karen Stephens 00:22:39: Oh, wow. So it was like, I dont want to say a status thing, but the correlation of like, oh, thats more money must be better. Sims Foster 00:22:46: Yeah. So a lot of learnings with A Single Bite and just really proud of the team. And we continue to do good work. Karen Stephens 00:22:52: Yeah, thats phenomenal. So my final question for you, looking at your journey and all the growth with Foster Supply Hospitality and everything youve experienced there, what advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs? So you started your career in restaurants, you worked for a big management company, now youve brought it all home. So what would your advice be for somebody whos looking to take that kind of leap? Sims Foster 00:23:13: I think the way that I answer this question, my mind first goes into a very kind of tactical, make sure you do an honest business plan, make sure you do the numbers. And then after you do the numbers, do them again, make sure that like all of those things. But I think that can be found in a lot of places. I think that the sustainability of a life where you are running your own business is only really possible if you deeply believe in what youre doing and not necessarily about the money or that part of it. Is that the spirit of what youre doing is deeply resonates in your soul? Because there are so many days, Im sure you can relate where things dont go the right way. And you wonder what youre doing. And would life be easier this other way? And if you can wake up the next morning and say, yeah, but what I do is I believe, right? I believe that we can actually change the trajectory of our community short-term and long-term. I believe that the businesses that were running are good businesses and we treat our people well. And weve made a difference in peoples lives on the capitalist side by providing jobs and stability. And we attract people here who wouldnt have found the area without us, but buy a second home. And now were in the Rotary Club. So those are all the pieces that matter more. But I think that in the business community, thats viewed as like, thats secondary. I think that you got to love what youre doing enough to sustain you through times where you inevitably Will question your own judgment. Karen Stephens 00:24:58: Thank you, Sims. Very well said. My guest has been Sims Foster. Appreciate the time today. Thank you. Sims Foster 00:25:04: Thanks so much. Outro 00:25:10: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hotel Moment by Revinate. Our community of hoteliers is growing every week, and each guest we speak to is tackling industry challenges with the innovation and flexibility that our industry demands. If you enjoyed todays episode, dont forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And if youre listening on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe for more content. For more information, head to revinate.com/hotelmomentpodcast. Until next time, keep innovating. View source The New Travel Agents: AI Influencers and Instant Purchases on Social Media - Image Credit Unsplash The travel industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by social media platforms like TikTok, where inspiration quickly turns into action. This shift is characterized by the rise of AI influencers and a new generation of travelers who prefer to scroll rather than search. The Social Media Influence At the Preferred Hotels Global Conference in Singapore, discussions centered on how social media, particularly TikTok, is reshaping the travel booking process. Traditional search methods are replaced by instant, visually-driven decisions on social platforms. This change is largely influenced by Generation Z and their interaction with content creators who inspire and directly sell travel experiences. Creators like Ali Almeshaal have transitioned from influencers to entrepreneurs, launching their own travel agencies to cater to the demands of their followers. This evolution highlights a significant shift in how travel services are marketed and consumed, emphasizing the power of direct influence and personal connection. AI and Virtual Influencers The conference also shed light on the emerging role of AI in the travel industry. Virtual influencers, such as Rae from Singapore, are becoming key players, offering high engagement without the unpredictability of human influencers. These digital personalities promote destinations and facilitate direct bookings, embodying a blend of technology and tourism that appeals to a tech-savvy audience. Video: The New Language of Travel Eason Zhang from TikTok highlighted the dominance of video content, which has become the primary medium for travel-related engagement. Platforms like TikTok are not just venues for sharing experiences but have evolved into full-fledged travel agencies facilitating everything from inspiration to transaction. Hashtags like #TravelTok guide users from discovery to purchase, making social media a comprehensive travel booking platform. Market Trends and Future Directions The integration of commerce into social media platforms is exemplified by TikTok Shop, where users can purchase travel experiences directly through the app. This trend is not limited to TikTok; other platforms also integrate direct booking features, indicating a broader shift towards social commerce in travel. Zhang also discussed the demographic changes within TikTok, noting that the largest user group is now aged 25-34, debunking the myth that TikTok is solely for teenagers. This broader age range shows the expanding appeal of video content and its effectiveness in reaching a diverse audience. Practical Advice for Travel Businesses To capitalize on these trends, Zhang offered practical advice for travel businesses looking to engage with modern travelers through TikTok. He emphasized the importance of authentic, relatable content over polished advertisements. His tips included starting broad and refining strategy based on what resonates with the audience, suggesting a flexible, responsive approach to social media marketing. Discover more at WIT. Wait! Before you go Please sign up for our Evening Digest and Breaking Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Renee Tessier and 'America's Best Restaurant' host Theo Williams, who's trying some of the diner's hash. The show is featuring the diner and some of its menu items. PreviousNext Renee's Diner Visited by 'America's Best Restaurants' Theo Williams of 'America's Best Restaurants' tries three menu items at Renee's Diner on Thursday morning. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. There was a hubbub Renee's Diner on Thursday morning as the " America's Best Restaurants " rolled in to highlight the eatery's specialties. "The place was packed with a lot of excited people and I think it's great for our community to put us on the map," owner, Renee Tessier, said. Tessier and crew have been burnishing the Massachusetts Avenue diner this week in preparation for its debut on the video program . The national media and marketing company spotlights independent eateries around the country. The host tries three meals with the owner and on Thursday, Theo Williams enjoyed the hash in the kitchen and then dug into an order breakfast tacos and the popular turkey club. He was enjoying the hash so much he couldn't stop eating it. He's been with the "Americas Best Restaurants" for two years now and was warm and welcoming to the diner's customers. Williams explained that Renee's Diner was noticed by a fan, who submitted the diner to the show to try. After the team did some research, they contacted Tessier for a visit. Williams said he likes the city of North Adams and loved to see the community here. "It's beautiful out here in North Adams," he said. "It's a beautiful area and you can tell this is an area where people really come together. This is a community that always has each other's back." The diner's patrons came to enjoy breakfast and celebrate the accomplishment. Sue Downey and Maggy Button sat at a booth and enjoyed their favorite meals: apple cinnamon french toast and the Mexican omelet. "It's very worthy for her [Renee], we've been coming here since she opened up," Downey said. "I am so happy for her because she really deserves that. "I mean there are other people around here who deserve it, too, but she really deserves it." Another longtime customer, Pete Milesi, was enjoying a meal of over medium eggs, bacon sausage, and rye bread. He said also the loves the eggs Benedict and breakfast burritos. Milesi says he feels very welcome every time he comes. "I really love the cook. He is great, he really caters to the customer and gets to know the people which is nice because not a lot of restaurants do that, and the waitresses here are phenomenal," he said. "They are very friendly and very welcoming." Waitress Stacy Pettengill has worked at the diner for 15 years, ever since it opened, and likes to see the customers happy and the employees' hard work be recognized. "To watch us grow from the beginning from where we started to where we are today, I guess I could say it's mind blowing and flattering and it's an honor for Renee to receive this opportunity because she worked so hard," she said. "When you say blood, sweat, and tears go into things that statement couldn't be more true. A lot goes into trying to be successful and keep people happy and it's hard to keep people happy nowadays. "So people come here happy and they leave here happy and that's just what makes me happy." Renees husband, Michael Tessier, was excited to see and proud of his wife, the diner and the cooks' hard work. "It's nerve wracking to be in the spotlight but you do the hard work and I'm happy that the staff is being recognized for what they do," he said. Williams says to keep checking the show's social media pages to know when the Renee's Diner episode will air. UK-China trade relationship gains momentum amid global uncertainty, say industry leaders Xinhua) 13:09, May 30, 2025 The Global Britain Trade Expo 2025 is held in London, Britain, on May 29, 2025. Business leaders and industry representatives expressed optimism about the evolving trade relationship between Britain and China on Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of the Global Britain Trade Expo 2025, an annual trade forum designed to help businesses expand internationally. (Xinhua/Zheng Bofei) LONDON, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Business leaders and industry representatives expressed optimism about the evolving trade relationship between Britain and China on Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of the Global Britain Trade Expo 2025, an annual trade forum designed to help businesses expand internationally. Held at London's Queen Elizabeth II Centre, the forum drew senior decision-makers and executives from more than 36 countries. Despite mounting geopolitical and economic uncertainty, many participants saw continued opportunities for expanding trade between Britain and China. Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export &International Trade, told Xinhua that while recent global disruptions have presented challenges, there remains significant potential in bilateral trade. "It would be foolhardy to imagine that the future of electric vehicles, or many other sectors, doesn't herald a partnership between the UK and China," he said. "If we are to address climate change, economic deprivation, health inequalities, and educational exclusion... the only way we do that is through collaboration," Forgione added. John McLean, chairman of the China-Britain Business Development Centre, described the trade atmosphere between the two countries as having "markedly changed" since mid-2023, following visits by several senior British officials to China. "There's a pragmatic approach being adopted by both China and the UK, which is welcome for business," he said. "The opportunity is now -- go get on that plane and go to China." From a business perspective, Jack Wu, managing partner at Acadia Advisory Group, now joining the forum for the second year, noted a surge in interest from British companies entering the Chinese market. "Since last year, we've seen many British companies coming to China across various sectors: food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, universities and training schools, and luxury brands," Wu said. He noted that British firms are leveraging China's fast-growing e-commerce platforms to overcome distribution challenges. Echoing Wu's view, Molly Ling, CEO of Shopfever Group Limited, said China's expanding e-commerce ecosystem and favorable regulatory changes have created a competitive edge for British and European brands. "China was the biggest e-commerce market in the world in 2023, nearly double the size of the United States, and at least four times that of the UK," she said. Ling also pointed to China's favorable tax schemes and significantly lower platform fees compared to the U.S. as key advantages. Amid concerns about the global impact of U.S. tariffs, Forgione emphasized that the most damaging effect of tariffs is the uncertainty they create. "You've had an escalation of tariffs and then those tariffs are cut, and then this morning you hear that a federal court says the U.S. tariffs are unconstitutional -- all that does is create uncertainty and instability," he said. "There's no use harking back to a time of certainty, because in truth, it never existed. The clarion call we must all answer is to get trade flowing -- that's how we confront the systemic challenges we face," Forgione added. McLean echoed this point of view: "For businesses, uncertainty is the death word. It stops everything because planning becomes impossible. How long is your investment period? What might change in the meantime? The risk of expanding abroad is constantly under challenge." He added that China stands out for its policy consistency. "I think China has stability. With the current global instability, China has the advantage to accelerate that consistency and help others believe it's time to start trading with, or at least looking at, China," McLean told Xinhua. "We now live in a volatile world, but China is still implementing its five-year plans." Ling also noted that shifting priorities due to tariffs are redirecting business attention: "European and UK brands used to focus mostly on the U.S. -- their biggest market. But now they're forced to look elsewhere, and this has allowed businesses like us to help them understand both the UK and European context and the Chinese market." Winnie Seow Mei, international markets lead at Hawksford UK Services Limited, also voiced confidence in long-term trends. "We've seen that trade between the UK and China has actually increased," she said. "There is still strong interest from British brands looking to expand into the Chinese market." The Global Britain Trade Expo 2025 is held in London, Britain, on May 29, 2025. Business leaders and industry representatives expressed optimism about the evolving trade relationship between Britain and China on Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of the Global Britain Trade Expo 2025, an annual trade forum designed to help businesses expand internationally. (Xinhua/Zheng Bofei) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Tagbilaran, a heritage city known for its old churches and the famed Chocolate Hills, is accelerating its digitalization efforts with the launch of its multipurpose "Cityzen's Card," powered by GCash and Visa. The Cityzen's Card will serve as a prepaid card and a local government-issued ID, enabling Tagbilaran City residents to access essential local government services seamlessly. (L-R) Tagbilaran City chief of staff Cathelyn Torremocha, GCash account manager for public sector Bryle Acedillo, Tagbilaran City mayor Hon. Jane Yap, GCash head of public sector Cleo Santos, head of B2B strategy Cathlyn Pavia, and Visayas regional sales head Ronelo Buhawe As the first Visayan city to offer this service, Tagbilaran is leading the way in innovation and highlighting the value of a multisectoral approach that leverages the combined efforts of local government units, digital financial technology providers, and private enterprises in creating lasting social and economic benefits. City officials emphasize that the introduction of the Cityzens Card marks a significant step forward in improving the delivery of public services and advancing financial inclusion, particularly for traditionally underserved residents. Launched during the citys annual Saulog Festival, the card will initially be issued to 80,000 residents, including senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and public sector workers. The co-branded card will also enable the city government to send financial assistance and allowances directly to recipients GCash accounts, eliminating the need for in-person collection and reducing the risk of inefficiencies. In addition, the multi-stakeholder approach in accelerating Tagbilaran Citys digitalization efforts allows residents to make cashless purchases at merchants accepting Visa and benefit from GCash features, such as savings accounts, fair credit options, affordable insurance, and accessible investment opportunities. Cardholders can also enjoy discounts at select establishments across Tagbilaran City, encouraging local economic activity and community engagement. Digitalization is part of the key executive agenda of my administration, added Mayor Yap during her address at the Liveable Cities LocalLab, a policy platform focused on smart city development. We believe that it is now time that we plant the seeds so that the next generation will reap the benefits. As a young mayor, I have access to technology, but I cant keep it all to myself. I have to share it, I have to make my city realize that this is it, we are going to be a smart city, said Tagbilaran City Mayor Jane Yap. The launch of the Cityzens Card highlights a growing trend across Southeast Asian countries, where local governments partner with fintech firms to accelerate financial inclusion and digitize public services. In the Philippines, where more than half of the population remains unbanked, fintech companies like GCash have become critical gateways to digital finance. The Cityzens Card is a powerful example of how digital tools can enable smart governance, said GCash VP and head of public sector, Cleo Santos. By embedding financial access into city services, were not only streamlining aid and assistance delivery but also supporting efficient governance, like that of Tagbilaran, and driving real financial inclusion for their constituents. The Cityzens Card is expected to become the default ID and digital financial access point for residents of Tagbilaran. Its rollout comes amid heightened calls for digital transformation across Philippine local governments, many of which are grappling with the logistical challenges of social aid distribution. For more information, visit https://www.gcash.com. These days, it's easy to find yourself glued to a screenhustling to earn, chasing goals, and doing everything you can to make your dreams become a reality, which can lead to unnecessary eye strain that can affect your health. Thats where the OPPO Pad SE comes indesigned to be #YourPadToSuccess, it supports your drive without compromising your well-being. Whether you're working, learning, or creating, its built to keep up with your hustle and protect your eyes. Protect your eyes and #BingeAllDayAndNight Extended hours on screens often result in eye strain, fatigue, and sleepless nights. 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The momentum generated by Chinas policies aimed at stabilising foreign investment, combined with the rapid growth of green and artificial intelligence-driven economies, will deliver strong tailwinds for foreign companies in China this year, said foreign business executives. With rising global economic headwinds and uncertainty over United States trade policies, many global enterprises are opting to consolidate their presence in China, with plans to maintain or expand investment. Chinas stable and business-friendly environment supported a modest rebound in foreign direct investment in March, with actual FDI inflows into the Chinese mainland increasing by 13.2 per cent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed. Marelli Holdings Co Ltd, a Saitama, Japan-headquartered multinational automotive parts manufacturer with more than 50 manufacturing facilities across the world, will expand its engineering team from 800 to 1,000 in China over the next three years. Many opportunities arise from Chinese automakers rapid shift towards electrification and intelligence, especially in the form of software-defined vehicles, which are setting new benchmarks for speed, scale and innovation, said David Slump, the groups president and CEO. With China and the US agreeing to de-escalate trade tensions in May, Slump said that these two countries are major markets for Marelli. We are closely monitoring and assessing the situation, and are committed to minimising any impact on our operations and customers, said Slump. He added that the company is already exporting advanced products and solutions from China to other markets, including Europe, Mexico and Southeast Asia. Also upbeat about the Chinese market, British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced in March an investment of $2.5 billion (1.9 billion) to establish in Beijing its sixth global strategic R&D centre, and further expand its biotech innovation partnerships and local manufacturing capabilities. The new facility will advance early-stage research and clinical development and will be enabled by a new AI and data science laboratory. Susan Galbraith, executive vice-president, oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said that having two of its six global strategic R&D centres in China reflects the groups confidence in Chinas world-class biomedical innovation ecosystem and reinforces the nations critical role in its global R&D strategy. Ji Wenhua, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies, which is part of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said that Chinas well-developed industrial bases, strong supply chain resilience and policy emphasis on innovation continue to make it an attractive destination for global capital. According to Chinas 2025 Action Plan for Stabilising Foreign Investment, the country will support pilot regions in effectively implementing opening-up policies related to areas such as value-added telecommunication, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, providing whole-journey services for foreign-invested projects in these sectors. The action plan also supports foreign businesses to participate in Chinas new industrialisation, with a focus on high-tech fields. Global capital has been welcomed in service sectors such as elderly care, culture and tourism, sports, healthcare, vocational education and finance. As part of its strategy to strengthen operations in China, US express transportation service provider FedEx Corp announced in mid-May that it would enhance its international export services from Shanghai. The cutoff times for same-day outbound shipments from Shanghai to Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, India and Africa will be further extended. The foreign trade value of foreign-invested businesses reached 4.1 trillion yuan (423.81 billion) in China between January and April, up 1.9 per cent year-on-year, accounting for 29 per cent of Chinas total foreign trade value, statistics from the General Administration of Customs showed. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Dozens of countries joined China on Friday to establish a mediation-based international dispute resolution forum in Hong Kong. Representatives of about 30 nations, from Pakistan and Indonesia to Belarus and Cuba, joined Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi in signing the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organisation for Mediation, becoming its founding members. The support of developing countries showed Beijing's rising influence in the global south amid heightened geopolitical tensions, partly exacerbated by US president Donald Trump's trade tariffs. At a ceremony, Mr Wang said China had long advocated for handling differences with a spirit of mutual understanding and consensus-building through dialogue while aiming to provide Chinese wisdom for resolving conflicts between nations. The establishment of the International Organisation for Mediation helps to move beyond the zero-sum mindset of you lose and I win, he said. The organisation aimed to help promote the amicable resolution of international disputes and build more harmonious global relations, he added. Wang Yi speaks at a ceremony for establishing the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organisation for Mediation Convention in Hong Kong ( AFP via Getty ) Beijing has touted the new organisation as the world's first intergovernmental legal forum for resolving disputes through mediation, saying it will be an important mechanism in safeguarding the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. It has also positioned Hong Kong as an international legal and dispute resolution services center in Asia. Mr Wang said the city's rule of law was highly developed, with the advantages of both common law and mainland Chinese law systems, asserting that it possessed uniquely favorable conditions for international mediation. Hong Kong leader John Lee said the organisation could begin its work as early as the end of the year. He had earlier said its status would be on a par with the UN forums like the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague. The ICJ, also known as the world court, is the top body for solving disputes between member states under international law. The convention signing ceremony was attended by representatives from nearly 50 countries and 20 organisations, including the UN. Yueming Yan, a law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the new organisation was a complementary mechanism to existing institutions like the ICJ and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. While the ICJ and PCA focus on adjudication and arbitration, IOMED introduces a structured, institutionalised form of alternative dispute resolution namely, mediation on a global scale, she said. Although many details about the new body were yet to be clarified, it could open the door for greater synergy between formal litigation or arbitration and more flexible methods like mediation, she said. Shahla Ali, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said the International Organisation for Mediation would have the capacity to mediate disputes between states, between a state and a national of another state or in international commercial disputes. Conventions can provide opportunities to experiment with new approaches," she said, noting rising interest in mediation globally as a means to resolve investor-state disputes. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Japan has announced that China will lift its ban on Japanese seafood imports. The ban was imposed in 2023 due to concerns over the discharge of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean. Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said that the agreement was reached during a meeting between Japanese and Chinese officials in Beijing. The resumption of imports is contingent upon the completion of required paperwork. As of now, there has been no immediate statement from China regarding this development. The step is based on an agreement between the two nations that Beijing was to take steps toward ending the ban by joining water sampling missions as part of the International Atomic Energy Agency. open image in gallery A worker holds a radioactivity monitor near the Fukushima plant The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, triggering meltdowns in its three reactors and causing large amounts of radioactive water to accumulate. The wastewater was treated and heavily diluted to reduce the radioactivity as much as possible before Japan began discharging the wastewater in August 2023. Japan says the discharge has met international safety standards and data from the IAEA monitoring are publicly available. China blocked imports of Japanese seafood because it said the release would endanger the fishing industry and coastal communities in eastern China. Earlier this week, Japan announced plans to use slightly radioactive soil, stored near the nuclear plant, for flower beds outside Prime Minister Shigeru Ishibas office. The move is intended to demonstrate the safety of reusing soil that was removed from Fukushima prefecture during decontamination efforts. Officials say that some of the soil has now reached levels deemed safe for reuse. The government aims to reassure the public by using the soil at Mr Ishiba's office in Tokyo, with plans to extend its use to flower beds and other purposes within government agency grounds. Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Choking smoke billowing from deadly wildfires in Canada is heading toward the U.S. this weekend. Forecasters in multiple states warned residents to expect degraded air quality and reduced visibility. Smoke from wildfires in Canada is expected to overspread portions of central Illinois during today. This may result in reduced visibility at times and contribute to health concerns for people that are unusually sensitive to air pollution, the National Weather Service in Lincoln said in a post on social media. open image in gallery Wildfire smoke has already shut down highways in Canada due to reduced visibility. Now, U.S. forecasters are warning residents about similar conditions as it blows over the border and to the southeast ( BC Wildfire Service/Facebook ) Just under three hours away, the city of Chicago which was recently hit with a historic dust storm is also expected to see impacts, as well as more storms. Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wyoming, and Iowa offices also told residents to prepare for hazy skies and the smell of smoke. "Most of the time, the smoke will be high-flying and dim the sun, leading to vivid sunrises and sunsets and causing a hazy appearance to the sky overhead," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said in a statement. The advisories come just under two years since smoke from Canadas worst fire season on record turned New York City an eerie burnt orange. This year, the smoke is being guided by steering winds that are blowing it to the southeast. open image in gallery Smoke from Canadas worst fire season filled New York City skies in June 2023. Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of such fires ( Getty ) Wildfires produce a mix of pollutants and particle pollution, which is also referred to as particulate matter. PM 2.5, which is considered to be a carcinogen, is the air pollutant of greatest concern to public health from wildfire smoke. It can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. The health effects of this pollution can range from eye and throat irritation to heart failure and premature death. It may impact the bodys ability to remove viruses or bacteria from the lungs. Even short-term exposures are linked to an increased risk of exacerbation of pre-existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, recent research has found that PM.25 can have health effects for up to three months after exposure. Even brief exposures from smaller fires that last only a few days can lead to long-lasting health effects, said Dr. Yaguang Wei, an assistant professor of environmental medicine at Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine. open image in gallery Massive fire growth in Canada is being driven by hot temperatures and arid conditions. More than 700,00 acres have burned since the years start ( BC Wildfire Service/Facebook ) The recent threat comes as massive blazes burning across Canada have killed two people and forced the evacuations of thousands. On Thursday, the province of Manitoba declared a state of emergency. There are 175 active wildfires and 12 that cropped up on Friday. Since the years start, more than 700,000 acres have gone up in flames. The pre-summer fires come following the second-worst fire season of the century. The 2025 fires have also been fueled by climate change-driven heat. In Manitoba, temperatures have exceeded the average by as much as 22 to 24.3 degrees, according to nonprofit Climate Central. As heat builds in from the western U.S. next week, AccuWeather said that the hot air and any lingering smoke may also lead to ozone issues over a broad area of the north-central region. "Most of these areas in the Midwest will have days where there is little or no rain around and the sun is out over the weekend. So the smoke will be more noticeable," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said. "The smoke may reach into the Northeast as well, but with extensive clouds and showers this weekend, the smoky haze may be mixed in and not so obvious." Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The ocean is darkening. Researchers say more than a fifth of the planets ocean which makes up 70 percent of the surface of the Earth has been subject to the darkening process over the course of the past two decades. It occurs following changes in the optical properties of the ocean that reduce the depth of its photic zones, the surface layers of the ocean that receive sunlight and moonlight, where 90 percent of marine life live. The consequences of continued shifts could be concerning both for sea creatures and humans alike. Although theres much we dont know. A stunning 80 percent of the ocean remains unobserved and unexplored. If the photic zone is reducing by around 50 meters [55 yards} in large swathes of the ocean, animals that need light will be forced closer to the surface where they will have to compete for food and the other resources they need. That could bring about fundamental changes in the entire marine ecosystem, Tim Smyth, the head of science for marine biogeochemistry and observations at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, warned in a statement. Smyth was one of the co-authors of the study, which was published recently in the journal Global Change Biology. open image in gallery Earths oceans are getting darker. Researchers say the changes could have impacts for marine biodiversity and humans alike ( NASA ) Possible ecosystem changes and animals moving closer to the surface could also be worrying for humans, who rely on the ocean for recreation, transport, and food. The change could also upset the availability of smaller prey, including brown shrimp, tuna, and other pelagic fish. In addition, it could send predators into new waters that are closer to shore, and potentially to swimmers. Thats already happening thanks to climate change, as sharks follow schools of menhaden along the East Coast. The precise implications of changes, however, are not wholly clear at this point, and 10 percent of the ocean has become lighter during the same time period. Using data from NASAs Ocean Color Web satellite, which breaks the global ocean down into a series of nine kilometer (5.5 mile) pixels, they were able to see changes on the oceans surface. The authors developed an algorithm to measure light in seawater and tell them the depth of the photic zone in each location. They also relied on models to look closer at changes during daylight and moonlight conditions, determining that changes in photic zone depth at night were small compared to the daytime. The researchers found that more than nine percent of the ocean had seen its lit zones reduced by more than 50 meters, and just under three percent saw them reduced by more than 100 meters (109 yards). Coastal changes are likely due to multiple factors, including nutrients entering the water because of increased rainfall and agricultural runoff. Climate change is also leading to heavier rain events. In the open ocean, harmful algal blooms spurred by climate-change-driven sea surface temperatures have helped to block light. The most prominent changes were observed around the poles and the top of the Gulf Stream near Florida. Florida has seen multiple major harmful algae blooms in recent years, and a record bloom is headed for South Florida this summer. The most prominent changes in photic zone depth in the open ocean were observed at the top of the Gulf Stream, and around both the Arctic and Antarctic, areas of the planet experiencing the most pronounced shifts as a result of climate change. open image in gallery A sea bird catches a fish from underneath sargassum algae in Fajardo, Puerto Rico on May 19, 2025 ( AFP/Getty ) Darkening was also widespread in the Baltic Sea, which borders northern Europe and where rainfall on land brings sediment and nutrients into the sea, stimulating phytoplankton growth. Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae and the base of several food webs. There has been research showing how the surface of the ocean has changed color over the last 20 years, potentially as a result of changes in plankton communities. But our results provide evidence that such changes cause widespread darkening that reduces the amount of ocean available for animals that rely on the sun and the moon for their survival and reproduction, said Dr. Thomas Davies, an associate professor of marine conservation at the University of Plymouth. We also rely on the ocean and its photic zones for the air we breathe, the fish we eat, our ability to fight climate change, and for the general health and wellbeing of the planet. Taking all of that into account, our findings represent genuine cause for concern, he added. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Strikes by NHS doctors are once again making headlines and dividing opinion across the country. As junior doctors vote on whether to take more industrial action, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has urged them to say no, warning that more strikes will only hurt patients and stall progress. Doctors say theyve had enough of being underpaid and undervalued, with some calling for a near 30 per cent pay rise to make up for years of real-terms cuts. But public support is slipping, and some patients are losing patience. In a poll of Independent readers, two-thirds of respondents said they felt strikes would hurt patients and should not go ahead. Bigger questions also lurk behind the pay dispute: is the NHS properly funded? Is immigration helping or hurting the system? And how do we train and keep enough staff without burning them out or driving them abroad? When we asked for your views, some readers blamed poor management, others pointed to staff shortages and rising demand. But one thing was clear: the NHS is at breaking point, and something has to give. Heres what you had to say: User changes We need some user charges for health care. This is to encourage people to look after their health. Despite more money being poured into the NHS than ever before, the number of people needing treatment continues to rise even faster. User charges would also enable doctors to be paid properly and prevent them from leaving for other countries. Mark Add your view on strikes and the state of the NHS by leaving a coment here A career, not a vocation When becoming a doctor became a career rather than a vocation, it seems to have become both in thrall to Big Pharma and motivated by greed rather than concern for patient or societal well-being something else unwanted, imported from the USA. Topsham1 Rising demand means rising contributions If we went back to the NHS of the 1950s, 60s, 70s, etc., we could probably reduce funding considerably. However, what the NHS does and the numbers it does it for consistently rises. If we really want it to meet the need comprehensively, we'll need to increase contributions. To keep up with rising costs and modern treatments, this seems inevitable. We seem to accept rising costs in most areas of life, but think we can run the NHS on less. Go figure. Strangely Enough Striking while patients suffer is wrong I think it is morally wrong to take industrial action that will knowingly harm patients. The dispute is not with them. Strikes are to put pressure on the employer, in this case the government, to up their offer. But if inadequate pay is causing retention problems, then the pressure is already there. EarthFirst Top-heavy If you get rid of the thousands of administrators/managers on 100,000+ salaries, you can afford a pay rise for doctors and nurses. The NHS is way too top-heavy. VonGenschler A good carpenter can out-earn most doctors I've spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals in recent times and have had excellent treatment overall. It would be good if our NHS staff were the world's highest paid, but that can't happen because hospitals are oversubscribed with the growing number of people, many of whom are not entitled by birth to do so. Doctors and other staff are also not necessarily native in any way, but I, for one, am glad they're here. Today, a good carpenter can out-earn most doctors up to registrar level, which must be galling for those with higher education and ambition. As an older person, I use the NHS more frequently. Sometimes I'm aware that me living means someone might not get that important appointment. Another thing is free prescriptions I receive twelve items more or less each month. Again, I wonder how on earth I could pay the cost that others have to pay. My prescriptions are delivered free as well. I don't know how this is financed, but someone does. I suppose, one day, they will carry out the most enormous cull to balance things up a little. I wouldn't blame them maybe they're already planning it. Martyn GPs failings GPs bear a great chunk of the NHS failings that are occurring today. My recollection of GP services concerns the home birth of our second child. There were no complications in fact, labour only lasted for three hours but our GP at the time came to the house during the labour and returned three days after the birth to check that the baby and mother were in good fettle, which they were. Do GPs give that sort of service today? Cameron promised 24/7 GP service, but that went unfulfilled. A battle needs to take place, with GPs becoming employees of the NHS and being paid a good rate for the job. Present partnerships must be put to the sword. MORDEY Greed As I am in my 80s, I am lucky enough to remember when being a doctor was a vocation, not just another job. Sadly, those days are gone. It appears that greed is now what motivates our young doctors. Why are they striking? Because they can. Do they care that people may die because of their actions? No. Paqs Wealthfare state vs NHS spending How come we never have these "debates" when we spend on the "wealthfare" state (aka socialism for the rich), but must always have them whenever it's time to spend on anything else? I ask because even Big Oil and Big Pharma, the arms industry, etc., apparently need subsidies, tax relief, grants and sundry other largesse, while overworked NHS workers must live on food banks, or have their relative peanuts "debated." Ryhope1 UK failed to retain its own medics The NHS has been subsidised by the developing world, who train its doctors and nurses since its inception. It is incapable of recruiting and retaining UK staff like me, who went to Australia as soon as I completed my training. Kwame Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity. You can read the full discussion in the comments section of the original article here. The conversation isnt over. To join in, all you need to do is register your details, then you can take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking log in on the top right-hand corner of the screen. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Archaeologists in Guatemala have discovered the ruins of a 3,000-year-old Maya city featuring remarkable architecture, including pyramids and monuments, that shed more light on the ancient civilisation. The ancient city named Los Abuelos Spanish for The Grandparents once stood about 21km from the archaeological site of Uaxactun in Guatemalas northern Peten department, the culture ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The city presents remarkable architectural planning, and it was likely one of the most ancient and important ceremonial centres of the Maya civilisation. Monuments found at the site have been dated to the Middle Preclassic period of 800-500BC and appear to be sculpted with unique iconography. Some figures unearthed from the ruins, and dated to 500-300 BC, could be linked to ancient ritual practices of ancestor worship, according to the ministry. A tourist takes pictures in front a Mayan temple in the Tikal archaeological site in Peten ( AFP/Getty ) Researchers said a pair of nearby archaeological sites uncovered during the latest excavations also stood out for their significance. While the Petnal site is home to a 33m-high pyramid adorned with pre-classical Maya murals, Cambrayal features a unique canal system and evidence of advanced hydraulic infrastructure. Archaeological investigations have included the active participation of Guatemalan and international professionals, with the support of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, the ministry said. This joint effort has allowed significant advancements in the exploration, conservation, and dissemination of the Mayan legacy. The three sites Los Abuelos, Petnal and Cambrayal were excavated as part of Guatemalas ongoing Uaxactun Regional Archaeological Project. These sites form a previously unknown urban triangle, the ministry was quoted as saying by AFP. These findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and socio-political organisation of pre-Hispanic Peten. The latest discovery follows the unearthing in April of a 1,000-year-old altar painted with a mural in red, yellow, and blue colours associated with Mexicos ancient Teotihuacan culture. The mural was confirmed to depict the Goddess of the Storm adorned with a feathered headdress a distinctive feature in Mesoamerican iconography. The discovery offered the first piece of evidence in Guatemala of possible interaction between the Maya and Teotihuacan cultures. The altar was believed to have been used by individuals with strong ties to Teotihuacan, who, along with introducing their funerary and architectural traditions, expressed their own cultural identity and beliefs in the region. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A decades-old cold case at the Jersey Shore has been cracked after experts confirmed that skeletal remains found on three beaches belong to a 19th-century ship captain. Undergraduate student researchers at Ramapo College of New Jersey used advanced DNA technology to determine that bones from a leg, arm and fragments of a cranium all belonged to Captain Henry Goodsell - who died at sea 181 years ago at age 29. The bones were found separately on Ocean City, Margate and Longport beaches between 1995 and 2013. New Jersey State Police turned them over to researchers at the colleges Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center last year. "We kind of kept going back and forth between, are they historic? Are they not historic? NJSP Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Anna Delaney told NBC New York. "This is absolutely amazing because after all of this time, Henry has his name." open image in gallery Undergraduate students at the Ramapo College of New Jersey were able to link the three bones to the same person - Captain Henry Goodsell. ( Ramapo College of New Jersey ) open image in gallery Researchers found the captains great-great-granddaughter, whose DNA sample confirmed the identity of the remains. ( New Jersey State Police ) open image in gallery Researchers found a 1844 newspaper clipping from the York Democratic Press detailing the captain. ( Ramapo College of New Jersey ) While examining New Jersey shipwreck records, students uncovered newspaper articles from December 20 and 24, 1844. They learned that the Oriental, captained Goodsell, was carrying five crew members and 60 tons of marble to Philadelphia for Girard College when it sank near Brigantine Shoal in 1844, killing everyone on board. Researchers traced Goodsells genetic relatives back to the 1600s and built family trees, revealing ancestral ties to Connecticut. They eventually located Goodsells great-great-granddaughter in Maryland, whose DNA sample confirmed the captain's identity. Goodsell's family said they do not want his remains, so they will stay at a state repository indefinitely. 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 in a news release. 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 added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A baby and two adults have been rushed to hospital after a dog attack on a residential street in Manchester. Emergency services were called to Baslow Road in Denton shortly before 6pm on Thursday after receiving reports of an out-of-control dog. Footage has emerged of the dog being captured and taken into a police van, with its breed currently unknown. The one-year-old child and the two other victims were airlifted to Manchester Royal Infirmary and are currently being treated for their injuries. One person told MailOnline: There's people covered in blood and a baby's been taken to hospital. There were others who looked injured. A dog section and armed police went in with guns. The street remains cordoned off with an investigation underway. A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: We were called to Baslow Road, Denton, at around 5.50pm today (29/5/25) to reports several people had been attacked by a dog. Three people, a one-year-old child and two adults, are in hospital being treated for their injuries. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A former Royal Marine held back tears in court as he was accused of driving into Liverpool football fans at the clubs victory parade on Monday evening. Paul Doyle, 53, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court charged with seven offences: two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm and one count of dangerous driving. Dozens of people queued outside the court beforehand to be present at the magistrates court hearing, and police were on duty outside the building. open image in gallery Dozens of people queued outside Liverpool Magistrates' Court ( Alex Ross/The Independent ) Liverpool Magistrates' Court heard he was alleged to have "used his vehicle deliberately as a weapon". The father of three, from Croxteth in the city, looked emotional when he arrived at court from the cells and looked around at the dozens of reporters packing the courtroom. He spoke with a croaky voice, and only to confirm his name, date of birth and address. He gave no indication of a plea. The case was referred to Liverpool Crown Court, which is in the same building, and he appeared there soon afterwards. open image in gallery Doyle confirmed his name and address ( Reuters ) Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary fixed a provisional trial date of 24 November, saying the case could last three to four weeks. Before that, a plea hearing is due to be held on 14 August. According to the dangerous driving charge, Doyle drove a Ford Galaxy Titanium dangerously on roads between his home address in Burghill Road and Water Street. Philip Astbury, prosecuting, told the court: "This is very much an ongoing investigation. There are many witnesses to be interviewed and a great deal of CCTV to be analysed." open image in gallery Police were on duty outside the court ( Reuters ) He said six of the charges reflected the more seriously injured of those struck by the vehicle, and the dangerous driving offence reflected the manner of driving. The charges relate to six victims, including two children aged 11 and 17, the court heard. The judge imposed reporting restrictions to prevent the victims from being identified publicly. Doyle, who wore a black suit, white shirt and grey tie, stood with his hands clasped and nodded as he was remanded in custody, before being led out of the dock by security guards. Seven people out of the 79 injured on Monday remained in hospital on Thursday, police said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Russian captain of a container ship that crashed into a US oil tanker in the North Sea has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of a crew member. The Solongs master, Vladimir Motin, 59, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, is accused of the unlawful killing of crew member Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, in the collision off the East Yorkshire coast on March 10. Appearing via videolink from HMP Hull at the Old Bailey, Motin confirmed his identity at the plea hearing before Judge Mark Lucraft KC on Friday morning. Assisted by a Russian interpreter, Motin pleaded not guilty to a single charge of the manslaughter of Filipino national Mr Pernia. Judge Lucraft set a further hearing on September 10 ahead of the defendants trial on January 12, 2026. Motin was charged over Mr Pernias death after his vessel collided with the American tanker Stena Immaculate near the Humber Estuary on March 10. open image in gallery Smoke rises from the MV Solong cargo ship in the North Sea, off the coast of Withernsea, east of England, after it collided with the MV Stena Immaculate tanker on March 10 ( AFP via Getty Images ) All 23 people on the tanker were rescued along with 13 crew from the Solong, but Mr Pernia could not be located. Mr Pernia was working on the forward deck of the Solong, in an area where there was an explosion. The collision happened at about 9.47am at 10.2 nautical miles from the nearest point on the coast, a previous hearing was told. The 140m-long Solong is Portuguese-registered and was carrying about 157 containers. The Stena Immaculate is 183m long and was carrying jet fuel. It anchored at the point of the collision about 15 hours before the impact. The Solong was travelling at about 15 knots when it hit the port side of the other vessel. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The alleged driver of a car that ploughed into a crowd at Liverpools victory parade and injured 79 people has been charged with seven offences against six victims. Paul Doyle appeared in court for the first time on Friday and has been remanded into police custody after being arrested following the scenes of devastation that broke out on Water Street on Monday. The 53-year-old from West Derby was not named until Thursday, but had previously been confirmed to be a white British man from the city. Here is everything we know so far about the suspect. open image in gallery Emergency services responding to the crash on Water Street ( Getty ) Who is Paul Doyle? According to multiple reports, Doyle is a married father of three and a business owner who lives in a quiet cul-de-sac. His LinkedIn profile shows he was a former Royal Marine commando during the 1990s prior to launching his businesses, and now works in cyber. Their neighbours claimed they are a nice family, with the children praised for being well-behaved. What charges does he face? The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said he is accused of two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent and one count of dangerous driving. A wounding charge and an attempted grievous bodily harm charge relate to a child. open image in gallery Nearly 80 people were injured, with 50 taken to hospital ( PA Wire ) What happened at the Liverpool victory parade? Up to a million supporters had gathered to celebrate Liverpools 20th Premier League victory in a 10-mile parade in the city on Monday. Police previously said they believed the car that struck pedestrians tailgated an ambulance trying to reach a man suffering from a suspected heart attack inside roadblocks on Water Street, off the main parade route. Four children were among those injured after the vehicle struck crowds, who were heading to catch trains, buses and taxis home at around 6pm. Merseysides chief fire officer Nick Searle said they rescued four people who were trapped under the car, including a child. Some 50 people were taken to hospital for treatment and seven were still receiving treatment on Thursday night. The suspect was arrested at the scene of the incident, which is not being treated as terror-related. He is due to appear at Liverpool Magistrates Court on Friday. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to sex offence charges including rape and sexual assault. The comedian and actor is facing one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault, relating to four separate women between 1999 and 2005. The 49-year-old, wearing a dark grey suit, appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court on Friday flanked by two officers. He spoke only to confirm his name and enter his not guilty pleas, standing still and looking straight ahead as he spoke. As the hearing finished, the comedian replaced his sunglasses before exiting the dock and walking slowly past reporters out of the courtroom. Brand had appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month, where he heard details of the allegations against him including that he allegedly raped a woman in a hotel room when she attended a Labour Party conference. He is also accused of grabbing a TV workers breasts before dragging her into a toilet and allegedly orally raping her. open image in gallery Brand leaves Southwark Crown Court in London on Friday ( Yui Mok/PA Wire ) A radio station worker claims Brand grabbed her by the face, pushed her against a wall and kissed her before allegedly groping her breasts and buttocks. Another alleged victim accuses him of indecent assault after he allegedly grabbed her forearm and attempted to drag her into a male toilet. Arriving at court on Friday, Brand held a book in his hand and looked straight ahead without taking questions from reporters. Leaving the courthouse later, he walked slowly past members of the media and the public gathered outside, before getting into a car that drove off. open image in gallery Brand spoke only to confirm his name and enter his not guilty pleas on Friday ( Yui Mok/PA Wire ) Brand was charged by post last month following an investigation by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times, in which several women made allegations against him. He previously told his 11.2 million followers on X that he welcomed the opportunity to prove his innocence. On Friday, Brand was granted conditional bail to appear for a pre-trial review hearing on 20 May 2026. Brand, of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, is set to stand trial at Southwark Crown Court next year, with a provisional trial date set for 3 June 2026. The actor presented a BBC Radio 2 show between 2006 and 2008. He also presented Big Brother spin-off shows Big Brothers Big Mouth and Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack. He was married to US pop singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012 and is now married to Laura Gallacher, the sister of presenter Kirsty, and the pair have two children, Mabel and Peggy. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A welcome sign left drivers confused when it was moved to a different town entirely. The road sign welcoming people to the Somerset town of Frome appeared on the B3355 going to Midsomer Norton on Friday, which is 10 miles (16km) away. The mix-up comes after several sign-swapping incidents across the West Country in March. One prank saw a welcome sign for Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire relocated more than 60 miles (97km) away to Portland in Dorset. Four signs were also moved from Camerton, near Bath in Somerset, and the Jurassic Coast in Dorset to Bradford-on-Avon, the BBC reported. open image in gallery The road sign welcoming people to the Somerset town of Frome appeared on the B3355 going to Midsomer Norton on Friday ( The Independent ) Following the latest sign swap, Somerset Council said it is an act of criminal damage, adding it will need to be repaired at public expense. In a statement, a council spokesperson said: If residents see something like this happening, they should contact the police. Peter, an amused pensioner from Frome who spotted the sign swap and photographed it in Midsomer Norton over the bank holiday weekend, described the prank as a professional job. He told the BBC: It seems like an April Fools Day prank, but obviously were not in April. He explained that although he has seen signs covered in graffiti, he has never seen a town sign swapped. I knew that it was wrong. Obviously, I should be coming to Midsomer Norton so part of me thought it was some kind of Dad's Army tribute where they changed the signs around to confuse invading armies, he said. But this is not the first time pranksters have left drivers scratching their heads. In September 2023, road signs in Caithness, Scotland, were removed and replaced. The Telegraph also reported in February that someone in Glasgow dressed up as a race marshal sent 30 trail race runners on a 1.5-mile detour by hiding park signs. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A gold ring that had been lost for centuries has been found by a metal detectorist gleaming in the sunshine. Malcolm Weale, 53, found the historic piece of jewellery in a field near Thetford, in Norfolk, in August. The ring, crafted in gold and enamel, is a mourning ring linked to an ancestor of Gawdy Hall Estate in Norfolk. It is thought to have been created in memory of Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy, the third baronet of Harling, who died in a hunting accident in 1723 at the age of 56. The inscription on the ring reads B.G. Bart. ob: 10. Oct: 1723. aet: 56, which means B.G. Baronet, died 10th October 1723, aged 56, according to historian Helen Geake. He is described as a bachelor who was a notable sportsman and enjoyed rackety exploits by The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The ring has recently been declared treasure at Norfolk Coroner's Court and will now be taken to the British Museum, where it will be valued. Describing the moment he found the 18th-century ring, Mr Weale said: "I knew this was something very special and I did a bit of a dance." open image in gallery Malcolm Weale, 53, found the ring in a field near Thetford, in Norfolk, in August ( Malcolm Weale ) Mr Weale, who has been a detectorist since he was seven years old, said he had been searching in the area for 18 months before finding the ring. Over the years Ive found all sorts of treasures including a hoard of late Roman coins, gold rings and jewellery in the fields around my home in eastern England, he said. Last year was a particularly good year for detecting as, thanks to the rainfall, the moisture levels in the ground were very high. Mr Weale said he had already found some medieval silver coins from King Steven and Henry VII in the same field, as well as some modern coins. With metal detecting you can spend days, weeks or months searching or sometimes just 20 minutes and make an amazing discovery, he said. August 9 was a hot day, I had my detector in the car, and it turned out to be one of my best days. It was just the second signal and there it was, a glint of pure gold, shiny as the day it was dropped, six inches down in the mud. Its very rare to put a name to anything you find, but I knew this was something very special and I did a bit of a dance. Last year he also found a "gold memorial ring, a medieval silver ring fragment, and the first and only Viking penny minted for Guthrum a Viking warlord who became the first Viking king to convert to Christianity and ruled East Anglia in the 870s". It is thought that Sir Brews Gawdey, a French knight who was taken during the Hundred Years War, is the ancestor of the Gawdy family. Although the Gawdy Hall estate is located in Norfolk, just north of the River Waveney, it seems that he was naturalised and lived in Suffolk after being captured in 1352. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A man who is skateboarding from Brighton to Africa for charity almost had to bring his adventure to an end when all his possessions were stolen including his passport. Sam Allison, who is taking on the challenge of skateboarding 1,500 miles (1,400km) from Brighton to Tangier in Morocco, said his belongings were stolen while camping in France. The 21-year-old from East Sussex said he felt defeated when he realised everything he had had been taken, apart from his phone and wallet. But he refused to let the theft of his possessions stop him from continuing his 55-day journey. Instead, he took a detour to Bordeaux in France to get an emergency travel document and buy a new bag, tent, torch, clothes and a sleeping bag. open image in gallery Sam Allison is skateboarding 1,500 miles (1,400km) to Tangier in Morocco (pictured) from Brighton ( Getty Images/iStockphoto ) "It is what it is. Life happens. There is nothing I can do about it," he said in a video posted on Instagram. "It's just sad. I am trying to do a good thing and I have had that taken from me." However, there was one advantage: without his bulky rucksack he found skating much easier and joked that he was kind of grateful. Some of the stolen items did have sentimental value to Mr Allison, who explained the T-shirt he was wearing when he set off was stolen and that he would struggle to afford to replace a lot of the items. Mr Allison is taking on the challenge to raise money for the Ben Raemers foundation, a mental health charity which was set up in memory of the professional skateboarder who died age 28 by suicide in May 2019. I have seen and experienced what poor mental health can do for myself, friends and family and it can get dark feeling like there is no way out. So, Im thankful for the foundation making the whole skate community and beyond more open to discussion of mental health as its so important, Mr Allison wrote on a gofundme page for the trip which has raised more than 3,700. He added: They are also giving accessibility to skaters within the industry to focus on improving mental health and easier access to services for mental health which is truly incredible as it can feel like an uncertainty of where to turn for help in hard times. Mr Allison is now halfway through his skateboarding journey to Morocco, which will see him travel from Brighton through France and Spain and down to North Africa. If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Nigel Farage could become the prime minister with an outright majority, the latest polling calculations show as Reform UK surges ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. After Sir Keir Starmer attacked the Reform UK leader directly in a bid to stem the partys rise, parliament seat prediction site Electoral Calculus has calculated that Mr Farage would win 362 seats if a general election were held tomorrow. Labour would fall from winning 412 seats at the last general election to second place on 136, while the beleaguered Conservatives would be almost wiped out, winning just 22 seats. One pollster has suggested that the UK is on the verge of a political earthquake, but others have warned against reading too much into the current polls and questioned some of the assumptions behind the Electoral Calculus prediction. open image in gallery Nigel Farage is on course to become prime minister, according to the polls ( PA ) It comes as the latest Techne UK poll for The Independent, revealed that Reform has hit an all time high of 31 per cent (up 1 from last week), nine points above Labour on 22 per cent (unchanged) and almost double Kemi Badenochs Tories stuck in third equal on 16 per cent (down 1). Professor Sir John Curtice warned that there is no absolute figure a party needs to reach to win an overall majority, saying that the gap over other parties and geographical spread of votes are more important. With Reform votes concentrated in certain regions, he said: With a nine-point lead and an evenly spread vote, Reform would be well ahead in seats. More in Common pollster, Luke Tryl, suggested that Reform has hit a critical point. He told The Independent: It depends if the electorate remains as fragmented as it is now, then 31% will be enough. But if Starmer can consolidate the left, it probably wont be enough - thats what happens in Canada [when Mark Carney defeated his rightwing opponents]. Polling expert Lord Hayward warned that council by-elections are a much better indicator than polls, but even then, this was going Reforms way. He noted that Reform had recently won by-elections in a traditional Tory heartland of Canvey Island in Essex and a Labour heartland in Caernarvonshire. He said: You cant have a more contrasted position than winning in those two areas. Currently, only the Lib Dems can hold their seats against Reform, that is what the by-elections are showing. But Techne UKs chief executive Michela Morizzo said: There can be no doubt this is an earthquake in UK politics. The Electoral Calculus prediction, based on the average of current polls, would give Reform an overall majority of 74 seats and pave the way for Mr Farage to be able to implement his radical tax-cutting agenda. On these figures, Nigel Farage would be prime minister with a working majority and no need for a coalition with other parties, Electoral Calculus chief executive Martin Baxter said. The damning forecast also gave Labour just a 1 per cent chance of winning a majority at the next election without a dramatic turnaround in its fortunes. As part of Sir Keirs bid to halt Reforms rise, he has ramped up his direct attacks on Mr Farage this week, including using a speech on Thursday to warn he would be as damaging as prime minister as Liz Truss. open image in gallery Sir Keir Starmer has warned Nigel Farage would be as damaging for the country as Liz Truss ( PA ) Labour warned that a Farage government would add 5,500 to an average households mortgage payments with tens of billions of pounds of unfunded spending commitments. And Sir Keir branded Mr Farages policies a mad experiment, insisting he would be exactly the same as Ms Truss. He said: Apparently [Mr Farage] is in Las Vegas today at a casino, and its not a surprise, because he said that the Liz Truss budget in his view was the best since 1986. That shows his judgment. It shows what hed do and the result would be exactly the same. Im not prepared to let that happen. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves will use next months spending review to unveil tens of billions of pounds of investment in seats in the north and Midlands Labour is hoping to avoid falling to Reform. open image in gallery Liz Trusss economic policies caused economic chaos ( AFP/Getty ) The money will fund a slew of road, rail and green energy projects in the north and Midlands, according to reports. Responding to Sir Keirs attacks, Mr Farage accused the prime minister of being obsessed with him, while dismissing his claims about Reforms policies as project fear 2.0 - a reference to the Leave camps dismissal of warnings about the economic impacts of Brexit. And Reform chairman Zia Yusuf said:"It is clear that Reform has all the momentum in British politics, and with Labour and the Tories allowing things like immigration and the cost of living to spiral out of control it is no wonder that the British people are turning their backs on the tired two party system. "Our positive vision for Britain is cutting through and our consistent polling is proof that something is happening out there." Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Nigel Farages claim that Reform UK is the party of workers has been called into question as figures show his plans to slash taxes would benefit the richest most. The Reform leader on Tuesday outlined up to 80bn of welfare and tax handouts without saying how he would fund them in a bid to entice Labour voters, declaring that Reform really are now the party of working people. But economists have warned that the billions of pounds worth of unfunded pledges would cause economic chaos, and say Mr Farages plans would benefit top earners far more than those on the lowest incomes. open image in gallery Nigel Farage has declared Reform the party of working people ( AP ) The centrepiece of Mr Farages tax plans was a pledge to lift the tax-free income allowance from 12,570 to 20,000, which would cost between 50bn and 80bn per year. Stuart Adam, a senior economist at the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said that the biggest beneficiaries [would be] the top 10 per cent. It mainly benefits the better off, he told The Independent. He added: We are talking about the upper middle [class] being the biggest beneficiaries as a percentage of income, and the best-off being the biggest beneficiaries in cash terms. Mr Adam said that around a third of adults already earn too little to pay income tax, while the changes would also penalise those on universal credit, as any uplift in their take-home pay would be clawed back in lower welfare payments. He said a better way of targeting specifically working people with the tax cut would be to target employee national insurance, which is only paid by those in work. open image in gallery Reform UKs tax plans would benefit the wealthiest the most ( Policy Engine ) Calculations for The Independent by the research institute Policy Engine reveal that Mr Farages plans to hike the tax-free income allowance would boost the incomes of the bottom tenth of earners by 1.3 per cent. By contrast, the calculations show that the top 10 per cent of earners would see their incomes boosted by 4.2 per cent under Reforms plans. Max Mosley, senior economist at the New Economics Foundation, told The Independent that Reforms attempts to appear progressive on issues such as winter fuel payments and the removal of the two-child benefit cap are a distraction. He said: It comes as part of a wider set of reforms, which include regressive tax changes and cuts to public services working people rely on. When we put all [of Reform UKs] policies together, it is the wealthiest households that benefit the most, and the poorest who will see the smallest difference in their standard of living. Being a party of workers does not mean giving pennies to the poorest and pounds to the richest. Reform UK said its plans would undoubtedly help working people and benefit the lowest earners. A spokesperson said: Our plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap will lift 350,000 children out of poverty, while raising the tax-free salary allowance to 20,000 will save every worker almost 1,500 a year, putting an extra 30 per week back in peoples pockets. This is in stark contrast to this government, who hiked national insurance for working people and stripped winter fuel payments from over 10 million pensioners. open image in gallery Keir Starmer said Nigel Farage becoming prime minister would be like Liz Truss all over again ( PA Wire ) But it came after an extraordinary speech on Thursday in which Sir Keir Starmer directly attacked Mr Farages tax plans, revealing the severity of the threat Sir Keir believes Labour faces from Reform. The prime minister said: The question you have to ask about Nigel Farage is Can you trust him? Can you trust him with your future? Could you trust him with your jobs? Could you trust him with your mortgages? Your pensions? Your bills? He gave the answer on Tuesday a resounding no. He set out economic plans that contain billions upon billions of completely unfunded spending, precisely the sort of irresponsible splurge that sent your mortgage costs, your bills, and the cost of living through the roof. Its Liz Truss all over again. Sir Keir said Labour was elected to clean up the mess left by Ms Truss, adding: We are once again fighting the same fantasy this time from Farage. Labour MPs lashed out at Mr Farage over his partys plans. Dover and Deal MP Mike Tapp, one of Mr Farages most prominent critics in the Commons, said: Nigel Farage is a rich bloke who is trying to trick the public into thinking he is a working-class hero. His policies speak the truth: [hes] in it for himself and his rich mates. Reform have voted against all of Labours policies standing up for working people. Dont be fooled. open image in gallery Mike Tapp said Nigel Farage is a rich bloke who is in it for himself and his rich mates ( Mike Tapp ) Bury North MP James Frith added: Farages plans would prioritise those at the top and be a hammer-blow for family finances through a return to the chaos of Liz Truss. Only the Labour government can be trusted to drive growth in every part of our country to give working people the security they deserve and our country the renewal it needs. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Georgian police on Friday detained a second opposition leader within days as protests continue in the South Caucasus country against the ruling Georgian Dream party. Lawyers for Nika Melia, one of the figureheads for Georgia's pro-Western Coalition for Change, said his car was stopped by police on Thursday. Soon after, he was bundled away by a large group of people in civilian clothing. According to Georgias interior ministry, Melia has been detained on charges of verbally insulting a law enforcement officer. The arrest came a week after that of Zurab Japaridze, another leader of the pro-Western, liberal coalition of parties that support European Union integration and want a restoration of democratic standards. Japaridze, who heads the Girchi - More Freedom party, was detained on May 22 after refusing to appear before a parliamentary commission investigating alleged wrongdoings by the government of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. Opposition politicians have declined to attend the commission hearings, saying they are politically motivated by Georgian Dream to damage the opposition, particularly Saakashvilis United National Movement party. Melia, of the Ahali party and former chairman of Saakashvilis United National Movement party, was detained on the eve of a scheduled court hearing for failing to testify. Japaridze and seven other opposition politicians, not including Melia, who did not attend the commission are expected to appear before a court in coming days. If found guilty of failing to comply with a parliamentary investigative commission, they face up to a year in prison. Meanwhile, demonstrators have continued to gather in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, demanding new elections and the release of dissidents. Nightly protests there began on Nov. 28, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze halted the countrys EU integration process. Georgia has seen widespread political unrest since the countrys last parliamentary election on Oct. 26, which was won by Georgian Dream. Protestors and the countrys opposition declared the result as illegitimate amid allegations of vote-rigging helped by Russia, sparking weeks of protests across the country. At the time, opposition leaders vowed to boycott sessions of parliament until a new parliamentary election was held under international supervision and alleged ballot irregularities were investigated. Georgian Dream has seen widespread condemnation by European leaders and international rights groups over its rough handling of protestors and perceived democratic backsliding. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The government has sold its remaining shares in NatWest, finalising the bank's return to private ownership for the first time since it was bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis. The Treasury has been a stakeholder since NatWest, formerly known as RBS, received almost 46 billion of funding in 2008 and 2009. To date, 35 billion has been returned to the Exchequer through share sales, dividends and fees, meaning the sale has come at a 10.5 billion loss to taxpayers. The government and bosses at NatWest said it was a significant milestone since the bailout, which prevented the banks collapse. open image in gallery Chancellor Rachel Reeves said NatWests return to private ownership turns the page on a significant chapter in this countrys history ( Hannah McKay/PA ) Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: Nearly two decades ago, the then-government stepped in to protect millions of savers and businesses from the consequences of the collapse of RBS. That was the right decision then to secure the economy, and NatWests return to private ownership turns the page on a significant chapter in this countrys history. Chief executive Paul Thwaite said it is a significant moment for NatWest Group, for all those who work here and for the UK more widely. As we turn the page on the financial crisis, we can look to the future with confidence, without forgetting the lessons of the past. The Treasury has been gradually selling its shares since 2015, but the process has accelerated in the past year as it took advantage of the banks rising share price. open image in gallery Rick Haythornthwaite, NatWest Groups chairman, said it was a rescue, not an investment ( AFP via Getty Images ) Rick Haythornthwaite, NatWest Groups chairman, said: Hopefully, this is a moment when we can consign the great financial crisis to the past. Its very difficult to overstate the importance of what the taxpayer did for the company and for the nation as a whole, he said, stressing that it was a rescue, not an investment. Theres no doubt that the banking sector, the financial services sector as a whole, is much stronger than it was 17 years ago. The culture of the companies is fundamentally different way different to the short-term gains that they used to be (focused on). The boss added that offloading the governments stake meant the business could look to the future. The term fiscal event hardly does justice to the significance of the governments comprehensive spending review, due to be published on Wednesday 11 June by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Its been in preparation more or less since Labour took office last July. It matters at least as much as any Budget because it sets out broad public spending plans for each area of government. These cover planned investment and current spending in areas such as wages, but exclude cyclical items such as unemployment benefits. So they are a strong statement of the Labour governments priorities. All the signs are that its been a difficult process, and the leaks and the spinning have already begun. Whats the trouble? Trying to balance the books (in reality borrowing huge but manageable sums) is the answer to that. In an environment of great global uncertainty, alongside sluggish UK growth thanks to Brexit, and in a country with an ageing population, Reevess task is an unenviable one. In addition, she will have to balance the pressing political demands of colleagues with her determination to stick to her fiscal rules. Specifically? At the moment, backbenchers in the red wall seats in the North and the Midlands that Labour regained from the Tories at the general election are pressuring the Treasury to pour billions into much-needed investment in infrastructure, to make the most of the industrial potential of these neglected areas. This would also, of course, have a helpful electoral benefit for those MPs who are facing a challenge from Reform UK. Reeves has hinted that she could adjust her rules on investment spending to facilitate tens of billions to be devoted to levelling up the regions. Sounds familiar? Yes, indeed. Although Labour chooses not to use the loaded slogan levelling up about left behind communities, it is very much what Boris Johnson promised in 2019 and, for good and bad reasons, wasnt delivered as expected in the last parliament. Before that, George Osborne, Tory chancellor from 2010 to 2016, talked ambitiously about devolution, the Northern Powerhouse, and the Midlands Engine. There was even a red wall caucus of Tory MPs, named the Northern Research Group (NRG), who lobbied hard for successive Tory administrations to live up to their promises (most of the NRG members have since lost their seats). The ultimate symbol of Tory failure was the cancellation of the HS2 rail project, launched with so much hope by David Cameron but miserably dismembered by Rishi Sunak at the 2023 Conservative Party conference. In Manchester. In a former railway station. Now, exactly the same dynamic is operating within the Starmer administration. There are some big personalities involved? Yes: Angela Rayner, deputy leader and deputy prime minister, for one. Powerful as her office makes her, she also has an excellent case for expanding the affordable homes fund, because of the importance Labour placed on the housing crisis and its target of 1.5 million new homes to be built during its first parliament. This was always a tough one so much so that its been reported that Rayner threatened to quit in exasperation and Tony Blair had to persuade her out of it (a story she denies). She is also surely right to get some adequate funding into local authorities before many more fall into chaotic bankruptcy, which would look like carelessness if not incompetence on the part of Rayner. Other ministers putting up a fight are Yvette Cooper at the Home Office, Ed Miliband (Energy), and Steve Reed (Environment). Liz Kendall (Work and Pensions) and Reeves will also need to persuade their backbench colleagues to back whatever welfare reforms they eventually settle on ideally, restoring the pensioners winter fuel payment, lifting the two-child cap on child benefit, and ameliorating planned cuts to disability benefits. Defence and Health are the only areas likely to escape demands for efficiency savings. What can Labour backbenchers do? The spending review is an odd beast, because unlike, say, a finance bill, its not legislation and doesnt necessarily have to be voted on; and for that matter, a government doesnt have to stick to it (even if it wants to). Its just a plan, a statement of intent, and a series of signals about priorities. But some sort of backbench rebellion seems inevitable, even among the usually loyal 2024 intake, even if only by proxy. At a minimum, they will certainly expect some signs of the imminent restoration of the pensioners winter fuel payment the cutting of which was hated by the voters and would have saved little money and on progress to end child poverty. Will there be resignations? Theres talk of Rayner being pushed to the limits of her patience, again, and her resignation would be cataclysmic. However, in most cases of a politician wrestling with their conscience, their conscience usually loses. Rayner would not be thanked for abandoning the administration less than a year into its life. Even worse, as the party is already suffering in the polls, she would thereby be hastening the onset of the ultimate catastrophe a Farage-led government. She would attract at least as much scorn and blame for that as she would gain respect for standing up for working people, or whatever. She might, as others have in the past, improve her chances of winning the leadership in due course by making a tactical move to the back benches now, but shes said shes not interested in the top job, and her treachery would probably cost her dear in any case. Having come this far, shell most likely stick with it. Others, maybe some more junior ministers with an eye on the long game, might decide to leave office on principle. But this would not affect the outcome of the spending review, which is ultimately going to be more cuts. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Labour is set to plough tens of billions of pounds into red wall seats leaning towards Reform UK as the party ramps up its efforts to halt the rise of Nigel Farage. After months of haemorrhaging voters to Mr Farages populist outfit, Rachel Reeves will unveil spending for a slew of road, rail and green energy projects in the north and Midlands, according to reports. The chancellor will use next months spending review to reprioritise spending from the southeast to the red wall seats that Labour won at the last election, but are now under threat from Reform, it is claimed. It could free up tens of billions of pounds to invest in the projects in areas where Labour fears Mr Farages appeal as part of an overall 100 billion pot Ms Reeves can use to invest in infrastructure after tweaking her fiscal rules in last years Budget. Touting the fiscal rule change in January in a speech promising to kickstart growth, Ms Reeves said: We have changed course on public investment, too. open image in gallery Rachel Reeves is set to prioritise investment in red wall areas ( PA Wire ) With a new investment rule to ensure that we dont just count the costs of investment, we count the benefits too. The chancellor said the changes would deliver 100 billion for growth-enhancing capital spending. And, paving the way for the spending spree in the red wall, she vowed to review the governments Green Book, which is used to judge the costs and benefits of projects, to provide objective, transparent advice on public investment across the country, including outside London and the south east. The review, to be published alongside the wider spending review, is expected to conclude the government should give greater priority to public sector investment in areas of lower economic productivity, The Times reported. open image in gallery Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is increasingly the focus of Labours attacks ( PA Wire ) The red wall investment drive comes after Ms Reeves faced pressure from an influential group of Labour MPs to funnel more money to the north and Midlands. Bassetlaw MP Jo White, who chairs the red wall group of MPs, said the spending review must have an offer for the red wall seats. And it is Labours latest effort to stem the rise of Reform, with Mr Farages party hitting a new polling high on Thursday. The Techne UK weekly tracker poll for The Independent revealed that Reform has hit an all time high of 31 per cent (up 1 from last week), nine points above Labour on 22 per cent (unchanged) and almost double Kemi Badenochs Tories stuck in third equal on 16 per cent (down 1). As the poll was released, Sir Keir Starmer was in St Helens delivering a speech aimed entirely at potential backers of Mr Farage, warning that his fantasy economics will lead to a Liz Truss-style economic meltdown. open image in gallery Sir Keir Starmer warned Nigel Farage would oversee the same chaos as Liz Truss ( PA Wire ) Sir Keir branded Mr Farages policies a mad experiment, insisting he would be exactly the same as Ms Truss. He said: Apparently [Mr Farage] is in Las Vegas today at a casino, and its not a surprise, because he said that the Liz Truss budget in his view was the best since 1986. That shows his judgment. It shows what hed do and the result would be exactly the same. Im not prepared to let that happen. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Attorney General has drawn comparisons between calls for the UK to disregard international court rulings and the actions of Nazi Germany. Speaking in London on Thursday, Lord Richard Hermer KC criticised the notion that the UK could breach international obligations, branding it a "radical departure from the UKs constitutional tradition". In a speech to the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) thinktank, Lord Hermer highlighted the historical context of dismissing international law, noting that similar arguments were made in Germany during the early 1930s. He said that the claims that international law can be "put aside" were made in the early 1930s in Germany. Lord Hermer voiced concerns over what he sees as a growing sentiment within the UK, including within the Palace of Westminster, to abandon international legal constraints in favour of "raw power". He cautioned against this approach, stating: "This is not a new song." "The claim that international law is fine as far as it goes, but can be put aside when conditions change, is a claim that was made in the early 1930s by realist jurists in Germany, most notably Carl Schmitt, whose central thesis was in essence the claim that state power is all that counts, not law." Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer said the idea that the UK can breach international obligations is a radical departure from the UKs constitutional tradition ( PA Wire ) Lord Hermer also said that because of what happened in 1933, far-sighted individuals rebuilt and transformed the institutions of international law. That is the year that Adolf Hitler became German chancellor. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has stopped short of calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as other Conservative figures such as Robert Jenrick have advocated. However, she suggested the UK would have to leave the convention if it stops the country from doing what is right. Shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick said Lord Hermers remarks were appalling. David Lammy tried that disgusting smear with Brexiteers and it didnt work for him. It wont work for Hermer either, he added. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he would get rid of the ECHR, and told ITV in April that we have to get back the ability to decide, can we really control our borders. Asked about Lord Hermers remarks, education minister Catherine McKinnell said they came as part of a quite thoughtful speech about international law. I think any discussion around withdrawing from the international stage just supports people and the agenda of people like Putin, she told Times Radio. In his same speech to Rusi on Thursday, the Attorney General said we must not stagnate in our approach to international rules and that officials should look to apply and adapt existing obligations to address new situations. We must be ready to reform where necessary, he added. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Donald Trumps administration has been accused of hypocrisy after claiming that the UK and Europe are trampling democracy. In a post on the Substack blogging platform, the US state department accused governments of weaponising political institutions to turn the continent into a hotbed of digital censorship, mass migration, restrictions on religious freedom, and numerous other assaults on democratic self-governance. The piece broadly criticises the so-called global liberal project but highlights the UK and Germany in particular. The comments echo previous US claims that the greatest threat to European security was not Russia but the continents suppression of the right and anti-abortion activists. Americans are familiar with these tactics, the post says. Indeed, a similar strategy of censorship, demonization, and bureaucratic weaponization was utilized against President Trump and his supporters. What this reveals is that the global liberal project is not enabling the flourishing of democracy. Rather, it is trampling democracy, and Western heritage along with it, in the name of a decadent governing class afraid of its own people. open image in gallery Calum Miller (L) said Donald Trump was the greatest threat to liberty in the US ( House of Commons ) The Liberal Democrats hit back at the post and accused the Trump administration of trying to enact a dystopian vision of liberty. Britain doesn't need lectures about political freedom from the acolyte of a President who tried to undermine American democracy and now praises Putin, Calum Miller, a Liberal Democrat MP and the partys foreign affairs spokesperson, said. The British people will see straight through this hypocrisy. We have a proud tradition of free speech in this country - and one which continues long after Trump has left office. It's Trumps own dystopian vision for America's future which poses the greatest threat to liberty in the US. The blog post cited two Britons, Adam Smith-Connor and Livia Tossici-Bolt, who were both found guilty of breaching public spaces protection orders by standing outside abortion clinics holding signs and silently praying, as evidence of the UKs assault on free speech and religious rights. They also referred to figures published by The Times showing that at least 12,000 people a year were being arrested for online posts. open image in gallery Former serviceman Adam Smith-Connor, who silently prayed for his unborn son outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth, was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre (Alliance Defending Freedom/PA) The author of the Substack post, Samuel Samson, a senior advisor for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), met both Smith-Connor and Tossici-Bolt during a trip to the UK in March. The purpose of Samsons March trip, according to The Telegraph, was to affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe. His Substack post was titled The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe, a reference to vice president JD Vances claims that Europe is succumbing to the threat from within, namely European governments censoring those they do not agree with. The blog also accused Germany, France, Romania and Poland of implementing a strategy of censorship, demonization, and bureaucratic weaponization by arresting, designating or banning far-right political parties, before suggesting Trump and his supporters had been subjected to the same treatment. It praised Hungary, run by an administration that has orchestrated a widespread crackdown on the free press and LGBT rights, as a Christian nation unjustly labeled as authoritarians and human rights abusers. open image in gallery Vice president JD Vance has been a vocal critic of European liberalism ( Getty Images ) Our concerns are not partisan but principled, the paper claimed. The suppression of speech, facilitation of mass migration, targeting of religious expression, and undermining of electoral choice threatens the very foundation of the transatlantic partnership. It added that Europes actions were increasingly affecting American security and economic ties, along with the free speech rights of American citizens and companies. The blog post was a follow-up from Mr Vances February speech to the Munich Security Conference, in which he lambasted Germany for its post-Second World War policy of refusing to work with the far-right. As attendees expected him to speak of the renewed threat posed by Vladimir Putins Russia, the US politician instead chose to claim European anti-extremism was the principal concern for the continents security. The German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) went on to win a fifth of the popular vote in national elections later that month. They have since been designated far-right extremists. The countrys domestic intelligence said in a statement that the ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Bernie Kerik, who led the New York City Police Department on 9/11, has died aged 69. Kash Patel, former FBI director, confirmed Kerik's death on social media on Thursday. He said Kerik had suffered from a private battle with illness before his death. Kerik had a controversial career after his service as police commissioner, pleading guilty to tax fraud and other charges. He was later pardoned. Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor, spoke on his show on Thursday, reflecting on his long relationship with Kerik. open image in gallery Kerik with Rudolph Giuliani, right, who said he was like his brother on news of his passing ( Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) Weve been together since the beginning. Hes like my brother, Giuliani said through tears. I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man. Kerik, an Army veteran, rose to the pinnacle of law enforcement before a fall so steep that even a city jail named after him was renamed. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges, partially stemming from over $250,000 in apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say counted on Kerik to convince New York officials it had no organized crime links. He served three years in prison before his release in 2013. President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was among the guests feting Trump after his first appearance in federal court in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents, attending the former presidents remarks at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club. Kerik was appointed by Rudy Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was in the position during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He later worked for the former major of New York City surrounding the efforts to overturn Trumps 2020 loss. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The parents of the one-month-old baby who died in a New York apartment building on Tuesday have spoken out, saying that their child died as a result of SIDS. Initial reports said that Kiyanna Winfield was killed after being mauled by a six-week-old pit bull and German Shepherd mix. Our baby died of SIDS, from sudden infant death syndrome, the babys stepfather, who wanted to be identified as Christopher, told The New York Post. She also had medical issues. She had a heart murmur. The dog did eat the babys face. It was put down, he added. However, the Animal Care Centers of NYC confirmed to The Independent Friday that the pet dog was still alive, three days after the horror incident unfolded at the Queensbridge Houses complex in Long Island City. Sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS is sometimes known more commonly as cot death. It is the sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby. When police arrived at the familys home on Tuesday morning, the girls mother, Lillian Burton, reportedly told cops Kiyanna had been sleeping between her and her partner when they woke up to find the dog gnawing at her face. Police found Kiyanna unconscious with a substantial portion of her face bitten off. In an interview Thursday with The Post, the babys mother protested: I did not kill my child. Our baby was alive when we all went to sleep. That is the last thing we know, the stepfather said. The pair stated that they had only purchased Bella, the small pup, two weeks prior to the tragic incident. We think that the dog is so young that it didnt understand, but it was trying to help the baby because it only targeted the mouth and the nose, Christopher said. We think maybe the baby was gasping for air and the puppy didnt realize it was a part of her, so the puppy was trying to clear whatever was on her face to breathe, he said. We dont think the puppy was purposely hurting our child. The six-week-old puppy was initially thought to have fatally mauled the young child to death ( NY ACC ) The childs cause of death is yet to be released by the medical examiner. No charges have been filed by the NYPD. The Independent contacted the NYPD for an update on the case. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The bodies of five musicians from the Mexican regional band Grupo Fugitivo have been discovered in Reynosa, a northern city along the Texas border, authorities announced on Thursday. The band, known for playing at local parties and dances, had been missing since Sunday. According to Tamaulipas state prosecutors, the musicians were kidnapped around 10 pm while en route to a performance venue in an SUV. The discovery of their bodies on the outskirts of Reynosa has led to the arrest of nine suspects, believed to be members of a faction of the Gulf Cartel, which maintains a strong presence in the city. While authorities have not yet disclosed the motive behind the killings, they have not denied local media reports suggesting the bodies were burned. Grupo Fugitivo performed Mexican regional music, a genre that includes styles like corridos and cumbia. Young artists sometimes pay homage to leaders of drug cartels, often portrayed as Robin Hood-type figures. It was not immediately clear if the group played such songs or if the artists were simply victims of rampant cartel violence that has eclipsed the city. Mexican Army members stand guard at the scene where, according to Mexican authorities, the members of the musical group Grupo Fugitivo were found dead, in Reynosa, Mexico ( REUTERS ) But other artists have faced death threats by cartels, while others have had their visas stripped by the United States under accusations by the Trump administration that they were glorifying criminal violence. The last time the musicians were heard from was the night they were kidnapped, when they told family members they were on the way to the event. After that, nothing else was heard of them. Their disappearance caused an uproar in Tamaulipas, a state long eclipsed by cartel warfare. Their families reported the disappearances, called on the public for support and people took to the streets in protest. On Wednesday, protesters blocked the international bridge connecting Reynosa and Pharr, Texas, later going to a local cathedral to pray and make offerings to the disappeared. Reynosa is a Mexican border city adjacent to the United States and has been plagued by escalating violence since 2017 due to internal disputes among groups vying for control of drug trafficking, human smuggling and fuel theft. This case follows another that occurred in 2018, when armed men kidnapped two members of the musical group Los Nortenos de Rio Bravo, whose bodies were later found on the federal highway connecting Reynosa to Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice TikTok influencer Emilie Kiser is suing Arizona officials to keep records about her 3-year-old sons death private. Earlier this month, Kisers eldest son, Trigg, died several days after he was found unconscious in a backyard pool at the familys home in Chandler, about a 30-minute drive southeast of Phoenix, according to local reports. Kiser shares her life as a mom on TikTok where she has four million followers. On Tuesday, Kiser filed a lawsuit against Arizona officials, arguing the disclosure of records related to her sons death causes renewed trauma to surviving family members and violates their right to grieve privately. open image in gallery TikTok influencer Emilie Kiser has filed a lawsuit against Arizona officials to keep records about her 3-year-old sons death private ( Emilie Kiser/Instagram ) Kiser is going through a parents worst nightmare right now after the heartbreaking accidental drowning of her son earlier this month, according to the suit. The toddler died in hospital six days after he was found in the pool, KPNX reported. Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving sonbut every day is a battle, the lawsuit said. Kiser and husband, Brady, welcomed their second son, Theodore, in March. Since Triggs death, more than 100 public records requests have been filed with the city of Chandler and the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office. "Emilie and her family desperately want to grieve in private, but sadly, the public will not let them. Triggs death has become a media frenzy, the suit read. open image in gallery Kisers husband, Brady, would make appearances on her social media ( Emilie Kiser/Instagram ) While the suit does acknowledge Arizonas Public Records Law, which gives the public the right to view records maintained by public offices, this right of access is not absolute. Kisers lawyers argue Arizona law also, recognizes that family members have a compelling privacy interest in preventing the disclosure of graphic materials related to a loved ones injuries or death. Kiser has not posted on TikTok since May 12. The suit names several Arizona public offices, including the city of Chandler, the Chandler Police Department, the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner and the Arizona Department of Health Services. Jason Berry, director of communications for Maricopa County, told NBC News on Thursday, When Maricopa County learned the family was pursuing a court order to prevent the release of these records, the Office of the Medical Examiner worked with the family to place a seal on the record. Berry said court proceedings will determine if the records related to Triggs death will be permanently sealed. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The son of The Wire star Tray Chaney was found unconscious after he was thrown around 300 feet during a tornado in Georgia on Thursday. Chaney, known for his role as Poot on the HBO show, appeared emotional in a video posted on Instagram while standing beside what remains of his now leveled home. He told fans: Cherish life as much as you can. Chaneys son was in critical condition on Friday morning, according to 11Alive. At 3 oclock today, in a split second, my house is gone, Chaney said. The actor said his son was thrown 300 feet out his room. open image in gallery "The Wire" actor Tray Chaney's son, Malachi Chaney, was found unconscious after being thrown 300 feet during a tornado that hit Georgia on Thursday ( Tray Chaney/Instagram ) Thursday started as a beautiful day for Chaney and his 18-year-old son, Malachi Chaney, the actor said. That changed in an instant when a tornado ripped through Chaneys neighborhood in Locust Grove, about 40 minutes southeast of Atlanta. I was sitting on my bed and I heard the wind and I felt everything, he added. In a follow-up post, Chaney wrote he was unconscious on the ground with my face in the mud with my parts of my house on top of me. I woke up in a panic crawled from under my house screaming my son's name out. Chaney said his neighbors helped find his son who was found knocked out in the woods behind his house. open image in gallery Chaney got emotional standing next to his leveled home, telling fans, Cherish life as much as you can. ( Tray Chaney/Instagram ) open image in gallery Chaney told local news his son is in the ICU with broken ribs and a fractured facial bone ( Tray Chaney/Instagram ) Chaney told 11Alive his son is in the intensive care unit in hospital with broken ribs and a fractured facial bone. Malachi is in this hospital fighting & me and my wife have not and will not leave his side. I can't get myself together right now I wish it was me that was in ICU rather than him, Chaney wrote on Instagram. The tornado damaged at least 13 structures, and destroyed two, including Chaneys home, local news reported. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Watch live as President Donald Trump hosts Elon Musk in a final White House press event on Friday (30 May), a few days after the Tesla billionaire announced that he would be stepping back from the administration. Trump announced that the pair would appear together in the Oval office in a TruthSocial post yesterday. He wrote: This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House. Mr Musk was granted special government employee status for 130 days to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut federal spending. After four months in the role, he announced on Wednesday (28 May) that his time in the Trump administration has come to an end. The South African businessmans role was temporary and his exit planned, though it came a day after Mr Musk criticised the presidents budget bill, which proposes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks and a boost to defence spending. He told CBS the bill would increase the federal deficit and undermine the work of DOGE. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Bernie Sanders has blamed Kamala Harris for her election loss to Donald Trump, saying she chose to cosy up to billionaires instead of addressing the issues faced by working-class Americans. The 83-year-old independent senator and former Democratic presidential candidate said that while Joe Biden has faced plenty of criticism for the election loss, it was ultimately Harriss fault. A lot of the people are saying it was Joe Biden's fault that Kamala Harris lost the election not true. It was the fault of Kamala Harris and her consultants, he said in an interview on BBC Radio 4s Today program. They did not run a campaign designed to speak to the American working class. open image in gallery Bernie Sanders said cosying up to billionaires hurt the Democrats ( AFP/Getty ) Sanders said he absolutely believed Harris could have won, but she did not talk about the needs of working-class Americans. I ran all over the country trying to elect Kamala Harris and beg them talk to the needs of the working class, talk about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, talk about real health care reform, talk about building the kinds of massive amounts of housing that we need, putting checks on landlords, Sanders said. But they used their billionaire friends. He said Harris spent more time with Republican conservative Liz Cheney almost than with anybody else, and billionaire businessman and Shark Tank shark Mark Cuban was a vocal supporter and spokesperson. What is that message out to working-class people? Sanders said. To my mind, that was a campaign that absolutely should have been winnable. But it gets back to the fundamental issue that that campaign was also run by consultants and billionaires. open image in gallery Sanders said Harris could have won the election but failed to address the concerns of ordinary Americans ( Getty ) He continued: And bottom line here is the Democrats have to answer a very simple question: which side are you on? And that answer has not yet been made. Sanders, who has been running a Fighting oligarchy tour with popular Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that has drawn huge crowds across the United States, said the core issue in America today is that there is more income and wealth inequality in the country than ever before. He said the reason that Trump won the election was that the Democratic Party had not responded to that economic crisis. The average person out there who is working very long hours has less holiday time than many Europeans have, cant afford healthcare, can't afford to send their kids to college, childcare is a disaster in the United States, he said. That person looks to Washington D.C. and says, Hey what are you doing for me, Im suffering, Im hurting, and everything being equal my kid is going to do worse than me. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas, targeting students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party and those who are studying in critical fields. His two-sentence announcement on Wednesday spared any details explaining how the administration plans to do any of that blindsiding universities and foreign students now scrambling for guidance about what comes next. But officials wont publicly say how theyre deciding whether they believe students are connected to the countrys ruling party or what those critical fields of study even are. We dont give details about what our methods are, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters Thursday. Giving away the nature of how we choose to do things could give up our hand and undermine national security, she added. open image in gallery Marco Rubio announced a plan to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas as the Trump administration cracks down on international student admissions in U.S. higher education ( AFP/Getty ) The State Department says its scrutinizing Chinas exploitation of universities including theft of research, intellectual property and technologies exported to students home countries, according to Bruce. Everyone who is here on a visa has to recognize that America takes their visas seriously, she said. Vetting is not a one-time process, its continuing. And if things happen you get arrested, if theres some kind of an issue its probably going to be seen at some point. Chinese student visa holders must recognize that the Trump administration is taking our national security seriously, she added. And we are looking at their visas, and if everythings fine, terrific, but that will be a vetting that certainly continues and its important clearly to the administration, she said. Rubios announcement on Wednesday said the State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong, he added. open image in gallery A graduating student wears their hat, decorated with a statement of support for international students, during Harvard Universitys commencement ceremonies on May 29 ( Reuters ) Roughly 277,000 Chinese students studied in the United States last year, making them the second-largest group of foreign students in the country. Foreign students studying in the U.S. last year contributed approximately $44 billion to the U.S. economy. The announcement also follows the Trump administrations attempt to revoke Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students which has been blocked in court and Rubios order to pause any new appointments for student visas globally. The administration accused Harvard of coordinated activity with Chinas ruling party, including training members of a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the university of fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. Chinese Communist Party was emphasized in boldface. The Trump administration has launched what critics argue is a politically motivated effort to bend universities and institutions to his ideological commands, including unprecedented scrutiny, funding threats and the arrests and deportations of foreign students involved in pro-Palestine demonstrations against Israels war in Gaza. Advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers argue the administrations latest maneuvers escalate a years-long campaign of xenophobia that now risks a serious brain drain in the U.S. The wholesale revocation of student visas based on national origin and without an investigation is xenophobic and wrong, stated the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Turning these students away many of whom simply wish to learn in a free and democratic society is not just shortsighted, but a betrayal of our values. open image in gallery Students pictured at Beijing Foreign Studies University on Thursday in Beijing, where officials condemned Trump's threats to Chinese students studying in the United States as political and discriminatory ( AFP/Getty ) Rubios sweeping policies targeting students based on their country of origin and field of study mark a dangerous escalation in xenophobic rhetoric and risk undermining Americas global leadership in science, research, and innovation, according to the Asian American Scholar Forum. This policy threatens to dismantle the international talent pipeline that has long fueled American innovation and excellence, according to the groups executive director, Gisela Perez Kusakawa. Chinese students contribute immensely to our campuses, communities, and economy, she said. Treating them with blanket suspicion not only violates principles of fairness, due process, and our democratic values it sends a chilling message to the world that America no longer welcomes global talent. Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning also called Rubios announcement politicized and discriminatory. The action lays bare the U.S. lie that it upholds so-called freedom and openness, she said Thursday. Hong Kongs Chief Executive John Lee told lawmakers that the city would welcome students who face unfair treatment in the United States. I think this is an opportunity for Hong Kong, he said Thursday. We will work with our universities to provide the best support and assistance. A widely shared post from Hong Kongs University of Science and Technology also invited Harvard students to the school to continue their academic pursuits following Trumps threats to international student visas at the Ivy League school. Average in-state tuition at public colleges and universities is roughly $21,270, and $37,430 for out-of-state. International students pay between $874 and $5,218 more in tuition and fees than out-of-state students, according to a report from the American Council on Education, which represents leaders at 1,600 colleges and universities. Private tuition rates are thousands of dollars higher. If Rubio pulls Chinese student visas, the damage to the United States could be enormous and hard to undo, according to Holger Hestermeyer, Professor of international law at Kings College London. Now imagine your family in China coughs up that money. And after two years your visa is pulled, he wrote. Refunds? What happens now? And for all future students: is that a risk worth taking? Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Trump biographer Michael Wolff has suggested that the president has turned his ire on Harvard because he didnt get into the school. The Daily Beast reported earlier this week that theres a running joke in the White House that Donald Trump has set his sights on the Ivy League institution because his son Barron couldnt get in. But Wolff has suggested that its Trump himself who failed to attend. Barrons mom, First Lady Melania Trump, said her son never applied to Harvard and was not the reason for the presidents apparent vendetta against the university. Barron attends New York University. Wolff presented his theory about the president Thursday on The Daily Beast Podcast to host Joanna Coles. Its also odd because so many of the people around Donald Trump went to Ivy League universities. Several of them went to Harvard Business School, Coles pointed out. Obviously, JD Vance proudly went to Yale. So it does seem particularly odd, but perhaps hes also trying to stuff it to them. Its important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything he does, Wolff responded. But the other thing is that, by the way, he didnt get into Harvard. So one of the Trump things is always holding a grudge against the Ivy Leagues. Trump attended the University of Pennsylvania. Trump biographer Michael Wolff has suggested that the presidents fight with Harvard is personal ( Getty Images ) A spokesperson for the White House, Taylor Rogers, blasted the author and the outlet in a statement to The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast and Michael Wolff have lots in common they both peddle fake news for clickbait in a hopeless attempt to amount to something more than lying losers, she said. The President didnt need to apply to an overrated, corrupt institution like Harvard to become a successful businessman and the most transformative President in history. The White House has previously referred to Wolff as a lying sack of s***. Its uncertain whether Trump ever applied to Harvard. No published biographies have claimed that he did. Trump enrolled at Fordham University in 1964 after attending the New York Military Academy. After two years at the school, Trump transferred to the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania. Trumps niece, Mary Trump, recorded conversations in 2018 and 2019, reported byThe Washington Post in 2020, with her aunt, the late federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who said on tape that she did Trumps homework for him. Trump Barry also said a friend took his college entrance exam for him. Similarly, Mary Trump wrote in her book published in 2020 that the president paid someone to take his SATs. I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college, Trump Barry said at the time. She added that Trump went to Fordham for one year and then he got into the University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams. Trump actually attended Fordham for two years. A White House spokesperson at the time said it was false that someone took the SATs for the president. Responding to The Posts report about the recordings at the time, Trump said: Who cares? Last month, the White House announced the removal of most of Harvards federal funding after the school refused to adhere to the presidents orders to shut down diversity programs at the university. Trump has claimed that the basis for his fight with Harvard has to do with antisemitism on campus. Subsequently, on May 25, the president demanded the names and countries of all international students at the school. Trump said he would find out how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country. Wolff said on the podcast that Trump needs an enemy. Thats what makes the show great, the Trump show. He picks fantastic enemies, actually. And Harvard, for all it represents, fits right into the Trump show. He has done what he set out to do dominate the headlines, Wolff added. What do you do? You go after Harvard, and you go after Harvard in a way that is draconian, dramatic, and existential. Its threatening Harvard on that level. So Harvard will oppose this and therefore the courts will stop this from happening. But at the same time, that becomes another aspect to the Trump show, he argued. He forces them to play their part, which is to oppose him. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The head of the United States Institute of Peace says its Washington, D.C. headquarters near the Lincoln Memorial was left to rot after billionaire Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency took it over in March, resulting in water damage, graffiti and, worse yet, an infestation of roaches and rats. After DOGE replaced the independent, fully government-funded nonprofits board with MAGA loyalists and fired the entire staff, Musks crew left it with a level of staffing woefully insufficient to properly protect and maintain the $500 million Moshe Safdie-designed concrete-and-glass structure, according to a May 23 affidavit filed in D.C. federal court by USIP President and CEO George Moose. Vermin were not a problem prior to March 17, 2025, when USIP was actively using and maintaining the building, Mooses affidavit states. The filing, which is part of a broader legal action by USIP in an attempt to regain full control of the organization, was first reported on Friday in the weekly Court Watch newsletter . The office, which is congressionally funded but is not part of the U.S. government, was established in 1984 by Ronald Reagan with a stated mission to advance international stability and conflict resolution. Still, shortly after he was sworn in for his second term as president, Donald Trump issued an executive order taking aim at USIP as unnecessary. open image in gallery George Moose (left), then the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, seen here in 1997 with French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette, was unceremoniously booted by DOGE as president of the United States Institute of Peace ( AFP via Getty Images ) On Friday, March 14, Moose, a career diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Benin and Senegal in West Africa, was abruptly terminated by the White House. He went back to the office on Monday and was removed from the USIP offices by police and replaced by Kenneth Jackson, a DOGE administrator, a move Moose immediately vowed to fight. Speaking to reporters outside after he was shown the door, Moose dubbed USIPs unilateral annexation an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation, saying it had been very clear that there was a desire on the part of the administration to dismantle a lot of what we call foreign assistance. On May 19, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the DOGE seizure of USIP was unlawful , and ordered Moose and his staff reinstated. In handing down her opinion, Howell said Trumps efforts here to take over an organization represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better. The following day, Moose became concerned after hearing from USIP employees that the buildings condition had been allowed to deteriorate, his affidavit states. With the help of his attorneys, and following Judge Howells order, Moose arranged to get back into USIP headquarters on May 21. open image in gallery Vermin began to run wild after Elon Musk's DOGE seized control in March of the United States Institute of Peace, its reinstated president says ( Getty Images ) When my team and I arrived, the only persons in the building were two security guards and a small cleaning crew, he says in the affidavit. In my experience, that level of staffing is woefully insufficient to properly protect and maintain the building. However, Moose told reporters that, at first glance, nothing immediately seemed amiss. We just did a quick walk-through externally, visibly, things look to be in pretty good shape, he said . I didnt see anything, any destruction, if you will, no damage that I can see that is visible. Yet, the following day, a more thorough inspection turned up myriad problems, according to Mooses affidavit. On May 22, members of my staff, including our chief of security and our contract building engineer, spent the day surveying and documenting the condition of the building, to include photographs, he stated. They reported evidence of rats and roaches in the building, which he said was a first. open image in gallery Elon Musk is now out at DOGE, while George Moose is back in at USIP ( Getty Images ) Moose says in his affidavit that staff reported other deficiencies in the maintenance of the building, including the failure to maintain vehicle barriers and the cooling tower, water leaks, damage to the garage door, and missing ceiling tiles in multiple places in the building (which I have been told suggest likely water damage). In addition, the affidavit contends, I learned from my team that sometime in the past several days, before we regained control of the property and assumed control for security, someone had scrawled graffiti on one of the outside spaces. This occurred, according to the affidavit, because the building ha[d] been essentially abandoned for many weeks, during which time DOGE left USIP HQ with only a few security guards on site, with no perimeter patrols. According to Mooses affidavit, he immediately resumed his duties at USIP, and reached out to staff and board members to begin working there again. It says USIP has once again assumed control of their building, has engaged a private security firm to guard the premises, and has taken over responsibility for the buildings maintenance. At the same time, Musk is leaving DOGE as his 130-day tenure as a special government employee comes to an end. Trump and DOGE have appealed Howells ruling. Moose did not respond on Friday to The Independents requests for comment, nor did the attorneys representing him and USIP in court. Messages seeking comment from Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli, DOGEs lawyer in the case, and the White House, also went unanswered. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice While he spent tens of millions of dollars boosting Donald Trumps presidential campaign working his way to a prominent inner-circle role Elon Musk was reportedly using drugs intensely and regularly, including chronically using the powerful anesthetic ketamine to the point where it affected his bladder. The worlds wealthiest man who is leaving the White House this week after deploying an army of loyalists across the federal government to fire workers and slash budgets was allegedly using ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and Adderall, which he kept in a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, sources told The New York Times. The sources were not able to say if Musk was allegedly using drugs when he entered the White House as a senior adviser to the president weeks later, while leading the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But the newspapers reporting notes his erratic behavior in the days leading up to and after Trump entered office, including gestures on inauguration day that mirrored Nazi salutes, his repeated clashes with top administration officials and cabinet members, and his increasingly tumultuous family life, including custody battles and the revelation of his 14th child. The billionaire experienced frequent mood swings and a fixation on having more children, according to the NYT, citing interviews, private messages obtained by the newspaper, and photographs allegedly showing Musks drug stash. open image in gallery Elon Musk was reportedly intensely using drugs including ketamine, ecstasy, Adderall and mushrooms during Trumps campaign ( AFP/Getty ) The Independent has requested comment from an attorney for Musk. During an appearance alongside the president inside the Oval Office on Friday, Musk spoke over a question about the NYT report before the reporter could outline the allegations in it. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? said Musk, referring to the newspapers coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump and his allies have pushed the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the award. That New York Times? Lets move on, Musk said. The White House did not respond to The Independents questions about the allegations and whether the president was aware of them, but principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields hailed Musks work to cut waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Few CEOs in America would leave the comfort of the C-suite to serve in the federal government, he said. In just four months, Elon has accomplished more for American taxpayers than many career politicians a fact often overlooked by the legacy media. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said he doesnt have any concerns about the allegations. All I can say is that DOGE has done an extraordinary job rooting out systemic waste, graft, grift and corruption from the federal government, and youre going to hear from the president today his thanks to Elon Musk for leading that effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars, he told CNN on Friday. Musk has previously publicly admitted to using a small amount of ketamine, but he has allegedly used the drug daily while mixing it with other drugs, according to the newspaper, citing people familiar with his drug use, which has been troubling some people close to him. He also took ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms at private gatherings across the United States and in at least one other country, the NYT reported. Around the same time he publicly endorsed Trump last July, Musk was using ketamine to the point where it was causing bladder issues, according to the newspaper. Weeks after Trumps inauguration, Musk was on stage at Februarys Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wearing sunglasses and a black Make America Great Again hat while wielding a chainsaw. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, he said. Asked to describe what is inside the billionaires mind, he said at the time: My mind is a storm. Its a storm. open image in gallery Musk said his mind is a storm during a bizarre appearance at Februarys CPAC after Trumps inauguration ( AP ) The billionaire spent more than $300m on Trumps campaign last year, including handing out oversized $1m checks to voters in swing states, before spending millions more to support conservative candidates across the country in 2025. Ahead of Aprils state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, he wore cheesehead hats at rallies and made legally dubious pledges to personally hand voters $1m checks and give out $50 to anyone who takes a picture of themselves outside a voting booth. He frequently described the race in apocalyptic terms, warning that the destiny of humanity and future of the world were at stake. But his $20m efforts to support a conservative candidate evaporated. Liberal justice Susan Crawford handily defeated Musks choice. open image in gallery The billionaire spent millions of dollars promoting a conservative candidate in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race that he frequently described in apocalyptic terms ( AFP/Getty ) On the campaign trail, Musk predicted hardship for Americans under Trumps economic agenda. Musk and his DOGE team shredded foreign aid, gutted consumer protections and throttled funding for libraries, public health research and combating homelessness, among other programs, while collecting taxpayer information and other sensitive data. Musk and Trump have characterized DOGE, operating as the U.S. Doge Service, formerly the U.S. Digital Service, as tech support to end waste, fraud and abuse. But DOGE has swept through government agencies without any apparent supervision to reshape, and crush, a bureaucracy Musk despises. The pace and scope of those initial actions have led to intense public scrutiny and a mountain of lawsuits that have thrust the billionaire into more than a dozen legal battles, drawing sharp rebukes from federal judges across the country. open image in gallery The worlds wealthiest man allegedly experienced severe mood swings and obsessed over having more children while using drugs on the campaign trail, troubling people close to him ( AP ) He announced his departure from the White House this week, the end of a 130-day special government employee status, which can be renewed next year. DOGE, meanwhile, remains embedded across the federal government with a mandate from the president to recommend drastic cuts in spending. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the entire cabinet remains committed to DOGE. Thats why they were working hand in hand with Elon Musk, and theyll continue to work with the respective DOGE employees who have onboarded as political appointees at all of these agencies, she said. So surely, the mission of DOGE will continue. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The White House held a brainstorming session Wednesday to find new ways to attack Harvard, according to Politico. Officials from almost a dozen agencies took part in the meeting to come up with further disciplinary measures against the school. An administration official told the outlet that further actions are expected to come from the departments of State, Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Justice, as well as others. They may come to fruition as soon as next month. The meeting took place as the White House is taking further aim at Harvard after a federal judge blocked the administrations measure to prohibit the school from enrolling international students. Last week, Trump threatened in a social media post to revoke Harvards tax-exempt status. During a press conference on Wednesday, the president slammed the school. Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all theyre doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper, he said. Harvard students graduated as the administration plotted ways to attack the university ( AFP via Getty Images ) Options to put the screws to the school include pushing the Justice Department to expand its probe into Harvards admissions policies or cutting funds to medical institutions with ties to the university. The latest moves against Harvard are truly just scratching the surface, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, told Politico. Harvard decided to litigate this on MSNBC, the now defunded NPR, and the ratings-disaster CNN, instead of acting like adults like many of their competitors have done and engaging in fruitful conversations and actions that would have saved them from their self-inflicted demise. However, some administration officials are concerned that the White House may be overstepping. One official told the outlet that the administration is fighting a losing battle. The official noted that the school has a better hand to play when it comes to the narrative surrounding the measure to revoke student visas. Weve taken one of the most evil institutions and made them the victim, the official added. The Trump White House has also taken aim at other Ivy League schools and the University of California system. The tactic is part of a wider push against cultural institutions that the administration views as oppositional, including some law firms, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. A deal to avoid confrontation with Harvard was in the offing until a letter was mistakenly sent on April 11, which included a number of demands. Since the letter was sent, the administration has frozen $2.2 billion in research grants, and ended another $60 million in contracts. It has also cut 500 grants from the National Institutes of Health for institutions with ties to the university. In addition, the White House has barred Harvard from receiving grants in the future and launched a number of investigations by the departments of Justice, Health, Education, and Homeland Security, as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Harvard pushed back by suing the administration. On Thursday, a Massachusetts federal judge blocked the administrations attempt to stop international students from attending. The block will stay in place while Harvard and the administration negotiate a possible injunction that would hold the status quo in place as the case progresses. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Participating in a Memorial Day commemoration, Joe Biden made his first public address since the announcement of his Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis at a Biden family event in his home state of Delaware on Friday. Speaking to reporters after the event, Biden said he had no regrets about not running for re-election in 2024. At the same time, he dismissed any concerns about his cognitive and physical fitness. You can see that Im mentally incompetent and I cant walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them, he quipped in response to a reporter noting theres been a lot of discussion about his health while he was in office. That feisty answer sparked speculation online that the former commander-in-chief was referencing the two authors of the recent book Original Sin, which alleges that Biden was in an advanced state of mental decline in the last years of his presidency and the White House covered it up. Do you want to reply to any of those reports, and also to the fact that there are some Democrats who are now questioning whether you should have run for reelection in the first place? the reporter followed up, prompting Biden to reply: Why didnt they run against me then? Because Id have beaten them. open image in gallery Former President Joe Biden delivers his first public remarks since his prostate cancer diagnosis, bemoaning the current divided political climate. ( Reuters ) Still, when asked if he had any regrets about dropping out of the race, Biden said he did not and that were in a really difficult moment, not only in American history and world history. As for his current prognosis, he said he was already undergoing treatment and that his doctors are very optimistic about his chances. Its all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill, he said. And for the next six weeks, and then another one. And the expectation is were going to be able to beat this. Theres no its not in any organ. My bones are strong. It hasnt penetrated. So Im feeling good. Furthermore, he defended his record as president, saying he was very proud of his administrations accomplishments and hed put his record as president against any president at all. My friends, Memorial Day is about something profound, a somewhat fired-up Biden declared during the speech. Our politics have become so divided and bitter. All the years I have been doing this, I never thought we would get to this point, but we are. He added: Our troops do not wear a uniform that says Im a Democrat or a Republican. It says, I am an American! While the 82-year-old former commander-in-chief did cough a couple of times during the short speech, it appeared he was just trying to clear his throat as he attempted to deliver an energized address to the audience, which was filled with his family, friends and state officials. He also used the speech to acknowledge his deceased son Beau, who died 10 years ago to the day from brain cancer and served in the Iraq War. Biden has said he believes Beau got the cancer from exposure to toxic burn pits in Iraq. I know for many of you, Memorial Day is deeply personal. For the Bidens, this day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who served in Iraq, he said. It is a hard day. open image in gallery Former President Joe Biden visits a cemetery ahead of a Memorial Day event he hosted in Delaware, marking his first public speech since his cancer diagnosis. ( Reuters ) Much of the speech, of course, centered on honoring veterans and those who have given their lives fighting for the country. Because of them, American democracy has endured for nearly 250 years. Every generation, every generation has to fight to maintain that democracy every time, every generation, the former president exclaimed. Because of them, our government is still of the people, by the people, and for the people. They are we, and we are still free. Now, we must make sure that sacrifice has never been in vain. At the end of the speech, Biden walked off to applause while a man towards the back repeatedly shouted something towards the former president, though it wasnt clear if he was heckling Biden or cheering him on. The former presidents office announced last week that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer after doctors found a small nodule on his prostate, resulting in further evaluations. Eventually, it was discovered that Biden had prostate cancer that was characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone. While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management, a Biden spokesperson added. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians. Though Biden only took veiled shots at the current administration, and his successor, Donald Trump, couldnt resist directly attacking the former president during his own Memorial Day speech, which was meant to honor Americas fallen heroes. That was a hard four years we went through who would let that happen? Trump grumbled. People pouring through our borders, unchecked, people doing things that are indescribable. Meanwhile, the ex-presidents cancer diagnosis comes as he and his close aides and family have come under renewed fire over Bidens cognitive and physical decline during his time in the White House, largely due to the release of the Robert Hur tapes and the publication of several recent books. Specifically, the recently published Original Sin, co-authored by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, alleges that there was a White House cover-up to conceal Bidens flailing health as the 2024 election approached. With Tapper and Thompson doing an extensive media tour to promote the book, Republicans and conservative media have called for a congressional investigation into the former administrations handling of Bidens declining health. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa had a grim message for her constituents furious over proposed cuts to Medicaid that could end health coverage for millions of Americans. Over a chorus of groans from the crowd at a town hall in Butler County on Friday morning, Ernst said her Republican colleagues were making corrections to the federal healthcare program to stop overpayments and prevent illegals from receiving benefits. People are going to die, one person shouted out. Well, were all going to die, Ernst snarkily replied. When she was greeted with a mixture of stunned groans and shout-backs, the senator exasperatedly added: For heavens sakes, folks. open image in gallery Republican Senator Joni Ernst told her constituents were all going to die during a town hall warning her against deadly consequences of revoking Medicaid coverage for potentially millions of people ( Senator Joni Ernst ) Democratic officials and advocacy groups pounced on the moment, accusing Ernst of airing what the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called a stunningly callous remark that points to a wider failure among Republican members of Congress to face criticism over threats to a program that supports millions of lower-income Americans. Joni Ernst said the quiet part out loud: Republicans dont give a shit about whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer, according to Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin. And thats precisely why theyre ramming through a budget bill that would rip away health care and food from millions of Americans, including kids and seniors, he added. Ernst and the Republican Party are putting American lives at risk to give a massive tax handout to billionaires while working families struggle to put food on the table and get basic medical care. This isnt just what Joni Ernst believes its what the entire Republican Party stands for. Donald Trumps Big, Beautiful Bill which contains $4 trillion in tax cuts that would largely benefit Americas wealthiest household also adds strict work requirements and other changes to Medicaid eligibility. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that proposed cuts and the expiration of funding for federal health insurance programs could strip coverage for more than 13.7 million Americans by 2034. More than 78 million people are enrolled in Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, including more than 600,000 people in Ernsts home state. While Democrats fear monger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans, a spokesperson for the senator told The Independent. Theres only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and shes working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse, the statement added. open image in gallery More than 600,000 people are on Medicaid coverage in Ernsts home state of Iowa ( Getty Images ) Republicans have long opposed offering health coverage to younger, lower-income adults and families, arguing that Medicaid and other programs incentivize Americans to avoid working. GOP lawmakers insist their new proposal wont directly cut benefits for low-income and disabled people, but Democrats and advocacy groups argue the bill threatens coverage from people who could fall between the cracks if they cant meet new requirements. Adult Medicaid recipients would need to prove theyre working or engaging in community service for at least 80 hours per month to maintain eligibility. Other requirements include verifying addresses, proving lawful immigration status and screening every six months. Speaking over uproar at her town hall, Ernst said the GOP proposal will focus on those that are the most vulnerable. OK, but no, what you dont want to do is listen to me when I say were going to focus on those that are the most vulnerable, she said. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them. She said the federal government should leave those dollars for those that are eligible for Medicaid. Democratic Rep. Greg Casar called Ernsts remarks outrageous. Most might not say it this directly, but this is what any member of Congress who votes to slash Medicaid really means, he said. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller repeatedly butted heads with CNN anchor Pamela Brown during a wide-ranging and often heated interview on Friday that touched on several topics that included the presidents tariffs, the recent Supreme Court decision on temporary immigration protection status and Elon Musks reported drug use. Browbeating and insulting Brown throughout the lengthy and tense discussion, the Situation Room host finally shot back after the White House deputy chief of staff refused to let her get a word in edgewise or allow her to conduct the interview. Stephen, this is my show, Brown scolded her guest at one point as he continued to performatively shout. I want to hear what you have to say. Ive been respectful and given you the opportunity. But I also need to jump in because time is of the essence. Amid a spate of bombshell headlines surrounding the Trump administration over the past 48 hours, Miller was first asked about Donald Trumps claim on Friday that China totally violated the interim deal that resulted in both countries dialing back their retaliatory and punitive tariffs. President Trump alone has had the courage to stand up and say that we are not going to allow China to economically dominate the United States, Miller dramatically declared. We are not going to allow China to take from us the materials, the manufacturing capacity, the industrial capacity that we need to protect America and to keep America safe. Trump aide Stephen Miller argues with CNN anchor Pamela Brown during a heated exchange on Friday. ( CNN ) Brown, meanwhile, wondered what the White House would specifically do to China now that it says its violating the agreement with the United States, and whether that included raising the tariffs back up to 145 percent. Miller suggested that the State Departments plan to aggressively revoke student visas of those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party was how the administration was retaliating against China. At the same time, he wouldnt divulge whether Trump would increase tariffs against the American adversary. Well, Im not going to detail for you right now on the entire hand that the president is willing to play, he shot back. I would just put it this way. There are measures that have already been taken. After Miller railed against the Chinese for a couple of more minutes, Brown finally stepped in so she could ask him about the Supreme Court ruling that the administration could revoke humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants. We have other topics, but I wanted to make sure you said what you wanted to say. And I hope that you got your response out there on China, she noted. I want to go to what is a big win today for the administration from the Supreme Court. Still, Miller took offense a moment later when Brown pointed out that while the White House is extremely happy with this ruling, it was just a day ago that members of the administration were complaining about rogue judges over court decisions they dislike. Especially when she wondered if it was the administrations position that courts should just act as a rubber stamp for the president. Let me finish, let me finish, I will answer the question happily, Miller fumed over the implication of Browns question. But look, when you have these kinds of lazy assumptions built into questions, it makes it hard to have a constructive dialogue. The heated back-and-forth, which Brown has had to contend with recently from other Trump allies, continued over the next 10 minutes, eventually resulting in the veteran CNN host informing Miller that she was in charge of the interview. This is my show, she exhaustedly pointed out, wanting to dive into the recent controversy over an undocumented migrant potentially being set up over a threat to the president. In the end, though, that exchange also fell apart as Brown suggested Miller was speaking to her disrespectfully. Stephen, I want this to be and call me naive a good faith discussion about whats happening right now, she said. Now, when we use language thats designed to obscure the truth, thats not good faith, he sneered, insisting that she use the term illegal alien rather than undocumented migrant. As for the recent reports that departing first buddy Elon Musk whose last day as a special government employee is Friday was using drugs intensely and regularly while working with DOGE, Miller whose wife is leaving the administration to work for Musk full-time said he had no concerns. All I can say is that DOGE has done an extraordinary job rooting out systemic waste, graft, grift and corruption from the federal government, and you're going to hear from the president today his thanks to Elon Musk for leading that effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars, he told Brown. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice President Donald Trump is hosting Elon Musk in one last Oval Office press conference, for now, as the Tesla billionaire wraps up his time working at the White House. The president announced on his TruthSocial platform that the pair would hold a press conference together on Friday afternoon. I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office, Trump wrote on TruthSocial on Thursday. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House. The billionaires departure and media appearance with the president comes after he criticised Trumps big beautiful bill, which includes tax cuts and increased spending on border controls, and strengthens efforts to enact immigration restrictions. Musk said it was a massive spending bill that expands the federal deficit and undermines the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful, Musk said in an interview with CBS. But I dont know if it could be both. open image in gallery The press conference comes amid reports of a rift between the Tesla CEO and the president ( AP ) The press conference follows Musk's announcement of his official departure on his social media platform X on Wednesday, as his 130-day term as a special government employee leading the Trump administrations efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy and find savings comes to a close this week. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, he wrote. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Musk is not the only top official leaving DOGE. Three others adviser Steve Davis, adviser and spokesperson Katie Miller, and attorney James Burnham are also leaving the administration, a White House official told The Hill. open image in gallery Musk has criticised Trumps big beautiful bill ( AP ) The South African-born Musk has also been vocally critical of the government in his homeland, falsely claiming it was committing genocide against white Afrikaner farmers. That culminated in Trump brandishing pictures from a different country at a White House visit with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, repeating the debunked claims. When the billionaire CEO of Space X joined the White House to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, he said he would cut $1 trillion in federal spending. Still, in reality, the cuts have turned out to be nowhere near that figure. Even the wall of receipts touted on May 26, claiming DOGE had cute $175 billion in spending, was found to have numerous errors. In April, Musk said he would be reducing his time working with DOGE in May to refocus on his ailing EV brand, after Tesla reported disappointing earnings, since he alligned himself with the administration. Musks businesses have faced a consumer backlash following his prominent position alongside Trump, but he has also faced criticism for overpromising and underdelivering in his multibillion-dollar enterprises. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice After spending 130 days working to dismantle entire federal government agencies, firing tens of thousands of civil servants and sparking dozens of lawsuits over potential misuse of Americans personal data, the worlds wealthiest man was rewarded with a gold-plated skeleton key to the White House. Seated behind the Resolute Desk, President Donald Trump praised Elon Musk from the Oval Office for his four months of work leading the Department of Government Efficiency, a role from which Musk is required to depart due to his now-former status as a special government employee, which had let him work for free without complying with any financial disclosure rules but only for 130 days per year. He called the Tesla and SpaceX CEO one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced and hailed him for having led what Trump called the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations. Elon gave an incredible service. Theres nobody like him, and he had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame, because he's an incredible patriot. The good news is that 90% of the country knows that, and they appreciate it, and they really appreciate what he did, he said. Trump then presented Musk with a trinket that dated back to the 47th presidents prior term as the 45th President of the United States: A Key to the White House. It was an over-size, gold-plated key in a wooden presentation box, with an engraving of the Executive Mansion on the inside of the lid. open image in gallery A gold-plated White House key like the one that Trump gifted to Musk can also be found for sale on eBay ( AP ) Musk was not by any means the first person to be gifted with this Trumpian trinket. In his 2022 memoir Breaking History, Trumps son-in-law and ex-senior adviser Jared Kushner recounted how hed whipped out the same gift for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a September 2020 meeting in the Oval Office. At the time, Trump called it a a special token of affection, given by myself and the First Lady to the Prime Minister and the First Lady of Israel. And its a key we call it a key to the White House. And its a key to our country and to our hearts, he said as he handed it over to Netanyahu. Kushner wrote that Trump had told Netanyahu that the key he gifted him was the first key Im giving to anyone and claimed that it would grant the Israeli leader entry to the White House even when Im not president anymore. As he handed Musk the same tchotchke nearly five years later, Trump said it was a little special something that he gives to very special people as a presentation from our country. Its not known how many of the souvenirs have been given out by Trump, but a search by The Independent revealed that identical items have been listed on eBay, with two current listings showing prices of $7,250 and $7,950. The auction site RR Auction also shows another of them having sold for $3,670. Musk, who wore a black Make America Great Again cap, a black suit and a t-shirt with the words The Dogefather on it and appeared to look around the Oval Office aimlessly as Trump spoke, accepted the box from the president as he told reporters that his time in the administration necessarily had to end and had been a limited time. But somewhat paradoxically, he said the DOGE team he put in place will only grow stronger over time and compared DOGE to sort of Buddhism. It's like a way of life. So it is permeating throughout the government, and I'm confident that over time, we will see a trillion dollars of savings and reduction in a trillion dollars of waste, he said. open image in gallery Elon Musk seems distracted as he stands alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on his last official day as a special government employee. ( Screengrab / Pool ) He added that he will continue to be visiting Washington as a friend and adviser to Trump and stressed that he looked forward to being back in the Oval Office as he praised the president for his redecorating efforts, which have seen the iconic space take on a distinctively gilded look through copious amounts of gold leaf on the walls and ceiling. While his tone was largely jovial and positive, he turned combative when pressed to respond about a New York Times story alleging that his time at Trumps side, dating back to the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign, saw him using drugs intensely and regularly, including chronically using the powerful anesthetic ketamine to the point where it affected his bladder. Musk reportedly was using Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and Adderall, which he kept in a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, according to the report. Asked about the bombshell story, detailing his erratic behavior in the days leading up to and after Trump entered office, including gestures on inauguration day that mirrored Nazi salutes, his repeated clashes with top administration officials and cabinet members, and his increasingly tumultuous family life, including custody battles and the revelation of his 14th child, Musk pivoted to attacking the newspaper over its accurate and prize-winning reporting on Trumps 2016 campaign and the federal probe into his ties with the Russian government. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? That New York Times? Lets move on, Musk said. Musk also sported a noticeable black eye during the press conference, and when a reporter asked him what had happened to him, he blamed his young son, X A-12, who goes by Little X. I was horsing around with Little X, and I said go ahead, punch me in the face. And he did, he said. The billionaires face wasnt the only high-profile visage that was discussed during the hour-long session. After he and Musk spoke, Trump took questions on multiple topics, including one about a recent incident involving French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during which the French First Lady appeared to strike her husband as they were exiting an aircraft earlier this week. Asked whether he had any advice for his French counterpart, Trump who has been married three times and divorced twice replied: Make sure the door remains closed. He added that hed spoken with Macron recently and said the French first couple was fine. They're two really good people. I know him very well, and I don't know what that was all about, but I know him very well, and they're fine, he said. The hour-long back-and-forth with reporters marked the formal end of Musks time in government, during which his DOGE organization was often at odds with members of Trumps cabinet and the wealthy GOP donor found himself on the outs with Trump after he donated millions and made personal appearances on behalf of a Wisconsin judicial candidate who lost badly despite his efforts. Musk also appeared to break with Trump over the presidents Big Beautiful Bill spending package, which doesnt lock in any of the slashing and burning the billionaire and his DOGE team have done during his time in government. His stated goal as the (apparently informal) head of DOGE was to slash government spending and save American taxpayers money. Before the inauguration, he claimed he could cut $1 trillion from the federal budget before September 30 by ending "waste, fraud, and abuse" already a downgrade from his $2 trillion promise on the campaign trail. He further claimed that most of the work required to make this happen would be done within 130 days. As of May 26, DOGE's online "wall of receipts" touts estimated savings of $175bn since the start of Trump's term, or $1,086.96 per taxpayer. The problem is that this figure may simply be nonsense. But Trump wasnt asked about Musks comments about his spending package as he sent off his erstwhile ally with the ersatz gold key. He did, however, weigh in on the trial of hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs, a former contestant on the presidents reality television show, who is now in the dock on sex trafficking charges. Asked whether hed consider a pardon for the disgraced musician, who hed once called a good friend, Trump demurred by saying he hadnt been watching the trial too closely while leaving the door open by promising to look at whats happening. I haven't seen him. I haven't spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, he sort of that relationship busted up, from what I read, Trump said. I would certainly look at the facts if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact on me. Io Dodds contributed reporting from San Francisco Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Donald Trumps administration has utterly disregarded a court order for information about a wrongly deported Venezuelan asylum seeker sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, told the mans attorneys to put together a record of the administrations lack of compliance all but ordering contempt hearings in one of several high-profile legal battles over the presidents use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport immigrants. Last month, Gallagher ordered the government to facilitate his release from that countrys brutal jail. But when ordered to cough up a status report about his condition, government attorneys essentially only told the court we havent done anything and dont intend to, Gallagher wrote on Friday. Gallagher previously found that the governments removal of a 20-year-old Venezuelan man named in court documents as Cristian violated a court settlement intended to protect young immigrants who have pending asylum claims. He was deported with dozens of alleged Venezuelan members of the Trend de Aragua gang under the presidents use of the Alien Enemies Act in March. open image in gallery Trump administration officials could face contempt proceedings in the case of a man identified in court documents as Cristian who was deported to El Salvador despite pending asylum protections ( Getty Images ) The administration was ordered to compile a status report about his current physical location and custodial status, as well as what steps, if any, the government is taking to facilitate his release from the prison, and what the government intends to do when he is returned. Instead, government attorneys not only blew past a deadline to answer, but also simply reiterated their well-worn talking points on their reasons for removing Cristian and failed to provide any of the information the court required, Gallagher wrote. Administration officials not only ignore the requirements of this court's orders but also make no attempt to offer any justification for their blatant lack of effort to comply, according to Gallagher. The governments response adds nothing to the underlying record and reflects zero effort to comply with court orders, she wrote. She called on Cristians lawyers to initiate a process to create an appropriate record on defendants lack of compliance with this courts orders and gave the administration until Monday to cure it. Cristian is one of three men the Trump administration has been ordered to return to the United States following legal battles over their removal. The order for Cristians return followed the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant living in Maryland who was deported to his home country despite an immigration judges 2019 order preventing removal from the United States for humanitarian reasons. The Supreme Court unanimously called his removal illegal and similarly ordered the government to facilitate his return. Last week, another judge ordered the administration to facilitate the return of a wrongly deported Guatemalan man sent to Mexico, where he says he survived rape and kidnapping. This week, government attorneys said they would obey the order and arranged a flight to return him. open image in gallery Demonstrators in New York protest the removal of immigrants to El Salvador, where the Trump administration summarily deported dozens of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, initiating a high-profile legal battle for their return ( Getty Images ) According to a sworn statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Robert Cerna, Cristian was arrested in Texas for cocaine possession in January. The Trump administration has argued that Cristians removal did not violate a settlement over his removal because his designation as an an alien enemy under the Alien Enemies Act results in him ceasing to be a member of the protected class in the settlement. The administration argues that anyone alleged to be a member of the gang is no longer eligible for asylum. Another court order striking at the presidents deportation agenda underscores a growing tension between the judiciary and the administration, which has been repeatedly accused of defying court orders and violating due process protections over his attempts to swiftly remove immigrants. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to continue blocking immigration officials from summarily deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act jailed in Texas while legal challenges play out. The 7-2 decision with conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting argues that the immigrants detained in Texas under the controversial war-time law must have sufficient time and information to reasonably be able to get in touch with lawyers and file legal challenges. Trump called the decision a bad and dangerous day for America. THE SUPREME COURT WONT ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! he wrote on Truth Social at the time. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb christened White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Creepy Karoline after she launched an attack on the judges who ruled against Trumps tariff plans. Cobb, a former prosecutor, jibed that Creepy Karoline isnt being taken seriously by Americans during an interview on CNNs OutFront show Thursday, where host Erin Burnett grilled him on the overturning of Trumps tariffs in the U.S. courts Wednesday. Cobb represented Trump during Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Burnett asked what the attorney thought of Leavitts claim that the judicial system is being railroaded by activist judges. I dont think creepy Karoline when she speaks I dont think anybody in America really takes her seriously on a matter of substance. I mean, shes not learned by any imagination, he said. And I think her comments are clearly so defensive and so ill-informed that people might largely turn her out. Shes wrong. Leavitt vowed that the Trump administration would take Wednesdays seismic ruling to the Supreme Court, after delivering a minutes-long, impassioned screed about the unprecedented rate at which Donald Trumps second presidency has been rebuffed by the Judicial Branch. Keep in mind, these courts are not trying to participate in international trade matters. All theyre doing is ruling on whether a statute authorizes actions by a president. Did Congress delegate its authority to the president under this statute? Cobb continued. open image in gallery Ty Cobb has slammed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as 'Creepy Karoline' ( CNN ) And the statute in question has never in history been used in connection with tariffs. So, I think the likelihood is that this statute will be upheld and enforced in a way that precludes the president from trying to pretend that he has these all-encompassing powers. Leavitts fiery jibe at the three judges who declared Trumps sweeping tariffs illegal continued as she accused them of threatening to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage. The press secretary went on to say jurists brazenly abuse their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump. open image in gallery Leavitt, 27, is the youngest ever press secretary to work in the White House ( AP ) Leavitt is favored by MAGA and the Trump administration for her perceieved cutthroat jibes on the stand. Trump said during the announcement of her appointment that Leavitt was smart, tough, and effective. Since taking office in January, the White House has been actively slating the left-wing legacy media, upping its fiery rhetoric and straying away from traditional press formalities. The administration even barred an Associated Press reporter from attending an Oval Office event last month a move that struck a chord and brought about fears regarding the oppression of free speech. In April, a Washington source told The Independent that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer must adhere to Donald Trumps agenda by repealing hate speech laws in order to get a trade deal over the line. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Caroline Darian, the daughter of serial rape victim Gisele Pelicot, says she thinks her mother would die if she acknowledged that her daughter was also a potential victim of Dominique Pelicot. Speaking at Hay Festival, the activist and author claimed that the denial of her mother, whom she no longer talks to, was an act of self-protection. She is not able to recognise that I probably was drugged by my father. It is a way for her to protect herself, Darian said while in conversation with actor and presenter Jameela Jamil. Incest in France is taboo. And there are a lot of victims where its always the same situation. To recognise that your daughter, your son, is a victim its quite difficult. I think my mum is not able to recognise it because, otherwise, I think shes going to die. open image in gallery Gisele Pelicot waived the right to anonymity to speak out on behalf of other victims of sexual assault ( Alamy/PA ) Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison in 2024 after being found guilty of drugging his wife Gisele multiple times over the course of a decade and both raping her and arranging for dozens of other men to rape her while he watched and filmed. A total of 51 men were convicted following Frances worst ever mass rape trial, which sent shockwaves around the world. Gisele waived her right to anonymity, telling media outlets after the verdicts: I wanted... to ensure that society could see what was happening. I never have regretted this decision. I now have faith in our capacity to collectively take hold of a future in which everybody... can live together in harmony, respect, and mutual understanding. Darian claims to have also been a victim of chemical submission at the hands of her father, after being shown two pictures of her unconscious and almost naked, wearing underwear that was not her own. open image in gallery Darians father Dominique Pelicot and her mother Gisele, in a court sketch during his trial in France last year ( AP ) At the very beginning of the revelations, it was November (2020), I discovered some pictures of me, taken from my beloved father, where Im totally sedated He sedated me, like my mum. The main difference between my mum and me: my mum has all the evidence, all the proof of having been raped. But not me. I only have those pictures, almost naked, lying on the bed, with pants which are not mine. She added: But I dont know whats happened before or after. Darian claims the pictures of her had been shared online by her father, and she believes that she too was likely a victim of sexual abuse, something Dominique has always denied. According to Darian, she feels like an invisible victim after the French legal system failed to recognise that she had been sedated by her father. She and Gisele are not talking anymore, Darian revealed in the interview, stating: Its difficult to talk about my mum. She added that her mother is going well, shes well-supported, shes writing. open image in gallery The author and activist spoke to Jameela Jamil at Hay Festival ( Billie Charity/Hay Festival ) She needs to tell her own story, Darian said, concluding by urging others to share their experiences of abuse. Id like to help all victims, invisible victims, to have the courage to talk, and to share their stories, she said. Because every story, each of us, thats how well change the world. Its not only one person. Its all of us together. Darian has authored the book Ill Never Call Him Dad Again about her experiences and founded the campaign Don't Put Me Under: Stop Chemical Submission. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice With a wave of his hand, French president Emmanuel Macron has taken a different tack to diffuse the controversy over his wife appearing to hit him, this time by making light of it. On Monday, cameras caught the moment Brigitte Macron pushed her husband in the face as their plane arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, for the start of their southeast Asian tour. The French leader, who was standing in the doorway of the plane, looked momentarily stunned after the then-unidentified hand hit him in the face. But after playing down headlines of the pair appearing to have been caught in the middle of a heated argument, the French president on Tuesday instead made fun of it. After touching down in Indonesias capital, Jakarta, for the second leg of their tour, an unidentified hand was seen waving to the cameras from the same side of the doorway of the presidential plane from which Brigitte had seemingly hit her husband in Hanoi. Mr Macron then appeared in the doorway and walked down the stairs arm-in-arm with his wife. Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron were pictured smiling arm-in-arm as they walked down the steps of Frances presidential plane in Indonesia ( AFP/Getty ) A close friend of the couple told Radio France that they had staged the video to mock the fallout from the previous video, nicknamed le slap in the media. They wanted to respond with self-mockery, the source said. Mr Macron initially dismissed the incident from Hanoi as a joke between the couple, but he later expressed frustration that the video had become some kind of planetary catastrophe. At the time, he cautioned that this was not the first time in recent weeks that the content of videos of him had been twisted by people he described as crackpots. Earlier this month, Russian social media channels seized on a video of Mr Macron hiding a tissue, suggesting the French leader was attempting to conceal a bag of cocaine. Mr Macron was sitting in a train carriage on the way into Ukraines capital, Kyiv, alongside Sir Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz, when the footage was taken. The Russian channels also claimed that a coffee stirrer clutched by Mr Merz was a cocaine spoon. Those ridiculous claims were endorsed by high-level Russian officials, including the Kremlins foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. Paris openly mocked the claims in a social media post. It carried two photos depicting the tissue in question and a photo of Mr Macron shaking hands with Sir Keir. This is a tissue for blowing your nose, the caption for the first photo read. This is European unity to build peace, read the second. The White House is wagging its finger, the Brits and other Europeans will be alongside Ukraine and Turkey has high hopes. And when they all come together in Istanbul on Monday for ceasefire talks with Russia the Kremlins reaction will be ish-to so what? Vladimir Putin is facing no significant consequences from either Donald Trump or Europe for his continued war in Ukraine. Indeed, the latest research shows that Russia is making billions from European gas exports that are funding its war in Europe. The heaviest sanction threatened by Trump, and repeated by his envoys, is that the US will walk away from engagement with Russia and Ukraine over getting a 30-day ceasefire agreed, let alone any kind of peace process. On top of that, Keith Kellogg, the lead US envoy to Ukraine, has repeated the White House mantra, which is also a Kremlin demand, that Ukraine will never join Nato. The Trump administration has many levers it could pull to drive Russia towards a ceasefire. It could threaten to up military and intelligence support for Ukraine, it could back its Nato ambitions or it could offer troops to underwrite Ukraines future security. open image in gallery The business tower Lakhta Centre, the headquarters of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in St Petersburg, Russia ( AP ) It has inexplicably given up every one of those levers. As a result, the 32 members of Nato meeting at the end of June will have to decide what the alliance is actually for, as America has pivoted into camp Kremlin. There is a large dose of double-think and hypocrisy here, though. Europes leaders and the EU say they have most to fear from Putin and yet are spending a vast amount of their money on Russian gas, which is used to fund its war that European leaders say is an existential threat. The EU was the fourth largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in December, their imports accounting for 17 per cent (EUR 2.5 bn) of the top five purchasers. LNG comprised the largest share of the EUs purchases of Russias fossil fuels (39 per cent), followed by pipeline gas (38 per cent), according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). A study by the BBC using Crea figures and data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks aid to Ukraine, found that Russia made $939bn (697bn) from fossil fuel exports since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine has been allocated $309bn (230bn) in foreign aid over the same period. On top of that, the tax revenue available to the Kremlin has been further boosted by a loophole which allows countries, including the UK and EU members, that have imposed economic sanctions on Russia to import refined Russian oil products from countries that have not. open image in gallery Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to walk away from the Ukraine peace process ( AFP/Getty ) In 2024, sanctioning countries imported 15.8 bn of oil products from six refineries in India and Turkey. An estimated 6.6 bn of this was refined from Russian crude. An estimated 6.1 bn of Russian crude oil was used by these six refineries to create products for sanctioning countries imports of refined oil products from these refineries using Russian crude has generated 3.9 bn in tax revenues for the Kremlin, financing its brutal war on Ukraine, the Crea report said. Over a fifth of these refineries total exports were directed to the EU in 2024, during which India became the largest exporter of oil products to the bloc. The EU has a plan to wean itself off Russian gas by 2027 and has cut its consumption from 45 per cent in 2021 to about 19 per cent. But Hungary and Slovakia, both sympathetic to Putin, continue to receive piped Russian gas. And while the oil and gas flow out of Russia, the cash flows in. Russia has unleashed its biggest campaign of airstrikes against Ukraine in the entire conflict over the last few weeks. It is massing troops on its border close to Kharkiv, Ukraines second city. The Kremlins forces have attacked the centre of the 1,000-mile front line with renewed vigour around Kostyantynivka, and it has rapidly adjusted to drone warfare. open image in gallery Vladimir Putin is facing no significant consequences from Trump or Europe for his continued war ( Reuters ) None of this would have been possible without the vast oil and gas revenues available to Putin. Crea estimates Russia is making 652m a day from fossil fuel exports, which include legal sales and illegal smuggling operations that avoid the oil price cap on Russian crude set at $60 a barrel. The Europeans want this cap lowered to $50, but that is being resisted by the Trump administration. This leaves the US floundering in a soup of embarrassing platitudes. We want to work with Russia, including on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict, acting deputy US ambassador John Kelley told the UN Security Council. The deal on offer now is Russias best possible outcome. If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict, he warned, adding that Washington could also impose further sanctions on Russia. The US has very little trade with Russia. New US sanctions mean nothing. And if Trump wandered away from the diplomatic process, it is hard to see why that would worry Putin. But a worldwide effort to strangle Russia oil and gas exports would cripple his war effort. The problem is that the four biggest importers of Russian fuel China, India, Turkey and the EU are not prepared to pay the price to give peace a chance. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Haribo has recalled packets of sweets alleged to have contained cannabis after several members of the same family fell ill. The Happy Cola F!ZZ packets were recalled after the family members in the Netherlands became unwell, reporting dizziness before they alerted the police. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) later told Dutch news outlet Hart van Nederland that cannabis samples had been found inside the candy. It is unclear how many packets have been affected, with three reported so far - but Haribo has recalled the entire batch in the Netherlands as a precaution. All other Haribo products are still safe to consume, the NVWA said. A Haribo company spokesperson said: The incident is contained to the Netherlands, to a specific product and batch. Haribo products in the UK are not affected. The safety of our consumers is our highest priority and Haribo takes this incident very seriously, which is why a recall has been issued in the Netherlands. Haribo is working closely with the authorities to support their investigation and establish the facts around the contamination. The NVWA is currently investigating the cause of the illness in alongside Haribo, the authority said in a statement. How the cannabis ended up in the sweets remains unknown. "Samples were taken and cannabis was found in them," a spokesperson for the NVWA said to Hart van Nederland. "We immediately contacted Haribo and they issued a safety warning." In its product recall warning, the authority said: Haribo warns of kilo bags of HARIBO Happy Cola F!ZZ with best-before date (BBD) January 2026. There are bags in circulation with sweets that can lead to health complaints, such as dizziness, when consumed. So far it concerns 3 bags, but as a precaution Haribo is recalling the stock in question. Do not eat the sweets. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Trump administrations sympathy for Moscows anti-Nato demands has been likened to Nazi appeasement as parts of the alliances eastern bloc warn that the US is priming non-members for invasion. Top officials from four Eastern European countries have hit out after Donald Trumps special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, appeared to support Vladimir Putins reported demand to have in writing that Nato will not accept any new members from the region. In an interview with US network ABC News Live, Mr Kellogg described Putins latest position as a fair one that was likely to include not just Ukraine but also Georgia and Moldova. His comments prompted the Kremlin on Friday to say they were glad that Putins opposition to Nato was finally being met with understanding from Washington. A senior Lithuanian official, granted anonymity so they could speak freely, told The Independent that any cooperation between Mr Trump and Putin to block nations who are fearful of Russia from joining Nato would be a dangerous repeat of history. It looks like Munich, when great powers decide the fate of small ones, the official said, referencing the 1938 agreement between Adolf Hitler, the UK, France and Italy that ultimately led to Nazi Germany invading Czechoslovakia. open image in gallery US sympathy for Putins anti-Nato stance primes non-member countries for invasion, top officials warn ( EPA ) The official added that blocking Moldova and Georgias Nato membership was a signal to Putin that they would not be defended. It also casts doubt on the alliances independence, the official said. Russia is trying to get what they were looking for in 2022, a buffer zone, the official added. But this zone could soon become part of Russia if the Kremlin sees that nobody is defending them. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and six years later began its attempted takeover of Ukraine, initially by illegally annexing Crimea. Moscow has also stationed more than a thousand troops in the Moldovan region of Transnistria, sparking fears that Moldova could be the next target for the Kremlin. Olga Rosca, foreign policy adviser to the Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, said Russia is already violating our neutrality. open image in gallery Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands with Moldovas president Maia Sandu. Moldova, which is occupied by Russian troops, is not a Nato member ( Getty ) When asked by The Independent if Chisinau was concerned about Mr Kelloggs comments and their ability to join Nato being blocked, Ms Rosca said: Moldova is a constitutionally neutral country. This is a position made clear both domestically and internationally. The only country violating our neutrality is the Russian Federation, which continues to station troops illegally on our sovereign territory, against our will and in defiance of international law. Estonian president Alar Karis said the countrys position on Nato expansion was clear: Every country has the right to choose its own security arrangements. Ukraines future is in Nato. Jan Lipavsky, foreign minister for the Czech Republic, also hit back at Mr Kelloggs comments late last night. Nato expansion is in the interest of Russian security, he wrote on X. There is no war where Russia borders Nato countries. There is war elsewhere. Their commentary comes ahead of the next round of direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, which the former has proposed take place in Istanbul next week. However, Ukraine has accused its invader of failing to present a promised draft peace plan ahead of further talks. open image in gallery Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky (right) greets Czech Republics foreign minister Jan Lipavsky before talks in Kyiv last year ( Ukrainian Presidential Press Service ) Mr Kellogg said that the national security advisers of the UK, Germany and France would all attend the talks, but Sir Keir Starmers government has not yet confirmed this. Russias foreign minister said this week that Moscows key demands included Ukrainian neutrality. European officials have long cautioned that the Russian suggestion that Nato is expanding aggressively eastward is propaganda aimed at justifying its imperialistic ambitions. Putins attacks on Georgia and Ukraine in 2008 and 2014 came well before either country had serious chances of joining Nato, and the Russian leaders pre-invasion speech in February 2022 made little mention of Kyivs Nato membership hopes. In March, Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha rejected restrictions on joining international alliances and organisations as part of a potential peace deal. Ukraine applied for Nato membership in September 2022, months after Putin ordered the full-scale invasion. The country has not received a formal invitation, as the 32 members have struggled to reach a consensus. While Nato membership looks unlikely in the short term, Kyiv has been clear that if it is left without any security guarantees against Russia, they are at a serious risk of future Kremlin aggression. Moldova does not currently support Nato membership but has been working closely with the alliance for several decades. Last year, a declaration issued at the Nato summit in Washington called on Russia to withdraw all its forces from Moldova. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The US and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violated UN sanctions and enabled Moscow to increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. They made the allegations in their first report since joining hands to monitor sanctions against North Korea after Russia vetoed a resolution in March 2024 to continue the monitoring by a UN Security Council panel of experts. The panel had been issuing reports of Pyongyangs sanctions violations since 2010. The report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team comprised of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea said it had gathered evidence showing that North Korea and Russia engaged in myriad unlawful activities explicitly prohibited by UN sanctions resolutions. open image in gallery Smoke billows from an apartment building hit by a Russian drone in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 7 May 2025 ( REUTERS ) It claimed that North Korea had transferred arms and related materiel by sea, air and rail, including artillery, ballistic missiles and combat vehicles, for Russias use in the war in Ukraine. Russia transferred air defense systems to Pyongyang in return and its forces trained North Korean soldiers sent to support the war effort, the team claimed. Moscow also supplied refined petroleum products to Pyongyang in far excess of the yearly cap under the UN sanctions and maintained corresponding banking relations with the country. The 11 countries said this unlawful cooperation had contributed to Moscows ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure. The cooperation also provided resources for North Korea to fund its military and banned ballistic missile programmes and allowed the nearly 11,000 troops deployed by Pyongyang to Russia to gain battlefield experience, the team said. There was no immediate response from the Russian mission to the United Nations to a request for comment on the report. The report covers the period between 1 January 2024 and 30 April 2025 and points to evidence that Russia and North Korea intend to further deepen their military cooperation for at least the foreseeable future. It cites an unnamed team member reporting that Russian cargo vessels delivered nine million rounds of ammunition for artillery and multiple rocket launchers from North Korea to Russia in 2024. open image in gallery A TV screen shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang ( AP ) The report includes images of shipping containers, which the team claims are from North Korean and Russian ports, and an ammunition dump in Russia. Citing an unnamed team member, the report claimed that North Korea last year transferred at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia, which were launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorize populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia." It also transferred elements of three brigade sets of heavy artillery. open image in gallery A firefighter works at the site of a Russian drone strike in Sumy region of Ukraine on 29 May 2025 ( Emergency Service of Ukraine ) The report also carries images of a North Korean 170mm self-propelled gun purportedly being transported through Russia and North Korean multiple rocket launcher ammunition and an anti-tank missile found in Ukraine. The team said in a joint statement that it would continue to monitor the implementation of UN resolutions and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade UN sanctions. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking so far unsuccessfully to curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions following a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. The two countries have also blocked all other U N actions against North Korea. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Russia on Thursday accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, saying its a stab in the back by its longtime Slavic Balkan ally. Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the neutrality declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR, said in a statement. Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic told the state RTS television that he has recently discussed the issue of the arm exports to Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that it was agreed that the two countries form a working group to establish how Serbian-made weapons reach the Ukrainian frontlines. open image in gallery Serbia Russia Ukraine Arms ( Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) Serbian arms exports to Ukraine, mostly the Soviet-era-caliber ammunition still used by Ukraines defense forces, have long been known since 2023, but its not clear why the Russian foreign security service decided to react now. In March, Serbia denied it exported arms to Ukraine after Moscow demanded to know if it had delivered thousands of rockets for Ukraines fight against Russias invasion. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, no weapons have been exported from Serbia to any of the parties to the conflict. The SVR statement said the arms sales are being carried out through a simple scheme using fake end-user certificates and intermediary countries" serving as "a cover for anti-Russian actions. It added: The contribution of Serbian defense industry workers to the war unleashed by the West, the outcome of which Europe would like to see as a strategic defeat of Russia, amounts to hundreds of thousands of shells ... as well as a million rounds of ammunition for small arms. It is unlikely that such supplies can be justified by humanitarian considerations. They have one obvious purpose to kill and maim Russian military personnel and the civilian population of Russia. It seems that the desire of Serbian defense industry workers and their patrons to profit from the blood of fraternal Slavic peoples has made them completely forget who their real friends are and who their enemies are." The attacks on Serbia from the East and West are frequent because it leads autonomous and independent policies, Vucic said. Although claiming he wants Serbia to join the European Union, Vucic has maintained close relations with Russia. He defied EU warnings and attended Russias Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9. EU officials said that it was inappropriate for Vucic to stand side by side with Putin, considering Moscows invasion of Ukraine. Vucic has said his decision to attend the parade, which marked the World War II victory over Nazi Germany, was part of efforts to maintain traditional friendships Russia is a fellow Slavic and Orthodox Christian nation while seeking EU entry. Serbia, which relies almost fully on Russia for its energy supplies, has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia imposed after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and hasnt supported most EU statements condemning the aggression. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Kremlin has proposed a second round of direct peace talks with Ukraine for 2 June, reviving negotiations that failed to make significant progress two weeks ago. But a war of words erupted following the offer, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of failing to send a memorandum outlining proposals for a future ceasefire something it says was agreed upon during the previous talks. The latest row comes after US president Donald Trump issued a two-week deadline for Vladimir Putin to demonstrate he actually wants to end the war he started three years ago. "We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their memorandum, so that the meeting wont be empty and can truly move us closer to ending the war, Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov said following Russias offer to meet in Istanbul on 2 June. open image in gallery Rustem Umerov, wearing black, was part of the Ukrainian delegations in peace talks two weeks ago ( via REUTERS ) "The Russian side has at least four more days before their departure to provide us with their document for review. Ukraine has already sent over the document, Mr Umerov added. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha echoed the call for Moscow to immediately send over its memorandum before a meeting on Monday. Why wait until Monday? Mr Sybiha asked on X. Only a well-prepared meeting has the potential to produce tangible results. Moscow hit back on Thursday, calling on Ukraine to accept the 2 June negotiations, where it says it will present Ukraine with a memorandum outlining what it described as key elements for overcoming the root causes of the conflict. open image in gallery The meeting began around one hour after the scheduled start time ( EPA ) Russia has routinely used this line in apparent attempts to delay a truce, stating that it is not possible before certain conditions are met. Ukraine describes Russias demands as maximalist. "Here, you have to either confirm your readiness to continue negotiations or do the opposite," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. When asked to comment on Mr Sybihas suggestion that Russia should immediately hand over the memorandum, Peskov dismissed the idea as non-constructive. As Russia and Ukraine battle on the diplomatic stage, conventional war continues on the frontline. Three people were killed in Ukraine after scores of drones were fired by Russia, while Ukraine damaged a building in Moscow in a drone attack of its own. In the southern Russian city of Stavropol, a local government official who had fought in Ukraine was one of two men killed in an explosion. Russian authorities have now opened a criminal case. The Russian offer for peace talks came after Donald Trump appeared to set a two-week deadline for Vladimir Putin to prove his intention for peace in Ukraine. open image in gallery One person was killed and another seriously injured by Russian attacks on the Sumy region ( Emergency Service of Ukraine ) On being asked in the Oval Office yesterday if he thought Mr Putin wanted to end the war, Mr Trump said: I cant tell you that, but Ill let you know in about two weeks. Asked whether the Russian leader might be intentionally delaying negotiations, he added: Were going to find out whether or not hes tapping us along or not, and if he is, well respond a little differently. The US president has, however, previously set similar two-week deadlines, including on 27 April and 19 May. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A former Russian president has threatened World War III after Donald Trump criticised Vladimir Putin for his actions in Ukraine. The US branded the comments by the often-inflammatory Dmitry Medvedev reckless, as the war of the words between the two global powers continues to ramp up. However, diplomatic efforts appear to be ongoing despite the public clashes and in a rare move US embassy officials were seen attending a security meeting in Moscow on Wednesday. The latest tit-for-tat began at the weekend when Trump called the Russian leader crazy following an airstrike on Kyiv. He doubled down on the criticism on Tuesday, in a post on Truth Social: What Vladimir Putin doesnt realize is that if it werent for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. Hes playing with fire! open image in gallery The comments are typical of former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. ( SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images ) Medvedev, who served as Russian president from 2008 and 2012 and is now a top security official, flipped Trumps remarks, writing: I only know of one REALLY BAD thing WWIII. I hope Trump understands this! Trumps special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, then weighed into the row. Stoking fears of WW III is an unfortunate, reckless comment by @MedvedevRussiaE and unfitting of a world power, he wrote on X. President Trump @POTUS is working to stop this war and end the killing. We await receipt of RU Memorandum (Term Sheet) that you promised a week ago. Cease fire now. The sighting of two US officials from the embassy in Moscow at an international security forum in the Russian capital is notable, as it marks the first time an American delegation has attended such an event since before Putins full-scale invasion of Ukraine. open image in gallery Donald Trump has toughened his language against Vladimir Putin in recent days ( AP ) Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs Eric Jordan and Second Secretary Jeremy Ventuso were both seen at the International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues. The Russian leader opened up the event, saying that Moscows approach to security, which includes its war in Ukraine, remains fundamental and unchanged. The move was likely a low-cost goodwill gesture signalling the Trump administrations continued desire to normalise relations with Moscow, says Sam Greene, professor in Russian politics at Kings College London. For Moscow, he added, the invitation is the latest attempt to signal supposed seriousness about talks with the US without actually giving anything up. Just a day earlier, after Trumps initial comments about Putin becoming crazy, Russias foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested the US leader was a man who wants results but who had got emotional. He added that Europe was trying to sabotage the efforts of Russia and the US to broker peace, a reference to efforts to sanction Moscow for refusing to agree to a truce in Ukraine. open image in gallery United States' Second Secretary of the diplomatic mission Jeremy Ventuso, left, and Embassy's Acting Head of the Political and Economic Section Eric Jordan attend the International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues, in Moscow, Russia ( AP ) President Trump is a man who wants results, Lavrov said at a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. He sees some of the Europeans are working to sabotage his efforts [on a peace settlement], pushing Ukraine to absolutely reckless actions. Of course, he gets emotional, and, of course, as someone who does not like anything to stand in the way of his noble goals, he looks at it a certain way, shifts rhetoric. The most important thing is not to focus on mere rhetoric, but rather to ensure that Europe stops sabotaging our peace plans, which are supported by both the US and Turkey, and to which Russia is fully committed. Russian state media has subsequently played down Trumps latest comments, highlighting that the US president is yet to take any action against Moscow despite his recent warnings. Dmitry Drize, a Russian political commentator for Kommersant, described Trumps latest comments as a skirmish across the ocean. From beautiful phrases about wonderful negotiations, about the fact that a breakthrough on the path to peace is about to happen, Donald Trump has moved on, no, to threats, or rather to reproaches. You can also call it an exchange of pleasantries, a skirmish across the ocean, he wrote. Nevertheless, nothing terrible has happened yet. So now the question is whether America will follow Europe in raising the stakes or, as before, limit itself to beautiful phrases and reproaches. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Israel has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza but Hamas said while it was reviewing the plan its terms did not meet the groups demands. This development follows optimistic remarks from President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who suggested earlier this week that an agreement to halt the conflict and secure the release of more hostages was within reach. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Israel "backed and supported" the new proposal. Hamas has acknowledged receipt of the proposal and stated they are "reviewing it responsibly to serve the interests of our people, provide them relief, and achieve a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip." Previously, Hamas indicated its agreement with Witkoff on a "general framework" for a lasting ceasefire, encompassing a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, increased aid, and a transfer of power to a politically independent Palestinian committee. Here's what's known about the emerging negotiations that aim to bring about an extended truce in the war in exchange for hostages that remain in captivity: What do Israel and Hamas want? open image in gallery Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to end the war until all the hostages are released ( ABIR SULTAN ) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to end the war until all the hostages are released and Hamas is either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. He has said Israel will control Gaza indefinitely and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population. Palestinians and most of the international community have rejected plans to resettle Gazas population, a move experts say would likely violate international law. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages its only bargaining chip in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. It has offered to give up power to a committee of politically independent Palestinians that could oversee reconstruction. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages. Around a third are believed to be alive, though many fear they are in grave danger the longer the war goes on. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed since Israel renewed its airstrikes and ground operations after ending a ceasefire in March. The dispute over whether there should be a temporary ceasefire to release more hostages as Israel has called for or a permanent one as Hamas wants has bedeviled talks brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar for more than a year and a half, and there's no indication it has been resolved. What is the latest ceasefire proposal? open image in gallery Israeli army tanks take position at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on May 29, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. ( AFP via Getty Images ) Witkoff has not publicised his latest proposal, but a Hamas official and an Egyptian official independently confirmed some of the details. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. They say it calls for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. Israeli forces would pull back to the positions they held during the ceasefire Israel ended that month. Hamas would release 10 living hostages and a number of bodies during the 60-day pause in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 100 serving long sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. Each day, hundreds of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter Gaza, where experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade slightly eased in recent days has pushed the population to the brink of famine. Why is it so hard to end the war? open image in gallery Humanitarian aid wait destined to Gaza wait at the Kerem Shalom crossing between southern Israel and the Gaza Strip, on May 29, 2025, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas ( AFP/Getty ) Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 hostages. More than half the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel has rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's ensuing military campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly 2 million Palestinians, with hundreds of thousands living in squalid tent camps and unused schools. Hamas has been vastly depleted militarily and lost nearly all of its top leaders in Gaza. It most likely fears that releasing all the hostages without securing a permanent ceasefire would allow Israel to launch an even more devastating campaign to ultimately destroy the group. Israel fears that a lasting ceasefire and withdrawal now would leave Hamas with significant influence in Gaza, even if it surrenders formal power. With time, Hamas might be able to rebuild its military might and eventually launch more Oct. 7-style attacks. Netanyahu also faces political constraints: His far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he ends the war too soon. That would leave him more vulnerable to prosecution on longstanding corruption charges and to investigations into the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack. A broader resolution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears more distant than ever. The Palestinians are weak and divided, and Israel's current government the most nationalist and religious in its history is opposed to Palestinian demands for a state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. The last serious peace talks broke down more than 15 years ago. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Starving Palestinians desperate for food say Israeli helicopter gunships and tanks fired around crowds gathered at a new food distribution site in Gaza, as Benjamin Netanyahus controversial aid plan descended into chaos. Gazas health ministry said at least one person was killed and 48 wounded in violence on Tuesday when desperate crowds overran the site in Rafah, south of the besieged strip. It was set up by a US-backed foundation, military contractors and the Israeli military whose soldiers reportedly opened fire. Hospital officials said that four people died in a separate stampede on Wednesday when hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse in an equally desperate attempt to find food. On Thursday, Israel's government approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal under international law in a move that will deepen divisions with some allies, including the UK. On Friday, hopes of a ceasefire were again dashed when Hamas said a US plan backed by Israel failed to meet its demands. open image in gallery Displaced Palestinians ferry bags of food aid as they storm a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip ( AFP via Getty Images ) Meanwhile, Palestinians on the ground continue to suffer, with a warning that millions are now at risk of famine. Ahmed Shaker, 30, described the chaos in Rafah on Tuesday as he tried to get food for his family. Because of the large number of people, they collided with each other, he said. The intensity of the stampede increased until the fence separating the barriers collapsed. A quadcopter came and started firing around us. The father-of-threes home was destroyed in the bombings. He has been displaced four times and was trying to get food for his one-year-old baby and two toddler daughters. Then the tank approached and started firing near the people, he continued. The bullets were hitting the sand. Then the Apache helicopter came and fired toward the sea. My childrens hunger drove me to go. It's been more than a month and a half since Ive eaten bread, except for a few small pieces. I was determined to go so I could feed my children and spare them from starvation, he added. open image in gallery Zakaria, an underfed Palestinian boy, shelters in a tent after being displaced due to the Israeli military offensive ( Reuters ) Khairiya, 64, told The Independent she walked several kilometres on foot to get to the distribution site, from the tent where she now lives after being displaced seven times. But the place became crowded. There was no more control, the mother-of-seven said, adding that the Israeli army started shooting from quadcopters and tanks. My husband is 71 and has difficulty moving, especially when walking and carrying the aid box, she explained. My eldest son told me not to go, but I went because we had little food. Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to get the aid. Some were able to get aid, and many did not. The distribution site is in the middle of sand dunes, up and down. Despite the difficulty, I will go again after the next delivery is announced. I havent had bread for two weeks, she added. The Israeli military says it guards the site from a distance, and that it fired only warning shots to control the situation. The US-based and backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said its security contractors manning the site said it did not open fire and that distribution continued without incident shortly afterwards. It told Israeli media it plans to open four sites and expand operations in Gaza in the coming weeks. open image in gallery A Palestinian child carries aid from a US-backed centre near the Netzarim Corridor ( EPA ) open image in gallery A Palestinian man shows blood stains on his palm after collecting aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ( Reuters ) However, a Red Cross field hospital reported that the 48 wounded people had suffered gunshot injuries, including women and children. Israel has faced ferocious criticism from its allies, including the UK, which this month sanctioned Israeli settlers and organisations and froze free trade talks over its three-month blockade on Gaza. The entire 2.3 million strong population is now at risk of famine, according to a United Nations global hunger monitor. And so under intense international pressure, Israel ended the 11-week-long aid blockade last week. It has now allowed limited relief through a heavily criticised plan to corral the population into areas with feeding points, like the site in Rafah which was opened on Monday. The United Nations and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new aid system, arguing there is no way it can meet Gazas overwhelming need and that it allows Israel to use food as a means of population control. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and civilians seeking supplies and continue to call for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted aid access. UN agencies have reported that separately some aid deliveries resumed last week, with Israel approving about 800 truckloads of relief. But UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that fewer than 500 truckloads made it to the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, where we and our partners could collect just over 200 of them limited by insecurity and restricted access. The UN Middle East envoy Sigrid Kaag told the Security Council on Wednesday that the amount of aid Israel had so far allowed the UN to deliver was comparable to a lifeboat after the ship has sunk, while everyone in Gaza remains at risk of famine. Israel may face further sanctions as it separately approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law and widely seen as a major obstacle to long-term peace. Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist minister who advocates for full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and for Gaza to be totally destroyed, said the new settlements would be in the northern part of West Bank but did not specify locations. Israeli media citing the defence ministry said that among the new settlements, including existing outposts that are illegal under even Israeli law, would be legalised. A spokesperson for defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the announcement. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited rule in the West Bank, and Hamas militant group which runs Gaza, both condemned the Israeli decision. open image in gallery Israeli army tanks take position at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Thursday ( AFP via Getty Images ) Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its ferocious offensive in Gaza, hitting dozens of targets overnight, including what it said were weapons storage sites, sniper positions, and tunnels. Palestinian medical workers said Israeli forces killed at least 45 people on Thursday, including 23 in a strike that hit several homes in the Bureij camp in central Gaza. Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of Hamas' armed wing, has been killed, apparently confirming his death in a recent strike in the Gaza Strip. There was no confirmation from Hamas. Despite the bombing and violence, families in Gaza returned to distribution points on Thursday, desperate for more food. Because of the blockade and high prices, everyone will go to receive aid. I met friends from all over the strip on the way back. I got a box that will last my family only five days, said Fadi, 34, a computer engineer who has been displaced six times and whose house has been flattened. But this method is exhausting and humiliating. We were forced to go because of extreme hunger after 11 weeks of blockade. Also, its difficult for elderly people to walk kilometres and carry a box weighing more than 10 kilos. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth and facing catastrophe, the UN has warned, as aid continues to struggle to reach starving Palestinians. The UNs humanitarian office said Israel was allowing a trickle of food into the enclave when it should be a flood, with 300 aid trucks unable to offload due to operational bottlenecks. It comes as hopes for a 60-day ceasefire and hostage exchange proposed by the Americans hang in the balance. Hamas said it was reviewing the Israel-backed plans but has already claimed the deal lacks a commitment to end the conflict. Meanwhile, the crisis on the ground continues to escalate, with Israel ordering the evacuation of the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, while at least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Friday. open image in gallery Palestinians evacuate in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City on Friday ( Reuters ) Last week, Israel partially lifted an 11-week blockade of aid into Gaza, allowing a limited amount of aid into the territory through a new but heavily criticised system introduced by Benjamin Netanyahus government. The UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesperson Jens Laerke said aid deliveries were still severely restricted, as hunger and malnutrition spread among the increasingly desperate 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza. It is drip-feeding food into an area on the verge of catastrophic hunger, he said in a press briefing in Geneva. Its not a flood. Mr Laerke called for immediate changes to how aid was being allowed into the enclave so food could be delivered directly to families, pointing out that almost no ready-to-eat food was entering. open image in gallery Internally displaced Palestinians gather outside a charity kitchen to receive limited rations amid a shortage of food, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip ( EPA ) Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth, he said. Its the only defined area, a country or defined territory within a country where you have the entire population at risk of famine, 100 per cent of the population at risk of famine. The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations, not only in the world today, but in the recent history of global humanitarian response anywhere. Medecins Sans Frontieres secretary-general Christopher Lockyear agreed the new system was not working. The most vulnerable especially the elderly and people with disabilities have virtually no chance of accessing the food they desperately need, he said. The claim that this unprincipled, failing mechanism is necessary to prevent the diversion of aid is false. open image in gallery Girls wait to receive food at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis ( EPA ) Israels foreign ministry rebuked criticism of the flow of aid, saying on Friday: There is no humanitarian blockade. That is a blatant lie. The ministry said it was facilitating the entry of aid in two ways: first, by allowing nearly 900 trucks to enter Gaza this week. Hundreds of these trucks are still waiting for the UN to collect and distribute them in Gaza, the ministry said. The ministry also said it was distributing aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and claimed the Ghf had handed out more than two million meals within four days of starting operations in southern Gaza as well as tens of thousands of aid packages. But Palestinians described chaos at all three of Ghfs aid hubs on Thursday; multiple witnesses reported a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and they said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds. open image in gallery A Palestinian woman in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza City on Friday ( Reuters ) Mnawar al-Rai said she has to walk to three or four locations each day to find a plate of food to feed her children, and when her family tried to collect aid in recent days, they came under fire. Fuad Muheisen, from Deir al-Balah, said if charity kitchens shut down all of Gaza will die. No one will stay alive. Hamas is expected to respond to the US ceasefire proposal this weekend, after the White House said Israel had agreed to Washingtons new plan to halt hostilities in Gaza. Under the new proposal, guaranteed by US president Donald Trump, Hamas would release 28 of the remaining 58 living and dead Israeli hostages in the first week of the 60-day ceasefire, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians. Humanitarian aid would flow into Gaza as soon as Hamas agrees to the deal, and the plan stipulates the militant group would release the remaining 30 hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. At that time, Israel would also cease all military operations in Gaza. open image in gallery A Palestinian boy, injured following an Israeli airstrike, is brought for treatment to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City ( AP ) The Israeli prime minister, who underwent a routine colonoscopy on Friday morning in Jerusalem, has told the families of Israeli hostages that he has accepted the new ceasefire proposal presented by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, according to local media reports. Families of the remaining hostages held in Gaza are again pleading with Mr Netanyahu to ensure that any agreement to end the war must include their freedom. Ayelet Samerano, the mother of Yonatan Samerano, whose body is being held in Gaza, was among the family members who met with Mr Netanyahu on Thursday. She said the news that only some hostages and several bodies would be released had once again plunged the families into indescribable uncertainty. Its again a selection, she said. All the families, we are right now standing and thinking, Is it going to be my son? Isnt it? Hamas said it would respond to the ceasefire proposals by Saturday, but senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday that the terms of the proposal echoed Israels position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded. Even as those negotiations continue, Israel has ordered more evacuations from the north of Gaza, including from the al-Awda hospital one of the last functioning medical centres in the area while Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 people, including women, and injured many more. So far, Israels war in Gaza has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began with Hamass 7 October attack on Israel, which left around 1,200 dead and some 250 taken hostage. Additional reporting by Reuters, AP On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Hamas is expected to imminently respond to a US 60-day ceasefire proposal after the White House said Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to Washingtons new plan to halt hostilities in Gaza. The Palestinian militant group is reviewing the deal, which includes sending humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on it, as well as the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas confirmed to Reuters it had received the new proposal, and would respond by Friday or Saturday. The Israeli prime minister told the families of Israeli hostages that he has accepted the new ceasefire proposal presented by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, according to local media reports. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Israel had signed off on the ceasefire proposal, which Mr Witkoff had forwarded to Hamas for review. I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing and we hope a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home, Ms Leavitt said at a briefing, according to Reuters. open image in gallery Palestinians carry boxes containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial group backed by the US and Israel, in Rafah on 27 May 2025 ( AP ) Under the new proposal, guaranteed by US President Donald Trump as well as mediators in Qatar and Egypt, Hamas would release 28 of the remaining 58 living and dead Israeli hostages in the first week of the 60-day ceasefire, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians. Humanitarian aid would flow into Gaza as soon as Hamas agrees to the deal, and the plan stipulates the militant group would release the remaining 30 hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. Under the plan, Israel would also cease all military operations in Gaza once the truce takes effect. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday that the terms of the proposal echoed Israels position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded. Israel, meanwhile, has ordered the closure of al-Awda Hospital, the last functioning medical facility in northern Gaza, forcing health officials to urgently relocate remaining patients and staff. The forced closure of the hospital comes amid a deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as Israels tightening blockade continues to strangle the besieged Palestinian territory. Recent attempts to distribute scarce food supplies led by a controversial group backed by the US and Israel called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation remained chaotic on Thursday, with scenes of disorder at designated distribution points. Several explosions were heard and Israeli gunfire reported near a distribution centre in central Gaza early on Friday. open image in gallery Steve Coogan reads names of children killed in Israels war on Gaza ( PA Wire ) Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said starvation is threatening the future of the children in the Palestinian enclave. Whats urgently needed is a political will to allow the UN and partners to provide assistance at scale without hindrance or interruption, Lazzarini said in a post on X. Allow us to do our work. As the starving Palestinians frantically attempted to find food, Israeli forces continued to conduct strikes across the territory, killing at least 70 people since early Thursday. Gazas health ministry condemned the Israeli order to shut down al-Awda Hospital, describing it as a continuation of the violations and crimes against the territorys healthcare system. Health officials said the hospitals closure followed fresh Israeli evacuation orders on Thursday, affecting large numbers of residents in the northern and eastern areas of Gaza City. open image in gallery Palestinians mourn members of the Azzam family killed in Israeli strikes on their home in central Jabalia, Gaza, on 29 May 2025 ( AFP via Getty ) In a statement, the health ministry urged all concerned sides to ensure protection for the health system in the Gaza Strip as guaranteed by international and humanitarian laws. According to the World Health Organization, at least 97 people, including 13 patients, remain at al-Awda. The agency said it was planning a mission on Friday to evacuate them to another hospital. Due to impassable roads, the hospitals medical equipment cannot be relocated, the WHO noted. According to the Guardian, the Israel Defence Forces issued a new evacuation order for a broad section of northern Gaza late Thursday, instructing residents of Al-Atatra, Jabalia, and the Gaza City neighbourhoods of Shujaiya and Al-Zaytun to move west. The Israeli military said these areas would be deemed dangerous combat zones with immediate effect. Israels war on Gaza has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians so far, according to the local health ministry, left the territory in ruins and displaced most of its 2.2 million inhabitants. The latest war on Gaza began in October 2023 after around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas attack on southern Israel. With additional reporting from Reuters On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Donald Trump has reportedly outlined a vision for a nuclear deal that would let the US enter Iranian facilities and blow up any infrastructure deemed a threat. Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, the US president said he was looking for a deal that is very strong, where we can go in with inspectors. We can take whatever we want. We can blow up whatever we want. But nobody getting killed. He claimed such a deal could be reached in the next couple of weeks and expressed optimism that there had been a lot of progress in ongoing talks, Bloomberg reported. Iranian officials, including a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, rejected Mr Trumps views as a fantasy. Accessing Irans nuclear sites and blowing up infrastructure is a fantasy past US presidents shared. Iran is independent, with strong defences, resilient people, and clear red lines, Ali Shamkhani said in a post on X on Thursday. Talks serve progress, interests, and dignity, not coercion or surrender. Mr Trump also said he had advised Israeli prime minister Netanyahu not to attack Iran as it could disrupt Washingtons negotiations with Tehran. He was responding to a question about reports that Israel had renewed its plan to strike Iran. Instead, Mr Trump said, he suggested a plan where the US could target Irans weapons infrastructure through an agreement, destroying facilities without harming people. We can blow up a lab, but nobodys going to be in the lab, as opposed to everybody being in the lab and blowing it up, right? he said. Senior Iranian officials on Thursday rejected speculation about an impending nuclear deal with the US, stressing that any agreement must lift all Western sanctions and permit the continuation of Irans nuclear programme, the Associated Press reported. Iran is sincere about a diplomatic solution that will serve the interests of all sides. But getting there requires an agreement that will fully terminate all sanctions and uphold Irans nuclear rights, including enrichment, Abbas Araghchi, the countrys foreign minister, said on X. Mr Trump has repeatedly warned of airstrikes against Irans nuclear programme if negotiations fail, while Iranian officials have hinted that they might pursue a nuclear weapon using their existing uranium stockpile. The US and Iran have held five rounds of negotiations in Oman and Rome in recent weeks. Following the latest round last Friday, Omani mediator, foreign minister Badr al-Busaidi, said the two sides had made some but not conclusive progress, adding that further talks were necessary. Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Scientists have been left stunned by a mysterious, regular signal that is flashing at us from deep in space. The new type of cosmic phenomenon has only become more mysterious with further examination, scientists say. The object in question is 15,000 light years from Earth and is known as ASKAP J1832-0911. It sends out pulses of radio waves and X-rays on a regular schedule: for two minutes, every 44 minutes. It was found with an Australian telescope that spotted radio signals coming from a specific part of space. Nasas Chandra X-ray Observatory was coincidentally looking at that same part of space and found that the object was emitting X-rays as well as radio pulses. It is the first time that one of these mysterious objects, known as an LPT, has been spotted sending out X-rays as well as radio signals. The researchers on a new study say that the object is unlike anything we have seen before and that it could be an unknown kind of object or even a new type of physics. LPTs, or long-period transients, were first found in 2022, and researchers have spotted ten of them since. They send out radio pulses in regular bursts that are minutes or hours apart. ASKAP J1832 is not only unusual for its X-ray behaviour, however. Over the months they watched it, scientists also noted that the X-rays and radio waves dropped off something they have never seen before in our Milky Way galaxy. Researchers dont know what the object at the heart of them might be. There is no explanation for either what the signal is or why it is flashing in such a regular way. This object is unlike anything we have seen before, Dr Ziteng Wang from Curtin University. ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution). However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution. Scientists hope that the discovery that the object is emitting X-rays too could help give some insight on where the signals are coming from and how they work. We will continue to hunt for clues about what is happening with this object, and well look for similar objects, said co-author Dr Tong Bao of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in Italy. Finding a mystery like this isnt frustrating its what makes science exciting! The work is reported in a new paper, Detection of X-ray Emission from a Bright Long-Period Radio Transient, published in the journal Nature. Who wants to be an overtourist? Not you. Fortunately, for every just-too-popular Amsterdam, Barcelona and Venice there are a hundred other attractive European cities that are desperate to share their charms not least because they understand that inbound tourism is the closest that any location can get to free money. Choosing a less-celebrated destination is a shrewd move: you can expect lower prices, thinner crowds and a warmer welcome. On the journeys I have made in the past two years, these are the star off-the-radar cities. Best crowd-free European cities Aarhus, Denmark While the UK decided it wanted nothing to do with European Capitals of Culture, in my experience, the EU honour of a year in the spotlight brings permanent improvements to a city. open image in gallery Charming streets and coastal views welcome to Aarhus ( iStock ) Aarhus is the second city of Denmark, and has the requisite cobbled lanes with pretty cottages, where spring flowers will soon be blooming. Yet it also has an outstanding art museum in the remarkable cubes-and-circles shape of ARoS. The collection includes some works from the 18th century, but also goes for big, challenging installations of the kind that make lasting memories. This being Denmark, gastronomy is superb, with outdoor seating beside the Aarhus River that winds through the city. Even the airport is a treat. If Ikea did aviation, this is how the experience might feel. Beziers, France open image in gallery Good character? Hotel de la Prison in Beziers, southwest France ( Charlotte Hindle ) The Mediterranean shore curves around a full 90 degrees between the celebrated French cities of Montpellier and Perpignan. Beziers is not yet on the same status. That will surely change soon as travellers realise the abundance of appeal in this hilltop city. The main attraction is the magnificent cathedral, which unusually includes a tower that you can climb without paying a fee. Adjacent is the new and marvellous Hotel de la Prison, the local jail reimagined as a boutique hotel, where I stayed for a ridiculously inexpensive 100 (82) a night (as its reputation has grown, so have the rates). Commanding your attention from the hotel: the nine locks of Fonseranes, a short walk from town. The Canal du Midi is hauled high above sea level by these engineering marvels. Adjacent, you can see the relics of a failed 20th-century attempt to accelerate the progress of ships to higher altitude using a water slope. Nearby attractions to fill out a short break include Gruissan a fishing village with an amazing pink salt lagoon and the equally underrated city of Narbonne. Erfurt, Germany open image in gallery Commanding heights: St Marys Cathedral, Erfurt, eastern Germany ( Charlotte Hindle ) Unlike, sadly, many British travellers, I relish discovering German cities. I will embark on just such a journey this week. I can already conjure visions of Heilbronn and Magdeburg: lanes leading to a sturdy central square dominated by a cathedral and flanked by taverns serving hearty dishes and good, strong beer. But I will also pay a return visit to Erfurt, capital of the state of Thuringia, and a singularly fine city. The rumble of the endearingly antiquated tram network; the brutal beauty of St Marys Cathedral; the elegant two-track Gera river, and the handsome bridges that cross it. And a development since last I visited: the newly Unesco-listed Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt, comprising the Old Synagogue, the Mikveh and the Stone House. However dark the politics of Europe may become, the continents deep culture prevails. Lodz, Poland open image in gallery Man made: Manufaktura in Lodz, central Poland ( Charlotte Hindle ) Please practice the pronunciation of the Polish citys name ahead of your visit: Woodge should do it. Now you are all set. Lodz was once at the heart of industrial Europe. It still possesses a stupendously long main street, flanked with impressive buildings. One of these is the superbly refurbished Grand Hotel, the best place I stayed in 2024. As Poland is the land of luxury for less, a chic double is on offer for around 130, including a sumptuous buffet breakfast in the former ballroom. The many attractions include Manufaktura, a former factory reinvented as a leisure destination with some outstanding restaurants. Even the Starbucks is spectacular. The tourist office provides maps for rewarding self-guided walks around the city. Beyond the centre, the Jewish cemetery is poignant and beautiful. Next time, I will be sure to make space for the Herbst Palace Museum, a glittering mansion. Reggio di Calabria, Italy open image in gallery A relic from the ancient world, and the Riace Bronzes in Reggio Calabria ( Charlotte Hindle ) Some places demand attention for a single prize. In mainland Italys southernmost city, the big draw comprises a couple of men. The Riace Bronzes are known prosaically as A and B, but they are simply the most powerful figures from the past I have ever seen. The two life-size sculptures of naked males were created by the Greeks 2,500 years ago and found in the sea bed by a passing fisherman in 1972. Today they inhabit a climate-controlled chamber in the National Archaeological Museum in Reggio di Calabria, the nearest big city to the location where they were discovered. You must spend three minutes in a dehumidifying airlock before joining their company. RC, as it is customarily contracted, possesses another long main street that runs parallel to the shore. Just inland, you can get some impressive views from the hillside including, on a clear day, of a snow-draped Mount Etna across on the island of Sicily. No need, though, to take one of the many ferries shuttling across the Strait of Messina; the mainland has much appeal. Just 20 minutes north, the town of Scilla is scattered across a massive thumb of rock soaring above the Mediterranean, while an hour further along the coast Tropea is a distillation of the best of Italys waterside towns. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice American Airlines, Delta and United are all quietly charging solo travelers more than those in groups, it's been revealed. In some cases, solo travelers are reportedly paying up to 70 percent more. Travel sites Thrifty Traveler and View From The Wing discovered that the carriers, the three biggest in the US, have been using this pricing tactic on select domestic routes. Thrifty Traveler's Kyle Potter wrote: "While it's not widespread you won't see it on each and every route it's real and undeniable." open image in gallery The Independent verified that discount American Airlines fares are available for group travelers ( American Airlines ) Researchers inputted flights with all three airlines, changed the number of passengers, then watched fares drop instantly. The Independent was able to replicate two of the price changes. We discovered, as Thrifty Travel did, that it's possible to reduce the cost of a flight from Charlotte to Fort Myers with American Airlines by $149, from $482 to $333, by booking for two people instead of one. And on Google Flights we saw a solo travel fare for an American flight from Chicago O'Hare one-way to Lexington in Kentucky fall by 50 percent, from $215 to $107, when the number of travelers was doubled to two. Discounts for bulk buys are triggered in lots of consumer environments, from supermarkets to rail travel, but many travelers will be surprised to see this pricing strategy used by airlines, especially in an under-the-radar fashion. The discounts aren't made explicit when booking. open image in gallery One aviation expert described the tactic of giving discounts for group air travel unfair ( Getty/iStock ) The Independent tries out United Airlines' new Dreamliner seats Rhys Jones, Aviation Editor at headforpoints.com, described the practice as "unfair". He told The Independent: "Unlike hotel rooms, where you can share to save money, you can't share a plane seat and therefore the practice of charging solo travelers more can seem particularly unfair, especially as single people already often pay more versus those who are coupled up. "Unfortunately, airlines will always try and sell tickets for the maximum price they can charge whilst also filling aircraft, and whilst someone who is traveling for business might not blink an eye, another traveling alone on holiday might not have the same means." However, Gilbert Ott, frequent flier and Founder of travel site godsavethepoints.com, remarked that travelers should essentially grin and bear it, especially in the age of AI, which could see the advent of more intense "personalized pricing". He told The Independent: "People must wrap their heads around the concept that seats are commodities and just like all other goods, bulk discounts often apply. When we buy a six-pack of beer from the supermarket, we get a discount, for example. "We've seen countless airlines offer companion fares, with discounts buying for two. I get that it can be frustrating, and as a frequent solo and not-solo traveler, I win some and I lose some. "We'll see more personalized pricing as airlines leverage AI." United declined to comment, while American Airlines and Delta did not respond to a request for a statement. Actors and activists, including Steve Coogan and Juliet Stevenson, gathered in London to read aloud the names of thousands of children killed in Gaza. The vigil, organised by Choose Love, took place in the shadow of the Elizabeth Tower outside the Palace of Westminster. Participants sought to honour the more than 16,000 children who have died in the last 19 months. Standing in front of a banner which read Gaza: Actions Not Words, Coogan said he participated to "highlight the plight of starving children in Gaza who are having their aid blocked". Attendees described the events as a genocide, urging the public to protest against the UK Government's approach to the conflict. The architectural firm co-owned by Hugh Wallace, a judge on RTEs Home of the Year, recorded post-tax profits of 176,408 last year. New accounts show the post-tax profits for the 12 months to the end of June last followed a figure of 166,678 in the prior year. A potential merger of Dublin legal firm William Fry with the Irish arm of international firm Eversheds Sutherland is off, the two sides confirmed on Thursday. Merger talks had been underway since late last year and a likely deal had been well flagged. However, it is understood the commercial terms could not be agreed following a due diligence process. Matthew Goode and his band of misfit detectives are terrific in dense thriller that plumbs dark and disturbing depths After a traumatic incident that left one colleague dead and another paralysed, hotshot cop Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) is given a new job. Photo: Netflix Several previews of Dept Q (Netflix, now streaming) have likened it to the marvellous Slow Horses. Its a shallow, lazy comparison, seemingly based on nothing more than the fact that both series feature a spiky, disagreeable lead character with a habit of getting on peoples wick, in charge of a group of rejects and screw-ups. It also does a great disservice to The Queens Gambit creator Scott Franks excellent series, which transplants Jussi Henry Adler-Olsens Denmark-set book series to Edinburgh. The switch works a treat. The granite and gothic streets of the Scottish capital are the perfect setting for a dense, gripping mystery that plumbs dark and disturbing depths. Matthew Goode is terrific as DI Carl Morck, a brilliant detective whos loathed by most of his colleagues for his arrogance, abrasiveness, sarcasm and sense of superiority. Being a sassenach among the Scots doesnt help matters. Morck takes a steep fall from grace after his carelessness results in the death of a rookie officer in a shooting incident that also leaves his own partner, DS Hardy (Jamie Sives), partially paralysed. Morck himself takes a bullet in the neck. Hes emotionally scarred and suffering from PTSD, though bottling it all up. Hes given a cavernous office in the basement a former toilet where the urinals still stand When he returns to work, unwelcomed and unwanted by his resentful colleagues, hes mandated to have counselling sessions with police therapist Dr Rachel Irving (the great and seemingly ageless Kelly Macdonald). Morcks boss Moira (Kate Dickie) tells him a budget has been made available to set up a new cold case unit, the titular Department Q, and he is to be its leader. Hes given a cavernous office in the basement a former toilet where the urinals still stand an ancient car, a single laptop, a mountain of unsolved case files, and no resources or staff. Its a department of one. Morck knows its a cynical PR exercise to deflect attention away from low case-clearance rates and that the money will be spent on other departments. Gradually, however, he begins to warm to the job and assembles a small team of fellow misfits. Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) is a Syrian immigrant who was a policeman back home, but is now reduced to doing casual menial work around the office. Initially dumped on Morck to get him out of the way, Akram, whos deceptively mild-mannered, turns out to be an ace detective with a tough streak whos every bit the equal of his new boss. Rose (Leah Byrne), a cadet who was sidelined into tedious filing work after a breakdown, badgers her way on to the team, eager to prove herself. Morck also draws on the experience of Hardy, who analyses cases from his hospital bed. Alexej Manvelov as Akram Salim in Dept Q. Photo: Netflix Elsewhere, a ruthlessly ambitious state prosecutor called Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), whose preening overconfidence in court allows a wife-murderer to walk free, disappears while on a ferry with her mentally disabled brother William (Tom Bulpett). At first, all this appears to be happening at the same time, until an ingenious twist near the end of the slow-burn first episode reveals Merritt has been missing for four years and hers is the case Morck and his team have chosen. We learn that Merritt was abducted and is being held captive by a mysterious older couple who taunt, torment and torture her 24/7. The location of her captivity, I cant reveal, but the setting, a marvel of disturbing set design, is the stuff of sweat-drenched nightmares. In fact, to give away too much of what happens over the course of the nine episodes would be to spoil a complex, riveting thriller in which character development is as important as suspense. The excellent cast features Scottish stalwarts Shirley Henderson and Mark Bonnar. Rating: Four stars Aontu deputy leader accuses Sinn Fein of smoke and mirrors tactics over voting rights bill Gemma Brolly calls on party to explain why it hasnt backed presidential election proposals Aontu deputy leader Gemma Brolly Suzanne Breen Fri 30 May 2025 at 08:00 Aontu is calling on Sinn Fein to explain why it hasnt signed a bill in the Dail to give Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland the right to vote in the Republics presidential election. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 23: Colin Ferrell attends the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images) Oscar-nominated actor Colin Farrell will narrate a new four-part documentary series about the history of the people of Ireland. The RTE series From The Small Island was shot on location in 17 countries, including Ireland, Barbados, Belgium, Singapore, Switzerland, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. It aims to tell the story of the Irish people, with the first episode going back to the ancient Ceide Fields and the earliest settlers, including the discovery of the remains of a baby with the Down Syndrome gene who was cared for over 5,000 years ago. The series will also touch on the Viking invasions, the Christianisation of Ireland and the modern day. It will also include the television debut of the face of Rathlin Man, a 4,000-year-old ancestor whose face was reconstructed using cutting-edge DNA technology, the history of the first written reference to hurling and forgotten Irish explorers. The programme will also touch on the darker chapters of Irish history, from cannibalism and plague to Irish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. A Mayo-born general who rose through the ranks to lead the Argentinian army will also have his story told alongside the tale of the Irish-language printing press in Leuven, Belgium, and the Longford priest who heard the final confession of King Louis XVI. From That Small Island - The Story of the Irish, which is produced by the team behind 1916: The Irish Rebellion, will premier on Sunday 8 June at 6.30pm on RTE One and RTE Player. According to the promotional material, the show will answer the questions: Who are the Irish? Where did they come from? Why does the world turn green every St Patricks Day? It is created by writer and fimmaker Briona Nic Dhiarmada and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy, while actor Colin Farrell is the narrator. It will also feature an original score from Irish composer Colm Mac Con Iomaire. Absolutely bizarre: Man returned to prison for continued abuse of partner bought underground vault double grave for him and victim Woman grew so fearful of Martin Mulqueen that she took to sleeping with a hammer under her pillow Martin Mulqueen (53) originally from Ballynote, Kilrush, Co Clare but with an address in Bawn Street, Strokestown, Co Roscommon is the third person to be jailed for coercive control in Ireland. Eavan Murray Fri 30 May 2025 at 07:05 One of the first men in Ireland convicted of coercive control has been returned to prison after abusing his former partner again after his release. Richard Satchwell (58) has been found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury of the murder of his wife Tina (45) whose body was discovered buried under the stairwell of their Youghal, Co Cork home. English truck driver stored wifes body in a chest freezer before burying her in a grave under the stairs at their home in Youghal, Co CorkSix lies were crucial in unravelling Satchwells deceitMurderer initially claimed his wife disappeared with 26,000 when he went food shopping, but after her body was found six years later, he had a different story Richard Satchwell (58) has been found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury of the murder of his wife Tina (45) whose body was discovered buried under the stairwell of their Youghal, Co Cork home. The jury returned a unanimous verdict after nine hours and 28 minutes of deliberations following a five week trial. Satchwell now faces mandatory life in prison. The English truck driver kept his head bowed as the Central Criminal Court jury returned a guilty verdict on the 23rd day of the Central Criminal Court murder trial. Mr Justice Paul McDermott was told that the jury of seven women and five men had reached a unanimous guilty verdict. The jury had commenced their deliberations at 3.05pm on Tuesday and returned with their verdict on Friday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife at a time unknown on March 19/20, 2017, at his home at No 3 Grattan Street in Youghal, Co Cork, contrary to Common Law. Satchwell has been in custody since he was first charged on October 14, 2023, with his wife Tinas murder. However, sentencing will be adjourned to allow for the preparation of expert reports and for the Fermoy woman's family to consider the delivery of victim-impact statements at the sentencing hearing. For six-and-a-half years the truck driver had told lie upon lie upon lie as he maintained his wife had gone missing from their Youghal home on March 20, 2017, with two suitcases and 26,000 in their life savings. He informed gardai in Fermoy four days later that she had disappeared from the family home at the very time her body was in a chest freezer awaiting burial. His insistence his wife had disappeared prompted a six-and-a-half-year missing-person investigation which included major offshore searches and a week-long trawl of an east Cork woodland in 2018. The family of Tina Satchwell described her as a kind, loving and gentle soul. Ms Satchwell's cousin, Sarah Howard, said the family finally have justice following the conviction of Richard Satchwell. Satchwell, a British truck driver, was found unanimously guilty of the murder of his wife at their home in Co Cork. The 58-year-old had denied the murder of Ms Satchwell on a date between March 19 and March 20 2017. The jury in the trial returned the verdict on Friday afternoon at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. The jury had been deliberating for a total of nine hours and 28 minutes since Tuesday afternoon. Relatives of Mrs Satchwell wept as the guilty verdict was returned. Ms Howard, who gave evidence for the prosecution in the trial, said: During this trial Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was. Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our life meant so much to us all. We, as a family, can never put into words the impact that her loss has had on all of us. Tina was a kind, loving, gentle soul who loved her animals like they loved her and that is the way we want her remembered. Today, as a family, we finally have justice for Tina. Ms Satchwell's half-sister, Lorraine Howard, thanked the judge, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, and the prosecution team, including senior barrister Gerardine Small. Your hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies you were. We will never be able to put into words how thankful we are for you. We want to sincerely thank the judge, the jury, for their dedication, she said. We would like to thank all the witnesses who helped us reach this verdict today. I would like to personally thank Sarah Howard, Tina's niece, who came up to give evidence and her support two weeks postpartum from her beautiful baby girl. You did yourself and Tina proud. Thank you to (Superintendent) Ann Marie Twomey and (Detective Garda) Dave Kelleher for putting the pieces together and finding Tina. We would like to thank John OConnell, the victim support workers, for keeping our spirits high. The murder trial opened at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on April 28. It sat for five weeks and the jury heard from a total of 57 witnesses as well as watching multiple video and audio interviews Satchwell had conducted with gardai and Irish media organisations including the Irish Independent. The jury were told Satchwell had drawn in anyone who would listen to him to promote his false narrative that his wife was missing, possibly running off with another man. He conducted lengthy interviews with the Irish Independent, RTE, TV3/Virgin Media, Today FM, Red FM, 96FM and CRY FM. Prosecutor Gerardine Small SC said his account was full of guile, clever lies and conniving behaviour. She described him to the jury as an arch-manipulator. Leicester-born truck driver Satchwell also spoke from March 2017 about how his wife had regularly beat him telling a man at a car-boot sale six days after his wifes death that she was a street angel and a house devil. He also floated stories that she was depressed, had possible mental health issues and may have had an affair with a Polish man. Satchwell gave multiple interviews to television and radio stations, but visibly disliked newspaper journalists once commenting that they were mentally incapable of reporting what I say. Two members of Ms Satchwells family gave evidence to the trial including her cousin, Sarah Howard, and her half-sibling, Lorraine Howard. Sarah Howard sobbed during her evidence when asked about Satchwell offering her for free the chest freezer in which he had temporarily stored his wifes body before later burying her under the stairs. Prosecutors said this offer was cynical while even Mr Satchwells own counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, described his actions after his wifes death as reprehensible and disreputable. The trial heard that Satchwell later placed an advert on Done Deal for a chest freezer weeks after his wifes death which he said was free if collected and that it just needs a clean. Sarah Howard said she was very suspicious of the claim Ms Satchwell had left home with the 26,000 insisting she would never go anywhere without her beloved dogs, Heidi and Ruby, who were left behind in the Youghal property. Jurors also heard that the Satchwells pets including the dogs and a parrot were like their children. Ms Satchwell had wanted to adopt two marmoset monkeys, Terry and Thelma, but the trial heard her husband had sent a significant amount of money for the animals to an international monkey organisation which was probably a scam. Lorraine Howard said she did not like the way Mr Satchwell referred to her half-sibling initially as his trophy girlfriend and latterly as his trophy wife. She said Tina Satchwell also confided to her that she could not get away from her husband. She knew she could not get away from him. She would confide in me that he would follow her to the ends of the Earth she could not get away from him, she said. He [Satchwell] knew she was above his league his words not mine. He would tell everyone that. He would never go off with anyone else. Even if she came back in the door after all she had put him through, he would take her back. The truck driver told gardai his wife regularly assaulted him and that, just days before she went missing, had told him: I wasted 28 years of my life with you. He said he was besotted with his wife and catered to her every need including bathing her each evening and rubbing oil on her body while she lay naked on the bed. Further, he claimed he was twice arrested for shoplifting clothing he thought his wife wanted. Satchwell maintained his wife had gone missing for six-and-a-half years, but sobbed as he changed his story to gardai on October 12, 2023, as an intensive search of his home finally revealed his wifes secret grave under the stairs. That search was ordered by Garda Superintendent Ann Marie Twomey who assumed responsibility for the case in 2021. With Detective Garda David Kelleher, she conducted a full review of the case file and consulted with forensic archaeologist Dr Niamh McCullagh who focused her doctoral studies on domestic homicides in Ireland and where bodies were stored in cases where the assailant tried to evade detection. The trial heard Dr McCullagh recommended an invasive search of the three-storey Youghal property with particular attention being paid to an area under the stairwell. Satchwells house was previously searched on June 7, 2017, by a 10-strong team of gardai. One detective photographed the area under the stairs including the shoddily built brick wall which Satchwell had erected to conceal his wifes burial site. However, gardai did not conduct an invasive search of the property and Ms Satchwells body would not be found for a further six years. Gardai did seize a number of laptops and mobile phones at the property and these would prove crucial in the subsequent investigation. Detectives learned Satchwell had conducted an internet search about quicklime on March 20, 2017, and later watched a YouTube video of the effects of combining quicklime with water. He also sent emails after his wife was already dead claiming she was about to leave him over the failure to secure the two pet monkeys she wanted. Gardai also noted six key lies which Mr Satchwell had told about his relationship with his wife and the circumstances of her disappearance. Supt Twomey's four-day search from October 10, 2023, involved contracted builders, ground-mapping radar, forensic archaeologists, the Garda Technical Bureau and, crucially, a Northern Ireland-trained cadaver dog, Fern. The dog immediately focused on the area under the stairwell and, when gardai broke through a concrete slab, discovered Tina Satchwell's skeletonised and mummified body which had been buried in an old blanket and heavy-grade plastic. She had been buried face-down along with her purse, containing several identity cards. When confronted with the discovery, Satchwell sobbed to gardai that he had acted in self-defence after his wife attacked him with a chisel. He claimed he fell to the ground and held his wife away from him with his outstretched hands and she went limp after the belt of her dressing gown went up around her neck with the full weight of her body bearing down upon it. However, he insisted to gardai he could not remember details of how his wife died and refused to re-enact the manner of her death to detectives. He maintained he acted entirely in self-defence and was fearful he would be stabbed in the head. Mr Small SC dismissed the account as self-serving and farcical and claimed Satchwell was once again lying to protect himself. Assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster, who has performed over 30,000 post-mortem examinations, 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. 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 told gardai. I spent the night [March 20] on the floor, with Tina laying across me. I spent the night sitting on the ground, holding Tinas dead body. I didnt 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. He maintained he had been subjected to a campaign of domestic violence by his wife over the course of their marriage and was left with cuts, bruises, swellings, scratches and even bite marks. Satchwell claimed he had teeth broken from blows by his wife and said she had knocked him unconscious on two occasions. He replied to gardai when first charged with the murder of his wife at Cobh garda station on October 13, 2023: Guilty or not guilty guilty. Ms Small, in her closing argument, noted that Satchwell had given a more respectful funeral to their dog Heidi than he had to the wife he claimed he had loved from first sight. TikTok is to ask the High Court to halt a suspension of data transfers to China within six months under a decision made in early May by the Data Protection Commission (DPC). On May 2, the DPC announced it had made a final decision into its inquiry into the lawfulness of transfers by TikTok Technology Ltd' of personal data of users of the TikTok platform to the Peoples Republic of China from countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) which includes all the EU along with Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Alleged cartel gangster Sean McGovern being held in complete isolation in Portlaoise Prison The 39-year-old is not allowed to interact with any other prisoners and is being detained in a single cell where he will stay for 23 hours a day. Everything he does will be supervised Sean McGovern Ken Foy Fri 30 May 2025 at 13:33 Alleged Kinahan gangster Sean McGovern is on a complete isolation regime in Portlaoise Prison where he was remanded to last night by the Special Criminal Court. A truck driver in his 20s has been arrested by gardai in Wexford after gardai and customs officials found two men hiding in a truck at Rosslare Europort on Friday morning. Gardai in Wexford have launched an investigation after the discovery of the men concealed in the truck at 8am this morning at the port. Gardai along with Customs and Revenue located the two males during an immigration check and they are being assessed by medical personnel, a garda spokesperson said. Gardai also said both men are now being assessed by medical personnel. A male, aged in his 20s, the driver of the truck, was arrested by Gardai for an alleged offence under the Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Act 2021. Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford Photo: PA Today's News in 90 Seconds - May 30th He is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda Station in the Wexford/ Wicklow Garda Division. Gardai attached to Wexford Garda Station, supported by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, are investigating all of the circumstances of this incident. Anyone with any information in relation to this discovery is asked to contact Wexford Garda Station 053 9165200, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 66 11 or any Garda Station, the garda spokesperson said. Plans for a housing tsar will go ahead, Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Jack Chambers has said, hitting back at the top civil servant in the Department of Housing who queried the need for such a role. Department secretary general Graham Doyle told a property industry conference that we dont need a tsar. When people in attendance were asked to vote on a web app that asked if Ireland needed a housing tsar, he said: I voted no. Responding to the comments, Mr Chambers said the secretary general will have to implement what the Government decides and what government direction is on housing policy. The view of the secretary general is his own perspective on the matter. But the Government will proceed with the Housing Activation Office and appoint someone to head it. The Minister for Housing has been very clear that a Housing Activation Office is required and what is also required is someone to lead out on it, Mr Chambers said. And that is something that the secretary general of the Department of Housing will have to implement when the Government makes its decision on it. Housing delivery is the number one priority for this country in everything that we are doing He also hit out at claims by the secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Oonagh Buckley, that power shortages will force the country to choose between AI and housing. She said data centres had used up all spare electricity capacity and it was necessary to prioritise demands. Were having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand is it housing or is it AI? she said. Were going to have to think much more about managing demand. Mr Chambers responded by saying that the binary simplicity that was put forward by the secretary general does not reflect the general issue that is at play here. While he said she is correct in saying there are short-term constraints, we need to set out a road map that will allow digital infrastructure to continue to happen in Ireland it is a matter of investment for the future that builds jobs and prosperity. Housing delivery is the number one priority for this country in everything that we are doing and everything that we are investing in, he said. Roscommon actor Chris O'Dowd reads the names of over 15,000 children who have died in Gaza during a vigil organised by campaign group Choose Love outside the Houses of Parliament, London yesterday. Photo: PA Tanaiste Simon Harris is to lodge a formal letter of objection with Israel via the United Nations after shots were fired in an area during a peacekeeping patrol. The Minister for Foreign Affairs said the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) fired shots into an area where a joint Irish-Lebanese unit were conducting peacekeeping duties on Thursday. The Irish Defence Forces confirmed none of its members were injured. Its clear to me that the actions of the IDF were reckless, intimidatory, totally unacceptable and a clear breach of the international rules surrounding peacekeeping, Mr Harris said. I want to pay tribute to our personnel deployed with Unifil who are operating in an increasingly volatile and tense environment. My officials in the Department of Defence will today formally lodge a protest letter over what happened yesterday and this will be communicated directly with Israel. Irish peacekeepers had to withdraw from a patrol in Lebanon yesterday after coming under fire from Israeli soldiers. Mr Harris described the incident as deeply worrying. The military said small arms rounds were fired in the vicinity of Irish peacekeepers as they patrolled near the Blue Line, a demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel. It is understood the incident happened at around midday yesterday, close to the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon. The Irish personnel were recently deployed to Lebanon as part of the 126th Infantry Battalion who serve with the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (Unifil). Mr Harris said the incident illustrates the dangers Defence Forces personnel face as they strive to maintain peace in the region. Tanaiste Simon Harris Photo: PA While I am very pleased to report that all personnel are safe and well, the fact they came under fire while on patrol is deeply worrying, he said.Todays incident illustrates the dangers our peacekeepers face every single day while on a patrol in a region that has been increasingly unstable and volatile. The incident happened on International UN Peacekeepers Day as the Tanaiste announced the renewal of Irelands Unifil mandate for 12 more months. Ireland is proud to have been part of the Unifil mission since 1978 30,000 personnel have served there to date, he said. We are deeply committed to this vital mission, one that supports peace, delivers stability and protects the communities in southern Lebanon. Irish Unifil peacekeepers at Camp Shamrock, Lebanon. Photo: Niall Carson Today's News in 90 Seconds - May 30th The 126th Infantry Battalion deployed to Lebanon this month as part of the Unifil mission. It is made up of 298 Irish soldiers and 10 from Malta, with over a third of personnel on their first overseas mission. Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheal Martin doubled down on President Michael D Higginss assertion that there is a concerted Israeli campaign to damage Ireland because of this countrys leadership on Gaza. There was also an attempt to smear the President for speaking out, he said. There has been propaganda against Ireland, in claims that we support Hamas which is utter nonsense I think theres no question but that Israel has engineered a campaign against Ireland because of the stance we have taken at the United Nations, at the European Union and at the International Court of Justice, where weve legally intervened in the South African case [against Israel], Mr Martin said. Its not that individual companies are raising it with us, but we are hearing back from our embassies and elsewhere that people are raising it. Earlier in the same venue, Mr Higgins said there was a slander and propaganda campaign against Ireland internationally by Israel, which involved labelling critics of the Benjamin Netanyahu government as antisemitic. Mr Higgins said he and others who have spoken out against the Israeli armys actions had been subjected to a propaganda campaign in Ireland. The Taoiseach said he had discussed the matter with the President and agreed with him. There has been propaganda against Ireland, in claims that we support Hamas which is utter nonsense, he said. People have been contacted ahead of Irish embassy events and are then turning up at various receptions asking Whats happening in Ireland? and so forth. There was also a cyber campaign against Ireland, the Taoiseach suggested. Taoiseach Micheal Martin. Photo: PA Weve condemned Hamas consistently, from day one, for the slaughter of October 7, and consistently called for the release of all hostages, yet youll see online a lot of attempts to smear Ireland, he said. I think the President has been subject to some of that as well. I find that regrettable, because hes been a very consistent supporter of Holocaust Day and remembrance. Some of his best friends in life were people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Mr Higgins is a very fair-minded person, but because he took a stance on Gaza there was an unwelcome focus on him as well, which was partisan and not fair or balanced. The Irish people are sickened by the barbarity and scale of what is happening to the Palestinian people, the Taoiseach said. There was absolute, total, barbaric destruction of Gaza. When you see nine children of a doctor killed in one house, people are horrified at that and feel helpless. I can understand why, he added. Mr Martin said Ireland now had to focus our attention on Europe to work on getting the [EU-Israel] trade agreement suspended until this war stops, at a minimum. Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly has confirmed he used artificial intelligence to write part of a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen which quoted DJ group, Swedish House Mafia. The Midlands-North West MEP said AI was used to summarise 25 pages of research for a letter that called on the EU to deliver more aid to Gaza. He denied that the fictional story of a young girl called Gazi, who the letter said lived in Rafah, and the use of lyrics by house music group, Swedish House Mafia, were AI-generated. Will you tell her, Dont you worry, dont you worry child, see heavens got a plan for you? Will you assure her that Europe remembers its promise? Mr Mullooly said those sections were based on the contents of 1,000 emails sent to him in relation to Gaza, including one which he said quoted the lyrics of Dont You Worry Child. It was first reported by The Journal that the former RTE broadcaster had used AI to write part of the letter in which Mr Mullooly said a 12-year-old girl called Gazi and her family had been displaced and asked Ms von der Leyen: Will you tell her, Dont you worry, dont you worry child, see heavens got a plan for you? Will you assure her that Europe remembers its promise, that we will not let another generation of children perish when we have the means to act? Speaking to RTEs Drivetime, Mr Mullooly said he asked Ms von der Leyen in a meeting last year why the European Commission and the European Parliament and all the agencies had not moved to stop the slaughter and the bloodshed in Gaza. Mr Mullooly said his team then began researching potential measures that would not require the agreement of member states. I had 25 pages of research put in front of me in the parliament about three weeks ago and I said to my colleague, I want a summary of this for a letter to (Ms) von der Leyen. And we used AI at that stage to complete the first part of the letter. The second half of the letter, which has gotten the most attention today with the Swedish House Mafia reference, in particular, was actually composed by a member of my team He said this section looked at four questions, including what actions the European Commission and United Nations could take. And I completed that and I used that summary, I read every line of it, I looked at the references and I was quite happy with that. So, the first half of the letter was generated by AI, he said. The second half of the letter, which you have quoted and has gotten the most attention today with the Swedish House Mafia reference, in particular, was actually composed by a member of my team who read 1,000 emails from people sent to my office on the issue of Gaza. Mr Mullooly said his colleague read and summarised the emails in what has been described today, I suppose, as fiction but is actually written based on some of the information given to him by those [emails]. Significant new legislation means its difficult to find incentive for employers to participate The Joint Labour Committee system regulates pay and conditions of employment, but many areas are already covered by new laws The Government has been told that a wage-setting system for workers in different industries is not fit for purpose in the modern workplace. In a submission to a government department, Ibec is critical of the Joint Labour Committee system. These committees, which include employer and union representatives, set legally binding employment conditions and rates of pay for workers in sectors including childcare, contract cleaning and security. The employer group claimed that significant legislation on workers rights recently means it is difficult to find an incentive for employers to participate. Ibec said these laws include statutory sick pay, extra leave, and minimum-wage increases while legislation is pending on pension auto-enrolment and surrogacy leave. It made the submission to a recent Department of Enterprise public consultation on the promotion of collective bargaining. Collective bargaining involves talks between employer and union representatives on behalf of groups of workers on their terms and conditions. Under an EU directive, each member state in which collective bargaining coverage is less than 80pc must come up with an action plan to promote collective bargaining by the end of the year. Ibec is of the view that the Joint Labour Committee structure, as it currently operates, is not fit for purpose in the modern workplace, its submission said. It said employment regulation orders drawn up by these committees are not collective agreements. As a result, it said they will be of limited value to any action plan on collective bargaining that Ireland produces. It said it has become increasingly difficult to identify traditional areas of collective negotiation that are not regulated by statute. In the last five years, we have seen a significant legislative-driven agenda resulting in the introduction of statutory sick pay, the extension of statutory leaves, introduction of new statutory leaves, increases in minimum wage, with further implementation or legislation pending on auto-enrolment for pensions and further leaves such as surrogacy leave, to name but a few, it said. It said the intent of the Joint Labour Committee system is to regulate pay and conditions of employment. If statute already does so, Ibec submits that it is difficult to identify an incentive for employers to participate in the operation of Joint Labour Committees. However, it said action is required to strengthen the capacity of the social partners to engage in collective bargaining on wage setting in individual workplaces. It said dedicating funding to training will help promote collective bargaining. It welcomed a government commitment to unlock the National Training Fund, which will have a surplus near 2bn this year. We believe that the provision of collective bargaining training should focus on those employee and employer representatives in companies which are already engaged in collective bargaining or have agreements in place to recognise a union, it said. It said it believes that a good faith engagement process involving a single meeting between an employer and union may play a role in Irelands action plan to promote collective bargaining. However, after this it said an employer could continue to hold their position not to recognise a union. The employer representative group said it does not believe that a statutory entitlement to trade union access to the workplace should be introduced. It said providing for a right of access to workplaces, whether physical or digital, would raise significant constitutional, legal and security issues. There was horrendous violence in the North perpetrated by the British state and other actors, but the emphasis now has to be on reconciliation, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said. He was reacting to the claim by one of his own backbenchers, Cathal Crowe of Co Clare, that British Army troops never shot any civilians in Ireland for which he has since apologised. Mr Crowe apologised for his remarks in the Dail and described them as pretty awful. He has said it wasnt what he wanted to say and isnt how he views things. The Fianna Fail TD told RTEs Morning Ireland: This is not how I view the Irish situation. I was speaking on Gaza, I had bullet points in front of me, not a fully scripted speech. A point I wanted to make was in the darkest days of recent Irish history, we never saw the carpet bombing of our cities by the Royal Air Force or anything like that, or the launching of missiles, and I was trying to convey in some way the disproportionality, the horrendous stuff we're seeing day in, day out, the acts of genocide in Gaza. He said he statement in the Dail was a jumble of words and he only realised what he had said later on Wednesday evening when he read back the transcript of his speech. I didn't say what I wanted to say, and I unequivocally apologise for the mess I made in those jumble of words. It's not what I meant. I apologise for hurt Ive caused and it's not how I see the Irish situation or the many atrocities that the British Army inflicted on people over many, many years including my own family. Mr Crowe, a student of history at university who later went on to work as a history teacher, said he studied the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, when 26 unarmed civilians were shot by British soldiers during a protest in the Bogside area and 14 people died. It's a jumble of words and I'm sure you've made mistakes on-air, he told Morning Ireland presenter Gavin Jennings. Show me a person who hasnt made a mistake. He added: I'm a republican. I'm someone who very much is victim orientated, and this was a jumble of words. It was an absolute bags, or a balls I made of it. Mr Martin, who revealed Mr Crowe contacted him to express his regret at embarrassing the Fianna Fail party, said people should calm down. Commenting at the Bloom festival, Mr Martin said there has been a bit of an over-the-top reaction, in response to Mr Crowes absolution for the British Army. Taoiseach Micheal Martin. Photo: PA Today's News in 90 Seconds - May 30th We dont need any lessons in terms of Northern Ireland and the pain and the violence and yes, the British state was responsible for Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy, and much, much more, Mr Martin said. I think he was talking in the context of Gaza. Thank God that Gaza never happened in Northern Ireland to the same extent, although one person killed is one person too many. As far as Im concerned, there was horrendous violence in Northern Ireland perpetrated by the State and by the Provisional IRA and by Loyalists like the Glenanne gang. There were reprehensible murders, and shocking bombings like Enniskillen, Birmingham, the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, Belturbet, and right across Britain. A lot of innocent people were murdered and slaughtered by the IRA. People in Derry and in Ballymurphy were murdered by the British army. We resolved that through a peace process and through reconciliation. When I spoke with [US] president [Donald] Trump, and he referred back to the viciousness of what went on in Ireland over 30 years, I made the point to him: We managed to build a peace out of all that vicious violence. Peace can work, and the same needs to happen in the Middle East. Mr Martin said Mr Crowe had been anxious to correct his remarks after speaking off the cuff. Cathal Crowe is a very solid TD and doesnt need to be reprimanded. I think people need to be careful about overreacting here. We have a peace process in Ireland that is sustained, and we are at peace with Britain. Im building reconciliation in Northern Ireland through the Shared Island programme, so theres no need to be re-fighting old wars. Micheal Martin defends Irelands position as protestors voice opposition to Israeli bonds decision Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he takes issue with protestors who are attempting to cause division in the country in respect of the war in Gaza. He was reacting to a large protest in Galway against the Governments decision to reject a motion to ban the sale of Israeli war bonds through the Irish Central Bank. The Taoiseach was at the official launch of the next phase of development on the mixed-use retail and residential Crown Square Development in Galway city on Friday afternoon. Taoiseach Micheal Martin. Photo: PA Over 100 people gathered outside the Radisson RED hotel at the front of the development in Mervue to protest the decision. Mr Martin said the Irish Government has always led from the front on the issue and will continue to do that. Commenting on the protest, he said: I take issue with people who are trying to cause division in the country on the issue. The Irish Government has led from the front in respect of the Middle East and Gaza. I would say to the protestors to go and ask the Palestinian Authority, go and ask Palestinian people around the world, go and ask people in the Middle East and Egypt and Jordan. They will tell you how they believe the Irish Government has been leading for justice and for fairness. Also trying to get other countries to come on board in respect of getting a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a massive surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza through the United Nations Agencies. The protest was organised by Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who have called on the Government to reverse the bonds decision. Israeli bonds sold in the EU have been authorised by the Central Bank in Ireland since Brexit, a process that has come under intense scrutiny. The Israeli Government has previously stated that the bonds support its military operations in Gaza. A Sinn Fein motion was lodged in the Dail on Wednesday night which looked to stop Irelands involvement in the sale of the bonds. However, the Government did not support the bill, citing legal reasons. Follow Independent Galway on Facebook The bill was subsequently defeated by 87 votes to 75 despite two Government-supporting independent TDs voting in favour of it. The protest came during an event that marked a significant milestone of the Crown Square Development, a project that has been almost 20 years in the making. An initial green-light was given to the project by city planners in 2006, but the recession and further planning difficulties have caused the project to stall on multiple occasions. The protestors followed the Taoiseachs movements from the outer perimeter of the development as he passed through the facility. People are entitled to protest, but I think democracy in Ireland is alive and well and I think people should be allowed to do their business as well and carry out normal duties in respect of facilities such as this, Mr Martin said. But I will not be deterred from doing it as a government. Weve done a lot, a lot of people acknowledge that, the real issue is the Israeli Government, not the Irish Government. The Israeli Government is behaving in an appalling manner, in my view, and there are elements of that Government, particularly ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, who have been very clear in articulating a desire to destroy Gaza in its entirety. Ireland has intervened in a case before the International Court of Justice, I initiated that as Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the South Africa case under the Genocide Convention. Weve intervened in other cases in the ICJ on this. Weve supported the International Criminal Court and its work financially. At every multinational level we have intervened with a view to fairness, justice and in line with the United Nations charter and we are going to continue to do that. Not just a surface, the right flooring and rugs can bring character and warmth to your interiors if you know how to look after them The floor is the biggest piece of furniture in the room and all we do is trample on it. When people are in a room, theyre in constant physical contact with the floor. Its a lot to ask from any piece of furniture. Then, theres scuffing and spillage. This is why flooring design is predominantly practical. Is it hardwearing? Will it show the dirt? Theres absolutely no point in having an elegant floor thats not up to the job. In Irish homes, the overwhelming fashion is for hard floors and rugs, usually large enough that the front feet of the furniture can rest upon it. A lot of people would love to have a cream-coloured rug, but theyre put off by the thought of maintenance, says Clare Walsh of Kukoon Rugs. The Newry-based rug store is run by Walsh and her brother Paul Vallely. They sell accessibly priced rugs of their own design, made by their partner company in Turkey. Their solution to the maintenance conundrum was to introduce a range of machine-washable rugs. They were an instant success. People understood the concept straight away. Their first generation of flatwoven washable rugs, which are still available, are made of recycled cotton (80pc) and polyester (20pc) with a jute backing. Theyre printed with vintage patterns, often resembling a traditional Persian rug, and cost 285 for a 2 x 3m rug. Some people love a flatwoven rug, Walsh says. But theyre not for everyone. Paul Vallely and Clare Walsh of Kukoon Rugs Their next iteration, the Everyday Collection (225 for a 2 x 3m rug) is also machine washable to 30 degrees and made of recycled cotton with chenille (30 pc). Chenille is a tufted yarn that can be made from a range of materials. In this instance, its cotton and polyester. Walsh felt the rugs were still too flat. Working with their partners in Turkey, Kukoon evolved a range of soft washable rugs (325 for a 2 x 3m rug). These too are printed but, with a 12mm pile, are soft to the touch. They look and feel like a low-pile carpet. Washable Verity rug from Kukoon Rugs' new Soft range The Soft Collection is 57pc recycled cotton and 43pc chenille with a recycled cotton backing. Its a balancing act between sustainability and cost, Walsh admits. The only way to make the rugs softer, while keeping the prices low, was to increase the amount of chenille. If a more sustainable rug is more expensive, people still choose the cheaper option. While all these products are machine washable to 30 degrees, a large rug would require a very large washing machine. Most people dont intend to put them in the washing machine but theyre not afraid to take out the scrubbing brush. Because they know they can clean the rug easily, people are ordering them in lighter colours and using them under the dining table or in the kitchen. Washable Delphine rug from Kukoon Rugs' new Soft range Kukoon has more washable rugs in the pipeline, including a fluffy rug, a loop-pile textured rug, and one made from imitation jute. We like developing products that dont already exist, Walsh says. It always takes longer than my optimistic brain thinks it will, but we like to be the first! For those with a little more to spend, you cant beat a wool rug. Theres a misconception that synthetics are more durable, says Phoebe Holland of Rugs.ie. Witness the generations of Persian rugs which have outlived their owners to sell as antiques. Phoebe Holland of Rugs.ie Rugs.ie was founded by her parents, Brendan and Dominique Holland, in 1994. Back then, Hollands Wood Floors and Rugs was a small family business with a shop on Corks MacCurtain Street. Local people still call us Hollands, says Phoebe, who left her corporate career to join the family business 10 years ago. We had to modernise. I saw the potential in that and my father trusted me to do it. Now, Rugs.ie has a strong online presence (the clues in the name) and a large store in Douglas, Co Cork. Brink & Campman rug from Rugs.ie Most rugs at Rugs.ie are made of wool, all of which is responsibly sourced. And while no pure wool rug is machine washable, all can be spot cleaned. Dont use chemicals, Holland says. Dabbing with Woolite and warm water will get rid of most stains. When choosing a rug, Holland recommends using the companys online visualiser. Rugs are difficult to pick and people struggle with sizing. It needs to look balanced in the space. Harlequin Paper Straw Peridot rug by Sophie Robinson from Rugs.ie In terms of style, Holland has noticed a resurgence of interest in traditional Persian and Turkish rugs: Part of that is nostalgia. People remember these rugs from their grannies homes. Now, so many modern houses have hard edges, a traditional rug is a great way to add a sense of history. A hand-knotted Persian rug is a big investment. They can cost as much as 10,000 for a 160 x 230cm rug. We also sell a range of reworked vintage Persian rugs, she explains. These vintage pieces have lain unsold in storage units for decades, often because the colours and patterns werent fashionable. Now, theyve been upcycled. Some of them have been sun-bleached, or shaved in parts, or given touches of modern colour. But theyre still hand-made and theyre still Persian. Prices for a 200 x 300cm reworked Persian vintage rug range from 1,100 to 2,000. Wood flooring from Havwoods Its a shame to cover up a beautiful wood floor with a rug! says John Flannery of Havwoods, a company that supplies and fits wood flooring. You should look at the floor first. The rug is a flexible option. It will change many more times than the floor will. While wood flooring is famously timeless, hes noticed a trend for dark wood floors in contemporary homes. Weve two projects where the wood floors are matte black! Plank floors are in demand, especially in large spaces with planks as wide as the budget will allow. The wider the plank, the more expensive they get, he says. Other layouts, including chevron and herringbone floors are also becoming popular. Modern herringbone uses longer pieces of wood so it doesnt look like a school floor. Modern Retro flooring with Havwoods Wood flooring from Havwoods starts at 105 per metre for a plank floor and 120 per metre for a herringbone pattern, both including installation. Always order from a company that offers a full supply and fit service. That way you have a warranty for the installation as well as the floor. Flannerys other recommendation is to clean a wood floor using only a spray mop and a pH-neutral cleaner: You wont find the cleaner in the supermarket but any reputable flooring outlet will sell it. Beware of products marketed as pH-friendly, as these may contain lemon juice. They smell nice but theyll erode your floor, he warns. Lemon juice destroys wood floors. See kukoonrugs.com, rugs.ie, havwoods.com/ie ATC delays will be even worse every European travel strike you need to know about this summer Ryanair expects air traffic control delays to be worse than in 2024. So what travel disruption is scheduled as of now? Photo: Getty Simon Calder UK Independent Fri 30 May 2025 at 17:03 The peak summer months are about to begin. Almost 500,000 passengers are expected to pass through Dublin Airport alone this bank holiday weekend. On Friday, Ryanair issued a League of Delays press release highlighting air traffic control-related delays and disruption. Great music and the presence of ghosts our rock critic takes a new direct flight from Dublin to Nashville Aer Lingus has a new direct flight from Dublin Airport to Music City. From The Grand Ole Opry to the honky tonk bars of Broadway, a US immersion awaits John outside Dolly Parton's studio compound in Nashville John Meagher Fri 30 May 2025 at 03:30 You feel the presence of ghosts at RCA Studio B. It is a legendary recording facility in the aptly named Music Row district of Nashville, and many of the greats recorded here. You cannot fall into the moment fully if youre wondering about what caption youll use when you post on Instagram later. Photo posed. An email arrived from a friend of mine who is currently on a business trip to if you dont mind Panama. At one group dinner, she wrote to tell me, guests were ordered/encouraged to put their mobile phones in locked-in bags for the duration of the dinner. As a Gen Xer, she was more than down for that. All the young people seemed OK with it too, but the second we left, they were like addicts looking for their fix, she observed. Its been a baby boom this summer at Corks largest wildlife park This summer, you wont have to check any markets to compare the meerkats, as Fota Wildlife has welcomed three newest pups to its ever-growing mob. The trio were born to Mummy Biggy and Daddy Snaggles, who the park says are the dominant breeding pair within the clan, whose number is now 16 strong. Earlier this month, rangers at the park noticed another little addition, taking its first steps into the world with its mother, and the following day, two more emerged, being kept under a watchful eye by the family. The other members of the mob, including Dad Snaggles, care for the young and are known to collectively feed, protect and groom the new pups. Meerkats are a type of small mongoose, originally found in southern Africa. Theyre characterised by their broad head, large eyes, a pointed snout, long legs, thin, tapering tail, and a brindled coat pattern. Theyre also highly social animals, and can form packs as large as 30, covering up to a five-kilometre square area while in the wild. These three pups arent the only new arrivals at the park, situated just east of Cork City, and directly accessible by train. The park also welcomed two female European bison calves (Bison bonasus), born just a week apart on April 15 and 21. The calves are already best friends, who can be seen playing, snoozing, and soaking up the sunshine together. Their mums are both healthy and very protective. The European bison, the largest mammal in Europe, was once extinct in the wild; however, collaborative efforts by many zoos and wildlife parks, including Fota Wildlife Park, which contributed members from its own herd, have helped reintroduce the species to the wild in parts of Europe and, more recently, the UK. If you want to check out all of these new arrivals, as well as take in the spectacular views offered by the Panoramic Wheel which runs until June 8 you can head to fotawildlife.ie and book tickets. Representatives from Raise the Roof met outside Cork City Hall on Thursday evening to outline their plan Representatives of various organisations under the Raise the Roof umbrella met outside Cork City Hall on Thursday evening. The people of Cork are being urged to attend the forthcoming Raise the Roof housing protest in Cork City on Saturday, June 21. The Raise the Roof campaign includes a wide group of organisations including political parties, unions who represent older people, students, families and people with disabilities. Representatives of those various organisations met outside Cork City Hall on Thursday evening to outline their plan. Speaking at the event, Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould said support for the protest is crucial because the housing crisis impacts everyone. There are generations of families living under the same roof. I know of a woman who is getting evicted on Monday, and another woman getting evicted tomorrow (Friday). People are crying out for houses, and we have hundreds of boarded up council houses throughout Cork city that families could be in right now. What we are trying to do here is come together and put pressure on the government, Mr Gould said. Protesters are asked to meet at the National Monument on Grand Parade. Joe Kelly from the Cork Council of Trade Unions said it is important for all working people to come out on the day. There was a time that having a job would guarantee you a certain standard of living and enabled people to get on the housing ladder. Nowadays that is nearly impossible and that is unacceptable. Its going back 100 years ago when there were tenements and that cant carry on, he said. Labour TD Eoghan Kenny and Labour Councillor for Cork City South-West Ciara OConnor represented their party on the day, and Mr Kenny said: Housing is the issue of our time and of our generations politicians. My email is inundated with people looking for either affordable housing, social housing or private housing to rent. The days of going to people asking every auctioneer on the street of towns to find reputable accommodation should be absolutely gone. Im sick and tired of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael making false promises on housing and missing housing targets, he said. Ms OConnor was co-opted to Cork City Council when newly elected Senator Laura Harmon gave up her seat and she said housing is the most prominent concern of her constituents. Ive had families that I know personally who have children with autism or severe needs in emergency accommodation for long periods of time. Emergency accommodation is not a good place for children to grow up, Ms OConnor added. Maire Kelly from CATU echoed the importance that people come out and show their support. Whether youre a parent with kids living at home or youre renting in an absolute dive of a house, or even a mortgage holder, everyone is affected and its so important that everyone comes out. If we dont collectivise and show this is an issue, we wont see any change at all, she added. Green Party Councillor for Cork City North East Oliver Moran described the housing crisis as a cross generation issue. It is often said that people with mortgages are insulated from the housing crisis, but from that perspective you have a whole generation of people who are coming after them that do not have that opportunity. Peoples hearts are breaking looking at their children who dont have the same chance to get a house, he said. Solidarity People Before Profits Brian McCarthy echoed the statements made and added: The real message that we want to push is that at the moment we have a landlords government that serves the interests of millionaires, billionaires, developers and vulture funds. The money is there, the land is there but the political will isnt, he said. Social Democrats Councillor for Cork South Central Niamh OConnor said housing is something she gets contacted about most. We need people to get out on the street and make their voices heard because it is the number one issue in the country at the moment. Central government needs to give local authorities enough money to do up the derelict homes that we have. Even that would make so much of a difference, she added. Sinn Fein Councillor for Cork City North-West added by saying: Even just visually, the more people there the better because we need feet on the ground. We need the support because we are fighting for people in our own areas inside the City Hall and the Dail, and the support is really important, she concluded. Cork gym owner explains why this fitness trend has 'blown up massively' in Ireland KJ Strength and Performance in Carrigaline became the first Cork gym to affiliate with the high-intensity fitness competition that's taking Ireland by storm. Owner James Higgins explains why Hyrox events now sell out in minutes and what makes it accessible to everyone from beginners to elite athletes Aileen and Rebecca Corkery after competing a Hyrox simulation John Bohane Corkman Fri 30 May 2025 at 13:24 It is so accessible, said a Cork gym owner about the growing popularity of Hyrox. Pat Coughlan, Cork Person of the Month for May. To mark his huge successes with MABS and the Credit Union movement, Pat Coughlan was named May Cork Person of the Month. Pictured at the presentation L/R front: Manus OCallaghan, Awards Organiser; Ursula Collins, MABS; Pat Coughlan, Cork Person of the Month; Mary Coughlan. Rear L/R: Louise McNamara, The Metropole Hotel; Clara OMahoney, AM OSullivan PR; Gill Coughlan. Picture: Vitaliy Makhnanov. The man who played a vital role in the establishment of Cork MABS (Money Advice and Budgeting Service) has been announced as the Cork Person of the Month for May. Patrick Coughlan retired as Manager and Financial Controller of the Lough Credit Union in 2015 after four decades of improving peoples financial literacy and assisting those struggling with debt repayments. His journey with MABS began in the early 1990s, when he and his colleague Brendan Roche developed a structured approach to help members overwhelmed by financial difficulties. The duo established an income and expenditure system that balanced essential living expenses while ensuring regular repayments to creditors. Both Cork City Council and Cork County Council got involved by partnering with them. Utility companies and financial institutions also got involved to facilitate the manageable repayment plans for those in need. Mr Coughlan said MABS was born out of a real need to support individuals and families trapped in financial distress. Seeing the service grow from a small initiative at The Lough Credit Union to a nationwide support system has been incredibly rewarding. At the heart of MABS is the belief that everyone deserves financial stability, and I am proud to play a part in that journey, he said. Mr Coughlan is the acting Chair of South Munster MABS and continues to play a key role in guiding the organisation. In 2024 alone, MABSs national helpline handled 23,525 calls while South Munster MABS assisted 1,908 new clients, demonstrating the continued need for the service. Awards Organiser Manus OCallaghan said: Pat has dedicated his career to helping those most in need. His work in establishing Cork MABS has provided a vital safety net for thousands of individuals and families facing financial hardship. His passion, vision and tireless advocacy has made a lasting difference, and his contributions to financial well-being in Cork and beyond will not be forgotten, he concluded. The HSE is asking people to be especially careful around the water this long weekend It may be more hot chocolate than 99 weather this weekend but we still need to look after our skin, says the HSE Despite the mixed weather forecast for this June Bank Holiday weekend, the HSE are still urging people across Cork City and County to look after their skin in the sun. Met Eireann has predicted heavy showers and thundery spells up and down the country across the Bank Holiday Weekend, with Monday showing an extremely heavy band of rain sweeping across the island, bringing wash-out weather to finish off one of the summers major bank holiday weekends. However, down here in Cork we can apparently expect some sunshine on Sunday, with bright and dry spells expected, albeit breezy and cool. Its why the HSE have been reminding the public, even despite the cool temperatures, to protect their skin from the sun, as well as staying safe around the water. The health authority is also encouraging people to think about all their healthcare options before going to the Emergency Department. It says many health services will be open over the weekend, including pharmacies, Injury Units and GP Out-of-Hours service SouthDoc, despite leading politicians saying the public is being misled over the availability of the Blackpool centre. The HSE says Irelands UV rays are strong enough to damage skin, even when its cloudy. Irelands UV index is currently in the high bracket (6-7) under clear skies, while still moderate (3-5) when there is cloud cover, enough to cause skin damage. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer, with over 11,000 new cases diagnosed every year, and therefore the HSE is urging people to wear clothing, put on suncream, wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses, and seek shade between 11 am and 3 pm. Spending time outdoors is such an important part of summer, but it is important that children and adults are protected and safe in the sun, said Shirley OShea, the Senior Health Promotion and Improvement Officer - Cancer Prevention for the South West. The executive is also asking people to be extra careful when near water. According to statistics from Water Safety Ireland, 56 people died accidentally in water last year across Ireland, with lifeguards rescuing 202 more from the water. Minor injury units in Gurranabraher, Mallow, and Bantry are also available for those who do have a knock or tumble throughout the weekend and can be a great alternative to avoid the lengthy waiting times at A&E departments across the county. However, for those who do need urgent treatment, the National Ambulance Service is also asking members of the public visiting and using amenities - including access gates to sporting grounds and pitches - to park carefully and to allow space for access by the emergency services if needed. We ask the public to remember that in the event of an emergency, ambulances may need to access beaches and other amenity sites. Please make sure that you dont block that access, said Barry Hayes, Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer, NAS South West. New traffic layout changes on Pearse Street and Westland Row are now in place The left turn from Westland Row to Pearse Street is now for public transport only Local residents in Dublins south inner city have lashed out at the latest changes made to traffic flow in the capital. The changes, the latest phase in the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, came into effect last Sunday and introduced new restrictions on cars turning left onto Pearse Street from Westland Row. Buses, taxis and cyclists arent affected, but general traffic must now turn right at the junction. Reaction to the changes had initially been muted, but correspondence received by councillors indicates that many local residents are now seeing traffic issues worsen on local roads such as Sandwith Street and Macken Street. One resident said: We could list off dozens of reasons why these new measures are not effective. All anyone has to do is stand on Sandwith Street at any time of the day to see the gridlock and dangers that are happening. The traffic issues are not merely an inconvenience; they are a significant barrier to everyday life, impacting our ability to reach work, school, appointments, and even leisure activities, they added. Its clear to see that the new traffic measures on Westland Row/Sandwith Street are causing absolute mayhem for the surrounding area. Local Sinn Fein councillor Kourtney Kenny said shes heard many similar stories over the last few days. Ive had women onto me who have children with dyspraxia and they need to go to [occupational therapy] appointments, she said. Theyre down 100 missing the appointment because they actually cant get out of their home. Theyre prisoners. New traffic layout changes on Pearse Street and Westland Row are now in place Dublin City Council is seeking to make the city centre less attractive for traffic cutting through the city, but Cllr Kenny said the answer wasnt to penalise people living in the inner city. Some people are carers, some people are healthcare assistants, some people have disabilities and rely heavily on their cars, she said. Dublin City Council said, after the fact, theyre willing to meet residents, but you know yourself, you could be long waiting on that. Danny Byrne, a Fine Gael councillor for the area, said that while the reaction from residents has been negative, he felt it was just teething problems. I know theres always a willingness [from the Council] to listen and to observe how it progresses. You cant really assess it over a few days until maybe people get used to it. Similarly, Green Party councillor Janet Horner said it was inevitable that traffic changes would cause some disruption for the city. Everything obviously does require a bedding down period, theres no point being too knee jerk about any of this stuff where theres a few days when a new measure throws up a little bit of chaos or extra confusion, she said. Lets look at the data. Lets see how this is bedding down and achieving what we wanted to achieve. We are investing, we are making changes. The idea of that is to make it easier, better, cheaper, more comfortable, safer to take sustainable means of transport into town. The next phase of the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan will make Parliament Street a car-free zone after 11am daily. It will come into effect at the end of June. Dublin City Council was contacted for comment. Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme Avondale Landscapes were recognised for their outstanding work on the Myrtle Square project in Dun Laoghaire. Avondale Landscapes has been awarded a Professional Accredited Landscape (PAL) Award for Commercial Landscape Development, recognising its outstanding work on the Myrtle Square project in Dun Laoghaire. The PAL Awards, presented by the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland (ALCI), acknowledge excellence and professionalism across the Irish landscaping industry. The award celebrates Avondales role in transforming Myrtle Square as part of a wider urban revitalisation project led by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The judges commended the project for its high standard of finish, thoughtful tree transplantation, and delivery under challenging urban conditions. Avondale Landscapes, whose main office is located in Glenealy, have been in business for over 30 years, specialising in commercial and home landscaping throughout Ireland. They are also members of the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland (ALCI) which offer the benefits of Industry standards, training, certification and awards, external mediator body and technical advice. Avondale Landscapes were recognised for their outstanding work on the Myrtle Square project in Dun Laoghaire. Managing director William Doyle commented, Its an honour to be recognised by the ALCI for our work on Myrtle Square. This was a technically demanding project that required close coordination, precision, and care. Our team put in a tremendous effort, and its great to see that hard work acknowledged on a national stage. The Myrtle Square works involved the removal and relocation of mature trees, installing them into a dedicated storage facility before replanting, as well as installing planters, fencing, and a new green layout that complements the pedestrian-friendly design of the town centre. The project was carried out in partnership with Cumnor Building & Civil Engineering Contractors, with both teams working closely to deliver the vision for a greener, more accessible urban space. The ALCI Awards are the highest accolade in the Irish landscaping industry, recognising excellence in design, construction, and maintenance, and the award positions Avondale Landscapes as a leader in delivering complex urban landscaping solutions that enhance public spaces. 7 injured in shooting in U.S. Washington state Xinhua) 13:13, May 30, 2025 SAN FRANCISCO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Seven people were shot and wounded Wednesday evening at Harry Todd Park, a suburb of Tacoma, U.S. state of Washington, the police said Thursday. Three of the victims remain in critical condition, the police said. At the time of the shooting, more than 100 people were in the park. Investigators have not determined the number of shooters involved or whether the victims were deliberately targeted. No arrests have been made, according to the police. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A hotel in Galway City might soon have 20 new rooms after plans were lodged to Galway City Council. The Choice Hotel Group has lodged planning permission earlier this month for the expansion of the House Hotel into an adjacent building in Flood Street and New Dock Street. If approved, the development would comprise a change of use and refurbishment of a residential house, to provide an additional 20 rooms at the existing House Hotel, which is a protected structure. In particular, the proposed project includes internal modifications to the existing ground, first and second floors of the former residential building to provide 15 hotel bedrooms; conversion of roof space to provide an additional floor to the existing residential building to facilitate five hotel bedrooms. In addition, the plan comprises the construction of an external glazed link connecting the two buildings at each level; modifications to the existing entrance steps and existing hotel bedrooms to allow for connecting corridor; the addition of secondary fire escape stairs to the rear of external yard; modifications to fenestration of the existing structures. Galway City Council is set to make a decision on this case by July 15. The Dominick Street restaurant was the only winner outside Dublin, taking home the top title in the fiercely competitive Best Burger and American category. The Dominick Street Upper spot was the only restaurant in Republic of Ireland outside of Dublin to take home an award, in the most hotly contested category. Speaking about their win, Orla and Fraser Scott from Smashbird said: "We cant believe it we actually did it! The team here at Smashbird Galway are absolutely buzzing to have won Deliveroos award for Best Burgers & American in Ireland! Huge love and thanks to every legend who voted for us your support means the world. Were proud to be reppin Galway with our award-winning burgers, and we cant wait to keep smashing it for years to come!" First launched in 2018, Deliveroos Restaurant Awards celebrate and recognise the very best and most-loved restaurants across the country. This year saw a total of 65 awards up for grabs, with hundreds of thousands of votes cast by hungry Irish fans keen to show support for their favourite local restaurants, Deliveroo said. Out of 65 categories, Irish restaurants took home 12 awards ranging from Galways big win all the way to the Ireland and UK Environmentally Sustainable award (taken home by BuJi in Dublin). Helen Maher, the Regional Director of Deliveroo Ireland, said: Congratulations to all the winning restaurants recognised as the best local favourites across Ireland. A heartfelt thank you to Deliveroos loyal customers, whose overwhelming support helped shine a spotlight on their top picks. This years winners and nominees represent some of the finest culinary talent weve ever seen. At Deliveroo, were proud to partner with such exceptional restaurants to create more meaningful and memorable moments for our customers. SEED - a restaurant from Belfast - narrowly missed out on Deliveroos most coveted award - Independent Restaurant of the Year UK and Ireland 2025. The restaurant took part in a cook-off at Deliveroo Editions in London in a bid to win the top prize, however, the accolade was eventually won by CRUNCH from London. Deliveroos CEO and founder, Will Shu, said he is blown away very year by the talent on show across Deliveroo. "Every year, the Deliveroo Restaurant Awards celebrate the exceptional culinary talent we have on Deliveroo and once again weve been truly blown away by the passion and innovation on display, he said. From the highly contested Independent Restaurant of the Year cook-off won by CRUNCH in London, to the impressive journey of Rising Star Enrico at Ad Maiora from Manchester, and the love for our Luke Littler x Deliveroo Best Kebab winner, Sqew Kebabs in Leeds. A huge congratulations to all our deserving winners across the UK and Ireland you play a huge role in helping to make everyday moments better for our customers." Galways Smashbird offers a wide selection of burgers, both meat-based and vegan, with other menu items including corndogs, loaded fries, and chicken wings. News Medical card emergency supply rules branded 'absolutely bonkers' in Dail debate Health chiefs are coming under fire to correct the absolutely bonkers situation that has left medical card holders coming from virtual clinics or as a departing hospital inpatient with just a 24 hour timeframe in which to rubberstamp The site is located about 800 metres to the southwest of the Dunmore East Harbour Plans to build 40 houses in Dunmore East have been given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanala. S&K Carey Ltd lodged an application with Waterford City and County Council on August 14 last year for planning permission to build 40 houses in Coxtown, Dunmore East, Waterford. The site is located about 800 metres to the southwest of the Dunmore East Harbour along Convent Road and about 12km from Waterford city. The site area is 1.6ha and is relatively rectangular in shape. The site is located between detached dwellings and located around 250 metres from the coastline. The proposed development consists of four two-bed terraced bungalows, 15 three-bed semi-detached bungalows, 19 three-bed semi-detached and terraced storey and half dwellings, and two four-bed semi-detached storey and half dwellings. Nine third party observations were received, and concerns were raised that the design was not in character for the area, the housing density was too high, that there was a lack of details in relation to levels and sections, and that there was a lack of open space. Concerns were expressed about overlooking and overshadowing, the impact on structural integrity of adjoining properties, the boundary treatment details, the inclusion of a swale and underground tanks, along with traffic, noise and disturbances once complete. The site is located about 800 metres to the southwest of the Dunmore East Harbour Other concerns centred on hedgerow protection, construction work impact, wastewater and public water capacity, water quality and potential flooding, and the impact on emergency services and existing services in the village and the harbour. Some residents maintained that no wayleaves were identified, and issues were raised over the impact on footpath and future cycle path layout, and the developments planning history. The council granted planning permission on January 15 this year, subject to 24 conditions. This decision was subsequently appealed to An Bord Pleanala on February 5 by Michael and Hilary Griffin, Woodstown Bay Shellfish Limited, Causeway Facilities Management Ltd, and Bernadette Hurley. An Bord Pleanala issued its decision on Wednesday, May 21, granting permission with 21 revised conditions. The board stated, it is considered that, subject to compliance with the conditions set out, the proposed development would be in compliance with objectives ENV01 and DM01, and would not seriously impact the traffic safety of the area. The proposed development would, therefore, be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area. Following the Wexford County Council meeting where the decision to cancel a lease on an Enniscorthy carpark due to the loss of over 60,000 over three years was announced, the Enniscorthy councillors have criticised the handling of the situation. The Mill Yard Lane car park had been leased by WCC from 2022-2024 but, after running up significant debts, the local authority has not renewed its contract with the owner of the lot, leading to the loss of potentially 50 car parking spaces. At the May meeting of the municipal district, the councillors listened as a letter from Director of Services Eamonn Hore was read aloud, detailing the facts that lead to the divisive decision. According to Mr Hore, despite the rental of the space costing 22,500 every year, the car park only generated 968.30 in 2024, 2,499.40 in 2023, and 4,327 in 2022. He said that this illustrated how the losses based on income over rental costs were significant, with very little chance of improving. "The occupancy of this car park is also extremely low. Based on the income figures outlined and the pay parking hours from 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. Monday to Saturday inclusive and allowing the recognised parking grace periods, the actual number of cars using the carpark is approximately three cars over the busiest five-hour periods of 14 or 15 cars per day, he explained. He also highlighted that it should be noted that there is a significant space capacity in the Abbey Square car park with 30-40 per cent of spaces available on average. He also drew attention to the poor state of the space, which would require funds and work to bring it up to standard. "The Mill Yard Lane car park is currently in poor state of repair. If Wexford County Council was to continue use of this car park, then the current rough, uneven surface should be repaired and surface dressed. Public lighting should also be considered. However, although he states it would not make sense to continue the lease of the site in its current state, he detailed an alternative option for the future. "If a more reasonable rental rate can be negotiated, with perhaps a move towards long term parking for town centre business owners, thus freeing up town centre spaces for shopping customers, then this site could be looked at anew, he said. And though the Enniscorthy councillors understood the logic behind the decision, they were uncomfortable that the council would make such a decision with proper consultation with the members. "We were never informed that this car park was closing down, as elected members, Cllr Jackser Owens began. No one contacted me. We were elected by the people and if we have a car park closing down here with 50 or so spaces then we should have been notified. "The owner also wants to make it clearly known that he is not closing down the car park, it is the County Council. I am disappointed that that was how we had to hear about it, he added. Cllr Pat Kehoe agreed and said that the lack of information made available to them put them in an awkward position. "I was also contacted about it a few weeks ago about the car park by the owner. I do agree, because when I was contacted you get a narrative and when you see the figures in front of you now, it is not really the case. With respect to the councillors here, to give us the ammunition because I could have had this conversation on the day I was contacted and that the figures are why. When you dont have that knowledge, you are kind of on the back foot straight away. "Look, the figures are in front of us and they cannot be argued it was obvious it was getting no use, he added, expressing regret that that much money had been lost when it could have been used for other services around the town. Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy also noted that the lack of communication between the council and representatives was not an isolated incident and could be improved across the board. "I also got an email about it and I suppose it wasnt clear in the email how much the rent was and how much was coming in I was sent photos of a lovely full car park. But we also hadnt been told by the council. So I think keeping us out of the loop has been a problem. We should have been told the ticket machine has been removed and we should have been told about the re-negotiations. "Because knowledge just arms you for when someone comes to us with a difficulty that we think we can solve, and we cant, she said. An increase in illegal dumping fires in a residential street in a Co Wexford town has led elderly residents in the area fearing they could be burned out of their houses. The claim was made by Cllr John ORourke at the recent meeting of Enniscorthy Municipal District, where he highlighted the plight of residents of Patricks Street in the town. Cllr ORourke pointed the finger at the men in the white vans who are collecting rubbish for a fee, then setting fire to it near the houses. The specific area is the former allotments to the rear of Patricks Street, but now is cordoned off by a gate with a lock. However, despite the lock, a group of men have been gaining access to the area, putting the neighbouring residents in dangerous proximity to the illegal fires. "At the moment, we have men in white vans pulling up at night time, taking or cutting the lock off the gate, driving half way up the laneway, dumping their rubbish, reversing back out, and deciding to set fire to it. And then with that, there are others that are arriving from various other areas dumping their stuff atop the burned remains. "The age demographic in those houses from Patrick's Street all the way to Patrick's Place is late seventies, early eighties. The residents are very aggrieved at the fact that they fear for their own safety living in their houses, from the rat infestation to the burning. There are fears they will be burned out of their houses because of these callous individuals who are profiteering on someone elses rubbish, he said. He added that it is shameful that people who have lived and worked in the town all their lives cannot enjoy their retirement and are instead full of worry each day. "It is a shame to say that these people, that that age group, who lived their whole lifetimes, bought their own houses, that have reared large families they feel like they are prisoners. It is something that we need to look at. It is terrible. He said he was disillusioned with the current society, because even if they had council workers in to clean the area and put a new lock on the gate, it would likely still continue in a matter of days. Cllr Jackser Owens, a local of the area, agreed that something needed to be done urgently. "I was born on Patricks Street and I have a daughter currently living there. There are a lot of roots in that area and we need to figure out how this is happening, he said. Craobh Naomh Caoimhin came out on top at the Under-18 County Fleadh Marching Band competition recently and are now heading to the Leinster Fleadh to show off more of their skills. There are 38 members in the Craobh Naomh Caoimhin marching band and every member marches to the beat of their own drum. Chairperson of Craobh Naomh Caoimhin comhaltas branch and music teacher, Helena Dunbar led marching bands years ago when her children were young. In the last few years, she was inspired to take another stab at it when she heard the All Ireland Fleadh was coming to Wexford. "Were looking forward to the Leinster Fleadh and were hoping well be able to march down through Wexford, representing Wexford for the All Ireland in Wexford. We always say, can we march on to Wexford now. "Well try our best and were practicing hard and hopefully we will get to do it again. Its great memories for the kids, its not about the competition, its actually about going to Wexford and having the fun and its lovely to play with the other bands and make friends, said Helena. The Comhaltas branch sponsored a cup in memory of the late Faye ONeill Redmond, which was presented to the marching band after their win and will remain at the branch for years to come. Former Garda Pat Fitzpatrick teaches the drums to the band, Josephine Fitzpatrick teaches dance to the band, while Helena and her daughter Megan Dunbar teach music. There are different types of marching band competitions at the fleadh and Craobh Naomh Caoimhin are in the under 18 miscellaneous category which means any instrument can be included. Last year, the marching band made it all the way to the All Ireland Fleadh and were honoured to lead the parade through the streets of Wexford on the last day of the festival. Theyre hoping to do it all again this year but first, they will compete at the Leinster Fleadh in Drogheda in July. Theyve also set their sights on performing at a Wexford GAA match in the future. Three and four bed units in the new phase of Ard Uisce on Whiterock Hill will be available under the Affordable Purchase Scheme with prices ranging from 250,000. Wexford County Council are set to launch their very first affordable housing scheme in Wexford town with an information evening set to take place for interested parties next week. In association with Wexford Low Energy Homes, the local authority has announced the launch of homes available under the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme at Ard Uisce on Whiterock Hill in Wexford town and at Old Forge Road in Enniscorthy. All ultra energy-efficient a-rated homes, both three and four bedroomed units will be available and prices are set to start from 250,000. While Wexford County Council has taken a long time to get an affordable housing scheme off the ground in Gorey, they have long been sought in other areas too. A government-backed initiative, it aims to help first-time buyers to purchase newly built homes at a reduced price, bringing the gap between what aspiring homeowners can afford to pay and the cost of purchasing a house. Up to 24 affordable purchase properties will be made available for sale to eligible private purchasers below market price. Prices net of the Affordable Dwelling Contribution start from 250,000 for three-bed semi-detached houses and 270,00 for four-bed semi-detached houses, with buyers able to get support through the Governments Help to Buy Scheme. Speaking at the launch, Housing Minister James Browne said: The local authority affordable purchase scheme is further evidence of the government's commitment to helping people into home ownership and into security of tenure. Photo: L-R, Anthony Murphy, Wexford Low Energy Homes, Eddie Taafe, Chief Executive WCC, Cathaoirleach EMD, Cllr Aidan Browne, Mayor of BDW, Cllr Catherine Walsh, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, Cllr. Pip Breen Cathaoirleach WCC, Mike Morrissey & Jack Morrissey, Wexford Low Energy Homes, Ken Murphy, Bridge Auctioneers, Stephen OConnor, SEO Housing, WCC, Mick Morrissey, Wexford Low Energy Homes, Anthony Murphy, Arcadia Architects, Podge Reck, Dan Morrissey, Wexford Low Energy Homes. Increased supply of new homes and the Affordable Housing Fund Programme, together with Government and local authority supports, will help those aspiring to own their own home realise this goal. Owning your first home is a hugely significant step, and I would urge first time buyers in Wexford to apply for this scheme. This Government wants to support first-time buyers and other eligible homebuyers in purchasing new homes, and the key to this is supply. The Programme for Government aims to ramp up supply of new homes and deliver another 300,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030 on top of over 133,000 new homes delivered between 2020 and 2024. "My department is examining actions to help boost delivery in the immediate-term, pending completion of a new national housing plan, and what we are seeing at Ard Uisce and Old Forge Road is proof of that. Applications can be made for the scheme via the online portal and the local authority is set to host a information event at Whites Hotel in Wexford on June 4 at 7 p.m. and at The Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy on June 5. Those interested will have the opportunity to speak to housing officials and get an overview of the application process, as well as meet with approved lending partners to discuss mortgage options. An online application webinar will also take place on June 11, while an in-person clinic will take place at Wexford Library on June 14 and Enniscorthy Library on June 21. To register to attend events or to receive affordable housing programme updates, visit the affordable housing section of the Wexford County Council website and fill out an expression of interest form. Alternatively, contact affordablehousing@wexfordcoco.ie. Gardai speaking to the protestor holding his signs in The Bullring on Wednesday as a crowd watches on. Tensions were running quite high in the Bullring this week as Wexford gardai confronted a man who has been displaying controversial placards along the Main Street in recent weeks. Among the subjects broached on the signs are Chinese nail shops which he claims are putting indigenous operations out of business and are breaching employment law. Long a source of frustration, and one which has been raised by elected representatives in the past, the protestor also targeted organised begging gangs operating in the town. They are not homeless, his sign claims. They have never presented themselves as homeless in the town. They are professional beggars which is against the law. Another placard points to an apparent growth in popularity of the name Muhammad in the UK, claiming this is Irelands future in 15 to 20 years if we dont act now. Having received complaints before, Gardai on patrol confronted the man this week, pointing out that many could be of the opinion that the sentiments expressed on the placards are offensive. The man and some supporters around him became quite frustrated by the intervention of gardai, stating their belief that the language was not offensive and that no crime was being committed. "Gardai were getting real abuse, one onlooker said. Fair dues to them for keeping calm in the situation. They were getting abuse for not dealing with real criminals. A garda source confirmed: "Gardai on beat patrol happened upon this guy again. They explained to the man involved that the signs may be seen as offensive by some. We had received complaints previously. "Weve had a couple of engagements with him and we are actively monitoring the situation. In attendance on this occasion, filming the encounter was the self-dubbed Ordinary Irishman, Gearoid Kelly, from Camross, Co Wexford, who has made several outlandish and inaccurate claims about IPAS centres via his YouTube channel in the past, most notably claiming that Johnstown Castle was to be converted into refugee accommodation. Introducing himself as Hugh Fagan, the protestor outlined his gripe with the Roma beggars in the town. "Theyre not homeless, they are professionally begging, he said. Theres four of them in it together. He then goes on to make outlandish claims on the Roma community as a whole stating their culture consists of robbing, professional begging and sex trafficking. On the subject of Chinese owned nail bars he said: They dont hire any Irish and Wexford town is really suffering. When one shop opens, two shops close and these dont hire any Irish. Having been approached by gardai, Mr Fagan also stated: There is no hate speech in a free society, theres just speech. Its okay to be offended. Its just another persons opinion. The reaction Ive had has been brilliant. Ive only had three issues, so the support is there. When confronted by a passer-by who disagreed with his signs, Mr Fagan stated: Theres nothing racist on here. Do you have an issue with free speech? You want people to be censored just because you dont like it? Turning towards the gardai, he said: Youd arrest me if people werent here wouldnt you? You would. Youd move me on and youd speak to me differently." Concerns over organised begging gangs operating in Wexford town centre are nothing new. Back when he was Mayor of Wexford, now Labour TD George Lawlor said that there was a problem with aggressive, in-your-face, intimidating begging in the town. "Its not illegal to beg in Ireland, he said at the time. But it is illegal to be involved in organised begging, which is clearly the case when these people arrive into town in an organised manner. Just prior to his election to Dail Eireann, Deputy Lawlor even suggested a permit system for ordinary decent beggars to differentiate them from organised gangs. While footballer James McClean has frequently incurred the wrath of match-going fans in the UK for his refusal to wear the remembrance poppy during games, a Wexford politician has been met with a more measured reaction for his refusal to do the same. As the cathaoirleach of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD) Aontu councillor Jim Codd was recently invited to meet with his peers in Fishguard, Wales, to discuss the ongoing partnership between the regions. However, with those across the channel marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2, Cllr Codd found himself in a somewhat difficult position upon his arrival at the Welsh port. The writer and illustrator duo behind the hugely successful Milly McCarthy series will be paying a very special visit to Greystones, where they will be on hand to entertain the kids at the Halfway Up the Stairs bookshop. Leona Forde and Karen Harte will be in the store on Saturday, June 7, to read from the latest Milly McCarthy book, where our heroine heads off to the Gaeltacht, in Wild Atlantic Antics. Milly McCarthy is a Complete Catastrophe was the first in the series of childrens books, inspired by the eldest of writer Leonas four children, daughter Asha, who is now 15. The latest in the series focuses on that rite of passage for so many Irish teens, the stint in the Irish college. Its nearly the summer holidays and Millys class is heading off on a school tour to the Gaeltacht in the West of Ireland. Milly cant wait to be away from home with her friends but the teachers arent quite so excited about the prospect, because Milly is a constant catastrophe waiting to happen. Told from Millys perspective, there is a hike, a treasure hunt, a ceili, a rogue wasp, a large cowpat and a late-night game of truth or dare, so expect a giddy afternoon at this reading. Grandparents and special people invited to the school to show the important role they have in young peoples lives Blessington Community College pulled out all the stops as the grandparents of attending students were invited to the school for a morning of music and chat. The schools wellbeing committee came up with the idea in order to foster closer links between the school and the local community, and decided on a grandparents and special persons day. The committee also felt it was important to recognise and celebrate the role others have in making the students the people they are today. Eileen and Paddy Balfe at Grandparents Day at Blessington Community College Principal Kieran Burke said: It was the first time we ever held such an event and we had between 80 and 90 grandparents and special people in attendance. We didnt just want to reserve it for grandparents only as there are some students who may not have a grandparent, but there could be another individual who plays an important role in their education. Some foreign students grandparents also might not be living over here but they could have an aunt or an uncle who plays a very important role in their life. The gathering was held in the school gym and featured poetry readings, from both students and teachers, as well as some Irish music. One grandfather provide his singing credentials by standing up and bursting into song. A special mention is reserved for Dorothy Ansell, aged 102, who is a great grandparent and was also in attendance. Noel Ward, Rosemary Adamson, Dorothy Ansell, and Jack Ward at Grandparents Day at Blessington Community College Mr Burke added: It was great to be able to spend a couple of hours chatting away to all the grandparents and special persons. There were plenty of board and card games and the day was a resounding success. Its something we will be continuing and hopefully extending on in future years. I actually brought a bar of carbolic soap in with me, which is what we all used back in the day. It basically washed the cat, dog, your person and clothes. I asked if anyone knew what it was and all the grandparents immediately put up their hands. A few wanted to know where I got the carbolic soap from, so I sourced some more, and was able to present it to some of the grandparents. Jessi Ngatikaura, star of The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives, has said the women who feature in the series want to show that we are just normal people. The first season of the hit reality series followed a group of Mormon influencers based in Utah in the US, caught in the midst of a sex-swinging scandal. Mormonism is a restorationist Christian movement which discourages alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, as well as sex outside marriage. The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives star Jessi Ngatikaura (Disney/Pamela Littky/PA) Ngatikaura and Whitney Leavitt discussed the shows next season on ITVs This Morning and explained that the series followed the creation of MomTok a collective of women who make videos on TikTok. MomTok is a group of women. We all did social media together, and it started out just a group of mums getting together and making fun videos on social media, and then it turned into what it is today, which is crazy, said Leavitt. She added: I think whats really cool about this whole group is that all of us live it a little bit differently, like some maybe a little bit more than others. So hopefully someone whos watching can relate to one of us, but yeah, no drinking coffee, no premarital sex, dress modestly, no tattoos. Ngatikaura left the church and said there are women of different faith levels on the show. I left about five, six years ago, but my family is Mormon, my friends are Mormon, so Im still in the culture, she said. It just wasnt for me. But I love that about our show, is that we have so many different faith levels. So we showcase someone who is super active, someone who is not any more, which I think is relatable to any religion. This Morning presenter Paddy McGuinness said it is good to talk about Mormonism so people know its not what you think it is when you see the films. Ngatikaura responded: We wanted to show that because everyone thinks Mormons are like pilgrims and sister wives and we cant do anything, but we showcase that we are just normal people. Season two follows the lives of the women after the success of season one and sees Miranda McWhorter join the series to set the record straight on the swinging scandal. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially condemns polygamy but there are other groups, referred to as Mormon fundamentalists, who engage in the practice. The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives season two is available on Disney+ in the UK. Alleged Liverpool parade crash driver appears in court charged with seven offences Paul Doyle, 53, has been charged with seven offences. Paul Doyle Eleanor Barlow and Pat Hurst Press Association Fri 30 May 2025 at 13:15 The alleged driver of a car that ploughed into a crowd at Liverpools Premier League victory parade has appeared in court. US formally moves to dismiss criminal case against Boeing over crashes A judge will decide whether to accept the terms of the non-prosecution agreement Boeings factory in Washington (AP/Lindsey Wasson) Irish Independent Newsdesk Press Association Fri 30 May 2025 at 09:31 The US Justice Department has formally moved to dismiss a criminal fraud charge against Boeing and asked a judge to cancel an upcoming trial connected to two plane crashes that killed 346 people off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. Livermore, CA (94550) Today Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight A few clouds from time to time. Low 51F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Fridays episode of The Bold and the Beautiful promises high drama, as Lunas growing fixation with Steffy threatens to take a violent turn. What began as subtle tension is now careening toward a dangerous outcomeone that could have lasting consequences for everyone involved. Luna crosses the line as obsession becomes a threat Luna Nozawa (Lisa Yamada) can no longer keep her emotions in check. Her fixation on Finn has grown stronger, and shes convinced that Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) is the only thing standing in her way. Rather than let go, Luna begins to consider a drastic solution. Even Sheila (Kimberlin Brown), who once offered Luna her full support, is taken aback by her granddaughters dark turn. Realizing how dangerous Luna's mindset has become, Sheila urges her to leave Los Angeles. But Luna refuses to walk awayand the consequences may be deadly. Sheila draws the line, but Luna moves forward Despite Sheilas attempt to step in, Luna is already too far gone. Her declaration that Steffy must be removed from the picture shocks even Sheila, who warns her not to push further. But Luna ignores the warning. Instead, Luna begins looking for someone willing to sell her a gun. Its clear shes willing to go to dangerous lengths to clear the path to Finnand she wont be stopped easily. Ridge raises the alarm as tensions explode Meanwhile, Ridge is increasingly uneasy about Lunas behavior. While she may have recently earned some leniency thanks to Bills help, Ridge isnt convinced shes stable. Fearing the worst, he visits Steffy and Finn at the cliff house, urging them to stay alert. He warns them not to let their guard down. Lunas erratic actions are becoming harder to ignore, and Ridge senses that something serious is about to happen. Lunas spiral is nearing a breaking pointwill anyone stop her before its too late? For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Operation Shield date & timing: Security agencies are all set to carry out Operation Shield, a large-scale mock drill, across six states and Union Territories (UTs) in India. This will be the second phase of the Civil Defence Exercise, designed to improve emergency response and public safety in areas near the Pakistan border. Lets take a closer look at the date, timings, participating states, and what will happen during the drill. Operation Shield details Date: 31 May 2025 31 May 2025 Timings: 5:00 PM onwards 5:00 PM onwards States/UTs: Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chandigarh Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chandigarh Purpose: Enhance emergency response and community readiness Enhance emergency response and community readiness Involvement: Civil Defence, NCC, NSS, NYKS, Bharat Scouts & Guides Civil Defence, NCC, NSS, NYKS, Bharat Scouts & Guides Main activities: Evacuation drills, sirens, communication tests, hotline activation When is Operation Shield? Check Date and Timings The mock drill, named Operation Shield, is scheduled to take place on 31 May 2025, starting at 5:00 PM onwards. However, the timings may vary slightly depending on local convenience, as mentioned in a press release issued on 29 May 2025. States and UTs Participating in Operation Shield This mock drill will be conducted across districts close to the India-Pakistan border. The six participating states and UTs include: Punjab Jammu and Kashmir Gujarat Haryana Rajasthan Chandigarh These regions are considered sensitive due to their proximity to the Line of Control (LoC) and are often vulnerable to cross-border threats. The goal of Operation Shield is to strengthen coordination among security forces and improve local response capabilities. Why Operation Shield is Being Conducted Operation Shield is a follow-up to the first Civil Defence Exercise held on 7 May 2025, just before Operation Sindoor Indias military action in response to a terrorist attack. The recent drills aim to enhance alertness, community engagement, and readiness in case of real emergencies. According to Umesh Sharma, Assistant Director General of Civil Defence, all local administrations and stakeholders are encouraged to fully participate and share an action report after the drill is completed. Who Will Be Involved in the Mock Drill A wide range of organisations and volunteers will take part in the drill. Participants include: Civil Defence Wardens Civil Defence Volunteers Youth groups like NCC (National Cadet Corps), NSS (National Service Scheme), NYKS (Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan), and Bharat Scouts & Guides This collective effort shows the importance of involving the community in national safety and defence measures. Activities Planned During Operation Shield The mock drill will include various simulated emergency scenarios to test the preparedness of all involved. Some of the main activities are: Silent and general recall of Civil Defence volunteers Evacuation drills Emergency communication tests Activation of hotlines between the Air Force and Civil Defence Control Rooms Use of air raid sirens controlled from central hubs These activities aim to ensure that, in the event of a real threat, the response can be quick, organised, and effective. Operation Shield in the Context of Operation Sindoor The timing of Operation Shield is notable, as it comes after Operation Sindoor, Indias military strike on April 22, 2025, in response to a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 people were killed. In that operation, the Indian Armed Forces carried out targeted attacks on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). From May 7 to 10, India witnessed four days of heightened military tension, including shelling and attempted drone attacks by Pakistan. This backdrop further explains why Operation Shield and its mock drills are critical for national preparedness. What to Expect on 31 May Residents living in the above-mentioned states and UTs should not panic on 31 May when they hear air raid sirens or see evacuation exercises in progress. These are part of Operation Shield, a planned mock drill to keep everyone prepared for any emergency. Security agencies urge full cooperation from the public, local officials, and volunteers to ensure the success of the exercise. Stay informed, stay safe. Operation Shield is about strengthening our nation's defencetogether. For more informative articles on historical and upcoming events from around the world, please visit Indiatimes Events. Saudi Arabias Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman visited Tehran last month with a direct message from King Salman bin Abdulaziz. The message was aimed at urging Iran to treat President Donald Trumps nuclear deal proposal seriously to avoid escalating tensions with Israel. The visit on April 17 was the first by a senior Saudi royal in more than two decades and involved high-level Iranian officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. Message from Riyadh: Avoid escalation, choose diplomacy Prince Khalid conveyed that President Trumps administration would not entertain lengthy negotiations. According to Gulf and Iranian sources, the Saudi minister said the current opportunity could close quickly. Trump had recently announced that direct talks were underway with Tehran, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had instead hoped for Washingtons backing in military strikes. Prince Khalid stressed that pursuing a deal would be preferable to risking a military confrontation with Israel, especially given the regions instability due to recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Saudi Defence Minister | Credit: X Irans reaction: Deal preferred, but trust issues remain Iranian officials told Prince Khalid they were open to reaching an agreement, mainly to ease economic strain from sanctions. However, they voiced concern over what they described as the Trump administrations unpredictable demands. While Iran may be willing to pause uranium enrichment in exchange for access to frozen funds and civilian nuclear rights, the leadership is not prepared to dismantle its enrichment program entirely. Iranian President Pezeshkian made clear Irans interest in diplomacy but also pointed to the lack of consistency in U.S. positions. Saudis wider concern: Preventing regional instability Prince Khalids trip also touched on Irans broader regional role. He urged Tehran to reconsider its policies across the Middle East and avoid actions that could provoke a stronger U.S. response. He referenced past incidents, including the 2019 drone strikes on Saudi oil facilitiesblamed on Iran and its Houthi allies. Prince Khalid also assured Iran that Saudi Arabia would not allow its land or airspace to be used by the U.S. or Israel for attacks on Iranian targets. The message was part of a broader Saudi push to protect its economic ambitions from being derailed by further conflict. Changing regional dynamics The visit highlighted the shifting balance of power in the Middle East. Iranian influence has taken a hit due to military losses suffered by allies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and the fall of Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabias diplomatic profile is rising, including its role in mediating talks between Trump and Syrias new leadership. Despite a 2023 detente, Saudi officials remain cautious about Irans reliability. Prince Khalids message reflected Saudi Arabias ongoing efforts to keep the region stable while pursuing its long-term economic goals. For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to end a Biden-era immigration parole program that had temporarily granted legal status to more than 5.3 lakh migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. This order overturned a ruling by US District Judge Indira Talwani, who had previously blocked the administrations decision to terminate the program. While the case will continue in lower courts, the Supreme Court's decision puts hundreds of thousands at risk of deportation. Who will be affected and what is Parole? The courts ruling impacts around 532,000 migrants who were allowed to live and work in the United States under temporary legal status known as immigration parole. The Biden administration used parole as part of its strategy to manage migration, particularly to deter illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border. Parole in such cases is permitted under US law for "urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit." In 2022, Biden introduced a two-year parole program for Venezuelans entering the US by air, subject to background checks and the support of a US-based financial sponsor. The initiative was later expanded in 2023 to include migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. US President Donald Trump | Credit: X Trump moves to end humanitarian programs On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order to end humanitarian parole programs. The Department of Homeland Security moved to terminate the program in March, effectively shortening the two-year grants and placing migrants at risk of fast-track deportation under an expedited removal process. The Trump administration defended the move as a return to stricter immigration control. In its submission to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said the lower courts ruling had disrupted critical immigration policies that were central to Trumps reelection campaign. Legal challenges and court opinions The parole recipients and their US-based sponsors filed a legal challenge, arguing that the administration violated federal rules by terminating the program without the required case-by-case review. In April, Judge Talwani ruled that the government could not end the program through a blanket order. The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay Talwanis ruling, prompting the administration to approach the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal. The Supreme Courts unsigned decision did not include a written explanation. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Jackson criticized the ruling, stating that the court had not properly weighed the potential impact of displacing such a large group of noncitizens whose legal claims remain unresolved. Deportation risks and humanitarian concerns The plaintiffs told the court that ending parole would separate families and lead to immediate deportation to countries marked by political instability and violence. They said many of those affected face real risks if returned to Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, or Nicaragua. Since their asylum and immigration relief applications have been indefinitely suspended, losing parole status would leave them with few protections. The Supreme Courts May 19 order also enabled the administration to proceed with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for another group of 350,000 Venezuelans, also granted under Biden. The latest decision reflects a broader effort by the Trump administration to reverse Biden-era immigration policies using emergency appeals and strengthen enforcement at the federal level. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 launch timeline surfaced online: With the expected summer release of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, Samsung is preparing to reshape the foldable smartphone market completely. Samsung's One UI 8 and Android 16 will be available on these next-generation smartphones, representing a significant advancement in software integration for the company. In addition to showcasing these flagship models, the forthcoming Galaxy Unpacked event is anticipated to tease the groundbreaking tri-fold Galaxy G Fold and unveil the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, the first-ever Fan Edition foldable. Samsung's strategic actions are intended to establish new standards for smartphone innovation and strengthen its position as the foldable market heats up. Stay tuned as we continue to explore the implications of these advancements for the future of mobile. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 launch timeline leaked As early as this summer, Samsung's next generation of foldables will be available. Although we know that's a broad statement, a recent press release from Samsung provides an unambiguous indication. "One UI 8 will debut on Samsung's newest foldables this summer thanks to the mutual partnership between Samsung and Google," the company said. That in and of itself suggests that the next generation of Galaxy foldables, most likely to be called the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, will be available soon. Samsung is reportedly planning to release its newest foldable devices in July. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 expected specifications The smartphone is expected to launch in July 2025 | Credit: Samsung The true show-stopper is anticipated to be the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Leaks include an improved triple-camera setup with a 200-megapixel primary sensor, a lighter frame, and a revised hinge to lessen the crease. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset from Qualcomm is rumored to power the phone. Naturally, Samsung has not yet officially confirmed any of this. Must Read: Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge leaks: Expected to debut with 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and more Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 expected specifications It is expected to come in Exynos 2500 | Credit: Samsung In contrast, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is anticipated to have a larger external screen, about 4 inches, and notably thinner internal and external bezels. Interestingly, Samsung's foldable portfolio may significantly change with the Z Flip 7. According to rumors, Samsung's first smartphone chipset, the Exynos 2500, which is based on their second-generation 3nm technology, may power it in instead of a Snapdragon chip. According to reports, the chip significantly improves power economy and performance. For the latest and more interesting tech news, keep reading Indiatimes Tech. Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old prodigy from Texas, has won the latest edition of Scripps National Spelling Bee to secure a prize of $52,500. His win, however, wasnt an easy one as he nearly threw away the chance when he misspelled a word out of sheer overconfidence. Luckily, for him his rivals too made similar blunders and helped him bounce back. With that, here is all you need to know about the young sensation. Faizan Zaki wins Scripps National Spelling Bee: All you need to know about him Faizan Zaki, who hails from a family of Indian origins, is a student based in Texas. He studies C.M. Rice Middle School and is in the seventh grade. FAIZAN ZAKI FINALLY NAILED ECLAIRCISSEMENT FTW CONGRATS!!! And that's after surviving Chaldee in R20, but before that... #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/UMS8xd4ybi ruletheword335 // TS (@ruletheword335) May 30, 2025 Faizan is no stranger to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In fact, this was his fourth appearance at the event. He made his debut in 2019 but didnt make much of an impact. He then made solid progress and emerged as a runner-up last year. Zaki Anwar and Arshia Quadri, Faizans parents, have played a major role in his success. They encouraged him to develop an interest in words from a young age. A fast learner, Faizan started reading at the age of two. Faizan has a flair for languages and is currently trying to master French. The teenager also has a keen interest in Rubik Cubes puzzles. About Scripps National Spelling Bee Scripps National Spelling Bee, which was first held in 1925, has emerged as a major phenomena as it gave young minds an opportunity to showcase their brilliance. This years contest marked the last time it was held at a convention center just outside Washington on the banks of the Potomac River, which has been its home for over a decade. In 2026, , it will take place at Constitution Hall, a concert venue near the White House. Karate Kid Legends on OTT: Karate Kid Legends, one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year, is finally out in theatres. The martial arts drama hit the screens on May 30 amid much fanfare. According to Decider, it will premiere on Netflix after its run in theatres. Sony, the company behind the Karate Kid saga, has a deal with the streaming giant. Karate Kid Legend may premiere on Netflix in September Jackie Chan is in the limelight because of his latest film Karate Kid Legends, which opened in theatres on May 30. According to Decider, the film will be available to stream on Netflix once its run in theatres ends. In 2021, the streaming platform signed a 5-year deal with Sony. It gives Netflix first pay window rights for Sony Films. Moreover, Karate Kid Legends will pair quite well with Cobra Kai. The Ralph Macchio-led series serves as a sequel/successor to the Karate Kid film series. Theres no official word on the OTT release date. However, Sony films usually drop on Netflix four months after premiering in theatres. As such, one can expect it to premiere on Netflix in late September. About Karate Kid Legends Karate Kid Legends is a martial arts drama directed by Jonathan Entwistle. It centres on a Kung Fu prodigy who is forced to upgrade his skills to take part in a coveted competition. The cast is headlined by Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, and Ben Wang. Its music is composed by Dominic Lewis. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Dramatic footage of a catastrophic landslide triggered by the partial collapse of the Birch Glacier buried approximately 90 per cent of Blatten, a small Alpine village in Switzerland's Valais Canton, surfaced on the internet on Wednesday, May 28, reported BBC. The shocking visuals have left social media by storm. The viral videos show massive dust clouds filling the valley as the glacier collapsed, with a torrent of mud and boulders engulfing the hillsides and most of the village, with a population of around 300. According to the authorities, they had issued a warning earlier this month of a potential collapse for weeks due to visible cracks in the ice. X | @SyeClops Glacier landslide buried about 90 per cent of the village, with one missing The population of the village is around 300 residents, and as a warning was issued, the livestock was evacuated. However, a 64-year-old man remains missing, and no deaths have been reported so far. As per the Cantonal Police of Valais, the search and rescue operation was underway for the missing man, reports NDTV. Additionally, the Lonza Riverbed was also buried by the landslip, which raised worries about possible floods from water flows that were blocked. Credit: X |@Cyrus_In_The_X Shocking visuals and images surfaced on social media The catastrophic glacier collapse is a clear reminder of the Swiss Alps' startling rate of glacial loss due to climate change. In 2022, 6 per cent of Switzerland's glacier volume vanished, and in 2023, a further 4 per cent did the same, as per the glaciologists who have been monitoring the country's glaciers for years. Swiss Village of Blatten Buried by Glacier Collapse: A 1.5 million m glacier crushed most of the Swiss village of Blatten. Authorities had time to evacuate residents, but a 64-year-old man remains missing. Experts warn of further risks as the glacier debris has blocked the pic.twitter.com/1WIQ4li4Ai Cyrus (@Cyrus_In_The_X) May 29, 2025 Is climate change the reason behind the glacier thaw? Well, a Swiss glaciologist has attributed the accelerating glacier thaw to climate change. According to them, they also warned that it has raised the risk of such disasters. Not only the Alpine village but also the neighbouring villages have faced partial evacuations due to the current threat of flooding. The estimated 9 million metric tonnes of debris have rendered the village nearly uninhabitable. NEW: 90% of a Swiss village has been buried after a massive chunk of the Birch glacier broke off and crashed down into the valley. This is insane. "We have lost our village, but not our heart. We will support each other and console each other," said the town's mayor. The pic.twitter.com/4Fu5XfEDAN Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 29, 2025 It will take years for it to recover now. Matthias Bellwald, the Blatten's mayor, said, "We've lost the village, but not the heart. We will support each other and console each other. After a long night, it will be morning again." While other citizens are still trying to process what actually happened. While, as per another cantonal geologist, Raphael Mayoraz, said that preparations were done for a natural disaster as they weren't aware of the scale of destruction caused by the glacier collapse. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending. Imagine an elf, a gremlin, and a macaroon had a chaotic little lovechild, thats Labubu, the creepy doll. With those pointy ears, oversized eyes, and a grin that is equal parts cute and unhinged, this tiny character is the latest obsession that has crept its way out of art books and into the clutches of global pop culture. And plot twist, Labubu has now officially entered India. While many are hating on it, the craze of this doll is not dropping anytime soon, especially in millennials. Where can you get the viral creepy Labubu doll in India? } Credit: X/notgursimar Who made the Labubu doll? Created by Hong Kong-based artist Kasing Lung in 2015, Labubu started as a sketch, a giggly, fairy-tale creature inspired by Nordic folklore. Fast forward a decade, and Labubu is not just a doodle, but a full-blown cultural tsunami. From Lisa of BLACKPINK flaunting it on her designer handbag to fashion royalty like Kim K and Rihanna giving it their seal of approval, Labubu is the toy du jour thats slaying your For You page and your wallets. Where can you get the viral creepy Labubu doll in India? } Credit: Instagram/lalalalisa_m Why is the Labubu doll trending? Part of the whimsical universe called The Monsters, Labubu is actually a girl, though her sharp grin and rogue energy often say otherwise. With over 300 versions in circulation think glittery, punk, dessert-themed, even One Piece crossovers, Labubus versatility is one of her biggest flexes. Some even blink. Others sit. Most steal hearts (and coins). Where can you get the viral creepy Labubu doll in India? } Credit: X/pampurins Labubu doll sales But here's the real tea: Labubu dolls are sold in blind boxes, which means you do not know which version you are getting until you rip it open like its Christmas morning. It is giving emotional roulette, and people are addicted. Pop Mart, the Chinese toy brand behind the madness, has made nearly $400 million off Labubu in 2024 alone. If you need Labubu doll clothes, please contact me. #Labubu pic.twitter.com/ljKPZjoBWv Labubu Doll Fashion (@tommy032774290) May 28, 2025 Where to get Labubu dolls in India, what is its price? Now for the juicy part, where to get her in India. You can find Labubu online on Indian sites like Kalakaar, Hype Fly India, and Crep Dog Crew. Prices start around Rs 5,000, but special editions and plush charms can shoot up to Rs 12,000 or more. Hype Fly even has a Buy One Get One deal, so yes, double the chaos. The demon Labubu and DVa doll #Labubu pic.twitter.com/KfXx6wnIQh p a m i @ 12% healing (@pampurins) May 12, 2025 In short, Labubu is not just a toy, she is a vibe, an aesthetic, and now, an accessible Indian obsession. Get ready to hunt, unbox, and join the cult of the cheeky little elf with a devilish smile, and put it on your luxury bag, either to ruin its vibe or to just hop on the trend. Naftemporiki and the University of West Attica signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to jointly exploit the scientific and research capabilities of the two institutions. The ceremony took place at the Naftemporiki and West Attica University sign memorandum of cooperation - Mitsotakis emphasized the importance of preserving the monasterys status as a Greek Orthodox pilgrimage site. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a telephone conversation on Friday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, according to a statement from the Greek Prime Ministers press office . The call focused on recent developments concerning the historic Saint Catherines Monastery in Sinai, following a ruling by the Egyptian judiciary. During the discussion, Mitsotakis emphasized the importance of preserving the monasterys status as a Greek Orthodox pilgrimage site and stressed the need for a resolution that respects institutional frameworks. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a solution grounded in the mutual understanding previously established between Greece and Egypt. They also referred to the agreements publicly announced during President el-Sisis official visit to Athens on May 7, underscoring that these form the basis for resolving the issue. As part of their continued cooperation, a Greek delegation is set to travel to Egypt on Monday, June 2, to finalize the details of the agreement with the aim of reaching a swift resolution. #KYRIAKOS_MITSOTAKIS #EGYPT No fewer than 21 persons have been killed, while 10 residents missing in a devastating flash flood that occurred in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State. INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that the unfortunate development happened on Thursday, after a torrential downpour struck overnight. In a statement by Acting Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Hussaini, disclosed that the disaster hit the communities of Tiffin Maza and Anguwan Hausawa in Mokwa town during heavy rainfall that lasted for several hours. Advertisement Hussaini noted that the floodwaters submerged and washed away over 50 residential houses along with their occupants, resulting in significant casualties and property loss. He added that local divers, and volunteers, launched immediate search and rescue operations to find survivors and recover bodies. READ MORE: 29 Killed, Many Houses Destroyed As Flood Hits Kebbi Communities Hussaini said: NSEMA is in receipt of report of a deadly flood disaster that ravaged two communities. So far, 21 corpses have been recovered, while search and rescue efforts are ongoing to locate more than 10 persons still missing. Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, has been honoured as the Central Bank Governor of the Year at 2025 African Banker Awards Gala held in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire. The award, presented by African Banker Magazine, recognised Cardosos bold and strategic leadership in driving critical monetary and regulatory reforms that have successfully restored stability and confidence in Nigerias financial system. In a statement on Thursday by the Awards Committee, praised CBN under Cardosos leadership for implementing key policy measures aimed at stabilising the naira, improving transparency in the foreign exchange market, and re-establishing policy credibility. Advertisement Dr. Nkiru Balonwu, Adviser to the Governor on Stakeholder Engagement and Strategic Communication, accepted the award on Cardosos behalf. READ MORE: Adesina Steps Down As AfDB President After 10 Years She was accompanied by the Banks Director of Monetary Policy, Dr. Victor Oboh; Director of Banking Supervision, Dr. Olubukola Akinwumi; and Monetary Policy Committee member, Dr. Aloysius Uche Ordu. The organisers said: This award reflects the Committees recognition of Governor Cardosos recent achievements and the Central Banks critical role in addressing market imbalances and repositioning Nigerias economy for sustainable growth. INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that African Banker Awards are organised by African Banker magazine in partnership with the African Development Bank Group. The annual event gathers senior government officials, banking executives, and leaders of development finance institutions from across Africa to celebrate outstanding contributions to the continents financial sector. The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has arrested five suspected cultists and recovered firearms in the Ibesikpo Asutan area. Timfon John, the spokesperson for the command, made this known in a statement released on Thursday. Ms. John stated that the arrests were made on Wednesday at the suspects hideout in Ikot Etuk village, located in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area. Advertisement READ MORE: Nollywood Under Fire As Film Inspired By VeryDarkMan Premieres On YouTube She noted that the arrests were carried out by operatives of the command following credible intelligence. Ms. John stated that during the operation, officers recovered one locally made pistol, a fabricated single-barrel gun, and various charms. She revealed that the suspects willingly gave the police valuable information about their criminal activities. This includes their involvement in a recent attack on Fulani herdsmen, which resulted in the killing of two cows. The stolen cows were reportedly shared among various cult groups within Ibesikpo Asutan, she said. Ms. John stated that efforts are ongoing to apprehend other gang members who are currently on the run. The spokesperson added that updates on the situation will be shared with the public as they progress. Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party in September 21, 2024 governorship election, Asue Ighodalo, has rejected a verdict made by Court of Appeal in Abuja affirming the victory of Monday Okpebholo as Governor of Edo State. INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that Justice Mohammed Danjuma, on Thursday, dismissed the appeal filed by PDP and its candidate, Ighodalo, describing it as lacking in merit. It was gathered that three-member panel ruled unanimously, reiterating the decision of the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. Advertisement Justice Danjuma held that the appellants failed to prove any miscarriage of justice or provide credible witnesses and documentation to support their allegations of over-voting. He said: The foundation of the appellants case having collapsed, the appeal lacked merit and is hereby dismissed. Reacting to the courts verdict on Thursday, Ighodalo vowed to challenge the judgement at the Supreme Court. This was disclosed by Publicity Secretary of the Edo State PDP Caretaker Committee, Chris Nehikhare, during an interview with newsmen. He said: We are surely taking the matter to the Supreme Court after todays judgment, and we shall do so within the stipulated time. Meanwhile, Governor Okpebholo called on Ighodalo and the PDP to accept the Court of Appeals decision and join him in moving Edo State forward. In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, the governor said that the judgment, which reaffirmed the will of the people, should signal an end to divisive politics. READ MORE: Edo Guber: Ighodalo To Appeal Tribunal Judgement After Okpebholos Victory The statement reads: Governor Monday Okpebholo commends the judiciary for its diligence and commitment to justice. This ruling is not just a victory for our party, the All Progressives Congress, but a triumph for democracy and the rule of law in Edo State. The governor urges the opposition and Asue Ighodalo to reflect on the judgment. Prolonged litigation only distracts from the urgent task of governance and the delivery of democratic dividends. Now is the time to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship and statesmanship. The legal process has run its course, and the judgment of the Court of Appeal is clear. Lagos State government has issued warning to residents of the state that houses without toilet will be demolished. The development was disclosed by Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Health District V, Dr. Oladapo Asiyanbi on Thursday. Dr. Oladapo particularly vowed that any building without toilet or proper dumping ground in Zongo Community, Gbethrome, Badagry West Local Council Development Area will be mark for immediate demolition. Advertisement INFORMATION NIGERIA learnt that the warning is coming, following death of 14 persons, caused by cholera infections in the area. The government warned against dangers of open defecation, which it noted had been linked to the recent cholera outbreak in the area. READ MORE: Lagos Govt, Omega Power Ministry Church Clash Over Building Demolition Dr. Oladapo in a statement on Thursday, gave the warning during a sensitisation campaign on cholera outbreak, held with key community stakeholders in Zongo Community Gbethrome recently. He emphasised the severe health risks associated with open defecation, noting that it significantly contributed to the spread of cholera. The statement reads: He revealed that the community had already recorded about 54 confirmed cases of cholera, with 14 resulting in death. These cases have been traced to the widespread practice of open defecation within the Zongo community. We cannot return lost lives, but we can rebuild houses. Any building without a toilet facility will be demolished because the Lagos State Government prioritises the health and safety of its residents. Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed that 366 persons have been killed by Lassa fever and meningitis in the country. The agency also highlighted continued public health challenge posed by the diseases, saying that from January 1 to May 18, 2025, 733 cases of Lassa fever were recorded from 5,118 suspected infections across 18 states and 95 local government areas. NCDC noted that within the same period, Nigeria recorded 141 Lassa fever-related deaths, representing a case fatality rate of 19.2 per cent.. Advertisement According to the agencys in a statement shared via its official website on Thursday, disclosed that there was a surge in infections of Lassa fever during epidemiological week 20, with 13 new cases reported in Edo, Ondo, and Benue states. The statement reads: Cumulatively in week 20, 2025, 141 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate of 19.2 per cent, which is higher than the CFR for the same period in 2024 (18.3 per cent). READ MORE: No Cause For Alarm NCDC Assures Nigerians Amid Spread Of Deadly Virus In total for 2025, 18 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 95 LGAs. 72 per cent of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from three states: Ondo (30 per cent), Bauchi (25 per cent), and Edo (17 per cent). The remaining 28 per cent of cases were spread across 15 other states. On meningitis, the NCDC reported that children aged 514 were the most affected, with males accounting for 60 per cent of all cases. The agency added: 97 per cent of all suspected cases are reported from 10 states, Kebbi (1,423), Katsina (302), Jigawa (160), Yobe (165), Gombe (77), Sokoto (450), Borno (84), Adamawa (38), Kano (38), and Bauchi (81). Suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, has commended President Bola Tinubu over his intervention for restoring peace in the state. Fubara urged his supporters and Nigerians to thank the President in saving the state from looming anarchy arising from festering political crisis. In a statement on Thursday by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, the Governor revealed that the peace and reconciliation process aimed at reinstating himself, his deputy, and all members of the State House of Assembly was on track. Advertisement He assured that democracy and good governance will soon return to the oil rich state, with both arms working together for the good of the people. Fubara said: I want to assure you that the issues will soon be resolved, and you will return to your offices, not just in the Executive arm, but also the Legislative arm. And I also believe that the strong relationships we had before will return, and we will begin to work together again for the good and progress of the state. What is important is for us to have a forgiving spirit. READ MORE: Rivers: My Fight Is Not Against Fubara But Those Exploiting Rivers Wike We are already in the peace process. I want you to thank Mr. President for his timely intervention in salvaging the situation and stabilising the polity and the state. If not for Mr. President, the story today would have been different. I dont know how he gets his information, but the truth is that he acted with wisdom at the right time. He is the one you should thank. We have to come down from our high horses and commit ourselves to the peace process. And that is what we are doing. What is important is for the state to move forward. It is not about you; the interest of the state is paramount. A yet to be ascertained numbers of terrorists, suspected to be Boko Haram have been killed by Nigerian Air Force airstrikes and destroyed their stronghold in Borno State. INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that the air mission was carried out in the early hours of Friday. The operation was said to have been conducted on fleeing Boko Haram elements in Bita, a known insurgent enclave in the North-East. Advertisement In a statement on Friday, by Director of Public Relations and Information at the NAF Headquarters, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, explained that the coordinated air assault marks a substantial milestone in efforts to degrade the operational capacity of terrorists. Ejodame added that NAF through the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai, has recorded a major operational success against Boko Haram terrorists. READ MORE: NAF Airlifts Jos Students Home Amid Plateau Killings (Pictures) He said: The Nigerian Air Force through the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai, has recorded a major operational success against Boko Haram terrorists. In the early hours of today, NAF combat aircraft carried out precision airstrikes on fleeing terrorists in Bita, Borno State, neutralising scores of insurgents in what has been described as one of the most decisive blows against the group in recent times. The highly coordinated operation, executed under the cover of darkness, represents a major leap in ongoing efforts to dismantle the operational capabilities of terrorist elements undermining national security in the North East. Ground forces have since commenced clearance and exploitation operations to consolidate on the gains achieved from the successful air strikes. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two individuals who allegedly ingested cocaine while preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (Rtd), made this disclosure in a statement on Thursday during the opening of a meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Drug Use Control. Marwa expressed deep concern over the exploitation of religious pilgrimages by drug trafficking syndicates, describing it as a recurring and dangerous trend. Advertisement READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/mauritanias-sidi-ould-tah-elected-afdb-president-to-replace-nigerias-akinwumi.html Just a few days ago, we apprehended two intending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia who had swallowed cocaine. They claimed to be going for Hajj, Marwa revealed. He warned that criminal groups often manipulate unsuspecting travelers, particularly during religious seasons, to smuggle narcotics across borders under the guise of pilgrimage sponsorship. Weve seen it repeatedly happen where unsuspecting people are deceived under the pretext of Hajj travel, he added. Two years ago, three women were defrauded. Some people offered to pay for their tickets, visas, and other logistics. Before departure, they were handed a small bag to deliver to someone believed to be a relative in Saudi Arabia someone they had never met. Cocaine was sewn into the bag. Despite facing financial challenges that have limited the full implementation of the National Drug Control Master Plan (20212025), Marwa assured that the agency remains committed to its mission of combating drug trafficking and abuse. The arrests come as Nigerian authorities heighten scrutiny of travelers during the 2025 Hajj season, reinforcing the NDLEAs ongoing efforts to protect the countrys image and prevent the misuse of religious obligations for criminal activities. Operatives of Osun State Police Command have arrested two brothers, identified as Ajala Idowu and Ajala Maruf, for allegedly stealing two motorcycles in Ikirun, Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state. In a statement by Abiodun Ojelabi, the Commands Public Relations Officer, on Thursday, revealed that the arrest was made after complaints from residents of Maboreje area of Ikirun, and upon a tip-off and intelligence-led operation by detectives. Following some interrogations, the two brothers said that they bought the motorcycles on Facebook through one Ajala Idowus account. Advertisement The commands Spokesman stated that further discreet investigation also led to the arrest of 28-year-old Ibrahim Idris, who is also a motorcycle mechanic. READ MORE: Osun Police Detain Man Accused Of Killing Father In Farm The statement reads: Following complaints from the Maboreje area, Ikirun, reported at Ikirun Police Area Command on 23rd December 2023 and 24th March 2024, respectively, that a TVS blue colour lady motorcycle with Reg. No. KNR 759 UM and a TVS with Reg. No. FNN 898 QE were stolen from the above-mentioned addresses. The Command continued with the investigation and, on 8th May 2025, upon a tip-off and intelligence-led operation, detectives attached to the CPs Monitoring Unit arrested one Ajala Idowu, 40, and his elder brother, Ajala Maruf, 56, with one of the stolen motorcycles. They claimed to have bought the motorcycle on Facebook through Ajala Idowus account. Further discreet investigation led to the arrest of Ibrahim Idris, 28, a native of Ibadan, Oyo State, who is also a motorcycle mechanic. Nigerian comedian I Go Save has expressed concern over the increasing prevalence of begging in public areas across Nigeria. In an Instagram story shared on Thursday, he remarked that begging has become common in various places, including airports, nightclubs, restrooms, restaurants, and parks. He acknowledged that the country is tough but urged people to slow down with the excessive begging. Advertisement READ MORE: He Begged For Death Injection Regina Chukwu On Husbands Final Days I Go Save emphasised that everyone is dealing with one challenge or another and called on people to show compassion and assist each other. He wrote, The rate of begging in this countrys public space is alarming; Airports, Nightclubs, restrooms, restaurants, parks, et al. is alarming. I know say country hard but make una clam down o! Na same country we dey abeg but help who you can sha. SEE POST: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared that a strong and united opposition coalition is being formed to challenge what he described as the excesses of President Bola Tinubus administration. He made this known in a statement issued on Thursday. Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), stressed that the coalition aims to restore accountability, uphold democracy, and give Nigerians the power to choose their leaders freely. In the statement, Atiku said: We are building a strong, united opposition coalition one that will challenge the excesses of this administration, restore accountability, and return government to the people. We will protect the right of every Nigerian to freely choose their leaders, and we will continue to fight for economic justice, political freedom, and national progress. We are here to rescue Nigeria. And we will not stop until that goal is achieved. Advertisement READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/tinubus-midterm-scorecard-is-a-failure-ohanaeze-faction.html The coalition is said to include prominent figures such as former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, and ex-Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, among others. A few weeks ago, Atiku, Obi, El-Rufai, and other key opposition leaders reportedly met to strategize ahead of the 2027 general election. Speaking after the meeting, El-Rufai declared that the coalitions mission is to unseat Tinubu in the next election. We will return Tinubu to Lagos in 2027, he said. The emerging alliance signals a significant realignment in Nigerias political landscape as opposition leaders gear up for a fierce battle against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has urged Nigerians to look beyond political affiliations and support President Bola Tinubus administration. He particularly commending the remarkable infrastructural progress in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under Minister Nyesom Wike. Ortom made the statement on Friday during a joint inspection tour of ongoing projects in Abuja alongside Wike. Advertisement The former governor, who has been active in Nigerian politics since 1982, said he had never seen such a level of development in the FCT. Mr. President alone cannot fix Nigeria. We need to join hands with him, irrespective of party affiliations, Ortom stated, praising Tinubu for appointing Wike, an opposition figure, based on competence rather than party lines. READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/may-29-gov-fubara-hails-tinubu-assures-rivers-people-of-better-days.html If Mr. President was partisan, he wouldnt have appointed Wike. But he saw capacity, and thats leadership, he added. Highlighting visible transformation across the capital city, Ortom praised developments like the construction of world-class bus terminals in Kugbo and Mabushi, ongoing roadworks, and the introduction of a painted taxi system to reorganize the citys transport sector. He noted that despite living in Abuja since 2008, the rapid pace of change had left him needing a guide to navigate the city, a testament to Wikes impactful work. This is the first time I am witnessing monumental development in Abuja, Ortom said. He concluded by emphasising that national unity and progress should be prioritized over party loyalty, and commended both Tinubu and Wike for their efforts in redefining governance through infrastructure and inclusion. Protesters (from right) Gayle Gibson of Newark, Del.; Nancy Wahler of Wilmington; Michele and Reuben Yarmus of Wilmington; and Hadrian Cissell of Wilmington urge Avelo Airlines to end its contract to carry ICE deportees. Read more Delaware leaders and residents cheered the arrival of Avelo Airlines two years ago as the only company scheduling passenger flights in and out of the states major airport, Wilmington (ILG). The Texas-based company has added some routes since then, while cutting others. Avelo promotes its low-cost flights and on-time performance through Wilmington to travelers across the Philadelphia area. Advertisement But Avelos acknowledgment that it contracted earlier this year to join several other air services in flying chartered jet-loads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportees from its charter-flight center in Mesa, Ariz., to ICE processing centers or foreign countries has provoked protest in the First State and other places Avelo serves. We dont want to lose Avelo. But we hope they pull back from these deportations, which we are concerned are taking place without due process by ICE and U.S. courts, said Lucy Comstock Gay, a retiree who helped lead more than 100 protesters, including members of the Democratic local organizing group Indivisible, outside the Avelo terminal near New Castle, Del., on April 25. A smaller group returned to picket Avelo in the rain on May 22, and organizers plan protests again Saturday in coordination with a national network called the Coalition to Stop Avelo, which says it will organize pickets in at least 30 of the 54 cities where Avelo schedules flights. The protests are designed to be peaceful, nonviolent, and law-abiding, Matt Boulay, an organizer for the coalition, said at a news conference Wednesday. As for any protests, the safety and well-being of our crew members, customers and all individuals involved is our highest priority, Courtney Goff, a spokesperson for Avelo, said in a written statement. While we recognize the right of individuals to peacefully assemble, Avelos main priority will continue to be maintaining the safety and timeliness of our operation. She said the company had no further comment on the ICE flights. Some Democrats push back The protesters goal, according to Boulay, is to stop Avelo from profiting from mass deportations or shut them down. Also at the news conference was New York State Sen. Patricia Fahy, a Democrat, a sponsor of legislation that would deny state contracts and tax subsidies to airlines that deport residents unless they are the subject of judicial orders and have legal counsel. Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, who in his previous position as New Castle County executive welcomed Avelo to the state, has sympathized with the critics, Spotlight Delaware reported. Meyer, a Democrat, is personally boycotting the airline, canceling his planned Avelo family vacation flight to Puerto Rico. Avelos contract to use the airport is with its longtime operator, the Delaware River and Bay Authority, whose board includes officials from both Delaware and New Jersey, complicating potential efforts by either state to put pressure on the company. The Delaware River and Bay Authority is aware of the protests both here and at other locations regarding Avelo Airlines business decision to contract with the federal government to perform deportation flights, said James E. Salmon, DRBAs director of communications and marketing. The DRBA understands the reasoning behind their business decision and acknowledged its their decision to make. Fellow Democratic officials including Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, the mayor of New Haven, one of Avelos busiest destinations, and others whose communities host Avelo have also urged the airline to stop cooperating with what a Sonoma County supervisor called the deportation industrial complex. Avelo left Sonoma in early April, after one of the five elected supervisors called on the county to ban the airline, citing its deportation contract. Meyer has said Congress should update the nations immigration system so immigrant workers in Delawares chicken-processing plants and other food industries and their employers arent subject to fears of chaotic raids and shutdowns. Avelos critics note that Congress has given ICE wide latitude to stop and detain people who it suspects may be in the U.S. illegally. President Donald Trump has vowed to expel millions of undocumented foreign workers and their family members. ICE agents this year wrongly flew at least 50 legal immigrants to detention in a El Salvador prison, according to a Cato Institute report, and have deported Southeast Asians to South Sudan, a poor and civil-war-torn nation in East Africa. Who those flights carry, where theyre going, and whether federal judges have the power to halt or turn them around have all become the concerns of advocates for immigrants. In 2023, ICE Air removed over 140,000 noncitizens on more than 8,000 flights, an average of 32 flight a day, Simple Flying reported. Avelo needs the money In April 2021, Avelo began flying travelers between an initial 11 West Coast cities. It has since expanded to 93 routes serving 54 U.S. airports in 21 states and Puerto Rico, plus Mexico and three Caribbean nations. The company has been adding new routes at the rate of just over one per week. Wilmington is one of several base airports where Avelo crews and planes are stationed. Others include New Haven, Conn.; Hollywood Burbank, near Los Angeles; Lakeland, Fla.; three in North Carolina; and Mesa, Ariz., where Avelo began flying what it calls removal flights to deport people detained by ICE on April 17. Activists say Avelo has transported deportees to Texas airports near ICE Mexican border processing centers, and to Guatemala. Avelo CEO Andrew Levy has said the airline needs the money. The 4-year-old company announced its first profit in the early months of 2024 but suffered a big loss last winter, though Levy hopes to raise millions from investors to boost its cash position and expand routes, Brian Sumers wrote recently in the Airline Observer newsletter. Avelo has both added and cut service at a number of airports recently, opening 14 new routes in the first quarter, while cutting 11, according to Aeroroutes. The pattern suggests an airline trying to find its way in a very competitive market, according to a report in the newsletter OAG. A spokesperson for Avelo said the company is private and, while disputing the newsletter characterization, wont discuss its recent financial results. Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article. Whole Foods workers and elected officials gathered outside the store at 2101 Pennsylvania Ave. during a rally Thursday. The regional labor board officials certified a January union election there, but Whole Foods intends to appeal the decision. Read more Months after Whole Foods workers voted to unionize at one of the companys Philadelphia locations, those efforts could be at a standstill indefinitely. The Amazon-owned company has challenged the January union elections validity and is taking its next appeal to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which does not currently have enough members to issue rulings. Advertisement Whole Foods is trying to drag their feet and act like the union does not exist, said Ben Lovett of the stores prepared foods department. They want to throw out the results of our election, where we got a clear majority of support, and they are just doing everything they can to not negotiate with their workers. Three of the NLRBs five positions are currently vacant after President Donald Trump fired one member earlier this year, so the board lacks a quorum. On Thursday, Whole Foods workers and elected officials gathered outside the store at 2101 Pennsylvania Ave. to raise awareness about the dispute. A large Scabby the rat inflatable was also in attendance. At the beginning of this campaign, Whole Foods said, Amazon said, that they would respect what the workers did here, said Wendell Young president of UFCW Local 1776, the union that Whole Foods workers voted to join. After all, forming a union is a simple act of workplace democracy, and theyre now trying to prevent these people from exercising their rights. In the labor movement, we consider people like that rats, Young added. The company raised multiple objections to the union election earlier this year, but those were dismissed by the NLRBs regional director last week. Now, Whole Foods says its ready to appeal that decision. We strongly disagree with the conclusion and we will appeal, Whole Foods Market said Tuesday. As we demonstrated throughout the hearing, including with first-hand testimony from various witnesses, the UFCW 1776 illegally interfered with our team members right to a fair vote at our Philly Center City Store. Whole Foods has alleged that the union promised that employees would get a 30% raise if they voted in favor of the union and offered transportation to and from the store on voting day, among other objections. But now that the company is appealing to the NLRB, its unclear if and when Whole Foods will recognize the union and begin negotiating a contract with workers. The lack of NLRB quorum really is gonna make it hard, particularly for unions that are trying to represent workers, such as in this case, because it could take, not only months, potentially years before the board would be there to even hear a case, James Cooney, associate teaching professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said of the situation at the board. That is not gonna be to the benefit of unions, Cooney added. Usually employers benefit by delaying the process. Representatives of other unions joined the rally Thursday morning, including Teamsters, the News Guild, and AFSCME District Council 33. The crowd, which started with about 50 people, including elected officials, grew throughout the rally while vehicles driving by honked in support. What were seeing in D.C., what were seeing from the [Trump] administration, and its good buddies like Jeff Bezos, is that they want all the power for the corporations, all the power and all the money for the billionaires, and unions are the best way to fight back, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) said. State Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D., Philadelphia) asked the crowd: How does it feel to be the first union certified in the United States for Whole Foods? eliciting an eruption of cheers. We need to have them come to the table, she said, referring to Whole Foods negotiating with the union. The protesters echoed in a chant: Come to the table! Come to the table! A purported Picasso painting in Italy in 2024. A Reading man pleaded guilty this week to selling fabricated artwork from artists including Picasso. Read more Carter P. Reese has had a distinguished and varied life in the Reading area. The 77-year-old, who has three masters degrees, worked for years at Pottstowns prestigious Hill School as a fine arts and history teacher and later as director of admissions. Advertisement He and his Harvard-educated wife cofounded and later sold an international company that helped students gain admission to elite American boarding schools and universities. He was Taylor Swifts next door neighbor in Wyomissing before she moved to Nashville to record her first album. At one point, he even owned the house where Swift lived with her parents and where she is rumored to have gained inspiration for some of her earliest hits. And Reese was a prolific antiques collector, with some 17,000 toys, model trains, furniture, Oriental rugs, and other items. He once described his collection in court documents as one of the largest and most diverse in the United States, with a total value of more than $6 million. But this week, Reese added a more dubious distinction to his resume: a criminal conviction for dealing counterfeit art. In federal court in Reading on Thursday, Reese admitted that for two years, hed sold and tried to sell forgeries of paintings by artists including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jean Cocteau. Between 2019 and 2021, Reese approached potential buyers with artwork from those artists and others that he described as authentic. He said he bought the pieces from art collectors, including a man who died in 2013, and someone he called Ken James. In reality, the man who died had never owned the pieces Reese was attempting to sell. And Ken James was a fictitious name for Reeses real supplier, whod been convicted in Chicago years earlier of selling about $1 million of counterfeit artwork, including some that he bought on eBay and doctored to appear original. To deceive his would-be customers, prosecutors say, Reese used fraudulent affidavits or signatures to bolster his lies about the arts authenticity. Even when some buyers tried to tell him the works were fake and after at least one warned him about his suppliers previous fraud conviction he continued to insist on the arts authenticity, court documents say. Reese was arrested earlier this month, and pleaded guilty Thursday to wire fraud and mail fraud. He faces up to 40 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for September. His attorney, Jason Hernandez, said Reese deeply regrets his actions but has accepted responsibility and intends to make full restitution to the victims. Prosecutors did not assign dollar amounts to any specific pieces Reese sold, but said in court documents that he could be subject to forfeiture of more than $186,000. Hernandez said Reeses behavior was an aberration to an otherwise fully law-abiding and socially productive life, and noted that Reese has helped thousands of children over the years to reach college, including at universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and Georgetown. In a curious twist, Reese appears to have had at least one experience with the other side of a counterfeit scheme. In 2019, Reese said he had been ripped off by people hired to sell some of his antiques collection after he and his wife were having financial trouble, according to court documents he filed in a bankruptcy case. Reese said the people running the sale deliberately sought to depress the value of his merchandise, including by pulling items apart or displaying them in messy boxes. And in one particularly notable instance, Reese said, the group intentionally highlighted a piece hed been duped into buying years earlier a toy house called the Burning Building that hed purchased for $20,000, only to later learn that it was a replica of a true antique. Reese said in court documents that the sellers decision to highlight a fake was an intentionally deceptive move an attempt to raise concerns with buyers about the credibility of everything else in his collection. The prominent display of the fake Burning Building, Reese wrote, signaled that this was a junk sale. At the University of Pennsylvania, administrators from Penn's Global Initiatives office said they work flexibly with students who experience arrival delays due to visa processing. Read more President Donald Trumps administration has launched a multifront effort to reduce the number of international students studying at American colleges, leaving university leaders reeling and sending shock waves through their campuses. In just the last week, the administration sought to bar international students from Harvard, paused student visa interviews, and promised to aggressively scrutinize Chinese students over whether theyll be permitted to study here. Advertisement The steady drumbeat comes as many new undergraduate and graduate students are trying to secure their visas for the fall semester. READ MORE: Among schools nationwide, Haverford and Penn warn international students to return to campus before Trump inauguration One of these actions creates a chilling effect, said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, whose membership of nearly 600 college leaders includes those from Rowan, Rutgers, Bryn Mawr, Penn, Haverford, and Swarthmore. The confluence of all of these actions and situations really causes more general chaos. Local campuses are hearing from panicked international students. Every one of these things has been piling up to cause the international students to have second thoughts about coming to the United States, said one high-level Philadelphia college administrator, who asked not to be named for fear his campus would be targeted by the Trump administration. Students, he said, are asking: Can I still come? Will I still be able to apply for a visa? And our current guidance is, We know what is in the press and thats all we know, so just hang on. A student from the Middle East enrolled at Penns law school said his visa is good for several more years, but the constant targeting of international students has affected him. He panics when he gets an email from Penns international student office, he said, not knowing what message might come next. I constantly feel threatened, said the student, who requested anonymity because he feared being targeted. Im always anxious. Philly colleges seek to reassure students Temple University president John Fry, in a community message Thursday, said the school is working to identify students who do not have their visas yet and are exploring potential solutions. This could include utilizing our Rome and Japan campuses as well as online courses. Temples enrollment, which stands at about 30,000, included 1,982 international students this spring semester. The University of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, assured international students in an email Wednesday that it would work flexibly with students who experience arrival delays due to visa processing. Administrators also emphasized that students who already have visa appointments should keep them. At this time, we understand that this pause does not affect visa appointments that have already been scheduled, they wrote. Current students, many of whom have visas that extend through their expected graduations, also are not impacted by the pause. University officials from Penns global initiatives office last week called the Trump administrations attempts to ban international students from Harvard part of a larger campaign to get the university to comply with its demands deeply troubling. Harvard has sued over the action, and a U.S. District Court judge Thursday issued a preliminary injunction. A potential hit to finances and enrollment For Pennsylvania campuses, the loss of international students many of whom pay full tuition and room and board could be particularly problematic, especially at schools struggling to meet enrollment targets in a competitive sector. With more than 50,500 international students, the state has the sixth-highest number in the country, according to the Institute of International Education. New Jersey ranks 17th, with 23,225 international students. READ MORE: Swarthmore College adopts unusual three-month budget given federal funding uncertainty At some campuses, international students make up a significant portion of the student body. At Penn, about a quarter of its total enrollment, or 6,903 students, were international in fall 2024, while at Swarthmore, its 15%. At Rutgers, New Jerseys flagship university with 67,956 students, about 7,400 or 10.7% are international. READ MORE: Three Penn students have had their immigration statuses terminated Wendy Cadge, president of Bryn Mawr College, where about 13% of undergraduates are international, underscored their importance to the academic and cultural life of the college and, by extension, to the Philadelphia region and its economy. If we curtail the ability of international students to study in the U.S., we diminish the breadth of perspectives and potential for innovation that have made American higher education a beacon for the world. International students contribute $2.1 billion in expenditures to Pennsylvanias economy annually and $939 million to New Jerseys economy, according to the institute. READ MORE: More Temple students lose visas, $3 million in federal funding halted But to the Trump administration, some of them pose threats and take seats away from American students. We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools. They cant get in because we have foreign students there, Trump said Wednesday. Targeting Chinese students Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the administration would revoke visas of Chinese students who have connections to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in critical fields, though he didnt specify which ones. Bethany Li, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based civil rights group, said Trump was fueling a new red scare. READ MORE: Two Pa. international students sue the Trump administration, demanding restoration of their ability to study here Banning Chinese students is not only unjust but does nothing to advance U.S. national security, she said. It does, however, put the security and safety of Asian Americans at risk by stoking fear and hatred, she said. China supplies the second-largest group of international students to the United States after India. Of the more than 1.1 million international students in the United States in 2023-24, nearly a quarter came from China. In Pennsylvania, China is the No. 1 home country for international students, accounting for about a third of international students, according to the international institute. Earlier in the week, the administration announced it was pausing interviews for visas so it could more carefully scrutinize applicants social media posts. Its not clear how long the pause might last. But the timing is awful. About 70% of student visas issued last year came during the summer months, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Even before this week, colleges already were reporting fewer accepted international students were enrolling than in years past, the alliances Feldblum said. Now, its likely to get worse; one campus reported two-thirds of their incoming international students hadnt secured visa interviews yet, she said. For another, it was 60%. READ MORE: College presidents, including Penns Jameson, sign statement critical of Trump administrations undue government intrusion She estimated that more than 100,000 students likely are impacted by the visa pause. And IDP, one of the worlds oldest international student recruitment organizations, reported that over the last six months, search demand for U.S. colleges, once at the top of the list, has fallen to second place behind the United Kingdom and is trending downward. The data track weekly search activity across the organizations 30 student websites for the four top study destinations and provide near real-time insight into prospective student interest, the organization said. Clearly the state department needs to reverse its decision as swiftly as possible to avoid further disruption, Feldblum said. We need to figure out how to address the damage and continue to assure prospective students that they are wanted and welcome here. The Penn student who said he feels threatened even though his visa is good for several years said a friend, also from the Middle East, had been accepted to a graduate program at Harvard but had not obtained her visa and is now planning to defer. Shes like, its too late to figure out housing and all of that, the student said. READ MORE: Trump administration drops effort to revoke student visas, attorneys say, restoring study permission in Philly and elsewhere He said he knows several students whose visas were revoked by the Trump administration earlier this year during a wider effort to target those involved in pro-Palestinian protests, but also ensnaring many others for reasons unknown. The students, who did not attend Penn, he said, returned to their countries. In the face of legal challenges, the federal government subsequently dropped that effort to revoke visas. And some of his potentially new classmates at Penn who had not obtained their visas yet also expressed concern, he said, leaving him to wonder how many will show up in the fall. Lorena Grundy, a Penn practice assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering, said she has talked to international students who are afraid to go home for fear they wont be able to return and others afraid to go to a conference in Canada for the same reason. I tell them I really value them, said Grundy, who noted she taught students from every continent except Antarctica last semester. I really care about them and I will do whatever I can to help them continue to study here. She said her classrooms are enhanced by international students. I learned a lot from them, she said. The American students learned a lot from them. And they learned a lot from each other. A Temple University international student, who also requested anonymity, said she has her visa and generally is not worried, given that she follows the rules. Im just hoping that the government is working in a way that [is] keeping in mind the people in its country and respecting and considering everybody who is immigrating from their home country, risking every little that they have, to build a life here for the betterment of this country and their home country, she said. Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article. The Philadelphia school district is under investigation for its asbestos management practices, but in a last-minute change the school board did not approve an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday. Read more In an eleventh-hour shocker, the Philadelphia school board did not sign off on an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice as expected Thursday. The district is under investigation by federal officials for its asbestos management practices, according to a board document. Advertisement The school board had been scheduled Thursday to consider a resolution signing off on a proposed agreement between The School District of Philadelphia and the United States Department of Justice with respect to an ongoing investigation of the districts asbestos management practices. News of the investigation and an agreement marked a major development in the districts struggle with environmental issues. But just after the meeting began, board president Reginald Streater said no vote would be taken. We were informed just before this meeting that the Department of Justice is not ready to proceed today and additional review may be required, Streater said. Board meetings always begin at 4 p.m.; Thursdays meeting was abruptly moved to noon to handle the DOJ settlement, which is now apparently on pause. We do not currently have more information to share and cannot comment further, Streater said. We will follow up at the appropriate time. Streater asked for grace and said that as a board, we remain committed to transparency, and that means being clear and forthcoming as more information becomes available. A history of environmental struggles Philadelphia schools have long struggled with environmental issues. In recent years, several school buildings have temporarily closed due to asbestos hazards. Under the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response law, if asbestos is present in any school building, that building must be inspected every six months; every building must be checked every three years. The district first publicly acknowledged it was years behind on federal asbestos investigations in 2023. Officials said at the time that the failure was due to a lack of resources and personnel, and that it would likely take three years to come into compliance. Inspections are complicated they take several days at minimum, and can occur only when students and staff are not present. The vast majority of district buildings contain asbestos, which was widely used in floor and ceiling tiles, paint, and pipe insulation until about 1980. In the past, Philadelphia, as many underfunded school systems have, slashed facilities spending when times got tough. It has asbestos in about 300 of its buildings. Undisturbed, asbestos poses no risk. But when asbestos becomes damaged, its tiny fibers can be toxic, causing health issues including mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer. The district has dramatically increased spending on asbestos management and increased the number of district personnel who manage environmental programs. Missteps with asbestos management in 2019 during a multimillion-dollar construction project at the Ben Franklin High-Science Leadership Academy building led to several hospitalizations and the long-term displacement of students. The district settled a lawsuit in 2020 in the case of a teacher who contracted mesothelioma after working in buildings with known disturbed asbestos. Watlington, who arrived in Philadelphia in 2022, stepped up communication about environmental issues, though critics say the district is still not nearly transparent enough. Watlington said in 2023 that closures that year happened in part because the district had improved its environmental processes. In some cases, he said, officials knew about the disturbed asbestos, but because of faulty recordkeeping, potentially dangerous material was labeled safe for years. The main building of one school, Frankford High, remains shut because of extensive damaged asbestos. Officials most recently said they will spend $20 million to fix Frankford, which could reopen for the 2025-26 school year. In the meantime, students are spread out over two locations some in a school annex and others at Roberto Clemente Middle School in North Philadelphia. Students at Universal Vare, a charter school operating in a district building, had to relocate from their building the same year because of asbestos. Vare is still closed. Early College Charter School, the first new charter since 2018, was approved by the Philadelphia school board, shown in this 2024 file photo. Read more Philadelphia is getting its first new charter school in nearly a decade a major milestone for a district that had not granted a new charter since the days of the state-run School Reform Commission. Early College Charter School of Philadelphia will give about 800 sixth through 12 graders early college and career exposure and either college courses or industry certifications. It will open in 2026 in Center City but recruit students from underserved neighborhoods. Advertisement The school board voted 8-1 to approve the application Thursday. It was the second try for the school, whose application got voted down in February over concerns about finances, student interest, and academics. But the revised application, and $2.6 million in private donations secured in a reserve account, helped seal the deal and sway votes from board members Sarah-Ashley Andrews, Cheryl Harper, ChauWing Lam, Joan Stern, and Reginald Streater, all of whom had voted no last time. Board member Joyce Wilkerson cast Thursdays lone no vote. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is viewed as more charter-friendly than former Mayor Jim Kenney, emphasizing unity in the sector and across the city. And board member Whitney Jones acknowledged that in expressing support for Early College, which he said presented a strong application. When we made our oath for these seats, we said that we were looking to support Mayor Parker in her vision for one Philadelphia, governing one system of public education that includes both traditional public schools and charter schools, said Jones, who has worked in the charter sector. While the board has work to do in authorizing and monitoring charters, I do not think we can hold one individual applicant for the gaps in the system. Streater, the board president, signaled he had mixed feelings about the vote he said he had serious and legitimate concerns about Early Colleges application, including its level of public engagement and its ability to attract high-quality teachers amid an educator shortage. Still, he said, the application improved, and that to him was a good sign. Detractors raised concerns about the charters impact on traditional public schools, but Streater said a denial based on broader ecosystems concerns rather than on defects in the application itself will likely not survive charter appeal board or judicial review. And it would not be fair to penalize an applicant for issues that the law does not clearly require them to address. Wilkerson said she appreciated Early Colleges work to strengthen its application, but her concerns outweighed any improvement. The district is now making its way through a facilities planning process that will likely result in closing schools, and many district and charter schools are already under-enrolled, she pointed out. I believe the approval of additional seats at this time before this process is complete flies in the face of our responsibility to create a system of public education, Wilkerson said. We have too many seats now. Charter and traditional empty seats exist across the city, cheating our children of the education they deserve. The Early College model While charter schools are publicly funded, Early College, which proposes a college and career preparation model that would give all students access to both college-level courses and industry certifications, had built its budget relying in part on private grants. It had commitments for that money, but some school board members voiced concern that the funding was not guaranteed. Now, we turned significant portions of pledges into cash, said Anna Winter, codirector of the Philadelphia Middle College Foundation, who along with fellow codirector Keshema Davidson is spearheading the planned charter. Winter said in an interview that the charter anticipated additional financial support from foundations. Early College had some powerful backers, including Ryan Boyer, business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council. (Most charters do not employ unionized teachers.) Boyer and other backers of Early College packed Thursdays meeting, some in T-shirts bearing the schools name. A number of parents said the school would provide their children with experiences not now open to all students. Boyer called Early College an innovative new middle and high school that will support diverse career pathways for students upon graduation and said he did not take his decision to back the model lightly. As we know, our students and our youth in Philadelphia need more opportunities, Boyer said. They need more choices to have high-quality educational experiences, and we believe that Early College Charter completes that vision for options as well as quality. While other Philadelphia schools have early-college programs, Davidson said, Early Colleges college exposure would be universal, through a partnership with Community College of Philadelphia. After taking two college courses, students will get to choose whether to pursue an associates degree, industry certification, or both. Davidson and Winter said they are not looking to start a network of charters but hoped Early College would provide a model that could be used by schools across the district. Some warnings While the board heard from a number of speakers backing Early College, the support for adding a new charter was not universal. Robin Cooper, president of the Commonwealth of School Administrators Local 502, the union that represents Philadelphia principals, alluded to tough choices on todays agenda and urged the board to watch who we invite into our homes because the death and destruction they leave behind will not allow us to recover, but maybe that is the plan. The district has served her and thousands of others well, Cooper said, and she and her members continue to work to improve it and attract students back to traditional public schools. Cooper suggested charter schools were an offer that seems too good to be true. Again, I implore you to be careful with that knock you answer, and remember the carnage that will be left will be that of our beloved school district. LeShawna Coleman, chief of staff of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, asked the board to say no to Early College. The School District of Philadelphia is still in no position to authorize new, privately operated, and unaccountable charters that pull precious resources away from our struggling district schools," Coleman said. Every dollar in funding and revenue intended for our schools is precious. The district is currently forced to spend $1.5 billion or nearly 35% of its operating budget on unaccountable charter schools, including ones infamous for mismanagement, dysfunction, and mistreatment of students. Board adopts a 2025-26 budget In addition to approving the first new charter since 2018, the board also passed a $4.7 billion 2025-26 budget. The only reason the spending plan was able to stave off layoffs and classroom cuts was the boards decision to spend $300 million in district reserves. The Philadelphia district is alone in the state as unable to raise its own revenue; it depends on the state and city for funds. Fixed costs salaries, charter school costs as prescribed by state law are now outpacing those revenues, and the district faces a structural deficit of millions by fiscal 2027. Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. described the budget, which passed unanimously, as a one-year, get-us-to-where-we-need-to-get-without-any-cuts budget, and said officials were sure hopeful that well either get additional funding for fiscal year 26-27, or when we sit here before you next year, it is very likely that we will have to recommend some cuts. Board member Lam said she approved the spending plan with reservations. I recognize that our revenue situation is not static, that its constantly moving, and I do believe that these expenditures are necessary that we cannot not approve these investments in our classrooms. (USE AS DESIRED) Penn sign and view over Walnut Street on the University of Pennsylvania campus Apr. 15, 2025. Read more Tens of thousands of international students study full-time in Pennsylvania and face uncertainty as President Donald Trumps administration places a new focus on higher education visas. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that the U.S. would revoke the visas of Chinese students deemed connected to the Communist Party. On Tuesday, the U.S. announced it would pause new student and exchange visitor visa interviews. And last week, Trump attempted to ban all international students from Harvard University. Advertisement READ MORE: Tensions rise on local campuses as Trump targets international students A judge temporarily halted the Harvard ban Thursday. There were 41,500 total international students studying full time in Pennsylvania in 2023, according to the most recently available data published by the National Center for Education Statistics. That ranks as the sixth highest number across the U.S. Those students make up 8.7% of all full-time students in the state, tied for ninth most by percentage among all states. While it is unclear how the threats and actions from the Trump administration will evolve, they could ultimately affect thousands of students and impact finances and enrollment at colleges across the country. More than 26% of the University of Pennsylvanias student body, for example, is made up of international students, the data show. Here is how international students were distributed across the Philadelphia region during 2023: Penn president Liz Magill testifying before a congressional committee probing the handling of antisemitism complaints on campus Read more Former University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill was paid about $2.3 million in total compensation in 2023, the year she resigned as president. Her salary was disclosed on Penns 990 tax form for that year, made public Friday. Advertisement Magill resigned in December of that year following a bipartisan backlash over her congressional testimony about the schools handling of antisemitism. She had only been in the job since July 1, 2022. READ MORE: Penn president Liz Magill has resigned following backlash over her testimony about antisemitism The university did not respond to a question on whether that would be the extent of her presidential pay or if additional funds would show up on tax forms in subsequent years. Magill also did not immediately respond to a request for comment through a spokesperson. She was not the highest paid Penn employee that year. Eight others earned more, including current president J. Larry Jameson, who had $5.1 million in reportable compensation for serving as executive vice president of the health system and dean of the medical school. He also received nearly $1.3 million in other compensation. He was Penns second-highest paid employee that year. Jameson was appointed interim president in December 2023, following Magills departure. The interim label was removed from his title in March, making him the permanent president, and his term was extended until June 2027. READ MORE: Penn president J. Larry Jameson gets the interim removed from his title and a term extension Peter Ammon, Penns chief investment officer, was the highest paid, receiving nearly $5.4 million in reportable compensation and another $2.4 million in additional compensation. Magills base pay was $1.48 million and she received a $725,000 bonus. She remains a tenured professor at Penn Carey Law School. Magill, a lawyer and administrative and constitutional law scholar, also recently was named a volunteer associate fellow at Yale Universitys Branford College. She is a graduate of Yale and came to Penn from the University of Virginia, where she had been provost. She led Penn for less than 18 months, making her tenure the shortest in Penns history. Turmoil began after the uproar over the Palestine Writes Literature Festival being held on Penns campus in September 2023, with critics asserting that it included speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks. Tensions at Penn and at many campuses across the country were further inflamed in October 2023 following Hamas attack on Israel. Mega Penn donor Marc Rowan began calling for her resignation, saying she didnt adequately deal with antisemitism complaints on campus. But the turning point was her congressional testimony, when she was asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish people violated the schools code of conduct and she answered that it was context dependent. Days later, she resigned. Magill earlier this month reflected on her testimony during a public talk at the New York Public Library. I provided this 30-second sound bite that went viral and just swamped everything else about what Id said and my record at Penn, Magill said, speaking with former Penn board chair Scott L. Bok about his new book that discussed the crisis at Penn. And I really regret that. It hurt Penn. It hurt Penns reputation, and my job was to protect the institution that I led. Magills base salary in 2023 wasnt much less than that of her predecessor in the final year of her contract. Former Penn president Amy Gutmann in 2021, her final full year as president, was paid a base salary of $1.56 million and a bonus of $1 million. She also received $20.2 million in deferred compensation earned over her 18 years as president and supplemental retirement funds, which included investment gains the money made over that time. The end of the line of food folks who lined up for hours, around the corner from Palizzi Social Club. Read more They waited all night in the rain and chill on the South Philly pavement. For the exclusivity. For the tradition. For the giant ravioli as big as a plate, chicken cutlets pounded thin and topped with special bread crumbs, and elegant elixirs with poetic names like the Laverghetta and Mezzarboa. Advertisement They came to belong. And as dawn turned to morning and morning turned into damp afternoon, they waited anxiously for the chance at one of the most choice memberships in South Philadelphia or anywhere in Philadelphia, for that matter: a seat at the linoleum-topped tables of the celebrated Palizzi Social Club. On Thursday, as happened the previous three Thursdays at 3 p.m. sharp, the South Philly destination that serves delicious Italian food and potent cocktails in a speakeasy-style rowhouse, once again dished out 25 annual memberships. They were the last of a batch of 100 the Passyunk Square club issued since reopening its scrolls this month. Once again, crowds surged and tents unfolded along South 12th Street. Once again, friendships formed and bonds were made during the long hours in line. Once again, culinary dreams were dashed. And a select few were offered entry into the time-capsule eatery, a space with its Naugahyde, wood paneling, smoked mirrors, and heaping courses. Its just been an overwhelming amount of love that we have gotten, said chef Joey Baldino, who revived the 107-year-old Palizzi in 2017. Its a new generation for the club. Baldino, more than anyone, knows. His family has run the club founded by Italian immigrants from southern Abruzzo, along the Adriatic Coast as a private space in the New World for three generations. His uncle Ernest Mezzaroba, who died at 82 in 2016, previously operated the club. The clubs been here for over a hundred years, he said. Its part of the Philadelphia story, the American story. Its about guys coming over from the Old Country with literally nothing, and building a community and now its my opportunity to maintain what they started and to share it with people from all over the city. And not just the city. I heard this was the best and most exclusive Italian food in South Philadelphia, said Cristina Allegretti, a self-professed foodie, who lives in Washington and drove up with her father, Tom. To score the second spot in line, Allegretti, who is currently unemployed and said she liked the idea of embracing her Italian heritage, set up her beach chair outside Palizzi around 10 p.m. Wednesday. Two weeks before, she had tried taking Amtraks Northeast Regional but arrived too late. The bar was a bit lower in the previous weeks, she said late Thursday morning, holding strong in line. People came around 6:30 or 7:30 in the morning, and got memberships. Not this week. Allegretti was set up right behind Ed Keenan, a semiretired father of two from Ocean City, who arrived before 10 p.m. Wednesday to surprise his son and daughter, who both live in Center City. Im sitting here listening to everyone talk about how good the food is, and Im like, Wow, maybe its a good thing I did this, he said, popping his head out of his mini-tent. Membership at the Palizzi is nothing if not trying. Rules were tight. As in previous weeks, the cozy club, which had not opened membership since 2023 and, under Pennsylvania law, may admit only members and their guests sold $20 annual memberships to the first 25 people in line at the front door. The first 10 each week receive a complimentary gold seal on their old-school membership card granting access to the clubs new Presidents Room, a second-floor lounge that offers snacks and live jazz Friday and Saturdays. Because the clubs leadership voted to release only 100 new memberships, the cutoff was firm, Baldino said. Everyone else in line would be issued applications that would be reviewed and could be eventually accepted, though there were no guarantees. Its really tough to say, Baldino said, regretfully. It really depends its such a small place. Its literally a rowhome. Like Allegretti, many in line had come up short in past weeks. Megan and David Dickler, of Northern Liberties, who were seventh and eighth in line, had shown up the previous Thursday at 5:30 a.m., but turned away at the long line, knowing it was hopeless. Late Wednesday night, David, 32, a med student, rushed out of the car in the rain, to help other early-comers set up a large tent on the sidewalk. Shelter from the storm. There was no way else to get in, said Megan Dickler, a grad student. A few spots down, Clayton Bowman, a retired staff sergeant in the Marines, and his wife, Sherri Hao, of Queen Village, came prepared like pros. Bowman had bought a WeatherPod tent online, and the couple ate ramen out of thermoses. Bathroom breaks were tenuous had at nearby cafes or markets. Some knew to knock on the nearby door of the Engine 10 Ladder 11 firehouse. After all, the firefighters could appreciate their pain. Four of them had waited in line the first Thursday, assuring fellow waiters they could use the station house bathroom. Others in line returned the favor by holding the firefighters places when they had to rush out on a call, said Annie Bennett, who had the misfortune of being No. 26 in line that first week and left an application. (Baldino said the club is reviewing the applications of those who did not make the cut in order of their place in line). Still Bennett, who is in her early 30s and lives with her husband in Queen Village, didnt walk away bitter. She and her husband had already gone on a dinner date to Royal Sushi & Izakaya with friends they had made in line. That same culinary camaraderie returned Thursday outside the club that, over a century ago, was created to build community in a slice of South Philly. At least among those with primo spots. Overnight, those at the very front of the line had already made plans to one day soon dine together at the Palizzi. But then, said Megan Dickler, we realized we didnt even know each others names. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that Pottstown Hospital was entitled to property tax exemption, overturning a 2023 Commonwealth Court decision in favor of Pottstown School District. Read more Overturning a lower courts decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday in a closely watched case that Pottstown Hospital qualified for a property tax exemption as a nonprofit, despite linking executive bonuses to profits. The central question in the case: To what extent can nonprofit hospitals like Pottstown reward executives for profits and still be entitled to local property tax exemptions? Advertisement In its 5-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Pottstown Hospitals financial bonuses were reasonable because nonprofits need to compete with for-profit companies for talent to run increasingly complex businesses. Notably, the court disregarded the hospitals ties to its owner, Tower Health, and its pay practices at the corporate level in reversing a 2023 Commonwealth Court decision in favor of Pottstown School District. The decision to treat a hospital as separate from its owner was notable, given the widespread consolidation in healthcare in recent years. Corporate parent companies and their executives increasingly wield significant power over local hospital operations. The court rulings impact At stake for the school district and Pottstown Borough was a little more than $1 million in revenue. The Supreme Court in my opinion looked at the big picture and found that the greater good is served by allowing these compensation formulas, said Carl S. Primavera, who specializes in real estate as a senior partner at Philadelphia law firm Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP but was not involved in this case. Pottstowns superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said the district needs to review the decision before determining what its next steps would be. To say Im disappointed for our students and our community is an understatement, he said in a statement. Tower Health said in statement: Todays decision from the Pa Supreme Court affirms that Pottstown Hospital continues to meet its charitable mission as a nonprofit and community resource. Pennsylvania law on property-tax exemptions Under Pennsylvania law, organizations that qualify as nonprofits under IRS rules are not automatically granted local property tax exemptions. They have to apply for the exemption. If challenged, they have to prove that they meet a five-prong test established 40 years ago by the state Supreme Court. The vague criteria include having a charitable purpose, such as education, arts, or healthcare, and giving away at no charge a substantial portion of its services. In the Pottstown case, the fifth prong was at issue: They must operate entirely free from private profit motive. Commonwealth Court Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon wrote in the February 2023 decision that Towers policy of tying 40% of its executives bonuses to the nonprofit hospitals financial performance was overly oriented toward profits. But the Supreme Court focused on whether the use of financial incentives based on profitability was reasonable. The court had used that term in earlier decisions on nonprofit property tax exemptions, but it had never been defined. An attempt to clarify whats reasonable To clarify what reasonable means in cases involving property tax exemptions, the court considered factors used to determine whether nonprofit executive pay is reasonable under federal law. Those include comparing pay to executives in similar organizations, whether the pay was determined through arms-length bargaining, and the size and complexity of the organization being managed. The courts 46-page opinion, written by Chief Justice Debra Todd, found that Towers executive pay was within fair market value as compared to similar executives at similar healthcare institutions. Notably, the high court focused on Pottstown Hospital, ignoring executive pay at its corporate parent, Tower Health. The Commonwealth Court had focused on the fees Pottstown Hospital paid Tower and on $2.25 million in pay for former Tower CEO Clint Matthews. The size of compensation of Tower Healths executives and the amount of the management fees which the hospital paid Tower Health are insufficient by themselves to render the hospital ineligible for a tax exemption, Todd wrote. In dissent, Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy wrote that it makes little sense to allow nonprofits to reward profitability in the same way for-profits do, and then still get a tax exemption based on a complete lack of profit motive. Justice Kevin M. Dougherty joined her dissent. Corporations need to pick a lane, and if they want to be tax-exempt, they need to pick the charity lane, Mundy wrote. Staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article. The Asian longhorned tick was first spotted on a sheep farm in New Jersey in 2017. Read more For many years, the most notorious tick in Pennsylvania was the Blacklegged tick, also known as the deer tick, a parasite that can transmit Lyme disease and Powassan virus. But perhaps the Asian longhorned tick will one day eclipse that tick in fame. Native to China and other countries in East Asia, the longhorned tick has spread far and fast since it was first spotted on a sheep farm in New Jersey in 2017. Advertisement Now it has shown up in at least 20 states, said Mike Bentley, an entomologist at the National Pest Management Association, a trade organization. In just the past five years, the longhorned tick has become the second-most common tick in Pennsylvania, according to recent reporting by WHYY. An adult longhorned tick is about the size of a sesame seed and its mouth parts, as scientists refer to them, are shaped like horns. A female longhorned tick can reproduce without mating, considerably speeding up the process. Females can lay upward of 1,000 eggs in a single spot, all of which will hatch around the same time. You have an area that is going to be very small that suddenly has 2,000 tiny ticks crawling around, Bentley said. In general, ticks are sit-and-wait parasites, Bentley said. In a behavior called questing, they wait at the edges of twigs or blades of grass with their arms and legs hanging out until they detect a host. Then they grab on. Then, as Bentley described their feeding process: they use their special mouth parts to hook into skin, sucking human (or animal) blood while simultaneously regurgitating saliva into the wound. The saliva serves to numb the area so the host doesnt remove the tick and also creates an anticoagulant to keep the blood meal flowing. Longhorned ticks arrived in Ohio in 2021 in such high numbers that they exsanguinated three cows. (Exsanguination is the act of draining blood from a person or animal). Researchers at Ohio State later estimated there were tens of thousands of ticks on each animal. Longhorned ticks can feed off a wide variety of hosts, meaning their survival is certainly not going to be limited by access to food, Bentley said. Because they were first introduced nearby, Pennsylvania is definitely a little bit of a hotbed for the invasive tick, said Payton Marie Phillips, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia. Phillips was the lead author of a 2025 study examining what pathogens might be carried by longhorned ticks in Southeastern Pennsylvania forests. Phillips and her fellow researchers dragged white cloth along the ground in Philadelphia and its collar counties and then tested the midlife ticks in a lab. Ultimately they didnt find any of the five pathogens they tested for in the Pennsylvania brood. Longhorned ticks elsewhere in the U.S. have tested positive for the causative agent of Lyme disease, according to new research published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But they dont seem likely to be able to transmit it to humans, Phillips said, adding that they still may be able to transmit other diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and the babesiosis, which destroys the bodys red blood cells and causes flulike symptoms. As scientists continue to study the tick and learn more about its survival, Phillips and Bentley suggest residents do thorough tick checks after spending time outside in Pennsylvania. Theyre easy to overlook. Theyre easy to misidentify, Bentley said. A challenging tick all around. File photo of Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, with the district's administration building at right. Read more The Lower Merion School District said on Thursday that an unknown number of highly sensitive documents were inadvertently published online due to what it described as a security breach involving its school board-management software. The software, BoardDocs, is used by school districts around the country to manage board meetings and post agendas and related information. It is unclear if districts outside Lower Merion have been affected. Advertisement Lower Merions solicitor, Kenneth Roos, said the school district first learned of the breach on April 10, when it was contacted by a litigant in a legal proceeding unrelated to the breach. Roos said internal records from the executive section of the BoardDocs site had at some point become accessible to the public. School board members were notified and the problem was resolved, he said. The district had not publicly disclosed the breach prior to being contacted by The Inquirer this week. The leaked documents included attorney-client privileged legal memos that discuss ongoing litigation, confidential employee information, and issues involving students who are identified by their initials. One memo, for instance, refers to an investigation of an elementary school teacher. A mother had accused him of predatory behavior toward her son. Police and Montgomery County child welfare officials declined to charge the teacher with any inappropriate conduct, but the teacher was suspended without pay briefly for violating the school districts adult/student boundaries policy on several occasions, according to the memo. Roos said BoardDocs, which is developed and marketed by New York-based Diligent Corporation, eventually acknowledged there was a bug or defect in the system that led to the breach. It remains unclear exactly how many internal Lower Merion documents were publicly accessible and for how long. The Inquirer obtained and reviewed a sample of confidential records from 2017 to 2024. Nor is it known whether the apparent bug could have impacted other school districts that use BoardDocs. Thats a really good question, Roos said. Diligents senior director of communications, Michele Steinmetz, declined to comment on the Lower Merion issue or whether any other districts have reported similar leaks. We understand this inquiry may be related to a school districts active litigation, and it is our policy not to comment on ongoing litigation, Steinmetz said by email. Steinmetz did not cite specific litigation or respond to follow-up questions. Lower Merion has not sued the company. But Roos said it had put them on notice that if we sustain monetary or other damages that we will hold them responsible. Diligent says BoardDocs and its other board portal software has more than 145,000 users worldwide. BoardDocs, developed in 2000, offers customizable security to keep agenda items and documents private or make them public, according to its website. In todays climate of escalating security risk and increasingly high stakes, boards cant leave security to chance, the site states. Diligent delivers peace of mind with state-of-the-art encryption, data storage, access controls and more. Lower Merion spokeswoman Amy Buckman said the leaked documents were highly sensitive and should not have been made public. One parent told The Inquirer of discovering the trove of confidential memos while looking through Lower Merion school board information on BoardDocs. I was like, Wait, how am I reading this? Its weird, said the parent, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from the school board and other parents. Officials from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the teachers union, declined to comment on the apparent data breach. Lower Merion School District, located on the affluent Main Line in suburban Philadelphia, recently ranked as the third best school district in the state, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times school guide, which bases its rankings on standardized test scores. The district recently hired Frank Ranelli, former superintendent of Piscataway Township Schools in Middlesex County, N.J., after a series of leadership changes. It is also recovering from an unusually contentious school board primary that included debate over antisemitism and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Last month, Amazon Prime Video released Spy High, a four-episode docuseries that reexamined the 2010 Webcamgate scandal. The district made international headlines that year amid the disclosure that it had captured images of students in their homes using the webcams on their school-issued laptops. Inquirer staff writer Maddie Hanna contributed to this article. "NO TRESPOOPING" sign on a privacy wall between the properties of Fitler Square neighbors. Read more Before Bonnie the dog joined their family, Laura and Sharif Alexandre say, they had a respectful relationship with their neighbors in Fitler Square. The Alexandres adopted the rescue in 2023, according to social media posts. Shortly afterward, Bonnie became the center of a controversy that allegedly led to heated arguments, use of ultrasonic repellent devices, a Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections complaint, no trespooping signs, and, now, a defamation and harassment lawsuit against the Alexandres next-door neighbors. Advertisement The source of the dispute: Bonnies bathroom habits. Dog defecation and concerns over cleanliness can be hot-button issues in Philadelphia, with residents expressing frustration that some owners leave on the street stinky monuments commemorating their canines bowel movements. There is even a lucrative market for poop scoopers in the region. And dog waste isnt just an ill-scented annoyance. The Philadelphia Water Department urges dog owners to be vigilant about scooping because dog waste is a pollutant. But the new lawsuit, filed last week in Common Pleas Court, centers on claims of lingering smells from a dogs defecation and the neighbors alleged response. The neighbors, Derick Dreher and Gudrun Dauner, complained to the Alexandres about the odors that Bonnie leaves behind. The lawsuit accuses them of launching a campaign of personal attacks, false accusations and targeted efforts to damage the Alexandres reputation. It asks for damages in excess of $250,000. In an email, Dreher said that the couple had not been served the complaint yet but that from his preliminary review, the lawsuit has multiple defects. We are the aggrieved party, not the aggressor, he said. READ MORE: A Montco family sued their neighbors over lawn signs that protested an antisemitic slur. A decade later, the Pa. Supreme Court said the signs were legal. The Alexandres have a patio area that is adjacent to the path leading to the front door of the Dreher-Dauner household. A 5-foot brick wall separates the two properties. As taught in the classic potty-training book for toddlers, everyone poops. And so does Bonnie, sometimes in the patio area, according to the complaint. Dreher and Dauner began complaining about the smell from the patio in November 2023, the lawsuit says. The Alexandres maintained they take Bonnie out on a regular basis and clean the patio. The conversations about Bonnies hygiene in person, over email, and in Facebook messages escalated. In one November 2023 Facebook message that Dauner sent Laura Alexandre, she complained about the smell. Hosing the patio more frequently made things worse, she said, according to the suit, resurfacing the smell of urine that was previously dry. The only solution to this problem is in my opinion, that Bonnie goes to the trees out front or develops a rhythm to take regular walks, Dauners message said, according to the complaint. We have a dogpark really around the corner. The problem persisted into 2024, when in April the Alexandres received a code violation warning letter from L&I about a complaint regarding dog urination and dog feces in rear yard, according to a copy of the letter included in the lawsuit, which they say was submitted by Dreher and Dauner. City regulations require that dog feces be cleaned up within 12 hours, even on the owners property. Violators can face escalating fines, which start at $100. Inspectors closed the case in April 2025 after a visit, finding no violation, the complaint says. The situation escalated further in September, when Laura Alexandre says she noticed Dauner pointing a flashlight-like device that emitted a strange moaning sound from a house window toward the patio. Bonnie ran back into the house frightened, a behavior we have never seen before, Sharif Alexandre wrote in an email to Dreher, according to the complaint. The Alexandres concluded that the device was an ultrasonic dog deterrent device and called the act a serious escalation of our privacy and security. These types of devices emit a high-pitched sound that is aversive to dogs but is supposed to be inaudible to humans, which some owners use for training purposes or to prevent dogs from reaching certain places. The complaint also says the neighbors used a loud whistle to scare the dog. As a result, the dog has suffered anxieties relieving itself in the backyard, and this has distressed the Plaintiffs and disrupted their lives, the lawsuit says. The final straw came in May, when Laura Alexandre began hearing from other neighbors that Dauner had been disparaging the couple in the neighborhood, at least once referring to her as the poop lady. The Alexandres also allege that some of their neighbors received anonymous letters complaining about failures to clean up after Bonnie. Also this month, no trespooping signs appeared in the planters separating the two properties. Gavin Lentz, an attorney with Bochetto & Lentz who represents the Alexandres, declined to comment. Demonstrators rally at Love Park during the Choose Love Sanctuary City rally organized by the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia on Saturday, January 25, 2025. The rally started at the Arch St. UMC to Love Park in support of Philadelphia maintaining its sanctuary city policies. Read more A lengthy list of sanctuary jurisdictions was released Thursday as part of an April executive order from President Donald Trump that continues his administrations efforts to crack down on cities, counties, and states that he believes run afoul of federal immigration laws and enforcement. Released by the Department of Homeland Security, the list includes a number of local jurisdictions in Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, and Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties. New Jersey and Delaware were also listed as sanctuary jurisdictions at the state level, as were various cities and counties located within their borders. Advertisement Cities named on the list could face cuts to federal funding, though that effort is likely to result in legal battles that could delay that outcome. And how the list was developed exactly remains unclear, resulting in confusion from some local lawmakers. Here is what you need to know: What is a sanctuary city? While the definition varies, sanctuary cities are often considered places that restrict local law enforcements cooperation with federal immigration authorities. As a result, municipalities that are considered to be sanctuary cities typically choose to not offer assistance to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and instead direct local police to focus on local policing. Philadelphia, for example, has a policy that keeps city jails from holding inmates for longer than they otherwise would in response to warrantless requests from ICE. The city has also removed ICE from a law enforcement database, and directed city employees to not ask about Philly residents immigration status, among other notable moves. Referring to such jurisdictions as sanctuaries, however, is something of a misnomer, The Inquirer previously reported. While local law enforcement in sanctuary cities dont assist federal immigration authorities with their work, undocumented immigrants in those cities do not receive special protections under municipal law, and can still be arrested by federal agents. While it was not immediately clear how the Trump administration determined sanctuary status for the areas on its list, the Department of Homeland Security notes on its website that factors include compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens. What repercussions could sanctuaries face? Those places included on the Trump administrations list of sanctuary jurisdictions will be formally notified of what the Department of Homeland Security has called their noncompliance with Federal statutes. The department added that named jurisdictions must revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws. At risk for areas deemed as noncompliant are billions of dollars in federal aid. In April, Trump signed an executive order threatening sanctuary jurisdictions with funding cuts and legal action to force their compliance. Philadelphia, for example, received $2.2 billion in federal funding during the 2024 fiscal year, which accounted for about a third of its total $6.2 billion budget. Losing most or all of that federal funding would have grave and extremely concerning impacts, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in March. Parkers administration, however, has said that the city is prepared to go to court over any potential halts in federal funding. If we have to litigate, then well do that, City Solicitor Renee Garcia told City Council earlier this month. Garcia added that other national lawsuits were likely following the release of the list of sanctuary jurisdictions. Welcoming vs. sanctuary Following the lists release late Thursday, Garcia told The Inquirer that Philadelphia is, in fact, not a sanctuary city. We are a welcoming city, Garcia said. Other cities have also embraced that nomenclature, which has been gaining ground in pro-immigration circles recently, Inquirer columnist Helen Ubinas recently reported. That shift in language is believed to be a more accurate characterization than sanctuary, and may help from being targeted by the Trump administration. In Philadelphia, city officials began adopting the welcoming alternative sometime after Parker took office, but the rebrand was not publicly announced. Parker spokesperson Joe Grace confirmed Thursday night that none of the citys pro-immigrant policies have changed during the mayors tenure. But whether that rebrand will help Philadelphia or other so-called sanctuary jurisdictions in this context is unclear. Philadelphia is a welcoming city, City Councilmember Rue Landau said in a statement Thursday night. That has been our stance, and this list is Trumps attempt to instill more fear and uncertainty among the immigrant communities. Pittsburgh made the list is it a sanctuary city? Like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh is a Democratic stronghold and part of the reason Pennsylvania is considered a swing state. While it has never formally declared itself a sanctuary city, its adopted some sanctuary city policies, including not cooperating with ICE. In late January, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey Pittsburghs first Black mayor who ran in 2021 on a progressive platform but lost his reelection campaign last week told reporters his administration will not work with ICE. He added that his office would do whatever is necessary to make our city more welcoming. Gainey will be mayor until January 2026. U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, whose district includes part of Pittsburgh, also criticized recent efforts to force local leaders to work with ICE and assist with Trumps immigration crackdown. What about York and other non-sanctuary city areas that made the list anyway? York is on the DHS list despite the citys mayors efforts to insulate the city from conflict. In December 2024, the York City Council passed a bill intended to welcome immigrants and refugees and prohibit city employees or law enforcement from assisting ICE. But York City Mayor Michael Helfrich vetoed the bill out of fear that the legislation would classify York as a formal sanctuary city. Helfrich said he worried the classification would threaten the citys access to federal funding. Despite the veto, DHS included York on its list of sanctuary jurisdictions. U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who represents parts of Lehigh and Northampton Counties, both on the list, said Thursday that sanctuary policies put the community and law enforcement in harms way. Mackenzie in February denounced the Democratic county executives decision not to cooperate with ICE, calling it appalling. List of jurisdictions prompts confusion Many other local lawmakers expressed confusion at their counties or cities being included on the list. Delaware County is considered a sanctuary jurisdiction, according to the list, but the county itself does not believe it is one. As Delaware County Council Chair Monica Taylor put it, local lawmakers wouldnt even know what the definition would be. We are in compliance with all federal laws, Taylor said. Well have to see into this to learn more. Likewise, Burlington County spokesperson Dave Levinsky said that local officials there had approved no resolutions, policies, or directives in the past six years. In Chester County, Democratic Commissioner Josh Maxwell was left puzzled. He said he believed the administration labeled the county to pressure us to work with ICE to continue getting federal funds. Were not a sanctuary county because we never adopted a sanctuary county policy, he said. That means we never made any declaration that we wouldnt work with ICE. We would. Camden officials were also unsure of why that city was included on the list, calling the development deeply troubling. Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes said in a statement Friday that she believes the city is being targeted simply because its a diverse, predominantly Hispanic community. Im not sure why were on this list, said Vincent Basara, director of communications for the city of Camden. Staff writers Jeff Gammage, Sean Collins Walsh, and Alfred Lubrano contributed to this article. In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump talk as they attend the Vatican funeral of Pope Francis in April. Read more ODESA, Ukraine When you read this, I will just have arrived at the Pearl of the Black Sea, as this historic, much beloved, multiethnic city was known in the peaceful days before Vladimir Putin tried to break it with missiles and drones. Since no Ukrainian airports are open, the route took me by air from New York via Bucharest, Romania, to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, and then four hours by car across the Ukrainian border to Odesa. Advertisement Over the past week, Russia has unleashed a barrage of killer drones and ballistic missiles on Odesas civilian port, which delivers grain to the world. The attack was part of an unprecedented torrent of drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles that Moscow has rained down on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv. Putin knows that aside from toothless protestations of Vladimir, STOP! President Donald Trump wont interfere. READ MORE: Why the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine quit, and why Trumps latest phone call with Putin bombed | Trudy Rubin It is painful and embarrassing to be an American in Ukraine now. Friends, colleagues, and contacts here, with whom I have talked in the lead-up to my visit, are simply astonished that a U.S. leader would let Putin humiliate him the way Trump has. Russia is so emboldened by Trump. He has given Putin complete carte blanche, is the common belief. Trump repeatedly promises to sanction Putin if he refuses a ceasefire or serious peace talks, and then backs down when Moscow pours on the missiles. Even as I arrived in Ukraine, Trump, yet again, insisted he had to give Putin more time to see if he was serious about ending the war. Trump is clearly unwilling to stand up to the Kremlin boss, and his glaring weakness is evident to the entire world. But beyond the presidents mad obsession about forming an alliance with Putin, Trump has spread dangerous myths to the U.S. public about Ukraine that obscure the importance of that country to our security and global standing. The main reason I am traveling to Ukraine this time is to debunk those myths by describing facts on the ground. Lets start with Trumps constant refrain that Putin wants peace. A tour of playgrounds, college dorms, and apartment buildings deliberately targeted by Russian missiles should have put that foolishness to rest, if the president wanted to see. As the noted Russia expert, Angela Stent, who authored Putins World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest, told me: Putin has no interest in ending the war now. He has made the war his mission. The Russian economy is on a war footing. Putin has militarized the whole society. Three-year-olds in Russian preschools are dressed in military uniforms and singing military songs. At this point, Putin has a messianic view of rebuilding the Russian empire. I also want to talk with escapees from Russian-occupied territory about the brutality theyve experienced to show the kind of peace Putin has in mind. READ MORE: Trumps ongoing kowtow to Putin ensures failure of peace talks on war in Ukraine | Trudy Rubin Trump insists Ukraine is losing the war, and Russians always win. If the president took U.S. intelligence briefings and relied less on former KGB colonel Putins phone propaganda, hed know Russians often lose think 1905 to Japan, the 80s in Afghanistan, and now in Syria, for a few examples. Even more important, despite Trumps betrayal, Ukraine has not lost this war. Indeed, given Russias weak economic situation and desperate reliance on North Korea, Iran, and China for assistance, this is the moment when increased sanctions on Moscows energy sector could have real impact. This is the perfect time when continued U.S. help with intel and air defense could help Ukraines capable defense efforts push the Russians back. What most Americans may not know is that Ukrainians have done a remarkable job of holding a nuclear power with three times their population to a virtual territorial stalemate. They have done it by developing a new form of technological warfare that relies on land, sea, and air drones to compensate for artillery shortages and Russias massive advantage in troop numbers. They have been able to do this not only because Ukraine has a wealth of talent, but because most Ukrainians believe they have no option but to continue fighting or else be subjected to Russian overlordship that will destroy their lives. Thus, Ukraine now has the strongest, most technologically advanced army in Europe, and is ahead of the U.S. in manufacturing unmanned drones of all sizes and capabilities, cheaply and quickly. In fact, the U.S. military, whose innovators were already studying Ukraines technological successes, could learn critical lessons if Trumps Pentagon was not bent on kneecapping Kyiv. That is why Im planning to visit private drone factories, large and small, in rear cities and near the front lines, and look at what Ukraine does right and what Kyiv needs and lacks to scale up military production against Russia, which relies on Iranian drone technology and copying Ukraines successes. Trump and his team also claim Ukraines fate is a problem for Europe, not the U.S., because we need to focus on China. And he appears to believe he can wean Putin from his alliance with China and act as the powerful balancer between Moscow and Beijing. READ MORE: In 100 days, Trump alienates close allies like Canada, lets Russia and China outflank him | Trudy Rubin It is a total illusion that Trump can separate Russia from China, Stent said. They need each other to end the U.S. dominance of the global system and to make the world safe for authoritarian systems. Putin relishes Trumps break with Europe, she told me, because this undermines NATO and breaks the alliance of democratic countries. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have aided that process by praising pro-Russia far-right parties and, as in Germany, openly supporting the neo-Nazi opposition. As one European parliamentarian told me, the only way to counter China is for the United States to glue your economy to the European Union and join with Europe in countering unfair Chinese economic practices and overt Chinese military threats. Instead, Trump is doing the opposite, pursuing a trade and tariff war with Europe while refusing to sanction Russia and lowering tariffs on China. Trump seems bent on leaving the Europeans alone to face an aggressive Russian leader who openly detests the West. America, am I your enemy or your friend? this European official asked plaintively. Americans have to show on which side they are on. Ukraine is the test case. The country is defending the fault line between democratic countries of the West and Asia, and an aggressive Russia tightly aligned with an axis of dictators who all wish the United States ill. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine aided by Trumps blindness this will embolden Beijing to move against Taiwan and other U.S. allies like Japan in the Indo-Pacific region. Shocked by U.S. abandonment, Europe has now awakened to the need to rearm to face Russia. Europe (or most of it) will do its best to help Ukraine survive including scaling up its defense industries. But Europe cant fully fill the intelligence gap or the Ukrainian lack of air defenses if Trump abandons Kyiv and fully aligns with Moscow. No doubt, Putin is delighted at how easily he can manipulate a weak Trump to see dollar signs in such an unholy alliance. The outcome of the global contest between democracy and autocracy is being determined right now in Ukraine, as Putin sneers at Trump and mobilizes a new offensive. That is exactly why I came to Odesa, and will continue on to Kyiv and frontline areas in eastern Ukraine to talk to military and political officials, civilians, and soldiers about how long they can hold out if Trump crosses over to the enemy side. I believe Trump is wrong on every count. Ukraine is not losing, although U.S. abandonment will make its survival much more difficult. History will regard Ukraines fate as a turning point in deciding whether democracies, including our own, find their power eclipsed by a rising alliance of autocracies led by China. And right now, given Trumps tendencies, we do not know which side of this battle the U.S. government will choose. Barbera did not raise enough money to qualify for the debate stage. He does not have a campaign website but uses social media and calls himself as MAGA Republican on his Facebook page. In a text, Barbera said Im grassroots, No website, No donations, and UNCOMPROMISED! and that hes beholden to nobody except the People of NJ. He said he doesnt ask for money and wants to show people they can get on the ballot without using money. He said improving education and gun rights are his top priorities. He said children seem to be misguided and that we need the fundamentals brought back into education. He said he would transform the education system to eliminate DEI and include farming and the trades. Barbera supports Trumps deportation agenda and said he would ensure state and local police departments help turn over undocumented immigrants to ICE agents. He said that citizens should understand English if they want to stay in America and he will promote English education efforts. He is against wind turbines at the Jersey Shore but wants to bring other types of alternative energy to New Jersey. Marissa Clayton, 24, of Ocean County, N.J., takes a photo with U.S. Senator John Fetterman on his way out after his Luncheon with the Penn Ag Democrats at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., on Saturday Jan. 4, 2025. Fetterman resumed attending public events this week during the Senate's recess. Read more Typically, a Pennsylvania senator spending his recess away from Congress meeting with constituents isnt exactly noteworthy. But for Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), who has faced recent scrutiny for his lack of public appearances in the state and criticism over a lackadaisical commitment to his job, the schedule he kept over the last few days was a marked change. Advertisement Fetterman was in Johnstown on Friday, posing for a camera in his signature Carhartt hoodie with two thumbs up alongside people attending the Showcase for Commerce, a manufacturers and business trade show. Pennsylvania businesses, contractors and union workers all play a crucial role in our national defense, Fetterman said in an X post with photos of the event. Proud to be here recognizing their work. The day before, Fetterman posted photos of cows in Mercer County as he met with dairy farmers there. PA farmers make our commonwealth great and Im proud to continue to support them, he wrote. And Fetterman, showcasing his bipartisanship, also participated in an event with HUD Secretary Scott Turner in Erie on Thursday. Revitalizing communities isnt a (red) or a (blue) issue, he wrote of the meeting. Before this week, Fetterman had attended only one public event, according to his social media, in the state all year: a visit to the Pennsylvania Farm Show in January. The recent public appearances follow a grueling few weeks of media attention for the first-term senator, starting with a report in New York Magazine that questioned Fettermans mental health and his desire to do the job. Former staffers described to The Inquirer an absentee senator and one progressive group, frustrated by his record and inaccessibility, called for his resignation. READ MORE: Inside Sen. John Fettermans office: canceled meetings, skipped votes and an outburst with Pa. teachers Following those reports, Fetterman told the New York Times the reporting had begrudgingly shamed him into better attendance at procedural votes and committee hearings. He said he thought sharing his struggles with depression two years ago had been weaponized against him. In recent weeks, Fetterman has certainly been more present on and off Capitol Hill. At a Senate hearing earlier this month, he questioned Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem about Afghans who no longer qualify for refugee status. He told the story of a constituent from Philadelphia who served alongside American troops in Afghanistan, but couldnt get approved for a green card after President Donald Trump ordered a halt on the nations refugee-admissions program. The mans brothers, who are in Pakistan, are now also unable to join him, Fetterman said. READ MORE: Trumps halt on refugees leaves Pa. families fearful for loved ones overseas: There is no hope They face torture and death ... theyve saved American lives and they have defended our forces, Fetterman said in the hearing. ... Not all immigration is about securing our borders but its about helping people that deserve to come to our nation. On Monday, Fetterman is slated to participate in a conversation with his Senate counterpart, Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, in Boston, which will be televised by Fox News. As Fetterman has been more visible in his day-to-day job, the media and constituent scrutiny around him has somewhat abated. But there are still simmering signs of discontent which could come to a head when he is up for reelection in 2028. And at least one group is actively trying to take the temperature of Pennsylvania voters. Forward Blue, a Democratic PAC, commissioned a survey obtained by The Inquirer, asking Pennsylvania voters if they approve or disapprove of Fettermans handling of his job, how likely they are to vote for him against a Republican candidate, and how likely they would be to vote for Fettermans primary challenger. The PAC did not respond to questions about the poll, which some people received this week. Forward Blue was founded by David Austin, a 21-year-old organizer from Somers Point, N.J., who launched the PAC in 2024 with the goal of reaching Gen-Z voters. Austin got his political start volunteering for Fettermans 2022 Senate campaign which he later joined as a staffer, according to a Forbes article about Austins success as an organizer. The PAC raised $18 million last year to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris and describes itself as seeking ways to change and improve the way Democratic campaigns are run. He cast the first stone ... by not coming to Philly While Fetterman more than quadrupled his constituent visits for the year this week, his travel was concentrated in the western part of the state. The Western Pennsylvania resident hasnt done any public events in Philadelphia since becoming a senator, except to attend campaign events in the city for Harris. During a lunchtime gathering of Philadelphia Democratic elected officials on primary election day this month, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said shed found Fetterman and his staff to be accessible, even if he doesnt spend much time in the city. We all work together, Parker said. Ive been working in politics for a long time, so Im jaded. I dont believe what people in politics say. I watch what they do. She noted Fetterman reached out after the Northeast Philadelphia plane crash, which she appreciated. Other elected leaders at the luncheon expressed frustration with the senators absence from the states largest city. For me, Im very disappointed in what Im seeing from him, City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said. I dont think we should keep biting our tongue for somebody whos not fighting for us, Thomas continued. Im not big on political division, but at the end of the day, he cast the first stone. He continues to by not coming to Philly and by ignoring what we feel like is what needs to be done for the best interest of our city. Fetterman did not respond to requests for comment about his recent travel. State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, a frequent critic of Fetterman, also lamented the lack of the senators visits to Philadelphia. I still think that one of the most loyal bases in the Democratic Party, people of color, African Americans in particular, are being overlooked, starting with him, Williams said. Sen. Sharif Street, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair, said the party continues to support Fetterman, who, Street said, is the best judge of his own health. Street also said he thinks the public has a right to express concerns about any elected official. As for visiting Philadelphia? Id love to see him in Philadelphia more, Street said cracking a smile. Hes a great guy. Wed love to have him come hang out with us. Pedestrians walking in the rain near Independence Mall in what has become a common scene after months of dyrness. Read more A tornado watch is in effect for the entire Philly region until 11:59 p.m. Friday as part of what could be quite an active night of weather. With the atmosphere charged with energy, an unusually vigorous storm for late May was expected to affect the region, the National Weather Service said. Heavy rains were expected after 8 p.m., said Alex Staarmann, meteorologist at the Mount Holly office. Advertisement A coastal flood advisory also was in effect for the tidal Delaware River, with minor flooding expected around Philly, the result of onshore winds causing water to back up, said Staarmann. Plus runoff would add to the water levels. Meanwhile, the drought advisories that have persisted like a nagging cold might not survive the weekend. The National Weather Service also has posted a region-wide flood watch a certifiable rarity in the last year in effect from 7 p.m. Friday through 8 a.m. Saturday. Up to 3 inches of rain is possible The bulk of the rain was likely to fall Friday night, said John Feerick, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. The weather service also said that as the rainy system exits, winds from the west could gust up to 40 mph Saturday morning. How serious is the flood potential in the region? As is usually the case, the flooding potential will be more about the rates of rainfall, rather than the cumulative amounts. For the month, the region has had close to 5.3 inches of rain the normal amount is just over 3 inches. It is likely that by Saturday morning this will have become the wettest month since March 2024. However, the rains have been for the most part well-spaced rather than coming in the deluge variety. Rain has been observed on 20 days officially in Philadelphia, the weather service says, and the recent chill, wetness, and dreariness may be having impacts on the New Jersey strawberry crop. In a Facebook post, the popular Stella Farms, in Berlin, announced that due to the weather, their strawberry season had come to a premature conclusion. The weather service is predicting that minor flooding along the Delaware could occur Saturday afternoon at the Burlington and 30th Street gauges. But the Delaware at Trenton isnt expected to rise to more than about 11 feet; flood stage is 20 feet. The flashy Brandywine Creek at Chadds Ford is forecast to remain well below flood stage. With all this rain, why are drought advisories still in effect? The recovery from the record dry autumn has been a slog. Rainfall over the last year lags the long-term normal by 20% to 25%, according to the weather services Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, in State College. Generally throughout New Jersey, the Department of Environmental Protection advised Wednesday that stream flows remain below average. A statewide drought warning remains in effect, and residents still are being asked to conserve water. On the Pennsylvania side, the Philadelphia area remains under a drought watch. On the updated interagency U.S. Drought Monitor map, much of Phillys neighboring Pennsylvania counties remain at least abnormally dry, with half of Chester County and a piece of Montgomery County in moderate drought. The drought advisories notwithstanding, It feels like its over, said Feerick. Staff writer John Duchneskie contributed to this article. Ensuring that the general insurance sector meets the promises made to consumers in their code of practice by including the code in their contracts has been a long-held goal of ours. We are therefore pleased to see insurers taking this important step, he said. There is, however, a long way to go. Were still in the relative infancy of AI, and with any new technology, theres understandable caution but this should not cloud the incredible opportunity it presents with regards to its incredible efficiency and ability to provide actionable intelligence, he said. Ultimately, it comes down to trust, and if you trust your data, you can trust how AI interprets it. A recent survey of Australian attitudes towards coffee found that one in four cannot survive the day without it. The sheer number of cafes in cities and towns suggests insurance opportunities for brokers. More than 90% of them are also independently owned and often located in unique properties that lend themselves to a brokers risk managing expertise. This is an exciting time for CGU, as we bring together new technology, enhanced capability, and a refreshed operating structure to strengthen our business and position it to meet the evolving needs of our brokers, partners, and customers, Hill said. Claims is our moment to deliver on the promise we make to our customers. As head of claims excellence, Morris will be responsible for ensuring we uphold and continually improve Zurichs customer-centric claims approach, which centres on care and empathy, he said. A dispute over an $11 million park project in Williamson County has reached the Texas Court of Appeals for the Third District, with the focus now on whether Great American Insurance Co. of New York can be held liable under its performance and payment bonds, according to a report from USA Herald. The Supreme Court, Queens County, denied both motions. But the Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed the ruling in part, siding with Utica. The court held that a party must be named as an insured or additional insured on the face of the policy as of the date of the incident to be eligible for coverage. Since the corporation was not listed and had not yet acquired the property when the accident occurred, it was not entitled to defense or indemnification. Other cited decisions, including Farinas v. Florida Farm Bureau and Moultrop v. GEICO, reinforced that the reasonableness of an insurers approach to settling claims can depend on a wide range of factorsand may ultimately be a question for a jury. The court also echoed the Florida Supreme Courts statement in Harvey v. GEICO that the focus in a bad faith case must remain on the insurers actions in fulfilling its obligations to the insured, not on what the claimant may have done. The plaintiffs also argued that Hudson would have denied coverage even with timely notice, based on the belief that Mayer was not an additional insured. But at the time of the denial, Hudson had not received the subcontract needed to determine Mayers status. Once the subcontract was provided during discovery in this action, Hudson did not pursue the additional insured defense further. The court found no basis to conclude that earlier notice would have automatically led to a denial. These mobile clinics are more than just vehicles; theyre a gateway to healthier lives and stronger communities, said Zoila D. Escobar, president of the AltaMed Foundation and executive vice president and chief administrative officer of AltaMed Health Services Corporation. Thanks to Health Net and the Centene Foundation, we can break down barriers that too often prevent people from getting the care they need. Liberty Mutual reported that it has reached a settlement with Travelers Insurance in a case involving a construction firm being sued by a man who was injured when he fell down an elevator shaft on a construction site. Liberty Mutual filed notice in federal court for Connecticut on May 28 advising that the settlement should be finalized within 60 days, after which it intends to dismiss its action against its rival Travelers. Liberty Mutual sued to compel Travelers and its subsidiaries to honor their insurance policies by assuming the defense and the indemnity of Suffolk Construction Co., Inc. against the underlying personal-injury lawsuit. Suffolk had been hired by New York City for a renovation project on city property used by New York University (NYU) Hospital, which employed Oscar Marin, a facilities engineer who was seriously injured in the elevator incident. Suffolk subcontracted a portion of the work on the project to Maccarone Plumbing, Inc. On March 12, 2020, two plumbers from Maccarone asked Marin to open the door to a disused elevator shaft so that they could explore a potential route for running pipes through the building. The door that the plumbers asked Marin to open was located in the buildings subbasement. Marin alleges that, upon opening the door, he fell into the elevator shaft and sustained bodily injury. On February 24, 2021, Marin sued. His complaint names both Suffolk and Maccarone as defendants. Upon its receipt of the complaint, Suffolk sought defense and the indemnity of the matter from its insurer Liberty Mutual, which insured Suffolk under a commercial general liability insurance policy. Liberty Mutual accepted that it owed duties to defend and to indemnify Suffolk in connection with the underlying action. As of February 27, 2025, the date it sued Travelers, Liberty Mutual said it had expended more than $75,000 in the defense of Suffolk in connection with the Marin action. But Liberty Mutual maintained that Travelers should be defending and indemnifying Suffolk because Suffolk and Maccone entered into a written subcontract agreement for the NYU hospital project under which Maccarone agreed that it would defend, indemnify, and save harmless Suffolk from and against any claims in connection with the work, unless wholly caused by Suffolks sole negligence. The subcontract agreement obligated Maccarone to provide proof of insurance consistent with the indemnification clauses of the contract. Maccarone furnished a certificate of insurance evidencing its compliance with the subcontract. The insurance certificate identified Maccarone as being insured on a primary basis by a Travelers Property Casualty Co. policy as well as under a follow-form umbrella liability insurance policy issued by Travelers Indemnity Insurance Co. Maccarone named Suffolk as an additional insured on all of its liability insurance policies. On February 22, 2022, Liberty Mutual tendered the defense and indemnity of Suffolk in connection with the Marin lawsuit to Travelers through a letter advising that Suffolk qualified as an additional insured under the Travelers policies, and on grounds that Suffolk is a contractual indemnitee of Maccarone who qualifies for coverage under an insured contract. On April 13, 2022, Travelers sent a letter to Liberty Mutual refusing to accept any obligation either to defend or to indemnify Suffolk in connection with the underlying action. On September 27, 2024, Liberty Mutual asked Travelers to reconsider its position. Liberty Mutual received no response to its letter. On October 22, 2024, Liberty Mutual again asked Travelers to reconsider its position. Travelers had not assumed the defense of Suffolk or reimbursed the costs of defense incurred as of the lawsuit filing date. Liberty Mutual sued for a declaration that Suffolk qualifies as an additional insured under the Travelers policies and is entitled to be defended and indemnified by Travelers up to the full limits of each of the Travelers policies. Liberty Mutual also sought reimbursement from Travelers for the some of the costs it has incurred in its defense of Suffolk. Topics New York Thank you! % of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it. Submit No Thanks The Czech Republic has accused China of being responsible for cyberattacks against a a communication network of its Foreign Ministry, officials said on Wednesday [May 28]. The Foreign Ministry in Prague said the malicious activities started in 2022 and targeted the countrys critical infrastructure, adding it believed the Advanced Persistent Threat 31, or APT31, hacking group, which is associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, was behind the campaign. It was not immediately clear what specific information were seized or what damage was caused by the attacks. The Czech ministry said a new communication system has already been put in place. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in a separate statement that his ministry summoned Chinas ambassador to Prague to make it clear to Beijing that such activities have serious impacts on mutual relations. The government of the Czech Republic strongly condemns this malicious cyber campaign against its critical infrastructure, the statement said. Such behavior undermines the credibility of the Peoples Republic of China and contradicts its public declarations. The Chinese Embassy dismissed the Czech accusations as groundless. It said China fights all forms of cyber attacks and does not support, promote or tolerate hacker attacks. The United States denounced the Chinese activities and called on China to stop it immediately, the U.S. Embassy in Prague said in a statement. It said ATP31 previously targeted U.S. and foreign politicians, foreign policy experts and others. APT31 has also stolen trade secrets and intellectual property, and targeted entities in some of Americas most vital critical infrastructure sectors, including the Defense Industrial Base, information technology, and energy sectors, the embassy said. NATO and the European Union also condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the Czechs. We observe with increasing concern the growing pattern of malicious cyber activities stemming from the Peoples Republic of China, NATO said. This attack is an unacceptable breach of international norms, Kaja Kallas, the EUs foreign policy chief, said. The EU will not tolerate hostile cyber actions. In a separate cyberattack in 2017, the email account of then Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek and the accounts of dozens of ministry officials were successfully hacked. Officials said the attack was sophisticated, and experts believed it was done by a foreign state, which was not named then. ___ Sam McNeil contributed to this report from Paris. After losing their biggest export market due to Donald Trumps trade wars, US farmers are now counting on the presidents support for biofuels to prevent their next crop from piling up in storage. The administration is set to soon unveil a plan for how much crop-based biofuels will be blended into fossil fuels starting next year. A higher mandate, still opposed by some in the oil industry, would create a much needed outlet for crops after tariffs hit China the top commodities buyer simply has no orders for corn, soybeans or wheat from the next harvest on its books, according to the US Department of Agriculture. If we dont get this done, well end up with a surplus of soybeans, Caleb Ragland, a Kentucky farmer who is also president of the American Soybean Association, said of the upcoming biofuels mandate. I can store one good crop, I cant store multiple years. Trump instigated a $28 billion bailout for farmers hurt by the economic standoff with Beijing during his first term. While his administration is considering similar plans again, so far he has only pledged to find domestic markets to compensate for lost sales abroad. Boosting demand at home is a key priority for growers, industry groups and some of the top agricultural commodity traders. Thats because overseas sales of soybeans from the next crop are currently running 79% below the average of the past five years, USDA data showed. Corn sales are 49% lower. The US farm economy was already struggling before Trumps trade disputes. Bumper crops globally boosted supplies and sent a Bloomberg gauge of grain prices tumbling more than 40% since a 2022 peak. For Trump and the Republican party, reinforcing the farmer vote ahead of next years midterm elections will be key. American growers have been a loyal constituency, but some cracks in that support have started to emerge. An AgWeb poll of almost 3,000 farmers earlier this year revealed that 54% were against Trumps use of tariffs as a negotiating strategy. A group of growers from Maryland, Massachusetts, and Mississippi also sued the administration after the USDA canceled grants under a program to install solar panels. The April Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer found that 56% of respondents expect tariffs to have a negative or very negative impact on farm income this year. Still, 70% said the policy will strengthen the US agricultural economy in the long-term. Domestic Demand If were going to get behind this America First policy, lets make sure that we have a great domestic policy strategy, said Lucas Lentsch, a North Dakota farmer who heads the United Soybean Board. Lets make sure weve got good demand here at home. Creating more markets at home is easier said than done. The US cattle herd is already at the lowest since the 1950s, curbing demand for crops in feed rations. Thats leaving farmers reliant on the so-called renewable volume obligation, or RVOs a rule thats been controversial since being enshrined into law two decades ago to safeguard energy security. Farmers benefit from a higher biofuels mandate, but oil refiners have historically opposed it. Some of that has since changed as Big Oil invested in biofuels in recent years as part of their decarbonization efforts. We need a robust RVO to keep US soybeans a profitable business to be in, said Greg Anderson, who grows the oilseed in Nebraska. Biofuel Mandates Agribusiness giants Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Global SA and Cargill Inc., as well as trade groups including the Clean Fuels Alliance America want the Environmental Protection Agency to set the RVO at no less than 5.25 billion gallons for biomass-based diesel starting next year, up 60% from 2025 levels. Farm lobby groups and US Midwestern governors also want a mandate for US ethanol of at least the 15 billion gallons currently in place. The American Petroleum Institute is also backing the requests. Were certainly doing our job to push administration to help us and help the industry, Christopher Cuddy, ADMs president of carbohydrate solutions, said at a BMO conference in New York this month. The most encouraging piece for me is the fact that were aligned with the Petroleum Institute, which at least in my time has never happened. Still, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents some refiners, is against it. The group argues the US isnt selling enough gasoline to absorb so much ethanol and that theres uncertainty over the amount of feedstock available to produce more renewable diesel and other biomass-based biofuels. The biofuels industry disagrees. Randall Stuewe, chief executive officer of Darling Ingredients Inc., said the previous quotas set under former President Joe Biden were far too low. The companys Diamond Green Diesel venture with Valero Energy Corp. is a top producer of renewable fuels. That led to a number of factory closures. Biodiesel plants in the US produced at just 51% of capacity in the year through April, while facilities that make renewable diesel a fuel thats chemically identical to its fossil fuel peer ran at a rate of 72%, according to Bloomberg Intelligences Project Tracker. We used to have more demand than supply, its now reversed, said Peter Zonneveld, US president for biofuels producer Neste Oyj. Some companies are reducing run rates or shelving their investment plans for renewable fuels, which will make it harder to curb emissions from heavy-duty industries, he said. Its resulting in difficulties for the ag industry too because farmers cant get rid of their soybeans, Zonneveld said. In a statement to Bloomberg, the EPA said it has already sent its biofuel-blending proposal to the White House and will make it available for public comment once the proposal is signed. The US biofuels program supports President Trumps broader economic vision of strengthening American energy independence, growing domestic agricultural markets, and fighting back against unfair trade practices, the agency said. A higher RVO is a chance to get domestic biofuels back up to normalized run rates of around 80%, said Brett Gibbs, a renewable energy analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, who estimates the mandate will need to be at least 3.9 billion gallons to bring some facilities back online. Trade Uncertainty Its unclear how the EPA will balance the concerns of some refiners and the agriculture industry. And even as the president announced a truce with China, lowering tariffs for 90 days, uncertainty remains. Sales of next seasons crops to Mexico and Japan, the second and third-largest soybean buyers, are lagging well behind historical levels for this time of year. And China continues to snap up supplies from rival Brazil. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has openly hinted at a bailout, and nearly two thirds of farmers in the March Purdue/CME barometer said aid was either likely or very likely. Still, many growers say they want to sell their crops instead of receiving aid. As a farmer, Id rather receive it from the market, said Philip Good, a Mississippi farmer whos the chair of the United Soybean Board. We go back to the domestic markets, and developing domestic uses. Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. Topics Profit Loss Agribusiness When a series of deadly storms and tornadoes pummeled Arkansas in mid-March, downing power lines and tearing up homes, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked the federal government for money to not only help repair the damage, but also boost the states defenses against future disasters. On May 8, President Donald Trump approved the states request for funds to help individuals and families recover. But a week later, the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who was Trumps press secretary during his first term, that it was denying the second pot of money the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to help the state rebuild stronger, according to a rejection letter seen by Bloomberg News. Later in the month, the agency denied a hazard mitigation funding request from Virginia, weeks after Trump approved other aid as part of a major disaster declaration for mid-February winter storms. Virginia officials say they are exploring the appeals process but do not have any further details. These denials mark a stark departure from how previous administrations have handled such requests. In recent decades, presidents have routinely signed off on those funds as part of the large aid package that comes with major disaster declarations, according to interviews with six state hazard mitigation officials and former FEMA officials and advisors. Unlike the type of help Trump has continued to approve, which states use to cover immediate needs after a wildfire or hurricane, hazard mitigation funds pay for extra protections to help communities better withstand future natural disasters, such as elevating buildings in flood zones or adding safe rooms to homes in tornado-prone areas. In addition to those two denials, the administration held off on approving 11 other similar requests over the past two months even as it signed off on other parts of state post-disaster aid packages. FEMA is still reviewing their applications, according to officials from Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, which is waiting to hear back on a second request for a more recent disaster. With the exception of Kentucky and Kansas, all these states have Republican governors. Disaster officials and researchers say these funds are essential to prepare and protect communities in the long term as climate change increases the number and severity of natural disasters. Spending the money now to increase states resilience also reduces future damages and recovery costs, they say. Its a really effective use of one-time dollars that saves FEMA money in the long run, but also helps our people to be safer, said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who is waiting to hear back on separate requests for hazard mitigation funding made following severe weather in April and May. The White House declined to comment on specific state requests for hazard mitigation funds. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the administration is monitoring states ability to spend hazard mitigation grants as it weighs new requests, adding that officials have seen large balances of unallocated and unspent funds. We are working with states to assist them in identifying projects and drawing down balances in a way that makes the nation more resilient, she added. In a leaked draft memo from April first reported by CNN and confirmed by Bloomberg News, FEMA, the nations top agency for disaster response and recovery, recommended the White House not automatically approve applications for hazard mitigation funds as one of several ways to immediately cut federal disaster costs. Per the memo, its an action the President has already taken. The agency did not respond to questions about hazard mitigation. I think what theyre suggesting is if you want to build back stronger, it needs to come from your state dollars, said Carrie Speranza, the former chair emeritus of FEMAs National Advisory Council before the Trump administration dismissed its members. Then you look at the operating budgets of those states. That moneys just not there. The Remaking of FEMA The administrations new tack on hazard mitigation funds came with no warning or guidance, state officials say, but its part of broader efforts to shrink the scope of federal disaster work. Over the past four months, Trump has called for the elimination of FEMA, launched a council tasked with streamlining its operations and temporarily put in charge of the agency David Richardson, a former military official with no emergency management experience. Meanwhile, FEMA has reduced its staff by at least hundreds of people, identified more than a dozen near- and long-term ways to cut funding, according to the leaked draft memo, and paused at least $2.2 billion in grant spending to states. (A federal judge last month ordered the money be released.) The agency also canceled a Biden-era grant program to fund disaster preparedness outside the recovery of a specific hurricane, tornado or wildfire, saying it was wasteful and ineffective. Disaster experts argue ending that program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, while also pulling back on post-disaster hazard mitigation money is a short-sighted move that could cost the government more money in the long run. Hazard mitigation funding didnt just pop out of nowhere it actually came in response to a really big financial problem the federal government was experiencing, said Robert Verchick, a Loyola University climate legal expert. The practice had been to restore homes and infrastructure to their pre-disaster condition, instead of using the federal money to fortify communities against future damage. Its a waste of money to build something back in a way that you know is going to fail again, he added. A 2019 report partially funded by FEMA estimates every $1 in federal grant money spent on hazard mitigation saves $6 in disaster damages in the future. The return on investment is higher for federal spending on flood mitigation. For example, by granting $11.5 billion to help states build up river defenses between 1993 and 2016, the federal government avoided $82 billion in losses from the deaths, flooded property and associated business disruptions communities would have suffered without those protections, according to the researchers calculations. Mitigation, or preparedness, saves lives, said Jiqiu Yuan, a co-author of the report and chief resilience officer at the National Institute of Building Sciences. We want to make clear the saving is to the whole society thats not only to the government, thats not only to the building owners, thats not only to the insurance business. How do hazard mitigation funds work? Although the federal government approves requests for the hazard mitigation grant program in the aftermath of disasters, in order to get this money, states have to develop a plan beforehand and every funded project must be vetted by federal officials. One way states have spent these grants is by buying out properties in high-risk flood zones where homeowners cant afford to move without financial help. Thats how Kentucky used nearly $72 million in hazard mitigation funds after deadly flooding in 2022, helping buy out hundreds of properties in zones at risk of flooding again. After Tropical Storm Irene caused widespread flooding in 2011, Vermont spent the majority of $34 million in hazard mitigation grants towards property buyouts, said Stephanie Smith, the states mitigation lead. The FEMA grants covered 75% of the buyout costs, while the state put in the remaining 25%. Vermont likely wouldnt have been able to fully cover the costs on its own, Smith said. States have also used this FEMA money to elevate flood-risk infrastructure, build home or community safe rooms and invest in warning systems, according to a review of funded projects identified in state hazard mitigation plans. The states rely heavily on the federal money, said Yuan. Im not sure the states will have the supplemental funding from their state capitals to support this kind of effort. Photo: Workers clean up debris following a tornado outside of London, Kentucky, on May 18. Photographer: Michael Swensen/Getty Images Topics Politics FEMA In an era where billion-dollar disasters are becoming the norm, one truth stands above the wreckage: strong building codes save buildings and lives. Yet despite mounting risks, the U.S. remains caught in a paradox. We have the knowledge and tools to build safer structures, but adoption and enforcement lag. In fact, according to FEMA, 65% of U.S. counties, cities and towns have not adopted modern building codes. Its time to reframe the narrative around modernizing building codes. Building code compliance isnt red tape; its a frontline defense. But key stakeholders have outdated perceptions of modernized building codes. Couple that with cost concerns and a lack of urgency, the progress of updating building codes to meet the enhanced severe weather events we are facing is in danger of stalling. To protect people and property, keep businesses open and communities intact and most importantly, save lives, we must position building codes as a strategic investment in long-term resilience not as a regulatory burden. The Risk Reality The frequency and severity of natural disasters are rising, with property owners deeply concerned about the future. Since 2023, concern about severe weather has increased significantly in wildfire (+28 points) and hurricane (+16 points) zones. A recent survey from Nationwide of commercial property owners revealed that one in three of them have already experienced damage from a natural disaster, increasing to nearly two in three in hurricane-prone regions. But as recent events show us, severe weather isnt just a coastal problem inland risks like wind and wildfires are rising, too. Structural damage, business interruption and water intrusion are top concerns. The Code Compliance Paradox Nationwides survey revealed that a staggering 100% of property stakeholders and 60% of insurance agents surveyed agree that building code compliance is critical. Yet only 39% of stakeholders say theyve upgraded their property above current code requirements a 13 point drop from 2023. Despite wide familiarity with IBHS FORTIFIED standards, upgrades remain uncommon due to issues like the time needed to research options (64%) and high costs (62%). However, adoption of these enhanced building standards has made a big difference in many instances. Consider the example of Strengthen Alabama Homes, a program that has successfully reframed building codes as a strategic investment rather than a regulatory obligation. This initiative demonstrates the benefits of adopting stronger building codes, including enhanced resilience and reduced recovery costs. Other states should follow Alabamas leadership in this field and adopt similar programs. Mindset Shift: From Obligation to Opportunity Building codes should be seen not just as mandatory, but as mission critical for business survival. Codes support physical resilience as well as business continuity, reduced downtime and lower recovery costs. Agents and stakeholders increasingly view compliance as a factor in insurance pricing and risk assessment. Bridging the Gap To bridge the gap between awareness and action, we need real solutions: streamlined decision tools, educational resources and cost-share programs. Emphasizing the cost-benefit is crucial. For instance, it took 100% of property owners surveyed up to six months and $10,000 to recover from damage caused by severe weather events. Strong codes can reduce this burden dramatically. The numbers dont lie strong codes dont slow us down; they keep us standing. Nationwide is a proponent of modernizing building codes to protect our customers and our communities. We must advocate for stronger codes and support initiatives that make compliance easier and more affordable. By doing so, we can ensure that our communities are better prepared for the challenges ahead. The Texas House gave a thumbs Wednesday to a bill allowing smaller homes on smaller lots in Texas biggest cities, part of a broad push by state lawmakers to put a dent in the states high home prices. But the House made significant tweaks that would limit how many new homes could be built under the bill, setting up a potential showdown with the Texas Senate over one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks biggest priorities. Senate Bill 15 would reduce how much land cities say single-family homes in new subdivisions must sit on. The idea is to let homebuilders construct homes on smaller amounts of land, thus reducing the overall price of the home. This bill allows the option of building homes at different types and price points to meet the demand and needs of buyers, state Rep. Gary Gates, a Richmond Republican who carried the bill in the House, said during initial debate on the bill Tuesday. Lowering the size and type of residential housing will increase the amount of housing that can be built and lowers housing costs. Initially, SB 15 would forbid major cities from requiring homes in new subdivisions to sit on more than 1,400 square feet as first proposed in the bill. Gates amended that provision Tuesday to 3,000 square feet. The states biggest cities tend to require single-family homes to sit on around 5,000 to 7,500 square feet of land, a Texas Tribune analysis found. The provision would only apply in new subdivisions with at least five acres of land, and wouldnt touch existing neighborhoods. The bill would only apply to cities with at least 150,000 residents in counties with a population of 300,000 or more 19 of the states largest cities, per a Tribune analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. It also wouldnt apply in cases in which homeowners association and restrictive covenants prevent smaller lot sizes. Wednesdays 86-43 vote came after a dramatic turn of events at the tail end of the legislation in which a Democrat tried to kill the bill on a technicality, but supporters managed to revive it in time to reach the full House before a key deadline. Some Democrats werent convinced the bill would tame housing costs though evidence broadly suggests that homes on smaller lots have lower values than those on bigger lots. Some of them expressed uneasiness about the state weighing in on what kinds of homes can be built and where, a power the state grants to cities. They (residents) didnt elect their state representatives to decide how their city would develop, not on that level, not with this kind of density, said state Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, who previously moved to kill the bill on procedural grounds. Romero successfully tacked on an amendment that will require cities to adopt a separate zoning category to comply with the bill, essentially meaning the bill wouldnt automatically apply to existing single-family zoning categories. The bills proponents say that provision effectively renders the bill moot. A majority of the chambers Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of the bill Wednesday. The Senate will have to sign off on changes the House made to the bill or appoint a conference committee to hash out the differences between the two chambers. Patrick said Wednesday he hadnt yet seen the changes House lawmakers made. Were working better than we ever have with the other chamber so were really figuring out any rough spots between us, Patrick said. SB15 is part of a constellation of proposals in the Texas Legislature aimed at curbing the states high housing costs, chiefly by clearing red tape and cutting local regulations in order to allow more homes to be built. Texas needs about 320,000 more homes than it has, according to an estimate by the housing group Up For Growth. That shortage, housing experts and advocates argue, played a key role in driving up home prices and rents as the state boomed. Lawmakers on Monday sent a bill to Gov. Greg Abbotts desk that would allow apartments and mixed-use developments along retail and commercial corridors. Both chambers have approved bills to make it harder for property owners to stop new homes from being built near them and encourage cities to allow the construction of smaller apartments. Theyve also approved bills to reduce hurdles to convert vacant office buildings into residences, make it illegal for cities to disallow manufactured homes and relax local rules in college towns that say how many unrelated adults can live in a home. Texas lawmakers stepped up this session because the alternative was frightfully clear: keep stalling, and we get California housing prices, a middle-class escape and a business exodus, said Nicole Nosek, who chairs Texans for Reasonable Solutions, a group that has pushed several housing bills this session. But a separate bill to allow additional dwelling units in the backyards of single-family homes, which died in the House two years ago, died before it could come up for a vote ahead of a key deadline in the House on Tuesday night. Alejandro Serrano contributed to this report. This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/27/texas-house-tiny-homes/. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org. Topics Texas A former West Virginia volunteer fire official who pleaded guilty to fraud after burning down his home and misusing the fire departments credit card has been sentenced to 33 months in prison. Donald A. Ennis, 44, of St. Albans, also must pay $513,000 in restitution to his insurance company and a Kanawha County volunteer fire department, a federal judge decided this week. Upon release from prison, Ennis will face three years of supervised release. In 2021, Ennis fraudulently obtained an insurance payout on his home for $161,100 for the dwelling and $120,825 for the contents, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia said last year. A fire completely engulfed the property on Feb. 15, 2021, and fire crews were unable to contain it, according to the felony information document filed in the case. The Bloomington, Illinois-based property insurance company was not named. The annual premium was less than $980. As finance and operations manager for the volunteer fire department, Ennis also ran up $153,700 in charges on the departments credit card, through ATM withdrawals and purchases in 2020, 2021 and 2022, prosecutors said. Among other items, he purchased a winch kit, brake lines and other parts for his Jeep, along with an air compressor, the court document shows. The fire department was funded in part by the Kanawha County Commission. Before his sentencing, his federal public defender attorney submitted a memorandum to the court, arguing for leniency. Mr. Ennis crimes are terrible. But the rest of his life has been dedicated to helping others, attorney Rachel Zimarowski wrote. With his own two hands, he has staunched bleeding, set bones, and literally brought members of this community back to life. The good he has done, his willingness to run into danger, his complete and utter selflessness as a paramedic, father, son, uncle, and friendits no wonder so many of his loved ones have written letters expressing how difficult it is to reconcile that man with the one who committed these crimes. He feels the same way. Ennis, who has severe diabetes, has received mental health treatment in recent years and has expressed regret for his crimes, the lawyer wrote. Topics Fraud Californias property insurance market remains in turmoil, exacerbated by escalating wildfire risks, insurer withdrawals, and systemic shortcomings in the states safety netthe California FAIR Plan. As homeowners confront rising premiums and limited coverage options, comprehensive reform is imperative to stabilize the market and protect policyholders. In the aftermath of the January 2025 wildfires in Southern California, which destroyed over 18,000 structures and claimed at least 30 lives, insurers like State Farm, Farmers, and Allstate have further scaled back their presence. State Farm, the states largest home insurer, stopped issuing new policies in 2023 and has since implemented a 17% interim rate hike effective June 2025. It has also requested an additional 11% increase, citing $7.6 billion in wildfire losses in Los Angeles County. A hearing is scheduled for October. Two lawsuits filed in Los Angeles allege that major insurers colluded to limit coverage in wildfire-prone areas, effectively funneling homeowners to the FAIR Plan. The complaints claim coordination through industry groups to reduce exposure while preserving profitability, at the cost of coverage availability and affordability. The FAIR Plan, originally intended as a last-resort fire insurer, has now become a primary fallback for over 555,000 policyholdersnearly four times the number it served in 2015. As of March 2025, its total exposure had reached $599 billion, a 31% increase since the fall of 2024. The plan covers only named perils, excluding theft, water damage, and liability, requiring costly supplemental policies for full protection. Following the January wildfires, it paid out over $900 million across nearly 4,800 claims and levied a $1 billion assessment on its member insurers to maintain solvency. Consumer advocates, including Consumer Watchdog, are suing the California Department of Insurance and Commissioner Ricardo Lara to block insurers from passing $500 million of that assessment onto homeowners through surcharges. They argue the fees lack legislative approval and place undue financial strain on policyholders already grappling with rising costs. In response to the deepening crisis, lawmakers have introduced several bills. Assembly Bill 1354 proposes a tax credit for homeowners whose fire insurance premiums exceed their 2023 baseline, beginning in 2026. AB 226 would let the state issue bonds and provide the FAIR Plan access to a revolving credit facility to bolster liquidity. AB 567 seeks to suspend the gross premiums tax on residential property policies for four years starting in 2026. New regulations now permit insurers to pass a portion of reinsurance costs directly to policyholders, in exchange for commitments to continue writing policies in high-risk areas. Although this may result in average increases between 30% and 40%, the goal is to stabilize the market and reduce FAIR Plan dependency. Insurers are also authorized to use forward-looking catastrophe models that incorporate projected wildfire risks into rate calculations, encouraging more accurate pricing and potentially incentivizing mitigation. Related: State Farm Still Wants a 30% Rate Increase in California Further complicating the landscape, the states newly updated fire risk maps have reclassified several areas, including Carmel, as very high severity zones. Residents in affected communities now face potential rate spikes and reduced coverage availability, prompting concerns over long-term economic and social impacts. A new legal precedent on smoke damage claims may also impact insurer exposure. In Gharibian v. Wawanesa Gen. Ins. Co. (2025) 108 Cal. App. 5th 730, the California Court of Appeal held that smoke damage from a wildfire did not trigger coverage under the homeowners policy. This decisionmarking the first published California appellate opinion to deny smoke damage coverage in a wildfirecould influence both insurer underwriting and claims practices if it remains good law. To stabilize the system, California must take a multi-pronged approach. First, it must improve FAIR Plan operations, including more transparent claims handling, timely payments, and expansion of basic coverages. Second, the state must aggressively promote fire risk reduction through defensible space and home hardening; however, participation remains low, partly due to a lack of incentives from insurers. A centralized inspection and certification programpaired with mandatory premium discounts for compliant homescould change that dynamic. Related: Bill to Address California Wildfire And Insurance Crises Moving Through Legislature Third, Proposition 103, the 1988 initiative requiring prior approval for rate increases, needs to be modernized. While its consumer protections are vital, its rigidity prevents insurers from responding swiftly to escalating risks. Reforms allowing for more agile rate filings, conditioned on actuarial justification and public transparency, would help preserve both affordability and insurer solvency. Californias path forward must blend fiscal relief with long-term resilience. Without bold reforms, policyholders will face ever-higher premiums, eroding coverage, and deepening underinsuranceparticularly in rural and working-class communities. But if lawmakers, regulators, and industry leaders work together, it is still possible to build a fair, functional, and sustainable insurance market for Californias future. Veroff is an insurance attorney at Merlin Law Group, representing policyholders in large-loss property insurance disputes. He is based in the firms San Francisco office, and he is licensed in California, Oregon, and Washington, and has co-counseled cases across multiple states. Email: dveroff@merlinlawgroup.com. Topics California Property Chinese fast fashion brand Shein is usually in the news because of its poor human rights and environmental record. This week, its anti-consumer practices came under the spotlight. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), along with the European Commission and national consumer authorities in Belgium, France and The Netherlands have called on Shein to rectify several practices on its platform that potentially breach EU consumer law. Shein routinely uses fake discounts, which seem to offer better deals by showing price reductions, but these reductions are not actually based on prior prices, as required by EU law. They also use pressure tactics: using false deadlines to make consumers feel they have to act now or lose out on a bargain. The consumer body says the site also displays incomplete and incorrect information about a consumers rights to return goods and receive refunds. Theres also deceptive labelling, where its suggested the product offers something special when in fact the relevant feature is required by law. Misleading claims is another issue. This is where the site gives false or deceptive information about the sustainability benefits of certain products. And if you want to contact Shein with questions or complaints, youre going to have trouble finding its contact details another potential breach of consumer law. The CCPC says information has been requested to assess the companys compliance with further obligations, including those around product rankings, ratings and reviews, and third-party sellers. Shein now has one month to propose commitments on how it will address the identified consumer law issues. Picture: Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Last April, Shein was designated as a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act. Shein then had four months to comply with the most stringent obligations applicable to these platforms. These include the obligation to assess and mitigate any systemic risks stemming from its services. The European Commission is currently carrying out a preliminary Digital Services Act investigation of Shein that concerns, among other things, the presence of illegal content and goods on Sheins marketplace, the transparency of its recommender systems and measures to mitigate risks relating to consumer protection, public health and users wellbeing. The ongoing investigation, which is being carried out through the European Commissions Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) network is co-led by the CCPC, together with consumer authorities in Belgium, France and The Netherlands under the coordination of the European Commission. In response Shein said it has "been working constructively with national consumers authorities and the EU Commission to demonstrate our commitment to complying with EU laws and regulations, and we are continuing to engage in this process to address any concerns. Our priority remains ensuring that European consumers can have a safe, reliable, and enjoyable online shopping experience." Shein now has one month to propose commitments on how it will address the identified consumer law issues. Depending on its reply, the CPC may enter a dialogue with the company, and if it does not address the concerns identified, national authorities may take enforcement measures to ensure compliance. Any resultant fines will be based on the companys annual turnover in the relevant member states. Patrick Kenny is a member of the CCPC. He says consumers should be allowed to shop without being put under pressure by fake deadlines or misled by fake discounts. They also need clear information about how consumers can contact the company, how to return an item and receive a refund. In this case, the CCPC and the CPC network have identified several practices that could mislead consumers or undermine their consumer rights. "E-retailers and online marketplaces have a legal obligation to provide transparent and honest information about the products they sell, and consumers rights around returns. The CCPC takes any breaches of the law very seriously and looks forward to constructive engagement with Shein during the course of this investigation. Boots Ireland pleaded guilty to breaking sales-pricing legislation. File picture The big problem with Shein is, of course, its contribution to ecological degradation and abusive labour practices. A recent BBC investigation into the online retailer found workers were routinely spending 75 hours a week bent over sewing machines in contravention of Chinas own labour laws. In 2023, the company admitted to finding two cases of child labour in its supply chain. The companys runaway success has been built on selling dresses and tops that cost next to nothing, which is a seductive business model in an era of runaway inflation on almost everything else. But i n a world in climate crisis, how we choose to spend our money today has a direct impact on the lives of others. Buying cheap clothes that dont last is getting more and more difficult to justify. Meanwhile, the CCPC has also been busy bringing Irish-based retailers into line with sales pricing legislation. In the Dublin District Court on Monday, Boots Retail (Ireland) Limited pleaded guilty to breaking this legislation. The pharmacy and beauty chain was ordered by Judge Anthony Halpin to pay 1,000 to the Little Flower Penny Dinners charity and to pay the costs of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Section 1 of the Probation of Offenders Act "is to be applied upon compliance with the court order". The prosecution was brought by the CCPC against Boots Ireland following online sweeps conducted over the 2023-2024 winter sales season, including Black Friday. CCPC chair Brian McHugh: 'Businesses need to be able to compete for consumers openly and honestly on price.' This case forms part of the first wave of prosecutions under sales pricing legislation introduced in 2022, after Lifestyle Sports, DID Electrical, and Rath-Wood also pleaded guilty to breaking the same legislation in March of this year. The law requires traders to base any discount on the lowest price in at least the previous 30 days, and to display this price clearly on any price tag or advertisement. Suppose, for example, a product is priced at 1,649 from December 23, 2024, to January 24, 2025. On January 25, 2025, until February 8, 2025, the price of the product is increased to 1,949. On February 9, 2025, the price is reduced to 1,579 with an indicated prior price of 1,949 in the price reduction announcement, despite the lowest price in the previous 30 days before this reduction being 1,649. If a trader increases the price of a product for a short period before immediately reducing the price back to its previous price, the trader cant use this briefly-increased price as the prior price in its price reduction announcement, as this is not the lowest price in at least the previous 30 days. Chairperson of the CCPC, Brian McHugh, pointed out that misleading sale discounts harm consumers and harm competition. Businesses need to be able to compete for consumers openly and honestly on price. Transparency around sales discounts allows consumers to make informed decisions about their purchases and to shop with confidence. Ireland is to lodge a formal letter of objection with Israel after shots were fired in the vicinity of peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. The incident came during a joint Irish United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and Lebanese Armed Forces patrol close to the Blue Line on Thursday. None of the Irish personnel who were recently deployed to Unifil as part of the 126th Infantry Battalion were injured in the incident. Oglaigh na hEireann said on Thursday that all personnel were reported to be safe and well, and that they continued to monitor the situation in southern Lebanon. Irish and Maltese peacekeeping troops on patrol in Lebanon earlier this year (Niall Carson/PA) Tanaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris said he had been briefed by the incoming chief of staff Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy. He said just before midday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had fired shots into the patrol area. He also confirmed that a formal letter of objection from Ireland would be lodged with Israel via the UN on Friday. Brigadier General Mulcahy provided me with a detailed briefing on the serious events that took place yesterday involving Irish Defence Force personnel in southern Lebanon, Mr Harris said. My officials in the Department of Defence will today formally lodge a protest letter over what happened yesterday and this will be communicated directly with Israel Its clear to me that the actions of the IDF were reckless, intimidatory, totally unacceptable and a clear breach of the international rules surrounding peacekeeping. Brigadier General Mulcahy has assured me that all of our troops impacted are safe and well. They have been debriefed following the incident and patrols are continuing as normal today. I want to pay tribute to our personnel deployed with Unifil, who are operating in an increasingly volatile and tense environment. My officials in the Department of Defence will today formally lodge a protest letter over what happened yesterday and this will be communicated directly with Israel. Members of the Teachers Union of Ireland have voted to accept the proposed Leaving Certificate reform package rather than take industrial action. The union recommended that its members accept the proposals put forward by the Department of Education following a series of talks earlier this year. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) put the ballot to its members without a recommendation. Both unions had strongly opposed the Leaving Certificate reforms, set to begin in September, with teachers raising concerns around the readiness of schools to roll out the changes, along with the introduction of new project work components. In April, teaching delegates passed emergency motions at their annual congress calling for their unions to take industrial action if talks with the department failed to deliver an acceptable outcome". Following a vote on Friday, TUI members voted by a margin of 73% to 27% to accept the negotiated implementation measures for senior cycle redevelopment. TUI president David Waters said it is clear members still have a range of concerns around various issues relating to the redevelopment process. "We will be insisting that the department honours the commitments set out in the negotiated document. The TUI has specific concerns around system capacity for the roll-out of science subjects, the potential risks to assessment posed by AI, and the additional resourcing required to ensure that no students, particularly those in DEIS settings, are put at a disadvantage by any of the changes. It is now imperative that these and any other arising issues are urgently addressed, Mr Waters added. Richard Satchwell, who buried his wife Tina in a shallow grave under the stairs of their Youghal home, has been found guilty of her murder at the Central Criminal Court. As the verdict was read to the court just after 12.25pm on Friday with members of Tina Satchwells family wept in court, as did some members of the jury. Speaking outside of court today, her family said 'We finally have justice for Tina.' Richard Satchwell, who buried his wife Tina in a shallow grave under the stairs of their Youghal home, has been found guilty of her murder at the Central Criminal Court. The 58-year-old from Leicester, England, was found guilty by a jury of five men and seven women following nine hours and 28 minutes of deliberations. Mr Justice Paul McDermott will issue the sentence next Wednesday, June 6, where Mr Satchwell faces mandatory life imprisonment. As the verdict was read to the court just after 12.25pm on Friday, members of Tina Satchwells family wept in court, as did some members of the jury. Mr Satchwell, dressed in a navy jumper and navy slacks, showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered, placing his head in his hand. He had shown little reaction during any part of the 23-day trial in courtroom six of Dublins Criminal Courts of Justice. He had pleaded not guilty to murdering his 45-year-old wife Tina nee Dingivan at their home address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork, between March 19 and 20, 2017, both dates inclusive. For six years, he maintained that he had returned home from shopping on Monday, March 20 2017, to find Tina had vanished, along with two suitcases and a sum of cash. Mr Satchwell gave numerous media interviews after reporting his wife missing, telling journalists that he had never laid a finger on his wife and pleading with her to come home. He also told the media hed be willing to take a lie detector test. In July 2017, four months after he claimed she had left him, Mr Satchwell told TV3 News now Virgin Media News that: One day my wife will turn back up or she will get in touch with gardai, one way or another it will all come out and in time will prove I've done nothing wrong. Mr Satchwell frequently made himself available for media interviews throughout the time he maintained she was missing, being interviewed on multiple occasions. He also told gardai that Tina Satchwell had regularly been violent towards him and had threatened to leave him. Mr Satchwell said he believed Tina had left him to get her own back on him for having left her for a period over a decade prior. Despite gardai searching the Youghal home in June 2017 where Ms Satchwells body was already buried at this point and seizing multiple devices belonging to Mr Satchwell, her body lay undiscovered for many years. Members of the Howard family (Lorraine Howard Red Jacket Brown hair and Sarah Howard Blonde hair denim jacket) speak to the press after the conviction of Richard Satchwell of Tina Satchwell, at the CCJ in Dublin today. It was not until Supt Ann Marie Twomey was appointed senior investigating officer in August 2021 that the investigation accelerated. She told the court that she formed the opinion that there were reasonable grounds to believe Tina Satchwell was not a living person and had met her death through unlawful means. Shortly after becoming the senior investigating officer, she also formed the view that Mr Satchwell was a suspect in the case. When he was initially arrested again in October 2023, he told gardai once more that he believed his wife had left him in March 2017 and disappeared. However, after her body was discovered underneath their home shortly after his arrest, Mr Satchwell changed his story. He then told gardai that she "flew" at him with a chisel and she died as he tried to hold her off with a belt. The court heard he then placed her body in a chest freezer before putting her in the shallow grave underneath the stairs. In her closing argument, prosecuting counsel Gerardine Small SC told the jury that Mr Satchwell's narrative of how his wife died after he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe was "absolutely farcical" and had "more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese". Ms Small submitted that the British truck driver had woven "a web of deceit" and continued his "fabricated narrative" over the years. Counsel said Mr Satchwell's objective from the very outset was "always to put everyone off the scent." Tina Satchwell (pictured). File picture She said the accused did this because he had murdered Tina Satchwell and it was nonsense to suggest it was an accident or self-defence. On the other hand, defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC said there was no doubt Mr Satchwell was guilty, but asked the jurors what exactly he was guilty of. He argued that although the accused had lied "to the people of Ireland," the lies do not make him a murderer or relieve the prosecution of the burden of proving the ingredients of murder. He said there was no evidence in the case that Mr Satchwell intended to kill or cause serious injury to Tina. "The prosecution are happy to glide over that". He said people lie for lots of different reasons and can lie to cover up their conduct or because they killed the very thing they loved. "As reprehensible as lies might be, they don't make your job easier, they make it harder because lies can be told for all manner of reasons," he told the jury. Many details were heard in this trial, from the couple attempting to purchase a monkey online from what were clearly scammers, to Mr Satchwells offering of the chest freezer he had originally placed Tinas body in to her cousin. There were versions of Tina Satchwell presented at this trial: the dog lover, the avid swimmer, the shopper with an eye for a bargain at car boot sales, the abuser who was regularly violent towards her husband. But so much of what we heard about her at this trial was Richard Satchwells version of her the version of her created by the man who had killed her. He was telling people how much he wanted her to come home when shed never left. Her body was buried there after he had murdered her. Through his media interviews and garda statements, Richard Satchwell was trying to have the last word on his wife. This guilty verdict ensures he wont. He will be sentenced next week. Susan Magnier, the wife of billionaire John Magnier, has told the High Court of kitchen table negotiations which led to a 15m offer for a tract of land in Tipperary. Appearing by video link at the High Court Mrs Magnier said she was present when the vendors received their 15m offer. Mrs Magnier said the proposed vendors and an estate agent then moved to another room to ring the trustees and a beneficiary of Barne Estate before returning to the meeting. She told Caren Geoghegan SC, for the Magniers, that all parties afterwards had a "light-hearted" dinner in the wake of the alleged deal. Lawyers acting for Mr Magnier, founder of the world-famous Coolmore Stud, have claimed before the High Court that a US-based construction magnate, Maurice Regan, the preferred buyer, engaged in a "full-frontal assault" on Mr Magnier's claimed deal to buy 751 acres of land in Tipperary for 15 million. Mr Magnier's proceedings claim that Barne Estate reneged on the alleged deal, preferring to sell the land at the higher price of 22.25m to Mr Regan, the founder of the New York building firm JT Magen. Mr Magnier along with his adult children - wants to enforce the alleged deal. They say the deal was struck at an August 22, 2023, kitchen meeting at Mr Magniers Coolmore home. They also claim an exclusivity agreement that was in effect from August 31 to September 30 stipulated that the estate would not permit its representatives to solicit or encourage any expression of interest, inquiry or offer on the property from anyone other than Mr Magnier. Barne Estate has been held for the benefit of Richard Thomson-Moore and others by a Jersey trust. The Magnier side has sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group, seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been "unequivocally" agreed. The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement, as they needed the consent of the trustees to finalise any agreement and subsequently they preferred to sell the estate to Mr Regan. Mr Regan is not a party to the case. Friday's evidence Mrs Magnier, whose husband concluded his evidence in the case on Friday morning, said that she was present at the kitchen table meeting with the defendants and estate agent John Stokes on the night of August 22, 2023, when the purchase was allegedly agreed. Mrs Magnier claims that after the Thomson-Moores were offered the 15m, Mr Thomson-Moore allegedly told the table that he, his wife, Anna, and Mr Stokes had to make phone calls to the trustees and Mr Thomson-Moore's sister to get their consent and went to another room. Mrs Magnier said that when Mr Stokes returned he was "elated" that a deal was done and was "clearly delighted". "Everyone was happy. We all shook hands and we asked if they would stay for dinner and they said they would," said Mrs Magnier. Niall F Buckley SC, for the defendants, said that Mr Stokes will give evidence that he never said the trustees were going to be contacted on the night and that phone evidence will show that no trustee was contacted immediately after the offer. "I clearly heard them say they were going out to call the trustees and to call the sister," said Mrs Magnier. Farm manager at Coolmore Joe Holohan, who was also present at the kitchen table meeting, said that Mr Magnier wanted to get a deal done on the night, as there was "no messing around" with Mr Magnier. Mr Holohan claims that Mr Stokes and the Thomson-Moores left the kitchen saying they had to go to make phone calls and that when they returned to the table that Mr Stokes was smiling "from ear to ear" and that all parties then shook hands. "It was like a weight off their shoulders, they came back different, very happy people, and we shook hands," Mr Holohan told the court. The case continues before Mr Justice Max Barrett next week. The Taoiseach and the President have warned of an international propaganda campaign against Ireland because of the Governments criticism of Israels bombardment of Palestinians. Micheal Martin has called out Israeli propaganda that implies the people of Ireland support Hamas and accused Israel of twisting the Irish position of recognising Palestine and our support of the International Court of Justice case against Israel. Earlier, President Michael D Higgins said there is an active campaign against Ireland in the US. Mr Higgins said it is a disgrace and a slander to suggest that criticism of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahus policies is somehow antisemitic. That is a disgrace and a slander and has been a slander against Ireland, against individuals, including myself, he said. The idea that propaganda can pay against Ireland is now active in the United States so that when we are seeking to have meetings with people who are investing in Ireland, they are being contacted in advance with a suggestion of saying: You must open with, why is Ireland so against the US position in Israel?. Mr Martin agreed that there are attempts to smear Ireland and that Mr Higgins had been a focus of some of this, which he described as regrettable. The Taoiseach stressed that he and the Government had consistently condemned Hamas, but said the Irish people are sickened by the barbarity and the scale of what is happening with Israeli attacks on Gaza. Mr Martin also warned there was some distance to go before an EU majority supports a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, but that a recent EU move to review the agreement was not something he would have anticipated six months ago. Taoiseach Micheal Martin (left) with Nessa Doran O'Reilly (right), the Furniture Program Manager at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, on the opening day of the annual Bloom festival at Phoenix Park in Dublin. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire Shortly after the Taoiseachs comments, it was confirmed that several shots were fired in an area near where Irish peacekeeping troops are serving in southern Lebanon, near Israels blue line. None of the Irish personnel, who were recently deployed as part of the UN operation, were injured in the incident. In a statement, the Defence Forces said a number of rounds were fired in the vicinity of the area where the patrol was operating. The patrol withdrew from the area, there were no injuries to the personnel on the patrol and no damage reported to the armoured vehicles they were operating from, the statement said. All personnel of the Irish contingent in Lebanon are reported to be safe and well, they continue to monitor the situation in southern Lebanon and are committed to the stability of the region as impartial peacekeepers. We wish to remind all actors of their responsibility to ensure the safety and security of UN peacekeepers. Yesterday, Israel said it will establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation after a security cabinet vote held in secret last week. Israel occupied the West Bank, capturing it from Jordan, in the six-day war of 1967. Since then, successive Israeli governments have tried to permanently cement control over the land, in part by declaring swathes as state lands, which prevents private Palestinian ownership. Meanwhile, the White House said Israel backed and supported a new peace proposal, which Hamas continues to evaluate. The proposal was intended to return surviving as well as dead hostages still being held in Gaza in exchange for an extended truce in fighting. Hamas has said it had agreed with US president Donald Trumps special envoy, Steve Witkoff, on a general framework of an agreement that would lead to a lasting ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an influx of aid, and a transfer of power from the militant group to a politically independent committee of Palestinians. To think people used to see this absolute fraud as some sort of beacon of hope for humanity. Bono's not even the greatest front man in Dublin, never mind the history of the world... Bono is an opportunist who sold his soul long ago... Free Palestine! The criticism has been rolling in against Bono online, in response to his recent speech when receiving one of songwritings highest honours Fellowship of the Ivors Academy. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr are the first-ever Irish songwriters that the academy has inducted into fellowship during its 81-year history. Youd think wed be happy to celebrate with them, but this criticism of Bonos speech has overshadowed any possibility of national pride. Its nothing new given that plenty of Irish people find him irritating superior or somethingWeve never been all that good at pinpointing our disdain. So, what was it that he said that was so wrong this time? Well, he began his speech by asking Hamas to release their hostages. "Hamas, release the hostages. Stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred text." The words after Hamas focus on criticism of Israel. No mind. None of that counts. He shouldnt have mentioned Hamas so the criticism goes. These critics have a point, of course. The actions of Hamas now, if not in October 2023, shrink into insignificance when compared with the current actions of Israel. We all carry a deep pain, knowing there are thousands of innocent babies, children and adults starving to death in Gaza as we go about our daily lives. There are trucks stuffed with supplies that are not being let in to help these poor people. These are the darkest of days. We know it is happening and yet we can do so little. And so, people are understandably filled with rage that Bono mentioned Hamas, the word seeming to equalise both sides, as if both are similarly culpable, comparable in their cruelty. I understand the feeling. At a gut level, I agree with it. Bonos words felt wrong; they landed discordantly. But our outrage brings us no closer to peace. It helps nobody. If anything, it pushes peace further away. Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel last week.There are trucks stuffed with supplies that are not being let in to help the poor people in Gaza. File photo: AP/Maya Alleruzzo The Israeli state has lost all humanity. Their genocidal assault proves their inability to see Palestinian people as human beings. Israel has ignored Irelands protests for months. It is continuing to ignore the wave of criticism rising against them now from hitherto silent nations. Condemnation of Israel will always be heard as antisemitism by Netanyahu and his government. So, what is to be done? I would argue that as things stand, only consequences matter. Anything we can do to stop this genocide is worth trying. Bonos criticism of Netanyahu means more, carries more weight, following at least an acknowledgement of Hamas. He understands the Israeli mindset - that since October 7th anything goes. If he were to have omitted the mention of Hamas, no Israeli or Israeli sympathiser would have listened to the rest of his speech. He understood fully what he was doing. He knew that the most committed campaigners for Palestine would hate him for it. He knew he would be attacked, ripped to shreds online, and yet he did it. He mentioned Hamas. He mentioned Hamas because his concern is primarily for the children in the rubble. It is a truly rebellious act, as he put it, calling for peace. Peace is rarely a popular word. To so many people it sounds like cowardice. We are natural side-takers. Our side-taking fuels our passion for support. It also increases the likelihood and longevity of war. Peacekeepers dont have the privilege of taking sides even when the right side is blatantly obvious. In his speech at the Ivors Academy Bono said: 'Hamas, release the hostages. Stop the war. Israel, be released from Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right fundamentalists that twist your sacred text.' File photo A genuine call for peace must drain itself of all side-taking to have any real impact. Even when one side is clearly the victim and one side clearly the perpetrator. None of those matters, only peace does. I have no doubt where Bonos heart resides. He is fully horrified, as we all are, about what is happening to human beings in Gaza. Speaking to Brendan OConnor last weekend he made it clear however, that he is not interested in "competitive empathy", something I have written about for this paper. How right he is. We have become obsessed by the "look" of our actions, regardless of their consequences. Bono is interested in consequences. During the RTE interview, he recalled being egged for standing beside a Republican president and being heavily criticised for accepting a medal of freedom from Joe Biden. He countered the criticism by reminding listeners that his work with Biden saved lives. Its quite the understatement. Through ONE, Bono has lobbied heads of state and legislatures worldwide, ensuring the implementation of global health and development programs, including the PEPFAR AIDS program, which has saved approximately 25 million lives. Commentators criticising Bono for mentioning Hamas need to remind themselves that typing something online in itself is not an act of heroism. Sometimes we need to quiet our own emotions, even our own just allegiances, no matter how powerful, to get the consequences we want. This is exactly what Bono is doing. Bonos criticism of Netanyahu means more, carries more weight, following at least an acknowledgement of Hamas. He understands the Israeli mindset - that since October 7th anything goes. File photo: AP/Jens Kalaene/dpa Is the man perfect? No, Im certain he is not. Hes walking around like the rest of us full of his own demons no doubt, on his own journey, failing and learning all the time. He has an awful lot of money, and he likes to keep it. But he is committed to peace. If Bono is out in the cold, Kneecap are warming themselves by the rosy fire of our adoration. The Irish people have fallen in love with their absolute devotion to Palestine. Like most people, I agree with their commitment to an absolutely devastated, ravaged people. But their rhetoric wont get us anywhere. It will simply make them increasingly popular. Yes, they are on the right side of history, but side-taking is antithetical to peace. Ive been discussing the nature of peace in school this week. On Tuesday I found myself in a quiet classroom discussing Eavan Bolands Poem Child of our Time with a Leaving Cert student. Written in the 70s, its one Ive been reflecting on since. The poem was written in response to a photograph of a firefighter carrying the body of a dead child from the debris of the Dublin bombing in May 1974. It addresses the deceased, acknowledging that adults idol talk has cost him or her their life. Our times have robbed your cradle she says to the imagined body. She prays that we, the adults, can find a new language to prevent future deaths. We have not found that language. However morally right we are in condemning the Israeli state, our unwillingness to hear any mention of Hamas by Bono is ineffective. It forgets what we are trying to achieve peace. An end to killing. Kneecap are doing the right thing but that is different from doing the most effective thing. We need people like Kneecap to speak out. But for effectiveness, we need Bono and all peacemakers like him. My hope is that Bono is in a room somewhere reminding himself of the criticism peacekeepers receive in their time. Certain unionists and nationalists despised Hume. I have no doubt that as someone who lived through the discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland, he found it harder to reach across one side of the divide than the other. But reach across he did not because he thought both sides were necessarily equal but because he knew his opinion, and indeed right and wrong, no longer mattered. Any words that might stop Israel now are worth uttering. Alongside that one all-important one. Peace. We know that the number of dead in Gaza is in the many tens of thousands, with the respected international medical journal The Lancet estimating the figure at more than 100,000. These are the children, women and men who have perished in the relentless aerial bombing, the indiscriminate armed warfare of the IDF that includes scores of independently verified assassinations of children by sniper shots to the head. We know that as this genocide continued, Israeli citizens and Jewish families from Europe and the United States were supported by Israeli security services in the theft of land that has been ongoing for generations in the West Bank. The advances of the settler movement over the last two years are at levels unprecedented in the decades of oppression; the number of Palestinians killed is equally so. We know that Israel has, since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, claimed that its actions in Gaza were about self-defence. The facts do not bear this out, not at all, but despite this, the West has pledged its support of Israel, and some of its most powerful nations have contributed significantly to its military campaign. Those that have are knowingly sponsoring a genocide, while most others - even Ireland, which is among the more supportive of Palestine - have not done enough. a combination of satellite photos showing Ofer Camp in the West Bank, from top left, on January 2024, March 2024, bottom left, May 2024, and January 2025. Pictures: Planet Labs PBC via AP In Catastrophe - Nakba II, I ask that anyone who believes Israel had a right to act as it did in light of the brutal attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, would stop and consider the conditions Palestinians endured right up to the day before, on October 6, 2023. The Hamas attack was not the cause of anything; to suggest otherwise is to accept the furrowed brow of Israeli officials who look into the camera in disbelief at any suggestion it is an aggressor. The evidence to the contrary is overwhelming; Israel is not a democracy, it is not western (if that is even a thing?), and its army is most certainly not, as it claims to be, the most moral army in the world. To fully understand how successive Israeli governments have, for decades, been committed to the oppression of the Palestinian people, its essential to know that it not only steals their land but also terrorises them in the process. One means of doing this is the abuse of its laws and those of the international community in the incarceration of Palestinians and in how theyre managed in detention. We know the scale of this through the work of both global and Israeli NGOS that provide independent accounts. In its grim but important report, of August 2024, Welcome to Hell, BTselem, one of Israels most respected human rights organisations, warns that the impact of the states long-established detention policy should never be underestimated. The current situation, horrifying as it is, cannot be fully understood without examining the key role of this project in the social and political oppression of the Palestinian collective over the years. The prison system is one of the most violent and oppressive state mechanisms that the Israeli regime uses to uphold Jewish supremacy between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from all walks of life over decades, as a way of undermining and unravelling the social and political fabric of the Palestinian population. The numbers detained have more than doubled since October 7, 2023, at least 6,120 of whom were, according to another Israeli NGO, HaMoked, being held without trial, with no effort being made to present them with the nature of the allegations against them. It follows that they had no access to any basis for or any means to a defence. The NGOS also pointed to the policy of detaining children without trial - HaMoked reported, "at least 880 detained by the IDF in the year before the Hamas attack". The international NGO, Save the Children, said that 86% of detained Palestinian children were beaten, 69% were strip-searched, 68% were denied healthcare, and 60% spent time in solitary confinement. A poster showing Waleed Ahmad that reads in Arabic, "The hero prisoner martyr, mercy and eternity for our righteous martyrs" in the West Bank town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah on Wednesday. Photo: Ap/Nasser Nasser Western media regularly reports on just such policies in places like Russia, China and Iran, but rarely on the use of unlawful imprisonment in Israel. Save the Children Director Jason Lee said: "Palestinian children are the only ones in the world to experience systematic prosecution in military courts". Israel is so sure of the rightness of its Zionist mission that it has made no effort to hide its use of the prison system toward that end. Even before the infamous Hamas attack, minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir tasked the Israel Prison Service with making changes to help with the destruction of the Palestinian cause. The brutal destruction of Gaza, the complete levelling of place that accompanied the shredding of human beings by an army and a government that made no distinction between flesh and stone or concrete, was sponsored by Western democracies, including the United States. We know all this, it has played out, not on our TVs or newspapers but on our laptops and our phones; the evidence is completely undeniable, as is the direct involvement of other nations. Famine What may be less clear is how the fast-developing famine conditions were also known to Western powers; starvation is another means by which the state of Israel is pursuing the people of Palestine. In the book, I show how, just as with the use of the prison service and mass detention, the deliberate creation of famine conditions was and is strategic. One part of the IDFs campaign was to augment the direct killing of Palestinians with the planned destruction of its agricultural capacity and the gradual restriction of aid. London-based Forensic Architecture monitored this and reported that, by the end of June 2024, "about 83% of all plant life in Gaza had been destroyed more than 104 sq. kilometres of the 150 were destroyed as were 45% (3,700) of its productive greenhouses". Forensic Architectures month-by-month analysis, which included detailed consideration of satellite imagery, eyewitness accounts and even material made public by the IDF, showed "a correlation between the destruction of agricultural lands and infrastructure, and the Israeli militarys ground position. The destruction of farm lands and infrastructure was cumulative and repeated. Agriculture and water resources were destroyed using military equipment and weapons." By the summer of 2024, all reputable international sources, including agencies working on the ground in Gaza, were clear that Israel was directly responsible for what the US Famine Review Committee had highlighted months before, "the Famine threshold for acute food insecurity has already been far exceeded The FRC expects the upward trend in non-trauma mortality to accelerate and for all Famine thresholds to be passed imminently." That was in March. In April 2024, Oxfam reported that Gazans were surviving on an average of 245 calories a day or 11% of the recommended minimum requirement set by the Israeli government itself as the average for people in Gaza to survive. The reason famine conditions prevailed was twofold: Israel had purposefully disabled Gazas agricultural capacity, and it had very deliberately limited the supply of emergency aid. A little boy is fed by his mother with food from a community kitchen at the Muwasi camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis on Sunday. In April 2024, Oxfam reported that Gazans were surviving on an average of 245 calories a day or 11% of the recommended minimum requirement set by the Israeli government itself as the average for people in Gaza to survive. Photo: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana In May 2024, USAID (US Agency for International Development) said in a memo to secretary of state Anthony Blinken that the looming famine in Gaza was the result of Israels "arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments of US humanitarian assistance". The damning memorandum delivered to president Joe Biden was ignored as the US administration doubled down on its support of Israel. One year later and more than 20 months after the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli soil, the profound trauma being experienced by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank continues unchallenged by most of the West. An apocalyptic famine looms; as with every other feature of this immense tragedy, no one can ever say that they didnt know; that they would have acted if only they had realised what was in train. In the book, I refer to an interview with a director of UNRWA, Juliette Tuomo, in Jordan last summer, when she asked me: "Where is the outrage?" Particularly with those Gazans who have survived the military onslaught only to now face the threat of starvation, it is the right question, where indeed?! Catastrophe - Nakba II by Fintan Drury, published by Merrion Press, is in bookstores nationwide Gerry Adams had a big victory on Friday in the High Court. A jury decided that he had been defamed in a BBC Spotlight programme which had alleged that he had sanctioned the murder of informer Denis Donaldson in 2006. Mr Donaldson had been unmasked as an informer months previous to his murder in a cottage in Donegal. The BBC programme and an accompanying website article was published in 2016. The Governments delayed approach to complying with climate-related targets and agreements may threaten Irelands position as an attractive place to do business, according to collaborators of a major report. Marie Donnelly, chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC), along with budgetary watchdog Ifacs chief economist Eddie Casey cautioned, since the publication of their report in March, that a likely hefty EU fine for incompliance with agreements could impact foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities. Theres good reason to say, given what we are seeing internationally happening and all this uncertainty that is threatening Irelands competitiveness, that were going to lean into these areas that are helping (FDI) and attracting multinationals to stay here, said Mr Casey. The report, A Colossal Missed Opportunity Ireland's climate action and the potential costs of missing targets, found the Government could be on the hook for fines between 8bn and 26bn if it fails to meet its agreed EU climate commitments outlined in legislation. The danger is that this is quite close to reality because the additional measures that they have said they will enact, they havent followed through on yet, said Mr Casey. If the Government implements the additional measures in its own Climate Action Plan by 2030, it could reduce the fine range to 3bn to 12bn. With every crisis, you have opportunities too, he said. Mr Casey stressed the significance of investing in the renewable sector and meeting climate agreements to maintain relationships with multinationals, especially as trade tensions continue to simmer amid US president Donald Trumps tariff threats and his ambition to lure large firms back to the US. Eddie Casey, chief economist, Ifac. Thankfully, it looks like the Government is taking more urgency following the tariffs debacle to really get a grip on how they can deliver and accelerate it, said Mr Casey. Ifac has long warned against the Governments overdependence on corporation tax for financial padding in annual budgets, however three quarters of the corporation tax haul last year was from US companies and around 40% was collected from just three companies. We are incredibly reliant on them and we dont want to lose that, said Mr Casey. Multinationals have become increasingly interested in locations with a renewable energy supply and a reinforced energy grid as they come under mounting pressure to fuel their electricity-guzzling data centres in a more sustainable way. Theyve been really worried for a long time about Irelands ability to actually deliver energy so they can, as a tech firm, have a larger data centre, said Mr Casey. Ms Donnelly echoed Mr Caseys comments and said the EUs Green Deal and its clean competitiveness agenda are effectively the same thing. Europe understands that we have to have energy both for our society and our economy, she continued. Its clear that the energy we currently use is neither sustainable, it doesnt have supply security, it can blow the cost of living out of the water, its largely drawn by not very politically stable parts of the world and its very bad for our climate because its full of emissions, she said. These legally binding EU agreements that Ireland has entered require domestic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, an increasing share of renewable energy, and improved energy efficiency. A key piece of the legislation is the Effort Sharing Regulation, which Ireland and other EU countries agreed to adopt in 2018. It covers emissions from domestic transport, buildings, small industry, waste, and agriculture. If Ireland emits more than allowed, the state will have to purchase the gap from overperforming countries those that reduce their emissions more than required. Other countries, including Spain and Portugal, have been overperforming in terms of their climate mandates because they have taken money from other countries that are underperforming. However, Ireland has around five times the cost of missing targets compared to a larger economy such as Germany which is underperforming. However, Mr Casey explained that Germany can afford to miss targets. Marie Donnelly, chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC). Ireland has shown Europe it is capable of economic miracles, including its recovery from the banking crisis in 2008 to boasting healthy public finances after years of volatility, including covid lockdowns, soaring inflation and interest rate hikes. However, Ireland has not been as skillful in performing miracles when it comes to its emissions targets. In 2022, Ireland had the second-highest emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU at 11.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide, figures from the Central Statistics Office showed. Irelands emissions were 56% higher than the EU average of 7.5 tonnes. Meanwhile, the most recent projections from environmental agency EPA showed Ireland can achieve a 25% reduction of emissions by 2030, which is considerably short of the 42% reduction target. In addition, Ireland fell below its renewable energy share target baseline share in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and could face costs from purchasing compliance for falling below its baseline share in 2021 and 2022 but as things stand, not for 2023, according to the climate report. This is because countries have one year to return above their baseline share. Ireland is expected to return above its baseline share in 2024. Irelands slow movement towards climate progress may be driven by a lack of serious consequences to date. There is a view amongst some that this is never going to happen, that they wouldnt be fined, said Ms Donnelly. She repeated the point that if Ireland does get fined, the bill will without doubt be at least an eye-watering 8bn. Mr Casey also said that if theyre not going to do it, theyre basically breaking the law. The State would have the resources to do that without having to hike taxes or cut spending on any ongoing supports, he said. Mr Casey added that if this were to happen, it would be a colossal wasted opportunity because that is money that could be put towards loads of potential measures that would meet the targets. If Ireland does not comply with the EU's mandate, the money that Ireland will be fined will transfer to other countries in Europe. Luxury cruise travel is among the most enriching ways to explore the world. A celebration of slow travel and multi-destination exploration, cruise holidays are designed for those who want to experience more, with variety and ease, in a more relaxed way to see the world. With Oroko Travel, Irelands leading luxury travel specialists, youll not only enjoy an opulent voyage but also chart your own course with an itinerary tailored entirely to you. From pre- and post-cruise stays to private excursions and cultural experiences, Oroko Travels expert team tailors every detail. Todays traveller wants to reset and reconnect, says Brendan Breen, managing director at Oroko Travel. Its not about doing more, but doing it the right way, in a sequence that makes sense, with experiences that feel truly personal. Our clients expect the same care and precision at sea that they receive on land, Breen continues. Thats why we partner with luxury providers like Silversea, because their on-board experience mirrors our own commitment to bespoke luxury. In partnership with the worlds leading cruise providers, Oroko has curated a selection of tailored voyages, inviting you to discover the world on your doorstep. Cruise Alaskas icy waterways in Silversea luxury Witness incredible moments of nature, like a long grizzly standing in the river at sunset, framed by dramatic mountains Few places on Earth rival Alaska for scale and spectacle. Where thunderous glaciers crash into the sea, whales breach in icy bays, and eagles soar above indigenous forests. In partnership with Silversea, Oroko has tailored a luxury expedition cruise holiday to Alaska where the cinematic drama of the landscape is matched only by the detail of world-class service. The journey begins in Anchorage, continuing by car or rail along the Turnagain Arm, one of North Americas most scenic coastal routes, before boarding the cruise in Seward. Over the coming days, guests sail southward toward Vancouver, passing mighty fiords and along the face of the Hubbard Glacier. They trace Gold Rush stories in Skagway, kayak past the blue walls of Mendenhall Glacier, and experience the Tlingit culture and totem pole heritage of Ketchikan. The journey ends in Vancouver, a cosmopolitan city that beautifully bridges wilderness and worldliness. This route is a favourite among Oroko customers for good reason. It delivers grandeur and authenticity in equal measure. Oroko enhance each trip with thoughtful extras, whether thats a guided biking tour in Vancouver, a wildlife excursion in Anchorage or a post-cruise rail journey into the Rockies. Timeless Mekong: Vietnam and Cambodia by river For those drawn to culture and colour, a luxury Mekong river cruise holiday offers a spellbinding journey through southeast Asia. Here, life is lived on the water; fishermen cast nets at sunrise, children wave from sampans, monks chant in golden temples. Partnering with Uniworld, Oroko offers an immersive experience that begins in Ho Chi Minh City and meanders through the storied Mekong Delta, ending with a cultural deep-dive into Angkor Wat and historic Hanoi. Experience boutique luxury on the water, with Uniworlds beautifully appointed ships offering elegant dining, attentive service and indulgent spa treatments. Stay in luxury suite accommodation on the water, with spacious terraces and elegant interiors Your travel specialist will personalise your journey with thoughtfully tailored experiences: perhaps a private food tour by Vespa through the lantern-lit streets of Hoi An, a guided sunrise visit to Angkor Wat, or a few days of barefoot luxury on the beaches of Phu Quoc. Forests, fiords and fairy-tale towns In Norway, nature is the protagonist. Towering fiords, alpine peaks and storybook towns create a backdrop unlike anywhere else. In the summer months, theres a particular kind of magic to Norway. The light stretches long into the night, the air feels fresh and clean, and when travelling by water, you can see a whole spectrum of landscapes in just a few days, says Breen. Experience the cinematic beauty of Norway's landscapes by luxury cruise including Sognefjordan and Bergen, the city of the Seven Mountains Oroko has partnered with Silversea to offer two tailored Nordic voyages: one beginning in Bergen, the other in Copenhagen. Both journeys celebrate Alpine beauty, Viking heritage and true, Nordic wilderness. Each holiday can be personalised to reflect the clients interests. With no two holidays the same, you get to experience the Norway thats uniquely yours, says Breen. Some clients want back-to-back excursions; others prefer a gentler pace. We account for all of that. Its what makes the experience truly bespoke. Egypt: Cruising the treasures of the Nile From the mighty pyramids to the mummified remains of King Tutankhamun, Egypt holds a spellbinding history To cruise the river Nile is to journey back in time to an era of ancient pharaohs, queens and the Great Sphinx. Oroko tailors luxury cruise holidays in Egypt that combine private land touring with an intimate river voyage, guided by expert Egyptologists and hosted aboard elegant, small-capacity ships. Your boutique accommodation on the water offers the perfect balance of cultural discoveries and relaxation The journey begins in Cairo, with visits to the Great Pyramid and the Egyptian Museum, before continuing to Alexandria and then on to the Nile by way of Luxor or Aswan. Over four leisurely nights, travellers explore temples, tombs and sacred riverbanks. Each element of the journey is finely tuned, says Brendan. Its the ideal balance of depth and relaxation, he says. You cover extraordinary ground, but with time to absorb and reflect. For those seeking a beach element, Oroko can also arrange a stay along the Red Sea, ideal for unwinding at the end of a culture-rich itinerary. For adventure seekers, Oroko tailor luxury Cruise holidays to destinations like Greenland (above), Antarctica and Alaska These four journeys offer just a glimpse into Oroko Travels tailored cruise portfolio. Whether youre dreaming of the Mediterranean, Antarctica, the Indian Ocean or further afield, the expert team can design your ideal luxury cruise holiday, anywhere in the world. With sailings available globally through 2025, 2026 and beyond, let Oroko tailor your next voyage. Visit orokotravel.ie, call 01 2600 240 or email info@orokotravel.ie The United States and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violates UN sanctions and has helped Moscow increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. They made the accusations in their first report since joining forces to monitor sanctions against North Korea after Russia vetoed a resolution in March 2024 to continue the monitoring by a UN Security Council panel of experts. It had been issuing reports of Pyongyangs sanctions violations since 2010. The 29-page report produced by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team comprised of the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and Britain said the evidence it gathered demonstrates that North Korea and Russia have engaged in myriad unlawful activities explicitly prohibited by UN sanctions resolutions. Russian President Vladimir Putin (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin via AP) It said North Korea has transferred arms and related materiel by sea, air and rail, including artillery, ballistic missiles and combat vehicles, for Russias use in the war in Ukraine. Russia has transferred air defence systems to North Korea, and its forces trained the Norths troops deployed to support Russias war, the team said. And Moscow also has supplied refined petroleum products to Pyongyang in far excess of the yearly cap under UN sanctions, and has maintained corresponding banking relations with the North in violation of sanctions. The 11 countries said this unlawful cooperation has contributed to Moscows ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure. The cooperation has also provided resources for North Korea to fund its military and banned ballistic missile programmes, and it has allowed the more than 11,000 troops Pyongyang has deployed to Russia since October 2024 to gain first-hand military experience, the team said. There was no immediate response from the Russian Mission to the United Nations to a request for comment on the report. The report covers the period between January 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, and points to evidence that Russia and North Korea intend to further deepen their military cooperation for at least the foreseeable future. It cites an unnamed country in the team reporting that Russian-flagged cargo vessels delivered as many as 9 million rounds of ammunition for artillery and multiple rocket launchers from North Korea to Russia in 2024. The report includes images of containers, which the team says were from North Korean and Russian ports and an ammunition dump in Russia. Citing an unnamed team member, the report says North Korea last year transferred at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia, which were launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorise populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia. North Korean Public Security Minister Pang Tu Sop, right, meets with Russian Vice Interior Minister Vitaly Shulika at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang (AP/Jon Chol Jin) It also transferred elements of three brigade sets of heavy artillery, the report said. It includes images of a North Korean 170mm self-propelled gun that it said was being transported through Russia, and North Korean multiple rocket launcher ammunition and an anti-tank missile, which it said were found in Ukraine. The team said in a joint statement that it will continue to monitor implementation of UN resolutions and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade UN sanctions. It urged North Korea to engage in meaningful diplomacy. The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Koreas first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking, so far unsuccessfully, to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, and have blocked all other UN action against North Korea. Mauritania, China sign feasibility study for food storage unit Xinhua) 13:15, May 30, 2025 NOUAKCHOTT, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China and Mauritania signed a memorandum on Wednesday in Nouakchott concerning the feasibility study for a food preservation and storage unit, the Chinese Embassy in Nouakchott announced on Thursday. The future facility to be funded by China will have a storage capacity of 30 million tonnes. This project marks a significant new step in China-Mauritania cooperation, particularly in the fields of agriculture and food security, Chinese Ambassador to Mauritania Tang Zhongdong said during the signing of the memorandum with Mauritania's Minister Delegate for the Budget Codioro Moussa N'Guenore. It will help strengthen Mauritania's capacity to store food products, an essential factor for ensuring food security and improving living conditions for the population, Tang said. China will seize this opportunity to further deepen its pragmatic cooperation with Mauritania in the fields of agriculture and development, and to elevate bilateral relations to an even higher level, the ambassador said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Hamas said it was still reviewing a US proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 27 people were killed in new Israeli airstrikes, according to hospital officials. The ceasefire plan, which has been approved by Israeli officials, won a cool initial reaction Thursday from the militant group. US negotiators have not publicised the terms of the proposal. A Palestinian boy injured following an Israeli airstrike is brought for treatment to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City (jehad Alshrafi/AP) But a Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said on Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. In a terse statement issued on Friday, Hamas said it is holding consultations with Palestinian factions over the proposal it had received from US envoy Steve Witkoff. While changes may have been made to the proposal, the version confirmed earlier called for Israeli forces to pull back to the positions they held before it ended the last ceasefire. Hamas would release 10 living hostages and a number of bodies during the 60-day pause in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 100 serving long sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. Each day, hundreds of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter Gaza, where experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade slightly eased in recent days has pushed the population to the brink of famine. Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal, Qatars ambassador to the United Nations, Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani said on Friday, referring to talks between her country, the US and Egypt. On Thursday, a top Hamas official, Bassem Naim, said the US proposal does not respond to any of our peoples demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine. The uncertainty over the new proposal came as hospital officials said that 27 people had been killed Friday in separate airstrikes. Palestinians line up for food distribution in Deir al-Balah (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) A strike that hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed 13, including eight children, hospital officials said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Meanwhile, the bodies of 12 people, including three women, were brought to Shifa Hospital on Friday from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the bodies of two others were brought to a hospital in Gaza City. Hospital officials also said on Friday that at least 72 had been killed in Gaza during the previous day. That figure does not include some hospitals in the north, which are largely cut off due to the fighting. Since the war began, more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began with Hamas October 7 2023 attack on Israel, which left around 1,200 dead. A Palestinian boy sits on the curb as he waits near a food distribution kitchen in Deir al-Balah (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) Some Gaza residents said their hope for a ceasefire is tempered by repeated disappointment over negotiations that failed to deliver a lasting deal. This is the war of starvation, death, siege and long lines for food and toilets, Mohammed Abed told The Associated Press in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. This war is the 2025 nightmare, 2024 nightmare and 2023 nightmare. Mr Abed said he and his family struggle to find food, waiting three hours to get a small amount of rice and eating only one meal daily. Its heartbreaking that people are being starved because of politics. Food and water should not be used for political purposes, he said. Another Gaza resident, Mohammed Mreil, said about the possibility of a truce that: We want to live and we want them (Israelis) to live. God did not create us to die. President Donald Trump bid farewell to Elon Musk in the Oval Office on Friday, providing a cordial conclusion to a tumultuous tenure for the billionaire entrepreneur. Mr Musk is leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, and he will be rededicating himself to running his businesses, including electric carmaker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X. Mr Trump credited Mr Musk with a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington and said some of his staff would remain in the administration. Mr Musk, who wore all black including a T-shirt that said The Dogefather, nodded along as the president listed contracts that had been cut under his watch. Elon Musk speaks during a news conference (Evan Vucci/AP) I think the Doge team is doing an incredible job, Mr Musk said after accepting a ceremonial key from the president. Theyre going to continue to be doing an incredible job. He left a searing mark on the federal bureaucracy, including thousands of employees who were fired or pushed out. Some government functions were eviscerated, such as the US Agency for International Development, which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world. Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a result of the USAID cuts. Despite the upheaval, Mr Musk also fell far short of his goals. After promising to cut one trillion or even two trillion dollars in federal spending, he lowered expectations to only 150 billion dollars in the current fiscal year. It is unclear whether that target has been hit. The Doge website tallies 175 billion dollars in savings, but its information has been riddled with errors and embellishments. Mr Trump said Mr Musk had led the most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations. He suggested that Mr Musk is really not leaving and hes going to be back and forth to keep tabs on what is happening in the administration. Elon Musk listens as US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House (Evan Vucci/AP) Mr Musk had a bruise next to his right eye in the Oval Office, which he explained by saying he had been horsing around with his young son. I said, go ahead punch me in the face, he said. And he did. Mr Musk, the worlds richest person, recently said he would reduce his political donations. He was Mr Trumps top donor in last years presidential campaign. Mr Trump appeared eager to end Mr Musks service on a high note. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way, Mr Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. Elon is terrific! As a special government employee, Mr Musks position was designed to be temporary. However, he had speculated about staying indefinitely, working part time for the administration, if Mr Trump still wanted his help. Mr Musk has brushed off questions about how Doge would continue without him, even suggesting it could gain momentum in the future. Doge is a way of life, he told reporters recently. Like Buddhism. By Sven Teske, University of Technology Sydney (The Conversation) Is climate action a lost cause? The United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for the second time, while heat records over land and sea have toppled and extreme weather events have multiplied. In late 2015, nations agreed through the Paris Agreement to try to hold warming well under 2C and ideally to 1.5C. Almost ten years later, cutting emissions to the point of meeting the 1.5C goal looks very difficult. But humanity has shifted track enough to avert the worst climate future. Renewables, energy efficiency and other measures have shifted the dial. The worst case scenario of expanded coal use, soaring emissions and a much hotter world is vanishingly unlikely. Instead, Earth is tracking towards around 2.7C [4.86F] average warming by 2100. That level of warming would represent unprecedented peril for life on this planet. But it shows progress is being made. How did we get here? Global greenhouse gas emissions have risen since industrialisation began around 1850. Carbon dioxide (CO) is far and away the most common greenhouse gas we emit, while methane and nitrous oxide also play a role. These gases trap the suns heat in the atmosphere, preventing it from radiating back out to space. In 2023, 41% of the worlds energy-related CO emissions came from coal, mainly for electricity generation. Some 32% came from burning oil in road vehicles, and 21% from natural gas used for heating buildings and industrial processes. The world is certainly feeling the effects. The World Meteorological Organization confirmed 2024 was the hottest year on record, temporarily hitting 1.5C over the pre-industrial era. In turn, the world suffered lethal heatwaves, devastating floods and intense cyclones. How are we tracking? In 2014, the worlds peak body for assessing climate science the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change began using four scenarios called Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). These four big picture climate scenarios are based on what actions humanity does or doesnt take. They comprise: rapid climate action, low emissions (RCP 2.6) two scenarios of some action and medium emissions (RCP 4.5 and 6.0) no action, high emissions (RCP 8.5). The numbers refer to how many more watts of heat strike each square metre of the planet. Of these four, only the RCP 2.6 scenario is compatible with the Paris Agreements goal of holding climate change well under 2C. But Earth is tracking towards somewhere between RCP 2.6 and 4.5, which would translate to about 2.7C of warming by 2100. IPCC experts also developed five pathways of possible social, economic and political futures to complement the four scenarios. Of these pathways, we are tracking closest to a middle of the road scenario where development remains uneven, the intensity of resource and energy use declines, and population growth levels off. While effective, these scenarios are now more than a decade old and need to be updated. In response, my colleagues and I produced the One Earth Climate Model to outline rapid pathways to decarbonise. We set an ambitious carbon budget of 450 gigatonnes of CO before reaching net zero a pathway even more ambitious than the RCP 2.6. The US, European Union and China together represent about 28% of the global population, but are responsible for 56% of historic emissions (926 gigatonnes) . The pathways compatible with 1.5C give them a remaining carbon budget of 243 Gt CO. China would require the largest carbon budget to reach decarbonisation. For this to happen, by 2050, the world would have to be 100% powered by clean sources and phase out fossil fuel use. This would limit global warming to around 1.5C, with a certainty of just over 50%. We would also have to end deforestation within the same timeframe. Emissions peak are we there yet? Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have still not plateaued, despite sharply increasing renewable electricity generation, battery storage and lower-cost electric vehicles. But there has been real progress. The EU says its emissions fell by 8.3% in 2023 compared to 2022. Europes net emissions are now 37% below 1990 levels, while the regions GDP grew 68% over the same period. The EU remains on track to reach its goal of reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Australias emissions fell by 0.6% last year. The country is now 28.2% below June 2005 levels, which is the baseline set for its Paris Agreement goal of a 43% reduction by 2030. In the US, emissions are still below pre-pandemic levels and remain about 20% below 2005 levels. Since peaking in 2004, US emissions have trended downward. The worlds largest emitter, China, is finally cutting its emissions. Huge growth in renewables has now led to the first emissions drop on record, despite surging demand for power. This is good news. For years, Chinas domestic emissions remained high despite its leading role in solar, wind, EVs and battery technology. China produces almost one-third (31%) of the worlds energy-related carbon emissions not least because it is the workshop of the world. Every cut China makes will have a major global effect. Global Average Surface Tempertures, NOAA, According to the IPCC, limiting warming to around 1.5C requires global emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest. It now looks like the peak may occur this year. Despite daily negative news, the decarbonisation train has left the station. In 2024, renewables accounted for more than 90% of growth in electricity production globally. Electric vehicles became cost competitive, while heat pumps are developing fast and solar is on a winning streak. So, is it too late to save the climate? No. The technologies we need are finally cheap enough. The sooner we stop climate change from worsening, the more disasters, famine and death we avert. We might not manage 1.5C or even 2C, but every tenth of a degree counts. The faster we make the shift, the better our climate future. Sven Teske, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. ( Middle East Monitor ) Ten per cent of Gazas Palestinian population has been killed, injured, disappeared, or detained as a result of the genocide committed in the Strip by Israel since 7 October 2023, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported yesterday. The Geneva-based monitor published an infographic marking 600 days since the beginning of what it described as an ongoing genocide carried out by Israel over the past 20 months. According to the rights group, 31 per cent of the victims in Gaza were children and 21 per cent were women. It also noted that 9 out of 10 people killed by Israel over the past 20 months were civilians. The report further revealed that several thousand people have suffered amputations or permanent disabilities, and over 10,000 children have lost at least one leg. It stated that 98 per cent of Gazas Palestinians have been forcibly displaced at least once, with the majority now living in temporary shelters such as schools and tents. In this context, the rights group said: The Israeli army treats anyone who fails to comply with evacuation orders as a collaborator with a terrorist organisation. READ: Israeli army kills 10 Palestinians collecting aid in southern Gaza The genocide has also left nearly 43,600 children orphaned across the Gaza Strip, it added. Regarding the scale of destruction, Euro-Med Monitor reported that 80 per cent of buildings have either been destroyed or damaged, while 90 per cent of hospitals, schools, and universities have been heavily damaged or completely destroyed. Gaza 37, Digital, Midjourney 2025 The group also highlighted that Gazas daily per capita access to water has decreased by 99 per cent due to widespread Israeli attacks on water infrastructure. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, 719 water wells have been destroyed and put out of service since 7 October 2023. Additionally, 98 per cent of Gazas population is experiencing severe levels of food insecurity, with at least 100 documented deaths due to severe malnutrition, including 42 children. By deliberately restricting humanitarian aid, particularly food, through the closure of Gazas crossings since 2 March, Israel has driven 2.4 million Palestinians into severe hunger, facilitating forced displacement, it warned. Via Middle East Monitor ( Tomdispatch.com ) Colorful career criminal Willie Sutton once may (or may not) have been asked why he robbed banks. Because that is where the money is, he supposedly replied. A similar principle may explain the first foreign trip of President Donald J. Trumps second term, which was not to a traditional U.S. ally in Europe. Rather, he set off to visit the capitals of the Gulf hydrocarbon potentates Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. In royal palaces there, he feasted and was offered hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in American companies and opportunities for the Trump Organization, too. Qatar even courted controversy by giving him a $400 million Boeing 747-8 plane to serve as a future Air Force One. And the publicity was regal. Strikingly missing, however, was a side trip to Israel or any evident consultations with the extremist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead, Israel was frozen out and blindsided by Trumps pronouncements. On the eve of his trip, the president took the Israelis by surprise when he abruptly announced that he would halt his (costly and fruitless) bombing campaign against the Houthis of Yemen. Israeli leaders then had to listen to Trump proclaim that the U.S. has no stronger partner than Saudi Arabia, with which he brokered a $142 billion deal for American arms. The United Arab Emirates has a sovereign wealth fund of $2.2 trillion, while Saudi Arabias is $1.1 trillion and that countrys leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has already deposited $2 billion of it in the investment firm of Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner. Qatars sovereign wealth fund has $526 billion. And such sums dont even include those countries vast currency reserves, earned by selling petroleum and fossil gas. And in that single, several-day trip, President Trump managed to realign U.S. Middle Eastern policy to center on and yes, it should be capitalized! an Axis of the Plutocrats, Gulf sheikhs who are using their galactic fortunes to reshape the region from Libya to Sudan, Egypt to Syria, and who are hungrily eyeing new investment opportunities in areas like the emerging artificial intelligence industry. Syria: A Very Strong Background Oh, and while he was traveling Trump revealed that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabias bin Salman had indeed convinced him to lift American sanctions on Syria, a step distinctly opposed by the Israelis. While in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, he even held a surprise meeting with fundamentalist Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara, who had once led an al-Qaeda affiliate. Asked about whether the Israelis opposed the step, Trump replied, I dont know. I didnt ask them about that. In fact, the Associated Press reported that, in an April meeting with Trump, Netanyahu had specifically pleaded with him not to lift those sanctions on Syria, since he claimed he feared that the new fundamentalist government there might eventually stage an attack on Israel. Trump appears to have been entirely unmoved by Netanyahus plea. After meeting al-Shara in Riyadh, the president summed up his view of the former guerrilla and supporter of hardline Salafi Islam this way: Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter. On recognizing Damascuss new government and issuing a waiver on those congressionally mandated sanctions, Trump observed, Now its their time to shine So, I say, Good luck, Syria. Show us something very special. Its worth noting that al-Shara claims he wants good relations with all his countrys neighbors and is open to peace with Israel. You wouldnt know it from Netanyahus heated rhetoric, but during the Syrian civil war of the last decade, Israel did give medical help to the Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) that al-Shara founded and led when it was fighting against Bashar al-Assads dictatorial regime. Since al-Sharas group sometimes persecuted the heterodox Druze minority in Syria, this step outraged Israels own Druze minority, some of whom at one point attacked an ambulance taking a wounded Syrian rebel to an Israeli hospital, while the groups leaders lobbied Netanyahu to cease aiding the al-Qaeda-linked outfit. Netanyahus recent suggestions to Trump that al-Shara, now in control of much of Syria, poses a threat to Israel, were therefore wholly disingenuous. Moreover, the jackboot is entirely on the other foot. As soon as the revolution in Damascus succeeded, Netanyahu ordered an orgy of destruction, bombing naval ships in the Syrian port of Latakia and military installations across the country, leaving Syria virtually helpless. Israeli troops then marched into Syria, occupying swathes of its territory and taking control of a dam that supplies 40% of its water. Israeli far-right cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich then pledged that Israels multi-front war of expansion there would only end when Syria was you couldnt put it more bluntly than this dismantled. Now, Israeli analysts not only fear a resurgent Syria but also worry that since Erdogan has Trumps ear on Syrian policy, he will be emboldened. Turkey, after all, backed the rebel group that has now taken power and is their main international sponsor. Turkish fighter jets are already operating in northern Syrian air space, and Israels attempt to establish hegemony over its southern regions is endangered by Turkish claims that, going back to Ottoman times, Syria has always been in its sphere of influence. Iran: No Nuclear Dust Trump also sidelined Netanyahu during his trip by continuing to press for a new nuclear deal with Iran. His Gulf Arab hosts showed a collective enthusiasm for the ongoing talks and Trump revealed that Qatars ruler, Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, had indeed lobbied him to begin direct discussions with Iran. The Gulf Arab monarchies fear being caught in the crossfire of any future American-Israeli war with Iran. The leaders of Qatar and the other Gulf states are anxious that the (all too literal) fallout from any aerial strikes on enriched nuclear materials in Iran could drift onto their populations, affecting their water supplies. Trump tried to reassure his hosts that were not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran, adding that he wanted to try negotiations first in hopes of forestalling any such outcome. During both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, Washingtons pitch to the Gulf Arab states was that they should recognize Israel, do business with it, and form a military alliance with it against Iran. Jared Kushner succeeded in making this argument to the postage-stamp Gulf countries of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which signed the Abraham Accords with Israel on September 15, 2020. However, Kushner and then-President Biden failed to bring Saudi Arabia aboard. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman resisted going on a war footing with Iran, especially after the devastating 2019 attack by that country or one of its proxies on the Kingdoms Abqaiq refinery, which underlined Riyadhs vulnerability. Not surprisingly, then, in March 2023, the Saudi foreign minister joined his Iranian counterpart in Beijing, where the two countries restored diplomatic relations and began deconfliction talks. Once Israel launched its total war on the Gazan population in October 2023, bin Salman could hardly sign on to the Abraham Accords. In the region, it would have looked as if he were helping to destroy the Palestinian Arabs while putting a target on Iran, one of the Palestinians few remaining state champions. Unlike Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia has a substantial citizen population some 19 million people whose opinions the government has to be at least a little bit anxious about, especially since the blood of the average Saudi is indeed boiling at the daily atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza. Last year, bin Salmans office leaked to Politico that he feared he would be assassinated if he recognized Israel under such grim circumstances and he insisted on the need for an independent Palestinian state (which seemed to get Washington off his back on the issue). In addition, Trump appears to have developed the same fascination that possessed Barack Obama when it comes to opening Iran the way Richard Nixon once opened China. Nothing, of course, could be more unwelcome in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to attack Irans civilian nuclear enrichment facilities (though Western intelligence agencies do not believe that country actually has a nuclear weapons program). In an April meeting, Trump informed Netanyahu that he wanted to try negotiations before anybody attacked Iran and pointedly gave the prime minister a copy of his book The Art of the Deal. Qatar: A Fundamental Role If Qatar did convince Trump to try negotiating with Iran, then Sheikh Tamim won a major round in the contest for influence with the American president. It was a victory in keeping with Dohas longstanding regional role as a mediator and seeker of peaceful solutions to conflict. And the rise of Qatari influence is another blow to Netanyahu, who has attempted to sideline the Gulf gas giant even though he was happy to make use of its services. Since Hamass bloodthirsty October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, elements of the Israeli government and its supporters have attempted to blame Qatar for supposedly supporting and bankrolling Hamas. The allegations are breathtakingly false and serve as a smokescreen for Hamass actual patron (in a manner of speaking), Netanyahu himself. They were aimed, however, precisely at turning Qatar into a distrusted regional pariah, a ploy that has so far failed spectacularly. That the fundamentalist Hamas movement came to power at the ballot box in Gaza in 2006 and could not be dislodged struck Netanyahu as a potential blessing. The bad blood between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on the West Bank left Palestinians politically divided. Netanyahu made that very rivalry a pretext for preventing the establishment of a state for the five million stateless Palestinians under Israeli occupation. He put severe import-export restrictions on Gaza but otherwise allowed Hamas to run it as its own fiefdom. Hamas rocket fire from time to time (which seldom did any real damage) was a price Netanyahu was then willing to pay. He had a close associate act as a go-between regarding transfers of money from Qatar and Egypt into Gaza for civilian aid and administration. From 2021 on, Egypt and Qatar deposited aid money for Gaza civilian reconstruction in an Israeli bank account, and then Israel transferred it to the Gazans. Thats right: Bibi Netanyahu was once functionally Gazas comptroller. Moreover, in 2011-2012, the Obama administration asked Qatar to host members of the Hamas civilian politbureau so that they could take part in indirect negotiations with both the U.S. and Israel. The favor Qatar did for Washington and Tel Aviv, however, would prove burdensome to its diplomacy. In 2018, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim, grew so frustrated with Hamas that he decided to kick its officials out and cease sending aid to Gaza. Terrified that his divide-and-rule approach to the Palestinians might be jeopardized, Netanyahu frantically dispatched the head of the Israeli intelligence outfit Mossad to Qatar to plead with the emir to continue the arrangement. In 2020, The Times of Israel revealed that Mossad head Yossi Cohen had written a letter to Tamim about the Gaza money transfers, saying: This aid has undoubtedly played a fundamental role in achieving the continued improvement of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and ensuring stability and security in the region. As late as 2023, other Israeli government officials were still sending similar messages, according to that paper. The subsequent attempt of the Netanyahu government to shift blame for its disgraceful Gaza policy onto Qatar has struck few seasoned observers as plausible. Regarding Trumps recent visit, the Israeli genocide in Gaza was the one outstanding issue on which Gulf leaders appear to have made little headway. After a roundtable with Qatari business leaders, the president said of Gaza, Let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone. These remarks, wholly detached from reality, did not clarify whether he still agreed with Netanyahu on a plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, which no one in the Arab Gulf could accept. In any case, insiders say Trump is frustrated that Netanyahu doesnt wrap up the war, but that the president has not exerted the pressure necessary to stop it. A Stark Pivot Trumps foreign policy trip marked a stark pivot away from what had long been a neoconservative version of Middle Eastern policymaking in Washington. In the era of President George W. Bush, some officials typically argued that Israel was Washingtons only reliable democratic partner in the Middle East and that all policy in the region should be organized around that reality. In the process, of course, they downplayed the plight of the Palestinians, claiming in 2002 that peace would only come in the region when the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein was overthrown. They gradually developed a rhetoric for stuffing Washingtons version of democracy down the gullets of Middle Eastern regimes at the point of a gun, if necessary. They either marginalized Arab regimes or sought to scare them into an alliance with Israel. Their ultimate goal then was a war on Iran that would overthrow the government there. Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran, they used to proclaim in a creepy combination of male chauvinism and juvenile jingoism. Trumps own regime is, of course, not free of either toxic masculinity or a jejune hyper-nationalism. However, unlike Bush and the neocons, the 47th president seems uninterested in kicking off long, debilitating foreign wars, which his base has come to hate. Still, think of him, at least in part, as Trump of Arabia. Of course, hes mainly interested in making money for himself and his wealthy backers there. If Israel gets in the way of deal-making with the Gulf plutocrats, it could become an annoyance that Trump might feel he cant afford. So far, however, the president seems unwilling to make the hard choices necessary to end the genocide and position the Middle East and the U.S. for prosperity, leaving us all in limbo with only a new Trump Tower in Dubai to show for it. Copyright 2025 Juan Cole Via Tomdispatch.com TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (TSX:JAG) today announced several changes to its senior management team that are designed to strengthen its leadership structure and support the Company's future growth plans. The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Luis Albano Tondo as Deputy Chief Executive Officer effective June 1, 2025. Mr. Albano Tondo will be based in Belo Horizonte, near the Company's operations, and will transition to the role of Chief Executive Officer following the conclusion of Vernon Baker's term as Chief Executive Officer on August 1, 2025. Mr. Albano Tondo brings extensive experience in the mining industry from both Brazilian and international roles, including major project development in Minas Gerais and international executive experience. To ensure a seamless leadership transition, Mr. Baker will remain with the Company through the end of July, following which, he will step down as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Jaguar. The Company would like to thank Mr. Baker for his exceptional leadership over the past six years, including through recent challenges relating to the dry-stack slump and subsequent temporary suspension at the MTL Complex. His steady guidance has been instrumental in maintaining stability and positioning the Company for continued progress. In addition, Chief Financial Officer, Alfred Colas, will be stepping down to pursue other opportunities effective May 31, 2025. The Company would like to thank Mr. Colas for his dedication and contributions over the past 18 months and wishes him success in his future endeavors. The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Marina Fagundes de Freitas, currently Vice President, Finance and Projects, as Interim Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Fagundes de Freitas has been with Jaguar for over 14 years, holding increasingly senior roles across finance and operations. Jeff Kennedy, Chairman and Director of Jaguar Mining stated: "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank both Alfred and Vernon for their commitment to the Company. We are excited to welcome Luis and look forward to the leadership and experience he brings to Jaguar. We are also pleased to be able to recognize Marina's long-standing contributions and are confident that her extensive experience will serve the Company well as she takes on this expanded role." About Jaguar Mining Inc. Jaguar Mining Inc. is a Canadian-listed junior gold mining, development, and exploration company operating in Brazil with three gold mining complexes and a large land package with significant upside exploration potential from mineral claims. The Company's principal operating assets are located in the Iron Quadrangle, a prolific greenstone belt in the state of Minas Gerais and include the MTL Mining Complex (Turmalina mine and plant) and Caete Mining Complex (Pilar and Roca Grande mines, and Caete plant). The Roca Grande mine has been on temporary care and maintenance since April 2019. The Company also owns the Paciencia Mining Complex (Santa Isabel mine and plant), which had been on care and maintenance since 2012 and is planned to restart in 2025. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.jaguarmining.com. For further information please contact: Vernon Baker Chief Executive Officer This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 416-847-1854 Marina Fagundes de Freitas Interim Chief Financial Officer This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +55 31-98463-5344 Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's expectations and plans relating to the future. All of the forward-looking information made in this news release is qualified by the cautionary statements below and those made in our other filings with the securities regulators in Canada. Forward-looking information contained in forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "are expected," "is forecast," "is targeted," "approximately," "plans," "anticipates," "projects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "believe" 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. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, may be considered to be or include forward-looking information. This news release contains forward-looking information regarding, among other things, the timing and ability of the Company to execute its strategy and delivering long-term value for shareholders, as referenced above, any information and statements related to future operations at any of the Company's properties, including Pilar and Turmalina, and any statements relating to the management changes described above, which remain subject to the acceptance of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company has made numerous assumptions with respect to forward-looking information contained herein, including, among other things, assumptions about the future and long-term stability of the Satinoco tailings pile; there will be no unforeseen adverse weather events or other external factors that could delay the Company's recovery or remediation efforts; the current assumptions regarding the extent of the damage and timeline for repairs at the MTL complex remain accurate and will not require significant revision as further assessments are completed; estimated timeline for the development of the Company's mineral properties; and any changes to general business and economic conditions. Forward-looking information involves a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including among others: the risk of Jaguar not meeting the forecast plans regarding its operations and financial performance; uncertainties with respect to the price of gold, labour disruptions, mechanical failures, increase in costs, environmental compliance and change in environmental legislation and regulation, weather delays and increased costs or production delays due to natural disasters, power disruptions, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations; uncertainties inherent to capital markets in general (including the sometimes volatile valuation of securities and an uncertain ability to raise new capital) and other risks inherent to the gold exploration, development and production industry, which, if incorrect, may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the Company and described herein. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of gold exploration, development, mining and production, including environmental hazards, tailings dam failures, industrial accidents and workplace safety problems, unusual or unexpected geological formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding, chemical spills, procurement fraud and gold bullion thefts and losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or the inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks). Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information made in this news release, see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form and Management's Discussion and Analysis, as well as other public disclosure documents that can be accessed under the issuer profile of "Jaguar Mining Inc." on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects the Company's reasonable expectations as at the date of this news release 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, other than as required by law. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. VANCOUVER, BC May 30, 2025 TheNewswire - Giant Mining Corp. (CSE: BFG | OTC: BFGFF | FWB: YW5) (CSE:BFG.WT.A) (Giant Mining or the Company) is pleased to announce that all core from drill hole MHB-34, completed to a total depth of 1,963 feet (598.3 metres)has been sampled and submitted to ALS Global Services (ALS Labs) for analysis. This hole was part of the Companys Phase 1 Spring 2025 Drill Program (the Core Program), which comprised five diamond drill holes totaling 5,484.5 feet (1,671.68 metres) at the Majuba Hill Porphyry Copper-Silver-Gold Project (Majuba Hill), located in Pershing County, Nevada . Figure 1. MHB-34 Core Being Processed for bagging and shipping to ALS for assays The Phase 1 program was designed to expand known zones of copper mineralization and advance the Majuba Hill project toward completion of a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). Hole MHB-32, the first of the five holes drilled, returned two significant copper-mineralized zones within a broader interval of 379.5 feet (115.7 metres) grading 0.33% Cu and 16.97 ppm Ag. Notably, the results included 169.5 feet of 0.41% Cu, with higher-grade intervals of 40 feet at 1.36% Cu and 10 feet at 4.36% Cu, indicating that mineralization extends deeper and farther north than previously known. See Press release May 22, 2025, here. David Greenway, CEO of Giant Mining, commented: "In my entire career, Ive never seen drill core like this, its truly extraordinary. When we began drilling MHB-34, we had high expectations, but what we encountered exceeded them all. In my entire career, Ive never seen drill core like this. The presence of visible native copper beyond 1,850 feet, alongside cuprite and chalcopyrite, is a powerful indicator of the scale and strength of the mineralized system at Majuba Hill. This hole reinforces our belief that Majuba Hill is evolving into a world-class copper, silver, and gold discovery. Located in a top-tier mining jurisdiction with excellent infrastructure, this project is uniquely positioned to contribute to America's clean energy transition and critical minerals independence. We eagerly await the assay results from ALS Labs and look forward to advancing our 2025 exploration program." Figure 2: MHB-32 NQ Core closeup. Clasts of intrusive with chalcopyrite in tourmaline/chalcopyrite matrix breccia at 810 ft (246.89 m). About Hole MHB-34 Visible native copper observed beyond 1,850 feet signals scale and strength at Majuba Hill. Strong presence of native copper, cuprite, and chalcopyrite suggests proximity to a primary copper sulfide zone. Majuba Hill positioned as a homegrown U.S. critical minerals project with Tier 1 infrastructure advantages. As shown in the accompanying images (Figure 2-5), native copper, cuprite, and chalcopyrite was persistent in the deeper part of MHB-34. Figure 3: MHB-34/1499 ft (456.9 m) Native Cu on fracture HQ Core, 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. Figure 4: MHB-34/1510 ft (460.2 m) Native Cu in HQ Core with chalcopyrite, 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. Figure 5: MHB-34 1527 ft (465.4 m) Chalcopyrite and Tourmaline Breccia Matrix, HQ Core 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. Figure 6: MHB-34/1542 ft 470 m) Chalcopyrite with Cuprite and Native Copper, HQ Core 2.5-inch (63.5 mm) diam. Figure 7: Majuba Hill 2025 Drill Hole Locations 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. Market Awareness The Company has entered into extended its Agreement with Gold Standard Media, LLC (GSM) and its affiliates will continue to provide the Company with advertising services including (i) creating landing pages, (ii) digital marketing, (iii) email marketing, and (iv) influencer marketing. The Extension Agreement is for an additional six (6) months to the original term as previously announced on January 10, 2025 in consideration of a payment of up to $400,000 USD. GSM has a business address located at 723 W University Avenue, Georgetown, TX 78626 and can be contacted at +1 512-843-1723 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. GSM and its principals are arms length from the Company. The Company shall not issue options or other securities in consideration for GSMs services. The Company further announces that it has engaged the services of 1123963 B.C Ltd. DBA Capitaliz On It (Capitaliz), a social media influencer focused digital marketing agency out of Vancouver, BC, to increase investor awareness and interest in the Company as well as attracting new investors through various online platforms and a comprehensive digital media marketing campaign for the Company. Capitaliz has been engaged for a period of three (3) months commencing June 9th, 2025 for USD $90,000. Capitiliz is at arms length to the company and the principal doesnt own any shares of Giant Mining Corp. Capitaliz can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 778-237-1431. The Company further announces it has engaged Consultant Feneck Consulting Group, LLC (Feneck) for certain capital markets, strategic marketing and investor relations services to raise Giant's investor profile . The agreement is effective as of May 20, 2025 and shall continue until November 19, 2025 and may be extended for additional six month increments by the parties' mutual written agreement beginning on November 20, 2025; and (ii) the Company will pay the Consultant cash in the amount of US$15,000 for the period May 20, 2025 to August 19, 2025 and cash in the amount of US$22,500 for the period August 20, 2025 through November 19, 2025. Feneck Consulting Group, LLC can be reached by phone at +1 732-300-5451 and by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Furthermore, the company announces it has extended its agreement with Plutus Invest & Consulting GmbH (Plutus) as of May 28th, 2025 for an additional term of two (2) months in consideration for a payment of EUR 160,000 to provide consulting services related to advertising, marketing, PR strategies and investor awareness in the European market. Plutus has a business address at Buchtstr. 13, Bremen 28195, Germany and can be contacted at (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), or by telephone: (+49 42117540174). Plutus (including its directors and officers) has an arms-length relationship with the Company. The Company will not issue any securities to Plutus as compensation for its marketing services. 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 DOWNLOAD INVESTOR INFORMATION Click Here 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. SASKATOON, SK / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Abasca Resources Inc. ("Abasca" or the "Company") (TSXV:ABA) is pleased to announce it has filed an independent technical report (the "Report") on SEDAR+. The Report, prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101), supports the initial mineral resource estimate (the "MRE") for the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit (the "Loki Deposit") at its 100%-owned Key Lake South Project (the "Project") in northern Saskatchewan, Canada (Figure 1). The graphite MRE (Figure 2) validates the Company's belief in the Loki Deposit's significant development potential. Mineral Resource Highlights Total Inferred Resource : 11.31 Mt of Graphite at an average grade of 7.65 % Cg. Contained Graphite : 0.86 Mt Cut-off Grade: 2.78 % Cg The MRE, with an effective date of April 10, 2025, was prepared following the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Reserves (May 2014). It primarily incorporates results from the 2024 summer drill program, which included 20 holes totaling 5,499 m, as well as re-sampled holes from 2016 drill cores (Figure 3, Table1). The 2024 drilling aimed to establish a mineral resource and lay the groundwork for further expansion in future exploration campaigns, including the Company's recent 2025 winter drill program. The Loki Deposit remains open at depth and along strike. Growing electric vehicle sales and activity in the energy storage sectors have significantly increased demand for graphite, in addition to its ongoing traditional industrial applications. Graphite is designated as a critical mineral that is vital for economic stability in both Canada and the United States of America. It is also one of six essential minerals in the Canadian supply chain. Dawn Zhou, President and CEO of Abasca, commented "We are strongly encouraged by the exploration results at the Loki Deposit. The Company looks forward to continuing to demonstrate its potential for shareholder value and to contribute to Saskatchewan's Critical Minerals Strategy." "We are pleased with the exploration progress and excited to keep advancing the Project. The Key Lake South Project has a lot of potential to still unlock with many open prospective corridors waiting to be tested." said Brian McEwan, Vice-President of Exploration. Table 1: Pit-constrained inferred mineral resource estimate of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit. Category Cut-off Grade (% Cg) Tonnage (Mt) Grade (% Cg) Contained Graphite (Mt) Inferred 2.78 11.31 7.65 0.86 The reporting standard for the Mineral Resource Estimate uses the terminology, definitions and guidelines given in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 2014) as required by NI 43-101. Reported Mineral Resources are constrained to a pit-shell generated in Whittle software above a cut-off grade of 2.78 % Cg. The estimation of Mineral Resources was completed through a block model approach using interpreted geology wireframes, composites from drill core assays, and grade interpolation via Ordinary Kriging. Numbers may not add up due to rounding. The effective date of this Mineral Resource estimate is April 10, 2025. The qualified person knows of no environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, political or other relevant factors that may materially affect the Mineral Resource Estimate in this report. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability. Collected samples were sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, an independent laboratory accredited under ISO/IEC 17025:2017, for preparation and ICP-MS multi-element analysis, boron by fusion as well as total graphite content (% Cg) and total sulphur by LECO. Samples were collected in accordance with industry-standard quality assurance / quality control practices and included the insertion of blanks, standard reference materials, and repeats into the sample stream at regular intervals. Samples were also collected for in-field and lab density measurements at regular intervals and through the mineralized zones. The full technical report dated May 29, 2025, with an effective date of April 10, 2024, is titled "Technical Report on the Key Lake South Project with Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit, Saskatchewan, Canada". The report was prepared for Abasca Resources Inc. by Understood Mineral Resources (UMR), and can be found under the Company's issuer profile at SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and on the Company's website (www.abasca.ca). The Company also announced that the second and final tranche of its private placement, previously announced on April 22, 2025, is expected to close in the first week of June 2025. For more information on the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit and an overview of the Key Lake South Project, please visit the Company's website at www.abasca.ca. Figure 1: Map of the Key Lake South Project area showing the location of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit and other exploration target areas. Figure 2: Map of the area around the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit showing the surface projection of the inferred resource and the 2016, 2024, and 2025 drilling. Drillholes KLS-24-042, KLS-24-046, and KLS-25-072 intersected a prospective graphite zone northeast of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit. Figure 3: Oblique view of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit showing the pit-constrained inferred resource and the drillholes used to define the resource. Qualified Person The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Brian McEwan, P.Geo, a Qualified Person as set out in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. McEwan is the Vice-President of Exploration at Abasca. The mineral resource estimate presented in this news release was completed by Matthew Batty, P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. Mr. Batty is a Geostatistician and the owner of Understood Mineral Resources Ltd. About Abasca Resources Inc. Abasca is a mineral exploration company that is primarily engaged in the acquisition and evaluation of mineral exploration properties. The Company owns the Key Lake South Project (KLS), a 23,977-hectare exploration project located in the Athabasca Basin Region in northern Saskatchewan, approximately 15 km south of the former Key Lake mine and current Key Lake mill. The project possesses geological similarities and along strike of past Key Lake Mine with prospective conductors of over 50 km for potential uranium mineralization. KLS is also host to the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit comprising a total inferred resource of 11.31 Mt at 7.65 % Cg. Please refer to the Company's news release dated April 15, 2025 for further information about the resource estimate. On behalf of Abasca Resources Inc. Dawn Zhou, M.Sc, CPA President, CEO and Director For more information visit the Company's website at https://www.abasca.ca or contact: Abasca Resources Inc. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Telephone: +1 (306) 933 4261 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc.) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts" and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs with respect to future events and is based on information currently available to management. Forward-looking information contained in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements relating to the initial mineral resource estimate; the potential for resource expansion and upgrading; the positioning of Abasca to potentially become a major contributor to North America's secure supply chain of graphite; the derisking of the Loki Deposit for development and the creation of shareholder value; the continued delineation of the deposit; and the movement of the Project into next stages. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Abasca undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations, or statements made by third-parties in respect of Abasca, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although Abasca believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors, and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and factors, certain of which are beyond Abasca's control, including the impact of general business and economic conditions; risks related the exploration activities to be conducted on KLS, including risks related to government and environmental regulation; actual results of exploration activities; industry conditions, including uranium and graphite price fluctuations, interest and exchange rate fluctuations; the influence of macroeconomic developments; business opportunities that become available or are pursued; title, permit or license disputes related to KLS; litigation; fluctuations in interest rates; and other factors. In addition, the forward-looking information is based on several assumptions which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions about the availability of qualified employees and contractors for the Company's operations and the availability of equipment. The forward-looking information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. Abasca disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Claudine*,a retired nurse who was raped by a chaplain when she was young, is one of the pioneers. In 2019, after the publication of an article about abuse at our lycee, we got together as victims. We were scattered all over France. We organized a meeting, which was very warm and involved a lot of listening. Our group of ten people was received by CIASE in February 2020. I was in Lourdes when the bishops acknowledged the Church had done wrong, and I went to Paris when CIASE issued its report. So I saw the birth of the INIRR, to which I decided to take my case in January 2022. Michel* was abused at a very young age by a nun. He worked as a psychotherapist and was also one of the pioneers. When I first heard about the Sauve Commission [named after the head of CIASE], I said to myself that I was going to testify. I knew straight away that they were interested, because statistically there are fewer abusive women than men. I dont belong to any associations that demand things of the Church, but I thought that my testimony might seem symbolic and interesting. Reading my anonymous testimony in the CIASE report did something for me; your testimony is immediately recognized as being true. I found the people on the commission very respectful, so I decided to take my case to the CRR, which was just getting started. Francois Devaux: I registered with the INIRR but didnt go through with it. Francois Devaux is well known to the French public. Along with other victims, he secured the conviction of a scout chaplain and a cardinal from the diocese of Lyon in a high-profile trial. It was no doubt partly our victims association La parole liberee that helped get Jean-Marc Sauves CIASE. Throughout the duration of the commission, I was in close contact with the chairman. He asked me to make a speech when the report was published, in which we victims called for the truth to be told. You could say that the two reparation bodies came into being as a result of De la parole aux actes collective, which was set up after the CIASE report. We asked for the four Rs: recognition, responsibility, reparation and reform. We asked that the Church recognize the systemic responsibility established by CIASE. And once it had acknowledged this, it had to undertake reparation. We applied media pressure. A few months after the publication of the CIASE report, I registered with the INIRR, but I didnt go through with it. Veronique Garnier was abused by two priests as a child. She is also one of the first wave of victims to come forward. In 2010, at Palm Sunday Mass, I asked myself what I was doing there. I told myself it was time to come clean with the Church. Forty years after the events, I realized that the opposite of silence is dialogue, with the Church, even if it is complicated and painful. I worked with the French Bishops Conference. I was one of the victims welcomed to Lourdes for the first time in 2018. As part of the Faith and Resilience Collective, I worked with CIASE and was interviewed. I was one of the first to submit a file to the INIRR. Gilbert: I wrote to the CRR to see if it was serious. To be honest, I didnt really believe in it. Gilbert* was raped by a priest when he was 12. But it wasnt until the whole thing exploded publicly in France that he became aware of it. Francois Ozons film Grace a Dieu, which I saw in the cinema in 2020, was a trigger. The next day, I went for a routine medical check-up at Nancy hospital. It was the first time Id spoken to an adult about what had happened to me. The Sauve report, which was published afterwards and mentioned 330,000 victims, brought out everything I had buried for over 55 years. It was a cataclysm. A year later, I told my children about it. I heard that the French Bishops Conference in Lourdes had decided to release money to compensate the victims. What prompted me to write to the CRR on October 21, 2021 was to find out what it was all about and whether it was serious. To be honest, I didnt really believe it. Yolande du Fayet de la Tour, a victim of rape and four years of sexual assault covered up by denial, didnt believe it at all. I heard about CIASE like everyone else, but I looked at it from a distance because I didnt trust it. I said to myself: in any case, this commission is appointed and paid by the Church, so its just there to restore its image. It took me a year and a half to decide to go and testify. I did it because it was important for me to speak out for all the people who are silent. Its as if a pulse of resilience started, without me really deciding. A whole process of remembering and understanding began. The fact of bearing witness and being with others on social networks made me take on this societal and militant role, by creating a collective of victims. On a more individual level, I then decided to apply to the INIRR for recognition and compensation. I filed my claim in September 2023 and have just received compensation (April 2025). Alain: Ive decided not to go to the CRR. As it comes from the Church, it cant work. We would need a Nuremberg trial, with the Church in the dock as an institution. Alain*, who was molested as an altar boy and later became a psychotherapist, thinks that: As it comes from the Church, it cant work. Its totally impossible. These commissions have the merit of existing, except that we see just how flawed they are. I dont say they are deliberately bad, but flawed. Its a way of washing dirty laundry in the family. It cant work. For me to get reparation, there should be a separating third party, in particular a justice system that is independent of Church and State. Thats why Ive decided not to take my case to the CRR. In my case, it was the system that allowed this kind of abuse to take place, and all the silence that goes with it. [In France] you cant attack the Church as a legal entity. Its highly protected. I think it is up to Parliament to legislate to regulate a certain number of religious practices, or maybe even hold a Nuremberg trial with the Catholic Church in the dock as an institution. Why dont most victims seek compensation? In 2025, it was time for the two commissions to take stock. As of May 6, 2025, only 1,143 people had filed claims with the CRR, 886 claims had been examined and 209 claims were pending. The INIRR has received 1,509 applications since 2022 and provided assistance to 1,235 people. There are a number of reasons why so few people apply to the reparations commissions, according to the victims interviewed by Justice Info. I think theres a kind of collective amnesia, says Yolande. Out of 330,000 people, the vast majority dont realize they are victims. Ive known I was a victim since CIASE and MeToo Church. Secondly, after recovering from amnesia or denial, many victims tell themselves that if their attacker is dead, theres nothing they can do, that the statute of limitations has expired, and they dont think about making a complaint to the institution from which theyve been estranged for a long time. Theres a link between the institution and the abuse, the systemic aspect, but a lot of people havent understood that. I also think that we live in a society where many Catholics have left the Church and no longer have any connection to it. Its terrible that so few people [are seeking redress], says Veronique. The 330,000 people identified by CIASE didnt come out of nowhere. I think that for some people its too difficult because they dont want to talk about it anymore. For example, a friend of mine was also attacked, but he didnt contact either CIASE or INIRR, he didnt want to. I am 64, hes 69. I think he has probably found some sort of fragile equilibrium, and that he knows very well that if he starts talking, everything in his life is going to go wrong. Lets not dream: the 330,000 people wont come out of the shadows. There are all those who have died and all those who dont even know the commissions exist. Alain* also believes that many people dont want to stir up the past. They have more or less come to terms with whats happened in their lives. Among them are those who remain Catholic and dont want to leave the Church, compromise the future and not have a funeral one day, because you never know what happens after death. Its a form of denial, of downplaying things, of coping with reality. The commissions are swamped with files," explains Gilbert*. I think a lot of people have gone to them, but it takes so long. Let's not dream: the 330,000 people wont come out of the shadows. There are all those who have died and all those who dont even know that the commissions exist. Its a strategy on the part of the commissions. These two bodies have been manoeuvring to ensure that the Church pays its bill as cheaply as possible. I think its a strategy on the part of the commissions, says Francois. There is a deliberate lack of communication, but also a laborious and exhausting process. If CIASE has received so many testimonies from victims, its because it has communicated and put in place tools to receive them. These two reparation bodies communicate very little, publish few if any reports, and express themselves only in response to media pressure. They do not really invite victims to testify, and they do not use the diocesan websites in an effective and relevant way, with a real desire to do so. Whats more, too few people work for them, which creates unbearable waiting times. I think that from the outset, these two bodies have been manoeuvring to ensure that the Church pays its bill as cheaply as possible. The INIRR doesnt go out of its way to make itself known, adds Claudine*. CIASE did a tour of France. The INIRR remains fairly Parisian. It has taken steps to commemorate victims when asked for it, yes. But were a long way from everyone coming forward. I dont think weve reached the optimum level in terms of what could be done to get more victims to approach the INIRR. Of course, there are all the counselling centres in churches, but from what Ive heard, theyre not necessarily people trained to listen. Daniele* talks about her experience of a counselling centre. After suffering from traumatic amnesia, her memory of the violence she endured came back to her in flashes in 2020. Id see a church and try to get inside to understand what was going on, but every time I couldnt. At the time, I was feeling suicidal, and I was referred to a church counselling centre in hospital. I was taken into a diocesan office. It was the first time Id put everything that happened to me into words, and the conversation lasted several hours until the person asked me are you aware that youve been raped several times? I collapsed, and she was also in tears. She wasnt clear with me about the next steps, telling me only that the bishop was going to carry out a fact check and report back. She told me about the INIRR without saying that I had the right to contact it. It was a big mistake. When I left that office, I didnt know where I was, I could have gone under the first car. I waited several months without any news. And it was much later that this person called me back to say: You need to call the INIRR. The compensation process began in 2024. * Pseudonym A Guatemalan court on Friday sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years in prison for sexual violence against Indigenous women during the country's civil war in the 1980s. The defendants, aged between 53 and 67, were Indigenous members of militias tasked by the military to fight leftist guerrillas during a conflict that left an estimated 200,000 dead or missing. Former Civil Self-Defense Patrol members Pedro Sanchez, Simeon Enriquez and Felix Tum were found guilty of crimes against humanity for sexually assaulting six members of the Achi Mayan ethnic group in the 1980s, Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos said. "I am innocent of what they are accusing me of," Sanchez told the court before the sentencing. The sentence comes more than four decades after the crimes were committed, between 1981 and 1983, a period of extreme bloodshed. In 2012, five former paramilitaries were similarly convicted in the 1982 massacre of 256 Achi Mayans in the same area. Indigenous lawyer Haydee Valey, who defends Achi women, said the sentence is "historic" because it finally recognizes the struggle of the survivors who have demanded justice for decades. One of the victims, 62-year-old Paulina Ixpata, told AFP: "We managed (to win) a second trial against the patrol members who committed crimes during the armed conflict... I am very happy." Several Achi women in the courtroom applauded at the end of the trial, where some dressed in traditional attire, and others listened to the verdict through an interpreter. It was the second trial involving Achi women who were victims of multiple rapes in villages and at an army base in Rabinal, north of Guatemala City. Between 2011 and 2015, a group of 36 victims filed complaints against former military personnel and paramilitaries for sexual violence. The NGO Impunity Watch said the case "highlights how the Guatemalan army used sexual violence as a weapon of war against Indigenous women" during the civil war. "Sexual violence was used by the army as a method to control, punish, and instill fear in Indigenous communities, as well as to degrade the women and their descendants," it said. In 2022, five other former paramilitaries were sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crimes. Actor Byeon Woo-seok's departure for the Asia Star Entertainer Awards (ASEA) 2025 turned chaotic on Wednesday as fans surged past safety barriers at Gimpo International Airport, reigniting concerns over celebrity security management. The 32-year-old star, best known for his role in the hit drama Lovely Runner, was en route to Yokohama, Japan, where he is scheduled to present an award at the ceremony on Thursday. The event will be broadcast live on TBS1, ABEAM, DALLDA, and Naver's CHZZK platform. Large crowds gathered at the airport to catch a glimpse of the rising actor. Despite the presence of safety guardrails and a scaled-down security team, the situation quickly escalated as fans reportedly pushed forward, causing barriers to topple. In the pictures, a relaxed Byeon waves and smiles at the photographers. However, security personnel struggled to control the crowd as fans attempted to get closer for selfies and personal interactions. The scene has raised new questions about public safety and security protocol at celebrity appearances. This is not the first time Byeon has been involved in such an incident. In 2024, the actor was criticized for employing what many called an "excessive" security detail during an overseas departure from Incheon International Airport. At the time, his six-man team reportedly occupied a terminal gate for 10 minutes, issued aggressive warnings to fans, and used flashlights on other travelers actions that drew significant public backlash. His agency cut down Byron's bodyguards to only three after being criticized. However, Wednesday's crowd control failure is renewing discussions about whether the current measures are sufficient, especially as Byeon's popularity continues to grow. The actor's appearance at ASEA 2025 is also drawing attention due to a highly anticipated on-stage reunion with co-star Kim Hye-yoon, who will co-host the event. The two's sensational chemistry in Lovely Runner has been loved by and captured the attention of fans! Byeon is set to make a return to TV in 2026 with the historical romance series 21st Century Grand Prince's Wife, further cementing his status as one of Korea's most sought-after rising stars. Cha Eunwoo, a member of the K-pop group ASTRO and a rising actor, will begin his mandatory military service this summer as part of the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) Military Band, his agency confirmed. According to an exclusive report from OSEN on Wednesday, the 27-year-old star has officially been accepted into the military band and is scheduled to enlist on July 28. "Cha Eunwoo applied for the Army Military Band at the end of March," a representative from his agency, Fantagio, said at the time of his audition. "He went through the proper procedures and completed the interview. We were informed that the results would be announced on the 29th. If accepted, although we didn't yet know the exact date, we understood that enlistment would take place sometime in July." The Military Manpower Administration announced the list of successful candidates for the military band on May 29, confirming Cha's acceptance. Read more: Cha Eun Woo's Glamorous Post Backfires as South Korea Faces Political Turmoil: 'Are You Really this Clueless?' He will be the second member of ASTRO to enlist in the military. Cha, born Lee Dongmin, made his debut with ASTRO in 2016 and quickly gained fame for both his musical talents and acting roles in dramas such as True Beauty and Island. He has also built a reputation as a top-tier visual in the K-pop industry, frequently going viral for his appearances at public events. South Korea requires all able-bodied men to complete approximately 18 to 21 months of military service, typically before the age of 30. Cha's enlistment follows a growing list of K-pop idols fulfilling their military duties, often joining specialized units such as the military band or promotional units. Fantagio has not yet disclosed further details about Cha's upcoming schedule before his enlistment. Read more: Cha Eunwoo's Sexy and Villainous Look at 'Fatale' Photoshoot for YSL Has the Internet Swooning Thursday, May 29, 2025 - Dagoretti North MP, Beatrice Elachi, has opened up about one of the darkest moment of her life - losing her son - and the cruelty she faced online in its aftermath. Speaking on Citizen TV, Elachi revealed that when her son passed away in a tragic road accident in March, she became the target of heartless bullying on social media. What hurt the most, she said, was how some users, particularly the youth, mocked her grief and the memory of her son. My worst experience is when you talked about my son, whom nobody knew, she said. Thank God I dont read social media but sometimes families come and share stories, and you realize it's out there. That broke me. Elachi also recalled another painful moment - watching how people online dragged the children of slain Kasipul MP, Ongondo Were, into public discourse shortly after their fathers death. Why would we discuss grieving children? What happens when they return to school? Has anyone thought about that? she asked. The legislator is now calling for urgent legal reforms to regulate how personal tragedies are shared online. If a family is grieving and hasnt given consent, why are you posting pictures and videos? That has to stop. During the National Prayer Breakfast on May 28th, Elachi delivered a heartfelt prayer calling out the moral decay and helplessness facing Kenyas youth - citing gambling, addiction, and rebellion as signs of a generation in crisis. She urged parents and leaders to take responsibility for the direction the nations young people are heading. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, May 29, 2025 - A 32-year-old Kikuyu single mother identified as Phylis Njeri has been accused of eloping with a 15-year-old boy in Zimmerman man estate, Nairobi, sparking public outrage. According to sources, the teenage boy, a student, was reported missing by his family, prompting a frantic search. He was later found living with Njeri, who is said to have taken him in under unclear circumstances. Njeri, a mother of two, was subsequently arrested after concerned relatives of the boy alerted authorities. However, her release shortly after being taken into custody has sparked controversy and anger within the community and on social media. A relative of the boy took to social media and said the family is deeply distressed by the incident and is demanding justice, questioning why Njeri was released despite the serious nature of the allegations. See her photos below. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, May 29, 2025 - President William Ruto led the nation in mourning the death of renowned Kenyan author, playwright, and scholar Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo, who passed away on Wednesday, May 28th, in the United States at the age of 87 after a long illness. In a statement from State House, President Ruto hailed Prof. Ngugi as Kenyas greatest man of letters and a fearless voice for justice, truth, and African identity. He described the late author as a visionary whose influence extended far beyond literature. I have learnt with deep sadness about the death of our beloved teacher, writer, playwright, and public intellectual, Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo, Ruto said. The towering giant of Kenyan letters has put down his pen for the final time. The President praised Ngugis courage and intellectual impact, noting how he shaped public discourse around independence, justice, and political power. Though he never received the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ruto said Ngugi remains a champion of literary emancipation and innovation in our hearts and minds. Leaders across the political and cultural spectrum paid tribute. Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga called him a giant African, while Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said his works illuminated the soul of a nation. Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua called Ngugi a literary genius who inspired his appreciation for symbolic language and communication. Ngugis daughter, Wanjiku wa Ngugi, confirmed his passing in a heartfelt post, calling for the celebration of his life and legacy. Born in 1938, Ngugi was a pioneering voice in African literature, best known for Petals of Blood, The River Between and Devil on the Cross, written while in detention. He championed writing in indigenous languages and taught globally, leaving behind an indelible legacy. Thursday, May 29, 2025 - A Nairobi court has issued arrest warrants for prominent car dealer Francis Mundia, owner of Valley Road Motors, and his son Brandon Nganga after they failed to appear in court to answer charges related to the alleged theft of a luxury vehicle valued at Ksh 6.5 million. Makadara Law Courts Principal Magistrate Gilbert Shikwe issued the warrants on Wednesday after Mundia, his son, and a third accused, Robert Mugaa Bundo, skipped a scheduled plea-taking session. The trio are accused of conspiring to steal a red Mercedes-Benz E350, registration number KDS 724T, belonging to one Andrew Kiarie. Court documents say that the accused conspired to commit a felony and stole the vehicle on February 20th, 2025, within Dandora, Kamukunji Sub-county. The charges include conspiracy to commit a felony under Section 393 of the Penal Code and theft of a motor vehicle under Section 287(A). Despite being released earlier on police cash bail, none of the accused appeared in court. The case is set for mention on June 26th, 2025. Police have been granted the authority to arrest and produce the suspects in court before that date if found. Via Cyprian Nyakundi Thursday, May 29, 2025 - Raila Odinga Junior has called out Kenyas Gen Z for what he termed as "abuse and hate" directed at neighboring Tanzania. In a statement shared online, Raila Jr. emphasized the importance of fostering cooperation with Tanzania, calling the country a strategic partner and ally. Tanzania is a strategic partner and ally to Kenya. We should seek co-operation and mutually beneficial trade relations with our sister nation as this is key to Kenya's economic growth. he said. His remarks come amid growing tension between the two countries following the May 18th arrest, torture and deportation of Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan journalist, Agather Atuhaire, who had travelled to Tanzania to observe the treason trial of opposition leader, Tundu Lissu. The incident sparked outrage among Kenyan social media users, many of whom flooded X (formerly Twitter) with criticism of Tanzanian authorities and President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Tanzanian lawmakers have since condemned the online backlash, accusing Kenyans of cyberbullying and interfering in their domestic affairs. On Wednesday, President William Ruto offered a public apology during the National Prayer Breakfast. To our neighbours from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us," he said. "If there is anything that Kenyans have done that is not right, we want to apologise," the president added. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, May 29, 2025 - Self-proclaimed forex guru and scammer, Raymond Omosa, popularly known as Kenyan Prince, has gone bald as part of his personal healing process after the breakup with influencer Stephanie Ngunjiri. Omosa shared a video of himself getting a clean shave, revealing that shaving his head has become a therapeutic ritual. Shaving bald is therapy for me, especially after heartbreaks. It helps me heal faster, he wrote. The couple, known for their turbulent on-and-off relationship, split earlier this month. Stephanie confirmed the breakup online, saying: He was indeed a gentleman, but he was too petty! Kenyan Prince also confirmed the split, cheekily revealing he funded Stephanies move from his house. I gave her fare to move her things. Wewe ukiachwa, ulipewa fare? he joked. Brushing off claims of bitterness, he added: As long as I have money, I don't give a damn. Their relationship had long been under public scrutiny, especially after a viral interview where he embarrassed Stephanie by boasting about cheating - as she sat beside him. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, May 29, 2025 - A young couple in Embu is reeling from a devastating loss after thugs broke into their newly opened electronics shop and made away with all the stock. According to reports, the couple had only launched the business less than a week ago, filled with hope and ambition to build a thriving enterprise. Their dream, however, was short-lived after unknown criminals raided the premises at night, looting every item in sight. CCTV footage from the shop, now circulating online, captures the shocking moment the suspects forced their way in and cleared the shelves. The couple promptly handed over the footage to the police, but as of the time of reporting, no arrests have been made. The heartbreaking incident has drawn widespread sympathy from members of the community and online users, many of whom are calling on authorities to act swiftly and arrest the ruthless thugs. The Kenyan DAILY POST THE YOUNG Clane woman has received nationwide attention this week for her hunger strike in solidarity with Palestine, has stopped due to health concerns. Sophie Ni Choimin began the hunger strike on May 21 and pledged not to eat again until the Irish government passes the Occupied Territories Bill. Sophie was horrified by the Israeli blockade opposed in March, which stopped supplies into Gaza, resulting in the mass starvation of thousands of people. By day six of the hunger strike, Sophie reported dizziness, body aches, severe hunger pangs and a cough. With her family supporting her and doctors monitoring the situation, she wanted to keep going for as long as her body would allow. However, yesterday, on day 7 of the hunger strike, she took to social media to explain that she was to pause her hunger strike due to worries over her health. She wrote on social media: My commitment to my family was that I would not put them through any more hurt than was completely necessary. I owe them a great debt for their trust in me." It was reported that Sophie intends to start the hunger strike again when she is feeling stronger. Kildare woman Jenny Melia has been named head of one of Irelands largest enterprise agencies. The Board of Enterprise Ireland has today announced the appointment of Jenny Melia as its new Chief Executive Officer (Designate). Ms Melia, from Rathangan, has worked in the agency for 29 years and is currently an executive director of Enterprise Ireland, which includes the role of chief client officer. She will take up her new role as chief executive officer in July. Ms Melia, who graduated from UCD with a BSc and PhD in Chemistry, has held a number of senior leadership roles across the organisation throughout her career. She has worked extensively with client companies of varying scales from all sectors, including food, industrial and technology, and has also worked with the High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Division, and the Research and Innovation team. The Kildare woman was described as a dedicated public servant with an outstanding track record. Peter Burke TD, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, said: I want to congratulate Jenny Melia on her appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland. Jenny is a dedicated public servant, who has spent much of her career supporting and fostering the development of the Irish enterprise base through her impressive tenure with Enterprise Ireland, which spans almost three decades. I am looking forward to working with Jenny and her leadership team, as this Government continues to focus on supporting Irish exporters and indigenous SMEs. Irish-owned enterprises are critical to our economy, and we are committed to supporting this sector to continue to be agile, and to grow and scale both domestically and in international markets. Michael Carey, Chairman of Enterprise Ireland, said: On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to announce Jennys appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland, after a highly competitive recruitment process. She has an outstanding track record of providing clear vision and strategic leadership within the organisation, has established deep relationships working collaboratively with key stakeholders from across the ecosystem, and has worked extensively and directly with our client companies. Enterprise Ireland has successfully helped Irish enterprise to scale and grow enormously in recent years, with our client base now employing and exporting at record levels, and Jenny has played a pivotal role in this success. She was also centrally involved in the design and implementation of the organisations new client operating model, and Enterprise Irelands new strategy, Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally (2025-2029). She will bring this vast experience and leadership to her new role, and we look forward to working with her to achieve our long-term ambition, that exporting Irish companies will become the primary driver of the Irish economy. Mr Carey also thanked Kevin Sherry for his leadership as Interim CEO, adding: Kevin, who will return to his position as Executive Director in July, demonstrated an exceptional level of commitment as he filled this role in recent months, and I would like to thank him for his dedication and leadership during this period. Employment at companies supported by Enterprise Ireland rose to a record 234,454 earlier this year, and the organisations new strategy sets out a number of ambitious targets for the Irish enterprise base, including plans to increase exports to 50bn by 2029. A new bus route between Athy and Allenwood will start on 3 June, run by TFI Local Link Kildare South Dublin. This new route is part of the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan which is a major national public transport initiative developed and funded by the National Transport Authority (NTA) as part of the Transport for Ireland (TFI) Network. Route 888 will operate five daily return services Monday to Saturday and three daily return services on Sunday. The new route will offer a new public transport connection to Lullymore Heritage Park and will offer improved connectivity to the villages and areas of Rathstewart, Kilberry north and south, Kildangan, Monasterevin, Mountrice Cross, Tullylost Cross, Mullantine, Ard Mhuire, Rathangan, Newtown and Lullymore. The new route will offer peak time and evening services and will also provide improved connectivity to regional bus services, as wells as to Athy and Monasterevin Train Stations. Speaking ahead of the launch, TFI Local Link Kildare South Dublin General Manager Alan Kerry, said: The launch of Route 888 marks another important milestone in the ongoing development of the TFI Local Link network in Kildare as part of the Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan. Developed in collaboration with key partners, this new service offers a practical and sustainable alternative to private car use, improving access to employment, education, leisure, and tourism. Were particularly excited about the potential for Route 888 to support visitors to attractions such as the Barrow Blueway and Lullymore". A YOUNG Naas man represented the county at a tour of the European Parliament as part of The Presidents Award Youth Ambassador Panel. The group, including Killian Burke from Naas, travelled to Brussels from April 21 to 24, 2025. During this trip, they toured the European Parliament, met with representatives from the European Youth Forum, and participated in workshops with inspiring figures. The Ambassadors were hosted by MEP Maria Walsh, who engaged with the Ambassadors to discuss the issues affecting young people in Ireland today. Killian Burke said: "Travelling to Brussels as part of the Gaisce Youth Ambassador Panel was nothing short of unforgettableit was exciting, empowering, and genuinely life-changing. It wasnt just a tripit was a turning point in my life. The ambassadors were hosted by MEP Maria Walsh, who engaged with the ambassadors to discuss the issues affecting young people in Ireland today. The ambassadors also had a unique opportunity to receive career advice from Michael Scanlon from the VISSEM Centre, Deirdre O'Hea, formerly the head of cabinet to Mairead McGuinness and currently with the European Parliament's internal bureau, and Niall Thompson, the head of support in the Parliament's IT Department. After an electric first outing, live wrestling is returning to Castlecomer Community Hall on Saturday, June 14. Last month, Kilkenny buzzed with excitement as No Limit Wrestling (NLW) presented its heavily anticipated Clash in Castlecomer event. A highlight of the evening was the homecoming of Chainsaw Luke Frehill to Kilkenny. CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE LAST EVENT Making his debut in his home county, Frehill delivered a spectacular performance that captivated the crowds. One of the big names hoping to solidify his reputation here in Kilkenny in the next event will be Conor Brady Lee (CBL) from Longford. CBL, who goes by The Bull, described Clash in Castlecomer as an electric event, and will be aiming to put on another great show for local wrestling fans. READ MORE: St Kierans College say a tearful goodbye to dedicated group of teachers He has spent seven years building up his reputation in wrestling, and is known for cheeky culchie lad persona. Like many young wrestling fans, he grew up watching WWE. When he saw an Irish man in the form of pro-wrestler Sheamus make it to the summit, he felt anything could be possible - with enough hard work. Over the years, I fell head-over-heels for wrestling and would travel to any county to see it live, he said. To be able to perform in towns like Castlecomer means a lot to CBL, because he can empathise with the local wrestling fans, particularly the younger generation. Its cool to see everything beginning to come full-circle now, he said. Having young people ask me how they can get involved in wrestling. That means a lot. READ NEXT: Man jailed for serious assault on Kilkenny garda For CBL, a huge boost comes from a responsive crowd, and he is looking forward to hearing the roars in Comer. In a very Castlecomer twist, CBL will be facing off against Justy in the first ever Kiss My Wellie match. SEE ALSO: Kilkenny service station is setting the gold star standard for customers Although organisers are keen to not give away all the behind-the-scenes details about this match, they have noted that it will be a nod of respect to all involved in organising the wellie race in Castlecomer every year and will be a memorable moment for the audience. Hometown favourite Chainsaw Luke Frehill will also be back in action against Bittersweet Josh whilst a host of other wrestlers will also be making appearances. This event is fun for the whole family, and tickets are selling fast. To secure yours, you can buy tickets on Eventbrite or by contacting local councillor and organiser Maurice Shortall. FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE In October 2024, Hannah Dermody, a 30-year-old kidney patient from Freshford, County Kilkenny, who was thrust into the world of kidney failure at just 11 years old, spearheaded a successful darts fundraiser, that raised 7,075 for the Irish Kidney Association (IKA). Hannah has been receiving nightly dialysis treatment for the past nine years following the failure of a kidney transplant she had received when she was 19 failed after two years. Hannahs familys gratitude to the Irish Kidney Association for their continued support during her and other kidney patients' health journies was the inspiration for the fundraiser. READ NEXT: Kilkenny hurling hero: 'I was struggling. I needed help, and I got it' Central to its success were professional darts champions Alan Soutar and Ricky Evans, who had travelled from the UK to play against local participants. Their presence brought excitement and star power to the fundraiser, thrilling fans young and old. The fundraiser was hosted in her familys pub, McGraths Bar, run by Hannahs mother Philomena and her younger brother Jack. They, along with her other brother Sam, enthusiastically helped out on the event night. Supporting Hannah in planning and organising the fundraiser was her older brother Paul, who, along with four of his friends locals Niall Kenny, Ray Talis, Steven Farrell. This was their third consecutive year to organise a darts fundraiser, with proceeds from the previous two events also supporting charitable causes Kilkenny charity Teac Tom and the Motor Neuron Disease Association. The fundraisers total proceeds were raised through sponsorship cards, an online fundraising platform, a bucket collection at the local MACE store, and a bucket collection and raffle on the event night. "Since I was 11, my life has revolved around kidney disease," she said. "But I try to stay hopeful for a second transplant and make the most of what I can do." Hannah, grateful for the generosity of locals towards the fundraiser, explained, "The community of Freshford was amazing and I want to thank them for their support and generosity. The funds raised will go towards the vital services provided by the Irish Kidney Association." Hannahs journey with kidney disease began at the age of 11 when high protein levels in her urine led to a diagnosis. Doctors discovered that she had only one kidney, which was functioning at just 30%. During her teenage years, Hannah attended regular renal appointments and frequently stayed at St Lukes and Crumlin Childrens Hospital. At age 16, she transitioned to adult care at Waterford University Hospital (WUH). When her kidney function dropped to about 10%, she had no choice but to start dialysis to survive. In her late teens she began peritoneal dialysis (PD), a treatment she underwent every night. In 2012, Hannahs life took a positive turn when she received a kidney transplant. She remains deeply grateful to the family of the deceased donor for their selfless gift. Unfortunately, the transplant lasted only two years, after which she had to return to dialysis. For the past nine years, Hannahs life has revolved around nightly PD treatments at home lasting up to 10 hours. These treatments have often been complicated by infections at the site where her PD line connects to her body. As these infections persist, her renal team has prepared her for the possibility of transitioning to haemodialysis. Unlike PD, haemodialysis takes place in a hospital three times a week, with each session lasting three to four hours. A fistula has already been inserted in preparation for this change in treatment. When her recurring line infections are under control, Hannah hopes to be accepted onto the transplant waiting list, giving her hope for another chance at a better quality of life. Despite these challenges, Hannah maintains a positive outlook. She works part-time in her local Loop cafe and helps out in her mothers bar. Undeterred by the extra luggage of her PD dialysis machine, Hannah has enjoyed holidays provided by the Irish Kidney Association in their holiday homes in Kerry and Waterford. For the past two years, her machine has accompanied her to Lanzarote, where she hooked up to it at night for her vital, life-saving treatment. READ ALSO: Kilkenny parish in mourning after recently losing 'two great men' Hannahs story is a testament to the power of community, determination, and hope, inspiring others to rally around those affected by organ failure. There are over 2,500 people in Ireland undergoing dialysis treatme. 500 people are on waiting lisits for kidney transplants and approximately 100 more are waiting for other organ transplants including heart, lung, liver and pancreas. FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE Tipperary U20 manager Brendan Cummins has admitted it will be a 'big task' for The Premier County to match Kilkenny's passion and work rate in Saturday's All-Ireland Final but firmly believes they can beat their hosts. - HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW The two-time All-Ireland winner will take his panel to UPMC Nowlan Park for a 3pm throw-in on Saturday looking to go one step further than last year, with nine starters on Saturday featuring in last year's final loss for Offaly. Meanwhile, Kilkenny are seeking their first title at this grade since 2022. "Both teams will be unbelievably well prepared, I have no doubt about that," Cummins told the Kilkenny People Sport Podcast. "Of course, every time Tipperary play Kilkenny there's going to be passion and it's going to be a close one." LISTEN: Mark Dowling, Brendan Cummins, Derek Lyng and more - Kilkenny People Sport Podcast "I saw Kilkenny the night of the Leinster Final. The hunger, the passion and the work rate around the pitch is very serious and we have a big task to try and match that and hopefully try and beat that to get across the line," he added. LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW: Aran Artisan Bakery and Bistro in Kilkenny City have been announced as the 'Leinster Winner' in the 'Best Contemporary Irish Cuisine' category at the Irish Restaurant Awards 2025. Co-owners Bart Pawlukojc and Nicole Server-Pawlukojc recently celebrated five years in business at Aran - located on Barrack Street in Kilkenny City. Although they come from different culinary backgrounds, Bart and Nicole join forces right here in Kilkenny at Aran Bakery & Bistro to bring a taste of what theyve learned from all over the world. READ MORE: 'On Your Bike' - Two Kilkenny cyclists take part in life changing fundraiser Aran Bakery & Bistro is our creative outlet that allows us to make top-quality food accessible to everyone, Bart explains. We aim to make simple, yet delicious dishes made from local ingredients that everyone can enjoy in our restaurant. Reacting to the win on social media, Aran stated that they were 'buzzing'. The statement continues: "This is huge for us and honestly, it wouldnt be possible without our absolute legends of a team. "Every single one of our bakery and restaurant crew puts so much heart into what we do here at Aran. This ones for them. "And of course, massive love to all of you who eat with us, support us, cheer us on and have made our bakery and restaurant dreams come to life - youre a big part of this win too. READ MORE: New free orbital bus service showcases 5,000 years of Lingaun Valley in Kilkenny "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!" Before the couple founded their premises on Barrack Street, every single business person advised them against it, but they took the gamble. After defying the odds, Aran is now a vital part of the social scene of Barrack Street and has helped breathe new life into the area. Major renovations were recently completed to the Bistro, allowing even more people to savour the award-winning food on the premises. FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Irish people heading to Spain and Portugal over the next week have been advised to expect scorching temperatures as some parts of the countries have been hit with weather warnings for heat and even thunderstorms. Over the past few days Spain's national weather service, AEMET, has reported record temperatures in some parts for the month of May and Saturday, 31 May is set to see temperatures peak to 42 degrees. AEMET has so far issued orange and yellow weather warnings for many parts of Spain expected to be impacted by the extreme heat over the weekend. El jueves 29 se batieron varios records de temperatura maxima para el mes de mayo, y tambien uno de temperatura minima mas alta. Todos los records anteriores eran del siglo XXI. La estacion de Zamora tiene datos desde 1920. https://t.co/LXoetXQVDS pic.twitter.com/RZK1Ik40Kh AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) May 30, 2025 With these soaring temperatures heavy thunderstorms have followed and more are expected over the coming days as the heatwave looks set to continue in the Iberian Peninsula. As secondary schools across the countries are due to begin their summer holidays this week, many Irish people will be packing their bags and heading abroad over the next few days. Parts of Spain and Portugal could hit 42c by Saturday pic.twitter.com/YysuuSQN22 Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) May 28, 2025 With Spain and Portugal top of the list of destinations for Irish holidaymakers, people have been warned to prepare for the adverse weather conditions. The most impacted parts of Spain and Portugal include Seville, Lisbon, Cordoba, Tarragona and Valle del Guadalquivir. READ NEXT: June Bank Holiday weather will be record-breaking amid Met Eireann's latest forecast Daniel Power of Abbey Community College in South Kilkenny joined 110 Transition Year students from across Ireland to graduate as a St Patricks Mental Health Services mental health ambassador during a special online ceremony held to celebrate the class of 2024/2025. For 14 years, St Patricks Mental Health Services has run a Transition Year programme, with over 100 students from across Ireland taking part annually. The week-long programme runs five times during the academic year between October and March, with 20 to 25 students per programme. READ NEXT: Treasured moments and glamour at Mother of Fair Love Debs in Kilkenny The programme takes place in a hybrid format, with students beginning their week with a day spent onsite at St Patricks University Hospital campus, and the remainder of the weeks sessions attended virtually. Students receive first-hand insight into how a mental healthcare service operates and the experiences of those with mental health difficulties. They meet mental health experts and clinicians; hear from people who have gone through mental health difficulties and their experiences of mental health recovery; and discuss mental health stigma and ways to tackle it. During the programme, participants undertake a range of activities, which include viewing a mock multidisciplinary team meeting with psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses and social workers; taking part in sessions with pharmacists, the medical director and the CEO; and participating in group presentations. Throughout the week, students build their mental health awareness and leave the programme empowered to act as mental health ambassadors in both their schools and local communities. Students are also given the opportunity to contribute to design concepts for a large-scale mental health promotion project that is being progressed by St Patricks Mental Health Services at present. Sinead OKelly, Mental Health Promotion Manager at St Patricks Mental Health Services, said that the programme 'is a valuable opportunity for students to learn more about mental health in a real-life hospital setting'. READ ALSO: 'Unique offering' of events to take place at six tourist attractions in Kilkenny "Not only does it give young people insight into the field, but it also helps them better understand their own mental wellbeing," she said. "By engaging in a programme informed by mental health professionals and learning in a supportive environment, students are supported to build empathy and resilience and develop tools for managing everyday stressors." To celebrate their completion of the programme, students took part in an online graduation ceremony in May. To date, over 1,300 students have completed the Transition Year programme. The 2025/2026 programme is now open for applications. FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE Politico reports: A federal court has struck down President Donald Trumps tariffs on dozens of countries, saying his effort to justify them with broad claims of national emergencies exceeded his legal authority. The unanimous ruling of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade strikes a blow to one of the central planks of Trumps economic agenda at a time he is seeking to use tariffs as leverage to strike trade deals around the world. This is not a surprise, but is very significant. Trump is President, not King, Congress passes laws that set tax rates and tariff rates, just as in New Zealand the Prime Minister cant unilaterally declare a tax or tariff. The GOP has a majority in the House and Senate. If they want higher tariffs, they can try and pass a law imposing them. Arguing that New Zealand exports to the US constitute a national emergency, was never to go fly with a court. There are a lot of crazy conspiracy theories about the influence of Atlas Network members. Usually where no credit is deserved. But the victory over Trump's tariffs? Liberty Justice Center. Cato Institute. George Mason University. This is a win for our team. pic.twitter.com/sqS7EcGHzS Eric Crampton (@EricCrampton) May 29, 2025 As Eric notes, very amusing that the usual deranged people who blame Atlas for everything, arent giving Atlas credit for stopping Trumps tariffs! Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Thunderstorms - some may contain locally heavy rain, especially in the morning. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 86F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch.. Tonight Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later at night. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High around 85F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 67F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, a model of cultural heritage conservation and utilization 14:46, May 30, 2025 By Zhu Peixian, Zhang Wenhao ( People's Daily Tourists visit the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, central China's Henan province. (Photo by Huang Zhengwei/People's Daily Online) South of Luoyang, central China's Henan province, a winding path ascends the West Hills of the Longmen Mountains. Carved into the cliffs are thousands of niches and statues of varying sizes - the Longmen Grottoes come into view. The grottoes were first carved during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), when Emperor Xiaowen relocated the capital to Luoyang. Their construction flourished during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), spanning more than 400 years. The site features 2,345 caves and niches, nearly 110,000 Buddhist statues, over 2,800 inscriptions, and nearly 80 pagodas. Standing for more than 1,500 years, Longmen Grottoes remains the world's largest and most richly decorated repository of stone carvings. UNESCO has hailed it as the pinnacle of Chinese stone carving art. In November 2000, this magnificent cultural relic was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In the 1960s, the Longmen Grottoes faced serious threats: rock collapses, weathering, and water seepage. In 1971, the site underwent its first major restoration. Steel anchor rods were used to reinforce the cliffs, and resin grout was injected to seal cracks. The restoration of the colossal Losana Buddha alone took 15 years. A new round of restoration began in 2021, marked by significant advances in monitoring, surveying, grouting materials, and construction techniques compared to five decades ago. According to Ma Zhaolong, a senior researcher at the Longmen Grottoes Academy, the latest restoration included a comprehensive "health check" to monitor moisture levels and weathering conditions. The academy, in collaboration with relevant universities, developed digital profiles to serve as "health manuals" for the stone sculptures. The more than 200 days of restoration work not only stabilized the cliff faces but also represented a shift toward preventive conservation. "Fifty years ago, we were performing a major surgery," Ma said. "Now, we focus on regular maintenance, underpinned by an improved monitoring system." Among the grottoes on the West Hills, the Binyang Middle, North, and South Caves sit side by side. In the Binyang Middle Cave, beneath a lotus-shaped ceiling, a bare wall remains where the "Empress Worshipping the Buddha" relief was once carved. In the 1930s, the relief was chiseled into fragments and smuggled overseas - leaving a painful void for cultural heritage professionals. So how can these lost treasures be reconnected with their origins? The Longmen Grottoes Academy has launched a digital project in partnership with Xi'an Jiaotong University, the University of Chicago, and other institutions to trace and digitally reunite the missing pieces. By scanning scattered fragments from around the world and comparing them with historical photographs, researchers reconstructed the original flow of drapery lines and digitally recreated the facial features and expressions of the statues using references from the same historical period. In 2023, the "Empress Wen Zhao's Ceremony to the Buddha" relief became the first to be digitally revived. Through augmented reality (AR) technology, visitors can now vividly experience the grace and elegance of this historic artwork. Gao Junping, head of the information and documentation center at the academy, said that since 2005, the institution has been building digital archives of the grottoes. Using laser scanning and high-definition photography, the team has compiled an extensive database to preserve these invaluable cultural relics. In the academy's digital exhibition hall, rows of ancient-looking statues are on display. Upon closer inspection, the intricate folds in the garments are remarkably clear. These are not stone carvings but life-sized digital replicas created using 3D printing technology. A researcher at the Longmen Grottoes Academy scans a cave of the Longmen Grottoes to collect digital data. (Photo by Zhang Wenhao/People's Daily) "Traditional replication methods like casting and rubbing often risked damaging the originals. Now, with 3D printing, we can replicate artifacts without causing any harm, which greatly enhances our capacity for protective research," Gao explained. As daytime crowds recede and night falls, the Longmen Grottoes reveal another different kind of beauty. "We've extended opening hours and introduced nighttime tours to create new cultural tourism experiences," said Wang Qingru, a staff member at the academy. "In April, we relaunched our night tours, attracting many visitors. The Longmen Museum is also scheduled to open next year, showcasing even more exquisite artifacts from our collection," said Wang. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Longmen Grottoes is also a key destination for educational trips. In recent years, the academy has translated its academic research into engaging learning programs. It now offers 10 hands-on courses and themed summer camps, covering clay sculpture, mural painting, ink rubbing, and more, inviting young people to appreciate the beauty of grotto art. The numbers speak for themselves. In 2024, the Longmen Grottoes welcomed over 7.7 million visitors, up 31 percent year on year, setting records in both total visitor count and ticket revenue. In the first four months of this year alone, nearly 3.17 million visitors arrived, up 12 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, international tourist numbers rose by a striking 4.6 times. Researchers at the Longmen Grottoes Academy restore cultural relics. (Photo by Zhang Wenhao/People's Daily) "We've always put preservation first," said Yu Jie, Party head of the Longmen Grottoes Academy. "By leveraging advanced technology, deepening academic research, and uncovering the cultural value of the grottoes, we've promoted the integration of culture and tourism. More people can now experience China's profound history and magnificent civilization right here at Longmen," Yu added. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Even though Black drivers only make up around 11% of the state's population, they were pulled over by law enforcement nearly two times as much as white drivers. Columbia has been awarded the Missouri Blue Shield designation by the Missouri Department of Public Safety, a designation that recognizes a city's commitment to public safety, law enforcement support and crime reduction. Gov. Mike Kehoe created the Blue Shield Program this year to highlight communities that demonstrate strong public safety leadership, collaboration between police and community stakeholders and investment in crime-prevention initiatives. Communities that receive the Blue Shield designation are eligible for grant funding for law enforcement training and equipment, according to the governors proposed fiscal year 2026 budget. Receiving the Missouri Blue Shield designation is an honor that reflects the unwavering commitment of our officers, professional staff, city leadership and community partners, Columbia police Chief Jill Schlude said in a news release. It underscores the results of intentional collaboration, innovation in policing and the trust we continue to build with those we serve. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Columbia police release updated crime numbers Columbia police released new 2024 crime numbers as the department transitions to a new reporting system. The citys selection comes amid ongoing efforts to strengthen public safety through hiring, technology upgrades and community partnerships. According to the Department of Public Safety, the Blue Shield designation is awarded based on several criteria, including reduced crime rates, strategic officer recruitment, technological investments in law enforcement, and strong relationships with community organizations and other agencies. Public safety is the foundation of a thriving community and state, Kehoe said in the release. We designed the Missouri Blue Shield Program to recognize communities that go above and beyond in creating a place where people want to live, work, and build their futures. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a FIFA task force meeting on the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein/AP/File A SEARCH of open ground near a Laois village, as part of an ongoing investigation into Fiona Penders murder, was concluded on Thursday afternoon. The search for the young Offaly womans remains began on Wednesday morning near Clonaslee, not far from the location of an unsuccessful search 11 years ago at Capard, Rosenallis in the Slieve Blooms. Air space above the search area was restricted by the Irish Aviation Authority and the Ross Road at Clonaslee was closed, from the R422 entrance to the R440 entrance, while the intensive search continued overnight on Wednesday and into the following day. As the dig began, gardai said the site would be subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations. Gardai confirmed at 5.15pm on Thursday that the search operation near Clonaslee had concluded. They said that the results of the search were not being released for operational reasons and that they had updated Fionas family on any developments. It was the second search within days this week, following the conclusion of a dig on land at Graigue, Killeigh, Co Offaly, near the Laois/Offaly border, on Tuesday 27 May. Both searches were part of what gardai described as a sustained investigation in the Laois/Offaly Garda Division over the past 28 years since Fiona went missing. The 25-year-old was seven months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. The investigation is continuing, led by a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO). Gardai said: Fionas remains have never been located. No person has been brought to justice for the disappearance and murder of Fiona at this time. Fiona was last seen at about 6am on Friday 23 August 1996, when she was at her flat on Church Street, Tullamore. With long blonde hair and about 5'5" in height, she was wearing bright coloured clothing and white leggings. Gardai are continuing to appeal to anyone with information to contact them, including those who previously came forward but felt they could not provide all the information they had at the time. Gardai asked anyone with information no matter how small or insignificant you might believe it to be to contact Tullamore Garda Station on 057 9327600, or any garda station. Anyone who wishes to provide information confidentially should contact the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. On 29 May Argentinas security minister,, said that an active cell of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan organised crime group that has spread across the Americas, had been broken up, with 12 people arrested in the federal capital and the provinces of Buenos Aires and Corrientes. End of preview - This article contains approximately 367 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options On 29 May international human rights NGO Amnesty International (AI) expressed alarm over the arrests in El Salvador of Jose Angel Perez, the president of El Bosque cooperative, a rural community from Santa Tecla municipality, La Libertad department, and the cooperatives legal adviser, Alejandro Henriquez, a member of environmental NGO Foro del Agua. End of preview - This article contains approximately 608 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options DEAR ANNIE: My husband and I have been together for over 22 years. We have two beautiful, almost grown children. When my son (20) was two weeks old, my husband told me he had met someone else. He blamed it on me not being intimate during my pregnancy (I had a high-risk pregnancy and the doctor advised me not to). I just had my son and didnt want to leave my family. So I stayed and tried to work it out. During my pregnancy with my daughter (16), I had doubts and was plagued with depression and was miserable, but we got through it, mainly because I got help from a therapist. When my son was 10 and daughter was 7, my husband declared he had found someone else and left. This lasted for a few months before he came back and we worked it out. A month ago, he tells me hes done trying, hes never been happy and will never be happy with me, and he wants me to leave because its his home. I am devastated and tired of the yo-yo. He is 40, not a teenager. WE have lived in this house for 20 years and made it home. He makes a significant amount more money than me, and I cannot financially do it alone. I have no family. I am an only child of only children, and my parents have both passed. I have made his family mine, and we have all the same friends. How do I start? What can I do? What about holidays? I will now be alone for everything. Do I try to save my marriage again or just say enough? Please help. -- My Husband Wants Out DEAR HUSBAND WANTS OUT: The only thing more devastating than leaving a marriage is staying in a marriage that doesnt make you happy. You have every right to feel heartbroken, but leaving your husband means that youre opening a door for a partner who is reliable, trustworthy and supportive. You dont have to figure everything out at once. Meet with a lawyer to understand your rights, especially if youve lived in that house for 20 years. Reach out to a counselor, not just for emotional support but for help creating a plan. Rebuilding will be hard, especially without family nearby, but youre not truly alone; support systems can be built, and peace is possible. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. Jodie Sweetin (second from left) is starring in a new Lifetime movie. FilmMagic Full House alum Jodie Sweetin is starring in a new Lifetime movie about a teenage boy who is increasingly influenced by the dark side of the internet. In Dateless to Dangerous: My Sons Secret Life, Sweetin plays Noelle, a newly-separated mom whose son, Miles (Alexander Elliott), becomes interested in incel culture after a failed romantic pursuit. Im really worried about my son, Miles. Hes kind of sensitive. I just dont want him to get involved in something he doesnt understand, Noelle says in the trailer for the film, which is set to premiere on Saturday, June 21. According to the Anti-Defamation League, incels are men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success. This can lead to misogyny, sexual objectification, and even violence toward women. In the trailer for Dateless to Dangerous, Miles kisses a female classmate without consent and then tells her he forgives her for rejecting his advances. You talk as though you think girls owe you something, the classmate replies. Elsewhere in the teaser, Miles raises his fist threateningly at the same classmate. In a separate scene, he yells, You take and you take, just like every other female. I did not raise my son to hate women, Noelle tells Miles. READ MORE: Full House alum addresses rumored feud with co-star A description for the film notes that Miles spirals into the toxic world of incels a dark and shadowy online underworld that fuels his growing resentment after experiencing public humiliation. In addition to Sweetin and Elliott, Dateless to Dangerous stars Nikki Roumel as Miles sister, Haley. The film is directed by Stefan Brogren, who played Archie Snake Simpson on Degrassi. Incredibly proud of everyone who helped make this very tough movie, Brogren wrote via Instagram on Thursday, May 29, alongside the films trailer. @jodiesweetin you are a gem and such an amazing energy to have on set. @nikkiroumel you ground this movie. @alex__elliot I cant imagine anyone else who could pull off that performance. Dateless to Dangerous: My Sons Secret Life premieres on Lifetime on Saturday, June 21, at 9 p.m. ET. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips/. This piece of equipment caught on fire in the Nazareth Area High School technology education department on May 30, 2025. Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com Students at Nazareth Area High School were dismissed early Friday due to a small fire in a lab room, district officials said. Upper Nazareth Fire Department Chief Jeff Fassl told lehighvalleylive.com flames ignited in an air handler and duct work in a wood shop classroom at the school, 501 E. Center St. The fire was contained to the handler and ductwork. Crews were able to get it under control within about 15 minutes, Fassl said. Upper Nazareth Fire was just clearing another call several blocks away so we were there within one minute of dispatch, resulting in a quick extinguishment, Fassl said, noting this also contained the flames from spreading to other parts of the building. The building sustained smoke damage and had to be monitored for air quality. That sent students home at 10 a.m. Friday. A notification went out to parents around 9:30 a.m. A message to parents said students would be allowed back into the building between 2 and 4 p.m. to pick up their belongings. After-school activities were canceled, the message says. Students and staff were evacuated from the school to Andrew S. Leh Stadium. Firefighters responded and quickly extinguished the fire, district officials said. There were no reported injuries to students or staff. ... emergency personnel are continuing to assess and clear the building as a precaution, district officials posted on the schools website. Students who drive left campus first, then buses took the rest of the students home, according to the message from the district. Crews later performed air quality monitoring throughout the building and once safe, all staff and teachers were able to return to school. All classes resumed Monday at the high school. A small fire in the Nazareth Area High School technology education department led to an early dismissal May 30, 2025. Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Lehighvalleylive.com reporter Rudy Miller contributed to this report. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached atpholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. A female SUV driver collided with a school bus around 8 a.m. Friday, May 30, 2025 when she was headed north on Bushkill Drive and traveled through a stop sign in Forks Township, Police Chief Michael Freil said. Dan Clerico | For lehighvalleylive.com A woman was seriously injured after she drove into an Easton Area School District school bus and her SUV flipped several times in Forks Township, police said. Township Police Chief Michael C. Friel said the woman failed to stop at a stop sign at 8 a.m. Friday at Bushkill Drive and Arndt Road, then drove into the front of the bus. The SUV rolled several times, the chief said. The woman was headed north on Bushkill Drive, he said. She was taken to an area hospital for treatment, the chief said. The four students on the bus were not injured, nor was the bus driver, Friel said. The Easton Area School District bus transporting non-public school students, as part of its daily operations, Easton Area School District Assistant Superintendent Josh Ziatyk told lehighvalleylive.com. All parents picked up their children up from the scene, he said. Both the Forks Township and Palmer Township Police Department Accident Reconstruction Teams continue to investigate the collision. A female SUV driver collided with a school bus around 8 a.m. Friday, May 30, 2025 when she was headed north on Bushkill Drive and traveled through a stop sign in Forks Township, Police Chief Michael Freil said. Dan Clerico | For lehighvalleylive.com Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached atpholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Portlaoise is getting a new Mexican restaurant and you can win a tasty 75 voucher to enjoy a family meal out when it opens. Namo Ireland which already has restaurants in Clonmel, Carlow and Kilkenny, has confirmed the planned date to to open a burrito bar and restaurant in Portlaoise, at Laois Shopping Centre. The big day as confirmed by co-owner Ethan Butler, is Thursday, June 19. The restaurant sells fresh made to order burritos, tacos, nachos and quesadillas as well as popular bubble tea and acai bowls. Read also: Penneys set to double in size in Portlaoise. They have taken up two vacant shop units at Laois Shopping Centre in Portlaoise, now undergoing a transformation into one open plan restaurant. The expansion has created ten Laois jobs. See inside Namo Portlaoise and meet its founders. Courtesy of Namo, the Leinster Express / Laois Live has a 75 voucher to giveaway. For your chance to win, tell us in the comments what your favourite Mexican dish is, and tag a restaurant buddy! We will announce the winner on Friday, June 6 so keep an eye on the comments! buena suerte! UPDATE: Winner announced as Sinead Neagh Moran, a big thanks to all our readers for taking part. Jozef Puska's sister-in-law told gardai she had failed to say that she burned the clothes Jozef was wearing on the day he murdered Ashling Murphy because she was "afraid the whole family would go against me" or that she would end up on the street. During the latest day of evidence at the Central Criminal Court, it emerged that Viera Gaziova (40) told gardai she burned the clothes. She said she did so after her husband, Lubomir Puska jnr, told her that Jozef had asked him to "make sure that those clothes are burnt". She said she built a fire in the living room and put the clothes on top. After the flames had died down, she cleaned out the fireplace and poured the ashes down the kitchen sink. All that remained by then was "pure ash", she said, with "nothing that resembled clothes". Ms Gaziova is charged with impeding the apprehension or prosecution of Jozef Puska by burning his clothes. Jozefina Grundzova (32), who is married to Jozef's other brother Marek Puska (36), is charged with the same offence. Lubomir jnr (38) and Marek are charged with withholding information from detectives investigating Ms Murphy's murder. All the accused were living with Jozef Puska, his wife Lucia, and 14 children at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly when the offences are alleged to have occurred in January 2022. All accused have pleaded not guilty to all charges. MORE BELOW PICTURE. The late Ashling Murphy on her graduation day. Det Gda Andrew Dolan told prosecution senior counsel Anne Marie Lawlor that Ms Gaziova met gardai to give a voluntary statement on January 17, 2022, five days after Ms Murphy's murder. She described Jozef as a "very good person". She said he spoke to everyone, played with the children and "never said anything bad for anyone." His children "never went short for anything," she added. She said Jozef went out early on the day of Ashling's murder, and the rest of the household became concerned when he did not come back that afternoon. Marek and Lubomir jnr searched for him but couldn't find him. Some time after 9pm, Jozef arrived home "fully soaked from top to bottom" and "shaking uncontrollably". He was wearing a Tommy Hilfiger top with black tracksuit bottoms and black runners, she said, and told his wife Lucia that he was going for a shower. READ ALSO: Jozef Puskas' brother denies telling someone to dispose of Ashling Murphy murder knife After his shower, Jozef left the clothes he had been wearing "rolled up in a bundle" inside a bag on the bathroom floor. She said Lubomir jnr and Marek spoke to Jozef in his bedroom and afterwards, Lubomir told her that Jozef had "confessed that he killed a girl". She said: "I said, this is not like Jozef. I did not believe Jozef could do such a thing." When Lucia came into the room, she said they stopped talking about it. She said that the people who knew what Jozef had done were herself, Lubomir jnr, Marek and Jozefina. She didn't know if Lucia knew at that point, she said. She said they spoke about what Jozef had said, adding: "We were all puzzled, then we quickly became afraid." Jozef's parents arrived a short time later, and his mother wanted to know what had happened to Jozef and who had beaten him up. Ms Gazikva said Jozef's mother insisted that Jozef return with his parents to Dublin. When Jozef and his parents had left, she said Lubomir jnr poured a shot of vodka for everyone. "We started talking that Jozef couldn't do it, we didn't believe it." She said they continued talking and drinking until Lucia came into the room. Ms Gaziova said Marek told Lucia that Jozef had been stabbed, but Lucia was "puzzled" and didn't believe it. She said she would have seen the stab wounds. MORE BELOW PHOTO. Courtroom in the Courts of Justice Dublin where the trial is taking place. READ ALSO: Puska a bit sad on the day he murdered Ashling Murphy The following day, Ms Gaziova said, Lubomir jnr had gone to Dublin and that night, after 10pm, he called her using Facebook Messenger to say that Jozef had asked him to "make sure that those clothes are burnt". She said she waited until the following morning after the children had gone to school. She lit the fire using paper and briquettes and let it burn for about one hour, until it was "very strong". She took the clothes out of the bag, starting with the tracksuit top and t-shirt, which were stuck together as though Jozef had taken them off in one go. When gardai asked why she had "misled the investigation" by failing to mention that she destroyed evidence in her previous statement, she said: "We were afraid of the guards when they came. Nothing like this ever happened before. I was afraid I would end up on the street with my children. I was shaking. I didn't want to say because I was afraid the whole family would go against me." The trial continues before Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and five women at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. The route of a much needed double bypass in Mountmellick, Laois runs straight through the town's GAA pitch. While the bypass is not in national plans until at least 2030, potential routes are now having a direct effect on planning applications in the town. A mapped route for one of the roads has this month caused Laois County Council to reject a planning application. A Mountmellick couple had applied to build their home next to their family's homes on family land, facing Mountmellick GAA grounds. Applicants Rebecca Williams and Gary Bergin, have had their application refused. The planners cite the reason as the bypass route, planned to run through their hilly field, beside Mountmellick cemetery. "The proposed development site lies within a Roads Objective for Mountmellick as indicated on Map 3.2 of the Laois County Development Plan 2021-2027 and Map 2 of the Mountmellick Local Area Plan 2018-2024. "Policy TM P6 of the Mountmellick Local Area Plan 2018-2024 seeks to reserve all lands for future relief roads free of development in conjunction with the requirements of the Roads Authority. The proposed development would, therefore, be materially contrary to the provisions of the Laois County Development Plan 2021-2027 and the Mountmellick Local Area Plan 2018-2024 and consequently to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area." The map below, clearly shows that the future road - in blue and white - would cut right through Mountmellick GAA grounds across the home from the Williams' field. While the bypass routes are only a future possibility and would require public consultation, the western route is drawn to start beside the Rock GAA grounds, cutting across Acragar to Derrycloney on the Portlaoise road. There it would join with another bypass to lead to the Tullamore road, with two options drawn on the map. A third option runs closer to the town centre. A plan to bypass the town some 20 years ago was shelved after local objections to its route through Irishtown. In another indication that Mountmellick bypass plans are starting to have concrete effect, funding was rejected recently for tractor laybys on the Mountmellick Portlaoise Road, by Transport Infrastructure Ireland. Giving their reasons, the TII said "it is noted that the next potential future intervention may be likely to come under the category of town bypass". The much needed Mountmellick double bypass is not up for funding until at least 2031. The N80 cuts through the heart of the town, bringing at least 10,000 vehicles a day, many of the HGVs turning on a notoriously tight corner. The bypass is an objective by Laois County Council, who have an assessment complete showing the need for a double bypass. However as it is not in the National Development Plan up to 2030, no funding will be allocated to plan or build it. Last November while on an election visit to Mountmellick, the then Taoiseach Simon Harris gave a commitment to prioritise it. "I do think road projects need to progress. If we are back in Government these sorts of projects will be a priority. If we got Willie Aird in the Dail as well well have someone to work for you, he said. The tourism jewel in Laois that is Emo Court House is throwing open the front doors to welcome visiting tours again. The manion has undergone a multi-million refurbishment and visitors will get their first glimpse, led by expert guides, this June Bank Holiday weekend. Emo Court near Portarlington, is managed by the Office of Public Works who announced the reopening, from Saturday May 31 at 1pm. "Exiting news from Emo Court. OPW Emo Court is delighted to announce that we are reopening this weekend. "Upstairs; Grandeur, Guests and Gandon. Downstairs; Kitchens, Corridors and life behind the scenes. "Be among the first to see the beautifully restored rooms on the ground floor and explore the servants' working quarters in the basement, now open to the public for the first time. Tours start from 1pm this Saturday. "Tickets are available on a first come first served basis from our visitor hub," they say. The grounds of Emo Court have also been upgraded, with a new carpark and picnic area and are free to visit. Read also: Laois men to cycle 500km for cancer charity Emo Court was designed by James Gandon in 1790 for the first Earl of Portarlington, John Dawson, He was the architect behind Dublin's Four Courts and Customs House as well as the modest Church of Ireland chapel in Emo village. A neoclassical mansion, it took over 80 years to complete. Its Wellingtonia Avenue approach is said the be the longest avenue of Wellingtonia (Giant Redwood Sequoia trees) in Europe, stretching a mile long. In 1920, the estate, which extended over nearly 20 square miles (52 km2), was sold to the Irish Land Commission. The house remained unoccupied. In 1930 the house was acquired by the Jesuit Brothers. It was run as a seminarian to train priests until 1969 when it was sold to Major Chomeley Harrison. He spent decades restoring and maintaining the house and estate. He gifted it to the Irish State in 1994, and passed away there in 1999. SE Systems, a leading national provider of energy solutions, has today announced that 500,000 is available for community buildings in Kildare as part of its Community Fund. The 500,000 in funding is for sustainable energy upgrades, specifically to help future-proof community buildings across Ireland. The closing date for applications is Friday, July 18. Launched in 2022, a total budget of over 2.6m has been awarded by SE Systems to local community projects to date. The SE Systems Community Fund is an independent fund that helps non-profits, charities and voluntary organisations benefit from projects that improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, from solar panel systems and heat pump installation to insulation upgrades. Applications for the Community Fund must be submitted online via the application portal at [https://sesystems.ie/ community-fund-summer-call- application-form/ ]. For more information on eligibility, visit SE Systems website at [https://sesystems.ie/ communityfund/ ]. John OLeary, Co-Founder and CEO of SE Systems said: One of the values that drives us as a business is to build greener, more resilient places to live and work. Our Community Fund is an enabler of this value, allowing us to build long term, viable solutions for vital local amenities and organisations that are fundamental to the social fabric of our towns and villages across Ireland. ALSO READ: Warehouse to be demolished for apartments in Kildare. The SE Systems Community Fund is made possible through a unique funding mechanism developed in partnership with our commercial clients as part of their participation in our SEAI Community Energy Grant scheme applications. This collaborative approach allows us to redirect private sector investment into community-based energy projects, supporting grassroots organisations across Ireland in achieving their sustainable energy ambitions. Youenn Lowry, Co Founder and Managing Director of SE Systems added: Applications are now open across the country, and we encourage community organisations who want to build a greener future to consider how financial support from SE Systems can help them secure a brighter and sustainable future for their local area. Headquartered in Cork, with regional offices in Dublin, SE Systems serves clients across the country, delivering complete solutions aimed at retrofitting and refurbishing Ireland's homes and building stock to higher standards of energy efficiency. SE Systems have completed over 500 million worth of energy projects, retrofitting over 13,000 homes and over 2,000 commercial and community Buildings. Over 650 million kWh of Energy has been saved, and 145,000 Tonnes of CO2 has been saved through SE Systems projects. A Kildare woman has been appointed the position of Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland. Jenny Melia, a Kildare native, has worked in the Agency for 29 years and is currently an Executive Director of Enterprise Ireland, which includes the role of Chief Client Officer. She will take up her new role as Chief Executive Officer in July. Ms Melia, who graduated from UCD with a BSc and PhD in Chemistry, has held a number of senior leadership roles across the organisation throughout her career. She has worked extensively with client companies of varying scales from all sectors, including food, industrial and technology, and has also worked with the High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Division, and the Research and Innovation team. Peter Burke TD, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, said: I want to congratulate Jenny Melia on her appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland. Jenny is a dedicated public servant, who has spent much of her career supporting and fostering the development of the Irish enterprise base through her impressive tenure with Enterprise Ireland, which spans almost three decades. I am looking forward to working with Jenny and her leadership team, as this Government continues to focus on supporting Irish exporters and indigenous SMEs. Irish-owned enterprises are critical to our economy, and we are committed to supporting this sector to continue to be agile, and to grow and scale both domestically and in international markets. Michael Carey, Chairman of Enterprise Ireland, said: On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to announce Jennys appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland, after a highly competitive recruitment process. She has an outstanding track record of providing clear vision and strategic leadership within the organisation, has established deep relationships working collaboratively with key stakeholders from across the ecosystem, and has worked extensively and directly with our client companies. Enterprise Ireland has successfully helped Irish enterprise to scale and grow enormously in recent years, with our client base now employing and exporting at record levels, and Jenny has played a pivotal role in this success. She was also centrally involved in the design and implementation of the organisations new client operating model, and Enterprise Irelands new strategy, Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally (2025-2029). She will bring this vast experience and leadership to her new role, and we look forward to working with her to achieve our long-term ambition, that exporting Irish companies will become the primary driver of the Irish economy. Mr Carey also thanked Kevin Sherry for his leadership as Interim CEO, adding: Kevin, who will return to his position as Executive Director in July, demonstrated an exceptional level of commitment as he filled this role in recent months, and I would like to thank him for his dedication and leadership during this period. Employment at companies supported by Enterprise Ireland rose to a record 234,454 earlier this year, and the organisations new strategy sets out a number of ambitious targets for the Irish enterprise base, including plans to increase exports to 50bn by 2029. READ NEXT: LATEST: Kildare drivers are worst in country for mobile phone use A man who faced losing his licence admitted he hadnt been as nervous since his wedding day. Anthony Nestor (57) of Cragmore, Askeaton, Limerick appeared before Portlaoise District Court accused of dangerous driving in the Southbound lane of the M7 at Abbeyleix on October 29, 2023. He was brought to court following a complaint from a man in Cork. Garda Tommy Griffin said the man alleged the defendant had engaged in erratic driving and was speeding up, slowing down and crossing lanes. Garda Griffin said the man had apologised profusely to the complainant and admitted his guilt. The man asked that the court consider reducing the case to careless driving. In relation to an explanation, Garda Griffin said he told gardai his head was all over the place at the time. He said he had one previous conviction for speeding dating back to 2007. Kenneth Kerins BL said his client was apologetic and fully accepts the facts. He said the man works in health and safety. A little bit of irony there, noted Judge Andrew Cody. Mr Kerins said his client was horrified to be before the court and would be anxious to make a donation to charity. I dont think I have been this nervous since the day I got married to tell the truth, the man said. I am not going to impose a life sentence, Judge Cody assured the man. Mr Kerins asked about a donation so that someone could benefit from his clients salutary lesson. Judge Cody noted that somebody had made off with a defibrillator which was in use at a garda station in Laois. He said it had been paid for from the court's poor box. Garda Griffin recalled the incident and said the defibrillator was valued at 1,350. Judge Cody said that subject to the donation of 1,350 to replace the defibrillator from the garda station, he would reduce the matter to careless driving and impose a 500 fine. The donation was made a short time later and the case was finalised. Kildare County Council has been asked to consult with a group of Naas residents over a rebuilding project - after houses were removed because of subsidence. Independent Ireland councillor Ger Dunne has asked KCC to liaise with representatives of the residents of Sarto Road. READ NEXT PICTURES: Rugby Players Ireland Award Winners 2025 Cllr Dunne said this should relate to the proposed rebuilding of the houses that were previously removed from the area due to subsidence. He said KCC had given a commitment to include residents in any new proposals. Cllr Ger Dunne The councillor told a Naas Municipal District meeting that documents relating to this undertaking go back to 2000 and he asked for KCC to meet with the residents, as previously undertaken. He said the residents are not trying to stop any development they just want to know what is happening. According to KCC, a proposal for social housing for the site is at the early stages of development and it's intended to start the public consultation process by the end of 2025, which will begin with notices published in a local newspaper and posted at the site location. The proposed designs will be available online and at Aras Chill Dara. The public can submit their observations via post or online. Cllr Bill Clear recalled that houses subsided and had to be demolished and some survey indicated there were spaces underneath. He said he would be concerned about building where housing had "previously essentially collapsed. It could be a mistake, he suggested, Cllr Seamie Moore recalled a community building was proposed for the area and this could be sited in the old library premises. KCC official Eoghan Ryan said subsidence is not a serious issue today because of technological advancements but the likely costs would have to be considered and Im sure that will be explored." Naas mayor Fintan Brett said the technology and knowledge is readily available today to ensure that a solid foundation can be constructed, possibly through a piledriving project. The jury in Gerry Adams libel action against the BBC has entered its second day of deliberations. The former Sinn Fein leader alleges a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson. He denies any involvement. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. In 2009, dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed the killing and a Garda investigation is ongoing. Mr Adams claims he was subject to a grievous smear, while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican is seeking damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster has argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. Trial judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sent the jury out to begin deliberations at 10.25am on Thursday, in the fifth week of proceedings. The 12 members were provided with exhibits in the case and the means to rewatch the programme, and advised they could continue to discuss the case during lunch. At one stage in the deliberations, one juror was released from the process due to other commitments, including a camogie match. The remaining 11 members continued their consideration before being sent home at 5.10pm. They are tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Mr Donaldson. Justice Owens said they should consider whether it was more likely than not that a hypothetical reasonable reader would take that meaning from the words. The BBC argued that the jury should not find this was the meaning of the words, saying the claim was put forward as an allegation that was immediately followed by Mr Adams denial. If the jury agrees with the broadcaster on this point, it has no further considerations or decisions to make. However, if the jury finds that the meaning of the words was that Mr Adams sanctioned the killing, they are then tasked with considering whether the BBC broadcast and published the words in good faith, and whether it was fair and reasonable to do so. The members of the jury have heard arguments about the seriousness of the allegation, attempts made to corroborate it, and details on the production of the programme. If the jury finds that the BBC was fair and reasonable and acted in good faith, it effectively finds in favour of the broadcaster and will not go on to consider damages. But if the panel finds that the corporation did not act in good faith or was not fair and reasonable in its actions, it can consider general damages for injury to reputation. The BBC argued to the jury that if it got to this point, it should award only nominal damages. Justice Owens told the jury the broadcaster had put forward the position that Mr Adams had no reputation at all. It is open to the jury to award one euro at that point. However, Mr Adams legal team said the alleged defamation would fall on the very serious or exceptional end of the scale, meaning an amount above 200,000 euro. The deliberations resumed after 10.30am on Friday. The BBC has been ordered to pay former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams 100,000 euros (84,000) after he won a resounding libel victory over the broadcaster. Mr Adams took the BBC to court over an episode of its Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, which he said defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and the corporation had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Mr Adams legal team said the verdict of the jury was a full vindication for their client while the BBC said it was disappointed with the outcome. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. It had argued the allegation was corroborated by five other sources and that Mr Adams had a reputation of being a member of the IRA. After six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total, the jury awarded the plaintiff 100,000 euro which falls within the medium range for defamation. Speaking outside court, Mr Adams said taking this case was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation. He told reporters: I know many, many journalists. I like to think that I get on well with the most of them, and I wish you well, and I would uphold your right to do your job. But the British Broadcasting Corporation upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view its out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement. It hasnt caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully, in the time ahead, unity. He said there is an onus on everyone, including himself, to deal with these legacy issues. He said: Im very mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of this long trial, and indeed of the victims families who have had to watch all of this. I want to say that the Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can. His solicitor Paul Tweed said Mr Adams was very pleased with this resounding verdict, adding the award of damages speaks for itself. Johnsons Solicitors, who acted for Mr Adams, said: The outcome today has provided a full vindication for our client, Mr Adams. Speaking outside court, Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, said: We are disappointed by this verdict. We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this programme, and to the accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest. We didnt want to come to court but it was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision. He added: Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case. The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyones could, and they warned how todays decision would hinder freedom of expression. Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. BBC Spotlight reporter Jennifer OLeary said she had nothing to hide, only sources to protect. She also thanked the BBC and its legal team for defending journalism. Ms OLeary said: Im a big believer in trying your best in life and going about your business with integrity, and I want to pay a particular tribute to our witnesses in court, senator Michael McDowell, Trevor Ringland, and in particular Ann Travers, who spoke so courageously. She said there were thousands of victims and survivors of the troubles in the UK and Ireland, adding: Those people carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible dignity and courage, and they are the people I am thinking of, I know my colleagues are also thinking of. I am thinking of all of them today. The BBC will have to pay costs but the amount has yet to be decided. Mr Adams said the case could have been settled a long time ago, adding that it would be BBC licence payers who would pay for the action. Mr Smyth added the corporation will take some time to consider the implications of the ruling. Leitrim man Leslie OHora is in Iseo, Italy today, representing both Leitrim and Ireland at the European Network of the Lakes. The event, which runs until Sunday, offers representatives from the 27 member states with inland lakes a chance to meet and discuss ways to improve tourism in their regions, both individually and collectively. The European Network of the Lakes was established to promote hidden heartlands around Europe. At the event, OHora will liaise with other lake-based groups from across the continent and deliver a speech at the conference. I will be talking to them about greenways and blueways, and also about the fact that there may be the possibility that Leitrim could become an eco-park, says OHora. The idea of establishing Leitrim as an eco-park or Nature Regional Landscape Parksimilar to those that already exist in 22 European countrieswas recently proposed by Cllr Justin Warnock at a Manorhamilton Municipal District meeting. READ MORE: Were being pulled into a war machine: Leitrim events sound alarm over threats to Irish neutrality OHora has voiced his support for the idea: Leitrim could become an eco-park and that would be fantastic, both in terms of, you know, the potential to have eco-holidays, you know, nature-based holidays, but it might also keep the frackers and the gold miners at bay, which is, you know, obviously is one thing to live in a beautiful environment, but it's another thing to protect it. OHora is attending the event on behalf of the Leitrim Tourism Network, a coalition of around 30 Leitrim-based businesses working to promote the county as a destination for various types of holidays, including adventure, biking, water sports, hiking, and luxury getaways. Given the increasing demand for accommodation across the country, OHora also spoke about the importance of community ownership of local amenities to maintain control over how they are used. If you have a hotel that's owned by the community, you can manage your own destiny in terms of the amount of accommodation that can be given over for tourism, and equally the amount of accommodation that can be given over for, say, government programs. The meeting is also an opportunity for local groups to find out about grants that are available to them through the European Union. READ MORE: The people got very scarce: A life lived in a vanishing Leitrim townland We extend our congratulations to Mr. Tah on his election as President of the AfDB and look forward to increasing mutually beneficial partnerships between the AfDB and Liberia during his tenure as President of Africas premier multilateral development bank, Minister Ngafuan said in a congratulatory statement. Dr. Joekai concluded the communication with a strong appeal for collaboration: We look forward to your usual cooperation, he wrote. This is not just a technical upgradeit is a necessary reform to promote accountability, empower employees, and build a culture of transparency in public service. Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cllr. Deweh E. Gray and ECOWAS Ambassador to Liberia posed for a photo shortly after the ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs R/L NEW GUIDELINES aimed to help doctors explain post-mortem exams more clearly to families following the bereavement of a loved one have been announced at a medical conference in Limerick. Chief state pathologist, Professor Linda Mulligan, addressed the NCHD Research Conference at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) as a keynote speaker. The annual medical conference is a showcase of research activity, audit and quality improvement initiatives that are completed by Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors working and training in the Mid-West region. Prof Mulligan, who completed her medicine degree in UCD in 2002, told attendees she was delighted to return to Limerick, where she spent six months as an intern in St Johns Hospital before going on to take higher specialist training in Histopathology and to ultimately specialise in Forensic Pathology. She was appointed as the Chief State Pathologist in 2021. READ ALSO: Limerick woman who sets the gold standard for caregiving named best in Munster During her address, Prof Mulligan spoke of her own career path and highlighted a number of case studies, criminal investigations and suspicious deaths. Prof Mulligan also highlighted the importance of the HSE National Clinical Guidelines for Post-Mortem Examinations (2023), a set of standards for which she served as Chair of the Review Group. A significant amount of learning has emerged in recent years through audits, investigations and through the recent COVID-19 pandemic, she said. Bereaved families are more aware of how the post-mortem examination process can serve to answer questions they may have around the death of a person, especially where there are pathological conditions that may have implications for other family members. There has also been key learning about what needs to happen to ensure that the post-mortem examination service is compassionate and centred on the needs of families and individuals using the service while also being reflective of international recommended practice. Now in its fifth year, the annual event was initiated by Lead NCHDs at UHL in partnership with the Postgraduate Medical Training Office, under the leadership of NDTP Training Lead, Prof John McManus. A record 224 abstracts were received for this years conference, an increase of 60% from last year. Abstracts were received from various disciplines including anaesthetics, emergency medicine, medicine, surgery, paediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, radiology, the intern network, general practice and public health. Among the speciality winners this year were research projects on the use of statins in primary care, childhood obesity, psychiatric conditions affected by gaming and the quality of health information on social media. During a week in which the HSE Mid-West and Limerick City and County Council launched a new programme to address health inequality in Limerick city, two of the shortlisted papers focused on the social determinants of ill health, one of which actually went on to become the conferences overall winner. READ ALSO: New state-of-the-art cancer care centre confirmed for Limerick Dr Emma Kearney, Specialist Registrar in Public Health and overall winner at this years conference, presented a landmark study examining the relationship between emergency department attendance at UHL and socioeconomic position. Dr Kearney said: This research shows a clear social gradient in emergency department attendance, with people living in disadvantaged areas in the Mid West significantly more likely to attend, even when distance from UHL is taken into account. This kind of work helps to highlight the impact of health inequalities in our region, and I was very grateful for the opportunity to represent Public Health at the conference. The results provide us with an opportunity to focus on the challenges faced by our health service through a health equity lens and the use of data is a key element in terms of guiding service design and resource allocation. In opening this years conference, Ms Sandra Broderick, regional executive officer, HSE Mid-West, described NCHDs as the lifeblood of our hospitals and each of you make such a tremendous contribution to the care of our patients. I am fully committed to supporting research and innovation across our region, she said. I am especially proud that the Mid-West opened the first HSE Regional Research Directorate earlier this year. Our research directorate continues to drive high-quality, reliable and impactful research that improves patient outcomes. I am delighted to see the remarkable increase in abstract submissions from NCHDs for this years conference, and I commend the outstanding quality of your entries. Through their engagement in research, NCHDs are not only developing professionally but also helping us translate evidence into real-world improvements in patient care, delivering lasting and meaningful change. I want to extend my sincere thanks to Dr John McManus and the team for their unwavering dedication to enriching the research experience for NCHDs and for creating opportunities to leverage this work in shaping the future strategic delivery of healthcare. Ms Broderick said that the number of NCHDs employed by acute hospitals in the Mid-West had increased from 387 to 626, or by over 60%, since 2020 and she had every expectation that this number would continue to increase significantly as the region prepared to open an additional 112 acute beds in UHL before the end of this year. New Delhi: The Union government on Friday approved the empanelment of 15,640 new graphic processing unit (GPU) processors from data centre and cloud service providers, and also appointed three new startups that will get access to these chips for free, to train their artificial intelligence models. Sanjeev Bikhchandanis Info Edge Ventures-backed AI startup, Gnani.ai, was one of the three startups appointed to build a sovereign foundational AI model for voice-based AI services. The startup will build a 14-billion parameter voice AI model and real-time speech processing and advanced reasoning capabilities. Foundational AI models are typically better when they are based on larger volumes of training data. But, smaller models are less expensive to train, are more targeted towards specific industries, and are easier to run. The other two startups appointed include Bengaluru-based Sokal AI Labs, and Noida-based Gan AI. While Sokai AI is building a 120-billion parameter foundational AI model catering to defence, education and healthcare sectors, Gan AI will build a 70-billion parameter multilingual foundational model for varied applications. Sovereign AI models refer to foundational algorithms built for usage in generative AI applications, but not by global companies. Sovereign models are typically trained on a nations indigenous datasets, which theoretically help in adding local market data, language and context to AI applications. The three startups join Peak XV-backed Sarvam AI, which became the first startup appointed by the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) to build a foundational AI model for India. Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the first of the four foundational models will be rolled out before the end of 2025. Also Read: India to host DeepSeek on local servers to address privacy concerns: IT Minister Yotta helps out In terms of compute, Hiranandani Groups Yotta Data Services was empanelled by Meity a second time, and will supply over 8,000 units of Nvidias B200 GPUs to cater to the mission. A senior official with direct knowledge of the matter said requesting anonymity that the GPUs will be brought into service within the next two to three months, as Yotta is still in the process of installing them in its data centres. Also Read: How Yotta plans to lure global clients for its AI cloud service Sify Digital Services was also a part of the empanelled GPU providers, and will supply an unspecified number of Nvidias H100, H200 and L4 GPU chips. Access to these GPUs is crucial in terms of training AI models. Ganesh Gopalan, chief executive of Gnani.ai, told Mint that the government empanelment will reduce the companys operating cost to one-tenth of what it was before. Abhishek Upperwal, chief executive of Soket AI, added that over 70% of the companys cost of research and development, as well as training of AI models, are linked to access to GPUs for computing power. This is the least possible cost of compute that were getting access to. Were in talks with venture capital firms for a seed funding round in order to accelerate our research, and within the next one year, a version of our foundational model should be ready, Upperwal said. Abhishek Singh, chief executive of India AI Mission and additional secretary, Meity, added that the Centre had received more than 500 applications for developing Indias foundational models. There will be more startup selections in the next few days. On 9 June, Meity is also meeting applicants to empanel more cloud compute providers, and there will be a rolling empanelment process where vendors will be brought online as and when required, Singh added. Atmanirbhar Bharat The $1.2-billion IndiaAI Mission is tasked with backing startups to build foundational AI models in India, create a subsidized cloud compute platform to help academia, researchers and startups access GPUs to train AI models, and create datasets in Indian languages to train AI models. It is also set to build a marketplace to help startups developing AI models to sell their services to clients. Also Read: Cabinet approves IndiaAI Mission with outlay of 10,372 crore: 7 key features Access to a foundational model is expected to reduce a nations dependence on other countries for what is being viewed as a fundamental piece of technology going forward. Entrepreneurs added that the development can amplify market outreach for startups building sovereign AI models. The government itself can be a key client. But additionally, reducing the cost of compute can help startups build models more efficiently, which in turn can reduce the need for capital that is the biggest cost factor behind developing AI models and conducting R&D, Gnani.ais Gopalan added. HealthQuad, the early to growth stage healthcare-focused investor backed by private equity firm Quadria Capital, is looking to raise its third fund of around $300 million. This new fund comes at a time when there is a split in the general partners (GPs) that manage HealthQuad, people with knowledge of the development said. Also Read | Quadria Capital-backed Maxivision on expansion spree, eyes IPO by 2027 The firm has refiled its papers with the markets regulator to raise the third fund. The refile shows only Sunil Thakur, Amit Varma and Abrar Mir, the founders of Quadria as the GPs of the firm," one of the persons cited above said. In 2015, when HealthQuad was set up to invest in early-stage healthcare opportunities in India, the three partners had roped in Charles-Antoine Janssen as the fourth founder and appointed him as chief investment officer. Now these three founders have taken back control. Janssen is parting ways to start his own fundHealthKois," the person said. Two top executives at HealthQuadPinak Shrikhande and Ajay Mahipalare also leaving with Janssen. Also Read | Quadria to invest half its India capital in climate-related healthcare solutions HealthQuad and Janssen spokespersons did not respond to emailed queries seeking comments. Mahipal, too, did not respond to messages on LinkedIn. Shrikhande could not be reached for comment. As per Janssens LinkedIn profile, apart from being associated with HealthQuad, he cofounded KOIS s.a. with Francois de Borchgrave, a global impact investing firm (blended finance structuring and investment management) active in healthcare, education/skilling and living environments. He is a member of the investment committee of two other KOIS funds: Tara IV (India VC/PE healthcare and social entrepreneurship focus) and Impact Expansion (EU/PE Impact focus). Janssen is based in Belgium. The commercials of the first two funds will continue to remain the same. From the third fund onwards, the firm will have only three partners," the second person added. Janssen is likely to launch his firm, which will source deals in the early to growth stage in India. Though the exact strategy is not clear at this point in time. HealthQuad raised its first fund of 75 crore in 2016. It has yet to exhaust its second fund, which has a corpus of $162 million. Some of its portfolio companies include the Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology (AINU), HealthifyMe, Medikabazaar, Qure.ai, THB, Impact Guru, Ekincare and Stanplus. The reorganization at HealthQuad comes as the parent company, Quadria Capital, announced the closing of its third fund with $1.07 billion in total commitments. The oversubscribed fundraise comprises over $954 million in primary commitments and $114 million in committed co-investment capital. An additional $300 million co-investment capacity is anticipated over the course of the investment phase, bringing total committed capital to approximately $1.3 billion upon full deployment, Mint reported earlier this week. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) on May 30 said it has successfully raised 5,000 crore through a 15-year Non-Convertible Debenture (NCD), fully subscribed by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The debentures will be listed on the BSE, and is locked at 7.75 per cent coupon rate, backed by Adani Ports' AAA/Stable domestic credit rating, the company informed the exchanges. Adani Ports' Capital Management Plan: Ashwani Gupta Ashwani Gupta, Whole-time Director & CEO, Adani Ports noted that this isn't merely a financing exercise, but a proactively developed capital management plan for Adani Ports. "This plan is designed to support APSEZ with its long-term vision to become the worlds largest integrated transport utility, Gupta said. Debentures are long-term financial instruments that companies issue to raise more money from investors. The issue shows Adani Ports deep access to long-term capital from diversified sources at attractive pricing and significantly enhances APSEZ's debt maturity profile. It highlights APSEZ access to domestic markets for its longest tenure issuance till date, and one of the longest in Indian capital markets history, the company release said. MUMBAI : House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) is launching its vertical real estate business in Mumbai, with a dual focus on luxury and affordable housing. However, the new brand's ambitions extend far beyond the financial capital. For our vertical business, Bombay (Mumbai) is the focus. That said, growth will come as much from outside Mumbai as from within. We cant rely on just one market, and we will have things to do outside of this market within the next 12 months," Abhinandan Lodha, chairman of HoABL and group entity Abhinandan Ventures (earlier Lodha Ventures). HoABL operates pan-India in cities like Alibaug, Anjarle, Dapoli, Goa, Neral, and Ayodhya, claiming leadership in the branded land business. The company also holds land parcels in Vrindavan, Amritsar, and Nagpur, among other cities. HoABL expects to expand vertical development in these cities too, within the next 12 months. In markets where everythings already been discovered and innovation is limited, its not a natural fit for us." After building the necessary operational strength, future growth areas include logistics, industrial warehousing, and rental housing, Lodha told Mint earlier in May. First, we wanted the HoABL brand to stand for something meaningful. But we see logistics, industrial warehousing, and rental housing as natural extensions. When and how we get into them will depend on opportunities, but well explore anything related to land." Founded in 2020, HoABLs first focus was the fragmented land market, long viewed as risky for average buyers. We solved the four key challenges holding this segment back. Once that happened, the category opened up big time," Lodha explained. One reason to start with one segment was to build an independent brand. Barred from using the Lodha brand after a family settlement earlier in 2025. Earlier this week, Mint reported that the resolution came through nine mediation sessions with retired Supreme Court judge Justice R.V. Raveendran, appointed as mediator by the Bombay high court. Meeting Justice Ravindran taught me that clear thinking and a simple approach can solve problems that seem complex at first," he told Mint. This forced him to start fresh with HoABL, without the brand recognition he once had. The consumer response were seeing now wouldnt have come if I had launched too early without building our own brand," he said. Lodha expects comparisons to his former family firm but insists HoABL is differentleaner, faster, and broader in geographic reach. Even if theres a common surname, the brand promise is entirely different. Over time, consumers will gravitate toward the one that aligns with their values," he said. For now, the big bet is on Mumbai Abhinandan Lodha, the newest entrant in Mumbais vertical development market, is now charting a path for himself under his own banner. Its entry into vertical buildings is in line with a broader trend of major builders such as Bengaluru-based Prestige and Gurugram-based DLF increasingly expanding into the Mumbai real estate space. For the next 4-6 months, the focus will remain on Mumbaia complex, capital-intensive market. His strategy targets both affordable housing in Mumbais peripheries, such as Naigaon, and a residential project near Girgaon Chowpatty in South Mumbai. In the next 34 months, well fulfil some key promises. After our first vertical launch, well outline four problems we intend to solve with ithow we plan to do it, and why it matters. That will drive significant volumes," he said. We see real estate like a factory. Goods need to keep moving; its not a static asset. If we can deliver 2030% margins at both ends of the spectrum, thats a strong outcome." He faces a tough challenge: Competing with established players, including his kins firmMacrotech Developers or The Lodha Group, in one of Indias most competitive real estate sectors. Anuj Puri, chairman of ANAROCK Group, said Mumbais unique geographysurrounded by the sea on three sideslimits its physical expansion, making vertical growth and northward development the only viable directions. Unlike other Indian cities that can expand outward in all directions, Mumbais growth is constrained. Development here is essentially linearmoving from the south towards the northern suburbs, and vertically upward," he said. Despite these limitations, Puri believes there is still ample opportunity for new players. Mumbai is big enough. South Mumbai alone spans roughly 157 square kilometres, and Greater Mumbai covers over 437 square kilometres. There is meaningful room for growth. But for new entrants to succeed, especially those not starting with redevelopment projects, they must have a deep understanding of what drives this market," he said. Despite rising investor interest, Lodha is in no rush to raise capital at the holding company level but will look to raise private funding in 12-18 months after establishing its ground. Xinjiang powers ahead as nation's energy distributor 08:27, May 30, 2025 By Mao Weihua, Wang Songsong, Guo Yanqi ( China Daily Workers install lead wires for the capacitor bank equipment at Balikun converter station in March. (Ding Lei/Xinhua) Boasting China's largest reserves of coal and solar resources and the second-largest wind energy potential, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis into a major national energy producer and domestic electricity provider. Under the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), Xinjiang has been designated as a national base for wind and solar energy, coal production, oil and gas reserves, and a key electricity transmission corridor. By the end of 2024, the region had transmitted more than 860 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to other provincial-level regions the equivalent of 260.15 million metric tons of coal helping the recipient area reduce 702.41 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 2.21 million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions. Xinjiang's development comes at a crucial time. Eastern coastal regions face growing electricity shortages coupled with land constraints and environmental pressures that limit further coal power expansion. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence has triggered a substantial surge in electricity demand. As AI systems grow more sophisticated, their computational requirements have escalated exponentially, leading to massive energy consumption, particularly from power-hungry data centers running complex machine learning algorithms and large language models. While Xinjiang's energy riches and rising demand from coastal areas have made it destined to become a key power supplier, the region's progress has been a gradual process, built on years of energy sector investment and construction, and the work of diligent professionals. Sun, wind and watts In Ruoqiang county, Bayingolin Mongolian autonomous prefecture, the construction of a large-scale comprehensive power generation base, with total investment of 71.8 billion yuan ($10 billion), is advancing according to plan. The base has a planned installed capacity of nearly 19 million kilowatts, comprised of 4 million kW of wind power, 8.5 million kW of photovoltaic solar, and 3.96 million kW of thermal backup, supported by about 5 million kW of energy storage. Construction began on Sept 28, 2024. Wang Liang, the on-site project manager of the China Three Gorges Corporation's Xinjiang branch, is in charge of building the base. "Once the power generation base goes into operation, over 60 percent of its electricity generation will come from renewable green energy sources, and the utilization rate of new energy will exceed 90 percent," Wang said. The base will bring a range of benefits to local development. According to a support plan for industries, the corporation has signed agreements with several companies to set up factories for development of industrial clusters and to boost local employment. Wang Rui, 37, works on the construction project. He was transferred from Beijing to Ruoqiang in March 2024 to carry out preliminary project work with his colleagues. "When I was a child, my interest in engineering construction was more about natural curiosity. After graduating from Wuhan University with a degree in hydraulic engineering, I decided to integrate my personal career aspirations with national strategic goals. It inspired me to commit myself to the clean energy sector, specializing in hydropower engineering and new energy development," Wang Rui said. He also worked overseas for many years. "My main workplace was in Africa, in a place close to the Sahara Desert. The conditions were rather tough. There we taught local residents how to use photovoltaic panels. "In Ruoqiang, local residents pass on their experience in sand control methods to us and we integrate them into engineering construction," Wang added. Wang described China's role in the development of the clean energy industry over the past 10 years as "epic". "From a follower to a leader, China's voice and influence have grown significantly in the clean energy industry," he said. "As of the end of 2024, China's installed capacity of wind and solar power has increased over tenfold compared to a decade ago, with clean energy now accounting for approximately 60 percent of the nation's total power generation capacity. Notably, about half of the newly added electricity demand is being met by clean energy sources, demonstrating a continuous rise in the green energy of China's energy mix," Wang added. A worker installs a spare rectifier transformer bushing at Balikun converter station in Hami, Xinjiang. (Ding Lei/Xinhua) Ensuring supply Solar and wind power are inherently intermittent their output fluctuates with weather conditions, making supply unpredictable. On April 28, for example, due to extreme temperature variations, about 55 million people in Spain and Portugal two countries that source about 80 percent of their electricity from solar and wind suffered severe power outages that disrupted public transportation, and bank and internet services. So how will Xinjiang respond to volatility and make the power grid more resilient? The Xinjiang Fukang Pumped Storage Power Station of the State Grid Xinyuan Company addresses the issue by storing surplus energy when demand is low, said Lu Jiangang, deputy director of the engineering department. The facility is composed of an upstream reservoir, water conveyance system, underground powerhouse system, ground switch station and a downstream reservoir. The elevation difference between the two reservoirs is approximately 400 meters. "When electricity demand is low, the plant uses surplus power to pump water from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir, converting electrical energy into stored energy. When demand peaks, water is released back to the lower reservoir through turbines, generating electricity," said Lu. Yang Hongtao, chairman of the company, said: "Generally, the station pumps water from the downstream reservoir between 9 am and 3 pm, and generates power between midnight and 7 am, achieving about 80 percent round-trip efficiency." The first of its kind in Northwest China, the power station commenced power generation in November 2023. It has a bidirectional and double regulation capacity of 2.4 million kW. As of May 14, the power station had operated nearly 15,000 hours and generated over 2.1 billion kWh of electricity. Yang said the project was a breakthrough in providing flexible power regulation for the Xinjiang and Northwest China power grids, significantly advancing the transformation of abundant wind and solar resources into economic benefits. The facility plays a vital role in promoting Xinjiang's development of large-scale integrated energy bases that combine wind, solar, hydro, thermal, and energy storage. "Compared with other storage methods, it boasts large-scale capacity, an exceptional safety record and a long operational lifespan," Yang added. By balancing supply and demand in real time, the facility not only enhances grid reliability but also supports the large-scale adoption of intermittent renewables like wind and solar by about 2.6 billion kWh annually. That saves 165,000 tons of standard coal consumption, and reduces 496,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. Lu said the station has six functions: peak shaving, frequency regulation, phase modulation, energy storage, spinning reserve, and black start. "With the increasing integration of renewable energy capacity in Xinjiang, the demand for flexible power sources will continue to rise. After starting operations, the station has had a significant impact on the safe and stable operation of the power grid and the integration and consumption of renewable energy," Lu said. However, the role of the power plant transcends grid stabilization. Lu said its construction had helped in the acquiring of valuable building experience and nurtured talent for future projects. Exchange programs and training sessions have since been held to share construction and operational expertise across Xinjiang. The power station has also improved the fragile local environment characterized by high altitudes and climate extremes of aridness and cold through reservoir water evaporation that increases precipitation. After conducting research, Lu and his colleagues carefully chose seeds and cultivated shrubs sourced from nearby regions, to increase the vegetation coverage and improve the local ecology. "Two years after the station's operations began, wapitis (elks), foxes and wild boars reappeared and birds have settled in the reservoirs in summer, which is a sign of a better environment," Lu added. Electrons racing With growing power production in Xinjiang and rising electricity demand in central and eastern regions of China, long-distance power transmission has become imperative. Located in the barren Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, the Changji converter station the beginning of the Changji-Guquan Ultra-High-Voltage Direct Current Transmission Project can transfer power to Xuancheng, Anhui province, within 0.01 second. The project, which began operating on Sep 26, 2019, stretches through regions of Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan and Anhui. Designed and constructed domestically, the project is the most technologically advanced ultrahigh voltage transmission project with the world's highest voltage level, the largest transmission capacity, and the longest transmission distance. "Compared with alternating current, direct current offers constant voltage and direction, lower energy loss and superior efficiency for long-distance transmission," said Wang Hong, head of the Changji converter station. "From Xinjiang to Anhui, power transmission loss through the 3,293-kilometer project is approximately 5 percent." When Wang Hong came to Changji to build the station in 2017, there was nothing but Gobi wilderness. Now the area has housing for station staff and the company has planted trees to improve the residential environment. "In the past we had to commute by long-distance bus rides. Thanks to the new railway to Zhundong, we can reunite with our families in a safer manner," Wang said, adding you can create a "good life" in the tough environment. Each year, the Changji-Guquan project transmits about 66 billion kWh of electricity annually to East China. This transmission reduces coal transportation by 30.24 million tons, equivalent to 25,000 freight trains (each with 20 carriages) and cuts soot emissions by 24,000 tons, sulfur dioxide by 149,000 tons, and nitrogen oxides by 157,000 tons. A technician inspects hardware in the valve hall of Balikun converter station in March. (Ding Lei/Xinhua) In 2024, the power transmission volume of the project reached 68.3 billion kWh, accounting for approximately half of Xinjiang's total annual power transmission. It has ranked first among all ultrahigh-voltage projects in China for four consecutive years. "The station delivery in 2024 is equivalent to 21.27 percent of Anhui's total power consumption in 2023 and 76 days' worth of the province's power demand," said Wang. The 38-year-old has been working in ultrahigh-voltage power transmission for 14 years, and this is the third such project he has been involved in. "During my career, I have witnessed China's power industry develop and progress. I want to work hard, solve problems, and provide people with better power services," he said. Since its commissioning, the Changji converter station has cumulatively transmitted 340.2 billion kWh of electricity. "We are developing a new generation of adaptive control algorithms, which could reduce transmission losses from 5 percent to below 3 percent in the future," Wang added. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Beijing airports hit record high in tax refunds for overseas travelers Xinhua) 15:50, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- In the first four months of this year, the customs of two major airports in Beijing processed departure tax refund applications for overseas travelers totaling approximately 369 million yuan (about 51.36 million U.S. dollars), up 79.41 percent year on year, setting a new record high for the same period in history, according to Beijing Customs. The 240-hour visa-free transit policy has significantly boosted the number of foreigners visiting China, the municipal customs said. From January to April, Beijing Customs handled 7.07 million inbound and outbound passengers, up 22.3 percent year on year. Additionally, the customs authorities oversaw 40,622 inbound and outbound flights at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport, a 23.9-percent year-on-year increase. As China continues to optimize its tax refund policy for overseas visitors, the potential for inbound tourism consumption is being fully realized. During this year's May Day holiday, the number of tax refund applications processed at the two Beijing airports increased by 105.14 percent year on year, while the total refund amount surged by 155.81 percent compared to the same period last year, data from Beijing Customs shows. "Since the beginning of this year, we've observed a significant increase in inbound foreign travelers, which is clearly reflected in our tax refund processing volumes," said a staff member with the customs of Beijing Capital International Airport. "During peak shifts, we handled up to 50 to 60 refund claims -- a substantial rise compared to previous periods." The customs of Beijing Capital International Airport now has multiple tax refund counters in departure areas, which has helped streamline processing amid rising demand. Meanwhile, Beijing Customs is working closely with tax authorities, tourism officials and Capital Airports Holdings Co., Ltd., to publicize tax refund procedures via airport media, multimedia systems, and official new media platforms. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) is expanding its sales channels, including health and wellness stores, premium beauty outlets, and quick commerce, to adapt to evolving consumer shopping habits, said Rohit Jawa, chief executive and managing director of India's largest packaged consumer goods firm, in its 2024-25 annual report. "We now have a dedicated premium retail organisation focused on distributing and creating demand for our premium beauty products through the beauty and pharma channels. New channels have necessitated superior point-of-sale availability. We are leveraging advanced technology expertise to strengthen our presence in modern trade, e-commerce, and the fast-growing quick commerce, he added. In October 2024, HULs beauty and well-being portfolio, which includes brands such as Lakme and Dove, went live in 75,000 outlets with the beauty premium retail organisation (PRO). PRO is an exclusive route to market for offline beauty, with 75% coverage focused on health and beauty stores. Also Read: Company Outsider: HUL's rare outsider hire signals potential strategic shift Meanwhile, HUL's foods category is witnessing a significant expansion in channels such as modern trade stores and e-commerce, including quick commerce, the company said. It has rolled out several exclusive products for such channels. "We had several modern trade and e-commerce exclusive launches in the year, led by Pukka herbal infusions, Bru cold coffee and Korean meal pots. With our premium ice cream portfolio of Magnum, Cornetto and Slow Churn, we continued to strengthen our play in channels of the future, building on the trend of in-home ice cream consumption, it added. E-commerce currently contributes 7-8% to HUL's business, a share that is growing faster than the company's overall average. This contribution could potentially reach 15% in the next few years, according to the company's management during their post-earnings call for the March quarter. Quick commerce accounts for approximately 2% of the business. HULs assortment on quick commerce has doubled in 2024-25 compared to a year ago. HUL said e-commerce has evolved into various models. It has set up teams for each model, focusing on future-ready, need-based portfolios. Distribution leverage HUL's wide portfolio of over 50 brands reaches over 9 million outlets in India, making it among the most well-distributed packaged consumer goods companies in the country. It has invested ahead of the curve in organised trade, leading to higher market shares and strong leadership positions across categories. The growing demand in modern trade will help drive sales. Also Read: From 700 to 8,000: HUL's influencer roster swells as it chases young buyers "We are also investing in e-commerce capabilities to build a strong digital moatUnder the WiMI 2.0 mandate, HUL is also building specialised new routes to market (RTMs) for emerging segments, such as health and wellness, premium beauty, and gourmet food. These channels will help HUL reach more than 70% of the premium beauty and foods markets, while also driving assortment growth, it added. The company uses the WiMI (winning in many Indias) strategy to understand and reach diverse consumer groups across the country. Apart from premiumization and more consumers trading up to better brands, HUL has also outlined rapid digitisation as a core area of future growth. This includes digitizing Kirana store partners via apps, bolstering e-commerce offers, and spending more on digital marketing channels. Traditional trade The company still draws a majority of its business from kirana stores or traditional sales channels. Kirana stores are vital to any large packaged consumer goods company's distribution and reach in India, making up to 70-80% of their sales. Over the last year, we have focused on strengthening this channel with a kirana-centric, distributor-inclusive model. Our strategy involves building stronger relationships with our distributor partners and kirana stores, partnering with them in their journey of digitisation, empowering them with future-fit capabilities to ensure we position them to succeed in the rapidly evolving distribution landscape, it said. New Delhi, May 30 (PTI) Indian aviation market is one of the world's most competitive markets and maintaining cost leadership is crucial for IndiGo, its chief Pieter Elbers said on Friday. The country's largest airline, with a domestic market share of more than 60 per cent, is currently operating around 2,300 daily flights connecting more than 130 destinations, including over 40 overseas cities. To a query from PTI on the airfare trajectory in India, Elbers said the Indian market is probably one of the most competitive aviation markets in the world and that there are always ups and downs in airfares. "In general, Indian market is still one of the most competitive, prices go up and down... At the end of the day, there must be a connection between the cost of operations and revenue of operations... Cost leadership is extremely important and to maintain that cost leadership, maintain our market position," the IndiGo CEO said. In recent months, the civil aviation ministry has intervened and asked airlines to ensure that airfares are not too high at least on two occasions, including during the Maha Kumbh. At the briefing, Elbers spelt out the ambitious expansion plans of the airline and announced that the airline will start direct flights to ten overseas destinations in the current financial year ending March 31, 2026. New Delhi, May 30 (PTI) India holds immense potential to attract foreign tourists, but it is lagging severely, Indian Hotels Company Limited MD and CEO Puneet Chhatwal said on Friday, asserting that high tax rates were a key impediment in creating global brands for the country's hospitality sector. He also sought an "additional push" while referring to the "infrastructure" status accorded to 50 tourist destinations in this year's Budget and reiterated the long-standing demand for an "industry" status. Alluding to the lack of competitive advantage in terms of margins, the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) MD and CEO said, "If you are the highest taxed sector in every possible way, GST, excise, paying all charges during COVID when your business is shut with the least amount of budget for promotion, for marketing the destination and just relying on what we have, then how are you going to create those kind of global brands on your own". Speaking at CII's Annual Business Summit, Chhatwal said India is not just a market of scale but a market of aspiration. It is where the next 500 million middle-income travellers will emerge and their disposable income, coupled with global travel ambitions, will position India very differently within the country and across the globe. In an apparent reference to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget speech, he said, "We at least got infra status for those 50 destinations which we have been fighting for, including industry status, which is a state subject. Collectively, all the associations have worked well to get to where we are, but now where we are, we need that additional push". IndiGo has received a last and final three-month extension from Indias civil aviation regulator, after which it will have to stop using wet-leased aircraft from Turkish Airlines as the government curtails business ties with Ankara for supporting Pakistan. IndiGo can now use the aircraft till 31 August 2025 against the earlier deadline of 31 May 2025, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement on Friday. The airline had sought an extension of six months, which was rejected. IndiGo has been granted a one-time last and final extension of 3 months based on the undertaking from the airline that, they will terminate the wet lease with Turkish Airline within this extension period, and shall not seek any further extension for these operations, the DGCA said. Also Read: IndiGo plans new overseas, domestic flights in FY26 to expand network Sentiments are running high against Turkey in India for providing arms to Pakistan. India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day military conflict after 'Operation Sindoor' on 7 May, targeting nine terror launch pads across the border. IndiGos wet-lease ties Flights between India and Turkey are governed within the bilateral air service agreement, IndiGo's chief executive officer Pieter Elbers said at an event in New Delhi on Friday. We are compliant today and we will continue to comply with any government regulations on those lines. IndiGo signed a wet-lease agreement with Turkish Airlines in 2022 for two Boeing 777 widebody aircraft with a capacity of 500 passengers, connecting Delhi and Mumbai with flights to Istanbul. In a wet lease, an airline gets an aircraft along with the crew for a set period of time from another carrier. IndiGo currently has wet-leased aircraft from Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways and Norse Atlantic Airways. IndiGo received its first plane from Turkish Airlines in February 2023 and the second in May 2023. Also Read: Delhi HC reserves order in Celebi security revocation case Though Im personally unhappy, given the Turkish connection, its important to note extension has been given for just three months, Sanjay Lazar, aviation expert and CEO of Avialaz Consultants, said. Its apparent that the DGCA has indicated that the airline should exit from the agreement as soon as possible. International expansion IndiGo plans to add 10 internationalacross Europe and Central Asiaand four new domestic destinations in the financial year 2026. We will add Hindon, Adampur, Navi Mumbai and Noida as domestic destinations, which will take the total domestic destinations count to 95 in FY26, Elbers said. In terms of international, we will add Manchester, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen, Siem Reap, Athens and 4 more destinations in Central Asia, taking total international destinations count to 50 in FY26. In a relief for engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) informed the Supreme Court on Friday that it has decided to scrap the 14,000 crore tender process in which it had disqualified the company. We are scrapping the tender, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing MMRDA, told the court. A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai accepted MMRDAs decision to scrap the entire tender process for two major infrastructure projects. It is fairly stated that the entire tender process is scrapped in larger public interest. Thus, the plea is disposed of as infructuous, the court ordered. The bench then closed L&Ts plea. L&T had moved the Supreme Court alleging procedural lapses and unfair treatment in the bidding for the Thane-Ghodbunder to Bhayander infrastructure project, a key part of Mumbais urban transport expansion. The Supreme Courts order now means that all existing bids, including L&Ts, stand void, prompting a possible re-initiation of the tender process by MMRDA. While the outcome doesnt guarantee L&T the contract it sought, it does provide the company with a fresh opportunity to bid. How could L&T be disqualified? The Supreme Court had on 29 May questioned how L&Twhich built Delhis Central Vistacould be disqualified while others were allowed to proceed. Just remember what happened to the Uttarakhand tunnel, where 40 workers were trapped and then rescued. L&T is disqualified, and the person who is selected you know, the Chief Justice remarked, highlighting concerns about the qualifications of the selected contractors. MMRDA then sought one more day to complete discussions on the tenders and L&Ts disqualification. The top court granted 24 hours and was set to hear the case on 30 May. However, MMRDA chose to scrap the tender process altogether MMRDA has voluntarily decided to proceed with a re-tendering process, without prejudice to its legal rights, an MMRDA spokesperson said in response to todays proceedings. We are also considering a downward revision of the base project cost by approximately 3,000 crore as a step towards ensuring financial efficiency and delivering greater public value, the spokesperson said. Initially, L&T had challenged the matter in the Bombay High Court, which dismissed its petitions on 20 May. However, the High Court directed that the bids submitted electronically by L&T be preserved in a sealed cover for two weeks, giving the company time to approach the Supreme Court. The High Court also instructed MMRDA to communicate the tender award decision in accordance with the instructions to bidders. Why MMRDA disqualified L&T L&Ts main contention was that it was never informed of its disqualification, and its price bid was not even opened, raising questions about transparency in MMRDAs process. According to L&T, it submitted its financial bids on 30 December. MMRDA then opened the technical bids on 1 January and started evaluating them but did not communicate the status to L&T. Despite this, MMRDA scheduled the opening of financial bids for 13 May without informing L&T or inviting it to witness the process, while other bidders were notified. MMRDA contested L&Ts claim before the Supreme Court, stating that although the companys financial bid was about 3,000 crore lower, it was not opened because L&T was disqualified for failing to submit a required affidavit. Companies participating in the tender were required to file an affidavit declaring that no bridge built by the company had collapsed within two years of completion, a critical eligibility criterion that MMRDA said L&T did not fulfill. Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms and defence technology startup Anduril Industries have announced a deal to develop mixed reality gear to provide soldiers with enhanced control on the battlefields, according to reports. The development, will fuse Meta's augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) tech with Anduril's data analytics platform Lattice, into a product such as glasses, goggles or visors, AFP reported. Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future. We're proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the release. Anduril describes its Lattice platform as an AI-powered command and control system that integrates data from thousands of sources to provide real-time battlefield intelligence for decision making. Meta, Anduril deal What does this mean? The partnership will include developing new products for US military use and includes an AI-powered helmet with virtual reality (VR) and AR features, according to a Bloomberg report. Anduril is working with Meta to design, build, and field a range of integrated XR products that provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield, the company blog said. According to a report by Core Memory, at least one of the products will be a sci-fi-style military helmet named Eagle Eye. Its the thing that everyones always wanted. People have called them different things: Theyve called them Call of Duty googles. Theyve called it, you know, the helmet from Halo. These are old ideas that have only recently become really technologically viable, Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Anduril, told Core Memory in an interview. Meta's Defence Entry: Courting Donald Trump, US Military Notably, Meta changed its acceptable use policies in November to allow use of its large language AI models by US military contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. and Palantir Technologies Inc. A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Bloomberg said. Notably, Anduril's Luckey also co-founded Oculus VR, the gaming headset company he sold to Meta in 2014. He was removed from Meta after controversy around financing a group creating anti-Hillary Clinton memes ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. Since Donald Trump's re-election, Mark Zuckerbergs politics too have trended rightward. The tech billionaire also bought a $23 million residence in Washington DC. Nomura Holdings Inc. is setting its sights on the US for growth despite the current turmoil surrounding the worlds biggest economy. Japans largest brokerage said its strengthening its focus on the Americas through strategic resource allocation, according to an investor day presentation, which touted the big opportunities there. The firm plans to advance targets for its investment management and wholesale banking businesses by pursuing long-term growth in the Americas, it said. Currently, market volatility is increasing due to global tariff negotiations, and the US can be said to be the epicenter of all this, Chief Executive Officer Kentaro Okuda told investors on Friday. However, in our companys global strategy, the US is the most important area rich in business opportunities, and this will not change in the future. Nomura is in expansion mode, having recently clinched a $1.8 billion deal to buy Macquarie Group Ltd.s US and European public asset management business. The firms optimism toward the US comes against wider sentiments that are more worried about President Donald Trumps trade policies overshadowing global growth prospects. In its presentation, the Tokyo-based firm also said it aims to boost revenue from trading and investment banking business by 15% to 20% in dollar terms by March 2031. It plans to expand in private credit, structured and solutions, equity trading in Europe and Asia, and international wealth management. Led by ex-JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Christopher Willcox, this wholesale banking arm will seek to ramp up productivity of bankers in advisory business as well as global markets sales and trading operations. The division accounts for about half of Nomuras overall net revenue. Meanwhile, Nomura also introduced a 50 billion pretax profit target for its newly created banking division for the year ending March 2031. Nomura earned a record net profit last fiscal year, joining Wall Street titans in benefiting from trading while enjoying a boom in dealmaking and retail investing in Japan. The firm posted a 72% increase in income before taxes to 472 billion in the year ended this March. At last years investor day, the management unveiled a target to lift annual pretax profit to more than 500 billion by March 2031. It had also identified India and the Middle East as growth opportunities. 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd is nearing a billion dollars in annual revenue from its sister companies, a more than three-fold surge since Natarajan Chandrasekaran rose to the helm of the Tata Groups holding company eight years ago. The growing internal business, now representing 3.1% of TCSs total revenue, underscores Chandrasekarans strategic push to modernize the sprawling conglomerates digital infrastructure and leverage the IT giants capabilities across the group. Out of TCS's FY25 revenue of more than 2.5 trillion, 7,835 crore came from group companies, the company's annual report showed. Eight years back, the figure was 2,412 crore. An email sent to TCS on Thursday remained unanswered. Rising revenue from group companies comes amid a broader initiative to foster tighter collaboration among Tata entities, exemplified by mega-deals with Jaguar Land Rover and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. In 2023, TCS won an 800-million-pound order from Tata Motors' UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover to revamp its IT systems. Also read | Tata Sons feels the heat as TCS shrinks dividend for the first time in 20 years The JLR contract was a mega deal for TCS and its ramp-up would have caused the group company revenues to increase significantly," said a Mumbai-based analyst on condition of anonymity. A mega deal is a contract that brings more than 8,500 crore, or $1 billion in revenue. TCS winning a 15,000 crore contract from state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was another example. In August 2023, TCS announced that along with group company Tejas Networks Ltd, which makes wireless networking products for telecom companies, it had won a large contract from BSNL. TCS has also bagged multi-year contracts worth over 5,000 crore from its non-bank lender Tata Capital Ltd. The increase in earnings from group companies is primarily due to Chandrasekarans efforts to make TCS future-ready for many of the group companies. Chandrasekaran, who began his career with TCS, rose through the ranks to become chief executive officer in 2009, before he was elevated as Tata Sons chairman in February 2017. Since then, Chandrasekaran has been nudging senior executives within TCS to collaborate with group companies such as Tata Communications Ltd, and also help modernize their IT infrastructure, an executive familiar with the developments said. He envisioned the 'One Tata' plan in 2017, a strategy to "simplify, synergise, and scale" the group's operations. Read this | The quiet philanthropists: Premji Foundation, Tata Trusts match social spending of top Nifty companies I see ample evidence that we are moving ahead on the course we set under the One Tata strategy. We are embarking on a process of simplifying, synergizing and scaling (3S) to create an agile, powerful platform," Chandrasekaran wrote in a New Year message to Tata Group employees in 2019. For now, TCS executives believe business from group companies will only increase. Tata Group getting into new businesses like semiconductors and digital business is an opportunity for us (TCS) to work with other group companies," the executive cited above said on the condition of anonymity. Chandrasekaran's letter to shareholders in the TCS annual report also underscored the importance of technology. We are witnessing the rise of new paradigms, demanding a thorough reimagination of systems, processes, and technologies to improve visibility, reduce costs, and enhance operational throughput," Chandrasekaran, who is also chair of TCS, wrote in the annual report. This reimagination includes designing end-to-end traceability across supply chains; diversification of sourcing strategies to build resilience, and region-specific ecosystems to serve decentralized markets." And read | Tata Sons concludes probe into a top executive. Heres the verdict More money from Tata-owned businesses also comes at a time when the company is looking to boost revenue from its home turf. For two years, India has been the fastest-growing market for TCS, accounting for 8.6% or $2.6 billion in revenue last year. Despite the boost from group companies and homegrown businesses, TCSs growth has slowed: TCS ended the year with $30.18 billion in revenue, representing a 3.78% dollar revenue growth. This was its slowest growth in four years. New Delhi: The Centre on Friday cleared an additional instalment of 81,735 crore as tax devolution to state governments, the ministry of finance said on Friday. The amount will be released on 2 June, over and above the regular monthly instalment of 81,735 crore due on 10 June. The move underscores the Centres commitment to cooperative federalism and supports the vision of a Viksit Bharat (developed India) by 2047, according to the ministry. This goal, as laid out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hinges on building strong, self-reliant states. The additional funds will enable states to accelerate capital spending, finance key development and welfare programmes, and allocate resources to high-priority projects, the ministry said. By advancing this supplementary devolution, the Centre seeks to strengthen the fiscal capacity of states at a crucial juncture of economic growth and infrastructure push, it added. With a combined outlay of over 1.63 trillion in June alone, this twin release marks a significant step in enhancing state-level public investment and ensuring timely delivery of government schemes. Developed India @2047 The Indian governments vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047 aims to build a strong, inclusive, and sustainable economy by the nations centenary of independence. It focuses on high-quality growth, world-class infrastructure, empowered states, and social equity. With an emphasis on innovation, green development, and institutional reform, the goal is to transform India into a globally competitive and resilient nation. GDP grows 6.5% in FY25 Indias GDP grew 6.5% in FY25, supported by a strong 7.4% expansion in the JanuaryMarch quarter, provisional data released Friday by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation showed. Both figures mark a moderation from the previous year. FY24s Q4 growth stood at 7.8%, while the full-year growth was revised to 9.2%. Also read: Behind strong Q4 GDP growth is only mild uptick in economic activity Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India is sustaining its growth and has maintained its position as the world's fastest-growing economy for the fourth straight year. Speaking at an event at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, Sitharaman said India is no longer just a middle-class market where goods can be dumped, but a market that fosters innovation. GDP growth The statement came hours after India recorded a GDP growth rate of 7.4% for Q4 FY25 and an overall GDP growth rate of 6.5% for FY25. The finance minister said all sectors of the economyservices, manufacturing, and agriculturehad contributed immensely to India's growth in FY25. Also Read: Its time to lay the great Indian GDP controversy to rest "India's industry as well as manufacturing activity have all been so good during quarter four (Q4), and quarter four's growth alone was 7.4%," said Sitharaman. According to the data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the economy expanded 6.5% in FY25 against a 9.2% growth in FY24. According to official data, the economy grew 9.7% and 7.6%, respectively, in FY22 and FY23. "India is sustaining this growth as the fastest growing economy, now for the fourth year continuously without a break, thanks to the work of our small, medium, and large industries," said the finance minister. These industries are ensuring that India's manufacturing and services capacities are intact, she said. She said that while India's economic output recorded high growth rates after the covid pandemic, it continued to sustain this momentum in FY25, the fourth straight year that India was the fastest-growing economy in the world. Also Read: Will Indias 2025-26 tax cut spur consumption and GDP growth? Adoption of digital public infrastructure Indias adoption of digital public infrastructure has positioned it as a benchmark across the globe, said Sitharaman. Many world leaders have lauded the adoption of Indian technology across its population, she said. She added that the government was continuously working to reduce regulatory hurdles for businesses. She added that getting rid of corruption is integral to becoming a developed nation, as corruption affects everyone. The FM also called for further investments in science and technology. She said the government had taken significant efforts to invest in futuristic sciences, such as kickstarting the National Quantum Mission (NQM), while simultaneously providing social welfare to citizens. The NQM, launched in the FY21 budget, aimed to promote quantum technology and strengthen India's position in new sciences. Sitharaman also said research in sectors such as oceanography, space, rare earth minerals, and weather forecasting would propel India's growth. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on Friday officially announced the examination schedule for CA Foundation, Intermediate, and Final courses for the September 2025 attempt on its official site. The ICAI made the announcement via an official circular dated 30 May 2025. Depending on the number of candidates appearing for the exam, the board will conduct examinations at various centres across the country. Here is the complete schedule: Final Course Examination Dates: Group I: 3, 6, and 8 September 2025 Group II: 10, 12, and 14 September 2025 Intermediate Course Examination Dates: Group I: 4, 7, and 9 September 2025 Group II: 11, 13, and 15 September 2025 Foundation Course Examination Dates: Foundation Papers: 16, 18, 20, and 22 September 2025 Among other details, the ICAI stated that no examination is scheduled on September 5, 2025 (Friday), on account of Milad un Nabi, a gazetted Central Government holiday There would be no change in the examination schedule in the event of any day of the examination schedule being declared a public holiday by the Central Government or any State Government / Local Bodies, the ICAI said. Examination papers timing details: Examination Papers Timing Foundation Papers 1 & 2 2:00 PM 5:00 PM Foundation Papers 3 & 4 2:00 PM 4:00 PM Intermediate All Papers 2:00 PM 5:00 PM Final Papers Papers 1 to 5 2:00 PM 5:00 PM Final Paper Paper 6 2:00 PM 6:00 PM The ICAI provided more information about the exam's duration: most papers will last 3 hours (2 PM to 5 PM IST), while Paper 6 of the Final exam will last 4 hours (2 PM to 6 PM IST). Papers 3 and 4 will be two hours each. Candidates will have 15 minutes of advance reading from 1:45 PM to 2:00 PM, except for Papers 3 and 4 of the Foundation Exam and MCQ-based sections, added ICAI. Highly anticipated martial arts film The Karate Kid: Legends, featuring Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, hit theatres on May 30, 2025. Directed by Jonathan Entwistle, it follows Li Fong's journey in New York City as he competes in a karate tournament under the guidance of Mr. Han and Daniel LaRusso. Karate Kid: Legends Release date Karate Kid: Legends hit the theatres of several South American countries on May 8, 2025, and in Europe and Scandinavia on May 29, 2025. The film was released in the United States and India on Friday, May 30. In India, the film is available in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. Karate Kid: Legends Cast The film has a prominent cast, including actors Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, and Wyatt Oleff. Karate Kid: Legends Plot IMDb describes the plot of Karate Kid: Legends as follows When Kung Fu prodigy Li Fong moves to New York City, he draws the ire of a local karate champion. With the guidance of Mr Han and Daniel LaRusso, Li sets out to compete in the ultimate karate tournament. Also Read | Allu Arjun wins Best Actor for Pushpa 2 at Gaddar Telangana Film Awards 2024 Karate Kid: Legends Ralph Macchio on working with Jackie Chan Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, Macchio shared his experience of working with Jackie Chan. What can you say? Its really the gift that keeps on giving, and now thats working with someone like Jackie. I didnt know him personally, but I obviously knew his work. He paved the way for so many, and hes like a kid in a candy store, Macchio said. Disney+ has announced that its latest Korean drama 'Nine Puzzles' has become the platforms most-watched Korean series globally in 2025. The gripping crime thriller reached this milestone just nine days after its debut on May 21. Nine Puzzles is 2025's most-watched K-drama on Disney+ Starring 'The Witch's Kim Dami as Yoon E-na, 'Nine Puzzles' follows the story of a young woman whose life was changed by a shocking murder. As a high school student, E-na discovered her uncles lifeless body at home, with a strange puzzle piece lying next to him. With no memory of how she got there, and being the only witness, she quickly became the prime suspect. Ten years later, E-na has transformed into a skilled criminal profiler working for the Seoul Metropolitan Police. But the trauma of her uncles unsolved case still haunts her. When a new string of murders emergeseach one marked by the same type of puzzle pieceE-na is pulled back into the past. She must now work alongside Detective Kim Han-saem, played by 'My Liberation Notes' Son Sukku, who originally led the investigation into her uncles death and still quietly questions her innocence. Directed by Yoon Jongbin and written by Lee Eunmi, the show features a strong supporting cast including Kim Sungkyun and Hyun Bongsik. 'Nine Puzzles' joins a growing list of Korean titles on Disney+, such as 'Unmasked' and 'Hyper Knife'. Upcoming releases include 'Low Life', a treasure-hunting adventure starring Ryu Seungryong, and 'Tempest', an international thriller featuring Gang Dongwon and John Cho. Another K-drama that is all set to be streamed on Disney+ in the second half of the year is 'The Manipulated'. Starring Ji Changwook and Do Kyungsoo, the release date of this show is yet to be announced. Nearly two years after being forced to fall back to Port Sudan on the coast, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan are triumphantly back in charge of Khartoum, the capital. They still face resistance in areas south of the city and in the district of Omdurman on the west bank of the Nile. But the citys recapture marks a turning point in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12m and caused one of the worlds worst famines for decades. The question now is whether the SAF halts its advance or pushes westward. That will depend partly on pressure from the generals allies. The SAF has advanced on the battlefield in recent months largely thanks to a broad and diverse coalition assembled since the early months of the war, when it lost swathes of the country, including most of Khartoum, to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a descendant of the Janjaweed, an ethnically Arab militia that terrorised the vast western region of Darfur for two decades. The RSF is commanded by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, who is apparently determined to fight on. On the SAFs side are foreign backers such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and neighbouring Egypt, which has reportedly provided air support. Looser associates include Russia, Turkey and Iran, which have sold the army weapons and drones. Some of those countries may now press General Burhan, who has doggedly refused peace talks, to negotiate with the RSF. To sweeten the deal, outsiders may offer to recognise an SAF-led government in Khartoum and help pay to rebuild the battered city. Yet competing interests among the armys domestic allies could scupper any such deal. The SAF has enlisted voluntary local defence units, composed of civilians enraged by the RSFs looting and terrorising of populations under its control, and militias from Darfur. It has also fought alongside jihadist brigades with links to the Islamist government of Omar al-Bashir that was ousted in 2019. Faced with the dilemma of whether to continue the fight westwards towards the RSFs base in Darfur, or to consolidate in Khartoum, this shaky alliance could well splinter. Prominent voices are urging it to push on. Darfur is part of Sudan, says Amjed Farid, a former government official. The SAF should not surrender it to the RSF. Many Darfuris, not least the ethnic African groups who have suffered atrocities including possible genocide at the hands of the RSF, probably feel the same. But such a push could easily end badly. The army has made the biggest recent gains in its traditional strongholds in central Sudan. A ground offensive in Darfur would entail battles on the RSFs home turf and stretched supply lines. As a commander during the first Darfur war, in the 2000s, General Burhan got bogged down in the region. Even with the support of local allies his forces could find themselves in a quagmire again. The Sudanese Armed Forces have never really won in Darfur, says Kholood Khair of Confluence Advisory, a Sudanese think-tank. Still, for the moment there is little talk of a ceasefire or negotiations, at least in public. The SAF continues to bomb civilians: a strike on a market in Darfur on March 24th reportedly killed at least 54 people and injured dozens more. In Khartoum there are alarming reports of lawlessness. Gruesome videos have circulated in recent days appearing to show beheadings of suspected RSF collaborators by groups allied to the army. There are equally few signs that the RSF, despite its defeat in Khartoum and its recent insistence that it wished to begin dialogue, is ready to sue for peace. In February it announced the formation of a parallel government in the areas under its control. Its chief foreign supporter, the United Arab Emirates, does not appear to have stopped sending it weapons. Almost all of Sudans immediate neighbours, except Egypt and Eritrea, now fall within the Emiratis sphere of influence. This means the RSF should be able to continue resupplying itself. Id be surprised if the RSF is going to take this one lying down, says Alex Rondos, a former EU special representative to the Horn of Africa. A Trump administration announcement Wednesday that it would aggressively" begin revoking visas for Chinese students confronts universities across the U.S. with the prospect of a hit to their finances and talent pool. The move comes on top of a push to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students as part of the presidents battle with the school. The Trump administration has also paused new student-visa interviews while it prepares new measures to vet applicants social-media accounts, according to a State Department cable. American universities significantly increased their enrollment of Chinese students in the years following the 2008-09 financial crisis, when many suffered budget shortfalls. Typically, Chinese undergraduates pay full tuition, a critical source of revenue for universities. One in every four international students comes from China, and Chinese students form a particularly large share of the student body at top U.S. schools. After they graduate, many assume key roles in U.S. science and engineering endeavors. A big decline in Chinese enrollment could severely cut into schools bottom line and damage U.S. competitiveness, say U.S. experts. The economic costs are apparent," said Yingyi Ma, a sociologist at Syracuse University who studies international students in the U.S. The talent cost has even graver consequences." Scrutiny of students from China has intensified in the months since President Trump returned to the White House. In the past few months, Republican lawmakers have called for a halt to student visas for Chinese nationals as well as stripping them of access to national labs over national-security concerns. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the U.S. will revoke visas of students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. Many Chinese students had already started looking elsewhere. For the past six years, the U.K. has been the most popular studying-abroad destination for Chinese students, according to a recent report by New Oriental Education & Technology Group. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Thursday condemned Washingtons action as politically motivated and discriminatory. Biggest buyer China was for years the No. 1 supplier of international students to U.S. universities. More international students now come from India than China, though China still sends the most undergraduates. That means China remains the largest buyer of education-related services, including spending on tuition and books, from the U.S., at $14.3 billion in 2023, 21% more than the $11.8 billion spent by students from India, and more than six times as much as students from South Korea, another major supplier of international students to the U.S. In 2023, education-related services made up 5% of U.S. services exports to the world, while they were 31% of service exports to China. Studies have shown that suspending visas for foreigners undermines U.S. innovation. In the 1920s, Congress introduced a country-specific quota system that cut immigration to the U.S. by more than 80%. As a result, fewer foreign scientists came to the U.S., which led to a sharp decline in inventions, according to research by New York University professors published in 2020. The damage persisted into the 1960s, their paper said. STEM drain Suspicion has ramped up in particular around Chinese students studying science, technology, engineering and math, the largest chunk of Chinese students in the U.S., as the U.S. and China lock horns in an escalating competition over technological and geopolitical supremacy. Sen. Jim Risch (R., Idaho) in January characterized every STEM student from China as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party." A select House committee on China, which last week demanded information from Harvard about its partnership with Chinese entities, earlier this year asked six universities for information about the schools Chinese graduate students in STEM programs, such as their alma maters and funding sources, and questioned their involvement in federally funded research. Student groups dispute a contention lawmakers have made, that Chinese STEM students rush to take their know-how back to China after graduation, saying that despite pressure they have faced, many go to great lengths to be able to remain. In 2023, 83% of the Chinese STEM graduates who obtained their doctoral degrees between 2017 and 2019 were still in the U.S., well above the average rate. Of the top 15 American universities by STEM programs that publish their international student profiles, Chinese students are the largest foreign student group at all but one university and make up nearly half at six. Steven Kivelson, a Stanford University theoretical physicist, in an April virtual event called China the single most important pipeline of talent. All of this is very much at risk now," he said. Write to Shen Lu at shen.lu@wsj.com, Liyan Qi at Liyan.qi@wsj.com and Ming Li at ming.li@wsj.com The administrations tariff strategy was undermined when a court this week found it was illegal for Trump to impose sweeping duties by using emergency economic powers. A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed his duties to stay in effect while the administrations appeal moves forward, but U.S. officials are weighing their options should they need to find a new legal authority to impose the presidents steep tariffs, which he argues will help rebalance trade in Americas favor. The potential pivot reflects the challenges to Trumps aggressive trade policy, which relied on a novel interpretation of trade law. Typically, tariffs are imposed using targeted authority delegated to the president by Congress, but Trumps team relied on little-used emergency powers to impose the bulk of his wide-ranging second-term tariffs quickly. With that strategy under threat, the presidents team is weighing a twofold response, according to people familiar with the matter. First, the administration is considering a stopgap effort to impose tariffs on swaths of the global economy under a never-before-used provision of the Trade Act of 1974, which includes language allowing for tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days to address trade imbalances with other countries, the people said. That would then buy time for Trump to devise individualized tariffs for each major trading partner under a different provision of the same law, used to counter unfair foreign trade practices. That second step requires a lengthy notification and comment process, but is seen by administration officials as more legally defensible than the tariff policy that was found to be illegal this week. The alternative provision has been used many times in the past, including for Trumps first-term tariffs on China. Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, is floating alternative strategies. The conversations remained fluid, and the administration hadnt made a final decision, the people added. The administration could wait to implement any alternative plans after the federal appeals court allowed Trumps emergency tariffs to stay in place during the appeals process. The White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didnt respond to requests for comment. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that the administration is weighing other options to impose tariffs as it appeals the court rulings, but she didnt give specifics. Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, appeared to confirm that the administration is considering a twofold alternative tariff plan, which would first use Section 122 of the 1974 trade law, and then Section 301. Those are the kinds of thoughts" the economic team is considering, he said when asked about those provisions on Bloomberg TV. Navarro also suggested that the administration could use the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which has a provision that allows for tariffs on nations that discriminate against America. The U.S. could also expand the use of tariffs imposed citing national-security concerns. All of the options under consideration now were discussed in the early weeks of the administration, but officials opted to instead impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, also known as IEEPA. The law had never been used before to impose tariffs but allowed the administration to move quickly to impose levies on virtually every global trading partner. In its decision Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down Trumps use of IEEPA to address trade deficits. In doing so, the court pointed to Section 122, the measure Trumps team is now weighing as a stopgap policy, saying part of federal law already grants explicit authority to address large and serious balance-of-payments deficits." Pivoting to a different tariff authority could pose risks. If the administration moves to use a different law, that could be seen by courts as admitting defeat in ongoing appeals in the IEEPA case. The administration could quickly turn to other tariff authorities, but doing so while the ruling is under judicial review could be seen as a lack of confidence in the final decision," said Everett Eissenstat, who served as deputy director of the National Economic Council in Trumps first term. Trumps alternative plan would likely still face legal challenges, said Peter Harrell, who served as senior director for international economics on the Biden administrations National Security Council. But both elements are on firmer legal ground than the IEEPA tariffs, he said. The Court of International Trade seemed to indicate that Section 122 is how youd address a trade deficit," Harrell said. Section 301, he added, has a long case law history, and action under that provision would likely be upheld as long as the Trump administration can point to unfair trade practices from each targeted nation. In all, the plan is certainly more defensible than the IEEPA tariffs," he said. Trumps potential alternative tariff plan has an advantage: Using another law to reimpose the tariffs could smooth over any interruptions in tariffs because of the courts ruling, preserving Trumps leverage in ongoing trade talks. In a filing asking for an emergency stay on the Court of International Trades decision, the administration said the ruling jeopardizes ongoing negotiations with dozens of countries by severely constraining the Presidents leverage and undermining the premise of ongoing negotiations." That appeared to contradict National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, who insisted Thursday that trade negotiations will continue unabated and that three deals are close to being completed. Navarro similarly said that nothing has really changed." The ruling on Wednesday came days after the president threatened to impose 50% tariffs on the European Union and then quickly pulled back to allow for negotiations until July 9a deadline now thrown into question. A rise in global stocks supports the EUs argument that tariffs arent good for anyone, Spanish Minister of Economy Carlos Cuerpo said Thursday. He said the bloc is taking a constructive approach to reaching an agreement and, if possible, even reducing barriers" below pretariff dispute levels. Some analysts said the ruling could ease the path for a trade deal between the U.S. and EU by removing, if the decision survives Trumps appeal, a key sticking point from the negotiations. Ignacio Garcia Bercero, a former EU trade official, said that removing the U.S.s 10% tariff on European imports and the threat of further across-the-board tariffs would allow trade negotiators to focus instead on the U.S.s sectoral tariffs on such industries as steel and automobiles. Those were implemented on national-security grounds, not using the economic-powers law, and will be unaffected by the continuing court battle. If theres a more pragmatic attitude from the United States and also, of course, from the European Union, one would have the opportunity to try to use this to find a more balanced type of agreement that is in the interest of both sides," he said. Write to Gavin Bade at gavin.bade@wsj.com and Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com New Delhi: The central government is working on a strategy to dismantle a sophisticated, illicit network of so-called import carriers at Indias bustling airports and seaports, according to two people aware of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Import carrierswho may masquerade as regular Indian tourists going abroad, some may even have special privilegessmuggle in goods beyond permissible limits or which may be banned in the country. They bring in items like gold, toys, electronics and the like from overseas, bypassing customs checks, and pass the goods on to other entities in the country for commercial use. To curb this practice, the commerce ministry plans to ask the finance ministry to direct the CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) to update baggage rules in the Customs Act, without causing any inconvenience to regular passengers, the people cited above said. Read more: Storm in a teacup: Should Indian workers in the UK be exempt from payroll tax? Current regulations allow Indian residents to bring in goods from overseas worth up to 50,000 duty-free, and up to 1,00,000 from some West Asian countries, beyond which customs duty applies. Further, under the Customs Act, 1962, passengers must declare dutiable or banned goods and can hand over bags for clearance. Using these rules for commercial imports is illegal, and can lead to confiscation or penalties. Measures being discussed include making declarations more detailed, placing a cap on how often passengersespecially frequent flyers from trade hubs like Dubai, Hong Kong, and Guangzhoucan avail duty-free allowances annually, and enhancing the existing Atithi apps digital customs declaration system with AI-based profiling and stricter tracking, the persons cited above said. The Atithi app, launched by the CBIC in November 2019, enables international travellers to electronically file customs declarations for dutiable items and currency in advance, streamlining the customs clearance process upon arrival in India. Most of the goods moved through the import carrier network are sourced from trade hubs of China and Dubai, with electronics and gold being the top items particularly on flights originating from Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dubai," said the first person cited above. There are also discussions to increase collaboration with airport authorities and customs field formations to flag repeat offenders and prevent this backdoor route from being used for commercial gain." We have identified certain products such as electronic items, toys, luxury goods, garments, and gold to be brought under review," said a second person aware of the matter. Queries sent to the ministries of commerce, finance, and civil aviation remained unanswered till press time. How the import carrier network works Let us illustrate how import carriers work with an example. Say, a toy shop owner wants to sell Chinese toys in Delhi, which cannot be legally imported. The shopkeeper would pay a customs handling agenta private employeeto facilitate the illicit import, who would in turn pay an import carrier (or more) to visit China as a tourist and bring in the toys as part of personal baggage. Once the trip is over, the toys brought in go back through the network and land in the toy sellers shop. Each such import carrier makes multiple trips, multiplying the volume and value of undeclared goods sneaked into the country. An industry executive who requested anonymity said that import carriers are so well-trained that they can bring in goods without any checks and have them delivered directly to homes, offices, or warehouses. Read more: Energy security: India neednt be staring at a $1 trillion import bill It is a known fact that the import of toys from China is completely banned, yet Chinese toys can be easily found in many parts of the country," this executive said. This is all happening through these import carriers, which is harming our domestic manufacturing ecosystem and causing significant revenue loss." There is an immediate need for government intervention to curb such illegal trade practices, which are harming the domestic manufacturing ecosystem and resulting in significant revenue loss to the exchequer," said C.K. Govil, president of The Air Cargo Agents Association of India, while adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modis focus on domestic manufacturing would gradually diminish such illegal practices. However, experts are of the view that if India adopts a more liberal trading regime with lower tariffs and fewer restrictions, it could not only reduce the incentive for smuggling but also improve enforcement focus. A liberal trading regime with most of the world would put most smugglers out of business," said Rahul Ahluwalia, founder and director of the Foundation for Economic Development (FED), a policy think tank. We would also be able to focus enforcement capacity on truly dangerous contraband instead of turning normally traded goods into contraband." High-profile cases To be sure, the modus operandi is not only being used by regular folks, but also by celebrities and people with access to diplomatic channels. One such instance is the case of Kannada actress Ranya Rao, also known as Harshavardini Ranya, who was arrested at Bengaluru airport on 3 March 2025, for allegedly smuggling 14.2 kg of gold from Dubai. According to a report by The Indian Express, she used the US passport of her associate and co-accused, Telugu actor Tarun Raj Konduru (alias Virat Konduru), to bypass Dubai customs checks and move the gold into India. In another case, Shiv Kumar Prasad, a former personal assistant to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, was held at Delhis IGI Airport in May 2024 for allegedly receiving gold worth 35.2 lakh from a passenger arriving from Bangkok. He reportedly used his official Aerodrome Entry Permit to facilitate the illegal transfer. In another case in 2020, Swapna Suresha former UAE consulate employee and consultant to the Kerala IT departmentwas arrested after 30 kg of gold was found in diplomatic baggage. Exact figures on illegal imports into India are unavailable, but reports reveal significant scale. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized over 1,300 kg of smuggled gold in 2023-24, while industry estimates suggest around 700 kg of gold is smuggled daily, causing annual losses of nearly $10 billion. Electronics and luxury goods are also commonly smuggled, with recent seizures at Mumbai airport worth crores. Indias trade deficit with China surged to a record level in the fiscal year ended 31 March, almost touching the $100 billion-mark. India exported goods worth $14.25 billion to China in 2024-25, and imported $113.45 billion worth of goods. While the exports have dipped 14.4% year-on-year, imports have jumped 11.5%, according to data from the commerce ministry. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday granted budget carrier IndiGo a three-month extension, allowing the company to continue its partnership with Turkish Airlines for the period. In its order, the DGCA clarified that the three-month extension has been granted to IndiGo for damp leasing two Boeing 777 planes from Turkish Airlines for one last time. It said that the extension was granted to avoid passenger inconvenience that may result from direct disruption. However, in order to avoid passenger inconvenience due to immediate flight disruption, IndiGo has been granted a one-time last and final extension of three months, the DGCA said, according to a report by ANI. With the extension, IndiGo can now lease the aircraft till August 31. This extension is based on the undertaking from the airline that they will terminate the damp lease with Turkish Airlines within this extension period, and shall not seek any further extension for these operations, it added. Indigo had requested a further six-month extension, which the regulator did not agree to. IndiGo-Turkish Airlines case In the wake of Turkey backing Pakistan and condemning India's strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country earlier this month, there has been an increased focus on the airline's ties with Turkish Airlines. On May 15, aviation security watchdog BCAS revoked the security clearance for Turkish company, Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd in the "interest of national security". Some online travel portals and associations have also issued advisories asking people not to visit Turkey. IndiGo's growth plan With one new aircraft joining the fleet every week throughout 2025-26, IndiGo anticipates surpassing a fleet size of 600 aircraft by 2030, the airline said on the network expansion front. Also Read | IndiGo plans new overseas, domestic flights in FY26 to expand network Additionally, the airline has signed an agreement with Norse Atlantic Airways for the damp lease of six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Deliveries will be completed by early 2026, and the A350S are anticipated to arrive in 2027. These additional aircraft strengthen the airline's long-haul capabilities. United Airlines and JetBlue announced an agreement on May 29 to link loyalty programs. The broader understanding helps United return to New York one more time, while it mainly focuses on customer loyalty programs, cross-earning and sharing benefits. Speaking to WSJ, Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, called the low-cost model dead, adding that its aim was to screw the customer. Interestingly, JetBlue had started as a low-cost carrier (LCC), though it quickly added amenities like live inflight TV and subsequently a business class cabin. Scott Kirbys remarks may resonate closer home in India, with IndiGos CEO Pieter Elbers saying We have left the station of a typical LCC, if there is such a thing last year. IndiGo is the largest carrier in India by both fleet and market share. As Indian LCCs scaled the heights of market share, passengers often complained of either no fare difference or very limited fare differential between LCCs and Full-Service Carriers (FSC) in India. The change is visible IndiGo, like many of its peers in India, started as a pure-play low-cost carrier. When Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways were struggling in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, it went to town explaining the benefits of a single fleet type, its positive impact on costs and operations. The first change for IndiGo was adding a row of seats in the A320neo to make it 186 seats instead of the standard 180 it had with the A320ceo. In 2017, IndiGo added a new fleet type to its fleet with the induction of the ATR 72-600 turboprop aircraft. The LCC station was left in the true sense back then. Today, the IndiGo fleet comprises a multitude of aircraft configurations within its over 400 aircraft, apart from the damp-leased ones the airline operates. If various aircraft types was not enough, IndiGo added a Business class equivalent cabin, calling it IndiGoStretch, which started operations in November last year. The airline also launched a frequent-flyer programme. Any LCCs left? Go FIRST was possibly the last true LCC that operated in Indian skies, having a single fleet type. Akasa Air has taken that place eventually, though it has different configurations for planes and will continue to have a mix of MAX 8 and MAX 8-200 in its fleet. Akasa Air has not been able to grow as per its initial announcements after indicating planes in quick succession in its first year of operations. Air India Express, which had a fleet of 26 B737s at the time of privatisation, is now more times its size but with a mix of A320ceo, A320neo, A321neo, B737NG and 737 MAX 8. SpiceJet, on the other hand, joined the multi-fleet bandwagon much earlier than IndiGo. However, its focus has been on sustenance amid multiple financial headwinds rather than growth. Have FSCs changed as well? India today has only one FSC in the form of Air India. As it shifts to a three-class configuration, akin to Vistara which merged with Air India, the economy class is competing with the LCCs with features like pay for seat selection, shorting up ancillary revenues and the difference being only in the meals being served complimentary on the FSC. While the LCCs moved up the pedestal, the FSCs climbed down in a double whammy for the customers. This often points up to the question of how FSCs are different in India and the answer to that lies only in the cabins upfront with Premium Economy now offering the service levels and options which were common to Economy class two decades ago and Business class focusing on more and more frills, especially with modern seats. In essence, is Economy then a downgrade in an FSC? All indicators point to a resounding yes and this helps the traditional FSC compete with LCCs, with the bulk of the passengers comprising economy class. Market share Pre-pandemic, when there existed three FSCs in India Jet Airways, TATA-SIA-owned Vistara and government-owned Air India the LCCs led by IndiGo were pushing the envelope up with every month and the LCC concentration in the Indian domestic market was over 80 per cent at its peak. On the other side of the pandemic, there is no Vistara or Jet Airways and IndiGo with a 60 per cent-plus market share is a different airline than what it was while SpiceJet has shrunk. The Indian market effectively is undergoing a transition like never before and while the first part of Scott Kirby's statement may be right, the second part definitely does not fit well in Indian context. In fact, the Indian LCCs helped the average Indian consumer fly and more than doubled the market with each passing decade. By Rajendra Jadhav and Anmol Choubey (Reuters) - Physical gold demand in India was subdued this week, as an uptick in domestic prices and a winding up of wedding season kept buyers at bay, while premiums slipped in top consumer China. This week, Indian dealers were offering a discount of up to $31 an ounce over official domestic prices, inclusive of 6% import and 3% sales levies, down from last week's discount of up to $49. "The wedding season is wrapping up and the monsoon has kicked in, so jewellers are expecting a seasonal dip in demand. That's why they're holding off on making new purchases," said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a private bank. Domestic gold prices were trading around 94,900 rupees per 10 grams on Friday after hitting a one-month low of 90,890 rupees earlier this month. In China, bullion changed hands at par to a $15 premium an ounce over the global benchmark spot price, compared with premiums of $16-$30 last week. "Shanghai Gold Exchange drawdowns have eased to the lows of this year while imports in the last few weeks have been exceptionally high, suggesting the Chinese domestic market may be overstocked just now," said Ross Norman, an independent analyst. China's total gold imports via Hong Kong nearly tripled month on month in April, hitting their highest level in more than a year, Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department data showed on Monday. "Gold bullish bets remain predominant on the SHFE despite lower trading volume," said Hugo Pascal, a precious metals trader at InProved. In Hong Kong, gold was sold at a premium of $0.30 to $1.30, while in Singapore gold traded between at-par prices and a $2.50 premium. In Japan, bullion was sold at par to a premium of $0.50. Leela Hotels IPO listing date has been scheduled for Monday, June 2. Leela Hotels IPO allotment was finalised yesterday (Thursday, May 29). For those who have been allocated shares, the crediting of shares to demat accounts will occur today, Friday, May 30. The process of refunding those who have not yet received their shares will likewise be finished today. The debut share offering of Schloss Bangalore, which manages Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts, saw a Leela Hotels IPO subscription status at 4.50 times by the end of bidding on Wednesday. The allocation for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 7.46 times, while the segment for non-institutional investors received a subscription of 1.02 times. The share category for Retail Individual Investors (RIIs) achieved an 83% subscription rate. Leela Hotels IPO price band was fixed at 413-435 per share. Leela Hotels IPO lot size was 34 equity shares and in multiples of 34 equity shares thereafter. Within the public issue, Leela Hotels has allocated 75% of the shares for QIB, 15% for NII, and 10% is designated for retail investors. Schloss Bangalore, known for its luxurious properties under "The Leela" brand, operated a total of 3,382 rooms across 12 hotels as of May 31, 2024. Its portfolio includes The Leela Palaces, The Leela Hotels, and The Leela Resorts, located in 10 different cities throughout the nation. The parent company, Schloss Bangalore, secured 1,575 crore from its anchor investors during the IPO. On the financial side, the organization has seen impressive growth, with EBITDA increasing from 87.72 crore in FY22 to 600.03 crore in FY24. As per Prashanth Tapse, Senior Vice President of Research and Research Analyst at Mehta Equities Ltd, Tapse expects Schloss Bangalore Ltd (Leela Hotels) to have a flat listing, considering the reasonable subscription levels in a market with subdued sentiment. Nonetheless, he believes the company presents a strong long-term opportunity, in line with the ongoing structural growth in Indias luxury hospitality and tourism industry. "We recommend allotted investors to HOLD it for long-term perspective, as the company is well positioned to benefit from improving macro trends in travel and high-end hospitality while non-allotted investors can WAIT & WATCH for potential post-listing discount to enter at more attractive valuations," said Prashanth Tapse. Leela Hotels IPO GMP today Let's check what does Leela Hotels IPO GMP today signal ahead of listing. Leela Hotels IPO GMP today is +3. This indicates Leela Hotels share price was trading at a premium of 3 in the grey market, according to investorgain.com. Considering the upper end of the IPO price band and the current premium in the grey market, the estimated listing price of Leela Hotels share price is indicated at 438 apiece, which is 0.69% higher than the IPO price of 435. According to the grey market activities observed over the past 14 sessions, the current GMP ( 3) indicates a trend toward decline. The minimum GMP recorded is 0.00, while the maximum is 20, as stated by an expert from investorgain.com. 'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price. Leela Hotels IPO details Leela Hotels IPO worth 3,500 crore, which consists of a fresh equity share issuance of 2,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 1,000 crore by its promoter, Project Ballet Bangalore Holdings (DIFC) Pvt Ltd. Schloss Bangalore, supported by Brookfield Asset Management, intends to allocate the proceeds from the fresh equity issuance to settle loans taken by the company and its subsidiaries, as well as for various general corporate activities. The IPO is being overseen by a consortium of 11 merchant bankers, including JM Financial, BofA Securities India, Morgan Stanley India Company, JP Morgan India, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Axis Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India, IIFL Securities, ICICI Securities, Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors, and SBI Capital Markets. Nikita Papers IPO allotment date: Nikita Papers IPO share allotment will be finalised today (Friday, May 30). By visiting the registrar's website, Skyline Financial Services Private Ltd, investors who applied for the issue can verify the Nikita Papers IPO allotment status. Nikita Papers IPO opened for subscription on Tuesday, May 27, and closed on Thursday, May 29. Nikita Papers IPO subscription status on the last bidding day was 1.43 times, according to chittorgarh.com Investors can determine their assigned shares by checking the allocation details. The IPO allotment status will indicate the number of shares allocated. For those who didn't receive any shares, the company will initiate the refund process. Shares that have been successfully allocated will appear in the demat accounts of the recipients. For those who did not receive shares, the refund procedure will begin on Monday, June 2. On the same day, those who have been allocated will get their shares in their demat accounts. Nikita Papers IPO listing date is scheduled for Tuesday, June 3 on NSE SME. How to check Nikita Papers IPO allotment status on registrar's website? If you have applied for the Nikita Papers IPO, you can check your Nikita Papers IPO allotment status immediately on the website of the IPO registrar, Skyline Financial Services Private Ltd - https://www.skylinerta.com/ipo.php Step 1 Click the link above to access Skyline Financial Services Private Ltd, the registrar handling the Nikita Papers IPO. Step 2 From the dropdown list, pick the IPO; the name will appear once the allocations are completed. Step 3 You can check your status using one of three methods: Application No, Demat Account, or PAN. To verify your IPO allotment status, you can use the following identifiers. Income Tax PAN (Permanent Account Number) - Begin by checking your application status with your registered Income Tax PAN. After selecting PAN from the options, input your 10-digit alphanumeric PAN, then click the "Submit" button. Application number or CAF number - You may also check your allocation status by entering your application number or CAF number. After entering your application or CAF number, click "Search." This number is found on the acknowledgment document you received after submitting your IPO application. Ensure that you enter it exactly as it appears on that document, then click the "Submit" button to view the details about the shares allotted to you in the IPO. Beneficiary ID - As another option, you can use the beneficiary ID of your demat account. Next, input the client ID and depository participant (DP) ID combined as one string. The CDSL string will be numerical, while the NSDL string will be alphanumeric. Make sure to enter the DP ID and client ID exactly as they are shown. You can find these details in both your account statement and your online DP statement. After that, click the "Submit" button. Step 4 The IPO status and the quantity of shares allotted to you in the Nikita Papers IPO will be displayed on the screen. Nikita Papers IPO GMP today Nikita Papers IPO GMP today or grey market premium was 0, which meant shares were trading at their issue price of 104 with no premium or discount in the grey market according to investorgain.com According to the grey market activities observed in the past 10 sessions, today's IPO GMP is showing a declining trend and is anticipated to fall further. The minimum GMP recorded is 0.00, while the maximum GMP stands at 8, as stated by experts from investorgain.com. 'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price. After two lacklustre quarters, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) reported a rebound in performance in the March quarter (Q4FY25), driven by lower raw material costs and improved sales volumeseven as selling prices remained under pressure. SAILs earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) stood at 3,500 crore in Q4FY25, slightly higher on a year-on-year basis. This marks a turnaround after a 5% decline in Q3 and a steep 40% drop in Q2. The blended realization for the quarter fell 10% from a year earlier to 55,000 per tonne. However, the company managed to offset this decline with a 9% rise in sales volumes (excluding volumes sold on behalf of NMDC Steel) and a drop in coking coal prices by about 1,500 per tonne. The company sold 0.36 million tonnes (mt) of steel on behalf of NMDC Steel under an agreement that provides for a fixed trading margin. Also read: Govt may harness public sector undertakings to drive green steel consumption Improved margins The companys Ebitda per tonne (adjusted for NMDC volumes) improved to 7,000 in Q4, up from 4,550 in Q3FY25, though lower than 7,620 reported in Q4FY24. Domestic steel prices have been under pressure due to a rise in imports, particularly flat products, which make up 95% of the imported steel. However, prices have started recoveringrising by about 3,000 per tonneafter the imposition of a safeguard duty on imports in April. Prices are expected to improve further after the monsoon, according to the company. The global outlook also offers some relief, with the World Steel Association projecting a rebound in consumption in 2025 after three years of decline. For FY25, SAILs revenue dropped 3% to 1.02 trillion due to lower realizations, even though sales volumes rose. Ebitda for the full year declined 4% to 10,630 crore. The company has set a sales volume target of 19.2 mt for FY26, up from 17.9 mt in FY25. Also read: JSW-Bhushan case: Time to rewrite Indias insolvency code? Operational efficiencies helped SAIL save 650 crore in FY25 through measures like reduced fuel consumption and higher throughput at efficient plants. Employee cost also declined during the year, despite a one-off adjustment in Q4, with a reduction in manpower and management expects savings of 400-500 crore in FY26. The companys plant-wise earnings reflect the disparity in steel product categories. While Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes) at Bokaro and Rourkela plantsfocused on flat productsdropped 66%, Ebit at long-product-focused IISCO and Bhilai plants rose 25%. Capacity expansion plans SAIL aims to increase its total steelmaking capacity to 35 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by FY31, up from the current 20 mtpa. The first phase of expansion, involving debottlenecking to add 23 mtpa, is expected by FY28. Capital expenditure (capex) is budgeted at 7,500 crore for FY26, up from 6,400 crore in FY25. Peak annual capex could reach 10,000 crore in FY28-29, which may put temporary pressure on the balance sheetsimilar to the strain seen during the last expansion cycle between 2010 and 2020. SAIL shares have gained about 15% so far in 2025, buoyed by signs of a steel market recovery. Analysts say that trends in steel pricing and volumes will be key to determining future performance. Nuvama Institutional Equities expects the company to deliver 21% CAGR Ebitda growth over FY2527, supported by stronger prices and lower coking coal costs. Also read: Steel prices climb as safeguard duty looms, user industries warn of cost inflation AVIC Chengdu Aircraft share price: The bullish trend seen in the shares of AVIC Chengdu Aircraft's share price at the peak of the India-Pakistan conflict seems to have fizzled out as the stock of the J-10 fighter jet maker has tumbled 20% from its May peak. In a matter of just 14 sessions, Chinese defence company AVIC Chengdu Aircraft's stock has fallen from its May 12 high of 95.86 yuan to today's low of 76.04 yuan. Why is AVIC Chengdu Aircraft stock falling? The Chinese defence stock has suffered losses after Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly poked holes in Pakistans claims that Chinese-made fighter jets were responsible for destroying the Indian Air Forces Adampur airbase. Pakistan claimed it damaged our S-400 and BrahMos missile bases with JF-17 jets, which is completely false, said Colonel Sofiya Qureshi. It also spread misinformation about damage to Indian airfields in Sirsa, Jammu, Pathankot, Bhatinda, Nalia, and Bhuj all of which is untrue. Additionally, the fall in AVIC Chengdu and other Chinese defence stocks can also be attributed to the successful completion of India's Operation Sindoor, which highlighted India's military prowess. Also, a ceasefire between India and Pakistan dampened the interest. The Chinese defence index HS China A Aerospace & Defence has tumbled 6% from its May 4,396.58. At the same time, the Nifty India Defence index is hitting fresh highs. So far in May, the index is up 22%, adding on to the gains seen in April (up 11.5%) and March (up 25%). AVIC Chengdu stock: Technical outlook Chengdu peaked out in May and has been under continuous selling pressure since, failing to attract any meaningful buying support, said Anshul Jain, Head of Research at Lakshmishree Investments. The stock is approaching a critical support zone at 74 76. A decisive breach below this level will likely trigger further downside, with the next target placed at 68. The prevailing weak structure suggests limited upside, and unless strong buying emerges, the bearish momentum may continue to dominate in the near term, Jain added. Shares of Gokaldas Exports Ltd have surged 13% over the past month, buoyed by a trio of tailwinds energizing Indias textile sector. The rally follows a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs by the US and the conclusion of the India-UK Free Trade Agreement, both of which are expected to boost export competitiveness for the textile manufacturer. The Indian governments recent decision to restrict the entry of ready-made garments from Bangladesh to just two portsKolkata and Nhava Shevais also likely to bode well for the company as this could improve its pricing power. For Gokaldas Exports, which derives over 75% of its revenue from the US, these developments come at a crucial time. The easing of trade barriers and favourable policy signals could help the company deepen its global presence and attract more Western buyers seeking alternatives to China. Yet, underneath the optimism lie financial cracks. Despite robust revenue growth, Gokaldas Exports has been grappling with sliding margins and a rising debt burden. Moreover, its promoters hold just 9.38% of the company and nearly all of it is pledged. Profit Pulse takes a look into whats driving Gokaldas Exportss recent rally, the risks lurking beneath the surface, and whether the current momentum is sustainable. India-UK FTA opens new doors While the 90-day pause on the USs reciprocal tariffs and import restrictions on Bangladeshi garments offer near-term relief and protection, Gokaldas Exports stands to gain the most from the India-UK free trade agreement. The two countries finalised their FTA on 6 May, bringing to an end nearly three years of negotiations. According to the agreement, the 8-12% UK import duty on textiles and garments will be eliminated, making Indian exports more competitive as compared with those from countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam. This development is expected to double the UKs contribution to Gokaldas Exportss revenue. Currently, the company earns about 250 crore annually from the UKaccounting for about 5% of its total revenue. Additionally, Gokaldas Exports is eyeing a $1 billion incremental export opportunity in the UK market, driven by a 12% cost advantage over Chinese suppliers. Bangladesh previously enjoyed a competitive edge through duty-free access. However, with India now securing similar benefits under the India-UK FTA, a shift in sourcing towards Indian exporters is likely. Gokaldas Exports expects the real impact of the trade agreement to be felt from the second half of 2025-26 (October 2025-March 2026), once ratification and customs implementation are complete. Also read | Trents 1,000% rally takes a breather. Can a Sensex rejig revive its fortunes? The $1 billion revenue target Credit rating agency Icra expects Indias textile export volumes to the UK to double in 5-6 years following the implementation of the revised tariffs. It also expects the India-UK FTA to drive the addition of incremental capacities across the industry. For Gokaldas Exports, Icras outlook reinforces the case for scaling up operations to meet future demand. The company is targeting $1 billion ( 8,500 crore) in revenue over the next few years, up 120% from its FY25 revenue of 3,864 crore. To enhance its competitiveness, the company is positioning itself through new factory builds and recent acquisitions to ride the expected export surge. Gokaldas Exports has already commissioned phase I of a new sewing factory in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, where it plans to add 1,100 machines. The first phase of this facility is already operating at near full capacity. Phase II is expected to be completed by the end of June. In Karnataka, Gokaldas Exports is constructing another facility where it will add about 750 machines. Additionally, a new leased unit in Ranchi is expected to house 200 machines operating in two shifts, effectively functioning as a 400-machine unit dedicated to knits. With these expansions alone, Gokaldas Exports is expected to generate 355-365 crore in incremental income annually. The company is also expanding capacity at Atraco, one of its acquired entities, where 500 machines are being added. This expansion could contribute an additional 125-130 crore in revenue. All these new units are scheduled to commence operations at various points through FY26. These initiatives are part of a broader growth strategy. Gokaldas Exportss management has made it clear that capacity addition will remain a focus over the next two years and beyond. Also read | Can this under-the-radar company cash in on the $150 bn weight-loss drug boom? On the mergers and acquisitions front, Gokaldas Exports recently acquired UAE-based Atraco and Indian knitwear manufacturer Matrix Clothing Pvt. Ltd for a combined 930 crore to expand its product offerings. These acquisitions provide access to high-value knitwear, new customer bases, and low-cost production locations. The integration of these entities is progressing. The management has indicated that bringing both these entities up to the companys standards will be a priority. Gokaldas is also evaluating a strategic merger of BRFL Textiles Pvt. Ltd (BTPL), its recently acquired fabric unit. The company has so far invested 175 crore in the company via optionally convertible debentures to support BTPLs capital expenditure, performance upgrades, and working capital needs. Capacity utilization at BTPL has improved meaningfully, from near-zero orders to 40-45%, accompanied by better production quality and reduced reprocess rates. Margins under pressure Gokaldas Exports has delivered strong topline growth over the past three years, with sales nearly doubling from 1,790 crore in FY22 to 3,864 crore in FY25. However, the company has struggled with slipping operating margins and rising leverage, raising questions about the sustainability of its expansion strategy. Gokaldas Exportss operating margins have barely improved, rising from 8.4% in FY21 to 9.6% in FY25, due to cost pressures, additional costs for starting new units, and one-off expenses related to the two acquisitions. Net profit margins have fluctuated between 2% and 7%, not offering any stability. Meanwhile, peers like Page Industries Ltd and KPR Mill Ltd have consistently reported operating margins in the 18-21% range, reflecting stronger pricing power, integrated operations, and better cost controls. Gokaldas Exportss return ratios also reflect the pressure on profitability. The companys return on equity (ROE) stands at just 9.4%, significantly below its peers. Page Industriess RoE stands at 48.5% and Vedant Fashions Ltd's at 23%. Gokaldas Exportss return on capital employed (RoCE) is similarly modest, at 11.8%, lower than Page Industriess RoCE of 59.4% and Vedant Fashionss 26.6%. Adding to the concern is Gokaldas Exportss rising debt burden. The companys borrowings increased to 845 crore in FY25 from 154 crore in FY23, pushing its debt-equity ratio to 0.41x. While this is still comfortable, interest costs have tripled over the last two years, putting pressure on the companys bottom line. While Gokaldas Exports aims to improve its margins in the long term, over the next few quarters it expects its margins to decline by 200 basis points, with a recovery likely from the third quarter of FY26 (October-December 2025), depending on clarity around tariff-related policies. Also read | This luggage leader is staging a turnaround. But can it overcome its baggage? Despite current uncertainties, Gokaldas Exports expects to clock 10-15% revenue growth over the next 2-3 years. For FY26, it is targeting consolidated revenue growth of 15%, supported by a healthy order book. Volumes for the ongoing first quarter (April-June) are fully secured, although Q2 visibility is lower due to ongoing tariff uncertainties. Gokaldas Exports has also earmarked 150 crore in capital expenditure for FY26, with 166 crore in cash and cash equivalents to support this. Sharekhan has a buy rating on Gokaldas Exports citing strong medium- to long-term prospects. While the brokerage acknowledges near-term headwinds, particularly from US tariff uncertainties that may dent demand and compress margins, Sharekhan remains optimistic about the companys ability to navigate these challenges. Promoter pledging clouds rally Over the last couple of quarters, Gokaldas Exports has witnessed rising institutional interest on account of its growth prospects. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have gradually increased their stake in Gokaldas Exports from 25.46% in June 2022 to 36.82% in March 2025, making them the largest shareholder group. Foreign institutional investors also have ramped up their stake in Gokaldas Exports aggressively, from 10.97% to 25.79% during the same period. However, a key concern is that promoter ownership in Gokaldas Exports stands at just 9.38%, with 96.3% of promoter shares pledged as collateral, an unusually high level even in capital-intensive industries. While pledging is not inherently negative, a level this high can expose shareholders to significant downside risk. If the company underperforms or the share price drops, lenders may invoke the pledge, triggering forced selling and sharp stock corrections. A bumpy road Gokaldas Exports is clearly benefiting from multiple macro trends that have bolstered investor sentiment. However, the road ahead is not without bumps. Margin pressure, rising debt, and an unusually high level of promoter pledging cast a shadow over the companys growth narrative. For investors, the stock offers high growth potential but also high risk. Keeping an eye on margin recovery, execution of new capacities, and promoter-level developments will be critical in assessing whether this momentum can turn into durable long-term performance. Ayesha Shetty is a research analyst registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and a certified Financial Risk Manager. Disclosure:The author does not hold shares in any of the companies discussed. The views expressed are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a financial professional before making investment decisions. Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi, his wife Maria Goretti and 57 others have been barred by the stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from accessing the Indian equity market for a period of up to five years in a stock manipulation case. The case pertains to Sadhna Broadcast Ltd (SBL) a little-known company whose shares were artificially inflated and offloaded onto unsuspecting retail investors through a coordinated stock manipulation scheme. Sadhna Broadcast: How did the scam unfold? The case pertaining to Sadhna Broadcast, whose name was changed on May 23, 2025, to Crystal Business System, is a textbook example of a "pump-and-dump" scam. As part of the scam, the promoters of the company executed trades among themselves in a highly coordinated manner, thus driving the stock price higher. SEBI said that while these trades often small in volume had a disproportionate impact on price due to low liquidity, allowing the perpetrators to push the scrip upward with relatively minimal trading outlay. In the second part of their plan, they turned to promoting the stock through YouTube channels, attracting retail investors to whom the shares could be sold at inflated prices. This was done by releasing misleading promotional videos across several YouTube channels, including Moneywise, The Advisor, and Profit Yatraall operated by Manish Mishra, who played a central role in the scheme. These videos presented SBL as a promising investment opportunity and were timed to coincide with and amplify artificial market activity, SEBI said. The claims pertained to the company signing a deal with Adani group, or entering into a 1100 crore contract with a big American corporation, to mutual fund buying in the stock. SEBI said in its order that the contents of the video were false and misleading and were uploaded to manipulate the share prices of SBL. In a matter of nine months from March 2022 to December 2022, the promoter shareholding declined by 15% from 40.95% to 25.58%. During the same period, the number of public shareholders increased from a mere 885 to 72,509. The public shareholding, resultantly, went up from 59.05% as of March 2022 to 74.52% as of March 2023. Arshad Warsi's role in SBL scam On July 13, 2022, Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi purchased 1.87 lakh shares of Sadhna Broadcast from Jatin Shah, a known associate in the manipulation network. On the same day, his wife Maria Goretti Warsi acquired 2.65 lakh shares. While Warsi later claimed that he acted on a friends investment tip and was unaware of any wrongdoing, SEBI rejected that defence as it shared WhatsApp chats showing his involvement in the pump and dump scheme. SEBI action on Arshad Warsi & others Sebi noted that Arshad had made a profit of 41.70 lakh, and his wife earned a profit of 50.35 lakh. Both have been barred from accessing the securities market for a period of a year. Sebi, additionally, has directed 59 entities to disgorge total unlawful gains worth 58.01 crore along with 12% interest per annum jointly and severally from the end of the investigation period till the date of actual payment. Small-cap stock below 50, Vishal Fabrics, edged higher in the morning trade on Friday, May 30, despite a weak trend in the Indian stock market. The gains in Vishal Fabrics come following a fundraising update by the company post-market hours on Thursday. Vishal Fabrics Board Meeting Updates Vishal Fabrics informed exchanges yesterday about the Board meeting outcome regarding fundraising. The Fundraising Committee's meeting pertained to the conversion of 69,32,824 warrants into an equal number of equity shares of the company. Vishal Fabrics had intimated on September 12, 2024, with respect to the allotment of warrants and in the same context. Vishal Fabrics said that the Fundraising Committee of the Board of Directors of the company, at their meeting held on Thursday, May 29, 2025, considered and approved the allotment of equity shares having a face value of 5/- each, upon part conversion of 69,32,824 warrants. This is out of a total of 1,50,00,000 warrants applied by Elysian Wealth Fund (formerly known as Silver Stallion Limited) under the non-promoter, public category. The warrants have been approved to be issued by Vishal Fabrics at an issue price of 30.60/- each, on preferential basis, upon receipt of amount aggregating to 15.91 crore at the rate of Rs. 22.95/- per warrant from the allottee under the exercise of their rights of conversion into equity shares. According to a release by Vishal Fabrics, these warrants were granted to "Non-Promoter, Public Category" on a preferential basis with a price of 30.60/-per warrant upon payment of 7.65/- per warrant, which is 25% of the issue price. This gives the warrant holders the right to convert their warrants into an equal number of equity shares of the company by paying the remaining 75%, or 22.95/-per warrant, within 18 months of the date of warrants allotment. Vishal Fabrics share price movement Small-cap stock below 50, Vishal Fabrics share price, opened at 30 on the BSE on Friday, almost flat over the previous day's closing price of 30.04. The small-cap stock rose to an intraday high of 30.50, marking gains of 1.5% on a day when the Indian stock market was weak and the Sensex was down around 0.25%. Stock Market Today: The benchmark Nifty-50 Index manaed to end a volatile trading session on Thursday with gains of 0.33% at 24,833.60. The Bank Nifty also ended 0.23% higher at 55,546.05 as most other sectors led by Realty, Metal and Healthcare gained. The broader indices also ended with almost half a per cent gains. Trade Setup for Friday For Nifty-50 Index 24,700 and 24,650 would act as key support zones and if the market sustains above these levels, the chances of hitting 25,000 -25,100 would become brighter. However, a break below 24,650 could change the sentiment, said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities: For Bank Nifty, the support is placed near 54,900 and as long as the index remains above this level, a relief rally towards 56,000 cannot be ruled out, said Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivatives Research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Ltd. Global Markets and Q4 Results Looking ahead, we expect the market to remain range-bound, with sector rotation and stock-specific movements driven by the final set of Q4 results on Friday, macro-economic indicators, and developments on the US tariff front., said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. Stocks to buy today Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking, has recommended two stock picks for today. Ganesh Dongre, Senior Manager of Technical Research at Anand Rathi, suggested three stocks, while Shiju Koothupalakkal, Senior Manager Technical Research, at Prabhudas Lilladher has given three stock picks Sumeet Bagadia's stock picks Jindal Steel & Power Ltd- Bagadia recommends buying Jindal Steel & Power or INDALSTEL at Around 971 keeping Stoploss at around 937 for a target price of 1040 JINDALSTEL is currently trading around 971, showing a strong recovery from recent lows and indicating a potential reversal in trend. The stock is on the verge of breaking its recent lower-high structure, supported by a significant surge in trading volumeshighlighting increased market participation and renewed buying interest. A sustained move above the 986 level would confirm a bullish breakout, potentially paving the way for an upside move toward the short-term target of 1040. 2. Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd- Bagadia recommends buying Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders or MAZDOCK at around 3751.20 keeing Stoploss at 3619 for a target price of 4014 MAZDOCK is currently trading at 3751.20, maintaining a strong uptrend marked by the formation of consistent higher highs and higher lowsan indication of sustained bullish momentum. The stock recently reached an all-time high of 3775, with a critical resistance level identified near 3800. A decisive breakout above this level could attract further buying interest and drive the stock toward its next potential target of 4017 Ganesh Dongre's stocks to buy today 3. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd - Dongre recommends buying Glenmark Pharmaceuticals or GLENMARK at around 1410 keeping Stoploss at 1370 for a target price of 1450 In the latest short-term technical analysis, stock has shown a strong and consistent bullish trend, indicating the potential for an extended upward move. The stock is currently trading at 1410 and holding above a key support level at 1370. This support zone serves as a critical point for risk management. Given the bullish momentum, traders are advised to consider a buying opportunity with a stop-loss placed strategically at 1370 to manage downside risk. The target for this trade is set at 1450, suggesting a favorable risk-to-reward ratio and a continuation of the prevailing upward trend. 4. Bharat Electronics Ltd- Dongre recommends buying Bharat Electronics or BEL at 386 keeping Stoploss at 375 for a target price of 405 Stock has exhibited a strong notable continue bullish pattern, offering another promising opportunity for short-term traders. The stock is currently priced at 386 and maintaining a strong support at 375. The technical setup indicates the potential for a price retracement towards the 405 level. With the stock reversing from a support base and showing signs of renewed strength, entering at the current market price with a stop-loss at 375 offers a prudent approach to capturing the anticipated upside. 5. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd or TCS- Dongre recommends buying TCS at around 3500 keeping Stoploss at 3450 for a target price of 3600. Stock is currently trading at 3500 and appears to be in bullish zone for short term. A bullish reversal pattern has emerged on the daily chart, indicating a potential upmove. The critical support level lies at 3450, which also acts as a key stop-loss point for this trade. With bullish cues signaling a possible retracement towards the 3600 target, this setup provides a favorable entry opportunity for traders looking to capitalize on a technical rebound. Shiju Koothupalakkal's intraday stocks for today 6. Ideaforge Technology Ltd - Koothupalakkal' recommends buying Ideaforge Technology or IDEA FORGE at around 539.80 for a target price of 570 keeping Stop loss at 528 The stock maintained with a strong bullish trend has once again witnessed a significant revival after a short period of correction taking support near the 501 zone to improve the bias and anticipate for another fresh round of upward move in the coming sessions. The RSI after correcting from the highly overbought zone is well positioned and has indicated a positive trend reversal to signal a buy and has much upside potential to carry on with the positive move further ahead. With the chart technically looking good, 7. Graphite India Ltd -Koothupalakkal' recommends buying Graphite India or GRAPHITE INDIA at around 553 for a target price of 585 keeping Stop loss at 542 The stock after having a strong steep rise recently has corrected to some extent forming a flag pattern on the daily chart and currently has indicated a breakout to improve the bias and anticipate for fresh upward move in the coming days. The RSI has indicated strength and once again with a positive trend reversal indication has signaled a buy with upside potential visible. With the chart technically well positioned, we suggest buying the stock for an upside target of 585 level keeping the stop loss of 542 level. 8. Nava Ltd - Koothupalakkal' recommends buying NAVA at around 473.90 for a target price of 500 keeping Stop loss at Around 462 The stock has indicated a bullish candle formation on the daily chart after a short period of consolidation to come out of the narrow range bound zone and has improved the bias to anticipate for further rise. The RSI is well positioned indicating a trend reversal to signal a buy and has much upside potential to carry on with the positive move further ahead. With the chart technically looking attractive, we suggest buying the stock for an upside target of 500 level keeping the stop loss of 462 level. Metal stocks witnessed some selling pressure in trade on Friday, May 29, with the Nifty Metal pack emerging as the worst sectoral performer. Concerns around tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and the trade deal with China kept the sentiment subdued. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade talks with China were a bit stalled. He added that a breakthrough is likely to come only after direct intervention from President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. On Thursday, a federal appeals court granted Trump a temporary reprieve from a lower court decision that had jeopardised much of his tariff policy. This followed a ruling by the US Court of International Trade, which found that the majority of Trumps global tariffs were unlawful. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal said the Trump administration is contemplating a plan to place tariffs on swaths of the global economy under a never-before-used provision of the Trade Act of 1974, as per a Bloomberg report. That includes language allowing for tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days to address trade imbalances with other countries, the report added. Metal worst-performing sector today The Nifty Metal index tumbled 1.69%, with 14 out of 15 index constituents in the red. Jindal Steel was the worst-performing metal stock, shedding 4.09% to 641.80, followed by Vedanta, whose shares declined 3.35% and Hindalco, which lost 2.51% to 633.70 on the NSE. Other prominent metal stocks like NMDC, Hindustan Zinc, Hind Copper and Tata Steel were down between 1-2% each. Welspun Corporation shares were the only gainers in the metal pack today. Despite today's loss, the metal index is up 7% in May, helped by hopes of a trade truce between China and the US. A few months back, an assignment to interview the CEO of a multinational company sent me spiralling with the question of what to wear. The outfit had to look sharp but also be comfortable enough to see me through the day. I scoured through the seemingly formal" shirts and trousers I owned and did some last-minute mixing and matching. All that effort ended with me falling back on an extremely safe combination of a semi-formal black top with fitted jeggings. That tiny exercise, however, got me thinking about how shopping for smart corporate wear is not as easy as it seems. Career women in their 30s and 40s who I spoke to had the same refrain: find me good formal western wear that fits and doesnt cost a bomb. Also read: Why nude dressing is trending on the red carpet For Nidhi Agarwal, founder and CEO of Ebony & Ivory PR, Bengaluru, finding stylish workwear has been a problem since the pandemic years when she gained some weight. A size M through most of her adult life, the 40-year-old now wears XL. This change, she reveals, has translated into not finding clothes my size when I walk into a store to shop." Being in a job that entails organising events and brand launches and meeting a range of people from C Suite executives to content creators, Agarwal needs to powerdress for the most part but based on the choices available off the rack, she bluntly states, Power dressing is not inclusive in India." To be clear, there is good formal wear available in India but whether its Allen Solly, Van Heusen or Zara, there are fewer good designs available in bigger sizes compared to casual or desi wear. The only alternative is to spend big bucks on plus-size international labels like Never Fully Dressed. View Full Image Rareism Ronwor White Cowl Neck Top. Size is a major pain point for Anjali Pathak, 41, an economics professor at Delhi University, as well. A size 9, Pathak often has to settle for a size 8 or 10 when it comes to formal western wear. Never mind that this means that the fit rarely sits right," she shrugs. Getting clothes tailored seems like a feasible option but in reality the idea is laughable. Where are the tailors?" is the retort. Pathak calls it a time-consuming affair and finds most mens tailors dont have the flair to craft bespoke outfits for women". I have a tailor in Chennai but since he mostly does menswear, I need to take the help of a male friend to communicate what I want," laughs Ramaa Iyer, 40, an HR and people culture entrepreneur in Bengaluru. For Iyer, shopping for formal wear entails checking off a list of criteria: Is the top too transparent to wear to the office? Does it sit right on the bust? Are the buttons on the shirt gaping? Are the pants tight at the crotch? These may seem like minor details but for a career woman in India, its these nuances that play loudly in her mind while searching for a pair of trousers, a crisp shirt or a chic dress. While the conversations on one end of the spectrum have women wringing their hands, on the other hand are brands that are attempting to address these issues by designing clothes more thoughtfully and at prices that wont break the bank for women in the 25-60 age bracket. The biggest complaints that Indian women have with their workwear often come down to comfort and versatility. Indian women need workwear that breathes, moves and transitions effortlessly from boardroom to beyond," says Shweta Kapur, founder and creative director at luxury ready-to-wear label 431-88, Delhi. Since launching in 2012, the label has created a design language that melds the strict structure of formal wear with fluidity. The labels latest collection, 9-6, for instance, serves up an insouciant mix of shirts in relaxed fits, draped skirts, tailored shorts and knotted pants, among others. And that, Kapur explains, is because office wear in the post-pandemic world has transformed. Its now all about fluidity, comfort, and just having fun with your style. Women want pieces that move with them, seamlessly transitioning from work to life," notes Kapur. It is this shifting mentality of her customer that pushes her to weave a touch of glamour into her designs. Its about pushing the boundaries, showing that power dressing can be truly expressive and experimental," she says. View Full Image Buckled Long Suit by Qua. IN THE DETAILS When siblings Rupanshi, Divya and Bharat Aggarwal set about to launch their premium ready-to-wear brand Qua, they were clear about the idea of power dressing they would be serving their core customer. The power dressing that legacy fashion brands seem to promote is a replica of menswearits masculine and boring. Our design philosophy was about showing women that wearing powerful clothes didnt mean they had to lose their femininity," says Rupanshi. Launched in 2019, the Gurugram-headquartered brand creates modern tailored outfits that include suits, blazers, waistcoats, dresses, jumpsuits, shirts and skirts at prices ranging from 750- 14,990. When it comes to getting the fits right across collections, Rupanshi says, We invested in deep R&D and experimented with our early collections to understand every facet of the garment-making process, including the ideal silhouettes for the Indian body, fabric selection, and price points too. The fact that we get fewer requests for returns means weve got something right." At Rareism, the womens clothing brand thats part of The House of Rare umbrella brand in Bengaluru, size inclusivity is a given. Our clothes come in sizes from xs to xxl. Weve also just launched a line called Curvism for bigger bodies," says Akshika Poddar, founder and director of the brand. Also read: Why global luxury houses are looking beyond Bollywood for brand ambassadors Keenly aware of how fits in the workwear category can underwhelm or overwhelm the wearer, Poddar shares that a lot of care is taken to ensure that their collections fit different body types. We do fit tests on three different body types for each size, Poddar says. For instance, if theres an xs-sized top, we test it on models with the three main body types: apple, pear and rectangle, and then grade it. There are times when I test an outfit on myself. This is because sizes can vary with silhouettes," she explains. As a professor who spends long hours in non-air-conditioned classrooms, Pathaks grouse with Indian brands is that they make clothes from fabrics that are unsuitable for the Indian weather. Most Indian brands I know use fabric thats ideal for air-conditioned surroundings but since my workplace doesnt have ACs, I find them uncomfortable." The brands Lounge spoke to mainly work with cottons, polyester, viscose, silk, crepe and modal fabrics. The choice is mainly determined by customer demand, quality and easy availability, they say. When we launched in 2019, we did a lot of cotton and linens but we soon had customers asking us for clothes in flowy fabrics. Thats why weve slowly shifted to recycled polyester, viscose and modal cottons. We spend time finding new fabrics, materials every season," says Poddar. Qua largely works with cottons, viscose, chiffons and satin. Kapur works with fabrics like silk, crepe, jersey and suiting fabricmaterials that she sources globally, from Varanasi to Italy. Its clear that there are brands doing their homework but theres a yawning gap between what the working woman wants and what she actually gets. While customers like Agarwal and Iyer find small consolation in brands like Marks & Spencer and Mango, they admit that theres a void for a homegrown brand that straddles comfort along with sophistication. With more women entering Indias workforce and the overall womens wear market for India projected to grow to $121.60 billion by 2030, according to a report by management consulting firm IMARC, we may be a few years away from power dressing getting a cool rejig. Credit card users in India, who aspire to seek a no fee credit card with global rewards and travel benefits along with a host of other important features, may consider the HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card. As of May 2025, HSBC India provides for an entirely digital application process designed keeping in mind the comfort and convenience of credit card applicants. The objective of introducing this card is to provide users with seamless access to credit and a premium user experience. Let us hence look at the basic eligibility criteria, documents required, key features along a straightforward five step process to apply and secure this credit card. Basic eligibility criteria To apply for the HSBC Platinum Credit Card, all aspirational applicants must meet the following criteria: Age : Between 18 and 65 years. : Between 18 and 65 years. Income : Minimum annual income of 4,00,000 for salaried individuals. : Minimum annual income of 4,00,000 for salaried individuals. Residence: The applicant must reside in one of the following cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, or Pune. Note: The eligibility criteria discussed above is illustrative in nature. For the updated terms, conditions and eligibility refer to the official website of HSBC. Also Read | 8 simple credit card tricks to raise your credit score in 2025 Required documents for application submission Applicants need to provide the following documents: Latest salary slip or certificate (for MNC employees). Last 3 months bank account statements clearly showing salary credits. Original Aadhaar Card and electricity bill for residence. PAN card or Form 60 for further clarification regarding identity. Note: The eligibility documents discussed above are illustrative in nature. For the exhaustive list reach out to the official website of HSBC. Application process Visit the HSBC website: Reach out to the official HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card page to initiate the process of form submission. Click 'Apply Now': Initiate the online application process by clicking on the Apply Now tab near the top right hand corner of your screen. Fill in personal details: Do ensure that you provide the relevant details and important information such as name, contact details, phone number, email address and income information etc. Upload the relevant documents: Once you have submitted the details also upload the relevant documents as requested. Documents such as PAN card, Aadhaar Card, passport details might be needed to satisfy the basic requirements. Complete the video KYC: As per the policies of the application procedure you might be required to undergo a video based Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process. Do submit the same as per instructions to complete the process. Note: The steps discussed above are illustrative in nature and more formalities might be needed on the part of applicants to submit the application. For complete details on the same refer to the official website of HSBC. Once the credit card application is complete, you will be accordingly informed by HSBC and your credit card will be provided to you as per your convenience and the address detailed by you in your application form. Key features of HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card No joining or annual fees : Enjoy the benefits without any annual charges. : Enjoy the benefits without any annual charges. Reward points : Earn 2 reward points for every 150 you spend. : Earn 2 reward points for every 150 you spend. Fuel surcharge waiver : Save up to 3,000 annually on fuel surcharges. : Save up to 3,000 annually on fuel surcharges. Air miles conversion: Convert points into air miles with leading airlines. Hence, the HSBC Visa Platinum Credit Card offers a combination of global rewards along with lucrative travel benefits without any annual fee. Therefore, with a simple application process online and minimal documentation work aspirational individuals who meet the eligibility criteria can apply and secure this credit card in seamless fashion and make the most of its features and benefits. At the Han School of Kung Fu, one lad quietly practices at the Mu Ren Zhuang while his uncle Mr. Han tries to fob off his mom who makes it very clear that she does not like him fighting. And yes, they are moving to New York. The lad, Xiao Li does not wish to move. But has to, because mothers have their own way of saying that New York will help them start afresh. As in all good Kung Fu movies, you know that the lad will find Kung Fu everywhere. He has to defend himself from school bullies, and baddies in the neighbourhood. His late night fight with bullies who have come to beat up the pizza guy is so legit awesome, you know its time to indulge in samosas. After all, every time a baddie breaks a bone, its worth a legendary crunch! Are there hidden money lessons in a Kung Fu-Karate film? Two branches, one tree When you were a kid, you bribed your older brother to rent those kung-fu-karate videos because you were too young to watch Bruce Lee or Black Belt Jones. And now, this film actually brings Kung Fu with Jackie Chan and Karate with Ralph Macchio - the original Karate Kid. And when the two legends meet to train a young lad, there is so much fun! Kung Fu is better, Jackie Chan says, but Ralph Macchio informs us that in the open 5 Boroughs fight, Xiao Lee will have to use Karate. With every training session - of course theres a jacket-on, jacket-off practice - the lad learns the value of both branches of martial arts. And those of us who grew up watching Jackie Chan and binged on Karate Kid reruns and the TV series called Cobra Kai, we are treated to happy nostalgic scenes. Thankfully unlike the interminable recap scenes we saw in the last Mission Impossible, we are not given a bad rehash of the glory of Kung Fu or Miyagi Do karate. We just know that both branches of martial arts make for a winning combination. That brings us to your stock portfolio. Any money manager worth his or her salt will tell you that it is best to have a combination of blue chip stocks as well as everything else (your cyclical stocks, penny stocks, IPO stocks, commodities stocks and yes, defensive stocks). You keep the Blue Chip stocks for the long term, and make short term gains with the others. Hence One portfolio, Two Kinds of Stocks. You cannot win if you dont get up At first, you realise that Xiao Lis opponent, the undefeated Connor Day (played with very apt aggression by Aramis Knight) practices at the gym every day, all the time (except when hes bullying Li at school). But Xiao Li has bigger demons of his own to deal with: the fear, the hesitation that makes him freeze when he sees people he likes being attacked. Not giving any spoilers away, he has to learn to win that battle, before he can take on the bully. Xiao Li knows all the lessons: Kung Fu is everywhere and the lesson made famous by the one and only Bruce Lee: You have to be water Easier said than done in real life, no? If you lose money at the stock market the easiest way is to give up rather than invest more money. People will try to bring you down by saying, This is not for you! But as in the movies, you have to first acknowledge that you made a mistake and then pull up your socks and get into the ring once again. For that, you will need to learn, just like Xiao Li. Read, read, and then read up some more about everything you want to invest in. Not just about the company, but also about where the economy is going, and how political affairs affect the stocks you are interested in. And yes, you do need a sensei: your money manager. Be honest with them and then you will receive good advice. Just as young Xiao Li learns, you have to be beaten up before you can win. So get up, dust off your losses and get ready to invest again. After a long time a 95 minute film will see you stepping out of the theatre with a happy smile on your face. Young lad Ben Wang who plays Xiao Li Fong is very light on his feet and his action pieces are a great watch. Yes, you miss fabulous action by Jet Li and Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchios reluctant karate brilliance, but the guest appearance of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) was like a super cheesy sauce on the samosas! The film is like a ray of sunshine after a bad movie after bad movies that have been raining on us The latest stress test for April 2025 reveals that some small cap mutual fund schemes will take as long as 70 days to liquidate 50 percent of portfolio. Those who are not aware, all mutual funds are supposed to make a range of disclosures with respect to their mid and small cap schemes wherein they examine the liquidity of portfolios under the stress scenarios for their mid-cap and small-cap funds. These monthly disclosures are mandatory, per the Sebi guidelines . Mutual fund houses reveal a number of metrics for their small and mid cap schemes in this stress test and liquidity analysis. They are supposed to reveal the time period which they would take to liquidate a sizable portion of the scheme. They reveal an array of metrics such as concentration, stress test, volatility and valuation. Stress test and liquidity analysis for April 2025 Small Cap Fund Stress test (50% of portfolio) Stress test (25% of portfolio) TATA Small Cap Fund 40 20 SBI Small Cap Fund 54 27 quant Small Cap Fund 70 35 Nippon India Small Cap Fund 30 15 Kotak Small Cap Fund 34 17 ICICI Prudential Smallcap Fund 14 7 HDFC Small Cap Fund 47 23 DSP Small Cap Fund 46 23 Axis Small Cap Fund 26 13 As the table above shows, Tata small cap fund will take 40 days to liquidate 50 percent of its portfolio and 20 days for 25 percent of portfolio on a pro rata basis. Meanwhile, while computing the time taken to liquidate a portfolio on a pro-rata basis, the 20 percent of least liquid securities of the portfolio are overlooked. The riskiest small cap fund, based on the above table, is quant Small Cap Fund which will take 70 days to liquidate 50 percent of portfolio and 35 days to liquidate 25 percent of portfolio. HDFC Small Cap Fund will take 47 days to liquidate 50 percent of portfolio whereas 23 days to liquidate 25 percent of portfolio. At the same time, DSP small cap fund will take 46 days to liquidate 50 percent of portfolio and Axis Small Cap Fund will take 26 days to liquidate 50 percent of portfolio. What is a stress test? As per Sebi guidelines, mutual funds are supposed to examine the liquidity of portfolios under stress scenarios for their mid-cap and small-cap funds. The stress test shows the number of days it would take to liquidate 25 per cent and 50 per cent of the portfolio in case of a stress event. The fund houses are also supposed to reveal the proportion of assets these schemes have allocated to cash to fulfil redemption requests. The April data shows that Axis Small Cap Fund has allocated 12.30 percent of assets to cash and ICICI Prudential Smallcap Fund has 13.31 percent of its assets held in cash. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has released a new circular to deal with handling of deemed approval status in UPI for peer to merchant transactions where acquiring payment service provider (PSP) and merchant bank are the same. In case of peer to merchant (P2M) transaction where merchant bank and acquiring PSP is same, UPI will consider transaction status deemed acceptance as success in online and pass the response to the payment service providers. There will be no change in the back-office system for 3 party deemed approved transactions. The revisions in rules are supposed to improve the customer experience and reduce customer complaints, reads the circular. NPCI has urged the banks and payment service providers to ensure that they make the necessary changes. The existing RC-RB rules will continue for all process such as settlement, raw files, adjustment reports, GST reports, NPCI compliance penalty, RBI penalty, chargeback rules, among others, reads the circular. Changes will be done only in the online switch as mentioned above and the current process of updating the transaction status as TCC/RET will continue. If the merchant bank is not able to credit, the following rules will apply A. The beneficiary bank will start a credit adjustment/refund/RET against the transaction back to customer only after conducting the necessary checks. As success response is given to PSP and in turn to the merchant, the merchant would have provided goods and services to the customer. Unreconciled/ improper marking of RET/ credit adjustment/ refund without confirming with the merchant will lead to out of fund scenario. B. In case if the credit adjustment/RET is not initiated, merchant bank will retain the funds with them and credit to the merchant as per the existing regulatory and legal framework. The TAT for dispute management and adjustments will be as per the extant process. Pune, May 29 (PTI) Police on Thursday arrested Dr Ajay Taware, former medical superintendent of the Sassoon General Hospital and then head of the Regional Authorization Committee that approves organ transplants, in an alleged kidney transplant racket case, officials said. Taware has been lodged at the Yerwada Central Jail here following his arrest last year for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of the 17-year-old boy accused of driving a Porsche car allegedly in an inebriated condition in May 2024. Two IT professionals were killed after their motorcycle was hit by the speeding Porsche car. Being the medical superintendent of the Sassoon General Hospital in Pune, Taware was also the head of the Regional Authorization Committee which approved kidney transplants in 2022. The Pune police in May 2022 registered a case against 15 persons, including the managing trustee of the Ruby Hall Clinic hospital and some of its employees, in connection with alleged malpractices related to a kidney transplant procedure. Sarika Sutar, a resident of Kolhapur who had been allegedly promised 15 lakh, fraudulently posed as the wife of Amit Salunke who needed a transplant, and donated her kidney in March 2022 to a young woman patient. In turn, the young woman's mother donated her kidney to Salunke. Also Read | Pune Porsche crash: Two arrested for manipulating blood samples Such a swap involving two patients and their relatives is carried out when the patients cannot receive a kidney from their own kin because of a blood group mismatch or other complications. On March 29, 2022, four days after undergoing the transplant surgery at Ruby Hall Clinic, Sutar revealed her real identity after she had a dispute over money. The private hospital alerted the police, who reported the incident to the health department of the Maharashtra government. The health department subsequently suspended Ruby Hall Clinic's registration for organ transplantation. Police also arrested two middlemen -- Abhijit Gatne and Ravindra Rodge -- who had allegedly forged documents to present Sarika Sutar as 'Sujata Salunke', wife of Amit Salunke. According to the police, Dr Taware, as head of the Regional Authorization Committee, did not carry out proper scrutiny of the transplant proposal. Also Read | Teen driver behind Pune Porsche accident submits 300-word essay on road safety "Dr Taware's role came up after a committee formed by the state government indicted him. On Wednesday, we took his custody on a production warrant from the court, and arrested him afresh in the kidney racket case. He was produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till June 2," said a police officer from the Pune crime branch. While seeking his police custody for seven days, the prosecution told the court that Dr Taware misused his position and approved the transplant on the basis of forged documents and a fraudulent donor. Police needed to probe suspected financial transactions, it said. Sarika Sutar, who was posing as Salunke's wife, could not give satisfactory answers during an interview conducted by the Regional Authorization Committee headed by Dr Taware, yet the committee approved the transplant, the prosecution said. "A total of nine kidney transplant swaps took place during Dr Taware's tenure and police need to probe these swaps," it said. The chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Thursday put the spotlight on the armed forces agonising wait for new weapons and systems, saying he could not recall a single instance of a project being executed on time --- a wake-up call for the countrys defence production sector. Timelines are a big issue, Singh said, in his first public comments after the May 7-10 military confrontation with Pakistan under Operation Sindoor. The armed forces have so far not called the black sheep out, but their restraint should not be stretched to a breaking point, Singh said, issuing a veiled warning to defence public sector units including plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation . Theres not a single project that I can think of that has been completed on time. We must look within. Why promise something that cannot be achieved. While signing the contract itself, sometimes we are sure that it (weapon or system) is not going to come. Also Read | Pahalgam terror attack: PM Modi meets Indian Air Force Chief Marshal AP Singh But we just sign the contract with the mindset that we will see later what needs to be done. Obviously, the process gets vitiated, he said at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025. Prominent speakers at the conference included defence minister Rajnath Singh and navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi. Key projects beset by delays include the light combat aircraft (LCA Mk-1A), the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, basic trainer aircraft and intermediate jet trainers among others. The defence forces have shown restraint and not called a black sheep, a black sheep. We have been trying to encourage people, but someday the restraint will break down. Lets stretch the elastic only to the point it does not break, said Singh, who is known to be a plain-spoken and straightforward military leader. He has often publicly flagged concerns about a worrying erosion of IAFs capabilities and called for urgent measures to fix it. In February, the IAF chief questioned the ability of HAL to meet the air forces critical requirements in the backdrop of a lingering delay in the supply of new Mk-1A fighter jets, saying he had no confidence in the plane maker. The remarks, made during an interaction with HAL officials, were recorded by someone. HAL chief DK Sunil then said that his companys focus is on delivering the LCA Mk-1A to the IAF at the earliest rather than spending time on countering criticism of the indigenous programme, which is running behind schedule due to several reasons including delay in the supply of engines by US firm GE Aerospace. Singhs latest comments came three months after a top government committee recommended a raft of short and long-term measures to boost the capabilities of IAF, which is grappling with a shortage of fighter squadrons, and pointed out that it was critical to enhance self-reliance in the aerospace sector through increased participation of the private sector to fill critical gaps. The IAF chief spoke about the government unlocking new opportunities for the private sector in defence manufacturing. On May 27, India unveiled its long-awaited plan to fast-track the development of AMCA --- an indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter, announcing that the execution model will be competitive and provide equal opportunities to public and private sector firms to participate in one of the countrys most significant military projects. This could become the private sectors finest hour, he said. Please rise to the occasion, come together. If today somebody is manufacturing world-class cars, electronics, and equipment in the civil sector, why cant some of those industries come together and say, We will make world-class military equipment even if it doesnt give me the profit I am looking for. Lets rise together to make this nation a great nation. The approval of the industry partnership model for AMCA by defence minister Rajnath Singh came at a critical moment HAL --- the sole manufacturer of fighter jets in the country --- was so far believed to be the front-runner for the prestigious project. In February, Singh said the IAF must induct up to 40 fighter jets every year to stay combat ready, adding that participation of the private industry could help boost the aircraft production rate in the country to meet the growing needs of the worlds fourth largest air force that is very badly off in numbers. He said an in-house study conducted by the IAF showed that it must induct two fighter squadrons every year to cater for the numbers needed, the existing shortfall, and to replace the aircraft that will be phased out soon. The air force is grappling with a shortage of jets and operates around 30 fighter squadrons compared to an authorised 42. It is concerned about the current pace of the LCA Mk-1A programme because of the possible risks a delay in the induction of new fighters could pose to its combat effectiveness. Its most important for the defence production sector to meet timelines as it impacts the militarys battle readiness and national security, said Air Vice Marshal Anil Golani (retd), the director general of Centre for Air Power Studies --- an influential think tank. New Delhi: The health ministry plans to mandate the use of a faster and more accurate method to test all imported blood products to maintain the highest safety standards and reduce the risk of infection from transfusions. The ministry intends to introduce nucleic acid testing (NAT) to improve the screening of imported blood products for antigens or viral nucleic acids of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the hepatitis B virus, the hepatitis C virus and other impurities, an official aware of the matter said. The decision to shift to NAT has already been taken by the regulator, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), and the matter was discussed at the Drugs Technical Advisory Board meeting in April. The board is the highest statutory body responsible for advising the Central and state governments on technical matters related to the administration of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. With the introduction of NAT, the conventional testing method known as ELISA, or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, will be done away with. ELISA, while a powerful tool, has several drawbacks, including the potential for false positive and negative results, apart from being time-consuming. The Department of Pharmaceuticals and the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) in Noida had issued an alert in October after the NIB found three imported blood productsBerirab-P (used in rabies injections), Hepabig (to prevent hepatitis B virus infection) and Tetglob (used for tetanus treatment)to be of sub-standard quality. When the Berirab-P and Hepabig samples were tested again at the National Institute of Virology in Pune using an advanced version of polymerase chain reaction, which is more sensitive than ELISA, they passed the test metrics. The set of Tetglob samples sent to a private laboratory that used ELISA were non-reactive. Safety standards Imported blood products are used for the treatment of critically ill patients or those who are suffering thalassemia and other blood-related disorders. These products are tested at government laboratories to ensure they meet safety and quality standards. Also Read | India plans standard evaluation and quality protocols for HMPV testing kits These are tested using conventional methods, but now the plan is to amend the rules to allow an advanced version of testing in line with international practices," the official said. NIB also proposed that an amendment may be considered to test blood products by NAT." Queries sent to the health ministry and the Department of Pharmaceuticals remained unanswered till press time. NAT testing gives accurate and quick results and nowadays it is highly used. NAT testing is used for tuberculosis and NAT testing was modified during the covid-19 pandemic to detect the coronavirus," a scientist from the Indian Council of Medical Research said, requesting anonymity. The ELISA test may sometimes give false results if the viral load in the sample is low. However, PCR and NAT give accurate results even if the viral load is low." Also Read | ICMR and CDSCO develop framework for validation of pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing According to an assessment by the National Blood Transfusion Council, the apex policymaking body for issues pertaining to blood and plasma, the clinical requirement of blood in the country is about 14.5 million units per year. The volume of each unit of blood is about 450 ml. In India, the import, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs, cosmetics and notified medical devices are regulated by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. Having witnessed decades of transformation in pharmaceutical and diagnostic excellence, we view inclusion of NAT in testing and releasing blood or plasma-derived products as a way forward. This change will bring alignment with the recommendation of Indian pharmacopeia," Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd said in a statement. NATs superior sensitivity over ELISA will allow identification of viral antigen in the product, if they exist. This will ensure the best quality of product for the patients safety." Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha on 30 May called Operation Sindoor a measured and non-escalatory response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament said India's hand of friendship can transform into a fist of retribution if someone indulges in misadventure. "Very recently, there was an unfortunate incident in Pahalgam. It becomes very important that we highlight that India's strategic autonomy is also reflected in the fact that in the aftermath of the most cowardly attack of Pahalgam, where 26 civilians were butchered, India did not go around town seeking consent to retaliate," Chadha said while speaking at the 'Ideas for India Conference 2025' in London, United Kingdom on 30 May. Pakistan not a victim state Two weeks after the Pahalgam terror attack, India on 7 May conducted precision strikes on at least nine terror camps in Pakistan in what is known as Operation Sindoor. India and Pakistan indulged in four days of military action post Operation Sindoor. The two nations, however, agreed on an understanding to halt military action on 10 May. At a global stage, Chadha said, Pakistan is not a victim state, it's a terror state. "Lies and loans can't go together. Diplomacy and duplicity of Pakistan can't go together. Terror and Tolerance can't exist together. India seeks peace but if provoked, retribution won't be an exception, it will be an expectation," he said. Lies and loans can't go together. Diplomacy and duplicity of Pakistan can't go together. Chadha also pointed out that Pakistan today is in economic turmoil and in an institutional crisis. India today is known to export software, to export education, to export agricultural products, dairy products, so on and so forth. Pakistan today is known to export only one thing, terrorism. India is investing in healthcare, education, science and technology, research and development, he said. Also Read | PM Modi meets family of Pahalgam terror attack victim in Kanpur Earlier this month, Chadha was also invited as a keynote speaker at the prestigious Asian Leadership Conference (ALC) 2025, held in Seoul, South Korea. He strongly condemned the Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attack in Pahalgam on a global stage. He lauded the Indian Army's courage during Operation Sindoor and emphasised that India no longer merely expresses sorrow over acts of terrorism but now responds with precise and decisive military action. Felicitating Class 10 and 12 top-performing students of Tamil Nadu, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party president and actor Vijay said on Friday, We need to avoid religion and caste like we avoid drugs. He urged students not to follow the "idea of division based" on caste and religion. "Never allow such things to disturb your mind...," actor-turned-politician Vijay was quoted by news agency ANI. Also Read | Waqf Act: Actor Vijay moves Supreme Court against new law Vijay asked, Does nature, like the Sun or rain, have a caste or religion? and said, We need to avoid religion and caste like we avoid drugs. He further urged students to ask everyone in their homes to perform their democratic duty and "elect good, trustworthy people." "Democracy gives equal opportunities. Ask everyone in your home to perform their democratic duty...Ask them to elect good, trustworthy people who have not indulged in corruption," Vijay said. Class 10 and 12 toppers from 88 constituencies were felicitated with a certificate and cash prize by TVK Chief Vijay in an event which was held at a private resort in Mahaballipuram. While speaking at the event before felicitating the student, Vijay congratulated all the students for the achievement. Vijay said, " My dear young leaders and parents. Greetings to everyone. Yes...Young leaders and parents - how are you all? Very, very happy to meet you all. Congratulations on this beautiful achievement" Education is achievement Vijay also mentioned, Education is achievement. I won't deny that. But that doesn't mean we need to achieve a particular subject. Don't get anxious by thinking about something repeatedly. Why am I saying this? Is NEET only a world? Beyond NEET, many things are there to achieve, and this world is big. Have democracy. If democracy exists, then only this world and various fields can be with freedom. ve also noted, "Proper democracy gives equal opportunities. As a First step for this, ask everyone at home to do their Democratic duty. Doing your democratic duty is not a big deal, it is a simple thing. Ask them to elect good people, trustworthy people and those who haven't done any corruption so far. As simple as that. This is their duty". 'Don't money for votes' Vijay urged people not to take money for votes and also warned that next year they could drop money in vehicles.. "Two years back, I said in a similar event that we shouldn't encourage money for votes. Follow that. You could see next year what is going to happen. They are going to drop money in vehicles. All that money is stolen from you. What are you going to do? You all know what to do. I don't need to make you realise," Vijay was quoted by ANI as saying. Also Read | Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam officially registered as political party Reacting to recent controversy over the UPSC exam, where the question was asked about Periyar with his caste name, Vijay said, "In recent times, Thanthai Periyar was painted with caste. In the UPSC exam, they have asked a question regarding Periyar with the caste name. We strongly condemn this" "Don't be emotional about everything. Have a scientific and technical approach. Now we have AI, and we need that approach to face the AI world. The sky is vast and white, and you have strong wings. So feel free to fly like a bird with courage and confidence," Vijay said. A Chinese spokesperson remained tight-lipped when asked about the use and performance of China-made weapons during the India-Pakistan conflict. Speaking at a regular Thursday press briefing, spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang evaded the question but urged both sides to remain calm. According to Chinese state media Global Times, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of National Defence was asked to comment on the performance of Chinese equipment in the recent India-Pakistan conflict. Also Read | 2 Pakistani spies caught in a day from Rajasthan and Maharashtra's Thane The spokesperson was also asked for the ministry's comment on the remarks by Indian military officials that Pakistan received support from China's air defence and satellite systems, but the performance of these systems was below average. Zhang responded, saying, We would like to stress that India and Pakistan are neighbours that cannot be moved. We hope both sides will remain calm and restrained to avoid further complicating the situation. Also Read | Pakistan follows in US footsteps, to build its first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in maintaining regional peace and stability, he was quoted by Global Times as saying. On India recovering an unexploded PL-15E missile Zhang also responded to a question on whether it is true that India had obtained the powerful PL-15E beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile during the India-Pakistan conflict and whether this could lead to reverse engineering of related military technology. Zhang said the missile in question is an exported piece of equipment that has been displayed at multiple domestic and international defence exhibitions. The statement came amid reports of India recovering an unexploded PL-15E missile, a Chinese-made beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. India and Pakistan announced on 10 May the cessation of hostilities or a bilateral understanding. The announcement came following four days of Operation Sindoor, India's response to the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack. US could open 'Pandora's box' if... The Chinese ministry spokesperson also criticised the US for its space militarisation and its move to unveil plans for the Golden Dome missile defence system. Chinese Ministry of National Defence spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said on Thursday that the US presses ahead with the Golden Dome system, deploys space-based weapons, continuously expands its military build-up and stokes an arms race in outer space. Such acts violate relevant principles of the Outer Space Treaty, heighten the risk of turning space into a war zone and triggering a space arms race, and shake the international security and arms control regime, he said. The spokesperson then warned, Its actions will once again open Pandora's box. This proves again that no country has done more than the US in militarising space and making it a battlefield. Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid has said that scrapping of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in 2019 ended the long-standing problem of separatism in Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in prosperity in the region. Khurshid made these remarks during a diplomatic visit to Indonesia. Kashmir had a major problem for a long time. Much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government in Article 370 of the Constitution, which somehow gave the impression that it was separate from the rest of the country. But Article 370 was abrogated and it was finally put to an end, Khurshid said, speaking to members of Indonesian think tanks and academia as part of an all-party Indian parliamentary delegation. Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre in August 2019. Kashmir had a major problem for a long time... But Article 370 was abrogated and it was finally put to an end. Khurshid is accompanying a multiparty delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha. The former Union Law Minister also noted that post-abrogation of Article 370, the environment in Jammu and Kashmir has yielded progress, citing a 65 per cent voter turnout in recent elections and the formation of an elected government in the Union Territory. Subsequently, there was an election with 65 per cent participation. There's an elected government in Kashmir today, and therefore, people want to undo everything that has brought prosperity to Kashmir. It would not be advisable, Khurshid. the former Minister of External Affairs, said. Article 370 as a bond Khurshid had earlier described Article 370 as a bond that linked India to Jammu and Kashmir. The Article paved the way for J&K to remain within India. The state was not just the land or its people. It was an idea, within the idea of India, Khurshid had said in 2019. As the Boycott Turkey and Boycott Azerbaijan chorus grows amidst the two countries supporting Pakistan and Pakistans position on Kashmir, along with arms support from Turkey to Pakistan, a similar situation developed with Maldives in early 2024, when Mohamed Muizzu, the current president of Maldives and then presidential candidate appeared with India OUT T-shirts. Also Read | Will Indian travellers now treat Turkey and Azerbaijan as Maldives was treated? The trend was strong, with a few online travel agencies announcing that they had stopped accepting bookings to Maldives, similar to the current stance by Cox & Kings and Ixigo to stop bookings to Turkey. Within weeks of this online outrage, the Prime Minister visited Lakshadweep, which became a new go-to place with investments coming in from multiple hospitality chains, along with additional flights being launched by airlines. Also Read | After boycotting Maldives, EaseMyTrip quietly restarts flight bookings A year and more down the line, it turns out that Boycott Maldives has had its effect with Indian nationals visiting Maldives dropping by a staggering 37% in 2024 over 2023. Only 1,30,805 Indians visited Maldives in 2024, compared to 2,09,193 Indians who visited in 2023, shows data released by the Ministry of Tourism, Maldives. In the first quarter of 2025, the traffic from India has further shrunk by 7.9% over the same period in 2024. This comes amidst multiple new hotels being launched in Maldives over the last few years and overall tourism growing by 20% in 2024 for the island country. India now drops to the sixth largest source market for Maldives, with China, Russia and the United Kingdom being the top three. Chinese tourists to Maldives increased by 40% to reach 2,63,340 tourists in 2024. While China was the top source market in 2019, the last full year pre-COVID, India was the second largest back then. Impact on aviation Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article, shows that the connectivity between India and Maldives saw a drop of 17.6% in departures in December 2024, compared to December 2023. This resulted in a 17% reduction in seats. With China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany the top five source markets for Maldives, there remains an opportunity for Indian carriers for transit traffic to the Indian Ocean island. For carriers from India, this has had no impact as they have merely redeployed the capacity on other routes where there is more demand. Indian carriers have been reeling under the supply chain pressures and have not been able to induct as many planes as they would have wanted to, even after taking in a sizable number of aircraft last year. Geopolitics and more The loss of Maldives has been a gain for Thailand and Malaysia primarily. Both countries started offering free visas on arrival for Indians, similar to Maldives and started attracting Indians in droves. The flights between India and Thailand went up by nearly 40% in both capacity and departures in December 2024 compared to the same month in 2023. Flights between Malaysia and India were up by 21% and included the launch of flights to Penang and Langkawi by India, the two islands in Malaysia known for tourism but offering distinctly different experiences. The sheer size of the population, along with an ever-expanding middle class in India with the affordability to fly, is what is attractive for neighbouring countries to attract tourists from India. Most countries in ASEAN have traditionally been dependent on tourism from China for similar reasons, but were jolted due to Chinas continued closure of tourist activities, including restrictions on travel outside the country. This led to most countries turning to India to offer attractive packages and offers which could attract tourists from the most populous country. Tail Note With Maldives, there are already signs of thaw in the relationship between the two countries. The ties between India and Maldives go beyond tourism. The drop in tourists saw airlines cutting down on flights. Operation Sindoor: In just a short span of time, India demolished Pakistan's terrorist bases and its intentions, Defence Minister Rajnath told naval warriors aboard INS Vikrant in Goa on 30 May. Our strike was so powerful that Pakistan began pleading with the entire world to stop India, Singh said. Singh said he was happy to meet the Naval warriors on INS Vikrant. Today, I am feeling a sense of pride standing on INS Vikrant, which is the pride of India's naval power. I strongly believe that till the time defence of the country's naval borders is in your strong hands, no one can raise an eyebrow towards India, he said. Our strike was so powerful that Pakistan began pleading with the entire world to stop India. Pakistan should keep in mind that if on one hand our Navy is as calm as the ocean, on the other hand it also has the capability to bring a tsunami like the ocean, Singh said. Pak should start by handing over terrorists Singh asserted it would be in Pakistan's interest to uproot the nurseries of terrorism operating on its soil with its own hands. It, he said, should start by handing over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India. Both of them are not only on the list of 'Most Wanted Terrorists' in India but are also on the UN's list of Designated Terrorists...Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the Mumbai attacks, was brought to India recently... If Pakistan is serious about talks, then it should hand over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India so that justice can be done, he said. Also Read | PoK is part of India: Rajnath Singh Two weeks after the Pahalgam terror attack, India on 7 May conducted precision strikes on at least nine terror camps in Pakistan in what is known as Operation Sindoor. India and Pakistan indulged in four days of military action post Operation Sindoor. The two nations, however, agreed on an understanding to halt military action on 10 May. A newlywed couple from Madhya Pradesh's Indore has been missing in Meghalaya's Cherrapunji since 24 May after they went on a honeymoon trip there. Raja Raghuwanshi (30) and Sonam Raghuwanshi (27) reportedly arrived from Indore in the northeastern state on 20 May for their honeymoon. However, they went missing on 23 May after being last spotted in Sohra, also known as Cherrapunji. Sohra is a popular tourist destination in the East Khasi Hills district. Reward announced The couple's family has offered a reward of 5 lakh to anyone who can provide information on their whereabouts. CM Conrad Sangma assures help Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma assured help to the couple's kin. The CM on Thursday said he is 'personally monitoring' the search operations. He also stated that apart from the authorities, the entire local community were involved in the search efforts. "A few days ago, an unfortunate incident happened where a newlywed couple from Madhya Pradesh, who had come to Meghalaya's Sohra, went missing. It is a very unfortunate situation. My counterpart from Madhya Pradesh, the chief minister, has spoken to me. I have received a call from the Home Ministry," NDTV quoted Sangma as saying. "I have been monitoring this situation personally on a daily basis. The SP, as well as the entire administration, and the police force have been on the job 24/7 to find the couple. Not only the administration but the entire village and the community in that area are also participating in this search," he added. Challenges ahead Flagging challenges, the Meghalaya chief minister stated that the monsoon season has made the job difficult for authorities. "We are using all the possible technology available to us to help us in our endeavour. As you are aware, this is the pre-monsoon era and Cherrapunji and the entire belt are known for heavy rainfall. Hence, it is a very, very difficult task as we move along, but we are giving it our best to ensure that we are able to find the couple," he said. Elaborating more, the CM said that on the day the couple went missing, the administration found a bike on the main road, which the couple had rented. "It looks like after leaving the bike there, they have gone off-road to hike. The area that they went to, both sides have hiking treks, which are very steep. Keeping in mind the monsoon season, the area is very slippery. The search area is very, very big. We are working very hard to trace them. We are hopeful that we will be able to find them," he said. Indore MP reaches Shillong Indore MP Shankar Lalwani on Wednesday reached Shillong to meet senior police officers, including Director General of Police Idashisha Nongrang, to know about the probe. He later assured that every possible effort is being made to locate the missing couple. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday asserted that India will never give in to nuclear blackmail, and those who "sponsor, nurture and utilize" terrorism should be made to pay a heavy price. "We will never give in to nuclear blackmail and whatever decisions are to be taken in India's national interest are taken and will continue to be taken," the external affairs minister asserted. Speaking at a convocation ceremony of foreign students of Parul University, a private varsity in Gujarat, Jaishankar also commented that it has become a "fashion in some quarters to openly become transactional" in international relations. Attempt to devastate the tourism economy "In Pahalgam (terror attack) what we saw was an attempt to devastate the tourism economy of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as well as an evil design to bring (about) religious discord," the minister said. "The barbarity of the killings required an exemplary response which was delivered by destroying terrorist command centers, especially in Bahawalpur and Muridke. It is imperative that those who sponsor, nurture and utilize terrorism for their ends are made to pay a high cost," he added. Times have changed, and epicentres of terrorism are no longer "immune" (to retaliation), Jaishankar said, adding that India's policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism was manifest through its actions. As India responded to the Pahalgam terror attack, it was "heartening to witness the understanding from other nations of our right to defend ourselves against terrorism," he said. Jaishankar's comments came in the wake of Operation Sindoor conducted by Indian armed forces against terror hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir after the Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 26 people, majorly tourists were killed. do have national interest Commenting on the difference between the diplomacy practised by India and that by some other countries, Jaishankar referred to "transactional" policies of some nations. "In the international community of almost 200 nations, we do have national interest and naturally seek to advance them, but this is ought to be done with mutual understanding and mutual benefit as guiding principles. It has become a fashion in some quarters to be openly transactional when it comes to dealing with other nations. Bear in mind that some are actually practicing it in reality while preaching the opposite," he said. In some societies, sentiments and values count a lot and "India belongs to that category," the minister said. "We have kept in mind our larger obligation to the world and international community. Our resources may be limited but India has a large heart," he added. There should be mutual respect for culture, tradition and heritage among partners, Jaishankar said. "While the colonial era may be behind us, new forms of domination have emerged, misusing the opening provided by globalization, they profess to judge us all and pronounce on our credentials. One example is ill-conceived interference in the politics of nations of the global south," he said. Operation Shield mock drill: State wide mock drills in Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana, which were earlier postponed, will now be carried out on Saturday, May 31, around 5-6pm. In Rajasthan, the mock drills would be held across all 41 districts including Jaisalmer. Similar mock drills will also be held in all the districts of Punjab and Haryana. State Mock drill time Civil Defence exercises included / number of volunteers/ locations Rajasthan to begin at 5 pm Six locations in Jaisalmer selected for air siren warnings; 72 Civil Defence personnel deployed Haryana to begin at 5 pm 32,000 volunteers to be involved; sirens, blackouts, emergency scenarios Punjab to be conducted by 6 pm sirens to be sounded; blackouts to be enforced All the three states were supposed to conduct the mock drills on May 29, which however, got postponed due to administrative reasons. Mock drills in Rajasthan The exact location of mock drills in the Jaisalmer district has been kept confidential for security purposes. "We are being trained under the leadership of experienced officers. Along with the mock drill, we are always ready to deal with emergency situations," a Civil Defense personnel told PTI during a briefing. The exercise, mandated by the Rajasthan Home Department, is aimed to test readiness for air attack scenarios, assess security protocols, and enhance emergency coordination among defense and administrative personnel. Mock drills in Punjab For Punjab, the mock drills will also simulate large-scale emergency situations. "Blackout measures, rescue measures, fire services are a part of the mock drill...The representatives of the armed forces will also be involved in it," Punjab's Special Director General of Police, Sanjeev Kalra told ANI. Mock drills in Haryana Haryana joint secretary Sumita Mishra said that the mock drills in the state would be conducted in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). A total of 32,000 volunteers have been trained and briefed about the same, the joint secretary told PTI. Also Read | Delhi Police conducts mock drills amid India-Pakistan tensions Similar mock drills were conducted nationwide on May 7, the same day India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror beds across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The operation was a retaliatory response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people, including one Nepalese national. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the family of Pahalgam terror attack victim Shubham Dwivedi at Chakeri airport in Kanpur on Friday, news agency PTI reported. Businessman Shubham Dwivedi (31) was among the 26 people killed in the Pahalgam terror attack on 22 April. "We expressed our gratitude to him (for the success of Operation Sindoor). In response, he told us this is just the beginning and that a long battle lies ahead. Our meeting lasted about 5 to 10 minutes," Shubham's wife Ashanya told news agency PTI. Shubham Dwivedi, who got married on 12 February this year, was visiting Pahalgam with his wife and other family members when terrorists opened fire on tourists, resulting in his death. A week ago, Lok Sabha MP from Kanpur Ramesh Awasthi wrote to the PMO, requesting Prime Minister Modi to meet the family of Shubham Dwivedi. Awasthi said in the letter that the family has thanked PM Modi for Operation Sindoor as it has brought peace to the soul of Shubham Dwivedi and has expressed desire to thank the prime minister for that. Modi in UP Modi is in Uttar Pradesh to lay the foundation stone and inaugurate multiple development projects aimed at boosting the regions infrastructure and connectivity. He will inaugurate the Chunniganj Metro Station to Kanpur Central Metro Station section of the Kanpur Metro Rail Project, which is worth over 2,120 crore. It will include 14 planned stations and five new underground stations, integrating key city landmarks and commercial hubs into the metro network. Additionally, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the GT Road's road widening and strengthening work. The family has thanked PM Modi for Operation Sindoor as it has brought peace to the soul of Shubham Dwivedi. Two weeks after the Pahalgam terror attack, India on 7 May conducted precision strikes on at least nine terror camps in Pakistan in what is known as Operation Sindoor. India and Pakistan indulged in four days of military action post Operation Sindoor. The two nations, however, agreed on an understanding to halt military action on 10 May. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Kanpur node of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor is crucial for indigenous manufacturing, weeks after defence minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a BrahMos manufacturing facility in Lucknow. The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor is an initiative by the Centre and the UP government to boost defence manufacturing capacity in the country's most populous state. It has six nodes Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, and Chitrakoot. Modi was speaking in Kanpur during the inauguration of projects worth 47,600 crore, including thermal power plants, rail over bridges, and a sewage treatment plant. Uttar Pradesh will lead Indias journey to becoming a major defence exporter, said Modi, highlighting that indigenously manufactured weapons had played a crucial part during Operation Sindoor. Operation Sindoor was India's retaliatory attack against terrorist targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on 7 May following the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 individuals. Operation Sindoor showcased India's indigenous defense capabilities and the strength of Make in India to the world," said PM Modi. The prime minister said Uttar Pradesh would become a hub for defence equipment manufacturing. The production of AK-203 rifles had already started in Amethi, and defence minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a BrahMos manufacturing facility on 11 May this year. The BrahMos missile played a significant part during Operation Sindoor, said Modi. He inaugurated a 660 MW Panki Thermal Power Extension Project in Kanpur worth over 8,300 crore and three 660 MW units of Ghatampur Thermal Power Project worth over 9,330 crore, according to a press statement. Among the projects inaugurated were rail over bridges over Panki Power House Railway Crossing and over Panki Dham Crossing on Panki Road at Kalyanpur Panki Mandir in Kanpur to support the Panki Thermal Power Extension Project's logistics by facilitating coal and oil transport. PM Modi also said that two essential pillars for the state's industrial progress are self-sufficiency in the energy sectorensuring a steady power supplyand strong infrastructure and connectivity. The Prime Minister also reiterated India's three new principles in its fight against terrorism. First, India will deliver a decisive response to every terrorist attack, he said, adding that the timing, method, and conditions of this response will be determined solely by the Indian armed forces. Second, India will no longer be intimidated by nuclear threats, nor will it make decisions based on such warnings, he said. Third, India will view both the masterminds of terrorism and the governments that shelter them in the same light. The distinction between Pakistans state and non-state actors will no longer be accepted, he said. The Odisha Vigilance Department on Friday conducted searches at seven locations across Odisha on premises allegedly linked to the Chief Engineer of the Odisha Rural Works Division and recovered approximately 2.1 crore in cash. In the major anti-corruption crackdown, the vigilance team raided the premises linked to Baikuntha Nath Sarangi on the allegation of disproportionate asset possession. Officials recovered about 1 crore from his flat in Bhubaneswar and around 1.1 crore from his residence in Angul. The search operations are still underway, officials of the Odisha Vigilance Department said. The department also shared the details of their findings on social media. Today, on the allegation of possession of disp. assets by Sri Baikuntha Nath Sarangi, Chief Engineer, RW Division, Odisha, house searches are on by #Odisha #Vigilance at 7 locations. Approx 2.1 Crore cash recovered so far from his house at Bhubaneswar (1 Cr) & Angul (1.1 Cr) [sic], the Odisha Vigilance Department said in a post on X. It also attached videos of the raid. Watch the video here: Sarangi threw cash bundles out of window According to the Vigilance Department, Sarangi threw bundles of 500 notes from the window of his Bhubaneswar flat upon noticing the presence of the search team. Vigilance officials later recovered the cash in the presence of witnesses. Also Read | Punjab AAP MLA arrested after raids at his home in corruption case The search operations and further proceedings are ongoing, the department said. In the X post, it also attached images of the cash recovered from Sarangi's residence. 8 DSsP, 12 Inspectors, 6 ASIs, and other supporting staff are conducting search on the strength of search warrants issued by Honble Special Judge, Vigilance, Angul , it added Odisha Vigilance Department intercepts another official In a separate incident, Odisha Vigilance intercepted Assistant Executive Engineer Pabitra Mohan Panigrahi of Chitrakonda Block in Malkangiri district in April. It seized cash exceeding 15 lakh, which was suspected to be ill-got. Acting on credible intelligence inputs about alleged bribe collection from contractors, a team of Odisha Vigilance officials intercepted Panigrahi near Gobindapally Chowk while he was travelling from his government residence in Chitrakonda to Bhubaneswar in a WagonR car bearing registration number OD-30-E-3096. He was reportedly taking a lift at the time. Upon interception, officials recovered 5.07 lakh in cash from Panigrahi's possession. A further search at his government quarters in Chitrakonda led to the recovery of 10 lakh more in cash. As Panigrahi failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the seized amount, the Vigilance team confiscated the entire cash. Subsequently, searches are underway at two additional premises linked to Panigrahi from a disproportionate assets angle. He is currently being questioned about the source of the recovered funds. US President Donald Trump on Friday once again claimed credit for stopping India and Pakistan from fighting after repeatedly claiming that he 'helped settle' the tensions between the two nations. Trump made the claim during a press conference in the Oval Office with Elon Musk, who is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe it could have turned out into a nuclear disaster. I want to thank the leaders of India and Pakistan. I also want to thank my people. We talked trade. We cant trade with people that are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons. There are great leaders in those countries and they understood and they agreed and the war stopped. We talked trade and we said. Trump further added that the US is stopping others from fighting, amid ongoing Russia and Ukraine war. We can fight better than anybody. We have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest leaders. The fresh remark comes after the Trump administration told a New York court that India and Pakistan reached a tenuous ceasefire only after President Donald Trump "interceded and offered both nations trading access with the US to avert a full-scale war. On Thursday, India said the issue of trade did not come up in its discussions with the US during the clashes between the Indian and Pakistani militaries. "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 US leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade or tariff did not come up in any of those discussions," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.. Amid row over his Kannada is born out of Tamil remark, actor Kamal Haasan said he will apologise only if he is wrong, else he wont. "It is a democracy. I believe in the law and justice. My love for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala is true. Nobody will suspect it except for those who have an agenda, Haasan said. He added, I've been threatened earlier too, and if I am wrong, I would apologise, if I'm not, I won't... Haasans statement came as pro-Kannada groups threatened to boycott his film Thug Life and demanded an apology from him over his remark on Kannada language. Whats the controversy? During a promotional event for his upcoming film 'Thug Life' in Chennai last week, the actor reportedly said, "Kannada is born out of Tamil. The statement triggered public outrage. The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) already announced a ban on the release of Kamal Haasan starrer Thug Life over the actor's controversial remark, news agency ANI reported. Sa Ra Govindu, representative of KFCC, said on May 30 that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer 'Thug Life' in Karnataka as they stand firm with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations for their demands of halting the release of the film until the actor issues a pubic apology. On Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticised Kamal Haasan, saying that he was not aware of the "long-standing" history of the language. "Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it," the Karnataka CM said. Also Read | Kamal Haasan to enter Rajya Sabha with support from DMK, 3 other names out Following Kamal Haasans statement, protests were held near the INOX cinema hall in Karnataka's Belagavi against Kamal Haasan. The protests were organised by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike organisation, which expressed its anger and demanded the actor's apology over the issue. 'Thug Life' is directed by Mani Ratnam and stars Kamal Haasan, Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan TR in the lead roles. The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on Friday, May 30, announced a ban on the release of Kamal Haasan's upcoming film Thug Life in the state after the actor did not apologise for his Kannada-Tamil remark that sparked a controversy. During the media interaction in Bengaluru, Sa Ra Govindu, representative of KFCC, said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer 'Thug Life' in Karnataka. The KFCC representative said the decision to ban Thug Life was taken as they stand firm with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations for their demands of halting the release of the film until the actor issues a pubic apology. Justifying the ban on Thug Life, the KFCC representative said the actor has not yet issued an apology for hurting the sentiments of the people in Karnataka so a decision was taken to ban the film. He said, When there is pressure, I have to do. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike were present; whatever they say, we should do it. Even they would speak about it. Definitely, there is no 'Sorry' term being specified anywhere by Kamal Hassan. We will surely not release the film. We [KFCC] will stand with Rakshina Vedike and other Kannada organisations, he said. The fim chamber had earlier given two days to Kamal Haasan to issue an apology for his remarks. 'Thug Life' is directed by Mani Ratnam and stars Kamal Haasan, Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan TR in the lead roles. WHAT DID KAMAL HAASAN SAY ON ROW? During the audio launch of his movie in Chennai last week, Kamal Haasan reportedly stated that Kannada is born out of Tamil, triggering protests across multiple locations in the state. This is a democratic country. I believe in law and justice. I believe love will always triumph. My love for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala is true. Nobody will suspect it except those who have an agenda. I have been threatened before, the actor said. If I am wrong, I will apologise. If I am not, then I wont, Haasan said. The interest in Thug Life was high on Google India during May 27-29: The Congress party has reiterated its claim that six such military operations were carried out across the border during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, responded quickly accusing the Congress party of 'lying.' The Congres-vs-BJP on social media comes amid tensions between the grand-old party and its leader Shashi Tharoor over India's surgical strikes before and after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the centre. Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to foreign countries post Operation Sindoor, has invited criticism over his statement that India conducted its first surgical strike in response to a terror attack in 2016. Sharing a video on X, the Congress party wrote, No Noise. No PR. Only Decisive Actions. 6 Surgical Strikes were carried out under Congress Govt. The BJP responded to Congress claims and accused the party of lying. Congress is corrupt, even when it comes to numbers related to national security. However, . Darpok Congress must STOP LYING, the BJP said in a post sharing a 2018 story from HT UPA did 3 surgical strikes. Three surgical strikes In December 2018, the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asserted that the Indian Army conducted three surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) when the UPA government was in power. On May 29, senior Congress leader and party general secretary Randeep Surjewala, though, backed the seasoned and experienced Tharoor, he also insisted that the leader was wrong about the surgical strikes. "Congress party only corrected (him) by pointing out that surgical strikes against Pakistan and other dens of terrorists were a regular feature even during the UPA term to give a befitting reply to terrorists by our armed forces and the Congress governments," Surjewala said. Past Surgical Strikes? Instances of surgical strikes during the Congress-led UPA government have been detailed in the past by the AICC Communication department and by Tharoor himself in his 2018 book "The Paradoxical Prime Minister", the Surjewala said. "Even former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the past spoke about these surgical strikes. Mr Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera have set the record straight. It should not be matter of any acrimony or doubt," Surjewala said. Tharoor has come under stringent criticism by several Congress leaders, including media and publicity department head Pawan Khera and party leader Udit Raj, for not mentioning surgical strikes against Pakistan during the UPA government in his presentations abroad. Udit Raj said he should be made a "super spokesperson of the BJP". The Congress' digs continued on Thursday with Raj saying what the Kerala MP had said was a "lie and a conspiracy to destroy the Congress". Tharoor's riposte for the jibes Congress is corrupt, even when it comes to numbers related to national security. Tharoor, who is heading a multi-party delegation to five countries, including Panama and the US, had a ready riposte for the jibes by some of his party colleagues. Also Read | Cong uses Tharoors own book to slam his praise for Modi Govt over Op Sindoor For zealots fulminating about his supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC, he was "clearly and explicitly" speaking only about reprisals for terrorist attacks and not about previous wars, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said in a post on X from Panama City on Thursday morning. Critics and trolls were welcome to distort his views and words as they see fit but he genuinely has "better things to do", he said. While in Colombia as part of India's global outreach to highlight Pakistan's support for cross-border terrorism, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor expressed deep disappointment over Colombia extending condolences to Islamabad for the loss of lives following Indian retaliatory strikes after the Pahalgam terror attack. Addressing a press conference, Shashi Tharoor spoke about India's stance on terror and elaborated on Operation Sindoor. He also expressed disappointment over Colombia's response to the Pahalgam terror attack. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who is part of the India delegation to Colombia, said Shashi Tharoor reaffirmed India's stance on terrorism and expressed disappointment over Colombia's response which has offered condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathizing with the victims of terrorism in India. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend, he said in a social media post. Surya said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership, India will continue to respond to terrorism with strength and resolve. Other members of the delegation include Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Shambhavi (LJP), GM Harish Balayogi (TDP) and former ambassador of India to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu. After visiting Colombia, the delegation will travel to Brazil. From Brazil, it would end the tour in the United States. It was on a five-nation trip. On May 7, India conducted precision strikes targeting nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. In retaliation, Pakistan attempted to target Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10 but failed. On the evening of May 10, Pakistan dialed India and both countries reached a bilateral agreement to halt all strikes. 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. US President Donald Trump on Friday bid farewell to Elon Musk, his adviser and the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and highlighted some of the achievements of the department under the billionaire. Speaking alongside Musk, Trump said the billionaire had led the most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations." He claimed that Musk is really not leaving and he's going to be back and forth to keep tabs on what's happening in the administration. We're totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste in the months that come, Trump said. Praising Musk's work at the government, Trump also presented a receipt of some of the cuts that Musk and DOGE identified till date. Also Read | Trump gives Elon Musk an Oval Office sendoff, crediting him with colossal change Trump highlights DOGE cuts During his press conference, Donald Trump said Elon Musk and DOGE had identified several instances where federal money was going to waste. He listed examples of what he called countless wasteful and unnecessary contracts that DOGE has cancelled. These include: $101 million for DEI programs at the Department of Education, $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma, $42 million for social and behavioral change campaigns in Uganda, $20 million for producing an Arabic version of Sesame Street, $59 million for hotel rooms for illegal immigrants in New York City and $8 million for research to make mice transgender among others. Also Read | Donald Trump again claims US stopped India, Pakistan from fighting Elon Musk's tenure at DOGE Elon Musk initially claimed DOGE would slash at least $2 trillion in federal spending. Four months into its efforts, DOGE now estimates it has saved $175 billion. But the details it has posted on its website, where it gives the only public accounting of those changes, add up to less than half of that figure. Elon Musk said that his departure from the White House does not mark the end of DOGE and that much of his cost-cutting team will remain in place and he will continue to give advice to President Donald Trump. A black spot near Tesla CEO Elon Musk's right eye which was spotted during a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday, raised speculations amid reports of drug use during Trump campaign. An explosive New York Times report claim that Elon Musk was using drugs more heavily than previously known while on the campaign trail to help elect Donald Trump president. The chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX traveled with a medication box that held about 20 pills and was taking so much ketamine that it was affecting his bladder, according to the report. Elon Musk eye got black spot ..looking infected or something, said an X user sharing a photo. Responding to a question about what happened to his eye, Musk claimed that his 5-year-old son had punched him while playing. "I wasnt anywhere near France. I was just horsing around with little X and I said punch me in the face, and he did. Meanwhile, Trump said that he did not notice that black spot. "That was X that did that? ...X could do it. If you knew X." Giving a farewell to Musk, who is leaving the Trump administration after spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump said that Musk has done a fantastic job. Following Musk's remark, one of the X user asked if Elon Musk lied about little X hitting him. However, another was said that she got a black eye playing with her son when he was about the age of little X. "It does happen, doesnt have to be a hard hit, just the right spot will do it. Meanwhile, wishing Elon Musk well on his last official day at the White House, Trump said that that Musk is not really leaving and will be back often. Musk, who wore all black including a T-shirt that said The Dogefather, stated that his departure from the White House does not mark the end of DOGE and that much of his cost-cutting team will remain in place and he will continue to give advice to President Donald Trump. Donald Trump on Friday admitted he did not know what Starlink was until recently, saying that Elon Musk does not get the credit for everything he has done. The US President made the remarks as he bid farewell to his adviser, as Musk announced he will step down from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). I didnt have any idea what the hell Starlink was, Trump admitted, suggesting that Elon Musk is not credited enough for all the work he has done. He further claimed that Musk saved lives with Starlink after a hurricane decimated parts of North Carolina. Speaking about Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, Trump said: Frankly, I don't think he gets credit for what it's done, but he's a very good person. Elon Musk steps down from DOGE role Billionaire Elon Musk said on Friday he would remain a "friend and advisor" to Donald Trump, as the US president hosted an Oval Office farewell for the man who led his turbulent cost-cutting drive. "I look forward to continuing to be a friend and advisor to the president," Musk told reporters after Trump handed a golden key as a gift to the departing leader of DOGE. The Tesla CEO said he would keep supporting the team that is "relentlessly pursuing a trillion dollars in waste" in reductions that will "benefit the American taxpayer." He complained about how he has been portrayed, saying: We became, like, essentially the DOGE bogeyman, where any cut anywhere would be ascribed to DOGE. Also Read | Donald Trump again claims US stopped India, Pakistan from fighting Musk, the world's richest person, has said he is stepping back from his role at the White House to focus on his companies, which include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X. DOGE under Musk's guidance has slashed billions of dollars in government spending, much of it already approved by Congress, including eviscerating the main US agency delivering foreign aid. A Boston University study said that tens of thousands of people have already died because of the freeze in funding, a finding earlier denied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "We're totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste in the months that come," Trump said. Donald Trump-Elon Musk press conference Highlights: United States President Donald Trump in a press conference on Friday praised outgoing DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) head Elon Musk as he bid farewell to his adviser. He said that Musk is not really leaving and will be back often. During a joint appearance in the Oval Office, Trump said of Musk: He's done a fantastic job. In a post on Truth Social earlier, Trump said that Musk will be helping the US government in the days to come. In the past two weeks, Musk has sworn off future political donations and criticised Trumps signature tax-and-spending-cut proposal, the One Big Beautiful Bill. On May 28, in a post on his social media site X, Elon Musk announced that he was stepping down from his White House role. The announcement came a day after Elon Musk, on May 27, criticised the price tag of Republicans' tax and budget legislation making its way through Congress. Since Musk's announcement of exit from his DOGE role, Tesla investors rejoiced, which sent the stock of the EV maker up by 2 per cent. US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the US Court of International Trade's order to block import tariffs was "so wrong" and "so political." In a long post on Truth Social, Trump said, "Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY." What's the matter? The US President's statement came as a federal appeals court temporarily reinstated the most sweeping of Trump's tariffs on Thursday. The fresh ruling by the appeals court came a day after a US trade court ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority in imposing the duties and ordered an immediate block on them. Also Read | US court temporarily pauses ruling that blocked Trumps tariff The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said it was pausing the lower court's ruling to consider the government's appeal, and ordered the plaintiffs in the cases to respond by June 5 and the administration by June 9. Horrific decision Reacting to this, Trump, in his social media post, said, The US Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade. Trump slammed the judges who had blocked the tariffs in the first place, saying, Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of TRUMP? What other reason could it be? Also Read | US court temporarily pauses ruling that blocked Trumps tariff "I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten! With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do whats right for the Country!," Trump said. He said, The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around DC for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power The Presidency would never be the same! This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America. Also Read | Markets shrug off US appeals courts decision to reinstate Trump tariffs Harshest financial ruling Trump contended that "radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America." "Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, money that will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It would be the harshest financial ruling ever leveled on us as a Sovereign Nation. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that, are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter!," Trump said. Also Read | Harvard wins temporary reprieve from Donald Trumps foreign student ban Hailing his decision on global tariffs, Trump said, "It is only because of my successful use of Tariffs that many Trillions of Dollars have already begun pouring into the USA from other countries, money that, without these Tariffs, we would not be able to get." With Elon Musk departing from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), US President Donald Trump on Friday hosted a grand Oval Office farewell for the world's richest man and thanked him for his incredible service. "He's done a fantastic job," said Trump during a joint press conference while wishing senior adviser well on his last official day. Musk and Trump held a joint press conference to put a positive spin on Musk's departure from DOGE after just four months. What Trump said about Musk Musk is not really leaving and will be back often. He is one of the greatest business leaders. Want to thank Elon Musk. He has changed lives of several people. Many DOGE people are staying on. Elon Musk gave incredible service. Also Read | Donald Trump again claims US stopped India, Pakistan from fighting Thanking Trump, Musk said that his departure was not an end of DOGE and the team will grow stronger. The Tesla CEO added that he will continue to visit and will be an adviser to Trump. "I look forward to continuing to be a friend and advisor to the president," Musk told reporters after Trump handed a golden key. Musk added he was confident that "over time" the Department of Government Efficiency will reach $1 trillion of savings he promised. On Thursday, Trump, 78, praised the "terrific" Musk oand insisted that his influence would continue despite the South African-born tech tycoon returning to his Space X and Tesla companies. Vice President JD Vance praised Musk's "incredible" job in an interview with Newsmax and vowed that "the DOGE effort will continue." Elon Musk on Friday dodged a question on a report of his regular illegal drug use while campaigning for US President Donald Trump before his 2024 election. Let's move on next question, he said, when asked about the report that alleged that the Tesla CEO used illegal drugs during his campaign trail with Trump. Musk joined Donald Trump in an Oval Office press conference as he stepped down from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hours after The New York Times reported on his alleged drug use. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on Russiagate, he shot back as a reporter asked him a question about the article. That New York Times? Lets move on. The newspaper said that Elon Musk used so much ketamine during the 2024 campaign that he developed bladder problems. It further alleged he was also taking ecstasy and psychoactive mushrooms, and travelled with a pill box last year during the campaign. Musk was immediately asked about the report. He did not reply directly and instead denounced The New York Times over its previous coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election before moving to the next question. Livemint has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the report. Donald Trump bids adieu to Elon Musk Donald Trump praised billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to cut federal spending during a joint press conference in the Oval Office on Friday, as the Tesla CEO departs the administration after a chaotic tenure that saw the elimination of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in contracts. Musk, who headed the Department of Government Efficiency, disrupted numerous agencies across the federal bureaucracy but ultimately fell far short of the massive savings he had initially promised. A White House official said on Wednesday that Musk would be leaving the administration. "Elon has worked tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations," Trump said from behind the Resolute Desk, as Musk stood to his right, wearing a black DOGE hat and a t-shirt that read "The Dogefather" in the style of the movie "The Godfather." A press briefing at the White House took an unexpectedly humorous turn on Wednesday after CNBC correspondent Megan Cassella confronted President Donald Trump with a cheeky new Wall Street acronym: TACO, short for Trump Always Chickens Out. The phrase, a nod to the presidents frequent reversals on tariff threats, has been making waves online and among traders. Cassella asked, Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the Taco trade. Theyre saying Trump Always Chickens Out on your tariff threats. And thats why markets are higher this week. Whats your response to that? The question appeared to annoy the president, who quickly dismissed the suggestion that he had backed down. I chicken out? Oh, Ive never heard that, Trump replied. You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100 and then to another number? The president was referring to his tariff policy on Chinese imports, which had peaked at 145% before he lowered the ratefirst to 100%, then again to 30%. Only last week, Trump had announced that a 50% tariff on European Union goods would take effect from 1 June. However, within two days, the deadline was pushed to 9 July, as Trump cited progress in trade talks. The sudden shift added fuel to the TACO nickname. TACO Memes Flood Social Media The acronym quickly went viral, triggering a flurry of memes across social media. Images of tacos featuring Trumps face, chickens perched on his head, and animated gifs mocking his trade policies were shared widely. One user posted: THERE ARE NO TRADE DEALS. Because Trump Always Chickens Out. Another joked in rhyme: The truth, in case there was doubtDonald Trump may be losing his clout. His tariffs will reveal he loses every deal. Thats because Trump Always Chickens Out. A third simply wrote: TACOTrump stands for Trump Always Chickens Out! Its funny cause its true. Also read | Donald Trump vs Harvard University a timeline of events Oh, I chicken out? Isn't that nice? I've never heard that, he said sarcastically. The president defended his decision to temporarily lower tariffs on Chinese imports and delay the EU tariff hike. "You call that chickening out?" he asked reporters. I think we really helped China tremendously because, you know, they were having great difficulty because we were basically going cold turkey with China. We were doing no business because of the tariff, because it was so high. But I knew that. As the exchange ended, Trump snapped back at the journalist. Don't ever say what you said, he warned. That's a nasty question. The US Department of Justice has asked a federal judge in Texas to junk its criminal case against aircraft maker Boeing over two fatal crashes more than six years ago after it struck a deal with the aircraft maker. The deal was made despite objections from family members of some victims of the crashes. Here is everything you need to know about the deal and what's really happening. US-Boeing deal The Justice Department has reached a deal with Boeing that will allow the company to avoid criminal prosecution, reports said citing quoting court papers last Friday. Boeing was charged for allegedly misleading US regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed and killed 346 people. Also Read | US formally moves to dismiss prosecution against Boeing, asks judge to cancel trial over crashes Also Read | Boeing Agrees to Resolve US Criminal Case Over 737 Crashes In the court filing on May 23, the Justice Department said it had reached an agreement in principle with Boeing. Dismissing the fraud charge will allow the manufacturer to avoid a possible criminal conviction that could have jeopardised the companys status as a federal contractor, the Associated Press reported quoting experts. What are the deal terms? As per the terms of the deal, Boeing will be required to pay and invest more than $1.1 billion. In return, the Justice Department will dismiss the criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer. This includes an additional $445 million for the crash victims families. However, the deal has not been finalised yet. The Agreement guarantees further accountability and substantial benefits from Boeing immediately, while avoiding the uncertainty and litigation risk presented by proceeding to trial, Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers. What will the court do? US District Judge Reed OConnor in Fort Worth, Texas, will decide whether to accept the motion to dismiss, accept the terms of the non-prosecution agreement and whether to cancel the trial. OConnor on Thursday ordered all the lawyers to present him with a briefing schedule on the governments motion by June 4. Also Read | US Says No Decision Yet on Whether to Drop Boeing Criminal Case Families of victims oppose US-Boeing deal Paul Cassell, an attorney for many of the families in the long-running case, had previously said said his clients strongly oppose dropping the criminal case. Dismissing the case would dishonour the memories of 346 victims who Boeing killed through its callous lies, Cassell said in a recent statement. The U.S. has presented Israel and Hamas with a new proposal to pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip, though the militant group has already criticized it for not requiring an end to the 20-month conflict. The agreement calls for Hamas to release 10 of the roughly 20 hostages Israel believes are still alive and the bodies of another 19 within the first week of the deal in exchange for a 60-day cease-fire and the release of Palestinians held by Israel, according to a draft reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The draft says President Trump would announce the deal if an agreement is reached, and envoy Steve Witkoff would preside over the talks. The U.S. said Israel has signed off on the proposal. Hamas has said it is studying it, but Hamas officials have criticized its lack of a commitment to halt the fighting or clarify the withdrawal of Israeli forces. The proposal is an attempt to stop further escalation of the fighting that erupted after the previous cease-fire collapsed two months ago, pushing the toll in Gaza to more than 54,000 dead, according to Palestinian health authorities, who dont say how many were combatants. Israel at the time failed to begin talks on a permanent end to the conflict, and Hamas stopped releasing hostages it held in Gaza, a breakdown that was followed by resumed Israeli airstrikes and a broader deployment of ground troops. Negotiators have since tried various formulas, including a shorter-term pause in the fighting and longer-term halts that wouldnt require Israel to commit to a permanent end to the war. The fighting was sparked by Hamass Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel that left around 1,200 dead and 251 people taken hostage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wont stop the war until Hamas is destroyed in Gaza. The U.S.-designated terrorist group has been battered by the months of war, and most of its leadership has been killed. But it continues to recruit and still holds sway in the Gaza Strip, where there is no clear alternative to its authority. Write to Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com At least 100 ballistic missiles and over 11,000 troops North Korea has become a source of combat power in its war against Ukraine. The details of North Korea's surging military aid to Russia has been released in a report by 11 countries, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. According to the report, North Korea last year transferred to Russia at least 100 ballistic missiles, which were subsequently launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorize populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia. The panel, which investigates violations of United Nations sanctions against North Korea, also found that Pyongyang deployed over 11,000 troops into eastern Russia in late 2024, which were moved to the far-western Kursk Oblast where they began engaging in combat operations alongside Russian forces in support of Russias war against Ukraine. According to a monitoring team cited by the Wall Street Journal, the North Korean soldiers were dressed in Russian uniforms and had received training from Russian forces before entering combat. Ukraine reportedly captured at least two North Korean soldiers alive. Since the war between Russia and Ukraine started, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin have met each other, signing on a defense treaty. In April, for the first time, Moscow confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region. In August 2024, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region, capturing a stretch of territory. A top Russian general confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk, praising their heroism and professionalism in helping to push out Ukrainian forces. The closer relations benefitted both countries, with Russia helping North Korea evade UN sanctions and providing Kims regime with military assistance. Part of that aid involved advanced electronic warfare systems including jamming equipment using Russian cargo aircraft, according to the report. Nigeria floods: At least 88 people have been confirmed dead after floods submerged Mokwa, a market town in Nigerias Niger State, on Thursday, an official said. The number keeps rising, Husseini Isah, head of the operations office in Minna, capital of Niger State, told The Associated Press. But at the last count, 88 bodies have been recovered," he said. Mokwa is a major meeting point for traders from the south and food growers in the north of the country. The head of operations further added that many more are still at risk, with rescue efforts underway on Friday. Earlier reports said at least 20 died. Flash flood alert in 15 states of Nigeria The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday. Torrential downpour lashes Nigeria The floods in Nigeria were triggered by torrential rains that lasted several hours. According to local reports quoting residents and local government officials, a dam collapse in a nearby town worsened the situation. Nigeria often faces seasonal floods, particularly impacting communities along the banks of the Niger and Benue Rivers. Over 1200 killed in Nigeria last year In a similar incident in September 2024, torrential rains and a dam collapse in Nigerias northeastern Maiduguri triggered severe flooding, leaving at least 30 people dead and displacing millions, worsening the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency. Imagine if China or Russia tried to destroy a US asset that generates tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars of economic value, plays a major role in American leadership in science and technology and turbocharges our prestige and soft power. Wed expect our government to go to war to defend it. But in attacking Harvard University, thats exactly the kind of damage the Trump administration is trying to do. Despite the schools failures and flaws, it remains a vital national assetand the administrations actions are far more dangerous to America than they are to Harvard. Also Read: Mint Quick Edit | Harvards stance is good for America When you tour the UKs Cambridge University, your guide will show you empty niches containing stone fragments. Theyre the remnants of statues smashed by Puritan fanatics during the English Civil War. But Cambridge survived and flourished. Universities are enormously resilient and count time in centuries, not electoral cycles. Long after the Trump administration is gone, there will still be a Harvard. But an America deprived of everything Harvard contributes will be far poorer and weaker. I have a stake in this battle: I spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School and still teach in the Harvard Kennedy Schools Senior Executive Fellows programme. But Im also the first to agree with colleagues who say the university has fallen short of its ideals. Its own reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus contain devastating revelations about the schools inability to maintain an orderly and safe learning environment for everyone. Harvard should better protect its studentseven, when necessary, from each other. It must guarantee freedom of speech on campus. And it should find ways to have more diverse political representation among both students and faculty. Also Read: Columbia missed the bus of academic freedom that Harvard took But the Trump administration isnt trying to fix Harvard. Its trying to control it via blatantly illegal tactics. Authoritarians have always feared universities because of their role as centers of dissent. Its not an accident that Ohio State and Yale University graduate, J.D. Vance, gave a speech titled The Universities Are the Enemy in 2021. If President Donald Trump breaks Americas oldest and wealthiest school, no other university and few institutions of any kind will dare stand against him. The administrations ostensible concern about antisemitism seems so obviously to be a pretext that Secretary of Education Linda McMahons letter declaring Harvard ineligible for federal funding never mentions it, even as it attacks the school for giving fellowships to Democratic politicians. Three of the last four Harvard presidents were Jewish (including the current one), as is Penny Pritzker, chair of the Harvard Corporation, the ultimate authority over the university. This makes it an odd target for those whose primary concern is antisemitism. An administration sincerely concerned about the issue might start by not hiring multiple senior staffers with close ties to antisemitic extremists. Also Read: Barry Eichengreen: The end of American exceptionalism? Government control would destroy what makes Harvardand any other schoolvaluable in the first place. Universities play a disproportionate role in producing revolutionary ideas because they embrace freedom of thought and dissent. Taking orders from politicians is antithetical to that spirit. Crippling Harvard, and along with it, American higher education, would be a grievous blow to the US. The universitys contributions to American history and wealth are difficult to overstate. It has produced eight presidents and countless members of Congress, governors, Supreme Court justices, CEOs and entrepreneurs, along with more Medal of Honor recipients than any school except West Point and the Naval Academy. Over the last 20 years, Harvard founders have averaged nine unicornsstartups valued at more than $1 billionevery year. Thats first among all world universities. And in just the last five years, companies founded by Harvard alums have gone public with a combined value of $282 billion. (Ill also note that a quarter of all unicorn startups have a founder who came to the US as a foreign studentexactly the population Trump is targeting at Harvard and other schools). Also Read: Is American exceptionalism finally on its last legs? Both the US economy and the countrys international preeminence depend on primacy in science and technology. That leadership is under threat as never before: American universities, long leaders in basic and groundbreaking research, are falling behind. When Nature ranked the top 10 research universities in the world in 2023, eight were in China. Well, most of them are falling behind; Harvard was No. 1. If you really believe in America first, attacking it is the last thing youd do. Then theres the universitys global reputation, which functions as an emissary of American excellence. I once spent time as a visiting faculty member at Tsinghua University, Chinas MIT. While I was there, the dean would routinely bring visiting dignitaries to my office so he could show off the Harvard professor teaching at Tsinghua. (I used to joke that I expected them to toss me peanuts like an elephant at the zoo.) The school is also a powerful instrument for the propagation of US values. In the last 25 years, the leaders of countries from Canada to Taiwan have studied at Harvard. The next generation will look similar: The future Queen of Belgium is a current Harvard student, and the daughter of Chinas President Xi is an alumna. The global elite, in other words, pays for the privilege of sending their children to Harvard to experience the best of American life and be indoctrinated with American values. The attack on Harvard is really an attack on America. Harvard, like every old and important institution, including our nation, is far from perfect. But like America, Harvard is worth fighting for. Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinions writer. (Bloomberg) -- The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee slammed Pentagon plans to slash staffing at the office that oversees tests of major weapons systems, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the cuts would save the government $300 million. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island lamented the cuts to the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation as reckless and damaging to military accountability and oversight. The office has played a vital, legally mandated role in safeguarding the integrity of major defense programs and ensuring military systems are effective before they are put into warfighters hands, Reed said in a statement after Hegseth announced the decision in a May 27 memo. Hegseth framed the decision as a move that would save $300 million every year. In the memo, he said a comprehensive internal review had found redundant and non-essential work by the office, and ordered cuts that would see about half its staff, which currently totals more than 90 people, let go. The Pentagon declined to release any information about the review or answer questions about how the $300 million figure was tabulated. The offices direct budget was $170 million in fiscal year 2024 and $136 million in fiscal year 2025. It was possible that the cuts would hit contractors hired by the department to do some of the offices work. In his memo, Hegseth ordered an end to all contractor personnel support supplying contracted employees to the testing office within seven days. In the statement, the Pentagon said the office had a couple hundred contractors. Hegseth has periodically posted social media videos touting cuts at the Pentagon and emphasizing how closely the agency is aligned with Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency. In a May 28 post, Hegseth wrote that the important work from @DOGE continues at the pentagon. He said he had tapped Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg to work with DOGE & the military services to review all of the departments consulting contracts. We need to replace wasteful spending in favor of a culture focused on get this actual financial responsibility and stewardship, Hegseth said. He said the military service branches wanted the cuts to the testing office in order to go faster with the capabilities that they need. But it was Feinberg who gave the testing office a vote of confidence during his nomination process back in February. If confirmed, I pledge to rigorously maintain DOT&Es independence and ability to execute their mission because DoD decisions and warfighter optimization of their systems depend on DOT&E reports on weapon system performance, Feinberg said in written answers to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator Elizabeth Warren had warned earlier that the move is threatening the lives of our service members and hurting our national security. Most recently, the test office disputed an Army claim that its long-delayed hypersonic weapon would be ready for fielding by Sept. 30. And it has consistently provided unvarnished assessments of the F-35 jets underwhelming mission readiness and chronic reliability and software shortcomings. Stripping DOT&E of its own pilots, test equipment, and independent staffing doesnt return it to its core mission it guts it, said Greg Williams, a spokesman for the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com Mayors in states that border Canada are calling for an end to President Donald Trumps trade war with the country, saying it has harmed businesses and workers in their communities and upended one of the worlds most successful economic relationships. Andrew Ginther, mayor of Columbus, Ohio, and Bryan Barnett, mayor of Rochester Hills, Michigan, said in an interview Friday that the countries should continue to build things together and trade with each other because the partnership has been working for decades. We dont think that growth and prosperity for American cities comes through a prolonged, unstable, irrational and emotionally charged trade war, said Ginther, a Democrat who is also president of the US Conference of Mayors. Our metro economies are based on trade and being able to export what we produce in the United States. The two mayors were in Ottawa for a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the counterpart to Ginthers group. The politicians said cooperation among Canadian, American and Mexican mayors has never been stronger and at a municipal level, leaders are broadly united against tariffs. Canada and Mexico were among the first countries targeted by Trump he imposed levies on goods that dont comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as well as sectoral duties on steel, aluminum and automobiles, prompting Canada to retaliate with levies of its own. Both mayors communities are hubs for auto manufacturing, which sees parts zip back and forth across the Canada-US border as vehicles are assembled. Barnett, a Republican, said the interconnected sector has been effective in driving growth for all involved. We have two of the strongest economies in the world because we work together, he said. Were a capitalistic society that has succeeded because innovative people find great ways to make important things. And they do that with partnerships, they do that with collaborations. I want to harness that. I dont want to block it. There is value in the presidents overall goal of repatriating jobs to the US, the mayors said, and there are industries where a domestic supply chain is essential, such as computer chips. But the uncertainty caused by the chaotic tariff rollout is damaging businesses ability to make investment and hiring decisions, they said. A recent survey of businesses in Rochester Hills found that nearly 60% have ruled out capital investment in 2025, with 30% planning to lay people off this year, Barnett said. Given that the top issue in their communities and the issue that helped elect the president is the cost of living, the tariffs are a misguided policy, the mayors argued. The uncertainty is deadly, Ginther said. The cost of livings probably tough enough when you have a job. When you lose that job, thats when you have families spiral into a real desperate place. 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Ukraine and Russia accused each other of foot-dragging toward a second round of direct cease-fire talks backed by the Trump administration that are set to begin Monday. The U.S. urged Russia to continue peace talks and reiterated its willingness to keep Ukraines ambition to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization off the table, in line with one of Moscows demands. General Keith Kellogg, Americas top envoy for Ukraine, said President Trump was frustrated by Russias strikes on Ukrainian cities and its delay in producing a document listing its terms. Hes put forward some reasonable proposals, reasonable discussions, and hes seen a level of unreasonableness that really frustrates him," Kellogg said of Trump in an interview on Thursday with ABC. Russia has proposed another round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2, and the Kremlin on Friday said the Russian delegation was already en route to the Turkish city. Ukraine has insisted that in advance of any meeting, Moscow provide a document listing its conditions. Moscow said it hadnt received confirmation of Kyivs participation in the Monday talks. Trump has said he would abandon efforts to broker peace in Ukraine if the two sides dont make headway. Earlier this week, he said there must be progress within two weeks for the U.S. to remain engaged. The Trump administration has also recently shown reluctance to continue as mediator, after spurring a process that led to the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv since 2022 earlier this month. Despite recent dialogue, Russias and Ukraines positions remain far apart, and they havent agreed over even initial terms under which negotiations would take place. Each has accused the other of stalling. Russia is drawing the war out," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Thursday. The so-called memorandum, which they promised and allegedly spent over a week preparingno one has seen it yet." Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately delaying its memorandum and planning for any meetings between the two delegations to fail, while portraying Kyiv as the obstacle to peace. Russia is steadily inching forward on the battlefield. On a call earlier this month, Trump told European leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin isnt ready to end the war because he thinks he is winning, The Wall Street Journal reported. Russia said its list of conditions wouldnt be made public. But one demand it has made repeatedly is a binding agreement stipulating that Ukraine never becomes a member of NATO. Kellogg on Thursday said that the U.S. considers this a fair demand. Weve said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and were not the only country that says that," he said. Thats one of the issues that Russia will bring up." Kellogg said Ukraine had produced its own memorandum with 22 terms that the U.S. considers reasonable and he called on Russia to provide its own list of terms. The first round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine for years took place on May 16 and involved both sides outlining their positions. It resulted in an agreement over a swap involving 1,000 captured soldiers from either side, an exchange which began over the weekend. Kellogg said the next round would focus on trying to merge the two sides documents and producing a list of terms they might both consider a basis for long-term peace. National security advisers of Germany, France and Britain would join discussions on the memorandum with the U.S., Kellogg said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia also wants to agree over the safety of navigation in the Black Sea, from which Russia has removed many of its warships after Ukrainian drone and missile attacks. The two sides have continued to exchange salvos of drone strikes on each others cities. Russia on Thursday said debris from downed Ukrainian drones had damaged several residential buildings in and around Moscow. Ukraine said Russia continues to launch record numbers of explosive munitions. Earlier this week, Zaur Gurtsyev, a Russian official and ex-serviceman who helped lead Russias attack on Ukraines Mariupol in 2022, was killed in an explosion in Stavropol near the border with Ukraine. Kyiv hasnt commented on Russian suggestions that it was responsible for the blast. Write to Matthew Luxmoore at matthew.luxmoore@wsj.com Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has spoken out for the first time following the companys recent decision to cut approximately 6,000 jobs about three per cent of its global workforce emphasising that the move was part of a broader internal restructuring and not a reflection of employee performance. Addressing staff during a companywide town hall meeting, Nadella said the layoffs were necessary to realign teams in accordance with Microsofts evolving priorities, particularly its growing focus on artificial intelligence. He acknowledged the emotional toll of the decision but underscored that it was driven by strategic shifts, not shortcomings in productivity or talent. The job cuts have disproportionately affected engineering roles a notable development given the traditional perception of these positions as secure. The move highlights a shift in the tech industry, where even product development teams are being reshaped amid the accelerating integration of AI technologies. During the same internal event, executives highlighted Microsofts significant momentum in selling AI tools to enterprise customers. Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff revealed that British banking giant Barclays has committed to purchasing 100,000 licences for Microsoft Copilot the company's flagship AI assistant. Althoff also noted that several major global firms, including Accenture, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Siemens, now each have over 100,000 users of Copilot within their organisations. Nadella stressed the importance of tracking how deeply Copilot is embedded across client operations, with Microsoft paying close attention to the proportion of users actively engaging with the tool. At a list price of $30 per user per month, the scale of these contracts suggests annual revenues in the tens of millions of dollars although actual figures are likely reduced by bulk pricing agreements. The developments reflect Microsofts pivot toward enterprise AI as a key growth area, even as the company trims its workforce to maintain efficiency and focus. GBI confirms investigation of financial activity by former Chattooga Co. Commissioner UPDATE: A Chattanooga attorney has reached a plea deal in a sex crimes case involving animal crushing and a minor. Patrick Bryant Hawley will plead guilty to sexual exploitation of children, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, the agreement says. In exchange, prosecutors will move to dismiss six other criminal counts against him. These dismissed counts include animal crushing, coercion, enticement and the receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography. Hawley coerced the victim into engaging in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images and videos, officials say. PREVIOUS STORY: The Supreme Court of Tennessee has temporarily suspended Patrick Bryant Hawley from practicing law after finding that he poses as a substantial threat to the public on November 26. The Board of Professional Responsibility says Hawley is not able to accept any new cases, and he must stop representing existing clients by December 26. "Mr. Hawley must notify all clients being represented in pending matters, as well as co-counsel and opposing counsel of the Supreme Courts Order suspending his law license. Mr. Hawley is required to deliver to all clients any papers or property to which they are entitled," says the Board. The suspension will be in effect until the court dissolves or modifies the outcome. Hawley is allowed to request dissolution or modification by submitting a petition to the Supreme Court. PREVIOUS STORY: A months-long investigation into a licensed attorney in Chattanooga has come to an end after the FBI charged 42-year-old Patrick Hawley with several sex-related crimes. Hawley is charged with: Animal crushing Sexual exploitation of children Certain activities relating to materials involving sexual exploitation of minors Coercion and enticement Local 3 News is limiting details in this story because of the graphic nature. In April of 2024, Homeland Security Investigations Chattanooga (HSI) received a tip from the Child Exploitation Investigation Unit (CEIU) about a Chattanooga user in an online chat group. An undercover agent began conversations with the user, learning about the users interest in topics related to child sex crimes. Through photos sent by the user, the agent was able to confirm his identity as Patrick Bryant Hawley. Criminal Analysts learned that he practices law with his father, David P. Hawley. In September, a second undercover agent began chatting with Hawley, learning more about his tendencies and previous interactions. Over the next few months, there were several conversations, photos, and videos in which Hawley detailed his acts and intentions that had to do with children and animals. WHAT THE TECH? Social media tools to help parents protect kids from sextortion Sextortion crimes are quite common and a large percentage of young users of social media are enticed to take and share nude photos of themselves. On November 9, the FBI received an online tip from a fourteen-year-old in Pennsylvania. The minor stated that Hawley, was grooming me and sent me MANY pictures of children ages 0-18 and sent photos of me to his fellow pedophile friends. A teacher at the victims school received the same information. The victim said they met Hawley on a porn site in September. On November 14, an undercover agent arranged a meeting where Hawley was seized. His arraignment has been scheduled for Friday, November 22. The Department of Justice says a trial date will be set at a later time. If you or someone you know has experienced anything pertaining to sexual crimes, you can report it through the Department of Justice website, or by contacting HSI at 877-1-HSI-TIP. UPDATE: Todd Chrisley is out of prison but hes not done advocating for judicial reform. The reality TV personality addressed a crowd of reporters on Friday, marking his first public event since President Donald Trump pardoned him and his wife Julie after they were convicted in 2022 of conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million in loans. Chrisley and his daughter Savannah spoke during a press conference in Nashville, where they thanked President Trump and pardon czar Alice Johnson for their release. I really dont even remember driving home, Savannah Chrisley said of receiving the call from Trump informing her of the pardon. I was in such shock. Her father said he received the news from a prison staff member and contacted his daughter to confirm. I remember walking back from the phone and just feeling numb, Todd Chrisley said. Then after about 10 minutes all I could think about was the guys that I was leaving behind. Some of those men shouted for him to not forget them, he said, and Chrisley vowed he would not. The Chrisley Knows Best stars and their accountant, Peter Tarantino, were also convicted of several tax crimes. This story is developing and will be updated The-CNN-Wire & 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. PREVIOUS STORY: In the final episode of their podcast before they reported to prisons hundreds of miles apart, married TV reality stars Julie and Todd Chrisley played a voice message from a listener named Angie. Angie said she was sorry about the verdict, was praying for the couple daily and was certain that this test will become a testimony. Julie Chrisley, who with her husband made their family D-list famous on a brand defined by spending and scripture, said she agreed, adding I know for a fact that this is not the end for us. I know that beyond any doubt in my mind, I am very solid in my faith. I know where I stand, she said in the episode released in January 2023. More than two years later, the Chrisleys are free thanks to a pardon from President Donald Trump, who knows a thing or two about honing a wealth-soaked image through reality television. The couple were convicted in 2022 of conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million in loans. The Chrisley Knows Best stars and their accountant, Peter Tarantino, were also convicted of several tax crimes. Now, as they are set to resume their lives after being incarcerated and maintaining their innocence, they might have another thing to learn from the man who set them free: How to make an unlikely comeback. But to understand where the Chrisleys might go from here, we have to understand how they got here. Showing up and out By the time the Chrisleys made it to the small screen via their reality series on the USA Network, they had already endured some challenges as a family. Todd and Julie Chrisley married in 1996, creating a blended family that consisted of two children from Todd Chrisleys previous marriage, daughter Lindsie and son Kyle. Together, they had son Chase, who was born the year they married, daughter Savannah who arrived the following year and son Grayson who was born in 2006. In 2012, Julie Chrisley, the daughter of a Baptist minister, leaned into the strength of their family and faith after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double masectomy as part of the treatment. Six years later, she hailed her husband to The Tennessean for his unwavering support and shared a story of him gently undressing her in the shower to wash her hair and telling her how good she looked after her breasts had been removed. He never flinched, she said at the time. I truly believe that moment took our relationship to a whole new level. They came onto the public stage on March 11, 2014 when their reality series Chrisley Knows Best premiered. Viewers of that first episode were treated to scenes of the familys affluent lifestyle in a gated community outside of Atlanta. Todd Chrisley bragged about the family spending more than $300,000 a year on their clothing (though prosecutors would later allege that the couple exaggerated their actual wealth). While the familys sometimes cartoonish antics mostly drove the series, the role that religion played in their lives was never avoided, with discussions about faith and the Bible sometimes incorporated into storylines. Things were not all always golden, however. As the show went on, it also featured the couple taking custody of their granddaughter Chloe as her father, Kyle Chrisley, struggled with substance abuse. In 2019, he posted on social media about the family situation. I havent been the best dad to Chloe, Ive had a problem with drugs, Ive acted completely ridiculous and through all that, they have stood by my side, he wrote. In an on-screen reunion in one season of the show, Kyle Chrisley meets with his father as he tries to mend trust hes broken while struggling with addiction. The heavy conversation ends with Todd Chrisley open to the idea of his son coming back into the familys life, as long as he takes frequent drug tests. He agrees before his dad attempts to lighten the mood. Well, you look goodYou can at least say Daddy, I got that from you,. Todd Chrisley jokes. Yeah, 100%. No Botox. Nothing here, his son replies. His dad deadpans: Well, now, dont be throwing shade at Botox. On screen, the family would also clash over Todd Chrisleys at-times overbearing rules. He would tell his daughter how to dress and admitted at one point that he hired an IT company in able to monitor everything his children and his grandchildren did in the house. Find your friends at school, he famously said regarding his children. Im your daddy. Amid it all, Todd Chrisley prided himself in being a fiercely protective father off screen, too. After then 19-year-old Savannah broke her vertebra after crashing her car into a guardrail, he denied speculation that she was texting and driving at the time of the crash, adding that he checked her phone record to confirm that. Listen we cant control what people put in social media, we cant control what people do in the press, he said. But you know, a tame story doesnt sell papers. Spinoffs and speculation The shows popularity proved to be such that there were spinoffs and the scrutiny that comes with heightened popularity. Growing Up Chrisley premiered in 2019 and focused on siblings Chase and Savannah, but it ended in 2022 when Chrisley Knows Best was also canceled following Todd and Julie Chrisleys convictions. Todd Chrisley also hosted a variety talk series called According to Chrisley, which featured individual family members and celebrity guests joining him, but only lasted a season before it was canceled. Julie Chrisley, too, got her time to shine, hosting minisodes of a cooking series called Whats Cooking With Julie Chrisley for USA Networks digital platforms. Arguably one of their most successful side hustles as the couples podcast, Chrisley Confessions on iHeart Radio. It ran for more than 200 episodes before ending when they reported to prison. Savannah also has her own titled Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley. The podcast space has allowed the Chrisleys to open up about faith, family and rumors like they couldnt in the structure of their reality program. In 2017, Todd Chrisley addressed speculation about his sexuality during a radio interview on The Domenick Nati Show, saying that he was flattered that people think I can get laid on both ends. In order for it to disappoint me, it would mean that I dont agree with someone being gay, Chrisley said on the radio program, I dont believe thats a choice that you make. I believe that you are the way that God has made you. And my wife certainly is flattered that as many men want her husband as there are women, Chrisley added. With that being said, Im never going to have a drought. Faith and family Though Todd Chrisley in particular had a penchant for witty comebacks, the couples federal trial was no laughing matter to the family. The government alleged that the Chrisleys had exaggerated their TV earnings to banks and borrowed more than $30 million that they were unable to pay back. The couple always maintained their innocence and spoke often of the faith they said was sustaining them, even after they were convicted. Todd and Julie Chrisley broke their silence on their podcast after their convictions with Todd Chrisley telling the audience, I know all of you guys are wanting to know every detail that is going on in our lives, and I have to ask that you respect that were not allowed to talk about it at the present time. There will come a time to where all of it is discussed. We did want to come on today and let everyone know that its a very sad, heartbreaking time for our family right now, he added. But we still hold steadfast in our faith and we trust that God will do what he does best because Gods a miracle worker and thats what were holding out for. Their daughter Savannah took over the role of keeping their audience informed after Todd Chrisley began serving a 12-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) in Pensacola, Florida, while Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years and was sent to the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky. She also became the caregiver of her younger brother Grayson and niece Chloe. Its tough when your norm is no longer your norm, she said during an episode of her podcast in 2023. What Ive known for 25 years, my parents are gone and its tough. My dad is my absolute best friend and I dont get to just pick up the phone and call him. During a July 2023 episode of her Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley podcast, she and her brother Chase discussed what he called the nightmare conditions of their parents incarceration. They both have no air conditioning, he said. Theyre both in states where it gets to be 100+ degrees, and theres no air conditioning. Savannah Chrisley alleged that the facilities where her parents were serving their time had issues with asbestos, black mold and lead-based paint, though she expressed doubt that the general public would care. I mean, Chase, it is prison so were not going to sit here and act like it should be the Four Seasons, she said. Its prison, so people dont have any sympathy for it. A spokesperson for the the Bureau of Prisons told CNN in a statement at the time that they would not comment on anecdotal allegations, adding for privacy, safety, and security reasons we do not comment on the conditions of confinement for any specific adult in custody (AIC) or group of AICs. We can assure you all AICs have unlimited access to drinking water and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is monitoring the ventilation at the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Pensacola and the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Lexington, as one of our highest priorities is the safety of BOP employees and AICs, the statement read. Every BOP facility, including FPC Pensacola and FMC Lexington, has contingency plans to address a large range of concerns or incidents, including ventilation temperatures, and is fully equipped and prepared to implement these plans as necessary. Savannah Chrisley also turned to and was embraced by MAGA, President Trumps devoted fan base, for support. She was a passionate orator as one of the speakers at the Republican National Convention held in 2024 in Milwaukee. 72600019, and 72601019. These may be just numbers to you, but to me, theyre my whole heart., she said. These numbers are my parents identification numbers in our federal prison system. In her speech she attempted to tie their legal issues to those of then presidential candidate Trump, referencing rogue prosecutors she said targeted them because of their fame. Due to our public profile and conservative beliefs, they accused my parents of fraud when really we were defrauded by a dishonest business partner who, and lets not forget, the government gave full immunity to, said Savannah Chrisley who also campaigned for Trump as of the Team Trumps Women Tour. We suffered warrantless rage and harassment, one of the officials even had my fathers face on a dart board in his office. President Trump has consistently alleged that he has been unfairly targeted in legal action, including when he was found guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records. He is the first convicted felon to be elected president of the United States. Trump seemed to allude to a shared sense of injustice when he made an Oval Office call to Savannah Chrisley to inform her he was pardoning her parents. Its a terrible thing, Trump told Chrisley. But its a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean, and hopefully we can do it by tomorrow. A new chapter The pardons for the Chrisleys and their release Wednesday come at a propitious time as it was recently announced that the family would be the subjects of a new reality series for Lifetime. The networks press release stated that in the new series, the Chrisleys dont know best anymore, but theyre doing their best to be there for each other. It was set to focus on Savannahs life as caregiver to her siblings and her advocacy for her parents, as well as feature other extended cast members. The familys life, the network teased, is far different from what audiences have seen before. A representative for Lifetime did not have additional information about the untitled project when reached by CNN on Wednesday. Savannah Chrisley had previously shared in 2023 that a new show was in the works and said her parents convictions would not stop us from moving forward. If theres any crowd open to the idea of second chances, its likely the one that has championed the Chrisleys from the start. But who really knows best? The-CNN-Wire & 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Bernard Canavan is one of Longfords most notable names. An incredible artist with an incredible story that fuels each and every one of his paintings, allowing him to create incredible pieces that are both beautiful and striking, down to the dark history and political commentary that lingers within every stroke of the brush. Now, a documentary has been made to honour Bernards incredible story. Se Merry Doyle of Loppline Film is the man responsible for this. Unfortunately, the piece has not been released to the public due to lack of funding. A successful documentary maker, Se describes his and Bernards bittersweet journey through the painters past and his hopes for the documentarys future. Also Read: Longford / Westmeath Minister of State launches new heritage research journal Im a documentary filmmaker, begins Se, Essentially, I began filming with Bernard Canavan in London because hes of a good age, and hes very well known as the painter of The Diaspora. The Diaspora is Bernards incredible collection of paintings, famous for depicting the immigrants who moved to London in the 40s and 50s. The documentary, Theocracy is named for Bernard's latest collection of paintings that criticise the collusion of church and state, which Bernard himself witnessed far too young. For his own backstory, he had a rather sad beginning to his life, explains Se, His biological parents were not married. Also Read: From the mosh pit to the Longford drama pit They, in a way were forced to give him up to a place called St Patricks Guild in Dublin. He says he lived in a cot for almost four years, the convent later became known as the House of Shame. According to Se, the convent required payment for the children to be admitted. Then they would fatten them up and sell them, mainly to America. Se managed to bring Bernard back to Ireland and thus the two set out on a journey down memory lane. One of the things I was most anxious to do was bring Bernard back to Ireland, back to Edgeworthstown and back to the orphanage, which is now a luxury block of flats in Dublin. So I filmed in Edgeworthstown and in Dublin. And I did this in Blackrock in the House of Shame, which is near the end of the film. It's a very emotional and powerful scene. Taking into account Bernard is in his 80s and if anything happened and I hadn't got these shots in Ireland, there would be no film. So we got that. The pair also came to Edgeworthstown, where Bernard and Se took a look back on Bernard's childhood, thankfully, much happier than the start of his life. The woman who adopted him, Mrs Canavan, had a shop on the main street in Edgeworthstown, Canavans. It was emotional. Also, Bernard had a lifelong affinity with Maria Edgeworth, says Se. A part of this connection comes from the guidebooks that Maria penned on bringing up children properly and as Se says, Avoid all the terrible things that happen to them. The two visited the Maria Edgeworth Museum and saw around 14 framed prints of Bernards paintings. His mother was a very interesting woman, she was born in Argentina to Irish parents who went out there in the heyday, a place to go make money, but they were getting old. So they sent her and her sister back and they came back to Ireland and settled in Edgeworthstown. She ended up marrying a Longford man but because the couple were older, they couldnt have children. They decided to adopt one, and they went to Dublin and they saw this little child, Bernard, who was actually quite ill. Se explains that she looked at Bernard, picked him up and the rest is history. Bernard ended up in London following the Shop taking a bad turn, due to the faltering economy. He had very good memories of Edgeworthstown, and when he eventually went to London and started his career, people noticed he was a great painter. If anyone is interested in backing the documentary and helping Se get the finished piece out can do so via the Loopline website. Longford County Council acknowledged a number of community groups and individuals who have contributed selflessly to their local communities at the annual Cathaoirleach Awards which were held in Aras an Chontae. The Cathaoirleach Awards are an annual initiative to acknowledge and reward voluntary activity which contributes greatly to the quality of life in communities across County Longford. The recipients of this years Cathaoirleach Awards were: * Aiden Ganly, Cathaoirleach Award, nominated by Cllr Mark Casey, Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council * Colmcille Area Development Group and the landowners of the Aughnacliffe Heritage Trail, nominated by Cathaoirleach Garry Murtagh, Granard Municipal District * John Ryan, nominated by Cathaoirleach Pat O Toole, Ballymahon Municipal District *The staff of Longford Post Office, nominated by Cathaoirleach Seamus Butler, Longford Municipal District Also Read: Tributes paid as former councillor and Longford teacher is laid to rest Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council Cllr Mark Casey said, The Cathaoirleachs Awards are a heartfelt celebration of the unsung heroes who form the backbone of our communities in County Longford. These individuals and groups dedicate their time, energy, and compassion without seeking recognition. They work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that their communities are stronger, more vibrant, and caring places. It is our honour to shine a light on their incredible contributions. They inspire all of us to build a stronger, more connected county. Presenting the Cathaoirleach Award, Cllr Casey said that Aiden Ganly had been a tremendous ambassador for the county and he acknowledged Mr Ganlys years of work with the Longford Association in London over many decades. Cllr Casey said that Mr Ganly and his wife Mary had provided a sense of connection and community for so many Longford people in London. The Colmcille Area Development Group and the landowners of the Aughnacliffe Heritage Trail were recognised for their contribution and generosity in supporting the vision and the development of the Aughnacliffe Heritage Trail. The trail not only provides leisure and recreation within the community but is also an added benefit to the tourism package that the Local Authority is continuing to develop. John Ryan was recognised for his outstanding voluntary work within the Ballymahon community. He has a lifetime of involvement with Ballymahon GAA, various local committees and a 25-year involvement with Ballymahon Tidy Towns. Also Read: PICTURES | Longford celebrates Africa Day in spectacular style at entertaining family fun day The staff of Longford Post Office were also recognised for their sense of continuity, reassurance, andpositive interaction with the public. There are records of a post office in Longford Town since 1824. The staff have always come from core Longford families and were part of the community and well known and respected. Longford County Council Chief Executive Paddy Mahon said that the Cathaoirleach Awards was a highlight of the council calendar and a true celebration of the people who make our communities thrive. Mr Mhaon said, I want to pay tribute to all our award recipients including Aiden Ganly for his outstanding work with the Longford Association in London as he and his wife Mary were a vital lifeline for so many Longford people in the UK over many decades. The Colmcille Area Development Group and the landowners of the Aughnacliffe Heritage Trail have supported the development of a fantastic leisure and recreation amenity in their community while John Ryan from Ballymahon embodies the very essence of community spirit and all that is good about voluntary work. The staff of Longford Post Office have also been rightly recognised for their years of service to the local community as they provide a sense of continuity, reassurance, and positive interaction with the public. These awards are more than a ceremony- they are a recognition of the people who go above and beyond- quietly, generously, and often without expectation or recognition. Mr Mahon extended thanks to Longford County Council Cathaoirleach, Cllr Mark Casey for leading this important initiative and to all those involved in organising the awards including Meetings Administrator Lorraine McKee and members of the corporate team at Longford County Council. Meetings Administrator Lorraine McKee said, Congratulations to all award recipients. We are delighted to recognise the valuable contribution made by all of you in communities throughout County Longford. You have given your time, energy, dedication, and passion to making our communities more inclusive, vibrant, and connected. After 33 years of outstanding service to Mercy Secondary School, Ballymahon principal, Ms Josephine Donohue has announced her retirement, effective from August 31 2025. Josephine has been a central figure in the Mercy Ballymahon school community, serving as a Home Economics and religion teacher, Deputy Principal, and for the past 18 years as Principal. Throughout her tenure, Josephine has led with vision, care, and an unwavering commitment to the wellbeing and success of students and staff at Mercy Ballymahon. Also read: Congratulations: Eimear Dempsey honoured as Leaving Cert Student of the Year at Mercy Ballymahon Her leadership has seen the school grow in excellence and inclusivity, including the establishment of four Special ASD classes and the expansion of extracurricular and academic programmes. Over the past two weeks, as a show of gratitude and appreciation for their principal's dedication to the school community, students have paid beautiful tributes to Ms Donohoe as we approach the end of the school year. On Awards Day, May 19th, the student body held a guard of honour for Ms Donohue as she made her way to the gym to announce the awards for the final time. PICTURES | Reeling in the years in Longford as large crowd attends Mercy Ballymahon Reunion Day On the day of their graduation, Transition Year students presented Ms Donohue with a copy of their book, The Mercy Way, which they created and published this year, and the Student Council also presented her with a bouquet of flowers at the TY graduation ceremony. Finally, Leaving Cert Student of the Year Winner, Eimear Dempsey, presented Josephine with a statue of An Bradan Feasa, which represents the wisdom that Ms Donohue has imparted on staff and students alike during her 33 years of service to Mercy Secondary School Ballymahon. The Board of Management, along with the entire school community, is deeply grateful for Josephines remarkable dedication and the lasting impact she has made. While we are saddened to see her step down. We celebrate her incredible legacy and wish her every happiness as she embarks on this well-deserved next chapter. We look forward to honouring Josephines contributions more fully in the months ahead. PICTURES | Ultra talented Mercy Ballymahon students stage stunning Reelin in 100 Years' show A man has appeared in court charged with breaking into St Christophers, Longford in the early hours of yesterday morning. Derek Hickey (37), with an address at Shangan Crescent, Ballymun, Dublin 9, appeared before Judge Ciaran Liddy at a special sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court following a number of incidents in Longford town. Also read: Massive boost for Longford as 200 jobs to be created at 3m Food Village facility He was charged with one count of burglary at St Christophers at 2.45am on Thursday morning, one count of criminal damage to a vehicle by attempting to start it shortly afterwards, and one count of theft from Aldi, Longford on Wednesday evening. Mr Hickey also faces two charges of trespassing at Aughatoom House, Battery Road, and a property at Druid Glen, White Linen Woods. Also read: An Bord Pleanala refuse Longford mans application to convert a pub into apartments A bench warrant issued from Carlow District Court for a charge of public intoxication was also executed. Gardai objected to bail under OCallaghan Rules due to the seriousness of the charges and the evidence against Mr Hickey in all five charges. Also read: Longford's St Christophers bid farewell to Pauline Davis after 29 years CCTV footage showed the suspect entering St Christophers where a number of electrical items, including a laptop, were taken, the total value of which was 1,200. When the accused was apprehended around 7am on Thursday morning, he was found to be in possession of the stolen property. Mr Hickey was remanded in custody with consent to bail on his own bond of 750. He will reappear on Tuesday, June 3, before Longford District Court. Also read: Richard Satchwell found GUILTY of murdering wife Tina and burying her under stairs An Irishman extradited from the United Arab Emirates has been charged with murder and other charges relating to directing the activities of a criminal organisation. Sean McGovern, 39, appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin amid high security. Appearing before judges Karen OConnor, Elma Sheahan and Grainne Malone, he was charged with five offences. He was charged with the murder of Noel Kirwan, who was shot in Dublin in December 2016 as part of the feud between the Hutch and Kinahan criminal gangs, despite having no connections to criminality. He was also charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation in relation to Noel Kirwans murder, and a separate charge of facilitating the crime gangs murder of Mr Kirwan, between October 20 and December 22 2016, He was also charged with two other offences, of directing the activities of a criminal organisation in relation to monitoring the activity of James Gately, and another charge of facilitating a conspiracy to murder Mr Gately. McGovern, who appeared in court in a grey T-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and black sliders with white socks, confirmed his name to the court. His barrister, Olan Callanan BL, told the court that they were reserving their position in relation to the lawfulness of the arrest and the jurisdiction of the court. There were more than 20 Garda members in the courtroom for the short hearing. McGovern was arrested in the UAE last October after an Interpol red notice was issued. Shortly after his arrest, Ireland finalised an agreement on an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates. McGovern was handed over to gardai in Dubai on Wednesday. He was transported back to Ireland in an Irish military plane on Thursday. He was formally arrested by police investigating the activities of the Kinahan crime gang when the aircraft landed at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel. Detective Sergeant Donal Daly told the non-jury court he arrested McGovern at 6.38pm. He was remanded in custody and is to next appear in court on June 5 at 11am via videolink. The governor of the Bank of England has welcomed the Governments efforts to forge closer ties with the EU, as he said that officials should work to minimise the effects of Brexit on trade. Speaking in Dublin on Thursday, Andrew Bailey said in relation to Brexit that we should do all we can to minimise negative effects on trade. With reference to the Windsor Framework, which he described as a welcome step forward, Mr Bailey said: So too are the initiatives of the current UK Government to rebuild trade between the UK and EU. The Windsor Framework, agreed between the UK and the EU in 2023, amended the Northern Ireland Protocol and governs post-Brexit trading arrangements in the region. Last week, the Government announced a deal with the European bloc that gives UK tourists in Europe easier access to passport e-gates, and frees up trade with the continent for farmers and food producers because of alignment on veterinary and plant standards. It was also said that the UK and EU will work more closely together on defence and security, and will agree a youth experience scheme allowing young British people to travel and work on the continent. Sir Keir Starmer said at the time the deal was announced that it is time to look forward, to move on from the stale old debates and political fights. In an interview with the BBC earlier this month before the deal was struck with the EU Mr Bailey said that it would be beneficial to reverse the post-Brexit reduction in UK-EU trade. He said: It is important we do everything we can to ensure that whatever decisions are taken on the Brexit front do not damage the long-term trade position. So I hope that we can use this to start to rebuild that relationship. Richard Satchwell has been found guilty of the murder of his wife Tina at their home in Co Cork. The British truck driver, 58, had denied the murder of Tina Satchwell on a date between March 19 and March 20 2017. He did not react as the unanimous verdict was read to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin at around 12.23pm on Friday. The jury had been deliberating for a total of nine hours and 28 minutes since Tuesday afternoon. Relatives of Mrs Satchwell cried as the guilty verdict was returned, while a number of the jurors also wept in court. Satchwell, who sat with his head in his hand as the jury entered the courtroom, will be sentenced on June 4. Gardai discovered Mrs Satchwells skeletal remains buried under the stairs of their home in October 2023 after a search of the property in Grattan Street. Her badly decomposed body was wrapped in a soiled sheet and covered with a black plastic sheet. She was wearing pyjamas with a dressing gown, and the belt of the gown was wrapped around her. State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said she could not determine the exact cause of death because of the advanced state of decomposition. During Garda interviews, Satchwell said that on the morning of March 20 2017, he found his wife standing at the bottom of the stairs with a chisel in her hand, scraping at the plasterboard. He claimed that she came at him with the chisel, and he fell back on to the floor. He added that Mrs Satchwell tried to stab him multiple times with the chisel and that he grabbed her clothing and restrained her by putting the belt of the robe against her neck. Satchwell said that in a very short period of time, she went limp and fell into his arms. He then placed her body on the couch in the living room, before moving her to the chest freezer and then burying her under the stairs. It was more than six years before gardai discovered her body. Speaking outside court, Tinas cousin Sarah Howard said the family finally have justice following the conviction of Satchwell. She said: During this trial Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was. Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our life meant so much to us all. We, as a family, can never put into words the impact that her loss has had on all of us. Tina was a kind, loving, gentle soul who loved her animals like they loved her and that is the way we want her remembered. Today, as a family, we finally have justice for Tina. Tinas half-sister Lorraine Howard thanked the judge and the prosecution team. Your hard work, professionalism shone through like the classy ladies you were. We will never be able to put into words how thankful we are for you. We want to sincerely thank the judge, the jury for their dedication, Ms Howard said. We would like to thank all the witnesses who helped us reach this verdict today. I would like to personally thank Sarah Howard, Tinas niece, who came up to give evidence and her support two weeks postpartum from her beautiful baby girl. You did yourself and Tina proud. Thank you to Ann Marie Twomey and Dave Kelleher for putting the pieces together and finding Tina. We would like to thank John OConnell, the victim support workers, for keeping our spirits high. The court previously heard that the couple married in the UK when Mrs Satchwell turned 20 and later moved to Ireland and bought a house in Fermoy, Co Cork. The couple lived there for some time before selling the property and buying the house in Youghal in 2016. Mrs Satchwell was described in court as a very glamorous lady who had a love for fashion and clothes. The court heard that she loved her two dogs, particularly her chihuahua, Ruby, and considered them her children. She was described as a petite lady, about 5ft 4in, who weighed about eight stone (50 kilograms). The trial heard that on March 24 2017, Satchwell went to the garda station in Fermoy, four days after his wife allegedly left their family home. He told police he had no concerns for her welfare and had no concerns she would self-harm. Satchwell said he believed she had left their family home because their relationship had deteriorated. He believed she was staying at a hotel and claimed she had taken 26,000 euro in cash from their savings, which they kept in the attic. He told police that on the morning she allegedly left the home, Mrs Satchwell had asked him to go to Aldi in Dungarvan to buy a number of items, including parrot food, and that he had left the house at 10am and returned in the early afternoon. When he returned to the house, Mrs Satchwell was not there but noticed her keys on the floor and her phone sitting on the counter. He formally reported his wife as missing in May 2017, and also told investigators that his wife was sometimes violent towards him but he had put up with it because he loved her. During their investigation, gardai found that Satchwells computer had searches for quicklime shortly after his wife disappeared. In August 2021, Superintendent Ann marie Twomey was appointed senior investigating officer, and along with Detective Garda David Kelleher from Cobh Garda Station, she familiarised herself with the case. She identified new lines of inquiry and came to the conclusion that Tina has met her death by unlawful means and was not a living person. Investigators obtained a court search warrant and in October 2023, gardai arrested Satchwell for murder following the discovery of his wifes remains. During the trial, the jury heard that Sarah Howard, Tinas cousin, had been offered a chest freezer and free concert tickets. She said she thought the offer was very unusual and refused both. Tinas half sister, Lorraine Howard described their marriage as odd, and said that Satchwell was possessive of Tina, and referred to her as his trophy wife. She said that Satchwell portrayed his wife as being violent after she disappeared, and said he would show her every cut and scar on his body and blame Tina for it. In her closing speech, prosecution barrister Geradine Small said that Satchwell was shamelessly brazen and the narrative he gave about how his wife died was implausible and had more holes than than a block of Swiss cheese. She said that he displayed conniving actions, full of guile, and embarked on a web of deceit after he buried his wife. The prosecution described Satchwells narrative as implausible and self-serving, highlighting his failure to seek help after Tinas death. Local News By Chris Boyle Published: May 30 2025 For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11," said the NYPD on X. Bernard Kerik, the former commissioner of the New York Police Department and famed for leading the agency through the devastation of the 9/11 terror attacks upon the city, has died at the age of 69. For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, the NYPD stated on their official X - formerly known as Twitter - account. Today, we mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known," FBI Director Kash Patel stated in an X post. "Bernie passed away tragically on May 29, 2025, after a private battle with illness." Kerik had previously served as a driver and bodyguard for Rudy Giuliani in 1993 before becoming New York City Department of Corrections commissioner from 1998 to 2000; he was later appointed as NYPD commissioner in August 2000, and would later become head of the city's corrections department. He was also nominated by President George W. Bush in 2004 to be Homeland Security secretary, but later withdrew from consideration. In 2009, Kerik - an ally of President Donald Trump and a vocal denier of the certified results of the 2020 election - was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison on eight felony charges related to tax fraud and lying to White House officials, but only served three years with time off for good behavior; he was later pardoned by Trump in 2020. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani inaugurates a complex in Iraq named for Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis. Muhandis was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020. (Iraq Prime Ministers Office) Over the last week, there have been increasing reports about attempts to free Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Iraq in March 2023. Tsurkov, who holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, has been held in Iraq for 800 days and is believed to have been kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Kataib Hezbollah and its leaders have been sanctioned by the United States, which has also designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In the past six months, pressure has increased on Iraqs government to locate and free Tsurkov. In March, Iraqi officials said the government was seeking to find the researcher, but any such efforts have shown no progress. Last week, Iraqs Al Rabiaa channel reported that a deal to free Tsurkov might be reached involving an exchange in which Iranians and others held in regional countries would be released for the Princeton researcher. One of those named for possible release is Mohammad Reza Nouri, who was arrested for killing American teacher Stephen Troell in Iraq in 2022. These reports received widespread attention in Israeli media. However, The Jerusalem Post noted on May 24 that an unnamed US State Department official said the reports were false. A senior US official also told Israels Ynet that the United States has no intention of agreeing to the release of Mohammad Reza Nouri. Iraqs Shafaq News has reported on possible recent negotiations and named Imad Amhaz, a Lebanese naval captain it claimed is held in Israel, as one of the individuals Kataib Hezbollah wants to be released. Amhazs name also arose in January reports as someone the group wished to swap for Tsurkov. Additionally, Shafaq News said that Kataib Hezbollah wants a ransom for the researcher. Although the Iraqi news site reported on May 25 that the deal was still incomplete, it added on May 26 that the Coordination Framework, which brings together Shiite political forces, revealed on Monday [continuing] government efforts to secure the release of the Israeli woman, Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Iraq. Adi Abdul Hadi, a leading member of the Coordination Framework, said, There are negotiations between government agencies and other parties to seek the release of the Israeli hostage in Iraq, Elizabeth Tsurkov. [] These negotiations are positive, especially since the government is embracing this issue and is committed to releasing Tsurkov. Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese media website that is considered pro-Hezbollah, issued a report on May 26 headlined, Tsurkov negotiations progress: A swap deal within days. The report claimed that talks for her release had entered a new phase. On May 29, The Associated Press added new details to reports of talks regarding Tsurkov. Negotiators are focusing on an exchange that would include seven Lebanese captured during the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah. But Iraqi and Lebanese officials told The Associated Press the talks recently stalled over Irans demand for the release of one of its citizens detained in Iraq for the killing of an American, the AP noted. The AP report stated that US officials went to Baghdad a month ago to mediate for Tsurkovs release and Adam Boehler, the Trump administrations top hostage envoy, has repeatedly called for Tsurkovs release and has traveled to Iraq to press his case. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, We have and will continue to underscore with the Iraqi government the urgency of securing her release. The AP also added details on who might be released in exchange for Tsurkov. [An] Iraqi official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. and Israel do not object to the release of the Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, according to the report, which noted that Hezbollah wants seven Lebanese prisoners, some of whom are associated with Hezbollah and a Lebanese navy officer [freed]. Reports on Tsurkov have recently received attention in regional and local Iraqi media and generated interest on social media among Arabic-language commentators. Iraqs ShafaqNews has published four reports on the negotiations between May 24 and 26. 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). Iranian police special forces. (ISNA) On May 30, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) officially stated that Iran is actively conducting espionage operations in Finland. Supo noted that Tehrans objective is to obtain information on dissidents and opposition groups based abroad, often via human intelligence, to silence voices critical of the regime. This marks the first time Supo has formally listed Iran among the countries suspected of spying on Finland, a designation previously reserved only for Russia and China. The Nordic region faces a surge in Iranian plots A Supo spokesperson cautioned that the [Iranian intelligence operations] threat has also increased in the Nordic countries, a sentiment that reflects concerns expressed by Swedish authorities in March 2025. The Swedish Security Polices annual threat assessment reported on a surge in the Islamic Republics intelligence efforts, highlighting the regimes increasing reliance on organized crime networks to target opposition figures and Israeli interests. Also in March, the US Treasury Department designated the Swedish Foxtrot gang as a transnational criminal organization for carrying out attacks on Israelis and Jews in Europe at Tehrans behest. Foxtrots leader, Rawa Majid, was recruited by Irans Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) to attack the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in January 2024. Foxtrots rival, the Rumba gang, carried out a separate embassy attack in May 2024, also at Tehrans direction. Regime intelligence operatives arrested in the United Kingdom In two separate operations in early May, British counterterrorism police detained seven Iranian nationals suspected of orchestrating a terror plot in the United Kingdom in what the government described as the most significant counter-state threat and counterterrorism operation in years. On May 17, three of the suspects were charged with targeting UK-based journalists. Having illegally entered the country, all three were granted temporary leave to remain after claiming asylum. Prosecutors allege that the men engaged in conduct intended to assist a foreign intelligence service, specifically Irans. According to The National, the suspects are believed to be members of Unit 840, a covert branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) tasked with carrying out overseas missions, including abductions and terror plots. Though relatively new, Unit 840 has been linked to numerous clandestine operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, often targeting dissidents and destabilizing foreign states. Transnational repression through criminal networks On May 23, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) issued a wanted poster for Seyed Yahya Hosseiny Panjaki, an Iranian intelligence officer with the MOI, for his involvement in global terror plots and targeting Iranian dissidents via networks linked to both the MOI and the IRGC. Panjaki had reportedly founded the Martyr Soleimani headquarters at MOI, referring to the regimes threats of avenging the US assassination of former IRGC-QF Commander Qassem Soleimani. Panjaki orchestrates various plots in close coordination with the broader IRGC and has allegedly traveled with the IRGC-QF to Lebanon and Syria to harmonize the relations between the IRGC and MOI. The announcement also named Panjaki as the officer tasked with operating the Naji Sharifi Zindashti network, which has plotted assassinations on US soil by recruiting Canadian Hells Angles members, a gang also used by the IRGC to carry out attacks in Germany. Citing court documents from the US and Turkey, the BBC reported on May 15 of a drastic rise in the Islamic Republics overseas assassination and abduction plots targeting political rivals, opposition figures, and journalists. An oft-returning theme in the report is Tehrans growing reliance on criminal gangsa tactic that allows the regime to distance itself from the violence it orchestrates. The Islamic Republics intelligence operations against Israel The FBI also identified Panjaki as both the deputy minister of Intelligence for Israel Affairs and the director of Internal Security within MOIa dual role reportedly assigned by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself. The appointment reflects Khameneis strategic prioritization of offensive operations against Israel, a shift that has brought increased financial and human resources to this domain. On May 20, Israeli authorities revealed the arrest of two citizens accused of spying for Iran in the town of Kfar Ahim, home to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, in what officials described as the latest chapter in an expanding Iranian espionage campaign within the country. The suspects were recruited through a Telegram group and maintained contact with Iranian handlers throughout 2025 via an encrypted messaging app and a newly acquired phone. Acting on Tehrans orders, they carried out intelligence-gathering missions, including relocating a buried bag believed to contain an explosive device. Iranian espionage activity in Israel surged dramatically in 2024the same year Tehran and Jerusalem exchanged direct strikes from their own territory in April and October. More than 30 Israelis have been arrested over the past year for allegedly working on Irans behalf, accused of offenses ranging from photographing military sites to plotting the assassination of senior officials. According to Israel Police Superintendent Maor Goren, who leads counterintelligence efforts, the figure is unprecedented. In past decades, we could count such cases on two hands, Goren assessed. Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republics regional malign influence. Saturday evening on the French Riviera. Christel Henon is seated in the Salle des Festivals at the Cannes Festival 2025 awards ceremony. The producer of Luxembourg-based Bidibul Productions is stressed, anxious and excited even a little feverish. She knows that the film she helped produce, A Simple Accident by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, will leave Cannes with an award. She had known since that afternoon, when the festival organizers called with instructions: make sure the film crew still in Cannes would be present for the closing ceremony. If you get a call on Saturday, it means you're going to be on the awards list, Henon said. The only question remaining was: which prize? And then time stopped. Christel Henon producer of the Luxembourg company Bidibul Productions Ever since the film was screened on the previous Tuesday, we knew we had a chance, even that the Palme dOr might not be out of reach, Henon said. But between the crazy hope stirred by rave reviews and the reality of the evening, tension ran high. Each prize announcement that didnt concern them was met with hopeful applause from the team. It was a night of nerves, anticipation and hope. We were the only ones left in the running As the Grand Prix - the festivals second-highest award - was announced for Norways Joachim Trier, time seemed to freeze. We were the only ones left in the running. The Palme d'Or was promised to us, recalled Henon, a Verdun native who has lived in Luxembourg for 28 years. She felt a strange need to hear the official announcement just to be sure it was real. And then it was such an intense explosion of joy, she said with a smile. The adventure began in July The triumph marked the peak of an extraordinary journey that began ten months earlier. During a separate shoot, Henon heard about a new film in development by Jafar Panahi, the celebrated and politically defiant Iranian director, known for winning the Golden Bear (Berlin) and Golden Lion (Venice). At the time, we were shooting the series The Deal (which later won an award at Series Mania in Lille), in co-production with French company Les Films Pelleas, Henon recalled. Their producer, Philippe Martin, was the one who told me about the film. Jafar Panahi and his team on stage on Saturday evening to receive his award. Photo credit: AFP I must admit that we were even afraid of being bugged. Christel Henon Producer of the Luxembourg company Bidibul Productions Two months later, in September 2024, Martin contacted her again: the film was ready to shoot. Did she want to come on board? I said yes on the spot, Henon said. A quick glance at the script confirmed her decision. But filming with Jafar Panahi is never business as usual. Twice imprisoned by the Iranian regime, Panahi continues to make films in defiance of state censorship, shooting covertly and without permission. No producers except Panahi himself were present on the Iranian set of A Simple Accident, a measure taken to avoid drawing attention. We also set up a chain of communication, so the number of phone calls to any one phone wouldnt raise suspicion. I have to admit, we were even afraid of being bugged, Henon said. Code name: Signs of the Planet When it came time to apply for support from Film Fund Luxembourg, the countrys sole film funding body, financed by the state and overseen by the audiovisual and culture ministries, extra precautions were necessary. Safety came first. No record of the films funding can be found in public documents - at least not under its real name. We used a pseudonym, Henon said. The code name was Les Signes de la Planete (Signs of the Planet). Christel Henon, Jafar Panahi and Philippe Martin. Photo credit: Remy Pujol When the Cannes selection was announced in April, Festival Director Thierry Fremaux gave the films real name but said he couldnt reveal the plot, due to the Iranian directors sensitive situation. Luxembourg funded 50,000 According to Film Fund Luxembourgs December 2024 document, Les Signes de la Planete was supposedly directed by someone named Valerie Midwer, with shooting slated for the following October. The entire description is wrong, except for one detail: the funding amount of 50,000. I have to tell you, we would have put the 50,000 we invested in the project out of our own pocket if it had been necessary. Christel Henon Producer of the Luxembourg company Bidibul Productions That 50,000 may seem small in todays film industry, even though A Simple Accident was produced on a modest budget of about 1.1 million. Henon insists they asked for the maximum amount possible under the projects unique constraints. A film that didnt fit into any of the boxes We asked for as much funding as we could possibly ask for, given the conditions and timing we had to work with on this project, Henon said. As the money belongs to the Luxembourg State, it is normal to respect certain procedures and for them to be square. But, as a result, our film, with its particular shooting style, didn't fit into the proposed boxes for obtaining more funding. The producer emphasized that Luxembourg's involvement in the production is far more important than the 5% or so of its funding or the post-production work done here on the sound. Theres an 'industrial contribution' that the general public is never aware of. All the artistic work that has been done adds real value to the film. Particularly in terms of picture editing, colour grading and so on. Being a producer isnt just about bringing in money, she said. Afterwards, I have to admit, the 50,000 we invested would have come out of our own pocket if it had been necessary. Christel Henon pleaded in the Clearstream and LuxLeaks cases Henon, 57, born in Verdun, has lived in Luxembourgs capital for nearly 28 years. A trained lawyer, she has been a court-appointed attorney since 1996 and has pleaded in high-profile cases like Clearstream and LuxLeaks. For the past 15 years, shes also worked as a producer at Bidibul Productions. This box contains embedded content from YouTube that wants to read or write cookies. You did not give permission for this. Edit preferences China launches Shijian-26 satellite into space Ecns.cn) 16:32, May 30, 2025 A Long March-4B carrier rocket carrying a new satellite, Shijian-26, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on May 29, 2025. (China News Service/Wang Jiangbo) The satellite is mainly used for national land surveys, environmental management and other fields, providing information services to support national economic development. It was the 579th flight mission of the Long March series carrier rockets. A Long March-4B carrier rocket carrying a new satellite, Shijian-26, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on May 29, 2025. (China News Service/Wang Jiangbo) A Long March-4B carrier rocket carrying a new satellite, Shijian-26, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on May 29, 2025. (China News Service/Wang Jiangbo) A Long March-4B carrier rocket carrying a new satellite, Shijian-26, blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on May 29, 2025. (China News Service/Wang Jiangbo) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Nora Nelson, 24, is arraigned in Boston Municipal Court in Charlestown on Feb. 7, 2025, in connection with the stabbing death of Joseph Donohue, 65. (Libby ONeill/Boston Herald) A Suffolk County grand jury indicted a 24-year-old woman in connection with the killing of 65-year-old Joseph Donohue, who was found dead on a Charlestown houseboat in February. Nora Nelson, known to her friends and family as Andi, appeared via Zoom in Charlestown District Court for a probable cause hearing on Friday. Prosecutors announced the indictment brought by the jury against Nelson on Friday. Judge Lisa Grant scheduled a status hearing on the case for June 30. Nelson is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk County Superior Court at a later date. Outside the courtroom Friday, one of Nelsons attorneys, Megan Stanley, said the case has a lot of layers, but declined to comment further or answer questions around Nelsons current mental status. Nelson had been previously ordered by the court to undergo mental evaluations, which appeared to have seemingly unresolved findings. Those mental evaluations were not discussed during Fridays hearing. In an April hearing after Nelsons first mental health exam, court clinician Heather Jackson said Nelson definitively lacks understanding of the seriousness of the charges she faces, but it was unclear to her whether this was because Nelson has a mental illness, personality disorder, or another exterior motivation. Nelson was given medication after it was deemed she had potential symptoms of a psychotic disorder, but as her symptoms became less genuine, Nelson had a tendency to exaggerate, Jackson said. Nelson and Donohue had a longstanding intimate partner relationship and she was living with Donohue at the time of his death, according to her attorney Ian Davis. Joseph Donohue, 65, of Charlestown, was identified as the homicide victim of an incident on a houseboat on Feb. 2, 2025. Donohue family On the night of Feb. 2, Donohues body was found wrapped inside a duct-taped tarp on the patio of his Charlestown houseboat. One of his dogs was also dead in the water alongside the boat. Nelson had greeted police at the door that night, after family members requested a well-being check for Donohue when they couldnt reach him for 48 hours. Nelson lied about her name and Donohues whereabouts and, at one point, asked an officer, Can I tell you something? according to court documents. The young woman was taken into custody at the scene for unrelated warrants on domestic violence charges against another Boston man in his 60s, whom Nelson had previously dated and lived with. The ex-partner told police Nelson threatened his life in November 2023. Donohues family issued a statement after he was identified in February, but has maintained their privacy since. Our family is heartbroken by this unimaginable loss. Joe was a wonderful family member, a cherished friend and a trusted colleague. Always generous and kind, he dedicated his life and career to helping others, the statement read. He is loved and will be deeply missed. Were grateful for the love and support weve received, and we kindly ask for privacy during this difficult time. Aliyah Warren, Nelsons best friend from childhood in Memphis, Tenn., previously told MassLive that Nelson seemed to be going through a mental health crisis the last time the pair saw each other, six months before Donohue was killed. Nora "Andi" Nelson (left) as a teen with her friend Aliyah Warren (right). (Aliyah Warren) She just wasnt my sister ... it was kind of hard to sit there, her eyes were just dead, Warren said, adding that Nelson was wearing odd clothes and seemed like she wasnt there. Warren had been hoping for a mental health evaluation for Nelson as her case continued, because she knows something is wrong. Im going to keep loving my sister because thats what she needs. She needs love ... But at the same time, I have to let the system do their job and just pray that they give her a mental evaluation so they can see that something is wrong, Warren had previously said. A photo from the 2024 North End Cornhole Classic in Boston. Courtesy of North End Cornhole Classic Toss bags and raise money for local students at the eighth-annual North End Cornhole Classic. The competition will be hosted on the The Rose Kennedy Greenway from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 1. The event will raise money for the Geraldine Marshall Scholarship Fund and the North End Music and Performing Arts Center (NEMPAC). The scholarship fund, which is entering its 10th year, continues to preserve the legacy of a woman who loved children and the arts, NEMPACs website reads. Marshalls love of the arts and passion for the North End has inspired $52,000 in scholarships awarded to 49 youth students over the last 10 years to students seeking to participate in an arts enrichment program, such as private music lessons, enrollment in a group instrument program, or an after-school musical theatre, the website continued. Teams can enter the competition for $100. Tickets come with two guaranteed games, two New Balance T-shirts, two Ward 8 drink ticket and a sandwich package from Paulis North End. Check-in starts at 11 a.m. and tournament play starts at noon. The classic also has free spectator passes for those looking to take in all the action. The pass comes with guaranteed entry in the event and automatic entry in a raffle. More details about the North End Cornhole Classic can be found on Eventbrite. The Trump administration placed Boston, 11 other towns and cities in Massachusetts, and more than 500 communities across the country on notice Thursday over their laws dealing with immigration enforcement, accusing them of violating federal law by providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. Federal authorities said the lawless jurisdictions should expect to receive formal notification of noncompliance with federal law, along with demands that local officials revise any policies out of step with federal immigration statutes. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday. The announcement followed up on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month directing the Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of jurisdictions that decline to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Local officials in such jurisdictions, often known as sanctuary cities, argue that by avoiding cooperation with immigration agents on noncriminal matters, they allow undocumented residents to feel comfortable interacting with police without fear of deportation. Cities are safer when all members of the public are willing to call and help police, proponents of sanctuary policies say. In Boston, for example, police are barred from asking members of the public about their immigration status or assisting federal agents with civil immigration enforcement. Bostons law does not prevent police from assisting immigration authorities with criminal investigations into drugs, weapons, human trafficking, or other matters. The list of sanctuary jurisdictions included communities in nearly three dozen states, including all six in New England. In Massachusetts, the communities identified by the Trump administration were: Amherst Boston Cambridge Chelsea Concord Holyoke Lawrence Newton Northampton Orleans Somerville Springfield The government said Massachusetts as a whole also qualified as a sanctuary jurisdiction, potentially referring to a ruling from the states highest court barring any police department from detaining someone at the request of federal officials but absent a warrant. The government further listed every county in the state as a sanctuary jurisdiction, excluding Hampden County. The list was based on a number of factors, including whether the communities self-identified as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they comply with federal immigration law, whether they had restrictions on information sharing with the immigration enforcement authorities, and what protections they provide people in the country without documentation, federal officials said. The Trump administration has attempted to pull federal funding from some sanctuary communities. Cities have contested the moves in court, arguing they have no responsibility to enforce federal immigration law. Federal departments and agencies will be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with the jurisdictions and suspending or terminating the flow of money, according to Trumps executive order. A decade ago, a Brazilian man was part of a mass killing of primarily teenagers from impoverished neighborhoods known as The Slaughter of Curio. But it want until 2023 that he was convinced and sentenced to 275 years and 11 months in prison. During that time, officials said, he lied on his asylum application and had been living in Massachusetts. Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 31, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 16 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury in February. On Nov. 12, 2015, numerous Brazilian military police officers, including De Abreu, participated in a mass killing event of primarily teenagers from the impoverished neighborhoods of Barroso, Messejana, Guajeru, Curio and Lagoa Redonda in the capital of Ceara. It was a little over a year after De Abreu first joined the Ceara State Military Police. The killings, officials said, were in retaliation for the death of another police officer who was killed attempting to defend his wife who was being assaulted. Eleven people were killed and many others seriously injured and tortured. A total of 45 individuals, including De Abreu, were charged by the Brazilian authorities. On Aug. 31, 2016, De Abreu was arrested and detained by the Brazilian police but was released pending trial on May 24, 2017. Two weeks later, De Abreu applied for a United States non-immigrant B2 visitor visa. When asked whether he had ever been arrested or convicted for any offense or crime, De Abreu responded no. De Abreus visa application was approved later that month. He eventually came to Miami on May 30, 2018. In 2020, he applied for asylum, and once again lied when asked whether he had ever been accused, charged, arrested, detained, interrogated and imprisoned in any country other than the United States, according to officials. He also failed to disclose his arrest and detention in Brazil when he applied for adjustment of status with United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. On June 25, 2023, De Abreu was convicted of 11 counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and four counts of physical and mental torture in the First Court of Fortaleza, Ceara. He was sentenced to 275 years and 11 months in prison. But he was already in the United States and an arrest warrant was issued. On Feb. 9, 2024, De Abreu testified under oath at an immigration hearing conducted by U.S. Immigration Court, claiming that he had never lied to immigration officials and that the only reason he had left off important information on immigration documents filed with the United States government was because he had not yet been arrested. After serving his perjury sentence in the U.S., De Abreu is subject to deportation. A 70-year-old man from California is facing more than two years in prison for his involvement in operating brothels in the Boston area and eastern Virginia. James Lee pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to persuade, induce, entice and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution; one count of money laundering conspiracy; and one count of wire fraud in February 2025, according to a Thursday announcement from the office of Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Lee was sentenced to 27 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $569,123 in restitution in connection with fraudulently obtained COVID-19 funds and a money judgment of $63,000 connected to the proceeds he earned as a result of the prostitution conspiracy. From at least January 2022 through November 2023, Lee knowingly conspired with two others, Han Lee and Junmyung Lee, to operate a network with multiple brothels in greater Boston and eastern Virginia, according to Foleys office. The three individuals, who are not related, worked together with others to launder the proceeds of the prostitution network by hiding the fact that the money was from the conspiracy. The others were not named in Foleys press release on Thursday. James Lee rented several high-end apartments in Greater Boston and eastern Virginia that were used as brothel locations and he was the sole and legal tenant of at least six of these locations. Not only did he use his name to lease the apartments but James Lee would use fraudulent and sometimes stolen identities, Foleys office wrote. He was regularly compensated for both leasing apartments and his travel to and from the brothel locations. Additionally, Han Lee paid James Lee about $1,000 per month for each active lease as a commission. James Lee also served as a liaison between the women working in the brothels and the property managers, fielding calls and coordinating any issues that arose related to maintenance and inspections, according to Foleys office. James Lee and the two others covered up the networks proceeds by depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars into their personal bank accounts and by making peer-to-peer transfers. Additionally, the three people regularly used hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash proceeds from the prostitution business to buy money orders to cover up the source of the funds, Foleys office wrote. These money orders were used to pay for rent and utilities at the brothel locations. Starting around March 2020 and continuing through at least September 2021, James Lee submitted fraudulent information in an attempt to obtain pandemic relief loans. He used the personal identifying information of a third party to submit false loan applications and open bank accounts to accept the relief funds, according to Foleys office. James Lee fraudulently obtained at least $580,000 in loans. In March, Han Lee was sentenced to four years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay forfeiture for $5,418,572 and restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date, Foleys office wrote. In April, Junmyung Lee was sentenced to one year in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. Additionally, he was ordered to pay a forfeiture money judgment of about $200,000, which is equal to the amount of proceeds he earned during the conspiracy, according to Foleys office. Han Lee pleaded guilty in September 2024, and Junmyung Lee pleaded guilty in October 2024. Worcester - The Executive Office of Economic Development and MassDevelopment joined state and local officials in Worcester to announce $6,729,552 in grants to 73 nonprofits through MassDevelopments Small Business Technical Assistance Program (SBTA), which supports organizations that deliver technical assistance, training, and access to capital to Massachusetts small businesses. Administered by MassDevelopment, the Small Business Technical Assistance Program was created in 2006 by the former Mass Growth Capital Corporation to empower small business support organizations. such as community development corporations and community development financial institutions, to increase access to business planning support and capital for underserved small businesses throughout the state. In February 2025, Mass Growth Capital Corporation merged with MassDevelopment, which now administers the program. Ranging from $26,700 to $155,750, the grants awarded in this round will support the operational capacity of nonprofits with programming that addresses the needs of small businesses, with a focus on promoting job creation and economic growth. This programming can include one-on-one technical assistance, comprehensive business skills workshop training, and improved access to financing options. Additionally, the grants will enhance the nonprofits ability to deliver small business services through train-the-trainer learning opportunities in the form of workshop-style best practice discussions and courses in partnership with Bay Path University and The Mel King Institute. Examples of awarded projects include: $155,750 to Hilltown CDC in Chesterfield, which will use funds to provide businesses with trainings in business planning, advertising, finance and accounting, securing financing, strategic review, computer literacy, and legal issues. Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce (Chicopee) $155,750 Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (Deerfield) $57,671 Franklin County Community Development Corporation (Greenfield) $155,750 Nuestras Raices Inc. (Holyoke) $89,000 Cooperative Development Institute (Northampton) $155,750 The ICA Group (Northampton) $89,000 The Sphere Northampton (Northampton) $89,000 Valley Community Development (Northampton) $89,000 Common Capital Inc. (Springfield) $89,000 Latino Economic Development Corporation (Springfield) $89,000 Wellspring Cooperative (Springfield) $26,700 Quaboag Valley Community Development Corporation (Ware) $66,750 MassDevelopment, the states development finance agency and land bank, works with businesses, nonprofits, banks, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the state. During FY2024, MassDevelopment financed or managed 349 projects generating investment of more than $3.5 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are estimated to create or support 22,426 jobs and build or preserve 1,754 housing units. In February 2025, the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation merged into MassDevelopment, enhancing the agencys ability to support small businesses in Massachusetts through alternative funding, resources, and individualized services. Actress Loretta Swit attends the Wedding of Sid Bass and Mercedes Kellogg on December 10, 1988 at Plaza Hotel in New York City, New York. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) Ron Galella Collection via Getty Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards for portraying Major Margaret Hot Lips Houlihan on M*A*S*H, has died. She was 87. Swit died just after midnight Friday, May 30 at her home in New York City, her publicist Harlan Boll told MassLive, referring to a police report. It is suspected Swit died of natural causes, a coroner is expected to deliver final results. Swit appeared in 240 out of 251 episodes of the hit series from 1972 to 1983. She was nominated for an Emmy 10 times and four Golden Globes, her IMDb page indicates. Born in Passaic, New Jersey on Nov. 4, 1937, Swit moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting in 1970. It was there that she landed TV gigs on such series as Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O before landing her role on M*A*S*H. Outside of television, Swit appeared multiple movies, including Freebie and the Bean (1974), Race With the Devil (1975) and BoardHeads (1998). The actress also played Polly Reed in the 1981 satirical film S.O.B. In addition to her two Emmy Awards, Swits accolades include a Satellite Award, The Jean Golden Halo Award and the Pacific Broadcasters Award. Swit was also a published author and animal rights activist. She was named Woman of the Year by both the Animal Protection Institute and the International Fund For Animal Welfare (IFAW). Swit also received The Advocate for Farm Animals Award, Compassion in Action Award, Westminster Animal Welfare & Leadership Award, International Red Cross Humanitarian Award, Global Wildlife Conservation Champion Award and The Betty White Award. Her book, SwitHeart: The Watercolour Artistry & Animal Activism of Loretta Swit, was published in January 2017. She had two children with actor Dennis Holahan, whom she met on the set of M*A*S*H" and wed in 1983. The couple divorced in 1995. SPRINGFIELD Show up, stand proud and lets make history together. Thats the message of the fourth annual Springfield Pride Parade, which steps off next weekend amid a time that is tense and uncertain for the LGBTQIA+ community. Being a Black man of the community, those are two things that are truly under attack, people of color and the LGBTQ community, Taurean Bethea, who is executive director and founder of the Springfield Pride Parade Organization, said. Springfield has just an array of different backgrounds and all types of people. We want to make sure that our youth feel seen and supported, especially in this time. A former Berlin firefighter was arrested Wednesday on charges related to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material. Sterling resident Kyle Litchwell, 34, has been charged with two counts each of possession of child pornography and distribution of material showing a child in a sexual act, Sterling police said in a Thursday press release. He pleaded not guilty to the charges during his arraignment in Clinton District Court on Thursday, according to court records. Before his arrest, Litchwell was employed full-time by the Berlin Fire and EMS Department, the department said in a press release. Town officials were notified of his arrest on Wednesday, and as of Thursday afternoon, he no longer works for the town. The prosecution rested this week in the Karen Read retrial after calling their last witness, a crash reconstruction expert who testified about his opinions whether John OKeefes injuries were consistent with being struck by an SUV. The prosecutions theory is that Read struck OKeefe in a fit of rage outside of 34 Fairview Road in Canton in January 2022 and left him incapacitated to die in the snow. Judson Welcher, an accident reconstructionist and biomechanical engineer, spent three days testifying about his analysis of Reads Lexus and injuries to OKeefe. Welcher testified that his opinion is that the damage to Reads SUV and the evidence in the case was consistent with a collision with OKeefe. He said that data from her SUV shows she drove in reverse at more than 20 mph outside of the Canton home where his body was found on Jan. 29, 2022. He also said that the car driving faster than 8 mph and hitting an arm in a sideswipe couldve cracked the taillight. Then prosecutors used Reads own words to cap off their presentation of their case. Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan has woven interview clips of Read throughout the trial, and he saved one for the end. Here are the biggest takeaways from the week: That is what happened, expert says about SUV, OKeefe collision Dr. Judson Welcher, Biomechanical Engineer and Accident Reconstructionist testifies during the Karen Read trial, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool) AP At the end of Tuesdays testimony, Brennan asked a pointed question about whether Welcher believed, based on his analysis of the evidence, that Reads Lexus collided with OKeefe around 12:32 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. Yes, based on the totality of evidence ... that is what happened, Welcher said. The defense objected to the question, and the judge ultimately struck the statement from the record. The question then set off a debate between lawyers, but jurors heard Welchers answer. Welcher had gone through the day explaining how he derived his opinion. Red marks surrounded the broken cocktail glass in the snow at the scene. He had played videos of tests he conducted using an exemplar Lexus, another way of saying he had bought the same Lexus model that Read had driven that night. In one test, the Lexus backed up at 2 mph and struck his right arm, bent and holding a cocktail glass. Blue paint on the taillight transferred onto his arm and left a large mark. When compared side by side with photos of OKeefes injuries, they were similar in coverage area. Judson Welcher, an expert witness, dressed like John O'Keefe and performed crash tests as part of his analysis of the Karen Read case. He testified on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Court TV During cross-examination, Welcher said he did not use a crash dummy because he would only have one or two shots at it before they damaged the car. Pedestrian impacts are so sensitive to initial angles, he said. I was not going to hit myself with the Lexus at 20 mph. Welcher also pointed out that there was a bruise on OKeefes right knee approximately at the height of the bumper of Reads SUV. He said the cuts on his arm were consistent with the geometry and orientation of the right taillight. Still, he admitted that a lot of information was still unknown about the physics of the crash. We dont know the exact point of impact, Welcher said. We dont have absolute information to say exactly where he was. Based on the cars data, however, Welcher said that Reads SUV went three quarters full throttle in reverse on Jan. 29, 2022, at around 12:30 a.m. and reached about 23 mph and traveled a total of 87 feet in reverse. Prosecution seeks to dispel the defenses theory about Reads cracked taillight An impact configuration slide of two SUV's is projected for jurors to view during the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell, Pool) AP A large part of Welchers testimony involved attempting to dispel a theory put forward by the defense last trial. The issue of when Read cracked her taillight is highly contested. Her lawyers have pointed to a Ring video recorded by a security camera above OKeefes garage as evidence that she couldve cracked it on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, before she found OKeefe. Neama Rahmani, an attorney and former federal prosecutor based in Los Angeles, said Welchers testimony was useful for prosecutors in combatting one of the defenses big arguments. There was also important testimony about the broken taillight and how the broken taillight was consistent with Read hitting John OKeefe as a pedestrian, and that it was not consistent with an accident with John OKeefes vehicle, said Rahmani, whos followed both trials. In one video from Jan. 29, 2022, before she found OKeefes body, Read backs up and makes contact with OKeefes Chevrolet Traverse. Central to the prosecutions theory of the case is that Read backed up her SUV and struck OKeefe, smashing the taillight on his arm in the process. Obviously, the defense is arguing that the taillight was broken in another incident with OKeefes car or it was broken when law enforcement impounded the vehicle and towed it in the blizzard, Rahmani said. Welchers presentation, using a PowerPoint, explaining how the company he works for, Aperture, created digital 3D models of both vehicles using laser scanners along with videos. From the videos and laser scans, Welcher said they figured out the exact position of the vehicles when that Lexus stopped and the exact contact. The only evidence of contact is nowhere near the upper taillight, Welcher said. Using a photograph of OKeefes Traverse, he showed that only a scuff mark remained from when Reads SUV made contact well below the taillight. He said that Reads SUV drove 1 mph or less during the impact with OKeefes car. That impact did not break or crack that taillight, Welcher said. Prosecution rests its case using Reads own words A feature of this retrial is the prosecutions use of video clips of Reads various media interviews in recent years. None of the videos were played in the first trial. Brennan, who was hired specifically to try the Read case, has woven video clips in between witness testimony. These videos are really hurtful, Jack Lu, a retired superior court judge, said in an interview last week. After a collection of videos was played last week, Lu said the videos alone might be enough to convict the defendant. After Welcher, the prosecutions final witness, stepped off the stand on Thursday, Brennan played one final clip. The prosecution plays a media clip from a docuseries for jurors to view where defendant Karen Read says she asked herself if she could have hit murder victim John O'Keefe during the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell/Pool) AP Here is the full quote Read said in the clip: So I thought, Could I have run him over? Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didnt know it. I mean, Ive always got the music blasting. Its snowing. I got the wipers going, the heater blasting. Did he did he come in the back of my car and I hit him in the knee and hes drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something. And then I hired David Yannetti, I asked him those questions. The night of January 29, David, what if, I dont know, what if I ran his foot over, or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out and or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out. And David [said] Yeah, then you have some element of culpability. Defense begins its case As the prosecution wound down its case in chief, Read told reporters she would put on a fuller and deeper defense during the retrial than she did at her first trial. On Friday, that began with Matthew DiSogra taking the stand. Accident reconstruction analyst Matthew DiSogra testifies during Karen Read's murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, May 30, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool) AP DiSogra is the director of engineering for the Event Data Recorder lab at Delta V and is an expert in vehicle data. His primary role for the defense was not to counter Welchers testimony, but to offer a different interpretation of the data taken from Reads SUV. While DiSogra relied on the testing of Welchers Aperture colleague, Shanon Burgess, he came to a different conclusion. DiSogra told the jury that all the clock variances identified by Burgess created 30 possibilities for when exactly the techstream event identified as a backing maneuver happened relative to the last time OKeefe locked his phone. Its critical for the prosecutions case that the phone was locked before the backing maneuver ended, because they claim that maneuver is when Read hit OKeefe with her car. DiSogra explained that of those 30 possibilities, just three showed the phone lock occurring before the end of the event. Since DiSogra was called by the defense, Brennan got his first chance to cross-examine a witness. Jurors saw a different side of the prosecutor, whose experience as a criminal defense attorney was evident during the questioning. Brennan came out swinging. Are you trying to offer an opinion suggesting Ms. Reads Lexus never hit John OKeefe on Jan. 29, 2022? he asked. Is that your opinion? The opening question set the stage for what was a thorough cross-examination of DiSogra, during which Breannan sought to undermine the accuracy of some of his conclusions. But Alan Jackson, one of Reads lawyers, noted on redirect that all of DiSogras conclusions were based on the data from Aperture. The defense will call its next witness when the trial resumes at 9 a.m. Monday. MassLive reporter Charlie McKenna contributed to this story. Karen Reads second trial in connection with the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John OKeefe, continued on Friday in Dedhams Norfolk Superior Court before Judge Beverly Cannone. Prosecutors rested their case on Thursday, and the defense called its first witness on Friday. Follow along with live updates from Fridays testimony below: People to know: Hank Brennan, special prosecutor for the Norfolk district attorneys office Matthew DiSogra, vehicle data expert and accident reconstructionist at Delta V Alan Jackson, lawyer for Read 4 p.m. - Fired troopers friend called to authenticate texts With the jury dismissed, Jonathan Diamandis, a friend of former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor, took the stand for a brief voir dire. Diamandis was on a group chat with Proctor, who was fired for misconduct in the Read investigation, in February 2022 when Proctor sent several insulting messages about Read. He said he has known Proctor since 6th grade. After reviewing the text chain, Diamandis identified four of his friends by their phone number and three more by their nicknames. He also identified Proctor was on the thread. Diamandis confirmed the file he was handed was an accurate and complete record of the texts. David Yannetti, a lawyer for Read, told Cannone the defense wanted to introduce the messages into evidence to show Proctors state of mind during the investigation, and were not offering them for the truth of them. Brennan did not dispute that the messages were admissible in the right context. But he said Diamandis was not the right witness to authenticate the texts. Brennan argued Proctor should be confronted with the messages. They need to have the opportunity to ... explain, he said, adding that Reads defense was trying to sidestep calling Proctor himself. The defense is trying to gain the advantage of putting information before the jury that has no context, he argued. It will lead to arguments about what it means without a factual basis. It should come through Michael Proctor, he said. They should call Michael Proctor. Yannetti countered that there was no rule dictating which witness can authenticate text messages. We shouldnt be forced to call Proctor and allow Brennan to cross-examine him and lead him through his entire closing, he said. Cannone did not immediately rule. 3:24 p.m. - Prosecution expert testing foundation of DiSogras analysis On re-direct, DiSogra confirmed that the testing by Aperture, LLC, the firm hired by prosecutors, served as the foundation of his analysis. He said he did not change any of their data and simply tried to bring all of the data into one place. Based on the initial report of the prosecution expert, all the possibilities show OKeefes phone being locked after the techstream event, he confirmed. But on re-cross, Brennan accused him of criticizing or monday morning quarterbacking other experts reports without actually analyzing the data. Youre guessing as to what they thought or presumed, he said. Brennan concluded his re-cross noting that DiSogra did not determine what OKeefe was actually doing at 12:32:12 a.m. and 12:32:16 a.m. Data from Aperture showed Reads SUV moving at those times. Jackson though, emphasized that any incorrect conclusion by DiSogra was based entirely on the data from the governments experts. The questioning concluded there and Cannone called the lawyers to sidebar. After the sidebar, Cannone sent the jury home for the weekend. She warned the 18-person panel to avoid discussing the case or consuming any media coverage about it. 2:59 p.m. - Brennan concludes cross-examination After the lengthy back-and-forth about the clocks, Brennan asked DiSogra if he had an opinion about whether the techstream data from Reads SUV would show a collision. He said it was possible the data wouldnt. Brennan noted Reads SUV bumped into OKeefes car around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. DiSogra said he didnt remember seeing a techstream event for that time. He confirmed he was not offering an opinion there was no collision. On redirect, Jackson noted that Reads SUV registered several other techstream events after the backing maneuver. DiSogra confirmed none of those were triggered by a conclusion. DiSogra said if the last interaction with OKeefes phone occurred at 12:32:16 a.m. rather than 12:32:09 a.m., then each of the 30 possibilities he outlined would happen after the techstream event. OKeefes phone recorded him moving steps at the later timestamp of 12:32:16 a.m. 2:16 p.m. - DiSogra pressed on clock variance calculations Brennan resumed his cross-examination by drilling down on DiSogras finding that three seconds needed to be added to the timestamps pulled from Reads SUV. That variance is supported by the finding of prosecution experts that the ignition powers on three seconds before the cars infotainment system. When you are suggesting 3 seconds should be added to the time, do you think maybe you made a mistake in considering it that way? Brennan asked. DiSogra said that wasnt correct and the time the ignition powered on would match the time the car clock began running. Brennan moved on to DiSogras calculations that accounted for the variance between Reads SUV clock and OKeefes phone using phone calls. Those calls were registered in the infotainment system in the car when Read powered the car on around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. The prosecutions expert said the variance between the calls in the car and on OKeefes phone was actually the difference between her phone and his. Brennan suggested all DiSogras conclusions and opinions are based on an assumption you dont even know the predicate for. DiSogra admitted some of the possibilities could be wrong if that variance was not showing the difference between the phone and the car. He contended that an initial report from a prosecution expert presented those times as infotainment and iPhone times, so he stands by the original analysis. But if that were incorrect, certain lines would go away, DiSogra said, acknowledging it would change the total number of possibilities. Of the 30 possibilities he testified to, four would be eliminated, he said. 12:53 p.m. - Jury sent out for lunch After a sidebar, Cannone dismissed the jury for an hour-long lunch break. Before the break, Brennan began questioning DiSogra about the conclusions of another prosecution expert, Judson Welcher. But Jackson objected. DiSogra explained that while the methods used by Weclher and Shanon Burgess were not typical, he adopted their methodology for the basis of his analysis. He conceded that there was no legitimate professional basis for suggesting his methodology was better or worse in some way. 12:04 p.m. - Pedestrian strike generally wouldnt register in SUV data Brennan began his cross-examination by asking DiSogra if he was trying to offer an opinion that Reads SUV never hit John OKeefe. He said he wasnt, and that he wasnt offering an opinion the car never got in a collision. DiSogra conceded the data from Reads Lexus doesnt mean it never got into a collision, only that one was never recorded. He noted that a collision would not register as a trigger event in the car. Brennan suggested Read accelerating her SUV would have caused the trigger event. A pedestrian strike generally wouldnt meet the threshold to register in the vehicles Event Data Recorder, DiSogra said. He moved to a line of questioning about whether DiSogra did any actual testing in this case. DiSogra said his role was to interpret the data. The extent of my work [in this case] is just basic addition, just adding numbers together that already existed in the Aperture reports, he said. Much of Brennans cross-examination focused on the data recovered by Shanon Burgess, an expert at Aperture, from Reads SUV. Brennan noted that DiSogra first concluded there was no reason to conduct further testing on the chips in the car other than to confirm how much data was on them. But Burgess found an SD card that contained more data. DiSogra said he was confused by the process Burgess undertook because he deviated from a written protocol he had submitted. 11:11 a.m. - Data from Lexus SUV does not support collision DiSogra said he identified 30 different possibilities for the time when the SUV techstream event in Reads Lexus happened relative to when OKeefes phone locked for the final time. Of those 30, 25 possible times showed the phone locking after the end of the backing maneuver event. Two times show the events happening simultaneous to one another and three show the phone locking before the end of the event. DiSogra said he had no opinion on which possibility was most likely. The module inside Reads SUV that would have recorded a collision did not log one on Jan. 29, 2022, he said. Jackson began asking DiSogra about other techstream events on the SUV, but Brennan objected to the entire line of questioning and Cannone called the lawyers to sidebar. Before the backing maneuver event, DiSogra identified 19 trigger events in Reads SUV. None of those events supported a collision, he said. Jackson concluded his questions there and Cannone sent jurors out for a recess. 10:41 a.m. - DiSogra explains findings The analysis from Aperture, a firm hired by prosecutors, found the techstream event in Reads Lexus stopped recording data at 12:31:43 a.m. and the phone locked at 12:32:09 a.m., 26 seconds later. In an original report, Shanon Burgess, who works at Aperture, noted several adjustments to the clocks, including a three-second difference between when the vehicle ignition started and when its infotainment system booted up. DiSogra said it was not clear if that delay was consistent across all Lexus SUVs or just the exemplar used by Aperture. He explained he conducted his analysis with and without the three-second adjustment. Burgess did not use the adjustment, he said. Using that adjustment, there would be 34 seconds between the trigger event in the SUV and OKeefes phone locking. In Burgess first analysis, he compared calls logged on OKeefes phone to those logged in the Lexus system. Doing so, he found a two-second difference between the two clocks. Using that adjustment, the phone lock still happens after the SUV event. In another analysis, Burgess aligned the clocks using a three-point turn event logged by Reads SUV. Even using that adjustment, the phone is locked six seconds after the backing maneuver SUV event. Based on Apetures January report, regardless of what adjustment you make, the phone lock always occurs after the end of the [techstream] event, DiSogra said. But in a May report, Burgess uses a range of times, finding the time of the three-point turn event cant be nailed down specifically. As a result, DiSogra said we end up with nine possible values, spanning from five seconds after the techstram event to three seconds before it. DiSogra said both reports were valid analyses but should be taken together. No specific time was more likely than another, he said. 10:07 a.m. - Defense expert details Lexus SUV trigger event The first witness called by Reads defense, Matthew DiSogra, is the director of engineering for the Event Data Recorder lab at Delta V. He has been involved in more than 1,000 cases involving clock alignments, including Reads. DiSogra said he reviewed data gathered by a pair of prosecution experts, who work for the firm Aperture LLC. He analyzed the methods used by Shanon Burgess, a prosecution expert, to align the clocks in Reads Lexus and OKeefes iPhone. Burgess testified that the clocks were off by 21 to 29 seconds. DiSogra explained that vehicles record a trigger as a singular point of time and a techstream event documents the five seconds before the event happens and then an additional five seconds following the trigger. Prosecutors have said a trigger event at 12:31:38 a.m. represents when Read began a backing maneuver that struck OKeefe. That event ended at 12:31:43 a.m., according to Burgess testimony. OKeefes phone locked at 12:32:09 a.m. DiSogra explained five seconds needed to be subtracted from any conclusions about the timing of the trigger event. Based on all of the data in those two original reports, regardless of what adjustment is made, the phone lock event always occurs after the end of the event, DiSogra said. 9:38 a.m. - Lawyers argue motion for required finding of not guilty Following the sidebar, Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Read, argued the defenses motion for a required finding of not guilty. That motion is commonly filed in criminal cases after the prosecution requests its case. Jackson said simply, the commonwealth has not proven that there was a collision on Jan. 29, 2022 at 34 Fairview Road. There were no eyewitnesses, video evidence or audio evidence presented to support the prosecutions claim of a collision, he said. Prosecutors, through suspect experts, sought to prove only a backing event, Jackson said, and did not prove there was a collision associated with that event. They didnt prove a collision at a particular time or place, he told Cannone. Jackson argued the prosecutions case on the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death fails miserably. The government presented their best case and their case has failed, he said. No reasonable jury could find Karen Read guilty of count one, two or three. This was a vindictive prosecution, he concluded. But in his argument, special prosecutor Hank Brennan said the evidence of a collision is abundant, pointing to taillight fragments from Reads Lexus found in OKeefes clothes. Brennan also pointed to the injuries on OKeefes arm that he said were consistent with the damage to her taillight. Any reasonable person could find her conduct created a plain and strong likelihood of death, he said. Cannone denied the motion as to all three counts and stepped off the bench. When the trial returns, jurors will hear from the first witness called by the defense. 9:12 a.m. - Judge calls lawyers to sidebar When the trial resumed, Cannone called the lawyers to sidebar for a conversation out of earshot of those in the courtroom or watching the live stream. Prosecutors filed a motion Thursday to preclude the defense from calling four people who were on a group text with former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor. The four were added to the defenses witness list earlier this week. All were in a group conversation with Proctor, where he sent degrading text messages about Read that led to his firing. Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of OKeefe, who was found outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer on Jan. 29, 2022. Norfolk County prosecutors say Read struck OKeefe with her SUV while driving intoxicated. Reads attorneys say her car never struck OKeefe and that others are to blame for his death. A Massachusetts firefighter was arrested at work on Wednesday in connection with owning and sharing child sex abuse materials. Kyle Lichwell, 34, of Sterling, was charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of distributing material of a child in a sexual act. He was a full-time firefighter in the town of Berlin but officials said he is no longer employed by the town. The town said although the investigation was months long, it didnt know about the allegations until May 28. Lichwell was arrested at 7:30 p.m. the same day. The Berlin Police Department was notified with a tip by Massachusetts State Police Cyber Crime Unit/Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force on April 11. The investigation led them to Lichwell. As Chief of Police, Im very proud of how everyone worked together for a very successful conclusion in this matter, Police Chief Sean Gaudette wrote in a press release. Photos of the controversial statues of Saint Michael and Saint Florian that were commissioned to adorn the front of Quincy's new public safety building. Court Filings Fifteen religious and non-religious Quincy residents are suing Mayor Thomas Koch over recently discovered plans to install controversial Catholic patron saint statues on the front of the citys new public safety building. The lawsuit, which was filed in Norfolk County Superior Court with the help of the ACLU of Massachusetts on May 27, claims that the statues violate a clause in Article 3 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights stating that all religious sects and denominations ... shall be equally under the protection of the law; and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law. Harvard community members and the public come together at the university on Tuesday evening in response to the Trump administrations revocation of a key certification to enroll international students. (MassLive/Juliet Schulman-Hall) The Trump administrations push to end Harvards ability to enroll foreign students is predictably forcing those students to look into other options. But its also pushing away some students from the United States. In one case, an incoming U.S. student at Harvard Business School asked the institution if they could defer admission because the educational experience would be different without any international students, Maureen Martin, Harvards director of immigration services, said in a Wednesday court filing. Dozens of incoming international Harvard students have also opted to defer admission or enroll elsewhere, Martin said in the filing. A Harvard spokesperson declined to a request for additional comment. The stories of students deferring admission comes from a court filing where Martin detailed the ways U.S. and international students are reconsidering their futures at Harvard, harming Harvards ability to attract and enroll students, she said. These admission challenges are a direct reaction to the federal government attempting to revoke a key certification that allows Harvard to enroll international students. Harvard subsequently sued and asked for a temporary restraining order, which a federal judge allowed. The judge has since allowed a preliminary injunction on Thursday, further delaying the Trump administration from being able to revoke Harvards certification. On top of the revocation, President Donald Trump has also suggested a 15% cap on international students at Harvard University. Will current students consider leaving? Rachele Chung, a first year, stands on the right holding up a sign at a Tuesday rally in response to the Trump administrations revocation of a key certification to enroll international students. (MassLive/Juliet Schulman-Hall) Growing up in Mississippi where she was often the only Asian American person in a room, Rachele Chung, a first-year U.S. student at Harvard, said a key reason she chose Harvard was because of its diversity. International students make up more than a quarter of the total student population. Chung said she might have gone somewhere else if Harvard didnt have international students. What really drew me to Harvard was the diversity and also the potential to meet people from all over the U.S. but also all over the world and hear from different perspectives from that, she said. I think if a different institution offered that, then, I might have leaned toward them, she said. Chung said she is unlikely to transfer now because she believes more institutions will also lose their certification after the Trump administration takes away Harvards. However, that doesnt mean she is any less concerned about the future of Harvard if international students and scholars arent allowed to come to the institution and domestic students opt out of attending. She said that would affect Harvard and the state of research and science more than it would the federal government. Nuriel Vera-DeGraff speaks at a Harvard rally on Tuesday evening in response to the Trump administrations revocation of a key certification to enroll international students. (MassLive/Juliet Schulman-Hall) Nuriel Vera-DeGraff, a junior at Harvard University, said he isnt surprised that incoming students would change their minds on enrolling at the institution. Interntionals contribute so much to campus culture, he said. At this point, he said he is close to finishing his degree at Harvard and has created a community and wouldnt want to leave the institution. Vera-DeGraff said he hasnt heard about current U.S. students considering transferring to other institutions and thinks it is unlikely to happen. However, if he was an incoming student and had a choice between Harvard and another institution based in the U.S., he said he would consider doing the same thing. Id definitely be very tempted to choose the other school because its definitely not the same experience I really cant imagine being here without the international students. It would just feel very different, he said. What is the certification the Trump admin is trying to revoke? 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 federal regulators have information suggesting the school 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 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (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. What has happened at Harvard? 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 $60 million in multi-year grants, a $450 million cut and a $2.2 billion freeze. In addition to barring Harvard University from acquiring new federal grants, the Trump administration directed federal agencies to cut off existing contracts with Harvard or transfer them to other vendors on Tuesday. 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. Read more: Shadow of Trump administration hangs over Harvard University commencement 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 top strategist for former President George W. Bush has issued an ominous warning to Republicans over President Donald Trumps ping-ponging tariff policies. Namely, that they could well cost the GOP control of Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections. Thats because voters will soon grow wise to the fact that theyll be the ones stuck with higher prices at the cash register, ex-Bush politics brain Karl Rove wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal. "His tariff demands are weighing him down. Only 37% of Americans told a May 15 Marquette Law School poll that they approve of tariffs, while 63% disapproved," Rove, who won the White House twice for Bush, wrote. Fifty-eight percent said tariffs hurt the U.S. economy; a mere 32% believe they help. That starts to explain why stock markets drop when Mr. Trump rattles his trade saber and rebound when he walks back his tariff threats. All that back and forth has left voters confused, Rove continued. And the messaging runs smack dab into basic economics, Rove continued. For instance, Trump has insisted that American companies can absorb higher import costs, pointing to a May 17 post on Trumps Truth Social network where the Republican demanded that big box giant Walmart EAT THE TARIFFS and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. As younger voters might say, the math isnt mathing there. Arkansas-based Walmart had a 2.75% profit margin in April. If it follows Trumps mandate, it cant break even, Rove wrote. The retailer cant absorb the cost of an imported pair of kids jeans inflated by the 46% tariff Mr. Trump threatens on Vietnam, or the 37% tariff for Bangladesh, or the 32% tariff on sneakers from Indonesia that Mr. Trump proposed, Rove continued, noting that other retailers such as Target and Best Buy are in the same boat. The president can blast all-caps posts all he likes, but inevitably parents will be unhappy with his tariffs when its time to outfit the kids for school, Rove wrote. Americans everyday experiences as we shop and work are already reinforcing that wenot the exporters or importerswill pay most of Mr. Trumps tariffs," the GOP strategist observed. Massachusetts state Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, and Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Michael Rodrigues, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth, discuss the finer points of their caucus's $61.3 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year that starts July 1, on May 6, 2025. John L. Micek/MassLive If theres one thing thats true about politics, its that voters rarely care about how legislation gets done as long as it gets done in a relatively timely fashion, doesnt cost the Earth and manages to make their little corner of creation a tiny bit better. Thats particularly true during budget season on Beacon Hill, which has now officially entered that precarious stage where, if things are going to go wrong, they are going to go wrong in the most gloriously spectacular way possible. Heres why: The competing $61 billion-ish budget plans approved by the majority-Democrat state House and state Senate, respectively, along with the $62 billion iteration offered by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, all increase state spending from the year before. The $61.5 billion budget the Senate approved last week, for instance, comes in $70.3 million less than the budget approved by the House, and $568.1 million less than the spending plan that Healey sent to lawmakers earlier this year. Senate lawmakers nonetheless ladled on $81.1 million in new spending before they took their vote, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Senate lawmakers also set up difficult policy fights with the House on liquor license and vocational school reform and health care matters, Axios Boston noted. Thus, there is a high likelihood that things could go screaming off the rails. Then theres this. The Senate plunged forward with its version of the fiscal blueprint for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 by assuming that the $16 billion in federal funding that provides the undercarriage for their budget plan is still going to be there for them. Ditto for the House and Healey. Thats despite some deeply ominous sabre-rattling from Washington. Though Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Michael Rodriques, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth, has warned all bets are off if Congress moves ahead, as expected, with deep cuts to Medicaid. At first glance, this is kind of like splashing out for that lease on the Rolls-Royce, expecting youll have the cash to cover it, and then hoping for the best if you dont. The pro-business Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance was decidedly not amused by that tactic, also noting that senators added tens of millions of new spending, even as they sounded the alarm about uncertainty from Washington, D.C. And spending will likely grow even more once the House and Senate cut a deal on the final budget sometime later next month or early July, the think-tank observed. Theres simply no credibility left for lawmakers who talk about fiscal uncertainty while voting for the largest budget in state history, Paul D. Craney, the groups spokesperson, said in a statement. If lawmakers were serious about economic uncertainty, they would have tightened the belt, not let it out, Craney continued. Hes not wrong. Just this week, Healey and Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey were in Revere sounding the alarm about looming GOP cuts to Medicaid on Capitol Hill. Michael Curry, the president & CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, has warned that MassHealth, as Medicaid is known in the Bay State, bluntly said the program would be unsustainable without the federal partnership, the federal funds. Thats about as clear a warning shot as lawmakers are going to get. MassHealth is among the biggest fixed costs in the state budget. And federal cuts will mean higher costs and a strain on the states health care system, Curry told Commonwealth Beacon last week. Still, the Legislature as a public institution has a flexibility that private employers and families balancing their checkbooks dont have, Jerold Duquette, a Central Connecticut State University political science professor who tracks Bay State politics, said. And thats the ability to pass supplemental budgets and access the states multi-billion dollar Rainy Day Fund even if top budget writers have said the latter option is currently off the table. So while planning a budget where a large chunk of funding may disappear seems irrational, what they are doing is rational, Duquette said The reason we think its irrational is because theyre politicians, Duquette said. Why would you make the assumption that youre going to lose an effort to keep the money? This is not kicking the can. Its the exactly rational thing to do. Lawmakers have until midnight on June 30 to get a deal on a new budget. They havent hit that deadline in years, though Rodriques repeatedly has told reporters that hes optimistic that they will this year. It requires the same kind of suspension of disbelief that Duquettes analysis demands. But if Beacon Hill is anything, its stubbornly rational in its irrationality. So who knows? Holyoke Wastewater Treatment Plant wastewater operator Kyle Schultzki checks the sludge blanket depths in the secondary clarifiers at the facility May 19. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook Editors note: This story has been updated to correctly state the title of Mary L. Monahan, who is the interm director of Holyokes Department of Public Works. The Hampden County Sheriff's Department Marine Unit casts off on the Connecticut River from Jones Ferry Road, Holyoke, on May 21 in search of Nicklas Delisle, 27. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook HOLYOKE Nicklas Delisle, the Chicopee kayaker who went missing on the Connecticut River earlier this month, has been found dead, officials said. Delisle, 27, was found by the Hampden County Sheriffs Department Marine Patrol Unit early Friday afternoon in Holyoke near the South Hadley line, according to Rob Rizzuto, public information officer for the Sheriffs Department. Katy and Carlos Pena Moonan are having their grand opening of their business, the Paper City Clothing Company, at 144 High Street on Friday. The opening has saved the historic building from demolition, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook HOLYOKE Carlos Pena and Katy Pena Moonan are reopening the Paper City Clothing Co., at 144 High St., and also saving a historic building from demolition at the same time. The building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been fully restored and will serve as the new location for the business, as well as a community art gallery and event space. Sonja Farak, left, stands during her arraignment at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on Jan. 22, 2013. Thousands of convictions were tied to the former chemist who authorities say was high almost every day she worked at a state drug lab for eight years. Farak pleaded guilty in 2014 to stealing drugs from the state crime lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and tampering with evidence. (Don Treeger / The Republican, File) Third-Party-Submitted SPRINGFIELD After misconduct in state drug labs in Amherst and Boston, more than 30,000 cases tainted by the scandals were dismissed in 2017 and 2018. Still ongoing, though, is a federal class action lawsuit trying to get the automatic return of property from those exonerees taken through civil asset forfeiture, a process that allows police to seize property if they suspect its connected to a crime. This story has been updated with comments from the programs director, students and Chicopees mayor. In late 2023, Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Lauren Jones, left, and Westover Jobs Corps Center Director David Baker, chat with Louis Gonzalez, of Worcester, and Edhel Padro, of Springfield, both participants in the Westover Job Corps Center in Chicopee. (Frederick Gore photo) Frederick Gore CHICOPEE A job-training program that enrolls 352 low-income young adults and employs 175 people is slated to be shut down within weeks, after its funding was cut in President Trumps proposed budget. For decades, the Westover Job Corps Center has schooled disadvantaged students in technical careers as part of a national effort to fight poverty. But the Department of Labor says operations of this and 98 similar programs nationwide, including two others in Massachusetts, will be paused. The move follows an April review by the Trump administration that questioned whether taxpayer money was being spent wisely. The shutdowns will also affect operations of the Shriver Job Corps Center in Devens and the Grafton Job Corps Center in North Grafton. The decision does not imperil 24 Job Corps centers operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a fact sheet produced by the labor department. On Thursday, the Chicopee center was informed it had until June 30 to move students out of barracks and classrooms at its Johnson Road facility on the historic grounds of Westover Air Reserve Base. The nationwide shutdown is poised to affect nearly 25,000 students in the 99 Job Corps programs run by outside contractors, as is the case in Chicopee, Devens and North Grafton. The labor departments review found that the Job Corps program ran a $140 million deficit nationally in the 2024 program year a gap that was projected to grow to $213 million. While funded by the federal government, the Chicopee site of the Job Corps program, like many, is administered by an independent group, Educational Training Resources. Staff members are not federal employees. David Baker, the Westover Job Corps Center director, said the National Job Corps Association is preparing to take legal action to attempt to halt the closings. But for now, he and his staff have been told to begin arranging for students to return to their homes around the region and country some by as early as next Friday. That means sending young adults, in some cases, back into neighborhoods they left in part because of local violence and neglect. Their families are struggling now. Were really concerned for them, Baker said. Two students in the program said Friday their plans are suddenly uncertain. Julian Green of Springfield, 20, said he was about to complete a culinary arts program he began a year ago and had hoped to join a Job Corps program that would let him live at the site and enroll in a community college. Its very complicated, he said when asked about his plans. I dont know. With all this news, everybody is a little frantic and worried about what the next step is, Green said. Nashia Almestica of Fitchburg, 26, just finished training as a medical administrative assistant, after completing a pharmacy tech course in 2024. She will now look for a home and job. Its been tense, she said of the shutdown news. A lot of these kids come from unfortunate circumstances and backgrounds that they tried to get out of. Chicopee Mayor John Vieau said he planned to seek help from the office of Sen. Edward Markey about reversing the labor department decision. Were really disappointed to hear whats happened to the Job Corps Center, he said. The scale of job loss is considerable, he said. Its a significant impact on the city of Chicopee. Its very frustrating. Westover Business Engagement Specialist Cinnamon Smith, from left, Job Corps Center Director David Baker and Deputy Director Jamie Kynard at an event in June 2024. (Sophie Markham / Special to The Republican, File) Sophie Markham / Special to The Republican Networking events late this week that Job Corps staffer Cinnamon Smith planned to attend turned into a campaign to win community support. Will you help us save Job Corps? reads a pamphlet that Smith brought to two events Friday. This is a call to action! After learning Thursday about the end to funding and the deadline to send students back to their homes across the U.S. Smith said information received Friday might result in changes in timing on winding down activities. Theyre changing every half hour, Smith, the centers business engagement specialist, said Friday afternoon. So were in limbo and uncertainty. Of the 352 students now enrolled, some were selected to attend the Chicopee program because of the specific training offered, she said. Justin Cote, a work-based learning coordinator at the center, said the program helps at-risk young people, aged 16 to 24, change their lives and prospects. Many students come to the program uncertain about what theyll do with their lives, he said. I cant even count the amount of success stories that I have had the opportunity to see first hand, Cote said in an email to The Republican. He has been with the program for about five years. The transformation in them is just amazing to watch. We need public support to save this program, Cote said. He said two other Job Corps programs in Massachusetts also face a shutdown. If this isnt overturned we will start sending students home, to shelters, or whatever their situations are, Cote said. Labor department study The decision to halt operations, the labor department said, is based on a finding that the program has failed to produce meaningful results. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the labor secretary, said in a statement Thursday that the program is not living up to its promise to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training and community. The April study, called the Job Corps Transparency Report, gathered data that questions the value of the federal investment. For example, the average yearly cost per student for the 2023 program year was $80,284 and the total cost per graduate was $155,600. The overall graduation rate, the study found, was 38.6%. The highest graduation rate in the system was 65.4%. After leaving the Job Corps, it said, yearly earnings average $16,695. Taxpayers deserve to know the facts and outcomes of their multi-billion-dollar investment, Lori Frazier Bearden, the acting assistant secretary for employment and training, said in a statement April 25 about the Job Corps. Baker, the Westover programs director, said that report is flawed because it was based on a year still affected by pandemic enrollment declines. It doesnt really hit the true costs, Baker said. On the graduation figure, he noted that the Job Corps figure was better than community college rates nationally, which were also affected by the pandemic. The labor department review also examined reports of misconduct by participants nationally for the 2023 program year. It found that nationwide, Job Corps programs received 372 reports of sexual assaults or inappropriate sexual behavior, 1,764 acts of violence, 1,167 breaches of safety or security, and 2,702 instances of reported drug use. Chavez-DeRemer said the department would provide support to participants as the programs are phased out. The labor department said it will work to connect students leaving the Job Corps to state and local workforce partners so they can continue training in different settings. Pamphlets call The pamphlet distributed locally on Friday notified readers that if Congress approves the presidents budget, the center would close. Each year, Westover Job Corps provides education, vocational and career readiness training across 10 in-demand career areas, the pamphlet said. Westover Job Corps is also a key contributor to the local workforce and economy. All of this would be lost if the Job Corps program were to disappear. The local program offers instruction across the board in technical fields, including construction, advanced manufacturing, heavy machinery operation, automotive and machine repair, plumbing, hospitality, homeland security, information technology, electrical work, carpentry, culinary, brick and masonry work, welding and health care. Baker, the center director, said the program helps disadvantaged young people get ahead economically by gaining marketable skills. In that sense, it is fully in line with goals expressed by officials in the Trump administration, he said. People dont understand what we really do, Baker said. This is not some elitist thing. Im hoping there will be enough of a public outcry that will change things. A large number of the enrolled students live on the Chicopee grounds, raising logistics questions about the ability of the program to arrange transportation in roughly a months time. The labor department said it will pay to transport participants to their homes of record by June 30. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has laid off 24 employees due to pressures from rising costs and uncertainty regarding the Trump administrations policies on higher education. The cuts were made to maintain WPIs financial stability, according to a letter shared with students and staff on May 21. Some of the rising costs are tied to healthcare and prescription benefits, the letter reads. The university had already implemented cost-cutting measures in the spring, including pausing or eliminating some open positions, reducing non-essential spending, and restructuring debt, according to the letter. Unfortunately, further expense reductions were necessary at a scale that could only be achieved through carefully considered restructuring. This resulted in the elimination of 24 occupied positions, the letter reads. Those changes have now been communicated to affected staff. WPI is offering severance and other forms of assistance to departing employees, who leave with our respect and appreciation. A spokesperson for WPI said the university would not comment on which positions were cut. The letter was signed by Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Horan, Provost and Senior Vice President Andrew Sears and Senior Vice President of Talent and Inclusion Lauren Turner. The university analyzed the financial impacts that new and changed federal policies might have on WPI, the letter reads. The Trump administration has taken several actions targeting colleges and universities, including revoking the immigration statuses of some international students. Two students from WPI, whose statuses were revoked, are part of a lawsuit along with three other students from Rivier University in New Hampshire. Recently, the Trump administration has targeted Harvard University, directing federal agencies to stop doing business with the Ivy League school and cutting grants worth millions of dollars. During a conversation with reporters on Wednesday, President Donald Trump suggested a 15% cap on international students at the university. We have people want to go to Harvard and other schools, they cant get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country, he said. In their letter, WPI wrote that the impacts from the federal government would be significant but did not disclose in detail what the impacts would be. People will always be WPIs most important asset, and difficult decisions like these are never reached lightly, the letter reads. However, these changes will preserve WPIs core strengths and position us on a firmer financial footing, allowing us the ability to invest in strategic growth. Les membres du gouvernement ont pris note des retombees dune seance de travail sur le voyage de haut niveau qui ira aux Chagos, que la Local Government Service Commission va publier les postes a pouvoir dans les autorites locales, que 55 operateurs vont pouvoir utiliser lIle aux Benitiers a partir du 16 juin 2025, que les restrictions pour arroser les champs de canne seront enleves le 31 mai 2025 entre autres. 1. Cabinet has taken note that a meeting had been chaired by the Prime Minister on 29 May 2025, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney-General, senior officials and three representatives of the Chagossian community to discuss arrangements to be put in place for a high-level delegation visit to the Chagos Archipelago. The Prime Minister would lead the high-level delegation which would comprise, inter alia, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney-General and the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare as well as representatives of the Chagossian community. A technical committee would be set up to look into the organisational aspect of the visit. The Inter-Ministerial Committee set up to look into the implementation of projects on the Chagos Archipelago would be chaired by the Prime Minister and would comprise the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney-General, the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare and three representatives of the Chagossian community. 2. Cabinet has taken note that the Local Government Service Commission was proceeding with the filling, as a matter of priority, of 2,245 existing funded vacancies in the Workmen Class/Minor Grades to ensure no disruption in the essential services of Local Authorities, following the termination of the temporary employment of the 1,463 employees. The Local Government Service Commission has published the vacancies in the Workmens Class/Minor Grades for Local Authorities on the website of the Commission and in the press, as from 28 May 2025. 3. Cabinet has taken note of measures being implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, the Ministry of Housing and Lands and the District Council of Black River to authorise the 55 operators identified after consultation with the District Council of Black River to carry out activities on Ile aux Benitiers. Activities on the islet are expected to resume as from Monday 16 June 2025, subject to all amenities being installed thereat. 4. Cabinet has taken note of the current political situation in Rodrigues. 5. Cabinet has taken note that, as at 29 May 2025, the water storage levels in the main reservoirs stood at 84.3% of their capacity. At the request of the Irrigation Authority and the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture, the Water Resources Management Committee had decided to lift restrictions on sugarcane irrigation with effect from 31 May 2025 as follows: (a) sugarcane irrigation would resume temporarily across the island; and (b) an additional 15,000 m3 of water per day would be supplied three days a week to the Irrigation Authority for irrigation of new sugarcane from La Nicoliere System for an initial period of one month. 6. Cabinet has agreed to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Islamic Cultural Centre Trust Fund and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding the donation of an amount of $6 million by the Saudi Authorities. 7. Cabinet has agreed to instructions being conveyed to the Attorney-Generals Office for the drafting of the Wetlands Bill. The Republic of Mauritius is a Contracting Party to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (also known as the Ramsar Convention) since 30 September 2001. Being a signatory of the Ramsar Convention entails commitment to preservation of wetlands through: (a) national plans, policies and appropriate legislation; (b) regular wetland inventory and public education; and (c) categorisation and classification of wetlands and their effective management. With a view to addressing all issues pertaining to wetlands, the Wetlands Bill would provide for the protection and management of all wetlands. The Bill would, inter alia: (a) define the Authority responsible for wetlands; (b) define and classify all wetlands; (c) define the types of development together with the conditions which would be allowed on wetlands and their buffer zones, in accordance with the various categorisations as defined; (d) provide for the setting up of a Ramsar Committee with statutory powers to issue clearances for development and sustainable use of wetlands; (e) identify and propose potential Ramsar Sites; (f) provide for the setting up of an enforcement authority with prosecution powers; and (g) provide for the offences and penalties as appropriate in relation to illegal development on wetlands. 8. Cabinet has taken note of the promulgation of the Environment Protection (Control of Single Use Plastic Products) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, which would extend the moratorium by one additional year, that is, up to 14 January 2026, for the banning of the following non-biodegradable single use products: (a) plastic bowls and plastic cups used solely for the packaging of food products such as dairy products; and (b) plastic trays used solely for Modified Atmosphere Packaging of food such as fresh meat and pre-cooked/cooked food products like meat, burgers, seafood and cheese. 9. Cabinet has taken note that following the reporting of the case of illegal residential care home, namely Fieldview Care Home, six residential care homes, suspected of operating illegally, had been reported to the Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity. An Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister took note of actions taken against Fieldview Care Home and a contingency plan for the relocation of residents of any illegal residential care homes detected in the future. The Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity is working on a Protocol in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, especially on cases of abuse perpetrated on elderly persons or where they require urgent medical attention. 10. Cabinet has taken note of complaints received regarding motor vehicles emitting excessive noise, particularly during night time. The National Land Transport Authority would issue a Communique to remind the public of the provisions under the Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) Regulations 2010 and invite all road users to act responsibly and contribute to maintaining a peaceful environment for all. The Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) Regulations 2010 provide, inter alia, that no person shall use any motor vehicle in such a manner that it causes excessive noise which could have been avoided by exercising reasonable care. As such, owners and drivers of motor vehicles should ensure that their vehicles operate within acceptable noise levels. The use of modified exhausts, poorly maintained engines, or reckless driving that results in excessive noise constituted a breach of the relevant provisions of the Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) Regulations 2010. The following measures would be taken to enforce the legal provisions relating to noisy vehicles: (a) the three Vehicle Examination Stations would ensure closer monitoring and stringent verification of vehicles, particularly those suspected of having modified exhaust systems; and (b) the Police would conduct more crackdown operations around the island and the number of contraventions established/prohibition notices issued would be widely communicated to the public. 11. Cabinet has taken note of the holding of a Stakeholders Workshop on Legislative Implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention on 10 and 11 June 2025, organised by the Implementation Support Unit of the Biological Weapons Convention and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. The objectives of the workshop would be to, inter alia: (a) enhance the knowledge of stakeholders at the national level on rights and obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention; (b) review the existing national legislative framework and explore opportunities to strengthen legislation and address identified gaps; (c) explore the role of the National Contact Point in the Biological Weapons Convention implementation process and identify opportunities to improve multisectoral coordination; (d) review strategic trade controls and opportunities to integrate control lists into existing legislative and regulatory frameworks; (e) review biosafety and biosecurity legislative and regulatory frameworks; and (f) strengthen national cooperation, coordination and engagement on issues related to the Biological Weapons Convention implementation. 12. Cabinet has taken note of the activities being organised in the context of the World No Tobacco Day 2025 on the theme Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products. This years World No Tobacco Day campaign aims at revealing the strategies used by the tobacco and nicotine industries to make their harmful products enticing, particularly to young people. 13. Cabinet has taken note of the outcome of the recent participation of the Minister of Tertiary Education, Science and Research in the Education World Forum 2025, in London. The theme of the Education World Forum 2025 was From Stability to Growth: Building Stronger Bolder Better Education Together. The Minister engaged in fruitful discussions with Kings College Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust and Kings Academy to explore areas for Healthcare sector transformation through world-class professional development and upskilling of our health professionals through specialised training programmes. Strategic discussions were held with the London South Bank University, particularly as regards innovative micro-credentials and apprenticeship programmes which the university can bring to equip our students with industry-relevant skills. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Kingston University and Polytechnics Mauritius Ltd which would bring AI and digital technology education to Mauritius, contributing to the digital transformation of the country across sectors. The Quality Assurance Agency-UK and the Mauritius Higher Education Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding which would provide for a collaboration aiming at supporting Mauritius ambition of becoming a regional education hub with internationally recognised standards. 14. Cabinet has taken note of the reconstitution of the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee, with Mr Selvanaden Mootoosamy as part-time Chairperson. 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place right across Mayo. Highlights of the festival included a wide selection of workshops including poetry with Martina Evans, Sean-nos singing with Colm Brennan, drawing with Claire Henderson, visual arts with MayoArtsquad and memoir-writing with Gerry Boland. Performances in Swinford and Ballina district hospitals from acclaimed musician Emer Mayock. At the National Museum of Ireland, there was the launch of OnSight, Silent objects/spoken lives; Colm Brennan gave a talk in the Linenhall, Castlebar; there was a performance of Beryl, a wild and wonderful circus show from Maria Corcoran, which took place in the Sacred Heart Hospital, Castlebar. Mayo v Tyrone: READ MORE: All you need to know ahead of this weekends clash Taking place during the month of May, Bealtaine is the annual nationwide festival celebrating the arts and creativity as the Mayo populations age. The nationwide festival is run by Age and Opportunity, the national organisation that promotes active and engaged living as we get older. Mayo County Council Arts Service runs an extensive Bealtaine programme every year, which includes workshops in various artistic disciplines, artist talks, performances in care settings, gallery tours, and a variety of other events. The festival would not be possible without the support of the Mayo County Council executive and elected members, the Arts Council, and all of the fantastic artists, audiences, venues and participants that bring the festival to life. Mayo County Council Arts Service would like to thank you all for your contribution to another jam-packed edition of our Bealtaine Festival. READ MORE: Mayo Pride: Lesbian Comedy Duo The Wild Geeze Bring Laughter and Empowerment Three community groups in Mayo including a family-run business, a school and a community centre in and around Castlebar have received a quick cash injection to invest in new technology thanks to the RISE Community Fund supported by National Broadband Ireland (NBI). Established by NBI Chairman, David McCourt, RISE has awarded over 140 cash grants across the country to rural organisations seeking to boost their digital ecosystems. The fund is further supported by corporate sponsors including KN Circet, KPMG, Test Triangle, DreamDev Technologies, and TLI Group. The latest funding comes off the back of a call for entries that NBI had announced as part of its national roadshow celebrating areas of the country that have shown the highest demands for its new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Governments National Broadband Plan. READ MORE: Dispute over Mayo school bus drop-off and pick-up has been partially resolved Receiving the grants of 1000 each were St Peter and Paul National School in Knockafall; Murrays Recycled Plastic, a family-run business in Castlebar, and Islandeady Community Centre in Rinnaseer. With nearly 15,000 properties in Mayo now able to order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband on the new NBI network thanks to the Governments National Broadband Plan, David McCourt, Chairman of NBI and founder of RISE, explained why he was keen to visit the area and give back to the community with these grants. Were delighted to have had this opportunity to meet with a fantastic array of community groups in and around Castlebar and give a financial boost to those who really want to capitalise on their new high-speed connectivity. We received an amazing number of entries from people looking to embrace new technologies to scale the impact of their work, which paints a bright future for rural communities such as Castlebar, said McCourt. NBI recently announced that over 3,696 connections in County Mayo have already been made to the NBI network so far. Take-up of NBIs fibre broadband in Mayo is at 30 percent overall and is highest in rural areas of the county near Castlebar where take-up has surpassed 43%. READ MORE: The big failure was the utilities - Mayo County Council report on Storm Eowyn Sheila Murray, owner of Murrays Recycled Plastic, is one of the connected NBI customers to have received the RISE grant funding: As a small family run business, were absolutely delighted to have been awarded this grant funding from RISE and NBI, which will give us a fantastic opportunity to invest in upskilling our team on digital marketing strategies to help us grow our business online. We take great pride in representing Castlebar and County Mayo as a manufacturer focussed on environmentally friendly sustainable products, and being connected to high-speed broadband with NBI coupled with receiving grant funding from RISE is a massive boost to our plans to expand our customer reach. Photo caption: Pictured above at Saint Patrick's National School, Knockafall, Straide, Foxford, Co Mayo are Joe Lavin (Chief Commercial Officer, NBI), Breege Staunton (Teacher), Sandra Dinan, (Senior PR and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, NBI), Saint Patrick's National School Principal, Caithriona Murrihy, David Mulligan (ATU Sligo), Tara Collins, (Chief Marketing Officer, NBI), (Front) Alex Moloney, and Killian Tighe, Sophia Moloney and Chloe Hughes. Pic: Dillon Photography. There was political unity in the MD meeting room of Aras an Chontae on Thursday afternoon as colleagues wished retiring Jim Horan their best wishes. The Aughagower man is retiring from his role as Administrative Officer, with the Environment, Climate Change and Agriculture section of Mayo County Council. READ MORE: The big failure was the utilities - Mayo County Council report on Storm Eowyn Cllr Gerry Murray, chairman of the Environment and Climate Change SPC, led the tributes at Jim Horans last meeting before retiring. He wanted to wish Jim every success in his retirement and said he will definitely miss him and appreciated the great service you have given the local authority over the years. Cllr Murray hopes Horan gets to 100 and send a few ribbons through Wall Street. Cllr Sean Carey joined in wishing Jim well, he said he was always so helpful and so supportive. He wished him the very best in his retirement and urged him to enjoy it. Cllr Donna Sheridan thanked him for all his help, support and kindness and said he was always a gentleman to work with. Cllr Harry Barrett said Jim was "an absolute gentleman" and so easy to work with. He thanked him for his patience, efforts and hard work over the years. READ MORE: Public meeting about water quality to be held in north Mayo town Director of Services, John Condon, praised Jim Horan for his organisational ability and always keeping everyone in the loop. He said he was always a pleasure to deal with. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 29, 2025 Meta Platforms has asked the Supreme Court to leave in place a ruling that threw out censorship claims by the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense -- an organization formerly led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In papers filed this week with the Supreme Court, Meta argues that Children's Health Defense lacks valid claims against the platform for several reasons -- including that the First Amendment protects Meta's right to wield editorial control over the content on its platform. Because Meta is a private actor, the First Amendment bars any injunction compelling Meta to disseminate CHDs (Children's Health Defense's) content. Any such order would violate, not vindicate, the First Amendment, Meta argues. advertisement advertisement The company's argument comes in a legal battle dating to 2020, when Children's Health Defense claimed its posts and a fundraising tool were wrongly suppressed by Meta. The organization claimed Meta violated the First Amendment, arguing that the platform was a state actor -- meaning equivalent to the government -- when it took steps to prevent the spread of the group's posts. The First Amendment generally prohibits the government -- not private companies -- from suppressing speech, but there's an exception that applies when private companies are state actors. Children's Health Defense proposed several theories to support its claim that Meta was a state actor, including that Facebook and the government allegedly worked together to suppress speech, and that Facebook allegedly changed its vaccine-related policies due to coercion by lawmakers. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that even if the Children's Health Defense's allegations were proven true, they wouldn't show that the government coerced Facebook. The organization then appealed to the 9th Circuit, which ruled 2-1 for Meta. Meta has a First Amendment right to use its platform to promote views it finds congenial and to refrain from promoting views it finds distasteful, 9th Circuit Court Judge Eric Miller, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote last year in an opinion joined by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman. Circuit Judge Daniel Collins, also a Trump appointee, dissented, writing that he would have allowed the Children's Health Defense to pursue a request for an injunction against Meta. The Children's Health Defense recently petitioned the Supreme Court to review that ruling. The group noted in its request that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told podcaster Joe Rogan that the company faced massive institutional pressure to basically start censoring content on ideological grounds. Meta counters in its new papers that Zuckerberg has also said that the company made its own decisions regarding content. The company points to Zuckerberg's August 26, 2024 letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), which said: In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down. Meta writes that where its decisions reflect its own judgment, they are not fairly attributable to the government and do not support a state-action claim. The Supreme Court hasn't yet indicated when it will rule on the petition. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, May 30, 2025 The cost of a "query" in an enterprise chat system usually gets bundled into the overall pricing model rather than being a per-question fee, but three former Microsoft employees have built technology that breaks out the numbers to determine budgets, performance, user metrics, return on investments (ROIs) and more. Pay-i founded by David Tepper, Doron Holan, and Erik Winters in 2023 stands at the intersection of finance and artificial intelligence (AI) to help companies understand how much the technology really costs them to use. Now the startup, which launched in May, is working on solving the problem of how much a chat costs and whether it is worth it. advertisement advertisement One line of code calculates margins or ROI. It answers financial questions that companies ask, although enterprises are mostly using the technology in beta. Developers will insert a couple of extra lines of code to help understand how much each chatbot query and response costs. Some enterprises use more than one chatbot brand, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or Microsoft. OpenAI will release a new update that literally overwrites the model you were using, said Pay-i CEO Tepper. It's making new decisions -- it's chatting differently to the end user. Pay-i can tell the business if the new model improves, becomes more or less expensive, run faster or slower, and whether it crashes more often. The technology helps the company understand costs, KPIs, and whats that worth to the business, especially if they are using more than one GAI model. Through code, which is sometimes one line, Pay-i connects GAI with specific business outcomes such as revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency, tracking and forecasting budgets and how much is being spent. Enterprises have been using the technology in beta, but Pay-i for the past 11 months has been working with Stanford to resolve a problem that has not yet been resolved in academia, Tepper said. Once that is solved in academia, then we'll be the first ones out with a product that can do that, he said. Tepper said the code will understand how clients intend to use GAI, as well as which models, and tell them, hey, don't use Model X, use Model Y because if used this way, it will cost less, become faster, and be prone to less errors, Tepper said. After having the opportunity to work on an early version of ChatGPT, Tepper immediately realized the world would change. He met up with some friends and decided to build apps, to enjoy the experience of doing it and hopefully to make money. This resulted in nine app prototypes, but none made sense, because the unit of economics for delivering on any of these AI tools meant you couldn't ship an app for 99 cents and then hope to make money from it, he said. You couldn't back it by advertisements because they don't bring in anywhere near enough money for you to make a profit off of these things. After continually running into that economics issue, the three co-founders decided to solve that problem. It would soon become a problem every company would face. Pay-i recently announced $4.9 million in seed funding to expand its operations and further develop the platform. Tepper spent about 19 years at Microsoft and co-led Azure's internal GAI consumption strategy. His first GAI patent, GenAI, dates back to 2011, and has briefed Fortune 500 boards, universities, members of Congress, and UN delegations on AI economics. He said OpenAIs ChatGPT o3, one of the more iconic models, has been most powerful until Google Gemini came along. Tepper used ChatGPT o3 to demonstrate how the technology pulls in information and considers what to serve as results, but said this OpenAI model is no longer state of the art because technology is moving so fast. Gemini from Google is state of the art, he said, as he used ChatGPT o3 to provide a demonstration of how the technology analyzes different websites and pulls in data. Tepper worked a little on Microsoft Copilot while there. I can tell you why it's not that good, he said. It's really because Microsoft is utterly petrified of any kind of AI blowback by the possibility of getting something wrong. He called the models over constrained. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 30, 2025 Siding with Media Matters for America, a federal appellate court has upheld an injunction prohibiting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from enforcing a subpoena for a trove of information from the watchdog. In a ruling issued Friday, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta's finding that Media Matters was likely to prevail with its claim that Paxton's retaliatory investigation violated the First Amendment. In this case, there is uncontested evidence of Paxtons retaliatory motive in investigating Media Matters, Circuit Judge Harry Edwards wrote in an opinion joined by Florence Pan. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson concurred in a separate opinion. The ruling comes in a battle dating to November 2023, soon after Media Matters published a negative report about brand safety on X, formerly Twitter. The organization reported that ads for brands including Apple, Bravo, IBM and Oracle were being placed next to pro-Nazi posts on the platform. advertisement advertisement X sued Media Matters shortly after the report came out, alleging that the nonprofit manipulated X's algorithms in order to bypass safeguards and create images of Xs largest advertisers paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content. On the same day X sued, Paxton announced he was investigating whether Media Matters violated a Texas consumer protection law that prohibits fraudulent acts. Paxton's office stated at the time that he was extremely troubled by allegations that Media Matters -- which he described as a radical left-wing organization -- fraudulently manipulated X's data. As part of that investigation, he served the organization with a subpoena demanding a host of documents -- including all internal and external communications regarding Elon Musk's purchase of X, all communications regarding the November report on brand safety, and communications with Apple, IBM, Bravo and other companies named in that report. Media Matters then sued Paxton to prevent him from enforcing the subpoena. Mehta sided with Media Matters and enjoined Paxton last April, writing in a 40-page opinion that the nonprofit had proven its reporting activities were protected by the First Amendment, and that Paxton took action aimed at chilling the group's speech. Mehta added that Paxton's investigation and subpoena caused MediaMatters to self-censor when making research and publication decisions, adversely affected the relationships between editors and reporters, and restricted communications with sources and journalists. Paxton appealed to the D.C. Circuit, asking that court to lift the injunction. That court on Friday rejected Paxton's arguments. The District Court did not err in granting the preliminary injunction, Edwards wrote, adding that Media Matters demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of its First Amendment retaliation claim. He wrote that Media Matters was obviously engaged in conduct protected under the First Amendment, adding that the battle with Paxton stemmed from the group's news reporting on a public figure and alleged political extremism on a popular social media platform. by Danielle Oster , May 30, 2025 New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the states tourism department is kicking off a summer travel and tourism campaign that includes expanded international outreach and a 40-stop mobile marketing tour. A pair of new ads introduce the refreshed tagline New York State: Everything You Love, which refers to the variety of summer travel experiences and destinations in the state. I Love NYs ads are running through August across New York state and nearby drive markets, including Canada on broadcast, streaming, and social media platforms. It also includes an expanded invitation to international travelers to visit the state. In addition to a particular focus on Canada, which has represented the largest source of inbound international tourism for New York, this years campaign introduces a new direct-to-consumer international marketing component in Australia and the United Kingdom, which will run across digital billboards, streaming, and digital advertising channels. advertisement advertisement In its largest-ever mobile marketing tour, I Love NY will make more than 40 stops throughout the Northeast region, focusing on reaching potential visitors at sporting events, music festivals, street fairs, and other popular events. The tour will invite audiences to interact with activations informing them about New York attractions, take photos with a large sculpture of the iconic I Love NY logo, and win I Love NY prizes. According to the state, tourism is New Yorks second-largest industrysupporting one in 10 jobs. The new campaign arrives as it faces additional challenges to attracting tourism due to social, economic, and political factorsparticularly from international travelers concerned about traveling to the U.S. under the rising authoritarianism of the Trump regime. Tourism is synonymous with New York State, thanks to all of our amazing attractions, from beaches to high peaks, from the Erie Canal to iconic museums and performing arts venues, Governor Hochul said in a statement. This vital industry is facing challenging new political and economic headwinds. That's why supporting our tourism industry is more important than ever, and why we are getting out the message that no matter where you're from, you're always welcome in New York State. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 30, 2025 Meta Platforms is urging a federal judge to dismiss claims that it violates California privacy laws by allegedly collecting location data about Facebook users via tracking software embedded in mobile apps. In papers filed this week with U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco, Meta argues that the allegations against it are too generalized and conclusory to warrant further proceedings. The complaint lacks any meaningful factual allegations to support the basic premise of plaintiffs claims - -that Meta improperly received her geolocation data through app developers use of SDKs (software development kits), Meta writes. The motion comes in a lawsuit brought by California resident Lisa Tsering in February, when she alleged that the Facebook Audience Network software development kit receives precise latitude and longitude data, along with timestamps and unique device identifiers. advertisement advertisement Defendant collects sensitive information from consumers, including where they live, where they work, where they worship, where their children go to school or obtain child care, where they received medical treatment (potentially revealing the existence of medical conditions), whether they went to rallies, demonstrations, or protests (potentially revealing their political affiliations), and any other information that can be gleaned from tracking a persons day-to-day movements, she alleged. Tsering alleged that she downloaded apps such as Candy Crush Saga, which contained Facebook's tracking code, and routinely traveled to locations she considers private, including her home, place of work and medical appointments Her complaint included claims that Meta is violating a California anti-hacking law by accessing consumers' mobile devices, and is violating state restrictions on collecting metadata associated with electronic communications. Meta counters that the allegations in the complaint are too speculative to support the claims, and too general to provide the company with fair notice of the charges. For instance, Meta writes, Tsering alleges that she downloaded Candy Crush, but doesn't allege that she enabled location services for that app, or any other app, and doesn't specify which software development kit features were used by particular developers. The failure to include those details in the complaint renders plaintiffs allegations that her geolocation data was sent entirely speculative, the platform argues. Meta also argues that the allegations, even if proven true, would only show that Meta received data from developers -- not that it acted affirmatively to obtain data. Lin is expected to hold a hearing in the case on September 9. by Teresa Buyikian , May 30, 2025 Tequila Don Julio is paying homage to its founders history with an immersive experience that uses modern technology to tell the story of the 1977 birth of the blue agave spirit. Por Amor: An Immersive Tasting Experience takes place June 1215 at New York City's Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology. The experiential exhibit is described by the brand as a multisensory journey that reimagines how tequila is experienced and celebrated through art and technology. The Tequila Don Julio experience is the museums first full brand takeover and will use the Mercers technologies such as 4D spatial sound, LED mirrored infinity rooms and volumetric light displays. Guests will experince a guided journey through interactive rooms, each designed to unlock the five senses while showcasing the meticulous craft, passion, and creativity behind every bottle. advertisement advertisement Attendees can expect to learn about Don Julio Gonzalez's origin story and experience a guided tasting of Tequila Don Julio 70 Anejo Cristalino, Tequila Don Julio Reposado and Tequila Don Julio 1942, accompanied by projections, sounds and scents, Next they encounter the sounds of the infectious energy and rhythms of Mexico, while also smelling roasted agave and oak. Finally, they will be able to create their own Tequila Don Julio cocktail with fresh ingredients using artisanal tools. Admission to the Tequila Don Julio experience is free and tickets are available on the company's website. Barbara Frankes groundbreaking genetic research is changing how we understand and treat ADHD and other psychiatric conditions. Trusted Source Barbara Franke: Understanding the biological pathways from genes to altered behaviour in neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD - paving the way for improved understanding and care in psychiatry Go to source Trusted Source Did You Know? ADHD has a heritability estimate of up to 74%, making it one of the most genetic psychiatric conditions. #medindia #genetics #adhd ADHD has a heritability estimate of up to 74%, making it one of the most genetic psychiatric conditions. #medindia #genetics #adhd Advertisement From HeLa Cells to Human Behavior Advertisement International Collaboration and Genetic Models Redefining Psychiatric Categories Mentorship Style and Epigenetic Shift Barbara Franke: Understanding the biological pathways from genes to altered behaviour in neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD paving the way for improved understanding and care in psychiatry - (https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/genpsych/aop/article-10.61373-gp025k.0053/article-10.61373-gp025k.0053.xml) like ADHD , as shown through the transformative work ofat Radboud University, whose lifelong fascination with nature evolved into pioneering contributions in biological psychiatry ().Professor Franke's career trajectory took an unexpected turn during a practical session isolating DNA from HeLa cells. "I fell in love with molecular genetics," she recalls, describing how this pivotal moment shifted her focus from studying great apes in Africa to unraveling the molecular mysteries of human behavior. This transition ultimately led her to psychiatric genetics, where she found her true calling in addressing the controversial and misunderstood nature of ADHD.With over 500 peer-reviewed publications, Professor Franke has established herself among the. Her work extends far beyond traditional gene identification, employing innovative approaches that bridge multiple scientific disciplines. "I am absolutely amazed at how much we can already learn about the biological pathways and brain-cellular substrates underlying psychiatric conditions using data science methods," she notes, while emphasizing the indispensable role of experimental validation.Professor Franke's leadership in founding multiple international research consortia, including the International Multicentre persistent ADHD Collaboration (IMpACT) and the ECNP Network ADHD across the lifespan, demonstrates her commitment to collaborative science. As a founding member of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), she recognized early that advancing psychiatric genetics required unprecedented international cooperation.Her research philosophy combines cutting-edge bioinformatics with experimental models ranging from fruit flies to human induced pluripotent stem cells. This multifaceted approach raises intriguing questions about how genetic variations translate into behavioral differences and whether understanding these mechanisms could lead to more personalized treatments for neurodevelopmental conditions.Currently heading the Medical Neuroscience department at Radboud University Medical Center, Professor Franke harbors ambitious goals. "We still need a new nosology in psychiatry, and I want to contribute to that by identifying genes and pathways," she explains. Her recent venture into epigenetics research explores how environmental factors interact with genetic predispositions, potentially unlocking new avenues for prevention and intervention strategies.The decorated Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion approaches her work with a philosophy captured by the German proverb she lives by: "Die Suppe wird nicht so hei gegessen, wie sie gekocht wird" ("The soup is not eaten as hot as it is cooked"). This balanced perspective has enabled her to navigate complex scientific challenges while mentoring the next generation of researchers.Professor Franke's influence extends beyond her scientific contributions. Her "jump first, think later" mentorship approach has empowered countless young scientists, particularly women, to seize opportunities in competitive research environments. This philosophy raises important questions about how scientific culture might evolve if more researchers embraced calculated risk-taking and rapid decision-making.The interview reveals fascinating insights into Professor Franke's recent move to epigenetics, using advanced single-cell resolution techniques to study DNA modifications and transcriptomes. These cutting-edge approaches could potentially identify biomarkers for treatment response or reveal critical windows for intervention during brain development.As psychiatric conditions continue to affect millions worldwide, Professor Franke's work offers hope for improved diagnosis and treatment. Her integration of molecular biology, neuroscience, and clinical psychiatry exemplifies the interdisciplinary approach needed to tackle complex brain disorders. The question remains: How quickly can these biological insights translate into tangible improvements in patient care?Source-Eurekalert Prolonged waiting times for cancer diagnosis are putting children and young people at risk. Trusted Source Delay in diagnosis and associated factors among children with cancer admitted at pediatric oncology ward, University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, Ethiopia: a retrospective cross-sectional study Go to source Trusted Source Cancer Diagnosis Pathways Did You Know? Delays in diagnosis can lead to increased morbidity and mortality in #pediatric cancer patients. #medindia #childhoodcancer #delayeddiagnosis Delays in diagnosis can lead to increased morbidity and mortality in #pediatric cancer patients. #medindia #childhoodcancer #delayeddiagnosis The Diagnostic Delay: Understanding Factors Advertisement Delays Can Be Deadly: Prioritize Cancer Diagnosis Delay in diagnosis and associated factors among children with cancer admitted at pediatric oncology ward, University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, Ethiopia: a retrospective cross-sectional study - (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10201796/) New research sheds light on childhood cancer diagnosis in the UK, highlighting both advancements and challenges. While ethnicity, sex, and socioeconomic status no longer impact diagnosis times, concerning delays persist for young people and certain cancers like bone tumors. Prompt diagnosis is vital to prevent tumor growth and improve treatment outcomes (). The study found that the total time to diagnosis from first symptom to confirmed diagnosis varied widely from the same day to several years. The median time to diagnosis was 4.6 weeks, but this varied by age and cancer type. Teenagers (15-18 years) experienced the longest median time to diagnosis (8.7 weeks), whereas infants under one year had the shortest (3.7 weeks).Among cancer types, bone tumours had the longest median diagnostic interval (12.6 weeks), while kidney tumours had the shortest (2.3 weeks).Importantly, the study found that factors such as sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status did not influence the time to diagnosis. The researchers also studied the routes to diagnosis, including the number of healthcare visits before a confirmed diagnosis. Most children and young people (74%) had between one and three medical visits before being diagnosed, and two-thirds (67%) were diagnosed in an emergency setting.The majority first consulted a GP or an emergency doctor. Some cancer types, including Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH), bone tumours , soft tissue tumours, and brain tumours, were associated with a higher number of medical visits before diagnosis. This data highlights that, whilst access to diagnosis is equal across different demographic groups, some children and young people, particularly teenagers and those with certain types of cancer, experience longer times to diagnosis.The findings will help focus efforts towards closing the gap for these groups, ensuring more children and young people receive a diagnosis sooner, says Dr Shanmugavadivel. The results will feed into the Child Cancer Smart campaign led by CCLG: The Children & Young Peoples Cancer Association, which aims to promote earlier diagnosis, through awareness and education of the public and healthcare professionals.Ashley Ball-Gamble, CEO of CCLG and co-author on the study, said: Childhood cancer knows no boundaries - it affects children and young people of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. However, our research has revealed important differences in how long diagnosis takes.It's crucial that we understand why certain groups, such as older teenagers, or those with certain cancers, such as bone and brain tumours, are likely to face a lengthier diagnosis. By recognising these differences, we hope to work towards faster diagnoses and improved survival rates.Dr Sharna Shanmugavadivel has recently been appointed as the Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Taskforce at the Department of Health and Social Care. The taskforce brings together the country's top experts to set out plans to improve treatment, detection and research for cancer in children and young people, which will feed into the National Cancer Plan.Dr Shanmugavadivel adds: We are grateful to have the opportunity to use this data as a community through the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to develop recommendations for the National Cancer Plan so that we can continue to monitor progress whilst developing policy, professional and public health strategies to accelerate diagnosis.Source-Eurekalert SK Bioscience wins legal clearance to expand global supply of its pneumococcal vaccine after a court rules it did not infringe on Pfizer's patent. Highlights: Court ruling clears SK Bioscience of infringing Pfizers vaccine patent Global expansion begins as vaccine components are cleared for export New vaccine development in progress with wider protection and global collaboration Trusted Source South Korea's SK bioscience wins patent dispute against Pfizer over pneumococcal vaccine Go to source Trusted Source Did You Know? #SK_Bioscience can now ship its 13-valent #pneumococcal vaccine to regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America after winning a court case against #Pfizer that blocked exports since 2020. #medindia #vaccines #SK_Bioscience can now ship its 13-valent #pneumococcal vaccine to regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America after winning a court case against #Pfizer that blocked exports since 2020. #medindia #vaccines Advertisement Opportunities Beyond Patent Barriers Advertisement Future Plans for Broader Vaccine Access Strategic Shift in the Vaccine Landscape South Korea's SK bioscience wins patent dispute against Pfizer over pneumococcal vaccine - (https://www.deshsewak.org/english/news/198392) SK Bioscience has secured a definitive legal victory over Pfizer, clearing the path forcomponents. South Koreas Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling that SK Biosciences 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) did not infringe upon Pfizers patent rights, specifically for products exported for research purposes ().The legal battle began in 2020 when Pfizer filed a lawsuit alleging that SKs export of PCV13-related components to Russia violated the patent of its own vaccine, Prevnar 13. The court, however, concluded that the individual components of SKs PCV13 vaccine fell outside the boundaries of Pfizers patent, affirming the legality of both the production and research-related export of the vaccine.Although SK Bioscience developed Koreas first domestically produced PCV13 vaccine, branded as SKYPneumo, in 2016, it faced hurdles in bringing the product to market within the country. Due to a separate patent restriction, the company is barred from commercializing SKYPneumo domestically until 2027, when the contested patents expire. Despite this, the courts ruling has unlocked international routes that had previously been blocked.With the legal challenge resolved, SK Bioscience is moving forward with the supply of individual conjugate stock solutions to global markets where vaccine demand is high. The company is prioritizing regions such as Southeast Asia and Latin America and is actively engaging in technology transfer partnerships with local stakeholders to facilitate wider distribution.This verdict not only enhances SK Biosciences current reach but also positions the company for further growth in the vaccine sector. The firm emphasized its plans to scale up exports and prepare for full commercial entry into previously restricted markets once patent expirations take effect.In tandem with this progress, SK Bioscience is advancing a next-generation 21-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, developed in collaboration with global pharmaceutical company Sanofi. This vaccine entered Phase 3 clinical trials at the end of 2024 and aims to offer broader protection compared to existing products.According to SK Biosciences president, Ahn Jae-yong, the courts ruling marks a pivotal moment for Korean biotechnology on the global stage. He emphasized that the decision not only validates the innovation behind their vaccine but also opens the door to new global opportunities. The company sees this as a turning point that will help improve access to high-quality vaccines, stabilize the global supply chain, and support long-term growth in the biotech sector.By capitalizing on this ruling, SK Bioscience is set to transition from legal stalemate to market momentum, bringing its products to more countries while preparing for domestic reentry post-2027.In conclusion, SK Biosciences legal victory marks a turning point in its journey toward becoming a global vaccine supplier. With the court ruling confirming that its pneumococcal vaccine does not violate Pfizers patent, the company can now expand exports and form international partnerships. While domestic sales remain restricted until 2027, the company is already preparing for the future with broader vaccine development and clinical trials.Source-Medindia Hypertension drug to liver injury as South Koreas drug relief payouts fall for the first time in six years. Trusted Source Angiotensin Receptor Blockers and the Risk of Suspected Drug-Induced Liver Injury: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Electronic Health Record-Based Common Data Model in South Korea Go to source Trusted Source Did You Know? Azilsartan users had a 6.5 times higher risk of liver injury than valsartan users, yet only 38.7% of compensation funds were used in 2024. #medindia #drugsideeffects #azilsartan #liverhealth #publichealth Azilsartan users had a 6.5 times higher risk of liver injury than valsartan users, yet only 38.7% of compensation funds were used in 2024. #medindia #drugsideeffects #azilsartan #liverhealth #publichealth Advertisement Azilsartan: A Medicine Under the Microscope Advertisement Forgotten Fund: Billions Unused, Lives Unaware Dangerous Silence: Why Awareness Can Save Lives From Hospitals to Headlines: The Power of Real-World Research Meanwhile, a Boom in Animal Medicine: A New Frontier Angiotensin Receptor Blockers and the Risk of Suspected Drug-Induced Liver Injury: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Electronic Health Record-Based Common Data Model in South Korea - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38512445/) We trust medicines to make us feel better to heal our bodies, calm our symptoms, and bring us back to life. But what happens when the very drug we rely on ends up causing harm? In South Korea, new research has raised concerns about a, and its link to. At the same time, the country saw afor people affected by drug side effects a first in six years. This troubling mix of real patient risk and low public awareness calls for urgent action. Shouldn't more people know about the help available? Lets explore the human side of this unfolding health story().For many Koreans living with high blood pressure , azilsartan may sound like just another pill but scientists recently discovered it carries a muchthan other drugs in the same class. In fact, people on azilsartan werelikely to experience drug-induced liver injury (DILI) compared to those on valsartan. Most of these cases were mild but still concerning, especially as they happened in real-world settings. This shows that even well-known medicines can have, and we must stay informed.South Korea has a a lifeline meant to support those harmed by medications. In 2024, the government collectedfrom drug companies, yet only. Thats just, even though patients are still suffering. Many people dont even know this program exists, which means they miss out on help they rightfully deserve. It's not just about money it's aboutwhen your health is affected by a trusted treatment.One major reason for the decline in payouts is low public awareness. Imagine being sick from a medicine and not knowing theres a support system to help you. Many patients, families, and even doctors mayor not report them properly. If more people were aware through hospitals, pharmacies, or even public ads many more could be helped. Its time to break the silence around drug reactions andThe study that exposed azilsartans risks didnt come from a lab it came from real patient data inacross South Korea. Researchers followed overand found patterns that would have been easy to miss in clinical trials. This kind ofis becoming more powerful in modern medicine because it reflects what actually happens to people every day. It shows that research isnt just numbers its about people, families, and futures.While human drug safety faces challenges, South Korea is investing big in. The government plans to. With more pets, more livestock, and rising animal diseases, this sector is booming and full of potential. But the contrast is striking:It's a moment to reflect and balance progress with protection.Source-Korea Institute of Drug Safety & Risk Management. The week may have been chaotic, but these men kept their fashion game firmly in check. Whether it was Vihaan Samat redefining the black suit or Ishaan Khatter giving sweater vests a whole new charm, one thing is clear style isnt just about what you wear, its how you wear it. From vacation dumps to polished premieres, this lineup of best-dressed men proves that personal flair, smart accessorising, and an ounce of risk is really all it takes. Here's everyone we couldnt scroll past. Vihaan Samat Instagram/Vihaan Samat The Royals Diggy aka Vihaan Samat is officially the one to watch. His acting is soul-touching and his fashion is always effortlessly on point. This look is no exception because just when I thought a basic black suit could have no more room to grow, Vihaan chose to subtly make it even edgier. Ishaan Khatter Instagram/Ishaan Khatter Apparently, Ishaan Khatters stylists have decided that his biceps are the moment. Im definitely more focused on that sweater vest. Its cropped, its cute and it lets the wide leg pants have their moment too. Vedang Raina Instagram/Vedang Raina Vedang Raina posing in front of the quintessential London phone booth is great and all, but hes singlehandedly bringing back the school-boy core with this outfit. The sweater on shirt trend will never die for me because it always works. I will fight anyone on this. KL Rahul Instagram/KL Rahul This outfit is only on the list for the LV man-purse. Im just a girl, obsessed with men who carry their own things. KL Rahul loves to give us vacation dumps and we love to see it. Vijay Varma Instagram/Vijay Varma In my opinion, just the top half of an outfit is enough for me to know its a good one. Vijay Varma is an accessorising king because the cap, the sunglasses, the earring on one ear, and even the pendant, are all so chic. The striped shirt proves hes still in his summer era and we would love to join him. Taha Shah The Air Force wants a company to take over its aging chain of hotels at bases across the world, the latest move by the new administration to privatize and commercialize parts of the military. Service-operated hotels at 58 military bases could be privatized, ideally handing the lodging off to a national hotel chain. The idea, which has been in the works for the past two years, could include a company signing a 50-year lease to update and run the lodging primarily used by troops and their families for travel and temporary-duty assignments, according to the service. Military.com has reported on the struggles that Air Force inns have faced in recent years, including significant closures in 2022 due in part to being stripped of taxpayer funding in 2018. It also comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made it clear in a memo last month that he wants to privatize anything that is "not inherently governmental" within the military, including base exchanges, commissaries and even installation hotels. Read Next: Trump Pardons Former Army Officer Convicted of Disobeying COVID-19 Safety Rules "A 2023 analysis by [Department of the Air Force] leadership determined that commercialization of DAF lodging offers the best path to sustainment," the Air Force said in a news release. "Over time, evolving funding priorities and the transition to a fully nonappropriated funds model have presented challenges for facility upkeep and improvements." In addition to Hegseth, current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations nominee and former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said when he was a congressman that he wanted the military "out of the hotel management business." The Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, will start accepting requests for proposals this summer, with an initial look at having a hotel company taking over hotels at 23 installations. The initial hotels targeted will be at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; Beale Air Force Base, California; Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado; Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia; Edwards Air Force Base, California; Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas; Hurlburt Field, Florida; Joint Base Andrews, Maryland; Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey; Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas; MacDill Air Force Base, Florida; Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada; Robins Air Force Base, Georgia; Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina; Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina; Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; and Travis Air Force Base, California. "Quality lodging is critical for airmen, Guardians and their families," Robert Moriarty, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, said in the news release. "Whether for training, relocation or temporary duty assignments, ensuring reliable, well-maintained lodging is vital to readiness, mission success and resilience." Benjamin Kindt, chief of the Commercial On-Base Lodging Program Management Office, said in the news release that the service is "focused on swiftly, yet effectively, selecting an industry leader as a lease applicant." By summer 2026, the Department of the Air Force hopes to have a company selected and, by fall 2027, have the operation and lease transferred over to the new management. The Army has already privatized many of its hotels. In 2009, the Army began privatizing the vast majority of its domestic lodging on bases -- Intercontinental Hotels Group manages and operates 41 locations, according to the Defense Travel Management Office website. In October, the Air Force first announced its decision to pursue commercialization of its lodging, saying officials "took note of the successful Privatized Army Lodging (PAL) program" and that it resulted in "greatly improved guest satisfaction scores across the program." Related: Hotels at Air Force Bases Across the Country Are Closing DENVER -- The Fort Carson soldier arrested for alleged cocaine distribution just days after a large-scale federal raid of a Colorado Springs illegal nightclub in late April pleaded not guilty to multiple charges Thursday. Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, 27, appeared out of custody after a federal judge ruled he was eligible for release at his last hearing May 15. Orona-Rodriguez's attorney, Stephanie Snyder, entered the not-guilty plea on behalf of her client, who is facing one federal count each of distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. According to a May 1 federal indictment, Orona-Rodriguez's offenses related to the alleged cocaine distribution started no later than Sept. 16, 2024, and continued through at least April 9. Also, court records showed Orona-Rodriguez worked as armed security at the nightclub, identified as Warike. The early morning raid on April 27 resulted in 104 arrests, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. During earlier hearings, prosecutors said his wife also acted as security for the nightclub. Orona-Rodriguez was one of 17 soldiers at the nightclub during the early morning raid among around 200 partygoers, officials said. About 300 law enforcement agents from federal and local agencies were said to have participated in the raid at 296. S. Academy Blvd., including the DEA, Colorado Springs police, and the El Paso and Douglas County sheriffs offices. Orona-Rodriguez previously received counseling from his commanding officer at Fort Carson to discontinue his work through the company Immortal Security, where he was alleged to be in a leadership position, according to his arrest affidavit. It remains unclear what punishment, if any, Fort Carson may impose on Orona-Rodriguez. During the May 15 hearing, Deputy U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly told the court the soldier will be processed for administrative separation, but that the process isn't anticipated to start for several more weeks. Starting the process does not mean Orona-Rodriguez will immediately be kicked out of the Army, McNeilly said. Many questions remain over a month after the multi-agency raid, including the whereabouts of 86 individuals taken into custody that morning. The most recent Gazette report had the official number of arrests sitting at 104, according to information from ICE. An ICE spokesperson said 18 people out of the 104 arrested had previously been ordered to be deported and were subject to a final order of removal. The remaining 86 people without a deportation order will remain in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings, according to the same ICE spokesperson. Multiple questions in an email to ICE have gone unanswered, including whether or not they have access to their families and if all the detainees are on a no-bond hold. The Gazette has found that only three individuals are facing criminal charges after the raid, the most notable being Orona-Rodriguez. Two other men were arrested on outstanding warrants. Julio Santiesteban, 33, and Pedro Trevizo-Perea, 29. No new dates were announced for the Fort Carson soldier's next appearance in court. 2025 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Visit www.gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Air Force Academy's newly minted second lieutenants will need all the tenacity they developed over their four years to face a rapidly evolving global conflict. Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink delivered this message to about 900 cadets during a cold and rainy ceremony Thursday morning at Falcon Stadium. The weather grounded the traditional Thunderbirds airshow, disappointing some cadets, but did not dim their ecstatic reaction to capping off four years at the academy. Meink warned cadets that while their bachelor's degree is behind them, many challenges lie ahead particularly as international competition with China increases. "The pressure, the pace is going to continue to increase as you train, deploy and fight in the operational Air Force," he said. During the Global War on Terror in the Middle East, the Air Force flew the skies unchallenged, but Meink expects the Indo-Pacific will be this generation's major challenge. The Department of Defense is preparing the largest military exercise since the Cold War to help deter those threats. It will also take innovation to stay ahead globally, he said, as the Department of Defense goes through a massive modernization effort. "If we continue to operate as we have in the past, we will fail in the future," he said. Young officers can be critical to those innovations, and Meink cited several lieutenants and captains who have been critical to success, such as a young pilot who dropped GPS guided bombs during his first deployment last year to the Middle East and a captain who brings critical intelligence products to White House officials. Superintendent Tony Bauernfeind also said he believed the cadets were ready to face the challenges ahead after some arrived as freshmen wearing flip-flops. "We set the bar high and you leapt over it," he said. The cadets also faced particular challenges, with the loss of four of their classmates over their four years. Cadets Hunter Brown, Ryong Adams, Tristen Burton and K. Emily Foster all passed before graduation. Brown died of a blood clot in his lungs, Adams died in a skateboarding accident, Burton died in a motorcycle crash and Foster passed from cancer. "You offered compassion and support through the unimaginable," he said. Ainsley McMullin, the fiancee of Air Force graduate Griffin Anderson, said he knew two of the cadets who died in his class. "The juxtaposition of the grief and how he was able to unite his squad was really powerful," she said. McMullin recalled two blue jays that she saw flying around the stadium during the graduation, noting that it was so beautiful. "It's a sign that they were there with them," she said. Shannon Meaux said her son 2nd Lt. Rory Meaux knew Brown and Adams and those losses were tough. "It's been a long four years," Meaux said. The environment was closer this year to his freshmen year because of the changes made by the new superintendent, she said. After Bauernfeind arrived at the beginning of the school year, he largely restricted cadets to base to enforce higher standards. During that time, 2nd Lt. Ruth Anand said her friends discovered new things to do on base, such as climbing Eagle's Peak in a snowstorm. Anand is one of the few graduates headed for the Army, where she hopes to fly Apache helicopters. The rain and canceled airshow also didn't cloud her enthusiasm. "I'm ecstatic, like it's the greatest moment of my life," she said. Sporting Hawaiian leis, Jacob and Joseph Palenapa, fraternal twins, commissioned together and both graduated with degrees in aeronautical engineering. They were relieved to have their time at the academy behind them. "It feels really good to be done," they both said. After graduation they will separate for the first time for pilot training. Joseph Palenapa is headed to Laughlin Air Force Base and Jacob Palenapa is headed to Columbus Air Force Base. He would like to fly F-15 Strike Eagles. While they are excited for the next step, they loved their time together. "It was really nice to have a steady rock that we can lean on," Jacob Palenapa said. Gazette reporter Nick Smith contributed to this report. 2025 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Visit www.gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. BEIRUT The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government forces that an opposition war monitor described as the first on the Syrian army to be carried out by the extremists since the fall of Bashar Assad. IS said in a statement on Thursday that in one attack, a bomb targeting a vehicle of the apostate regime" detonated, leaving seven soldiers dead or wounded. It said the attack occurred last Thursday, or May 22, in the al-Safa area in the desert of the southern province of Sweida. In a separate statement, the group said another bomb attack occurred this week in a nearby area, targeting members of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army. It claimed that it killed one fighter and wounded three. There was no comment from the government on the claims. A spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on government forces killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers, describing it as the first such attack to be claimed by IS against Syrian forces since the 54-year rule by the Assad family ended in December. IS, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was once the head of al-Qaidas branch in Syria and fought battles against IS. Over the past several months, IS has claimed responsibility for attacks against the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast. IS was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled. Since then, its sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks, mainly in eastern and northeast Syria. In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syrias post-Assad government thwarted a plan by IS to set off a bomb at a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Damascus. Al-Sharaa met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, when the American leader said that Washington would work on lifting crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of Assad. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the meeting that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria and help the U.S. stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group. Navy Secretary John Phelan visited Guam earlier this month and was "appalled" after seeing the conditions of an Air Force barracks where junior service members were living, prompting an ongoing Navy-wide inspection of more than 100,000 barracks units, according to a government watchdog and service officials. Conditions included exposed wires, corroded plumbing and dilapidated walls splattered with paint to cover mold; after Phelan's visit, more than 70 Marines and sailors were moved out of the Palau Hall barracks, a housing facility at Andersen Air Force Base. Another 77 airmen there are "in the process of being relocated" in anticipation of a $53 million renovation scheduled to start later this year, an Air Force spokesperson told Military.com on Friday. The Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, obtained images of the squalid housing and correspondence sent by the Navy's head of installations, who ordered all regional commands to inspect their barracks by the end of May. Read Next: Air Force Wants Private Company to Take Over its On-Base Hotels The Navy official, Vice Adm. Scott Gray, noted that the Palau Hall barracks were "way outside of any reasonable standard" and that the conditions were "a failure of leadership across multiple echelons of command," according to the documents. Not all of the inspections have been completed, the Navy told Military.com Friday, but are expected to be finished by the end of June. Following his visit May 1-2, Phelan ordered Marines and sailors be moved out of the Air Force-owned barracks within 10 days and that new housing aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz be opened about a month ahead of schedule in response to the squalid conditions, according to POGO and confirmed by the Navy. "I actually thought the buildings were condemned," Phelan told POGO in an interview. "When we pulled up to them and saw what shape they're in, I was shocked." Days later, on May 5, Gray sent the email, with photos of the barracks conditions attached, directing the worldwide inspection and adding that "if you would not want a sailor's mother/family visiting them at the housing unit, then you have a problem that needs to be addressed. Fix It!" The inspections are meant to "ensure our sailors are residing in unaccompanied housing that meet living standards regardless [of] if they are Navy-owned or not," Leslie Gould, the Fleet and Family Readiness director for the service's installation command, told Military.com in an emailed statement Friday. Palau Hall is Air Force-owned, but it is not uncommon for troops from different branches to stay in cross-service housing. The Navy's inspection includes barracks where sailors are living, but that are operated by other branches. There are more than 104,000 unaccompanied housing units across the Navy, Gould said. They are given a "red, yellow or green" designator following a multi-leader inspection of the barracks' exterior, common areas such as kitchens and laundry rooms, and quarters, according to Gray's email. Within the "yellow" category, Gray urged leaders to apply the "Washington Post test," meaning that "if the pictures you have taken or the results of your assessment conducted of a particular facility were published online tomorrow, would you be able to personally justify sailors living there?" Gould said that housing facilities deemed to be "red" will result in a sailor being immediately removed from the barracks. Those identified as "yellow" will be prioritized for restoration. She said that there are currently no sailors or Marines living in Air Force-owned barracks on Guam, having been relocated to Blaz facilities, and that the Joint Region Marianas commander, Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, inspected all other barracks on the U.S. territory and found that they were not "below standards." Rene Kladzyk, a senior investigator at POGO and former reporter El Paso Matters in Texas, told Military.com in a phone interview Friday that her reporting stemmed from a tip the organization received this month. "I think it's pretty well known that the problems in barracks conditions are quite pervasive. It's not unique to Guam," she said. "When talking about barracks conditions, often we're talking about single, more junior service members who may be in a culture where they are kind of told or taught that they should just be willing to tough it out." "Exposed wiring has very real fire hazard risks. Mold can have a range of severe health impacts that often can be really hard to directly tie," she added. "It's worth mentioning that there are very serious dangers connected to not maintaining housing facilities." The Marine Corps announced last month that Marines and sailors began relocating into new barracks at Camp Blaz from Andersen, citing testimony from troops calling it a "huge upgrade," but did not disclose that the move was a result of poor conditions at Palau Hall. "Luckily, we were in a position to move them out of the Air Force barracks into the brand new built Marine Corps barracks," Capt. Brenda Leenders, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps, told Military.com on Friday, adding that "there are nine [barracks facilities] still in the construction phase" on Guam. After publication, the Marine Corps provided a statement citing concerns that this article did not adequately distinguish Marines barracks conditions from sailors'. "The Marines rooms were always safe and within standards because of the discipline, efforts and dedication of our individual Marines and their units leadership. When asked why the Marines were moved, spokesperson Lt. Col. Josh Benson said "we follow lawful orders. The service did not dispute the overall condition of the facility, but Benson noted that "Marines were scheduled to depart soon anyway, that plan was accelerated by the secretary of the Navy." Barracks conditions for junior troops have been squalid for years as many service leaders recognized that upkeep and funding for their living conditions fell by the wayside as pressing operational needs took priority during 20 years of the Global War on Terrorism. In 2023, the Government Accountability Office found that barracks across the services were infested by mold, rodents, raw sewage and general dilapidation, leaving tens of thousands of young troops in substandard living conditions. While many of the services have said they are continuing to prioritize and fund fixing and building new barracks, Military.com reported on Wednesday that the Pentagon will shift $1 billion meant for Army barracks maintenance and renovation to its southern border mission. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" legislation working through Congress, meant to help enact President Donald Trump's agenda, allocates another roughly $1 billion for barracks maintenance and improvements. But that funding would be split between the Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force, resulting in "a net loss here for them on an uphill battle for quality-of-life initiatives," Rob Evans, creator of Hots & Cots, an app where service members can leave reviews about facilities, told Military.com on Friday. "They are all impacted by this, and I would love to hear some sort of steps forward on what the secretary of defense's agenda is for addressing this stuff because this will impact retention and this will impact recruiting," he added. The Air Force spokesperson said that the service "is committed to providing safe and adequate living conditions for its service members," adding that it is prioritizing barracks restoration as part of a "4-year Dorm Master Plan" and had allocated roughly $115 million to four dormitories at Andersen. They noted that Typhoon Mawar in 2023 caused severe damage to facilities there. The service has a $49.5 billion backlog in maintenance and repair efforts, Michael Saunders, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, installations and environment, recently told Congress. In recent years, service leaders have tied troop quality-of-life conditions to urgent strategic efforts, recruiting and retention. Guam, located in the Western Pacific, is also a key strategic asset for the military's ability to project power amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China. "Maintenance and repair funding levels have not kept pace with the rising cost of construction, leading to compounding sustainment costs, widespread degradation, and increases in infrastructure issues that adversely impact mission execution," Saunders said in a statement to the House Armed Services Committee, noting that those conditions make "installations vulnerable to adversaries and [place] mission generation at risk." Editors note: This story was updated with additional comment from the Marine Corps. Related: Pentagon Diverts $1 Billion from Army Barracks to Fund Border Mission In his role as a pilot with the Marine Corps air demonstration team, Maj. Craig Norris flew the F-35B Lightning II at airshows along the West Coast in 2024. While the fighter aircraft's capabilities intrigued spectators, they were most interested in one specific issue. "The first question we always get is, 'Hey, is there air conditioning in there?'" Norris said. Norris answered that question on a recent episode of "The Fighter Pilot Podcast," where Maj. Craig Turner -- his replacement for this airshow season -- joined him for a discussion with host and former Navy fighter pilot Vincent "Jell-O" Aiello. Norris and Turner come from military families, serve as Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) instructors in California and are highly experienced in the F-35B. At the time of the podcast, Norris was approaching 1,000 flight hours and Turner more than 600 in the advanced aircraft. First flown by the Marines in 2015, the F-35B is a fifth-generation fighter that can reach speeds of nearly 1,200 mph and is the first supersonic aircraft capable of short takeoff and vertical landings, or STOVL. Its highly sophisticated stealth technology also can make it nearly undetectable to enemy radar. On "The Fighter Pilot Podcast," Norris and Turner discuss how they juggle the responsibilities of flight instructors with being on the demo team, the importance of ground crews in allowing them to do what they do, the requirements for being an airshow pilot, the various maneuvers they perform and how they got their callsigns ("Brembo" for Norris, "Chuckles" for Turner), among other topics. You can find the complete episode below. For more about "The Fighter Pilot Podcast," please check out its website. And if you're interested in watching the Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II airshow demonstration team perform, its 2025 schedule is available here. Follow and Subscribe to The Fighter Pilot Podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Related: What the Life of a Navy Fighter Pilot Really Looks Like Keep Up With the Best in Military Entertainment Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox. Have you thought about becoming a college professor after military service? It is one of the dream jobs I hear about from transitioning senior military members, both officers and enlisted. As lifelong learners, a professorship seems like one of those jobs that make a difference. Yet transitioning veterans tell me they can't even get the interview. "There are enormous barriers there," Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, said in a recent interview. "Far more people want to do it than can. Absent being famous or having a prior relationship with the university that you are able to develop, doing anything more than being an adjunct professor is pretty much impossible." Until now. Read Now: Should You Research the Interviewer Before the Interview? Or Is that Creepy? The Chamberlain Project, an initiative of Blue Star Families, is building a bridge for transitioning military members to enter academia, particularly in some of the nation's most prestigious liberal arts colleges. The program aspires not only to empower veterans, but also to give students a more grounded relationship with military professionals who have dedicated their lives to public service. This is an invaluable experience to those students who will become future leaders in politics, policy and industry. It is an exciting development for veterans, too. Like Hiring Our Heroes and American Corporate Partners help bridge the gap into Fortune 500 companies, Blue Star Families is doing the same thing into universities through these fellowships. How the Fellowship Works As a fellow, recipients are either paid a stipend for research or they become a retired officer teaching fellow teaching two classes per semester. This schedule allows them time for their transition tasks as well as getting used to the academic load. The university pays half the salary, and the Chamberlain Project pays the other half. To qualify for the program, applicants must be currently transitioning out of the military. They don't need to have extensive teaching experience, but they must have already completed their terminal degree -- meaning the highest possible degree in their profession. This is usually a Ph.D., but terminal degrees can also include a juris doctor (JD) in law, a doctor of medicine (M.D.), a doctor of business administration (DBA) or a doctor of education (Ed.D.). Candidates must complete an online application form, including a letter of interest and a current curriculum vitae (CV). Applications for the next cohort will open Aug. 4. 2025. Navy veteran Matthew Hawks, whose Ph.D. is in operations research, is just completing his fellowship. In his last assignment, he taught probability and statistics at the US Naval Academy. Yet even as a professor, he expected difficulty in breaking into the university system because of the hiring process. Universities require advanced degrees and publication records, as well as a knowledge of and a network into academic culture. "Most schools hire through a competitive nationwide search that is one of the longest in any industry -- nearly a year," Hawks told me. "That's the beauty of the Chamberlain Project. They were able to take my CV to the schools and do the marketing for me." At Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, Hawks taught two classes each semester in statistics and regression analysis. "I really love teaching, but I had to adjust to a civilian student mindset," Hawks said. "I had to get to know the students more to see what would motivate them." He found he had to change examples he used and take more time for mentorship. Hawks has been offered an extension of his contract to teach another year at Georgetown. The program has already garnered partnerships with prominent institutions. While the full list is expansive, some of those prestigious colleges include Amherst College in Massachusetts, Georgetown and Howard University in the nation's capital, Hamilton College in New York and Wesleyan University in Connecticut. "We hope this program encourages veterans to finish their Ph.D.s and bring their invaluable life experiences into the classroom," Roth-Douquet said. Find the Right Veteran Job Whether you want to polish your resume, find veteran job fairs in your area or connect with employers looking to hire veterans, Military.com can help. Subscribe to Military.com to have job postings, guides and advice, and more delivered directly to your inbox. The Rays optioned top prospect Chandler Simpson to Triple-A Durham this afternoon. That opens a spot on the active roster for Jake Mangum, who was reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Mangum is back after a five-week absence due to a left groin strain. Simpson heads back down after a six-week run on the big league roster. The Rays selected his contract in the middle of April. The lefty-hitting outfielder appeared in 35 games, hitting .285/.315/.317 through his first 133 plate appearances. There was no power production and a low walk rate, but he kept his strikeout rate below 11% to post a strong batting average. As expected, he was a menace on the bases. Simpson stole 19 bags in 22 attempts, already launching him to third in MLB (behind Luis Robert Jr. and Bobby Witt Jr.). Those players have been in the big leagues all season, of course. No other player has stolen more than 15 bases since Simpsons call-up on April 18. Its the same profile that the Georgia Tech product has shown throughout his minor league career. Simpson is an elite contact hitter and among the fastest players in the sport. Hes an otherworldly baserunner who successively swiped 94 and 104 bases during his first two full minor league seasons. His 198 combined steals led all minor league players by 68 over that stretch. The question is how much value Simpson can wring out of that approach when he has zero power. Hes hit one professional home run, an inside-the-parker at Double-A last season. He only collected four extra-base hits in his first MLB look, all of which were doubles. Hes last among MLB hitters (minimum 100 plate appearances) in hard contact rate. A lot could come down to how well he develops defensively. Scouting reports havent been enamored with his reads and routes. His speed certainly gives him the potential to be a rangy defender, but he did not grade well over his first 284 MLB innings between center and left field. Tampa Bay has used Kameron Misner in center with Simpson in left for the past two weeks. Mangum, who was hitting .338/.384/.397 in 21 games before his injury, figures to take over as the starting left fielder. Jonny DeLuca was expected to feature prominently this year as well, but hes been out since late March with a right shoulder strain. DeLuca revealed this week that he suffered a setback as he continues to feel pain in his rotator cuff, primarily on throws (link via Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times). Theres no suggestion of surgery but he was pulled off the rehab assignment that hed begun over the weekend. The Rockies announced Friday that outfielder Nick Martini has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to fellow outfielder Sam Hilliard, whos back for another stint with the Rockies and has had his contract selected from Triple-A Albuquerque. Colorado also reinstated infielder Thairo Estrada from the 60-day injured list and optioned infielder Adael Amador to Albuquerque. Martini, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rox over the winter and broke camp with the club after a big spring performance. Hes received 111 plate appearances in the first two months and been shielded almost entirely from left-handed pitching (just five plate appearances) but has only mustered a .225/.288/.294 line at the plate. Its a second straight season of struggles, as Martini logged a tepid .212/.272/.370 in 163 plate appearances with the 2024 Reds. As recently as 2023, Martini posted a .264/.329/.583 slash in an admittedly small sample of of 79 plate appearances with Cincinnati. From 2018-23, he received sparse big league playing time despite an excellent Triple-A track record and hit .268/.362/.412 with an 11.2% walk rate in 412 plate appearances. Martini has always walked at a huge clip and has been an on-base machine in the upper minors; hes played in parts of eight Triple-A seasons and is a .294/.399/.454 hitter there. Obviously, that type of production didnt play out in 2025. The Rockies will either trade Martini or place him on waivers within the next week. Assuming he clears, hell have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Hilliard returns for whatll be his sixth season with the Rockies. He was a 15th-round pick by Colorado back in 2015 and suited up with the Rox from 2019-22 before bouncing to the Orioles and Braves via waivers. He appeared in 40 games with the 2023 Braves, then returned to the Rockies via waivers in February 2024. Hes since been removed from the 40-man roster but chose to stick with the Rockies and accepted an outright assignment. Hilliard is having a nice season in Triple-A. The 31-year-old is batting .288/.372/.538 about 15% better than league average in that hitter-friendly setting, by measure of wRC+ and has swatted six home runs along the way. Hes striking out too often (26.1%), as is typical for him, but hes also drawn walks at a hearty 12.2% clip. The 31-year-old Hilliard is heading back for whatll be his seventh partial season in the big leagues. Hes long shown an intriguing blend of power and speed, but his inability to consistently make contact has left him with a .219/.296/.438 batting line in 875 major league plate appearances. Hillard has struck out in a massive 34.1% of those trips to the plate. Estrada, 29, will make his team debut when he first takes the field. Colorado signed him to a one-year, $4MM contract over the offseason, but hes missed the entire year so far after suffering a broken wrist when he was hit by a pitch in spring training. A longtime division rival, Estrada had a mostly productive run in four years with the Giants. From 2021-23, he hit a combined .266/.320/.416 with strong glovework around the infield. He was San Franciscos primary second baseman for much of his time there and enjoyed consecutive seasons with 14 home runs and 20-plus steals in 2022-23. Estradas production tanked in 2024, however. He hit .217/.247/.343 in 381 plate appearances while battling a pair of sprains in his left wrist (the opposite wrist from the one he fractured this spring). The Rox signed him hoping for a rebound, which could still play out, but Estrada has now missed time in three straight seasons due to hand/wrist injuries, making it fair to wonder what type of toll that may ultimately take on his offensive output. Vessels in the Straits of Mackinac west of the Mackinac Bridge near the Enbridge Line 5 underwater pipeline crossing on Oct. 19, 2019. DETROIT, MI The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says environmental risks from building an Enbridge oil pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac are tied largely to its construction after the agency eliminated any consideration of climate impacts posed by building more fossil fuel infrastructure from its long-awaited environmental review. Climate risks posed by greenhouse emissions from petroleum products delivered via the proposed tunnel were dropped from a draft Environmental Impact Statement the Army Corp released on Friday, May 30 rescissions that document footnotes cite as based on executive orders from President Donald Trump. Former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield, left, is accused of multiple financial crimes. He and his wife, Stephanie, underwent a preliminary examination in East Lansing District Court. (John Agar| MLive) John Agar LANSING, MI Lee Chatfield, former speaker of the state House of Representatives, was ordered to stand trial on charges alleging he misused state, campaign and non-profit funds. Chatfield, 35, R-Levering, and his wife, Stephanie Chatfield, had their cases bound over Friday, May 30, to Ingham County Circuit Court. A federal trial started Wednesday, May 28, 2025 against a Michigan farm contractor that's been accused of violating trafficking and labor laws. (MLive File Photo) Daniel Shular | MLive.com Officials are asking Americans to use extra caution when visiting Brazil. Garret Ellison A Level 2 travel advisory has been issued for Americans planning to visit Brazil. The warning, issued Thursday, cites ongoing crime and possible kidnappings as reasons to be on alert when visiting. Violent crime, including murder, armed robbery, and carjacking, can occur in urban areas, day and night. There was a kidnapping for ransom of U.S. travelers, reads a portion of the advisory. The State Department also cited gang activity and assaults as dangers to Americans in Brazil. Assaults, including with sedatives and drugs placed in drinks, are common, especially in Rio de Janeiro, the advisory states. Criminals target foreigners through dating apps or at bars before drugging and robbing their victims. Along with exercising increased caution when visiting, the State Department says Americans should not travel to these areas for any reason as they are considered a Level 4 threat: Anywhere within 160 km/100 miles of Brazils land borders with Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. This restriction does not apply to the Foz do Iguacu National Park or Pantanal National Park. Informal housing developments, such as favelas, vilas, comunidades, or conglomerados, at any time. Brasilias Satellite Cities at night. This includes Ceilandia, Santa Maria, Sao Sebastiao, and Paranoa. A Level 4 threat is the most serious on the State Departments four-level scale. If visiting Brazil, officials say you should: Stay aware of your surroundings. Do not physically resist any robbery attempt. Do not accept food or drinks from strangers and always watch your drinks. Use caution when walking or driving at night. Avoid going to bars or nightclubs alone. Avoid walking on beaches after dark. Do not display signs of wealth, such as expensive watches or jewelry. Be alert to date drug scams. Stay alert when visiting banks or ATMs. Be careful at major transportation centers or on public transport, especially at night. Passengers are at higher risk of robbery or assault when using public buses in Brazil. Use increased caution when hiking in isolated areas. Develop a communication plan with family, employer, or host organization so they can monitor your safety and location as you travel through high-risk areas. Specify how youll confirm youre safe (text, calls, etc.), how often, and who youll contact first to share the information. For more information on the advisory and how to prepare for a trip to Brazil, visit the State Department website. Burton Memorial Tower, Ingalls Mall and Rackham Building in Ann Arbor in an MLive file photo. Protesters were removed from Rackham during a talk about the University of Michigan's $1.2 billion data centers proposed to be built in Ypsilanti. Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com ANN ARBOR, MI - Activists disrupted a Thursday talk on artificial intelligence on the University of Michigan campus due to their protest of the universitys proposed $1.2 billion data centers near Ypsilanti. University police officers identified and engaged three individuals after a disruption during a May 29 presentation at the SciFM25 Conference in the Rackham Building, Division of Public Safety and Security Deputy Chief Melissa Overton said. The "We Stand with Our Immigrant Neighbors" solidarity vigil in Ann Arbor on Jan. 20, 2025. The Trump administration is now targeting Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, calling them "sanctuary jurisdictions." MLive file photo. Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News ANN ARBOR, MI Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County are being targeted by the Trump administration with threats of terminating federal funding for allegedly being sanctuaries to immigrants in the country without legal authorization. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has published a list of hundreds of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions the administration argues are defying federal immigration law and standing in the way of Trumps deportation agenda. In addition to Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, other Michigan jurisdictions on the list include East Lansing, Kalamazoo County, Kent County, Oakland County, Wayne County and Wexford County. Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County do not self-identify as sanctuary jurisdictions, but they have immigrant-friendly policies and have resisted Trumps agenda, though they maintain theyre not doing anything illegal. City and county leaders have stood with local faith leaders in the sanctuary movement under the banner of a coalition called the Washtenaw Congregational Sanctuary. Immigrants are, and have always been, a critical part of the fabric of America, and in Ann Arbor our immigrant neighbors have made our community a better place, Mayor Pro Tem Travis Radina said in response to the new list. While Ann Arbor is not a sanctuary city, we are proud to be an inclusive and welcoming city, he said. We know diversity is a strength and believe in protecting the constitutionally granted rights of all our residents. Ann Arbor follows the law and has never interfered with federal immigration enforcement, Mayor Christopher Taylor said. Where law obligates our action, we act. End of story, he said. There is no such thing as a sanctuary city. No set of lies or slogans can change that. Mayor Christopher Taylor at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting on May 19, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News But where law grants discretion, the city declines to be commandeered for federal purposes like assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Taylor said. Just as we dont look to ICE for help with code enforcement, so too do we rely upon federal agencies to enforce federal law, he said. Thats how the system works. Trump signed a Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens executive order April 28 requiring the U.S. attorney general to coordinate with the Homeland Security secretary to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions they believe are obstructing enforcement of federal immigration laws and to notify each one regarding its perceived defiance and any potential violations of federal criminal law. Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids in July 2024. MLive file photo. Joel Bissell | MLive.com Trumps order also directed federal departments and agencies to coordinate with the Office of Management and Budget to identify federal funds to those jurisdictions, including grants and contracts, for suspension or termination. Jurisdictions deliberately and shamefully obstructing immigration enforcement undermine the rule of law and endanger Americans and law enforcement, Homeland Security said in a statement published with the list Thursday, May 29. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril, it states, saying each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with statutes and Homeland Security demands they immediately review and revise their policies. City Administrator Milton Dohoney said Friday, May 30, Ann Arbor has yet to receive direct notice outlining specific policies of concern or funds that may be taken away. City officials plan to review the notice once its received and consider next steps. Our city has never declared or identified itself as a sanctuary city, Dohoney said. I have never given a directive to the police department not to arrest a dangerous criminal. We would never take an action to obstruct the actions of any other law enforcement agency from carrying out their duties. As a city government, Ann Arbor is not charged with nor is it set up to determine anyones immigration status, he said. The job of the police department is a difficult one, and it certainly can be dangerous. Putting them in peril is never something we would do lightly, he said. We are all here to be of service to the community, and thats all were trying to do. City Administrator Milton Dohoney. MLive file photo. Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News Ann Arbor officials have been clear since Trumps first term they have no intentions of cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, long saying its not the citys role. When Trump first became president in 2017 and a number of local families found themselves entangled in his immigration crackdown and deportation agenda, Ann Arbor officials responded with a new city ordinance. Faces of the deported: A look at lives torn apart amid immigration crackdown It spelled out when city police officers and other public servants can and cant ask about someones immigration status, codifying the citys practice of generally not collecting such information. The thinking is the city cant be asked by the feds to turn over information it doesnt collect. Police Chief Andre Anderson said in an email shortly after Trumps election last November the city ordinance still prohibits Ann Arbor police from soliciting information on immigration status to determine compliance with federal immigration law. City police will not engage in practices to apprehend, restrain or remove alleged noncitizens based on their immigration status, he said, and instead will continue a practice of professionalism that embraces human rights regardless of immigration status. An Ann Arbor Police Department vehicle parked at an event downtown. MLive file photo. Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News In addition to the ordinance in April 2017, City Council approved a resolution in May 2017 reaffirming the citys position on immigration enforcement. It stated Ann Arbor police shall not assist or provide support to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the interrogation, apprehension, detention or arrest of any individual suspected only of civil violations of federal immigration law. It also stated the city would not comply with requests from federal immigration agents to detain or prolong the detainment of anyone in police custody without a judicial warrant. Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer similarly has said her department will not assist ICE. We simply are exercising our discretion to focus on local public safety, she said Friday, saying she has yet to see a clear definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction and all Trumps list does is create more political drama. I think its all political, she said. It doesnt change anything about what the Sheriffs Office does, she said, saying her office doesnt have capacity to have deputies act as ICE agents and it would be an unfunded mandate further straining public resources and public safety. Some people also may be less likely to call local police for help if they think theyre part of federal agencies, she said. Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer speaks at the "We Stand with Our Immigrant Neighbors" solidarity vigil at the Wesley Foundation and First United Methodist Church social hall in Ann Arbor on Jan. 20, 2025. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com) Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News The county was called upon by Homeland Security on April 10 to turn over all records since May 2019 for a county-issued identification card program that serves the immigrant community and others by offering an alternative form of ID for people who dont have a state drivers license or state ID. Despite threats of being held in contempt by a federal court, county officials decided they will not voluntarily hand over information to the feds. An attorney for the county sent a letter to Homeland Security on May 6, saying absent a court order the county respectfully declined to comply. But county officials decided to comply with another request from Homeland Security for inspection of county employee I-9 forms used to document verification of the identity and employment authorization of each employee. That was opposed by an immigrant rights group and at least one county commissioner, Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor. We shouldnt be complying in any way, shape or form, he said, calling it a moral issue. Washtenaw County's Administration Building. MLive file photo. Ryan Stanton | rstanton@mlive.com As for the county now being on the Trump administrations list with the threat of funding being taken away, Commissioner Katie Scott, D-Ann Arbor, said Friday its hard to respond without any official notice to the county yet. The county has never officially declared itself a sanctuary county, Scott said, and instead the county board passed a resolution to be a welcoming county. Telling people we welcome them for who they are, thats not counter to any immigration policy that I know of, she said. I dont know what they think were not complying with. Scott has been on alert about what could happen to federal funding since Trumps inauguration and the slew of executive orders that followed, she said, saying its been a threat from the start. Shes glad the county has been working since January to inventory federal dollars that come into county departments and figure out our liabilities, she said. I have every faith well be able to provide services were mandated to do, but we also have policy mandates, moral and ethical mandates, she said. Commissioner Andy LaBarre said cuts to federal funding could negatively impact all county residents, including Republicans. If they mess with federal funding, it can be anywhere from an inconvenience to a life and death impact, as it relates to public health, the mental health crisis, and public safety, LaBarre said. Taylor said everyone benefits from the warm and full integration of immigrants into the community. Immigrants and refugees are not merely welcome here, they are inextricably us, he said, saying no case for American greatness is complete without immigrants. The administrations demonization of people who come here for refuge or to build a better life rests on fear and weakness and we reject it, he said. In Ann Arbor, we welcome the stranger, love our neighbor, and believe in a common future. We will never stop building a more prosperous and inclusive community. Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Ann Arbor daily newsletter. Damian Rivera speaks with attendees at a community information session on plans for a USDA-inspected meat processing facility coming in Manchester, Thursday, May 29, 2025. Jen Eberbach/MLive WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI Farmers and people passionate about locally sourced food packed a community information gathering to learn more about plans for Washtenaw Countys first U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected meat processing facility. Ann Arbor area couple Damian Rivera and Rosemary Linares, co-founders of Damians Craft Meats, are witnessing a longtime dream come true. The Scio Township husband and wife are gearing up to break ground on a 21,000-square-foot facility at 789 Hogan Road in Manchester. WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI Ann Arbor drivers can expect a number of traffic interruptions from special events this weekend. The Dexter-Ann Arbor run special event will shut down road throughout the city early Saturday, May 31. Streets will also close 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday, June 1. Genesee County Commissioners (from left) Brian Flewelling, R-Davison; Dale Weighill, D-Flint Twp.; and Martin Cousineau, D-Thetford Twp., are shown in this Flint Journal file photo during a meeting of the county Board of Commissioners. (Nico Mendoza | MLive.com) GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- The county will continue to support June as Pride Month but Republicans members of the Board of Commissioners have withheld their support and said the endorsement has the potential to further divide rather than unite. I do not believe these issues belong at a county government level, Commissioner Brian Flewelling, R-Davison, said before commissioners approved a resolution of support 6-3. As such, I will not be voting no on all of these resolutions from here on out. FLINT, MI - Downtown Flint is getting a revival as Halo Burger prepares to reopen its iconic Saginaw Street location. But this time the location with come a sweet new twist: a full-fledged Cops & Doughnuts shop inside. The partnership marks a major shift for both Michigan-based brands. It also brings Cops & Doughnuts, the beloved bakery born in Clare, to Flint for the first time. We did not sell out to corporate America, like some people are saying on social media, said Greg Ryno Rynearson, owner and president of Cops & Doughnuts. The owner of Halo Burger is rooted in Michigan and hes a self-made entrepreneur just like us. Cops & Doughnuts has a long history. In 2009, when the 113-year-old Clare City Bakery was on the verge of shutting down, the entire Clare police force banded together to save it, each chipping in to buy the business. The result has turned the bakery into precincts and substations across Michigan. Now, nearly two decades later, the original cop-owners have signed a deal with Halo Burgers owner and CEO Achille Ace DiNello, a relative newcomer to food service. DiNello entered the industry with a single pizza joint in Rochester and has since added multiple businesses - including Halo Burger, Melting Moments ice cream, and Alinosi in Detroit. He purchased Halo Burger in December and Rynearson confirmed there are plans to reopen the downtown Flint Halo Burger with a Cops & Doughnuts inside the same building. Theres enough square footage there and it has potential, Rynearson said. I can confirm that the plan right now is Ace is actively looking to reopen the location and if that can happen, theres a very good likelihood that it will have a Cops & Doughnuts in there. There are three other Halo Burger locations in Genesee County, including Burton, Grand Blanc Township, Fenton, and Flint, as well as one location in Saginaw Countys Birch Run. For Flint, the merger means two well-known Michigan names are joining forces in one space. Halo Burger, with its deep ties to downtown, will now share the spotlight and the menu with Cops & Doughnuts, a bakery known for its cop-themed branding and oversized pastries. Its a perfect fit for us, Rynearson said. MLive file photo of PVM Vintage, run by Max Mosser, who sells clothing sourced from thrift shops, flea markets, yard sales and estate sales. Aya Miller GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Lovers of all things vintage can look forward to the return of a monthly flea market this weekend. Sponsored by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., the Mitten Vintage Market kicks off in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids on Saturday, May 31, at Calder Plaza. From noon to 6 p.m., shop from over 80 vendors while enjoying dishes from local food trucks. Although the entire lineup of vendors has not been released yet, attendees can expect vintage clothes, local brands, sneakers, streetwear, collectibles and more. The premier market series is a collective of vintage vendors from across the country that travel to various cities in Michigan. It all started in 2019 when a group of college students from the Detroit area decided to collaborate on their love for vintage attire. Over the years, the event has expanded to Holland, Comstock Park, Ann Arbor, and even out of state in Chicago. The series continues to expand, with an upcoming market in Holland on Sunday, June 8. At the Holland market, over 40 vendors selling vintage, sneakers and more will be outdoors at the Holland Civic Center, 150 W Eighth St., from noon to 6 p.m. Learn more by visiting the Mitten Vintage Flea Market Facebook page. 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. Two Dunkin' Donuts are being considered by Grand Rapids-area planning commissions. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media GRAND RAPIDS, MI Two new Dunkin Donuts, a condo development, and a controversial homeless centers expansion were among projects considered by Grand Rapids-area planners this month. Several proposed developments went before local planning commissions and city leaders for various stages of approval in May. Better known as Chef Jenna across Michigan, shes been leaving her mark since opening her and her husbands restaurant at 5080 Alpine Ave. NW, in 2010. (Photo/Jenna Arcidiacono) Jenna Arcidiacono COMSTOCK PARK, MI - Last month, hundreds of midwestern women met in California for the Remarkable Woman awards, including one businessowner from Grand Rapids. The journey to Hollywood started when Grand Rapids chef Jenna Arcidiacono was nominated earlier this year for the local West Michigan Remarkable Women award hosted by Nexstar Media Group. But it was when she received a call from The Jennifer Hudson Show while there that she truly became speechless. She was asked to attend the taping for the May 22 show and go down the spirit tunnel, a show tradition allowing guests to have a grand entrance. Related: Grand Rapids chef to appear on The Jennifer Hudson show for nonprofit work Thats a bucket list item complete, she told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. I was the first to go down, not knowingly. I was like, Are we for real? This is something Ive been watching on TikTok for the last couple of months because theyre so fun. Arcidiacono dropped her purse and phone to the ground and began to dance, completely bewildered that she was living a dream. Celebrities who have danced through the spirit tunnel include Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett, Shemar Moore and Gwen Stefani. Out of the 125 women invited to the show, only five were interviewed by Jennifer Hudson, following a segment featuring American drummer and record producer Questlove. They made us feel like stars - even gave everyone a Hollywood star with our names on it, just like the Walk of Fame, Arcidiacono said. Better known as Chef Jenna across Michigan, Arcidiacono has built a strong reputation since opening her restaurant, Amore Trattoria Italiana at 5080 Alpine Ave. NW, in 2010. She and her husbands focus on creating an outstanding customer experience has made them a favorite dining destination in West Michigan, even being named in 2018 as one of the top Italian restaurants in Michigan by MLive. Arcidiacono has also made strides to support the local community since the COVID-19 pandemic through her nonprofit, Food Hugs. She began delivering meals in 2020 to area first responders, hospitals, and those who needed encouragement during those times of uncertainty. During the show, she spoke about her nonprofit, which has given $1,000 tips to local restaurant workers at least 70 times. The most recent giveaway to China Inn, a family-owned restaurant in Holland, went viral on TikTok. Its over 7.1 million views right now, Arcidiacono said. The owner was just super grateful. She also has worked with women who want to be chefs, hosting an annual fundraiser to give scholarships starting at $5,000 to those in the food industry. Arcidiacono said she did two segments on the Jennifer Hudson Show, one about Food Hugs itself and the other about whats next for the nonprofit. Back home in Grand Rapids, she said the reality of her Hollywood experience and national television appearance has yet to fully sink in. She will always remember not only the opportunity to meet Jennifer Hudson, but also the long-lasting relationships she forged with the other women featured on the show. I met so many amazing women and heard their stories in that small amount of time, Arcidiacono said. There are people youre drawn to, so a lot of us exchanged information, and we have a Facebook group thats always busy. 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. The Purple Heart belonging to U.S. Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. David T. McMahon is shown alongside a portrait of him published in the Grand Rapids Press after his death in1945. Images courtesy Steve Quesinberry GRAND RAPIDS, MI - There is a small Georgia town about 35 miles southwest of Atlanta called Newnan where residents are now talking about Grand Rapids. An article this week that readers had a lot of interest in was published on Memorial Day. It was about a Grand Rapids World War II veterans Purple Heart being found this month in that towns junkyard by a salvage worker, who turned it into local VFW Post. A Kent County sheriffs deputy vehicle at the scene of a February 2025 investigation. Joel Bissell | MLive.com GRAND RAPIDS, MI A Kentwood Public Schools social worker who was accused of having inappropriate communication with children faces charges of accosting children for immoral purposes and using a computer to commit a crime. Dequindre Wiggins, 26, was arraigned on charges in the 63rd District Court on Friday, May 30. The Grand Rapids resident was arrested on May 22 in Lexington, Kentucky. He was extradited back to Michigan. The suspect is a licensed master social worker who worked for Valleywood Middle School in Kentwood, police said. Related: School social worker accused of accosting child online Wiggins is scheduled to return to court on June 11 and June 18 for a probable cause conference and preliminary examination, according to court records. Police began their investigation on May 9 after a parent reported inappropriate contact between their child and the social worker. Detectives later determined that the suspect was making contact with other students on social media. Police said anyone with additional information or concerns can call the Sheriffs Office at 616-632-6100 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345. The new Cooper VanWieren trail system in Ottawa County's Park Township includes the equestrian-friendly Legacy Trail, a skills loop with different mountain biking obstacles and features, a quarter-mile racetrack and a 3.78-mile cross-country loop with hilly terrain in the northwest corner of the property. (Photo provided by Park Township) Photo courtesy Park Township OTTAWA COUNTY, MI Park Township on Saturday, May 31, will celebrate the grand opening of the new bike trails at Cooper Van Wieren Park. The event will kick off with a ribbon cutting at 2:30 p.m. at the entrance to Cooper VanWieren Trails,1283 Ottawa Beach Road. Afterwards there will be a Bike Bash at 3 p.m. for children and families, featuring a variety of biking activities designed for all skill levels. There also will be live music from The Johnny Park Band at 6 p.m. and food trucks from Mezkla Taqueria, Kin Coffee and Kitchen 55. The event is free, but donations to support youth biking programs and trail maintenance are encouraged. This trail system is a testament to our communitys dedication to providing safe and enjoyable spaces for families to engage in outdoor activities, Howard Fink, Park Township manager, said in a statement. Were excited to see families come together to celebrate this new addition to our township. The new, 5.52-mile trail system includes the equestrian-friendly Legacy Trail, a skills loop with different mountain biking obstacles and features, a quarter-mile racetrack and a 3.78-mile cross-country loop with hilly terrain in the northwest corner of the property. The bike park also will have new custom signage that includes mile markers for safety. The Michigans Edge Mountain Biking Association donated its time and labor to the creation of the trail system. A construction cost was not provided. Were incredibly thankful for this new trail system its a gift to the entire community, MEMBA President Andy Richardson said in a statement. Whether youre just learning to ride or a seasoned trail user, Cooper VanWieren Trails offer an amazing space to explore, connect, and build confidence on a bike. 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. A 16-year-old pedestrian was struck and injured along Lake Michigan Drive near I-196. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A 16-year-old pedestrian was seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle Friday, May 30 in Grand Rapids. The girl was struck along Lake Michigan Drive near I-196 about 12:20 p.m. Grand Rapids police said she was taken to a hospital in serious condition. Other details about the incident were not immediately known. 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. Plans for the Berries Pancake House include outdoor seating for 40 people, township officials said. Texas Township TEXAS TOWNSHIP, MI Builders are prepping a vacant lot in Texas Township for a new local restaurant location. The first structure slated to go up at 7265 West Q Ave. is a Berries Pancake House, per township documents. Commissioner Vice Chair Tami Rey at the Kalamazoo County board of commissioners meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. (Rodney Coleman-Robinson | MLive.com) Rodney Coleman-Robinson | MLive. KALAMAZOO, MI A Kalamazoo County commissioner was arrested in the city of Kalamazoo. Tami Rey was arrested by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety on Saturday, May 24, and lodged at the Kalamazoo County Jail, according to Kalamazoo County Sheriffs Office records. Rey was booked in at 1:18 a.m. Saturday, May 24 and released at 11:36 a.m. Records for the sheriffs office state she was arrested for domestic violence. It hasnt been determined yet if Rey will face charges. Rey said the incident occurred during a child custody exchange. My sons dad would not give me my son and it kind of escalated, Rey said. She issued a statement when contacted by MLive. This is a legal matter that stems from a private family situation. I want to be clear that I do not take this lightly, Rey said. I am fully cooperating with the authorities and will respect the legal process as it moves forward. While I understand public interest, I will not be making further comments at this time out of respect for the individuals involved and the integrity of the proceedings. Rey said her focus remains on fulfilling her duties and serving the people who elected her. KDPS officials declined to answer questions about the incident. First elected in 2020, Rey represents District 1, which includes a portion of downtown Kalamazoo and other nearby areas. She previously served as board chair and vice chair. Rey indicated the charge was dropped. The case was temporarily denied by the prosecutors office so it can be sent to an outside prosecutor. Due to Reys position on the county commission, the local prosecutors office petitioned the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the matter, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Williams said. The AGs office received a request for the appointment of a special prosecutor on Tuesday, May 27. Once the office makes a determination as to whether a conflict of interest is substantiated, it will go to the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council for placement with an alternative office to serve as the special prosecutor, the AGs office said. The special prosecutor will decide whether to charge Rey or not and would handle any future proceedings. Assignment of a special prosecutor often takes weeks, Williams said. KDPS requested the charge of one count of domestic violence to the prosecutors office. Board Chair Jen Strebs said, Commissioner Rey is a valued and respected member of our board and we are thankful for her meaningful contributions to our work. We respect the privacy of her and her family at this time. Democrat candidate for County Commission District one, Tami Rey, poses for a portrait in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com) Joel Bissell MLive reached out to the county and a spokesperson declined to comment because the issue was not about official commission business. MLive reached attorney Mike Hills by phone Thursday. Hills, who represented Rey in a previous case, declined to comment and would not confirm if he is representing Rey now. Rey was in court last year after being charged with retail fraud for allegedly skip scanning an item at the Walmart self-checkout. That case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the case could be refiled later. An order of nollee prosequi, which translates to will no longer prosecute, was signed by the judge, dismissing the case, court staff said. Want more Kalamazoo-area news? Bookmark the local Kalamazoo news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Kalamazoo daily newsletter. Trevor Friedeberg is joining Greater Muskegon Economic Development with more than 16 years of experience in economic development leadership. Photo courtesy Greater Muskegon Economic Development MUSKEGON, MI Greater Muskegon Economic Development has found a new president and CEO after a six-month search. Trevor Friedeberg will serve as the new president and CEO of GMED effective June 2, according to a release from the organization. His appointment follows the departure of former President and CEO Marla Schneider in January. Im honored to join Greater Muskegon Economic Development at such a dynamic time, Friedeberg said in a statement. The region has tremendous assets and potential, and I look forward to working with the team, board, and community partners to drive meaningful, inclusive economic growth. Friedeberg brings more than 16 years of experience in economic development, having previously held leadership roles with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. He currently serves as president and CEO of the East Central Indiana Regional Partnership, a nine-county regional economic development organization. Under his leadership, the partnership saw increased private investment, strengthened relationships among regional stakeholders and the implementation of strategies to attract talent and grow key industry sectors. His experience in regional economic development, coalition-building, and driving business growth will be instrumental as we continue to advance Muskegons economic future, Rich Houtteman, chair of the GMED Board of Directors, said in a statement. Trevor brings the vision, leadership and stability needed to build on our momentum and guide GMED into its next chapter. The board of directors assembled an executive committee to conduct an extensive search for a new leader. Friedeberg was chosen from a pool of 60 applicants, according to GMED. Schneider announced she was leaving GMED to join Cornerstone Alliance, an economic development nonprofit in Benton Harbor, last November. She joined GMED in June 2022 after serving numerous executive roles for various businesses in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana. It has been an honor to lead GMED and collaborate with our dedicated staff and partnering organizations committed to greater Muskegons progress, Schneider said in a farewell statement. I am confident that GMED will continue to thrive and contribute to the communitys economic well-being. Want more Muskegon-area news? Bookmark the local Muskegon news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Muskegon daily newsletter. Pictured are Neil Fortenbacher and Rikki Walting, who will be getting married Saturday, May 31, aboard the historic Muskegon Clipper after it underwent years of restorations. (Erin Moore | Sweet Lemon Drop Photography) Photo by Erin Moore | Sweet Lemon Drop Photography MUSKEGON, MI The Queen of the Great Lakes is about to host its first wedding in nearly 20 years. Neil Fortenbacher and Rikki Walting of Muskegon are set to have their wedding Saturday, May 31, aboard the historic Milwaukee Clipper. The decommissioned passenger and automobile freighter is now a museum and event center at the Grand Trunk Ferry Dock, 2098 Lakeshore Drive in Muskegon. Having grown up in Muskegon and driven past the historic clipper multiple times, Fortenbacher decided to surprise his fiancee last summer when he proposed to her during a tour of the ship. I didnt realize that theyre a real venue now, Fortenbacher said. Theyve got a dance floor, bars, everything. The Fortenbacher-Walting wedding will be the first wedding hosted on the ship since 2007. The ship has not been in a condition to do private events since then due to a lack of donations, volunteers and accessibility, Brock Johnson, director of operations for the Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Association, said. Over these last few years, weve been busy with restoration projects from painting to plumbing to get the Queen of the Great lakes back into shape, Johnson said. We opened for rentals last year and have been very pleased with the amount of reservations. Rentable spaces include the 158-seat dining room with views of Muskegon Lake, a main lounge with a central bar serving food and drinks and classic art deco-style furniture, and the sun deck which offers panoramic lake views and custom furniture setups. The SS Milwaukee Clipper was retired in 1970 and was purchased by the Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Association in 1997. Cory Morse | MLive.com The 120-plus-year-old ship hosts numerous events besides weddings, including a Fourth of July party with a live band, food and drinks. On Saturdays and Sundays, visitors can buy ice cream, floats, sundaes and more at the historic soda bowl. There have been a lot of changes, and we would like to invite the public to come on down and see whats new, Johnson said. The clipper is open for event rentals from April to October. All funds raised go toward the restoration of the ship. Launched in 1904 as the S.S. Juniata, the 361-foot passenger and package freight steamer serviced the Great Lakes from Buffalo, N.Y. to Duluth, Minn. It was retired in 1937 after new safety requirements for passenger vessels made its wooden superstructure obsolete, according to the Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Association. Max and Mark McKee of the Sand Products Corp. of Muskegon purchased the ship in 1940 and moved it to Manitowoc, Wisc., where the wooden superstructure was replaced with an all-steel, streamlined superstructure, the first design of its type in the world. The vessel was rechristened as the S.S. Milwaukee Clipper on June 2, 1941, and made its maiden voyage back to Muskegon on June 3. The clipper carried thousands of passengers and automobiles between Milwaukee, Muskegon and Chicago until it was retired in 1970. Over the next few decades, it served as a floating maritime museum at Navy Pier in Chicago and later in Hammond, Ind. The S.S. Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Association was formed and took possession of the ship in December 1997 before returning it to Muskegon. Want more Muskegon-area news? Bookmark the local Muskegon news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Muskegon daily newsletter. A GoFundMe campaign started by Jessica Burke to help offset her son Noah J. Whitmire's medical expenses. Cole Waterman BAY CITY, MI A Bay City mother awoke in the predawn of an October morning, finding her son with special needs was not breathing. She called 911 in a desperate bid to save the 4-year-olds life, but by the time emergency responders arrived, the severely underweight child had died. His mother, Jessica M. Burke, would tell police she had done everything for her son and that no doctor could say otherwise. But she also had a habit of skipping her sons medical appointments and not allowing family to help with her sons extensive needs, according to police reports. With autopsy results showing her son died of extreme emaciation, Burke is charged with a life offense of first-degree child abuse. New details are emerging after the Bay City Department of Public Safety and Bay County Medical Examiners Office on Wednesday, May 28, responded to Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by MLive, providing investigative and autopsy reports. The police probe Police, firefighters, and paramedics at 4:10 a.m. on Oct. 18 responded to Burkes apartment in the 900 block of McKinley Avenue after she called 911 to report her 4-year-old son, Noah J. Whitmire, wasnt conscious or breathing. Let into the residence by Burke, they saw Noah on a blanket in the middle of the living room floor. Burke frantically urged officers to perform CPR to save her son while she used a suction device on his lungs, reports state. Though Noah was cold to the touch and had no pulse, the emergency responders administered chest compressions to try resuscitating him. Upon initial sight, (Noah) seemed very malnourished in comparison to most children around that age that I have had contact with, a police officer wrote in his report. Noah was severely underweight with very pale skin. Near Noah was a suction machine full of waste, the officer noted. Medical personnel pronounced Noah deceased at 4:30 a.m. His body was taken to McLaren Bay Region hospital for an autopsy. Burkes demeanor ranged from silent to highly erratic, officers noted. Due to her elevated state, she could not consent to police searching her home, officers wrote. Burke, 39, mentioned her sons numerous medical conditions and three to five cardiac events. In light of this, officers contacted Bay County Central Dispatch to see if there were any previous medical calls at Burkes apartment; there were none, their reports state. I would never abuse my child, Burke told police, according to their reports. She said she put Noah to bed in his room, made herself some food, then fell asleep around 11:30 p.m. Awakening a few hours later, she checked on Noah and found him not breathing, she said. She tried giving him oxygen, moved him to the living room floor, and immediately called 911, she said. She said Noah had been admitted to hospitals in Flint, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. He previously had a nasal tube to keep fluids out of his esophagus, though that was removed about a year previously and replaced with a gastrostomy tube, she said. Burke inserted a saltwater solution into Noahs tube every other day, she told police. She was supposed to take Noah to a feeding tube specialist on Oct. 15 but did not keep the appointment, she said. Noah last saw a doctor about two years prior, though Burke made and missed several appointments in the interim, she told police. Investigators executed a search warrant on Burkes apartment later that day. They located two medical suction machines used to clear food and mucus from Noahs mouth and throat. Burke said the machines were cleaned daily, though one was full of brown liquid, officers wrote. Officers also found a Kangaroo Joey feeding machine that was not clean and had apparent old food in its attached bag. Investigators contacted a foster care service specialist with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, who told them Noah had been removed from Burkes custody and placed in foster care in November 2021 due to medical neglect. Noah later suffered a medical emergency and was returned to Burkes care in early December 2021. Noah was to be on his feeding machine 24 hours a day, the specialist said. Yet every time she visited Burkes home, the machine was not attached to Noah. Jessica would always have an excuse as to why it was not attached, the specialist told police. For example, she had just moved or she was cleaning the machine. Asked by police why Noah was returned to Burke so quickly after his removal, the specialist said they had no available foster parents equipped to handle the boys difficult medical needs. The courts knew that Jessica knew how to care for (Noah) and assumed that she would follow medical advice to properly care for him, the MDHHS employee told police, according to their reports. An MDHHS investigator told police medical staff grew concerned in November 2020 after Burke failed to bring Noah to several appointments. Noah was supposed to attend physical therapy twice a week, but Burke did not bring him to the sessions, the reports state. The investigator conducted a home visit in December 2020 after medical staff indicated Noah could die without immediate attention. The investigator told Burke to call 911 and have her son taken to a hospital, something Burke initially refused. Burke later changed her mind and called 911, after which Noah was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint. Burke refused to allow Noah to be transferred from Hurley to another hospital for further treatment, saying she did not want her son hospitalized for his first Christmas, reports state. The MDHHS investigator then filed an emergency petition to have Noah removed from Burkes care so he could receive the necessary treatment. Another MDHHS foster care specialist described Burke as a difficult parent to deal with. Burke often disagreed with physicians suggestions and would not sign release forms so MDHHS could access Noahs records. She also declined to accept a free scale to weigh Noah, reports state. Jessica did not have any support system such as family or friends, the specialist told police. Jessicas mom wanted to assist but Jessica would not accept her help. Between December 2021 and September 2022, Burke canceled 27 appointments and skipped four more, records show. Burke frequently moved residences during the MDHHS probes, making it difficult for the agency to assist her, reports state. Another complaint against Burke was filed with MDHHS in December 2022 but an investigator found no wrongdoing, ending the agencys contact with Burke. Police again interviewed Burke on Nov. 20, 2024. She expressed confusion as to why an investigation was ongoing, stressing she was medically trained to care for her son and did all she could for him. She did not have much help, saying Noahs body would shut down around people. She added Noah had recently been taking in more food and moving more, causing him to burn more calories. She went on to say no doctor would say Noah died from her not providing adequate care. Burke in March 2024 started a GoFundMe campaign titled Donate to Noahs Special Needs Fund. In it, she stated Noah was born with esophageal dysphasia, a condition in which food sticks or gets caught in the base of the throat or in the chest after swallowing begins. Police interviewed an uncle of Burkes, who described himself as her closest relative. He said Burke would never leave Noahs side and considered herself the only person who could take care of him. Jessica would never let any of the family help, even though they all offered, her uncle told police. She loved him very much. She just did not know how to accept help from anyone. The uncle recalled Burke arguing with University of Michigan doctors, telling them they did not know how to treat Noah, reports state. Prosecutors issued a warrant for Burke on May 13. Police went to her home and arrested her the next day. Burkes online fundraiser campaign was removed from GoFundMe for violating the platforms because it violated terms of service. Any donors seeking a refund can do so through GoFundMe Giving Guarantee. The autopsy findings Forensic pathologist Dr. Patrick Cho conducted an autopsy on Noahs remains the afternoon of Oct. 23. He described Noah as 31 inches long and weighing 10 pounds, well below the 5th percentile for his age according to growth charts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Cho noted. The boys body was gaunt, the face sunken and hollow, Cho wrote. Due to the extreme malnutrition and emaciation, the body has a skeletal appearance, Cho wrote. Noah had been born prematurely and had a well-documented history of chronic malnutrition due to a feeding intolerance and hypotonia, or decreased muscle tone, Cho wrote. Over the past three years, the decedents body weight has fluctuated dramatically between the lower percentiles on the weight-for-age growth curve to extreme emaciation, Cho wrote. Noah had a feeding tube inserted through the skin on the right side of his abdomen. Noahs brain was undersized and his skeletal muscles were markedly underdeveloped, Cho wrote. Cho also noted that after an extensive review of Noahs medical records and assessments from his medical team, there was no medical cause for the boys failure to gain weight. Noah had no physical injuries or drugs in his system that would have contributed to his death, Cho wrote. He ruled Noahs cause of death as severe protein-calorie malnutrition and complications thereof with extreme emaciation. He labeled his manner of death as homicide. Burke has remained jailed on a $250,000 bond since her May 14 arraignment. State law defines first-degree child abuse as knowingly or intentionally caus[ing] serious physical harm or serious mental harm to a child. Burke is not facing murder or manslaughter charges. Bay County Prosecutor Michael P. Kanuszewski said his staff reviewed the cases complexities for several months and determined those charges were not supported. Defense attorney James F. Piazza said he is baffled as to why Burke is charged. Shes a grieving mother who tried to take care of her kid, Piazza said. I dont know why the prosecution is going after her for it. Noah was in dire medical distress his entire life, Piazza said. He couldnt swallow, couldnt create saliva, and couldnt really eat, he said. Hes been in and out of hospitals and under medical care his entire life. Its unconscionable to charge (Burke). Burkes case is set for a settlement conference on July 18. Noah would have had his fifth birthday on May 24, 2025. A 20-minute video showing clips and photos of Noah is available on his obituary. Want more Bay City- and Saginaw-area news? Bookmark the local Bay City and Saginaw news page or sign up for the free 3@3 daily newsletter for Bay City and Saginaw. Irma Guzman poses for a photo after receiving an award for 16 years of dedication and service. (Photo provided by Catholic Diocese of Saginaw) Catholic Diocese of Saginaw BAY CITY, MI For more than 16 years, Bay City resident Irma Guzman has quietly led efforts to support an often-overlooked population: the migrant farm workers who travel to mid-Michigan each year to harvest crops. Working out of St. Boniface Church, part of All Saints Parish in Bay City, Guzman coordinates donations and volunteers to provide food, clothing, blankets, diapers and cleaning supplies to the families who arrive each season. My family, we were migrant farm workers too, Guzman said in a Catholic Diocese of Saginaw news release. We used to travel to Minnesota to help farm sugar beets. I remember when we were done working in the fields, thats when my parents got paid. We would buy our school supplies and then go home. Today, migrant farm workers and their families still face challenges similar to those Guzmans family experienced. Many live in employer-provided housing, often sharing space with multiple families, and have limited income to cover basic needs. Some (workers) are young adults and they try and make some money to go to college, Guzman said. They need cleaning supplies. Theres three or four families in one house, in a big house, and yet everybodys got to clean their own space. Through partnerships with local parishes, the Catholic community helps fill the gaps. Food pantries in Bay City and Gagetown provide staples, while the Diocese of Saginaw offers spiritual support by providing priests for weekly Masses and sacraments, as well as organizing an annual Mass and potluck for the families, according to the release. The migrant families are a gift to us, Deacon Larry Gayton, director of Multicultural Ministry for the Diocese of Saginaw, said in a statement. They open our eyes and hearts with their culture, faith, and joy. Our Catholic faith calls us to welcome strangers. The experience of community with our migrant brothers and sisters is a blessing from God. He calls us to love one another and that often involves sacrifice. For our faith community, it is a joyful sacrifice. Donations are being accepted at All Saints Parishs St. Boniface Church in Bay City and Our Lady Consolata Parishs St. Agatha Church in Gagetown. Those interested in volunteering with Migrant Ministry can contact Maria Coss in the Mission Office at 989-797-6646 or Deacon Larry Gayton in the Multicultural Office at 989-797-6604. Want more Bay City- and Saginaw-area news? Bookmark the local Bay City and Saginaw news page or sign up for the free 3@3 daily newsletter for Bay City and Saginaw. In this MLive file image, former Delta College President Don Carlyon and his wife, Betty Carlyon, visit during an open house celebrating the 50th anniversary of the college. On Tuesday, May 27, the Great Lakes Bay Region lost something more than a manit lost a sense of continuity, a kind of institutional memory. Don Carlyon, former president of Delta College, died at the age of 100. I never met him. But this week, I found myself in a series of conversations in which he was the centerpiece. From there, stories unfolded. Some came from longtime colleagues, others from people who had met him only brieflyat a fundraiser, a campus event, a casual lunch. And still others spoke of him with the intimacy reserved for old friends. Social media, too, became a kind of digital eulogy wallpeople sharing small memories, expressions of gratitude, quiet moments that, when added together, suggest something deeper. That this manso reserved, so embeddedhad, over the decades, become part of the DNA of the region. Magen Samyn, the head of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, described Carlyon as a true icon. His impact will be felt for decades to come, she wrote. Rob Clark, the senior director of communications and community relations at Michigan Sugar Co., wrote that Carlyon would be missed. Boy were we lucky to have him as a leader in our community all these years, Clark wrote on Facebook. Rest in peace and thank you for all you gave to make Bay City, Bay County, the Great Lakes Bay Region, and beyond a better place! Carlyon was the Original Pioneer, said Kathie Marchlewski, a 1997 graduate of Delta College, where she now serves as an English professor. In the coming days, we will hear him described as a visionary. Yes, he was a visionary, but Im not sure even that big and powerful word is enough to describe his impact on our region, Marchlewski wrote. The word that comes to my mind is multiplier. His life and work multiplied access to education and opportunity across disciplines, across county lines, and across generations. Maybe thats the best way to understand a legacynot in the broad strokes of achievement or the official obituaries, but in the quiet memories shared over time. Carlyons passing isnt just an end. Its a reminder that some lives, by their very nature, keep goingrippling outward, even after the man himself is gone. Here are this weeks headlines. Spring Sports Stars: Who is Michigans top underclassman on the 2025 baseball scene First win over BCW in 14 years vaults Bay City Central into historic final Bay City Catholic church closure decision remains on hold after meeting Bay City area baseball district pairings, results and history for 2025 Bay County boys sports: Heroes emerge, upsets dodged in district openers Mid-Michigan summer events 2025: What to do in June across the region Pitcher fielding position is key part to No. 2 Bay City Westerns Round 1 win Former Delta College president Don Carlyon remembered as greatest of all time Until next time, Cheers, Bay City. Joey Oliver covers Bay City for MLive/The Bay City Times. He joined the Bay City team after covering crime in Flint. He is married and has two daughters. He can be reached at joliver@mlive.com. Hello, Bay City is an exclusive newsletter for MLive.com and our other Michigan newspapers loyal subscribers. Not a subscriber? Thats OK. You can receive two months of the Hello, Bay City newsletter as a free trial. In either case, click here to sign up. And if youre not a digital subscriber and would like to be, become one by clicking here. You can also find all of our Bay City content here. Bookmark it in your browser to get to it quickly and easily every morning. SAGINAW, MI Theres a new chapter in the bewildering saga of Dr. David L. Stockman, the Saginaw Township physician accused of withholding autopsy reports across the state and beset with lawsuits and bankruptcies. Now, the IRS is targeting him in hopes of recouping five figures in back taxes. Saginaw County sent a letter to Stockman on May 27 informing him the IRS had placed a levy on funds the county was supposed to pay him. Until shortly beforehand, Stockman had not provided the county with eight autopsy reports going back several years. The county agreed to pay the doctor and his Michigan Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine (MIFSM) $800 for the reports. Stockman provided the reports but before the county could pay him, the IRS filed its levy requiring Saginaw County to turn over any funds previously earmarked for Stockman. As such, the county paid the $800 directly to the IRS. The levy states Stockman owes $74,204.14 in taxes dating to 2021. Saginaw County commissioners in October 2019 signed a 10-year contract with MIFSM to provide medical examination duties such as investigating causes of death and performing autopsies. MIFSM hired Dr. Russell L. Bush, Saginaw Countys medical examiner since 2014, and designated him as the assigned personnel. Stockman fired Bush in November 2021 but claimed to county officials he had stepped down, according to public records. MIFSM also issued a media release in April 2022 stating Bush was fired for incompetence and misleading/potentially false credentials. Saginaw County terminated its contract in 2021 due to Bushs unauthorized termination and Stockman allegedly performing autopsies without proper certification. Thereafter, the county reaffirmed Bush as its medical examiner. Bush filed a lawsuit against Stockman, which went to arbitration overseen by Kenneth W. Schmidt, a former Bay County Circuit Court judge. Schmidt in late February 2025 issued an opinion finding Stockman and MIFSM owed Bush $551,800. Schmidt also found Stockman acted with intent and malice in defaming Bush. Numerous other counties throughout the state also contracted with MIFSM to provide autopsy services. All but the Upper Peninsulas Gogebic County have since ended their contracts with the agency. Marquette County Commission Chairman Joseph Derocha and Undersheriff Lowell A. Larson Jr. on May 20 drove to MIFSMs office at 4707 McLeod Drive East to confront him over not submitting 43 death certificates. Stockman missed two scheduled appointments to meet with the men, but his staff provided 18 of the reports. Dr. David L. Stockman's Michigan Institute of Forensic Science & Medicine in Saginaw Township, with a Marquette County Sheriff's car in front of it. Cole Waterman Death certificates are necessary for decedents loved ones to receive life insurance proceeds and other benefits. Dr. Bush and Marquette County officials have filed complaints with the Michigan Board of Medicine regarding Stockman not fulfilling his obligations. Stockman and his various entities have filed five bankruptcies in recent months, four of which have been dismissed. He twice filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on behalf of his landholding company, Becker-Pressente LLC, with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Daniel S. Opperman dismissing it on May 22 and barring him from refiling it within 180 days. Stockman on March 28 skipped a hearing before Saginaw County Business Judge M. Randall Jurrens as he was in South Carolina filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy on behalf of another of his entities, Specialized Pathology Partners. While previous court records gave SPPs address as 4798 Wenmar Drive in Saginaw Township, the bankruptcy filing gives its address as a Fairfield Inn & Suites in Charleston, South Carolina. Records with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs show SPP was dissolved in May 2024. Those records show Stockman was the entitys president, director, treasurer, and secretary. Stockman filed SPPs bankruptcy without an attorneys representation, as he did the Becker-Pressente bankruptcies, something that is not permitted. Due to this, a judge dismissed the South Carolina bankruptcy filing on April 28. Stockman on April 4 filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on MIFSMs behalf, putting an automatic stay on Jurrens signing a judgment against Stockman in Bushs favor. Stockman delayed Jurrens ruling again on May 5, when he filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy as an individual. The MIFSM bankruptcy was also dismissed by Judge Opperman on May 22, again for failure of an attorneys appearance. This has lifted the automatic stay in Dr. Bushs case, meaning Jurrens is likely to sign a judgment ordering Stockman to pay Bush the $551,800 sum at a hearing scheduled for June 3. Opperman dismissed Stockmans individual bankruptcy filing on May 29. More financial woes Federal savings bank TIAA in 2017 and 2019 agreed to lease Stockman and SPP ultrasound and radiology machines. Stockman/SPP did not make payments on or return the leased equipment. TIAA sued Stockman/SPP, with Judge Jurrens in August 2023 issuing a default judgment in the banks favor. Jurrens ordered SPP to pay $122,292.42 and Stockman to pay $12,610.86. He further ordered the defendants to pay $6,792.82 to TIAA in costs and attorney fees. Stockman has made no payments to TIAA or returned the leased equipment, confirmed an attorney representing the bank. Jurrens in August 2024 issued a second default judgment against Stockman, his entities Michigan Health Clinics and Great Lakes Bay Staffing Inc., and MHC Administrative Director Magdalena Perez ordering them to pay $131,626.18 to Wildfire Credit Union. Jurrens issued a third default judgment against Stockman on behalf of forensic pathologist Dr. Donald Higgs for about $55,000. Higgs moved his family from New York to Michigan to work for Stockman at MIFSM in 2023. The checks Higgs received as payment bounced, he alleged. Higgs has been receiving payments through garnishments of several Michigan counties served by MIFSM, confirmed his attorney, Stephan M. Gaus. Higgs also filed a police report over the matter. Saginaw County prosecutors in June 2024 contacted the Michigan Attorney Generals Office to request a special prosecutor evaluate the case. The AGs Office in September referred the matter to the Tuscola County Prosecutors Office, where it remains under review. Colorado-based North Star Scientific Solutions in February 2023 filed a federal lawsuit against Stockmans Michigan Health Clinics. North Star alleged MHC was engaged in the cannabis industry and sought out their services to develop a detailed project plan for the setup and implementation of cannabis testing services per the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency. North Star and MHC entered into a consulting agreement in 2021, outlining compensation terms and fee structure. MHC failed to honor the agreement, North Star alleged. Around February 2023, MHC paid about $50,000 to settle its overdue invoices, the suit states. MHC assured North Star payments would improve once it obtained its license, leading North Star to continue its work in good faith. MHC received its license in July 2023 yet did not pay its outstanding invoices to North Star, the suit alleged. MHC promised to pay between $10,000 and $15,000, but did not do so, the suit alleged. North Stars communication with MHC ended in October 2023, at which point outstanding invoices totaled $101,441.22, plus a 5% late fee. U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher on May 9 entered a default judgment in North Stars favor, ordering MHC to pay $101,441.22 in compensatory damages, attorney fees, and interest. At least three physicians in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., have also sued Stockman and his entities, alleging they went unpaid for work they performed. Stockmans licenses to practice medicine and prescribe medication expire Sept. 8. Want more Bay City- and Saginaw-area news? Bookmark the local Bay City and Saginaw news page or sign up for the free 3@3 daily newsletter for Bay City and Saginaw. BAY CITY, MI Two certified teachers and three multi-tiered system of supports and school social work employees may be laid off from their jobs at Bay City Public Schools. The school board of education is slated to vote on whether to lay off five employees, a group that includes a music teacher, visual arts teacher, support worker and two family liaisons, at an upcoming meeting on Monday, June 9. The potential layoffs would go into effect July 1. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at the districts administrative board room inside Handy Middle School, 601 Blend St. The agenda can be found here. The BCEA (Bay City Education Association) is working with administration to restore the bargaining rights taken away from us by (former Michigan Gov.) Rick Snyder, said Rick Meeth, president of the teachers union. Once those rights are reinstated, we will ensure that all of our members are recalled as soon as possible. Interim Superintendent Rick Seebeck declined to comment on the potential layoffs. The potential layoffs are due to projected budgetary constraints and the anticipated staffing requirements for the 2025-2026 school year, according to the resolution that will be voted on. The five staff members chosen for the possible layoffs were picked based upon the districts anticipated academic programming for the upcoming school year, according to the district resolution. Want more Bay City- and Saginaw-area news? Bookmark the local Bay City and Saginaw news page or sign up for the free 3@3 daily newsletter for Bay City and Saginaw. Want to subscribe to our Hello, Bay City newsletter? Sign up for free here. By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) The Department of Homeland Security is putting more than 500 sanctuary jurisdictions across the country on notice that the Trump administration views them as obstructing immigration enforcement as it attempts to increase pressure on communities it believes are standing in the way of the presidents mass deportations agenda. The department on Thursday published a list of the jurisdictions and said each one will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant and if theyre believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes. The list was published on the departments website. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release. Eight municipalities in Michigan are on the public list. At least some of these communities have previously disputed being labeled a so-called sanctuary. The Michigan counties are: Kalamazoo, Kent, Oakland, Washtenaw, Wayne and Wexford. The Michigan cities are: Ann Arbor and East Lansing. The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says arent doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trumps campaign promises to remove millions of people in the country illegally. The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department. Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated. Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as sanctuary jurisdictions and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order. If sanctuary jurisdictions are notified and the Trump administration determines that they remain in defiance, the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever legal remedies and enforcement measures they consider necessary to make them comply. Theres no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction. The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement. Some cities pushed back after finding themselves on the list. Baltimores Mayor Brandon Scott said on X that Baltimore is not a sanctuary city, noting that Baltimore does not control the citys jails. Jails are a key area where ICE cooperates with local law enforcement authorities so it can be notified when immigrants are going to be released. But Scott also said the city made no apologies for being a welcoming city and said it was preparing for litigation if needed to protect the citys immigrant community and the money it gets from the federal government. We are better because of our immigrant neighbors, and are not about to sell them out to this administration, Scott said. In a statement on X, the Las Vegas government said they werent sure why DHS included it on the list and that they hoped to clear up this misunderstanding. The city said that law enforcement and jail facilities there comply with federal law. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide, but often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody. One way that the administration seeks to enlist state and local support is through 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies. Those agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assume some immigration enforcement duties and greatly expand ICEs capabilities. The number of those agreements has skyrocketed in just a matter of months under the Trump administration. ICE has about 6,000 law enforcement officers a number that has remained largely static for years who are able to find, arrest and remove immigrants it is targeting. By relying on local law enforcement, it can quickly scale up the number of staff available to help carry out Trumps mass deportations agenda. Communities that dont cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if theyre a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime. Sanctuary policies are legal and make us all safer, said a coalition of local officials from across the country and a nonprofit called Public Rights Project in a statement Thursday. They said the list was a fear tactic designed to bully local governments into cooperating with ICE. The Trump administration has already taken a number of steps targeting states and communities that dont cooperate with ICE and has met with pushback in the courts. One executive order issued by Trump directs the Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another directs federal agencies to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not abet so-called sanctuary policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation. China, SCO countries expand cooperation in AI applications Xinhua) 17:00, May 30, 2025 TIANJIN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- It's soybean planting season in Russia. Across vast farmlands in Ussuriysk, agricultural machinery equipped with automatic navigation systems and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms developed by a Chinese company performs precise automated sowing. "Chinese agricultural technology leads in innovation and intelligence. This product enables automatic turning and precise operation along preset routes, making it popular in the Russian market," said Dmitry Vladimirovich Banin, a local distributor. This navigation system was displayed at the 2025 China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Forum held in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Thursday, drawing attendees from SCO countries. The AI-themed forum aims to strengthen practical collaboration in AI development and governance among SCO member states. "AI-powered agriculture is transforming the industry," said Yan Bingxin, senior engineer of Nongxin Tianjin Technology Co., Ltd., adding that the company has intensified R&D in smart agriculture and sold dozens of agricultural navigation systems to Russia. As a strategic technology driving a new wave of scientific revolution, AI has seen comprehensive advancement in China. The country has established a robust AI industrial ecosystem with systematic capabilities. More and more AI applications from China now benefit the development of SCO countries, including "vision-enabled" pool-cleaning robots, heavy-duty robots that can safely transport wind turbine blades, and advanced digital medical imaging diagnostics. In Kazakhstan, an AI-powered pool-cleaning robot equipped with infrared and ultrasonic sensors navigates intelligently via mobile app control. "Users can monitor cleaning routes remotely, view real-time maps, and schedule sessions via Wi-Fi," said Yu Guoxing, overseas channel manager of Sublue Underwater AI Co., Ltd. Kazakh distributor Vadim Vestev, impressed by their technology and intelligence, purchased 40 such robots. The products have gained traction in Russia and Tajikistan. Heavy-duty automated guided vehicles produced by a Tianjin robot company, widely used in automotive manufacturing, metallurgy, and port logistics, are also popular in some SCO countries. "Through Tianjin's talent initiatives, we have recruited Pakistani and Iranian graduates to boost our overseas trade, furthering China-SCO collaboration," said Kong Liang, vice general manager of Tianjin Lonyu Robot Co., Ltd. "China stands ready to collaborate with other SCO member states to promote the beneficial, secure, and equitable development of AI," said Huang Ru, a senior official at China's National Development and Reform Commission. China has invited SCO member states to work together to build an AI application center for inclusive technological advancement, according to a plan unveiled on Thursday. Participants expressed commitment to expanding AI application scenarios, advancing digital economy collaboration, and deepening open innovation to harness AI dividends for high-quality development. "AI represents one of the fastest-growing cooperation areas within the SCO," said Oleg Kopelov, deputy secretary-general of the SCO. "We will enhance AI and digital infrastructure connectivity, improve AI ecosystems, foster industrial coordination, and strengthen academic exchanges and talent development within the SCO framework." (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) ANN ARBOR, MI -- The former University of Michigan student who voted illegally in the 2024 election fled the country to avoid prosecution, according to federal documents. The 19-year-old student, Haoxiang Gao, was court-ordered to remain in Michigan while on a $5,000 bond for the criminal charges he faced for the illegal vote. Gao boarded Delta Flight #389 from Detroit International Airport to Shanghai on Jan. 19, according to a federal case that was recently unsealed. The student was forced to surrender his passport when he was arraigned on the original charges of false swearing to register/vote and unqualified elector attempting to vote on Nov. 8, 2024. His passport with a serial number ending in 1332 was surrendered to authorities on Nov. 1, according to the federal criminal complaint. Gao, however, used a passport in his name with the serial number ending in 7137 to pass through airport security and board the flight to Shanghai, according to the complaint. Related: University of Michigan student from China charged with illegal voting in Ann Arbor The court issued a bench warrant for Gaos arrest after he did not appear for a probable cause conference in his case on April 24 his second court absence. Gao is now also charged with flight to avoid prosecution, which is a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison. Gao held a Green Card and had a Florida drivers license but was not a U.S. citizen. Gao signed the Michigan Voter Registration application where he indicated that he was a citizen. The Michigan Secretary of States Office and Washtenaw County Prosecutors Office revealed the student cast a ballot at an early voting site in Ann Arbor on Oct. 31, just days before the election. The vote was cast on Oct. 27. The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with China. The Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers will face off in the Women's College World Series tonight at 7 p.m. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough) AP The Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers will face off today in the Womens College World Series. The winner will advance to the next round of the tournament and the loser will be eliminated. Fans can catch the action on ESPN at 7 p.m. or stream it on FuboTV, Sling or DirecTV. Streaming Options Streaming Options Price/Month Free Trial? Deal FuboTV $84.99 Yes $20 off the first month Sling $45.99 N/A N/A DirecTV $79.99 Yes N/A FuboTV and DirecTV currently offer $20 off the first month of your subscription. DirecTV and FuboTV also offer free trials if youre looking to test out a service. Related: Is your team in the Womens College World Series? Heres how to get gear before first pitch Florida dropped the first game of the tournament to Texas yesterday, 3-0. Tennessee also lost a nail-biter to reigning champion Oklahoma, 4-3. Now, the Gators and the Volunteers will face off tonight in a winner-takes-all matchup. The winner of tonights game will advance to play the loser of tomorrows Texas Tech-UCLA matchup. WOMENS COLLEGE WORLD SERIES No. 3 Florida vs. No. 7 Tennessee When: Friday, May 30 Time: 7 p.m. ET Where: Oklahoma City Channel: ESPN 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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I Accept After groceries, services and fashion, baby care is quick commerce's next frontier Tushar Goenka is a breaking news reporter who focuses on startups. Interested in venture capital, quick commerce, e-commerce, food delivery and D2C. 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 Maryam Farooqui USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. 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I Accept 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 Aryaman Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer Alpha Desk USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. 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I Accept 3 die as heavy rain lashes Meghalaya, search ops for missing couple from Indore to resume Saturday 101Reporters USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept RSS@100: Unravelling the road map for next 25 years and beyond Arun Anand has authored two books on the RSS. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication. Namrata Agarwal USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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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 Ankita Chakravarti USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 15 Best Places to Visit in Nagaland for a Unique Northeast India Adventure Priyanka Roshan With over eight years in multimedia journalism, is passionate about storytellingboth visual and textualacross travel, jobs, business, markets, politics, and daily news. From crafting engaging articles to producing compelling videos, she blends creativity with strategy to bring stories to life. With a strong foundation in SEO, and video production she ensures content not only informs but also resonates with audiences. Priyanka Roshan USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept China coerces rebel withdrawal in Myanmar to safeguard its billions: Inside the furtive surrender of Lashio Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Donald Trump aims to exceed first term's weapons sales to Taiwan, officials say Surabhi Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Iran-Russia drone agreement stokes war in Ukraine and probes the limits of Western sanctions Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Resilient and ready: how a Chinese garment maker navigates global trade shifts People's Daily) 08:39, May 30, 2025 Photo shows a production workshop of Qingdao Fit Garment Co., Ltd. in the Xiajin Economic Development Zone in east China's Shandong province. In a production workshop of Qingdao Fit Garment Co., Ltd., located in the Xiajin Economic Development Zone in east China's Shandong province, workers move swiftly and with purpose. A skilled cutter guides a machine with practiced ease, as fabric pieces drop precisely into place. Nearby, sewing machine operators turn cloth into polished garments, their stitches nimble and exact. After clearing quality inspections, these garments were folded, packed, and labeled - bound for countries including Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. "Since the release of the Joint Statement on China-U.S. Economic and Trade Meeting in Geneva, we were reached by American clients," said Tian Chunli, head of the company. "Right now, we're exporting to more than 10 countries, and our order book is full through September. With firm orders in hand, we're calm and confident. We'll keep moving forward at our own pace, focusing on doing our work well," she added. Compared with several years ago, Fit Garment is better equipped to navigate the uncertainty of U.S. tariff policies. Tian attributed this confidence to two key factors. Photo shows a production workshop of Qingdao Fit Garment Co., Ltd. in the Xiajin Economic Development Zone in east China's Shandong province. Expanding beyond the U.S. market Specializing in knitted apparel, primarily baby and children's clothing, Fit Garment once relied heavily on the U.S. market. "For a long time, more than 95 percent of our exports went to the U.S.," Tian said. "We partnered with a number of American brands, many of which maintained offices here in China." That changed in 2018 as China-U.S. trade tensions escalated. American clients began scaling back orders from China, with some shutting down their China-based offices altogether. Export volumes dropped abruptly. Faced with this disruption, Fit Garment took action rather than wait for conditions to improve. "We couldn't afford to put all our eggs in one basket," Tian explained. "We shifted resources to other markets, aiming to diversify and stabilize our trade channels." Starting in 2019, the company participated in textile expos in Germany, France, Japan, and other countries. "Sometimes language was a hurdle. We had to use translation apps. But good products and sincerity still helped us land new orders," Tian recalled. Their efforts paid off. By 2023, more than half of Fit Garment's exports were heading to markets outside the United States. In the first two months of this year, U.S.-bound shipments accounted for less than 10 percent of the company's total export value -- just 340,000 yuan ($47,350). Driving innovation and efficiency A second pillar of the company's success is innovation and operational efficiency. Only high quality can ensure a product's success in a new market. In recent years, the company has ramped up its research and development efforts and developed new manufacturing techniques. One notable achievement is the creation of a babywear fabric made from traditional polyester, which offers antibacterial, odor-resistant, and stain-repellent properties. These improvements significantly increased the product's added value and market competitiveness. The company also underwent a smart manufacturing upgrade. Through digital transformation, it established an agile, flexible production system. Orders are now automatically divided and scheduled across different stages, with real-time monitoring of equipment status, capacity loads, and process parameters, resulting in a production efficiency gain of over 20 percent. Looking ahead, Tian has set her sights on two major goals. "First, I hope to expand further into the domestic market," she said. Not long ago, local authorities in the Xiajin Economic Development Zone organized a group of textile companies to attend the Yarn Expo Spring in Shanghai, where Tian met prospective domestic partners and began planning follow-up cooperation. "Second, I want to explore Belt and Road markets," she added. "We're targeting a breakthrough in countries like Pakistan and Malaysia. In the second half of this year, I plan to travel more, visit more markets, and close more deals." As one of China's key provinces for textile and apparel exports, Shandong is home to many companies like Fit Garment that are retooling to meet a changing global trade landscape. Zhang Linchen, associate professor at the School of Economics, Shandong University of Technology, noted that companies must deepen their presence in global markets, diversify their export portfolios, embrace new business models like cross-border e-commerce, and build robust international marketing systems. "They also need to foster new quality productive forces and move up the global value chain," Zhang said. (Photos from the official website of Qingdao Fit Garment Co., Ltd.) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Israel agrees to US ceasefire proposal in Gaza, says White House, Hamas reviews terms Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. 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I Accept 'So much for being Mr. Nice Guy': Trump accuses China of violating trade agreement after tariff ruling Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Chinas industrial edge is reshaping the global balance of power and the US is falling behind Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Donald Trump's proposal for tax-free overtime pay sparks debate A proposal by Donald Trump, made during the 2024 campaign, to eliminate federal income taxes on overtime pay is currently under examination for its broader implications, as per a report in MSNBC. This initiative, which would necessitate Congressional approval, aims to provide financial relief to hourly and non-exempt salaried workers who typically earn overtime, which is currently taxed as regular income. Experts are debating the potential economic outcomes, with some supply-side economists suggesting it could boost productivity by incentivizing more work, while fiscal policy analysts raise concerns about a significant loss in federal revenue and a potential increase in the national debt. Tax policy specialists also point to possible administrative complexities and inequities in the tax system if such an exemption were implemented. Politically, the plan is viewed as an effort by President Donald Trump to appeal to working-class voters, while posing a strategic challenge for the Democratic Party regarding their response to a potentially popular tax cut. 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I Accept The location of the ancient snake 'statue' had been passed down for generations. This week it was found reduced to a pile of rubble. Derek Councillor was angered after discovering a site considered sacred to the Naaguja people had been destroyed with what's believed to be a sledgehammer or jackhammer. Source: Supplied An Australian tour of important cultural sites has ended in horror after the groups leader found one had been destroyed. A massive naturally formed limestone statue that symbolised the head of a snake had been violently desecrated with what appeared to be some kind of heavy tool. Located out of the way, on the banks of the Greenough River, east of Geraldton in Western Australia, few people knew of its existence. Naaguja Yamatji man Derek Councillor began leading small groups to the Indigenous site around a decade ago, and he believes someone with knowledge of its cultural importance is responsible. Speaking with Yahoo News Australia, Councillor said he was angry when he found the rock in pieces on Thursday. It had been there for like generations. My father showed me, his father showed him, and so on, he told Yahoo News. To discover the rock totally destroyed like that on the tour was very sad. ADVERTISEMENT Related: Fears for ancient sites under threat from controversial industry plan Derek Councillor visiting the Bimara statue before and after it was destroyed. Source: Supplied Why was the snake statue important? In the Naaguja language, the snake is referred to as a Bimara. The statue is connected to a Dreamtime legend about it trying to enter the ocean but being stopped by a sea serpent who wounded him. For him to heal his wounds, he had to go back to the Greenough River where he belonged. Because he was there so long, with his head above the banks, the rock took the shape of his head. It was a place of significance where we'd go. If we'd fish there, we'd do a little smoking ceremony around the rock to ask for blessings and protection, Councillor said. Tour guide regrets showing others important cultural site On social media, another community member shared their anger and sadness at the destruction, saying it was more than an act of vandalism. This is an attack on our culture, our ancestors, and our spirit. My heart aches not just for what was lost, but for what this says about the continued disregard for our sacred sites, they wrote. ADVERTISEMENT Dozens of people were sympathetic. No need for this in our beautiful country at all, one wrote. Heartbreaking. I wish there was more respect in this world. Needless destruction, another said. But others mocked what had happened with racist comments, deepening the wounds felt by the community. These comments have now been deleted. Councillor told Yahoo he began taking tourists to the site because he thought times were changing and the wider community was more accepting of Indigenous practices. Now I wish I hadnt, he said. He now plans to report the destruction to the Native Title Board. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories. The WA council's act of leniency comes after a Queensland council this month announced it would let homeowners host caravans and tiny homes on their property. In a bid to help ease the 'huge' housing shortage, council can approve applications provided they meet safety regulations. Source: Queensland government As several councils across Australia move to limit where residents can park their caravans and trailers, and introduce red tape for landowners hosting short-stay travellers on their properties, one council has announced it's taking a decidedly different approach. It will formally allow people to park their motorhomes and tiny homes and live on private properties, in a measure aimed at offering some relief to the housing crisis. Across Australia, several councils have recently introduced restrictions on where caravans and trailers can be parked, especially in residential areas, citing concerns about limited street parking and safety. Meanwhile a number of Queensland councils have made it harder for large land owners to accomodate farm stays for travellers in caravans. But with a suffocating housing crisis gripping the country, the Shire of Manjimup, in Western Australia's southwest and taken the complete opposite tack. Speaking to Yahoo News, Shire President Donelle Buegge said the council had adopted a policy that allows people to apply to live in caravans or tiny homes on wheels on private land for up to two years, offering a rare show of housing flexibility from local lawmakers. ADVERTISEMENT Back in August, the WA government announced reforms to the Caravan Parks and Camping Grounds Regulations Act, which came into effect in September. The changes allowed local governments to approve the use of caravans or tiny homes on wheels as temporary accommodation on private land for up to two years, with the possibility of renewal something the council is now embracing. Caravans and tiny homes on wheels can now be permanently parked on private property for up to two years within the Shire of Manjimup LGA. Source: Getty/RAC Aussie council praised for move to address housing shortage On Tuesday, the Shire of Manjimup voted to enact the policy and to allow council greater discretion to approve applications from those who are ageing in place, or facing other personal circumstances that require temporary accommodation. "The state government was very broad with what we could do, this now gives us the policies, it gives our officers clear guidelines," Buegge told Yahoo. ADVERTISEMENT "People can stay in tiny homes on wheels and caravans for up to two years as long as they meet health and safety requirements. As long as they have water, a place for waste to go, and things like that. Buegge said the region is under increasing strain from a "huge housing shortage," with the rental market unable to keep up with demand. "Every house that becomes available for rent is getting 30 to 35 applications. And were not alone in this it's happening everywhere," she said. "But we dont have a short-term fix. I know of around 37 kids who are couch surfing right now because they cant stay at home while finishing school. Even just a small sense of stability can make a huge difference." Buegge said the new policy could provide that difference. "This gives people a little bit of leeway, a little bit of security while we continue to work towards longer-term solutions. Having your own space, even temporarily, can do so much for someones self-confidence and sense of safety." ADVERTISEMENT She also acknowledged that she believes many people had already been living this way. "I think its already happening people just dont talk about it because theyre worried theyll be told to move on. This policy removes that fear and legitimises what, for some, is the only option," she said. "If something this small can make life a bit easier for someone, then I think its the least we can do." Caravan rule change follows same move by Queensland council It comes as Lockyer Valley Regional Council, 90km west of Brisbane, announced last week residential use of caravans will now be permitted for up to six months in a 12-month period if the person is parked on a family or friend's property. The change in that local government area means the landowner and the caravan occupant will not require council approval and this arrangement has been locked in until the end of 2027. ADVERTISEMENT "While the state and federal governments carry the responsibility for meeting housing demand, allowing for the temporary use of caravans is a practical step local governments can take," Cheryl Steinhardt, Lockyer Councils Regulatory Services Councillor said. "Not only does it benefit people waiting for a rental to become available or for a property to settle, it also supports people doing it tough." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Just weeks after getting her vaccination, Mikaela, from Sydney, was struck down by the worse flu she's ever experienced. Source: Supplied As temperatures began to drop last month, a young Sydney woman rolled up a sleeve for her annual flu vaccination. Hoping to dodge the contagious illness as cases spike around the country, Mikaela could never have predicted the battle she was soon going to endure. Just weeks later, she was struck down by influenza, and despite having had the flu several times before, this would prove to be by far the worst. It was actually quite shocking how bad it was, the 23-year-old told Yahoo News. Ive never been sick like that before. After falling ill, Mikaela developed a painful dry cough that triggered an acute asthma flare-up. I dont usually suffer from asthma its more of an underlying condition for me so that was quite scary. I also had congestion, really bad sinus pain, and terrible fatigue. One day I slept for 14 hours straight, she said. ADVERTISEMENT The junior graphic designer was so unwell she was forced to take a week of sick leave from her first full-time job. Sick Aussie forced to wait days for doctor's appointment Desperate to relieve her symptoms, Mikaela booked an appointment with her GP, but the only spot available was days away. I was just trying to hold out at home until then, but it feels pretty awful when youre unwell and you just want to be seen so you can get the prescriptions you need, and you have to wait three additional days, she told Yahoo, noting her GP doesnt offer Telehealth services. I feel like that is really indicative of how busy they are at the moment. After being forced to trek from her home in Newtown to Sydneys CDB via two busses, the 23-year-old was given some pretty heavy duty medications , including codeine cough syrup and a steroid inhaler. ADVERTISEMENT Ive been sick for three weeks now. Im at the tail end of it but even three weeks out, Im still battling symptoms, she said. Aussies are being urged to get a flu jab and Covid vaccine. Source: NewsWire/Adam Yip Aussies urged to get vaccinated amid surge in flu cases Australia is in the midst of an intense and early flu season. While Sunday marks the official start of winter, the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) has already tracked over 92,000 lab-confirmed influenza cases nationally. Telehealth platform Updoc has seen a 134 per cent increase in flu-like consultation requests in May, 2025 compared to May, 2024. Concerningly, the surge appears to be plaguing the countrys most vulnerable age group those over the age of 65. Geographically, every state and territory has recorded at least a 100 per cent increase in appointments. ADVERTISEMENT Post-Covid, seasonal flu is resurging aggressively due to low community immunity and delayed vaccine uptake, Dr Jamie Phillips, Updocs Chief Medical Officer, told Yahoo. As a doctor who works in an emergency department in Queensland, over the last few weeks Ive seen an increasing number of patients presenting to our ED with flu-like symptoms. Often my patients tell me they have come to ED as they are struggling to access their usual GP, they dont have a regular GP or have been advised that they cant be seen due to having respiratory symptoms. Influenza is not a benign illness early intervention reduces time off work and saves lives, he added. A new Covid-19 subvariant is spreading in Australia. Source: NewsWire/Nicholas Eagar Earlier this month Professor Patrick Reading, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, said that while the increased cases this time of year is considered unusual, it highlights just how unpredictable the flu can be. Despite the increased influenza activity, we cant currently predict the severity of the upcoming season in Australia, Reading said. This will be dependent on a range of factors, which virus subtype becomes dominant or which strain becomes dominant. ADVERTISEMENT Early infections may not be as a result of changes to the influenza virus, he argued, but may be influenced by behavioural changes such increased travel and declining vaccination rates. Influenza A and B viruses are responsible for most seasonal flu outbreaks, but each year sees a different mix of subtypes, making the virus difficult to predict and control. Aussies have been urged to get the flu jab to protect themselves, especially those considered at high risk including young children, the elderly, pregnant women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. New Covid strain on the rise Meanwhile, a new Covid-19 subvariant, NB. 1.8.1, is beginning to take hold in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, sparking concern among health authorities as Australia heads into the winter months. According to the latest NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report, Covid-19 and influenza activity remain low overall, but early signs point to a gradual increase in Covid-19 infections, with test positivity rising to 5.7 per cent in the week ending May 17. While the subvariant does not appear to cause more severe illness than earlier strains, its rapid growth is raising flags both locally and internationally. With NCA NewsWire Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. You love cash. But has cash loved you back? This was the message on an advertising board at Duisburg Central Station, in Western Germany. It can also be seen in the following roadside picture: As Rev Kev notes in the comments below, cash has loved us back in its own inimitable way: When the internet goes down, cash is there for me. When the grid goes out, cash is still there. Cash never phones home telling corporations/government how I am spending it. Having cash on you gives you a bit of security and lets you take advantage of any bargains that you come across. Cash does not care what your status is and treats all spenders equally. And when you get bored, you can even spend some time examining the intricate designs on those notes. Similar billboards seen in Frankfurt declare that Cash is no longer King which is true in many European countries but not Germany or bear the slogan: Pay later? Cash cant do that. These anti-cash messages have been cropping up across German cities and along roadsides in recent days. But no one has taken responsibility for them. As such, this is a necessarily speculative post. But there are clues pointing in a particular direction. According to the German financial journalist Norbert Haring, the most likely culprit is the US fintech giant PayPal. The circumstantial evidence is certainly striking. In early May, PayPal published a press release (in German) announcing plans to launch a mobile phone wallet for paying at checkouts in German brick-and-mortar stores (machine translated): In the coming weeks, PayPal will launch its first contactless mobile wallet with Germany as its first global market In the future, consumers will be able to pay securely and conveniently via smartphone, tapping to pay wherever contactless Mastercard payments are accepted. In addition, for the first time they will receive a complete overview of their online and offline purchases on the PayPal app. Even the style and colour scheme of the font used in the ads roughly match those used in previous PayPal ads: Buy Now, Pay Later Another clue comes from the billboard slogan: Pay later? Cash cant do that. Unlike most rival mobile wallets, the PayPal app wont be limited to instant transactions. Shoppers will have the option to split their payments into 3, 6, 12 or even 24 monthly instalments. As the billboard brags, cash cant do that! Another curious coincidence: in its press release, PayPal does not mention even once its two main rivals in the mobile wallet space, Google and Apple Pay. Instead, its pitch is focused almost entirely on the limitations of cash and its declining use in Germany: The more the technology develops, the harder it is to ignore the advantages of digital payment, says Jorg Kablitz, Managing Director, PayPal Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Cash continues to play a role, but we know that many consumers and businesses are ready for innovative alternatives. We are convinced that PayPal has more to offer than cash. Our app makes paying by smartphone in the store easy and secure. Customers have the flexibility to decide how and when they pay and can even save money in the process. It is not unusual for a fintech firm or payment processing company to aim their sharpest invective at cash, as opposed to their direct corporate rivals. For the US payment duopoly of Mastercard and Visa, which generate fees by facilitating money transfers between bank accounts, cash has long been their main rival. In 2010, the then-CEO of Mastercard (and current president of the World Bank), Ajay Banga, openly declared war on cash: In todays terms, only 3% of retail spend in India or in China are through electronic payments. The rest is cash. I have declared war on cash; I believe MasterCard will grow by growing against cash. If you keep looking at 3%, everybodys a rival; if you look at the remaining 97%, everyones a partner. Mastercard and Visa have played arguably the biggest role in demonising cash over the years. But it seems that PayPal is joining the bandwagon now that it, too, is offering a digital payments app for physical retail checkouts, putting it in direct competition with physical notes and coins. And it has decided to launch its app in Germany, one of the most important bastions of physical currency in Europe, just as the war on cash there is escalating rapidly. Cashs Last Stand? Though cash use in Germany has declined in recent years, physical notes and coins are still the main payment method, much to the chagrin of the financial and political establishment. After all, Germany is Europes biggest economy and together with neighbouring Austria and some countries in Southern Europe, particularly Spain, it is holding back Europes transition into a fully digital economy. In 2023, 51% of all transactions in Germany were still being made with cash, with debit cards in a distant second place at 27%, according to the Deutsche Bundesbanks annual payments survey. In many advanced economies, including the UK, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, around 10-20% of transactions are made with cash. In a survey by the European Central Bank, 69% of Germans said that cash was important or very important to them. However, a loose alliance of banks and payment card companies is determined to change this. A few months ago, some of Germanys biggest banks announced that they were joining forces with large credit card companies in an attempt to force cash out of the market through cartel pricing and unfair competition. From Harings article, Banks Form Discount Cartel to Displace Cash Bundesbank Provides Cover (in German, machine translated): The new initiative Germany pays digitally is not an initiative, but a cartel. It consists of Commerzbank (Commerz Globalpay), Deutsche Bank, Volks- and Raiffeisenbanken (VR Pay), Mastercard, Visa, Flatpay, Unzer and SumUp. Further cartel members are expressly welcome to join. The aim is to displace their main competitor, cash, and the cash service providers through price dumping cash incurs costs that are often lower for small merchants than the costs of digital payments, but not zero. Heres how it will work: the cartel will be offering small merchants and retailers with up to 50,000 in annual turnover free installation of a payment terminal and free use of it for all transactions for up to one year. No fees, no commissions. Those will obviously kick in during the second year. As Haring notes, the cartel members are willing to accept temporary losses in order to incentivise small businesses to accept digital payments instead of cash. Meanwhile, the availability of cash and the ability to use it to pay for basic services is being squeezed from all sides. Earlier this week, it was announced that bank customers will soon no longer be able to get cash back from Shell petrol stations. According to a report by Frankfurter Rundschau, as of June 30 1,300 Shell petrol stations will no longer provide the cash back service to customers of Deutsche Bank, Postbank, Commerzbank and Hypovereinsbank. For many people, the cash-back service was a simple, round-the-clock solution at a time of increasingly scarce banking services. Bank customers were able to withdraw up to 1,000 with each purchase. The move is likely to hit rural communities particularly hard since many of them no longer have bank branches or ATMs, in part due to the recent rise in ATM bombings. In the absence of banking services, many of these communities had grown to depend on Shells cash back services, notes the Frankfurter Rundschau report: The vanishing options for withdrawing cash are becoming a problem, especially in rural areas, due to the lack of bank-Shell cooperation. There, the gas stations were an effective means of withdrawing money. Banks such as Deutsche Bank and Post Bank say they are offering alternative options in its place. Post Bank, for example, has been offering its customers a Cash Code, which is essentially a bar code that allows them to deposit or withdraw cash sums of up to 1,000 at over 12,000 retailers nationwide. But theres a catch: in order to use the code, you must have a smartphone, an internet connection and the corresponding bank app. Deutsche Bank is looking to adopt a similar approach in the coming months. As the Frankfurter Rundschau article notes, many older people still do not have a smartphone. Many of those that do will struggle to use the bank app, meaning that accessing cash is becoming more and more difficult for the one key demographic that most uses it. Yet the same banks that are driving this trend will claim that the publics gradual shift away from cash is purely the result of technological trends and shifting customer preferences. As the pro-cash activist Brett Scott notes, the financial sectors escalating assaults on cash have created a feedback loop that constantly reinforces the impression that people are turning their back on cash when, in actual fact, banks are making it harder for them to access it while both bricks-and-mortar businesses and governments are making it harder to use it. This is all happening as the European Central Bank prepares to launch a digital euro, which will be competing directly (and probably unfairly) with cash. As we warned in March, there are myriad reasons why Euro Area citizens should be terrified of the stealthily approaching central bank digital currency, including the threat it will pose to financial privacy and anonymity as well as the programmable features it is likely to offer, which have the potential to revolutionise the very nature of money. Increasing Competition in Europes Digital Payments Market It is against this backdrop that the online payment giant Paypal has chosen Germany as the first national market to launch its contactless payment app. As Euro Weekly reports, to make this happen, PayPal is introducing its own virtual debit card, fully integrated into the app: This means users can pay in-store without needing a physical card or even opening a third-party digital wallet. Everything happens within PayPals app. Its clean, simple, and in line with how consumers already use the platform Whats more, PayPal is also introducing a cashback system, rewarding users who choose to pay via their smartphones in-store. While full details on rates and conditions are still to come, its clear that partner retailers will play a key role, and the incentive may be enough to get users to leave their other digital wallets behind. This launch also reflects a growing shift in the digital payments landscape, particularly in Europe. Thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which forces tech giants like Apple to open up their NFC systems to third-party apps, PayPal can now access iPhone hardware that was previously locked to Apple Pay. In short: Apple no longer has exclusive control, and competitors like PayPal are finally able to innovate on equal footing. While this is a welcome step, it is still telling that in its press release PayPal aims its competitive focus squarely on cash and not on its other rivals in the mobile payments space. Whether PayPal is behind the dissemination of anti-cash ads that have sprouted in recent days, it is impossible to know, for the simple reason that nobody has taken responsibility for those ads. But if it is, it is taking on a form of payment that endured centuries of use and continues to enjoy strong public support in Germany, as well as many other European countries. If German cash advocates wanted to respond in kind by launching their own counter-information campaign, they would have plenty of material at their disposal (albeit probably a far smaller marketing budget). Here are a few examples of billboard ads they could run: Does Cash Spy On You? Because PayPal certainly does. For well over a decade the company has been criticized widely for its practice of amassing huge files of data on just about every aspect of their customers lives, much of which it then shares with its partners and merchants for marketing and PR purposes. Partners include companies like Axciom, one of the worlds largest data aggregators, which has compiled a detailed dossier on pretty much every European and sells it to anyone willing to pay the price. In September last year, PayPal updated its privacy policy in order to allow the automatic sharing of user data with third-party vendors unless users actively opt out. Needless to say, there is no need to opt out of any data sharing policy when it comes to using cash. Does Cash Accidentally Leak Your Data to Criminals? PayPals systems have been breached on numerous occasions. It recently paid a $2 million fine for a 2022 breach that resulted in the exposure of sensitive customer information, including some individuals Social Security numbers. Last week, the company was among a number of large platforms (Google, Apple and Meta) implicated in a massive data breach involving 184 million login credentials found on a mysterious database. Again, cash will not leak your data to anyone though it can, of course, be stolen. Does Cash Freeze Your Account Due to Your Political Views? As readers may recall, in 2022 PayPal included within its fine print a new policy to impose a fine of $2,500 any time one of its 429 million consumers and merchants expressed what the companys C-suite executives deemed to be misinformation. It had essentially awarded itself the right to loot the accounts of customers whose political views it found unsavoury. When the news triggered an inevitable storm of protest, the company backtracked claiming it was just an error. Critics included the companys former President David Marcus, who described the companys new Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) as insanity. PayPals new AUP goes against everything I believe in, he posted on Saturday. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Of course, PayPal has been at the forefront of the debanking trend ever since it froze Wikileaks account in 2010, arguing that its payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity. And lastly, my favourite: Does Cash Crash? Because PayPal certainly can. In November last year, its systems went down for around two hours, affecting thousands of customers. By contrast, just over a month ago cash helped to cushion the impact of Spains worst power blackout in recent history. The blackout exposed critical vulnerabilities in digital payment networks, disrupting mobile wallets, POS systems, and ATMs. By contrast, cash helped to reduce the fallout by providing a backup payment option, as even most mainstream media outlets in the country admitted. Yet in both Spain and Germany, the war on cash is not just continuing, it is intensifying. Its 3 a.m. and Private Equity is Extending an Invitation to The Big Club Racket News This Shape-Shifting Parasite Eats Human Cells and Wears Their Proteins as a Disguise ZME Science Climate/Environment Pandemics Here is an update on this from my critical care team looking after nearly 32 new cases of Covid currently admitted to the hospital. The presentation is with fever for most, lasting only a few days. Various types of upper respiratory symptoms including hoarse voice and throat https://t.co/jlJAaWVGTk TheLiverDoc (@theliverdr) May 29, 2025 Whew, thankfully there is no testing or data in the US, so this will NEVER happen here (on paper.) When you get the latest variant, no you did not! When the latest variant disables you, you will hear its not Covid, its YOUyour weight, age, & immoral lifestyles did that. https://t.co/tVWIzH6zzd Laura Miers (@LauraMiers) May 29, 2025 Zoom in to Gastrointestinal Problems and Cold Cough Flu-Influenza. Look at that genuinely astonishing rise from *2019* to now. pic.twitter.com/6z3E0aWaNZ tern (@1goodtern) May 29, 2025 India-Pakistan Towards Disaster New Left Review China? Syraqistan Old Blighty European Disunion New Not-So-Cold War So Chosen Company is separating from the Ukrainian military because? Oh because theyve been taking an ass beating and the orders coming down the pipe are suicidal. Same reason the battalion commander from the 47th crashed out. But a reminder that hes not done killing pic.twitter.com/dSPCwftGKc ayden (@squatsons) May 28, 2025 Spook Country Liberation Day Trump 2.0 Palantirs Trump bonanza continues with Fannie Mae contract to fight fraud The Register DOGE MAHA Which means they used LLM AI to write the report. I see it all the time when anti-science people post AI sources to back their arguments. Jonathan Laxton MD, FRCPC (@dr_jon_l) May 29, 2025 Democrats en Deshabille The Supremes Antitrust Competition Policy Must be a Fundamental Component of Industrial Policy Law and Power Wars Come Home Immigration Well-connected students use propaganda troupes to dodge N. Korean farm labor Daily NK Imperial Collapse Watch Trump isnt beating his nickname https://t.co/KaZe4pkvmM Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 29, 2025 Healthcare? Beyond the Asylum The New York Review Silicon Valley Guillotine Watch The Bezzle It Was So Weird These Monkeys Have Started a Bizarre Kidnapping Fad SciTech Daily Pirates of the Ayahuasca n+1 Antidote du jour (via): See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Yves here. Even though the Trump Team is trying to preserve the appearance of having the upper hand in trade negotiations, losing on the first two cases decided so far on the Administrations use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act to justify his tariffs has dented momentum. And thats a bigger deal than it might seem. First, as the article below notes, Trump is a negotiating one note Nellie, seemingly able only to make maximalist demands, including insisting on unnecessarily speedy and typically counterproductive timetable, only to suddenly reverse himself when met with serious opposition. The footage below came from a deleted Saturday Night Live segment: Trump also seems to have the odd notion that having hissies bolsters his manhood: Whats this deal that China violated ? No one knows because it doesnt exist Im no fan of China and they totally steal our IP and much more. However this rant is simply TACO TRUMP lashing out to heal his bruised ego as he is now the laughing stock of the planet pic.twitter.com/2UDi0pcAnS Non-Hyphenated American (@NHAunleashed) May 30, 2025 Recall that Optor successfully used satire and stunts to erode the legitimacy of the Milosevic government. Perhaps the not-very-effective Democrat opposition should have deployed laughter rather than lawfare. On the trade front, what China and Japan do next would be early indicators of the effect of the legal battles on the trade talks. By Susan Stone, Credit Union SA Chair of Economics, University of South Australia. Originally published at The Conversation Earlier this week, a US court blocked the so-called Liberation Day tariffs that US President Donald Trump imposed on imported goods from around 90 nations. On Wednesday (US time), the Court of International Trade ruled the emergency authority Trump used to impose the tariffs could not override the role of Congress, which has the right to regulate commerce with other countries. The following day, however, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington paused the trade courts ruling, temporarily reinstating Trumps tariffs. The earlier court ruling, and the fresh uncertainty prompted by the appeal have left the implementation of Trumps trade policy in disarray. Even though it has been paused, the trade courts ruling calls into question trade negotiations underway with more than 18 different nations, which are trying to lower these tariffs. Do these countries continue to negotiate or do they wait for the judicial process to play out? The Trump administration still has other mechanisms through which it can impose tariffs, but these have limits on the amount that can be imposed, or entail processes which can take months or years. This undermines Trumps preferred method of negotiation: throwing out large threats and backing down once a concession is reached. Emergency Powers Were a Step Too Far The lawsuits were filed by US importers of foreign products and some US states, challenging Trumps use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. The lawsuits argued the national emergencies cited in imposing the tariffs the trade deficit and the fentanyl crisis were not an emergency and not directly addressed by the tariff remedy. The court agreed, and said by imposing tariffs Trump had overstepped his authority. The ruling said the executive orders used were declared to be invalid as contrary to law. The act states the president is entitled to take economic action in the face of an unusual and extraordinary threat. Its mainly been used to impose sanctions on terrorist groups or freeze assets from Russia. Theres nothing in the act that refers to tariffs. The decision means all the reciprocal tariffs including the 10% tariffs on most countries, the 50% tariffs Trump was talking about putting on the EU, and some of the Chinese tariffs are ruled by the court to be illegal. The ruling was based on two separate lawsuits. One was brought by a group of small businesses that argued tariffs materially hurt their business. The other was brought by 12 individual states, arguing the tariffs would materially impact their ability to provide public goods. Shawn Thew/EPA Some Industry Tariffs Will Remain in Place The ruling does not apply to tariffs applied under Section 201, known as safeguard tariffs. They are intended to protect industries from imports allegedly being sold in the US market at unfair prices or through unfair means. Tariffs on solar panels and washing machines were brought under this regulation. Also excluded are Section 232 tariffs, which are applied for national security reasons. Those are the steel and aluminium tariffs, the automobile and auto parts tariffs. Trump has declared all those as national security issues, so those tariffs will remain. Most of the tariffs against China are also excluded under Section 301. Those are put in place for unfair trade practices, such as intellectual property theft or forced technology transfer. They are meant to pressure countries to change their policies. Other Trade investigations Are Still Underway In addition, there are current investigations related to copper and the pharmaceuticals sector, which will continue. These investigations are part of a more traditional trade process and may lead to future tariffs, including on Australia. Now for the Appeals Following the subsequent reinstatement of tariffs, we now have to wait for the appeals process to play out. This may take some time. The plaintiffs have until June 5 to respond, and the Trump administration has until June 9. In the meantime, there are at least five other legal challenges to tariffs pending in the courts. If the appeals court provides a ruling the Trump administration or opponents dont like, they can appeal to the Supreme Court. Alternatively, the White House could direct customs officials to ignore the court and continue to collect tariffs. The Trump administration has ignored court orders in the past, particularly on immigration rulings. The administration is unlikely to lie down on this. In addition to its appeal process, officials complained about unelected judges and judicial overreach and may contest the whole process. The only thing that continues to be a certainty is that uncertainty will drive global markets for the foreseeable future. Yves here. Andrew Korybko is underplaying what might happen next in terms of Russian responses to Ukraines efforts to escalate as Russias war machine grind through Ukraine, at an unmistakably accelerating pace. Recall that Russia is reported to have over two armies fully trained, about 240,000 soldiers, in reserve. They could be committed to the battlefield if Russia decides to up its tempo, or Russia could hold them back in case the West attempts to do Something Stoopid or use them to police an occupation. Korbyko mentions the recent assassination attempt on Putin when he visited Kursk in a helicopter, which has been ignored by the Western media and per John Helmer and Ray McGovern in a recent talk on Dialogue Works, underplayed in Russia. Per Helmer and McGovern, they believe that Russia has chosen to present their intelligence findings to their US counterparts, since both countries do cooperate in counter-terrorism efforts. Its hard to think that US did not provide targeting or surveillance data. The question then is how the US tries to splain this. Helmer awfully politely called this testing the US to see if it can be trusted. Korybko omits that Ukraine has just engaged in a massive drone attack on Russia, which is still continuing at the pace of 100 more drones a night, which Russia has parried. Alexander Mercouris argued that this campaign has to have been prepared well in advance with Ukraines Western allies and could have represented a resource commitment (certainly in terms of planning) on the order of the failed summer counteroffensive of 2024. Mark Sleboda offered a theory in a new talk with Danny Haiphong (starting at 59:00), that Ukraine and the West were engaging in an air defense war of attrition, with these drone strikes intended to deplete Russias air defenses and also provide information about their location and operation. Sleboda argues that the Ukraines allies may be planning a major missile salvo on the hope that Russian air defenses will have been so worn down so that this attack can do real damage. Well put aside the fact World War II showed that air attacks that are not sufficient to destroy the opponent harden its resolve. If Sleboda is correct, its remarkable to see how Ukraine and its backers have talked themselves into believing that would at best be a hard punch, not a knockout blow, is worth the enormous risks. Clearly a lot of reputations, fragile egos and rice bowls at stake. Note per the discussion below that Germany has taken to tap dancing about the status of its Taurus missiles, which have a 500km range and are thus longer-range than anything Ukraine has deployed before. Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeated rejected US and NATO pressure to let Ukraine use them. New Chancellor Freidrich Merz in a round about way confirmed that their use had actually been approved during the Biden era (even if Scholz had put the brakes on their immediate use) and commentators contend that they are already in Ukraine. Sleboda and others indicate that Ukraine may have gotten 150 out of Germanys total current operating stock of 250. The Taurus missiles are air launched and they could reach Moscow. Sleboda points out the only plane that Ukraine has that could deliver them is the F-16, which Ukraine appears to have used only in a defensive capacity, well away from the line of contact. Scott Ritter has argued that the odds of an F-16 pilot surviving an attack on the front lines is 20%, that Russia has the ability to target them shortly after takeoff. Thats before getting to the fact that Ukraine has not demonstrated great competence in their use, with a high number of accidents and friendly fire incidents. Finally, everyone with an operating brain cell knows that the US would at a minimum be providing satellite information for targeting, and Germany would have to assist in the use of Taurus missiles. Many Russian hard-liners are upset that Russian has not delivered on its warning that Western support of an attack on pre-2014 Russia would be deemed as an act of war by the involved nations. The Ukraine incursion into Kursk clearly had Western backing. In other words, the West is pushing Russia to respond by striking Western cities, or alternatively, Western military assets, such as bases in Poland. From RT in Russia could target Berlin if German missiles hit Moscow RT editor-in-chief: Russia would not rule out a direct strike on Berlin if German personnel help Ukraine target Moscow with German-supplied Taurus missiles, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, has warned German officials, however, have not confirmed any decision to send the Taurus system, and a Bild report on Wednesday suggested that the government in Berlin still considers doing so taboo. In a post on Wednesday, Simonyan warned that Germany could face dire consequences if the Taurus is ever used for attacking the Russian capital. In Moscow offices, it is being discussed that if German troops strike Moscow with German weapons the only option left for us is to strike Berlin, she said. She went on to explain that a Taurus strike on Moscow would have to be prepared and executed by German service members because the Ukrainians cannot maintain [the Taurus] or program it for flight missions. Responding to Merzs comments on lifting the restrictions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, noted that if such a decision had indeed been made, it would lead to serious escalation and undermine current efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict. Simonyan is not a Russian official. Nevertheless, she looks to be a vehicle for telling the West in simple noun-verb sentences of what Russia has tried telling them before and they have ignored, since Putin has yet to make good on these threats. The reason for Russian restraint is likely that they know what we ought to know. Scott Ritter has said that gaming a direct conflict between the US and Russia always results in nuclear war. Answering any such attack merely with Oreshniks in Ukraine would thus not be proportionate unless Russia delivered on another threat, of striking decision centers, which means among other things Kiev, and/or no longer pulling its punches on prostrating Ukraine via taking out its electric grid and electric production. By Andrew Korybko, a Moscow-based American political analyst who specializes in the global systemic transition to multipolarity in the New Cold War. He has a PhD from MGIMO, which is under the umbrella of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Originally published at his website Step by step, Trump is turning Sleepy Joe Bidens War into his own, exactly as Steve Bannon warned him not to do. German Chancellor Friedrich Merzs revelation that the West removed all restrictions on the range of the weapons that they supplied to Ukraine brought about a feeling of deja vu from late last year. Russia warned them against doing this at the time, the moment of truth finally arrived once they defied it, and then Putin climbed the escalation ladder by authoring the use of a hitherto top-secret hypersonic medium-range Oreshnik missile against Ukraine. History might therefore be about to repeat itself. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the Wests reported decision as quite dangerous, while Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assessed that it was evidently made quite some time ago and kept under wraps, which aligns with what Merz himself later claimed when clarifying his comments. Nevertheless, this policy has yet to result in any strategically significant attacks, let alone reshape the conflicts dynamics in Ukraines favor. If that changes, however, then Russia might drop more Oreshniks. This could happen even in the absence of those two scenario triggers. Trump ominously posted on Tuesday that What Vladimir Putin doesnt realize is that if it werent for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. Hes playing with fire!. This follows his post about how [Putin] has gone absolutely CRAZY!, which was analyzed here as proof of him being maliciously misinformed by his trusted advisors and/or him creating the pretext for US escalation. Its therefore clear that Trump is preparing for the possibility that peace talks might soon collapse, in advance of which hes trying to spin a self-serving narrative. By denigrating Putin as crazy and implying that bad things..REALLY BAD might soon happen to Russia, Trump is signaling tacit approval of forthcoming Ukrainian provocations. Other than the use of long-range American missiles against strategic targets, this could take the form of a nationwide assassination-terrorism campaign. It shouldnt be forgotten that Russia blamed Ukraine for spring 2024s Crocus terrorist attack, accused it of plotting to assassinate Putin during last Julys Naval Day parade in St. Petersburg, and just revealed that a swarm of their drones tried to take down his helicopter during last weeks visit to Kursk. Moreover, Trump was suspiciously silent after Zelensky implicitly threatened to attack Moscows Victory Day parade, so its possible that he might finally let Ukraine loose even if he walks away from the conflict. In the event that Ukraines long-range Western missiles strike strategically significant targets and/or a nationwide assassination-terrorism campaign is commenced, especially if theres any credible threat to Putin or other senior officials, then Russia might retaliate by dropping more Oreshniks. Its holding back for the time being, apparently to avoid provoking Trump into crossing the Rubicon through the abovementioned means, but itll have no more reason to remain restrained if he ends up doing that first. All told, Russian-US relations could soon deteriorate depending on what Ukraine does, especially if the Kremlin concludes that its with a wink and a nod from America. Theres no way that Russia wont respond if Ukraine escalates the conflict. This could very likely take the form of more Oreshnik strikes, which could in turn be exploited by Trump as the pretext for more direct US escalation. Step by step, Trump is turning Sleepy Joe Bidens War into his own, exactly as Steve Bannon warned him not to do. The U.S. Congressional Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland Security formally launched an investigation on Friday related to a recent executive order from Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell. The investigation, announced on Memorial Day by Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, is seeking records and communications related to O'Connell's Executive Order 30 an order outlining Metros response to extensive Nashville arrests in early May by federal immigration officials and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The investigation is also seeking any contact or correspondence with NGOs tied to immigration enforcement, sanctuary policies, or the handling of criminal aliens; all communications about federal law enforcement operations in Metro Nashville/Davidson County; and every financial record related to taxpayer-funded programs aiding illegal aliens, specifically naming the newly established Belonging Fund. The Belonging Fund was created to provide financial support to nonprofit organizations offering emergency assistance to immigrants in our region during times of crisis. +3 Rep. Ogles Announces House Probe Into Mayor OConnell Congressional rep says mayor is aiding and abetting illegal immigration, urges law enforcement statewide to cooperate with ICE On May 28, Ogles posted on social media, accusing the mayors office of putting law enforcement in serious danger, saying OConnell publicly leaked the names of [Department of Homeland Security] and [Homeland Security Investigations] officials working with Davidson County on immigration enforcement. Ogles post was in response to a spreadsheet published on Metros website listing limited communication between the Metro Nashville Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. At a media round-table on Friday, OConnell said he is puzzled as to why the Trump administration and local Republican leaders consider Nashville a sanctuary city. He spent much of his weekly press conference responding to questions related to Ogles probe. OConnell pointed to state legislation that bans sanctuary cities, saying Nashville is in compliance with state law. According to Tennessee law, a sanctuary city would be defined by any of the following: grants undocumented people lawful presence within the boundaries of the state; limits or prohibits a local government from cooperating with federal agencies to verify immigration status of any alien; restricts cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; requires the DHS to obtain a warrant or probable cause before taking custody of an undocumented immigrant; or prevents law enforcement agencies from inquiring about citizenship of any person. By definition, Nashville is not a sanctuary city, OConnell said Friday, reading from a statement. We do not nor have we ever had a policy that violates the state law. As we've stated several times in recent weeks, Metro does not have any legal authority as it relates to immigration enforcement, and we do not impede federal law enforcement actions. In fact, we regularly partner with state and federal law enforcement agencies to take violent criminals off our streets. We're very clear-eyed about our legal obligations, and we do comply with the law, he said. Lawyers Spot Illegal Evictions of Immigrants Following ICE Operation Undocumented immigrants face choice between eviction or risk of deportation Im not particularly concerned, said OConnell when asked by reporters if his office was concerned that the congressional investigation would uncover wrongdoing. Were going to respond appropriately to all inquiries, and we have been guided by a full understanding of state and federal law. OConnell confirmed that he has not spoken about the matter to Ogles or U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Blackburn has also been critical of the mayor, calling on the Department of Justice and Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate OConnells office. "I write to express my deep concern with the recent actions of Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell and his efforts to obstruct the work of the Trump administration to secure our border, deport criminal illegal aliens, and Make America Safe Again," Blackburn wrote to Bondi in a letter sent to press on Friday evening. It was never the intent of the executive order for those names to be posted, said OConnell in regard to accusations of leaking DHS and HSI officials names. They were removed as soon as we were made aware that they had been posted. We're working on new safeguards and procedures to avoid it happening again. State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) spoke about the political pursuit of O'Connell during Thursday night's An Evening With The Bulwark live podcast event at Cannery Hall. My advice to Mayor Freddie O'Connell would be that you face a crossroads, said Jones. Either capitulate to authoritarianism or choose courage. What ICE and our Tennessee Highway Patrol are doing to our immigrant neighbors is unlawful, and so I say to the mayor, Do not back down, do not apologize, Jones said. The title of being a mayor is nice, but your purpose is better," Jones added. "You must be willing to risk your title for your purpose. Chinese hackers are deep inside Americas networks: A national security warning that wont fade The Chinese state-sponsored group has operated in U.S. telecom networks since late 2022, stealing call records, monitoring surveillance activities and compromising devices of political figures, marking one of historys largest cyber breaches. The hackers used zero-day exploits, phishing, supply chain infiltration and persistent network access to extract sensitive data, including operational tactics of U.S. intelligence agencies. China invests heavily in cyber warfare programs, training 30,000 specialists annually and centralizing hacking under entities like PLA Unit 61398, creating a globally dominant cyber-military force. U.S. telecoms lack enforceable cybersecurity standards, with outdated laws like CALEA exacerbating vulnerabilities; companies like AT&T delay critical updates, risking mass compromise. Immediate reforms, including modernizing telecom infrastructure, stronger federal regulations and global alliances, are critical to prevent ongoing espionage and protect democratic systems. Digital breach with epochal implications In late 2024, American authorities faced a stark reality: a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group named Salt Typhoon had embedded itself into at least eight U.S. telecom networks since late 2022, stealing millions of call records, monitoring surveillance requests by U.S. agencies and targeting devices used by political figures, including members of major U.S. administrations. This unprecedented breach revealed through coordinated warnings from the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has ignited alarms over escalating cyber threats to national security and public safety. Federal officials admit they cannot fully expel the hackers, who remain entrenched, and lack clarity on the full extent of infiltration. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner deems this the worst breach in American history, underscoring Chinas now-entrenched cyber-spying prowess, honed as the most active and persistent threat actor globally. Analysis suggests Salt Typhoon accessed advanced telecom infrastructure, including smartphones and encrypted devices, to extract sensitive data. In one noted case, they infiltrated a major U.S.-based satellite communications provider, exposing security protocols that shielded operational details about critical infrastructure like power grids and military bases. The compromised call records provide insight into the networks of political figures, raising concerns about domestic destabilization efforts ahead of the 2024 election cycle. The Salt Typhoon espionage: A blueprint for cyber supremacy The Salt Typhoon groups multiyear campaign mirrors a broader pattern of Chinese cyber aggression. Beginning as early as two years agoper FBI and CISA investigations the group targeted not only data theft but operational disruption, accessing vulnerabilities in telecom infrastructure to evade detection. By infiltrating systems long-term, they gained insights into U.S. surveillance practices, potentially shielding Chinese operatives under scrutiny. Methods included exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in telecom software, phishing government contractors and compromising vendor supply chains to plant malware. Analysts note that Salt Typhoons sustained presence allowed it to monitor real-time agency requests for wiretaps or data, giving Beijing an inside track on U.S. law enforcement tactics. A November 2023 FBI report highlighted how stolen communications from U.S. senators and foreign diplomats revealed intelligence-sharing patterns between Washington and allies, weakening U.S. diplomatic strategies. The groups actions were exposed in November 2023 when the FBI and CISA disclosed stolen call logs and private communications from U.S. government and politically active individuals. A December 3 joint advisory from the NSA, CISA and international partners warned of Salt Typhoons ongoing threat, urging urgent hardening of comms infrastructure. Analysts highlight the breachs dual impact: direct espionage alongside destabilization of systems vital to democratic secrecy. Chinas ascendant cyber strategy Chinas tech militarization dates to 20122013, when elite cyber-offensive programs were launched under Xi Jinpings directive, amid global exposes about NSA overreach and Chinese crackdowns on dissidents. This pivot prioritized cultivating 30,000 cyber specialists annually via state-certified programs while centralizing hacking communes under entities like the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 61398. Decades later, these investments reveal their intent: a hybrid cyber-military force now qualitatively superior to Western defenses. Beijings cyber strategy combines espionage, economic theft and geopolitical disruption. For instance,Salt Typhoons tactics mirror those of earlier groups like APT 10, which targeted defense contractors, and APT 41, specializing in telecom intrusions. By integrating civilian hacking collectives like the Shadow Brokers into state-sponsored frameworks, China has blurred the line between criminal and state-sponsored attacks. Closing regulatory gaps: Accountability or peril? The breach spotlights deficiencies in U.S. telecom security. Unlike financial sectors subject to strict cybersecurity oversight under the SEC telecoms face laxer federal requirements, with the FCC barred from mandating network-wide encryption or access controls. Exposing this gap, former FCC chair Tom Wheeler noted that 1994s CALEA law, whose security compromises spies now exploit, remains unupdated, creating a situation everyone in 1994 missed. Compounding risks are current shifts like cost-cutting infrastructure reforms, incorporating software solutions that increase attack surfaces. Major telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon, have been slow to implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for employee accounts or adopt decoy networks to detect intrusions. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to enforce penalties for non-compliance, creating a regulatory void Chinas hackers have exploited. A siren call for digital sovereignty The Salt Typhoon incident is not merely a security alertit crystallizes a national reckoning. Chinas targeting of critical U.S. systems signals a new era of digital warfare where every wiretap or citizens call is a potential weapon. Sen. Warners warning every politicians conversation up for grabs demands immediate action: stricter telecom regulations, legacy infrastructure modernization and global alliances to counter Beijings cyber-pragmatism. Proposals gaining traction include the Secure Telecom Networks Act of 2023, which would fund replacement of vulnerable equipment and grant enforcement authority to the FCC. Privacy advocates argue such measures risk overreach, but national security experts stress that without these steps, critical infrastructure will remain barn doors with no locks. The path forward requires uncomfortable trade-offs between connectivity and sovereigntyand time is not on Americas side. Sources include: TheNationalPulse.com TheEconomist.com Brookings.edu HHS axes $700M Moderna bird flu vaccine contract is this a pivot to more dangerous, self-replicating mRNA jabs? In a stunning reversal, the U.S. government has abruptly terminated a $700 million contract with Moderna to develop an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine raising urgent questions about whether this signals an end to pandemic fearmongering or merely a shift toward even riskier genetic injection technologies. While the cancellation offers a temporary reprieve from Modernas predatory vaccine schemes, skeptics warn that the vaccine industry may still be pushing forward with experimental "self-amplifying mRNA" (sa-mRNA) shots, a technology that forces the body to mass-produce viral proteins indefinitely. Key points: The U.S. government has canceled Modernas $700 million bird flu vaccine contract, halting late-stage development of its H5N1 mRNA injection. Despite the cancellation, federal agencies are still funding next-generation "universal flu vaccines," including self-replicating sa-mRNA platforms. Modernas CEO insists the company will pursue "alternative paths" for its bird flu jab, despite mounting evidence of mRNA vaccine injuries. The Biden autopen regime previously awarded Moderna $176 million for avian influenza vaccine development, raising concerns about ongoing pandemic profiteering. Health Freedom warriors warn that government-funded gain-of-function research on bird flu viruses is creating the very pandemics used to justify mass vaccination campaigns. Modernas failed COVID empire and the push for bird flu jabs Modernas financial survival has long depended on taxpayer-funded vaccine contracts, particularly after its COVID-19 shots linked to heart damage, immune disorders and excess deaths failed to secure long-term market demand. With plummeting stock prices and dwindling public trust, the company has aggressively lobbied governments to bankroll new pandemic threats, including avian influenza. The now-canceled H5N1 contract was part of a broader push by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), an HHS agency notorious for funneling billions into Big Pharmas experimental projects. Moderna had already received $176 million in 2023 to fast-track its mRNA bird flu shot, despite zero long-term safety data. These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel claimed in a press release a statement that ignores the thousands of injuries reported from COVID-19 mRNA shots. The rise of self-replicating mRNA: A more dangerous alternative? While the cancellation appears to be a setback for Moderna, the government has not abandoned its pandemic preparedness agenda. Instead, federal agencies are quietly shifting toward even more experimental platforms, including self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) vaccines. Unlike traditional mRNA shots, which degrade quickly, sa-mRNA injections hijack the bodys cells to continuously produce viral proteins a process with unknown long-term consequences. In November 2023, FDA approved its sa-mRNA bird flu vaccine, ARCT-2304, signaling a dangerous new frontier in genetic experimentation. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed plans for a "universal flu vaccine" trial in 2026, raising fears that synthetic, multi-strain injections could trigger catastrophic immune responses. Gain-of-function: Manufacturing pandemics to sell the "cure" The abrupt cancellation of Modernas contract does little to address the root of the problem: government-funded gain-of-function research that artificially engineers pandemic threats. Since early 2024, the USDA has been conducting high-risk experiments on H5N1 viruses potentially enhancing their transmissibility while simultaneously developing mRNA "solutions" for the very pathogens they helped create. This corrupt cycle mirrors the COVID, where taxpayer-funded research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology preceded a global pandemic and unprecedented vaccine windfalls for companies like Moderna. Will Moderna face accountability? Despite the contract termination, Moderna shows no signs of retreating. The company recently opened a 290,000-square-foot U.K. facility capable of churning out 250 million vaccines annually, suggesting it still expects lucrative government contracts. For those who have witnessed the devastation of COVID-19 mandates, the cancellation is a small victorybut the war is far from over. Until gain-of-function research is banned and vaccine manufacturers are held legally accountable for injuries, the medical police state will continue exploiting public health crises for profit. Sources include: Modernity.news Investors.modernatx.com JonFleetwood.substack.com How illegal SEAHORSE smuggling fuels a multi-million-dollar black market The oceans most magnificent and delicate creatures are being plundered at an alarming rate , fueling a shadowy global trade that thrives on exploitation, corruption, and the destruction of marine ecosystems. A shocking new study reveals that nearly five million seahorses, valued at CAD$29 million, were seized by authorities over a decade yet experts warn this is merely the "tip of the iceberg" in a sprawling black market that spans 62 countries. These tiny, mystical creatures are hunted relentlessly for their use in traditional medicine, smuggled alongside elephant ivory and pangolin scales in a ruthless underground economy that prioritizes profit over preservation. But who is behind this illicit trade? And why do governments and enforcement agencies continue to fail in stopping it? The answers expose a disturbing reality: weak penalties, corrupt officials, and a lack of political will allow traffickers to operate with near impunity, pushing endangered species closer to extinction. Key points: 5 million seahorses seized in a decade but the true scale of smuggling is far larger. Dried seahorses are in high demand for traditional medicine, smuggled alongside ivory and pangolin scales. China and Hong Kong remain primary destinations, but new trade routes are emerging in Europe and Latin America. Airports and sea cargo are major smuggling hubs, yet enforcement remains inconsistent. Only 7% of seizures result in legal penalties, emboldening traffickers. Sustainable trade alternatives exist but are undermined by black market profiteers. The seahorse trade Seahorses known for their unique appearances and rare male pregnancy are increasingly threatened by overharvesting due to high demand in traditional medicine, aquariums, and curiosities. An estimated 20 million are traded globally each year, mostly dried for use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), where they are believed to treat ailments ranging from erectile dysfunction to fatigue and even cancer. China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are major consumers, driving unsustainable fishing practices in countries like Brazil, India, and the Philippines. Seahorses slow reproduction and low dispersal make them especially vulnerable. To curb exploitation, CITES has listed all seahorse species under Appendix II since 2004, enforcing trade restrictions and a 10-cm size limit to allow breeding before capture. Despite protections, Taiwan imported thousands of kilograms of dried seahorses annually from 20082011, mostly wild-caught. A new study aims to identify the species in Taiwans TCM market using DNA analysis, as traditional identification is difficult when specimens are sliced or processed. Conservationists warn that without stricter enforcement, seahorse populations could collapse under mounting pressure. The brutal reality of seahorse smuggling Seahorses, often romanticized as symbols of luck and perseverance, are instead victims of a brutal and unsustainable industry. Dried and powdered, they are sold in markets across Asia, falsely touted as cures for ailments ranging from asthma to impotence. Despite being protected under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), enforcement is shockingly lax. Researchers discovered eight threatened seahorse species being sold in Taiwans Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) market, including the critically endangered Knysna seahorse and other vulnerable species, a new study reveals. The most common species found was the three-spot seahorse, present in nearly 74% of surveyed stores, while the West African, Knysna, and thorny seahorses were the rarest, with only one specimen each detected. Unlike U.S. markets, which sell seahorses from multiple continents, Taiwans TCM shops primarily sourced seahorses from Asia with exceptions like the African-origin Knysna and West African seahorses. The study also found violations of a 10-centimeter minimum size limit, with young juveniles being sold. Processed seahorse samples further complicated identification due to altered appearances. All species documented including the tiger tail, great, yellow, hedgehog, and three-spot seahorses are classified as threatened by the IUCN Red List, raising concerns over unsustainable harvesting and illegal trade. Dr. Sarah Foster, lead author of the study, warns: "What we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg." With seizures relying on voluntary disclosures and online reports, the true number of trafficked seahorses could be ten times higher. The smuggling methods are brazen: Passenger baggage at airports (most common). Sea cargo shipments (largest volumes seized). Mixed with other illegal wildlife products (ivory, pangolin scales) to evade detection. Yet despite these seizures, 93% of cases lack any follow-up legal action, allowing traffickers to simply regroup and try again. Why seahorses? The deadly demand in traditional medicine For centuries, seahorses have been falsely marketed in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as remedies for: Infertility Asthma Kidney disorders Erectile dysfunction Most of the available evidence on seahorse's medicinal properties is centered around their peptide content. So, demand remains high, driving prices up to CAD$7 per dried seahorse. This lucrative trade has decimated wild populations, with some species now critically endangered. Even within TCM circles, there is recognition of the crisis. As one Hong Kong trader admitted: "We want seahorses to last forever they're important!" Yet without strict enforcement and sustainable alternatives, this sentiment means little against the tide of black-market greed. The global wildlife black market: A web of corruption Seahorses are just one piece of a much larger criminal network. The study found they were frequently seized alongside: Elephant ivory Pangolin scales Shark fins Sea cucumbers This reveals a disturbing truth: Wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry, run by the same syndicates that deal in drugs, arms, and human trafficking. So why isnt more being done? Weak penalties Many countries treat wildlife crime as a minor offense. Corrupt officials Customs agents and law enforcement are often bribed to look the other way. Lack of public awareness Most consumers have no idea their "medicine" comes from endangered species. Experts argue that stronger deterrentsharsher penalties, better detection methods, and international cooperationare essential. But equally important is promoting legal, sustainable trade so fishermen arent forced into smuggling. As Teale Phelps Bondaroff, study co-author, warns: "We must outpace traffickers with innovative research and enforcement." Sources include: ScienceDaily.com OnlineLibrary.wiley.com ScienceDirect.com Enoch, Brighteon.ai It's thought the item may have fallen off a ship, but it was far from the only thing embedded in the sand. A mans fishing and camping trip took an ugly turn after he spotted something unexpected hidden under the sand. Reuben Jacob was visiting a once pristine beach north of Noosa this week, far away from the crowds the holiday town often attracts. At first, it appeared he was just looking at a small piece of clear plastic, but when he tried to pick it up he discovered it was buried deep. It was all under the sand. We had to dig it up, because we couldn't go past it and leave it there, he told Yahoo News. Reuben estimates the sandy plastic weighed upwards of 50kg, making it tough to get off the beach in one piece. It was heavy with the sand inside it, we couldnt get the sand out without tearing it into two bundles, he said. The plastic was likely used in wrapping and had fallen off a ship, then washed onto the sand. But it wasnt the only piece of plastic on the beach. ADVERTISEMENT Related: Calls for rule change as Aussie beach problem spirals out of control From large discarded bottles to tiny fragments, there was rubbish everywhere. He collected what he could and piled it into his 4WD, but he couldnt take it all. Hes urging anyone driving through Noosa North Shore beach, about 8km north of Teewah, to stop and pick up some of the rubbish. It was sad and disappointing. I've been going up this beach for 20 years, and it never used to be like that. It used to be pristine, but its not now, he said. A lot of the rubbish would be from campers, but also what washes up adds to it. When Ive been up before, the bins have been overflowing, so maybe they could increase collection, or even employ someone with a ute to clean the beach. Why more rubbish is suddenly washing up Details of Reuben's story struck a cord online, with pictures of the plastic attracting close to 1,000 reactions. "It disgusts me seeing irresponsible people leaving rubbish on the beach, especially fishing tackle and wires," one person wrote. "Such a precious area. I have camped my whole life and was always taught to leave nothing behind except footprints," another said. ADVERTISEMENT While some called for Noosa Shire Council to clean up the area, it said the part of the beach that was covered in rubbish is managed by the state government. Queensland's Department of Environment (DETSI) told Yahoo the amount of rubbish was disappointing and the problem had noticeably increased in the wake of Cyclone Alfred which made landfall in March, with more debris washing up. DETSI said it has led several mass clean-ups around the area, and that it plans to continue to tackle the issue. We encourage people to put their rubbish in the bin, or take rubbish with them when leaving, to help us keep our beaches clean for the enjoyment of all, it said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories. Scientists warn Venus hides deadly city-killer asteroids with Earth in their crosshairs Researchers have discovered three massive "city-killer" asteroids hidden in Venuss orbit that are undetectable until it is potentially too late. These asteroids, ranging from 330 to 1,300 feet, could strike Earth with minimal warning, unleashing devastation far worse than Hiroshima. Venuss gravitational pull traps these asteroids, making them hard to detect due to the Suns glare; current systems miss them entirely. An impact would create a two-mile crater, trigger tsunamis, and ignite firestorms, dwarfing the 1908 Tunguska event. Only a Venus-orbiting probe could reliably track these threats, as Earth-based telescopes offer just weeks of warning, which is far too late to act. Researchers have uncovered at least three massive asteroids, each capable of wiping out entire cities, hiding in Venuss orbit, undetectable until it may be too late. These space rocks, ominously dubbed "city-killers," measure between 330 and 1,300 feet in diameter and could collide with Earth with just weeks of warning, unleashing devastation a million times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The study, led by Valerio Carruba of Sao Paulo University and published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, exposes a glaring vulnerability in planetary defense: asteroids co-orbiting Venus are shielded from Earths telescopes by the Suns blinding glare. With unstable paths that could abruptly shift toward our planet, these cosmic threats 2020 SB, 524522, and 2020 CL1 represent a ticking time bomb. A blind spot with deadly consequences Most asteroids reside in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, but Venuss gravitational pull has trapped a cluster of co-orbital asteroids that periodically cross Earths path. "Twenty co-orbital asteroids of Venus are currently known," the researchers wrote. "Co-orbital status protects these asteroids from close approaches to Venus, but it does not protect them from encountering Earth." The three most hazardous asteroids have orbits bringing them within 46,600 miles of Earth, which is closer than the Moon. Their Minimum Orbital Intersection Distance (MOID) is less than 0.0005 astronomical units, meaning even minor gravitational nudges could send them hurtling toward us. Detection is nearly impossible under current conditions. The Rubin Observatory in Chile, set to begin operations soon, may only spot these asteroids during brief 2- to 4-week windows when they emerge from the Suns glare. By then, evacuation or deflection would be nearly impossible. What kind of devastation could they unleash? An impact from any of these asteroids would carve a crater over two miles wide, trigger tsunamis, and ignite firestorms. For perspective, the 1908 Tunguska event a mere 160-foot asteroid flattened 800 square miles of Siberian forest. The Venus co-orbitals are up to eight times larger. NASAs current detection systems focus on near-Earth objects (NEOs), but Venuss orbit remains a blind spot. "Low-e [low eccentricity] Venus co-orbitals pose a unique challenge, because of the difficulties in detecting and following these objects from Earth," the study admits. The authors argue only a dedicated Venus-orbiting space probe could map these hidden threats. "While surveys like those from the Rubin Observatory may be able to detect some of these asteroids in the near future, we believe that only a dedicated observational campaign from a space-based mission near Venus could potentially map and discover all the still "invisible" PHA among Venus' co-orbital asteroids," they cautioned. The clock is ticking. The asteroids chaotic orbits have a Lyapunov time of just 150 years, which means their paths become unpredictable within a cosmic blink. Simulations suggest gravitational shifts could propel them toward Earth sooner. While NASA recently ruled out a 2024 YR4 impact in 2032, the agency still tracks it as a lunar threat. A Moon strike, though harmless to Earth, would offer rare data on crater formation. Yet the Venus co-orbitals demand urgent attention. This study is a reminder that Earths safety hinges on vigilance beyond our immediate cosmic neighborhood. While bureaucrats dither and budgets stagnate, unseen dangers loom. The same governments that fund trillion-dollar wars cant spare pennies to shield civilians from existential threats. Sources for this article include: DailyMail.co.uk ScienceAlert.com NYPost.com Trump urges Netanyahu to avoid Iran strike amid nuclear talks, warns against escalation Trump advised Netanyahu against attacking Iran, citing ongoing nuclear talks and calling it "inappropriate" during negotiations. Netanyahus threats against Iran coincide with global backlash over Israels Gaza campaign, including ICC war crime charges. Iran may pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. releases frozen funds and recognizes its civilian nuclear rights under the NPT. Despite urging restraint, the U.S. continues supplying Israel with military aid, fueling its actions in Gaza. Trumps intervention highlights the delicate diplomatic balance as Israels aggression risks derailing potential progress with Iran. President Donald Trump revealed that he advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against launching a military strike on Iran, citing ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran over a potential nuclear agreement. Trump emphasized that such an attack would be "inappropriate" while the U.S. is "very close to a solution," although he stopped short of calling it a formal warning. The revelation comes as Israel faces mounting global condemnation for its brutal military campaign in Gaza, which critics describe as genocide against Palestinians. Trumps diplomatic intervention Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump confirmed reports that he had cautioned Netanyahu during a phone call last week. I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because were very close to a solution, Trump said. Its not a warning. I said, I dont think its appropriate. Trumps optimism about the talks contrasts with his past hardline stance on Iran. He withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, dismissing it as a bad deal. Yet now, he appears willing to negotiate a new agreement that hinges on Irans willingness to limit uranium enrichment to peaceful purposes. Were doing very well with Iran, Trump said, though he warned that other options remain if diplomacy fails. Israels dangerous posturing Netanyahu has long threatened military action against Irans nuclear facilities, framing it as a necessary measure to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But his saber-rattling comes at a precarious moment, as Israel faces unprecedented backlash for its relentless bombardment of Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and displaced millions. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has even sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes. Despite Netanyahus office dismissing reports of planned strikes on Iran as fake news, Trumps admission suggests otherwise. The Israeli leaders desperation to divert attention from Gaza may explain his aggressive posturing, yet Trumps intervention signals that even Washington sees such a move as reckless. Irans conditions for a deal Meanwhile, Iran has signaled openness to a temporary pause in uranium enrichment if the U.S. releases frozen Iranian funds and formally recognizes Tehrans right to refine uranium for civilian use under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Two Iranian officials close to the negotiations told Reuters that a political understanding could be reached soon if Washington accepts these terms. Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), described the ongoing talks as a positive sign but cautioned that the jury is still out on whether an agreement will materialize. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, though its enrichment to 60% purity just shy of weapons-grade has raised alarms. While Trump urges restraint from Israel, his administration continues to supply the Jewish state with billions in military aid, enabling its atrocities in Gaza. The U.S. has long shielded Israel from accountability, vetoing UN resolutions condemning its occupation and human rights abuses. Yet now, even Trump recognizes that Netanyahus brinkmanship could derail delicate negotiations. It is interesting to note that Washington condemns Irans nuclear ambitions while turning a blind eye to Israels own undeclared nuclear arsenal, which is estimated at up to 90 warheads. Meanwhile, Israels apartheid regime in the occupied territories continues unabated, with Palestinians subjected to daily violence and systemic oppression. Trumps plea for Netanyahu to stand down underscores the fragility of the current diplomatic window. With Iran signaling flexibility and Israel under global scrutiny, the U.S. faces a critical test: Will it prioritize peace or continue enabling its allys destructive agenda? For now, Trumps words suggest a rare moment of pragmatism but whether Netanyahu heeds them remains to be seen. Sources for this article include: InfoWars.com AlJazeera.com MiddleEastEye.net FoxNews.com Vietnam moves to block Telegram messaging app over claims of anti-state content and illegal activity The Vietnamese government directed telecom providers to block Telegram, citing illegal activities and non-compliance with local laws. The country's Ministry of Science and Technology issued the order on May 21. Authorities claim 68 percent of Telegram channels in Vietnam host harmful material, including fraud and anti-government propaganda. Over 9,600 channels were flagged for spreading dissident content. The platform expressed surprise, stating it had cooperated with legal requests and was reviewing a formal notice with a May 27 deadline. It disputes claims of enabling illegal activities. Vietnam has intensified online control, pressuring foreign tech firms (Facebook, YouTube, TikTok) to remove "anti-state" content. Telegrams encryption features have drawn scrutiny for hindering law enforcement. If enforced, this would be Vietnam's first ban on an encrypted messaging app, signaling stricter internet policing. The move mirrors authoritarian tactics seen in China and Russia, raising concerns about digital rights and privacy. The Vietnamese government has ordered telecommunications providers in the country to block access to Telegram, accusing the encrypted messaging platform of enabling illegal activities and failing to comply with local regulations. The directive to block the messaging app was issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology on May 21. It followed allegations by the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) that 68 percent of Telegram channels in Vietnam host "toxic" content, including fraud and and anti-government propaganda. Telegram, which has nearly one billion users worldwide, expressed surprise at the move. It stated in an email that it had responded to legal requests from Vietnamese authorities, and was processing a formal notice with a May 27 deadline. The crackdown aligns with Hanoi's broader efforts to tighten control over online speech, particularly content deemed critical of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. Authorities have long pressured foreign tech companies including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok to remove material labeled as "anti-state" or harmful. However, Telegram has faced heightened scrutiny due to its encryption features, which officials argue hinder law enforcement investigations. A government document obtained by Reuters claimed that Telegram had not shared user data when requested, violating Vietnamese laws requiring cooperation in criminal cases. Vietnam's escalating war on digital dissent Vietnam's approach mirrors tactics used by other authoritarian governments to suppress dissent under the guise of cybersecurity. China, for instance, has long banned Telegram alongside other Western platforms. Meanwhile, Russia has intermittently restricted access during periods of political unrest. (Related: Brazil Supreme Court bans free speech app Telegram against the will of President Jair Bolsonaro.) Unlike China, Vietnam still permits global social media services. But its increasing censorship measures signal a shift toward more aggressive digital policing. The MPS pointed to over 9,600 Telegram channels in the country, alleging that opposition groups used them to spread anti-government materials a claim Telegram disputes. The ban, if enforced, would mark the first time Vietnam has fully blocked an encrypted messaging app. Previous restrictions have targeted independent news websites and dissident voices. However, Telegram's widespread use for both personal and political communication makes its potential removal particularly significant. Historically, Vietnam's internet policies have evolved alongside its political priorities. A 2018 cybersecurity law mandated that foreign tech firms store user data locally and remove "prohibited content" within 24 hours of government requests. The latest action against Telegram suggests an escalation in enforcement, raising concerns among digital rights advocates. As governments worldwide grapple with balancing security and civil liberties, Hanoi's decision underscores the growing tension between state control and technological freedom. Telegram remains accessible in Vietnam, but its future in the country hinges on negotiations with regulators. If the ban proceeds, it will join a growing list of platforms restricted in the name of national security a trend that shows no signs of slowing. The outcome will serve as a litmus test for the resilience of digital privacy in an era of increasing surveillance. Visit Banned.news for more similar stories. Watch Elijah Schaffer reporting that the U.S. Department of State was responsible for the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov. This video is from the Puretrauma357 channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: EU targets Telegram: Could the messaging app face new censorship orders? Ukrainian lawmaker dubs Telegram messaging app a "tool of the enemy." Telegram's Pavel Durov: EU has stricter media controls than Russia. Sources include: ReclaimTheNet.org Reuters.com RFA.org Brighteon.com Bidens AUTOPEN REGIME laundered $93 BILLION through Energy Department right before Trump took office, exposing last-ditch money grab by oligarchs The Biden autopen regimes final days in power were marked by a frenzied, unchecked spending spree one that saw $93 billion in taxpayer-funded loans and commitments handed out by the Department of Energy (DOE) in just 76 days. This staggering figure, more than double the total loaned in the previous 15 years combined, reveals a desperate last-ditch effort by unelected oligarchs to funnel taxpayer money into the hands of politically connected entities before President Trump could take office. During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Energy Secretary Christopher Wright confirmed that many of these loans were approved without basic due diligence -- no business plans, no financials, just empty promises. The sheer scale of this financial recklessness exposes the Biden autopen regimes true legacy: a government hijacked by elites who treated the Treasury as their personal slush fund. Key points: The Biden Department of Energy rushed $93 billion in loans and commitments in just 76 days more than double the total from the previous 15 years. Many recipients had no business plans or financial records, raising serious fraud concerns. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright admitted oversight was nonexistent, calling the spending "shameful." The DOEs budget ballooned from 60billionto60billionto160 billion under Biden, with zero accountability. This mirrors other last-minute money grabs, including a $100 billion EPA grant scheme exposed by Project Veritas. The 76-day money laundering frenzy Between the 2024 election and Bidens departure, the DOE transformed into a financial free-for-all. Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) grilled Wright on how such massive sums could be approved scrutiny scrutiny. "So youre telling me that the Department of Energy gave or loaned money to entities that had no business plan?" Kennedy demanded. "Correct," Wright replied. "No financials?" "Correct." Wright confirmed that applicants often submitted half-baked ideas, with some promising to develop a business plan after receiving taxpayer funds. The lack of oversight was so blatant that Wright admitted his "blood pressure is rising" just reviewing the reckless spending. Kennedy summed it up perfectly: "They were spending money at the Department of Energy like it was ditch water." A pattern of corruption: From DOE to EPA This isnt an isolated incident its part of a broader scheme by the Biden autopen regime to launder taxpayer money into the hands of allies before leaving office. Project Veritas previously exposed a similar plot at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where an adviser admitted the agency rushed $100 billion in grants to climate groups in Bidens final months. The parallels are undeniable: No accountability Both agencies approved funds with minimal vetting. Political favoritism Money flowed to ideologically aligned groups rather than viable businesses. Last-minute desperation The timing suggests a coordinated effort to lock in funding before Trump could restore fiscal sanity. The autopen oligarchs endgame Behind the scenes, the Biden autopen regime was run by shadowy oligarchs who exploited Bidens cognitive decline to push their agendas. The $93 billion DOE spree wasnt just incompetenceit was calculated theft. Ironically, Democrats project exactly what they are doing and did. Bernie Sanders and AOC went on a nationwide tour, deriding Trump and "the oligarchy." The only oligarchy that ever ruled in the US was under the feckless, brain damaged Joe Biden, who routinely relied on an autopen to sign documents and decrees, with a cabal or real oligarchs working alongside him to get what they want out of the federal government and taxpayers. Wright vowed to refer "the thieves" to the DOJ, but the damage is done. The question now is: Who really benefited? Given the Biden administrations history of funneling money to Ukraine, green energy grifters, and other politically connected entities, the answer is obvious. Kennedy issued a dire warning: "There were a lot of people coming to the Department of Energy who had all four feet and their snout in the trough." The American people deserve justiceand perp walks for those who treated their tax dollars as a private piggy bank. Learn the identities Of the Autopen Coup Leaders at Brighteon.com: Sources include: ClimateDepot.com Youtube.com Brighteon.com CDC drops COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy kids and pregnant women The CDC removed the COVID-19 vaccine from its recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women, marking a significant policy shift under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy highlighted the lack of clinical data supporting booster mandates for children, aligning with growing scrutiny over vaccine safety (e.g., myocarditis risks in young males) and international trends discontinuing child recommendations. NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya called the change "common sense and good science," while FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary noted most countries no longer advise the vaccine for children due to limited benefits. Critics argued mandates for low-risk children were unjustified, citing data on heart inflammation (myocarditis) and the FDAs push for expanded warnings. The reversal reflects evolving science, akin to past retractions like thalidomide. HHS emphasized a commitment to "gold standard science," with Kennedy framing the move as fulfilling President Trump's pledge to "Make America Healthy Again" and restoring public trust in health policies. In a significant reversal of federal health guidance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine from its recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the reversal Tuesday, May 27, in a video posted on X. He delivered the news while flanked by National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary. "Today, the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule," Kennedy said. He mentioned that the Biden administration urged healthy children to get injected with the COVID-19 vaccine "despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children." (Related: RFK Jr. pushes CDC to drop COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for children, citing lack of benefit.) The health secretary's announcement marks a departure from the previous Democratic administration's aggressive promotion of widespread vaccination, including for low-risk groups. It also follows mounting scrutiny over vaccine safety, particularly concerning myocarditis in young males, and aligns with policies already adopted by several other nations. Bhattacharya echoed the sentiment, calling the shift "common sense and good science." Meanwhile, Makary noted that most countries no longer recommend the vaccine for children due to insufficient evidence of benefit. Move to drop COVID-19 injections for kids lines up with MAHA promise The CDC under the Biden administration had previously urged repeated boosters for all age groups, initially claiming the shots prevented infection before revising guidance to acknowledge they only reduced symptoms. Critics argue that mandating vaccines for healthy children who face minimal risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes was never justified. Data showing serious cases of myocarditis in adolescent males further fueled skepticism. The FDA has since pressured Pfizer and Moderna to expand warnings about potential heart inflammation, particularly for males aged 16 to 25. Public health recommendations have evolved as new data emerges from the retraction of thalidomide for pregnant women in the 1960s to hormone replacement therapy decades later. This latest shift underscores the importance of adapting policies to emerging evidence rather than rigid adherence to initial mandates. Vianca N. Rodriguez Feliciano, press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), affirmed the commitments of the CDC and its parent agency to "gold standard science." She continued: "With the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, it is time to move forward." The decision signals a broader reckoning with pandemic-era policies, balancing public trust with scientific transparency. For now, the CDC's updated guidance offers a clearer path for parents and physicians navigating a post-pandemic world. Kennedy concluded his Tuesday announcement by reiterating that the removal of the COVID-19 injection from the immunization schedule brings the HHS "closer to realizing President [Donald] Trump's promise to Make America Healthy Again." Watch Jefferey Jaxen and Del Bigtree revealing that the CDC refused to publish data on the effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters in this clip. This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: CDC considers scaling back universal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. CDC's expansion of vaccination schedule for Americans sparks controversy. CDC STILL PUSHING COVID JABS on pregnant women despite 37 serious safety signals and a trail of devastation. Sources include: TheNationalPulse.com X.com ThePostMillennial.com Brighteon.com Antifa attacks Christians in Seattle: FBI investigates targeted violence amid free speech clashes Christian prayer rally shut down; Seattle tolerates Antifa and BLM protests with violent outcomes. FBI under Trump/Bongino investigates Antifas attack on religious assembly, breaking with prior Biden-era policies. Mayor Harrell condemns Christian event as far-right, deflects blame for violence. Protest organizers accuse city of religious bigotry and First Amendment violations. Dual demonstrations erupt in Seattle, highlighting deepening political polarization over civil liberties. The Seattle Police Departments closure of a Christian prayer rally organized by MayDay USA while tolerating violent activities by Antifa and pro-LGBTQ+ counterprotesters has intensified scrutiny from the FBI and conservative critics. On May 28, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino announced a federal probe into claims of targeted violence against religious groups, signaling a stark shift in priorities under the Trump administration. The incident underscores a national debate over how local governments enforce free speech rights unevenly based on political alignment. "Targeted violence" against Christians sparks federal backlash The MayDay USA Dont Mess With Our Kids rallya Christian event opposing gender-affirming healthcare for minorswas marred by violence when Antifa agitators clashed with attendees at Seattles Cal Anderson Park on May 24. Twenty-three arrests were made, including activists accused of assaulting organizers. Despite Mayor Bruce Harrells claim that anarchists infiltrated counterprotesters to incite chaos, critics argue the city openly permitted left-wing activists to engage in prolonged disruptions while suppressing conservative gatherings. Bonginos intervention followed a second protest, the Rattle in Seattle demonstration, where counterprotesters again clashed with Christian activists at City Hall. Freedom of religion isnt a suggestion, Bongino stated on social media, pledging a full investigation into political bias in law enforcement. The shift contrasts sharply with the FBIs prior inaction under former President Joe Biden, when left-wing unrest in Blue cities faced minimal federal accountability. Mayor Harrells political rhetoric inflames tensions Harrell, a Democratic mayor, condemned the MayDay event as a far-right rally designed to provoke a reaction against LGBTQ+ interests. Seattle will continue to stand unwavering in our embrace of diversity, he asserted, while accusing event organizers of promoting bigotry. However, critics accuse him of institutional hypocrisy. The city has repeatedly allowed anarchist groups to destroy property and attack police, but shuts down peaceful worship, said a protest organizer in a statement. The mayors portrayal of the incident as a morality clash was mirrored by local religious figures aligned with his party. Rev. Dr. Patricia L. Hunter of the Greater Seattle Baptist Ministerium labeled the Christians stance personal hate, fear and bigotry wrapped in Christian speak, amplifying Harrells narrative that conservative dissent threatens Seattles values. Meanwhile, the council of Seattle-Jewish leaders similarly condemned the protesters. Seattles reputation as a free speech battleground Seattle has long been a flashpoint for social movements, with progressive policies like sanctuary city status and permitting long-term protests such as the 2011 Occupy Wall Street encampment. However, recent years have seen a sharp rise in anti-police unrest tied to Black Lives Matter and Antifa, including instances of violence against businesses and law enforcement. Conservative activists argue these realities are willfully ignored by municipal leaders who weaponize free speech for their allies while silencing dissenters. Mayor Harrells double standard is indefensible, said Jake Anderson, a MayDay spokesperson. Were praying for justiceliterallybut it takes an FBI probe to get the federal government to care. A moment of national self-reflection on speech and power The Seattle clashes reveal a deeper fault line in American democracy: whether authorities can impartially enforce First Amendment rights without politicizing them. For critics, the FBIs probe signals hope that religious assemblies no longer face systemic marginalization. Yet the citys refusal to protect MayDays worship eventwhile enabling radical left-wing violencehas inflamed debates over whether free speech protections apply equally amid increasing political fragmentation. As federal investigators scrutinize whos shielding whom, citizens now must decide: Do free speech protections endure only for the politically fashionable, or do they remain the bedrock of a self-governing society? Sources for this article include: WesternJournal.com Fox13Seattle.com NYPost.com GM shifts away from EV push with $888M investment in New York V-8 engine plant GM invests $888 million in its Tonawanda plant, the largest single investment in an engine facility, shifting focus from EV drive units to sixth-gen V-8 engines. The move safeguards 870 jobs, including 177 at-risk positions, while promising better fuel efficiency and lower emissions by 2027. GM reverses its EV strategy amid softening demand, prioritizing profitable trucks and SUVs over unproven electrification mandates. New York offers $16.96 million in tax credits to support the investment, preserving high-paying manufacturing jobs. The decision reflects an industry-wide pullback from EVs as consumer preference for gasoline vehicles remains strong. General Motors has announced an $888 million investment in its Tonawanda Propulsion plant near Buffalo, New York in the largest single investment the company has ever made in an engine facility. The decision marks a sharp pivot from GMs previous $300 million commitment to produce EV drive units at the same location. Instead, the automaker will now focus on manufacturing its sixth-generation V-8 engines for trucks and SUVs, safeguarding 870 jobsincluding 177 deemed "at risk"while promising improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions by 2027. A strategic retreat from EV overreach GMs decision to reinvest in internal combustion engines (ICE) comes as demand for EVs softens across the industry, exposing the folly of government-mandated electrification and corporate overreach. The company had previously pledged to transition to an all-electric future by 2035, but market realities, including sluggish sales and consumer reluctance, have forced a reckoning. "While we source parts globally, our guiding principle is to buy where we build," GM CEO Mary Barra said during a May 1 earnings call, signaling a renewed focus on American manufacturing. The Tonawanda investment underscores this shift, reinforcing GMs commitment to its profitable truck and SUV lineup rather than chasing unproven EV mandates. Protecting American jobs and innovation The Tonawanda plant, operational for 87 years, will continue producing fifth-generation V-8 engines while retooling for the next-generation models. New York Gov. Kathy Hochuls office confirmed the investment will protect 870 jobs, including 177 that were previously at risk. In exchange, New York will provide up to $16.96 million in tax creditsa small price to pay for preserving high-paying manufacturing jobs in an era of economic uncertainty. "This new generation of engines is expected to deliver stronger performance than todays engines while benefiting fuel economy and reducing emissions," GM stated, highlighting advancements in combustion and thermal management. The move ensures that GMs full-size trucks and SUVs including the Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, and Cadillac Escalade remain competitive in a market where consumers still overwhelmingly prefer gasoline-powered vehicles. The announcement has drawn praise from Trump administration officials, who see it as further evidence that pro-growth policies and not heavy-handed subsidies drive real economic progress. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt credited the "Trump Effect" for the investment, while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called it "another BIG win in @POTUS fight to bring back domestic manufacturing." Indeed, GMs decision aligns with a broader trend of automakers reinvesting in U.S. production. Hyundai, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz have all announced major domestic expansions in recent months, signaling a resurgence in American manufacturing under policies that prioritize competitiveness over green ideology. The EV bubble bursts GMs retreat from its EV ambitions mirrors an industry-wide correction. In April, the company paused EV production at its Ingersoll, Ontario, plant due to weak demand. Meanwhile, U.S. EV sales fell 4.3% in April despite a 10% overall increase in auto sales in a clear sign that consumers are rejecting forced electrification. Republicans have seized on this reality, pushing to eliminate the $7,500 federal EV tax credit through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Analysts warn that ending the subsidy could further depress EV sales, but for GM, the writing is already on the wall. GMs $888 million Tonawanda investment is more than just a financial commitment; its a rejection of the radical green agenda that has jeopardized American jobs and consumer choice. By doubling down on V-8 engines, GM is listening to its customers, protecting its workforce, and reaffirming the enduring appeal of American-made trucks and SUVs. Sources for this article include: TheEpochTimes.com USAToday.com Reuters.com FoxBusiness.com Ireland leads EU in condemning Israeli genocide in Gaza, moves to ban settlement trade Ireland becomes the first EU government to declare Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing mass Palestinian casualties and displacement. Ireland backs legislation to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, reinforcing its solidarity with Palestine. The country previously recognized Palestinian statehood and joined South Africas ICJ genocide case against Israel. Irelands position reflects its historical resistance to colonialism and challenges Western complicity in Israels actions. In a historic and morally courageous move, Ireland has become the first European Union government to formally declare that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris defended the governments position this week, emphasizing Irelands commitment to justice for Palestinians suffering under Israels brutal blockade and military onslaught. The Irish cabinet has also backed legislation to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, although the bill is unlikely to pass parliament until later this year. Irelands leadership on this issue is no surprise. Last year, the nation recognized Palestinian statehood and joined South Africas genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). These actions reflect Irelands long-standing solidarity with oppressed peoples, rooted in its own history of colonial resistance. As Israel continues its campaign of starvation, bombardment, and ethnic cleansing in Gazakilling over 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and childrenIrelands stance serves as a beacon of moral clarity in a world corrupted by geopolitical hypocrisy. A principled stand against genocide Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris left no room for ambiguity when he stated Irelands position: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This declaration makes Ireland the first EU government to use such unequivocal language, setting a precedent other nations should follow. Harriss remarks came as the Irish cabinet formally endorsed legislation to ban trade with Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law. While the bill faces procedural delays, its symbolic and practical significance cannot be overstated. Israels war on Gaza has exposed the complicity of Western governments that continue to arm and fund a regime engaged in mass slaughter. Ireland, however, has chosen truth over political expediency. By joining South Africas ICJ case, Ireland aligns itself with the global majority demanding accountability for Israels crimes. The ICJ has already ruled that Israels actions plausibly constitute genocide, ordering immediate measures to prevent further atrocities. Yet the bombing and starvation continue, underscoring the urgent need for stronger international action. Irelands history informs its solidarity Irelands support for Palestine is deeply tied to its own struggle against British colonialism. The parallels between Irelands past and Palestines present are impossible to ignore: forced displacement, violent occupation, and systemic dehumanization. This shared history explains why Ireland has consistently been among the most vocal European critics of Israeli apartheid. Last years recognition of Palestinian statehood was a natural extension of this solidarity. While other Western nations equivocate, Ireland has taken concrete steps to challenge Israel. The proposed ban on settlement trade targets the economic lifeline of Israels occupation, which thrives on stolen land and exploited resources. Even though the bill may face opposition in parliament, its introduction sends a powerful message: profiting from oppression is unacceptable. Israel, predictably, has reacted with outrage to Irelands actions. Its leaders routinely dismiss genocide allegations as blood libel, a cynical attempt to evade responsibility. Yet the evidence is overwhelming. UN experts, human rights organizations, and now a growing list of governments have condemned Israels actions as genocidal. The destruction of Gazas healthcare system, the targeting of schools and refugee camps, and the deliberate restriction of food and aid all meet the legal definition of genocide. Despite this, the U.S. and key EU states continue to shield Israel from consequences. Arms shipments and diplomatic cover persist, enabling further atrocities. Irelands willingness to break ranks highlights the cowardice of its peers. If more nations followed Dublins lead, the siege on Gaza could end tomorrow. The proposed settlement trade ban, while significant, is just one step. For it to have real impact, Ireland must pressure its EU partners to adopt similar measures. The blocs continued trade with Israelworth billions annuallymakes Europe complicit in genocide. Irelands challenge is to turn its moral stance into collective action. Sources for this article include: MiddleEastEye.net Reuters.com TimesOfIsrael.com Revolution in medical publishing: Health Secretary Kennedy seeks to ban federal scientists from top journals in bid for transparency in autism research Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to cut off federal scientists from major medical journals like The Lancet, citing corruption and corporate influence. Kennedys Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative highlights vaccine safety concerns and links to autism, inspired by advocates like Tracy Kellner, a mother of an autistic son with alleged vaccine injuries. The Autism Health Summit in San Diego (April 11-13) prioritizes holistic healing, CME credits, and transparency over corporate-driven health policies. Critics argue RFK Jr.s purge of staff and journal bans risk politicizing science, yet he calls for NIH-funded peer-reviewed alternatives to address systemic bias and replication crises. Historical ties between drug companies and medical institutions, exposed in Marcia Angells 2009 critiques, validate push for independent research. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has ignited a firestorm by declaring war on top medical journals like The Lancet, calling them corrupt and vowing to launch government-run alternatives. This battle coincides with growing advocacy efforts around autism and vaccine safety, spearheaded by families like that of Warrior Mom author Tracy Kellner, whose son Noah suffered health setbacks following a vaccine injury. Kennedys plans, outlined in a recent podcast interview, challenge the foundations of medical publishing and reinforce a broader movement questioning pharmaceutical influence and institutional transparency. The autism summit and a mothers crusade Tracy Kellners Autism Health Summit in San Diego (April 11-13) epitomizes the grassroots push for accountability in medicine. The event, catering to parents, doctors, and advocates, emphasizes holistic healing over traditional treatments, offering Continuing Medical Education credits to legitimize alternative approaches. Kellner, whose son Noah was diagnosed with autism at three-and-a-half, links his regression to an alleged vaccine-induced measles infection after an MMR shot at age one. Her story has galvanized thousands into questioning vaccine protocols and corporate-driven health policies. This isnt just about autism its about longevity, Kellner said, underscoring how addressing underlying conditions like gut health can improve overall physiological resilience. Her advocacy and RFK Jr.s reforms reflect a shared belief that systemic transparency is key to preventing health crises. RFK Jr.s journal reforms: Science vs. corporate capture? Kennedys May 27 podcast remarks on scrapping federal funding for medical journals accused of corporate bias reverberated widely. The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA theyre all corrupt, he claimed, citing permission denied to access raw data and industry-funded research skew. He outlined plans to restructure NIH funding to mandate 20% of resources toward replicating studies and creating in-house journals prioritizing peer review authenticity. Critics, such as Dr. Adam Gaffney (Harvard Medical School), argue this delegitimizes taxpayer-funded research, while supporters see it as overdue accountability. Kennedys stance mirrors warnings from former NEJM editor Marcia Angell, whose 2009 expose detailed pharmas stranglehold on publishing. Angell noted 80% of clinical trials directly tied to industry interests, with bias filtering into recommended treatments. A longstanding conflict The medical publishing crisis Kennedy addresses isnt new. A 2015 Lancet symposium on reproducibility in research revealed that as much as half of published science might be false a problem the Maha Commission now traces to corporate capture. The commissions May 2025 report cited FDA and CDC failures to investigate autism-vaccine links, accusing pharmaceutical giants of stifling dissent. Kellners AI-driven research tool, uniquely acknowledging vaccine-autism connections (often dismissed by traditional models), exemplifies the need for unbiased analysis. Our goal is to democratize truth, she said, stressing that transparency can end cycles of disinformation by institutions like The Lancet, which once published (and then retracted) a controversial autism-vaccine study in 1998. The backlash and broader implications Kennedys reforms face fierce opposition. NIH funding cuts ($3 billion) and staff purges have already spurred American scientists to seek opportunities abroad, per reports. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry maintains that collaborations with researchers and journals ensure patient access to breakthrough therapies. Yet Kellner and antibodies say progress is slow but steady. Noahs independence today driving, working, and traveling solo reinforces her belief that holistic approaches can defy diagnoses. RFK Jr. similarly frames his journal reforms within a generational fix: We cant trust systems built to benefit Big Pharma over families. Toward a new medical ethos As Kennedy and advocates like Kellner champion systemic change, their efforts risk polarizing the scientific community. But their core demand untethering research from corporate interests resonates amid public fatigue with crises like vaccine mandates, autism stigma, and opioid overprescription. Whether government-run journals achieve credibility or falter remains uncertain, but one truth is clear: questioning the status quo has never been more urgent. Sources for this article include: TheEpochTimes.com TheLancet.com NYBooks.com TheGuardian.com U.S. and Argentina: New global health alliance emerges from WHO rejection U.S. and Argentina withdraw from WHO to create alternative health system prioritizing transparency and sovereignty. Joint declaration cites WHO failure during pandemic, China influence and corporate-political corruption as key reasons. New alliance emphasizes gold-standard science, national autonomy and rejecting totalitarian impulses in global health governance. U.S. Secretary Kennedy and Argentine Minister Lugones tout the plan as model for countries seeking to escape opaque multilateral bureaucracy. Critics say this move could fracture global health cooperation; supporters see a rebirth of patient-focused systems rejecting power imbalances. In a symbolic blow to the World Health Organizations (WHO) decades-long dominance, the United States and Argentina announced plans Wednesday to create an alternative international health system following their formal withdrawal from the United Nations-backed group. The collaboration, unveiled by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Argentine Health Minister Mario Lugones in Buenos Aires, seeks to establish a framework grounded in scientific integrity, national sovereignty and transparency. The move underscores deepening skepticism toward multilateral institutions perceived as coddling authoritarian regimes and corporate interests. Why? Both nations accuse WHO of being hijacked by politicized agendas, citing the organizations mishandling of the pandemic, undue influence by China and corruption. In a rebuttal to critics who warned of a collapse in global health coordination, Kennedy and Lugones framed the split as a chance to rebuild systems that prioritize individual nations rights and scientific rigor. Pandemic fallout exposed WHOs flaws, sparked U.S.-Argentina alliance The U.S. decision to withdraw, formalized in January 2021 under President Donald Trumps first term, followed years of congressional hearings into the WHOs ties to China and its delayed response to early warnings of the novel coronavirus. Kennedy scathingly critiqued the WHOs January 2020 suppression of human-to-human transmission reports and its fiction that the virus originated from bats, despite mounting evidence of a potential lab leak in Wuhan. Argentina, which announced its withdrawal in February, echoed concerns. WHOs prescriptions do not work because they are not based on science but on political interests and bureaucratic structures, its government declared. Buenos Aires has called the WHOs pandemic-era caveman quarantine mandates counterproductive, tying its withdrawal to broader vows to promote economic freedom and scientific autonomy. Kennedy framed the new alliance as a response to these failures. During a keynote address at the recent World Health Assembly in Geneva, he thundered, The WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms and conflicts of interest its priorities increasingly reflect global corporate medicine, not public health. Building a sovereignty-first model The U.S.-Argentina partnership aims to establish a leaner, more accountable framework. A joint declaration outlined goals including pandemic preparedness, sharing health data while respecting privacy norms and harmonizing drug approvals without corporate bias. Crucially, both nations emphasize that the new system will not impose mandates on member states but rather serve as a platform for sovereign nations to collaborate on evidence-based policies. What differentiates this model is the absence of a central, unaccountable bureaucracy, Lugones stated. Instead of dictates from Geneva, we want a coalition where countries share equal authority. Argentinas president, Javier Milei, further linked the shift to a rejection of transnationalism. Were not walking away from global health challenges, he said. Were walking away from those who want to dress power grabs as compassion. Historically, the WHOs depictions as a neo-colonial tool of wealthy nations have helped nurture such critiques. In the 2020s, developing countries often lamented decisions skewed toward donors like China and the U.S. Meanwhile, criticism of vaccines-for-peace agreements and coercive lockdowns amplified perceptions of corruption and paternalism. Skepticism and strategic implications Skepticism abounds. Health experts warn that sidelining WHO could fragment vaccine distribution and hinder cooperative disease surveillance. Small nations without big budgets will struggle if theyre cut off from WHO intellectual resources, said Dr. Lucia Fernandez of the Sao Paulo School of Medicine. Supporters counter that WHOs current architecture is irreparable. If we keep treating the symptoms of bad governance, well stay forever in the clinic, argued Lugones. The alliances timing matters amid U.S.-China tensions. China, WHOs largest economy by votes, has used its influence to water down reports on Wuhan lab safety. Beijings growing investments in African health infrastructure since the U.S. departure signal a geopolitical power struggle within global health. A new dawn for sovereignty in global health governance The U.S.-Argentina model could reshape international norms. By coupling sovereignty with science, the alliance positions itself as an alternative to what Kennedy called WHOs totalitarian impulses. While success depends on whether participants can agree on shared?????, the move reflects a broader backlash against perceived globalist overreach. For now, the alliance remains a silhouette. Countries from Europe to South America are monitoring developments, with some expressing cautious interest. Whether this pivot yields a functioning networkor merely a niche body for sovereignty advocateswill test the strength of the gold-standard science promise and the appeal of going it alone. Sources for this article include: TheExpose.com HHS.gov AMgreatness.com A huge pygmy blue whale was spotted just metres from a tourist lookout near Cheynes Beach, WA, on Saturday. Source: Brian Willey Various species of whales are putting on a show for eager spectators as they move along the east and west coasts of Australia, with the annual migration now in full swing. A group of tourists were treated to an incredible spectacle when they were gathered on rocks at Cheynes Beach, a popular stop-off for caravanners on Western Australias south coast, hoping to catch a glimpse of at least one of the animals leaping out of the water. In that lucky group last Saturday was Brian Willey who told Yahoo News he and his wife travel to the area a couple of times every winter to photograph the whales. However, this weekend was a little different, with Willey catching sight of a species he had never seen before roughly 15 metres from the shore. ADVERTISEMENT The keen wildlife photographer was flying his drone, filming a humpback with his telephoto lens from the required 60 metre distance, when a much bigger whale suddenly came around the corner. Straight away I could see it was a distinctive blue colour, and the length was much longer than a normal humpback, he said. I followed it for about five minutes and took about a dozen photos. People were so excited to see such a huge whale so close. It wasnt until afterwards Brian learned he had likely captured footage of a pygmy blue whale, which rarely come so close to the shore, Catherine, assistant manager at the Cheynes Beach Caravan Park, told Yahoo. While its typical to see a lot of whale activity in the area this time of year, she said locals have been thrilled to see quite a few blue whales coming past as well. While pygmy blue whales are known to frequent the area, they rarely come so close to shore. Source: Brian Willey Creature in incredible photos likely a pygmy blue whale Both pygmy blue whales and Antarctic blue whales, the two subspecies of blue whales found in Australia, can be found in the waters near Albany, Alexia Wellbelove, the Australian Marine Conservation Societys threatened species campaign manager, told Yahoo. ADVERTISEMENT Because of this, its hard to be totally certain about the species seen in Willeys photos, but its very possible that it is a pygmy blue whale, as they are sighted along the coastline at this time of year travelling north, she said. In the field it is very hard to tell the two apart as the main difference is the size with around six metres difference in adult whales between the two, Wellbelove explained. However, pygmy blue whales are found in the Great Australian Bight and along the coastline of Western Australia from November through to May when they start to migrate north. Pygmy blue whales are found in the Great Australian Bight and along the coastline of WA from November through to May. Source: Brian Willey Pygmy blue whales can reach up to 24 metres in length Every year, endangered pygmy blue whales travel from southern and western Australia where they feed up to Indonesia to breed which is why they are also known as the 'Indo-Australian pygmy blue whale, Wellbelove said. Incredibly, they can grow up to 24-metres-long and live for 90 years. ADVERTISEMENT Despite their stature, very little is known about the population size of blue whales Wellbelove told Yahoo. Much more is known about the Antarctic blue whales which was last estimated to be around 2,000 individuals. Sadly, like most whales, they face a plethora of threats, including climate change impacting ocean temperatures and upwellings where they feed, and collisions with vessels involved in commercial, recreational or industrial activities. Blue whales are under increasing threat in our busy oceans and so are listed as endangered under our national environment law, the EPBC Act, Wellbelove said. It is essential that the most critical places where these whales feed and breed are protected from these threats as we continue to learn more about their populations to better understand how to assist their recovery. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Another FAIL: Pentagon audit crisis deepens as accountability efforts stall under Hegseth The Pentagon has failed all audits since 2018, lacking basic accountability for $1 trillion in annual spending. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces pressure to meet a 2028 clean audit deadline amid systemic failures. Audits reveal fraud, flawed contracting and outdated financial systems dating to the 1950s. Billions were misspent in Ukraine aid and Afghan exit ops, while $2B in improper payments went unaccounted for. Bipartisan lawmakers push to slash budgets for failing departments to force accountability reforms. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) remains mired in financial chaos, with its fourth consecutive audit failure exacerbating concerns over waste, fraud and systemic mismanagement. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, appointed by President Trump in January, faces mounting scrutiny as Congress and auditors warn the DoDs $1.1 trillion budget could soon face punitive cuts unless reforms accelerate. The Pentagons repeated audit failures spanning nearly three decades have created a fiscal crisis with profound implications for national security. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported Tuesday that the DoD risks over $10 billion in confirmed fraud since 2017, while outdated systems and lax oversight threaten critical operations. Hegseth has pledged to deliver a clean audit by 2028, but experts call the timeline unrealistic absent sweeping changes. Systemic financial woes exposed in latest audits The Marine Corps alone passed its 2024 general fund audit, while most DoD branches faltered due to material weaknesses in financial controls, outdated siloed systems and poor accountability. Restoring News analyzed GAO reports finding the DoD operates 4,700 management systems from procurement databases to payroll 400 of which directly influence financial reporting. Many were designed before the era of personal computers, hindering interoperability and reliance on error-prone manual processes. One glaring example: The Armys handling of Ukraine aid contracts. A December 2024 audit revealed 75% of contracts for Operation Atlantic Resolve violated federal standards, leaving U.S. taxpayers exposed. Meanwhile, $290 million in contracts funded Ukrainian civil servant salaries and housing subsidies, diverting funds from military logistics. Theyre essentially operating out of the Paleolithic era, said Julia Gledhill, a Stimson Center analyst. The DoD cant even balance its books for a single day, let alone a $1.1 trillion budget. Fraud, wasteful contracts and national security risks GAO audits uncovered brazen fraud attempts that endangered forces. Last year, a vendor submitted falsified documents to sell subpar bipod components for machine guns; engineers stopped the shipment before battlefield use, but the incident highlighted systemic vulnerabilities. The Pentagons 2024 aid to Ukraine also sparked outrage, with 500 million siphoned into social programs often unrelated to defense, including payments to the designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Taliban. AGAO investigation further revealed 1.8 million in payments to Taliban officials for fees linked to Afghans employed by the U.S.violating U.S. sanctions. Closer to home, the TRICARE health system paid 39% higher reimbursements in 2023 compared to 2021 for identical services, with regional disparities as stark as 11,500 vs.3,000 for military personnels sleep apnea devices. Auditors noted reasonable rates were never defined, costing taxpayers an extra $26 million. Hegseths accountability push faces steep odds Hegseth, a Trump appointee who once ran a right-wing media outlet, has framed accountability as his top priority. At a February Pentagon town hall, he promised, By the end of my four years, the Pentagon will pass a clean audit and taxpayers will know where their dollars are going. Yet progress has been glacial. A January 2025 Pentagon report found 69% of contracted external auditors violated standards last year, undermining their findings. Meanwhile, Rep. (R-TX) Jody Hice, a measures 34 failed DoD audits cost America an average of $10.8 billion annually in fraud alone. Congressional conservatives are now pushing legislation to slash budgets for failed departments by 20% until compliance is reached. Until Pentagon leaders treat taxpayer money like its their own familys inheritance, reforms wont stick, said one GOP aide. Beyond band-aids Reform advocates argue internal controls must outpace Congresss fiscal handrails. GAO and Pentagon inspectors have issued hundreds of actionable recommendations, including overhauling financial IT systems, mandating real-time contract tracking and prioritizing payment integrity. The Marine Corps 2024 success its second consecutive clean audit offers proof: centralizing financial systems and instilling cultural accountability among rank-and-file grantees. Everyone has a PPT [power point] deck and aspirations, said a Pentagon insider. But Hegseth will need to fire stubborn leaders to shake up bureaucracy. As the DoD strains under a record $1 trillion budget, and conflicts on multiple fronts, the 2028 deadline is fast approaching. Without dramatic turns, the Pentagons accountability failures could undermine national security even as Cold War-era systems fail. The fiscal frontline The Pentagons audit failures are more than a bureaucratic hiccup theyre a beachhead in the broader battle for fiscal sanity. For a defense department that consumes nearly half the U.S. federal budget, accountability isnt optional. As bipartisan pressure builds, Secretary Hegseths leadership will define whether the DoD returns to honorfrom its warfighters to its financials. Sources for this article include: YourNews.com Defense.gov ResponsibleStatecraft.org Trumps tariffs REINSTATED: Judicial tug-of-war exposes deep rift in Americas trade policy The battle over President Trumps aggressive tariff policies has erupted into a full-blown constitutional showdown , pitting the executive branch against the judiciary in a high-stakes clash over who holds the power to dictate Americas trade future. A federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated Trumps sweeping tariffsjust one day after a lower court ruled they were an unlawful overreach of presidential authority. This legal whiplash reveals a disturbing trend: activist judges attempting to dismantle Trumps economic agenda while ignoring the real-world consequences of unchecked trade imbalances. But the deeper question remainsshould courts, rather than Congress or the people, decide whats best for American industry and national security? Key points: A federal appeals court temporarily reinstated Trumps tariffs, halting a lower court ruling that declared them unconstitutional. The White House vows to fight all the way to the Supreme Court, accusing judges of undermining national security. Legal experts argue the tariffs were imposed under questionable authority, but Trumps team insists they are necessary to protect American workers. The battle exposes a fundamental divide: Should the president have unilateral power to reshape trade policy, or must Congress retain control? Markets remain volatile as businesses brace for prolonged uncertainty over tariff enforcement. The legal battlefield: Emergency powers vs. congressional authority At the heart of the dispute is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law designed to let presidents freeze assets or restrict trade during genuine national emergenciessuch as wartime crises or terrorist threats. The Trump administration stretched the boundaries of this law to justify broad tariffs, claiming trade deficits and intellectual property theft by China constituted an emergency. But critics, including the U.S. Court of International Trade, called this a dangerous power grab. Bruce Fein, a former Reagan-era Justice Department official, told Al Jazeera, The IEEPA doesnt say anything at all about tariffs. The law was meant to target specific threatslike Iran during the 1979 hostage crisisnot rewrite global trade rules. Trumps team, however, isnt backing down. Trade adviser Peter Navarro declared, You can assume, even if we lose tariff cases, we will find another way. The administration is reportedly eyeing Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows short-term tariffs to address trade deficitsa move that could buy time while they craft a more legally defensible strategy. Checks and balancesor judicial activism? The courts intervention raises a critical question: Are judges safeguarding constitutional limits on executive power, or are they sabotaging policies that protect American industry? Trumps tariffs on steel, aluminum, and autosimposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962remain untouched because they were tied to national security concerns. But his broader tariffs, including the 10% baseline on all imports, were struck down as an abuse of emergency powers. Greg Schaffer, a Georgetown law professor, warned that using IEEPA to rewrite tariffs sets a dangerous precedent: The power to decide tariffs resides with Congress. Yet Congress has repeatedly failed to actleaving a vacuum that Trump filled. If lawmakers wont defend American jobs, should the courts? The stakes for Americas future Beyond the legal drama, the real victims are American businesses and consumers. Tariffs on Chinese goods were meant to punish Beijing for flooding the U.S. with fentanyl precursors and stealing intellectual property. But abrupt court rulings create chaos for importers who already paid billions in dutiesand now they are potentially entitled to refunds. Meanwhile, the White House warns that rolling back tariffs would embolden China and weaken U.S. leverage in ongoing negotiations. Navarro assured the public, The Trump tariff agenda is alive, well, and healthy. But if courts keep blocking Trumps moves, will Americas trade enemies exploit the confusion? One thing is clear: This fight isnt just about tariffsits about who controls Americas economic destiny. The three branches of the American government were designed to be checks and balances, holding each branch accountable, so no group rose to dictatorship. But how can American voices be represented and heard if their Congressional representation is not consulted in these serious economic matters, and the judicial and executive branch are busy playing a game of high stakes tug of war for power? While Trump's intentions sound noble - protecting US manufacturers - should we blindly trust all his tariff war strategies and negotiations? Sources include: RT.com AlJazeera.com NBCNews.com Ukraine demands Russias ceasefire terms before committing to Istanbul peace talks as tensions escalate Ukraine and Russia prepare for Istanbul peace talks, but Kyiv demands Moscow reveal ceasefire terms before confirming attendance. Turkey proposes a high-level summit involving Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy, but Russia rejects it, insisting on bilateral progress first. Ukraine accuses Russia of stalling and hiding unrealistic demands, refusing to send a delegation without prior disclosure of Moscows proposal. The U.S. sends mixed signals, with Trumps envoy acknowledging Russias NATO concerns while Western frustration grows over continued Russian battlefield gains. Mondays talks could lead to a temporary truce or collapse, with Ukraine pushing for an unconditional ceasefire and Russia demanding concessions on NATO and territory. As the war in Ukraine grinds into its fourth year, a fragile diplomatic effort to broker a temporary ceasefire hangs in the balance. Russia and Ukraine are set to meet in Istanbul on Monday for a second round of peace talks, but Kyiv is refusing to confirm its attendance until Moscow reveals its proposed terms. The Kremlin has already confirmed its delegation will attend, yet Ukraine remains skeptical, accusing Russia of stalling and hiding unrealistic demands behind closed doors. Meanwhile, Turkey has floated the idea of a high-level summit involving U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a proposal Moscow swiftly rejected, insisting bilateral progress must come first. The upcoming Istanbul negotiations mark the second attempt this month to establish a temporary truce, following a May 16 meeting that ended without a breakthrough. While both sides agreed to a prisoner exchangethe largest since the war beganUkraine criticized Russia for sending a low-level delegation with no authority to sign binding agreements. This time, Kyiv is taking no chances. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated Friday that Ukraine will not send a delegation unless Russia provides its ceasefire proposal in advance. "For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared," President Zelenskyy wrote on social media. "Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Russias delegation is ready to negotiate but refused to disclose details of its draft agreement. "At the moment, everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being developed," Peskov told reporters. He emphasized that the memorandums contents would remain confidential in a stance that has only deepened Ukraines distrust. Turkeys high-stakes diplomacy Amid the standoff, Turkey has emerged as a key mediator, proposing a bold next step: a trilateral summit between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy, hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced the idea Friday, calling it a natural progression after the Istanbul talks. But the Kremlin quickly dismissed the proposal, insisting that Russia and Ukraine must first make progress on their own. "First, results must be achieved through direct negotiations between the two countries," Peskov responded. The rejection underscores Moscows reluctance to engage in high-profile diplomacy without guarantees in a stance that aligns with its long-standing demands, including Ukraines neutrality, territorial concessions, and an end to NATO expansion. U.S. weighs in as battlefield tensions rise As diplomatic wrangling continues, the U.S. has sent mixed signals about its role in the peace process. Retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trumps envoy to Ukraine, acknowledged Friday that Russias concerns about NATOs eastward expansion were "fair" and stated that Washington does not support Ukraine joining the alliance. Peskov welcomed Kelloggs remarks, saying, "We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington. And, of course, this is quite appealing to us in terms of the mediating role that Washington continues to play." Yet frustration is growing in Western capitals over Russias battlefield aggression. Just hours before the talks were announced, Russian forces claimed to have seized another village in northeastern Ukraines Kharkiv region in a clear signal that Moscow is negotiating from a position of strength. Zelenskyy warned that any pause in Western pressure would embolden the Kremlin. "Talks of pauses in pressure or easing of sanctions are perceived in Moscow as a political victoryand only encourage further attacks and continued disregard for diplomacy," he posted on social media. A make-or-break moment With Ukraine demanding transparency and Russia refusing to show its hand, Mondays talks could either pave the way for de-escalation or collapse before they begin. Kyiv insists on an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, a proposal first floated by Trump, while Moscow insists any truce must address its "root causes," including NATOs presence near its borders. Will Russia and Ukraine finally take a step toward peace, or will this latest effort join the graveyard of failed ceasefires? Sources for this article include: YourNews.com Reuters.com BBC.com AlJazeera.com Watchdog group claims Bidens climate policies may be invalid due to autopen signatures A watchdog group alleges Bidens climate executive orders may have been signed without his knowledge using an autopen. Power the Future demands investigations into key Biden-era energy policies, citing no public discussion by Biden. Trump allies question Bidens mental capacity to delegate authority, suggesting aides may have bypassed him entirely. Critics highlight Bidens reported unawareness of signed orders, like the LNG export pause, fueling legitimacy concerns. The controversy raises broader questions about who controlled Bidens autopen and potential shadow governance. A pro-energy watchdog is sounding the alarm over former President Joe Bidens executive orders on climate policy, alleging they may have been signed without his knowledge or approval using an autopen machine that replicates signatures. Power the Future, a nonprofit advocating for American energy jobs, is calling for congressional investigations into eight key Biden-era orders, including Arctic drilling bans and net-zero emissions mandates, citing a lack of evidence that Biden ever publicly discussed them. The groups findings have reignited concerns about the legitimacy of Bidens executive actions and who ultimately controlled the autopen mechanism during his administration. President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly questioned whether Biden had the mental capacity to delegate such authority, suggesting that aides may have bypassed the president entirely. The autopen controversy deepens Power the Future reviewed executive orders spanning Bidens presidency, including a 2021 directive committing the federal government to net-zero emissions by 2050 and a 2023 ban on Arctic drilling. According to the group, there is no record of Biden publicly mentioning these policies, raising suspicions that they were drafted and signed without his direct involvement. "These are not obscure bureaucratic memos; these were foundational shifts in American energy policy, yet not once did Joe Biden speak about them publicly," Daniel Turner, founder of Power the Future, told Fox News Digital. The organization has sent letters to the Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency, and congressional oversight committees demanding transparency about who authorized the orders. The controversy stems from broader claims by Trump officials that Bidens team relied heavily on the autopen for critical decisions, including pardons for members of his family. Trump has called these actions void, arguing that Biden lacked awareness of the documents he ostensibly approved. While the autopen has been used by multiple presidents, including Barack Obama, its deployment under Biden has drawn scrutiny due to concerns about his cognitive decline. Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley told Fox News that legal challenges to autopen-signed documents are unlikely to succeed, noting that courts have historically deferred to presidential authority. However, Power the Future insists the issue isnt merely procedural. The group points to a meeting in which Biden reportedly forgot he had signed an order pausing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, a claim echoed by House Speaker Mike Johnson. "There is no evidence that Biden ordered it, directed it, or was even aware it was happening in his name," Turner said. The Heritage Foundations Oversight Project has alleged that most of Bidens official documents bore autopen signatures, with only rare exceptions, such as his 2024 withdrawal from the presidential race. Critics argue this pattern suggests a systemic lack of oversight. A shadow presidency? The debate over the autopen has fueled speculation about who wielded influence behind the scenes during Bidens tenure. Trumps AI czar, David Sacks, accused Senator Elizabeth Warren of controlling Bidens autopen on crypto policy, claiming she harbored a "pathological hatred" for the industry. Although Sacks later clarified his remarks were specific to crypto, the allegation underscores broader concerns about unelected officials shaping policy. The White House has not responded to requests for comment on the autopen allegations. Meanwhile, Power the Future is pushing for accountability, framing the issue as a matter of national transparency. As Congress weighs whether to investigate, the autopen controversy highlights unresolved questions about Bidens presidency. Whether these orders withstand legal and political scrutiny remains to be seen, but the fallout could reshape perceptions of how his administration operated. For now, Power the Future and other critics are demanding answersand proof that the president was truly in command. Sources for this article include: ClimateDepot.com WCYB.com NYPost.com DailyMail.co.uk FoxNews.com Sorry, something doesn't look right. Something seems unusual about your device or browser. Please contact support. This alligator snapping turtle was just one of the illegally imported animals discovered through Operation Cascade. Source: DAFF It was the odd smell coming from a parcel sent to Australia from the Philippines that made border force agents curious. An X-ray of the consignment revealed something disturbing inside a massive haul of spiders and reptiles. Sadly, when Department of Agriculture (DAFF) agents sliced open the packages, many of the creatures had died. Theyd been illegally sent through the mail to a false name, and declared as toys to try and avoid suspicion. Operation Cascade, a two-year multi-agency investigation into an illegal wildlife smuggling gang, was sparked by the discovery. On Friday, authorities revealed a man had been sentenced to nine months in prison after pleading guilty to three offences relating to the importation of live tortoises and turtles at the Caloundra Magistrates Court in Queensland. The turtles could have put Australia's biosecurity at risk. Source: DAFF Even more exotic animals discovered in packages The first consignment was uncovered back in 2023. Inside were a total of three snakes, six iguanas, three soft-shell turtles and three tarantulas, all hidden inside drawstring calico bags. After warrants were issued, authorities found a further 45 tarantulas, as well as African hedgehogs, an alligator snapping turtle, eco-skeleton spiders, and snakes. ADVERTISEMENT Had the animals made it passed customs, they could have posed a serious risk to Australias native species, livestock and even humans. DAFFs deputy secretary of Biosecurity, Justine Saunders, said they could have carried in diseases unknown here. People who break biosecurity laws face a maximum of 10 years in prison, fines of up to $1,650,000 for an individual or $8,250,000 for a company. The illegal wildlife trade is the worlds fourth largest illicit transnational trade, after arms, drugs and human trafficking, she said. DAFF, along with other government agencies, are united in their commitment to eradicate the illicit wildlife trade and will take vigorous and relentless action to seek out those responsible, bring them to justice and stop this global crime. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories. The couple bought a caravan during the pandemic and hit the road, saying they've "never looked back". Mariella and Dougal have spent years bouncing around Australia in their caravan and chasing wildlife. Source: BrotherNatureOz/Reels There's no shortage of fascinating wildlife in Australia. Sometimes, you just need to know where to look. For those travelling the continent like Mariella and Dougal, who are constantly on the lookout for animals, there's plenty to fill your days with. According to figures from the Australian federal Department of Environment, there is an estimated 566,000 living species in Australia, with only about 147,000 having been previously described. "Since hitting the road, we've made it a mission to photograph every species we come across," Mariella told Yahoo News Australia. "We're enthusiastic naturalists and passionate wildlife photographers, so any opportunity to document unique wildlife encounters is a real thrill for us." ADVERTISEMENT And it's been a thrill they've been chasing for years now, joining the growing number of people in Australia that live a nomadic lifestyle. "During Covid, we made the decision to buy a caravan and hit the road, and we havent looked back since," she said. The nomadic lifestyle provides plenty of opportunity to have wild encounters. Source: BrotherNatureOz/Facebook While Mariella is from Italy, she's been living in Australia for the past decade and met Dougal in his hometown of Airlie Beach in Queensland. "We left Airlie Beach about four years ago and have been on the move ever since," she explained to Yahoo. "We live full-time in our off-road caravan, which has been amazing. It gives us the freedom to change our backyard often." ADVERTISEMENT The couple is currently in Katherine, in the Northern Territory, before heading to Darwin to begin some work. Mariella is a qualified teacher aide while Dougal is a carpenter but has just been hired as a nature guide. "We usually take jobs that offer a place to park the van, or we connect with people happy to share their properties in exchange for a contribution. Sometimes we stay with friends, its a flexible, community-based lifestyle and we absolutely love it." And, of course, it offers plenty of opportunity to have some wild encounters. Tiny octopus find reveals 'hidden world' One of those instances was shared on their social media this week, with the couple coming across the rather "amazing" algae octopus, which given the creature's camouflaging prowess, is easier said than done. ADVERTISEMENT "We're both underwater photographers and love chasing critters. Were equally obsessed with the big guys like manta rays, but its the hidden world of small creatures that really captivates us," Mariella said. The pair managed to notice the nocturnal octopus underneath a piece of driftwood while enjoying a reef walk near a remote spot called Portland Roads, about 15 minutes from Lockhart River in Queensland. "Theyre such fascinating and intelligent animals, and it was a treat to spot one in the middle of the day since theyre typically nocturnal," Mariella said. "The algae octopus (Abdopus aculeatus) is known for its ability to camouflage incredibly well, often mimicking algae or rubble on the seafloor. Its one of the few octopus species known to walk on two arms almost like tiptoeing across the seabed. "Their behaviour and adaptability never cease to amaze us." Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the weeks best stories. Due to scheduled maintenance from Saturday, March 15, 2025, at 10 PM to Sunday, March 16, 2025, at 2 AM, there may be interruptions for our News Gazette Digital subscribers. During this time frame, please click on any News Gazette website content without logging into your News Gazette Digital subscription account. Thank you for your patience during this scheduled maintenance. Newly sequenced ancient genomes from Yunnan, China, have shed new light on human prehistory in East Asia. In a study published in Science, a research team led by Prof. FU Qiaomei at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed data from 127 ancient humans, dating from 7,100 to 1,400 years ago. The results show that this region is pivotal to understanding the origin of both Tibetan and Austroasiatic (i.e., ethnic groups with a shared language group in South and Southeast Asia) population groups. The team found that a 7,100-year-old individual from Yunnan was as genetically distinct from most present-day East Asians as a 40,000-year-old individual from the area of present-day Beijing, suggesting a previously unobserved Asian ancestry, denoted in the study as Xingyi ancestry. Collectively, these ancestries highlight the profound genetic divergence among human populations in East Asia. Although the individual genetically differed significantly from modern East Asians, the researchers noted that the individual's ancestry shared qualities similar to those of populations indigenous to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This aligns with previous observations that these plateau populations have certain genetic characteristics that make them distinct from other present-day human groups. This individual's genome has filled in a large piece of the puzzle, making it easier to study Tibetan prehistory. The study revealed that an early Asian population that separated at least 40,000 years ago persisted in Southwestern China until the Holocene and interacted with humans migrating westward from northern East Asia to originate Tibetan populations. This deeply diverged Xingyi ancestry was also found in an 11,000-year-old Longlin individual previously sampled in Guangxi, yet it gradually disappeared in later Guangxi populations. Moreover, the researchers conducted a genome-wide analysis of DNA from humans living in central Yunnan from 5,1001,400 years BP. Their study revealed a shared ancestry that was closely related-but genetically distinct-from East Asian ancestries observed in northern and southern China. According to the researchers, the Yunnan individuals genetically diverged from northern and southern East Asian groups at least 19,000 years ago. Interestingly, the Yunnan samples also share a close genetic relationship to Austroasiatic speakers, who are widespread today across Southeast Asia, as well as some regions of South Asia and southern China. Some scientists have hypothesized that the spread of Austroasiatic speakers was linked to the expansion of farming in this region. However, the presence of these Austroasiatic-related populations in central Yunnan predates agricultural practices. This study may provide insights into the origins of Austroasiatic populations. It presents the oldest evidence of ancestry associated with Austroasiatic speakers, with a continuous record from 5,1001,400 years BP. Looking to central Yunnan and the nearby Red River Valley could be crucial for unveiling Austroasiatic prehistory. The study also sheds light on the history of populations in western and southeastern Yunnan. Specifically, genetic analyses show that populations with northern East Asian ancestry influenced populations in western Yunnan, whereas populations carrying northern East Asian ancestry influenced populations in southeastern Yunnan. Southwest China is a key region for prehistoric human migration and interaction. By accessing the genetic history preserved in these ancient genomes from Yunnan, the researchers have uncovered deep genetic diversity that accounts for the rich ethnic and linguistic diversity in Yunnan today. This research has also transformed our understanding of ancient human dynamics over a much wider geographic area, from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to Southeast Asia. The study's comprehensive analysis of ancient DNA from 7,100to 1,400-year-old Yunnan populations offers new insights into long-debated questions regarding the origins and expansion of various East Asian populations. Most experts and those experiencing the potentially debilitating features of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which affects one in eight women, want greater awareness and a name change to improve care and outcomes. A new Monash University-led research paper reveals those involved are keen to overcome the misleading implication that it is only an ovarian or gynecological condition. PCOS carries risks of higher body weight, diabetes, heart disease, fertility issues and pregnancy complications, endometrial cancer, skin and hair changes including acne and excess facial hair, and psychological features including depression and anxiety, that are all exacerbated by higher weight. Published in the Lancet's eClinicalMedicine, the Monash University-led global initiative involved international online surveys engaging 7708 patients and diverse health professionals from six continents, in 2015 and 2023, alongside face-to-face workshops. The researchers sought perspectives on awareness of broad clinical features, the name, potential for renaming, advantages and disadvantages of a change, and potential alternative names. The study demonstrates: A substantive improvement from 2015-2023 in awareness of PCOS and its diverse reproductive, cardiometabolic, skin and psychological features, with a positive impact from the Monash led International Guidelines (2018 and 2023), patient resources including the ASKPCOS App, and strong patient advocacy Overall 76% of health professionals and 86% of patients supported a name change, noting advantages (up to 90%), and minimal disadvantages (<27%). The field of potential names was narrowed with terms like 'endocrine' and 'metabolic' among the most supported A robust multi-step consensus process has been agreed to and is now underway with global engagement of health professional and patient societies Primary author Professor Helena Teede leads the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI) at Monash University and the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Women's Health in Reproductive Life (CRE-WHiRL). She is also an Endocrinologist at Monash Health. These organizations are ranked as world leaders in PCOS and Monash Health hosts the only holistic public PCOS service nationally. "PCOS is the most common endocrine or hormonal condition in reproductive-aged women, yet its name does not reflect the broad range of health impacts," Professor Teede said. "The focus on ovarian cysts, which are not true cysts but rather eggs or follicles that have stopped growing, overlooks the impacts of this multisystem disorder, leading to confusion, missed and delayed diagnosis, and inadequate information provision and care. Research has also been limited to date." The NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Women's Health in Reproductive Life (CRE-WHiRL), AE-PCOS (International Androgen Excess and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Society), and UK consumer group Verity are leading this international process to determine and implement a new name. The Australian patient group Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association of Australia (POSAA) is engaged in this process. "Over eight years, global data from patients and health professionals also showed that PCOS knowledge gaps reduced following the launch and widespread dissemination of two Monash-led International PCOS Guidelines in 2018 and 2023, extensive uptake of information resources across 195 countries and strong involvement of patient advocacy groups globally," Professor Teede said. "This survey data also underpinned the global agreement to move to a new name." Dr. Mahnaz Bahri Khomami, the Monash University co-lead on this work, said the current name was perceived as misleading and confusing, with consistent strong support for a name change, and advantages outweighed potential disadvantages. She also highlighted the extensive engagement with broad cultural groups across geographical regions to ensure any changes are culturally appropriate. "We aim to more accurately frame PCOS beyond a reproductive disorder with a name change that can improve awareness, diagnosis and management without creating diagnostic inconsistency," Dr Bahri Khomami said. "It should also enhance research funding, education and services recognising the broader features of the condition." Lorna Berry has PCOS and is working with the international team to rename the condition. "The aim is to improve understanding for both GPs and people with PCOS, leading to early intervention and early diagnosis and better outcomes for women with PCOS across their lifetime," Lorna said. Lorna said the PCOS community welcomed the change, which was "a long-overdue shift toward respect, clarity, and meaningful progress". "For decades, those of us living with this condition have had to 'fight' for diagnosis, and even after diagnosis, misinformation is abundant," she said. "The term 'Polycystic Ovary Syndrome' is misleading, medically outdated, and emotionally invalidating. As a lifelong condition, funding for research is needed, as well as patient-centered care, from a multi-disciplinary team, evolving throughout the lifetime." This paper involved experts from the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), Monash Health, Verity (PCOS UK), Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association of Australia (POSAA), Erasmus University Medical Centre in The Netherlands, the University of Oulu in Finland, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Adelaide. A new study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal suggests that parental or caregiver intuition may outperform some traditional early warning systems in identifying children at risk of deterioration. The new analysis found that caregiver concern for worsening condition of pediatric patients was strongly associated with critical illness in pediatric patients admitted to the hospital, even after accounting for abnormal vital signs (abnormal heart rate or abnormal respiratory rate). In high-income countries critical illness in children is rare, and often difficult for physicians to distinguish from common minor illness until late in the disease. Delayed recognition of deterioration is one of the most common contributing factors to preventable deaths in hospitalized children, and parents or caregivers are often well positioned to detect early and subtle signs of deterioration, but the relationship between their concerns and patient outcomes is unknown, and many healthcare systems are not currently structured to support their involvement in clinical care. The current study is the first to examine this relationship. It was conducted over 26 months (November 2020 to December 2022) and analyzed 73,845 eligible emergency department presentations of pediatric patients in Australia, with 24,239 having at least one documented response for parent or caregiver concern. The authors assessed caregiver concern by asking the caregiver the question 'Are you worried your child is getting worse?' during routine monitoring. In total, 8,937 (47%) respondents out of 189,708 indicated concern for the child's worsening condition. Compared to patients with caregivers without documented concerns, those with a caregiver reporting concern for clinical deterioration were more likely to experience critical illness requiring admission to ICU (69% vs 18%) or the need for mechanical ventilation (11% vs 02%), suggesting that the diagnostic accuracy of the parent's gut feeling outperformed physiological data. The authors say that their results suggest parents and caregivers are a resource that can assist clinicians to monitor for deterioration, and they may perform better than some current systems reliant on vital signs alone. They say this data suggests that parent or caregiver concerns should be proactively sought, and research which incorporates this into hospital systems used to detect deterioration in pediatric patients should be prioritized. Source: The Lancet Journal reference: Mills, E., et al. (2025). Association between caregiver concern for clinical deterioration and critical illness in children presenting to hospital: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(25)00098-7. Cairns and Townsville residents who want to give up smoking can access free nicotine replacement therapies and potentially life-saving lung cancer screening by participating in a research study. A University of Queensland-led trial started late last year across areas of southern Queensland to help smokers aged between 50 and 80 who wanted to quit smoking. Associate Professor Henry Marshall from UQ's Thoracic Research Centre said more than 120 people had so far participated in the trial, and the project was now expanding to North and Far North Queensland. This is an important step because it means people who want to quit smoking can now participate in the trial and get scanned and access nicotine replacement therapies in Cairns or Townsville. Our aim is to screen 1000 people across Queensland, and the trial will continue until we reach that goal." Dr. Henry Marshall, Associate Professor, UQ's Thoracic Research Center The Max Up trial is ongoing and is open to smokers aged between 50 and 80 who register with Quitline. Dr. Marshall said research from the United States showed combining smoking cessation and screening reduced the risk of dying from lung cancer by 38 per cent. "A CT scan can pick up small, curable lung cancers that are otherwise undetected because they're not causing any symptoms,'' he said. "It only takes a few minutes and does not require any needles. "Lung cancer grows silently and secretly, and generally only causes symptoms in an advanced stage, when a cure is difficult so a CT scan finding the cancer earlier gives people the chance for effective treatment." Queenslanders who phone Quitline on 13 7848 (13 QUIT) or self-refer through Quit HQ can join the study to access free nicotine patches, gum or lozenges, as well as a free CT scan of their lungs, if eligible. Dr Marshall, who is a lung specialist at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, said the study is a precursor to the roll out of a National Lung Cancer Screening Program. "We want to make sure lung cancer screening reaches the target population and is integrated in the best possible way with support to help people quit smoking," he said. "The trial is called Max Up because we aim to maximise uptake of screening and maximise people's chances of quitting to reap the health benefits of a smoke-free life it's a double health benefit." Dr Marshall said lung cancer is one of more than 40 diseases and conditions that smoking is known to cause, so quitting has very broad health benefits. "We know that quitting smoking can take time, effort, and sometimes multiple attempts," he said. "But if you can quit smoking, you get a huge benefit back in terms of life expectancy and quality of life. "We've got the door open ready for people to keep coming back, engaging with Quitline's programs and counsellors and keep getting free nicotine replacement therapy." The Max Up trial is supported by the Medical Research Future Fund, The University of Queensland, Queensland Health, Cancer Council Australia, and Lung Foundation Australia. Young patients with cancer need support when it comes to scholastic performance, which can be an empowering and motivating force during the challenges of cancer treatment, UF Health Cancer Center researchers have found. The study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025 Annual Meeting, identified four areas of support that need to be integrated into adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer care: help with obtaining school accommodations, support with losing extracurricular activities that play a role in identity formation, navigating a disruption in their academic trajectory including career trajectory, and losing their connection to peers. These four areas are support gaps that AYAs, parent caregivers and clinicians all agree are direly needed. Parents and AYAs also noted that scholastic opportunities are motivating and empowering and thus critical to their well-being. That further supports the need to attend to scholastic performance in AYA oncology care." Carla L. Fisher, Ph.D., M.S.W., lead author, professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics and member of the UF Health Cancer Center People tend to think of school or college as an extra burden during cancer treatment or survivorship care, Fisher said. But AYAs and parents identified how important it is, particularly as AYAs develop independence and a sense of self. "There's certainly pauses that have to happen depending on treatment plans, but this adds to the idea that parents and AYAs living with cancer want and need supportive care that helps them navigate the stresses that come with an academic or career disruption," Fisher said. Other studies have shown how a cancer diagnosis disrupts AYAs' typical developmental trajectory, potentially creating more mental health risks and financial insecurities long term. "Supporting their academic needs can help mitigate those negative impacts," Fisher said. To reach their conclusions, the research team compared the lived experiences of three groups: AYAs diagnosed with cancer between ages 15 and 29, parents caring for these patients, and clinicians treating them in an AYA oncology program. "Incorporating these three different and key stakeholder voices strengthens our research and allows us to better identify what the supportive care needs are," Fisher said. To mobilize resources to support AYAs and parents facing these challenges, Fisher and co-author Raymond Mailhot, M.D., continue to investigate and establish scholastic performance as a meaningful patient-centered metric and functional outcome for cancer survivorship. They are the first investigative team in the United States to directly link patients' medical data to performance data collected by a school district. In addition to Fisher and Mailhot, a clinical associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Florida, UF Health Cancer Center members Carma Bylund, Ph.D., and Joanne Lagmay, M.D., are co-authors of the new study. External collaborators included Maria Sae-Hau, Ph.D. and Elisa S. Weiss, Ph.D. (researchers at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) and Diliara Bagautdinova, Ph.D. (Karmanos Cancer Institute). Interview data was drawn from several larger studies that were made possible in part by funding granted to Fisher, Bylund and Bagautdinova from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, National Cancer Institute and UF Health Cancer Center. With funding from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Fisher and Bylund recently created a free communications skills program for adult children caregivers of a loved one with a blood cancer. With support from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, they are adapting the program for other family caregivers, including one for parent caregivers of AYAs living with a blood cancer. A new study led by experts at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is the first to look at trends over time in alcohol-linked cancer mortality across the United States. The findings, titled "Escalating Impact of Alcohol-Related Cancer Mortality in the U.S.: A call for action," will be presented May 31 at ASCO 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. Earlier this year, the former U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory warning Americans of the strong links between alcohol consumption and increased risk of several types of cancer. Although many of these links have been well known among scientists for years, awareness of this connection among the general public is low. To understand how alcohol may be fueling rates of cancer-related deaths, researchers at Sylvester delved into data from the Global Burden of Disease database. This public dataset captures detailed disease information from around the world and estimates risk factors including alcohol consumption that likely contribute to diagnoses and deaths. ASCO Merit Award The researchers looked at total cancer deaths, as well as those due to specific cancer types known to be influenced by alcohol consumption: breast, liver, colorectal, throat, voice box, mouth and esophageal cancers. They found that between 1990 and 2021, the total number of alcohol-related cancer deaths nearly doubled in the U.S., rising from just under 12,000 deaths per year to just over 23,000. The burden is especially high in men over 55, who saw their alcohol-linked cancer mortality rise by a bit over 1% every year between 2007 and 2021. "That's a big and concerning rise," said Chinmay Jani, M.D., a Sylvester hematology and oncology fellow who led the study and will present the research findings at ASCO; his abstract has also won an ASCO Merit Award. "We need to increase awareness of this link among the general population and even in the medical field," he said. "There's a lot of awareness about, for example, tobacco and the risk of cancer. But for alcohol, that awareness isn't there." Alcohol-linked cancer A 2019 survey from the American Institute for Cancer Research found that while 89% of American adults know that tobacco raises the risk of cancer, only 45% know that alcohol does as well. There are about 100,000 new cancer diagnoses related to alcohol every year in the U.S., or around 5% of all cancer cases, according to the surgeon general's report, and around 20,000 deaths due to alcohol-linked cancer. That's significantly higher than the deaths caused by drunk driving every year. The increase in alcohol-related cancer mortality rate seems to be entirely due to an increase among men. In women, both young and old, the rates have declined slightly since 1990. In men ages 20-54, the mortality rates increased slightly. However, the team also looked at proportions of cancer deaths due to alcohol and found that, even for cancers with declining mortality rates, the proportion due to alcohol for nearly all of them rose between 1990 and 2021, for both men and women. Among all cancers combined, the percentage of cancer deaths likely due to alcohol consumption increased by nearly 50% between 1990 and 2021. That is, even if other factors, such as improved screening and treatment, are driving overall cancer deaths down, alcohol consumption is responsible for a larger percentage of cancer mortality than in the past. The largest increases Liver cancer, colorectal cancer and esophageal cancer saw the largest increases in alcohol-related mortality; colorectal and esophageal cancers saw the largest proportional increases. The researchers also looked at trends at the state level: The District of Columbia and Texas had the highest rates of alcohol-linked cancer mortality, while Utah had the lowest. State-level differences could reflect different drinking cultures in different regions, but could also be due to socioeconomic and health access differences, the researchers said. Besides calling for an increased awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer, Jani said it will be important to further tease out the biology behind this connection. Alcohol is known to increase cancer risk through several different mechanisms, including DNA damage and altering levels of hormones. Biological differences among people may impact how alcohol consumption raises their individual risk, and further understanding these differences could eventually allow physicians to screen for patients at highest risk and tailor counseling individually. New research explores how the Pacific traditions of kava drinking and talanoa storytelling could transform PTSD care, offering hope and healing where Western therapies have fallen short. Mixed ethnicity kava users seated on fala/ibe (woven mats) and engaging in talanoa in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Reproduced with permission from photographer: Todd M. Henry, 2022. Nearly 80% of Maori veterans in New Zealand report trauma-related symptoms such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but current PTSD and anxiety medications are associated with high addiction risks and offer only short-term relief. In a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, researchers reviewed evidence, including qualitative and pilot data, supporting a culturally grounded alternative for treating PTSD that combines the traditional Pacific drink kava with talanoa. Talanoa is a traditional word used in Fiji and across the Pacific to reflect a process of inclusive, participatory, and transparent dialogue. The study examined whether kava-talanoa can provide safer, longer-lasting therapeutic benefits based on pilot experiences, with a clinical trial planned for 2025. It is important to note that this review is not a systematic review or meta-analysis, but synthesizes published literature, case studies, and experiential evidence. Trauma-associated disorders PTSD is a growing global health concern that affects not only military personnel and first responders but also communities facing climate disasters, pandemics, and long-standing inequality. Common treatments for PTSD include medications and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). However, medications like benzodiazepines often cause addiction, have limited long-term effects, and may not suit older adults or indigenous populations. Moreover, CBT, while helpful, is usually not culturally relevant or accessible to many patients, especially Pacific peoples. In these communities, mental health care is hindered by systemic racism, poor access to services, and a mismatch between Western treatments and cultural values. These gaps have created an urgent need for safer, more effective, and culturally respectful alternatives. Traditional approaches that promote relaxation, sleep, and meaningful conversation, such as the Pacific practices of kava drinking and talanoa storytelling, may fill this void. Exploring traditional therapies for PTSD In this review, the research team proposed a novel therapeutic approach that combines kava, a traditional Pacific beverage, with talanoa, a culturally grounded form of dialogue. Kava is derived from the root of the Piper methysticum plant and contains natural compounds called kavalactones, which may interact with the -aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors in the brain, similar to anti-anxiety medications, but without the risk of addiction or cognitive impairment. The talanoa component involves open, respectful conversation that promotes emotional sharing and collective understanding. Kava mixing and serving in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Clockwise: 1. dried and pounded kava powder is added to the silk mixing bag; 2. water is added to the tanoa or kumete (traditional kava bowl); 3. the kava (in the mixing bag) is washed through the water until the desired concentration is achieved; 4. the kava is served in ipu/bilo (cups made from half-coconut shells). Photographer: Todd M. Henry, 2019. The proposed kava-talanoa sessions, modeled on documented traditional practices, would reflect the naturalistic use of kava, where participants would sit on woven mats, drink kava from coconut-shell cups, and engage in guided conversations within culturally respectful environments. These sessions aim to foster a sense of safety and community, potentially key to addressing PTSD symptoms such as avoidance, emotional suppression, and sleep problems. To gather preliminary insights, the researchers collected qualitative data from Pacific veterans, first responders, and civilians who had used kava-talanoa informally to manage their trauma. Reports were drawn from interviews, personal accounts, and therapist observations. They also compared the impact of kava-talanoa with alcohol use. Key findings from pilot experiences Anecdotal evidence suggested that kava-talanoa may reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress among participants, particularly in Pacific populations. This combination therapy provided a culturally familiar and emotionally safe environment for individuals to process trauma. Pilot participants reported improvements in sleep quality, reduced anxiety, and an enhanced ability to engage in therapeutic conversations. Veterans and first responders who had previously struggled with avoidance behaviors described feeling more comfortable discussing painful experiences during kava-talanoa sessions. They reported a sense of calm and emotional clarity after these gatherings. The long-lasting relaxing effects of kava appeared to facilitate deeper conversations, while talanoa provided a non-judgmental space for storytelling and emotional connection. Unlike alcohol, which often intensified aggression and emotional distress, kava seemed to encourage peaceful reflection and community bonding. Many participants described finally being able to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night without flashbacks. This restorative sleep was associated with better mood, cognitive functioning, and overall well-being. The review also highlighted differences between naturalistic kava and commercially extracted forms of kava. Traditional aqueous kava, consumed in communal rituals, appeared to preserve therapeutic compounds and cultural meanings that enhanced its effectiveness. In contrast, chemically processed kava products did not yield comparable benefits in informal settings. Based on these pilot insights, the team has designed a clinical trial supported by New Zealands Health Research Council. The trial, scheduled to begin in mid-2025, will compare traditional kava beverages and capsules to determine the optimal dosage and efficacy, and will assess cultural adaptability across Pacific and non-Pacific participants, with parallel research arms in the United States and Europe. Conclusions The review concluded that kava-talanoa is a promising, culturally respectful therapy for PTSD. By blending traditional Pacific practices with modern therapeutic goals, it offers a meaningful alternative to conventional treatments, which come with numerous adverse effects, such as addiction. Pilot participants described greater emotional relief, improved sleep, and deeper connection through this approach. However, it is important to emphasize that these conclusions are preliminary and based on pilot and anecdotal data. As full clinical validation is pending, these preliminary findings suggest that culturally aligned therapies like kava-talanoa could play a vital role in global mental health care, especially for Pacific and Indigenous communities where Western therapies have fallen short. In the realm of colorectal cancer treatments beyond surgery and radiation, one key question gained prominence in recent years: Is the tumor's DNA repair system defective, making it "microsatellite unstable"? Around 15 to 20 percent of all tumors have this trait, making them likely candidates for successful immunotherapy. So-called immuno-checkpoint inhibitors are often used in these cases to neutralize the tumor's "protective shield", which tricks the immune system into perceiving it as harmless tissue. Once this deception is lifted, the body's T-cells can eliminate the tumor. However, many colorectal cancers remain resistant to immunotherapy and even to chemotherapy and radiation. The cause lies in the tumor's surrounding environment, explains Prof. Florian Greten, cancer researcher at Georg-Speyer-Haus and Goethe University Frankfurt, and TRR 417 spokesperson: "Tumors do not grow as foreign bodies within intestinal tissue. Instead, they incorporate 'normal' cells such as fibroblasts, immune cells, and vascular cells. The tumor reprograms these cells and integrates them into a tumor microenvironment, which also closely interacts with gut bacteria and other microorganisms - the microbiome." The new Collaborative Research Center TRR 417 "Cellular Communication in the Stroma of Colorectal Cancer: From Pathophysiology to Clinical Translation" brings together researchers from medicine, biology, and data sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the University of Freiburg with the aim of continuing the investigation of this tumor microenvironment. Greten explains: "We are building on the experience we've gained since 2016 through our collaboration in DFG Research Unit 2438 on this topic. In that project, we not only gathered numerous scientific insights but also developed shared standards, models, and technologies." It is based on this foundation that the researchers will now develop novel therapeutic strategies. "We want to determine how to deliberately modify the tumor microenvironment and leverage it therapeutically to enhance treatments and make them accessible to immunotherapies - especially for those colorectal cancers that currently respond poorly to existing therapies." The success of TRR 417 is particularly gratifying because it shows how Prof. Greten and his colleagues have strategically brought together top-tier oncology experts from leading institutions - German Cancer Aid, the German Cancer Consortium for Translational Cancer Research, the Bavarian Cancer Research Center, and the National Center for Tumor Diseases - over many years. Their approach of rapidly transferring basic research into clinical practice is a model for Goethe University's 'Science for Health' profile area. I look forward to the rich scientific output and the next generation of clinician scientists that will emerge out of this collaborative research center." Prof. Enrico Schleiff, Goethe University President The DFG will fund TRR 417 for an initial period of four years with around 17.7 million. The funding may be renewed twice for additional four-year periods. HC expresses surprise on sub-letting land of NHAI by Waqf in UP's Saharanpur Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 22:45 IST Representational image (Image: News18) Prayagraj (UP), May 30 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has expressed surprise at the actions of the Waqf Madarsa Qasim ul Uloom in encroaching a land in Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur that belongs to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), carrying out construction on it, sub-letting it and charging rent on the property. Noting that the petitioner, Waqf, had encroached upon the land owned by the NHAI, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal dismissed the petition. Recommended Stories The court called it a classic case" where the NHAI land was encroached upon and a madrasa, a mosque and certain other constructions were raised and the property was being claimed to be a waqf". The petitioner had filed the plea seeking a permanent prohibitory injunction restraining the respondent authorities from demolishing the disputed property and making new construction over the same. The petitioner had submitted that a madrasa, a mosque and a police chowki existed on the land. Regarding the petitioners claim that the land was a waqf property, the defendants had pleaded that the same was not registered as a waqf with the Waqf Board. In the suit, the defendants had filed an amendment application that was allowed by the trial court. Against this, the petitioner had preferred a revision, which was dismissed. Thereafter, the petitioner approached the high court on grounds that the amendment could not be allowed as a new case was being set up by the defendants. The court said the petitioner-plaintiff had not, at any stage, shown the registration of the waqf and how the suit property was a waqf under the Waqf Act, 1995. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Holding that the property belonged to the NHAI, the court dismissed the petition against the trial court order allowing the amendment application. The order dated May 12 came into the public domain on Friday. PTI COR RAJ KIS RC First Published: May 30, 2025, 22:45 IST Healthy and stable China-EU relationship promotes mutual achievements and illuminates world 10:23, May 30, 2025 By Huan Yuping ( People's Daily This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the European Union (EU). China and the EU are two major forces promoting multi-polarization, two major markets supporting globalization, and two major civilizations advocating diversity. As transformation of the world unseen in a century is unfolding at a faster pace, the China-EU relationship bears heavily on the global landscape and the shared future of humanity. In January this year, Chinese new-energy vehicle maker XPeng and German automobile giant Volkswagen signed a Memorandum of Understanding for strategic collaboration on a superfast charging network in China, an eye-catching move in the global auto industry. Back in the 1980s, the first Santana car co-produced by China-Germany joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen marked the start of Volkswagen's deep engagement in the Chinese market. Over four decades later, China's reform and opening up has propelled the country forward by leaps and bounds. From importing European technologies and management expertise to jointly exploring the industry's frontier, this upgraded cooperation trajectory speaks volumes: China's development and progress continue to create more opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation. As Volkswagen's journey in China shows, while the modes and fields of China-EU cooperation may have evolved over the past half a century, the underlying principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation remains unchanged. Historically and today, there is no clash of fundamental interests between China and the EU, making them partners that can contribute to each other's success. A healthy and stable China-EU relationship serves as a strong driver for mutual achievements. China and the EU remain each other's most important trading partners, with highly complementary economies and closely intertwined interests. In the past five decades, China-EU trade has expanded from $2.4 billion to $785.8 billion in 2024, covering everything from traditional industries like garments and toys to high-end manufacturing such as machinery and photovoltaic products. Investment has increased from almost zero to close to $260 billion, moving into a fast lane with ample potential ahead. China-Europe freight trains have made over 100,000 trips, linking more than 200 cities and establishing a direct overland trade corridor between China and Europe. In the first quarter of this year, trade between the two sides reached 1.3 trillion yuan ($180.45 billion), equivalent to over 10 million yuan every minute. A healthy and stable China-EU relationship also brings positive energy that illuminates the world. Amid major turbulence and transformation in the international situation, a steady stream of high-level European visits to China in recent months has sent a clear signal of deepening strategic communication and enhancing mutual understanding and trust. Both sides have reaffirmed their shared commitment to advancing world multipolarity and economic globalization, while continuing to collaborate on addressing climate change and safeguarding multilateralism, injecting positive momentum of openness, inclusiveness, and cooperation into a turbulent world. Though different in history and culture, social systems, and development stage, China and the EU have demonstrated that countries can bridge differences through dialogue and replace competition with cooperation for the common good of humanity. "What ultimately binds China and the EU is a shared vision for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world," said Zamir Ahmed Awan, a professor and founding chair of the Global Silk Road Research Alliance. In his view, the China-EU partnership serves as a pillar of global stability. The 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties marks not an endpoint, but a new beginning. The China-EU relationship now carries greater global expectations than ever. Both sides should draw on historical wisdom, deepen strategic communication, enhance mutual understanding and trust, and strengthen partnership, fulfilling their responsibility to the people, the world, and history. To that end, China and the EU should recalibrate mutual perceptions with strategic foresight, ensuring their relationship continues to move in a direction that contributes to peace and development worldwide. China has always regarded Europe as an important pole in a multipolar world. The China-EU relationship does not target any third party, nor should it be dependent on or dictated by any third party. China's deepening cooperation with the EU is not a matter of expediency, but a strategic choice grounded in shared interests and a commitment to forward-looking development. Europe, for its part, should uphold strategic autonomy, develop a more independent and objective perception of China's development, and focus on cooperation over confrontation, so as to ensure a healthy and stable China-EU relationship. China and the EU should approach their development blueprint with openness, forging greater consensus and pooling strength in building an open world economy. As two major economic players, China and the EU jointly make up over one-third of the world economy and more than a quarter of the global trade. At a time when protectionism threatens global recovery and undermines the foundations of development, the two sides should work together to uphold the multilateral trading system, ensure stable industrial and supply chains, and expand their mutually beneficial cooperation, thereby contributing to the long-term stability of the world economy. China and the EU should work together in upholding fairness and justice, playing a greater role in improving global governance. The world today stands at a crossroads between justice and hegemony, between the rule of law and the logic of power. In these uncertain times, China and the EU should remain on the right side of history, jointly oppose unilateral bullying and uphold international rules and order. This year, at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit held in France, China joined Europe and other countries in advocating stronger global AI governance. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, China and France issued a joint statement, reaffirming their commitment to international cooperation on climate change. These concerted efforts underscore the significance of China-EU cooperation in injecting positive momentum into global governance and addressing the common challenges of humanity. China and the EU should deepen mutual understanding through inclusive exchanges, injecting new vitality into exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations. Over 300 years ago, in his preface to his Novissima Sinica (Latest News from China), German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz saw China superior in ethics and the legal system while Europe was ahead in mathematics and warfare. He saw the opportunity of China and Europe embracing each other culturally and bringing benefit to the whole world. Today, as the world stands at another historical crossroads, China and the EU are well-positioned to lead the way in promoting inclusiveness among civilizations. Former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel noted that both Europe and China, as heirs to ancient traditions that shape human wisdom and morality, share a common vision for a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world. Thanks to more convenient visa policies and other facilitative measures, two-way travel and cultural exchanges between China and the EU are flourishing. The handshake between China and Europe across the vast Eurasian continent continues to write a vivid story of mutual learning and harmonious coexistence among civilizations. In a turbulent world, responsibility matters more than ever. As China and the EU join hands to tackle global challenges and promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, they will surely make even greater contributions to world peace, stability, development, and prosperity. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Pope Leo XIV updates Peruvian citizen registration with new Vatican address Last Updated: May 31, 2025, 02:15 IST Representational image (Image: News18) Lima, May 30 (AP) Pope Leo XIV hasnt forgotten his responsibilities as a Peruvian citizen: He updated his national registration information on Friday with his new Vatican address and a headshot. Perus national registry agency said in a statement that the pope updated his information as part of the South American countrys efforts to keep track of Peruvian citizens around the world. Recommended Stories Leo was born in the United States but received Peruvian citizenship a decade ago. Four Peruvian officials met the pope at the Vatican headquarters and collected his fingerprints and signature, according to the statement from the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status. Miguel Stigler, a public information officer with the registry, told The Associated Press that Leo indicated that he wished to pick up his updated identity document during a future trip to Peru. The popes travel plans to Peru are unknown. Leo was granted Peruvian citizenship in August 2015, the month before Pope Francis, his predecessor, appointed him bishop of Chiclayo, a city in the countrys north. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all To qualify, he had to live in Peru for at least two years and pass a civics test. All adult Peruvians, including naturalised citizens, are required to vote in elections through age 69. Voting in Perus presidential election next April wont be mandatory for Leo. He turns 70 in September. (AP) ARI First Published: May 31, 2025, 02:15 IST Three teenagers drown in Ganga river in UP's Ballia Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:45 IST Representational image (Image: News18) Ballia (UP), May 30 (PTI) Three boys drowned while bathing in the river Ganga in Uttar Pradeshs Ballia district, a police official said on Friday. Bairias Circle Officer Mohammad Faheem Quraishi told PTI that Vinay Gond, Sandeep Gond and Wasim of the Sawan Chhapra village left home on a bicycle on Thursday to attend tuition classes. On the way, they started bathing at the Ganga Ghat in the Jagdishpur village, during which all three drowned. Recommended Stories He said that the villagers informed the police about the incident, after which they started searching for the boys with the help of divers. The bodies of all three victims, aged 15-16 years, were found on the banks of the Ganga Ghat on Friday morning, he added. PTI COR NAV MNK MNK First Published: May 30, 2025, 10:45 IST Tripura govt orders probe into blast at under-construction tourist facility Last Updated: May 31, 2025, 00:30 IST Representational image (Image: News18) Agartala, May 30 (PTI) Tripura Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Friday ordered a probe into a blast at an under-construction tourist facility in Betlingchhip along the inter-state boundary with Mizoram. A group of unknown people reportedly hurled a low-intensity bomb and vandalised an under-construction eco-park and tourist amenities in North Tripura district early on Wednesday, official sources said. Recommended Stories Several construction works for tourism at Jampui Hill were damaged due to the bomb explosion. To know about the details, I held a meeting with the local MLA, district magistrate, SP and other senior officials," Chowdhury wrote on Facebook. I asked the officials to identify the accused through a proper investigation and ensure stringent punishment for their act," he added. North Tripura Superintendent of Police Avinesh Kumar Rai had on Thursday said the under-construction eco-park and cafeteria at Betlingchhip were damaged. A forensic team has gathered evidence from the spot, he added. Security was beefed up along the Tripura-Mizoram inter-state boundary after the low-intensity blast. Betlingchhip, the highest peak of Tripura, is located near the Phuldungsei village in Mizorams Mamit district. The area is also claimed by Mizoram. Construction of the tourist facility was put on hold by the Tripura government after Mizoram objected to it recently, officials said. Mizoram shares a 66-km-long border with Tripura. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Tensions recently flared along the interstate boundary after Mizorams civil society groups and students organisations opposed the construction of the facility. Condemning the incident, Mizorams apex students body, MZP, said it is being seen as a mischievous act" to put the blame on Mizos. PTI PS ACD First Published: May 31, 2025, 00:30 IST Suzlon Energy Skyrockets 14% As Q4 Profit Surges 365%, Hits Decade High; Buy Or Sell? Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 09:46 IST Suzlon shares soar 14% after the company's net profit for the quarter doubled on a year-on-year basis; Time to buy or book profits? Suzlon Energy Share Price Suzlon Share Price: Suzlon shares soar 14% after the companys net profit for the quarter doubled on a year-on-year basis, even after excluding a Rs 600 crore deferred tax credit that boosted the absolute bottom line. Suzlon Energys consolidated net profit for the quarter soared 365% year-on-year to Rs 1,181 crore, largely driven by an exceptional deferred tax gain of Rs 600 crore. This compares with a net profit of Rs 254 crore in the same quarter last year, according to an NSE filing. Recommended Stories For the full financial year 2024-25, Suzlon reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,072 crore, up from Rs 660 crore in the previous year. The companys revenue from operations jumped 73.2% year-on-year to Rs 3,773.5 crore in Q4 FY25, from Rs 2,179.2 crore a year earlier. Meanwhile, EBITDA nearly doubled, rising 99% to Rs 677 crore in the quarter compared to Rs 340.4 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA margin improved to 17.94%, up from 15.62% on a year-on-year basis. Brokerage firm Morgan Stanley remains overweight" on Suzlon Energy, with a price target of Rs 77 per share. Morgan Stanley cited faster commissioning of wind and hybrid projects, wind repowering opportunities, and green hydrogen-led turbine orders as upside risks to their estimates. On the downside, the brokerage flagged global players re-entering the Indian market, delays in transmission connectivity at wind sites, land and supply chain issues, and a potential weakening in net working capital days as key risks. Nuvama has a neutral" rating on the stock, with a price target of Rs 68, up from its previous target of Rs 61 but still implying downside from current levels. Nuvama said it remains long-term positive on Suzlon Energy and has tweaked its FY26FY27 earnings estimates to factor in 5-7% higher sales and an 8-15% increase in EBITDA, along with tax adjustments. Suzlon remains a key player in the Commercial & Industrial and PSU segments, and benefits from a duopolistic market in EPC and WTG capabilities. Out of the eight analysts tracking the stock, six have a buy" rating and two have a hold" rating with none suggesting a sell." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Shares of Suzlon Energy were trading 13.4% higher at Rs 74.2, nearing their 52-week high of Rs 86. Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The views and investment tips by experts in this News18.com report are their own and not those of the website or its management. Users are advised to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. About the Author Aparna Deb Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, economy, a... Read More Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, economy, a... 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 30, 2025, 09:46 IST I Just Want...: What Food Pharmer Told Nithin Kamath Over Offer To Help Broke Influencer Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:04 IST Revant Himatsingka thanked Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath for believing in him and extending help during a difficult time. Revant Himatsingka left his US job to create Food Pharmer. (Photo Credits: X) At a time when health influencers have been trending online, an individual came forward with a unique blend of humour and truth, creating ripples with his take on the food industry. Also known as Food Phamer, Revant Himatsingkas journey from a high-paying job to becoming a social media informant wasnt an easy one. After losing almost everything over quitting a Rs 2 crore LPA job to fight the practice of misleading food marketing in India, Revant got help from the most unexpected source. It was none other than Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath. Back in 2023, Revant left his high-paying US job to return to India and decided to expose the deceptive practices with his witty style. However, the decision came with some after-effectslegal notices, zero income and burnout. Taking to his X handle, Revant shared a long post, detailing the particular phase of his life and how the Zerodha co-founder came to his aid. When I was nearly broke, battling lawsuits, and questioning everythingNithin Kamath offered to help me out. I had quit my job in the US, wasnt doing food brand deals, and I had 8 legal notices. Thats when I met @Nithin0dha at an event in December 2023," he wrote. Recommended Stories When I was nearly broke, battling lawsuits, and questioning everythingNithin Kamath offered to help me out.I had quit my job in the US, wasnt doing food brands deals, and I had 8 legal notices. That's when I met @Nithin0dha at an event in December 2023. He told me Dont pic.twitter.com/Cfc5P6katE Revant Himatsingka Food Pharmer" (@foodpharmer2) May 29, 2025 He recalled Kamath advising him not to worry and even extending financial help if needed. I asked him, How much equity would you want if you help me?" He smiled and said, None. I dont want anything. I just want to support you." I was stunned. I wasnt a close friend. In fact, I had never met him before," Revant shared a part of their conversation. Noting that they werent close friends, Revant believed it was just the belief that he was doing the right thing. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In a world obsessed with ROI, here was someone who reminded me that true wealth is in character. I ended up not taking the money, as I want to try to create a sustainable source of income rather than relying on donations or contributions," he wrote towards the end, further expressing gratitude for Kamaths support and inspiration. Social media users quickly took to the comment section and shared their heartwarming reactions. Many appeared impressed with Kamaths supportive gesture. As of now, while FoodPharmer continues to lead his battle against misleading food marketing, he has not forgotten to appreciate a small gesture that gave him a renewed sense of purpose. 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. Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:59 IST 100 Days At Delhi's Helm: Rekha Gupta Draws The Line Between 'Visible' CM And A 'PR-Driven' One Reported By : CNN-News18 Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:00 IST Rekha Gupta has a clear mandate: to deliver what the Arvind Kejriwal government could not Rekha Gupta knows she cannot afford any missteps. File pic/PTI The first thing that strikes you about the new Delhi government under chief minister Rekha Gupta is the openness and accessibility of her office. This is in stark contrast to the Arvind Kejriwal years, during which entry was highly restricted unless permitted by the then-CM. There are numerous accounts of how crores were spent on upgrading his office, which very few people ever saw. The Bharatiya Janata Party has emphasised this difference in its battle for Delhi, claiming that, unlike the Kejriwal government, which the BJP accuses of secrecy and withholding information from the people, the Rekha Gupta administration promises to be transparent. Recommended Stories Rekha Gupta has a clear mandate: to deliver what the Kejriwal government could not. However, she has limited time to achieve this. Despite complaints from many Delhi BJP members about the citys decline since the Sheila Dikshit era, they are aware that the February 2025 election was won on Narendra Modis promise to serve the city well. Therefore, the BJP government needs to work diligently to meet expectations. From day one, the new CM, who has now completed 100 days in office, has taken a hands-on approach. The BJP aims to showcase her as a visible CM" in contrast to a PR-driven CM office". She has made unannounced visits to government-run schools to address water shortages, inspected streets to ensure potholes are filled, visited LNJP Hospital to guarantee immediate patient care and ICU admissions, and overseen the cleaning of the Yamuna River. Rekha Gupta knows she cannot afford any missteps. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Significantly, the CM received broad support across different voter bases, including the middle and lower classes. For instance, she opposed the demolition of slums and instead advocated for providing better amenities, arguing that slum dwellers should not be seen as burdensome. It is crucial for the Delhi government to deliver results quickly. As the national capital, Delhi is a pivotal battleground that the BJP won on the promise of a double-engine government", largely thanks to the PMs influence during the campaign. Rekha Gupta is aware that her challenge is to win over the hearts of Delhis residents within the next 100 days. About the Author Pallavi Ghosh Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als... Read More Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 07:00 IST From June 1, Take The BEST Way From Mumbais Mantralaya To Thanes Balkum: Know AC Bus Timings Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:27 IST The new AC bus route A 490 will travel via Eastern Freeway and Eastern Express Highway Several non-AC bus routes have been converted to AC. (PTI File) From June 1, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) will run a new AC bus service connecting Mantralaya in south Mumbai to Balkum in Thane during peak hours. BEST on Thursday announced the service as part of the 13 routes converted from non-AC to AC buses, and curtailment on a few other routes. Recommended Stories THE ROUTE: A 490 The new AC bus route A 490 will travel via Eastern Freeway and Eastern Express Highway, according to the Times of India. Timings: From Thane at 7.30 am and 8 am From Mantralaya: at 5.30 pm and 6 pm NON-AC TO AC Non-AC buses have been converted to AC on: Route A-8 from Mantralaya to Shivaji Nagar terminus Route 44 from Kalachowki to Worli Route 56 from Worli depot to Versova Yari Road with AC bus only on Sundays Route 125 from Navy Nagar to Worli depot top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all ROUTE CHANGES Route 241 converted to AC bus and will ply between Santacruz and Malvani instead of the earlier route of Mahim to Malvani depot. The existing AC bus route AC-10, running between Backbay Bus Depot and Rani Laxmibai Chowk, will be rerouted. Its current path via Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Chowk, Reserve Bank, and P. DMello Road to Dockyard Railway Station will be discontinued. Instead, the revised route will pass through Hutatma Chowk, Mahatma Phule Mandai, and Bhendi Bazar, according to The Free Press Journal. Additionally, Route 11 Ltd, which serves commuters between Navy Nagar and Bandra Colony Bus Station (East), will now travel via Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road between Byculla Station (East) and Parel, using the Lalbaug Flyover. As a result, the stops at Jijamata Udyan (Rani Baug), Jaihind Cinema, and Lalbaug will be cancelled. Route 25, which currently runs between Prabodhanakar Thackeray Udyan and Vihar Sarovar, will be renumbered as route 29, the FPJ reported. Other routes where AC buses will replace the non-AC from June 1 are route 243 from Malad station West to Jankalyan Nagar, 343 from Goregaon station East to Film City, 344 from Goregaon bus station East to Sankalp Society/Nagari Nivara Prakalp-4, 347 from Goregaon bus station East to Gokuldham, 452 from Goregaon bus station East to Mayur Nagar, 459 from Mulund railway station to Malvani depot, 602 from KanjurMarg to Hiranandani Powai, and 626 from Malad station West to Bhujale Talao. About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 15:06 IST ICAI CA September Exam 2025 Datesheet: Exam From Sept 3, Check Timetable Here Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 20:51 IST ICAI CA September Exam 2025: ICAI will conduct the exams from September 3 to 22 for CA Final, Intermediate, and Foundation courses. ICAI CA September Exam 2025: CA Final exam will commence on September 3, 2025. (Representative Image/ Getty) ICAI CA September Exam 2025 Timetable: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has released the exam schedule for the CA Foundation, Intermediate, and Final examinations to be held in September 2025. As per the official notification, the exams will begin on September 3, 2025, and continue till September 22, 2025. ICAI CA Final Exam Dates: Recommended Stories Group I exams will be conducted on 3rd, 6th, and 8th September 2025. Group II exams will be held on 10th, 12th, and 14th September 2025. ICAI CA Intermediate Exam Dates: Group I papers are scheduled for 4th, 7th, and 9th September 2025. Group II exams will take place on 11th, 13th, and 15th September 2025. ICAI CA Foundation Exam Dates: Exams for the Foundation course will be held on 16th, 18th, 20th, and 22nd September 2025. ICAI CA September Exam 2025 Timings and Duration: All exams will be held in the afternoon session starting at 2 PM IST. Foundation Papers 1 and 2 will be 3-hour exams, held from 2 PM to 5 PM. Foundation Papers 3 and 4 will be 2-hour exams, from 2 PM to 4 PM, and no advance reading time will be provided for these papers. Intermediate papers will all be conducted from 2 PM to 5 PM, with a 15-minute reading time starting at 1:45 PM. Final course papers 1 to 5 will follow the same 3-hour, 2 PM to 5 PM slot, with reading time. Paper 6 of the Final course will be a 4-hour paper, running from 2 PM to 6 PM. Important Points: No exam will be conducted on 5th September 2025 (Friday) due to Milad-un-Nabi, a gazetted holiday. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Even if any exam day is declared a public holiday later, the exams will be held as scheduled without change. In the case of composite papers (with both MCQ and descriptive sections), the MCQ question paper seal will be opened at 2 PM, and no advance reading time will be given for that section. About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 20:51 IST SSC GD Constable Result 2025 Date: When, Where, How To Check Merit List Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 19:31 IST SSC GD Constable Result 2025: SSC is expected to release the soon on ssc.gov.in. The exam was held from February 4 to 25, 2025. SSC GD Constable Result 2025: Qualified candidates will proceed to PET/PST and then the medical exam. (Representative Image/Getty) SSC GD Constable Result 2025 Date: The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is expected to release the SSC GD Constable Result 2025 soon on its official website ssc.gov.in. Candidates who appeared for the SSC GD Constable Exam 2025 are eagerly waiting for the announcement of the results, which will include the list of qualified candidates along with the cut-off marks. The SSC GD Constable 2025 examination was conducted in a computer-based format from February 4 to 25, 2025, at multiple centres across the country. The answer key for the written test (CBT 1) was released on March 4, 2025, and the window for raising objections remained open until March 9, 2025. Recommended Stories How To Check SSC GD Constable Result 2025? Candidates can follow these steps to access their results once they are declared: Step 1: Visit the official SSC website: ssc.gov.in. Step 2: Alternatively, visit the regional SSC website for your respective zone. Step 3: Click on the link for SSC GD Constable Result 2025" under the Constable-GD" section. Step 4: A PDF file will open, listing the roll numbers of qualified candidates and category-wise cut-off marks. Use the Ctrl + F function to search for your roll number in the list. Step 5: Download and save the PDF file for future reference. Once the results are announced, candidates who clear the CBT will proceed to the next phase of the selection process the Physical Efficiency Test (PET) and Physical Standard Test (PST). Those who qualify in PET/PST will then be shortlisted for the final stage the medical examination. SSC GD Constable 2025: Selection Process The recruitment process for SSC GD Constable posts comprises the following three stages: Computer-Based Test (CBT) Physical Efficiency Test / Physical Standard Test (PET/PST) Medical Examination top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Candidates must qualify each stage to be considered for final selection to various paramilitary and police forces under the central government. 53,690 posts will be filled through this recruitment drive in Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Assam Rifles, Special Security Force (SSF)and National Investigation Agency (NIA) About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 19:31 IST Top Engineering Colleges Accepting Students Without JEE Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 12:38 IST Top engineering colleges in India without JEE: Missed JEE? Dont worry! Explore top engineering colleges in India offering admissions without JEE Main or Advanced. Several top engineering colleges in India offer admissions without JEE. (Representational Image/Getty) Top engineering colleges in India without JEE: If youre aiming to study engineering in India but havent qualified JEE Main or JEE Advanced 2025, dont worry there are still several top-notch colleges you can apply to. While applications for some of them have already closed, students who are still preparing can consider these options for next year. Many reputed institutions offer admissions through their own entrance exams, state-level tests, or even based on Class 12 board marks. Heres a detailed guide to help you explore the best alternatives and make an informed decision for your engineering journey. Private Engineering Colleges Offering Alternative Admissions Recommended Stories Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani Admission Process: BITS Admission Test (BITSAT) Campuses: Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad Highlights: BITS Pilani is renowned for its academic excellence and research output. Admissions are based on BITSAT, which assesses candidates on Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The institute offers modern infrastructure, strong industry connections, and impressive placement opportunities. Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore Admission Process: VIT Engineering Entrance Examination (VITEEE) Campuses: Vellore, Chennai, Bhopal, Amaravati Highlights: VIT admits students through its own entrance test, VITEEE. It offers students excellent academic resources, a vibrant campus life, and extensive placement support. Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal Admission Process: Manipal Entrance Test (MET) Location: Manipal, Karnataka Highlights: MIT Manipal is known for its advanced facilities, research-oriented curriculum, and diverse student community. It conducts MET for B.Tech admissions, providing opportunities beyond JEE. SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai Admission Process: SRM Joint Engineering Entrance Examination (SRMJEEE) Campuses: Chennai, Amaravati, NCR, Sikkim Highlights: SRM University offers B.Tech programs through SRMJEEE. Its known for its interdisciplinary approach, tech-driven curriculum, and robust placement support. Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), Bhubaneswar Admission Process: KIIT Entrance Examination (KIITEE) Highlights: KIIT conducts its own exam (KIITEE) for B.Tech courses. The exam is held online and includes questions from Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Symbiosis Institute of Technology (SIT), Pune Admission Process: SIT Engineering Entrance Exam (SITEEE) Highlights: SIT admits students via its own entrance exam and offers a blend of technical education and industry exposure. Amity University, Noida Admission Process: Amity Joint Entrance Exam or Class 12 marks Highlights: Amity University provides flexibility in admissions through its entrance exam or merit-based criteria. It focuses on holistic education and industry readiness. ALSO READ: JEE Advanced 2025 Final Answer Key, Result Soon, Check Date & Time Here Government Engineering Colleges With State-Level Admissions College of Engineering, Anna University (CEAU), Guindy Admission Process: Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu Highlights: One of Indias oldest engineering institutions, CEAU admits students based on Class 12 marks through TNEA without an entrance exam. Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Mumbai Admission Process: Maharashtra Health and Technical Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET) Highlights: VJTI, established in 1887, is a premier institute with strong academic and placement records. Admissions are through MHT-CET. Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai Admission Process: MHT-CET and other state-level exams Highlights: ICT is highly regarded for chemical engineering and other specialisations, with admissions based on MHT-CET. Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU), Baroda Admission Process: Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GUJCET) Highlights: MSU offers a variety of engineering programs, and admission is granted through GUJCET. Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering (LDCE), Ahmedabad Admission Process: GUJCET Highlights: LDCE, founded in 1948, provides undergraduate and postgraduate programs across various engineering disciplines. Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering (SVUCE), Tirupati top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Admission Process: Andhra Pradesh EAMCET (AP EAMCET) Highlights: Established in 1959, SVUCE is accredited by NAAC with an A grade and is approved by AICTE. It offers various B.Tech courses and admits students via AP EAMCET. About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:20 IST Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On May 29, VOYAH, the premium new energy vehicle brand under Dongfeng Motor, signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Tsinghua University to conduct in-depth collaboration in the field of artificial intelligence. The partnership will span areas including intelligent connected vehicle technology, talent development, and commercialization of R&D outcomes, injecting new momentum into the evolution of the smart electric vehicle (EV) sector. Photo credit: VOYAH China's ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) market is currently shaped by three mainstream business models: full-stack suppliers, collaborative development between solution providers, and OEM-led in-house R&D. VOYAH pursues a "dual-track" strategy, combining close partnerships with external tech firms and the continuous enhancement of its internal R&D capabilities. Following the strong market response to the DREAM MPV's integration with Huawei technologies, VOYAH plans to deepen this partnership in 2025. Upcoming models such as the VOYAH FREE+ will be among the first to adopt Huawei's ADS 4 driver assistance system and HarmonySpace 5 solution. In parallel, VOYAH continues to invest in the development of its in-house Kunpeng driver assistance system. The latest collaboration with Tsinghua University is expected to extend across AI applications and the development of ADAS and intelligent connectivity technologies. The two parties also plan to jointly establish a technology R&D center to accelerate innovation in VOYAH's ADAS capabilities. As early as April, VOYAH unveiled its Tianyuan Smart Architecturean L3 driver assistancepowered by the Kunpeng system, which enhances large onboard models through data integration and analysis. With the new partnership with Tsinghua, VOYAH aims to build a comprehensive vehicle-road-cloud data system, further elevating its intelligent driving capabilities. The collaboration represents a strong synergy between academic research and industrial application, accelerating the translation of cutting-edge university research into scalable production technologies. Why Has PM Modi Picked Bikramganj For Bihar Rally? Answer Lies In NDAs 2020, 2024 Losses Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:53 IST In the 2020 assembly polls, NDA candidates could not win a single assembly seat in Jehanabad, Patliputra, Buxar and Karakat Lok Sabha constituencies of Shahabad & Magadh regions With just five months to go before the next election, BJP has put its best face forward---Narendra Modi---who is trying to woo the belt through a cocktail of nationalism and development of Bihar. (PTI) In a packed two-day itinerary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has picked Bihars Bikramganj for a public gathering on Friday where, alongside unveiling several development initiatives worth crores, BJPs biggest election mascot is expected to hail the success of Indias Operation Sindoor in the poll-bound state. But why did PM Modi pick Bikramganj in his first Bihar visit since the India-Pakistan conflict? BJP sources claim that after initial assessment, it was found that not just the past record of the assembly and Lok Sabha seat concerned have been unfavorable for the BJP, but there is an anti-incumbency in the entire Magadh-Shahbadh belt of Bihar which includes Bikramganj. This belt has been a speed breaker in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliances strides, both in the 2020 Bihar assembly poll and the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Recommended Stories In last years Lok Sabha election, the NDA lost 10 seats in Bihar. Seven of them belonged to this beltMagadh-Shahabadh. Bikramganj comes under Karakat assembly seat which BJP lost to (CPI(ML)L) in 2020. Arun Singh of the Communist Party of India (MarxistLeninist) Liberation secured 82,700 votes, defeating Rajeshwar Raj of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who received 64,511 votes. Had it been just about one seat, it wouldnt require the prime ministers attention. However, in the 2020 assembly elections, NDA candidates could not win even a single assembly seat in Jehanabad, Patliputra, Buxar and Karakat Lok Sabha constituencies of Shahabad and Magadh regions. Shahabad has four Lok Sabha seatsArrah, Sasaram, Karakat, Buxarand Magadh has four Lok Sabha seatsPatna, Aurangabad, Gaya, Jehanabad, Nawada. There are 55 assembly seats in the Shahabad-Magadh region of which NDA could win only 10 seats. Of these 10 seats, BJP won five, while the remaining were won by allies. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all With just five months to go before the next election, BJP has put its best face forwardNarendra Modiwho is trying to woo the belt through a cocktail of nationalism, riding high on the recent conflict with Pakistan, and development of Bihar. No wonder, large posters with just Modis face and slogans like Na Desh Jhukega, Na Bihar Ka Vikas Rukega" adorn every nook and corner, bypassing the traditional Sushasan Babu Nitish Kumars photo. PM Modi is all set to announce development projects for this belt to undo the anti-incumbency. He will lay the foundation stone and inaugurate schemes worth more than Rs 48,500 crore from Bikramganj, which is at the heart of the Magadh-Shahbadh belt. Patna-Gaya-Dobhi four lane, elevated road at Gopalganj, automatic block signalling till Anugraha Narayan Road in Sasaram are among many other projects through which the prime minister will try to win back the trust of voters in this area. About the Author Anindya Banerjee Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep throat in ... Read More Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep throat in ... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 07:48 IST Is Keralas Seafood Still Safe? What We Know After Cargo Vessel Sinks Off Coast Curated By : Trending Desk Edited By: Anurag Verma Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:57 IST The MSC ELSA 3 was carrying 13 hazardous containers, 12 containers of calcium carbide, 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil. Growing concerns linger over the potential threat to marine life and the seafood supply that sustains many in the region after a Liberian container vessel's sinking. (Image for representative purpose only) The sinking of the Liberian container vessel MSC ELSA 3 off the coast of Kochi, Kerala, on May 25 has raised alarms among local residents. The ship was carrying 640 containers, including 13 holding hazardous cargo. While authorities have assured that no spill has been reported so far, growing concerns linger over the potential threat to marine life and the seafood supply that sustains many in the region. The state government has declared the incident a state-specific disaster after taking into account the potentially serious environmental, social and economic impact, the Hindu reported. Recommended Stories As concerns grow, heres a quick explainer on what happened, how authorities are responding, and whether any impact has been observed on seafood in the region. What Happened To The MSC ELSA 3? The 28-year-old vessel was en route to Kochi from Vizhinjam port in Thiruvananthapuram when it capsized approximately 25 km southwest of Alappuzha on May 25. All 24 crew members onboard were safely rescued. The ship is owned by Cyprus-based MSC Shipmanagement. The Indian Coast Guards swift action" helped avoid a major oil spill from the capsized container ship, officials of the Directorate General of Shipping stated on Wednesday. What Was Onboard The MSC ELSA 3? Apart from 13 hazardous containers, the ship was carrying 12 containers of calcium carbide, 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil. Several containers from the ship have made landfall since it capsized, bringing plastic pellets, chemicals, and potentially hazardous materials to the shore. These can be mistaken for food by local marine life and can be difficult to clean up, as per News Minute. Officials have ruled out a major spill. However, Dr T.M. Balakrishnan Nair, the director of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), confirmed that there were traces of oil along the Alappuzha coast, Indian Express reported. Nair stated that authorities did not expect a massive oil slick" since most of the fuel was contained. Also Read: Heres How You Can Snap A Space Selfie From Your Home Earlier, a simulation by the agency indicated that if all the diesel and furnace oil from the ship were to leak into the sea, there was a high possibility that it would drift towards the Kerala coast. Clean Up Process The authorities have deployed clean-up vessels. Aerial surveillance is being conducted to track the spread of pollutants alongside the coast. A total of 108 personnel have been tasked with container recovery and cleanup onshore. The top priorities for the authorities include recovering the oil, removing containers that have washed up on beaches and retrieving the containers adrift at sea. They have set a deadline of July 3 for completing the oil recovery efforts. Is It Safe To Consume Seafood In The Region? As of right now, authorities have advised people that there is no reason to panic. The State Fisheries Department and the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) are actively monitoring the situation for any signs of contamination. Regular water sampling is underway, and authorities are closely tracking any signs of contamination. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all State Fisheries Minister Saji Cherian told the Indian Express, Nothing hazardous has so far landed along the coast and fish can be consumed without fear." CMFRI Director Dr Grinson George explained to Mathrubhumi News that there was no reason to avoid eating seafood presently, as fishing is currently banned in the immediate vicinity of the wreck. This means that fish from the affected area are not being sold in the market. He added that a clearer picture of the impact will emerge soon as analysis is underway. 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 30, 2025, 15:56 IST Why Is Moscow Pushing To Revive The Russia-India-China Troika Now? Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Karishma Jain Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:32 IST Moscow has renewed its call to revive the Russia-India-China trilateral, dormant since the 2020 Galwan clash. But its timing and what it stands to gain tell a bigger story Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Image: Reuters) THE BIG PICTURE For the first time since 2020, Russia has openly called for reviving the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral format. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at a security conference in Eurasia in the city of Perm on May 29, said the time has come" to restart RIC meetings, adding that, in his view, India and China have reached an understanding on easing border tensions. Recommended Stories I would like to confirm our genuine interest in the earliest resumption of the work within the format of the troika Russia, India, China which was established many years ago on the initiative of (ex-Russian prime minister) Yevgeny Primakov, and which has organised meetings more than 20 times at the ministerial level since then, not only at the level of foreign policy chiefs, but also the heads of other economic, trade and financial agencies of the three countries," Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS. Big Statement by Russian FM Sergey Lavrov says it seems to me that the time has come to revive this Russia, India & China Troika" pic.twitter.com/W3ULNlr8qw Siddhant Mishra (@siddhantvm) May 30, 2025 The RIC platform, originally launched in the late 1990s, has remained dormant since the deadly Galwan clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in June 2020. While Russia had hinted at trilateral engagement during the BRICS Summit in Kazan in 2024, Lavrovs latest pitch marks the most explicit call to formally revive the RIC mechanism since Galwan. Lavrovs renewed pitch signals much more than just a procedural revival it reflects Moscows shifting diplomatic calculus amid changing global alignments. So, why now? What is driving Russias push? And where does India fit into this strategic triangle? Heres a detailed look. WHAT IS THE RIC FORMAT? The RIC grouping was first proposed by former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov as part of Moscows vision for a multipolar world order. Over the years, it has convened more than 20 times at various levels, bringing together foreign ministers, trade officials, economic agencies, and security experts from the three Asian powers to foster dialogue on a range of issues. However, after the Galwan clash led to a sharp deterioration in India-China relations, the platform effectively went dormant. WHY IS RUSSIA PUSHING NOW? A Tentative Thaw Between India and China The primary obstacle to RICs functioning has always been India-China tensions. However, the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS Summit in Kazan (October 2024) marked a significant shift. The two leaders reached an understanding aimed at easing the border standoff along the Line of Actual Control, which had remained a major flashpoint since the 2020 Galwan clash. The widely circulated handshake between Modi and Xi was also seen as a public signal of improving ties. Russia sees this tentative easing of tensions as an opening to revive RIC, hoping that both Delhi and Beijing may now be more receptive to moderated dialogue under Moscows watch. Russias Growing Anxiety Over Indias Western Alignment Since Galwan, India has steadily deepened its ties with the United States, Japan, Australia particularly through the Quad as well as newer groupings like I2U2 and multiple Western defence partnerships. This growing alignment with Western powers, especially in defence, technology, and supply chain domains, has deepened Moscows anxieties about India drifting further into the Western camp. For Russia, reviving RIC offers a way to keep India engaged within a non-Western multilateral space, while allowing Moscow to retain its role as a balancing player between its two key Asian partners. The NATO Factor: A Direct Warning Lavrov directly accused NATO of attempting to lure India into anti-China intrigues", describing it as a large provocation" that India is fully aware of. This is one of Russias clearest acknowledgements of how it views NATOs expanding interest in the Indo-Pacific region and Indias growing engagement with Western security groupings. Through RIC, Moscow is signalling its desire to keep India engaged in Eurasian multilateralism and prevent it from being drawn too deeply into the US-China competition. Russias Post-Ukraine Diplomatic Rebalancing The Ukraine war and sweeping Western sanctions have pushed Russia to deepen its engagement across Asia. However, as Moscows economic and diplomatic dependence on China has grown, so too have its long-term strategic concerns about being overly reliant on Beijing. By seeking to revive RIC, Russia is attempting to balance its Asian partnerships, maintain diplomatic space with India, and continue projecting itself as an independent power centre within the evolving Eurasian order. Preserving Relevance in Asian Geopolitics With Indias growing global profile and Chinas rise, Russia risks being increasingly sidelined in Asias strategic balance. The revival of RIC allows Moscow to project continued relevance as a power capable of influencing dialogue between Asias two major players. It also aligns with Russias broader vision of strengthening non-Western institutions that can serve as alternatives to Western-led alliances. WHATS AT STAKE FOR INDIA? For India, this renewed Russian pitch presents both opportunities and challenges. While New Delhi maintains strong historical ties with Moscow, deep distrust persists with China due to unresolved border disputes. Indias foreign policy rests on its ability to maintain strategic autonomy, avoiding being locked into any single camp, whether Western or non-Western. If RIC discussions are revived, India could engage while continuing to maintain its partnerships with the United States, Quad members, and other emerging alliances. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all THE BOTTOM LINE Lavrovs call to revive RIC is about more than simply restarting old meetings. It reflects Russias broader effort to navigate shifting global alignments, counterbalance growing Western influence in Asia, and reassert its diplomatic weight as a Eurasian power broker. For India, the revival of RIC is another test of its ability to walk the tightrope between multiple global partnerships, unresolved regional tensions, and its long-standing pursuit of strategic autonomy. 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 30, 2025, 15:25 IST 2C Global Temperature Rise Could Melt 75% of Hindu Kush Himalayan Glaciers: Report Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 18:57 IST The study highlights that limiting global warming to 1.5C, as per the 2015 Paris Agreement, could help preserve glacier ice across all Himalayan regions The Hindu Kush Himalayas could lose nearly all ice, leaving just 10-15% of 2020 levels intact. (Representative/AP) A new scientific study warns that a 2C rise in global temperature could melt up to 75% of the Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers by the centurys end. These glaciers feed rivers that sustain nearly two billion people. Published in the journal Science, the study underscores the grave impact of climate change on one of the worlds most vital water sources. The study indicates that if countries manage to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, 40-45 percent of the ice in the glaciers of the Himalayas and the Caucasus Mountains could be preserved. Conversely, if the global temperature rises by 2.7 degrees Celsius by the centurys end, only one-fourth of the worlds glacier ice would remain. Recommended Stories The study further highlights that the most significant glacier regions for human communities, such as the European Alps, the mountain ranges of the western US and Canada, and Iceland, would be severely affected. At a two degrees Celsius increase, these regions could lose almost all their ice, with only 10-15 percent remaining at 2020 levels. The Scandinavian mountains face an even graver threat, as no ice would be left on their glaciers at this temperature level. The study underscores that adhering to the 1.5 degree Celsius target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement would help preserve some glacier ice across all regions. The melting of glaciers poses a significant risk of submerging the worlds plains. In response to this pressing issue, world leaders are gathering in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, for the first United Nations Conference on Glaciers starting on Friday. More than 50 countries are participating, including ministerial or high-level officials from 30 countries. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Asian Development Bank Vice President Yingming Yang stated in Dushanbe, Melting glaciers are threatening life on an unprecedented scale, impacting the livelihoods of more than two billion people in Asia. Adopting clean energy to reduce emissions that warm the planet is the most effective way to slow the melting of glaciers." Dr. Harry Jekolaari, co-lead author of the study at Vrije University Brussel, emphasised, Our study has made it clear that even a slight increase in temperature matters. The choices we make today will have an impact for centuries and will determine how much of our glaciers can be preserved." First Published: May 30, 2025, 18:57 IST BSF Women Personnel Defended Border During Operation Sindoor, Sent Enemy Running Amid Shelling Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 17:52 IST During the operation, women personnel of Border Security Force (BSF) were deployed at the border, BSF Inspector General Abhishek Pathak said. Seven BSF women, headed by Assistant Commandant, Neha Bhandari, defended the forward posts in Jammu and Kashmirs Akhnoor sector. (File image) In early hours of May 7, Indian Defence Forces launched precision strikes at nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor" in response to the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack which claimed 26 lives. During the operation, women personnel of Border Security Force (BSF) were deployed at the border, BSF Inspector General Abhishek Pathak said. Recommended Stories While addressing a press conference in Gujarats Gandhinagar, General Pathak said, There are more than 800 women BSF personnel in Gujarat. During the entire operation, all the women BSF personnel were deployed at the border. I want to mention Assistant Commandants Amandeep and Niti Yadav, both women Assistant Commandants, who led their companies in the most challenging creek area as company commandants" #WATCH | #OperationSindoor | Gandhinagar: IG, BSF Gujarat, Abhishek Pathak says, There are more than 800 women BSF personnel in Gujarat. During the entire operation, all the women BSF personnel were deployed at the border. I want to mention Assistant Commandants Amandeep and pic.twitter.com/Vdn0hzCYfN ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Notably, seven women officers of the BSF contributed to the success of Operation Sindoor after they fearlessly defended India at the international border in Jammu and Kashmirs Akhnoor. For three long days and nights, as an infuriated Pakistan retaliated to Indias Operation Sindoor, the seven women team, led Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari, stayed put, defended their posts, and made the enemy retreat. Assistant Commandant Bhandari, who was leading the team, joined the BSF about three years ago. Bhandari is the first woman officer to be posted on the frontline since the Army is yet to utilise female officers for such roles. The team of women officers, called Seema Praharis", defended their posts until the enemy stepped back from their locations. Apart from Bhandari, six women constables held a gun position on a forward border post, with their josh rising with every bullet they fired at enemy positions across the IB in Samba-R S Pura-Akhnoor sectors. Honoring courage. Celebrating heroes. Their bravery inspires us all.Saluting those who stood tall when it mattered most.Their valour fuels our future.#JaiHind #BSF #OperationSindoor https://t.co/fIKvuxhmnj pic.twitter.com/3sKxPuJ9g2 BSF (@BSF_India) May 30, 2025 Of the six women who engaged in direct firing, four had joined the force as recently as 2023, while two brought nearly two decades of experience. Veterans Manjit Kour and Malkit Kour from Punjab led two crucial positionsan observation post and a bunker. For the others, Swapna Rath and Shampa Basak of West Bengal, Sumi Xess from Jharkhand, and Jyoti Banian from Odisha, it was a new challenge. Having joined the BSF as recently as 2023, they now found themselves in a high-stakes, near-combat setting. Bhandari, a third-generation officer from her family in Uttarakhand, took pride in being part of the BSF and commanding a border outpost in the Pargwal forward area of the Akhnoor sector in the Jammu district during Operation Sindoor. I feel proud to be manning a post along the International Border with my troops. It is approximately 150 meters away from the Pakistani post in the Akhnoor-Pargwal area," Neha told news agency PTI. During the operation, the women personnel manned critical positions, delivering heavy retaliatory fire on Pakistani locations in adjoining Sialkot. I had three posts falling in my area. I pinned down the people at all three hostile locations. We hit them with every weapon we had. They were forced to flee their posts," Bhandari told the news agency. The operation spanned three days and three nights, ending only after sustained fire from the BSF forced the Pakistani forces to retreat from their forward locations. Praising the role of women in combat at forward posts and their engagement in firing on Pakistani posts, Inspector General of BSF Shashank Anand had said, BSF women personnel played an outstanding role in this operation. Although they had the option to move to the battalion headquarters, they chose to stay at forward posts with their male counterparts and responded strongly to Pakistan." Anand said that BSF women personnel, including Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari, had shown exemplary courage by manning forward posts and engaging enemy positions near the IB. Women BSF soldiers played a crucial role in this operation and stood at the front lines to protect the countrys sovereignty and borders," he said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Under Operation Sindoor, the BSF retaliated with full force striking back at 76 Pakistani border outposts and 42 forward defence locations. (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 30, 2025, 17:52 IST Aircraft Overturns While Landing At Air Strip In MP's Seoni, Woman Pilot Safe Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 19:55 IST A trainee woman pilot survived a faulty landing that caused her aircraft to overturn at Suktara air strip in Seoni, MP. She escaped without major injuries. ANI photo used for representational purpose only A trainee woman pilot had a miraculous escape after the aircraft she was flying overturned due to faulty landing at Suktara air strip in Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh on Friday morning. News agency PTI reported the trainee pilot was safe as she did not suffer any major injuries. Recommended Stories PTI, citing police, reported the aircraft flipped over due to a faulty landing. The airstrip is located 22 km from the Seoni district headquarters. The airstrip is managed by the Madya Pradesh Public Works Department. According to District collector Sanskriti Jain, the concerned department has been asked to conduct an inquiry, after which the exact cause of the accident will become known. Fortunately, nobody else apart from pilot was on board the aircraft when the incident took place. As per media reports, the aircraft belongs to Redbird Aviation Pvt. Ltd. and was being operated by the trainee during a routine training session. This comes a few weeks after a similar incident was reported in Uttar Pradesh. A trainee aircraft had suddenly crashed while taking off from Dhanipur airstrip in Aligarh in May. This incident took place when the plane hit the airport wall. The plane was being flown by a trainee pilot who narrowly escaped. Earlier on April 22, a trainer aircraft had crashed in a residential area of Amreli district in Gujarat, claiming a trainee pilots life. The unfortunate incident involved an aircraft belonging to a private aviation academy. In that crash, the pilot, who was flying solo, had taken off from Amreli airport before the tragedy unfolded. The pilot had died on the spot when the plane crashed and went up in flames. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Similarly, a training aircraft had crashed at MPs Guna Airport on in March 2024. A female pilot had sustained severe injuries. It was learnt that the plane had taken off from Sagar and had sought permission for emergency landing at Guna airport. The aircraft lost its balance while touching down and sped ahead of the runway towards Gopalpura. 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 : Seoni, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 19:23 IST Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: Uttarakhand Court Sentences Resort Owner, 2 Others To Life Imprisonment Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 16:42 IST Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankit Gupta were found guilty of the 2022 murder of Ankita Bhandari by court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Protests in support for justice for Ankita Bhandari (Social Media) Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: An Uttarakhand court on Friday convicted three persons accused in the murder case of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari in 2022, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The three accused, Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankit Gupta, were found guilty of the charges against them in the case in the Additional District and Sessions Judge Court in Kotdwar. Recommended Stories As the court pronounced the judgment, it also imposed fines on the three accused under various sections. It also announced Rs 4 lakh in compensation to Ankita Bhandaris family. The case pertains to Ankita, whose body was recovered from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh on September 24, 2022. She was reported missing for at least six days before the officials found her body. Ankita Bhandari worked as a receptionist at a resort run by Pulkit Arya, the son of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinod Arya. Pulkit Arya was arrested for allegedly pushing her into the canal following an altercation. Two more people Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar, were also arrested in the case. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all On December 4, the Uttarakhand Police said that the investigation into the Ankita Bhandari murder case was nearly complete, with just the narco tests of the accused remaining. Earlier, the three accused had refused to undergo narco and polygraph tests, citing that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) did not explain why it wanted to conduct narco and polygraph tests after filing the charge sheet. About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. First Published: May 30, 2025, 11:38 IST BJP Planning To Distribute Sindoor On Modi Govt's Anniversary? PIB Fact-Checks Viral Claim Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 22:18 IST Before the PIBs fact-check, the BJP had already dismissed as fake news a report claiming that the party plans to distribute vermilion to women to mark governments anniversary. BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul participates in Tiranga Yatra in Kolkata | PTI Image The Press Information Bureaus fact-check unit on Friday dismissed reports claiming that the BJP planned to distribute vermilion (sindoor) to women as part of a nationwide campaign to mark the Modi governments anniversary. The false report emerged after the BJP announced an outreach campaignscheduled to start on June 9, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath for his third termto highlight the partys achievements over the past 11 years. Recommended Stories Some social media posts and media reports are claiming various decisions to mark the anniversary of Modi 3.0. The claim is fake," the PIB said in an X post. Some social media posts and media reports are claiming of various decisions to mark anniversary of Modi 3.0#PIBFactCheck:This claim is #Fake Rely only on official sources for accurate information pic.twitter.com/e6sYqSY2ii PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 30, 2025 While the party has not officially disclosed its full plans, it has indicated that the month-long campaign will feature BJP leaders, including Union ministers and MPs, undertaking padyatras" to showcase achievements such as Operation Sindoor and the governments stance on the caste census, among others. BJP Trashes Claim Ahead of PIBs fact-check, the BJP itself rejected as fake news a media report that claimed the ruling party planned to distribute vermilion among women to mark the governments anniversary. Sambit Patra, the BJP MP from Puri, rejected media reports as fake news" that the ruling BJP planned to distribute vermilion (sindoor) among women to mark the Narendra Modi governments anniversary. He accused opposition parties, which had cited the report to slam the BJP for politicising Operation Sindoor, of spreading this propaganda to belittle Indias military action against Pakistan and terror sites there. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had slammed the Modi government on Thursday after the prime minister launched a sharp political attack on her government. Referring to the fake report, she said, Please remember, every woman has respect, they accept sindoor only from her husband The way you are talking you are not the husband of everybody; why are you not giving sindoor to your Mrs first?" First Published: May 30, 2025, 22:18 IST Bomb Threat To Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini's Residence, Office Triggers Security Alert Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 17:08 IST The Chief Ministers residence, Sant Kabir Kutir, and the secretariat are located in Chandigarh. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. (File) A threatening email, reportedly warning of a potential suicide attack was sent to the Haryana civil secretariat building and Chief Minister Nayab Sainis official residence on Friday. Information was received at around 3:15 pm that there could be a bomb in the office building. The alert about the bomb threat was sounded by the Haryana CID. The CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) and police implement urgent and appropriate measures and evacuated both the premises. Recommended Stories The Haryana civil secretariat has been evacuated. Announcements were made by the CISF and Chandigarh police personnel asking those inside to come out," said Chandigarh Deputy Superintendent of Police Udaypal Singh. The bomb disposal squad, fire brigade, ambulance, quick reaction teams and the dog squad reached the secretariat premises in the high security area as soon as police were alerted, and security was heightened at both the locations. A search operation is underway with bomb and dog squads scanning the building and surrounding areas. The Chief Ministers residence, Sant Kabir Kutir, and the secretariat are located in Chandigarh. Earlier today, a threatening message, reportedly warning of a potential suicide attack involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs), was sent to the Secretary of Heavy Industries, targeting the Udyog Bhawan premises on Friday. Following the alert, the Ministry directed the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to implement urgent and appropriate measures, including the evacuation of the premises. This threat comes two days after authorities at Swasthya Bhawan, the headquarters of the West Bengal health department, received an email on Tuesday threatening to bomb the building. This was the second such threat in two consecutive days. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Last week, on May 22, the Punjab and Haryana High Court received a similar bomb threat email, prompting the Chandigarh Police to get the court premises evacuated for a brief period. However, it later turned out to be a hoax. (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 : Chandigarh, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 17:08 IST 'BrahMos Gave Sleepless Nights To Pakistan': PM Modis Stern Reply To Shehbaz Sharif Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 18:00 IST PM Modi's remarks about the BrahMos missile came in response to Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharifs recent confirmation that Indian missiles had struck multiple targets in his country Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Adampur air base. (Image/X) A day after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif admitted that Indias BrahMos missiles hit their targets before Pakistan could respond on the morning of May 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that the supersonic cruise missiles had left the neighbouring country sleepless. In Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur to launch development projects worth nearly Rs 50,000 crore, PM Modi praised the Indian military for the success of Operation Sindoor, saying that India destroyed terror dens deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Recommended Stories We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the war," said PM Modi, adding that BrahMos had given the Pakistan Army sleepless nights". #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, " We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the warI want to tell enemies who begged us to stop pic.twitter.com/jqEQga4vgR ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 The Prime Ministers remarks about the BrahMos missile came in response to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs recent confirmation that Indian missiles had struck multiple targets within Pakistan on the nights of May 9 and 10. Speaking in Azerbaijan, Sharif acknowledged that the barragewhich included BrahMos missilescaught the Pakistani military off-guard. He also revealed that Pakistan had been preparing a strike just before the Indian missiles hit. Earlier this month, Sharif admitted that Indian missiles, including the BrahMos, had targeted key locations such as Pakistans Nur Khan air base and other strategic sites in the early hours of May 10. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all These missile strikes were reportedly part of Indias Operation Sindoor, a retaliatory response launched against the drone and missile attacks by Pakistan on the night of May 7. Those Pakistani strikes had followed Indias precision targeting of nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including Lashkar-e-Taibas headquarters. About the Author Ronit Singh Ronit Singh, Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking News team. He has a keen focus on Indian politics and aims to cover unexplored angles. Ronit is an alumnus of Christ (Deemed to be... Read More Ronit Singh, Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking News team. He has a keen focus on Indian politics and aims to cover unexplored angles. Ronit is an alumnus of Christ (Deemed to be... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 17:58 IST Shanghai (Gasgoo)- CATL announced on May 30 via its WeChat account that it has recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company ("Dongfeng Nissan") in Shanghai. The two parties will establish comprehensive, end-to-end collaboration across battery technology R&D, product innovation, and market expansion, while exploring a new integrated model for joint development, production, and marketing. Photo credit: CATL Under the agreement, CATL will prioritize the application of its cutting-edge technologiesincluding ultra-fast charging solutions, the CIIC (CATL Integrated Intelligent Chassis), and 800V high-voltage platformsin upcoming Dongfeng Nissan models. By 2026, several new models equipped with co-developed battery systems are expected to enter the market, offering consumers a broader selection of high-quality new energy vehicle (NEV) options. The two companies will also continue to explore innovative business models and jointly promote breakthroughs in new energy vehicle (NEV) technologies and product upgrades, accelerating the widespread adoption of NEVs. In a related development, CATL signed a memorandum of enhanced cooperation with Honda Motor China Technology Co., Ltd. (Honda China) in mid-May. Building on their existing partnership, the two sides will intensify collaboration in new technology R&D and supply chain management, aiming to fuel product innovation and elevate the user experience. Key areas of focus for this deeper collaboration include lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, Cell-to-Body (CTB) integration, supply chain optimization, and the development of 12V and hybrid power batteries. CATL and Honda China will also continue to explore new business cooperation models, supporting the broader upgrade of the NEV industry. Centre Announced Ceasefire Without Consulting Armed Forces: Himachal CM Sukhu Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 23:13 IST Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that the valour of the soldiers of Himachal Pradesh was unmatched. Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (PTI File Photo) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Friday alleged that the Central government declared a ceasefire with Pakistan without taking the three armed forces into confidence and said the "announcement came through social media from a third country". "The Union government declared a ceasefire without taking the three armed forces into confidence and shockingly, the announcement came through social media from a third country," he said addressing the Jai Hind Sabha here. Recommended Stories The chief minister said this is in stark contrast to the decisive leadership of former prime minister late Indira Gandhi, who never compromised with national security. Recalling the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, Sukhu said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was the first to offer unconditional support to the Union government in the fight against terrorism, a statement issued here said. "Our brave soldiers gave a befitting reply to the terrorists," said Sukhu and paid heartfelt tributes to the brave soldiers of Himachal Pradesh and the nation. The Himachal Pradesh government and people of the state have always stood with the Indian armed forces, he added. India carried out precision strikes under Operation Sindoor on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the early hours of May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack the 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. Sharing a recent experience, the chief minister mentioned his recent visit to Sharchi village in Tirthan Valley, where he stayed at the home of former soldier Subedar Major Anoop Ram. "Anoop Kumar discussed with me about the 1971 India-Pakistan war and recalled how the address of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi instilled patriotic zeal and boosted the morale of the Indian Army. The outcome of that war was historic and India split Pakistan into two, and Shimla later became witness to the landmark Simla Agreement," he said. The Simla Agreement was a peace treaty signed between India and Pakistan on July 2, 1972 in Shimla. It followed the India-Pakistan war of 1971. Sukhu said that the valour of the soldiers of Himachal Pradesh was unmatched. "Our soldiers never hesitated to sacrifice their lives for the nation. Himachali soldiers have the honour of being decorated with four Param Vir Chakras, which is a testament to the states legacy of courage and sacrifice," he added. Meanwhile, Congress MP Ajay Maken said that several surgical strikes were carried in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014, and Pakistan was taught a lesson, but his party never politicised it as the credit goes to the Indian armed forces. It is always the brave soldiers, who sacrifice their lives for the nation, but the Congress never boasted of it or took credit, he added. MP Rajni Patil, the Congress in-charge for Himachal Pradesh, said that senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have given instructions to organise Jai Hind Sabha. The valour of the Indian Army is being honored through these meetings, she added. The Congress leader said that the entire nation stood with the army and the Centre in the fight against terrorism, but it was "unfortunate" that the ceasefire was announced by a third country. State Congress chief Pratibha Singh echoed similar sentiments and said that the party has decided to organise such programs at the district level as well. The kin of martyrs, soldiers and various gallantry award recipients, who have made the supreme sacrifice for the country, were also honoured on the occasion. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The chief minister presented a cheque of Rs 30 lakh to the kin of martyr Subedar Major Pawan, who died in shelling by the Pakistan Army in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch on May 10. The cheque was received by his father Garaj Singh and son Abhishek. Location : Shimla, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 23:13 IST 'Disgraceful': Congress To File Complaint Over BJP MLA's Remarks On Armed Forces, Op Sindoor Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 16:41 IST RS Pathania, BJP MLA from Udhampur East, denied allegations of making disparaging remarks about the Indian Air Force, claiming the video showing the comments was "morphed." BJP MLA R S Pathania | File Image The Congress party on Friday announced plans to file a legal complaint against a Jammu and Kashmir BJP MLA for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Indian Armed Forces and Operation Sindoor. RS Pathania, MLA from Udhampur East, denied allegations of making disparaging remarks about the Indian Air Force, claiming the video showing the comments was morphed." Recommended Stories Disgraceful and unacceptable. BJP MLA Ranbir Pathania has insulted our armed forces by questioning their integrity during Operation Sindoor, saying they were sleeping" and calling them incompetent", said Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain in an X post. Disgraceful & unacceptable! @BJP4India MLA Ranbir Pathania has insulted our armed forces by questioning their integrity during Operation Sindoor, saying they were sleeping" & calling them incompetent".Such vile remarks are an insult to every soldier who risks their life for pic.twitter.com/0hVseJFyd0 Dr Syed Naseer Hussain,MP Rajya Sabha (@NasirHussainINC) May 29, 2025 Such vile remarks are an insult to every soldier who risks their life for the nation. This isnt an isolated case, BJP leaders have previously made similar offensive comments. Yet BJP remains silent," he added. The Congress MP demanded that the party must publicly apologise and immediately remove the MLA from his post, adding that if the BJP fails to take action, it would indicate that these remarks reflect the partys collective mindset." Pathania Stokes Row The controversy erupted after a nine-second video clip surfaced on social media in which Pathania purportedly criticised the IAFs role during Operation Sindoor, allegedly calling out their competence. The clip led to sharp reactions, including condemnation from the J-K Congress, which termed the remarks disrespectful and demanded an apology. During Operation Sindoor, everyone remembers what happened at the Air Force station. Either it was the fault of the incompetent ones, or these people must have been asleep." We were not at fault. We had placed them here with great respect, as if on our eyelids," Pathania is purportedly heard saying in the clip. Reacting to the backlash, Pathania released a video statement, asserting, I have not said anything against the armed forces. The clip is edited and morphed. Our legal team has taken action and filed an FIR against those responsible for spreading this misinformation." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Pathania reaffirmed his support for the armed forces, stating, Bharat Mata ki Jai. Armed Forces ki Jai. Indian Air Force ki Jai. We are proud of our forces." BJP state president Sat Sharma backed Pathania, stating that his remarks were being misconstrued. I have spoken to Pathania ji. An FIR has already been registered in this regard," he told reporters. Location : Srinagar, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 16:41 IST 'Gave Befitting Reply Given To Terrorists On Behalf Of Crores Of Indians': Amit Shah In Poonch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 14:47 IST The minister said India had sent a message that it will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians and every attack will be responded to with more precision and accuracy Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Poonch. (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said India had sent a message" that it will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians as he visited Poonch to meet families affected by the recent Pakistani shelling and distributed appointment letters to the next of kin of civilians killed during the attacks. Addressing the gathering, Shah called out Pakistans actions, saying: Pakistan targeted the civilian areas in J&K, and Poonch suffered the most damage. For the first time, firing was done on Poonch post-Independence. The entire world is condemning the attack by Pakistan. The Indian Armed Forces gave a befitting reply by destroying nine Pakistani air bases, and as a result, they had to come forward for a ceasefire." Recommended Stories The minister said on the night of May 7, the Indian armed forces conducted a decisive operation, destroying terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). #WATCH | Poonch | Union Home Minister Amit Shah says, "We have sent a message that India will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians, Indian Armed Forces and every attack will be responded to with more precision and accuracy" pic.twitter.com/fhyBVzASOb ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Calling it a befitting reply" to terrorists on behalf of Indias citizens, resulting in the elimination of hundreds of terrorists, Shah said: On the night of May 7, we destroyed the terrorist sites in Pakistan and PoK. This was a befitting reply given to terrorists on behalf of the crores of IndiansHundreds of terrorists were killed in the operation. We launched an attack on terrorists, but Pakistan considered it an attack on itself. They showed the world that they are the ones who are sheltering terrorists." He added, We have sent a message that India will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians. Every attack will be responded to with more precision and accuracy." Shah also visited the Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Poonch, which was damaged during Pakistans cross-border shelling. During the visit, Shah offered prayers at the Gurdwara and interacted with families affected by the shelling. During his visit, the home minister interacted with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in Khanetar, lauding them for Operation Sindoor, and reviewed the security situation ahead of the Amarnath Yatra. Shahs visit came after unprovoked Pakistani shelling in the civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir post Operation Sindoor, which was conducted on May 7. The operation was conducted in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, including a Nepali national. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In the early hours of May 7, the Indian Armed Forces conducted strikes at nine terror hideouts in the deep areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. (With ANI 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 : Jammu and Kashmir, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 14:31 IST Google, Starlink To Boost Indias Digital Infrastructure? Exclusive From Govt Sources Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 20:35 IST News18 has exclusively accessed the Centres approval letter to Starlink. News18 spoke to senior government sources on what the developments could mean for India Google data centre will boost India's image, say government sources. (File) Indias digital infrastructure is set to get a boost. While Google plans to set up a key data centre in India, Starlink has received a licence authorisation for its services in the country. News18 has exclusively accessed the Centres approval letter to Starlink. News18 spoke to senior government sources on what this could mean for India. Recommended Stories Any Internet connectivity is good. Look at the amount of data India consumes. In such a scenario, a Google data centre could easily improve services and reduce the costing, which is great news," sources said. Apart from costing and connectivity, such a move would also boost Indias global image as an international digital hub. The improvement in global sentiment always works in favour of the country," said sources. Mumbai, Kochi and Chennai have cable landing centres. The move would reinforce Indias role as a key market for Googles AI and cloud growth strategy. Data centre will need land. Cables in Mumbai and Kochi would be key to provide services to South Asia." However, sources said the licensing provisions need to be thrashed out. Security should be taken into consideration. India could put a cap in case of cyber attack or a clause seeking cooperation." Earlier, reports had stated that Google was reportedly close to acquiring a 22.5-acre plot in Navi Mumbai to develop its first self-built data centre in the country. This expansion had come in the wake of Google strengthening its commitment to supporting the rapid adoption of AI and cloud technologies in India. STARLINKS LOI top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The LoI granted: Unified License with authorizations for VSAT(National Area), ISP A(National Area) and GMPCS (National Area) on non-exclusive basis subject to the guidelines of Unified License dated 17.01.2022 and as amended from time to time". The Letter of Intent (Lol) is being issued based on the information/certificate submitted by your application ID UL20221041 dated 08.02.2024 and UL 20210651 dated 14.10.2022 with the condition that at a later date if the information/certificate is found wrong or misleading, the license shall be liable to be terminated. Further, if the information/ certificate/ undertaking being submitted by the company along with the compliance of the Lol, is found wrong or misleading at a later date, then also, the license shall be liable to be terminated or any other action as deemed fit by the licensor," it said. About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 First Published: May 30, 2025, 20:35 IST HAL Receives First Centre Fuselage For LCA Tejas Mk 1A Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 22:32 IST This marks the first time a major sub-assembly for the LCA Tejas has been manufactured by a private Indian company, the Ministry of Defence said in a release on Friday. The 1st centre fuselage for Tejas Mk1A was handed over to HAL | Image/X VEM Technologies, a Hyderabad-based firm, handed over the first centre fuselage assembly for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1A to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on May 30, marking a significant boost to Indias indigenous defence manufacturing capabilities. This marks the first time a major sub-assembly for the LCA Tejas has been manufactured by a private Indian company, the Ministry of Defence said in a release on Friday. Recommended Stories The handover took place in the presence of Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar and Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of HAL, Dr DK Sunil. Speaking on the occasion, Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar hailed the partnership between HAL and VEM Technologies for accelerating the production of LCA Mk 1A. He said that defence production and exports are growing significantly, at about 10 per cent annually. This would not have been possible without the support of industries and Public Sector Units like HAL. The countrys security and sovereignty are paramount and cannot be achieved without its own manufacturing and supply of spare parts, which could meet the requirements of the Armed Forces. CMD, HAL, acknowledged the rapid growth of Tier 1 and MSME suppliers in the production of the LCA Tejas. The handover marked a significant milestone in establishing a fourth production line for the LCA Mk1A, in addition to the two existing lines in HAL-Bengaluru and one in HAL-Nashik. He assured that with major sub-assemblies underway, HAL will increase the production of the LCA aircraft and ensure timely deliveries to the Indian Air Force. HAL has built a national aerospace ecosystem by closely supporting private partners and providing critical inputs such as jigs, fixtures, tools, and technical know-how. This has enabled companies like L&T, Alpha Tocol, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), VEM Technologies, and Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) to produce complex sub-assemblies such as centre fuselages, fuel drop tanks, pylons, rear fuselages, wings, fins, rudders, and air intakes. The LCA Tejas Division has already received structural modules of air intake assemblies, rear fuselage assemblies, loom assemblies, and fin and rudder assemblies in the Mk1A configuration. HAL plans to extend this outsourcing model to future projects, reinforcing its in-house capacity with the expertise of the Indian industry. In line with the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, HAL continues to drive indigenisation efforts in the aerospace and defence sector. HAL has partnered with over 6,300 Indian vendors, including 2,448 MSMEs, supporting thousands of skilled jobs and contributing to a robust domestic supply chain. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In the last three years, HAL has placed orders worth Rs 13,763 crore with Indian vendors and is actively pursuing the indigenisation of complex aircraft systems and critical components across platforms. (With ANI Inputs) First Published: May 30, 2025, 22:32 IST How A 19-Year-Olds Refusal Of Special Services Ended In Murder: The Ankita Bhandari Case Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Karishma Jain Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 20:20 IST Pressured at a resort to provide special services to VIPs, Ankita Bhandari was murdered for resisting. What followed exposed systemic failures & led to a 3-year fight for justice Protests in support for justice for Ankita Bhandari (Social Media) Nearly three years after the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari sent shockwaves across Uttarakhand and the country, a Pauri district court on Friday sentenced all three accused to rigorous life imprisonment. The verdict, delivered by Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi, found Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta guilty of murder and other serious offences. THE CRIME THAT SHOOK THE NATION Recommended Stories Ankita Bhandari, a resident of Dobh-Srikot village in Pauri Garhwal, had taken up a job as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Yamkeshwar, near Rishikesh, in August 2022. The resort was owned by Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader and ex-minister of state Vinod Arya. Ankita had reportedly taken the job after financial hardships forced her to leave her hotel management studies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Soon after joining, Ankita came under pressure from Pulkit Arya to provide special services" to resort guests a euphemism for sexual favours in exchange for money. She informed her friend Pushp that she was being offered Rs 10,000 to entertain a VIP guest but was unwilling to comply. According to police and prosecution, she also faced repeated molestation and harassment inside the resort. The accused allegedly feared she might expose their activities, which prosecutors later argued formed the motive behind the murder. On the night of September 18, 2022, following a confrontation with Pulkit Arya and his aides Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, Ankita was forcibly taken in a vehicle to the Chilla canal. Before being taken, she called Pushp at 8:32 pm and told him that the accused were with her and she was sensing some fear." Later that night, the three men pushed her into the fast-flowing water. Her body was recovered six days later, on September 24, after the trio confessed to killing her. DELAYED ACTION AND SYSTEMIC LOOPHOLES The investigation initially faltered due to jurisdictional issues. As the resort fell under revenue police jurisdiction, the initial complaint was filed with the local Patwari, Vaibhav Pratap, who neither took action nor escalated the case. He went on leave shortly after. It was only on September 22, after mounting pressure from Ankitas family and friends, that the case was handed over to regular police. State Director General of Police Ashok Kumar admitted, The area where this resort, Vanantra, is located doesnt fall under regular police. We have a system of patwari (land revenue official) registering FIRs in such areas. He did register a missing person FIR, filed by the resort owner himself." The delay cost investigators precious time. Vaibhav Pratap was later suspended and arrested for negligence and suspected collusion with the accused. The incident had raised concerns on the revenue police system in the state, and Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri had written to the CM, seeking the replacement of the Revenue police with regular police. A FAMILYS FIGHT, A NATIONS OUTRAGE As Ankitas death became public, it sparked unprecedented public fury. Locals vandalised the Vanantra Resort and set parts of it on fire. The administration later bulldozed portions of the resort, a move that triggered controversy amid allegations of evidence destruction. Protests broke out across Uttarakhand and beyond, as the case exposed chilling details about sexual exploitation at the resort and alleged political shielding. Pulkits father, Vinod Arya, who enjoyed the rank of minister of state in the previous BJP government, was expelled from the party, along with Pulkits elder brother. Despite his expulsion, Vinod Arya publicly defended his son, stating: Seedha sadha balak hai (he is a simple boy). He is only concerned about his work. I want justice for both my son Pulkit and Ankita Bhandari." Ankitas funeral also became a point of controversy, as her mother, Soni Devi, later alleged that government officials and local authorities deliberately prevented her from attending the cremation under the pretext of medical attention. While they forcibly took her husband to the cremation site, she was taken from her remote village home to a hospital instead. In a video, she was seen stating: They took my husband along forcibly, but didnt take me. They brought me here from the forest where I live, saying I will see my daughter. Doctors then put me in a wheelchair. I asked why was it needed but they took me to a hospital. They then forcibly put me on intravenous sugar solution and started recording a video. I wasnt unwell at all. They tricked me into coming here. This is just for show, they have betrayed us." THE PROBE AND TRIAL Under mounting public and political pressure, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by DIG P Renuka Devi, to probe the case. Within 90 days, the SIT filed a 500-page chargesheet based on extensive evidence, including forensic reports, witness testimonies, digital chats, and audio recordings. According to the FIR quoted in court: The accused wanted to speak to the father of the deceased (and) the deceased was further troubled due to this reason. One morning, the deceased was found missing from the resort. She was not in her room. During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused was molesting the deceased in the resort; they were pressuring her to give extra services to the guest, to which the deceased was not agreeable. The applicant (Ankit Gupta) and the co-accused had a sense of fear that perhaps the deceased might reveal it to others. According to the prosecution, on 18.09.2022, the applicant, along with the co-accused, took the deceased out of the resort, they killed the deceased and pushed her into a canal. The dead body of the deceased was recovered on 24.09.2022." One of the key pieces of evidence was audio clips of conversations between Pulkit Arya and Ankitas friend Pushp, in which Pulkit tried to mislead and deflect suspicion while Ankita remained missing. A petition seeking transfer of the case to the CBI was dismissed by the Uttarakhand High Court, which expressed satisfaction with the SITs probe. The trial formally began on January 30, 2023, before the Additional District and Sessions Judge in Kotdwar. Over nearly three years, 47 witnesses were examined from among the 97 listed. THE VERDICT AND SENTENCING On May 30, 2025, the court convicted Pulkit Arya under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 354A (molestation and sexual harassment), and provisions of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. Co-accused Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta were convicted under murder, destruction of evidence and immoral trafficking charges. All three were sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment. A FAMILYS UNFINISHED FIGHT top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all After the verdict, Ankitas mother Soni Devi broke down and said: I request that the accused be hanged I plead with my sisters that they support her (Ankitas) mother and father" Her father Birendra Bhandari said: The way my daughter Ankita Bhandari was murdered by the three men, I have been reiterating death for death. We hope that all three are sentenced to death. As long as the accused are not hanged, we will have to protest and take to the streets." 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 30, 2025, 20:20 IST 'India Wont Bend To Nuclear Blackmail': Jaishankar's Clear Warning To Pakistan Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 19:52 IST External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday issued a strong warning to Pakistan, asserting that India will not be intimidated by any "nuclear threat" External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar (PTI Image) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday issued a strong warning to Pakistan, asserting that India will not be intimidated by any nuclear threat" and reaffirming the countrys zero-tolerance stance on terrorism. In his remarks at the Convocation Ceremony for foreign national graduates of a private university in Vadodara, Jaishankar noted that those who sponsor and use terrorism face a heavy cost. Recommended Stories India will never give in to nuclear blackmail," said Jaishankar, adding: It is imperative that those who sponsor, and utilise services of terrorism pay high cost." Speaking at the Convocation Ceremony for foreign national graduates of @ParulUniversity, Vadodara.https://t.co/Yg6HZ4v3Ay Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 30, 2025 Though no country was named directly, Jaishankars remarks are viewed as a veiled reference to Pakistan amid rising geopolitical tensions and its ongoing rhetoric on nuclear deterrence. Jaishankar also highlighted Indias expanding role in global affairs, saying, India is a rare civilisational state reclaiming its rightful place in the comity of nations." He underscored the countrys rising geopolitical aspirations, driven by its economic progress, strategic alliances, and influential position within the Global South. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, which claimed 26 lives in Kashmir. As part of the operation, India targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir two weeks later, leading to a four-day military standoff between the two countries. About the Author Ronit Singh Ronit Singh, Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking News team. He has a keen focus on Indian politics and aims to cover unexplored angles. Ronit is an alumnus of Christ (Deemed to be... Read More Ronit Singh, Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking News team. He has a keen focus on Indian politics and aims to cover unexplored angles. Ronit is an alumnus of Christ (Deemed to be... Read More Location : Vadodara, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 19:45 IST 'Pakistan Would've Split Into 4 Parts': Rajnath Singh Highlights Navy's Strength Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 13:47 IST Rajnath Singh stated that India could have divided Pakistan into four parts during Operation Sindoor, calling it just a "warm-up". Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (Image Credit: PTI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India possessed the capability to have fragmented Pakistan into four separate entities during Operation Sindoor, asserting that the actual outcome was merely a warm-up" of Indias military prowess. Rajnath Singh- reflecting on the 1971 conflict which led to the creation of Bangladesh- said, When our Indian Navy was mobilized in 1971, Pakistan was divided into two. If the Navy had shown its full strength in Operation Sindoor, Pakistan would not have been split into two but into four parts by now." Recommended Stories Hinting at future military actions if deemed necessary, the Defence Minister warned Pakistan and said, What has happened so far was just a warm-up. If there is a need again from Pakistan, the Navy will also be mobilized. Only God knows what will happen to Pakistan then." He said, The way you protect our maritime borders, the intensity with which you track every movement in the Indian Ocean, if that capability of yours was a part of this mission, then there is no need to tell what would have happened to Pakistan. In a way, Pakistan is very lucky that our Navy did not display its valour during Operation Sindoor." Read more: Rajnath Singh Demands Pakistan To Hand Over Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar To India Rajnath Singh also highlighted the Indian Navys swift and decisive response during Operation Sindoor. He said that within 96 hours of the Pahalgam terror attack our western fleet ships deployed at sea carried out multiple successful firings of surface to surface, and surface to air missiles and torpedoes on the western and eastern coast." This rapid demonstration underscored the combat readiness of our platforms, systems and crews", he said. #WATCH | Goa: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh says, Our western fleet ships deployed at sea carried out multiple successful firings of surface to surface, and surface to air missiles and torpedoes on the western and eastern coast within 96 hours of the terrorist attack, which pic.twitter.com/xSF4CyBost ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Further emphasising that the long-range precision strikes" were a clear signal of Indias resolve and preparedness against Pakistan, Rajnath Singh asserted that Islamabad was consequently forced into a defensive posture." He said, Your strong preparation has already broken the morale of the enemy. Your preparation alone was enough for Pakistan. You did not even need to take action; the enemy was stunned by your preparation itself." He concluded by noting that Pakistan not only recognized the tremendous power of the Indian Navy, its military acumen and destructive capabilities, but they were also afraid of it." 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 30, 2025, 12:12 IST IndiGo Asked To End Aircraft Lease Agreement With Turkish Airlines Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 21:14 IST DGCA on Friday granted a three-month extension to IndiGo on damp leasing two Boeing 777 planes from Turkish Airlines to avoid sudden flight disruptions IndiGo (File Photo) In a significant development in India-Turkey ties, the central government on Friday directed IndiGo to terminate its aircraft lease agreement with Turkish Airlines within three months. This action follows weeks after the government revoked the security clearance for Celebi Aviation, a Turkish firm that provided ground handling services at nine major Indian airports, including Delhi. Recommended Stories The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued an official statement clarifying the situation. IndiGo currently operates two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft under a damp lease agreement with Turkish Airlines, initially permitted until 31 May. IndiGos request to extend the lease for a further six months was denied. However, to minimise passenger disruption from immediate flight cancellations, IndiGo has been granted a one-time, final three-month extension until 31 August 2025 for these damp-leased aircraft," the DGCA statement explained. This extension is contingent on IndiGos undertaking to terminate the damp lease with Turkish Airlines within this period and not seek any further extensions for these operations." Currently, IndiGo operates direct flights to Istanbul with two leased aircraft from Turkish Airlines, each with over 500 seats. It also offers codeshare seats to more than 40 points in Europe and the US. A codeshare partnership allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carrier, and there will be a single ticket. IndiGo has a fleet of more than 400 planes and operates around 2,200 flights daily. The airline connects over 90 domestic and more than 40 international destinations. It has 10 codeshare partnerships. India Revokes Security Clearance For Turkish Celebi Aviation Following Turkeys support for Pakistan after the Pahalgam terrorist attack on 22 April, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) revoked the security clearance of Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd on 15 May, citing national security concerns. Several online travel portals and industry associations subsequently issued advisories recommending against travel to Turkey. Pahalgam Terror Attack And Turkish Support To Pakistan Turkey has openly supported Pakistan, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressing solidarity with Islamabad. Recently, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Istanbul and met with Erdogan. A statement from Erdogans office following the meeting affirmed that the two countries would enhance cooperation, particularly in defence, energy, and transportation. Sharif expressed his gratitude to Erdogan on X (formerly Twitter) for supporting Pakistan during the tensions with India. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Had the honour of meeting my dear brother President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul this evening. Thanked him for his resolute support to Pakistan in the recent Pakistan India standoff," Sharif wrote. We also reviewed the ongoing progress of our multifaceted bilateral engagements, particularly in trade and investment, and reaffirmed our resolve to continue working closely to further strengthen these unshakeable bonds of brotherhood and cooperation. Long live Pakistan-Turkey Friendship," he added. First Published: May 30, 2025, 20:11 IST Jammu & Kashmir After Pahalgam Terror Attack: Centres High-Five To Boost Tourism Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Manjiri Joshi Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 12:25 IST The Centre has identified five focus areas to support locals as Jammu and Kashmir tourism has been hit in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, say top sources Tourists lined up at a Gondola cable car station in Gulmarg. (PTI File) Amid the impact of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor on tourism in Jammu and Kashmir the primary source of income of the Union Territory the Centre has identified five focus areas to support locals, said top sources. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, too, also made multiple appeals to the Centre for assistance to revive the states fortunes. Recommended Stories In Pahalgam to chair a cabinet meeting. We came to express solidarity with the local population. Weve also come to thank all the tourists who are slowly making their way back to Kashmir & to Pahalgam. pic.twitter.com/VhKVyWV4Kd Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 27, 2025 A look at the five focus areas: 1. Better promotion: Various steps will be taken to reassure the public, using celebrities, influencers, and top political leaders, that India has responded decisively to Pakistan and that security forces are vigilant. Therefore, there is no reason for concern when travelling to the region. Several central ministers are expected to visit Jammu and Kashmir in the coming weeks. The source also stated, Many foreign delegations have approached India after the Pahalgam attack expressing their willingness to visit Jammu and Kashmir for meetings. This will significantly boost confidence-building measures." 2. Identifying Tourist Destinations: Beyond the usual tourist hotspots like Gulmarg and Pahalgam, the government is keen to identify other potential destinations to expand tourism in the state. The source added, We have identified at least three to four new destinations in both Jammu and Kashmir to diversify tourism offerings." Chaired a review meeting for the Amarnath Pilgrimage and evaluated the security arrangements and preparedness meant for the pilgrims. Instructed to maintain the utmost vigilance and ensure the seamless completion of the sacred journey.Central govt and J&K administration will pic.twitter.com/b8auExp7ID Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 29, 2025 3. Financial Assistance: The Centre is also engaging with institutions like the World Bank to promote these new destinations and develop necessary infrastructure. 4. Supporting J&K: With the regional economy, significantly impacted by cancellations following the Pahalgam attack, the Centre is committed to supporting the state. This includes considering financial assistance if required. 5. Developing Untapped Areas: The government is also exploring the promotion of various untapped areas with significant potential in Jammu and Kashmir. This includes promoting religious tourism, adventure tourism, etc. Many significant places have been overlooked and hold immense potential. For example, numerous ancient temples located in secluded areas could become focal points for religious tourism," the source explained. My honour and Privilege to share some time with the real heros & brave hearts ! What a beautiful evening https://t.co/AJeQWAG7K1 Huma Qureshi (@humasqureshi) May 28, 2025 Since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, Jammu and Kashmirs tourism sector has experienced significant growth. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Between 2021 and 2024, the Jammu division consistently attracted more tourists than the Kashmir Valley. In 2024, for instance, Jammu welcomed over 20 million tourists, while Kashmir received approximately 3.5 million visitors. First Published: May 30, 2025, 12:20 IST Ban can ang nhap e thuc hien chuc nang nay! 'Karara Jawab...': PM Modi Warns Pakistan, Says 'Op Sindoor Is Not Over Yet' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 16:07 IST Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday issued a stern warning to Pakistan, asserting that India will respond decisively to any act of terrorism on its soil. Prime Minister Narendra Modi (PTI Image) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday issued a stern warning to Pakistan, asserting that India will respond decisively to any act of terrorism on its soil. Addressing the public gathering in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the Prime Minister reiterated that Operation Sindoor, under which India struck terror dens deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, is not over yet. Recommended Stories We entered terrorist camps and destroyed them in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the war," said PM Modi. I want to tell enemies who begged us to stop during Operation Sindoor. Dont be fooled, Operation Sindoor is not over yet," he added. #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, " We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the warI want to tell enemies who begged us to stop pic.twitter.com/jqEQga4vgR ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 PM Modi said that India will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack, with the timing, method, and terms of the response to be decided by the Armed Forces. He added that India would not be intimidated by nuclear threats and would not let such threats influence its decisions. India will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack. The time, way of replying, and terms of the reply will be decided by our armed forces. India wont get scared of nuclear threats and wont take any decisions based on it either," PM Modi remarked. The Prime Minister made these remarks after laying the foundation stones for development projects worth 47,600 crore in Kanpur. He noted that the event was originally scheduled for April 24 but was postponed due to the terror attack in Pahalgam. On April 22, terrorists opened fire on civilians in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam, killing 26 people in one of the deadliest attacks since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. This development programme was supposed to take place on 24th April, but due to Pahalgam terror attack, I had to cancel my Kanpur visit," he said. He further noted that in the cowardly terrorist attack, Kanpurs son Shubham Dwivedi also lost his life. He said the entire nation shared the pain and anger of his daughter, and the world witnessed that collective grief and resolve in the form of Operation Sindoor. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all About the Author Ronit Singh Ronit Singh, Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking News team. He has a keen focus on Indian politics and aims to cover unexplored angles. Ronit is an alumnus of Christ (Deemed to be... Read More Ronit Singh, Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking News team. He has a keen focus on Indian politics and aims to cover unexplored angles. Ronit is an alumnus of Christ (Deemed to be... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 15:53 IST Man Held In Shimla On Charges Of Espionage, Was Providing Key Information To Enemy Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 22:02 IST The man has been accused of allegedly spying and providing confidential information related to the army and the country with Pakistan or some other country SP Shimla said that the army has handed over the youth and he is being interrogated. (Representative/News18) The Indian Armys Intelligence Unit has apprehended a man on charges of espionage in Shimla on Friday. The suspect was held by Army near Shimlas Army Training Command (ARTRAC) on Friday. The army took him to different places and interrogated him. Recommended Stories After taking the suspect into custody, the army took him to different places and interrogated him. After interrogation, the army handed him over to the police. However, his identity has not been revealed yet. The man has been accused of allegedly spying and providing confidential information related to the army and the country with Pakistan or some other country. However, concrete evidence is still being collected against the suspect. According to sources, the suspect was staying in a hotel in the Himachal capital since May 28. He was allegedly asking the local people about the army. Sources further revealed that the suspect is a native of Uttar Pradeshs Noida and hold a US citizenship. During the interrogation, the suspect revealed that he works in a private company. He also told that his father was a colonel in the field military, sources added. He also told that has traveled to 64 countries including Pakistan in 2005 and China in 2008. SP Shimla confirmed the arrest and said that the army has handed over the youth and he is being interrogated. Earlier this week, Kangra Police arrested a 20-year-old youth on suspicion of espionage following a tip-off. The suspect, identified as Abhishek, a native of Dehra, was held just three kilometres away from Shri Mata Chintpurni Temple on Una-Kangra districts border. The development comes as a series of revelations regarding Pakistani spy networks in India. Several Indians were arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan including a CRPF personnel Moti Ram Jat from Rajasthan, a contractual health worker Sahdevsinh Gohil posted in the border district of Kutch, a YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra from Haryana who has several lakhs of subscribers. She was arrested in Haryana this month. She had travelled to Pakistan a number of times. Additionally, a Rajasthan government employee was detained in Jaisalmer on suspicion of espionage for Pakistan with sources saying he worked as an assistant to former Congress minister Shale Mohammad. Shakur Khan, who works in the district employment office, was found to have phone numbers associated with Pakistan stored on his device, an official said. Prior to this months conflict, Pakistanis and Indians were able to travel to each others countries, but it has long been very difficult to obtain visas due to government bureaucracy and historical mistrust. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The relations between India and Pakistan hit rock bottom after the neighbouring country resorted to a terror attack in Kashmirs iconic Pahalgam, killing 26 innocent tourists on April 22. In response, India, on the intervening night of May 7 and 8, launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan and destroyed multiple terror targets there. 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 : Shimla, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 22:02 IST 'India Reserves The Right To Act': In South Africa, Manish Tewari Warns Pakistan Against Terrorism Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 14:30 IST Congress MP Manish Tewari in Johannesburg warned that India reserves the right to act if Pakistan continues using terrorism as state policy. A fille photo of Congress leader and former Union Minister Manish Tewari (PTI) Congress leader Manish Tewari, who is part of the all-party delegation visiting key capitals, including South Africa, as part of the Modi governments big diplomatic outreach, has said India reserves the right to act against Pakistan if the neighbouring country continues to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Speaking in Johannesburg, the Congress MP also reiterated that the Indian delegations have leaders from different political parties, but stand united in Indias message in dealing with cross-border terrorism. Recommended Stories On this platform, you have people representing different political parties, from the government to the Opposition. This delegation is led by our honourable colleague, Mrs Supriya Sule, who is the floor leader of one Opposition party in the Parliament," Tewari said. I represent the principal Opposition party in the Parliament. My colleague here, Mr Vikramjeet Singh Sahni, is also from another Opposition party," he added. Both our colleagues, or three of our colleagues, are from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the ruling party." So, the manner in which this delegation has been structured, and the way it has been constituted, is to convey a national resolve, that if terrorism keeps getting perpetrated against India from across the border, if Pakistan continues to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy, if you have a state on our western border where there is no distinction between the state and the semi-state actors and it spawns, then under those circumstances, it is our national resolve that under no circumstances would that be tolerable," Manish Tewari said. India then reserves the right to energise the full spectrum of options that are available to it, in order to protect and defend itself as its national interest," he added. If the terror infrastructure in Pakistan is not culled by the Government of Pakistan then India reserves the right to energise the full spectrum of options available to do it so. pic.twitter.com/BjffmacZCP Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) May 30, 2025 On Thursday, Tewari had said that Pakistan has been behaving and acting like a rogue state". He also said that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has been creating instability" in Afghanistan and Iran as well. The delegation, led by Supriya Sule, includes Members of Parliament Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Manish Tewari, Anurag Singh Thakur, Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce and Industry, V Muraleedharan, Former Minister of State for External Affairs, and Syed Akbaruddin, Former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, days after Pakistan resorted to a terror attack in Kashmirs iconic Pahalgam, killing 26 innocent tourists. More than 100 terrorists and multiple terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) were destroyed in the strikes by India. About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. First Published: May 30, 2025, 14:20 IST Modiji Consoled Us Like Kin: Pahalgam Victim Shubham Dwivedis Family On Their Meet With PM Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 19:41 IST "When my daughter-in-law and I broke down, Modiji said this fight against terrorism is not over yet. Operation Sindoor will continue, Sanjay Dwivedi said PM Modi met the family of Shubham Dwivedi in Kanpur today. In a poignant moment at Kanpurs Chakeri Airport on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his one-day visit to the city, paid tribute to the courage and sacrifice of Shubham Dwivedi the young man from Kanpur who was killed in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Meeting his grieving family, including wife Alshanya and parents Sanjay and Seema Dwivedi, the Prime Minister offered words of solace and assured them that Operation Sindoor" was not over, and that the government remains committed to eliminating terrorism. #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: After meeting PM Modi, Sanjay Dwivedi, father of Shubham Dwivedi, who lost his life in #PahalgamTerroristAttack, says, Our family expressed gratitude as in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, an operation was launched against terrorism, the terrorist pic.twitter.com/mE7xadiCg5 ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Recommended Stories EMOTIONAL MEETING AT KANPUR AIRPORT Shubhams wife Alshanya, his father Sanjay Dwivedi, and his mother Seema were present during the interaction. According to family members, the Prime Minister appeared visibly moved by their pain. When my daughter-in-law and I broke down, Modiji consoled us like one of our own. He said this fight against terrorism is not over yet Operation Sindoor will continue," Sanjay Dwivedi told News18 after the meeting with the PM. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 30, 2025 I AM A HINDU: SHUBHAMS FINAL WORDS Shubham Dwivedi, who had married just weeks earlier on February 12, was vacationing with his wife and her sister in the scenic Baisaran meadows of Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, when terrorists opened fire on unarmed Hindu tourists. Shubham, according to eyewitness accounts shared with the family, stood in front of the attackers without fear and declared his identity I am a Hindu." He was shot point-blank in the head. He took the first bullet, but saved many lives," said his father. His courage was not ordinary it was heroic. His presence of mind gave others those crucial few seconds to run and survive," his father said. OPERATION SINDOOR: A FIRM RESPONSE During his address in Kanpur later in the day, Prime Minister Modi referred to the incident and said, In the cowardly attack in Pahalgam, our son from Kanpur, Shubham Dwivedi, became a victim of brutality," the PM said. But the pain and fury of our daughters like Alshanya (Shubhams wife) has echoed in the form of Operation Sindoor. The world has seen that fury," the PM further said during his address. The Prime Minister said that the military operation, launched on 7 May across the Line of Control in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, had devastated terrorist hideouts deep within enemy territory. We entered their homes, hundreds of miles inside, and destroyed the breeding grounds of terror," he said. Our armys valour compelled the Pakistani forces to beg for a ceasefire. But I want to make it clear the enemy who was begging during Operation Sindoor should not be under any illusion. The operation is not over yet." #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: After meeting PM Modi, Wife of Shubham Dwivedi, who lost his life in #PahalgamTerroristAttack, Aishanya Dwivedi says, PM Modi said that the entire nation and the government are standing with us. He offered his condolencesPM Modi was very sadPM Modi pic.twitter.com/hZWC2h5unW ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 CALL FOR MARTYR STATUS? Since the attack, the family has made only one request to the government that Shubham be officially recognised as a martyr. However, on his demand, Shubhams father said that he met the PM just to express his gratitude for Operation Sindoor. It was not a suitable time to raise the demand," he said. Initially, the Dwivedi family had raised the demand that Shubhams sacrifice should be honoured, for the sake of every Indian who believes in dharma and courage. Alshanya has been inconsolable since the tragedy. In her tearful exchange with the Prime Minister, she too thanked the PM for his visit and said those responsible should be punished. Shubham was cremated with full state honours on April 24 in his native village, an event attended by Uttar Pradesh cabinet ministers Yogendra Upadhyay and Rakesh Sachan. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath later visited the Dwivedi home personally and promised every possible support" to the bereaved family. The attack in Pahalgam claimed 26 lives, including that of a Nepali tourist. The Dwivedis maintain that their son was targeted for his religious identity. This wasnt random violence," a family member explained. He was attacked because of his faith, and he embraced it even in his last breath. That is the spirit of Bharat." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all SUPPORT ACROSS PARTY LINES On April 30, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also met the Dwivedi family and backed their demand to declare Shubham a martyr. For the family, however, their final hope lies with the Prime Minister. We trust Modiji," Sanjay said. He has seen pain and understands what it means to lose a son for the country." First Published: May 30, 2025, 18:05 IST Monsoon Is Here: Bengaluru Civic Body Allocates Rs 65 Lakh For Flood Relief Equipment Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 14:50 IST While the BBMP will continue to collaborate with other departments, officials believe the new equipment will prove valuable during emergencies. People attempt to push out a car from a waterlogged road after heavy rains, at Sai layout in Bengaluru, Monday, May 19, 2025. (PTI Photo) As the rainy season approaches, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has initiated last-minute preparations for heavy rainfall, acknowledging the limitations of its infrastructure in managing such events. The civic body plans to procure flood-relief equipment, including inflatable boats, life jackets, centrifugal pumps, and other emergency gear, anticipating potential flooding. This follows severe flooding in areas such as Sai Layout, ST Bed, and HBR Layout, and indicates the BBMPs recognition that this years monsoon could pose similar, if not greater, challenges. Recommended Stories The BBMP has allocated approximately Rs 65 lakh from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund to acquire nine types of flood-response equipment. This includes four inflatable boats equipped with outboard motors (each with a capacity of 12 passengers), 48 life jackets, 16 centrifugal pumps for draining stagnant water, chainsaws for clearing fallen trees, bolt cutters, ropes, and handheld torches. For the first time, the BBMP is independently procuring flood-management equipment, marking a departure from its previous reliance on State and National Disaster Response Forces (SDRF/NDRF) and Fire Department personnel for rescue and relief operations during floods. While the BBMP will continue to collaborate with other departments, officials believe the new equipment will prove valuable during emergencies. A senior BBMP official explained that previously, they had to improvise, using earthmovers to deliver food and tractors to evacuate residents in areas like Sai Layout. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all However, this move has attracted criticism, with some describing it as a reactive measure that fails to address the underlying causes of flooding. RTI activist BH Veeresh criticised the BBMP, stating that the civic body had ample opportunity to address fundamental issues such as desilting stormwater drains, removing encroachments, and promoting rainwater harvesting, rather than simply preparing for the consequences. Instead of tackling these fundamental problems, the BBMP is preparing only for damage control," he said. Veeresh also highlighted alleged irregularities in the Storm Water Drain (SWD) division, which he claims remain uninvestigated. First Published: May 30, 2025, 14:50 IST No Equivalence Between India & Pakistan: Shashi Tharoor Miffed With Colombia's Take On Op Sindoor Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:51 IST Shashi Tharoor-led delegation arrived in Colombia, a South American country, and said that there can be "no equivalence" between India and Pakistan. Shashi Tharoor leads delegation in Colombia (Photo: X/ Shashi Tharoor) Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday (local time) expressed disappointment" with the Colombian government over its reaction to Indias Operation Sindoor, stating that there can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend" against acts of terrorism. His remarks came after the Colombian government earlier expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian retaliatory strikes on May 7. Recommended Stories Tharoor-led delegation reached Colombia on Thursday after concluding their visit to Panama and Guyana as part of the global outreach to expose Pakistan and present Indias stand against terrorism. Tharoors Disappointment With Colombia We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," news agency ANI quoted Tharoor as saying at a press conference where a number of local media outlets were present. The Congress MP made it abundantly clear to Colombia that there can be no equivalence" between India and Pakistan, underlining that New Delhi only exercised its right of self-defence after the Pahalgam terror attack, through Operation Sindoor. #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of pic.twitter.com/LGJKclEcAU ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. Were very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances," he said. He further mentioned that there could have been a case where the situation was not fully understood" when Colombia expressed its condolences for Pakistani deaths. He said that India hopes that the governments around the world will tell Pakistan, which harbours terrorists to stop doing so. We think perhaps the situation was not fully understood when that one statement (Colombia expresses condolences for deaths in Pakistan following Indian strikes on terrorist targets) was made. Understanding is extremely important to us. We are a country that has really been a force for constructive progress in the world We certainly hope that other governments will tell those who provide safe haven and protection to terrorists to stop doing that. That would be really helpful, whether in the Security Council or outside it," the Congress leader said. Tharoor said that the responsibility of the Pahalgam attack on April 22 was immediately claimed by The Resistance Front, a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke, Pakistan. Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades," he said. Shashi Tharoor Highlights Chinese Defence Equipment Dominance In Pakistan Military Tharoor noted that Chinese military equipment dominates the Pakistani military, which is not for defence but for attack". #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, We are quite conscious that China supplies 81 per cent of all Pakistani defence equipment. Defence is a polite word, Pakistani military equipment. Much of it is not for defence but for attack. Every sovereign country pic.twitter.com/bCKktFnK4F ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 We are quite conscious that China supplies 81 per cent of all Pakistani defence equipment. Defence is a polite word, Pakistani military equipment. Much of it is not for defence but for attack. Every sovereign country has the right to do that," he said. The single largest project in Chinas Belt and Road Initiative is in Pakistan, the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is a highway corridor connecting China to a port in southwestern Pakistan that permits goods to be transported relatively quickly and economically to western China. We are aware of that, and our concern is not with the rights of the Pakistani people to pursue development. Of course, they may do so, including with the partnership with China. Our quarrel is only with the perpetration of terror against us," he added. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Tharoors mention of the Belt and Road Initiative comes as Colombia formally agreed May 14 this year to join Chinas vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, signalling a commitment to enhancing infrastructure development and trade relations with China. The BRI is a key part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings plan to grow Chinas influence and power in other nations both economically and politically and also to counter the US dominance on the Latin American nations. 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 : Colombia First Published: May 30, 2025, 06:39 IST Op Sindoor Not Over, India Gears Up For Operation Shield. What Is It? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:56 IST Operation Shield: This exercise follows the first Civil Defence drill held on May 7, which helped identify key preparedness gaps in high-risk areas. The drill will practice mass casualty management, with arrangements for 30 units of blood and the deployment of trained medical teams. (AI Generated Image) The Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the second edition of the nationwide Civil Defence Exercise- Operation Shield, will be conducted on May 31, 2025, across all districts bordering Indias western frontier, including Jammu and Kashmir. The large-scale drill, aimed at enhancing readiness against potential hostile attacks, will take place under Section 19 of the Civil Defence Rules, 1968, and is being coordinated by the Additional Director General of Civil Defence. What Will Happen During Operation Shield? Recommended Stories This exercise follows the first Civil Defence drill held on May 7, which helped identify key preparedness gaps in high-risk areas. Building on those lessons, Operation Shield will simulate a range of emergency scenarios, including general and silent recall of civil defence volunteers, enemy air raids involving aircraft, drones, and missile strikes, and activation of communication hotlines between the Indian Air Force and Civil Defence Control Rooms. Read more: Mock Drill Under Operation Shield To Be Held In 6 States, UTs On May 31 | What We Know The exercise will also test the use of centrally controlled air raid sirens and enforce blackout procedures in civilian areas. Simulated drone attacks on military stations and evacuation drillsincluding the relocation of 20 mock casualtiesare also planned. In addition, the drill will practice mass casualty management, with arrangements for 30 units of blood and the deployment of trained medical teams. Who Will Participate In Operation Shield? As part of the broader Rear Area Security Plan, the Indian Army has called for the immediate deployment of Border Wing Home Guards to work alongside designated armed forces units. Mobilisation and de-induction drills will further simulate troop movement to operational zones, testing the speed and coordination of military logistics. All districts have been directed to conduct the exercise at 1700 hours on May 31, in coordination with local administrations. Youth organisations such as the National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), and the Bharat Scouts & Guides will also take part in the operation. Following the drill, districts are required to submit detailed action reports assessing their performance and identifying areas for improvement. The order has been circulated to senior officials, including the Union Home Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Ministry of Youth Affairs, and the Chief Secretaries and Administrators of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Chandigarh. These authorities have been tasked with ensuring the smooth planning and execution of the exercise in their respective jurisdictions. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Why Was Operation Shield Postponed? Originally scheduled for May 29, the exercise was postponed due to administrative reasons and will now take place on May 31, maintaining its objective of enhancing national preparedness through coordinated civil-military drills. 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 30, 2025, 07:49 IST Prosperity Came To J&K: Congress' Salman Khurshid Hails Modi Govt's Article 370 Move In Indonesia Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 13:15 IST Salman Khurshid hailed the Modi government's Article 370 abrogation move and said that it brought prosperity to Kashmir. Congress leader Salman Khurshid hails Article 370 abrogation in Indonesia (PTI Image) Yet another senior Congress leader, who is a part of the delegations sent abroad to expose Pakistan on terrorism, has deviated from the party line this time, its Salman Khurshid, who hailed the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Lauding the Modi governments landmark move in August 2019 to permanently scrap the article of the Constitution that gave a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Khurshid said that Kashmir has witnessed prosperity after the step. Recommended Stories His remarks came while addressing the Indonesian think Tanks and Academia on Thursday. Khurshid is a part of the all-party delegation led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha. Salman Khurshid Lauds Article 370 Abrogation Describing Article 370 as a major problem" that was finally put to an end in 2019, Khurshid said that there is a government in the region today, which was elected with the participation of over 60% of voters. Kashmir had a major problem for a long time. Much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government in an article called 370 of the Constitution, which somehow gave the impression that it was separate from the rest of the country. But Article 370 was abrogated, and it was finally put to an end," news agency ANI quoted Khurshid as saying. #WATCH | Jakarta, Indonesia | Kashmir had a major problem for a long time. Much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government in an article called 370 of the Constitution, which somehow gave an impression that it was separate from the rest of the country. But Article pic.twitter.com/wXcdkfWPlR ANI (@ANI) May 29, 2025 Subsequently, there was an election with 65% participation in the election. Theres an elected government in Kashmir today, and therefore, for people to want to undo everything that has happened, the prosperity that has come to Kashmir," he added. Notably, Khurshid is the latest Congress leader to deviate from the party line. Earlier, senior Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari were among the party MPs who spoke in a different tune from their party. While Tharoor exposed Pakistan during his delegations visits to Guyana and Panama, Tewari made it amply clear at a press conference that the US did not mediate between India and Pakistans ceasefire. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other leaders have been questioning the government over Donald Trumps repeated claims of mediating a ceasefire between the two countries using trade as a tool a charge that the government has denied. BJP Reacts To Salman Khurshids Remarks Reacting to the Congress leaders remarks on Article 370, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that he has accepted that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru committed a blunder" by introducing special status for J&K in the Constitution. Salman Khurshid is a senior Congress leader and has been External Affairs Minister previously and today he also accepts how Pakistan-Parasti, Pattharbazi and Problem of Pakistan was increasing. Now that Article 370 has been removed, there is prosperity and peoples voice is audible Article 370 was a blunder of the then governments and especially Nehru, this is accepted by Salman Khurshid himself But even today, some Congress leaders back the Article 370," he told ANI. Khurshid Says Indonesia Far More Supportive Than Expected The Congress leader said that Indonesia was far more supportive than they expected. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all They took a lot of interest and reiterated their support for Indias position The narrative pushed by the Chief of Army Staff in Pakistan, now Field Marshal, was completely negated and rejected in our conversations," he said. The Indian Parliament has a long-standing unanimous resolution that the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir must be vacated and given back to India The Indian government has clearly stated that talks can happen only when Pakistans commitment to peace is clear, and its support to terrorism is cogently shown to have stopped. This includes conversing about the Indus water treaty being put in abeyance," he added. 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 : Indonesia First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:59 IST 5 Dead, Many Trapped In Firecracker Factory Explosion In Punjab's Sri Muktsar Sahib Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 09:40 IST An explosion at a firecracker factory in Punjab's Muktsar Sahib killed five people and injured around 25. The two-storey building collapsed, trapping several workers. A representative image for Punjab Police (PTI) At least five people were killed, while nearly 25 others were injured after an explosion rocked a firecracker factory in Punjabs Sri Muktsar Sahib on Friday. According to the details, the two-storey building collapsed following the explosion, trapping several labourers on the site. Recommended Stories A rescue operation was underway. The incident occurred in the two-storey factory unit located on the Singhawali-Kotli road in Sri Muktsar Sahib, news agency PTI quoted Lambis Deputy Superintendent of Police, Jaspal Singh, as saying. The cause behind the blast was under investigation, the DSP said. A team of the local police and the administration arrived at the spot soon after receiving information about the blast. Those injured were shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda. On Wednesday, a couple and their two children suffered serious burn injuries after the leakage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) triggered an explosion and a fire at their home in Pune. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The family lived in a small room in Wadkar Mala locality, an official said. Preliminary information suggests there was a gas leak as the stove knob was loose, and when the woman lit the stove using a lighter in the morning, it triggered the explosion. About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:17 IST Shoulders Will Start Aching: PM Modis Caring Moment With Child At Kanpur Rally | Watch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 18:22 IST While addressing the gathering in Kanpur, the Prime Minister noticed a kid who was enthusiastically waving at him for a long time. PM Modi asked a child to lower his hands after noticing the child waving at him for a prolonged period during a rally in Kanpur on Friday.(ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday shared a light-hearted and heart-warming moment with a child waving enthusiastically at him during a rally in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur. While addressing the gathering in Kanpur, the Prime Minister noticed a kid who was enthusiastically waving at him for a long time. He then asked the child to lower his hands saying that his shoulders would start aching later. Recommended Stories This childs hands are up in the air for a long time. Your shoulders will start aching later," PM Modi paused and smilingly said to the child. In a video shared by news agency ANI, the child could be seen nodding to indicate that his hands were not hurting, even as PM Modi advised him to rest them. Later, he lowered his hands. #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: This childs hands are up in the air for a long time. Your shoulders will start aching later", says PM Modi, to a child who is waving at him. pic.twitter.com/mPjawA3kKV ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 PM Modi on Friday inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 15 mega development projects worth over Rs 47,600 crore in Kanpur. He inaugurated the new underground section of the Kanpur metro rail project from Chunniganj to Kanpur Central. He also inaugurated three 660-megawatt power units in Ghatampur and a thermal power project in Panki. These projects are expected to ensure a stable and sufficient electricity supply for Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states. Additionally, two new railway bridges from the Panki power plant to Kalyanpur were also inaugurated. During his visit, PM Modi also met the family of Shubham Dwivedi, who was among the 26 people killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all It was a very emotional meeting, said Saurabh Dwivedi, Shubhams cousin. All the family members started crying when they met PM Modi," he said. The prime minister also got emotional during the meeting and assured Shubhams family of his governments full support, Saurabh added. 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 : Kanpur Nagar, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 18:22 IST Amid the uproar of Donald Trump's crackdown on international students in the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the US will "aggressively revoke" the visas of Chinese students studying in the country. Following his announcement, the US State Department published a statement titled "New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China", saying it will work with the Department of Homeland Security "to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields". Yet given that the US Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that Trump had overstepped his authority over tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Rubio might be overly presumptive in assuming he has the authority to give an order to revoke the visas of international students from a particular country. Federal immigration law requires individualized assessments for visa revocations. As such, mass actions targeting a specific group could face legal challenges for exceeding statutory limits or violating due process. The executive orders Trump has issued have given the world an impression that he and his administration can do anything they want without any consideration of the law. But in a pivotal decision, the US Court of International Trade struck down the sweeping reciprocal tariffs unilaterally imposed by Trump in April, citing the misuse of executive authority and the absence of congressional oversight. According to the court, Trump's use of the IEEPA to impose universal duties on imports exceeded the scope of the law, which does not grant the president the power to unilaterally regulate importation through tariffs. Additionally, the three-judge panel found that the specific tariffs targeting Canada, Mexico and China related to fentanyl did not align with the threats outlined in the orders, further undermining the administration's justification for the tariffs. And revoking the visas of Chinese students is no small matter and any decision to do so must be based on the law. More than 270,000 students from China are currently studying in the US. It is the accumulation of cultural exchanges between the two countries over the past several decades that has made it normal for many Chinese students to consider studying in the US. At the same time, many US universities have been more than willing to accept students from China. Not just for financial reasons, but also because of their academic research achievements. Chinese scholars and researchers have contributed considerably to what the US has achieved in science and technology over the past several decades. In other words, US universities have benefited financially by enrolling students from China, and Chinese students have contributed to the development of science and technology in the US. Politicizing visas for students from China in the name of safeguarding national security will not just reduce the revenue of US universities, but also do a disservice to academic researches in many US institutions of higher learning. The move and the accompanying rhetoric show how deep-rooted the Cold War mindset is in Washington. The political circle in Washington appears to have no forward-looking vision for the long-term development of humanity. Instead, fixated on an imagined golden age of US splendor, they turn a blind eye to the fact that cooperation between the US and China holds great significance and potential for the future of humanity. If the US does start to revoke the visas of Chinese students, China will undoubtedly take countermeasures, which will definitely further damage the already fragile bilateral relations. By blocking international students including those from China from studying in the US, Washington is only ring-fencing itself academically from the rest of the world, which will amount to scientific suffocation for the US because collaboration is the lifeblood of scientific progress. China has repeatedly called on US politicians to view its development objectively and rationally, stop creating bloc confrontation, and refrain from fueling anti-Chinese sentiment in the US. The ruling that presidential authority falls within the bounds of the law is the opportunity for the administration to sober up with a reality check. Stranger To Lover To Blackmailer: Delhi Man Arrested For Threatening Woman With Acid Attack Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 19:49 IST After a complaint was filed on May 28, investigations revealed that Arora had created nine fake Instagram profiles and a Gmail ID to target the woman. The woman became friends with the man on Instagram (Representative image) A 37-year-old man was arrested for threatening a woman, reportedly his ex-girlfriend, with an acid attack in Delhi. Identified as Himanshu Arora, the man is a Delhi University graduate who was taken into custody on charges of harassment. The victim met Arora on Instagram in 2021. They became good friends, and over time, the accused coerced her into sharing private content, which he later used to blackmail her, according to a police official cited by PTI. Recommended Stories When the woman confronted Arora, he tried to shift the blame, claiming he had given his laptop to a technician for repairs and that the technician may have stolen her data. However, he continued the harassment without pause. She was subjected to demands for money, including an extortion attempt of Rs 1 lakh, forced participation in explicit video calls, and threats ranging from acid attacks and kidnapping to fabricated legal charges such as fake FIRs and murder case allegations," the police said. Following a complaint filed on May 28, investigations revealed that Arora had created nine fake Instagram profiles and a Gmail ID to target the woman. Police also found that the mobile number used to create these accounts was registered in Aroras mothers name but was being operated by him. Notably, Arora is married, and his family runs a sanitary business in the Friends Colony Industrial Area of Shahdara. He was apprehended on May 29 and later confessed to the blackmail and sexual exploitation. He has since been sent to judicial custody. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Authorities seized two mobile phones and a laptop from him, which contained nude and semi-nude photographs of the woman, a screenshot of a fake Instagram ID, and login credentials linked to the abusive online profiles. (With PTI inputs) First Published: May 30, 2025, 19:47 IST Pran Jaye Par...: PM Modi Defines New India's Stand In Stern Anti-Terror Message To Pakistan Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Ashesh Mallick Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 12:08 IST Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled his vow from a Bihar rally a day after the Pahalgam terror attack and said that he has returned to the state after fulfilling his promise. PM Modi recalls his promise from Bihar after Pahalgam terror attack (CNN-News18) Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted this famous line of Lord Ram in Bihar on Friday to say he had also fulfilled his promise made on April 24 in Bihar that India will smash the terrorist headquarters in Pakistan and reduce them to dust. Bihar is the first state that will go to the polls in October-November this year, post-Operation Sindoor. Being a Hindi-speaking state in the heartland, the resonance of Operation Sindoor is expected to be high here with nationalism and patriotism. The NDA led by the BJP had swept all 40 seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, months after the Balakot air strike by India. In the 2020 Bihar elections, the BJP had emerged as the single-largest party in the state with 80 seats. Recommended Stories On Thursday, the PM took out a big road show in Patna and the BJP put up big hoardings saying Jo Sindoor Mitane Nikale The, Unhe Mitti Mein Milaya Hai and Na Desh Jhukega, Na Bihar Ka Vikas Rukega. The party is clearly taking Operation Sindoors message to Bihars people. PM returned to Bihar with a massive rally in Karakat, exactly 35 days after his rally in Madhubani, when he promised a strong response against Pakistan post the Pahalgam terror attack. The PM reminded the crowd of the same, saying how he has fulfilled the vow he made. Lord Rams line was that a promise once made, it will be fulfilled. This is now a policy of the new India. In Pahalgam, the terror attack took place. Our innocent civilians were killed. I came a day later to Bihar (April 24) and I had promised to the country from the land of Bihar that the terrorist headquarters in Pakistan will be reduced to dust. I had said we will punish them beyond their imagination. Today, I have come to Bihar after fulfilling my promise," the Prime Minister said in his rally. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The PM said that those who wiped out Sindoor, our forces had reduced their headquarters to dust. Pakistan has seen the power of the sindoor of our women. Terrorists thought they were safe in the shelter of the Pakistan Army. We brought the Pakistan army to its knees. We destroyed their air bases and military installations in a few minutes. This is the new India and our strength. Pakistan should understand that Operation Sindoor is only one arrow of our arsenal. Our battle against terrorism has not ended or slowed. If again terrorist strike happens, we will destroy the snakes head," the Prime Minister said in Karakat. The NDA is a formidable caste coalition in Bihar with the BJP, Nitish Kumars JDU, and Chirag Paswans LJP in an alliance. The NDA had won 29 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar during the general elections last year. When the BJP and JDU had contested in an alliance in the 2020 assembly elections,the BJP had emerged as the single-largest party with 80 seats while the JDU won 45 seats. Nitish Kumar was made the Chief Minister, and he shifted camps to the RJD later. But he returned to the NDAs fold two years ago and has vowed to remain with NDA. About the Author Aman Sharma Aman Sharma, Executive Editor - National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Ministers Office.... Read More Aman Sharma, Executive Editor - National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Ministers Office.... Read More Location : Bihar, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 11:46 IST Thane Engineer Held For Spying Provided Data On Warship, Submarines To Pakistan Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 23:04 IST Verma's employment as a junior engineer with a defence technology firm granted him access to the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai. Verma was lured into passing information (Representative image) Amid Indias crackdown on terrorism, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested a Thane-based engineer for providing sensitive information about warships and submarines to a Pakistani intelligence operative. The accused shared information using sketches, diagrams, and audio notes in exchange for money. Identified as 27-year-old mechanical engineer Ravindra Verma, the resident of Kalwa was arrested on Wednesday. The police investigation revealed that Verma knowingly and repeatedly provided sensitive information. Recommended Stories In exchange for the information, he received money from various bank accounts from India and abroad," an official told PTI. Police also revealed that Verma was lured into passing classified information after being honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent posing as a woman on Facebook. Vermas employment as a junior engineer with a defence technology firm granted him access to the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai. To provide the information, he would board naval ships and submarines. It is suspected that Verma shared the names of these vessels with the Pakistani agent. During his visits to the Naval Dockyard, he was not allowed to carry a mobile phone inside. Therefore, after finishing his work there, he used to share sensitive information about warships and submarines by making sketches or diagrams. Sometimes, he would also share information through audio notes," the official added. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Verma had been in contact with the Pakistani agent since 2024 after receiving Facebook friend requests from accounts named Payal Sharma and Ispreet. Both agents pretended to be Indian citizens working on a project requiring information on warships. He was fully aware of his actions and the recipient of the sensitive information. He received money in exchange for providing the information," the official stated. Location : Thane, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 23:04 IST Told PM Modi That Op Sindoor Name Resonates With Us: Pahalgam Victim Shubham Dwivedis Wife Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:38 IST Aishanya Dwivedi, Shubhams wife, said the prime minister became emotional on meeting the family Aishanya Dwivedi, wife of Pahalgam terror attack victim Shubham Dwivedi. Emotions ran high in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the family of Pahalgam terror attack victim Shubham Dwivedi and shared their grief over the April 22 horror in which 26 tourists were killed by terrorists in cold blood. Recounting her meeting with PM Modi, Aishanya Dwivedi, Shubhams wife, said: The prime minister said he shares our pain. He became emotional on meeting us as he asked me about the Pahalgam incident." Recommended Stories Aishanya said she told the prime minister that the name Operation Sindoor resonates with the family as PM Modi labelled it the beginning" of the war against terror. PM Modi said hum aapse apna dukh share karte hain [we share your pain]. He also said he will meet us again in the future." ALSO READ | Wanted To Feel Him One Last Time: Dressed In Husbands Shirt, Pahalgam Victim Shubhams Wife Bids Him Goodbye Shubham, a 31-year-old businessman from Kanpur, had married Aishanya on February 12 this year. The family was on a trip to Kashmir when tragedy struck on April 22 as Shubham was the first among the 26 people shot dead in Baisaran Valley. Recounting the attack, Aishanya had said: We had just stepped out to eat some Maggi when a man approached us from behind with a gun. He asked Shubham, Are you Hindu or Muslim? The gunmen then said, If youre Muslim, recite the Kalma. And then, without warning, he shot Shubham in the head. Right in front of me." She added, He didnt stop there. He asked me too. When I said I was Hindu, he didnt shoot me. He said, You go and tell Modi what happened here. How we killed your people." At her husbands funeral in Kanpur, Aishanya, wrapped in his shirt, was a symbol of the nations grief as she bid him goodbye but vowed to keep up the fight for justice. ALSO READ | Apni Sarkar Ko Batana: Wife Of Newly Wed Kanpur Man Killed In Pahalgam Recounts Terrorists Chilling Taunt top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all As India struck terror camps in Pakistan and PoK in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack under Operation Sindoor, Aishanya, in an interview to CNN-News18 in early May, said: PM Modi and our armed forces have taken revenge for all the 26 people killed by terrorists in Pahalgam. By naming the strike Operation Sindoor, PM Modi and the forces have touched us at a personal level, as if saying that since many like me lost their sindoor [vermillion worn by married women], the fight is now personal. They took all deaths personally and attacked Pakistan." She added that she was always sure that India would avenge the deaths of innocents. We were getting a little impatient but PM Modi has shown that India has taken revenge for every single person killed in Pahalgam on April 22. I am really thankful to him and the armed forces." About the Author Apoorva Misra Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. M... Read More Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. M... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 15:16 IST Guru Arjan Dev Martyrdom Day 2025: All You Need To Know About The Fifth Sikh Guru Published By : Trending Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:30 IST Guru Arjan Dev Martyrdom Day 2025: The fifth Sikh Guru, was martyred on May 30, 1606, by Emperor Jahangir. Guru Arjan Dev Martyrdom Day 2025: Guru Arjan took over as the Sikh Guru in 1581. (File Pic) Guru Arjan Dev Martyrdom Day 2025: Guru Arjan Dev was the fifth Guru of Sikhism. He was born on April 15, 1563, in Goindwal, which is now part of Punjab, India. He is highly regarded for his major contributions to the Sikh faith, including starting the construction of Amritsars Harmandir Sahib, famously known as the Golden Temple. Guru Arjan took over as the Sikh Guru in 1581, succeeding his father, Guru Ram Das. Building on the foundation laid by his predecessors, he played a vital role in strengthening Sikhism. He is also regarded as the first Sikh Guru to be martyred. Recommended Stories Among his key accomplishments was the compilation of the Adi Granth, which eventually became the Guru Granth Sahib, the core scripture of Sikhism. He gathered the writings of the first four Gurus, along with selected hymns from various saints, uniting them in the Adi Granth. Guru Arjan Dev Martyrdom Day: History and Significance Guru Arjan Dev was martyred on May 30, 1606, by the order of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. While historical records vary, the most widely accepted account describe Guru Arjans arrest and brutal torture. He was taken to Lahore, where he endured severe torture, including being forced to sit on a heated iron plate while boiling sand was poured over him. Despite the immense pain, Guru Arjan Dev stayed serene and composed, reciting hymns from the Adi Granth throughout his ordeal. According to records, Jahangir viewed Guru Arjan Devs influence as a threat to imperial rule. The Guru was accused of supporting rebellious activities and aiding Jahangirs eldest son Khusrau Mirza, who had challenged the emperors authority. After being tortured for a long time, Jahangir gave Guru Arjan Dev a choice: convert to Islam or be killed. The Guru stayed strong and did not give up his faith. He was put to death. Guru Arjan Devs martyrdom had a profound impact on history and deeply strengthened the determination of the Sikh community. It became a key turning point, inspiring Sikhs to resist persecution and injustice. This struggle eventually led to the Sikh faith becoming more militarised under the leadership of Guru Arjan Devs son, Guru Hargobind Sahib. All You Need To Know About the Fifth Sikh Guru top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Apart from compiling the Adi Granth and starting the construction of Harmandir Sahib, here are some of the most important achievements of Guru Arjan Dev: Guru Arjan Dev devoted great effort to spreading Sikh teachings. He stressed the significance of following the Gurus teachings, maintaining devotion to God, and practicing selfless service. His work helped draw many new followers. Even today, his teachings and writings remain a vital source of guidance for Sikhs worldwide. Guru Arjan Dev promoted social equality and started the tradition of langar, a community kitchen that served free meals to everyone, regardless of caste or social status. This practice encouraged unity and equality. Guru Arjan Dev actively encouraged the growth of arts, literature, and music within the Sikh community. He composed many hymns that are part of the Guru Granth Sahib. Additionally, he inspired and supported prominent musicians and poets of his era, helping to enrich and elevate Sikh cultural and artistic heritage. 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 30, 2025, 07:30 IST Maria Grazia Chiuri Leaves Dior After Nine Years, What's Next For The Luxury Brand? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:30 IST After nine years, Maria Grazia Chiuri has stepped down from her role as the Creative Director at Dior. The French luxury fashion house has not announced a successor yet. Maria ended her tenure at Dior with a grand show in Rome. French luxury fashion house Christian Diors artistic director of womenswear Maria Grazia Chiuri has officially stepped down after nine years. Her departure comes months after industry speculation. She ended her tenure at Dior with a grand fashion show that was held at the historic Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome. Taking to her Instagram, Maria Grazia Chiuri reflected on her nine-year tenure at Dior. She penned a note on her departure. She wrote, After nine years, I am leaving @dior, delighted to have been given this extraordinary opportunity. I would like to thank Monsieur Arnault for placing his trust in me and Delphine for her support. I am particularly grateful for the work accomplished by my teams and the ateliers. Their talent and expertise allowed me to realise my vision of committed womens fashion, in close dialogue with several generations of female artists. Together, we have written a remarkable and impactful chapter of which I am immensely proud." Recommended Stories Take a look at the note shared by Maria here. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maria Grazia Chiuri (@mariagraziachiuri) Maria took the creative helm at Dior in 2016 after her time at Valentino. She played a pivotal role in reshaping the houses image and offerings to better align with the lives of contemporary women. Under her direction, Dior diversified its accessories portfolio, moving beyond its long-standing dependence on the Lady Dior handbag. New icons such as the Book Tote and the Bobby Camera Bag emerged, alongside revived seasonal editions of the Saddle Bag, originally designed by John Galliano. Her creative vision extended well beyond clothing. Her shows, often held in evocative global settings like India and Mexico, celebrated artisanal craftsmanship and wove in strong feminist messaging. From the soft tailoring that subtly challenged traditional corsets to bold declarations like the We Should All Be Feminists T-shirt, her collections championed a thoughtful blend of beauty and advocacy. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dior Official (@dior) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dior Official (@dior) top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all While the brand has not officially announced its new creative director, Reuters mentioned that Jonathan Anderson is widely speculated to be the frontrunner to succeed Maria. Best known for his transformative work at Loewe, he is expected to debut as the brands menswear artistic director on June 27 at the Paris Fashion Week. This transition comes at a time when the luxury fashion industry is grappling with a global slowdown, prompting a wave of creative changes at some of its most storied houses, including Chanel, Gucci, and Balenciaga. While Chiuris next chapter remains under wraps, she continues to invest in the arts. Currently, she is dedicating her efforts to restoring Romes Teatro della Cometa, a historic 233-seat theatre she acquired in 2020, signalling her enduring commitment to culture and craftsmanship beyond the runway. 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! Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 10:30 IST Victorias Secret Website Disrupted by Cybersecurity Incident, Here's What We Know Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 09:15 IST Victoria's Secret website continued to remain offline after a 'security incident.' As users worry about their customer data, here's what we know so far. Physical stores remain open despite online disruption. One of the global leaders in lingerie retail, Victorias Secret, suddenly closed its website on Wednesday after it was hit by a cyberattack. The website remained offline even on Thursday, and users took to the brands social media platform to express their disappointment. Following the security breach, the company proactively disabled its website and some in-store services, stating that teams are working diligently to bring systems back online. Taking to their Instagram, Victorias Secret shared a note for their customers yesterday. The note read, Valued customer, we identified and are taking steps to address a security incident. We have taken down our website and some in-store services as a precaution. Our team is working around the clock to fully restore operations. We appreciate your patience during this process. In the meantime, our Victorias Secret and PINK stores remain open, and we look forward to serving you." Users visiting the site are also met with the same statement. Recommended Stories View this post on Instagram A post shared by Victorias Secret (@victoriassecret) As reported by the New York Times, Victorias Secrets physical stores continue to serve customers without interruption as online operations remain affected. By Thursday morning, the retailers shares had dropped by 8% since Tuesday, reflecting investor concerns. Although the company hasnt specified when the breach occurred, signs of the disruption began surfacing earlier in the week. The source of the cyberattack on the Ohio-headquartered brand has yet to be identified. Many users took to social media to tweet about the website being inactive for several days. victorias secret it department rn pic.twitter.com/HiCeke4qD0 stella (@EMBRIOCHE) May 27, 2025 No one is talking about Pink and Victoria secret site being down, the cute panties are inaccessible, and I cant use my points!! pic.twitter.com/kz4JqiCZ8r wanwan ???? Vtuber (@wanwanwoof) May 28, 2025 Youre laughing? The Victorias Secret website has been down for days due to a cyber attack and youre laughing? ayesha (@beautiful_hag) May 29, 2025 top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Victorias Secrets digital storefront has been notably absent for several days, raising speculation about a potential ransomware incident. While the company has not confirmed the nature of the disruption, such prolonged outages often point to cyberattacks, leaving millions of customers across the globe uncertain about their customer data on the brands server. This development follows a string of similar attacks targeting major U.K. retailers, including Marks & Spencer, the Co-Op, and Harrods. Now, it appears the iconic lingerie brand may be facing a comparable cybersecurity challenge. Founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond in San Francisco, Victorias Secret is one of the leading retailers of lingerie, clothing, and beauty products. From bras and underwear to fragrances and loungewear, the brand is best known for its glamorous image, iconic fashion shows, and wide range of products. The brand has become a cultural phenomenon through bold marketing and supermodel-led campaigns. While it has faced criticism and evolving market pressures in recent years, it continues to remain a prominent name in the global fashion and lingerie industry, now focusing more on inclusivity and modern branding. 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! Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:15 IST World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Symptoms And Causes You Must Be Aware Of Published By : Trending Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:20 IST World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: MS affects millions globally and remains a chronic, often disabling disease surrounded by stigma and misunderstanding. World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: The day encourages people to accept and support those affected by multiple sclerosis. (File Pic) World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Observed globally on May 30 every year, World Multiple Sclerosis Day is a dedicated healthcare awareness event. Its primary goal is to highlight the significant financial, social, and cultural challenges faced by individuals affected by multiple sclerosis. Beyond raising awareness, the day emphasises the importance of fostering inclusion, acceptance, and comprehensive support for people living with this chronic neurological condition, encouraging communities and policymakers alike to promote understanding and improve the quality of life for those impacted. Recommended Stories World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: What Is Multiple Sclerosis (MS)? Multiple sclerosis (MS) is among the most common disorders impacting the central nervous system. According to the World MS Day website, the estimated number of people living with MS worldwide is approximately 2.9 million. MS is characterised as an inflammatory disease that causes demyelination. It affects a fatty substance called myelin, which normally surrounds and protects nerve fibres. The loss of myelin disrupts the nerves ability to transmit electrical signals to and from the brain effectively. Common symptoms of MS include blurred or disoriented vision, tingling sensations in the limbs, tremors, memory difficulties, and persistent fatigue. World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Theme The theme for World MS Day from 2024 to 2026 is focused on diagnosis. The campaign is titled My MS Diagnosis, with the tagline Navigating MS Together, emphasising shared support and understanding throughout the diagnosis journey. The My MS Diagnosis campaign promotes the importance of early and accurate diagnosis for all individuals living with multiple sclerosis. It sheds light on the worldwide obstacles faced in diagnosing MS, aiming to increase awareness by sharing authentic personal stories and relevant data from around the globe. World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: History And Significance Founded in 2009, the first World MS Day was initiated by the MS International Federation (MSIF), a distinctive global network comprising various MS organisations. This federation offers support to individuals affected by multiple sclerosis through a dedicated team of staff and volunteers around the world. The MSIF includes representatives from many countries, such as Greece, Argentina, Australia, the United States, India, Kenya, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, and Spain, reflecting its broad international reach. World MS Day holds great significance as it offers a vital platform to educate the public about multiple sclerosis and the challenges faced by those living with the condition. MS affects millions globally and remains a chronic, often disabling disease surrounded by stigma and misunderstanding. By observing World MS Day, we help break down these barriers, promote greater empathy, and encourage stronger support for individuals impacted by MS, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and compassionate society. World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Symptoms Common symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis include: Fatigue, Weakness and numbness Loss of balance and dizziness Muscle stiffness or cramps Bladder problems Bowel difficulties Vision issues Cognitive challenges, including problems with thinking and memory. Its important to note that not everyone with MS will experience these symptoms, as the disease can vary from person to person. World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Causes The exact cause of this neurological disorder remains unclear. Multiple sclerosis can affect individuals at any age, though it is most often diagnosed in people between 20 and 40 years old. Women are two to three times more likely than men to develop relapsing-remitting MS. A family history of multiple sclerosis increases the risk of developing the disease. Certain infections, such as Epstein-Barr viruswhich causes infectious mononucleosishave been linked to MS. Additionally, factors like low vitamin D levels, limited sunlight exposure, obesity, smoking, and the presence of certain autoimmune conditions (including thyroid disease, pernicious anaemia, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes, or inflammatory bowel disease) may also elevate the risk of developing MS. World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Diagnosis To diagnose multiple sclerosis, a thorough physical examination of the patient is conducted. Doctors often recommend blood tests and imaging studies, such as MRI scans, to help detect signs of the disease. Additionally, if needed, an evoked potential test may be performed to assess nerve function by measuring the electrical activity in the brain and spinal cord, providing further insight into how well the nerves are working. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all World Multiple Sclerosis Day 2025: Treatment There are now advanced immunomodulator-based therapies available for patients with multiple sclerosis, many of which can be taken orally, making treatment more convenient. To help manage symptoms effectively, patients are also encouraged to maintain physical fitness and strength through regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle. 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 30, 2025, 07:20 IST 'Operation Sindoor Is Still Going On': Mukesh Khanna Lashes Out At Pakistan Published By : ANI Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:52 IST Operation Sindoor, initiated on May 7, showcased a calibrated, tri-services response that embodied precision, professionalism, and purpose. Mukesh Khanna speaks out against terrorism. (Photo: IMDb) Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna showed his support for Operation Sindoor and said that it has not stopped yet, and it is still going on.." He took part in the Bharat Zindabad Yatra, organised by RPI Ramdas Athawale, following the success of Operation Sindoor. The party held a rally following Indias successful campaign against terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. While participating in Bharat Zindabad Yatra, Mukesh Khanna told ANI, All Hindus across the country should do what Ramdas Athwale has done. Pakistan Murdabad should be echoed everywhere. Operation Sindoor is the answer to what Pakistan has done in Pahalgam." Recommended Stories Operation Sindoor has not stopped yet, and it is still going on There is a lot to do. If you achieve one thing, that is, the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, everyone will praise you," he added. On questions raised by opposition leaders, he said, Id say they are not patriots They have to speak against whatever the BJP does Vo log murkh hai jo keh rahe Operation Sindoor nahi hona chahiye tha (Those are idiots who are saying that the Operation Sindoor should not be done).." 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 confirmed nine major camps that were eventually targeted in the operation. Indias 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 Indias 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. 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 30, 2025, 10:52 IST Suniel Shetty Calls Paresh Rawal 'Wonderful Human', Wishes Him On Birthday Amid Hera Pheri 3 Row Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 11:53 IST Paresh Rawal announced his exit from Hera Pheri 3 earlier this month. It was said that the actor left the film due to creative differences. Suniel Shetty sends birthday wishes to Paresh Rawal. (Photo: X) Suniel Shetty took to his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday to send birthday wishes to Paresh Rawal. The actor dropped a throwback photo with Rawal and heaped praises on him. Shetty called Rawal a wonderful human" and shared that he has the utmost love and respect for him. To the man Who is a powerhouse of both Wit & Wisdom and an even more wonderful human being. Happy happy birthday Pareshji. Much love and respect always. @SirPareshRawal," he wrote. Recommended Stories To the man Who is a powerhouse of both Wit & Wisdom and an even more wonderful human being.Happy happy birthday Pareshji. Much love and respect always. @SirPareshRawal pic.twitter.com/KRDP0kSCql Suniel Shetty (@SunielVShetty) May 30, 2025 Interestingly, this comes days after Paresh Rawal announced his exit from Hera Pheri 3. It was said that the actor left the film due to creative differences. However, Rawal later took to his X handle and clarified, I wish to put it on record that my decision to step away from Hera Pheri 3 was not due to creative differences. I REITERATE THAT THERE ARE NO CREATIVE DISAGREEMENT WITH THE FILM MAKER. I hold immense love, respect, and faith in Mr. Priyadarshan the film director." Later, Akshay Kumars production house, Cape of Good Films, has also issued a legal notice seeking Rs 25 crore in damages for Paresh Rawals sudden exit. Following this, Suniel Shetty also reacted to Rawals exit from the film and called it shocking". Its a shocker! We recently shot the promo for Hera Pheri 3, and it felt just like old times. The understanding, the rhythm between us three Akshay, Paresh, and me was still intact. Im in a state of shock," he told The Lallantop. Shetty further mentioned that he only found out about Pareshs departure through social media. I just read that Paresh ji isnt doing the film. I havent even spoken to him yet because Ive been out of Mumbai. I plan to meet him after the 23rd and understand what went wrong. Everything was on track till now," he said. Reflecting on the legacy of the franchise, Shetty stated that Hera Pheri just wouldnt be the same without the original trio. No one can play Raju like Akshay. No one can be Shyam other than me. And lets be honest Babu Bhaiya is irreplaceable. Without Paresh ji, the soul of the film is missing." 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 30, 2025, 11:53 IST 2025-05-29 10:55:10 , We spent 5 nights and 4 very busy days in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark and where Hans Christian Andersen, the author of The little mermaid and A little match girl, wrote many of his fairytales. Joy shared is joy doubled, knowledge shared is knowledge gained. Hope you dont mind me sharing some of what I saw, heard and felt during my short stay there. #1. Descendants of viking people are white and blonde, and very very tall, lots of women are 6ft (180cm) in height and men are giants! With 52 (160cm) height, I cant even reach the overhead holding bar inside the subway trains, felt like a dwarf. #2. All public washrooms are shared by all genders. Felt quite odd the first time to see both men and women in the same washroom washing hands outside the toilet booths , but one gets used to it very quickly. #3. Daylight is long and everything is very expensive there: a cup of coffee costs $10CAD, and felt cost an arm and a leg to eat a simple meal in restaurants. #4. Different from any city I have been to so far, I didnt see any panhandlers nor homeless people in streets. I was told by our walking tour guide that Denmark has very good social support system (eg. with 20%+ housing is social housing) to help its disadvantaged people. I highly admire this, as I strongly believe the measurement of advancement of a society lies not only in its GDP, but also in how well it takes care of the disadvantaged ones. Thats one of the main reasons I love and chose to stay in Canada (over US), although I must admit that Canada can't compare to the Scandinavian countries. To me, it has nothing to do with right or left wing politics, but the basic humanity. BTW, not only is tuition free, Danish people get paid about $1000US/month to study in university !!! Im not sure if Trump could match those even if he did take Greenland. #5. Bicycles, bicycles, and they are everywhere. The tour guide said 9 out of 10 people in Copenhagen have at least one bike. Many use bikes as their main transportation, and the city has built very good bike infrastructure. We were told there are even separate bike paths between towns/villages. The weather wasnt friendly, cold and rainy when we were there, otherwise I would love to bike some, rather than depending on No 11 all the time. So much to say but so little time. Have to go now, till next time Note: all pictures below were taken by my dear cellphone devil Denmark parliament building (used to be kings palace) Copenhagen city hall The little mermaid looking out to sea Danish navy on solid ground (with permission) Inside Copenhagen university old library The famous ones associated with university Copenhagen art gallery, the one we missed first An original drawing by Michelangelo Canal built using Swedish labour Bikers everywhere Expensive (+ tip) lunch in museum cafe The shared washroom A magpie outside our stay A gentle visitor who came into our stay without invitation, and spoke universal cat language with me Kamal Haasan's Thug Life Faces Ban In Karnataka Amid Kannada-Tamil Remark Row Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 16:41 IST Thug Life Ban In Karnataka: KFCC representative Sa Ra Govindu said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer, Amid Kannada-Tamil Remark Row Kamal Haasan said Kannada came from Tamil, igniting a row. (PTI) Thug Life Ban In Karnataka: Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on Friday has announced to ban actor Kamal Haasans upcoming film Thug Life" in the state. The film body announced their move objecting to the actors controversial remark about the Kannada language and his refusal to apologise over the statement. The actor and his upcoming movie came under the radar in Karnataka after the actor reportedly stated that Kannada is born out of Tamil" during a promotional event in Chennai last week. Recommended Stories KFCC representative Sa Ra Govindu said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer, expressing their solidarity with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other pro-Kannada organisations for their demands. When there is pressure, I have to do. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike were present; whatever they say, we should do it. Even they would speak about it. Definitely, there is no Sorry term being specified anywhere by Kamal Haasan. We will surely not release the film. We (KFCC) will stand with Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations," Govindu said as reported by news agency ANI. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the stakeholders from the industry, KFCC president M Narasimhalu, said the chamber office-bearers are trying to meet and talk to Kamal Haasan, adding that he should apologise if he wants the movie to be released. Many Kannada groups have demanded a ban on his movie. So, we met and discussed the matter, and weve decided that he should apologise. We agree that what he did was wrong, and we are trying to meet and talk to him," news agency PTI quoted Narasimhalu as saying Actor Jayamala, who headed KFCC between 2008 and 2010, also condemned Kamal Haasans statement and stated, Whenever there is a language controversy, all Kannadigas must unite that is our duty. Whether Kamal Haasan spoke knowingly or unknowingly, his statement was wrong. Kannada was not born out of Tamil." What Did Kamal Haasan Say About The Kannada Language? Kamal Haasan landed in a big controversy recently. The South superstar attended the Thug Life audio launch event in Chennai, where he made a statement linking the origins of the Kannada language to Tamil. Actor Shivarajkumar is my family living in another state. Thats why he is here. Thats why when I started my speech, I said my life and my family is Tamil. Your language (Kannada) was born out of Tamil. So you are included in that line," he said. The actors remarks quickly went viral and triggered backlash from pro-Kannada groups in Karnataka. They not only demanded an apology from Haasan but also a ban on his upcoming movie. On Thursday, a complaint was also filed against Kamal Haasan in Bengaluru, demanding legal action against the actor. 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 30, 2025, 15:58 IST 'Kamal Haasan Should Apologise': Karnataka Film Body Threatens Ban On Thug Life Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:17 IST Recently, a complaint was also filed against Kamal Haasan in Bengaluru, demanding legal action against the actor. In a recent interview at the audio launch of his upcoming film 'Thug Life' in Chennai, actor Kamal Haasan claimed that Tamil gave birth to Kannada. (Image: PTI/Atul Yadav) The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has demanded an apology from Kamal Haasan concerning his comments on the Kannada language. Recently, the film body asked the superstar to issue an apology by May 30 and announced that if this does not happen, they will not let Thug Life hit theatres in the state. Many Kannada groups have demanded a ban on his movie. So, we met and discussed the matter, and weve decided that he should apologise. We agree that what he did was wrong, and we are trying to meet and talk to him," KFCC president M Narasimhalu said. Recommended Stories KFCC former president Sa Ra Govindu also added, We have no sympathy for Kamal Haasan. If he does not issue a public apology today or tomorrow, we will support Kannada activists and will protest fiercely. Under no circumstances will we allow the films release unless he apologises publicly." Actor Jayamala, who headed KFCC between 2008 and 2010, also condemned Kamal Haasans statement and stated, Whenever there is a language controversy, all Kannadigas must unite that is our duty. Whether Kamal Haasan spoke knowingly or unknowingly, his statement was wrong. Kannada was not born out of Tamil." We are trying to talk to him and help him understand that his words were deeply hurtful to Kannadigas. It is his moral responsibility to apologise," she added. What Did Kamal Haasan Say About The Kannada Language? Kamal Haasan landed in a big controversy recently. The South superstar attended the Thug Life audio launch event in Chennai, where he made a statement linking the origins of the Kannada language to Tamil. Actor Shivarajkumar is my family living in another state. Thats why he is here. Thats why when I started my speech, I said my life and my family is Tamil. Your language (Kannada) was born out of Tamil. So you are included in that line," he said. The actors remarks quickly went viral and triggered backlash from pro-Kannada groups in Karnataka. They not only demanded an apology from Haasan but also a ban on his upcoming movie. On Thursday, a complaint was also filed against Kamal Haasan in Bengaluru, demanding legal action against the actor. 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 30, 2025, 07:17 IST Shilpa Shirodkar On Bond With Karan Veer Mehra, Chum Darang: We Talk Every Day Published By : Trending Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:35 IST Shilpa Shirodkar also revealed that Karan Veer Mehra enjoys rewatching random Bigg Boss episodes and often sends her clips from the show. Shilpa, Chum and Karan became friends during Bigg Boss 18. (Photo Credit: Instagram) During her stint on Bigg Boss 18, Shilpa Shirodkar formed a close bond with Karan Veer Mehra and Chum Darang. Since exiting the show, their friendship has only grown stronger, with the trio remaining inseparable. In a recent conversation, the actress opened up about her relationship with both Karan and Chum. Speaking about her friendship, Shilpa Shirodkar told Zoom, Chum and I speak practically every other day. So does Karan." Keeping the mood light, she jokingly added, But Karan is very busyyou know, hes a busy man." Recommended Stories Shilpa Shirodkar, when inside the house, would often tease Karan and Chum for their romantic inclination towards each other. When asked about being called the unofficial matchmaker of the duo, popularly known as ChumVeer, she laughed. Wondering whether she actually brought the two together, the actress said, I will do matchmaking? I didnt know this." Amid the interaction, Shilpa also showed a glimpse of a souvenir gifted to her by her friend Chum Darang. Talking about the Bigg Boss finalists sweet gesture, Shilpa added, Chum had gone to Nepal and she gifted me this thing, and she said, Maam, this is for good luck." Then came an interesting revelation as Shilpa Shirodkar shared that Karan Veer Mehra enjoys watching random Bigg Boss episodes. Thats not all. The Bigg Boss 18 winner also keeps Shilpa in the loop, often sending her clips from the show. She revealed, Karan keeps watching Bigg Boss and he keeps sending me little videos, and Im like, youre actually watching the damn episodes? I mean, he says, Yeah, and hes got commentary behind." On the work front, Shilpa Shirodkar is set to return to the big screen. She will be sharing screen space with Sudheer Babu, Sonakshi Sinha, Rain Anjali and Divya Vij in Venkat Kalyans Jatadhara. Touted as a supernatural fantasy thriller, the film also marks Sonakshis Telugu debut. It is produced by Prerna Arora, Shivin Narang, Aruna Agarwal, along with Akshay Kejriwal and Kussum Arora. 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 30, 2025, 10:35 IST Global Watch | Yunus Regimes Political Vendetta Deepens Bangladesh Crisis Written By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 11:43 IST The interim governments political vendetta has become increasingly apparent, as has the growing shadow of disapproval cast over the Yunus administration The interim government under Muhammad Yunus has faced considerable difficulties since its formation. The interim government has now been in power for nine months, yet Bangladesh remains trapped in a cycle of political turmoil and uncertainty. On one side, political parties are more fragmented than ever before, while on the other, the interim administration continues to struggle with addressing the countrys persistent socio-economic and political challenges. Although the interim government was established with broad consensus among civil society, political leaders, and the military following the mass uprising of 2024, the interim government under Muhammad Yunus has faced considerable difficulties since its formation. Indeed, much of the disorder that has engulfed the nation since last August can be attributed to the Yunus administration. While there was initial enthusiasm for a reformed Bangladesh, free from its authoritarian legacy, the interim government has largely proven to be a passive administration, repeatedly mired in controversy. Recommended Stories It could be argued that the criticisms directed at the Yunus administration originate from remnants of the deposed Hasina regime. Yunus has secured considerable support from global leaders, thereby legitimising the interim government and receiving strong endorsement primarily from Western countries in its pursuit of reforms and conduct of elections. Nonetheless, domestically, the legislative initiatives intended to implement reforms have encountered opposition not only from some of the very factions that contributed to the establishment of the interim government but also from international human rights organisations. Key legislative measures include the Cyber Protection Ordinance, amendments to the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, and the Anti-Terrorism Act. The state of media freedom in Bangladesh remains deeply concerning, with numerous reports of violence, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of journalists and media outlets. Often these outlets are being accused by the interim government as collaborators with the Awami Leaguecontradicting its commitment to uphold press freedom. The introduction of the Cyber Protection Ordinance, which replaced the contentious Cyber Security Act (CSA), quickly sparked apprehension regarding the governments surveillance practices under the guise of enhancing cyber security. Organisations such as Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) criticised the ordinance for being approved without adequate public consultation and for retaining CSAs surveillance provisions, thereby posing a potential threat to media freedom in the future. This development coincided with the interim governments cancellation of press accreditation for 167 journalists and the filing of charges of crimes against humanity" against 25 journalists due to their alleged links with the Awami League government, provoking condemnation from human rights groups. Media freedom remains a critical concern, exhibiting patterns reminiscent of the previous administration. The most recent report by the Rights and Risk Analysis Group (RRAG), published on World Press Freedom Day 2025when Bangladesh ranked 149th out of 180 countriesrevealed that in the eight months under Dr Yunuss interim government, 640 journalists were targeted. The administrations efforts to suppress media critical of Yunus have involved not only branding them as pro-Awami League but also revoking press accreditations, resorting to violence, and levying criminal charges including money laundering, criminal offences, and terrorism. Consequently, urgent media reforms demand serious and immediate attention. The amendment of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act through an ordinance extended the powers of investigative offices to conduct searches and seize evidence without prior approval from the tribunal. Additionally, the new ordinance authorised the tribunal to freeze and confiscate the assets of the accused. More recently, a second amendment introduced provisions allowing the trial and punishment of organisations for crimes within the tribunals jurisdiction. In essence, these amendments enhanced the tribunals authority to ban organisations, confiscate their properties, and suspend their registration if found guilty of crimes against humanity. Initially, political parties were included in the ordinance, but this was subsequently removed to avoid political controversy. Nonetheless, these amendmentsparticularly the secondhave attracted significant criticism from human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), which argue that they undermine fundamental human rights. Concerns have been raised that these changes could be exploited as tools for political repression of opposition groups, lacking adequate accountability, thus posing a threat to democratic principles. The ban on the Awami League has only reinforced this scepticism. On the 11th of this month, the interim government approved the draft ordinance of the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act, introducing a new provision to prohibit activities of individuals or entities involved in terrorism, thereby granting the government extensive powers to regulate political activities. Just one day earlier, the interim government imposed a ban on the activities" of the Awami League amid increasing pressure from the Nationalist Communist Party (NCP) and Islamic parties. The ordinance, approved overnight, revised the existing Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 and was subsequently used on 12 May to officially disband the Awami League, providing a clear indication of arbitrary targeting and suppression without accountability. This action provoked widespread condemnation from foreign governments, international human rights organisations, as well as domestic political leaders and analysts. The systematic targeting of Awami League leaders, activists, and supporterswho have faced mob violence over the past nine monthshas sparked concern and criticism over the interim governments failure to prevent the countrys descent into lawlessness. Instead, through the launch of Operation Devil Hunt aimed at curbing mob attacks, the interim government appeared to be settling political scores by arresting a disproportionate number of League sympathisers. The banning of a political party mirrored the authoritarian tactics of the deposed government, now widely labelled fascist, fuelling fears of a further erosion of democratic space. Moreover, the interim governments ordinance on enforced disappearance has also faced criticism for lacking public consultation, accountability measures, and failing to address past abuses. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The interim governments recent legislative initiatives, presented as reforms, amount to little more than old wine in new bottles. While political parties in Bangladesh remain divided on the issue, international human rights organisations have been unequivocal in their criticismthese measures pose a significant threat to fundamental human freedoms. The interim governments political vendetta has become increasingly apparent, as has the growing shadow of disapproval cast over the Yunus administration. The writer is an author and a columnist. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. First Published: May 30, 2025, 11:43 IST OPINION | How Yogis UP Became New Home Of BrahMos Missiles That Destroyed 11 Pakistani Airbases Written By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:26 IST It was Yogi Adityanath, during the recent inauguration of the BrahMos Aerospace facility in Lucknow, who confirmed the use of the missile in Indias retaliatory strikes. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the inauguration of BrahMos Aerospace Integration and Testing Facility, in Lucknow. (Image: X/Yogi Adtyanath) The glistening, 28-feet long silver arrows cruised through the night air on May 9-10 at 3,600 kmph, or nearly six times the speed of normal aircraft, BrahMos emblazoned across them in blue. Fifteen of them crashed as giant fireballs on 11 of Pakistans 13 major airbases, crippling the countrys air defence network and military infrastructure. All that remained were runways pockmarked with craters, ashes of air defence radars and equipment, and a nation scampering to save its nuclear facilities from further hits. Recommended Stories The BrahMos, dispatched to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, left Pakistan in a muted scream, a thousand kilometres from its new home, the Sarojini Nagar defence production unit in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. UP under CM Yogi Adityanath is the newest birthplace of Asias most dreaded ballistic missile. It was Yogi, during the recent inauguration of the BrahMos Aerospace facility in Lucknow, who confirmed the use of the missile in Indias retaliatory strikes. If you didnt witness the BrahMos in action, ask the people of Pakistan," he said with a smile. The announcement was made at a high-profile event the inauguration of the BrahMos production unit in Lucknow. It was a carefully timed disclosure to bring into sharp focus not just Indias rapidly growing military might but also UPs role in defence manufacturing. BrahMos is a long-range supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia. Its Fire-and-Forget principle, two-stage propulsion system, stealth features, and advanced guidance technology make it extremely difficult to detect or intercept. Depending on the mission, the missile can carry warheads of up to 300 kg and can fly barely 10 metres from the ground and as high as 15 km. Naturally, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 announced two Defence Industrial Corridors one in Uttar Pradesh and the other in Tamil Nadu BrahMos was a key component of the plan. These corridors are part of the Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives aimed at reducing Bharats past dependence as the worlds largest importer of arms. Uttar Pradesh was chosen because of its enormous population, bustling economy, and existing manufacturing capabilities, particularly in medium, small and micro enterprises. Its central location, infrastructure, and connectivity make it easy to access supply chains in defence production. Then there is a preponderance of skilled labour available for large-scale manufacturing. The Yogi Adityanath government also offers incentives and subsidies to draw investment, including tax benefits and land cost rebates. The six designated nodes of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor include Lucknow, Kanpur, Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, and Chitrakoot. The new BrahMos Aerospace facility in Lucknow has been built on 80 hectares provided without cost by the state with a total investment of Rs 300 crore. The BrahMos Aerospace Unit in Lucknow includes a precision casting plant for critical components of jet engines and aircraft systems; a forge shop and mill products plant for titanium and super alloy bars, rods, and sheets; a precision machining shop which is Indias first indigenous plant for titanium and super alloy metal powder production; the Stride Academy for practical training in defence and aerospace tech; and an R&D centre for indigenous technology development and material innovation. So far, 57 MoUs have been signed, with a proposed investment of nearly Rs 30,000 crore. The target is to raise Rs 50,000 crore and create a lakh jobs. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all While the BrahMos is doing its job, the destructive and creative power of the Indias defence manufacturing idea is the real weapon. Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. First Published: May 30, 2025, 10:26 IST Indus Waters Treaty: Implications of Indias Notice to Pakistan Curated By : Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:30 IST Some reports have hinted at Pakistan not responding to Indias notice, after the mandated 90-day period. But for how long? Will that position be tenable, sustainable and eternal? We seem to be heading for Indus Waters Treaty 2.0, a newer version, after India sent a notice to Pakistan on January 25, 2023. (PTI Photo) We seem to be heading for Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) 2.0, a newer version, after India sent a notice to Pakistan on January 25, 2023. The Indian side has neither released, nor leaked, the contents of the official notice. The Pakistan government, too, has kept silent so far, preferring to choose discretion over valour and has not released the notice in the press either. However, some articles have started appearing in the newspapers of both countries regarding the notice. If we scan the Pakistani press and read their leading newspapers like Dawn, The News International, The Friday Times etc, we find that they have started discussing the treaty, the implications of Indias notice and what it can mean for Pakistan. The point being made repeatedly in most papers is that the treaty cant be changed, in a very unconvincing manner. Recommended Stories Saving the IWT, Weaponising water warfare and Indias notice are just three of the headings that appeared in Pakistani papers during the past few days. In an article in Dawn, published on February 18, Pakistans former Law Minister Ahmer Bilal Soofi said, Article 12(3) of the treaty allows the treaty to be modified and Article 12(4) allows it to be terminated but only by agreeing to another stand-alone treaty." This is the crux of the matter, that the treaty can be amended under Article 12 (3). However, the prevailing narrative about the treaty, carefully constructed by Pakistan and its lackeys, is that the treaty is eternal and cant be changed. It is such a falsehood that it needs to be dismissed out of hand and thrown into the dustbin straightaway. By now, we all know that Indias notice has been sent under Article 12 (3). What does this article say? We hereby reproduce verbatim what Article 12 (3) reads. It says: (3) The provisions of this Treaty may from time to time be modified by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two Governments. From a cursory reading, it thus becomes clear that the treaty can not only be amended, but repeatedly (from time to time), by mutual consultations. It is a different matter that right from its signing on September 19, 1960, till January 25, 2023, a period of over 62 years, India never even once evoked this article and clause. This right to seek amendment has always existed specifically within the text of the treaty, clearly defined in Article 12 (3). It is Pakistans intransigence vis-a-vis different IWT provisions that has forced India to move towards a revision of the treaty. Some reports have hinted at Pakistan not responding to Indias notice, after the mandated 90-day period. But for how long? Will that position be tenable, sustainable, useful and eternal? Technically and legally, under the relevant provisions of the treaty, Pakistan has to respond within 90 days to Indias notice. The notice is truly unprecedented but the Modi government is on very sound legal and technical grounds." This is why there is hushed silence on the Pakistani side officially. In a recent article, titled Indus Waters Treaty: Opening the water front, Sushant Sareen of the Observer Research Foundation wrote that India has sound legal and technical grounds" for seeking amendment of the treaty. Incidentally, the Preamble of the treaty says that it is being signed for attaining the most complete and satisfactory utilisation of the waters of the Indus system of rivers" and in a spirit of goodwill and friendship." This goodwill, friendship, and spirit of cooperation that the Preamble talks of are empty words today because of Pakistans behaviour over the last six decades. Article 12 is titled Final Provisions" and has four clauses. We reproduce it verbatim hereunder. This Treaty consists of the Preamble, the Articles hereof and Annexures A to H hereto, and may be cited as The Indus Waters Treaty 1960." This Treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged in New Delhi. It shall enter into force upon the exchange of ratifications, and will then take effect retrospectively from the first of April 1960. The provisions of this Treaty may from time to time be modified by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two Governments. The provisions of this Treaty, or the provisions of this Treaty as modified under the provisions of Paragraph (3), shall continue in force until terminated by a duly ratified treaty concluded for that purpose between the two Governments. What is the cause for Indias apparent anger for seeking modification of the treaty? If truth be told, it is Pakistans fancy interpretation of the written word under Annexure D of the treaty. Incidentally, this Annexure D deals with the Generation of Hydro-Electric Power by India on the Western Rivers. It is Pakistans objections to the 330 MW Kishenganga and 850 MW Ratle Hydro Electric Project, located on river Chenab, which have precipitated matters. What is the mechanism to resolve any issues that the two sides may face? Well, this is defined under Article IX of the treaty wherein procedures for Settlement of Differences and Disputes" have been given. It is a step-wise escalation that the treaty talks of. Initially, the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), comprising Indus Commissioners of the two nations, come together and try to resolve a question. If they fail, it escalates to become a difference, as per the treaty. The difference is then sent to a Neutral Expert (NE) who hears arguments from both sides and tries to settle the issue at stake. If the Neutral Expert fails to satisfy both parties, it escalates to the next level of being declared a dispute. A dispute is then the subject matter of adjudication by the Court of Arbitration (COA). So, broadly, it is in a linear fashion, 1, 2 and 3, that the parties should proceed. Pakistan has, however, short-circuited the entire process and invoked the jurisdiction of a Neutral Expert and the Court of Arbitration simultaneously. India has questioned this on the basis of genuine concerns regarding the outcomes. It has pointed out that the NE and COA can come to different conclusions, which may be diametrically opposite to one another. In that case, how will the issues be resolved between the two parties? Put in simple words, India has been stressing that for resolving any issues, step 1 has to be PIC, step 2 has to be NE and step 3 has to be COA, in a chronological fashion. Since Pakistan has deviated from this, India has termed it a material breach," something the former does not agree to. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all For years, we did not hear much about the IWT but it appears we will continue to hear about it from now onwards. The author is a veteran journalist from Jammu and Kashmir. Views expressed are personal. First Published: February 22, 2023, 15:55 IST Opinion | Erdogan's Gamble: Why Siding With Pakistan Is A Losing Bet Against Modis India Written By : CNN-News18 Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 20:42 IST Turkeys political alignment with Pakistan contrasts sharply with its economic interests with India There has been a clarion call to boycott travel to Turkey as Indians question the country's pro-Pakistan stand. (File image/AP) The geopolitical landscape is witnessing increasing strain between India and Turkey, driven by Ankaras persistent alignment with Pakistan. While historical ties once facilitated cooperation, Turkeys vocal support for Islamabad, coupled with the use of Turkish drones by Pakistan in cross-border attacks, has severely deteriorated bilateral relations. Ankaras strategy, aimed at bolstering its influence in the Islamic world, is an ill-advised gamble. Continued economic engagement with India would be far more advantageous than its current political posturing. However, Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems bent on destroying ties, especially those hard-won and easily lost. Recommended Stories Ankaras aligned stance and military complicity Erdogan has unequivocally sided with Pakistan, particularly after Indias counter-terror action, Operation Sindoor. Ankara openly condemned New Delhis military actions, labelling them provocative and a potential trigger for wider conflict. This stance is not new; Turkey has consistently supported Pakistans position on Kashmir, with Erdogan affirming solidarity with the Kashmiri brothers" in February 2025 and seeking to raise the issue globally. Such diplomatic assertiveness has emboldened Pakistan, allowing it to circumvent international scrutiny of its terror-sponsoring activities. Turkeys support has also led Pakistan to raise the Kashmir issue unnecessarily in forums such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, albeit unsuccessfully. Furthermore, this support has a military dimension. Turkish C-130 Hercules transport planes deliver military cargo to Pakistan, alongside the docking of Turkish naval vessels in Karachi. More critically, preliminary findings identified Turkish-manufactured Asisguard Songar models, or similar Turkish-origin drones, as those used by Pakistan in cross-border strikes during heightened tensions. Direct military support, along with diplomatic backing, demonstrates the depth of this partnership. Consequently, Turkey has become Pakistans second-largest arms supplier after China, marked by collaborative military projects and joint exercises. Indias strategic recalibration and countermeasures India has not remained passive. New Delhi has embarked on a strategic recalibration, deepening ties with countries that are either Ankaras regional rivals or those with which it has strained relations. This includes strengthening defence and intelligence-sharing mechanisms with nations like Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and France. Its proactive policy in West Asia, seeking robust strategic ties with key Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) players such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, also serves as a counterbalance to Turkish expansionism and its aspirations for leadership in the Islamic world. Furthermore, India views the Turkey-Pakistan axis not merely as a military threat but also as a challenge in narrative warfare and diplomatic influence. Both Ankara and Islamabad are investing in state-backed media outlets and social media campaigns to internationalise issues that India considers internal, specifically Kashmir. In response, India is enhancing its indigenous defence capabilities under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, aiming for strategic autonomy and reducing vulnerabilities to shifting geopolitical allegiances. The growing call within India for a boycott of Turkish goods and tourism reflects public anger and provides a direct economic lever against Turkeys perceived support for terrorism. The diminishing economic returns for Ankara Critically, Turkeys political alignment with Pakistan contrasts sharply with its economic interests with India. Data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) reveals that India has consistently maintained a significant trade surplus with Turkey. In FY22-23, Indias trade surplus with Turkey stood at $5.4 billion, which, while still substantial, reduced to $2.9 billion in FY23-24. From April to February in FY24-25, exports to Turkey were $5.2 billion, and imports stood at $2.84 billion, a surplus of approximately $2.7 billionan economic relationship heavily skewed against Ankara. The economic repercussions of Turkeys political choices are becoming increasingly evident. Indias overall merchandise trade with Turkey contracted to approximately 63% of FY22-23 levels by FY24-25. This decline, predating the most recent surge in tensions, reflects Turkeys souring relations with India amid Ankaras outbursts on Kashmir. Following widespread calls across India for a boycott of Turkish goods and tourism, major travel companies such as EaseMyTrip and Ixigo have advised against or suspended bookings to Turkey. Cleartrip reported a 260% rise in cancellations to Turkey within a single week. While Indias imports from Turkeyincluding mineral oil, gold, and marblerepresent a minuscule portion of its total inbound shipments, the overall trade volume, particularly Indias substantial exports of mineral fuels, auto parts, and pharmaceuticals, demonstrates that continued economic ties are far more beneficial to Turkey than its current confrontational political alignment. Conclusion Erdogans gamble of siding with Pakistan against India is fundamentally flawed. While it may serve his domestic political agenda and aspirations for regional leadership, it comes at a significant cost to Turkeys economic interests. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all India is a rapidly growing economic power with a massive market and significant geopolitical weight. It has demonstrated its resolve to counter hostile alignments through diplomatic recalibration, fiscal measures, and a robust defence posture. Turkeys trade deficit with India, coupled with the immediate and tangible impact of Indian boycott calls, shows that a continued confrontational stance offers minimal returns. For Ankara, abandoning its flawed foreign policy necessitates a pragmatic re-evaluation of its priorities. Economic prosperity through balanced relationships may ultimately yield greater dividends than a strategically ill-advised political alliance. About the Author Sohil Sinha Sohil Sinha is a Sub Editor at News18. He writes on foreign affairs, geopolitics along with domestic policy and infrastructure projects. Sohil Sinha is a Sub Editor at News18. He writes on foreign affairs, geopolitics along with domestic policy and infrastructure projects. First Published: May 30, 2025, 20:38 IST Opinion | Why India, West Must Keep An Eye On Bangladeshs Deepening Crisis Written By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 09:09 IST Shrinking democratic space, Yunus going the Jihadist way and Western powers weary of his idiosyncrasies have put Bangladesh in a spot While the Western notion may have once seen Yunus as the embodiment of Bangladeshs democratic potential, his sidelining reflects not just personal fallibility but erosion of an entire paradigm. (Image Credit; Rahul Sharma @CIHS) Bangladesh is in the midst of a major crisis, given the political chessboard that exposes changing power dynamics, Jihadist takeover, assertion of the military junta and people left to fend for themselves with the State giving up on governance. Its not mere domestic political reconfiguration but a crisis in the making, with both national and regional consequences. At the heart of this narrative lies decline of a figure once championed in Western capitals, Muhammad Yunus, and subdued recalibration of power that tells extensively about where Bangladesh is headed and how the world must understand this transition. Recommended Stories Yunus, once hailed as a Nobel laureate and Grameen Bank microfinance model builder, was long seen as a link with Western liberal values. But in todays Dhaka, Yunus no longer commands the stature of a unifying reformist and an elderly statesman. His legal troubles, political marginalisation and increasing distance from the countrys current power centres suggest a systemic and, perhaps, irreversible break from liberal-democratic experiment that he once symbolised. His estrangement from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), historically the principal opposition to erstwhile ruling Awami League, marks a decisive shift. Yunus even lacks institutional support from security establishments, rendering such alliances practically ineffective. A recent massive rally titled Rally for Establishing Youth Political Rights was held in Dhaka by three BNP-affiliated groups, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal, and Swechchhasebak Dal as Yunus left for a four-day visit to Japan. BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman addressed the rally virtually, criticising the Yunus-led government. Days earlier, a BNP delegation demanded an election roadmap by December and urged the interim government to avoid long-term policy decisions, especially on issues like the Rohingya corridor and Chattogram port. The political gap left after the fall of the Awami Leagues unquestionable supremacy has not resulted in democratic transition or realignment of democratic forces. Once a prominent player in Bangladeshi politics, Awami League under Sheikh Hasina has been accused of authoritarian drift, methodical repression of opposition and getting alienated from voters. The conditions are ripe for alternative centres of power to emerge, not necessarily from existing political formations but actors whose influence is wielded from behind the veil of legitimacy. One such actor is Bangladeshi military that has distanced from Yunus. The current climate indicates its willingness to fill the power vacuum. Words and postures emanating from within the army reflect displeasure with both existing political leadership and personalities like Yunus who are frequently portrayed as associated with Western liberal objectives. The militarys reluctance to re-embrace Yunus reveals a deeper strategic concern: aligning too closely with an internationally admired but locally polarising individual risks alienating burgeoning nationalist sentiments and undermining internal cohesion. Compounding the uncertainty is re-emergence of hardline Islamic factions, particularly the Jamaat-e-Islami, long banned but far from being irrelevant. In times of institutional fragility, such groups often find space to maneuver, projecting themselves as defenders of moral order and religious authenticity. Their attempt to call the shots" politically, often through proxies and sympathetic networks, is no longer a fringe development but a potential axis of influence, especially in disenfranchised and conservative constituencies. Under the guise of populism and faith-based legitimacy, ideological extremists are bound to acquire traction due to the Awami League and BNPs combined weakness or non-existence in political arena. In this calculus, pro-democracy actors, while vocal and active, remain largely performative in impact. The civil society fabric of Bangladesh, which once brimmed with journalistic bravery, legal advocacy, and grassroots mobilisation, now finds itself overpowered by a combination of state repression, media censorship and judicial intimidation. Though aligned ideologically with purported liberal reformists such as Yunus, these elements are neither organised nor empowered to counter the influence of either the security apparatus or resurgent Islamist formations. Individuals who are more concerned with maintaining institutional or ideological domination than with preserving democracy are increasingly filling the gap left by middle-ground political participation. From a geopolitical standpoint, these internal realignments have not escaped the attention of regional and global powers. United States, under shifting administrations, has shown signs of strategic disinterest in Yunus continued involvement in Bangladeshi politics. At the same time, US seems to be investing in other forms of influence projection, most notably through declaration of interest in Saint Martins Island, a location with increasing significance due to its naval and logistical potential. Although formally within Bangladeshi territory, US maneuvers signal a willingness to challenge regional hegemonies through presence rather than partnership. Interestingly, the Bangladeshi armys own worldview appears increasingly decoupled from traditional alignments. While military engagement with China continues through defence procurements and limited logistical cooperation, the army remains skeptical of Pakistan, a country with which historical scars and ideological differences remain deeply etched. Since New Delhi is well aware of Pakistans ongoing attempts to retain influence in Dhaka through both ideological and illegal means, this suspicion may be a means of fostering understanding with India. Indias own perspective on these developments is complex and evolving. New Delhi has traditionally favoured stability over unrest in its eastern neighbourhood. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has, however, articulated concerns about Bangladeshs vulnerability to becoming a chokepoint, a potential Chicken Neck" in a broader strategic contest involving China, US and radical Islamic networks. The parallel highlights a concern about Indias own strategic bottleneck, the Siliguri Corridor, and how instability in Bangladesh could lead to logistical and security issues in the northeast. Indian engagement, therefore, is not only about diplomatic alignment but about protecting crucial linkages and resisting Chinas growing influence. The present course of Bangladesh raises uneasy concerns for democracies in the West. Common trends that are frequently disregarded in favour of short-term strategic collaboration or economic stability include the emergence of hardline forces, dwindling liberal voices and the assertion of military prerogative. If these trends are not addressed, they run the risk of combining to create a hybrid system characterised by latent volatility, ideological control, and selective pluralism that is neither wholly dictatorial nor democratic. For policymakers in Washington, Brussels, and London, this may mean rethinking how democracy promotion is operationalised in South Asia, especially in contexts where soft power tools have diminishing returns. In conclusion, Bangladesh is not merely walking away from Muhammad Yunus; it is veering into a new, uncertain terrain where democratic backsliding, militarised governance and ideological radicalism intersect. While the Western notion may have once seen Yunus as the embodiment of Bangladeshs democratic potential, his sidelining reflects not just personal fallibility but erosion of an entire paradigm. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The future of Bangladesh, therefore, cannot be defined by nostalgia for liberal reformers or blind faith in electoral processes. It must be understood through the lenses of power, identity, and regional consequence. And as the lines harden between secularism, Islamism, militarism, and populism, the West, and particularly India, must engage not with illusions, but with clarity and foresight. The author is a doctoral fellow at Amity University in Gwalior and content head at Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. Location : Dhaka, Bangladesh First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:09 IST AAP's Lone J&K Legislator Booked By Police For 'Threatening, Abusing' Woman Doctor Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 17:19 IST The doctor from Doda accused AAP's J&K chief Mehraj Malik of using social media to publicly issue threats and make abusive, gendered, and derogatory remarks against her The complainant requested the police to take cognisance of her allegation that the accused repeatedly used derogatory words against her in his social media live videos. Pic/Facebook Police have registered an FIR against Mehraj Malik, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of AAP and the partys lone MLA in the union territory, for alleged defamation, criminal intimidation, and insulting the modesty of a female doctor in Doda district. The FIR was filed following a complaint from an associate professor at a medical college who accused the Aam Aadmi Party MLA of using social media platforms to publicly issue threats and make abusive, gendered, and derogatory remarks against her. Recommended Stories In a series of deeply disturbing instances, Malik has used social media platforms to publicly issue threats and make abusive, gendered, and derogatory remarks against me. Phrases such as ghaseetunga (will drag you) and will strip you naked have been used openly and maliciouslyThese are not mere wordsthey are direct threats to my dignity, safety, and professional integrity as a female doctor serving in a government hospital. These words clearly outrage the modesty of a female public servant, that too on social media," she stated in the complaint. The complainant requested the police to take cognisance of her allegation that the accused repeatedly used derogatory words against her in his social media live videos. What is even more painful is his tauntThis hospital doesnt belong to your fathera statement that not only reflects arrogance but also extreme insensitivity, considering the fact that my father passed away more than 12 years ago," she said. Additionally, the MLA allegedly entered the labour room unauthorised, accompanied by his associates, with live social media feeds running. This is a gross violation of patient privacy, especially for female staff and patients in vulnerable conditions, and poses a direct threat to our hospitals security and ethical environment. His repeated actions are deeply distressing for both the staff and the patients," she added. Malik has previously been embroiled in controversy over his use of foul language. On March 17, 2025, the court of special excise mobile magistrate, Jammu, issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him in a case filed by former minister Ghulam Mohammad Saroori for allegedly making false statements. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Malik was elected as a member of the legislative assembly for the Doda constituency in October 2024, becoming the Aam Aadmi Partys first and only winning MLA candidate in J&K. (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 First Published: May 30, 2025, 17:19 IST Hilarious: BJP Jibes At Revanth Reddys Rahul Gandhi Wouldve Taken PoK Back' Remark Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 21:01 IST Union Minister Jitendra Singh dubbed Revanth Reddy's remarks hilarious and said PoK would have existed "had Jawaharlal Nehru not been the PM of India". Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy. (File) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday hit out at Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy over his remark that had Rahul Gandhi been the prime minister, India would have taken PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) back". Union Minister Jitendra Singh dubbed his remarks hilarious" and said PoK would have existed had Jawaharlal Nehru not been the PM of India". Recommended Stories It is hilarious if any Congress leader says that if Rahul Gandhi was the PM of India, the PoK would have been Indias part. But the fact is that had Rahul Gandhis great maternal grandfather, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, not been the PM of India, the PoK would not have been today. It is the result of his actions that first, the nation was divided, then Jammu and Kashmir was divided" Singh said as quoted by news agency ANI. #WATCH | Jammu | Union Minister Jitendra Singh says, It is hilarious if any Congress leader says that if Rahul Gandhi was the PM of India, the PoK would have been Indias part. But the fact is that had Rahul Gandhis great maternal grandfather, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, not been pic.twitter.com/eo0imuzuyr ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 He further blamed the former prime minister for declaring a ceasefire during the war with Pakistan. We must not forget that when the India-Pakistan war was going on, and our forces were in a situation to win the PoK back, it was the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru who declared a unilateral ceasefire on the Akashvani without consulting with anyone" Singh said. What Revanth Reddy Said? While addressing an event in Hyderabad on Thursday, Reddy had raised questions on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called a ceasefire to the recent military operations against Pakistan without consulting political parties even though an all-party meeting was held before military strikes began. Modi is expired rupee, Modi is like a 1000 rupees invalid note. Today, this country needs Rahul Gandhis leadership. If a leader like Rahul Gandhi would have been Prime Minister of this country, then he would have taken (former PM) Indira Gandhi as inspiration and would have walked in Kaalis (Maata) way and would have made Pakistan into two parts and would have taken PoK back," Reddy had said. Reddy drew comparisons with the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhis leadership and her decisive action against China and Pakistan, including the 1971 war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Reddy said, Indira Gandhis grandson Rahul Gandhi should become the Prime Minister of this country. Only if he becomes PM, hell defeat Pakistan on one side and China on the other side and uphold our self-respect." (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 30, 2025, 21:01 IST Mamata Downplays Op Sindoor In Bengal, Abhishek Praises It Abroad: TMCs Divide & Rule Strategy Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Manjiri Joshi Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 14:36 IST Abhishek's travel abroad to burnish Indias image using Operation Sindoor and Mamata Banerjee's criticism of the action back home are part of a strategy, say political experts Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. (PTI) Even as India is revelling in the success of Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee downplayed it in a press briefing in Kolkata held after PM Narendra Modis address in north Bengal on Thursday. It was not a war, but a small skirmish", she said, to the surprise of many. Recommended Stories At a time when her party Trinamool Congresss general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is travelling abroad as part of Indias official delegation to spread the word on Operation Sindoor on a global platform, the TMC, like some other opposition parties, was expected to align with the national sentiment. However, Banerjee dismissed the military operation, questioning its name, launching personal attacks on the PM, and accusing him of indulging in war marketing". Why do Banerjees remarks matter? Because, unlike the Congress, the TMC has not been critical of its leaders representing India in delegations. TMC chief Banerjee picked Abhishek to be part of the delegation. Political analysts say this apparent contradiction is not about creating confusion, but a calculated move it is a mix of electoral-political needs and national posturing. It is also about Banerjees old-school identity politics versus Abhisheks emerging ambition for a national, centrist image, they said. Here is a breakdown of the seemingly confusing statements. WHY DILUTING OPERATION SINDOOR IS KEY TO UNDERMINING MODI With assembly elections approaching in 2026, Banerjee is back in full election mode not just as a regional leader, but as a hyperlocal tactician. The process was accelerated after PM Modis visit and address in north Bengal, invoking nationalism through Operation Sindoor. Banerjee still remembers the aftermath of the Balakot strike in 2019. Her party lost 18 Lok Sabha seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became a formidable opposition. However, since then, things have changed on political and organisational level. The TMC has regained lost ground in some regions. But a seasoned politician like Banerjee does not want to take chances. Her calculated dismissal of Operation Sindoor is not anti-national, it is pro-survival. The TMC has been losing political capital since 2019, and with the BJP making aggressive inroads in border districts and SC/ST belts, she needs to keep her core Muslim base consolidated. Her rhetoric is crafted for local consumption, not for national applause. I am glad to see all-party delegation visiting various countries as part of Indias global outreach against terrorism. As I have consistently maintained, the AITC stands firmly behind any step the Union takes in the national interest and in defence of our sovereignty. I urge the pic.twitter.com/u07Lmlt0Vc Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 23, 2025 Mamata Banerjee knows Bengal politics better than anyone else. She understands that she needs to dilute the impact of Operation Sindoor. She cannot allow Modi to dominate the narrative on nationalism and influence voters in her stronghold," said senior political analyst and author Professor Biswanath Chakraborty. In India, foreign policy and domestic electoral politics have always operated on different planes. In Bengal, even if Modi highlights Operation Sindoor and backs the BJP with funds and visibility, the party unit here still lacks the organisational depth and logistical capacity to take on the Trinamool, which remains deeply rooted across the state. So Mamata Banerjee has to concentrate on their weakness," he added. CONSOLIDATING MUSLIM SUPPORT Banerjees 2026 assembly poll campaign will rely heavily on consolidated Muslim support, as it always has. In 2021, this demographic helped her achieve an epic comeback. But politics is a rapidly changing world. With the rise of AIMIM-style parties and the BJPs targeted Hindu vote bank strategy, Banerjee knows that even a 5% dent in the Muslim vote and a minuscule swing in Hindu votes could be disastrous for her party. Hence, her statements are carefully crafted criticising the Sindoor" nomenclature (a Hindu symbol) was not accidental. It was seemingly a subtle signal to reassure her minority base that she is not endorsing a Hindu Rashtra narrative. I might differ with the ruling dispensation or the political party, I will fight with them tooth and nail. But when it comes to the national security of my country, I will stand firmly and serve towards what is in the best interest of my nation. I will not let my political pic.twitter.com/1zwqtTWgWl All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) May 28, 2025 While Abhishek travels abroad to burnish Indias image using Operation Sindoor, at home, Banerjee deconstructs it. It is not a contradiction, it is a choreographed strategy, say experts. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all I dont think there is any serious internal conflict within Trinamool Congress. Mamata and Abhishek are working in sync, managing both national and regional compulsions. The party is focused on strengthening its organisation. By July, they are planning a full-scale outreach across the state. Compared to 2019, they are better organised now. They have brought in professionals to manage social media, development messaging, and grassroots coordination without relying solely on the Chief Ministers office. In contrast, the BJP still struggles with ground-level presence and real public engagement in Bengal. That gap is widening," said Maidul Islam, professor of political science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC). When someone is part of the official delegation to talk about the countrys army operation, they naturally have to praise the operation despite being members of the opposition. However, on the home front, questions are being raised about the alleged US intervention. Meanwhile, Pakistan has also made certain moves in response. So, there is also pressure for parliamentary discussion and deliberation on the matter. Within a year or less, these issues will require official clarification both in terms of policy and public communication. Mamata Banerjee is paving that path," he added. About the Author Madhuparna Das Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa... Read More Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa... Read More First Published: May 30, 2025, 14:31 IST 'Pakistan Ke Babbar': BJP Hits Out At Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy Over Rafale Remarks Curated By : Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 11:30 IST The BJP said the Leader of the Opposition did not ask how many Pakistani airbases were destroyed or how many terrorists were killed in strikes launched by Indian armed forces BJP MP Sambit Patra The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday launched a scathing attack on Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, for questioning how many Rafale fighter jets of India were downed by Pakistan during the dogfight during Operation Sindoor. BJP MP and spokesperson Sambit Patra said the Leader of the Opposition did not ask how many Pakistani airbases were destroyed or how many terrorists were killed in anti-terror strikes launched by Indian armed forces earlier this month. Recommended Stories BJP Attacks Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy Over Rafale Remarks Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Revanth Reddy are asking how many Rafales were shot down. Yeh jo Pakistan ke Babbar hain, woh Hindustan ke Gabbar hain. Rahul Gandhi did not ask how many Pakistani airbases were destroyed, or how many terrorists were killed; rather, he only asked how many Indian planes were shot down," he said. The BJP MP from Puri suggested that Congress to stop its Jai Hind Yatra" and hold a joint press conference with Pakistan." Today, there are two factions in Congress one which supports Pakistan and the other which wants to raise voice for the country but is unable to do so because of you. Your Jai Hind Yatra looks like Pakistans Hind Yatra and you should stop this yatra and hold a joint press conference with Pakistan," he said. Revanth Reddys Controversial Remarks While addressing an event in Telangana, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy raised questions over the multi-million dollar deal with France to procure Rafale jets and asked why they got destroyed". However, the Congress leader did not provide any evidence to back his claim of Indian jets getting downed by Pakistan. Pakistan has downed Rafale fighter jets, which were brought by PM Modi, when asked how many downed? Theres no discussion. PM Modi, who purchased war fighter jets from another country, should answer how many Rafale jets have been downed by Pakistan. You have favoured thousands of crores worth of contracts to people who are close to you and purchased Rafale jets, but why did they get destroyed? You should answer this," Reddy had said. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi launched a targeted attack after External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said that India informed Pakistan after striking terror targets in Pakistan and PoK. EAM Jaishankars silence isnt just telling its damning. So Ill ask again: How many Indian aircraft did we lose because Pakistan knew? This wasnt a lapse. It was a crime. And the nation deserves the truth," Rahul tweeted. BJP Slams Jairam Rameshs Remarks On MPs During the press conference, Patra also slammed Jairam Ramesh for his remarks over the multi-party delegation and alleged that he equated terrorists with MPs". top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Jairam Ramesh, who is the right-hand of the Gandhi family, gives a statement, and he says in his statement that terrorists are roaming around, MPs are also roaming around. You have equated terrorists with MPs. MPs did not go on a tour, they went to strongly present Indias side in the world, and your MPs are also included in it", the BJP MP said. These terrorists of Pahalgam were involved in four attacks and still they are roaming around here and there. Our MPs are roaming and terrorists are also roaming," Jairam had said yesterday, sparking row. About the Author Saurabh Verma Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19 Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19 First Published: May 30, 2025, 11:03 IST TMC On Viral Cop Threat Call: We Don't Endorse Anubrata Mondal's Comments Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:04 IST TMC leader Anubrata Mondal's purported audio clip allegedly threatening a cop in West Bengal went viral. The BJP attacked the Mamata government over the matter. Anubrata Mondal's purported audio clip goes viral (PTI File Image) Trinamool Congress on Friday distanced itself from Anubrata Mondals unacceptable abusive language" used during a viral audio clip with a West Bengal police official and instructed him to tender an unconditional apology within hours; failing to do so would initiate show cause proceedings against him. The party unequivocally disassociates and does not endorse the comments made by Anubrata Mondal against a police officer. We strongly condemn his use of derogatory & unacceptable abusive language. The party hereby instructs him to tender an unconditional apology within the next four hours, failing which show cause proceedings will be initiated," TMC posted on X. Recommended Stories The party unequivocally disassociates and does not endorse the comments made by Anubrata Mondal against a police officer.We strongly condemn his use of derogatory & unacceptable abusive language. The party hereby instructs him to tender an unconditional apology within the All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) May 30, 2025 This comes shortly after the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday launched a stinging attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress after a purported viral audio clip showed Mondal allegedly threatening a police official over the phone. After the clip went viral, a case was registered against the TMC leader, who is also a former Birbhum president of the party. Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, alleged that such anti-social goons" are protected under the Mamata Banerjee government. Just listening to this viral phone conversation makes it clear how dangerous anti-social goons are being carefully protected under the loving cover of the states powerful and unchallengeable Chief Minister." The so-called tiger with its skin peeled from Birbhum, who reportedly suffers from occasional lack of oxygen to the brain listen to the language he uses while speaking to a police officer!" he posted on X, while sharing the purported audio clip. And what impact will this conversation have on the administration now that its out in public? At most, within 48 hours, either that officer will be closed (suspended) or transferred to the Sundarbans," he added. The BJP leader demanded an immediate investigation into the matter. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all BJP IT cell chief, Amit Malviya, lashed out at Mamata Banerjee over lawlessness" in the state and said that the audio clip is an evidence that women are not safe in Bengal. A TMC leader, under the very nose of a woman Chief Minister, threatens a police officer with the rape of his mother and wife. This is the real face of TMC emboldened, lawless, and shameless. If this is how they treat a police officer, imagine the plight of ordinary citizens. This unfailingly proves that women are not safe in West Bengal not under TMCs watch," he said on X. 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 30, 2025, 14:29 IST Ex-Envoy Gives Reality Check On Pakistans Nuclear Power: Forget Madrasas, 1 In 3 Kids There... Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:44 IST In the video, Hussain Haqqani pointed out his countrys priorities by highlighting the disconnect between its military ambitions and the needs of its people. A teacher speaks to students attending a class at a school in Mingora, a town in Pakistan's Swat Valley. This photo was taken on September 18, 2018. (AFP) An old interview of Pakistans former ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, has resurfaced online. The clip, from a 2013 discussion, is drawing attention at a time when Pakistan is grappling with economic instability and internal challenges. In the video, Haqqani, a longtime critic of Pakistans strategic doctrine, pointed out his countrys priorities by highlighting the disconnect between its military ambitions and the needs of its people. Half the population of Pakistan is below the age of 21. One-third of (Pakistans) young population never see the inside of any school forget about madrasas, religious schools, any school," he said. Another one-third lives below the poverty line and another one lives just above it, and yet the country has nuclear weapons," he added. Recommended Stories Haqqanis comments come back into focus amid growing tensions between India and Pakistan. A recent terrorist attack in Kashmirs Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 tourists, has strained India-Pakistan relations once again. In response, India has reviewed some of its diplomatic commitments including placing the Indus Waters Treaty under suspension. This move has serious implications as Pakistan depends heavily on the Indus River system for its water needs. With the treaty now on hold, India technically has the power to control the flow of water from six rivers. In the interview, Haqqani didnt deny the efficiency of the countrys nuclear programme. But he raised a crucial question what good is it if citizens remain poor, uneducated and insecure? We are now like the guy who keeps buying guns to try and protect himself and then says, Oh gosh, I cant sleep because Im afraid somebody will steal my guns," he mentioned. Haqqani further argued that the real threat was not external. The real threat to Pakistan essentially is from a failure to come to terms with its geography, with its history, and with having a direction for it as a nation," he added. The former ambassador called for a change in Pakistans direction similar to what former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had hoped for. We will keep the nukes, but we will eventually sign up with some kind of international agreement We are not going to live as an insecure nation," he said, quoting Bhuttos vision. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan former Ambassador to United States, very well answers why Pakistan is such a failed state."One third of Pakistan's children will never go to school. One third of Pakistan lives below the poverty line."All due to Pak Military.#FailedStatePakistan pic.twitter.com/HkALwuoDYE Rashtriya Rifles (@DeltaRR2000) May 27, 2025 India not only took strong diplomatic steps after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam but also responded with military action called Operation Sindoor. Last month, the Indian armed forces launched precision strikes last month targeting nine terrorist camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). These strikes were aimed at camps linked to three major terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen. 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 30, 2025, 10:13 IST Haldi After 8 Years, Wedding After 4: This European Princess Had A Unique Indian Love Story Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:10 IST Princess Theodora married Mathew Kumar in Athens in 2024 after years of delays due to Covid-19 and her fathers death. Their wedding drew widespread attention online In 2019, they travelled to Dehradun to celebrate their traditional haldi ceremony, reflecting Mathew Kumars Indian heritage. (News18) Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark, daughter of the late King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie, was finally wed to American lawyer Mathew Kumar in September 2024, following a series of delays. The couple married nearly eight years after they first met and five years following their haldi ceremony. The couples wedding, long anticipated by royal watchers, drew significant attention, with images from the ceremony quickly going viral on social media. Recommended Stories Princess Theodora Of Greece And Denmark Born in London on June 9, 1983, Princess Theodora is the fourth of five children of King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie. Her siblings include Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, Prince Nikolaos, and Prince Philippos. She was educated at Woldingham School in Surrey and later spent a gap year at St Philips College in Alice Springs, Australia. Princess Theodora went on to earn a degree in Theatre Arts from Brown University in the United States, before pursuing postgraduate studies at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Following her studies, the princess embarked on an acting career, appearing in a variety of productions, most notably in the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. Her acting credits also include Gates of Hades, Respect Greece, The Great Awakening, Blind Follow, June, The Assistant, and Little Boy. When Princess Theodora Met Mathew Kumar Theodora met Mathew Kumar, an American of Indian origin based in California, in 2016. The couple became engaged in November 2018, with the princess announcing the news on Instagram alongside a photo taken in front of Tower Bridge in London. In 2019, they travelled to Dehradun in Uttarakhand, to celebrate their traditional haldi ceremony, reflecting Mathew Kumars Indian heritage. The Grand Royal Wedding However, their wedding was postponed twice first due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and again in 2023 following the death of Princess Theodoras father, King Constantine. The couple were finally married in a grand ceremony held at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral in 2024. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all According to Hello! Magazine, ahead of their nuptials, the couple hosted an intimate dinner for close friends and family at the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. Princess Theodora, now 41, looked radiant on her wedding day, while her husband Mathew Kumar cut a striking figure. Their celebration was attended by numerous distinguished guests, including members of various European royal families, such as the Crown Prince of Serbia and marked the joyful conclusion to a long-awaited union. 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 : Dehradun, India, India First Published: May 30, 2025, 15:10 IST Woman Alleges Neighbour Masturbated While Staring At Her: I Feel Violated Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 12:23 IST While walking on her terrace, the woman noticed a man from a neighbouring building staring at her. The woman recorded videos and took photos of the man as evidence. (Unsplash/Representative Image) A disturbing incident has surfaced online in which a woman accused her neighbour of masturbating while staring at her. She shared a detailed account of the traumatic experience on Reddit, along with photos of the man in question. In her post, the woman recounted how she had stepped onto her terrace one evening for some fresh air while on a phone call. She noticed a man in a neighbouring building fixating on her without blinking, which immediately made her feel uneasy. Recommended Stories So this evening, I went up to my terrace for some fresh air while I was on a phone call. I noticed a guy from the neighbouring buildingsomeone I dont knowjust staring at me. At first, I brushed it off, thinking maybe it was random. But he kept staring without even blinking, and I started to feel uncomfortable," she wrote. She tried moving to another spot to avoid his gaze, but the mans behaviour worsened. I noticed he had gotten down on his knees and started masturbating while still looking directly at me," she added. Although shocked and in disbelief, she managed to capture videos and pictures as evidence. At first, I was in disbeliefI couldnt fully process what was happening. But then I realised exactly what he was doing, and I managed to take a video and click some pictures as evidence. The entire time, he didnt stop staring at me," she said. The woman stressed that she was fully clothed and simply seeking a moment of peace on her terrace. The mans actions left her feeling disgusted, violated, and scared." She also expressed hesitation about informing her family, fearing they might respond with overprotectiveness and restrict her freedom rather than addressing the real issue. I honestly dont know how to react. Im afraid to tell my family because I know theyll get overprotectivenot blaming me, but maybe asking me not to go to the terrace alone again or restricting my freedom out of concern," the woman continued. She also fears the man now knows where she lives and doesnt want police involved right now. But she also wants to make sure the situation doesnt go ignored. She mentioned having the mans house address and video evidence, but does not know his name. What action can I take thats safe, discreet, and effective? Has anyone faced something like this? Any advice would really help," the woman concluded. The Reddit community strongly urged her to report the incident. They warned that staying silent might only encourage the man to repeat such behaviour. One user commented, Definitely not his first time. If you dont report now, hes gonna do worse to other women because he has not faced any consequences for his acts." Another said, Report to the police asap, thats a potential rap*st right there." Someone advised, First, tell your family and then that creeps family. If you ignore this, you are indirectly encouraging him. lease report." The saddest part is people being more afraid of their families finding out about the issue than the issue itself," an individual said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A Redditor claiming to be a lawyer explained that since the man was on his own property, pressing charges like outraging modesty" or obscenity" could be difficult legally. If he is within the confines of his home, he can argue that he was doing an act in his home where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, it is a highly technical argument, but ultimately he will be let go," the user continued. But they still encouraged her to go to the police. Even if the punishment is minimal, the legal process itself can serve as a strong warning. The process is the punishment," the user noted. 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 30, 2025, 12:23 IST 'One Step At A Time': Canada Foreign Minister Anita Anand Says India Ties Will Be Repaired Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 09:38 IST India-Canada ties hit an all-time low during Justin Trudeau's tenure after he accused India of being involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand says Canada willing to improve ties with India (Reuters Image) Days after her telephonic conversation with Dr S Jaishankar, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand on Thursday (local time) said that Ottawa looks forward to rebuilding its ruptured ties with New Delhi and it is taking one step at a time" in that direction, according to a report. Mentioning the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 the blame of which was brazenly put on India by then prime minister Justin Trudeau, leading to India-Canada ties hitting an all-time low Anand said that while the investigation into the case is underway, the Mark Carney government aims to rebuild a partnership with the Modi government. Recommended Stories The India-Canada ties suffered a major blow in September 2023, when Trudeau accused India of playing a role in the killing of the Khalistani terrorist, who was a Canadian citizen. He claimed that he had credible allegations" of the involvement of Indian government officials in Nijjars death. India denied the baseless allegations. These tensions led to reciprocal expulsions of diplomats, a freeze on trade negotiations, among other steps. Around 20 months since this diplomatic fallout, the ambassador-level posts in each others nations still remain vacant. Anand spoke to her Indian counterpart, Jaishankar, on Sunday and discussed strengthening Canada-India ties". When asked if she believed that the conversation would lead to the appointment of new high commissioners between the two countries, Anand said that they are taking one step at a time". We are certainly taking it one step at a time. As I mentioned, the rule of law will never be compromised, and there is an ongoing investigation regarding the case that you mentioned," she said in an interview, while referring to Nijjars murder, The Globe And Mail reported. At the same time, we are looking forward to continuing to build this partnership, and were looking forward to that as a government its not just me. Its part of the process of diversifying our relationships and building relationships around the world," the Foreign Minister added, indicating the countrys efforts to diversify trade away from the United States which has threatened Canadas sovereignty under President Donald Trump. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all According to Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, India is important to Canadas economic interests. He said that he plans to travel to India in July to set the stage to prepare for a bigger business trade delegation, which could take place either this fall or early next year, The Globe And Mail reported. You cant have an Indo-Canadian strategy without the Indo, and at some point in time, a mature democracy dealing with another mature democracy finds a way to deal with difficult situations," he said. 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 : Ottawa, Canada First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:26 IST 'It's Only The Beginning': Elon Musk Departs DOGE Role, Donald Trump Predicts His Comeback Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 31, 2025, 00:08 IST US President Donald Trump on Friday praised Elon Musk, calling him a "great man," as the Tesla CEO concludes his official government service to DOGE US President Donald Trump with Elon Musk | File Image/AP US President Donald Trump on Friday praised Elon Musk, calling him a great man," as the Tesla CEO concluded his official government service after four turbulent months leading the Department of Government Efficiency. During a press conference with Musk beside him, Trump hinted at the Tesla CEOs potential return to the DOGE role but expressed gratitude for his time as a Special Government Employee. Recommended Stories Today is about Elon. He is a great man. We appreciate him as he has worked tirelessly. DOGE is all about being smart," said Trump during the briefing. I have a feeling that Elon is not really leaving. I think he will be back. DOGE is his baby. However, I want to thank him for his time as a Special Government Employee," he added. Musks resignation follows his strong criticism of Trumps proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which he called a massive spending bill" that would undo the fiscal reforms he implemented under DOGE. His departure also brings to a close his 130-day tenure as a special government employee. This is not the end of DOGE but only a beginning. My time has come to an end but DOGE will become stronger with time," said Musk during the press briefing with Trump. I will continue to be visiting here and be a friend and advisor to the President," he added. On Thursday, Musk thanked President Trump for providing him the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending". top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025 Musk served in a temporary capacity under Trump as a prominent and influential special government employee" following his contribution of more than $250 million to support the presidents election campaign. Location : United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 23:43 IST Elon Is Terrific: Trump Announces Joint Conference In Oval Office On Musks Last Day Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:34 IST Musk's departure from the DOGE follows his public expression of disappointment with the US administration's legislative agenda, specifically a bill dubbed the "big beautiful bill". Reports suggest that Donald Trump has acknowledged Elon Musk's diminishing role, telling his inner circle that he would be stepping back from his advisory position. (Image Credit: Reuters) As billionaire Elon Musk quits the US administration, President Donald Trump announced that hell hold a press conference" with Musk in the Oval Office on Friday (EST) to mark his last day in the administration. Trump stated that Musk will depart on Friday, but not really, because he will always be with us, helping all the way." Recommended Stories In a post on Truth Social, the US President said, I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will always be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House." Earlier on Wednesday, Musk used his social media platform X to thank President Trump as his tenure as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency concludes. Musks appointment as a special government employee" allowed him to work for the government for 130 days a year. Starting from Donald Trumps inauguration on 20 January this year, Musks term would naturally end by the end of May. Expressing gratitude to Trump for the chance to reduce wasteful spending, Musk voiced optimism for the agencys future, stating that cost-cutting would become a way of life throughout government." As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," he wrote on X, adding that the agency would only strengthen over time." Musks departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) follows his public disappointment with the Trump administrations legislative agenda, particularly a bill referred to as the big beautiful bill." This bill combines tax cuts with stricter immigration enforcement, which Musk criticised as a massive spending bill" that could increase the federal deficit and hinder DOGEs efforts. I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful," Musk said, adding, But I dont know if it could be both." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In response to Musks criticism, Trump defended the bill, saying, Im not happy about certain aspects of it, but Im thrilled by other aspects of it." The exact reason for Musks departure remains unclear, but mounting pressure from various sources seems to have contributed. SpaceX has experienced a series of unsuccessful launches, while Tesla shareholders have urged Musk to dedicate more time to the company. Location : United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 07:29 IST F-22 Raptor: The 5th-Gen Fighter Jet That US Won't Sell Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 17:51 IST The US-built F-22 Raptor, developed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is a top fifth-generation fighter jet with stealth, supercruise, and unmatched agility The F-22 Raptor was first tested in 1997 and officially inducted into the US Air Force by 2005. (AP Photo) In an era where warfare is increasingly defined by speed, stealth, and supremacy in the skies, fifth-generation fighter jets have become the ultimate symbols of military might. As nations race to outpace one another in aerospace technology, the United States, China, and Russia lead the charge, each wielding their own cutting-edge aircraft. But among them, one machine continues to soar above the rest, the US-built F-22 Raptor. Developed jointly by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the F-22 Raptor was first tested in 1997 and officially inducted into the US Air Force by 2005. With a minuscule radar cross-section, the F-22 is nearly invisible to enemy radar systems, allowing it to infiltrate hostile airspace undetected. Recommended Stories Powered by twin Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 engines generating a combined 70,000 pounds of thrust, the jet is capable of supercruise", sustained supersonic flight without the use of fuel-guzzling afterburners. It cruises at speeds exceeding Mach 1.5 (approximately 1,850 km/h) and can climb to altitudes over 50,000 feet. Its agility in the air is unmatched, thanks to thrust vectoring technology that allows the jet to pivot and roll with astonishing precision. In dogfights, this maneuverability makes it nearly impossible to pin down. Equipped with the AN/APG-77 radar, the jet can detect and track enemies at long range. With sensor fusion technology, it delivers a 360-degree battlefield view to its pilot, offering a critical edge in complex air combat situations. Weapons-wise, the Raptor carries a lethal mix. It can house six AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, two AIM-9 Sidewinders, a 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAM smart bomb, and a 20mm M61A2 Vulcan cannon with 480 rounds, making it equally deadly against both airborne and ground threats. The Raptor vs The Lightning Often compared with the F-35 Lightning II, another American 5th-gen stealth jet, the F-22 emerges as the purists fighter. While both share stealth features and advanced avionics, their missions diverge. The F-22 was designed for air superiority. Its faster, topping Mach 2.25 (nearly 2,700 km/h), and more agile due to its advanced thrust vectoring. The F-35, on the other hand, is a versatile, multi-role combat aircraft tailored for a broader range of missions: air-to-ground strikes, electronic warfare, and intelligence gathering. It comes in three variants for the Air Force (F-35A), Marines (F-35B for vertical landing), and Navy (F-35C for carrier operations). Though slower and less nimble, the F-35s strength lies in its adaptability and digital warfare capabilities, including its AN/APG-81 radar and Electro-Optical Targeting System. Despite its staggering capabilities, the F-22 remains exclusive to the United States. In 1998, Congress enacted a strict ban on its export, citing the need to safeguard its highly classified stealth and avionics systems. The fear? That this top-tier technology might fall into adversarial hands. Indeed, those fears werent unfounded. In 2016, China was caught attempting to steal design blueprints of the F-22, F-35, and C-130 transport aircraft. Since then, Washington has doubled down on keeping the Raptor within American borders. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Allies such as Japan, Israel, and Australia have repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring the F-22. In one case, Lockheed Martin even proposed a hybrid model combining features of the F-22 and F-35 for Japan. But concerns over cost and export laws killed the deal. Instead, the US has promoted the more widely available and export-friendly F-35, which shares some DNA with the Raptor but lacks its specialised air dominance pedigree. India recently greenlit its own 5th-gen Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme. While promising, it remains years away from operational deployment. For now, India, like many others, watches from the sidelines as the trio of aerial superpowers the US, China, and Russia unfold their futuristic wings. Location : United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 17:51 IST From Pro-Pakistan To Pro-India: Major Diplomatic Success For Shashi Tharoor-Led Team In Colombia Reported By : CNN-News18 Last Updated: May 31, 2025, 11:28 IST Colombia had previously issued a pro-Pakistan statement after Indias Operation Sindoor, which was disappointing to the Indian side Tharoor credited Milind Deora, a fellow team member, for arranging the crucial meeting with former President Cesar Gaviria, who supported Indias anti-terrorism efforts. This support has significantly altered Colombias understanding of India's perspective. Pic/News18 Indias Operation Sindoor outreach has just achieved major success in Colombia. All-party Indian delegations are currently on a mission to inform the world about Pakistans role as a terrorist state and its attempts to harm India and its civilians. The teams are travelling around the world to emphasise that India has endured Pakistani aggression for the past four decades, with the recent attack in Pahalgam being a turning point. Led by former union minister Dr Shashi Tharoor, one team is presently in Colombia. Colombia had previously issued a pro-Pakistan statement after Indias anti-terror strikes, which was disappointing to the Indian side. Tharoor addressed the media, expressing dissatisfaction with the Colombian government expressing solidarity with Pakistanis rather than the victims of terrorism. He stated, We will tell our friends in Colombia that there is no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorism and those who defend against it." Recommended Stories The Indian delegation has successfully influenced the Colombian governments stance. The Liberal Party, Colombias largest political party, is now set to condemn Pakistans terror policy and support Indias fight against terrorism. Tharoor credited team member Milind Deora for arranging the crucial meeting with former President Cesar Gaviria, who supported Indias anti-terrorism efforts. This support has significantly altered Colombias understanding of Indias perspective. Our delegation called upon #Colombias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, in Bogota as part of our #OperationSindoor delegation. She expressed her condemnation of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism & shared ways to deepen India-Colombia ties. pic.twitter.com/emlqpQvizB Milind Deora | (@milinddeora) May 30, 2025 Im also grateful to my friend and former Colombian President @CesarGaviria_T who graciously accepted my request to unequivocally condemn Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorismon behalf of Colombias opposition and the Liberal Party, the countrys largest political party. pic.twitter.com/LWhdoFtPRf Milind Deora | (@milinddeora) May 30, 2025 A source noted that this commitment from Colombias largest party has positively impacted subsequent meetings. Cesar Gavirias public statement compelled Colombias leftist, pro-China government to retract its earlier condolences for Pakistani deaths. Milind Deoras connections were instrumental in changing Colombias perception of India, said sources. Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi, a first-time Member of Parliament from TDP, praised the meeting with Cesar Gaviria, emphasising that it strengthened India-Colombia relations. Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Deora also expressed gratitude to Cesar Gaviria for condemning Pakistan and state-sponsored terrorism on behalf of Colombias opposition. The delegation includes diverse and experienced members like Dr Tharoor, Milind Deora, Tejasvi Surya, Ganti Harish, and Ambassador Taranjit Sandhu. Their collective efforts have been crucial in conveying Indias stance, said sources. Colombias upcoming role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council is strategically significant. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya highlighted this, noting that Colombias election would bolster the partnership and understanding of the security challenges India faces from cross-border terrorism. He also pointed out the potential for business and trade collaborations between the two countries, with several Indian two-wheeler companies already established in Colombia. We met with Colombias Vice Foreign Minister, Ms Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, and briefed her on the sequence of events, from the Pahalgam terror attack to Indias calibrated response under Operation Sindoor.Colombia had earlier expressed condolences over the loss of lives in pic.twitter.com/K7dflhIi7K Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) May 30, 2025 top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In a meeting with Colombias vice minister for external affairs, sources say that BJP MP Tejasvi Surya stated Colombia needs to understand the distinction between tourists killed and terrorists neutralised. Both cant be equalised. He narrated how this is the stated policy of Pakistanto bleed India by a thousand cuts. This is not guerrilla warfare. This is state-sponsored terrorism, orchestrated by the Pakistan army and ISI," he reportedly said. Surya also elaborated that India was very disappointed with the Colombian reaction. India has huge investments in Colombia and hopes to take it further. Indians dont want such a misunderstanding to come in the way of a future relationship, he said. While most delegations will return on June 3, Tharoors team will continue its mission, with upcoming visits to Brazil and a three-day stay in Washington DC to meet key figures in the US administration. First Published: May 31, 2025, 01:06 IST Laura Loomer Calls For Xi Jinpings Daughters Deportation From US Amid Student Visa Row Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 17:04 IST Spotlight turned to Xi Mingze, the daughter of Jinping after Loomer claimed that she is living in Massachusetts under heavy security. Daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Xi Mingze, and MAGA activist Laura Loomer. (Image Credit: X) American far-right MAGA activist Laura Loomer has called for the deportation of Chinese President Xi Jinpings daughter following US Secretary of State Marco Rubios announcement that the United States will begin aggressively" revoking visas of Chinese students. The US will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields," Rubio said in a post on X. Recommended Stories Rubio added that the State Department will revise visa criteria to impose stricter scrutiny on all future applications from China and Hong Kong. Spotlight turned to Xi Mingze, the daughter of Jinping after Loomer claimed that she is living in Massachusetts under heavy security. LETS GO! DEPORT XI JINPINGS DAUGHTER! She lives in Massachusetts and went to Harvard! Sources tell me PLA guards from the CCP provide her with private security on US soil in Massachusetts!" she said on X. LETS GO!DEPORT XI JINPINGS DAUGHTER! She lives in Massachusetts and went to Harvard! Sources tell me PLA guards from the CCP provide her with private security on US soil in Massachusetts! @marcorubio Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 28, 2025 Loomer declared that she intended to question Xi Mingze about her fathers policies, saying, Communists dont belong in our country." Who Is Xi Mingze? Xi Mingze has remained intensely private, with most details of her life shrouded in secrecy. She studied under a false name at Harvard University from 2010 to 2014, majoring in psychology, after previously attending Zhejiang University and the Hangzhou Foreign Language School. Who Is Laura Loomer? The 31-year-old Loomer first shot to the limelight through her far-right activism, putting forth her controversial views on Islam and her incendiary statements. According to Firstpost, Loomer ran for US Congress in Floridas 21st district in 2020, winning the Republican primary. However, she lost the general election to Democrat Lois Frankel and her subsequent bid in 2022 too was unsuccessful. China swiftly condemned the US governments visa crackdown as Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning labeled the move politically motivated" and accused Washington of weaponizing ideology under the guise of national security. The US decision to revoke visas is entirely groundless. It harms the legitimate rights of Chinese students and damages educational and cultural exchanges. China firmly opposes this move and has lodged an official protest," Mao Ning said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all International students India and China together accounting for 54% of them contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023, according to the US Department of Commerce. The Trump administration has broadened social media screening for foreign students and is pushing to increase deportations and revoke student visas as part of its broader hardline immigration strategy. 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 : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 17:04 IST LeT Terrorist Saifullah Khalid Plotting New Jihadist Front In Bangladesh, Warn Intel Sources Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Pragati Ratti Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:09 IST In his address in Pakistan on Wednesday, top LeT commander Saifullah Khalid portrayed Bangladesh as a land of oppressed Muslims and called for jihad against Hindus. Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Saifullah Khalid (Pic: X) Saifullah Khalid, a high-ranking Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and a key figure behind the Pahalgam terror attack, appeared at a public rally in Punjab, Pakistan, on Wednesday. According to top Intelligence sources, Khalids speech at the event is being seen as a blueprint for destabilisation in the region. Intelligence sources indicate that by leveraging Lashkar-e-Taibas state-supported infrastructure and the presence of Talha Saeed (Hafiz Saeeds son), Khalid aims to exploit political gaps in Bangladesh to initiate a new jihadist front. In his address, Saifullah Khalid portrayed Bangladesh as a land of oppressed Muslims and called for jihad against Hindus. His speech at the Milli Muslim League rally is considered a significant threat to Bangladesh. This threat combines ideological provocation with operational directives, as Khalid provided specific targets and advocated for jihad against India, Bangladesh, and Hindus. Intelligence sources confirm that Khalid also plans to establish terror infrastructure and a hospital in Allahabad in Pakistans Kasur, aiming to recruit Bangladeshi youth by exploiting their socioeconomic grievances. Recommended Stories Saifullah Khalids support for Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) cadres in Bangladesh was evident in his speech. Recent arrests of JMB handlers in Pakistan have revealed their involvement in operations against Bangladesh. JMB has already demonstrated readiness for cross-border collaboration by organising pro-Hamas rallies in Dhaka. Intelligence sources note that Lashkar-e-Taiba supports JMB with training, funding, and logistical aid, facilitated by the ISI. As LeTs deputy chief, Khalid provides JMB with resources for attacks within Bangladesh and against Indian interests in the region. Sources say his speech indicates that Lashkar-e-Taiba aims to position itself as a defender of Islamic identity against secular oppression. This indicates that, as ISIs auxiliary team, they are prepared to establish a new front in Bangladesh with local terror groups. What Khalid Said top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In the video widely shared on the internet, Khalid could be heard spewing venom against India, Hindus, and the Bharatiya Janata Party. He also referred to the Pakistani terrorists killed in Indias Operation Sindoor as martyrs". I was informed that there was a terrorist attack in India on April 22, and later I came to know that India had referred to me as the mastermind of the attack," Khalid said at the rally, adding, We are not going to be scared by bullet shots and firing, and we aspire to die as martyrs." Khalid is the deputy chief of LeT and is known to be close to Hafiz Saeed. reports say Khalid had reached Kanganpur in Punjab, Pakistan, two months before the April 22 Pahalgam attack, in which, 26 non-Muslim tourists were shot dead by armed terrorists after being enquired about their religion. About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 First Published: May 30, 2025, 10:09 IST Lite Beam: Will Israels New Laser Weapon Replace Traditional Missiles? | Explained Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 14:15 IST Easily mounted on Army vehicles, the Israeli laser system enhances mobile combat power. Adopting it would push India further into next-gen defence technology The Lite Beam features hard-kill neutralisation technology, which can be mounted on various military vehicles. (Representative/AP) Israel has unveiled the Lite Beam Hard Kill Neutralization System, an advanced laser weapon designed to intercept and destroy aerial threats like drones and mortars mid-air, marking a major leap in next-generation air defence technology. Building on the success of the Iron Beam laser defence, Israeli defence firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems latest innovation offers enhanced accuracy for short-range engagements. This, if acquired, may strengthen Indias defence capabilities in the face of evolving security challenges. Recommended Stories How India Can Benefit From Acquiring It The growing technological partnership and exchange of advanced weapon systems between Israel and India is playing a crucial role in strengthening regional security. With India already having acquired the SkyStriker kamikaze drone from Israel, it may now explore the possibility of procuring this laser beam technology as well. Israels new laser technology is designed to neutralise drones, mortars and small missiles mid-air. According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, the system uses a high-powered laser beam to jam and destroy enemy threats at close range with high precision. Compact and versatile, it can be mounted on standard vehicles such as a 44 jeep, making deployment quick and flexible. In addition to physical interception, the system also functions as a jammer, disabling enemy electronic equipment. Its laser beam is virtually unlimited, allowing for continuous and rapid-fire operation. How Can It Cut Costs? This laser weapon is significantly more cost-effective than conventional missile systems, offering India a way to reduce defence spending. Its ability to instantly neutralise drones and small arms threats will greatly enhance border security. The system can which can be mounted on operational Army vehicles will boost mobile combat capabilities. Moreover, adopting this advanced Israeli technology would mark another step forward for India in embracing next-generation defence systems. BrahMos, known as the P-800 Onyx in Russia, was developed through an India-Russia joint venture. In a similar way, if India co-develops Israels laser beam technology, it could lower costs and secure a significant advantage in aerial defence. What Is Israels Lite Beam? The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have, for the first time, confirmed the operational success of a newly developed laser-based defence system, capable of intercepting multiple aerial threats during the current conflict. As reported by The Jerusalem Post, the systemclosely related to the Iron Beam laser platformhas demonstrated its effectiveness in real-time combat, marking a major leap in Israels deployment of directed energy weapons. The Jerusalem Post also noted that the IDF had previously employed laser technology in operational scenarios as early as 2024, though restrictions at the time prevented public disclosure. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems showcased its latest innovations at the AUSA defence exhibition held in Washington, DC, from October 1416, 2024. Among the highlights was the debut of the Lite Beam laser interception system, integrated with the Trophy active protection system. According to The Jerusalem Post, defence sources have suggested that Israels new Lite Beam laser system is primarily designed to counter drones and potentially mortar threats, though it is not yet capable of intercepting larger threats like rockets or long-range missiles. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Sources also noted that the Lite Beam features hard-kill neutralisation technology, which can be mounted on various military vehicles. It can also function as part of Israels Drone Dome system, which combines jamming and soft-kill measures to disable aerial threats. Rafael highlighted that the Lite Beam offers key benefits such as near-instant engagement, an effectively unlimited firing capacity, and extremely low cost per usemaking it a highly efficient solution for short-range air defence. First Published: May 30, 2025, 14:15 IST Make America Tweak Again: This Trump Family Member Is Inspiring A Cosmetic Surgery Craze Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 11:13 IST Dr. Norman Rowe said he has seen a noticeable uptick in patients asking for facial features similar to Ivanka Trump. US President Donald Trump and his family. A growing number of plastic surgery patients in the United States are requesting cosmetic procedures inspired by Ivanka Trumps appearance, according to prominent surgeons in New York and Florida. Dr. Norman Rowe, a board-certified plastic surgeon operating in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach, said he has seen a noticeable uptick in patients asking for facial features similar to Ivanka Trump. Recommended Stories Were seeing as many as 15 clients a day in Palm Beach wanting the Ivanka look," he told the New York Post, referring to high cheekbones, full lips, wide eyes, and smooth, wrinkle-free foreheads- a combination some now refer to as the Mar-a-Lago Face." The demand isnt limited to younger patients as Norman noted that older clients often reference Kristi Noem, the South Dakota Governor and US Secretary of Homeland Security, as their aesthetic benchmark, praising her polished public appearance. While certain features can be replicated, Norman Rowe cautioned that results depend on a patients existing facial structure. If someone says, I want her lips or nose, we can work with that," he said, adding, But there are physical limitations. You cant completely transform someones face if the base isnt there." Dr. Mark Epstein, a dual board-certified surgeon in New York City, reported a similar post-pandemic trend, particularly after the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump. There was a noticeable increase in business and confidence," Mark Epstein said, linking the aesthetic trend to the growing visibility of Donald Trump-aligned public figures. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Surgeons say the phenomenon reflects a cultural shift in aspirational beauty within certain political and social circles. Norman Rowe said, You go to Palm Beach or the Everglades Club, and you see it a group of people who want to look polished, youthful, and visibly aligned with a certain lifestyle." 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 30, 2025, 11:13 IST Pahalgam Made Me Famous: LeT Terrorists, Pakistani Ministers Share Stage, Attack PM Modi, India Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 18:17 IST Pak's state-terror nexus: As Saifullah Kasuri boasts of fame, Talha Saeed calls Pahalgam attack drama. Minister Rasheed says Hafiz Saeed, Kasuri represent 24 crore Pakistanis" Talha Saeed (left) and Saifullah Kasuri. (X/File) Underscoring Pakistans state-terror nexus, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander Saifullah Kasuri, believed to be the mastermind of the April 22 Pahalgam attack, on Wednesday attended a rally, along with their ministers and wanted terrorists, including 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeeds son, Talha. I was blamed and called the mastermind of the Pahalgam terror attack, now I am famous in the entire world," said Kasuri, at the event in Kasoor in Punjab province. Recommended Stories According to an India Today report, Pakistans Food Minister Malik Rasheed Ahmad Khan and Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan were present in the crowd. They welcomed Kasuri on the stage and embraced him. HUM GOLIYON SE DARNE WALE HAIN KYA? Kasuri went on to announce plans to build a centre, road, and hospital in Allahabad in the name of Mudassir Shaheed, who was reportedly one of several high-profile terrorists killed in May 7 strikes by India on nine terror sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks Roti khaao, nahi to meri goli hai hi" Kasuri said, Narendra Modi samajhta hai hum goliyon se darne wale hain? Ye uski bhool hai (Modi is mistaken if he thinks we are scared of bullets)." In fact, the ministers personally welcomed Kasuri to the stage and embracing him. The India Today report further stated that Minister Malik Rasheed openly declared that 24 crore Pakistanis are today represented by men like Hafiz Saeed and Saifullah Kasuri". #ModInGujarat | "You want a happy & peaceful life, eat rotis or else I have my bullet," PM Modi warns #Pakistan in his #Kutch rally@AmanKayamHai_ shares more detailsFrm diplomat Veena Sikri & senior advisor to I&B Ministry @KanchanGupta share their views@ShivaniGupta_5 pic.twitter.com/JKzZc1P7n6 News18 (@CNNnews18) May 26, 2025 MY FATHER UNDER PEACEFUL PROTECTION OF STATE: HAFIZ SAEEDS SON Talha, 50, is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the banned outfit. He is actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, planning and executing attacks by LeT in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan, according to the FirstPost. In the rally, he said, Today there is a message for India from Pakistan. We have won Operation Bunyan al-Marsus and God should accept our presence here. Im thankful to Malik Ahmad Khan, speaker of Punjab Assembly, Malik Rashid Khan and Saifullah Khalid for their presence here on stage. I also salute the people of Pakistan on behalf of my father Hafiz Saeed. I am here to tell you God loves those who do jihad." Talha also called the Pahalgam terror attack drama", adding that his father was under the peaceful protection of the state. Earlier in February, Talha delivered a provocative speech at a rally in Lahore to liberate Kashmir from India at any cost". #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, " We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the warI want to tell enemies who begged us to stop pic.twitter.com/jqEQga4vgR ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A REGULAR OCCURRENCE In September 2018, Pakistans Religious Affairs and Interfaith Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri shared a platform with Hafiz Saeed. In December 2018, Pakistans Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi openly expressed support of his government to Saeed and his terror outfit. In September 2013, the terrorist, who carries a US bounty of $10 million, appeared openly at a rally in Islamabad, denouncing India as a terrorist state. In February 2014, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, the man behind the 2001 Parliament attack in India, spoke against the country in a rally in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir capital Muzaffarabad.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 First Published: May 30, 2025, 17:25 IST Pakistan-Backed TRF-LeT-PMML Nexus Sums Up 21st-Century Hybrid Warfare: Sources | Exclusive Reported By : CNN-News18 Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 16:18 IST This situation mirrors LeT's 2008 Mumbai attacks, executed under pseudonyms like Deccan Mujahideen, the sources said According to the sources, TRF functions as LeT's operational front, claiming attacks like the Pahalgam massacre. Representational image The thin line between Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and The Resistance Front (TRF) was shattered following rallies in Pakistan on May 28, Indian intelligence sources have told CNN-News18. The world must take note of these global jihadists backed by the state of Pakistan and its military leadership, they added. The TRF-LeT-PMML nexus epitomises 21st-century hybrid warfare, where TRF masks violence, Pakistan Markazi Muslim League spreads ideology, and the Pakistani state ensures deniability. This ecosystem is evidenced by the increasing frequency of attacks from Pahalgam to Reasi, carried out with complete deniability," said a source. Recommended Stories This situation mirrors LeTs 2008 Mumbai attacks, executed under pseudonyms like Deccan Mujahideen, the sources said. LeT and TRF employ grey zone tactics, such as disinformation and proxy attacks, similar to Russias hybrid warfare in Crimea, they added. The merging of operational roles between Lashkar and TRF marks their foray into hybrid warfare, blending kinetic terrorism with political legitimisation and state-backed impunity," a source said. The TRF-LeT-PMML alliance operates a successful hybrid mechanism." According to the sources, TRF functions as LeTs operational front, claiming attacks like the Pahalgam massacre, where 26 people, mostly Indian Hindus, were killed, providing LeT with deniability. Saifullah Khalid later boasted about the Pahalgam attack at a Pakistan Markazi Muslim League rally, claiming global recognition. PMML rallies are attended by LeT leaders, such as Saifullah Khalid (PMML president) and Talha Saeed (son of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed), said sources. This illustrates the merging of terrorist ideology with mainstream politics, with even the Punjab assembly speaker present on stage, they added. They have state approval to celebrate events like Youm-e-Takbeer, Pakistans nuclear test day, which grants LeT legitimacy while laundering recruitment and funding through activities like blood donation camps," a source told CNN-News18. LeT finances TRF operations via PMML front companies and charities like Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Earlier US treasury designations confirm PMML as an LeT alias. Gulf donations often reach Pakistan, where ISI allocates significant funds to TRF and LeT for operations in Kashmir. TRF and LeT operate in phases, as seen in the Pahalgam attack. Phase 1: TRF claimed responsibility, framing the attack as indigenous resistance. Phase 2: LeT validation, with Khalid admitting the role at a PMML rally, and Indian intelligence tracing attackers to LeT safe houses." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In June 2024, TRF claimed a bus attack on Hindu pilgrims in Reasi, but forensic analysis linked the weapons to LeT smuggling networks. This tactic of targeting minorities to incite communal conflict is similar to LeTs 2008 Mumbai strategy, said sources. Post-2019, when India abrogated Article 370 sections in Jammu and Kashmir, LeT created TRF as a secular front, sources said. Despite the branding, 80% of TRF cadres are trained in LeTs Pakistani camps, they added. About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 First Published: May 30, 2025, 16:18 IST 'Pakistan Seen From Lens Of Conflict': Partner CEO Of Trump Crypto Firm Attempts Image Makeover Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 07:31 IST Amid investigations on its deal with Trump's firm, Pakistan Crypto Council CEO said both Pakistan and Bitcoin are victims of bad PR, often seen as risky and unstable. Donald Trump (L)/Pakistan Crypto Council CEO Bilal bin Saqib (Video screengrab/Social Media) Pakistan Crypto Council, which signed a deal with a privately-owned US cryptocurrency firm World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company majority-owned by US President Donald Trump and his family, has now asserted that Pakistan and Bitcoin are victims of bad PR", and that Pakistan is seen from the lens of conflict. Speaking at the annual gathering of the global cryptocurrency community in Las Vegas, Pakistan Crypto Council CEO Bilal bin Saqib also said Pakistan was now looking for allies. Recommended Stories Both Pakistan and Bitcoin have suffered from bad PR. We are looked at as being dangerous, risky and unstable. But that is not the case, once we look beyond these headlines, we can see a lot of potential, resources and talent," Saqib said. Pakistan is overthrowing innovation, and we look forward to welcoming you all," he said. Saqib, in an effort to whitewash Pakistans image, amid its tensions with India, also asserted Pakistan was not being seen from the correct lens, but from the lens of conflict. I bring you a message from Pakistan, a country which is often misrepresented, people dont see it from the right lens, people see it from the lens of conflict, but our contributions are mostly overlooked," he said. Let me introduce you to Pakistan from the lens of crypto," he added. Bilal Bin Saqib was appointed the first CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council by Prime Minister Sharif on March 26. According to some reports, Saqib also held a high-level meeting" with Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir to outline the future of Pakistans digital economy. Days after India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, it was reported that a deal was signed in Pakistan just days ahead of the Pahalgam terror attack, between World Liberty Financial involving Donald Trumps family, and Asim Munir. The deal also saw a flurry of activities involving some high-profile individuals, who reportedly travelled to Islamabad for the same. Among those present to finalise the deal was Zachary Witkoff the son of Trumps longtime associate, Steve Witkoff. Soon after Operation Sindoor and within two weeks of brokering the crypto deal with Pakistan, Donald Trump had claimed he had successfully mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, WLFI has been asked by the US Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), under the Committee on Homeland Security, to share all communications the company had with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Reports suggest the PSI is conducting a preliminary inquiry into potential conflicts of interest and violations of the law from President Trumps cryptocurrency ventures. WLF is a crypto venture and is linked to Trumps family, which holds a 60 per cent stake in it. About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. First Published: May 30, 2025, 07:31 IST Russia Claims Quad Nations Forcing India Into Military Alliance: Trying To Involve Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 22:35 IST Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov highlighted that Quad member countries were actively pushing for naval and military exercises outside the official Quad framework. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov (File photo: PTI) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that Indias joined the QUAD alliance, comprising the United States, Japan, and Australia, ostensibly for trade; however, the member nations were reportedly already coordinating naval and other military exercises. We spoke to our Indian friends back then and they told us that their interest in joining the Quad is exclusively of trade of economic nature and cooperation in other peaceful areas," he said at a security conference in Eurasia in the city of Perm, as quoted by media reports. Recommended Stories He highlighted that Quad member countries were actively pushing for naval and military exercises outside the official Quad framework. Lavrov further warned that these actions were part of a broader strategy to militarise the alliance, adding, they try to involve all the four countries into these exercises. And Im sure that our Indian friends, they can see this provocation clearly." He also called for reviving the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral format. He said the time has come" to restart RIC meetings, adding that, in his view, India and China have reached an understanding on easing border tensions. I would like to confirm our genuine interest in the earliest resumption of the work within the format of the troika Russia, India, China which was established many years ago on the initiative of (ex-Russian prime minister) Yevgeny Primakov, and which has organised meetings more than 20 times at the ministerial level since then, not only at the level of foreign policy chiefs, but also the heads of other economic, trade and financial agencies of the three countries," Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS. The RIC platform, originally launched in the late 1990s, has remained dormant since the deadly Galwan clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in June 2020. While Russia had hinted at trilateral engagement during the BRICS Summit in Kazan in 2024, Lavrovs latest pitch marks the most explicit call to formally revive the RIC mechanism since Galwan. Lavrovs renewed pitch signals much more than just a procedural revival it reflects Moscows shifting diplomatic calculus amid changing global alignments. Earlier, Lavrov had alleged that the West is attempting to create a rift between India and China to foster antagonism between the neighbouring countries. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all While speaking at a meeting of a diplomatic club, he had asserted that Western strategies in the Asia-Pacific region are designed to fuel tensions between the two Asian nations. Take note of the current developments in the Asia-Pacific region, which the West has started calling the Indo-Pacific region to give its policy a clear anti-China orientation expecting thereby to additionally clash our great friends and neighbours India and China," Lavrov had said. 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 : Moscow, Russia First Published: May 30, 2025, 22:35 IST Russia Defies UN Sanctions To Arm North Korea With High-Speed Pantsir Defence System: Report Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 14:52 IST Russia's overt flouting of the arms embargo is one thing but to actively help North Korea improve missile precision, that crosses a dangerous line, a diplomat in Seoul said The Pantsir is tactical system, designed for short-range defence, and has an effective engagement envelope of 1.2 to 20 kilometres. (AP Photo) In a revelation that could rattle global diplomatic circles, a leaked international monitoring report has exposed a surge in the covert military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, in direct violation of longstanding sanctions by the United Nations. The findings, published by a multilateral task force headquartered in Seoul on Thursday, alleged that Russia transferred advanced air defence systems, electronic warfare gear, and other military hardware to North Korea in recent months. According to the report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), established after Russia vetoed the extension of the UNs own North Korea expert panel last year, the Russian military has delivered the Pantsir-S1 mobile air defence systems to North Korea since November 2024. These systems, armed with high-speed surface-to-air missiles and autocannons, are designed to intercept enemy aircraft and missiles at short range. The report claimed that this hardware is the same Pantsir platform deployed to defend Russian airspace against drone and missile threats. Recommended Stories The Pantsir is tactical system, designed for short-range defence, and has an effective engagement envelope of 1.2 to 20 kilometres. The MSMTs report also detailed on the arms pipeline between Russia and North Korea. Since September 2023, North Korea is believed to have shipped roughly 20,000 containers of military supplies to Russia. The cache reportedly includes more than 90 lakh artillery shells, hundreds of tactical missiles, and other munitions enough to sustain multiple brigades on the front lines in Ukraine. The report claimed that Russian aircrafts, specifically Ilyushin IL-76 and Antonov AN-124 strategic airlifters, were used between November and December 2023 to transport North Korean arms. Russia also reportedly assisted North Korea in enhancing its missile guidance technologies, a serious breach of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions that Russia itself once endorsed. Russias overt flouting of the arms embargo is one thing but to actively help North Korea improve missile precision, that crosses a dangerous line, a diplomat in Seoul said under condition of anonymity. Beyond weapons, the MSMT report also accused Russia of flooding North Korea with crude oil in excess of UN-mandated limits. More than 10 lakh barrels were reportedly transferred last year, double the permitted quota. Meanwhile, roughly 8,000 North Korean labourers, whose overseas deployments are banned under UN rules, were reportedly dispatched to Russia. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The report alleged that the two nations were routing financial transactions through South Ossetia, a Russia-backed breakaway region of Georgia known for its questionable banking practices. The MSMT was formed in October 2024 by the United States and South Korea in response to the collapse of the UNs expert monitoring panel. The new coalition includes 11 countries including France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany, and aims to preserve transparency and accountability over the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea. First Published: May 30, 2025, 14:52 IST Secret Life Of Xi Jinpings Harvard-Educated Daughter In US Draws Scrutiny: Who Is Xi Mingze? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 10:11 IST Xi Mingze has remained intensely private, with most details of her life shrouded in secrecy. Daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Xi Mingze, is seen. (Image Credit: X) Spotlight turned to Xi Mingze, the daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, following claims that she is living in Massachusetts under heavy security, as tensions flare between the United States and China over student visa restrictions. The renewed attention comes after far-right activist Laura Loomer announced plans to confront Xi Mingze on camera. Laura Loomer declared that she intended to question Xi Mingze about her fathers policies, saying, Communists dont belong in our country." Her statement ignited controversy and drew attention to Xi Mingzes presence in the USa claim that has circulated for years without official confirmation from either Washington or Beijing. Recommended Stories New Visa Crackdown Adds Fuel To The Fire Laura Loomers remarks coincided with a new US policy targeting Chinese nationals, particularly students linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or enrolled in sensitive fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and defense technologies. This comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Washington would begin revoking visas for Chinese students deemed security risks. Tighter background checks and additional restrictions are also being applied to applicants from China and Hong Kong. Who Is Xi Mingze? Xi Mingze has remained intensely private, with most details of her life shrouded in secrecy. She studied under a false name at Harvard University from 2010 to 2014, majoring in psychology, after previously attending Zhejiang University and the Hangzhou Foreign Language School. Though she reportedly returned to China after graduation, unverified reports suggest she may have resumed graduate studies at Harvard in 2019. Chinese authorities have consistently censored information about her, and her current location, career, and personal life remain unconfirmed. However, persistent speculation places her in Massachusetts, likely under government protection. China Condemns US Policy Shift top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all China swiftly condemned the US governments visa crackdown as Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning labeled the move politically motivated" and accused Washington of weaponizing ideology under the guise of national security. The US decision to revoke visas is entirely groundless. It harms the legitimate rights of Chinese students and damages educational and cultural exchanges. China firmly opposes this move and has lodged an official protest," Mao Ning said. 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 : United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 10:11 IST Shehbaz Sharif Scrambles For Diplomatic Support As World Backs Indias Anti-Terror Stance Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 09:20 IST Faced with mounting diplomatic isolation, Shehbaz Sharif turned to traditional partners such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Tajikistan. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Pakistans Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is making urgent diplomatic rounds across allied nations in a bid to shore up political support as Islamabad counters New Delhis growing narrative following Operation Sindoor. The international response to Indias operation- which targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)- has been sympathetic to New Delhi as major powers including the United States, France, Japan, and the European Union openly backed Indias right to self-defense while condemning cross-border terrorism. Shehbaz Sharifs Diplomatic Overtures Recommended Stories Faced with mounting diplomatic isolation, Shehbaz Sharif turned to traditional partners such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Tajikistan. This week, Shehbaz Sharif met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Lachin on a symbolic day that saw the confluence of Pakistans Youm-e-Takbeer (nuclear test commemoration) and Azerbaijans Independence Day. In a tweet, Shehbaz Sharif wrote, Honoured to join my dear brothers, President Tayyip Erdogan @RTErdogan and President Ilham Aliyev @azpresident, in the beautiful city of Lachin on a historic daywhen Pakistan marks Youm-e-Takbeer and our brotherly country, Azerbaijan, celebrates its Independence Day." Honoured to join my dear brothers, President Tayyip Erdogan @RTErdogan and President Ilham Aliyev @azpresident, in the beautiful city of Lachin on a historic daywhen Pakistan marks Youm-e-Takbeer and our brotherly country, Azerbaijan, celebrates its Independence Day.Our pic.twitter.com/0wHbynmw7w Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) May 28, 2025 We are now three nations, one heart," Shehbaz Sharif tweeted, signaling a deeper alignment between Pakistan, Turkey, and Azerbaijan as Islamabad seeks to counter Indias expanding diplomatic alliances. Earlier, the Pakistan PM held a high-level meeting in Dushanbe with Tajikistans President Emomali Rahmon, describing it as warm and cordial." In another tweet, Shehbaz Sharif stated, I also briefed him regarding the recent Indian aggression against Pakistan. We agreed on the importance of regional peace and stability which are vital to the progress and prosperity of our peoples." Indias Global Diplomatic Outreach top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In contrast, New Delhi is leveraging the success of Operation Sindoor as India swiftly dispatched diplomatic delegations to key global capitals in a coordinated effort to consolidate support and reinforce its anti-terror narrative. Led by senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs and National Security Council, these delegations have engaged with counterparts in various countries, presenting detailed briefings on the operation and intelligence. A key message conveyed was that there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who defend themselves, and that India will not differentiate between governments sponsoring terrorism and the masterminds of terror. The delegations also highlighted Pakistans continued support for UN-designated terrorists and the need for accountability. 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 : Pakistan First Published: May 30, 2025, 09:20 IST From 'Terror Haven' To 'Democracy Roadblocks': Rivals Sheikh Hasina, Khaleda Zia Target Yunus Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 08:08 IST Sheikh Hasina warned that the country is turning into a haven for terrorists. Sheikh Hasina (PTI) Bangladeshs two most prominent political leaders took sharply opposing stands on the countrys current state of governance during separate addresses. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a virtual address, voiced strong condemnation of what she described as a troubling trend of increasing extremism and judicial leniency toward convicted war criminals. Referring to the recent release of Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam, a war criminal sentenced to death for atrocities committed during the 1971 Liberation War, Sheikh Hasina warned that the country is turning into a haven for terrorists." She remarked, War criminals are being freed, and those who fought for our independence are now being persecuted. Is this the Bangladesh we fought for?" Recommended Stories While the Prime Ministers remarks underscored fears of rising militancy and historical revisionism, the opposition painted a different picture. At a commemorative event held in Dhakas Ramna to mark the death anniversary of BNP founder and former president Ziaur Rahman, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia delivered a message focused on the decline of democracy in Bangladesh. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The democracy and sovereignty for which Ziaur Rahman sacrificed his life are now facing constant obstacles at every step," she said, addressing party members and supporters. She called on the public to rally in support of democratic restoration. On the martyrdom anniversary of Ziaur Rahman, let us pledge to restore democracy," Khaleda urged. She further expressed confidence that the people of Bangladesh will soon witness the restoration of democracy." 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 : Bangladesh First Published: May 30, 2025, 07:03 IST The Rise And Fall Of Two Crypto Traders Who Tortured A Bitcoin Millionaire For His Password Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Karishma Jain Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 18:35 IST From luxury rentals, private security and wild parties to a brutal $30 million Bitcoin ransom attempt, the twisted saga of John Woeltz and William Duplessie has stunned New York John Woeltz and William Duplessie. (Image: Reuters/AP) The Case That Shocked NYC A shocking crypto kidnapping case involving two self-styled traders has rocked New York. On May 23, Italian crypto millionaire Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan escaped from a luxury townhouse in New Yorks upscale SoHo neighbourhood, running barefoot onto a city street and flagging down a traffic officer, according to The New York Post. Carturan told police he had been kidnapped and held captive for nearly three weeks by John Woeltz and William Duplessie. Recommended Stories Prosecutors alleged that during his captivity, Carturan was tortured with a chainsaw and tased while standing in water, and at one point was hung off a roof ledge in a bid to force him to reveal the password to his Bitcoin wallet, reportedly worth $30 million. According to ABC News, prosecutors said Woeltz and Duplessie lured Carturan to New York by threatening to have his family killed. Once he arrived, they allegedly stripped him of his passport and electronics, bound his wrists, beat him, shocked his feet, struck him in the head with a gun, cut his leg with a saw, urinated on him, and forcibly made him smoke crack cocaine. Prosecutors said Carturan eventually escaped after convincing his captors to retrieve his laptop so he could access his Bitcoin wallet. When Woeltz left to get the laptop, Carturan ran out and sought help. The Two Alleged Masterminds William Duplessie, 33, and John Woeltz, 37 both self-styled crypto traders had entered New Yorks luxury club scene months earlier. Woeltz, described as a seemingly mild-mannered Kentucky native, is estimated to have a net worth of $100 million. Duplessie, originally from Miami, Florida, left behind a trail of debts and legal troubles. According to The New York Post, Duplessie was sued by a landlord in Miami in 2023 for failing to pay $234,000 in rent and a security deposit on a luxury home in the citys Brickell neighbourhood. In the same year, he also faced a lawsuit for allegedly failing to make $3,700-a-month lease payments on a 2018 Lamborghini Huracan. That lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed days after being filed. In December, Duplessie was named in another lawsuit filed by a motorist who accused him of crashing a Porsche into his car and injuring him. The summons could not be served as the court did not have his current address. According to prosecutors, Duplessie also faced legal trouble in Switzerland, where he was accused of assaulting his fiancee. Buying Into NYCs Elite Nightlife According to The New York Post, Duplessie and Woeltz rented the Prince Street townhouse for between $30,000 and $40,000 a month and quickly entered New Yorks exclusive nightlife circuit. They gained access to some of the citys most high-end and selective clubs, including Nebula (a large Midtown mega-club), Hearsay and Gospel (both upscale lounges), The Box (an exclusive erotic nightclub), and Pauls Baby Grand (a fashionable downtown lounge popular with celebrities). The duo often used former club promoter Charlie Zakkour to secure entry into these venues. One woman told The New York Post that Zakkour reached out to her, saying he knew some wealthy crypto people staying at the Mercer Hotel who wanted to spend $30,000 at a popular lounge called Pauls Baby Grand." At one party, she recalled, William poured the entire bag full of cocaine onto a metal tray and casually walked away," adding, It was crazy because the amount of cocaine was worth the cost of my college tuition fee or even more." Another woman described arriving at one of their townhouse parties, where there was security everywhere, and a girl was checking coats at the entrance." She continued, Ive never seen anything like that. Workers were serving the food and drinks Don Julio 1942 and Grey Goose." She left soon after, saying, There was no politeness, there was no small talk. I felt like a piece of meat." Duplessies spending inside these clubs was equally extravagant. One passerby told The New York Post, Ive seen him drop $160,000." Another source said he would spend $100,000 on tables at The Box and Hearsay. A SoHo street vendor, identified as Dutch," said he regularly saw Woeltz dispose of maybe 50, 60 bottles wine, vodka. Big bottles in plastic bags on the sidewalk." According to city 311 data cited by The New York Post, neighbours called in multiple noise complaints regarding the townhouse in early April. The Backstory Of Debt And Illusion While they flaunted immense wealth inside New Yorks club scene, Duplessie faced mounting lawsuits over unpaid rent, car leases and a crash lawsuit in Miami, according to The New York Post. Despite these legal troubles, he continued his lavish nightlife routine, with witnesses telling the outlet that he would sometimes claim he worked for the CIA while partying. How It All Came Crashing Down The alleged scheme ended abruptly with Carturans escape. Both Duplessie and Woeltz were arrested and charged with kidnapping with intent to collect ransom, assault, and unlawful imprisonment. As of now, both men are being held without bail, according to The New York Post. According to ABC News, both suspects have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors argued that Woeltz should be held without bail, citing his access to a private jet and helicopter. Duplessies request for home detention in Florida with $1 million bail was denied by the judge. Woeltz has since been indicted by a grand jury, with his arraignment scheduled for June 11. If convicted of the top charge of kidnapping, both men face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Their assistant, Beatrice Folchi, 24, who was previously employed as a bottle girl at The Box, was also arrested after Carturans escape. However, Manhattan District Attorney officials have declined to prosecute pending further investigation. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a New York media outlet that while Duplessie and Woeltz remain the only suspects for now, there may be others." 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 30, 2025, 18:35 IST US Supreme Court Allows Donald Trump To Revoke Legal Status Of Over 5 Lakh Migrants Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 21:13 IST Donald Trump called for ending humanitarian parole programs in an executive order signed on January 20, his first day back in office. US President Donald Trump The US Supreme Court on Friday let President Donald Trumps administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican presidents drive to step up deportations. The court put on hold Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwanis order halting the administrations move to end the immigration "parole" granted to 532,000 of these migrants by Trumps predecessor Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal, while the case plays out in lower courts. Recommended Stories As with many of the courts orders issued in an emergency fashion, the decision was unsigned and gave no reasoning. Two of the courts three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, publicly dissented. The court botched its assessment of whether the administration was entitled to freeze Talwanis decision pending the litigation, Jackson wrote in an accompanying opinion. The outcome, Jackson wrote, "undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending." Immigration parole is a form of temporary permission under American law to be in the country for "urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit," allowing recipients to live and work in the United States. Biden, a Democrat, used parole as part of his administrations approach to deter illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump called for ending humanitarian parole programs in an executive order signed on January 20, his first day back in office. The Department of Homeland Security subsequently moved to terminate them in March, cutting short the two-year parole grants. The administration said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place migrants in a fast-track deportation process called "expedited removal." The case is one of many that Trumps administration has brought in an emergency fashion to the nations highest judicial body seeking to undo decisions by judges impeding his sweeping policies, including several targeting immigrants. The Supreme Court on May 19 also let Trump end a deportation protection called temporary protected status that had been granted under Biden to about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, while that legal dispute plays out. In a bid to reduce illegal border crossings, Biden starting in 2022 allowed Venezuelans who entered the United States by air to request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor. Biden expanded that process to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023 as his administration grappled with high levels of illegal immigration from those nationalities. The plaintiffs, a group of migrants granted parole and Americans who serve as their sponsors, sued administration officials claiming the administration violated federal law governing the actions of government agencies. Talwani in April found that the law governing such parole did not allow for the programs blanket termination, instead requiring a case-by-case review. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the judges decision on hold. In its filing, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that Talwanis order had upended "critical immigration policies that are carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry," effectively "undoing democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election" that returned Trump to the presidency. The plaintiffs told the Supreme Court they would face grave harm if their parole is cut short given that the administration has indefinitely suspended processing their pending applications for asylum and other immigration relief. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all They said they would be separated from their families and immediately subject to expedited deportation "to the same despotic and unstable countries from which they fled, where many will face serious risks of danger, persecution and even death." Talwani on Wednesday ordered the administration to resume processing applications for work permits or more lasting immigration status from migrants with parole status from Afghanistan, Latin America and Ukraine. Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 21:13 IST We Averted Nuclear Disaster: Trump Again Claims He Used Trade To Broker India-Pakistan Ceasefire Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 23:52 IST While addressing a press conference along with Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, Trump said that it was the US, who mediated and stopped the India and Pakistan fighting. US President Donald Trump (IMAGE: REUTERS) US President Donald Trump on Friday yet again iterated his mediation efforts between India and Pakistan, saying that he was the one who settled the soaring tensions through trade. While addressing a press conference along with Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, who was demitting the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) office, Trump said that he averted the nuclear disaster. Recommended Stories He further thanked the leadership of New Delhi and Islamabad for agreeing to the ceasefire. We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned out into a nuclear disaster, and I want to thank the leaders of India and Pakistan, and I want to thank my people. Also, we talk trade, and we say we cant trade with people who are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons. Theyre great leaders in those countries, and they understood and they agreed, and that all stopped, and were stopping others from fighting. Also, because ultimately we can fight better than anybody, we have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest leaders in the world" Trump said. #WATCH | US President Donald Trump says, We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned out into a nuclear disaster, and I want to thank the leaders of India and Pakistan, and I want to thank my people. Also, we talk trade, and we say we cant pic.twitter.com/8xfvVXj7HU ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Donald Trump time and again 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 US President has consistently maintained that he played a pivotal role in de-escalating the conflict between India and Pakistan. Immediately after the ceasefire between India and Pakistan last week, Trump had claimed he mediated between the two nations. Posting on Truth Social, Trump had said, 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!" He had also portrayed the ceasefire as a major diplomatic success, stating that he had prevented a potential nuclear war and even envisioned the leaders of India and Pakistan dining together in peace. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all However, 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. India has consistently denied any third-party mediation emphasising 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. Earlier government sources told CNN-News18 that there was no reference to trade in talks between top leaders of India and the US during the India-Pakistan military conflict. Notably, US Vice President JD Vance spoke to PM Modi on May 9, where trade was not discussed. 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 : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: May 30, 2025, 23:50 IST White House Announces New DOGE Leaders Ahead Of Elon Musk's Last Day In Administration Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: May 30, 2025, 15:12 IST Elon Musk's tenure as the DOGE chief comes to an end this month-end. The White House has announced new leaders who will carry forward Musk's job in the department. Elon Musk US President Donald Trump and his cabinet colleagues will fill in after Tesla CEO Elon Musks tenure as Special Government Employee" at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) comes to an end this month, the White House said. Musk is stepping away from his administrative duties to focus on his business, as Tesla has witnessed a fall in shares, after protests erupted against him and his company across the United States. Recommended Stories White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Musks job will be carried forward by Trump, his Cabinet secretaries, and his DOGE members. The DOGE leaders are each and every member of the Presidents cabinet and the president himself who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government," she said. This comes a day after Musk announced that his tenure as DOGE head comes to an end by month-end. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," Musk posted on X, the social media platform that he owns. Trump To Hold Press Conference With Musk Tonight Trump praised Musk as terrific" and said that he would always be with us". top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House," Trump wrote on Truth Social. During the 2024 US election, Elon Musk pledged to cut $2 trillion in federal spending. After Trumps return to office in January and the subsequent launch of DOGE, he lowered the goal to $1 trillion, following reports he spent over $250 million backing Trump. Musk has faced criticism for his growing influence in the Trump administration. DOGE claims to have saved $160 billion so far through cuts and asset sales. 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 30, 2025, 15:11 IST Who Is Megha Vemuri? Indian-American Student In Spotlight For Calling Out Israel's 'Genocide' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: June 18, 2025, 17:07 IST Born and raised in Alpharetta, Georgia, Megha Vemuri is of Indian origin and has been a prominent figure in student life at MIT. Megha Vemuri wore a red keffiyeh- a traditional symbol of Palestinian solidarity while delivering her address. (Image Credit: X) Megha Vemuri, an Indian-American student and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Class of 2025, sparked widespread attention and debate after using her commencement speech to denounce Israels actions in Gaza and call out MITs research links with the Israeli military. Delivering her address, Megha Vemuri wore a red keffiyeh- a traditional symbol of Palestinian solidarity- and accused the university of disregarding student calls to end collaborations with Israeli defense institutions. She referred to Israels military campaign in Gaza as genocide" and claimed that Israel is the only foreign military with which MIT has active research ties. Recommended Stories You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine," Megha Vemuri said, applauding months of student activism on campus. She also alleged that protesters had faced threats, intimidation, and suppression" from the MIT administration. One of the most pointed moments of her speech came when she contrasted the ceremony in Cambridge with the destruction in Gaza: Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza." The speech triggered a split reaction from attendees as some graduates responded with chants of Free, Free Palestine!" and waved flags, while others remained silent. MIT has not publicly responded to the content of her speech or the status of its research affiliations with Israeli institutions. Who Is Megha Vemuri? top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Born and raised in Alpharetta, Georgia, Megha Vemuri is of Indian origin and has been a prominent figure in student life at MIT. She recently completed her undergraduate degree in computer science, neuroscience, and linguistics, and served as president of the graduating class. Beyond her academic work, Megha Vemuri was involved in campus advocacy and research, leading the Written Revolution initiative and working at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. 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 30, 2025, 10:53 IST So sad An Air Force of Zimbabwe retired Squadron Leader Retswanetsi Vuyo Ncube died after his Chinese-built F-7 fighter aircraft on a routine sortie crashed in the Wazheri area along the Gweru-Mvuma Road earlier today. pic.twitter.com/qPqGn0ONLh Legislation signed into law Wednesday by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will impose tougher penalties on people who abandon pets during natural disasters, a measure inspired by the rescue of a dog left in floodwaters during Hurricane Milton. With the 2025 hurricane season starting next week, the governor also signed a bill that enhances criminal penalties for severe cruelty to dogs and other pets, the AP reports. The bull terrier found during Hurricane Milton was left chained to a fence along Interstate 75 near Tampa. A state trooper rescued the dognow named Trooperand he was adopted by a couple in Broward County, DeSantis said during an event at Big Dog Ranch Rescue outside Royal Palm Beach. The owner of that dog was charged with animal cruelty. Under the new law taking effect Oct. 1, violations taking place during hurricanes or other disasters will be punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. "Florida will not tolerate cruelty toward animals, especially in times of crisis," said the governor, who signed the bills while cradling a puppy. The second measure was inspired by a St. Petersburg-area case involving a dog named Dexter that was found decapitated at a park. This bill, which takes effect July 1, allows for a range of enhanced penalties in cases of severe animal abuse. The law also allows the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to compile a database of animal cruelty offenders that the public will be able to search. "Across Florida, we have seen horrifying instances of animal cruelty that demand a stronger response," the governor said, per Fox Weather. "I was proud to sign Trooper's Law and Dexter's Law today. Florida stands by man's best friend." Kuqa in Xinjiang revitalizes its Silk Road legacy through culture and tourism 13:53, May 30, 2025 By Yang Mingfang, Aerdake ( People's Daily A traditional dance performance is staged in Qiuci Lane, Kuqa, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to welcome tourists. (Photo by Yuan Huanhuan/People's Daily Online) At dawn, the scent of rose tea wafts from a teahouse tucked inside the alleys of ancient Kuqa city, Aksu prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Inside, owner Abdukader Mamtimin gently strums a dutar, a type of traditional long-necked, two-stringed lute, awaiting the day's first customers. After finishing their tea, visitors often stroll into a nearby music and dance digital experience center, immersed in the beauty of ancient mural art. When night descends, the starry dome of the Kuqa nang cultural complex sparkles under the stars, echoing with camel bells from theatrical performances, while the night market bustles with the energy of street vendors. Kuqa, historically known as Qiuci, once served as the seat of the Anxi Protectorate during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and stood as an important hub along the ancient Silk Road. As one of the historical and cultural cities that boast the longest history and richest cultural relics in Xinjiang, Kuqa is hailed as an "open-air museum." The Qiuci culture nurtured here is renowned for its distinctive artistic appeal and profound cultural depth. In recent years, Kuqa has been bringing new vitality to its rich historical traditions by integrating cultural preservation with tourism, as part of a broader initiative known as "Cultural Enrichment of Xinjiang." In 2012, China's State Council designated Kuqa as a state-level historical and cultural city. Since then, the local government has placed heritage conservation at the heart of its development agenda. Tourists explore the dramatic landscapes of a national geological park in Kuqa, Aksu prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, known for its glaciers and Yardang landform. (Photo by Zhu Hongsheng/People's Daily Online) In 2023, Kuqa launched a project to renovate old residences, with a particular focus on its older dwellings. In collaboration with the Tsinghua Heritage Institute for Digitization, the project began with a comprehensive survey of traditional dwellings in the old towns of Kuqa. Renowned experts in heritage conservation were invited to train local craftsmen, ensuring that traditional techniques could be passed on and revived. "We follow the principle of minimal intervention, using original materials and traditional craftsmanship whenever possible," explained He Yan, president of the Tsinghua Heritage Institute for Digitization. The restoration focuses on preserving the architectural and historical authenticity of the dwellings while integrating cultural elements into revitalization efforts. Once-dilapidated alleyways have been transformed into vibrant spaces, attracting a steady stream of visitors while providing residents with new income streams. "Our house was restored, more tourists are coming, and our income has gone up. Most importantly, our children are learning about Kuqa's rich history and culture," said local resident Memet Yimit. In Kuqa's Resitan subdistrict, the delicate shimmer of Etles silk dances in the breeze, while the rhythmic clinking of handmade copperware rings through the space. This is the Qiuci intangible cultural heritage workshop, a vibrant hub of craftsmanship housed in a former grain warehouse, repurposed in 2024 to better preserve and innovate traditional craftsmanship. Children experience traditional clay making in an intangible cultural heritage workshop in Kuqa, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Wang Xueni) The workshop features production zones, interactive visitor areas, traditional exhibition halls, and modern digital displays. It covers 25 categories of intangible cultural heritage, allowing visitors to explore craft-making processes, appreciate the intricacies of their creations, and purchase creative cultural products all in one stop. Since opening to the public in 2025, the workshop has attracted more than 8,000 visitors daily, becoming a vibrant new cultural landmark in Kuqa. Kuqa is a repository of intangible cultural heritage, with 119 officially recognized representative items. To better protect and pass on these traditions, the city has taken a range of targeted measures. At the heart of these efforts is the Kuqa Cultural Center, which offers a wide range of training programs for traditional crafts. Its outreach extends beyond urban areas, bringing heritage education and artisanal skills to rural communities and helping integrate heritage practices into everyday life in the countryside. To boost the enthusiasm among the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, Kuqa has implemented targeted funding programs and performance-based incentives for heritage preservation. The city also promotes intergenerational mentorship, encouraging veteran artisans to pass on their knowledge and skills to younger generations. "We hope more young people will join the cause of cultural preservation and help bring ancient traditions to life," said Luo Zhijuan, head of the Kuqa Cultural Center. Local schools have also joined the effort, offering specialized classes that introduce primary and secondary students to traditional arts and crafts, reinforcing cultural identity from a young age. With support from design and planning professionals, Kuqa has revitalized a 1.2-kilometer stretch of ancient alleyways known as Qiuci Lane. Through micro-renovations that preserve the original architectural style while incorporating Qiuci cultural elements, the area has become a popular destination for tourists. Focusing on Tomur Peak and Qiuci culture, the city is building a Silk Road cultural tourism belt that blends natural beauty with cultural depth. By embracing its rich historical legacy and breathtaking natural landscapes, Kuqa is charting a path of integrated cultural and tourism development, while cultivating distinctive tourism brands rooted in local heritage. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) The Trump administration is awaiting an answer from Hamas after sending a proposal for a temporary ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aid to flow into Gazaa plan Israel already has agreed to, officials said. The first phase would halt fighting for 60 days, the New York Times reports. Hamas' initial reactionthat the guarantees on ending the war are not strong enoughwas not encouraging. But an official told the AP that Hamas wants to review the proposal more closely before committing to a formal response. "The Zionist response, in essence, means perpetuating the occupation and continuing the killing and famine," Bassem Naim said. Hamas previously said it had agreed with Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy, on a "general framework" that would lead to a lasting ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an influx of aid, and a transfer of power from the militant group to a politically independent committee of Palestinians. Other nations, including allies of Israel, have expressed impatience with the continued attacks in Gaza. Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, and France have been critical of Israel's expansion of the fighting in Gaza, per the Times. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to end the war until all the hostages are released and Hamas is either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. Ceasefire terms: Witkoff has not released information about the proposal, but the AP reports it calls for guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. Israeli forces would pull back to the positions they held during the ceasefire that Israel ended that month. Under the terms, Hamas would release 10 living hostages and a number of bodies during the 60-day pause in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 100 of them who are serving long sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte rejected on Thursday the latest request for a sentence reduction hearing from Pamela Smart, who is serving life in prison for orchestrating the murder of her husband by her teenage student in 1990. On Wednesday, Smart wrote to Ayotte and the governor's Executive Council asking for a hearing on commuting her sentence. But Ayotte, a Republican elected in November, said she has reviewed the case and decided it is not deserving of a hearing before the five-member panel, the AP reports. "People who commit violent crimes must be held accountable to the law," said Ayotte, a former state attorney general. "I take very seriously the action of granting a pardon hearing and believe this process should only be used in exceptional circumstances." In her letter, Smart said she has spent the last 35 years "becoming a person who can and will be a contributing member of society." Describing herself "what rehabilitation looks like," she said she has taken responsibility for her husband's death. "I have apologized to Gregg's family and my own for the life taken and for my life denied to my parents and family for all these long years," she wrote. Smart, 57, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old boy who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry. The shooter was freed in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence. Although Smart denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes and sentenced to life without parole. It took until last year for Smart to take full responsibility for her husband's death. Darius Boorn didn't mind at first when Waymo set up charging stations for its driverless electric vehicles in a parking lot next to his California home. "I thought it was cool," he said, "and then those freaking noises started." In January, the company opened two stations for more than 50 vehicles in Santa Monica without telling city officials or neighbors. Once that beeping started, neighbors say, it hasn't stopped. The vehicles beep as they back up while angling into their spots, the Los Angeles Times reports, then beep when they back out of the charging spots. They beep in the morning when they hit the road to pick up the day's first passengers, and they beep late at night when they come back for a charge. Complaints to the company and city haven't done much. Waymo apologized and said it will do something about the noise. Santa Monica officials checked the sound levels and reported they're within the city's noise limits. So certain unidentified neighbors have been known to put orange traffic cones, other cars, and sometimes their bodies in the way of Waymos, which forces the vehicles to stop before getting into the parking lot. Residents call it "stacking the Waymos." One neighbor was so effective that parking lot employees called the police on him a half-dozen times, and the company triedbut failedto get a restraining order against him from a judge. A Waymo spokesperson said steps the company has taken to limit the noise include cutting the hours when employees work in the parking lots, buying quieter vacuums for cleaning the vehicles, and adding bamboo stands to absorb noise. The city's mayor pro tem said one reason the noise is difficult to reduce is that state and federal regulations require some of the beepingsuch as when the cars back up, much like delivery trucks, per the Times. "We strive to be good neighbors," a Waymo spokesperson said. KCAL has video of a Waymo slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting a dog that had gotten loose in Santa Monica here. Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who led during 9/11 and later went to prison before receiving a presidential pardon, has died at 69. The NYPD confirmed Kerik's death on Thursday following what was described as a private illness, the AP reports. Kerik, an Army veteran, climbed through the city's law enforcement ranks and was appointed police commissioner by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2000. He became a prominent public figure following the September 11 terrorist attacks, working closely with Giuliani on the city's response, and was known as "America's Cop," the New York Post reports. Giuliani, speaking of his friend's death on his show, described Kerik as being like "a brother." Trapped face-down in icy water by a 700-pound boulder, Kell Morris survived three harrowing hours near a remote Alaskan glacierthanks to his wife's quick actions and a dramatic rescue. Morris, 61, was out with his wife, Jo Roop, on a remote and undeveloped trail near Godwin Glacier, south of Anchorage, when he was caught in a sudden rockslide after climbing an embankment, the AP reports. The boulder struck Morris' back as he tumbled about 20 feet into the creek. While rocks beneath and around him kept the boulder from crushing him, he was trapped in the freezing water and began to drift in and out of consciousness. Roop, a former Alaska State Trooper who now works for the Seward Police Department, spent around 30 minutes trying to free him, then hiked in search of an area where she could get a cell signal. Morris tells Alaska Public Media that she quipped, "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back." She got a signal just 300 yards away and called 911, using her law enforcement experience to provide dispatchers with GPS coordinates. A sled dog tourism company operating nearby volunteered its helicopter to fly first responders to the inaccessible scene, saving crucial time. By the time rescuers arrived, the creek was rising and Roop was holding Morris' head out of the water to prevent him from drowning. Seven rescuers ultimately used airbags and brute force to lift the boulder enough to free Morris, who was then airlifted out by the Alaska National Guard. Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites said the swift arrival of the helicopter likely saved Morris' life, as traditional rescue vehicles couldn't have reached him fast enough. "I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him," Crites says. Morris was hospitalized for two nights but emerged with only minor injuries. He was back at work at a marine repair business on Tuesday. He says he's probably the luckiest man aliveand "luckier that I have such a great wife." He tells the Anchorage Daily News that while he was in the hospital, they had a talk about reconsidering habits like off-trail hiking. "We kind of admitted to ourselves that maybe we are 60-something years old," he says. By day, he is Robert Jenrick, a senior Conservative Party lawmaker in the UK. Also by day, he is Robert Jenrick, subway vigilante. In a video posted on X, Jenrick, the opposition party's shadow justice secretary, confronted fare-dodgers at a London Underground station. In the footage, Jenrick questions several men forcing their way through ticket barriers and highlights what he described as a lack of enforcement, pointing to relaxed officers nearby, the Telegraph reports. "Do you want to go back and pay like everybody else?" Jenrick, a former party leadership candidate, asked one man at Stratford station in east London. One man told Jenrick to "f--- off." Jenrick replied, "You can say f--- off as much as you want." At another point, he asks the same man, "You what, you're carrying a knife, did you say?" He brought another man to a group of enforcement officers. Jenrick told the BBC he made the video because he is "sick to death of people fare dodging" and authorities "not stepping up and not enforcing the rules." Asked whether he had sought permission from Transport for London to film at the station, he said, "They should be going after people breaking the law, not the rules." TfL staff have been advised not to intervene with fare dodgers if they feel it could put their safety at risk, the Telegraph reports. The network says nearly half of violence and aggression incidents toward frontline staff stem from fare disputes. Specialized Transport Support and Enforcement officers, who are trained to physically intervene, are intended to handle more serious fare evasion and rule-breaking cases. The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association union said it has been calling for properly trained personnel to "deal with fare evasion in a way that is effective, lawful, and safe," the BBC reports. "Fare evasion is a serious issue but it must be tackled with professional trained enforcement, not MPs trying to score points or social media clout on their daily commute," the union said. Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams won his libel suit against the BBC on Friday over a claim that he authorized the killing of an informant inside the Irish republican movement. A jury at the High Court in Dublin ruled in Adams' favor and awarded him $113,000 in damages, reports the AP . Jurors deliberated for just under seven hours after the monthlong trial before reaching a verdict, rejecting the BBC's argument that it had acted in good faith and in a "fair and reasonable" way. Adams sued Britain's public broadcaster over a claim in a decade-old documentary and online article that he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson, a long-serving Sinn Fein official who acknowledged in 2005 that he had worked for British intelligence. He was shot dead at his cottage in rural Ireland four months later. In the BBC program broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Adams gave "the final say." Adams denies involvement and called the allegation a "grievous smear." Adams, 76, is one of the most influential figures of Northern Ireland's decades of conflict, and its peace process. He led Sinn Fein, the party linked to the Irish Republican Army, between 1983 and 2018. He has always denied being an IRA member, though former colleagues have said he was one of its leaders. A splinter group known as the Real IRA claimed responsibility in 2009 for killing Donaldson. An Irish police investigation remains ongoing. story continues below Lawyers for the BBC argued that the documentary didn't claim that Adams had sanctioned murder, merely putting that forward as an allegation alongside Adams' denial. They also argued the program didn't harm Adams' reputation, because he was widely considered to have been an IRA commander and so had little reputation to lose. Speaking after the ruling, Adams said, "I've always been satisfied with my reputation. Obviously, like yourself, we all have flaws in our character, but the jury made the decision and let's accept the outcome, and I think let's accept what the jury said." The search for escaped inmate Grant Hardin has entered its fifth day in northern Arkansas. Hardin, a convicted murderer and rapist, broke out of the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock on Sunday afternoon, dressed in a makeshift police uniform, according to the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Authorities say bad weather in the areaincluding nearly 3 inches of rain through Tuesdayinitially gave Hardin a head start, hampering the efforts of hundreds of officers from various agencies involved in the manhunt, per CNN . The conditions also made it difficult to deploy drones and helicopters and limited the effectiveness of tracking dogs. The northern Arkansas landscape poses another significant challenge for searchers, as the area is known for its rocky terrain and is dense with caves. A geology professor notes that Calico Rock and its surroundings are home to potentially 300 to 400 known cavessome longer than a mileoffering ample shelter options, though their chilly, wet conditions and single entrances also present risks for anyone hiding there. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that Hardin previously served as police chief in Gateway, Arkansas, giving him knowledge of law enforcement tactics. Authorities believe he's still in the general area. The AP reports on how Hardin's job in the prison's kitchen may have aided his escape by offering him access to certain tools or other parts of the facility. "You wouldn't immediately think of a kitchen as a source of a bunch of escape tools," criminal justice expert Bryce Peterson says. "But these people are really smart, and what they're thinking about day in and day out is how they can escape, if that's what their motivation is." story continues below Meanwhile, KHBS reports that a tipster reported seeing someone matching Hardin's description near a red car in the Moody/Bakersfield area of Missouri, according to the Howell County Sheriff's Office. Authorities searched the location but came up empty. NBC News has more on Hardin, whose crimes were featured in the 2023 documentary Devil in the Ozarks. A man whose skeletal remains washed up on beaches in southern New Jersey between 1995 and 2013 was a victim of the sea, not a serial killer. Genealogy students at New Jersey's Ramapo College helped crack the case, which had puzzled state police for decades, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. They determined that "Scattered Man John Doe" was Henry Goodsell, the 29-year-old captain of a schooner that sank off the coast of New Jersey in 1844. All five crew members died when the Oriental, which was transporting marble from Connecticut for the construction of Philadelphia's Girard College, was lost less than a mile from shore. Part of Goodsell's skull washed up on a beach in Longport, Atlantic County, in 1995 and more bones were found at other beaches in 1999 and 2013. Students at the college's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center looked for genetic relatives and searched for old news reports of shipwrecks in the area, NBC News reports. After they told the New Jersey State Police that the bones could be those of the captain, police obtained a DNA sample from a great-great-granddaughter researchers found in Maryland. Police confirmed Goodsell's identity last month, the college said in a news release. "To our knowledge, this is the oldest case that's ever been solved with investigative genetic genealogy," says Cairenn Binder, assistant director of the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center. Police said that before they partnered with the center, they didn't know how old the bones were or whether a crime had been committed. "We kind of kept going back and forth between, are they historic? Are they not historic?" New Jersey State Police Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Anna Delaney tells NBC News. "This is absolutely amazing because after all of this time, Henry has his name." The mother of a pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Egypt is seriously ill in a London hospital after resuming a monthslong hunger strike aimed at pressing for her son's release, her family said Friday. Laila Soueif was admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital on Thursday night with dangerously low blood-sugar levels, the AP reports. "The bottom line is, we're losing her," her daughter, Sanaa Seif, said outside the hospital, adding that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday, but right now." Soueif has been on a hunger strike since Sep. 29 to protest the imprisonment of her son Alaa Abd El Fattah, a British-Egyptian dual national who has been in prison in Egypt since September 2019. He was sentenced in December 2021 to five years in prison for spreading false news and should have been released last year, but Egyptian authorities refused to count the more than two years he'd spent in pretrial detention and ordered him held until January 2027. Soueif spent weeks camped outside Britain's Foreign Office and the prime minister's Downing Street office to highlight her son's case. Soueif, believed to be in her late 60s, was previously admitted to the hospital in February, with doctors warning she was at "high risk of sudden death." She agreed in early March to move to a partial hunger strike after Starmer pledged to press Egypt to release her son. Soueif resumed her full hunger strike on May 20, saying, "Nothing has changed, nothing is happening." The family says Soueif has lost 42% of her body weight during the 242-day hunger strike and that she has received glucagon treatment, which induces the liver to break down stored fat to obtain glucose, but continues to refuse glucose, which would provide her with calories. story continues below Abd El Fattah has been on his own hunger strike for 90 days following his mother's admission to the hospital in February. The British government said that Starmer raised his case in a call with the Egyptian president last week, and that Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer discussed it with Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday. "We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El Fattah's release and continue to press for this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government." Five members of the band Grupo Fugitivo, which performed Mexican regional music at parties and other events, had been missing since Sunday. Now comes sad news on their fate: Authorities say the bodies of the men, ages 20 to 40, have been found on the outskirts of the Mexican city of Reynosa, near the border with Texas, report CBS News and the AP . Prosecutors say nine suspects have been arrested and are believed to be tied to the Gulf Cartel that's prominent in the city. Prosecutors from the state of Tamaulipas say the bandmates were kidnapped from their SUV around 10pm Sunday as they traveled to a venue where they thought they were being hired to put on a show. When they arrived, all they found was a vacant lot, according to relatives. El Pais reports that another member of the band, IDed only as Carlos, got to the site of the supposed concert late, apparently after the others had vanished. "He was then unable to contact the group, so he chose to return home," the outlet notes. Individuals close to Carlos say he remains safe, though his location isn't being revealed in the wake of what happened to his bandmates. After the men disappeared, family members say they started receiving ransom calls. Prosecutors haven't yet revealed a motive, though relatives and other sources insist the killings were premeditated and that the gig they were hired for was phony from the start. The men's vehicle was found abandoned about 4 miles from where their bodies were discovered; local media report that the bodies were burned. Fader, meanwhile, has more on why Mexican drug cartels appear to be targeting some Mexican performers. May 30 (News On Japan) - Now, as Ripple's legal dispute eases and more institutions join in, people have new hopes for the XRP token to hit new highs. XRP prices have been strong recently and did not fall below the $2 support level during the weekend's decline. 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Spend half a minute Register with one click and start mining at winnermining today ! Conclusion: WinnerMining was founded in 2021 with the vision of enabling everyone to trade and invest in a simple and transparent way. We believe in the power of shared cryptocurrency knowledge. Our platform is designed to give you the tools you need to grow your cloud mining knowledge and wealth. By investing together, we can achieve greater success. For more information, please visit the official website: https://winnermining.com/ Or contact the official email address of the platform: info@winnermining.com May 30 (News On Japan) - The film Detchiage is set for nationwide release on June 27th and revolves around the devastating consequences of false accusations, particularly those made by minors. Based on real events, it tells the story of an elementary school teacher whose life is thrown into turmoil after a young girl falsely accuses him of sexual misconduct. The accusation quickly spreads, fueled by sensationalist media coverage and a community quick to judge. As the protagonist struggles to prove his innocence, the film delves into the emotional toll of public shaming, the fragile nature of truth in the face of groupthink, and the irreversible damage caused by a single lie. The trailer, which includes the films theme song, heightens the emotional impact with haunting lyrics and imagery that reflect the protagonist's isolation and desperation. Through its tense narrative and sobering realism, Detchiage challenges the audience to question how society handles allegations and whether justice can prevail when prejudice and hysteria take hold. Source: NAHA, May 30 (News On Japan) - Okinawa Prefecture announced during a meeting with the tourism industry on May 27th that it is aiming for its annual tourism revenue to exceed 1 trillion yen for the first time in fiscal 2025, and plans to introduce a lodging tax during fiscal 2026. The meeting, held behind closed doors except for the opening remarks, brought together representatives from six organizations in the travel and accommodation sectors. During the session, the prefecture presented its goals of reaching 1.006 trillion yen in tourism revenue and attracting 10.4 million visitors, surpassing the previous record of 10.18 million in fiscal 2018. Regarding the proposed lodging tax, some attendees voiced support for designating it as a purpose tax dedicated to tourism development. Others stressed the need for close coordination with municipalities also planning to adopt the tax, pushing for its swift implementation. Governor Tamaki reportedly responded that the prefecture would move forward with introducing the tax within fiscal 2026. The lodging tax in Japan is a local levy imposed by municipal or prefectural governments on overnight stays at hotels, ryokan, guesthouses, and other accommodation facilities. Originally introduced by Tokyo in October 2002, it was the first of its kind in the country and remains one of the most recognized. Tokyos system charges 100 yen per person per night for accommodations priced between 10,000 and 14,999 yen, and 200 yen for rates of 15,000 yen or more, while stays under 10,000 yen are exempt. The tax is collected by the accommodation providers at the time of check-in or check-out and is added on top of the room charge. Following Tokyos lead, several other regions implemented their own lodging taxes tailored to local tourism demands. Osaka Prefecture adopted a similar structure in 2017, while Kyoto City introduced a flat-rate system in October 2018, charging between 200 and 1,000 yen depending on the room rate and type of lodging, regardless of location within the city. The purpose of the lodging tax is to support the development and maintenance of tourism infrastructure, improve services for visitors, and manage the impact of growing tourist numbers. Revenue generated from the tax is used for various initiatives such as multilingual signage, preservation of cultural heritage sites, crowd control measures, and general promotion of tourism. In heavily visited areas like Kyoto and Osaka, the tax has helped address the burden of over-tourism, especially in historic districts and popular sightseeing spots. The introduction of new lodging taxes continues to be a topic of discussion across Japan, particularly in areas experiencing a surge in domestic and international tourism. Okinawa Prefecture, for example, has recently proposed the implementation of a lodging tax by fiscal 2026 as it aims to increase tourism revenue beyond 1 trillion yen. Local governments often weigh factors such as public sentiment, alignment with neighboring municipalities, and potential effects on hotel bookings before implementing such a tax. Although the amount imposed is relatively modest, the lodging tax represents a growing trend among Japanese regions to create sustainable tourism models while ensuring that the benefits of the tourism boom are reinvested into local communities. Source: Okinawa News OTV MOSCOW, May 30 (News On Japan) - Akie Abe, widow of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visited the Kremlin on May 29th and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the meeting, Akie was seen tearfully listening to Putins words, reflecting the emotional nature of their exchange. Following the conversation, she was invited to ride in Putins official limousine to the Bolshoi Theatre, where the two attended a ballet performance together. The visit marked a rare and highly symbolic encounter, underscoring lingering personal ties between Russia and Japan despite strained diplomatic relations. Putin welcomed Akie Abe with a bouquet of flowers and expressed deep respect for her husband's legacy. He recalled their 27 meetings during Abe's tenure and highlighted Abe's aspiration to conclude a peace treaty between the two nationsa goal hindered by the longstanding territorial dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands (known in Japan as the Northern Territories). Putin acknowledged that current geopolitical tensions, particularly due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and Japan's support of Western sanctions against Russia, make such a treaty unfeasible at present. Akie Abe, moved by the tribute, expressed gratitude for the dialogue her husband shared with Putin and emphasized the importance of continued cultural and people-to-people exchanges between Japan and Russia, despite current challenges. Following the meeting, Putin invited Akie Abe to attend a performance of 'The Little Humpbacked Horse' at the Bolshoi Theatre, providing his presidential Aurus limousine for her transportation. Source: SankeiNews TOKYO, May 30 (News On Japan) - Mako Komuro, the eldest daughter of the Akishino family and now living in the United States, has given birth to her first child, the Imperial Household Agency announced on May 30th. The agency stated that the birth was disclosed during a press conference after some media reports surfaced, despite their intention to allow Komuro to live in a quiet environment following her departure from the Imperial family. Komuro, formerly Princess Mako, became engaged in 2017 to Kei Komuro, whom she met during her university years. At the time, she described him as having "a smile as bright as the sun," while Kei said Mako watched over him "like the quiet moon." The couple appeared visibly happy, but their path was soon clouded by controversy. In 2018, a financial dispute emerged involving Kei's mother and her former fiance, centering on over 4 million yen. This led to a delay in the traditional Imperial marriage-related ceremonies and calls from Prince Akishino for the couple to properly address the situation. Later, in 2021, Kei Komuro released a detailed 28-page document explaining the background of the financial matter. That same year, four years after their engagement was first announced, the two were formally married. Mako stated at the time, "Kei is irreplaceable to me. Marriage was a necessary choice to protect our hearts as we live our lives." Kei also expressed his devotion, saying, "I love Mako. I want to spend my one and only life with the person I love." The couple moved to the United States in November 2021 and have remained there since. Their first child marks the birth of the Akishino couple's first grandchild. According to the Imperial Household Agency, the Akishino family is delighted by the news and wishes the Komuro family a happy life together. The agency did not reveal the childs birth date or gender. The marriage of Mako Komuro (formerly Princess Mako) and Kei Komuro was one of the most high-profile and controversial unions in modern Japanese imperial history, largely due to a protracted financial scandal and intense media scrutiny that spanned several years. Mako and Kei met while attending International Christian University in Tokyo and announced their engagement in September 2017. The couples public appearance was warm and hopeful, with Mako describing Kei's smile as bright as the sun and Kei calling her a quiet, supportive presence like the moon. Their relationship was initially celebrated by the public, but trouble soon followed. In late 2017, Japanese tabloids reported that Keis mother had been involved in a financial dispute with her former fiance. The issue concerned roughly 4 million yen (approximately $36,000 at the time), which the former fiance claimed was a loan meant to support Keis education, while Keis side maintained that it was a gift. The dispute quickly became a national controversy, with critics questioning the Komuro family's suitability for marrying into the imperial lineage, even though Mako was to leave the royal family upon marriage. As the scandal deepened, the Imperial Household Agency announced in early 2018 that the couple's weddingoriginally planned for that yearwould be postponed. Prince Akishino, Makos father, later commented publicly that the couple should respond properly to the concerns raised by the financial issue. This was widely interpreted as a call for Kei to settle or clarify the matter before proceeding with the marriage. In April 2021, after years of silence, Kei Komuro released a 28-page document detailing his side of the financial story, aiming to clear his name and address the public's concerns. Despite his effort, public sentiment remained divided. Later that year, Kei returned to Japan after completing his law studies in the United States and was met with a media frenzy. Mako and Kei officially married in October 2021, forgoing traditional wedding rites and ceremonies typically associated with imperial family unions. Mako also declined the customary 150 million yen lump-sum payment given to women who leave the royal family upon marriage, signaling her intent to distance the marriage from state and public support. She was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) prior to the wedding, which palace doctors attributed in part to years of sustained media pressure and public backlash. Shortly after the marriage, the couple moved to New York City, where Kei began working at a law firm. After their engagement was announced in 2017, Komuros decision to study law in the United States was seen as both a personal ambition and a practical step toward securing financial independence for their future togetherespecially in light of the media storm surrounding his family's financial issues. In 2018, amid growing scrutiny over the unresolved monetary dispute involving his mother, Komuro left Japan to attend Fordham Universitys School of Law in New York. This move was interpreted by some as a way to distance himself from the controversy, but also as a serious effort to establish a professional career abroad. He enrolled in a three-year program and received a scholarship awarded to students who demonstrate academic excellence and leadership potential. While Komuro was in the U.S., public attention in Japan remained focused on his legal progress. Many viewed his success or failure in becoming a lawyer as symbolic of his ability to provide a stable life for Mako outside the Imperial family. In 2021, he graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from Fordham and later passed the New York State bar exam in July 2022on his third attempt. His earlier failures were widely reported in Japan and fueled further criticism, but his eventual success allowed the couple to take a significant step toward settling into an independent life in the U.S. After passing the bar, Komuro began working at a prominent law firm in Manhattan, reportedly in the corporate law division. His career path enabled the couple to establish financial autonomy, and it was also framed as a gesture of commitment and seriousness toward building a life with Mako away from royal privilege. For supporters, his persistence in overcoming both academic and public challenges demonstrated a level of resolve that paralleled Makos own decision to marry for love despite intense societal pressure. Source: TBS INTERVIEW & PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES Every 48 minutes another Canadian is diagnosed with Crohn's or colitis; by 2035, 470,000+ Canadians will be living with IBD TORONTO, May 30, 2025 /CNW/ - WHAT: On Sunday, June 1, 2025, Crohn's and Colitis Canada, along with Canada's Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) community, will participate in Gutsy Walk, a national fundraising event that supports the 322,000+ people living with Crohn's or colitis. Crohn's and Colitis Canada (CNW Group/Crohn's & Colitis Canada) Gutsy Walk, Crohn's and Colitis Canada's largest fundraising initiative, raises funds that go directly towards national research, advocacy, and patient programs. WHO: Those living with Crohn's or colitis, community members, friends, family and local representatives. WHEN: Sunday, June 1, 2025. Event start times may vary by location. WHERE: 30+ locations nationwide from coast to coast. To register a team, donate and view locations, visit: gutsywalk.ca WHY: There is no cure for Crohn's or colitis. Treatment focuses on achieving and maintaining remission, minimizing complications, preventing lasting intestinal damage, and improving quality of life. Crohn's and colitis are lonely diseases, with stigma and isolation added onto physical symptoms. SPOKESPERSON QUOTES: Jayda Sutton of Oakville, ON : Longstanding participant who lives with colitis and is the Ontario Provincial Honourary Chair. "I walk to honour my journey, my son Grayson who passed away at eight months gestation due to complications related to my colitis, my daughter Alyssa, my husband Chris, my parents and everyone who has stood with me. I want to use my story to highlight the quiet victories getting back up when you feel defeated." Longstanding participant who lives with colitis and is the Ontario Provincial Honourary Chair. Kate Lee , VP, Research & Patient Programs, Crohn's and Colitis Canada: "Gutsy Walk is a celebration of resilience. These are isolating diseases, which makes Gutsy Walk an important moment for those affected to come together and contribute to a better future for themselves." ABOUT CROHN'S AND COLITIS CANADA We are on a relentless journey to cure Crohn's and colitis and improve the quality of life of everyone affected by these diseases. Get the latest Gutsy Walk information on Instagram and Facebook - @gutsywalk and @getgutyscanada, as well as gutsywalk.ca. For information on Crohn's and Colitis Canada, visit crohnsandcolitis.ca. To request visuals or coordinate interviews with Gutsy Walk participants or Crohn's and Colitis Canada, please contact: Alexandra Tushingham [email protected] 905-999-7565 ChangeMakers SOURCE Crohn's & Colitis Canada Beijing, China, May 22nd, 2025, CyberNewsWire ThreatBook, a global leader cyber threat and response solutions backed by threat intelligence and AI, has been recognized as a notable vendor in Forresters Network Analysis And Visibility Solutions Landscape, Q2 2025 report. This marks a major milestone in ThreatBooks 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. Were 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 weve 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 Forresters 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] Ten of the 16 Montanans who successfully challenged Montanas prohibition on greenhouse gas emissions analyses under the state constitution are now seeking to undo several executive orders from President Donald Trump aimed at "unleashing domestic fossil fuel production and undoing green energy policies implemented by his predecessor. Twenty-two people under the age of 25, including 15 from Montana and 10 of the plaintiffs in the Held v. Montana case, filed a 126-page federal lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Montana against Trump and several federal agencies and their directors, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and NASA. The suit challenges portions of three executive orders Trump issued earlier this year in which he declared a national energy emergency and moved to expedite fossil fuel production, block clean energy and electric vehicle initiatives made under the Biden administration, and make cuts to federal climate and environmental research and operations. Trumps fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation, lead plaintiff Eva Lighthiser, a 19-year-old from Livingston who was also a plaintiff in the Held case, said in a statement. Im not suing because I want to Im suing because I have to. My health, my future, and my right to speak the truth are all on the line. Hes waging war on us with fossil fuels as his weapon, and were fighting back with the Constitution. The complaint deploys similar claims the plaintiffs made in the Held v. Montana case, tying actions or a lack thereof by the government surrounding coal, oil and gas, renewable energy and more to consequences the young people will face because of how those policies contribute to global climate change and its effects on the ground. The group, which also includes a plaintiff from a similarly successful Hawaii case, is being represented by Montana environmental attorney Roger Sullivan, attorneys with Our Childrens Trust, attorney Phil Gregory all of which worked on the Held case and the law firm Public Justice. Many of the plaintiffs have physical or mental conditions affected by wildfire smoke that worsens with each year of higher global temperatures and broader drought. Others are now in college and are having research and grant opportunities axed through cuts to federal agencies. And threats to undo the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, from which many facts that went into the Held decision were drawn, would leave the plaintiffs and others without updated information about how climate change is affecting their lives, the group alleges. They claim the executive orders violate their Fifth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution by depriving them of life and liberty and were illegally ordered and implemented without congressional approval. President Trumps EOs falsely claim an energy emergency, while the true emergency is that fossil fuel pollution is destroying the foundation of Plaintiffs lives, the complaint says. These unconstitutional directives have the immediate effect of (a) slowing the buildout of U.S. energy infrastructure that eliminates planet-heating fossil fuel greenhouse gas pollution and (b) increasing the use of fossil fuels that pollute the air, water, lands, and climate on which Plaintiffs lives depend. The lawsuit says the plaintiffs believe the orders directives to rejuvenate coal mining and burning operations in Montana should be rejected under the Montana Supreme Courts decision in Held, and that the administrations hamstringing of clean energy projects, as the suit claims, would increase carbon dioxide pollution in Montana by 1 million metric tons in the next decade. It also alleges the orders would increase average energy costs for Montanans by $80 a year over the next five years. Energy companies applications for air pollution exemptions at Colstrip are highlighted in the complaint, noting that the power plant continues to emit more fine particulate matter than any other domestic plant and predicting the companies would try to continue to extend the coal-fired plants life. So is the Bureau of Land Managements effort to speed up oil and gas leasing and expediting National Environmental Policy Act reviews for those projects while prohibiting such expediency with clean energy projects. Those changes would have negative health effects for the plaintiffs, some of whom suffer from severe lung conditions, and increase potential injuries from flooding, wildfires and other extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, the suit alleges. The further effort to scrub the word climate from federal websites, communications and reports, freezing of research grants and elimination of clean energy efforts also will put the U.S. behind of the changing climate and weather patterns and stymie the next generation of would-be scientists, the plaintiffs claim, including at Montanas two largest universities. Blocking infrastructure like wind and solar, increasing energy consumption by eliminating efficiency measures, and blocking EVs which are far more energy efficient than internal combustion engine vehicles is the opposite of what any rational actor would do in an energy emergency. And it is deliberately indifferent to the dangers of fossil fuel pollution, the plaintiffs attorneys wrote in the filing. The suit contains five claims of constitutional or presidential power violations, says none of the executive orders are narrowly tailored nor serve a compelling government interest, and that the government is deliberately and indifferently dismantling scientific efforts to combat climate change while incentivizing fossil fuel usage. It asks a judge to declare the orders unconstitutional and invalid, block the administration from implementing or enforcing them, and provide the 22 plaintiffs with costs and attorneys fees. The president is knowingly putting young peoples lives in danger to serve fossil fuel interests, while silencing scientists and defying laws passed by Congress, said the cases lead attorney, Julia Olson of Our Childrens Trust. These young plaintiffs refuse to be collateral damage in a fossil fuel war on their future. They are demanding accountability where it still matters in a court of law. The executive branch is not above the Constitution, and these young people are here to prove it. Once the occasional oddity, tiger trout are ready to make a debut in Montana. The sterile fish, a cross between a male brook trout and a female brown trout, are proposed for planting in four Beartooth Mountain lakes and seven central Montana reservoirs and ponds. The Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks announced proposals to stock the fish this spring in south-central Montanas Region 5 in Crater, Lily Pad, Companion and Corner lakes. They can provide excellent sportfishing opportunities as they are aggressive and can grow to large size, FWP wrote in its draft environmental assessment. Region 4, in central Montana, has identified Bair, Crow Coulee, Hansen and Leningtons reservoirs as well as Maiden Spring, Kingsbury and Upper Carter ponds The agency is touting the species ability to eat smaller fish, termed biocontrol to winnow down the supply of stocked rainbow trout, self-sustaining brook trout and even nonnative fish like lake chub that may have been introduced after someone released their live bait. Since tiger trout are sterile, their numbers can be highly managed by stocking practices, FWP noted. Region 5 fisheries biologist Bryan Giordano said one of the goals is to increase angler opportunity, especially in waters where fish are so numerous that their size is stunted. Stocking tiger trout, he said, will convert some of those smaller fish into more catchable-sized trout for anglers. Triploid tiger trout eggs from Wyoming would be used as the source for stocking, the agency wrote. "A triploid fish has three sets of chromosomes, unlike a fertile fish that have two set of chromosomes (a diploid fish)," according to Wyoming Game and Fish, which grows and stocks the fish. "A triploid fish is not a genetically modified organism nor have the genes of the fish been manipulated or modified in any way. Triploid fish simply have an extra copy of DNA that makes reproduction impossible. "Triploid tiger trout are created by forcing the egg to retain a chromosome that is normally ejected during egg development. To prevent the egg from rejecting the chromosome, Story Hatchery personnel use a pressure treatment method to retain the chromosome that would normally be kicked out of the egg during an early stage of egg development. Using pressure, at precisely the right time in the egg development, the chromosome is retained; resulting in a sterile fish with three chromosomes." The lifespan of an individual tiger trout varies, but they generally live from 4 to 8 years. The fish average between 10 to 16 inches. The state record is a 4-pound, 20-incher caught in 1997 by Joe Sobczak from Bear Lake. In 2018, Missoula angler Jake Lee caught a tiger trout while fishing Rock Creek. It was deemed a naturally occurring hybrid. Im not surprised, but it is rare in the wild," Pat Saffel, Region 2 fisheries manager for FWP, told a reporter at the time. "The two species just dont overlap in area all that often, and theyre pretty distinct species. Angler Austin Christensen in neighboring Idaho caught a 27-inch, 9-pounder last year for a new state record. Wyoming also saw a new record set in 2024 when 13-year-old Jaxon Krall caught a nearly 13-pound tiger trout. Crater and Lily Pad lakes are located at the base of the Beartooth Mountains at an elevation of about 6,400 to 6,600 feet in Stillwater County. Both are accessible by hiking in from the West Rosebud Road. Crater Lake is about 2 acres with a maximum depth of 36 feet. Lily Pad is 3 acres with a maximum depth of 19 feet. Companion Lake sits at 9,393 feet and is accessible via the Goose Lake Jeep Trail outside Cooke City. The lake is about 7 acres and 24 feet at its deepest point. Companion contains small brook trout. Corner Lake is next door to Companion, stretching across 11 acres. It is managed for its self-sustaining Yellowstone cutthroat trout and lake chub. Comments on the tiger trout introductions will be taken until June 5 and can be emailed to Region 5 fisheries biologist Bryan Giordano at bryan.giordano@mt.gov or mailed to 2300 Lake Elmo Dr., Billings, MT 59105. In Wyoming's Viva Naughton Reservoir where the state record was caught, Wyoming Game and Fish Green River Region fisheries supervisor Robb Keith offered tiger trout anglers this advice. We see them predominantly close to shore down to 25 feet of water," he said. "They are found close to structures. They are eating shiners and Utah chubs, so anglers should choose lures, flies and baits that resemble these forage fish." Tiger trout get their name from the "pronounced dark vermiculations (tiger stripes, like brook trout) all over a brownish, gray body," according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Washington stocks the fish in more than 40 lakes. The agency offered this advice for anglers: "For shore anglers, the best time to fish is either early in the morning or in the evening. The fish will be paralleling the shoreline for prey as the water is cooler and the low light conditions prevent them from being detected. "Some popular lures are: Kastmasters, Triple Teasers, and Jake's Spin-a-lure. Fly fishers do well with Leech, Muddler, Woolly Bugger and nymph patterns. If fish are taking flies at the surface use a floating line and a dry fly or emerging pattern." Wyoming's Story Hatchery began producing the fish in 2011. Tiger trout were stocked in these Sheridan, Wyoming-area lakes: Willow Park, Cloud Peak, Weston, Muddy Guard reservoirs #1 and #2, and Long and Ringbone lakes in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. A former Atlantic City elected official was indicted by a grand jury on witness tampering charges brought on by a confrontation during a legal challenge to his eligibility as a councilman. Muhammad Zia, 51, of Egg Harbor Township, was also indicted on third-degree terroristic threat accusations, the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office said. Zia, ousted from his Atlantic City councilman seat by a Superior Court judge last year over his residency, was to be arraigned Tuesday, the office said. A court conference in the case is scheduled for July 10, records show. A 28-year-old New Jersey man has been indicted after authorities allege he was driving drunk during a crash that killed his roommate. Jean Zambrano-Briones was indicted Thursday on charges of vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crash that resulted in death, the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office said. Zambrano-Briones slammed into a utility pole while driving on the Black Horse Pike near South New Road in Egg Harbor Township around 2:30 a.m. on March 13, officials said. He then ran away, leaving behind his passenger and roommate, Gustavo Huestipa-Peralta. Tom Besser has authored some disheartening reports when it comes to pneumonia infections in bighorn sheep. In 2021, the now retired Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology professor at Washington State University in Pullman, recapped a disease outbreak at the National Bison Range where 85% of the bighorn sheep population were killed by pneumonia. In 2019, he contributed to a study regarding the spillover dynamics of the pneumonia-causing bacteria Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, or M. ovi between domestic sheep and goats and wild sheep and goats. That research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, contained this sobering fact: As a result of disease-related die-offs, overharvesting, and habitat loss and fragmentation, the range-wide population (of bighorn sheep) dramatically decreased in size from a rough estimate of 1.5-2 million sheep in the early 1800s to under 40,000 sheep in the United States by the end of the 19th century. Missouri Breaks bighorns This year, Besser helped identify the strain of bacteria that infected a hunter-killed bighorn sheep from Hunting District 622 in the Middle Missouri Breaks herd. Out of the 14 strains of M. ovi previously identified in bighorn sheep, the HD 622 bighorn was carrying one never before identified in the animals. Last week, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks disease ecologist Emily Almberg said the results of a second sample tested by Besser at the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory from a HD 622 bighorn came back. The ram died this spring as officials were flying to count the animals in the Missouri Breaks. It was also infected with the novel strain of pneumonia-causing bacteria. The bacteria is believed to be the cause of nearly wiping out the entire HD 622 herd, which in 2016 was estimated to number 318 animals. In an interview, Besser called M. ovi one of the most infectious diseases Im aware of as far as mortality rates. Reinfections continue The pneumonia outbreak at the National Bison Range killed 90% of the herd, more than 100 animals. On average, it can cut a herds population in half, Besser said. Unfortunately, those bighorns that survive an outbreak can continually reinfect newly born lambs. In 2018, two years after the outbreak at the bison range, all 21 lambs died within about two months. After the last ewe that had survived the outbreak died that year, in 2019 seven out of the 10 bighorn lambs born that spring survived until their first birthday. M. ovi needs a live host, it cant survive on surfaces, Besser explained. So direct contact is needed for transmission, although sick individuals that cough can transmit the bacteria to animals up to 30 feet away. Besser noted that bighorn sheep that survive one infection of M. ovi, although appearing healthy, can still die when a new strain of the bacteria shows up. Domestic sheep strains So far, researchers like Besser have identified 184 different strains of M. ovi in 207 domestic sheep. The vast majority (159 out of 207, 77%) of individual domestic sheep possessed unique strains, and a single strain was never detected in more than three sheep, Bessers study, published in Scientific Reports found. In contrast, 88 strains were identified in 349 bighorn sheep, the study added. Only 9% of individual bighorn sheep had unique strains, and 82% of bighorn sheep possessed a strain that was shared with at least two other bighorn sheep in our dataset. Based on their research, Besser and his colleagues said up to 47 strains of M. ovi may be found in a single domestic sheep herd. Bighorn sheep, on the other hand, may have up to three strains. We are not even close to capturing all the M. ovipneumoniae strain types present within domestic sheep operations in the western U.S., the researchers reported. We further hypothesize that spillover may be occurring at a higher rate than expected as strains may go undetected if they are not associated with disease events, if they fail to persist due to local extinctions prior to diagnosis, or if there are limited strains that are able to transmit effectively in bighorn sheep, the scientists wrote. Adding to the scientists concern is that from the 1920s to 2015 there were about 1,460 captures of bighorn sheep, animals that were moved to supplement or create new herds. These translocations involved more than 21,000 sheep in the U.S. and Canada. The Sun River bighorn population alone, which was used to create the HD 622 herd in the Missouri Breaks, has also been the source of translocations to other areas of Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah and Washington. Other animals carry M. ovi As if all of this isnt concerning enough when it comes to bighorn sheep conservation, a 2018 study conducted by another WSU scientist, Margaret Highland, found the pneumonia-causing bacteria in moose, caribou, mule deer and a white-tailed deer. A 2024 study, published in the journal Microbial Genomics, may be even more unsettling in its conclusions and reporting. In wildlife, emerging disease can lead to the substantial decline or complete extirpation of populations, e.g. avian influenza in birds, chytridiomycosis in amphibians, chronic wasting disease in cervids, white-nose syndrome in bats and wasting disease in sea stars and seagrasses, the study on pneumonia in white-tailed deer noted. Estimates suggest that zoonotic diseases (those that spread from animals to humans) account for 60% of emerging infectious diseases, 72% of which originate from wildlife hosts and are significantly increasing with time, the scientists wrote. Destructive to wildlife Such information packs a double whammy. For one, COVID-19 is believed to have arisen from wildlife before affecting humans. Just in the last month, COVID-19 has killed more than 1,100 Americans. Since the pandemic outbreak in 2021, more than 7 million people have died from COVID, according to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million of which were reported in the United States. Secondly, as the Microbial Genomics study noted, wildlife are a huge driver of state economies. In 2016, recreational hunting of deer (Odocoileus sp.) accounted for $20.9 billion of the United States Gross Domestic Product, with an additional $3.1 billion and $1.9 billion earned from federal and state tax revenues, respectively, the studys authors wrote. Especially in places like Montana where, as of 2021, more than half of Fish, Wildlife & Parks $58 million budget was funded by the sale of licenses for hunting and fishing. Another $28 million, or almost one-third of the agencys budget, came from federal taxes paid by Montanans when they bought guns, ammunition and fishing gear. Right now, FWP is working to develop a plan to manage a diminishing mule deer herd. The population has declined in the eastern half of the state due to a variety of reasons, including habitat loss, drought and disease. This includes chronic wasting disease, which continues to spread across Montana. This year, FWP was able to collect a record number of samples from deer to test for the always fatal disease. We had first time CWD detections in seven new hunting districts and two additional hunting districts that became positive as a result of hunting district boundary changes, for a total of nine hunting districts newly positive for CWD in the 2024 hunting season, Bevin McCormick, Wildlife Health Program biologist for FWP wrote in an email. The new detections in those seven hunting districts indicate that the geographic range of CWD is expanding in Montana, McCormick added. Because of our large increase in samples, and therefore surveillance in 2024, its likely some of these new hunting districts have had CWD cases for some time, but that it was only detected for the first time in 2024. Back to the Breaks Whats next for the Middle Missouri Breaks bighorn sheep population? Almberg, FWPs disease ecologist, said ideally the agency needs additional samples from the sheep to confirm that pneumonia wiped out the herd. We'll be on the lookout for additional sampling opportunities, should they arise, she said. Scott Thompson, wildlife manager for FWP in northeastern Montanas Region 6, said there are no immediate plans to capture the few remaining bighorns for testing. At minimum we will increase sampling of hunter harvested sheep in (nearby Hunting Districts) 620 and 680, he wrote in an email. Both of those herds will be aerially surveyed in a little over a month as well. Besser, the retired WSU professor, said determining the strain of M. ovi is helpful in matching it to the most likely cause of contact. If the strain isnt found in surrounding bighorn herds, he said the infection is likely a spillover from domestic sheep or goats. The strains of M. ovi found in caribou, deer and even Dall sheep are much different than those identified in bighorn sheep, Besser added. The bacteria, he said, have host specificity, but it is not absolute. Rutgers University Commencement festivities at SHI Stadium in Piscataway earlier this month. Steve Hockstein | For NJ Advance College graduation season is wrapping up in New Jersey, and for new grads that means the clock is now ticking on paying back student loans. Federal student loan borrowers usually get a six-month grace period after graduation before payments start. A typical student graduating from a four-year institution with a degree will be facing more than $22,000 in federal student debt, data from the federal Department of Education from earlier this year shows. Thats a monthly payment of about $240 on the standard, 10-year repayment plan. (See the typical student debt for each New Jersey university listed below.) But the average student at some colleges have much higher debt burdens than those at other schools. In New Jersey, Strayer University graduates have the highest loan amounts, with the median student carrying a balance of $40,621, according to federal data. More than 80% of students take out federal loans to afford their Strayer degrees, the data shows. Strayer is a for-profit private college that offers degrees in business, cybersecurity, criminal justice and other areas. On the other end of the spectrum is Princeton University, where just 2.5% of students have federal student loans. The Ivy League school is known for its extensive grant program, which helps most students cover their tuition without taking out loans. Of the Princeton students with federal loans, the median debt is $10,320 with a monthly loan payment of $109, according to the federal data. The Ivy League school says it is often less expensive than your state college or university. Rutgers, New Jerseys largest university, had a median debt size of $21,500 across its three campuses, the federal data shows. Thats a loan payment of about $228 each month. Use the chart to look up the median debt size for students at all four-year colleges across the state: Cant see the chart? Click here. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch. Rick Derringer died at the age of 77 on Monday evening. (Photo by Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images) Redferns Rick Derringer, the guitarist and songwriter who wrote Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo (1970), and worked extensively with Weird Al Yankovic, the co-creator of a memorable wrestling theme song, died on Monday. He was 77. Long-time friend Tony Wilson confirmed Derringers passing in a Facebook post. There was no cause of death provided, but it has been noted that the artist has been battling a variety of health issues. Derringers legacy extends beyond his music, entertaining fans with his signature energy and talent, Wilson wrote. His passing leaves a void in the music world, and he will be deeply missed by fans, colleagues, and loved ones. Yankovic also wrote his tribute to Derringer in a separate Instagram statement. Im very sad to say that my friend, rock guitar legend Rick Derringer, has passed. Rick produced my first 6 albums and played guitar on my earliest recordings, including the solo on Eat It. He had an enormous impact on my life, and will be missed greatly. Born Richard Dean Zehringer in Ohio on August 5, 1947, he formed a band named the McCoys after his family moved to Union City, Indiana, during his eighth-grade year. The group was hired by songwriting-production team the Strangeloves in 1965 to record a cover of My Girl Sloopy. After changing the name to Hang on Sloopy, the song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the summer of that year. Derringer would later venture on his own and release his first solo album in 1973, All American Boy. Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo would be his highest charting song, reaching 23 on the Hot 100 Billboard chart that year. Derringer was also a prolific session musician working with the likes of Steely Dan, Alice Cooper, Kiss, and Barbra Streisand. In 1985, he produced the World Wrestling Federations The Wrestling Album, most notably, co-wrote Hulk Hogans theme song Real American. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* * LEGENDARY MUSICIAN/ ENTERTAINER RICK DERRINGER Received His Wings And Passed On This... Posted by Tony Wilson on Tuesday, May 27, 2025 Related coverage: Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com Pope Leo XIV has appointed Reverend Pedro Bismarck Chau, current rector of Newarks Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Newark. Archdiocese of Newark The Vatican announced today that Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev. Pedro Bismarck Chau as a new auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Newark, while accepting the resignation of Bishop Gregory J. Studerus. Bishop-elect Chau, 57, currently serves as rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark. Born in Managua, Nicaragua, in 1967, he brings a diverse background to his new role, including fluency in English, Spanish and American Sign Language. His deep faith, considerable pastoral experience and love for the people of God will be a great blessing to our local Church, said Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, in a statement welcoming the appointment. Chau holds degrees from Seton Hall University, including a bachelors in psychology and a masters in professional counseling. He also earned theology and pastoral ministry degrees from Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology before his 2008 ordination. His pastoral experience spans parishes, youth ministry, campus ministry, and chaplaincy to the deaf. He has also served on the Priest Personnel Board and Council of Priests. Bishop Studerus, 77, was appointed by Pope Francis in February 2020 and ordained that June. Despite stepping down from his official role, he will remain active in the archdioceses pastoral life. Cardinal Tobin expressed gratitude for Studeruss service, noting his pastoral heart, wisdom and humble dedication have made a lasting impact on our local Church. As auxiliary bishop, Chau will oversee Hudson County parishes and Catholic institutions previously under Studeruss care. He joins Auxiliary Bishops Manuel A. Cruz, Michael A. Saporito, and Elias R. Lorenzo in serving the archdioceses 1.3 million Catholics. Chaus Episcopal Ordination Mass is scheduled for Septe.r 8, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, with Cardinal Tobin as principal celebrant. * * * Submit Essex County community news to essex@njadvancemedia.com. Questions about this post may be directed to Linda OBrien at lobrien@njadvancemedia.com or Stephanie Loder sloder@njadvancemedia.com. Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by NJ Advance Media staff. The smell of marijuana may justify searching a vehicle, but it does not automatically give police the right to arrest or search a person, according to a new court ruling. Canva Illustration for NJ.com A federal appeals court ruled that Newark police violated a mans constitutional rights when they arrested and searched him based solely on the smell of marijuana coming from his car. The smell of weed may justify searching a vehicle, but it does not automatically give police the right to arrest or search a person unless the odor can be clearly linked to that individual, according to the opinion issued by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The case stems from a 2020 incident in Newark, where, according to court documents, a police detective said he smelled burning marijuana as he approached a parked Audi with its engine running. Abdul Outlaw was in the drivers seat, with a passenger beside him. The Newark Police detective testified that he saw smoke and noticed a strong odor of marijuana. However, as the court noted, he did not see anyone smoking, nor did he observe any suspicious behavior. Outlaw cooperated fully, handing over his license and registration without incident. Despite this, police ordered Outlaw out of the car and conducted a pat-down. According to the opinion, the officer found on Outlaw a firearm with a scratched-off serial number and a small amount of marijuana in a prescription bottle Outlaw was arrested and later charged with illegal possession of a firearm under federal law, along with motor vehicle violations for marijuana possession and tinted windows. Outlaw challenged the search, arguing that it violated his Fourth Amendment rights because the officer had no specific reason to believe the marijuana smell came from him personally. The court agreed. While the smell of marijuana alone can create probable cause to search a vehicle, there must be facts that connect the smell to an individual passenger for there to be probable cause to arrest that passenger, Judge Marjorie Rendell wrote for the court. Because Outlaw had a passenger in the car and showed no signs of drug use, Rendell found that the search of his person was unconstitutional. As a result, the firearm and marijuana found during the search cannot be used as evidence in court. The ruling puts the federal case against Outlaw in jeopardy, though it has not yet been dismissed. The decision could also have broader implications for police practices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delawarethe states under the Third Circuits jurisdiction. It reinforces that officers must have specific, individualized evidence before arresting or searching someone. Outlaws attorney, Michael J. Pappa, said the court made the right call in throwing out the evidence. The facts and case law supported the well-reasoned opinion, he said, noting that the officer had no legal basis to search his client. There was no probable cause to believe Mr. Outlaw had smoked or possessed marijuana, Pappa added, and no credible direct or circumstantial evidence to support the officers claim. The U.S. Attorneys Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. What to do if you get a hospital bill after an emergency. Canva A large hospital bill after an emergency visit can make the painful time even more difficult, but according to experts, there are federal and state laws that protect people from overpaying for treatment. It can be overwhelming, said JoAnn Volk, research professor at Georgetown Universitys Center on Health Insurance Reforms. Take a breath and figure out if something has been denied. You have options, and dont take no for an answer. Mosaic spoke with Volk about navigating a hospital bill. Here is what she said. Q: What should you do when you get your explanation of benefits from your insurer? A: Your insurance company will send you an explanation of benefits, a breakdown of what the insurer is paying for the treatment and the amount you owe, either via mail or through your patient portal with what they covered. Check to see what has been covered or not. Q: What should you do if coverage is denied? A: If the explanation of benefits says that your insurance wont cover anything, then federal law requires your insurance to tell you why they denied you care. You can appeal the denial with the help of your provider. Q: If your appeal is denied, what should you do? A: Under federal law, you can appeal the denial again and ask for an independent review of the insurers decision to see if they agree with the insurance company or if the treatment should have been covered and paid. This is a process that can often take months. Q: What does a denial that says failure to get prior authorization mean? A: Federal law says that you cant require prior authorization for emergency services because, in an emergency medical situation, no one can stop and file paperwork for insurance companies to get permission to provide emergency treatment. Q: If you go to an out-of-network hospital, can your insurance charge you more? A: In emergencies, federal law requires insurers to charge the same for treatment received in-network and out-of-network hospitals for emergency services. Q: Are insurance companies required to cover treatment for self-inflected injuries, like after a suicide attempt? A: Under federal law, if your insurance company covers the treatment for an accidental injury they are required to cover the treatment for a self-inflected injury. So, if your insurance plan covers an emergency room visit, then your insurer cannot deny coverage if that visit was from a self-inflicted injury. Q: What if my bills are more than I can pay, even if I have insurance? A: Federal law requires nonprofit hospitals to provide people with assistance for their unpaid bills. Your hospital might have a financial assistance program that can reduce or eliminate out-of-pocket costs that are larger than what you can afford to pay. New Jersey requires all hospitals to provide this assistance for people based on income. Q: What do you do if you are uninsured? A: Hospitals must treat you and stabilize you regardless of insurance status under federal law. But after you are stabilized, they have no obligation to treat you, and you would not have coverage for the care you receive. Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that insurance companies will send an explanation of benefits. Hospitals send bills. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Amira Sweilem may be reached at asweilem@njadvancemedia.com. Editors note: An earlier version of this story reported ongoing negotiations at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus. A new contract was settled late Thursday that includes safe staffing ratios, said an HPAE spokesperson. Nurses at Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin say they are ready to go on strike in 10 days if they cant reach an agreement over staffing levels in a new contract with Hackensack Meridian Health. An overwhelming majority of the hospitals 350 nurses, 98%, authorized the strike in an April vote, according to the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, Local 5138 website. On Thursday, the union told the hospital the nurses will walk off the job June 9 if an agreement is not reached. The National Labor Relations Board prohibits strikes at health care facilities without at least 10 days notice to the institution and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The unions previous contract expired April 30. Nurses and management met at 10 a.m. Thursday, but negotiations broke down when the talks turned to staffing levels, said Anna Pona, president of Local 5138 and a registered nurse at the hospital. No other employer in the state disputes that theres a nursing crisis, yet today at the table Hackensack Meridian Health officials told us Southern Ocean Medical Center doesnt have a problem with staffing, said Pona. However, weve just had testimony today from nurses who are in fear of coming to work. They dont even know how to be a nurse yet and theyre coming out of school having seven or eight patients. Thats difficult for a seasoned nurse, not to mention a novice, said Pona, who has 35 years experience. Staffing levels have been a priority for nurses since bargaining sessions first began on Feb. 10, according to union leaders. Those people were taking care of are like family. I want to make sure that when my family is coming in, theyre being taken care of. I dont want them to be left in the corner because theyre someones eighth patient, said Pona. Debbie White, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees, the union representing the nurses, said Hackensack Meridian Health is the only employer theyve bargained with this past year that has resisted contract language limiting the number of patients nurses may be assigned. In March 2023, the union released a position paper titled CODE RED which called attention to poor staffing and its byproducts, burnout and stress. However, Hackensack Meridian Health claims management presented a proposal that prioritizes safe staffing, but the union refuses to let nurses vote on it. According to a statement sent to NJ Advance Media, the proposal includes filling numerous open positions and outlines steps to address unexpected staffing changes, including overtime, float pool utilization, and agency staff. It also proposes establishing a dedicated staffing committee to regularly review staffing levels and address concerns. Southern Ocean Medical Center will remain open during any strike using replacement nurses provided by a staffing agency, according to a statement provided by Hackensack Meridian Health. We remain committed to bargaining in good faith with HPAE to reach a tentative agreement on a new labor contract hopefully without HPAE leading nurses on strike. The union has the option to withdraw its 10-day notice before its strike begins," the statement reads. The dispute centers on what is best for patients, said White. Were not just doing this because these nurses want an easy assignment. Nurses want their assignments limited so they can pay attention to their patients, so they can give them best possible care, said White. Several other nursing unions are in the midst of contract negotiations, including nurses at four Inspira Health hospitals. Contracts for nurses at those hospitals expire on Sunday. There are 1,800 members at the Inspira Health hospitals. Those talks are looking hopeful, said White. In 2024, a bill was introduced by State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) to make enforceable staffing ratios the law. However, the legislation did not advance past committee. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com. Luke Bryan will perform in N.J. and N.Y. during his Country Song Came On Tour. Courtesy of Vivid Seats Where the Country Girls At? Theyre at one of Luke Bryans concerts, of course. Luke Bryan is bringing his Country Song Came On Tour to New Jersey on May 30 in Holmdel at the PNC Bank Arts Center and on June 6 in Camden at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion. Luke Bryan tour 2025 The cheapest Luke Bryan tour tickets are available on SeatGeek. Buy Now You can also catch the American Idol judge in Wantagh, N.Y. on May 31. If you want to kick your summer off with a country music bang, then heres how you can can see Luke Bryan live. How to get last-minute Luke Bryan tour tickets If you want to see Luke Bryan at PNC Bank Arts Center on May 30, then the cheapest ticket we could find is $71 on Viagogo. For his tour stop in Wantagh, N.Y. on May 31, the cheapest ticket we could find, is $76 on SeatGeek. Finally, for Luke Bryans June 6 show in Camden at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, the cheapest ticket we could find is $85 on Viagogo. If you happen to miss out on these cheapest tickets, then no reason to stress, because you can find more tickets for all his upcoming shows on StubHub, Vivid Seats, Viagogo, TicketNetwork and SeatGeek. Dont forget, if youre a first-time Vivid Seats customer, then you can receive $20 off your ticket order of $200 or more just by using promo code NJ20 at checkout. You can find a full schedule of Luke Bryans Country Song Came On Tour dates here. Luke Bryan tour 2025: Dates, schedule & more Luke Bryan will begin his Country Song Came On Tour on May 29 in Bethel, N.Y., and will wrap up on Aug. 30 in Buffalo, N.Y. Bryan will also feature several special guests on tour with him, including George Birge, Avery Anna, Ashland Craft, Mae Estes, Cole Goodwin, Braxton Keith, Randall King, Vincent Mason, Drake Milligan, Adrien Nunez and Owen Riegling. DJ Rock will also join for all tour dates. Massive upcoming PNC Bank Arts Center shows Besides Luke Bryan, there are a number of other artists taking over PNC Bank Arts Center this year. Here are a few more shows you dont want to miss this year: Thomas Rhett, Nelly, Goo Goo Dolls and Simple Minds. Hi, Im Nicole, NJ.coms expert live events and deals writer! Ive made it my mission to find the absolute cheapest tickets for the biggest artists, like Taylor Swift, Billy Joel, Sabrina Carpenter, & more. If you missed the general sale or presale for your favorite artist, you dont have to panic. Ive already done the hard work of sifting through tickets and finding you the best price. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Nicole Iuzzolino can be reached at niuzzolino@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips. Trenton police arrest Joseph Ahr Sr. on July 6, 2020. This image if from a police body camera. State prosecutors are dropping charges against a Trenton police officer who pepper sprayed a man who later died following a 2020 confrontation in front of his city home, officials said. Officer Nicholas Piotrowski faced a single charge of official misconduct in the death of Joseph Ahr Sr. Hey there New Jersey! Heres your audio update highlighting hazing allegations at Seton Hall University, a police-involved shooting in Woodbridge and the return of a certain type of cicadas. Well also tell you about the death of a Lenape High School senior in a crash and the appointment of a new chancellor at Rutgers University-Newark. Listen by clicking the play button above. This audio presentation is an editorially-curated selection of stories, selected by an editor, and then summarized and read aloud by artificial intelligence. Some variations in pronunciation, tone or diction may result. We want to know what you think! All feedback is valuable. After youve listened, take our 3-question survey here to let us know what you think. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday published a new list of 500 sanctuary jurisdictions across the country, including 21 in New Jersey, that President Donald Trumps administration says are obstructing immigration enforcement and standing in the way of deportations. The department on Thursday said each one will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant and if theyre believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes. The list was published on the departments website The 18 New Jersey jurisdictions, including three counties and 18 towns, are: Burlington County Cumberland County Warren County Asbury Park Bloomfield Camden East Orange Jersey City Hoboken Leonia Linden Maplewood Montclair Township Newark North Bergen Paterson Plainfield Prospect Park South Orange Trenton Union City These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release. The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says arent doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it seeks to make good on Trumps campaign promises to remove millions of people in the country illegally. The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department. Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated. Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as sanctuary jurisdictions and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order. If sanctuary jurisdictions are notified and the Trump administration determines that they remain in defiance, the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever legal remedies and enforcement measures they consider necessary to make them comply. Theres no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction. The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement. North Bergen officials said the township has never declared itself a sanctuary city and it disputed the Trump administrations claim that it does not follow New Jersey Attorney Generals Office regarding immigration enforcement. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide, but often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody. One way that the administration seeks to enlist state and local support is through 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies. Those agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assume some immigration enforcement duties and greatly expand ICEs capabilities. The number of those agreements has skyrocketed in just a matter of months under the Trump administration. ICE has about 6,000 law enforcement officers a number that has remained largely static for years who are able to find, arrest and remove immigrants its targeting. By relying on local law enforcement, it can quickly scale up the number of staff available. Communities that dont cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if theyre a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime. The Trump administration has already taken a number of steps targeting states and communities that dont cooperate with ICE and has met with pushback in the courts. One executive order issued by Trump directs the Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against four New Jersey cities Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken accusing them of violating federal law by refusing to cooperate with immigration enforcement authorities. The lawsuit was filed on May 22 in federal court in Newark. On Thursday, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice called upon the newly listed fourteen municipalities, along with the three counties, to follow the leadership of Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken who are standing firm in their values and not backing down to hollow intimidation tactics. The recent chaos at Newark Liberty that caused flight cancellations, ground stops and hours-long delays across the country has led many passengers to book their flights from other airports. Now, the biggest air carrier at Newark says it is making a bid to lure them back. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said they will be cutting fares for the busy summer travel season. Speaking at a presentation hosted by the Wall Street Journal, Kirby said United lost a lot of bookings out of Newark, so theres a lot more seats available. What that will mean, he said, is that flying from Newark Liberty is going to be the cheapest its probably ever going to be in history. I dont really like that, but you ought to book. The mess at Newark was caused by a number of factors which, taken together, wreaked havoc on getting flights in and out of the busy airport. In April, one of its two main runways was taken out of service for a repaving and upgrades, greatly cutting capacity. That same month, a series of equipment failures led to the loss of radar and radio frequencies used by air traffic controllers to guide aircraft into and out of Newark. Added to the mix has been a severe shortage of controllers stationed at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control center, or TRACON, who are responsible for Newarks airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration began slowing arrivals and departures because of the airports problems, forcing planes to be held at the gate or on the runway, while thousands of passengers had to deal with outright cancellations. United soon moved to cut nearly three dozen round-trip flights from its daily schedule in and out of Newark. Under a subsequent interim order, the FAA reduced the maximum hourly number of flights at Newark to 28 arrivals and 28 departures, until the reconstruction work on runway is complete. During peak times previously, there could be as many as 77 departures and arrivals each hour. Travel expert Clint Henderson of The Points Guy said he heard anecdotally from a friend who regularly flies in and out of United that they are paying a lot less for business class tickets to and from Los Angeles and Newark. In his own recent searches, however, he noted Im not really seeing a substantial discount for Newark flights. That said, if consumers can find deals, thats great news, as long as theyre willing to take a chance on delays or cancellations which have historically been higher out of Newark. I will say the reason United may be cutting prices is all about supply and demand which is very typical for airline tickets, Henderson observed. If United, or other carriers, are seeing a drop in demand due to concerns about Newark flying, he said the airline will use the biggest tool in the toolbox to boost demand and fill planes, and thats price cuts. And if it turns out there is a substantial discount for passengers to choose Newark, he believes consumers will respond by booking flights in and out of New Jersey. I personally would book Newark over JFK and LaGuardia if the price was right, he said. Ive been trying to find a flight deal to Miami and to Europe out of Newark and Im not seeing big discounts. If I could pay $100 less, I would jump on it even with the air traffic control issues. Earlier this week, meanwhile, United announced plans to partner with JetBlue that will give it access to slots at JFK for up to seven daily round-trip flights beginning in 2027. Kirby, though, said Newark remains Uniteds primary home in the metropolitan area, and described the airports problems now as more of a huge perception issue that has yet to abate, despite the actions of the FAA to address delays. Newark is safe, he maintained, while noting that United had the best weekend in history for reliability at Newark over the Memorial Day holiday. Its likely going to be the most reliable and have the highest on time performance of any of the New York airports this summer, because of the changes at the FAA, he said. __ Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @TedShermanSL. A door-to-door solicitor has been sentenced to prison in the fatal stabbing of a man during a confrontation in 2022. Michael Tsamas, 35, of the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge, received a 20-year-sentenced on Thursday in the murder of 44-year-old Joseph Delgardio, the Ocean County Prosecutors Office said in a statement. A jury convicted Tsamas of first-degree aggravated manslaughter and weapons offenses earlier this year. Tsamas was soliciting in a neighborhood of Jackson Township on May 26, 2022, when the incident occurred. At the time, he was working for a third-party company that sells business on behalf of Verizon. Police were called to West Veterans Highway and Conor Road around 6:15 p.m. after callers reported Delgardio was lying in the street bloodied from the fight. Authorities said Delgardio was stabbed at least once in the neck and died at the scene from his injuries. Tsamas, who was arrested on the scene, said in an interview with police that he stabbed Delgardio in self-defense after he threatened to kill him, prosecutors said. The fight ensued after Tsamas was turned away by Delgardio, who feared the salesman was scamming residents, officials said. It was captured on a neighbors cell phone, which was positioned inside a bedroom window. Screams from outside provoked the woman to begin recording the deadly brawl, the neighbor told police. Video shows Delgardio holding Tsamas by the collar on Conor Road and pushing him toward the sidewalk after driving up to the salesman and acting aggressively, police wrote in a criminal complaint from 2022. Tsamas then reached into a side pocket, wielded a knife and stabbed Delgardio, the complaint said. Tsamas offered the homeowner discounts on products that were interpreted to be fallacious, Delgardios wife told investigators. Delgardio left his home to warn neighbors of the salesman before the two men fought. The sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act, requiring Tsamas to serve 85% of the 20-year term before he is eligible for parole. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com. Former New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney photographed at NJ Advance Media in Iselin on April, 11, 2025. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media By Steve Sweeney America is facing a moment of great crisis and even greater uncertainty. From the chaos unleashed by President Trump, to rising costs and widening divisions, people are looking for leadership that brings stability, vision, and most importantly results. In New Jersey, we cant afford to sit on the sidelines, because New Jerseyans have been through enough already. We need a governor who will fight for the middle class, invest in our communities, and make government work for everyone. Moreover, we need someone who is ready for that job on Day One Thats why Im running for governor. We need bold action, and we need it now. Heres my plan to move New Jersey forward: Tax relief for seniors whove earned it Under my Stay NJ Plus plan, well fully fund the Stay NJ Program and more: Retirees with incomes up to $250,000 will be exempt from state income tax. Seniors will also see their property taxes cut in half. No more being taxed out of the state you built were going to help people retire with dignity right here in New Jersey. But this isnt just about helping seniors its about supporting the middle-class families who are feeling squeezed from all sides. Too many hardworking people are now caring for both their children and their aging parents. Its also why I passed Paid Family Leave in New Jersey, but we can do more. This tax relief creates real independence for seniors, while giving their children the breathing room they deserve. Its about making sure that those whove worked hard all their lives can retire with dignity without having to rely on their kids to get by. The New Jersey Builders Agenda - real investment in jobs and infrastructure Trumps chaotic actions are unlikely to bring back the middle-class jobs he promised. So, I am going to launch a major investment in the things that make our communities work and create jobs. My Builders Agenda is not a spending spree, this is an investment in quality of life for our residents. Our infrastructure, housing stock, water systems, and electric grid are old, dilapidated, and inefficient. It is time New Jersey residents have a quality of life that matches their demands and makes the state more affordable. If we have better water and electric systems, costs will go down. If we increase and improve the quality of housing, then related costs will go down, including homeowners insurance. These investments will be life changing. Modernized water systems to ensure New Jerseyans have access to clean water. Upgrade outdated and failing sewer systems. Affordable housing for working- and middle-class families, and down payment assistance for young residents. Adopt micro-grid technology and Modular Nuclear Reactors, alongside building new gas-fueled power plants, and explore state-of-the-art hydrogen technology and energy generation through food waste to lower the utility costs for New Jerseyans. We can no longer wait around for resistant towns to build housing they dont want. We need to utilize the built-up reserves to meet the demand today. We must build, and we must rehabilitate. Instead of fighting over affordable housing, we will deliver it. Market Rate Housing Many young individuals are unable to afford a home, which leads to delays in starting a family. The NJ Builders Plan aims to assist every first-time buyer in making home ownership attainable. Climate resiliency infrastructure This is how we build opportunity, by putting middle-class families and union laborers back to work. Pathways to Good-Paying Jobs Under my administration, well make it a top priority connecting education directly to jobs: A new partnership between high schools, county colleges, and labor unions. Apprenticeship-to-career pipelines that get young people trained, certified, and hired. This isnt about student debt; its about middle-class paychecks on Day One. And with the public works projects needed throughout the state, these jobs will be available where you live from Essex to Salem and everywhere in between. Compassionate Leadership Unlike Trump who has compassion for no one, I have committed myself to making life better for those who the government has forgotten. As the father of a daughter with Down syndrome, I know firsthand the challenges families face navigating systems that werent built with them in mind. Ive fought to expand Medicaid, workforce opportunities, and housing for people with disabilities. And that fight isnt over, we need to provide job training and incentives to ensure people with disabilities can find work and live happy, independent lives. We need to pay Direct Service Professionals the wages they deserve. Ill bring that same fight to the Governors Office because everyone deserves independence, security, and respect. New Jersey deserves more than soundbites they deserve solutions. When some Democrats in Washington arent stepping up to stand up to Trump, we need a governor with the courage to lead, the compassion to care, and the experience to get things done. Im not running to score points on cable news. Im running to deliver real change for real people. If you believe in a New Jersey where seniors can retire with dignity, where working families can thrive, and where every child no matter their ability has a fair shot, then join me. Lets build a stronger future together. Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, is a candidate for New Jersey governor. A resident of South Jersey, he previously served as state Senator (2002-2022) and the longest-serving Senate President in state history (2010-2022). He also served as Gloucester County Freeholder (1998 - 2010). Editors note: We invited all 11 candidates running for governor to submit an op-ed to publish prior to June 3. Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter. The six Democrats running for New Jersey governor, clockwise from top left: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller, and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. File photos Tom Martello writes a regular column about the 2025 race for New Jersey governor. In normal times, I would be telling you that the campaigns for New Jersey governor have entered their final phase, which means energizing their people, hitting the streets and frantically pushing to get out the vote. Id say its too late for big surprises or negative ads to have any impact because by this time most voters have made up their minds. And the insiders would have no problem giving me their odds-on favorite on who will win the upcoming primary election on June 10. But as any Democrat will tell you in this Age of Trump, these are not normal times. A couple of months ago, I told you that the Republican race is Jack Ciattarellis to lose, unless Donald Trump screwed it up for him. But after a nasty scrap with an ex-radio talk show host, Jack nabbed an endorsement from the president, which means all thats left is to count his margin of victory 10 days from now. That part, at least, feels like relatively normal times. On the Democratic side, though, we started with a mad scramble between six big-name candidates, each with their own flock of followers who could put them over the top. Yes, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, backed by so many Democratic Party leaders, was a consistent favorite. But she had reasons to be nervous. In normal times, we would have had a much different narrative after the race heated up, after the debates and the tens of millions were spent on campaign commercials, social media and flyers. Surely, at least some of these candidates would have recognized that the jig was up, that someone else was going to win and theyd stick it out only for prides sake. The mad dash to the finish But no. Here we are less than two weeks from Primary Day, and Sherrill is still the nervous frontrunner (with a few mid-May polls boosting her), while the other five truly believe they can win the mad dash to the finish. Twist the arm of a pundit and make them pick a winner instead of saying uncle, and theyll blurt out Mikies name. Then as soon as their arm stops hurting, theyll explain why they really arent that sure. I think were right where weve been, one top Democrat told me. And I think Ive said this a couple of times, Oh, this ones pulling ahead, or this ones got a little bit of an edge. And then, boom, were right back in the scrum. This is a very strange and odd primary race. I asked if anything on Primary Day a Sherrill landslide, a tight Sherrill victory, one of the other candidates pulling ahead would be shocking. Not really, he said. In normal times, Democrats wouldnt have had to make big decisions in primaries for governor because races were usually decided a year before by party bosses who would anoint their favorite and give them the big-time treatment on the June ballots. A big court decision last year ended that practice, and a half dozen Dems jumped in. Were not used to making up our minds in a primary, said Matt Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University who is also a Democratic councilman in Highland Park. Were used to having our minds made up for us. I cant tell you the number of people whove come up to me and said, So why are there six Democrats? I dont get it. Theyre kind of taken aback and confused that there are these many candidates. Hale noted that there are lots of different Democratic voices, from progressives Ras Baraka, Steven Fulop and Sean Spiller to the more conservative Steve Sweeney and Josh Gottheimer to the ever-moderate Sherrill. The one thing that unites them is they all hate Trump, he said. But the Trump-hating part gets played in all the Democrats campaign ads, which makes it hard for the casual Democratic voter to distinguish one from the other. A very strange primary Dan Cassino, executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, said the campaign has been very strange because candidates usually start out with campaign spots to introduce themselves, then morph to commercials that identify problems, say theyre the best to tackle them, and lastly, bring a call to action. But at this very late stage, he said, were still seeing many candidates simply introducing themselves. Ive taught this from textbooks a dozen times, Cassino said. Nobodys done it this time. Mikie Sherrill ad for New Jersey governor. Screenshot of Mikie Sherrill TV ad Many continue to introduce themselves in their commercials: Youre seeing Sherrill, the former Navy pilot, walking confidently in front of a military helicopter, and the others are still emphasizing their families, Jersey ties and backgrounds. Cassino said this is happening because their advisers are telling them people still dont know who the heck they are. And feel-good spots that show this-candidate-is-really-something-else are designed to play to voters gut reactions: Hey, why not? Thats someone I can like. Speaking of those ads, they too have been anything but normal. Traditionally in modern campaigns, you get bombarded for months by a never-ending stream of negative campaign commercials and flyers. Here in New Jersey, it took until last week for the Dems to stop targeting Trump in their ads, and start focusing on each other. Fulop and Baraka released ads going after Sherrill for months-old questions on stock trades and for taking campaign contributions from a committee connected to Elon Musks SpaceX. Meanwhile, a political action committee backing Sherrills campaign clearly worried that the negative messages might cost her an already slim margin put out its first these guys are lying about Mikie spot of the campaign. So many still undecided All the polls show a lot of people still dont know which way theyll go. And about two-thirds of the Democrats who requested mail-in ballots havent returned them. Thats more than 337,000 sitting on desks or coffee tables across New Jersey a big number in a close primary. Some Democrats wonder how many of those ballots will get to mailboxes and instead how many undecided voters will skip the primary and wait to vote against the Trump Republican in the fall. Which brings us back to who can energize enough voters from the many factions of a Democratic Party thats undergoing an identity crisis, here and nationwide. A few Democrats told me some campaigns simply arent using the usual last-minute playbooks, which makes things even murkier. Can Sherrills backing by party leaders in voter-rich counties translate to a disciplined get-out-the vote effort that carried Democrats to victory for years? Can Sweeney tap unions and win the south, or will Gottheimers tax cutting mantra pay off in the north? Can Fulops Im ticked-off-at-the-party bosses coalition or Barakas similar anti-establishment pitch and his push to win disaffected voters (whose views may not be captured in polls) be enough for either progressive? And who knows how many teachers will show up for their union leader Spiller? Those Democratic consultants who are paid to study all this and steer each of the campaigns must be losing sleep. It may very well be that like the rest of us, they dont have a clue about what will happen in this still-crazy race. Not normal times indeed. Previous columns: Looking for even more N.J. political coverage? Try Brent Johnsons new newsletter: What Makes Jersey Run. Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Tom Martello may be reached at tmartello@njadvancemedia.com. President Donald Trump, right, attends a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) AP Tech billionaire Elon Musk hosted his final press conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday and he was quick to shut down a question about a new bombshell report about his alleged drug use. The New York Times exclusively reported on Friday that Musk, a close ally of the president, was using drugs during the 2024 election cycle. The worlds richest man was using psychedelic mushrooms, taking ecstasy and utilizing ketamine to the point where it impacted his bladder, according to The New York Times, sparking concerns among some close to him. The outlet also reported that Musk, who was tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), would travel with a box containing pills, with some marked as Adderall. Fox News Peter Doocy started to ask Musk about the report but he quickly interrupted. The New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on Russia-gate? Is it the same organization? Musk said, adding I think it is while looking at Trump. Musk went on to say that a judge recently ruled against The New York Times for their lies, and the publication might have to return its award. That New York Times? Lets move on, he said. .@pdoocy tries to ask Elon Musk about New York Times reporting. Elon Musk: "I think the judge just ruled against New York Times for their lies about the Russia-gate hoax. They might have to give back that Pulitzer. That New York Times? Let's move on." pic.twitter.com/1mGZcsdmSX CSPAN (@cspan) May 30, 2025 Trump sued the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2022 after its body defended its awards to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election. In January, the board asked a Florida court to pause Trumps defamation lawsuit until he finishes his second term. On Wednesday, Floridas Fourth District Court of Appeals responded, allowing Trumps lawsuit to move forward. Although Trump labeled the appeals courts decision as a major WIN on Wednesday, claiming that the newspapers would need to give back their awards, the courts ruling did not mention that the publications would need to return their Pulitzer Prizes. The ruling also did not indicate that the board, a private entity, would have to rescind the awards. And while Musk said that the ruling called out The New York Times for its lies, the court did not rule against the publication and its reporting. Musk and Trump both answered questions from the press after Musk announced this week that his time in the administration as a special government employee had come to an end. Musk had already begun to cut down his appearances in recent weeks as his businesses took a reputational hit from his time with DOGE, a nongovernmental agency that has worked to slash the size of the federal government. ...I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, Musk said in a post on X. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Trump has also appeared to distance himself from Musk, as a recent Politico analysis found that he had refrained from posting about the billionaire on his social media platform Truth Social. Following Musks announcement about his planned departure, Trump said in a Truth Social post that Friday will be his last day, but not really in his administration. Elons service to America has been without comparison in modern history, Trump said in the Oval Office. Musk also mentioned that his time away is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. President Donald Trump leveled a veiled jab on Thursday night against a leading conservative legal organization and its former leader as he criticized a ruling that shot down some of his sweeping tariffs. In a post on his social media platform, Trump rallied against Leonard Leo, the former executive vice president, who he referred to as a real sleazebag and bad person, and said he probably hates America. Trump and Leo, who worked closely with the president to help pick the Supreme Courts 6-3 conservative majority, have appeared to have grown apart after the three conservative justices did not interfere when Trump lost lost the 2020 election. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court I hope that is not so, and dont believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own thing, Trump wrote. I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations, he continued. This is something that cannot be forgotten! In a statement to Politico, Leo did not directly criticize Trump, but said he was very grateful for the president in transforming the federal courts. Theres more work to be done, for sure, but the Federal Judiciary is better than its ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trumps most important legacy, Leo said. Trumps long Truth Social post marks the first time he has acknowledged the U.S. Court of International Trades ruling on Wednesday, which blocked him from imposing his sweeping tariffs under an emergency-powers law. The ruling, decided by a New York-based three-judge panel, put a hold on Trumps 10% tariffs announced early April that were implemented on nearly every country. It also halted his tariffs on some imports from Canada, China and Mexico. A federal appeals court on Thursday had then ruled that Trump could collect the tariffs for now as his administration tries to upend the initial ruling. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of TRUMP? What other reason could it be? Trump posted. Trump said he used The Federalist Society openly and freely to recommend judges when he first became president, but went on to say he was proud of many of his picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do whats right for the Country! he said. In this case, it is only because of my successful use of Tariffs that many Trillions of Dollars have already begun pouring into the U.S.A. from other Countries, money that, without these Tariffs, we would not be able to get. It is the difference between having a rich, prosperous, and successful United States of America, and quite the opposite. Trump said that he hopes the Supreme Court will quickly reverse the U.S. Court of International Trades threatening ruling, saying that it would completely destroy the power of the presidency. Social media users were quick to grill the president for flip-flopping against The Federalist Society and Leo, who has been a key figure in pushing the judiciary to the right. So many lawyers in the Federalist Society made a deal with the devil against everything they believed and knew to be truesome to secure that government position they always thought they deserved, some to simply stay on the team. And now the devil has eaten them, too, one user wrote. Another user wrote: Trump going after the Federalist Societys Leonard Leo is straight up delicious. Its like the monster turning on Dr. Frankenstein. One user said the conservative movement sold its soul to a man whos now tearing it down. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Investor and star of "Shark Tank" Kevin O'Leary, testifies before the Senate Banking Committee about cryptocurrency and the collapse of FTX, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) AP Even Shark Tank millionaire Kevin OLeary criticized President Donald Trumps latest attack on Harvard University. OLeary, who noted he teaches at Harvard as a senior fellow, said on Fox News Outnumbered on Friday that he disagreed with the Trump administrations plan to bar international students from attending the Ivy League university. He questioned why the U.S. would want to spend millions of dollars to teach international students, just to send them away. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) AP Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer, ripped President Donald Trumps press secretary Karoline Leavitt as creepy on Thursday after she rallied against activist judges for railroading the president. During her White House press briefing hours earlier, Leavitt lashed out at the U.S. Court of International Trade, which ruled the day before that Trump had overstepped his authority with his sweeping tariffs under an emergency powers act. His tariffs were imposed on nearly every country. The three judges on the panel were appointed by Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision making process, Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges. An appeals court on Thursday has since temporarily allowed Trump to continue collecting the tax on imports as his administration appeals the ruling. During an appearance on CNNs OutFront, Cobb who served in Trumps White House for a year during his first term slammed Leavitt for her tirade against activist judges who halted Trumps signature economic policies. I dont think anybody in America really takes her seriously on a matter of substance, he told CNNs Erin Burnett. I mean, shes not learned by any imagination. And I think her comments are clearly so defensive and so ill-informed that people might largely turn her out. Shes wrong. Cobb said that the courts are only ruling on whether a statute authorizes presidential actions, and they are not trying to participate in international trade. The statute in question has never in history been used in connection with tariffs, he said. So I think the likelihood is that this statute will be upheld and enforced in a way that precludes the president from trying to pretend that he has these all-encompassing powers. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform Thursday night, had also blasted the courts political decision, asking Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of TRUMP? What other reason could it be? He launched an attack against The Federal Society, a prominent conservative legal organization, and its former leader Leonard Leo, who helped the president build up the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court I hope that is not so, and dont believe it is! Trump said. Trump also urged the Supreme Court to quickly and decisively reverse the decision. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Demonstrators holds a banner during a citizenship rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) AP GOP supporters are proclaiming victory for President Donald Trump after the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that his administration can revoke the temporary legal protections for half a million immigrants for now. The justices blocked a lower-court order that provided protective status for around 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who had been legally allowed to remain in the United States while their cases were debated in court. They entered through the humanitarian parole program during former President Joe Bidens administration. GOP strategist Karl Rove issued a stark warning to Republicans about President Donald Trumps flip-flopping tariff policy. Trump continues to change course on his trade policy by threatening costly tariffs on countries one day just to walk back his threats the next. This prompted Wall Street analysts to label the behavior as TACO, meaning Trump Always Chickens Out. Rove said in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal that the tariffs could cost Republicans the midterm elections. From Roves column: The story isnt good for the GOP. While President Trumps general job-approval numbers in the RealClearPolitics average on Wednesday were 47.8% approve to 49.7% disapprove, on handling the economy he was at 42.3% approve to 52.8% disapprove. His tariff demands are weighing him down. Only 37% of Americans told a May 15 Marquette Law School poll that they approve of tariffs, while 63% disapproved. Fifty-eight percent said tariffs hurt the U.S. economy; a mere 32% believe they help. That starts to explain why stock markets drop when Mr. Trump rattles his trade saber and rebound when he walks back his tariff threats. Rove explained that Trumps back-and-forth policy on tariffs leaves voters confused. Maybe these apparent flip-flops were all planned by the master of the Art of the Deal. But to many, it looks like cleanup on aisle six, he wrote. He argued that Trumps claims are not backed up by basic economics, like when the president told Walmart to EAT THE TARIFFS and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. Rove noted that Walmarts profit margin in April was 2.75%, so it cant break even if it followed Trumps demands. He wrote that Trumps messaging is a muddled mess, noting that Republicans should hope the president really believes in reciprocity. He said if countries lower their tariffs, he hopes that Trump will lower the U.S.s tariffs. Unless reciprocity prevails, the presidents chaotic trade talk will badly damage Republicans in the midterms. And if the House or Senate flips, the president will find it much harder to advance his priorities in his final two years. Voters wont blame foreign countries for higher prices or fewer goods. Theyll blame Donald Trump and his Republican Party," Rove concluded. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and plaster taxes tariffs on imports from almost every country in the world. The ruling was a big setback for Trump, whose erratic trade policies have rocked financial markets, paralyzed businesses with uncertainty and raised fears of higher prices and slower economic growth. On his Truth Social platform Thursday, he wrote: The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Trumps trade wars are far from over. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday allowed the president to temporarily continue collecting the tariffs under the emergency powers law while he appeals the trade courts decision. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Former President Joe Biden took a shot at the authors of a new book that details his alleged cognitive decline during his time in office. CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson have been on a media blitz over the last week to promote their new book, Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. The book alleged that those surrounding Biden took part in a cover-up to mask alleged issues with his mental acuity during his last few years in office. U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked about the "TACO trade" phrase, meaning, "Trump Always Chickens Out" during a White House briefing Wednesday. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images Robert Armstrongs place is history is at a crossroads: Will he be the journalist who had his 15 minutes of fame by slapping a funny nickname on President Donald Trump that made the world laugh for a few days? Or will he be the guy who threw a rock at a dragon, pissed him off and the watched as the fire-breathing menace burned down every village in the countryside? Armstrong, a reporter for the Financial Times, told MSNBCs Nicolle Wallace that he fears hell be known as the smart aleck who humiliated Trump and prodded the thin-skinned narcissist into blowing up the economy because he was angry and because he could. Look, the reason the TACO joke, which is kind of a dumb joke, stuck is because it has this huge element of truth in it, Armstrong said Thursday on Deadline: White House. And yes, a lot of times in the last 12 or 18 hours since that conversation in the White House, people have either written me or mentioned me on social media, saying, This guys dumb joke is going to cause a recession. And I dont like that at all. I meant to make a joke, not cause a recession. But theres a serious question about a world in which youre not allowed to make fun of the president. Hes the president. I am an inky-fingered hack making a dumb joke. Im the one whos supposed to behave carefully around the president of the United States? How did we get here? Bizarre doesnt even begin to cover it as far as Im concerned. Conservative talk-show host Charlie Sykes, appearing with Armstrong, said its important to embarrass Trump as often as possible and he applauded the Trump Always Chickens Out one-liner. I wish we could humiliate him on a daily basis, Sykes said. I wish we could mock him. ... This is the bizarro world that were living in, where everybody is walking around on eggshells, afraid to anger the senile uncle who has incredibly thin skin. Donald Trump is, of course, a complete narcissist, but he has a very, very thin skin, and hes dangerous because he has the power and he has no restraint. Thats just the reality that we have to deal with. There are some people who say that ... resistance is futile, we cant do anything about it. But to the extent that we can point out the absurdity of Donald Trump, the fact that the emperor does have no clothes ... theres always a value to pointing out that the emperor is, in fact, buck naked when it is Donald Trump. I think we ought to take that risk, Sykes added. Wallace assured Armstrong that if the U.S. sinks into a recession, it will have nothing to do with you. It will be Donald Trumps policies. She then compared the country to a dysfunctional family. Look at the study around dysfunctional families, its the same story all the time, she said. An otherwise normal body bends and collapses around the mentally ill or addicted or most sick member of the family. This country is the same. We had the Republican Party collapse onto itself around the dysfunctional leader. And then you had all of the partisan actors collapse. And now youre seeing Trump collapse the economy around his dysfunction. Armstrong, looking for balance, compared it to former President Joe Biden. Its not altogether unlike the inner circle of Biden collapsing around him, he said. He was frail, he was really unqualified to be president. They knew it and they collapsed around him. And that was no good. And similarly, treating the current president with kid gloves by his advisors or by the press or by anybody else is a bad idea. It was a bad idea with a Democrat, Its a bad idea with a Republican. We shouldnt do it. Wallace had a rebuttal: I guess the only difference is Joe Biden would never tank the global economy if he found out that someone had made a joke about him. What youre all saying to me here on live TV is, Trump would. Joe has a sense of humor and Trump does not, Armstrong said. And one of them is willing to destroy things for fun. The other is not, said Wallace, who ticked off the times Trump has balked on his tariffs which is how he got the TACO nickname: Trump Always Chickens Out. I would push back on the premise that anyone has humiliated Donald Trump other than Donald Trump, she said. I mean, the truth of the number of times that he blinked is a data point that exists in public. No investigative journalists dug up the number of times Trump balked because of the poor reception to his tariffs. Im no economist, but I can read a newspaper. No ones humiliating Donald Trump except Donald Trump. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. FBI director Kash Patel seen on the South Lawn of the White House before President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in the White House Easter Egg Roll Monday, April 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP FBI Director Kash Patel had a bizarre explanation as to why fewer agents are focusing on targeting criminals. Patel told Fox News Bret Baier that he has reassigned many agents from targeting pedophiles, drug traffickers and terrorists to investigating people who copied former FBI Director James Comeys social media post earlier this month. If he wants to come after me, no problem. I have been living rent free in that guys head for years. Thats just a bonus, Patel told Baier in a recent interview for Special Report. Do you know how many copy cats we have had to investigate as a result of that beach side venture from the former director? Federal officials investigated Comey earlier this month after he posted a photo of seashells that spelled out 86 47. He deleted the post shortly after, explaining that he was not calling for any violence. In restaurant terms, 86 means to refuse service to a customer or to kick out an unruly patron. However, many MAGA loyalists and Trump himself accused Comey of calling for his assassination with that post. Patel said that agents are looking into 86 47 social media posts instead of chasing down potential criminals and blamed Comey for the copycat posts. Do you know how many agents have had to take off line chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists because everywhere across this country people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the president of the United States is a joke? Patel said in his interview. And they can do it because [Comey] did it? Thats what Im having to deal with every single day. And thats what Im having to pull my agents and analysts off because he thought it was funny to go out there and make a political statement, he added. Trump and Comey have had a fraught dynamic dating back nearly a decade. Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bushs administration. But the relationship was strained from the start, including after Comey resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the president -- an overture that so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum. Trump fired Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trumps presidential campaign. That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately find that while Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) AP President Donald Trump lashed out at China on Friday after he reversed course on his costly tariff policy earlier this month. Trump credited himself with saving China from civil unrest as a result of his high tariffs on the country. Earlier this month, China and the U.S. reached a deal to slash their massive tariffs in the escalating trade war between the two countries. A social media user posted that he "lost a lot of good men after an immigration raid in Tallahassee, Florida. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard) AP A social media user who said he voted for President Donald Trump said he lost a lot of good men after more than 100 undocumented immigrants were detained in a multi-agency raid in Florida on Thursday, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Dozens were arrested, in one of the states largest immigration raids, at a construction site near Florida State Universitys campus. Federal agents and law enforcement officers also conducted several other immigration raids that morning in Tallahassee, the states capital city, according to the outlet. The operation, led by Tampas Homeland Security Investigations branch, wrote in a post on X that the department was joined by ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations in Miami, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the FBI office in Jacksonville, and a few other agencies. The illegal aliens are from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia & Honduras, to name a few, the Homeland Security Investigations account posted on Thursday. A Facebook user with the name Jake Cowan, in a post that has since been deleted or protected by the poster, tagged their location to FSU and attached a video from the scene. They said that while they like Trump, this isnt what I voted for. Lost a lot of good men today, the user posted. ...This will absolutely kill the economy in construction. I thought he was going after gang members and criminals with warrants. Not hard working guys, they added. A user on X had screenshotted the post, adding the caption: Another MAGA dumbass. The Tallahassee Democrat, citing local officials, reported that four arrests were processed at the Leon County Detention Center, located in Tallahassee, and others were expected to be sent to immigration detention centers in different counties. The raid follows Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Florida Legislatures push to enact the toughest immigration enforcement policies, as Trump presses for a mass deportation campaign. Florida has led the nation on immigration enforcement, and were ready to do even more, DeSantis previously said in a statement earlier this month. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can revoke temporary legal protections for around 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua for now. The immigrants from the four countries were previously legally allowed to remain in the United States as their cases were playing out in court. It was the second time in recent weeks that the high court upheld appeals from the administration. Earlier this month, it said 350,000 Venezuelans could be stripped of their legal protections, which could put them at risk for deportation. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities hearing Tuesday, April 8, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) AP GOP lawmakers are still facing the wrath of voters over President Donald Trumps agenda. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) gave a curt answer to a voter during a contentious town hall when discussing the latest changes to Medicaid that were passed in the House GOP package earlier this month. She was defending the cuts endorsed by House Republicans, saying that only those ineligible for benefits would be cut from the program. The 11 candidates running for New Jersey governor (linearly from top left): Jon Bramnick, Mikie Sherrill, Steven Fulop, Ras Baraka, Mario Kranjac, Josh Gottheimer, Jack Ciattarelli, Justin Barbera, Steve Sweeney, Bill Spadea, and Sean Spiller. Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com New Jerseys governors race is a big one, with 11 candidates across both major parties vying to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. To help voters cut through the noise, NJ.com/The Star-Ledger sat down with each contender for video interviews. We asked them identical questions to give an unfiltered look at their platforms and personalities. 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. If you have an existing six-day print subscription to the Watertown Daily Times, please make sure your email address on file matches your NNY360 account email. You can sign up or manage your print subscription using the options below. Two dining hotspots one in the New Orleans Bywater and the other just off the beach in Gulfport have been ranked among the best new restau Qingdao develops advanced 3D "city map" to enhance smart urban management 16:06, May 30, 2025 By Wang Zhe ( People's Daily Photo shows the basic information platform for territorial space in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province. With a simple scroll of the mouse, the city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, comes vividly into view - high-resolution buildings rise sharply, their intricate details clearly rendered. At his workstation, Hu Zhenbiao, chief systems architect at the Qingdao Institute of Survey and Mapping, introduced a city-scale 3D simulation platform: a full-scale digital twin of the city. Real-scene 3D modeling has become a vital strategic resource and production element in the development of digital cities and the broader digital economy. By offering accurate, spatial-temporal depictions of urban spaces, these technologies provide vital insight into the dynamics of modern city life, infrastructure, and ecosystems. The platform, officially launched in March 2021 under the leadership of the Qingdao Institute of Survey and Mapping, represents a landmark in urban digitization. "Behind this platform lies more than six months of aerial photography, the processing of millions of images, and the 3D modeling of hundreds of thousands of buildings," Hu explained. Qingdao's varied topography - marked by hilly terrain and dramatic elevation changes - necessitated the use of oblique aerial imaging to capture raw imagery and build an accurate 3D model. Photo shows a 3D rendering of a church in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province. For this phase, the project team deployed manned fixed-wing aircraft equipped with 150-megapixel, five-lens oblique aerial cameras. The aerial survey covered the entire urban area, achieving a ground resolution of 15 centimeters and maintaining more than 70 percent image overlap to maximize accuracy. Hu noted that certain structural details - such as eaves and building undersides - were sometimes difficult to capture due to limited aerial angles, requiring on-site supplemental photography. "We used a combination of hybrid restoration and modeling techniques to accurately reconstruct the structures," he said, pointing to the Qingdao International Conference Center on his screen. "Those eaves, for example, were recreated using 3D modeling." In March 2022, following expert review, the project was officially launched for citywide application. Today, the platform covers Qingdao's entire land area - 11,000 square kilometers - as well as 800 kilometers of coastline, 49 bays, and seven inhabited islands. "Fire reported on the eastern slope. Please respond immediately," came the voice over the radio at the emergency command center in Qingdao's West Coast New Area. Qi Degang, deputy head of the area's emergency management bureau, responded quickly. "The nearest water source is Reservoir No. 37 in Lingshanwei, about 700 meters away." This exchange occurred during a forest fire response drill on Xiaozhu Mountain. Displayed prominently on a large screen in the command center was a real-time, 3D forest fire map - showing the fire's location, affected area, and smoke direction. "Our drones send back live footage, which is directly fed into the 3D platform," explained Mu Kun, head of forest fire response at the emergency management bureau. A new call came in: "There's a fork ahead - what's the fastest route?" Mu quickly zoomed in, selected a mountain trail and charted a path for the responders. "This trail is only one meter wide. Rescuers will have to go on foot. Elevation gain: 200 meters." A staff member operates a drone for image collection. "The 3D model allows us to act with greater speed and precision," Qi added. "It helps us identify access routes, calculate burn areas, and direct field personnel efficiently." To date, Qingdao's city-scale 3D simulation platform has been shared with over 60 municipal departments. It supports more than 100 key functions, including disaster prevention and mitigation, urban planning, social governance, and urban renewal. The platform also underpins over 70 digital government service applications and records nearly 100 million uses annually. "Compared to traditional 2D maps, 3D modeling offers greater realism, dimensionality, and accuracy," said Xue Hongli, deputy head of the Qingdao Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning. "It creates a holographic digital twin of the physical world, providing strong spatial support for fine-grained urban management." Xue emphasized that cities are constantly changing and 3D mapping must evolve in tandem to capture these transformations with fidelity. At the bureau's headquarters, staff members examined two versions of a digital model for a former mining site in Qingdao's West Coast New Area. The comparison revealed tangible signs of ecological restoration - more vegetation and a gentler slope. Qingdao is home to 898 legacy mine sites. In the past, inspecting these sites required a full month of on-the-ground efforts. Now, with the help of the 3D model, the same work takes just five days. Since 2023, the city has carried out annual temporal updates to the city-scale 3D simulation platform, enabling it to track urban changes with precision and support data-driven analysis and evidence-based planning. (Photos from the official website of the Qingdao Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) WASHINGTON For months, much of Louisiana fretted over how Republicans would revamp Medicaid. Various proposals had floated in the U.S. House that could have severely affected the state's health care system, like ending hospital provider taxes or cutting the federal match funding for Medicaid. Those ideas did not make it into the Big Beautiful Bill Act that House Republicans passed by one vote last week. Louisiana is not going to suffer at first, said Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, who has 206,056 constituents on Medicaid. The Louisiana Legislature is going to prepare its budget for the future and those changes are going to come in two years, no more than three. But Fields warns the consequences could be serious in the future as more Medicaid responsibility shifts to states. A new customer services hub for North Devon Council will open at Green Lanes Shopping Centre in Barnstaple on Monday, June 16, transferring operations from Lynton House. The Town Centre Hub will be open Monday to Friday and make it easier for residents to access face-to-face advice, the council has said. It expands the councils customer service facilities and will be open daily from 9am until 5pm, providing help and assistance to customers who are unable to use online or phone contact. The new Green Lanes hub replaces the customer service desk at Lynton House in Commercial Road on the riverfront, which will close at 1pm on Wednesday, June 11. The Lynton House desk is currently open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9am until 1pm. At Green Lanes, new working spaces will enable staff from various council services to assist customers where needed. An interview room is available for private consultations for customers wishing to discuss more sensitive topics and there are seating booths, two consultation rooms and a meeting room which can be booked by outside agencies. Devon and Cornwall Police will also have a regular presence at the hub, allowing visitors the chance to speak with officers from Barnstaple's Neighbourhood Policing Team. Council leader Councillor David Clayton said: The hub makes it even easier for our residents and customers to get face-to-face advice and assistance, right in the heart of Barnstaple. We are committed to making the hub a space where people can access advice from a range of partners and we are delighted to be able to share the space with the police, further strengthening our relationship as we continue to work together to make Barnstaple and North Devon a place people can live, work and enjoy safely. Members of the council's North Devon Community Lottery team will be at the hub on Tuesday, June 17, where prospective good causes and supporters can find out more about how the lottery supports fundraising for the local community. Local police are also pleased with the new facility. Sector Inspector for Barnstaple, Inspector Andy Wills, said: Having access to a private desk space in the town centre will be extremely valuable for officers working in and around Barnstaple. It means our Neighbourhood Team can maximise the time they spend out on foot; being visible and proactive in our town centre and preventing them needing to return to the main station to carry out bureaucratic duties, which is essential to effective policing. I want to stress the Town Centre Hub is an extra space were going to be utilising to optimise local policing. The Enquiry Office at Barnstaple Police Station will remain accessible to the public during normal opening hours, which are listed on the force website. The unit in Green Lanes had been unoccupied since the council purchased the shopping centre in 2021 and had not received commercial interest despite being actively marketed. More information about the hub can be found on the council's website. Anyone who wants to enquire about room bookings can email towncentre.hub@northdevon.gov.uk for more information. North Devons MP has called on government ministers to meet with businesses in the region urgently to hear first-hand how Donald Trumps tariff chaos is threatening local jobs. America is once again at the centre of tariff driven confusion as the US Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday (May 28) to block key Trump tariffs, before a federal appeals court temporarily reinstated them yesterday (Thursday) and now it looks set to go to the US Supreme Court, as stock markets reacted and bounced like yo-yos. Ian Roome has called for Labours Business Secretary to meet with businesses here to provide clarity on what the US court ruling pausing the tariffs means for North Devon and if it could unravel recent trade commitments, putting local jobs at risk. Businesses currently exporting goods to the US, are subject to a crippling 10% tariff, which threatens jobs locally tied to export-driven sectors. Industry groups have already raised concerns that the ongoing confusion could see new costs or restrictions imposed on local firms. Mr Roomes party the Liberal democrats is is calling for the Government to summon the US ambassador to provide a full explanation about what is going on and the potential impacts for trade with the UK. Mr Roome said: Ive spoken with many local businesses and organisations, and alongside the rise in employers National Insurance contributions, ongoing global trade uncertainty is a big cause for concern. Labours trade deal with Donald Trump risks being thrown into disarray with this news. Businesses across our area simply cannot take any more of this uncertainty. The Business Secretary must come to North Devon, meet local businesses and explain what this all means for them. After reinstating the tariffs on Thursday, the federal appeals court ordered the plaintiffs in the cases to respond by June 5 and the US administration by June 9. - " "! , ! , , . CROWN POINT The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission filed a case last week against Crown Point attorney Sam Berkman after an investigation revealed he seldom communicated to clients and failed to appear in court on multiple occasions last year. Berkman violated the court's Rules of Professional Conduct between January 2024 and January 2025 after he failed to appear in court on 63 cases and discontinued timely communication and caseworkor did neither at all in some cases, according to a document filed May 21 in the Indiana Supreme Court. The cases ranged from misdemeanors and infractions to lower-level felony cases. Three clients who hired Berkman as their attorney in separate cases last year filed grievances with the disciplinary commission after Berkman agreed to represent them but they stopped hearing from him, according to the filing. In replies to his client's grievances, Berkman said he had been in a car crash in early May, which caused mental and physical impairments that hindered his ability to work. The document also mentioned alcohol use as a factor that prevented him from working, but did not elaborate further. Yet, it appears the lack of communication and failures to appear continued, based on details in the document. Two judges in Porter County issued three contempt citations against Berkman after he failed to appear in court multiple times in different cases, the document shows. Contempt citations are filed when an individual disobeys a court orderin this case, court orders to appear with his clientsor breaks the court's rules. One client hired Berkman in March 2024 to represent him in a misdemeanor case. The client spoke to Berkman's legal assistant on the phone to inform her of his initial hearing date, which she said Berkman planned to reschedule, according to the complaint. When the client went to Berkman's office to discuss the case in May 2024, he discovered Berkman had moved office locations without providing any notice, according to the complaint. He didn't appear at the hearing with his client. The client followed up with Berkman through phone calls and text messages but never heard back, so he hired another attorney. He received a refund three months after he filed his grievance, the complaint said. Another client said Berkman agreed to represent him in late March 2024 and informed the court of his representation on the case a few weeks later, but took no further action. He didn't reply to any of the client's phone calls or messages until mid-May when he called and told the client he could not take on the case, the complaint said. He said he would issue a refund. The client called Berkman's office once per week between May and July 2024 to ask about the refund, but allegedly heard nothing back. He filed a grievance in July and the money was refunded in October. A third client who filed a grievance and requested a refund after a similar experience said Berkman acknowledged in his response to the grievance that she deserves one, but she still has not received her money back. A client of Berkman's who was charged with a level six felony appeared in court six times between April and December 2024, the complaint said. Berkman appeared twice with the client, a substitute attorney appeared twice and the client appeared on his own the other two times. At a hearing Dec. 4, the client said he still could not get ahold of Berkman. The judge issued an order. "The defendant indicates that he has not received any communication from his attorney after reaching out multiple times," the order reads, according to details in the complaint. "The Court shows Attorney Samuel Berkman's appearance withdrawn, as there has been consistent pattern of lack of communication with his clients." While the commission conducted their investigation, Berkman appointed Nicholas Barnes as his attorney surrogate. Attorney surrogates will assume a lawyer's caseload in the event the attorney cannot represent their client any longer. Barnes said he has been able to speak with many of Berkman's clients, but asks those whom he hasn't spoken with to contact his office at 219-763-0754 to discuss their representation. Oregon today joined Washington and a growing list of other states in making eighteen the minimum age for both parties to get a marriage license with Governor Tina Koteks approval of Senate Bill 548, bipartisan legislation sponsored by Democratic Senator Janeen Sollman and Republican Senator David Brock Smith. Koteks signature completes SB 548s journey through the legislative process in the Beaver State. The bill had a remarkably smooth journey to enactment, drawing scant opposition from Oregon lawmakers. Thats because it is extremely popular. It costs nothing, harms no one, and ends a human rights abuse, as our friend Fraidy Reiss of Unchained At Last likes to say when advocating for the legislation. Passage of SB 548 was NPIs top legislative priority for the 2025 session in Oregon, and were thrilled to have gotten word that Governor Kotek has signed it today. Last autumn, NPIs research found that a strong majority of Oregon voters supported raising the age to marry to eighteen for both parties. Unlike Washington, which hadnt specified any minimum age to marry until enactment of HB 1455 last year, Oregon had a previous age requirement of seventeen. A 17-year-old can be married if they have parent or guardian consent, Yamhill Countys website notes. Consent forms are available at our office. But just because a consent form is signed doesnt mean a seventeen year old is willingly entering into a marriage. Consider the scenario of an absent father who doesnt want to pay child support anymore. He could, just by signing a form, marry off his underage seventeen year-old daughter to an older man no consent needed from the daughters mother. Sounds absurd, doesnt it? And yet Oregon law allows for that. Soon, though, it wont. SB 548 doesnt have an emergency clause or a special effective date clause, so by default, it will go into effect on January 1st, 2026, along with other new laws. Once Oregon law is aligned with Washingtons, the Pacific Northwests two most populous states will offer a critical protection against forced marriages to all their residents. Any marriage involving a minor is considered a forced marriage by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Child marriage destroys nearly every aspect of a girls life; indeed, it is recognized globally as a harmful practice that disempowers women and girls in particular and hinders gender equality, says Unchained At Last. The U.S. State Department considers forced child marriage a form of child abuse and has called child marriage a human rights abuse. Child marriage often undermines statutory rape laws. In most U.S. states and under federal law, sex with a child that would otherwise be considered rape in some cases, felony rape becomes legal within marriage. Child marriage can also be a form of human trafficking. Due to loopholes in immigration laws, thousands of American girls are being trafficked legally for their citizenship, forced to marry adult men from overseas so the men can get a U.S. visa. Similarly, American men are legally importing child brides from overseas. The other states that have banned child marriage are: Delaware New Jersey Pennsylvania Minnesota Rhode Island New York Massachusetts Vermont Connecticut Michigan Virginia New Hampshire Maine California, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, and Montana have all yet to ban child marriage. California has no minimum age to marry, while Hawaii specifies a minimum age of fifteen. Alaska, Montana, and Idaho specify a minimum age of sixteen. California and Hawaii have Democratic trifectas. Idaho and Montana currently have Republican trifectas. Alaska has divided government. We will continue working with our allies to ensure that more states follow Washington and Oregons example. Each time a state bans child marriage, we get closer to having a country that lives up its values of respecting human rights. A seasoned paraglider miraculously survived a rare and dangerous phenomenon that saw him being sucked up by clouds to an altitude of 28,210 feet (8,600 meters). Photos and videos of Chinese paraglider Liu Ge trying to keep his cool (pun intended) as he experienced dangerously low levels of oxygen and temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit) went viral on social media this week. In them, the experienced paragliders clothes and face are covered with ice, and he struggles to breathe and keep from passing out because of the low oxygen. On May 24th, Liu Ge took off from about 3,000 meters in the Qilian Mountains, on the border between western Gansu and northeastern Qinghai, but as he was paragliding, a cumulonimbus cloud appeared behind him and he ended up being lifted higher and higher, above the clouds. Cloud suck is a well-documented phenomenon where paragliders and hang gliders experience a significant lift caused by the thermals under cumulus clouds, especially towering cumulus and cumulonimbus. It is typically associated with an increase in thermal updraft velocity near cloud base. Pilots who have experienced the phenomenon have reported being unable to descend in strong cloud suck, even after bringing the canopies of their gliders into deep spiral, which would normally result in a rapid descent. Because he didnt plan on going up to extreme altitudes Chinese regulations restrict flights to below 16,405 feet (5,000 meters) Liu Ge didnt have an oxygen mask or thick clothing to help him endure the freezing temperatures and low oxygen concentration. Still, he remained in contact with friends on the ground via intercom and was eventually able to descend. I felt oxygen deficiency and my hands were freezing, but I kept communicating via the intercom, Liu said on social media. The Chinese paragliders extreme experience spread like wildfire on social media, but his overnight celebrity could spell trouble, as he reportedly did not report the flight on the day of the incident, including the take-off site, as required, which prompted authorities to open an official investigation. Although many were talking about his flight being a record-breaking one for paragliding, Liu Ge pleaded with social media users to stop making a big deal out of it. He probably fears that his feat could have serious legal repercussions. A Texas rheumatologist was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a cruel health care fraud scheme that involved diagnosing hundreds of healthy people with chronic diseases that required expensive and dangerous treatments. Jorge Zamora-Quezada M.D. of Mission, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, several counts of healthcare fraud, and conspiracy to obstruct justice and received a sentence of 10 years behind bars and three years of supervised release. For years, the 68-year-old rheumatologist falsely diagnosed patients with chronic illnesses to bill for tests and treatments that they didnt need, for his own enrichment. Evidence presented by prosecutors showed that his fraud scheme involved over $118 million in false claims and the payment of over $28 million by insurers, which allowed him to fund an incredibly lavish lifestyle. By profiting off of innocent victims, Zamora-Quezada was able to amass a sizeable fortune, including 13 real estate properties, a jet, and a Maserati GranTurismo. Photo: Unsplash Dr. Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious lifestyle for two decades by traumatizing his patients, abusing his employees, lying to insurers, and stealing taxpayer money, said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. During Dr. Zamora-Quezadas trial, other Texas rheumatologists testified to seeing hundreds of patients previously diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis by the accused. None of them had the condition, but they had all been prescribed powerful medication and treatments with debilitating and even deadly side effects. Some patients suffered strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, hair loss, liver damage, and excruciating pain that made even the most mundane tasks impossible. Constantly being in bed and being unable to get up from bed alone, and being pumped with medication, I didnt feel like my life had any meaning, one victim said, while others claimed they abandoned college plans because the treatements made them fel like they were living in the body of an elderly person. Apart from knowingly debilitating healthy patients to finance his lavish lifestyle, Zamora-Quezada reportedly traumatized his staff and blackmailed them to make sure they did his bidding. He mostly hired people who were on J-1 visas so he could threaten to fire them and jeopardize their immigration status, got rid of those who didnt blindly follow his orders, and abused anyone who failed to generate enough unnecessary procedures for patients, even if they were perfectly healthy. Patients as young as 13 were treated by Zamora-Quezada at his medical practices in South Texas and San Antonio, and his sentencing brought much-needed closure to hundreds of victims and their families. Although some of them have serious health problems as a result of the medication and treatments prescribed by the disgraced rheumatologist, they can take comfort in knowing that he has been brought to justice, and others wont have to suffer the same ordeal. Jorge Zamora-Quezada will have to serve 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay back $28,245,454, including his 13 real estate properties, private jet, and luxury cars. MMGY is working with I LOVE NY on its new integrated summer tourism and travel campaign. MMGY will handle leisure and trade media relations in the US and Canada, while Campbell Ewald, who is agency of record on the account, is helming creative efforts. The campaign will include I LOVE NYs largest mobile marketing tour ever, as well as complementary travel industry efforts to promote visitation to the State's 11 vacation regions. The mobile tour will make stops at such events as music festivals, street fairs and sporting events. Canada, which represents New York's largest inbound international market, is a particular target of the campaign, which will encompass broadcast, streaming and social platforms. Under Governor Kathy Hochul, tourism is New York State's second largest industry, supporting one in 10 jobs. This vital industry is facing challenging new political and economic headwinds, said Hochul. That's why supporting our tourism industry is more important than ever. Violet PR, a New Jersey-based agency specializing in economic development, is chosen to represent the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and Lancaster County, Nebraska. The agency will develop a national PR campaign to highlight the City of Lincoln and Lancaster County as a business and visitor destination. Violet PR's campaign will showcase the region's business assets including its "gig speed" fiber network by telecom provider Allo; notable homegrown tech companies including Hudl and Monolith; and a dynamic agriculture technology cluster drawn from the state's farming communities. "Our partnership with Violet PR will shine a spotlight on our assets, including the University of Nebraskaa top public research institutionas well as innovative workforce training programs like the Lincoln Manufacturing Council," said Lincoln Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Jason Ball. LDPR has been engaged as agency of record for the Waldorf Astoria Chicago. The agency will be handling all US media/influencer relations for the property. The 60-story hotel and residence, which is located in Chicagos Gold Coast neighborhood, includes a 14,000 square-foot spa & health club; suites with fireplaces and outdoor terraces; and over 12,000 square feet of meeting, private dining and event space. Following a recent property-wide renovation, the hotel has unveiled a new lobby parlor, as well as re-introducing its Bernards cocktail lounge and speakeasy. New Engen is named agency of record for Loews Hotels. The agency will drive strategic digital impact across the chains portfolio, with the exception of its Orlando properties. New Engens scope of work will include Connected TV and streaming, paid social, paid search, and advanced analytics and measurement. The agency is also providing real-time performance insights through custom dashboards built for stakeholders at every level of the organization, promoting transparency, alignment and actionability. Loews owns and operates 27 hotel properties across the United States. Heather Kernahan Hotwire global CEO Heather Kernahan, who has been in that position since 2021, is leaving the agency. Kernahan joined Eastwick (which was acquired by Hotwire in September 2016) as president in 2013, and subsequently served at Hotwire as president, North America & Australia and CEO, North America. She was previously director of global marketing at Emphase Energy and senior marketing manager, product and industry marketing at Autodesk. Among other positions, she has served as board chair of the PR Council, a member of the board of trustees at the Institute for Public Relations and is a limited partner at How Women Invest, a venture capital firm that connects high-potential female founders with financial backing. According to a statement from Hotwire, Kernahan is working with Hotwires parent company, Enero Group, to find a successor. Were grateful for the strong foundation Heather has built, the statement said. Jonathan Isaac Digital Asset, developer of the Canton Network, an emerging infrastructure layer for financial markets, names Jonathan Isaac as CMO. Isaac was most recently CMO at CoinMarketCap, which provides information and data about cryptocurrencies. Before that, he was global head of brand & marketing at cryptocurrency platform Genmini, and has held senior strategy posts at The Barbarian Group and Digitas LBi. In his new post, Isaac will lead global marketing efforts across brand, product marketing, and communications, with a focus on growing awareness and adoption of the Canton Network. He brings the expertise, energy, and creativity we need to take our story to the world and show why what weve built matter, said Digital Asset co-founder and CEO Yuval Rooz. Warren Yancey Persium Group, an advisory firm specializing in wealth management, exit planning for business owners, and retirement plan services, names Warren Yancey as head of marketing. Yancey joins the firm from Transamerica, where he most recently served as director of channel marketing. He was previously marketing director at insurance brokerage agency The Milner Group. At Persium, Yancey will lead the development and execution of the firms marketing strategy, with an emphasis on driving brand awareness and deepening engagement among clients and prospects. "Warren's experience, leadership, and results-driven approach make him a valuable addition to our team," said Persium Group CEO Stephen Griner. Sara Yazdani Creativ Company promotes Sara Yazdani to VP, PR & marketing partnerships. Before joining Creativ Company in 2023, Yazdani was a senior publicist at BIZ 3 Publicity. She previously served as senior manager, communications at the Recording Academy and has held partnership and brand management posts at The Walt Disney Company and PMKBNC. In her new position, Yazdani will lead PR strategy for overall communications planning, awards, thought leadership, and events. She will also run day-to-day campaigns for the companys roster of PR clients in media, entertainment, music, advertising and tech. She has earned the respect of our media, entertainment, and technology clients with her forthright communication style, ability to connect clients to partnership opportunities, and deliver results with an agile team, said Creativ Compay CEO and co-founder Wes Morton. An Offaly school choir will receive 'an honour of a lifetime' as they are set to perform at St. Peters Basilica in Rome. In a remarkable recognition of musical excellence and spiritual dedication, the Sacred Heart School Choir from Tullamore has received a prestigious opportunity to perform at St. Peters Basilica in Rome. The performance is scheduled for next February and marks a milestone not only for the choir but for the entire school and local community. The invitation came following a series of standout performances over the past few years, including live performances on RTE where the choirs blend of classical sacred music and youthful harmony drew admiration from music directors. To sing in a place of such profound spiritual significance is a fantastic opportunity, said Mr James Murphy, director of the Sacred Heart Schools Choir. St. Peters Basilica is the heart of Catholicism, and to be heard in that space is a humbling honour. The trip to Rome will be more than just a performanceit will be a pilgrimage. Along with singing at St. Peters, the group will tour religious and historical sites, including the Sistine Chapel, Basilica of the Sacred Heart and St John the Lateran Basilica. The journey to Rome will require significant support, and the school has launched a fundraising campaign to help cover travel expenses for students. Events such as benefit concerts, bake sales, and community sponsorship initiatives are already underway. Were so proud of these students, said Principal Pauline McKenna. Theyve worked incredibly hard, and now theyre being recognised on the global stage. We hope the entire community will rally behind them. The choir is currently preparing a special repertoire for the basilica performance, featuring sacred works in Latin, English and Irish in addition to performing works by living Irish composers including John O'Keeffe and Ronan McDonagh. With months of preparation ahead, the students remain focused and grateful for the opportunity. As the Sacred Heart School Choir lifts its voice in one of the worlds most sacred spaces, it carries with it the hopes and prayers of a community united in faith and song. TWO burglars who were caught red-handed in a special garda operation which ended in Kildare were jailed for a total of of eight years and nine months at Tullamore Circuit Court. The court heard that Martin Connors (25), Carrigeen, Clonmel, Co Tipperary and Gavin Prentice (30), Rossfield Drive, Tallaght, Dublin 24 were involved in break-ins at two neighbouring houses in the Drom Liath estate in Tullamore where 24,000 was stolen, along with smaller amounts of money, plus a Raymond Weil watch. At a sentencing hearing, Detective Garda Jill Mangan, Trim Garda Station, confirmed to William Fennelly, BL, prosecuting, that on the evening of December 6 last year she was involved in a coordinated operation involving gardai from Trim and Mullingar with back-up from members of the garda special tactics and operations command. The focus of the operation was burglaries which were taking place in the Midlands and Offaly/Meath general area and a specific vehicle, a dark coloured Audi S1 was known to be of interest. That vehicle was seen parked at Parkwood Road, Tubber between Clara and Moate. It had five occupants wearing dark clothing and at 7.44pm it was seen again at Main Street, Clara and all of those on board were wearing balaclavas. By 8pm it was at Drom Liath, off Collins Lane in Tullamore, where it was driven to the end of a cul-de-sac and a man wearing dark clothes, a balaclava and gloves was seen going through a side gate and the sound of breaking glass was heard. Other males were seen, a car door was heard opening and closing and light were seen going on in the houses. Afterwards the Audi sped off and made its way to Kilmurray, Enfield, Co Kildare, near Johnstownbridge which had been a location of interest to the gardai. The vehicle was stopped in a very narrow laneway in Kilmurray at about 9.05pm and its occupants dispersed. Both Mr Connors and Mr Prentice fled from the vehicle but both were caught and arrested by gardai. A male juvenile was also arrested but the other two were not. The Audi was seized and a technical examination of the vehicle took place. It had been sold in Northern Ireland but was never reregistered and had false number plates. A total of 21,100 in cash was found in white envelopes in the glove compartment. The first name of the owner of one of the houses in Drom Liath was written on them. A registration plate was in the passenger footwell and gloves, hats, runners, walkie talkies, a bottle of Mr Muscle cleaner and a sledge hammer were also found. The Raymond Weil watch was found in Mr Prentice's pocket. Also found was a $5 bill, 105 in cash and 250, plus vouchers and clothes. The occupant of one of the houses notified gardai that his alarm had gone off and reported that 24,000 had been stolen from what was described as a discrete location. A total of 600 worth of damage had been done. Also, a woman living in the other house reported the theft of a number of items, including the watch. Neither house was occupied at the time of the burglaries. Both Mr Connors and Mr Prentice were subsequently interviewed by gardai but they exercised their right to silence. Detective Garda Mangan said that 2,900 was still missing but the rest was recovered. She added that Mr Connors had previous convictions for public order offences in Ireland and the UK, plus assault and theft in the UK, including Antrim Crown Court. Mr Prentice had 28 previous convictions, most of which were in the UK and among them were burglary, drugs, theft of a vehicle and tendering counterfeit currency. A victim impact statement from the man who had a large amount of cash stolen was read in court and he said he had a fear the thieves would come back. He was worried because the alarm had not been heard by anybody and the men were able to stop it. I feel that nothing is safe in my own home, he said. It's the attitude of these criminals that they think they can do what they want and don't care who suffers as a result of their actions. He said it was frustrating that he was out working to pay bills and these crimes were done by people who did not work at all. The injured party in the adjoining house chose not to make a victim impact statement but Det Garda Mangan said the woman had a teenage son who was no longer happy to stay at home on his own. When Colm Hennessy, BL, for Mr Prentice, put it to the court that both men were apprehended quickly, neither house was occupied, nearly all the property was recovered and they had admitted their involvement and pleaded guilty, Judge Keenan Johnson replied: They had no option but to plead. They were caught red-handed. Mr Hennessy said Mr Prentice had three children under the age of three but his partner had suffered the stillbirth of triplets and also had another miscarriage. Counsel said the man was originally from Ireland but had a troubled and sad upbringing, had no real relationship with his parents and went to live with a grandmother in the UK. He fell into the use of alcohol and drugs and left education early but now said he would like to get into construction and roofing when he got out of prison. He had missed the birth of two of his children because of incarceration, including the birth of a child only 11 days ago. He and his partner had been living in Essex and his wife had travelled to Tullamore for the sentencing hearing. Mr Hennessy said the accused man wished to apologise to the victims and was prepared to take the punishment for his crime. Mr Hennessy described the man's partner as an incredible woman and noted that she had written a letter to the court. David Nugent, BL, for Mr Connors, said the defendant had grown up in Tallaght and lost his father at the age of 10 to suicide. He never sought help for that loss and then when he was 20 he lost one of his brothers in a car crash in America, followed by the loss of a first cousin and two friends. Mr Nugent said Mr Connors had never really dealt with the trauma and it appeared the death of his brother in particular had triggered something and he acted out. A father of two children aged three and one, he was a man in whom his family were disappointed but having previously held a safe pass, he would now be seeking grief counselling, narcotics counselling, help with anger management and would go back to education. Judge Johnson pointed out that Mr Connors had convictions from 2018 which was before his brother died. READ NEXT: Offaly pensioner tied up and robbed in isolated rural farmhouse Martin Connors had pleaded guilty to burglary, which carried a maximum sentence of 14 years, plus possession of articles used in a burglary and possession of 21,100 of stolen cash, which both have maximum sentences of five years. Mr Prentice had also pleaded guilty to possession of 21,100 of stolen cash and burglary. These type of burglaries are all too prevalent and the court has to send out a clear message that this type of behaviour will not under any circumstances be tolerated, said Judge Johnson. People are entitled to enjoy the privacy of their own residence. He said the negative impact on the victim was an aggravating factor in determining a sentence and also noted that while the men had pleaded guilty, they had also tried to escape when stopped by the gardai. He said Mr Prentice was at high risk of reoffending and Mr Connors' previous convictions were fewer. The judge said the letter from Mr Prentice's wife, who suffered from significant health difficulties herself, told of how he had been sent to England when he was 16 and had started mixing with the wrong people after a rough start in life with drug addicted parents. He was now suffering from depression and anxiety. Judge Johnson assessed the offences at the mid range of offending which meant the headline sentence for burglary would be seven-and-a-half years. He sentenced Mr Prentice to five-and-a-half years with the final nine months suspended for three years. He ordered that he move to Essex within a week of his release from prison. He sentenced Mr Connors to four years and nine months in prison, with the final nine months suspended for three years. Concurrent sentences of two years were imposed on both men for the other offences and the prison terms were back dated to December 6 last, when they first were put in custody. A MAN previously jailed for coercive control was put back in prison after Tullamore Circuit Court heard of a plan to construct a concrete burial chamber for himself and his partner. Judge Keenan Johnson activated a suspended 20-month prison term which had been imposed on Clare native Martin Mulqueen after an application from the gardai who had evidence he had breached the conditions of the sentence by contacting a woman. Mr Mulqueen, who in March 2021 was convicted of the then relatively new offence of coercive control, along with the assault of his partner, had served his sentence and resumed contact with the woman after his release, in breach of court order. The original sentence had been imposed by Judge Francis Comerford and Mr Mulqueen appeared before Judge Johnson yesterday (Thursday, May 29) for what is known as a Section 99 application. His victim was in court for the hearing and gave evidence herself, becoming tearful as she outlined her encounters with Mr Mulqueen. Garda Michael Henry, Roscommon Garda Station, freplying to counsel for the DPP, Sean O'Quigley, outlined the original sentences, which amounted to a total of 54 months for various offences - which also included making threats and producing a knife - with a 20-month prison term suspended for four years. The offences were committed on various dates from late 2018 into 2019. Garda Henry said information was then received which caused concern about the safety of the victim and it came to his attention that an enquiry had been made by Mr Mulqueen about a burial plot for himself and his girlfriend. He conducted a background check and discovered 17 breaches of court orders, seven bench warrants for Mr Mulqueen, four applications for interim barring orders and one for a barring order. Breaches had occurred in 2023 and 2024 and into 2025 and Mr Mulqueen had been placed in custody for breach of a barring order. A key worker with Housing First who assisted the victim get accommodation of her own, said the woman told her that sometimes she would arrange the meet Mr Mulqueen at a different location after hearing he was homeless. Her residence was not known to Mr Mulqueen but by means unknown he found out her full address and eircode and sent her gifts with a note signed 'Paul Williams', who was described as the man's favourite crime correspondent. The key worker said Mr Mulqueen had written I hope you liked your presents and Now, who's a good detective. She said he would ring the woman and leave threatening voicemails and she was in fear of her life from him. This was a new start for her and she didn't want him on her property at all, said the witness. Michael Cusack, a funeral director in Kilrush, Co Clare, gave evidence that he had buried Mr Mulqueen's father in 2012 and his mother in 2020. An underground vault with one vault over the other had been constructed prior to 2012. READ NEXT: 'Caught red-handed' - burglars jailed after stealing 24,000 cash in Offaly In December 2024 Martin Mulqueen phoned him and said it was his wish to be buried with his parents. Mr Cusack told him that could not be done because it was a single grave and Mr Mulqueen then asked about being buried in the old cemetery and rang again in January and asked the funeral director to go ahead with an underground chamber of mass concrete. Mr Mulqueen also asked Mr Cusack to do him a favour and ring his partner and tell her of the agreement with the funeral director to develop a grave. The grave was going to be for himself and his partner. Mr Cusack rang the woman and he recalled her saying to him: That ain't going to happen. Replying to Dara Foynes, SC, for Mr Mulqueen, Mr Cusack said the cemetery where the new grave would be located would be overlooking the sea and though it would be a single grave, there would be room for two caskets. A social care worker gave evidence of hearing Mr Mulqueen have a telephone conversation with the undertaker on the afternoon of January 15 last when the man was quite intoxicated. That witness said Mr Mulqueen made reference to the grave being for her (his partner) first but when Mr Cusack was recalled to the witness box he said he did not recall the man saying that. In her evidence, Mr Mulqueen's former partner said she had made contact with the man because she felt sorry for him. However, on one occasion there were 40 missed calls from him to her when she was on a train journey and between Friday, January 31 and Sunday night, February 2 last there were 360 missed phone calls and messages. She applied for a barring order because there would be calls after calls, especially if she did not answer. She said he was a totally different person when he had drink on him and she would start getting verbal abuse from him. Having previously stayed one night with him in a Midlands town she allowed him to stay for a few days at her residence because she had heard he was back on the streets but they did not share a bedroom and there was no intimacy. She also recalled having gone for a drive with him prior to being assaulted where they visited a nice area where there was a graveyard. She said she had a grave sorted for herself in her own home place and confirmed telling the funeral director over the phone that a grave with her former partner wasn't going to happen. Judge Johnson told the woman she struck him as being a soft hearted character and said that sometimes when a person could not protect themselves the court had to do it. Ruling that he would grant the application activating the suspended sentence the judge said the evidence about the grave was particularly bizarre, disturbing and concerning. He said the purpose of suspended sentences is to incentivise an accused person to rehabilitate and they are a very effective instrument when complied with but lose all their value if people are allowed to ignore them. It's abundantly clear to me that Mr Mulqueen has ignored the terms of the suspended sentence on multiple occasions, he said. Martin Mulqueen, originally from Ballynote, Kilrush, Co Clare, had been jailed in 2021 after the court heard he had tried to strangle his then partner, beaten her and cut her wrist with a knife. She had slept with a hammer under her pillow and he had broken her phone and tried to drive a wedge between her and her children, mother and extended family, the court heard. Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday rejected the weaponisation of water and warned that Pakistan would not allow India to cross the red line by holding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance and endangering millions of lives for narrow political gains, reported PTI. Speaking at the three-day International Conference on Glaciers Preservation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Sharif raised the issue of Indias recent move concerning the bilateral water-sharing treaty between the two countries. Indias unilateral and illegal decision to hold in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty, which governs the sharing of the Indus Basins water, is deeply regrettable, Dawn quoted the prime minister as saying. ADVERTISEMENT Millions of lives must not be held hostage to narrow political gains, and Pakistan will not allow this. We will never allow the red line to be crossed, he told the gathering, which included over 2,500 delegates from 80 UN member states and 70 international organisations. The event, hosted by the Tajikistan government in collaboration with the United Nations, UNESCO, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Asian Development Bank, and other international partners, marked a major effort toward glacier preservation and climate cooperation. Sharifs remarks came after India announced the suspension of the IWT following the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, as part of a series of punitive measures. The IWT, signed in 1960, governs the use and distribution of water from the six rivers of the Indus Basin between India and Pakistan. ADVERTISEMENT The Pakistani premier also addressed a wide range of issues, including glacial preservation, Pakistans climate vulnerability, the devastating 2022 floods, and global responsibility in combating climate change. The world today bears fresh scars from the use of conventional weapons in Gaza that have left deep wounds. As if that were not enough, we are now witnessing an alarming new low the weaponisation of water, he said. Highlighting Pakistans vulnerability, Sharif noted that the country is home to over 13,000 glaciers, which contribute nearly half of the annual flow in the Indus River system a vital source for its civilisation, agriculture, and economy. ADVERTISEMENT The five great rivers that shape our geographical landscape Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej all depend on the stability of glacial systems. This makes Pakistan one of the most vulnerable countries to any climatic changes that impact glaciers, he added. Sharif recalled how the 2022 floods, driven by glacial melt and extreme weather, destroyed millions of acres of crops, thousands of homes, and critical infrastructure, despite Pakistan contributing less than half a per cent to global emissions and still ranking among the ten most climate-vulnerable countries. OpEd News One-Time Security Check This Is NOT An Error Message Your site IP address* (5.13.19.111) is listed on one or more Internet blacklists. We get visited by hundreds of these spambots daily. To prevent these from taking resources away from legitimate users, we show this page. Please use the CAPTCHA below which proves you are human, not a spam bot. It's a one-time action** for your IP. After that, you will be able to access OpEd News easily. Thank you for your patience. * Here's more info about IP addresses. ** If your IP address is fixed, you'll be able to use this website from now on. However, if your Internet Service Provider (such as Verizon or T-Mobile) assigns you a different IP address every time you use your device, AND these IP addresses are NOT on an Internet blaclist, then all is good. If, for some strange reason, your ISP assigns you an IP that is blacklisted, then you'll have to go through this process again. (Unless you keep yourself logged in. We only check for spambots on non-logged in visitors.) Commitment to end tobacco must translate to bold actions on the ground SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS Ending tobacco use is a compelling public health and social justice priority (Image by CNS) Details DMCA Commitment to end tobacco must translate to bold actions on the ground, said Dr Tara Singh Bam. He exhorted the new government of Indonesia to sign and ratify the global tobacco treaty (formally called the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or WHO FCTC) in the interest of the health and wellbeing of its people. FCTC is the first international legally binding corporate accountability and public health treaty of the WHO to protect people from the devastating tobacco use. It was adopted by the World Health Assembly of the WHO on 21 May 2003 and entered into force on 27 February 2005. Currently, among the countries that are part of the United Nations, except 14, all of them have ratified the FCTC. Among the 14 countries that have not yet become a part of the global tobacco treaty, 6 have signed but not ratified it, and 8 have not even signed it - including Indonesia. Dr Tara Singh Bam was addressing the delegates of 10th Indonesian Conference on Tobacco Control (ICTOH 2025) including Vice President of Indonesia, Minister of Health of Indonesia, and other dignitaries. Dr Bam is the Board Director of Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT) and serves as Asia Pacific Director (Tobacco Control), Vital Strategies. Indonesian conference was held just few days before the World No Tobacco Day 2025 and few weeks before the World Conference on Tobacco Control opens in Ireland next month. With highest male smoking rates globally in Indonesia, ratifying FCTC is an urgent priority With an Adult Smoking rate of 39%, Indonesia ranks among the top 5 countries with highest smoking rates. It also holds the dubious distinction of having 74.5% male smokers - highest in the world. It is also the only country in the Asia Pacific region that has not signed the FCTC. Dr Bam blames it on the intense influence of tobacco industry on the government. It lobbies with the government, including giving donations to political parties for their political campaigns. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). When the day is spawning (Image by Loco Steve) Details DMCA This is what you are dealing with, with the magic mushroom. You know how in shamanism we acknowledge that every being has its own form of consciousness or awareness. Our claim to fame is the largest brain or neural network of the animal kingdom except for whales and dolphins. Our great opus of evolutionary accomplishment is our ego or self-consciousness, but before we (homosapiens) developed an ego (give or take 10,000 years) we had a different kind of brain that was much more connected to "earth-consciousness" or the Great Mother. That is the story of human consciousness in a nutshell -- 300,000 years of earth-connected consciousness underlying 10,000 years of ego-consciousness and 300 - 400 years of scientific / logical (conditioning of) consciousness. (slave / master, masculine, top-down, hierarchical, problem-solving, matter is dead, cause and effect, power-over, controlling our environment, education = conditioning, thought-control, chronological time). Human consciousness is self-reflective. At least half of what we experience is colored by what we project, the world outside of our projections can never be directly experienced as it is without that veneer of how we perceive it. As we (both individually and collectively) begin to explore and deconstruct the ego (self-consciousness) we realize that it isn't a prison but an opportunity to interface with the universe via an array of lenses. (My septuagenarian male heterosexual lens, my poet lens, my progressive left-wing American lens, my Jungian lens, my vegetarian lens, my pacifist lens, my shamanic lens . . .) When I was working with ayahuasca I learned that "I" can be experiencing something without being at the center of what I am experiencing, so I learned to witness, to be a witness of something that included me but wasn't about me. I also learned that, on psychedelics we do well to know when we are experiencing something through the lens of me (Gary Lindorff) or through the lens of what I call my "entity", which is my core self, that is still who I am but is not tied to my name or my middle-worldly self. When I can make that shift from being in my Gary-skin to being in my entity, I am still uniquely myself, but we simply lack the language to explain how we can be experiencing ourselves outside of that self-conditioning which has served us since our mothers named us. To understand this it might help to remember that we were someone before we were named and stepped into our karmic shoes. I think of Michael Meade's story of how he learned at 13 that he was much more than the son of his parents and one of 5 siblings in a working class Irish family living on a shoestring in Brooklyn. His aunt's presenting him with his first book with Pegasus on the cover and with the image of the powerful archer about to release his arrow, this aunt was his angel (just for that moment). She was a catalyst, showing him the archetype that was going to be instrumental in moving him into a larger life. The arrow was his gift, his story-voice. It was his power, his medicine and it transcended his ego. But it was still integral to who he was. So when the hoods herded him into the bathroom and were about to beat him to a pulp for something his friend did to anger them, his entity was awakened. (It wasn't his day to die, but his day to rise, for his acorn to sprout..) A mushroom journey may be life-changing or it may not. It all depends on many variables. Clearing the deck is important. When I did my recent soul-retrieval. I asked for a dream to show me something, to help get me ready for the soul-retrieval. I dreamed I was seeing the butternut tree where my father hung a swing that I and my brother and sister could all sit on at the same time, by the horse barn, where my mother would swing us. So that butternut was, obviously, my soul tree. Right next to the tree (in my dream) was a giant rusty cylinder, like a silo with no discernible openings. I didn't know what was in it. When the shaman did my s-retrieval, as she explained afterward, she emptied out that silo, and got rid of it, She sent it (respectfully) far away, out of my life, for good. So when the session was over, I felt I had a lot of room in my psyche that was not available before. She recommended that I fill that space with joy! Now, if I was going to journey with the mushroom, that would have been good prep work, and I would have been in a good place to go with the mushroom's teaching / journey. If I had come to the mushroom session with the silo still prominent in my dreaming, the mushroom would have had to deal with that. (What was in the silo? Shadow stuff, probably very low-energy shadow stuff. Probably psychic "junk" that I was storing away, but it had no purpose. Maybe 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago it had a psychic charge. Maybe it was what was left of old complexes that I had dealt with or outgrown.) But what is interesting is, it was still there, right next to the butternut. It probably went way back. Maybe it contained family karma. Maybe it was a mix of the remains of inherited and personal trauma that I had stuffed out of sight-out of mind, like Robert Bly's long sock filled with shadow that we drag behind us all our lives, that we need to dump out and look at. Bly was closer to being a Jungian than a shaman, so the "sock" metaphor worked for him. But my situation was different. My silo was not a sock, it was metal, rusty and very strong like a vault, and I wasn't dragging it behind me but it was right there towering next to my soul-tree. Wow, right? So soul-retrieval was exactly what I needed to get it out of my life. Once I had that space (thanks to this shaman) my work shifted to focusing on my heart (the only organ that is also a chakra). I was in the life-long habit of treating my heart like it was only an organ most of the time, and a chakra only when I wanted or needed it to be. It took me about two years (after my soul-retrieval) to realize that that approach was making my heart sick. It finally dawned on me that, yes, we need to take good care of our hearts (as our primary organ of perception, always communicating with our gut and brain via the vagus nerve), but that, energetically speaking, our hearts have infinite capacity! But the heart, as our organ of perception and as our quantum "pump" that helps to move out blood, as remarkable as it is, as a physical organ (or, at its best, as a quantum computer, but physical), doesn't have infinite capacity. When it stops, we pass out of our body. So, if we want our heart to be happy and healthy, we need to grow into it as both an organ and a chakra. As a chakra, it does have that potential of infinite capacity to empathize with the suffering of the planet (for example) and to feel for the chipmunk we ran over and for the man holding the sign outside the mall ("Please help. Will do anything for pay.") To ask our heart, as organ, to do the work of a chakra is just asking for trouble. So, even realizing what I have just explained is a good way to make the mushroom's job easier. Now let's consider the mushroom. The mushroom that we call "mushroom" is the fruiting body of a vast organism, the mycelia, which is a subterranean fungus, which has no self-awareness but it is a billion year old organism. . .older than the plants, way older than the animals, even the insects. It has been here since the beginning of time, the beginning of life. (At least 800 million years old!) (When you take the mushroom, does the mushroom get off on experiencing a self?? This is a very curious question that we should ask. When we journey with the mushroom we have the potential to filter our experience through that billion year old mind! Try to get into that. For everyone it is different but what you might be looking for is not so much insight into any of your issues or psychology (which would be asking the mushroom to act as therapist), but into the (universal) mystery of energy, life-energy and embodiment. . .patterns. The mushroom automatically has to work through what we bring and what we are capable of perceiving. In other words we can't dispense with our lenses, but the unique awareness that the mushroom engenders is a prehuman, naturally holistic, viewpoint. I have always enjoyed the thought that, if we could see the way God sees, it would probably be much closer to how the mushroom allows us to experience the universe, than by any more acculturated window on so-called reality. I am not saying to go into zazen and try to clear your mind so the mushroom can have space to work with you. I am saying to do your work before you ingest the mushroom, and think about what I said above, about how you can't leave your self-consciousness behind so the mushroom can sweep you into some sort of cosmic awareness or cosmic reality. It might do that anyway, but our work is to clear the deck as well as we can and approach the mushroom as we would approach any enlightened teacher. But remember, sometimes the zen-master unexpectedly strikes you with his or her bamboo cane! We think we know what "color" is or what a "flower" is or what a "tree" is, but we don't. With the mushroom there is the possibility of dipping into an awareness that predates or underlies, not only our humanity but self-consciousness itself. You are, ideally, plugging your brain (neo-cortex) into a virtually infinitely older "awareness". Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, Aug., 2018) "How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, May, 2025: see below) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As my regular readers know, I have written on fascism frequently in this space and related ones on which I have published in the past, going back to 2005, or so. There is a reason for that: the gathering threat of fascism, slow back then, but certainly picking up a good head of steam with Trump's re-election, and more importantly, with the substitution of the precepts of Project2025 to replace Constitutional Democracy that is now underway. To say nothing of the appearance of modern capitalist authoritarian states, as in Hungary, for example. Recent examples of my columns on the subject include: from 2024: click here; Click Here ; Click Here ; Click Here ; and Click Here . Trump is losing a stream of legal cases in the lower Federal courts. Given the types of cases they are, and that Trump is being ruled against even by judges that he appointed, with some of the judgements in some cases referring to Constitutional violations, the direction that he is consciously and rapidly moving in makes that danger of fascism, to be introduced into this country by Constitutional means (as it was in Germany in 1933), more clear every day. And don't count on the Supreme Court to protect us (as they just did not do, in a very important decision in a destroying-environmental-protection case handed down whilst I was writing this column). Whatever the case, Trump always has two votes in the bag. He needs only three more. And (without naming names), as is well known, he could get them. But in this column, I don't want to engage in more predicting. I want to review some past events, and first I want to revisit my understanding of just what the word "fascism" means. The word has many different, and differing, definitions, and is used in a wide variety of ways. Here is the one that I use: "There is a single, all-powerful, authoritarian, executive branch of government, in service of a capitalist ruling class that controls, for the most part, the functions of production, distribution, finance, and exchange in a given nation. There is no separation of the principal governmental powers: executive, legislative, and judicial. There are no independent media. There is a single national ideology, based on some combination of racism, misogyny, a given religious ideology, homophobia, and xenophobia. There is a single political party supporting the movement. No other parties are permitted. There is a state propaganda machine using the big and little lie techniques. There may be a full-blown dictatorship, a charismatic leader, engagement in foreign wars, and the use of the mob/private armies to enforce governmental control. Historically, it has taken over the primary levers of government through elections (Germany, today's Hungary), appointment by a monarch (the original [1919] Hungarian fascist state and fascist Italy [1922]), or by force (Franco's Spain, fascist Japan)." It is important to understand that the fascist state, as it has been known for over a century now, is always emplaced, in one way or another, to serve the interests of a capitalist ruling class. It may not always be that all of the "Captains of Industry" (and in the modern world, of finance and communications as well) are in favor of such a change in governmental organization. But enough of them are so that, in one way or another, it is emplaced. The two most important structural features of the fascist state are: 1) There is no separation of the three traditional powers of any government: executive, legislative, and judicial. Rather, going back to the model of absolute monarchy, which began fading away in the mid-19th century, one governmental institution controls all three sectors of power. 2) Fascism arises in capitalist countries, and its institution is supported by a significant sector of the economic ruling class in that county. Under Trump, Republo-Fascism is coming on in on "Little Cat Feet" (with apologies to Carl Sandburg). With the slimmest of margins in both Houses of Congress, the Executive Branch is already using the fascist mode of governing: e.g., creating a government Department, DOGE, out of thin air, without any authorization of the Congress (see Article II of the Constitution); Trump subsumed the tariff-power, which under Article II also belongs to the Congress, to himself; destroying programs they don't like without the benefit of legislation, e.g., USAID, the Department of Education, and paving the road to ending the Federal Civil Service; all without the benefit of legislation. Also in the matter of introducing fascism into the functioning of the U.S. government, is my "How do you spell ICE in German?" question posed above. A peculiar arm of the central government in Nazi Germany was indeed the "Geheime Staats Polizei," the Gestapo for short. It was a regime-powers enforcement agency that had three primary functions that are kept separated in modern bourgeois (that is non-fascist) governments of capitalist states. Those are the powers to 1) arrest persons for suspected crimes; 2) subject those persons to some kind of criminal procedures (in which the accused is supposed to have certain rights before the law, such as the right to know of the charges against them in some detail, the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney for due process); 3) the right to imprison persons convicted of crimes, through the due process of law. The Gestapo had the power to arrest anyone they wanted to, with a legally-sanctioned "probable cause" or not; decide on the guilt or innocence of that person in re the crime being charged, without the person having, say, the right to an attorney or to be subject to a established-in-law-judicial procedure; and then upon determining, on their terms, whether or not a crime (as they defined it) had been committed, decide upon and mete out punishment as they deemed fit. Yes, it is well-known that the Gestapo did this, to millions of people, in Germany and conquered lands. And, sad to say, it is exactly these powers, of arrest, "trial," and imprisonment, without the accused having any rights of due process as they are ordinarily defined, with which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of the Homeland Security has been endowed. If ICE starts to be reigned in by the courts, could a "Trump militia" to carry out those functions without any legal foundation at all, be far behind? One interesting item would be the choice of color for their shirts. In Nazi Germany they were of course the "Brownshirts." In fascist Italy they were the Black Shirts, while in Franco's Spain they were the Blue Shirts. Since many Trumpists do not know any history, they might actually choose red for their shirts, to match the color of the Trump caps. Whatever the color of their shirts, their primary function would be to commit violent acts on behalf of their Leader ("Fuerher" anyone[?] without any sort of legal sanction). "Ridiculous" you say? Just think of the pardoned "Jan. 6" rioters who could (would?) form the very core of such a militia. Just think of Trump pardoning them, convicted by juries as they were. Just think of Trump considering pardoning the plotters who were fixing up a scheme to kidnap (and possibly murder) the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmore. They were convicted by a jury. And then think of the Vice-President, J.D. Vance, who said that the primary function of the Supreme Court was not to oversee the actions of the two other branches of the Federal government, to determine whether they fell within the bounds of Constitutional law or not. Rather it is to oversee the actions of the other components of the Judicial branch, at the Federal, State, and local levels, to make sure that they remain, essentially, doing what Vance thinks they should be doing. Vance went to Yale Law School. I guess that he skipped the course on Constitutional law (or perhaps just slept through it). I suggest that he read Article II, and then read Marbury v. Madison which has been regarded as the single most important descriptor of the role and function of the Supreme Court, since it was handed down in 1803. (For my take on M. v. M. see, e.g., Click Here.) I am going to stop here, for now. For further discussion by others, widely recognized as experts on the nature, role, and function of fascism, and how the oncoming fascism of the Trump/P2025 regime threatens (bourgeois) democratic government in the United State, see, e.g.: Timothy Snyder, Jason Stanley, and Ruth ben-Ghiat. (Article changed on May 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM EDT) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Zozulu Brings Artistic Customization to Furniture and Flooring based in San Diego San Diego, CA - Zozulu, a leading furniture and flooring company based in San Diego, is revolutionizing the way people think about interiors. 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The award underlines the importance of flexible, individual and above all practical solutions for companies today. MiU24 stands not only for creativity and digital expertise, but also for humanity and genuine partnership. Hybrid. Service.Wholesale - an innovation from MiU24 With Hybrid.Service.Wholesale, MiU24 has created a model that shows Tualatin clean-energy storage company Powin warned Oregon officials this week that the company may shut down by the end of July, citing unforeseen business circumstances. Powin said it may lay off nearly 250 workers, including close to 100 in Oregon. It has offices in Tualatin and in Portlands Pearl District. Oregon Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson, top left, met with Nike factory workers, top right, on Thursday evening. Matthew Kish | The Oregonian/OregonLive Three Nike factory workers from Indonesia were unable to get a meeting with a Nike representative this week, but they got one late Thursday with Oregons labor commissioner. Christina Stephenson on Thursday heard testimony from Dedhe Nurhasanah, Leni Oktira Sari and Dinar Swandi, who work in Indonesian contract factories that make Nike sneakers. Containers with Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation, a Taiwanese container shipping company, are stacked up at the Port of Los Angeles on April 9, 2025 in Los Angeles. AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File This month, Hacea Coffee Sources latest shipping container of coffee arrived in Los Angeles. The company imports beans in bulk, then sells them to many of Portlands favorite coffee shops. But this time, the family-owned business has no idea how much it will cost to get the coffee through customs. The Wilsonville company says its battery technology will help clean energy generators store their electricity. ESS photo Faltering battery manufacturer ESS Tech said Friday that an unexpected infusion of funding will keep the Wilsonville company afloat, at least for the time being, though ESS said it will have to cut unspecified costs. Publicly traded ESS warned investors on Wednesday that it had run out of money and would shut down at the end of the week without a last-minute financial bailout. On Friday, ESS said it had received funding it had not anticipated. The company didnt say how much money it had secured, or where it came from, but said it was enough to keep operating in the near term. ESS said it will still undertake actions to judiciously manage its operating expenses. ESS didnt say whether those actions include job cuts and didnt respond to a message Friday morning seeking additional details. On Wednesday, the company had said it had planned to close its Wilsonville headquarters on Friday without more funding. ESS started the year with 240 employees, mostly in Wilsonville. Its stock was up 40% in early trading Friday, at $1.14 a share. The much-hyped company had a market value above $1 billion when it began trading on Wall Street in 2021. ESS makes iron-based batteries it said could help solar and wind farms store their energy at night or at times when winds were calm. Bill Gates clean power fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, was an early investor. But ESS never came close to delivering on its promise. In 2021, the young company told investors that revenues could soar to $300 million by 2023. But ESS ultimately generated only $7.5 million in sales that year, falling to $5.7 million in 2024 when it reported an $86 million loss. It has a market value of just $14 million. ESS woes highlight the perils of investing in companies that moved to the public markets through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. SPACs were in vogue several years ago. Privately held companies, including ESS, merged with publicly traded investment funds and assumed those funds stock listings. That became a mechanism for selling stock to the public without the usual regulatory steps and investor scrutiny that accompanies a conventional initial public offering. ESS and other SPACs generated lots of attention with their debuts but produced poor returns overall, and federal regulators took steps to make it harder to launch companies this way. The Reynolds School District released this photo of the suspected thief who stole the catalytic converters from six school buses over the Memorial Day weekend. Reynolds School District The Reynolds School District released photos of the suspected thief who broke into the transportation yard over Memorial Day weekend and stole catalytic converters from six school buses. The person entered the property in a 1990 Ford passenger van, wearing a black hoodie as well as a red and black Milwaukee Tool-brand backpack, according to the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office. The Reynolds School District released this photo of the suspected thief who stole the catalytic converters from six school buses over the Memorial Day weekend. Reynolds School District The thief cut through fencing near West Salish Pond at the Northeast Glisan Street bus lot, according to Reynolds School District spokesperson Steve Padilla. The school district estimated the damage could be as high as $4,500 per converter, totaling around $27,000. Investigators asked anyone with information to contact the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office at 503-988-0560 Quinton Prudhomme is a reporter on the public safety and breaking news team. Reach him at 503-221-8002 or qprudhomme@oregonian.com. Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com/subscribe. A 27-year-old Tigard police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to an official misconduct charge and resigned from the department for making false statements in a criminal investigation. Jacob Teeny also agreed to surrender his police certification as part of the plea agreement, Tigard police said in a news release. Court records show he will be on probation for 12 months and must complete 120 hours of community service. Teeny made false statements in a criminal case against a man charged in Washington County with dealing and possessing methamphetamine and cocaine. A September indictment in the drug case said Teeny was the sole witness who appeared before the grand jury. On Nov. 1, Tigard police said an attorney preparing for trial in the case found a discrepancy between Teenys police report and his body-worn camera footage. The inconsistency was tied to how he accessed text messages on a suspects cellphone in the course of an investigation. It was alleged that Teeny lied about how he accessed the messages in his report, in a search warrant affidavit and in grand jury testimony, Tigard police wrote in the release. Police did not give details about how Teeny lied or what he did to access the messages. Tigard police placed Teeny on paid administrative leave that day and Police Chief Jamey McDonald on Nov. 4 asked an outside agency to conduct an investigation. The same day, court records show a judge dismissed all charges in the drug case as Washington County prosecutors decided not to proceed. The outside investigation was completed Feb. 19, and the Clackamas County District Attorneys office handled the prosecution of the case against Teeny. Tigard police said labor and employment laws along with due process rights prohibited them from sharing any public information while Teeny was still an officer. State records show he was hired by Tigard police in October 2021. Neither Teeny nor his attorney immediately responded to requests for comment. As a department, we place a high value on transparency, and that means being open with our community when things are going well and when theyre not, McDonald said in a statement. Im disappointed in the choices Teeny made, and this behavior is not acceptable in our organization or any police agency. Tigard police said it is working with Washington County prosecutors to review other reports and investigations conducted by Teeny since he was hired to ensure all past charges, facts and assertions made by him are independently supported. Separately, the department is doing an internal review a standard procedure when an officer violates department policy, police said. 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. News / National by Staff reporter Europe and Africa's strategic partnership has entered an exciting new phase, with both continents reaffirming their commitment to deepen economic cooperation and promote global peace. However, Zimbabwe continues to miss out on the benefits of this growing alliance due to unresolved governance challenges and a crippling debt burden.The renewed momentum in EU-Africa relations was highlighted at a high-level European Union-African Union ministerial meeting held in Brussels last week, commemorating 25 years of bilateral engagement. The meeting was co-chaired by the EU's Foreign Affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, and Angola's Foreign Minister, Tete Antonio. Discussions focused on boosting mutual prosperity while addressing pressing geopolitical tensions in hotspots such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Ukraine.A key feature of this renewed partnership is the European Union's 150 billion Global Gateway investment package aimed at supporting infrastructure, energy access, and economic development across Africa. For 2025 alone, the EU has pledged at least 500 million in humanitarian assistance to tackle various crises on the continent.Despite this large-scale financial commitment, Zimbabwe remains sidelined, unable to tap into the facility due to its unsustainable foreign debt, which stands at around US$13 billion. While some have attributed Zimbabwe's exclusion to Western sanctions, officials at the Brussels meeting clarified that the country's failure to implement essential governance reforms under the African Development Bank's debt resolution strategy is the primary cause. These reforms include tackling public corruption, strengthening democratic institutions, respecting property rights, and compensating farmers who lost land during Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme in 2000.Zimbabwe was represented at the summit by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Sheila Chikomo but found itself isolated as many other African nations positioned themselves to benefit from EU support. The European Union has made it clear that the door remains open for Zimbabwe, but meaningful reforms must be enacted first.Further complicating Zimbabwe's strained relationship with the EU, Brussels recently suspended funding for governance initiatives after Zimbabwe passed the Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill, legislation that has been widely criticised for undermining constitutional rights and stifling civil society activities.While Zimbabwe struggles to access international financial support, its neighbors are successfully securing major funding. In March, South Africa obtained a 4.7 billion (US$5 billion) Global Gateway package to promote investment and trade. Other African nations have also moved swiftly to finalise agreements under the EU's economic initiatives.Zimbabwe's funding challenges have also been worsened by former US President Donald Trump's decision to cut billions of dollars in aid to Africa through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), further limiting the country's development options.Analysts say Zimbabwe's isolation is largely the result of internal policy failures rather than external geopolitics. There is consensus that the country's re-engagement with the EU and broader international partners hinges on genuine political and economic reforms. The message is clear: Africa's future partnerships with Europe will be based on shared values such as transparency, accountability, and good governance.For now, while Europe and Africa celebrate deepening ties and promising new opportunities, Zimbabwe remains a cautionary example of missed potential amid a shifting global landscape. Unless it commits to reform, Zimbabwe risks further marginalisation from vital international support and partnerships. A Portland State student works in the university's electronics laboratory last summer, developing an instrument to measure and track Portland's air quality. The federal government defunded that undergraduate research program in April. Portland State University Physics professor Andrew Rice had already selected the 10 undergraduate students who would conduct geoscience research at Portland State University this summer. Past interns had tracked atmospheric rivers to help the National Weather Service better forecast storms and tested do-it-yourself air filters, finding the most effective designs to recommend to Oregonians during wildfires. The 10-week summer program was the first time many of these emerging scientists would have the opportunity to research. Then, one Friday in April, Rice received a short email from the programs funder, the National Science Foundation. Their recently renewed federal grant had been terminated, with no explanation beyond a statement that it no longer effectuate(d) the program goals or agency priorities. I was most disappointed for my students, Rice said. When I received the news, my initial instinct was, I need to tell my students today. Rices Research Experience for Undergraduates was one of six National Science Foundation grants canceled at Portland State University. Across all Oregon universities, the foundation terminated at least 12 in the last two months, according to university spokespeople. These grants totalling more than $6 million in funds awarded but not yet spent supported scientific research and educational opportunities. The National Science Foundation grant terminations were among a litany of research funding cuts at Oregon universities from various federal agencies. In May, Oregon State University lost $2 million from the Environmental Protection Agency; the money would have been used to test the effectiveness of wastewater treatment. Affected scientists said they were provided no explanation for the cancellation beyond the email, even when they requested clarification. However, following the first set of grant terminations, President Donald Trumps Department of Government Efficiency, shorthanded as DOGE, called them wasteful DEI grants on X. Portland States engineering professor Bob Bass said the words diversity, equity and anti-racism appeared frequently in the titles and descriptions of canceled research programs. At PSU, Rice said, One part of our program is broadening participation in the sciences and, in particular, the geosciences, which still has large disparities in gender and minority participation. If I had to speculate on the termination, thatd be why. Programs aiming to promote education in the fields of science, math, engineering and technology, like Rices, were among the grants most heavily hit, both in Oregon and nationwide. Of more than 1,600 grants canceled nationally, approximately half of them focused on educating the next generation of scientists. Those likely took the largest cuts because the programs often expanded access to science learning, targeting underrepresented students, Bass said, in fields that remain overwhelmingly white, Asian and male. A student filters soil samples in a Portland State laboratory in 2022. Her internship was funded by the university's Research Experience for Undergraduates, which was canceled this year by the federal government. Portland State University Tong Zhang, Portland States assistant dean for inclusive innovation, administered another of these terminated grants: the universitys branch of the regionwide Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. For the past 15 years, the program, which operates at universities across the Pacific Northwest, has worked to increase graduation rates for Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and Pacific Islander students in science and engineering. It helps students find research opportunities, apply to internships and graduate schools, navigate their classes and find community on campus. She said these programs aim not only to increase undergraduate participation in science but also to ensure there are enough people to fill the science and engineering workforce. The immediate impact of the cuts is that there are undergraduates who have lost their paychecks for research. We have first generation college students who are not going to be able to pay the bills, Zhang said. The long-term impact is that we are not going to reach our national development goals. Portland States Diverse Internships in Semiconductor Careers was another program designed to strengthen the science workforce that got lopped off of the DOGE chopping block. The program had been approved to fund 56 local, paid internships in the semiconductor field across three years. Now, as the first cohort of 10 wrap up their internships, the program has lost nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation. Chemistry professor Andrea Goforth, the projects principal investigator, said she and other program leaders were able to pull from other funding sources to pay interns their final stipend but were left scrambling as the programs money was abruptly canceled. While program leaders are looking for other funding, to lose their federal grant was a hit to students and the local semiconductor industry, they said. Not all science and engineering undergraduates can find paid internships, and 150 of them had applied for the next internship cycle before the grant got rescinded, said Christof Teuscher, an engineering professor. An internship and research experience in the middle of your college experience can be really career-determining and open doors to experiences students didnt think were possible, Goforth said. Teuscher said several current interns plan to go into the industry professionally, having had little interest before the internship a positive for the local semiconductor industry, which continues to need more workers. Like her peers, Goforth received the vague notice of their grant termination on a Friday afternoon. While diverse was in the programs title, Goforth said the program aimed to broaden participation across all demographics. We thought that diverse made it clear that we were unambiguously including all, all students of any backgrounds and all industry partners big and small, Goforth said. Teuscher speculated that the program was cut simply because of that word. Some federal grants funding research conducted by faculty members also had grant awards rescinded. Alida Cantor, a geography professor at Portland State, had federal funding for two research projects cut, including a National Science Foundation grant to examine the impact of energy processing, including lithium mining, on community water sources. Cantor said she and her research team had already collected most of their data and conducted community interviews but hadnt processed their findings or shared them. After receiving notice of the cancellation late on an April Friday, Cantor was left scrambling. Instead of focusing on processing and publishing her research, she was given 30 days to finish all the paperwork for her terminated grant. It was a big gut punch, Cantor said. Ive put so much time and energy into doing this work and to have it abruptly canceled is really demoralizing and devastating. Cantor said its been even harder for graduate students who depend on these grants for their careers. While Cantor is a tenured faculty member and plans to wrap up her research, now unpaid, alongside doing the rest of her job, students who were tied to the canceled grants dont have the same flexibility. For students, they might have to drop out, Cantor said. They need funding right now. To say In a few years, you might get a grant again doesnt help them. The funding cancellations impacting research, internships and support systems risk undermining important foundational experiences for current science, technology and engineering students in Oregon universities, the researchers said. Its super shortsighted. Were investing in the future of science and technology in this country and this is how we do it. We invest in universities, Rice said. Those innovations will not come later, if were not investing in science today. Eddy Binford-Ross covers education and local politics for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her at ebinford-ross@oregonian.com. Beachgoers congregate at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast. The beach is one of two dozen that will be monitored for fecal bacteria by the state. Gosia Wozniacka The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is launching its annual beach monitoring at two dozen beaches coastwide to keep an eye on fecal bacteria during the states busy recreation season. The monitoring entails collecting water quality samples at the most frequently visited beaches on the coast as well as beaches where state regulators have found bacteria in the past. The state also monitors beaches where local organizations and the public have requested monitoring due to potential pollution. Over the past decade, based on the monitoring work, state public health officials have published advisories cautioning people to avoid contact with the water because of the presence of bacteria. The beaches will be monitored from the end of May to September. They include Seaside Beach, Cannon Beach, Manzanita Beach, Sunset Bay State Park Beach and Harris Beach State Park. State officials also said they will investigate other beaches for inclusion in upcoming monitoring seasons. Criteria for inclusion include: pollution hazards present, previous monitoring data that identify water quality concerns, type and amount of beach use and public concerns. The monitoring program is based at the Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division. Heres the full list of beaches and their locations: Seaside Beach Seaside, Clatsop County Cannon Beach Cannon Beach, Clatsop County Tolovana Beach State Park Cannon Beach, Clatsop County Short Sand Beach (Oswald West State Park) Arch Cape, Tillamook County Manzanita Beach Manzanita, Tillamook County Rockaway Beach Rockaway, Tillamook County Twin Rocks Beach Twin Rocks, Tillamook County Oceanside Beach Oceanside, Tillamook County Cape Kiwanda Beach Pacific City, Tillamook County Neskowin Beach Neskowin, Tillamook County D River Beach Lincoln City, Lincoln County Siletz Bay Beach Lincoln City, Lincoln County Beverly Beach Newport, Lincoln County Agate Beach Newport, Lincoln County Nye Beach Newport, Lincoln City Ona Beach (Brian Booth-Beaver Creek State Park) Seal Rock, Lincoln City Seal Rock Beach Seal Rock, Lincoln County Heceta Beach Florence, Lane County Bastendorff Beach Coos Bay, Coos County Sunset Bay State Park Beach Coos Bay, Coos County Hubbard Creek Beach Port Orford, Curry County Harris Beach State Park Brookings, Curry County Mill Beach Brookings, Curry County Crissey Fields State Recreation Site Brookings, Curry County For current conditions, please visit www.healthoregon.org/beach or contact the monitoring program at Beach.Health@oha.oregon.gov or 1-877-290-6767. Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154. Oregon is establishing a 50-year environmental restoration fund with money from the Monsanto settlement. It will fund conservation projects in pollution-impacted communities and send money to nonprofits, tribes state agencies that work on environmental issues. AP Oregon is getting ready to launch a massive new environmental restoration fund that will funnel money for conservation projects to communities and tribes harmed by pollution and to state agencies that work on pollution and environmental issues. The Oregon Environmental Restoration Fund will be seeded with proceeds from a $698 million settlement reached in 2022 with Monsanto Co., an agricultural chemical and biotechnology company that Oregon sued for decades of environmental pollution allegedly caused by toxic chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, pictured in November 2024, has not publicly confirmed or denied rumors of his potential retirement from Congress next year. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian Andrea Salinas, a second-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is the proud owner of some new websites: AndreaSalinasforSenate.com, SalinasforSenate.com and AndreaforSenate.com Salinas, who represents Oregons 6th Congressional District, told The Oregonian/OregonLive Thursday she looks forward to supporting Jeff Merkley, Oregons junior U.S. senator, when he runs for reelection next year. But Salinas and several top Oregon Democrats appear to have staked domain-name claims in case he doesnt. Merkley, 68, has not publicly confirmed or denied rumors of his potential retirement from Congress when his third six-year term expires next year. Maggie Sunstrum, a spokesperson for Merkleys campaign, said the senator will announce his campaign plans sometime this quarter. Salinas campaign spokesperson Sam Forbes confirmed the representative purchased the running-for-Senate domain names, none of which have operational websites. Campaigns buy domain names all the time, Forbes said. An online tracker says the Salinas for Senate websites were registered the first day in May, amid increasing speculation that Merkley might not seek reelection next year. Senator Merkley is doing an incredible job working on behalf of all Oregonians, Salinas said in a statement Thursday. When he announces his campaign for reelection, I look forward to supporting the senator and helping him win in 2026. If Merkley steps down, Salinas might face some competition from her fellow members of Congress. Several individuals have recently purchased or renewed domains that hint at potential Senate runs for top Oregon Democrats, according to online domain trackers. Its unclear who made the purchases. They include SuzanneBonamiciforSenate.com, TobiasforSenate.com, JanelleBynumforSenate.com and MaxineDexterforSenate.com, name dropping the states most senior member of the U.S. House, its secretary of state and its two newest members of Congress. A spokesperson for Bonamici, who has represented northwest Oregon for 13 years, said the lawmaker and her staff did not purchase SuzanneBonamiciforSenate.com, which was registered in mid-May, according to GoDaddy.coms database tracker. Bonamici plans to run for reelection to the 1st Congressional District, spokesperson Natalie Crofts said. Neither Bynum nor Dexter responded to a request for comment Thursday. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who is 76 and wont be up for reelection until 2028, fully intends to run for a sixth full term, spokesperson Hank Stern said. Carlos Fuentes; 503-221-5386; cfuentes@oregonian.com Sami Edge; 503-260-3430; sedge@oregonian.com This story was updated at 8 a.m. May 30 to correct which congressional district Salinas represents. Rep. Annessa Hartman, a Democrat from Gladstone, said House Bill 3582 would enable survivors of sexual abuse to "come forward when they are ready not when a clock says theyre allowed." (File photo) Beth Nakamura Choked with emotion, the Oregon House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Thursday that members said would empower future victims of sexual assault to seek justice by eliminating deadlines to file lawsuits against alleged abusers or the institutions that employed them. The bill would apply no matter how many decades have passed since the alleged abuse happened and whether the victim was an adult or a child. The bill churned up powerful and personal stories from a few lawmakers, including Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a Tillamook Republican who spoke of being abused by a babysitter when he was 12, and Rep. Annessa Hartman, a Gladstone Democrat, who said she was sexually assaulted when she was 18. Hartman, a chief sponsor of the bill, fought back tears as she recounted how it took years to realize that being on constant alert for future attackers was not a superpower but trauma. She said it can take victims a long time to gather the strength to report abuse or if they wish to seek their day in civil court. House Bill 3582 would give victims that path forward, Hartman said, by removing the existing statute of limitations. It doesnt undo the past, but it fixes what we can, Hartman said. It says that from here forward, no one will be denied justice just because their healing took time. And to survivors, Hartman said, the bill sends a powerful message: We are finally changing the law to reflect the fact that justice for what happened to you should never have an expiration date. Rep. Annessa Hartman, a chief sponsor of House Bill 3582, advocates for the bill on the House floor as colleagues listen on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Sami Edge/The Oregonian) Currently, Oregon law generally gives adult victims of sexual assault two to five years to file suit, depending on whether theyre suing a private organization or a public body. Victims of sexual abuse suffered as children have until age 40 or within five years after they realize the impact the abuse has had on their lives to sue, whichever is later. The bill wouldnt change the statute of limitations to criminally prosecute alleged perpetrators of sexual assault. Those time limits vary widely but generally range from four to 20 years after the date of the alleged assault. The bill drew sweeping bipartisan support, passing the House 52-0. It heads next to the Senate. If approved by the Senate and signed into law by the governor, Oregon would join a slate of other states and the federal government that have eliminated the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. They included Maine, Maryland and California in 2023 and Washington in 2024. That same year, Arkansas lifted the lawsuit deadlines for children and disabled adults. New Hampshire and Nevada also have eliminated the time limits for victims of all ages to sue over alleged sexual assault. Oregons proposed law, like New Hampshires and Nevadas, would go a step farther than many states by abolishing the civil statute of limitations for adults not just children who say theyve been sexually assaulted. Civil defense attorneys generally oppose such laws, saying memories fade over the years, the cases often rely on one persons word against another and trials can waste huge amounts of time because it becomes exceptionally difficult to prove or contest what may or may not have happened decades ago. The bill would not be retroactive, meaning it applies to future victims and not those whove been abused in the past, Hartman said. But the bills wording could be up for interpretation by a judge, possibly opening the door for lawsuits by victims who say they were abused before the law takes effect. During his floor speech, Javadi, the representative from Tillamook, said he only told maybe two people in his life about the abuse he endured as a child. I was 12 years old, my mom worked three jobs, we had a babysitter, Javadi said. I thought it was my fault for a long time. Javadi said he knows many other victims blame themselves, too, and his message to them is they should be able to pursue action whenever youve figured out in your life that it wasnt your fault. I dont think anyone should have to worry that the clock ran out, Javadi said. So thank goodness for this bill. The bill would also remove a clause in Oregon law requiring that employers or organizations that oversaw the abusers only face liability if they knowingly allowed the abuse to occur. This would make it easier for victims lawsuits to move forward against not only the abuser but also organizations including school districts, sporting leagues, churches and health systems. This is not the standard we apply in any other area of negligence, Hartman said. If someone is at a store and slips on a wet floor and hurts themselves, they dont have to prove the store knew they specifically were going to fall and hurt themselves. But survivors of sexual abuse and child sex abuse are being held to a much higher and unfair standard. Hartman said the bill would prevent hurdles to accountability like those encountered by some of the girls and women who reported sexual abuse by former West Linn Dr. David B. Farley but couldnt prove that the health system that oversaw him knew of the alleged abuse. Rep. Jules Walters, a Democrat from West Linn, said she wants Oregon to end what she considers a loophole. We will not allow another case like this (to) slip through the cracks of an unjust system, Walters said. We will make Oregon a place where accountability is the standard, not the exception. Aimee Green covers the Oregon Legislature. Reach her at 503-294-5119, agreen@oregonian.com or on Bluesky. As chief engineer, Jodie Inman oversaw some of the Portland Water Bureau's biggest construction projects. City of Portland A top Portland bureaucrat tasked with overseeing the completion of a $2 billion water filtration plant east of Gresham quietly quit her job last month after nearly two decades with the city. Jodie Inman stepped down as chief engineer for the Portland Water Bureau on April 18 amid an ongoing legal battle that has ground construction on the Bull Run water treatment facility to a halt. On left, Elizabeth Fouther-Branch and Bobby Fouther in front of their great-aunts house in Easter attire in Portland in 1956. On right: Elizabeth and Bobby in the front of the parking lot near where the house used to stand in 2020. Court Document The city of Portland and its economic development agency will pay a total of $2 million and turn over two parcels of land to settle a federal lawsuit filed by 26 Black descendants of families whose Albina district homes were destroyed from the late 1950s to early 70s. As part of the agreement, the city acknowledges that Portlands zoning code, lending practices and urban renewal policies led to systemic discrimination and segregation that harmed Black communities. The discrimination excluded residents from owning homes and denied them access to education, jobs and healthy neighborhoods, the agreement says. The City Council has set aside more than two hours to hear testimony on the settlement next Thursday at 2:30 p.m. This settlement marks another step in Portlands commitment to make sure future development bears no resemblance to decisions made 50-plus years ago, Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement. As we reflect on past harms, its equally important to reaffirm our commitment to development that makes our city stronger, more inclusive and more welcoming. The city and Prosper Portland, the economic development agency, will each pay $1 million toward the settlement. Prosper Portland also will convey two properties to one or two limited liability companies known as EDPA2 and formed by the people who sued. EDPA2 stands for Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2. Three parcels are under consideration: 240 and 3620 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., both surface parking lots, and if approved by the Prosper Portland board of commissioners, a triangular parcel at 4500 N. Albina Ave. Once the city approves the settlement and the Prosper Portland board votes, the plaintiffs will have 120 days to inspect each property and decide which two, if any, it chooses, according to attorney Hope Whitney, Prosper Portlands general counsel. The Albina Avenue property requires a Prosper Portland board vote because the plaintiffs sought that land after the settlement mediation process had been completed, Whitney said. It was the site of a tense standoff in late 2020 between police and activists who set up an encampment to protest the planned eviction of a Black-Indigenous family in the red house nearby. Lawyers representing the descendants said they dont know yet what the families will do with the parcels. Several of the named plaintiffs referred questions back to their lawyers. 4 1 / 4 Prosper Portland parcels of land cited in settlement The city also will recognize an annual Descendants Day for five years starting this year, provide 10 years of hiring preferences for the descendants in the renovation of Keller Auditorium and at the finished auditorium and allow the descendants to place a prominent and permanent display inside the renovated Keller Auditorium dedicated to the history of the destruction of the Central Albina district. The families who sued also will be able to obtain a temporary license free of charge to use the Martin Luther King Heritage Marker site in the 400 block of Northeast Hancock Street for up to four times a year for three days at a time for community events, according to the agreement. For 10 years, the city and Prosper Portland will issue a letter of support for any of the plaintiffs applications seeking grants to help fund a documentary on Central Albina. The families filed the civil rights suit against the city, Prosper Portland and Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center in February 2023, alleging the hospital in North Portland conspired with the city and what was then the Portland Development Commission to destroy the predominantly Black community and displace hundreds of families from their homes and businesses in the central Albina neighborhood under the guise of urban renewal. The descendants argued that the hospital and city worked together to violate their families civil rights, engaged in unjust enrichment and left a public nuisance. Homeowners were forced to sell their houses for a planned hospital expansion. But much of the land the hospital acquired through the defendants actions has languished, empty and unused, creating blight to this day, the suit said. Our homes were demolished so that the city and Legacy Emanuel could make a profit, Karen Smith, one of the plaintiffs, said when the suit was filed. As first-time homeowners, my parents had dreams of passing down their home to me, so that we might build inheritance. In the end, their dreams, and the amount of work they put in to accomplish them, simply didnt matter. The Smith family home was at 222 N. Cook St. Diane Nguyen of Legal Aid Services of Oregon, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, said the settlement is a remarkable testament to EDPA2 and these 26 individuals commitment to honoring the dignity and hard work of their displaced elders, and to keeping alive a history that is as much a part of this citys past as it is a part of its present. It is hard to fully right some wrongs, but their willingness to bring this fight has opened up new possibilities, Nguyen said. Attorneys for Legacy Emanuel, the city and Prosper Portland were unsuccessful in arguing early in the case that the families suing were not the homeowners who were directly affected. They also had argued that the suit was filed far beyond the two-year or six-year statute of limitations allowed for the various claims. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon ruled in December 2023 that each of the descendants claims could proceed to trial and rejected the defendants motions to dismiss the suit. The agreement with the city and Prosper Portland came after two settlement conferences last November before U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson and U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta, according to court records. Now is the magical moment. City of Portland elected officials have the authority to go beyond the contents of this agreement and provide adequate redress and restitution for the families involved in this case and for other affected families, the Emanuel Displaced Persons Association 2 said in a statement. Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center reached a separate settlement with the families in January, according to Oregon Law Center attorney Edward Johnson, who helped file the suit. The details of that settlement were not publicly available. The city and the hospital had razed nearly 200 homes and businesses in what was then the heart of the citys Black community. Of the forcibly displaced households, 74% were Black and many of the people owned their homes. Between 1971 and 1973, the city and the Portland Development Commission demolished an estimated 188 properties 158 residential and 30 commercial, according to lawyers representing the families. Families, businesses, churches and community organizations were all displaced, they said. In 2012, Legacys chief administrative officer told the families that the hospital wasnt proud of that part of its history. The hospital then unveiled a permanent exhibit to honor the neighborhoods history and accept its role in devastating it. Hospital officials also made a promise to never commit that sort of act against the community again. A team of civil rights lawyers represented the families, including Albies & Stark law firm, the Oregon Law Center and the Legal Aid Services of Oregon. Separately, a community group in 2018 developed a plan to acquire the long-vacant 1.7-acre block at North Russell Street and North Williams Avenue near Legacy Emanuel. It had been known as the Hill Block, the commercial center of Portlands Black community. Construction began in February to build affordable rental apartments and townhomes on the property. -- 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. For a fleeting time in the 1930s and early 1940s, the streamlined look of airplanes, ocean liners and automobiles inspired Art Moderne architecture, and Portland businessman and Optimist Club member Harvey S. Hudson wanted the sleek, unique style for his home. In 1937, he hired noted architect Roscoe Hemenway to design a Moderne house in Southwest Portlands Homestead neighborhood. Like the eras luxury passenger ships and aerodynamic Airstream trailers, air was intended to smoothly flow over the rectangular houses roofs and around its curved edges. The three-level, stucco-covered house on elevated property at 16 S.W. Abernethy St. is now for sale at $949,000. The rounded-edged second-story balcony over the front door mimics the flying bridge of a 1930s ocean liner, wrote architectural historians William J. Hawkins and William F. Willingham in their authoritative book, Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon, 1850-1950. High ceilings and broad windows grant sweeping Mount Hood views, and the living room has a clean-line stone fireplace and glass French doors that open to the flat backyard of the 4,791-square-foot lot, said listing broker Jimi Hendrix of Neighbors Realty. There is a butlers pantry in the kitchen area, three bedrooms and two bonus spaces for work-from-home options among 2,617 square feet of living space. A terrace allows for dining under the stars. Upgrades since 2019 include new floors, windows, and kitchen and bathrooms remodels. Who would love this property? Designed-minded Mount Hood lovers, architecture buffs, folks who love to host, ex-Angelenos, NYCers or Bay Area folks who miss that bigger city feeling, Hendrix told The Oregonian/OregonLive. History of Art Moderne Hawkins and Willingham devote a chapter of their Classic Houses of Portland book to the brief emergence of Modernistic/International architecture. They found only a handful of these houses in Portland, including the Hudson house, but said the quality can be compared to others built across the country in the styles heyday. During the Great Depression, fussy Art Deco was edited down to duplicate the airplanes and automobiles speeding into the future. The spare Moderne architecture typically employed white surfaces and pleasant surprises like porthole windows. It was the first architecture designed for electric lights. The Art Deco style emphasized skyscraper verticality, rich colors and geometric ornamentation, while Art Moderne employed horizontal lines, simpler, streamlined designs, and often materials like steel and aluminum, reflecting the machine age, according to historians. The brief Streamline Moderne-era survives mostly in commercial buildings. But the rare residence with a long, low horizontal silhouette showcases the early signs of what a stretching, 1950s ranch-style house would look like. Janet Eastman covers design and trends. Reach her at 503-294-4072, jeastman@oregonian.com and follow her on X @janeteastman. Schoolhouses Northwest Portland headquarters, located at at 2181 N.W. Nicolai St., is on the market. Bruce Ely/The Oregonian Home decor company Schoolhouses Northwest Portland headquarters, a 115-year-old industrial building in Northwest Portland, is on the market. The 125,000-square-foot property at 2181 N.W. Nicolai St. has housed the companys showroom and offices since its founding as Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. in 2003. The real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is marketing it for sale or lease. News / National by Staff reporter The long-overdue amendment of Zimbabwe's Mines and Minerals Act (Chapter 21:05) has become a pressing issue as the country grapples with mineral leakages and a lack of transparency in its mining sector. The original Act, enacted in 1961 during the colonial era, remains largely unchanged and out of step with Zimbabwe's contemporary constitutional framework and development goals.In 2015, the late former President Robert Mugabe's administration introduced the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill to overhaul the archaic legislation. However, Mugabe was ousted before signing the Bill into law, leaving the reform unfinished. When President Emmerson Mnangagwa came into power in 2017, his government inherited the stalled Bill, yet more than a decade after its introduction, the amendment remains incomplete.The 1961 Act was designed under a settler-dominated system that served to entrench elite control over mineral wealth while dispossessing host communities. It failed to align with Zimbabwe's current Constitution and key laws that promote inclusive growth and community beneficiation. The Act lacks safeguards against mineral revenue leakages, opaque licensing processes, inadequate tax and royalty flows, corruption, and human rights abuses-all persistent problems undermining the sector.Moreover, the Act does not address value addition or community beneficiation, areas now enshrined in the Constitution through devolution principles. This disconnect has allowed government retention of an outdated legal framework that hinders shared economic development.The proposed Amendment Bill incorporates crucial reforms. Among these is the "use it or lose it" provision aimed at preventing the speculative hoarding of mining claims, and the introduction of a cadastre system mandating Environmental Impact Assessments before issuing mining titles. These changes are expected to enhance transparency, accountability, and environmental stewardship.Despite public consultations held as far back as 2016 under Mugabe's regime, the Bill remains a work in progress with no clear explanation for the delay. Observers suggest the Mnangagwa administration lacks the political will to finalize the legislation, especially when compared to its swift enactment of politically sensitive laws such as Constitutional Amendment No. 2, which consolidated executive power earlier this decade.The Amendment Bill was published in January 2020 but has yet to be enacted, even as the government rapidly pushed through laws extending presidential authority over the judiciary and parliament by May 2021. Critics argue this disparity signals a preference for political control over developmental reform.As Zimbabwe continues to face challenges in curbing mineral leakages and ensuring equitable resource management, stakeholders urge the government to expedite the passage of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill. Finalizing this legislation is critical to modernizing the mining sector, protecting host communities, and unlocking the country's full economic potential. Without urgent action, Zimbabwe risks perpetuating outdated policies that undermine sustainable growth and national prosperity. The Texas House approved $8.5 billion in funding for public schools across the state, sending the bill to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk for signage into law. The final passage of House Bill 2 comes after years of stagnant funding for education establishments in the state. The fund would give schools more money to use for salaries of teachers and other staff, educator preparation, special education, safety requirements, and early childhood learning. Texas' $8.5 Billion Public School Funding The development comes on the heels of extensive negotiations between House and Senate lawmakers about how the bill's final version would look like. The Texas governor said he already plans to sign the bill once it reaches his desk. Abbott's statement about the bill is in contrast to two years ago when he and the Legislature decided to withhold billions of funding from public schools. This was after they had a failed attempt to create a private school voucher program, according to the Texas Tribune. On the other hand, lawmakers this year committed to approving vouchers and new public school funding at the same time. In a 122-13 vote, the state Legislature finalized the education finance package, nearly a month after vouchers officially became law. The money given by the new bill would allow school districts to start addressing some of their longstanding challenges. These include issues like budget deficits, insufficient salaries for employees, and rising operational costs. About half of the $8.5 billion fund will go to raising the salaries of the majority of teachers and non-administrative staff. Republican lawmakers say that the package represents the largest single increase in public school funding in the history of the state, CBS News reported. Addressing Yearslong Issues Another $500 million will be used by school districts to raise the salaries of entry-level teachers and other non-administrative staff. The bill also includes language talking about a significant overhaul of the state's special education programs. It aims to improve services and support for students who have disabilities. Before the package was passed on Thursday, Rep. James Talarico asked about the bill. He highlighted that public schools have been in a dire situation that is a result of stagnant funding since 2019. He worked to have Republican Rep. Brad Buckley, the sponsor of the bill, answer why the GOP-led Legislature did not pass major school funding between then and now. Buckley's reply focused on the new bill's investments in the basic costs of running schools and giving teachers the salaries they deserve, as per CBS Austin. The remains of a family who went missing during a 2024 vacation have been found inside a sunken boat in Alaska that capsized during the victims' trip. The report was released by the Alaska Dive, Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team. The Central Texas family was reported missing after the boat they were traveling on capsized off the coast of Homer, Alaska, in August 2024. Texas Family's Remains Found in Sunken Boat The parents were identified as David and Mary Maynard, who were with their two young sons during the trip. The incident happened roughly 16 miles west of Homer, Alaska. Authorities said there were a total of eight people on the boat and that a Good Samaritan vessel was able to rescue four of them. The U.S. Coast Guard conducted an active search and rescue for the family of four in August 2024 but it was suspended after there were no sightings. The team then tried to use sonar equipment to determine the location of the capsized boat but the initial search was not fruitful, according to Fox7Austin. The Wildlife Troopers then decided to enter the parents and their two sons, 11-year-old Colton Maynard and eight-year-old Brantley Maynard as missing persons. Support Vessels of Alaska, Vision Subsea, and Benthic Geoscience Inc. contacted the Alaska Wildlife Troopers in April 2025. They offered to provide access to their tools so that the Wildlife Troopers could continue their search for the missing boat and the Maynard family in Kachemak Bay. The group was able to locate the vessel in early May in 180 feet of water. They used a remotely operated vehicle to confirm that the vessel they found was actually the missing boat that had the Maynard family. Volunteers and the Alaska Wildlife Troopers then conducted dive operations on Tuesday and Wednesday to recover three sets of human remains, ABC News reported. Search for the Fourth Set of Human Remains The human remains were then transported to the Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office for positive identification and autopsy. The volunteer search teams were still looking for a fourth set of human remains of the other family member. Christi Wells, who gave out a statement on behalf of Mary Maynard's parents at the time of the first search attempts, said that the family enjoyed spending time together with friends and other family members. The mother was a traveling nurse and the father was the one who stayed at home and took care of the children and their lawn care business. A friend of the family, Cassandra Martin, said that she was devastated when she first learned about the news, as per CBS News. Two new articles have just appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: The first of the two is The Bands of Death, the Chains of Hell, and the Seed Motif, written by Noel Hudson, Abstract: This article continues a discussion of the imagery, words, and phrases that make up a specific leitmotif, called the seed motif. Two instances of the seed motif found in Alma are discussed as a seemingly intentional diptych in which one narrative reflects the other, but in the negative. Five specific examples from the motif are examined in greater detail, with a look at their origin and usage throughout the record. The narrative of Abinadi is presented as a unique iteration of the seed motif wherein the concept of the bands of death is introduced. The paper concludes by discussing the relationship between authorship of the Book of Mormon, the seed motif, and the metaphor of the bands of death and the chains of hell. The second of the new pair of Interpreter articles is Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms, Chapter 5, Book of Mormon Names, written by Matthew Roper: [Editors Note: We are pleased to present chapter 5 from a book entitled Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms. It is presented in serialized form in this volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.] See also these two new summaries from the indefatigable Kyler Rasmussen: Interpreting Interpreter: Bands, Chains, and Seeds I hope to see you in the Show Barn at Thanksgiving Point on 6-8 August. Do you really have any valid reason not to be there? Come on. Its only fair. If I have to listen to myself, theres no good justification for your being exempt from the obligation. I received the following just this morning. I think that some of you may be interested in it: Here are two further sets of notes from John W. Welch, ed., Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research (Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book, 1992): Nephis Bows and Arrows, by William J. Hamblin (41-44) I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow. (1 Nephi 16:23) The symbolic message of the broken bow, first detected by Alan Goff, was highlighted in the March 1984 issue of the F.A.R.M.S. newsletter: Bows were symbols of political power. One thinks of Odysseus bending the bow to prove himself. An overlord would break the bow of a disobedient vassal to symbolically put the rebel in his place (see also Jeremiah 49:35; 51:56). That detail is significant in 1 Nephi 16. Nephis bow broke, and the bows of Laman and Lemuel lost their springs, but when Nephi fashioned a new bow, making him the only one in camp with a bow, his brothers soon accused Nephi of having political ambitions (see 1 Nephi 16:37-38). Three times in his record, Nephi mentioned that he had broken his bow, but not once did he say that any of his arrows were damaged. Yet in 1 Nephi 16:23, Nephi says that he did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow. Why would he need to make a new arrow if his old ones were still intact? David S. Fox, in a letter to F.A.R.M.S., suggests an answer: An examination of Nephis account shows that whoever wrote that account was familiar in some detail with the eld of archery. Consider what happens to an arrow at the instant the string is released: the full force of the drawn string is applied to the end of the arrow, trying to accelerate it, but also tending to bend or buckle the arrow. If the bows draw weight and the arrows stiffness are not perfectly matched, the arrow will stray off the intended course or fall short of the mark. An arrow that is too flexible will leave the bow with a vibration that can cause the arrow to behave erratically. On the other hand, an arrow that is too stiff is probably too heavy for the bow. Nephis steel bow likely used heavier, stiffer arrows than his simply fashioned wooden bow could handle. Nephi was physically large (see 1 Nephi 2:16; 4:31), and he would have had little reason to use a bow made from metal if he did not have considerable strength. The arrows to match the steel bow used by such a man would undoubtedly have been quite heavy in order for them to be of adequate stiffness. One experienced archer reports, The arrows from the steel bow when shot from the wooden bow would be like shooting telephone poles. Hence, it is accurate that Nephi should mention, in one and the same breath, the fact that he made an arrow as well as a bow. Bow wood and arrow wood from the same tree or area could be matched as well. One doubts that such information was known to Joseph Smith or to many, if any, of his contemporaries. Archery, as a means of self-defense or as a serious method of hunting or warfare, went out of vogue among Europeans many years before the time of Joseph Smith. On the other hand, archery as a sport did not emerge until the latter half of the nineteenth century. David Fox concludes: Nephis statement that he made an arrow out of a straight stick is an additional subtle but significant example of internal consistency within the Book of Mormon. Anyone unfamiliar with the eld of archery would have almost certainly omitted such a statement. Old World Languages in the New World, by John L. Sorenson, Gordon C. Thomasson, Robert F. Smith, augmented by the work of Brian Stubbs And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these records, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers. (1 Nephi 3:19; also Mosiah 1:2; Mormon 9:32-33). For a very long time, most scholars have recognized no evidence for the existence of Old World languages or linguistic influences in the New. Recent developments in historical and comparative linguistics, though, suggest that the orthodox, conventional view is mistaken. This brief and early Latter-day Saint approach to the subject emphasizes the work of Professor Otto Sadovszky, then of the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton, who contended that two groups of languages separated by over five thousand miles are closely related. The first group is called Penutian, a group of Indian languages of central California that include Miwok and Wintun. The second group is called Ob-Ugrian and includes related languages like Samoyed. These are used around the Ob River of northwest Siberia. [The Ob-Ugrian language group also includes Hungarian, of which Professor Sadovszky was a native speaker which is why he spotted the similarities.] The ten thousand cognate terms and the linguistic quality of the comparisons appear so impressive to Finno-Ugric specialists that they are now more widely accepting historical linkage. A few examples of cognates are Ostyak aj-ko child = Miwokan aj-ko children; Ostyak lant- to get blisters from rubbing = Miwokan lanti to blister from rubbing. The article also draws upon a study by Dr. Mary Ritchie Key of the University of California at Irvine, who contended that The languages of Polynesia contain elements found in North and South American Indian languages that suggest distant historical connections. See Otto Sadovszky, Data Sheet for Sadovszkys Cal-Ugrian Theory, University of California at Los Angeles, 1985; The Discovery of California: Breaking the Silence of the Siberian-to-America Migrator, The Californians 2, no. 6 (November-December 1984): 9-20; Siberias Frozen Mummy and the Genesis of the California Indian Culture, The Californians 3, no. 6 (November-December 1985): 9-20; The New Genetic Relationship and the Paleo-Linguistics of the Central California Indian Ceremonial Houses, Tenth LACUS Forum, 1983, Quebec City, Quebec (Columbia, South Carolina, 1984). For annotations on his work, see John L. Sorenson and Martin H. Raish, Pre-Columbian Contact with the Americas across the Oceans: An Annotated Bibliography (Provo, Utah: Research Press, 1990), 2:S008-17. Publications by Finnish, Estonian, and Russian scholars on a theory called Nostratics, which links Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, and Uralic proto-languages, seem to include initial evidence of the Penutian connection. Tiit-Rain Viitso, for example, published such an article in 1971. Mary Ritchie Key, Polynesian and American Linguistic Connections (Lake Bluff, Illinois: Jupiter Press, 1984); see also John Sorenson and Martin Raish, Pre-Columbian Contact, 1:K062-73. See also John L. Sorenson, Evidences of Culture Contacts between Polynesia and the Americas in Precolumbian Times, M.A. thesis, BYU, 1952; and David H. Kelley, Linguistics and Problems in Trans- Pacic Contacts, Actas y Memorias, 35th Congreso Internacional de Americanistas (Mexico City, 1964), 1:17- 18. Kelley showed the presence of what appear to be specic groups of Uto-Aztecan and early Polynesian cognates clustered around ritual and sacred beliefs. Ive been a tad busy in recent weeks, and especially over the past two or three days, and consequently Ive fallen a bit behind in calling your attention to recent changes on the moribund and unchanging website of the Interpreter Foundation. Here are a couple of recent items: The Heartland Versus Mesoamerica: Part 7: Geology and the Destructions in Third Nephi The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: Temples beyond Jerusalem, written by Stephen D. Ricks. Summary: This video defends the literal meaning of This is my Body with Scripture, logic, and faith showing how belief in the Eucharist is not only reasonable and biblical, but essential. Why do many Protestants reject the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharisteven while believing in other miracles that defy logic and reason? In this eye-opening episode of Catholic Bible Highlights, Kenny Burchard and Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong continue to unpack the intense anti-Eucharistic arguments of Reformed theologian Francois Turretin, exposing the deep inconsistencies in his reasoning. If youre a Protestant, ex-Protestant, or Catholic deepening your faith, this is a conversation you cant afford to miss. Related Article Francois Turretin and the Debate Over the Lords Supper [Vs. Turretin #11: Eucharist, Pt. 1] (Does a traditional literal reading of this is my body entail a thousand absurdities and contradictions? The book of Job is instructive) [2-24-25] Related Web Page Eucharist, Sacrifice of the Mass, & Liturgical Issues Related Book Biblical Catholic Eucharistic Theology (Feb. 2011, 222 pages) * *** Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletteryour weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus interesting PC hardware news from across the web. This week, were sleepy and jetlagged post-Computex, but full of hot takes about what was on the show floor. (Plus sidetrack into a mini-rant or two.) Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox every Friday? Its a great way to catch up on the nerdy PC news youve missed during the week. Sign up on our website! In this episode of The Full Nerd In this episode of The Full Nerd, our usual crew of Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith wrap up the big news from Computex and the best from the show, ponder the release of SteamOS, and answer viewers burning questions! Alex Esteves / Foundry You could say Computex was sleepy, but not a snoozefest. For chip news, the biggest reveal was Intels next-gen Panther Lake, which Adam got to see in demos. You can expect to see it in 2026though not in desktop PCs. For socketed parts, carrying on the mantle falls to Nova Lake, which also is expected to be a 2026 release (and likely a fall one at that). Still, AMD threw enthusiasts a bone. FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 upscaling tech is getting updates on June 5m alongside the release of the Radeon RX 9060 XT. More substantial feature improvements will come in the second half of the year as well, in the form of FSR Redstoneand it looks set to challenge Nvidias lead in ray tracing performance. Oh, and theres also a new 96-core, 192-thread Threadripper Zen 5 chip coming. Meanwhile, Nvidia leaned hard into AI talk, after a quick acknowledgment from Jensen that the company would be where it is without gamers. Ouch. For our crew, disappointment reigned with no talk of new Arm chips (sorry Will, no new Nvidia Shield TV yet for you), though were curious where agentic AI may lead. As for Qualcommin Brads own words, the company said it would announce something in September for an hour and a half. Speaking of talks that take an hour and a half, our chat about Computex stretched that long thanks to a recap of our Computex highlights. Ill spoil this right now and say that Adam hasnt changed his opinion since last weekits still scented thermal paste. The major development since then, though? He brought back samples. Will was not nearly as impressed. Ive yet to experience the madness, but Ill be sure to report my findings. Brads standout is less controversialZotacs mini-PC that stuffs a desktop 16GB RTX 5060 Ti into a 2.5 liter chassis is phenomenal, as Brad points out. Also near and dear to SFF builders hearts should be compact RTX 5060 models and a half-height, dual-slot 4060 Ti. Brad (and everyone else) also thinks the Asus ROG Falcata the first split ergonomic gaming keyboard from a major keyboard maker looks sick as hell. We also may have gotten into some arguments because I said I didnt like that beige SilverStone case. Also that I like the Hyte X50 case. The rest of the crew took exception with the first statement, while Adam said Fite me on the second one. You cant be a family without some arguments, I suppose. Bringing the team back together as a unit was talk about SteamOSs wider launch. If you consider being able to install it yourself (with documentation available!) on the Lenovo Legion Go S the official milestone. Adam doesnt think so, and for good reasonyou can run into some wonkiness still around TDP limits and not being able to take full advantage of more powerful chips. But while this isnt the full release we were hoping for, where you can install it on just about anything, I think a soft launch isnt a bad approach. (Meanwhile, Will is just amused that a Windows install is the hardcore route on a handheld.) And of course, we dive into a few reader questions after all the back and forththough not quite as many this week, as Adam got hungry. The dangers of podcasting right through lunch time on the west coast. Disappointed you missed the live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord communityits full of cool, laid-back nerds. This weeks fresh nerd news A quiet week is a welcome week for tired tech journalists, but we still got some fun goodies to look forward to. Plenty of cool stuff for us geeks and nerds alike. Alaina Yee / Foundry Thats all for this weekbe sure to catch us next week for all our Micro Center opening stories! -Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. News / National by Staff reporter The Zimbabwean government is actively facilitating partnerships between local independent power producers (IPPs) and European Union (EU) investors to secure much-needed funding for critical energy projects, amid a worsening power crisis that continues to disrupt economic activities across the country, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.Businesses in Zimbabwe face persistent power outages as electricity supply remains unreliable. The country's peak electricity demand exceeds 2,000 megawatts (MW), yet generation capacity fluctuates between 1,000 MW and 1,400 MW. This shortfall is mainly due to operational challenges at Kariba South Hydro and Hwange thermal power stations.At Kariba, generation is severely impacted by declining water levels linked to climate change, while Hwange struggles with aging infrastructure and chronic underinvestment, problems compounded by shortages of foreign currency.Energy and Power Development permanent secretary Gloria Magombo confirmed the government's commitment to addressing the crisis during an interview at the inaugural EU-Zimbabwe Business Forum in Harare, where energy investment was a key agenda item."We are here to encourage our own private sector to look for partners and look for funding from different international funders who are coming as part of the European Union delegation. I was happy to see that the EU has always said that they have funding to support the private sector," Magombo said.She explained that the forum aimed to connect Zimbabwe's private sector with EU investors, highlighting opportunities while also addressing risk mitigation strategies. "Some are looking for loans, and some are looking for equity partners," she noted.The Intensive Energy Users Group, a consortium of local IPPs, holds a portfolio of proposed generation projects worth 16,000 MW spanning solar, coal, and hydroelectric power. However, accessing financing for these projects remains a significant hurdle."In this particular case, we are looking at energy. The EU said they already have programmes, and renewable energy is one of the sectors where they want to participate. We are happy, and we will continue to see what else can be done," Magombo added.She emphasized the government's readiness to present energy solutions and urged the market to mobilize players capable of both buying and selling power domestically and regionally.Local IPPs have long voiced concerns over insufficient financing, which continues to stall energy development. John Diya, senior manager for electricity trading and system operations at Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), highlighted the continued instability of Kariba's output due to fluctuating water levels. Last season, the dam held only 1.79% usable water, roughly equivalent to 25cm across its surface. Current levels hover around 14%, offering some hope if inflows continue.However, Diya warned that Kariba alone cannot meet national electricity demand, underscoring the need for diversified power generation.Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has grappled with mounting debt. A recent parliamentary report revealed that ZESA resorted to exporting electricity to generate foreign currency necessary to service debts owed to Chinese firms, even as local power shortages persist.The parliamentary committee report from February stated that ZESA's loan burden for renovations at Kariba South Power Station amounts to US$350 million. It highlighted concerns over poor loan servicing, inflated project costs, and high tariffs. The report called on Treasury to disburse funds promptly to ease debt servicing pressures and improve Zimbabwe's creditworthiness, which is vital for accessing affordable financing for future power projects.Kariba's expansion, completed in 2018, cost US$550 million, while Hwange's recent revamp, commissioned in 2023, came at a price tag of US$1.4 billion.As Zimbabwe navigates these financial and infrastructural challenges, the government's push to link local IPPs with EU funding partners represents a critical step towards stabilizing the country's energy sector and reviving economic growth. Rite Aid is closing a number of stores in York County. (NJ Advance Media) Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media A Rite Aid store in York County is on the companys latest list of locations that are closing. The Rite Aid store at 4 Ballast Lane in Hopewell Township, near Stewartstown, is closing, the chain said in a bankruptcy filing last week. More than 150 stores are on the latest list. Rite Aid also announced on this latest list that other locations in York County are closing in the Dover, York, Hanover, Dillsburg, Etters and Spring Grove areas. The 151 stores are in addition to the 210 stores that Rite Aid previously announced it would close. Earlier this month, Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy for a second time to pursue a strategic and value-maximizing sale process for substantially all of its assets. Most of Rite Aids more than 1,200 stores are expected to close, including hundreds of locations in the Keystone State. Philadelphia-based Rite Aid, which was located in Cumberland County for decades, has a large presence in Pennsylvania with well over 300 stores. The company is also laying off around 1,100 corporate employees who work at or report to offices in York County and Philadelphia. Rite Aid announced that it had entered into agreements for its pharmacy assets of more than 1,000 stores across the country with CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger, and Giant Eagle. CVS Pharmacy said that it has agreed to acquire the prescription files of 625 Rite Aid pharmacies across 15 states in areas that CVS serves, as well as acquire and operate 64 Rite Aid stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Those agreements were approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last week, according to Reuters. Sexual assault suspect Ian Cleary, center, is led from the Adams County Court House in Gettysburg, Pa., Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) AP By MARYCLAIRE DALE, The Associated Press GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) An American who was extradited from France this year to face allegations of a 2013 campus sexual assault after the accuser went public with her story hired a private lawyer to review a potential plea deal, lawyers in the case said in court Thursday. Ian Cleary, 32, of Saratoga, California, made his first in-person court appearance in Adams County, a half-mile from where the encounter occurred at Gettysburg College. A plea had been in the works, according to Assistant Public Defender Joshua Neiderhiser, who has represented Cleary since he was brought back to the U.S. However, after speaking with his parents, Cleary agreed to hire a lawyer to review the case, delaying a possible deal. The initial purpose of my involvement is for a second opinion, lawyer Steve Rice told Judge Kevin Hess, who was brought in from Cumberland County because an Adams County judge was the district attorney who declined to file charges when victim Shannon Keeler first went to authorities. Keeler, in interviews with The Associated Press, described her decade-long efforts to persuade authorities to pursue charges, starting hours after Cleary, a third-year student, allegedly sneaked into her first-year dorm on the eve of winter break. She renewed the quest in 2021, after finding a series of disturbing Facebook messages from his account that said, So I raped you. Keeler did not attend Thursdays hearing, but her lawyer, Andrea Levy, said she remains ready to see the case through to the end. It has been 11-1/2 years Shannon has waited for this defendant to make an appearance in a Gettysburg courtroom face to face with a judge in this criminal charge, so this is an important day and a step forward in the process, Levy said. Cleary has been in custody since his arrest on minor, unrelated charges in Metz, France, in April 2024. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the sexual assault charge. He declined the opportunity to speak to the judge Thursday. Family members have declined to comment on the case, and none appeared in court for the hearing. The next hearing is set for July 17. Cleary, who grew up in Silicon Valley, left Gettysburg College after the assault allegations there and finished college near home. He then got a masters degree and worked for Tesla before moving overseas, where he spent time writing medieval fiction, according to his online posts. The AP published an investigation on the case and on the broader reluctance among prosecutors to pursue campus sex assault charges in May 2021. An indictment followed weeks later. Authorities in the U.S. and Europe had been trying to track Cleary down until his capture in France. The AP does not typically identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Keeler has granted. Akshaj Somisetty, 13, an eighth-grader at Mountain View Middle School in the Cumberland Valley School District, is one of nine finalists in the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The finals will be broadcast on Thursday, May 29. In this photo, he competes during the quarterfinals at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. AP An eighth grader in the Cumberland Valley School District is one of the best spellers in the country. Akshaj Somisetty, 13, an eighth-grader at Mountain View Middle School, finished in ninth place in the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee. By MARIA SHERMAN, AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) Taylor Swift has regained control over her entire body of work. In a lengthy note posted to her official website on Friday, Swift announced: All of the music Ive ever made now belongs to me. According to the note, the pop star has purchased her catalog of recordings originally released through Big Machine Records from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount. We are thrilled with this outcome and are so happy for Taylor, Shamrock Capital said in a statement. Taylor Swift performs onstage during her Eras tour on December 6, 2024, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images, file) Kevin Winter/Getty Images Over the last few years, Swift has been re-recording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music. The series was instigated by music manager Scooter Brauns purchase and sale of her early catalog and represents Swifts effort to control her own songs and how theyre used. Previous Taylors Version releases have been more than conventional re-recordings, arriving with new from the vault music, Easter eggs and visuals that deepen understanding of her work. In between re-recordings, she has released new music, including last years The Tortured Poets Department, announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour. So far, there have been four re-recorded albums. Swifts last re-recording, 1989 (Taylors Version), arrived in October 2023, just four months after the release of Speak Now (Taylors Version). That was the same year Swift claimed the record for the woman with the most No. 1 albums in history. Fans have theorized that Reputation (Taylors Version) would be next: On May 19, Look What You Made Me Do (Taylors Version) aired nearly in full during the opening scene of a Season 6 episode of The Handmaids Tale. Prior to that, the song was teased in 2023s Prime Video limited-series thriller Wilderness and in Apple TV+s The Dynasty: New England Patriots in 2024. Also in 2023, she contributed Delicate (Taylors Version) to Prime Videos The Summer I Turned Pretty. But according to the note shared Friday, Swift says she hasnt even re-recorded a quarter of it. She did say, however, that she has completely rerecorded her self-titled debut album and I really love how it sounds now. Swift writes that both her self-titled and Reputation (Taylors Version) can still have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right. A representative for Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg was lit green in 2016 to celebrate the passage of medical marijuana. Commonwealth Media Services Story by Kate Huangpu of Spotlight PA Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG It wasnt simply opposition to recreational marijuana that led a GOP-led state Senate panel to roundly reject a Democratic pitch to legalize the drug earlier this month. Lawmakers balked at selling cannabis at state-run stores similar to Pennsylvanias liquor shops and shutting out existing medical dispensaries. Since that vote, there hasnt been any public movement on legalization, and its unlikely any deal will be reached by the June 30 budget deadline. Thats because of the complexity of the issue and lawmakers significant remaining areas of disagreement, including just how much of a leg up existing cannabis companies should get in a potentially multibillion-dollar market. As the legislature mulls that question, major companies that sell medical marijuana in Pennsylvania and recreational cannabis in other states are spending millions of dollars to influence them. At least two of the legalization proposals circulating in Harrisburg would allow medical sellers to convert to recreational sales, according to the bills sponsors. Entering the recreational market first offers a major advantage, often letting sellers begin operating before stricter regulations are fully enacted and capturing a significant share of customers before competitors are off the ground. That happened in Maryland when recreational cannabis was legalized in 2023: medical dispensaries were allowed to immediately begin selling to recreational customers, while social equity applicants had to wait nearly a year for licensing approval before beginning the process of setting up stores. As they waited, medical and adult-use sales exceeded $1.1 billion. Cannabis companies are willing to spend heavily to secure that kind of head start, said Chris Goldstein, a Pennsylvania-based advocate with the pro-legalization National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. In 2024 alone, cannabis companies spent at least $1.6 million lobbying lawmakers in Pennsylvania. Big cannabis companies also have the resources to sue when they oppose regulations. A lawsuit brought by a multistate operator, for instance, led federal courts to strike down Maines requirement that license holders be state residents. Goldstein said lobbying and lawsuits can make it difficult for states to enact consumer protection regulations that succeed at making a market competitive for smaller businesses. States are trying to compete against international multibillion-dollar corporations who have lobbyists, lots of money, and are quite litigious to boot, Goldstein said. Goldstein favors excluding existing medical cannabis dispensaries from recreational sales, a proposition that appears unlikely to succeed with Pennsylvania lawmakers. But other consumer advocates say there are ways for the state legislature to prioritize small businesses, especially those impacted by the war on drugs, while still allowing medical sellers to participate in the industry. Kristal Bush is a cannabis advocate who formerly worked for Trulieve, one of the largest cannabis companies in the U.S. If Pennsylvania legalizes recreational cannabis, she believes it should delay commercial sales to give small businesses time to set up dispensaries. Moving too quickly without giving them this setup time, she said, is what enables legacy businesses to dominate the industry. If were just pushing for legalization this year thats not enough time to get people that [are not] on the legacy market the resources to be able to compete, Bush told Spotlight PA. Were really setting our people up for failure. Bush said the state should work with small businesses to provide pre-industry support over the next few years. That includes the state proactively looking for social equity applicants, providing training and technical assistance for those applicants, and creating workforce development programs for the cannabis industry, all before legalization occurs. She supports allowing medical dispensaries to convert their existing licenses to permit recreational sales. However, Bush thinks all new licenses should be reserved for small business owners, particularly those from communities disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of cannabis. All of the proposals on the table in Pennsylvania include social equity measures. Ideas include directing tax revenue to grant and loan programs for communities impacted by the war on drugs and expunging the records of individuals convicted of nonviolent marijuana-related crimes. Damian Fagon director of the Bronx Cannabis Hub, which helps residents navigate New Yorks cannabis laws, and former chief equity officer of the states Office of Cannabis Management said the legislature can also implement policies to make the industry more equitable once its up and running. For example, he suggested lawmakers could require dispensaries to stock a certain percentage of their inventory from cannabis growers based in Pennsylvania or from those who qualify as social equity licensees. Fagon emphasized that achieving equity depends on allowing medical sellers and small businesses to access the recreational market at the same time, though he acknowledged that synchronizing this rollout would be challenging. New York did not initially allow its small network of medical cannabis sellers to join the recreational market, instead prioritizing the establishment of dispensaries run by those harmed by marijuana prohibition. The lack of licensed dispensaries resulted in a large illicit market. There are entrenched interests in Pennsylvania that you know will have a lot of influence over this legislative process, and not in the way that advantages small business, Fagon said. Lobbyists for large medical cannabis companies have pushed back against proposals aimed at excluding existing sellers, arguing that these approaches would just harm consumers. Meredith Buettner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition a trade group representing medical cannabis sellers and associated businesses said medical companies have already invested millions to build a robust network that could easily transition into the recreational market. She also warned that barring medical dispensaries from the recreational market could lead to a surge in unlicensed sellers, similar to what happened in New York. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Pennsylvanians would be best served by allowing the medical industry to continue in the market they already invested millions in, Buettner told Spotlight PA. Several consumer protection advocates who focus on the countrys burgeoning recreational cannabis industry told Spotlight PA that they would have reservations about bills that allow well-established sellers to enter Pennsylvanias new market without strict guidelines, such as limits on how many licenses medical sellers can obtain or mandating the dispensaries to stock products from local growers. Lawmakers are floating legalization proposals in Harrisburg, but none have formally introduced bill language yet. However, a previous version of a bill backed by state Sen. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie) who heads a key committee and has the best shot at pushing a measure through the chamber included restrictions on the number of licenses and required medical sellers seeking a recreational license to sponsor a social equity candidate. Laughlin has declined to comment on when he plans to reintroduce his bill, saying recently its not ready yet. While many lawmakers goal was to include a legal cannabis deal in this years budget bringing with it badly needed revenue its looking less likely, according to at least one key member. Asked whether a cannabis agreement looked possible by the end of next month, state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia), a sponsor of his chambers now-dead state store bill, told Spotlight PA, I dont think so, unless [the state Senates] tune changes. The Senate has to get serious, and they have to either bring up the bill for reconsideration or send us something else, he said. State House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said his chamber, having already advanced its pitch, is taking a backseat. Hes now waiting to see if the state Senate will pass its own legalization bill. A spokesperson for the upper chamber did not return a request for comment. BEFORE YOU GO If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. NEW YORK (AP) Bernard Kerik, who served as New York Citys police commissioner on 9/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69. FBI Director Kash Patel said that Keriks death Thursday came after an unspecified private battle with illness. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who tapped Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and later appointed him to lead the NYPD, reflected on their long history on his show Thursday. Weve been together since the beginning. Hes like my brother, Giuliani said through tears. I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man. FILE - In this June 4, 2009 file photo, former New York City police Commissioner Bernie Kerik stands outside the Federal Court in Washington. President Donald Trump Trump granted clemency to him. Kerik has died at age 69. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) AP New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a former NYPD officer, said hed visited Kerik, his friend of nearly 30 years, at a hospital earlier in the day. Kerik, an Army veteran, was hailed as a hero after the 9/11 attack and eventually nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, before a dramatic fall from grace that ended with him behind bars. He served nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, making false statements and other charges. The charges stemmed partially from apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say wanted Kerik to convince New York officials it had no links to organized crime. During Keriks sentencing, the judge noted that he committed some of the crimes while serving as the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has. President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was one of the guests feting Trump after his first federal court appearance in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents. Kerik grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he dropped out of the troubled Eastside High School later depicted in the 1989 film Lean on Me. He joined the Army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. He went on to work private security in Saudi Arabia before returning stateside to supervise a jail in New Jersey. He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s and was appointed in the 1990s to run New Yorks long-troubled jail system, including the citys notorious Rikers Island complex. Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was often by the mayors side in the period after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was at my side within 20 minutes of the attack and never left, Giuliani recalled in a statement following Keriks death. In Keriks 2015 book, From Jailer to Jailed, he described becoming Americas Top Cop after the attacks. But Id give anything for that day not to have happened. I wish it hadnt. But it did, he wrote. And I happened to be there at the time. I was there, and I did the best I could do under the circumstances. Its all any of us did. He was tapped by President George W. Bush to help organize Iraqs police force in 2003, then nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the following year. But Kerik caught the administration off guard when he abruptly withdrew his nomination, saying he had uncovered information that led him to question the immigration status of a person he employed as a housekeeper and nanny. More serious legal troubles followed, culminating in his conviction. In 2005, Kerik founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm. More recently, he worked for Giuliani again, surrounding the efforts to overturn Trumps 2020 loss. FILE - American flags are displayed together with Chinese flags on top of a trishaw on Sept. 16, 2018, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) AP By Collin Binkley and Didi Tang, The Associated Press WASHINGTON Frayed by tariff wars and political battles, the academic ties between the U.S. and China are now facing their greatest threat yet as the Trump administration promises to revoke visas for an unknown number of Chinese students and tighten future visa screening. In a brief statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying critical fields. Rubios statement threatened to widen a chasm between the two nations, building on a years-long Republican campaign to rid U.S. campuses of Chinese influence and insulate Americas research from its strongest economic and military competitor. Rubios announcement has rattled Chinese students and drawn swift condemnation from the Chinese government and some U.S. lawmakers. The Chinese Embassy on Thursday said it lodged a solemn demarche with the U.S. side without delay and urged the U.S. to correct its mistake and protect the rights of Chinese students. The visa policy also raised alarm at U.S. campuses that host more than 275,000 students from China and benefit from their tuition payments. Chinese graduate student Kesong Cao, 26, decided to abandon his studies in the U.S. because of Trumps policies. I do not feel welcome anymore, said Cao, a student of cognitive psychology at the University of Wisconsin, who was waiting at Seattles airport Thursday to board a flight home to China. Cao spent eight years in the U.S. and once dreamed of staying as a professor. Now it seems like that dream is falling apart, he said. Its a good time to jump ship and think about what I can give back to my own country. The scope of the visa crackdown wasnt immediately clear, with no explanation on what would constitute ties to the Communist Party. But the impact could be significant if the government goes after any student with family members in the party, said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center. Academic ties with China were built over decades Academic leaders in the U.S. have spent years trying to tamp down growing hostility against Chinese students and scholars, saying the benefits of the relationship outweigh the risks. Collaboration between the countries produces tens of thousands of scientific papers a year, yielding major advancements in fields from earthquake prediction to disease treatment. The academic alliance has been built up over decades since both sides resumed diplomatic ties in the 1970s. Chinese researchers are the most frequent international co-authors for U.S. researchers in science and engineering journal articles. Both sides are research powerhouses. Any move that prevents the U.S. from welcoming the smartest people in the world is an extremely bad idea, said L. Rafael Reif, a former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who pushed back against anti-China sentiment during President Donald Trumps first term. This administration will be known historically as the one that began the decline of the U.S. by completely failing to understand the importance of science and technology and the importance of gathering the most talented human capital from the world to work together towards a thriving United States, Reif said in a statement to The Associated Press. Erica Zhang, who graduated from George Washington University in December and is awaiting approval of her green card, said the new policy is horrifying. This is racism, any division based on identity and nationality is racism, Zhang said. It is just a start, it will expand to a bigger group of Chinese, not just Chinese students. During his first term, Trump shortened the visas of some Chinese graduate students from five years to one, and he signed an order barring Chinese students from schools with direct links to the Peoples Liberation Army. More recently, the administration has taken sweeping action against international students. It revoked the legal status for thousands of foreign students in the U.S. this spring before reversing itself. The administration is also trying to block Harvardfrom enrolling for students, a move put on hold by a judge. David Lampton, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, is worried the U.S. will lose talent. American universities and society have always successfully relied on their single-minded search for the worlds best brains, he said. Yet critics say its a lopsided relationship that primarily benefits China. Some conservatives say the exchanges are a US security risk A State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, told reporters Thursday that the U.S. will not tolerate the Chinese Communist Partys exploitation of U.S. universities or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition. House Republicans issued a report last year finding that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding has gone toward research that ultimately boosted Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology and nuclear weapons. The report argued Chinas academic collaborations served as Trojan horses for technology transfer, accusing China of insidious exploitation of academic cooperation. FILE - A group of Florida International University students protest against cuts in federal funding and an agreement by campus police to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on the FIU campus on a day of protests around the country in support of higher education, April 17, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) AP At least three American schools have ended their partnerships in China, including the University of Michigan and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Eastern Michigan University was the latest to terminate a Chinese partnership, just hours before Rubios announcement. Critics also point to the imbalance in student exchange only a few hundred U.S. students study abroad in China a year, compared to about 370,000 from China who studied in the U.S. in 2018. President Xi Jinping, in 2023, launched a campaign to invite 50,000 young Americans to visit China on exchange and study programs. U.S. universities themselves have come to rely on Chinese students. Even as numbers level off, Chinese students remain the second-largest group of international students in the U.S. behind those from India. Foreign students are typically charged higher tuition rates, subsidizing the education for American students. Gary Locke, a former U.S. ambassador to China, said the visa policy would adversely and profoundly affect U.S. higher education, research institutions, scientific discovery and startups. The real story isnt just about visa numbers its also about how this changes the competitive landscape for talent, innovation and economic growth in America. Treating every Chinese student as a security threat distorts facts and fuels discrimination against Chinese Americans, said Locke, now chair of the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese Americans focused on U.S.-China relations and issues faced by Chinese citizens in the U.S. Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco, Matthew Lee and Fu Ting in Washington, and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report. The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. WILLIAMSPORT A Lycoming County judge has declared unconstitutional a section of Pennsylvanias Uniform Firearms Act as it pertains to the right of individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 to carry a concealed weapon. The basis of Judge William P. Carluccis ruling is a 2-1 decision by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in January that the Second Amendment right to legally possess a firearm extends to all those 18 and older. He cites in his opinion the inconsistency between that federal court ruling and state law that prevents those 18 to 20 years old from applying for a concealed carry permit. Dauphin County and the borough of Gettysburg are among 16 Pennsylvania jurisdictions that landed on a federal list of cities, towns and counties not in compliance with federal immigration policies and impeding ICE operations. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas on Friday said he is mystified after learning the county was among jurisdictions designated by the Trump administration as non-compliant with federal immigration policies. In addressing media questions as to why Dauphin County was included among 11 Pennsylvania counties and six cities, named as sanctuary jurisdictions, Douglas said it was not clear to him what the distinction meant. Im not even confident its a negative to be on the list because I dont even know what the list represents or the criteria for the list, Douglas said during a press conference. It might be reasonable that were on the list. So the challenge for me is the assumption that we dont want to be on the list. I want to know what the list means. If the list means that were willing to protect peoples due process, then I prefer us to stay on the list. Dauphin County was included in the list of places that are to receive formal notice of what the president calls non-compliance with federal immigration law. Douglas said he had received no formal communication from the White House or administration officials. I have a lot of questions as to what qualifies us as a sanctuary county, said Douglas, who indicated he had just learned of the list a few hours prior. Im not sure theres any actual legislation that weve passed of any kind, but I dont know what the criteria theyre using for what theyre considering a sanctuary county is. So, yeah, Ive got a lot of questions. Other jurisdictions in the region include Adams County and Lehigh County, as well as the cities of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, State College and York. The list issued by the Department of Homeland Security spans dozens of jurisdictions in 30 states, all accused of deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American communities. In response to an inquiry from PennLive, Gettysburg borough manager Charles Gable read a statement that he planned to release Friday afternoon: We are aware of the DHS executive order, and we are taking it under advisement with our legal counsel, he read. We, the Borough of Gettysburg, maintain that all municipal policy and our ordinances are in compliance with duly enacted state and federal law. Gable said he was at a loss as to why the borough had made the list. In all candor, were perplexed on how we got on the list, he said. Our police department policies specifically say that we would comply with federal agencies should they request assistance. He noted police department policies listed on the departments page of the borough website. We wouldnt know how to better comply with federal law than we currently are, Gable said. Asked whether Dauphin County has cooperated with ICE operations, Douglas doubled down on his state of perplexity. My understanding is that Dauphin County follows the law and will continue to do that, he said. I got more questions than answers. That was probably my response. Douglas went on to read the message released by the Department of Homeland Security, and posted to their website. I ll read it verbatim, he said. No one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information. That sounds to me like youre saying dont do anything, but also do something like, you know, and it also. Lets just be honest, this administration hasnt been great with gathering and communicating information in a factual way. And so I have a tough time believing theres any there there on some of this. The DHS demanded that the designated jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. Homeland Security said sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences while putting law enforcement officials in peril. DHS accused local leaders of claiming to direct local law-enforcement officers to protect and serve local residents not to help ICE do its job. Douglas declined to speculate on whether the county would change policy or direction as a result of the designation, or whether he was concerned of funding penalties as a result. Im not going to speak in hypotheticals of what this administration might do, he said. Certainly, weve seen some of what youre expressing happen. But Im not going to speak in hypotheticals to what they might do. I will say I took an oath to the Constitution, not the federal government. And so the Constitution, due process is part of that. And Ill continue to say we as a county should be ensuring individuals get due process with whatever their charges are. PennLive reached out to officials from other jurisdictions, including York and Allentown but did not receive a response. In April, Douglas emerged an advocate for the countys Bhutanese community, which was rocked by a series of ICE arrests and deportations of some of its refugee members. Asked if he thought that had contributed to the designation, Douglas said: I think the only thing Ive emphasized from day one is that everybody deserves due process...were talking about refugees, people who were vetted and brought over here on refugee status. Ill just remind everybody these are not illegal immigrants that I was advocating for when advocating for the Bhutanese Nepali community. Douglas noted that some of the individuals who were deported had been adjudicated in the legal system and some served prison time but re-entered their communities. If advocating for those individuals put us on this list, thats pretty shameful, Douglas said. He resisted the assertion that the federal government was trying to intimidate the county. I dont want to say its an attempt to intimidate the county because I dont know what it is and I dont think they do a good job communicating what this is or what this means, he said. And even they emphasize the information shouldnt be acted upon. By Ed Lewis, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. A story in a Kentucky newspaper published online earlier this year included quotes from a Pa. high school graduate claiming he survived a shooting at his high school in Luzerne County in 2017. Calvin Polachek, a 2020 graduate of Dallas High School, made his comments at a gun safety rally at a Kentucky capitol building where he said his brother and his best friend were killed in the shooting. But the shooting never happened. Months later, as word got back to his high school, people were outraged. The claims prompted the school district and Dallas Township Police Chief Doug Higgins to issue separate statements this week. The district is aware of a video clip and accompanying article that appears to depict a former Dallas student speaking about a school shooting at Dallas in 2017. Thankfully, that never happened. The discussion on the clip about Dallas and school violence is not factually accurate. Our District Solicitor is supporting an investigation and communication, the statement from Dallas School District said. The statement from Dallas Township Police Chief Doug Higgins was more vocal condemning the fabricated story. The widespread sharing of a fabricated tragedy is not only reckless, it is harmful, Higgins said. It fuels unnecessary fear, disrespects the experiences of real victims of school violence and misleads the public with a narrative that has no basis in truth. The Kentucky Lantern newspaper attributed information of a school shooting at the Pennsylvania high school to Calvin Polachek, a 2020 graduate of Dallas High School. Polachek, who was identified as a masters student at the University of Louisville, told rally-goers 11 people were killed in the school shooting, according to the Kentucky Lantern article published Feb. 12. Efforts to contact Polachek were unsuccessful Wednesday morning. The story in the Kentucky Lantern was updated Wednesday to remove Polacheks quotes. The rally in Frankfort, Kentucky, organized by the Kentucky chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, supported the introduction of Kentucky House Bill 214 by State Representative Adam Moore, which promotes gun safety education. In a statement Wednesday, the organization that hosted Polachek said he is not an active volunteer and shamefully lied when he reached out to the group, according to WNEP. This is an affront to the countless survivors of gun violence who show extraordinary courage every day by reliving their darkest moments in service of the fight to end our countrys gun violence crisis, a spokesperson said. Below is more from the statement from Chief Higgins: At the rally, Mr. Polachek claimed that in 2017 he survived a school shooting at Dallas High School in Dallas, Pennsylvania, an incident in which he said he lost his best friend, his brother and nine others. These claims are entirely false. Nonetheless, they were reported by multiple Kentucky media outlets, including Fox 56 in Lexington and the Kentucky Lantern, and have since spread nationally across platforms such as MSN, Yahoo News, various online publications and social media... Let us be absolutely clear: This event never occurred. There has never been a school shooting at Dallas High School. Not in 2017, and not at any point in our communitys history. These false claims are deeply troubling. They undermine the integrity of our school district, erode public trust, and cause real harm to a community that takes great pride in protecting its residents, especially its children. We support the mission of those working to make schools safer. That work is vital. But effective advocacy must be built on truth. Falsely referencing a tragedy that never happened disrespects the memory of actual victims and distracts from meaningful progress. The Dallas Township Police Department remains steadfast in its commitment to transparency, public trust, and the safety of our schools. We urge the public and the media to verify facts before sharing serious allegations. Misinformation of this nature isnt just irresponsible, it has lasting consequences for the well-being of our entire community. The people of Dallas Township deserve honesty. And we will continue to uphold the values of transparency, accountability and safety for every family who calls this community and our surrounding areas home." News / National by Staff reporter Victoria Falls-based wildlife painter and conservationist Larry Benjamin Norton is preparing to defend himself against a US$2 million lawsuit filed by Scanner Investments, the developers of Baines Restaurant. The dispute stems from Norton's outspoken opposition to commercial developments within the protected ecological zones surrounding the iconic Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.Norton, a lifelong resident of Victoria Falls, has been a vocal critic of what he describes as the "creeping commercialisation" of the area. He has actively campaigned both legally and publicly against the expansion of businesses that he believes threaten the fragile environment of the UNESCO-designated site. In 2022, Norton filed a High Court application seeking to halt further construction of Baines Restaurant, arguing that such developments would cause irreversible damage to the site's ecological and aesthetic integrity. Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) and the Environmental Management Agency were cited as respondents in the case, which remains pending judgment.In retaliation, Scanner Investments launched a defamation suit on May 16, accusing Norton of spreading false claims and damaging the restaurant's reputation and business prospects. According to court documents, the developers allege Norton, through newsletters on social media and via surrogates, encouraged potential clients locally and internationally to avoid the restaurant, claiming it was built without following due process - allegations the company says are untrue.Responding to the lawsuit, Norton issued a statement reaffirming his commitment to protecting Victoria Falls. He confirmed receipt of the legal notice and declared his intention to vigorously defend his position. "My ardent battle here has been to try to protect and preserve the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site for future generations," Norton said. "My lawyers have instructions to defend the matter as all suggestions of falsehood and malice are not true. I now leave the issue in their hands as I wait for the law to take its course."Norton's environmental activism has intensified in recent years, especially since early 2024 when he pressured Zimbabwean and Zambian authorities to address what he called a surge of unchecked commercialisation threatening the heritage status of the falls. His appeals coincided with meetings of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC), a bilateral group tasked with safeguarding the shared heritage site. UNESCO had previously warned that infrastructure developments on both sides of the border risked Victoria Falls being delisted as a World Heritage Site.During a presentation to the JTC, Norton highlighted numerous developments jeopardising the fragile riverine ecosystems. He stressed the urgency of intervention to prevent permanent harm to one of Africa's most celebrated natural wonders. "If corrective remedy is not taken, future generations will blame those who allowed the site to be destroyed," he warned.The legal confrontation between Norton and Scanner Investments has sparked renewed debate over balancing tourism-driven economic growth and ecological conservation. Supporters of commercial ventures argue that regulated development can improve visitor experiences, create employment, and generate revenue. Conversely, conservationists caution that unchecked infrastructure near sensitive habitats endangers biodiversity, compromises the site's authenticity, and invites international condemnation.Norton remains steadfast in his fight, insisting that the battle goes beyond a single restaurant. "This is not just about a restaurant," he said. "It is about the soul of Victoria Falls - a site that belongs not only to Zimbabwe and Zambia, but to the whole world."Victoria Falls, known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya or "The Smoke that Thunders," is a living masterpiece where the Zambezi River plunges over 100 metres into a gorge, creating a thunderous roar and a perpetual mist that sustains a unique rainforest ecosystem. Norton's campaign seeks to preserve this living cathedral of nature, protecting its rare flora and fauna, and the timeless awe it inspires.As the legal battle unfolds, the future of Baines Restaurant and the broader question of commercial development within the World Heritage Site remain at the heart of a contentious struggle between economic interests and environmental stewardship. SUNBURY The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to the arrest of a homicide suspect in Sunbury. Denarii Kaden Springs, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Dayveon R. Creel, 20, of Sunbury, in a parking lot across Second Street from the Northumberland County courthouse last Aug. 15. The marshals fugitive task force is asking the publics help in locating Springs, who is 6-2, 200 pounds and has brown hair and eyes. Before a standing room only crowd, South Middleton supervisors voted 5-0 to empower the township manager to terminate an existing EMS contract with Yellow Breeches EMS. Charles Thompson A local ambulance companys efforts to recover from a messy sex-abuse scandal were dealt a major setback Thursday as South Middleton Township supervisors voted to take steps to terminate its contract with Yellow Breeches EMS. Barring an 11th-hour change of heart, the South Middleton boards clear intent is to transfer its first-due status for the whole township to Carlisle-based Cumberland Goodwill EMS. An SUV driver collided with a school bus around 8 a.m. Friday, May 30, 2025, in Forks Township, Police Chief Michael Freil said. (Dan Clerico | For lehighvalleylive.com) Dan Clerico | For lehighvalleylive.com A woman was seriously injured after she drove into an Easton Area School District school bus and her SUV flipped several times in Forks Township, Northampton Township, police said. Township Police Chief Michael C. Friel said the woman failed to stop at a stop sign at 8 a.m. Friday at Bushkill Drive and Arndt Road, then drove into the front of the bus. The SUV rolled several times, the chief said. She was taken to a hospital for treatment, the chief said. The four students on the bus were not injured, nor was the bus driver, Friel said. A female SUV driver collided with a school bus around 8 a.m. Friday, May 30, 2025 when she was headed north on Bushkill Drive and traveled through a stop sign in Forks Township, Police Chief Michael Freil said. Dan Clerico | For lehighvalleylive.com The Easton Area School District bus was carrying non-public school students, as part of its daily operations, assistant superintendent Josh Ziatyk told lehighvalleylive.com. All parents picked up their children from the scene, he said. Marjorie Holland, 98, had suffered multiple broken bones before she died March 30, 2024, at Normandie Ridge nursing home in York County. (Photo courtesy of the Holland family) Holland family Marjorie Holland lived life to the fullest, working well into her 80s as a pastor. At 98, shed enjoyed living at Normandie Ridge nursing home in York County for 11 years, getting to know her neighbors and the homes employees. Thats why her family was alarmed in February 2024 when they learned she had suffered several broken bones at the nursing home. A month later, she died from complications from those unexplained injuries. How she was hurt remains a mystery her family is trying to unravel more than a year later. Hollands children hired Philadelphia-based attorney Michael Schafle to investigate. While I am limited in what I can disclose about our investigation to date, our firm is committed to uncovering the truth about the tragic and unexplained injuries that led to Mrs. Hollands death while under the care of the nursing home, Schafle said in a statement to PennLive. Families place their trust in these facilities, and when that trust is violated, we will work tirelessly to hold the responsible parties accountable and seek justice for the victims and their loved ones. The York County Coroners Office detailed Hollands injuries in reports completed after her death. PennLive reviewed the documents earlier this year after the 2024 reports became publicly accessible under state law. The first indication anything was wrong came on Feb. 24, 2024, when Holland told nursing home workers her legs really hurt and she hurt all over, the coroners report said. Bruises covered her upper chest area and her right foot. By the next day, she could no longer bear full weight on her legs. Nothing in her medical chart could explain the pain. X-rays completed on Feb. 26, however, revealed two broken bones: One on Hollands clavicle near her right shoulder and one on her right femur, the large upper leg bone. Staff members told Hollands family they could not recall any incidents that could have caused the fractures, according to the coroners report. To Hollands family, nursing home supervisors later theorized there could have been an employee mishap where Holland was injured while moving her from a sitting to a standing position. However, the supervisors told the family no employee whod worked with Holland on Feb. 23-24 admitted to any accidents, the coroners report said. Marjorie Holland, pictured here in high school, died at Normandie Ridge nursing home in York County on March 30, 2024, at 98. Questions continue to surround her death because of multiple broken bones she suffered the month before she died. (Photo courtesy of the Holland family) Courtesy of the Holland family Holland had to undergo surgery to repair the fractures. She returned to Normandie Ridge on Feb. 29, but her health continued to decline. She became very dependent on others for basic needs, according to the coroners office. She lost weight, began having difficulty eating, was experiencing intermittent and then worsening pain requiring narcotics, which made her sleepy and not able to withstand her prior level of activities, the coroners office wrote in their report. Holland died at Normandie Ridge the morning of March 30, 2024. When the coroners office arrived, Hollands children told them they believed their mother was hurt after being dropped during a lift. They wondered if a worker had attempted the lift on their own, instead of calling in a second employee to assist with lifting Hollands 5-foot-10-inch and 160-pound frame. The family told the coroners office they saw two inoperable mechanical lifts sitting in the nursing home hallway. Hollands three sons, who were at the nursing home when Deputy Coroner Karen Frank arrived, told her they were thankful for the investigation because theyd been very concerned for the past month of the care their mother had received, the coroners report said. The coroners report said staff at WellSpan York Hospital believed Hollands injuries were consistent with a traumatic fall, but she would have needed help getting up afterward because she was not mobile enough to do so by herself. Hollands sons told Frank they were shocked to learn of their mothers broken bones because theyd never heard anything about any injuries from the nursing home. One of Hollands children told the coroners office staff members approached him while he was at the nursing home collecting his mothers things, saying there was a coworker who was not cooperating with the investigation. Normandie Ridge sent a report to the state Department of Health on Feb. 26, 2024, including employees statements about not knowing what led to Hollands injuries, according to the coroners report. The coroners report said county investigators thought the injuries that led to Hollands death may have been accidental versus a purposeful action. Asbury Communities, the company that owns Normandie Ridge and 10 other senior living facilities, said in a statement they were unable to provide specifics about Hollands death because of medical privacy laws. However, I can tell you that our policy requires immediate notification to family members of any incident impacting the health, safety, and welfare of our residents, said Todd Andrews, president of Asburys Community Living Division. Our records regarding this matter do not support the assertions that you cite in your email. Andrews did not specify which of the statements in the York County coroners report did not align with company records or answer questions about whether Asbury conducted an internal investigation into Hollands death. This year, U.S. News & World Report named Normandie Ridge one of the best assisted living and continuing care retirement communities in America. West Manchester Township police Chief John Snyder said his department investigated Hollands death, but the case has since been closed. It was determined that the incident did not rise to a criminal matter, Snyder said in an email to PennLive. We do our best in these cases but there can be difficult decisions when it comes to matters like this and I understand the concern from family or loved ones. We did our due diligence in this matter. Holland, one of four siblings, was born on the wooden kitchen table in her familys home in Washington in 1925. Her childhood years were spent on the familys farm during the Great Depression, her obituary said. After serving in the U.S. Navy together during World War II, Marjorie and her husband, George Holland, attended Trinity Bible College on the GI Bill and became ordained ministers. The couple moved to Pennsylvania and worked together as chaplains at SCI Huntingdon. Marjorie later worked at other correctional facilities, including SCI Muncy, the states womens prison. Marjorie Holland was an ordained minister for more than 50 years and one of the first women to hold the role in Pennsylvania, her obituary said. She retired when she was 83. In retirement, she loved playing cards with two close friends. Holland is survived by five children, 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. By Megan Martin Gov. Josh Shapiro seems less interested in governing and more interested in reliving his days as attorney general. Contrary to Scott Overlands assertion (I was a cyber charter school spokesman: they need reform now more than ever in PA, March 21), not all public cyber charter schools are run by management companies. Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA) severed ties with its former management company in 2016 to become an independent, Pennsylvania-based, non-profit public school. Doing so benefited Pennsylvania taxpayers and students. As board president of Phoenixville Area School District, perhaps Mr. Overland can explain to taxpayers why the districts real estate taxes have increased 17% over the last 10 years while the district has built its total reserve funds to more than $70 million, 67% of its annual spending. The Supreme Court heard arguments concerning lower courts blockage of Donald Trumps effort to end the 14th Amendments right to birthright citizenship. During the pendency of that case, the court has kept Trumps attempt to undo black and white constitutional language on hold. That did not prevent the administration from deporting a two-year-old birthright citizen to Honduras with her non-citizen mother. It refused a request to release the child to a legal custodian and ignored the fact that she is a US citizen. ICE Directive 11064.3 states that prior to removing a minor child from the country, ICE should determine whether the other parent is in the country or has given permission for the child to be deported with the non-citizen parent to the country of removal. Central Pennsylvania residents should prepare for a wet and unsettled weather pattern over the next two days, with periods of rain, potential thunderstorms, and a significant temperature drop expected from Friday through Sunday. A series of weather systems will bring widespread rain and occasional thunderstorms to the region, with the heaviest precipitation likely along the I-80 corridor and Lower Susquehanna Valley. Rainfall amounts are forecast to range from 0.25 inches in the northwest mountains to potentially 1.25 inches in southeastern areas. Friday afternoon and evening will see the most active weather, with scattered showers developing and transitioning to more consistent rain by Friday night. Temperatures will fluctuate dramatically over the weekend. Friday will start warmer, with highs reaching the upper 60s to mid-70s, before a cold front brings a sharp cooldown. Saturdays temperatures will struggle, with highs only reaching the 50s in the northern mountains and mid-60s in the Lower Susquehanna Valley. By early Sunday morning, apparent temperatures could drop into the mid-30s to low 40s, marking a chilly start to June. The weekend will be characterized by brisk northwest winds and cloudy conditions. A marginal risk of wind and hail exists, particularly in southeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday. Aviation forecasts indicate potential flight disruptions, with periods of MVFR (Marginal Visual Flight Rules) conditions at regional airports, especially near Harrisburg and Lancaster. Looking ahead, next week appears more stable, with high pressure building and temperatures returning to near-normal early June levels. Monday through Wednesday are expected to be dry, with a potential for showers returning by Thursday ahead of another approaching cold front. Residents should be prepared for rapidly changing conditions, have rain gear and warm layers ready, and stay informed about potential weather updates over the holiday weekend. Current weather radar Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by PennLive.com staff. News / National by Staff reporter Zimbabwe's biggest mining companies have sounded alarm bells over the potential suspension of crucial expansion projects - including refineries valued at over US$432 million - following the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's (RBZ) indication of tighter foreign currency retention rules.The warning comes just weeks after the RBZ announced it may further increase the mandatory surrender thresholds on foreign currency earnings by exporters, deepening a funding crisis in the country's top export-earning sector. Mining firms have long complained about significant portions of their foreign exchange revenues being siphoned off into government coffers, undermining their operational capacity.At the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (COMZ) annual conference last week, industry executives acknowledged record revenues of US$5.9 billion in 2024 - up from US$5.4 billion in 2023 - buoyed largely by a 24% surge in gold prices. However, they warned that the positive headline figures mask mounting financial and operational challenges.Instead of consolidating growth, miners said the RBZ's tightening grip on foreign exchange is eroding confidence and liquidity in a sector that requires stable forex access to fund government-mandated projects such as local refining, beneficiation, and capacity expansion.Notable projects at risk include Zimplats' US$190 million plan to restart its idle base metal refinery and Sandawana Mine's US$28 million lithium concentrate plant slated for completion by March 2026. Overall, about 20 mining ventures face uncertain futures pending the central bank's monetary policy direction, executives cautioned."Government, through the 2025 Monetary Policy Statement, reduced foreign exchange retentions for exporters from 75% to 70%," said Isaac Kwesu, COMZ CEO."This comes at a time when forex demands from suppliers - including some government departments - have intensified, requiring payments exclusively in foreign currency. With many companies investing in expansions and beneficiation, available forex is insufficient and risks forcing project suspensions with negative impacts on the industry."While exporters must surrender 30% of foreign currency earnings at the official exchange rate, the Zimbabwean dollar (ZIG) they receive quickly loses value in the parallel market, effectively acting as a stealth tax that is draining mining capital, industry leaders explained.Minutes from a closed-door meeting held on May 12 between the RBZ and the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) - obtained by the Zimbabwe Independent - reveal business leaders' warnings that increased forex surrender requirements would erode export incentives and distort forex markets."The chamber advocated rolling back the surrender threshold to 25%, cautioning that higher rates discourage export production and disrupt formal forex markets," the ZNCC noted. However, the RBZ dismissed these concerns and hinted at plans to raise surrender thresholds further, citing Tanzania's move to outlaw US dollar transactions as a model aligned with Zimbabwe's goal to return to a mono currency by 2030.Analysts warn this approach is out of touch with the realities mining firms face, including chronic power outages, overlapping tax burdens, and a lack of capital - all while being expected to meet beneficiation targets or face punitive export taxes.The industry faces policy contradictions: aggressive beneficiation deadlines are enforced, yet access to necessary forex is restricted."Lithium producers have been permitted to export concentrates without paying the beneficiation tax for now," Kwesu said. "The Ministry of Mines and producers agreed that lithium sulphate, not lithium carbonate, will be the minimum beneficiation threshold, reflecting Zimbabwe's hard rock lithium resource. A timeline for refinery construction is being finalized, though concerns over royalty and Special Capital Gains Tax (SCGT) persist."Regarding platinum group metals (PGMs), a temporary reprieve has been granted."The export tax on unbeneficiated PGMs was deferred to January 2025 following successful engagement," Kwesu added. "All PGM concentrates will now be smelted locally, with some producers already toll-processing at Zimplats."Still, mining companies complain about inconsistent policy enforcement and an unpredictable tax regime disconnected from value addition. The COMZ criticized the 20% tax applied on the full asset value rather than the value added, while welcoming the government's decision to limit retrospective application of SCGT on mineral rights to deals after December 31, 2023.Ironically, these setbacks coincide with a global mining upswing driven by lithium demand and high bullion prices. Instead of capitalizing on the boom, Zimbabwe risks missing the opportunity - hampered by a central bank relying on exporters to fill fiscal gaps.Mining executives argue that sustaining investment momentum is impossible under a regime demanding forex-fueled growth while simultaneously confiscating the forex needed to power it.The government has yet to make firm funding commitments to support refinery construction deadlines or offer alternative financial instruments to shield exporters from currency volatility.Without urgent recalibration from the RBZ, analysts warn that the US$432 million refinery and expansion projects could stall - jeopardizing Zimbabwe's beneficiation ambitions and putting billions in annual mining revenues at risk. News / National by Staff reporter A fierce legal battle has broken out over the estate of the late Zanu-PF legislator for Insiza North, Farai Taruvinga, amid revelations that he may have had four wives at the time of his death on March 31, 2025.Amanda Falala, one of the widows and the court-appointed executor of Taruvinga's estate, has come under fire from another woman, Nontokozo Moyo, who is challenging her legitimacy as the estate's administrator. Moyo, who claims to have been customarily married to Taruvinga in December 2024, accuses Falala of fraudulently concealing her and another woman, Nokukhanya Sibanda, from official records submitted to the Master of the High Court.In court papers filed at the Bulawayo High Court, Moyo alleges that Falala falsely declared only two wives herself and Diana Makina in the death notice and inventory of the estate, excluding the others to disinherit them."Barely within a week of his demise, Amanda Falala registered the estate stating falsely that the late Taruvinga was only customarily married to her and Diana Makina," Moyo said in her affidavit. "This was plainly false Falala took a deliberate decision to conceal my existence from the Master of the High Court."Moyo has applied for the High Court to declare Falala's appointment as executor "irregular and a nullity."According to preliminary documents, Taruvinga's estate includes multiple high-value assets: a house in Bulawayo's Hillside suburb, a residential stand in Matsheumhlope, properties in Filabusi including Bekezela Township, a rural home in Skuta, and a fleet of 15 vehicles among them a Bentley, two Toyota Land Cruisers, and a motorbike. The estate inventory also lists 32 head of cattle, with lawyers indicating that a more comprehensive list will be presented as proceedings unfold.Taruvinga, who reportedly fathered 12 children, was a businessman with diverse interests. He owned a gold mine in Filabusi, two nightclubs, and a modern abattoir.In a separate legal challenge, Moyo is suing Falala for allegedly evicting her from the Hillside home she shared with Taruvinga and another wife, Sibanda. She claims Falala also forcibly took a wallet belonging to the late MP containing US$1,800. Moyo is seeking a restoration of her occupation of the property and the return of the wallet through a spoliation application.Falala has dismissed Moyo's claims outright, denying that she was ever married to Taruvinga. In her opposing affidavit, Falala said:"I am shocked at the allegations of Nontokozo Moyo being a wife, let alone a fourth wife. I am not aware of any third wife as well."Falala further alleges that Moyo was hired at her request to assist as a nurse aide for Taruvinga, who had been battling cancer. She says Moyo's stay at the Hillside property was purely for medical caregiving purposes."Moyo was at that time 17 years old and not allowed to be in a marriage, let alone a sexual relationship I had upgraded Moyo from being my shopkeeper to my husband's nurse aide," Falala stated. "Her occupation of the house was not as a spouse, but as a caregiver."The legal proceedings are ongoing, with the High Court expected to rule on the validity of the executor appointment and Moyo's claims in due course. The case could set a significant precedent in matters involving customary marriages and estate administration in Zimbabwe. News / National by Staff reporter A senior Air Force of Zimbabwe pilot died on Friday after his Chengdu J-7/F-7 fighter jet crashed in the Carafoc area of Gweru, eyewitnesses and military sources have confirmed.Retired Squadron Leader Vuyo Ncube, a seasoned pilot and veteran of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) war, had returned to the Air Force to serve as a flight instructor. He was on a training mission when the tragic accident occurred.The ill-fated aircraft, a Chinese-made supersonic Chengdu J-7 known locally as the F-7 is believed to be one of 12 jets delivered to Zimbabwe in 1986. It took off from Josiah Tungamirai Air Force Base, formerly known as Thornhill, just outside Gweru.Residents in the area reported seeing smoke rising from a wooded area, followed by a loud explosion. They rushed to the crash site, initially hoping the pilot had managed to eject safely."There was a lot of smoke among the trees. When we got there, we didn't find him in the cockpit, which made us think he might have ejected," one witness told ZimLive.However, hopes were dashed when Ncube's body was discovered a short distance from the wreckage.An Air Force source disclosed that in his final radio transmission, Ncube had reported a critical emergency. "He shouted 'fire' and said the aircraft was uncontrollable," the source said.The Air Force of Zimbabwe is expected to issue a formal statement as investigations into the crash get underway.The accident marks a significant loss for the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, particularly given Ncube's combat experience and training role. Today at the 2025 World Series of Poker, Event #5: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha began. This prestigious event brought in 757 entries and created a $3,573,040 prize pool. Each one of the 123 players remaining will be fighting for the first-place prize of $620,696 inside Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas. Matthew Beck (1,320,000) currently leads the field, but there is a plethora of big names and big stacks breathing down his neck. With a total of 87 WSOP bracelets having been won by the players collectively, Becks job is far from done. Second in chips, Michael Duek (1,026,000) played a crucial pot late in the day in which he cracked the aces of Chris Hunichen with kings. Duek is no stranger to star-studded fields; with over $7,500,000 in cashes and a third-place finish in the 2022 WSOP Main Event, he has set himself up for another monumental score in this event. Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts Rank Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Matthew Beck New Zealand 1,320,000 165 2 Michael Duek United States 1,026,000 128 3 Konstantinos Bouloutsos Greece 900,000 113 4 Andreas Zampas Greece 822,000 103 5 Jason Lademan United States 816,000 102 6 Wagner Wysotchanski Brazil 808,000 101 7 Ap Garza United States 770,000 96 8 Kevin Hyde United States 720,000 90 9 Christopher Demaci United States 689,000 86 10 Michael Wang United States 686,000 86 Some notable names that will be hunting Beck include Main Event winner Ryan Riess, six-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman, Shaun Deeb, Mike The Mouth Matusow, Martin Kabrhel, 2022 WSOP player of the Year Daniel Zack, Viktor Isildur1 Blom, and two of the greatest ever, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Phil Hellmuth Currently eighth in chips, Kevin Hyde is competing against the best in the world during his third-ever live tournament. He sailed smoothly through most of the day as the chip leader, but made one misstep against Allan Le late in the day to knock him down the leaderboard seven spots. While everyone will be hunting for one of the toughest bracelets of the summer and $620,696, the top 114 places will get paid. That means nine players who found a bag will be going home empty-handed. A min-cash is worth $9,960. Payouts Place Prize 1 $620,696 2 $413,762 3 $288,775 4 $204,808 5 $147,647 6 $108,221 7 $80,673 8 $61,179 9 $47,213 10 - 11 $37,089 12 - 15 $29,668 16 - 23 $24,173 24 - 31 $20,070 32 - 39 $16,985 40 - 47 $14,657 48 - 55 $12,903 56 - 63 $11,592 64 - 71 $10,632 72 - 114 $9,960 On Day 2, players will return to blinds of 4,000/8,000/8,000 and complete ten 60-minute levels, with 15-minute breaks after every two levels, and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 21. Continue to stay tuned to PokerNews as we give you live coverage directly from the tournament floor. Aiken Standard reporter Dede Biles is a reporter for the Aiken Standard. She covers Aiken County government, business and horse industry. To support local journalism, sign up for a subscription. See our current offers Editor and Publisher Brandon Roberts is Publisher and Managing Editor of Summerville Communications Inc., which prints The Summerville Journal Scene and The Berkeley Independent. He has worked as an editor for more than two decades in his native Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina before coming to Summerville. Growth & Development Reporter Caleb Bozard covers business, growth and development for The Post and Courier Columbia. He has previously written for The State and the Times and Democrat. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2023. Featuring details like a sauna, an elevator and balconies that overlook both sides of the property, the two-story condominium at 18 South Main St. in downtown Greenville sold recently for $2.2 million. Mount Pleasant, SC (29464) Today Tropical storm conditions possible. Heavy rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 83F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch.. Tonight Tropical storm conditions possible. Rain showers this evening with isolated thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 74F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Tropical storm conditions possible. A steady rain this morning. Windy with showers continuing this afternoon. High 84F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Tropical storm conditions possible. Thundershowers overnight following a period of rain early. Low 74F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Charleston, SC (29532) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 90F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 73F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch. PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 14:30:07 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 997 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 SASKATOON, SK / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Abasca Resources Inc. ("Abasca" or the "Company") (TSXV:ABA) is pleased to announce it has filed an independent technical report (the "Report") on SEDAR+. The Report, prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101), supports the initial mineral resource estimate (the "MRE") for the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit (the "Loki Deposit") at its 100%-owned Key Lake South Project (the "Project") in northern Saskatchewan, Canada (Figure 1). The graphite MRE (Figure 2) validates the Company's belief in the Loki Deposit's significant development potential.Mineral Resource HighlightsTotal Inferred Resource: 11.31 Mt of Graphite at an average grade of 7.65 % Cg.Contained Graphite: 0.86 MtCut-off Grade: 2.78 % CgThe MRE, with an effective date of April 10, 2025, was prepared following the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Reserves (May 2014). It primarily incorporates results from the 2024 summer drill program, which included 20 holes totaling 5,499 m, as well as re-sampled holes from 2016 drill cores (Figure 3, Table1). The 2024 drilling aimed to establish a mineral resource and lay the groundwork for further expansion in future exploration campaigns, including the Company's recent 2025 winter drill program. The Loki Deposit remains open at depth and along strike.Growing electric vehicle sales and activity in the energy storage sectors have significantly increased demand for graphite, in addition to its ongoing traditional industrial applications. Graphite is designated as a critical mineral that is vital for economic stability in both Canada and the United States of America. It is also one of six essential minerals in the Canadian supply chain.Dawn Zhou, President and CEO of Abasca, commented "We are strongly encouraged by the exploration results at the Loki Deposit. The Company looks forward to continuing to demonstrate its potential for shareholder value and to contribute to Saskatchewan's Critical Minerals Strategy." "We are pleased with the exploration progress and excited to keep advancing the Project. The Key Lake South Project has a lot of potential to still unlock with many open prospective corridors waiting to be tested." said Brian McEwan, Vice-President of Exploration.Table 1: Pit-constrained inferred mineral resource estimate of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit.CategoryCut-off Grade(% Cg)Tonnage(Mt)Grade(% Cg)Contained Graphite(Mt)Inferred2.7811.317.650.86The reporting standard for the Mineral Resource Estimate uses the terminology, definitions and guidelines given in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 2014) as required by NI 43-101.Reported Mineral Resources are constrained to a pit-shell generated in Whittle software above a cut-off grade of 2.78 % Cg.The estimation of Mineral Resources was completed through a block model approach using interpreted geology wireframes, composites from drill core assays, and grade interpolation via Ordinary Kriging.Numbers may not add up due to rounding.The effective date of this Mineral Resource estimate is April 10, 2025.The qualified person knows of no environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, political or other relevant factors that may materially affect the Mineral Resource Estimate in this report.Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability.Collected samples were sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, an independent laboratory accredited under ISO/IEC 17025:2017, for preparation and ICP-MS multi-element analysis, boron by fusion as well as total graphite content (% Cg) and total sulphur by LECO. Samples were collected in accordance with industry-standard quality assurance / quality control practices and included the insertion of blanks, standard reference materials, and repeats into the sample stream at regular intervals. Samples were also collected for in-field and lab density measurements at regular intervals and through the mineralized zones.The full technical report dated May 29, 2025, with an effective date of April 10, 2024, is titled "Technical Report on the Key Lake South Project with Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit, Saskatchewan, Canada". The report was prepared for Abasca Resources Inc. by Understood Mineral Resources (UMR), and can be found under the Company's issuer profile at SEDAR+ ( www.sedarplus.ca) and on the Company's website ( www.abasca.ca) The Company also announced that the second and final tranche of its private placement, previously announced on April 22, 2025, is expected to close in the first week of June 2025. For more information on the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit and an overview of the Key Lake South Project, please visit the Company's website at www.abasca.ca Figure 1: Map of the Key Lake South Project area showing the location of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit and other exploration target areas. Figure 2: Map of the area around the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit showing the surface projection of the inferred resource and the 2016, 2024, and 2025 drilling. Drillholes KLS-24-042, KLS-24-046, and KLS-25-072 intersected a prospective graphite zone northeast of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit. Figure 3: Oblique view of the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit showing the pit-constrained inferred resource and the drillholes used to define the resource. Qualified PersonThe technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Brian McEwan, P.Geo, a Qualified Person as set out in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. McEwan is the Vice-President of Exploration at Abasca. The mineral resource estimate presented in this news release was completed by Matthew Batty, P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. Mr. Batty is a Geostatistician and the owner of Understood Mineral Resources Ltd.About Abasca Resources Inc.Abasca is a mineral exploration company that is primarily engaged in the acquisition and evaluation of mineral exploration properties. The Company owns the Key Lake South Project (KLS), a 23,977-hectare exploration project located in the Athabasca Basin Region in northern Saskatchewan, approximately 15 km south of the former Key Lake mine and current Key Lake mill. The project possesses geological similarities and along strike of past Key Lake Mine with prospective conductors of over 50 km for potential uranium mineralization. KLS is also host to the Loki Flake Graphite Deposit comprising a total inferred resource of 11.31 Mt at PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 13:45:07 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 1001 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 AI Arbitrage Review 2025: Discover why this AIdriven arbitrage trading robot is safe, legit, and profitable-real user insights and expert rating inside!WEST ALBANY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 /IntroductionIn today's fastpaced crypto markets, every millisecond counts. AI Arbitrage harnesses advanced machine learning to detect and capitalize on fleeting price discrepancies across exchanges-promising seamless, automated profits for both novices and veterans. In this review, we'll explore whyAI Arbitragestands out, examine its core features, safety protocols, realworld performance, and ultimately explain why it's a top choice for traders seeking reliable automation.AI Arbitrage is a bitcoin investment platform that promises to make investing straightforward, rewarding, and low-risk for its consumers. Through the application of artificial intelligence, trading possibilities on the cryptocurrency markets are recognized. The AI Arbitrage software employs many complex crypto trading tactics to trade bitcoin, including news trading, arbitrage trading, and price trend research.Open Your AI Arbitrage Account Now From The Official Canada SiteArbitrage trading is the activity of trading tiny price differences across stock exchanges at its most fundamental level. AI Arbitrage researches up to 30 of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and makes up to 50 arbitrage deals each minute. Price trend research requires a comprehensive assessment of historical data to discover cyclical market movements. According to some estimates, AI Arbitrage uses this method with a victory rate of up to 90 percent.The purpose of this AI Arbitrage review is to establish whether or not this auto-trading robot lives up to its claims. Are the user-provided statistics regarding this robot accurate? Is AI Arbitrage Legit? Is AI Arbitrage a fraud? This review examines AI Arbitrage in detail.AI Arbitrage OverviewType: AI Web-based trading platformMinimum Deposit: $250Withdrawal Timeframe: 24 HoursTrading options available: Cryptocurrencies, commodities, stocks, and forexAbout AI ArbitrageAI Arbitrage is an auto-trading robot designedto make the trading experience as seamless as possible for its consumers. Although it is ideal for all types of traders, it is especially intended for novices who want to make their first investment but do not know where to start or seek. According to the company's creator, no previous financial or technical knowledge is necessary to utilize AI Arbitrage; anybody willing to learn may do so.Traditional trading requires continual monitoring of the financial markets to locate transactions that match one's needs. However, if people don't know what they are doing, this pastime may rapidly become tiresome and irritating. AI Arbitrage monitors the market on the users' behalf to relieve them of this responsibility.In addition, AI Arbitrage handles the bulk of trading processes so that people don't have to. With AI Arbitrage, it is no longer required to keep up with the newest trade news in order to develop a superior trading strategy.Open Your AI Arbitrage Account Now From The Official SiteHow AI Arbitrage Works Under the HoodData Aggregation: Aggregates realtime price and orderbook data from major crypto exchanges.MachineLearning Models: Uses predictive analytics to forecast shortterm price movements and isolate arbitrage windows.Automated Execution: Executes simultaneous buy/sell orders in under 100 milliseconds, minimizing slippage.Risk Controls: Builtin stoploss triggers and configurable exposure limits keep you protected during volatile swings.By blending highfrequency trading techniques with robust risk management, AI Arbitrage delivers both speed and security for every trade cycle.How does Bitcoin function?The primary difficulty with Bitcoin and trading is that many individuals get confused throughout the process. Because there are so many terminologies to remember, many choose other activities to learn how to trade.However, knowing how Bitcoin works is easier than it may seem. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is a digital asset that can be purchased and sold through a blockchain server. Since this server is public, it is protected from threats such as hackers and similar threats.Bitcoin's decentralized nature is a major factor in its popularity. This indicates that there are no bank limits or restrictions imposed by a national or international agency. Cryptocurrencies enable hassle-free and cost-free national and international transactions.Despite this, cryptocurrencies adhere to different norms and procedures than traditional bank currencies. Since cryptocurrency is a digital asset, it cannot exist in physical form. This also implies that debit and credit cards are not required for crypto transactions. All crypto-related activities are conducted online.To purchase and sell digital assets, people need a digital wallet. This wallet is available on several websites. These websites also offer bitcoins, so there is no need to worry about where to get some. Digital wallets have an access key as well as a signature key. The access key is used to check the account balance, while the signing key is needed to conduct transactions.It is crucial to memorize those keys. Losing or forgetting them might cause people to lose all of their money, so be careful to write them down or store them in a secure location. Additionally, cryptocurrencies may be used to purchase other digital assets such as CFDs, NFTs, and similar products.More Information on AI Arbitrage Can Be Found On The Official Canada Website HereAI Arbitrage FeaturesFee: Several digital money businesses, including trading platforms and exchanges, charge a fee for withdrawals, store transactions, and trade request execution. Due to this, some individuals regard bitcoin trading to be an unattractive undertaking. Consequently, AI Arbitrage reduces a variety of expenditures, commissions, and other obscure fees.Withdrawal: The majority of cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms require their brokers and traders to wait an average of seven days before their separate accounts are credited with winnings. This is not the case with the AI Arbitrage software, thankfully. The AI Arbitrage payment service requires about 24 hours to complete a withdrawal request once the required form has been submitted. AI Arbitrage offers many withdrawal alternatives, including bank transfers.Precision: To maximize earnings, it is essential to join and leave a position at the appropriate moment. Timing is crucial since the value of Bitcoin may change substantially over short periods of time. A PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 22:45:17 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 887 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 SUNY Schenectady and Federal Aviation Administration Sign Agreement for College to Join Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) ProgramSCHENECTADY, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / SUNY Schenectady County Community College and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have signed an agreement for SUNY Schenectady to become the next school in the Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program. SUNY Schenectady is only the sixth college or university across the country, and one of only two community colleges, that the FAA has authorized to provide the same thorough curriculum and advanced training technology offered at the agency's Academy in Oklahoma City. SUNY Schenectady Air Traffic Control Simulator Amy Parish, Vice President of North America Programs for UFA, Inc., guides Cameron Robson, Aviation Science major, on the new Air Traffic Control simulator at SUNY Schenectady.The Enhanced Initiative was created to allow qualified institutions to provide their students with equivalent FAA Academy Air Traffic Control curriculum and training. Graduates of the Enhanced AT-CTI offered at SUNY Schenectady, with FAA oversight, could be placed directly into a facility, if hired as Air Traffic Control Specialists. This means that students who graduate from the SUNY Schenectady program and pass the FAA-proctored Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA) are able to bypass six months of training at the FAA site in Oklahoma City and can start working in an FAA tower. In addition to passing the ATSA, these graduates must meet medical and security requirements.According to the FAA, "The program will increase the controller training pipeline and ensure graduates have the necessary skills to begin immediate facility training." Dr. Steady Moono, College President, said, "SUNY Schenectady is proud to be at the forefront of responding to a critical, national need for qualified Air Traffic Controllers by partnering with the FAA on the new Enhanced AT-CTI program. This is an extraordinary opportunity for students to gain the same rigorous curriculum and training that the FAA provides at the Academy in Oklahoma City. We welcome students from across the country as they train to begin their careers in the Air Traffic Control industry. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Senator Chuck Schumer who called on the FAA to include SUNY Schenectady in its Enhanced AT-CTI program, noting that the College was uniquely qualified and ready to create a pipeline of students to enter this high-paying career and address the nationwide shortage." New York Senator Chuck Schumer said, "Prepare for takeoff to better address the air traffic controller shortage because the FAA just approved SUNY Schenectady to join their prestigious Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative. As airports continue to struggle with the national air traffic controller shortage, I pushed to have Schenectady join this competitive program because they have proven themselves to be a leader in aviation training uniquely capable of helping equip students with the skill they need to enter this career. SUNY Schenectady's air traffic controller training program is ready to create a local pipeline of students to enter this high-paying field tasked with protecting the safety of our skies. I'm thrilled the FAA heeded my calls and is helping the next generation of air traffic controllers reach new heights right here in the Capital Region. I commend SUNY Schenectady President Dr. Steady Moono and the college's Aviation Program's leadership for this new milestone and a continued high standard of training of our next generation of controllers." Gary Hughes, Chair of the Schenectady County Legislature, added, "We're grateful to Senator Schumer for his steadfast support of SUNY Schenectady and his efforts to address the national shortage of air traffic controllers. The FAA's designation highlights the strength of our Aviation Science and Air Traffic Control degree programs, which equip students with hands-on, career-ready training. With the College's new Enhanced status, students will have even more pathways to success-including the opportunity for direct placement into an air traffic control facility-and will help keep our skies safer across the country." Graduates of the program earn their A.A.S. degrees in Air Traffic Control. SUNY Schenectady first began offering the degree program in ATC in 2012 and in January 2025 the College unveiled its new Air Traffic Control simulator, the largest and most comprehensive at a community college east of the Mississippi River.The FAA-approved SUNY Schenectady ATC Simulator features:Three ATC Tower stations for ultra-realistic trainingSeven 75" monitors for 215 degrees of complete tower immersionFour radar TRACON stations for multi-training scenarios and realismATSpeak which reinforces radar, tower, ramp, pilot, and airside driver phraseologiesSeven Remote Pilot stations for real human-voice responses and pilotageFAA Academy Curriculum for the BEST in ATC TrainingIn addition to the ATC degree program, SUNY Schenectady offers an A.S. degree in Aviation Science: Pilot and an Aviation Science: Non-Pilot Administration and Management degree through the Division of Business and Professional Programs, among the College's 60 degrees, certificates, and microcredentials.SUNY Schenectady is now accepting applications for the Enhanced AT-CTI program at www.sunysccc.edu/apply . Please contact the Office of Admissions at 518-381-1366 or admissions@ sunysccc.edu for more information on how to apply.Images of SUNY Schenectady's Air Traffic Control simulator and captions are available here.Contact InformationGeoff RedickDirector, Public Affairsgeoff@ bakerpublicrelations.com (585) 297-2453Matt PotolskiSenior Account Executivematt@ bakerpublicrelations.com (518) 698-4032SOURCE: SUNY Schenectady County Community College PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 22:15:11 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 675 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 /Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSXV:BYN)(OTCQB:BYAGF) announces today that, as a result of a review by staff of the British Columbia Securities Commission ("BCSC"), the Company is issuing the following news release regarding disclosure on the AurMac and Hyland Projects.In connection with the review, the Company has filed an amended technical report entitled "Technical Report AurMac Property Mayo Mining District," dated May 23, 2025, with an effective date of February 6, 2025, prepared by Dino Pilotto P.Eng, Marc Jutras P.Eng, M.A.Sc, and Deepak Malhotra PhD, QP. Furthermore, the Company will be filing an updated Technical Report on the Hyland Project in the future; however, during the interim, the mineral resource on Hyland is stale dated and not supported by a compliant NI 43-101 technical report, and that the mineral resource should not be relied on until it has been verified and supported by a technical report.The Company is amending the AurMac technical report to include: (i) disclosure on the Nitra Property; (ii) additional disclosure on Data Verification; (iii) the retraction, clarification and additions of disclosures pursuant to NI 43-101; (iv) revision and clarifications of consents of the qualified persons; and, (v) revisions to include technical information from the appendices into the report. There is no change to the size or scope of the AurMac resource estimate.The AurMac technical report is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ and on the Company's website.Qualified PersonsDuncan Mackay, P.Geo., VP of Exploration for Banyan Gold, is a "Qualified Person" as defined under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.About BanyanBanyan trades on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol "BYN" and is quoted on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "BYAGF". For more information, please visit the corporate website at or contact the Company.ON BEHALF OF BANYAN GOLD CORPORATION(signed) "Tara Christie"Tara ChristiePresident & CEOFor more information, please contact:Tara Christie 778 928 0556 tchristie@ banyangold.com Jasmine Sangria 604 312 5610 jsangria@ banyangold.com CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor OTCQB Venture Market accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts and is based upon the Company's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "will", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend(s)", "believe", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that 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 Company's plans for filing an updated Hyland Technical Report. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include uncertainties inherent in resource estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, timing delays, and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry those risks set out in Banyan's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Banyan 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. Banyan 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.SOURCE: Banyan Gold Corp. PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 11:30:09 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 808 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Epique Realty COO and Co-Founders Leadership TriumphsHOUSTON, TX / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / In a landmark moment for innovation in real estate,Epique Realtyis happy to announce that its own Christopher Miller, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder,has been honored as one of Inman's 2025 Future Leaders in Real Estate in the prestigious Founders/Entrepreneurs category. This coveted award celebrates the next generation of visionaries forging new paths, introducing transformative ideas, and making significant contributions to the evolution of real estate.The 2025 Future Leaders in Real Estate Award spotlights emerging talents who have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and a firm commitment to pushing the envelope in the real estate industry.Emily Paquette, CEO of Inman,commented, "Inman is celebrating the 2025 class of rising stars who have distinguished themselves early in their careers. The 2025 Future Leaders in Real Estate truly embody the potential to be the next generation of industry titans." COO Christopher Miller, a driving force behind Epique Realty's meteoric rise, has been instrumental in redefining the brokerage model. His agent-first philosophy and relentless pursuit of innovation have helped catapult Epique from 300 agents in early 2024 to an astonishing family of nearly 4,000 agents across 36 states in 2025. This formidable growth is a direct testament to Epique's revolutionary approach, offering extraordinary benefits and advanced technology free to agents that empower and fuel agent success.Speaking about the honor, COO Christopher Miller expressed gratitude and excitement for this milestone. "This recognition truly belongs to the entire Epique family. At the heart of what we do is a simple belief-that empowering agents with the right tools, support, and opportunities leads to success. This award reflects the innovation, hard work, and community that our agents and team have built together on our journey to reshape the industry for the better!" Christopher's philosophy of accessibility and heartfelt connection to the agent community has made Epique a trailblazer in the industry.Echoing this sentiment, CEO and Co-Founder Josh Miller remarked, "Epique is built on a revolutionary idea-that the brokerage should work for the agent, not the other way around. Christopher's visionary leadership and unshakable belief in our mission have been instrumental in our incredible growth. He's shown that by putting people first, we can truly reshape the industry. Chris leads with heart and an unyielding dedication to our agents. He saw what real estate could be - a place where agents are truly valued, supported, and empowered to build incredible careers and lives. This Inman award is a well-deserved acknowledgment of his relentless drive to make that vision a reality. He's not just building a company; he's building a legacy for every single member of our Epique family." CFO and Co-Founder, Janice Delcid, highlighted Christopher's strategic impact on the company's revolutionary model: "Christopher's innovative spirit and operational expertise have been pivotal in architecting an ecosystem where agents thrive. His ability to foresee industry shifts and implement supportive structures, like our incomparable suite of free benefits unheard of in our industry and advanced technology, ensures our agents are always ahead of the curve. This award underscores his exceptional leadership in building a brokerage that is not only experiencing explosive growth but is also financially empowering for our agents. We're incredibly proud to see his contributions recognized at such a prestigious level." At Epique Realty, the mission has always been clear: put agents first. This philosophy is woven into the fabric of the company, offering exceptional support, including personal accessibility to leadership, deep mentorship opportunities, and a culture where agents are treated like family. By integrating AI-powered tools, ensuring operational efficiencies, and providing a wealth of resources at no extra cost, Epique empowers its agents to reach unprecedented levels of success. Initiatives like Epique Cares and NEMO, which Christopher championed, further showcase the company's commitment to blending heart and strategy, mobilizing aid for communities in need.Epique Realty is experiencing amazing growth while it spearheads a revolution in the real estate industry. The company's agent-first, agent-empowerment approach is setting new standards, proving that a brokerage can prioritize its people and achieve phenomenal progress. As Christopher Miller's leadership demonstrates, Epique is more than a business; it's a movement, a family, and the future of real estate.About Epique RealtyEpique Realty is a trailblazing, agent-owned real estate brokerage committed to empowering its agents through extraordinary support, state-of-the-art and AI tech and a comprehensive suite of free resources and benefits that fuel agent success. With a rapidly expanding presence across the nation, Epique Realty is redefining industry norms by fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and shared success, truly making it a family where agents thrive and succeed.#BeEpique Barbara Simpson | PR and Communications 281-773-7842 | Barbara@ EpiqueRealty.com SOURCE: Epique Realty PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 06:15:06 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 484 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 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=150852&wire=1&utm_campaign=29 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 PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 19:00:20 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 350 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Club Car Wash, one of the fastest-growing express car wash companies in the United States, is proud to announce the grand opening of its newest location in Grand Junction, Colorado. Club Car Wash Grand JunctionLocated at 691 24 Road, the Grand Junction site offers customers a range of premium individual washes and monthly memberships, high-quality vacuums, free microfiber towels, and a fast, seamless wash experience designed to keep vehicles looking their best in just minutes.To celebrate its first Grand Junction location, Club Car Wash is offering its best wash, the $25 MVP, for just $1 for a limited time, with all proceeds benefiting STRiVE, a local nonprofit supporting individuals with disabilities and their families.New customers can also take advantage of a limited-time offer: Unlimited Wash Memberships for only $10/month for the first 3 months, making it easier than ever to enjoy a clean, polished vehicle at an unbeatable value.In addition to savings on single washes and Memberships, Club Car Wash will host a Grand Opening Event on Saturday, June 7th, featuring live radio remotes, special guests, and exciting giveaways throughout the day. Attendees will have the chance to win prizes, including free washes, Coffee Trader gift cards, YETI coolers, a Traeger grill, and free 3-month and 12-month Unlimited Memberships."Grand Junction kicks off a new chapter for Club Car Wash. This is our first location in the area, and we're looking forward to growing alongside the community," said Cory Via, Chief Operations Officer of Club Car Wash.For more information, visit www.clubcarwash.com or stop by the Grand Junction location to join the celebration.About Club Car WashFounded in 2006, Club Car Wash is a leading express car wash brand offering high-quality wash services, cutting-edge technology, and convenient Unlimited Wash Plans. Currently operating more than 220+ locations in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. Club Car Wash is one of the largest and fastest-growing express car wash companies in the United States.Contact InformationSarah SmithChief Marketing Officermarketing@ clubcarwash.com (833) 416 - 9975SOURCE: Club Car Wash PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 04:50:17 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 531 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK CITY, NY AND NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESS Newswire / May 29, 2025 /Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have untilJuly 8, 2025to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Compass Diversified Holdings (NYSE:CODI), if they purchased the Company's securities between May 1, 2024 and May 7, 2025, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of Compass and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) , or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-codi/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court byJuly 8, 2025 .About the LawsuitCompass and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.On May 7, 2025, the Company issued a press release entitled "Compass Diversified Discloses Non-Reliance on Financial Statements for Fiscal 2024 Amid an Ongoing Internal Investigation into its Subsidiary, Lugano Holding, Inc.," disclosing that "the Audit Committee of CODI's Board has concluded that the previously issued financial statements for 2024 require restatement and should no longer be relied upon" and that "[e]ffective May 7, 2025, Lugano's founder and CEO, Moti Ferder, resigned from all of his positions at Lugano and will not receive any severance compensation." The Company further disclosed that "[t]he Audit Committee of CODI's Board of Directors promptly launched an investigation after CODI's senior leadership was made aware of concerns about how Lugano was potentially financing inventory" and that "[t]he investigation . . . is ongoing but has preliminarily identified irregularities in Lugano's non-CODI financing, accounting, and inventory practices." On this news, the price of Compass' shares plummeted approximately 62%, from $17.25 per share on May 7, 2025, to $6.55 per share on May 8, 2025.The case is Matthews v. Compass Group Diversified Holdings, Inc., et al., No. 25-cv-981.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. This past year, KSF was ranked by SCAS among the top 10 firms nationally based upon total settlement value. KSF serves a variety of clients, including public and private institutional investors, and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana, Chicago, New Jersey, and a representative office in Luxembourg.TOP 10 Plaintiff Law Firms - According to ISS Securities Class Action ServicesTo learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com CONTACT: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partnerlewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163CONNECT WITH US: FaceBook || Instagram || YouTube || TikTok || LinkedInSOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 18:00:54 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 603 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Luxury real estate brokerage Corcoran Reverie set to debut renowned artist Justin Gaffrey's 30A inspired piece, 'Original Seascape' at the firm's premier event celebrating the vibrant synergy of local art, innovative design, and community spirit, in the coveted Grace Point community.SANTA ROSA BEACH, FL / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / On Thursday, June 5, 2025, Corcoran Reverie invites the community to Unframed: A Curated Evening of Art & Architecture, a premier event celebrating the vibrant synergy of local art, innovative design, and community spirit. Set against the backdrop of the stunning residence at 264 Grace Point Way in the coveted Grace Point community on 30A, this immersive experience showcases Walton County's creative vitality. "Original Seascape" Justin Gaffrey, 202324 x36x2.75 / Acrylic on Wood PanelIn partnership with the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) and renowned local artist Justin Gaffrey, Unframed transforms a beautifully designed coastal home into a dynamic gallery and architectural showcase. Attendees will enjoy curated works from select CAA artists, alongside Gaffrey's signature bold, sculptural masterpieces-pieces that have become synonymous with 30A's thriving art scene.This event is energized and supported by some fantastic local champions:Sun, Surf & Sand Insurance Services, as our Brilliant Presenting Sponsor, helping turn this artful night into a reality. View their award-winning offerings at sunsurfsandins.com Colony Bank's own Lisa Canup - our Wine Sponsor, pouring the perfect glass to toast creativity and community. Connect with her directly at colony.bank/bankers/lisacanup Beyond celebrating local talent, the event supports community-inspiring initiatives. Both the CAA and Gaffrey will donate original artwork to be raffled, with proceeds benefiting ongoing arts programs and outreach. Gaffrey's donation will also support Hope Lodge in Birmingham, Alabama, honoring the memory of Lesly Simon-a cherished community member and brave breast cancer warrior who passed earlier this year.Justin Gaffrey, a self-taught artist based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, is known for his bold, textured palette knife paintings and sculptural works inspired by the Gulf Coast's natural beauty. Since 2001, he has created a distinctive style that explores nature, memory, and human experience through vibrant landscapes and innovative materials. His gallery off Scenic Highway 30A offers an immersive experience into his evolving artistic world rooted in the coastal environment."Lesly believed in creating space for others-through her faith, her friendships, and her fight," said Hilary Farnum-Fasth, Broker and Owner of Corcoran Reverie. "We are honored to celebrate her legacy by supporting a place that brought her hope and comfort." Unframed takes place on Thursday, June 5th, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The event welcomes brokers, community supporters, and invited guests for an inspiring evening of art, architecture, and community connection.To RSVP or learn more, visit ReverieRSVP.com About Corcoran ReverieCorcoran Reverie is a premier real estate brokerage and an affiliate of Corcoran Group LLC - a leading residential real estate firm headquartered in New York City. Across its network of more than 150 offices and 4,900+ agents worldwide, the Corcoran brand has been a leader in residential real estate for nearly 50 years, serving key urban, suburban, and resort markets internationally, including the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Cabo, Portugal, and Italy. Locally rooted and globally connected, Corcoran Reverie is proud to have been recognized as a 2024 RealTrends Top 500 brokerage. For more information, visitcorcoranreverie.com About the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton CountyThe CAA champions visual arts education, exhibitions, and outreach, enriching Walton County's cultural landscape and supporting local artists. Their mission is to foster a vibrant arts community that benefits residents and visitors alike. For more information, visit www.culturalartsalliance.com Contact Information:Corey BirgerChief Operating Officercorey.birger@corcorangroup.com 850.454.6693SOURCE: Corcoran ReverieRelated Images PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 19:45:25 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 975 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 David's Continues Menswear Expansion with Generation Tux Partnership, further creating an integrated shopping destination for brides, grooms, and wedding parties, combining David's Bridal's expansive retail presence with Generation Tux's premium menswear rental offeringsKING OF PRUSSIA, PENNSYLVANIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 /David's Bridal, Inc. ("David's"), the nation's leading bridal and special occasion authority, announces its newest strategic menswear partnership, selecting Generation Tux, the leading tuxedo and suit rental destination, as the exclusive in-store menswear shop-in-shop brand. Together, David's and Generation Tux provide a seamless one-stop experience for wedding parties with the best offers in the industry for tuxedo and suit rentals. As part of this innovative program, David's will dedicate space starting with 10 locations, adding more stores on a weekly rolling basis, until the entire fleet is outfitted to showcase Generation Tux's best-selling suit and tuxedo styles. The full expansion in all David's locations will take place by the end of this year, but can be shopped sooner using virtual stylists. Customers can take advantage of the unprecedented offer when five people in the party rent, the groom's rental is free + additional limited time 20% off for David's Diamond Loyalty Members.David's proudly selected Generation Tux as its newest menswear partner for its superior fit, hands-on service, range of sizes, and ability to color match its menswear selection to David's color swatches, ensuring a seamless and perfectly coordinated wedding party experience. Generation Tux's sample inventory is available in a range of sizes with digital ordering, all supported by trained David's stylists. The shop-in-shop displays will highlight the most popular styles, provide swatch books for customers to touch and feel fabrics, and interactive signage to inspire grooms and groomsmen to begin their formalwear journey. Customers will experience hands-on assistance while exploring Generation Tux's full collection and placing orders directly fromGenerationTux.com . With a fully online custom-fit program and virtual stylists, Generation Tux handles all fittings virtually, delivering suits and tuxedos to customers' doors 14 days before their event.The program is designed to deliver a seamless, elevated experience that simplifies the wedding planning journey from dress to tie. By integrating Generation Tux into the bridal styling process, the partnership offers a cohesive approach to dressing, including party management to easily invite, assign and track progress for wedding parties from online fittings to payment, no matter where each person is located."Through our partnership with Generation Tux, we know we are offering the highest quality product to our customers, and doing it at the best possible prices," said Elina Vilk, President and Chief Business Officer of David's Bridal. "For over 70 years, brides have trusted us to ensure they feel beautiful on their big day. We're ready and excited to offer the same to grooms online and exclusively in 10 select stores, with more to come." Each in-store program will be anchored by trained stylists and sales associates, equipped to provide expert guidance. This digital-first experience lets brides connect their wedding parties to ensure a seamless collaboration by exploring Generation Tux's complete online catalog, asking questions, comparing options, and placing orders directly from in-store iPads. This intuitive setup bridges the digital and physical worlds, combining the convenience of online shopping with the personal touch of an in-store consultation."We're thrilled to partner with David's Bridal to offer a seamless, head-to-toe wedding style experience for couples and their wedding parties," said Jason Jackson, President of Generation Tux. "This collaboration brings together two trusted brands with a shared commitment to convenience, quality, and exceptional service, making it easier than ever for couples to coordinate their looks from 'yes' to 'I do." The partnership also brings a host of customer benefits, including a free home try-on program for grooms, convenient at-home fitting and delivery, and easy returns after the event. With stylish, modern options to fit every body type and a process ideal for accommodating out-of-town wedding party members, Generation Tux makes it easier than ever to outfit the entire group. This one-stop solution for today's modern weddings even allows brides to earn points through David's Diamond Loyalty program, the wedding industry's first loyalty program.To learn more about the collaboration, preview looks from the collection and shop, visitwww.DavidsBridal.comand @davidsbridal on TikTok and Instagram.For additional assets, please seemedia kit here .###About David's BridalWith over 70 years of experience dressing people for all of life's special occasions, David's Bridal is built on the ethos of making dreams happen. David's Bridal is dedicated to creating innovative solutions that serve wedding and special occasion consumers and the industry at large.David's boasts the industry's only loyalty program, theDiamond Loyalty Program. This program, with almost 3 million members, provides perks and deals from partners likeGeneration Tux ,Shutterfly ,Little Tuxedosand much more, including the opportunity to win a free honeymoon. Additionally,Pearl by David'soffers consumers a wedding website, universal wedding registry, robustwedding checklist , and a new vendor marketplace that beautifully pairs brides with their perfect vendor partners.Pearl Media Network allows advertisers to tap into David's Bridal unmatched market reach to authentically connect with consumers through content across the web, social, podcast, streaming, video, in-store and more. Under the Pearl Media umbrella is Love Stories by David's, the top wedding media brand taking a digital-first approach to wedding content and inspiration with over 20M viewers per month across content platforms, including the wedding industry's sole podcast network, streaming TV and Snap Discover channels, and largest YouTube and TikTok channels, and a library of over 30,000 real wedding videos. Each video comes equipped with wedding data and details, contributing to a marketplace of over 60,000 wedding professionals to help couples better dream about, research and plan their big day.With more than 190 stores across the US, Canada, and franchise locations in Mexico, David's Bridal offers the convenience of one-stop shopping for every magical event in her life, including weddings, Quinceanera, graduations% PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 14:21:05 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 955 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 LONDON, GB / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Gabriel Resources Ltd. (TSXV:GBU - "Gabriel" or the "Company") announces the publication of its first quarter financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2025. Selected financial and operational information is outlined below and should be read in conjunction with the Company's unaudited consolidated financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the three months ended March 31, 2025, which are available on the Company's website at www.gabrielresources.com and have been filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca SummaryHighlights for the first quarter of 2025 and events subsequent to the quarter are set out below.ICSID Arbitration and AnnulmentOn March 8, 2024, the presiding tribunal ("Tribunal") in Gabriel's ICSID arbitration claim against Romania issued its final decision, rejecting Gabriel's claims on the merits by a 2-1 majority ("Arbitral Decision") and awarding approximately US$10 million in costs to Romania (the "CostsOrder").On July 8, 2024, Gabriel announced that it has filed an application under Article 52 of the ICSID Convention requesting the annulment of the Arbitral Decision ("AnnulmentApplication"). On July 12, 2024, the Acting Secretary-General of ICSID registered the application and notified the parties of a provisional stay of enforcement of the Costs Order ("Provisional Stay of Enforcement").In March 2024, the ad hoc committee (the "Committee") adjudicating the Company's Annulment application ruled that the Provisional Stay of Enforcement would continue only if Gabriel provided a guarantee from a bank or a third party with proven solvency for the full amount of the Costs Order. As Gabriel was unable to meet the conditions imposed by the Committee, the Provisional Stay of Enforcement was lifted effective April 25, 2025. As a result, Romania may pursue additional enforcement measures related to the Cost Award. There is no assurance that such actions against the Group's assets will not adversely affect the Company's financial condition and operations.The Committee held its first session on February 3, 2025, to discuss procedural matters for the Annulment proceedings, and subsequently issued Procedural Order No. 1 on February 11, 2025, establishing the following procedural calendar:Gabriel's Memorial on Annulment: April 3, 2025.Romania's Counter-Memorial on Annulment: July 7, 2025.Gabriel's Reply on Annulment: September 1, 2025.Romania's Rejoinder on Annulment: November 3, 2025.Hearing on the Annulment: January 22-23, 2026 (with January 24, 2026 reserved).On April 3, 2025, Gabriel filed its Memorial on Annulment ("Memorial") detailing the grounds that support the annulment of the Arbitral Decision, including, in particular, that:The Tribunal was improperly constituted, and the legitimacy and integrity of the ICSID arbitration was fundamentally undermined by undisclosed factors affecting the independence and impartiality of a Tribunal member.The Tribunal majority's liability decision is fatally defective because the majority manifestly exceeded its powers by failing to apply or even consider applicable law, seriously departed from fundamental procedural rules guaranteeing the parties' rights to be heard and equal treatment, and failed to provide adequate reasoning for key conclusions.Financial PerformanceIn Q1 2025, the Company reported a net loss of $3.58 million, an increase of $1.76 million, compared to the net loss of $1.82 million in the first quarter of 2024.This increase was primarily driven by:A $0.46 million increase in corporate, general, and administrative expenses ("CGA")A $0.11 million increase in interest related to the arbitral costs orderA $0.69 million decrease in share-based payments recoveryA $0.42 million increase in foreign exchange lossesA $0.08 million in other itemsCGA expenses for Q1 2025 include $1.20 million in costs associated with the pursuit of the Annulment Application, an increase of $1.05 million from $0.15 million in Q1 2024. This increase is largely attributed to legal and advisory services rendered in connection with the preparation and submission of the Memorial. Additionally, personnel costs increased from $0.92 million in Q1 2024 to $0.99 million in Q1 2025. Other CGA expenses declined by $0.65 million in comparison to the same period last year.Liquidity and Capital ResourcesAs of March 31, 2025, the Company reported a working capital deficiency of $17.77 million, compared to $17.444 million as at December 31, 2024. This amount includes cash and cash equivalents of $0.27 million, reflecting a decrease from $1.00 million as of December 31, 2024.The decrease in cash is primarily the result ofCash flow used in operating activities of $2.45 millionCash flow provided by financing activities of $1.72 millionCash used in Q1 2025 primarily reflects the net loss, adjusted for non-cash items, totaling $2.83 million, which was partially offset by a decrease in prepaid expenses and supplies of $0.31 million and increase in trade and other payables of $0.14 million.On February 13, 2025, the Company completed a consolidation of its issued and outstanding common shares ("CommonShares") on the basis of one post-consolidation Common Share for ten pre-consolidation Common Shares.On February 19, 2025, the Company announced a non-brokered private placement of up to 114,152,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.05 per Unit to raise gross proceeds of US$4.00 million (approximately $5.70 million) (the "Private Placement"). Each Unit comprised of:one Common Share;one Common Share purchase warrant, entitling the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of US$0.065 on or prior to March 6, 2030; andone contingent value right ("CVR"), granting the holder, subject to certain limitations and exclusions, a pro rata share of up to 65% of any proceeds received by the Company and/or its affiliates from any future arbitral claims concerning the Company's investment rights in Romania, subject to a maximum aggregate CVR entitlement of C$1.689 billion.The Company closed the Private Placement in three tranches with the final tranche closing on May 19, 2025. The full subscribed Private Placement resulted in the issuance of a total of 114,152,000 Units for aggregate gross proceeds of US$4.0 million. Following the settlement of US$1.54m in outstanding bridge financing loans through a debt-for-equity settlement arrangement (Note 7 to the Financial Statements), the Company received net proceeds of a PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 13:55:27 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 480 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / To keep the spotlight on women in global aviation and aerospace in recent months, Olga Custodio's release of her awe-inspiring memoir, Flightpath of Fortitude: Breaking Barriers, Building Horizons, is timely.As the first Latina to complete USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training, she served for 24 years and retired as a Lt Col. Custodio was also the first American Airlines Latina commercial airline pilot and retired as Captain with a 20-year career. Now a STEM advocate, speaker, author, and community leader, she advocates for inspiring and empowering students to pursue STEM careers in aviation and aerospace.As Custodio shares, graduating in the top 5% of her class (of 48) with a fighter qualification to fly the T-38 as an instructor pilot was the "easiest" part of her journey inside a profession dominated by men, including some who closed the door on opportunities she was qualified for. She writes, "Aviation has always been more than just flight - it is a testament to resilience, determination, and the unbreakablespirit of those who dare to defy gravity. My journey into the skies was never just about piloting aircraft; it was about navigating a world where few who looked like me had gone before. Flightpath of Fortitude is a tribute to every woman, every Latina, and every dreamer who has ever been told that the sky is out of reach." Flightpath of Fortitude has received acclaim by renowned figures in the military, aviation, business and STEM. "Custodio, the first Latina to become a U.S. military pilot and later a commercial airline captain, crafts her story with clarity, warmth, and an unyielding sense of purpose," says Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Chad T. Manske, USAF, Daedalian Foundation chairman of the Board of Trustees. Speaking to its universal appeal, Claudia Cataldi, president of Brazilian Press Association of Electronic and Digital Media-RJ and doctoral student specializing in Warfare at Brazilian War College, adds, "Olga Custodio, a woman ahead of her time and a pioneer far from her birthplace, shattered ceilings, and defied traditions with the discipline of a soldier and the heart of a trailblazer. She reminds us that belonging isn't about waiting for a seat at the table; it's about daring to build your own runway. Every chapter is a battlefield won through perseverance, every page a reminder that no dream is too distant when you have the courage to chase it." Finally, Chris Cole, powerpreneur and author of G Street to Wall Street, remarked, "Olga is the very definition of fortitude for any population that must fight twice as hard for a seat." The book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, Hudson Booksellers, Walmart, Waterstones, and numerous indie bookstores.For speaking engagements and media, contact Olga Custodio at purflygirl@ gmail.com Contact InformationOlga Custodiopurflygirl@ gmail.com SOURCE: PUR FlygirlRelated Images PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 16:45:08 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 329 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 ANKARA, TR / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / h2o Therapeutics announced that it has received European Union Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) Class IIa certification for Parky, a mobile app designed to monitor and manage Parkinson's Disease (PD) symptoms via Apple Watch. This follows the 510(k) clearance previously granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022, making Parky one of the few internationally regulated mobile medical apps specifically developed for Parkinson's.Parky utilizes Apple's Movement Disorder API to track motor symptoms such as tremors and dyskinesia in real time. The data is securely shared with healthcare professionals, allowing for continuous remote symptom tracking and personalized treatment adjustments. The underlying API was validated in a 343-participant study - 225 of whom were monitored for up to six months - referencing the gold-standard MDS-UPDRS clinical scale. The findings were published in Science Translational Medicine.With EU MDR Class IIa certification, Parky is now eligible for clinical use in over 30 countries that recognize the EU MDR regulatory framework, including all EU member states and multiple non-EU jurisdictions that adopt or align with these standards. "Receiving EU MDR certification is another transformative milestone for us," said Yagmur Selin Gulmus, founder of h2o Therapeutics. "This recognition confirms our ability to meet the highest global standards in digital health. We're now actively seeking strategic partnerships to support Parky's global adoption and bring its benefits to Parkinson's communities worldwide." Parkinson's Disease, affecting more than 10 million people globally, is the fastest-growing neurological disorder. Parky bridges the gap between episodic clinical assessments and real-world patient experience, enabling data-driven, individualized care through continuous passive monitoring.h2o Therapeutics is a digital health company developing clinically validated, wearable-integrated software solutions for neurological and chronic conditions. Based in Turkiye, the company combines rigorous regulatory pathways with consumer-first design to create prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) that improve patient outcomes and support continuous, real-world care.Contact InformationBulutay GunesBrand Managerbrand@ h2otherapeutics.com SOURCE: h2o therapeutics PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 02:30:28 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 399 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 29, 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=150815&wire=1&utm_campaign=26 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 PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 22:00:20 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 1008 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 /Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (TSX:JAG) today announced several changes to its senior management team that are designed to strengthen its leadership structure and support the Company's future growth plans.The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Luis Albano Tondo as Deputy Chief Executive Officer effective June 1, 2025. Mr. Albano Tondo will be based in Belo Horizonte, near the Company's operations, and will transition to the role of Chief Executive Officer following the conclusion of Vernon Baker's term as Chief Executive Officer on August 1, 2025. Mr. Albano Tondo brings extensive experience in the mining industry from both Brazilian and international roles, including major project development in Minas Gerais and international executive experience.To ensure a seamless leadership transition, Mr. Baker will remain with the Company through the end of July, following which, he will step down as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Jaguar. The Company would like to thank Mr. Baker for his exceptional leadership over the past six years, including through recent challenges relating to the dry-stack slump and subsequent temporary suspension at the MTL Complex. His steady guidance has been instrumental in maintaining stability and positioning the Company for continued progress.In addition, Chief Financial Officer, Alfred Colas, will be stepping down to pursue other opportunities effective May 31, 2025. The Company would like to thank Mr. Colas for his dedication and contributions over the past 18 months and wishes him success in his future endeavors.The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Marina Fagundes de Freitas, currently Vice President, Finance and Projects, as Interim Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Fagundes de Freitas has been with Jaguar for over 14 years, holding increasingly senior roles across finance and operations.Jeff Kennedy, Chairman and Director of Jaguar Mining stated: "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank both Alfred and Vernon for their commitment to the Company. We are excited to welcome Luis and look forward to the leadership and experience he brings to Jaguar. We are also pleased to be able to recognize Marina's long-standing contributions and are confident that her extensive experience will serve the Company well as she takes on this expanded role." About Jaguar Mining Inc.Jaguar Mining Inc. is a Canadian-listed junior gold mining, development, and exploration company operating in Brazil with three gold mining complexes and a large land package with significant upside exploration potential from mineral claims. The Company's principal operating assets are located in the Iron Quadrangle, a prolific greenstone belt in the state of Minas Gerais and include the MTL Mining Complex (Turmalina mine and plant) and Caete Mining Complex (Pilar and Roca Grande mines, and Caete plant). The Roca Grande mine has been on temporary care and maintenance since April 2019. The Company also owns the Paciencia Mining Complex (Santa Isabel mine and plant), which had been on care and maintenance since 2012 and is planned to restart in 2025. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.jaguarmining.com For further information please contact:Vernon BakerChief Executive Officer vernon.baker@jaguarmining.com 416-847-1854Marina Fagundes de FreitasInterim Chief Financial Officer marina.freitas@jaguarmining.com.br +55 31-98463-5344Forward-Looking StatementsCertain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's expectations and plans relating to the future. All of the forward-looking information made in this news release is qualified by the cautionary statements below and those made in our other filings with the securities regulators in Canada. Forward-looking information contained in forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "are expected," "is forecast," "is targeted," "approximately," "plans," "anticipates," "projects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "believe" 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. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, may be considered to be or include forward-looking information. This news release contains forward-looking information regarding, among other things, the timing and ability of the Company to execute its strategy and delivering long-term value for shareholders, as referenced above, any information and statements related to future operations at any of the Company's properties, including Pilar and Turmalina, and any statements relating to the management changes described above, which remain subject to the acceptance of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Company has made numerous assumptions with respect to forward-looking information contained herein, including, among other things, assumptions about the future and long-term stability of the Satinoco tailings pile; there will be no unforeseen adverse weather events or other external factors that could delay the Company's recovery or remediation efforts; the current assumptions regarding the extent of the damage and timeline for repairs at the MTL complex remain accurate and will not require significant revision as further assessments are completed; estimated timeline for the development of the Company's mineral properties; and any changes to general business and economic conditions. Forward-looking information involves a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including among others: the risk of Jaguar not meeting the forecast plans regarding its operations and financial performance; uncertainties with respect to the price of gold, labour disruptions, mechanical failures, increase in costs, environmental compliance and change in environmental legislation and regulation, weather delays and increased costs or production delays due to natural disasters, power disruptions, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations; uncertainties inherent to capital markets in general (including the sometimes volatile valuation of securities and an uncertain ability to raise new capital) and other risks inherent to the gold exploration, development and production industry, which, if incorrect, may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipate PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 14:02:11 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 708 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 The Deal Increases the Misfits Market Assortment, Offers a Free Annual Misfits+ Membership to The Rounds Members and Absorbs Corporate and Multi-Family PartnershipsNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Misfits Market, the online grocery platform that delivers a better way to shop for better groceries, today announced the acquisition of The Rounds, a startup known for restocking recurring essentials in reusable packaging and its highly engaged member base. Misfits Market Misfits Market Online Grocery Delivery Box Available in the Contiguous U.S.This deal comes on the heels of record customer acquisition in April and May 2025 and it marks Misfits Market's second acquisition in three years, following the successful 2022 integration of Imperfect Foods. The addition of The Rounds establishes Misfits Market as the leading acquisitive force in sustainable grocery, leveraging its scaled infrastructure, deep supply chain expertise, and mission-first model to bring a better grocery experience to more people across the U.S."This acquisition furthers the joint mission of both Misfits Market and The Rounds to reduce waste and inefficiency in the supply chain while expanding our offering," said Abhi Ramesh, founder and CEO of Misfits Market. "The Rounds earned a loyal following by making low-waste, high-quality shopping seamless on a local level. We're excited to welcome their members to Misfits Market, where that same mission continues at a national scale with more selection and deeper impact." Advancing a Shared Sustainability MissionBoth The Rounds and Misfits Market have pioneered innovative solutions to make online grocery more sustainable, including reusable packaging, using eco-friendly materials, right-sizing required packaging, and efficient last-mile delivery and reverse logistics capabilities.The Rounds built a loyal following in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., by rethinking the last mile of grocery delivery via a near-zero-waste, recurring member experience with reusable packaging. Misfits Market in turn tackles waste within the food system, saving an average of 500,000 pounds of food from waste or lesser outcomes each week. The company will expand its assortment via the acquisition to ensure goods don't go to waste."We have a great opportunity to advance our shared mission, fundamentally reimagining how more people access quality grocery essentials and household staples more sustainably," said The Rounds co-founder and CEO Alex Torrey. "Going forward, The Rounds members will access all the benefits of Misfits Market." What The Rounds Members Can ExpectMembers of The Rounds will get a $30 credit when they join Misfits Market plus a free year of Misfits+ ($69 value), a membership program that unlocks exclusive weekly deals on groceries and free shipping, and helps fight hunger with every order. They'll also enjoy delivery by Misfits Market's first-party driver network and access to its packaging return program, the only one of its kind among national grocers. Service updates, timing, and any changes to local operations will be communicated directly to members.Additionally, Misfits Market will expand its B2B offering with some of the largest corporate and multifamily operators nationwide via their partnerships with The Rounds. This new distribution channel will allow Misfits Market to reach hundreds of thousands of new consumers with its lower emission delivery model.About Misfits MarketMisfits Market is the direct-to-consumer platform that delivers groceries curated for quality, nutrition, sustainability, and flavor instead of appearances. The company has created the first-of-its-kind food value supply chain focused on building relationships with farmers, distributors, and producers to reduce food waste and make shopping for sustainable, high-quality groceries easier and more affordable. The company serves nearly every ZIP code in the contiguous U.S., has rescued more than 238 million pounds of food to date, and has raised more than $525 million in funding. To learn more and order your first box, visitmisfitsmarket.comor download the Misfits Market app oniOSandAndroid .About The RoundsThe Rounds is an AI-powered last mile delivery platform designed to more intelligently manage your inventory of grocery and household essentials. Founded in 2019, The Rounds has raised more than $60 million. The Rounds is based in NYC and served members in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Its mission is to make managing everyday recurring essentials effortless and more sustainable than the alternative.Media Contact: press@ misfitsmarket.com Contact InformationKen Shumanpr@ misfitsmarket.com SOURCE: Misfits MarketRelated Images PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 13:50:13 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 892 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 BURLINGTON, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 /Murchison Minerals Ltd. ("Murchison" or the "Company") (TSXV:MUR)is pleased to announce that, subject to all regulatory approvals, it intends to raise up to $2,000,000 in a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering"), with the proceeds directed towards the Company's 100%-owned BMK project in Saskatchewan, working capital and administrative expenses.Pursuant to the Offering, the Company will issue common shares ("CS") at a price of $0.30 per CS and national flow-through common shares ("FTS") at a price of $0.36 per FTS, in any combination to raise aggregate gross proceeds of up to $2,000,000.A finder's fee may apply to a portion of the proceeds raised under the Offering in the amount of 6% cash and 6% finders' warrants. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of issue.It is anticipated that Donald K. Johnson, a director and control person of the Company will acquire a certain number of HDS under the Offering to maintain his current ownership at around 30%. Any such participation will be considered a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101"). It is anticipated that the transaction will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 based on a determination that the securities of the Company are listed on the TSXV and that the fair market value of the Offering, insofar as it involves interested parties, will not exceed $2,500,000 or 25% of the market capitalization of the Company. The Offering was approved by all independent directors of the Company.About Murchison Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:MUR)Murchison is a Canadianbased exploration Company focused on the exploration and development of the 100% - owned Brabant Lake zinccoppersilver project in northcentral Saskatchewan and on nickel-copper-cobalt exploration at the 100% - owned HPM Project in Quebec.Additional information about Murchison and its exploration projects can be found on the Company's website atwww.murchisonminerals.ca . For further information, please contact:Troy Boisjoli, President and CEO,Erik H Martin, CFO, orJustin Lafosse, Director Corporate DevelopmentTel: (416) 3503776 info@ murchisonminerals.com ForwardLooking InformationCertain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. This forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, and dependence upon regulatory approvals. FLI herein includes, but is not limited to: future drill results; stakeholder engagement and relationships; parameters and methods used with respect to the assay results; the prospects, if any, of the deposits; future prospects at the deposits; and the significance of exploration activities and results. FLI is designed to help you understand management's current views of its near- and longer-term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. FLI by their nature are based on assumptions and 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 such FLI. Although the FLI contained in this press release is based upon what management believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders and prospective purchasers of securities of the Company that actual results will be consistent with such FLI, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, and neither the Company nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any such FLI. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake, and assumes no obligation, to update or revise any such FLI contained herein to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by law. Unless otherwise noted, this press release has been prepared based on information available as of the date of this press release. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the FLI or information contained herein. Furthermore, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in FLI. Assumptions upon which FLI is based, without limitation, include: the ability of exploration activities to accurately predict mineralization; the accuracy of geological modelling; the ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; the legitimacy of title and property interests in the deposits; the accuracy of key assumptions, parameters or methods used to obtain the assay results; the ability of the Company to obtain required approvals; the results of exploration activities; the evolution of the global economic climate; metal prices; environmental expectations; community and nongovernmental actions; and any impacts of COVID-19 on the deposits, the Company's financial position, the Company's ability to secure required funding, or operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada, which are available at www.sedar.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: Murchison Minerals Ltd. PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 21:18:31 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 559 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Leading securities law firmBleichmar Fonti & Auld LLPannounces that a lawsuit has been filed against Organon & Co. (NYSE:OGN) and certain of the Company's senior executives for potential violations of the federal securities laws.If you invested in Organon you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/organon-co-class-action Investors have until July 22, 2025, to ask the Court to be appointed to lead the case. The complaint asserts claims under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of investors who purchased Organon securities. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and is captioned: Hauser v. Organon & Co., et al., No. 25-cv-05322.Why was Organon Sued for Securities Fraud?Organon is a global healthcare company focused on women's health that has historically rewarded its shareholders with a healthy dividend. In October 2024, Organon completed a $1.2 billion acquisition of Dermavant, a biopharmaceutical company focused on dermatological conditions. As alleged, while the acquisition increased Organon's debt, the Company assured investors it would maintain its dividend, which Organon asserted was its "#1 capital allocation priority." In truth, Organon had shifted its capital allocation priority after the Dermavant acquisition to focus on reducing its debt, ultimately leading the Company to severely cut its dividend.The Stock Declines as the Truth is RevealedOn May 1, 2025, Organon announced that management reset the Company's dividend payout from $0.28 per share to $0.02 per share. Organon's CEO explained that the Company "reset our capital allocation priorities to accelerate progress towards deleveraging" and that "[b]y deleveraging more rapidly, we will continue to strengthen the future prospects of the company." Organon's CFO added, "[t]he biggest issues we face . . . relate to managing our leverage and relate to growth. And we need capital to solve both of those issues, and so returning capital to shareholders is right now, less of a priority." On this news, the price of Organon stock declined roughly 27%, from $12.93 per share on April 30, 2025, to $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025.Click here if you suffered losses: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/organon-co-class-action What Can You Do?If you invested in Organon you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.All representation is on a contingency fee basis, there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses.Submit your information by visiting:Or contact:Ross Shikowitz ross@ bfalaw.com 212-789-3619Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It was named among the Top 5 plaintiff law firms by ISS SCAS in 2023 and its attorneys have been named Titans of the Plaintiffs' Bar by Law360 and SuperLawyers by Thompson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.'s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.SOURCE: Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 05:00:14 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 449 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK CITY, NY AND NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESS Newswire / May 29, 2025 /Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have untilJuly 22, 2025to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Organon & Co. (NYSE:OGN), if they purchased the Company's securities between October 31, 2024 and April 30, 2025, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of Organon and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) , or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-ogn/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court byJuly 22, 2025 .About the LawsuitOrganon and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.On March 10, 2025, pre-market, the Company announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, disclosing, among other things, that management had reset the Company's dividend payout, from $0.28 to $0.02, contradicting its prior statements assuring investors that the regular quarterly dividend was a number one priority and that the Company was committed to its capital allocation strategy through the aforementioned dividend. On this news, the price of Organon's shares fell more than 27%, from a closing market price of $12.93 per share on April 30, 2025, to $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025.The case is Hauser V. Organon & Co., et al., No. 25-cv-05322.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. This past year, KSF was ranked by SCAS among the top 10 firms nationally based upon total settlement value. KSF serves a variety of clients, including public and private institutional investors, and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana, Chicago, New Jersey, and a representative office in Luxembourg.TOP 10 Plaintiff Law Firms - According to ISS Securities Class Action ServicesTo learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com Contact:Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partner lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com 1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163CONNECT WITH US: FaceBook || Instagram || YouTube || TikTok || LinkedInSOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 12:00:13 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 986 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 CALGARY, AB / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Primary Hydrogen Corp. (TSXV:HDRO)(FRA:83W0)(OTCQB:HNATF) ("Primary" or the "Company") is pleased to outline an initial exploration program for the Wicheeda North project (the "Project") in British Columbia. The exploration program (the "Program") will be focused on the evaluation of natural hydrogen potential in addition to the potential to host significant rare earth element (REE) mineralization. The first phase of the program will include soil and soil-gas sampling, in conjunction with property-wide geophysics, both of which leverage and expand on prior exploration programs. Specifically, the Program will focus on extending soil sampling efforts within the remaining target zones identified from magnetic and historical geochemical anomalies, and conducting airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey over the southern portion of the properties which was not previously done and coincides with the southern edges and potential future expansion of historical prospect sampling. The Project has the potential to host REE mineralization as it occurs within a favorable geological belt know to contain carbonatite-hosted REE mineralization such as the Main Zone on the Wicheeda project located within 5 kilometres to the southeast. The Wicheeda Rare Earths Project, which is owned by Defense Metals Corp., adjoins the Project to the southwest and is host to a NI 43-101[1] M&I Resource of 29.3Mt grading 2.27% TREO (total rare earth oxide) plus Inferred Resource of 5.7 Mt grading 1.4% TREO."Anomalous cesium (Ce) in soil samples shows a spatial distribution consistent with the Wicheeda REE deposit, located 5 km along strike. This alignment, combined with a well-defined circular magnetic anomaly, underscores strong geological potential. Newly identified soil targets further enhance the project's exploration upside," said Peter Lauder, VP Exploration at Primary Hydrogen Corp.The Wicheeda North project is comprised of nine contiguous mineral claims covering an area of 2,138 hectares (21.1 km2) in the northern Cariboo Mining Division. The Project is located within the Rocky Mountain Trench, a significant regional scale geological feature, which is recognized to host carbonatite intrusions which is the host for REE mineralization. Historical geochemical and geophysical studies have identified seven targets based on identification of sub-circular to elliptical features within magnetic anomalies and coincident elevated levels of cesium (Ce) in rock and soil samples (where available). Two of the more prominent targets[2], Grid A and Grid D in Figure 1, highlighted by anomalous values as determined using the 99th percentile of REE's and is indicative of a potential REE source. These two target areas will be the initial focus of follow-up and expansionary soil sampling and geochemical analysis to better define the extent and trend of mineralization. Concurrent geophysical surveys are planned to extend coverage to the southwest portion of the Project.Peter Lauder, P.Geo. (ON, QC, NFLD), VP Exploration at Primary Hydrogen Corp., is the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.Figure 1: Wicheeda North Project LocationAbout Primary Hydrogen Corp. Primary Hydrogen is dedicated to the exploration and development of natural hydrogen resources. With over 740 acres in the U.S. and 230 square kilometers across Canada, the Company's portfolio includes the Blakelock, Hopkins, Mary's Harbour, Point Rosie, Crooked Amphibolite, Coquihalla, and Cogburn projects. Primary also holds the Arthur Lake copper project in British Columbia and has an option to acquire a 75% interest in a hydrogen-REE project known as Wicheeda North, also located in British Columbia.FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Ben AsuncionChief Executive OfficerPrimary Hydrogen Corp.Email: ben@ primaryh2.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 NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATIONThis news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: (i) the potential for natural hydrogen and rare earth element (REE) mineralization at the Wicheeda North project; (ii) the anticipated benefits and outcomes of the Option Agreement with Power One Resources Corp., including the ability to earn a 75% interest in the Project; (iii) the geological prospectivity of the Wicheeda North project due to its location and geological characteristics; (iv) the potential for expansion of identified REE mineralization anomalies; (v) the planned exploration activities, including the C$1.5 million exploration expenditure commitment over 18 months; (vi) the formation of a Joint Venture upon completion of the Option Agreement; (vii) the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) for the Option Agreement; and (viii) the Company's strategic positioning in the natural hydrogen and REE sectors.Forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as "plans," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "may," "could," "should," "would," "might," or "will," or variations of such words and phrases. These statements are based on certain assumptions, including but not limited to: the accuracy of geological, geophysical, and geochemical data related to the Wicheeda North project; the presence of deep-seated faults and favorable geological conditions for natural hydrogen and REE mineralization; the reliability of historical exploration data, including airborne geophysical surveys and soil sampling; the Company's ability to secure TSXV approval for the Option Agreement; the Company's ability to fulfill the cash, share, and exploration expenditure commitments under the Option Agreement; and the Company's ability to successfully execute its exploration programs within the anticipated timelines and budgets.These forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such risks include, but are not limited to: the uncertainty of discovering commercially viable natural hydrogen or REE deposits at the Wicheeda North project; inaccuracies or limitations in geological, geophysical, or geochemical data; unexpected geological conditions or structural complexities; delays or failures in obtaining TSXV approval for PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 07:10:06 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 938 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Not for release to US wire services or distribution in the United StatesANNOUNCEMENT TO THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE AND AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGESUBIACO, AU / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / The Board of RTG Mining Inc. ("RTG", the "Company") (TSX Code:RTG)(ASX Code:RTG) is pleased to announce that the Company has successfully completed the issue of 613,755,996 Chess Depository Instruments ("Securities") at a price of A$0.025 per Security to institutional and sophisticated investors pursuant to the placement announced by the Company on 31 March 2025 ("Placement"). Tranche 2 of the Private Placement raised proceeds of circa A$15.3 million (before costs).A Notice of Meeting to approve Tranche 2 of the Placement was sent to shareholders on 29 April 2025. Shareholders approved Tranche 2 at the Annual General Meeting on 23 May 2025.Foster Stockbroking Pty Ltd ("FSB") acted as lead manager and bookrunner to the Placement ("Lead Manager").The Placement is conducted under exemptions from prospectus and registration requirements of securities laws in relevant countries. The Placement is subject to approval of TSX. The Company intends to rely on exemption under Section 602.1 of the TSX company manual with respect to the Placement and shareholder approval.ABOUT RTG MINING INCRTG Mining Inc. is a mining and exploration company listed on the main board of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange. RTG is currently focused primarily on progressing the Mabilo Project to start-up having now received a mining permit for the Project, with a view to moving quickly and safely to a producing gold and copper company.RTG also has several exciting new opportunities including the Panguna Project in Bougainville, which it remains committed to while also considering further new business development opportunities.RTG has an experienced management team which has to date developed seven mines in five different countries, including being responsible for the development of the Masbate Gold Mine in the Philippines through CGA Mining Limited. RTG has some of the most respected international institutional investors as shareholders including Equinox Partners and Franklin Templeton.ENQUIRIESPresident & CEO - Justine MageeTel: +61 8 6489 2900Email: jmagee@ rtgmining.com Australian Investor and Media Contact Sam Burns: +61 400 164 067Email: sam.burns@sdir.com.au COMPLIANCE STATEMENTDate: 30 May 2025Authorised for release by: By the Board of DirectorsCAUTIONARY NOTE STATEMENTThe Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor does it accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this press release, which has been prepared by management.This announcement includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this announcement, other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements, including statements made or implied relating to the anticipated timing, closing, size, structure of and exemptions utilized under the Placement, the use of the net proceeds from the Placement, the timing of the shareholder meeting to approve Tranche 2 of the Placement, the Company's opportunities to diversify its Philippine interests and to participate in the redevelopment of the Panguna Mine in Bougainville, the Company's objectives, strategies to achieve those objectives, the Company's beliefs, plans, estimates and intentions, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, plans for further exploration. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on certain factors and assumptions. 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from RTG's expectations include uncertainties related to market conditions and demand for the Placement, the receipt of requisite shareholder and regulatory approvals, fluctuations in gold and other commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs, recovery rates, production estimates and estimated economic return; the need for cooperation of government agencies in the development of RTG's mineral projects; the need to obtain additional financing to develop RTG's mineral projects; the possibility of delay in development programs or in construction projects and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones for RTG's mineral projects and other risks and uncertainties as discussed in RTG's annual report for the year ended December 31, 2024 and detailed from time to time in our other filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities available at www.sedar.com . The forwardlooking statements made in this announcement relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. RTG will not release publicly any revisions or updates to these forwardlooking statements to reflect events, circumstances or unanticipated events occurring after the date of this announcement except as required by law or by any appropriate regulatory authority.NOT FOR RELEASE OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATESThis announcement has been prepared for publication in Canada and Australia and may not be released to US wire services or distributed in the United States. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Any securities described in this announcement have not been, and will not be, registered under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to or for the account or benefit of a U.S. Person (as defined in Regulation S under the US Securities Act), except in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, registration under the US Securities Act and applicable US state securities laws.SOURCE: RTG Mining Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 16:56:07 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 328 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Calling All Little Artists! RuffleButts Kicks Off National Creativity Day with Fun Contest and Exciting PrizesDALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / In honor of National Creativity Day,RuffleButtsis kicking off a month-long celebration of imagination and self-expression with the return of their belovedLittle Artists Design Contest.Budding young artists across the country are invited to unleash their creativity for a chance to win exciting prizes, including $200 in RuffleButts store credit and a bundle of art supplies.RuffleButts is passionate about inspiring kids to dream big and express themselves through creativity. Whether it's through playful clothing designs or fun contests, they love helping little ones explore their imagination and make joyful memories.Parents can help their little ones get started bydownloading RuffleButts' free coloring pagesand by encouraging their children to create their own original design onthe blank canvas . Once their design is complete, simply upload a picture or scanned copy through theform available on the RuffleButts website . Entries must be submitted by June 30, 2025, and winners will be announced in July.How to Enter:Download the free coloring pages andcreate an original designCompletethe submission formon the RuffleButts websiteUpload a photo or scan of your child's artworkFor more information on this content and how to enter,visit their website . Follow RuffleButts on social media to stay up-to-date on contrast progress and winner announcements ( Facebook ,Instagram , andTikTok )About RuffleButts + RuggedButtsRuffleButts + RuggedButts is a digitally native premium children's apparel company founded in 2007 with a ruffle bloomer that has now grown to a full assortment of premium children's apparel. Known for lasting quality, playful prints, and family-matching collections for life's special moments, RuffleButts has quickly grown to annual revenue exceeding $40M. Our products can be found online at Rufflebutts.com Ruggedbutts.com , Amazon, select premium retailers such as Nordstrom, and hundreds of specialty retail locations around the globe. RuffleButts has been a Summit Park holding since 2020.Contact InformationScott Adams Sr. Director of Marketingsadams@ rufflebutts.com (704) 825-8811SOURCE: RuffleButts, Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 14:00:30 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 1017 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Trixo Fund Review: Is the Trixo Fund trading robot safe and legit for UK investors? Read our detailed analysis of performance, fees, security measures, and real user feedback.FORT ALBANY, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 /Introduction to Trixo FundAutomated trading robots promise to take the emotion-and heavy lifting-out of financial markets. Trixo Fund has recently gained traction among UK investors for its AI-driven approach to spotting high-probability trades across forex, cryptocurrencies, and stocks. But does it live up to the hype? In this in-depth review, we'll unpack Trixo Fund's technology, performance claims, fees, user feedback, and safety credentials. By the end, you'll know whether this trading robot is a legitimate way to grow your capital or just another over-blown marketing pitch.In terms of achieving financial success, trading cryptocurrencies has become one of the most lucrative strategies. People are presently using automated trading systems, which have become an intelligent, rapid, and profitable trading method.Open Your Trixo Fund Account Now From The Official United Kingdom SiteThe exceptional service enables users to earn a great deal of money. Trixo Fund is a trading robot with unique characteristics and flexible operation that enables traders to trade without difficulty.About Trixo FundLaunched in 2024, Trixo Fund positions itself as a next-generation, fully automated trading solution designed for both beginners and seasoned traders. According to its official site, the platform combines machine-learning algorithms with real-time market data to generate trade signals, execute orders, and manage risk-all without human intervention. Key highlights:Asset Coverage: Forex majors and minors, leading cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, etc.), and select equity indices.Interface: Cloud-based dashboard accessible via desktop or mobile.Account Tiers: "Starter" (demo mode), "Standard" (minimum $250 deposit), and "Pro" (enhanced leverage and lower spreads).Claims: Average monthly returns of 8-12%, based on proprietary backtesting.While Trixo Fund's sleek website and bold return figures attract attention, independent verification-and real-user experiences-are crucial before handing over funds. In the sections below, we'll dissect how the robot really works, where its data comes from, and what actual UK customers have to say.Join Trixo Fund today and automate your trades-see why UK investors are raving!How Does the Trixo Fund Work?The platform is automated and pre-programmed. The programming is complete. Thus the application will begin functioning immediately after the conclusion of the live streaming session. The program enables investors to choose whether or not to withdraw their funds and begin earning.In this manner, this system follows the payment calculation. The full transactional procedure is completed within 24 hours. Each of the stages takes barely a fraction of a second to complete. The developers will administer the Auto Trading platform and examine its associated issues. Buying and selling cryptocurrencies becomes a very flexible enterprise when used as a trading platform.Due to the altering market values, investors should constantly capitalize on the favorable indications that catch their attention. Trixo Fund utilizes the live trading functionality to enable users to generate income using the program.It occurs so that the system's expert brokers always review the transactions chosen by the trading robots. When a trader realizes a profit, the Trixo Fund mechanism receives a tiny portion of that profit.The remaining balance is subsequently credited to the user's account. The most impressive aspect of this whole procedure is that one will never encounter problems with hidden fees. Transparency in the system and accurate payments make the site an excellent venue for trading.Limited spots available: Activate Trixo Fund's AI robot and boost your portfolio!How to Use Trixo Fund?A few steps are required to use this program. These are given below:Joining the programOne must install the program and begin the account registration procedure before being able to trade. In this case, people must complete an online form that will only take a few seconds. The process is quick and requires very littleinformation .Validating SpecificsThey must provide information such as a valid email address, account name, phone number, and password. The system then moves on to the verification phase. After checking the details, the successful account creation will be shown.Trading Account FundingTrixo Fund offers several payment alternatives.When people begin making deposits, they will have the opportunity to deposit between $250 and $15,000. Traders may begin with as little as $250 with their Visa cards.More Information on Trixo Fund Can Be Found On The Official UK Website HereCommencing to TradeThrough Trixo Fund, it takes just a few minutes to make a deposit. One may use the demo trading tool to get knowledge about auto trading. With this platform, people can also access the live trading feature, which will help them understand how trading robots operate.After everything else, they must click the "deposit" button. Then, they may choose the broker and deposit method of their choosing. The brokers will let users use credit and debit cards, Skrill, Neteller, and other payment methods.However, it is important to note that PayPal and Bitcoin are not accepted here. After completing all other steps, the money may be processed within 48 hours.Test Trixo Fund's AI-driven strategy today-secure your edge in UK markets!Advantages of the Trixo FundPrize-Winning SoftwareThe analytical technologies have resulted in a 98 percent success rate for Trixo Fund. The UK Trading Association has ranked the firm as number one in thetrading softwarearea due to its high success rate. It is also receiving increased interest from investors, brokers, and anyone interested in trading. Moreover, the system's openness makes the company a leader.All Cryptocurrency TradingOne may now generate enormous bitcoin earnings by using automated trading software. It is potent and compatible with all cryptocurrencies.Completely Automatic TradingThe program has both an automatic trading robot mode and a manual option for trading. Auto-trading is a leading alternative in this case since it allows the software to undertake trading operations without human participation. Traders who prefer manual control will now have the option to execute transactions manually.Excellent TechnologyStandard development practices prepare software for Trixo Fund. The criteria stipulate that it must be 0.01 seconds faster than PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 13:50:09 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 658 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / TRU Precious Metals Corp. (TSXV:TRU)(OTCQB:TRUIF)(FSE:706) ("TRU" or the "Company") announces that it will voluntarily delist from the OTC Markets Group OTCQB Venture market ("OTCQB") effective May 31, 2025. Beginning on June 1, 2025, the Company's common shares will be quoted in the US on the OTC PINK Current Market ("OTC"), also operated by the OTC Markets Group.TRU CEO Steve Nicol commented: "This voluntary delisting is part of our ongoing cost-rationalization effort aimed at maximizing the allocation of funds towards exploration activities to create value for our shareholders." TRU's shares will continue to trade in Canada on the TSX Venture Exchange under the current ticker symbol "TRU," and will be quoted in the US on the OTC under the current ticker symbol "TRUIF".About TRU Precious Metals Corp. TRU (TSXV:TRU)(OTCQB:TRUIF)(FSE:706) is on a mission to build long-term shareholder value through prudent natural resource property development. The company's flagship project is the Golden Rose Project a regional-scale 297.50 km2 land package in Central Western Newfoundland (includes a 33.25 km2 package of claims over which TRU has an option with TSX-listed Quadro Resources to acquire up to an aggregate 65% ownership) which straddles a 45 km strike length along the gold deposit-bearing Cape Ray - Valentine Lake Shear Zone, directly between Calibre Mining's Valentine Project and AuMEGA Metals' Cape Ray Gold Project. TRU is currently focused on efficiently discovering the full gold and copper potential at Golden Rose, targeting continuity along this proven gold bearing trend. The Golden Rose Project is currently subject to an Earn-In Agreement with TSX-listed Eldorado Gold Corporation ("Eldorado"), whereby Eldorado has the option to fund CAD15.25M in cash payments and exploration expenditures over 5 years to earn an 80%-interest in the Golden Rose project. Please refer to our July 30th, 2024 press release for further details of the agreement.TRU is approximately 36%-owned by European strategic investor Ormonde Mining plc (AQSE:ORM).For further information about TRU, please contact:Steve NICOLCEOTRU Precious Metals Corp.Phone: 1-855-760-2TRU (2878)Email: ir@ trupreciousmetals.com To connect with TRU via social media, below are links:X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/metalstru YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TruMetalsCorp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tru-precious-metals-corp/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TRUMetals/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TRUMetals/ Acknowledgement TRU would like to thank the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for financial support through the Junior Exploration Assistance Program and the Federal Government for its critical mineral assistance funding for the exploration activities at Golden Rose.Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Golden Rose, the Company's exploration programs and results, and commodities prices that are believed by management to be reasonable in the circumstances, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation: mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on Golden Rose; the exploration potential of Golden Rose and the nature and style of mineralization at Golden Rose; risks inherent in mineral exploration activities; volatility in precious metals and base metals prices; volatility in economic conditions and financial markets; and those other risks described in the Company's continuous disclosure documents. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated by the forward-looking statements herein. Investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements herein except as required by applicable securities laws.This press release is solely the responsibility of TRU, and Eldorado is not in any way responsible or liable for the contents hereof.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.SOURCE: TRU Precious Metals Corp. PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-30 22:00:26 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 511 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 MIAMI, FL / ACCESS Newswire / May 30, 2025 / Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneysis excited to open our new office inMiami ,Florida , extending our commitment to helping injured individuals in the Sunshine State. Our mission remains the same: to take on complex and catastrophic injury cases, securing the compensation our clients need to heal and move forward with their lives. Adam Zayed, Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Adam Zayed, Miami Personal Injury LawyerIf you need help in Miami, Florida, don't hesitate to contact us by phone, online, or visit our new office. We offer a free consultation with a Miami personal injury lawyer and work on acontingency feebasis - no fees unless we win your case.About Our FirmThe team at Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys brings decades of experience and has recovered over $100 million in verdicts andsettlementsfor our clients. Since the inception of our firm in Illinois, our mission has been to advocate for those harmed in catastrophic accidents.Our attorneyshave received recognition from organizations such asSuper Lawyers ,Best Lawyers , and theMillion Dollar Advocates Forum . As we expand to Miami, we are committed to bringing the same pursuit of justice to ensure that every client receives the compensation they deserve.Types of Accidents We Handle in MiamiAt Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys, we handle all types of accident cases in Florida, including the following and more:Car accidents: Often caused by speeding, distracted driving, or driving under the influence.Medical malpractice: If you've been injured due to a medical provider's negligence, we'll investigate and prove your case.Motorcycle accidents: These often result in serious injuries. We fight to get the medical care and compensation you need.Pedestrian accidents: Pedestrian accidents are often severe or fatal. We hold drivers accountable for your injuries and losses, ensuring you get the compensation you deserve.Slip and fall accidents: These can occur in workplaces, restaurants, and public spaces. We'll investigate and hold property owners responsible for your injuries.Truck accidents: Commercial trucks can cause serious damage or death when they are involved in collisions. We'll stand up to the trucking and insurance companies for you.Wrongful death: Losing a loved one is always tragic. If a negligent party caused the death of your loved one, we'll hold them accountable.Don't try to handle your case alone after you are injured due to negligence; our team is here to give you the help and support you need.Proudly Serving the Sunshine StateZayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys is excited to announce the opening of our new office in Miami, Florida. If you have been injured in an accident, reach out to our team today. We'll put our experience and impressive track record to work for you. Visit or contact our Miami office for a free consultation - no case is too challenging for us.Media Contact:Company Name: Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury AttorneysAddress: 169 East Flagler St, Suite 1639City: MiamiState: FloridaZip: 33131Country: United StatesPhone: (305) 916-6455 https://zayedlawoffices.com/miami-personal-injury-lawyer/ Contact InformationAdam ZayedMiami Personal Injury Lawyerinfo@ zayedlawoffices.com (312) 726-1616SOURCE: Zayed Law Offices The Editor-in-Chief of PREMIUM TIMES, Musikilu Mojeed, has received an invitation to serve as the moderator for a distinguished panel session at the upcoming Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) scheduled to take place next week in Germany. The annual conference is a joint initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Michael Otto Foundation. According to a letter addressed to Mr Mojeed and jointly signed by the directors of the conference, Imke Rajamani and Henry Alt-Haaker, the event is billed for 2 June at the Chamber of Commerce Hamburg, Germany. During the event, Mr Mojeed will facilitate a high-level panel discussion entitled Shaping a More Equal Future: Confronting Inequality for Global Progress. Joining him on the panel will be eminent speakers, including Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of OXFAM International; Fernando Marani, Director of the Inequality and Exclusion Programme at Pathfinders International; Kadiatu Allie, Deputy Minister of Finance for Sierra Leone; and Niels Annen, State Secretary from Germanys Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. HSC 2025 HSC is an international forum that convenes distinguished leaders from politics, business, academia, and civil society to develop solutions to the most pressing global challenges of the time. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later According to the organisers, this years edition of the HSC will center on three thematic pillars; it will address the urgent need to reshape the global financial architecture, ensuring fairer and more sustainable financing models while alleviating debt burdens associated with climate change and other transnational challenges. The event will also focus on unlocking investment flows to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and global climate and biodiversity targets, with particular emphasis on mobilising private sector capital for sustainable projects in emerging and developing economies. Additionally, the conference is expected to explore strategies for ensuring a just transition to a sustainable future, encompassing green urban infrastructure, sustainable mobility solutions, and socially inclusive ecological transformation. Given its broad international reach and interdisciplinary approach, the HSC presents a unique opportunity to forge strategic alliances and drive transformative action. The diversity of perspectives represented at the conference, coupled with its integration of political, economic, and societal dimensions, solidifies its role as an influential global forum, the organisers said. As a global platform, it said the HSC provides an unparalleled space for shaping collective positions and fostering meaningful dialogue on shared objectives. As one of the foremost global platforms for sustainability discourse, the HSC fosters critical dialogue at the highest level, enabling heads of state and government, senior decision-makers, and key stakeholders to engage in discussions on pivotal issues such as climate justice, sustainable financing mechanisms, and the advancement of global partnerships, the organisers said. About Musikilu Mojeed Mr Mojeed is an award-winning investigative journalist who co-founded PREMIUM TIMES in 2011. He has reported extensively on corruption, human rights, and human trafficking, establishing himself as one of Africas most respected investigative journalists. Mr Mojeed is a 2012 Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and a Ford Foundation International Fellow at The City University of New York. He has served as a jury member for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Awards and is a member of the Expert Council of the Fetisov Journalism Awards. He is a winner of several awards, including a shared Pulitzer Prize for the Panama Papers investigation. He has also been honoured with the Global Shining Light Award, FAIRs Editors Courage Award, the Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting Awards, Global Editors Networks Data Journalism Award, among others Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print During his time as the governor of Lagos State, President Bola Tinubus cabinet had limited female representation. For instance, in his first tenure, only three out of 24 commissioner appointments were women, constituting 12.5 per cent of the entire cabinet. Mr Tinubus stance on inclusion, as reflected in his actions as president, is, therefore, not surprising. He simply appears to have continued with his trend when he became president, 24 years after his election as governor. However, there has been a generational shift and louder calls for gender balance in Nigerian politics. Mr Tinubus declaration in his inaugural speech also buoyed expectations that he had become more gender conscious. He promised to prominently feature women at all levels, reiterating a campaign promise. Cabinet composition In his manifesto document titled: Renewed Hope 2023- Action Plan for a Better Nigeria, Mr Tinubu promised women 35 per cent of positions in his government. He even proposed legislation mandating such quotas, urging public and private institutions alike to adopt similar measures. Equity and fairness for women will be a top priority of the Tinubu government. Working with the National Assembly, we will aim to pass legislation promoting female employment in all government offices, ministries and agencies. The goal will be to increase womens participation in government to at least 35 per cent of all governmental positions, the manifesto reads. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The legislation shall also mandate the federal executive (particularly the cabinet and core senior advisers) to reserve a minimum number of senior positions for women. Private institutions shall be strongly encouraged to do likewise. But two years on, that legislation remains an unfulfilled promise. Moreover, only eight of his 48 ministers are womena mere 17 per cent. Although this is a slight improvement from former President Muhammadu Buharis appointments, it falls short of the targeted 35 per cent affirmative action and the National Gender Policy. Though some of Mr Tinubus appointments, like those of the suspended Betta Edu and Finance Minister Doris Uzoka-Anite, highlight a tilt toward young, technocratic women, the broader gender inclusion agenda remains undefined. Beyond the cabinet The administration has also yet to issue a strong executive directive to drive inclusion. So far, the National Gender Policy, revised and adopted under President Buhari, which sought to create a gender-responsive framework within both public and private sectors, remains largely unimplemented. The policy aligns with international laws, which Nigeria is a signatory to, and the Nigerian constitution, which guarantees gender parity. Despite persistent advocacy for gender balance, Mr Tinubus appointments to leadership positions across most spheres of governance remain overwhelmingly male-dominated. For instance, the president recently appointed an 11-member board for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). The board includes only one woman, who is an institutional representative rather than an independent appointee, sparking concerns about gender representation in leadership roles within the oil sector. Nigerias oil and gas sector is a major driver of the economy and the countrys largest foreign exchange earner. Meanwhile, the office of the First Lady, overseen by Oluremi Tinubu, has sought to revive interest in women-focused initiatives and social welfare. However, it cannot do much because it lacks constitutional authority and budgetary autonomy. Even in key MDAs and parastatals, womens appointments remain uneven. Legislative Engagement Mr Tinubu has been silent on the fate of the five gender bills rejected by the National Assembly in 2022 during the Muhammadu Buhari administration. The bills sought to ensure affirmative action for women in political parties, special legislative seats for women, citizenship for foreign spouses of Nigerian women, affirmative action for women in ministerial appointments and a bill on indigenship married women should have a choice on state of origin. Even though some APC leaders, like House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and Senate President Godswill Akpabio, have pledged to ensure some of the gender bills are brought back to parliament and passed, President Tinubu has neither championed their reintroduction nor advanced any new gender-focused legislative agenda. Way forward With women nearly 50 per cent (47.5 per cent) of the 2023 voting population, their marginalisation in governance is both politically unwise and ethically troubling. As Mr Tinubu eyes a potential second term, womens groups and civil society organisations have an opportunity to demand more than symbolic appointments. If he continues to falter on his gender inclusivity promises, a more visionary opposition could seize the chance to advocate for genuine gender equity. The presidents current approach to womens inclusion is not transformative. However, his legacy should not rest solely on the number of female faces in his cabinet and other appointments but on whether his administration systematically breaks the barriers holding women back and creates lasting, inclusive policies. More Infographics: Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigejran troops killed at least 60 terrorists after repelling an attack on a military base in Bita, Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State. The Nigeria Army disclosed this in an X post Friday morning. In a decisive and coordinated operation, gallant troops of Operation Hadin Kai launched a simultaneous land and air assault on terrorist positions in Bita, Borno State, in the early hours of today. The intense battle resulted in the neutralization of at least 60 terrorists, the army posted. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the terrorists suspected to be Boko Haram fighters besieged troops attached to the 26 Task Force Brigade of Sector One in midnight on Friday. The troops, with immediate support from air platforms, engaged the attackers in a prolonged firefight lasting until approximately 3:23 a.m, stated Makama Zagazola, a local publication focused on insurgency in the North-east The troops were also supported by air raids, making it possible to repel the attack. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later This is the second time terrorists attempted to attack military bases in Borno this week alone. Both attempts have failed. However, in recent weeks, terrorists have attacked more than three military bases in various parts of Borno, forcing the military to withdraw and restrategise. Nigerias counterinsurgency operations has led to the killing of more than 13,000 terrorists in the past two years, according to National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu. Mr Ribadu who spoke at the summit of the All Progressives Congress (APC), added that more than 120,000 insurgents and their families have surrendered to the troops. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Prosecutors have charged former Central Bank governor Godwin Emefiele with stealing and acquisition of multimillion dollars properties in Abuja, PREMIUM TIMES can exclusively report. In the fresh eight counts filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on Friday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused Mr Emefiele of unlawfully acquiring an estate with 753 housing units and keeping possession of billions of naira in proxy accounts, while he was serving as the CBN governor. The commission said Mr Emefiele connived with one Eric Ocheme, said to be on the run, to obtain the properties in August 2021. The estate is located at Plot 109, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, FCT, Abuja measuring 150,462.86 SQM. The estate comprised 753 housing units. Without disclosing the owner of the estate, the EFCC had earlier obtained a court order to seize the entire estate. The agency handed over the estate to the federal government last week. However, Mr Emefiele approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, praying it to set aside the judgement granting the government full control of the estate in Abuja comprising 753 housing units. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The commission alleged in the fresh charges against the CBN governor that between January and December 2019 in Abuja, he domiciled N167 million in a proxy account with Zenith Bank. Prosecutors said the sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained. The EFCC further alleges that between January and December 2020, Mr Emefiele and co-conspirator, Mr Ocheme, held N1.23 billion domiciled in Kelvito Integrated Services account No: 1016232915 domiciled with Zenith Bank. The sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained, the EFCC said. Count four of the charges read: That you GODWIN IFEANYI EMEFIELE and ERIC OCHEME (AT LARGE) between January and December 2021 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, knowingly had under control the total sum of N2, 945,331,050 (Two Billion, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Million, Three Hundred and Thirty One Thousand Fifty Naira.) domiciled in Kelvito Integrated Services account No: 1016232915 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, which sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained. In count five of the charges, EFCC said between January and December 2022, Mr Emefiele and his conspirator knowingly had under control the total sum of N1.98 billion domiciled in Kelvito Integrated Services account No: 1016232915 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, which sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained. The anti-graft also said the former bank chief allegedly domiciled N900 million in Ifedigo Integrated Services account No: 1210750237 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, which sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained. In the fresh charges, the prosecution alleged Mr Emefiele kept N600 million domiciled in Ifedigo Integrated Services account No: 1210750237 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc. The sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained, the commission said. Emefieles troubles Mr Emefiele led the central bank from 2014 until June 2023, when President Bola Tinubu forced him out of office. The State Security Services (SSS) arrested Mr Emefiele, who resigned while still in custody. Meanwhile, Mr Emefiele faces other corruption charges in High Courts in Lagos and Abuja In the Lagos case, the former CBN governor faces charges of fraudulent foreign exchange allocation of $2 billion. The anti-graft commission also accused Mr Emefiele of criminal conspiracy, conferring undue advantage, and breach of trust, among others. But Mr Emefiele has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him. In the counts, EFCC alleged that Mr Emefiele, in January 2021, forged a document titled, Irrevocable Power of Attorney Between MG Properties Limited and H and Y Business Global Limited The EFCC alleged that Mr Emefiele made the claim with the intention of causing it to be believed that the said titled document was executed by or by the authority of H and Y Business Global Limited. The offences, according to the EFCC, contravened the provisions of sections 319, 362 and 364 of the Penal Code. The EFCC has called some 24 witnesses in the ongoing case to give evidence of their involvement in the acquisition, and development of property lying and being situate at Plot 109, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, FCT, Abuja measuring 150,462.86 SQM and also to tender relevant documents. He faces charges in Abuja regarding the unpopular redesign of the naira and other alleged corrupt activities. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a total of 366 deaths from Lassa fever and meningitis in 24 states across the country. The NCDC via its official website on Friday, highlighted the continued public health challenge posed by these diseases. From 1 January to 18 May, the centre confirmed 733 cases of Lassa fever from 5,118 suspected infections across 18 states and 95 local government areas. Within the same period, NCDC said it recorded 141 Lassa fever-related deaths, representing a case fatality rate of 19.2 per cent. It said that in week 20 alone, new infections jumped from three to 13 cases in Edo, Ondo, and Benue. The case fatality rate stands at 19.2 per cent slightly higher than 18.3 per cent in 2024, indicating that one in five people infected is dying, inspite of coordinated national efforts, the NCDC warned. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later It said that the hotspot states for Lassa fever include Ondo 30 per cent, Bauchi 25 per cent, and Edo 17 per cent which together account for 72 per cent of all confirmed cases. The centre said that the disease was hitting young adults hardest, particularly those aged 21 to 30 years, with a nearly equal male-to-female ratio. It noted that no new healthcare worker infections were reported in the past week, but highlighted a surge in cases and called for heightened vigilance. The agency said that a multi-sectoral Incident Management System has been activated to coordinate response efforts nationwide. On the meningitis front, the centre said the figures are even more alarming. The NCDC said that from 2,911 suspected cases, 192 have been confirmed and 225 lives lost, translating to a case fatality rate of 7.7 per cent. The agency said that children aged five to 14 were the most affected, with males accounting for 60 per cent of all reported infections. It said that the outbreak has reached 24 states and 173 LGAs, with 10 northern statesincluding Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, and Jigawareporting 97 per cent of suspected cases. In response, the NCDC said it has activated a national Emergency Operations Centre to coordinate interventions in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), and development partners. It said that regular high-level meetings with affected states are ongoing to streamline containment strategies. We are providing continuous technical support to high-burden states and reinforcing outbreak preparedness across the country, the NCDC said. Lassa fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted primarily through contact with the urine or faeces of infected rats. It can also spread from person to person through bodily fluids, contaminated objects, or infected medical equipment. Symptoms include fever, sore throat, headache, vomiting, muscle pain, and in severe cases, bleeding from body openings. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A bill for the protection of endangered wildlife species in Nigeria passed its third and final reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday and is set to be sent to the Senate for concurrence. The bill, dubbed Endangered Species Conservation and Protection Bill, 2024, among several other provisions, aims to enhance Nigerias efforts to curb organised wildlife trafficking in the country. It also includes stricter penalties for wildlife crime and provides investigators with more powers to probe financial transactions and conduct proper due diligence during their operations. Commenting on the development, Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Environment and sponsor of the bill, Terseer Ugbor, explained that by modernising Nigerian laws, the National Assembly wants to ensure that future generations will continue to benefit from the ecological and economic value of the countrys biodiversity. This bill sends an unambiguously clear message that Nigeria will not tolerate the use of its borders for trafficking of illegal wildlife products, such as pangolin scales and ivory, to foreign markets, the lawmaker said. Seizures and arrests Over the last decade, Nigeria has emerged as a key destination, a leading source and a transit point for wildlife trade amid weak laws and enforcement. Due to its porous borders, corruption, transport links to Asia, and poor law enforcement, wildlife traffickers have made Nigeria a key exit point for ivory smuggled from Africa to Asia. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), between 2009 and 2017, almost 30 metric tonnes of seized ivory, and in 2019, at least 51 metric tonnes of seized pangolin scales, originated in Nigeria. The federal government made its largest seizure of pangolin scales in January 2020, after officials recovered 9.5 metric tonnes of scales worth an estimated N10.6 billion ($25.9 million). In 2021, the Nigeria Customs Service intercepted 18.7 metric tonnes of elephant tusks, rhino horns, pangolin scales and claws at various exit points across the country. In February 2022, it seized 145 kilogrammes (320 pounds) of elephant tusks and 840 kg (1,852 lbs) of pangolin scales at a notorious market in the affluent Lekki district of Lagos. Meanwhile, an investigation by PREMIUM TIMES and Mongabay in 2022 found evidence of systematic failure by law enforcement and the judiciary to hold wildlife poachers and traffickers accountable. As of November 2023, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, a critical indicator of the health of the worlds biodiversity and an essential tool used to inform conservation action and policy, assessed 5,213 species in Nigeria. Of this figure, 503 (10 per cent) species were classified as threatened critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerableand 162 (3 per cent) as data deficient. Comments On Wednesday, representatives of environmental groups within and outside the country lauded the move by the government to scale up conservation efforts in the country by strengthening its laws. In a statement signed by Festus Iyorah, Nigeria Representative, Wild Africa, on Wednesday in Lagos, the group reiterated that the historic Bill enhances Nigerias response to serious and organised wildlife trafficking, and introduces stricter penalties for wildlife crime. It also seeks to empower judges to expedite wildlife cases and recover assets while also promoting international collaboration by aligning with global treaties, the statement said. Mr Iyorah quoted the sponsor of the Bill, Mr Ugbor, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Environment, as saying that the bill would not tolerate the use of its borders for trafficking of illegal wildlife products. In his remarks, Executive Director of Africa Nature Investors Foundation, Tunde Morakinyo, described the bill as a testament to Nigerias firm commitment to strengthening wildlife governance, combating wildlife trafficking, and positioning itself as a leader in conservation. READ ALSO: West African wildlife sanctuary becomes hub of insecurity The lawmakers and leadership of the House of Representatives deserve commendation for their vision, dedication, and commitment to this crucial step towards protecting Nigerias environment and its wildlife, he said. On her part, the Executive Director of London-based Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA UK), Mary Rice, welcomed the progress made through the bills third reading. EIA commends the work of Nigerias lawmakers in continuing to support this important legislation, which demonstrates the countrys commitment to ensuring regional security and tackling the scourge of international trafficking networks, she said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has condemned the latest report of Amnesty International on Nigeria. The Islamic human rights group described the report as jaundiced, lacking substance, balance and objectivity. MURIC also accused Amnesty International of ignoring all the achievements and victories of the Nigerian security agencies while concentrating only on the killings and other atrocities by terrorists, with the aim of demarketing Nigeria. The faith-based non-governmental organisation spoke via a press release by its Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola. READ FULL DETAIL OF PRESS STATEMENT BY MURIC BELOW. In a report released yesterday, 29th May, 2025, Amnesty International gave horrid details of killings and kidnappings in Nigeria. The report, to our minds, looks more like an hatchet job for fifth columnists or foreign enemies of Nigeria than a constructive criticism and balanced report expected of an organization of international repute like Amnesty International. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later A damning report about Nigeria must generate attention among its citizens particularly because it has the capacity to determine their rating among the comity of nations and consequently their future welfare. This is where a group like ours operating within the country finds it mandatory to speak up even when we are not the best of friends with the current administration. But we must not allow our displeasure which arose from the administrations stylish marginalization of Muslims in political appointments becloud our sense of objectivity.* We assert that Amnesty Internationals report went haywire. It was too biased and heavily jaundiced. All it reported were the violent killings and kidnappings by terrorists without giving recognition to the gallant efforts of men of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police in curbing the insurgency and criminalities. This is the lacuna we intend to fill.* The achievements of the Nigerian security agencies in battling insurgents and criminals are so many that all the details cannot be given in this short space. For example, troops of 177 Guards Battalion in conjunction with troops of Operation Whirl Stroke and the Civilian Joint Task Force in Nassarawa State rescued no fewer than 30 abducted civilians on 14th January, 2023. The victims were rescued after gun duels between troops and terrorists in Nassa, FCT, and Kogi state. . The combined offensives by the military against terrorists and other criminal elements across the country in February 2025 resulted in the rescue of 320 kidnapped victims while 221 terrorists were killed. Troops recently killed 213 terrorists in the Northern part of the country and arrested 216 criminals across the country. The Nigerian military achieved significant success in counter-terrorism operations during the first quarter of 2024. The military reported killing 2,352 terrorists, arresting 2,308 individuals, and rescuing 1,241 kidnapped hostages in various operations across the nation. Additionally, several terrorist commanders were eliminated during these operations. In February 2025 alone, troops arrested a total of 674 terrorists, bandits, kidnappers as well as perpetrators of oil theft while recovering various assorted weapons and ammunition, including 146 AK-47 rifles, 87 fabricated rifles, 36 assorted Dane guns and 6140 assorted ammunition Just before going to press today, the army command announced the killing of 60 terrorists in gun battle. The terrorists were neutralized by troops of Operation Hadin Kai of the Nigerian Army today, Friday, 30th May, 2025. The land and air operation took place in Bita, Borno State in the early hours of Friday . These and many other achievements took place under the Tinubu administration but were not included in the hatchet report of Amnesty International. The Nigerian Army also announced four days ago that it is currently re-strategising to meet changing situations in the battlefield . Apart from the victories being achieved by Nigerian troops against the insurgents, the Nigerian Police and other security agencies have made their marks in the war against terrorists and criminals. In 2024, the Nigeria Police Force recorded major successes in tackling crime, leading to the arrest of 30,313 suspects for various heinous offences, the recovery of 1,984 assorted firearms, 23,250 rounds of ammunition of varying calibres, and the rescue of 1,581 kidnapped victims. On 28th November, 2024, police operatives attached to the Borno State Command repelled a group of armed and dreaded terrorists who attacked the Jakana Divisional Police Headquarters, Borno State. The group was met with strong resistance fro m gallant operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, who successfully repelled the attack and left many of the attackers with varying degrees of bullet wounds, while one police officer was injured. The Nigeria Police has also carried out several successful rescue operations among which was the rescue of 28 kidnap victims in Enugu State where 10 suspects were arrested. Unfortunately, however, Amnesty International buried the heroic acts of Nigerian soldiers and policemen mentioned above with many others under its demarketing sentiment. Amnesty was merely interested in painting Nigeria as a constant battleground, a mafia nation of gangsterism and a blood thirsty land of wild people. Amnesty International ignored all the achievements and victories of the Nigerian security agencies while it concentrated on the killings and other atrocities with the aim of demarketing Nigeria. Amnesty Internationals report lacks balance. It has only succeeded in massaging the ego of the terrorists. It is long in tautology, short in critical analysis.* #RejectJaundicedAmnestyInternationalReport Professor Ishaq Akintola, Founder/Executive Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC). Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has commended the performance of the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) led by its Director-General, Abubakar Sulaiman. Mr Akpabio gave the commendation on Friday in Abuja at a one-day symposium organised by the institute to mark the sixth anniversary of Mr Sulaiman as the director-general of the institute. Mr Sulaiman, a professor, was appointed the director general of the legislative institute on 29 May 2019. The symposium was titled Reflecting on the Six Years of Impact: A Symposium in Honour of Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, DG of NILDS. Represented by a member of the Governing Council of NILDS, Victor Umeh, Mr Akpabio lauded the leadership qualities of the DG, describing him as dogged and resilient. According to the Senate President, Mr Sulaiman is somebody they have found very resilient, dogged and committed to trying to make something out of nothing. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later This institute, he has turned it around so much that anytime you drive into these premises, you know that you are walking into an ambience of a citadel of learning, where peoples minds are developed. For us in the legislature, this place is a place where the skills of lawmakers are honed. When you come here, you will understand the basic symbols of lawmaking. And once you follow the guides and the lectures they give you, you turn out to be a good lawmaker; the purpose of setting up this institute is very well realised under his leadership, he said. Delivering the keynote address, the Founder of GOTNI Leadership Centre, Linus Okorie, emphasised the need for transformational leadership in the country. He explained that transformational leadership is a concept that places a premium on people and is inspired by a compelling vision, strengthened by upholding sound principles that change both the leader and the followers. According to him, this leads to sustainable outcomes in individuals, businesses, organisations, institutions, and nations. Mr Okorie affirmed that Nigeria has abundant resources, a vibrant population, and an enviable geo-strategic position in Africa. Yet, the paradox of poverty amidst plenty, the contradictions of policy inconsistency, and the challenge of elite disconnect from the populace remain deep-rooted. These are not just economic or political issues-they are leadership issues, he said. Mr Okorie said that for national transformation, leadership must go beyond positional authority to purpose-driven impact. He said leadership prioritising the common good is needed in politics, civil service, the private sector, education, healthcare, the judiciary, and the security sector. Mr Okorie said leaders must be able to galvanise collective energy toward a shared national destiny. Let every leader here today rise beyond convenience into conviction. Let our institutions evolve from compliance-based to values-driven. Let governance become less about power and more about purpose. For in the end, nations do not change because of the abundance of resources or the eloquence of policies; they change because of the intentionality, integrity, and imagination of those who dare to lead differently. Professor Abubakar Sulaiman embodies these qualities. His work at NILDS reminds us that institutions can work, that excellence is possible, and that leadership still matters. May his legacy inspire many others across the country. It is men and women that shape the destiny of nations by chance, but by the choices they make and the values they uphold. As we celebrate this milestone, may we also make a renewed commitment to lead boldly, serve selflessly, and transform our great nation, Nigeria, for the better, he said. NILDS should provide intellectual solutions to indiscriminate defections Yiaga-Africa In his remarks, Samson Itodo, the executive director of Yiaga-Africa, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), tasked the DG with providing intellectual solutions to indiscriminate defection by political party members. He said that though the Supreme Court had ruled that votes belonged to the party, those who still defected from one party to another were not leaving their office. Mr Itodo said the institute needed to do more to ensure womens inclusion in politics, leadership and all other sectors. The executive director also urged the DG to push for electoral reforms and the passage of a new Electoral Act before the end of the year. Also speaking, Country Representative Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Adebowale Olorunmola said there is a need for a deep reflection on the decades of leadership crisis in the country. He said the conversation should not stop until Nigeria gets the right leaders in every position nationwide. Mr Olorunmola said that though Nigeria has a lot of transformational leaders, the country was still far behind its peers in terms of development. According to him, Nigeria is a divided country because it does not have transformational leaders in places of authority. One thing you will agree with me is that the political space is closed against those people, those that carry all the principles that transformational leaders should have. This is because it will not be business as usual, the people that we have in leadership want the business to continue as usual. It is something that we need to think about deeply. How do we then get the real transformational leaders into the space? We need to invest in building our leaders that are there now, but we must also invest in future leaders, the people, the young people that are coming; that is the problem that we need to deal with, he said. Responding, Mr Sulaiman appreciated the past and present leadership of the National Assembly for his appointment and the time so far spent in office as DG of NILDS. He said that despite attempts to cripple the institute in the last two years by some individuals, the leadership of the assembly had sustained the institute. Mr Sulaiman tasked the leadership of the National Assembly to get rid of individuals in the assembly undermining the institute for the good of the country. The institute has the potential to survive. We have the potential to redirect this country. We have potential to mentor the younger ones. The only thing we need is the willingness of our people to give us maximum support. The high point of the symposium was the inauguration of the NILDS Journal on Law Review. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday launched a new publication and called on governments to urgently ban all flavours in tobacco and nicotine products. The global health body, in a statement on Friday, said the products includes cigarettes, pouches, hookahs and e-cigarettes, to protect youths from addiction and disease. The organisation noted that flavours like menthol, bubble gum and cotton candy are masking the harshness of tobacco and nicotine products, turning toxic products into youth-friendly bait. According to the statement, flavours not only make it harder to quit, but have also been linked to serious lung diseases. It also said that cigarettes, which still kill up to half of their users, came in flavours or can have flavours added to them. The Director-General of WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that flavours are fuelling a new wave of addiction and should be banned. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Mr Ghebreyesus said this undermine decades of progress in tobacco control. Without bold action, the global tobacco epidemic, already killing around eight million people each year, will continue to be driven by addiction dressed up with appealing flavours, he said. According to him, the publication of flavour accessories in tobacco products enhance attractiveness and appeal, revealing how flavours and accessories like capsule filters and click-on drops are marketed to bypass regulations and hook new users. He said that currently, more than 50 countries had banned flavoured tobacco, more than 40 countries banned e-cigarette sales; five specifically banned disposables and seven banned e-cigarette flavours; and flavour accessories remain largely unregulated. The health body said that countries such as Belgium, Denmark, and Lithuania are taking action, and WHO urged others to follow. Flavours are a leading reason why young people try tobacco and nicotine products, he said. Paired with flashy packaging and social media-driven marketing, theyve increased the appeal of nicotine pouches, heated tobacco, and disposable vapes into addictive and harmful products, which aggressively target young people. WHO Director of Health Promotion, Rudiger Krech, said that they are watching a generation get hooked on nicotine through gummy bear-flavoured pouches and rainbow-coloured vapes. This isnt innovation, its manipulation. And we must stop it, Mr Krech said. According to him, WHO reiterates that tobacco products, including heated tobacco products, expose users to cancer-causing chemicals and should be strictly regulated. He said that the 2025 World No Tobacco Day campaign honoured governments, youth activists and civil society leaders pushing back against industry interference. Your actions are changing policy and saving lives, he said. He said that with around eight million tobacco-related deaths each year, the time for action is now. The World No Tobacco Day is being celebrated every 31 May. The theme of 2025 is Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has sworn in six Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and assigned them to their states of deployment. With the swearing of the six RECs, all vacancies in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been filled, Mr Yakubu, a professor, said on Friday during the swearing-in ceremony. The INEC Chairperson urged them to follow the electoral legal framework and the commissions guidelines in conducting their activities and discharging their responsibilities. He explained that the RECs are in charge of personnel and resources in their states of deployment and urged them to use them judiciously. Above all, you must always act in good conscience. Do not betray your oath of office. In the best tradition of the commission, you must engage with stakeholders through regular consultative meetings and must not be impervious to genuine criticisms, he said. The conduct of elections is not only a huge responsibility but also a sacred duty. As RECs, you are the representatives of the Commission in the various States to which you will be deployed shortly. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Deployments Mr Yakubu said two of the RECs, Johnson Sinikiem and Mukhtar Gajiram, were reappointed for a second term after serving an initial term of five years as RECs, while two others, Saad Idris and Feyijimi Ibiyemi, have been career staff of the Commission. The remaining two, Chukwuemeka Ibeziako, a private legal practitioner, and Umar Garba, who have years of experience in the private sector, are joining the commission for the first time. Together, all six of you have cumulative experience in election administration or the management of public affairs to justify the confidence reposed in you to serve in the high office of REC, he said. The new RECs will be deployed as follows: Saad Idris to Gombe, Johnson Sinikiem to Cross River, Feyijimi Ibiyemi to Ogun, Mukhtar Gajiram to Taraba, Chukwuemeka Ibeziako to Abia, and Umar Garba to Sokoto State. The INEC chairperson explained that the commission does not deploy RECs to their state of origin but to any state in their geo-political zones. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to permit her legal team to serve court processes on the Ebonyi North Senator, Onyekachi Nwebonyi, through substituted means. Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghans request was filed in an ex parte motion of ongoing challenges in effecting direct service on Mr Nwebonyi in a N5 billion defamation lawsuit. In the ex parte motion dated 10 April and marked CV/1359/25, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her counsel Michael Numa, SAN, asked the court to grant an order for substituted service by publishing the writ of summons in a national newspaper or serving it through the Clerk to the National Assembly or the Clerk of the . The application was brought under Order 9 Rule 11(1) and (3)(b) of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Civil Procedure Rules, 2025, and is supported by an eight-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Innocent Udenyi. In the affidavit, Mr Udenyi highlighted the logistical and bureaucratic difficulties of personally serving Mr Nwebonyi, the Senates deputy whip. He argued that traditional service methods may prove ineffective due to procedural delays and urged the court to grant the application in the interest of justice and efficiency. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Mr Udenyi emphasised that substituted service via a national newspaper or through parliamentary clerks would sufficiently bring the case to Mr Nwebonyis attention, enabling the legal process to proceed without undue delay. The defamation case The lawsuit arises from allegedly defamatory statements by Mr Nwebonyi during an interview on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily programme, which aired on 6 March. During the interview, the Ebonyi senator reportedly described Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan as a gold digger, habitual liar, and habitual blackmailer. In her court filings, the Kogi senator argued that the statements were false, malicious, and defamatory and had damaged her reputation. She said the remarks were broadcast to millions of viewers and widely circulated among the public, diminishing her reputation, injuring her character, and causing her distress and embarrassment. The suspended senator noted that the alleged defamatory remarks have not only lowered her standing in the public eye but were also intended to malign her personal and political image. She is, therefore, seeking a declaration that Mr Nwebonyis statements are false and defamatory, an order directing the defendant to publicly retract them, offer a formal apology, and pay compensation of N5 billion. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Enugu State Government has vowed to prosecute Onyeka Obu, a native doctor who allegedly buried several people alive in a sewage pit in the state. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Mr Obu allegedly buried several people in the pit, including a pregnant woman, apparently for ritual purposes. The incident happened on Monday at Umumba Ndiagu, a community in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigerias south-east. The native doctors full name is Levi Onyeka Obieze Obu. He is popularly known as Ozo Ezeani as well as E dey play E dey show. Mr Obu was arrested, on Wednesday, by personnel of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at Badagry-Seme border Area of Lagos while he was fleeing Nigeria over the incident. On Friday, NIS authorities handed him over to the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police Force. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The native doctor was subsequently moved from Lagos to the Enugu State Police Command hours later to face prosecution. Enugu govt speaks In a statement later on Friday, the Secretary to the Enugu State Government (SSG), Chidiebere Onyia, commended the NIS personnel for the arrest of the native doctor. The Enugu State Government received with delight the news of the arrest of the fugitive suspected kidnap kingpin and ritualist, Levi Obieze, by the officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service. This arrest has further strengthened our hands in our bid to ensure that justice is served on all the persons involved in the gory incidents of abduction, kidnapping, and ritual killings linked to the suspect, said Mr Onyia, a professor. The SSG reiterated that the state government had demolished the native doctors buildings in line with Section 315 (Second Amendment) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 30, Laws of Enugu State. He said the government has praised the community members and security operatives for their vigilance and busting the criminal activities of the native doctor. This administration will not condone any form of criminality in our communities under any guise, he said. Mr Onyia called on the community leaders and Neighbourhood Watch personnel to be watchful and report crime suspects to government and security agencies. Those who cover up for such criminals will also be treated as accomplices, he stated. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print He claimed in his article that we woke up to a letter stating that the concession had been revoked. There was no prior warning, no issue, no conflict. This is a blatant lie. It is not just that the BUA Group received numerous notifications and warnings about its negligence of contractual responsibilities; some of these warnings preceded my tenure as managing director. On Thursday, 29 May, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, chairman of the BUA Group, wrote an article riddled with falsehood by accusing an unnamed former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) of acting against the interest of his business organisation. In the said article entitled, Two years of President Tinubu: A business perspective, he wrote: We no longer worry about arbitrary shutdowns or politically motivated disruptions. Let me give a real example. We started a new business in Port Harcourt four or five years ago under BUA Foods, operating at the Rivers Ports under a concession with the Nigerian Ports Authority. It was going very well. One day, we woke up to a letter stating that the concession had been revoked, the terminal shut down, and the lease agreement terminated. There was no warning, no issue, no conflict. Later, we discovered that the Managing Director of NPA at the time decided to close the business simply because our operations were competing with those of her friend. She wanted to impress her friend. That was the only reason Although the article otherwise stated factual and commendable efforts of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubus administration to stabilise the business climate in Nigeria, his narration of the dispute between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the BUA Group are, to say the least, shameful. He claimed in his article that we woke up to a letter stating that the concession had been revoked. There was no prior warning, no issue, no conflict. This is a blatant lie. It is not just that the BUA Group received numerous notifications and warnings about its negligence of contractual responsibilities; some of these warnings preceded my tenure as managing director. The facts of the matter are as follows: Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later BUA Ports and Terminal Limited became concessionaires of Rivers Port Terminal B for a 20-year tenure through a concession agreement contract dated 11 May, 2006. The Terminal was handed over to them for use with effect from 10 August, 2006. As part of the terms of agreement for the concession, BUA Ports and Terminal Limited was required to commence full reconstruction of Berths 5-8 within 90 days of the handover of the facility. Ten years after taking possession of the terminal and operating it, BUA had not commenced the rehabilitation of the quays that it was required to commence in 90 days. A notice of default was issued to the company on 11 February 2016, which was before my appointment as MD of the Nigerian Ports Authority. The letter with the subject: Non-compliance with the reconstruction of Berths 5-8 in line with your terminal development plan as contained in your lease agreement, read in part: We refer to the above subject matter and our earlier letters dated 19th May 2014 and 3rd February 2016. We observed that you had deliberately/and or refused to commence improvement on the reconstruction of Berths 5-8 in line with the laid down procedure in the approved development plan as contained in Appendix D of the executed agreement Despite receiving the letter, dated 11 February 2016, from NPA, the company refused to honour this fundamental and material term of the lease agreement, which compromised the integrity of the other adjoining berths in the ports. On 17 August 2016, the NPA, under my leadership, issued another notice of default drawing the attention of BUA to the failure to fulfil its obligations. Still, BUA did not commence the rehabilitation in line with the contractual obligation. Then, three months later, on 11 November 2016, the NPA issued them a three-month termination notice referring to the several default notices served on BUA in relation to the non-fulfilment of the obligations under the lease agreement. On receipt of the notice of termination, BUA Ports and Terminal sought and obtained a restraining order from the Federal High Court, Lagos, on 18 January 2018, barring the Authority from giving effect to the termination. In compliance with the restraining order of the Federal High Court, the NPA thereafter allowed BUA Ports and Terminal Limited full access to the premises for peaceful operation, without any interference whatsoever It is pertinent to note that the process for the default notices issued to BUA commenced in February 2016, before my appointment as managing director. However, I proceeded to implement the recommendations to safeguard the sanctity of the agreement and protect the Federal Government of Nigeria from a defaulting concessionaire seeking to take advantage of the government by using its facilities without making the due investment enshrined in the development plan of the concession agreement. While flaunting his access to former President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Rabiu refused to disclose that he abused this access to misinform the former president into reversing NPAs decision, thereby issuing a directive that contradicted the existing contract and negating the countrys interests. It is, therefore, curious that the chairman of BUA Group has continued to push this false narrative aimed at distracting Nigerians from seeing his companys flagrant disregard of the binding contractual agreement. The company and its chairman should refrain from cheap blackmail and commit to making the company a responsible corporate body that will make the country proud. Hadiza Bala Usman is the Special Adviser on Policy Coordination to President of Nigeria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Respected brothers and sisters! Also one of the most important religious rituals during Eid al-Adha is the sacrifice of animals (Udhiyyah), a worship that involves slaughtering designated animals as an offering to Allah. In this sermon, I will explore the meaning of sacrificial offerings, the rewards of sacrificing animals, the timing of sacrifices, criteria for choosing sacrificial animals, conditions for the one offering the sacrifice, and the impact of animal sacrifices on the individual and society. In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful All perfect praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds. May His peace and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and upon all his family and companions. To proceed: Dear brothers and sisters! Know that, the Day of Arafah has historical and religious significance within Islam as it commemorates several important events and milestones. Here are some key historical aspects associated with the blessed Day of Arafah: 1. Repentance of Adam and Hawwa Adam and Hawwa, the first human beings, sought forgiveness from Allah for their disobedience and were reunited on the Day of Arafah. This event highlights the significance and importance of repentance and seeking forgiveness on this day. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later 2. Prophet Ibrahim (AS) and the Origins of Hajj The Day of Arafah is connected to the story of Prophet Ibrahim (AS) and his family. It is believed that Prophet Ibrahim and his son Prophet Ismail (AS) were instructed by Allah to build the Kaabah, the sacred house of worship in Makkah. The Day of Arafah symbolises the culmination of their journey and their steadfastness in fulfilling the divine command. 3. Revelation of the Verse of Completion On the Day of Arafah, in the year 10 AH (632 CE), the revelation of the final verse of the Quran took place. This verse, known as the Verse of Completion, was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) in the plain of Arafat. It signifies the completion of the message of Islam and the perfection of faith. 4. Farewell Sermon The Day of Arafah marks the occasion when Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) delivered his final sermon during his farewell Hajj pilgrimage in the year 632 CE. The sermon took place at the Mount of Mercy (Jabal al-Rahmah) in Arafat, where the Prophet addressed a vast gathering of Muslims. The sermon covered various aspects of faith, social responsibility, and guidance for the Muslim Ummah. Overall, the Day of Arafah encompasses historical events related to the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and his final sermon, the completion of the Quran, the origin of the Hajj pilgrimage through Prophet Ibrahim (AS), and the concept of repentance as exemplified by Adam and Hawwa. These historical elements contribute to the spiritual and historical significance of the Day of Arafah within the Islamic faith. Respected brothers and sisters! The yearly pilgrimage of Hajj is compulsory for all Muslims. Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam and is the nobliest time of the year in the religion of Islam. The pilgrimage has seven rites and traditions that are followed in order. The House of Allah The Noble Kaabah, is circulated around seven times. Next, Muslims spend a day praying on Mount Arafat, followed by an overnight stay in Muzdalifah. A ritual of throwing stones symbolising stoning of the devil is performed, then the distance between Al-Safah and Al-Marwah is covered seven times. Lastly, the farewell Tawaf is performed in a counterclockwise direction. The Hajj rituals are much more elaborate than this, but these steps are the basics. Those who cannot travel to Makkah for the pilgrimage spend the day intensely supplicating, praying, and fasting. The Day of Arafah carries a great spiritual reward for Muslims. Dear servants of Allah! The Day of Arafah is significant for its emphasis on forgiveness, mercy, repentance, spiritual cleansing, unity and the culmination of the Hajj pilgrimage. It is a day of immense importance and a time for Muslims to seek closeness to Allah, seek forgiveness and reflect on their faith and actions. It is believed that on the Day of Arafah, Allah forgives the sins of those who sincerely repent and seek forgiveness hence, Muslims around the world strive to maximise their supplications and seek mercy on this day. The Day of Arafah is seen as a golden opportunity for Muslims to purify their hearts, seek spiritual cleansing and gain closeness to Allah. The Day of Arafah is the central day of the Hajj pilgrimage, which is one of the five pillars of Islam and the day is considered the pinnacle of the Hajj journey. Pilgrims gather in the plain of Arafat and engage in acts of worship, such as prayer, recitation of the Quran, supplication and reflection. Standing on the Mount of Mercy is particularly significant, as it is believed to be the place where Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) delivered his final sermon. The Day of Arafah is an integral part of fulfilling the obligations of the Hajj pilgrimage. The Day of Arafah is seen as an opportunity for spiritual cleansing and renewal and Muslims are encouraged to engage in self-reflection, introspection and repentance. It is a day to seek forgiveness, rectify ones behaviour and make positive changes in ones life. The day is marked by devotion, humility and a sincere commitment to personal and spiritual growth. Arafat symbolises the unity and equality of all Muslims before Allah as pilgrims from diverse backgrounds, nationalities and social statuses come together in Arafat, dressed in the same simple attire of ihram. This gathering emphasises the oneness of the Muslim Ummah and the universal brotherhood/sisterhood in Islam. The Day of Arafah serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of unity, empathy, and compassion. It is basically the climax of Hajj when Muslim pilgrims gather at Mount Arafat and offer a day-long prayer with recitations of the Quran. Since Mount Arafat is approximately 15 kilometers away from Makkah, the Muslim pilgrims spend a day there to perform the rituals and live in tents from dawn to dusk. It was on Mount Arafat that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) gave his last sermon of Islam hence, pilgrims stand there united as a dignified ritual, to seek forgiveness through reflection and prayer and it is this moment that may be described as standing before Allah. While fasting on the Day of Arafah is prohibited for the pilgrims, but it is a highly recommended Sunnah for non-pilgrims as it entails a great reward with the belief that Allah forgives the sins of two years. Since Arafah Day is viewed by Muslims as a day of gratitude, the next day is celebrated as Eid-ul-Adha which marks another sacrifice by Prophet Ibrahim. This joyous occasion marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage and lasts for three days where Muslims worldwide commemorate Prophet Ibrahims (AS) willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah. Eid al-Adha is a time of unity, charity, sadaqah, sharing meals and spreading happiness. Respected brothers and sisters! The Day of Arafah fasting is highly encouraged and recommended for those not going on Hajj. The beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said: Fasting on the Day of Arafah expiates the sins of the past year and the coming year. [Muslim] The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said about the Day of Arafah Dua: The most excellent Dua is the Dua on the Day of Arafah, and the best of what I and the Prophets before me have said is: . Meaning: There is nothing that deserves to be worshipped in truth except Allah; he is Alone and has no partner, to Him belongs the dominion and to Him belongs all praise, and He is All-Powerful over all things.' [Muwatta of Imam Malik] My great people! It is a Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to recite the Tahlil, Takbir, and Tahmid as many times as possible on the day of Arafah and also on the days of Tashriq (11th, 12th, and 13th of Dhul-Hijjah). Tahlil is to say, La ilaha illal-lah. Takbir is to say, Allahu Akbar. Tahmid is to say, Alhamdulillah. Tasbih is to say, Subhanallah. And the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said: On this day (Arafah day), Allah, the most Exalted, descends to the nearest heaven, and He is proud of His servants on the earth and says to those in heavens, look at My servants, they have come from far and near, with hair dishevelled and faces covered with dust, to seek my Mercy. Even if their sins are as much as the sand or the froth of the sea, I shall forgive them. Respected brothers and sisters! Also one of the most important religious rituals during Eid al-Adha is the sacrifice of animals (Udhiyyah), a worship that involves slaughtering designated animals as an offering to Allah. In this sermon, I will explore the meaning of sacrificial offerings, the rewards of sacrificing animals, the timing of sacrifices, criteria for choosing sacrificial animals, conditions for the one offering the sacrifice, and the impact of animal sacrifices on the individual and society. Additionally, I will discuss the religious rulings regarding animal sacrifices during Eid al-Adha. My beloved people! A sacrificial offering, refers to the slaughtering of camels, cattle, or sheep by Muslims on the Day of Sacrifice, which is the blessed day of Eid al-Adha and the following three days known as the Days of Tashriq. Muslims may not perform the sacrifice themselves but can delegate a specialised person to do so for them. Sacrificial offerings are a recommended act of Sunnah Muakkadah, although some Islamic scholars viewed it as obligatory (Wajib). Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) used to perform this act every year by sacrificing two sheep in good health conditions, with one being offered on behalf of himself and his family, and the other being offered on behalf of those who believe in Islam and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). This practice was his annual tradition, sacrificing two sheep, and from the sheep category. It is a confirmed Sunnah when there is the ability to do so. A person may offer a sacrifice on behalf of themselves, their family, their spouse, and parents. According to some Islamic scholars it is not obligatory but is recommended when the means are available. If a person sacrifices more, it is permissible, and if someone is unable, there is no obligation. It is a confirmed Sunnah with the capacity to do so, and it carries great rewards in both this life and the hereafter. Drawing near to Allah and sacrificing for His sake are considered among the greatest acts of worship (Ibadah). The act of sacrificing animals, in particular, is one of these noble acts. In the Quran, Allah Almighty says: Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you. [Surah Al-Hajj: 37] This implies that the importance lies not in the meat reaching Allah but in the purity of hearts and sincere intentions to draw closer to Allah. The days designated for sacrificial offerings are four days: Eid al-Adha and the three days that follow, known as the Three Days of Tashriq (Eid days). The specific time for sacrifice begins immediately after the Eid al-Adha prayer and ends with the sunset of the third day of Tashriq. It is not valid to slaughter any animal intended for sacrifice after this period. Regarding the criteria for selecting sacrificial animals, it is crucial that the animals offered as sacrifices are healthy and free from apparent defects, such as disabilities or severe illnesses. It is preferable for sacrificial animals to belong to well-known and reputable species like cows, camels, sheep, and goats. Additionally, sacrificial animals are advised to be in the best physical and mental condition to ensure quality and excellence in worship. Dear servants of Allah! The following conditions must be met for the sacrifice to be valid: 1. Legal Ownership: The one offering the sacrifice must own it legally, and ownership through theft, forbidden wealth, or an invalid contract is not permissible. 2. Intention (Niyyah): The intention distinguishes the sacrificial offering for the sake of closeness to Allah from slaughtering animals for other purposes. 3. Free from Defects: The sacrificial animal must be free from defects and diseases. It should not be blind, lame, emaciated, unable to walk, or missing teeth. 4. Age of the Animal: The minimum age for sacrificial animals is one year if they are sheep, with an exception for sheep aged between 6 12 months that are strong, fat, and healthy enough to appear as if they are one year old. The agreed-upon conditions for the one offering the sacrifice are as follows: 1. Islam: Non-Muslims are not obligated to offer sacrifices. 2. Sanity: Muslims who are not sane are not obligated to offer sacrifices. 3. Freedom: Muslim slaves who are sane are not obligated to offer sacrifices. 4. Financial Capability: Scholars differ on defining the criteria for financial capability. The Malikiyyah School believes it is the price of the sacrifice, provided the Muslim does not need it. The Hanbaliyyah School holds that the capable person is one who can obtain the price of the sacrifice, even if borrowed, as long as they are aware of their ability to repay the debt. It is worth noting that there are various debated conditions for the one offering the sacrifice. 4. Puberty (Bulugh): The Shafiiyyah School considers puberty a condition for the one offering the sacrifice, while the Malikiyyah School does not consider it a condition. 5. Not Being in a State of Hajj (Pilgrimage): The Malikiyyah School stipulates that the one offering the sacrifice should not be in a state of Hajj to ease the burden on the pilgrim. However, other schools of thought do not require this condition. Respected brothers and sisters! Delegating the act of slaughter is permissible for a Muslim according to all schools of thought except the Malikiyyah School, which prohibits non-Muslims from performing the sacrifice. It is forbidden to compensate the one performing the slaughter by giving them a portion of the sacrifices meat or skin. Still, it is permissible to offer a portion of the sacrifice as a gift after paying the agreed-upon fee for their service. In cases where one cannot perform the sacrifice themselves, or due to busyness or lack of expertise, delegation for sacrificing is a common practice. This delegation includes buying the sacrificial animal, slaughtering it, and distributing its meat. Many Muslims also opt to delegate a reliable entity for sacrifices, especially if they reside in a non-Muslim country. Regarding the impact of sacrificial offerings on the individual and society, it is significant and multi-faceted. On an individual level, the act of sacrificing enhances religious awareness and connection with Allah, reminding Muslims of Prophet Ibrahims sacrifice and his test of dedication and obedience to Allah. This practice also strengthens familial and social bonds, as individuals participate in preparing and distributing sacrifices to relatives, neighbours, and those in need, fostering a spirit of mutual support and cooperation in the Ummah. On a societal level, the process of sacrificing contributes to improving living conditions for the poor and needy. Distributing meat and other products from sacrifices is considered a social obligation and is generally well received by the Ummah. While Muslims express their closeness to Allah, the poor and needy benefit from these essential food items, contributing to meeting their basic needs. In summary, the blessed Eid al-Adha and the sacrificial process provide an opportunity for Muslims to connect with Allah and sacrifice for His sake. This worship enhances individual religious and spiritual values and promotes social interaction and solidarity within the Ummah. It also provides an opportunity for the poor and needy to meet their nutritional needs. It is essential to emphasise the importance of respecting religious norms and guidelines related to sacrificing animals, ensuring that it is done in a good manner and in accordance with Islamic law. The distribution of sacrifices should be done with good intentions, balancing the rights of families with the rights of the poor and needy while maintaining justice and fairness in distribution. Dear brothers and sisters! Remember, today we have only one week to Eid-ul-Adha. Please support the orphans with your sadaqah, help them with your donations and assist them with your Zakat so that they celebrate Eid-ul-Adha happily. For those respected brothers and sisters who want to donate to orphans, to Islamic projects and activities FISABILILLAH, those who want to send their Sadaqah and Zakat, here are the bank account details: 1. Account number: 0048647196. Account name: Murtala Muhammed. GTBank Or: 2. Account number: 1779691620 Account name: Murtala Muhammed. Access Bank. Allah Almighty says: Verily, Allah will help those who help His cause. Truly, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty. [Quran] Jazakumullah Khairan as you kindly assit, help, donate and contribute to the cause of Allah, the cause of Islam. May Allah Almighty accept your sacrifices, amplify your intentions, and bless you, your families with peace and barakah. Ya Allah, grant us the best of today Jumuah, the best of tomorrow, the best of the Day of Arafah, and the best of our future days on earth. Ya Allah, destroy every evil plan against us and our families. Ya Allah, answer all our prayers and put us amongst those with successful end. Ya Allah protect us all, protect our relatives and our beloved ones. Ya Allah help us to obey Your command and orders, to remain obedient to You, and to follow the example of Your Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Ya Allah grant us Your love, Your grace and Your generosity. Ya Allah pray upon Your Prophet and Messenger Muhammad, his family and his companions. Ameen Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum! All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Prayers, peace and mercy are upon our beloved master, Muhammad, the son of Abdullah (Peace be upon him), his family and Companions. Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumuah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okenes Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: [email protected] or +2348038289761. This Jumuah Khutbah (Friday sermon) was prepared for delivery today, Friday, Dhul-Hijjah 03, 1446 AH (May 30, 2025). Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print In a landmark event that promises to transform the lives of thousands of people, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda officially commissioned the newly completed 16-kilometre double-cut surface-dressed road connecting Marabar Musawa, Gingin, Tabanni, and the Kano State border. Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Radda described the road not just as infrastructure, but as a gateway to opportunity, progress, and social unity. This road is a vital link for hardworking farmers and traders in our communities who have long been held back by poor access to markets and services, he said. It is a symbol of our commitment to inclusive development to ensure that no part of Katsina is left behind. Originally awarded under the last administration in 2017 with a budget of 2.15 billion Naira and a planned completion of 14 months, the project faced delays and was left unfinished. But under Governor Raddas administration, the road was revived in December 2024 and completed with an investment of 3.84 billion Naira, including a durable new bridge connecting Kasina to neighbouring Kano State. Mr Radda expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Works, contractors CECCE Nigeria Limited, engineers, and community stakeholders whose dedication made the project possible. He urged the people of Musawa Local Government and surrounding areas to protect and cherish this new asset. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later This is a shared achievement, he stressed. Together, we have turned ambition into reality. Let this road serve our children and generations yet to come, he added. The Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport, Sani Magaji Ingawa, praised the Governors visionary leadership, saying the road would significantly improve transport, trade, and quality of life in the region. Representing the contractors, Mr Jim of CECCE Nigeria Limited, reaffirmed his companys commitment to delivering quality infrastructure and supporting the states development goals. The Chairman of Musawa Local Government Area expressed appreciation to Governor Radda for fulfilling a long-awaited promise that would benefit five wards and empower local farmers and residents. Former Deputy Governor, Tukur Ahmad Jikamshi spoke of the Governors faith-driven leadership and called the roads completion a blessing and a sign of real progress under divine guidance. The commissioning ceremony was attended by traditional rulers, government officials, local stakeholders, security agencies, and a large crowd of enthusiastic residents all united in celebrating a new chapter of growth and connectivity for Katsina State. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Dauda Lawal has said that the security situation in Zamfara State has significantly improved. The government organized a match on Thursday, tagged Walk for peace to commemorate the second anniversary of Governor Lawals administration. A statement by the governors spokesperson, Sulaiman Bala Idris, disclosed that the peace walk was organised to promote peace and encourage people to unite against all forms of criminality. The statement noted that the peace walk began at the government house and proceeded to Freedom Square, located in the center of Gusau, the state capital. Addressing the mammoth crowd of participants in the walk, Governor Lawal reaffirmed his administrations commitment to eliminating all types of criminal activities in the state, with a strong focus on banditry. He said, Today, we all come out in thousands to march for peace, to make the world know that Zamfara has significantly improved in terms of security. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later My administration has invested significant efforts and resources into empowering troops, gathering intelligence, and collaborating and partnering to restore peace. We have recorded tremendous success in the fight against banditry; most of the volatile areas previously flashpoints of concern are now peaceful. Roads that were once impassable and off-limits places are now open for travelers to move about freely. You can see how freely people move about their daily activities and how joyfully they come together in large numbers to walk for peace. This clearly indicates that our people are peaceful and desire peace. It also demonstrates that the people understand and appreciate what the state government is doing to promote peace. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani has commended President Bola Tinubu for establishing the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, describing it as a transformative initiative. The governor who made this known at the commissioning of the upgraded Kachia General Hospital on Thursday, further said that the university will boost education and innovation in southern Kaduna and beyond. The Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, is the first of its kind in Nigeria. For this visionary initiative, we owe special gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he said. Governor Sani also disclosed that President Tinubu had personally assured him that funds will be made available to support the smooth take-off of the university in the coming August-September academic session. According to the governor, discussions had been held with the Minister of Education to ensure that TETFUND contributes to the institutions development. The governor paid glowing tributes to Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, whom he credited with playing a pivotal role in the universitys take-off, adding that that he the universitys first Chancellor. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Governor Sani stated that the commissioning of Kachia General Hospital marks a major milestone in his administrations broader agenda to overhaul healthcare delivery in Kaduna State. At the inception of our administration in May 2023, we pledged to restore dignity to our public health institutions and ensure no citizen is left behind in our development journey, he said. The hospital, which now boasts modern infrastructure and upgraded medical equipment, is the third general hospital to be rehabilitated and commissioned this year under the states healthcare revitalization programme, the Governor added. According to him, 11 others which are spread across the three senatorial zones are nearing completion. We are strengthening our primary healthcare system, enhancing referral centres, and improving the welfare and training of our health professionals, he further said. The governor affirmed his administrations resolve to leave a lasting legacy of service through investments in healthcare, education, and infrastructure. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has disclosed that he has not collected a single loan from any local or international financial institution since he assumed office two years ago. The Governor made this known while fielding questions from some Kaduna-based broadcast journalists in Hausa language, as part of the celebration of his two years in office on Wednesday night. According to Governor Sani, several banks had approached him to collect loans under different guises but he refused to accede to their requests because he doesnt want to sink the state into further debt. The Governor disclosed that he cut the allowances and some perks of his Secretary to the State Government and Commissioners, in order to run an efficient administration. The Secretary to the State Government is a retired federal Permanent Secretary, who is also a former consultant with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Some of my Commissioners were receiving big salaries in their former places of work. I persuaded them to forfeit their performance bonuses and to use the old cars that their predecessors used in the last administration. This is how we have been running the administration without collecting a single loan, he added. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Governor Uba Sani also said that he leveraged his contacts and the connections that he made throughout his career as a Human Rights activist and a Senator, to secure grants from donor agencies. He said that the Qatari Charity is constructing the Kaduna Economic City and embarking on a Mass Housing project at the Millennium City, adding that the houses will soon be completed. The Governor praised President Bola Tinubu for also assisting Kaduna State, like other states in Nigeria, to navigate its financial challenges Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Abu Fatima, a high-ranking commander of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and one of Nigerias most wanted terrorists, has been killed by troops of the Nigerian Armys Operation Hadin Kai. Abu Fatima had a 100 million bounty on his head. He was killed along with two of his key lieutenants in Aleru village, Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State. The Nigerian Army officially confirmed the operation on its Facebook page earlier Friday. According to sources, Abu Fatima coordinated ISWAPs attacks in northern Borno, particularly around the Baga axis. He was reportedly captured alive but succumbed to excessive bleeding. This decisive operation, which also saw the recovery of motorcycles, AK-47 rifles, and bomb-making materials, marks a major setback for ISWAP operating in the region. READ ALSO Boko Haram, ISWAP insurgents attack four Nigerian military bases within 24 hours For residents of Baga, Kukawa, Cross, Doro, and surrounding areas where fishermen and farmers were killed by his group, Abu Fatimas death is as significant as that of Abubakar Shekau, the former Boko Haram leader. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later This achievement is a testament to the success of the ongoing efforts of the Nigerian military. Within the past 48 hours alone, over 60 Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists were killed during a foiled attempt by terrorists to infiltrate Damasak, a border town in northern Borno, yesterday. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Hours after a flood killed at least 21 in Mokwa, Niger State, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday engaged stakeholders in the state on early preparedness and mitigation strategies against floods. The engagement came under the 2025 National Disaster Preparedness and Response Campaign (NDPRC) held on Thursday in Minna. The Director-General of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, was represented at the event by the Zonal Director in charge of the North-west, Ishaya Chonoko. The campaign, themed Strengthening Resilience, Enhancing Preparedness and Response, brought together key actors in the disaster management ecosystem to deliberate on actionable steps to strengthen local responses to recurrent flooding. Mrs Umar said the agency was working with predictions from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) to guide proactive measures in high-risk areas. As part of our strategy, NEMA will deploy teams to all states to directly engage flood-prone communities with early warning messages, she said. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later This grassroots engagement will be carried out in collaboration with State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs), Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMCs), and community volunteers. She called for the active participation of traditional institutions, religious bodies, women and youth groups, and the media, stressing that disaster risk reduction is a collective responsibility. There is a need to step up our game and take a different approach from what has been done in the past, she added. We must collectively safeguard vulnerable communities, protect critical infrastructure, and ensure continuity of socio-economic activities. Speaking at the event, Hussaini Ibrahim, the acting director general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), described the meeting as timely, adding that it would help proffer solutions to expected flood threats and improve emergency response mechanisms. Also addressing participants, Ahmed Yumu, the state commissioner for humanitarian and disaster management, emphasised that the campaign would reduce the annual losses from recurring floods across the state. The event was attended by the head of NEMAs Minna Operations Office, Hussaini Isah; the Area Manager of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Akapo Adeboye; traditional leaders; and representatives of security agencies, among others. Ironically, hours after the event, at least 21 people were killed after a flood submerged houses in Mokwa, a commercial town in the state. The flood followed more than five hours of a midnight downpour. Residents who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES blamed the flood on the collapse of a small dam around New Bussa, a neighbouring town where the Kainji Lake Dam is located. More than 20 bodies, including those of minors and women, have been recovered, a resident, Umar Yunus, said. Meanwhile, The Niger State Emergency Management Agency said 21 people lost their lives in the disaster. The director general of the agency, Mr Hussaini, told journalists in Minna that the incident occurred during a torrential downpour on Wednesday night, causing widespread destruction. READ ALSO: Top ISWAP commander Abu Fatima killed by Nigerian troops Mr Hussaini said a woman and her two children were rescued from the flood and were receiving treatment for wounds and shock at Mokwa General Hospital. He said 21 bodies had been recovered in the incident, but at least 10 persons were still missing as the search and rescue operation continued. He said the affected communities were Tiffin Maza and Anguwan Hausawa communities in Mokwa town. He added that over 50 residential houses were submerged and washed away with their occupants. He said NSEMA, in collaboration with Mokwa Local Government, local divers, and volunteers, were conducting search and rescue operations to rescue survivors and recover corpses. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State says his planned defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be a test of loyalty, telling his political allies that it is from there he would know those who would deny him. Mr Eno last week confirmed he is leaving Nigerias opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling APC. He told his commissioners to either join him in the APC or resign. Since the return of democracy in 1999, the oil-rich Akwa Ibom has been governed by the PDP. In the state, securing the PDP nomination is likened to winning the general election, prompting its members to describe the party as a religion in the state. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that convincing allies, including cabinet members and aides, to join him in the APC has been a herculean task, forcing the governor to resort to threateniFVng them with resignation. We want our commissioners and members of Exco, appointees, and those of you who are saying that you would not come, you are free absolutely not to join me, but you wont be in my State Executive Council. Prepare to resign the day I announce that I am moving because you cannot; you are an appointee, and your loyalty is fully to me. You cant be in my cabinet and play anti-party. It is what it is, the governor said. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later I am even begging you to come, you normally dont expect it. You have the right not to support me again, but the right you dont have is to remain in my cabinet after I leave. I am making it clear, Mr Eno said, suggesting his cabinet members may have resisted joining him in the APC. Despite these threats, PREMIUM TIMES gathered that at least two cabinet members are still unwilling to join the governor in the APC. Test of loyalty Speaking on Tuesday in Eket, Eket Local Government Area, while commissioning the official residence for the chairperson of the council, Mr Eno told his allies that his imminent defection to the APC will be a test of loyalty for them. In the next few days, we will make some statements in this state. But you know what, one of my pastors said to me, it is God that makes this to happen so that loyalty can be tested. Sometimes, when people said I am loyal, Peter said to Jesus Christ, Anybody who touches you has touched me. In fact, we will fight, but Jesus turned to him and said, Peter, you will be the first to deny me three times, he said, referring to the Biblical figure, Simon Peter, one of Jesus disciples, who denied his master out of fear for his safety when Jesus was arrested and beaten up by soldiers. Peter, an apostle, was afraid and did not want to die because of his relationship with Jesus. When people recongnised him as one of Jesus disciples, Peter panicked and denied knowing him three times. Very soon, all those who say we are for Mr Eno, we are dying with you, wherever you go. We are going to see those who would be the first to deny us, but I know local government chairpersons will not deny us, Mr Eno added. The true test of loyalty is coming soon when you say, Im loyal. We will test loyalty, we will test those who believe in the Arise Agenda, Mr Eno said ahead of his official defection, which this newspaper learned is coming up early next month. Council chairpersons lodge Agriculture and Rural Development, aimed at stemming the tide of rural-urban migration, are top priorities in Mr Enos ambitious economic blueprint: Arise Agenda. The governor has repeatedly said he wants the 31 council chairpersons in the state to live in their domains to understand the feelings of their people and bring governance closer to them As a demonstration of his desire to actualise this, the governor sent a bill to the state assembly, but later withdrew before resorting to building a befitting lodge across the 31 council headquarters for chairpersons to live. The Eket council lodge was a pilot phase, as the governor at the ceremony promised that those of the other 30 council areas would be ready in one year, saying that funding has been provided. Before commissioning the lodge, the governor had earlier commissioned a model Primary School in the area, in a ceremony, where he approved the building of a new secondary school close to the primary school and offered immediate teaching employment to a mother of an indigent pupil, who, he said, was outstanding during a welcome presentation in his honour. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Police operatives in Bayelsa State, Nigerias South-south, have evacuated the remains of a bolt driver, who was shot dead on Friday morning at Samphino Road Junction, Yenagoa. The body of the middle-aged yet-to-be-identified driver was discovered early Friday morning inside his vehicle at the Samphino Road Junction in the Kpansia suburb of Yenagoa. Residents discovered the scene and raised the alarm, prompting police operatives to respond. The operatives quickly cordoned off the area. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the body of the commercial driver has been deposited at the mortuary for autopsy. The residents said the victim might have been shot at close range by suspected armed robbers. Reacting to the incident, a senior police officer at the crime scene said the police were investigating the killing. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later We are working to gather all necessary intelligence. Forensic teams have been deployed to the scene, and we are also liaising with the bolt company to retrieve trip data that may help track down the culprits, he said. The police spokesperson in Bayelsa, Musa Mohammed, an assistant superintendent of police, confirmed the incident to NAN and said that an investigation was already in progress. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Police Command in Delta State says it has killed three suspected kidnappers in the state. Bright Edafe, the commands spokesperson, disclosed this to reporters in Warri on Friday. Mr Edafe, a superintendent of police, said the suspects were shot dead on Tuesday by operatives of the CPSpecial Assignment Team (CP-SAT) during a shootout. He said that the CP-SAT, led by its commander, Robinson Julius, an assistant superintendent of police, was on a surveillance patrol on the UghelliPatani Road when they engaged the hoodlums. The CP-SAT team were conducting a covert surveillance patrol on the Ughelli Patani Road. The police team flagged down an approaching shuttle bus by Ewhereni Junction. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Upon sighting the operatives, the occupants of the vehicle opened fire in a bid to escape, leading to an intense exchange of gun duel, he said. The commands spokesperson said that three of the suspects sustained severe gunshot injuries while others escaped into the bush. Mr Edafe said the injured suspects were taken to the hospital, where they later died while receiving treatment. He said that one AK-47 rifle loaded with 18 rounds of live ammunition was recovered from the suspects. Abduction-for-ransom has remained one of the prevalent crimes in many Nigerian cities, with almost everyone, including school children, being a potential victim. Around April last year, gunmen abducted nine students traveling along a highway in Ughelli, Delta State. READ ALSO: Bolt driver shot dead in Bayelsa The police said the students were returning from their school in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, at night when they were abducted from the minibus they were travelling in. Their abductors released them some hours later, most likely after collecting a ransom. The incident occurred about 24 hours after three students of the University of Calabar, Calabar, were abducted by gunmen. The three students Ojang Precious, a 200-level student of the Department of Medicine and Surgery; Ugwu Chukwuemeka, a 300-level student of the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology; and Damilola Dickson, a final-year student of the same programme were abducted at night from one of the university hostels inside the campus, PREMIUM TIMES reported. In some instances, the abductions are staged by persons who want to extort family members, as was the case of a young woman who faked her kidnap in Delta last December. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The police in Rivers State said they have killed a suspected notorious kidnap kingpin believed to be responsible for several abductions and killings across the state. Grace Iringe-Koko, the police spokesperson in Rivers, disclosed in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Friday that the suspect, David Kamalu, was killed during a shootout with police operatives. She explained that the incident took place during a raid on a criminal hideout in Rumuodogo One community, Emohua Local Government Area of the state. The operation at the criminal hideout commenced at about 1 a.m. following days of intensive intelligence gathering on Kamalu, who was popularly known as M-Kaze. During the raid, our operatives encountered heavy armed resistance from members of Kamalus gang, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. In the ensuing shootout, Kamalu was neutralised, while several other gang members fled with varying degrees of bullet wounds, she said. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Mrs Iringe-Koko, a superintendent of police, described the deceased as a high-value target, reputed for allegedly masterminding multiple kidnappings of innocent citizens. She also accused Kamalu of the brutal murder and beheading of a local security operative, known as Alete, alias Hunter Commander, in January. According to her, the suspect was also linked to several high-profile kidnappings and armed robberies targeting both Emohua residents and commuters travelling along the East-West Road. Owing to his heinous crimes and his leadership of a violent kidnapping syndicate, the then Chairman of Emohua Local Government Area had placed a bounty on Kamalus head. The bounty underscored the grave threat he posed to the peace and security of the Local Government Area, she added. Mrs Iringe-Koko said efforts were ongoing to apprehend other gang members who escaped. She urged members of the public to remain vigilant and report any individuals with gunshot wounds to the nearest security agency. Items recovered during the raid included a pump-action shotgun, two live cartridges, and various charms reportedly used by the kidnappers for protection and intimidation. He said that one AK-47 rifle loaded with 18 rounds of live ammunition was recovered from the suspects. High rates of abduction in Nigerian cities Abduction-for-ransom has remained one of the prevalent crimes in many Nigerian cities, with almost everyone, including school children, being a potential victim. PREMIUM TIMES earlier today reported the killing of three suspected kidnappers in Delta State, Nigerias south-south. Around April last year, gunmen abducted nine students traveling along a highway in Ughelli, Delta State. The police said the students were returning from their school in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, at night when they were abducted from the minibus they were travelling in. Their abductors released them some hours later, most likely after collecting a ransom. The incident occurred about 24 hours after three students of the University of Calabar, Calabar, were abducted by gunmen. The three students Ojang Precious, a 200-level student of the Department of Medicine and Surgery; Ugwu Chukwuemeka, a 300-level student of the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology; and Damilola Dickson, a final-year student of the same programme were abducted at night from one of the university hostels inside the campus, PREMIUM TIMES reported. In some instances, the abductions are staged by persons who want to extort family members, as was the case of a young woman who faked her kidnap in Delta last December. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Authorities of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) have handed over to the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police Force, Onyeka Obu, a native doctor accused of ritual kidnapping and killing in Enugu State. The police spokesperson in Lagos State, Benjamin Hundeyin, announced this via a post on his X handle on Friday. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Mr Obu allegedly buried several people in the pit, including a pregnant woman, apparently for ritual purposes. The incident happened on Monday at Umumba Ndiagu, a community in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigerias south-east. Mr Obu was arrested, on Wednesday by some NIS personnel at the Badagry-Seme Border Area of Lagos while he was fleeing Nigeria over the incident. His full name is Levi Onyeka Obieze Obu. He is popularly known as Ozo Ezeani as well as E dey play E dey show. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Handing over ONGOING: @nigimmigration, Lagos State Command hands over suspect wanted in Enugu State, Obi Levi Obieze, to @LagosPoliceNG at the Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja. The suspect was arrested at (the) Seme border, Mr Hundeyin, a chief superintendent of police, posted on the X handle. READ ALSO: Court remands man accused of ritual killing The police spokesperson uploaded on the handle a photograph showing Moshood Jimoh, the Commissioner of Police in Lagos and the Comptroller of the NIS in the state, DO Adebambo. Other officials of the police and the NIS were present at the event. The photograph did not show the arrested native doctor. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A Finnish court has begun the terrorism trial of Simon Ekpa, a controversial Biafra agitator. The Finnish government, in mid-May, charged Mr Ekpa with public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent and participation in a terrorist group. The Finnish-Nigerian citizen appeared before the Paijat-Hame District Court on Friday to face the terrorism-related charges in a preparatory hearing, Yle, a Finnish newspaper, reported. Prosecutors alleged that Mr Ekpa has been actively involved in a separatist movement seeking independence of Biafra in South-eastern Nigeria. The prosecution argued that the Biafra agitators separatist activities, conducted online and coordinated from Finland, may constitute terrorism under Finnish law. Prosecutors are demanding a six-year prison sentence for Mr Ekpa. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later We have a great deal of evidence regarding this (Ekpa) individuals online activity and communications, Sampsa Hakala, the state prosecutor, told the court. The prosecution, however, acknowledged that obtaining detailed information about the alleged terrorism-related acts will be difficult, considering that the activities are believed to have taken place in Africa. Ekpa denies terrorism charges At the pre-trial hearing on Friday, Mr Ekpa, through his lawyer, Kaarle Gummerus, raised concerns about the reliability of information coming from Nigeria. During police interviews, Mr Ekpa denied the terrorism charges against him, which also included suspicions of ordering weapons for pro-Biafra groups. The district court is also examining allegations of aggravated tax fraud against the Biafra agitator. The Biafra agitator is suspected of spreading separatist propaganda from his home in Lahti, a town in Finland. The Finnish police have been investigating the case alongside the Nigerian government. Arrest and prosecution Mr Ekpa, 40, was arrested alongside four others on 21 November 2024 on suspicion of terrorist activities. The Finnish police said Mr Ekpa has contributed to violence and crimes against civilians in South-eastern Nigeria. The District Court of Paijat-Hame later ordered that the pro-Biafra agitator be imprisoned with probable cause on suspicion of public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent. A Nigerian-Finnish citizen, Mr Ekpa heads Autopilot, a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). IPOB is a group leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria. The separatist group has been linked to some deadly attacks in the two regions, although it has repeatedly denied its involvement in the attacks. Meanwhile, hours after Mr Ekpas arrest, the IPOB faction loyal to Nnamdi Kanu disowned him (Ekpa), explaining that the pro-Biafra agitator was never their member. Mr Ekpa was initially indicted for financing terrorism alongside the four other suspects. The police have suspicion that the Biafra agitator committed the crime of collecting money in violation of the Finnish Money Collection Act. The Finnish police said he allegedly committed the crimes between 23 August 2021 and 18 November 2024 in Lahti. However, the four other suspects were later released during preliminary investigation for lack of evidence against them. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigerias electoral commission, INEC, has announced dates for the off-cycle governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti States. INEC Chairperson Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Friday while swearing in new Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the commissions headquarters in Abuja. The commission has also released a timeline of activities, including campaigns and conduct of primaries for both elections. Mr Yakubu said the announcement was in accordance with the commissions legal obligation to publish notices for major elections at least 360 days before the polls. In compliance with the law, the commission has approved the timetable and schedule of activities for the Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections, he said. The last governorship elections in the two states were held in June and July 2022. The four-year tenure of the governors will end next year. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later He said the commission is currently finalising preparations for Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercises, particularly as the number of bye-elections has risen to 17. We are aware of the urgency to commence the CVR, particularly in view of the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State. We want to assure Nigerians that we are finalising our preparations for both activities, the details of which will soon be made public, he said. Dates, Timelines of elections While the Ekiti State governorship election has been scheduled for Saturday, 20 June 2026, the Osun State governorship election is on Saturday, 8 August 2026. For Ekiti State, Mr Yakubu said the political party primaries will start on 20 October and end on 10 November. Political parties are expected to upload their nomination forms to the dedicated portal, which will automatically shut down at 6 p.m. on 22 December. He said the final list of candidates will be published on 18 January 2026, while political parties public campaigns will commence on 21 January 2026 and end 24 hours before election day. For Osun State, INEC said party primaries will start on 24 November and end on 15 December. He said the portal for political parties to upload nomination forms closes at 6 p.m. on 9 February 2026. The final list of candidates will be published on 9 March 2026 while campaigns in public by political parties will commence on 11 March 2026 and end 24 hours before election day, he said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Including a collaboration between JetBlue and United, a new app from Pizza Hut and a rise in consumer confidence. NEW YORK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists and consumers stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a recap of some major stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download. PR Newswire Weekly Press Release Roundup, May 26-30, 2025. Read more of the latest releases from PR Newswire. Do you have a press release to distribute? Sign up with PR Newswire to share your story with the audiences who matter most. Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists. Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers, and freelancers have access to the following free features: Customization: Users can create customized newsfeeds that will deliver relevant news right to their inbox. Newsfeed results can be targeted by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Users can create customized newsfeeds that will deliver relevant news right to their inbox. Newsfeed results can be targeted by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include in a journalist or blogger's next story. Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include in a journalist or blogger's next story. Subject Matter Experts: Journalists will have access to ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in their articles. Journalists will have access to ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in their articles. Related Resources: Our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, features regular media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more. 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SOURCE PR Newswire SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Local chambers of commerce from across Pennsylvania, including the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, submitted a letter to state lawmakers urging them to address Pennsylvania's historic child care teacher shortage. The letter , signed by more than 70 local chambers of commerce and economic development agencies, calls for a state investment that directly helps child care providers recruit and retain their teachers. The letter explains that alleviating the child care workforce shortage means classrooms can remain open or reopen, increasing the availability of child care for the tens of thousands of families that need it to remain in the workforce and contribute to Pennsylvania's overall economy. As part of his 2025-2026 state budget proposal, Governor Josh Shapiro allocated $55 million in a new and recurring Child Care Recruitment and Retention line item to grant licensed child care providers participating in the child care subsidy program an additional $1,000 per educator. "Low-wages within the child care sector are fueling a historic teacher shortage, reducing the availability of child care and impacting employers in nearly every other sector across the state," said Robert S. Carl, Jr., President and CEO of the Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce. "Local chambers of commerce recognize that inadequate child care for working families has a huge negative impact on our local and state economies. That is why we are urging lawmakers to invest in the child care workforce through a statewide recruitment and retention initiative as part of the final budget deal." Analysis from ReadyNation and the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission has shown that current gaps in our child care system are costing the Commonwealth's economy an estimated $6.65 Billion annually in lost wages, productivity, and tax receipts from working families struggling to find care. As part of the letter, local chamber leaders point to numerous states that are navigating the child care teacher shortage crisis that is closing programs and driving up waitlists for working families in need of care. At least 18 states are directly investing in recruitment and retention strategies to solve the child care teacher shortage and ensure that child care supply can meet the demand from working families. Data from the September 2024 Start Strong PA survey of 1,140 child care providers showed more than 3,000 open teacher positions. If those positions were filled, these 1,100+ providers could be serving almost 25,320 more children. This survey only represents roughly 17 percent of licensed providers. Carl said Schuylkill County has experienced a 20 percent reduction in the number of child care providers since 2019. In a parent survey conducted by the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, 62.5 percent of parents reported being placed on a waiting list. The wait lists range from months to three years. Noting that child care teachers are the workforce behind the workforce, Carl called a child care recruitment and retention initiative an essential part of an overall economic development strategy for the commonwealth. SOURCE Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce PHILADELPHIA, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Aberdeen Investments U.S. Closed-End Funds (NYSE: ASGI) (NYSE: THQ) (the "Funds" or individually the "Fund"), today announced that the Funds paid the distributions noted in the table below on May 30, 2025, on a per share basis to all shareholders of record as of May 22, 2025 (ex-dividend date May 22, 2025). Ticker Exchange Fund Amount ASGI NYSE abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund $0.2000 THQ NYSE abrdn Healthcare Opportunities Fund $0.1800 Each Fund has adopted a distribution policy to provide investors with a stable distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital. Under applicable U.S. tax rules, the amount and character of distributable income for each Fund's fiscal year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related rules, the Funds may be required to indicate to shareholders the estimated source of certain distributions to shareholders. The following tables set forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distributions for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the rules adopted thereunder. The tables have been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The tables include estimated amounts and percentages for the current distributions paid this month as well as for the cumulative distributions paid relating to fiscal year to date, from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated compositions of the distributions may vary because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies. The Funds' estimated sources of the current distribution paid this month and for its current fiscal year to date are as follows: Estimated Amounts of Current Distribution per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short- Term Gains** Net Realized Long- Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $0.2000 $0.0240 12 % $0.0020 1 % $0.1040 52 % $0.0700 35 % THQ $0.1800 - - $0.0180 10 % - - $0.1620 90 % Estimated Amounts of Fiscal Year* to Date Cumulative Distributions per Share Fund Distribution Amount Net Investment Income Net Realized Short-Term Gains ** Net Realized Long-Term Gains Return of Capital ASGI $1.6000 $0.1920 12 % $0.0160 1 % $0.8320 52 % $0.5600 35 % THQ $1.4400 - - $0.1440 10 % - - $1.2960 90 % * ASGI and THQ have a 9/30 fiscal year end. **includes currency gains Where the estimated amounts above show a portion of the distribution to be a "Return of Capital," it means that Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all the money that you invested in a Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income." The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions for the current year will only be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. After the end of each calendar year, a Form 1099-DIV will be sent to shareholders for the prior calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. The following tables provide the Funds' total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Funds' annualized and cumulative distribution rates. Fund Performance and Distribution Rate Information Fund Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 04/30/2025 Current Fiscal Period's Annualized Distribution Rate on NAV Cumulative Total Return on NAV Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV ASGI 9.44%3 11.59 % 4.70 % 6.72 % THQ 7.37 % 11.26 % -10.61 % 6.57 % 1 Return data is net of all Fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan. 2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of April 30, 2025. 3 The Fund launched within the past 5 years; the performance and distribution rate information presented reflects data from inception (July 29, 2020) through April 30, 2025. Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about a Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy"). While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market. Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Funds may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Funds during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Funds, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held, capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received. The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. Each Fund's Board has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state, and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances. Circular 230 disclosure : To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. Aberdeen Investments Global is the trade name of Aberdeen's investments business, herein referred to as "Aberdeen Investments" or "Aberdeen". In the United States, Aberdeen Investments refers to the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., abrdn Investments Limited, and abrdn Asia Limited. Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. A Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that a Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Closed end funds | Aberdeen SOURCE Aberdeen Investments U.S. Closed End Funds The skin-friendly detergent brand launches an edutainment content series on Skincare Education Day, June 1 STAMFORD, Conn., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- all free clear laundry detergent the #1 dermatologist-recommended laundry detergent brand for sensitive skin is transforming the conversation around skincare by introducing laundry as the first step of a sensitive skincare routine. Kicking off on National Skincare Education Day on June 1 and extending throughout the year (because skin education deserves time in the spotlight!), the brand will launch an edutainment content series with its trusted dermatologist partners to educate consumers about how skincare can actually start in the laundry room. This news comes following the brand announcing its first-ever Chief Dermatology Advisor, Dr. Lindsey Zubritsky, in April 2024. all free clear Chief Dermatology Advisor, Dr. Lindsey Zubritsky The content series will go live throughout June on the all brand and "derm-fluencer" Instagram and TikTok channels to bridge the gap between laundry care and skincare. Sharing their top hacks to help strengthen skincare IQs and build better routines, the video series will feature a lineup of board-certified dermatologists and all free clear partners, including: Dr. Charles Puza , @drcharlesmd ( 2.6M followers across social media) , @drcharlesmd ( followers across social media) Dr. Joyce Park , @teawithmd ( 1.1M followers across social media) , @teawithmd ( followers across social media) Dr. Luke Maxfield , @dr.ljmaxfield ( 443.6K followers across social media) "Skincare-related matters and products are always popular conversation topics, but many overlook a simple step that they already do regularly laundry," said Julia Galotto, Vice President of Marketing at Henkel. "You might not find it in the skincare aisle, but your laundry detergent is an important part of your sensitive skincare routine because the items that we wash touch our skin nearly 24 hours a day. That's why we're enlisting trusted dermatologists to help us spread the word that laundry detergent belongs in the skincare conversation." The brand will continue to educate consumers through multiple communications, including a sponsored appearance of the brand's Chief Dermatology Advisor, Dr. Zubritsky, on the Drew Barrymore Show on Tuesday, June 3 to discuss skincare tips and the connection between laundry care and skin care. Being 100% free of dyes and fragrance allergens, all free clear is also proud to announce it is a recipient of the National Psoriasis Foundation Seal of Recognition, which highlights products intended to be non-irritating and safe for those living with psoriatic disease. all products awarded the seal include: 30-ounce and 73-ounce all free clear Original, Advanced OXI and Odor Relief Liquid Laundry Detergent, all free clear MIGHTY PACS*, all free clear Dryer Sheets and all free clear Liquid Fabric Softener products and are available at Walmart, Amazon, Target and grocery chains nationwide. all free clear will continue to bring the conversation around skincare to the laundry aisle. Stay up to date on the latest news and happenings coming later this year by visiting www.all-laundry.com and following @all_laundry on Instagram and @alllaundry on TikTok. * Not including Advanced Oxi 16-count About all Sold in the United States, the all laundry brand has been a recognized leader and laundry partner for generations. Its portfolio of laundry care products includes concentrated liquid and single dose pac detergents, as well as liquid and sheet fabric softeners. all free clear detergent is the #1 recommended detergent brand by dermatologists, allergists and pediatricians for sensitive skin. Follow all on Instagram @all_laundry, on TikTok @alllaundry and Facebook @alllaundry. About Henkel in North America Henkel's portfolio of well-known brands in North America includes all, Purex and Persil laundry detergents, Snuggle fabric softeners, Dial soaps, Schwarzkopf hair care, as well as Loctite, Technomelt and Bonderite adhesives. With sales close to 6.5 billion US dollars (6 billion euros) in 2024, North America accounts for 28 percent of the company's global sales. Henkel employs around 8,000 people across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit www.henkel-northamerica.com and on X @Henkel_NA. Photo material is available at www.henkel-northamerica.com/press Brand Contacts all free clear Brand Contact: Michelle Cammenga Email: [email protected] Henkel Contact: Erica Cooper, Director, External Communications Phone: 475-232-4973 Email: [email protected] SOURCE all History repeats itself. As occurred with his predecessor Bert Ellis, Ken Cuccinelli now faces vocal opposition to his appointment to the University of Virginias governing Board of Visitors. On Wednesday, 16 student-led organizations, along with the American Association of University Professors and United Campus Workers of Virginias UVa branch, signed a letter addressed to the entire Virginia General Assembly saying Cuccinelli should not sit on the board given his track record of undermining the rights and safety of marginalized groups. The two-page document specifically highlights several moments over the course of Cuccinellis tenure as attorney general from 2010 to 2014 under Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, including his opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage and abortion and, closer to home, an investigation he launched into climate research conducted at UVa. After serving in the McDonnell administration, Cuccinelli made an unsuccessful bid for the Executive Mansion. He later served as the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security during President Donald Trumps first term. Rather than working to protect members of our University community, Mr. Cuccinelli has demonstrated time and time again a commitment to persecuting and marginalizing the very people Black and brown students, queer students, immigrants, and others whose labor, voices, and perspectives have helped build this University into the institution it is today, reads the letter, signed by the likes of the University Democrats, the National Lawyers Guild at UVa Law and the Minority Rights Coalition. Cuccinelli has flatly denied the allegations made in the letter. My only comment is that I disagree with the substance and characterizations in the letter, but everyone has a right to their own opinion, he told The Daily Progress via email. A UVa alumnus, Cuccinelli was appointed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to fill the vacancy on the 17-member Board of Visitors after Youngkin fired Ellis, one of his own appointees, on March 26. The governor told Ellis in a letter that he had violated the Commonwealths Code of Conduct for our Boards and Commissions and the Board of Visitors Statement of Visitor Responsibilities. Ellis is a UVa alumnus himself and went on to become a prominent businessman based in Atlanta. He is a founding investor of the WebMD platform, owner of Los Angeles TV station KDOC-TV and, more locally, part-owner of the White Spot burger joint in the UVa-adjacent Corner shopping district. Ellis, known for his combative and caustic personality, is perhaps best known for a 2020 incident in which he carried a razor blade to UVa Grounds to remove a sign hanging on a dormitory door that read, Fk UVa. Students, faculty and staff across UVa Grounds protested Ellis appointment to the Board of Visitors in 2022. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, attempted to have Ellis name removed from the confirmations list before the General Assembly. All of to no avail. Ellis has said in interviews after his firing that Youngkin knew who he was when he was brought onto the board and that the governor wanted him to be a sort of junkyard dog, specifically targeting the diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, apparatus constructed by UVa President Jim Ryans administration. Youngkin lauded his replacement in a statement released the day he fired Ellis. Kens legal and policy expertise will be incredibly valuable to ensure swift action with the ongoing changes and challenges in higher education, Youngkin said in that March 26 statement. I have full confidence he will help ensure Mr. Jeffersons University remains a place of opportunity, merit, and academic freedom. Wednesdays letter to the General Assembly argues Cuccinelli should be ineligible for a position of authority at the University because of his history of attacking civil rights, a history that includes: A 55-page brief Cuccinelli submitted in 2013 to the U.S. Supreme Court for the Hollingsworth v. Perry case in which he wrote that gay marriage will lead to polygamy and there is no coherent reason for government to recognize same-sex marriages. A 2010 letter to all higher education leaders in Virginia recommending the terms sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression be removed as protected classes in nondiscrimination policies. A 2012 Family Foundation speaking engagement in which Cuccinelli drew comparisons between the fight against slavery and the anti-abortion movement: Over time, the truth demonstrates its own rightness, and its own righteousness. Our experience as a country has demonstrated that on one issue after another. Start right at the beginning slavery. Today, abortion. And Cuccinellis involvement in the creation of Project 2025, a policy guide for transforming the federal government pushed by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. In that document, Cuccinelli advocates for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting and deporting individuals without warrant where appropriate. Another concern was Cuccinellis own prior dealings with UVa. In 2010, Cuccinelli launched an investigation into the work of UVa professor Michael Mann, who focused on humanitys impact on global warming and climate change. Faculty decried the investigation as infringing on academic freedom, and the Virginia Supreme Court later ruled Cuccinelli had no legal right to the specific documents he had demanded from UVa. At the heart of the University of Virginia is a commitment to open inquiry the freedom to ask difficult questions, explore diverse perspectives, and follow evidence without fear of political interference, according to the Wednesday letter to the General Assembly. Members of the Board of Visitors should embody and protect these ideals not misuse public resources to undermine them. Cuccinellis nomination will come before the General Assembly on Sunday, at which time the letters signatories are asking the 140-member legislature reject Youngkins appointee. When the assembly will vote on the matter has yet to be announced. According to the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, there are, on average, roughly 900 gubernatorial appointments made each year. While these historically pass unchallenged, earlier this year, the state Senate did block two Youngkin-appointees Quintin Elliott and John Clifford Foster to the Virginia Military Institutes Board of Visitors. Some state lawmakers have already made clear how they intend to vote. Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Albemarle, released a statement on X Wednesday reminding people of Cuccinellis investigation into UVa research. He misused his office to pursue meritless, politically-motivated lawsuits against professors he didnt agree with. He lost, wrote Callsen. He hampered and threatened UVa. No trophy for him. Though he has yet to be officially confirmed to UVas Board of Visitors, Cuccinelli has already been involved in some of the universitys latest decision making. He was present at the groups most recent meeting on April 29, when the board made its controversial vote to apply for the Trump-shuttered Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville and issued a resolution to repeal a statement of Support for Racial Equity Initiatives. That statement was previously approved by the board in 2020, forming a Racial Equity Task Force and calling for the investment of nearly $1 billion in programs with similar missions. "Our team is thrilled to support another launch of a critical GPS satellite, just five months since the last liftoff," said Malik Musawwir, vice president of Navigation Systems for Lockheed Martin Space. "This demonstrates Lockheed Martin's ability to rapidly launch and deploy national security space assets, and we look forward to putting the next two GPS III satellites on orbit to further enhance this critical constellation." These GPS III satellites will play a vital role in providing accurate and resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities to both civilian and military users, enabling critical applications such as aviation, maritime, and land transportation, plus search and rescue operations. For military users, the advanced security features and anti-jamming capabilities of GPS III and the follow-on GPS IIIF satellites are particularly crucial, as they will ensure uninterrupted access to precise navigation and timing data, even in contested or denied environments, thereby supporting national security and defense operations. SV08 is now under operational control at Lockheed Martin's Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center until its official acceptance into the current operational GPS network. Ground Operations for Space Security In addition to building the spacecraft at its Littleton, Colorado facility, and providing early on-orbit operations, Lockheed Martin plays a major role in the continuation and maintenance of the modernized GPS ground segmentalso known as the Architecture Evolution Plan. This architecture is core to operating the 31 active GPS satellites on orbit, enabling them to provide life-changing PNT capabilities that our modern world relies. The ground segment underpinned by Lockheed Martin is responsible for monitoring and controlling the GPS satellite constellation, as well as providing navigation data to its users. It consists of a network of monitoring stations, master control stations, and ground antennas located around the world. Most recently, Lockheed Martin has further enhanced GPS' ground segment by incorporating M-Code Early Use into the system, which allows for worldwide use of a specialized, secure military communications signal by American and allied troops. Once declared operational, GPS III SV08 will be the eighth GPS III satellite in space with boosted M-code, strengthening navigation, precision and anti-jamming for critical military operations. Lockheed Martin was also recently awarded a contract modification for two additional future GPS IIIF satellites to further enhance the constellation. About Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin is a global defense technology company driving innovation and advancing scientific discovery. Our all-domain mission solutions and 21st Century Security vision accelerate the delivery of transformative technologies to ensure those we serve always stay ahead of ready. More information at lockheedmartin.com. SOURCE Lockheed Martin - Agreement grants Astellas exclusive worldwide rights (excluding China's mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan region) to develop and commercialize XNW27011 - - XNW27011 has demonstrated encouraging monotherapy efficacy in an ongoing Phase 1/2 study of patients with solid tumors, including gastric cancer, gastroesophageal cancer and pancreatic cancer - - Evopoint to receive a $130 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $70 million near-term payments, and additional milestone payments associated with development, regulatory and commercialization milestones totaling up to $1.34 billion, as well as royalties on net sales of XNW27011, if approved - TOKYO and SUZHOU, China, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Naoki Okamura, "Astellas") and Evopoint Biosciences (Evopoint Biosciences Co., Ltd.) today announced they have entered into an exclusive license agreement for XNW27011, a novel investigational clinical-stage antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting CLDN18.2. The agreement grants Astellas a worldwide (excluding China's mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan region) exclusive license to develop and commercialize XNW27011. XNW27011 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 study in China in patients with CLDN18.2-expressing solid tumors, including gastric cancer, gastroesophageal cancer and pancreatic cancer. It uses a proprietary topoisomerase I inhibitor payload and linker technology, an approach that has demonstrated clinical success in other approved cancer therapies. Astellas has significant expertise in developing therapies that target CLDN18.2, including VYLOYTM, the first CLDN18.2-targeted therapy approved in the world. XNW27011 has the potential to address currently unmet patient need and will expand Astellas' oncology pipeline which currently contains CLDN-targeting therapies utilizing different approaches, as well as ADC's directed to other targets. Under the terms of the agreement, Evopoint will receive a $130 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $70 million near-term payments, and additional milestone payments associated with development, regulatory and commercialization milestones totaling up to $1.34 billion, as well as royalties on net sales of XNW27011, if approved. Adam Pearson, Chief Strategy Officer, Astellas "Astellas is dedicated to advancing innovative therapies for some of the most challenging-to-treat cancers, such as gastric and pancreatic cancer. XNW27011 is a promising new asset that complements Astellas' pipeline and enhances our leading position in precision oncology. We look forward to harnessing our expertise in targeting CLDN18.2 and specialized knowledge in GI cancers to advance XNW27011 and deliver meaningful outcomes to patients." Arthur Qiang, Chairman, Evopoint "XNW27011 is a novel investigational antibody-drug conjugate that has shown great promise in the clinic. Astellas has a proven history of developing and commercializing a strong franchise of innovative cancer therapies. We are pleased to enter into this new license agreement to further our collective goals of bringing new treatment options for patients in need worldwide." About Astellas Astellas is a global life sciences company committed to turning innovative science into VALUE for patients. We provide transformative therapies in disease areas that include oncology, ophthalmology, urology, immunology and women's health. Through our research and development programs, we are pioneering new healthcare solutions for diseases with high unmet medical need. Learn more at www.astellas.com. About Evopoint Biosciences Evopoint Biosciences is an innovative biopharmaceutical company with exceptional capabilities in R&D and commercialization. Since its inception, Evopoint has been committed to improving human health by discovering and developing cutting-edge pharmaceutical solutions that address significant unmet medical needs worldwide. Leveraging diverse discovery platforms in targeted therapy, ADC, and targeted protein degradation (TPD), the company has built a robust pipeline focused on oncology, infectious diseases and metabolic diseases. Learn more at www.evopointbio.com. Astellas Cautionary Notes In this press release, statements made with respect to current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs and other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements about the future performance of Astellas. These statements are based on management's current assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (i) changes in general economic conditions and in laws and regulations, relating to pharmaceutical markets, (ii) currency exchange rate fluctuations, (iii) delays in new product launches, (iv) the inability of Astellas to market existing and new products effectively, (v) the inability of Astellas to continue to effectively research and develop products accepted by customers in highly competitive markets, and (vi) infringements of Astellas' intellectual property rights by third parties. Information about pharmaceutical products (including products currently in development) which is included in this press release is not intended to constitute an advertisement or medical advice. SOURCE Astellas Pharma Inc. LOS ANGELES, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Zulu Ali, founder and principal of the Law Offices of Zulu Ali & Associates, LLP https://zulualilaw.com/ the largest Black-owned law firm in California's Inland Empire, has been renamed Top 10 Trial Lawyer in the state of California for 2025 by Attorney and Practice Magazine. Attorney and Practice Magazine recognize the achievements of the top 1% of trial lawyers in their respective practice areas https://www.attorneyandpractice.com/zulu-ali-esq/ Law Offices of Zulu Ali & Associates, LLP - The Champion of Justice Attorney Zulu Ali A former police officer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Attorney Ali earned a juris doctorate in law (J.D.) from Trinity International University; a degree with a focus on African studies from Regents College through a consortium with Tennessee State University; and is a doctoral scholar researching pan-African business and trade at California Southern University. Attorney Ali's law firm focuses on representing persons accused of crimes, immigrants, and persons seeking civil justice in state and federal courts. Ali is on the list of counsel at the African Court of Justice and Human Rights in Tanzania, Africa and the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. He is the Director of the Linda Reese Harvey Stop and Frisk Youth Leadership Academy https://stopfriskacademy.com/ which mentors youth to deal with police encounters; Director of the Southern California Veterans Legal Clinic https://zulualilaw.com/?page_id=1539 a legal clinic offering no cost and low-cost legal services to military veterans; and a member of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. serving on the international governing body (Grand Council) as General Legal Counsel. Attorney Ali, a distinguished biographee of Marquis Who's Who and a recipient of the Albert Neilson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award; and received the Marquis Who's Who Top Attorney and Humanitarian Award. Attorney Ali has been recognized as one of the most influential African American Leaders in Los Angeles by the National Action Network founded by Reverend Al Sharpton. Attorney Ali is listed as one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD), Law and Justice Edition. MIPAD is a global civil society initiative in support of the International Decade for People of African Descent, proclaimed by United Nation's General Assembly observing high achievers of African descent in public and private sectors from all around the world. He has also been honored as Top Trial Lawyer by the National Black Lawyers and National Trial Lawyers Associations; American Academy of Trial Attorneys; American Institute of Legal Counsel; American Jurist Institute; and Rue Ratings Best Lawyer in America. He is the founder and CEO of 10 Nubian Queens & 5 Kings Media https://10nubianmedia.com/ a mass media production company focusing on black family and social justice content in film, radio, theater, music, and book publishing. Additionally, Ali is the host of the radio talk show Justice Watch with Attorney Zulu Ali https://www.justicewatchradio.com/ , which broadcasts from NBC Radio studio in Redlands, California; and he is a member of the National Black Radio Hall of Fame (Chicago chapter). A devoted family man, Ali has been married to his wife (Charito) since 1986, has four adult children (Christine, Whitney, Ashley, and Lynda), four grandchildren (Amayah, Tye, Izem, Amina, and Nasira), and resides in Southern California with his family. For press inquiries, contact Rosa Nunez, Executive Producer of Justice Watch Radio at 951-782-8722. SOURCE Law Office of Zulu Ali Company operations and sales continue as usual, honoring all tickets, loyalty points, travel packages and Customer benefits Secures approval to access debtor-in-possession financing to bolster liquidity during restructuring Reaffirms commitment to safely connecting Brazil with Customer service of excellence SAO PAULO, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- AZUL S.A. (B3: AZUL4; NYSE: AZUL) ("Azul" or "Company"), the largest airline in Brazil by number of flight departures and destinations, announced today that following a successful First Day Hearing, it received interim court approvals for all of its "First Day" motions related to the Company's voluntary Chapter 11 petitions filed in the United States on May 28, 2025. Among other relief, the Court granted approval for the Company to immediately access US$250 million of its US$1.6 billion debtor-in-possession ("DIP") financing. This financing, combined with other Court approvals and revenue generated from Azul's ongoing operations, will provide sufficient liquidity to support the continued, uninterrupted operations as the Company works to transform its financial future. "The Court's approval of all of our first day motions marks a pivotal milestone in positioning Azul for long-term success," said John Rodgerson, Chief Executive Officer of Azul. "These approvals, along with the strong support of our key financial stakeholders, including United Airlines, American Airlines, and AerCap, enable us to continue our accelerated transformation plan for the future. This process will allow Azul to significantly reduce its leverage and continue to generate cash, putting it on par with its global partners." The "Second Day" hearing to consider the Company's requested relief on a final basis is currently scheduled for July 9, 2025 at 2:00 pm ET. Additional Information Stakeholders seeking specific information about Azul's Chapter 11 case can visit its dedicated website at www.azulmaisforte.com.br. For case and claims information, please visit https://cases.stretto.com/Azul or call (833) 888-8055 (toll-free) or (949) 556-3896 (international). The Company is supported by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, White & Case LLP, and Pinheiro Neto Advogados as legal counsel; FTI Consulting as financial advisor; Guggenheim Securities, LLC as investment banker; SkyWorks Capital LLC as fleet advisor; and FTI Consulting, C Street Advisory Group, and MassMedia as strategic communications advisors. The Participating Lenders are supported by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Mattos Filho as legal counsel and PJT Partners as investment banker. United Airlines is supported by Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Sidley Austin LLP as legal counsel and Barclays Investment Bank as investment banker. American Airlines is supported by Latham & Watkins LLP as legal counsel. AerCap is supported by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP as legal counsel. About Azul Azul S.A. (B3: AZUL4, NYSE: AZUL), the largest airline in Brazil by number of flight departures and cities served, offers 900 daily flights to over 150 destinations. With an operating fleet of over 200 aircrafts and more than 15,000 Crewmembers, the Company has a network of 300 non-stop routes. Azul was named by Cirium (leading aviation data analysis company) as the most on-time airline in the world in 2023. In 2020 Azul was awarded best airline in the world by TripAdvisor, the first time a Brazilian flag carrier earned the number one ranking in the Traveler's Choice Awards. For more information, access www.voeazul.com.br/imprensa. SOURCE Azul S.A. DELRAY BEACH, Fla., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Biomarkers Market, valued at US$58.07 billion in 2024 stood at US$62.39 billion in 2025 and is projected to advance at a resilient CAGR of 10.8% from 2025 to 2030, culminating in a forecasted valuation of US$104.15 billion by the end of the period. This growth is supported by the growing use of biomarkers in drug development and the increasing role of companion diagnostics in advancing precision medicine. The rising number of cancer cases worldwide and increased funding for various types of research are other important factors propelling the market's growth. Moreover, advances in omics technologies, including genomics and proteomics, are now enabling the development of more sophisticated tests based on biomarkers. Many companies are now targeting new markets such as the Asia Pacific region, where there is a high demand for targeted diagnostics, thus creating new opportunities for biomarker-driven solutions. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=43 Browse in-depth TOC on "Biomarkers Market" 700 - Tables 54 - Figures 510 - Pages By offering, the biomarkers market is categorized into consumables, services, and software. Consumables are further sub segmented into assay kits, reagents & chemicals, and columns & filters. The consumables segment accounted for the largest share of the global biomarkers market in 2024. The large share of consumables is due to the high and recurring demand for assay kits, reagents, and other consumables in biomarker-based research, diagnostics, and validation workflows, which ensures continuous usage across laboratories and clinical settings. Additionally, the growing number of biomarker-based studies and clinical trials has driven the need for reliable, high-throughput consumables that support reproducibility and scalability. Moreover, the increasing adoption of multiplex assay platforms, which require specialized consumables to detect multiple biomarkers from limited sample volumes, also supports the large share of the consumables segment. By type, the biomarkers market is categorized into safety, efficacy, and validation biomarkers. The efficacy biomarkers are sub segmented into predictive, surrogate, pharmacodynamics, and prognostic biomarkers. The safety biomarkers segment held the largest share in the biomarkers market in 2024. This can be attributed to the use of safety biomarkers in drug development to assess toxicity and identify potential adverse effects early in the development process. Regulatory agencies increasingly require safety biomarkers to ensure drug candidates meet safety standards before advancing to later stages of clinical trials. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies are investing in safety biomarker strategies to reduce the risk of late-stage failures and improve decision-making during preclinical and early clinical phases. By PCR technology, the biomarkers market is segmented by technology into immunoassays, NGS, PCR, mass spectrometry, chromatography, and other technologies. PCR technology, which is used for detecting, quantifying, and validating nucleic acid-based biomarkers, is estimated to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2025-2030. This growth is supported by this technology's high sensitivity, cost-effectiveness, and broad applicability in detecting and quantifying genetic material. Companies can utilize this growth by expanding PCR-based test offerings, developing multiplex PCR kits, and integrating PCR platforms into biomarker-based diagnostics and companion tests. While PCR is expected to lead in growth, companies can also benefit from incorporating other technologies, such as NGS and MS, to support comprehensive biomarker analysis, particularly where high-throughput sequencing or protein-level insights are required. By geography, the biomarkers market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), the Middle East, and Africa. In 2024, North America held the largest share in the biomarkers market due to its well-established healthcare infrastructure, high research and development spending, and strong presence of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The region has a high adoption rate of advanced technologies, including next-generation sequencing and companion diagnostics, which support biomarker discovery and application across clinical and research settings. Additionally, favorable regulatory frameworks, availability of funding from government and private sources, and a growing focus on precision medicine have further driven the use of biomarkers. The increasing burden of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular conditions has also contributed to sustained demand for biomarker-based diagnostics and therapies in the region. Request Sample Pages : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=43 Key players in the biomarkers market include F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Merck KGaA (Germany), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US), Abbott (US), QIAGEN (Netherlands), Revvity (US), Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (US), Charles River Laboratories (US), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (US), Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg), BIOMERIEUX (France), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (US), and JSR Corporation (Japan). The market includes many other prominent companies and competitive startups/SMEs. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland): F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd is a major player in the global biomarker market, leveraging its integrated diagnostics-pharmaceutical business model, strong geographical presence, and ongoing innovation. The company operates in two segments: Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals, with the Diagnostics division encompassing Core Lab, Molecular Lab, Pathology Lab, Point of Care, and Diabetes Care. These divisions provide biomarker-based assays, digital platforms, and companion diagnostics for applications in oncology, cardiology, neurology, infectious diseases, and diabetes. In 2023, Roche's Diagnostics division processed over 29 billion tests across more than 100,000 platforms, reflecting strong global demand. The company launched over 20 diagnostic assays between 2022 and May 2025, including the FDA-approved VENTANA MET (SP44) RxDx Assay for non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Roche also actively pursues partnerships, such as collaborations with PathAI for AI-based pathology algorithms and with Neuron23 to utilize digital biomarkers in Parkinson's disease trials. Roche's integration of diagnostic development, test delivery, and data platforms, along with its global reach and AI-enabled R&D, enhances its leadership in the biomarker market. Merck KGaA (Germany) Merck KGaA is a major player in the biomarker market through its Life Science segment, which provides biomarker assays, consumables, software, and services for research and diagnostics. The Science & Lab Solutions division focuses on biomarker discovery, validation, and analysis. With a global presence and subsidiaries like EMD Millipore Corporation and Merck Biosciences AG, Merck has strengthened its position through strategic partnerships. In January 2025, it collaborated with Qpentions Labworks to automate assay workflows with the Flex robotic workstation, enhancing protein sample preparation. Additionally, in June 2024, Merck partnered with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to support the SMCXPRQ immunoassay platform for detecting low-abundance biomarkers related to early Parkinson's disease. This focus on automation and disease-specific advancements highlights Merck's significant role in the global biomarker market. For more information, Inquire Now! Related Reports: Cancer Biomarkers Market Cardiac Marker Testing Market Cancer Profiling Market Companion Diagnostics Market PCR Technologies Market Get access to the latest updates on Biomarkers Companies and Biomarkers Market Size About MarketsandMarkets: MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's Best Management Consulting Firms by Forbes, as per their recent report. MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. 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Our insights and strategies are powered by industry experts, cutting-edge AI, and our Market Intelligence Cloud, KnowledgeStore, which integrates research and provides ecosystem-wide visibility into revenue shifts. To find out more, visit www.MarketsandMarkets.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Contact: Mr. Rohan Salgarkar MarketsandMarkets INC. 1615 South Congress Ave. Suite 103, Delray Beach, FL 33445 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1868219/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg SOURCE MarketsandMarkets The APA Formalized the February 2024 BioVaxys Acquisition of the Former IMV Inc. Assets VANCOUVER, BC, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BioVaxys Technology Corp. (CSE: BIOV) (FRA: 5LB) ("BioVaxys" or the "Company") is pleased to announce today that the Company and Horizon Technology Finance Corporation ("Horizon") have executed a follow-on Amendment ("Amendment") to the Asset Purchase Agreement dated February 11th, 2024 ("APA") for acquiring the entire portfolio of assets and intellectual property based on the DPX immune educating platform technology developed by Canadian biotechnology company, IMV Inc. Section 12 of the February 11th, 2024 APA is a performance milestone provision for BioVaxys to demonstrate an aggregate capital raise of USD $10M by December 31, 2024. On December 9th, 2024, Horizon and BioVaxys initially amended the APA by agreeing to delete the reference to "December 31, 2024" found in Section 12 and replacing it with the date of "June 30, 2025." This new Amendment of May 29th, 2025, supersedes and replaces the Section 12 terms of the APA so that the net performance milestone required to be raised in any form (including, but not limited to equity, grants, licensing fees, or loans) is now significantly lowered to USD $2,028,636. If BioVaxys is successful in meeting this milestone by September 30, 2025, Section 12 of the APA shall end and be of no further force or effect. As consideration for Horizon amending the APA, BioVaxys agrees to issue to Horizon 2,800,000 share purchase warrants and 1,200,000 share purchase warrants to Powerscourt Investments XXV LP ("Powerscourt"), with each warrant entitling Horizon and Powercourt the purchase of one whole at a purchase price of $0.06 Canadian Dollars per share at any time on or before May 31, 2028. Horizon and Powerscourt are the members/owners of HIMV LLC (70%/30%), the party to the APA. All other terms and conditions of the APA to remain the same. BioVaxys and Horizon have further agreed that Section 7(c)(i) of the APA "Licensing Earn-Out Payments Term" be amended from the original "Eighth anniversary of the Closing Date" found in the last line of Section 7(c)(i) to August 11, 2033. During the Licensing Non-Sales Earn-Out Term, BioVaxys shares a predetermined percentage of net licensing non-sales revenues with Horizon. The "Licensing Non-Sales Earn-Out Term" refers to payments received from an existing licensee or preexisting potential licensee, ending upon the expiration of the last valid claim of a former IMV patent that is the subject of the license agreement to which such existing licensee or preexisting potential licensee is party, and any other payment received under a license agreement, ending on August 11, 2033. About BioVaxys Technology Corp. BioVaxys Technology Corp. (www.biovaxys.com) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving patient lives with novel immunotherapies based on its DPX immune-educating technology platform and its HapTenix 'neoantigen' tumor cell construct platform, for treating cancers, infectious disease, antigen desensitization for food allergy, and other immunological diseases. Through a differentiated and unique mechanism of action, the DPX platform delivers instruction to the immune system to generate a specific, robust, and persistent immune response. The Company's clinical stage pipeline includes maveropepimut-S (MVP-S), based on the DPX platform, in Phase IIB clinical development for advanced Relapsed-Refractory Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and platinum resistant Ovarian Cancer. MVP-S delivers antigenic peptides from survivin, a well-recognized cancer antigen commonly overexpressed in advanced cancers, and also delivers an innate immune activator and a universal CD4 T cell helper peptide. MVP-S has been well tolerated and has demonstrated defined clinical benefit in multiple cancer indications as well as the activation of a targeted and sustained, survivin-specific anti-tumor immune response. BioVaxys is also developing DPX+SurMAGE, a dual-targeted immunotherapy combining antigenic peptides for both the survivin and MAGE-A9 cancer proteins to elicit immune responses to these two distinct cancer antigens simultaneously, DPX-RSV for Respiratory Syncytial Virus, and DPX+rPA for peanut allergy prophylaxis, as well as several viral vaccines. BioVaxys has licensed its patented liposome-based delivery platform to Zoetis, Inc. and SpayVac-for-Wildlife, Inc. for selected animal health applications. BioVaxys common shares are listed on the CSE under the stock symbol 'BIOV', trade on the Frankfurt Bourse (FRA: 5LB), and in the US (OTCQB: BVAXF). For more information, visit www.biovaxys.com and connect with us on X and LinkedIn. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Signed "James Passin" James Passin, Chief Executive Officer Phone: +1 740 358 0555 Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, 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 expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. These 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, primarily the assumption that BioVaxys will be successful in developing and testing vaccines, that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies including, primarily but without limitation, the risk that BioVaxys' vaccines will not prove to be effective and/ or will not receive the required regulatory approvals. With regards to BioVaxys' business, there are a number of risks that could affect the development of its biotechnology products, including, without limitation, the need for additional capital to fund clinical trials, its lack of operating history, uncertainty about whether its products will complete the long, complex and expensive clinical trial and regulatory approval process for approval of new drugs necessary for marketing approval, and, if so, whether its vaccine products will be commercially accepted and profitable, the expenses, delays and uncertainties and complications typically encountered by development stage biopharmaceutical businesses, financial and development obligations under license arrangements in order to protect its rights to its products and technologies, obtaining and protecting new intellectual property rights and avoiding infringement to third parties and their dependence on manufacturing by third parties. 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 law. Investors are encouraged to read BioVaxys continuous disclosure documents and audited annual consolidated financial statements which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1430981/5345338/BIOVAXYS_Logo.jpg SOURCE BioVaxys Technology Corp. BOSTON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts ("Blue Cross") has been ranked #1 in member satisfaction and trust among commercial health plans in Massachusetts by J.D. Power, a global expert in customer insights. "We're committed to showing up every day to ensure our members have access to affordable, high-quality health care," says Sarah Iselin, Blue Cross' CEO and president. "I'm incredibly proud to work alongside colleagues who live our mission and values and help guide our members to the care they deserve." The J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study measures satisfaction of members with their health plans nationwide. Blue Cross also earned the top ranking in Massachusetts across the following study categories: product/coverage offerings, able to get health services how/when I want, helps save time or money, trust, and ease of doing business. Blue Cross is committed to developing innovative, helpful services, benefits and plans aimed at easing the burden of rising health care costs and improving the quality of care for every member. The J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study measures satisfaction among commercial health plan members of 145 health plans in 22 regions throughout the country. About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (bluecrossma.org) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to showing up for everyone like they're the only one and guiding our members to the exceptional health care they deserve affordably, equitably and seamlessly. In keeping with our commitment, we are rated among the nation's best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. About J.D. Power J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services, and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 55 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies. J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto-shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com. SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Dorvin Lively to remain Executive Chairman of the Board through end of 2025 DALLAS, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Buff City Soap, a plant-based home and personal care brand franchise, announced today that Enrique Ramirez will be promoted to Chief Executive Officer, effective June 1st, 2025. Ramirez succeeds Dorvin Lively who is retiring from his role as CEO but will remain Executive Chairman of the Board through the end of 2025. Enrique Ramirez Ramirez joined Buff City Soap in March 2022 and has been instrumental in leading the continued growth of the brand through his role as President & CFO while serving alongside Mr. Lively and the Board of Directors. Ramirez too brings extensive multi-unit franchise experience leading various disciplines for 12+ years at Yum! Brands' Pizza Hut, including Global Chief Financial Officer, Chief Growth Officer and most recently General Manager for Latin America & Iberia. "I'm honored to take on the role of CEO and continue partnering with our incredible franchisees, our support center staff, and our Board of Directors," said Ramirez. "Buff City Soap is a truly special and differentiated brand that uniquely blends customization with plant-based ingredients and incredible scents in handmade products." Buff City Soap has experienced rapid growth as consumers are drawn to its differentiated, high-quality offering of plant-based soaps, laundry, bath and body products, which are handmade daily in each store's Soap Makery. The Company and its franchisees now operate 240 stores in 30 states with a rapidly growing eCommerce business fulfilled by local makeries nearest guests' homes across the country. This both reduces shipping costs for guests and ensures freshly handmade personal and home care products are made as close to locally as possible. "It's been a privilege to lead Buff City Soap for the last 2.5 years and I'm excited to focus on my role as Executive Chairman and my five franchise makeries. I'm thrilled for Enrique and look forward to our continued partnership on the future of Buff," said Lively about his future plans with the company. About Buff City Soap Founded in 2013 and franchising since 2018, Buff City Soap continues its rapid growth trajectory across 240+ stores and 30 states. Buff City Soap's delightfully smelling and uniquely handmade plant-based soaps, laundry, bath and body products are disrupting the retail beauty and consumer goods categories, and Buff City Soap was recognized in Entrepreneur's Top 100 "Best of the New" franchise rankings. For more information visit the Buff City Soap website: www.buffcitysoap.com. Media Contacts Buff City Soap Chad Brizendine [email protected] SOURCE Buff City Soap DUBAI, UAE, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bybit , the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is excited to raise the stakes for Bybit Earn users in a four-week long rewards program, the Bybit Earnival . From now to June 22, eligible Bybit users may sign up for the event for a chance to earn up to 555% APR and Gold Tokens. With paradigm shifts taking place in the global investment landscape, Bybit Earn offers a wide range of yield-bearing products catered to the diverse needs of traders. The offerings unlock access to beginner products with guaranteed returns such as flexible staking, advanced savings products at various risk levels, and tokenized real-world assets including XAUT, a digital token backed by physical solid gold. For four weeks in a row, Bybit users may check into Bybit Earn for a rewarding experience packed with exclusive perks: New User Exclusives : Users new to Bybit Earn can enjoy a boost for Fixed Savings products of up to 555% APR on USDT . The offer applies in the first two days after their initial deposit and staking of 100 to 300 USDT. : Users new to Bybit Earn can enjoy a boost for Fixed Savings products of up to . The offer applies in the first two days after their initial deposit and staking of 100 to 300 USDT. Extra APR Savings Products Every Week : Limited-time savings products with highly competitive APRs , starting at 500 USDT in net deposit, are refreshed daily at 6 AM UTC , with new offers launching every Monday at midnight. : Limited-time savings products with , starting at 500 USDT in net deposit, are refreshed daily at , with new offers launching every Monday at midnight. Weekly Leaderboard Prize: Participants who acquire 3,000 USDT or more weekly in eligible Earn products can compete on the weekly leaderboard to win up to 1,000 USDT in Gold Tokens. Rankings update daily, and rewards are distributed within 714 days. The event is open to verified retail customers with Savings service enabled on Bybit to ensure a fair and even level competition. Bybit Earn is a popular tool for Bybit users to maximize the earning potential of their idle crypto assets on the trading platform. With a focus on consistent yield and regular promotions for higher APR, Bybit Earn is trusted by millions of users on Bybit, the one-stop solution for all their crypto needs. Terms and conditions apply. For details and eligibility, users may visit Bybit Earnival . #Bybit / #TheCryptoArk About Bybit Bybit is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of over 70 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit is redefining openness in the decentralized world by creating a simpler, open and equal ecosystem for everyone. With a strong focus on Web3, Bybit partners strategically with leading blockchain protocols to provide robust infrastructure and drive on-chain innovation. Renowned for its secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive user experience, and advanced blockchain tools, Bybit bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, empowering builders, creators, and enthusiasts to unlock the full potential of Web3. Discover the future of decentralized finance at Bybit.com . For more details about Bybit, please visit Bybit Press For media inquiries, please contact: [email protected] For updates, please follow: Bybit's Communities and Social Media Discord | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Reddit | Telegram | TikTok | X | Youtube SOURCE Bybit TRACY, Calif., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In California, over 3 million households face food insecurity. In honor of June as National Dairy Month, the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) is partnering for the third year with Raley's Food For Families program to deliver milk and dairy foods to nourish families in California communities. CADAIRY4GOOD Raleys Food for Families Throughout the month of June, California dairy families, through the CMAB, will match customer in-store and online Food For Families donations, dollar-for-dollar (up to $35,000) to provide California dairy products to feeding programs. Prompts with the "Do Good with Dairy" message will be shared through in-store signage and digital communications to alert consumers to the initiative. Part of the Real California Milk CADAIRY4GOOD program and Raley's well-known Food For Families charitable organization, the partnership is part of an ongoing commitment from both to providing resources to food banks and feeding programs to increase access to nutritious foods. "The California Department of Food and Agriculture is proud to be part of this effort," said California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross. "We applaud the Milk Advisory Board and Raley's for their commitment in bringing nutrition to families in need." "As a California dairy farmer, I'm passionate about making sure families have access to milk and dairy foodsthe most nourishing and affordable sources of nutrition," said Nicole Morris who, with her husband, operates the JNM Dairy in Modesto. "This partnership brings much-needed support to communities while also reinforcing the important role dairy plays in helping families grow and thrive." Milk donations will be distributed to 12 Food For Family partner food banks Alameda County Community Food Bank, Central California Food Bank, Food Bank for Monterey County, Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano, Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Placer Food Bank, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County, Second Harvest of the Greater Valley, and Yolo Food Bank. "Milk is vitamin and nutrient-dense liquid gold to our neighbors trying to keep healthy food options on their tables. We could not be more grateful that the California Milk Advisory Board has again partnered with Raley's Food for Families. It's always a massive help when we can provide dairy products, like milk to the community," said Jessica Vaughan, Chief Executive Officer, Second Harvest of the Greater Valley. With help from customers, vendors, and Raley's team members, Raley's Food For Families has provided millions of meals to local families. Raley's absorbs all administrative costs, maximizing the impact of every donation. "Year-around we accept donations to Food For Families to help alleviate hunger in our community," said Zoe Edwards, Raley's Food For Families Operations Specialist. "Dairy is a highly-requested, nutritious food group and additional source of protein that our food banks are eager to provide to their community. We are proud to partner with Real California Milk to bring dairy products to our food bank partners." The CADAIRY4GOOD platform focuses on increasing access to nourishing dairy foods for individuals and families throughout California through partnerships to pilot programs to deliver product and refrigeration resources to the state's food banks and feeding programs. California is the number one dairy state. Its more than 1,000 family dairy farms are focused on delivering the wholesome goodness of California milk while creating a greener, more sustainable future for dairy in the state. About Real California Milk/California Milk Advisory Board The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is funded by the state's dairy farm families who lead the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. With a vision to nourish the world with the wholesome goodness of Real California Milk, the CMAB's programs focus on increasing demand for California's sustainable dairy products in the state, across the U.S. and around the world. Connect with the CMAB at RealCaliforniaMilk.com, Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram , X and Pinterest. About Raley's Food For Families Raley's Food For Families is a registered 501(c)3 organization providing food to Feeding America food banks and their network of partner agencies. The year-round program serves the communities of Northern California and Western Nevada through Raley's, Bel Air Market, Nob Hill Foods and Raley's ONE Market locations. Raley's Food For Families began as a holiday food drive in 1986 and was founded by Co-Chairman and Owner Joyce Raley Teel and CEO emeritus Charles Collings. In the past 33 years, the organization has raised over $59 million and 44 million pounds of fresh wholesome food. With a long commitment to local communities, Raley's Food For Families continues to grow and thrive as an organization dedicated to health and happiness for those experiencing food insecurity. Raley's covers one hundred percent of the administrative costs for the non-profit, meaning all donations go directly to the food bank partners. SOURCE California Milk Advisory Board Richmond Mayor Danny Avula on Thursday afternoon said that delayed maintenance of the sedimentation basins in the citys water treatment plant contributed to the filter clogs that caused Richmonds second water crisis. Scott Morris, director of the citys Department of Public Utilities, said a buildup of alum sludge on plates in the basin was the primary factor. Alum sludge is a byproduct of the drinking water purification process. Normally, theyre doing [the cleaning] on an on-demand basis, Morris said. But in light of this weeks events, he said the cleanings would now be treated as a preventive maintenance item and completed every four weeks. Morris also said the fact that half the Byrd Park reservoir is still under construction worsened the water issues. The reservoir had only half its normal capacity, which made it harder to make up for the water production loss caused when the plant was shut down to unclog the filters. Were an old city with old infrastructure, Avula said. That plus consistent population growth has created bumps in the road. The job that I signed up for is to try to strengthen this local government and to rebuild trust. Morris said hed continue to work on maintaining the water treatment plant to prevent future crises, but added he cannot promise no incidents will happen again. Even if you do everything perfectly to maintain your car, you can still get a flat tire, he said. The Public Utilities director would not say who decided against cleaning the plates, a task he said had last been performed in March despite a maintenance order requesting the plates be cleaned in mid-May. That maintenance order was first reported by WTVR. Asked by the Richmonder reporter Graham Moomaw about who made the decision to put off the cleaning, Morris said he didnt want to comment on personnel matters. Morris also wouldnt answer when asked what sort of disciplinary action had been taken against the person or people responsible for the decision, though he said hed hold the responsible parties accountable. I dont understand why you guys are falling back on personnel, Moomaw said, arguing that Morris should disclose the discipline even if he didnt identify the responsible parties. This personnel matter affected a whole lot of city neighborhoods. Just send us an email, said Avulas press secretary, Mira Signer, before ending the news conference. Officials last week said former plant operator Doug Towne had been relieved of his duties, although they didnt say why. He was replaced by longtime Public Utilities employee Ricky Hatfield. Officials lifted boil advisory in afternoon City officials at 2:30 p.m. Thursday lifted Richmonds boil-water advisory just more than 50 hours after issuing it Tuesday morning. In a statement, a representative for the mayor said the decision came after the results of two sets of compliance samples, both of which came back negative, passing the required tests. It was Richmonds second water crisis since a January power outage at the citys water treatment plant caused flooding that damaged critical electrical components in the facility. Since Jan. 6, Richmond residents have spent more than 160 hours under boil-water advisories. The first test on Richmonds water supply came back negative for bacterial contamination late Wednesday night. Officials collected the second sample at around 11:40 a.m. Wednesday. Lifting the advisory required two negative tests, separated by 16 hours, for harmful bacteria, which can infiltrate the water supply when pressure drops as happened Tuesday morning, when James River sediment clogged the water treatment plants filters. Officials initially told the Richmond Times-Dispatch at around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday that the clogged filters were responsible for a partial drop in water pressure in certain neighborhoods, but said the pressure had not fallen enough to issue a boil advisory. But by 11:30 a.m., the filters had clogged again, and officials issued the advisory for all residents in downtown neighborhoods connected to the Ginter Park water tower. On Tuesday evening, they expanded the advisory to parts of South Side along the Richmond Highway corridor. Officials said they had handed out around 140,000 bottles of water to vulnerable residents during the crisis. Henrico taking in Richmond water again Henrico County earlier Thursday reopened some of its connections to the Richmond water utility. The Virginia Department of Health told the county it was safe to open connections outside of the affected zones without issuing a boil-water advisory. Henrico had closed all connecting valves to Richmond on Tuesday night after reports of clogged filters impacting the citys water treatment plant. Richmond has reported that its water treatment plant is back to full operational status. Henrico reports that all water in the county is safe to drink, and officials anticipated pressure would return to normal overnight. We learned a great deal about our system in January, and that knowledge helped us to provide uninterrupted service to our customers throughout this event, said Bentley Chan, director for Henricos Department of Public Utilities. Henrico Public Utilities manually supplied water to storage tanks that covered the eastern side of the county during the outage. The premier Indian Land, South Carolina, practice offers a comprehensive range of dental services for patients of all ages, including routine cleanings, chipped tooth repair, porcelain veneers, dental implants and much more. INDIAN LAND, S.C., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Carolina Commons Dentistry, led by Dr. Kavi Sagunarthy, has once again been honored with the prestigious title of 2025 Top Patient Rated Dentist by Find Local Doctors. This recognition is based on the practice's continued track record of receiving outstanding patient reviews and high ratings. Find Local Doctors is a trusted online directory that helps consumers easily identify top-rated physicians and dentists in their area. Carolina Commons Dentistry's inclusion as a Top Patient Rated Dentist is a testament to their unwavering dedication to providing exceptional dental care to the Indian Land community and beyond. Located at 6257 Carolina Commons Drive, Suite 100, Carolina Commons Dentistry is a modern clinic offering a full spectrum of dental services for the whole family. Dr. Kavi Sagunarthy is a highly respected and experienced dentist known for his advanced skill set in both cosmetic and restorative dentistry. He has successfully completed numerous full mouth implant reconstructions and complex oral surgeries, skillfully guiding patients through even the most involved treatment plans. His commitment to staying current with the latest dental technologies and clinical techniques ensures that patients receive state-of-the-art care in a welcoming and comfortable setting. Carolina Commons Dentistry provides comprehensive dental services, including preventive, general, cosmetic, restorative, and implant dentistry. The practice is also equipped with advanced diagnostic tools, modern dental technology, and a focus on patient comfort through soothing amenities, flexible scheduling, and simple payment options. Most importantly, patients can expect to be treated by a compassionate team that prioritizes healthy smiles and long-term wellness. Carolina Commons Dentistry "Our staff is truly committed to delivering excellence in dentistry and works tirelessly to provide high quality dental care in a comfortable and welcoming environment," says Dr. Kavi Sagunarthy. More about Kavi Sagunarthy, DDS: Dr. Sagunarthy earned his undergraduate degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., before completing his Doctorate of Dental Surgery at the University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in Buffalo, New York. He then completed a general practice residency at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Dr. Sagunarthy is a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry, a member of the American Dental Association, and holds faculty credentials at the MUSC Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency Program. Carolina Commons Dentistry's mission is to deliver modern dental treatments in a patient-focused environment built on trust, comfort, and excellence. To learn more about Carolina Commons Dentistry or to schedule an appointment, please visit www.carolinacommonsdentistry.com or call (803) 306-7949. Media Contact Kavi Sagunarthy, DDS (803) 306-7949 SOURCE Carolina Commons Dentistry Layoffs threaten public services while big tech gets a free pass. SAN FRANCISCO, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- City unions are denouncing Mayor Lurie's budget proposal, which includes massive layoffs of city workers. City unionsincluding IFPTE Local 21, SEIU Local 1021, and the SF Building Tradesissued the following joint statement condemning the cuts and demanding a budget that protects public jobs and the essential services they support. "Layoffs are totally unnecessary. We can find the funds to save jobs and uphold San Francisco values," said Rudy Gonzalez, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council. San Francisco city workers rally outside city hall to protect public services. "We are deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to cut crucial public services that San Francisco residents and small businesses rely on, rather than working with city workers on the pathway forward that we laid out five months ago. Corporations that profit off our city's workforce and infrastructure are trying to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and San Franciscans are paying the price," said SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford, who has worked at Laguna Honda Hospital for over 20 years. Union leaders point to big tech tax avoidance as the real reason behind the deficit. Corporations like Airbnb are actively suing the City for tax breaks amounting to $415 million, more than half of the total projected deficit. Union leaders argue that Airbnb is being given the mayor's blessing to avoid paying their fair share in taxes. "This is the budget that Airbnb wants. None of these job cuts should be on the table, but the mayor has decided that tax breaks for Airbnb are more important than public services," said Sarah Perez, San Francisco City Employee and SF Vice President for IFPTE Local 21. "And, this budget is a big payday for private contractors. Cutting public jobs often means handing over important work to for-profit companies, increasing costs and inviting corruption." IFPTE Local 21, SEIU Local 1021, and the SF Building Trades represent tens of thousands of city workers across every city department. In the coming weeks, city workers and community allies are planning to mobilize for their demand to reverse proposed layoffs. SOURCE IFPTE Local 21 The murder suspect is the son of a Fire Captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department in the City where the murder occurred. LOS ANGELES, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Moses Castillo Investigations -- A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for June 3, 2025, at Los Angeles Superior Court, 210 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Division 37, regarding the case of Andrea Vazquez, a 19-year-old woman tragically kidnapped and murdered in Whittier, California. The suspect, Gabriel Sean Esparza, faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities believe the crime was a random act of violence, with no prior connection between Vazquez and the suspect. Vazquez's disappearance on August 20, 2023, led to an extensive search, ultimately resulting in the discovery of her body in Moreno Valley. Now, 652 days later, the case reaches a critical stage as the preliminary hearing moves forward. Her family continues to advocate for justice, urging the community to support them during this difficult time. The hearing will take place at 210 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles, and is expected to address key legal proceedings in the case. Family Statements & Interview Availability Andrea Vazquez's mother and sister remain dedicated to seeking justice and raising awareness about the impact of this tragedy. They are available for interviews in English and Spanish to share their reflections on the case and their hopes for the legal process. Media Inquiries For interviews or further case updates, please contact Moses Castillo at Moses Castillo Investigations LLC via 714-227-1212 or [email protected]. About the Case Andrea Vazquez was abducted in the early hours of August 20 from Penn Park in Whittier while sitting in a vehicle with her boyfriend. The suspect allegedly fired a gunshot before forcibly taking Vazquez. Authorities swiftly launched an investigation, leading to Esparza's arrest and ongoing court proceedings. Contact: Moses Castillo Business Name: Moses Castillo Investigations LLC Address: 550 N Brand Blvd, Suite 1990, Glendale, CA 91203 Phone: 714-227-1212 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Moses Castillo Investigations, LLC CHICAGO, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Crowe LLP , a leading public accounting and consulting firm, today announced that John Kurkowski has been appointed Managing Partner of the firm's Audit & Assurance Business Unit, effective July 1, 2025. Kurkowski will succeed Wendy Cama, who has announced her intent to retire from Crowe on March 31, 2026, after a distinguished career spanning more than 30 years, including five years as managing partner of the business unit. John Kurkowski, audit and assurance managing partner The leadership transition will take place over the course of the next year, allowing for a seamless handoff as Kurkowski and Cama work closely together through the end of the firm's fiscal year 2026. "John is a seasoned and respected leader whose deep audit expertise, client relationships, and strategic perspective make him the ideal person to lead our Audit & Assurance business into the future," said Crowe CEO Steven Strammello. "His understanding of the current market dynamics and how the role of auditors continues to evolve will be instrumental as we execute on our Crowe strategy." Kurkowski is a 23-year veteran of Crowe and currently serves as Private Equity Industry Leader and several of the firm's public company audit clients. He also served on the Crowe Board of Directors and is recognized for his leadership both within the firm and across the market. "Audit & Assurance is the foundation of our business and central to Crowe's reputation for quality and trust," Strammello added. "Wendy has carried that torch and helped ensure we meet that standard for the past five years, and under John's leadership, we are well positioned to further build on that strong foundation as the profession continues to transform." The firm's strategic succession plan reflects its ongoing focus on audit quality, innovation, and growth in the dynamic professional services landscape. Kurkowski has more than 30 years of experience conducting audits and reviews and providing financial advisory services to privately held and publicly traded clients in manufacturing, distribution, and service industries. Prior to joining Crowe in 2002, he was a partner at Arthur Andersen, where he served clients in the consumer-packaged goods, manufacturing, distribution, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare industries. Kurkowski is a graduate of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants. About Crowe Crowe LLP is a public accounting and consulting firm that uses its deep industry expertise to provide audit, tax and consulting services to public and private entities. Crowe is recognized by many organizations as one of the best places to work in the U.S. As an independent member of Crowe Global, one of the largest global accounting networks in the world, Crowe serves clients worldwide. The network consists of more than 200 independent accounting and advisory services firms in more than 130 countries around the world. LinkedIn: Crowe SOURCE Crowe LLP Driven Has Also Been Recognized on 2025 CRN Security 100 and Tech Elite 250 NEW YORK, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Driven Tech Inc., DBA Driven Technologies, has announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Driven Tech to its 2025 Solution Provider 500 list, ranking the company at #283 among the top integrators, service providers, and IT consultants in North America. Driven Tech This marks Driven Tech's second consecutive appearance on the list, following its debut at #340 in 2024. The rise underscores the company's rapid growth and continued momentum delivering AI-driven, customer-centric solutions that integrate pervasive security, intelligent applications, and a modern digital foundation. In addition to this ranking, Driven Tech was also honored on CRN's 2025 Security 100 and Tech Elite 250 lists earlier this year reinforcing its reputation as a trusted advisor in both advanced cybersecurity and technical excellence. The CRN Solution Provider 500 is a widely recognized benchmark of the largest IT services firms in North America, representing a combined $548.9 billion in revenue and highlighting top performers shaping the future of the technology channel. "We're proud to be recognized once again by CRN," said Vinu Thomas, COO of Driven Tech. "Jumping from #340 to #283 in just one year is a testament to our customer obsession, engineering excellence, and relentless focus on delivering AI-driven services. We integrate best-of-breed solutions to help our clients build secure, intelligent, and future-ready technology platforms." Driven Tech continues to distinguish itself in the industry with market-leading customer satisfaction, achieving an NPS of 91.9 and CSAT of 94.7, underscoring its commitment to innovation, execution, and long-term partnerships. The Solution Provider 500 list spotlights the technology integrators, managed service providers, value-added resellers, and IT consulting firms who bring in the most revenue by leading the way in business and service innovation," said Jennifer Follett, VP, U.S. Content, and Executive Editor, CRN, The Channel Company. "Recognition is reserved for companies demonstrating an unwavering commitment to business agility and sustained growth through rapidly changing industry needs and technology advancements. Congratulations go to each company for earning a well-deserved spot on the Solution Provider 500." Details on Driven Tech's CRN Solution Provider 500 ranking can be found by clicking here. A sampling of the full list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine. About Driven Tech Driven is a leading provider of security-driven IT solutions, dedicated to helping organizations secure, modernize, and connect their applications, data, and users. By combining AI-powered digital foundations with pervasive security, Driven equips businesses with the tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape while enabling smarter, more connected operations. Website https://driven.tech/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/driven-technologies X https://x.com/driven_tech This release was issued through WebWire. For more information, visit http://www.webwire.com. Contact Tripper Allen [email protected] (678) 575-0711 SOURCE Driven Technologies NEW YORK, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of Everus Construction Group, Inc. (NYSE: ECG) between October 31, 2024 and February 11, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), including investors who held MDU Resources Group, Inc. ("MDU Resources") common stock as of October 21, 2024 and acquired Everus Construction common stock issued in connection with the spinoff of Everus Construction on or about October 31, 2024 (the "Spinoff"), of the important June 3, 2025 lead plaintiff deadline. So What: If you purchased Everus Construction common stock during the Class Period and/or held MDU Resources common stock and acquired Everus Construction common stock in connection with the Spinoff you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. What to do next: To join the Everus Construction class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=37947 mailto:or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 3, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Why Rosen Law: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. Details of the case: According to the lawsuit, during the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Everus Construction's backlog conversion cycle had become elongated due to larger, more complex projects; (2) as a result, Everus Construction's revenue recognition would be delayed; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about Everus Construction's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Everus Construction class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=37947 call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected] www.rosenlegal.com SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A. Real estate investment company, Merritt Hospitality, LLC allegedly failed to reimburse employees for business expenses, which included personal cell phone usage on behalf of Defendant. SAN FRANCISCO, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The San Francisco employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that Merritt Hospitality, LLC violated the California Labor Code. The Merritt Hospitality, LLC class action lawsuit, Case No. CGC-25-624134, is currently pending in the San Francisco County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here . The Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP According to the lawsuit filed, employees of Merritt Hospitality, LLC (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse for required expenses, and (f) failed to pay sick wages , all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections 201-203, 226, 226.7, 233, 246, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct. Additional allegations include Merritt Hospitality, LLC failing to reimburse employees for required business expenses. California Labor Code Section 2802 expressly states that "an employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties..." During employment, Plaintiff and other California Class Members were allegedly required to use their personal cellular phones as a result of and in furtherance of their job duties. For more information about the class action lawsuit against Merritt Hospitality, LLC, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today. Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today. **THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT** Media Contact Nicholas De Blouw Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP (800) 568-8020 [email protected] https://www.bamlawca.com/ SOURCE Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP Leading Los Angeles Real Estate Team Brings Over $2.5 Billion Career Sales to Premier Brokerage LOS ANGELES, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sotheby's International Realty today announced that Ernie Carswell & Associates, one of the top California teams at Douglas Elliman in California, has joined Sotheby's Internationa Realty Beverly Hills Brokerage. In 2023 and 2024 alone, the team achieved more than $300 million in closed sales volume. Consistently ranked among the "Top 1,000 Agent Teams in America" by RealTrends Verified, a ranking of the top agents and teams, Ernie Carswell & Associates has built a distinguished legacy in the Los Angeles luxury real estate market. With more than 25 years of industry experience, Ernie Carswell is widely regarded as one of the most respected names in luxury real estate. His accolades include recognition in The Hollywood Reporter's "Hollywood's Top 25 Real Estate Agents," Variety's "Showbiz Real Estate Elite," and Billboard's "Top 15 Real Estate Agents Representing Musicians Today." In 2007, Carswell co-founded the renowned brokerage, Teles Properties, which was purchased by Douglas Elliman in 2017. The 15-member team brings nearly 100 years of combined experience selling luxury properties throughout Los Angeles, specializing in the neighborhoods of Beverly Hills, Bel Air, the Sunset Strip, Hollywood Hills, Brentwood, Encino and Pasadena, with notable achievements including the record-breaking $25 million sale of the University of Southern California president's mansionsetting a price record for Pasadenaand the iconic "Brady Bunch" house. Their distinguished clientele includes Fortune 500 CEOs, professional entertainers, studio executives, attorneys, ambassadors, and government officials. "The Sotheby's name has endured for over 280 years, and in today's rapidly evolving real estate landscape, I am drawn to its legacy of refinement, luxury, and reliability," said Ernie Carswell, founder of Carswell & Associates. "This affiliation has been my destiny for my entire career. I am privileged to lead a team of driven, skilled, and collaborative professionals and look forward to elevating our service through the unparalleled global platform of the Sotheby's International Realty brand." "We are thrilled to welcome Carswell & Associates to Sotheby's International Realty," said Philip White, president and CEO of Sotheby's International Realty. "Ernie and his team are deeply respected in the Los Angeles real estate community, and we look forward to supporting their continued success as they bring their extraordinary market expertise and client service to our global network." Carswell & Associates will office out of the illustrious Sotheby's International Realty Beverly Hills Brokerage, joining the company's Southern California operations which boasted more than $4.2 billion in sales volume in 2024. As part of the Sotheby's International Realty network, Carswell & Associates will harness the brand's sophisticated marketing resources, global network spanning 85 countries and territories, and the prestigious Sotheby's brand heritage dating back to 1744. Their listings will receive unprecedented exposure through the brand's exclusive marketing channels and partnerships with the world's most respected publications. Sotheby's International Realty Sotheby's International Realty was founded in 1976 as a real estate service for discerning clients of Sotheby's auction house. Today, the company's global footprint spans more than 1,100 offices located in 85 countries and territories worldwide, including 48 company-owned brokerage offices in key metropolitan and resort markets. In February 2004, Anywhere Real Estate Inc. entered a long-term strategic alliance with Sotheby's, the operator of the auction house. The agreement provided for the licensing of the Sotheby's International Realty name and the development of a franchise system. The franchise system is comprised of an affiliate network, where each office is independently owned and operated. Sotheby's International Realty supports its affiliates and agents with a host of operational, marketing, recruiting, educational and business development resources. Affiliates and agents also benefit from an association with the venerable Sotheby's auction house, established in 1744. For more information, visit www.sothebysrealty.com. The affiliate network is operated by Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC, and the company owned brokerages are operated by Sotheby's International Realty, Inc. Both entities are subsidiaries of Anywhere Real Estate Inc. (NYSE: HOUS) a global leader in real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation and settlement services. Both Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC and Sotheby's International Realty, Inc. fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Rachel Colletta Senior Manager of PR and Communications [email protected] SOURCE Sotheby's International Realty Free Signature Washes May 30 June 8 at 20340 Farmington Road in Livonia COLUMBUS, Ohio and DETROIT, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Express Wash Concepts (EWC) today announced the grand opening of its 8th metro Detroit Clean Express Auto Wash located at 20340 Farmington Road in Livonia. Express Wash Concepts currently operates 118 express wash locations across Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus and Hampton Roads. Looking ahead, more than 25 new sites are set to break ground or open by the end of 2025 including five throughout Detroit. "As a homegrown, locally operated company, we're proud to make a lasting impact with each grand opening helping our customers protect their vehicles, supporting our team members, and giving back through meaningful community partnerships," said John Roush, Founder and CEO of Express Wash Concepts. "As we continue our Detroit metro area growth, we remain focused on delivering industry-leading value, outstanding customer care, and providing an exceptional wash experience that exceeds expectations." From May 30 -June 8, 2025, the Livonia Clean Express will celebrate its grand opening with all customers receiving a free "Ceramic 4 Ultra" signature wash ($22 value). Customers can also join the Wash Smart Unlimited Club and receive 50% off their first three months plus, for every new sign-up, Clean Express will donate $10 to Elmwood Blessing Box, a local nonprofit providing discreet access to food and essential items for neighbors in need. Additional Clean Express grand opening promotions include a $50 Clean Express gift card for $25 with all proceeds donated back to Elmwood Blessing Box. Once purchased at the Livonia wash, gift cards are redeemable at any Clean Express or EWC location. Clean Express offers state-of-the-art wash equipment, complimentary professional grade vacuums, industry-leading customer service, with all washes backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. The popular Wash Smart Unlimited Club enables members to easily clean and protect their vehicles, while enjoying the convenience and value of truly unlimited washing at any Express Wash Concepts location. About Express Wash Concepts: Express Wash Concepts (EWC) operates 118 award-winning, express car wash locations across six states under the following brands: Moo Moo Express Car Wash, Flying Ace Express Car Wash, Clean Express Auto Wash, Green Clean Express Auto Wash and Bee Clean Express Car Wash. EWC brands feature fast, high quality and environmentally friendly express tunnel wash experiences and free vacuums. The company's popular Wash Smart Unlimited Club offers members the convenience and value of truly unlimited washing at any location. For more information, please visit www.expresswashconcepts.com. SOURCE Express Wash Concepts The RV owners group reveals plans for upcoming events in Wyoming, Georgia, and Missouri. CINCINNATI, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Family RV Association (FRVA) is gearing up for its 111th International Convention and RV Expo themed "Rock & Roll High School" July 16 through 19, 2025, at the CAM-PLEX Multi-Event Facilities in Gillette, Wyoming. Online and phone registrations are open until July 8. After that date, RV owners are welcome to register at the gate. The invitation extends to all RV enthusiasts; you don't have to be an FRVA member to attend. Family RV Association also has unveiled plans for future conventions. For the next two years, the association will host its spring events at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter in Perry, Georgia, aiming to establish this site and event as the premier destination for RV enthusiasts and industry vendors alike. The 112th International Convention and RV Expo will take place March 18 through 21, 2026, and the 114th event will occur March 17 through 20, 2027. "The Georgia National Fairgrounds is one of our most popular convention venues and for good reason," FRVA president Paul Mitchell said. "It's a top-notch facility with excellent buildings and parking space, and its location just off Interstate 75 makes it easily accessible for RV owners, including snowbirds heading back north in the spring. Our goal is to make this a must-attend event for RV enthusiasts each year." Looking ahead to summer 2026, Family RV Association members will gather at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. FRVA's 113th International Convention and RV Expo will take place July 1 through 4, 2026, and attendees will celebrate America's 250th birthday RV style complete with fireworks on the Fourth. This marks the first time the association has hosted an international convention in Missouri, making it the 35th state the group has visited. "We're excited to be planning an event in America's heartland that coincides with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence," FRVA events director Doug Uhlenbrock said. "The RV lifestyle is all about freedom, so the timing couldn't be more fitting. We invite all RV owners to join us for this celebration." Registration for the Perry, Georgia, convention in March 2026 will begin in September 2025. Registration for the event in Sedalia, Missouri, will begin in January 2026. Meanwhile, all RV owners are invited to join the fun at "Rock & Roll High School" in Gillette, Wyoming, this July. Various registration options are available online at frva.com/frva-gillette-2025-learn-more or by calling (513) 474-3622 or (800) 543-3622. ABOUT FMCA: ENHANCING THE RV LIFESTYLE Family RV Association (FRVA) is the world's largest not-for-profit association for recreation vehicle (RV) owners. The organization is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has nearly 110,000 active members. Member benefits include a subscription to its bimonthly magazine, Family RVing; a Medical & Travel Assist program valued at $200 per family; a tire purchasing program; group rates on a roadside emergency service program, RV and auto insurance, and health insurance; discounted rates for RV tours and caravans; and discounts on mobile internet access and cellphone plans. Perhaps the most important benefit is the camaraderie and friendships that develop among people who enjoy the common interest of RV travel. To learn more about Family RV Association, call (513) 474-3622 or (800) 543-3622, or visit frva.com. Note to media: For images and additional information, visit https://www.frva.com/frva-media-room SOURCE Family RV Association The biggest challenge to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay is figuring out where the nutrients that fuel summertime dead zones come from and a new approach to pollution control is stressing better targeting. For the past few years, environmentalists and marine scientists have been talking about such targeting with what they call an outcomes-based approach to cutting non-point source flows of nitrogen and phosphorus. These are the pollutants that rain flowing off farm fields, parking lots, streets and suburban lawns carries into the hundreds of streams and rivers that eventually feed the Bay. Now, some of the first efforts are emerging. On Capitol Hill, a more targeted and outcomes-based approach is an element of the expanded effort outlined in the Chesapeake Bay Conservation Acceleration Act that Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st; Jen Kiggans, R-2nd; and Bobby Scott, D-3rd, introduced this spring. Virginias U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, are sponsoring a Senate version. The acceleration act calls on the secretary of Agriculture to fund farmers' efforts to cut non-point pollution by giving special consideration to applications that can show where projects would be most effective. As science has evolved, our policy solutions must evolve as well," said Wittman, who before entering Congress had worked as a scientist monitoring water quality for the Virginia Department of Health. "By focusing on conservation efforts where the return on investment will be highest and most impactful, we can more effectively and efficiently improve water quality, enhance soil and air quality, control erosion, and reduce sediment and nutrient levels in ground water, he said. The states pay-for-outcomes grants, with funds to be released only after the projects show they have cut nitrogen, came after a competition during which applicants had to demonstrate how their proposals would cut nitrogen flows. Applicants used the Chesapeake Assessment Scenario Tool, a group of computer models that estimate pollution flows from any of several thousands of small geographic segments within the 64,000-square-mile bay watershed. The tool uses data including population and livestock counts, the latest satellite imagery of whats on the land and data from federal and state water quality monitoring. It can show how much nitrogen is flowing from a project site and can calculate how much should be eliminated by changes to the site that they proposed. Middle Peninsula So, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, for example, used long-proven data about what happens to communities in low-lying areas with high water tables when people connect to public sewers and no longer rely on septic tanks to handle their wastewater. The regional wastewater utility thought one fairly straightforward way to make a big impact was to connect people with septic tanks who live next to Gloucester Point, Gloucester Court House and along parts of U.S. 17 where public sewers are already in place, said Ryan Radspinner, a business process engineer in the sanitation district. But connecting to a main sewer line is not cheap, so the sanitation district proposed helping homeowners with that expense. The state pay-for-outcomes grant will pay $1.18 million once the district shows it has helped connect enough homeowners to reduce nitrogen flow into the bay by 71,200 pounds. The next step is to work with Gloucester County to get the word out, Radspinner said. As with the other grants, the district will be paid as it hits specific milestones and as state officials confirm actual reductions in nitrogen, said Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Julia Raimondi. Gloucester County is also where Oyster Company of Virginia hopes restoring 57 acres of oyster reef near the mouth of the Severn River as a home for thousands of filter-feeding oysters, along with protecting a buffer area of some 59 acres nearby, will keep about 74,200 pounds of nitrogen from reaching the bay. This grant would be for $6.8 million if the company succeeds. In Gloucester and Mathews counties, on the western shore of the bay, toilet-maker Lixil proposes installing toilets designed to enhance nitrogen removal in septic tanks, aiming to stop 10,700 pounds of nitrogen from reaching the bay. This grant is for $499,800. Other projects Like the sanitation district, the Virginia State Dairymen's Association will be a kind of middleman in its proposal aiming to cut nitrogen flows from at least seven farms in Amelia, Augusta, Fauquier and Rockingham counties by roughly 115,600 pounds. Its grant could be $4.2 million if it can show what those farms did and that those efforts cut nitrogen pollution. We will be coordinating with Virginia Tech to work with individual dairy farmers to create tailored plans for each farm, said Eric Paulson, the associations executive secretary. No two farms are alike, and so no two plans will be the same. The benefit to this is that it allows Virginia Tech and the farmer to decide which practices make the most sense for their operation. Participating farmers will receive payments for reducing nutrient losses through smart, farm-specific changes in how they manage feed, fertilizer, and manure, he said. The association, Virginia Tech and the farmers will use an approach known as nutrient mass balance accounting, which tracks the flow of nutrients onto and off of the farm. Farmers can cut outflows by giving their cows lower-protein feed, or by growing more feed themselves. A fairly common crop rotation, for instance, includes a plant that takes up nitrogen, corn and one that fixes nitrogen in the soil, soybeans. Farmers could also cut the use of fertilizer a big source of nitrogen by using their animals liquid waste and by applying fertilizer more precisely. Applying liquid manure with a precise application close to the plants that need it means farmers are not spreading fertilizer on the ground between rows of crops. Financial incentives The association will provide financial incentives to help offset any costs and risks of such new techniques. If a producer were to change their fertilizer application and it led to reduced yields, these funds could be used to purchase the additional feed needed for their operation, Paulson said. Each farms results will be evaluated annually based on verified improvements in their nutrient mass balance not just good intentions, but measurable outcomes, verified by Virginia Tech, he said. The association is especially eager to work with farmers who have not been engaged with conservation efforts, he said. Other projects include the Conservation Innovation Fund's proposal to replace corn and soybeans on 706 acres in the Shenandoah Valley with a tall perennial grass that fixes nitrogen in the soil. This effort should cut nitrogen flows by 172,200 pounds, and if it does, the state grant would release $2.66 million. Also in the Shenandoah Valley, Mova Technologies will collect ammonia gas from poultry houses, which would keep 47,100 pounds of nitrogen from reaching the Bay. This grant is for $1.3 million. Keystone Streams will bring back 44 acres of native forest on farm land in Albemarle, Augusta, Rappahannock, and Richmond counties, aiming to cut nitrogen flow by 29,200 pounds. This grant is for $588,500. On the Eastern Shore, Resource Environment Solutions wants to plant native grasses and hardwood trees on 85 acres of active farm land, to prevent 43,800 pounds of nitrogen from reaching the Bay. This grant is for $1.25 million. In addition, Resource Environment will tap a $500,000 grant for its Qualen Woods Nutrient Bank. "By rewarding tangible outcomes associated with pollution reductions, we're unlocking the ingenuity of partners to develop and implement the most effective solutions for a healthier Chesapeake Bay, said Joe Wood, Virginia senior scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Linking payments directly to environmental outcomes ensures that our investments yield the greatest possible benefit for water quality, offering a clear pathway to cleaner streams, rivers, and Chesapeake Bay. 'My China Album' event celebrates discovery journeys by US citizens WASHINGTON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The following article was published today by China Daily. China and the United States each has strengths in science and technology, and the right path forward is mutual learning and cooperation for shared success, Beijing's top envoy in Washington said on Wednesday, as the US announced new curbs on tech exports. "Blockades never prevent breakthroughs; churning waves won't hold back determined ships," Ambassador Xie Feng said at the premiere of the documentary My China Album My China Footprints and the Glimpses of Modern China show. The event celebrated the sixth edition of "My China Album", an annual initiative co-hosted by the embassy and China Daily, featuring personal stories, short films and interactive exhibits that explore US citizens' experiences in China. Washington ordered a broad swath of companies to stop shipping goods including design software, machine tools and aviation equipment to China without a license and revoked licenses already granted to certain suppliers, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The new restrictions followed earlier US guidelines seeking to globally restrict the use of Chinese advanced computing chips. In a rare showcase in Washington of China's robotics technology, a 1.3-meter-tall humanoid robot, developed by Chinese tech company Unitree Robotics, invited Xie to the stage at the start of Wednesday's event at the embassy. "So cute. I never thought that I would be invited on stage, you know, by a robot. So who knows, maybe one day it will be the one standing here giving the speech," Xie quipped. He noted China's pursuit of innovation is not to oppose or out-compete anyone, but to improve the lives of its own people and the greater development of humanity. "A big yard with iron curtains only leads to isolation; blocking other countries slows global innovation; and weaponizing scientific collaboration harms one's own credibility and weakens competitiveness," Xie said, without mentioning any of the fresh US curbs. But he did recall the past feats the two countries made in science and tech exchange. They include joint efforts to promote folic acid intake that helped millions of newborns, and helping Africa combat Ebola. Most recently, China shared lunar soil samples from the Chang'e 5 mission with Brown University and Stony Brook University. In his speech, Xie noted that China is using technology to improve lives at home and around the world. He highlighted China's advances in green development and technology, noting that over 87 percent of days in China last year had good air quality, and the country created one-quarter of the world's new green spaces. China has also built the world's largest renewable energy system, employing nearly half of the global workforce in the sector. Its solar and wind products are exported to over 200 countries and regions, helping cut global carbon emissions by over 3.6 billion tons. Xie also pointed to DeepSeek, an open-source AI model, as an example of China's openness and contribution to global progress, offering hope for bridging the digital divide in the Global South. The ambassador also said that it is people-to-people ties that invigorate China-US relations. "The future of this relationship ultimately depends on the two peoples. We warmly welcome more American friends to travel in China, shop in China, succeed in China and take part in Chinese modernization," he said. In addition to the feature-length documentary My China Footprints, Wednesday's event also featured four short films, telling stories that are diverse, yet unified by a common thread the powerful impact of people-to-people exchange. In My City, My Home, the audience met Charles Stone, a lawyer who discovered tranquility and safety in Shenzhen, and Neil Schmid, a researcher deeply engaged with the ancient Buddhist art of Dunhuang. Welcome to the Future took viewers on a journey through China's technological achievements from the speed of sleek bullet trains to the everyday convenience of QR code payments as seen by students like Ruthie Fike and content creators like BeeRose. Common stereotypes Meanwhile, Misconceptions vs. Reality offered a refreshing counter-narrative to common stereotypes. It followed Dustin Madison, who was surprised to find Shenzhen especially welcoming for families, and Katherine Loraine Olson, who explored China's abundant green spaces. The final short film, City or Not City, documented the whirlwind travels of Thelma Lancaster and Evan Kail, who made full use of China's extended 240-hour visa-free transit policy to explore Beijing and Tianjin, immersing themselves in the culture despite a brief visit. "These stories matter because they remind us of what's possible. Yes, tensions exist in China-US relations trade disputes and the technology barriers created by the US dominate news headlines but cooperation and friendship remain the bigger story," Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said in a video speech. Citing President Xi Jinping's remarks that "the hope of the China-US relationship lies in the people, its foundation is in our societies, its future depends on the youth, and its vitality comes from exchanges at subnational levels", Qu said that projects like "My China Album" prove this to be right. "From Bill Einreinhofer, who is at the event today, sharing his Emmy-winning insights, to tech firms like Rokid showcasing innovation, tonight's event reflects that vitality," Qu said. "China Daily is proud to amplify these voices, showing a real, vibrant China to America." More than 200 people, including people from all walks of life in the US, attended the event. In the Glimpses of Modern China show, participants were wowed by a dancing robot dog from Unitree that can walk on two legs and shake hands with visitors. There was also a robot that could do Chinese kung fu, and also help people with fire and earthquake detection. At the demonstration site of Rokid, a Hangzhou-based AR (augmented reality) glasses maker, Spanish and English-speaking visitors found that they had no difficulty talking with the Rokid staffers, who spoke Chinese with them. The AI-powered glasses can translate more than 100 languages in real time. By ZHAO HUANXIN in Washington SOURCE China Daily USA SHENZHEN, China, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fosi Audio, a brand committed to redefining high-fidelity sound with unmatched value and user-centered innovation, has officially launched its inaugural MemberFest, running from May 27 to June 8 (PST). The event celebrates the brand's growing global community and deepens the connection between Fosi Audio and its users worldwide. Unlike traditional promotional campaigns, its MemberFest is built on real stories, shared passions, and creative collaboration. It's a chance for Fosi Audio and its users to shape a unique community together. Hear the Unheard - Brand Theme Music Video Released As an audio brand deeply connected with its users, Fosi Audio is committed not only to delivering the best possible sound quality in every device, but also to ensuring that every voice is heardbringing warmth and meaning to sound itself. To bring this belief to life, Fosi Audio released an original theme song, Hear the Unheard, premiering at MemberFest. The music video resonated deeply with the community, earning praise and admiration for Fosi Audio's values and brand spirit. Real Stories, Real Voices At the heart of this festival are the voices of Fosi members themselves. Through short videos and photo submissions, fans are sharing their journeys from first discoveries of high-quality audio to building DIY setups with Fosi gear. These personal accounts, featured on Fosi's official platforms, echo a common theme: the joy of connection through music and sound. Creativity Beyond Products In the spirit of co-creation, Fosi is inviting users to design future merchandise. Submissions from the community will be considered for limited-edition production, and selected participants will be honored as Fosi Audio Creative Masters a title that reflects both pride and contribution to the brand's visual identity. Perks with Purpose To thank its members, Fosi Audio is offering double points for all purchases made by registered members during the festival. These points can be redeemed for rewards including gift cards, discount coupons, and even free products. A spin-the-wheel game adds a layer of fun, allowing users to win mystery gifts and major deals across Fosi's online stores. New Product Spotlight: SP601 Passive Speakers Coinciding with MemberFest, Fosi Audio also officially launches the SP601 passive bookshelf speakers. Designed to complement the brand's growing lineup of amplifiers and DACs, the SP601 offers rich, natural sound. Influencers across platforms are already sharing first impressions, adding depth to the festival atmosphere. "HiFi is more than just great sound it's about the people who make it meaningful. MemberFest is our way of celebrating that shared passion. Together, we're building something truly special." Ryan Huang, CEO of Fosi Audio As MemberFest continues, Fosi Audio invites everyone music lovers, creators, tinkerers, and dreamers to join the celebration. Because HiFi isn't just about hearing. It's about being heard. Learn more and participate: https://fosiaudio.com/pages/fosi-audio-1st-memberfest About Fosi Audio As a global audio company, Fosi Audio places customers above all else, guided by a deep understanding of users' needs and a commitment to co-creating with users. Fosi Audio has won sincere recognition from a wide range of audiophiles and well-known media such as Wirecutter, Trusted Reviews, Headfonia, TNT-Audio, and digitaltrends, authoritative forums like AudioScienceReview, Head-fi, and well-known HiFi enthusiasts such as Cheapaudioman, Z Reviews, and A British Audiophile, etc. For more information, please visit: SOURCE Hong Kong Fosi Technology Co., Limited SINGAPORE, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Dollar Network (GDN) is proud to announce that Global Dollar (USDG) is now available on the Ink Blockchain. This significant launch marks a key milestone for USDG, as availability on Ink is bringing the next generation of stablecoins to a vibrant and innovative platform. The availability of USDG on Ink provides users and developers a stable asset for transactions, liquidity provision and interactions with a wide array of DeFi applications, all while leveraging USDG's inherent stability and utility. Issued by Paxos, USDG was built with distinct features to serve demanding onchain environments like Ink: Fully backed 1:1: Global Dollar (USDG) is a single-currency stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. USDG is fully redeemable from Paxos on a one-to-one basis for US dollars. Global Dollar (USDG) is a single-currency stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. USDG is fully redeemable from Paxos on a one-to-one basis for US dollars. Trusted and transparent: Paxos publishes monthly reserve reports for all Paxos-issued stablecoins, including USDG, to ensure full transparency and reliability of financial data. Paxos publishes monthly reserve reports for all Paxos-issued stablecoins, including USDG, to ensure full transparency and reliability of financial data. USDG powers Global Dollar Network: GDN is the world's fastest-growing stablecoin network with unmatched economic upside. GDN is the world's fastest-growing stablecoin network with unmatched economic upside. Powerful integration: USDG is designed for deep integration, offering native performance on Ink while maintaining its Ethereum compatibility for broader accessibility. USDG is also available on Solana. "The launch of USDG on Ink furthers the mission of Global Dollar Network and benefits the stablecoin ecosystem at large," said Sergio Mello, Head of Stablecoins at Anchorage Digital on behalf of Global Dollar Network. "By integrating USDG with Ink, we are empowering users to confidently navigate and participate in the exciting opportunities within DeFi, backed by the reliability of USDG and the trusted environment of Kraken." "Stablecoins are evolving fast, and it's crucial for ecosystems to keep pace with demand for emerging options that are growing rapidly," said Andrew Koller, Founder of Ink. "USDG on Ink expands the freedom of choice and flexibility for anyone to move value with confidence." For more information about Global Dollar Network and how to join, visit globaldollar.com. About Global Dollar Network Global Dollar Network (GDN) is an open, distributed network of leading enterprises working to accelerate stablecoin adoption worldwide. Powered by Global Dollar (USDG), a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Digital Singapore, GDN offers a transparent and equitable economic model that rewards partners for their contributions. Founded by Anchorage Digital, Bullish, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Nuvei, Paxos and Robinhood, GDN is revolutionizing the financial system by making it more accessible and efficient for all. CONTACT: [email protected] SOURCE Global Dollar Network One of the first IONIQ 9s in the country delivered in Georgia Innovation meets everyday utility in the all-new three-row IONIQ 9 RINGGOLD, Ga., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai recently delivered one of its first-ever IONIQ 9 all-electric SUVs to customers Jennifer and Dwayne Maynard of Dalton, Georgia. The historic handoff occurred at Mountain View Hyundai in Ringgold, Georgia, marking an exciting milestone in the evolution of Hyundai's all-electric vehicle lineup. Previously owners of the award-winning IONIQ 5, the Maynards transitioned to the IONIQ 9, citing the vehicle's class-leading space, advanced technology, and modern design as key reasons for their transition. Jennifer and Dwayne Maynard and their 2026 IONIQ 9 at Mountain View Hyundai, Ringgold, Ga. (Photo/Hyundai) "We loved our IONIQ 5, but the IONIQ 9 offers everything we need and more for our family and our adventures," said Jennifer Maynard. "It feels like Hyundai designed this vehicle specifically for us." The IONIQ 9 redefines what an electric SUV can be, blending bold aerodynamics, ultra-fast charging, and an EPA-estimated range of up to 335 miles into a spacious, tech-forward interior. Built at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), the IONIQ 9 delivers premium comfort and innovation from the inside out. "We are thrilled to see the IONIQ 9 begin its journey with the Maynards," said Michael Orange, vice president, national sales, Hyundai Motor America. "This moment symbolizes not just a delivery, but a commitment to innovative, sustainable, and connected driving for everyone." The delivery coincides with Hyundai's national marketing campaign, "Space to Connect," which highlights the IONIQ 9's role in redefining family mobility and digital lifestyle integration. Building on the success of the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6, the IONIQ 9 is built to belong, providing families with a versatile and stylish EV solution. Hyundai Motor America Hyundai Motor America offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs, and electrified vehicles, while supporting Hyundai Motor Company's Progress for Humanity vision. Hyundai has significant operations in the U.S., including its North American headquarters in California, the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama assembly plant, the all-new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, and several cutting-edge R&D facilities. These operations, combined with those of Hyundai's 850 independent dealers, contribute $20.1 billion annually and 190,000 jobs to the U.S. economy, according to a published economic impact report. For more information, visit www.hyundainews.com. Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok SOURCE Hyundai Motor America Available now on Spotify and launched alongside S'ABLE Labs' first-ever lip product, "No Lip Service" marks a groundbreaking crossover between music and beautypositioning African-founded brands at the forefront of wellness innovation and cultural storytelling. NEW YORK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Idris and Sabrina Elba premiere "No Lip Service" today, a groundbreaking new album created in collaboration with S'ABLE Labs. This bold, first-of-its-kind project merges music and beauty in a dynamic expression of art, identity, and cultural care. Featuring a powerful lineup of Black artists, the record explores themes of wellness, creativity, and connectionpositioning African-founded beauty brands at the forefront of innovation in the industry. "No Lip Service" A Groundbreaking Album from S'ABLE Labs The release coincides with S'ABLE Labs' first foray into the lip category: the launch of the Moringa Lip Salve. Together, the album and product mark a new kind of brand strategyresisting, restoring, and repairing through the intersection of sound, storytelling, and self-care. "At S'ABLE Labs, we believe wellness is cultural, emotional, and communal, not just topical," says Sabrina Elba, co-founder and CEO of Sable Labs. "No Lip Service is about honouring that. It's about supporting artists not just as ambassadors, but as co-creators and storytellers. This album is our love letter to creative care and to the communities that inspire everything we do." "Music has always been a form of therapy for me," says Idris Elba, co-founder of S'ABLE Labs and featured artist on the album. "The track I contributed to No Lip Service speaks to the tension between strength and vulnerabilitysomething we don't talk about enough, especially as men. Wellness isn't just physical; it's emotional, spiritual, and creative. This project is about making space for that conversation." A BEAUTY INDUSTRY FIRST: LEADERS IN CREATIVE WELLNESS, CULTURE AND CARE. In tandem with the release of No Lip Service, S'ABLE Labs unveils its latest skincare innovation: The Moringa Lip Salve. A future-forward lip treatment rooted in centuries old African care traditions. Just like the record, the salve goes deeper than surfacechallenging the notion that beauty is only skin-deep and redefining care as something truly intentional. Formulated with a potent blend of African botanicals and S'ABLE's proprietary HyperPrevent technology, the vegan formula delivers long-lasting hydration while helping to brighten, smooth, and protect. Lipid-rich Castor and Marula Oils help stimulate collagen and lock in moisture, while Prickly Pear and Moringa soothe and shield against free radical damage. "I needed more than moisture. This salve goes furtherwith rich nourishment and real care for hyperpigmentation. It's the lip care I always wished existed." Sabrina Elba, Co-Founder and CEO of S'ABLE Labs CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: RE-DEFINING WELLNESS AS CULTURAL, EMOTIONAL AND COMMUNAL. Each track on No Lip Service explores a different dimension of Black life and wellness from rest and softness to resistance, joy, and ancestry. The artists involved represent a broad spectrum of Black identity and sound, with songs that feel as intimate as a journal entry and as expansive as a global conversation. No Lip Service features a collection of original songs inspired by S'ABLE Sounds, a curated event held in London, UK, that brought together artists, thinkers, and cultural icons to reflect on what wellness means across the Black diaspora, including conversations of the night. Artists on the album include; Gyakie , Idris Elba , Shae Universe , Muneyi , George The Poet , Sha'Condra 'Icon' Sibley , and Awlyver , featuring voices of GHETTS , Zeze Millz and other global thought leaders. AFRICAN BEAUTY ROOTED IN ORAL TRADITION S'ABLE Labs is rooted in uplifting and amplifying African Beauty rituals and traditions. A brand built to highlight not only African Botanicals, but the sourcing of ingredients, the communities it impacts, and the heritage in which it was foundationally founded. African Beauty is curated through passed down traditions and culture with celebrated wisdom that has spread through its roots to the rest of the world. Further, it stands as the ethos in which S'ABLE Labs was founded. Through this interconnected journey of African roots and the immersion into the African experience, S'ABLE Sounds 'No Lip Service' showcases a connectedness to consciousness and the stories behind identities developed by cultural equity. 'No Lip Service' construct to spoken word stands to celebrate, cherish, inspire, reflect, and replenish. No Lip Service will be available May 30th, 2025 across all major streaming platforms, with limited-edition physical copies and exclusive content available at sablelabs.co and on @sable.labs platforms. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE S'ABLE Labs DUBAI, UAE, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- JETOUR has secured the No. 1 position among Chinese auto brands in the Middle East from January to April 2025, over 20,000 units sold across key markets including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. This milestone reflects the brand's fast-rising popularity and the successful execution of its localization strategy, which emphasizes regional suitability in terms of design, performance, and value. JETOUR's core SUV lineup is engineered to meet the unique demands of Middle East driversfeaturing enhanced cooling systems, spacious interiors, and off-road capabilities tailored to local terrains and climates. A major contributor to this success is JETOUR's dynamic T series, particularly the T1 and T2 models. The T2, positioned as a rugged adventure SUV is redefining the off-road SUV category. With monthly sales surpassing 3,000 units, it ranks first place among Chinese SUV brands. Features such as an upgraded 8-speed automatic transmission, hybrid technology, and lifestyle like the T2 i-DM appeal to adventure enthusiasts and outdoor users. The JETOUR T1 had its global launch event in Saudi Arabia this February. Its rugged aesthetic design and intelligent technology features, along with the latest upgraded 2.0T high-performance engine, XWD intelligent all-wheel-drive system, and exclusive color versions, have sparked extensive discussions among the media and users. Together, the T1 and T2 models form a powerful product matrix that JETOUR refers to as "1 + 1 > 2." This approach enables the brand to simultaneously cover both urban and off-road segments, giving it a unique edge over other competitors in the region. In addition to its vehicle offerings, JETOUR's success has been driven by a strong local presence. The company has invested in after-sales service, established strategic partnerships, and expanded showroom networksboosting customer trust and loyalty across the Gulf countries. JETOUR's achievement in Middle East is not just a sales victory, but a critical step in its global journey. With a clear vision and a strong product lineup, the brand is steadily advancing towards becoming"The World's Leading Hybrid Off-road Brand". SOURCE Jetour BOSTON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (NYSE: PDT) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund managed by John Hancock Investment Management LLC and subadvised by Manulife Investment Management (US) LLC, announced today sources of its monthly distribution of $0.0825 per share paid to all shareholders of record as of May 12, 2025, pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan. This press release is issued as required by an exemptive order granted to the Fund by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Notification of Sources of Distribution This notice provides shareholders of the John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (NYSE: PDT) with important information concerning the distribution declared on May 1, 2025, and payable on May 30, 2025. No action is required on your part. Distribution Period: May 2025 Distribution Amount Per Common Share: $0.0825 The following table sets forth the estimated sources of the current distribution, payable May 30, 2025, and the cumulative distributions paid this fiscal year to date from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short term capital gains; net realized long term capital gains; and return of capital or other capital source. All amounts are expressed on a per common share basis and as a percentage of the distribution amount. For the period 05/01/2025-05/31/2025 For the fiscal year-to-date period 11/1/2024-05/31/2025 1 Source Current Distribution ($) % Breakdown of the Current Distribution Total Cumulative Distributions ($) % Breakdown of the Total Cumulative Distributions Net Investment Income 0.0701 85 % 0.3817 66 % Net Realized Short- Term Capital Gains 0.0124 15 % 0.0822 14 % Net Realized Long- Term Capital Gains 0.0000 0 % 0.0210 4 % Return of Capital or Other Capital Source 0.0000 0 % 0.0926 16 % Total per common share 0.0825 100 % 0.5775 100 % Average annual total return (in relation to NAV) for the 5 years ended on April 30, 2025 10.88 % Annualized current distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of April 30, 2025 7.42 % Cumulative total return (in relation to NAV) for the fiscal year through April 30, 2025 2.06 % Cumulative fiscal year-to-date distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of April 30, 2025 4.33 % ___________ 1 The Fund's current fiscal year began on November 1, 2024 and will end on October 31, 2025. You should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution plan. The Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and net realized capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur, for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income." The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. The Fund has declared the May 2025 distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "Plan"). Under the Plan, the Fund makes fixed monthly distributions in the amount of $0.0825 per share, which will continue to be paid monthly until further notice. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your financial professional or call the Manulife John Hancock Closed-End Fund Information Line at 1-800-843-0090, Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. About Manulife John Hancock Investments We serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship. About Manulife Wealth & Asset Management As part of Manulife Financial Corporation, Manulife Wealth & Asset Management provides global investment, financial advice, and retirement plan services to 19 million individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Our mission is to make decisions easier and lives better by empowering people today to invest for a better tomorrow. As a committed partner to our clients and as a responsible steward of investor capital, we offer a heritage of risk management, deep expertise across public and private markets, and comprehensive retirement plan services. We seek to provide better investment and impact outcomes and to help people confidently save and invest for a more secure financial future. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com. Media Contact: Gordon Haight (617) 572-0034 Investor Contact: (800) 843-0090 SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management NEW YORK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Katten announced today that the global philanthropic organization United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc. (UJA) lauded Steven J. Reisman, Global Chair of the firm's Insolvency and Restructuring practice, at the UJA Harvey R. Miller and Leonard M. Rosen Annual Restructuring Event. "Giving is livingThat phrase may sound simple, maybe even a little too simple, but it is everything." - Steven Reisman Post this Steven J. Reisman, Global Chair of Kattens Insolvency and Restructuring practice, was honored at the UJA Harvey R. Miller and Leonard M. Rosen Annual Restructuring Event. (PRNewsfoto/Katten) "Steve is without question an exceptional lawyer. His reputation and credibility are well known and well worthy of distinction," said Katten CEO Noah S. Heller. "Equally outstanding are his quiet, often unexpected acts of kindness that widely spread positivity and compassion, particularly important now, when much more of that is sorely needed." The UJA awards ceremony applauds professional, community and philanthropic leadership. This year's event at the Marriott Marquis in New York featured as keynote speaker Omer Shem Tov, a former Israeli hostage taken by terrorists from a concert in Israel on October 7. He recounted his harrowing captivity. Former President Bill Clinton, via video message, praised Reisman: "I've always admired and been in awe of your big heart, your fine mind, your commitment to spreading love and joy everywhere you go and your willingness to stand up for causes that matter most." Reisman, variously described as "deeply generous," "a connector" and "a singular personality," is one of America's top restructuring attorneys, known for providing practical, innovative solutions to complex corporate restructurings. During his 35-year career, he has led numerous high-profile restructurings across a range of industries, including retail, manufacturing, energy, fintech and health care. He also has earned the nickname "Two-Dollar Steve" for giving $2 bills as a source of good luck and sudden joy to almost everyone he meets, most notably at rap concerts, another of his passions. Reisman referred to the giving as his "little habit that for a brief moment makes someone feel special (and) seen." The Clinton video ended with a graphic of $2 bills. "Steve, you have a heart of gold, the stamina of an 18-year-old and an endless supply of two-dollar bills," said Marc Puntus, a partner at investment-banking advisory firm Centerview Partners. He was commended alongside his colleague Samuel Greene, a Centerview partner and co-head of its restructuring and debt advisory group, as well as Reisman. "Giving is living That phrase may sound simple, maybe even a little too simple, but it is everything," Reisman said, offering words of thanks that honored his late son, Noah, on what would have been his 31st birthday. "We live in a time when it's easy to feel overwhelmed Giving isn't what we do after we live. It's how we live." The UJA event annually celebrates the philanthropy of late restructuring attorneys Harvey R. Miller and Leonard M. Rosen, each legendary in the industry. Katten was a lead sponsor for this year's ceremony, which raised more than $5 million to combat antisemitism, strengthen the Jewish community and support vulnerable New Yorkers generally prominent parts of the UJA mission. Katten is a full-service law firm with approximately 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm's core areas of practice include insolvency and restructuring, financial markets and funds, corporate, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com . SOURCE Katten The new platform features stories from kids to bring Kinder Chocolate's deliciously simple recipe to life. PARSIPPANY, N.J., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Kinder Chocolate, the beloved brand known for its milk chocolate coating and creamy milky filling, unveils a new brand campaign entitled "Simply Wonderful." Launching simultaneously across digital and social platforms, the campaign celebrates the delightfully endless possibilities that begin with a simple treat. This is the first new brand campaign from Kinder Chocolate since launching in the U.S. in 2023. Simply Wonderful "At Kinder Chocolate, we believe that something wonderfully extraordinary can come from something remarkably simple," said Catherine Bertrac, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Ferrero Mainstream Chocolate. "Our Simply Wonderful platform celebrates how two thoughtfully crafted ingredients smooth milk chocolate and creamy milky filling create a magical experience that sparks imagination. It's not about complicated recipes or endless options it's about making space for wonder through simplicity." To bring this vision to life, the Simply Wonderful campaign leans on its biggest fans: kids. A short film titled Cowboys will debut across television, digital video and social platforms, with a separate partner series called Wonderful Bites joining it on social. Both pieces feature children using their imaginations to explain what makes Kinder Chocolate so special. Through their playful storytelling, the films capture the boundless creativity that makes childhood so remarkable, emphasizing that the most memorable moments often have the simplest ingredients and can inspire the type of everyday magic only kids can create. From its minimalist ingredient story to its vibrant, playful design system, Simply Wonderful reflects Kinder Chocolate's commitment to a distinctive identity that cuts through clutter and makes space for creativity. Across digital platforms and social media, the campaign brings to life a world where chocolate isn't just a treat it's the start of something wonderfully unexpected. Kinder Chocolate is available in single, share, and mini sizes at retailers nationwide. A new snack-size lay down bag will be launching just in time for Halloween. To learn more about Simply Wonderful, please visit www.kinder.com . About Kinder Chocolate Michele Ferrero developed Kinder Chocolate, which has become a top-selling KINDER product. At the heart of Kinder Chocolate is the commitment to sparking, sharing and celebrating simply wonderful moments of togetherness between parents and kids. It is a delicious, sharable treat that proves less truly is more with just a perfect milk chocolate coating and a creamy milky filling. It comes in small, individually wrapped bars, making it kid-friendly and perfect for families. Every bite is crafted to spark wonder and be Simply Wonderful, helping parents create quality moments of enjoyment and connection with their children. About Ferrero Ferrero began its journey in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946. Today, it is one of the world's largest sweet-packaged food companies, with over 35 iconic brands sold in more than 170 countries. The Ferrero Group brings joy to people around the world with much-loved treats and snacks including Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac, and Ferrero Rocher. More than 38,000 employees are passionate about helping people celebrate life's special moments. The Ferrero Group's family culture, now in its third generation, is based on dedication to quality and excellence, heritage and a commitment to the planet and communities in which we operate. Ferrero entered the North American market in 1969 and has grown to more than 5,400 employees in 15 plants and warehouses, and eight offices in North America across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It has expanded its presence and portfolio with the addition of iconic brands such as Butterfinger, CRUNCH, Keebler, Famous Amos, Mother's Cookies, and other distinctive cookie and chocolate brands. Follow @FerreroNACorp on Twitter and Instagram. www.ferreronorthamerica.com . Media Contact: Keely Bennett Morgan [email protected] SOURCE Ferrero North America New test offerings target solid tumors and hematologic malignancies Enhanced biopharma services support accelerated clinical trials and companion diagnostic development BURLINGTON, N.C., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Labcorp (NYSE: LH), a global leader of innovative and comprehensive laboratory services, announced today the expansion of its precision oncology portfolio. The additions include new test offerings for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies and enhanced biopharma solutions designed to accelerate clinical trials and companion diagnostic development. "Labcorp is committed to serving as the trusted partner for advanced testing at every stage of cancer care," said Shakti Ramkissoon, M.D., Ph.D., vice president and medical lead for oncology at Labcorp. "Our expanded portfolio and integrated solutions provide our partners with the tools and insights they need to accelerate development programs and drive meaningful improvements in patient outcomes." Diagnostics: New Solutions for Solid Tumor and Hematologic Malignancies To improve patient access to testing and identify those who may be eligible for targeted therapies, Labcorp is announcing: Availability of new NGS panels for myeloid, lymphoid and pan-heme indications : These new panels offer broader genomic coverage and more clinically actionable insights for patients with hematologic malignancies, helping oncologists and pathologists navigate complex diagnoses and guide treatment decisions with greater speed and clarity. : These new panels offer broader genomic coverage and more clinically actionable insights for patients with hematologic malignancies, helping oncologists and pathologists navigate complex diagnoses and guide treatment decisions with greater speed and clarity. The launch of a Rapid AML Panel, enhancing Labcorp's comprehensive test menu for acute myeloid leukemia : This panel will enable providers to make more timely, informed treatment decisions. : This panel will enable providers to make more timely, informed treatment decisions. Expansion of capabilities to OmniSeq INSIGHT : Labcorp's pan-solid tumor profiling test will soon include homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing. The addition of HRD testing will help identify patients with ovarian cancer who are most likely to benefit from targeted therapies such as PARP inhibitors or who may be eligible for clinical trials. : Labcorp's pan-solid tumor profiling test will soon include homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing. The addition of HRD testing will help identify patients with ovarian cancer who are most likely to benefit from targeted therapies such as PARP inhibitors or who may be eligible for clinical trials. Expanded FDA-approved companion diagnostics: Additions include the categorization of HER2-low and HER2-ultralow subtypes in the HER2 IHC test for patients with breast cancer and the VENTANA MET (SP44) RxDx Assay for patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Additions include the categorization of HER2-low and HER2-ultralow subtypes in the HER2 IHC test for patients with breast cancer and the VENTANA MET (SP44) RxDx Assay for patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Enabling digital pathology advancements for anatomic pathology with further updates scheduled for 2025. Biopharma Laboratory Services: Accelerating Clinical Trials and Companion Diagnostic Development To support global trial consistency and enhance collaboration with the company's biopharma customers, Labcorp is also announcing: Global expansion of Labcorp Plasma Focus: Labcorp will now offer Labcorp Plasma Focus, a solid tumor liquid biopsy test, through its Geneva, Switzerland and Shanghai, China sites. Labcorp Plasma Focus complements the recent global expansion of Labcorp Tissue Complete, a tissue-based comprehensive genomic profiling assay of over 500 genes for pan-solid tumors. Together, the global availability of these assays enables consistent, high-quality testing across regions, reducing variability in results and streamlining workflows for biopharma partners. Labcorp will now offer Labcorp Plasma Focus, a solid tumor liquid biopsy test, through its and sites. Labcorp Plasma Focus complements the recent global expansion of Labcorp Tissue Complete, a tissue-based comprehensive genomic profiling assay of over 500 genes for pan-solid tumors. Together, the global availability of these assays enables consistent, high-quality testing across regions, reducing variability in results and streamlining workflows for biopharma partners. Enhanced digital pathology platform for clinical trials: Labcorp has launched an enhanced digital pathology platform across its global central labs. Utilizing Leica Biosystems Aperio GT450 scanners and Proscia's Concentriq LS image management system, the platform offers scalable, file-agnostic infrastructure to support scanning, archival and companion diagnostic development. It enables real-time global peer review and delivers more accurate, actionable insights with the ability to integrate high-volume image analysis and leverage AI-driven interpretation. Labcorp at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025 Annual Meeting Labcorp will present new research at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, May 30 June 3 in Chicago. To learn more, or to connect with Labcorp at ASCO, visit https://oncology.labcorp.com/2025-asco-annual-meeting For more information about Labcorp's Oncology solutions, contact us at https://oncology.labcorp.com/contact-us About Labcorp Labcorp (NYSE: LH) is a global leader of innovative and comprehensive laboratory services that helps doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers and patients make clear and confident decisions. We provide insights and advance science to improve health and improve lives through our unparalleled diagnostics and drug development laboratory capabilities. The company's nearly 70,000 employees serve clients in approximately 100 countries, provided support for more than 75% of the new drugs and therapeutic products approved in 2024 by the FDA, and perform more than 700 million tests annually for patients around the world. Learn more about us at www.labcorp.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements with respect to the expected utility and benefits to patients and customers of the company's enhanced oncology offerings and anticipated future expansions to those offerings. Each of the forward-looking statements is subject to change based on various important factors, many of which are beyond the company's control. These factors, in some cases, have affected and in the future (together with other factors) could affect the company's ability to implement the company's business strategy, and actual results could differ materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements. As a result, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of the forward-looking statements. The company has no obligation to provide any updates to these forward-looking statements even if its expectations change. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Further information on potential factors, risks and uncertainties that could affect operating and financial results is included in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading RISK FACTORS and in the company's other filings with the SEC. The information in this press release should be read in conjunction with a review of the company's filings with the SEC including the information in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading "MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS". SOURCE Labcorp SUWANEE, Ga., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sherry Jolly, a respected REALTOR with Keller Williams Realty Atlanta Partners and founder of JollyGoodResults.com , shares her expert insight into Suwanee's thriving real estate market. With nearly seven years of experience and a proven record across Northeast Georgiaincluding Gwinnett and Forsyth CountiesJolly delivers specialized real estate services for a wide range of clients, whether they're buying their first home, building new, investing in luxury real estate, relocating for military service, or downsizing into the next chapter of life. Sherry Jolly Realtor In a market that continues to shift, Jolly's experience shines. "Whether I'm writing a competitive offer for a buyer or positioning a listing to sell for top dollar, my job is to help clients succeed in today's conditions not yesterday's market," she explains. "Strategy, timing, and preparation make all the difference." With a background in corporate IT project management, Jolly brings an analytical, process-oriented mindset to each transaction. "My project management experience translates directly to real estate," she explains. "Every home purchase or sale involves timelines, negotiations, and detailsmy job is to make that journey seamless for my clients." Known for combining data-driven strategy with warmth and personalized service, Jolly offers tailored support across the real estate spectrum: Specialized Client Services First-Time Homebuyers Jolly offers hands-on education and guidance to help new buyers navigate the process with confidence. Jolly offers hands-on education and guidance to help new buyers navigate the process with confidence. Luxury Properties With a portfolio that includes premium sales, she understands the high expectations of luxury clients and provides elevated service to match. With a portfolio that includes premium sales, she understands the high expectations of luxury clients and provides elevated service to match. New Construction Backed by Keller Williams' New Homes Division, Jolly connects buyers with trusted builders and emerging developments, especially in Forsyth County . Backed by Keller Williams' New Homes Division, Jolly connects buyers with trusted builders and emerging developments, especially in . Relocation Expertise A Forsyth County resident since 1997 and now living in Gwinnett , Jolly offers unmatched local knowledge for clients relocating to the area. A resident since 1997 and now living in , Jolly offers unmatched local knowledge for clients relocating to the area. Military Moves Experienced support for active-duty service members and veterans facing PCS and transitions. Experienced support for active-duty service members and veterans facing PCS and transitions. Senior Transitions Compassionate assistance for those downsizing or navigating lifestyle changes. "My mission is simple: deliver Jolly Good Results," says Jolly. "Whether it's a first home, a forever home, or a brand-new build, I provide expert, personalized service that gets results. I love helping people find their place in Suwanee and the surrounding areas." With a strong presence in communities such as Suwanee, Cumming, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Buford, and Sugar Hill, Sherry Jolly is a go-to real estate resource across Northeast Georgia. Her data-driven strategies and warm, professional approach have earned her the trust and repeat business of many happy clients. Whether you're buying, selling, or just curious about the market, she offers straight talk, smart strategy, and a refreshingly down-to-earth approach to real estate. Contact: Sherry Jolly, REALTOR Keller Williams Realty Atlanta Partners 404-819-1068 [email protected] JollyGoodResults.com SOURCE Sherry Jolly, Realtor Eight monthly winners to receive $2,500 scholarship to attend massage school of their choice SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Massage Envy, a national leader in skin care and the nation's #1 provider of massage in the U.S. collectively across its franchise network, today announced the April 2025 winners of the Massage Envy National Scholarship Sweepstakes for Massage Therapists. Since October 2023, the Massage Envy National Scholarship Sweepstakes for Massage Therapists has awarded over 120 scholarships. The April 2025 sweepstakes winners are: Melina M. Alexandra R. Nathan P. Jake G. Katelin M. Shannon R. Mary H. Lara S. "It's an honor to celebrate the winners of our April 2025 scholarship sweepstakes," Todd Schrader, CEO of Massage Envy Franchising. "We're excited to see how these students continue to grow in the wellness industry and look forward to supporting their long-term career goals." To be eligible to enter for a chance to win a scholarship, entrants must be of legal age in their state. Entrants only need to enter once. To learn more about the scholarship program or to enter, please go to www.massageenvy.com/scholarship . Scholarship recipients do not have to work at a Massage Envy franchised location upon graduation from massage school. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S./D.C. residents, 18+ (residents of AL & NE who must be 19+ or residents of MS who must be 21+) and have not been confirmed as a winner in a Massage Envy Sweepstakes in the last twenty-four months as of date of entry. See Official Rules at massageenvy.com/scholarship for entry periods, odds, prize description, limitations, and complete details . Sweepstakes begins January 3, 2025 and ends December 31, 2025. Sponsor: Massage Envy Franchising, LLC, 14350 N 87th St Ste 200, Scottsdale, AZ 85260. About Massage Envy Massage Envy, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a national franchisor and does not independently own or operate any of the Massage Envy franchised locations nationwide. The Massage Envy franchise network, through its franchise locations, is a leading provider of premium skin care offerings and massage services. The Massage Envy brand was founded in 2002 and began offering skin care services in 2008. The brand has over 1,000 franchise locations in 49 states that have together delivered more than 225 million services across its skin care and body care offerings. For more information, visit www.MassageEnvy.com or follow @MassageEnvy on Instagram, X, and Facebook. SOURCE Massage Envy NEW YORK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 20, 2025, McKool Smith secured a significant victory for Triller Group Inc. by successfully contesting a summary judgment motion filed by YA II PN, Ltd. in New York State Supreme Court. The motion was filed in lieu of a complaint under CPLR 3213, a procedure that allows plaintiffs to bypass traditional pleading and discovery when seeking a judgment. YA II PN, Ltd. sought to recover more than $35 million based on a convertible promissory note and two guaranty agreements. However, Hon. Nancy M. Bannon denied the motion and converted the matter into a plenary action finding that the plaintiff's request did not meet the standards for summary judgment under CPLR 3213. Triller Group established three primary arguments to oppose the summary judgement motion: first, that the plaintiff's claims were based on a series of interconnected agreements rather than a straightforward monetary obligation; second, that the alleged defaults involved non-monetary obligations and required interpretation of complex contractual provisions; and third, that resolving the dispute would require external evidence and factual analysis, making summary judgment under CPLR 3213 inappropriate. "We are incredibly pleased with the result for our clients," said McKool Smith Principal Courtney Statfeld. "Now that the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment has been appropriately converted into a complaint and the case into a plenary action, we look forward to vigorously litigating against their unfounded allegations." Along with Ms. Statfeld, the McKool Smith team includes firm Principals Robert Scheef, Chad Hummel, and Associates Laura Baron, Makayla Ashe, and Mariel Talmage. The case is YA II PN, Ltd. v. Triller Group Inc. et al case number 659314/2024 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County. For more information, please contact Keith Hill at (903) 923.9005 or email [email protected]. SOURCE McKool Smith MT-302 and MT-303 embody the first clinical applications of in vivo mRNA CAR therapies administered systemically Initial translational results support proof-of-mechanism with immune reprogramming resulting in tumor penetration and pro-inflammatory alteration in the TME CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Myeloid Therapeutics, Inc. ("Myeloid"), a clinical-stage immunology company advancing RNA therapeutics to conquer cancer, today announced it will present two posters at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago taking place from May 30 June 3, 2025. The presentations will highlight the clinical trial design for MT-303 and preliminary translational findings for MT-302 the company's lead in vivo mRNA CAR therapies, which together signify a key milestone in the field of RNA-based immuno-oncology. "Our presentations at ASCO demonstrate the clinical translation of our proprietary mRNA-LNP platform for in vivo immune cell engineering," said Daniel Getts, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Myeloid Therapeutics. "With MT-302 and MT-303, we are pushing beyond the limits of traditional CAR therapiesremoving the need for often complicated ex vivo manipulation while delivering potent, tumor-specific immune activation in patients with advanced solid tumors." "These data show that we can deliver repeated doses of LNP-mRNA in patients demonstrating that CAR-programmed myeloid cells can penetrate solid tumors and alter the tumor microenvironment (TME), which opens up multiple avenues for potential clinical benefit moving forward," said Matt Maurer, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Myeloid Therapeutics. "The results offer early validation of Myeloid's platform technologies, and could ultimately change how solid tumors are treated, offering patients a more accessible, potentially more tolerable, and highly targeted therapy option in the future without the burdens associated with traditional cell therapies." MT-302: TROP2-Targeted mRNA CAR Therapy in Advanced Epithelial Tumors MT-302 is the first intravenously delivered mRNA-based CAR therapy to enter clinical trials. It uses synthetic mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to reprogram circulating immune cells in vivo to express a TROP2-targeted CAR. Poster Board: 238 238 Title: First-in-human mRNA CAR Therapy: Correlative Biomarker analysis from the MT-302 Phase 1 Study Targeting TROP2 in Patients with Advanced Epithelial Tumors Lead Author: Dr. Charlotte Lemach, MBBS Dr. Charlotte Lemach, MBBS Session Date & Time: June 2, 2025 | 1:30 PM4:30 PM CDT | 1:30 PM4:30 PM CDT Location: Hall A, McCormick Place, Chicago Key MT-302 Findings Include: Immune Activation: Single-cell RNA sequencing demonstrated selective CAR expression in myeloid cells and increased pro-inflammatory gene signatures across tumor types. Single-cell RNA sequencing demonstrated selective CAR expression in myeloid cells and increased pro-inflammatory gene signatures across tumor types. Target Engagement: Pharmacodynamic markers confirmed successful delivery and CAR expression following systemic administration. Pharmacodynamic markers confirmed successful delivery and CAR expression following systemic administration. Continued dose escalation: Dose escalation continues with an optimized liner mRNA based on preclinical demonstration of expression beyond 12 days. MT-303: GPC3-Targeted mRNA CAR Therapy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma MT-303 is an innovative in vivo CAR therapy specifically designed to reprogram Fc receptor gamma chain-expressing myeloid cells to recognize and destroy GPC3+ tumor cells following intravenous mRNA-LNP administration. Poster Board: 499b 499b Title: A First-in-Human Study of MT-303, an Innovative In Vivo mRNA CAR Therapy Targeting GPC3 in Adults with Hepatocellular Carcinoma Lead Author: Dr. Timothy Humphries , Linear Clinical Research Dr. , Linear Clinical Research Session Date & Time: May 31, 2025 | 9:00 AM-12:00 PM CDT | Location: Hall A, McCormick Place, Chicago MT-303 Clinical Trial Highlights: Design: Ongoing multicenter, open-label Phase 1 trial in advanced solid tumors expressing GPC3 (including HCC) employing a Bayesian Optimal Interval (BOIN) dose escalation. Ongoing multicenter, open-label Phase 1 trial in advanced solid tumors expressing GPC3 (including HCC) employing a Bayesian Optimal Interval (BOIN) dose escalation. Mechanism: mRNA encodes a GPC3-targeted CAR construct driven by CD89, restricting expression to myeloid cells. Myeloid expects to share additional clinical translational data at an upcoming medical meeting upon completion of the Phase 1 studies of MT-302 and MT-303. About MT-302 MT-302 is a first-in-class, TROP2-FcA-LNP targeting TROP2, which is overexpressed in many epithelial tumors and corresponds with low expression in healthy tissues. MT-302 has demonstrated promising preclinical results to date, including robust expression in myeloid cells and a favorable safety profile in rodents and non-human primates. Unlike other therapies, MT-302 brings the potential advantages of eliciting a full immune response by also presenting tumor neoantigen to stimulate T cells. MT-302 is Myeloid's first in vivo CAR clinical program that further builds on the company's innovative approach to cancer treatment through immune cell programming. About MT-303 MT-303 is a first-in-class, GPC3-FcA-LNP targeting glypican-3 (GPC3), which is overexpressed in most human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and exhibits limited expression in healthy tissues. MT-303 has demonstrated promising preclinical results to date, including robust expression in myeloid cells and a favorable safety profile in rodents and non-human primates. Unlike other therapies, MT-303 brings the potential advantages of eliciting a full immune response by also presenting tumor neoantigen to stimulate T cells. MT-303 is Myeloid's second in vivo CAR clinical program that further builds on the company's innovative approach to cancer treatment through immune cell programming. About Myeloid Therapeutics Myeloid Therapeutics is a clinical stage immunology company, engineering cutting-edge RNA technology to program immune cells to combat cancer and other deadly diseases. Myeloid is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. For additional information, please visit, https://www.myeloidtx.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and X/Twitter . For collaborative interests, write to [email protected] . Investor Contact Brian Korb, Astr Partners [email protected] Media Contact Peg Rusconi, Deerfield Group [email protected] SOURCE Myeloid Therapeutics, Inc BEIJING, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on the homecoming of Chinese cultural relics: Ten days ago, a commercial flight from Washington D.C. touched down at the Beijing Capital International Airport in the quiet hours before dawn. The flight carried China's long-lost national treasure two volumes of the ancient Zidanku Silk Manuscripts. That moment, after 79 years adrift overseas, the precious artifacts finally returned home. National treasure returned home after 79 years of drifting under China-U.S. joint escort In Chinese, silk or satin-based textiles are generically termed "bo." Before the invention of paper, ancient Chinese wrote classical texts on silk, known as "bo shu," or silk manuscripts. The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts are to date the oldest examples of such ancient texts unearthed in China, dating back over 2,300 years. Richly illustrated and paired with explanatory texts, the manuscripts explore the origins of the four seasons and twelve months, the taboos and auspicious practices at different times, as well as military strategies for offense and defense in war. The invaluable texts were illicitly excavated from a Chu-state tomb in 1942, at the Zidanku site in Changsha, Hunan Province. They eventually fell into the hands of Cai Jixiang, a Chinese antiques collector. But several years later, John Hadley Cox, an American, coaxed Cai into giving the silk manuscripts to him under the guise of photographing the manuscripts using infrared devices to decipher the faded text. Exploiting Cai's trust, Cox never returned the silk manuscripts, and instead smuggled them to the U.S. Since then, the national treasure has been separated from its homeland. The long journey home has crystallized efforts of many. The Zidanku Silk Manuscripts consist of three volumes. After being illicitly brought to the U.S., "Sishi Ling," the first volume, was purchased by Dr. Sackler in 1966. A doctor and art collector with a deep affection for China, Dr. Sackler fully recognized the significance of the silk manuscripts, and believed artifacts of such gravity should not be kept outside of their country of origin. In 1986, ground was bro ken for the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University, a project that Dr. Sackler funded. He planned to return the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts to China upon the museum's completion. Unfortunately, Dr. Sackler passed away the following year, before his wish could be fulfilled. As for the second and third volumes, "Wuxing Ling" and "Gongshou Zhan," their whereabouts were unknown at the time. Li Ling, a chair professor at Peking University, began researching the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts in 1980. For 45 years, he has dedicated himself to tracing every stage of the artifacts' journey since excavation. With the help of scholars including Professor Donald Harper from the University of Chicago, Li traced exhaustively the "footprints" of the silk manuscripts in the U.S. It turned out that the two missing volumes were stored in a shoebox by John Hadley Cox, and were kept in Washington D.C. until 1992, when Cox donated them anonymously to the National Museum of Asian Art. Professor Donald Harper, based in the U.S. at the time, connected with members of John Hadley Cox's family. In 2024, Harper handed over a crucial piece of evidence to China the lid of the shoebox that once held the silk manuscripts, donated by Cox's granddaughter. The lid clearly logged the manuscripts' several transfers after arriving in the U.S. While scholars like Li Ling and Donald Harper worked tirelessly on the silk manuscripts, the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S. issued a policy on the ethical return of all cultural artifacts acquired through improper means. Buttressed by the solid and complete chain of evidence, China officially launched its recovery of the second and third volumes of the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts. Following over a year of extensive consultation and negotiation, the scene we showed at the beginning finally materialized. The success also gives us confidence that the return of "Sishi Ling," the first volume, is not far behind. Since China and the U.S. signed their first MoU in 2009 to prevent illegal importation of Chinese cultural artifacts into the United States, it is believed, almost 600 items or sets of lost cultural relics have been repatriated to China. Li Ling, who has devoted decades of his life to researching silk manuscripts, said that the retrieval of the Zidanku Silk Manuscripts would have been impossible through his efforts alone. It is the joint efforts of both Chinese and American scholars, and the cooperation between the two countries to help lost cultural artifacts return to their countries of origin, that allowed these national treasures to come home. Through the plexiglass encasing the artifacts, one can still see the faintly discernible writing on the remains of the now-brown Zidanku Silk Manuscript fragments, offering a peek into ancient reflections on the universe and life from two millennia ago. Their 79-year journey home also reflects the spirit of equal dialogue and cooperation between China and the United States; it is a microcosm of people's wisdom and experience in guarding the fruits of human civilization beyond national borders. China Mosaic http://chinamosaic.china.com.cn/index.htm SOURCE China.org.cn NEW YORK, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman High Yield Strategies Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NHS) (the "Fund") has announced a distribution declaration of $0.0905 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on June 30, 2025, has a record date of June 16, 2025, and has an ex-date of June 16, 2025. Under its level distribution policy, the Fund anticipates that it will make regular monthly distributions, subject to market conditions, of $0.0905 per share of common stock, unless further action is taken to determine another amount. The Fund's ability to maintain its current distribution rate will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and stability of income received from its investments, the cost of leverage and the level of other Fund fees and expenses. There is no assurance that the Fund will always be able to pay a distribution of any particular amount or that a distribution will consist only of net investment income. Due to an effort to maintain a stable distribution amount, the distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, net realized capital gains and return of capital. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2025 will be made after the end of the year. About Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman is an employee-owned, private, independent investment manager founded in 1939 with over 2,800 employees in 26 countries. The firm manages $515 billion of equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate and hedge fund portfolios for global institutions, advisors and individuals. Neuberger Berman's investment philosophy is founded on active management, fundamental research and engaged ownership. Neuberger Berman has been named by Pensions & Investments as the #1 or #2 Best Place to Work in Money Management for each of the last eleven years (firms with more than 1,000 employees). Visit www.nb.com for more information. Data as of March 31, 2025. Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund's performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund's investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations. Contact: Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC Investor Information (877) 461-1899 SOURCE Neuberger Berman MIAMI, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Emerging brand Montage Swimwear debuts at Miami Swim Week with a breathtaking runway show. The brand presented their first 12 capsule collections, each designed by accomplished models including Amazing Race's Kayla Fitzgerald, fitness influencer Brit Manuela, Selling Sunset's Bre Tiesi and more. Held at the Mondrian Hotel in South Beach Miami, the show hosted upwards of 100 guests including press, influencers, industry professionals, family and friends. Photo by Thomas Concordia/Getty Images for Miami Swim Week: The Shows All 12 designers were spotted on the runway modeling a piece from their own collection for one big reveal that left viewers in awe. The group of powerful women worked closely with Montage Swimwear for an opportunity of a lifetime to create their very own collection from start to finish. The brand encouraged the emerging designers to take charge of their new business venture from the design process and campaign shoots all the way to the stage bringing their visions to life one step at a time. Each collection reflects the designer's personal style with unique touches of character along with inspiration from their favorite vacation destinations. Designed with the intent to be worn for pool parties, summer soirees, beach vacations and beyond, the 12 collections fuse function with fashion for a limitless wardrobe. Styles include swimwear and coverups to summer-focused ready to wear with prices ranging from $100-$200. Montage Swimwear will continue the launch celebrations with an exclusive VIP event hosted with popular swimwear brand Dippin' Daisy's on Saturday, May 31st at The Sagamore Hotel. The event will welcome an intimate group to enjoy gifting suites, live DJ's, drinks and more. Following, Montage Swimwear will keep the party alive with an all-inclusive after party that is open to the public featuring DJ Vice, poolside drinks, and a vibrant atmosphere. The designers of the first 12 capsule collections are Abby Bagley , Ava Stewart , Bre Tiesi , Brit Manuela , Daniela Tablante , Freicheska Scalze , Ivy Bagley , Janey Lee , Kamila Davies , Kayla Fitzgerald , Taylor Ranftle , and Tiffany Keller . All 12 collections are available to shop now at https://montageswimwear.com/. About Montage Swimwear Founded by Bryan Skowronek, Montage Swimwear is a brand new label entering the market with 12 signature capsule collections. Each designed by accomplished models in their own right, the collections offer fun and flirty styles ranging from swimwear to complementary ready-to-wear. The novelty brand aims to put the power back in the hands of industry tastemakers by empowering young women to explore their creative and entrepreneurial potential. Montage Swimwear is pioneering a new business model with innovation and collaboration at the forefront. Press Contact Alyssa McDonald [email protected] SOURCE Montage Swimwear Partnership between leading startup media from Japan and Taiwan strengthens Asian innovation coverage TOKYO, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Bridge Media and Consulting (PBMC), the Tokyo-based producer of the solutions-focused JStories media platform, and Business Next Media (BNext Media), publisher of Taiwan's leading startup and technology news website Meet Global, are pleased to announce the launch of a cross-border content exchange initiative beginning in June 2025. Under this new arrangement, selected content will be shared and co-published between PBMC's JStories ( https://jstories.media/ ), an English-language platform showcasing impact-driven innovation from Japan and across Asia, and BNext Media's Meet Global ( https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/ ), which reports on startup trends and entrepreneurship throughout Greater China and Asia. This partnership aims to broaden access to high-quality, locally sourced coverage of the fast-evolving Asian startup and innovation scene helping founders, investors, and business professionals discover new ideas, cross-border opportunities, and success stories from both Japan and Taiwan, as well as the wider Asia-Pacific region. About Pacific Bridge Media and Consulting (PBMC) Based in Tokyo, PBMC is a multilingual media and communications firm specializing in international business storytelling, corporate communications, and event production. PBMC operates JStories, a global-facing media outlet that spotlights Japanese and Asian innovators solving pressing social issues, and produces branded content for clients ranging from government agencies to global corporations. About JStories JStories ( https://jstories.media/ ) is PBMC's flagship English-language platform focused on "solutions journalism" covering entrepreneurs, researchers, and change-makers from Japan and Asia who are tackling social, environmental, and business challenges through technology and creativity. JStories features original interviews, analysis, and video content for a global audience. About Business Next Media (BNext Media) Founded in Taipei, BNext Media is Taiwan's premier media company covering technology, startups, and digital innovation. The company publishes Business Next, a leading business magazine, and operates several digital news brands including Meet Global, which provides in-depth news, analysis, and startup resources for the Mandarin-speaking world and international readers. About Meet Global Meet Global ( https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/ ) is an English news platform focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and investment trends across Asia, with an emphasis on the Greater China region. Under the same brand, Meet operates additional language-specific channels, including Meet Startup (https://meet.bnext.com.tw/), its Mandarin-language platform, and Meet Japan (https://meet-japan.bnextmedia.com/), its Japanese-language counterpart. Meet Startup is also Taiwan's largest startup community platform. It organizes business networking events and Meet Taipei, a major startup festival. Potential Benefits of the Partnership: Broader Global Reach: Both JStories and Meet Global readers will gain access to a more diverse and regionally balanced stream of innovation stories, helping startups and founders boost their visibility across Asia and beyond. Both JStories and Meet Global readers will gain access to a more diverse and regionally balanced stream of innovation stories, helping startups and founders boost their visibility across and beyond. Knowledge Exchange: Cross-publication of content will enable richer, locally informed perspectives on trends, challenges, and opportunities in the Asian startup landscape. Cross-publication of content will enable richer, locally informed perspectives on trends, challenges, and opportunities in the Asian startup landscape. Ecosystem Building: By sharing news, interviews, and features, the partnership will foster new connections among startups, investors, and supporters in both markets. By sharing news, interviews, and features, the partnership will foster new connections among startups, investors, and supporters in both markets. Bilingual Impact: With content translated and adapted for local and global audiences, the initiative will help bridge language barriers and promote wider international understanding. For media inquiries, please contact: Pacific Bridge Media and Consulting (Japan) Email: [email protected] Business Next Media (Taiwan) Email: [email protected] SOURCE PACIFIC BRIDGE MEDIA AND CONSULTING TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA) applauded Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier for formally opening an investigation into the deceptive and predatory practices of Florida hospitals flouting state law and federal price transparency rules. "Hospitals have hidden their prices yet have forced patients to sign a blank check before they can get care. As long as prices have been hidden, hospitals have been able to charge whatever they want," said Cynthia A. Fisher, Founder and Chair of PRA. Florida law states that unfair and deceptive acts and practices are "unlawful," which include omitting material information like prices. Yet, hospitals often require patients to sign contracts accepting full financial responsibility without any knowledge of prices. "The Attorney General's action seeks to protect patients through actual upfront prices. This investigation will protect Floridians from hospitals' predatory practices, prevent overcharges, and make bills accountable," continued Fisher. "Ultimately, these consumer protections will help Americans to lower their costs." The Attorney General's investigation is in line with President Trump's historic price transparency executive order that requires real, upfront prices, not estimates, which will empower consumers with competition and choice, and lower the cost of healthcare. Background: About PRA: PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA) is a leading national healthcare price transparency organization dedicated to ushering in systemwide transparency through advocacy, testimony, media, legal research, and grassroots campaigns. PRA believes that the availability and visibility of actual, upfront healthcare prices will greatly lower costs for patients and employers through a functional, competitive healthcare marketplace. SOURCE Patient Rights Advocate WASHINGTON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Press Club will host physician and global social media sensation Dr. Mikhail "Dr. Mike" Varshavski for a Headliners event on Friday, May 30 at 8 p.m. in the Club's Historic Ballroom. With more than 25 million followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, Dr. Mike is one of the most influential medical communicators in the world. He's known for translating complex health topics into accessible advice and calling out harmful pseudoscience online. At the Press Club, he will speak about the rise of false health claims on social media, the responsibility of healthcare professionals in the digital age, and what he views as growing dysfunction in federal health policy. His appearance follows the publication of a Fox News op-ed, where he took aim at HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and warned that "America's health agencies are facing increasing chaos." The piece has already sparked national conversation. This will be Dr. Mike's first public appearance since the op-ed's release. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The event will include remarks and a moderated Q&A. Cameras are welcome. Media RSVP: [email protected] Interview Requests & Inquiries: [email protected] Submit Questions in Advance: [email protected] More info: press.org Press Contact: Cecily Scott Martin, [email protected], 202-662-7525 SOURCE National Press Club Corvallis School District officials tossed around a lot of numbers at a Wednesday, May 28 open house about student enrollment and building capacity, but parent Katie Jager remains skeptical that she's getting a clear picture. "It's interesting that the district has done a lot of analysis on the different enrollment projections, but I'd like to see that data," Jager told Mid-Valley Media. "I'd like to see that report because what they've given us here are probably the things they want to highlight." Enrollment figures are important in Oregon because the state distributes property taxes to school districts based on attendance. Fewer students mean fewer dollars. Jager, a senior instructor in analytics and statistics at Oregon State University, said she'd like to do her own analysis. "I'm not saying I totally mistrust the district, but I think just seeing the data would make it clearer as to what they've analyzed," she said. The district's Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee hosted the open house at Linus Pauling Middle School to share some of the data members have collected this year as student enrollment in the school district plunges toward its lowest level since the late 1950s. The unanswered question of whether school closings are in the district's future hung in the air. No changes yet Members stressed they're not making any recommendations. They're compiling a report to present to the school board. Any action on the report is in the hands of the elected board members. "Nothing is changing for next year," Superintendent Ryan Noss told Mid-Valley Media. "All of our schools will continue to function in the way they are right now. I think that's important for people to know because of the timing of this. For now, all we're really doing is sharing the data and information that we have." Any decision-making process based on that data won't begin until August, he said. "I think the timeline is important for people, especially when we're still not sure of what that outcome is going to be," he said. Sophia Bhaijee, the parent of a kindergarten student, said she appreciated the open house and the general way district officials are approaching enrollment issues. "They're going about it in a pretty logical way, which is important," she told Mid-Valley Media. "Assess the facilities, look at how much each facility will cost to run versus the number of students who will be there. I like that they're also doing assessments of incomes and housing situations in different neighborhoods, so they'll know which schools will have maybe increased enrollment instead of which ones are going to shrink." Committee members reported the bottom line is that the district has more building capacity than it does students, and the gap will increase over the next four years. By 2029, according to the data, enrollment will be equal to around 50% of the district's total building capacity. Corvallis schools have space for 8,359 students as of May 14. The 2024-25 enrollment is 5,898 students. Projected enrollment for the 2028-29 school year is 5,140 students. Many of those schools have gotten recent facelifts, thanks to a voter-approved bond measure that OK'd in 2018 $200 million in construction. New housing? Approximately 1,000 new housing units are under construction in the district as of January. Multifamily projects include Rivergreen Apartments (84 units), The Preserve (37 units) and Crescent Heights (25 units). Pending land additions to the city, such as Marys Annexation, could result in 1,000 units, and the Good Samaritan Hospital Annexation could result in 709 units. Under these buildout projections, Adams Elementary School's neighborhood is expected to see the greatest number of new homes at 1,031 units. Letitia Carson Elementary's neighborhood could see 994 new housing units, and the Lincoln Elementary neighborhood could see 900 new housing units. New homes planned within the Linus Pauling Middle School and Corvallis High School neighborhoods are 1,931 housing units. Cheldelin Middle School and Crescent Valley High School could see 1,195 housing units. It's important to look at upcoming housing developments, Kelly Locey, the communications coordinator for the district, told Mid-Valley Media. Single-family housing tends to generate more students than multifamily housing, she said. "There are always conversations about new housing being built and developed, so it's important to also be talking about the right types of housing and the types of housing that actually produce students," Locey said. Public reception Data at the open house was placed on displays at various tables at Linus Pauling Middle School. Some 50 people went from table to table to read the information. "Corvallis is a lovely place to live and raise a child, but we wanted to see what that's going to look like in the future," Bhaijee said. "It seems it may not look the way it does now, which is understandable given the information that we're seeing." She added she is impressed by how many people turn out for district meetings and not just student activities. I went to a school board meeting, and it was standing room only," she said. "I've lived in places where it's been like tumbleweeds rolling through the meetings. So this made me really happy to see people standing in the back." However, Bhaijee sees tough decisions on the horizon. "It will be a question of what to cut, given federal, state and local funds available, she said. But it looks like they're making a good start. Rather than being random and subjective, it looks like it's going to be carefully considered." Committee members are updating a Long-Range Facilities Plan last tweaked in 2018. "If they didn't analyze things parents want to see, then the next time they do the analysis, that's something they can look at," Jager said. "I'm a statistician, so I care about that kind of stuff. I'm all about those original data sources." She said she's particularly concerned about the district's narrative on why enrollment is declining. People aren't necessarily leaving because of the housing issue, she added, echoing a talking point from the May 20 election by two candidates who unsuccessfully tried to unseat incumbent Sami Sami Al-Abdrabbuh. "Housing is certainly an issue, Jager said. Corvallis is often unaffordable for families, but housing isn't the only issue. With the wealth that we have in this community, we should be able to have incredibly strong schools with involved parents and teachers who feel they're being backed up by those parents and the administration. I don't know if they're truly feeling that way." Jager added she's not casting aspersions on anyone in the district. "People mean well," she said. "They're trying to do good work. There just seems to be a little bit of disconnect in terms of the policy." Related stories: DRAPER, Utah, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pluralsight, the technology workforce development company, today announced it has been recognized as a leader in "The Forrester Wave: Technology Skills Development Platforms, Q2 2025." The independent analyst report evaluated eight of the most significant providers in the technology skills development space across strategy, capabilities, and customer feedback. Pluralsight emerged as a "Leader," which is the highest category for vendors. Pluralsight also received the highest strategy score among all vendors evaluated and the highest score possible in the vision, innovation, partner ecosystem, and adoption criteria. "In a world where AI is changing every aspect of operations, technology skills are an essential element to future-proofing careers and businesses," said Erin Gajdalo, CEO of Pluralsight. "We believe being named a leader by Forrester is not only a recognition that we're delivering an excellent upskilling experience, it's a signal to organizations that investing in Pluralsight means investing in their workforce's agility and innovation." Pluralsight's offering achieved the top scores possible (5 out of 5) in eleven criteria, including: Broad tech-domain coverage Hands-on learning Skill benchmarking prior to learning Skill acquisition analytics Integration with HR tech ecosystem Accessibility Microlearning and in-content search Customers interviewed for the report appreciated Pluralsight's broad domain coverage, the ability to conduct pre- and post-learning skill benchmarking, and depth of analytics. According to the Forrester report, "Customers seeking a high-quality, curated learning platform with robust adoption and engagement strategies will benefit from Pluralsight." To learn more about how Pluralsight helps enterprises close critical technology skill gaps, visit Pluralsight.com. About Pluralsight Pluralsight provides the only learning platform dedicated to accelerating the technology skills and capabilities of today's tech workforce. Thousands of companies, government organizations and individuals around the world rely on Pluralsight Skills to support critical technology skill development in areas that are crucial to innovation including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity, software development, and machine learning. Pluralsight Skills provides highly curated content developed by vetted technology experts, industry leading skill assessments, and hands on, immersive learning experiences designed to help individuals skill-up faster. The company is headquartered in Draper, Utah with worldwide offices in India, Ireland, and Australia. For more information, visit pluralsight.com. Media Contact: Ryan Sins Senior Communications Manager [email protected] Note: 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. SOURCE Pluralsight ARLINGTON, Va., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-partisan, non-profit project dedicated to strengthening America's long-term competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI), announced new and returning media partners for their second AI+ Expo, scheduled for June 2-4, 2025 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.: POLITICO is a global authority on the intersection of politics, policy and power. It is a robust news operation and information service specializing in politics and policy, which informs influential audiences with insight, edge and authority. Founded in 2007, POLITICO has grown to a team of more than 1,100 journalists and media professionals across North America , and Europe . In October 2021 , POLITICO was acquired by, and is a subsidiary of, Axel Springer SE. , and . In , POLITICO was acquired by, and is a subsidiary of, Axel Springer SE. Punchbowl News is a membership-based news community founded by journalists and best-selling authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer , and co-founded by veteran Capitol Hill reporter John Bresnahan. Punchbowl News' credo is Power, People, Politics. and , and co-founded by veteran Capitol Hill reporter John Bresnahan. Punchbowl News' credo is Power, People, Politics. AIScoop is a one-stop source for everything AI providing breaking news, trends, information, events and more at the intersection of AI and the public sector. Built on Scoop News Group's success in producing world-class AI news and events, AIScoop delivers industry-leading coverage and unparalleled access to insider information in the rapidly evolving AI landscape The Cipher Brief is an independent, national security-focused media organization covering cyber, defense tech, innovation and intelligence via exclusive daily publications and events. is an independent, national security-focused media organization covering cyber, defense tech, innovation and intelligence via exclusive daily publications and events. Foreign Policy has helped readers for over 50 years dive well below the headlines to examine the latest policy developments with rigorous analysis and award-winning journalism. Through its comprehensive coverage, including its events, analysis, podcasts, newsletters, and more, FP provides a deep dive on all things global affairs. Foreign Affairs, a magazine for in-depth analysis and debate of foreign policy, geopolitics, and international affairs. Published by the nonprofit think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, the magazine offers insights into the issues that shape the world around us from the experts in their fields. Salem is a growing leader in the conservative media marketplace. Salem's voices offer insight and an informed perspective on breaking news, political developments and cultural trends. "We're incredibly grateful for the support of all seven of our AI Expo media partners this year. Their commitment is vital to the important dialogue we're driving about America's future in tech innovation," said SCSP President Ylli Bajraktari. "These partnerships are crucial. They help amplify the exciting conversations and highlight the key discussions at the AI Expo focused on our nation's leadership in these critical, emerging technologies." "We're thrilled to partner with the Special Competitive Studies Project for its largest AI+ Expo yet," said Billy Mitchell, executive editor of AIScoop's parent company, Scoop News Group. "The stakes couldn't be higher as the U.S. looks to adopt artificial intelligence for its most vital national security, defense and public sector missions. As our nation looks to outpace its adversaries, forums like the AI+ Expo are crucial to bringing together the best and brightest from government, industry, academia and more to chart a course for continued global leadership in AI." "The Cipher Brief is proud to support SCSP and the important work it's doing in bringing together experts from the public and private sectors to help ensure that the U.S. maintains the technological edge it needs for future national security," said Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly. "FP is excited to participate in what's shaping up to be a very impressive AI+ Expo and The Exchange," said Foreign Policy CEO Andrew Sollinger. "Building on our partnership on the Tehran Security Conference simulation at MSC in Munich last February, FP is honored to continue to support Ylli Bajraktari and SCSP's important work." The three-day AI+ Expo is free to attend and aims to educate the public on AI and other emerging technologies shaping the modern world. Last year's event featured 29 sponsors, 156 exhibitors, over 400 speakers, and drew more than 10,000 attendees from 84 countries. With the show floor almost sold out, this year's Expo is expected to draw even greater participation. Sponsorship for 2025 is now closed! To join the Sponsorship Waitlist for 2026 please email Hina Gir at [email protected] . To register, visit https://expo.scsp.ai . In addition to the Expo, SCSP will host The Exchange: Advancing the Legacy of Innovation and National Security, co-located with the Expo. For more information about SCSP, the AI+ Expo, and The Exchange, visit https://www.scsp.ai . SOURCE Special Competitive Studies Project WASHINGTON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when journalists are navigating relentless threats, online harassment, hostility and the emotional aftermath of covering violence and tragedy, the Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club is launching a vital new mental health initiative in collaboration with the Journalist Trauma Support Network (JTSN). The new program will offer confidential, trauma-informed support to reporters facing psychological stress, whether from hostile assignments, targeted harassment, or the cumulative weight of covering war, mass shootings, natural disasters, or forced displacement. "Being a reporter right now too often means living under threat whether that's a barrage of online abuse, political targeting, or the trauma of witnessing human suffering," said Mike Balsamo, President of the National Press Club. "This collaboration is about showing up for journalists the way they've always shown up for the public. Press freedom means nothing if those carrying it forward are breaking down under the weight." Through the initiative, the Press Freedom Center will provide personalized referrals to therapists from JTSN's national network, licensed professionals who specialize in trauma care for members of the press. In addition, the collaboration will offer confidential peer-group sessions for journalists who've been exiled or worked under extreme political pressure, helping to build a community of support and healing. Founded by a coalition of therapists and journalists, JTSN is one of the only organizations in the country focused on destigmatizing trauma and making mental health support accessible for reporters. The collaboration leverages the Press Freedom Center's advocacy and access with JTSN's expertise to connect journalists with the right kind of care quickly and discreetly. This initiative deepens the Center's mission to defend press freedom not just in principlebut in practiceby protecting the mental and emotional health of the journalists doing the work. For more information, visit: https://www.press.org/freedom-center https://www.jtsn.org/ Founded in 2024, the Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club defends press freedom by assisting detained, threatened or exiled journalists through advocacy, direct support and community. Contact: Bill McCarren, 202-662-7534 | [email protected] SOURCE National Press Club Explore in-depth model insights, standout features, and current inventory for the 2025 Ford Bronco Heritage, Outer Banks, and Badlands at Akins Ford near Atlanta. WINDER, Ga., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Adventure-seekers near Atlanta now have a trusted source for the latest 2025 Ford Bronco special editions research, thanks to Akins Ford in Winder, Georgia. The dealership recently published detailed breakdowns of three standout trims: the 2025 Ford Bronco Heritage, 2025 Bronco Outer Banks, and 2025 Bronco Badlands. These updated guides are designed to help local drivers choose the right Bronco for their needs. Whether shoppers want off-road capability, style, or tech-savvy comfort, the team at Akins Ford offers a closer look at each configuration. The dynamic and rugged 2025 Ford Bronco - for sale now at Akins Ford. Dig Into 2025 Ford Bronco Special Editions Research Buyers can now explore extensive research pages for the 2025 Ford Bronco Heritage, the 2025 Bronco Badlands, and the 2025 Bronco Outer Banks. Each page provides highlights of features, performance specs, and cabin upgrades. "These models are more than just rugged," said Tanner Maloof, spokesperson for Akins Ford. "Each one brings a unique balance of innovation, performance, and personality. We're proud to help our customers find the right Bronco fit." Features That Stand Out in Every Trim Across all three trims, drivers will find powerful capability paired with unmistakable Ford design. Furthermore, each model targets a specific type of Bronco enthusiast. Here's a quick look at what sets them apart: 2025 Ford Bronco Heritage: Retro styling meets modern performance, complete with classic Oxford White wheels and a plaid interior. 2025 Bronco Outer Banks: Premium comfort with heated seats, large touchscreen, and standard 4x4 for on- and off-road flexibility. 2025 Bronco Badlands: Built for adventure with advanced terrain management, locking differentials, and a heavy -duty suspension. Moreover, all trims come with standard 4x4 and offer available upgrades like a removable roof and doors. Your Bronco Is Waiting Near Atlanta Shoppers seeking a 2025 Ford Bronco for sale near Atlanta will find a wide selection at Akins Ford. Each model is backed by expert sales support and available for local test drives. Media Contact: Tanner Maloof Phone number: 770-868-5162 Email: [email protected] Akins Ford is a leading automotive dealership located in Winder, Georgia. With a strong commitment to customer satisfaction and a wide selection of new and pre-owned Ford vehicles, Akins Ford has established itself as a trusted name in the automotive industry. Find out why Akins Ford is the leading Ford dealership in the greater Atlanta area and nationwide by visiting 220 West May Street, Winder, GA 30680, or by calling 770-867-9136. Find the dealership on the web at www.akinsford.com. SOURCE Akins Ford CHONGQING, China and KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 27, the ASEAN-China-GCC Economic Forum officially opened in Kuala Lumpur, aiming to create development opportunities and shared prosperity by strengthening cooperation in economy, trade, investment, and other fields. SERES, as a representative of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) enterprises, was invited to attend the forum. Malaysias Deputy Prime Minister I Dr. Ahmad Zahid bin Hamidi meets with Chairman and President of SERES Group John Zhang John Zhang interviewed by Fortune during the forum John Zhang, Chairman and President of SERES Group stated that with the brand slogan of "Intelligence Redefining Luxury," SERES focuses on the high-end luxury vehicle market, exploring a development path for Chinese automakers. For the markets of ASEAN and GCC member countries participating in the forum, SERES will accelerate the localized development and certification of relevant models, especially the high-end AITO series, to swiftly introduce them into target markets and achieve full coverage in the future. SERES' vehicle export business began in 2005. After years of development, the company has exported over 550,000 vehicles cumulatively to more than 70 countries and regions, including Germany, France, the UK, and Italy. In 2018, SERES established and put into operation a highly automated manufacturing plant in Indonesia integrating four major processes - stamping, welding, painting, and assembly, which became the first pure electric vehicle manufacturer in Indonesia. With a foothold in Indonesia, SERES is expanding its reach across ASEAN and continuously growing its presence in the Southeast Asian market. By attending the ASEAN-China-GCC Economic Forum, SERES is expected to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN and GCC member countries, accelerating the materialization of its overseas market expansion. During the interview, John Zhang introduced that SERES was founded in 1986 and has undergone three entrepreneurial phasestransitioning from auto parts to complete vehicles, and now to intelligent electric vehiclesachieving leapfrog development each time. Now, AITO brand is redefining luxury with intelligence and pioneering a "New Luxury" concept combining Traditional Luxury and Technological Luxury. With leading product strength, AITO has won recognition from more than 600,000 users, establishing itself as the benchmark of "New Luxury" in China. As a technology-driven company, SERES is committed to innovations of core technologies in electrification and intelligence, having developed the SERES MF Platform, SERES Super Range Extender, SERES Intelligent Safety, and SERES Super Factory, building a robust technological moat. In the face of the opportunities and challenges brought by global economic integration, SERES will embrace a more open and inclusive mindset, working together with partners from all sectors to jointly write a new chapter in the development of China's new energy vehicle industry. About SERES Founded in 1986, SERES is a leading technology company specializing in new energy vehicles (NEVs). With a workforce of approximate 20,000 employees, SERES is publicly listed on the A-share market and ranks among the Fortune China 500. The company is dedicated to the research and development, manufacturing, sales and services of new energy vehicles and their core NEV components. The name SERES is inspired by the Greek word for "the land of silk", evoking the luxuries of heritage of the East. SERES offers two NEV brands for overseas markets: AITO and DFSK. These brands provide a diverse range of products tailored to different market segments, with AITO focusing primarily on the high-end luxury segment. To date, SERES has exported over 550,000 vehicles to more than 70 countries and regions, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and many more countries. SOURCE SERES Sunmed | Your CBD Store asks Texas Governor Greg Abbott to Veto Senate Bill 3 AUSTIN, Texas, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunmed | Your CBD Store stands in firm opposition to Texas Senate Bill 3 (SB 3), which threatens the livelihood of thousands of small and independent Texas merchants and business owners and denies access to a wide range of wellness and therapeutic products. This Bill, if signed into law, will have devastating consequences for Texas's small business community, including the loss of over 53,000 jobs and the closure of 8,000 businesses. Key Concerns: Massive Job Loss SB 3 jeopardizes more than 53,000 jobs in the Texas hemp industry, directly threatening the livelihoods of families across the state. Severe Economic Impact The Bill's economic repercussions are extensive and disproportionately harmful to small and independently owned businesses that depend on the sale and merchandising of hemp products. A fiscal note from the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) projects a net negative impact of $19.27 million to general revenue-related funds for the biennium ending August 31, 2027. These losses are expected to increase annually, reaching an estimated $11.69 million by 2030. These projections are considered conservative, and the actual impact is expected to be significantly greater. (Source: Texas Senate Bill 3: Dan Patrick's Ban on All THC Products - Texas Policy Research) Reduced Consumer Choice SB 3 does not reflect the interests of Texas residents, who have consistently voiced strong support for accessible and responsibly regulated hemp products. Public hearings have included extensive testimony opposing the Bill, highlighting overwhelming community support. Overly Restrictive Regulations The Bill effectively amounts to an industry-wide ban by limiting permissible hemp-derived consumables to only isolated forms of CBD and CBG. These limitations exclude a variety of THC-free, broad-spectrum products that consumers rely on, and force businesses to develop entirely new product lines to remain compliant. Unsustainable Costs for Small Businesses SB 3 imposes burdensome licensing fees of $20,000 annually for retailers and $10,000 per year plus $500 per product for manufacturers. These fees place an undue financial strain on small businesses, threatening their sustainability. Call to Action We urge all Texans to oppose SB 3. Contact Governor Abbott and request that he veto this harmful legislation: Call Governor Abbott : (512) 463-2000 : (512) 463-2000 Email the Governor : Contact Form : Contact Form Sign the Texas Hemp Business Council Petition : Sign Petition : Sign Petition Sign the U.S. Hemp Roundtable Petition: Sign Petition Sunmed | Your CBD Store stands with small businesses and the Texas communities they serve. We believe in protecting consumer access to safe, effective hemp products and supporting the local entrepreneurs who provide them. Join us in defending our industry, our economy, and our right to choose. Contact Patrick Shatzer Sunmed l Your CBD Store [email protected] About Sunmed | Your CBD Store Sunmed | Your CBD Store, an affiliate of Sunflora, Inc., is the largest hemp retailer in the United States and the exclusive home of award-winning, hemp-derived Sunmed products. With 300+ nationwide locations across 42 states, the brand offers a premium in-store customer experience with access to 150+ nonpharmaceutical wellness formulas, including clinically proven sleep gummies, pain relief topicals, USDA-organic oil tinctures, and CBD for pets. Through in-store education, community involvement, and groundbreaking clinical research, Sunmed strives to empower modern wellness and enhance people's lives with natural science-backed products. Learn more at getsunmed.com SOURCE Sunmed Sanjay Gupta from Imbed Biosciences Inc. Featured in The Wall Street Journal as a Distinguished Leader in Healthcare Supply Chain MIDDLETON, Wis., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Imbed Biosciences Inc., a leader in advanced wound care technology, is proud to announce that Sanjay Gupta, Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal as one of the 2025 "Who's Who of Distinguished Leaders" by Marquis Who's Who. This national recognition honors his outstanding leadership, industry contributions, and transformative impact on the global healthcare supply chain. Sanjay Gupta, VP Supply Chain at Imbed Biosciences, Inc. With over two decades of experience spanning the medical device and logistics industries, Gupta has been a driving force behind Imbed's operational growth and innovation in the development of synthetic antimicrobial matrix technology for use in advanced wound care management. His leadership has been pivotal in scaling manufacturing operations, launching next-generation products, and expanding international market presence. "Sanjay embodies what it means to be a strategic and compassionate leader," said Terry Bromley, CEO of Imbed Biosciences. "His ability to align operational excellence with patient-centric outcomes has not only advanced our mission but positioned us for significant future growth." Under Gupta's leadership, Imbed Biosciences scaled high-volume manufacturing and is spearheading the launch of new FDA-cleared products like Surgaflex SAM PainGuard with Lidocaine. Gupta drove international growth with the introduction of the Microlyte SAM line in Latin America, and expanded distribution across Colombia, the UAE, and other markets. His efforts helped commercial growth of the company while ensuring quality, compliance, and rapid market readiness. Out of more than 1.6 million professionals listed in the Marquis registry, only a small percentage are selected as Distinguished Leaders. The honor underscores Gupta's commitment to operational innovation, global access, and the delivery of life-saving medical technologies. About Imbed Biosciences Inc. Imbed Biosciences is a privately held medical device company and innovator of SAM Antimicrobial Technology, with both commercially available and emerging, pipeline solutions for the treatment of acute, burn, chronic, and surgical wounds. Imbed's revolutionary platform technology enhances skin regeneration by integrating multiple agents into an ultra-thin, biocompatible matrix to facilitate wound healing, redefining wound care globally. Media Contact: Hillary Rush VP of Marketing Imbed Biosciences Inc. Email: [email protected] Website: www.imbedbio.com SOURCE Imbed Biosciences FRANKLIN, Mass., May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Barrett Distribution Centers, a leading third-party logistics (3PL) provider specializing in eCommerce and omnichannel fulfillment, is excited to announce that Australian swimwear brand Kulani Kinis has selected Barrett as its exclusive third-party logistics (3PL) partner for the United States. This decision marks a pivotal milestone in Kulani Kinis' global expansion strategy and reflects the brand's continued investment in operational excellence and customer-centricity. Surfin' in the USA: Kulani Kinis Rides the Wave with Barrett Distribution Centers to Anchor USA Fulfillment Post this Kulani Kinis Selects Barrett Distribution Centers As Exclusive USA 3PL Partner "From the beginning, partnering with Barrett just felt right," said Karolina Coggan, Head of Operations and Sustainability at Kulani Kinis. "There was a clear alignment in our business values, and the connection between our teams created a positive energy that allowed for smooth and natural communication. The Barrett team has shown responsiveness and genuine care - they've taken the time to learn our 'why' and what matters most to us. They've been flexible and adapted processes around our needs and timelines without hesitation. It isn't always easy to find a logistics partner who not only delivers great service but also truly 'gets' your brand and with Barrett, we've found exactly that." Founded in 2015, Kulani Kinis quickly emerged as a digitally native, high-growth swimwear label with a cult following across international markets. The brand's decision to partner with Barrettrecognized for its deep expertise in omnichannel fulfillment, automation-driven warehouse solutions, and customer-first cultureunderscores the company's commitment to scaling responsibly while preserving brand integrity and service standards. Barrett's ability to offer flexible, tech-enabled logistics tailored to high-SKU, fast-moving consumer goods was a critical factor in Kulani Kinis' selection process. "Kulani Kinis is one of the most incredible DTC brands around," said Bryan Corbett, VP of Sales & Marketing. "Amazing people, amazing culture, instant world-wide brand recognition with a completely obsessed and loyal customer base what's not to love? We are very proud to represent their iconic swimwear products and brand image in the United States as they embark on their next stage of growth." The decision to localize fulfillment within the United States was heavily influenced by mounting regulatory uncertainty surrounding international trade policyparticularly the rollback of Section 321 de minimis exemptions, which previously allowed duty-free entry of low-value goods. As scrutiny over tariff classifications and cross-border eCommerce intensifies, Kulani Kinis recognized the strategic imperative of proximity: bringing inventory stateside not only mitigates customs risk and potential cost volatility, but also places the brand closer to its growing base of American consumers. Partnering with Barrett enables Kulani Kinis to build a more resilient, responsive, and regulation-ready supply chain in an environment where geopolitical and trade dynamics are increasingly fluid. For other beach-born, digitally native brands looking to paddle out into new markets and ride the eCommerce waves with confidence, Barrett offers the ideal partnership. Dive into a tailored supply chain consultation and discover how Barrett can help you stay ahead of the current. About Kulani Kinis Kulani Kinis is an Australian-born swimwear brand founded by beach-loving duo Dani and Alex in 2015. Inspired by their travels to Hawaii and a shared passion for vibrant colors and carefree living, they set out to create bikinis that were both flattering and fun. What began as a modest operation in their Sydney garage has blossomed into a global label, known for its bold prints, cheeky cuts, and inclusive sizing. With a commitment to ethical manufacturing and a deep connection to their community, Kulani Kinis continues to spread sunshine and confidence to women around the world. About Barrett Distribution Centers Since 1941, Barrett has provided customized third-party logistics (3PL), direct-to-consumer (DTC) eCommerce fulfillment, omnichannel distribution, managed transportation solutions and retail compliance for clients across all industries, with a focus on apparel & footwear, health & beauty, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and education. Barrett continues to be a leading 3rd party logistics provider in North America, known for superior execution, customer engagement and direct access to senior leadership decision makers. As a member of Inc's fastest growing companies list 15+ times, Barrett is big enough to do the job and still small enough to deeply care about your business. SOURCE Barrett Distribution Centers Inc. SEOUL, South Korea, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TelePIX, a total satellite AI solution provider, announced the successful release of the first high-resolution images captured by BlueBON, the world's first satellite dedicated to monitoring blue carboncarbon stored in marine ecosystems such as mangrove forests and sargassum beds. TelePIXs core mission is to share the beauty of our home, Earth, with as many people as possible. Thats why the company chose Yemens uniquely stunning desert landscape for BlueBONs first public images. BlueBON is a 6U-class CubeSat developed by TelePIX to advance global climate monitoring by observing blue carbon sinks from space. Launched in January 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-12 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, BlueBON successfully reached its target orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers and has since completed its initial operational phase. The first images, captured on April 29, showcased the desert region near Alrudood in Yemen's Hadhramaut area. BlueBON is equipped with a proprietary optical payload featuring patented focus adjustment technology developed in-house by TelePIX. The image, taken during initial performance testing, reveals Yemen's desert landscape in intricate detail-its vein-like formations evoking natural patterns reminiscent of leaf structures or human blood vessels. BlueBON's optical payload is the most advanced electro-optical system currently available on a commercial 6U-class satellite. The payload's patented focus-adjustment technology allows for high-resolution imaging (4.8 meters) without requiring additional mechanical systems, making it especially suitable for CubeSats with limited internal volume. TelePIX is the second company worldwideand the first outside the United Statesto have developed such a capability independently. In addition to its imaging system, BlueBON is equipped with TetraPLEX, an AI-powered onboard processor also developed by TelePIX. Utilizing GPU-based edge computing, TetraPLEX enables real-time image analysis directly in space, reducing processing time from over six minutes to just 11 seconds. This significantly accelerates the assessment of blue carbon data collected from coastal ecosystems such as seaweed and mangroves. TetraPLEX also incorporates a next-generation, RISC-V-based FPGA high-speed computing solution to ensure reliable and efficient operations in the harsh conditions of space. Over the next three months, TelePIX will secure clearer and more accurate images through radiation correction and focus adjustment under various imaging conditions, to ensure optimal performance. The company also plans to expand its business areas, including the export of satellite-based climate monitoring solutions and entry into the carbon credit market. Currently, TelePIX is in discussions with international companies and institutions, including Saudi Arabia, for the export of blue carbon monitoring data. "BlueBON represents the culmination of our independently developed technologies-from satellite design and optical payloads to AI processors and data analysis solutions. By enabling global, remote monitoring of marine carbon sinks, BlueBON poised to serve as a steppingstone for entering the blue carbon-based carbon credit market," said Seongick Cho, CEO of TelePIX. About TelePIX TelePIX is a leading satellite AI total solution company that owns the technology for the entire satellite development processfrom cube satellite platforms and advanced optical payloads to AI-based onboard processors and data analysis services. Its solutions span diverse domains, including climate and environmental monitoring, national defense and security, and industrial applications. In recognition of its groundbreaking work on the BlueBON mission, TelePIX received the CES 2024 Innovation Award in the Human Security for All category. SOURCE TelePIX SAN FRANCISCO, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrating a Leader in Mind-Body Psychiatry. Dr. James Eyerman, MD, DLFAPA, has been honored as Doctor of the Year 2025 by The Inner Circle for his groundbreaking work in psychiatry. Board certified in general psychiatry, adolescent psychiatry, and integrative holistic medicine, Dr. Eyerman brings a rich, whole-person approach to mental health. Dr. James Eyerman, MD, DLFAPA, Known for his warm, thoughtful care, Dr. Eyerman combines traditional psychiatry with a wide range of healing practicesincluding Jungian dream work, family systems, psycho-spiritual guidance, Ayurvedic medicine, and carefully managed medication. His mission: to help each individual find balance, meaning, and vitality. Dr. Eyerman also leads weekly Holotropic Breathwork workshops, where participants explore inner healing through conscious breathing, music, and body awareness. These powerful sessions offer a space for self-discovery, transformation, and deep emotional release. His educational journey began with a degree in Classics from the College of the Holy Cross, followed by a medical degree from St. Louis University. He trained in psychiatry at Washington University and deepened his holistic perspective during a year in Europe studying transcendental meditation. His early research work at the Missouri Institute of Psychiatry focused on psychiatric emergencies. A respected voice in his field, Dr. Eyerman is actively involved in organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association and the Northern California Psychiatric Society. He has served as President of the North Bay Psychiatric Society and contributes to professional and charitable initiatives throughout the region. In 2023, Touro University honored him as Teacher of the Year, reflecting his deep commitment to mentoring the next generation of healers. Dr. Eyerman credits his success to the wisdom of teachers and mentors such as Drs. Eli Robbins, Sam Guze, Robert Cloninger, Ferus Pitts, Stanislav Grofand to spiritual influences including the Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Shree Maa of Kamakhya. Looking ahead, Dr. Eyerman continues to evolve his work, blending science, soul, and compassionate care. His vision is clear: to support healing and transformation through a truly integrative approach to psychiatry and medicine. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE The Inner Circle WASHINGTON, May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Hispanic Health Foundation (NHHF), formerly part of the National Hispanic Medical Association, unveiled a bold new brand identity as it enters a transformative era. The rebrand signals a reinvigorated mission, a broader scope of impact, and an urgent call to reimagine a healthcare system that has long left minority communities behind. At a time of rising division, distrust, and disparities in our public health systems, NHHF stays focused on its strengthened vision: building a sustainable healthcare system that works for everyone. Through leadership development, clinical research, policy engagement, and culturally competent education, NHHF is collaborating with national private-public partners to reimagine public health so it better reflects and serves the country's growing diverse communities. "This rebrand isn't just about a new look it's about new possibilities," said Dr. Elena Rios, President and CEO of NHHF. "NHHF is reaffirming our commitment to culturally competent, community-rooted leadership that reflects the full diversity of America. We're not waiting for the future of healthcare we're building it." Why Now? Communities of color primarily Hispanic, Black, Native American, and other underrepresented groups continue to face stark health disparities and underrepresentation in public health and the healthcare workforce. For example, Hispanics make up nearly 20% of the U.S. population, yet account for only 6% of practicing physicians, a gap with serious consequences. The pandemic laid bare the systemic inequities that persist across minority communities, from unequal access to care to disproportionate rates of chronic illness and health misinformation. These challenges demand bold, inclusive leadership rooted in cultural understanding. NHHF is scaling its efforts to develop diverse healthcare leaders, strengthen public-private partnerships, and help build a healthcare system that reflects and serves all communities. What's New Expanded Mission Grounded in leadership development, clinical research, public-private collaboration, and culturally competent care. Grounded in leadership development, clinical research, public-private collaboration, and culturally competent care. Updated Messaging A bold, action-oriented voice that speaks directly to policymakers, funders, health professionals, and future leaders. A bold, action-oriented voice that speaks directly to policymakers, funders, health professionals, and future leaders. Refreshed Visual Identity A vibrant brand system that honors Hispanic heritage and positions NHHF as a trusted leader and catalyst for collaboration. A vibrant brand system that honors Hispanic heritage and positions NHHF as a trusted leader and catalyst for collaboration. New Website Designed for impact, the site features intuitive user-friendly navigation, compelling storytelling, and seamless access to scholarships, programs, and partnership opportunities. NHHF invites all partners past, present, and future to explore its reimagined platform, amplify its mission, and join the movement to close the health equity gap for Hispanic communities. Visit the new website at nhhfx.org . About the National Hispanic Health Foundation Founded in 1994, the National Hispanic Health Foundation (NHHF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving Hispanic health through leadership, research, education, and cross-sector partnerships. SOURCE National Hispanic Health Foundation WASHINGTON, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- LWC Studios today announced its Podcasting, Seriously Awards Fund has awarded its 300th grant since its founding in 2021. Grant recipients have used funds to submit work to dozens of awards, including: The Ambies, Webby Awards, International Women's Podcast Awards, Tribeca Film Festival, Radio Academy Audio & Radio Industry Awards (ARIAS), British Podcast Awards, Black Podcasting Awards, Australian Podcast Awards, and George Polk Award. LWC Studios, the Fund's pro bono operator, with AIR as its fiscal sponsor, covers submission fees for producers, editors, and others, up to $200 per calendar year per creator. It also reimburses up to $500 annually for training in digital audio production. LWC Studios' Podcasting, Seriously Awards Fund awarded its 300th grant, and welcomed Sequel as new Fund partner. Post this LWC Studios also welcomed Sequel , a Canadian creative agency, as a new The Podcasting, Seriously Awards Fund partner. With Sequel's support, the Fund will continue its commitment to supporting and deepening the talent pool in podcasting, while strengthening pathways for independent and early-career BIPOC, Queer, and Trans producers to submit their work to awards and competitions, and to receive career-expanding training subsidized by the Fund. Tori Allen, Co-founder of Sequel says, "Throughout my career from CBC Radio to international reporting to branded storytelling I've had mentors who made space for my voice as a woman of color and Queer and Trans ally. That support shaped me, and it's a big part of why I wanted to start Sequel to help new voices break through and thrive, especially in Canada. Partnering with the Podcasting, Seriously Awards Fund is a meaningful way to celebrate Sequel's first year and reflects the podcasting industry we want to help build: inclusive, and full of possibility." "Sequel is an ideal Fund partner, as it mirrors the values upon which the Fund was built: creativity and inclusion, and lifting as you climb," says Juleyka Lantigua, Founder and CEO of LWC Studios. The Fund accepts reimbursement applications year-round, and qualifying independent producers must be based in Canada, the United Kingdom, United States, or Australia. Those interested, can apply here . Support the Fund via Patreon , AIR , and Buy Me a Coffee . Visit: PodcastingSeriously.com/Fund SOURCE LWC Studios VIENNA, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vienna Tourist Board is hosting a unique free event in New York's Bryant Park on June 1 to celebrate a historic transmission into deep space. In partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Wiener Symphoniker (Vienna Symphony Orchestra), Vienna will launch Johann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube" waltz towards NASA's Voyager 1. This interstellar broadcast is part of a larger celebration marking the 200th anniversary of Strauss's birth and rectifies its omission from the original Voyager Golden Records. Norbert Kettner, Director of the Vienna Tourist Board, said: "Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey made the 'Danube Waltz' the anthem of space the omission of the most famous of all waltzes from the 1977 Voyager Golden Record is a cosmic mistake that we are correcting." The event is the culmination of Vienna's "Waltz Space" campaign, which invited fans to symbolically send a note of the song into space, with 13,743 note sponsors. The campaign aims not just to commemorate Strauss's birth, but to reinforce Vienna's status as the music capital of the world, positioning it as a destination full of rich musical experiences. The free event will take place in Manhattan's Bryant Park from 1:00 to 5:00 PM: 1:00 PM : Pre-show festivities with DJ Kyra Caruso, waltz lessons by Aga Bohun, and opportunities to claim a "SpaceNote"a unique note from "The Blue Danube"for a chance to win a trip to Vienna . Pre-show festivities with DJ Kyra Caruso, waltz lessons by Aga Bohun, and opportunities to claim a "SpaceNote"a unique note from "The Blue Danube"for a chance to win a trip to . 2:30 PM : Live broadcast of the "Waltz into Space" concert from Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), featuring works by Dvorak, Ligeti, Mozart, Josef Strauss , and Ives. Live broadcast of the "Waltz into Space" concert from Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), featuring works by Dvorak, Ligeti, Mozart, , and Ives. 3:30 PM : Real-time transmission of "The Blue Danube" into deep space via ESA's Deep Space Antenna in Cebreros, Spain . Real-time transmission of "The Blue Danube" into deep space via ESA's Deep Space Antenna in Cebreros, . 3:45 PM : Post-event wind-down with music and refreshments. The event is free and open to the public. Representatives from the Vienna Tourist Board will be available for interviews. For press photos, visit this Dropbox-Page. For more information on the "Waltz into Space" campaign, Vienna Tourist Board Newsroom or space.vienna.info. For the event's website visit space.vienna.info/en-US/new-york-event. SOURCE Vienna Tourist Board VERO BEACH, Fla., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Watercrest Fredericksburg Assisted Living and Memory Care is now welcoming visitors to their community leasing center, offering prospective residents the opportunity to secure their reservation in the 142-unit resort-style senior living community currently under construction in the historic city of Fredericksburg, VA. Watercrest Fredericksburg Assisted Living and Memory Care is welcoming future residents to their community leasing center to secure their reservation in the 142-unit luxury senior living community scheduled to open in Fall 2025 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Watercrest Senior Living Group and partners, Harbert Seniors Housing Fund II, LP and Centric Development are pleased to announce that construction is steadily advancing, and the community is scheduled to open in Fall 2025. Watercrest Fredericksburg will offer 106 assisted living and 36 memory care apartments with resort-style service and world-class care. The architecture and design will boast a stunning promenade, fireplace lounge, multiple dining options, theater, library, billiards, spacious courtyards with fountains and Watercrest's premier Spa W. For a virtual tour of this stunning community, visit Watercrest Fredericksburg on YouTube. "As Watercrest expands throughout the southeast, opening our second community in Virginia, we have the opportunity to elevate senior living by delivering Watercrest's Signature care, service, and luxury amenities to local seniors and their families," says Marc Vorkapich, Principal and CEO of Watercrest Senior Living Group. "We look forward to cultivating partnerships which foster engagement and connectivity in the Fredericksburg community." Future residents, family members and associates are encouraged to visit the leasing center to discover firsthand the difference in senior living at Watercrest Fredericksburg. By seamlessly integrating personalized assisted living and expert Alzheimer's care, Watercrest ensures that every resident will enjoy a life rich in comfort, connection, and purposeall while experiencing the very best of Fredericksburg. The Watercrest Fredericksburg leasing center is located on the community campus at 4525 Spotsylvania Parkway across from Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center and just a few miles from the newly opened Veterans Health Care Center. Leasing center hours are 10am-4pm Monday through Friday, walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are encouraged. Evenings and weekends are also available by appointment. For community information or to schedule a tour, contact the office at 540-370-7137 or email [email protected]. About Watercrest Senior Living Group Watercrest Senior Living Group was founded to honor our mothers and fathers, aspiring to become a beacon for quality in senior living by surpassing standards of care, service and associate training. Watercrest senior living communities are recognized for their luxury aesthetic, exceptional amenities, world-class care, and innovative memory care programming offering unparalleled service to seniors living with Alzheimer's and dementia. An eight-time certified Great Place to Work, Watercrest specializes in the development and operations of assisted living and memory care communities and the growth of servant leaders. Visit www.watercrestseniorliving.com. About Harbert Management Corporation HMC is an investment management firm focusing on alternative assets, with approximately $8.2 billion in Regulatory Assets under Management as of September 30, 2024. A privately owned firm founded in 1993, HMC serves foundations, endowments, fund of funds, pension funds, financial institutions, insurance companies, family offices, and high net worth individuals across multiple asset classes. For additional information about HMC, visit www.harbert.net. About Centric Development Centric Development is a multistate real estate developer and general contractor with a proven track record of over 150 completed projects. Led by seasoned principals with experience in public and private real estate transactions, Centric Development leverages its expertise to deliver high quality, timely and value driven results. For additional information about Centric, visit https://www.centricdevelopment.com/ SOURCE Watercrest Senior Living Group The fast growing plant based professional hair care line is changing salons in the field of hair loss and shedding. NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zenagen, the hair wellness brand disrupting the hair loss market with its clinically developed, plant-powered technology, is proud to announce that its flagship Revolve Shampoo for Women has officially been named the #1 best-selling shampoo for women's hair loss by Kline & Company, a leading global research firm in the beauty and personal care sector. This accolade places Revolve at the forefront of the women's hair health movementa market that continues to see rising demand as millions seek natural, non-toxic solutions for hair thinning. "We're incredibly honored to be recognized by Kline," says Jared Reynolds, Founder and CEO of Zenagen. "Revolve isn't just a shampooit's a new standard in hair wellness. Women deserve a product that's backed by science, made with clean ingredients, and truly delivers visible results." Why Zenagen Revolve is the #1 Choice for Women With Thinning Hair In an oversaturated market of empty promises, Zenagen Revolve stands apart with a unique approach of cold-pressed nutraceuticals, botanical extracts, and an amino acid complex that supports the appearance of fuller hairwithout compromising on ingredient safety or ethics. Clinically developed formula designed specifically for women experiencing hair thinning or hair loss Nourishes scalp health and promotes a denser appearance over time Free of SLS, parabens, alcohols, and harsh chemicals 100% vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free Color-safe and effective across all hair types and textures from straight and fine to curly and coily, Revolve is formulated to work gently and effectively without disrupting color treatments or hair structure from straight and fine to curly and coily, Revolve is formulated to work gently and effectively without disrupting color treatments or hair structure Now available in over 25,000 professional salons across North America , including top names like Spalon (MN), Jamison Shaw Stylists, Headlines Salons ( Seattle ), Gene Juarez Salons & Spas, PENZONE Salon + Spa, and Style House Salon in Nashville , TNtrusted by stylists and beauty professionals nationwide. Zenagen delivers a luxurious plant based salon professional formulation that is used by both men and women with concerns of hair thinning, shedding, and hair fall. The Most Searched Solution to Female Hair Loss Zenagen's rapid rise in popularity comes amid a surge in Google searches for terms like "best shampoo for thinning hair women," "natural hair growth shampoo," and "hair loss treatment for women." Consumers are increasingly seeking effective, naturally powered solutionsand Zenagen is answering the call with its science-backed formulas featuring organic ingredients such as aloe leaf juice, red clover extract, and saw palmetto. Available Now: Join the Hair Wellness Revolution Zenagen Revolve Shampoo for Women is available now at Zenagen.com and select professional salons nationwide. For best results, pair with Revolve Unisex Conditioner. Click here to learn more and shop the #1 best-selling shampoo for hair loss. Experience thicker, fuller looking hair in as little as 3 months. About Zenagen Zenagen Nashville, Tennessee based a professional-grade hair wellness company committed to science-driven solutions for hair loss and hair thinning. Founded by a medical student turned beauty innovator, Zenagen merges cutting-edge nutraceutical science with premium salon performance, offering results-backed products trusted by stylists, dermatologists, and consumers worldwide. www.zenagen.com SOURCE Zenagen Hair Care If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Washington, May 30 : The United States stated that the pause on student visa interviews will end "sooner than later" and encouraged applicants to continue the application process while frequently checking for the resumption of regular services. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered US missions around the world to pause student visa interviews to incorporate expanded scrutiny of the social media footprints of applicants. An early end to the pause, as indicated by US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, would relieve hundreds of thousands of students headed for the US to pursue higher studies later in the year. India is the source country for the largest group of international students in the US and Bruce's comments will be closely followed there. "So right now, there might be some delay. And what I'm told to encourage people to do is to regularly check to see when those spaces open," said Bruce at the daily news briefing. "So as opposed to, let me just say I would not be recommending that if this was going to be weeks or months. So if you're if you've applied for a visa and you want to please do so then there's no if you're not getting an appointment, just there's this online system you continually recheck to see when those spots might open." "I can't tell you immediately after some, you know, undetermined moment of an action, but I can tell you that it's something that will happen, perhaps sooner than later," she added. The Trump administration has expanded scrutiny of foreign students in US colleges and universities in the wake of political unrest that swept through campuses against Israel's invasion of Gaza in response to the terrorist strike by Hamas in 2023 October. The administration has targeted college authorities for not doing enough to prevent them and protect Jewish students and foreign students from participating in them. Bogota, May 30 : The all-party Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor arrived in Colombia, continuing its Latin American diplomatic outreach after concluding Panama visit, to highlight India's steadfast position against terrorism. Tharoor, shared an update from Bogota via social media, noting the productive start to the Colombia leg of the visit. "Our Colombia visit got under way today with a briefing to the delegation from our Ambassador, Vanlalhuma, followed by a well-attended press interaction with more than a dozen local media outlets. I then did an interview with Colombian journalist Juan Camillo Ramirez. Getting the message out where it needs to be heard!" he posted on X. The delegation, comprising MPs Sarfraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish Madhur, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Milind Murli Deora, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Tejasvi Surya, and accompanied by Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, arrived in Colombia on Thursday night, as part of the Government of India's broader diplomatic initiative under Operation Sindoor. The visit, scheduled from May 29 to 31, underscores India's steadfast position against terrorism and seeks to strengthen ties with strategic partners in Latin America. Over the next two days, the delegation will engage with Colombian lawmakers, ministers, policy think tanks, and media representatives to highlight India's zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and to further deepen bilateral cooperation. This visit follows a significant diplomatic engagement in Panama, where the Indian delegation was hosted by the Ambassador of India to Panama, Sumit Seth. Reflecting on that leg, Tharoor remarked, "Our trip ended with a spectacular reception hosted by Ambassador Seth for the diplomatic corps and influential Panamanian personalities. The Foreign Minister spoke, as did his Vice-Minister, Carlos Hoyos, in strong sympathy for India, expressing support for our fight against terrorism and for enhancing the close cooperation between our two countries." The delegation's tour of Latin America aims to showcase India's stance against terrorism globally and highlight Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism. Washington, May 30 : The White House said that Israel has signed off on a 60-day Gaza ceasefire proposal as Israeli army continues its military actions in the war-torn area. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed at a press briefing that US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump "submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that Israel backed and supported." "Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas. I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home," said Leavitt. "I won't comment further, as we are in the midst of this right now," she added. An Israeli official and a US source familiar with the case confirmed that the proposed deal includes not only the 60-day ceasefire but also plans to release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 dead hostages, Xinhua news agency reported quoting CBS News. Hamas said Thursday that its leadership had received a new Gaza ceasefire proposal from Witkoff through the mediators and was studying it. "The Hamas leadership has received Witkoff's new proposal from the mediators and is responsibly studying it in a way that serves the interests of our people, provides relief, and achieves a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip," Hamas said in a brief statement. Jammu, May 30 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah has directed all security agencies to ensure a completely peaceful upcoming Amarnath Yatra while maintaining utmost vigil and alertness. Amit Shah reached here late Thursday evening and immediately chaired a security review meeting at the Raj Bhawan. The high-level security review meeting was attended by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi, J&K Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, DGP Nalin Prabhat and other top officials of MHA, Army, paramilitary forces, Jammu and Kashmir Police, civil administration and Intelligence agencies from the Centre and the UT. Union Home Minister took a threadbare review of the security arrangements and the preparedness for the upcoming Amarnath Yatra. He instructed to maintain utmost vigilance and ensure peaceful completion of the Yatra. He said both the Central and UT administrations will leave no stone unturned to facilitate the pilgrims with all necessary facilities. "Chaired a review meeting for the Amarnath pilgrimage and evaluated security arrangements and preparedness meant for the pilgrims. Instructed to maintain utmost vigilance and ensure seamless completion of the sacred journey. Central Government and J&K administration will leave no stone unturned to facilitate pilgrims with all necessary facilities", Amit Shah said on X after chairing the meeting Thursday evening. The meeting lasted nearly one hour and 30 minutes. The Home Minister will visit the border district of Poonch on Friday, where he will address the civilians who were hit by Pakistan's shelling. He will also address the BSF soldiers at their Unit Headquarters at Khanetar, visit damaged religious places and distribute appointment letters to the next of kin of those killed in the shelling. The focus of Thursday's meeting was on the security and other arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra, in addition to zero tolerance to infiltration and terrorism. The latest security in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22 came up for thorough discussion as police and security agencies gave an update to the Union Home Minister. Sources said that the home minister directed security agencies to ensure that terrorists, including those involved in the Pahalgam killings, are brought to justice without any delay. "A strategy to step up search operations against the terrorists, including the upper reaches of the Jammu region, has also been devised. There has been the presence of the terrorists, mainly Pakistanis, in the hills of Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch. During the past couple of months, several contacts have been established by security forces with terrorists in these areas. "The Union home minister also discussed various facilities being made available for the pilgrims by the civil administration," sources added. Amarnath Yatra 2025 begins on July 3 and will end on August 9 after 38 days. New Delhi, May 30 : Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor met with the business leaders in the US at a roundtable hosted by USISPF. The Embassy of India, Washington, DC, in a post on its X handle said that the Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy NSA Kapoor had an engaging discussion with business leaders at a roundtable hosted by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). "They emphasized the importance of G2G, academia, and industry collaboration to advance critical and emerging technologies in defence and strategic domains -- key to transforming the partnership for the 21st century," the post further mentioned. After the meeting concluded, the USISPF said it was pleased to host a closed-door roundtable in Washington, DC, with the two top Indian officials. "The dialogue focused on deepening U.S.-India cooperation in critical and emerging technologies under the TRUST initiativeadvancing secure, transparent, and resilient innovation ecosystem through stronger government, industry and academic partnerships," said the USISPF after the meeting ended. FS Misri was on a three-day visit (May 27-29) to the US, which happened amid the unease over US President Donald Trump repeatedly claiming to have brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The Foreign Secretary concluded the visit on Thursday, with bilateral trade, critical and emerging technologies, as well as defence taking centre stage in the discussions. During the three-day visit, Misri met with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler. The US Department of State, in its official media release, said that Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau met with Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri today in Washington. "The Deputy Secretary reaffirmed the close partnership between the U.S. and India, a key component of U.S. foreign policy for the 21st century. He underscored the importance of fair and reciprocal market access to fostering economic growth and prosperity in both countries." The US Deputy Secretary emphasised the importance of enhanced cooperation on migration and counternarcotics. "The Deputy Secretary and the Foreign Secretary also reaffirmed their shared desire to maintain regional stability and peace," the State Department said Thursday. New Delhi, May 30 : Goa, which became the 25th state of India in 1987, is marking its 39th Statehood Day on Friday. President Droupadi Murmu led the nation in extending wishes and greetings to the people of the state. The day honours Goaas rich cultural heritage, tradition, progress, and economic development. In a post on X, President Murmu prayed that the state continues to thrive and contribute to the making of Viksit Bharat. She said the tourists and residents should come together to preserve Goa's culture and heritage. "Warm greetings to the people of Goa on Statehood Day! Goa's rich cultural heritage, beautiful beaches, warm hospitality and several other attractions continue to draw visitors from across the world. Tourists and residents should come together to preserve Goa's culture and heritage by adopting sustainable tourism practices and supporting local communities. May the state of Goa continue to thrive and contribute to the making of Viksit Bharat," the President's post read. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant called upon the people to reaffirm their commitment to building a stronger, 'Swayampurna', and a Viksit Goa for generations to come. He said, "On the proud occasion of 39th #GoaStatehoodDay, heartfelt greetings to all Goenkars! Today, we celebrate the historic moment when Goa became the 25th state of the Indian Union, a land known for its diverse culture and uplifting spirit, which is now reinforced with a progressive vision. Let us reaffirm our commitment to building a stronger, Swayampurna, and a Viksit Goa for generations to come." Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while extending his wishes, said that Goa has contributed immensely to the nation's growth, shining as a global tourist destination. "Warm greetings to our sisters and brothers of Goa on their Statehood Day. Blessed with vibrant cultures and heritage, Goa has contributed immensely to the nation's growth, shining as a global tourist destination. I pray for the continued prosperity of the state," HM Shah wrote on X. Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said the state has made significant contributions to Indiaas tourism economy and overall development. "My heartfelt greetings to all my brothers and sisters of Goa on their Statehood Day. Known for its scenic landscapes and breathtaking beaches, Goa beautifully blends modernity with tradition. Beyond its natural beauty, the state has made significant contributions to Indiaas tourism economy and overall development. May Goa continue to reach new heights of development, and may its people be blessed with good health and prosperity." Union Minister Piyush Goyal said the state's picturesque beauty and vibrant culture are admired by people across the world. He said, "Warm greetings to my sisters and brothers from Goa on their Statehood Day. Goaas picturesque beauty and vibrant culture are admired by people across the world. My best wishes to Goa as it continues to scale new heights of prosperity!" -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text United Nations, May 30 : India plays an important role in peacekeeping operations by spearheading the campaign to bring to justice those committing crimes against peacekeepers, according to Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations. "The lead from India on the accountability for crime against peacekeepers" is an important contribution to peacekeeping beyond the contribution of troops and police, he said on Thursday. India is the leader of the 39-member Group of Friends for Promoting Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers, which it founded in 2022. That same year, it pushed through the Security Council a resolution calling on countries hosting peacekeeping operations to investigate and prosecute attacks on peacekeepers, to provide support to those countries to deal with impunity, and to create a UN database of attacks. So far this year, five peacekeepers have been killed in attacks. Lacroix, who was in New Delhi at the first Conference for Women Peacekeepers hosted by India this year, said that besides wanting to increase the number of women peacekeepers, the UN wanted more of them in leadership positions. "We would want to have more senior female generals, you know, applying for positions of Force Commanders", so that there could be more of them, he said. He called it a work in progress, pointing to Major General Cheryl Ann Pearce, the military adviser for the Department of Peace Operations, who was seated next to him. Lacroix said that besides wanting to increase the number of women peacekeepers, having women in leadership roles "guarantees a more effective peacekeeping" through more empowerment of women, he said. Of the 5,375 Indian blue helmets serving the UN, 151 are women. India contributed the first all-women Formed Police Unit (FPU) to a UN mission when they were deployed to Liberia in 2007. Kiran Bedi in 2003 became the first woman to become the UN's civilian police adviser. Riyadh, May 30 : The Indian all-party delegation, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, on Friday concluded a productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reaffirming India's zero tolerance and 'New Normal' approach to terrorism. The delegation, a part of India's 'Operation Sindoor' outreach campaign, conveyed India's firm stance against terrorism and its continued efforts to combat this global menace in all its forms and manifestations. The visit reaffirmed the shared commitment of India and Saudi Arabia in the fight against terrorism. "On departure, Abdulrahman Alharbi, Chair of the Saudi-India Friendship Committee of the Shura Council bid farewell to the delegation," Indian Embassy in Riyadh posted on X. The delegation on Thursday held extensive interactions with a cross-section of the Indian community highlighting India's continued efforts to combat terrorism, and countering radicalism and extremism, to ensure peace and prosperity in the nation. The delegation also expressed satisfaction that the Indian community in Saudi Arabia has remained connected to Bharat's progress and continues to be law-abiding residents, and is contributing to further strengthening the growing IndiaSaudi Arabia partnership. They also appreciated that Saudi Arabia has always stood with India in condemning acts of terrorism. "Our Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia continues to make India proud through its success, contributions & standing in local society. Today, our all-party delegation engaged with them, sharing India's united national stance, the success of 'Operation Sindoor', and our unwavering commitment to combat cross-border terrorism with a zero-tolerance approach," Panda posted on X. They visited Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) in Riyadh and held interactions with the President of the University, Abdulmajeed Albanyan. The delegates shared strong concerns about cross-border terrorism and India's position of zero tolerance against terrorism. "The delegation appreciated the ongoing cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia in security sciences, and between NAUSS and Indian institutions. It conveyed India's approach to terrorism and explored avenues for collaborations in new technologies such as AI, Quantum in countering cross-border terrorism," the Indian Embassy in Riyadh said in a statement. "The delegation also visited the Gulf Research Centre in Riyadh, a premier research institution in the country, and met with Chairman Abdulaziz Sager. The Indian delegates spoke on India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all forms and manifestations, underlining that India has suffered the menace of cross-border terrorism for more than three decades, leading to the loss of innocent lives and civilian property. The Indian delegation highlighted that 'Operation Sindoor' has carved out a new benchmark in India's fight against terrorism," the statement added. The delegation, led by Panda, includes BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP Phangnon Konyak, BJP MP Rekha Sharma, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, and former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla. Copenhagen, May 30 : The Indian All-Party Parliamentary delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad received a comprehensive briefing from the Indian Ambassador to Denmark, Manish Prabhat on bilateral ties between India and the European country. The discussion focussed on the 'Green Strategic Partnership' of India and Denmark, common values and key areas of mutual concern, including the global challenge in combating terrorism. "The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was given a detailed briefing by Ambassador Manish Prabhat on India-Denmark bilateral relations of 'Green Strategic Partnership', shared values and issues of mutual concern including the challenge of combating terrorism globally," Embassy of India in Copenhagen posted on X. The delegation, a part of India's global diplomatic outreach campaign to highlight the significance of Operation Sindoor and India's continued fight against Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism, was welcomed by Ambassador Manish Prabhat on their arrival in Denmark During the course of their stay in Copenhagen, the delegation will meet Deputy Speaker of Danish Parliament Lars-Christian Brask, Chairman of Foreign Policy Committee Christian Friis Bach, other Members of Parliament, and engage with select former Members of the Parliament of Denmark, members of political parties, media, and a cross-section of the Indian diaspora. The nine-member delegation includes a diverse political representation: Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP), Daggubati Purandeswari (BJP), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-UBT), Ghulam Ali Khatana (BJP), Amar Singh (Congress), Samik Bhattacharya (BJP), M. Thambidurai (AIADMK), former Union Minister M.J. Akbar and former Ambassador Pankaj Saran. Earlier on Thursday, the delegation concluded a successful visit to Italy during which they engaged with key Italian leaders, think tanks, strategic experts, news agencies and the Indian community to underline India's zero-tolerance and 'new normal' policy toward Pakistan-facilitated cross-border terrorism. "We had enriching interactions with Italy's Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Maria Tripodi, Senator Giulio Tremonti, President and Members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and European Commission, in the Chamber of Deputies," Ravi Shankar Prasad posted on X. "We also engaged with prominent think tanks and strategic experts. We shared India's zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and our resolve to combat it in all forms. Encouragingly, we found a common understanding between India and Italy on the issue of global terrorism. Both nations affirmed their commitment to working together for peace and amity, underscoring the strong relationship between India and Italy," the post added. New Delhi, May 30 : BJP MP Sambit Patra on Friday hit out at the Congress party for the repeated questioning of 'damages and downing' of Rafale fighter jets by Pakistan during the Operation Sindoor face-off and claimed that top leadership of the party have started 'toeing' Pakistan line and also parroting their narrative. Addressing a press conference this morning, Sambit Patra said that Congress claimed to be standing with the nation, but in reality, they have been questioning the valour of our armed forces from Day one of the operation. Patra asserted that India destroyed nine terror camps and 11 Pakistani air bases in military strikes, the evidence of which is available in the form of satellite images, but Congress will not believe its forces. The party will rely only on Pakistani propaganda. "If a Rafale had crashed, there would be wreckage and proof. There is none," he said, accusing Congress of fanning doubt. The BJP spokesman further said that from Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Revanth Reddy, all of them are making deplorable statements to demoralise our armed forces and weaken their morale. "They never stood with the nation and armed forces, they have been asking from Day 1 -- how many Indian fighter jets were destroyed by Pakistan and this despite the fact that DGMO stated out facts with proper evidence," said Patra. He also expressed shock over Congress in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh, whom he called the right-hand man of the Gandhi family, linking the Pahalgam terrorists with Parliamentarians of the all-party delegation, currently on a global outreach mission. Earlier, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also lambasted Telangana CM Revanth Reddy for questioning -- "how many Rafales were shot down by Pakistan?" "Instead of standing with our armed forces, Congress leaders seem to be sourcing their 'intel' from WhatsApp forwards, social media speculation, or worse-their imagination. They sound more like Pakistan's PR team than India's opposition," he said. Telangana CM joined the Congress tirade against Centre, as addressing a rally on Thursday, he demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi answer on how many of our fighter jets suffered damages in Pakistani strikes. Dehradun, May 30 : The court of the Additional District and Session Judge of Kotdwar, Uttarakhand on Friday convicted three people for murder in the sensational Ankita Bhandari case. The case had made national headlines after the local people came out and protested over the murder of the 19-year-old woman who worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort located in Yamkeshwar of Pauri district. The young woman was allegedly murdered by the resort operator Pulkit Arya, along with his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta on September 18, 2022. The case had taken a sensational turn as Pulkit Arya is the son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader and the local people had taken to the streets to protest over it. The BJP had shown Vinod Arya the door after the controversy erupted and the Uttarakhand government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter. The Uttarakhand court completed its hearing in the Ankita Bhandari murder case on Monday and announced the much-awaited verdict today. Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi on May 19 this year heard the final arguments between the defence and the prosecution in the case which had rocked Uttarakhand due to its political overtones. After hearing the closing arguments of both sides, the Judge had fixed May 30 as the date for pronouncing the verdict. The hearing of the case lasted for two years and eight months. During this time, 47 witnesses, including the Investigation Officer, were presented by the prosecution advocate Anuj Pundir. According to the prosecution, Ankita Bhandari and Pulkit Arya had a dispute over something, after which the man, along with Bhaskar and Gupta, allegedly pushed the woman into the Cheela canal in Rishikesh. After Ankita Bhandarias lifeless body was fished out of the Cheela canal, the three men were arrested by the police and sent to prison. Fearing leniency for the accused and his accomplices due to his political connections, the residents of Pauri district came out in large numbers to protest, and the Uttarakhand government formed a SIT to probe the matter and take the case to its logical conclusion. New Delhi, May 30 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently on a Bihar visit, cited Lord Shri Ram's ideals -- "Pran jaaye par vachan na jaaye (May life go but promises must be kept)" and said that his principles have become the guiding principles of governance. Addressing a huge public rally in Bihar's Karakot, PM Modi said that he has come to the state after fulfilling his promise of punishing the Pahalgam perpetrators beyond imagination. "On April 22, terrorists killed our brothers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. A day later, I came to Bihar and made a promise to the nation from the soil of Bihar that those who inflicted terror on our soil and killed our brothers will be taught a lesson. I had promised that they would be punished beyond imagination." "I have come to Bihar after fulfilling my promises," PM Modi roared, eliciting loud applause and cheers from the audience. PM Modi said that those masterminds and handlers who guided terrorists in wiping out the sindoor of our sisters and mothers, their hideouts and bases, have been turned into debris by our forces. "Our forces brought the Pakistani forces to their knees. Pakistani airbases were destroyed and decimated in just a few minutes. This is the New Bharat," PM Modi said. He said that India's Operation Sindoor showed Pakistan as well as the world what could be the price for taking away sindoor, the red vermilion that women wear on their forehead. PM Modi also paid tribute to Imtiyaz, a BSF sub-inspector from the state, who sacrificed his life in the cross-border terror operations. "I repeat it again from the soil of Bihar -- Operation Sindoor is just an example of our military prowess," he said. "India's fight against terror hasn't stopped. If Pakistan resorts to terror tactics, our forces will again defang them as well as their masters," PM Modi told the gathering. United Nations, May 30 : Brigadier Amitabh Jha and Havildar Sanjay Singh, who died while serving in peacekeeping missions, were honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold medals. India's Permanent Representative P Harish received the medals on Thursday (US time) from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a ceremony honouring the peacekeepers who died in the service of the UN. Jha was the acting force commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) that is deployed in the Golan Heights to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Syria after the 1973 war. Guterres said, "Jha served as acting Force Commander of UNDOF in complex circumstances, following the fall of the Assad Government in Syria. He will be remembered for his leadership and unwavering commitment to United Nations peacekeeping, including in the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) as a military observer from 2005 to 2006. Jha "played a pivotal role in managing a critical security situation which evolved during the Syrian crisis in December 2024", a citation from India said. That month, the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed, and the border area supervised by the UNDOF came under pressure from both Israel and disparate Syrian groups. "Jha was a man who stood his ground -- as was evident from the way he handled affairs of UNDOF as the acting force commander. He will be admired by his friends and detractors," the citation said. Singh served with MONUSCO when he died. Waibhav Anil Kale, a retired Indian Army colonel, also died last year while serving the UN in a civilian capacity in Gaza, the citation from India noted. Kale was working as a security service coordinator for the UN when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack from Israeli forces in Gaza's Rafah region. Thursday was observed as the 77th UN Peacekeepers Day, honouring the work of 61,353 peacekeepers, of whom 5,375 hailed from India. Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Indian Army held a ceremony at the National War Memorial to honour the memory of the Blue Helmets who died in the service of the UN. Lieutenant General Rakesh Kapoor, the deputy chief of Army Staff, led the ceremony honouring the 182 Indian peacekeepers who died while on UN missions. Bhopal, May 30 : The post-mortem report of the ten-year-old tigress found dead in Madhya Pradesh's Panna Tiger Reserve has revealed that a territorial fight led to her death. The death of the big cat initially raised suspicions, but forest officials have said that investigations found "no signs of poaching or illegal activity." The carcass of the tigress was discovered on Wednesday evening at the Umrajhala beat of the Devendranagar range in the North Forest Division of Panna. A forest department security personnel, Pahalwan Singh Gond discovered the tigress and informed beat guards that he had spotted her lifeless body in the Kurian Haar area. Upon receiving the alert, forest officials, accompanied by regional beat guards and security personnel, reached the site to begin their investigation. To assist with the enquiry, a dog squad from the police office in Panna, along with another from the Satna forest division, was summoned. Speaking to IANS, District Forest Officer of the North Forest Division, Garvit Gangwar, said that after a thorough investigation, "no evidence of poaching, poisoning, or illegal activity was found. Initial findings suggest that the tigress may have succumbed to injuries sustained during a territorial fight with another tiger or tigress." "The tigress was found dead on Wednesday evening, and after a detailed search with dog squads, the post-mortem was conducted on Thursday," he said. To confirm the findings, samples have been sent to a laboratory for further examination. Wildlife doctor Sanjeev Gupta and veterinary expert from Devendranagar conducted the post-mortem examination to determine the exact cause of death. The tigress's body was disposed under the supervision of senior forest and police officials. Meanwhile, cameras have been installed in the area to gather additional insights through surveillance footage. Authorities believe the camera trap data will help clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident. Madhya Pradesh has reported 24 tiger deaths so far in 2025, making it the state with the highest number of tiger fatalities in India this year. In 2009, Panna Tiger Reserve came under the scanner when the reserve, which once boasted over 40 tigers, was left with no big cats. Now, the reserve is home to approximately 80 tigers. New Delhi, May 30 : The Delhi Police Crime Branch has busted an interstate syndicate involved in the theft and resale of high-end vehicles, a statement said on Friday. The gang used a sophisticated modus operandi to sell stolen cars through online platforms by forging documents, opening bank accounts with fake identities, and tampering with engine and chassis numbers. In a series of coordinated operations, the police arrested a key member of the gang and recovered eight luxury vehicles. According to Delhi Police, the breakthrough came with the arrest of Rakesh Patel alias Pappu (38), a core operative of the syndicate, near Sahibabad Railway Station in Ghaziabad on April 21, 2025. Acting on a tip-off, police apprehended him while he was attempting to sell a stolen Maruti Wagon-R via an online platform. Patel, a resident of Sahibabad, Ghaziabad (UP), and originally from Mohiuddin Nagar, Samastipur (Bihar), played a central role in managing theft operations and delivering stolen vehicles across states. His associates arranged vehicles, counterfeit documents, and fake number plates. The gang's method was notably elaborate. After stealing a car, they searched online car-selling portals for vehicles of the same make, model, and colour. Using open-source information, they identified details of genuine owners and forged documents in the owneras name -- featuring the photograph of one of the accused. They also opened bank accounts using these fake identities. To avoid detection, the syndicate would tamper with the stolen caras engine and chassis numbers to match those of the legitimate vehicle. Fake Registration Certificates (RCs) were then prepared, making the stolen car appear genuine. Once the vehicle was thus acloned,a it was listed for sale on online platforms. The syndicate targeted high-demand vehicles, often choosing cars parked in low-surveillance or roadside areas. The police noted the gang's use of advanced technological tools to support their operations. A team led by Inspector Arun Sindhu of the Crime Branch spearheaded the investigation, which led to the arrest and recovery of the stolen vehicles. Jakarta, May 30 : The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation, led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, on Friday met with KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU), and Kholili Kholil, Committee Member of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Indonesia, the world's largest Islamic organisation, and sought their support against violence and religious extremism. "Honoured to meet KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board, and Kholili Kholil, Committee Member of Nahdlatul Ulama -- the world's largest Islamic organisation. Our All-Party Parliamentary Delegation reaffirmed India's resolute stand against terrorism and sought support in countering religious extremism," Sanjay Jha posted on X. "As nations bound by the values of 'Bhinneka Tunggal Ika' (Unity in Diversity), we called for shared voices to champion peace and justice. KH Ulil expressed deep solidarity with India, strongly condemned the Pahalgam attack, and affirmed the need for India and Indonesia to walk together for peace, cooperation, and progress," the post added. Condemning the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, KH Ulil said he felt the pain and called for India and Indonesia to walk hand in hand to promote peace and economic development. As peace-loving countries with the largest Muslim populations with shared values of Unity in Diversity or "Binneka Tunggal Ika" practised as state policy as well as in daily lives, the leader of the delegation urged NU leaders to support India and condemn cross-border terrorism to give a strong message to the world. Earlier on Thursday, the delegation interacted with the resident Ambassadors of friendly diplomatic missions of around 20 countries in Indonesia, sharing detailed insights on Operation Sindoor and clearly explaining the role of Pakistan in the gruesome April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. They highlighted India's measured, non-escalatory, and targeted response following the Pahalgam attack. The delegation conveyed the message that terror and talks cannot go together, and blood and water cannot flow together. They urged the support of the diplomatic community for bringing perpetrators of terrorism to justice, recalling the UNSC statement of April 25, which underlined the need for concerted diplomatic action against terrorism and its sponsors. Later, the visiting delegation met the leaders of the National Mandate Party (PAN) of Indonesia including Eddy Soeparno, Vice Chairman of PAN and Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian People's Assembly, and Viva Yoga Mauladi, Vice Chairman of the Party and also Deputy Minister For Transmigration Republic of Indonesia, along with other leaders and Members of Parliament from PAN sharing views on India's stance on zero tolerance for terrorism. The delegation also had meaningful discussions with researchers and scholars of various think tanks and academia in Indonesia. The delegation led by Jha also includes BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, Hemang Joshi, and Pradan Baruah, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Barittas, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, and Former Indian Ambassador to France, Mohan Kumar. Mangaluru : , May 30 (IANS) Amid rising tensions in the communally-sensitive Mangaluru district following incidents of mob lynching, revenge killings, and stabbings, two members of the Hindu Jagaran Vedike have reportedly received death threats from individuals claiming allegiance to the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed. One of the men, 31-year-old Rakshit K Budoli, a resident of Budoli village near Bantwal town, has filed a police complaint at the Bantwal police station over the threat. Apart from Rakshit K Budoli, an audio message containing the threat was also sent via WhatsApp to Hindu Jagaran Vedike district coordinator Narasimha Mani. The message was delivered in Urdu. The threat, in the form of a text message and audio clip was sent from an international number, and may have originated from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan. In the message, the accused claim that Rakshit is involved in the murder of a Muslim man. Alongside Rakshit, his associate Narasimha Mani and a few others were also named, police said. The threat explicitly warns that the perpetrators were already in the vicinity. They threatened to kill Rakshit and others in a manner similar to Suhas Shettyas murder, police said. The message reportedly stated: "The list of Hindu activists marked for execution is ready, and Narasimha Manias name is at the top. We are watching all your movements. Suhas Shetty, who was murdered, was also on our list, and good men hacked him to death. We will finish off your friend." The threat further said: "He wonat be killed merely by beheading. First, we will sever his limbs, and after that, we will behead him and display his head at Delhi Main Gate (India Gate). We are already in Delhi, and your countdown has begun." The chilling message continued, "Even Allah will not know how we will kill you. After witnessing your murder, people will forget all known ways of killing. Stop tormenting Muslims and think about your own life. Neither your party nor your leaders will be able to save you. Your leadership will also be destroyed. This is a message from a mujahid." The police have taken the complaint seriously and launched an investigation. Authorities are also probing the origin of the message and whether it has any real operational backing. Hindu activist and rowdy-sheeter 42-year-old Sushas Shetty was murdered near Bajpe in Mangaluru on May 1. Before his murder, Keralaas Ashraf, 35, was killed in a mob lynching case on April 27. Later, a gang hacked 34-year-old Abdul Rahim to death on May 27. Many stabbing incidents have been reported from Mangaluru and Udupi region following the death of Suhas Shetty. Following the unrest, the Karnataka government replaced the Police Commissioner of Mangaluru City and the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Mangaluru district on Thursday. A new SP has also been appointed for the neighbouring Udupi district. According to the Chief Ministeras Office (CMO), the government has taken strict action by transferring senior police officers from the coastal districts in response to the growing unrest. The Karnataka government has decided to launch the Communal Violence Control Force -- a specialised unit -- in a bid to curb and control communal strife in Mangaluru, Udupi and Shivamogga districts. The government has also announced that the personnel serving in the Anti-Naxal Force will be reassigned to the Communal Violence Control Force. Seoul, May 30 : Crew members aboard a maritime patrol aircraft that fatally crashed earlier this week had no communication with the ground control tower over an emergency situation until the last minute, the South Korean Navy said on Friday. A Navy P-3CK patrol plane crashed on a mountain in Pohang, about 270 kilometres southeast of Seoul, at 1:49 p.m. Thursday, six minutes after taking off for routine training from a nearby air base, killing all four Navy officers aboard. No civilian casualties were reported. "The last communication between the control tower and the aircraft occurred at 1:48 p.m., and there were no details indicating an emergency situation," the Navy said. The aircraft was usually based on the southern island of Jeju but had flown to Pohang for touch-and-go training due to heavy civilian air traffic at the Jeju airport. The accident occurred when the aircraft was circling to the right after completing its first round of training, according to the Navy. The aircraft remained on a prearranged flight route, and the weather conditions in Pohang were favourable at the time of the accident, officials said. Surveillance camera footage, provided by the Navy upon permission from the bereaved family members of the crew members, showed the aircraft flying on a seemingly normal operation and abruptly plummeting within a few seconds. The 86-second video, comprising two clips filmed in separate locations, showed the aircraft suddenly nosediving into an area near a block of residential homes while flying on a circular route. The armed service plans to determine the cause of the accident by comprehensively analysing the aircraft's track data, sound clips recorded on a cockpit voice recorder retrieved earlier in the day and debris of the aircraft. Following an on-site probe, the Navy plans to transfer the wreckage of the aircraft to the Naval Air Command and conduct a joint investigation with civilian experts. A Navy official said authorities will carry out the investigation without ruling out any possible causes, including a bird strike, turbulence or a sudden change in the weather, Yonhap news agency reported. As part of response measures, the Navy also plans to conduct a special safety inspection of all P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, which have been grounded following the accident. The P-3CK aircraft that crashed on Thursday was deployed to the Navy in 2010 and was set to retire in 2030. Initially manufactured by US Defence firm Lockheed Martin, it was supplied to the US Navy in 1966. "With the exception of the aircraft frame, it was renovated akin to the level of a new aircraft and went through intense safety inspections," a Navy official said. South Korea operates 16 P-3 aircraft, dubbed the "submarine killer" for its anti-submarine capabilities. The first eight of the 16 aircraft, labeled the P-3C, were deployed in 1995, and another eight, renovated by the Defence firm Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. and named the P-3CK, were subsequently deployed. When asked about the possibility of the pilots intentionally veering the aircraft to prevent civilian damage, a Navy official said they likely made their "utmost efforts" to minimise such damage. The two pilots who operated the aircraft had a track record of 1,700 and 900 hours, respectively, of flight time. A funeral process for the four Navy officers, whose ranks were promoted by one notch following the accident, will begin later Friday. They will be laid to rest at Daejeon National Cemetery on Sunday. Ulan Bator, May 30 : Mongolia has recorded 335 new cases of measles infection over the past 24 hours, bringing the national caseload to 4,274, according to the country's National Centre for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) on Friday. Meanwhile, 114 more measles patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,793, the NCCD said in a statement. According to Mongolian doctors, the majority of new measles infections were among children aged 10-14 who had only one shot of the measles vaccine, Xinhua news agency reported. In this regard, the NCCD advised parents to protect their children from a potentially severe disease by getting them two doses of the measles vaccine. According to the World Health Organisation, measles is a highly contagious viral disease transmitted by respiratory droplets and direct contact. Measles spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. It can cause severe disease, complications, and even death. Measles can affect anyone, but it is most common in children. Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body. Any non-immune person (not vaccinated or vaccinated but did not develop immunity) can become infected. Unvaccinated young children and pregnant women are at the highest risk of severe measles complications. Being vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight off the virus. Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year. An estimated 107,500 people died from measles in 2023, mostly children under the age of five years, despite the availability of safe and cost-effective vaccines. In 2023, as many as 74 per cent of children received both doses of the measles vaccine, and about 83 per cent of the world's children received one dose of the measles vaccine by their first birthday. Two doses of the vaccine are recommended to ensure immunity and prevent outbreaks, as not all children develop immunity from the first dose. Kolkata, May 30 : The West Bengal government on Friday was embroiled in yet another legal battle over the alleged arbitrary postings of three senior resident doctors by the state Health Department, with two of them approaching the Calcutta High Court to challenge the order. The petition filed by Debasish Halder and Asfaqulla Naiya has been admitted by the single-judge vacation bench of Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee. The tentative date of the first hearing in the matter is June 5. It is not yet clear whether Aniket Mahato, the third senior resident to allegedly become a victim of arbitrary postings like Halder and Naiya, will later become a party in the same case or will file a separate petition in the matter. All three of them were lead faces of the movement against the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor of state-R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August last year. While all three of them were given postings in far-off places, ignoring their first choice of postings during the counselling session on this issue, Halder was given a posting at a hospital that does not officially have any vacancy for senior residents currently. What was more intriguing was that while a total of 778 junior doctors attended the counselling session for allotment of postings as senior residents, only Halder, Mahato, and Naiya were selectively denied their first choice of postings. The West Bent Bengal Junior Doctoras Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of junior doctors in the state spearheading movement against the R.G. Kar rape and murder tragedy, has announced that they would be behind Halder, Mahato, and Naiya in their legal battles against such arbitrary postings. The three senior doctors have explained that their complaint is not about their posting at far-off places but against the total lack of transparency in the posting allotment process. They also claimed that besides seeking justice for the R.G. Kar rape & murder victim, their demand was also total transparency in the medical administration system in the state. Bogota, May 30 : Cesar Augusto Gaviria Trujillo, the former President of Colombia, a veteran of the fight against terrorism from extremists and cartels, has extended full support to India's fight against terrorism. Gaviria "extended full support to India in fight against terrorism", Taranjit Singh Sandhu, India's former Ambassador to Washington, who is accompanying the delegation of Indian parliamentarians to the South American nation said in an X post after they met him early Friday (India time). The delegation "had a good interactive meeting" with Gaviria, Sandhu said. Gaviria is a leader of the Colombia Liberal Party, which is the largest party in the Congress of Colombia, which follows a Presidential system of government. During his tenure as President, Gaviria took on drug cartels, some with cross-border operations, and political extremists who launched terrorist attacks against his government, taking a toll on civilians also. The delegation is on a mission to convey India's message of zero tolerance for terrorism after Operation Sindoor that targetted the centres of terrorism in Pakistan and the areas of Kashmir it occupies, from where the massacre of 26 people in Pahalgam by the Lashkar-e-Taiba-affiliated 'The Resistance Front' emanated. The Indian delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor arrived in Bogota from Panama on Thursday, after having covered New York and Guyana. It will continue to Brazil, before going to Washington next week. The team also "interacted with Colombian journalists and media personalities from leading media houses" conveying "India's firm resolve to fight terrorism and its zero-tolerance policy towards global terrorism", Tharoor said on X. Over the next two days, the delegation will engage with Colombian lawmakers, ministers, policy think tanks, and media representatives to highlight India's zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and to further deepen bilateral cooperation. Reflecting on the previous leg of their mission in Panama, Tharoor remarked, "Our trip ended with a spectacular reception hosted by Ambassador [Sumit] Seth for the diplomatic corps and influential Panamanian personalities". "The Foreign Minister [of Panama, Javier Eduardo Martinez-Acha Vasquez] spoke, as did his Vice-Minister, Carlos Hoyos, in strong sympathy for India, expressing support for our fight against terrorism and for enhancing the close cooperation between our two countries", Tharoor added. Martinez-Acha also expressed Panama's support for India getting a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Earlier at a meeting with the delegation, Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino Quintero "expressed his understanding and support for India's fight against terrorism", Tharoor said on X Reflecting India's united stand against terrorism, the team represents country's political and geographic diversity. Besides Tharoor, the team that includes Shambhavi of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Sarfaraz Ahmad of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and Milind Murli Deora of the Shiv Sena as welll as Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, and Tejasvi Surya of the BJP, and GM Harish Balayogi of the Telugu Desam Party, a National Democratic Alliance partner. Algiers, May 30 : The Indian all-party Parliamentary delegation, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, on Friday departed from Saudi Arabia for Algeria carrying forth India's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism as part of the diplomatic outreach on Operation Sindoor and reaffirming the nation's resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. After concluding their successful engagements in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, the delegation will arrive in Algeria later today and hold various meetings till June 2, marking continuation of India's strategic outreach to garner international support against cross-border terrorism emanating from the soil of Pakistan. During the course of their stay in Algeria, the members of the delegation will highlight India's decisive and resolute stance on terrorism, particularly its fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, and emphasise the importance of international collaboration on counter-terrorism. Earlier in the day, the delegates concluded a productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reaffirming India's zero tolerance and 'New Normal' approach to terrorism. The visit further reaffirmed the shared commitment of India and Saudi Arabia in fight against terrorism. "Concluded a highly productive visit in Saudi Arabia, reaffirming deep India Saudi Arabia strategic partnership from defense and security to trade and counter-terrorism. Our all-party delegation conveyed India's firm zero-tolerance and New Normal approach against terrorism, and we appreciate Abdulrahman Alharbi, Chair of the Saudi-India Friendship Committee, for his warm send-off," Panda posted on X. The delegation, led by Panda, includes BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP Phangnon Konyak, BJP MP Rekha Sharma, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, and former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla. "Led by Baijayant Jay Panda, our all-party delegation concluded a highly productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reinforcing the strong and growing Indo-Saudi strategic partnership. From defence and security to trade and counter-terrorism, our discussions reflected India's clarity and conviction. We firmly conveyed our zero-tolerance and New Normal approach against terrorism. Grateful to Abdulrahman Alharbi, Chair of the Saudi-India Friendship Committee, for the gracious send-off and continued commitment to bilateral cooperation," Satnam Singh Sandhu posted on X. The outreach is taking place in the immediate aftermath of the horrendous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, India's decisive Operation Sindoor, and subsequent developments to foster global cooperation in countering terrorism. New Delhi, May 30 : In a bold and spiritual declaration, Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, a revered Hindu religious leader, has said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) will be reclaimed by India, and once that happens, a magnificent Ram Mandir will be built there, where Ram Katha will be narrated. In an interview with IANS, Jagadguru shared his views on the completion of 11 years of the NDA government, current political dynamics, and issues ranging from communal harmony to the future of various political leaders. Interview excerpts: IANS: The Modi government has completed 11 years. How do you view its performance? Rambhadracharya: India has become completely prosperous. The economy has steadily improved. Earlier, there was nothing; now India is the worldas fourth-largest economy. Thanks to PM Modias leadership, Article 370 was removed from Jammu and Kashmir, the regressive Triple Talaq practice was abolished, and Kashmir became a Union Territory. Through Operation Sindoor, Pakistanas backbone has been broken, our army destroyed nine terrorist hideouts there. Overall, India has become so strong under PM Modi that no one dares to look us in the eye. IANS: How long will PM Modi remain the Prime Minister? Rambhadracharya: As long as he wishes to. IANS: Clashes between Thakurs and Dalits are being reported in some UP districts. What do you think is the reason? Rambhadracharya: This is not good. Everyone should live in harmony. IANS: Lalu Prasad Yadav has thrown his son Tej Pratap out of the house and his party. Some of his pictures surfaced online. He reportedly married someone secretly. Is this right? Rambhadracharya: No, itas not right. IANS: Whatas your prediction for the upcoming Bihar elections? Rambhadracharya: The BJP will win. NDA will return to power. IANS: What do you see in Arvind Kejriwalas political future? Rambhadracharya: Not very promising. IANS: You asked for PoK from the Army Chief during a religious ceremony. When do you think it will happen? Rambhadracharya: I didnat ask for it as Dakshina during initiation; I gave Deeksha to him and then asked for PoK as Dakshina. PoK will be ours. We will build a grand Shri Ram Mandir there and narrate Ram Katha. IANS: Rahul Gandhi is questioning Operation Sindoor and asking how many Rafale jets were lost. Is that fair? Rambhadracharya: No, that is not right. IANS: Should Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is facing heat from his party, consider joining the BJP? Rambhadracharya: Shashi Tharoor is doing well. Itas up to him. IANS: Rahul Gandhi is receiving a lot of praise in Pakistan. Their media covers him daily. What is your view? Rambhadracharya: That is unfortunate. Kalaburagi : , May 30 (IANS) The Karnataka government has demolished the illegal Ram Mandir Mutt in Mekhali, Belagavi district, following the arrest of its head pontiff in a case related to the kidnapping and rape of a minor girl. The demolition was carried out on Thursday night by the district administration using JCB excavators in the presence of police personnel and the Tehsildar. Authorities stated that the Hindu seer had built the Mutt by encroaching on government land. The accused seer had constructed the Mutt 10 years ago. After his arrest, local residents declared that they would not allow him to return to either the mutt or Mekhali village. Allegations of land encroachment surfaced soon after the incident. Officials stated that the seer, a native of Kalaburagi, had settled in Mekhali and built the Ram Mandir Mutt on eight acres of government land bearing survey number 225, where he conducted religious activities. The Tehsildar had issued multiple notices to the seer to vacate the government land, but he allegedly ignored them and continued to operate from the encroached property, officials said. Authorities confirmed that the illegal structure has now been completely razed, and the reclaimed land will be handed over to the Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM). The accused seer was arrested on charges of raping a 17-year-old girl in Karnataka's Belagavi district. The police have filed a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case against the accused. A case in this regard was registered at the Bagalkot Women's Police Station and subsequently transferred to the Mudalagi police station. According to police, the seer allegedly raped the girl repeatedly and threatened to kill her if she revealed the incident. The accused seer had taken the girl to Raichur on May 13 and stayed there for two days. Later, he took her to Bagalkot on May 15, staying there for another two days. The accused seer took the girl with him, claiming to drop her back at her residence, and took advantage of the situation to commit the crime. The seer left the victim at the Mahalingapura bus stop in the Bagalkot district on May 17. Later, the girl revealed her ordeal to her parents, and a complaint was lodged against him at the Bagalkot Women's Police Station. Preliminary investigations suggest that the girl's parents, who were devotees of the Mutt and revered the accused seer, used to leave their daughter there often for weeks. The seer allegedly took advantage of this. Police said there are allegations against the Mutt and the seer of carrying out illegal activities. It also came to light during the investigation that in 2021, the accused seer was beaten by villagers. Local people had appealed to the police to initiate strict legal action against him. The police have recorded the statements of the villagers and the victim. The accused seer was produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody. Moscow, May 30 : Lenin's Mausoleum, the iconic structure from whose rostrum generations of Soviet and Russian leaders have inspected parades on the sprawling Red Square, is set to get a $250,000 makeover as several parts of the building require urgent repair, reports said. Russiaas Ministry of Culture has signed a 20 million rubles (approx $250,000) contract to restore the mausoleum, where Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin's embalmed body is on display, as an inspection reported several parts are crumbling and some have mould building up due to inadequate ventilation, RT reported, citing the tender records. The restoration will address structural damage and update the site for modern use, as per the project documents. Work is expected to be completed by mid-2027. One of the most recognisable landmarks in Russia, the red granite and black labradorite structure, which was built in 1929-30, has undergone regular maintenance and has been closed on several occasions in recent years, including for public events. As per RT, Lenin remains a divisive figure in Russian history. While some view him as a visionary who led the 1917 October Revolution to establish a fairer society, others regard him as a tyrant responsible for mass repression and death. The revolution sparked a civil war, after which Lenin's Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the Tsarist Russian Empire. These territories were united in 1922 to form the Soviet Union. Lenin died two years later, in 1924, and his body has remained on public display since then. The RT also cited a 2024 poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM), where one-third of respondents support keeping Lenin in his mausoleum. However, thirty per cent favour an immediate burial, while 27 per cent believe that a reburial should be conducted only if it would not cause controversy. Debates over the fate of Leninas body crop up time to time. While some public figures have called for burial and alternative uses of the site, officials have consistently stated there are no current plans to rebury him. In 2021, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the regime had no plans to relocate the iconic revolutionary's remains. New Delhi, May 30 : In a landmark step toward strengthening consumer protection and regulatory oversight in the field of traditional medicine, the Ministry of Ayush on Friday launched the Ayush Suraksha Portal, which will serve as a vigilant watchtower against misinformation. The portal, launched by Prataprao Jadhav, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Ayush at the Ayush Bhawan, New Delhi, marks a significant moment to address issues of misleading ads and adverse drug reactions. "With the launch of the Ayush Suraksha Portal, we are empowering citizens and professionals alike to become active participants in safeguarding the integrity of Ayush systems. This platform will serve as a vigilant watchtower against misleading advertisements and ensure that only safe and credible products reach the people," Jadhav said. The Ayush Suraksha Portal represents a significant advancement in pharmacovigilance and regulatory convergence within the Ayush ecosystem. It will aid the Ayush Ministry with a centralised and accessible dashboard of reported cases, enabling real-time tracking, swift regulatory action, and detailed data analysis. The portal, developed with the technical support of the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) and aligned with the National Pharmacovigilance Programme, allows consumers, healthcare professionals, and regulatory authorities to report and monitor misleading advertisements and adverse drug reactions through a seamless digital process. "By integrating data from State Licensing Authorities, national pharmacovigilance centres, and key regulatory stakeholders, the portal facilitates real-time monitoring, systematic analysis, and coordinated action on misleading advertisements and adverse drug reactions. We have made it accessible to the public so that any citizen can directly report misleading ads or adverse drug reactions via the portal," added Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush. The Ayush Suraksha Portal has been developed in accordance with the Supreme Court's order dated July 30, 2024, in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 645/2022, wherein the Court emphasised the need for a centralised dashboard for monitoring and publishing data related to misleading advertisements and adverse drug reactions. The Court directed the government to ensure that such a system is established to allow State Licensing Authorities to report complaints, share inter-state referrals, and update the status of actions taken. The Ministry noted that it has met the directive well before the Court's deadline of June 2025. The system also integrates multiple authorities, including the Ayush vertical under CDSCO, MoI&B, CCPA, NCISM, NCH, PCI, FSSAI, and State Licensing Authorities, ensuring coordinated response and enforcement. Patna, May 30 : In a display of political alignment and public appreciation, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a massive rally in Karakat, Rohtas district, for giving a nod for caste census. The event, part of PM Modi's two-day visit to Bihar, witnessed the launch and inauguration of development projects worth over Rs 48,500 crore. Addressing the crowd, CM Nitish backed the central government's decision to conduct a caste-based census, calling it a "historic step" and a long-standing demand he had championed. "Those who opposed this idea earlier are now making baseless statements," he said, indirectly targeting opposition parties. Nitish Kumar's speech struck a conciliatory and collaborative tone, thanking the Prime Minister for his "unwavering" support in Bihar's development journey. The Chief Minister urged the gathered crowd to stand up and raise their hands in collective gratitude to PM Modi. The crowd, numbering in the thousands, responded enthusiastically, turning the rally into a powerful visual moment of NDA unity. Nitish Kumar also used the occasion to highlight the transformation of Bihar since 2005, citing improvements in infrastructure, health, education, and governance. "Since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, the pace of development in Bihar has accelerated," CM Nitish added, positioning the state as a model of growth under NDA governance. Earlier, Prime Minister Modi arrived at the public meeting venue in an open jeep, greeted by roaring chants and a sea of waving hands. Chief Minister Nitish, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, warmly received him. The stage, built across a sprawling 444-acre area in Karakat, was adorned with garlands and flowers specially flown in from Kolkata and Patna. The Prime Minister responded to the electrifying welcome by standing and greeting the crowd with folded hands. He appeared visibly moved by the enthusiasm. During the rally, PM Modi announced the inauguration and foundation laying of key development projects spanning sectors like infrastructure, transport, agriculture, aviation, and food processing. New Delhi, May 30 : BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal on Friday endorsed the remarks made by senior Congress leader and former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who praised the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Khandelwal said Khurshid's statements reflect the ground realities in the region. Speaking at an event with Indonesian think tanks and academics, where he was part of an all-party Indian parliamentary delegation, Khurshid had remarked: "Kashmir had a major problem for a long time. Much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government in an article called the 370 of the Constitution, which somehow gave the impression that Kashmir was separate from the rest of the country. But Article 370 was abrogated, and it was finally put to an end." Reacting to Khurshid's statement, Praveen Khandelwal told IANS that this is a very unique feature of India and Indian democracy. "When it comes to the nation, we come together. Our delegations abroad, including Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor, Asaduddin Owaisi, and other leaders, are now speaking in the interest of the country. After the abrogation of Article 370, there has been significant development in J&K. Tourism in the Jammu region is growing rapidly, and whatever Salman Khurshid has said is indeed the truth of J&K," he claimed. Khandelwal further said that those who criticise Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for his praise of the Modi government fail to understand him (Tharoor). "The Congress, driven by political ambition, is missing the larger picture. They never miss a chance to exploit situations for their own gain. This topic pertains to the unity, integrity, and sovereignty of the country. When Congress leaders, who are part of the delegation, speak abroad about Pakistan being a hub of terrorism and India's efforts in combating it, they are stating facts," he claimed. He pointed out that calling them BJP agents or spokespersons shows the Congress's mindset, which is stuck in the trap of one family. "This is a national issue, not a family matter," he added. Khandelwal also responded to Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy's recent statement, in which he claimed that India would have reclaimed Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) if Rahul Gandhi had been Prime Minister. Dismissing Reddy's claim, Khandelwal said that Revanth Reddy probably doesn't know history, asking who allowed PoK to slip into Pakistan's hands? "It was Congress. That very family which ruled India for decades is responsible. Reddy seems to be so deeply engaged in political devotion that he is blind to facts. It's unfortunate that the Chief Minister of a state makes such baseless comments that have no justification whatsoever," he claimed. New Delhi, May 30 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday expressed dismay and astonishment over Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's 'indulgence' in Jiu-Jitsu training session with the martial arts enthusiasts and asked whether this was Opposition's idea of leadership at a time when nation was battling a security crisis. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to X on Friday and shared a picture of Rahul Gandhi from the recent Jiu-Jitsu training session, where he could be seen flanked by several women enthusiasts, some of whom are party workers and office-bearers. Malviya claimed that the Jujitsu training session in Delhi last weekend, to "boost Rahul Gandhi's ego". Slamming the Leader of Opposition (LoP), he said, "At a time when Indian delegations are abroad showcasing the success of Operation Sindoor and Prime Minister is touring states, sending a clear message to Pakistan, what is Congress up to? Enough is enough." "This is the Leader of the Opposition's idea of leadership during a national security crisis," wrote Malviya in his post. The Congress party, however, did not post any photo or video of Rahul Gandhi's Jiu-Jitsu session on its X handle, unlike other instances where his long video interactions with students, gig workers and others are widely shared. However, a couple of Congress office-bearers shared a photo with the LoP and took a bow to follow the 'Gentle Art'. Manish Tiwari, National co-ordinator of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) shared his picture with Rahul and wrote on X, "Today I closely understood that 'Gentle Art' of life, where through Jiu-Jitsu not only the body but also the mind and soul become strong. Spent 4 hours 30 minutes with Rahul Gandhi ji we talked about life, not politics." Dhivya Marunthiah, who calls herself a political activist, posted on X, "Still feeling surreal after an incredible 4-hour interactive session with Rahul Gandhi not just on Jiu-Jitsu, but on the art of turning conflict into compassion." Jiu-Jitsu is a form of Japanese martial arts, which is a kind of self-defence training, discouraging violent aggression. Taking a further swipe, Malviya claimed that women Congress workers were called to the national capital last week, where Rahul demonstrated his Jiu-Jitsu moves. He asked, "What does such kind of messaging mean", particularly at a time when there is an alarming situation in terms of national security. Rahul Gandhi's training session and photo-op is set to escalate into larger controversy, as the BJP is likely to mount an attack on the LoP for 'neglect' of national security and focus on personal issues, at a time when ruling as well as Opposition members are working in tandem to expose Pakistan. SiteBehaviour is a user-friendly website analytics tool designed for marketers and agencies seeking a simple alternative to Google Analytics. This tool offers a variety of features to help you track and analyze your website traffic in real-time, without the use of cookies and with EU-hosted data for added privacy and security. Features Live Dashboard: SiteBehaviour provides a live dashboard that gives you instant access to key metrics and insights about your website traffic. 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Visit sitebehaviour.com for more. Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter , Facebook and Instagram. Gandhinagar, May 30 : As part of the Government of India's 'Jal Shakti Abhiyan', a large-scale groundwater recharge project was inaugurated in Gujarat Banaskantha district on Friday. The initiative, which aims to construct 25,000 recharge wells with the support of Banas Dairy, is being implemented under the theme of 'Jan Bhagidari (Public Participation)'. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat BJP President and Union Minister C.R. Patil, and Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary attended the ceremony. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel emphasised on water being the first prerequisite for development. "Water is at the root of every progress story. Gujarat turned challenges into opportunities, particularly in addressing water scarcity," he said. He further lauded Banas Dairy's role in enabling local water sustainability and congratulated Shankar Chaudhary for the institution's commitment. CR Patil, addressing the gathering, expressed concern over groundwater depletion. "Out of 700 districts in India, 150 are in the dark zone, with three being from Gujarat. Banaskantha is the largest among them," he noted. He credited Prime Minister Modi for pioneering groundwater recharge efforts during his tenure as Gujarat's Chief Minister and for launching Amrit Sarovar projects across the country to facilitate water storage. "In India, 18 per cent of the global population and livestock reside, yet we hold only 4 per cent of the world's drinkable water," Patil said. He explained that due to over-extraction, permissions for new borewells, electric connections, and wells in dark zone areas like Banaskantha are denied. "PM Modi turned the tide by encouraging rainwater harvesting, and today, tanks and ponds have been constructed across districts to reverse groundwater decline," he added. He also announced that Banas Dairy will contribute 50 per cent of the cost for every recharge well constructed on farmers' lands, with the remaining borne by the farmers themselves. "This is an unprecedented initiative from a dairy cooperative," he said, praising Shankar Chaudhary for the progressive step. The CM also acknowledged the Centre's support in water conservation and irrigation schemes, particularly the completion of the Narmada Yojana, which has ensured water access to drought-prone areas like Banaskantha and Kutch. He added that over one lakh water conservation projects have been completed across the state this year alone, including 4,000 in Banaskantha. Quoting ancient wisdom, the CM said, "Lord Mahavira had advised using water as sparingly as ghee 2,500 years ago now we finally realise the gravity of those words." Dhaka, May 30 : Michael Miller, the European Union's Ambassador to Bangladesh, has stated that the EU wants a successful democratic political transition in the South Asian country, while it is not their role to advocate for holding an "early or late" general elections, local media reported on Friday. Addressing reporters in Rajshahi, Miller stressed that the EU can bring its expertise to implement reforms in Bangladesh under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, highlighting the importance of respecting fundamental rights, the rule of law, and following due process. "We think any decision on a date for your election is a Bangladeshi decision. It is not for the European Union to have an opinion to press you to hold an early election or late election. It is simply not, it is really not our business. We want your political transition to be a successful transition. We can bring expertise to help implement your reform agenda," Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted the EU Ambassador as saying. Earlier this month, Miller said that necessary reforms should be completed in the country before holding the national polls. He had made these remarks during an interaction with members of the Diplomatic Correspondents' Association of Bangladesh (DCAB) held at the National Press Club in Dhaka. "We hope that the political parties and the interim government will work together towards reforms," said Miller. He further said that the EU wanted the election to be held in a free, fair, and credible manner, in keeping with the international standard. Responding to a question, Miller said that the EU is also interested in providing assistance for elections, once the Bangladesh government decides when to hold it. Meanwhile, during his ongoing visit to Japan, Chief Advisor Yunus reiterated that the country's next national election will be held any time between December and June next year. "Yunus told former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso that the election will be held between December and June. He has set a six-month time frame, and the election will be conducted within that period," said Chief Advisor's Press Secretary, Shafiqul Alam. On the other hand, calls for restoration of democracy in Bangladesh have intensified amid a worsening political crisis. Earlier this week, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) warned that the ongoing turmoil in Bangladesh under the interim government led by Yunus is set to worsen in the absence of any plan to hold elections in the near future. Additionally, BNP Standing Committee Member Mirza Abbas on Thursday unleashed a scathing attack on the interim government, declaring it "rotten from head to toe". "This government is decaying from the top; it's rotten all the way to the bottom. They talk of reforms followed by elections. But if they couldn't do it in nine months, they won't do it in nine years or even 90. They should apologise to the nation and step aside," he said addressing a rally in front of the BNP's central office at Naya Paltan. Abbas described the interim government as a "colonial regime". "This is a colonial government. Most of its members, perhaps 90 per cent, aren't even citizens of this country. It was the people and students who protested, but these outsiders are now sitting on our shoulders," the BNP leader added. The lack of a clear roadmap for reforms and holding elections fuelled a major political unrest in Bangladesh as Yunus held a series of meetings last week with leaders of various political parties who have been questioning his controversial policies and performance of his dubious advisors. As pressure increased on Yunus, he had earlier expressed his desire to resign out of frustration - a development that had created a huge buzz in political circles across the country. Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman has stated that the next national election should be held by December and an elected government should be in power by January 1, 2026 after concluding "free and fair" polls. Guwahati, May 30 : The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to disclose the whereabouts of two brothers declared as foreigners by a tribunal, amid growing concerns over alleged arbitrary detentions and fears of illegal pushbacks across the border, officials said on Friday. A division bench comprising Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Malasri Nandi issued the directive on Thursday while hearing a writ petition filed by the brothers' nephew, Torap Ali. The petitioner claimed that his uncles - Abu Bakkar Siddik and Akbar Ali - were taken into custody by officers from Nagarbera police station in Kamrup district on May 25, and their family has since been kept in the dark about their status. The court has scheduled the next hearing for June 4. Torap Ali alleged that his uncles are at risk of being "illegally pushed into Bangladesh" without exhausting all legal remedies available to them. He contended that the authorities had withheld crucial information regarding the brothers' detention. Responding to the petition, state counsel J. Payeng informed the court that Siddik and Ali are currently in the custody of the Assam Border Police. The two brothers were declared foreigners by a Foreigners Tribunal in 2017, after failing to furnish documents proving that they or their ancestors entered India before the March 24, 1971, cut-off date established by the 1985 Assam Accord. They were subsequently held at the Goalpara detention camp but were granted bail in 2020, following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the release of detainees who had been in custody for more than two years. The petitioner argued that any attempt to deport the duo without a conclusive legal determination constitutes a violation of their fundamental rights under the Constitution. Foreigners Tribunals a" quasi-judicial bodies established under the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964 a" operate primarily in Assam to determine the citizenship status of individuals under the Foreigners Act of 1946. Currently, the state has 100 such tribunals functioning, especially in connection with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and related immigration matters. Bhubaneswar, May 30 : The Odisha Vigilance unearthed huge movable and immovable assets worth over several crores including Rs 2.52 crore in cash during house searches at different locations linked to senior engineer of state Rural Development department who is going to retire from services on Saturday, informed Yeshwant Kumar Jethwa, the Director of Vigilance here on Friday. "On May 30, 2025, on the allegation of possession of disproportionate assets (DA) by Baikuntha Nath Sarangi, Chief Engineer, Plan Roads, RW Division, Odisha, Bhubaneswar, beyond his known sources of income, simultaneous house searches are being conducted by Odisha Vigilance at seen places in Angul, Bhubaneswar and Pipili in Puri," Jethwa added. Interestingly, on seeing the Vigilance officers, Sarangi was found throwing cash bundles of Rs 500 notes through the window of his flat at Bhubaneswar. The same was recovered in the presence of witnesses by the search team of the Vigilance Department. The anti-corruption sleuths unearthed Rs 1.30 crore from his residential house at Angul and Rs 1.21 crore from his flat at Bhubaneswar during the simultaneous searches on Friday. The searches were conducted by the vigilance teams comprising eight Deputy Superintendents of Police, 12 Inspectors, six Assistant Sub-Inspectors, and other supporting staff on the strength of search warrants issued by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Angul. The vigilance officials also found Sarangi in possession of two multi-storeyed buildings in Angul, two flats, seven high-value plots in posh areas of Bhubaneswar and Angul, insurance and bank deposits worth Rs 1.5 crores, investment in shares to the tune of Rs 2.7 crores, etc. Speaking to media persons, the Jethwa further stated that the Vigilance Technical Wing is carrying out measurement and valuation of the above buildings, flats and plots unearthed so far during the ongoing house searches linked to Sarangi. Jethwa informed the media that the vigilance will also launch an investigation into the projects and other approvals under Sarangi in the coming days and will take action if any illegality is found during the enquiry. The Vigilance officials suspect that more assets could be unearthed during the searches, which are still going on. Patna, May 30 : In a major development in the Boring Canal Road firing case, two absconding accused, Rohit alias Alter and Shibu, surrendered before the court here on Friday. While Rohit hails from the Mahendru area, Shibu is a resident of Kankarbagh. The third accused, Shanu, remains on the run. Police have moved to court seeking a warrant and public notice against him. The firing incident, which occurred on May 24, sparked panic across Patna after several youths allegedly opened fire from a moving Scorpio SUV on the busy Boring Canal Road, under the jurisdiction of the Sri Krishna Puri police station. The brazen act, captured in a viral video, sent shockwaves through the city and raised serious concerns about law and order. According to police sources, both Rohit and Shibu are likely to be taken on remand for interrogation to ascertain the motive and identify other potential conspirators. Rohit, who is pursuing a hotel management course in Punjab, returned to Patna with his girlfriend on May 17, just days before the incident. In a stunning twist to the case, it is being reported that ADG (law and order) Pankaj Darad was coincidentally passing through the area when the firing was taking place. It is, however, not clear whether the ADG was in the car at that time. The car is reported to have given chase to the SUV, but due to a lack of tight security arrangements, all the criminals managed to escape. So far, 18 policemen have been suspended for negligence, and a comprehensive internal probe has been launched. Police continue to exert pressure on several suspicious individuals, though no breakthrough has been reported in locating the absconding accused, Shanu. The administration remains under pressure to deliver results as public confidence has been shaken. The incident has not only embarrassed the law enforcement apparatus but has also sparked public outrage, especially given the criminals' ability to flee after crossing multiple police station boundaries undetected. This firing incident has given an issue for opposition leaders to target the Nitish Kumar government over the law and another issue in the state. Hyderabad, May 30 : Popular Tollywood actor Nandamuri Balakrishna has been honoured with the NTR National Film Award and eminent filmmaker Mani Ratnam with the Paidi Jairaj Film Award by the Telangana government for their contributions to the film industry. The state government on Friday announced special awards as part of Gaddar Telangana Film Awards (GTFA). Veteran actor Murali Mohan, along with Telangana State Film Development Corporation (TSFDC) chairman Dil Raju, announced the special awards. Balakrishna will receive the award instituted in the name of his father, legendary actor and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao, who was popularly known as NTR. Popular as Balayya in film circles, Balakrishna began his acting career as a child artist at the age of 14 and in a career spanning four decades, acted in more than 100 films. The jury chose Maniratnam for the Paidi Jairaj Film Award for Indian film personality. Well-known director Sukumar will get the BN Reddy Film Award for Telugu film director. Nagireddy & Chakrapani Film Award for Telugu Producer will be presented to Atluri Purna Chandra Rao. Actor Vijay Devarakonda has been picked up for the Kantha Rao Film Award for Telugu artist, while screenwriter Yendamuri Verendranath will receive the Raghupathi Venkaiah Film Award (other than film artist, Telugu). The jury also announced the best film awards from 2014 to 2023. A day after announcing GTFA awards for 2024 in 11 different categories, the jury declared the best films for the last 10 years. The best films were selected from among the films produced between June 2, 2014 (formation of Telangana state) and December 31, 2023. The three best films were chosen for each year. 'Run Raja Run' was adjudged the best film for 2014, while 'Rudramadevi' was selected for 2015. 'Shatamanambhavathi' was declared the best film for 2016. The jury picked aBahubali Conclusiona as the best film for 2017. 'Mahanati' bagged the best film award for 2018, while 'Maharshi' emerged as the top movie for 2019. The other films selected for the category are 'Ala Vaikuntapuramulo' (2020), 'RRR' (2021), 'Sitaramam' (2022) and 'Balagam' (2023). Telangana has revived the Nandi awards for excellence in Telugu cinema and renamed them after revolutionary poet and balladeer Gaddar, who passed away in 2023. The awards have been revived after a gap of 14 years. Veteran actress Jayasudha, who headed the jury, on Thursday announced the awards for 2024. All the awards will be presented on June 14. New Delhi, May 30 : Urgent action is needed to ban flavoured tobacco, nicotine products that are increasingly being disguised as safer alternatives and deliberately targeted at children and adolescents, said the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday, ahead of World No Tobacco Day. World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on May 31. The theme this year "Bright products. Dark intentions. Unmasking the Appeal" sheds light on the concealed risks of tobacco products that are made to look attractive through enticing flavours, eye-catching packaging, influencer endorsements on social media, and misleading health claims. The WHO called on governments to urgently ban all flavours in tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, pouches, hookahs, and e-cigarettes, to protect youth from addiction and disease. The products also include menthol, bubble gum, and cotton candy which mask the harshness of tobacco and nicotine products turning toxic products into youth-friendly bait. These not only make it harder to quit tobacco but have also been linked to serious lung diseases. "Flavours are fuelling a new wave of addiction, and should be banned. They undermine decades of progress in tobacco control," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. Flavoured tobacco is currently banned in over 50 countries, and more than 40 countries have also banned e-cigarette sales. While five nations specifically ban disposables, 7 ban e-cigarette flavours. Yet, flavoured accessories remain largely unregulated. Saima Wazed, Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia said an estimated 11 million adolescents aged 13-15 years are already addicted to tobacco products in the region -- nearly 30 per cent of the global total in this age group. "We now face aggressive industry marketing of new and emerging nicotine and tobacco products (NENTPs) -- such as electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and flavoured nicotine pouches. These are being disguised as safer alternatives and deliberately targeted at children and adolescents," Wazed said. Tobacco use remains the single most preventable cause of death worldwide and is a leading risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory illness. Tobacco use remains the single most preventable cause of death worldwide and is a leading risk factor for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory illness. "Without bold action, the global tobacco epidemic, already killing around 8 million people each year, will continue to be driven by addiction dressed up with appealing flavours," Ghebreyesus said. Singapore, May 30 : The 22nd edition of the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), Asia's premier defence and security summit, opened here on Friday amid geopolitical tensions. This year's dialogue drew representatives from 47 countries, including 40 ministerial-level delegates, 20 chief of defence forces-level delegates, over 20 senior defence officials, and prominent academics, according to the Singapore's Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). French President Emmanuel Macron is set to deliver a keynote speech late Friday, where he's expected to position France -- and Europe -- as champions of international cooperation and rules-based trade. Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will deliver a Special Address on May 31 while Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will also host delegates to a dinner on Saturday. MINDEF detailed that Singapore's Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing will speak at the seventh plenary session on June 1 on the topic 'Enhancing Security Cooperation for a Stable Asia-Pacific'. As a regular feature of the SLD, Chan will host visiting Ministers to Roundtable discussions on Saturday and Sunday and the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) Defence Ministers to breakfast. Chan will also conduct bilateral meetings with Ministers and senior officials from various countries on the sidelines of the SLD. Analysts say key topics will likely include regional cooperation, the US security policies and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The implications of sweeping US tariffs are also likely to attract attention, as officials will use the platform to reassure partners and navigate an increasingly multipolar security landscape. Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth is also in Singapore to attend SLD and held a meeting with Chan on the sidelines of the event on Friday. "During the meeting, Chan and Hegseth reaffirmed the excellent and longstanding bilateral defence relationship and the mutually beneficial partnership between Singapore and the US, as anchored by the 1990 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Regarding United States Use of Facilities in Singapore. The 1990 MOU was last renewed in 2019 between then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and US President Donald Trump," read a statement issued by the MINDEF. "Chan and Secretary Hegseth agreed on the importance of the US' continued engagement in the Asia-Pacific, which is vital for regional peace, stability and prosperity. Secretary Hegseth also expressed appreciation for Singaporeas consistent support for the USa military presence in and engagement of the region. This includes Singaporeas facilitation of rotations by US aircraft and vessels, including rotational deployments, port calls, and aircraft stopovers," it added. The Dialogue runs from Friday through Sunday. Kolkata, May 30 : Trinamool Congress leader Anurbrata Mondal has been booked on the charges of threatening a police officer to rape his mother and wife. After the Trinamool Congress-led state government faced criticism over the purported viral audio in which Mondal was heard threatening the cop, the party issued a statement and asked him to tender a public apology on the matter. "The party unequivocally disassociates and does not endorse the comments made by Anubrata Mondal against a police officer. We strongly condemn his use of derogatory and unacceptable abusive language. The party hereby instructs him to tender an unconditional apology within the next four hours, failing which show cause proceedings will be initiated," it said. Soon after that, the Birbhum District Police registered an FIR against Mondal under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Mondal wrote a letter and issued a public apology for his actions. Mondal's excuse was that since he was under constant medication, he flared up after receiving complaints from the public about the said police officer. "I sincerely apologise for my behaviour. However, at the same time, my question is how could the audio clip of my conversation with the said police officer become viral? How could the BJP leaders access that audio clip?" Mondal questioned. Earlier in the day, both the BJP's Information Technology cell chief, Amit Malviya and the party's state president in West Bengal Sukanta Majumdar, had shared the audio clips on the walls of their X handles. Mondal was arrested on August 22 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the multi-crore cattle-smuggling case in West Bengal. Later, he was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). After spending over two years in Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Mondal was released on bail recently, after which he returned to his house in Bolpur of Birbhum district. Mangaluru, May 30 : The death toll in the coastal district of Mangaluru, Karnataka, rose to five on Friday following heavy and incessant rainfall. Authorities, with the assistance of the residents, have launched rescue and relief operations across the district despite the downpour. Among the deceased are two infant siblings and a six-year-old girl. The victims have been identified as Prema Poojari, a resident of Urumane in Ullal taluk; her grandchildren, three-year-old Ayush and one-and-a-half-year-old Arush; six-year-old Fathima Nayeema, a resident of Montepadavu; and Vijesh Jain, an employee of the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom). Prema Poojarias house was buried in a landslide while six members of the family were asleep. Her husband, Kantappa Poojari, heard a noise and, while attempting to exit the house, was trapped under a collapsed slab and suffered a leg fracture. Their son, Seetharama Poojari, managed to escape, according to police. However, Premaas daughter-in-law, Ashwini, who was sleeping with her two children, was trapped under the debris. Seetharama rushed to seek help from local residents to rescue his wife and children, but they were unable to move the heavy slabs that had fallen on them. It took nine hours to extricate Ashmini and her two children from the debris. Her elder son, Aryan, had died on the spot, and the younger child succumbed to injuries while being transported to the hospital. Villagers recounted that Ashwini, though semi-conscious, was pleading with them to save her children. They said that the younger child, Arush, had moved his hands, giving them hope he might survive. Despite the region being affected by communal tension in recent times, locals set aside religious differences and worked together through the night to clear the debris and attempt to rescue the trapped family. Asif, a local Gram Panchayat member, tearfully recalled how Ashwini pleaded with him to save her sons, but despite their best efforts, they could not save either child. NDRF and SDRF teams joined the efforts and successfully rescued Ashwini. In a separate incident, Vijesh Jain, an employee, was found dead, hanging from an electric pole near Odinmala in Belthangady taluk. Police suspect he died of electrocution while attempting repairs in the wake of heavy rains. Meanwhile, another landslide near Montepadavu in Ullal taluk led to two houses being buried. Six-year-old Fathima Nayeema sustained fatal injuries in the incident. She was rushed to a hospital in Deralakatte but succumbed to her injuries. Two other individuals were rescued from the site. Several areas in Mangaluru have been inundated due to the heavy downpour. In the Kallapu region, around 50 houses are facing severe waterlogging, prompting authorities to relocate many families to safer locations. The Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for heavy rainfall in the Mangaluru region until June 2. The Mangaluru district administration declared a holiday for Friday for Anganwadi centres, as well as for primary, secondary schools, and government, aided, and unaided colleges. Authorities have issued safety guidelines, urging the public, especially parents, to remain cautious. A directive has also been issued advising people not to venture near the sea. Mangaluru district in-charge minister Dinesh Gundu Rao has cancelled all his scheduled programmes in Bengaluru and is travelling to Mangaluru on Friday. He is expected to reach Mangaluru by this evening and will visit rain-affected areas to review the situation. In light of the heavy rainfall, the minister has already instructed the district administration to take all precautionary measures. The minister will stay in Mangaluru and remain on-site to oversee emergency response efforts. He will issue necessary directions to officials to ensure swift disaster management. With Trumps recent reciprocal 10% tariffs on imported Australia products in the US, all eyes are on exporting businesses and the impact it will have on the Australian economy. For small businesses in a relatively small market like Australia, to reach their full potential, founders and owners often want to expand overseas. The rewards for successful businesses are immense, but the journey is often laden with unexpected challenges, as the Trump tariffs show. My experience of entering export markets was during my time as CEO of Sealite. Its a company that designs and manufactures marine aids to navigation equipment (products such as marine lighting and navigation buoys). Sealite was started by my father in our garage. I joined him in 2001 when the lighting technology was transitioning from incandescent bulbs to LEDs and we saw new market opportunities, which eventually led to us diversifying into aviation lighting. As the Australian market is limited in size, our growth path lay overseas. I led the business through rapid international expansion, acquiring a US distributor in 2010 and a UK distributor in 2012. In 2021, we sold the business to SPX Corporation (NYSE:SPX). The experience of growing Sealite into an international business helped me uncover critical factors for successfully entering and thriving in new markets overseas. Fix company foundations In a new market, its vital to ensure a strong product market fit, backed by operational efficiency. Leverage early opportunities such as trade shows to test the market before making major moves. For example, in the early days, when my father still worked his day job as an accountant, he was spending evenings and weekends making aquaculture lights in his garage and then selling them through trade shows and small distributors. Feedback from customers at the trade shows accelerated product development in Australia before constraints in local market size encouraged us to go international. When you first decide to go overseas, its vital to identify and enter the right market. In Sealites case, cultural and regulatory similarities with New Zealand made it our ideal test market. Austrade gave us some introductions in New Zealand, which led us to our first overseas distributor. This helped road test the product and strategy internationally in a friendly market before we stepped into new countries. Another important stride was obtaining the right expertise in our company and engaging with other successful entrepreneurs whod gone down the same path. For example, completing the Australian Centre for Business Growths program at UniSA helped us crystallise a strategy, develop a growth plan and identify where to focus our efforts all with the support of growth experts whod done it before. Choose the right strategy for global growth Understanding market demand and researching addressable markets is essential before you commit company resources to a new country. A local presence is vital. Its how you build trust and gain deeper knowledge about the market and local culture. At first, we tried using a third-party distributor channel, but we found it was far more effective to recruit local sales teams in the US, UK and Europe. Above all, its critical to adhere to country-specific regulatory requirements. When we originally entered the US, we thought we could simply transfer the product and tooling and start manufacturing over there. But we realised that the regulations were completely different, affecting vital aspects such as the shape, size and colour of our products. We had to redesign our product range to suit the regulatory requirements of each US state. With a maritime or aviation navigation aid, there were different standards based on the specific aviation authority or Ministry of Defence. And it took much longer than we had originally anticipated to meet these local standards and regulations. Overcome the challenges of expansion one-by-one Certain markets, such as the US and EU, can be difficult to penetrate due to strong domestic competitors and customer loyalty. At the same time, expanding too fast or customising too much for specific clients can strain resources. Its therefore important to have the right information to guide decision-making and balance effort and reward. So having the right supporting technology, such as a robust enterprise requirements planning (ERP) platform that can handle international conditions, is a core requirement. Take time to understand the different cultural nuances and how to conduct business in different markets. Logistics requirements, for example, vary greatly depending on each location. Simply setting up an online shop window for overseas customers wont be enough to bring your product to market. Local labour costs also vary considerably. On the face, employment costs may seem low, but be aware of hidden costs. For example, in the US add almost 100% loading for health and benefits and other entitlements. The way competition behaves is also very different in each market, it may be much more aggressive, and customer culture and interaction and expectations vary. Add to this the new tariffs and a shifting regulatory environment, which means agility is needed to respond appropriately when challenges arise. Embed your company in the new market International expansion is not just about selling abroad but embedding a business into a new ecosystem. You need to be strategic, not reactive, build relationships before selling and stay adaptable. Above all, start with the customers needs and wants then ensure the product or service accurately meets them. The challenges and rewards of international expansion are considerable and not to be taken lightly. But when you succeed, your company can grow faster and stronger than you ever expected. Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. New Delhi, May 30 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha, on Friday, exposed Pakistan's terror links, urging the world to stop viewing Islamabad as a victim but as the perpetrator and cease all aid. Speaking at the prestigious 'Ideas for India' Conference 2025 at the Royal Lancaster London, Chadha said, "Lies and loans cannot go together. Diplomacy and duplicity cannot go hand in hand. Terror and tolerance cannot coexist. Blood and water cannot flow together." He also lauded India's Operation Sindoor as a shining example of strategic precision and moral clarity in the fight against cross-border terrorism. "We offer hand of friendship, but that can change to a fist of retribution, in case of any misadventure," he added. The AAP MP said, "In the aftermath of the most cowardly attack in Pahalgam, where 26 civilians were brutally killed, India did not go around seeking consent to retaliate. India told its worthy partners in the world: Look, we are all for peace, but don't mistake our peacefulness for weakness." "As a result, India responded with a non-escalatory, precise, measured, calculated, and swift response, carrying out cross-border strikes to destroy terror infrastructure across the border, not civilian or military bases, but terror infrastructure..." he added. Hosted by a leading UK-based think-tank, Bridge India, the conference is a flagship event of India Week -- an influential global forum focused on India's economic and geopolitical journey. India Week brings together more than 1,100 global changemakers, including policymakers, business leaders, investors, academics and members of the Indian diaspora. Chadha participated in a discussion on 'India in a Multipolar World', where he shared his perspective on India's strategic autonomy, growing global influence, and the country's position as a bridge between the Global North and South. He also highlighted India's recent achievements in defence and diplomacy, including the success of Operation Sindoor, and the role of technology and youth-led governance in shaping India's future. Ahead of participating at the event, the AAP MP said, "As global economic dynamics shift and the world adjusts to new geopolitical realities, India continues to stand out as a key driver of growth. At a time when nations are rethinking trade relationships and supply chain resilience, the UK and India have a unique opportunity to deepen their partnership in meaningful, future-oriented ways. With renewed dialogue -- particularly around the UK-India Free Trade Agreement -- feels both timely and essential. I'm looking forward to engaging with leaders across sectors at Ideas for India 2025 to explore how we can collectively shape this next chapter of India's development." Highlighting India's military power in Operation Sindoor, Chadha said, "India's recent defence advancements, exemplified by the successful execution of Operation Sindoor, have showcased the nation's growing self-reliance and technological prowess. The operation not only demonstrated India's tactical military success but also served as a powerful endorsement of its indigenous defence capabilities." Bengaluru, May 30 : The transfers of the Mangaluru Police Commissioner and Superintendent of Police, following incidents of mob lynching, revenge killings, and stabbing incidents, took place on the requests and sentiments of the local people, Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara said on Friday. Addressing reporters here in the wake of recent incidents in the coastal region, he said: "We transferred the officers because the local community had expressed the need for it. During my last visit, there was strong demand to replace certain officials. At that time, we felt it wasn't appropriate to do it immediately. But now, as voices have been raised again, we have made the changes." He added that the state government is treating the recent developments in Mangaluru district with utmost seriousness. "Regardless of what anyone says, we will not tolerate such incidents. Peace must prevail in the region. Mangaluru is a model district in terms of education and economic development. Anyone attempting to disturb peace will not be spared," he warned. "There are responsible and conscious citizens in the coastal region, and maintaining peace is of utmost importance. Can the government remain silent when such things are happening?" he asked. On the transfers, the minister said: "Due to the unavoidable circumstances, we have transferred the Mangaluru Police Commissioner, Mangaluru SP, and Udupi SP. They have already been instructed to take strict measures. Such incidents will not be allowed to recur. I appeal to the community to cooperate." Regarding the formation of a task force to curb communal violence, he said: "Some time was needed for its formation. I held discussions with the DG on Thursday on how to deploy the task force and what powers should be assigned to it. It will be deployed in Udupi, Mangaluru, and Shivamogga." "We will curb inflammatory speeches. Action must be taken within the existing legal framework. Many such cases are either stayed or quashed in courts. We have to proceed while considering all these aspects. We will also regulate unnecessary posts on social media," Parameshwara said. On Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao expressing reluctance to be the in-charge minister for Mangaluru district, Parameshwara said: "He had said this from the beginning. He has not made any new statement after recent developments. He had said it would be better if someone closer to the region were given charge, as he stays far away. It's left to the discretion of the Chief Minister." "We will not neglect any part of the state - be it the coast, north Karnataka, or any other region. No district will be ignored. More attention needs to be given to the coastal region, and we will ensure that," he maintained. The Home Minister also stated that the government is investigating the root causes behind the incidents and who is behind them. "Whether it is due to political reasons or any other motives, strict action will be taken against those involved." Following a series of incidents involving mob lynching, revenge murders, and multiple stabbings in the Mangaluru region, the Karnataka government replaced top police officers there. A new SP has also been appointed for the neighbouring Udupi district. According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), the government has taken strict action by transferring senior police officers from the coastal districts in response to the growing unrest. The move came after several minority community office bearers in Mangaluru district announced their mass resignation from the Congress, citing police inaction in recent violent incidents, including multiple stabbings and the murder of Abdul Raheem. Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agarwal has been replaced by Sudheer Kumar Reddy, who was the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Intelligence. Arun K. has been appointed as the new SP of Mangaluru district, replacing N. Yathish, who has not been assigned a new post. Hariram Shankar has been appointed as the SP of the Udupi district. Leaders of the minority community had earlier declared their intent to submit mass resignations on May 29, following the final rites of Abdul Raheem, who was killed by a gang of 15 assailants on Tuesday. Thousands of party workers gathered at Shaadi Mahal in Bolar locality on Thursday. Although the leaders were initially hesitant to resign after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah personally intervened, they were pressured by the crowd to announce their resignations publicly in front of the media. The communally sensitive Mangaluru district and coastal Karnataka remain tense following the murder of a 34-year-old man in the jurisdiction of the Bantwal Rural Police Station. Additional police forces have been deployed to monitor the situation, and authorities have imposed prohibitory orders in the district until the evening of May 30. A gang of assailants hacked to death Abdul Raheem, a resident of Koltamajal near Irakodi, close to Bantwal town, on Tuesday. The incident comes less than a month after the murder of Hindu activist and rowdy-sheeter Suhas Shetty, and it is suspected that Abdul Raheem was killed in retaliation for Shetty's murder. Leaders of the Muslim community have staged protests in Mangaluru, demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits. They alleged that the incident occurred due to provocative statements made by Hindu activists and leaders following Shetty's murder. Abdul Raheem operated a goods vehicle and served as the secretary of a local mosque. He is survived by two children. According to police, he had no criminal record and was not affiliated with any organisation. Meanwhile, police have registered an FIR against 15 individuals and arrested four of them. Shimla, May 30 : Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Friday that the ceasefire with Pakistan was announced without consulting the armed forces. Paying tributes to the brave soldiers at Jai Hind Sabha here, Sukhu said, "Today is a day to salute the sacrifices of our brave soldiers who have laid down their lives for the country." Sharing his experience, the Chief Minister mentioned his visit to Sharchi village in the Tirthan Valley where he stayed at the home of former soldier Subedar Major Anoop Ram. Chief Minister Sukhu said that Subedar Major Anoop Ram discussed with him about the 1971 India-Pakistan war and he recalled how the address of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi instilled patriotic zeal and boosted the morale of the Indian Army. The outcome of that war was historic and India split Pakistan into two, and Shimla later became the witness to the landmark Simla Agreement, the Chief Minister added. He said that the valour of the soldiers of Himachal Pradesh was unmatched. "Our soldiers never hesitated to sacrifice their lives for the nation. Himachali soldiers have the honour of being decorated with four Param Vir Chakras, which is a testament to the state's legacy of courage and sacrifice," he added. The Chief Minister also recalled the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, saying that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was the first to offer unconditional support to the Union government in the fight against terrorism. "The people and government of Himachal Pradesh have always stood with the Indian Armed Forces," he said. "Our brave soldiers gave a befitting reply to the terrorists. However, the Union government declared a ceasefire without taking the three armed forces into confidence. Shockingly, the announcement came through social media from a third country. This is in a stark contrast to the decisive leadership of the former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi, who never compromised with the national security." The Chief Minister also added that the leaders of the Congress have made the supreme sacrifice for the country. "Former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi laid down their lives for the unity and integrity of India," he said. Moscow, May 30 : Russia on Friday rubbished "fake reports" which cited that it is broadening economic ties with Pakistan, especially by jointly setting up steel mills in Karachi. Pakistani media recently reported that Moscow and Islamabad are working on expanding industrial collaboration by establishing new steel mills in the country in a bid to revive the cooperation witnessed between the two countries in the 1970s when the Soviet Union designed and funded Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). The idea, reported Pakistani media, was discussed during a meeting between Haroon Akhtar Khan, a Special Assistant to Pakistan's Prime Minister, and Moscow's representative Denis Nazaroof held in Islamabad on May 13. "The two officials engaged in extensive talks on the prospect of collaboration and agreed to form a joint working group to facilitate the establishment of a steel mill in Karachi," The Express Tribune reported after the meeting. "Pakistan is a secure and thriving hub for investment and the international community has recognised its potential," Khan was quoted as saying during the interaction. The reports triggered concerns and also raised doubts considering that cash-strapped Pakistan's economy continues to survive on bailout packages provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sources in Moscow admitted negotiations taking place on the issue but slammed reports which claimed that a "multibillion dollar contract" has been signed between the two countries. They reckoned that by manufacturing fake and "completely fabricated" reports, Pakistan has made yet another failed attempt to dent the time-tested India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership which has grown even stronger during Operation Sindoor targetting terror infrastructure deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), earlier this month. "An exaggerated news from someone who wants to derail the relationship for a sensational reason," said a senior Russian government official on Friday when asked about his response to Pakistani media reports. As the Indian Armed Forces successfully retaliated and also inflicted significant losses on Pakistan, the Russian-made air defence missile system S-400 was credited with shooting down several incoming missiles from across the border. At the same time, jointly developed with Russia and now largely manufactured in India, the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles were used to strike high-value targets in Pakistan. In an exclusive interview with IANS, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov had lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership while also praising New Delhi for identifying, tracking and punishing the culprits behind the heinous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack which resulted in the death of 26 innocent civilians. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stated in his phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month that Moscow expects that the culprits behind the Pahalgam attack "will be identified, tracked and punished", is also slated to visit India, this year. "I don't think there is anybody, anywhere in the world that doubts the credentials of Prime Minister Modi. His strong leadership is steering the country to global prominence. Both India and Russia stand for a multipolar world order without any global power or a group of countries dominating that order. They stand for an equal international relationship. This has been reinstated in the conversation President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Modi had on May 5," Alipov told IANS on Wednesday. Kolkata, May 30 : BJP's Information Technology Cell chief, Amit Malviya, on Friday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using "fake news" items like a troll against the BJP over Operation Sindoor. Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) BJP's Information Technology Cell chief, Amit Malviya, on Friday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using "fake news" items like a troll against the BJP over Operation Sindoor. He referred to a fake news item reportedly published in a Hindi vernacular daily claiming that the BJP has outlined a campaign strategy to distribute Sindoor (vermilion) to every home to take political mileage out of Operation Sindoor. In a statement, Malviya observed that while common people reacting on social media based on the fake news published in the vernacular daily was understandable, the real absurdity began when the Chief Minister of West Bengal, from an official government platform, started politicising this baseless report like a troll. Malviya also advised the Chief Minister to concentrate on managing the internal affairs in West Bengal instead of making such statements concerning national security. "Mamata Banerjee should be concerned about the deteriorating condition of her own state and refrain from making ridiculous statements on sensitive issues like national security. West Bengal is burning in the fire of communal tensions, women are not safe, the unemployed have no jobs, these should be Mamata Banerjee's priorities," Malviya's statement read. "As for the Congress spokespersons, they are frivolous people. It would be unreasonable to expect anything better from them," Malviya observed in his statement. On Thursday, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack against the West Bengal government on issues like corruption, women's safety, and communal violence during a public rally at the Alipurduar district, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused PM Modi and other BJP leaders of attempting to market "Sindoor" for political mileage. She also claimed that the name Operation Sindoor was politically motivated. IANS src/dan Seoul, May 30 : An election worker in South Korea was apprehended this week after allegedly casting an early vote for the June 3 presidential election on her husband's behalf, police said on Friday. The woman was identified as a contract employee for Seoul's Gangnam district office who was appointed by the National Election Commission (NEC) to help check voters' IDs during the two-day early voting on Thursday and Friday, according to Suseo Police Station. Police detained the woman without a warrant Thursday, about half an hour after they received a call that someone had voted twice at a polling station in Gangnam's Daechi 2-dong neighbourhood. She is being questioned on suspicion of casting a ballot using her husband's ID before casting her own ballot several hours later. The woman reportedly admitted to all charges but refused to disclose a motive. Both the Gangnam district office and the NEC said they have relieved her of her duties. The NEC also filed a complaint against the woman with the police while requesting an investigation into her husband's possible involvement. "A vote by proxy by an election worker who should strictly and fairly oversee the presidential election is a very serious election crime that brutally tramples on the people's trust in election administration," the commission said. The woman's ballots cannot be nullified as they have already been placed inside ballot boxes, a commission official said. The vote count will proceed normally. In light of this and other incidents, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) on Friday lambasted the poor management in early voting elections, demanding the chief of the election watchdog apologise, Yonhap news agency reported. Kim Moon-soo, the party's presidential candidate, denounced the NEC after meeting with reporters in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, saying the institution must "wake up" and undergo a "sweeping overhaul." "Why is the NEC still not fixing these problems, after going through many similar cases in the past, like the basket election incident?" he asked, referring to the controversy over the transportation of ballot papers from Covid-19 patients in plastic baskets during the early voting for the 2022 presidential election. Rep. Kim Yong-tae, the party's interim leader, also blamed the NEC for its inadequate election management while referring to a series of incidents that took place during the early voting. Voters reportedly went out to eat while carrying ballot papers in Sinchon, western Seoul, on Thursday. "We will review revising the Public Official Election Act to have election officials sign the early-voting ballot papers," Kim said. He also demanded a comprehensive inspection and overhaul of all early-voting sites, and said those responsible for the incidents must be duly reprimanded. "The Chairman of the NEC should stand before the people himself and sincerely apologise," Kim added. Rep. Shin Dong-uk, the PPP's spokesperson, said the liberal Democratic Party (DP) has not been sufficiently critical of the NEC. "The DP has collected a lot of votes in early voting and that party's silence is even more irresponsible (than the NEC's mishaps)," Shin said. "Is the DP the defender of a rigged election?" New Delhi, May 30 : As part of the Delhi government's tradition of honouring the cultural diversity of different states, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Friday led the celebrations on the occasion of Goa Day at Delhi Secretariat, an official said. The celebration was organised by the Department of Art, Culture, and Languages, with the aim of showcasing the glorious cultural heritage, traditions, and historical legacy of the state of Goa to the general public. CM Gupta said: "A large number of Goan citizens reside in Delhi, and through their hard work and dedication, they contribute significantly not only to the progress of their own state but also to that of the entire nation." "Goa is renowned not only for its natural beauty but also for its rich cultural heritage, peaceful lifestyle, and spirit of progress. Recently, the Delhi government has decided that the foundation day of every state will be celebrated with enthusiasm and dignity, to strengthen national unity and cultural diversity," she said. During the programme, artists associated with the Sahitya Kala Parishad gave mesmerising performances of Goa's traditional folk dances, music, and arts. Among them, the presentation of Goa's famous folk dance Fugdi was a major highlight. This dance captivated the audience with its vigorous rhythm and traditional style. Additionally, the performances by male and female artistes dressed in traditional attire vividly brought the cultural diversity to life, said an official statement. Minister of Art, Culture and Languages, Kapil Mishra, stated: "Goa is not only a cultural leader but also a frontrunner in tourism, social, and economic aspects of India. The social, cultural, and educational cooperation between Delhi and Goa is continuously strengthening, and we believe this partnership will grow even deeper in the future." A special exhibition was also organised to showcase Goa's traditional artistic practices, craftsmanship, and cultural symbols. New Delhi, May 30 : In a significant boost to India's medtech innovation landscape, the Technology Development Board (TDB), under the Union Department of Science and Technology (DST), on Friday announced financial support to the development of India's first indigenous thrombectomy device for stroke care. New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) In a significant boost to India's medtech innovation landscape, the Technology Development Board (TDB), under the Union Department of Science and Technology (DST), on Friday announced financial support to the development of Indiaas first indigenous thrombectomy device for stroke care. The board sanctioned assistance to Mysuru-based S3V Vascular Technologiesa pioneering neuro-intervention integrated manufacturing plant for the treatment of stroke, which sees nearly 1.5 million cases every year in the country. The project envisions the establishment of a state-of-the-art upstream integrated manufacturing facility at the Medical Devices Park, Oragadam in Chennaias Sriperumbudur. The plant will develop and manufacture advanced mechanical thrombectomy kits -- a life-saving intervention for patients suffering from acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion. Compared to conventional thrombolysis, thrombectomy offers significantly improved outcomes, reducing the risk of long-term paralysis and disability. "The TDB is proud to support S3Vas vision of building Indiaas first comprehensive neuro-intervention manufacturing ecosystem. This project reflects our continued commitment to making India a global hub for affordable, high-end medical technology -- especially in areas of critical public health needs like stroke care," TDB Secretary Rajesh Kumar Pathak said. "The companyas focus on integrating these devices into Ayushman Bharat further aligns with the national goal of inclusive healthcare access," he added. The initiative will help replace expensive imported devices with high-quality, locally manufactured alternatives, enhancing both the affordability and accessibility of stroke care in India. "Our integrated manufacturing facility will not only reduce dependency on imports of the finished medical devices used in Mechanical Thrombectomy but also reduces India's dependency on import of the raw materials used in manufacturing of these critical complex lifesaving medical devices," S3V Vascular Technologies Managing Director, Dr N.G. Vijaya Gopal, said, while lauding the government for its support. Gopal said the company has already initiated the CE and the US FDA approval process for the devices to expand access to cutting-edge stroke care solutions across India, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the US. Kolkata, May 30 : The 'untainted' or 'genuine' teachers protesting against their job loss following a Supreme Court order last month, on Friday, threatened to go for a more aggressive demonstration in the coming days from an unconventional demonstrators wherein the participants in the protests took off their shirts. The initial plan for the protesters was to assemble at Sealdah station in central Kolkata and then continue the unique rally up to the state secretariat of Nabanna located at Mandirtala in Kolkata. However, a huge contingent of Kolkata police took control of Sealdah station much before the protesting teachers started assembling there and restricted the protesters within the station premises. Some of the protesting teachers who managed to slip out of the police cordon were immediately arrested by the cops and dragged inside the police vans waiting within and outside the station premises. However, despite having failed in their attempt to march to the state secretariat, the protesting teachers feel that they have been successful in conveying their message to the state government. "After getting the jobs properly and after teaching with honour for so many years, we have been pushed into such uncertainty just because despite repeated queries first from Calcutta High Court and then from Supreme Court, the state government refused to publish the lists segregating the 'untainted' candidates from the 'tainted' ones. This means that the state government was keener on protecting those who got jobs paying money rather than protecting the jobs of the genuine ones. The state government has stripped us. Now it will have to give back our clothes," said a protesting teacher. The teachers also alleged that the police personnel on Friday had mercilessly beaten up some of the protesting members. "We were kicked. Some of us were mercilessly dragged on the streets and then thrown brutally into the police van. But we will not stop. We will be going for a bigger stir in the coming days. Incidentally, on Friday morning, West Bengal School Service issued notification for fresh recruitment for vacancies in state- run schools but only for the posts of teaching staff for the secondary and higher secondary sections. On April 3 this year, the Supreme Court upheld a previous order by the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal. The apex court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel of 25,753 candidates had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the "untainted" candidates from the "tainted" ones. The state government and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) had already filed review petitions at the apex court on this issue. Patna, May 30 : In a significant development, Bettiah Superintendent of Police (SP), Dr Shaurya Suman, suspended two constables on Friday after they failed to identify a key accused during a court appearance, raising serious concerns about their conduct and possible connections with the accused. The suspended constables have been identified as Parmanand Rajak and Ranjeet Kumar, both posted at Sikta police station in West Champaran district. According to the SP, both constables were part of a raiding team that conducted an operation at Jhumka village on April 12, 2024. During the raid, the team was attacked by locals, and both constables sustained injuries. Despite the resistance, police managed to arrest Shamim Alam, a primary accused in FIR No. 151/23 lodged at Sikta police station. When Shamim Alam was produced in court recently, both constablesa"called eyewitnessesa"refused to identify him, despite being injured by the accused during the raid. Following the incident in court, the Bettiah SP conducted a review of the case and found evidence of serious indiscipline, dereliction of duty, and suspected collusion with the accused. Based on these findings, both constables were suspended on Friday. aThis kind of behaviour from police personnel is unacceptable. Their failure to fulfil their duty as eyewitnesses not only compromises the case but raises serious questions about their integrity," said a senior police officer in an official statement on Friday. The official has also recommended strict departmental action against both constables under the relevant service rules. Earlier on April 1, 2025, an assistant sub-inspector and two Home Guard personnel were suspended by Kaimur SP Harimohan Shukla for their misconduct in duty. The action was taken based on a video, captured on NH-19 in Mohania, which shows officers allegedly assaulting a truck driver and demanding a bribe. Reacting to the viral clip, Kaimur SP Harimohan Shukla suspended ASI Prabhat Kumar and recommended stopping the work of two Home Guards personnel to the Kaimur district magistrate. From May 30, 2025, Australias new Ransomware Payment Reporting Rules come into play. This means businesses will be legally required to report ransomware payments within strict timeframes. This is part of a broader effort to enhance transparency and strengthen national cybersecurity, alongside the establishment of a Cyber Incident Review Board. This mandatory reporting will help the government better understand the scale and nature of ransomware attacks, so it can allocate resources, disrupt cybercrime networks, and support affected businesses more effectively. But for CEOs, the reality is anything but simple. Ransomware attacks often unfold at lightning speed, leaving organisations in a complex quandary, while being up against the clock. Here are five urgent questions CEOs should be asking before the rules kick in, and what they need to know to get ahead of them. Am I legally required to report every ransomware attack? Not every attack, but any ransom payment must be reported. From May 30, 2025, businesses are required to notify the government within 72 hours if they pay a ransom following a cyberattack. That includes the amount, method of payment (such as cryptocurrency), and any identifying details about who received it. Even if you dont pay, depending on your sector, you may still need to report the incident under existing cyber incident obligations. Should I ever pay a ransom? This remains one of the most confronting questions a CEO can face. In the heat of an attack, when your systems are frozen and your data is on the line, paying can feel like the only viable option. Failure to comply with the demands can result in a huge loss of data, worse still is the chance this stolen, often highly private, data is leaked publicly on the net. But its a dangerous gamble. Theres no guarantee your files will be restored in full, or at all. Even when decryption tools are provided, theyre often faulty or incomplete leaving businesses to rebuild their systems regardless. Its worth remembering though that refusing to pay can send a powerful message to attackers that extortion doesnt work. In fact, collective resistance can help reduce future attacks and reduce ransomwares profitability long-term. But it only works if your data is backed up and can be restored quickly. What should I do during a ransom attack? Speed and clarity matter when youre under attack. If youre fumbling for legal contacts or wondering whos authorised to speak to regulators, youve already lost time you cant afford. Every business should know exactly who is responsible for ransomware reporting. Your legal and cybersecurity teams should already be aligned on the process. Communication plans, internally and externally, should be templated and ready to go. Cyber insurance policies, backup protocols, and escalation contacts should be easily accessible. Preparedness cant be retrofitted mid-crisis. It has to be in place before you ever need it. Reporting, especially if a ransom is paid, should also be part of your real-time response. Providing accurate information quickly doesnt just help you meet your obligations, it helps the government allocate resources to shut down ransomware networks and prevent future incidents. Will reporting expose me, or protect me? Some CEOs worry that reporting will damage their reputation or reveal operational weaknesses. But in reality, transparency increasingly signals strength. Failing to report, particularly when its legally required,can lead to penalties, reputational blowback, and even loss of insurance coverage. Reporting also enables access to government support, enhances sector-wide threat awareness, and signals to stakeholders that youre acting with integrity and responsibility. In a landscape where cyberattacks are a matter of when, not if, owning your response is part of protecting your brand. What should we do right now, before May 30? If you havent already started to prepare, now is the time. Review the new ransomware reporting requirements with your executive and legal teams. Make sure youve clearly identified who is responsible for reporting and what the internal escalation path looks like. Reassess your backup systems, not just whether they exist, but how fast and effectively they can be restored in the event of a breach. Most importantly, make this a leadership conversation, not just an IT one. The companies best positioned to respond to ransomware are those where executives take an active role in cybersecurity strategy, rather than waiting and reacting. Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Helsinki, May 30 : The EstLink 2 electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia, which was damaged on Christmas Day in 2024, is now expected to return to commercial operation on June 25, earlier than previously anticipated, Finland's national transmission system operator Fingrid announced on Friday. Repair work on the undersea cable began in May and has progressed faster than expected, thanks to favorable sea conditions, said Fingrid. Technical repairs are scheduled for completion shortly after Midsummer (June 21), followed by a series of final tests to verify the cable's functionality. The operation entails the replacement of approximately one kilometer of submarine cable, Xinhua news agency reported. The planning and coordination of the complex repair process have been ongoing since the damage occurred, involving multiple stakeholders across both countries, said Fingrid. EstLink 2 is vital for enhancing electricity transmission capacity and ensuring grid stability between Finland and Estonia. The rupture of the Estlink 2 undersea power transmission cable in the Gulf of Finland had occurred within Finland's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Completed in 2014, The Estlink 2 cable transmits power between Finland and Estonia. It spans 145 km across the seabed and 15 km on land. Finnish authorities had investigated the role of a tanker registered in the Cook Islands, for its possible involvement in the incident. The Helsinki Police Department, in cooperation with the Border Guard, had conducted a tactical operation aboard a vessel, with assistance from helicopters. The case was classified as aggravated criminal mischief, with the National Bureau of Investigation leading the inquiry. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo had noted that he had contacted Baltic Sea allies, and that President Alexander Stubb had reached out to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after the incident. Mumbai, May 30 : Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, on Friday, has asked the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to expedite road development projects in the state, saying that there would be no compromise on quality of development works. He has instructed the MSRDC that the stalled works on the Mumbai-Nashik highway should be completed before the monsoon and warned that strict action will be taken against officials and contractors who delay the work. At the high-level meeting, Deputy CM Shinde reviewed various ambitious projects underway across the state, including the "missing link" on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Pune Ring Road, the Revas-Reddi Sea Highway in Konkan and the Shaktipeeth Highway. As the work of concreting 31 km on the Mumbai-Nashik highway has not been completed yet, orders have been given to speed it up. The work of the railway overbridge at Pimpri-Charoti is stalled, therefore Deputy CM Shinde has directed to complete the work within a month by taking mega blocks as soon as the girder is available. If the concreting is not completed before the monsoon, emphasis has been placed on asphalting and keeping traffic flowing smoothly. "The work on the Vertical Bridge, which is the most difficult phase of the 'missing link' project on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, is currently underway on a war footing. This work will be completed by the end of December and opened for passengers. Also, considering the traffic congestion, the MSRDC has a proposal to convert the existing six lanes into 10 lanes, for which an estimated cost of Rs 14,900 crore is expected," said Deputy CM Shinde. According to Deputy CM Shinde, the work is currently underway on nine out of 12 packages of Pune Ring Road. "In this, 10,000 affected indigenous trees are being replanted scientifically, and so far 4,000 trees have been successfully replanted. The remaining 5,000 trees will be planted in farmers' fields or along the Ring Road. Further, the construction of nine creek bridges on the Revas-Reddi marine highway is underway and most of the work is in progress. Out of 86 shelter centres in Konkan, work is underway on 37 and it has been decided to set up these centres near schools so that they can also be used for schools after the monsoon." In view of the opposition for the proposed Shaktipeeth Highway connecting Nagpur to Goa in Kolhapur, Latur and Dharashiv, Deputy CM Shinde directed that their concerns should be addressed by directly interacting with the villagers. This highway will be beneficial for the farmers and citizens of 12 districts and will achieve great economic progress like the Samruddhi Highway, he remarked. He said that MSRDC's new 'New Mahabaleshwar' project has included 294 villages and plans are underway to invite companies like Dabur and Patanjali for wellness centres and medicinal plant research. Instructions were also given to speed up the Utteshwar Temple and Ropeway project in Tapola. Deputy CM Shinde has asked MSRDC to participate in slum redevelopment projects like City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. He has directed that the ongoing projects should be cleared of encroachments and barricades should be installed, green areas should be developed under bridges and the projects should be completed on time and without compromising on quality. Freetown, May 30 : The high-level all-party Parliamentary delegation from India led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde on Friday interacted with several foreign diplomats in Sierra Leone to galvanise international action against terrorism and decisively counter the tactics of those who perpetrate, support, and sponsor cross-border terror activities against India. The delegation led by Shinde also includes Bansuri Swaraj, Atul Garg, Manan Kumar Mishra, Sasmit Patra, E.T. Mohammed Basheer, S.S. Ahluwalia, and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy. Patra, during an interview with a local TV channel, also launched a scathing attack on Pakistan's use of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft. "The need for Pakistan to abandon terror tactics in favour of peace and prosperity resonates across millions of Sierra Leoneans," Patra was quoted as saying by the High Commission of India in the West African nation. The delegation also held extensive discussions with Abdulai Caulker, the National Security Coordinator of Sierra Leone, aiming at enhancing security cooperation between both countries. "Under my leadership, all-party delegation met with Abdulai Caulker, the National Security Coordinator of Sierra Leone. During this significant meeting, we held in-depth discussions aimed at strengthening security cooperation between India and Sierra Leone," Shinde posted on X on Friday "Key topics included joint strategies to combat cross-border terrorism, controlling the financing of terrorism, enhancing security systems, and establishing rapid alert mechanisms in the context of cybersecurity. We reached a mutual consensus on deepening the trust and cooperation between our two nations. I am confident that this collaboration will play a decisive role in the effective implementation of future security strategies," the post added. Earlier, during a meeting with the delegation, Sierra Leone's Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Brima Koroma, said, "Whatever India is going through, it is not just your problem, it is our problem too... Though not permanent, we are members of the UN Security Council". Additionally, in an extraordinary gesture reflecting strong relations between both countries, the parliament of Sierra Leone on Thursday observed a moment of silence in honour of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. The Indian delegation thanked the Speaker and Parliamentarians of the country for their special gesture of friendship and solidarity in India's fight against terrorism. "While leading the Indian all-party delegation, I had the opportunity to meet Segepoh Solomon Thomas, Speaker of the Parliament of Sierra Leone, along with Members of Parliament and members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. During the meeting, we held detailed discussions on enhancing mutual cooperation to strengthen global peace and security, as well as on jointly combating terrorism through multilateral platforms," Shinde said in a post on X. It also met Deputy Defence Minister Muana Brima Massaquoi of Sierra Leone, briefing him about India's strategic restraints in its counter terrorism operations and reaffirming zero tolerance for terrorism. "India and Sierra Leone enjoy warm and friendly relations rooted in shared democratic values, South-South cooperation, and a common vision for a secure and prosperous future. This visit is expected to further consolidate bilateral relations and foster deeper strategic understanding between the two nations," read a statement issued by the High Commission of India in Freetown. The delegates are a part of India's global diplomatic outreach campaign to highlight the significance of Operation Sindoor and India's continued fight against Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism Itanagar, May 30 : Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday called upon the Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service officers to take ownership of the state and contribute to its holistic growth, both physical and financial. Speaking at the 16th Triennial Conference of the Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service Officers Association (APCSOA) here, Khandu said that state civil service officers are not just administrators but members of the communities they serve as almost all are indigenous to the state. "This gives you an unmatched advantage in understanding the cultural intricacies, traditional institutions, and emotional landscapes of our people," he pointed out. Appreciating the theme of the conference, 'Civil Service at the crossroads: Reimagining public service for a new era', the Chief Minister asserted that the role of today's civil service officers is not just administrative but transformational. "You are the first point of contact for the public. You are the ones who interpret government schemes in a language the people understand. You are the ones who mediate between tradition and modernity. You are the ones who can prevent alienation and foster ownership among the people for every development initiative," he observed. Terming civil service officers as the backbone of the state's governance system, Khandu stressed that their performance is not just their own but it reflects the effectiveness of the political leadership and credibility of the government itself. He reminded the officers that being a part of the state civil service means they have a greater responsibility to act as role models for the youth. "You are living proof that excellence and integrity can walk hand in hand. I urge you to use your position to mentor, inspire, and lead by example," he urged. Reiterating the state government's commitment to empower and strengthen the state civil services, the Chief Minister assured that the government will continue to support with the resources, training, and autonomy needed to keep their morale high and capabilities enhanced. Besides facilitating assured career progression for APCS officers, Khandu said the state government has also made sure that capacity-building training of the officers is held from time to time, a four-month training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie being one. Crediting the civil service officers for the great strides made by the state in e-governance, Khandu informed that Arunachal Pradesh may be the only state in the country to have implemented 100 per cent e-Office in Civil Secretariat, all District Headquarters and Directorates. "Our e-Vidhan, e-Cabinet and e-File platforms are success stories which are being talked about nationally," he remarked. Khandu appealed to the APCS officers to become proactive members of the Team-Arunachal by actively sending their feedback and suggestions to the government and assured that these will be considered in framing policies. "We the politicians will frame policies but it's only you who will be implementing these on the ground. So you are in the best position to tell us the areas to concentrate," he added. Khandu advised the officers not to sit pondering over challenges at the ground but to immediately start looking for solutions. The inaugural function of the one-day conference was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, Chief Secretary Manish Gupta and Shivdular Dhillon, Advisor to the All India State Civil/Administrative Service Association. New Delhi, May 30 : India is on the cusp of becoming the world's third-largest economy, and Andhra Pradesh is ready to lead from the front, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said on Friday. New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) India is on the cusp of becoming the worldas third-largest economy, and Andhra Pradesh is ready to lead from the front, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said on Friday. In his address at the CII Annual Business Summit here, Naidu outlined a blueprint for Andhra Pradeshas rapid economic growth with a 15 per cent annual target over 22 years to support India to reach developed country status. Central to this vision is transforming the state into a hub of next gen technologies, green energy, logistics, and manufacturing. He mentioned that Andhra Pradesh is integrating ports, airports, railways, and inland waterways to lower logistics costs from 14 per cent to 8 per cent of GDP, matching global standards. Naidu, emphasising his commitment to promoting speed of doing business, said: "My promise: one application, and weall handle the rest. All clearances in record time." He also mentioned that the state has attracted Rs 5 lakh crore in investments, creating 4.5 lakh jobs in the past year alone. He urged industry leaders to invest in the state and become partners in its growth story. Naidu expressed how he has always believed in creating ecosystems that donat just attract investment but also inspire vision. He said that his mission is to build not just infrastructure but leadership - entrepreneurs who are job creators, not job seekers. Towards this, a Global Leadership Centre is being set up in Amravati to prepare the next generation of global visionaries. The Chief Minister recalled Indiaas first-of-its-kind green building in Hyderabad, developed in partnership with the CII. He said that he now looks to building Amravati as the next frontier - a greenfield city driven by cutting-edge technologies, including quantum computing, AI, and biotechnology. He announced that by January 2026, Indiaas first quantum computing facility will be operational in Amravati, and invited industry leaders to be co-architects of a futuristic, world-class urban ecosystem. CII President Sanjiv Puri praised Naiduas future-focused vision, saying: "From EoDB to Speed of Doing Business, from PPP to P4, you have always been ahead of the curve." He welcomed the idea of integrated rural industrial hubs, asking for Naiduas views on balancing AI with employment and the roadmap for achieving double-digit growth. Kolkata, May 30 : The Congress on Friday announced Kabil Uddin Shaikh as its party candidate for the June 19 bypoll to the Kaliganj Assembly constituency in West Bengal's Nadia district. While the CPI-M-led Left Front is yet to announce the name of any candidate so far, it is not certain whether the Congress-Left Front seat sharing arrangement that started since the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections would continue or there will be a four-cornered contest involving the ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP, the Congress, and the Left Front. Like the Left Front, the BJP also has yet to announce the name of the party candidate for the bypoll. The Trinamool Congress, on Tuesday, announced Alifa Ahmed as its candidate for the Kaliganj bypoll. Alifa Ahmed, 38, is the daughter of sitting legislator, Nasiruddin Ahmed, whose sudden demise in February this year necessitated the bypoll. Kaliganj is among the five Assembly constituencies in four states that will be going for bypolls on June 19, with the other four being the Kadi and Visavdar seats in Gujarat, Ludhiana West in Punjab, and Nilambur in Kerala. The last date for making nominations is June 2, and the date for the scrutiny of nominations is June 3. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is June 5. The counting will be on June 23. Earlier this week, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, announced that 20 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF) will be deployed for the Kaliganj bypolls, and these will be in place by next week. The final electoral list for Kaliganj was published on May 9 and featured a decrease of over 2,000 voters from the electorate in the 2021 Assembly polls. The final list was announced following a special summary revision by the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer. Guwahati, May 30 : Assam Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia has accused the state government of carrying out "unconstitutional detentions and illegal pushbacks" of Indian citizens along the India-Bangladesh border, prompting a formal appeal to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. In a letter on Friday, Saikia expressed "grave concern" over what he described as an ongoing "push back drive" by Assam Police since May 23. He alleged that hundreds of Indian nationals many not facing any legal proceedings related to their citizenship have been detained without due process. While some were later released, Saikia criticised the operation's lack of transparency and judicial oversight. Citing media reports, the Congress leader claimed that several detainees, including women, were forcibly sent into the no-man's-land separating India and Bangladesh. With Dhaka refusing to accept these individuals, they now risk being rendered stateless. "This operation is in clear violation of India's constitutional values and international human rights standards," Saikia wrote. He warned that the Assam government's actions also flout the Union government's own deportation guidelines, which require "unambiguous verification of nationality" prior to any repatriation a point he said was earlier affirmed by S. Jaishankar in Parliament. Saikia also raised concerns about the communal implications of the drive, alleging that it disproportionately targets Muslim communities and could deepen social and religious divisions in the region. He further pointed to ongoing Supreme Court proceedings on related issues, calling the state's actions a "grave breach of the judicial process". "Pushing Indian citizens into no-man's-land without verification is unconstitutional and fundamentally inhumane," Saikia said in a statement. "Repatriation during the pendency of a Supreme Court case constitutes a serious violation of the judicial process." Saikia urged the Centre to immediately intervene in the matter and suspend all ongoing deportation operations along with ensuring proper and transparent verification of nationality. He concluded with a warning that "more lives will be destroyed" if the government fails to act against what he described as "reckless and illegal actions". New Delhi, May 30 : In a stern message to Turkey for supporting Pakistan, which openly harbours terrorists, the government on Friday directed low-cost airline IndiGo to end its aircraft lease agreement with Turkish Airlines within three months. IndiGo, which leased and operates two Boeing 777s from Turkish Airlines, had a permit until May 31 and had sought an extension from the Civil Aviation Ministry for six months. The ministry has now refused to allow this, according to multiple reports. A statement from the ministry, however, said that "to avoid passenger inconvenience due to immediate flight disruption", IndiGo has been granted a three-month extension till August 31. The ministry also made it clear that this will not be extended further. "Indigo has been granted a one-time last and final extension of three months up to 31.08.2025 for these damp-leased aircraft, based on the undertaking from the airline that, they will terminate the damp lease with Turkish Airlines within this extension period, and shall not seek any further extension for these operations," it said. IndiGo also has a codeshare agreement with Turkish Airlines. On May 15, the Centre revoked the security clearance for Turkish firm Celebi Aviation. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol had said: "Turkey had openly supported Pakistan. In view of the current situation, this has become an issue of national security. Keeping security in mind, Celebi has been banned in the country". During and after the end of the initial phase of Operation Sindoor, Turkey expressed solidarity with Pakistan. Turkish drones were also extensively used by Pakistan in its counter-attack after India struck key terror bases in the neighbouring country. IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers last week said that the airline is fully compliant with all regulatory frameworks governing its operations with aircraft leased from Turkish Airlines, adding that the decision to renew these leases lies with the Indian government. "It is important to recognise that the operation to Istanbul is taking place in the context of the Air Service Agreement (ASA) between India and Turkey. IndiGo is fully compliant with all regulatory frameworks and regulations which are there. We have thousands of Indian customers booked mostly beyond Istanbul," Elbers said during a media interaction on the airline's fourth-quarter and full-year financial results for 2024-25. "The decision to renew these leases lies with the Indian government," Elbers noted. Paris, May 30 : World No. 1 Iga Swiatek was pushed to the edge but emerged victorious yet again at the Roland Garros. The three-time defending champion defeated Romania's Jaqueline Cristian 6-2, 7-5 to reach the fourth round of the French Open for the seventh straight year, extending her unbeaten streak at the clay-court Grand Slam to 24 matches. It wasn't all smooth sailing for Swiatek. After breezing through the first set in 39 minutes without facing a single break point, the Pole found herself in a gritty second-set battle against an inspired Cristian, who recently reached the Rabat final and brought that confidence to Court Philippe-Chatrier. Swiatek's nerves were tested as she had to save six break-points in the second set and fought off a determined Cristian who threatened to take the match into a deciding third. With the second set tied at 5-5 and Cristian a point away from forcing a tiebreak, Swiatek dug deep to break serve and seal the win in one hour and 54 minutes. Relief was the overriding emotion for the top seed after a challenging afternoon. "I'm just happy that I was super solid in the last game and didn't give any free points," Swiatek said. "She used her chances and went for it every time I gave her a chance. It was a great match and I think pretty entertaining. We both played nice; I'm happy I'm through and happy with the performance," she was quoted as saying by the WTA Tour. The victory keeps Swiatek on track to equal Monica Seles' record of 25 consecutive wins at the French Open in the Open Era. To tie that mark, she will have to overcome a formidable challenge in the fourth round either 2022 Wimbledon champion and 12th seed Elena Rybakina or the 2017 Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko. If it's Ostapenko, history won't be in Swiatek's favour: she has a surprising 0-6 head-to-head record against the Latvian. New Delhi, May 30 : External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Friday lashed out at "new forms of dominations" for interfering in the politics of nations of the Global South, asserting that such agendas are encouraged even by some segments of society. New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Friday lashed out at "new forms of dominations" for interfering in the politics of nations of the Global South, asserting that such agendas are encouraged even by some segments of society. Addressing the Parul University Convocation in Gujarat's Vadodara, EAM Jaishankar said that while the colonial era may be behind us but new forms of domination have emerged which are misusing the openings provided by globalisation. "They profess to judge us all and pronounce on our credentials. One example is the ill-concealed interference in the politics of nations of the Global South, often in the name of promoting democracy. Sadly, such agendas are encouraged even by some segments within our own society," said EAM Jaishankar in his address. He said that the world today is returning to its natural diversity and to its pluralism, adding that as colonial empires ended, many societies have regained their voice along with their freedom. "The membership of the United Nations has itself quadrupled since its founding. It is essential that in our quest towards a more equitable and contemporary world order, there is mutual respect for cultures, traditions and heritage," he said. He pointed out that no country, however large and powerful, can manage alone, adding that it is the reality of interdependence and of globalisation, as also a statement about the limits of power. "We may talk a lot about the promise of technology. But whether it is talent, whether it is data, or whether it is resources, everything cannot be just nationally generated or controlled. In fact, the very idea of a global order, or indeed of international relations, is the assumption that nations have to work with each other for their mutual and collective benefit. The rest is about setting optimal terms to do so," he said. He emphasised that India stands for openness, pluralism and diversity, adding that the country has a long tradition of growing with the world, instead of distancing itself from it. "In many ways, we stand out by promoting commonness, rather than seeking uniformity. That you can see in our languages, in our faiths, in customs, traditions, cuisine and practices. Our openness to each other in India makes us just as open to the world. We therefore neither build walls real or metaphorical nor impose our ways on others," he said. EAM Jaishankar said that as a large polity in the international community of almost 200 nations, India does have national interests, which it seeks to advance. "But this is sought to be done with mutual understanding and mutual benefit as its guiding principles. I am very confident that it is this understanding of India that all of you will take back home," he said. Spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeswoman said it believes that Cambodia and Thailand would resolve disagreements through dialogues and peaceful methods, following a gunfire confrontation at the border. Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand on May 28 were involved in a short gunfire confrontation at a disputed area between Cambodia's Preah Vihear and Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani. It resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier. Following the incident, the two sides had exchanged dialogues and agreed on a ceasefire. Vietnam believes that all disagreements would be resolved through dialogues and peaceful methods, in accordance with Cambodia and Thailand's agreements and ASEAN's spirit of solidarity, spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang said at a press meet on Thursday. Cambodia and Thailand have, for a long time, been involved in border disputes in regions around the Preah Vihear temple. Tension escalated into conflicts in 2008, when Cambodia managed to lobby the UNESCO to make the temple a cultural heritage site of the country. Subsequent conflicts in the next three years resulted in dozens of deaths and forced hundreds of thousands of people living along the border to evacuate. In 2011, armies of the two countries retreated from the non-militarized zone around the temple following a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ in 2013 stated that the region surrounding the temple belongs to Cambodia. Thailand accepted the decision and pledged to cooperate through bilateral mechanisms to resolve conflicts. Hun Sen, president of the Cambodian Senate, said that: "The mobilization of our troops and heavy weapons to the border is not to wage war, but to prepare for a bad outcome in case the other side violates it. We have the right to defend ourselves," Khmer Times reported. He said the gun fight did not reflect the policies of the Thai government and the army, but merely decisions made by individuals. Bengaluru, May 30 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has stated on Friday that for the first time in the last 125 years, Karnataka has recorded the highest rainfall in the month of May this year. Twenty eight districts in the state have received rainfall above the normal average, he stated. CM Siddaramaiah said this while speaking at the Deputy Commissioners and Zilla Panchayat CEOas meeting held at the Vidhana Soudha. He said: aThere is no shortage of funds for providing relief for rain-related damage Under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), more than Rs 1,000 crore is available across various districts. aGuidelines have already been issued for providing relief in case of damage to houses due to heavy rains. Relief must be provided immediately. To prevent casualties in cases such as landslides, precautionary measures must be taken, including the evacuation of residents from vulnerable areas." Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) must compulsorily and promptly visit rain-affected areas and ensure necessary relief is provided, CM said. In cases of complete house damage, immediate relief of Rs 1.20 lakh is being provided. As done last year, district administrations must take steps to provide new housing for such victims. Support must also be extended for house construction under various government schemes, he stated. To effectively respond to disasters caused by excessive rainfall, task forces comprising officials from various departments have been formed at the gram panchayat level. These task forces must work in coordination to implement precautionary measures, he said. "In Bengaluru city, there is no reason why precautionary measures cannot be taken regarding rainfall. Information about low-lying areas and water-logging zones is already available. Officials must act more proactively. In addition to temporary measures, permanent solutions should also be implemented," the Chief Minister said. Sources stated that the authorities have submitted to him in the meeting that 67 persons have been killed following excessive pre-monsoon showers across the state and 19.32 lakh people are at facing risks due to floods and landslides due to incessant rains. The authorities further stated before that 2,252 villages are facing the brunt of landslides and floods and 1,702 houses have suffered damages. The authorities submitted that until May 29, the state has received 270 mm of rainfall against expected 108 mm rainfall, sources said. Due to the incessant rains, the coastal Karnataka region is witnessing water logging, landslides and flooding. On Friday, including two kids and a girl, a total of five persons were killed in rain related incidents in Mangaluru district. Guwahati/Aizawl, May 30 : Three people, including a child, died in three northeastern states while normal life in most of the states in the region was badly affected due to intermittent light to moderate rain triggered by a depression in the Bay of Bengal, officials said on Friday. An official of the Mizoram Disaster Management Authority said that one person died and another was injured as a wall collapsed at Thuampui in Mizoram's Aizawl on Friday after incessant rains during the past 24 hours. According to the official, a retaining wall collapsed causing the death of Lalnunmawia, 36, while Lalfakzuala, 35, was injured and is under medical treatment. Another official said that schools in Aizawl district remained closed for the second consecutive day on Friday as incessant rain lashed the mountainous state, triggering landslides in different parts of the state. In Tripura, a 16-year-old child Tanmoy Debnath drowned while fishing in a pond after incessant rains at Jirania in West Tripura district. Due to the rain since Thursday, 106 houses, including 33, were severely damaged in different districts while more than 210 people comprising 57 families took shelter in four relief camps in West Tripura and Khowai districts. In Nagaland, a rockfall incident on National Highway-29 at the Pagala Pahar stretch in Chumoukedima district claimed the life of a truck driver on Friday after rocks and sludges fell on the moving truck. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast heavy to extremely heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms and gusty winds from May 29 to June 1 in all the northeastern states. Incessant rain since Thursday caused waterlogging in Assam's main city of Guwahati for the second consecutive day on Friday. Officials said that major parts of the Guwahati-Shillong road, one of the vital roads in the city, remained waterlogged, triggering heavy traffic congestion in most parts of the commercial city. Flash floods in several localities, including Chandmari, Rukminigaon, and Hatigaon, severely affected normal life. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), in a statement, said that the IMD has predicted inclement weather over Assam with the likelihood of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall expected across western and southern parts of the state in the next two to three days. An ASDMA statement said that an advisory from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Friday that the deep depression over northwest Bay of Bengal off West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts moved nearly northwards with a speed of 22 km per hour and crossed West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts which lay centred on Friday morning over West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts maintaining its intensity of deep depression till evening of May 31 in the northeastern states. The MHA, in this regard, published warning of exceptionally heavy rainfall over Meghalaya and extremely heavy rainfall along with wind speed reaching 50-60 km per hour gusting to 70 km per hour over Assam and nearby states in next 24 hours which may aggravate waterlogging, slow vehicular movement, and increase the risk of localised landslides in vulnerable pockets. The state and district authorities are closely monitoring the situation and emergency response systems are being kept on alert, the advisory said. In light of the inclement weather and forecast of heavy to very heavy rains, the Guwahati airport authority advised all the passengers to check their flight status with their respective airlines and leave for the airport a little earlier. The Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) has said that in the coming days, the state would see heavy rainfall in nearly every district until June 5, with isolated thunderstorms and lightning. As a result, it is vital to take the necessary measures during this period, including avoiding lightning strikes and high winds, which can disrupt communication and connectivity. Due to the risk of high precipitation in the hill sector, Nagaland's lowland and foothill districts, including Dimapur, Nuiland, Chumoukedima, Bhandari, Baghty, Tizit, and Tuli are vulnerable to inundation, waterlogging and flash floods, the NSDMA said in a statement. Light to moderate rains, flash floods, and landslides also affected life in Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. There were reports of damage to many houses in these states. Jaipur, May 30 : The Covid-19 cases are steadily rising in Rajasthan, with 15 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, an official said on Friday, adding that Jaipur has recorded the highest number of cases at seven, followed by Bikaner with three and Udaipur with two. Isolated cases have also been reported from Jodhpur and two other locations. In response to the increasing cases across India, the Union Health Ministry has issued an advisory to all states, urging them to take preventive measures, discourage mass gatherings, and promote the use of face masks. The Central government has also asked Rajasthan to submit a comprehensive report by June 2 on the availability of beds, oxygen, ventilators, ICUs, essential medicines, and PPE kits in all district and sub-district hospitals, medical colleges, and health institutions. The goal is to ensure preparedness in case of a spike in Covid-related hospitalisations. According to the Rajasthan Health Department, one case each has been reported at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital and RUHS, while five other cases emerged from a private diagnostic center in the city. Overall, 69 Covid-19 cases have been reported in the state so far this year. On the national front, the Union Health Ministry has attributed the recent rise in Covid-19 cases to the emergence of new Omicron sub-variantsa"JN.1, XFG, and LF.7.9 -- which are causing mild symptoms such as fever, cough, and sore throat. As of May 28, India has recorded 1,621 active Covid-19 cases, with more than 90 per cent concentrated in six states -- Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. The advisory also instructs state health departments to test patients showing signs of severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and influenza-like illnesses (ILI), and to conduct genome sequencing of positive cases to track emerging variants. In addition, the Health Ministry has emphasised the need for public awareness campaigns to encourage hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette (covering the mouth while coughing), refraining from spitting in public, protecting the elderly and immunocompromised individuals, and wearing masks in crowded places. Indore, May 30 : Calling it the beginning of "new era" for Indore, Madhya Pradesh Urban Development Minister and senior BJP leader, Kailash Vijayvargiya, said on Friday that the state's economic capital is set to witness a much needed and a new mode of transportation with metro rail services will be made operational from Saturday. Vijayvargiya (69), who was born and brought up in Indore, and at present is a Cabinet Minister in the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government, has said that he has seen transforming the city's mode of transportation from tempo to metro. Earlier in the evening, when he undertook the last leg of the inspection of the Metro ride along with the Union Minister of State for House and Urban Affairs, Tokha Sahu, Minister Vijayvargiya was excited to express his feelings and memories of his life from his home district for the last six decades. "I am very happy that our Indore has completed the journey from tempo to metro. We have also sat (travelled) in tempo and today we are sitting in metro," Minister Vijayvargiya said, adding that, "these are historic and proud moments for the entire Madhya Pradesh". This is the first time when Metro rail will start not just in Indore but in Madhya Pradesh, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate to make it operational during his visit to Bhopal to participate in an event on the occasion of the 300th birth anniversary of legendary queen Ahilyabai Holkar on Saturday. Once the services made operational from Saturday, citizens of Indore can travel in Metro for free for the first week. All they have to do is to scan QR code at the metro station and board the train. To encourage the people to keep commuting through this mode of transportation, the Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MPMRCL) will launch a promotional discount scheme for the first three months. While the travel in first week will be free, in the second week there will be 75 per cent discount, followed by 50 per cent in the third week, and a 25 per cent discount up to the third month. The fare for five-station stretch between Gandhi Nagar and Super Corridor-3 will range from Rs 20 to Rs 30, according to information shared by Madhya Pradesh government. Bhopal, May 30 : Ahead of the mega congregation on women empowerment to be organised on Saturday in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal, Pragya Richa Shrivastava, a 1988 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has been given a significant leadership role as the Director General (DG) of the Home Guard. She has been given the new responsibility as Arvind Kumar, a 1988 batch officer, attained superannuation on Friday. Since the Home Guard DG position is a cadre post, a Special DG has been assigned to take over. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the mega congregation of nearly 200,000 women in Bhopal on Saturday. According to the Home Department's latest directive, Pragya Richa Srivastava, previously Special DG of Women Security at the Police Headquarters Cell, will now serve as the DG of Home Guard Civil Security and Disaster Management. Anil Kumar, who currently holds additional responsibilities as Additional Director General (ADG) SISF PHQ (State Industrial Security Force, police headquarters) and Police Welfare, will also take on the duties of ADG Women Security Police Headquarters and Police Welfare. Additionally, ADG, Special Armed Forces (SAF) Chanchal Shekhar has been given the additional responsibility of ADG SISF Police Headquarters while continuing his existing role. The appointment of Srivastava was finalised after considerable deliberation, with other candidates such as Yogesh Mudgal and G. Akheto Sema also under consideration. Sema has prior experience in the Home Guard, while Mudgal is set to retire in August. Ultimately, Srivastava was entrusted with the leadership role. Meanwhile, ADG Dinesh Chandra Sagar is expected to be promoted to Special DG following Arvind Kumaras retirement, though he will only hold the position for a month before his retirement in June. This Friday marks the final day in government service for Additional Chief Secretary Vinod Kumar and DG Home Guard Arvind Kumar. Similarly, Datia Collector Sandeep Kumar Makin also retired on Friday. Although their official retirement date is May 31, due to the Saturday holiday, they are being relieved a day earlier. However, the General Administration Department has yet to issue an order regarding the new Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), though Manish Rastogi is considered a strong contender for promotion. Rastogi, a 1989 batch IAS officer, could take over the vacant ACS post within the next couple of days. In the IAS seniority hierarchy, Hariranjan Rao is senior to Rastogi, who is Principal Secretary of the Finance department. Rao is currently on deputation in Delhi with no indication of returning to Madhya Pradesh. Given this, the General Administration Department might grant Rao a notional promotion and formally appoint Rastogi to the ACS role. In another key transition, Datia Collector Sandeep Kumar Makin is set to retire on May 31, prompting the imminent appointment of a new officer for the district. This date holds special significance for Datia, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to virtually inaugurate Datia Airport from Bhopal. In light of this, Makin may continue in his post until the evening of May 31 or until his successor is officially appointed. Bengaluru, May 30 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has pulled up the Deputy Commissioners in the state for not keeping tab on child marriages, and slammed the officials for not taking steps and measures to prevent them. Addressing the Deputy Commissioners and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officers' review meeting on Friday, the Chief Minister questioned: "Why are instances of child marriage not coming to the notice of Deputy Commissioners? Are your subordinates not reporting these incidents to you? If they are not informing you, it implies you lack competence. It also means you have no control over your officials, and they do not fear you." "This year alone, 700 child marriages have taken place, and there have also been reports of girls becoming mothers during childhood. It has come to my attention that FIRs have not even been filed in many of these cases," he said. "How can 700 child marriages still be happening so many years after independence? There are laws to prevent child marriage. Yet, in some places, these laws are not being enforced effectively. Isn't this a failure?" the Chief Minister asked sternly. The CM further underlined that this year, 1,395 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) cases have been registered in the state. Strict legal action must be taken in all such cases. Criminal charges should be filed against the accused, and efforts must be made to ensure appropriate punishment. He further stated that "the maternal mortality rate in our state is higher compared to Kerala". Although there has been a 30 per cent reduction compared to last year, further reduction must be achieved by increasing institutional deliveries, purchasing necessary medical equipment, and enforcing strict measures, he said. The CM further said that priority must be given to providing land for crematoriums and burial grounds. Where government land is unavailable, private land should be purchased and provided. Although strict instructions were already issued to cancel ineligible ration cards, the expected progress has not been made. Currently, about 74 per cent of ration cards in the state are BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards. Ineligible cardholders must be identified and removed so that eligible families can receive the benefits. However, there has not been satisfactory progress in this regard, the Chief Minister observed. Reviewing district-wise data on farmer suicides, the Chief Minister grew furious upon noticing that relief is pending in 13 cases. He demanded an explanation from the concerned Deputy Commissioners. The CM stated that in two districts, including Haveri, a total of 13 farmer suicide cases still await relief. The Chief Minister directed that these cases be resolved and compensation provided as soon as possible. New Delhi, May 31 : Union Minister for Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has said that the Government will make farmers self-reliant and transform the agricultural landscape of India. The minister was addressing a convention of farmers organised under the 'Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan' (VKSA) at R. S. Pura, Jammu, on Friday. He was accompanied by the Union Minister of State, Science and Technology, MoS PMO, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh. The Union Minister paid homage to the brave soldiers stationed at the border areas and lauded the enduring resilience of farmers living under the constant shadow of cross-border threats. The Minister emphasised the government's dedication to national security and agricultural prosperity. The Minister upheld the valour of Indian soldiers and recognised the significance of Operation Sindoor, during which calculated strikes were conducted on terror infrastructure across the border. "It was a necessary step; Pakistan's attempts to infiltrate with drones and missiles were dealt with decisively. This is a tribute to the strength of our armed forces and the will of the Indian people," he said. The Minister highlighted the vital role of farmers living in border regions, describing them as the second line of defence. Terming the courage of farmers as unmatched, he said that despite facing constant danger, farmers continue to cultivate the land and feed the nation. He assured the local farming community that their concerns, particularly regarding land rights, security infrastructure, and access to government schemes, have been heard. "The demand for more bunkers in vulnerable areas will be strongly raised in New Delhi. Your safety is our priority," he affirmed. Underlining the government's vision of Viksit Bharat, he said that there can be no Viksit Bharat without Viksit Krishi, highlighting that the agricultural production has reached an all-time high this year, thanks to the hard work of the farmers and scientists. As part of an ongoing agricultural transformation, he revealed that research scientists will now visit villages, address farmers' queries, and provide hands-on guidance to tackle crop diseases and boost productivity. "Maintain close contact with these scientists. They are your partners in progress," he urged. The Minister thanked the Prime Minister, the state government, and the farmers of Jammu for their efforts and cooperation. He reiterated his mission to elevate the agriculture sector to new heights, ensuring that Jammu & Kashmir becomes a model agri-region for the nation. He said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the government has taken a resolve to transform the agriculture sector by incorporating the latest trends, technologies and modern research. Chouhan emphasised that his life is devoted to serving farmers, increasing agricultural output, lowering production costs and protecting the nation's food supply. He highlighted that a balanced use of fertilisers, a deep understanding of local conditions and access to high-quality seeds are key factors that can significantly boost the productivity of farmers. He said that the Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry, State Agriculture Ministry, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Krishi Vigyan Kendra and all agricultural institutes should work together as a team to realise this goal. Terming the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan as a result-driven initiative, he expressed confidence that its benefits, including higher crop yields and reduced input costs, would be evident as early as the upcoming Kharif season. Former register of copyrights Shira Perlmutter lost her first attempt to convince a federal judge that her dismissal by the White House on May 10 was illegal and that the executive branch overstepped in ordering it. On May 28, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly denied Perlmutter's request for a temporary restraining order, ruling from the bench that Perlmutter hasnt met her legal burden to show how her removal from the position would cause her to suffer irreparable harm. Perlmutter filed suit in federal court on May 22, challenging her removal from office and seeking reinstatement to her position at the U.S. Copyright Office. Specifically, Perlmutter sought an emergency temporary restraining order and injunctions that would prevent Todd Blanche, who was named by President Donald Trump to the position of acting librarian of Congress, from exercising his powers and prevent Paul Perkins, who claims to be the new register of copyrights under Blanche, from exercising the powers of acting register of copyrights. Perlmutter also sought to have the court void any actions taken by what she claims are improperly appointed officials, arguing she can only be removed as the register of copyrights by a lawfully appointed librarian of Congress. Blanche's appointment to that role, following Trump's dismissal of former librarian of Congress Carla Hayden earlier this month, remains highly disputed at the Capitol. Under chapter 5 of U.S. Code Title 2, the president is empowered to appoint the Librarian of Congress only "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate," which has not, to date, been given. Robert Newlen, the former principal deputy librarian under Hayden, succeeded Hayden in the role on an interim basis, and has not relinquished the position to Blanche. On May 29, Perlmutter's attorneys filed new documents with the court proposing a schedule for seeking expedited summary judgment and, in the case that the court rejects that option, a preliminary injunction. Perlmutter requested that the first motion for summary judgment be made by June 5, with the government opposition brief to be filed by June 12, and the plaintiff's reply by June 16. The underlying issue being contested is whether or not the executive branch ultimately has the power to fire the register of copyrights. Her attorneys argue that her removal violates both constitutional and statutory provisions, with the complaint asserting that Congress vested the librarian of Congress, and not the president, with the power to appoint and remove the register of copyrights under chapter 7 of U.S. Code Title 17. "The President's attempt to remove Ms. Perlmutter," the initial filing states, "was unlawful and ineffective." The United States has worked tirelessly with both Ukraine and Russia, seeking a path to peace. We want an end to this war, declared John Kelley, Acting U.S. Alternate Representative in remarks before the United Nations Security Council. As the first step on the path to peace, the United States put forward a proposal for an immediate, unconditional, and comprehensive ceasefire. Ukraine unequivocally accepted, pending Russias agreement to do the same. Since then, we have been urging Russia to accept a ceasefire. Following President Donald Trumps May 21 call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Federation is expected to provide a broad outline of its vision for a ceasefire. We will judge Russias seriousness towards ending the war not only by the contents of that [outline], but more importantly, by Russias actions, said Ambassador Kelley. The United States condemns Russias recent decision to launch some of the largest missile and drone strikes against Ukraine since the beginning of the war, said Ambassador Kelley. On the other hand, noted Ambassador Kelley, the recent agreement, by both Russia and Ukraine, to exchange one thousand prisoners is an indication of what might be possible. If both Russia and Ukraine are truly interested in peace, the United States will work with both parties, with European partners, and with the United Nations to help achieve that goal, beginning with a meaningful ceasefire. But we will insist that the discussion of peace by both sides must be undertaken in good faith. As President Trump has made clear, the United States wants to work with Russia on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict. The deal on offer now is Russias best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal, stressed Ambassador Kelley. Continuing to wage the war would not be in anyones interest, including Russias, said Ambassador Kelley. Additional sanctions on Russia are still on the table. President Trump has emphasized from the beginning that this war was a strategic mistake and should never have happened; time is not on the side of anyone who would prolong it. We call on both Russia and Ukraine, said Ambassador Kelley, to make the difficult, historic decision to pursue peace. Once untouchable, Ihor Kolomoisky now finds himself at the center of the most high-profile criminal investigation against an oligarch in Ukraines post-independence history. From wielding vast political and economic influence to sitting in austere pretrial detention, the former banking and energy magnate is facing a legal reckoning with far-reaching implications. In what Ukrainian authorities describe as a landmark anti-corruption case, Kolomoisky stands accused of embezzling over 5.36 billion (approx. $135 million) and laundering nearly 4.1 billion ($103 million) through complex financial schemes involving PrivatBankonce the countrys largest commercial bankand other corporate entities at one point under his control. According to the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES), a Ukrainian federal law enforcement agency, Kolomoisky allegedly made fraudulent cash deposits into his own accounts and used falsified documentation to mask the origin of those funds. Ukrainian investigators claim a significant portion of the money credited to Kolomoiskys accountsover 2 billioncame from PrivatBanks own loan facilities, essentially defrauding the institution he controlled. In addition, BES detectives found evidence that Kolomoisky orchestrated the misappropriation of 3.3 billion from the state-owned oil company, Ukrnafta. The funds were siphoned through fictitious contracts for services that were never rendered. These deals, BES claims, were executed on Kolomoiskys direct orders. The investigation has culminated in a criminal case that spans nearly 600 volumes, a legal leviathan signaling the seriousness with which Ukrainian authorities are pursuing the charges against one of their most notorious and powerful tycoons. Kolomoiskys downfall marks a watershed moment for Ukraines anti-oligarch campaign under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. While previous administrations often turned a blind eye to the oligarchs activities, the Zelenskyy government has demonstrated what many view as unprecedented political will to hold elite powerbrokers accountable. This is particularly notable since in the past, Ukraines President was supported by Mr. Kolomoisky. For 34 years, not a single Ukrainian government dared bring a case like this to completion, said an official from the Prosecutor Generals Office. Only under Zelenskyy has there been true political cover for law enforcement to work independently. Indeed, the prosecution of Kolomoisky represents a break from the past. In prior years, efforts by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the National Police, and even the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) were either shelved or shut down. The case of PrivatBanks fraudulent loans had been opened and closed multiple times. A 2005 investigation into Kolomoiskys alleged involvement in the contract killing of attorney Serhiy Karpenko was dropped twice before being reopened under President Zelenskyy. One of the most disturbing accusations against Kolomoisky concerns his suspected role in commissioning a contract killing. Ukrainian police are investigating claims that Kolomoisky ordered the assassination of lawyer Serhiy Karpenko, who was involved in a corporate dispute linked to the Dniprospecstal steel company. According to the current investigation, Kolomoisky allegedly sought revenge for Karpenkos refusal to annul shareholder decisions unfavorable to Kolomoiskys interests. While this case has yet to result in formal charges, it casts a long shadow over the broader probe into his diverse business empire. Kolomoiskys legal woes are not confined to Ukraine. US authorities have been tracking his activities for years. The FBI has investigated him for financial crimes connected to PrivatBank, and in 2020, the US Department of Justice filed civil forfeiture complaints alleging that Kolomoisky and his associates used misappropriated funds to purchase real estate in Florida, Ohio, and Kentucky. In 2021, the US Department of State imposed visa sanctions on Kolomoisky and his family for their alleged involvement in significant corruption. These measures were part of a broader US policy to isolate and penalize oligarchs perceived as threats to democratic institutions in Eastern Europe. In February 2025, President Zelenskyy signed off on indefinite sanctions against Kolomoisky and four other prominent oligarchsPetro Poroshenko, Viktor Medvedchuk, Hennadiy Boholyubov, and Kostyantyn Zhevago. The sanctions freeze all their assets, restrict financial operations, and prohibit participation in major transactions within Ukraine. According to Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, all five are subjects of criminal investigations. Poroshenko, a sitting member of parliament and former president, is under investigation for treason. Medvedchuk faces charges related to war crimes and collaboration with Russian forces. Boholyubov is accused of document fraud and illegal border crossings, while Zhevago is under suspicion for embezzling $113 million. Kolomoisky remains the only one among them currently in custody. The BES-led investigation into Kolomoisky lasted more than a year, culminating in his formal arrest and asset seizure. Law enforcement in Ukraine froze his personal and corporate bank accounts, seized property, and restricted his movements. Despite the asset freeze and being detained pending trial, Kolomoisky still ranks among Ukraines wealthiest individuals, with holdings across metallurgy, oil refining, banking, and media. PrivatBank, once the crown jewel of his empire, was nationalized in 2016 after auditors uncovered a $5.5 billion hole in its balance sheet. The Ukrainian government has since spent years untangling the web of offshore entities and loan schemes allegedly orchestrated by Kolomoisky and his associates. Ukrainian authorities say the current charges represent only part of a much larger criminal network. Alexei Martynov, a former business partner and co-founder of the Privat Group, recently accused Kolomoisky of laundering over 5 billion through a charitable foundationa new thread that prosecutors may pursue in future indictments. Throughout his career, Kolomoisky leveraged media ownership to bolster his influence and suppress criticism. His 1+1 media holding, once one of Ukraines most powerful television networks, played a central role in shaping public opinion during multiple election cycles. Even now, Ukrainian authorities suggest that Kolomoiskys residual media clout and financial resources allow him to apply pressure behind the scenes. Officials have hinted at attempts to manipulate public messaging and interfere with the legal process, although no evidence of recent success has been presented. Nonetheless, the BES claims it was able to complete its investigation despite such obstacles, making it the only agency to bring a criminal probe against Kolomoisky to the charging phase. Kolomoiskys legal team is currently reviewing the extensive case file put forth to indict him. Under Ukrainian criminal procedure, this stage can last several months before the case is formally referred to court. A trial could begin later in 2025, though legal analysts caution that the defense may attempt to delay proceedings through procedural challenges and appeals. Whether Kolomoisky is ultimately convicted remains uncertain, but the symbolism of the case is already reshaping Ukraines post-Maidan legal landscape. For years, the oligarch class operated with impunity, their fortunes protected by informal pacts with political elites. That era, officials suggest, may finally be ending in Ukraine. Ihor Kolomoiskys prosecution is more than a corruption trialit is a test of Ukraines judicial integrity, institutional independence, and democratic resilience. If successful, the case could pave the way for a broader dismantling of oligarchic power in Ukraine. But if Kolomoisky, with his billions and backroom connections, walks free, the publics trust in justice may erode further. Either way, the trial will be a defining moment not only for Kolomoisky but for Ukraines future as a law-governed state. Frank Salvato is the vice president of News & Information Operations for Global Emergent Media Communications. He is the host of the Underground USA podcast. Salvatos writing has been recognized by the US House Foreign Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. It has been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, and American Greatness. Hulu has released the title sequence for its upcoming revival of animated series King of the Hill, showing the Hill family's exodus from -- and return to -- the town of Arlen, Texas. ADVERTISEMENT The streaming service shared the opening title sequence for the upcoming King of the Hill Season 14, which shows Hank Hill and his family moving out of their Arlen home, only to return years later. "After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas, to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill," the official synopsis reads. "Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane." King of the Hill, created by Mike Judge, aired its original 13 seasons on Fox. The original run ended in 2010. Judge returns to voice Hank Hill, alongside other returning cast members Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, Lauren Tom and Toby Huss. Johnny Hardwick, who played Dale Gribble in the original 13 seasons, started work on the revival before his death in August 2023. King of the Hill Season 14 premieres Aug. 4 on Hulu. New for 2025, Armasight has introduced a new line of thermal vision optics: the Warden 640 monocular, Commander 640 weapon sight, and Operator 640 clip-on. Were excited to take a closer look at each of them to test out exactly what they can do. Clip-on thermals can provide the versatility of a handheld monocular while also giving the option to turn your low power variable daytime riflescope into a thermal optic. The most powerful of the new Armasight thermal optics, the Operator has a 1,305-meter detection range for human-sized targets and a 1-4x digital magnification with a true 1x optical magnification designed to be paired with any LPVO. SPECS: Detector Type: ArmaCORE 640 x 480 12um Thermal Core Refresh Rate: 60 Hz Thermal Sensitivity: NETD < 40mK Detection Range: 1,305m on a Human Sized Target Field of View: 12.6 x 9.4 Optical Magnification: 1x unity (recommended for daytime optics with 1x 6x magnification) Digital Zoom: 1x 4x Display: XGA (1024 x 768) OLED Wireless: None Graphics: Active On-Screen Graphics and Iconology Recoil Rating: Up to .50 cal Lens System: F/1.00; 35mm manual focus Power Supply: 2 x CR123A (3V) Battery Life: 4 hours at 20 C Environmental Rating: IP67 Operating Temperature: -40 C to +50 C (-40 F to + 122 F) Dimensions: 154 82 84mm / 6.05 3.24 3.32in Weight: 473g / 1.04lbs Warranty: 3 years w/ registration Color: Gray MSRP: $4299 WHY GET A THERMAL CLIP-ON A thermal clip-on, when combined with an appropriate daytime rifle scope, gives you the functionality of a handheld monocular and thermal weapon sight combined. When you need to scan without your rifle, look for blood trails, or even non-shooting tasks around the home, you simply dismount the thermal from your rifle and get to work. When it's time to put pork in the freezer or eliminate coyotes from your property, you just attach the thermal in front of your already zeroed day optic and get to work. Combining the best of both worlds, a clip-on bridges the gap between a dedicated monocular and a dedicated weapon sight. Downside? The Operator 640 Clip-on costs a bit more than the Warden 640 or Commander 640. But getting one clip-on to do the job of two other thermals is a lot less expensive than getting two dedicated thermals. If you want all of the options available to you, the Operator 640 has the most versatility of the new Armasight lineup. IN THE FIELD The Operator clip-on has performed well in the southeast during field testing. Hogs and similar-sized game were easily detectable at several hundred yards across open fields, and steel targets on the range were able to be detected and successfully engaged out to 800 yards when the targets had been warmed by the sun. The zero shift with the thermal attached was minimal, and returned to zero perfectly when removed and reattached multiple times on our test rifle. This made using the Operator as a separate handheld a breeze since there was no worry about the rifle's zero being affected when reattached. This also makes the Operator easy to move from rifle to rifle when the need arises. Instead of being limited to just one set-up at a time, such as with a dedicated weapon sight, the Operator allows the user to quickly move between rifles and calibers without having to completely re-zero the rifles. Two CR123A batteries provide up to 4 hours of constant use. The large and easy-to-access battery compartment on the side of the Operator makes switching batteries quick and painless, while also providing the batteries with a lot of protection from the elements. One impressive thing about the Operator is how well-built it is to withstand whatever the user or nature can throw at it. Rain, wind, dust, drops, the Operator is designed to handle it all. From rubber seals around the ports to the extra-strength housing of the unit itself, everything about the Operator is built to last. Speaking of ports, the Operator comes with a USB-C port to make transferring pictures and video from the onboard system easy. This also allows the Operator to be streamed to external devices. LOOSE ROUNDS Like its handheld and weapon sight cousins, the Armasight Operator clip-on is a game-changer of an optic and a major step forward in thermal technology. The ArmaCORE detector delivers crisp images at unparalleled distances while giving the user all of the tools needed to take full advantage of the system in the palm of their hand. Where handheld monoculars and dedicated weapon sights have their niche and perform well in their roles, the Operator does it all and doesnt hold back. For options, features, and capability the Operator 640 does it and more. If you're looking for a high-performing thermal clip-on optic, the Armasight Operator delivers. 'I think that kind of change is coming. We should stay prepared for that change, whichever industry or sector we are in, we must be prepared.' IMAGE: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, during the inauguration of the VVDN Technologies' state-of-the-art Mechanical Innovation Park, at Manesar in Gurugram. Photograph: ANI Photo India needs to develop artificial intelligence (AI) models built on domestic languages, culture, conditions, nuances, and social norms, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (IT) Ashwini Vaishnaw said. "We have taken up the development of models. One of the first ones is being developed by Sarvam. Three or four applications are already in the advanced stages of approval. We are also taking up common datasets as a part of this entire process," the IT minister said at the CII Annual Summit 2025. Akin to the advancements made in the semiconductor and electronics industry, AI will bring in 'humongous changes' in society and the industry, he added. "I think that kind of change is coming. We should stay prepared for that change, whichever industry or sector we are in, we must be prepared," the Union minister said. The success that various digital public infrastructure tools and services (DPIs) have seen in India and across the globe is rooted in the government's belief of democratising access to technology for everyone, instead of it being concentrated in the hand of few, Vaishnaw said, adding that the same approach was being taken for AI. To ensure access to high-end computing for all, the government targeted ensuring access to 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) under the IndiaAI Mission. Against this target, the government had received bids for more than 18,000 GPUs in the first round of bidding, he said. Companies have already placed bids for procuring nearly 14,000 GPUs in the second round of bidding, he added. The India AI Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024, with a capital outlay of 10,738 crore. The IndiaAI Compute Portal will provide access to these GPUs, as well as AI Cloud services to startups, application developers, researchers, and students. It will also allow end users to access a wide range of high-end GPUs, and facilitate AI research and innovation in the country. The first 'Made in India' chips of the 28-90 nanometre (NM) range would be rolled out by the year-end, Vaishnaw said. "There were people who criticised us for vying for semiconductor manufacturing. We targeted a particular segment, which accounts for 60 per cent of the market volume, using a targeted approach. At present, we have six units under construction. The first 28-90 nm chip made in India will roll out this year. We started manufacturing in 2022," the minister said. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw walks through the Locomotive Manufacturing plant of the Indian Railways following its inauguration, in Dahod. Photograph: ANI Photo Like technology sandboxes, the government was also working on a new policy for trying and testing new ideas for the railways, he said. The railways ministry has an innovation scheme for startups operational currently, which will be supplemented with a regulatory sandbox mechanism to allow for testing and use of new technologies without being subjected to the full extent of regulatory compliance. A sandbox is used in new technology areas like AI, fintech, and others to encourage innovation. For the railways, most advancements have been in-house through the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) or foreign direct investment. To counter this, the railways had launched a startup innovation mission to boost entrepreneurship and bring new-age technologies into the railway ecosystem. So far, nearly 3000 entities have registered on the national transporter's innovation portal, senior government officials said after the minister's address. Of these, 350 are startups, around 1800 are individual innovators, and 160 are research organisations. So far, 23 innovation projects, valued at 44 crore, have been awarded to innovators. Railways' grant in these projects is close to 11 crore, the officials said. If Anudi Gunasekara wins Miss World 2025, it will be the first time that a Sri Lankan wears the crown. Her introduction video for the pageant has garnered the highest number of views among all the contestants. On the fashion front, she embraces bold cuts, artsy details and timeless tradition. IMAGE: Radiating glam and elegance in a classic cutout silhouette. IMAGE: Embracing the beauty of tie-dye, floral earrings and a charming cowrie shell clutch. IMAGE: A traditional handloom bag complements her blue ombre satin gown. IMAGE: She's simple yet stylish in her white corset dress. IMAGE: Yup, she loves bling. IMAGE: White grown, red lips... and she aces it. IMAGE: She is ready to party in a black halter neck top and a sparkling sequin skirt. IMAGE: But she can go gorgeously traditional as well. >>MORE GLAMOUR FEATURES China appears determined to upgrade Pakistan's military capabilities, sufficient to ensure local parity with India, alerts former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran. IMAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 8, 2025. Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters Chinese President Xi Jinping paid an important visit to Moscow from May 7 to 10, his 11th since taking office in 2012. He was the chief guest at the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan by the allied forces including the then Soviet Union and Republic of China. Mr Xi had attended similar festivities in Moscow 10 years ago. This year was special because not only was he the chief guest, but a unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army took part in the victory parade at the Red Square. The visit and the pomp and show surrounding it were a symbolic reaffirmation of the close ties between the two countries. There was an impressive substantive dimension to the visit, with over 20 bilateral cooperation agreements being signed in addition to an elaborate joint statement. The visit attracted less international attention because it was overshadowed by the news of the United States and China reaching a deal on substantially reducing the tit-for-tat tariffs they had imposed on each other, triggering an unprecedented trade war. The reduction in tariffs, which will apply for three months while negotiations take place on a more enduring bilateral agreement, has been widely seen as a climb down by US President Donald Trump and a victory for China. In addition, the visit took place when India and Pakistan were trading missiles and armed drone attacks. Some reported successes claimed for Pakistan's Chinese-supplied aircraft and munitions against India's fleet of Rafale fighter jets gave a boost to China's reputation as a high-tech weapons manufacturer. Success was also claimed for India's Russian-sourced S-400 anti-aircraft defence systems and the Brahmos missiles. There is still no reliable information available on these claims and counterclaims. However, China's stock has gone up, with some in the Western media pointing to the country's emergence as a high-tech power, matching Western systems. Mr Xi's Moscow visit must be seen in this geopolitical context. The views expressed by Mr Xi in an article published in a Russian newspaper before the visit, and the remarks made by him and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference held at the end of the visit, bear closer analysis. They reflect the self-assurance and confidence of the two leaders who see Mr Trump's unpredictable domestic and external policies as creating a historic opportunity to shape a non-Western international order more aligned with their interests. They also perceive an opportunity to attract a larger constituency of the Global South countries to their axes, expanding and consolidating the Brics nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. This will have serious implications for India's positioning in the shifting geopolitical terrain. How are Russia and China reshaping the global order? One, they claim to be the important victors of the Second World War, contributing more than the US and the West in defeating fascism and Japanese imperialism. The international order established after the war, they claim, has their imprint and they are the cofounders of the United Nations and the architects and upholders of the UN Charter. They accuse the US of falsely claiming that the post-war order was its creation, and of now threatening its demolition. China and Russia are now providing the 'correct perspective' on the war and its aftermath, and it is their international responsibility to preserve the order, which they had a major role in constructing. Mr Xi said the two countries 'must firmly maintain the post-war international order'. Two, Russia and China have special responsibilities as great powers. 'In the face of unilateralist counter-currents, bullying, and acts of power politics, China is working together with Russia to shoulder the special responsibilities of major countries as permanent members of the UN Security Council,' Mr Xi said. 'The two sides should jointly resist any attempt to disrupt and undermine China-Russia friendship and mutual trust,' he added. This is a clear message to Mr Putin that he should not fall prey to Mr Trump's blandishments at the expense of China. Three, the Russia-China partnership is driven by the personal relationship between the two leaders, and this could be its weakness. On this, Mr Putin said he and the Chinese president 'personally control all aspects of the Russia-China partnership and do all we can to expand the cooperation on bilateral issues and the international agenda alike." Mr Xi did not echo this, and it would be unlike a Chinese leader to do so. But there is no doubt that both enjoy a rare personal chemistry. Four, there is little doubt that any US effort to detach Russia from China or, in common parlance, to do a 'Reverse Nixon on China' is unrealistic. Russia is heavily dependent on China, which has provided it with an economic lifeline in the face of sweeping Western sanctions. The relationship has become symbiotic. For China, having a benign neighbour to its extensive territories in the north enables its southern expansion. It gives China 'strategic depth'. This is not fully appreciated by analysts. What are the implications for India? One should expect Russia to become more aligned with China and less sensitive to Indian interests. The efficacy of India's military partnership with the US and the West, in general, may diminish as China emerges as a peer technological power with comparable military capabilities. While the overall power gap between India and Pakistan may continue to expand, China appears determined to upgrade Pakistan's military capabilities, sufficient to ensure local parity with India. The most recent military exchanges across the Line of Control and the international boundary bear this out. A thorough review and re-setting of our national security objectives are unavoidable. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff Heavy rains and landslides across Karnataka's coastal Dakshina Kannada district have claimed five lives, officials said on Friday. IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo On Thursday night, a landslide struck a home at Montepadavu Kodi near Mangaluru, trapping five people under debris, they said. According to officials, a woman and her child were pulled from the debris and hospitalised in critical condition. However, another child of the woman was found dead. Heavy rains overnight triggered a landslide around 4 am, collapsing the house where six members of the Poojary family were asleep. Among the deceased were three-year-old Aryan and his two-year-old brother Aarush. Their grandmother, Prema Poojary, also died in the incident. Ashwini, their mother, tried to shield the children with her body as a wall came crashing down. Eyewitnesses said she was found under the debris, unconscious but still clutching her children. "I don't care what happens to me, please save my children," she had reportedly pleaded as neighbours attempted a risky rescue amid continuing landslides. However, Ashwini's husband Sitaram narrowly escaped by rushing out after hearing the landslide while his father Kantappa Poojary who sustained injuries, was rescued by locals and admitted to a hospital, a senior official said. A video taken by locals showed the harrowing moments. The younger child, Aarush, was seen trying to crawl out from the rubble, while Aryan had already succumbed. Local rescue efforts had to pause due to unstable ground conditions until professional teams arrived. Heavy rains and the limited access to the site had hampered rescue operations. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and local police were involved in the rescue operations. In another incident at Deralakatte in Mangaluru, a compound wall collapsed on a house on Friday morning, killing a six-year-old girl identified as Fatima Naeem. Authorities have issued warnings for vulnerable zones in the region, as intermittent rains continue to batter the coastal belt. In another rain-related incident, a 27-year-old lineman died of electrocution while attempting to repair a high-tension line in this coastal district on Thursday amid heavy rain, the police said. The incident occurred in Amar Jalu, a village in Kuvettu, Belthangady taluk, they said. According to the police, the deceased, Vijesh Jain, was a resident of Kuvettu and was engaged in HT line restoration work when he allegedly came into contact with a live wire. He was the second son of Sukumar Jain and Poornima. A case has been registered at Belthangady police station in connection with the incident. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, after receiving a full briefing on the landslides and wall collapses in Dakshina Kannada district due to overnight rains, instructed district in-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and Dakshina Kannada District Deputy Commissioner to immediately visit the spot, inspect, take necessary action and report back to him. The CM issued the instructions during the review meeting with deputy commissioners of all districts and CEOs of Zilla Panchayats at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. A court in Uttarakhand's Kotdwar on Friday sentenced a resort operator and his two employees to rigorous life imprisonment in the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case. IMAGE: Uttarakhand Mahila Congress workers protest outside the state secretariat over Ankita Bhandari murder case in Dehradun. Photograph: ANI Photo Bhandari (19), who worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort located in Yamkeshwar of Pauri district, was murdered on September 18, 2022 by resort operator Pulkit Arya and his two employees Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta. Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on all three convicts, prosecution lawyer Ajay Pant said. According to the prosecution, Bhandari and Arya had a dispute over something after which the three pushed the woman into the Cheela canal in Rishikesh. After her body was found from the canal, the police arrested all three. Pulkit Arya is the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya. As soon as the matter came to light, the party showed the door to Vinod Arya. The murder had triggered protests by locals following which the state government formed a special investigation team to probe it. The hearing of the case lasted for two years and eight months and during this period 47 witnesses, were examined. No politician should use such language, the Bharatiya Janata Party said on Friday as it chastised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her choice of words targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. IMAGE: BJP Mahila Morcha supporters take part in 'Sindoor Shaurya' rally to celebrate the success of 'Operation Sindoor', in Nagpur. Photograph: ANI Photo It rejected as fake news a media report that claimed the ruling BJP planned to distribute vermilion among women to mark the government's anniversary. BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "Mamata Banerjee has said what should never be spoken. No politician or elected representative should use a language... (she said) 'Is PM Modi the husband of every woman?' What kind of language is this?" But yes, Modi is a 'sewak' (servant) to everyone; he is like a father to some and a brother to others, he told reporters. Attacking the Trinamool Congress supremo, Patra said, "There is no doubt, however, that if someone has worked to shelter Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas, it is Mamata Banerjee. They are fond of her." The BJP MP from Puri rejected media reports as 'fake news' that the ruling BJP planned to distribute vermilion (sindoor) among women to mark the Narendra Modi government's anniversary. He accused opposition parties, which had cited the report to slam the BJP for politicising Operation Sindoor, of spreading this propaganda to belittle India's military action against Pakistan and terror sites there. Banerjee had hit back at Modi on Thursday after the prime minister launched a sharp political attack on her government. Referring to the report, she said, "Please remember, every woman has respect, they accept sindoor only from her husband... The way you are talking... you are not the husband of everybody; why are you not giving sindoor to your Mrs first?" she said. Banerjee had said she did not want to get into such details but claimed that she was compelled to do so. "The Centre named it Operation Sindoor for political gains ahead of upcoming elections (in various states)," she alleged. "First, he (Modi) used to call himself a tea-seller, then a chowkidar, and now he has come to sell sindoor. He cannot sell sindoor like this," Banerjee said, drawing condemnation from the BJP for her choice of words. BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya also dubbed the news report as 'fake' and slammed the West Bengal chief minister for acting like a troll to use a baseless story for politics. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, however, claimed the BJP was forced to withdraw its campaign due to the backlash. 'Now they are calling the cheap plan fake news,' she said on X, reacting to Malviya's comments. Viral videos of road rage in Dehradun featuring two families slugging it out over a minor accident has shocked Uttarakhand. Photograph: Screen grab Dehradun Police/Facebook In the video shot earlier this week, family members can be seen throwing stones at each other, roughing each other up and shockingly driving over one person. The incident occurred after the two cars -- a Hyundai Verna and a Mahindra Scorpio -- met with an accident in the Doon School area. Women from the two families involved in the accident can be heard screaming and telling their men to stop fighting but the men keep hitting each other. In another clip, the women abuse the other side. After which a man opens the car's boot removes a spanner to assault the others. At the end of the two-minute video clip, one man drives his car over another man and flees the scene. Social media users tagged the Dehradun police urging them to take action against the two families. On the morning of May 30 the police arrested nine people who were involved in the skirmish. Taking to its X handle, the Dehradun police wrote, 'Doon Police taught a lesson of decorum to those who spoil the atmosphere by fighting and creating ruckus in public places. Police took immediate action in the incident of fighting between two parties and arrested 9 persons.' They also posted a video on the Dehradun police Facebook page. In the video the Dehradun police made all nine accused to squat at the police station as a penance for their errant ways. Noted lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar said on Friday that he is doubtful that the relations between India and Pakistan will improve in the near future. IMAGE: Screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar addresses the gathering during the unveiling of Shiv Sena-UBT MP Sanjay Raut's book titled 'Narkatla Swarga', at Ravindra Natya Mandir in Mumbai, May 17, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo Referring to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a process that allowed victims and perpetrators of apartheid to come together, Akhtar said India and Pakistan missed a similar opportunity after Partition, which caused massive displacement and trauma on both sides. "It is a bit late in the day for reconciliation. Our people in India only knew what happened to them after 1947-48. The people over there knew what happened with them. If only all of them had sat together once.... It has been 75 years, they would be in their 90s now. How many of them would even be alive?" he said at the launch of a book titled Farewell Karachi, written by film critic-author Bhawana Somaaya. Akhtar said the governments of the two countries should have brought together refugees from both sides in the early or mid-1950s and let them share their stories. "Only then would we have truly known what happened to whom and what kind of atrocities were faced by how many people. It would not have remained one-sided. But this did not happen. Anyway, the situation in the near future, I do not think, will get much better politically," the 80-year-old writer said. Hostilities between India and Pakistan intensified following the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, on April 22. In response, Indian armed forces hit nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7 under the codename Operation Sindoor. Akhtar criticised vested interest groups in Pakistan, particularly the army, the political establishment and the extreme right wing, for blocking peace efforts between the two nations. "There are crores of people in Pakistan today who want better relations with India -- not just because some are genuinely good people, but because many are drawn to India's scale and progress -- its big corporates, opportunities, cinema, business, IT and industrial growth. "They are fascinated by the kind of research and development happening here. That is why a common person or a student from there aspires to come to India and be part of that world. But unfortunately, this is not in the interest of Pakistan's army, establishment or right wing. That is the real issue," he said. Akhtar said India tried hard to improve relations, both diplomatically and culturally, while Pakistan has not reciprocated at the same level. "Our Army is very professional, they are not at all political. But it is not like that there (Pakistan). People say every country has an army and the Pakistani army has a country. So this is the difference," he said. "This does not mean that we do not have bad people here and we have never done anything wrong. But the truth is that in this matter, the Indian government has been better than the Pakistani government in the last 70 years," he added. Despite the tensions, Akhtar said India has never acted in an "aggressive" way. "There is such a big dispute in Kashmir.... In spite of our claim, we have never been aggressive. In fact, many people complain, 'why are you not aggressive?' We are not that. So the aggression has always been from that side. So this is not right," he said. Akhtar was accompanied by his actor wife, Shabana Azmi, at the event. The Thane-based engineer, arrested on the charge of spying, shared sensitive information about warships and submarines to the Pakistani intelligence operative through sketches, diagrams and audio notes, and received money from various bank accounts in India and abroad in return, the police said. IMAGE: The Imphal fires the Brahmos missile at sea. Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo The 27-year-old mechanical engineer Ravindra Verma, a resident of Kalwa in neighbouring Thane, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police on Wednesday. According to police, he was lured into passing classified information after being honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent posing as a woman on Facebook. "During the investigation, it came to light that Verma shared sensitive information knowingly and intentionally multiple times. In exchange for the information, he received money from various bank accounts from India and abroad," an official told PTI. It was found that he had shared information about various warships and submarines to the Pakistani Intelligence Operative, another official said. Verma worked as a junior engineer with a defence technology firm and by virtue of his work, he had access to the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai. He would also go on board naval ships and submarines, he said. "During his visits to the Naval Dockyard, he was not allowed to carry a mobile phone inside. Therefore, after finishing his work there, he used to share sensitive information about warships and submarines by making sketches or diagrams. Sometimes, he would share information through audio notes also," the official added. The ATS suspects that he also shared the names of submarines and warships to the Pakistani agent, he said. Verma had been in contact with the Pakistani agent since November 2024, he said. He had received friend requests on Facebook from users with account names as Payal Sharma and Ispreet in 2024, which he accepted. While chatting with him, both these account users posing as women initially portrayed that they were from India and worked on a project for which information about warships was required, he said. After a few sessions of conversations, they honey-trapped him and started digging sensitive information about vital installations, he said, adding that Verma used to share all the sensitive information with Pakistani operatives. "He was very much aware of what he was doing and to whom he was passing on the sensitive information. He was getting money in exchange for providing the information," he said. A court has remanded him to ATS custody till Monday. For Rita Khanam, faith in God remains her final refuge as she waits anxiously for news of her husband, whom she last saw in a video earlier this week. IMAGE: BSF personnel keep vigil at the India-Bangladesh Border check post in South Dinajpur, West Bengal. Photograph: ANI Photo The footage, reportedly shot in the 'no man's land' along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam's South Salmara Mankachar district, has left her distraught and searching for answers. Speaking to PTI over the phone from her home at Khandapukhuri in Morigaon district, Khanam said her family is in touch with the authorities and has submitted documents to prove her husband Khairul Islam's Indian nationality. She remains hopeful that "justice will prevail." Islam was among nine persons arrested by Morigaon police on May 24 in a crackdown on illegal immigrants declared by the Foreigners' Tribunal, but who had been evading deportation. Along with his three siblings, Islam was declared a foreigner by the FT in 2016, a decision he challenged in the Gauhati high court. The high court upheld the FT's ruling, leading to his detention in 2018. He was set free in 2020 following a Supreme Court general order to release all detainees who had spent more than two years in jail. "My husband is a former school teacher and a law-abiding citizen. On May 23, personnel from Mikirbheta police station came to our house and took him away, saying they had a few questions and he could return home after that," Khanam said. Khanam said she had a gut feeling that the situation was more serious, as police came at a late hour. "And the next thing we know, he was taken to Morigaon SP's office and from there, to the detention camp at Matia (in Goalpara district). And then, the video emerged where we found that he had been deported to Bangladesh," she claimed. Islam is believed to be among 14 illegal Bangladeshi nationals who were sent back to their country by the BSF through the South Salmara Mankachar border on Tuesday. Though a Border Security Force officer, who refused to be identified, had confirmed deporting the persons, an official statement by the force said a "large group of Bangladeshis" had attempted to infiltrate, which was successfully thwarted by the border guards. Khanam claimed that her husband's appeal against the FT decision is pending before the Supreme Court, though local police maintained that they had the necessary clearance for his deportation. "In the case of Khairul Islam, we had the necessary clearance to deport him. But for his two brothers and a sister, who were also declared foreigners by the FT, we are awaiting legal formalities. Hence, we have not detained them," a local police officer told PTI. Khanam is confident of her husband's Indian nationality, and their family members are already in touch with the authorities to present necessary documents. "Our relatives are pursuing the matter. We know that he is an Indian and I have full faith in 'Ishwar and Allah' that he will return," she said, as she waited at their residence with her two teenaged children for Islam. India demonstrated the power of its indigenous weapons during Operation Sindoor which made 'Pakistan plead to stop the war', Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday and warned the action was 'not over yet'. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting during the inauguration and foundation stone laying of various projects, in Rohtas on Friday. Photograph: ANI Photo During his visit in Kanpur to inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for 15 development projects worth over Rs 47,600 crore, the PM addressed a rally and said he was to attend the programme on April 24 but had to cancel it due to the Pahalgam terror attack two days prior. As many as 26 people, including Kanpur businessman Shubham Dwivedi, died in the dastardly terror attack at the verdant meadows of Baisaran in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. In retaliatory action, India struck terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir two weeks later, which triggered a four-day military standoff with the neighbouring country. The prime minister began his speech by referring to the Pahalgam massacre and said, "Kanpur's son Shubham Dwivedi also became a victim of that barbarity." "We all can feel the pain, suffering and anger of our daughter Aishanya (Shubham's widow). The world witnessed the same anger of our sisters and daughters in the form of Operation Sindoor." "Operation Sindoor is not over yet. It showed the world power of indigenous weapons and Make in India. We destroyed terrorist hideouts in Pakistan by going hundreds of miles inside. Indian weapons, Brahmos missiles entered enemy territory and wreaked havoc," Modi told the rally. He said the heroics of the Indian armed forces forced the Pakistani Army to 'plead to stop the war' and asserted that India would no longer be intimidated by the threat of the nuclear bomb nor would it make a decision on that basis. Saluting the bravery of the armed forces' personnel, the prime minister reiterated India's uncompromising stance against terrorism. "The enemy, who was pleading during Operation Sindoor, should not be under any illusion, Operation Sindoor has not ended yet," Modi said and added that Pakistan's ploy of state and non-state actors was not going to work anymore. With his remark drawing cheers from the crowd, the prime minister sought to strike a chord of local sentiments by saying, "If I say in simple Kanpuriya language, the enemy will be struck down ('haunk diya jaayegaa') wherever it is." Laying out India's three principles in the fight against terror, Modi said, "First, India will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack with the timing, manner, and the condition of the reply to be decided by our armies themselves." "Second, India will no longer be scared of the threat of atom bombs nor would it make a decision on that basis. And third, India will see the masters of terror and the government patronising terror in the same light." Highlighting India's growing defence capabilities, the prime minister said, "Our Indian weapons, the BrahMos missile entered the enemy's territory and wreaked havoc. They blasted wherever they targeted. We have got this power from the resolve of Aatmanirbhar Bharat." Turning to Kanpur's development, he emphasised the city was playing a pivotal role in India's defence manufacturing growth. "There is an old ordnance factory in Kanpur. We have converted seven such ordnance factories into big modern companies. The Kanpur node of the defence corridor is a big centre of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in the defence sector." "Big companies in the defence sector are coming here. The production of AK 203 rifles has begun in Amethi. The new address of BrahMos missile that did not let the enemies sleep during Operation Sindoor is Uttar Pradesh," Modi said. The PM promised employment opportunities, large-scale investments, and renewed industrial growth in Kanpur and said, "Taking Uttar Pradesh and Kanpur to newer heights of development is the first priority of this double-engine government." "The old glory of Kanpur will return again," he declared. Slamming the previous dispensations in the state for 'ignoring' industrial development, Modi said, "Industries kept migrating from Kanpur. The dynasty-oriented ('Parvarvadi') government kept its eyes closed. The result was that not only Kanpur but the entire Uttar Pradesh lagged behind." About Metro expansion in the city, he said, "Kanpur Metro is the proof of the fact that if there is a government with right intentions, strong willpower and good intentions, then the development of the state is possible." He referenced improvements in road and rail infrastructure, the modernisation of the Kanpur Central Station and the construction of an elevated rail corridor to ease traffic and pollution to bolster his point. "The Kanpur Central railway station will get a modern and world-class look like an airport very shortly," the prime minister said while informing the rally that more than 150 railway stations in Uttar Pradesh were being upgraded under the Amrit Bharat scheme. Underlining Uttar Pradesh's rise, Modi noted that the state now has the highest number of international airports in the country. "We are making Uttar Pradesh a state of industrial possibilities." He said self-sufficiency in energy and strong infrastructure are key to Uttar Pradesh's industrial growth. He inaugurated several power projects, including the 660 MW Panki, 660 MW Neyveli, 1320 MW Jawaharpur, 660 MW Obra-C, and 660 MW Khurja plants, terming them a major step toward meeting the state's power needs. Mentioning welfare measures such as the distribution of Ayushman Vay Vandana Cards for free medical care for the elderly, Modi said these efforts reflect the government's commitment to Kanpur and the state's development. About infrastructure, he said UP has moved beyond pothole-filled roads to a state known for its expressways and announced the Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway will reduce travel time to 40-45 minutes with new links to the Purvanchal and Ganga Expressways. He also announced Rs 1,000 crore for an elevated rail corridor to ease congestion and save time. About the MSME sector, he said earlier definitions discouraged growth, but revised norms and new budget provisions now support expansion. He noted past credit challenges are being addressed through schemes like Mudra Yojana and the Credit Guarantee Scheme. MSME loan guarantees have been raised to Rs 20 crore, and credit cards with limits up to Rs 5 lakh are being provided, Modi said. "In this budget, we have made income up to Rs 12 lakh completely tax-free. This has given new confidence to crores of middle-class families," he said. Concluding his speech, the prime minister said, "We will leave no stone unturned in working hard to take the country and Uttar Pradesh to new heights." Earlier in the day, the prime minister met the family members of Shubham Dwivedi at the Chakeri airport in Kanpur. Currently, the NAPCC has eight active missions across sectors like water, energy, and agriculture, aimed at addressing climate change. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches Mission LiFE at the Statue of Unity in Ekta Nagar, Kevadia, Gujarat, October 20, 2022. Photograph: ANI Photo The government is considering adding Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) to the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), according to two officials aware of the development. Currently, the NAPCC has eight active missions across sectors like water, energy, and agriculture, aimed at addressing climate change. The incorporation of Mission LiFE into the NAPCC aims to better quantify the needs of individuals and businesses while creating awareness, a government official said. Prime Minister Modi had pitched for Mission LiFE at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The mission was officially launched in October 2022 to mobilise at least one billion people in India and worldwide to take individual and collective action to protect and conserve the environment between 2022 and 2028. The ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) serves as the nodal ministry for the national-level coordination and implementation of Mission LiFE. Any related initiatives will be managed by this ministry, the government official cited above said. As a global programme, Mission LiFE aims for three core shifts in the collective approach to sustainability: a change in demand at the personal level, a change in supply at the business level, and a change in policy to support sustainable consumption and production. However, a significant challenge remains in the area of adoption. "Awareness does not always lead to action. Although the government is working to create awareness, there is often a delay when it comes to actions taken by individuals, communities, and businesses," said the second person. One practical recommendation from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency is to set air conditioning units to 26 degrees C, which is considered optimal for comfort, energy efficiency, and emission reduction. However, whether people follow this remains uncertain. It might be adopted by those connected to nature, but not universally, the person added. Mission LiFE introduces a different approach to lifestyle changes compared to other interventions, such as promoting solar energy in the grid. The government has a comprehensive programme for rooftop solar installations, which provides capital subsidies. In contrast, Mission LiFE emphasises behavioural changes, encouraging individuals to be environmentally conscious and motivated; this initiative is self-driven. "Incorporating this mission into the NAPCC may enhance awareness and encourage individuals and institutions to adopt responsible behaviour through mass campaigns. "Additionally, it will help quantify needs. This process is expected to unfold gradually, rather than as swiftly as initiatives like the National Solar Mission," according to the quoted government official. Through this initiative, the government aims to highlight necessary lifestyle changes for achieving more sustainable outcomes. Once awareness campaigns are launched representing government intervention the hope is that people will receive a tangible to-do list to follow, leading to potential changes on the ground that result in energy and emission savings. Queries sent to the secretary and spokesperson of MoEFCC did not receive a response till the time of going to press. "It is difficult to provide specific details right now as discussions have just begun, with one meeting having taken place," said the government official when asked whether there would be any adjustments to the policy if added to the NAPCC. "Any changes would depend on consultations, and if the MoEFCC sees the need to implement modifications, those could be made." The entire process to draft the policy document could take at least two years, and approval from the Prime Minister's Office will be necessary after inter-ministerial consultations, the official informed. The programme's focus on amplification and sustainability strategies is valuable. While technology and innovation are key, behaviour must be central, requiring rigorous methods. Measuring progress and impact is crucial, said Nitesh Mehrotra, Partner, Sustainability & Resilience at EY India, stressing that driving a movement is difficult without understanding objectives and actions. Holistic assessment and review are essential, Mehrotra said, emphasising the importance of allocating budget and investments to Mission LiFE, as without proper funding, progress will be difficult. Moreover, he underlined that integrating Mission LiFE into state action plans was crucial. Vaibhav Chaturvedi, a research fellow at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, said that Mission LiFE must be examined within each sector, as there could be a long list of interventions. "It was essential to analyse which stakeholders are relevant for each of these interventions," he said. Push for sustainability The National Action Plan on Climate Change has 8 active missions Mission LiFE aims for core shifts in approach to sustainability The merger with NAPCC aims to quantify individuals and businesses' needs The aim is to highlight lifestyle changes t achieve sustainable outcomes Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff ELKO You are not alone. Thats the message from the Nevada Institute of Forensic Nursing, a new nonprofit service that provides treatment and support for survivors of sexual assault free to anyone in need. It could even be considered first-responder treatment to victims who experienced a traumatic event, according to co-founders Norah Lusk and Cyndy Milligan-Lusk. The institute fills a gap for more abuse awareness and training in Elko and rural areas, according to Lusk. The few people who responded before we got to them werent sure what to do, how to do it, or what to say. The goal of NVIFN is to reshape how sexual assault victims are treated in the early stages and to provide one-on-one physical and mental health care as they heal, Lusk, a forensic nurse specializing in sexual assault and a family practitioner, said. She explained the goal is to provide holistic integrated treatment. The institute also uses a fully equipped mobile unit in the form of a camp trailer that can meet victims at any location or travel to remote areas to perform exams and collect evidence in the event the case goes to court. Nobody knows whats going on in that trailer, Milligan-Lusk said. It gives [victims] the ability to come in a private setting and be seen. We bring an advocate with us, and we have a forensic interviewer, Lusk added. If a child needs a forensic interview, we have an advocate with us who [works] with the family, help them fill out the paperwork, talk them through resources, what to expect in next steps while interviewer is speaking with the child. A forensic nurse observes the interview to ensure the nurse does not ask the same questions during the exam. It keeps them from being revictimized and having to tell their story all over again, Milligan-Lusk said. Through the gathering evidence and through recorded interviews, child victims do not have to speak in court or with prosecutors or defense attorneys. We can speak on their behalf, especially when children are involved. We can go to court and testify on their behalf. That keeps them from having to have the scary feeling of facing their perpetrator. All services, including calls for the mobile unit, are provided for free, Milligan-Lusk said. We dont charge any of the survivors for our services. Education, treatment Since the Nevada Institute of Forensic Nursing opened its doors in 2023, Lusk said, they have seen an astronomical amount of interviews but not the actual sexual assault cases because not everybody wants to have a full examination done. Milligan-Lusk said NVIFN has performed more than 70 adult exams and nearly 30 pediatric exams for sexual assault. In the last two years, because we are also contracted with the Great Basin Child Advocacy Center, weve done over 200 interviews, she added. Lusk said one objective was to educate and inform the public and the medical community how to treat victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who need immediate care. One example is awareness of delayed fatalities in domestic violence victims. Lusk said according to national guidelines and protocols people who may have been strangled will have a CAT scan performed on the head and neck to make sure they are not in any imminent danger before they are discharged from the hospital. Such proactive measures have been a total game changer, she said. It is truly and officially saving lives. Lusk pointed to another example of medical staff contacting a forensic nurse to begin treatment of a sexual assault victim. [Medical personnel] are starting to understand how important it is not to get in a hospital gown or not to ask them a whole bunch of questions or do a whole bunch of things until they talk to us first. Applying trauma-informed care to sexual assault or domestic violence victims leads to increased reporting of crimes to law enforcement, she added. People know its safe, Lusk said. They can report and [know] theyre not going to be treated poorly. It also been a gamechanger. Milligan-Lusk said they had heard stories of victims being revictimized and re-assaulted through victim blaming or victim shaming before the institute was established. Victims receive an advocate who maintains contact, resulting in victims reporting they feel safe under the institutes care, Milligan-Lusk said. Advocates works with victims through court appearances, counseling and helping do all the things they would normally have to navigate on their own. Now we have somebody who will walk them through all these steps, she explained. Anytime they have a question, they just pick up the phone and our advocates are there to help them though all these things. Lusk said the institute also reframes the way people approach their recovery. The whole point is to change them from a victim mindset to a survivor mindset. This doesnt have to define them. They can overcome and adapt, and we are going to be with them every step of the way. The institute serves past sexual assault survivors through a support group that meets once a month at the Bridges Health and Wellness Medical Clinic at 1995 Errecart Blvd., No. 207. It started this year. Its a little small, weve only met a few times, Norah said. The group is open all sexual assault survivors past and present whether they reported the incident or not to law enforcement or medical personnel. If this has happened to you, you are more than welcome [to attend], she said. Our advocates run the show for the support group. Cyndy and I are usually both there unless we are on a case. Contact Information: Nevada Institute of Forensic Nursing survivor.nvifn@gmail.com 775-401-3936 1995 Errecart Blvd., No. 207 Elko, NV 89801 Those suffering from past traumas are also encouraged to seek support with the same principle that applies to those currently dealing with traumatic incidents. We want people to understand that you were a victim, and we want to help you become a survivor because that is the first step to changing that mentality, being able to find coping strategies and reaching out. Feeling brave enough to come to us and get the care they need. Hopefully we can direct them to a mental health provider they will feel brave enough to reach out to, Lusk said. Hopefully its changing the face of the victim-blaming, victim-shaming and lets get through this so we can move on. Youre not alone. Youve got a team of very strong women who believe in them and know that they can survive. Healing starts with believing Milligan-Lusk said NVIFN begins working with victims by believing what happened to them. We start by believing. People are like, Well, people lie. People do this or people do that. Thats not who we are. Thats not how we operate. Most people who come in and do all the things we do to help them get through this, they are not lying, Milligan-Lusk said. But the more we get to speak on this and the more we talk about what we are doing, a lot of times we are triggering people who never reported. Once people learn about the institute, Milligan-Lusk said discussions conclude with lines of people opening up about their experiences and wanting more information. Helping people in that aspect has been huge, too. Opening doors for people that have a place to come talk about things that happened in their childhood. Lusk explained law enforcement and medical providers can help by believing the victim. It doesnt matter what actually happened, but if you start by believing, youre going to open that conversation and be able to hear exactly what that person went through, she said. Thats one of the things were trying to do is change the face of how we react when someone is victimized, Lusk said. She used the illustration of how patients in hospitals are treated for physical ailments compared with those seeking care after a sexual assault. In an emergency department, if somebody comes in with chest pains, a whole protocol is followed. Nobody says to that person, You shouldnt have eaten that extra cheeseburger, so were going to back out of the room. No, they get an EKG and bloodwork. Its all hands on deck. People who have been assaulted, by definition, are trauma patients and should be treated as such, Lusk continued. Its not about trying to prove whether or not X, Y or Z happened, but you need to be there for that person at that place. Meet them where they are and take care of them regardless of what your own personal feelings are. So start by believing actually gives verbiage and helps people respond better. Its virtually giving their power back to that survivor, Milligan-Lusk added. Thats a huge part of what we do is try to give the power back to them and the last thing we want to do is revictimize them by doing what were doing. Advocates work closely with victims and every step of the way were saying, If you want to stop, or if you dont want to go forward or if dont want to report, you dont have to. Were still going to do all the things for the person that was reporting the crime, Milligan-Lusk said. The institute maintains evidence kits for the victim if they decide to report the assault later. Hopefully, at some time, they do report. Wed like to get the perpetrators off the street to make the place safer. Recognized for innovation The institute is contracted by Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital and the Great Basin Child Advocacy Center. Lusk said she believed that while there may be other mobile units tending to sexual assault or abuse victims elsewhere, she and Milligan-Lusks concept of NVIFN may be the first of its kind in the nation. I dont believe theres anybody else like us out there because we do forensic nursing, Lusk said. I could be wrong, but I dont believe there is anybody quite like us. The program has been recognized for its innovation. Last year, Lusk was nominated for the Visionary Voice Awards by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. According to its website, the award recognizes the creativity and hard work of individuals around the country who have demonstrated outstanding work to end sexual violence. Lusk said the NVIFN also tests for sexually transmitted diseases and there are plans to seek funding to have lab work done locally to ensure results are available within a half-hour instead of sending it out to another facility out of town. Community support The Nevada Institute of Forensic Nursing was the featured nonprofit organization at the annual Women in Business event on April 24 sponsored by Edward Jones Financial Advisor Kaitlin McMullan, the Elko Convention and Visitors Authority, Amplified Digital and the Elko Daily Free Press. Thanks to the funds raised in this years silent auction, the institute received $4,590. Lusk and Milligan-Lusk gasped at the amount when the check was presented by Amplified Digital Senior Sales Executive Susan Goddard on May 15. The donation means the world to us, Lusk said. The money would go back to the community and beyond to West Wendover, Ely, Lovelock and Tonopah in the form of training several new nurses in Elko, which is really expensive. Being able to pay for their training so it doesnt come out of their pocket will ensure more nurses are available to take on cases, Lusk said. It will make a huge difference because we travel all over Nevada. Milligan-Lusk said the institute received many applications from good nurses and they can add to their workforce for more coverage in the rural areas and pay for travel expenses. We need extra nurses on staff. Lusk wants the community to know were here. Anyone can call us any time. The hotline 24-hour phone number you will get either myself, Cyndy or one of our advocates. It comes to one of us, not a hotline somewhere else. Incidents of sexual assault and domestic violence are trending upward in the rural areas, Lusk added. It is happening at an alarming rate and not just in Elko. This is happening and its so important to start by believing because its happening to your friends, neighbors and coworkers and you may not be able to see it as they walk through the door the next morning. The prestigious National Defence Academy on Friday witnessed history as the first batch of 17 female cadets marched alongside more than 300 male counterparts towards the 'Antim Pag' in a spectacular display of integration. IMAGE: Cadets march march past during the convocation ceremony of 148th National Defence Academy (NDA) course at Khetrpal Parade Ground of the tri-service training academy in Khadakwasla, Pune. Photograph: NDA on YouTube A flypast by three majestic Su-30 aircraft was a fitting accompaniment to the occasion as the cadets of the tri-services training academy's first co-ed batch went past the Antim Pag' at the Khetrapal Parade Ground on their way to bring more laurels to an institution widely hailed as the 'cradle of leadership'. The first batch of women cadets joined the NDA's 148th course in 2022 after the Union Public Service Commission allowed women to apply to the defence academy following a Supreme Court direction in 2021. "Every moment, every difficulty we went through, each emotion in all these three years we spent at the academy is worth it," said Divisional Cadet Captain Harsimran Kaur, whose parents were beaming with joy and pride at their daughter's feat. It was a rollercoaster of emotions as the parade moved towards the 'Antim Pag' as all the memories from the past three years got vivid, said Battalion Cadet Captain Shriti Daksh, adding that she was now fully ready to make her mark at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun. Shital, another cadet who was flanked by her proud parents, said, "It is a great feeling. There are more emotions and less words. As we approached the Antim Pag, the feeling was that yes we have done it." The NDA had changed her '180 degrees' and had made her mentally and physically strong, said Shital, who will be joining the IMA. Her father Ashok Mahalen said all the 17 female cadets are 'not just our daughters but the daughters of the entire nation'. Cadet Shristi Singh, while thanking her instructors and Squadron Commander of India Squadron, remarked that the legendary saying associated with the academy of 'jitna ragda, utna tagda' (the more gruelling the training, the stronger the cadet) is absolutely true. Singh, who is the first female cadet to pass out from India Squadron, aspires to join the Indian Naval Academy. Gen V K Singh (retired), former Army Chief and current governor of Mizoram, who was the reviewing officer of the Passing Out Parade, called it a uniquely significant day in the history of the academy. "This marks a historic milestone in our collective journey towards greater inclusivity and empowerment. These young women are the inevitable symbol of Naari Shakti, embodying not just women's development but women-led development," he said. "I envision a future, not far from now, that one of these young women may rise to the highest of roles of the service they go to," the former COAS said. Addressing the press, he said when the girls came to the academy, there was a system in place to integrate them, and they were truly integrated over these three years. "I am sure the academy will be more successful in bringing more integration in the future," the retired general said. Vice Admiral Gurcharan Singh, Commandant, NDA, said when girls first came to the academy, they were staying separately. "Today they are integrated completely with squadrons and battalions. They are running together, they are playing together, they are training together. Each and every activity at the academy is gender-neutral. It took us time but now it is in progress," he asserted. He said before taking the step of integrating the female cadets into the squadrons and assessing how their living conditions would be, he personally led a team to Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala and Officers Training Academy, Chennai, where female cadets have been in training for some years. "We drew inspiration from them, studied their models and adapted as to how it can be implemented here at the academy," the Vice Admiral said. A total of 1,341 cadets, including 336 from the passing out course, participated in the Passing Out Parade (POP) at the iconic Khetarpal Parade Ground in Khadakwasla. The parade marked the successful completion of rigorous military and academic training by the cadets, culminating in a splendid display of precision, discipline and military bearing. It was impeccably conducted by Adjutant Lt Col Praveen Kumar Tiwari, astride his charger 'Reliant Robin'. Academy Cadet Captain Udayveer Singh Negi of 'G' Squadron commanded the parade. The Reviewing Officer presented President's Gold Medal to Battalion Cadet Adjutant Prince Raj, President's Silver Medal to Academy Cadet Captain Udayveer Singh Negi and President's Bronze Medal to Battalion Cadet Captain Tejas Bhatt. The prestigious Chiefs of Staff Banner was awarded to Golf Squadron for overall excellence, a release said. The event concluded with a grand flypast featuring flag-trooping Chetak helicopters, Super Dimona motorised gliders, and the majestic Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft, symbolising the culmination of training and the cadets' readiness to embark on the next phase of their military journey. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met the family of Shubham Dwivedi, who was among the 26 people killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photograph: Press Information bureau The prime minister met the grieving family at the Chakeri airport in Kanpur. It was a very emotional meeting, said Saurabh Dwivedi, Shubham's cousin. "All the family members started crying when they met PM Modi," he said. The prime minister also got emotional during the meeting and assured Shubham's family of his government's full support, Saurabh added. "The PM consoled the family and also said that the fight against terrorism will continue," he added. Shubham, 31, had been married just weeks ago on February 12 when he was gunned down. The family, including his wife and other family members, were holidaying in Pahalgam when the terror attack took place. "The PM was himself very very sad about the Pahalgam killings. He placed a hand on the shoulder of Shubham's father and consoled him. It was a very emotional meeting," Shubham's wife said about the meeting. Shubham's father said, "The PM spoke to us just like a guardian. Like us, he too got emotional and assured us of his government's full support. We were also all praise for the manner in which India retaliated to Pahalgam killings with Operation Sindoor and conveyed this to the PM." Moscow is genuinely interested in the revival of activities within the framework of the Russia-India-China (RIC) format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS Summit in Kazan on October 23, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo "I would like to confirm our genuine interest in the earliest resumption of the work within the format of the troika -- Russia, India, China -- which was established many years ago on the initiative of (ex-Russian prime minister) Yevgeny Primakov, and which has organised meetings more than 20 times at the ministerial level since then, not only at the level of foreign policy chiefs, but also the heads of other economic, trade and financial agencies of the three countries," Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS. The foreign minister was addressing an international social and political conference on forming a single and equitable system of security and cooperation in Eurasia in the city of Perm in the Ural mountains, where Europe borders with Asia, at the plenary session of the conference. "As of today, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to ease the situation on the border, and it seems to me that the time has come for the revival of this RIC troika," Lavrov stressed. He also alleged that NATO is blatantly trying to lure India into anti-China intrigues. "I have no doubts that our Indian friends, and I say this on the basis of confidential conversations with them, obviously see this trend that can be actually deemed as a large provocation, Lavrov said. The RIC troika was frozen since the Galwan crisis in June 2020. However, the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia's Kazan in October 2024 was seen as a thaw when the two leaders expressed the need to improve bilateral relations. In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Friday issued directions that the post-graduate medical entrance exam scheduled on June 15 be conducted in a single shift, saying holding it in two shifts 'creates arbitrariness'. IMAGE: Aspirants leave the examination centre after appearing for the National Eligibility Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG) exam, in Kanpur on Sunday. Image used only for representation. Photograph: ANI Photo A bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath directed the authorities to make arrangements for holding National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEET-PG) 2025 exam in one shift and to ensure that complete transparency is maintained and secured centres are identified. "Any two question papers can never be said to be having an identical level of difficulty or ease," said the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and N V Anjaria. It said normalisation may be applied in exceptional cases but not in a routine manner year after year. It said normalisation may be applied in exceptional cases but not in a routine manner year after year. The bench passed the order on pleas challenging a notification on holding the NEET-PG 2025 examination in two shifts. The top court said the total number of candidates who have applied for the examination is 2,42,678 and the test is held all over the country and not in one city. "We are not ready to accept that in the entire country and considering the technological advancement in the country, the examining body could not find enough centres to hold the examination in one shift," the bench said. "Holding examinations in two shifts creates arbitrariness and also does not keep all the candidates, who take the examination, at the same level," it observed. It said the examination is scheduled for June 15 and there was still more than two weeks for the examining body to identify further centres to hold it in one shift. "We accordingly direct the respondents to make further arrangements for holding the examination in one shift and also ensure that complete transparency is maintained and secured centres are identified," the bench said. One of the pleas was filed through advocate Sukriti Bhatnagar. Several lawyers, including advocate Tanvi Dubey, appeared in the matter. The counsel appearing for the respondents, including the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), said even if efforts were made to identify more centres, it might need more time which might result into delay in holding the examinations. The NBEMS is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting postgraduate and postdoctoral examinations in approved specialities leading to the award of Diplomate of National Board and Doctorate of National Board and Fellow of National Board. The respondents said consequently, the counselling might also be delayed which would not be in line with the timeline fixed by the apex court. "This argument is also not accepted as there is still sufficient time for the examining body to identify sufficient number of centres for holding the examination in one shift," the bench said. The top court observed it would be open for the respondents to apply for extension of time, if they find they were not able to identify required number of centres. When the counsel for the respondents repeatedly said the process of identifying centres might not be completed by June 15, the bench said they could seek extension of time and the court would consider that. "It is for you to identify and pay for it. If you don't want to spend money, it is a different thing," the bench observed. The counsel appearing for the respondents said it was not a question of money. "Now you burn little midnight oil and try to find the centres," the bench said. "We have given you liberty to seek extension," the bench said, adding, "You have already made up your mind that you are not going to be able to do it without even trying. Try at least". It noted the other issued raised in the plea was regarding disclosure of question papers and answer keys on NBEMS's website after the declaration of results. It said this issue would be considered after the examinations are held and posted the matter for hearing on July 14. The apex court noted that counsel for the respondents have opposed the plea to conduct NEET-PG examination in one shift on two grounds. It said as per respondents, the number of candidates to appear in the exam was too large and it was difficult for the examining body to find secured centres to hold the test in one shift. It said the second ground was that if examinations were held in one shift, unscrupulous elements might get involved and there could be malpractices. During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners said NEET-PG exam was a rank-based test and even one marks would make a huge difference in whether the candidate would get the preferred stream. "You tell us why do you hold examination in two shifts?," the bench asked the counsel appearing for the respondents. The counsel said these examinations were held online and there were limited safe centres having required infrastructure. When the counsel appearing for one of the respondents said the schedule fixed by the apex court would be disturbed as holding the examination in one shift within 15 days would be difficult, the bench said, "Don't give this kind of a threat that the whole year will go and this will happen and that will happen". The lawyer appearing for another respondent said they have identified about 445 centres for multi shift examination and if it was to be conducted in one shift, they will have to identify about 900 odd centres. All-party parliamentary delegations on Friday met leaders and diplomats from several countries to galvanise international action against terrorists and decisively counter the tactics of those who perpetrate, support and sponsor cross-border terror activities against India. IMAGE: All-party delegation leader Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, with delegation members, meets former President of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria, at his residence in Bogota, May 30, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo In Bogota, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading an all-party delegation, elaborated India's position on terrorism and voiced his disappointment over Colombia offering condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan following Indian strikes in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Tharoor "reaffirmed India's stance on terrorism and expressed disappointment over Colombia's response which has offered condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathizing with the victims of terrorism in India," said BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who is part of the nine-member delegation. "There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend," he said in a social media post. Surya said India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to deliver strong responses to terrorism. The delegation met Colombia's Vice Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio and conveyed India's firm policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and its proactive approach to counter cross-border threats. "The Colombian side responded positively," the embassy of India in Colombia said in a post on X. The delegation also called on former president Cesar Gaviria, the head of the Liberal Party - the largest single party in the Colombian Assembly - at his residence on Bogota. "He was strongly supportive of India's fight against terrorism and undertook to say so publicly as well," Tharoor said in a post on X. In Latvia, the all-party delegation led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi arrived on Thursday to convey India's resolute and proactive policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism. On Friday, Ambassador Namrata S. Kumar briefed the delegation on India-Latvia relations and Latvia's role in the Baltics, the European Union, and the United Nations, the Indian Embassy in Riga said. The delegation, which arrived in Riga from Greece, will meet members of the parliament of the Republic of Latvia 'Saeima', high officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, think tanks, academia and other stakeholders, the embassy said in a statement. In Copenhagen, the delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday met the chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee of Danish Parliament Christian Friis Bach and member Trine Pertou Mach. "During our discussion, we briefed the Danish representatives on the horrific Pahalgam terrorist attack and India's decisive response through Operation Sindoor, emphasizing that those responsible for terrorism will be held accountable. We all welcomed Denmark's unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, valuing the country's strong stance against this global threat," Prasad said in a post on X. In Sierra Leone, the delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde interacted with foreign diplomats to galvanize international action against terrorists and decisively counter the tactics of those who perpetrate, support and sponsor cross border terror activities against India, the High Commission of India in Freetown posted on X. "Whatever India is going through, it is not just your problem, it is our problem too...though not permanent we are members of UN Security Council..," Deputy Leader of the Opposition Daniel Brima Koroma told the Indian delegation during their meeting, according to the Indian mission. In Riyadh, the all-party Indian delegation, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, concluded a productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reasserting India's zero-tolerance and New Normal' approach to terrorism during its interaction with a range of political and diplomatic leadership. The visit reaffirmed the shared commitment of India-Saudi Arabia in the fight against terrorism, said a post on X by the Indian Embassy in Riyadh. "We have very clearly conveyed India's position and the threat that we have faced from cross-border terrorism. India has a deep relationship with Saudi Arabia... Stands taken on terrorism are the same," Panda told PTI Videos. The delegation later left Riyadh for Algiers, where members will highlight India's decisive and resolute stance on terrorism, particularly its fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. "Taking Bharat's message to the world! A warm welcome to all-party delegation of Members of Parliament led by Baijayant Jay Panda, upon their arrival in #Algiers today afternoon," the Indian mission in Algiers posted on X. Ambassador Swati V Kulkarni received the delegation at the airport along with Mourad Heraki, director (Ceremonial) and Zineddine Goufi, deputy director (Asia Oceania), ministry of foreign affairs, National Community Abroad and African Affairs of Algeria, it added. In South Africa, the delegation led by NCP MP Supriya Sule met with the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) and informed them about India's new resolve to respond to any incident of cross-border terrorism without drawing distinction between terrorists, their organizations or their state sponsors. The ANC reaffirmed its commitment to standing in solidarity with the people of India, emphasising that terrorism must be condemned in all its forms, the High Commission of India in Pretoria said in a statement on Friday. The delegation on Friday left for Ethiopia, carrying forth to the world India's strong message on zero-tolerance against terrorism. In Jakarta, the all-party delegation, led by Janata Dal-United MP Sanjay Kumar Jha met with KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board, and Kholili Kholil, committee member of NU, the world's largest Islamic organisation and sought their unwavering support against violence and religious extremism. "As peace-loving countries with the largest Muslim populations with shared values of Unity in Diversity or Binneka Tunggal Ika practised as state policy as well as in daily lives, the leader of the delegation urged NU leaders to support India and condemn cross border terrorism to give a strong message to the world," the Indian Embassy in Jakarta said on X. "Condemning terrorism and the attack on innocent civilians, KH Ulil said he felt the pain of India & called for India and Indonesia to walk hand in hand to promote peace, economic development," it said. On Thursday, the delegation met with National Mandate Party (PAN) leaders who categorically stated that religion and race cannot serve as a basis for exporting terrorism. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pahalgam terror attack, with India carrying out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7. Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions. The on-ground hostilities ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority on Friday apprised the Supreme Court of its decision to scrap the tender process for two marquee infrastructure projects in Mumbai. IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo The top court was hearing a plea of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) against a decision of the MMRDA to disqualify the infrastructure giant from bidding for the projects, including one related to the construction of the Rs 6,000-crore Thane-Ghodbunder to Bhayandar tunnel and elevated road. At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for MMRDA, told a bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai that the tendering process for the projects has been scrapped. "It is fairly stated that the entire tender process is scrapped in the larger public interest. Thus, the plea (of L&T) is disposed of as infructuous," the CJI said while closing the case. On Thursday, MMRDA strongly defended its decision to disqualify L&T from the two infrastructure projects in Mumbai, citing "substantial grounds" for the rejection of its technical bids. The solicitor general had asserted that the disqualification was based on valid and significant reasons. Rohatgi, also representing MMRDA, had supported the stance of the law officer and had urged the court to review the detailed technical evaluation, noting, "The disqualification is not on flimsy or fanciful grounds." Rohatgi emphasised that the terms of the tender prevent the authority from disclosing the reasons for disqualification until the contract is officially awarded. The court had earlier expressed scepticism over the exclusion, especially considering L&T's credentials, including its selection by the central government for the prestigious Central Vista redevelopment project in Delhi. The two high-value projects in question include the approximately Rs 6,000-crore Mumbai Elevated Road Project, a 9.8-km bridge along Vasai Creek and the Rs 8,000-crore Road Tunnel Project, which involves the construction of five-kilometre twin tunnels from Gaimukh to the Fountain Hotel Junction on Thane's Ghodbunder Road. L&T had initially challenged the MMRDA's decision in the Bombay high court, which dismissed its plea in two separate orders on May 20. The company then approached the apex court seeking redress. The Supreme Court on Friday initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Chandigarh-based journalist and YouTuber Ajay Shukla for his "scandalous", defamatory and contemptuous remarks against a few apex court judges in a video uploaded on his channel. IMAGE: The Supreme Court of India. Photograph: ANI Photo A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and AS Chandurkar also directed that the offending video be immediately taken down and restrained the YouTube channel from republishing it or similar content. It also issued a notice to Shukla, the editor-in-chief of Varprad Media. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta described the remarks as "very serious" and expressed his gratitude to the bench for taking up suo motu cognisance of the issue. "Such scandalous allegations widely published are likely to bring disrepute to the august institution of the judiciary. No doubt the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech. But this freedom is subject to reasonable restrictions. "A person cannot be permitted to make allegations which are in the nature of defaming a judge of this Court and also contemptuous in nature, which attempts to bring disrepute to the institution of the judiciary," the CJI said. "We direct the registry to register the case as a suo motu contempt against Ajay Shukla. The YouTube channel shall be made a party respondent. The Attorney General (R Venkataramani) and the Solicitor General (Tushar Mehta) are requested to assist the court," it ordered. The bench said by an interim order, it restrains the YouTube channel to stop publication of the video and forthwith take it down. Shukla recently posted a video making remarks against retired judge Bela M Trivedi. 'Sindoor symbolises our culture, honour and dignity.' Modiji has acted rightly against Pakistan by naming it Operation Sindoor.' IMAGE: Women sporting sindoor turned up in hundreds to greet Narendra Modi at his roadshow in Patna, May 29, 2025. Photographs: ANI Photo IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on a road show in Patna, May 29, 2025. It was all about Operation Sindoor as hundreds of women sporting vermillion on their foreheads lined up both sides of the road Tri-colour in hand to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his roadshow in Patna on Thursday, May 29, 2025, evening. Modi began his road show from Patna airport after the chanting of mantras and blowing of conches. This is Modi's second road show in a year in Patna, the previous one being in May last year during the Lok Sabha election campaign. The Modi road show passed by Patna zoo, Rajvanshi Nagar, Hanuman Mandir, Bihar Museum, the Income Tax roundabout and ended at the Bharatiya Janata Party's state office on Bir Chand Patel Marg. This was Modi's first road show anywhere in the country after Operation Sindoor. A large number of women sporting sindoor shouted slogans supporting the military operation against Pakistan. "We support Modi for Operation Sindoor to teach Pakistan a tough lesson," says Bindu Devi, a middle-aged housewife who was spotted waving the Tri-colour near the Bihar museum. Adds Sanjana Devi, a young woman, "Sindoor symbolises our culture, honour and dignity. Modiji has acted rightly against Pakistan by naming it Operation Sindoor. We have assembled here to thank and support him." "Look, I am not keeping well but still came out of my house in this hot and humid weather to support Modi for Operation Sindoor," says Nahesh Kumar Singh, an elderly gentleman, Tricolour in hand. IMAGE: Modi inaugurates the new terminal building at the Jayaprakash Narayan international airport, May 29, 2025. Earlier, Modi inaugurated the Jayaprakash Narayan international airport's new terminal building constructed at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) and also laid the foundation stone for a new civil enclave at Bihta airport, located about 30 km away from Patna. Modi will launch development projects worth Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) during his visit to Bihar, which goes to the polls in a few months' time. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that the PM explain to 140 crore Indians how many Rafale aircraft were shot down by the Pakistani Army during the recent conflict. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy during the 10th NITI Aayog Governing Council Meeting at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on May 24, 2025. Photograph: @revanth_anumula/X Addressing the 'Jai Hind' rally in Secunderabad, Reddy also sought to know why the PM, who had called for an all-party meeting before going to war with Pakistan, did not do so before calling off the armed conflict with the neighbouring country. He also alleged that Modi failed to separate Balochistan from Pakistan and take control over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), despite the wishes of 140 crore Indians. "The soldiers of this (Secunderabad) Cantonment participated in the war. The war planes being manufactured in Telangana upheld respect for our country. Rafale aircraft brought by Narendra Modi were shot down by Pakistan. There is no discussion on how many Rafales were shot down. Narendra Modi should answer how many Rafael aircraft were shot down by Pakistan during the recent war. You give us the account," he asked the PM. The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday lashed out at the Congress for its leaders' questions and jibes at the government following the conflict with Pakistan, and alleged that the opposition party's ongoing 'Jai Hind Yatra' looks more like "Jai Pakistan Yatra". BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters that senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, have often asked about the number of aircraft India lost in the conflict, and accused Jairam Ramesh of equating MPs travelling abroad as members of all-party delegations with terrorists. Gandhi never asked about the details of terror sites and air bases destroyed in Pakistan but his party has enquired about the losses of Indian jets more frequently than the neighbouring country, he said. These leaders are like "babbar" (warrior) of Pakistan, he said, adding that they are gabbar of India, invoking the villain of iconic film Sholay, and added they will meet the same fate as the bandit did in the hands of heroes Jai and Veeru. "Gabbar's defeat is certain due to India's jai (glory) and veerta (valour)." He noted that even Congress MPs are part of the seven all-party delegations currently on a visit to world capitals to put across India's stand following the Pahalgam terror attack and its punitive strikes against Pakistan. Firing salvos, Reddy alleged that contracts worth thousands of crores were awarded to people close to Modi, who then purchased Rafale aircraft. Reddy said senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Meenakshi Natarajan said only one thing that when it comes to national security, irrespective of political lines, everyone should come together and accordingly assured the NDA government that it would stand by it during the fight with Pakistan. "After four days of war, we do not know who threatened whom and who succumbed to whom. All of a sudden, US President Donald Trump came out and said he threatened India and stopped the war," the CM said. Mocking the prime minister that war is not giving lectures, Reddy said by stopping the war, Modi pledged the self-respect of 140 crore Indians. He accused China of encroaching 4000 sq km of Indian territory even as PM Modi failed to give a befitting reply to the neighbour. Reddy said former PM Indira Gandhi defeated China in 1967 and sent out a message to the world that if anybody messed with India, they would be taught a lesson. He further said, despite threats by the then US government, Indira Gandhi did not go back on the Indo-Pak war in 1971 and went on creating Bangladesh by separating it from Pakistan. Patra cited controversial statements of a number of Congress leaders, including some questioning military conflict with Pakistan and the suspension of Indus Water Treaty, since after the Pahalgam attack. He said the opposition party might have claimed that it is with the government on the issue but it is lowering the morale of armed forces from the very beginning. The Congress should suspend its Jai Hind Yatra, which is more like Jai Pakistan Yatra, and instead consult with Pakistan and hold a joint press conference, he said, claiming that Gandhi has been quoted frequently in Pakistan. With the Congress increasingly turning caustic at its MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading the multi-party delegation to the US and four other countries, for his stout defence of the government's actions, Patra said the party is divided into two factions. One supports Pakistan, he alleged, while another include those who want to raise their voice for India but cannot due to leaders like Gandhi. He noted that another Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who is a member of one of the delegarions, had spoken about the changes brought by the revocation of Article 370, and said somebody should relay the former Union minister's remarks to Gandhi. During the Congress-led UPA rule, terrorists were invited to the Prime Minister's Office at the behest of the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he claimed and referred to reports that she had cried over the killing of some young terrorists in the Batla House encounter. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading an all-party delegation, has voiced his deep disappointment over Colombia offering condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan following Indian strikes in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. IMAGE: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shows a picture of Pakistani Army officials attending the funerals of terrorists after India's strike on their terror bases. Photograph: @ShashiTharoor/X Tharoor is leading the delegation to Colombia as part of India's global outreach to expose Pakistan's support for cross-border terrorist activities and India's policy of zero-tolerance for terrorism. At a media briefing in this Colombian capital city on Thursday, Tharoor elaborated India's position on terrorism, spoke about Operation Sindoor and expressed disappointment over Colombia's response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Tharoor 'reaffirmed India's stance on terrorism and expressed disappointment over Colombia's response which has offered condolences for the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism in India', said Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian Tejasvi Surya. 'There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend,' he said in a social media post. Surya said India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to deliver strong responses to terrorism. The BJP Lok Sabha MP is part of the nine-member delegation that already travelled to Guyana and Panama before arriving in Colombia on Thursday. Other members of the delegation include Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Shambhavi (Lok Janshakti Party), GM Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party) and former ambassador of India to United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu. During their stay in Bogota, the delegation will interact with Members of Congress, ministers and other key interlocutors in think tanks. From Columbia, the delegation would travel to Brazil. It will be in the United States in the last leg of its five-nation trip. 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. ELKO In 1869, one of Elkos first hotels, the Humboldt Lodging House, was built. It grew over time and was reconstructed as a brick hotel. Later, this building ended up as the Commercial Casino. Hotel businessman Newt Crumley bought the building in 1925. He and his son, Newton Hunt Crumley, turned it into a hotspot for show business, attracting celebrity performers such as Sophie Tucker, Chico Marx and Spike Jones. The Commercial Casinos gambling operations slowed down in the 2000s. In summer 2023, it opened full-time as the Commercial Fun Center. When historic preservation nonprofit Preserve Nevada released its 2025 list of Nevadas most endangered historic places, the Commercial building was among them. Michael Green, chair of the history department at UNLV and Preserve Nevadas executive director, said the group has compiled the list almost every year for the past two decades. We do it with the goal of increasing interest in and concern about preserving our past, he said. What we try to do with the list is not to be critical. Were not criticizing people and places and were not saying that no one cares in the community. Were trying to make sure when we do this that people are conscious of the historical importance of the building and theres always a risk involved. When its privately owned, theres also a risk of public ownership, he said. It has been around for a long time, the old lodge and all that. Newt Crumley was a major figure in Elko history and Nevadas history. It long since stopped being the Commercial Hotel and now it is what it is. Theres always a risk in that case, he said. How committed is the current ownership? What if someone comes along with a plan? You just never know, he added. Weve kind of invested a lot into keeping the Commercial building itself functional, because it does have an important history, Commercial Fun Center owner Chad Edwards said. While weve been able to maintain the first floor as family-friendly, having it as just an old, kind of run-down building on the second floor worked really well for the haunted houses. But I think if somebody wanted to demolish it, we would try and prevent that from happening, he said. A lot of the work weve done on the building has just been minor updates cleaning up the carpet, adding some paint here and there but for the most part, weve definitely tried to preserve the integrity of the building and also, the parts that are most important to people, he said, which includes leaving it as its always been, kind of a community center for Elko, a place where people gather. However, now it is appealing to all ages rather than focusing on a gambling demographic, he said. We need to show pride in our past. That shows we are forward-thinking into our future, that these buildings are significant portions of the past, present and future and they can be repurposed into modern uses, Elko historian Jan Petersen said. When the city was looking at a new location for City Hall, the architect involved recommended tearing down the Commercial Hotel for that site for City Hall, she said. We need to not just knock things down and build some shiny new thing. We need to honor our past and remember that the actions of the past are a reflection of the present. Many prominent Elko buildings are now gone, she said. The White Sulphur Hot Springs resort was built near the Hot Hole in 1869, rebuilt 1882 and torn down in the 1970s. Elko General Hospital was originally built in 1921 and rebuilt in the 1970s, with the last hospital building torn down in 2005. Walter Dupont, Elkos third mayor, started a pharmacy business and brought it to a building at the corner of Idaho Street and Fifth Street in 1920. The building also housed the Cherished Friends store in the 1990s and was out of use by 2010. Its former site is now a vacant space next to the Carlin Trend store. The Elko Grammar School #1 building, which is now replaced with the Green Acres apartments between Eighth Street and Ninth Street, was built in 1919 and razed in 1974. As for some examples of preserving historic buildings into the present day, theres the Society Hall in downtown Tuscarora that was the old Masonic Oddfellows Hall. It has been rehabilitated and it is now the community center in Independence Valley and a small museum, Petersen said. The Pony Express building in front of the Northeastern Nevada Museum is a good example of historic preservation, she added. The Pioneer Hotel building, built in 1913, currently houses the Western Folklife Center. The Henderson Bank building has been standing in downtown Elko since 1929. So, there are manageable ways of historic preservation and those are success stories, Petersen said. The CII Business Summit 2025's inaugural session witnessed a rousing standing ovation and a felicitation ceremony for the defence top brass sending a strong message about India's rising military industrial complex and hghlghting that security is a top-of-the-mind issue for India Inc. IMAGE: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, Vice Chief of the Army Stagg Lieutenant General Raja Subramani, CII President Sanjiv Puri, Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat and other dignitaries at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025 in New Delhi on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo It is not too unusual for defence ministers to kick off business conclaves. But when Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh delivered the inaugural address at industry body CII's annual general meeting on Thursday, he was also flanked by the defence secretary, the air force and the navy chiefs, and the vice chief of the Army Staff. Coming soon after India's Operation Sindoor hit terror camps across Pakistan to retaliate against the horrific attack on tourists in Pahalgam, the significance of this unprecedented dais sharing by India's top defence officials with industry captains, is not hard to fathom. The inaugural session that witnessed a rousing standing ovation and a felicitation ceremony for the defence top brass not only sent a strong message about India's rising military industrial complex but also demonstrated that security is a top-of-the-mind issue for India Inc. The US' tariff tantrums dominated mindspace as well, with the Confederation of Indian Industry President Sanjiv Puri expressing hopes of an expeditious conclusion of a bilateral trade deal being negotiated with the US to avert its reciprocal tariffs that have been paused till July. When Rajesh Agrawal, special secretary at the commerce ministry, joined a session on global trade, a co-moderator remarked he had the toughest job in India, barring, of course, the security forces. Agrawal is the chief negotiator for the trade deal with the US. In a late evening parley, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal assured industry: "We are well on track on trade talks with the US..." While the defence minister did not directly refer to tariffs, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said industry need not be too worried by such global uncertainties as India's domestic market is large and resilient. While there is anxiety about what happens after the 90-day pause period comes to an end, and the similar pause effected by the US with China on May 12, the CEA said these tariffs will likely create an advantage for India -- later, if not earlier. He also outlined the implications of AI on the economy and the job market. Rajnath Singh did speak on Operation Sindoor and landed sharp jibes at Pakistan, along with an assertion that most people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir identify with India so will eventually come into its fold. He also underlined that India displayed its strength with a sense of responsibility and restraint this time, and could have inflicted a lot more damage to its pesky neighbour had it chosen to. With the Durbar Hall at New Delhi's Taj Palace packed to the brim, CII had to make arrangements in another couple of halls for hundreds of other attendees. By noon, when the session wound up, as many as 2,500 delegates had registered at the venue, an organising team member told Business Standard. "This is probably one of the most well-attended annual business summits in a long time... in a way, reflecting the India story of 2025. That it was opened by none other than the defence minister shows that Indian industry and the people of India stand with the country and Operation Sindoor," Goyal remarked later. Beyond defence issues, Singh also touched upon broader issues clouding the economic landscape, linking the increasingly fractious global order marked with rising conflicts, and the concomitant sharp spike in uncertainty levels, to the fraying of trust. "The whole world is under a cloud of uncertainty -- the fundamental reason is lack of trust," he emphasised, adding that India's economic performance is a result of the trust placed by the world in its abilities. "Moreover, GST was an exemplar of 'federal trust' between the Centre, states and the Union territories, and the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) was a result of 'trust-building'," the minister said. "After the Second World War, there may have been a bipolar world order, but there was a semblance of normalcy. But now we are seeing a lot of fluidity in international relations," Singh said. Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani also invoked World War II history, and recalled that the US had built 324,000 fighter planes in four-and-a-half years after the administration asked American industry, beginning with General Motors, to help develop a thriving military industrial ecosystem and ensure the country's security. This, he said, had been critical in helping the Allied forces defeat the Axis powers, and emphasised the need for India to scale up defence manufacturing. Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff The year 2024 was not only the hottest year on record but also the first to breach 1.5C above the 18501900 baseline. IMAGE: A rescue worker gives water to an injured Chinkara (Indian gazelle) on a hot summer day at a zoo, in Bikaner on Tuesday. Photograph: ANI Photo A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Wednesday has sounded an alarm on climate change, warning that there is a 70 per cent chance of global temperatures exceeding the 1.5 Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels between 2025 and 2029. This comes at a time when 180 of the 195 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) countries are yet to submit their next round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or climate plans for 2031-35 before the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Climate plans are crucial to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 C. The warning follows the European Union's Earth Observation Programme Copernicus Climate Change Service's March forecast on the global average temperature breaching the 1.5 C long-term global warming threshold by September 2029 if the current warming trend continues. The annual average global mean near-surface temperature for each year between 2025 and 2029 is predicted to be between 1.2 C and 1.9 C higher than the average for 1850-1900, according to the report titled 'WMO Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update (2025-2029).' The report emphasised the need for continued climate monitoring for informed decision making and adapting to the growing effect of climate change. It also said that there is an 80 per cent chance that at least one of the next five years will surpass 2024 as the warmest on record. Although unlikely, there is also a 1 per cent chance of at least one year exceeding 2C of warming in the next five years. However, long-term warming (averaged over decades) remains below 1.5C. Citing the 10 warmest years on record, WMO deputy secretary general Ko Barrett said that the new report provides no sign of respite over the coming years. He said, "...this means that there will be a growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems and our planet." "Continued climate monitoring and prediction is essential to provide decision-makers with science-based tools and information to help us adapt," Barrett said in a statement. The year 2024 was not only the hottest year on record but also the first year to breach 1.5C above the 18501900 baseline. The 1.5 C threshold is a target that countries agreed to at the Paris climate conference in 2015 to avoid the worst effect of climate change. A permanent breach of the 1.5 C limit specified in the Paris Agreement refers to long-term warming over 20 years. WMO warned that temporary breaches of such levels are expected to occur with increasing frequency. "Every additional fraction of a degree of warming drives more harmful heat waves, extreme rainfall events, intense droughts, melting of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers, heating of the ocean, and rising sea levels," the WMO report said. Arctic warming in the next five extended winters (November to March) is likely to be over 3.5 times the global average, at 2.4C above the average temperature during the 1991-2020 baseline. Further reductions in sea-ice concentration in the Barents Sea, Bering Sea, and Sea of Okhotsk were expected for March 2025-2029. Predicted precipitation patterns for May-September 2025-2029, relative to the 1991-2020 baseline, suggest wetter-than-average conditions in the Sahel region in Africa, Northern Europe, Alaska, and northern Siberia, and drier-than-average conditions in the Amazon. In the case of South Asia, the WMO forecast indicated that the region, which was wetter than average in recent years, except 2023, will continue to experience it till 2029. But it may not be the case for all individual monsoon seasons during this period. 'I was preparing for JEE, NDA came as a blessing.' IMAGE: Mizoram Governor General V K Singh -- a former chief of the army staff -- inspects the Guard of Honour during the Passing Out Parade at the Khetarpal Parade Ground at the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla, May 30, 2025. Photograph: Press Information Bureau 17 women candidates made history when they graduated alongside 319 male cadets from the National Defence Academy in Khadakvasla on May 30, 2025. The lady cadets have broken the mold and paved a new path for many more after them. 'Believe in yourself and go for it': Cadet Harsimran Kaur Videos: ANI "It was a surprise when NDA opened up for women. I was preparing for JEE and the NDA came as a blessing. Don't be afraid of anything. Everything is possible, just believe in yourself and go for it," says Cadet Harsimran Kaur. 'Every day was a new box of surprises': Cadet Ishita Sangwan "It was my dream to be standing in front of this historic Sudan block with my parents. This building was my inspiration. Every day was a new box of surprises," said Cadet Ishita Sangwan, the first one from her family to join the armed forces. 'The young women will rise to the highest echelon of the service': General V K Singh "This is a milestone in our collective journey towards inclusivity and empowerment. I envision a future not far from now when one of these young women will rise to the highest echelon of the service they go to," said General V K Singh, a former army chief and the current governor of Mizoram, at the Passing Out Parade. Watch: Girl cadets celebrate with knuckle push ups Glimpses of the grand Passing Out Parade 1,341 cadets, including 336 from the passing out course, participated in the Passing Out Parade commanded by Academy Cadet Captain Udayveer Singh Negi. The President's Gold Medal was awarded to Battalion Cadet Adjutant Prince Raj, the President's Silver Medal to Academy Cadet Captain Udayveer Singh Negi, and the President's Bronze Medal to Battalion Cadet Captain Tejas Bhatt. Vidoes curated by Shailajanand Mishra/Rediff Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Aimee Parnell has been on the job at the Waypoint Center for about a month, and her enthusiasm as the new executive director of the Great Fall Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. Nancy Braus is a long-time political activist who writes from Guilford. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media. Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter. I'm RFE/RL correspondent Kian Sharifi. In this edition, I'm looking at the nationwide truckers' strike in Iran, its impact on the country's supply chains, and how it's challenging the government amid mounting economic pressures. What You Need To Know Truckers' Strike Gains National Momentum: Truck drivers across Iran have been on strike since May 22, protesting low wages, high insurance costs, and a planned fuel price hike. The movement, which began in the key port city of Bandar Abbas, has spread nationwide and is gaining support from the public as well as prominent dissidents. Observers warn it could escalate into broader anti-establishment unrest. Iran Distances Itself From Cleric's Anti-Saudi Tirade: Gholamreza Qasemian, a hard-line Iranian cleric and outspoken critic of the Saudi royal family, was arrested by Saudi authorities this week after posting a video criticizing the kingdom's social reforms and making unsubstantiated claims about the country. He was released after several days and allowed to return to Iran. Notably, Iranian authorities did not publicly defend him or call for his release. Instead, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X that Tehran "in no uncertain terms condemns any attempt to harm Muslim unity" and thanked Saudi Arabia for its "highly competent management" of this year's Hajj pilgrimage. Former diplomat Hossein Alizadeh told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that while remarks like Qasemian's were once common from Iranian officials, today -- under international pressure -- it is "not expedient" to allow such rhetoric, which could harm relations with a regional powerhouse like Saudi Arabia. Trump Confident, But Time Tight On Iran Talks: US President Donald Trump said this week that his administration is nearing a nuclear agreement with Iran. He confirmed reports that he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against disrupting the talks, calling such interference "inappropriate," amid rising concerns over a potential Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites. Uranium enrichment remains the central obstacle, but new proposals -- led by Oman and including the idea of a regional consortium -- are pushing the boundaries of compromise. While Iran has expressed willingness to reduce its enrichment levels, it continues to reject a complete ban. With no date set for the next round of negotiations, time is running out for diplomacy. The Big Issue Highways Stand Still The truckers' strike in Iran has gone on for more than a week, causing significant disruptions to freight transportation and supply chains across the country. The industrial action, which began in the port city of Bandar Abbas, has rapidly expanded to encompass more than 130 cities in at least 30 provinces, marking one of the most extensive labor protests in Iran in recent years. The primary drivers of the strike include a sharp increase in insurance premiums, government plans to reduce subsidized diesel allocations, and a proposed hike in fuel prices. Truckers have also cited stagnant freight rates, escalating costs for spare parts and maintenance, and deteriorating road conditions as major concerns. Many drivers report that the rising cost of operations has rendered their businesses unsustainable. The government's proposed fuel price increase -- from approximately $0.04 to nearly $0.50 per liter by late June -- has been a particular flashpoint, with truckers warning that such measures would force many out of work. In an apparent attempt to downplay the scale of the protests, state television on May 28 broadcast footage of normal operations at truck terminals and ports. Why It Matters: The strike has severely impacted the transportation of goods, including food, fuel, and industrial materials, as trucks are responsible for over 90 percent of Iran's freight movement. Reports from across the country indicate that major highways and truck terminals remain largely deserted, and supply shortages are beginning to affect both urban and rural areas. Despite Iran's vast oil and gas reserves keeping fuel prices among the world's lowest, the hike has sparked widespread anger. Iran has a history of protests rooted in economic grievances. Demonstrations in 2017 and 2018 began over local economic issues but escalated into broader anti-Islamic republic unrest, met with harsh crackdowns by security forces. In 2019, the government's removal of a gasoline subsidy triggered deadly nationwide protests, leading to over 1,000 arrests and a temporary Internet shutdown. The country again erupted in protest in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the dress code. The protests, which lasted for months, gave rise to the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Iranian media say several people have been arrested for filming and sharing videos of the strikes. What's Being Said: Prominent figures have voiced support for the striking truck drivers. Acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who recently won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, called on drivers to expand the protest nationwide. "This strike is a powerful cry to the government: Enough is enough. End the oppression and exploitation before nothing remains for the people," he wrote on Instagram. Mohammad Rasoulof, another renowned Iranian filmmaker currently living in exile, described the strike as "a reflection of public anger over decades of corruption, the plundering of Iran, the repression of the people, and the devastation of millions of Iranian lives." Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi also voiced support for the strike on X. Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani on May 28 said lawmakers addressed the strike during a recent Cabinet meeting and assured that the administration will take the truckers' concerns into account. Expert Opinion: "If the strikes persist and spread, prices [of everyday goods] are likely to rise due to significant disruptions in the supply chain," economy expert Roshanak Astaraki told Radio Farda. "This could even force factories and production lines to shut down." That's all from me for now. Until next time, Kian Sharifi If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Friday. A retired US astronaut has told RFE/RL that joint missions with Russia on the International Space Station (ISS) should be scaled back, comparing them to collaboration with Nazi Germany at the height of World War II. "Cooperating with the Russians on the ISS is like going on an Antarctic expedition with Nazis in 1943," said Terry Virts, a former commander on the station. "It's just morally reprehensible," he added. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the ISS is one of the rare areas where cooperation between Russia and the West has continued. Astronauts from both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) serve alongside cosmonauts from Russian space agency Roscosmos. Canada and Japan are also involved in what NASA describes "as one of the most complex international collaborations ever attempted." "The station was designed to be interdependent and relies on contributions from across the partnership to function," NASA says. "No one partner currently has the capability to function without the other." Virts does not dispute this but calls for cooperation with Russia to be curtailed. Specifically, he said there are two areas where this would be possible and desirable. Soyuz Versus SpaceX "We need to stop launching Americans on the Russian Soyuz," he said, and "we shouldn't be launching Russian cosmonauts on our rocket while they're actively destroying our friend and ally, Ukraine." At present, the business of getting people to and from the ISS is shared. Crews and cargo have been ferried back and forth by Soyuz, SpaceX, and recently also Boeing's new Starliner capsule. "You still need to operate the space station and you can do that. It's only going to be in service for another few years," Virts said. "But I think we should pull back, to say the least." In a statement provided to RFE/RL, NASA said it flew "integrated crews" with Roscosmos "aboard U.S. crew spacecraft and the Soyuz spacecraft to ensure continued safe operations" of the ISS and its crew. For Virts, this is a deeply personal issue. His career has been intimately bound up with the ISS. His maiden voyage as a Space Shuttle pilot in 2010 carried the ISS's final permanent modules, including the largest set of windows ever flown in space. On board the ISS four years later, he witnessed rocket fire in eastern Ukraine as Russian-backed separatists launched an insurgency there. This followed Russian troops seizing Crimea from Ukraine, and Virts says he was shocked by a cosmonaut's response. "The commander of my Soyuz, Anton Shkaplerov, is from Sevastopol in Crimea. His wife is Ukrainian. And he was like, 'Krym nash, Krym nash,' which means 'Crimea is ours.' He was just so proud that they had taken back Crimea," Virts said. But later, Virts was more concerned by three other cosmonauts he had flown with -- Aleksander Samokutyaev, Maksim Surayev, and Yelena Surova -- who all went on to serve as lawmakers in President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. 'I Felt Betrayed' "You know, I loved the Russian language and the people and the food. I thought the space station can be this great cooperation instead of conflict. And here they are supporting the most evil, blatantly morally abhorrent war. And that was very painful. I felt betrayed," he said. Samokutyaev is still serving in Russia's State Duma (parliament) and has been sanctioned by Britain, the European Union, and the United States. The EU sanctions were announced the day after the full-scale invasion, as Samokutyaev had voted to recognize Russian-backed separatist entities in Ukraine as independent states. This was a key move that created the Kremlin's legal pretext for the invasion. The US Treasury said he and other Duma members were sanctioned "for complicity in Putin's war" due to the vote. Surayev and Surova are no longer in the Duma but have continued to agitate on behalf of Putin and his aggression in Ukraine. For instance, Surayev was a surrogate for Putin in his 2024 election campaign. He can be seen in this video in 2024 in Russian-occupied Donetsk. He was reported by Russian media to have spoken during his visit of the role played by cosmonauts in the "special military operation," the Kremlin's preferred term for the full-scale invasion. Surova is now an adviser to the Moscow regional governor. On March 8, Russian media reported she was ceremonially sending off "aid" to frontline troops in Ukraine, including drones. "Many committed citizens are helping our defenders by sending vital supplies to the front. Together, we are the only team, a mighty fist, that nobody can defeat," she reportedly said. A Myth 'Dispelled' None of these former cosmonauts immediately responded to questions from RFE/RL, including how support for Putin and the war in Ukraine aligns with the humanitarian principles of international cooperation in space. Virts said they're not speaking to him, either. "My Ukrainian friends love me. My Russian friends have stopped talking to me," he said. There is also controversy surrounding a cosmonaut on the current ISS crew. Alexey Zubritsky was born in Ukraine in 1992 and last month RFE/RL's Current Time reported that he was wanted in the land of his birth for treason. In 2014, Zubritsky was a Ukrainian Air Force pilot stationed in Crimea. When Russian troops arrived, he disobeyed orders to report to a Ukrainian base outside the peninsula, opting instead to stay there and switch sides. The ISS is due to remain in operation until 2030. Shortly after Russian tanks rolled over the Ukrainian border in 2022, Moscow threatened to withdraw from cooperation on the ISS but later said it would remain involved until 2028. "We have cooperated very well on the space station. We've made a lot of relationships," said Virts. "I was on the side of, well, cooperation in space can help things be better on Earth. And man, that myth has been dispelled." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is "doing everything" to ensure that proposed peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 yield no results after a Russian large-scale drone attack on Ukraine's second-largest city left almost a dozen people injured. The overnight attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv near the Russian border was a "typical strike on civilian life," Zelenskyy wrote on his X page. "Russian strategy is simply to destroy lives. And Russia will not abandon this strategy without sufficient pressure," he added. Oleh Synyehubov, the head of the Kharkiv region, said in a post on Telegram that at least 11 people were injured in the attack early on May 30, including two children. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the strikes targeted "a municipal enterprise." He added that the attack consisted of eight Iranian-made Shahed drones and that it also damaged more than 30 residential buildings. Hours later, Donald Trump's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, said the US president was growing "frustrated" with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over delays in reaching a cease-fire to help bring an end to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. Russia has pounded Ukrainian targets in recent weeks amid intensified pressure to agree to a cease-fire to pave the way for a comprehensive peace plan more than three years after the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine agreed in April to a US proposal for a 30-day cease-fire, but Russia has balked at the plan and many of Ukraine's allies have accused Putin of trying to drag out the process so he can take advantage of the current situation on the battlefield, where Russia has been gaining ground in territories it claims to rule. Much of the destruction has been centered around civilian infrastructure, which Russia claims it doesn't target despite mounting evidence that appears to show the opposite. "His [Trump's] frustration is that he's put forward some reasonable proposals and reasonable discussions and he's seen a level of unreasonableness [from Putin] that really frustrates him. It frustrates me as well," Kellogg said in an interview with ABC News. Trump, who made reaching a peace deal quickly one of his foreign policy cornerstones during last year's election campaign, warned on May 28 that he would determine within "about two weeks" whether Putin is serious about ending the fighting. Moscow said on May 30 that it was sending a team of negotiators to Istanbul on June 2 for a possible second round of direct talks with Ukraine, though Kyiv has yet to confirm whether it will attend. Kellogg said in the ABC interview that US, German, French, and British officials will be in Istanbul on June 2 when a meeting may take place between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. Russia has said it would use the meeting to present a "memorandum" outlining its terms for a peace settlement. Kyiv said it was ready to take part but wanted to see Russia's proposals for ending the war first. Zelenskyy said on May 30 that he told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that a cease-fire was needed to move forward toward a settlement of the war. "There must be a cease-fire to move further toward peace. The killing of people must stop," Zelenskyy said on Telegram after his conversation with the Turkish leader. "We share the view that this meeting cannot and should not be empty." Zelenskiy also said that the two men discussed the possibility of organising a four-way meeting with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. Zelenskyy met earlier on May 30 with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Kyiv. He said afterward that Russia's refusal to present the memorandum before the talks is leading to no breakthrough in a potential second round of discussions. "Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the potential meeting brings no results," Zelenskyy said. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier announced that its delegation will be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a Russian political scientist and former culture minister who led Russia's negotiating team on May 16 during the first round of direct talks. Previously, Ukraines delegation closely matched the level of its Russian counterparts, with the exception of Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was occupied with leading the latest prisoner exchange on Ukraines side. Edward Snowden is a registered Russian taxpayer. The former US National Security Agency whistleblower, who has lived in Russia since his revelations rocked the US intelligence community in 2013, has a taxpayer identification number, RFE/RL's Russian investigative unit, Systema, has found. The number, which appears in the database maintained by the Russian Federal Tax Service, also shows Snowden's registered address is in Lyubertsy, a Moscow region suburb better known for drab Soviet-era apartment blocks and 1990s gang lore. Snowden, whom President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to in September 2022, could not be reached for comment. He did not immediately respond to a direct message sent via X. Snowden's wife, Lindsay Mills, and Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, did not respond to messages from Systema. Snowden's revelations about US intelligence and surveillance programs, many of which were overseen by the National Security Agency, stunned not just Americans but also many US allies in Europe and elsewhere. The US Justice Department indicted Snowden in June 2013 under the Espionage Act, not long after US and British newspapers began publishing stories based on millions of documents leaked by Snowden. Shortly after the indictment, Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow. The US State Department revoked his passport, and Russian authorities then granted him asylum and then legal residency. In 2023, a year after receiving citizenship, he received a Russian passport. According to the Federal Tax Service data reviewed by Systema, Snowden's taxpayer identification number matches his full name and date of birth. The first four digits of the taxpayer identification number indicate it is registered in Lyubertsy, located on the Russian capital's eastern outskirts. It is unclear when exactly Snowden was registered in the tax service database. And it was also unclear he has in fact paid any taxes to the Russian government. The taxpayer identification number is assigned automatically to newborn citizens, for example, or to those who have received a Russian passport. Foreign citizens receive an identification upon application if they intend to pay taxes in Russia. A separate database maintained by the Federal Bailiff Service and reviewed by Systema indicates Snowden has no fines or debts or liens due -- either to the government or private individuals. Since living in Russia, Snowden has maintained a relatively low profile. He has granted several interviews to foreign media in the past, and has spoken to conferences outside of Russia via video link. He gave an interview to libertarian commentator John Stossel on January 31. He posts sporadically on social media. His last post on X was on January 31. His actual residence in Russia is also unclear. However, his wife Lindsay has periodically posted photographs to her in Instagram page from Russian locations. In 2018, she posted a photograph from a wooded park near Lyubertsy, which like many other suburbs of the Russian capital has changed markedly as the Moscow region has prospered and expanded. The Soviet apartment blocks are now also interspersed with newer construction and development. Snowden has said he leaked the documents to expose the extent of government surveillance and the potential for abuse of power. His revelations have made him a hero to civil libertarians and others who fear the expansion of government surveillance programs and powerful technologies that boost those efforts. He's also been vilified in the US intelligence community and elsewhere as a traitor. The issue came up in January when Tulsi Gabbard, at the time President Donald Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, was grilled by US senators. Gabbard, who was eventually confirmed to the post, had called Snowden "brave" in the past and said he should be pardoned. During the hearings, she said: "Snowden broke the law." RFE/RL's Russian Service contributed to this report. Kateryna Storozhuk no longer sleeps in her old bedroom in her apartment in Bucha, west of Kyiv. The threat of Russian air strikes and flying glass or shrapnel was keeping her up at night. "I was so concerned about it that I couldn't sleep," she said. Storozhuk decided to take a potentially life-saving step. She bought a steel shelter, called a Life Capsule, and installed it in her spare room. The unit costs about $2,400 and breaks down into pieces for transport to buyers' homes. Once assembled, it can hold up to six people. Storozhuk has furnished hers with pillows and blankets, turning it into a comfortable space for one. "When there's an air-raid alarm and the air-defense system is working, I shut the doors like that and sit inside for half an hour or a full hour. When there's no alarm, I keep the doors open," she said. The Life Capsule was designed by Kyiv resident Serhiy Zakharin. He says it can withstand 43 tons of weight if it's caught under a falling structure. To prove the shelter's durability, Zakharin arranged for a 1-ton weight to be dropped on a Life Capsule from a crane while he was inside. The capsule passed the test intact. The pod also has emergency hatches and multiple ventilation holes, safety features designed for the possibility of a user being caught under debris. "If you analyze what kills people most often during air strikes, it's the shock wave that smashes windows or rubble that buries you, so you die before the rescuers arrive. The safety pod protects your body from that," Storozhuk said. Other manufacturers are creating similar systems for the market. A Ukrainian company called Resq Pods has designed a heavy-duty shelter meant to withstand missile attacks as well as natural disasters. But one expert cautioned that the Life Capsule cannot guarantee safety in all circumstances. "The frame is made of metal and is relatively strong, but the walls are quite thin and won't stop big pieces of shrapnel or a strong shock wave," Dmytro Makahon, a civil engineer, told RFE/RL. "It creates a feeling of safety, but an underground shelter is much safer." Storozhuk notes that the Life Capsule has one major advantage: convenience. When an air-raid alarm goes off, she said, there isn't always enough time to reach an underground shelter before danger strikes. With the threat of fresh Russian attacks still looming, she believes that additional protection in her own home is well worth the price. China-Central Asia cultural tourism train inaugurated 08:34, May 30, 2025 By Qin Feng, Zhao Ruinan ( China Daily A tourist train departs from Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, for Almaty, Kazakhstan, on May 29, 2025. (Photo/Xinhua) Chen Yaowu, an inheritor of the face-changing technique of Qinqiang Opera, an intangible cultural heritage, boarded a special train on Thursday from Xi'an, the capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, for Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. He is among the 234 passengers of the first China-Central Asia cultural tourism train, a new initiative that is aimed at promoting cross-border cultural exchanges. "It's my first visit to Kazakhstan. I never thought I would take such a special train," Chen said, noting that this visit is not only an important milestone in his artistic career, but also a valuable opportunity for him to promote traditional Chinese culture. "I hope we have more such exchanges," he added. The train departed from Xi'an around Thursday noon and is scheduled to arrive in Almaty on Saturday. It will leave Almaty on June 5 and return to Xi'an on June 7, completing a 10-day round trip. The journey marks the launch of a new people-to-people exchange platform between China and the five Central Asian countries-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. According to the organizers, the trip highlights China's rich cultural heritage, including traditional arts, and supports broader cultural cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. Among the passengers are artists, performers, and representatives from cultural institutions who will participate in a diverse array of activities in Kazakhstan. Upon arrival in Almaty, they will be welcomed with fun performances and local cuisine. A dayslong cultural and people-to-people exchange event will be held, during which the attendees can look forward to demonstration of intangible cultural heritage skills, exhibition of cultural relics and promotion of traditional Chinese medicine, Xinhua News Agency reported. Hui Lixia, deputy director of China Railway Xi'an Group's passenger transportation department, said, "The launch of this train is a vivid example of how the railways can support cultural exchanges under the framework of the BRI." The passengers of the special train will enjoy smooth immigration services, as Chinese railway authorities have coordinated closely with Kazakhstan authorities to establish a green channel, ensuring completion of all official procedures within two-and-a-half hours, Hui said. In May 2023, Xi'an hosted the first China-Central Asia Summit, during which a proposal was made to launch a China-Central Asia tourism train, in order to promote cultural exchanges between China and Central Asian countries. Lu Shanbing, dean of Northwest University's Institute of Silk Road Studies in Xi'an, said the special train will significantly enhance communication between the provincial capital and Central Asian cities. It opens new channels and expands opportunities for exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, he said. "This is a concrete action by Shaanxi to implement the outcomes of the first China-Central Asia Summit. It represents a new exploration of passenger transportation, building on the success and efficient operation of China-Europe freight trains. This initiative highlights the vital role that Shaanxi plays in connecting domestic and international dual circulation," Lu said. The next step could further explore and enhance cooperation between China and Central Asia, he said, calling for the promotion of regular, normalized and scheduled operations of the cultural tourism train. China and Central Asian countries, especially Kazakhstan, have witnessed booming tourism business in recent times. According to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Tourism and Sports, China is one of the country's most crucial tourism markets, with official data showing the number of visits by Chinese travelers surging to over 650,000 last year, a ninefold increase compared with 2019, the Kazinform International News Agency reported. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Chen Yaowu, an inheritor of the face-changing technique of Qinqiang Opera, an intangible cultural heritage, boarded a special train on Thursday from Xi'an, the capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, for Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. He is among the 234 passengers of the first China-Central Asia cultural tourism train, a new initiative that is aimed at promoting cross-border cultural exchanges. "It's my first visit to Kazakhstan. I never thought I would take such a special train," Chen said, noting that this visit is not only an important milestone in his artistic career, but also a valuable opportunity for him to promote traditional Chinese culture. "I hope we have more such exchanges," he added. The train departed from Xi'an around Thursday noon and is scheduled to arrive in Almaty on Saturday. It will leave Almaty on June 5 and return to Xi'an on June 7, completing a 10-day round trip. The journey marks the launch of a new people-to-people exchange platform between China and the five Central Asian countries-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. According to the organizers, the trip highlights China's rich cultural heritage, including traditional arts, and supports broader cultural cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. Among the passengers are artists, performers and representatives from cultural institutions who will participate in a diverse array of activities in Kazakhstan. Upon arrival in Almaty, they will be welcomed with fun performances and local cuisine. A dayslong cultural and people-to-people exchange event will be held, during which the attendees can look forward to demonstration of intangible cultural heritage skills, exhibition of cultural relics and promotion of traditional Chinese medicine, Xinhua News Agency reported. Hui Lixia, deputy director of China Railway Xi'an Group's passenger transportation department, said, "The launch of this train is a vivid example of how the railways can support cultural exchanges under the framework of the BRI." The passengers of the special train will enjoy smooth immigration services, as Chinese railway authorities have coordinated closely with Kazakhstan authorities to establish a green channel, ensuring completion of all official procedures within two-and-a-half hours, Hui said. In May 2023, Xi'an hosted the first China-Central Asia Summit, during which a proposal was made to launch a China-Central Asia tourism train, in order to promote cultural exchanges between China and Central Asian countries. Lu Shanbing, dean of Northwest University's Institute of Silk Road Studies in Xi'an, said the special train will significantly enhance communication between the provincial capital and Central Asian cities. It opens new channels and expands opportunities for exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, he said. "This is a concrete action by Shaanxi to implement the outcomes of the first China-Central Asia Summit. It represents a new exploration of passenger transportation, building on the success and efficient operation of China-Europe freight trains. This initiative highlights the vital role that Shaanxi plays in connecting domestic and international dual circulation," Lu said. The next step could further explore and enhance cooperation between China and Central Asia, he said, calling for the promotion of regular, normalized and scheduled operations of the cultural tourism train. China and Central Asian countries, especially Kazakhstan, have witnessed booming tourism business in recent times. According to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Tourism and Sports, China is one of the country's most crucial tourism markets, with official data showing the number of visits by Chinese travelers surging to over 650,000 last year, a ninefold increase compared with 2019, the Kazinform International News Agency reported. The covered civic space on the county towns market square has been shortlisted for a prestigious architectural award. The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has today announced the shortlist for the 2025 Public Choice Award, with the Roscommon Covered Space, which was officially opened last year, among those shortlisted in the Urban Design category. Costing close to 1.4 million, this project is the final element of the Roscommon Town Main Street and Market Square Public Realm Project, funded under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund and Roscommon County Council. Another local development, the Athlone Greenway Bridge over the River Shannon, was also shortlisted. The Public Choice Award is the only architectural award in Ireland decided by public vote. It invites people to recognise the buildings and places that enrich their everyday lives from homes and schools to public spaces, community hubs, and vital infrastructure. Now in its 36th year, the RIAI Architecture Awards celebrate excellence in Irish and international architecture. This year, 124 projects were submitted, with a total of 247 entries across 12 categories, as some projects compete for more than one award. Following a rigorous assessment process, 48 projects have been shortlisted for the Public Choice Award. RIAI President Sean Mahon said we are delighted to invite the public to take part in the Public Choice Award. The quality and ambition of this years entries highlight the vital role architects play in shaping a more inclusive, sustainable, and connected built environment, he said This award is a powerful reminder that architecture creates places that support wellbeing, support communities, and improve how we live, work, and connect. These shortlisted projects offer an inspiring vision of whats possible when design is done well, with purpose, and with people in mind. Voting closes on Monday, 16 June at 5pm. Visit here to cast your vote and learn more about the shortlisted projects. PM Modi Inaugurates Projects Worth Crores in Bihars Karakat PM Modi arrived in Patna on a two-day visit to the state on Thursday. PM Modi Inaugurates Projects Worth Crores in Bihars Karakat latest news lates news: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated development projects worth over Rs 48,520 crore in Karakat, Bihar. Following the inauguration, he addressed the public and declared, If terror rises again, India will crush it by pulling it out of its hole. He paid tribute to BSF Sub Inspector Imtiaz, who laid down his life at the border on May 10, saying, While performing the sacred duty of serving the motherland, BSF Sub Inspector Imtiaz laid down his life at the border on May 10. I pay my respectful tribute to this son of Bihar. The enemy has seen the power of Operation Sindoor. They should understand that this is just one arrow in our quiver. India's fight against terrorism has neither stopped nor slowed. If the hood of terror rises again, India will crush it by pulling it out of its hole. Advertisement He affirmed that Indias fight against terrorism will continue. #WATCH | Karakat, Bihar | Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "... Pakistan and the world have seen the power of India's daughters' Sindoor... The world has seen the unprecedented valour and courage of the BSF during Operation Sindoor... While performing the sacred duty of serving pic.twitter.com/38eFvCPtww ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Speaking about Naxalism in Bihar, he remarked, "The people of Bihar are witnesses to how we have eliminated those who spread violence and unrest in the past years. How Naxalism was dominant in the Sasaram and nearby districts a few years ago... These people had no faith in Babasaheb Ambedkar. Even in those circumstances, Nitish Kumar tried his best for development here... Before 2014, more than 75 districts were Naxal-affected. Now, only 18 districts are left Naxal-affected. The day is not far when Maoist violence will be completely eradicated." Advertisement #WATCH | Karakat, Bihar | Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "The people of Bihar are witnesses to how we have eliminated those who spread violence and unrest in the past years. How Naxalism was dominant in the Sasaram and nearby districts a few years ago... These people had no pic.twitter.com/Ioq0YPprRl ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 PM Modi arrived in Patna on a two-day visit to the state on Thursday. During the visit, he inaugurated key infrastructure projects, including the four-laning of the PatnaGayaDobhi section of NH22, worth around Rs 5,520 crore, and the four-laning of the elevated highway and grade improvements at Gopalganj Town on NH27, among others. (For more news apart from PM Modi Inaugurates Projects Worth Over Rs 48,520 Crore in Bihars Karakat, stay tune to Rozana Spokesman) Trump to Hold Press Conference with Elon Musk as Tech Billionaire Steps Down from Government Role Musk reportedly spent nearly 300 million dollars last year backing Trumps presidential campaign and other Republican candidates. Trump to Hold Press Conference with Elon Musk latest news: U.S. President Donald Trump is set to hold a press conference with Elon Musk, who on Thursday announced his departure from the US government, where he served as a Special Government Employee. I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House, Trump posted on Truth Social. Advertisement Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, is stepping down as his 130-day mandate with the Trump administration nears its expiration on May 30. His departure comes amid reports of dissatisfaction with the federal governments functioning. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government, Musk wrote on social media. Reports suggest Musks exit was quick and unceremonious. Sources indicated that Musk did not hold a formal conversation with the former president before announcing his departure. Advertisement Musk had been signaling his departure throughout the week, emphasizing his intent to return full-time to his business ventures. In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Musk said, The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least, adding that the DOGE mission had been unfairly blamed for various issues in the White House. Musk reportedly spent nearly 300 million dollars last year backing Trumps presidential campaign and other Republican candidates. However, earlier this month, he stated, I think Ive done enough, signaling plans to substantially reduce his political contributions. Advertisement (For more news apart from Trump to Hold Press Conference with Elon Musk, stay tune to Rozana Spokesman) Guests attend the Global Mayors Dialogue and the 2025 Shanghai International Friendship Cities Cooperation Forum in Shanghai, east China, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) SHANGHAI, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Mayors and representatives of 26 cities across 22 countries have gathered in Shanghai for the ongoing Global Mayors Dialogue and the 2025 Shanghai International Friendship Cities Cooperation Forum, which kicked off on Wednesday. Sub-forums are themed "Green and low-carbon empowerment for sustainable urban development" and "Inspiring youth vitality for city innovation in the future." The forum runs until Saturday. While developing sister-city relationships against "a complicated and ever-changing international backdrop," cities need to deepen pragmatic cooperation, solidify longstanding friendships based on equality, mutual trust and joint consultation, and share development opportunities, all with the aim of promoting prosperity and stability, Shanghai's Mayor Gong Zheng noted. Haris Doukas, mayor of Athens, Greece, stressed the role of city diplomacy in tackling the climate crisis. "City diplomacy has allowed cities to lead the way, to achieve important partnerships for prevention, to share knowledge, to set brave and specific goals through participation in international networks and forums, and to reduce the burdens of the climate crisis," Doukas said. Shanghai and Athens established a sister-city relationship in January. "Climate change is the defining challenge facing our shared world today," said Dan Boyle, lord mayor of Cork, Ireland, adding that "the spirit of international cooperation, which informs gatherings like today, can give us some optimism that this challenge facing all of humanity will be met." Dan Boyle, lord mayor of Ireland's Cork, speaks during Global Mayors Dialogue and the 2025 Shanghai International Friendship Cities Cooperation Forum in Shanghai, east China, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) Haris Doukas, mayor of Athens, speaks during Global Mayors Dialogue and the 2025 Shanghai International Friendship Cities Cooperation Forum in Shanghai, east China, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) Editor: WXY May 30, 2025 A roundup of domestic and international news Newsflash Newsroom, 30.05.2025, 13:55 Talks. The President of Romania, Nicusor Dan, is having talks today with the leaders of the PSD, PNL, UDMR and USR, on forming the new Government. The Head of State has specified that the new Executive will be formed in the next two to three weeks and that the future Prime Minister must have credibility, as a period of tough economic measures lies ahead. Also, in parallel, the Head of State continues informal discussions with representatives of the main parliamentary parties and those of national minorities regarding the countrys economic and financial situation. On Thursday, Nicusor Dan met with representatives of the business environment, who said that their recommendations for reducing the budget deficit were to reduce and streamline public spending, fiscal-budgetary balancing, curbing bureaucracy and boosting investments. At the same time, the abolition of excessive privileges in the public administration or a reevaluation of the indexations and increases in salaries and pensions expected for next year are needed. A tax increase would only suffocate the economy was the firm message conveyed by businesspeople to Nicusor Dan. The President stressed that, in order to reduce the deficit, concerted efforts are needed to identify constructive solutions. CCR. The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) must quickly draft the reasoning for the decision regarding dignitaries declarations of assets and Parliament must amend the law, President Nicusor Dan has stated today. He added that his declaration of assets will be made public. On Thursday, the CCR decided that the dignitaries asset and interest declarations should no longer be published on the website of the National Integrity Agency or on the online pages of other public institutions. At the same time, they also ruled that these declarations should no longer include the incomes and assets owned by their spouses and children. Ukraine. The Romanian Government has approved the allocation of over 90 million lei (the equivalent of about 18 million euros) for the payment of Romanias contribution to the European Peace Facility. The amount is intended, in particular, to strengthen Ukraines capacity to train its armed forces and its defense capability, in the context of the aggression of the Russian Federation. The mandatory contribution was assumed by Romania, along with the other member states, for the entire duration of its participation in the actions carried out by the European Union through the European Peace Facility. Alert. The population of Tulcea County, in southeastern Romania, received another RO-ALERT message last night regarding the possibility of objects falling from the airspace, amid the war triggered by Russia in neighboring Ukraine. The air alert lasted 90 minutes, but, according to the authorities, no calls were recorded by the population requesting support. Since September 2023, almost 20 drone fragments have been found on Romanian territory, most of them in Tulcea County. Floods. Heavy rains in Romania in recent days have caused problems in 200 localities in 30 counties. Over 500 people have been evacuated, according to the latest official report. The counties facing the biggest problems were Brasov and Covasna (center), Botosani and Neamt (northeast), Vrancea and Bacau (east). Teams from the Romanian Waters National Administration, firefighters and other structures have been deployed to the affected areas to intervene in managing the situation. Images from the scene show extensive flooded areas, people walking through the water or by boat in an attempt to save property. Meteorologists say that the weather has started to improve, but rain will still be reported over extended areas. (MI) May 30, 2025 UPDATE A roundup of local and world news May 30, 2025 UPDATE Newsroom, 30.05.2025, 20:00 GOVERNMENT The pro-European parties in the Romanian Parliament, the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, Save Romania Union and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, will begin negotiations on Monday on a new government and a set of economic measures to reduce the budget deficit. The 4 political leaders met with the president of Romania, Nicusor Dan at Cotroceni Palace on Friday. The latter said the new Cabinet will be formed in the next 2 to 3 weeks and the new PM must have credibility, as a period of tough economic measures is ahead. At the end of the meeting, the interim president of USR, Dominic Fritz, said the talks were open and productive, and all participants were aware of the responsibility for forming a stable government that can take the measures required in order to get Romania out of the budget crisis. Fritz also voiced optimism regarding a pro-European majority to back the new government in Parliament. FLOODS Heavy rainfall in Romania in recent days has caused problems in 200 localities in 30 counties. Over 500 people have been evacuated, according to the latest official report. The counties facing the biggest problems were Brasov and Covasna (centre), Botosani and Neamt (northeast), Vrancea and Bacau (east). Teams from the Romanian Waters National Administration, firefighters and other structures have been deployed to the affected areas to manage the situation. Images from the scene show extensive flooded areas, people walking through the water or by boat in an attempt to save property. Meteorologists say that the weather has started to improve, but rain will still be reported over extended areas. FUNDING Romania will receive about EUR 1.3 billion from the European Commission under the 3rd payment request in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the minister of investments and European projects, Marcel Bolos, announced. He said the disbursement was approved by Brussels 2 days ago and the funds will be received by June 10. The third payment request included reforms related to the green and digital transition, sustainable transport, energy renovation, taxation and pensions, the business environment and good governance. The European Commission decided, however, to suspend a EUR 869 million payment until the end of November, because of the countrys failure to meet certain goals. One such milestone concerns the Authority for Monitoring Performance Indicators of Public Enterprises, another one refers to the management of companies subordinated to the energy ministry, and another one targets the issue of special pensions. The Romanian official also said that the 4th payment request is under negotiation with Brussels, and Bucharest seeks an increase from almost EUR 2.7 billion to EUR 5.7 billion. Bolos pointed out that the milestones in the new request include a tax reform, a pollution tax in the transport sector, the energy law, the justice laws, as well as the entry into force of the unified salary law. SAVINGS The Romanian Senate will save approximately EUR 3.5 million per year as a result of a reorganisation which cut the personnel scheme by almost 150 positions. The speaker of Parliaments upper chamber, the Liberal Ilie Bolojan, said in an online post that the cut was achieved through correct workload assignment and by adjusting the number of advisors to the Senate committees and Senators offices. He also said that he found the Senate is operating properly with the current personnel structure and mentioned that electronic work attendance registration has been implemented. Early this year, several Senate employees organised a protest against the reorganisation measures announced by the leader of the National Liberal Party and former interim president of Romania. CONSTITUTIONAL COURT The Constitutional Court of Romania must quickly draft the reasoning for its ruling regarding public officials declarations of assets, and Parliament must amend the law, president Nicusor Dan stated on Friday. He added that his declaration of assets will be made public. On Thursday, CCR ruled that the public officials asset and interest declarations should no longer be made public on the website of the National Integrity Agency and on the web pages of other public institutions. At the same time, they also ruled that these declarations should no longer include the incomes and assets owned by civil servants spouses and children. UKRAINE The Romanian government has approved an approx. EUR 18 million contribution to the European Peace Facility. The amount is intended, in particular, to strengthen Ukraines capacity to train its armed forces and its defence capability, in the context of the aggression of the Russian Federation. The mandatory contribution was undertaken by Romania, along with the other EU member states, for the entire duration of its participation in the actions carried out by the European Union through the European Peace Facility. (AMP) Constitutional Court decision under criticism Constitutional Court decision criticized Photo: Facebook / Curtea Constitutionala a Romaniei) Bogdan Matei, 30.05.2025, 13:50 The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) is probably the most disliked, but also the most feared institution in Romania. Its decisions are often vehemently criticized in the public space. But legally, they cannot be changed by any other court. And on Thursday, the Court decided that the declarations of assets and interests of dignitaries should no longer be published on the website of the National Integrity Agency (ANI) or on the online pages of other public institutions. Moreover, the declarations should no longer include the income and assets of spouses and children. The CCR judges reached this decision, which is final and binding, following a complaint made six years ago by an advisor to the Ombusdman. The advisor had received a fine from ANI for not including her husbands income in the declaration of assets, which she said was confidential. According to ANI, the CCR decision nullifies the public nature of declarations of assets and interests and may violate all the commitments made by Romania at international level in the last 20 years regarding the fight against corruption and the assurance of integrity in public office. At the same time, such a decision may affect the process of accession to the OECD, the progress recorded by Romania within the monitoring exercises at the level of the European Union (Rule of Law Report) or the Council of Europe (Group of States against Corruption GRECO). Romanias new president, Nicusor Dan, says that the Constitutional Courts decision on asset declarations is in contradiction with an essential principle of democracy transparency in exercising public functions. The head of state recalls that citizens access to information on the asset declarations of dignitaries is a guarantee of integrity and responsibility in the public space, and this principle must be firmly defended. He also argues that, if the motivation of the decision identifies technical deficiencies in the current legislative framework, it is the responsibility of Parliament to promptly correct them. Voices from the parliamentary parties in Bucharest have also disapproved of the decision of the Constitutional Court judges. The interim leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Sorin Grindeanu, promises to continue publishing his wealth declarations, including his wifes income. MEP Georgiana Teodorescu from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians states that the Courts decision on the secrecy of wealth declarations is scandalous, undermines years of efforts for transparency and integrity in public life and can be translated into giving the green light to using public money, without a trace of control. The interim president of the Save Romania Union (USR), Dominic Fritz, proposes a rapid revision of the legislation and supports a reform of the ANI and the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF), so that they use technology to verify the wealth of dignitaries automatedly and correctly. (LS) Heavy rainfalls take their toll on Romania Rising water levels, fallen trees, blocked roads are the results of the heavy rainfalls that have lately affected Romania Photo: Facebook / ISU Covasna Daniela Budu, 30.05.2025, 14:00 Romania has again seen a series of alerts for heavy rainfalls with scores of towns and villages affected and hundreds of people evacuated across the country. A couple of days ago the National Meteorology Agency issued a series of yellow and orange alerts for heavy downpours and gale-force winds for most of the Romanian regions while the National Administration of Hydrology has cautioned against major risk of flooding in eastern Romania. Red alerts for rising water levels have been issued for rivers in 12 counties in Transylvania, central Romania, Moldova, in the east, and Muntenia in the south. Yellow and orange alerts have been issued for numerous other rivers while teams made up of experts with the Romanian Waters administration, firefighters and from other structures have been deployed to the affected areas to reduce the flooding effects. The Romanian Waters has deployed no less than 6 thousand people to the affected areas and locals have been evacuated from the regions with a high flooding risk. Numerous RO-alert messages have also been issued and according to the latest toll, heavy rainfalls have caused damage in more than 200 towns and villages in 30 Romanian counties while over 500 people have been evacuated. The counties of Brasov and Covasna, in central Romania, Botosani and Neamt in the north-east, Vrancea and Bacau in the east are bearing the brunt of the latest heavy rainfalls. Romanias Environment Minister, Mircea Fechet, who has visited the county of Covasna, has pledged subsidies for all the works needed to rebuild the countys anti-flooding infrastructure, such as flood control dams and other complex works. Road traffic has been blocked on several national and county roads by landslides and fallen trees. Several vehicles have been damaged. Landslides have also affected railway traffic in several regions and local county authorities have applied for immediate government intervention at Praid, one of Romanias most famous salt mines, which runs the risk of being destroyed by the heavy rainfalls. Any mining activity has been stopped as the local authorities estimate the water flow was 100 times higher than usual. Romanias new president, Nicusor Dan, has called for the rapid intervention of the authorities whenever needed, which are to take urgent measure for saving lives and protecting goods in the affected areas. He has also underlined that it is vital that Romania invest in surveillance and alert systems and resilient infrastructure adjusted to the new climate risks as well as in training the local authorities to be able to respond in crisis situations. (bill) Two variants of the Honda E-VO are on offer, with a range of 120 km and 170 km, as per WMTC standards In April 2025, Honda had type-approved the E-VO electric motorcycle (WH8000D) in China. The E-VO has now been launched under the Wuyang-Honda brand name. This label is used as part of the joint venture between Honda and Guangzhou Motors Group Company in China. Lets check out the details of Honda E-VO electric motorcycle. Honda E-VO Styling and features With its distinctive cafe-racer styling presented in a futuristic format, Honda E-VO easily gets ones attention. Some of the key highlights include a circular headlamp, curved windshield, bar-end mirrors, a single piece seat and fully enclosed side panelling. The bike is using 16-inch front and 14-inch rear alloy wheels, wrapped in semi-slick tyres. With a seat height of just 765 mm, users can expect excellent control and handling. Honda E-VO is using a forged all-aluminium chassis, which makes the bike both sturdy and lightweight. Aluminium metal also makes the bikes resistant to corrosion and other harsh environments. Tech kit includes a 7-inch TFT main screen, along with a TFT sub-screen for accessing navigation, music and other information such as tyre pressure and battery charge status. The base variant gets a front dash cam, whereas the top variant gets both front and rear dash cam. These can capture your journeys and moments in 1080P resolution. Other key highlights include inverted front forks, traction control system, Type-A and Type-C charging ports, dual-channel ABS, side stand motor cut off and 5-step adjustable brake handle. Honda E-VO Performance, battery, range, specs Where pricing is concerned, Base variant of Honda E-VO is priced at CNY 29,999, which is approximately Rs 3.56 lakh. The top variant with the triple battery pack is available at CNY 36,999, which is approximately Rs 4.39 lakh. As of now, the Honda E-VO electric motorcycle is available only for the Chinese market. Users can choose from two variants, one equipped with a 4.1 kWh battery pack and the other with a 6.2 kWh battery pack. Kerb weight of these variants are 143 kg and 156 kg, respectively. Claimed range as per WMTC standards is 120 km and 170 km, respectively. The base variant has a dual battery setup, whereas the top variant utilizes a triple battery configuration. Both variants of Honda E-VO have power output of 15.8 kW (21.5 PS). The bike uses a mid-mounted motor and a Continental belt drive thats quiet, maintenance free and offers transmission efficiency of 97%. Users can customize their experience using the ride modes of Eco, Normal and Sport. Both variants have a rated top speed of 120 km/h. 0 to 50 km/h can be achieved in just 2.8 seconds. Charging speed is pretty good, with only 1 hour 30 minutes required (20% to 80%) for the base variant when using a home charger (1.8 kW charger). A good thing is that Honda E-VO can also be charged using any of the public AC car chargers (3.4 kW). This essentially unlocks charging at more than 2.15 million public AC car charging stations across the Dragonland. When using an AC car charger, the base variant takes only around an hour to get from 20% to 80%. The top variant with the larger battery pack takes 1.5 hours with the AC car charger. Honda is using advanced lithium battery packs that have shown to retain more than 85% capacity even after 1,500 full charge and discharge cycles. Philip Morris Ukraine is considering resuming cigarette exports from Ukraine, particularly to geographically close countries, CEO Maksym Barabash announced during a roundtable discussion titled "Key Issues of Ukraine's Economic Recovery and the Role of Government and Business Structures in the Process" held at the company's new production facility in Lviv region. "In terms of domestic market potential, there's no room for significant growth in cigarette production in Ukraine it's a relatively stable, saturated market. Just like before the war, the real growth opportunity lies in exports. We're assessing which countries might be viable destinations," Barabash stated. He recalled that prior to Russia's full-scale invasion, the company's Kharkiv plant was producing 20 billion cigarettes annually, with half of that volume exported, including to markets as far away as Japan. "Due to the war, restoring exports to Japan will likely be difficult and take a considerable amount of time. But that doesn't mean we're not looking at other options. Our initial focus is on exporting to countries in close geographical proximity," the CEO added. As reported, Philip Morris was forced to shut down its Kharkiv facility at the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion. The company subsequently invested $30 million in launching a new production site in Lviv region, which opened in May 2024. The plant features five production lines and an annual capacity of 10 billion cigarettes, reaching full planned output this year. In addition, the company invested another UAH 60 million in building a dedicated shelter on the premises, capable of accommodating 170 people, including factory staff and local residents. According to data from YouControl, Philip Morris Ukraine increased its revenue by 86.7% in 2024, reaching UAH 21.62 billion, while reducing its net loss by 30.1% to UAH 1.20 billion. State Oschadbank (Kyiv) granted a second loan to Lviv City Council for UAH 668 million for a period of five years to improve the state of energy efficiency and municipal facilities. "Oschadbank has concluded another loan agreement with Lviv City Council - the second in the last six months - for the amount of UAH 668 million," Oschadbank chairman of the board Serhiy Naumov reported on Telegram. Other terms of the loan are not disclosed. The total amount of loans granted by Oschadbank to Lviv City Council under signed agreements has already exceeded UAH 1.5 billion, the bank clarified. It is noted that the funds will be used to develop strategic urban infrastructure, in particular, roads, housing and communal services, and one of the main areas of use will be increasing energy efficiency. "The money will go to a biogas plant with combined heat and power generation, an electrical substation, a boiler house with a cogeneration unit connected, and investments in Lvivteploenergo," Naumov added. As reported, Oschadbank's share in energy lending in the first quarter of 2025 exceeded 31%. During 2024-2025, contracts worth over EUR85 million were concluded with its participation in the corporate business segment, in particular for projects to develop energy generation and storage. Among them is the first case on the market of bank lending for a project to install 30 MW of energy storage systems to provide auxiliary services, which was implemented by KNESS within the framework of the Ukrenergo competition. SIDE DISH Nibbles and news from the food and culinary scene CHECK OUT THE VIEW Most tourist destinations have a prime spot for sunset viewing: Sydney Tower, Seattle Space Needle, Empire State Building. In Santa Fe, its La Fondas Bell Tower Rooftop Bar that lures us to catch the last rays of sun as it sinks out of sight hopefully with a tasty cocktail in hand. You can also grab some light nosh to tide you over until your dinner reservation; this year, the tower offers the requisite chips-guac-queso basket, along with such other goodies as burrata with heirloom tomatoes and port reduction and a fancy Wagyu hot dog with pineapple pico de gallo and chipotle mayo. -yum! Wash it all down with a craft cocktail such as the smoky pineapple margarita or spiked cucumber lemonade. Summertime ... and the livin is easy. lafondasantafe.com START SPREADING THE NEWS Its always a boon for our hospitality industry to get a mention in a major periodical, so it was wonderful to see a story in The New York Times magazine section on May 8 en titled 36 Hours in Santa Fe. The well-researched what-to-do-where-to-eat-what-to-see piece touted many destinations I havent seen mentioned nationally before. Rowley Farmhouse Ales, Second Street Brewerys Rufina Taproom, Bread Shop, El Chile Toreado Food Truck, Paloma, Tomasitas, and Betterday Coffee received shout-outs and made us proud. Its always good to remind the world that our little town is a major culinary destination. TACO TIME Santa Fe cocktail maven and author Natalie Bovis, known as the Liquid Muse, hosts a culinary battle pitting New Mexico taco makers against each other in her Taco Wars event 5-8 p.m. Friday, May 30, at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. The event includes more than a dozen chefs and teams and is part of Bovis Cocktails and Culture Festival, which offers a variety of spirits-related events throughout the weekend. Find tickets and more information at theliquidmuse.com. WHO DOESN'T LOVE CHOCOLATE? Photo: https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/ On Friday night, the Defense Forces neutralized 56 Shahed-type strike drones out of 90, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported. "As of 08:00, air defenses neutralized 56 enemy Shahed-type UAVs [drones of other types] in the east, south and north of the country. Some 26 were shot down by fire weapons, and 30 were lost/suppressed by electronic warfare," the Telegram message says. In total, the Russian occupation army used 90 strike UAVs and drones of other types on the territory of Ukraine. "On the night of May 30 [from 22:50 on May 29], the enemy attacked with 90 Shahed attack UAVs and imitator drones of various types from the directions: Millerovo, Orel, Shatalovo, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk - Russia, and also struck with two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles from Voronezh region - Russia," the Air Force of Ukraine reported. 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. Enemy air attack means hit 12 locations. People all around the world live with cats and cats engage in many social behaviors toward their owners. Olfaction is one of the most important sensory abilities in cats, yet its role in recognizing humans is unclear. In a new study, scientists at the Tokyo University of Agriculture assessed the role and characteristics of olfaction in the discrimination of known or unknown humans by domestic cats. Dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus) are popular companion animals that engage in many social behaviors with their owners, said studys first author Dr. Yutaro Miyairi and colleagues. Previous studies have focused on the social relationships and behaviors of these animals with their owners. For example, dogs can identify human emotional expressions from facial and vocal information, i.e., they can process social information from humans. Cats also have remarkable social cognitive abilities, which are gaining the interest of researchers. Studies of cat-human interactions are less advanced than such studies in dogs. In the study, the researchers investigated whether cats are able to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar humans based on smell alone. They tested thirty domestic cats by presenting them with plastic tubes containing swabs that had been rubbed under the armpit, behind the ear, and between the toes of either their owner or a human they had never met. The cats spent significantly longer sniffing unknown odors than those of their owner or an empty tube. The scientists also found that cats were initially more likely to sniff unknown odors with their right nostril but later switched to their left nostril as they became more familiar with the smell. Participating cat owners were also asked to complete an online questionnaire to assess the cats personality and their relationship with their owner. Male cats with neurotic personalities tended to sniff each tube repetitively, whereas males with more agreeable personalities sniffed the tubes more calmly. However, there was no effect of personality on the behavior of female cats during the experiment. The results suggest that domestic cats can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans based on their odor, but it remains unclear whether they can identify specific humans based on smell alone. The finding that cats preferred to investigate new smells with their right nostril suggests that they may favor different hemispheres of their brain for different tasks a phenomenon that has previously been demonstrated in other animals including dogs, fish and birds. We suggest that cats use their olfaction for the recognition of humans, the authors said. Also, we record characteristic rubbing (marking) behavior occurring after sniffing, indicating that sniffing may be an exploratory behavior preceding the rubbing of odor (marking) in cats. This relationship warrants further investigation along with the theory of whether cats are able to recognize a specific person from olfactory cues. The study was published online in the journal PLoS ONE. _____ Y. Miyairi et al. 2025. Behavioral responses of domestic cats to human odor. PLoS One 20 (5): e0324016; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0324016 Involving communities in nature-based solutions to tackle urban climate and environmental challenges leads to innovation and multiple benefits, a study shows. Participation of citizens in NBS projects leads to innovation in design and quality, as well as people gaining greater benefits from green and blue spaces (for access, recreation and health and wellbeing), researchers found. The study showed that involving communities. Projects are also more likely to be successful in supporting nature renewal when they involve policymakers from across different sectors, rather than being carried out in silos, and when they align with government policy and strategy. Researchers carried out interviews and workshops in three European cities -- Paris Region, France, Velika Gorica, Croatia, and Aarhus, Denmark as part of the EU Horizon 2020-funded REGREEN project. They found the size and complexity of the urban area and the ways the cities were governed had an impact on the outcome of the NBS. In all areas the increased prevalence and severity of climate change effects (e.g. flooding, heat effects) and witnessing initiatives from other countries were drivers of NBS innovation. Also influential were shifts in public and media perception around climate change, a tradition of use of public spaces by citizens and support from politicians and political leaders. However, the research found that encouraging participation by residents and others, and experimentation may not necessarily lead to desired outcomes where there are also strong external (top-down) policy drivers (e.g. housing development pressures). The study, by Carolyn Petersen, Duncan Russel and Nick Kirsop-Taylor from the University of Exeter, and Anne Jensen and Anders Branth Pedersen, from Aarhus University, is published in the journal Discover Cities. Dr Petersen said: "When NBS projects aligned with and were integrated into government strategy with support from local leaders, this helped promote innovation in all three cities, as did involving local people in the co-design of NBS initiatives. "We also found key differences. In the Paris Region there was more evidence of citizens and local NGOs developing their own NBS initiatives, based on tackling external factors and priorities such as increasing the liveability of urban areas, biodiversity, health and wellbeing, and climate adaptation, without government assistance, at least initially. Whereas, in Velika Gorica the barriers to local groups doing this, such as funding, were reported to be greater. "Key differences that led to differing NBS outcomes included the size and complexity of urban areas, the effectiveness of enforcement of planning regulations, and the extent to which the governing architecture enabled citizens and local NGOs to develop their own NBS initiatives. "The analysis indicates that where citizen participation and consultation were built into NBS projects, this brought both innovation in terms of the design, quality, biodiversity and or multi-functionality of green/blue spaces -- whether this was greening of schoolyards, redesign of under-used green spaces or river restoration." Broad Institute researchers have developed a way to edit the genetic sequences at the root of Huntington's disease and Friedreich's ataxia. The conditions are two of more than 40 severe neurological disorders caused by three-letter stretches of DNA that repeat consecutively. If longer than a certain threshold length, these sequences grow in length uncontrollably and lead to brain cell death in Huntington's disease, and the breakdown of nerve fibers in Friedreich's ataxia. There are no treatments that stop the progression of these diseases. The Broad team has developed a new approach to prevent these DNA repeats from expanding. Using a technique called base editing, the team introduced single-letter changes into the middle of the repeated stretch of DNA, interrupting the sequence in patient cells and mouse models of Huntington's disease and Friedreich's ataxia. They found that the edited DNA tracts stayed the same in length or even became shorter over time. The findings appeared recently in Nature Genetics and come from the lab of gene-editing pioneer David Liu, the Richard Merkin Professor and director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare at the Broad. Liu is also an investigator with the Friedreich's Ataxia Accelerator at Broad, a professor at Harvard University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Mandana Arbab, a postdoctoral researcher in Liu's lab when the study began who now holds the Lodish Family chair as an assistant professor at Boston Children's Hospital, and Zaneta Matuszek, then a graduate student, are co-first authors on the study. Ricardo Mouro Pinto, a Broad associated scientist and an assistant professor at the Mass General Research Institute, is a co-corresponding author along with Liu. More work will be needed to catalog the potential side effects of installing these edits in the genome, but the researchers say that the approach could be a valuable tool for understanding diseases caused by these kinds of DNA repeats. "A lot more studies would be needed before we can know if disrupting these repeats with a base editor could be a viable therapeutic strategy to treat patients," said Liu. "But being able to illuminate the biological consequences of interrupted repeats is a really useful and important milestone." Repeat interrupted About one in 3,000 people has a disease caused by three-letter repeats in DNA. Individuals with the same disease can inherit different numbers of DNA repeats -- people with more repeats generally experience symptoms sooner and more severely, and their diseases progress faster. By contrast, some patients have naturally occurring single-letter "interruptions" within these repeats, and have milder symptoms that develop later. These individuals are also less likely to pass their disease along to their children than people with uninterrupted repeats. That gave Matuszek and Arbab an idea. If a gene-editing therapy could install an interruption that mimics those that occur naturally in some patients, it might stop the repeat from expanding and halt or slow down disease progression. Matuszek and Arbab decided to use base editing, a tool developed by Liu's lab in 2016 for making single-letter changes in DNA. They came up with a system that changed some GC pairs to AT pairs within a CAG repeat tract for Huntington's disease. Another edited several AT pairs to GC pairs within the GAA repeats of Friedreich's ataxia. When the team tested the editors in connective tissue cells derived from patients with the disorders, the number of repeats within treated cells stayed the same or even decreased over time -- but untreated cells had more repeats than before. To shuttle the base editors to specific cells in mice, the researchers packaged them into dual AAV9 vectors, an adeno-associated virus designed to deliver cargo to neurons. The base editors stabilized the repeat tracts in mouse models of Friedreich's ataxia and Huntington's disease. "What's really exciting is that we now have a tool to introduce interruptions in cell and animal models and study how they affect the biology of these diseases," Matuszek said. A new editing strategy Liu cautions that because these repeat sequences occur elsewhere in the genome, the base editors can make edits in those parts of the genome, raising the possibility of unwanted side effects. But so far, his team has found that most off-target editing occurred in parts of the genome that are between genes or do not encode proteins, reducing the chance of unwanted side effects in people. The researchers plan to study these effects in specific cell populations and animal models that more faithfully mirror human disease. However, the team thinks that a therapeutic strategy that introduces interruptions into repeat tracts could one day help treat Huntington's, Friedreich's ataxia, and other trinucleotide repeat disorders, because such changes in DNA occur naturally in people without disease or who only have mild symptoms. "Not only does this study show for the first time that inducing interruptions has a profound stabilizing effect on repeats, but that the base-editing approach we've used can also be applied to study any of over a dozen repeat disorders," Arbab said. "There's still a lot of work to be done, but we're hopeful that this approach could really accelerate therapeutic development for a lot of these diseases." In the meantime, the researchers are also developing a different approach using prime editing to replace disease-causing repeat tracts with a shorter, stable number of repeats all at once. This work was supported in part by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Lodish Family Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Dake Family Foundation, Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A new device that monitors the waste-removal system of the brain may help to prevent Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases, according to a study published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering. In the study, participants were asleep when they wore the device: a head cap embedded with electrodes that measures shifts in fluid within brain tissue, the neural activity from sleep to wakefulness and changes in the brain's blood vessels. By measuring these three features, the researchers found they could monitor the brain's glymphatic system, which acts as a waste-removal and nutrient-delivery system. This is the first time that researchers have been able to track the flow of glymphatic fluid in individuals at different levels of sleep through a single night. Previously these processes could only be monitored at university research centers by using MRI, an approach that is too slow to track minute changes in individuals' sleep stages. "We have assumed that this system operated in a sort of 'on-off' manner: 'on' during sleep -- particularly during slow-wave sleep -- and 'off' during waking," said Jeffrey Iliff, coauthor of the study and a professor in psychiatry and neurology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. These assumptions, Iliff added, were based on rodent studies he and others conducted over the last decade. When the research involved human participants, however, the investigators were surprised at the findings. They found that the glymphatic system was active in both deep and REM sleep, as well as when the person was waking up. Rather than turning on and off, switchlike, this clearance function appeared to accelerate the longer a person slept, and then slow down gradually as they woke, Iliff noted. "It lets us monitor how this system is related to sleep and how it's affected by sleep disruption in humans -- something that is critical if we are trying to understand the role that this biology plays in clinical psychiatric and neurological conditions," Iliff said. These findings are important because the glymphatic system plays a vital role in clearing brain proteins whose abnormal accumulation is linked to disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, he said. "This is a critical step in the development of therapeutics targeting glymphatic function," Iliff said. "And if you can develop therapeutics that improve glymphatic function, you might be able to treat or prevent conditions like Alzheimer's disease." The wearable device, developed by California-based Applied Cognition, could have several potential uses, Iliff suggested. It could help scientists define whether glymphatic dysfunction contributes to the development conditions such as Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury and migraine headaches. It could inform the development of new therapeutics to improve glymphatic function. And it could be used to identify patients at risk for these conditions, who might benefit most from these new therapeutics. This study was conducted with participants at the University of Washington Medical Center -- Montlake and the University of Florida between October 2022 and June 2023. In all 35 participants participated in benchmarking study in Florida, and an additional 14 in replication study in Seattle. All participants ranged between 56 and 66 years of age. Swati Rane Levendovszky an MRI physicist and former director of UW Medicine's Diagnostic Imaging Sciences Center, also worked on the project. She now works at the University of Kansas Medical Center. "This work is pivotal in defining the role glymphatic dysfunction plays in Alzheimer's and discovering therapies to rescue it," said Dr. Paul Dagum, CEO of Applied Cognition. "Our platform has already identified a promising drug candidate that improves glymphatic clearance in early clinical trials." Iliff's lab studies the glymphatic system and its role in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and traumatic brain injury. This study was funded by Applied Cognition, where Iliff served as chair of the company's scientific advisory board and received compensation in that role. Some of the most promising materials for future technologies come in layers just one atom thick -- graphene, e.g., a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, prized for its exceptional strength and conductivity. While hundreds of such materials exist, truly merging them into something new has remained a challenge. Most efforts simply stack these atom-thin sheets like a deck of cards, but the layers typically lack significant interaction between them. An international team of researchers led by Rice University materials scientists has succeeded in creating a genuine 2D hybrid by chemically integrating two fundamentally different 2D materials -- graphene and silica glass -- into a single, stable compound called glaphene, according to a study published in Advanced Materials. "The layers do not just rest on each other -- electrons move and form new interactions and vibration states, giving rise to properties neither material has on its own," said Sathvik Iyengar, a doctoral student at Rice and a first author on the study. More importantly, Iyengar explained, the method could apply to a wide range of 2D materials, enabling the development of designer 2D hybrids for next-generation electronics, photonics and quantum devices. "It opens the door to combining entirely new classes of 2D materials -- such as metals with insulators or magnets with semiconductors -- to create custom-built materials from the ground up," Iyengar said. The team developed a two-step, single-reaction method to grow glaphene using a liquid chemical precursor that contains both silicon and carbon. By tuning oxygen levels during heating, they first grew graphene then shifted conditions to favor the formation of a silica layer. This required a custom high-temperature, low-pressure apparatus designed over several months in collaboration with Anchal Srivastava, a visiting professor from Banaras Hindu University in India. "That setup was what made the synthesis possible," Iyengar said. "The resulting material is a true hybrid with new electronic and structural properties." Once the material was synthesized, the Rice team worked on confirming its structure with Manoj Tripathi and Alan Dalton at the University of Sussex. One of the first clues that glaphene was something new came from an anomaly. When the team analyzed the material using Raman spectroscopy -- a technique that detects how atoms vibrate by measuring subtle shifts in scattered laser light -- they found signals that did not match either graphene or silica. These unexpected vibrational features hinted at a deeper interaction between the layers. In most 2D material stacks, the layers simply sit in place, held together weakly like magnets on a fridge door. But in glaphene, the layers lock together through much more than what are called weak van der Waals bonds, allowing electrons to flow between them and giving rise to entirely new behaviors. To investigate further, Iyengar consulted Marcos Pimenta, an expert in spectroscopy based in Brazil. Ultimately, the anomaly turned out to be an artifact -- an important reminder, Iyengar said, that even reproducible results must be treated with caution. To better understand how the bonded layers behave at the atomic level, the team collaborated with Vincent Meunier at Pennsylvania State University to verify the experimental results against quantum simulations. These confirmed that the graphene and silica layers interact and bond in a unique way, partially sharing electrons across the interface. This hybrid bonding changes the material's structure and behavior, turning a metal and an insulator into a new type of semiconductor. "This was not something only one lab could do," said Iyengar, who recently spent a year in Japan as a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and also an inaugural recipient of the Quad Fellowship, a program launched by the governments of the U.S., India, Australia and Japan to support early career scientists in exploring how science, policy and diplomacy intersect on the global stage. "This research was a cross-continental effort to create and understand a material nature does not make on its own." Pulickel Ajayan, Rice's Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering and professor of materials science and nanoengineering, said that while the discovery of glaphene is significant on its own, what makes the research truly exciting is the broader method it introduces -- a new platform for chemically combining fundamentally different 2D materials. The research reflects a guiding principle Iyengar says he inherited from his adviser. "Since I started my Ph.D., my adviser has encouraged me to explore mixing ideas that others hesitate to mix," he said, quoting Ajayan, who is a corresponding author on the study alongside Meunier. "Professor Ajayan has also said that true innovation happens at the junctions of hesitation -- and this project is proof of that." The research was supported by the Quad Fellowship program; the Rice-Penn State collaborative project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-23-1-0447); the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2236422); the Sussex Strategy Development Fund; Instituto de Ciencia e Tecnologia de Nanomateriais de Carbono; Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais; and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. The content herein is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations and institutions. Iyengar, Srivastava, Meunier and Ajayan express interest in pursuing intellectual property, and a US provisional application on this technology has been filed. Adopting new digital systems to help oceangoing container ships get in line to offload their cargo at busy ports appears to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16-24%, according to researchers at UC Santa Barbara. Not only would this relatively simple intervention reduce emissions, but the technology to implement these measures already exists and is cheap. "Arguably the most impactful thing we can do to slow climate change is to directly cut CO 2 emissions," said Rachel Rhodes, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (BOSL) at UCSB, and lead author of a paper that appears in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. "This has scientists looking at all sectors for places to trim." One promising candidate for CO 2 reduction is the maritime shipping industry, which contributes about 3% of the world's total greenhouse gases -- on par with emissions from aviation -- an amount that is forecasted to grow as globalization increases. Typically, these vessels race across the ocean and then line up and idle at ports as they wait to be unloaded. "Many ports worldwide still use the century-old 'first come, first-served' system for ship berthing, that reminds me of when you pull a ticket from those red 'take a number' machines when you visit the Department of Motor Vehicles," said Douglas McCauley, a UCSB marine ecologist and director of the BOSL. In normal times at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, this system typically results in a backlog of 0-4 container vessels waiting to be unloaded. During disruptions, such as the delays brought by the COVID pandemic, the inefficiency can increase to around 100 container vessels just idling near the port. During the pandemic, marine industry stakeholders came together to quickly design and implement a new electronic queueing system primarily to prevent such congestion. Herein lies the potential low-hanging fruit. "Instead of using the old approach, container ships get a spot in line based on when they left their previous port," said Rhodes. "Think of it like making a reservation at a popular restaurant before you leave home, rather than racing across town, hoping to beat others to the door." With their place in line secure, vessels delivering cargo to Los Angeles/Long Beach don't have to rush during their trans-Pacific voyage. In theory, these slower ships would burn less fuel and create fewer emissions. While the vessel queueing system was originally developed for the purpose of eliminating the bottleneck at the twin ports, Rhodes, McCauley and other collaborators from UCSB, NOAA, the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation, the marine exchanges of Alaska and Southern California, and Global Fishing Watch suspected it might have the added benefit of reducing CO 2 emissions. During the pandemic, marine industry stakeholders came together to quickly design and implement a new electronic queueing system primarily to prevent such congestion. Herein lies the potential low-hanging fruit. "Instead of using the old approach, container ships get a spot in line based on when they left their previous port," said Rhodes. "Think of it like making a reservation at a popular restaurant before you leave home, rather than racing across town, hoping to beat others to the door." With their place in line secure, vessels delivering cargo to Los Angeles/Long Beach don't have to rush during their trans-Pacific voyage. In theory, these slower ships would burn less fuel and create fewer emissions. While the vessel queueing system was originally developed for the purpose of eliminating the bottleneck at the twin ports, Rhodes, McCauley and other collaborators from UCSB, NOAA, the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation, the marine exchanges of Alaska and Southern California, and Global Fishing Watch suspected it might have the added benefit of reducing CO 2 emissions. To find out, the researchers analyzed more than 47 million miles of traffic crossing the Pacific, spread over 10,000 voyages by 1,157 container ships from 2017-2023. Using a bottom-up approach, they calculated the emissions generated by container vessels before and after the queueing system's 2021 implementation. They found that this simple change appeared to make a big difference, with apparent reductions of 16-24% less CO 2 pollution produced per trip, after the new system was implemented. "Without needing to 'hurry up and wait' to secure their spot in line, ships are saving fuel by traveling at slower, more efficient speeds," McCauley said. "Just like how your car gets much better gas mileage when you drive 65 mph instead of 85 mph." The queueing system, conducted by Pacific Management Systems -- a partnership between the Marine Exchange of Southern California and the Marine Exchange of Alaska -- can serve as a model for other ports around the world that are or could be facing congestion as demand rises for goods in an increasingly globalized economy, according to the researchers. Its built-in resilience mechanism can help these ports maintain operations during times of disruption, while lowering CO 2 emissions at a source. What's more, implementation of this system is quick. "Unlike technological solutions that require significant investment and time, this operational innovation was designed and implemented at the world's ninth busiest port complex within just one month of the working group convening, showing how rapid changes are possible," Rhodes noted. "The success relied heavily on the coordination capabilities and digital infrastructure provided by PacMMS, as well as the active participation of vessels and carrieres whose willingness to comply with the new protocols was crucial." The time is ripe, the researchers say, for ports around the world to adopt digital queueing, an easy, cost-effective way to modernize while also working toward better air quality along the world's coasts. "Integrating digital queueing represents a straightforward win within the broader technology and digital transformation initiatives that ports and logistics companies are already pursuing, offering an easy-to-implement solution that could scale globally as ports modernize and streamline their operations to reduce emissions," McCauley said. "If similar benefits are demonstrated at other ports, these systems could offer a relatively simple pathway for the maritime industry to contribute to emissions reduction efforts. "Integrating digital queueing represents a straightforward win within the broader technology and digital transformation initiatives that ports and logistics companies are already pursuing, offering an easy-to-implement solution that could scale globally as ports modernize and streamline their operations to reduce emissions," McCauley said. "If similar benefits are demonstrated at other ports, these systems could offer a relatively simple pathway for the maritime industry to contribute to emissions reduction efforts." Reducing cargo vessel speeds would also greatly benefit the creatures that share our shipping lanes: whales. Research conducted by the same UCSB lab has found that slower ships have fewer lethal collisions with endangered whales, making this intervention a potential win for them too. Looking ahead, the researchers continue to investigate more ways to reduce carbon emissions at shipping ports. Comparing emissions between the twin LA/LB ports and others on the West Coast that had not yet adopted the new system, they found that the other ports also had indications of more moderate emissions reductions, a reminder that other key factors exist that shape ship speed and emissions. Properly identifying these systemic factors could help further drive down emissions in addition to slower speeds and intelligent queuing. Additional fine tuning of the queueing system may also yield even bigger climate wins, say the researchers. "For example, tweaking the system slightly so ships travelled at an average speed of 17 instead of 18 knots across the Pacific appears to have the capacity to shave off another approximately 308,000 tons of CO 2 emissions -- that's an additional 9% reduction," said McCauley. "While travelling at marginally slower speeds is not always feasible for all types of shipping today, these early insights can help us contemplate ways to reduce both climate impact and improve operational efficiency in the future if the industry trends toward more digitization in the ports, automation fleets and more AI-connected supply chains that accurately anticipate market trends and shipping needs." The team looks forward to applying these types of research insights to helping envision a greener, more efficient and cost-effective future for the shipping industry and ports. Research in this paper was also conducted by Callie Leiphardt and Hillary Young at UCSB; Jessica Morten at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary; Byron Hayes and Jen Dillon at the Marine Exchange of Alaska; Wendy Louttit at the Marine Exchange of Southern California and Mark Powell at Global Fishing Watch. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, commonly referred to as the "AMOC," is a system of ocean currents confined to the Atlantic basin that plays a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate by transporting heat from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere. The AMOC also modulates regional weather, from the mild summers in Europe to the monsoon seasons in Africa and India. Climate models have long predicted that global warming will cause the AMOC to weaken, with some projecting substantial weakening amounting to a near-collapse relative to the AMOC's strength today. Such a weakening would have far-reaching consequences, including changes in regional sea level rise and major shifts in regional climate, such as colder conditions in northern Europe and drier weather in parts of the Amazon and West Africa. However, a new study from Caltech finds that although the AMOC will weaken under global warming, it is likely to do so to a much lesser extent than current projections suggest. The team developed a simplified physical model based on fundamental principles of ocean circulation -- specifically, how density differences and the AMOC's depth are related -- that also incorporates real-world measurements of the ocean current's strength, collected over 20 years through the use of monitoring arrays and other observationally constrained products of the Atlantic basin. The researchers found that the AMOC will weaken by around 18 to 43 percent at the end of the 21st century. While this does represent some weakening, it does not represent substantial weakening that the more extreme climate model projections suggest. This new understanding significantly narrows the range of future AMOC weakening, addressing a long-standing uncertainty in climate science. The study is described in a paper appearing in the journal Nature Geoscience. The research was conducted in the laboratories of Tapio Schneider, the Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; and Andrew Thompson, the John S. and Sherry Chen Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, director of The Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, and executive officer for Environmental Science and Engineering. Paleoclimate records, like ocean sediments that record past climate conditions, indicate that the AMOC has experienced weakening in the past, such as during the Last Glacial Maximum (a period about 20,000 years ago), leading to major swings in the climate that affected North America and Europe. Contemporary climate models show wide variation in their 21st century projections of AMOC weakening: Some predict substantialAMOC weakening, while others predict only a small amount of weakening. The new study, led by former graduate student Dave Bonan (PhD '25), aimed to better understand the physical mechanisms governing AMOC behavior in climate models, with the goal of reconciling these discrepancies. The research sheds light on a long-standing and previously unexplained feature of climate models: the link between the present-day and future strength of the AMOC. Climate models that simulate a stronger present-day AMOC tend to project greater weakening under climate change. The researchers found that this relationship stems from the depth of the AMOC. A stronger AMOC typically extends to greater depths and allows changes in surface water temperature and salinity properties -- caused by global warming and freshwater input -- to penetrate deeper into the ocean and drive greater weakening. In other words, a climate model with a stronger and deeper AMOC is less resilient to surface changes and experiences proportionally more AMOC weakening than one with a shallower current. Climate models with a shallower present-day AMOC still show weakening under climate change, but to a lesser extent than those with a deeper present-day AMOC. The new study uses this understanding to constrain future AMOC projections by building a simplified physical model and incorporating real-world measurements of the ocean current's strength. The results indicate that the AMOC will only experience limited weakening even in the highest emissions scenarios. The study suggests that much of the previous uncertainty and some of the more extreme AMOC weakening projections stemmed from biases in how climate models simulate the ocean's current state, particularly its density stratification. "Our results imply that, rather than a substantial decline, the AMOC is more likely to experience a limited decline over the 21st century -- still some weakening, but less drastic than previous projections suggest," Bonan says. Bonan emphasizes the need to examine higher-resolution climate models that also include more sophisticated processes. Higher-resolution models might offer deeper insights into AMOC behavior and improve projections of its future changes. The study provides a framework to interrogate and evaluate more sophisticated models. While conducting this research at Caltech, Bonan was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP). "The NSF-GFRP gave me the freedom to tinker and explore," he says. "There is immense value in doing basic research -- it can give us a better indication of what the future might look like, as our study shows." The paper is titled "Observational constraints imply limited future Atlantic meridional overturning circulation weakening." In addition to Bonan, Schneider, and Thompson, co-authors are Laure Zanna of New York University, Kyle Armour of the University of Washington, and Shantong Sun of Laoshan Laboratory in Qingdao, China. Funding was provided by the NSF, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Schmidt Sciences LLC. Special Envoy of the US President for Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg, stated that the issue of non-expansion of NATO, including Ukraine, has been repeatedly discussed and is a subject of concern for Russia. He said this on ABC News in response to a journalist's question whether US President Donald Trump is ready to make a written commitment to the President of the Russian Federation that NATO will not expand. Kellogg noted that it was a valid concern and that they had talked about it repeatedly. He said that, as they had stated, Ukraine being part of NATO was not on the table, and they were not the only country saying that. He also emphasized that several NATO member states do not support Ukraine's accession to the Alliance. He said that he could probably name four NATO countries, and that it took all 32 members to approve a country's entry into NATO. He added that they had seen other countries express uncertainty about that. Kellogg added that the Russian Federation is raising issues not only regarding Ukraine. Kellogg noted that they were talking about the country of Georgia, Moldova, and obviously Ukraine. He said that they were proposing, in a comprehensive way, to stop NATO expansion from reaching their border, emphasizing that these were security issues for them. At the same time, he emphasized that the decision on this matter should be made personally by the US President. Scientists at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have developed a powerful new tool for finding the next generation of materials needed for large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing. The significant breakthrough means that, for the first time, researchers have found a way to determine once and for all whether a material can effectively be used in certain quantum computing microchips. The major findings have been published today in the academic journal Science and are the result of a large international collaboration which includes leading theoretical work from Prof. Dung-Hai Lee in University of California, Berkeley, and material synthesis from professors Sheng Ran and Johnpierre Paglione in Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Maryland respectively. Using equipment found in only three labs around the world, researchers at the Davis Group based in UCC were able to definitively determine whether Uranium ditelluride (UTe 2 ), which is a known superconductor, had the characteristics required to be an intrinsic topological superconductor. A topological superconductor is a unique material that, at its surface, hosts new quantum particles named Majorana fermions. In theory they can be used to stably store quantum information without being disturbed by the noise and disorder which plague present quantum computers. Physicists have been on the hunt for an intrinsic topological superconductor for decades, but no material ever discovered has ticked all the boxes. UTe 2 had been considered a strong candidate material for intrinsic topological superconductivity since its discovery in 2019 however no research had definitively evaluated its suitability -- until now. Using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) operating in a new mode invented by Seamus Davis, Professor of Quantum Physics at UCC, a team led by Joe Carroll, a PhD researcher at the Davis Group and Kuanysh Zhussupbekov, a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow, were able to conclude once and for all whether UTe 2 is the right sort of topological superconductor. The experiments carried out using the "Andreev" STM -- found only in Prof. Davis' labs in Cork, Oxford University in the UK, and Cornell University in New York -- discovered that UTe 2 is indeed an intrinsic topological superconductor, but not exactly the kind for which physicists have been searching. However, the first-of-its-kind experiment is a breakthrough in itself. When asked about the experiment Mr. Carroll described it as follows "Traditionally researchers have searched for topological superconductors by taking measurements using metallic probes. They do this because metals are simple materials, so they play essentially no role in the experiment. What's new about our technique is that we use another superconductor to probe the surface of UTe 2 . By doing so we exclude the normal surface electrons from our measurement leaving behind only the Majorana fermions." Carroll further highlighted that this technique would allow scientists to determine directly whether other materials are suitable for topological quantum computing. Quantum computers have the capacity to answer in seconds the kind of complex mathematical problems that would take current generation computers years to solve. Right now, governments and companies around the world are racing to develop quantum processors with more and more quantum bits but the fickle nature of these quantum calculations is holding back significant progress. Earlier this year Microsoft announced the Majorana 1, which the company has said is "the world's first Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) powered by a Topological Core ." Microsoft explained that to achieve this advance, synthetic topological superconductors based on elaborately engineered stacks of conventional materials were required. However the Davis Group's new work means that scientists can now find single materials to replace these complicated circuits, potentially leading to greater efficiencies in quantum processors and allowing many more qubits on a single chip thus moving us closer to the next generation of quantum computing. In 1984, an amateur paleontologist in Scotland found a remarkable specimen: a nearly complete fossil of what looked to be a lizard or salamander. Rather small in size at 20 centimeters, it would turn out to be a crucial piece in the puzzle of animal evolution. This creature, called Westlothiana lizziae, is one of the earliest examples of a four-legged animal that had evolved from living underwater to dwelling on earth. It, and other stem tetrapods like it, are common ancestors of the amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals that exist today, including humans. Despite its significance, researchers had never determined an accurate age of the fossil. But thanks to new research out of The University of Texas at Austin, scientists now know that the Westlothiana lizziae, along with similar salamander-like creatures from the same spot in Scotland, are potentially 14 million years older than previously thought. The new age -- dating back to 346 million years ago -- adds to the significance of the find because it places the specimens in a mysterious hole in the fossil record called Romer's Gap. The research, published recently in the journal PLOS One, was led by Hector Garza, who just graduated with his doctoral degree from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. Garza took a risk when he embarked on his mission to date the ancient fossils using a geochemical technique called radiometric dating. That's because while geoscientists can use zircon crystals to determine how long ago a rock was formed, not all rock types are amenable to this type of analysis. And the site in Scotland where the fossils were discovered was near ancient volcanoes whose lava flows had long hardened into basalt rock, where zircons do not typically form. Fellow scientists warned Garza that chemically dating the rocks might be fruitless. "I think that was one of the reasons why no one tried to go into them before," Garza said. "Because of all the time and effort that it takes to obtain the zircons and then taking the risk of not finding any." But he got lucky. As mud cascaded down from the volcanoes, the flowing lava and debris eroded sediment that contained zircons, which got swept into a lake where limestone was forming, entombing these early tetrapod creatures. Garza X-rayed 11 of the rock samples at the Jackson School and was able to extract zircons from the rock surrounding six of the fossils. He then conducted uranium-lead laser dating on the zircons at the University of Houston to determine their oldest possible age. Before Garza's gamble, scientists had figured the fossils were as old as similar fossils from around the world -- about 331 million years old. The more accurate, older maximum age of 346 million years is significant because it places the specimens in Romer's Gap. This is a time period from 360 to 345 million years ago where, for reasons scientists are not exactly sure of, very few fossils have been discovered. It is during this crucial point in history that water-dwelling fish took an evolutionary leap, growing lungs and four legs to become land animals. This is one of the most pivotal milestones in the history of animal evolution. "I can't overstate the importance of the iconic East Kirkland tetrapods," said Julia Clarke, professor at the Jackson School and co-author of this paper. "Better constraining the age of these fossils is key to understanding the timing of the emergence of vertebrates on to land. Timing in turn is key to assessing why this transition occurs when it does and what factors in the environment may be linked to this event." The site in Scotland where the fossils were found is the East Kirkton Quarry, a veritable treasure trove of early tetrapod records. Seven stem tetrapod fossils, including the Westlothiana lizziae, have been found there. Hundreds of millions of years ago when these early four-legged creatures roamed, this site was a tropical forest with nearby active volcanoes, a toxic lake, and a diverse plant and animal community. The National Museum of Scotland provided Garza with bits of rock that surrounded the fossils to use for the sampling. Other study co-authors are Associate Professor Elizabeth Catlos and Michael Brookfield, both of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Jackson School, and Thomas Lapen, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston. US to UN Security Council: If Russia decides to continue war, we to consider abandoning our negotiating efforts, Putin must accept deal If Russia makes the "wrong decision to continue a catastrophic war," the United States will have to consider abandoning peace negotiations, said Acting US Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN John Kelley. If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict. To be clear, in doing so, we would not be abandoning our principles or our friends. Rather, we would be recognizing Russias refusal to work with us toward a desirable outcome, he said at the UN Security Council on Thursday. Kelley stressed that if Russia and Ukraine are truly interested in peace, the United States will work with both sides, with European partners and with the United Nations to help achieve that goal, starting with a meaningful ceasefire. But we will insist that the discussion of peace by both sides must be undertaken in good faith, said Kelley. At the same time, he stressed that US President Donald Trump has made it clear that Washington wants to cooperate with Russia, including on a peace initiative. The deal on offer now is Russias best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal, Kelley stressed. He added that the US calls on both Russia and Ukraine to make the difficult, historic decision to pursue peace. If one side proves unable or unwilling to do so, it will own the consequences, the US representative added. UN: Instead of steps towards peace, we witness brutal surge in large-scale Russian attacks across Ukraine Cautious hope for progress towards an end to hostilities in Ukraine has given way to intensive Russian attacks using a record number of missiles and drones, howled UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo. Instead of steps towards peace, we have witnessed a brutal surge in large-scale Russian attacks across the country, she said at the UN Security Council on Thursday. DiCarlo noted that for three consecutive nights last weekend, the Russians attacked Ukrainian settlements with a record number of long-range missiles and drones, killing and wounding dozens of civilians. Most of the casualties were recorded in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv, as well as in other densely populated regions. The UN recalled that on Monday, May 26, at least six people were killed and 24 were injured across the country, including in Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. According to Ukrainian officials, the attack, which involved 355 drones, was the largest drone attack on Ukraine since the beginning of Russias full-scale invasion. On Sunday, May 25, 12 people, including three children, were killed and more than 60 injured in missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and other settlements across Ukraine. More than 80 homes were reportedly damaged. On Saturday, May 24, at least 15 people, including two minors, were injured in a Russian strike on Kyiv. In addition, DiCarlo stressed, Ukraines Sumy region has been particularly hard hit by the ongoing heavy shelling. Separately, the UN recalled that on May 17, just hours after the Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul, a Russian drone strike on a civilian bus in Bilopilla, Sumy region, reportedly killed nine people and injured seven others, including three members of the same family a mother, father and their daughter. At the same time, the UN Deputy Secretary-General welcomed the May 16 meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul and noted the important role of Turkey and the United States in facilitating these discussions. The UN added that it hopes that all prisoners of war and civilians will soon return home. DiCarlo also stressed that serious and conscientious efforts are now needed to return to a path that can lead to a just peace. USA hopes for direct talks between Ukraine, Russia, has yet to decide on its participation in them White House The United States has expressed hope for direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey, but has not yet made a decision on its own participation, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing in Washington. In response to reporters' questions about the possible presence of the United States at the talks, Leavitt replied that they would let them know if the president planned to send his representative, but added that he was not tracking that at the time. She emphasized that US President Donald Trump consistently supports a political solution to the conflict. The spokeswoman stressed that the president had made it clear from the very beginning of the conflict that he wanted to see it resolved at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield, and that he had communicated this to both leaders, both publicly and privately. Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), has called on the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) to stop blocking the supply of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Deutschlandfunk reported on Friday. "The CDU/CSU coalition partner must move," Kiesewetter said on the radio. "Otherwise, Chancellor Merz, who repeatedly called for the supply of Taurus during his tenure as opposition leader, will also have problems with his own credibility." Kiesewetter stressed that the start of training Ukrainian soldiers on cruise missiles would be a political signal to Russia that the German government is serious and will provide "everything it is capable of." Chancellor Friedrich Merz had previously reportedly said that the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles was "quite possible." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also confirmed that he had spoken to Merz about it. Judy Logan with her radiation team at Aultman Hospital, including her doctor, Dr. Wobb. Judy Logan with Ebony, a radiation technician, during a treatment session at Aultman Hospital. Helped 244 patients in the tri-state region Delivered 675 services, including dental care, transportation, and nutritional support Spent a total of $290,998.09 in direct support for residents of these three states Judy Logan after oral cancer treatment. We were already helping patients in Michigan, but the Delta Dental Foundation grant allowed us to grow our services significantly, LaVelle says. We might have gone from helping with $20,000 worth of services to now over $100,000 annually in that region. Judy Logan with her daughter, Peggy Lee. This story is part of a series on the challenges and solutions related to oral health in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. It is made possible with funding support from the Delta Dental Foundation. When Peggy Lees 80-year-old mother, Judith Judy Logan, was diagnosed with oral cancer, their family wasnt prepared for the financial and emotional toll that would follow. A lifetime of limited dental care had left Logan with ill-fitting dentures, and her fixed income made navigating treatment nearly impossible.Our family could only help so much. Her medical costs were just so high, says Lee, who lives near her mothers apartment in Canton, Ohio. I dont know where Mom would be without the help she got.That help came from the HNC Living Foundation , a national nonprofit that removes financial barriers for people diagnosed with head and neck cancer. These patients often face high out-of-pocket costs for dental procedures, nutritional supplements, transportation, and recovery supplies.Founded in 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri, by Theresa Walsh after her own cancer battle, the foundation grew out of a simple yet profound question she asked her physician: Why am I getting better? The answer revealed a troubling reality.He told her that many patients have to choose between getting dental care or showing up for treatment, says Alyssa LaVelle, director of marketing and outreach at HNC Living Foundation. Some are choosing between gas money for their appointments or paying their bills. Usually, the patients are choosing between showing up for their treatment or working to make ends meet to pay other bills. Not necessarily dental care. That conversation inspired her to start this foundation.Before many cancer patients can even begin radiation or chemotherapy, they must first receive dental clearance to confirm that infections or oral complications wont interfere with treatment. Yet access to oral health care is often out of reach, especially for patients on limited incomes, like Logan.She didnt have a very good dentist growing up, Lee says. She had a terrible experience as a child with a dentist who worked out of his house, and it stuck with her.By the time Logan noticed a sore on her tongue that wouldnt heal, it had progressed into oral cancer. Surgery and 30 rounds of radiation followed, leaving her unable to taste food and contributing to a 25-pound weight loss.She used to love food, but nothing tasted good anymore, Lee says. Her old dentures didnt fit after the weight loss, and it made everything harder."I was so overwhelmed when I learned that I had oral cancer, Logan says. I survived breast cancer when I was in my 60s, and now I was dealing with oral cancer at 80 years old. I healed well from the surgery, but after that, I felt exhausted from the radiation treatments and had no appetite for a long time.Thats when a hospital social worker connected the family with HNC Living Foundation. Lee filled out an online application, and within a week, a care coordinator named Brandi called.She was so kind, Lee says. She helped us with gas cards for appointments and provided high-calorie Boost drinks. That made such a difference.The HNC Living Foundation covered the cost of Logans new dentures with funding from a grant provided by the Delta Dental Foundation.I dont know how we couldve afforded them otherwise, Lee says. They were 30 or 40 years old and didnt fit anymore. Getting those new dentures made Mom feel like herself again.Logan agrees that the oral care was crucial to her recovery.The new dentures made me feel so much better and made it possible for me to eat well again as I gained strength, she said. I am very thankful for the HNC Living Foundation and all of the support they provided for me."Since receiving its first grant from Delta Dental Foundation in 2022, HNC Living Foundation has increased its investment in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana by 50% each year. To date, the organization has:Head and neck cancers are one of the few cancer types that continue to rise in the United States, fueled in part by HPV infections as well as tobacco and alcohol use. The complex nature of these cancers often results in long, difficult recoveries.A lot of our patients cant eat solid foods, LaVelle says. They rely on nutritional drinks or tube feeding, especially due to the extensive nature of their treatment.Patients can apply through a secure online portal, and the foundation serves households up to 200% of the federal poverty level. Most applicants receive a response within one to two weeks.One of our care team members is actually a head and neck cancer survivor, LaVelle says. She now helps other patients navigate the process. She truly understands what theyre going through.Today, Logan is in recovery, speaking with a slight lisp from a small section of her tongue that was removed.Lee, who managed the caregiving responsibilities, says the support helped restore more than just her mothers health.They helped my mom feel like herself again, she says. They were there when we needed it most. Walker Career Center trains teens for dental careers, tackling workforce shortages and helping underserved students access well-paying, high-demand health care jobs. A Walker Career Center student practices checking teeth. Walker Career Center students proudly display their earned certifications. Walker Career Center trains teens for dental careers. Walker Career Center students present on the role of dental assistants. Walker Career Center students proudly display their dental assisting certifications. This story is part of a series on the challenges and solutions related to oral health in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. It is made possible with funding support from the Delta Dental Foundation. As a child, Ashley Rosales always looked forward to trips to the dentist. The bright tools and calming voices of the dental staff made her feel comfortable and curious. That early fascination has since turned into a career path.I decided to join the dental careers program because I always enjoyed going to the dentist when I was little, says Rosales, a senior at Walker Career Center in Indianas Warren Township near Indianapolis. What I had hoped to get from the program was to learn what was being done to my mouth from my experience being a patient at my dental office.Now, as part of the schools dental capstone course, Rosales is getting hands-on experience working in a real dental office. And the impact of that learning has extended to her home life.The program has taught me how to properly brush and floss, and this has helped me teach my younger brother with his oral health, she says. Also, I am able to help my mom understand the importance of going to the dentist and having routine teeth cleanings and checkups.Rosales says the program is a step toward an exciting and meaningful future.Having a career in dentistry will give me the opportunity to help people build their confidence with their smile and help them feel good about themselves, she says.For Rosales and her classmates, the dental careers program is more than a class; its a launchpad into a well-paying profession and helps fill a shortage of dental workers in communities that need them most.Christina Steigerwalt, who teaches the dental program at Walker Career Center, is in her first year there. She taught the same program in New Castle, Indiana, for seven years.The dental assisting program is designed to equip students with the clinical, administrative, and professional skills needed to support dentists and deliver quality patient care, Steigerwalt explains. Students learn chairside techniques, infection control, dental radiography, and office procedures to become well-rounded health care team members.The curriculum is designed to give students clinical and administrative skills and prepare them to take the Radiation Health and Safety exam, which can lead directly to employment.Passing this exam allows students the opportunity to apply for their Indiana dental radiographer license and an opportunity for full-time employment as a dental assistant after graduating high school, Steigerwalt says.Interest in the program is growing quickly.I believe the growth is driven by the hands-on learning experience, opportunities for real-world clinical internships, and the fast track to a professional license, Steigerwalt says. What sets our program apart is how quickly students can earn industry-recognized credentials and begin working in the dental field right after graduation.The students success hasnt gone unnoticed by the local dental community.Our students are finding great success after graduation, Steigerwalt says. In fact, three students were offered jobs before even graduating high school through their work-based learning placements. Several others go on to continue their education in dental hygiene.The demand from dental offices is strong. Local employers regularly reach out looking for our graduates because they know our students are well-prepared, professional, and ready to work on day one.Brittney Silkworth, executive director of the Warren Arts & Education Foundation , has helped lead efforts to strengthen and expand the program through partnerships and fundraising.Weve worked with Delta Dental Foundation over the past couple of years and received funding," she says. "Because of that, we now have technology in our dental careers program that no other career center really has. We are removing barriers for our students, not only through the technology that the Delta Dental Foundation has provided, but also transportation, curriculum, uniforms, and other supports.That equipment includes industry-grade training tools like mannequins and a 3D printer.We were able to get mannequins that allow students to do cleanings exactly as they would on each other, Silkworth says. Without that, they wouldnt have that experience. Our 3D printer allows our students to use technology like they would in dental offices to do impressions and other tasks.The investment extends beyond the classroom.The Walker Career Center received a van, which allows the foundation to help pay for a driver and make transportation more affordable and free for students, she says, helping even more students access these opportunities.Silkworth says the program provides a critical path to economic mobility for students.Right after high school, students can earn around $35,000 to $45,000 in health care support roles, she says. With additional training or certifications, that can increase to $60,000 or more annually. For example, dental assistants in Indianapolis earn an average of $44,000, while dental hygienists average closer to $81,000. Thats a strong motivator for students who may not be planning to attend a four-year college. Other roles, like patient care technicians or entry-level healthcare administrative assistants, typically start between $36,000 and $42,000.The program is also seeing improved retention.Weve definitely seen an increase in students in the program, and not just in enrollment, Silkworth says. More students are staying through both junior and senior years to complete the full program.She credits the quality of the experience for that growth.The experience that Delta Dental Foundation helps provide has made a big difference, she says. Without that hands-on learning, the program wouldnt be as rewarding or engaging for students.Silkworth says programs like this are more than career training. They're about community health and equity.It has been great for students to get that hands-on exposure to oral health education and digital hygiene practices and having those preventative care techniques and technical skills for career readiness, she says. Honestly, its been outstanding. Volunteers guide participants through the terminal ticket desk, luggage check, and TSA. Joanna Lofton, center, and volunteers at the April 26, 2025 event. Nashiah Sharyan and her husband hope one day to travel to Yemen so their children can visit their grandparents. While traveling by air can cause anxiety for nearly anyone these days, flying creates even more challenges for autistic individuals and families traveling with children on the spectrum.To help autistic people and their families manage these challenges, Autism Alliance of Michigan (AAoM), Delta Airlines , and the Detroit Metropolitan Airport partner to host On Board for Autism events that prepare them to successfully take a flight. Families with autistic children and adults can take a practice trip that starts in the parking structure, proceeds through TSA, introduces the terminal, traverses the jet bridge, and ends with buckling securely in the seat of a real airplane.Sharyan shares that this springs On Board for Autism event helped her autistic son get used to waiting in lines, being in crowds, and being around people outside his family. He especially enjoyed getting on the plane and sitting in his seat.I was able to see how he would behave in such environments, Sharyan says. Seeing people and mixing with them, waiting in line, sitting in the airplane chair. All of it was a great experience. Everything was amazing, and I was happy to be a part of it.The whole family appreciated the inclusive and welcoming treatment that made them feel so comfortable. They hope this experience will make that future flight to Yemen easier.Flying can be a real challenge for autistic individuals, mainly because it can be so overwhelming, says Joanna Lofton, AAoM outreach manager and community resource specialist. We are so fortunate to be able to partner with DTW and Delta and that they recognize the importance of creating the opportunity for autistic individuals to experience the airport and the airplane environment.DTW has also updated its Edward H. McNamara Terminal with a multi-sensory room , where autistic individuals and others who feel overwhelmed can take a quiet break. DTWs Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program provides passengers with lanyards or wristbands that discreetly identify them as needing special attention or additional assistance for those who choose to wear them.Lofton explains that autism influences every individuals sensory systems differently. An airport full of people moving around amplified by a cacophony of different sounds, smells, and lighting can be overwhelming.It can be overwhelming to anyone navigating the environment. The demands to follow the airport rules can easily cause a meltdown for autistic individuals. Waiting in those long lines or complying with TSA requests can also be difficult, she says. It can be so hard for any family to prepare to take a flight, but when you have an autistic child or adult, the preparation, traveling to the airport, and maneuvering the flight can be even harder. The anxiety alone, oftentimes, makes parents feel its just not worth it.Specifically designed for travelers using Detroit Metro Airport, On Board for Autism enlists volunteers who walk autistic individuals and their families through a simulated airport and boarding experience. Starting at the parking garage, AAoM volunteers meet the participants and guide them through the airport terminals, with stops at the ticket desk, luggage check, and all the way through TSA screening. TSA staff are provided details on each of the participants prior to this test run. Next, AAoM volunteers accompany the participants to their gate where they actually board a Delta plane, staffed with flight attendants and a pilot, who are also volunteering their time.They are pre-registered, so the airline staff and the airport staff know to expect them. They get to take their time no one's rushing them with unreasonable expectations, Lofton says. Once they get on that plane and get in their seats, we're helping them with that seat belt, and the airplane staff is explaining what to expect when flying. They get the entire experience. The only thing that we don't do is leave the ground.The pilot who routinely volunteers flies in from Indiana to take part, then flies back so he can make his scheduled evening flight.Many of the volunteers have autistic family members, so it's more a labor of love, Lofton says.. We have some of the nicest, genuine people participating every year.The Tresick family Joe, Amy, and their nonverbal five- and six-year-old autistic sons Joseph and Joshua loved the opportunity to make a practice run to the airport in a way they could never have done on their own.Parking at the airport, going through the gate, the ticket counter, walking through the TSA, and having our children experience that was a tremendous help, Joe Tresick says. Walking through the airport, seeing those sites, we were able to see their tolerances when it comes to transportation, sitting, and then even getting on the airplane.One of the boys is extremely sensitive to new places and experiences.Just getting into the doors of the airport from the parking structure was a win for us, says Amy Tresick. If nothing else good went on that day, that still would have been a win in our eyes because he struggles with that kind of stuff.The boys had fun in the terminal, cashing in the complementary food vouchers, and trying the people mover. But when it came time to buckle into the airplane seat, loud sobs erupted from the more sensitive son.Seeing how he was going to react with different things and going through the entire process helps us to be able to support him, she says. It might take us a couple more practice rounds to actually go through with it. This gave us the exposure without buying airline tickets.The Tresicks would like to see more On Board for Autism events being offered so they could participate a couple more times. The family travels to Florida every year to visit extended family and looks forward to the day when they can fly instead of piling in the car for a 19-hour drive.This is just the first step in broadening the horizon for individuals, Lofton says. If they can get on the plane and learn to fly comfortably, they can go anywhere in the world and that makes a difference in their lives and their families. It boosts their confidence and gives them the opportunity to be more included in society. And the anxiety of the families you can see the relief and joy.Learn more about AAoMs current initiatives at aaomi.org or info@aaomi.org Autism Alliance of Michigan (AAoM) was founded with the vision that people with autism will lead lives that meet their greatest potential. AAoM leads efforts to raise expectations and expand opportunities for people touched by autism across the lifespan. Eastern Market is a staple in the community, and this year, Shed 5 Flea will be returning to support local businesses and bring the community together in Metro Detroit.On June 8, the Shed 5 Flea will feature over 100 vendors and food trucks. Folks can find vintage clothes, jewelry, home decor, and other antique items in Eastern Markets sheds five and six.Danielle Golinski, executive director of Mercantile Fairs, a marketing company behind popular Detroit events like Detroit Foodie Fair and Detroit Vegan, says the Shed 5 Flea began nine years ago when the owner wanted to expand Eastern Markets' Sunday market.Its evolved from there, and its a really eclectic mix of just shopping for all different things as opposed to like a traditional flea market, Golinski says. Theres also been an increased interest in vendors selling Detroit-specific clothing like shirts and hats, she adds.Events like these can support local businesses, and Golinski, a former vendor at other shows in the area, says this event is a way for these business owners to network and learn about other shows and opportunities to help grow their business.Although many of these shops also have an online business, some of them dont. This means that every time people attend one of these Shed 5 Flea events, they wont always find the same items.Its kind of like a treasure hunt, you never know what youre going to find, she says.This free, family-friendly event will also pop up at the market on July 13 and August 10. Next year will be their 10th anniversary, and they are looking to add new things to celebrate the impact its had on the vendors and the community. Kristen Aguirre A collection of Samson's hair care products. More help for local businesses The United Way of South Central Michigan's Tornado Relief Grant for Small Businesses application is open now through June 20. The Tornado Relief Grant provides $10,000 grants to small businesses in Kalamazoo County that were directly impacted by the May 7, 2024, tornado. This program is a partnership between Kalamazoo County and the United Way of South Central Michigan, with funding provided by Kalamazoo County through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. More information can be The United Way of South Central Michigan's Tornado Relief Grant for Small Businesses application is open now through June 20. The Tornado Relief Grant provides $10,000 grants to small businesses in Kalamazoo County that were directly impacted by the May 7, 2024, tornado.This program is a partnership between Kalamazoo County and the United Way of South Central Michigan, with funding provided by Kalamazoo County through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.More information can be found here Have 10 employees or fewer. Have annual revenue of $1 million or less. Did not receive Kalamazoo Micro Enterprise Grant support in the previous year. Are current on all local, state, and federal taxes. Kristen Aguirre Adam Muncy and Jake Hamlet are partners in Samsons Barbershop, a recipient of a grant through the Kalamazoo Micro Enterprise Grant program. equitable community development, a topic readers told us they wanted to know more about when surveyed. SWMJC is a group of 12 regional organizations dedicated to strengthening local journalism. Visit swmichjournalism.com to learn more. SHANGHAI, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Mayors and representatives of 26 cities across 22 countries have gathered in Shanghai for the ongoing Global Mayors Dialogue and the 2025 Shanghai International Friendship Cities Cooperation Forum, which kicked off on Wednesday. Sub-forums are themed "Green and low-carbon empowerment for sustainable urban development" and "Inspiring youth vitality for city innovation in the future." The forum runs until Saturday. While developing sister-city relationships against "a complicated and ever-changing international backdrop," cities need to deepen pragmatic cooperation, solidify longstanding friendships based on equality, mutual trust and joint consultation, and share development opportunities, all with the aim of promoting prosperity and stability, Shanghai's Mayor Gong Zheng noted. Haris Doukas, mayor of Athens, Greece, stressed the role of city diplomacy in tackling the climate crisis. "City diplomacy has allowed cities to lead the way, to achieve important partnerships for prevention, to share knowledge, to set brave and specific goals through participation in international networks and forums, and to reduce the burdens of the climate crisis," Doukas said. Shanghai and Athens established a sister-city relationship in January. "Climate change is the defining challenge facing our shared world today," said Dan Boyle, lord mayor of Cork, Ireland, adding that "the spirit of international cooperation, which informs gatherings like today, can give us some optimism that this challenge facing all of humanity will be met." The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved Ukraine's negotiating positions within the framework of EU accession for Cluster 2 "Internal Market" and Cluster 6 "External Relations," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced. "Ukraine is implementing its strategic choice in favor of a united Europe step by step. We have covered the distance from submitting an application for EU membership to the start of pre-accession negotiations in record time. The ambitious goal for 2025 is to open all six negotiation clusters with the EU on a parallel basis," Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Friday. The Prime Minister recalled that the government recently approved Ukraine's negotiating position on Cluster 1 "Fundamentals of the EU Accession Process" and the document has already been submitted to the European Commission. "Today we are considering and approving the negotiating positions for Cluster 2 Internal Market and Cluster 6 External Relations. These are official documents that contain our proposals, outline priorities and obligations regarding future membership," he said. It is noted that the second cluster covers key areas of the functioning of the EU Single Market, in particular the free movement of goods and services, labor and capital, competition rules and consumer protection. In turn, the sixth Cluster concerns foreign policy, security and defense, including Ukraine's contribution to the secure future of a united Europe and the protection of the continent from the Russian threat. "It is important that the European Commission shares our optimism and is determined to open negotiations on Cluster 1 as early as June," the Prime Minister emphasized. As reported, on May 14, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the roadmaps necessary for the opening of the first Cluster in the pre-accession negotiations between Ukraine and the European Union. Later, Stefanishyna stated that Ukraine had fulfilled all the necessary prerequisites for the opening of the first negotiating Cluster on accession to the EU. London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Friday as investors mulled the latest twists and turns in the Trump tariff saga. The FTSE 100 was called to open around 15 points higher. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said: "What began as early trade optimism yesterday - triggered by the US Court of International Trade deeming Trumps tariffs illegal - turned out to be too good to be true. Things quickly got messy when Trump appealed the decision, prompting the US Court of Appeals to pause the ruling in order to review arguments from both sides. Meanwhile, a separate federal court issued a similar but more limited decision on the tariffs. As a result, the initial ruling that had cancelled the tariffs is now effectively on hold. "As such, uncertainty has surged - no one is quite sure whats legal and whats not anymore. Some reports suggest the Trump administration could still find legal grounds to uphold its tariff policies. One of the most cited tools is Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows for industry-specific tariffs on cars, steel, and aluminium on national security grounds. Other potential avenues include Section 301, which deals with unfair trade practices, and Section 122, apparently designed to manage trade deficits and defend the US dollar. In short, there are a lot of legal levers in the air - and most of us arent lawyers. "But you dont need to be a lawyer to smell the thick uncertainty about what the US government might do next - and how trade partners will respond. If tariffs are ultimately found to be unlawful, the willingness of partners to make concessions during trade talks may shrink - not exactly ideal, especially given the critical window for negotiations. And whether therell be legal clarity ahead of the June 9th deadline for European trade negotiations - which could end with 50% tariffs, or not - is anyones guess." In corporate news, it was announced that Japans Dai-ichi Life is to take a stake in investment manager M&G after the two firms agreed a long-term strategic partnership. Under the terms of the deal, the blue chip will become Dai-chis preferred asset management partner in Europe, while the mutual insurer will acquire a shareholding of around 15% in M&G. The partnership is expected to generate at least $6bn in new business flows into funds managed by M&G over the next five years, the British firm said. Elsewhere, business park owner Sirius Real Estate said it had agreed 43m of deals in Germany. The company said it had agreed to purchase a multi-let business park for 12.67m and also the sale a business park for 30m. Japans Dai-ichi Life Holdings is to take a major stake in investment manager M&G , it was announced on Friday, after the two firms struck a long-term strategic partnership. Under the terms of the deal, the blue chip will become Dai-chi Lifes preferred asset management partner in Europe, while the mutual insurer will acquire a shareholding of around 15% in M&G. The partnership is expected to generate at least $6bn in new business flows into funds managed by M&G over the next five years, the British firm said, and $2bn of new business flows for Dai-ichi Life. Half of the $6bn is forecast to come from Dai-ichi Lifes balance sheet on an evergreen basis, with the remaining 50% coming from joint development opportunities. Andrea Rossi, M&G chief executive, said the deal "brings together two highly complementary international businesses with shared growth ambitions. "It will enable us to further capitalise on the significant private market opportunities across Europe and enable even greater access to the Japanese and Asian market." Tetsuya Kikuta, chief executive of Dai-ichi Life, said: "We see our partnership with M&G acting as a spearhead to develop our presence across Europe and the UK, accelerating our strategy to become a global top tier insurance group." The investment, which is subject to regulatory approvals, will give Dai-ichi Life the right to appoint a director to M&G boards for as long as its holds the 15% stake. James Patterson (photo: Emilio Guede) Mention the name James Patterson to readers, and it's likely to bring to mind his more than 30 Alex Cross detective novels or perhaps his collaborations with celebrities like Bill Clinton. It's almost certain that no one will connect him with the subject of fatherhood. And yet, that's exactly the topic Patterson has chosen to tackle in The #1 Dad Book: Be the Best Dad You Can be--In 1 Hour! (Little, Brown; reviewed in this issue). Patterson spoke with Shelf Awareness about the book, via Zoom, from his office in the home in Palm Beach, Fla., where he lives with his wife, Susan. They're the parents of a 27-year-old son, Jack, who works as an investment banker in New York City. "He's doing stuff that he likes," Patterson offers, "and that's a good thing." Patterson was open and enthusiastic as he discussed the reasons for undertaking a project that seems like such a dramatic departure from his previous work. At 78, and with sales of more than 425 million books to his credit, he says a quote from the writer George Saunders has been motivating him in recent years, as he currently finds himself engaged in some 31 projects: "My time here is short. What can I do most beautifully?" As for the specific urge behind writing a book of fatherly advice, Patterson identified what he perceives as both a widespread, serious problem and an opportunity to address it: "You just look around and see so many lost, overwhelmed, angry, unmoored, vulnerable guys. And it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for their families, it's not a good thing for the country, it's not a good thing for everybody. And it just seemed to me that there were things that they could think about and that they tend not to talk to one another about being fathers. For whatever reason they just don't feel comfortable talking about their families." As he revealed in his 2022 memoir, James Patterson: The Stories of My Life, Patterson's own father, Charles Patterson, "was a quiet but tough man who came from tough times and from a tough river town." The elder Patterson grew up in a basement room in the poorhouse in Newburgh, N.Y., where his mother worked as a charwoman, and never met his own father. "They weren't homeless," Patterson writes, "but they were damn close." When it comes to reflecting on how that background affected his own upbringing, Patterson--who didn't become a father until he was 51--readily extends his father some grace: "He was coming from a strange place in terms of figuring out how to be a father. How do you get past that and hopefully not take any of the bad habits with you?" he asks. A year of therapy helped him understand that "there's no reason we should expect our parents to be perfect. But now I understand that piece and I'm moving on." One specific lesson Patterson took away from his childhood is the importance of hugging your children. "My only memory of hugging my father was on his deathbed. It just wasn't that kind of thing. And I never blamed him for it, but there it was. With our son Jack, I hugged him every day when he was home. He was cool with it." That's one of the many recommendations--along with reading to your kids, knowing when to say no, and not being afraid to ask for help--Patterson offers. He recognizes he's making a bold promise that his readers can take away something meaningful from a book that can be read in only an hour, but insists he's serious about it. "It just seemed to me that a lot of guys will not read a 400-page book. I thought I could put together a lot of information that they could read in an hour, and that at the end of it, if guys pick up two or three or four things that help them to be better dads, this is a good hour spent. Because their families will benefit, their kids will benefit, their partners will benefit." In addition to Patterson's own reflections, what makes the book so helpful and often heartwarming are the bits of fatherly wisdom he shares from other men. Some came from people in his network and others were garnered from his own research and from reaching out online. A handful are well-known--like singer John Legend and author John Green--but baseball scout Craig, filmmaker Israel, and housepainter Neal also have their say. However well-intentioned, in writing a book of advice, Patterson was conscious of the need for readers not to feel that he was preaching at them and he described the approach he took to avoid that pitfall: "Humor helps. And being self-effacing helps, so that guys will say, 'Okay, I'm going along with this. I wouldn't mind having a beer with that guy. He's not acting like he's got all the answers for everybody. Here's something to think about, that's all.' " As much as he hopes men will internalize and, more importantly, apply the material he presents in The #1 Dad Book, one of his goals is simply to create an opportunity for them to engage about a subject they're often reluctant to discuss: "If you can, don't be afraid to talk to you friends, or even your partner." he urges. "Sometimes guys don't want to be vulnerable, even with the person they live with or are married to." Patterson also believes booksellers will be performing a valuable service by getting the book into the hands of their customers. "You will help families that walk into the store. You will help dads. A lot of them aren't going to read the 400-page book. What this thing does is compress the information, serve it up in a voice they can be comfortable with and that's useful." Ultimately, Patterson will be grateful if his book can help make some men better at the vital job of being a father: "You've got a lot of guys out there who don't really understand what it takes to be a dad. They haven't really thought through how important it is. Some of them aren't quite willing to make the sacrifices, but this can help. That's a good thing, in my opinion." --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer Lavrov reaffirms Russias strong interest in restarting the Russia-India-China trilateral dialogue, paused since the 2020 Galwan clashes. Lavrov cites improving border relations between India and China as a positive sign for resuming trilateral cooperation. Lavrov accuses NATO of provoking anti-China sentiments and acknowledges Indias awareness of such Western tactics. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed Moscows strong support for reviving the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral dialogue, citing improving ties between New Delhi and Beijing. Speaking at the plenary session of an international conference focused on Eurasian security cooperation, Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's commitment to restoring the RIC mechanism. Lavrov emphasized that Russia is 'genuinely interested' in relaunching the RIC format, which he noted was established years ago through the efforts of former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. He highlighted that the trilateral has held over 20 ministerial-level meetings, not only among foreign ministers but also across trade, economic, and financial portfolios. The RIC format has remained inactive since the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes between Indian and Chinese troops, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops. Tensions between India and China led to a halt in patrols at several friction points along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. However, Lavrov indicated that there has been recent progress in the India-China relationship. As of today, as I understand, an understanding has been reached between India and China on how to ease the situation on the border, Lavrov said, suggesting that conditions were now favorable for reviving the trilateral dialogue. He also took aim at Western alliances, particularly NATO, accusing them of attempting to draw India into 'anti-China intrigues'. Lavrov said, I have no doubts that our Indian friends, and I say this based on confidential conversations with them, obviously see this trend that can be deemed as a large provocation. Lavrovs remarks come months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024. The meeting was perceived as a significant thaw, with both leaders agreeing on the need to improve strained bilateral ties. UN praises Indias leadership in peacekeeping and its role in ensuring accountability for crimes against peacekeepers. India hosted the first-ever Global South Women Peacekeepers Conference, emphasizing womens empowerment and participation in peace operations. India is the 4th largest UN peacekeeping troop contributor, with over 5,300 personnel deployed globally. India's enduring commitment to global peace and its critical role in United Nations peacekeeping operations have received high praise from Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UNs Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations. Speaking at a press briefing on the occasion of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, Lacroix underscored Indias multifaceted contributions, highlighting its efforts to ensure accountability for crimes against peacekeepers and its leadership in empowering women in peace operations. During the briefing, Lacroix emphasized the significance of India's involvement beyond its substantial troop and police contributions. "India is a very important troop and police contributing country. But more than that, it is a strong supporter of peacekeeping", he noted. He cited Indias pioneering efforts to push for accountability for crimes against peacekeepers as a notable example of its commitment. The remarks came in the context of Lacroixs recent visit to New Delhi, where he participated in the first-ever Conference for Women Peacekeepers held on February 2425. The event, themed Women in Peacekeeping: A Global South Perspective, was organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with the Ministry of Defence and the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK). It brought together women peacekeepers from 35 troop-contributing countries (TCCs) from the Global South to discuss challenges and the transformative role of women in peacekeeping. Lacroix highlighted the dual dimensions of promoting women in peacekeeping: increasing the number of women in missions and enhancing their empowerment through active roles in political processes and peacebuilding efforts. There is nothing ideological about this, he stressed. Its just realism. Women need to be fully involved and participating in these efforts. While acknowledging progress in the number of women peacekeepers, Lacroix also pointed out areas that require further improvement. Formed military units and senior leadership positions for women still present challenges, largely due to limited resources from member states. Accompanied by Acting Military Adviser Major General Cheryl Pearce, Lacroix noted the need for more senior female generals in roles such as Force Commander and Deputy Force Commander. 'Its a work in progress', he added. Indias history in advancing gender inclusion in peacekeeping is well-established. It was the first country to deploy an all-women Formed Police Unit to Liberia in 2007, setting a precedent that inspired similar deployments globally. More recently, in January 2023, India deployed an all-womens platoon as part of its battalion to the UN Mission in Abyei. This marked the single largest deployment of women peacekeepers in recent years. UN peacekeeping, with over 5,300 military and police personnel deployed across missions in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Somalia, South Sudan, and Western Sahara. India is currently the fourth-largest contributor of uniformed personnel to, with over 5,300 military and police personnel deployed across missions in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Somalia, South Sudan, and Western Sahara. Also Read: The Power of Strategic Innovation and Technology Integration for Brand Growth India's contributions go beyond deployment. During its presidency of the UN Security Council in December 2022, India launched a Group of Friends to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers. It also introduced a dedicated database to record and monitor such crimes and the progress in prosecuting perpetrators. Lacroixs remarks not only affirm India's pivotal role in global peacekeeping efforts but also spotlight its strategic emphasis on inclusivity, accountability, and innovation in conflict resolution. As the world continues to grapple with complex peace and security challenges, Indias proactive stance in peacekeeping particularly its focus on empowering women and upholding justice serves as a model for the international community. The parents of a 1-month-old infant from Queens initially believed to be killed in a dog attack told the New York Post that she died from sudden infant death syndrome on Thursday. The childs stepfather, identified only as Christopher, told the New York Post that while their 6-week-old pit bull mix did eat the babys face, the puppy was not responsible for the death of Kiyanna Winfield. Authorities investigating the death reportedly first believed that the puppy, which had been put down in the wake of the incident, was responsible. However, the city medical examiner revealed on Wednesday that the child had died before the dog began biting at her face, as detailed by the New York Post. No criminality is suspected at this time, the NYPD told the Post. Yehia Kozmol, 31, was arrested following a vehicle collision in the vicinity of Exit 5 in the westbound lanes of the Staten Island Expressway on Saturday, May 24, 2025. (Google Maps) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A Staten Island resident was charged with driving while intoxicated after he was arrested following a vehicle collision on the Staten Island Expressway early Saturday morning. Yehia Kozmol, 31, of the 300 block of Malvine Avenue in Rossville, was taken into custody by New York State troopers following a two-car motor vehicle collision that blocked several New Jersey-bound lanes of the Staten Island Expressway in the vicinity of Exit 5, according to a release by the New York State Police. An officer who responded to the scene just after 3 a.m. said he observed the aftermath of the collision between Kozmols black Jeep Cherokee and a white Tesla. As stated in court documents, the officer found damage to both the drivers side and passenger side of the Cherokee, as well as damage to the drivers side of the Tesla. Kozmol was observed by the officer with blood shot and watery eyes, a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and unsteadiness on his feet, the complaint alleges. Kozmol was advised of his rights regarding the taking of a test to determine his blood-alcohol content, court documents state. That test allegedly indicated that Kozmol had a .11 per centum of alcohol in his blood. The legal limit is .08. Kozmol was arrested and faces charges of driving while intoxicated and driving while ability impaired. Defense counsel, Vincent Romano, declined to comment at this time. Kozmol is due in Criminal Court in St. George on July 9. Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has approved the attraction of nearly $3 billion from Japan, backed by proceeds from frozen Russian assets, to support priority budget expenditures, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced. "Despite extremely difficult conditions, Ukraine continues to maintain macro-financial stability... Today, we are approving the decision to attract funds from Japan nearly $3 billion backed by income from frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine's priority budgetary needs," Shmyhal said during a government meeting on Friday. He also reminded attendees that Ukraine has already reached a staff-level agreement on the eighth review of its cooperation program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Following approval by the IMF Executive Board, the government expects to receive a new tranche of around $500 million. Prosecutors said Travis Toonda, 35, of Mariners Harbor, stabbed a man in the chest in a burglary attempt last year at Water and Beach streets in Stapleton. (Google Maps) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A burglary attempt that turned into an alleged stabbing in Stapleton has earned a Mariners Harbor man a trip back to prison. On Wednesday, Travis Toonda, 35, of Letty Court, pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to third-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon, in connection with the Sept. 22 incident. City Councilmember Kamillah Hanks speaks during a press conference at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. In the wake of several recent assaults on Staten Island Ferry workers, City Councilmember Kamillah Hanks on Thursday called for increased safety measures, a stronger NYPD presence and tougher penalties for those who perpetrate attacks on such employees. Hanks, a North Shore Democrat, was surrounded by members of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, the union that represents some Staten Island Ferry workers, during the press conference at the St. George terminal. Hanks recently submitted a City Council resolution urging the New York State legislature to pass a bill by Long Island state Senator Monica Martinez which would make tougher penalties for those convicted of attacks on ferry workers. The new law would elevate the assault of a ferry worker to a Class D felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison. Hanks, right, is joined by Roland Rexha, center, the secretary-treasurer of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, at the press conference. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence Be it advocacy for more of a police presence in the terminals and on the boats during boarding, proper signage or increased penalties for assaulting a worker, Hanks said, my colleagues and I will continue to advocate for the people who get us to and from work and school. Roland Rexha, the secretary-treasurer of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, voiced support for Hanks efforts to protect workers. Councilmember Hanks demonstrated time and time again that she understands the real risks our ferry workers face everyday, Rexha said. Her constant advocacy for improved service and bringing visibility to our workforce provides exactly the kind of leadership New York City needs. Hanks held a press conference at the St. George Ferry Terminal surrounded by members of Marine Engineers Beneficial Association. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence The ferry workers union previously criticized the current policy, noting that officers on arriving vessels are often delayed and therefore late to boarding which leaves crewmembers vulnerable. City policy, according to the union, requires two officers on board before a ferry departs, but does not require them to be present during the loading process, therefore creating an unnecessary risk for workers. Although, state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton was able to close a ferry worker loophole for assault in the third degree in 2024s budget process, the bill, S.901, would make it a higher level of assault. In the past, the Advance/SILive.com has covered multiple violent assaults against innocent ferry workers. In April, a 26-year-old man allegedly injured a cop and a ferry worker on a boat loading at the St. George terminal. In October of 2024, a 39-year-old man from Stapleton allegedly punched a worker for the Staten Island Ferry in St. George. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. As a way to remember and honor the brave men and women who died while serving in the United States military, Staten Island high school students gathered on Thursday for a special Memorial Day Tribute ceremony. At least 12 high schools gathered at the Michael J. Petrides Education Complex in Sunnyside for the District 31 High School Memorial Day Ceremony. It was coordinated by JoAnne Nolemi, the District 31 military liaison and founder/president of the Island of Heroes Project, and John Cucuzza, a teacher at Petrides. STATEN ISLAND N.Y. -- Between May 31 and June 24, Mary Antonia Lombardi, a native Staten Islander who specializes in painting and sculpture, will be showing an exhibition titled In The Neighborhood at the Empire Outlets at 55 Richmond Terr. Lombardi will be presenting art works of history that tell a story and hold fun facts about certain Staten Island neighborhoods. As a native Staten Islander, putting this exhibit together was really important to meits a way to shine a light on the beautiful island we call home, stated Lombardi. The free exhibit was funded by the DCLA Art Grant Fund via Staten Island Arts, and public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York state Council on The Arts. Lombardi also blogs regularly on her website about her own art experiences and stories while growing up on Staten Island. Lombardi said, I had such a fun time working on this project and felt more inspired with each step. Im so excited to share these pieces, along with the stories and tidbits of local history, with my fellow Islandersand anyone else whos curious." There will be an opening reception on the opening day of the exhibit from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibit is open Wednesdays through Sundays, from 12-5 p.m. This aerial photo taken on Nov. 13, 2023, by Archaeology Southwest with a volunteer pilot and Lighthawk, a nonprofit organization, shows access roads and tower pad sites west of the San Pedro River, near Redrock Canyon, in Arizona. (Archaeology Southwest via AP) AP A federal appeals court has sided with Native American tribes in their fight against the federal government over a $10 billion energy transmission line designed to carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to customers as far away as California. The Tohono Oodham Nation along with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and Archaeology Southwest sued the U.S. Interior Department and then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2024. They argued that the agency failed to properly consult with the tribes on a historic property designation for southern Arizonas San Pedro Valley. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a lower court erred in dismissing the case last year and ordered the matter to be reconsidered. The panel concluded that a proper consultation would have resulted in the valley being designated as a historic property and that the agency was required to identify historic properties that would be affected and ensure any adverse effects would be avoided, minimized or mitigated before authorizing construction. The Tohono Oodham Nation had vowed when the case was dismissed to pursue all legal avenues for protecting land that it and other tribes consider sacred. Tribal Chairman Verlon Jose reiterated that the tribe will continue to fight for its rights and that Tuesdays ruling marked an important victory in the long-running dispute. The Tohono Oodham Nation supports clean, renewable energy when it is done the right way, Jose said in a statement. With the SunZia project, the federal government failed to work with tribes to protect our cultural resources as required by law. The valley represents a 50-mile (80-kilometer) stretch of the planned 550-mile (885-kilometer) conduit. The route is expected to carry electricity from wind farms in central New Mexico to existing transmission lines in Arizona to serve populated areas as far away as California. The project was among those touted as an important part of former President Joe Bidens goal for a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. Construction in the San Pedro Valley already is complete, said Matt Dallas, a SunZia spokesperson. We are reviewing the opinion, and SunZia remains on track for commercial operation in 2026. Dallas said. In response to questions about the latest ruling and whether the federal government was in discussions with the tribes, Interior spokeswoman J. Elizabeth Peace said the department doesnt comment on pending litigation. Peace did say the agency remains committed to stewarding our natural and cultural resources, honoring tribal trust responsibilities and managing public lands for all Americans. President Donald Trump in recent weeks has signed a number of executive orders promoting domestic energy production and has cited the need for reliability of the nations electric grid amid growing demand driven partly by data centers and artificial intelligence. BAY RIDGE One mayoral candidate spent their Wednesday night hurling shots at Staten Islands congressional representative over a recent vote that he claims will harm thousands of her most vulnerable constituents. City Comptroller Brad Lander, one of nearly a dozen candidates set to appear on the Democratic primary ballot for mayor in June, held the town hall event at Brooklyns Good Shepherd Lutheran Church to rail against Washington Republicans tax bill and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis vote in favor of it. 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. About 100 Moore Catholic seniors and their guests made the short trip from Graniteville to Above Rooftop and Lounge in Bloomfield for their 2025 senior prom. Grand entrance The Mavericks arrived well before 6:30 p.m. cocktail hour to enjoy some pictures outdoors in the Above floral scenery. The small graduating class surely made their final party together a memorable one. Best dressed Gia Seddio and Michael Herbert match in baby blue at Moore Catholic High School's senior prom at Above Rooftop in Bloomfield on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Advance/SILive.com | Jason Paderon) (Advance/SILive.com | Jason Paderon) In a close contest, Gia Seddio and Michael Herberts baby blue combination were a cut above the rest, winning this proms Best Dressed title. >> 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. << Flashback Check out Moore Catholics 2024 prom. 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 Wednesday, May 21 Monsignor Farrell High School 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 Island 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. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Back-to-back bouts of rain will close out what has been a considerably wet May in New York City. Those looking forward to a dry weekend will need to wait a little longer as Friday will welcome the return of precipitation. Dont let the partly sunny skies deceive you, isolated showers are forecast to move through the area Friday afternoon into the evening hours, Matthew Wunsch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service told the Advance/SILive.com. Come the late evening hours, residents can expect the chances for rain to pick up. Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected tonight with the potential for upwards of 3" of rain for NE NJ and the Lower Hudson Valley. A flood watch remains in effect for these areas. Elsewhere, 0.75-1.5" of rain is expected, locally up to 2". #NYwx #CTwx #NJwx pic.twitter.com/groQoCpCqs NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) May 30, 2025 You can see the more steady rain pick up anywhere between like 8 and 11 p.m. And then, you know, were expecting pretty much a widespread swath of moderate rainfall, Wunsch said. Embedded in that evening system could be thunderstorms with the potential of producing heavy rainfall. These rainy conditions will persist through the overnight hours before gradually tapering off - from south to north - tomorrow morning. After 8 a.m. tomorrow well just see more of like a chance of showers for much through the day tomorrow, added Wunsch. Chances for flooding have increased for Northeast NJ and the Lower Hudson Valley with the potential for heavy rain tonight into early Saturday. A flood watch been issued for this area. #NYwx #NJwx pic.twitter.com/VE5H66vTyO NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) May 30, 2025 Those who need to run some errands may want to take advantage of the brief reprieve as another round of showers with thunderstorms is forecast by Wunsch to hit the city sometime Saturday afternoon. The meteorologist believes that rain could begin to fall sometime after 2 p.m. By the evening hours the city should begin to dry out. As of Friday afternoon, Wunsch believes Staten Island will receive around one and a half inches of rain. Could be a little more or a little less depending on exactly where any heavier precip sets up, he noted. Wunsch also highlighted the fact that Staten Island rests on the border with some of the heaviest precipitation in central and northern New Jersey, much of which is under a flood watch through Saturday morning. Some of those areas in New Jersey could potentially record upwards of two to three inches, said Wunsch. Right now were forecasting you (Staten Island) to be about an inch and a half, but its possible for you to be a little less than that, upwards of two to three inches as well, Wunsch explained. The sun rises over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge through cloudy skies on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A significant storm system will bring heavy rainfall and potential thunderstorms to Staten Island Friday night into Saturday, with precipitation expected to intensify after 8 p.m. Residents should prepare for wet conditions and possible localized flooding. The National Weather Service forecasts rainfall totals around 1 inch for New York City, with the heaviest precipitation occurring late Friday night. Thunderstorms are possible, particularly during the evening and overnight hours, with rainfall potentially becoming moderate to heavy. Temperatures will remain mild, with highs on Friday reaching the low 70s and dropping into the low 50s by Saturday night. The cold front passing through will bring cooler, drier air behind the storm system, with Saturdays high temperatures expected in the upper 60s to low 70s. The weekend forecast calls for gradually clearing conditions. Saturday will start with lingering showers and a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, but Sunday should bring significantly improved weather with clearing skies and continued cooler temperatures. Looking ahead, next week appears more stable, with temperatures warming back into the 80s by Wednesday and mostly dry conditions expected. Residents should monitor local forecasts for any updates to the weekend weather pattern. Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by SILive.com staff. Sybiha after UNSC: World will not tolerate Russia's barbaric attacks on civilians Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said after the UNSC meeting that the world will no longer tolerate Russia's barbaric attacks on civilians in Ukraine and its unwillingness to participate in the peace process. Yesterdays UN Security Council meeting on Russia's war against Ukraine made it clear: the world will not tolerate Russias barbaric attacks against civilians and its unwillingness to engage constructively in a meaningful peace process, he wrote on the social network X on Friday. The Foreign Minister thanked partners for supporting Ukraine's call for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. Ukraine values the broad support by the US, European, and other international partners pushing Russia to accept our call for a 30+ day unconditional ceasefire a crucial foundation for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the UN Charter, Sybiha stressed. Support the Peninsulas only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe! Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions. Premium Subscription As low as $8.25 per week Premium Includes: -- Access to the Daily Journals e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time. -- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content -- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community -- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week! Turkey fully supports the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed. "We fully support the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. We are focused on stopping the destruction and humanitarian tragedy caused by the war, wherever the negotiations take place," Fidan said at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha in Kyiv on Friday. The Turkish foreign minister stressed that Turkey is closely following the developments regarding the Crimean Tatar people. "Turkey will always support the Crimean Tatars. The eighty-first anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people was commemorated on May 18. On this occasion, we once again remember our compatriots who died in exile," Fidan emphasized. At the start of her own career, if I encountered toxicity in the workplace, I had more of a suck it up attitude, said Tosti-Kharas, who identifies as a member of Generation X. I dont think we were as vocal about taking care of our mental health as we should have been. Loading How do you identify a toxic work environment? Conflicts and difficult relationships may be inevitable in any work environment. But theres a difference between an occasional disagreement and persistent abuse. What makes something toxic: its more pervasive, more consistent over time, Tosti-Kharas said. You may have tried some things, and its not getting better... its very deeply entrenched. Possible indications of an emotionally harmful workplace include a widespread lack of trust and fear of being shot down if you speak up, she said. Loud screamers arent the only kind of toxic co-workers and supervisors. There are quieter forms of toxicity, such as passive-aggressive behaviour by leaders who use sarcasm, backhanded compliments, indirect criticism and exclusion to control their employees, according to Alana Atchison, a clinical psychologist based in Chicago. It is a relationship where you cant communicate clearly or directly, so you have to silence yourself. You cant say truly what you need to say and feel safe, Atchison said. To spot a potentially toxic environment when applying for a new job, follow your gut instincts and consider warning signs. For example, frequent ads for the same position may reflect high turnover resulting from a negative environment. You can also search employee reviews online. Im reading Glassdoor reviews like crazy to see what the environment is like, what the culture is like, on anyplace Im applying to, because I cant lose my hair again over a job, said Grouette, who recently was laid off after several successful years at the newspaper. What might explain toxic behaviour? When on the receiving end of toxicity, consider whether the offending behaviour says more about the person perpetuating it than the recipient. Workplace bullying may include belittling the target and often includes a power imbalance. Credit: Getty Images Its almost like a smokescreen to hide their deficits, Atchison said. If someone feels insecure about their role or fears being overshadowed, they might resort to undermining others, gossiping or sabotaging projects to regain a sense of control or safety. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Atchisons clients have increasingly complained about toxic work environments. She attributes that in part to the social isolation that accompanied lockdowns and restrictions on public activities. Socialising is a skill set, and that skill set has declined, she said. Voice your concerns If you find yourself in a toxic work situation, talking about it with a trusted friend or professional therapist can help you process what is happening and develop a plan to deal with it, instead of letting it fester in your mind. If somebody gives you an impression that youre unable to leave this job, thats just not true. Stephanie Strausser, 42, a video production manager, said she sought support from friends and family members when she worked under an extreme micromanager who made her feel unsafe and whose decisions she considered unethical. Dont hide it or keep it in. Talk to people. Even if youre talking to ChatGPT, Strausser advises those who find themselves in similar circumstances. Dont internalise it. And dont take someones perception as fact. Loading Amanda Szmuc, a Philadelphia lawyer who considers some of her past work environments to have been toxic, recommends documenting your concerns in case it becomes necessary to escalate them. Writing down the details of troubling interactions as they happen and keeping copies of inappropriate messages or approved meeting recordings may come in handy if the human resources department gets involved, for example. Maintaining a record may also help you avoid gaslighting and reinforce your determination to protect yourself. Set boundaries If leaving a toxic environment isnt financially possible, or you want to try to make your circumstances more bearable, thinking about exploring ways to limit your interaction with the difficult party may be an option. Possibilities may include negotiating a role that puts distance between you and the toxic person, such as working different shifts or on different projects, Tosti-Kharas said. You can also set deadlines for yourself to keep things from deteriorating, according to Szmuc. Examples: Im going to give this two weeks. Is there any improvement? she said. Is there a way internally where I can maybe change my circumstances or get someone elses opinion? Find a way out Ideally, an employee who feels mistreated could appeal to someone from human resources or the offending employees manager with evidence to show a pattern of conduct violations and disciplinary action would be taken, Tosti-Kharas said. But that doesnt always happen, leaving the reporting party in proximity to the person they reported. In the real world, you may realise they are unlikely to go anywhere, and its you who has to go somewhere, Tosti-Kharas said. In extreme situations, its best to look for another job, she said. If an inspector found the radio active gas in your house, you wouldnt say, Let me try to work with the radon, or How can I keep it there but maybe lessen the effects? she said. You would get the toxin out of the situation or you would get yourself out of the situation. Most people cant afford to leave their jobs without another one lined up. Carving out time to apply for different jobs is difficult when you feel under assault but also is empowering and may lead to a better situation. If somebody gives you an impression that youre unable to leave this job, thats just not true, Grouette said. Those sorts of people dont have the reach or respect that they claim to have because if theyre volatile to you, theyre volatile to others. Advertisement Review Eating outSouth Yarra One of Melbournes favourite falafel crosses the river to get to this southside bar Its worth coming to cocktail bar Nobodys Baby for the crunchy-fluffy falafel alone. Dani Valent Updated June 6, 2025 , first published May 30, 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 Melbournes most exciting restaurant openings of 2025 so far. See all stories . 1 / 9 Nobodys Baby brings a taste of the northside to the southside. Bonnie Savage 2 / 9 Baby Brulee cocktail with whisky, Baileys and vanilla. Bonnie Savage 3 / 9 Falafel with tahini, pickles and zhoug. Bonnie Savage 4 / 9 Grilled whiting with harissa and latkes. Bonnie Savage 5 / 9 Nobodys Babys curvaceous bar. Arches separate the bar area from the lounges booths and banquettes. Bonnie Savage 6 / 9 The Fat Bottomed Girls vodka cocktail echoes the menus Middle Eastern flavours. Bonnie Savage 7 / 9 Sumac-cured sardines on challah. Bonnie Savage 8 / 9 Char-grilled spiced chicken and green olive skewers. Bonnie Savage 9 / 9 Roasted Brussels sprouts with pilpelchuma (chilli and garlic paste). Bonnie Savage Previous Slide Next Slide 14 / 20 How we score Middle Eastern$$$$ Its mid-evening, dark outside, the trams sound like applause and flash like fireworks. People young, older, shiny, expensively rumpled are at new bar Nobodys Baby before dinner, after dinner, for dinner or just for drinks. Speaking of, our next round of cocktails arrives: theyre called Fat Bottomed Girls, after the Queen song, or maybe after me. Shaken vodka drinks in long-stemmed coupe glasses, they taste of pepper, honey and lemon with the sesame richness of tahini picking up the Middle Eastern flavours of the food menu. Its all timber and curves in here, the components built off-site in Torquay and installed in three days. Arches separate the bar area from the lounges booths and banquettes, and the bar itself makes a broad sweep to a DJ set-up, where a cruisy guy mixes in a record by The Police (later, theres Khruangbin, and was that Hank Williams?). Its medium-loud: youre not whispering, nor are you needing to shout. Advertisement Falafel with tahini, pickles and zhoug. Bonnie Savage My friends and I are full of falafel and love, at that leaning-all-over-one-another stage of the night. Annalisa pulls my hair back into a ponytail. Why dont you wear it like this more? she asks, taking photo after photo. Emma walks in from the toilet out the back. Theres a tattoo parlour in the yard, she tells us, presenting un-inked arms in enquiry. Indeed, when the previous bar tenant Raindancer was here, a patron once finished a drink and followed up with a tatt. Not us, not tonight. I pick up a piece of pickled cabbage and swipe it through zhoug, a Yemeni green chilli relish. A small dog hitherto hidden under the next table lets out a polite bark. The falafel have a thick, crunchy shell that gives way to a herby, fluffy interior: its worth coming for these alone. What is a bar anyway? Restaurants have cocktails, bars serve food, so what actually is the difference between a bar and a restaurant (especially when the bar serves food as good as this)? For me, its the feeling and the flexibility, rolling from drinks to eats and back again, having people join you later or peel off, the possibility of perching on a stool to ponder life with patrons and pourers alike. Advertisement The team here knows all that stuff. Tim Badura and Gustavo Prince met at retro bar Joes Shoe Store in Northcote, which Prince founded (he also owns neighbouring Pizza Meine Liebe). When they landed this place, they invited Shuki Rosenboim and Louisa Allan from Brunswicks Very Good Falafel to bring their pulse-fuelled joy southside. What a move. The falafel here, handmade using a metal press, have a thick, crunchy shell that gives way to a herby, fluffy interior: its worth coming for these alone. Char-grilled spiced chicken and green olive skewers. Bonnie Savage But you may also fall for sumac-cured sardines on challah, roasted Brussels sprouts with pilpelchuma, a Libyan-Jewish chilli and garlic paste, or grilled whiting with harissa and latkes, a perfect assembly of sea, spice and starch. Chicken skewers and lamb meatballs are cooked over charcoal; the chicken is interspersed with plump green olives; the lamb is squished in pita with roasted onion, tahini and amba, an Iraqi-Jewish pickled mango condiment. Advertisement Its simple and excellent: big flavours, sauces youll want to swipe your fingers through, and sharp and salty enough to keep you drinking. Baby Brulee cocktail. Bonnie Savage The obvious nightcap is Baby Brulee, a whisky, Baileys and vanilla concoction with a bruleed top. Ask for it to be torched at the table, making your cocktail an event for the whole room and turning Nobodys Baby into everybodys wondrous child. The low-down Atmosphere: Genial and relaxed Go-to dishes: Spiced chicken skewers ($24); Fat Bottomed Girls ($22); Baby Brulee ($26); falafel with tahini, pickles and zhoug ($15) Drinks: Signature cocktails lean towards Middle Eastern flavours but theyll make classics too. The one-page wine list is mostly Victorian, with all wines by the glass under $20. Cost: About $60 for 2 people, excluding drinks Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant cant pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide. This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up 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 This story is part of the May 31 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories . On a winter night in London, my girlfriend and I decided to go night swimming. On Hampstead Heath, we shed our clothes at the edge of the pond and waded into the shallows. Stars shimmered on the water and a half-moon bobbed in the inky black. It was so cold we could see our breath. Swimming out to the middle, we fingered mosses and reeds, then began diving under the water and coming up in wild leaps, splashing one another. In the midst of our game, something happened. I was hit with a great force, torn in two, ripped from myself. I swam frantically towards the bank, trying to reach solid ground. Even though my head stayed above water, it was like a great hand was trying to push me down to the bottom of the pond. Bent over in the shallows, I clutched my chest, trying to hold my sense of self together. I was leaving my body. There was nothing I could do. I cried, tears streaming. I couldnt stop. My whole face began to shake, my cheeks going into spasms and my limbs shaking violently. My girlfriends voice was far away. Nathan, Nathan. Can you hear me? Naked before her, dripping with water, I said nothing in response. I couldnt. I stared at my wet hands. They were ghostlike, not my own. I had disappeared, and what was left of me was only a shell. One part of my self was empty: a dusty, windswept space. The second part of myself was in a state of confinement. I felt like a puppet, manipulated by something, or someone, outside my body. I turned around to brush away this feeling of being watched, but my second self stayed behind my back. It was looking at me but I couldnt see it. I had no sense of its form or how this second self was moving me around, only that the awareness of me was now gone. I am 28 years old, I said to myself, trying to believe it. My name is Nathan Dunne. Three years passed before I understood what was happening to me: I was experiencing depersonalisation. Its onset provoked a profound loss of identity. Like many with the illness, my response was to say, Im not me, I have no self and I am no one. This was an attempt to describe the feeling of a severe dissociative state, the onset of mental illness, pure terror. My identity had always been intrinsically tied up with my body, fundamental to my self-consciousness. But with depersonalisation, being in its vice meant a terrifying challenge to long-held assumptions about my existence the notion of me. I struggled to explain my symptoms to doctors. Phrases like I feel invisible and I have a dark pain led to a misdiagnosis of anxiety-related depression. The prescribed blue pills I took caused terrible side-effects stomach cramps, heartburn, vomiting, a stiff jaw. I sweated uncontrollably, lost my appetite, and became even more exhausted, legs tangled on the lounge. In Australia, it affects 2 per cent of the population 500,000 people. Yet a correct diagnosis can take years. In my confusion, I searched medical journals for clues and stayed up late pondering rare diseases, compiling a Word document I saved as The Possibles. Rearranging the document was like prodding a wild animal. Id move one disease into a new column, or onto a new page, and it would immediately lash out, more alive in me than ever. I was constantly rating them. Bipolar disorder would get 8/10, then Id bump it down to 6/10. Wolfram syndrome would be flying steady at 3/10, only to abruptly climb up to a bewildering 7/10. Id print the document out, underlining symptoms with fat blue lines and scrawling notes to myself across the top of the pages. Things like: Blood thing probable, but check page 7. Could be muscular and optical combined, see page 14. The NSW government has reached a wage agreement with the states rail unions, abruptly ending a bitter and protracted industrial dispute that has repeatedly crippled Sydneys train network. The governments proposed enterprise agreement with the Combined Rail Unions, agreed to in the Fair Work Commission late on Friday, would deliver workers a 12 per cent pay rise over three years. NSW Transport Minister John Graham. Credit: Oscar Colman Transport Minister John Graham said the draft agreement was a big step forward that would enable Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink workers to focus on improving reliability on the network. This agreement will bring relief to the disruption from protected industrial action that a million daily rail commuters have been forced to endure while just trying to get to work and get around. 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 verdict was unanimous. One by one, the medical experts called to provide evidence at the inquest into two-year-old Pippa Whites death confirmed what her family had long suspected: her life could have been saved. This is a tragedy that was avoidable, said Associate Professor Warwick Butt, a renowned intensive care consultant at Melbournes Royal Childrens Hospital. If the trajectory of her illness had been recognised [earlier] she would have survived. Hearing those words on Wednesday in the front row of the courtroom, Annah White felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. I feel so bloody validated, White said outside court. Now that I am supported by world-leading medical experts who confirm that Pip could have survived we can begin to focus on the bigger question: why did NSW Health fail us, and how do we stop this from ever happening again? Pippa White with her mother Annah. Pippa Mae White died on June 13, 2022, at Orange Base Hospital, less than 24 hours after she recorded a heart rate in the red zone for potential sepsis. Sepsis occurs when the bodys immune response to an infection causes damage to its own organs and tissues, but the condition wasnt raised as a possible cause of her rapidly declining health until 4am, more than 12 hours after Pippa was first triaged. Advertisement Although there was some disagreement as to when doctors should have escalated their treatment of Pippa, all five experts called on Wednesday agreed that the sepsis pathway a standard guide for recognising and treating the potentially deadly condition should have been activated much sooner. Over three harrowing days, lawyers and expert witnesses painstakingly reconstructed the hours leading up to Pippas death, and how the system failed to pick up on her rapidly declining condition, and the increasing concerns of her parents. Here are those key moments. June 12, 2022, around 2pm: Pippa arrives at Cowra Hospital Annah White takes her daughter to the emergency department at Cowra Hospital on a brisk Sunday afternoon. For the previous four days, the toddler had struggled to shake off a runny nose, fevers and a cough (the medical experts agreed that she was probably struggling with a rare and aggressive group A streptococcus infection). Pippas symptoms grew to include diarrhoea and vomiting, she took her two-year-old to the hospital a few hundred metres down the road. It had already been a busy day at the small rural emergency department. All four beds were full, including one with a patient who had required a medical cardioversion (an alternative to defibrillation) to restore normal heart rhythm, and an agitated parent who had earlier been removed by police. To make matters worse, an ambulance was on its way carrying an eight-year-old already receiving resuscitation. Advertisement Potter-Bancroft told the inquest she had been working since 7am and had not had a break by the time she completed Pippas triage at 2.06pm. It was a hectic day, she said. The nurse described Pippa as miserable and lethargic and recorded her heart rate at 171 beats per minute high enough to be considered in the red zone for sepsis risk. Potter-Bancroft triaged Pippa as a category 3 patient, meaning she had a potentially life-threatening condition that needed treatment within 30 minutes. But in a video taken at 2.19pm and shown to the court, Pippa showed difficulty breathing and was grunting, something the experts agreed should have classified her as an urgent patient needing treatment within 10 minutes. This was the first opportunity to recognise sepsis, they said. It was not the last. Parents worried their child is getting sicker can: 1. Put their hands up and tell staff right away. 2. If they are still worried, ask the nurse in charge to look at their child. 3. If they believe something is still not right and want to see a doctor they should ask for a clinical review, which should be carried out within 30 minutes. 4. Parents who are still not satisfied with the level of care can trigger a rapid emergency response by calling a unique number, displayed in REACH brochures inside hospitals. Doctors should arrive within minutes to reassess the childs condition. White said she took her daughter home after staff told her the hospital was too busy, but returned a short time later. She asked for the REACH (Recognise, Engage, Act, Call, Help is on its way) number. This should have raised alarm bells, Butt said. An experienced mother is now very worried [that is] a very important sign. Advertisement Loading Associate Professor Adam Irwin, an expert in paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Queensland, said doctors were anchored on Pippas diagnosis being caused by a viral infection, and this continued after she arrived at Orange around 9.20pm. Dr Adam Buckmaster, a locum paediatrician, instructed staff that if Pippa had not improved by 1am, they would need to give her fluids and escalate her treatment. For the life of me, I dont understand why they didnt follow their plan, Butt said. June 13, 2022, around 1am: Pippa continues to decline Medical notes from around midnight suggested Pippa was settling, but by 1am, it was clear she was seriously unwell. Weve got failing to improve and getting worse all the more reason to get the blood [tests] in, get her on a drip and commence treatment, said Professor Simon Craig, a paediatric emergency medicine specialist at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne. A video taken by White at 2.19am showed Pippa grunting and struggling to breathe. Advertisement At 2.35am, her heart rate was 196 beats per minute. This, the experts said, was the make or break moment when things went absolutely wrong. (they acknowledged the fact that Dr Christopher Morris, the on-call registrar, had already worked a full 12-hour shift during the day). The deterioration that was occurring could almost only be attributed to sepsis there was no point calling for blood tests, Irwin said. A blood test was taken at 4am the first time the word sepsis appeared in Pippas medical notes. Not until far too late did [anyone] question the diagnosis they reached, said Irwin. June 13, 2022, around 6am: Go now Even after these missed opportunities, Butt told the inquest one word could have given Pippa one last fighting chance: Now. By 6am, Pippas doctors knew she was gravely ill and at risk of septic shock, but the experts agreed their reaction lacked urgency. Craig told the inquest Pippa should have been moved to somewhere she could be resuscitated. A general ward isnt a great place to run a resuscitation and Pippa needed resuscitation, he said. At 6.10am, Pippas doctors called the NSW Newborn and paediatric Emergency Transport Service (NETS) advice line. A specialist doctor advised them on treatment while pilots assessed whether they could fly. A helicopter was immediately ruled out Orange in June was too icy. An aeroplane could fly, but couldnt leave until the fog lifted around 9am. Advertisement A limited number of visitors will get the opportunity to inspect the Roma Street Cross River Rail Station cavern, four years ahead of its official opening. The free tours, which will take visitors 30 metres underground into the 280-metre-long space that will house the platforms, are a hot ticket in the Brisbane Open House festival, returning in July. Described in the program as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, just two tours of 12 people each will take place, with visitors required to wear hard hats and full PPE. Workers at Roma Street welcome the first train through Brisbanes Cross River Rail twin tunnel underground system. Credit: Cross River Rail Delivery Authority A spokesperson for Brisbane Open House said the tour would begin at the Cross River Rail experience centre where visitors would be given a presentation on the architecture and design of the new stations. Suspected arsonists have targeted a tobacco shop south of Brisbane, destroying the storefront in a blaze that burned two men, who were rushed to hospital with severe injuries. Emergency services were called to reports of a fire at a tobacco store on Forestglen Crescent in Browns Plains about 12.15am on Friday. A tobacco shop at Browns Plains, south of Brisbane, was burned just after midnight on Friday. Credit: Nine News Two men, aged 47 and 54, were in the building when the blaze broke out and were seen fleeing the rear of the premises, suffering severe burns in the process. The men have since told police that unknown males entered the storefront and poured a flammable substance inside, before setting the building on fire. In case you missed the wash-up from Thursdays AFL draft, West Coasts mid-season reinforcements could be thrust into action in the coming weeks and theyre also being encouraged to let loose on the waves in Perth. Loading The Eagles used pick No.1 in the mid-season rookie draft to snare late bloomer Tom McCarthy, who was playing division-two football for Highett in the Southern Football Netball League before joining Richmonds VFL program last year. West Coast were initially planning on having only one pick in the draft, but Jake Watermans season-ending shoulder injury meant they were able to add South Australian Jacob Newton as well. McCarthy will line up for West Coasts WAFL side this Saturday and a strong performance there could land him a senior call-up as early as next week. Newton is nursing a minor quad injury that will keep him out of action this week, but theres hope he will be able to replenish West Coasts battered stocks in the near future. The Eagles have been hit hard by injuries recently. Jeremy McGoverns career could be over due to concussion, Waterman will undergo season-ending surgery this week while Jamie Cripps (knee) and Matt Owies (calf) will be sidelined for at least three more weeks. Star midfielder Elliot Yeo, who is yet to play this season due to a serious ankle injury that required surgery, is still 5-6 weeks away from resuming, while Dom Sheed suffered a season-ending knee injury during the summer. Newton loves surfing a sport that comes with huge risks for professional athletes. But McQualter doesnt want his players to live in a bubble and is encouraging Newton or anyone else for that matter to jump on a surfboard. We encourage that, its good, McQualter said. I was speaking to Crippa yesterday, he told me he used to surf a lot when he was younger, and it was the fittest hed ever been. So we might have to get a few more of our boys to start surfing. West Coast were interested in snaring Newton during last years national draft, but they decided against it after the 18-year-old was struck down by a foot injury. McQualter is flagging a role up forward for Newton with a possible move into the midfield down the track. West Coast (1-10) are back in action on Sunday when they host Geelong. AAP That gets close, but, in truth, Ley didnt even go that far. All she agreed to was that the Coalition would support an end to the moratorium on the building of nuclear power plants. She emphatically did not agree to finance and build seven nuclear power plants. Not even one. On the other three areas that Peter Duttons Coalition had taken to the election and that Littleproud insisted remain, Ley has agreed but so hedged them with conditions that they are almost meaningless. Loading And what of Littleprouds other early demand that Nationals members of a Coalition shadow cabinet should not be bound by the principle of solidarity? He quickly abandoned that when it was roundly rejected. He achieved nothing he couldnt have accomplished with a quiet conversation behind closed doors, as is customary between the Libs and Nats. All hes managed to do is make himself a laughing stock with a limited leadership lifespan. And diminish the entire Coalition in the process. So far, the Liberals have done two things right since the election. First, they elected a woman as leader. Second, that woman handled the Nat spat with calm and steely grace. But the really hard part lies ahead, and the Coalition ruction was the opening act. It wasnt a fight about four policies, says a Liberal. It was really about us being totally fine with them running all over us in three or six months time when we reach a policy on climate change. Ley and Littleproud. The Liberal leader did not agree to finance and build seven nuclear power plants. Credit: The Age The climate wars are over. And the Coalition lost. But it will have great difficulty in accepting this fact. The Liberals have undertaken to review their policy; it will be traumatic. Ley will want to bring the party to a recognition that climate change is not only real but a reality that the party must embrace in its policies: You wont see any climate denial from Sussan, says a Liberal from her camp. Its about respectful engagement, so voters understand that we are believers. Pollster Jim Reed of Resolve Strategic says that this is an irreducible minimum for any party that hopes to win power. In the early to mid-2000s we regularly asked a question in our polling do you believe in climate change? Very quickly, over two or three years, it became redundant, he tells me. Speaking to tradies in focus groups, a no-nonsense group who, in the past, would have had some of the doubters in it, today, they say, Yes, and we can see it happening, we see the effects. The ship has sailed. Yet climate disbelief runs deep in the surviving members of the Coalition. In the Nats, certainly. Littleproud says he supports the pre-existing Coalition commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, Michael McCormack, Colin Boyce and Llew OBrien, at a minimum, will fight to defeat it. Loading But climate scepticism also runs strongly through the ranks of the Libs, as Andrew Hastie reminded us this week: I think the question of net zero, thats a straitjacket that Im already getting out of, the new shadow minister for Home Affairs told the ABC. The real question is should Australian families and businesses be paying more for their electricity? Other Liberals, even climate sceptics, think its time for the party to bow before the electoral reality. Some of the colleagues still havent absorbed the magnitude of our loss, says one who, like Hastie, is a frontbencher from the partys conservative side. When they walk into the House, and theyre confronted with the wall of Labor MPs, it will be a reality check for them. Well see the final numbers and see what we have to do if we want to get back into government itll be of the order of 30 seats or around a 7 per cent swing. A daunting prospect and extraordinarily difficult to accomplish in a single term. I cant think of a single seat in the country that well be able to win without a commitment to net zero. Liberal Zoe McKenzie points to a statistic that should rivet the partys attention. Of the 151 seats in the House, 88 are metropolitan. Of those, the Coalition occupies just eight. This is, in effect, the banishment of the Liberal Party from the cities of Australia. Even if the Coalition can hold those eight and win all the other 63 seats in the parliament, it would hold a total of only 71. In other words, its mathematically impossible for it to win a majority, which is 76, without returning to metropolitan Australia. And belief in climate change is the price of admission to city seats. McKenzie, factionally non-aligned and freshly elected to a second term in the seat of Flinders covering Victorias Mornington Peninsula, hopes that the party retains its net zero commitment. As it debates the policy, she wants the party to keep the voices of the ghosts alive, meaning all the moderate Liberals who lost their seats in recent elections. The former MPs whod be arguing in favour of net zero and climate-friendly policy. Loading Overarching all of this is the larger question of the partys political philosophy. Fundamentally, the Liberals have to decide whether they are the party of Robert Menzies or Rupert Murdoch. Menzies was a great pragmatist, principled but not ideological, who adapted to his times. He was preoccupied with the concerns and interests of the suburban middle class, not the capitalist class but the ordinary men and women of aspiration. Murdoch is a right-wing populist interested in pressing always further rightward to build constituencies favourable to his own business interests. The Liberals have to choose. Once they decide whether to continue following the Murdoch pied piper to electoral irrelevance or to rediscover the Menzian attachment to middle Australia, all their other choices will become clearer. And the Nationals? They are now reduced to four senators. The same number as One Nation. And, like One Nation, the Nationals won a touch over 6 per cent of the national primary vote for the House. We, as Liberals, would never allow One Nation to determine our policies, points out a Lib. So, his logic runs, why should the party accept the Nationals terms? Liberal senator Jane Hume has rebuked Opposition Leader Sussan Ley for demoting her to the backbench, saying it hurt professionally, but she would now be free to speak her mind on television. The embattled senator spoke publicly for the first time about her shock demotion while on breakfast television on Friday. The Coalition frontbench was unveiled earlier in the week, revealing Hume had been booted from her previous role in shadow finance. Liberal senator Jane Hume was dumped from the shadow cabinet by Opposition Leader Sussan Ley. Credit: James Brickwood If youre asking me whether I feel hurt or slighted by this move from Sussan, of course it hurts. It hurts professionally because I was a hard-working and prolific and high-profile member of the frontbench in the previous opposition, Hume told Sevens Sunrise. It hurts personally, too, because you know, Sussan and I are friends [however], this isnt the playground, this is the parliament. Im not here to make friends. Im here to make a difference. The North Atlantic Alliance will not make official decisions on non-expansion, the head of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Yegor Chernev (Servant of the People faction), has said. "It is very unlikely that Kellogg's statement will have any consequences and affect the course of the peace process. After all, as is clear from his statements, the United States is ready to give Russia oral promises that will not have legally binding force. On the other hand, the Kremlin itself has always emphasized that it needs written guarantees in the form of official international legally binding documents. And no one will give it such guarantees," Chernev said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Friday. According to the MP, firstly, making such a decision would contradict the NATO Charter and the decisions of previous summits. "Secondly, this would mean the official recognition of Russia's veto right to decision-making by the Alliance. Thirdly, such a decision could not be made by NATO itself due to the position of many countries that unconditionally support us on the path to accession. Therefore, no official NATO decisions on this matter will be made, and Ukraine will continue to participate in integration programs and achieve full compatibility with the Alliance," Chernev said. He noted that Vladimir Putin can be satisfied with verbal guarantees and promises only if he desperately needs a respite for several years to accumulate strength for another war. "In this case, he will go to a truce knowing clearly that it will be temporary," Chernev concluded. As reported, the US President's special envoy for Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg, stated that the issue of non-expansion of NATO, including Ukraine, has been repeatedly discussed and is a matter of concern for Russia. "Well, I think that's a fair concern, and we've talked about it many times. As we've said, for us, Ukraine being a member of NATO is not on the table. And we're not the only country that's saying that," he said, answering a question about whether US President Donald Trump was ready to make a written commitment to the Russian president that NATO would not expand. Trump's special representative added that Russia is raising issues not only with Ukraine: "They're talking about the country of Georgia. They're talking about Moldova. They're talking about Ukraine, obviously. And we're saying, well, comprehensively, you know, we can stop NATO expansion coming to your border. These are security issues for them," Kellogg said. At the same time, he stressed that the decision on this issue should be made personally by the US president. Vaping rates are falling among young adults and high schoolers, prompting Health Minister Mark Butler to claim Australias world-first vape ban is working. Prices for the fruity-flavoured puffers illegally sold at tobacco and corner stores have risen from about $25 to between $50 and $60 since the middle of last year when Labor introduced one of the strictest public health measures of its term by banning vapes they are now only legally purchased as anti-smoking aids at pharmacies and clamping down on importation. Health Minister Mark Butler during a press conference on vaping restrictions earlier this year. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Officials have since seized 8 million illegal vapes at the border, mostly manufactured in China and sold under popular brand names Alibarbar and iGet. While they can still be bought, the higher prices and reduced supply has combined with school-level warnings to bring down smoking rates. The rate of vaping has dropped from 20 to 18 per cent among 18-24-year-olds from early 2023 to now, according to new data from the Cancer Councils Generation Vape report, the most comprehensive survey on vaping in Australia. Tony Tartak, founder of waste removal giant Bingo Industries, and his wife Mary are selling one half of their whole floor in Crown Towers for more than $40 million, which could see the couple double their money in just a few years. The stunning four-bedroom, four-bathroom has had a Rob Mills-redesign since the Barangaroo home was purchased off the plan, under Marys name, with another lot on the same level for a combined $40 million in 2021. Lucky they kept it as two separate homes as it turns out it was not a bad investment. One half of the Tartaks whole level ownership in Barangaroos Crown Towers. Credit: While they have no plans on moving from the building that they love, the size of the two units across the widest floor in the residential tower has become surplus to Tony and Marys needs. Its not hard to see why. Spanning 420 square metres with majestic views over Sydney Harbour and beyond, the home, which offers house-sized proportions, packs a punch with two living rooms and two marble kitchens that have Sub Zero fridges, Wolf cooktops and ovens. Leaving Oneroa, I follow the islands northern coastline, a succession of sandy coves separated by rocky headlands, on a track that meanders through dense thickets of regenerating bush. Heroic efforts are being made all over the island to restore the natural habitat. Young tells me that theyve almost eradicated stoats and plan to tackle rats next. By the end of 2026, they hope to be the first urban island thats predator free an impressive achievement given Waiheke welcomes almost a million visitors a year. The reward for all this hard work is an explosion of native birdlife. The number of kaka, a native parrot, has increased by more than 300 per cent, and there are now weka, a flightless native hen, all over the island. All going well, they hope to reintroduce kiwi later this year. Native plants and wildlife are thriving on the island. Credit: For hikers, this means youre frequently plunged into pockets of Amazonian fecundity explosions of ferns, flax and palms shielded by soaring puriri and karaka trees. Above the background drone of cicadas are the animated conversations of chattering tuis and the distinctive calls of weka and kereru wood pigeons. Even when you descend into a secluded bay, there will be squabbling pairs of oystercatchers and if youre lucky an endangered New Zealand dotterel or a bar-tailed godwit, whose incredible 11,000-kilometre journey from Alaska is the worlds longest migration. What you wont see is many other hikers. For the first three days I dont pass another soul, which is astounding given Waiheke is less than 25 kilometres from downtown Auckland. Later in the trip I encounter a few dog walkers and day hikers, but I dont meet anyone else tackling the whole thing. Day by day, I gradually work my way clockwise around the island. Each morning, Im collected from Onetangi and delivered to that days starting point. Ranging from 15 to 25 kilometres, each leg uses a mixture of trails, roads and boardwalks to traverse a restless volcanic landscape of plunging valleys, intimate coves and rocky peninsulas. One day I climb the equivalent of 187 flights of stairs. Its possible to walk for hours without seeing any sign of human habitation. Credit: Gabrielle Young Most of Waihekes 10,000 or so residents live in the western half of the island, so the eastern part is still mainly farmland and vineyards. Aside from the occasional holiday home or sailboat, I often walk for hours without seeing any evidence of human habitation. Waiting in the apartment when I return each night is a delicious home-cooked meal to heat up (my favourite is a spinach-filled Greek spanakopita pie), and Young has stocked the kitchen with a generous array of breakfast and lunch supplies. If theres one thing that distinguishes this hike from every other multi-day walk Ive done, its that youre rarely far from a winery. I wrestle with the decision as to whether to imbibe for about 30 seconds before succumbing, and Im now an enthusiastic advocate of wine-fuelled hiking. The route passes around a dozen wineries and I manage to call into five. One standout is Man O War, the islands biggest producer, located on the less-visited eastern coast in a bay where Captain Cook landed in 1769. Known for its innovative take on traditional varietals, its Ironclad Bordeaux blend is sensational. Another highlight is Poderi Crisci, a gorgeous Italian-themed property thats a soul-stirring sight after a taxing climb to the trails loftiest peak, 155-metre-high Puke O Kai. Specialising in Mediterranean varietals and authentic Italian fare (dont miss the tiramisu), its known for its lavish long lunches with matching wines. Although Mudbrick is one of the islands most commercial wineries, its also one of its most awarded, and the view over the Hauraki Gulf from its elevated terrace is genuinely captivating. The islands vineyards. Credit: Sometimes wine just isnt enough to get the job done, though, and after a long, hot afternoon on a relentlessly undulating ribbon of road, Im lured into Waiheke Distilling by the prospect of a restorative gin and tonic. Its cherry-infused Red Ruby gin hits the spot and comes with a stunning island-studded coastal vista that stretches all the way to the Coromandel Peninsula. One downside of a self-guided trip is that you miss out on the interpretation of a knowledgeable guide. And this is particularly salient when it comes to Waihekes Maori heritage. While theres some insightful background in Youngs notes, I pass only a couple of plaques that mention it, which is odd given the obvious physical evidence (countless kumara pits and terracing on hills) plus New Zealands enthusiastic embrace of Maori culture. Beach crossing on the trail. Credit: According to Young, the reason is that theres still a lot of trauma about what happened here, specifically the massacre of the resident Ngati Paoa tribe by well-armed Ngapuhi warriors from Northland in 1821. Fast-forward two centuries and its clear that a passionate sense of community has returned. The final leg of the walk passes through Church Bay, a beautifully scenic stretch of coastline thats the setting for Waihekes biennial Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition. In 1993, Nick and Nettie Johnstone gifted part of their farm to the Forest & Bird conservation group, who have since transformed it into a thriving coastal reserve with more than 40,000 native trees. It reminds me of something my server said during a tasting at Goldie Estate, the islands pioneering first winery: Ive lived all over New Zealand and Ive never found a community like this. Loading The details Tour The six-day Te Ara Hura Self-Guided Walk includes all accommodation (one night in Auckland and four on Waiheke), return ferry trip, all island transfers and most meals. The trip is rated 4/10, meaning its suitable for hikers with a good level of fitness and good health. Cost from $NZ2990 ($2760). See greatwalksofnewzealand.co.nz Fly Air New Zealand files daily to Auckland from Melbourne and Sydney. See airnewzealand.com From the air, Arnhem Land is full of grand gestures: the glint of serpentine rivers winding their way through ancient gorges, a flash of terracotta earth slicing through arboreous countryside, swathes of azure ocean washing up against white sand. On the ground, the experience is no less dramatic as wetlands vibrate with the beating wings of thousands of waterbirds, while dolphins, dugong and manta rays frolic in the waters the Cobourg Peninsula. The experiences - and the culture - are rich along the Arafura Swamp in Yolngu Country. This is Yolngu Country, one of the most remote and culturally significant regions in Australia. From Nhulunbuy and Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land, it stretches west across the Top End almost as far as Jabiru, covering a distance of 97,000 kilometres. The Arafura Sea along the northern coastline offers some of the best barra fishing in the country, while rocky shelters inland protect rarely glimpsed art thats thousands of years old. And thats just the beginning of what youll experience on Outback Spirits 13-day Arnhem Land Wetlands & Wildlife Tour. Country, culture and adventure The tour begins in Nhulunbuy, following a short two-hour flight from Cairns arriving at Gove Airport. Built in the 1960s as a service hub for the local bauxite mine, Gove is a buzzy regional centre and an idyllic gateway to the region. Over two days in Nhulunbuy, youll experience a special Welcome to Country ceremony on Wirrwawuy Beach, learn about Yolngu culture and bush medicine, and visit the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka (Yirrkala) Art Centre, whose artists are internationally recognised for their remarkable paintings done on bark and totem poles. This is also the seat of the Aboriginal Land Rights movement in 1963, it was from Yirrkala that the bark petition was sent to Federal Parliament in Canberra. A paraglider in China who had intended simply to test some equipment instead ended up unwittingly reaching barely survivable heights. Peng Yujiang, a 55-year-old paraglider in Gansu province, on Saturday morning flew nearly 8600 metres above sea level more than 28,000 feet in the Qilian mountain range of north-west Chinas Qinghai and Gansu provinces, state media reported. Peng Yujiang, 55, flew nearly 8600 metres above sea level. He was apparently a victim of what paragliders call cloud suck, in which they are rapidly drawn upwards. Credit: BBC The episode was captured on a camera attached to his equipment and showed the harrowing conditions he experienced. Peng rose to a level almost on par with Mount Everests summit and aviation flight paths. His face and body are covered in frost and ice in the video, which was originally posted to social media and later shared by Chinese state media. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status, known as "parole," for over half a million migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. The decision strengthens President Donald Trump's broader immigration policy, which aims at stricter enforcement and increased deportations. The Decision and Its Legal Rationale The courts decision follows an appeal filed by the Trump administration regarding an earlier ruling by Boston-based District Judge Indira Talwani. Judge Talwani had temporarily blocked the administration's move to end the parole program, citing that federal law requires a case-by-case review rather than mass revocation of legal protections. The Supreme Court, in its order, placed the lower court's decision on hold, allowing the administration to proceed with its changes. Delivered in an emergency manner, the ruling was unsigned and did not include an explanation for the decision. However, dissenting opinions were voiced by two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Jackson criticized the majority's decision for failing to weigh the impact on affected migrants. The decision undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens, Jackson wrote. Who Will Be Affected? The parole revocation impacts around 532,000 migrants who were granted temporary entry and work authorization by the Biden administration. The affected individuals include migrants who fled political instability, economic crises, and violence in their home countries. The Trump administration argues that ending the parole policy will deter illegal immigration and allow for expedited removal processes for those affected. Department of Homeland Security officials plan to ramp up deportations by utilizing a fast-track system known as "expedited removal." Background on Immigration Parole Immigration parole, as defined under U.S. law, permits individuals to stay in the country temporarily for "urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit." Initiated during Joe Biden's presidency, the program allowed migrants to reside and work in the U.S. for two years if they passed security checks and had financial backing from U.S.-based sponsors. The Biden administration initially implemented the program to address rising numbers of illegal border crossings, expanding it to include nationals from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua in 2023. This decision followed surging migration from those regions due to political and economic instability. Reactions and Fallout The ruling has provoked strong reactions on both sides of the immigration debate. Migrant advocates and Democratic leaders have criticized the decision for exposing vulnerable individuals to further hardship. Plaintiffs representing the affected migrants argued that the revocation would result in family separations and the deportation of individuals to hazardous conditions, including persecution and violence, in their home countries. Advocacy groups have also emphasized the abruptness with which the administration plans to enact these changes. They warn of significant risks to human rights and safety, urging the administration to honor asylum seekers' due process rights. Meanwhile, Trump's administration defended the move as necessary to enforce critical immigration policies. A White House statement argued that retaining the parole programs would undermine border security efforts and negate an agenda endorsed by voters in the last election. Supporters of the decision laud the administrations hardline immigration stance as an essential step toward reducing illegal crossings. Broader Implications and Future Challenges Immigration experts predict that the ruling will face continued legal and political scrutiny as the policys implementation unfolds. The Supreme Courts decision temporarily resolves legal questions surrounding the administrations authority to terminate parole programs, but additional lawsuits and challenges are expected. This case also highlights broader tensions regarding executive power in shaping immigration policies. Critics of the Trump administrations approach argue that such sweeping decisions sideline Congress's role and lead to unpredictable enforcement mechanisms with far-reaching human costs. Furthermore, the implications of ending parole programs go beyond individual migrants. Sponsors providing financial backing for migrants under the parole program worry they will bear significant burdens if deportations accelerate. The dispute over revoking parole also raises questions about the future of broader immigration reform efforts. While the administration has welcomed the decision, the issue remains deeply divisive, reflecting the ongoing polarization surrounding immigration policy in the United States. Russia continues to rely on ballistic missiles, receiving them from the DPRK and producing them independently, said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. "If we talk about numbers, then by May 2025 the enemy has the ability to produce approximately 60 Iskander-M missiles per month, despite the sanctions regime and complicated production. Accordingly, the enemy has the ability to produce, and the focus is on ballistics - it is obvious, and not on cruise missiles. Although the enemy also has a sufficient supply of cruise missiles. There is nothing to hide here," Kovalenko said during the telethon. He added that Russia continues to receive ballistic missiles from the DPRK. "We can take, for example, the figure that the enemy has recently received only 350 KN-23 ballistic missiles from the DPRK. And for this enemy it is not necessary to produce them, even they still receive these ballistic missiles directly from the DPRK," he emphasized. Israel says intercepts missile from Yemen after air raid warning Jerusalem, May 29 (AFP) May 29, 2025 The Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday after air raid sirens sounded in the centre of the country and explosions were heard over Jerusalem. "Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," said an army statement. Yemen's Huthi rebels claimed they fired a "hypersonic ballistic missile" at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. "The operation successfully achieved its goal... forcing millions of occupying Zionists (Israelis) to flee to shelters and halting air traffic at the airport," they said in a statement. The attempted attack comes two days after Israel said it intercepted a missile and another projectile fired from Yemen, which Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they had fired. The Huthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023 following the Hamas attack on Israel. The Yemeni rebels, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month Gaza ceasefire that ended in March, but began again after Israel resumed its military campaign in the territory. While most of the projectiles have been intercepted, one missile fired in early May hit the perimeter of Ben Gurion airport for the first time. Israel has carried out several strikes in Yemen in retaliation for the attacks, including on ports and the airport in the capital Sanaa. What will Seoul's new leader mean for North Korea ties? Seoul, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 On the campaign trail in South Korea ahead of the June 3 vote, leading candidates in the presidential race have barely mentioned the nuclear-armed North -- but a new leader in Seoul could shake-up years of Pyongyang policy. Under the hawkish Yoon Suk Yeol -- whose ouster over his disastrous declaration of martial law triggered the snap presidential poll -- Seoul took a hard line towards North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. AFP takes a look at what could happen next: - What's the situation? - Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, thanks in part to Yoon's short-lived presidency, who said on the campaign trail he'd teach "rude" Kim Jong Un a lesson. Yoon's former People Power Party has always traditionally taken a harder line on the North than the country's left-wing Democratic Party, and during his time in office, Yoon threatened preemptive strikes and bolstered joint drills with ally the US. The North has also toughened its stance: blowing up inter-Korean roads and railways, declaring the South an "enemy state" and scrapping military deals aimed at avoiding accidental escalations. If front-runner, the DP's Lee Jae-myung, wins the election on Tuesday, things could change: he has already vowed to restart efforts to engage Kim. Lee's North Korea policy will represent a "complete turnaround" from Yoon's, Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, told AFP. His approach follows that of his party, which traditionally champions dialogue with Pyongyang, he said. There could be "potential for improvement in ties with Pyongyang" if Lee wins, he added. - Will ties improve? - The last polls before the pre-election blackout period showed Lee in the lead. But it is still possible that the PPP's candidate Kim Moon-soo could sneak into the lead -- especially if another right-wing candidate, currently in third place, were to endorse him. In the case, it is likely Kim would maintain Yoon's hardline policy toward Pyongyang. He has called for more US nuclear assets to be deployed to the peninsula. Kim's policy platform is notably light on details on what he plans to do regarding Pyongyang -- but it's basically just "an extension of Yoon's policy in substance," professor Lim said. "In a way, Kim's rhetoric suggests he may take an even more hawkish stance on the North than Yoon, raising the risk of heightened military tensions." - What about Trump? - Trump has talked up his "great relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and hinted that he might seek to rekindle his relationship with the third-generation ruler in Pyongyang. During Trump's first term, the two met multiple times for talks on possible denuclearisation, which ultimately collapsed without a deal. "Trump could shift his focus to North Korea once the situation in Ukraine is resolved through a truce with Russia," said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. "It is possible that he will be eager to engage with the North in pursuit of diplomatic achievements," he said. But after the collapse of talks, which Kim found "humiliating, he may not be as receptive to a potential summit proposal from Trump as he once was." - And Ukraine? - After Russia invaded Ukraine, Pyongyang began supplying Moscow with weapons and soldiers to help it fight Kyiv. Ex-president Yoon slammed the growing ties between the North and Russia -- and even hinting that Seoul, a major arms exporter, could consider providing weapons direct to Ukraine, currently barred by longstanding domestic policy. At the time, Lee criticised Yoon for this, warning that such a move would be "a death sentence" for South Korean companies in Russia. He has also blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the war, saying he had "provoked Russia with a promise to join NATO." He later apologised for the remark. He now says he will pursue "pragmatic diplomacy" in terms of Seoul's ties with Russia. His foreign policy advisor said this could include "efforts to seek dialogue and improve ties with Russia," Choi Gi-il told AFP. Kim Moon-soo has not commented on the conflict. - What will North Korea do? - Pyongyang has not commented on the South's election and is not expected to do so on its outcome, said Lim of Kyungnam University. "But if Lee wins, the North will closely monitor how he implements his North Korea policy -- particularly any changes to joint military drills with the US," he said. If Kim Moon-soo wins, having pledged to maintain a hardline stance and increase the deployment of US nuclear assets around the peninsula, Pyongyang could attempt to undermine his administration, Lim added. "North Korea could resort to a highly aggressive military provocation, escalating tensions to a new level." China, Japan close to resuming seafood imports after Fukushima ban Beijing, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 China and Japan said Friday they were moving closer to ending a years-long dispute over Tokyo's handling of nuclear wastewater that prompted Beijing to ban imports of Japanese seafood. In 2023, Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which banned Japanese seafood imports as a result. China indicated on Friday that it was edging closer to lifting the ban, saying talks with Japanese officials in Beijing this week had "achieved substantial progress". "So far this year, the two sides have carried out several rounds of technical exchanges," Beijing's customs administration said in a statement, without giving further details. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Beijing and Tokyo had "reached an agreement on the technical requirements necessary to resume exports of fishery products to China". "Exports to China will resume as soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is completed," Hayashi said on Friday. "We regard this as a major milestone," he told a press conference. China previously said it had found no abnormalities in seawater and marine life samples it independently collected near the Fukushima plant in February, but indicated more tests were needed before revoking the ban. In 2011, a huge earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami that swamped the Fukushima nuclear facility and pushed three of its six reactors into meltdown. China, whose ties with Japan have long been strained by Tokyo's imperial legacy, vociferously opposed the release of the treated wastewater, casting it as environmentally irresponsible. China, Japan close to resuming seafood imports after Fukushima ban Beijing, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 China and Japan said Friday they were moving closer to ending a years-long dispute over Tokyo's handling of nuclear wastewater that prompted Beijing to ban imports of Japanese seafood. Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater in 2023 from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which banned Japanese seafood imports as a result. China indicated on Friday that it was edging closer to lifting the ban, saying talks with Japanese officials in Beijing this week had "achieved substantial progress". "So far this year, the two sides have carried out several rounds of technical exchanges," Beijing's customs administration said in a statement, without giving further details. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Beijing and Tokyo had "reached an agreement on the technical requirements necessary to resume exports of fishery products to China". "Exports to China will resume as soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is completed," Hayashi told a news conference on Friday. "We regard this as a major milestone." China's foreign ministry said later Friday that Tokyo "has promised to take reliable and visible measures to ensure the quality and safety of Japanese aquatic products". "Relevant authorities will study Japan's request to resume the export of Japanese aquatic products to China based on scientific and safety principles," spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing. China previously said it had found no abnormalities in seawater and marine life samples it independently collected near the Fukushima plant in February, but indicated more tests were needed before revoking the ban. In 2011, a huge earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami that swamped the Fukushima nuclear facility and pushed three of its six reactors into meltdown. China, whose ties with Japan have long been strained by Tokyo's imperial legacy, vociferously opposed the release of the treated wastewater, casting it as environmentally irresponsible. Iran calls Austria intel on nuclear programme 'fake' Tehran, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 Iran on Friday branded as "fake" an Austrian intelligence report that said Tehran is seeking atomic weapons, even as it pursues delicate negotiations with the United States on its nuclear programme. In its annual report on global threats, Austria's domestic intelligence service (DSN) said Monday that Iran's "nuclear weapons development programme is well advanced". The United States, Israel and other Western countries have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon. Iran has categorically denied the claims, instead arguing that it is pursuing a nuclear programme for civilian purposes alone. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, Iran is the only country in the world that enriches uranium up to 60 percent. That rate is still below the 90 percent threshold required for a nuclear weapon, but far above the 3.67 percent limit set under a 2015 agreement with world powers. "All efforts to prevent Iran's armament through sanctions and agreements have so far proved ineffective," the Austrian report said. On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry condemned "the fake information" disseminated in the report and demanded an explanation from the Austrian government. The IAEA, whose headquarters is in the Austrian capital, will in coming days publish its own review of Iran's nuclear activities. Iran and the United States are engaged in an Omani-mediated effort to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme, after Donald Trump during his first presidency pulled out of the 2015 agreement. No date has yet been set for the next Iran-US meeting since last week's discussions in Rome. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was "not sure" that a deal with the United States was imminent. His statement came after Trump said on Wednesday that the two sides were "very close to a solution". Macron says abandoning Gaza 'will kill' West's credibility Singapore, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that abandoning war-torn Gaza to its fate and giving Israel a "free pass" would kill the West's credibility with the world. "If we abandon Gaza, if we consider there is a free pass for Israel, even if we do condemn the terrorist attacks, we will kill our credibility," Macron told a top defence forum in Singapore, adding: "And this is why we do reject double standard." The French leader also said Europe and the United States were unable to solve crises around the world, including in Gaza and Ukraine. "I think the credibility of both the US and the Europeans to pretend to fix the crises in these regions (are) very low," Macron told the Shangri-la Dialogue at the end of his Southeast Asian tour. EU leaders have toughened their tone on Israel in recent days. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday denounced attacks in the past days on civilian infrastructure in Gaza as "abhorrent" and "disproportionate". But the 27-member bloc has long struggled to have an impact on the conflict due to long-standing divisions between countries that back Israel and those seen as more pro-Palestinian. The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite aid beginning to trickle back into the Palestinian territory after a more than two-month Israeli blockade. Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people. Israel has also intensified its military offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war. Israel accused Macron on Friday of undertaking a "crusade against the Jewish state", after he called for European countries to harden their stance if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve. Iran protests over 'fake' Austria intel on nuclear programme Tehran, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 Iran on Friday summoned Austria's charge d'affaires after it branded as "fake" an Austrian intelligence report that said Tehran is seeking to acquire atomic weapons. The spat comes even as Tehran pursues delicate negotiations with the United States on its nuclear programme. In its annual report on global threats, Austria's domestic intelligence service (DSN) said Monday that Iran's "nuclear weapons development programme is well advanced". The United States, Israel and other Western countries have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon. Iran has categorically denied the claims, instead arguing that it is pursuing a nuclear programme for civilian purposes alone. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, Iran is the only country in the world that enriches uranium up to 60 percent. That rate is still below the 90 percent threshold required for a nuclear weapon, but far above the 3.67 percent limit set under a 2015 agreement with world powers. "All efforts to prevent Iran's armament through sanctions and agreements have so far proved ineffective," the Austrian report said. On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry condemned "the fake information" disseminated in the report and demanded an explanation from Austria's government. It later summoned Austria's charge d'affaires in Tehran Michaela Pacher to "convey Iran's strong protest", the official IRNA news agency reported. It said that during the meeting, the ministry "emphasised the complete contradiction of the Austrian report with numerous IAEA reports". The IAEA, whose headquarters are in the Austrian capital, will in the coming days publish its own review of Iran's nuclear activities. Iran and the United States are engaged in an Omani-mediated effort to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme, after Donald Trump during his first presidency pulled out of the 2015 agreement. No date has yet been set for the next Iran-US meeting since last week's discussions in Rome. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was "not sure" that a deal with the United States was imminent. His statement came after Trump said on Wednesday that the two sides were "very close to a solution". 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 Mr Langdale asked the witness: If two people pull up on a dark lane on what appears to be drug-dealing bikes, dressed all in black with masks on that might be scary for a young man who knows the association, do you agree?, to which Mr Newton-Kay replied: Yes. Ukraines Cabinet of Ministers has approved the procedure for the destruction (removal) of substandard/unusable humanitarian aid goods. "A large number of humanitarian cargoes imported into Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion have already lost their quality or suitability for further use - due to improper storage conditions, damage during transportation, expiration date or other circumstances. The procedure did not take into account all the features associated with martial law. Because of this, it was extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible, to carry out the destruction (removal) of humanitarian aid goods," the Ministry of Social Policy said in a statement. The aforementioned changes provide that decisions on destruction (removal) are made by local executive bodies - Kyiv City and Regional State Administrations (relevant military administrations in case of their formation). The special commission that controls the process of destroying substandard/unfit for consumption humanitarian aid goods is expanding - its composition should also include representatives of the territorial bodies of the National Police, the State Tax Service and the State Service for Food, Agriculture and Food Safety. Destruction is carried out by waste management enterprises that have a permit, and in the case of hazardous waste - an appropriate license, in compliance with all legislative requirements. The changes provide for a new form of the act: it is drawn up upon the fact of destruction (removal) of humanitarian aid, and after the act is signed by all parties, the recipient of humanitarian aid uploads it to the Automated System for Registration of Humanitarian Aid when submitting a report. "Important: the new procedure does not apply to humanitarian aid in the form of medicines, medical devices, equipment received by organizations authorized by the Ministry of Health. In such cases, disposal is carried out in accordance with the procedure approved by the Ministry of Health. When submitting a report to the AS of the State Duma, the recipient of such aid uploads a certificate of work performed (services rendered), drawn up based on the results of the destruction (removal) of humanitarian aid, in an arbitrary form," the ministry added. Ahead of his first court hearing, he posted a YouTube video saying: If you were a member of the Labour Party, that's the governing party in my country the United Kingdom, you would want an inquiry into rape gangs so that you could be entirely exonerated. It's the same with me. All 23 people on the tanker were rescued along with 13 crew from the Solong, but Mr Pernia could not be located. The Cause, one of east Londons most loved clubs, shared a photo of two pills marked with the number 80 on their Instagram, strongly advising partygoers not to engage with it and to warn their friends. The Royal Navy said that it was the second bust in three months for the British warship, which is based in Bahrain and is attached to a New Zealand-led international task spread across the Indian Ocean hunting down illegal activity. The US plan provides for Hamas to release the last 30 of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. Israel will also cease all military operations in Gaza as soon as the truce takes effect, it shows. The Israeli army will also redeploy its troops in stages. I want to say that the (Irish) Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that theres an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can. Sybiha: We are waiting for a 'memorandum' from Russia so that our delegation has the authority to discuss positions Photo: https://mfa.gov.ua/ Ukraine is interested in continuing meetings with the Russian side regarding peace, but is still waiting for the so-called "memorandum" on a ceasefire announced by the Russian Federation, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha has said. "You asked about the continuation of the meeting that took place in Turkey recently. We are interested in these meetings continuing because we want the war to end this year, and we are interested in establishing a ceasefire, whether for 30, 50, 100 days - Ukraine is open to discussing this directly with the Russian Federation," he said at a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Kyiv on Friday. Sybiha stressed that Ukraine had already confirmed this during the last meeting of the delegation with the Russian side. "Ukraine has already conveyed to the Russian side its vision of further steps, its vision of our further peace efforts, in particular, regarding the parameters of the future ceasefire. We are also waiting for the "memorandum" from the Russian side, as it was announced. We are waiting in advance, this was also promised to the American side," the minister emphasized. He noted that "in order for the next planned meeting to be substantive and objective, it is important to receive the document in advance." "So that the delegation that will take place has the authority to discuss the relevant positions," he added. Speaking about the ceasefire, the minister emphasized that "now the ball is in the Russian side" and the Russian Federation "must accept an unconditional ceasefire, which will open the way for further broader negotiations." Sybiha called for pressure on the Russian Federation "in order to hear from them a clear "yes" to the ceasefire." Photo: https://kyiv.klichko.org/ Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, in response to the petition, stated that if facts of violations in the work of the Director of the Department of Health of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) Valentina Ginzburg are established, she will be brought to disciplinary responsibility. "In the event of the establishment of facts that may serve as grounds for bringing the head of the Department of Health of the executive body of the Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration) to disciplinary responsibility, appropriate measures will be taken in accordance with the requirements of current legislation," Klitschko said in response to the petition. At the same time, it is noted that dismissal from a civil service position is an exceptional type of disciplinary punishment and can be applied, among other things, only in the case of: committing such a disciplinary offense as violating the oath of a civil servant, showing disrespect for the state, state symbols of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people; abuse of official authority, if it does not constitute a criminal or administrative offense, use of authority in personal (private) interests or in the unlawful personal interests of other persons and systematic (repeatedly within a year) commission of such a disciplinary offense as absenteeism of a civil servant (including absence from work for more than three hours during the working day) without good reason. Recently, an identical response was provided regarding the petition for the dismissal of the Director of the Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration Serhiy Anzhiyak. As reported. on May 1 a petition on the website of the Kyiv City Council calling for the dismissal of the Head of the Department of Health of the Kyiv City State Administration Valentina Ginzburg received the necessary number of votes for consideration. Photo: https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of Bulgaria Rosen Zhelyazkov. "Invited to participate in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit. This is an important event where we will talk about the security of our entire region, including the security of the Black Sea, the restoration of Ukraine after the end of the war, and our cooperation in many different areas," Zelenskyy wrote on the social network X on Friday. According to Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister confirmed his participation. "There will be a high level of representation of countries at the summit. Thank you," the president added. BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A cross-Strait media summit was held in Beijing on Thursday, drawing nearly 150 media chiefs, scholars and representatives from mainland and Taiwan. Media serve as a vital bridge to share information, deepen mutual understanding, and strengthen kinship across the Taiwan Strait, said Fu Hua, president of Xinhua News Agency, at the summit, the sixth of its kind. Fu urged media practitioners from the two sides to jointly enhance people-to-people connectivity, uphold cultural confidence to preserve the shared heritage, and embrace the glorious responsibility of national rejuvenation. He also expressed the hope that media professionals across the Strait will continue contributing to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. Media outlets on both sides of the Strait should play a bigger role in bringing cross-Strait relations back to the right track, foster closer bonds of heart and mind, and navigate technological shifts in the media landscape together, said Wu Xi, deputy head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at the summit. The representatives from Taiwan, including Chou Hsi-wei, vice chairman of Taiwan-based Want Want China, and Gary Wang, president of Eastern Group, stressed the need for enhancing exchange and cooperation and steering through challenges to a bright future. Co-hosted by Xinhuanet and Beijing Daily, the summit launched an incubation program for young media professionals across the Strait and released a joint initiative for media cooperation in the next decade. Ukraines Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense probably hit the latest jet drone Dan-M with an air defense system of its own design, GUR reported on Friday. "On May 29, 2025, to repel a nighttime enemy drone attack on the Odessa region, a mobile anti-aircraft missile system equipped with R-73 missiles, developed by GUR specialists with the support of foreign partners, was successfully used...," the message on Telegram says. According to information, after detecting a Russian drone, fighters of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine struck the target, destroying the latest enemy jet drone, probably Dan-M, it "fell into the Black Sea". As is known from open sources, the R-73 (NATO classification: AA-11 Archer) is a Soviet short-range air-to-air guided missile with an infrared homing system. Earlier, it was reported that on Thursday, May 29, Russia attacked Ukrainian settlements with a new type of attack jet Dan-M UAV, said military radio technology specialist Sergei "Flash" Beskrestnov. Dan-M is a jet target for training and testing air defense, which Russia converted into an attack UAV. The flight time of this type of UAV is 25-40 minutes, the speed is 400-750 km/h, the flight altitude is up to 9 kilometers, and it can be launched from air and ground platforms. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says the Drone Coalition could expand to 20 members, with Belgium and Turkey announcing their intention to join. "Our focus is always on security and defense... Another reinforcement is the potential expansion of the Drone Coalition to 20 members. Belgium and Turkey have announced their intention to join. The coalition members have pledged to send EUR 2.75 billion to Ukraine this year. I am grateful to all our friends, including Latvia, for their leadership in the coalition," Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Friday. The prime minister also recalled that under the leadership of Finland, during our meeting with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, a new Coalition of Civil Protection Shelters was created. "We expect other states to actively join it. Thanks to the coalition, we plan to attract up to EUR 14 billion for the development of shelters," he added. Joining the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is Romania's most important objective in the upcoming period, given that 70% of the global trade and 90% of the foreign direct investment in Romania is provided by the 38 member countries of the organisation, said Florin Jianu, honorary chairman of SME Romania, at the 32nd edition of the Entrepreneurs' Day, hosted by the city of Braila. "Joining OECD is Romania's most important objective in the upcoming period. Belonging to this organisation will place Romania in a highly select family: 70% of the global trade and 90% of the foreign direct investment in Romania is provided by the 38 member countries of the organisation. Beyond all the technical aspects and the improvement of some indicators, such as the country rating, the major benefit of joining the OECD is the adoption of very strict rules for the economic environment in Romania. Accession is a difficult process, and Romania is working to comply with all the required regulations, step by step," Jianu is quoted as saying in a press statement on Friday, according to Agerpres. In his turn, Marius Ivanciu, chairman of PIMM Braila, said that the organisation aims to support the interests of entrepreneurs in Braila County in relation to local administrations. "I want to emphasise the importance of belonging to an organisation that represents the interests of business. SME Romania is a body that represents local SMEs including at European level, not only in Romania. As a local organisation, PIMM Braila aims to support the interests of entrepreneurs in Braila County. The more we are, the more aware we are of the problems of SMEs, so that we can calibrate our actions to support the business community. At the local level, PIMM Braila has managed to sign two partnerships - one with the Faculty of Engineers and Agronomy in Braila and another with the Braila County Council, for the development of countryside tourism," said Ivanciu. The Prosecutor's Office with Romania's to Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation (PICCJ) has announced having signed a funding agreement for the implementation of a strategic project in the field of financial investigations and recovery of proceeds from crime. The program - called "Strengthening institutional capacity in the field of financial investigation and recovery of dproceeds from crime (FIARS)" - is part of the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme running on 11,764,706 Swiss francs, 85% o which is Swiss grants to the tune of10,000,000 Swiss francs, according to Agerpres. agreement was signed between the Ministry of Justice, as program operator, and the Prosecutor's Office with the Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation, as component operator, under the second Swiss contribution through the "Public Security and Safety Program (Justice)" designed to strengthen the capacity of the judicial system to effectively combat crime and support the rule of law.The overall objective of FIARS is to increase the capacities of the Romanian law enforcement authorities and judicial authorities in the field of financial investigations and recovery of proceeds from crimes. It will be achieved by conducting training activities for prosecutors, judges, policemen, financial investigators and other specialists; facilitating international cooperation and the exchange of good practices; strengthening the technological capacities necessary to carry out financial investigations. Digitisation, combined with education, plays a crucial role in strengthening financial stability and stimulating Romania's economic development. Investments in this process, as well as in cybersecurity, are not merely an option but a necessity, according to Chief Economist of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Valentin Lazea. "The National Bank of Romania recognises the vital importance of digitisation in transforming our economy and ensuring financial stability. In a constantly changing world, it is imperative to adopt technological innovations and develop solutions that not only support economic growth but also protect the interests of consumers and financial institutions. I want to emphasise that investments in digitisation and cybersecurity are not just an option, they are a necessity. They form the foundation on which we can build a future where innovation and efficiency go hand in hand with security and responsibility. Digitisation, combined with education, plays a crucial role in strengthening financial stability and stimulating Romania's economic development. Today, we are discussing digitisation in key areas such as the economy, health, communications, and Romania's security," Lazea said on Friday at the D-TECH Forum. The BNR Chief Economist also highlighted the importance of people in these processes, stressing the need for education in this field. "Let's not forget about people, because, as any cybersecurity expert can confirm, there's no point in implementing the most sophisticated and powerful security systems if the human link is not also strengthened and educated. I believe this is an excellently timed moment to have this high-level executive debate, because we can finally focus on Romania's development, on macroeconomic strengthening, and on providing a strong growth environment for job creators and for every Romanian citizen," he said. The first edition of the D-Tech Forum 2025 in Bucharest, a regional summit aimed at aligning visions on digitisation and cybersecurity within the context of the European Competitiveness Plan, is being held on Friday at the National Bank of Romania (BNR) headquarters. The event is attended by, among others, Vice-President of the European Parliament Victor Negrescu. Also participating in the forum are representatives of Romanian institutions responsible for digitisation and cybersecurity, alongside top figures from the private sector and cybersecurity experts from other countries in the region. According to the organisers, some of the topics proposed for debate include: ensuring democratic access to the digital society and services, AI applications in digital service automation, applications for 5G/6G networks and technology, universal access to electronic payments, ensuring privacy versus combating terrorism, cybersecurity regulation, the human factor in cyber risk assessment, as well as more technical topics such as mobile device security and protecting equipment in the Internet of Things (IoT). The Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) and the "Mohammed V" University of Rabat on Thursday signed a framework agreement for collaboration, to further strengthen academic and scientific collaboration. According to a press release of the Romanian university, the memorandum emphasises the development of joint research projects, the transfer of knowledge and good practices, participation in international conferences and the development of academic mobility agreements for students and the teaching staff. "This initiative is part of our university's ongoing commitment to supporting the internationalisation of education and research and to building sustainable partnerships with prestigious institutions around the world," the release emphasises. The event was held in the presence of ASE vice-rector Mihaela Alina Dima, the dean of the Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages (FABIZ), Tanase Stamule, and vice-dean Sorin Anagnoste. On behalf of the "Mohammed V" University of Rabat there participated Azzedine Ghoufrane, dean of the Faculty of Economic, Legal and Social Sciences, Souissi Rabat, Abdelaziz Karraky, vice-dean for Cooperation and Research and director of the Doctoral Studies Centre, and Said Radi, vice-dean for Academic and Pedagogical Affairs and director of the master's programme in Business and Project Management. The interim chairman of the USR, Dominic Fritz, criticized the activity of the National Integrity Agency (ANI) on Friday, noting that in 2023 the institution found only 11 cases of unjustified wealth. The clarifications came after the Constitutional Court decided on Thursday that dignitaries and public officials are no longer required to make their asset declarations public and that they no longer have to declare the assets of their spouses or children. ANI found 11 cases of unjustified wealth, while any citizen can immediately name at least one politician, a customs officer, a civil servant who has a watch, a car, a house where it is not explained where the money for this wealth came from. So, the difference between ANI's official findings and what Romanians see in everyday life is so great that it is obvious that we need an ANI reform," said the USR leader, in a conference held at the party headquarters, according to Agerpres.He reiterated that the USR will propose a revision of the legislation to ensure the necessary transparency, while also respecting the constitutionality standards imposed by the CCR. European Parliament Vice President Victor Negrescu will open the first edition of the D-Tech Forum 2025 in Bucharest on Friday, a regional summit aimed to align visions on digitisation and cybersecurity within the context of the European Competitiveness Plan. The event, which will take place at the National Bank of Romania, will be attended by ministers and representatives of Romanian institutions responsible for digitisation and cybersecurity, alongside top figures from the private sector and cybersecurity experts from other countries in the region. Also present will be specialists from the European Parliament and decision-makers from other national authorities, with the goal of discussing Romania's involvement in the initiative launched by Victor Negrescu in March in Brussels. Among the invited guests are: Bogdan Ivan - Minister of Economy, Digitisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Alexandru Rafila - Minister of Health, Adrian Victor Vevera - Director General, ICI Bucharest, Dan Cimpean - Director of the National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC), Marius Moisescu - Dean of the Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, Polytechnic University, Ciprian Dobre - Vice-Rector, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Gabriela Folcut - Executive Director, Romanian Banking Association, Sergiu Zaharia - Director, Cyber Strategy Advisory, Deloitte, as well as representatives of other institutions and experts in digitisation and cybersecurity from Romania and abroad. According to the organisers, topics proposed for discussion include: ensuring democratic access to digital society and services, AI applications in automating digital services, applications for networks and 5G/6G technology, universal access to electronic payments, privacy versus counter-terrorism efforts, cybersecurity regulation, the human factor in cyber risk assessment, technical matters such as mobile device security and protecting IoT equipment. "D-Tech Forum 2025 is designed to bring together over 20 experts from Romania and other countries, who will share their knowledge with the 230 participants. We have created the perfect context for like-minded professionals to discuss common challenges, establish new business connections, and launch joint projects. We aim for this first edition to represent a first step in shaping the public-private effort to increase the impact of digitisation in Romania in the coming years," V+O Communication Director Eugen Ilea said. Interim Prime Minister Catalin Predoiu will pay a working visit to the flood-affected areas of Covasna County, the Department for Emergency Situations reported on Friday. According to the cited source, Catalin Predoiu is to travel to Covasna County in the immediate future, to assess the situation generated by the floods on site and to discuss with local authorities the necessary measures to support the affected communities. Following heavy rainfall, several areas in the county were affected by local overflows of watercourses, especially in the Lunca Marcusului and Bacel areas. Intervention crews managed to close a breach on the Tarlung River and consolidate vulnerable dikes, with the support of over 5,000 sandbags and high-capacity equipment. The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Bolos, declared himself pessimistic that Romania could collect 30 billion lei for the state budget without tax increases. Asked on Friday at a press conference organized at the Government, the official mentioned that a mix of solutions is needed between fiscal reform, spending cuts and improved collection. "First of all, we need to see what types of measures will be agreed by the governing coalition, because depending on what will be agreed, each type of measure has a specific budgetary impact and, as we know, we will have such a plan that then deserves to be discussed. But let's not forget that there are types of public spending with an impact, to put it this way immediately, that is, limiting some increases, or types of spending such as those regarding personnel reductions, with a budgetary impact over time. That is, until the impact is seen in the budget execution account, a period of one year, two years may pass... Realistically speaking, I find it hard to believe this (reducing spending by 30 billion lei, without tax increases, ed.), so from experience, and this is my personal opinion. We need to discuss a mix of solutions that "It means fiscal reform, spending cuts and, of course, improving collection. It is very difficult to materialize in terms of budget revenues. So, we must be very careful not to have a consistent deviation from the deficit trajectory, given the commitment we have in relation to the European Commission," declared Marcel Bolos. He argued that, in order to reduce spending in the budgetary sector, each category of civil servants must be analyzed. "In my opinion, each category of public servants must be taken into account. I'll give you an example, the health sector, which has a specific bonus system and you can't make a decision that affects the public health system. Teachers also have a different bonus system. So, I don't believe in this solution to the bonus issue, through a general rule, but I believe that those bonuses, as I mentioned, the one for harmful conditions without discussion, must be considered to ensure a correct use of public sector money," said Bolos. According to the data presented by the dignitary, Romania has a public expenditure level of over 740 billion RON, of which 164 billion RON are personnel expenses, and 222 billion RON represent assistance expenses, "expenses related to the functioning of the Romanian state, substantial, and for which a lot of balance is needed". Romania currently has three suspended payments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), with the deadline for the resolution of the respective milestones being November 28, 2025, minister of investments and European projects Marcel Bolos told a press conference on Friday. "The first suspended milestone is the one related to the operationalisation and functioning of the Authority for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performances of Public Enterprises, as the institution with the abbreviated name AMEPIP is known, for which 330 million euros are currently suspended, and by November 28, 2025, we will resolve this milestone number 440, namely the selection and appointment of the AMEPIP management according to the criteria and standards imposed by the European Commission," Bolos mentioned. The second milestone that has been suspended is related to the management of companies subordinated to the Ministry of Energy, 43 of which are currently revoked. "The suspended amount is 227 million euros and we are in the following situation: procedures resumed for the appointment of the management of eight companies - Nuclearelectrica, Hidroelectrica, Romgaz, Oil Terminal, Conpet, CE Oltenia, Midia Green Energy and CNCIR. Those that have not been resumed are at the Romania's Energy Participation Management Company - SAPE, Electrocentrale Craiova, Eurotest, Radioactiv Magurele and our Institute of Mineral Resources in the Energy Domain," said the dignitary. According to the relevant minister, regarding the third milestone, which concerns special pensions, Romania has suspended the amount of 231 million euros. "For the special pension component - Milestone 215, 231 million euros are suspended. Currently, the draft normative act regarding the equity component in the field of special pensions for magistrates is being debated in committees in the Romanian Senate (...) Also, the calculation basis for determining the amount of special pensions has remained, at least for now, let's see what will change during the plenary debates in the Romanian Senate, at 85% of net income," the official stressed. Minister Bolos also specified that the amount of 1.279 billion euros, approved by the European forum for Payment Request number 3, would enter the Treasury by June 10. "On Wednesday, the European Commission issued decision 3487 of 28/05/2025 by which it approved, in relation to payment request number three, the payment of the amount of 1.279 billion euros, of which the grant component is 622 million euros, and the loan component is 657 million euros. Also, by the same decision, the European Commission decided to suspend the amount of 869 million euros, of which the grant component is 814 million euros and the loan component is 55 million euros. The consequence of adopting this decision, which is one with a good component for what it means for the receipts to the Romanian state budget, is that the six-month term for the suspended amount of 869 million euros runs from May 28, 2025 and expires on November 28. We expect the amount of 1.279 billion euros from the European Commission in the Treasury by the 10th June," said Bolos. In his view, the stake in the renegotiation of the PNRR is "replacing investments with a slower implementation pace." "The stake is the replacement of investments with a slower implementation pace, with investments that are financed from the state budget or from our national programmes, so that we can protect our financial interests and not be affected by any penalties we would have for not implementing the investments," explained Marcel Bolos. Payment request number four is currently under negotiation with the European Commission and we are trying to increase its value from 2.68 billion euros to 5.7 billion euros, Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Bolos, declared on Friday in a press conference. "The preparation of the fourth payment request is currently under negotiation with the European Commission, because we are discussing a restructured payment request, namely increasing the number of milestones from 46 to 95, trying to advance some of the milestones that have already been met and at the same time increase the value of this fourth payment request, from 2.680 billion euros, as it is currently in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, to 5.7 billion euros. If the renegotiations and procedures with the European Commission proceed at the pace we have proposed, we are discussing an increase in this value of the payment request by three billion euros. It is an important payment request both from the perspective of its value, but also from the perspective of the reforms it includes. We are talking about the tax reform, the pollution tax for means of transport, the Energy Law, with the secondary legislation that we have to approve before submitting the Payment Request, the justice laws, the Urban Planning Code together with the electronic platform for implementing these regulations, the Forestry Code together with the decision to reorganize Romsilva and, of course, the hydrogen strategy and the biodiversity strategy," Bolos specified. The relevant minister emphasized that another important point to be resolved regarding the Fourth Payment Request is the entry into force of the Single Wage Law. "Also in connection with Payment Request Four, the Single Wage Law is proposed for postponement until the last payment request that we will have in connection with the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. As you know, it is an important reform for the public sector, but its entry into force is conditioned by the budget deficit target, which must be below 5%, for the single wage law to enter into force. Romania currently has three milestones in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) suspended for payment, and the deadline for their resolution is November 28, 2025, according to the quoted minister. The first suspended milestone is related to the operationalization and functioning of the Authority for Monitoring Performance Indicators of Public Enterprises, the second targets company administrators from the Ministry of Energy, and the third special pensions. The amount of 1.279 billion euros, approved by the European forum for Payment Request number 3, is expected to enter the Treasury by June 10. Yermak on new round of talks with Russia: We will not buy-in to all-out 'memorandum' assault Ukraine is ready to continue the dialogue with the Russia on achieving peace, but wants clarity, clear and balanced proposals, said the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak. "As you know, Moscow is offering a new round of negotiations. We are ready for dialogue. However, we demand clarity, clear and, most importantly, balanced proposals. We will not buy into the all-out assault called a "memorandum". We already had one," he said at an event on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Hennadiy Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yermak emphasized that "diplomacy should be based on concrete facts, not on empty promises." At the same time, he said that "no one wants peace more than Ukrainians, and not at any price." "Ukraine will not pay for peace with either sovereignty or the right to choose. Compromise is not equal to capitulation," the head of the Office noted. In addition, Yermak said that it is critically important for Ukraine to maintain "unprecedented unity" around the country. Romania is not built only with parties and entrepreneurs, an honest Romania is built together - employers, employees, parties, civil society, the National Trade Union Bloc conveys in an open letter sent to Romania's President Nicusor Dan. The trade union organization announces that the social dialogue with representatives of the employees is missing from the president's agenda, given that the trade union structures were not invited to the initial consultations at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace. "Dear Mr. President, the National Trade Union Bloc congratulates you on your inauguration as President of Romania. It is a difficult but essential mission for the democratic and balanced future of this country. We wish you success and strength in fulfilling this mandate! However, we note with regret that, in just a few days since taking office, you have chosen to follow the same path taken by your predecessors - whether we are talking about former interim president Ilie Bolojan or former president Klaus Iohannis - a path that has alienated them from the social realities of Romania and from an important part of the citizens of this country: the workforce and their representative structures. We note that on your agenda of consultations, although intense and well organized in terms of discussions with parliamentary parties and the business environment, an essential component of democracy is completely missing: social dialogue with employee representatives," the document states. According to the letter, the exclusion of trade unions from public consultations contravenes not only international commitments, but also the jurisprudence of the ILO Committee of Experts, which constantly emphasises that a genuine social dialogue requires the participation of both sides - employees and employers - in the formulation of socio-economic policies. In this context, BNS draws attention to the fact that there can be no coherent and balanced reforms without the voices that represent millions of employees in Romania and if the discussions are held exclusively with the business environment, it is obvious that the proposals will be tailored in the interests of capital. Moreover, the organization argues that, although Romania has today one of the highest tax burdens on labour in the European Union, the new government's intention to increase this burden is already emerging in the public space. "We hereby take the liberty of reminding you that in 2017, when the Government exempted employers from assuming the burden of financing public health and pension systems, which were transferred almost entirely to employees, employers' associations did not protest. Since January 2018, the tax burden on labour is entirely borne by the employee. The risk of increased taxation on labour is today entirely borne by workers. Romania today has one of the highest tax burdens on labour in the European Union, yet the new government's intent to increase this burden is already emerging in the public space. Employers will not be the ones to bear the effects of the increase in labour taxation, in most cases employees will be left alone to manage their loss of net income," emphasizes the letter addressed to president Nicusor Dan. The trade unionists accuse, at the same time, of hypocrisy some of the employers' associations who, although they deplore the increase in taxes, use any legislative loophole for tax optimization or more, use illegal work and pay under-declared wages. BNS also points out that, if there is political will and good faith on the part of the authorities, the number of employees in Romania would increase by more than 30%, thus contributing to a significant reduction in the budget deficit. "We have not heard any proposals from the business environment to penalise managers or shareholders who have turned insolvency into a national sport. Companies are set up, debts are incurred, insolvency is declare and then a new company is started from scratch. A harmful practice that affects the state budget and the healthy economy. No one proposes real sanctions for this destructive behavior! The VAT gap has already become chronic and of significant dimensions, more than 2% of GDP annually (for every 10 RON of VAT to be collected, the tax authorities collect less than 7 RON), and this indicator is strongly correlated with underemployment. The two indicators are correlated and self-sustaining: the higher VAT GAP favours undeclared work. And vice versa: undeclared work, having among its causes the excessive taxation of labour in Romania, contributes to tax fraud. However, employers are silent on this issue because they are fully responsible for this situation," write the BNS representatives.. They consider that the president must ensure that the burden of the deficit is distributed fairly and emphasise that the analysis must be conducted with concrete data and not with declarations. "Tax policy measures such as VAT or labour tax increases, in the current economic model will only affect employers to a small extent. They will recoup their losses by increasing prices at the expense of the population's purchasing power and will leave employees in most cases to bear the consequences of the increased tax burden on their own. The boat is tilted too much in favour of capital and against labour. This can't go on!," notes BNS. The trade unionists also point out that employers complain about the lack of labour force and the poor quality of human resources, but in most cases do nothing to invest in the professional training of their employees. "Employees in Romania have accepted to work to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, and burn-out has become a very present phenomenon with a negative impact on the public health system. It is no wonder that by the time Romanians reach retirement, their number of years of healthy life is getting shorter and shorter, less than half the European Union average. I have not heard any concern here either from those with whom you are consulting exclusively today," reads the document. Finally, the National Trade Union Bloc calls on the president Nicusor Dan to assume the role of mediator between the authorities and society. "Mr. President, given that you claim to be a pro-European leader, we remind you that in the Pact for European Social Dialogue has recently been signed in Brussels between the European Commission, the European Trade Union Confederation and European employers' organisations precisely to strengthen the role of social partners in shaping the labour market, employment and social policies. Europe is not just about free market and profit! Europe also means balance, social protection and cohesion. We sincerely hope that this one-sided approach is not the expression of a deliberate vision, but only the result of a lack of institutional experience and, perhaps, the zeal of some close advisors. We are convinced that you will quickly return to a democratic normality and you will understand that the role of a president is to be a mediator between the powers of the state and society. We trust, as you promised during the election campaign, that you will do so that the value of work will be respected and rewarded!," the letter sent by the National Trade Union Bloc to president Nicusor Dan concludes. A first discussion with the leaders of pro-European parties regarding the formation of the new government will take place on Friday, President Nicusor Dan announced. "I had individual discussions with each party the day before yesterday, which went very well, and yesterday there was a committee, a working group formed of party representatives, which lasted about three and a half to four hours. I was there for the first hour and a half, and it went very well. (...) Friday is the first meeting for forming the government. I mentioned that in parallel, we are also having discussions on the deficit and the government. (...) We all agreed that for the government discussions, so that there are no or as few disagreements later, there must be as comprehensive an agreement as possible. So, this is just the first discussion. There will probably be several more in which we shall agree on how to proceed and how the governing agreement should be written, along with the government programme. This is the first of many talks," Nicusor Dan said in a press briefing in front of his residence. He clarified that no government positions will be assigned during Friday's talks. When asked if Ilie Bolojan remains the favorite for the position of Prime Minister, the president said he stands by what he said during the electoral campaign. "There are multiple alternatives on the table," he replied when asked whether there's a chance that Social Democratic Party (PSD) might appoint the Prime Minister. "Still, since we are about to make some tough decisions, the person nominated must have credibility," Nicusor Dan added. Regarding the possibility of a rotating premiership, the head of state said: "There are many discussions on the table. I don't agree with all of them, but I won't say which ones." He also said that the option of a technocratic Prime Minister is also being considered. Nicusor Dan reiterated his expectation that a government will be formed within two to three weeks. The technical group will be working daily, aiming to finalise the discussions by the end of next week, the president indicated. "Absolutely everyone agrees that taxes on labour must not increase. I still believe it is not good to raise taxes. What will happen will be the result of negotiations," Nicusor Dan said. President Nicusor Dan announced that he will participate on Monday in the B9 Summit, which will take place in Vilnius. "We are going to Vilnius on Monday, as you know, that is the B9 Summit, followed by the NATO Summit, then the European Council meeting, and probably Chisinau in June," Nicusor Dan said in a statement to the press in front of his residence. He mentioned that he would have a discussion with Minister of Defence Angel Tilvar about participation in the B9 Summit. "I don't know if I can manage to meet with the Minister of Defence today; if not, I'll ask to meet him tomorrow. (...) Vilnius is a matter of foreign policy and security policy, and I want to understand where we stand," the head of state explained. Nicusor Dan also said that he invited the U.S. President, Donald Trump, to Romania. "Yes, I invited him, but of course his schedule is extremely busy," the president added. The population of northern Tulcea county received a RO-ALERT message on Thursday night, regarding the possibility of objects falling from the airspace, against the background of the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine. The message was transmitted at around 1:30 and urged the population to remain calm and take shelter either in cellars or in civil defence shelters. "In the absence of shelter, stay indoors, away from windows and exterior walls," the extreme alert message said. The alert lasted 90 minutes. According to Ministry of National Defence (MApN) protocols, RO-ALERT messages are transmitted by the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), after the state's surveillance systems signal the development of drones in Ukrainian airspace on a route approaching Romania. MApN data shows that since September 5, 2023 to date, about 17 drone fragments have been found on Romanian territory, most of them in Tulcea county. Romania and 10 other EU member states have signed a document calling for the revision of the deforestation directive and the postponement of the date of entry into force of the regulation, set for the end of 2025, as the requirements imposed on farmers and foresters are impossible to put into practice. As of December 30, 2024, the EU Anti-Deforestation Directive (EUDR) requires companies selling soy, beef, coffee, palm oil and other products in the 27 EU member states to prove that their supply chains do not contribute to forest destruction. In Romania, one of the institutions involved in the control side is the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), which gives assurances that Romanian farmers will not be affected by this European directive, given that Romania is classified as a low risk country when it comes to deforestation, and the regulation has not entered into force yet. "Romania is classified as a low risk country in terms of deforestation, so farmers will not be affected. They will only have to fill in the due diligence statements, which show that the animals or food products do not come from deforested land areas. In order to detect all shipments that are not accompanied by 'deforestation free' certificates, ANSVSA will carry out the official control of relevant commodities and relevant products from imports and subject to Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EUDR)," ANSVSA Chairman Alexandru Bociu told AGERPRES on Friday. The act regulating deforestation - Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation - was published in May 2023, but at the request of the member states, the entry into force of the regulation was postponed from December 30, 2024 to December 30, 2025, for a better implementation of the new conditions. "In order to ensure the origin of all relevant commodities entering the supply chain, all producers, traders, importers, exporters of one of the relevant commodities or of the relevant products in Annex 1 of GD no. 1029/2024, namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil and soybeans, will have to familiarise themselves with the requirements of the EUDR Regulation, identify their place of production (GPS coordinates, geolocation, latitude/longitude) and make a due diligence statement," said Bociu. In conclusion, the relevant commodities and relevant products shall not be introduced, made available for payment and exported unless the following conditions are met: they do not originate from deforested land areas, have been produced/obtained in accordance with the legislation in force and are subject to the due diligence statement. At the same time, the Alliance for Agriculture and Cooperation (AAC), made up of four major agricultural organisations, PRO AGRO, LAPAR, UNCSV and AFF, welcomes Romania's decision to sign this document on the extension of the deadline for the application of the EU Regulation on Deforestation (EUDR). "Romania, in agreement with many other member states, welcomed the European Commission's decision to extend the start of the application of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and requested that the focus be on simplification. In principle, Romania does not agree with the form in which the directive is composed, as it has many components that are impossible to implement. The concerns are directed towards the practical applicability of the regulation, the substantial administrative burden it imposes and the possible legal uncertainties and deviations of the flows of goods that it will create," the AAC representatives told AGERPRES. They added that the directive does not introduce real improvements for farmers and forest owners in the European Union, which have been frequently and intensively presented by interested parties in the agricultural and forestry sector. "In conclusion, an optimisation of the directive is being attempted, so that it can be truly applicable," said the representatives of the alliance. The Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) pointed out that the head of the French foreign intelligence service, Nicolas Lerner, did not visit Romania before the second round of the presidential election, and mentioned that it would not respond to "attempts at manipulation and disinformation" circulated in the public space, and that insinuations about possible political involvement are "unsupported by evidence." 'Following the continued circulation in the public space of information claiming that the head of the French foreign intelligence service, Mr. Nicolas Lerner, visited Romania a few days before the second round of the presidential election, we clarify - for the correct information of the public - that no such visit took place,' the SIE informed in a press release. According to the same source, "the activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service is apolitical, clearly and transparently regulated by law, and has as its main objective the defence of national security interests, in compliance with the rule of law." 'The Foreign Intelligence Service will not respond to attempts at manipulation and disinformation circulated in the public space. The insinuations regarding a possible political involvement are unsupported by evidence and are intended to create distrust in state institutions. We reaffirm our firm commitment to the Romanian people to uphold constitutional values, and we urge both the public and the media to approach any information with the potential for disinformation with responsibility, awareness and objectivity,' the SIE added. The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) also rejected claims that the head of the French foreign intelligence service visited Romania. The AUR party (Alliance for the Union of Romanians) claimed, in a statement released on May 26, that the head of the French intelligence service, Nicolas Lerner, had "discreetly" visited Romania before the second round of the election, which would represent 'clear evidence of foreign intervention' in the country's elections. 'Romania is currently living under a false democracy. Nicusor Dan, presented as an independent', is in fact a product of the system - supported by former presidents, intelligence generals, paid influencers and foreign embassies. The discreet visit of the head of the French intelligence service, Nicolas Lerner, before the second round is clear evidence of foreign intervention in our elections,' AUR claimed. Transparency International Romania believes that the complete elimination of information on family members from the asset declarations creates a transparency gap and may facilitate the transfer of assets and income in the name of other persons, making it more difficult to detect the concealment of wealth. "Transparency International Romania expresses its deep concern and indignation at the disproportionate regression of the legal regime regarding the transparency of the assets of dignitaries, public officials and other categories of public sector servants in positions vulnerable to corruption. The declaration and publication of these assets is an essential guarantee of transparency and a tool through which the public can carefully verify any unjustified differences that may have arisen during the exercise of their mandates. The complete elimination of information on the declarant's family members from the asset declarations creates a transparency gap and may facilitate the transfer of assets and income in the name of other persons, making it more difficult to detect the concealment of wealth," reads a press release issued by the organization sent to AGERPRES on Friday. According to Transparency International Romania, the transparency of incomes of dignitaries and public officials is a standard assumed by Romania under the constitutional regime of international treaties and is an integral part of the constitutional rule of law. "Transparency International Romania has been actively campaigning since 2004 for a robust system of asset transparency, has contributed to the elaboration of several legislative initiatives for transparency and has developed effective programs in collaboration with relevant public authorities in this field. In the light of our expertise, we unreservedly maintain that the principle of transparency in the declaration of assets does not conflict with the right to privacy. More specifically, the income of the husband, the wife, the civil partners, as well as that of the children in their care can and must be declared to the public authorities in the same way as the tax incomes of any person with tax residence in Romania are declared, without thereby affecting the constitutional guarantee of the right to privacy," the press release states. Transparency International Romania calls on the Constitutional Court, in the reasoning of the decision on the asset declarations - an integral part of its operative part - to grant it "the value of an interpretative decision", by which it should state unequivocally that the reasons for the decision are exclusively aimed at protecting, from publication, the income of the husband, wife and dependants, insofar as they are subject to a legal regime of private confidentiality. The organization also calls on the Ministry of Justice to come up with normative solutions to complete the legislation in the light of the CCR decisions. As long as Russia believes it has the right to discuss Ukraine's membership in NATO, it will attack Ukraine - Rada committee chairmwoman Photo: https://www.facebook.com/ivanna.klympushtsintsadze As long as Russia believes that it has the right to discuss the issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO, it will attack Ukraine, believes Member of Parliament Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze (European Solidarity faction), head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the European Union. "As long as Russia believes that the issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO can be discussed with it, it will attack Ukraine. If Ukraine's membership in NATO is inevitable, as stated in NATO documents, then Russia will be forced to reconsider its approach to attacks on Ukraine," she told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday. According to the MP, neither the United States nor any other country has any mandate to discuss Ukraine's membership in NATO with Russia. "This is not a Russian issue. This is a matter of relations between Ukraine and the Alliance, and this should be clearly communicated to both Russia and our partners. There is nothing justified in Russia's so-called concern regarding NATO's expansion to the countries of the former USSR. The fact that Russia swallowed the Swedish and Finnish membership in the Alliance indicates the artificiality, manipulativeness of these statements and the inadmissibility of taking into account Russian "arguments" by the Alliance partners," Klympush-Tsintsadze noted. She emphasized that the Alliance's decision should be consensual regarding Ukraine's membership. "There is currently no such consensus and, unfortunately, today the leader of NATO, the United States, is taking the position used by the Russian Federation. And we, as Ukraine, must continue to work at our levels with each member country of the Alliance, explaining why all previous NATO decisions should be implemented. And this is not only in the interests of Ukraine's security, it is in the interests of the entire Alliance," the MP said. She recalled that Putin clearly stated in December 2021 that he wants to review NATO's borders to 1997. "Therefore, frivolity with the decision on Ukraine's accession to the Alliance could lead to catastrophic security consequences for NATO itself. On the contrary, Ukraine's membership will strengthen this alliance," Klympush-Tsintsadze emphasized. As reported, the US President's Special Envoy for Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg, stated that the issue of non-expansion of NATO, including Ukraine, has been repeatedly discussed and is a matter of concern for Russia. JEFFERSON CITY Even though the Missouri Supreme Court effectively reinstated the states abortion ban in a major ruling on Tuesday, the states highest court did not actually rule on abortion access itself. At least for now. The impact of the order was swift, placing Missouri in a precarious moment. While abortion rights remain enshrined in the state constitution, access is currently halted under what providers call a de facto abortion ban. Clinics began canceling abortion appointments within hours of the order. But the state Supreme Courts decision itself was largely procedural, a fact that has sparked hope among abortion rights advocates that access will ultimately be restored. Whether that happens and how long it will take remains unclear, legal experts told The Star. I dont think anybody should be claiming any victories (or defeat) based on this particular procedural ruling, said Joseph Dandurand, an attorney who served more than two decades as a judge before working in the Missouri Attorney Generals Office under Democrat Chris Koster. The ruling, signed by Chief Justice Mary R. Russell, ordered a Jackson County judge to vacate two preliminary injunctions that had allowed abortions to resume in the state. The temporary rulings, issued by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang in December and February, blocked a series of longstanding restrictions on abortion providers. Those restrictions, often called TRAP laws or Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers, included a 72-hour waiting period before receiving an abortion and clinic licensing rules. The regulations effectively caused the number of abortions in Missouri to drop from 6,163 in 2010 to 150 in 2021 before the states former ban was enacted in 2022. Zhangs pair of rulings argued that many of those restrictions should be blocked after voters in November approved an abortion rights amendment, called Amendment 3, that enshrined reproductive rights in the state constitution. However, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday found that Zhang applied the wrong legal standard in her rulings and ordered her to vacate the orders. The court ordered Zhang to reevaluate those rulings, leaving open the possibility for her to issue another injunction blocking the restrictions. Specifically, the court said that when Zhang decides whether to block the restrictions, she must apply a different standard with four specific legal criteria. Tom Bastian, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Missouri, which sued to strike down the restrictions, said his organization has already met this legal standard and expects Zhang to issue a new injunction blocking the regulations. How swiftly that happens and how long Missouri will remain a state with no abortion access largely depends on how fast Zhang moves to issue a new preliminary injunction. And that could depend on whether she relies on the current evidence before her or asks the parties involved for new information, experts said. I think youre looking at, you know, probably a matter of one month at the shortest and, like, three months at the longest, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California-Davis, who cautioned that its hard to predict how quickly courts will act. The plaintiffs in the case, which include Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, will go back to court and argue that the restrictions should still be blocked under the legal standard outlined by the state Supreme Court, said Ziegler, who closely follows legal fights over abortion access. Missouri Republican officials, who include attorneys in Attorney General Andrew Baileys office, will, in turn, argue that the legal standard is much harder to meet and that the plaintiffs should not be granted a new injunction, Ziegler said. Those legal fights will likely play out before a January trial in which Zhang will decide whether the restrictions should be permanently struck down. At least one legal expert who spoke with The Star anticipated that Zhang would once again temporarily block the restrictions, which would likely happen before the trial. I think that just reading some of those laws that are targeted at abortion providers and reading Amendment 3, its pretty clear that a fair number of them just violate (the amendment), said Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court chief justice. They impose restrictions that are contrary to what the amendment allows. Access halted for now Amid the legal debates over whether Zhang will once again effectively allow abortions to resume, advocates on both sides of the abortion debate are left to grapple with the impact of Tuesdays decision. Abortion opponents, including Bailey and others who fought against restored access, immediately celebrated the ruling as a victory. While some acknowledged that the ruling was likely temporary, most touted the fact that it meant abortions would be halted for now. Bailey, who sued to vacate Zhangs rulings, called Tuesdays order a win for women and children. Im proud of the work our office has done to hold the line, making Missouri the safest state in the nation for women and families, Bailey said in a statement issued by his office. Sam Lee, a longtime anti-abortion lobbyist in Jefferson City, also championed the order. Unlike Bailey, whose statement focused solely on the restrictions that remained in place, Lee specifically pointed to the fact that the Supreme Court order would halt abortions. Were ecstatic that this aggressive move by Attorney General Bailey has paid off, Lee said. And every day that theyre not doing abortions in Missouri is a great day in Missouri. For some abortion rights supporters, the ruling was a stark reminder of the political reality in Missouri. While nearly 52% of voters enshrined abortion rights in the constitution and overturned the states ban on the procedure, voters also elected Republican politicians who fought against restored access in the courtroom and the state Capitol. Attorney General Andrew Bailey and anti-abortion politicians in Jeff City have once again weaponized our political system against Missourians, said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri. While abortion rights supporters remain confident that the restrictions will ultimately be blocked, abortions are now largely inaccessible in the state. Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City and Columbia almost immediately began canceling appointments after the ruling, Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, confirmed. The affiliate had offered procedural abortions in both cities in the months after voters overturned Missouris abortion ban in November. Until the restrictions are lifted, Wales said, Missourians are less safe and less free. In addition to the legal fights over whether Amendment 3 allows a judge to block the longstanding regulations on abortion, supporters and opponents are also gearing up for another ballot fight over abortion access. Republican lawmakers earlier this month voted to put a new abortion ban on the 2026 statewide ballot. If approved by voters, the proposed constitutional amendment would strike down the November vote that legalized access and ban nearly all abortions in the state. For Ziegler, the law professor, the instability surrounding abortion access in Missouri will likely continue up until the January trial and potentially afterwards. Complete access to abortion will not be safe in Missouri until the state elects different politicians, she said. Missouri keeps electing people who are not just conservative Republicans, but who are strongly opposed to abortion, Ziegler said. You have abortion protections and elected officials whose mission is to eliminate protections for abortion. Youre going to end up with a lot of uncertainty. Jonathan Shorman of the Kansas City Star contributed reporting. President Donald Trump recently delivered the commencement address at the United States Military Academy. This being graduation season, its fascinating to hear what commencement speakers are saying to graduates across the country. In the case of our president, I would love to read the words of encouragement, inspiration, or wisdom he imparted to the future warrior leaders. What kind of guidance did he articulate, or what personal insights did he speak of to enlighten these men and women upon whom our country relies to preserve our Democracy? I want to encourage this newspaper and newspapers everywhere to publish the full transcript of President Trumps address to the graduates at West Point so that this speech can show everyone what kind of leader he truly is. During the last few months of President Joe Bidens presidency, the media was obsessed with reporting on his mental acuity and his ability to make important decisions about world affairs. An entire book on this subject was recently published. So, in the interest of being fair and balanced, lets examine President Trumps West Point speech to reflect on his mental acuity. Especially near the end of his speech lets not gloss over the incoherence, his talk of a trophy wife, his mention of the great, great Alphonse Capone, his ramblings about a real estate developer and more. Let the world evaluate Trump's mental vacuousness through his speeches. Don Nations St. Charles On this map of Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, a circle marks the location of a reservoir holding PFAS-contaminated water, and a cross shows the location of the firefighter training facility. (Japans Ministry of Defense) YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan The Japanese government on Friday gave the U.S. military the green light to release about 400,000 gallons of treated water from this airlift hub in western Tokyo. Japanese officials collected treated water samples during a May 14 visit to Yokota. Air Force officials also briefed them on plans to reduce the contamination and discharge the water from the base, according to a statement Friday from the ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs and the Environment. The water had been contaminated with PFOS and PFOA toxic chemicals once found in firefighting foam used by the military and was being stored in a reservoir and at a fire-training facility on base, the statement said. U.S. officials initially reported PFOS and PFOA concentrations in the untreated water at about 1,240 nanograms per liter. After treatment using granular activated carbon filters, the concentration fell to well below 50 nanograms per liter, according to the statement. Tests by Japans Defense Ministry, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and U.S. Forces Japan showed PFOA in the treated water was below 2 nanograms per liter. PFOS levels were under 2 nanograms per liter in the Japanese tests and under 4 nanograms per liter in the U.S. test, the statement said. The treated water will be sequentially discharged into storm drains as soon as the U.S. side is ready, the statement said. Officials from Yokotas 374th Airlift Wing did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment Friday. Japans provisional safety guidelines for PFOS and PFOA in public water supplies is 50 nanograms per liter, based on levels considered unlikely to cause health effects over a lifetime. The standard for tap water is expected to be finalized in April 2026. Both chemicals are part of a group of synthetic substances known as PFAS sometimes called forever chemicals because they remain in the environment and human body for long periods. Studies cited by the American Cancer Society have linked exposure to higher risks of breast, liver, pancreatic and testicular tumors in lab animals. In October, Capt. Emma Quirk, spokeswoman for Yokotas 374th Airlift Wing, said a burst of heavy rain on Aug. 30 caused about 12,640 gallons of water to overflow from the fire training area onto an asphalt surface and into a stormwater drainage system. A recent DOD Inspector General report found another 250 gallons of contaminated water had been improperly stored behind Yokotas exchange and commissary, following a fire-suppression system malfunction in January 2023. A July 10 report by the Tokyo Shimbun, citing unnamed sources, said 167 gallons of contaminated water spilled at the shopping centers loading dock on Jan. 25, 2023. Ronald Schow as an Army captain during his 2004 deployment to Iraq. (Photo provided by Ronald Schow) A retired Army officer whose promotion to major was botched in an administrative error lost his lawsuit against the government to get his rank corrected and receive back pay, according to federal court documents. Ronald Schow, 53, has spent more than a decade fighting to right the mistake and said this final court decision against him was disappointing and exhausting. The judge was very sympathetic, he said Wednesday. But she provided a traceable, defendable decision that isnt what we wanted. Schow was slated for promotion from captain to major in 2006, yet the Army inadvertently left his name off the list that service officials sent to the Senate for confirmation a step required by law. The service still sent Schow a promotion order that his unit believed to be accurate, and the mistake went unknown to him until the Army attempted to promote Schow again six years later. Schow retired to Indiana as a captain in 2017 and after exhausting all administrative options filed the lawsuit in 2023 in Federal Claims Court aiming to get $180,000 in back pay that he would have received had he retired as a major and increase his retirement pay going forward. The amount of money that were talking about was never a life-changing amount of money. More importantly, it was vindication, Schow said. In an 11-page decision, Judge Elaine Kaplan carefully laid out each detail of Schows case and weighed it against the law. [The court] also recognizes that Mr. Schow bears no blame for the Armys mishandling of his promotion and is the victim of an injustice. Regrettably, however, the court does not believe that it can find him entitled to pay of a position to which he was not lawfully appointed, she wrote in her decision. While Schow represented himself in court, he had help from Matt Freeman, a former Army attorney. Its a shame that between the agency and the court that we couldnt find some type of resolution for him. Honestly, the resolution were asking for, its peanuts compared to what he is owed, Freeman said. Schow wore the rank of major for seven years and from the moment he returned to being a captain he said he felt a stigma. Demotions typically occur as discipline and explaining such an odd mistake was too unbelievable for many. His service paperwork says he spent 17 years as a captain, which is hard to summarize in an employment cover letter, Schow said. The Army did try to rectify the problem and get Schows promotion to major confirmed by the Senate, but it did not happen. Schow had been part of an investigation into detainee abuse stemming from a 2004 deployment to Iraq. Schow was reprimanded for the incident, and the Army still selected him for promotion to major. Schow was told at the time that the detainee investigation made senators unwilling to approve him. The service in 2012 conducted an administrative investigation into the promotion mix-up and found a longtime civil servant was hospitalized during the 2006 promotion cycle, which likely led to inexperienced staff flubbing paperwork. The Army labeled the seven years that Schow spent as a major as a de facto status, meaning in practice he was a major. This allowed him to keep the pay and benefits that he earned during that time based on a century-old Supreme Court ruling. Schows lawsuit argued the Supreme Court ruling should also require the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, known as DFAS, to use his time as a major to calculate his retirement pay. Its known as the High-36 retirement rule, which uses the three highest earning years of base pay to calculate retirement. The Army requested the agency do so when it submitted information for Schows retirement, though the service has no authority over the decision. Given the judges ruling, Schow is now weighing his options. He has 60 days to appeal the decision. The Army was not transparent at all, and I had to learn along the way what the full implications of what was going on really meant. Because of the lack of transparency, I was robbed of agency to make decisions on my own behalf, he said. In reviewing the Armys administrative investigation into the matter, Schow said he learned the Directorate of Military Personnel Management knew just months after his promotion to major in 2006 that his packet lacked Senate confirmation. No one followed up on the error nor did anyone notify him. The directorate again noticed the error in May 2011 when Schow was selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel, yet no one notified him until November 2012 nine months after the Army had begun its review. Because of the extreme amount of time that went by, it exasperated the impact, Schow said. I could have pursued other things and done other things. Instead, I moved forward [in the Army], and I worked hard. That is where he believes Congress can help find a way to improve advocacy for troops in odd situations such as this. The Army had an obligation to fix the error, but it also had an interest in minimizing its own exposure, Schow said. Who is advocating for the service member when the potential impact is professional embarrassment, impacts to your retirement and many, many things on a financial level? Schow argued. U.S. Army Pfc. Dewayne Johnson sits with his teammates during an exercise at Helemano Military Reservation, Hawaii, in November 2023. (Joshua Linfoot/U.S. Army) The Hawaii-based soldier accused of killing his 19-year-old wife and unborn child last summer has negotiated a plea deal, according to the Army. Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II, 29, has been charged in the killing of Mischa Johnson, who disappeared from their home at Schofield Barracks on Oahu in early August. PFC Johnson has agreed to plead guilty, however further details are not releasable at this time as the guilty plea is subject to acceptance by the military judge, Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, said in an email Thursday. That office referred charges in February against Johnson for the murder of his wife, as well as intentionally killing her unborn child, obstruction of justice, providing false official statements, possession of child pornography and the production and distribution of child pornography, the Army said in a news release at the time. A military judge has scheduled a hearing next week at the Wheeler Army Airfield courtroom to receive Johnsons plea, McCaskill said. If PFC Johnsons guilty plea is accepted, the judge will sentence him pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement during the sentencing hearing, she said. Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson was last seen in her home at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on the evening of July 31, 2024. (Honolulu Police Department) The Office of Special Trial Counsel said in February that Mischa Johnson was presumed dead and that the Army Criminal Investigation Division was continuing to offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to her body. Neither McCaskill nor CID responded to email queries Thursday regarding whether her remains had been since found. Mischa Johnson was six months pregnant on Aug. 1 when her husband reported her missing from their home. That set off a flurry of searches on and around Schofield Barracks, the largest Army base in the state and home to the 25th Infantry Division. Johnson, of Frederick, Md., is a cavalry scout with the 25th ID, where he was assigned in June 2023. He led his platoon on a six-mile search for his wife near the base days after he reported her missing, Marianna Tapiz, the missing womans older sister, said during an Instagram livestream in August. Johnson told officers with the Honolulu Police Department and military police that his wife had been emotionally distraught. He was arrested on Aug. 7 and held since in a brig on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. Military and German police respond to the discovery of a body at the Hainerberg housing area in Wiesbaden, Germany, May 30, 2025. A joint investigation into the death is underway, a spokesman for the Armys Criminal Investigation Division in Europe said. (Courtesy photo) WIESBADEN, Germany A person was found dead Friday in one of the primary residential communities for U.S. military families in Wiesbaden. Military police and local authorities were called to the scene Friday morning near Wiesbaden Elementary School, according to witnesses. The body was discovered in U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbadens Hainerberg housing area, which is primarily a community of junior enlisted soldiers and their families who live in walk-up apartment buildings. An investigation is underway involving the Armys Criminal Investigation Division as well as military and local police, said Thomas Hamilton, a CID spokesman in Europe. Current findings suggest that this incident was not a deliberate act against the person, Hamilton said. There is no known risk to community safety. Photos posted on social media showed a white vehicle at the scene with the word cheater spray-painted on it. It wasnt immediately clear whether the vehicle was connected to the death. The Wiesbaden military community includes the Armys headquarters in Europe and thousands of service members, civilians and family members. Navy Secretary John Phelan announced the service will eliminate research testing on cats and dogs. Phelan is seen testifying Feb. 27, 2025, during his Senate confirmation hearing. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes) WASHINGTON The Navy announced the termination of all research testing on cats and dogs, after facing increased pressure from lawmakers and animal rights groups. Calling the end to the experiments long overdue, Navy Secretary John Phelan has ordered the service surgeon general to review all medical research programs to ensure they align with ethical practices and true scientific necessity. It gives me great pleasure to terminate all Department of the Navys testing on cats and dogs, ending these inhumane practices and saving taxpayer dollars, Phelan said on social media. The Navy secretary thanked the administration of President Donald Trump, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Department of Government Efficiency for vetting and ending contracts that fund experiments on dogs and cats. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, was among lawmakers who congratulated the Navy for ending the studies. Ernst recently has opposed the U.S. continuing to fund testing on cats and dogs in other nations, including China. This is a taxpayer-funded problem, said Anthony Bellotti, president of the White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks animal testing by federal agencies. The group estimated the federal government spends $20 billion annually on research studies using dog and cats as test subjects. The end to the Navys tests followed a recent social media campaign by activist Laura Loomer of Florida against the federal government conducting studies using cats and dogs. Loomer, who has ties to Trump, has a podcast called Loomer Unleashed that she used to share information on experiments that White Coat Waste Project said it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. President Trump is helping ensure funding is not allowed any longer. He is receptive to ending these contracts, Loomer said this week on her podcast. The Trump administration earlier this month pulled the plug on a $10 million study funded by the Defense Department that involved giving electroshocks to cats in experiments on constipation and incontinence, according to White Coat Waste Project. Justin Goodman, senior vice president for advocacy and public policy at White Coat Waste Project, said the study was dropped, after Loomer and Elon Musk objected to the tests. Lawmakers also objected to them. He said the Navy then moved this week to eliminate experiments using dogs and cats. Taxpayers shouldnt be forced to pay for pet abuse in Navy-funded labs, Goodman said. The animal rights group PETA praised the Navys elimination of testing using dogs and cats. But it also urged additional restrictions, including a ban on the use of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, marine animals and other animals currently permitted in Army weapon-wounding tests. The animal rights group also pressed for an end to Defense Department funding animal tests at foreign institutions. In a letter sent to Hegseth on Thursday, PETA recommended the Defense Department identify and modernize effective research methods that use innovative technologies that save money and do not involve animals as test subjects. PETA said technologies include high-fidelity, human-patient simulators, advanced computational models and human tissue-based platforms that deliver high-quality data at lower cost and save animals lives. Building 1 at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo., shown in 2022, is the provisional headquarters of U.S. Space Command. (U.S. Space Command) WASHINGTON New military construction would be needed to support a permanent U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado, a government watchdog found as lawmakers continue to argue over the final location of the combatant command. A new report by the Government Accountability Office states the commands posture in Colorado Springs, where it operates out of four separate buildings, is not sustainable long-term due to struggles with staffing, communications and space restrictions. The report also outlines how the Air Force decided on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., as the cheaper and preferred location for Space Commands permanent headquarters before President Joe Biden announced in 2023 that the command would stay in Colorado. Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, requested the GAO review and said it validated President Donald Trumps decision during his first term to base the commands headquarters in Alabama. President Biden cited military readiness to justify his choice, but we now know his own administration officials repeatedly told him that Huntsville was the best location, and military readiness concerns were fictional, Rogers said in a statement. The report highlights several challenges with keeping Space Command headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, where the command has been temporarily based since its inception in 2019. Though Space Command declared itself operationally ready nearly two years ahead of schedule in December 2023, it continues to fall short of its civilian staffing and workspace needs in its provisional headquarters. As of October 2024, the command had filled 1,024 of 1,379 authorized positions and hired about 380 contractor personnel to bridge gaps in civilian hires, which are intended to comprise 60% of staff. The struggle to hire partly stems from the uncertainty of the commands final location, the report states. The commands workforce is spread across four buildings in the Colorado Springs area two are located on military installations while the other two are in commercial and residential areas. The footprint is cumbersome and cramped, requires travel and hurts collaboration, according to the report. Officials told us that as a result of such challenges, the command requires military construction of a permanent, purpose-built facility that is better suited to meet its unique power, information technology, square footage, and security needs, the GAO wrote. The report noted officials saw several benefits of remaining in Colorado Springs, a hub of other space missions and centers, despite the hurdles. The area is also home to U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. According to U.S. Space Command officials, the ability to leverage existing operational networks provides U.S. Space Command with critical redundancy that would take considerable resources to recreate in other candidate locations, the GAO stated. Colorado lawmakers are continuing to lobby to keep the command in their state. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., said the report made clear that ongoing efforts to move the commands headquarters only hurts our national security. Space Command is fully operational, and the Department of Defense needs to move quickly to construct a permanent HQ at Peterson Space Force Base to put the issue to bed, once and for all, Crank said Thursday on X. In April, a report by the Defense Department Office of Inspector General revealed concerns that 1,000 civilian employees would not relocate from Colorado to Alabama if the headquarters were to be moved to Redstone Arsenal. The GAO this week added more uncertainty to a potential move by casting doubt on the reported savings that could come from it. The Air Force has said relocating to Huntsville would cost $426 million less than staying in Colorado Springs across a 15-year period but the GAO said the cost estimates were incomplete and did not fully compare alternatives costs across the commands entire life cycle. Without complete and reliable cost estimates, it can be hard to discern the comparative benefits associated with each candidate locations, the GAO report said. A decision on a final basing location is expected to come soon. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., told a local news station in Alabama on Thursday that Trump will need to settle the issue in the coming weeks in order to move forward with his plans for the Golden Dome missile defense shield. Space Command, which is responsible for military operations in outer space, is likely to play a key role in the development of the system. Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto, left, greets U.S. Africa Command leader Gen. Michael Langley, center right, during a defense conference in Nairobi, Kenya, May 28, 2025. Langley said Friday that the U.S. is finding it difficult to monitor the growing terrorist presence in West Africa following its troop withdrawal from the region. (Courtesy photo) STUTTGART, Germany Attacks by Islamic militants are surging in western Africa, where the U.S. is struggling to track terrorist movements in the wake of a pullout of forces from the region, the top American general for Africa missions said Friday. U.S. Africa Commands Gen. Michael Langley said fighters from a mix of groups are taking over large swaths of territory across the Sahel, which has become the epicenter for terrorism in Africa. Al-Qaida and Islamic State group affiliates are operating in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, he said. One of the terrorists new objectives is gaining access to the West African coast, Langley said in a call with reporters. If they secure access to the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking and arms trade. Such a scenario increases the chance of threats reaching the U.S. shores, he said. AFRICOMs efforts in the region have been hindered by the 2024 U.S. withdrawal from drone bases in Niger, which were hubs for surveillance across western Africa. A 2023 coup in Niger brought an end to the long-standing American partnership with that country. We have lost our ability to monitor these terrorist groups closely, Langley said. The concerns over increased attacks in West Africa and a similar situation on the other side of the continent in Somalia come as the Pentagon reassesses its strategy in Africa. In Somalia, several hundred U.S. troops are part of a mission to help local forces in their battle against the al-Qaida-aligned group known as al-Shabab. ISIS Somalia also has grown there. President Donald Trump removed U.S. forces from Somalia at the end of his first term as part of an effort to scale back American military commitments abroad. Former President Joe Biden returned U.S. troops to the country amid concerns that al-Shabab was gaining ground. Langley said AFRICOM has stepped up efforts against the militants in Somalia, launching more than 25 airstrikes so far this year. Thats already more than double the number of strikes conducted in all of 2024, he said. But lasting success will require a comprehensive strategy and addressing the root causes of instability, Langley added. Somalia has a weak central government and has been in disarray for decades despite international efforts to build up the country. Langley was in Kenya this week for a meeting with African defense leaders. He did not say whether the U.S would further reduce troop levels, but he emphasized that African militaries will need to shoulder more of the security burden. It is essential that all partners around the globe, Africa included, take more ownership in the regional and continental security, he said. Such comments are in line with a Pentagon push to get allies and partners to play a larger role in their respective regions so the United States can focus more on China in the Asia-Pacific region. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reviewing the American militarys force posture worldwide, and that is expected to have implications for missions in Africa. Col. Kathryn Gaetke takes command of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, May 30, 2025. (Trevares Johnson/ Stars and Stripes) KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea In a ceremony marked by a touch of deja vu, Col. Kathryn Gaetke assumed command on Friday of the 8th Fighter Wing, a unit once led by her husband. The career F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot took over for Col. Peter Kasarskis during a change-of-command ceremony attended by some 150 service members at this remote Air Force base roughly 100 miles southwest of Seoul. It is the second time Gaetke has taken a leadership role previously held by her husband, Col. Matthew Gaetke, also an F-16 pilot. In 2023, she succeeded him as head of the 51st Operations Group at Osan Air Base, about 75 miles north of Kunsan. The couple, married for 23 years, have built parallel military careers each marked by steady progression and high-profile command assignments. Matthew Gaetke led the 8th Fighter Wing from November 2023 to June 2024, before handing the reins to Kasarskis and moving on to serve as chief of operations for U.S. Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys. The sprawling complex about 40 miles south of Seoul is the largest American base overseas. Kasarskis, who briefly bridged the gap between the Gaetkes tenure, is departing for Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, where he will serve as inspector general within the Inspections Directorate of Air Combat Command. His reassignment was confirmed in an email earlier this week from Capt. Alvin Nielson, a spokesman for the wing. At Kunsan, as is typical, the rotation of senior personnel coincides with the summer months. Most airmen posted here serve one-year unaccompanied tours, a vestige of the regions high-alert military posture. Outgoing 8th Fighter Wing commander Col. Peter Kasarskis addresses airmen during his change-of-command ceremony at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, May 30, 2025. (Trevares Johnson/Stars and Stripes) The command transition comes amid broader structural changes within the Air Forces footprint in South Korea. Much of the 8th Fighter Wings aircraft and personnel are being reassigned to the 7th Air Force, headquartered at Osan, as part of a reorganization designed to form a second super squadron of 31 F-16 fighters in the country. The shift is intended to increase the number of sorties flown while mitigating logistical strain. About 1,000 airmen have already moved from Kunsan to Osan, according to the Air Force. The realignment is expected to be completed by October. In her speech on Friday, Kathryn Gaetke acknowledged the scale of the changes underway but emphasized that the 8th Fighter Wings core mission maintaining combat readiness on the peninsula would remain constant. These next few months will bring massive changes that will affect every part of this wing, she said. And while the aircraft assigned and the force structure have changed over time and will change dramatically this summer, that mission wont change. Lt. Gen. David Iverson, commander of the 7th Air Force and deputy commander of USFK, also spoke at the ceremony. He praised the wings adaptability and noted recent quality-of-life improvements on base, including a $500,000 renovation of the dormitories. Im immensely proud of your accomplishments during this decades most transformative year while preserving combat readiness, he said. Stars and Stripes reporter Trevares Johnson contributed to this report. Zelenskyy to Turkish FM Fidan: Unfortunately, Russia doing everything to ensure next possible meeting on talks is inefficiant President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. "We discussed diplomatic efforts ours and those of our partners. Russia ignores all calls from the world for a ceasefire and continues the killings. In addition, the Russians have not been able to present the so-called 'memorandum' for more than a week, which they promised to prepare immediately after the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange. Ukraine has not received any documents from them. Turkey has not either. In order for the meeting to be not empty, it is necessary to understand its agenda and properly prepare for the negotiations. Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything to ensure that the next possible meeting is inefficient," Zelenskyy said in the Telegram channel following the results of the meeting. He said the Ukrainian side values working with Turkey to ensure that diplomacy works. "We are grateful for the clear Turkish position consistent and full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," the president said. According to the President's Office, during the meeting, Zelenskyy and Fidan paid special attention to the importance of increasing sanctions pressure on Russia. The president said it is necessary to continue to do everything possible to force Russia to end this war. Moscow must stop imposing its conditions on the world and start negotiating honestly. A student at a DODEA school at Camp Lejeune school focuses on assembling a timeline puzzle featuring famous inventions on April 2, 2025. (Department of Defense Education Activity Americas) About a week after notifying employees of potentially widespread job cuts, the Pentagons school system announced a reorganization that it says will boost support for students. The shift, to take effect at the start of the next academic year, includes new school-level administrative roles to assist principals and an expansion of mental health services, the Department of Defense Education Activity said in a statement Friday. The changes support an initiative announced in March by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as part of a larger plan to rebuild the U.S. military to meet current and future demands. This strategic realignment is designed to better serve military-connected students and families through smarter resource allocation, strengthened leadership and professional development, and enhanced support at every level of the school system, DODEA said in its statement. Administrative officers will be added to nearly every school to streamline operations and free principals to focus on instructional leadership, DODEA said. Mental health support also will be expanded, with the aim of lowering the student-to-psychologist ratio from 1:900 to 1:700, the agency said. The goal is to hire about 21 more psychologists across the agency, DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said Friday. The reorganization involves elimination of potentially hundreds of school-level and above-school-level positions, with teachers being spared. Duties being phased out or reshaped include school education technologist, assessor for special education and speech/language pathologist, and office automation assistant and clerk, as well as numerous above-school level positions, Tackaberry said. She added that the exact number of eliminated positions is still being finalized amid efforts to reassign those affected into roles that match their skills, experience and certifications. Classroom teacher positions remain unaffected, she said. The job cuts are part of the Defense Departments deferred resignation program and early retirement initiative, launched in March to trim the civilian workforce, according to an email sent to DODEA employees on May 22. The message was forwarded to Stars and Stripes by a DODEA employee in Japan, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The email said affected school-level employees would receive a second message that day. It also said they would be offered early retirement, retirement with incentive pay or possible reassignment based on certification. That second email, also shared with Stars and Stripes, included instructions for applying for early retirement, with a Monday deadline. It also stated that the agency is working to identify job opportunities for affected employees, but that this does not guarantee that you will not be involuntarily separated from your position. The employee said by phone Friday that five staffers at their school had received the messages: three office automation assistants, a special education assessor and an educational technologist. Office automation assistants serve as the face of the school, interacting with parents, checking in students and supporting school administration. Most DODEA schools have at least two, the employee said. The school secretary responsible for onboarding staff, handling leave requests and other personnel tasks will be expected to take over those additional duties, the employee added. School-level employees who receive the messages must separate by July 24, while above-school-level and headquarters staff have until Sept. 30, according to another email that was obtained from a DODEA employee in Europe and shared with Stars and Stripes. Above-school roles make up 12% of DODEAs workforce but absorbed one-third of the cuts at the district, regional and headquarters levels, the agency said. Nearly every headquarters department was affected, Tackaberry added, including logistics, procurement, Equal Employment Opportunity programs, curriculum and instruction, professional learning, general counsel, security management and facilities. All 161 DODEA schools have an educational technologist who handles Wi-Fi issues, classroom tech problems and password resets, among other tasks. Those school-based duties will transition to district-level instructional systems specialists to provide consistent, expert support in digital learning, DODEA said. The agency said it will attempt to reassign employees and rely on voluntary separation programs to minimize involuntary terminations. This is not change for the sake of change, DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez said in a statement. Its targeted, strategic and rooted in our mission to support military-connected students. President Donald Trump looks at an Anduril drone model at the White House on April 30. (Yuri Gripas/For The Washington Post) Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg became a billionaire by connecting people with their friends to share photos and memories. Now he wants to also connect U.S. soldiers on the battlefield to help them defeat their enemies. The company announced on Thursday that it will work with defense technology start-up Anduril to offer the U.S. military and its allies technology for soldiers involving augmented reality and artificial intelligence software. The venture sees a worldwide consumer brand integrated into the lives of billions of users around the globe expand into a line of business that requires picking sides. The partners aim to transform how warfighters see, sense, and integrate battlefield information, Anduril said. The companies are already working on a high-tech helmet as part of a project called EagleEye, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey told the tech podcast Core Memory. Metas new business initiative also reunites Zuckerberg with Luckey, the founder of the virtual reality company Oculus. In 2017, he left a high-profile position at the company then called Facebook, after public outcry over his $10,000 donation to an anti-Hillary Clinton organization. Luckey built the foundations of Metas work on virtual reality following the companys acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. After leaving the company, he co-founded Anduril, one of the most prominent companies among a wave of venture-backed start-ups that has emerged as the importance of technology such as drones and AI becomes apparent on the battlefields of Ukraine. I am glad to be working with Meta once again, Luckey said in a statement. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that. Zuckerberg said in his own statement that Meta was proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad. Metas push to serve the military arrives as the company and its founder have attempted to rebrand themselves for President Donald Trumps second term. Since Trumps reelection, Zuckerberg has sought to strengthen his relationship with the president with flattering public comments, private meetings and a $1 million donation by Meta to the presidents inauguration committee. Meta has also made Republican-friendly policy changes including scrapping its fact-checking program, overhauling its content moderation strategy to be more permissive, and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. While Zuckerberg has remade Meta, his relationship with Luckey has also evolved. The VR entrepreneur left Facebook during Trumps first term as president, a time when many tech industry workers and their bosses were openly wary or even dismissive of Trump. News reports about Luckeys donation to a group that ran anti-Hillary Clinton ads sparked backlash among Facebook employees and the wider community of virtual reality developers. He departed soon after, though neither Luckey nor the company explained why. Andrew Bosworth, the former leader of Metas virtual reality efforts, said at the time that politics had nothing to do with Luckeys departure. But Luckey told people he was fired over his political beliefs and support for Trump, the Wall Street Journal has reported. In September, before Trumps election victory, Luckey returned to Meta on a visit to try out the companys latest augmented-reality-powered glasses, called Orion. Afterward, Bosworth, now Metas chief technology officer, publicly apologized to Luckey for his previous comments, saying in a post on X: Im grateful for the impact you made at the company and in developing VR overall. Looking forward to showing you more of our work in the future. Luckey said in an episode of the Core Memory podcast released Thursday that Zuckerberg didnt fire him directly and that many of the people who made the decision have left the company. When every single person that conspired to get rid of me has been run out of the company, what is there really left to be truly angry at? he said. Among the first projects the two companies plan to tackle is the EagleEye helmet for soldiers. Luckey described it as combining an AI assistant with communications and other functions. It will be an ever-present companion who can operate systems, who can communicate with others, who you can off-load tasks onto that is looking out for you with more eyes than you could ever look out for yourself, right there, right there in your helmet, Luckey said. Anduril and Meta said they have submitted a joint white paper for an Army contract for augmented reality devices that give U.S. soldiers increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness, according to a Defense Department listing for the project. The EagleEye system will improve soldiers hearing and vision by helping them detect drones flying miles away or hidden targets, the Journal reported. The project will rely on Andurils autonomy software and Metas AI models. Luckey said that effort will build on Andurils work on the Armys Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, in which it has partnered with Microsoft to develop an augmented-reality-powered headset for soldiers. To aid the collaboration, Meta will draw on its hefty investments in AI models known as Llama and its virtual reality division, Reality Labs. The company has built several iterations of immersive headsets aimed at blending the physical and virtual worlds - a concept known as the metaverse. Metas new venture comes after a shift in recent years that has seen Silicon Valley companies once hesitant to work with the military get comfortable with the Pentagon. In November, Meta said it would allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security applications to use its AI models. In 2018, Google declined to renew a deal to sell AI technology to the Pentagon after an employee revolt, but it now speaks proudly of military contracts and recently dropped a pledge not to apply AI to surveillance or weaponry. Gerrit De Vynck contributed to this report. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson conducts a news briefing for Bring Your Child to Work Day at the Pentagon on April 24, 2025. (Defense Department ) WASHINGTON Kingsley Wilson, daughter of a right-wing commentator and herself known for combative social media posts, is the latest person to hold the seat of Pentagon press secretary. Wilson had served as deputy press secretary since January. Last week, she got the top communication position, previously held by John Ullyot before he was asked to resign in April. Kingsleys leadership has been integral to the DoDs success & we look forward to her continued service to President [Donald] Trump, Sean Parnell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, posted May 23 on X when announcing her promotion. Wilson has yet to hold a news conference with reporters, though since January there have been almost no briefings. She did conduct one for children last month for Bring Your Child to Work Day. The 26-year-old Wilson is the daughter of right-wing commentator and former Trump adviser Steve Cortes. She worked for the conservative think tank Center for Renewing America, which was founded by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, who is now the director of the White Houses Office of Management and Budget, and Gettr, the social media platform founded by former Trump aide Jason Miller. Wilson comes with her own controversy a history of social media posts ranging from Jewish issues to questioning U.S. involvement in conflicts abroad. Wilsons social media attracted attention earlier this year when posts from her personal account resurfaced. Left-leaning news organizations such as Mother Jones and Jewish Insider reported on the history of her comments. The posts have not been deleted. One post was about Leo Frank, a Jewish man convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl and then lynched by a Georgia mob in 1915. Frank is widely believed to have been falsely accused and unjustly convicted. His case led to the formation of the Anti-Defamation League. Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime, Wilson posted on X in 2023. The ADL is despicable. She repeated this claim last August. White supremacists and other antisemites have long used conspiracy theories about the Leo Frank case to cast doubt on the circumstances of the antisemitic lynching of Leo Frank, the ADL said in a statement in March. Were deeply disturbed that any public official would parrot these hateful and false conspiracy theories, and we hope Kingsley Wilson will immediately retract her remarks. Her posts have also supported the great replacement theory, which contends that ethnic white groups and their culture are being intentionally replaced by nonwhite immigrant groups in Western countries. The Anti-Defamation League describes it as a racist conspiracy theory amplified by white nationalist groups. The Great Replacement isnt a right-wing conspiracy theory... its reality, Wilson posted in August. Wilson also has railed against U.S. funding for Ukraine, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an entitled midget and asking, why should American taxpayers help defend Ukraine? In a 2023 interview on the right-wing channel One America News, Wilson said Zelenskyy should be arrested on sight for what he has done to the American taxpayer. Last year, Wilson also praised Russian President Vladimir Putins encyclopedic knowledge of his peoples history is beyond impressive, and adding especially when contrasted with the low-IQ lunatics working at the U.S. State Department. The American intelligence apparatus is more evil than Vladimir Putin, Wilson posted in 2022. Wilson also criticized U.S. defense contractors for their role in providing military equipment for the Ukrainian war effort. The U.S. Military Industrial Complex genocided an entire generation of Ukrainian men because PUTIN BAD, she wrote in 2024. Wilson previously declared Make Kosovo Serbia again, despite Kosovo being officially recognized as an independent state by the U.S. and about 110 other countries after a U.S.-led NATO bombing campaign forced Serb forces to withdraw from the majority Albanian territory in 1999. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some lawmakers have expressed their concerns about Wilson. Hiring anyone with a proven history of expressing antisemitic and bigoted conspiracy theories and parroting Russian propaganda would have been unthinkable under any previous administration, Republican or Democratic, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Friday. The fact that the Trump administration and the defense secretary do not realize the national security concerns this presents or, worse yet, do not care is extremely troubling. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., posted last week on X that he called in March for Hegseth to fire Wilson for the minefield of antisemitic rhetoric, white nationalist conspiracies, and pro-Kremlin propaganda and anything less [would] be reasonably understood by the public as an endorsement on behalf of yourself and the Pentagon of her repugnant views. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., told Politico in March that Wilsons remarks were horrible and just not appropriate. The Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington. (Stars and Stripes) WASHINGTON A bill led by Republican lawmakers has been introduced in the Senate to make it easier for veterans in rural towns to get health coverage from the Department of Veterans Affairs for medical care at a local hospital or clinic close to home. The Critical Access for Veterans Care Act submitted by Sens. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., would enable veterans to obtain care from hospitals and clinics with a critical access designation without first getting a referral or approval from a VA doctor. The two lawmakers are members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The bill was referred last week to the committee for review. A hearing has not been scheduled. The lawmakers described the legislation as offering veterans new options for health care in rural areas where there might not be a VA health facility nearby. There are 1,377 hospitals with the critical access designation, according to the bills sponsors. Critical access hospitals and clinics often are the only available care in some rural communities, yet veterans can only get VA coverage after first obtaining a referral from a VA doctor, the lawmakers said. The bill prohibits the VA from requiring prior authorization or referrals for care. The VA also must match the reimbursement rates now used by Medicare at critical access hospitals. The federal insurance program is for older adults and people with severe disabilities. For too long, the status quo has failed veterans, especially in rural communities, leaving them without timely access to the high-quality care they have rightly earned, said Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific region. Our bill removes the unnecessary roadblocks, allowing veterans to freely pursue care at their local hospital or clinics already serving those communities, Cramer said. Established in 1997, the critical access program helps fund small hospitals in rural areas that serve residents who otherwise must travel long distances for emergency care. Participating hospitals have up to 25 beds, and average hospital stays are less than 96 hours, according to the program. Alan ONeil, chief executive officer of Unity Medical Center in Grafton, N.D., said the legislation will not only benefit veterans but also increase use of rural hospitals such as his facility. ONeil said nearly 3 million veterans live in rural cities and towns that rely on critical access hospitals. Unity Medical Center has served the greater Grafton community for more than a century. Grafton itself has a population of slightly more than 4,100 residents. This bill will not only help the veterans, but will also improve utilization of critical access hospitals, ONeil said. Ross Chastain, driver of the #1 Jockey x Folds of Honor Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Concord, North Carolina. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images/TNS) PHILADELPHIA (Tribune News Service) After NASCAR driver Ross Chastain went from worst to first and won the biggest race of his life at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C., he smashed a giant watermelon to honor his familys farming history. Then, he pulled out a photo of U.S. Army Specialist Kevin McCrea, a Philadelphia native who was disabled after a parachute jump during his army service in the 1980s and died in 2020. McCreas family, including his daughter, Allie, a music therapist with Jefferson Health, awaited him in victory lane. I went over to the car and pulled out the picture and held it up for our pictures together, Chastain told The Philadelphia Inquirer. I wanted them to know that I didnt forget that the picture was in there, that I put it in there. There were some, Ill say bloodshot eyes, some teary eyes, in the family coming into victory lane, and a lot of excitement. It was a dream ending for all of us. The Coca-Cola 600 is held over Memorial Day weekend, and each driver honors a fallen service member and military family on his vehicle. Chastain first discovered the McCreas through their work with Folds of Honor, a nonprofit that provides scholarship money to children of fallen or disabled service members. Allie McCrea was a scholarship recipient as an undergraduate and earned a degree in music from the Catholic University. Her fathers experience with Magee Rehabilitation inspired Allie McCrea to earn a masters degree from Temple in music therapy, and when she started an internship there, one of her mentors was the therapist who treated her father. I see my dad through literally all the work Im doing, she said. Everything that Ive gone through in my life has inspired this work now and is honestly impacting the community. Its through that hardship that its all transpired. Kevin McCrea was a paratrooper who suffered a spinal cord injury during a night jump in 1983. He died on June 16, 2020. McCreas name was featured on the car driven by NASCAR driver Ross Chastain on May 25, 2025. (Dan Lee/Department of Defense) Her dad always enjoyed NASCAR, but McCrea never watched much of it herself, until Chastain was connected with the family through Folds of Honor. McCrea is a speaker with the organization and volunteers with the Mid-Atlantic chapter, telling her fathers story and how her education helps her keep his legacy alive. Kevin McCrea wanted to make sure his childrens childhood was as normal as possible, despite his injury, which resonated with Chastain. One time, after a late-night hospital stay, Allie recalls her father instructing her to make sure she finished all of her homework: This is not an excuse. He never let us use his illness as a means to get out of something, and we always had to work hard, she said. We never expected a free pass for anything just because we were going through hardship. McCrea helped design Chastains car for the race. She added her fathers name to the windshield and the side walls and a few personal touches to memorialize her dad. One phrase she knew she wanted to share on the car? Be a sponge. My dad always said, especially the last 14 months of his life he spent in the hospital, the thing he always told us was, Be a sponge. Absorb everything, and essentially just meaning, live in the moment. Dont take anything for granted, McCrea said. Its funny, the last Christmas that we spent with my dad, he wanted to get my brother, my sister, and I a really special gift. He thought, Everyone needs a good pen and pencil set. He got us a wooden pen and pencil set, and engraved on it was our names and Be a sponge. It was encouraging us to write down everything, take everything in, and just absorb it all. Sundays race was her first NASCAR race, and the weekend didnt start out great for Chastain, who started in 40th in a backup car after crashing his car in practice. He led for just eight laps, including the final six, after taking the lead late over William Byron, for his first win this season. Everybody just had a look on their face like, this doesnt feel real, but at the same exact time it sounds so crazy to say I just felt like something miraculous was going to happen that night, McCrea said. I just felt in my gut like something crazy was going to happen. It literally felt like my dad was there that night. 2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Photo: https://www.president.gov.ua Ukraine seeks peace above all, but not at the price of capitulation, Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak said. "Compromise is not equal to capitulation. Moscow is offering a new round of negotiations. And we are ready for dialogue. However, we demand clarity. Clear, and most importantly, balanced proposals. We will not buy into a pig in a poke called a memorandum. We already had one. Enough. Diplomacy should be based on concreteness, not on empty promises," Yermak said during an event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Hennadiy Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also said that during its existence, the Diplomatic Academy has trained many specialists who now represent Ukraine in the world and promote Ukrainian interests. "Your victories are measured by hearts and minds united for the sake of Ukraine. It is critically important for us to maintain unprecedented unity around Ukraine. We have to change all the time, be firm in principles and flexible in approaches," he said. Craig Douglas (24) of Belclare Park, Ballymun, Dublin is charged with robbery, dangerous driving and Garda obstruction. An armed robber went to a McDonalds, pulled a shotgun out of his tracksuit bottoms and pointed it at staff while people were buying their morning coffee and breakfast, it is alleged. Craig Douglas (24) is accused of carrying out a broad daylight raid at the fast food restaurant in Dublin yesterday, leaving staff traumatised before speeding dangerously off in a getaway car. He was refused bail at Dublin District Court this afternoon and was remanded in custody to next week, for DPP directions. Mr Douglas, of Belclare Park, Ballymun, Dublin is charged with robbery, dangerous driving and garda obstruction. The court heard he is denying the allegations. Craig Douglas (24) News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Objecting to bail, a Garda told Judge John King the robbery happened at McDonalds, Gullivers Retail Park, Northwood, Santry yesterday when a man entered the restaurant and calmly sat down for a few minutes until customers left. He then approached the counter, took a shotgun from his tracksuit bottoms and pointed it at staff, robbing the till which had no money in it. The robber fled the scene in a car that had been stolen elsewhere earlier that morning. He drove out, crashed into a metal barrier and continued on to St Margarets Road where he sped, undertaking traffic. The getaway car was later found in St Margarets Halting site and when gardai arrived, they saw Mr Douglas in the back seat of another car. It was alleged he violently resisted arrest. Gardai found the keys of the getaway vehicle in the car he had been in. It was alleged a tshirt and runners he was wearing were distinctive and matched those worn by the robbery suspect. A tracksuit was seized from a caravan. In her objections, the garda cited the level of violence used in the robbery, the fear it caused and the fact that it was a busy public location. It happened in broad daylight where members of the public were present, buying their morning coffee and breakfast, the garda said. The shotgun had not been found and the garda feared the accused could have possession of it if released on bail. Gardai were relieved that nobody was injured despite the dangerous crime spree, the court heard. Restaurant staff were traumatised and the accused seems to have zero remorse, the garda said. Applying for bail, defence solicitor Matthew De Courcy said Mr Douglas was presumed innocent, his position was he didnt do this and he made no admissions in interview. Mr De Courcy said the man in the CCTV had his face covered and gardai were effectively identifying him by his clothing. The defence would say the clothes were not distinctive, but were generic and the link to his client was tenuous. Mr Douglas was found in a different location in a different car. Mr Douglas was living with his family, upskilling on a construction course and was a young man with a bright future, Mr De Courcy said. Judge King refused bail and remanded him in custody to appear in Cloverhill District Court on June 4. Adams alleged a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has been awarded 100,000 in damages after winning his libel action against the BBC at the High Court in Dublin. Mr Adams said that 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. A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour on Friday, after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and that it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. News in 90 Seconds - May 30th In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 from the BBC. However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. The jury determined that Mr Adams should be awarded 100,000, which the jury heard falls on the medium scale for defamation. Trial judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sent the jury out to begin deliberations at 10.25am on Thursday morning, in the fifth week of proceedings. The 12 members were also provided with exhibits in the case and the means to re-watch the programme. At one stage in the deliberations, one of the jurors was released from the process due to other commitments, including a camogie match. The remaining 11 members continued their consideration of the issues before delivering the verdict. They were tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC Spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Mr Donaldson. Mr Owens said they were to consider whether it was more likely than not that a hypothetical reasonable reader would take that meaning from the words. The BBC had argued that the jury should not find that this was the meaning of the words, instead saying the claim had been put forward as an allegation that was immediately followed by Mr Adams denial. Having agreed with Mr Adams on that point, they then had to consider whether the broadcasters actions were fair and reasonable as well as whether it acted in good faith. They determined that the BBC had not acted in such a manner. They returned with their verdict on Friday after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations in total. Mr Owens told the jury that the BBC had put forward the position that Mr Adams had no reputation at all and the broadcaster had argued to the jury that it should award only nominal damages, putting forward the option of just 1. Mr Adams team had argued that the defamation fell within the very serious or exceptional end of the scale seeking at least 200,000. The father-of-four admitted offences including violent disorder, dangerous driving and obstructing a garda drug search One of the sons of steakhouse murder victim Jason Hennessy Snr has been jailed for six months for a series of crimes after a court heard he became violent in a garda station cell, roaring: youll have to drag me out. Jason Hennessy Jnr (28) also squared up to armed gardai who came to his west Dublin home with a warrant, shouting: you wont be searching this house. Hennessy was sentenced at Blanchardstown District Court after he pleaded guilty to 15 charges brought for a litany of offences over a three-year period. The father-of-four admitted offences including violent disorder, dangerous driving and obstructing a garda drug search. Judge Catherine Hayden also banned him from driving for two years. Sergeant Ian Abbey told the court the incidents happened on dates between 2019 and 2022. He said gardai went with the armed support unit to Hennessys home at Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown with a search warrant on May 18, 2019. Hennessy resisted the search and had to be restrained. He stood up and shouted abuse at the gardai, telling one to f**k off and you wont be searching this house. Jason Hennessy Jnr is on remand News in 90 Seconds - May 30th The garda told him to sit down, but Jason Hennessy stood and squared up to the garda, entered his personal space and placed his head up to the officers head. Gardai were engaged in a covert operation in relation to suspected criminal activity in west Dublin on June 23, 2019 when they saw a blue Saab being driven by Hennessy, with passengers, followed by another vehicle. The Saab went through a red light at a junction at Blakestown Road. Armed support were called and the Saab turned back toward the direction of the gardai, travelling towards them. Hennessy drove back through the junction at high speed and on the wrong side of the road. Hennessy was arrested for threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour at Aldi, Mulhuddart village on July 19, 2019. Four days later, he was at Blanchardstown District when he called a garda a f**king tramp. He was caught speeding at 93kph in a 60kph zone on Jan 23, 2020 and parking on a footpath on February 15. The following April 3 on Castlecurragh Road, Mulhuddart, Hennessy was stopped driving a Volkswagen Passat and had a child without a seatbelt in the back seat. Gardai stopped and searched Hennessy when they saw him among a group of men acting suspiciously outside the San Marino takeaway at Laurel Lodge shopping centre on May 8, 2020. When a phone was retrieved from his pocket, Hennessy became aggressive and threw it on the ground, breaking it. He became violent and had to be restrained and arrested for obstruction. While detained at Blanchardstown garda station the following June 22, a jailer carried out a routine check on Hennessy in his cell at 1am. Hennessy said youre a blond muppet, turn off the light. He became very aggressive, and used a paper cup to throw water from the toilet, shouting at the garda, do you want water, you will have to drag me out. He began throwing litter from his meal and was violent as he was removed from the cell, which had to be cleaned. When stopped driving at Corduff shops on February 5, 2022, Hennessy told the garda: You will do well in prison, you little faggot. Hennessy, who had passengers in his car, was aggressive and made hand gestures while children were nearby. He was already in custody when he came before the court. Defence solicitor Tertius Van Eeden said the violence in the case was at the low end of the scale. Hennessy was now doing well in prison, working out and keeping his head down. He was in a good place mentally now, considering the fact his father was brutally murdered in a Christmas Eve shooting in 2023, Mr Van Eeden said. Hennessy had 15 previous convictions for offences including assault and violent disorder. We as a family can never put into words the impact her loss has had on us. The family of Tina Satchwell, who was murdered by her husband and buried in a secret grave beneath the stairs of their home, has said that their "precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter" was portrayed in a way during the trial that was "not true to who she was". Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice building today after Richard Satchwell was found guilty of murdering his wife of 25 years, Tina Satchwell's half-sister, Lorraine Howard, made a statement on behalf of the family. Ms Satchwell's cousin Sarah Howard also said a few words. Members of the Howard family (Lorraine Howard, centre, in red jacket and Sarah Howard in denim jacket) speak to the press after the conviction of Richard Satchwell for the murder of his wife Tina. Photo Collins Courts Lorraine Howard said: "We would like to thank the judge and Tina's [legal] team Gerardine Small, Imelda Kelly, Maria Brosnan and Catherine McAleer. Their hard work and professionalism shone through like the classy ladies that you are". "We will never be able to put into words how thankful we are for you. We want to sincerely thank the judge and jury for their dedication. We would like to thank all the witnesses who helped us reach this verdict today". "I would like to personally thank Sarah Howard, who came up to give evidence and her support two weeks postpartum with a beautiful baby girl, you did yourself and Tina proud. Thank you to Anne Marie Twomey and David Kelleher for putting the pieces together and finding Tina". Tina's cousin, Sarah Howard then made a statement, telling the media: "During this trial Tina was portrayed in a way that is not true to who she was. Tina Satchwell "Tina was our precious sister, cousin, auntie and daughter. Her presence in our lives meant so much to us all. We as a family can never put into words the impact her loss has had on us. Tina was a kind, loving and gentle soul, who loved her animals like they loved her and that's the way we want her remembered. Today as a family we finally have justice for Tina and at this time our family would like to ask for privacy to begin our healing. Thank you". Earlier today, Tinas husband was found guilt by a jury of murdering his wife Tina and burying her under the stairs where she lay for six and a half years. Satchwell had denied the killing at their Youghal home in Co Cork in March 2017, claiming she died in a struggle after she suddenly flew at him with a chisel. However, this was dismissed by a Central Criminal Court jury who took nine hours and 28 minutes to find him guilty of his wifes murder. There were three verdicts the jury could return in relation to the murder charge against him; guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. Satchwell kept his head bowed as the jury returned their verdict on the fourth day of their deliberations. Mr Justice Paul McDermott was told that the jury of seven women and five men had reached a unanimous guilty verdict. Two jurors appeared to become emotional as loud sobs were heard from a family member of Tina at the back of the court. Satchwell now faces a mandatory life sentence and that hearing will take place on June 4. The truck driver has been in custody since he was charged with his wifes murder in October 2023. The Leicester native spent years telling family, friends, gardai and the media she had left him taking 26,000 in savings with her. He claimed their relationship had deteriorated because of her depression and he had suffered years of violent abuse at her hands. Richard Satchwell had denied murder his wife Tina Satchwell has been in custody since October 2023 when he was charged with his wifes murder. The truck driver stuck to his story even after being arrested on suspicion of murder on 10 October 2023 and being told a garda search team would be going through the walls and digging up his home. Satchwell finally changed his story when he was re-arrested after the remains were found in the three-foot hole where he had buried his wife and sealed it with cement. But even then, he never made it clear how Tina died saying that she suddenly slumped as he lay on his back holding her off with a dressing gown belt as she tried to stab him. He told gardai how he sat on the floor cradling her, his face wet with tears, but couldnt answer why he hadnt tried to revive her or call for help. Instead, he tried to keep things looking normal, collecting the couples dole shortly after she died and sent an email to deliberately give the impression Tina was still alive at that time. During four weeks of evidence, the 12-member jury heard from 57 different witnesses including family, friends, gardai and the forensic experts who removed her body from the house. News in 90 Seconds - May 30th They also watched videos of Satchwell being interviewed by gardai in which he said there would be no jury because he would be pleading guilty. He said he wouldnt allow it to go to a full trial because he wanted to protect Tinas secret, that she had been violent toward him. When he was charged with murder at Cobh Garda Station on Friday 13 October, 2023, he replied: Guilty, not gutilty, guilty. Tinas cousin Sarah Howard and sister Lorraine Howard gave evidence about Tina and both said they had never witnessed Tina being violent. They had only heard the claims by Richard after Tina had disappeared, which he also repeated in media interviews he gave in 2018. Dr Margaret Bolster, the assistant State Pathologist, said that because of the length of time the body had been in the ground it was not possible to determine a cause of death. She had been buried still wearing her pyjamas and dressing gown, with the belt tied across her body and over her shoulder. Dr Bolster said she immediately thought the belt had been tied this way to help in moving it. Satchwell had admitted putting her body in a chest freezer before moving her into the hole he had dug, wrapping the corpse in plastic and filling it in. He claimed he had done so respectfully and had gone in search of flowers to lay on her body which was discovered face-down with one leg bent up. Sean McGovern (39) is the most senior member of the crime group to appear in an Irish court after he was charged with murder and directing a crime gang. The Air Corps plane arrives at Baldonnel, Dublin with Sean McGovern following his extradition from Dubai. Photo: Gerry Mooney Members of the garda armed support unit outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin yesterday, ahead of the court appearance of Sean McGovern. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Gardai are confident of extraditing cartel leader Daniel Kinahan back to Ireland after his closest confidant was returned from Dubai to face serious charges. Sean McGovern (39) is the most senior member of the crime group to appear in an Irish court after he was charged with murder and directing a crime gang. The Crumlin man was arrested last October and finally removed from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following a protracted legal and diplomatic process. Daniel Kinahan His removal from the UAE, long considered a safe haven for Irish criminals, has now given renewed confidence to detectives that his boss Daniel Kinahan can be returned. The States prosecution service and a special counsel are understood to still be reviewing a lengthy file received nearly two years ago on Daniel Kinahan and his younger brother Christy, to determine if they should face prosecution. Gardai have recommended that they be charged with directing a criminal organisation, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on conviction. Sean McGovern Sources have described this as an all-encompassing charge which reflects a wide range of offending including murder and conspiracy to murder as well as drugs and firearms offences. The decision lies with the DPP on whether to charge, but gardai are confident that if this does happen, the Kinahans will be extradited back here, a source said. The gangs leadership continues to reside in the emirate, although there are concerns that they could now move to a state more hostile to Western interests on the back of McGoverns extradition. Members of the garda armed support unit outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin yesterday, ahead of the court appearance of Sean McGovern. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Acting Garda Commissioner Shawna Coxon last night described it as a precedent-setting case and that they have signed a memorandum of understanding which opens the door for future co-operation. Ms Coxon also said she cant speak to any specific investigation when asked if gardai were any further to preferring charges against the Kinahan leadership. Earlier she said that gardai have developed major international partnerships to target international crime gangs. This includes at judicial level with the UAE and a police-to-police basis which is of value, adding that it is something they will continue to develop. Ms Coxon also acknowledged the assistance of the Irish Air Corps for its valued co-operating in this operation. Last night, Sean McGovern was brought before the Special Criminal Court amid a heavy armed garda presence to be formally charged. He is accused of the murder of innocent grandfather Noel Kirwan (62) in December 2016, and related offences of directing and facilitating a crime gang to carry out that murder. Noel Kirwan, who was shot dead in December 2016, and Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch McGovern is further accused of directing a crime gang to carry out surveillance on Hutch associate James Mago Gately between October 2015 and April 2017, and assisting that gang conspire to murder him. Defence barrister Olan Callanan BL told the court that they were reserving their position in relation to the lawfulness of McGoverns arrest and the jurisdiction of the court. Detective Sergeant Donal Daly gave evidence of arresting the accused for the purposes of charging him and explained that the DPP certified that he should be charged before the non-jury court. The accused, dressed in a grey T-shirt, grey tracksuit bottoms, socks and sandals, only addressed the court to say yes when asked to confirm he was Sean McGovern. No application for bail was made as this can only be sought before the High Court on charges of murder or organised crime offences. Ms Justice Karen OConnor, presiding, remanded McGovern in custody and he is due to appear before the court again on June 5. Photo: MFA of Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha condemned Russia's statements at the UN Security Council about its readiness to "continue and step up military activities as long as necessary." "When the entire world insists that it is time to stop the killing immediately and engage in meaningful diplomacy, Russia uses the highest fora to spew such belligerent rhetoric," he said on the X social network. According to Sybiha, "this is Russia's slap in the face to all who advocate for peace," and not just Ukraine but also the United States, European countries, China, Brazil, and others. "We demand a response to Russias arrogant statements, which undermine the peace process. We insist that the pressure on Moscow be increased already now. They do not understand normal attitude or diplomatic language; it is time to speak to them in the language of sanctions and increased support for Ukraine," the minister said. Russian permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya stated in the Security Council that Russia is ready to continue and escalate hostilities in Ukraine for as long as necessary. He also voiced the Kremlin's demand that Western countries stop supplying weapons to Kyiv during the ceasefire, and that Ukraine stop mobilizing. Nebenzya said Russians "will not abandon their compatriots, the Russian people, in trouble. And if necessary, they will fight for this as long as necessary." "And we will no longer tolerate any threats on our borders, any anti-Russian neo-Nazi formation in our neighborhood. Now it's up to those who were behind the anti-Russian project in Ukraine. Have you realized your mistakes and the futility of defeating and isolating Russia? If you are driven solely by Russophobia, then we probably have nothing to talk to you about," Nebenzya said. Ian Curley (58) struck the woman as she filmed him after the confrontation with her partner, his defence maintaining that he only intended to hit the phone in her hand. Judge Gerard Jones said he would spare Curley jail if he paid 3,000 compensation A man was having a psychotic episode when he punched a woman in the face in a shop, knocking her to the ground after ripping a chain from her boyfriends neck. Ian Curley (58) struck the woman as she filmed him after the confrontation with her partner, his defence maintaining that he only intended to hit the phone in her hand. The couple had come to Dublin for the weekend when the attack happened in a city-centre shop. Adjourning the case, Judge Gerard Jones said he would spare Curley jail if he paid 3,000 compensation. The accused, of Carrickhill Heights, Portmarnock, Dublin, pleaded guilty to assault, criminal damage and resisting arrest. Judge Gerard Jones said he would spare Curley jail if he paid 3,000 compensation News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Dublin District Court heard he was at Spar on Dame Street last October 21 when he got into an altercation with a man and ripped a gold chain from his neck. The mans girlfriend began filming Curley on her phone and he shouted at her and punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground. The victims were unknown to the accused and the woman was uninjured but distraught. Investigating gardai saw Curley on CCTV leaving on a motorbike, got the registration and went to his home where they could see him standing in a bedroom with the blinds up, playing loud music. He resisted arrest, was handcuffed and taken to a garda station. Curley suffered from bipolar disorder and on the day, he had come off his medication and this combined with alcohol resulted in a psychotic episode, his lawyer said. He did not intend to punch the woman directly in the face, but to hit the phone and he inadvertently hit her. He accepted it was an awful incident and when shown the footage, Curley was taken aback by his actions, appalled and extremely remorseful. He was mentally unstable at the time and his actions came about as a result of a medical illness which he now had under control, the lawyer said. Curley had brought 2,000 to court but the judge told him to pay 3,000 and said he would suspend a three-month sentence. The 21-year-old who is expecting her first child with boyfriend Lee Byrne, shared a collage of photographs to mark the occasion. Lilly Gerrard has taken to social media to wish her father, and Liverpool F.C legend Steven Gerrard a happy birthday. The 21-year-old who is expecting her first child with Irish boyfriend Lee Byrne, shared a collage of photographs to mark the occasion. Happy Birthday to the best dad. I hope your day is as special as you are to us! Love you so much, thanks for everything, she captioned the post. One snap shows the pair when Lilly was a little girl, while others show them posing together on holidays and at a concert Lilly's Instagram post Lee Byrne, son of Kinahan cartel lieutenant Liam Byrne, takes centre stage in another, posing alongside her father, and mother Alex. Lee Byrne, Alex Gerrard, Lilly Gerrard and Steven Gerrard are not involved in crime. Lilly and Lee announced that they were expecting their first child together in January. They shared the news with a fitting Instagram post that showed ultrasound scans, two positive pregnancy tests and a pair of knitted baby boots placed on top of a pregnancy journal. Our little secret, the best news, mini us is on the way, Lilly captioned the post, tagging her partner, who is the son of Dublin gang boss Liam Byrne. The couple have been dating for more than three years, and regularly share snippets of their romance online for their Instagram followers. A key member of the Kinahan cartel, her father-in-law, Crumlin man Liam was arrested in Mallorca and extradited to the UK in December 2023. Steven and Lilly Gerrard News in 90 Seconds - May 30th In October, Liam Byrne was sentenced to five years behind bars at the Old Bailey in London after pleading guilty to the conspiracy charges. The Crumlin native, who was in custody since he was arrested in Spain in June 2023, was released in January. As part of his conditions, he is only allowed one personal mobile phone and SIM card for the next five years. Byrne was also ordered to register the make, model, colour and serial number of his phone with the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA). Liam Byrne He is banned from using encrypted devices, messaging apps and must ensure all his browsing history is visible, as part of the Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) which was served to him. He is allowed to have one laptop and a tablet and can also have a maximum of two business phones at any one time. It comes after Byrne landed himself behind bars for using the encrypted messaging service EncroChat to arrange the gun plot for which he served time. For now he is not allowed to interact with any other prisoners he is in a single cell in a contained area where he will stay for 23 hours a day. Kinahan chief Sean McGovern is on a complete isolation regime in Portlaoise Prison where he was remanded to last night by the Special Criminal Court. The Sunday World has learnt that he is at the number one level of threat within the entire Irish prison system and everything he does is being constantly monitored by prison officers. He is in a special area of Irelands highest security prison in time he will be moved to a different area within the jail but not out of Portlaoise, a source explained. News in 90 Seconds - May 30th For now he is not allowed to interact with any other prisoners he is in a single cell in a contained area where he will stay for 23 hours a day. He will be allowed one hour of exercise on his own if he wishes to take that up this will be highly supervised and again he will not be given the opportunity to interact with other prisoners when this happens. What jail authorities are dealing with here are two very serious issues one is the perceived threat against the individual from his enemies namely the Hutch organised crime gang. His personal safety within the jail system is of profound importance to the State when you consider the magnitude and significance of the criminal charges he is facing. The other big issue here is that it has to be ensured that the individual is given absolutely no chance to embark on any criminal activity while in custody. In simple language he is in the most secure place within Irelands most secure prison, the source said. When contacted by the Sunday World a spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said: We cannot comment on individual prisoners cases. Crumlin man McGovern (39) was extradited from Dubai and landed in Dublin on a military plane last night before being brought to the Special Criminal Court last night. He is the alleged highest ranking member of the Kinahan cartel to face charges here. He is charged with the murder of Christopher - aka Noel - Kirwan on St Ronan's Drive in Clondalkin, Dublin on 22 December 2016. He is also charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation in connection with Kirwan's murder between 20 October and 22 December 2016, and facilitating Kirwan's murder. Separately, McGovern is charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation in relation to the monitoring of the activity of James Gately between 17 October 2015 and 6 April 2017, both dates inclusive. He is also charged with participating in activity with conspiracy to murder senior Hutch gangster James Gately between those dates. McGovern was extradited from the United Arab Emirates via an Irish Air Corps CASA aircraft last night. He was detained in Dubai in October last year. It followed the issuing of an Interpol Red Notice. A warrant had been issued for McGovern's arrest in connection with the murder of Noel Kirwan in December 2016. The gang's leadership continues to reside in the emirate, although there are concerns that they could now move to a state more hostile to Western interests on the back of Mcgoverns extradition. The Irish Independent previously highlighted the cartels close links to Iran. Human rights lawyer Radha Stirling has warned that McGoverns extradition does not mean the UAE have had a change of heart when it comes to the rule of law. Cartel chief Sean McGovern was extradited by the UAE in a bid to clean up their image as a haven for international crime bosses, a human rights expert has claimed. McGovern spent his first night in a cell in Portlaoise Prison last night after appearing before a sitting of the Special Criminal Court. The Drimnagh native did not speak as he was charged with five offences including the murder of grandfather Noel Duck Egg Kirwan. McGovern was placed on an Irish military jet in Dubai on Monday evening after months of legal and diplomatic efforts to have him returned to face trial in Ireland. Sean McGovern News in 90 Seconds - May 30th However, human rights lawyer Radha Stirling who runs the Detained in Dubai group has warned that McGoverns extradition does not mean the UAE have had a change of heart when it comes to the rule of law. She said: This extradition is being used as a public relations exercise. The UAE wants to shed its reputation as a criminal safe haven, especially under pressure from Interpol, the FATF, and Western allies. But one extradition doesnt reflect meaningful change in a legal system that remains opaque, politicised, and lacking in basic due process. Ms Sterling founded the London-based Detained in Dubai group after she launched a campaign to help her friend who was jailed Dubai in 2008. She continues to advocate for people jailed in the UAE and has campaigned to make the legal process in the UAE more transparent. Ms Sterling claims the decision to extradite McGovern does not vindicate the UAEs legal system. Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai Extraditions from the UAE are rarely the result of impartial legal proceedings. "More often, they are part of political or diplomatic bargaining. Quid pro quo arrangements that have little to do with justice. This makes it incredibly dangerous for anyone with business disputes, political enemies, or public profiles that might make them a target. She said she believes the decision to hand over McGovern was a bid to improve the Gulf States image. The UAE continues to host high-profile individuals facing serious international scrutiny. "Yet enforcement appears to depend not on the strength of evidence, but on whether the person in question is politically and economically expendable. There is no consistency or transparency and that should deeply concern Ireland and all countries engaging in extradition treaties with the UAE, she said. She added: McGoverns extradition will be used to polish the UAEs image. But the same risks remain, including arbitrary arrests, lack of fair trials, and politically motivated prosecutions. It is vital that Western governments approach such cooperation with caution and scrutiny. During a brief hearing in the Special Criminal Court, McGovern was charged with five offences following directions by the DPP. Sean McGovern was shot at the Regency McGovern was accused of the feud murder of Noel Kirwan (62) at St Ronans Drive in Clondalkin, Dublin 22, on December 22, 2016. Its believed Mr Kirwan was targeted after attending a funeral alongside Gerry The Monk Hutch. McGovern is further accused of directing the activities of a criminal organisation in relation to Mr Kirwans murder from October 20 and December 22, 2016. He is also charged with enhancing the abilities of a crime gang to carry out that murder between the same dates within the state. The Air Corps plane arrives at Baldonnell with Sean McGovern following his extradition from Dubai. Picture; Gerry Mooney The court heard that McGovern also faces two additional charges relating to a plot to murder James Mago Gately, more than eight years ago. He is charged with both directing a crime gang carry out surveillance of Gately, and facilitating a criminal organisation relating to the conspiracy to murder Gately between October 17 2015, and April 6, 2017. McGovern was remanded in custody to appear in court again on June 5. Patrick Ward (22) of Coole Park, and Jason Ward (19) of Radharc Na Freine had been arrested on January 21 after police stopped a car in Wakefield Two Galway men who came to the UK from Ireland with a view to using fake cash to fund their lifestyles have been jailed. Patrick Ward (22) of Coole Park, and Jason Ward (19) of Radharc Na Freine had been arrested on January 21 after police stopped a car in Wakefield. Following a search, officers found items that had been bought from various stores in Wakefield, Barnsley, Sheffield and Chesterfield. A subsequent investigation established that counterfeit Clydesdale bank notes had been used to purchase items that were then refunded for cash at other branches. Jason Ward News in 90 Seconds - May 30th The investigation by Wakefield CID and backed up by the UK National Counterfeit Currency Unit (UKNCO) at the National Crime Agency (NCA), linked similar offences committed by the same gang in the Thames Valley, West Midlands, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire police force areas. Both men appeared at Leeds Crown Court having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to have custody or control of a thing knowing it was a counterfeit currency note, passing counterfeit currency and converting criminal property. Patrick Ward was sentenced to 30 months in prison while Jason Ward was given 28 months in a young offender institution. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a third man, William Browne (19) of St Finbars Terrace, Galway, who was also charged but failed to appear at court. Detective Sergeant Craig Twycross from Wakefield CID told the Barnsley Chronicle: This was a complex investigation which has prevented fake notes circulating around the country and leaving businesses with worthless cash. The defendants came to the UK from Ireland with a view to using fake cash to fund their lifestyles, and it is right that they have been successfully prosecuted for their offending. I want to urge retailers to be vigilant and take the time to check notes thoroughly. Anyone who notices incidents involving these fake Scottish notes should report them to your local police force. Patrick Ward Neil Harris, Head of Unit at the National Counterfeit Currency Unit at the NCA said the suspects had committed crimes across numerous police force areas. However, with the participation of police officers from all of the identified policing areas, the full scale of the offending could be placed before the courts by West Yorkshire Police, Harris said. The custodial sentences imposed demonstrate the seriousness with which counterfeit currency offences will be taken by the justice system and should act as a strong deterrent. The NCA said counterfeit Clydesdale 20 notes may feature what looks like a convincing hologram. But staff should also check for the colour-changing ink used in the map of Scotland in the top left corner of the note, he added. If the note is genuine, the map will change colour from purple to gold when the note is tilted, and there are also moving rings across the map. You can also feel for the raised print that appears across the note including on the name of the bank. Police have urged anyone with information or incidents involving counterfeit notes to be reported to them on their LiveChat facility on the West Yorkshire Police website. The lads say they are doing the run for those who cant TWO young Irishmen have kicked off a mammoth run from the bottom to the top of Ireland in aid of Pieta house. Dubliner Bill Staunton and Donegal man Barry Lee yesterday kicked off their 10-day journey by beginning their run from Mizen Head to Malin Head. Ive always had a strong sporting background and a passion for pushing myself both mentally and physically, explains Bill, who hails from Balscadden in north Co Dublin and currently lives in Sydney. The Wild Irish Run is my first endurance challenge of this scale, and its something Ive felt deeply compelled to take on. Poster for the Wild Irish Run Barry, who hails from Letterkenny, also lives in Sydney. He has a strong sporting background and, last year, he ran 126km in a single day around Centennial Park in Sydney, raising funds for the Irish Heart Foundation, explains Bill. The lads are geared up for their epic run. The run is a 10-day journey from Mizen Head in Co Cork to Malin Head in Co Donegal, covering approximately 550km, notes Terenure College and UCD graduate Bill. Its in support of Pieta House, a charity that provides vital services for people affected by suicide and self-harm. Our tagline is Do it for those who cant, which reflects our motivation to honour those who are struggling or no longer with us. Were grateful to have the support of Donegal Motorhomes, who have kindly sponsored a camper van for the event. This will serve as our base each day throughout the run, and their support has been a huge help in making this journey possible. The duo hope to complete their run on June 7. Bill Staunton and Barry Lee News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Our aim is not just to raise funds, but also to spark conversation, connection, and hope across the country, he beams. This is a very personal mission for both of us, and it means a lot to have support from family and friends. Were also inviting anyone who feels inspired to join us for a few kilometres along the way, to help us spread the message that no one has to face mental health struggles alone. Whether people run, walk, or just show up for support, every bit of energy adds to the cause. The lads have so far raised over 8,000 of their 20,000 target for the charity. * Donations can be made on GoFundMe here. Mother of three Kirsty Fitzsimons says she was told to fork out extra for a top-up to the agreed rent costs from Dermot McGuckin. Names to be blurred out on pages.Kirsty Fitzsimons rent extorsion story.Pick-ups. talking to Alan Sherry in Mullingar today.Pic Gary Ashe,21/5/2025 Dermot McGuckin says the RTB hearing went ahead without his knowledge An election candidate and landlord who called for more social and affordable housing for struggling families has refused to pay thousands he owes to a young mother after the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) found he had illegally withheld her deposit. Dermot (Diarmuid) McGuckin (58), who is originally from Dublin but living in Fossa, Co Kerry, was ordered by the RTB to pay 3,280 to Kirsty Fitzsimons for illegally withholding her deposit for a property he rents out in Tallaght, Dublin. As well as running as an Independent candidate in the local elections in Killarney, McGuckin has set up firms in diverse industries, including home care for the elderly, tourism, cleaning services and communications. He is also a taxi driver and was elected chair of the Irish Taxi Federation in Killarney. McGuckin further describes himself as a public relations consultant, and a number of years ago set up The Bellarose Foundation, which he said provided cleaning and care services to women going through chemotherapy. Kirsty Fitzsimons with documentation for the RTB He also organised a Great Santa Cycle in Killarney to raise funds for what he called the Bellarose Youth Development Fund. As well as not returning his tenants deposit, McGuckin was also getting Kirsty to secretly pay an additional 830 per month on top of the 1,950 lease agreement. Kirsty said: When we contacted him about renting it, he said, I have someone else who is highly interested and it is between you and them. They have offered x, y and z above the lease, what can you offer? I have never seen anything like it and Ive been renting since 2017, she said. Kirsty said she felt like she had no option but to pay the extra to secure the rental property which is in Forest Lawns in Kingswood. News in 90 Seconds - May 30th I had three children and was desperate for a house for the kids and there was no alternative. He had 1,950 down as the lease agreement but was actually charging 2,780. When I told the HAP [Housing Assistance Payment scheme] about this they said to stop paying him extra rent. After that, he was contacting me at all times about the top-up. He was actually the most difficult landlord I ever dealt with in my life. When McGuckin ran in the local elections in Kerry he claimed one of his main concerns was more social and affordable housing for struggling families. Kirsty said her experience with him was completely different. Kirsty Fitzsimons tells our reporter her story He said he was for families and all that. If he was, he wouldnt be charging outrageous amounts of rent for young families. I think it was ridiculous. All he cared about was the money. Im waiting for the deposit nearly two years. I think he thought Im young so hed be able to take advantage. In the end, Kirsty only stayed in the house for six months before leaving, but when she did leave in July 2023, McGuckin refused to give her the 2,780 security deposit back. McGuckin has owed the money to the young mother-of-three for almost two years but had point blank refused to give it back, didnt bother turning up to the RTB hearing and has not responded to Ms Fitzsimons calls and messages since. Things were even more stressful for Kirsty after she received bad health news recently. I was going through all this with the RTB and him, and then I found out I had a BRCA1 gene for breast and ovarian cancer. I have to get a double mastectomy and an ovariectomy. The RTB ordered McGuckin to pay the 2,780 deposit and an additional 500 in compensation. However, when contacted by the Sunday World, McGuckin claimed that he wasnt even aware there had been an RTB case against him. To have a court case [RTB hearing] without me being there is very f**king harsh. But I dont know, Id have to see what notes I have on it and bring them up. To go ahead and have a hearing without me having any input whatsoever, surely theres a law against that? Kirsty is now facing the prospect of surgery A spokesperson for the RTB confirmed there is indeed a law against that and rubbished McGuckins claims that they would schedule the hearing without informing all parties. By law, we must give notice of a dispute hearing. We will only schedule a case for a hearing when we have contact details for all parties, they said. The spokesperson said the RTB contacts all parties to confirm contact details before sending them hearing notices. As well as claiming he was unaware of the RTB case, McGuckin tried to justify not giving back the deposit and made a series of claims which Kirsty said were outright lies. There was a lot of reasons why she didnt get it back at the time, McGuckin claimed. Asked what they were, he said: Damage to the property and there was some stuff gone from the property that was there when she moved in. Asked for examples of either damage or missing items, he couldnt provide even a single one. Ah now, I have a list there Id have to go through. As I said, this is the first Ive heard about this, he said. Kirsty said McGuckin was lying about damage to the property and any missing items. Its complete and utter nonsense. I cant believe he said there were things missing. Ive never been accused of stealing before. He cant tell you what was missing because there was nothing missing. She said every other landlord she has dealt with, including estate agents, have always given her glowing references. McGuckin also claimed he hadnt heard from Kirsty since she left in July 2023. Im at a loss of what to tell you. I havent heard from her since she left. I think once maybe she got in contact after she left. However, Kirsty said that was another lie and she has contacted him numerous times since by phone and by email, but he has ignored all communication. Asked if he was willing to give her back her deposit now, McGuckin said: Id have to look in to that. I know it was withheld for a reason and probably multiple reasons, I wouldnt be holding onto anything you know... if everything was OK, thered be no issue. Kristy said she was insulted that McGuckin would try to say she was at fault for not getting her deposit back. I wouldnt have gone to the RTB if what he was saying was true and wouldnt be doing an interview about it. He didnt inspect the house before we moved in. He got the previous tenant to leave a key under the mat. He also didnt inspect it when we moved out. He had no bill for any supposed damage he claimed was caused, he cant name a single thing missing, she said. When the Sunday World asked McGuckin why he was looking for an additional 830 in payments on top of the 1,950 lease, he initially said: Em, no, whatever was on the lease agreement would have been what was charged. However, when we pointed out Kirsty had messages showing he was in fact demanding 2,780, he said: I cant remember off-hand. I mean youre after getting me completely off hand on this one. Landlords can legitimately ask for payments on top of HAP payments if the HAP payments dont meet the rent amount, but cannot ever ask for payments on top of what is stated on the lease. The property was also in a rent pressure zone with strict limits on how much rent could be increased by from one year to the next. His brand new play about the veteran criminal is set to debut next month Rex Ryan has said that he is no longer in contact with Gerry The Monk Hutch ahead of his new play debuting next month. Appearing on Oliver Callans RTE Radio One show this morning, the actor and writer said: I'm not chatting to him now, and I think it's probably important that I have a removal from everybody now. I'm in rehearsals. I'm trying to make the show, so I need to just put my head down and focus on creating a piece of theatre, he explained. Rex Ryan (Pic Frank McGrath) and Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch (Pic Mark Condren) News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Ryan said that a comment made by Hutch during his interview on Crime World inspired part of the play, which is set five minutes before Hutch was due to receive the verdict in the 2022 Regency murder trial. He's sitting in the cell and he essentially goes into his mind in a prayer, he said, explaining the plot. He's often referenced the fact [and] he was asked this on the Nicola Tallant podcast did he feel that there were angels watching over him because he survived so many [attempts on his life]? He survived at least two explicit attempts on his life, and he said he felt that like there was guardian angels watching over him. That stuck with me, Ryan continued. So I took the premise of that. Some sort of angel visits him as the clock ticks, four minutes, three minutes, two minutes to go to the trial, and the angel takes him to task for key moments in his life before he goes out to the judges. Rex, who is the son of the late Gerry Ryan, lived near Hutch in Clontarf growing up. He said they first met to discuss the play before The Monk ran as an independent candidate in the 2024 General Election. He's a complicated man for sure, Ryan said when asked if there was more depth to him in person? Monk poster I suppose anyone who's gone through what he's gone through so publicly, that has to have had some effect on how willing you are to open yourself up to anybody. So I imagine that he is as much of a mystery to me still, he said. Being in the public eye for so long, being on trial publicly, living in that world, I can only imagine that these are, in terms of your psyche, these are really taxing things and it would be hard not to be adversely affected by that. Asked if he was sympathetic towards him, Rex said he would be sympathetic towards many people who have gone through hurt. What I can't do is make a judgment when I'm trying to make the play. But I suppose if someone's family were murdered and you were in that world, it's certainly something that I wouldn't wish for myself or my family, and that's something that would, that would terrify me. He still has a threat on his life. He didn't seem fearful when I met him, but once again, I think he would, he would have to be aware for the rest of his life. I suppose when I'm meeting, Im trying not to think like that because if I lean too far one way or the other, I am going to get into territory that I don't want to. During the 52 days of evidence, the court heard testimony from various witnesses, including former Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall, who claimed Hutch told him that he and another man had shot Kinahan cartel foot soldier David Byrne at the Regency hotel in 2016. Dowdall was due to stand trial for murder alongside Hutch, but turned state witness and pleaded guilty to a facilitation charge. The three-judge court found his evidence unreliable and acquitted The Monk. While he walked free from the three-judge court, his co-accused, Paul Murphy (61), of Cherry Avenue, Swords, Co Dublin and Jason Bonney (50), of Dromnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 13, were found guilty of facilitating the murder. The Monk will be performed at the Glass Mask Theatre on Dawson Street from June 10th to 21st. A brand new podcast series about her murder Stolen Sister was released today Elizabeth Plunkett, murdered by Englishmen, Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw on August 29, 1976. Picture supplied by family The sisters of murdered Elizabeth Plunkett have spoken publicly about her death for the first time in 50 years. The 23-year-old was murdered in August 1976, by Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw. A brand new RTE podcast Stolen Sister delves into the abduction, rape and murder of the young woman in Co Wicklow. Speaking on the first episode of the programme, her sister Bernadette Barry recounted the last time they saw her. She explained that on the sunny Saturday she vanished, Elizabeth was getting ready to go to visit friends in Brittas Bay. Elizabeth Plunkett, murdered by Englishmen, Geoffrey Evans and John Shaw on August 29, 1976. Picture supplied by family News in 90 Seconds - May 30th My mam and my Aunt Lily were sitting in the kitchen having a cup of tea. I was just relaxing on the bed. I was throwing these few things together. So there was a wedding on up at the church. My mom and my aunt Lily rambled up to the church. So they were standing outside the church, obviously waiting for the bride to come out, she explained. "[Elizabeths lift] had eventually come along, pulled up beside the cottage, I heard her going out the door and she said, I'm off. I'll see you. And I said, Bye, I'll see you then when you get back. Elizabeth then drove by her mother and aunt as they began their journey out of Ringsend. My mom and Auntie Lily waved her off, have a good time, and little did my mom know that she was waving her off forever. Bernie and her sister Kathleen said they contacted RTE Doc On One for help to get justice for their sister after they learned that while her killers had been jailed, they were not tried for her murder. Bernie said they were told no by the DPP, the states solicitor officer and the Garda Commissioner when they appealed for the murder investigation to be reopened. The two British men, Shaw and Evans, came to Ireland in the 1970 with the intention of murdering one woman per week, but were detained after they killed their second victim, Mary Duffy. Elizabeths family were unaware of this fact until 2023, when they contacted the Parole Board when killer John Shaw was seeking temporary day release. No inquest had been held, and no death certificate was issued. In January 2025, a jury at Gorey District Court returned a verdict of unlawful killing, with her cause of death recorded as asphyxia due to strangulation. Galways Rory Jennings didnt mind getting the boot because he got to share a bottle of bubbles with an Aussie icon Rory says his appearance on I Kissed A Boy was a full-circle moment for him An Irish contestant on a gay TV dating show reveals that the best thing about being first to being kicked off the programme was ending up spending the night with Dannii Minogue. But Galway lad Rory Jennings smiles as he stresses all they shared together was a bottle of prosecco. Rory (23), from Salthill, is a mental health graduate and part time model, whos currently working in London with Britains NHS helping gambling addicts. Viewers of BBC1/3s I Kissed A Boy dating programme in which 10 gay young men share an Italian villa hosted by Danni Minogue in their search for love being dumped last Tuesday night. But handsome Rory could do little to being axed, as a lad he was smitten with, Jordan B, chose another guy to be matched with, Jordan R, resulting in him being the only one not chosen in the pairings-off. Sure look it happens, it was an experience anyways, so its grand, he pipes up. I Kissed A Boy. Credit: BBC / Two Four Broadcast Ltd / Corinne Cumming Being so self-critical and ashamed of my sexuality as a teenager in Ireland, going onto I Kissed a Boy was such a full-circle moment for me and my emotional development, and I got to do it alongside a bunch of hotties. Rory likes to observe and figure people out before making a move romantically, and when it comes to drama, he says he would rather watch the drama than be part of it. He lists Michael B Jordan, Joey Essex and Troye Sivan as his dream boys. He admits he was smitten on the show with cute retail store manager Jordan B (25), who hails from Englands Lake District and now lives in Manchester. I think it was his buzz cut. I like them, and he was a bit older, he beams. There was something about him that was really kind of masculine that I liked. There was a bit of flirting going on, we never got to know each other that deeply though, but it wasnt that long. It didnt really work out, so I was first on my merry way. Jordan B ended up choosing Jordan R, with Rory confirming that because both of them had a parent who died when they were quite young, they seemed to bond over that. That connection was a bit deeper than I had with Jordan, so I kind of know that it was going to go that way, he admits. Rory with Jordan B on the show I was like if it happens it happens, I wasnt too put out. But Jordan B ended up getting itchy feet again and dumped Jordan R for fellow housemate Callum I was saying he was getting excited with all the boys around and was putting his fingers in the pie to see what hed like, smirks Rory. Rorys eyes didnt stray to the rest of the housemates. I loved them all as friends and I would kind of be the person with friendships first and then maybe if it developed, he stresses. Maybe if I had of been in there longer, I could have had a connection that way, but in terms of like anyone I would have had my eye on romantically, not really. After Rory left another young Irish guy, Hugh from Cork, joined the fun in the villa. I have gone for people similar to him before, he confirms Rory. Then obviously hes Irish, so we would have had that. I have met him since and we get on well, but I think its more platonic. Rory also had a bonus on being first to leave the house, when he got up close and personal with Dannii. Dannii is lovely, shes so nice. Really really warm, he raves. When I got dumped, we went off afterwards me and Dannii, we had a bottle of prosecco, my claim to fame. I was buzzing with Dannii Minogue can you get any better?!. He has been single for two years. Rory says his appearance on I Kissed A Boy was a full-circle moment for him News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Im as single as ever, for the past two years on and off, he reflects. I havent found the one. Im a bit picky. A sense of humour is really important to me, so I think Im waiting for someone to be really funny. Hes not a fan of dating apps. I have used them before, I havent recently, they are a bit boring and repetitive, he complains. Anywhere Ive met anyone before its been organic and hasnt been on a dating app. Jordan B, Jas, and Rory on the show After he finished school Rory initially tried Business Studies in Dublins Trinity College before dropping out and taking up Psychology, which he studied for four years in Belfast. It was in Belfast he had his longest relationship, for a year. At 6 and with his chiselled looks, Rory was snapped up by a Dublin model agency. He also explains confusion over his first name. I was called Ruairi when I was born and Im christened Ruairi, but when I was in school people had trouble pronouncing it and the odd teacher couldnt pronounce it, which was mad in Galway, so I changed it to Rory when I was 14 or 15 and was impressionable, he reveals. So, it stuck and now Im called Rory the whole time. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan believes that it would be good to hold a meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States with the assistance of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the rounds of delegation talks in Istanbul. "We believe that a meeting of the four leaders, President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hosted by Mr. Erdogan, would be possible after the first and second meetings that took place in Istanbul," he said at a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha in Kyiv. The Turkish Foreign Minister once again noted the importance of the talks that resumed in Istanbul. "We are convinced of the following: as long as we remain at the negotiating table, progress can certainly be seen. The concrete result of the previous meeting was the exchange of prisoners," Fidan said. He expressed hope that at the new meeting between the delegations it will be possible to see that "the technical work will be largely completed." Fidan called for stopping the devastating consequences of the war as soon as possible. He also said it is necessary to remember that the Ukrainian side is the side that is "experiencing a disaster, an occupation." The minister said Turkey is doing "everything possible to promote and realize a peaceful perspective, using its good relations with both sides." The Derry Girls and Bridgerton actress signed the letter issued by the UK group Choose Love urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end Gaza complicity Nicola Coughlan has added her name to those of other Irish celebrities as well as stars of stage and screen to an open letter to the British Government on Gaza. The Derry Girls and Bridgerton actress signed the letter issued by the UK group Choose Love urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end Gaza complicity." She has joined other well-known Irish figures including Alison Oliver, Aisling Bea, Annie Mac, Caitriona Balfe, Charlie Murphy, Chris O'Dowd and Denise Gough in signing the letter. Others, such as Ruth Negga, Seamus McGarvey, Siobhan McSweeney, and Tadhg Hickey are among the more than 300 signatories. International stars such as Annie Lennox, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brian Cox, Dua Lipa, Gary Lineker, John Lithgow, Mark Ruffalo, Maxine Peake, Rosie O'Donnell, Steve Coogan, and Tilda Swinton are all backing the initiative. Nicola Coughlan News in 90 Seconds - May 30th Words wont save the lives of Palestinian children as they are being killed, words wont fill their empty stomachs, Josie Naughton, co-founder and CEO of Choose Love, said. We need action from Keir Starmer now. That means stopping all arms sales and licenses, making sure that legitimate humanitarian organisations can reach people in Gaza. It means doing everything possible to make these horrors end. Action is a choice, just as inaction is one. History will remember what we did in this moment. We are begging the Prime Minister to make the right choice. The open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, published by Choose Love on May 29, reads, in part: Dear Prime Minister Keir Starmer. We urge you to take immediate action to end the UKs complicity in the horrors in Gaza. Right now, children in Gaza are starving while food and medicine sit just minutes away, blocked at the border. Words wont feed Palestinian children we need action. Every single one of Gazas 2.1 million people is at risk of starvation, as you read this. Mothers, fathers, babies, grandparents an entire people left to starve before the worlds eyes. Over 15,000 children have already been killed including at least 4,000 under the age of four. Bedrooms where children once slept, kitchens where families shared meals, schools where they learned all reduced to rubble while Britain stands by. You cant call it intolerable and keep sending arms. Every moment this continues, is another moment children die on our watch. This complicity is not inevitable it is a choice. The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act? Nicola has previously spoken out about the conflict, and reflected on the fact her dad was in the Irish army, which is a peacekeeping force. Explaining the reason behind wearing a red badge that relates to a call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, she told USA Today: It's very important for me because I feel like Im a very privileged person. Im doing my dream job and getting to travel the world, but then Im hyper-aware of whats happening in Rafah at the moment. She added: My dad was in the Irish army, which is a peacekeeping force. He was a member of the UN, so my family actually lived in Jerusalem in the late 70s. He was part of UNTSO, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation, so it was about brokering peace in the Middle East. I feel very passionately about it. I'm Irish also, so its sort of a different perspective. And I just feel, if I have this global platform, which I do at the minute, I think if I can hopefully raise funds for aid organisations - I have a fundraiser on my Instagram right now for medical aid for Palestine. With construction underway on a Katikati housing project that will provide 14 seniors with en-suite studio accommodation, cooked meals and companionship, the committee behind it are inviting people to help clad the building with bricks. You just need to drive past the site at 3 Wills Road to see the progress, said Abbeyfield Western Bay of Plenty chairwoman Carole Parker. The roof is about to go on shortly. Parker said the Abbeyfield WBOP committee had worked hard for nearly six years to raise more than $3 million needed in total to build the house for people aged 65-plus who might not otherwise have the means to secure quality accommodation in their older years. With $2.5 million granted from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development affordable housing fund and financial support from Abbeyfield Properties Ltd, the committee is now working to raise a small shortfall of $67,022 through various fundraising activities. Their newest campaign invites the public to buy a brick for $25 to form the brick cladding of the house. The house will be clad in brick and wood and with more than 10,000 bricks, were hoping people will be prepared to buy some to raise the last of the funds we need, said Parker. In June Abbeyfield WBOP volunteers will be at Katikatis Sunday Markets selling bricks, and outside the towns Woolworths and Four Square. People can also contact the committee by emailing: fundabbeytfieldwbop@gmail.com or phoning: 027 348 7748 to organise a bank transfer. Parker said the Abbeyfield house being built in Katikati is already a proven housing option for those 65-plus who are lonely, or isolated, struggling to maintain a household or cant afford market rents or a place in a retirement village. There currently are 15 houses in New Zealand with a further 10 in the pipeline. All run by local community volunteer committees, said Parker. Each resident will have their own studio and access to shared living areas. A housekeeper will provide two meals a day with a self-service breakfast; and will look after the shared living areas. Other than the housekeeper, who is the only paid staff member, the house will be run by volunteers, said Parker. Its just like flatting together with rent covering accommodation, meals, power, rates and overheads. It will be affordable for those who rely on superannuation for their income but it is not a rest home, and no healthcare is provided. Parker said those aged 65-plus 65s who believe living in the Abbeyfield house would work for them are invited to register their interest. We have space for 14 independent, sociable older people and have already begun selecting residents. However, we are still interested to hear from people who would be interested in living in the Abbeyfield House. For more information, visit: www.abbeyfield.co.nz/house/wbop/ More than 20 years of community service was acknowledged at Government House last week when Te Pukes Jenny Wotten was presented with her Kings Service Medal. The award, one of the 2025 New Year Honours, and was made in recognition of her services to the community and squash. Wotten has contributed to the Te Puke community since 1997 through numerous volunteer roles and community organisations. She served on Te Puke Primary School Parent Teacher Association from 2002 to 2011, organising numerous fundraising events, serving as president, secretary and helping organise the schools 125th celebrations. She was a founding member and volunteer for the Te Puke Toy Library and was secretary of Te Puke Neighbourhood Support Group from 2008 to 2012. She was secretary of Te Puke Squash Club Committee from 2008 to 2013 and president from 2015 to 2016, and on the New Zealand Secondary Schools Squash Association Committee for two years. She led the organisation of a three-day event for the Te Puke Squash Clubs 50th Jubilee. She was chairwoman of Te Puke Centre Charitable Trust from 2020 to 2024, having been secretary and founding trustee of the preceding Te Puke Centre Project from 2018, which helped preserve the local post office from closure. Shes currently chair of the Te Puke Community Trust. She has supported homeless and underprivileged people by distributing donated food from local businesses and cooking community meals and was a Justice of the Peace in Te Puke from 2002 to 2022. Recognition She found out about the nomination and its success late last year. I got an email saying Id been nominated and the nomination was successful and I was blown away! Wotten firmly believed volunteers should be acknowledged. Honouring volunteers not only uplifts individuals but helps to prevent volunteer burnout and keeps the spirit of giving alive. At the recent investiture at Government House Auckland, she was humbled to be in the same room as the other medal recipients whose accomplishments were phenomenal. Jenny says her JP work was among the most rewording of her volunteer roles. It is a bit of an imposition being contacted day and night in your personal time, but when you help someone out, and you get a very good sense of satisfaction. The skills Id picked up working in an office environment over many years, helped a lot, you dont realise that not everyone has those skills. She was also part of the recently wound-up Its Not Ok group, which aimed to address the issue of domestic violence. What we learned listening to both the victims and the perpetrators, was that some people think violence is the only tool in the toolbox. But through education, they can learn other ways to deal with their anger. The winding up of the Its Not OK organisation recently led to donations of the remaining funds in its account to The Hub Te Puke and Te Puke Community Trust. Squash Wotten was also recognised for her contribution to the Te Puke Squash Club, so she assumed someone from the Squash club was involved in the nomination process or support letters. She said her time at the club holds a special place in her heart. Whether I was serving as secretary, president, volunteer bar manager, helping in the kitchen, or in charge of comms, it was always about giving back and being part of the wider squash family, the camaraderie at the club was (and is still) amazing. My children grew up in the place and Te Puke Squash Club has a reputation of being a great family environment. A lot of our and their connections were made in that club, and other clubs all around New Zealand. Special mention At the awards ceremony recipients were introduced in small groups of six or seven at a time. We were treated very much personally by staff and the Governor General. Wotten said the Governor General Rt Hon Dame Cindy Kiro specifically mentioned Te Puke in making the presentation. My award was very Te Puke-focused, and the Governor General acknowledged that. She said it was a big day for Te Puke. Jenny with her husband Paul and daughter Chanel. Photo / Supplied Wotten echoed those thoughts. I know I didnt get here alone. I am standing on the shoulders of giants Lorna and Kevin Treloar, and Alan Cotter. These three were pillars of strength and humility in our town, truly inspirational individuals who gave so much to our community. This was for Te Puke. Theres usually a big team behind me if Im doing something so this is for everybody else too, for all of the teams that Ive been lucky enough to be involved with. And that includes my husband Paul and our children, Im very grateful for their help and support over the years. Wotten was accompanied by her husband Paul and daughter Chanel. It was definitely a very memorable experience for Paul, Chanel and I, she said. The launch of the Bay of Plentys first community learning hub for migrant parents is being hailed as a significant milestone. The initiative, which was launched last month, aims to help families to better understand the New Zealand education system and curriculum. The hub is part of a national Ministry of Education initiative to support stronger connections between schools and migrant families. The programme was brought to Tauranga by Multicultural Tauranga, with the collaboration and educational expertise of Papamoa College. The first session was held on Wednesday, May 22, at Papamoa College, drawing parents from diverse ethnic backgrounds, representing various schools across the region, and with children spanning all stages of educationfrom early childhood to secondary school. The evening began with a warm welcome and free shared dinner, followed by an informative session outlining how the New Zealand education system works. For many parents, this was their first in-depth introduction to the structure, curriculum, and values that underpin education in Aotearoa New Zealand. This has been a lifelong dream, said Premila DMello, president of Multicultural Tauranga and an experienced educator with over 15 years of service in the Bay of Plenty. Migrant parents often feel lost or disconnected from their childs learning journey due to cultural and systemic differences. This Hub gives them the tools, knowledge, and confidence to be engaged and active in their childrens education. The idea took shape when Haidee Kalirai, Strategic Advisor: Ethnic, Migrant and Pacific Communities Tauranga City Council introduced Multicultural Tauranga to Awad Hagos from the Ministry of Education. With shared vision and collaboration, the team seized the opportunity to make this much- needed support a reality. We saw there were a number of community learning hubs across New Zealand but none in the Bay of Plenty, so reached out the Ministry of Education to discuss how we can run hubs here to support Taurangas growing migrant communities, said Haidee Kalirai. Its been great to see what a successful start its had and well done to Multicultural Tauranga and Papamoa College for leading the first hub in Tauranga, it was fantastic to see so many migrant parents attending. The remaining five sessions will be held fortnightly at Papamoa College. The dates of the sessions and what they will cover are; June 5 - Years 9-13, NCEA structure, CAA exams June 19 - New entrant to Year 8 (primary school including the Intermediate school years) July 3 - English language support at school, English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) July 17 - What to do if you have concerns about your childs learning, how to contact teachers, restorative practices. July 31 - Learning Support and neurodiversity, school notices and student accounts, student led conferences. Registrations are compulsory to allow us to arrange suitable seating, child-care facilities, and catering. Registrations can be made by clicking on the QR code of the Poster or through Multicultural Tauranga social media pages. This is a true team effort from people who are passionate about ensuring migrant children thrive in our education system, said DMello. We are proud to pioneer this initiative in the Bay of Plenty, and we look forward to seeing the long-term impact it will have on our families. Pilar Martinez Malaga Friday, 30 May 2025, 11:44 Compartir Alora will become the capital of inland tourism in the province by hosting the first edition of a fair in which 50 municipalities will participate on 14 and 15 June. The event has been presented by the deputy for technological development, heritage and maintenance, Sagrario Molina, who highlighted the importance of an event that aims to promote local tourism, inland getaways and boost local economies as a strategy to prevent depopulation. Attendance is free with prior registration on the website www.turismointeriordemalaga.com. This first inland tourism fair, which will be held at Hacienda Los Conejitos and which has been organised by Turismo Interior de Malaga and Triangulo Activo Caminito del Rey, with the support of Sabor a Malaga, will become a showcase for the leisure and gastronomic offer of fifty towns that will participate in a meeting in which many parallel activities have been organised, as well as a series of lectures with experts who will provide keys for the development of this sector. "The aim is to boost the visibility of inland villages through their tourism offer, as well as to promote local tourism as a key factor in the fight against rural depopulation and as an impulse to generate new formulas for entrepreneurship," said Molina. Zoom SUR The mayor of Alora, Francisco Martinez Subires, said that this initiative will "highlight the identity and potential of the entire interior of the province", adding that it "represents a point of union" that aspires to have continuity and grow over time. "We are confident that the attendees will leave with a good taste in their mouths, because this event will showcase the typical products of local gastronomy," he said. Specifically, Sabor a Malaga will be bringing more than a dozen products. "These days are undoubtedly an excellent business card to showcase our landscapes, heritage and customs, and a great boost for local entrepreneurship, hospitality and trade," he explained. 1.792 million euros was generated by inland tourism in 2024, some 21% more than a year earlier For his part, the manager of Triangulo Activo, Cristobal Martin, has advocated unity to multiply experiences and urged everyone to continue working together to improve the results of a province that is strong in both its coastal and inland tourism offerings. He also outlined the programme, which will begin with an event entitled Andalucia Emprende: 23 years driving entrepreneurship, innovation and the future of inland Malaga province. At this event, two success stories of tourism businesses advised by the centre will be presented. In addition, it was noted that the highlight will be the pan con chocolate event (an activity with limited spaces that requires prior booking), where the bakery La Curruca and Jose Miguel Pasteleros will offer a chocolate workshop. Attendees will have the opportunity to take part in a final draw for more than 60 experiences. On the website of Turismo Interior de Malaga, a platform that includes more than 300 experiences distributed throughout the province, it is also possible to consult the full programme for both days. It is worth remembering that the 2024 balance of the inland offer confirmed the strength of this destination, making it the most important in Andalucia. Turismo Costa del Sol data shows that three out of every ten tourists looking for this segment in the region choose the province of Malaga, which has allowed it to concentrate 53 per cent of the region's overnight stays in this sector. The good performance of the business has encouraged a growth in the supply of accommodation until the volume of rural houses and tourist homes in the interior of the Costa del Sol now represents 33.6 per cent of the entire Andalucia region and is greater than the interior of the provinces of Almeria, Cordoba, Huelva, Jaen and Seville combined. The figures speak for themselves. The inland areas of Malaga province received 1,388,000 tourists last year, some 1.9 per cent more than in 2023 and a tenth of all tourists visiting the province. This is an all-time record that allowed the economic impact generated by inland tourism to rise last year to almost 1.8 billion euros. In addition, this segment has allowed the creation of 18,715 jobs. Cristina Vallejo Friday, 30 May 2025, 15:44 Compartir The data from the General-Directorate of Traffic (DGT) are very telling. There are two municipalities in Malaga province where the number of registered vehicles is skyrocketing. They are Montejaque and Macharaviaya. In the former, for 952 inhabitants there are a total of 14,034 passenger cars and over 21,100 vehicles. So, for every resident, there are more than 14 cars and 22.2 vehicles of all types, including passenger cars, motorbikes, mopeds, lorries and vans. Meanwhile, in Macharaviaya, for its 508 inhabitants, they have a fleet of 6,173 cars (13.2 per inhabitant) and about 7,770 vehicles in total (about 15.3 per capita). To fully grasp the magnitude of these figures, it's important to bear in mind that in the Malaga town in third place for number of cars per inhabitant, Salares, there are only 1.16 cars per head and, when combining all vehicle types, there are just 1.79 per inhabitant. Beyond this, no town in Malaga province has more than one car per inhabitant. On average, across the province, there is half a car per person and 0.8 vehicles of any type per capita. So why do Macharaviaya and Montejaque have such a concentration of cars and vehicles in general? They are, as explained in a report published this Thursday by the European association of motorists (AEA), "tax havens" for the vehicle tax (IVTM) payable in Spain. 75% discount can be applied to this tax by local councils and they may even exempt it from payment in some cases This tax was created in Spain 35 years ago to replace the vehicle circulation tax (also known as 'el numerito') and generates annual revenues that the AEA estimates at around 3.9 billion euros for municipal coffers. It is one of the three taxes that local councils are obliged to collect along with the property tax (IBI) and the tax on economic activities (IAE - a business tax on companies with a net turnover of over one million euros). The IVTM rate varies according to the taxable horsepower of the vehicle for passenger cars, cylinder capacity for motorbikes and the weight and number of seats in the case of lorries and buses respectively. There is a minimum rate for the whole of Spain - with the exception of the Basque Country and Navarre - but the law allows local councils either to increase the rates at their discretion or to apply discounts of up to 75% depending on the type of fuel and engine power. They can even exempt classic vehicles and vehicles over 25 years old from paying the tax altogether. "But it is this discretionary power of local councils that has made it possible to distort the purpose of the local tax system and that has led to the creation in Spain of real 'tax havens' in relation to the payment of a tax that 38 million taxpayers are obliged to pay," says the AEA report. AEA's analysis takes the municipalities with the highest number of registered vehicles per inhabitant and compares the tax rates in those places with those of the capital of their province. Let's see what happens with these two in Malaga. In Montejaque, for example, for the most common vehicles, mid-range utility vehicles (between 800 and 1199 taxable horsepower), the annual rate is 8.52 euros, while in Macharaviaya it is 43.01 euros, compared to 65.80 euros in Malaga city. In the case of medium-to-high-end passenger cars (between 1200 and 1599 taxable horsepower), in Montejaque the rate stays under 18 euros, in Macharaviaya it is 90.79 euros and in Malaga city it is 138.90 euros. Three vehicle tax havens in Andalucia, including one in Jaen According to the AEA report, these two municipalities in Malaga are the only two 'tax havens' in Andalucia, along with the city of Jaen. The provinces with the cheapest IVTM are Madrid with 12 municipalities, Barcelona with three, Valencia and Alicante (two each) and Castellon, Palma de Mallorca, Zaragoza, Las Palmas, Ciudad Real and Tarragona with one apiece. The study also mentions the provincial capitals of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Zamora, Palencia, Badajoz, Caceres and Jaen. Such are the figures for vehicles per inhabitant. However, the AEA report also provides information on how many were registered last year by companies. Interestingly, Montejaque and Macharaviaya rank 13th and 14th respectively in Spain, with three cars per capita registered by companies in those two municipalities. That said, they are far behind La Hiruela (Madrid) with more than 50 and Las Rozas de Puerto Real (Madrid) with more than 40. The next Malaga municipality to appear in the ranking by volume of vehicles registered by companies in relation to its population is Riogordo, where 0.2 cars per capita were registered in 2024. "In return, every year they win the lottery of the 'numerito' for the income they receive from the tax on vehicles that do not even circulate, nor will they ever circulate, around that town." According to AEA's analysis, the rate reductions by certain local councils has led many rental and leasing companies to concentrate the registration of their fleets in small municipalities, where they have opened branches due to their favourable tax treatment. "In return, every year they win the lottery of the 'numerito' for the income they receive from the tax on vehicles that do not even circulate, nor will they ever circulate, in that town", states the report. AEA attributes the origin of this 'tax haven' phenomenon to the elimination of the provincial code on Spanish number plates, which dates back to September 2000. This, they explain, allowed owners of large vehicle fleets to concentrate the registration of their vehicles in municipalities with low taxation. Comparing Malaga city with other provincial capitals in Andalucia and Spain The data also show the vehicle tax rates by provincial capitals. How does Malaga compare with the other seven capitals of Andalucia? For mid-range vehicles (between 800 and 1199 taxable horsepower), the 65.80 euros charged in the Costa del Sol capital contrasts with the 51.12 euros charged in Jaen, the cheapest in Andalucia, while Granada and Huelva - the most expensive - charge 68.16 euros. That is the most expensive rate in Spain for this category and is also shared by Ciudad Real, Valladolid, Tarragona, Palma de Mallorca and Murcia. It is only exceeded by the Basque capitals that operate their own taxation system such as Bilbao (71.45 euros) and Vitoria (74.31 euros). For medium-to-high-end cars (between 1200 and 1599hp), in Malaga city the annual fee payable is 138.90 euros, a figure that is exceeded by Granada and Huelva (both 143.88 euros) and Cadiz (142 euros), compared to 114.38 euros in Jaen as the cheapest in the region. The cheapest in Spain is Santa Cruz de Tenerife at less than 72 euros. Overall, the AEA indicates that the most expensive city councils in Spain are the three Basque capitals, the four Catalan capitals, Ciudad Real, Salamanca, Valladolid, Huelva, Granada and Santander. Victor Rojas Friday, 30 May 2025, 15:06 Compartir SUR has published the seventh edition of SIX - the newspaper's publication focusing on the LGBT+ community. The launch of the new magazine was the biggest in its history, with almost 300 people at the event at Hotel Melia Costa del Sol in Torremolinos. Also for the first time in the history of SIX, Spain's minister of equality Ana Redondo attended the launch and, together with the other guests, celebrated the 20th anniversiry of the approval of same-sex marriage. The subbject of equal marriage rights is explored in several articles of this year's edition of SIX. "It is a law that has allowed us to be free," said Redondo, highlighting that Spain was the first country to allow both same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples at the same time. Moderator of the event Ivan Gelibter, who is also SIX's editor-in-chief, kicked off the interviews with the minister. Redondo recalled the "intense debate" within the left-wing party PSOE on equal marriage. "There was an old prejudice that stopped people understanding. They would say 'yes' to equality, but 'no' to marriage," she said. In the same train of thought, Redondo remembered a conversation she had with former PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, in which he said that "if it wasn't fully equal, it was useless". During her speech, she aligned the 50th anniversary of the end of Franco's dictatorship with the anniversary of "a free Spain". "In 1971, the great raid took place, and today we are celebrating freedom in that very same place," she said in relation to Torremolinos and Pasaje Begona, where a number of people were arrested in a raid, which she referred to as a "world symbol of freedom". Zoom Spain's minister of equality, Ana Redondo, with the mayor of Torremolinos, Margarita del Cid. Nito Salas Redondo used the platform to condemn hate crimes and called for more "specific training" for judges dealing with these cases. However, she stated that, compared to other countries, Spain is a "reference in equality". One example is the government's support of Torremolinos' candidacy for Europride 2027. Redondo said that the Costa del Sol town will collaborate with Melilla to host this European LGBT+ event in the future. "I think it is essential that we go hand in hand. The conquest of major milestones cannot be achieved by a single administration," she concluded. Before Redondo's speech, editor of SUR Manolo Castillo, welcomed the audience and paid tribute to one of the driving forces behind the magazine: Fran Ruano. "He was an activist in this cause, always maintaining the ethical values of journalism and his own personal values," he said. Castillo celebrated SUR's commitment to "a cause and values that are embedded in this magazine". SIX's front page The cover of this seventh edition of SIX features David Marquez and Jon Switters, along with their son Adam - two men who were able to marry and adopt thanks to the Spanish law. Marquez said that, although it is important to raise Spain as an example, it is also crucial to turn the spotlight to places of discrimination, aware of the different realities that numerous members of the LGBT+ community live. Switters, who is of British origin, said that his family and friends thought of his wedding as a "travesty". The couple married in 2012. In the UK, gay people were not legally allowed to marry until 2013. "I have two lesbian sisters who couldn't get married," he said. The couple acknowledged that they have not felt discrimination as a same-sex couple, except for "small nuances". Marquez chimed in and told an anecdote, which took place while he was taking his son to school. The school's caretaker, who the couple has known for years, asked how his 'wife' was "coping with the pregnancy", knowing that they were undergoing a new adoption process. Marquez and Switters said that the adoption process is "slow", but acknowledged that they have not been discriminated as parents in Andalucia. "We know people who have suffered it in Madrid and Valencia," they said. "This front page is not always the reality," they added, referring to the hate crimes that other couples suffer. Pride in Torremolinos The other main topic of the new edition is the tenth anniversary of the Pride parade in Torremolinos. For this part of the presentation, PSOE councillor Aida Blanes, who inaugurated Pride in the town, and Francisco Garcia Macias from the right-wing party PP, who continued the tradition, took the stage despite their political differences. They were joined by this year's Pride presenters Estupenda Marquez and Ivan Gelibter. Blanes congratulated their efforts, recognising that they had "marked a milestone in the history of the municipality" with the march's first edition. Garcia Macias said that, when his time in office came, he consulted with Blanes, because he wanted to keep the event alive. "I called her and asked her how to do it. I think it's the best way - taking into account what has been done before. And make it bigger," he said. The last to be interviewed were mayor of Torremolinos Margarita del Cid, David Garcia Nunez, director of communications at FCC Construccion, and Jose Repiso, deputy regional minister for equality at the Andalusian regional government. Repiso recognised the importance of spaces that have been classified as LGBT-phobia-free. "This granted recognition makes the place timeless in the safety it provides," he said. Nunez Garcia highlighted the importance of the support of public administrations in achieving equality in companies. He also urged corporations to help SMEs (small- and medium-size businesses) to progress in this aspect. The event concluded with Del Cid commemorating the success of Torremolinos Pride. "It is ten years of hard work, of many people who have worked for the benefit of the community, the town... It is a celebration that we have to proudly maintain, as we always do." Jordi Martinez Madrid Friday, 30 May 2025, 14:31 | Updated 14:43h. Compartir Spain is known among geography buffs for having some of the most unusual borders in the world. Proof of this are Llivia - the Spanish enclave completely surrounded by French territory; Pheasant Island - an unusual condominium with France that changes administration every six months; or the regional cities of Ceuta and Melilla - the only borders by land between Europe and Africa. However, there is an even more curious case that is not so well-known to the general public. About 150 kilometres east of Tetouan, there is a tiny rocky islet that was once an island, but today is linked to the African mainland by a sandy tombolo, which makes it - technically - another land border between Spain and Morocco. This rock that has been under Spanish sovereignty since the 16th century is Velez de la Gomera. It gives Spain the unusual honour of having the smallest recognised border in the world: just 85 metres of sand connect this rocky islet with the Moroccan coast. But what is the history of this place? Why is the rock of Velez de la Omera Spanish? At the beginning of the 16th century, the Penon de Velez de la Gomera was a fortified island that served as a refuge for pirates in the rough waters of the Mediterranean. In 1508, soldier Pedro Navarro took it by order of the Catholic Monarchs, seeing that the corsairs were hiding there after their attacks. The conquest was completed with the seizure of the nearby coastal settlements, including the town of Velez, then inhabited by thousands of people. But the place did not last long in Spanish hands. In 1522, an enemy fleet tricked the garrison by posing as reinforcements and seized the island by force, slitting the throats of its defenders. The pirates, this time with the support of the Wattasid sultanate, again made the rock a stronghold for corsair raids. For decades, Spain tried to re-conquer it without success, until in 1564, a powerful fleet, under the reign of Philip II and led by captain Garcia Alvarez de Toledo, managed to conquer it once and for all. Zoom The Penon de Velez de la Gomera. Wikipedia Since then, Velez de la Gomera has been under Spanish sovereignty without interruption, although its strategic role has been more symbolic than military. In 1577, it even served as a refuge for the deposed sultan Muley Ahmed, who asked for help from Philip II to regain the throne of Morocco. Spain and Portugal became involved in his cause, sending arms and troops. The rock became the scene of diplomatic negotiations and covert operations in the midst of the struggle for hegemony in North Africa. During the 17th and 18th centuries, life on the rock was hard: sieges, epidemics, extreme shortages of food. At times, the garrison could barely hold out. There were even proposals to abandon it, but Moroccan attempts to take it always failed. In the 20th century, during the Rif War, the rock was again the scene of crossfire. The legion had to land under bombardment to break the Rif siege. Spanish submarines and battleships guaranteed its supply. Today, Velez de la Gomera has no military value. Its garrison is maintained more by tradition than by strategy. But it is still Spanish territory, now connected to the African continent by a sandy isthmus following an earthquake in 1930. Paris Hilton at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones held at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Chad Salvador/WWD via Getty Images) WWD via Getty Images Paris Hilton is not a fan of excess grease on her pizza and seemingly wants to help her followers avoid it. Last week, the TV personality shared a video on TikTok where she revealed her unconventional method for removing grease from pizza. Life hack incoming, she wrote in the video, as she grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza from a box and slammed it face down on the outside of another pizza box. She then patted down the slice, stating, Thats my trick. You know how you dab it? someone is heard explaining in the background. Thats just a faster way to do it. After removing enough grease from her pizza, Paris lifted the slice off the pizza box, revealing a triangular grease stain on the bottom. Surprisingly, none of the toppings or cheese came off in the process. She then began to eat the slice. In the comments section of the video, many fans expressed concerns about the sanitary nature of her method. I couldnt with all the germs on those boxes, wrote one person. Another said: Picture this. The pizza dude just picks his nose on the way to the shop, slides his hand across ur pizza box as he slides it into the warm bag holder. The germs r marinating on the top during the ride there all in time for ur pizza degreasing hack." Others questioned why Hilton wouldnt just use the inside of the box or a napkin to remove the grease. However, their were some supporters of her method: Why waste a napkin? Baby is saving the planet. A second person said: Queen comes up with the best ideas. A third noted that while they werent keen on her method, it appears not to have had a negative impact on Hilton. Might not be the most sanitary option but clearly youve been fine, they wrote, followed by a laughing emoji. Hilton, born in New York City on February 17, 1981, is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. She gained fame in the early 2000s as a socialite and reality TV star, particularly through her role in the reality series The Simple Life. She has continued to make TV appearances in more recent years, including in her Netflix reality cooking show "Cooking with Paris and Peacocks Paris & Nicole: The Encore." The issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO is serious and ongoing within the alliance, but this subject was not raised during the negotiations between the Turkish and Russian sides in Moscow, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said. "I did not discuss this issue during my negotiations in Russia, and, frankly, it was not on the agenda," he said at a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha in Kyiv on Friday, answering questions from Interfax-Ukraine. The minister also said the issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO is a very serious subject for discussion in the Alliance, and it has been discussed for a long time. "The issue has different parameters. Especially if you take into account the reality of the ongoing war. This is an issue that member states approach from different positions within the alliance. Negotiations within the alliance will continue," he said. Marcy, N.Y. A former Mid-State corrections officer admitted Friday to trying to cover up a fatal beating of an inmate in March. Joshua Bartlett has agreed to cooperate against others in exchange for a two-year prison sentence, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told syracuse.com. Onondaga County Sheriff deputies wrap up crime tape after Scott Lamica, 50, was stabbed near a trailer home on Cotswold Court in the Madison Village on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2024. Timia Cobb Clay, N.Y. A man admitted Thursday in court that he fatally stabbed his neighbor in Clay. Richard Losee, 45, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the death of Scott Lamica, 50. Losee was scheduled to go to trial Monday. Jealousy was the alleged motivation for the brutal killing. Losee discovered his girlfriend had been texting with Lamica a day before the murder, prosecutor Rob Moran has said. When Losee asked if she had done anything with the man, she responded by saying not yet, police said in a criminal complaint. Losee put his hands around her neck and threatened to kill her, according to the complaint. He also broke the womans phone, it said. Losee was arrested for the domestic incident and charged with second-degree harassment, third-degree criminal mischief and criminal obstruction of breathing. Shortly after his arrest, Losee was arraigned and released by Syracuse City Judge Felicia Pitts-Davis without needing to pay bail. The next evening, Losee confronted Lamica, sheriffs office spokesperson Tom Newton has said. As the encounter escalated, Lamica was inside his car and Losee was hanging on the side of the vehicle. Losee stabbed Lamica multiple times through the open window of the vehicle, he said. Lamica then drove away, Newton said. Lamica collided with a tree as he fled. When Lamica realized the extent of his injuries, he pulled over to the Citgo Gas Station about a block away on Route 57 and called 911 for help. Losee admitted to causing multiple injuries to Lamicas arms and fatal wounds to his heart. Losee was promised a sentence of 20 years to life in prison in exchange for his guilty plea. Losee faced 25 years to life in prison if convicted of murder after trial. He faced another 25 years in prison if convicted of kidnapping his girlfriend during the domestic incident. He could have been sentenced to a total of 50 years to life in prison Losee is scheduled to be sentenced on July 14. Lamica was remembered as a car enthusiast whose prized possession was his blue 2014 Chevrolet Corvette. He was a member of a local Corvette club and frequented car shows across the region. He was attending a club meeting just a few hours before his death, friends told Syracuse.com| The Post-Standard. As an ongoing joke, Scott Lamica, 58, of Clay, receives a fake money tree from fellow member and friend Chris Stevens at a Syracuse Corvette Club meeting. Chris Stevens Staff writer Anne Hayes covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her atahayes@syracuse.com. This 1989 file photo shows Kool & the Gang performing on "Soul Train" episode 612. (Photo by Soul Train via Getty Images). Soul Train via Getty Images Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times (TNS) LOS ANGELES Michael Sumler, who spent years working with the venerable soul-funk group Kool & the Gang as both an onstage hype man and a behind-the-scenes stylist, died Sunday in a car crash in Georgia. He was 71. His death was confirmed by a spokesman for the band. 11Alive, a TV station in Atlanta, reported that Sumler was killed after his car collided with another vehicle as he was traveling on Veterans Memorial Highway in Georgias Cobb County. Sumler, who was known as Chicago Mike, had performed Sunday evening in Mableton, Georgia, with the group Con Funk Shun, whose Michael Cooper paid tribute to Sumler on social media. We had no idea that Sunday nights Loves Train would be your last ride, Cooper wrote. Rest in heavenly piece. In its statement, Kool & the Gang described Sumler as our longtime wardrobe valet and said he worked with the band from 2000 to 2015, making sure the guys looked their best on stage every night. Sumler also hyped the crowd with his energy and dance moves at the top of the show, the group added. Known for hits including Ladies Night, Jungle Boogie, Get Down on It and Celebration, Kool & the Gang was formed in the mid-1960s in Jersey City, New Jersey, by brothers Robert Bell (who went by Kool) and Ronald Khalis Bell along with several neighborhood pals. Khalis Bell died in 2020; George Funky Brown, the bands founding drummer, died in 2023. Last year the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which called Kool & the Gang the most sampled group in hip-hop history. Among the countless songs that have borrowed elements of Kool & the Gangs music: Nas N.Y. State of Mind, Mases Feel So Good, Lunizs I Got 5 on It, the Wu-Tang Clans Method Man and Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. In 2021, Kool & the Gang became the first act to perform for a full-capacity crowd at the Hollywood Bowl after a lengthy and unprecedented closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Information on Sumlers survivors wasnt immediately available. 2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Wafler Farms is arguing in a Wayne County Supreme Court case that the union is not legitimate, on the basis that the farm owner did not have the chance to discourage it from forming and that employees on guest worker visas do not have the right to unionize. Photo courtesy of a Wafler Farms worker By Julia Rock | New York Focus This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. Earlier this month, about a dozen workers arrived in Wolcott, a small town about 40 miles west of Syracuse, to grow apple trees. At this time of year, farmworkers are grafting and budding farmer-speak for fusing trees together and planting long rows of seedlings. They traveled to Wafler Farms, an apple orchard and fruit tree nursery, from Jamaica. Some have been making the journey for many years, living on the farm for up to three seasons and earning money to support their wives and send their children to school back home. Its a precarious arrangement: They can only return to the farm, and therefore to the U.S., if their boss brings them back. Sometimes you have to see something being done wrong and shut your mouth you cant say nothing. Because if you say something, you just might not come back next year, said Christopher, a seasonal worker who has been returning to the farm for a decade. (Four Wafler Farms workers spoke with New York Focus and asked to have their names changed to protect them from retaliation.) Things were supposed to be different this year. A long-awaited union contract took effect in April, granting workers benefits including higher pay and the right to return each year if there is work for them. So far, the contract is not being followed, according to the farmworkers. Wafler Farms never agreed to the contract. The family-run farm refused to bargain with the union, which was formed in 2022 by a majority of the approximately 90 people working there during the peak of the harvest, and is affiliated with the United Farm Workers of America, a national labor union. So negotiations were moved to an independent arbitration process, as stipulated by state law. Wafler declined to participate in that process, as well, and a contract was finalized without the employers input. Its among the first few union contracts that farmworkers have won in New York since 2019, when the state legislature granted them collective bargaining rights as part of a package of landmark protections for agricultural workers. They are excluded from unionizing under federal law a legacy of New Deal-era racial politics. The fruit farm is now a testing ground for what workers can achieve under New Yorks law, and how far the state will go to help them. Wafler Farms is arguing in a Wayne County Supreme Court case that the union is not legitimate, on the basis that the farm owner did not have the chance to discourage it from forming and that employees on guest worker visas do not have the right to unionize. (A handful of farms and the New York State Vegetable Growers Association brought a lawsuit making a similar argument in October 2023, but the court upheld the right of guestworkers to organize, and the case is now being appealed.) Wafler has sought to halt contract negotiations while the case proceeds, but has so far failed to do so. Wafler Farms and its attorney did not respond to requests for comment. On April 30, the union filed a charge against Wafler Farms with the state Public Employment Relations Board for failing to follow the contract. The labor board, set up to resolve disputes for state public workers, is tasked with enforcing the farmworker union law. The charge is awaiting a hearing at PERB. If PERB rules against the farm, it may still be up to the union to enforce the contract. We would prefer that PERB would say, Hey, we issued this order and the company is refusing to abide by it, were going to take them to court, said Armando Elenes, secretary treasurer of the United Farm Workers. But Elenes isnt optimistic that the board will be that aggressive. We are testing the law in real time, he said. New Yorks more than 50,000 farmworkers had long been excluded from many of the labor protections that other workers in the state enjoy. They didnt get overtime pay, benefits like disability and family leave, or the right to unionize. Then, in 2019, the legislature passed the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act, ending those exclusions. The law guarantees farmworkers a day of rest each week. It grants them overtime pay after 56 hours of work in a week (unlike the 40 hour threshold for other workers). And it gives them the right to unionize, although they cant legally go on strike, limiting their power to extract concessions. Since then, workers on fifteen farms in New York have formed unions. Eight have formed with the United Farm Workers, the union best known for its 20th century boycotts and worker organizing in California. The UFW has struggled in recent decades to retain members and win contracts, and labor experts have hailed its recent organizing successes in New York as a potential turning point. Its really hard to organize folks in rural areas, because folks are really isolated, said Reverend Richard Witt, executive director of the Rural & Migrant Ministry, a New York organization that helped pass the 2019 reforms. And then you add into that the power dynamics, and economic dynamics within agriculture, it makes it really, really hard to organize. The UFW and two other unions the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union have been organizing workers across the state, including on apple orchards, a dairy farm, and Long Island vineyards. Many of those workers are immigrants, often undocumented, or migrants who come to the US for a portion of the year through a guest worker program called H-2A. That program allows employers to hire temporary workers from other countries and requires them to provide housing and pay a minimum wage on par with the industrys wages in the region. More than 10,000 workers were approved for the visas in New York last year. At Wafler Farms, nearly all of the workers are Jamaicans on H-2A visas. They say the work offers a pathway to a better life. The wages here are a lot better than what we get in Jamaica, said Christopher, who has a wife and two children back home. To send your family to a good college, to live a standard life, its difficult in Jamaica. A regular nine to five cannot do it. One of the workers works as a DJ during his months in Jamaica, another as a tour guide, a third in construction. While the money supports their families, the farm work comes with challenges. For a lot of guys, your relationship gets ruined because of leaving your family for so long, said George, another worker. We take the chance because we want betterment for our family. The H-2A program does not provide a path to citizenship, and workers are excluded from the Social Security system. Their presence in the US is contingent on their employer, meaning they cant seek out better pay and conditions by switching jobs, and they risk losing their livelihoods if they arent rehired. You just dont know if youre coming back until they call you, said Christopher. You could be in Jamaica, you dont have a primary job that you can depend on, youre depending on this job that you have now. In 2022, workers at Wafler decided to unionize with UFW. They hoped that a union would protect their jobs, even when they spoke up about working conditions. They also hoped it would stop the verbal abuse they faced from their boss. A video taken by one of the workers that year shows the owner screaming and repeatedly swearing at a group of them. Everybody was tired of this type of situation where if you see something wrong, and you try to talk about it, there is a backlash coming, said Christopher. The UFW has charged that some workers were called back later than usual last year in retaliation for union organizing. Those charges are awaiting a decision by the state labor board. At Wafler and on other farms, the union efforts have been extremely contentious, said Richard Stup, the director of the Agricultural Workforce Development Program at Cornell University. When you have a closely-held business like a farm, where people have been personally invested in it sometimes for generations, the idea of a union coming in and lodging itself in the middle of your business is almost inconceivable. Farm owner Paul Wafler was really pissed when he found out about the union, Chistopher said. He was like, You stabbed me in the back. A couple of miles down the road from Wafler Farms, workers at Cahoon Farms, which grows apples and cherries, also organized with the UFW and won the unions first contract in New York. Management at Cahoons Farm agreed to follow it. The Wafler contract is the first in the state to be imposed through arbitration. Under the 2019 law, if the union and employer cant reach a contract through bargaining, the matter can be brought to an arbitrator selected by both sides. Since the unions arent allowed to strike, the process is meant to ensure that employers cant indefinitely delay negotiations. The Wafler Farms contract includes the recall rights that the workers had sought: they will be brought back every year in order of seniority. Theyll get a small wage increase for the two years of the contract, paid holidays and vacation, and some employer matching for a retirement plan. But right now, that contract isnt being followed, the UFW charges. The workers are not being paid the more-than-$19 hourly wage stipulated by the contract, and the owner has changed their working conditions without negotiating with the union. Under the 2019 reforms, farmworker unions are under the purview of PERB, which oversees New York public sector unions as well as private sector workers who cant unionize under federal law, like at horse racing tracks and religious organizations. The board has the power to certify unions, oversee the bargaining process, and rule on charges of unfair labor practices. Employers who violate the law face fines of up to $5,000 and up to a year in prison. The board can also petition the state Supreme Court to enforce the law. (No unfair labor practice charges in agricultural workplaces have yet reached that point.) PERB is used to dealing with public employers, which operate in a much different manner than not only private employers, but agricultural private employers, said Elenes of the UFW. I think theyre having a wake up call that this is a different animal this is agriculture. The unions charge against the farm for violating the contract is awaiting a hearing at PERB. The union is seeking back pay for the workers, among other remedies. Our goal is the prompt resolution of certification and ULP matters and helping the parties build a healthy and productive collective bargaining relationship, PERB chairperson Timothy Connick told New York Focus in a statement. Even without the contract being followed, some things have changed since the workers unionized. For one, they now get paid for orientation. And the swearing has abated. They talk to us much different, said George. Theres a lot of respect now, said Christopher. Syracuse, N.Y. About a half-hour into deliberations, eight jurors in a lawsuit alleging a Syracuse police officer used too much force in a fatal shooting had a question. Did their verdict have to be unanimous? It was an indication the jurors likely did not all see the case the same way. Rome, N.Y. A fire in a Rome barn Thursday morning killed two horses and eight calves that were trapped inside, deputies said. The fire was first spotted around 9:35 a.m. by people driving by the barn at 7495 Cemetery Road in Rome, according to a news release from Oneida County Sheriffs Office. When deputies arrived, the barn was engulfed in flames. Firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire. Firefighters were able to get inside the barn and search for animals, said Rome Fire Department Deputy Chief Dan Gifford. Only one calve was alive inside. Eight calves and two horses were killed, according to Gifford. The owners were not there during the fire, and no one was injured, deputies said. The property is described as an 85-acre dairy farm owned by John Eggan IV, according to county real estate records. Syracuse.com staff writer Timia Cobb covers breaking news. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at tcobb@syracuse.com. Trees dot Syracuses North Side on a rainy spring day in this photo from May 2, 2019. Butternut Street is at center; the city skyline is seen in the distance. Trees are important to a city not just because they are beautiful; trees also cool neighborhoods, absorb stormwater, shelter wildlife -- and invite children to climb them. (N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com and Lauren Long | llong@syracuse.com) N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syra Syracuses urban forest is a vital part of the citys environment, infrastructure, and quality of life. As the city works to modernize its approach to tree management, residents have a unique opportunity to learn about proposed updates that will shape Syracuses green spaces for generations to come. FOCUS Greater Syracuse, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to fostering community engagement, announces its upcoming FOCUS Forum will be held online, via Zoom, on Friday, June 27, from 12:051 p.m. Registration is free and open to the public. The June forum will present information on the ongoing effort to modernize Syracuses Tree Ordinance, which was last updated in 1981. The updates are designed to reflect current best practices in urban forestry and align with the citys ReLeaf Syracuse initiative. Stephen Harris, city arborist for the City of Syracuse, will share how the updated ordinance aims to improve the management, protection and expansion of the urban forest. Harris will explain how the changes will affect tree planting, maintenance, and removal on both public and private property, and how the ordinance will support a healthier, more resilient tree canopy across the city. June FOCUS Forum Presenter: Stephen Harris FOCUS Greater Syracuse, Inc. The forum will also highlight the public engagement process and how community input has shaped the draft ordinance. Whether youre a homeowner, neighborhood leader, or passionate about Syracuses green spaces, this forum offers an opportunity to learn how trees impact our environment and how you can help shape the future of the citys urban forest. During the free registration, participants will have the opportunity to submit their questions to the panelists. Questions may be used during a moderated Q&A session following the presentations. The Forum is free to attend. Register at focussyracuse.org or click here. The Forum is part of FOCUS monthly Forum series, where experts discuss citizen-driven topics and engage with attendees through a moderated Q&A session. Forums are open to the public and typically last one hour. The June FOCUS Forum is sponsored by EDR. Through sponsorship, FOCUS can provide free access to this forum, serving as a valuable educational resource for all members of our community. FOCUS Greater Syracuse, Inc. is a non-profit organization that brings people together to build a better Central New York. FOCUS serves as a catalyst for community change by engaging citizens in informed dialogue and inspiring action on critical public issues. For more information, visit focussyracuse.org. Nolita Tanyhill is the new administrator for the Syracuse Citizen Review Board. (Syracuse Police Department) Syracuse Police Department Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuses watchdog over the police department has taken a critical step in resuming normal operations with the hiring of a new administrator. Nolita Tanyhill, a 17-year civilian employee in the Syracuse Police Department, has started work as the day-to-day leader of the citys Citizen Review Board. The CRB has been without an administrator or any other full-time staff since September. Kenneth Williams liked to say he quite literally fell into piano tuning. He was an eight-year-old student at the New York State Institute for the Blind in Batavia, NY, one Saturday morning when he came upon the schools piano instructor tuning a piano. On Thursday, an Upstate New York man pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary following an unusual break-in incident last summer. Per WNYT, Kenneth Radley, 45, broke into an Albany apartment on South Lake Avenue on Aug. 6, 2024, just after 5 p.m. Radley raided the apartment, helping himself to food and the residents clothes. He also took a bath. The apartment owner returned home to find Radley wearing his black tank top, gray sweatpants, and white Adidas sneakers. When the man asked Radley to leave, Radley claimed it was his apartment and began pushing the resident. A fight broke out and the resident managed to pin Radley to the floor until Albany police arrived. Per police, that was Radleys second burglary attempt that day. He had tried to break into a different apartment in the same building a few hours before. Radley will be sentenced on July 30 and faces 7 to 9 years in prison. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Prime Minister of Bulgaria Rosen Zhelyazkov to participate in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit, which will be dedicated to security issues, in particular in the Black Sea, and the development of cooperation in various areas, the press service of the head of the Ukrainian state said. "President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a call with Prime Minister of Bulgaria Rosen Zhelyazkov. The Head of State thanked for the meeting in Tirana on May 16, during which many important issues were discussed, both on common security and on bilateral cooperation," the President's Office said on Friday. It is reported that Zelenskyy invited Zhelyazkov to participate in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe summit. "The President informed about the countries that have already confirmed their participation: there will be a high level of representation. The Head of State also said that during the summit they will discuss security, including in the Black Sea, the restoration of Ukraine after the end of the war, and the development of cooperation in various areas," the report reads. The Prime Minister of Bulgaria thanked for the invitation and confirmed his participation in the summit. A wave of U.S. doctors is showing increased interest in moving to Canada. Stock photo. (Tetra Images | Getty Images) Tetra Images | Getty Images Interest in moving to Canada among American doctors is surging as they look to avoid President Donald Trump and his administration, according to a new report from NPR. The Medical Council of Canada has seen a 750% increase in the number of U.S. doctors creating accounts on a website site that is typically the first step toward being licensed in Canada, according to NPR. The number of applicants over the past seven months has spiked from 71 to 615. Medical licensing groups in Canadas biggest provinces are also seeing a rise in Americans either applying or receiving Canadian licenses. At least some of those doctors have disclosed they were moving specifically because of Trump, NPR said. The doctors that we are talking to are embarrassed to say theyre Americans, said John Philpott, CEO of CanAm Physician Recruiting, which recruits doctors into Canada, according to NPR. They state that right out of the gate: I have to leave this country. It is not what it used to be. Michael, an American emergency room physician, left the U.S. earlier this year. Too much of the nation had grown too comfortable with violence and cruelty, he said, according to NPR. Part of being a physician is being kind to people who are in their weakest place, Michael said, according to NPR. And I feel like our country is devolving to really step on people who are weak and vulnerable. At least one Canadian province is actively marketing itself to American doctors, NPR said. Doctors Manitoba represents physicians in the rural province, which struggles with one of Canadas worst doctor shortages. The group launched a recruiting campaign after the election to capitalize on Trump and the rise of far-right politics in the U.S., according to NPR. The campaign advertises zero political interference in physician patient relationship as a selling point, NPR said. Alison Carleton, a family medicine doctor who moved from Iowa to Manitoba in 2017, said she left to escape the daily grind of Americas for-profit health care system and because she was appalled that Trump was elected the first time, NPR said. She told NPR she now runs a small-town clinic with low stress and less paperwork. People I know have said, You left just in time, Carleton said, according to NPR. I tell people, I know. When are you going to move? Trumps administration has made a number of changes in U.S. health policy in recent months, including ending the recommendation of Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a memorial event honoring Yaron Lishinsky and Sarah Milgrom, alongside Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, in Jerusalem, Monday, May 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool) AP The city of Syracuse is on a list of more than 500 sanctuary jurisdictions released on Thursday that the Trump administration says are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens. The list, released by the Department of Homeland Security, is in response to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in April dealing with immigration enforcement. The list includes a dozen cities located in New York state, as well as 15 counties and the state of New York itself. According to the announcement from the DHS, each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance and all potential violations of federal criminal statutes. The DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. Thursdays announcement did not specify what penalties that the jurisdictions may face, but a White House fact sheet about the order stated that jurisdictions that do not comply with federal law may lose federal funding. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law. President Trump and I will always put the safety of the American people first. Sanctuary politicians are on notice: comply with federal law. Former Mayor Stephanie Miner declared Syracuse a sanctuary city in 2017. Miners successor, Ben Walsh, said in 2018 he wouldnt change the citys immigration enforcement policies, but would not call Syracuse a sanctuary city. In January, Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley said his office would not comply with ICE requests to detain undocumented immigrants. He said the policy had been in effect since he became sheriff in 2023, and complies with the Fourth Amendments protection against unreasonable search and seizure. I took an oath to protect peoples constitutional rights, Shelley said at the time. Everything this sheriffs office does is going to be legal. Were not going to hold anyone illegally. In January, Walsh released a statement saying that Syracuse has been and always will be a welcoming city and proud refugee and immigrant resettlement community. The Syracuse Police Department does not enforce federal immigration law, but we do support federal efforts to remove violent criminals from our streets. In April, the Trump administration filed suit against the city of Rochester over its sanctuary city policies, and border czar Tom Homan visited the city and met with police officers there. NY state places on DHS list of sanctuary jurisdictions State: Self-Identification as a State Sanctuary Jurisdiction Counties: Albany County, Dutchess County, Monroe County, Orange County, Putnam County, Rockland County, Saratoga County, Suffolk County, Sullivan County, Tompkins County, Ulster County, Warren County, Wayne County, Westchester County, Yates County Cities: Albany, Beacon, East Hampton, Hudson, Ithaca, Kingston, New Paltz, New York City, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Syracuse The elevated portion of Interstate 81 carries traffic past the Pioneer Homes public housing development in Syracuse, Friday, June 24, 2022. The massive bill passed by House Republicans to enact President Donald Trumps domestic agenda cancels a $30 million grant for Syracuse to revitalize one of the citys poorest neighborhoods. Syracuse won the competitive grant from the Federal Highway Administration last year to kick-start the biggest transformation of a neighborhood in the citys modern history. The money would help Syracuse build a new neighborhood that would rise when Interstate 81 is torn down and replaced by a street-level boulevard. The grant would pay for new streets, parks, bike paths, lighting, sidewalks, trees and recreation areas the infrastructure needed for a project to replace public housing with market-rate and affordable homes as part of a 10-year redevelopment plan. But now House Republicans have voted to cancel all unspent grants from the $3.3 billion Neighborhood Access and Equity Program. The language canceling the program was included in a single paragraph on page 724 of the 1,116-page bill, officially named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. House Republicans, who passed the final bill 215-214 in the middle of the night May 22, said the remaining money in the program would be permanently rescinded. The program established by Congress in 2022 and signed into law by former President Joe Biden aims to help rebuild disadvantaged or underserved communities that have been torn apart by interstate highways. GOP leaders said they want to take back more than $2 billion worth of grants that had been awarded but not fully spent through the program. The savings would be used to meet their broader goal of reducing the federal deficit. The bill now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate, where Syracuse officials and advocates for the grant program say they will push to have the funding restored. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate Democratic leader, said he will try to work with Republicans to take out the cutbacks in the Senate version of the bill. The idea of clawing back grant money for Syracuses I-81 project to pay for Trumps tax cuts is outrageous, Schumer said in a statement. It is taking money out from Central New Yorkers pockets to pay for tax breaks for billionaires, and everyone should be angry about this. Syracuse and New York state beat out more than 500 other communities last year to win a combined $180 million grant from the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program. The state Department of Transportation completed the necessary steps to secure its $150 million share of the grant. But Syracuse received only $300,000 of its $30 million grant, pending environmental reviews. The city is required by federal law to complete designs and a study of potential environmental impacts before it could access the remaining money, said Greg Loh, Syracuses chief policy officer. The study, required by the National Environmental Policy Act, has not yet started, Loh said. It is expected to take up to two years to complete. Loh said that Syracuse city officials plan to seek support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to restore the funding in any final bill negotiated between the House and Senate. Separately, the nonprofit group Transportation for America said it will advocate for the program with Republican senators whose states would see projects canceled if the funding is cut off. About $1 billion of funding is at risk in red or purple states, said Corrigan Salerno, policy manager for Transportation for America. Theres a demonstrated need for these projects, Salerno said. Its shortsighted to cut them off, considering the economic needs of these communities. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner at 571-970-3751. Pat Hogan, left, Chol Majok and Sharon Owens wait for a Syracuse Democratic mayoral primary candidates debate to start on Thursday, May 29, 2025. The forum held at Everson Museum was produced by Central Current. (Jeremy Boyer I JBoyer@syracuse.com) Jeremy Boyer I JBoyer@syracuse.com COMMACK, N.Y. (AP) A man was killed and another injured after a dumpster they were sleeping in was emptied into a garbage truck in New York, police said Thursday. The two men had been in a dumpster at a shopping plaza in Commack, on Long Island, when the dumpster was emptied into a garbage truck early Thursday, according to Suffolk County police. When the truck stopped at William Rogers Middle School in Kings Park, nearly six miles away, someone spotted a person inside the back of the truck at around 6:30 a.m. Police said that person was removed and taken to Huntington Hospital for treatment of a leg injury. The other man was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the medical examiners office will determine the cause of death, but said they dont believe the man was dead before he was dumped in the truck. Police also didnt identify the men other than to say they were believed to have been both sleeping in the dumpster at the time. School officials in Kings Park sent a message to parents to assure them that the emergency response at the middle school was completely unrelated to the school, that there was no threat to students or staff, and that classes were operating as usual. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. The News in Brief Friday, May 30, 2025 The Polish and French embassies in Tbilisi issued advisories cautioning their citizens about potential entry risks into Georgia. The Polish Embassy highlighted that participation in or presence at ongoing protests, as well as social media activity, could lead to denial of entry. They emphasized that Georgian authorities have the sovereign right to assess risk factors for entry, which may apply even to holders of valid Georgian residence permits. The embassy also noted that foreigners participating in demonstrations could face hefty fines and that re-entry might require immediate payment.Later that day, the French Embassy issued a similar statement, advising travelers to check for any factors that could put them at risk of being refused entry, including involvement in demonstrations and online activity.These advisories follow a series of incidents over the past year where foreign nationals, including journalists, activists, and politicians, have been denied entry into Georgia. The situation has intensified amid ongoing protests since November 2024. Notably, on May 21, Simon Vanderbroucke, a member of the EU Delegation to Georgia, was denied entry at Tbilisi International Airport, marking the first reported case of an EU diplomat being refused entry. Georgian Dream authorities attributed the incident to a "technical problem."The advisories also come in the context of proposed legislative amendments aimed at tightening immigration controls. Under these amendments, foreigners could be expelled from Georgia and barred from re-entering for administrative offenses such as petty hooliganism and disobedience to police. The Interior Ministry has indicated that foreign participants in protests will be particular targets of these changes.Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, marking their sixth meeting since Georgia's October 2024 parliamentary elections. The following day, Kobakhidze addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where he echoed Orban's rhetoric and criticized Western liberalism.During their meeting, Kobakhidze expressed gratitude for Hungary's support of Georgia's European integration and emphasized the growing partnership between the two nations. He praised Orban for his unwavering defense of Hungary's sovereignty and national interests.In his CPAC speech, Kobakhidze portrayed Georgia as a nation with a rich Christian heritage, asserting its commitment to preserving national identity and faith. He criticized what he termed "liberal fascism," accusing foreign-funded NGOs and media of undermining traditional values and promoting divisive ideologies. He also alleged that a "deep state," which he referred to as the "Global War Party," orchestrates global unrest and seeks to erode national sovereignty.Kobakhidze reiterated Georgia's commitment to European integration but insisted that this path should not compromise the country's dignity or sovereignty. He condemned perceived double standards and emphasized the importance of national identity in the face of external pressures. In May 2025, the radiation, chemical, biological reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) recorded and documented 888 cases of use of munitions containing dangerous chemical compounds by the Russians, Head of the radiation, chemical, biological protection troops of the Command of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Yevhen Nahorny said. As reported in the Telegram of the General Staff on Friday, Nahorny announced such data at a briefing for representatives of the military-diplomatic corps accredited in Ukraine the Kyiv Association of Military Attaches. Representatives of more than 35 countries took part in the event. Military diplomats were informed about cases of Russia's use of chemical riot control agents against the Ukrainian Defense Forces as a means of warfare, and about Russia's violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. Nahorny said the Armed Forces of Ukraine have formed several dozen specially prepared and trained radiation, chemical, and biological reconnaissance groups that record the facts of the use of dangerous chemical substances by the Russians. "Thus, during May 2025 alone, radiation, chemical, and biological reconnaissance groups recorded and documented 888 cases of the use of ammunition containing dangerous chemical compounds by the Russians. The main means of delivery are the dropping of K-51 and RG-Vo grenades from UAVs," the General Staff said in a statement. It is reported that in total, from February 15, 2023 to May 29, 2025, some 9,167 cases of the use of dangerous chemical substances by the Russians were recorded. Deputy Chief of the Radiation, Chemical, Biological Protection Directorate of the Armed Forces Support Forces Command Serhiy Pakhomov said against the Defense Forces of Ukraine, Russia uses special ammunition equipped with dangerous chemical substances, in combination with conventional means of destruction. It is worth noting that the Russians use tear gas irritants (CS, CN) in gas grenades, which are used by the police against violators at demonstrations. Formally, CS and CN substances are not chemical weapons and, according to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction of January 13, 1993, they belong to "chemical means of riot control." The Convention defines in Article II, clause 7: Chemical riot control agent as: any chemical not included in the lists that is capable of rapidly causing irritation of the sensory organs or physical disorders in the human body, which disappear within a short time after the end of the action. However, the use of this gas during hostilities is unacceptable in accordance with Article II, clause 5 of the Convention. It is noted that the Russian command is clearly aware of the consequences of the use of such chemicals, because the aggressor country is a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Military diplomats were informed that as of May 29, 2025, Russia had not used lethal chemical warfare agents, and in the event of their use, they would definitely be detected by specialized units and the facts would be documented and made public. Celebrating the Global Impact of the Potato Today, Friday, 30 May is International Potato Day. In December 2023, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed 30th May as International Potato Day, recognising the crops critical role in global food security. The initial momentum for this declaration was sparked during the World Potato Congress held in Dublin in May 2022, where the importance of the potato was highlighted on an international stage. As the third most important food crop worldwide, the potato is gaining even more relevance, especially in developing countries, where it plays a key role in sustainable agriculture and nutrition. To mark the very first International Potato Day, Teagasc Potato Breeder, Dr. Denis Griffin will give a special talk at the joint Teagasc, Bord Bia and Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine stand at Bloom on Friday, 30 May at 10 am. Dr Griffin will talk about the potato crops global significance and Irelands long history with the crop. He will also cover the cutting-edge research being conducted in Ireland to aid sustainability, and how Irish science supports the potato sector both domestically and globally. He will discuss the Teagasc/IPM Potato Group breeding programme at the Teagasc Crops Research Department in Oak Park, Carlow and the traits being pursued to improve future potato crops. Two new potato varieties, Buster and Fidelity, recently released by the breeding programme will also be discussed. Leading Rural Sociologist Outlines Blueprint for Making EU Agriculture More Attractive Professor Frank Vanclay of the University of Groningen presented principles relevant to implementing the European Commissions ambitious Vision for EU Agriculture at Teagascs Mellows Campus on Thursday, 29 May, offering practical guidance on making farming more attractive. Professor Frank Vanclay of the University of Groningen presented principles relevant to implementing the European Commissions ambitious Vision for EU Agriculture at Teagascs Mellows Campus on Thursday, 29 May, offering practical guidance on making farming more attractive. Professor Frank Vanclay (centre) is pictured at the seminar with Dr Aine Macken-Walsh, Teagasc Sociologist and Paul Maher, Head of International Relations and Corporate Strategy in Teagasc. Speaking just three weeks after the European Commission launched its Vision for Shaping together an attractive farming and agri-food sector for future generation, Professor Vanclay outlined evidence-based social principles that could transform how agricultural policy and extension services operate across Europe. Four Key Principles for Agricultural Transformation Making Farming Attractive Beyond Economics: Professor Vanclay emphasised that attracting young people to agriculture requires addressing emotional, cultural, and identity aspects of farming, and not just economic incentives. Sustainability means staying on the farm, he explained, highlighting how policies must consider the deep desire of farmers to hand their operations to their children, while ensuring farming appeals to diverse groups including women farmers and non-traditional farm workers. Professor Vanclay emphasised that attracting young people to agriculture requires addressing emotional, cultural, and identity aspects of farming, and not just economic incentives. Sustainability means staying on the farm, he explained, highlighting how policies must consider the deep desire of farmers to hand their operations to their children, while ensuring farming appeals to diverse groups including women farmers and non-traditional farm workers. Addressing Structural Disadvantages: The presentation challenged common assumptions about struggling farmers. Marginal farmers are structured to be marginal due to historical policies and global economic forces, not poor individual choices, Professor Vanclay noted. He advocated for differentiated support tailored to specific farming styles and local contexts rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. The presentation challenged common assumptions about struggling farmers. Marginal farmers are structured to be marginal due to historical policies and global economic forces, not poor individual choices, Professor Vanclay noted. He advocated for differentiated support tailored to specific farming styles and local contexts rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. Farmer-Led Innovation Systems: Professor Vanclay stressed that farmers are natural experimenters who construct their own knowledge. Successful innovation policy should co-create solutions with farmers, rather than simply transfer technology, respecting local knowledge and ensuring compatibility with diverse farming approaches. This is particularly relevant for the success of CAP eco-schemes. Professor Vanclay stressed that farmers are natural experimenters who construct their own knowledge. Successful innovation policy should co-create solutions with farmers, rather than simply transfer technology, respecting local knowledge and ensuring compatibility with diverse farming approaches. This is particularly relevant for the success of CAP eco-schemes. Simplifying Policy Implementation: Complex and inflexible programmes reduce farmer trust and participation, Professor Vanclay warned. He called for simpler, context-sensitive programmes co-designed with farmers to enhance both legitimacy and effectiveness. Policy Implications The timing of Professor Vanclays presentation is particularly significant as EU member states begin implementing the Commissions Vision. His framework offers concrete guidance for designing CAP measures, extension services, and innovation programmess that could genuinely reverse the trend of agricultural decline and youth disengagement from farming. Dr Aine Macken-Walsh, Teagasc Sociologist and seminar chair said; While the Vision sets out what the future of EU agriculture should look like, Professor Vanclay provides powerful guidance on how to achieve this by working with farmers values, identities, and lived realities. Aidan Murray, Head of the Schemes Support Unit in Teagasc, highlighted the importance of schemes at their early development stages, in advance of them hitting the ground. Scheme design, and getting the views of as many as possible is vital for the eventual success and effectiveness of these schemes, gaining from the experience of advisors and farmers themselves, the Teagasc specialist said. Paul Maher, Head of International Relations and Corporate Strategy in Teagasc provided an international developing world context to discussions. He said; the ongoing challenge of developing agricultural extension globally points to the ongoing importance of Vanclays principles, and incorporating them into different systems of advice with different funding mechanisms requires a case-specific approach. Dr David Meredith, Head of the Teagasc Department of Agri-Food Business and Spatial Analysis, welcomed the presentation of Professor Vanclay and highlighted that his presentation marked the end of a six-part series featuring international and Irish research. The series demonstrates the significance of collaboration and knowledge exchange between advisors, researchers and policy makers, which is fundamentally important to how Teagasc engages with farmers and reinforcing its commitment to evidence-based, farmer-centred approaches, Dr Meredith said. Tanmay_868 BHPian Join Date: Jun 2022 Location: Delhi-NCR(HR13) Posts: 120 Thanked: 264 Times Amazing deals on Used Cars in India | List them here But the natural habit of procrastination led to delaying the idea for many months. The recent thread on In the above we discussed the cars that were available but couldnt be bought for what so ever reason. As it is said Let bygones be bygones, here in this thread we will discuss cars that are still available to buy at a mouthwatering prices or which just feels special. Criteria- (May suffice 1 or more criteria) 1. Priced less than market price 2. Niche category that were produced in limited numbers like- VW GTI Ex:1. I found there are many luxury cars available in NCR which are registered in different state available at a great price 2. Distress sales I think you all got the Drift Please do not post normal listings in this thread. We have a separate thread for that https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...s-details.html (BHPian-owned cars for Sale | Pics & details) So Bhpians finally your countless hours of just scrolling OLX,CarTrade,Classifieds,FB Marketplace (I am sure you all do, or is it just me ) will now come to use and will certainly benefit the community. Format for the Listing Classifieds Link: Make & Model: Asking Price: Year: Kms: Fuel: Location of the posting: Regn State: Kicking off the thread with my share:- Classifieds Link: Make & Model: Audi A6 Technology Asking Price: 32,00,000 Year:2021 Kms:27000 Fuel: Petrol Location of the posting: Gurgaon, HR Regn State: Maharashtra Classifieds Link: Make & Model: Volvo XC60 B5 Inscription Asking Price: 44,90,000 Year: 2022 Kms: 13,000 Fuel: Petrol Location of the posting: Noida, Uttar Pradesh Regn State: Tamil Nadu Classifieds Link: Make & Model: Audi S5 (Stage-2) Asking Price: 50,00,000 Year: 2022 Kms:35,000 Fuel: Petrol Location of the posting: Kanpur/Delhi Regn State: Assam Let the postings begin!! Note to Moderators:- This is my First thread. Please feel free to make any changes you feel are correct regarding criteria or rules. This thread was in my mind for a long time.But the natural habit of procrastination led to delaying the idea for many months.The recent thread on https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...-got-away.html (Cars We Let Go The One That Got Away) prompted me to post this thread.In the above we discussed the cars that were available but couldnt be bought for what so ever reason.As it is said Let bygones be bygones, here in this thread we will discuss cars that are still available to buy at a mouthwatering prices or which just feels special.(May suffice 1 or more criteria)1. Priced less than market price2. Niche category that were produced in limited numbers like- VW GTI:1. I found there are many luxury cars available in NCR which are registered in different state available at a great price2. Distress salesI think you all got the DriftPlease do not post normal listings in this thread. We have a separate thread for thatSo Bhpians finally your countless hours of just scrolling OLX,CarTrade,Classifieds,FB Marketplace (I am sure you all do, or is it just me) will now come to use and will certainly benefit the community.Classifieds Link:Make & Model:Asking Price:Year:Kms:Fuel:Location of the posting:Regn State:Kicking off the thread with my share:-Classifieds Link: https://www.olx.in/ad/1805761672 Make & Model: Audi A6 TechnologyAsking Price: 32,00,000Year:2021Kms:27000Fuel: PetrolLocation of the posting: Gurgaon, HRRegn State: MaharashtraClassifieds Link: https://www.olx.in/ad/1798306027 Make & Model: Volvo XC60 B5 InscriptionAsking Price: 44,90,000Year: 2022Kms: 13,000Fuel: PetrolLocation of the posting: Noida, Uttar PradeshRegn State: Tamil NaduClassifieds Link: https://www.olx.in/ad/1805730731 Make & Model: Audi S5 (Stage-2)Asking Price: 50,00,000Year: 2022Kms:35,000Fuel: PetrolLocation of the posting: Kanpur/DelhiRegn State: AssamLet the postings begin!!Note to Moderators:- This is my First thread. Please feel free to make any changes you feel are correct regarding criteria or rules. SID131 Newbie Join Date: Nov 2024 Location: Kolkata Posts: 12 Thanked: 81 Times A short trip to the borders of Bangladesh But, as any seasoned traveler knows, weekend gateways come with their own set of hurdles. Ours ? Finding four rooms at Hotel Sonar Bangla Taki on the long weekend of 12th April 2025 with Amedkar Jayanti on 14th April 2025. With most rooms booked out, we were almost ready to reconsider the plan until one of our Travel Buddy with right connections stepped in and worked some magic with the hotel. Thanks to him, the trip was back on track with 4 rooms for 1 night at Sonar Bangla. On the morning of 12th April we rolled out our two solid machines : his feature packed Mahindra XUV 700 and my trusty Jolly Roger (Bolero Neo N10) the perfect pair to tackle the 70 kms of state highway to Taki. The drive was mostly slow due to heavy traffic and congestion at local markets , the average speed being 40 Km per hour through Bantala > Ghatakpukur > Golaghata to Taki. The last 5 kms stretch to the hotel is narrow and broken, hence careful driving is recommended. On Taki road... Sonar Bangla is the best one in Taki View from our room... Night lights... The Moon....this pic was taken by one of my co-traveler Ichamati in the evening Hotel swimming pool by the river....this pic was taken by one of my co-traveler Taki Raj Bari, also called Puber Bari, showcases the architectural heritage of Bengal from the British era. Durga Dalan, Taki Zamindar Bari. Remains of old tools Taki Ramakrishna Math... Kuleshwari Kali Temple... The main attraction of Taki - Boat ride on river Ichamati Bangladesh on the other side.... Our girls on the boat... Our hotel from the river... This one overtook our boatclap.... Full moon night on our way back... Taki may not be a far flung destination, but its quieter charm and laid back vibe make it a perfect weekend escape. Sometimes its the short drives and simple moments that leave the longest-lasting memories. Sometimes, the best trips are the ones that come together at the very last minute and thats exactly how our weekend escape to Taki was born. Four families, two cars, and one shared craving for a break from the city.But, as any seasoned traveler knows, weekend gateways come with their own set of hurdles. Ours ? Finding four rooms at Hotel Sonar Bangla Taki on the long weekend of 12th April 2025 with Amedkar Jayanti on 14th April 2025. With most rooms booked out, we were almost ready to reconsider the plan until one of our Travel Buddy with right connections stepped in and worked some magic with the hotel. Thanks to him, the trip was back on track with 4 rooms for 1 night at Sonar Bangla.On the morning of 12th April we rolled out our two solid machines : his feature packed Mahindra XUV 700 and my trusty Jolly Roger (Bolero Neo N10) the perfect pair to tackle the 70 kms of state highway to Taki. The drive was mostly slow due to heavy traffic and congestion at local markets , the average speed being 40 Km per hour through Bantala > Ghatakpukur > Golaghata to Taki. The last 5 kms stretch to the hotel is narrow and broken, hence careful driving is recommended.On Taki road...Sonar Bangla is the best one in TakiView from our room...Night lights...The Moon....this pic was taken by one of my co-travelerIchamati in the eveningHotel swimming pool by the river....this pic was taken by one of my co-travelerTaki Raj Bari, also called Puber Bari, showcases the architectural heritage of Bengal from the British era.Durga Dalan, Taki Zamindar Bari.Remains of old toolsTaki Ramakrishna Math...Kuleshwari Kali Temple...The main attraction of Taki - Boat ride on river IchamatiBangladesh on the other side....Our girls on the boat...Our hotel from the river...This one overtook our boatclap....Full moon night on our way back...Taki may not be a far flung destination, but its quieter charm and laid back vibe make it a perfect weekend escape. Sometimes its the short drives and simple moments that leave the longest-lasting memories. Last edited by SID131 : 29th May 2025 at 16:46 . Reason: Conclusion added Big quote: In an interview with Bloomberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made it clear that while the company navigates a complex geopolitical landscape, it remains committed to innovation and ensuring that American technology continues to set the standard worldwide. He highlighted both the opportunities and risks facing US tech leaders and the pivotal role that government policy will play in shaping the industry's future. "Irrespective of the near-term revenue success we have had, we can't ignore the fact that the Chinese market is very important," Huang said. Huang was candid about the company's position amid shifting US trade policies and intensifying global competition in artificial intelligence. Huang, whose remarks came on the heels of Nvidia's earnings call, was asked about the influence of US policy on the company's recent financial success. While he acknowledged the challenges presented by export restrictions, he reserved his most enthusiastic comments for two key initiatives associated with the current US administration. "The idea of tariffs being a pillar of a bold vision to re-industrialize to onshore manufacturing and motivate the world to invest in the United States is just an incredible vision," Huang told Bloomberg. He described the strategy as "utterly visionary," emphasizing its potential to transform the American economy for decades to come. "We're all in on the idea. We're setting up plants and encouraging our partners from around the world to invest in the United States, and we have a lot of stuff going on, and so I'm very excited about that," he said. Huang also praised the decision to rescind the so-called AI Diffusion Rule, which had previously limited the export of advanced AI technologies. "This isn't about limiting American technology, but this is about accelerating American stacks around the world to make sure that, before it's too late, the world builds on American stacks during this extraordinary time, the AI era," he explained. "These two initiatives are completely visionary, and it's going to be transformative for America." Despite these endorsements, Huang did not shy away from addressing the difficulties Nvidia faces in the Chinese market as a result of US export controls. The company, which once counted China as its largest chip market, expects to lose approximately $8 billion in sales this quarter alone due to the restrictions. "We have a whole bunch of engines firing right now," Huang said, pointing to Nvidia's diversified customer base and strong performance of its latest Blackwell chip, which he called "a home run." Yet, the loss of access to China has had significant consequences. Huang noted that the country is home to "maybe 50 percent of the world's AI researchers," and that US policy has prompted many developers to pivot to domestic alternatives such as Huawei. "That's an unfortunate part of changing policy," he said, expressing hope that American technology could regain its foothold in the future. Huang warned that Chinese competitors are rapidly closing the technological gap. "The Chinese competitors have evolved," he said, singling out Huawei as "quite formidable." He pointed out that Huawei's newest AI chip now rivals the performance of Nvidia's H200, which was state-of-the-art until recently. Under current regulations, Nvidia is unable to ship even its downgraded H20 chip to China. "It's not possible to degrade the product's capabilities further," Huang said, adding that any new product for the Chinese market would require US government approval. The interview also touched on the impact of US visa restrictions on Chinese students. Huang, who immigrated to the United States from Taiwan, underscored the importance of attracting global talent. "I believe the administration still feels very strongly about the incredible importance of immigration," he said. "We would like the brightest to come here." The negotiations on 2 June should lead to an unconditional ceasefire or increased support for Ukraine During the Black Sea Security Forum, People's Deputy and leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko stated that the key outcome of the negotiations on 2 June should be an unconditional ceasefire. He stressed that if this does not happen, Ukraine and its allies must immediately move to Plan B, which provides for expanded military supplies and a new level of sanctions against Russia. The politician emphasised the need for immediate decisions, noting that delaying the process only increases Ukraine's losses in the war, according to the European Solidarity website. We need to stop losing territory, stop losing people and stop wasting time, Poroshenko said. In addition to military support, he called for tougher economic restrictions on Russia, in particular the cessation of Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Poroshenko stressed that these measures should send a clear signal to the international community, demonstrating Ukraine's readiness to act decisively. He also expressed hope that the new US administration would support this initiative and contribute to the implementation of Plan B. In conclusion, Poroshenko stressed that only a comprehensive approach, including military aid, sanctions and economic initiatives, could change the situation and force Russia to reconsider its position on the negotiations. What just happened? The Department of Energy has announced plans for a new supercomputer designed to significantly accelerate research across a wide range of scientific fields. The initiative highlights the growing convergence between commercial AI development and the computational demands of cutting-edge scientific discovery. The advanced system, to be housed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and scheduled to become operational in 2026, will be named "Doudna" in honor of Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, whose groundbreaking work on CRISPR gene editing has revolutionized molecular biology. Dell Technologies has been selected to deliver the Doudna supercomputer, marking a significant shift in the landscape of government-funded high-performance computing. While companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise have traditionally dominated this space, Dell's successful bid signals a new chapter. "A big win for Dell," said Addison Snell, CEO of Intersect360 Research, in an interview with The New York Times, noting the company's historically limited presence in this domain. Dell executives explained that the Doudna project enabled them to move beyond the longstanding practice of building custom systems for individual laboratories. Instead, they focused on developing a flexible platform capable of serving a broad array of users. "This market had shifted into some form of autopilot. What we did was disengage the autopilot," said Paul Perez, senior vice president and technology fellow at Dell. A defining feature of Doudna will be its use of Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, engineered to combine the strengths of traditional scientific simulations with the power of modern AI. Unlike previous Department of Energy supercomputers, which relied on processors from Intel or AMD, Doudna will incorporate a general-purpose Arm-based CPU from Nvidia, paired with the company's Rubin AI chips designed specifically for artificial intelligence and simulation workloads. The architecture aims to meet the needs of the laboratory's 11,000 users, who increasingly depend on both high-precision modeling and rapid AI-driven data analysis. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, described the new system with enthusiasm. "Doudna is a time machine for science compressing years of discovery into days," he said, adding that it will let "scientists delve deeper and think bigger to seek the fundamental truths of the universe." In terms of performance, Doudna is expected to be over 10 times faster than the lab's current flagship system, making it the Department of Energy's most powerful resource for training AI models and conducting advanced simulations. Jonathan Carter, associate lab director for computing sciences at Berkeley Lab, said the system's architecture was shaped by the evolving needs of researchers many of whom are now using AI to augment simulations in areas like geothermal energy and quantum computing. Doudna's design reflects a broader shift in supercomputing. Traditional systems have prioritized 64-bit calculations for maximum numerical accuracy, but modern AI workloads often benefit from lower-precision operations (such as 16-bit or 8-bit) that enable faster processing speeds. Dion Harris, Nvidia's head of data center product marketing, noted that the flexibility to combine different levels of precision opens new frontiers for scientific research. The supercomputer will also be tightly integrated with the Energy Sciences Network, allowing researchers nationwide to stream data directly into Doudna for real-time analysis. Sudip Dosanjh, director of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, described the new system as "designed to accelerate a broad set of scientific workflows." In a nutshell: Despite existing as little more than an empty shell under the control of the private equity firm Fortress Investment Group, VLSI continues to pursue billions of dollars from Intel. However, a recent jury trial delivered a verdict in favor of Chipzilla a decision that could potentially derail Fortress's entire monetization strategy. After a three-day jury trial, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that VLSI Technology LLC and Finjan Inc. are both under the control of investment management firm Fortress Investment Group. Intel had a licensing agreement with Finjan, and the jury agreed with Intel's argument that the same agreement extends to VLSI's patents allegedly used by the company in the past. This new verdict could have far-reaching consequences for the ongoing legal battle between Intel and VLSI. In an earlier trial, Fortress claimed that Intel had infringed a patent VLSI acquired from Dutch firm NXP Semiconductors NV. The technology in question was said to aid the chip design process, although Intel maintained it was not used in any of its CPUs. In 2022, a federal jury in Texas ordered Intel to pay nearly $1 billion in damages for the alleged infringement. Intel has since argued that the case should be revisited, asserting that its 2012 agreement with Finjan covers the patent in question since both Finjan and VLSI fall under Fortress's "common control." During the latest trial, Intel's lawyers argued successfully that VLSI and Finjan are managed by the same individuals linked to Fortress Investment Group. Two of VLSI's three board members are Fortress employees, and the same is true for a majority of Finjan's board. VLSI's legal team claimed these individuals act in the interest of investors, not Fortress itself. Now that the district court has sided with Intel, Fortress may be forced to reconsider or even abandon its entire strategy to extract billions from the chipmaker. VLSI had previously won a similar case against Intel and was awarded a massive $2.2 billion in damages. With this new verdict, those combined $3 billion in patent infringement rulings could be overturned. Fortress acquired control of VLSI and INVT SPE LLC through its investment funds, gaining access to a portfolio of potentially lucrative technology patents. It then launched multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Intel, Apple, HTC, and other telecom firms. Critics say Fortress and VLSI are acting as patent trolls, leveraging litigation for profit rather than innovation. The latest decision in Intel's favor suggests that this monetization strategy may be on the verge of collapsing. WTF?! Would you be willing to wear a stick-on facial tattoo that makes you look like a poor Cyberpunk 2077 cosplayer? You might be more tempted by the fact it's designed to show when your brain is overworked and you're at risk of making errors. Dr Nanshu Lu, an author of the research from the University of Texas at Austin, writes that the e-tattoo could be valuable for professions that require high levels of concentration for extended periods, such as air traffic controllers, vehicle drivers, pilots, and robot operators. The device could give wearers warnings and alerts should it detect they are becoming mentally overloaded, allowing them to adjust their workload or ask a co-worker for some help. "Technology is developing faster than human evolution. Our brain capacity cannot keep up and can easily get overloaded," said Lu. "There is an optimal mental workload for optimal performance, which differs from person to person." "Previous studies indicated that the optimal mental performance occurs when the mental workload demand is not too low or too high," Lu added. "When it's too low, it's very boring, and the people will just lose focus." Lu and colleagues write that using self-reporting questionnaires for mental workload assessment often results in participants not objectively reporting their cognitive effort, and they are often conducted after a task. While traditional electroencephalography (EEG) and electrooculography (EOG) devices can be used for physiological mental workload monitoring, they are wired, bulky, and uncomfortable. They are also affected by head movements, meaning they're not exactly practical for real-world use. The wireless forehead EEG and EOG sensor is designed to be as thin and conformable as possible. It is worn on the skin as a temporary tattoo sticker, which means it can be worn while the wearer is also sporting headgear such as a helmet. Being a sticker means the device can be personalized to fit different sized heads, ensuring the sensors are always in the right spot. The tattoo is disposable and connected to a reusable flexible printed circuit using conductive tape, with the battery clipped on the device. The entire setup is expected to cost less than $200. The researchers tested the system by placing the tattoo on six volunteers. The participants watched 20 letters flash onto a screen one after another, each in a different spot. They clicked the mouse whenever the current letter or its position matched the one that had appeared a number (N) of items earlier. Every volunteer repeated the exercise several times while N varied from 0 to 3, creating four escalating difficulty levels. As the tests became more difficult, theta and delta brainwaves increased, indicating increased cognitive demands, while alpha and beta activity increased in line with their fatigue. After feeding all the test data into a machine-learning algorithm, the researchers found the system was better able to predict mental workload than EEG and EOG data alone. The next step for the researchers is to find a method for the signals to be decoded by the device's microprocessor, which can then alert an app if a wearer's mental workload becomes too high. The robotaxi plans for Tesla are rapidly accelerating as the company is now making more of their presence known in their service areas, particularly in Austin where several driverless Model Ys are already gracing the streets. The latest venture from Tesla doubles down on the robotaxi testing that the company introduced last year via the We, Robot event, focusing on self-driving cars and its technology. Elon Musk's robotaxi service is now expanding on its testing in different cities, and it will soon compete with the likes of Alphabet's Waymo, Amazon Zoox, and other autonomous ride-hailing services in the market. Tesla: Driverless Model Ys Now Testing in Austin For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in drivers seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents. A month ahead of schedule. Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025 According to a new post by Elon Musk on X, driverless Model Y cars of the company are now testing independently in Austin, Texas, the second city where it plans to launch a robotaxi service. Musk revealed that the driverless Model Ys have been strolling around the city in the past few days, and so far, there have been no reported incidents involving its EVs and technology. Musk also revealed that Tesla went ahead to test the driverless technology in Austin a month ahead of its planned schedule, with the company ramping up its testing for future robotaxi operations. That being said, Musk did not reveal if this driverless Model Y operations in Austin featured a safety driver inside, one that would not drive the car per se but intervene when there is an accident about to happen. Tesla Robotaxi is Coming Soon to Austin According to Tesla's post, this is for the robotaxi operations that the company plans to soon launch over in Austin, and it has already gone ahead of schedule to enact its tests in real scenarios. It remains unknown what Tesla's progress is in its robotaxi operations in Austin and other places where it has already launched, but Musk revealed that next month, self-delivery from factory to customer is coming. Tesla and Its Robotaxi Plans After the massive announcements shared by Tesla during last year's We, Robot event, the company confirmed that it will bring a robotaxi service for the public, which it plans to launch shortly. Musk revealed that 2025 is the target date to launch Tesla's autonomous ride-hailing services, but it would first undergo testing that would help it map out areas and improve its technology. Earlier this year, Tesla stayed true to its word about starting its robotaxi business, particularly as the company applied for a ride-hail permit in California that will focus greatly on San Francisco. After securing their permit, the company started testing its self-driving robotaxis that is currently exclusive for employees, with its early operations in San Francisco still having a safety driver. Tesla has since expanded their robotaxi operation testing in San Francisco that are exclusive for employees for the time being, with the company also having operations in Austin that use the FSD Supervised technology. That being said, Tesla is now all-in with its robotaxi operations in either city, with its massive expansion in Austin marking the beginning of driverless services in its second city. We reported earlier this month that Microsoft has plans to phase out the password storage and autofill feature from its Microsoft Authenticator app starting in July 2025, with a complete phase-out by August 2025. Now, the app has started warning users that its password autofill feature will stop working in July 2025, and it is encouraging everyone to switch over to Microsoft Edge to use these functionalities instead. For those unaware, Microsoft Authenticator is a mobile app designed to provide an extra layer of security through multi-factor authentication (MFA). It helps users confirm their identity by using a second method, like a code, push notification, or biometric data such as a fingerprint or face scan, alongside their regular password. The app also supports passwordless sign-ins and, until recently, included a password autofill feature that synced across devices through a Microsoft account. Timeline of the Phase Out June 2025: You will no longer be able to save new passwords in Authenticator. July 2025: You will not be able to use autofill with Authenticator. August 2025: Your saved passwords will no longer be accessible in Authenticator. If you are one of those who depend on password autofill through Authenticator, nows the right time to start planning your switch, whether to Microsoft Edge or choose another password manager that works best for you. For those who prefer a different password manager, theres still good news: you can export your passwords from Authenticator as a CSV file and import them into the tool of your choice. Microsoft has started displaying a full-screen alert in the app informing users to export their saved passwords before July 1, 2025, or move to Microsoft Edge to continue using autofill. The Redmond giant is giving users until August 1, 2025, to get their saved login information out of the app before it is gone for good. Autofill via Authenticator ends in July 2025. You can export your saved info (passwords only) from Authenticator until Autofill ends. Access your passwords and addresses via Microsoft Edge at any time, reads the Microsoft Authenticator notification about deprecation. To keep autofilling your info, turn on Edge or other provider. It also gives the user the option to export their saved passwords (note: only saved passwords, not generated ones or the ones on password history) and switch to another autofill provider like Edge. There is also a button labelled Turn on Edge that will take iOS users directly to their AutoFill & Passwords setting screen to set up Microsoft Edge as their default password autofill provider. According to Microsofts support page, all saved passwords and addresses are synced with your Microsoft account. In other words, if you make the move to Edge, you will still have access to all your information once the feature is deprecated. Your saved passwords (but not your generated password history) and addresses are securely synced to your Microsoft account, and you can continue to access them and enjoy seamless autofill functionality with Microsoft Edge, a secure and user-friendly AI-powered web browser that offers features such as Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, Password Monitor, and InPrivate search, reads the Microsoft support page. Senator Graham expects US Senate to start introducing bill on sanctions against Russia next week U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican Party) expects the U.S. Senate to start introducing a bill on sanctions against Russia next week. During a press conference in Kyiv, Graham said he expects the Senate to start promoting the bill on sanctions next week. There are members of the House of Representatives who are ready to make their changes, and all will be able to see the actions of Congress. According to him, U.S. President Donald Trump said the next two-week period will be decisive for the outcome. Graham also said he does not see that the Russians are interested in peace, and does not believe that a possible meeting in Istanbul can bring any hope. The senator said when this two-week period is over, it will be very clear to everyone that Russia is playing a game at the expense of the world, not just the United States. He added that the United States is going to change this Russian game. U.S. President Donald Trump is very disappointed with Vladimir Putin, because he talks vaguely about peace and continues to kill Ukrainian children, Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican Party) said. During a press conference in Kyiv, Graham said as it can be noticed from his public statements, President Trump is very disappointed with Putin. He talks vaguely about peace and kills children at night. In his opinion, when the Senate takes steps, it will be heard more from President Trump. According to the senator, Trump has reached a point when he expects concrete actions from Russia. Graham said he spoke to Putin a week or two ago. The Russians were supposed to present a memorandum on what is needed for a ceasefire. Nothing happened. In his opinion, President Trump feels that Putin is stalling. The senator said Trump wants peace and an end to this war. Torrential rains kill 25 in Nigerian city: rescuers Kano, Nigeria, May 29 (AFP) May 29, 2025 Torrential rains devastated the central Nigerian city of Mokwa and killed at least 25 people, emergency services said Thursday amid a search for more bodies. Flooding after a rainstorm late Wednesday washed away or submerged at least 50 homes in the city and 10 people remained missing on top of the confirmed dead, an emergency management official said. "The surging flood water submerged and washed away over 50 residential houses with their occupants," said Abdullahi Baba-Arah, director general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). Divers and volunteers rescued one woman and her two children, who were being treated in hospital for "wounds and shock". Nigeria is hit by flooding every rainy season, which runs between May and November. The floods are largely caused by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways, and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday. - Hard-hit - Nigeria's rainy season is just getting started for the year. Scientists warn that climate change is already fuelling more extreme weather patterns. Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the West African country. In 2024, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of Nigeria's 36 states, making it one of the country's worst flood seasons in decades, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). More than 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of farmland were also destroyed last year, said NEMA. Floods which struck the country two years earlier, in 2022, killed more than 500 people. Niger state is in a precarious situation as it is already grappling with violence from jihadists as well as gangs known as "bandits" who raid villages, kill and abduct residents. King Charles voices support for Australian flood victims: governor-general Sydney, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 King Charles III has voiced support for the Australian towns confronting "soul-destroying damage" after record floods last week, the country's governor-general said Friday. Five people died as floodwaters swept across northern New South Wales, a river-braided region about 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Sydney. "My wife and I have been so greatly concerned to hear of the widespread and devastating flooding," said Charles, Australia's head of state. "As the immediate emergency passes, I am only too aware that communities are confronting dreadful, soul-destroying damage to homes, properties and infrastructure, and the loss of precious livelihoods and livestock," he said, according to a statement published by Governor-General Sam Mostyn on social media. "I am deeply conscious that the impact of the crisis will endure for many months." The storms dumped more than six months' worth of rain over three days, according to the government weather bureau, smashing records in some areas. The rising tides briefly stranded 50,000 people, forcing some to clamber atop cars, houses and highway bridges before helicopters winched them away. Some 800 houses have been rendered "uninhabitable", authorities said, and thousands more properties suffered damage. Half the world faced an extra month of extreme heat due to climate change: study Washington, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 Half the global population endured an additional month of extreme heat over the past year because of manmade climate change, a new study found Friday. The findings underscore how the continued burning of fossil fuels is harming health and well-being on every continent, with the effects especially under-recognized in developing countries, the authors said. "With every barrel of oil burned, every tonne of carbon dioxide released, and every fraction of a degree of warming, heat waves will affect more people," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the report. The analysis -- conducted by scientists at World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre -- was released ahead of global Heat Action Day on June 2, which this year spotlights the dangers of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. To assess the influence of global warming, researchers analyzed the period from May 1, 2024 to May 1, 2025. They defined "extreme heat days" as those hotter than 90 percent of temperatures recorded at a given location between 1991 and 2020. Using a peer-reviewed modeling approach, they then compared the number of such days to a simulated world without human-caused warming. The results were stark: roughly four billion people -- 49 percent of the global population -- experienced at least 30 more days of extreme heat than they would have otherwise. The team identified 67 extreme heat events during the year and found the fingerprint of climate change on all of them. The Caribbean island of Aruba was the worst affected, recording 187 extreme heat days -- 45 more than expected in a world without climate change. The study follows a year of unprecedented global temperatures. 2024 was the hottest year on record, surpassing 2023, while January 2025 marked the hottest January ever. On a five-year average, global temperatures are now 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- and in 2024 alone, they exceeded 1.5C, the symbolic ceiling set by the Paris climate accord. The report also highlights a critical lack of data on heat-related health impacts in lower-income regions. While Europe recorded more than 61,000 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022, comparable figures are sparse elsewhere, with many heat-related fatalities misattributed to underlying conditions such as heart or lung disease. The authors emphasized the need for early warning systems, public education, and heat action plans tailored to cities. Better building design -- including shading and ventilation -- and behavioral adjustments like avoiding strenuous activity during peak heat are also essential. Still, adaptation alone will not be enough. The only way to halt the rising severity and frequency of extreme heat, the authors warned, is to rapidly phase out fossil fuels. Malaysia disputes EU's deforestation risk rating, citing outdated data Kuala Lumpur, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 Malaysia has criticised the European Union's scrutiny of some of its exports under new deforestation rules, insisting the bloc is using outdated information to decide what level of checks to impose. EU rules in force since last year prohibit a vast range of goods -- from coffee to cocoa, soy, timber, palm oil, cattle, printing paper and rubber -- if produced on land deforested after December 2020. Goods will be judged according to the bloc's ranking of the risk of associated deforestation, with Malaysia avoiding a "high risk" designation but failing to garner a "low risk" status that would have meant less stringent checks. Instead it has been classed as "medium risk", along with countries including Brazil and neighbouring Indonesia. Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani rejected the classification on Wednesday, saying it was based on 2020 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation data. "Malaysia has implemented strict no-deforestation policies and developed our own certification system... which ensures traceability, compliance, and inclusivity, particularly for smallholders," Johari said in Singapore. Malaysia is committed to working with the EU to "present updated, science-based evidence" to support its request for "low risk" status and "fair recognition of our progress", he added. Only goods imported from Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar were labelled "high risk", over objections from environmentalists who argue rampant deforestation in other countries should mean extra scrutiny. Malaysia is the world's second-biggest exporter of palm oil, behind only Indonesia, and both countries have pressed the EU over what they consider overly onerous compliance rules under the new anti-deforestation regulations. Implementation of the rules was delayed after pressure from various countries. From December, firms importing the affected commodities will be responsible for tracking their supply chains to prove goods did not originate from deforested zones, relying on geolocation and satellite data. Death toll in central Nigeria flooding rises to 88, says rescuer Mokwa, Nigeria, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 The death toll in central Nigeria flash floods has risen to at least 88 after rescuers recovered more bodies, an emergency services official said on Friday. Teams of rescuers continued to search for missing residents after torrential rains late on Wednesday washed away dozens of homes in the city of Mokwa, drowning residents with many still missing. "The death toll is about 88," Hussaini Isah, head of operations for the National Emergency Management Agency in Niger state told journalists, adding that the number is "rising". Earlier, a Niger state emergency management agency (SEMA) spokesman, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, told AFP he "expected the toll to rise considerably because there are different rescuers at different locations". An AFP journalist saw emergency services conducting search and rescue operations as residents searched through the rubble of collapsed buildings as flood waters flowed alongside. Displaced children played in the flood waters, heightening the possibility of exposure to water borne diseases as at least two bodies lay covered in printed cloth and banana leaves. An emotional woman in a maroon headscarf sat with tears dripping down her face. Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, pointed to a house he grew up in, telling reporters "we lost at least 15 from this house. The property (is) gone. We lost everything". Fisherman Danjuma Shaba, 35 said he slept rough in a car park. "I don't have a house to sleep in. My house has already collapsed," said Shaba. Nigeria's rainy season, which usually lasts six months, is just getting started for the year. Flooding, usually caused by heavy rains and poor infrastructure, wreaks havoc every year, killing hundreds of people across the west African country. Scientists have also warned that climate change is already fuelling more extreme weather patterns. In Nigeria, the floods are exacerbated by inadequate drainage, the construction of homes on waterways and the dumping of waste in drains and water channels. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency had warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria's 36 states, including Niger state, between Wednesday and Friday. In 2024, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of Nigeria's 36 states, making it one of the country's worst floods in decades, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. Swiss officials halt further evacuations after glacier collapse Wiler, Switzerland, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 Swiss authorities said Friday that they were no longer considering evacuating most residents in the vicinity of a collapsed glacier that destroyed a village, but that they remained vigilant. The Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Valais region collapsed on Wednesday, sending a mass of rock, ice and scree hurtling into the village of Blatten in the valley below. The huge pile of glacier debris, stretching across two kilometres (1.3 miles), has blocked the river Lonza and created an artificial lake, potentially posing threats of flooding in the Lotschental valley below. "We absolutely cannot let our guard down," Raphael Mayoraz, a geologist working with the Valais canton, told public television. Mayoraz spoke of a "favourable scenario" but warned that "we are not certain that the danger is averted". Authorities said that they had proceeded with the evacuation of 16 people from two villages located downstream from the disaster area and that they would remain alert in the coming weeks. Authorities are studying evacuation plans and have warned residents who could be affected. The collapsed glacier largely destroyed most of Blatten, which had been home to 300 people and was evacuated last week due to the impending danger. One 64-year-old man, believed to have been in the danger zone at the time, remains missing. A police spokesman said difficult conditions had forced the search to be called off on Thursday. An artificial dam in the village of Ferden, just below, has been emptied and should be able to contain any downward rush of water if it happens, authorities said Thursday. What remains of the village of Blatten is being submerged beneath the accumulating water of the Lonza river. Where the Birch glacier used to sit, there is now a gaping hole in the mountainside. Oil-rich UAE orders emissions monitoring in new climate law Dubai, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 The United Arab Emirates, a major oil exporter, began mandatory emissions monitoring for companies on Friday under a new law targeting climate change. Greenpeace hailed the move, a first for the Middle East but already in place in dozens of countries worldwide, as a "bold leap toward regional climate leadership". The UAE, one of the world's top oil exporters, neighbours several oil-rich countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran along with Qatar, a leading gas producer. Under the new law, companies are required to report and reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming. Ghiwa Nakat, executive director of Greenpeace MENA, called it a "progressive move". "By institutionalising emissions monitoring and climate adaptation, the UAE is setting a compelling example for countries across the region," she said in a statement. Public and private companies now have to regularly monitor emissions and take steps to reduce them, or risk fines of up to two million dirhams ($545,000). However, Greenpeace said the UAE also needed to set clear reduction targets, especially for major sectors such as energy and transport. The UAE, which hosted the United Nations' COP28 climate talks in 2023, is targeting net-zero domestic carbon emissions by 2050. In its latest climate roadmap submitted to the UN, the Gulf monarchy committed to reducing emissions by 47 percent of 2019 levels by 2035. How Switzerland's Birch glacier collapsed Geneva, May 30 (AFP) May 30, 2025 A cascade of events in the Swiss Alps led to the dramatic collapse of the Birch glacier, wiping out Blatten village in the valley below, glaciologists and geoscientists told AFP on Friday. Experts knew days ahead of Wednesday's landslide that the glacier was likely to suffer a catastrophic failure. But the reasons why date back much further. There are strong theories on the causes, and to what degree the disaster is linked to climate change -- but these are yet to be confirmed by scientific analysis. "This can be considered as a cascading event, because we have different processes involved," explained Christophe Lambiel, senior lecturer at the University of Lausanne's Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics. - Mountain above the glacier - The 3,342-metre (10,965-foot) high Kleines Nesthorn mountain above the glacier was already somewhat unstable, and rockfalls accelerated dramatically around 10 days beforehand. Experts feared a total collapse within hours, but instead there were successive rockfalls over several days, which was actually the best-case scenario. - Rockfall onto glacier - Three million cubic metres of rock were deposited on the glacier. "If you put a lot of weight on an unstable foundation, it can just slip away. And this is what actually happened," Matthias Huss, the director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland (GLAMOS), told AFP. "The glacier accelerated strongly in response to this additional loading, and then the disaster struck." - The Birch glacier - The Birch glacier was a special case: the only Swiss glacier that was advancing rather than shrinking. However, this was not because of extra snowfall. Its advance "was quite likely due to the pre-loading with rockfalls from this mountain, which has finally collapsed. So the landslide didn't start from nothing," said Huss. The glacier was on a steep slope, and even steeper at the front, worsening the dynamics. Smaller-scale falls from the front of the glacier Tuesday were expected to continue, with Wednesday's sudden total collapse considered a less-probable scenario. - How the glacier collapsed - The rockfalls altered the stress equation between the weight of the glacier and the slope, which governs its forward speed, Lambiel told AFP. Like pushing a car, it takes a lot of force to initiate movement, but less once it is on the move, he explained. Huss said the 1,000 metres of elevation between the glacier and the Lotschental valley floor added a "huge amount of potential energy", which through friction melts part of the ice, making the fall "much more dynamic than if it was just rock". - Role of melting permafrost - Permafrost conditions are degrading throughout the Alps. Ice inside the cracks in the rocks has been thawing to ever-deeper levels over the last decade, especially after the summer 2022 heatwave. "Ice is considered as the cement of the mountains. Decreasing the quality of the cement decreases the stability of the mountain," said Lambiel. Huss added: "At the moment, we can't say it's because of permafrost thaw that this mountain collapsed -- but it is at least a very probable explanation, or one factor, that has triggered or accelerated this process of the mountain falling apart." - Role of climate change - Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria, told AFP: "There is no clear evidence as of yet, for this specific case, that this was caused by climate change." Huss said making such a direct link was "complicated". "If it was just because of climate change that this mountain collapsed, all mountains in the Alps could collapse -- and they don't," he said. "It's a combination of the long-term changes in the geology of the mountain. "The failing of the glacier as such -- this is not related to climate change. It's more the permafrost processes, which are very complex, long-term changes." Lambiel said of a link between climate change and the glacier moving forward over time: "Honestly, we don't know. "But the increasing rockfalls on the glacier during the last 10 years -- this can be linked with climate change." - Other glaciers - Modern monitoring techniques detect acceleration in the ice with high precision -- and therefore allow for early warning. Lambiel said around 80 glaciers in the same region of Switzerland were considered dangerous, and under monitoring. "The big challenge is to recognise where to direct the detailed monitoring," said Huss. Lambiel said sites with glacier-permafrost interactions above 3,000 metres would now need more research. But they are difficult to reach and monitor. Steiner said: "Probably the rapidly changing permafrost can play some kind of role. "This is concerning because this means that mountains are becoming a lot more unstable." rjm-burs/phz/jhb Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Game of Thrones author George RR Martin is aware fans are upset about the delay in the release of The Winds of Winter and is pushing back against the complaint that he doesnt care about the characters and the story anymore. Martin, 76, announced on his blog on Wednesday that he was producing an adaptation of his late friend Howard Waldrop's A Dozen Tough Jobs. The novella, a retelling of the Greek story of The Labours of Hercules set in Depression-era American south, is being adapted into an animated feature, which will be written by Joe R Lansdale. As happens almost every time he announces a project not related to The Winds of Winter, the sixth instalment and penultimate book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, Martin starts the usual complaints. The first novel in the series, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996 and the fifth, A Dance with Dragons, in 2011. I know, I know. Some of you will just be pissed off by this, as you are by everything I announce here that is not about Westeros or The Winds of Winter. You have given up on me, or on the book, Martin said. I will never finish Winds, If I do, I will never finish A Dream of Spring. If I do, it wont be any good. I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me, he continued, detailing the typical comments he has received over the years. I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I dont give a s*** about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money. open image in gallery George Martin with cast of the TV adaptation of Game of Thrones ( Getty ) Listing some of the projects that he has worked on in this period, Martin said, I edit the Wild Cards books too, but you hate Wild Cards. You may hate everything else I have ever written, the Hugo-winners and Hugo-losers. You dont care about any of those, I know. You dont care about anything but Winds of Winter. Youve told me so often enough. Rebuffing the statement that the books were taking so long because he had stopped caring about them, Martin said: Thing is, I do care about them. And I care about Westeros and Winds as well. The Starks and Lannisters and Targaryens, Tyrion and Asha, Dany and Daenerys, the dragons and the direwolves, I care about them all. More than you can ever imagine. He ended with a simple request: I wish you all could share my excitement at the prospect of this movie. Martin started working on The Winds of Winter in 2010 and previously told fans they could expect a big announcement when it was done. He has since expressed fury and despair about his progress on the book and has struggled to find solace in his writing. open image in gallery Fans joked they got real dire wolves before Winds of Winter ( HBO ) In April this year, an American biotech firm claimed to have successfully brought back a dire wolf from extinction, leading fans to joke that they got real dire wolves before Winds of Winter. When asked about these comments in an interview with Time, a dismayed Martin said: Thats the curse of my life. Theres no doubt Winds of Winter is 13 years late. Im still working on it. Ive periods where I make progress and then other things divert my attention and suddenly I have a deadline for one of the HBO shows, I have something else to do. In 2022, he called The Winds of Winter a big, big book. Its a challenging book, he said. Its probably going to be a larger book than any of the previous volumes in the series. Promisingly, he divulged that he was about three-quarters of the way done. A seventh and final book, A Dream of Spring, is set to follow afterwards. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal met in Kyiv on Friday with a bipartisan delegation of the U.S. Senate led by Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham, discussing the strengthening of sanctions against Russia and the development of cooperation. As Shmyhal said in the Telegram channel, he thanked for the introduction of a bill to strengthen sanctions against Russia in Congress. "It is necessary to weaken Russia's capabilities to wage war by introducing devastating restrictions. I informed the American side about Russian shelling of peaceful cities and the civilian population. We expect that the US, together with the world, will give a decisive response to this," the prime minister said. According to him, they discussed further support from the United States, in particular Ukraine's needs in the financial and defense sectors. Particular attention was paid to the topic of seizure of frozen Russian assets. "The role of the United States in this issue is particularly important, in particular at the G7 level. This is an effective tool for pressure on Russia, as well as a significant resource for compensating for the losses caused to Ukraine," Shmyhal said. He also said Ukraine is interested in strengthening economic cooperation with the United States, in particular within the signed agreement on the investment fund. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The fourth entry in the Meet the Parents comedy franchise has reportedly cast pop star Ariana Grande to co-lead alongside returning cast members Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. The news comes months after Grande, 31, landed her first Oscar nomination for her supporting role as Glinda in Jon M. Chus critically acclaimed Wicked. Reports about the untitled sequel broke in December 2024. De Niro later confirmed the project earlier this year. The forthcoming movie will be the first time De Niro and Stiller have worked together since the romcom series third movie, Little Fockers (2010). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Meet the Parents 4 will center around the adult son of Stillers Greg and his wife, Pamela (Teri Polo), who gets engaged to a woman completely wrong for him. Grande will play the fiancee, sources told the outlet. Polo and Blythe Danner, both of whom starred in the first three movies, are also expected to return. John Hamburg, who co-wrote all three of the original movies, has written the screenplay for the new film. He will also helm it. Meanwhile, Jay Roach, the director of the initial two titles, Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), is attached as a producer. De Niro and Jane Rosenthal will also act as producers through their Tribeca Productions, while Stiller and John Lesher will produce via their Red Hour Films banner. open image in gallery Robert De Niro (left) and Ben Stiller are confirmed to reprise their roles in the belated fourth sequel ( Getty Images ) Universal Pictures has scheduled Meet the Parents 4 to be released in theaters on November 25, 2026. The first movie in the comedy franchise, Meet the Parents, grossed over $300 million at the worldwide box office. It followed Gregs nightmarish first visit to his girlfriends (Polo) parents house. During the visit, he plans to propose to Pamela, but soon finds himself on the wrong side of her father, Jack (De Niro). open image in gallery Ariana Grande is capitalizing on her acting success with her new role in Meet the Parents 4 ( PA Wire ) Next came Meet the Fockers (2004), which picked up after Gregs finally on the in with Pamelas family. However, that quickly changes when Greg introduces his parents to Pamelas. That film made $522.6 million at the worldwide box office. The third sequel, Little Fockers, premiered in 2010, raking in a total of $310 million at the worldwide box office. It featured a 10-year time jump and followed the chaos that ensues at Greg and Pams twins birthday party after Jack becomes suspicious of Gregs involvement with a drug company. Though Grande is best known for her incredible vocal range, showcased in her hit songs like twilight zone and we cant be friends (wait for your love), she was first a teen actor, starring in Nickelodeons Victorious and Sam & Cat. However, it wasnt until her standout portrayal of Glinda, opposite Cynthia Erivos Elphaba in the Oscar-nominated 2024 Wicked, that she solidified her status as a serious actor. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice When Miley Cyrus won her first Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance for her runaway 2023 hit Flowers it was the waving of a chequered flag. Im gonna make some of my weird s***, she decided. Remember, this is the artist who followed her biggest-selling album, 2013s Bangerz, with the 23-track Miley Cyrus and her Dead Petz in 2015, featuring immortal songs such as F***ing F***ed Up, Milky Milky Milk and Im So Drunk. She also collaborated with the Flaming Lips, joked about being stoned and recorded herself playing Tibetan singing bowls (Miley Tibetan Bowlzzz). Could it really get weirder? Well, shes done it. Her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful, was apparently inspired by Alan Parkers 1982 surrealist drama film The Wall, influenced in turn by the Pink Floyd album of the same name. Cyrus watched it as a teenager with some friends; they rented a limo, smoked weed and wore Seventies-style fur coats. We really leaned in, she told Harpers Bazaar in a recent interview. My idea was making The Wall but with a better wardrobe. That might sound vapid, and Cyruss wardrobe for the accompanying Something Beautiful film is certainly eye-popping, but the album itself isnt the disaster such a throwaway comment implies. Having experienced a level of fame that could easily drive a person to erect a wall around themselves, the teenage Cyrus must have related to Bob Geldofs depressed rock star character, whose coping mechanisms spectacularly backfire. Her voice channels that pain more than the lyrics. The ballad More to Lose demonstrates her extraordinary emotional heft (ignore the noodling Eighties brass, it lends nothing). Easy Lover steers away from the hard-to-beat bombast of Phil Collins and Philip Baileys 1984 classic, instead opting for swooning, sizzling disco of the Abba variety. Heavyweights lend their own talents: Pino Palladino carves out those swampy bass grooves, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek fame is behind that piercing fiddle motif. Brittany Howard, who contributes electric guitar to Easy Lover, later offers her own extraordinary voice to the dizzying dancefloor strut of Walk of Fame. Elsewhere, theres a brilliantly bonkers cameo from Naomi Campbell on the euphoric Every Girl Youve Ever Loved (She has the perfect scent/ She speaks the perfect French) in between self-congratulatory lyrics from Cyrus: I match my bag to my new dress/ I'm still looking like a 10/ While my hair is a mess/ And I'm gonna work it all night/ Til I get what I want. If theres a solid gold banger on the album (singles Something Beautiful and End of the World arent on par with predecessors like Flowers or Wrecking Ball), its this one. Miley Cyrus is the frustrating yet endearing pop star we know and love on new album 'Something Beautiful' ( Glen Luchford ) In her Harpers Bazaar interview, Cyrus readily admitted that she is very inconsistent. And yet her habit of veering so wildly off-piste is, in its own way, consistent. Something Beautiful isnt quite as crazy or groundbreaking as she seems to think, but its spirit of adventure encapsulates what weve come to know and love about one of our most frustrating yet endearing pop stars. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Netflix viewers have been left frustrated after the new psychological thriller series Dept Q mysteriously vanished from the streamer just hours after its release. The series follows Detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) as he tries to investigate the unsolved missing persons case of prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), who disappeared from a ferry several years earlier. Netflix users in the UK and other global regions have reported that they were watching the first episodes of the series after its release on Thursday (29 May), before finding that it was no longer available to watch. Many viewers have reported online that when they attempted to select the show on the Netflix homepage, it appeared as if the show had not yet been released. One person wrote on X/Twitter: Hey @netflix what happened to #DeptQ? Binge watched the first eight episodes, went out to dinner and it is no longer even showing up on Netflix. What the crap????? Another said: @netflix ummm hello? Where did Dept Q go all of a sudden? Got up to episode four now it's gone?? #wtf #netflix #deptq. Seems like there is some sort of problem at @NetflixUK @netflix. Had an email reminder about #DeptQ starting today. Just finished episode two & the whole thing has disappeared. You can't even search for it. I was rather enjoying it. Be nice if #Netflix told us what's happened, added another viewer. The Independent has contacted Netflix for comment. At the time of writing, all nine episodes of the series are available to watch again on Netflix UK. The series is based on the series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, which has already been adapted for six films, but Netflixs version sees the action set in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dept Q arrived on Netflix on Thursday only to disappear hours later ( Netflix ) Goodes character, an argumentative and bad-tempered detective, is part of a team assigned a special budget to investigate high-profile cold cases as a public relations exercise. The series also stars Guilts Jamie Sives, Unforgottens Mark Bonnar, Chernobyls Alexej Manvelov and Nightsleepers Leah Byrne. In The Independents three-star review of the series, Nick Hilton wrote that the series has a lazy assembly of character tropes, but he still found himself gripped. This first series unfurls over the course of nine hour-long episodes, giving it plenty of time to grow on you. Goode is a mercurial performer, capable of being, by turns, appealingly smooth and discomfitingly sleazy. He is a good fit for a defective detective role like this. The rest of the cast including Scottish luminaries like Mark Bonnar and Kelly Macdonald round out a good ensemble. Hilton argued that Dept Q works because it takes its mystery seriously. This may seem an obvious thing for a crime drama to do, but frequently the modern mystery is gossamer thin, privileging the psychodrama of the detective over crude tools like, you know, plot. Dept Q builds a big, meaty plot thats half-procedural, half-horror. Over time it becomes more compelling, which is a strong recommendation, he wrote. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Clarksons Farm star Harriet Cowan has urged fans to be kind following her appearance in Jeremy Clarksons hit farming series. In the latest season of the show, which follows the ups and downs at Clarkson's Diddy Squat farm, 24-year-old Cowan temporarily joins the team for the first few episodes as a freelance contractor while the farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, is away touring his one-man show. Cowan, a full-time nurse, farmer and TikTokker from Derbyshire, has won over audiences with her witty asides and impressive farming knowledge, with many hoping for her to become a permanent team member at the Chipping Norton farm. In a post shared on Instagram, Cowan posted a preview clip from the show while urging her new followers and fans to be kind as she made her debut on the show. Please can everyone remember to be kind, she said. We are all human and your words matter. In another post shared on TikTok, Cowan told her fans to be wary of false social media accounts impersonating her, as she flagged that several profiles with multiple followers were posting her content without her consent. Cowan, whose father runs the family farm and mother is a nurse, is a TikTok farming sensation with more than 1.7m views on her most popular video, which shows her at work driving a tractor. Since she joined the series, her TikTok follower count has risen from 38,000 to almost 450,000. open image in gallery Clarksons Farm star warned her followers about false accounts impersonating her ( TikTok via @Harrietcowan3 ) On TikTok, Cowan documents her day-to-day life working on her fathers farm, sharing sweet pictures of the animals and jokes about farming. In episode one of the latest Clarksons Farm season, the former Top Gear presenter gives Cowan a tour of the farm when he points out a Neolithic fort, which he explains is 4000 years old, to which Cowan quips: Nearly as old as you. She even makes an attempt at trimming Clarksons unruly eyebrows. Clarkson warms to Cowan as the episode goes on, calling her a star and praising her farming knowledge. Shes brilliant, he tells his farming contractor Charlie Ireland. open image in gallery Kaleb Cooper and Harriet Cowan on 'Clarkson's Farm' ( Amazon Prime Video ) Shes a TikTokker. Shes already been TikTokking at Diddly Squat! I dont really understand, he says. Cowan previously graduated from the University of Derby, where she studied nursing. She was named her town's Young Farmers spokesperson and continues to use social media to highlight the realities of working on a farm. She has been vocal during the farmers protests in response to Labour's changes to inheritance tax, which has seen thousands of farmers gathering in Westminster in recent months. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Game of Thrones actor Isaac Hempstead Wright has issued some advice to the new child stars of the HBO TV adaptation of JK Rowlings Harry Potter franchise. More than 30,000 children auditioned for the lead roles, with Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout announced as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley this week. The three newcomers will step into the roles made famous by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, with Wright warning they will face even more scrutiny than he did as a newcomer. Wright was selected for HBOs popular adaptation of George RR Martins Game of Thrones series in 2009, when he was just 12. He was cast as the pivotal Winterfell clan member Bran Stark and thrown from a tower by Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in the programmes first ever episode. Speaking to The Times, Wright, now 26, said McLaughlin, Stanton and Stout have a ride in store and warned social media attention has escalated from the late 2000s when he was a child star. Twitter had pretty much just come out in 2009 when we shot the pilot, he said. We didnt quite have the same scrutiny that you would have now. There wasnt quite the level of hatred back then. open image in gallery Isaac Hempstead Wright in Game of Thrones ( EW/HBO ) Wright admits he was so unprepared he didnt even have an agent when he received his enormously long contract for Game of Thrones. I had my local drama teacher, because similar to these new Potter kids it was an open casting call, he explained. I think my drama teacher sent the contract back to my family and said, I managed to get to page four, see how you do. So yeah, initially its a bit of an overwhelming moment. When asked what advice he would offer the new Harry Potter stars, Wright said: Just enjoy every minute of it, take every opportunity it affords you I can go to any country in the world and there will be someone there whos pleased to see me. You go to some little bar in Madrid or wherever, and somebody will want to strike up a chat with you. Its made the world a much smaller place. open image in gallery Arabella Stanton, Dominic McLaughlin, and Alastair Stout will play Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley ( HBO ) Potter star Radcliffe has been open about the low points in his life that were caused by scrutiny following his casting. Towards the end of his Harry Potter contract, which took him from age 11 to 21, the actor turned to alcohol and has now been sober since 2012. Meanwhile, Watson said in 2009, aged 19: This all happened to me so young. Its very hard to go back to that time and be like, Did I want to do this? It feels very foggy. First announced in April 2023, HBOs new Harry Potter series is expected to be a faithful adaptation of the internationally bestselling books by Rowling. The author, who maintains ownership over key aspects of Harry Potter intellectual property, including the characters, will serve as an executive producer on the series. Read full profiles of the new Harry Potter lead cast here. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Jon Sopel has said that the BBCs both sides-ism is part of the reason he quit. The former chief political correspondent joined the broadcaster at the age of 24. He resigned along with Emily Maitlis in 2022, and they launched a podcast, The News Agents, with Lewis Goodall that same year. Sopel, 66, briefly spoke about his reasons for leaving the company during an appearance at the Hay Festival, which has partnered with The Independent for a second year. In a panel moderated by The Independents Helen Coffey, Sopel appeared alongside philosopher and author AC Grayling and Jennifer Nadel, a journalist, barrister and author. The subject of Sopels departure arose during a wider debate on the media coverage of Nigel Farage and his party Reform UK, which saw significant gains in the local elections this month. The party gained outright control of 10 councils and won more than 600 seats. Reform also won two mayoral races and secured a fifth MP, Sarah Pochin, who won the seat in Runcorn and Helsby. I dont think the media is enabling Farage, Sopel told his fellow panellists. We have to report the surge in support for Reform. Maybe you could say a few years ago, too much attention was given to him and indeed, the both sides-ism I found at the BBC was one of the things that drove me out after many, many years. open image in gallery Sopel, Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall launched daily podcast The News Agents in 2022 ( PA ) Both sides-ism refers to the media giving credence to the opposing side of a cause, action, or idea in an effort to seem fair, or only for the sake of argument. Sopel continued: I thought that in our Brexit coverage, we just got it very, very wrong, to say, On the one hand..., On the other..., Only time will tell... Jon Sopel, BBC News, Westminster. I didnt think that was journalism; I thought it was cowardice. open image in gallery Sopel: The BBC doesnt platform Farage, they question him, and increasingly the scrutiny has to be there ( YouTube/The News Agents ) Sopel went on to say that he believes the media has a responsibility to report what Mr Farage says and to hold him accountable. Its not a question of platforming, he said. The BBC doesnt platform Farage, they question him, and increasingly the scrutiny has to be there, firmly. In 2022, the year that he left the BBC, Sopel also spoke out against the broadcasters decision in 2017 to publish presenters salaries. To have everybody suddenly know what you earn feels like a violation of your privacy, he said at the time. Following his departure from the broadcaster, Sopel has found huge success co-hosting his podcast with Maitlis and Goodall. Since its launch, The News Agents has established itself as one of the UKs most popular daily news podcasts, celebrating 100 million downloads last July. Speaking at Hay, Sopel gave some insight into what listeners are interested in. At the bottom of that list is climate change. If we put climate change in the title of a podcast, the numbers dive, he said. Its not that we dont cover it, but youve got to accept that as a topic itself, people go, Urgh, I know its terrible, but I cant face listening to it. There are various topics where you get exhaustion [or] exasperation. People dont know what to do; they feel powerless, and therefore they dont want to listen to it. Sopel continued: If we do Famine in the Sahel, the numbers fall off a cliff. Whereas if we do Trump latest madness: what a clown show fabulous. Trump is fantastic for business if youre a journalist. Terrible for the world, but fantastic for business. Climate change is really bad for business, he concluded. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Ray Winstone has said that he wants to retire overseas and revealed what is holding him back from doing so. The British actor, whose credits include Nil By Mouth, Sexy Beast and The Departed, has been spending more time residing in his Sicilian villa, which he shares with his wife Elaine. However, despite the 68-year-old wanting to rest in the sun, he wont fully move to Italy as his three daughters and their children live in the UK. Im backwards and forwards from here to Sicily, he told The Daily Star, but added: My family is here in England; my kids are here. But when we get a chance me and Elaine have a little scoot. He continued: I want to rest in the sun Im getting old, aint I. Winstone, who also stars in Netflix series The Gentlemen, married Elaine in 1979, and their children include daughters Lois, 43, Jaime, 40, and Ellie Rae, 24 all of whom have followed their father into the acting profession. While Winstone desires a life away from the world of film and television as he approaches 70, the actor said he still gets tempted by a good script. Good scripts come along very rarely, with good dialogue and good stories, he said. Sometimes you have to do a job to pay the rent. Its part and parcel of it; the taxman needs to be paid, but there you go. Winstone continued: Ive read three really good ones lately and if they come off Ill be very happy. He will reprise his role of gangster boss Bobby Glass in season two of Guy Ritchies Netflix hit The Gentlemen. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. Try for free ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. Try for free ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Ray Winstone in The Gentlemen ( Netflix ) The crime drama, based on the directors 2019 film of the same name (dubbed as a mashup between Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders), became one of the streaming services biggest hits when it was released in 2024. It also stars Theo James and Kaya Scodelario. In the series, James and Scodelario play Eddie Halstead and Susie Glass, who are thrust together after James inherits land thats been co-opted by a weed-growing empire run by Susies father, Bobby Glass. Susie is the de facto head of the syndicate while Bobby is in prison. New cast additions for season two were recently announced, with Love Island host Maya Jama revealed to be joining the show in an undisclosed role. Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A new study has found that parent intuition is more likely to predict critical illness than various vital signs used to measure health. Experts from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, analysed data on almost 190,000 emergency hospital visits for children in Melbourne where parents or caregivers were routinely asked: Are you worried your child is getting worse? In some 4.7 per cent of cases, parents said they were concerned their child was deteriorating. The research team found that caregiver concern was significantly linked to the child being admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) when parents raised concerns, children were four times more likely to need ICU care, compared with children of parents who were not. Researchers also found that prenatal concern was associated with a higher likelihood that the child would need to be given help to breathe, or mechanical ventilation. And they found that parental concern was more strongly associated with ICU admission than abnormal vital signs were, including abnormal heart rate, abnormal breathing or blood pressure. open image in gallery A study found that parental concern was more strongly associated with ICU admission than abnormal vital signs were ( PA ) Caregiver concern was more strongly associated with ICU admission than any abnormal vital sign, they wrote in the journal Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. There were 1,900 cases where parental concern was documented along with the timing of abnormal vital signs. The research team noted that in almost one in five cases (19.3 per cent) parents raised concerns about deterioration before vital signs indicated that the child was deteriorating. This could mean that taking parents views into account could lead to earlier treatment, they added. Overall, they found that children of caregivers who voiced concerns were more unwell, they were more likely to be admitted to an inpatient ward, and stayed in hospital almost three times as long. It comes after Martha Mills died in 2021, aged 13, after developing sepsis following a pancreatic injury, after her parents repeatedly raised concerns about her deterioration while in hospital. Her mother, Merope Mills, and her husband, Paul Laity, sounded the alarm about their daughters health a number of times, but their concerns were brushed aside. open image in gallery Martha Mills died in 2021, aged 13 ( Family Handout ) A coroner ruled she would most likely have survived if doctors had identified the warning signs of her rapidly deteriorating condition and transferred her to intensive care earlier. One of the lead authors of the paper, Dr Erin Mills, from Monash Universitys School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, said stories of parents not being heard, followed by devastating outcomes, are all too common. We wanted to change that. We wanted to test whether parent input could help us identify deterioration earlier and it can. If a parent said they were worried, their child was around four times more likely to require intensive care. Thats a signal we cant afford to ignore. Parents are not visitors they are part of the care team. We want every hospital to recognise that and give parents permission, and power, to speak up. As a result of Marthas death, Marthas Rule is being piloted in NHS hospitals, which gives patients and their loved ones the right to a second medical opinion. In March, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee was told that thousands of patients or their loved ones have sought a second opinion about their NHS care under the initiative. And more than 100 patients have been taken to intensive care, or equivalent, as a result. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Richard Dawkins has reflected on coining the term meme. The word was first shared by the scientist in his 1972 bestselling book The Selfish Gene, where it referred to the self-replication of genes in evolutionary biology. Dawkins said memes could also refer to cultural entities that could be considered replicating by observers. In 1993 it was used to refer to Internet memes by author Mike Godwin to explain the ways images and words proliferated online through message boards, emails and other internet forums. Since the advent of social media, particularly in the 2010s, memes have become a mainstay of 21st century culture. In conversation with scientist and broadcaster, Vivienne Parry, at the Hay Festival on (29 May), Dawkins promoted his new book, The Genetic Book of the Dead, which he described as a form of closure on his work on evolution and biology. You invented the word meme, are you slightly horrified by the way it has come to populate social media? asked Parry. Its a good example of the spreading of a meme, replied the author to laughter from the audience. Its the wrong one, but never mind. Memes have been at the centre of political debate and the battle for public opinion with Trump fans suggesting their opponents cant meme, while some young people have turned to them for mental health support. Dawkins said his latest book would be closure on his work on evolutionary biology ( The Independent/Maira Butt ) Regardless of the severity of the situation, for example, the absence of Kate Middleton Princess of Wales from public life, the missing Titan submersible or the election of the Pope in the Vaticans conclave, viral memes have become a recurring part of online culture, prompting debate about their appropriateness. Several people have found themselves gaining overnight fame and notoriety after becoming memes doing seemingly ordinary and everyday things such as the Ermahgerd girl and Bad Luck Brian. Dawkins is famous for his views on atheism and religion, which he first explained in his international bestseller, The God Delusion, in 2006. He is also known for his debating style, having gone head-to-head with the likes of Jordan Peterson and John Lennox. However, he has described himself as a cultural Christian. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Beckham family feud rumors continue to gain steam. The rumors first began that Brooklyn Beckham was on the outs with his family when his younger brother, Romeo, reportedly began dating his ex-girlfriend, Kim. In a new report, published Thursday by People, a source close to the family made claims about how Victoria Beckham acted at Brooklyns 2022 wedding to Nicola Peltz. They told the publication that Victoria had ruined the couples first dance together during their reception, causing Nicola to leave in tears. Marc Anthony, who is a friend of the Beckhams, offered to perform as a gift at the wedding, the source said. Before the song began, Marc Anthony asked Brooklyn to come to the stage, and then announced, The most beautiful woman in the room tonight, come on up...Victoria Beckham! A second source clarified that the entire room went silent after hearing Victorias name being called, instead of the brides. It was such a jaw-dropping moment that it left the whole room in absolute shock you could hear a pin drop, they told People. It was such a jaw-dropping moment that it left the whole room in absolute shock you could hear a pin drop, one source said ( AFP/Getty ) The wedding guests continued to look shocked as Victoria and Brooklyn began slow dancing. It wasn't appropriate, a source claimed, adding that they later saw Nicola run from the room crying. The Independent has reached out to representatives for Victoria, Brooklyn, and Nicola for comment. The news comes a few days after Brooklyn posted on Instagram about always choosing his wife. My whole world x I will love you forever x I always choose you baby x youre the most amazing person I know xx me and you forever baby, he captioned his post from Sunday. A number of his followers have interpreted his comment as a reference to the supposed feud, with one person remarking: If that was my son saying that, knowing what the post is about, I would be devastated. The aspiring photographer/chef/wine influencer was believed to be feuding with his brother, Romeo, which in turn is said to have affected his relationship with their famous parents. Brooklyn and Nicola seemingly skipped David Beckhams 50th birthday celebrations in London earlier this month, while the party was attended by other family members, including Romeo and his younger siblings Cruz, 20, and Harper, 13. Brooklyn and Nicola also missed a black-tie affair thrown for David in March at Cipriani Downtown Miami in March, and Victorias Paris Fashion Week show in April. The building in the village of Shypynky has undergone comprehensive renovation, resulting in 14 modern apartments to provide long-term housing solutions for families displaced by the war. Evelina Protsak Shypynky, Vinnytsia region A newly renovated temporary housing facility was officially inaugurated in Vinnytsia region to provide long-term housing solutions for families displaced by the war. The project, implemented through the joint efforts of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, its NGO partner Metalab, and local authorities, has transformed a once-abandoned dormitory into dignified, sustainable accommodation for internally displaced people. The building in the village of Shypynky has undergone comprehensive renovation, resulting in 14 modern apartments, including one adapted for persons with disabilities. In addition to private living spaces, the facility includes shared amenities such as a laundry room and other essential infrastructure, providing families with safety, privacy, and the opportunity to rebuild their lives in dignity. The new residents are people who were forced to flee their homes due to the war and have been living in the community for an extended period, often in short-term or unsuitable accommodation. The building in the village of Shypynky has undergone comprehensive renovation, resulting in 14 modern apartments to provide long-term housing solutions for families displaced by the war. Maksym Lisovskyi The building in the village of Shypynky has undergone comprehensive renovation, resulting in 14 modern apartments to provide long-term housing solutions for families displaced by the war. Evelina Protsak The building in the village of Shypynky has undergone comprehensive renovation, resulting in 14 modern apartments to provide long-term housing solutions for families displaced by the war. Maksym Lisovskyi The Kopaihorod community also offers employment opportunities, with local agricultural enterprises ready to employ displaced people, fostering economic integration alongside housing support. Behind every door that opens in this new building is a story of loss but also of strength, dignity, and the will to begin again. For people who were forced to flee their homes, finding a place where they can feel safe, settle down, and become part of a community again is life changing. This is not just about walls and roofs it is about restoring peoples sense of belonging, about making sure that families, children, and older people feel seen, supported, and included. We are proud to support initiatives like this one, which are built on trust, on local leadership, and on the belief that everyone deserves a chance to rebuild their life in dignity, said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine. The housing facility in Shypynky is one of several projects that UNHCR and partners completed in May. In the city of Pereyaslav, Kyiv region, an unused section of a former dormitory was repurposed to create nine fully equipped apartments for displaced families. Meanwhile, in Drohobych, Lviv region, 12 new apartments were built using energy-efficient SIP panels. These initiatives are part of a broader network of interventions supported by UNHCR, encompassing nine projects across five oblasts. Through this initiative, UNHCR contributes to the governments stock of temporary housing for displaced people while developing approaches that allow people forced to flee their homes to choose housing solutions best suited to their needs. 10 families from the frontline Donetsk and Kherson regions moved in the facility in Pereyaslav, reconstructed with the support of UNHCR and Rokada. Rokada 12 families displaced from frontline regions like Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk received keys to apartments in the refurbished social housing in Drohobych, Lviv region - thanks to the collaborative effort of the local authorities, Move Ukraine, UNHCR and its NGO partner NEEKA. Drohobych City Council 12 families displaced from frontline regions like Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk received keys to apartments in the refurbished social housing in Drohobych, Lviv region - thanks to the collaborative effort of the local authorities, Move Ukraine, UNHCR and its NGO partner NEEKA. Drohobych City Council Drohobych City Council 10 families from the frontline Donetsk and Kherson regions moved in the facility in Pereyaslav, reconstructed with the support of UNHCR and Rokada. Rokada ll temporary housing projects ensure secure tenure for their residents. When the security situation allows some displaced people to go back to their regions of origin, the buildings will continue to serve the community as part of its permanent social housing stock supporting other vulnerable groups in need of affordable housing. UNHCR also supports people affected by the war with other sustainable housing solutions, including the repair of rural houses in the western and central regions of Ukraine, with repairs underway and 720 homes renovated out of a planned 870. Through the Rental Market Initiative UNHCR has supported around 2,000 people secure private accommodation by covering rental costs and utilities for six month. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice An early accuser of Jeffrey Epstein filed a lawsuit against the federal government this week, alleging that the FBI did absolutely nothing to protect her and other victims after she reported the abuse ultimately allowing the convicted sex offender and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell to continue exploiting young girls for years. According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Maria Farmer says she first reported Epstein and Maxwell in 1996, claiming she had been sexually assaulted by the pair, who she claims had also committed multiple serious sex crimes against other girls. Farmer alleged they were in possession, production, and distribution of sexually lascivious or exploitative images of children, including her minor sisters allegations that would constitute child pornography under federal law. open image in gallery ( AFP via Getty Images ) But despite the severity of the alleged claims, the FBI failed to take action, according to the lawsuit that accuses the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney's Offices, and the FBI of negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The FBI, in violation of its mandatory obligations under regulations and DOJ policies, chose to do absolutely nothing, the lawsuit states, with Farmer and her attorney also alleging that an FBI agent hung up on her and no one from the agency ever followed up on her reports. A failure to take action meant that Epstein exponentially multiplied his sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of girls and young women, according to the lawsuit obtained by NBC News. Farmer also suffered from complex PTSD, depression, anxiety and chronic illness as a result of the alleged abuse and the FBIs failure to protect her. As a result of Epsteins and Maxwells misconduct and the FBIs failures, Marias health and well-being deteriorated and spiraled downward. It is time for the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office to address their grotesque failures regarding Jeffrey Epstein, and to finally deliver the transparency and accountability that the victims and the American public deserve, the lawsuit states. The FBI declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing its standard practice to not comment on litigation. open image in gallery While awaiting trial for a slew of sex trafficking charges, Epstein died by suicide inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019 ( New York State Sex Offender Regi ) Farmers attorney Jennifer Freeman said the U.S. violated the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people to sue the government for damages caused by negligence of their employees. "Had the federal government done their job, hundreds of victims would have been spared," Freeman told NBC News. In a 2019 lawsuit, Farmer had alleged she had been violently sexually assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell while working on an art project at Epstein's Ohio guest house in 1996. Her sister filed a lawsuit the same year, accusing Maxwell of groping her breasts when she was 16 and alleging the pair had groomed her, NBC News reported. Both lawsuits were withdrawn in 2020 as part of a deal to accept restitution from a victims compensation fund paid out by Epsteins estate. The millionaire financier, who socialized with royalty and celebrities, was accused of running a large network of underage girls for sex. Epstein faced a slew of sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. While awaiting trial, he died by suicide inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in 2019. In 2019, Maxwell was convicted on sex trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Last month, more than 100 people were named in legal documents linked to Epstein. The disclosure of the court files included the names of victims, friends and associates of the sex offender and Maxwell although many others will have no direct link to Epstein. The legal documents, which relate to a defamation lawsuit brought against Maxwell in 2015 and were published under a judges order, were first released in three tranches in January 2024 and did not shed much new light on the case, including many names that had already previously been made public. open image in gallery Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein, pictured after a hearing in the criminal case against Epstein, in August 2019. Giuffre died by suicide on April 26, 2025 at the age of 41 ( REUTERS ) The list, which included Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, as well as Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of trafficking her to Andrew when she was 17, something the prince has strenuously denied, as well as members of her family and various associates. Giuffre died by suicide on April 26, 2025 at the age of 41 at her home in Neergabby, Australia. Being named in these documents does not indicate any wrongdoing related to Epstein or anyone else. The list includes many of Epsteins accusers and alleged victims, as well as people with only tangential connections to Epstein who were pulled into the lawsuit against Maxwell. Prince Andrew appears prominently, with the documents mentioning a previously reported accusation that he groped Johanna Sjoberg, which he denies. Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are also named, with neither accused of wrongdoing. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice An NYPD detective on Mayor Eric Adams security detail worked as a personal security guard for one of the suspects in the Manhattan crypto torture case, a report alleges. The officer has been identified in news reports citing anonymous officials as Robert Cordero, a detective of the first grade who joined the force in 2005. He is currently assigned to the Executive Protection Unit, Adams detail. Another officer has also been named as being connected to the case, drug cop Raymond Low, who also joined the NYPD in 2005. The pair became sworn officers on the same day. Cordero is accused of picking up the victim from the airport, reports The New York Times. He also provided security outside the Prince Street townhouse where the alleged torture took place, sources say. "Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty," a spokesperson for Mayor Adams told The Independent via email. "We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing." Police say the alleged kidnappers knew the victim The NYPD has acknowledged that two officers were placed on modified duty as part of an ongoing internal review, though it hasnt publicly named the officers. The matter is under internal review, the NYPD said in a statement to The Independent. Its not clear how much the two were being paid for their alleged security services. Cordero also served in protection details for Adams predecessor, Bill de Blasio. The reports emerged the same day a grand jury indicted one of the alleged torturers, John Woeltz, 37, an investor known as the crypto king of Kentucky. Woeltz was denied bail and is set to be arraigned on June 11. Woeltzs alleged accomplice, William Duplessie, was arrested Tuesday and is awaiting indictment. The men are accused of luring Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan to the house on May 6 and holding him captive for 17 days, torturing him with pistol-whippings, using a chainsaw on his leg, shocking him and dangling him from a building. The captive was allegedly able to escape by giving up his Bitcoin password last week, then fleeing into the street, where police said they found him bloodied and shoeless. Suspect Woeltz has every intention to fight this case, his attorney Wayne Gosnell said in court. Police say the alleged kidnappers knew the victim. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The FBI and the Trump administration have launched a joint investigation into how an impersonator hacked White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles phone. An unknown person pretending to be Wiles has called or texted Republican senators and governors, and prominent business executives over the last few weeks, sources told The Wall Street Journal. Its not clear what the impersonators goal is. The caller reportedly sounds like Wiles, and officials believe the impersonator may have used artificial intelligence to imitate Wiless voice, sources told the Journal. Sources told the newspaper that investigators do not believe that foreign actors are to blame for the hacking. One lawmaker told the Journal that a text supposedly from Wiles asked them to compile a list of people for Trump to pardon. Some of the texts appeared straightforward and legitimate, while others were odd, the targets said. open image in gallery President Donald Trumps lieutenant in the White House Susie Wiles, has reportedly told associates that her phone was hacked ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) Some of the language reportedly didnt sound like Wiles, and the impersonator sometimes asked questions Wiles should have known. In one particularly suspicious request, the impersonator asked a target to transfer cash, according to the Journal. The calls and texts did not come from Wiles phone. Wiles one of President Donald Trumps closest advisers, who ran his campaign reportedly recently told associates that her personal phone had been hacked, which may have been how her impersonator discovered her contacts and their contact information. A source told The Journal, Some White House advisers have privately joked about how busy the impersonator seems to be. Her email was also reportedly hacked last August, reportedly by Iranian agents. The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated, a White House spokeswoman told the newspaper. Wiles appointment to such a prominent position drew criticism thanks to her previous career as a lobbyist. open image in gallery President Donald Trump with National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in the Oval Office as Wiles looks on ( Getty ) Fellow lobbyist Craig Holman told the Associated Press back in November that her appointment bodes very poorly for what we are about to see from the next Trump administration. This time around, Trump didnt even mention draining the swamp. ... Hes not even pretending. Wiles selection as chief of staff was Trumps first announced hire after his win. Wiles co-led the former presidents campaign and was widely credited with having run an operation that was far more disciplined than his two previous efforts. Even so, she will have her work cut out for her. Though the job has traditionally entailed policing who has access to the president, Trump chafed at such efforts during his first presidency as he churned through four chiefs of staff. During his recent victory speech, Trump called Wiles and Ice Maiden while praising her as a consummate behind-the-scenes player. She is the first woman to hold the position. The Associated Press contributed to his report. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A bloodhound picked up the scent of convicted killer and rapist Grant Hardin shortly after his escape from a northern Arkansas lockup. The hound, part of a specialized prison unit, began its hunt immediately, showcasing the critical role these animals play in tracking fugitives. Despite heavy rain complicating the search, experts believe the bloodhound's keen sense of smell can still detect a fresh trail, even days after Hardin's Sunday escape. Brian Tierney, president of the National Police Bloodhound Association, emphasized the breed's tenacity as trackers, highlighting their importance in the ongoing search for Hardin, now in its sixth day. Bloodhounds also save lives. Recently in Maine, Millie, a 10-month-old hound, tracked a missing 5-year-old girl with autism. Maine State Police reported that Millie located the girl waist-deep in a cedar swamp on May 16, crediting the dog's dedication and "incredible nose" for saving her life. Bad weather confounded the hunt for Hardin, who was serving a 30-year sentence for murder when he escaped from the North Central Unit, a medium-security prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas. open image in gallery Police set up checkpoints looking for escaped prisoner Grant Hardin, Thursday, May 29, 2025, near downtown Calico Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Nicholas Ingram) ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) Authorities have been using canines, drones and helicopters to search for Hardin in the rugged terrain of northern Arkansas. But there are more than 2,000 documented caves in the area, state officials say. Many of them have entrances only a few feet wide that are not obvious to passersby. The hound found - then lost - Hardin's scent when heavy rains blew through the area, said state prison spokesman Rand Champion. Hardin was tracked for less than a quarter of a mile when the bloodhound lost the trail. The fugitive could have gone in any direction after that. That was one of the most frustrating things, that they were able to track him but then they lost him because of the rain, Champion said. Hardin took almost nothing with him and left behind plenty of clothes, bedsheets and other items that are used to familiarize the bloodhounds with his scent, Champion said. Those items are shared with the dogs to give them the initial scent of the person they are seeking, Tierney said. Its a process thats standard operating procedure for Arkansas prison dogs. Who is Grant Hardin? A former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in a fatal shooting for which he was serving a 30-year sentence. Hardins DNA was matched to the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison for that crime. Eventually, his notoriety led to a TV documentary, Devil in the Ozarks. open image in gallery Grant Hardin leaves court ( Fox ) Champion said that someone should have checked Hardins identity before he was allowed to leave, describing the lack of verification as a lapse that is being investigated. Authorities haven't disclosed how many dogs are involved in the manhunt, but the Calico Rock prison is known for its bloodhounds that live in a kennel on prison property. The nearly one dozen dogs at the prison have helped many other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to track a variety of people over the years, according to a 2021 state audit report on the prison. Southern prisons have a long history of keeping bloodhounds around in case of escapes, like the one featured in country artist Blake Shelton's song Ol' Red," about a hound that hunts escaped inmates with "a nose that could smell a two-day trail." open image in gallery Prison escapee Grant Hardin, who was featured in the HBO Max documentary "Devil in the Ozarks for killing Gateway City water employee James Appleton in 2017 and raping teacher Amy Harrison in 1997, has residents of a small mountain community on edge as he evades authorities. ( Arkansas State Police ) Dogs in Arkansas' prison system have also been used to help other agencies find people who are not dangerous, such as missing children, people with special needs or elderly people, Champion said. The bloodhounds tend to raise a ruckus when they find their mark. But the prison system uses other types of dogs in searching for children and vulnerable people who go missing, and those dogs tend to lick people and make friends with them when they are found, Champion said. Fugitives use spices, other means to foil bloodhounds Fugitives being hunted by bloodhounds have been known to take extreme steps to throw the dogs off their trail, Tierney said. Two convicted killers who broke out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in 2015 collected dozens of containers of black and cayenne pepper before their escape. They had intended to use the pepper to interfere with tracking dogs they assumed would be part of a manhunt for them after the escape, a state investigation found. One of the men was shot and killed during the manhunt; another was also shot but survived and was captured. Tierney said he's heard of other methods used by fugitives to evade tracking dogs. Among them: Sleeping in trees could allow one's scent to disperse before reaching the ground, he said. In his first job as a police officer 35 years ago in the college town of Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, Hardin struggled almost immediately, his supervisors said. Other recruits do not like Grant, one wrote in a performance review. After a few months on the job, most shift supervisors concluded that he was not suited for police work, Fayetteville's police chief at the time wrote to the director of the state commission on enforcement standards in the spring of 1991. But after being dismissed by Fayetteville police, he kept getting hired for other law enforcement jobs in northwest Arkansas. In documents and interviews, other police leaders echoed what Fayetteville's police chief had said that Grant should not have become a police officer. open image in gallery Grant Hardin became known as the 'Devil in the Ozarks' in the focus of this crime doc ( HBO ) By the time he was the police chief in the small town of Gateway in 2016, he was out chasing cars for no reason, Cheryl Tillman, the town's current mayor, recalled in the documentary Devil in the Ozarks. He's also been described by those who know him as a smart and cunning person who has learned many police tactics over the years and knows how law officers hunt fugitives. That individual probably watched the extended forecast before he went out, Tierney said. He would know that heavy rain is going to hinder the dogs. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A landlord has been shot and killed while trying to evict a tenant from his Las Vegas home, according to police. Christopher Rainy, 36, was arrested on Thursday after police responded to a report of a man whod been shot inside a home in the northwest valley. When cops arrived, they found a man with multiple gunshot wounds, Fox5 Vegas reported, citing police. The man was found dead on the kitchen floor. Before the landlord was shot, he had served Rainey with an eviction notice, according to police. This upset Rainey, and after a brief verbal exchange, he shot the victim several times, the police press release read. open image in gallery A landlord was fatally shot while trying to evict a tenant, police say ( AFP via Getty Images ) Police say Rainey, who was armed with a gun, later exited the home, and was taken into custody. Investigators say the man who was shot and killed was Raineys landlord. Fox5 Vegas reports four people lived in the home, including the landlord. Local resident, Keith Kramer, said he was shocked by the shooting. I walk my dog every night. I dont have any problems at all. I was surprised to see the lights myself, he told KLAS, referring to the police cars. The local outlet also spoke with a roommate who was not inside the home during the shooting, who said he didnt know what to make of the incident. Rainey is being held in a local jail. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A former assistant to Sean Diddy Combs was stunned into silence after being accused by the moguls lawyers of fabricating her allegations of rape. The assistant, who is being referred to by the pseudonym Mia, appeared so taken aback with the question that she went silent, stuttering occasionally while processing the line of questioning. Everything Ive said in this courtroom is true, she said. During her testimony on Friday she said that her time working for the music mogul left her with complex PTSD, as she was forced to defend social media posts that lawyers argued undermined her claims of horrific abuse. Mia was aggressively cross-examined by Combs defense lawyers on Friday, one day after bombshell allegation that she was once raped by the mogul at his Los Angeles home. The high-profile trial in New York has been ongoing for three weeks and attracted significant attention, including from President Donald Trump, who did not dismiss a potential pardon for Combs, should he be convicted, when asked by reporters in the Oval Office. The aggressive question from Combs lawyer was one of several key moments during proceedings on Friday. Combs, 55, is facing five federal courts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Other shocking moments during Mias testimony included: Mia claimed that Combs threatened to kill her in 2015 after she did not answer multiple calls from him while on a trip to South Africa with the moguls ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura Mia also testified that due to the years of alleged psychological trauma and abuse she is constantly anxious and unable to hold a job She said the mogul sexually assaulted her following his 40th birthday celebration, kissing her and put his hands up her dress Combs had also threatened to tell Ventura about the alleged sexual assaults on Mia but implying that she was to blame, she testified During her testimony, Mia told the court that she now overreacts to every minor situation because she is afraid of potential repercussions, and agreed that the years of torment by Combs had left her ruined and broken. open image in gallery On Friday, the assistant, who was referred to in court by the pseudonym Mia, was aggressively cross-examined by Combs defense lawyers on Friday, one day after bombshell allegation that she was once been raped by the mogul at his Los Angeles home ( Reuters ) For most of Fridays proceedings, Mia kept her head down and face out of sight as much as she possibly could, fidgeting with her hands while answering questions on the stand, and often speaking in such a low tone that attorneys had to ask her to repeat herself. I was young and manipulated and eager to survive, she told the court. Nobody was there to say these things that were happening were wrongThere was nobody around us that ever even flinched at his behavior... I was always in trouble and I was always just trying to find a way not to be in trouble. The ex-assistant testified that she has only recently begun working through the physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological trauma she endured in the lengthy period that she worked for Combs. When confronted with questions about Combs alleged sexual assault, Mia became noticeably more timid, stuttering or taking several beats before answering attorneys questions. She shrank in her seat on the stand and took deep breaths while recounting the memories. Her apparent discomfort was elevated during cross-examination when defense attorney Brian Steel aggressively questioned her about some of her social media posts in which Combs was pictured, with captions saying I love you and calling the mogul a legend and a mentor. open image in gallery Combs is facing sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy charges. He was arrested in September 2024 as federal authorities alleged he threatened, abused, and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires between 2004 and 2024. Combs has denied any accusations of wrongdoing ( REUTERS ) She told the court that her social media posts only showed the highs of her experience with Combs and his associates. Asked why she played down her treatment by Combs and the allegations against him, she said that she was afraid to upset the mogul and that they were best friends. How are you best friends with a man you say raped you? Steel asked. Ask my therapist, Mia replied. Steel did not let up, relentlessly questioning her over social media posts after social media posts. At one point, Steel questioned her sexual assault claim, suggesting she was fabricating her story. open image in gallery For most of Fridays proceedings, Mia kept her head down and face out of sight as much as she possibly could, fidgeting with her hands while answering questions on the stand, and often speaking in such a low tone that attorneys had to ask her to repeat herself ( Reuters ) Isnt it true that Mr. Combs never had unwanted nonconsensual forcible contact with you? he asked. Everything Ive said in this courtroom is true, Mia replied, after what appeared to be a stunned silence. On Thursday she described the nightmare of cleaning up hotel rooms used for Combss alleged freak-offs. The rooms were destroyed, Mia testified, adding that one time there was blood, which she told jurors Combs said was from Cassie Venturas period. Combs is facing sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy charges. He was arrested in September 2024 as federal authorities alleged he threatened, abused, and coerced victims to fulfill his sexual desires between 2004 and 2024. Combs has denied any accusations of wrongdoing. Mia is due to return to the stand for further cross-examination on Monday. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Incarcerated former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight has urged Sean "Diddy" Combs to stand up and defend himself in court. Suge, 60, the founder of Death Row Records and a long-time rival of Diddy, 55, said the accused rapper should try to humanize himself by taking the stand and try to convince the jury to give him a shot amid his ongoing sex trafficking trial. Combs is facing sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy charges after he was arrested in September last year on allegations of threatening to abuse and coerce victims to fulfill his sexual desires between 2004 and 2024. He has denied all accusations of wrongdoing. Speaking to CNN in a recent phone interview, Knight said: I feel if he does tell his truth, he really would walk. If Puffy goes up there and says, Hey I did all the drugs, I wasnt in control of my life at the time, or myself he can humanize his old self and the jury might give him a shot, Knight added. However, it is unclear if Combs will testify during the trial, which is expected to last for at least five weeks. It was initially expected to last around eight weeks, ending on or around July 4. If they keep him sitting down, its like hes scared to face the music. He should just have his faith in God, put up his pants, and go up there and tell his truth, he continued. Combs' former assistant, Mia, testified in court Thursday, telling jurors that her then-boss tormented her with degrading assaults that included sexual abuse. She also claimed that she would set up and clean hotel rooms following the alleged freak-offs, testifying they could be covered in substances that included candle wax, water, and even blood. open image in gallery Incarcerated Marion Suge Knight has urged Diddy to take the stand ( AFP/Getty ) In the 1990s, Knight and Combs were embroiled in an infamous feud that coincided with the growing popularity of hip-hop and rap across the country. As the popularity of the genre surged, so did the rivalry between certain rap artists, the most famous of which was the war between the East and West Coasts. The feud essentially boiled down to various disputes between Combs Bad Boy Records in New York City, which counted the Notorious B.I.G. as its star, and Knights Death Row Records in Los Angeles, which counted 2Pac and Snoop Dogg on its roster. Bad Boy were accused of authorities of using the street gang the Crips as security, whereas the Death Row were accused of having ties to the rival Bloods. open image in gallery Suge and Tupac pictured at the Sunset Park Premiere in Los Angeles, CA, in April 1996 ( Bei/Shutterstock ) The battle reached a chilling peak when 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. were shot and killed within months of each other. Knight had been driving the car in which the former was killed in Las Vegas in 1996. Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2018 for an unrelated incident involving a hit-and-run on the set of the movie Straight Outta Compton in 2015. The former record label founder pleaded no contest to manslaughter in connection with the death of Terry Carter. Days ahead of his comments to CNN, Knight told Chris Cuomo on his show, Cuomo, that Diddy should definitely walk free". The Independent contacted Knights representative for comment. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A beloved high school teacher was fatally stabbed by her teen son while she slept, authorities say. Lara Lyons was found stabbed to death inside her home in Shreveport, Louisiana, last week. The 55-year-old educator was just a day away from going on her summer break. Connor Lyons, 19, has been charged with second-degree murder, battery of a police officer, resisting an officer, and being an in-state fugitive in connection with the murder of his mother, online jail records show. Caddo Parish Sheriffs Deputies were dispatched to the home on Double A Drive near Dixie Blanchard Road in Shreveport just before 2.10 p.m. last Friday after a 911 dispatcher said they received a disturbing report. My brother killed my mother, the voice said, reports KSLA. open image in gallery Connor Lyons is currently facing a murder charge in connection to the fatal stabbing of his mother, Lara Lyons ( Caddo Parish Sheriff ) Upon arriving at the home, deputies said that Connor Lyons was found sitting on the steps of the rear porch while his mothers body was uncovered with stab wounds, lying on her bed. After being handcuffed, the defendant allegedly admitted to the murder. He told deputies that he had stabbed her three times on the right side of the neck in her sleep, authorities say. The teen added that he had been hearing voices, the sheriffs office said. The mom-of-threes family and friends took to social media to share their heartbreak. Yesterday was supposed to be your last day of school before summer break, another son wrote on her Facebook post, sharing the music video of Lindsay Buckinghams Holiday Road. I'm so heartbroken, I feel completely destroyed. The impact you had on so many people will never be forgotten. Childhood friend Angie Guice said she is mortified to hear this news. open image in gallery Lara Lyons' family and friends have shared their heartbreak across social media ( Lara Lyons/Facebook ) If you knew her you knew she was a real friend, she added. She cared for folks, she helped others, loved her mom, her kids, and the new her to home she was fixing up. Another friend, Jessica Thompson, added: Lara, to truly know you was to love you. All of your quirks and sass made you, you. I am truly so sorry and devastated this happened to you. The DeSoto Parish Schools district paid tribute to the teachers loss in a touching statement late last week. Ms. Lyons was a dedicated educator, a compassionate colleague, and a cherished member of the DeSoto Parish Schools family, it read. Her commitment to her students and passion for teaching touched countless lives, and her absence will be deeply felt across our school community. The school district said that it would share details about Lara Lyons funeral soon. Conor Lyons is currently being held in the Caddo Correctional Center on a $2.05 million bond, according to online jail records. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A Texas sheriffs office tapped into a nationwide network of tens of thousands of automatic license plate readers to locate a woman who had a self-managed abortion, raising alarms from privacy and abortion access advocates. On May 9, an officer with the Johnson County Sheriffs Office used a tool called Flock to access a nationwide network of some 83,000 license plate readers as part of its search. Abortion is almost entirely illegal in Texas, but the search included cameras in states where abortion is legal, like Washington and Illinois, according to data obtained by tech news website 404 Media. The sheriffs office told the outlet it initiated the search because the womans family was worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital. We werent trying to block her from leaving the state or whatever to get an abortion, Sheriff Adam King said. It was about her safety. Abortion is almost entirely illegal in Texas, with limited exceptions for the health of the mother ( Getty ) The camera company, meanwhile, told the outlet it supports local jurisdictions laws regarding surveillance technology. Abortion has been almost completely illegal in Texas since 2022, and those who perform abortions can face civil and criminal penalties. The state has narrow exceptions in its abortion laws to protect the life of the mother, and does not have exceptions for rape or incest. Texass restrictions have prompted numerous OB-GYN doctors, including those who dont perform abortions, to leave the state, in fear of facing complications under the states abortion rules. This week, a bill in the state legislature allowing private citizens to sue those who facilitate telehealth abortions for upwards of $100,000 failed to pass a key hurdle, likely meaning it wont be passed during the current session. About 1 in 5 abortions are done through telehealth, with about half of the patients living in states that ban or limit abortion, according to 19th News. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has targeted a New York-based doctor for allegedly selling mail-order abortion pills to a Texas patient. Earlier this month, a Texas midwife was arrested for allegedly owning and operating a network of illegal abortion clinics. In 2022, a Texas woman was jailed and charged with murder for a self-managed abortion, though prosecutors later dropped the charges. The woman has since sued local officials over the arrest. Foreign journalists refute Western propaganda after visiting Xinjiang 10:19, May 30, 2025 By Wu Chaolan, Xu Zheng ( People's Daily Online A group of foreign journalists participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Youth Cultural Exchange Camp shared their firsthand experiences after visiting Xinjiang, China, challenging misconceptions fueled by some Western media outlets. Instead of fear and oppression, the journalists described witnessing a vibrant and peaceful region where people live freely, smile openly and embrace rapid development. Their impressions stood in sharp contrast to the fear-based narratives often found in Western coverage. As one journalist said, "What we heard and what were seeing its very different." Some expressed a desire to return with their families and encouraged others to visit Xinjiang and see the reality for themselves. (Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Du Mingming) So it was interesting to hear Vicki Brady, the boss of Australias $54 billion telco giant Telstra, announce how it was going to wield the AI magic wand as part of its five-year plan to transform the business and earnings profile. A recent trip to the US, which included entry to the exclusive Microsoft CEO Summit, proved to be an eye-opener on AIs current state-of-play. The pace and scale of change is just phenomenal this is real now, Brady says. Now the conversation is around agents. We see lots of potential across those areas customer engagement, how we operate and manage our network, how we develop software and manage our IT environment, how it supports back of office for us where you tend to have manual processes. What is Agentic AI? By agents she means the hot new buzzword: Agentic AI. This refers to discrete AI tools that can handle a range of functions with minimal oversight. Loading Think of cybersecurity agents that automatically detect and respond to threats, or health assistants that can help with diagnostic, treatment and care management recommendations. Or, in Telstras case, create massive efficiencies in customer engagement while improving the quality of its service hopefully. In case you dont understand the potential threat, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang recently referred to them as digital employees. And keep in mind that Telstra has made a virtue of its massive blood-letting over the past two decades with job cuts at a pace only surpassed by your columnists own industry: media. Telstras most recent T22 transformation strategy included 8000 fresh bodies out the door. So it was interesting to see how ambivalent Telstra was on AI-related job costs when asked by analysts, who are used to hard numbers from the telco. No one can predict exactly what our workforces will look like in 2030, but in our case, we believe our workforce will likely be smaller in 2030 than it is today, was Bradys tepid reply. Telstra currently employs 32,000 staff doing everything from ditch digging to customer support and sales. It isnt that Brady wont be using every opportunity to replace staff with AI bots where possible, it is just too early to say how much it will need to leverage staff with AI rather than rely on AI alone. It makes Telstra an interesting proxy for the AI revolution compared to the tech groups and services giants which are starting to take brutal measures as AI turns on its makers. Recent job losses at Microsoft included teams of coders whose jobs can now be done by AI. Technical writers at Aussie tech giants like Canva are also having to find new careers. Shopifys boss may have merely been publicly stating what has become industry standard practice when he said recently that the group would only approve new hires if it could be shown the job cannot be done by AI. It has led to extreme measures, like the highly paid staff from Canva and Atlassian taking union membership just like Telstras ditch diggers. Canva, Australias largest private company with a $49 billion valuation controlled by its three founders, has seen its employees turn to union membership as AI starts devouring positions. Credit: Canva But the overriding message across industries is that it is about growing the business with fewer new hires as the business expands. I like to think we can double in size with the workforce we have today, Janet Truncale, global chief executive of EY, said at the recent Milken Institute annual conference on the impact of AI. So how does this all work for Telstra with the disadvantage of incumbency and the need for massive investments to keep up with the insatiable demand for data from new applications like AI, augmented reality and live-streaming? Plus the fierce competition which limits the telcos ability to charge higher prices. Loading Telstra plans on AI having a critical role in its aim to both grow revenue but also keep a lid on costs. This is not straightforward, driving positive operating leverage in a business like ours, which is a mature business, Brady says. Weve got to drive the top line, and weve got to drive real efficiency in our business. And thats absolutely at the heart of the strategy. Even for the ditch diggers and maintenance staff, AI is already helping its infrastructure business cut the costly truck rolls for emergency maintenance problems and help crush the manual complexity of designing its high-speed networks. To get an idea of the potential savings, managing and operating its various networks costs $1.5 billion annually. Software engineering and IT is another $1 billion annual cost. And then there is the big opportunity the $2 billion consumed every year on customer engagement in all its forms. The job losses will be from the workers that companies like Telstra wont need to hire, and if it works the costs will be handed on to customers if they are willing to pay for services tailored to their needs. That big opportunity is more than just about containing costs. It starts with the digitisation of telecommunications networks which now allow companies like Telstra to leverage it as a product with its own value rather than a pipe, no different to your gas and water. Customer offerings no longer need to be defined by maximum download speeds and buckets of data. With digitisation, services can be managed more discretely by software. And customers access to the network can become more bespoke and hopefully lucrative. A food truck at a concert needs uninterrupted network access to ensure payments get through and are not swamped by selfies getting uploaded by its customers. How much would they pay for that? Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic says no one seems prepared for the massive change ahead. Credit: Bloomberg Customer engagement needs to get much smarter to create differentiated offerings like the right service for someone to stream movies, make business video calls, or scale bandwidth for peak sales periods at your business. The job losses will be from the workers whom companies like Telstra wont need to hire, and if it works the costs will be handed on to customers if they are willing to pay for services tailored to their needs. But lets not kid ourselves, no one has any real idea how this will play out. Sydney tradie John Versace has been remembered as affectionate, hard-working and loving by his devastated family, who farewelled the 23-year-old in a moving service at a Maronite church almost a fortnight after he was gunned down on the driveway of his Condell Park home. Versace, 23, had just pulled into the driveway of the home he shared with his parents when a stolen Toyota Corolla sped up to the home about 10.30pm on May 19. A gunman ran along the length of the fence, before levelling a semi-automatic pistol at Versace and firing up to 10 shots, confronting CCTV footage shows. John Versace (left) was killed in a hail of bullets at his family home, a major catalyst for a new police strike force. A short time later, a car thought to be the same Corolla was found alight in nearby Fairfield. His murder has troubled investigators, who say it has all the hallmarks of a gangland execution. Its like glamping, but with more mud, Bennett says. Since then, the pair has relocated to a caravan parked outside while they slowly work to rebuild their lives. Metres away, the kettle and microwave on the front verandah is the closest they can get to a kitchen for now. When the swollen Manning River finally receded last week , Bennett and her partner, Mario Agius, returned from the refuge of their neighbours home on higher ground to find every inch of floor covered in a thick, brown sludge swept in from the waterway, which reached a record height days earlier. Weve got a mud-free house, Bennett says. I appreciate the small things in life now. Theres still some seeping through the floors and gaps in her Croki home, but the shovelling and hosing down is done, and shes in good spirits. By Wednesday afternoon, most of the mud had been cleared from Michelle Bennetts house. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. In the madness of cleaning up, shes lost her last hair tie and been left with an unruly mop for days. Bennett is collecting donated clothes from Cundletowns community centre, just across the river from Taree, when the Herald speaks with her; without power or a working washing machine, shes been wearing the same clothes for days. Like Bennett and Agius, many in Croki, a village a few kilometres along the Manning north from Taree, were left without insurance after flooding in 2021 upped premiums by more than $30,000 per year. The devastation has taken its toll, though. When the Manning River started swelling, it was exciting seeing how high the waterway would rise, Bennett says. Then came the adrenaline rush of preparing for the flood to hit. That, too, was quickly replaced with the reality of the destruction. Well get there, weve still got a roof over our heads, Bennett says. Without insurance, it will be a long, costly road back to normality for Bennett and Agius, who will be left thousands of dollars out of pocket to make their home flood friendly for the next time the Manning breaks its banks. It is what it is, Bennett says. Its just Mother Nature doing her thing at the moment. Bennett and Agius know the risks of staying put on the banks of the Manning after two major floods in the past four years, but havent once considered leaving their home. Its amazing what our community does to pitch together to help, Bennett says. Different people in the community have been doing all different sorts of things. Its amazing. Dozens of bags of Bennett and Agius muddied clothes and bed linen have been picked up by neighbours and volunteers to be washed since the roads cleared. Soon, though, a volunteer at the community centre is on the hunt for a pack among the piles of gifted goods. Ive got one, and I lost it the other night, Bennett laughs. Uglow was one of only a few of Crokis few dozen residents whose homes werent inundated when the Manning rose. Some had just finished renovating their homes after the 2021 flood battered the village; almost all lost their cars in both floods. This time around, the water stopped two millimetres short of flowing into the Uglows home. The main driver for moving, Uglow says, is the unaffordable insurance costs that leave locals vulnerable to losing everything each time the village floods. Kile Nicholas checks on Phil Lorking, 80, in the isolated village of Croki last week. Credit: Kate Geraghty They cant do it again, Uglow says from beside a bonfire locals have gathered around nightly to keep morale high since the water receded. Toby Uglow, who has lived with his wife, Rachel, in Croki since 2006, says while his home was spared any damage in this flood, some of the villages less fortunate long-term residents have decided to move on. Their neighbours, though, are less optimistic and grappling with the decision to stay or go. The lessons learnt there in the past three years could go a long way to better preparing the Mid North Coast, and towns like Taree, for the next natural disaster, says Elizabeth Mossop, the head of Living Lab Northern Rivers. Meanwhile just over four hours up the highway from Taree, Lismore has been on its own slow and winding road to recovery since the historic 2022 floods that left much of the town underwater and destroyed homes and businesses. Waters have mostly receded but damage to roads and bridges still prevents access to some parts, with resupply operations continuing. About 3500 people remain isolated in six communities across the mid-north coast and Hunter regions, while about 700 homes and 400 other buildings have been deemed uninhabitable. More than 6000 insurance claims have been filed, about a quarter of them coming from the MidCoast council area. The floods have also claimed five lives. The face of the village is going to change a fair bit after this one, Uglow says. It is very sad. They are all going to be dealing with versions of the same problem, and if they can find a way to really work together, to share resources and expertise, that lays the foundation, Mossop says. They are all going to have to make plans for recovery. Mossop leads the collaboration between the University of Technology Sydney, Southern Cross University and the NSW Reconstruction Authority which is focused on designing a sustainable future for Lismore. It has offered to carry out a similar initiative on the Mid North Coast. Its not a matter of if another large-scale flood hits the region, but when, Mossop says. What you hope, is that we can just translate those things very directly so that people are not trying to reinvent the wheel, Mossop says. First, though, the region will need to focus on its recovery. Securing housing for those who were displaced or lost their homes in the floods, and getting businesses back-up and running is at the top of the list to achieve that, Mossop says. Obviously, the priority has to be focused on helping to make people whole again, Mossop says. You cant think about the future while youre dealing with the disaster, but when we get to the situation where people are starting to think about how to go forward, that kind of planning has to take place with building in an understanding of what it is going to take to make these places more resilient into the future. But, Mossop says, that planning doesnt just need to take place on the Mid North Coast. There are very few places anywhere in Australia that have thought seriously about the kind of adaptation work to minimise the impacts of flooding, Mossop says. Weve thought about it, historically, in a kind of 20th century way of How can we defeat the floodwaters, how can we keep the floodwaters out of here? And were now dealing with a scale of events where thats not possible. We have to think about it in this different way ... what can we do if the floodwaters are coming? What can we do to minimise the damage that they cause, to minimise threats to safety, and to minimise the period of disruption that is caused by these floods. Loading And its not just floods, the regions resilience against other disasters, including bushfires needs to be improved. What that looks like going forward is not yet clear. In Lismore, a $900 million buyback scheme, under which homes in the citys most flood-prone areas have been bought by the NSW government, was introduced to move properties and people out of harms way. No such scheme has been locked in for the Mid North Coast, but it is one of many options on the table. Plan and adapt Mal Lanyon, chief executive of the NSW Reconstruction Authority, says authorities are working through disaster adaptation planning to understand the risks associated with each region, and what kind of mitigation can be put in place, so residents can live safely in communities. Its not just about recovery, its about trying to prevent the impacts of disasters before they happen, knowing that obviously we cant stop disasters in the types of rainfall that weve seen in the past couple of weeks, Lanyon says. While its too early to say whether Taree and the Mid North Coasts recovery could be modelled on Lismore and the Northern Rivers, Lanyon says there have been significant lessons from the past few years, including how quickly clean-up started. Weve made significant strides, Lanyon says. We had a plan in long before any of the water started to recede. But, for all the lessons that were learnt from previous floods, there are many that werent. Some locals in and around Taree say they were left in the dark about the scale of the disaster flowing down the Manning until it was too late, warned that the flooding would reach only minor to moderate levels. Instead, the river reached its highest levels since 1929. During some of the heaviest rainfall that hit Taree, three flood gauges immediately upstream from Taree were unavailable. If not for their own research and diligence after similar issues during the 2021 floods, Toby Uglow says, Croki residents would have been caught off guard by the record flooding. The Bureau of Meteorology says the gauges, which provide the weather bureau with real-time data on river levels, were unavailable at various times during the flooding due to a Telstra outage, but that its weather forecasts and warnings service is resilient and not dependent on any one piece of equipment. Forecasts and warnings for all regions are based on a combination of many different observing systems including satellites, automatic weather stations, radars, rain gauges and hydrological monitoring stations. The composite nature of these systems allows specialist staff to monitor approaching weather and issue forecasts and warnings, the weather bureau said in a statement, adding that flood warnings for the Manning, Myall, Paterson, Williams and Hunter rivers had been in place for several days before the gauges were affected. Paul and Liz Brennan, who were helicoptered to safety from their flooded Oxley Island home across the river from Taree, say they only became aware of the severity of the flooding when it was too late to evacuate. It seems to be another one of these examples where we were unable to provide people with effective advice about what was going to happen, Mossop says. Rescued: Oaxley Island residents Liz Brennan, her husband Paul Brennan (second from right) and a neighbour (right). Credit: Kate Geraghty The complete scale of the damage in these floods is not yet clear, but the impact is being tallied as the water recedes; across the Mid North Coast, water inundated more than 1100 homes, more than 15,000 cubic metres of flood debris has been cleared, and more than 1200 cattle carcasses, a number expected to increase, have been retrieved. Outside the major centres across both the Mid North Coast and Hunter regions, farmers have been hit as hard as anyone. In Hinton, near Maitland in the Hunter, the Wilson family threw thousands of dollars of milk away when road closures that isolated the tiny town stopped trucks from reaching the farm. With 200 of the farms 250 acres underwater, the Wilsons lost all of their grazing paddocks they rely on to feed their 180-odd cattle. Until at least September they will have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on buying hay while they wait for the paddocks to dry and become workable again. The farmers put so much into their land and care for their animals there is a mental health component right through these sorts of incidents and impacts on those directly affected, Lanyon says. Its farmers like the Wilsons who will be struggling to get up and keep going again, Lanyon says. Ive got little doubt that some people, particularly primary producers who have been through this a number of times, are feeling despair, he says. Locals start the clean-up on Manning Street in Taree. Credit: Kate Geraghty Theyre people that love their animals, they love working the land, and yet theyve found over the past few years, that theyve had repeated disasters, which has not only impacted on their income, but certainly on their lifestyle and on their animals. Whatever the way forward, planning for the next disaster needs to start now, MidCoast Mayor Claire Pontin says. We are needing to have a discussion about where to from here, she says. There is not a clear path. Pontin is keen to start immediate talks with state and federal governments about what mitigation work can be done to help protect the Mid North Coast. It is something that we need to start doing on behalf of the community, Pontin says. Some of our people now have just been flooded so many times theyre tearing their hair out, and they dont know what to do. Loading But, through all the destruction, and despite the long road ahead, Pontin is hopeful the community will recover as it has done before. People just amaze me, Pontin says. In Croki, as some of her neighbours plan to leave their flood-prone homes, Michelle Bennett is grateful for the little things. While most of her furniture and many of her possessions have been ruined, its not physical objects she holds on to. And, like Pontin, she is amazed by peoples decency in the face of a crisis. A lot of stuff went, but Ive learnt its the people, its the memories that are so much more important than those things, she says. Its brought out a lot of beauty in people. Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert. A leading statistician on an emissions study into an ancient West Australian rock art site has spoken out to support the 800-page report, days after blasting WA bureaucrats for unacceptable interference by altering a graph in a separate summary. The report on monitoring of industrial emissions near the site on the Burrup Peninsula in the states north-west was released last Friday, and lauded by industry and the Cook government as proof that modern industrial emissions were not currently impacting the ancient petroglyph images carved into the sites striking rock landforms. Curtin University Professor and Murujuga rock art emissions study statistician Adrian Baddeley. Credit: Curtin University That conclusion was rubbished by world-renowned rock art expert Ben Smith, who said the 800-page report showed the opposite. The Murujuga rock art monitoring program is a $27 million joint effort between Curtin University scientists, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. Endangered duck species finds ally in crayfish farmer People's Daily Online) 13:18, May 30, 2025 Every morning after dropping off his child at school, Zhu Xiangneng heads straight to his crayfish farm not to check on the crayfish, but to watch birds. "Look! That's the Baer's pochard," he whispered, gesturing toward a few birds perched on an artificial island in the distance. Zhu operates a crayfish farm at Baoxie Lake in the Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development Zone in Wuhan, central Chinas Hubei Province. Baer's pochards fly over a wetland in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Photo/Changjiang Daily) The Baer's pochard, a critically endangered diving duck, is under first-class state protection in China. His first encounter with the birds came in 2016. "That was when I stopped raising fish and switched to farming crayfish. The water was shallower, and aquatic plants like lotus and reeds gradually began to flourish. Then these wild ducks I'd never seen before started showing up," Zhu recalled. At the time, he did not realize they were Baer's pochards. Zhu avoids using feed or chemicals, keeping his ponds clean and clear. He also never drives away the wild ducks that come to forage. "There aren't many of them, and they don't eat enough crayfish to affect my harvest," he said. As a result, aside from a brief summer migration, the birds have made a home in his fields. In the spring of 2022, Zhu was harvesting crayfish when strangers appeared by the pond. "I went over to ask what they were doing, and they told me they were members of the Wuhan Birdwatching Society looking for Baer's pochards," Zhu said. After seeing photos of the bird and learning about its characteristics, Zhu realized that the "wild ducks" living in his fields for the past four or five years were, in fact, the species they were searching for. Once the discovery was confirmed, the birdwatchers asked Zhu if he could help them find nesting sites. Soon after, he spotted a nest tucked in the grass near the pond's edge, holding a neat clutch of 13 eggs. Further searches uncovered several more nests all belonging to Baer's pochards. "They asked if they could set up surveillance cameras and infrared equipment to monitor the ducks' development. I didn't hesitate to say yes," Zhu said. The birdwatching society also invited him to volunteer. In addition to tending his crayfish, Zhu reviews footage from the infrared cameras, documents the ducks living conditions and helps educate others to prevent unintentional harm to the birds. More than 70 percent of the nests have successfully produced hatchlings thanks to his care. Spending more time outdoors has also honed Zhus birdwatching skills. "I didn't know many bird species before, but now I can identify more than 50," he said. "The more I learn about them, the more I love them and the more motivated I am to protect them." (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) After labouring 12 hours a day, helped by talented colleagues, and with her academic husband Min Chongs support at home, Chong delivered the costumes ranging from regal robes to fake blood-stained peasants garb on Wednesday. Chong says she didnt want Chaundy to be left in the lurch. In addition, I get off on the idea of being a white knight, she says. Having just turned 80, Chong is busier than ever. Honestly, its so impressive for anyone of any age to undertake that workload but especially at 80, says her longtime employee, Hannah Cuthbertson. In March, at Fitzroy Town Hall, 170 guests wearing Chongs favourite colour, pink, attended an appropriately outrageous birthday party. Some of her cheeky friends dressed as parodies of Chong. Up next is that for two weeks from June 4, Chongs work will be recognised at the Rising festival. Teachers furious at a state government plan to underfund public schools for another six years will take to the streets in a mass protest personally targeting Premier Jacinta Allan as a parliamentary inquiry is launched into the growing scandal. The Australian Education Union on Friday wrote to Victorian teachers calling for immediate action against the governments school funding con job which will strip $2.4 billion out of public schools by pushing back its commitment to fully fund the Gonski reforms by three years. The campaign outlined by the unions state leadership will involve paid advertisements, flooding the email inboxes of Allan and Education Minister Ben Carroll with letters from outraged teachers and school parents and public rallies targeting the pair and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes. Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, Premier Jacinta Allan and Education Minister Ben Carroll will be targeted by teacher protests. Credit: Justin McManus The Greens this week established a parliamentary inquiry to examine the impact of the funding cuts on students, teachers and the state school system. The inquiry, backed by the Liberal Party and not voted against by Labor MPs, is due to report by 30 April next year, seven months before the next state election. The Transport Accident Commission will deliver Victoria another billion-dollar windfall this year, an $800 million improvement on forecasts in last years budget. The Allan government insists the TAC remains financially sustainable as it receives its second dividend above $1 billion in as many years and forecasts a similar payment in 2029. Victoria has received a $1 billion dividend from the TAC. Credit: Paul Jeffers But the opposition has criticised the move as it lowers the commissions insurance funding ratio, from well above its target to the middle of the range. State budget papers show that in the 2024-25 financial year, the state government will receive a $1.13 billion dividend from the Transport Accident Commission, up from forecasts of $300 million in the last budget. 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 city of Chania, on the north-west coast of Crete, has a charming medieval harbour and an old town full of architectural influences drawing from the Ottomans, Venetians and Egyptians. But now theres another reason to visit: a new generation of food makers making their mark with slick venues. Red Jane Bakery Chanias Red Jane Bakery is decked out in marble. If it wasnt for the snaking queues, it would be easy to simply pass by Red Jane Bakery. Tucked behind an abandoned 1930s foundry, its signed only with a handwritten scrawl on the dilapidated facade. Theres a micro roastery, killer desserts (the French pastries all have a contemporary twist) and spectacular sandwiches that rotate throughout the year. Red Jane puts a unique spin on traditional Greek staples such as tyropita, a filo-pastry cheese pie filled with feta and ricotta. Aesthetes will also get a kick out of the industrial interiors by the noted Cypriot-born, London-based designer Michael Anastassiades. The features include soaring ceilings, exposed brick and a monolithic marble counter. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer a view into the bakery area, where uniformed chefs create a bounty of sourdough a change from the barley rusks that the island is famous for. See redjane.com Maiami The menu at Maiami reinterprets Mediterranean classics. American-Greek Alexandra Manousakis left a career in New York to return to her Cretan roots, opening a boutique collection of eateries and an organic winery. Manousakis is an artist and the food at Maiami is plated up on her handmade ceramics. The restaurant is located in a salmon-pink 1950s art deco-inspired building and is part painting studio, part boutique and part brasserie where customers eat off Manousakiss plates. The menu is a modern interpretation of classic Mediterranean dishes and perfect for summer. The prawan and ouzo pasta is unbeatable and salads are flavourful: crunchy greens, zesty lemon, spearmint, lime, pomegranate and watermelon. Theres also an array of Greek cheeses: mizithra, which is primarily produced on Crete, and arseniko, a spicy cheese from the island of Naxos. See maiamichania.com 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 North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, watched the countrys newest 5000-tonne destroyer capsize during its launch last week in an embarrassing military failure. Experts say a technique used to manoeuvre the ship into the water sideways was part of the problem. It was the first time analysts had observed North Korea using the sideways launch for warships and pointed to a lack of experience, as well as political pressure from Kim for quick results, for the mishap. Three shipyard officials, including the chief shipyard engineer and a senior munitions official, have been arrested, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, after Kim called the capsizing a criminal act. Satellite imagery from three days before the accident showed the 143-metre-long vessel, the biggest class of warships North Korea has ever built, on top of a launch ramp. About 40 metres from the ship, a structure that appeared to be a viewing area and likely where Kim was stationed during the incident was under construction. The destroyer was assembled in Chongjin, a port city on North Koreas north-eastern coast, which is known for producing smaller vessels, such as cargo ships and fishing boats. In a report published by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a research institute in Washington, analysts said the shipyard undoubtedly lacked expertise in manufacturing and launching large warships. Advertisement The ill-fated warship was assessed by analysts to be the same size and configuration as the Choe Hyon guided missile destroyer, the Norths first destroyer and the most powerful surface ship the country has ever built. That vessel is the pride of Kims ambitious plan to modernise and expand his Soviet-era naval fleet, and was the centrepiece of a grand christening ceremony last month in Nampo, a west coast port near Pyongyang. State media footage showed an elaborate event with confetti and fireworks that was attended by Kim and his daughter, Kim Ju-ae. A large viewing platform was set up near the Choe Hyun, which was already afloat in the water. That launch went smoothly, according to state media. Engineers used a technique common for large and heavy vessels. They appear to have built the Choe Hyun inside a roofed construction hall in Nampo, brought it out on a floating dry dock and then set it afloat by letting water into the dry dock, said Choi Il, a retired South Korean navy captain. The ship looks a bit twisted after the accident. It doesnt appear to have been built with the structural strength required for a warship. Yang Uk, Asian Institute for Policy Studies, Seoul But the shipyard in Chongjin didnt have a dry dock large enough to build a Choe Hyun-class destroyer, nor an incline to slide the ship stern first into the water. Engineers built the ship on the quay under a netting. When it was completed, they had to launch it sideways off the platform. When properly executed, the vessel glides down the slipway lengthwise and briefly plunges into the water. Advertisement Often, a tugboat is stationed nearby to assist after the launch. But when engineers tried to push the North Korean destroyer into the water, it lost its balance, state media said. Satellite imagery taken two days after the accident showed the ship covered in blue tarpaulins and lying on its right side. The bow was stuck on the ramp as the stern jutted into the harbour. The viewing platform had been removed. Launching big ships sideways requires delicate balancing work, Choi said. The heavy weapons mounted on the destroyer could have made the task even more difficult, he added. A few days after the first Choe Hyun-class destroyer was launched last month, Kim proudly watched it test-fire various missiles. He has visited shipyards to exhort engineers to meet his timetable for naval expansion and appears to have planned to launch the second destroyer with similar fanfare and weapons tests. The unnamed destroyers sister ship, Choe-Hyun, test launches a missile. Little is known of its actual capabilities. Credit: KCNA Engineers at Chongjin, who worked with less developed facilities than their peers in Nampo, must have felt enormous pressure after the successful launch in Nampo, South Korean analysts said. That might have led them to cut corners, they said. Advertisement Singapore: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, to ramp up defence spending to counter Chinas increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, as the two men talked up the strength of the alliance under the Trump administration. Marles would not divulge what spending figure the pair had discussed, but Americas demand would be likely to mean billions of dollars in extra defence funding. Marles confirmed Australia was open to further budget increases after meeting with Hegseth on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asias top defence summit, as he prepared to deliver a speech on Saturday warning of the risk of an unchecked arms build-up by China and other major nuclear powers. I wouldnt put a number on it. The need to increase defence spending is something that he definitely raised, Marles told ABC TV on Friday. In perhaps the most historically anomalous example yet of Trump-induced topsy-turvyism, the British Crown has become a counterpoint to a US president acting more and more like an American king. Canada, where King Charles III on Tuesday became the first monarch to open parliament in nearly 70 years, provided the latest background for this regal role reversal. At a time when US President Donald Trump is threatening Canadian sovereignty, his north-of-the-border nemesis, the new Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, deployed the countrys constitutional monarch. King Charles III (right) delivered a bilingual speech in Canadian parliament this week that read like an anti-Trump cri de coeur. Credit: AP On the very day that Trump offered free Canadian access to his proposed golden dome missile shield in return for becoming Americas 51st state, the Maple Leaf nation showed off its own defence system: the man with the golden mace. The 76-year-old King seemed to revel in his mission. From his throne in the Canadian parliament, he delivered a bilingual speech that read, both in English and French, like an anti-Trump cri de coeur. Nanjing's Hongshan Forest Zoo reinvents itself as a model of modern zoological experience 15:23, May 30, 2025 By Yao Xueqing ( People's Daily Visitors watch a giant panda eating bamboo shoots at Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu province. (Photo by Liu Jianhua/People's Daily Online) Models strode gracefully to rhythmic music, displaying the latest streetwear collections before an intrigued audience. The setting, however, was not a downtown runway. It was Hongshan Forest Zoo. "It's incredible! Who would've thought this isn't a fashion venue, but a zoo?" exclaimed Yang Jie, a tourist from Suzhou, Jiangsu province. Located in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu province, the zoo has become one of China's most popular "internet-famous" destinations, attracting around 8 million visitors last year. In addition to its zoological exhibits, the zoo has become a favored venue for brand events, regularly hosting fashion shows, product launches, and film promotions. Through a constant commitment to innovation and embracing diverse consumer experiences, Hongshan Forest Zoo has successfully transcended the conventional paradigms of zoos and captured attention nationwide. "We want to gradually change people's traditional perception of what a zoo is," said Shen Zhijun, director of the zoo. "By introducing cultural and creative products, co-branded fashion shows, and product promotions, we're integrating scientific research, conservation efforts, culture, and green consumption. This approach offers a wider range of experiences for visitors of all ages and backgrounds, while promoting awareness of animal welfare and environmental protection." Following recommendations found online, Yang and her friends enrolled in the zoo's "Day & Night Camp," hosted by its "Nature School." Under the guidance of instructors, they traversed the grounds quietly, observing the nocturnal behaviors of animals in their naturalistic environment. Photo shows an aerial "sky zoo" installation co-created by Hongshan Forest Zoo and a shopping mall in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu province. (Photo from Nanjing Daily) In the stillness of the night, the scent of earth permeated the air, accompanied by the rustling sounds of nature. A giraffe rested with its neck curled gently upon its body, a red panda slumbered peacefully in a tree, and a lynx watched its surroundings with alert eyes. Most striking to Yang was watching a wolf pack "hold a meeting." The alpha wolf howled, stretching its neck skyward, followed by a chorus of howls from the pack. "There are no staged performances or feeding sessions here. The animals are the true hosts, and visitors are respectful guests," Yang said. She was impressed by the animal-friendly environment and immersive experiences in the zoo. Beyond the "Day & Night Camp," the zoo also offers a wide range of attractions. Visitors can observe koalas during health check-ups, monkeys paddling boats, or brown bears fishing. They can also enjoy coffee beside expansive windows while flamingos roam freely outside. Additionally, the zoo's creative marketplace features irresistible cultural products, ranging from white-faced saki brooches and red panda plush keychains to otter pull-string toys. The zoo now boasts over 1,000 original cultural and creative items, many of which are popular with visitors. The zoo's growing popularity has also stimulated the local economy. Nearby hotel rates now rival those in downtown Nanjing, while local specialties like salted duck, crispy tofu noddles, and duck blood and vermicelli soup have gained prominence on the city's top culinary rankings. The zoo has become the anchor of a burgeoning local consumption zone. "Every year, about 23 percent of our visitors come from Nanjing, 27 percent from other cities in Jiangsu, and nearly half from other provinces," said Bai Yali, deputy director of the zoo. Visitors buy creative and cultural products at the Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu province. (Photo from Nanjing Daily) When asked about visitors' subsequent destinations, Bai indicated that the expanding presence of the Hongshan brand across the city plays a significant role. Co-branded retail outlets, themed stores, and creative collaborations linked to the zoo have emerged throughout commercial districts. So far, the zoo has partnered with more than 50 brands. "We collaborated with Hongshan Forest Zoo last year, and we're working together again this year to create more interactive experiences and launch audio-enabled creative products," said a representative from Golden Eagle International Shopping Center Xinjiekou branch, Nanjing. Nanjing is actively developing urban brand assets like Hongshan Forest Zoo and central business district Xinjiekou by cultivating new consumption scenarios and business models. Efforts are underway to promote integrated development across commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and wellness to turn the zoo's popularity into sustained consumer spending. In the first quarter of this year, Nanjing's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 232.31 billion yuan ($32.25 billion), placing the city among the fastest-growing in Jiangsu province. As she left the zoo, Yang Jie was already making plans for her return. "I can't wait to start planning my next trip to Nanjing." Children attend a study tour at Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu province. (Photo provided by Hongshan Forest Zoo) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) NEW EVIDENCE NEW satellite images now bring to fore fresh evidence of the extensive damage Indian precision strikes at Pakistans Murid Air Base as first phase of Operation Sindoor. These images show clearly the terrible impact of Indian missiles or drones on the infrastructure at Murid Air Base deep inside the Pakistani territory. Even as the world was taking a good look at the picture of the damage, Pakistan woke up to the reality that the Government in India has ordered civil defence mock drills in States bordering the Pakistani territory. Pakistani intellectuals and media started suspecting that India may be preparing for fresh action as part of Operation Sindoor - II. For, they readily associated similar mock drills across India hours before the Operation Sindoors first phase began. Is India preparing for a fresh wave of precision strikes? -- is the question now raging in Pakistan. The sense of frustration and panic in Pakistan can well be understood. Many in Pakistan even suspect that India is playing up a multi-layered offensive. On one hand, it is threatening the use of Indian Gola against Pakistani Golee.To make matters look worse, it is also releasing fresh satellite images of the extensive damage caused by its precision strikes deep into the Pakistani territory -- thus confirming and endorsing the terrible damage the Indian precision-strikes have caused in the first phase. And, as if to complete the effect, the Government in India is promising to conduct civil defence mock drills in the States bordering Pakistan. This is happening when Pakistani Prime Minister and Army chief are out of the country. Pakistans discomfiture, thus, is complete. True, in the past some days, China is assuring Pakistan that it would extend a helping hand in case of armed conflict. Yet, Pakistan is quite aware of how effective Indian response was to Pakistans armed overtures -- that also saw destruction of Chinese and American equipment that was seemingly good. In other words, India is on an upward swing, while Pakistan is somehow trying to manage to keep its morale up in trying circumstances. But then, as we said earlier, India is fighting a multi-layered war. One of the layers is the all-party diplomatic drive to different countries. There, on the world stage, India showed that it is One Person against terror, and not a conglomerate of political parties holding diverse views on issues. There, out in the global gaze, the Indian delegations are doing a fine job, which the world is appreciating. But, there is one more positive development in Indian defence industry. The Government has approved a massive joint-sector manufacturing programme for making of the indigenous fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft. This news has created much stir the world over as India will be the only fourth country in the world to develop the capability of manufacturing such an advanced aircraft - - after the United States, Russia, and China.Each of these developments sends a fresh panic wave through Pakistan, as reports have us believe. The Pakistanis - the people and their rulers -- have understood very well that they are dealing with a no-nonsense India whose leadership is not willing to concede any concession to Pakistan on issues of national security, strategic defence and war against terrorism. All these developments act as a pile up of fresh evidence of Indias growing strength -- military, moral, and economic. While Pakistan is weighed down by internal strife, India is forging ahead with all guns blazing and all engines on full throttle. This new India could not be imagined by anybody in the world until ten years ago. Today, it has become a reality by way of a global power whose word is listened to by the world on all matters and issues. Xinjiang embraces innovation to modernize agriculture 16:24, May 30, 2025 By Zhang Xiaodong, Guo Yue, Li Yanan ( People's Daily A woman picks tomatoes in a high-tech farming base in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Jiang Yushi/People's Daily) In a smart agriculture pavilion at the Xinjiang Agricultural Expo Park in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, rows of leafy greens flourish on a mobile, multi-layered vertical growing system. It's a vivid display of how advanced agricultural technology is reshaping farming practices in the region. According to Yan Ji, director of the pavilion, the system's artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms process over 100,000 data points per second, automatically adjusting devices such as wet curtain fans, shading screens, and supplemental lighting. This keeps environmental conditions stable and shortens the growth cycle for leafy vegetables from the usual 70 days to just 18 to 25 days. By integrating frontier technologies such as spiral bio-mimetic cultivation, container farming, vertical rail systems, and reciprocating rotary racks, the smart agriculture pavilion supports three cultivation modes: vertical, circular planar, and traction-based systems. These approaches significantly boost crop output per unit of land. All equipment is interconnected via a 5G network and centrally controlled, enabling full automation from seeding to harvest while reducing labor and saving water and fertilizer. Today, the facility produces 100 tons of leafy vegetables and 70 tons of tomatoes annually. "Over 90% of the equipment used here is domestically made, and we've secured more than 50 patents," Yan said. The Xinjiang Agricultural Expo Park has introduced over 2,000 new crop varieties, technologies, and sets of equipment. More than 100 scientific research achievements have been put into practical use or demonstrated, and over 30 original patents have been filed. At the production base of Xinjiang Boshiran Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd., the pace of smart manufacturing is equally impressive. Inside the facility, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) follow preset routes, scanning QR codes and transporting materials from warehouses to assembly lines, where cotton harvesters are being assembled in an orderly fashion. A large digital display tracks real-time data on equipment status, daily energy consumption, and product quality. "The addition of laser cutters and large CNC (computer numerical control) machines has greatly enhanced both efficiency and product quality," said Wu Yongcheng, director of the general manager's office. A woman manages vegetables at the vertical farming exhibition area of a smart agriculture pavilion at the Xinjiang Agricultural Expo Park in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by He Long/People's Daily Online) "In 2024, our cotton harvesters accounted for nearly 50% of the domestic market," said Zeng Xiaowen, director of the company's after-sales service center. "We're also expanding globally, with our four-row and six-row cotton harvesters now being exported to Central Asia, Australia, Egypt, and other markets." By the end of 2024, the level of mechanization in plowing, planting, and harvesting across Xinjiang reached 90 percent, placing the region among the national leaders in agricultural modernization. Today, farmers in Xinjiang can be seen in crisp shirts while operating drones in the fields as a new generation of high-tech agriculture is taking root. With the support of agricultural drones, the Internet of Things (IoT), and intelligent farm management systems, two young farmers born in the 1990s, Ai Haipeng and Ling Lei, manage several thousand mu (1 mu667 square meters) of cotton fields in Yuli county, Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bayingolin in Xinjiang. At first, their ambitions faced skepticism from local cotton growers who had been farming for decades. "Managing 3,000 mu of cotton typically requires a team of 20 or 30 people," they were told. "How can two guys with no farming experience possibly handle it?" Yet they proved the doubters wrong. By adopting a technique called "cotton-wheat strip intercropping," they have significantly improved seedling emergence rates and harvest efficiency. They apply pesticides using drones, reducing chemical use and lowering costs. Remote sensing drones are used to monitor crop height and precisely track plant growth, while intelligent integrated water and fertilizer systems minimize fertilizer use. Not only do they manage the fields well, they have also achieved higher-than-average yields. Hundreds of kilometers away, in Manas county of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, field management is also undergoing a revolution powered by smart technology. May is typically the busiest time of year in the cotton fields, but this year, almost no presence of farmers could be found in the fields in Manas. Instead, intelligent sprayers were moving methodically through rows of cotton. Cotton harvesters are manufactured in a workshop of the Xinjiang branch of China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Zhang Jingang/People's Daily Online) "Our village has a modern agricultural cooperative," said Song Guolin, a major cotton grower in Shangzhuangzi village, Letuyi township, Manas county. "All our tractors are equipped with satellite-guided autopilot systems, precision seeders, and intelligent spraying machines. From planting to harvesting, it's all done by machines." Even spraying schedules are automated. "We have sensors in the cotton fields that collect environmental data. Technicians analyze that information to tell us exactly when to spray," said Xu Rongwen, a farmer in Guangfeng village, Guangdongdi township. "Technology acts like a 'nanny' for our fields. It makes farming easier and gives us confidence," Xu added. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) PoK people our family, they will return: Rajnath Delhi Bureau & Agencies NEW DELHI, PEOPLE of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir(PoK)arepartofIndias own family and the day is not far when they will return to the Indianmainstreambylistening to their inner voice, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday. Laying out Indias policy approach towards Pakistan, SinghsaidNewDelhihas redesigned and redefined its strategy and responsetoterrorismand that possible dialogue with Islamabad will be only on terrorism and PoK. In an address at the CII Business Summit, he said Make-in-India in the defence sector has been an essential component in the countrys national security and it played a key role in Indias effective actionagainstterrorismduring Operation Sindoor. In the remarks, Singh appearedtobelargelyattemptingtoreachouttopeopleofPoK saying India considers them to be part of its own family and exudedconfidencethattheywill return voluntarily. I believe that the people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) are our own, part of our family, he said. Wearecommittedtotheresolution ofEk Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (One India, Best India) and we have full faith that those of our brothers who are geographically and politically separated from us today, will also return to the mainstream of India someday or the other with self-respect, listening to their voice of soul, he said. Most of the people there feel a deep connection with India, there are only a few who have been misled, he said. The Defence Minister said the unification of the PoK with India depends on the cultural, social and economic prosperity of this country. He said most of the people in PoK feel a deep connection with India and only a few of them have been misled. The situation of our brothers and sisters living in PoK is similar to that of Shakti Singh, the younger brother of brave warrior Maharana Pratap. Even after separation, the confidence and faith of the elder brother towards his younger brother remains intact, Singh said. India always talks about connecting hearts, and we believe that by walking on the path of love, unity and truth, the day is not far when our own part, PoK, will return and say, I am India, I have returned, he said. His comments came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it is for the youth of Pakistan to step forward and free Pakistan from the disease of terrorism. The Defence Minister described Make-in-India as crucial for national security and prosperity, stating that the use of indigenous systems during Operation Sindoor has proved that India has the power to penetrate any armour of the enemy Operation Sindoor: Path of truth, God was with us NEW DELHI, May 29 (PTI) IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh onThursday hailedOperation Sindoor as a national victory, and said all theIndian forcescame togetherto executeitin a very professional manner. In his address attheCIIBusiness Summithere,healsosaid,Wewere taking the path of truth, I think, God was with us also in this. This Operation Sindoor that weve been talking about, its a national victory. I thank each and every Indian. I am sure, every Indian wanted....Was looking towards this victory, the IAF chief said. Like it has been said again and again that this was an operation that was executed in a very professional manner by everybody, all the agencies, all the forces, we all came together...And when truth is with you, then everything happens on its own, he said. Operation Sindoor was launched early May 7 in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under this operation. Nature meets city life in Hangzhou's harvest season (People's Daily App) 16:41, May 30, 2025 Scenes of the harvest unfold against a backdrop of modern skyscrapers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, offering a glimpse of rural life in a fast-paced urban metropolis. (Video source: Shijie) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Silvia Mccoll Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM Free Report) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 1,310 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $208,000. A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Philip Morris International by 19,986.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,486,928 shares of the companys stock worth $712,210,000 after buying an additional 4,464,590 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its stake in Philip Morris International by 2.6% in the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 27,766 shares of the companys stock worth $4,407,000 after buying an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its stake in Philip Morris International by 19.7% in the first quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 4,566 shares of the companys stock worth $725,000 after buying an additional 753 shares in the last quarter. Exeter Financial LLC raised its stake in Philip Morris International by 1.3% in the first quarter. Exeter Financial LLC now owns 11,255 shares of the companys stock worth $1,787,000 after buying an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in Philip Morris International by 57.4% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,990 shares of the companys stock worth $475,000 after buying an additional 1,090 shares in the last quarter. 78.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors. Get Philip Morris International alerts: Insider Activity In other news, insider Lars Dahlgren sold 3,679 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.96, for a total transaction of $562,739.84. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,828 shares in the company, valued at $4,103,610.88. This represents a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the companys stock. Philip Morris International Stock Performance Shares of PM opened at $177.79 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $276.73 billion, a PE ratio of 39.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.50. Philip Morris International Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.93 and a fifty-two week high of $179.83. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $164.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $145.23. Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.08. Philip Morris International had a net margin of 7.89% and a negative return on equity of 120.08%. The firm had revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $9.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.50 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 7.14 EPS for the current year. Philip Morris International Dividend Announcement The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were issued a dividend of $1.35 per share. This represents a $5.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. Philip Morris Internationals payout ratio is 111.34%. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on PM shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and issued a $182.00 price target (up from $156.00) on shares of Philip Morris International in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group raised shares of Philip Morris International from a sell rating to a neutral rating and increased their price target for the stock from $130.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Argus upgraded shares of Philip Morris International from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Philip Morris International from $175.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Philip Morris International from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $169.20. View Our Latest Research Report on Philip Morris International Philip Morris International Company Profile (Free Report) Philip Morris International Inc operates as a tobacco company working to delivers a smoke-free future and evolving portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products primarily under the IQOS and ZYN brands; and consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding PM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Philip Morris International Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Philip Morris International and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. ASOS Plc (OTCMKTS:ASOMY Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 300 shares, a drop of 57.1% from the April 30th total of 700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.4 days. Approximately 0.0% of the companys stock are short sold. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades ASOMY has been the subject of several recent research reports. BNP Paribas raised ASOS to a strong sell rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of ASOS from a moderate sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Get ASOS alerts: View Our Latest Analysis on ASOS ASOS Price Performance ASOS Company Profile Shares of OTCMKTS:ASOMY opened at $4.11 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. ASOS has a 1 year low of $2.89 and a 1 year high of $5.89. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $3.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.38. (Get Free Report) ASOS Plc operates as an online fashion retailer in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, and internationally. It offers womenswear and menswear products. The company sells its products under the ASOS Design, ASOS Edition, ASOS Luxe, ASOS 4505, Collusion, Reclaimed Vintage, Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, HIIT, AsYou, Dark Future, UNRVLLD/SPPLY, Crooked Tongues, Daysocial, Actual, and Weekend Collective brands, as well as through third-party brands. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for ASOS Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for ASOS and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Earnings and Valuation This table compares QS Energy and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio QS Energy N/A -$1.22 million -10.21 QS Energy Competitors $4.26 billion -$120.76 million 9.77 QS Energys rivals have higher revenue, but lower earnings than QS Energy. QS Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry. Get QS Energy alerts: Profitability This table compares QS Energy and its rivals net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets QS Energy N/A N/A -1,020.74% QS Energy Competitors 0.13% 6.91% 4.50% Insider & Institutional Ownership Volatility & Risk 73.7% of shares of all Oil & gas field machinery companies are owned by institutional investors. 9.0% of QS Energy shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.2% of shares of all Oil & gas field machinery companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth. QS Energy has a beta of -1.12, meaning that its share price is 212% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, QS Energys rivals have a beta of 1.06, meaning that their average share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Summary QS Energy rivals beat QS Energy on 8 of the 9 factors compared. About QS Energy (Get Free Report) QS Energy, Inc. develops and commercializes energy efficiency technologies in the United States and internationally. The companys energy efficiency technologies assist in meeting energy demands, enhancing the economics of oil transport, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The companys primary technology comprises Applied Oil Technology, a commercial-grade crude oil pipeline transportation flow-assurance product that reduces crude oil viscosity by applying a high intensity electrical field to crude oil while in transit. It serves upstream and midstream energy sectors. The company was formerly known as Save the World Air, Inc. and changed its name to QS Energy, Inc. in August 2015. QS Energy, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is based in Tomball, Texas. Receive News & Ratings for QS Energy Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for QS Energy and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Eastover Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in iShares MSCI India ETF (BATS:INDA Free Report) by 16.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,629 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 815 shares during the period. Eastover Investment Advisors LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI India ETF were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC raised its stake in iShares MSCI India ETF by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 408,073 shares of the companys stock worth $23,884,000 after acquiring an additional 35,209 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in iShares MSCI India ETF by 16.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 14,008 shares of the companys stock worth $737,000 after acquiring an additional 2,022 shares during the period. M Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in iShares MSCI India ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $484,000. Calton & Associates Inc. raised its stake in iShares MSCI India ETF by 99.1% during the 4th quarter. Calton & Associates Inc. now owns 23,671 shares of the companys stock worth $1,246,000 after acquiring an additional 11,782 shares during the period. Finally, GFS Advisors LLC bought a new stake in iShares MSCI India ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $489,000. Get iShares MSCI India ETF alerts: iShares MSCI India ETF Trading Up 7.2% BATS INDA opened at $54.60 on Friday. iShares MSCI India ETF has a 12 month low of $47.60 and a 12 month high of $59.49. The stock has a market cap of $9.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.81 and a beta of 0.49. The companys 50 day moving average is $52.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.12. iShares MSCI India ETF Company Profile The iShares MSCI India ETF (INDA) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI India index, a market-cap-weighted index of the top 85% of firms in the Indian securities market. INDA was launched on Feb 2, 2012 and is managed by BlackRock. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding INDA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares MSCI India ETF (BATS:INDA Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares MSCI India ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares MSCI India ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. German man joins dragon boat race (People's Daily App) 16:44, May 30, 2025 The 2025 China (Foshan) Diejiao Dragon Boat Drift Competition has welcomed its first foreign participant! Michael, a young man from Germany, became fascinated after watching the highlights of last year's race. This year, he traveled to Diejiao, Foshan, and successfully joined the Chenfeng Dragon Boat Team to compete. (Video source: Foshan Media) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Liang Jun) Moody National Bank Trust Division cut its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA Free Report) by 1.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,030 shares of the credit services providers stock after selling 106 shares during the period. Moody National Bank Trust Divisions holdings in Mastercard were worth $4,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MA. NewSquare Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, 10Elms LLP bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. Get Mastercard alerts: Insider Transactions at Mastercard In related news, insider Edward Grunde Mclaughlin sold 7,132 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $534.68, for a total transaction of $3,813,337.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 34,524 shares in the company, valued at $18,459,292.32. This trade represents a 17.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 150 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $580.00, for a total transaction of $87,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,255 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,887,900. The trade was a 4.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,207 shares of company stock worth $12,664,529. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders. Analysts Set New Price Targets Several brokerages have recently commented on MA. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Mastercard from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $620.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an in-line rating and a $550.00 target price for the company. Macquarie cut their target price on shares of Mastercard from $645.00 to $610.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $633.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial reaffirmed a strong-buy rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $608.57. View Our Latest Stock Report on MA Mastercard Price Performance Mastercard stock opened at $577.36 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $543.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $539.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $526.39 billion, a PE ratio of 41.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $428.86 and a 12-month high of $588.45. Mastercard (NYSE:MA Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The credit services provider reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.57 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.12 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.71% and a return on equity of 188.47%. The businesss revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.31 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year. Mastercard Profile (Free Report) Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Mastercard Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Mastercard and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Bar Harbor Bankshares (NYSE:BHB Get Free Report) and Northpointe Bancshares (NYSE:NPB Get Free Report) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings and dividends. Dividends Bar Harbor Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Northpointe Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Bar Harbor Bankshares pays out 44.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bar Harbor Bankshares has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Bar Harbor Bankshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth. Get Bar Harbor Bankshares alerts: Profitability This table compares Bar Harbor Bankshares and Northpointe Bancshares net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Bar Harbor Bankshares N/A N/A N/A Northpointe Bancshares N/A N/A N/A Institutional and Insider Ownership Earnings & Valuation 54.5% of Bar Harbor Bankshares shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Bar Harbor Bankshares shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.4% of Northpointe Bancshares shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth. This table compares Bar Harbor Bankshares and Northpointe Bancsharess gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Bar Harbor Bankshares $150.40 million 3.00 $43.65 million $2.85 10.34 Northpointe Bancshares $196.56 million 2.34 N/A N/A N/A Bar Harbor Bankshares has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Northpointe Bancshares. Analyst Ratings This is a breakdown of current ratings for Bar Harbor Bankshares and Northpointe Bancshares, as reported by MarketBeat.com. Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Bar Harbor Bankshares 0 0 0 0 0.00 Northpointe Bancshares 0 0 2 0 3.00 Northpointe Bancshares has a consensus price target of $17.25, indicating a potential upside of 29.12%. Given Northpointe Bancshares stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Northpointe Bancshares is more favorable than Bar Harbor Bankshares. Summary Northpointe Bancshares beats Bar Harbor Bankshares on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks. About Bar Harbor Bankshares (Get Free Report) Bar Harbor Bankshares operates as the holding company for Bar Harbor Bank & Trust that provides commercial, lending, retail, and wealth management banking services. It accepts various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, and money market deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also provides commercial real estate loans, such as multi-family, commercial construction and land development, and other commercial real estate classes; commercial and industrial loans, including loans to commercial and agricultural businesses, and tax exempt entities; residential real estate loans consists of mortgages for 1-4 family housing; and consumer loans comprises home equity loans, lines of credit, auto, and other installment lending. In addition, it provides life insurance, annuity, and retirement products, as well as financial planning services; and third-party investment and insurance services. Further, the company offers trust and estate administration, wealth advisory, and investment management services to individuals, businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and municipalities; and 401K plan, financial, estate and charitable planning, investment management, family office, municipal, and tax services. It operates 53 locations across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The company was founded in 1887 and is based in Bar Harbor, Maine. About Northpointe Bancshares (Get Free Report) Northpointe Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company. It offers a nationwide mortgage purchase program, residential mortgage loans, digital deposit banking to retail customers and custodial deposit services. The company was founded by Charles A. Williams in 1998 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI. Receive News & Ratings for Bar Harbor Bankshares Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bar Harbor Bankshares and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Phreesia (NYSE:PHR Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.06, RTT News reports. Phreesia had a negative net margin of 20.43% and a negative return on equity of 32.78%. The business had revenue of $115.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $115.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.05) earnings per share. Phreesias revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. Phreesia updated its FY 2026 guidance to EPS. Phreesia Stock Performance Shares of NYSE:PHR opened at $24.47 on Friday. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $24.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.24. Phreesia has a fifty-two week low of $17.07 and a fifty-two week high of $30.53. The company has a market capitalization of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.65 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. Get Phreesia alerts: Analyst Ratings Changes A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on shares of Phreesia from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup reiterated a buy rating on shares of Phreesia in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Phreesia from $30.00 to $28.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Phreesia from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Phreesia from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $31.33. Insider Buying and Selling In related news, SVP David Linetsky sold 3,944 shares of Phreesia stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.85, for a total transaction of $94,064.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 221,738 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,288,451.30. This trade represents a 1.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Balaji Gandhi sold 1,827 shares of Phreesia stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.46, for a total transaction of $50,169.42. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 103,591 shares in the company, valued at $2,844,608.86. The trade was a 1.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 42,474 shares of company stock valued at $1,023,208 in the last 90 days. 5.50% of the stock is owned by insiders. Institutional Inflows and Outflows A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PHR. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Phreesia by 3.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 62,557 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,599,000 after purchasing an additional 2,158 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Phreesia by 0.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 600,012 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,336,000 after purchasing an additional 2,402 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Phreesia by 262.7% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 15,437 shares of the companys stock valued at $395,000 after purchasing an additional 11,181 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Phreesia in the first quarter valued at approximately $316,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Phreesia by 208.8% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 24,119 shares of the companys stock valued at $617,000 after purchasing an additional 16,309 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.10% of the companys stock. About Phreesia (Get Free Report) Phreesia, Inc provides an integrated SaaS-based software and payment platform for the healthcare industry in the United States and Canada. The company offers access solutions that offers appointment scheduling system for online appointments, reminders, and referral tracking management; registration solution to automate patient self-registration; revenue cycle solution, which offer insurance-verification processes, point-of-sale payments applications, post-visit payment collection, and flexible payment options; and network connect solution to deliver clinically relevant content to patients. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for Phreesia Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Phreesia and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Quent Capital LLC lessened its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO Free Report) by 1.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,860 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 26 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLCs holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cypress Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 4th quarter worth $253,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 34.0% in the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,600 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $1,353,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 4th quarter worth about $1,121,000. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 21.0% in the 4th quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 3,825 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $1,990,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares during the period. Finally, W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 2,870 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.23% of the companys stock. Get Thermo Fisher Scientific alerts: Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Up 0.2% Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock opened at $403.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.18 billion, a PE ratio of 24.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.82. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52-week low of $390.50 and a 52-week high of $627.88. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $433.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $501.01. Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement Thermo Fisher Scientific ( NYSE:TMO Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.10 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $10.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $10.23 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 17.51%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.11 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 EPS for the current fiscal year. The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Thermo Fisher Scientifics dividend payout ratio is presently 10.09%. Analyst Ratings Changes Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TMO shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $647.00 to $678.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $665.00 to $620.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $603.00 to $573.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $715.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $607.43. Get Our Latest Analysis on Thermo Fisher Scientific Insider Transactions at Thermo Fisher Scientific In other news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $429.93, for a total value of $128,979.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,167 shares in the company, valued at $9,960,188.31. The trade was a 1.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Michael A. Boxer sold 3,775 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $532.52, for a total transaction of $2,010,263.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,816 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,759,736.32. This represents a 25.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,075 shares of company stock worth $7,305,942 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders. Thermo Fisher Scientific Profile (Free Report) Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, and bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TMO? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Thermo Fisher Scientific Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Thermo Fisher Scientific and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. BBB Foods (NYSE:TBBB Get Free Report) and DFI Retail Group (OTCMKTS:DFIHY Get Free Report) are both mid-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability. Risk & Volatility BBB Foods has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, DFI Retail Group has a beta of 0.23, indicating that its stock price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Get BBB Foods alerts: Institutional & Insider Ownership 8.4% of BBB Foods shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term. Profitability Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets BBB Foods N/A N/A N/A DFI Retail Group N/A N/A N/A Valuation & Earnings This table compares BBB Foods and DFI Retail Groups net margins, return on equity and return on assets. This table compares BBB Foods and DFI Retail Groups gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio BBB Foods $61.89 billion 0.05 -$17.30 million $0.22 133.00 DFI Retail Group $9.17 billion 0.40 $32.20 million N/A N/A DFI Retail Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than BBB Foods. Analyst Recommendations This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for BBB Foods and DFI Retail Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com. Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score BBB Foods 0 3 3 0 2.50 DFI Retail Group 0 0 0 0 0.00 BBB Foods presently has a consensus target price of $34.20, indicating a potential upside of 16.88%. Given BBB Foods stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe BBB Foods is more favorable than DFI Retail Group. Summary BBB Foods beats DFI Retail Group on 6 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks. About BBB Foods (Get Free Report) BBB Foods Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates a chain of grocery retail stores in Mexico. It offers household cleaning, personal hyenine, cosmetics and beauty, pharmacy, and general merchandise products, as well as jellies and desserts, foods and drinks, pet supplies, coffee, tea, chocolates, breads, dry and frozen foods, snacks and sweets, and toilet papers and napkins. The company also provides branded, private label, and spot products. It serves low-to-middle income households through online channels. BBB Foods Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. About DFI Retail Group (Get Free Report) DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited operates as a retailer in Asia. The company operates through five segments: Food, Convenience, Health and Beauty, Home Furnishings, Restaurants, and Other Retailing. The company primarily operates grocery stores under the Wellcome, Yonghui, CS Fresh, Market Place, Giant, Hero, Cold Storage, Mercato, San Miu, Jasons, and Lucky brands; and convenience stores under the 7-Eleven brand. It also operates health and beauty stores under the Mannings, Guardian, and GNC brands; and home furnishings stores under the IKEA brand, as well as restaurants under the Maxims brand. The company was formerly known as Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited and changed its name to DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited in May 2022. The company was incorporated in 1886 and is based in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong. DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited is a subsidiary of Jardine Strategic Limited. Receive News & Ratings for BBB Foods Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for BBB Foods and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Summit Global Investments trimmed its position in Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (NYSE:TAK Free Report) by 51.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 350,739 shares of the companys stock after selling 378,461 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments holdings in Takeda Pharmaceutical were worth $5,215,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Takeda Pharmaceutical by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,240,932 shares of the companys stock worth $42,910,000 after acquiring an additional 62,718 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Takeda Pharmaceutical by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,210,428 shares of the companys stock worth $29,266,000 after acquiring an additional 35,192 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Takeda Pharmaceutical by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,873,588 shares of the companys stock valued at $24,806,000 after buying an additional 238,161 shares during the period. Soleus Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Takeda Pharmaceutical by 136.0% in the 4th quarter. Soleus Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,180,000 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,623,000 after purchasing an additional 680,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank purchased a new position in shares of Takeda Pharmaceutical in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,760,000. 9.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Get Takeda Pharmaceutical alerts: Analysts Set New Price Targets Separately, Morgan Stanley upgraded Takeda Pharmaceutical from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Takeda Pharmaceutical Price Performance Takeda Pharmaceutical stock opened at $14.79 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $14.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.06 billion, a PE ratio of 36.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.26. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited has a 52 week low of $12.58 and a 52 week high of $15.43. Takeda Pharmaceutical (NYSE:TAK Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.24 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $7.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.02 billion. Takeda Pharmaceutical had a net margin of 4.53% and a return on equity of 9.39%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited will post 1.64 EPS for the current fiscal year. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Profile (Free Report) Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited engages in the research, development, manufacture, marketing, and out-licensing of pharmaceutical products in Japan and internationally. It offers pharmaceutical products in the areas of gastroenterology, rare diseases, plasma derived therapies, immunology, oncology, and neuroscience. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Takeda Pharmaceutical Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Takeda Pharmaceutical and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Teck Resources Ltd. (TSE:TCK Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the seven research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Desjardins raised Teck Resources to a moderate buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Veritas raised Teck Resources to a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. National Bank Financial raised Teck Resources from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Teck Resources to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Get Our Latest Stock Report on TCK Teck Resources Price Performance Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Teck Resources Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Teck Resources and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Tenaz Energy Corp. (OTCMKTS:ATUUF Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,000 shares, a decline of 51.2% from the April 30th total of 8,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.5 days. Tenaz Energy Price Performance Shares of OTCMKTS:ATUUF opened at $13.00 on Friday. The businesss 50 day moving average is $10.16 and its 200 day moving average is $9.84. Tenaz Energy has a 52-week low of $2.57 and a 52-week high of $13.05. Get Tenaz Energy alerts: Tenaz Energy Company Profile (Get Free Report) Further Reading Tenaz Energy Corp., an energy company, engages in the acquisition and development of oil and gas assets in Canada and the Netherlands. The company was formerly known as Altura Energy Inc and changed its name to Tenaz Energy Corp. in October 2021. Tenaz Energy Corp. is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Receive News & Ratings for Tenaz Energy Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Tenaz Energy and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. First Hawaiian Bank reduced its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO Free Report) by 5.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,922 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 236 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Banks holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $1,952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TMO. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Barrett & Company Inc. acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Pillar Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. 89.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Get Thermo Fisher Scientific alerts: Thermo Fisher Scientific Price Performance Shares of TMO opened at $403.13 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $152.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.39, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $433.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $501.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 12 month low of $390.50 and a 12 month high of $627.88. Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement Thermo Fisher Scientific ( NYSE:TMO Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $5.10 by $0.05. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 14.78%. The firm had revenue of $10.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.11 EPS. The firms revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 earnings per share for the current year. The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Thermo Fisher Scientifics dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.09%. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $580.00 to $570.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $620.00 to $475.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $715.00 to $500.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $603.00 to $573.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $607.43. Get Our Latest Stock Report on Thermo Fisher Scientific Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $429.93, for a total value of $128,979.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,167 shares in the company, valued at $9,960,188.31. This represents a 1.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $516.67, for a total value of $5,166,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,174 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $59,506,950.58. This trade represents a 7.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,075 shares of company stock worth $7,305,942. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders. Thermo Fisher Scientific Profile (Free Report) Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, and bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TMO? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Thermo Fisher Scientific Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Thermo Fisher Scientific and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Kemper Co. (NYSE:KMPR Free Report) by 15.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 189,240 shares of the insurance providers stock after buying an additional 25,714 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLCs holdings in Kemper were worth $12,573,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Kemper by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 543,044 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $36,080,000 after buying an additional 28,807 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kemper by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,220 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $197,000 after buying an additional 993 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Kemper by 27.2% in the 4th quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 5,717 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 1,221 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kemper by 52.0% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 3,640 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $242,000 after buying an additional 1,246 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Kemper by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 371,144 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $24,659,000 after buying an additional 36,004 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.23% of the companys stock. Get Kemper alerts: Kemper Price Performance Shares of NYSE KMPR opened at $63.56 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a PE ratio of 12.95 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Kemper Co. has a 1-year low of $53.57 and a 1-year high of $73.01. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $61.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.21. Kemper Dividend Announcement Kemper ( NYSE:KMPR Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The insurance provider reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.21 billion. Kemper had a net margin of 6.85% and a return on equity of 14.11%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.07 EPS. Research analysts predict that Kemper Co. will post 6.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. Kempers payout ratio is presently 23.93%. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Separately, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Kemper from $86.00 to $75.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Kemper currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $79.40. Check Out Our Latest Report on Kemper Kemper Profile (Free Report) Kemper Corporation, a diversified insurance holding company, engages in the provision of insurance products to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Specialty Property & Casualty Insurance, Preferred Property & Casualty Insurance, and Life & Health Insurance. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding KMPR? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Kemper Co. (NYSE:KMPR Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Kemper Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Kemper and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports. ''Dear President, On the occasion of the Independence Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan, I have the honor to convey, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and in my own name, our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to you and to the people of Azerbaijan. The Republic of Croatia attaches great importance to the cordial relations and fruitful cooperation that exist between our two countries. Our mutual commitment to dialogue, respect, and partnership has contributed to the strengthening of bilateral ties across various fields, including the political, economic, and cultural spheres. I am confident that, building on our shared achievements, the friendship and collaboration between Croatia and Azerbaijan will continue to deepen, bringing further progress and prosperity to both our nations. I extend to you, Your Excellency, my sincere congratulations on this significant national day, together with my wishes for the continued well-being, peace, and advancement of the Republic of Azerbaijan and its citizens. Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration,'' the letter reads. Yes Significant efforts are being made No Much more needs to be done Some progress But there are still critical gaps Vote View Results BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Senior Advisor for European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State Wyatt Toehlke has arrived in Azerbaijan, the US Embassy wrote on X, Trend reports. "Today, Charge dAffaires Hugo Guevara welcomed U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Josh Huck and State Department Senior Advisor for Europe Wyatt Toehlke to the Embassy. The officials are in Azerbaijan to continue bilateral discussions aimed at advancing U.S. interests, economic prosperity and regional security with senior Azerbaijani officials," the publication reads. Meanwhile, Senior Advisor for European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State Wyatt Toehlke will participate in the 30th Anniversary Baku Energy Forum. The forum will be held on June 3-4, 2025, in the Baku Convention Center, bringing together leading industry representatives for strategic exchange of ideas. This year, Baku Energy Forum, which is part of Baku Energy Week, celebrates its 30th anniversary. Since its inception, the forum has become a key platform for strengthening international relations, exchanging best practices and signing agreements that affect the development of the energy sector not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the region as a whole. The forum brings together leaders of the energy sector, business representatives and representatives of government agencies, contributing to the development of international cooperation in this area. Baku Energy Week combines three prestigious events: the 30th Anniversary International Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition Caspian Oil and Gas, the 13th Caspian International Energy and Green Energy Exhibition Caspian Power and the 30th Anniversary "Baku Energy Forum". The Caspian Oil and Gas and Caspian Power exhibitions will be held at the Baku Expo Center, while the Baku Energy Forum will be held at the Baku Congress Center, built in an ecological concept. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. In accordance with the annual action plan approved by the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, a visit of military attaches accredited in Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic was organized, Trend reports via Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. A total of 35 representatives from the military attache offices of 19 countries took part in the visit. The guests first visited the monument of National Leader Heydar Aliyev erected in the main square of Nakhchivan city and paid tribute to his memory. Afterwards, military attaches visited the Heydar Aliyev Museum, viewed the exhibits reflecting the National Leaders life and activities, as well as were briefed on his rich statehood legacy. As part of the visit, the guests also visited the Combined Arms Army (CAA) Headquarters. The Commander of the CAA, Major General Kanan Seyidov met with foreign countries military attaches. The visitors were presented with a briefing on the CAAs establishment history, development, activities, ongoing reforms, and objectives. In accordance with protocol, the Book of Honor was signed. The guests visited the Training and Education Center of the CAA, where they toured various classrooms, the simulation center, and the training equipment hall. The military attaches also visited the Nakhchivan Military College and the Military Lyceum named after Heydar Aliyev. They got acquainted with the ongoing reforms, the current military education system, as well as academic and scientific activities in special military educational institutions. Then the delegation arrived at the Nakhchivan Restoration and Production Military Complex. The visit concluded with an excursion to historical-cultural monuments. Abhishek Banerjee, MP and Trinamul Congress national general secretary, a member of Parliamentary delegation touring different nations, urged people to put up collective global action to isolate those who nurture extremism. He was addressing the dignitaries, think tanks in Jakarta. Advertisement Mr Banerjee wrote in his X-handle: I reiterated our nation is unified to confront terror and its enablers and urged collective global action to isolate those who nurture extremism. India has always chose peace but not at the cost of justice. The Pahalgam attack was not just an attack on innocent people, it was an affront to humanity. Advertisement Mr Banerjee said: India is very clear in its stance that despite attempts by external forces to divide the country , the country stands united. I belong to the second largest opposition party in India, which has 42 Members of Parliament in both houses. We are very clear in our approach. While we may have our differences with the ruling government, when it comes to protecting national interest and sovereignty of the nation, we will always act in the best interest of the country. He maintained that both India and Pakistan gained Independence in the same year, just a day apart, but if one looks at the trajectory, India is far ahead. To destabilise our economy, Pakistan deliberately orchestrated the attack in Pahalgam. Indonesia too has been a victim of terrorism in the past. In various attacks-be it 9/11, 26/11, or others- there have been proven links to Pakistan. Pakistan has been nurturing, training, sheltering and harbouring terrorism. Terrorism has become a global menace and killing people in the name of religion is completely unacceptable. Later, Abhishek Banerjee, as part of the all-party delegation, met with representatives of the National Mandate Party (PAN). The discussion emphasised the urgent need for collaboration to combat terrorism and reinforce regional security for lasting peace and stability. Independent think tank Chintan Research Foundation (CRF), in collaboration with Grant Thornton Bharat, on Wednesday said it successfully conducted a high-level national workshop titled Private Sector Participation in the Nuclear Power Sector in India: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Path Ahead in the national capital. The workshop was held in the context of Indias expanding energy demand and long-term clean energy goals, including the ambition to achieve 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047 under the Nuclear Energy Mission. Advertisement With legislative reforms under consideration, the workshop provided a platform for structured dialogue among key stakeholders from ministries, regulators, public sector enterprises, leading private corporations, think tanks, law firms, financial institutions, and international strategic partners. Advertisement The event opened with the welcome address by CRF President Shishir Priyadarshi, followed by the keynote address from Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who emphasised nuclear energys pivotal role in Indias clean and secure energy future. A context-setting presentation by Grant Thornton Bharat outlined the global landscape for nuclear-private sector engagement and identified structural constraints and enablers in the Indian context. The session on Policy and Regulatory Reforms included representatives from the Vivekananda International Foundation, Grid Controller of India Ltd, Centre for Air Power Studies, and PLR Chambers, who provided perspectives on governance, regulatory frameworks, and legal modernisation. The key points of discussion were the proposed amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010; liability-sharing and reinsurance ecosystem design; the need for modernizing licensing, updating seismic/exclusion zone norms, and enabling concurrent reviews for imported technologies; and opportunities for establishing flexible governance models under the Electricity Act for pricing and project structuring. The session on Enabling Frameworks for Investment brought together participants from Adani Group, JSW Energy Ltd, L&T Heavy Engineering, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Council for Energy, Environment and Water, and FICCI. The key discussion points were practical challenges in structuring viable nuclear projects under current public procurement and RFP formats; global models for financing nuclear projects, including the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) approach, sovereign guarantees, and cost-recovery mechanisms; discussion on private sector roles across the value chain from EPC to potential O&M and investment partnerships; and the need to build domestic supply chain resilience and develop skilled human capital to support the 100 GW ambition. The concluding session on Nuclear Technology and International Diplomacy featured contributions from NTPC Ltd., World Nuclear Association, The Voices of Nuclear and RePlanet France, Pacific Forum, Westinghouse, and Pranos Fusion. The key points of discussion were the strategic role of Small Modular Reactors in decarbonization and distributed clean energy; Indias positioning in global technology partnerships, including licensing, collaboration and access to next-generation designs; fuel security strategies through multilateral procurement frameworks and domestic supply chain development; and the importance of proactive public outreach and communication to build trust in nuclear energy as a clean and safe option. The workshop highlighted that Indias energy transition must actively incorporate collaboration with private sector partners, particularly to access advanced technologies and expertise. The stakeholders called for innovative financing mechanisms that lower the cost of capital, ensure tariff certainty, and strengthen supply chains to enable scalable deployment of nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors. The Lokpal has dismissed all complaints filed against former SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, primarily based on allegations arising from the Hindenburg Report alleging corruption, conflict of interest, and quid pro quo dealings connected to her role at SEBI and certain regulated entities, including the Adani Group. Three complaints were filed against the then-Chairperson Buch, primarily based on allegations arising from the second Hindenburg Report alleging corruption, conflict of interest, and quid pro quo dealings connected to her role at SEBI and certain regulated entities, including the Adani Group. Advertisement All three complaints were dismissed, and the allegations were termed vexatious, frivolous, and politically motivated attempts to sensationalise regulatory matters. Advertisement The complainants were also indirectly cautioned for trivialising the process. An Adani Group spokesperson said that the Lokpals order affirms that the allegations of regulatory favouritism involving the Adani Group were completely baseless. The company has been totally exonerated by a Constitutional Authority. The Lokpal order stated: We have concluded that the allegations in the Complaint(s) are more on presumptions and assumptions and not supported by any verifiable material and do not attract the ingredients of the offences in Part III of the Act of 1988, so as to direct an investigation therefor. Accordingly, these complaints are disposed of. The effectiveness of the investigations and action taken by SEBI against the Adani Group of companies has been commended to the Supreme Court. That cannot be reopened directly or indirectly, the order said. The SEBIs investigation and regulatory decisions, particularly around the Adani Group, have withstood scrutiny at the highest levels both judicial (Supreme Court) and quasijudicial (Lokpal), the company spokesperson said. The Lokpal clearly viewed the Hindenburg Report as an unreliable and partisan document authored by a known short-seller. The complaint(s) were essentially founded on the Hindenburg Report that report by itself cannot be made the sole basis to escalate action against the RPS allegations are untenable, unsubstantiated and bordering on frivolity, the Lokpal order said. The order indirectly acknowledged that the Adani Group was being targeted through politically motivated complaints against a regulator. The Complainant(s) by making such unverified and flimsy or fragile allegations, only to sensationalise or so, politicise the matter, has inevitably trivialised the process before the Lokpal. It is nothing short of vexatious proceedings, the order said. No wrongdoing or manipulation by Adani Group companies has been found by any competent authority so far from the SEBI to the Supreme Court to the Lokpal, the company spokesperson said. The named RPS and her husband were only passive investors had no control no connection with Adani Group shares, as has been revealed in the investigations, the Lokpal order observed. The order is a strong endorsement of due process and an important precedent against media trials, foreign speculative reports, and unverified allegations. We have followed the test enunciated by the Constitution Bench in Lalita Kumari the allegations not supported by any verifiable material, the order pointed out. By reiterating the SEBIs institutional integrity and rejecting conflict of interest charges, the order sends a strong signal that Indias capital markets are robustly governed. A bomb threat sent via email on Friday triggered a security alert at Udyog Bhawan, a prominent government office complex in the heart of Delhi. The threat mail claimed that an improvised explosive device (IED) had been planted on the premises, prompting immediate precautionary measures. The e-mail was received by senior officials of the Ministry of Steel and the Ministry of Heavy Industries, both of which operate from the Udyog Bhawan complex. Advertisement The Ministry of Heavy Industries is currently headed by Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy. Advertisement Following the thread, a letter signed by Undersecretary Inder Jeet Singh directed the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to take urgent action. As a safety measure, evacuation of the entire Udyog Bhawan premises was advised and swiftly carried out. Security agencies, along with bomb disposal squads and sniffer dog units, conducted thorough checks of the building. As per the latest updates, no explosive devices have been found so far. Authorities have launched an investigation into the source of the e-mail and are working to identify the sender. Meanwhile, security has been tightened in and around the Udyog Bhawan area. The AAP on Friday reminded the ruling BJP of its unfulfilled poll promises while releasing a report card of the Rekha Gupta-led government in Delhi on completion of its first 100 days of governance. During a press conference, AAPs Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj said, Weve seen in films mischievous children who fail in school prepare their own fake report cards. Similarly, a mischievous childrens government is currently running Delhi which, as weve heard, is producing its own report cards. Advertisement Bharadwaj demanded that the Delhi chief minister should explain what happened to the promised Rs 2.5k honorarium for women, reinstatement of bus marshals, and rollback of arbitrary fee hike by private schools. Parents have repeatedly submitted written requests to the Delhi government, pleading to both the Delhi government and the lieutenant governor initiate proceedings to take over DPS Dwarka. The BJP government must tell us when will they begin this process? So far, theyve done nothing, the AAP Delhi chief demanded. Advertisement He added that the party has a report card of the BJPs 100 days in Delhi which will be sent to all MLAs and MPs to remind them about their failure to keep them. Bollywoods ultimate style queen, Sonam Kapoor, has paid tribute to one of the most unforgettable red carpet moments in history, jaw-dropping green Versace gown of Jennifer Lopez from the 2000 Grammy Awards. But Sonam being Sonam didnt just copy-paste the look. She reimagined it. Advertisement Think J.Los daring jungle-print gown meets Kapoors signature elegance. Ditching the full glam overload, Sonam let the dress do all the heavy lifting. With her hair pulled back into a neat bun and minimal makeup, the actress struck the perfect balance between sultry and sophisticated. Advertisement A recently dropped video shows Sonam confidently posing in the iconic outfit, serving high fashion and heaps of nostalgia. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sonam Kapoor FC (@sonamkapoorpedia) This recreation makes Sonam Kapoor the first big Indian celebrity to step into that Versace number, a gown that literally changed Googles image search game when Jennifer Lopez first wore it. Since then, the dress has made occasional comebacks (including a Halloween tribute by Emily Ratajkowski), but never quite like this. #JenniferLopezs #VersaceSS20 look is a reinterpretation of the Versace Spring-Summer 2000 green Jungle print runway dress. This season the sleeveless silk chiffon gown has been embellished with sparkling palm embroidery and paired with delicate leaf-embellished sandals. #MFW pic.twitter.com/WQIls9cj0y VERSACE (@Versace) September 22, 2019 Sonams version feels fresh, fierce, and fabulously desi-chic. The actress has been having a standout fashion year. From gracing the cover of Vogue India to making waves at Paris Fashion Week, and even turning heads at Diors pre-fall show in Japan, Sonam is clearly in her fashion prime. Sonams take on fashion: And while she loves mixing it up with international labels, her heart still beats for Indian design. Fashion, for me, has always been about self-expression, Sonam shared in an earlier interview. Its not about dressing to impress, but about reflecting who I am. Her wardrobe is a living, evolving mood board of her journeyfrom Bollywood debutante to global fashion muse. I enjoy experimenting with global trends, but I always return to our rootsIndian textiles, local artisans, and heritage crafts. Sustainability is something Ive grown to value deeply, she added. Motherhood, too, has added a richer layer to her personal style. In the early years, I was still finding my voice, both as an actor and as a person, she explained. With time, Ive become more comfortable in my own skin. After becoming a mother, I celebrate my body and my choices even more. My style today is bolder, more honest. And if she could whisper something to her younger self? Id sayown your uniqueness, follow your gut, and dont shy away from standing out. Whether its through your words or what you wear, let your personality shine. (With inputs from UNI) If Kankhajuras dark sinister criminal mood flows by like a breeze in spite of eight episodes, it is for Roshan Mathew, that chameleon-like Malayalam actor (have you seen his work in his native tongue, if not then about-time you did) who transforms in front of our incredulous eyes into a severely traumatised borderline-psychotic, kind gentle naive yet devious man named Ashu who seeks only one thing in life: validation from his brother Max, played effectively by Mohit Raina. Very rarely are we forced to wonder what a film/series would be like without an actor: Dilip Kumar in Devdas, Shabana Azmi in Arth, Kamal Haasan in Hey Ram Advertisement Add Roshan Mathew to this rarefied roster. Were it not for Roshan, Kankhajura would collapse like a house of cads and I do mean cads. The characters, including Mathew and Raina, have a mean streak running through their lacerated souls. Maxs business buddies, played by the redoubtable Ninad Kamath and Mahesh Krishna Shetty, are various degrees of nasty depending on which way the wind blows. The latter even takes a leak on a victims face. Not a nice man to know. Advertisement Even women arent immune to a smattering of spite. Veteran Usha Nadkarni has a whole lot of fun with her role, reminiscent of Shabana Azmi in the recent Dabba Cartel, as a dreaded crime lord. Heeba Shah is a whole lot of steely will as a hard-nosed cop who seems to nurture Ashus slow-burning intensity, but she too, has her own agenda. Even Maxs genteel wife (Sara Jane Dias) secretes some not-so-pleasant surprises for her male counterparts. Taking hold of the core of the original characters from the Israeli series Magpie, director Chandan Arora and his co-writer Upendra Sidhaye construct a curious kingdom of white-collar crime, governed by surreptitious self-gratification. There is an unusual level of layering and subtexts on the storytelling, easy to miss on a medium as casual as the OTT. So, if you are one of those viewers who saunter in and out, this series might be problematic. As mentioned even before, the actors iron out the rough edges; the series retains the basic emotional core of two brothers, polarised and traumatised by their individual circumstances to the point of becoming adversaries. Interestingly, Roshan Mathew and Mohita Raina play off each other with a sense of guilelessness, as though they dont know where the sibling relationship is heading. There is a feeling of relentless dread cutting through the plot. That the series is located in Goa is a happy coincidence: the palm trees, beaches, the ancient heritage homes and quaint cottages lend an alluring mystery, far deeper than what the characters collectively convey. Ideally, Kankhajura should have found its home on the big screen where the articulate frames would have whispered about the mysteries that we can only imagine on the home medium. Kankhajura has its own dosage of deficits. Some of the action in the closing episodes looks stagey and tacky, and one involving gas cylinders is an embarrassment. But with Roshan Mathews OTT-defining performanceyes, we have not seen anything like this on any streamerthe series holds together very ably. As far as slow-burning crime dramas go, this one scorches. Rating: *** The 300th birth anniversary of Punyashlok Ahilyabai Holkar became the focal point of a commemorative seminar organised by the BJP Ranchi Metropolitan unit. Combining ideological assertion with cultural homage, the event drew senior party leaders, scholars, and local workers to reflect on the enduring legacy of one of Indias most remarkable female rulers. BJP National Co-Organisation Secretary Shiv Prakash, addressing the gathering virtually, described Ahilyabai not as a monarch in the conventional sense, but as a dharmic ruler guided by devotion and justice. Her decision to punish her own son to uphold the law was cited as an act of extraordinary moral fortitude. She governed not from a throne, but from the feet of Lord Shiva, he remarked, casting her reign as an emblem of righteous governance. Advertisement Leader of Opposition and State BJP President Babulal Marandi hailed Ahilyabai as a civilisational symbol of nari shakti a philosopher-queen who rebuilt temples, empowered women, and embodied Indias spiritual resilience. Union Minister Sanjay Seth underscored her relevance today, noting that her legacy resonates in the rising presence of women across diverse sectors from the armed forces to diplomacy. Advertisement State BJP Working President Dr Ravindra Kumar Rai emphasised that commemorating Ahilyabai is not an act of nostalgia but a retrieval of buried heritage. She represents the India colonial textbooks omitted ethical, efficient, and rooted in Sanatan values. Former Union Minister Arjun Munda added that Indias path to global leadership lies not only in technology or commerce, but in civilisational confidence, with Ahilyabais governance offering a model for the future. Presided over by Metropolitan BJP President Varun Sahu and conducted by State Vice-President Vikas Preetam, the event witnessed the participation of party MLAs, senior leaders, womens groups, and cultural organisations. The programme, in its tone and tenor, sought not merely to honour a ruler, but to reinforce history as a force of ideological continuity. In invoking Ahilyabai Holkar, the party offered more than reverence it laid down a civilisational claim, not as nostalgia, but as a blueprint. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday visited Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch region to meet people living in the bordering villages who were severely affected by cross-border shelling during the recent heightened security crisis between India and Pakistan. To help the affected families, the Minister also distributed job appointment letters to the next of kin of civilians killed during the attacks. Advertisement Pakistan targeted the civilian areas in Jammu and Kashmir, and Poonch suffered the most damage. For the first time, firing was done on Poonch post-independence. The entire world is condemning the attack by Pakistan. The Indian Armed Forces gave a befitting reply by destroying nine Pakistani air bases, and as a result, they had to come forward for a ceasefire, he told people while interacting with them. Advertisement Talking about Indias Operation Sindoor, the Minister said that on the night of May 7, 2025, the Indian Armed Forces conducted a decisive operation, destroying terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It was Indias befitting reply to terrorists who killed hundreds of people. On the night of May 7, we destroyed the terrorist sites in Pakistan and PoK. This was a befitting reply given to terrorists on behalf of the crores of Indians. Hundreds of terrorists were killed in the operation. We launched an attack on terrorists, but Pakistan considered it an attack on itself. They showed the world that they are the ones who are sheltering terrorists, he added. We have sent a message that India will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians, Indian Armed Forces, and every attack will be responded to with more precision and accuracy, the minister said. During the visit, Shah also interacted with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at their Unit Headquarters in Khanetar, praising their role in Operation Sindoor. He also travelled to religious sites damaged in the shelling, and reviewed the security situation ahead of the annual Amarnath Yatra. The Union Home Ministers visit followed the unprovoked Pakistani shelling in the civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir post Operation Sindoor, conducted in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Director of the United Nations (UN) Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) Dima Al-Khatib has received a delegation from the State Support Agency for NGOs of Azerbaijan in New York, Trend reports. Al-Khatib welcomed the Global South NGO Platform, which was established in Baku on April 28 with the participation of NGOs from 116 countries. "We highly appreciate the initiative of the Global South NGO Platform. In general, we appreciate the policy of the Azerbaijani state towards the Global South, as well as the support it provides to NGOs," she said. Besides, she highlighted the interest of the UNOSSC in close cooperation with the Global South NGO Platform. Executive Director of the Agency for State Support to NGOs Aygun Aliyeva emphasized the support of the agency as a partner to this global gathering. She noted with satisfaction that the idea of creating this platform came from Azerbaijani civil society during COP29. Furthermore, Al-Khatib spotlighted Azerbaijan's successful presidency of COP29, the significant importance and results of this event held in Baku last year. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel On the threat posed by the culture of cash-for-votes in Tamil Nadu, actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) founder-president Vijay on Friday urged students and their parents to desist from encouraging the monetisation of elections. At a mega function to honour board exam toppers from 88 assembly constituencies in the state at Poonjeri near the coastal heritage town of Mamallapuram, the actor said, There is a belief that by bribing the electorate, victory is ensured in elections. Even two years ago, I was warned of it. This culture should not be encouraged. Tell your parents not to vote for cash. See what will happen next year (assembly election), loads of cash will be dumped in vehicles. All that is looted from you. I need not tell you what to do and there is no need to emphasise that. Advertisement Urging students not to fall prey to religious and casteist division, he said, Caste and religion should not be allowed to dictate you. drugs. Genuine democracy ensures equal opportunities for all. Ask your family members to exercise their democratic right by voting for those who are not tainted by corruption and are trustworthy. Advertisement Criticising the UPSC for a question in the Civil Services Preliminary Examination which carried the caste name of rationalist social reformer and anti-caste crusader Periyar EV Ramasamy, he said painting the iconoclast in casteist colour was condemnable. On NEET exams claiming many lives of students, the actor explained that NEET is not everything in education as there many things that could be scaled and achieved. As such, parents should not exert pressure on their wards and instead guide them to realise their dreams and inculcate scientific thinking and the spirit of inquiry. With the ruling DMK and the principal opposition AIADMK gearing up for the assembly election early next year, Vijay too has sounded the poll bugle. He has launched his mass outreach beginning with a meeting of booth-level functionaries in Coimbatore earlier this month. He has been eying the Dravidian political space by positioning as the alternative to the DMK. Even before launching the TVK, he has started honouring toppers selected from assembly constituency wise and this is seen as a strategy of catching them young. The rest from among the 234 constituencies would be honoured in phases. In a significant boost to Indias indigenous defence manufacturing capabilities, the first centre fuselage assembly for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1A was handed over to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) by a Hyderabad-based private company on Friday. The handover took place in Hyderabad in the presence of Secretary (Defence Production) Sanjeev Kumar and CMD of HAL, D K Sunil, an official release issued here said. Advertisement It is for the first time a major sub-assembly for the LCA Tejas being manufactured by a private Indian company, it said. Advertisement Speaking on the occasion, Kumar hailed the partnership between HAL and VEM Technologies in accelerating the production of LCA Mk 1A. He said there is a significant growth in defence production at a rate of about 10 percent annually as well as in our defence exports. This would not have been possible without the support of industries and Public Sector Units like HAL. Security and sovereignty of the country are paramount and cannot be achieved without own manufacturing and supply of spare parts which could meet the requirements of the Armed Forces, he said. The CMD, HAL, acknowledged the rapid growth of Tier 1 and MSME suppliers in the production of the LCA Tejas. The handover marked a significant milestone in establishing a fourth production line for the LCA Mk1A, in addition to the two existing lines in HAL-Bengaluru and one in HAL-Nashik. The government official also assured that with major sub-assemblies underway, HAL will increase the production of the LCA aircraft and ensure timely deliveries to the Indian Air Force. HAL has built a national aerospace ecosystem by closely supporting private partners and providing critical inputs such as jigs, fixtures, tools, and technical know-how. This has enabled companies like L&T, Alpha Tocol, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), VEM Technologies, and Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) to produce complex sub-assemblies such as centre fuselages, fuel drop tanks, pylons, rear fuselages, wings, fins, rudders, and air intakes. The LCA Tejas Division has already received structural modules of air intake assemblies, rear fuselage assemblies, loom assemblies, and fin and rudder assemblies in the Mk1A configuration. HAL plans to extend this outsourcing model to future projects, reinforcing its in-house capacity with the expertise of Indian industry. In line with the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, HAL continues to drive indigenisation efforts in the aerospace and defence sector. HAL has partnered with over 6,300 Indian vendors, including 2,448 MSMEs, supporting thousands of skilled jobs and contributing to a robust domestic supply chain. In the last three years, HAL has placed orders worth Rs 13,763 crore with Indian vendors and is actively pursuing the indigenisation of complex aircraft systems and critical components across platforms, it added. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor met with the business leaders in the US at a roundtable hosted by USISPF. The Embassy of India, Washington, DC, in a post on its X handle said that the Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy NSA Kapoor had an engaging discussion with business leaders at a roundtable hosted by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). Advertisement They emphasized the importance of G2G, academia, and industry collaboration to advance critical and emerging technologies in defence and strategic domains key to transforming the partnership for the 21st century, the post further mentioned. Advertisement After the meeting concluded, the USISPF said it was pleased to host a closed-door roundtable in Washington, DC, with the two top Indian officials. The dialogue focused on deepening U.S.-India cooperation in critical and emerging technologies under the TRUST initiativeadvancing secure, transparent, and resilient innovation ecosystem through stronger government, industry and academic partnerships, said the USISPF after the meeting ended. FS Misri was on a three-day visit (May 27-29) to the US, which happened amid the unease over US President Donald Trump repeatedly claiming to have brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The Foreign Secretary concluded the visit on Thursday, with bilateral trade, critical and emerging technologies, as well as defence taking centre stage in the discussions. During the three-day visit, Misri met with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler. The US Department of State, in its official media release, said that Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau met with Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri today in Washington. The Deputy Secretary reaffirmed the close partnership between the U.S. and India, a key component of U.S. foreign policy for the 21st century. He underscored the importance of fair and reciprocal market access to fostering economic growth and prosperity in both countries. The US Deputy Secretary emphasised the importance of enhanced cooperation on migration and counternarcotics. The Deputy Secretary and the Foreign Secretary also reaffirmed their shared desire to maintain regional stability and peace, the State Department said Thursday. Applauding the Indian Navys unmatched strength and its role in neutralising threats during Operation Sindoor, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday warned Pakistan, saying that had the naval force joined its sister forces in the active combat, Islamabad would have faced a worse outcome than in 1971. The minister was aboard Indias first indigenously built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, currently deployed in the Arabian Sea. He reviewed its operational readiness. Advertisement Nineteen seventy-one is a witness to this, that when the Indian Navy came into action, Pakistan was divided from one to two. If the Indian Navy had come into action in Operation Sindoor, then Pakistan would not only have been divided into two parts, but I think it would have been divided into four parts, the Defence Minister asserted. Advertisement He also commended the Indian Navys silent but effective role in bottling up Pakistani naval assets, saying that their aggressive deployment, maritime dominance, and high state of preparedness prevented Pakistan from challenging Indian interests at sea and kept its naval assets confined to their own shores. During Operation Sindoor, the Indian Navy has impressed every Indian with its silent service. Despite remaining silent, the Indian Navy succeeded in tying down the Pakistani Army, he said. The role of the Navy in this entire integrated operation has been glorious. During Operation Sindoor, when the Air Force destroyed the terror bases on Pakistani soil, your aggressive deployment in the Arabian Sea, unmatched maritime domain awareness and maritime supremacy confined the Pakistani Navy to its own shores. They could not even muster the courage to come into the open sea, the minister added. The Union Minister underlined the Navys forward presence, saying its precision firing drills sent a strong strategic signal to Pakistani forces. Our Western Fleet ships deployed at sea carried out multiple successful firings of surface-to-surface, surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes along the western and eastern coast, within 96 hours of the terrorist attack, which shows the combat readiness of our platforms, systems and crews. These long-range precision strikes also demonstrated our intent and readiness against the enemy and forced the enemy into a defensive posture, Singh said. The minister further elaborated on how the Indian Navy stunned its adversary without firing a single shot. Along with the forward deployment of our forces, the force projection of the Vikrant Carrier Battle Group also gave an effective indication of our intention and capability. Your strong preparation has already broken the morale of the enemy. Your preparation alone was enough for Pakistan. You did not even need to take action, the enemy was stunned by your preparation itself. Pakistan not only realised the tremendous power of the Indian Navy, its military acumen and destructive capabilities, but they were also afraid of it, he noted. Speaking to Navy personnel aboard INS Vikrant, he warned that Pakistan was fortunate the Navy did not fully engage during the operation. The way you protect our maritime borders, the intensity with which you track every movement in the Indian Ocean, if that capability of yours was a part of this mission, then there is no need to tell what would have happened to Pakistan. In a way, Pakistan is very lucky that our Navy did not display its valour during Operation Sindoor, the minister added. However, the Defence Minister urged the Navy to stay alert and fully prepared for any future provocation from Pakistan or any other threat to the nation. I want to tell all of you that you should not leave any stone unturned in your preparations. Whatever has happened till now was just a warm up. If Pakistan dares to do anything again, then this time the Navy will also get into action and then only God knows what will happen to Pakistan, the Defence Minister warned. The minister, at the start of his speech, said, The meaning of Vikrant is indomitable courage, and unconquerable power. Today, standing among all you brave soldiers, I see the meaning of this name come true. The determination in your eyes reflects the real power of India. INS Vikrant, the 45,000-tonne warship, is a symbol of Indias growing naval power. It played a major role in the recently conducted Operation Sindoor. According to an official statement issued by the Government of India (GoI), the Indian Navys Carrier Battle Group (CBG), led by INS Vikrant, played a central role in maintaining maritime superiority during the operation, which focused on keeping Pakistans naval forces tucked in their harbours. The Indian Navy played a critical role in asserting maritime dominance during Operation SINDOOR. Operating as a composite networked force, the Navy deployed its Carrier Battle Group (CBG) equipped with MiG-29K fighter jets and airborne early warning helicopters. This ensured persistent surveillance and real-time identification of threats across the maritime domain, the official statement issued by the central government said. It further highlighted how the Indian Navy managed to prevent any enemy activity in the area. The CBG maintained a powerful air defence shield that prevented hostile aerial incursions, especially from the Makran coast. The Navys presence created a strong deterrent and effectively bottled up Pakistani air elements along their western seaboard, denying them any operational space, it said Naval pilots carried out day and night sorties, demonstrating Indias preparedness and strategic capabilities in the region. Naval pilots conducted round-the-clock sorties, further demonstrating Indias readiness and strategic reach in the region. The Navys ability to establish uncontested control over the seas also validated its anti-missile and anti-aircraft defence capabilities in a complex threat environment, the statement added. INS Vikrant, which joined the Indian Navy in 2022, is a major representation of Indias goal of building a self-reliant defence sector. Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said on Friday that over the last eleven years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi prioritised border areas and sought to do away with the terminology Last Village to replace it with First Village vision, placing border development at the heart of nations growth. Addressing a gathering of farmers, youth, and entrepreneurs during Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan in the border area of RS Pura Sector near here, he emphasized that this paradigm shift in the mindset and approach towards the aspirations of citizens in remote and border regions. Advertisement Highlighting Indias leap from the 5th to 4th largest economy, Dr. Jitendra Singh rebuked false narratives of economic downfall due to assertive defence strategies. He cited Operation Sindoor as a testament to Indias balanced approach maintaining strategic strength while propelling economic growth. Advertisement This rise is a befitting reply to so-called intellectuals who doubted Indias capability to sustain economic growth with a robust defence policy, Dr. Jitendra Singh asserted, crediting the leadership of PM Modi over the last 11 years for this economic resilience. The minister quoted Prime Minister Modis core governance mantra of serving the Women, Poor, Farmers, and Youth, and affirmed that 26 crore citizen have risen above the poverty line over the last decade through initiatives such as Fasal Bima Yojana, Nano Urea, and direct support for marginal farmers, especially in conflict-affected border regions. He also recognized the role of the Ministry of Home Affairs in ensuring insurance coverage for fields exposed to cross-border shelling. Dr Jitendra Singh referred to the Purple Revolution, spearheaded from Bhaderwah under the Aroma Mission, which has expanded to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. He proudly shared that over 3,000 lavender-based startups are now active, engaging with perfume industries in Mumbai and redefining the concept of agri-entrepreneurship. He also spotlighted tulip cultivation once seasonal, now being harvested off-season. The CSIR-Srinagar is poised to lead cultivation of saffron and marigold, opening new vistas in floriculture. Underlining the role of cutting-edge science, Dr. Singh announced that biotech-based value addition projects will enhance the shelf life of produce, with a notable rise in apple production and SHG involvement. Dr. Jitendra Singh announced operationalization of Biotech Industrial Park in Kathua, Biotech Kisan Hub under Aspirational Districts Programme, Upcoming AI-based agricultural decision-making system in Srinagar In a landmark announcement, Dr. Jitendra Singh revealed that Group Captain Shukla, Indias astronaut heading to the International Space Station (ISS) in June, will carry biotech kits for scientific experiments in plant research and seedling growth in the Space milieu, showcasing Indias fusion of space science and agriculture. Furthermore, 4 Agromet Observatories under the Gram Krishi Seva Yojana have been set up in Ladakh, Srinagar, Jammu and Poonch , and 4 new district-level Agromet units launched in Kupwara, Baramulla, Kathua, and Reasi, with support from SKUAST. Amid ongoing deliberations with the 16th Finance Commission, the Government of Jharkhand has placed a formal request seeking Rs 3.03 lakh crore in financial assistance over the next five years. In a memorandum submitted during a high-level meeting held in Ranchi, state Finance Minister Radha Krishna Kishore outlined the governments comprehensive development agenda, calling for a special package to address pressing needs in infrastructure, healthcare, education, and rural livelihoods. Advertisement The submission, made in the presence of Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya and his team, has been described by officials as not merely an appeal for funds, but a demand for fiscal justice. Minister Sudivya Kumar, addressing reporters after the meeting, confirmed that the state governments memorandum included sector-specific justifications, notably emphasising backwardness, underinvestment, and the unique structural challenges faced by the state. He added that as a productive state contributing significantly to national energy security through coal mining, Jharkhand suffers a paradoxical disadvantage under the current tax and revenue-sharing framework. Advertisement The memorandum paints a picture of persistent inequality in a state rich in resources yet poor in outcomes. Jharkhand ranks 26th among Indian states in terms of per capita income, despite its wealth of minerals and forests. Approximately 70 to 80 per cent of the population depends on agriculture, yet irrigation infrastructure covers only 24.25 lakh hectares out of the nearly 30 lakh hectares of cultivable land. Furthermore, over two-thirds of the states terrain suffers from land degradation and erosion, making it especially vulnerable to recurrent droughts and low farm productivity. The document also highlights serious deficits in social development. According to NFHS-5 data, 65 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 are anemic, and 40 per cent of children under five suffer from malnutrition. Higher education enrolment remains far below the national average, and access to healthcare remains critically low in rural and tribal areas. State officials noted that the burden of lifting such indicators cannot be borne by the state government alone and that central assistance is not just desirable but necessary to realise constitutional goals of equity. On the security front, the state acknowledged that although Maoist insurgency has been significantly contained in recent years, the threat is not yet over. Around 200 police camps remain operational in sensitive districts, and state officials cautioned against the premature withdrawal of security forces. The government has requested special central support for 19 affected districts under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme to ensure sustained development and stability in the region. A major point of contention presented to the Commission was the issue of long-pending financial dues. The state claims that coal companies operating in Jharkhand owe the government Rs 1.36 lakh crore in unpaid dues. In addition, Rs 1,300 crore under MGNREGA, Rs 5,235 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission, and Rs 78 crore under central pension schemes remain outstanding. A cumulative shortfall of Rs 25,436 crore in Finance Commission grants between 2019 and 2025 was also raised. The state has further urged the resumption of GST compensation, which was discontinued in July 2022, leading to a projected revenue loss of Rs 61,677 crore over the next five years. Despite these constraints, the state has maintained what it called sound fiscal discipline. The fiscal deficit currently stands at 2.27 per cent, well within the 3 per cent limit prescribed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. Gross State Domestic Product(GSDP) is projected to grow by 9.8 per cent in the upcoming financial year. The government argued that such performance, especially in a challenging economic terrain, warrants greater central support rather than incremental allocations. Among the key demands placed before the Finance Commission were an increase in the states share of central taxes from 41 to 55 per cent, the inclusion of open forest areas in the devolution formula, and improved transparency in CSR funding and bank credit deployment. Officials said the focus of the appeal was not on seeking alms but on asserting the states rightful due under Indias federal framework. The Finance Minister concluded his remarks with a pointed reminder that fiscal relations must reflect not only revenue generation but also development needs. The Constitution gives states their rights, but governance must fulfil its promises. We are ready to move forwardbut the Centre must recognise that federalism is not just a principle; it is a partnership. As the 16th Finance Commission weighs the submissions from across India, Jharkhands detailed and data-backed appeal stands as a timely reminder that national growth must rise from the grassrootsand for states like Jharkhand, that growth depends not on potential alone, but on partnership. Southern superstar Kamal Haasan continues to remain unapologetic and asserts that he will remain so for his remarks against the Kannada language, which now threaten to escalate into a campaign to boycott his films in Karnataka. The first victim of the Kannada activists fury, with even the film fraternity now standing with the language warriors, is set to be the latest Kamal Haasan-starrer Thug Life. Advertisement The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on Friday announced banning actor Kamal Haasans upcoming film Thug Life in protest against his controversial remarks about the Kannada language and his refusal to apologise. Advertisement KFCC representative Sa Ra Govindu said that the decision to ban the release of the Kamal Haasan-starrer film was taken to express solidarity with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other pro-Kannada organisations. We are bound to yield under pressure. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike was present when the decision was taken. We have to follow whatever they ask for. They will also speak about it. Kamal Haasan has not used the term sorry anywhere. We will certainly not release the film. KFCC stands with Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations, Govindu said. KFCC president M Narasimhalu said Kamal Haasan must apologise if he wants his film released. Many Kannada groups had called for a ban on his movie. So, we met and deliberated over the matter and decided that he should make an apology. We are unanimous in our belief that what he did was wrong, and we are trying to meet and talk to him, Narasimhalu said. There is a near consensus among political parties across the spectrum on Kamal Haasans controversial remark, Kannada is born out of Tamil, made during a promotional event in Chennai last week. They believe it was wrong and that he must retract the statement and apologise. Both Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah and BJP state unit president BS Vijayendra objected to his remarks, stating that the actor should not interfere in matters of history about which he has little knowledge. On Thursday, a complaint was also filed against Kamal Haasan in Bengaluru, demanding legal action against him. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading a multiparty delegation to Colombia, has claimed that the Indus Waters Treatys (IWT) spirit has been repeatedly betrayed over the years due to terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who is part of another all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor outreach mission, has said in Indonesia that the scrapping of Article 370 ended the long-standing problem of separatism in Jammu and Kashmir. Advertisement In the diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor, the Modi government has formed seven multi-party delegations to inform different nations about Pakistans links to terrorism and Indias strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Advertisement Interacting with members of Indonesian think tanks and academia as part of an all-party Indian parliamentary delegation, Khurshid said, Kashmir had a major problem for a long time. Much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government in an article called 370 of the Constitution, which somehow gave the impression that it was separate from the rest of the country. But Article 370 was abrogated, and it was finally put to an end. Article 370 of the Constitution accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir until it was revoked by the BJP-led government on August 5, 2019. After the abrogation, the state was bifurcated into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Both were turned into union territories. Khurshid, who is accompanying a multiparty delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, also said the post-abrogation environment in Jammu and Kashmir has yielded progress. He cited the 65 per cent voter turnout in subsequent polls and the formation of an elected government in the union territory. Subsequently, there was an election with 65 per cent participation. Theres an elected government in Kashmir today, and therefore, for people to want to undo everything that has the prosperity that has come to Kashmir. It would not be advisable, he added. Tharoor on Thursday (local time) said the Indus Waters Treaty was offered by India to Pakistan in the early 1960s in a spirit of goodwill and harmony and accused that goodwill has been repeatedly betrayed over the years due to terrorism sponsored by the neighbouring country. Speaking in Bogota, Colombia, Tharoor said, The Indus Waters Treaty was offered by India to Pakistan in the early 1960s in a spirit of goodwill and harmony. Those words occur in the preamble of the treaty; sadly, that goodwill has been repeatedly betrayed by the terrorist actions of the last four decades. Even though we have had terrorism and war inflicted on us, the treaty has remained in place, but this time our government has placed the treaty in abeyance, which means it is in effect suspended. Its operations are suspended until we get satisfactory indication from Pakistan that theyre prepared to conduct themselves in that spirit of goodwill that is provided for in the preamble of the treaty, he said. We are very conscious that we have been a generous neighbour when it comes to the operation of the treaty. We are in an upper riparian state. We have given Pakistan very generously the waters that they are entitled to under the treaty, and we have not even used all the waters we are entitled to under the treaty. But the time for acting based on goodwill unilaterally is frankly no longer with us, the Congress MP said. The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank and signed in 1960, governs the distribution of water from the Indus River system between India and Pakistan. The treaty has withstood multiple wars and diplomatic crises, but recent tensions have prompted fresh discussions on its future. Reiterating Indias firm stance against terrorism, Tharoor said the country decided that the Pahalgam terror attack could not go unpunished and launched strikes against terrorist infrastructure under Operation Sindoor. Addressing the media in Bogota, Tharoor expressed disappointment with the Colombian government for offering condolences over the loss of lives in Pakistan instead of expressing solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, saying, We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism. Union Minister for Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday that the Central government would make farmers self-reliant and transform the agriculture landscape of India. Addressing a convention of farmers organized under the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan (VKSA) in Jammu, the minister paid homage to the soldiers stationed at the border areas and lauded the enduring resilience of farmers living under the constant shadow of cross-border threats. Advertisement Emphasizing the governments dedication to national security and agricultural prosperity, he upheld the valour of Indian soldiers and recognized the significance of Operation Sindoor, during which precise strikes were conducted on terror infrastructure across the border. It was a necessary step, Pakistans attempts to infiltrate with drones and missiles were dealt with decisively. This is a tribute to the strength of our armed forces and the will of the Indian people, he said. Advertisement The minister underlined the vital role of farmers living in border regions, describing them as the second line of defence. Terming the courage of farmers as unmatched, he said despite facing constant danger farmers continue to cultivate the land and feed the nation. The minister assured the farming community of the region that their concerns, particularly regarding land rights, security infrastructure, and access to government schemes, have been heard. The demand for more bunkers in vulnerable areas will be strongly raised in New Delhi. Your safety is our priority, he affirmed. Addressing the critical issue of water sharing with neighbouring countries, the minister criticized the decisions of the previous government that allowed 80 per cent of Indias water resources to flow out of the country. These water resources belong to Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan and other areas of the country. I commend the prime minister for putting the Indus Water Treaty on hold. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rightly opposed the decision to give away our precious resources, he said. The minister praised the renowned RS Pura Basmati rice, noting that productivity is expected to rise with the introduction of advanced agricultural techniques and research. I am here to experience first-hand the life and challenges of farmers in border areas. Together, we will ensure that schemes like PM Kisan Nidhi reach every deserving farmer, he said. On the Central governments vision of Viksit Bharat, he said there can be no developed India without Viksit Krishi. He said the Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry, State Agriculture Ministry, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Krishi Vigyan Kendra and all agricultural institutes should work together as a team to realise this goal. Stressing the importance of collaboration, Chouhan highlighted that VKSA is a progressive step towards connecting scientists, officials, and farmers. He also reiterated the governments proactive role in advancing agricultural research assuring that there would be no shortage of funding for research and innovation. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is dedicated to taking the country forward. Modijis goal is to build a glorious, powerful, prosperous, rich and developed India, he added. Terming the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan as a result-driven initiative, he expressed confidence that its benefits including higher crop yields and reduced input costs would be evident as early as the upcoming Kharif season. The Union Minister informed that ICAR has 113 institutes across the country and the government is working to bridge the gap between laboratories and farmlands. With 16,000 agricultural scientists under ICAR, scientists will visit villages as a team along with agricultural extension officers to educate farmers about new seed varieties and innovative farming practices, he said. Chouhan further stated that during the 15-day campaign from May 29 to June 12, agricultural scientists will visit villages to guide farmers on sustainable farming practices and plan for the Kharif season. The campaign aims to educate farmers about modern technologies for major Kharif crops specific to different regions, raise awareness about beneficial government schemes and policies, guide farmers on using Soil Health Cards for crop selection and balanced fertilizer application, and collect feedback to understand farmer-led innovations and steer research directions accordingly. Earlier, he formally inaugurated a newly established Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), a collective initiative aimed at empowering small and marginal farmers by enhancing their bargaining power, improving access to markets, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. The FPO is expected to play a pivotal role in streamlining agricultural production and ensuring better returns for farmers through collective marketing and value addition. He assured the gathering of farmers and agriculturalists that the Government of India will provide all possible help for further improving the agricultural efficiency and productivity. Relentless monsoon rains have plunged large parts of Northeast India into chaos, triggering landslides, flash floods, and severe infrastructure collapse. With major highways blocked, towns waterlogged, and villages cut off, normal life has come to a standstill in several states, even as meteorological warnings suggest the worst may not be over yet. Advertisement In Manipur, a massive landslide in Tamenglong district has completely blocked National Highway-37 a vital lifeline that connects Imphal to Silchar in Assam via Jiribam. Advertisement The landslide, which struck around 7 am Friday near Nungdalal between K. Sinam and Nungnang villages, spans about 30 meters and has left over 200 vehicles stranded on both sides of the road. The affected vehicles include essential supply carriers such as oil and LPG tankers on route from Silchar, as well as empty trucks returning from Manipur. The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) has deployed excavators to clear the debris, but continuous rainfall is hampering operations and further delaying traffic restoration. In neighbouring Assam, the state capital Guwahati bore the brunt of heavy rainfall compounded by massive runoff from the Meghalaya hills. On Thursday, several localities, including Rukminigaon, Anil Nagar, Nabin Nagar, Beltola, Hatigaon, and Wireless, were inundated, with knee-deep water submerging roads and houses. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) launched rescue operations using boats, especially in Rukminigaon where residents were trapped. According to officials from the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), the citys drainage infrastructure was overwhelmed by the excessive runoff, leading to large-scale urban flooding. In Majuli, the worlds largest river island, a flood-swollen Brahmaputra washed away a 350-meter bamboo bridge in the Bhakat Chapori area, cutting off 17 villages from the mainland. In Meghalaya, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert across several districts, forecasting extremely heavy rainfall through May 31. In East Khasi Hills, a landslide occurred near Pynursla on Thursday following incessant rain. While no casualties were reported, the incident has heightened fears of further slope failures in the days ahead. Arunachal Pradesh has also been hit hard. Torrential rain in West Kameng district caused landslides that have stranded vehicles near Jamiri, disrupting traffic flow and cutting off access to remote areas. Road clearance efforts have been suspended due to continuous downpours, and parts of Bomdila town are reportedly without electricity. The IMD has meanwhile issued red alerts not only for Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura but also for parts of Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. A deep depression over the northwest Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify rainfall over the region until the end of the month. Thunderstorms, lightning, and squally winds have been forecast across much of the region, and authorities have been advised to remain on high alert. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The Parliament of Azerbaijan has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva on the occasion of Independence Day, Trend reports. The Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova informed about this at today's session of the parliament. "The opening of an international airport in Lachin, a region of strategic importance, marks a significant step in Azerbaijans continued progress toward its national goals," the Speaker stated. Gafarova noted that the inauguration of the Lachin International Airport, held two days earlier on Azerbaijans Independence Day, was attended by President Ilham Aliyev and President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lachin now hosts the third international airport built on territories liberated from occupation. An important summit was also held in Lachin on Independence Day, bringing together the President of Azerbaijan, the President of Turkiye, and the Prime Minister of Pakistan. This gathering was a new display of strategic unity among three friendly and brotherly nations that share common values. The decisions made during the summit will undoubtedly open a new chapter in cooperation across various fields, she added. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday warned Pakistan that Operation Sindhoor was just a pause and if Pakistan repeated its mistake, it would not get even a chance to recover. He said if Pakistan is serious about talks, then it should hand over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India so that justice can be done. Operation Sindhoor is not over yet. It is just a pause, a warning. If Pakistan makes the same mistake again, Indias response will be even harsher, and this time it will not even get a chance to recover, the Defence Minister said while addressing a gathering in Goa. He met with Indian Navy personnel aboard INS Vikrant. Advertisement Addressing the gathering, Mr Singh said he was happy to meet the Naval warriors on INS Vikrant. Today, I am feeling a sense of pride standing on INS Vikrant, which is the pride of Indias naval power. I strongly believe that till the time defence of the countrys naval borders is in your strong hands, no one can raise an eyebrow towards India. Advertisement He said it would be in Pakistans interest to uproot the nurseries of terrorism operating on its soil with its own hands. It should start by handing over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India. Both of them are not only on the list of Most Wanted Terrorists in India but are also on the UNs list of Designated Terrorists. Tahawwur Rana, an accused of the Mumbai attacks, was brought to India recently. If Pakistan is serious about talks, then it should hand over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India so that justice can be done. The Defence Minister said, Your strong preparation has already broken the morale of the enemy. Your preparation alone was enough for Pakistan. You did not even need to take action; the enemy was stunned by your preparation itself. Pakistan not only realised the tremendous power of the Indian Navy, its military acumen and destructive capabilities, but they were also afraid of it. Mr Rajnath Singh congratulated the personnel present on the success of Operation Sindoor. When India launched Operation Sindoor after the cowardly terror attack in Pahalgam, the speed, depth and clarity with which our armed forces acted was amazing. It sent a clear message not only to the terrorists but also to their patrons that India no longer tolerates, India now gives a befitting reply. Our attack was so strong that Pakistan started pleading with the world to stop India. He said India stopped its military actions on its terms. The role of the Navy in this entire integrated operation has been glorious. During Operation Sindoor, when the Air Force destroyed the terror bases on Pakistani soil, your deployment in the Arabian Sea, unmatched maritime domain awareness and maritime supremacy confined the Pakistani Navy to its shores. They could not even muster the courage to come into the open sea. Rajnath Singh said Pakistan should keep in mind that if on one hand our Navy is as calm as the ocean, on the other hand it also can bring a tsunami like the ocean. Commissioned into service two years ago by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, INS Vikrant was built over 13 years at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore. The 45,000-tonne vessel boasts 76 per cent indigenous content, is 262 metres long, and includes 15 decks and 2,300 compartments. Sounding poll bugle in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday attacked the Congress and RJD, saying those who cheated Bihar the most, during whose rule the deprived sections suffered the most, today the same people are telling lies about social justice to gain power. Addressing a rally at Karakat in Bihar, The condition of railways in Bihar is also changing rapidly. These development works could have been done earlier as well. But those who were responsible for modernising railways in Bihar looted the lands of the poor. These were their methods of social change: looting the poor and taking advantage of their helplessness. It is necessary for the people of Bihar to remain cautious of the lies and deceit of Jungle Raj in the future as well. Advertisement He said that when the Jungle Raj government was dismissed under Nitish Kumars leadership here, Bihar also started moving ahead on the path of progress. Advertisement Broken highways, bad railways, limited flight connectivity, that era has now become history A web of four-lane highways is being constructed in Bihar. Bridges are being constructed on all major rivers, he stated. Lauding Operation Sindoor, he said Indias fight against terrorism has neither paused nor stopped. If terrorism rises again, India will pull those responsible out and crush them. Our fight is against every enemy of the country, whether he is across the border or inside the country. Prime Minister Modi said, The people of Sasaram know the customs of Lord Ram. Praan jaaye par vachan na jaaye. After the dreadful terrorist attack in Pahalgam, I had promised the country on the land of Bihar that the hideouts of the masters of terrorism would be razed to the ground, that they would get a punishment bigger than they could ever imagine. Today, when I have come to Bihar, I have come here after fulfilling my promise. Two days after the Pahalgam attack on April 22, in Bihars Madhubani, Prime Minister Modi said on April 24 that he wants the world to know that India will identify and punish every terrorist. Modi, in a rare English-speaking gesture, said those behind the Pahalgam terror attack and those part of the conspiracy will be punished beyond their imagination. Prime Minister Modi said, The Pakistani army, under whose protection terrorists used to feel safe in their bunkers, our forces brought them to their knees in a single strike. Pakistans air bases and their terror launchpads were destroyed within minutes. This is New India. This is the power of New India. He said the world has seen the unprecedented valour and courage of the BSF during Operation Sindoor. He paid his tributes to BSF Sub Inspector Imtiaz laid down his life at the border on 10 May while performing the sacred duty of serving the motherland. I pay my respectful tribute to this son of Bihar. The enemy has seen the power of Operation Sindoor. They should understand that this is just one arrow in our quiver. Indias fight against terrorism has neither stopped nor halted. If the hood of terror rises again, India will crush it by pulling it out of its hole, he promised. He hailed the fight of the state government against Naxalism. The people of Bihar are witnesses to how we have eliminated those who spread violence and unrest in the past years. How Naxalism was dominant in the Sasaram and nearby districts a few years ago. These people had no faith in Babasaheb Ambedkar. Even in those circumstances, Nitish Kumar tried his best for development here. Before 2014, more than 75 districts were Naxal-affected. Now, only 18 districts are left Naxal-affected. The day is not far when Maoist violence will be completely eradicated. He said the double-engine government is constantly striving for the all-around development of Bihar. In this sequence, today, he was inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of development projects worth thousands of crores of rupees from Karakat. Prime Minister Modi said, Today, I have had the privilege of coming to this sacred land to give new momentum to Bihars development. Projects worth over Rs 50,000 crore have been inaugurated and foundation stones laid here. You all have come in large numbers to bless me. I will always hold your affection and Bihars love close to my heart. He launched and foundation laying of key infrastructure and welfare initiatives aimed at accelerating Bihars growth across sectors like transportation, energy, and connectivity. PMs visit is seen as a key moment for strengthening the BJPs organisational base in the state ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections expected to be held in October-November this year. The main battle is between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagathbandhan. However, a pre-poll opinion survey suggests that Prashant Kishor may gain some popularity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a day-long visit to Madhya Pradesh on Saturday when he will lay the foundation stone of ghat construction works worth over Rs 860 crore on Kshipra River, a release from his office said Friday. The Prime Minister will also inaugurate Datia and Satna airports and flag off passenger services on the Super Priority Corridor of the Yellow Line of Indore Metro. Advertisement The release said that on the occasion of Lokmata Devi Ahilya Bai Holkars 300th birth anniversary, Mr Modi will also participate in Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai Mahila Sashaktikaran Mahasammelan at 1115 hrs in Bhopal and address a public function. Advertisement He will also release a commemorative postage stamp and a special coin dedicated to Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai. The Rs 300 coin will feature a portrait of Ahilyabai Holkar. The Prime Minister will also present the National Devi Ahilyabai Award to a woman artist for her contribution to tribal, folk, and traditional arts. In a major boost to last-mile air connectivity, the Prime Minister will inaugurate Datia and Satna airports, opening new opportunities for industry, tourism, education, and healthcare in the Vindhya region, it said. During his tight schedule, the Prime Minister will also transfer the first installment for the construction of 1,271 Atal Gram Sushasan Bhawans worth over Rs 480 crore. These buildings will provide permanent infrastructure to gram panchayats, helping them manage administrative functions, conduct meetings, and maintain records more efficiently, the PMO release further said. Torrential monsoon rains wreaked havoc across Kerala on Friday, triggering landslides, flooding, widespread power outages, and disruption of daily life. Five people were killed in rain-related incidents in Fridays rain. Extensive damages were also caused to houses in heavy winds and high tides. Advertisement Two youths drowned during fishing in the Kottayam district. A fisherman was killed after his fishing boat capsized in high tides in the sea off Thiruvananthapuram. An 85-year-old woman died in Kochi after a tree fell on her. A youth, who went fishing at Punnapra in Alappuzha, fell into a waterlogged area and died. Advertisement In Vizhinjam, two members of a group of fishermen who went to sea have gone missing after their boat capsized. Three of them swam back to shore. It is also reported that 27 other fishermen who set out to sea in seven boats have not returned to the shore. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been deployed in different districts of the state that have been issued a red warning. People in hilly areas have been warned of possible landslides, and the state government has restricted fishermen from going into the sea until June 1. The heavy rains and accompanying winds uprooted trees and downed power lines. The Fire and Rescue Services Department and the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) scrambled to clear fallen trees and restore power to an estimated 60 lakh households across the state. Nevertheless, large swathes of the state, including much of Thiruvananthapuram district, remained without power. Water levels in several major rivers are steadily rising, prompting alerts from the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) for communities residing along riverbanks. Rivers such as the Manimala and Achankovil in Pathanamthitta, the Meenachil in Kottayam, the Korapuzha in Kozhikode, and the Kabani in Wayanad are flowing at dangerous levels The state has begun to witness widespread displacement due to flooding and landslides, with 1,329 individuals from 395 families relocated to 51 relief camps in various districts.In Wayanad, 739 people are staying in 18 relief camps, with Mananthavady taluk reported as the most severely affected area, where 14 houses were destroyed. Heavy winds in Ernakulam uprooted numerous trees, damaging 182 houses. In Alappuzha, low-lying areas of Kuttanad were submerged, 21 houses were damaged, and 115 people were relocated to five camps. Amidst continuing rainfall in Kerala, a landslide occurred on Kannurs Kottiyoor Palchuram road. Consequently, a warning has been issued for travelers using this route. Flash floods occurred between Chattanchal and Cherkala in Kasaragod, where construction is underway on the national highway. Landslides occurred in several places, leading to traffic blockages. Traffic has been diverted through the Kanhangad Chandragiri bridge. As heavy rainfalls continue in Kerala, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red warning in eight districts Kannur, Kasargod, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Thrissur, and Idukki for Friday. All the other districts in the state, including the capital Thiruvananthapuram, have been issued an orange warning. The Rajasthan High Court on Friday granted bail to Naresh Meena in the infamous SDM slapping case of Samaravta village that occurred on November 13 last year. However, he did not get any relief so far in another case of violence and arson in the aftermath of the slapping incident on November 13-14 last year. Advertisement As such, Meena will remain in jail. Advertisement A single bench of Justice Anil Kumar Upman accepted Meenas second petition for bail in the case of slapping an on-duty SDM (FIR 166/2024-Nagar Fort Tonk) after seven months. However, another bench of the High Court, comprising Justice Pravir Bhatnagar, did not grant any relief to Meena in the arson and violence case following the slapping incident on November 13-14. The incident occurred during the by-poll in Samaravta village, where Meena, an Independent candidate, had slapped the area magistrate, SDM Amit Choudhary, accusing him of coercing villagers to vote. Following the incident, Meena was arrested by the police. However, amid protests, villagers clashed with police and freed Meena from custody. Later that night and the following morning, police used force, including tear gas, to control the situation in Samaravta and nearby villages. Meena was re-arrested in the early hours of November 14, 2024. Barely two days before PM Narendra Modis visit to Bhopal on 31 May to address a Women Empowerment Mega Conference, two senior women BJP leaders made derogatory statements against Muslims and Pakistan at an event in Indore. BJP MLA from Indore, Usha Thakur, and former Lok Sabha member from Bhopal, Pragya Thakur, insulted Muslims making objectionable comments on the community during the Pratap Parakram Yatra organised by the Karni Sena to commemorate Maharana Pratap Jayanti on 29 May. Advertisement .some people say that killing cows is their religion, and killing those who do it is ours, said Pragya Thakur (55), during her speech. Advertisement Those with mixed Mughal blood are disloyal to the country, she averred. ..every Pakistani is a terrorist, declared Pragya Thakur, who is herself a prime accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case. At the same event, Usha Thakur told media persons that those who commit love jihad must be punished as per the Sharia law. Their eyes should be gouged out and their hands should be chopped off, said Usha Thakur, who was a cabinet minister for Culture in the previous BJP government in MP. She further said that the house and property of those found guilty of committing love jihad would be confiscated. On 29 September 2008, at least six Muslims were killed and around 100 others were injured in a bomb blast near a Mosque at Malegaon in Maharashtra. During investigations, seven prime accused were listed, including Pragya Thakur, as invetigators found that her bike was used to strap a bomb that exploded. Pragya Thakur was arrested in October 2008 on charges of terrorism. The investigation of the case was subsequently handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2011. During the hearing of the case in a Special NIA Court in Mumbai in April this year, the NIA sought the strictest punishment, which could also be death penalty, for the accused, including Pragya Thakur. The court had reserved its final verdict for 8 May but it was subsequently deferred to 31 July. Odisha anti-corruption wing officials on Friday were literally stunned to stumble upon the wealth and richness of a corrupt government engineer, a day before his retirement, as they recovered Rs 2.52 crore in cash concealed in two houses owned by him. The movable and immovable assets amassed by the engineer also included Rs 2.70 crore investment in the share market, buildings, and high-value plots at prime locations in the state. Advertisement Baikuntha Nath Sarangi, Chief Engineer (Plan Roads, RW Division, Odisha, Bhubaneswar), came under the vigilance scanner when simultaneous searches were conducted at multiple locations. During the search, bundles of Rs 500 currency notes were thrown out of the window of his house in Bhubaneswar. The notes, later recovered and counted, totalled Rs 37 lakh. Advertisement On seeing the vigilance officers, Sarangi threw bundles of cash in Rs 500 denomination through the window of his flat in Bhubaneswar. The cash was recovered in the presence of witnesses, an official said. The search operation at the residences and the office of the engineer is still underway, the official added. The vigilance sleuths have so far detected houses at different places, seven high-value plots on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar and Angul, besides bank and insurance deposits of Rs 1.5 crore in the name of Sarangi and his family members. Sarangi, who will retire on Saturday, joined government service in 1991 as a Stipendiary Engineer with a consolidated monthly pay of Rs 2,000. A day after Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi explain to 140 crore Indians how many Rafale aircraft were shot down by the Pakistani Army during the recent conflict between the two nations, BJP leader Amit Malviya on Friday slammed the Congress party for raising the question at a time when the country should stand united and not asking how many Pakistani jets had the Indian armed forces taken out during Operation Sindoor. In a post on his X handle on Friday, Malviya, who is Incharge of BJPs National Information & Technology Department stated, After Rahul Gandhi, now Telangana Chief Minister and Congress leader Revanth Reddy asks How many Rafale jets did Pakistan shoot down? It is honestly astonishing how out of depth these leaders are when it comes to matters of national security. Advertisement If Pakistan had actually shot down a Rafale, there would be clear evidence satellite imagery, wreckage, international confirmation just like we have proof of the damage we inflicted on their airbases and terror camps. Advertisement But instead of standing with our armed forces, Congress leaders seem to be sourcing their intel from WhatsApp forwards, social media speculation, or worse their imagination. They sound more like Pakistans PR team than Indias Opposition. And while they question our militarys success, not one of them has asked how many Pakistani jets have we taken out, including those parked at their bases during operations? That silence is telling. It is almost like the questions Pakistan would love to ask are now being asked conveniently by the Congress party. Whether by ignorance or design, theyre playing right into enemy hands. And theyre doing a splendid job at it. Malviyas comments came after CM Reddy on Thursday launched a scathing attack on PM Modi while addressing the Jai Hind rally in Nizampet in which he not only questioned how many Rafale jets were shot down by the Pakistani Army, but also asked why, the PM, who had called for an all-party meeting before launching an attack against the terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), did not do so before calling off Operation Sindoor. CM Reddy also stated at the rally that PM Modi failed to separate Balochistan from Pakistan and take control over PoK, despite the wishes of 140 crore Indians. Dwelling on the issue of Rafales he said, The soldiers of this (Secunderabad) Cantonment participated in the war. The war planes being manufactured in Telangana upheld respect for our country. Rafale aircraft brought by Narendra Modi were shot down by Pakistan. There is no discussion on how many Rafales were shot down. Narendra Modi should answer how many Rafael aircraft were shot down by Pakistan during the recent war. You give us the account, he asked the PM. Criticising senior Congress leadership, including Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, for frequent queries on the number of Rafale jets destroyed during Operation Sindoor, BJP MP Sambit Patra on Friday wondered why the grand old partys commanders were not asking Pakistan about the damage it suffered. Patra, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi, questioned Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy, and Jairam Ramesh on not raising any question on how many air bases of the enemy country were destroyed, or terrorists killed. Advertisement Patra, who has been one of the national spokespersons of the BJP before becoming an MP, said currently there are two factions in the Congress, one supporting Pakistan and the other wanting to raise its voice against them but cannot do so because of Rahul Gandhi. Advertisement Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Revanth Reddy are asking how many Rafales were shot down. Yeh jo Pakistan ke Babbar hain, woh Hindustan ke Gabbar hain. Rahul Gandhi did not ask how many Pakistani air bases were destroyed, how many terrorists were killed; rather, he only asked how many Indian planes were shot down, he said. Taking a jab at the grand old party, he said, Today, there are two factions in Congress one supports Pakistan while the other wants to raise a voice for the country but is unable to do so because of you (Congress leadership). Your Jai Hind Yatra looks like Pakistans Hind Yatra and you should stop this yatra and hold a joint press conference with Pakistan. Attacking Jairam Ramesh for his remarks on the multi-party delegation, he said he (the Congress leader) equated terrorists with MPs. The BJP leader asserted that the MPs did not go on a tour; they are travelling across countries to put forth Indias viewpoint on terrorism in front of the whole world. Jairam Ramesh, who is the right-hand of the Gandhi family, gives a statement, saying terrorists are roaming around, MPs are also roaming around. You have equated terrorists with MPs. MPs did not go on a tour, they went to strongly present Indias point of view on Pakistans indulgence in terror activities in the world, and your MPs are also a part of these delegations, Patra added. Accusing the erstwhile UPA government of inviting terrorists to the Prime Minister Office (PMO), he said, There was a time when terrorists were called to the PMO. We should also remember the day when Sonia ji cried after seeing the bodies of terrorists. The Indian Army destroyed nine terrorist hideouts. Satellite pictures were shown. DGMO presented all the facts. On Thursday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge attended the all-party meeting and extended their full support to the Centre and made it clear that India should fight against Pakistan to merge the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with India. Reddy said he had already declared full support for splitting Pakistan into two countries. He objected to India agreeing to the ceasefire at the behest of US President Donald Trump. Pakistan has downed Rafale fighter jets, which were brought by PM Modi, when asked how many were downed? Theres no discussion. PM Modi, who purchased fighter jets from another country, should answer how many Rafale jets have been destroyed by Pakistan, said Reddy. The Telangana chief minister appealed to Congress leaders and workers to strive hard and not relax until Rahul Gandhi becomes prime minister. While recent headlines have largely centred on Indias external conflict with Pakistan, a quieter yet enduring anti-insurgency operation may be nearing a decisive turning point within India. Earlier this month, the death of a top Maoist commander, signalled a possible endgame in the countrys decades-long anti-insurgency campaign. New Delhis fight against Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), commonly known as Naxalism or the Maoist insurgency, has stretched over five decades and spanned multiple governments. The central governments recent pledge to eliminate the Maoist threat by 31 March 2026 reflects both an ambitious target and growing confidence within its security and political circles of achieving the deadline. Such confidence has also been heavily inspired by the recent high operational success of eliminating CPI (Maoist) Supreme Commander, Basava Raju. Officials believe Rajus elimi nation has created a leadership vacuum within Maoist ranks, potentially triggering internal disarray and a dip in overall morale for the movement. The operation is also being hailed as a milestone in Indias campaign to dismantle LWE, which has undoubtedly shifted the balance in favour of Indian security forces in several of the most affected regions. Advertisement The Maoist movement traces its origins to the late 1960s uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal, a radical left uprising that sought to rectify perceived social and economic injustices. Over the years, it spread across central and eastern Indian states, evolving into a violent insurgency that has repeatedly challenged state authority, targeted security forces, stalled development projects and claimed an estimated 8,800 civilian lives in the past decade alone. Despite intermittent crackdowns in the 1970s and 1980s, the insurgency gained operational momentum in the early 2000s, with the formal merger of Maoist factions under the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Advertisement At its peak, the insurgency operated in over 100 districts, employing guerrilla warfare tactics, ambushes and targeted assassinations, while simultaneously embedding itself within local social structures. Some of the most violent chapters in this insurgency have involved high-profile political assassinations and attacks on security forces. A major turning point was the 2013 killing of Mahendra Karma and others, a prominent anti-Naxal leader and the architect of Salwa Judum ~ a controversial state-backed militia that armed local villagers to resist Maoists. While Salwa Judum was framed as a grassroots counter insurgency initiative, it quickly drew criticism from the Supreme Court of India, which declared it unconstitutional. In the decade since, New Delhi has moved toward a more coordinated, centralized counterinsurgency strategy. This has included enhanced troop deployments, improved intelligence-sharing mechanisms, investments in rural infrastructure, and the use of advanced surveillance technologies. Officials cite the declining frequency and geographical spread of Maoist attacks as evidence of this strategys effectiveness. Since 2015, the National Policy and Action Plan has guided these efforts, focusing on strengthening security infrastructure, building roads, and launching welfare schemes in Naxal-affected areas. A defining feature of the current phase has been Operation Kagar, launched in January 2024 with the objective of eliminating Naxalism by March 2026, a goal reiterated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. This large-scale offensive has mobilized around 10,000 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos, including specialized units like the CRPFs CoBRA, the District Reserve Guard and other elite units, to target Maoist strongholds across multiple Indian states. According to government data, LWE is now confined to just 38 districts, down from over 100 in 2014. Since the beginning of 2025, more than 300 Maoists have been killed, and over 800 have surrendered under the pressure of sustained operations such as Kagar. Earlier this month, security forces achieved a major breakthrough by killing Nambala Keshava Rao, known as Basava Raju, the Supreme Commander of the CPI (Maoist). Raju was not only the groups ideological head and top strategist but also the key link between its northern and southern commands. His death, along with 26 other Mao ists in a 50-hour operation in Chhattisgarhs Abujhmad, is being seen as a significant tactical and psychological blow to the movement. Rajus unique position atop the Maoist hierarchy made him both the chief architect of the groups violent tactics and the strategist behind its broader political vision. He is believed to have orchestrated several of the deadliest attacks against Indian security forces, including the 2010 Dantewada massacre and the 2013 Darbha Valley ambush that claimed the life of Mahendra Karma. His deep grasp of jungle warfare and psychological operations enabled the Maoists to repeatedly evade large-scale security sweeps and sustain their campaign over decades. With his death, the insurgency has lost not only its top commander but also its principal military mind and the architect of its long-term survival strategies. The Maoist movement in India, while clandestine, operates through a highly centralized command structure, and Rajus elimination may very well disrupt this hierarchy at a critical moment, potentially undermining the groups capacity to plan and execute coordinated attacks. Therefore, the operation that killed Basava Raju is being portrayed as a clear sign that the endgame is within reach. The 2026 deadline to eliminate the insurgency also carries significant political and national security weight much due to its prolonged effects over multiple states in India. Yet, this framing has not been without critique. The killing has also drawn criticism from some quarters of political parties in the Left, who argue that such operations bypass due process and further alienate local populations. The government on the other hand has maintained that such operations have been intelligence-based and necessary due to the violence that the insurgency has inflicted in the affected regions. New Delhis fight against left-wing extremism nonetheless stands at a critical juncture. With violence at a historic low, Maoist influence is now largely confined to a handful of districts, and with security operations achieving unprecedented precision, the governments ambitious goal of a Naxal-free India by March 2026 appears somewhat attainable. However, even if New Delhi meets its operational targets, the true test of the states counterinsurgency strategy will lie in what follows. Security victories, while crucial, risk being short-lived if not complemented with sustained governance outreach, robust rehabilitation policies, and genuine empowerment of local communities. The governments multipronged approach of blending security operations, infrastructure expansion, and rights based development has delivered transformative results in many regions. Yet, consolidating these gains will require unwavering political will, inclusive development, and continued efforts to win the trust of the Adivasi communities that have been affected the most by the conflict. Only by addressing the root causes that gave rise to left-wing extremism can India ensure that the current operational successes translate into lasting peace and stability in the region (The writer is Senior Research Associate, Organisation for Research on China and Asia) BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. President Ilham Aliyev sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic, Trend reports. ''Dear Mr. Prime Minister, On the occasion of the national day Statehood Day of the Republic of Croatia, I offer my most sincere congratulations to you and your entire nation on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan. It is gratifying to see the strengthening and enrichment of relations between Azerbaijan and Croatia, built on good traditions. Our active political dialogue, mutual visits at the high and highest levels, and regular contacts provide a solid foundation for expanding cooperation across various fields. Currently, Azerbaijan and Croatia are successfully cooperating in economic, trade, and humanitarian spheres, particularly in the field of demining. At the same time, cooperation in the energy sector one of the priority areas of our partnership has developed and entered a new phase. Our successful collaboration in the energy field positively contributes to ensuring Europes energy security. I believe that, in line with the will of our peoples, the traditional friendly relations between our countries, our bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and our strategic partnership will continue to develop steadily and grow even stronger. On this festive occasion, I extend to you my best regards and wish lasting peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Croatia,'' the letter reads. Indias approval of its indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter jet programme is not just a defence development; it is a political and strategic declaration of intent. At a time when the subcontinent has emerged from a brief but sharp military conflict between India and Pakistan ~ marked by high-intensity drone warfare and the deployment of long-range strike capabilities ~ Delhis decision to fast-track next-generation air power is timely, necessary, and overdue. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has long operated under the burden of an ageing fleet. Despite incremental progress, the force has struggled to maintain sanctioned squadron strength. In contrast, regional adversaries have shown no such inertia. Chinas aggressive expansion of air and missile capabilities and Pakistans swift induction of Chinese-origin J10 fighters have upended whatever parity may have once existed. India, the only one of the three powers with a track record of aircraft R&D and a substantial aerospace base, must now finally act like it. What makes this stealth fighter programme different is the decision to invite private players to compete or collaborate in the prototype phase itself. For decades, Indias aerospace manufactu ring has been dominated by public sector monopolies, leading to chronic delays, quality issues, and a lack of urgency. Advertisement This new approach, if followed through with sincerity, could bring about a systemic shift in Indias defence industrial base ~ encouraging innovation, speed, and accountability. Involving the private sector is not just a policy choice; it is a strategic imperative. The next decade will be defined not just by how nations fight wars, but by how they deter them. Air dominance is the first and most visible layer of credible deterrence. Moreover, the timing of this announcement ~ weeks after a serious military exchange ~ sends a clear signal to both domestic and foreign audiences. The ceasefire may have paused hostilities, but it did not resolve the underlying arms competition. If anything, the conflict demonstrated the increasing role of autonomous systems, precision strikes, and air superiority. India has now acknowledged that fifth-generation platforms are not luxuries ~ they are necessities. Advertisement However, a word of caution is warranted. Stealth aircraft are among the most complex and expensive military technologies to develop. They demand advanced systems integration, stealth coatings, cutting-edge avionics, and global supply chains. India must resist the temptation to treat this as a prestige project. Instead, the focus should be on building a functional and survivable warplane that can enter service in realistic timelines. That means pruning bureaucratic overreach, securing reliable engine and sensor partnerships, and learning from past failures. This moment offers a rare alignment of military urgency, industrial capability, and political will. If managed well, India could not only restore aerial balance in the region but also emerge as a credible aerospace power with export potential. The future of Indias air dominance will depend on what it chooses to build today ~ and how fast it builds it. In yet another major embarrassment for Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, two prominent Members of National Assembly (MNA) on Thursday shared harrowing experiences of pilgrims from the country who are currently undertaking the annual Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Making statements in the National Assembly, Shagufta Jumani and Shahida Rehmani from the Pakistan Peoples Party exposed the claims being made by Sharif government of ensuring a smooth and seamless Haj pilgrimage for all Pakistanis. Advertisement The food being served to the Haj pilgrims from our country is inedible and same throughout the day. Which companies have been allotted these contracts and on whose recommendations? The people at the helm of affairs have completely destroyed the system. I sincerely appeal to you in the name of God to have mercy on the Haj pilgrims, said Jumani. Advertisement Rehmani too highlighted the gross official negligence, severely criticising the government machinery. Seven people from my family are undertaking the pilgrimage this time. They are facing major health issues due to the food that is being served. The suitcases given to them broke at the airport, even before they began their journey to Mecca. Things are in such bad shape and there is nobody to take care of Pakistanis in Mecca. They have been put in faraway locations and there is nobody to look after them, said Rehmani. Last month, the Haj organisers had called on PM Sharif to ensure improved coordination with the Saudi authorities this time. Saudi Arabia allocated Pakistan 179,210 Haj slots this year which was evenly divided between government and private schemes. However, only 14,000 private applications were successful, leaving thousands unable to complete their spiritual journey. A few weeks ago, Saudi Arabias Interior Ministry had also issued a strong warning to Islamabad, stating that strict penalties will be imposed on Pakistani citizens found violating Haj permit regulations this year. The warning came at a time when Pakistan formally commenced its Haj flight operations with the first batch of 442 pilgrims departing from Islamabad to Madina under the Makkah Route Initiative. The Saudi ministry stated that penalties up to SR20,000 will be applicable till June 10 on any Pakistani performing or attempting to perform Haj without a valid permit. The penalty includes all types of visa holders, including those entering and staying in Mecca. Moreover, a fine of up to SR100,000 will be imposed on anyone who applies for a visit visa on behalf of individuals attempting to perform Haj without a permit, or anyone who facilitates their entry or stay in the restricted areas, adding that the fines may multiply based on the number of individuals involved. It also made it clear to Pakistan that a penalty of SR100,000 will be imposed on those individuals who transport, shelter, or assist visit visa holders in accessing the holy sites, which includes concealment of their presence or providing accommodation in any form in hotels, shelters, private homes, or Haj-designated housing, warning that any and all illegal infiltrators, including residents and overstayers, who are caught attempting to perform Haj without a permit will be instantly arrested, deported and banned from entering in Saudi Arabia for at least 10 years. Saudi Arabias strict warning to Pakistan is a result of an alarming number of beggars, illegal visitors, and citizens travelling for Haj without permits, every year. The Kingdom has deported at least 4,700 Pakistani beggars in the past three years, urging Islamabad to put the names and passports of these deported individuals on its no-flier list. Their ever-increasing population is tarnishing the countrys image abroad, admitted Pakistans Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. The Indian all-party Parliamentary delegation, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, on Friday departed from Saudi Arabia for Algeria carrying forth Indias strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism as part of the diplomatic outreach on Operation Sindoor and reaffirming the nations resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. After concluding their successful engagements in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, the delegation will arrive in Algeria later today and hold various meetings till June 2, marking continuation of Indias strategic outreach to garner international support against cross-border terrorism emanating from the soil of Pakistan. Advertisement During the course of their stay in Algeria, the members of the delegation will highlight Indias decisive and resolute stance on terrorism, particularly its fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, and emphasise the importance of international collaboration on counter-terrorism. Advertisement Earlier in the day, the delegates concluded a productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reaffirming Indias zero tolerance and New Normal approach to terrorism. The visit further reaffirmed the shared commitment of India and Saudi Arabia in fight against terrorism. Concluded a highly productive visit in Saudi Arabia, reaffirming deep India Saudi Arabia strategic partnership from defense and security to trade and counter-terrorism. Our all-party delegation conveyed Indias firm zero-tolerance and New Normal approach against terrorism, and we appreciate Abdulrahman Alharbi, Chair of the Saudi-India Friendship Committee, for his warm send-off, Panda posted on X. The delegation, led by Panda, includes BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP Phangnon Konyak, BJP MP Rekha Sharma, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, and former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla. Led by Baijayant Jay Panda, our all-party delegation concluded a highly productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reinforcing the strong and growing Indo-Saudi strategic partnership. From defence and security to trade and counter-terrorism, our discussions reflected Indias clarity and conviction. We firmly conveyed our zero-tolerance and New Normal approach against terrorism. Grateful to Abdulrahman Alharbi, Chair of the Saudi-India Friendship Committee, for the gracious send-off and continued commitment to bilateral cooperation, Satnam Singh Sandhu posted on X. The outreach is taking place in the immediate aftermath of the horrendous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Indias decisive Operation Sindoor, and subsequent developments to foster global cooperation in countering terrorism. The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha on Thursday held extensive interactions with prominent think tanks and academia, Resident Ambassadors of friendly foreign missions in Jakarta, as well as with the leaders of National Mandate Party (PAN), a Modernist Muslim Party of Indonesia. The discussions marked a continuation of Indias strategic outreach to garner international support against cross-border terrorism emanating from the soil of Pakistan. Advertisement The delegation interacted with the resident Ambassadors of friendly diplomatic missions of around 20 countries in Indonesia, sharing detailed insights on Operation Sindoor, and clearly explaining the role of Pakistan in the gruesome April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. They highlighted Indias measured, non-escalatory, and targetted response following the Pahalgam attack. Advertisement The delegation conveyed the message that terror and talks cannot go together and blood and water cannot flow together. They urged support of the diplomatic community for bringing perpetrators of terrorism to justice, recalling the UNSC statement of April 25, which underlined the need for concerted diplomatic action against terrorism and its sponsors. Later, the visiting delegation met the leaders of the National Mandate Party (PAN) of Indonesia including Eddy Soeparno, Vice Chairman of PAN and Deputy Speaker of Indonesian Peoples Assembly, and Viva Yoga Mauladi, Vice Chairman of the Party and also Deputy Minister For Transmigration Republic of Indonesia, along with other leaders and Members of Parliament from PAN sharing views on Indias stance on zero tolerance for terrorism. Pleased to lead our All-Party Parliamentary Delegation in an insightful interaction with senior leadership of Indonesias National Mandate Party (Partai Amanat Nasional PAN) including Eddy Soeparno, Vice Chairman of PAN and Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian Peoples Assembly, and Viva Yoga Mauladi, Vice Chairman of the party and Deputy Minister for Transmigration, along with other Members of Parliament, Jha posted on X. We conveyed Indias firm stand on zero tolerance towards terrorism, sharing the account of the Pahalgam attack where civilians were targeted based on religion and Indias decisive response through Operation Sindoor. Both sides strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and emphasized the importance of dialogue, democracy, and regional peace, the post added. Earlier in the day, the delegation had meaningful discussions with researchers and scholars of various think tanks and academia in Indonesia, including the Indonesian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), The Habibie Center, and Indo-Pacific Strategic Intelligence (ISI), Center for Indonesia Policy Studies (CIPS), University of Indonesia, Indonesia Air Power Studies Centre, etc. The delegation conveyed a strong and unified national message of zero tolerance for cross-border terrorism. There was understanding of Indias position and the need was expressed to jointly combat false and fake narratives being propagated by vested interests. Responding to a query on endgame on this issue, the delegation categorically conveyed that total relinquishment of terror activities by Pakistan, dismantling of terror infrastructure within Pakistan and the vacation of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) was the ultimate endgame, said Indian Embassy in Jakarta. The delegation led by Jha also includes BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, Hemang Joshi, and Pradan Baruah, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Barittas, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and Former Indian Ambassador to France, Mohan Kumar. After successfully completing their engagements in Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, the delegates are in Indonesia to highlight the significance of Operation Sindoor and Indias continued fight against Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism to the Indonesian leadership. Russia has provided North Korea with its air defence system, electronic warfare jamming devices and other military support since late last year, in blatant violations of UN sanctions amid their deepening ties, an international monitoring report released by Seouls Foreign Ministry showed on Thursday. Since November 2024, Moscow has transferred at least one Pantsir mobile air defence system and one Pantsir-class combat vehicle to Pyongyang, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) said in its first report on the sanctions enforcement. Advertisement The MSMT was established in October last year with the initiative of South Korea and the United States as an alternative framework to the UN Panel of Experts on North Korean sanctions monitoring. Advertisement The panel was disbanded in March of the same year due to Russias veto. Besides South Korea and the US, nine other countries have joined the mechanism Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The inaugural report, specifically focusing on the illegal military cooperation between Russia and the North, is the MSMTs first assessment on the sanctions enforcement since its launch. The findings were based on the intelligence and other information provided by the participating countries and data from private research institutes. The Pantsir missile system is made up of self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery systems. A South Korean lawmaker has recently mentioned the weapons systems unveiled on the Norths new Choe Hyon destroyer as bearing a marked resemblance to the Russian Pantsir system. The report also found that North Korea has supplied Russia with more than 20,000 containers worth of military supplies since September 2023. The shipments include approximately 9 million rounds of artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition, more than 100 ballistic missiles and over 200 heavy artillery pieces, as well as anti-tank guided missiles and rockets, Yonhap news agency reported. These transfers make up enough supplies to equip three full brigades, the report said. Russian transport aircraft were used for the arms transfers between November and December 2023. They include three IL-76 and three AN-124 military planes belonging to the Russian Transport Aviation Command, the report said. Russia has also provided the North with missile performance data and technical support to enhance Pyongyangs missile guidance capabilities, in a clear violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions against Pyongyang, which Russia itself voted for as a permanent UNSC member. The report stated that North Korea sent over 11,000 troops to Russia in 2024, with an additional 3,000 soldiers dispatched recently. Those soldiers were trained by the Russian military on artillery drone countermeasures and basic infantry operations. The report said that the two countries have engaged in high-level exchanges between top military officials, suggesting the deepening ties following the signing of a bilateral defence treaty between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their June summit last year. Russia provided the North with more than 1 million barrels of fuel between March and October last year, the report said. The UNSC sanctions cap North Koreas annual imports of refined petroleum at 500,000 barrels. About 8,000 North Korean workers have been sent to Russia to work in construction, IT and other sectors, also a breach of the sanctions banning the hiring of North Koreans overseas. The report also found that financial transactions between the two countries are being made through North Korea-owned ruble-denominated bank accounts set up in South Ossetia, a Russia-backed autonomous state in Georgia. The report is a product of our efforts to address the monitoring gap arising from the disbandment of the UN panel, a joint statement released by the foreign ministry read. We underscore once again our shared determination to fully implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions and continue our efforts to monitor the implementation, the statement said. During the all-party delegation visit to South Africa under the governments big diplomatic outreach following the Operation Sindoor, MPs across party lines lauded the countrys firm support for Indias stand against terrorism. The delegation led by NCP-SCP MP Supriya Sule, speaking in Johannesburg, described the meeting as very meaningful and productive, highlighting South Africas commitment to stand with India in its stance of zero tolerance against terror. Advertisement It was a very meaningful and productive meeting, South Africa is committed to supporting India in zero tolerance against terror. This is the land of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, and both our countries have gained independence with the sacrifice of millions of lives, Sule said while speaking to ANI on Thursday (local time). This is the legacy of these two tall leaders and sons of the world. We appreciate the support given to us. It is extraordinarily encouraging, and I am very sure that in this fight against terror, South Africa is going to stand very strongly with India, she added. Echoing similar sentiments, BJP MP Anurag Thakur emphasised Indias peaceful history and the necessity of exposing global terrorism. Advertisement In the last 75 years, India neither encroached or attacked any country, neither did it ever intend to. The world knows this. But we have to tell the world about the continuous attacks India faced from Pakistan in which thousands of people lost their lives. South Africa stands with us in solidarity and they also consider terrorism as a global threat Meanwhile, Congress leader Manish Tewari, who is also a part of the all-party delegation, said that Pakistan has been behaving and acting like a rogue state. He also stated that the delegation, during their visit to South Africa, conveyed the need to isolate states using terrorism as an instrument of state policy, in apparent reference to Pakistan. African National Congress and India have a long-standing relationship which is underpinned by the mutual respect for Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The Indian delegation very clearly conveyed it to the African National Congress, our interlocutors, that there is a need to isolate those states which use terrorism as an instrument of state policy, he told ANI. He also stated that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has been creating instability in Afghanistan and Iran as well. We also sensitised them about the fact that it is not only India that has been hit for the past 4.5 decades by terrorism being sponsored from Pakistan. Pakistan has been creating instability in Afghanistan and Iran. Pakistan has been behaving and acting like a rogue state, now going back many decades The African National Congress expressed its solidarity, saying that they will not be a party, and will not, in any manner, endorse a state which uses terror as an instrument of state policy, Tewari added. The members of the delegation comprises of MPs Supriya Sule, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Manish Tewari, Anurag Singh Thakur, Lavu Sri Krishna devarayalu, Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce & Industry, V Muraleedharan, Former Minister of State for External Affairs, and Syed Akbaruddin, Former Permanent Representative of India to the UN. The delegation visited Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, where Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned, and also saw the Mandela-Gandhi Exhibition inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi and paid floral tribute at the Gandhi Statue. On April 22, terrorists killed 26 people, including a Nepalese national, in Baisaran valley in the popular tourist destination of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the attack, which targeted 9 terror bases and led to the death of terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has acknowledged that India launched a missile attack under its Operation Sindoor using BrahMos missiles in the early hours of May 10, and hit many targets inside Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi, with Pakistans army being caught off-guard. The Indian strikes were carried out under Operation Sindoor a targeted military attack on terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people died. Advertisement The Pakistan Prime Minister has once again, publicly admitted that Indian missiles struck many targets inside Pakistan on the intervening night of May 9 and 10 with Pakistans army being caught off-guard. Advertisement He claimed that they (Pakistans armed forces) were planning to attack India at 4:30 am just after their Fajr prayers but before that, India launched BrahMos missiles targeting many provinces in Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi. On the night of May 9-10, we decided to respond in a measured fashion to Indian aggression. Our armed forces were prepared to act at 4.30 am in the morning after Fajr prayers to teach a lesson. But before that hour even arrived, India once again launched a missile attack using BrahMos, and hit various provinces of Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi, media reports quoted Mr Sharif as saying in a speech in Azerbaijan. This is not the first time that Mr Sharif has admitted that Operation Sindoor caused severe damage in Pakistan. Earlier this month, Pakistans Prime Minister confirmed that Indian missiles struck the Nur Khan Airbase and other targets inside Pakistan during the early hours of May 10. Speaking at a ceremony in Islamabad, Mr Sharif recounted a 2:30 AM call from the Chief of Army Staff, General Syed Asim Munir, informing him of the missile attacks launched by India. In the intervening night of May 9-10, around 2:30 AM, General Asif Munir called me through a secure phone and told me India has launched its missiles. One has landed at the Nur Khan airbase and some at other areas, he said. A defiant Kamal Hassan remained firm in dismissing demand for his atonement, maintaining that there is no question of tendering an apology, in the face of backlash in neighbouring Karnataka over his remark that Kannada language was born of Tamil, even as the sandalwood industrys apex body KFCC on Friday announced a ban on the release of the versatile actors upcoming movie Thug Life. I wont apologise if I am not wrong. If Im wrong, I will apologise. It is my lifestyle, please dont tamper with that, he told the media after calling on Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin and his son and Dy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam in Chennai. Advertisement Founder president of the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party, Kamal had come to thank the DMK leadership for allotting a Rajya Sabha seat for the MNM as per an earlier agreement during the 2024 LS election. Advertisement I have been threatened in the past. It is a democracy and I believe in law and justice. My love for Karnataka is true, my love for Andhra is true and my love for Kerala is true. Nobody will suspect it except those with an agenda, was his response to a question on the threat from the KFCC to ban his movies. It was also hit that the protests against him were being orchestrated but not spontaneous. While Thug Life, directed by ace filmmaker Mani Ratnam, is slated for release on June five and the Kannada Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has given an ultimatum to the actor to apologise or face a ban on his movies in the state. Karnataka Minister for Backward Classes, Kannada and Culture Shivaraj Tangadagi had also called for a black out of Kamals movies. Further, Kannada organisations have been orchestrating protests against Kamal Hassan. However, the actor, all set to make his debut in Parliament as a Rajya Sabha MP with the support of the DMK, is undeterred by the threats since he maintains that linguists and etymologists have concluded what he had said: Kannada is born out of Tamil. Meanwhile, there is growing support for Kamal with the CPI(M) as well as Tamil outfits and pro-Tamil political parties rallying behind the actor and blaming the BJP for instigating the protests. Charging the BJP with playing with fire and turning it into an issue between the two states, CPI(M) state secretary P Shanmugham in a post on X said, No one has any issue with Kannadigas having pride in their language and claiming it as the best. Kamal Hassan is no linguist but he has only echoed the view of etymologists and language experts. An idea has to be countered with an idea. Unleashing violence and turning it into a problem between the two neighbouring states is a nefarious design of the BJP. Countering the threat of Kannada, Tamilaga Vazhvurimai Katchi president T Velmurugan, a legislator and an ally of the DMK, has warned that Kannada movies would also be blacked out in Tamil Nadu. Saint-Laurent, QC (H4T1V6) Today Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. High 82F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low near 70F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Photo: Press service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The strengthening and enrichment of Azerbaijan-Croatia relations, built on good traditions, is a source of satisfaction, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in a congratulatory letter addressed to Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic on the occasion of the countrys national holiday Statehood Day, Trend reports. President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that the active political dialogue between the two countries, mutual visits at high and highest levels, and regular contacts offer a solid basis for expanding cooperation in various fields. The President noted that Azerbaijan and Croatia are currently cooperating successfully in economic, trade, and humanitarian spheres, particularly in demining. He also highlighted that collaboration in the energy sector, a priority area of partnership, has developed further and entered a new phase, positively contributing to Europes energy security. I believe that, in line with the will of our peoples, the traditional friendly relations between our countries, our bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and our strategic partnership will continue to develop steadily and grow even stronger, the head of state wrote. President Ilham Aliyev extended his best regards to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and wished lasting peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Croatia. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday extended IndiGo's damp leasing of two Boeing 777 planes from Turkish Airlines by three months till August 31. DGCA's latest gesture was to avoid sudden flight disruptions that will cause inconvenience to passengers. The initial decision was to end the pact with Turkish Airlines soon after Turkey's support for Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. The DGCA has extended the damp leasing of the two aircraft by three months till August 31, said officials. However, IndiGo had requested an extension of six months. The current lease of the two Boeing B777-300 ER aircraft from Turkish Airlines is set to expire on May 31. The focus shifted to the airline's ties with Turkish Airlines after Turkiye backed Pakistan and condemned India's strikes on terror infrastructure in Islamabad and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir regions. Meanwhile, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said that the airline will comply with any government regulations regarding leased planes from Turkish Airlines. "Flights between India and Turkiye are governed within the bilateral air service agreement. We are compliant today and we will continue to comply with any government regulations on those lines," Elbers told PTI. With the leased Boeing 777 aircraft, IndiGo is operating direct flights to Istanbul. On May 15, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the aviation security watchdog, revoked the security clearance for Turkish company Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd in the "interest of national security". Advisories were issued by some travel portals and associations to avoid visiting Turkiye after its support for Pakistan. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appears to have admitted that the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile of India caused major damage in various locations in Pakistan, including an airport in Rawalpindi. Jointly developed by India and Russia, through a partnership between Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, BrahMos has been hailed as one of the fastest and most precise cruise missiles in the world. India fires BrahMos missiles from land-based mobile launchers, naval warships, and Su-30MKI fighter aircraft. ALSO READ: Women pilots, soldiers played a key role in Operation Sindoor, reveals Rajnath Singh In a video that is being widely circulated, the prime minister, while speaking at a summit in Lachin of Azerbaijan, said India hit multiple locations in Pakistan during the night of May 9-10 as part of Operation Sindoor with BrahMos and other missiles. According to him, Pakistan had decided to respond "in a measured fashion to Indian aggression." And we had decided that at 4:30 in the morning after Fajr prayers, Pakistan armed forces led very ably by our field marshal chief army staff sitting here, Syed Asim Munir to teach a lesson to our enemy (India). But before that hour reached India again launched missile attacks, and BrahMos hit Pakistan's various provinces, including airport in Rawalpindi and other places, the Pakistan PM was heard saying in the video. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, addressing naval personnel aboard aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off the coast of Goa on Friday, hailed the Indian Navys preparedness and contribution during the recent military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, 'Operation Sindoor. Calling INS Vikrant the pride of India's maritime power, Singh said, As long as the security of our maritime borders is in your strong hands, no one can look at India with a suspicious eye. Thanking the Indian Navy for its role in the recent military conflict, Singh said, Today I have come here not only as the defence minister, but I have come here as a grateful Indian. I have come to salute your dedication, appreciate your valour and salute your hard work. Interacting with Indias brave Naval warriors aboard INS Vikrant. https://t.co/iu5Wptyu3o Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) May 30, 2025 He commended the Navys forward deployment, precision missile strikes, and dominance at sea during Operation Sindoor. Our aggressive maritime posture confined the Pakistani Navy to its shores, he said. You didnt need to actthe enemy was stunned just by your preparation. Our Western Fleet ships deployed at sea, within 96 hours of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, carried out successful firings of surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes on the western and eastern coast. It demonstrated the combat readiness of our platforms, systems and crew and our intent and readiness, forcing the enemy to come into a defensive posture, Singh said. He noted that Operation Sindoor is not over and that this is just a pause, a warning. Singh warned that "if Pakistan dares to repeat its mistake, only god knows what will happen next time. Operation Sindoor is not overthis is just a pause, a warning." Pointing out that the precision strikes displayed seamless synergy among the three Services, he said the operation sent a clear message to the terrorists and its patrons that India would no longer tolerate and give a befitting reply. Within a very short span of time, we destroyed Pakistan's terrorist base and its intentions. Our response was so strong that Pakistan pleaded to stop. We stopped our military actions on our own terms. Our forces had not even started showing their might. Referring to past conflicts, he said Pakistan was lucky the Indian Navy didnt enter full combat during the latest mission. If the Navy had joined the attack, Pakistan wouldnt just be divided in twoit could have been four. The minister also called on Pakistan to dismantle terror networks on its soil and hand over UN-designated terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar. Justice must be done for crimes like the Mumbai attacks, he said. He ended his speech by affirming the government's full support to the armed forces, saying: Whatever has happened till now was just a warm-up. Onboard INS Vikrant, Singh was accompanied by the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Sanjay J. Singh and other senior officials of the Indian Navy. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on the preparation of the "Strategy for the Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 20272030" and the "Second State Program on the Great Return to the Liberated Territories of Azerbaijan", Trend reports. According to the decree, the Cabinet of Ministers was instructed to prepare and submit draft versions of both the Strategy and the State Program, as well as proposals regarding the amount and sources of necessary financial resources for the implementation of the measures outlined in these drafts to the President of Azerbaijan within nine months. The decree stipulates that in preparing these drafts, the Cabinet of Ministers should ensure that the new Strategy covers all state programs, strategies, national action plans, concepts and similar documents planned for 2027-2030. In addition, it is necessary to ensure effective cooperation with leading international organizations and specialized consulting companies, as well as involvement of relevant state bodies, scientific institutions, experts and civil society organizations. The Cabinet of Ministers is also tasked to address other issues arising from the decree. Moreover, the decree noted that the mentioned strategy will be implemented based on the five National Priorities defined for socio-economic development. As a result of the consistent and systematic implementation of the strategy, Azerbaijan's economy has become more resilient to external shocks, its diversification has deepened, economic growth has become more sustainable and inclusive, the population's well-being has improved, and large-scale financial reserves have been created for future generations. The achievement of these results has been significantly supported by the promotion of private initiatives and investments, the enhancement of a favorable business environment, improved access to global markets, and the development of digitalization and human capital. At the same time, the reconstruction of the liberated territories, their reintegration into economic activity, the safe return of the population to their homelands, and the provision of sustainable settlement and employment in Karabakh and East Zangezur have become integral parts of the countrys socio-economic development. Azerbaijan is now entering a new stage marked by complex challenges and abundant opportunities. This phase is characterized by deepening global economic polarization, accelerating technological progress, and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies. After a decade-long break, Shweta Tripathi returns to theatre making her debut as a producer. Tripathi is working on the reviving of the British queer play Cock, which won the Olivier Award in 2010. Her comeback is also special as she describes it as a tribute to the LGBTQIA+ community. The premiere show is slated to be staged on June 6 at Delhis Max Mueller Bhavan and on June 10 at Mumbais Prithvi Theatre. The play also perfectly aligns with Pride Month, celebrated in June. I recognise myself as an ally and I am drawn towards stories that are from the queer community. Its because the community stands for love, equality and freedom. You fall in love with a person, who that person is, not what they are. I wanted to be a part of this pride celebration because we are also celebrating individuality, which we are losing, and it bothers me. If by being a producer, I can give that love and support to my cast and crew, and help them being seen, why not? Tripathi shared to Hindustan Times. Cock The play, penned by Mike Barlett, is helmed by Manish Gandhi. The actors include Rytasha Rathore, Tanmay Dhanania, Sahir Mehta and Harsh Singh. The production is a collaboration, backed by Gaysi Family, a community platform for Desi Queers and Tripathis theatre production banner AllMyTea. The plot dives into the raw emotion and inner conflict of a man torn between an instant attraction to a woman and his commitment to his male partner. According to IANS, Tripathi says, "We are living in a time where people are finally feeling empowered to own their identities, and Cock doesnt shy away from the discomfort or the beauty of that journey. Its messy, human, and real. Thats what drew me to it. Her dedication is definitely a light to be a voice for the community. At a time when acceptance is still a struggle, Tripathis action is a result of her passion and that serves as a platform for the oppressed. Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced a special relief package for victims of Pakistani shelling during a four-day confrontation between India and Pakistan. He also handed over government job appointment letters to the families of those killed in cross-border fire from Pakistan. Tensions between the two countries escalated after India launched Operation Sindoor on the night of May 7 in response to the Pahalgam attack on 22 April, in which 26 peoplemostly touristswere killed. Shah arrived in Jammu on Wednesday evening for a two-day visit to Poonch, the region most affected by the shelling. At a solemn event held in Poonch, Shah handed over appointment letters to the next of kin of 14 civilians killed in recent violence, which included both terrorist attacks and cross-border firing. "This programme is a small effort to stand by the families who have lost their loved ones in these tragic incidents, he said. We all know no government job can truly compensate for the loss, but this is a symbolic gesture of our solidarity and commitment." Addressing a gathering that included Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, local leaders, senior J&K BJP leaders, local MLA Javid Rana and family members of the victims, Shah said that the Indian Armed Forces had carried out Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist infrastructure. He stressed that the operation was directed only at terror camps, not at Pakistani civilians or military personnel. In response, Pakistan carried out shelling that hit civilian areas in Jammu and Kashmir, including religious sites, he said. The Indian Armed Forces retaliated and damaged nine airbases in Pakistan, after which Pakistan requested a ceasefire. Referring to the Pahalgam attack, Shah praised the unity shown by the people of Jammu and Kashmir: The way the people stood together against terrorism sent a strong message that such acts will not be tolerated. He also visited a local gurudwara that was hit by the shells and praised the swift response of the administration, led by Manoj Sinha and local officials, in moving residents from affected areas to safer places and providing urgent support. Reaffirming Indias zero-tolerance policy on terrorism, he said, The Modi government will not remain silent in the face of provocations. Terror and trade cannot go together, and blood and water cannot flow together. This is our policy, and we will fight every terrorist activity on our soil. He highlighted how Indian security forces acted swiftly against both ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts. After years, for the first time, our forces responded not only with restraint but also with determination, he said. A clear message has been sentIndia will not tolerate terrorism in any form. The Home Minister shared that over 90,000 bunkers have been built in border villages to protect civilians from shelling. He added that the government plans to create more safety infrastructure in these areas. Shah praised the local administrations bravery during the shelling. Thousands of people were safely evacuated under fire. Our officers, even at the cost of their lives, ensured the safety of civilians. He made mention of Raj Kumar Thappa, Additional Deputy District Development Commissioner of Rajouri, who was killed by the shelling. On peace and development, Shah said the journey of progress that began in 2014 would move forward with new strength. I have come here not just to offer condolences but to give a message of hope. Jammu and Kashmir is on the path of development, and those who try to derail it will be given a fitting reply. He concluded with a firm assurance to the affected families, saying, The Government of India and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir stand by you like a rock. Your grief is ours, and we will continue to support you in every possible way. Even as the multi-party delegations are visiting countries to expose Pakistans continued support for terrorism, back home, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress are engaged in a war of words over Operation Sindoor. Yesterday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Congresss Jai Hind Yatra, and asked him to come clean on how many Rafale aircraft India lost in the conflict with Pakistan. Responding to his remarks, the BJP alleged that the opposition party's ongoing 'Jai Hind Yatra' looks more like "Jai Pakistan Yatra. Slamming Reddy, Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders for questioning the Narendra Modi government following the conflict with Pakistan, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, [Rahul] Gandhi never asked about the details of terror sites and air bases destroyed in Pakistan but his party has enquired about the losses of Indian jets more frequently than the neighbouring country. #WATCH | Delhi: BJP MP Sambit Patra says, "Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, Revanth Reddy are asking how many Rafales were shot down. 'Yeh jo Pakistan ke Babbar hain, woh Hindustan ke Gabbar hain'. Rahul Gandhi did not ask how many Pakistani airbases were destroyed, how many pic.twitter.com/X43SVhZ9S5 ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 These leaders are like "Babbar" (warrior) of Pakistan, and Gabbar of India, he said, invoking the famous villain from the iconic film Sholay. Patra took a further dig at the Congress, saying while the Congress MPs who are part of the seven all-party delegations currently on a visit to world capitals, are doing a good job, senior party leader and chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh in one breath is comparing them to terrorists. Ramesh had said that the terrorists behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack are roaming, and so are the MPs abroad. Patra added that the Congress leaders controversial remarks on conflict with Pakistan and the suspension of Indus Water Treaty, since after the Pahalgam attack, are lowering the morale of the Indian armed forces. The Congress should suspend its Jai Hind Yatra, which is more like Jai Pakistan Yatra, and instead consult with Pakistan and hold a joint press conference, he said. PM Modi must tell the nation how many Rafale jets were destroyed by Pakistan. Telangana CM Revanth Reddy pic.twitter.com/KtjnsUyPOM Tejasswi Prakash (@Tiju0Prakash) May 29, 2025 Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and senior leader Salman Khurshid, both of who are part of the multi-party delegations, are in the line of fire within the party for comments perceived to be in favour of the Narendra Modi government. Tharoor, while in Panama, had said that India crossed the LoC for the first time in 2016 during a surgical strike. A section of Congress leaders had then claimed the country had done such operations in the past, too. Khurshid, on the other hand, had lauded the changes brought by the revocation of Article 370. Reddy had urged PM Modi to answer the people of India how many Rafales India lost in the conflict with Pakistan, and added that contracts were awarded to people close to Modi, who then purchased Rafale aircraft. After four days of war, we do not know who threatened whom and who succumbed to whom. All of a sudden, US President Donald Trump came out and said he threatened India and stopped the war," the Telangana CM had said. As part of 'Operation Shield', security agencies will conduct a state-wide mock drill exercise in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan on Saturday. The drills are conducted with the aim of enhancing preparedness and ensuing awareness in regions amid the cross-border tensions. The 'Operation Shield' exercise comes days after the nationwide drills held on May 7 following the Pahalgam terror attack in April and escalating India-Pakistan tensions. The Home Ministry had issued directives following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, that claimed 26 lives, mostly tourists. The drill is set to take place under Section 19 of the Civil Defence Rules, 1968. The exercise will be coordinated by the Additional Director General of Civil Defence. The mock drill is scheduled from 5 pm onwards. Air raid warning systems, complete blackouts, evacuation in case of enemy attack, medical team deployment, and activation of hotlines between the Air Force and Civil Defence Control rooms will also be conducted during the drill. According to the Punjab government, a complete blackout would be implemented in vulnerable residential areas, excluding emergency and critical services. Meanwhile, Haryana government said that it will conduct the mock drills across all 22 districts to enhance the state's emergency preparedness and response capabilities. Officials said that the exercise will begin at 5 pm and the drills will simulate critical incidents such as air raids, drone attacks, and other wartime scenarios, reported PTI. Additionally, a controlled blackout of 15 minutes will be observed from 8 pm to 8.15 pm near vital installations in Haryana, with exception of essential emergency services such as hospitals, fire stations, and police stations. In Rajasthan, mock drills will be held across all 41 districts. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading a multi-party delegation to five countries to expose Pakistans terrorism links, expressed disappointment with Colombian governments remarks post Operation Sindoor. Colombia had expressed condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan in Operation Sindoor Indias military action on the intervening night of May 6-May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 people. Speaking to mediapersons in Bogota, Tharoor hinted that the country should have sympathised with the victims of terrorism instead. We are here looking for understanding. We have the impression that perhaps the situation was not fully understood when that one statement was made. Understanding is extremely important for us, he added. #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the pic.twitter.com/AgpOMpNpSt ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Tharoor emphasised that there is no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend their country. We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence. He added that the multi-party delegation was there to dispel any misunderstandings about Operation Sindoor and the circumstances which necessitated the military response. The Tharoor-led delegation arrived in Colombia on Thursday, and was received by India's Ambassador to Colombia Vanlalhuma. The delegation will interact with the Members of Congress, ministers and other key interlocutors in think tanks and media, the PTI said in its report. Tharoors group includes Sarfraz Ahmad (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G.M. Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi (BJP), Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Tejasvi Surya (BJP), and former ambassador of India to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu. It is one of the seven multi-party delegations sent by India to visit 33 countries, and brief them about the Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor and Pakistans continued support to terrorists. Indias military response led to armed conflict between the two countries before a ceasefire was announced on May 10 following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides. The Counter-Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) unit of the Jammu & Kashmir Police on Thursday carried out coordinated raids at multiple locations across the Valley in connection with an ongoing terror-linked investigation. Officials said that the seized material will undergo technical analysis, and any leads that emerge will form the basis for the next phase of the investigation. According to an official statement, suspicious technical signatures were traced during the investigation at various locations in Budgam, Pulwama, Kupwara, Shopian, and Srinagar districts. The suspects were reportedly using encrypted messaging applications. Further analysis revealed that several individuals were using a specific encrypted messaging app commonly employed by terrorists and handlers across the border to coordinate and execute various terror-related activities, including recruitment, the statement said. The searches were conducted while maintaining complete secrecy to ensure the element of surprise. During the raids, incriminating materialincluding SIM cards, mobile phones, tablets, and other digital deviceswas recovered and seized. The searches were conducted after obtaining warrants from the Court of Special Judge designated under the NIA Act in Srinagar, in connection with FIR No. 07/2023 under sections 13, 18, 38, 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, read with section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. This operation aims to uncover crucial evidence, prevent the misuse of communication devices, and dismantle the terror ecosystem in the Union Territory, the statement said. It also seeks to identify terrorist associates and Over Ground Workers (OGWs) involved in abetting terrorism and to ensure legal action as per the law. Post the Pahalgam terror attack, the police have intensified actions against supporters of militants in Kashmir. The polices cyber wing has also stepped up its monitoring of elements using social media to spread information of content against the security and sovereignty of India. The cyber wing is one of the most competent wings of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Apart from tracking disinformation, it also works against cyber crimes. The Karnataka High Court, on Thursday, set aside a state government order directing the public prosecutors to withdraw as many as 43 criminal cases filed against persons including politicians and influential persons accused of various offences including rioting, attempt to murder, trespassing, and attack on officers on duty, stating it was a breach in law section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code and that the state government had exceeded its authority and undermined the public prosecutors discretionary powers by its order to withdraw the cases. The opposition BJP welcomed the courts verdict and said it was slap on the face of the Siddaramaiah government for withdrawing criminal cases, playing politics of appeasement and under political pressure. Interestingly, the beneficiaries of the now impugned (case withdrawal) order include BJPs Union minister (MoS) Railways V. Somanna, MLC C.T. Ravi and former minister M.P. Renukacharya, state Higher Education minister Dr M.C. Sudhakar, two MLAs B.R. Yavagal and U.B. Banakar, former MLAs S.A. Ravindranath, Sanjay Patil, Veeranna Charanthimath, Anil Benake, Dr S. Siddaiah and other politicians like Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewai, farmers from Shivamogga, Haveri, Uttara Kannada and Bagalkot districts and their leaders Kurubur Shanthakumar, H.R. Basavarajappa and Chukki Nanjundaswamy, dalit and Kannada activists. However, the potential beneficiaries also included the accused in the April 2022 Hubballi riots that saw stone pelting at Old Hubballi police station over an offensive social media post. This was opposed by the BJP leaders. At least now, the Siddaramaiah government must rein in anti-social elements in the society and stop protecting the goondas among the Muslims. The ruling party must focus on building a robust law and order system to protect the common man, BJP state chief B.Y. Vijayendra said. The state cabinet should work in the interest of the state. The Congress government had withdrawn the cases owing to political pressure and appeasement politics. The government must take action against those involved in DJ and KG halli riots, said former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. A division bench of Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind while pronouncing its order, allowed the public interest litigation filed by Bengaluru-based advocate Girish Bharadwaj questioning the government order and said, Petition is allowed, the government order dated October 15, 2024, is hereby set aside and it is declared that the order shall stand non-est since inception, consequences in law will follow. The section 321 CrPC states that the public prosecutor (PP) or assistant public prosecutor in charge of a case may, with the consent of the Court, at any time before the judgment is pronounced, withdraw from the prosecution of any person either generally or in respect of any one or more of the offences for which he is being tried. Advocate Venkatesh Dalwai appearing for the petitioner had argued that the government had no role to play in withdrawing the cases. It is the public prosecutor who has to decide. So far, as this Section (321 CrPC) is concerned, the role of the state government is not contemplated so far as withdrawal of cases as held by the Apex court in several cases". The petitioner had submitted before the court that several cases had been registered across different police stations between 2008 to 2023 and of these cases, only 43 cases involving highly influential personalities were selectively withdrawn. The court which issued a notice to the government also said, The learned advocate for petitioner is prima facie justified that the government has been exerting pressure on the prosecutors in ordering them to withdraw the cases which is a clear violation of Sec 321 CrPC. When the Department of Prosecution and law have opined cases are not fit for withdrawal, the state government has exceeded its authority to pass the impugned order. A strong prima facie case is made out. While addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a stern warning to Pakistan and said, "Operation Sindoor is not over yet". Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, PM Modi said, "Kanpur's son Shubham Dwivedi has also become a victim of that barbarity...We can feel the pain, suffering and anger of our daughter Aishanya (Shubham's widow). The world witnessed the same anger of our sisters and daughters in the form of Operation Sindoor." , https://t.co/rMMskyWv0R Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 30, 2025 In retaliatory strikes, India attacked terror infrastructure and outfits in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir two weeks after the Pahalgam attack on April 22. "Operation Sindoor is not over yet. It showed the world the power of indigenous weapons and Make in India," said Modi. Indian weapons and Brahmos missiles entered Pakistan's territory and wreaked havoc, he added. The Indian armed forces's fierce strikes forced the Pakistani Army to "plead to stop the war," Modi said. While adding that India won't be intimidated by nuclear bomb threats any more, Modi laid out the country's three principles in the fight against terror. "First, India will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack with the timing, manner, and the condition of the reply to be decided by our armies themselves," said Modi. Secondly, India won't be scared by the nuclear bomb threat any more nor would it make a decision on that basis. And third, India will see the masters of terror and government patronising terror in the same light. PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for 15 development projects worth over Rs 47,600 crore on Friday. While speaking about the developments, he added that big companies in the defence sector are coming to Uttar Pradesh. "The production of AK 203 rifles has begun in Amethi. The new address of BrahMos missile that did not let the enemies sleep during Operation Sindoor is Uttar Pradesh," he said. While slamming the Opposition, Modi said that the dynasty-oriented government kept the entire Uttar Pradesh lagging behind. He also mentioned the key developments including Metro expansion in the city, international airports, and the achievement of self-sufficiency in energy after the double-engine government came into power in the state. Actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay who once rushed to the spot when Anitha, a 12th-grade student committed suicide, as she could not crack the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), seems to have come out of his fight against it. Actor Vijays remarks saying, there is a vast world beyond NEET, comes in a state where there is a strong opposition to NEET exams, as it defies opportunities for students. Speaking at an event on Friday, the actor-politician urged the students to discard NEET and choose a different path. After giving away the award to the rank holders in the 10th and 12th classes, at an event in Poonjeri near Mahabalipuram Vijay said that the NEET exams are not the end of the world. Though academic achievement is important, dont let it overwhelm you with stress and anxiety. NEET is not the end of the world. There is a vast world beyond it, full of opportunities. You have so much more to achieve in life, he said. Decoding Vijays statement By making the statement on the exam, Vijay meant to say that competitive exams like NEET cause mental distress and agony to the students and there are other opportunities in the fields like Artificial Intelligence. He urged the students to keep their minds open and embrace democratic values. Only democracy can bring freedom. Freedom will sustain worldwide and ensure everything for everyone. Encourage your family members to exercise their democratic duty by choosing honest, trustworthy, and corruption-free candidates. Reject cash for votes. Warning that powerful people would come with stacks of cash to offer to the people during the election, he asked the students to choose wise people through their votes. He also urged the students to go for scientific and technical thinking, while keeping caste and religious divisions at bay. Mentioning the reference to Periyars caste in a question in the UPSC question paper, he said caste and religious divisions should be kept away like how you would keep away from drugs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the work done by the Nitish Kumar-led government for marginalised sections of the society in poll-bound Bihar. In his fourth visit to the statefirst after Operation SindoorModi reminded people that he has fulfilled the promise he made in the state the last time he was there. Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in Bihar in October-November. During his speech, Modi recalled his visit to Bihar a day after the Pahalgam attack, when he had vowed a strong response. Today, standing in Bihar once again, I can say with convictionwe have fulfilled that pledge, the PM said. Those who sat in Pakistan and destroyed the sindoor of our sisters saw their hideouts reduced to rubble by our armed forces. He said Pakistan's airbases and military installations were struck in a decisive operation, which he called a defining example of a New India which is strong, fearless, and capable of immediate retribution. Bihar is witnessing a renewed focus from the BJP government as the high-stake battle is a few months away. PM has been making repeated trips to Bihar to inaugurate projects. After speaking about the issue of national security, the PM also highlighted the issue of Bihars internal security, saying there was a time when districts like Sasaram and Kaimur were plagued by Naxalism, with militants terrorising villages, obstructing development, and defying constitutional authority. Before 2014, more than 125 districts in India were Naxal-affected. Today, that number stands at just 18, he said highlighting the governments decisive fight against Naxalism. He credited Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for initiating change in the state and claimed that since 2014, the Union governmental efforts have rapidly accelerated Bihars return to peace and prosperity. Taking a jibe at opposition parties, particularly the RJD-led grand alliance, Modi accused them of misleading the public with hollow slogans of social justice. Those who claim to fight for the backward classes were the very ones who forced Bihars poor to migrate in search of dignity and survival, he said. Modi alleged that during their rule, Dalits and tribal communities were denied basic services such as sanitation, housing, and banking access. These leaders did not work to alleviate povertythey showcased it to foreign visitors. He accused the opposition of trying to revive its political fortunes by invoking social justice now that marginalised communities have turned their backs on them. In a strong pitch to the electorate, the Prime Minister outlined a slew of development projects in Bihar. He cited the recent inauguration of the modernised terminal at Patna Airport, capable of handling 10 million passengers annually. Modi stressed the governments push towards doubling farmers' income. He revealed that over 75 lakh farmers in Bihar are receiving assistance under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. He announced the creation of a Makhana Board, a move that follows the awarding of the Geographical Indication (GI) tag to Bihars famous Makhana, offering farmers improved market access. Modi praised Bihars launch of the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samagra Seva Abhiyan, a state-wide campaign delivering 22 welfare schemes simultaneously to marginalised communities. This model ensures direct benefit and eliminates discrimination and corruption, he asserted. CCTV: Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the signing ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation in Hong Kong this morning. Can you share more information about that? Lin Jian: The signing ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation was held in Hong Kong this morning. Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended and addressed the ceremony. Representatives from 33 countries signed the convention and these countries became founding members of the organization. High-level representatives from over 50 countries and close to 20 international organizations attended and witnessed the ceremony. The International Organization for Mediation is an innovation in international rule of law and has great significance in the history of international relations. It fills the gap for mechanisms in the field of international mediation, and serves as an important public good for the rule of law that contributes to improving global governance. The establishment of the organization practices the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, embodies the wisdom of harmonious coexistence among civilizations, and demonstrates the inclusive spirit of the rule of law. Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted in his remarks that, it is Chinas consistent position that differences should be handled in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, consensus should be built up through ways of dialogue and consultation, development should be promoted in the attitude of win-win cooperation, and problems should be addressed from a future-oriented perspective, and we can actively explore solutions with Chinese characteristics to hotspot issues. It is hoped that parties will uphold the purposes of the UN Charter, carry forward the spirit of reconciliation, cooperation and harmony, defend fairness, justice and equity, and advocate extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefit. As agreed through consultation among the negotiating states of the convention, Hong Kong will host the headquarters of the organization. Hong Kong, with its highly advanced rule of law and having the strengths of both the common law system and civil law system, enjoys unique advantages in international mediation. China hopes that the signatory states will ratify the convention at an early date. We welcome more countries to join us and promote the organization to play a positive role in the peaceful resolution of international disputes. Hubei Media Group: Weve learned that on May 28, Chinas General Administration of Customs held a technical exchange with the Japanese side on the safety of Japanese aquatic products. Can you further brief us on that? Lin Jian: Since the beginning of this year, based on the continuous implementation of international monitoring of the ocean discharge of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water and the fact that theres no abnormality in the result of Chinas independent sampling and testing, China and Japan have had engagement and consultation on the safety of Japanese aquatic products. On May 28, Chinas General Administration of Customs held a new round of technical exchange with the Japanese side in Beijing at the latters request on the safety of Japanese aquatic products and achieved substantial progress. Japan promised to take credible and visible measures to guarantee the quality and safety of its aquatic products and ensure that they meet Chinas regulatory requirements and food safety standards. China Review News: It's reported that Fitch, S&P, and Moodys have all affirmed Hong Kongs stable rating outlooks. Moodys upgraded the outlook and pointed out that Hong Kongs credit ratings remain reliable and it still stands out in addressing challenges at a time of trade tensions. Whats your comment? Lin Jian: I also noted this. Amid the current rising uncertainties facing the world economy, the positive evaluations of Hong Kongs credit profile demonstrate the regions economic resilience and positive outlook, which is another vote of confidence in Hong Kongs status as an international financial center. The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region also said that Hong Kongs robust financial system, active capital market and thriving IPO market say a lot about global investors confidence in Hong Kong. Whats more, the steady progress of Chinas high-quality development offers the region greater development opportunities and driving forces. Were fully confident in Hong Kongs development. Foreign companies are welcome to invest in Hong Kong with optimism for development and prosperity. Bloomberg: U.S. politician John Moolenaar had an interview yesterday. Hes the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. He said that the U.S.s recent measures were with the aim of pushing back against the aggression of the Chinese Communist Party. Finally, he also called for a reset in the relationship between the U.S. and China. Does the Foreign Ministry have any comment on Mr. Moolenaars recent comments? Lin Jian: The U.S. politicians remarks reek of ideological bias and Cold War zero-sum mentality. Any attempts to smear and attack the Communist Party of China, vilify Chinas path and system, and stoke division and hostility between the CPC and the Chinese people are delusional and presumptuous, which will only meet the firm opposition of over 1.4 billion Chinese people and are doomed to failure. AFP: In an interview, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade negotiations with China were a bit stalled and he suggested that they may require the involvement of the leaders of the two countries. Does the Chinese side view the talks as stalled? Can the Foreign Ministry give an update on the status of trade talks? Is China still confident in reaching a trade deal with the U.S.? Lin Jian: China made clear its position on the tariff issue more than once. For anything specific, Id refer you to competent authorities. Reuters: Its reported that the U.S. is planning to increase weapon sales to Taiwan to levels above where they were during President Donald Trumps first term. How would such a move affect U.S.-China relations? What measures might China take in response? Lin Jian: The Taiwan question is at the core of Chinas core interests, and the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-U.S. relations. China firmly opposes the U.S.s arms sales to Chinas Taiwan region, and urges the U.S. to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982, stop selling arms to Taiwan and stop creating new factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait. China is firmly resolved to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity. NHK: Id follow up on the resumption of Japanese aquatic product imports. Could you go into detail regarding the substantial progress that you mentioned? Japan said a consensus was reached between the two sides on the technical conditions of resuming Japanese aquatic product imports. Does China share the same view? How does China look at the prospects of the resumption? Lin Jian: On the first question, as I just mentioned, Japan promised to take credible and visible measures to guarantee the quality and safety of its aquatic products and ensure that they meet Chinas regulatory requirements and food safety standards. On your second question, the Chinese government always puts people first, and firmly ensures peoples food safety. In accordance with relevant domestic laws and international trade rules, competent authorities will study Japans request for resuming the Japanese aquatic product imports under the principles of science and safety. Reuters: A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington has told Reuters in response to a New York Times report on the U.S. suspending engine sales to Chinas aerospace manufacturer COMAC that China firmly opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and abusing export controls. Is that not what China is doing with its own export controls on rare earth? What is the difference between the U.S. and the Chinese export controls? Lin Jian: Chinas export control measures are consistent with universal practices. Such measures are non-discriminatory and not targeted at any particular country. We stand ready to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on export control with relevant countries and regions and are committed to keeping global industrial and supply chains stable. What the U.S. does overstretches the concept of national security, politicizes and weaponizes trade and tech issues and are malicious attempts to block and suppress China. We firmly oppose that and will resolutely defend our legitimate rights and interests. ************************* For the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, there will be no regular press conference on Monday, June 2. The press conference will resume on Tuesday, June 3. During the holiday, questions can be submitted to the Spokespersons Office via fax, email or WeChat. Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The Armenian side has once again spread disinformation, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense said, Trend reports. "The information spread by the Armenian Ministry of Defense that on May 30, from 00:10 to 01:00 (GMT +4), units of the Azerbaijani Army allegedly opened fire in the direction of Khoznavar settlement, resulting in damage to a residential building and the death of a small ruminant, is completely false. We reiterate that units of the Azerbaijani Army never target the civilian population and civilian objects," the ministry added. After their request to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was not fulfilled, untainted teachers who have lost their jobs due to the cancellation of the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) panel called for a protest march from Sealdah to Nabanna, the state secretariat. However, as teachers began assembling near the Sealdah railway station on Friday, police intervened, detaining several teachers and declaring that no permission had been granted for the protest. Searches extended beyond Sealdah to other areas like Esplanade and even metro stations. As police moved to detain the protesters, they faced resistance, resulting in a brief confrontation. However, due to the heavy police presence and their prompt action in apprehending individuals before they could reach the rallys starting point, the protesters were prevented from assembling in large numbers at any location. Since the 2016 SSC panel was scrapped, over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff have been protesting across West Bengal, demanding reinstatement without having to undergo a fresh recruitment process. The qualified teachers claimed that the SSC scam, which led them to joblessness, has stripped their dignity. As a result, on Thursday, Chinmoy Mandal, one of the leading faces of protest, and others announced that they would be marching to Nabanna half-naked. However, Chinmoy and several others were detained by the police while they were on their way to Sealdah. The protestors were seen complaining that almost all key leaders of the movement were taken into custody. Meanwhile, the gazette notification for the fresh recruitment to fill the positions vacated due to the cancellation of the 2016 panel was uploaded to the official website on Friday. Earlier this week, CM Banerjee had announced that the recruitment notice would be published on May 30, in compliance with the Supreme Court directive. The apex court had ordered that the new notification be issued and the court be informed of it by May 31. She had also urged the affected teachers to reappear for the recruitment exams, assuring that the government would take all possible measures to protect the interests of untainted candidates. Reportedly, the latest notification reduces the emphasis on academic scores and instead prioritises prior teaching experience and classroom skills, awarding extra marks in these areas. This change is likely to benefit experienced candidates. Amid US President Donald Trump's warning that he would bomb Iran if it doesn't agree to a deal, a poll has revealed that over 57 per cent of Americans favour US military action against Irans nukes. Besides, 77 per cent of Americans are concerned that Iran may be developing a nuclear weapon. A poll conducted by the Rasmussen Institute said that Americans were overwhelmingly concerned about Iran's nuclear weapons programme and are worried about the possibility of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Over 44 per cent of those who participated in the poll said they were "very concerned". The poll conducted in the backdrop of Trump's warning found that while 28 per cent "strongly supported" US action against Iran, 57 per cent "would support" a military action. Only 30 per cent said they would oppose a US strike against Iran, of which 17 per cent said they would " strongly oppose" such a military action. Only 13 per cent said they were not sure. Trump is asked if he warned Netanyahu against bombing Iran in a phone call last week? Trump's answer is succinct: "Well, I'd like to be honest. Yes I did." pic.twitter.com/RGTV5hiYiP Trita Parsi (@tparsi) May 28, 2025 Was Trump aggressive towards Iran? Trump had warned Iran that it would face serious repercussions if talks failed. "If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump told NBC News in a telephonic interview before the talks began. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before." He had also launched a scathing attack on Iran, accusing the Islamic Republic's leadership of "neglect and mismanagement that have left the country plagued by rolling blackouts lasting for hours a day". Many Iranians had called Trump's words when he charged the Iranian leaders of "turning green farmland into dry deserts" a painful truth. Also read: Unexpected reaction from Iranians as Trump torches their leaders; Khamenei too reacts However, Americans were divided over Trump's "aggression" towards Iran. According to the poll, 26 per cent believed that, in his dealings with Iran, Trump has been too aggressive. But the same number 26 per cent say he hasnt been aggressive enough. Only 15 per cent are not sure about Trump's response while 33 per cent think Trumps response to Iran has been about right. Seventy-five per cent of those who voted for Trump in last years election would support a US strike to destroy Irans nuclear weapons programme, as compared to 42 per cent of Kamala Harris voters. The British government is weighing whether to impose sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, amid growing international outrage over Israels ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The idea was first proposed by former foreign secretary David Cameron under the previous Conservative government, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer's administration is still weighing the options. Momentum for such action has been building over recent weeks, particularly after Britain joined France and Canada in condemning Israels burgeoning operations in the Gaza Strip. Both Ben-Gvir, Israels national security minister, and Smotrich, the finance minister, have publicly supported the expulsion of Palestinians from Gazaan act that would violate international law and conventions. Despite the backing of many officials, academia and the intelligentsia for the move, the government remains hesitant. A recent fatal shooting outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where two Israeli embassy staff were killed by a pro-Palestinian gunman, has prompted some in Whitehall to question the timing of punitive measures. According to one British diplomat, officials are now likely to await signs that Israel will allow a measurable increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza before proceeding. The deaths of hundreds of civilians, including many children, during Israeli strikes in recent weeks have only intensified calls for action. Smotrichs inflammatory remarks about cleansing Gaza and relocating its population have drawn international condemnation. Israeli far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir joined settler hate marches in occupied Jerusalem, where settlers chanted "Death to Arabs" and praised the genocide in Gaza, calling for a new Nakba as the path to victory. pic.twitter.com/hGjjJgY0Hm Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 26, 2025 Speaking in Parliament a few days ago, Foreign Secretary David Lammy slammed the minister's rhetoric as extremist, dangerous and monstrous. He also announced the suspension of trade negotiations with Israel and additional sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank. Still, the government has stopped short of formally accusing Israel of genocide, despite growing calls from Labour backbenchers and human rights advocates. The use of such language could open the door to broader sanctions, including a full suspension of arms sales. Britain partially halted weapons exports to Israel in September, but critics argue that current measures fall short of the countrys legal obligations. On May 26, more than 800 British lawyers, legal scholars and retired judges, including two former Supreme Court justices, urged the government to impose immediate sanctions against Israel. In an open letter, they argued that Israels military actions amounted to war crimes and posed a serious risk of genocide. They also accused Israel of denying Palestinians their legal right to self-determination and described the current level of aid entering Gaza as gravely insufficient. War crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law are being committed, the letter stated. Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza, or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring. The 36-page document called for immediate financial and travel sanctions on Israeli leaders suspected of unlawful conduct, a suspension of the UK-Israel 2030 Roadmap agreement, and a full review of trade relations. It also demanded that Britain uphold its obligations as a signatory to the Rome Statute by acting on the International Criminal Courts arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant. Both men are accused of war crimes in Gaza, allegations Netanyahu strongly denies. The legal campaign is the latest in a series of warnings issued since the war erupted in October 2023. Earlier letters focused on arms sales and the potential complicity of the UK in Israeli violations of international law. The legality of those arms exports is now being challenged in the High Court. The war in Gaza has entered a deadlier phase since Israel launched a new offensive in mid-May. An 11-week blockade, in place since early March, was only partially lifted amid international pressure. Yet, aid agencies say the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic. According to Gazas health ministry, over 100 people a day were killed in the first week of renewed airstrikes. Britains reluctance to act decisively has also highlighted divisions within Starmers government. While the Foreign Office is reportedly in favour of stronger action, Downing Street remains cautious. Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, is said to be under increasing pressure from within the Labour Party, as well as from leading legal figures, to stand by international legal norms. France is considering recognising a Palestinian state and has encouraged the UK to do so with it, potentially at a June summit. Norway, Spain and Ireland have already taken this step. British diplomats, however, argue such recognition may have little impact on the ground unless backed by coordinated international measures. Complicating matters further is the shifting position of the United States. While traditionally staunch in its defence of Israel, Washington has recently turned more critical. President Donald Trump, in a rare rebuke, has expressed frustration at the escalating conflict, urging a swift end. Though British officials remain wary of basing decisions on Trumps erratic positions, they see his rhetoric as a potential opening for more independent action. For now, the UK appears to be treading water, hoping for a change in Israels approach before committing to a firm response. Yet, the pressure is mounting, and the voices demanding accountability are growing louder. As Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and director of the US/Middle East Project, put it: You cant claim to stand for international law and then flinch when its test comes. Starmers legacy may well hang on whether he finds the courage to act. Israel has approved the establishment of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, including the legalisation of unauthorised outposts, following a security cabinet vote held in secret last week. The announcement was confirmed by Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom said the move was necessary to strengthen Israeli presence in the area. Some of the settlements already exist as outposts built without prior government approval and will now be legalised under Israeli law. Others are entirely new, with construction reportedly underway in locations such as Mount Ebal near Nablus and Beit Horon North, west of Ramallah. The West Bank has been under Israeli control since the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the territory from Jordan. The United Nations classifies it as occupied territory and considers Israeli settlements there to be in violation of international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that an occupying power should not transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Israel, however, disputes the characterisation of the West Bank as occupied and refers to it by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria. Israeli authorities administer large portions of the area directly, while parts are governed by the Palestinian Authority. According to Israeli law, the new settlements are being established within the framework of state planning. As of December 2024, approximately 5.3 lakh Israeli settlers lived across 141 officially recognised settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinian population in the territory is estimated at around 33 lakh, many of whom live in areas where movement is restricted by a network of Israeli checkpoints. Katz said the governments decision anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel and prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel. Smotrich, a long-time advocate for settlement expansion who resides in the West Bank, described the move as strategic. Among the sites included in the expansion are Homesh and Sa-Nur, settlements deep in the northern West Bank that were evacuated in 2005 during Israels withdrawal from Gaza. In recent years, settler groups have re-established a presence at Homesh, including a religious school, which will now receive legal recognition. Nine of the settlements are entirely new, according to the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now. It also noted that Nofei Prat, which was previously classified as a neighbourhood of Kfar Adumim near East Jerusalem, will now be recognised as a separate settlement. The new settlements are expected to consolidate Israels control of key infrastructure corridors. Route 443, a major highway connecting Jerusalem to Tel Aviv via Modiin, has been cited as a strategic focus area. The head of the Yesha Council, which represents Jewish municipalities in the West Bank, called the decision the most important since 1967. Israels cabinet approved 22 settlements last night. So you can recognize a Palestinian state, talk about a two state solution, but without walking back the colonization, the struggle becomes for equal rights in one state. pic.twitter.com/NskXx4ERM4 Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) May 29, 2025 The announcement follows a series of land appropriations over the past year. In July 2024, the Israeli government approved the largest seizure of land in the West Bank in over three decades, taking control of nearly 13 square kilometres in the Jordan Valley. Peace Now described it as the largest such move since the 1993 Oslo Accords. In a leaked recording from a 2024 political conference, Smotrich claimed land confiscations had increased tenfold compared to previous years, calling the effort mega-strategic. In May 2023, he directed government ministries to prepare for the settlement of an additional five lakh Israelis in the West Bank. Further administrative changes were made in May 2024, when the Israel Defence Forces transferred authority over dozens of civil bylaws to civilian officials reporting to Smotrich. The move, posted on the IDF website, shifted planning and zoning powers to the Defence Ministry's West Bank division. According to Peace Now, over 10,500 housing units were advanced in the West Bank between January and March 2025, exceeding the number approved in the entirety of 2024. Critics argue that the expansion undermines prospects for a two-state solution. The Palestinian Authority condemned the decision as a dangerous escalation that could deepen instability. A spokesperson for President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of attempting to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement calling the move a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law. Several observers suggest the expansion reflects a broader policy shift. Lior Amihai, director of Peace Now, said: The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise. The annexation of the occupied territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal. Israeli journalist Elisha Ben Kimon observed on the BBC that a significant majority of Israeli ministers now supported formal annexation of the West Bank. They believe this period will never be coming back. This is one opportunity they dont want to slip from their hands. The growing strategic and ideological convergence between Turkey and Pakistan has emerged as a significant geopolitical development with far-reaching implications for South Asia. During the recent military standoff between India and Pakistan, Turkey's explicit diplomatic support for Islamabad underscored an evolving alliance that goes beyond symbolic gestures and enters the realm of coordinated strategic signalling. While the India-Pakistan confrontation itself followed a familiar pattern of military posturing, airspace violations, and rhetorical escalation, it was Turkiyes assertive alignment with Pakistan that raised new strategic concerns for New Delhi. For India, this axis of cooperation adds complexity to an already volatile security environment and represents a challenge not just in military terms, but in narrative warfare and diplomatic influence across multilateral platforms. Turkey and Pakistan have long shared warm relations, rooted in cultural affinity and pan-Islamic solidarity. However, the last decade has witnessed an unprecedented intensification of this relationship. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has actively sought to reclaim a leadership role within the Muslim world, positioning itself as a vocal advocate for Muslim causesespecially on issues like Palestine and Kashmir. Pakistan, increasingly isolated within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) due to its refusal to align with Arab positions in Yemen and Iran, has found in Turkey a valuable partner that echoes its views and amplifies its concerns. This friendship has grown not only in rhetoric but also through military, economic, and diplomatic engagements, thereby giving Pakistan an important external supporter with global reach. During the standoff with India, Turkey's prompt and public support for Pakistan was evident. President Erdogans office issued statements that framed the crisis as a consequence of Indian aggression. This framing aligned seamlessly with Pakistans traditional narrative. While Gulf powers such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia adopted a neutral stanceowing to deepening economic ties with IndiaTurkey emerged as the only Muslim-majority country openly critical of India during the crisis. This assertiveness from Ankara enhanced Pakistans ability to mount international pressure on New Delhi, particularly at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other global forums where Turkey has increased its diplomatic activity. India, for its part, has been observing the Turkey-Pakistan axis with growing concern. While the direct impact of Turkey's rhetoric may be limited in the short term, its implications for Indias broader diplomatic engagements are significant. First, Turkey's consistent articulation of the Kashmiri cause provides Islamabad with international legitimacy and amplifies narratives that India has sought to contain. Erdogans speeches referencing Kashmir at the UN General Assembly and Turkey's hosting of Pakistan-aligned conferences on human rights further institutionalize an anti-India stance that erodes New Delhis strategic messaging. Second, Turkeys willingness to align with Pakistan during military crises suggests an emerging form of ideological bloc politics, wherein Ankara positions itself not just as a regional power but as a leader of Muslim solidarity against perceived injusticesincluding those allegedly perpetrated by India. This growing friendship also has tangible military and strategic dimensions. Turkey has become an important defence partner for Pakistan, supplying sophisticated military equipment, including combat drones, corvettes, and targeting systems. Defence collaboration has gone beyond procurement, with the two nations participating in joint training programs also. While Turkey is not a direct player in South Asias military equations, its support enables Pakistan to diversify its defence dependencies away from traditional sources such as China and the United States. In the context of the standoff with India, this diversification strengthens Pakistans resilience and its capacity to manage prolonged escalatory situations. Turkey's defence support thus plays a subtle but critical role in buttressing Pakistans strategic confidence. The psychological and symbolic significance of Turkey support should not be underestimated. At a time when Pakistan is facing economic instability, rising internal dissent, and increasing scrutiny from global financial bodies, Turkeys vocal and material backing offers morale and a semblance of international solidarity. For India, this bonhomie has forced a recalibration of its diplomatic priorities. India has also upgraded defence and intelligence-sharing mechanisms with Israel and France, countries that have tense relations with Ankara, signalling a willingness to balance Turkeys activism through targeted strategic outreach. Importantly, the Turkey-Pakistan partnership operates within the larger framework of global information warfare and perception management. Both Ankara and Islamabad have invested in state-backed media outlets that project synchronised messaging, especially on Kashmir and Indias domestic policies. Social media campaigns, sponsored content, and coordinated digital narratives serve to internationalise issues that India regards as internal. These information operations pose a different kind of threatone not of military encirclement, but of narrative destabilisation. Despite this growing convergence, the Turkey-Pakistan relationship is not without constraints. Turkey does not possess the economic power to bail out Pakistan financially, nor does it command decisive influence in South Asias security architecture. Ankaras geopolitical overreach, strained ties with NATO allies, and domestic economic troubles limit its ability to act as a consistent partner. Nevertheless, its role as a vocal, ideologically aligned supporter of Pakistan during military standoffs with India presents a new and evolving challenge for Indian strategic planners. The deepening friendship between Turkey and Pakistan, as highlighted during the recent India-Pakistan military standoff, represents a recalibration of regional and extra-regional alliances with serious implications for India. While Turkey may not be a traditional player in South Asian geopolitics, its assertive diplomacy, defence cooperation, and narrative alignment with Pakistan have helped Islamabad to garner international support. For India, countering this emerging axis will require a multidimensional approachone that balances hard power with narrative diplomacy, expands ties with Turkey's regional competitors, and strengthens strategic communication frameworks that project Indias own vision of regional stability and pluralism. (The author is assistant professor, Amity Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Amity University, Noida.) Senior Iranian officials have rejected growing speculation about an imminent nuclear agreement with the United States, insisting that any deal must fully lift sanctions and allow Tehran to continue its nuclear programme, including uranium enrichment. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a key figure in Irans diplomatic efforts, made clear that Tehran remains open to negotiations but not at any cost. "Iran is sincere about a diplomatic solution that will serve the interests of all sides. But getting there requires an agreement that will fully terminate all sanctions and uphold Irans nuclear rightsincluding enrichment," Araghchi wrote in a post on X. Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reinforced this stance. He accused Washington of pursuing unrealistic goals and warned that Irans nuclear red lines remain firmly in place. "Talks serve progress, interests and dignity, not coercion or surrender, he said. Shamkhani added that previous US presidents had also entertained fantasies about dismantling Irans nuclear infrastructure, with no success. These remarks followed comments by US President Donald Trump, who said he had recently urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on a military strike against Iran. Speaking at a White House press conference, Trump revealed he had asked Israel to delay any action while the US pursues what he described as a promising diplomatic track. "I told them it was not appropriate to attack Tehran because I believed I could reach a deal within weeks," Trump said. At the core of the proposed deal is a controversial provision under which Iran would grant American inspectors direct access to its nuclear facilitiesa step beyond current arrangements that involve oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UNs nuclear watchdog. Trump described the plan as "very strong," saying it would allow the US to enter sites, remove materials and even destroy facilities if necessary. "We can blow up a lab, but nobody is gonna be in a lab," he added, emphasising a non-lethal approach. Iranian officials responded cautiously. Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said the country might allow some US inspections, but only under conditions that preserved Irans sovereignty and its right to enrich uranium. "We cannot depend on imported fuel," he said. Diplomatic tensions rose further when Araghchi threatened to halt ongoing talks with European officials, after UK ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson appeared to support longstanding US calls for Iran to give up uranium enrichment entirely. Hard-liners in Tehran issued stronger responses. Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, dismissed Trumps remarks as a combination of illusion, bluff, delirium and confusion, rejecting the notion that Iran would ever dismantle its nuclear infrastructure. Despite the heated rhetoric, indirect negotiations between the US and Iran have continued in recent weeks. Five rounds of talks have taken place in Oman and Rome, according to officials. Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said the latest round, held last Friday, produced some but not conclusive progress and that more discussions are expected. Meanwhile, IAEA officials visited Tehran this week, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian travelled to Oman for a state visit, suggesting that diplomacy remains active even amid public posturing. While the US seeks to restrict Irans nuclear capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief, Israeli officials remain sceptical of any deal that does not result in the dismantling of Irans nuclear infrastructure. Israeli sources said Irans nuclear ambitions are embedded in its national ethos and warned that any agreement falling short of eliminating Irans enrichment capacity would not be acceptable. Israel will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons, the officials said. All top security officials believe an attack on Irans nuclear sites is possible and necessary. Gulf leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani, have reportedly urged Trump to continue diplomatic efforts and avoid military escalation. All three countries host US military bases and fear retaliatory attacks from Iran if its facilities are targeted. They were previously critical of the 2015 nuclear deal but now appear to favour renewed diplomacy. Concerns about Irans nuclear intentions were reinforced this week by a report from Austrias domestic intelligence service, which claimed Iran is continuing its weapons programme despite public assurances. The Iranian nuclear weapons development programme is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances, the report concluded. Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had a message from his father, King Salman, which he delivered to the Iranian leadership during a close door meeting in Tehran, according to reports. Prince Khalid arrived in Tehran last month, a major visit in decades, two days before the US-Iran talks were set to be held in Rome. He had then met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian. Also read: The real reason why Saudi Crown Prince MBS sent his brother to Tehran amid US-Iran talks Saudi Arabias 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz sent his son Prince Khalid with a warning for Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters quoted two Gulf sources. Prince Khalid informed the leadership that they should take US President Donald Trumps offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously because it avoided the risk of war with Israel. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attended the close door meeting with Prince Khalid. The Saudi Defence Minister argued that the region, reeling from an Israeli attack on Gaza and Lebanon, could not stand a further escalation in tensions. Earlier, there were reports quoting Ali Al-Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the royal court, that Saudi had sent a message to Tehran that it would not be a conduit in any fashion towards an attack on Iran. He added that Prince Khalid informed the leadership that Saudi supported Trump's efforts to find a diplomatic solution. This comes amid reports that the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates told US President Donald Trump during his Middle East visit earlier this month that they oppose a military strike on Irans nuclear programme. These countries reportedly told Trump that he should work towards a nuclear deal with Iran. Qatari Emir Tamim Al Thani, Emirati President Mohammed Bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said that their countries would be targeted by Iran in case of an attack, Israeli media Walla added. The US proposed a 60-day ceasefire plan for the Israel-Gaza conflict on Friday, that also proposes an exchange of hostages and prisoners on both sides, a Reuters report said. This proposal comes in the wake of as many as 14 Gazan deaths from Israeli airstrikes, as of Friday. The proposal, which has received Israel's assent, is said to be guaranteed by US President Donald Trumpas well as mediators Egypt and Qatar. It also promises humanitarian aid packages to Gaza from the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels, as soon as Hamas agrees to the ceasefire. This would also lead to the release of 28 Israeli hostagesalive and deadin exchange for 1,236 Palestinian prisoners as well as the remains of 180 dead citizens. Arriving at a permanent ceasefire would also lead to the release of the remaining 30 Israeli hostages, as per the plan. ALSO READ | Death knell for independent Palestine? Israel approves 22 new West Bank Settlements in secret cabinet vote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages held in Gaza that Tel Aviv had accepted the proposal presented by Trumps Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, according to Israeli media reports. Although Hamas commented that the US plan "fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people", such as an unconditional ceasefire and an end to the conflict as a whole, an official, Basem Naim, added that the Palestinian group would still be carrying out a "thorough and responsible review of the new proposal". ALSO READ | Who is Megha Vemuri, Indian-American pro-Palestine MIT student who called out Israels genocide? Other similar ceasefire proposals have typically fallen through, owing to deep rifts between the two nations. Although both sides have called for an end to the war, Israel insists on the demilitarisation of Hamas and the release of all 58 hostages to do so, whereas the Palestinian group rejects this, urging Israel to pull out of Gaza first. A combination of Israel's renewed offensive, titled 'Gideon Chariots', as well as its blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza (which was slighly eased over the past few weeks), has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, pushing Gaza's remaining populationof about 2 millionto the brink of a terrible famine. The political unrest in Bangladesh is escalating after chief adviser Mohammed Yunus took a covert jibe at the BNP during his visit to Japan, stating that not all political parties but only one is insisting on holding national elections by December. His statement comes as BNP, a prominent political party, has been at loggerheads with Yunus demanding elections in December. Attending a meeting in Tokyo, Yunus said: 'If we want to leave the country in the same state, the institutions in the same state, then we can talk about elections in December. But if we need good reforms, then we have to wait another six months. Some people are saying to leave the reforms and finish the elections. Not all political parties, only one party is saying this." His statement is viewed by many as an open war against the BNP, which has been rallying out against the 84-year-old Nobel Prize winner accusing him of theatrics and staging a resignation attempt when the party urged him to hold elections in December. The BNP has also been holding political rallies in Bangladesh against Yunus for undertaking big decisions. Yunus's remarks were not well received by the BNP, which accused him of stating falsehood. "The reality is that not only one party but most political parties including BNP, various forces of the state, civil society and the people want early elections," BNP Joint Secretary General Syed Emran Saleh Prince said. As iGovt chief Dr Yunus is in Japan, Bangladesh's largest opposition BNP gathers nearly a million in Dhakademanding national elections. The massive show of strength aims to signal both to Dhaka-Tokyo the publics push for democracy & an election date. pic.twitter.com/CNs7v0lB2I MUKTADIR rashid ROMEO (@muktadirnewage) May 28, 2025 Khaleda Zia, the leader of BNP, too issued a statement soon after but didn't mention Yunus. At an event held to mark the 44th martyrdom anniversary of BNP founder and former President Ziaur Rahman, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia said the journey of democracy in the country is being obstructed at every step. "The uninterrupted march of the democracy for which Ziaur Rahman sacrificed his life is now being hindered at every step. I hope we will soon witness the re-establishment of democracy in Bangladesh," she said, in an apparent reference to Yunus's stance on holding elections. Meanwhile, the current situation has put Yunus in a fix, according to experts. Micheal Kugelman, an American foreign policy author and expert specialising in South Asia, says the Bangladeshi people are growing increasingly impatient with an interim government led by Yunus, which has no popular base. He views Yunus's threat to resign as a tactic to "warn those around him about the seriousness of the situation." "Yunus is now moving towards a conflict with key stakeholders. He has supported the student leaders decision and their policy stance. And they are determined to complete the reform process even if the election date is delayed. But the Bangladesh army, the BNP, the business community and probably most of the general public are in favour of elections as soon as possible. In this increasingly complex political situation, new dividing lines may emerge," Kugelman wrote in Foreign Policy. He added that the BNP, which has been demanding early elections, is now at odds with NCP and the influential Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami. "When different ideological groups take to the streets with their demands, the risk of political violence really increases," he said. Ukraine has again signalled its willingness to retry direct peace talks with Russia at Istanbul on Monday, a top advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, following days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend a meeting proposed by Moscow. However, Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide their promised memorandum clarifying their position on ending the three-year-long conflict. Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion, explained Andriy Yermak, in an online statement from Ukraines Presidential Office on Thursday night (local time). ALSO READ | A painful peace: Russia demands Western pledge stopping NATO's Eastern expansion, sources say This means it is important to receive Russias draft. There is enough timefour days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents, he added. Kyiv and its European allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of stalling for time (and for negotiating the best conditions they could possibly get) with its promised peace memorandum, in the wake of Russia's attrition warfare fuelled by incessant attempts to capture more Ukrainian land. ALSO READ | Moscow FM Lavrov questions 'inelegant' use of Vatican for peace negotiations with Kyiv We want to end this war this year. We are interested in establishing a ceasefire, whether it is for 30 days, 50 days, or 100 days. Ukraine is open to discussing this directly with Russia, declared Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Sybiha at a joint news conference in Kyiv with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, as per an Associated Press article. The report added that the two diplomats also hinted possible Putin-Zelenskyy talks at Istanbulpossibly involving US President Donald Trump as well. ALSO READ | 'Only one REALLY BAD thing World War 3': Dmitry Medvedev warns Trump over Putin 'playing with fire' remark According to a statement from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday, a Russian delegation will be heading to Istanbul for the second round of peace negotiations on June 2. The previous round involved low-level negotiations that failed to bring about a ceasefire, but resulted in the largest exchange of 1,000 prisoners from both sides (POWs) since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov received a delegation led by Joshua Huck, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs of the United States, on May 30, 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend. The meeting addressed a range of bilateral and multilateral issues, including the normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Both sides emphasized the significance of long-standing strategic ties, particularly in energy security, and reaffirmed their commitment to advancing cooperation across key sectors. Regional energy infrastructure, alternative energy initiatives, and transportation and communications links were also on the agenda, alongside prospects for joint engagement with Central Asian partners. Bayramov briefed the US delegation on post-conflict developments in the South Caucasus, the current state of peace talks with Armenia, and the challenges that continue to impede progress. The two delegations also exchanged views on regional issues of mutual concern, underscoring their shared interest in promoting stability and integration in the region. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in the news yet again, this time after Indian-American student and MITs Class of 2025 president Megha Vemuri delivered a riveting and controversial commencement speech against Israels alleged illegal occupation of Palestine. Vemuri took to the stage for what many thought would be a run-of-the-mill acknowledgement address. But the Indian-American, sporting a red keffiyeh (a traditional scarf now adopted by supporters of Palestine), delivered a speech that made many a genocide apologist uneasy. You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine, she said, looking at her batchmates. This was in reference to the building support for MIT Coalition for Palestine and the recent student votes that called for the institute to cut research ties with the Israeli military accused of killing Palestinians. As of December 2024, the MIT Coalition for Palestine consisted of MIT Alumni for Palestine (A4P), MIT Globally Indigenous Students for Justice (IS4J), MIT Arab Student Organization (ASO) MIT Grads for Palestine (G4P), MIT Asian American Initiative (AAI), MIT Jews for Collective Liberation (JCL), MIT Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA), MIT Latino Cultural Center (LCC), MIT Black Students Union (BSU), MIT Muslims for Justice (M4J), MIT Disability Justice Collective (DJC), MIT Reading for Revolution (R4R), MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA), MIT Taara, MIT Divest Palestine (Pal@MIT), MIT DUSP for Palestinian Liberation (D4PL), MIT Written Revolution, MIT Faculty and Staff for Palestine (FS4P), and Trans@MIT. MIT maintains institutional collaborations through the ILP, LGO, CSAIL, and MIT Energy Initiative programs with companies that sell vast amounts of weapons to Israel. These include Elbit Systems, Israels largest military contractor, as well as Maersk, Lockheed Martin, and Caterpillar. These collaborations grant genocide profiteers privileged access to MIT talent and expertise, the MIT Coalition for Palestine stated in its report MIT Science For Genocide. MITs ties to the genocide of Palestinians are immoral, illegal, and unpopular among the MIT community. The sponsorships break MITs own rules on foreign engagements, scientific ethics, nondiscrimination, health, safety, and the environment, as well as federal and international law. By abetting genocide, MIT sends a message to Palestinians at MIT that it does not value their human life, the report read. Vemuris controversial speech comes at a time when students from other nations have been reportedly deported and student visas cancelled for their anti-genocide stance, something that the US conveniently terms as anti-zionist, somehow absolving their bilateral ally Israel of crimes against humanity. During the MIT graduation ceremony, Vemuri also criticised the MIT administration, referring to reports that students faced threats, intimidation, and suppression from the institution. Megha Vemuri has been pursuing her Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Linguistics at MIT. Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza, Vemuris words cut through the crowd. Following Vemuri to the stage was MIT President Sally Kornbluth, who did not add to the mix or address any of the student presidents statements. Vemuri also led the MIT Written Revolution. Reports also cite her as a research assistant at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. New Delhi, May 30 (PTI) JSW Steel is keen to source coking coal from Mongolia but the company sees challenges from logistics point of view, a senior executive of the steel major said. Mongolia has been on the company's radar for exploring as a supply partner, but there are logistical challenges because it is a landlocked country, Arun Maheshwari, Director (Commercial & Marketing), said during an investor call. "As of now, we have not been able to take any quantity out of Mongolia," he said in reply to a question about sourcing coal from Mongolia. He said the challenge remains even if transportation is explored via countries in the neighbourhood of Mongolia like Russia and China. "(Coking coal) ...coming via Russia ...it is already very congested, and taking route from China is also a logistical constraint as of today," Maheshwari said, adding the company will continue to explore Mongolia as a source. "Our sourcing from Australia, Russia and US, Mozambique, Indonesia has been for long. So, it will continue," he added. Coking coal is a key raw material needed for the manufacturing of steel through the blast furnace route. The government has been in discussions with Mongolia to source coking coal from the landlocked nation. The move aims at diversifying raw materials sourcing, and will not only increase the availability of the key steel-making material but also help in cost optimisation of producing the commodity. In January, a senior government official had told PTI that the government is examining the route for the import of coking coal from Mongolia. India remains dependent on a select group of nations -- largely far located Australia -- to meet 80-90 per cent of its coking coal requirements. Sourcing from distant locations takes months for cargo ships to transport the raw materials to India, adding to the overall production cost. A new study published Tuesday reveals a troubling decline in the mental and physical health of mothers in the United States, with only about one in four moms reporting excellent mental health. The research, detailed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, highlights a 63% increase in mothers reporting fair or poor mental health from 2016 to 2023, underscoring a growing public health concern. The study, which analyzed self-reported health trends among female parents, found that just 25% of U.S. moms rated their mental health as excellent, a sharp drop from previous years. This decline is particularly alarming as maternal mental health is known to impact not only mothers but also their children and families, with potential ripple effects across generations. Experts point to a combination of factors contributing to this trend, including increased social pressures, economic stressors, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, which disrupted support systems and intensified caregiving demands. Mothers are often the backbone of families, and their well-being is critical to the health of our communities, said Dr. Jamie Daw, a lead researcher on the study. The significant rise in moms reporting poor mental health signals a need for urgent action to address systemic challenges. The study also noted a decline in physical health among mothers, with fewer reporting excellent physical well-being compared to 2016. While the research did not pinpoint specific causes, experts suggest that the demands of parenting, coupled with limited access to mental health resources and societal expectations, may be exacerbating these challenges. Advocates are calling for targeted interventions, such as improved access to mental health care, community support programs, and policies to alleviate economic and caregiving burdens. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City Police Commissioner who gained national prominence for his leadership during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, passed away on Thursday at the age of 69. His death was announced by FBI Director Kash Patel, who said that Kerik succumbed to a cardiac illness after a private battle. Born on September 4, 1955, in Newark, New Jersey, Bernard Bailey Kerik rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most recognized figures in American law enforcement. Growing up in a working-class family, Kerik faced early challenges, including a troubled childhood marked by his mothers struggles with alcoholism and his parents separation. He later chronicled these experiences in his 2001 memoir, The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice. After dropping out of high school, Kerik earned his GED and embarked on a career that would span over four decades in law enforcement, military service, and national security. Keriks career began in the U.S. Army, where he served as a Military Policeman from 1974 to 1977, earning a Presidential Commendation for Heroism from President Ronald Reagan. Following his military service, he joined the Passaic County Sheriffs Department in New Jersey before transitioning to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in 1986. Over the next 15 years, Kerik climbed the ranks of the NYPD, known for his tough stance on crime and his work in reducing violence in New York City during the 1990s. In 2000, Kerik was appointed the 40th Commissioner of the NYPD by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close ally. His tenure was defined by his leadership during the 9/11 attacks, where he worked alongside Giuliani to coordinate the citys emergency response following the collapse of the World Trade Center. His steady presence during the crisis earned him widespread praise and over 100 awards for meritorious and heroic service, including two Distinguished Service Awards from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. However, Keriks career was not without controversy. In 2004, he was nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Department of Homeland Security, but he withdrew his nomination amid scrutiny over his personal and financial dealings. In 2009, Kerik pleaded guilty to tax fraud and making false statements, resulting in a four-year prison sentence. He served three years before his release in 2013. In 2020, President Donald Trump granted Kerik a full pardon, citing his contributions to law enforcement and national security. Following his pardon, Kerik remained active in political and legal spheres, often aligning himself with Trump and his allies. He worked closely with Giuliani in 2020 to investigate claims of voter fraud in the presidential election, efforts that led to his identification as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Georgia election interference case. Kerik was subpoenaed to testify in the trial of Trump associates Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell in 2023, though his attorney, Tim Parlatore, emphasized that Kerik would not testify without immunity due to potential legal risks. In April 2025, Kerik made headlines again when Qatar reportedly hired him as a lobbyist, a move that raised eyebrows due to his close ties to Giuliani and his vocal support for Qatar following Trumps electoral victory. Kerik is survived by his wife, Hala, and their two daughters, as well as a son from a previous marriage. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) In one of the nations first wrongful-death claims seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its role in the changing climate, a Washington state woman is suing seven oil and gas companies, saying they contributed to an extraordinarily hot day that led to her mothers fatal hyperthermia. The lawsuit filed in state court this week says the companies knew that their products have altered the climate, including contributing to a 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that killed 65-year-old Juliana Leon, and that they failed to warn the public of such risks. On June 28, 2021, an unusual heat wave culminated in a 108-degrees Fahrenheit (42.22 degrees Celsius) day the hottest ever recorded in the state, according to the filing. Leon had just driven 100 miles from home for an appointment, and she rolled down her windows on the way back because her cars air conditioning wasnt working. Leon pulled over and parked her car in a residential area, according to the lawsuit. She was found unconscious behind the wheel when a bystander called for help. Despite medical interventions, Leon died. The filing names Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company. Defendants knew that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earths atmosphere, when Juliana was born, Thursdays filing said. By 1968, Defendants understood that the fossil fuel-dependent economy they were creating and perpetuating would intensify those atmospheric changes, resulting in more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life. The filing adds: The extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate. Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement: Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed. ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit accuses the companies of hiding, downplaying and misrepresenting the risks of climate change caused by humans burning oil and gas and obstructing research. International climate researchers said in a peer-reviewed analysis that the 2021 heat dome was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change. Scientists have broadly attributed the record-breaking, more frequent, longer-lasting and increasingly deadly heat waves around the world to climate change that they say is a result of burning fossil fuels. Oil and gas are fossil fuels that, when burned, emit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide. Weve seen a really advanced scientific understanding about the specific effects that climate change can cause in individual extreme weather events, said Korey Silverman-Roati, a senior fellow at the Columbia Law Schools Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Scientists today are a lot more confident in saying that but for climate change, this would not have happened. Silverman-Roati said the specificity of the case could clarify for people the consequences of climate change and the potential consequences of company behavior. The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times. Big Oil companies have known for decades that their products would cause catastrophic climate disasters that would become more deadly and destructive if they didnt change their business model, said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement on the case. But instead of warning the public and taking steps to save lives, Big Oil lied and deliberately accelerated the problem. Unprecedented action States and cities have long gone after fossil fuel industry stakeholders for contributing to the planets warming. Recently, Hawaii and Michigan announced plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change, though the states have been met by counter lawsuits from the U.S. Justice Department. The Trump administration has been quick to disregard climate change and has moved against initiatives aimed at combating it. The U.S. withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration an agency whose weather forecasting and research workforce has been gutted will no longer track the cost of weather disasters fueled by climate change. And the Environmental Protection Agency has been called on to a rewrite its long-standing findings that determined planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up support for oil and gas production in the name of an American energy dominance agenda, and it rolled back a host of other efforts and projects to address climate change. Around the world, other climate cases are being watched closely as potentially setting unique precedent in the effort to hold major polluters accountable. A German court ruled this week against a Peruvian farmer who claimed an energy companys greenhouse gas emissions fueled global warming and put his home at risk. Still, a case that looks to argue these companies should be held liable for an individuals death is rare. Misti Leon is seeking unspecified monetary damages. Looking ahead, its hard to imagine this will be an isolated incident, said Don Braman, associate professor at George Washington University Law School. Were facing an escalating climate crisis. Its a sobering thought that this year, the hottest on record, will almost certainly be one of the coolest well experience for the foreseeable future. It is predictable or to use a legal term, foreseeable that the loss of life from these climate-fueled disasters will likely accelerate as climate chaos intensifies, he added. At the heart of all this is the argument about the culpability of fossil fuel companies, and it rests on a large and growing body of evidence that these companies have understood the dangers of their products for decades. (AP) Federal authorities are investigating a sophisticated impersonation scheme targeting White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. An unidentified individual or group accessed Wiles personal cellphone contacts and used that information to impersonate her, reaching out to high-profile officials and business leaders. The impersonator contacted senators, governors, and top executives via text messages and phone calls, some of which featured a voice resembling Wiles. Officials suspect that artificial intelligence was employed to mimic her voice. Recipients reported that the messages originated from unfamiliar numbers and included requests to continue conversations on alternative platforms like Telegram. Some messages contained unusual requests, such as assembling lists of individuals for potential presidential pardons and soliciting cash transfers. The formal tone and grammatical inconsistencies in the messages further raised suspicions. Wiles has informed her contacts about the breach and advised them to disregard any suspicious messages. The FBI and White House are actively investigating the incident, emphasizing the seriousness of threats against the President and his staff. This incident follows a previous cyberattack in 2024, where Iranian operatives reportedly hacked into Wiles email account during the presidential campaign. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) In a potentially development for Israels aviation sector, Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air is set to establish an operational base at Ben Gurion Airport, Israels Channel 13 reports. The move follows an agreement between Israels Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, and Wizz Airs CEO, aiming to enhance air connectivity and reduce travel costs for Israeli passengers. The decision comes at a time when Irish budget carrier Ryanair has announced the suspension of all its flights to and from Israel until August, citing security concerns. Wizz Air views this as an opportunity to fill the void left by other carriers and plans to triple its passenger traffic from Israel. The airline intends to expand its existing European routes from Tel Aviv and introduce new destinations, including potential flights to India and Morocco. Additionally, Wizz Air will employ Israeli staff, such as flight attendants and pilots, contributing to local job creation. Minister Regev stipulated that Wizz Air must also operate domestic flights between Tel Aviv and Eilat as part of the agreement. The formal signing of the deal is anticipated in July. Wizz Airs fleet comprises 230 aircraft, and its entry into the Israeli market is expected to intensify competition and lead to significant fare reductions for travelers. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Hamas has rejected a U.S.-proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal, which Israel had accepted, further complicating efforts to end the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The proposal, mediated by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in coordination with Egypt and Qatar, offered a 60-day truce, the release of 10 living Israeli hostages in two phases, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Hamass refusal, citing demands for a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, has drawn criticism from Israeli officials who note that it prioritizes the groups political survival over peace. The deal, discussed in Doha, included the release of 10 living hostages, starting with five on the first day and five on the seventh, alongside the remains of 16 deceased hostages. In exchange, Israel would release Palestinian prisoners and allow unconditional humanitarian aid into Gaza from day one. Israel endorsed the plan, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing hope for progress, though he maintained that any agreement must align with Israels goals of dismantling Hamass military capabilities and securing all hostages. Hamas, however, rejected the proposal, insisting on a permanent end to the war and a complete Israeli troop withdrawalconditions Israel has consistently deemed unacceptable. Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas negotiator, said the terror group seeks a comprehensive package that ensures a full Israeli withdrawal and Gazas reconstruction, accusing Israel of imposing impossible conditions. The rejection follows the collapse of a two-month ceasefire on March 18, when Israel resumed airstrikes after Hamas refused to extend the initial truce phase. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Seven weeks into nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran, Israel is voicing escalating concerns that President Donald Trumps administration may accept a deal that fails to eliminate Tehrans uranium enrichment capabilities, potentially leaving Israel vulnerable to a nuclear-armed adversary. Simultaneously, Saudi Arabia has privately urged Iran to engage seriously with the U.S. proposal, warning that failure to do so could risk a military confrontation with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly cautioned that a bad deal is worse than no deal, emphasizing that any agreement permitting Iran to retain enrichment capabilities would be unacceptable. Despite Netanyahus warnings, President Trump disclosed on Wednesday that he had advised Netanyahu against taking any actions, such as a military strike, that could disrupt the ongoing talks. I told him this would be very inappropriate to do right now, because were very close to a solution, Trump said during a White House press conference. The negotiations, which commenced on April 12, have included five rounds of discussions between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The primary sticking point remains the U.S. demand that Iran cease all uranium enrichment activitiesa condition Iran has consistently rejected, citing its right to peaceful nuclear energy. Amid these tensions, Saudi Arabia has taken an unprecedented diplomatic step. In April, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman visited Tehran, delivering a message to Iranian officials that emphasized the urgency of reaching an agreement with the U.S. to avoid the risk of an Israeli military strike. This visit marked the first by a senior Saudi royal to Iran in over two decades and reflects a significant shift in regional diplomacy following the 2023 normalization of ties between the two nations. During the closed-door meeting, Prince Khalid conveyed that President Trumps patience for prolonged negotiations is limited and that the window for diplomacy is narrowing. He stressed that the region, already destabilized by conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, could not withstand further escalation. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded by expressing Irans desire for a deal that would alleviate economic sanctions but maintained that Iran would not relinquish its enrichment program solely to accommodate U.S. demands. Israel, meanwhile, has prepared for potential military action against Irans nuclear facilities but has held off at the request of the Trump administration to allow diplomatic efforts to proceed. Israeli officials have indicated that any military strike would be more effective with U.S. support, particularly in countering potential Iranian retaliation. However, there is growing concern within Israel that delaying action could result in a missed opportunity to address the nuclear threat more decisively. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have announced plans to target civilian aircraft belonging to Israeli airlines, including El Al, in what could mark a dangerous new phase in the Yemeni groups ongoing assault on Israel. The warning, issued through Lebanons Hezbollah-aligned Al-Akhbar newspaper, follows Israels airstrike on Sanaa International Airport earlier this week. The targeted strike reportedly destroyed the last operational Houthi aircraft, a move that Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said eliminatec the groups remaining air capabilities. But the Houthis arent backing downin fact, theyre upping the ante. In a direct threat to Israeli civilian air traffic, Houthi sources said their upcoming operations will differ in quantity and substance, vowing to add Israeli civilian planes to their list of military targets. If carried out, such a strike would cross a grave red line and could trigger a wider regional conflagration. The rebels claim the aircraft destroyed by Israel had been used for humanitarian medical evacuations to Jordana claim dismissed by Israeli officials as propaganda meant to deflect attention from the Houthis ongoing campaign of ballistic missile and drone attacks aimed at Israeli civilians. In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched near-daily missile attacks toward Israel, including one strike that landed inside the grounds of Ben Gurion International Airport earlier this month, prompting several foreign airlines to suspend service to Israel. With major carriers pulling out, most Israelis are now reliant on El Al and the domestic carriers Arkia and Israirairlines that may soon find themselves in the crosshairs. It remains unclear whether the Houthis possess the technical capacity to strike aircraft in flight. However, in an interview earlier this month with Newsweek, a Houthi spokesman boasted of new weapons allegedly capable of enforcing an aerial blockade over Israeli skies. While the threats credibility is still under assessment by Israeli intelligence, the tone and timing have set off alarms. Israeli aviation security has been placed on high alert, and contingency plans are reportedly being reviewed at the highest levels of government. With Iranian fingerprints all over Houthi weapons and strategy, the latest development raises serious questions about Tehrans role in greenlighting an attack on civilian aviationan act that is a blatant war crime and a direct provocation. Defense analysts say any attempted strike on a commercial aircraft could trigger immediate and overwhelming Israeli retaliationnot just against the Houthis, but potentially against Iranian assets across the region. This is not Yemens war anymore, said one senior Israeli security official. This is Iran using its proxies to test Israels red lines. And there will be a response. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) NAKHCHIVAN, Azerbaijan, May 30. The Azerbaijani press has endured a difficult yet honorable journey, said Carlo Marino, a representative of the European News Agency from Italy, in a congratulatory message to participants of Mediafest 2025 held in Nakhchivan, Trend reports. I am pleased to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all my colleagues and to the people of Azerbaijan on the 150th anniversary of the Azerbaijani press. This remarkable milestone demonstrates that not only the national press but also the peoples freedom of thought and expression are rooted in rich traditions, Marino stated. He drove home the crucial part the Azerbaijani press plays in molding public sentiment, enlightening the masses, and bolstering the foundations of statehood. The Azerbaijani press has overcome challenges with dignity. It continues to respond to the demands of the time, successfully adapts to the evolving information environment, and remains committed to its professional values making a meaningful contribution to accurate public awareness even today, Marino added. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel The final escape of NatWest, the rebranded Royal Bank of Scotland, from government hands is a signal moment. Some 17 fractious years have passed since the Great Financial Crisis when NatWest ATMs came within minutes of drying up, and Gordon Brown's government took effective control with a 45.5billion bailout. All told, UK plc expended almost a trillion pounds in the shape of support measures directly and through the Bank of England to keep the City from imploding. So much time has passed that memory of Fred Goodwin, the architect of RBS's self-destruction, has faded. But not for investors in RBS/NatWest stock. I was among the foolhardy shareholders, along with big battalions such as the old Prudential, who were persuaded by Goodwin to support a 12billion rescue rights issue in the spring of 2008. We believed that Fred was smart enough to pull the bank back from the brink. Goodwin, in a frenzy of macho competitiveness, had outbid Barclays to take control of ABN Amro, a Dutch bank weighed down with sub-prime mortgage securities. Gone but not forgotten: Boss Fred Goodwin was the architect of RBS's self-destruction What we didn't know was that Goodwin was a chief executive with a megalomania complex. Dissatisfied with two tower blocks on Bishopsgate in the City and a historical HQ on St Andrews Square in Edinburgh, he built himself a glass palace at Gogarburn downwind from a pig farm. Among the quirks was a designer fish kitchen in reach of his office and filing cabinets with rounded tops to prevent papers piling up. Nurturing NatWest back to health has proved a titanic exercise. Valuable subsidiaries such as Worldpay, Direct Line and Citizens in North America were jettisoned and the balance sheet shrunk. Scandal erupted when the bank's Global Restructuring Group (GRG) forced otherwise healthy client companies to the wall. Why did RBS/NatWest stay in government control for so long? In the US, bailed-out banks and the insurer AIG were returned to the public markets swiftly with the federal government taking contemporary losses. Rapid recovery of lending by US financial groups followed, and a speedy return to trend growth as credit and investment returned to normal. The failure of successive British governments to return the banks to the market and over-regulation has left an indelible mark on the UK, where growth has subsided to half the trend rate before the crisis. Banks and insurers were force-fed into holding excess capital and government stock. Credit and loans, the lifeblood of investment and output, were stymied. Excessive caution, designed to prevent a repeat of 2008-09, has proved destructive to expansion for Britain's advanced tech, pharma, creative and defence sectors. Politics explains why the Government held on to the NatWest stake for so long. No politicians, Labour or Tory, wanted blame for losing taxpayer cash. But the Government stake, even as it shrank, affected behaviour. Pay and bonuses were constrained, which meant that NatWest found it difficult to recruit the most talented financiers. Government felt obliged to intervene in what should have been boardroom issues. This was most notable when Alison Rose was defenestrated as chief executive in 2023, after leaking some disobliging comments about Nigel Farage being de-banked at private offshoot Coutts. As NatWest fully returns to public markets, it is worth reflecting that 10billion of taxpayers' money has mysteriously disappeared. That is cash that Chancellor Rachel Reeves desperately needs. Nearly three quarters of Generation Z investors head to social media and 'finfluencers' as their main sources of information when making investment decisions, data shows. Gen Z's reliance on these sources is considerably higher than among other generations, with 60 per cent of millennials similarly using social media, according to research from Charles Schwab. Only 36 per cent of Gen X use social media as their main source of information, falling to just 11 per cent among baby boomers and the silent generation. Some seven in 10 Generation Z - adults between 18-28 - consider themselves active investors. The figures indicate young investors are more likely to turn to finfluencers than the generation as a whole, with recent data from Santander indicating 31 per cent of Gen Z look to social media personalities as their main source of financial information. Unregulated: There are concerns that some finfluencers may be sharing misinformation online, knowingly or not (stock image) Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK, said: 'Digital platforms and the sheer volume of financial information available today has made it much easier for young investors to trade. 'This is allowing the creation of online investment communities and forums, with finfluencers and social media playing a much more important role in the investment process than in previous years.' Finfluencers have their critics, as unlike traditional sources of financial information, such as financial advisers, they aren't regulated, and there are concerns that some may be sharing misinformation online, knowingly or not. While considerably more popular among younger investors, the overall use of social media and finfluencers as sources of financial information increased to 43 per cent of investors as of 2025, from 39 per cent a year ago. Networking platform Linkedin proves the most popular social media for investing tips, with 46 per cent of younger investors turning to the social media, compared with 44 per cent using Instagram, 43 per cent using TikTok and 40 per cent choosing Reddit. Alongside social media personalities, younger investors are also increasingly relying on conversations with other retail investors on online forums and communities when looking to make investment decisions. More than half of Gen Z investors also read online blogs when deciding where to invest. As with use of finfluencers and social media, this is a trend that is only increasing. The use of online communities has rise to 45 per cent for among investors as a whole, compared to 39 per cent a year ago. Despite this growing trend, many younger investors are still aware of the benefits of professional advice. Some 67 per cent of Gen Z said the most important source of information for making investment decisions was financial advisers and fund managers, a higher proportion than the 63 per cent average. Flynn said: 'The increase in the number of sources that provide investment information means it is becoming increasingly important that young investors know what they can and can't trust. 'It is therefore reassuring that our research shows Gen Z still recognise the benefits of proactively seeking professional advice to make the most of their investments. 'If new investors are looking to adapt their strategies with the current market volatility to aim to protect against losses, a diversified portfolio, balanced across asset classes and sectors is a sensible, time-tested approach for many investors.' M&G has sold a 15 per cent stake to one of Japan's biggest life insurers in a partnership deal. M&G shares rallied yesterday after it announced that Dai-ichi Life is now its largest shareholder in a long-term tie-up. The deal is expected to bring just below 4.5billion in business to M&G and about 1.5billion to Dai-ichi Life over the next five years. It is the latest example of a Japanese group teaming up with a UK firm after Tokyo-based Meiji Yasuda bought around 5 per cent of Legal & General in February. M&G shares hit their highest level since June 2021 following yesterday's announcement, but later gave up some of the gains. It still closed 5.5 per cent higher last night at 236.7p. The business has been regarded as a takeover target after speculation Australia's asset manager Macquarie was considering a 5billion bid in 2023. Boost: The deal is expected to bring just below 4.5billion in business to M&G and about 1.5billion to Dai-ichi Life over the next five years But M&G chief executive Andrea Rossi said that the partnership would bolster its position to compete as a standalone company. 'I can see us having a great independent future in front of us,' he said. Rossi described the partnership as a 'recognition of M&G's strengths and clear confidence in our leadership, strategy and long-term prospects'. 'It brings together two highly complementary international businesses with shared growth ambitions who aim to deliver excellent client service and sustainable shareholder returns.' The deal will allow the business to have 'even greater access to the Japanese and Asian market', Rossi added. M&G will become Dai-ichi Life's preferred asset management partner in Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, Dai-ichi Life will have the right to appoint a director to the board of M&G for as long as it holds at least a 15 per cent stake, M&G said. Russ Mould, at broker AJ Bell, said: 'The usually staid insurance sector burst into life as M&G's strategic partnership with Dai-ichi Life generated excitement. The deal is expected to generate significant business for the company over the next five years.' And Jefferies' analyst Philip Kett said: 'There appear to be no downsides to this partnership, and we expect it to be taken well by investors.' Earlier this month, Dai-ichi Life said it would raise its stake in UK-based Capula Investment Management to 15 per cent from just below 5 per cent. And in April it bought a 15.1 per cent stake in Australian investment manager Challenger for around 408m. Tetsuya Kikuta, president and chief executive of Dai-ichi Life, said: 'We see our partnership with M&G acting as a spearhead to develop our presence across Europe and the UK, accelerating our strategy to become a global top-tier insurance group.' MariMed (OTC:MRMD Get Free Report) is one of 55 public companies in the Medicinals & botanicals industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare MariMed to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability. Valuation & Earnings This table compares MariMed and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Get MariMed alerts: Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio MariMed $148.60 million -$16.03 million -2.83 MariMed Competitors $310.32 million -$49.81 million -5.44 MariMeds peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than MariMed. MariMed is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry. Analyst Ratings Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score MariMed 0 0 0 1 4.00 MariMed Competitors 290 566 1084 86 2.48 This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for MariMed and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat. As a group, Medicinals & botanicals companies have a potential upside of 76.12%. Given MariMeds peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MariMed has less favorable growth aspects than its peers. Profitability This table compares MariMed and its peers net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets MariMed -8.95% 1.58% 0.53% MariMed Competitors -38.94% -24.68% -6.33% Institutional & Insider Ownership 0.2% of MariMed shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.8% of shares of all Medicinals & botanicals companies are held by institutional investors. 19.0% of MariMed shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.5% of shares of all Medicinals & botanicals companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth. Volatility & Risk MariMed has a beta of 3.15, meaning that its share price is 215% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MariMeds peers have a beta of 1.30, meaning that their average share price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Summary MariMed beats its peers on 8 of the 13 factors compared. About MariMed (Get Free Report) MariMed Inc. engages in cultivation, production, and dispensing of medicinal and recreational cannabis in the United States and internationally. The company sells flowers and concentrates under the Natures Heritage brand; and soft and chewy baked goods and a hot chocolate mix under Bubbys Baked brand; and drink mix under Vibations brand. It also offers chewable cannabis-infused mint tablet under the brand Kalm Fusion; and flower, vapes, and edibles under InHouse brand. In addition, the company provides supplement, nutrient-infused fruit chews under Bettys Eddies brand and ice creams under Emack & Bolios brand. The company licenses its brands. MariMed Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Norwood, Massachusetts. Receive News & Ratings for MariMed Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for MariMed and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Institutional and Insider Ownership 67.1% of Evans Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.6% of Farmers & Merchants Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of Evans Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of Farmers & Merchants Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth. Profitability This table compares Evans Bancorp and Farmers & Merchants Bancorps net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Get Evans Bancorp alerts: Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Evans Bancorp 9.89% 6.66% 0.53% Farmers & Merchants Bancorp 30.22% 15.22% 1.62% Earnings & Valuation This table compares Evans Bancorp and Farmers & Merchants Bancorps top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Evans Bancorp $69.21 million 3.18 $11.95 million $2.15 18.39 Farmers & Merchants Bancorp $292.68 million 2.38 $88.46 million $123.32 8.11 Farmers & Merchants Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Evans Bancorp. Farmers & Merchants Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Evans Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks. Risk and Volatility Evans Bancorp has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp has a beta of 0.26, meaning that its stock price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500. Dividends Evans Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Farmers & Merchants Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $18.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Evans Bancorp pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Farmers & Merchants Bancorp pays out 15.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Summary Farmers & Merchants Bancorp beats Evans Bancorp on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks. About Evans Bancorp (Get Free Report) Evans Bancorp, Inc. primarily operates as the financial holding company for Evans Bank, N.A. that provides a range of banking products and services to consumer and commercial customers in Western New York and the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. It operates in two segments, Banking Activities and Insurance Agency Activities. The company offers deposit products, which include checking and negotiable order of withdrawal accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also provides residential mortgages; commercial and multi-family mortgages and commercial construction loans; home equities, such as home equity lines of credit and second mortgage loans; commercial and industrial loans comprising term loans and lines of credit; consumer loans, including direct automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, home improvement, and personal loans; other loans consisting of cash reserves, overdrafts, and loan clearing accounts; and installment loans. In addition, the company sells various premium-based insurance policies, including business and personal insurance, employee benefits, surety bonds, risk management, life, disability, and long-term care coverage, as well as provides claims adjusting services to various insurance companies; and non-deposit investment products, such as annuities and mutual funds. It operates through a total of 21 full-service banking offices in Erie County, Niagara County, Monroe County, and Chautauqua County, New York. Evans Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Williamsville, New York. About Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (Get Free Report) Farmers & Merchants Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central California that provides various banking services to businesses and individuals. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, money market, time certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts. It also offers range of lending products comprising commercial and residential real estate, real estate construction, agribusiness, and consumer loans, as well as equipment leases and credit card services; commercial products, including term loans, lines of credit and other working capital financing, and letters of credit; and financing products, such as automobile financing, home improvement, and home equity lines of credit. In addition, the company provides various specialized services consisting of credit card programs for merchants, lockbox and other collection services, account reconciliation, investment sweep, online account access, and electronic funds transfers through domestic and international wire and automated clearinghouse; online banking services; and investment products, such as mutual funds and annuities. The company was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Lodi, California. Receive News & Ratings for Evans Bancorp Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Evans Bancorp and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Magnera Corp (NYSE:MAGN Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 33,770 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $614,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. owned 0.10% of Magnera as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MAGN. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Magnera in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Shell Asset Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Magnera in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Vestcor Inc purchased a new position in shares of Magnera in the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue purchased a new position in shares of Magnera in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, KBC Group NV purchased a new position in shares of Magnera in the 4th quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.92% of the companys stock. Get Magnera alerts: Magnera Trading Up 2.2% NYSE:MAGN opened at $11.81 on Friday. Magnera Corp has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $26.78. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $14.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market cap of $420.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.64 and a beta of 1.76. Analyst Ratings Changes Magnera ( NYSE:MAGN Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported ($1.15) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($1.35). Magnera had a negative return on equity of 10.62% and a negative net margin of 6.97%. The firm had revenue of $824.00 million for the quarter. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 47.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MAGN shares. Vertical Research started coverage on Magnera in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. They issued a hold rating and a $21.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Magnera from an overweight rating to a reduce rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. View Our Latest Analysis on Magnera Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, CEO Curt Begle acquired 20,275 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $14.01 per share, for a total transaction of $284,052.75. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 44,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $621,217.41. This represents a 84.25% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Carl J. Rickertsen acquired 20,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.65 per share, with a total value of $273,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 41,306 shares in the company, valued at $563,826.90. This represents a 93.87% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders bought 60,275 shares of company stock worth $860,053. Corporate insiders own 2.26% of the companys stock. Magnera Profile (Free Report) Magneras purpose is to better the world with new possibilities made real. By continuously co-creating and innovating with our partners, we develop original material solutions that make a brighter future possible. With a breadth of technologies and a passion for what we create, Magneras solutions propel our customers goals forward and solve end-users problems, every day. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MAGN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Magnera Corp (NYSE:MAGN Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Magnera Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Magnera and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS Free Report) (NYSE:BNS) Analysts at Desjardins lowered their Q3 2025 earnings per share estimates for shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, May 27th. Desjardins analyst D. Young now forecasts that the bank will post earnings of $1.74 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $1.92. The consensus estimate for Bank of Nova Scotias current full-year earnings is $7.13 per share. Desjardins also issued estimates for Bank of Nova Scotias Q4 2025 earnings at $1.79 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $6.80 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $7.70 EPS. Get Bank of Nova Scotia alerts: Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$70.00 to C$75.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. Cibc World Mkts lowered Bank of Nova Scotia from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$83.00 to C$81.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. National Bankshares boosted their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$71.00 to C$72.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, CIBC boosted their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$75.00 to C$77.00 in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of C$77.00. Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Up 1.9% BNS stock opened at C$73.54 on Friday. Bank of Nova Scotia has a twelve month low of C$60.68 and a twelve month high of C$80.14. The firm has a market capitalization of C$90.12 billion, a PE ratio of 11.62, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$68.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$72.38. Bank of Nova Scotia Dividend Announcement The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $1.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.77%. Bank of Nova Scotias payout ratio is currently 67.00%. About Bank of Nova Scotia (Get Free Report) The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets segments. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Bank of Nova Scotia Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bank of Nova Scotia and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV Free Report) by 65,310.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,113,639 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 4,107,350 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC owned 0.40% of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF worth $2,311,454,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 553,404.4% in the 4th quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 8,535,038 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,024,406,000 after purchasing an additional 8,533,496 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 40,255.6% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,128,820 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,785,274,000 after purchasing an additional 8,108,677 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 142.1% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 11,609,297 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,834,161,000 after purchasing an additional 6,813,214 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,488,275,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,428,403,000. Get iShares Core S&P 500 ETF alerts: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Stock Performance Shares of NYSEARCA:IVV opened at $592.78 on Friday. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has a 52-week low of $484.00 and a 52-week high of $616.22. The company has a market capitalization of $589.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.62 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $558.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $582.95. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Profile iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Standard & Poors 500 Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the United States equity market. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited (LON:BMV Get Free Report) shares were up 17.1% on Friday . The stock traded as high as GBX 0.29 ($0.00) and last traded at GBX 0.27 ($0.00). Approximately 2,187,365 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 6,474,525 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 0.23 ($0.00). Bluebird Merchant Ventures Stock Up 17.1% The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 0.59 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of 1.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 215.00 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.29. Get Bluebird Merchant Ventures alerts: Bluebird Merchant Ventures (LON:BMV Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported GBX (0.12) ($0.00) earnings per share for the quarter. Bluebird Merchant Ventures Company Profile Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and developing of mineral properties. The company primarily explores for gold and silver deposits. It holds interests in the Gubong project and Kochang project located in South Korea. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Road Town, the British Virgin Islands. Read More Receive News & Ratings for Bluebird Merchant Ventures Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bluebird Merchant Ventures and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. FC Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF (NYSEARCA:BKLN Free Report) by 1.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 74,454 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after acquiring an additional 1,198 shares during the period. FC Advisory LLCs holdings in Invesco Senior Loan ETF were worth $1,541,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF by 25.9% during the 1st quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 876,214 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $18,138,000 after acquiring an additional 180,370 shares during the period. M1 Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF in the 4th quarter worth approximately $301,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF by 27.7% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 104,900 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,210,000 after buying an additional 22,741 shares during the last quarter. Cim LLC grew its stake in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Cim LLC now owns 482,718 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $10,171,000 after buying an additional 9,309 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Invesco Senior Loan ETF in the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,000. Get Invesco Senior Loan ETF alerts: Invesco Senior Loan ETF Stock Performance Invesco Senior Loan ETF stock opened at $20.83 on Friday. The stocks 50 day moving average is $20.69 and its 200 day moving average is $20.92. Invesco Senior Loan ETF has a twelve month low of $20.02 and a twelve month high of $21.21. About Invesco Senior Loan ETF The Invesco Senior Loan ETF (BKLN) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in high yield fixed income. The fund tracks a market-value-weighted index of senior loans issued by banks to corporations. BKLN was launched on Mar 3, 2011 and is managed by Invesco. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BKLN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Invesco Senior Loan ETF (NYSEARCA:BKLN Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Invesco Senior Loan ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Invesco Senior Loan ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Azerbaijan has been elected as a member of the Executive Board of the UN Habitat Program, the country's Foreign Ministry said, Trend reports. Azerbaijan was elected as a member of the Executive Board of the UN Habitat Program for the first time within the framework of the next session of the Assembly of the UN Habitat Program held on May 30 in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi. "The UN-Habitat Executive Board is the main decision-making body of the program operating between sessions. 36 countries are represented on the board. Our membership in this prestigious UN structure will cover the years 2025-2029. Cooperation between UN-Habitat, which specializes in sustainable urban development and human settlements, and Azerbaijan has been developing dynamically in recent years. A clear example of this was the holding of the UN-Habitat World Habitat Day (WHD23) in Azerbaijan in 2023. In addition, Azerbaijan will host the 13th session of the globally significant UN World Urban Forum (WUF13) on May 17-22, 2026," the ministry added. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Welch Group LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL Free Report) by 2.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 79,800 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 2,396 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLCs holdings in Aflac were worth $8,762,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Curio Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the companys stock. Get Aflac alerts: Insider Transactions at Aflac In related news, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total transaction of $3,197,456.58. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 49,962 shares in the company, valued at $5,360,422.98. The trade was a 37.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total value of $3,906,830.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 70,992 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. The trade was a 34.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 71,552 shares of company stock worth $7,609,382. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders. Aflac Stock Up 0.8% NYSE AFL opened at $102.77 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $106.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.71, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.84. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $86.46 and a 52 week high of $115.50. Aflac (NYSE:AFL Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year. Aflac Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 21st. Aflacs dividend payout ratio is presently 36.25%. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several brokerages have recently commented on AFL. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $104.93. Get Our Latest Report on Aflac About Aflac (Free Report) Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. The company operates through Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. segments. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AFL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Aflac Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Aflac and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC raised its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS Free Report) by 53.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,050 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 3,835 shares during the quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLCs holdings in Novartis were worth $1,232,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Human Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Novartis in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Bellwether Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Get Novartis alerts: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays restated an underweight rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Novartis in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set an underweight rating on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded Novartis to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Novartis from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, UBS Group restated a neutral rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $123.38. Novartis Stock Up 0.5% NVS stock opened at $112.47 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $237.58 billion, a PE ratio of 19.13, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firms 50 day moving average price is $109.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $106.01. Novartis AG has a one year low of $96.06 and a one year high of $120.92. Novartis (NYSE:NVS Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $13.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.92 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 23.56% and a return on equity of 37.24%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year. Novartis Company Profile (Free Report) Novartis AG engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology, as well as ophthalmology and hematology. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding NVS? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Novartis Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Novartis and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Macquarie Group Limited (OTCMKTS:MQBKY Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 800 shares, a decline of 94.3% from the April 30th total of 14,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 28,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.0 days. Macquarie Group Stock Performance Macquarie Group stock opened at $137.81 on Friday. Macquarie Group has a fifty-two week low of $98.20 and a fifty-two week high of $165.98. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $123.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.42. Get Macquarie Group alerts: Macquarie Group Cuts Dividend The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 14th. Investors of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.8217 per share. This represents a yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. Macquarie Groups dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 113.86%. About Macquarie Group Macquarie Group Limited provides diversified financial services in Australia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through four segments: Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), Banking and Financial Services (BFS), Commodities and Global Markets (CGM), and Macquarie Capital. See Also Receive News & Ratings for Macquarie Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Macquarie Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO decreased its stake in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT Free Report) by 11.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 46,977 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after selling 6,236 shares during the period. Abbott Laboratories accounts for 2.5% of Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust COs investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust COs holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $6,231,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Redwood Park Advisors LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its stake in Abbott Laboratories by 78.4% in the 4th quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 239 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Rialto Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Abbott Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.18% of the companys stock. Get Abbott Laboratories alerts: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ABT shares. Bank of America upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Abbott Laboratories from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $136.00 to $147.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Abbott Laboratories from $135.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $142.59. Abbott Laboratories Price Performance ABT opened at $132.80 on Friday. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $130.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $125.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Abbott Laboratories has a 1 year low of $99.71 and a 1 year high of $141.23. The firm has a market cap of $231.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.36, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.74. Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.02. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 31.95%. The business had revenue of $10.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.38 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year. Insiders Place Their Bets In other Abbott Laboratories news, Director Sally E. Blount sold 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.66, for a total value of $337,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 34,058 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,415,960.28. This trade represents a 7.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Lisa D. Earnhardt sold 91,167 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.82, for a total value of $12,199,967.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 71,928 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,625,404.96. This trade represents a 55.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 95,278 shares of company stock worth $12,745,859. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders. Abbott Laboratories Profile (Free Report) Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Menieres disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ABT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Abbott Laboratories Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Abbott Laboratories and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM Get Free Report) (TSE:CM) was downgraded by equities research analysts at National Bank Financial from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research note issued on Friday,Finviz reports. A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on CM. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. They set a sector outperform rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $92.00. Get Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce alerts: Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Stock Down 0.0% Shares of NYSE:CM opened at $67.88 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.98. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has a twelve month low of $46.99 and a twelve month high of $69.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market capitalization of $63.81 billion, a PE ratio of 12.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.06. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM Get Free Report) (TSE:CM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The bank reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $5.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.78 billion. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce had a net margin of 11.10% and a return on equity of 14.01%. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerces quarterly revenue was up 13.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.75 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will post 5.5 EPS for the current fiscal year. Institutional Inflows and Outflows A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CM. PDS Planning Inc boosted its position in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 5,167 shares of the banks stock worth $327,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 8,278 shares of the banks stock worth $466,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,161 shares of the banks stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 4,320 shares of the banks stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Finally, Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 33,094 shares of the banks stock valued at $2,092,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. 49.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. About Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (Get Free Report) Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN Free Report) by 4.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,212 shares of the information technology services providers stock after buying an additional 192 shares during the period. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLCs holdings in Accenture were worth $1,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Private Client Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $204,000. Welch Group LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 10.5% in the first quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 21,415 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $6,517,000 after purchasing an additional 2,040 shares in the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp lifted its position in Accenture by 2.0% during the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 18,846 shares of the information technology services providers stock valued at $5,881,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 16,766 shares of the information technology services providers stock worth $5,232,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Get Accenture alerts: Insider Activity at Accenture In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the companys stock. Analysts Set New Price Targets Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $382.14. Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on ACN Accenture Price Performance ACN stock opened at $317.81 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.66, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The firms 50-day moving average price is $302.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $339.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. Accenture (NYSE:ACN Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accentures revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year. Accenture Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accentures payout ratio is 48.89%. Accenture Profile (Free Report) Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ACN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Accenture Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Accenture and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Partnership Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY Free Report) by 1.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,225 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. Bristol-Myers Squibb makes up about 1.5% of Partnership Wealth Management LLCs holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Partnership Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $1,721,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,597,150 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $90,335,000 after purchasing an additional 60,365 shares in the last quarter. Quilter Plc lifted its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 56.6% in the 4th quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 107,818 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $6,098,000 after purchasing an additional 38,977 shares during the period. Advyzon Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter worth about $458,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the 4th quarter worth about $246,000. Finally, Leo Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 51.5% in the 4th quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 14,965 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 5,085 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.41% of the companys stock. Get Bristol-Myers Squibb alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of research firms have weighed in on BMY. Argus upgraded shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a neutral rating and set a $55.00 price objective (down from $67.00) on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set an overweight rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $58.00. Bristol-Myers Squibb Price Performance NYSE BMY opened at $47.80 on Friday. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a 12 month low of $39.35 and a 12 month high of $63.33. The stock has a market cap of $97.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.81, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.39. The companys 50 day moving average is $50.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.90. Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.30. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a negative net margin of 18.53% and a positive return on equity of 13.93%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $10.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($4.40) EPS. The firms revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current year. Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. Bristol-Myers Squibbs payout ratio is currently 92.88%. Insider Activity In related news, EVP Samit Hirawat acquired 4,250 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $47.58 per share, for a total transaction of $202,215.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 83,513 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,973,548.54. This represents a 5.36% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.09% of the companys stock. About Bristol-Myers Squibb (Free Report) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BMY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Bristol-Myers Squibb Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bristol-Myers Squibb and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Howard Financial Services LTD. increased its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Free Report) by 10.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 701 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.s holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $579,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LLY. Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 5,575 shares of the companys stock worth $4,604,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Baring Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Baring Financial LLC now owns 299 shares of the companys stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Legacy Private Trust Co. lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Legacy Private Trust Co. now owns 10,257 shares of the companys stock worth $8,471,000 after buying an additional 641 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 15.9% in the 1st quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 7,486 shares of the companys stock worth $6,183,000 after buying an additional 1,027 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Eli Lilly and Company by 68.0% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,961 shares of the companys stock worth $1,620,000 after buying an additional 794 shares during the period. 82.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. Get Eli Lilly and Company alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In LLY has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res cut Eli Lilly and Company from a strong-buy rating to a moderate sell rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Eli Lilly and Company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued an overweight rating and a $975.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Eli Lilly and Company from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Eli Lilly and Company from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lowered their target price for the company from $892.00 to $888.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $1,011.37. Insider Buying and Selling at Eli Lilly and Company In other Eli Lilly and Company news, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 1,000 shares of Eli Lilly and Company stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $818.24, for a total value of $818,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,840 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,778,521.60. This trade represents a 14.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders. Eli Lilly and Company Stock Up 0.2% Shares of NYSE:LLY opened at $720.91 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $779.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $800.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $683.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.56, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.48. Eli Lilly and Company has a 12-month low of $677.09 and a 12-month high of $972.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $3.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $4.64 by ($1.30). The company had revenue of $12.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $12.77 billion. Eli Lilly and Company had a net margin of 23.51% and a return on equity of 85.24%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 45.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Eli Lilly and Company will post 23.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Eli Lilly and Company Announces Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Eli Lilly and Companys payout ratio is 48.82%. About Eli Lilly and Company (Free Report) Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; Jardiance, Mounjaro, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes; and Zepbound for obesity. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding LLY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Eli Lilly and Company Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Eli Lilly and Company and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Welch Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA Free Report) by 3.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,002 shares of the credit services providers stock after acquiring an additional 476 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLCs holdings in Mastercard were worth $8,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Whalerock Point Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Whalerock Point Partners LLC now owns 14,678 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $7,729,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,237 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $35,932,000 after purchasing an additional 2,931 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 71,862 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $37,841,000 after purchasing an additional 1,194 shares during the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 5,612 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $2,955,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baldwin Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 1,731 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the companys stock. Get Mastercard alerts: Mastercard Stock Up 0.3% Mastercard stock opened at $577.36 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $543.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $539.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $526.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.57, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.06. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $428.86 and a twelve month high of $588.45. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Mastercard ( NYSE:MA Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The credit services provider reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.57 by $0.16. Mastercard had a return on equity of 188.47% and a net margin of 45.71%. The firm had revenue of $7.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.31 EPS. Mastercards quarterly revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current year. A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MA shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Mastercard from $618.00 to $665.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their price objective on Mastercard from $595.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. DZ Bank upgraded Mastercard from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $620.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup increased their price target on Mastercard from $650.00 to $652.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Mastercard from $605.00 to $670.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $608.57. Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Mastercard Insider Activity at Mastercard In other Mastercard news, insider Edward Grunde Mclaughlin sold 7,132 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $534.68, for a total transaction of $3,813,337.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 34,524 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $18,459,292.32. This trade represents a 17.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Michael Miebach sold 15,775 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.16, for a total value of $8,678,774.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,871 shares of the companys stock, valued at $46,692,629.36. The trade was a 15.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,207 shares of company stock valued at $12,664,529 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the companys stock. Mastercard Profile (Free Report) Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Mastercard Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Mastercard and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. During a hearing at the Baku Military Court on Friday, victim Elchin Shirinov testified that he was hit and injured by the Smerch missile fired by the Armenian armed forces while driving VAZ 21074 vehicle through Barda city on October 28 at about 13 p.m, Trend reports. The victim added that he had sustained life-threatening shrapnel injuries. Barda came under intensive Smerch missile attacks, resulting in multiple casualties and injured, he said. The court proceedings continue against Armenian nationals accused of crimes including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, aggression, terrorism, and violations of the laws of war. The charges also include financing of terrorism, the violent seizure and retention of power, and other serious offenses. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. President of the Republic of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevics, sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports. "Your Excellency, On behalf of the people of Latvia and me personally, allow me to extend my sincere congratulations and best wishes on the Independence Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Latvia and Azerbaijan have developed dynamic bilateral relations that continue to expand, encompassing new areas of mutual interest. Our well-established people-to-people contacts constitute an important basis for further collaboration between our countries. With great pleasure I recall our recent meeting and exchange of views in Davos, Switzerland, and look forward to further developing our relations to ensure that our people thrive in peace and security. Latvia believes that deeper engagement between the European Union and Azerbaijan can bring tangible benefits for both sides, including strengthened economic development and enhanced regional stability; therefore, Latvia will continue to support the efforts to strengthen this dialogue. In these turbulent times, when the international rules-based system is being seriously tested, I invite you, Mr. President, to work closely together in multilateral fora in support of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration, along with best wishes for continued success in your leadership and the peace and prosperity for your country and its people," the letter reads. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel An Irish man is in an induced coma after sustaining serious injuries after falling from a seventh-storey building in Lithuania last week. David 'Daithi' Manley, from Oulart, Co Wexford suffered a severed spinal cord and multiple broken bones in the fall, which happened at around 11am local time last Monday. He is currently being treated in intensive care in a Lithuanian hospital. According to his family, David has no movement or feeling from below his chest. His condition deteriorated this week, and he was placed into an induced coma following respiratory failure on Monday night. "He went into respiratory failure, and they had no choice but to put him back into an induced coma," David's sister Aoife Manley wrote in a GoFundMe campaign update on Tuesday. In an earlier update posted on Monday, Aoife said David had been able to speak with hospital staff and make jokes when he had the energy to do so. "His mind is good there's been no brain damage," she wrote. "He is doing small chatting and still managing to make some funny jokes." Doctors are monitoring David's heart and lungs closely, with concerns he could develop pneumonia. Surgery on his spine is planned once his condition stabilises. A GoFundMe campaign launched by his family has raised more than 54,000 towards a 100,000 goal. The funds will help cover travel, accommodation, and medical expenses, as well as necessary renovations to the family's home to support David's long-term care. The 'Help get Daithi home' campaign describes David's condition as serious, but the family hope he may be transferred to a hospital in Ireland in the coming weeks. "We are beyond grateful," Aoife wrote. "Everything is going to help so much in regards to family flying over, accommodation, and the changes we will be doing when we get home to make our house accessible for David." The fundraiser has received over 850 donations to date. Those wishing to support the GoFundMe campaign can do so by clicking HERE. READ MORE | June Bank Holiday weather will be record-breaking amid Met Eireann's latest forecast In a report published on Friday, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has revealed that 15,580 individuals across the country accessed emergency accommodation in the month of April. The Monthly Homeless Report for April 2025 has shown that the dependence on emergency accommodation across the country continues to increase amid the ongoing housing crisis. Among the startling figures of adults seeking emergency help are thousands of children and families. Over 4,775 children made up the total number of those accessing emergency accommodation in Ireland, with 3,559 children in emergency accommodation in just Dublin alone. There are 2,245 families in emergency accommodation, 58% of these families are single parent families. Again, the region with the highest figures is Dublin with 1,565. READ NEXT: Irish man injured in horror seven-storey building fall abroad as donations flood in Other notable regions with high numbers of children accessing emergency accommodation include the Mid-East which includes Kildare, Meath and Wicklow with 219 children, the Mid-West which includes Limerick and Clare with 225, and the West which includes Galway, Mayo and Roscommon with 230. Alongside Dublin, these areas also see the highest overall figures of homelessness as well as the South-West which includes Cork and Kerry. When it comes to the demographic of homeless people, it appears that men are most likely to find themselves in need of emergency accommodation. According to this report, 61% of adults in emergency accommodation in April were men while 39% were women. As well as this, over 53% of adults who are in emergency accommodation are in the 25-44 age bracket. This equates to 5,741 people or around one-third of the overall figure of homeless individuals in the country. According to the report, over 7,393 of those in emergency accommodation in Ireland are in Private Emergency Accommodation which includes hotels, B&Bs and other facilities. Meanwhile, 3,305 are in Supported Temporary Accommodation which includes family hubs and hostels. Then there's Temporary Emergency Accommodation which has minimal or no support. This report states that 133 individuals are availing of this. One of the leading conservative writers in the nation recently offered a scathing summary of recent courthouse drama. Jack Cashill's latest column for Ingram's is PACKED with important insights that should resonate with most local voters regardless party affiliation. Two insights stood out for us . . . He offers praise for progressive Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca after a demand for an investigation of the Exec. And, maybe even more importantly . . . This passage takes aim at the Executive in no uncertain terms and is a MUST READ for voters . . . Although a Democrat, on April 21, Manny joined two other county legislators in sending a letter to Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey calling for an investigation into Jackson County Executive Frank White, also a Democrat. The real threat to democracy, it turns out, is Frank White. His ability to weather scandal after scandal in this one-party county makes people question democracys value. For now, the only way to contain the threat is for other Democrats to do what (Jackson County Legislator Manny) Abarca IV didcall their own man out. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Ingram's: The Real Threat to Democracy Actually . . . One of our biggest worries about out neighbors is their consistent population decline and the scary fact that Kansas is quickly running out of ground water. In the meantime, amid so much posturing & politicking to lure the biz of billionaires in hopes that the region can live off their crumbs . . . We notice a bit of economic data fired back across the State Line whilst STAR bonds might or might not run out . . . Here's the word that's worth considering inasmuch as most of the conversation surrounding this topic has been COMPLETELY MANUFACTURED and mostly serves to mislead voters, plebs & taxpayers one way or another . . . Economists say Kansas cant afford both teams. You are not going to generate enough net revenue to cover one of the facilities, let alone two, said Geoffrey Propheter, an associate professor of public finance at the University of Colorado Denver. Propheter did say theres a way Kansas could afford both stadiums, but that requires cannibalizing activity from other businesses. A majority of Kansas lawmakers disagree, and say getting the Chiefs or Royals is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But whether STAR bonds can support one or two teams depends on who you ask. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . MOIndie: Experts question whether Kansas can afford its plan to lure Royals, Chiefs from Missouri Developing . . . Apropos for #TBT tonight . . . Let's start with a debate that only oldheads will remember: What more astute Kansas City new watchers might have learned is this: A "skirmish line" betwixt police and protesters is a dumb idea. We're willing to debate with law enforcement efforts about "kettling" but that's not what happened in Kansas City during the riots after the murder of George Floyd . . . Instead, police were involved with a standoff with protesters and the rank & file took HORRIFIC injuries from bottles, rocks & all manner of debris thrown their way. What we witnessed during those two weeks was Kansas City police & Missouri State authorities caught by surprise in the midst of massive American civil unrest. To be fair, we know that local police have learned a lot from this moment in American history. Also . . . The Kansas City police chief kneeling with Mayor Q only served to embarrass everyone even he claims he didn't mean it in hindsight. And now . . . Here's a community based consideration of the events . . . At Mill Creek Park on the Country Club Plaza, where demonstrations erupted in May 2020, community members gathered to reflect on the progress made and the work that remains. Demonstrators recall scenes of chaos that unfolded during the protests. People recall shielding their eyes from tear gas, seeing water bottles thrown, and people getting trampled in the crowd. That situation that day, man, it changed the look of America, said Pat Clarke, a longtime community outreach advocate who was on the ground trying to de-escalate tensions. Personal aside if you've made it this far . . . Mr. Clarke is pretty great and if you're lucky enough to catch him off-mic and off-record he might have even more things to say about local politics that will find common ground with nearly every plain spoken denizen of the discourse. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . KCTV5: A breaking point Kansas City Activists reflect on five years after George Floyd protests You decide . . . Tonight we share more than a few things we'd like to mention and share by way of pop culture, community reporting and top headlines for our most dedicated late night & early morning readers. Check TKC news gathering . . . Firefighter Updates After Tragedy Kansas City, Missouri, implements multiple safety changes following deadly Westport crash KCFD and the city of Kansas City, Missouri, have implemented several safety measures in the years following a deadly crash in Westport that claimed the lives of three people. Burnout In The Burbs One person taken to hospital after Merriam house fire Crews from Overland Park, Shawnee and Consolidated Fire Dist. #2 were call to the fire at 72nd and Antioch, just before 2:30 p.m. The Dotte Pays For Data Future Multibillion-dollar data center proposal makes its way to Kansas City, Kansas The latest development proposal in KCK would sit about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway. The planning commission recommended rezoning several hundred acres for a data center. Neighborhood Reclaim Cont'd Westwood extends deadline to buy school after voters reject development Westwood, Kansas voters rejected an office project in April after filing a lawsuit to force a public vote. Economic Reality Confronts Summer Break Fun Times Kansas City Worlds of Fun staff among swath of Six Flags layoffs after merger Six Flags CEO Richard Zimmerman said earlier this month the company was reducing full-time staff by more than 10% across the company. Junk TV Legacy Kept Tight Baywatch's Donna D'Errico looks shockingly youthful in iconic swimsuit Donna D'Errico proved that she's been keeping her famous figure up in a sizzling new post. Trade War Confronts Supreme Judgement Trump tariffs case could head to Supreme Court as soon as Friday The White House appeal comes as a second court declares many of Trump's tariffs unlawful. Dems Admit Moment Of Doubt Rising Michigan Democrat says she was 'going to punch someone' over party's 'annoying' economic gaslighting Sen. Elissa Slotkin called out Democrats for making voters feel "stupid" by constantly telling them the economy was fine under the Biden administration. New Rules: G-Men Must Share Pride Privately FBI Tells Employees No 'Pride' Activities On Company Time Pride month celebrations at The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office will not be permitted this June, leadership told agents and directors Thursday. Tesla King Now Motivated To Take Part In Midterms?!? Dem Rep. Subramanyam: Musk Likely Committed Crimes, Once in Power Dems Will Investigate Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) accused Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of committing crime Thursday on MSNBC's "The Weeknight." | Clips Political Small World After All After Rubio seeks to revoke their visas, Chinese students say U.S. resembles the country they left Chinese students say they're questioning their decision to study in the U.S. after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the federal government will attempt to "aggressively" revoke their visas. Holy Land Deal Delayed Again Hamas official says it rejects new US Gaza ceasefire plan backed by Israel The US says Israel has "signed off" on envoy Steve Witkoff's plan and that it is waiting for a formal response from Hamas. Vlad Shows No Mercy Against Ukraine Ukraine awaits Russia's truce terms, talks 'barely' alive - DW - 05/30/2025 Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said Russia was engaging in "yet another deception" by failing to present its peace settlement proposal ahead of a potential meeting between the two sides. Reheating Global Warming Fear Swiss glacier collapse renews focus on risks of climate change as glaciers retreat around the world The landslide that buried a Swiss village and riverbed is refocusing attention on the role of global warming in glacier collapses around the world. Wall Street Mocks MAGA Trump lashes out over viral 'TACO trade' meme. What does it stand for? President Donald Trump was confronted with an acronym pointed at his trade policy this week. Should've Been An Energy Drink Sydney Sweeney Teams Up with Dr. Squatch to Release a Bar of Soap Made From Her Bathwater - and the Internet Is Divided Sydney Sweeney and Dr. Squatch have teamed up to sell a soap made from her bathwater that is limited to 5,000 bars. Fans of the actress have mixed opinions about Sweeney selling soap made from her bathwater. Celeb Local Tribute . . . 'This town is really special': Actor, KC native Rob Riggle talks Big Slick's growth, impact Riggle praised Children's Mercy and his hometown of Kansas City ahead of this year's Big Slick on May 30-31. The annual event has raised more than $24 million for Children's Mercy since 2010. Stumping In The Dotte Mayoral candidate Christal Watson hopes to revitalize Kansas City, Kansas, in more ways than one KSHB 41's Rachel Henderson spoke with Christal Watson as a part of her effort to introduce Wyandotte County to all mayoral candidates running in 2025. Megachurch Invests In South Side Kingdom come: Massive church takes over retail spaces at State Line Point Congregation has big plans for north portion of shopping center Foodie Scene From Chuck Kansas City Restaurant Openings, Closings, and News - May 2025 Seasons 52 has closed on the Country Club Plaza. The closing was rather abrupt, according to employees. The long running store has been a fixture on the south side of the Country Club Plaza. It was part of the Darden Restaurants restaurant chain (Ruth's Chris Steak House, Eddie V's Prime Seafood, and The Capital Grille). Katie's Forecast For Friday . . . Kansas City weather: Rain Thursday evening, warmer weekend ahead Kansas City faces a Thursday evening rain chance before enjoying a sunny and warm weekend. Storm chances rise next week, with Tuesday as the most active day. And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. The last remaining local radio listeners are still confused as to why Lazlo outlasted Johnny Dare on Kansas City airwaves. Dare had more fans, more enthusiasm and a record of delivering a bigger audience. Meanwhile . . . Lazlo is great, he also has a ton of fans and very enthusiastic following but not the same kind of diehard allegiance . . . And, let's be brutally honest, Laz is sometimes hard to listen to and works better as the moderator of a group conversation. Here's one explanation as to how corporate radio picks one jock over the next in the current economic climate . . . LAZLO IS MORE LIKELY TO BE THE NEXT LIBERAL JOE ROGAN FUNDED BY EPIC DEMOCRATIC PARTY CASH!!! Make no mistake . . . Dare's politics are egalitarian and strongly supportive of the working-class. HOWEVER . . . In all of Kansas City local radio, only Lazlo has the ability to deep dive into partisan politics and utilize his team to parody and brutally mock conservative politicos. This reason alone is why Lazlo is far more likely to compete for that sweet progressive funding that will soon be distributed for midterm election season. To be fair, every talker in the nation is now chasing the money offered to replace Rogan. We merely note that Lazlo leads the pack in our cowtown . . . Now, take a peek at the big picture . . . A group of liberal operatives met in Washington after the election and decided to come up with a for-profit media company called AND Media, or "Achieve Narrative Dominance," to financially support social media influencers. The company aims to raise $45 million over the next four years and has already raised $7 million, according to the report. Their business plan, shared with the Times, says the company will directly fund influencers and help produce their content. They will make a creator talent agency and make deals with "four flagship creators." Another effort in the works is called Project Bullhorn, which will also gather donations to support liberal content creators. The project, which aims to raise $35 million in its first year, was pitched to donors at a meeting this month, where Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was reportedly in attendance. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Fox News: Democrats seeking to buy the 'next Joe Rogan' of the left after 2024 election defeat Developing . . . BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. On May 30, Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, made a phone call to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, Trend reports. During the telephone conversation, both Presidents expressed their satisfaction with the development of relations, especially emphasizing the high-level reciprocal visits and the enhancement of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. Recalling that he received a delegation of business representatives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday, President Ilham Aliyev touched upon the fruitful discussions held during the meeting. During the phone conversation, the heads of state hailed the close cooperation and the constant mutual support between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates within international organizations. They also exchanged views on the prospects for relations and upcoming contacts. Bidinn, Indias first name-your-price hotel booking platform, announces a major milestonepartnering with over 2,500 hotels and resorts across the country. (TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - May 30th, 2025 - Noida Sector 65, India May 30th, 2025 In a landmark development for the travel and hospitality industry, Bidinn, Indias leading bidding-based hotel booking platform, has announced that it has surpassed 2,500 partner hotels across key destinations in India. This milestone cements Bidinns position as a game-changing solution for price-sensitive and value-conscious travelers looking to book premium stays across India. With the summer travel season in full swing, Bidinns platform is transforming how Indians approach hotel booking allowing users to bid their own price and save up to 50% compared to traditional travel portals. A Revolution in the Indian Hotel Booking Space: Founded with a mission to democratize travel and give more pricing control to users, Bidinn operates on a unique bidding model. Rather than accepting fixed rates, users can: Select their travel destination and dates Choose from a list of partner hotels or resorts Enter the price theyre willing to pay Get instant responses from hotels that accept or counter the bid This reverse-auction approach is not only new to Indian travelers, but it is also proving to be a powerful tool to unlock luxury at a lower cost, especially during peak travel seasons like summer 2025. We didnt just want to build another hotel booking platform; we wanted to empower the traveler, said Rupsi Singh, Co-Founder & CEO of Bidinn. With over 2,500 partner properties onboarded, we are now offering our users access to some of the best hotels in India but on their own terms and pricing preferences. Expansive Network of Properties Across India: Bidinns growing inventory includes hotels and resorts across major tourist hotspots such as: Goa, Jaipur, Udaipur, Delhi NCR Shimla, Manali, Mussoorie, Ooty Pondicherry, Kovalam, Munnar, Rishikesh Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad From boutique resorts to recognized 4-star and 5-star properties, Bidinns partnerships ensure a wide spectrum of stay options for families, solo travelers, remote workers, and luxury vacationers alike. Hotels benefit from the platform by getting access to a new revenue stream filling unsold inventory in real time without compromising on brand positioning. Many hotels now use Bidinn to increase weekday occupancy and reach untapped customer segments. Why Travelers Love Bidinn? A recent survey conducted by Bidinn revealed that 78% of users saved more than 30% on their bookings using the platform, compared to other booking sites. In the era of dynamic pricing, this kind of user-centric flexibility is rare. Here are a few reviews from recent Bidinn users: Ritika Mehra, Mumbai : We got a beach-facing suite in Goa at 40% off by simply bidding our price. The app experience was smooth, and we booked our stay within 10 minutes! Sameer Desai, Pune : Bidinn is genius. Why should we pay full price when rooms are available at a discount? I saved 4,000 on my Udaipur resort last month. Priyanka Nair, Bangalore: I love the flexibility. The platform makes you feel like youre in control. Bid, wait for a response, and grab the deal! These testimonials underline the platforms growing reputation as the go-to option for travelers who want more control, transparency, and value. Built for 2025s Spontaneous, Smart Traveler: With travel behavior evolving post-pandemic, Indian travelers in 2025 are now more spontaneous, digitally savvy, and focused on value-driven experiences. Bidinns model aligns perfectly with this shift. Whether its a weekend getaway or a last-minute workation, the platform allows users to quickly search hotels near their location, filter by amenities, and bid without long comparison cycles or inflated prices. Smart travel doesnt mean spending lessit means getting more for what you spend, added CEO Rupsi Singh. Bidinn gives users premium value at their price. Whats Next for Bidinn in 2025: After achieving the 2,500 hotel milestone, Bidinn is now setting its sights on: Expanding into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to support local tourism Launching exclusive seasonal offers with up to 50% off on luxury stays Integrating AI for smarter bid suggestions , helping users place optimal offers Collaborating with corporate partners to facilitate bleisure and workation packages Additionally, the Bidinn team is preparing to launch curated collections like "Hill Retreats Under 2,000" and "Luxury at Budget" designed to make browsing and booking easier for themed travel. How to Get Started Anyone can start using Bidinn by: Downloading the Bidinn App (available on iOS and Android) Visiting the official website Browsing destinations or searching for hotels based on location, date, and amenities Placing a bid and getting real-time confirmation About Bidinn: Bidinn is Indias first hotel booking platform that allows users to name their own price. With over 2,500+ hotel and resort partners, Bidinn gives travelers the flexibility to save up to 50% on hotel stays by placing their own bids instead of accepting fixed rates. Bidinn is committed to making travel more affordable, transparent, and user-driven in 2025 and beyond. For media inquiries, interviews, or partnerships, please contact: ### . . . . BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Azerbaijan is a crucial partner for Croatia in the South Caucasus region, said Branko Zebic, Croatian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Trend reports. Speaking at a reception marking Croatias Statehood Day, Zebic highlighted Croatias journey since gaining independence in the early 1990s, noting the countrys significant progress as a modern democratic state and its recent integration (2023) into the Schengen Area and Eurozone. Today, we enjoy all the benefits of the common European market with nearly 500 million people, he said. Discussing bilateral ties, Zebic highlighted the solid partnership between the two nations, especially after Croatia threw open the doors of its embassy in Baku back in 2019. We are proud that during this time there have been multiple high-level visits from Zagreb to Baku, including the historic first visit of the Croatian prime minister to Azerbaijan last year, the ambassador said. Zebic also expressed gratitude to Azerbaijans Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fariz Rzayev, for attending the reception as an honorary guest and extended congratulations to the Azerbaijani people on their Independence Day. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. President of Romania, Nicusor Dan, sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports. "Mr. President, I congratulate you on the celebration of the National Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan, together with my wishes for prosperity and peace for the Azerbaijani people. Your country is a strategic, close and reliable partner for Romania in the South Caucasus region. The close relationship between our countries is based on sound principles and common goals. The numerous ongoing projects between Romania and the Republic of Azerbaijan, both bilaterally and regionally, eloquently reflect the intensity of our bilateral cooperation. I hereby reconfirm Romania's full support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, within its internationally recognized borders. At the same time, I reconfirm Romania's commitment to strengthening and deepening our Strategic Partnership, on all levels. I am fully convinced that, through our sustained efforts, bilateral cooperation between Romania and the Republic of Azerbaijan will continue to develop in areas of particular significance such as energy, connectivity, education and trade. At the same time, Romania will remain actively involved in promoting a harmonious, constructive and forward-looking relationship between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the European Union. Please accept, Mr. President, the assurance of my highest consideration," the letter says. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31. Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, COP29 Chief Negotiator Yalcin Rafiyev participated in the conference "Bridging COP29 with COP30: Diplomacy, Action and the Way Forward in the Fight Against Climate Change" held on May 30 in Istanbul and organized by the Consulate General of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Istanbul, Trend reports with reference to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. In addition to Deputy Minister Rafiyev, the panel discussions held within the framework of the conference were attended by Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of Turkiye Fatma Varank, Vice-Rector of Bogazici University Professor Dr. Gurkan Selcuk Kumbaroglu and CEO of VAT Energy Murat Altug Karatas. Deputy Minister Yalcin Rafiyev, who spoke at the event, said that the decisions taken at COP29 are of historic significance, in particular, the achieved result on climate financing is the largest climate financing decision agreed upon through negotiations in the UN system, and it is three times higher than the previous financial indicator. It was noted that, based on the COP29 mandate, the Azerbaijani and Brazilian presidencies are currently working on preparing a report on the "Baku to Belem Roadmap" to increase climate finance to $1.3 trillion, and that the report is planned to be presented at COP30. The Deputy Minister said that the conclusion of the negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which had been fruitless for 10 years since its adoption, was achieved in Baku under the leadership of Azerbaijan, and thus the launch of the carbon trading mechanism was another important historical event. It was noted that, in addition to the direction of the negotiations, important initiatives have been announced under the COP29 President's Action Plan, and the number of state and non-state actors joining them has been steadily growing. Yalcin Rafiyev also emphasized that Turkiye is a worthy candidate to host COP31 and wished the brotherly state success in this direction. He noted that if Turkiye wins the right to host the next COP, Azerbaijan is ready to share its successful experience with colleagues from the brotherly state and provide the necessary support. During the visit, the Deputy Minister held bilateral meetings with the Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of Turkiye Fatma Varank, as well as the Secretaries General of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the D8 Economic Cooperation Organization. Vietnam Briefing has developed into a premium source for insight on doing business in Vietnam. It publishes business news concerning foreign direct investment into Vietnam, including the most important tax, legal and accounting issues. The Vietnam Briefing Magazine was first published in 2009, and is contributed to by investment professionals based in Vietnam. By Nazrin Abdul On May 29, Dima Al-Khatib, Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), met with a delegation from the Agency for State Support to NGOs of the Republic of Azerbaijan in New York. Dima Al-Khatib welcomed the establishment of the Global South NGO Platform, which was launched in Baku on April 28 with the participation of NGOs from 116 countries. We highly appreciate the initiative of the Global South NGO Platform. Overall, we value the Azerbaijani government's policy toward the Global South, as well as the support it extends to NGOs, Al-Khatib stated. She noted that the UNOSSC is interested in close cooperation with the Global South NGO Platform. Aygun Aliyeva, Executive Director of the Agency for State Support to NGOs, emphasized the agencys role as a partner in supporting this global initiative. She expressed satisfaction that the idea for the platform originated from Azerbaijani civil society during COP29. Al-Khatib also praised Azerbaijans successful presidency of COP29, highlighting the significance and outcomes of the event held in Baku last year. The implementation of the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev No. 718 dated June 3, 2019, on the creation of the Government Cloud (G-cloud) and the provision of cloud services, continues. As part of the implementation of the Decree, another state institution AzerGold Closed Joint-Stock Company (CJSC) has migrated its information systems and resources to the Government Cloud. The companys core digital assets have been fully transferred to the Baku Data Center, operated by AzInTelecom LLC, which is part of AZCON Holding. AzInTelecom has provided AzerGold with cloud services including Virtual Server IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and Backup BaaS (Backup-as-a-Service). As a result, the institution has achieved high availability of its critical systems. It should be noted that within the framework of the Government Cloud project, the full or partial migration of state institutions IT systems to the Baku Main and Yevlakh Backup Data Centers, maintained by AzInTelecom, is being carried out. As a result of the migration, institutions' current IT costs are reduced, and information systems' efficiency is improved. This ensures enhanced information security, a resilient IT infrastructure, high-quality service delivery, and 24/7 monitoring support. "AzInTelecom" LLC is the first organization in Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus region to obtain the international compliance certificate "TIER III." US President Donald Trump celebrated a temporary legal win as a court preserved his aggressive tariffs, triggering mixed reactions Friday across jittery financial markets. The short-term relief will allow the appeals process to proceed after the US Court of International Trade barred most of the tariffs announced since Trump took office, ruling on Wednesday that he had overstepped his authority. Welcoming the latest twist in legal skirmishes over his trade policies, Trump lashed out at the Manhattan-based trade court, calling it "horrible" and saying its blockade should be "quickly and decisively" reversed for good. Asian shares fell on Friday, reversing a rally across world markets the previous day, as the judicial wrangling around Trump's on-again-off-again tariffs fanned uncertainty. Paris, London and Frankfurt were all in the green as EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said following a call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that the bloc was "fully invested" in reaching a deal with the United States. Sefcovic could meet his US trade counterparts in Paris next week on the sidelines of a Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ministerial meeting, an EU official said. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that trade talks with China -- the hardest hit by the tariffs -- were "a bit stalled" and Trump might need to speak to President Xi Jinping in order to iron out tariffs between the world's two biggest economies. "I think that given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity, that this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other," Bessent told Fox News after the ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, known as an administrative stay. Washington and Beijing agreed this month to pause reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, a surprise de-escalation in their bitter trade war following talks between top officials in Geneva. Asked about Bessent's comments at a regular news conference on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing had "stated its position on the tariffs issue many times" in an apparent reference to the Asian manufacturing giant's fury at the levies. Trump has moved to reconfigure US trade ties with the world since returning to the presidency in January, using levies to force foreign governments to the negotiating table. However, the stop-start tariff rollout on both allies and adversaries has roiled markets and snarled supply chains. The White House had been given 10 days to halt affected tariffs before Thursday's decision from the appeals court. The Trump administration called the block "blatantly wrong," expressing confidence that the decision would be overturned on appeal. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the judges "brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump." Leavitt said the Supreme Court "must put an end" to the tariff challenge, while stressing that Trump had other legal means to impose levies. A separate ruling by a federal district judge in the US capital found some Trump levies unlawful as well, giving the administration 14 days to appeal. - 'Hiccups' - Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox Business that "hiccups" sparked by the decisions of "activist judges" would not affect talks with trading partners, adding that three deals were close to finalization. Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters after the appellate stay that the administration had earlier received "plenty of phone calls from countries" who said they would continue to "negotiate in good faith," without identifying those nations. Trump's import levies are aimed partly at punishing economies that sell more to the United States than they buy. The president has argued that trade deficits and the threat posed by drug smuggling constituted a "national emergency" that justified the widespread tariffs -- a notion the Court of International Trade ruled against. Trump unveiled sweeping duties on nearly all trading partners in April at a baseline 10 percent, plus steeper levies on dozens of economies including China and the European Union that have since been paused. The US trade court's ruling quashed those blanket duties, along with others that Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China separately using emergency powers. However, it left intact 25 percent duties on imported autos, steel and aluminum. Beijing -- which was hit by additional 145 percent tariffs before they were temporarily reduced to make space for negotiations -- reacted to the trade court decision by saying Washington should scrap the levies. "China urges the United States to heed the rational voices from the international community and domestic stakeholders and fully cancel the wrongful unilateral tariff measures," said commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian. The trade court was ruling in two separate cases, brought by businesses and a coalition of state governments, arguing that the president had violated Congress's power of the purse. burs-ft/cms/tc The Council of Europe, of which Russia is no longer a member, has decided to create an international criminal tribunal to try Russian crimes in Ukraine. As a matter of fact, neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the current International Criminal Court. As this tribunal will never be endorsed by the United Nations, it will only represent the Council of Europe and the Council of Europe alone. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, meeting on 13 May in Paris, reaffirmed its conclusions on the "war of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine". It said that certain fundamental principles of international law, such as the inviolability of borders and the non-recognition of territorial acquisitions resulting from the use of force, "should not be set aside in ongoing or future peace negotiations." Among these legal considerations, the committee affirms in particular that the Russian war against Ukraine constitutes an act of aggression in violation of Article 2-4 of the United Nations Charter, and that Ukraine is exercising its inherent right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the same Charter. It also added that the illegal annexation of Crimea and other Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia could not be recognized. The Council of Europe does not take into account UN Security Council Resolution 2202. This endorses the Minsk agreements and states that Germany, France and Russia are guarantors of them. Considering that Germany and France were not intervening, Russia launched a special military operation (not a war) to implement this Security Council resolution. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande later said they had never intended to implement the agreements, but only to buy time to arm Ukrainian forces [1]. In addition, the draft resolution adopted by the committee, on the basis of the report by Eerik-Niiles Kross (Estonia, ALDE), underlines that the political and military leaders of Russia, Belarus and North Korea have committed a crime of aggression against Ukraine, which entails the individual criminal responsibility of the leaders concerned, including the Heads of State and Government. The armies of Belarus and North Korea have never intervened within Ukraines internationally recognized borders, but it did participate in Russian military operations on its own territory, especially during the [Ukrainian] invasion of Kursk. The draft resolution also specifies that the multiple attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their allies against Ukraine and its people "constitute war crimes, including serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, as well as crimes against humanity when perpetrated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population". "None of these crimes can be subject to any form of amnesty or statute of limitations under international law," the parliamentarians said. According to the committee, Russia "must face the legal consequences of all internationally wrongful acts it has committed in and against Ukraine", including by making reparation for all the damage caused by these acts to Ukraine and its people. In this context, it underlined the essential role of the Register of Damage for Ukraine, established under the auspices of the Council of Europe, as the first operational element of an international compensation mechanism. The European Court of Human Rights, which is part of the Council of Europe, is the only international court that adjudicates on human rights violations in the context of Russias "war of aggression against Ukraine". "The member States have chosen to establish the Special Court within the framework of the Council of Europe. It is now up to them to follow through on the political will they have expressed. The funding of the Tribunal must also be secured. The path ahead of us is that of justice, and it must prevail," said Secretary General Alain Berset on 14 May. Our director of publication and editor-in-chief directed French magazines several years ago, and has won journalism awards abroad. He has regularly contributed to some fifteen major dailies and magazines around the world. Voltaire, International Newsletter is available by subscription for 500 a year, is published 42 times a year (not in July-August, nor during the Christmas holydays). Its an indispensable tool for any professional in international relations or defense. Whats more, 10 times a year, subscribers are invited to Zoom virtual meetings with publications director Thierry Meyssan. Contents of issue N135 EDITORIAL 3526 The Justice of Victors Who Have Lost AMERICAS 3527 The U.S. Court of International Trade overturns Donald Trumps tariffs 3528 US Secretary of State punishes foreign judges who sanction the freedom of speech of US citizens. 3529 Elon Musk quits DOGE 3530 In the event of war, China would destroy US satellites in the Indo-Pacific 3531 FBI Reopens Three Political Corruption Investigations 3532 Robert Kennedy Jr. modifies the recommendation for everyone of mRNA-based drugs 3533 NPR Challenges Budget Cuts 3534 POTUS Can Fire Federal Agency Executives 3535 Donald Trump Wont audit Fort Knox Gold Stocks 3536 Donald Trumps Mix of Genres EUROPE 3537 Kremlin denies involvement in fires in UK 3538 Anarchist groups cut power in Cannes and Nice 3539 Emmanuel Macron and Benjamin Netanyahu resort to insults 3540 Iran reacts to Jean-Noel Barrots remarks on the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival 3541 How Huawei discreetly approached MEPs 3542 Spain fails to get its regional languages recognized by the EU 3543 Pavel Durov ready to testify in Romania against the French secret services 3544 EU bans publications by two German citizens 3545 Thousands of European officials call for concrete and immediate action against the massacre of Gazas civilian population 3546 Many EU grants are spent without taking into account their negative impact on the fundamental rights of marginalized communities 3547 Nine Council of Europe member states question European Court of Human Rights findings on immigration 3548 Hungary and Slovakia clash with other EU members over the role of NGOs 3549 The EUs strategy to "weaken Russia" 3550 The EU is rethinking its Black Sea strategy without Russia 3551 Hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in Ukraine 3552 Amnesty International, "undesirable" in Russia 3553 Dmitry Medvedev blames the UN AFRICA 3554 FBI Investigation into Hezbollah Funding in Cote dIvoire 3555 Burkina Fasos economic performance 3556 Namibia commemorates the genocide of the Hereros and Namas by the Second Reich 3557 John Dramani Mahama condemns Donald Trumps colonial manipulation ASIA 3558 Israel authorizes GHF to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza 3559 A peace agreement between Israel and Hamas 3560 Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio could coordinate in Syria 3561 EU suspends former unilateral coercive measures against Syria and takes new ones 3562 North Korea condemns the US Golden Dome project INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 3563 Creation of the International Mediation Organization BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. An event dedicated to May 28 - Independence Day was organized at the Azerbaijan House operating in Kawashra village, Lebanon with participation of local Turkmens, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Work with Diaspora told Trend. Teachers of Azerbaijani history and culture, as well as the Turkish language, working at the Azerbaijan House made a joint presentation. Information about the rich historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijan was shared through the presentations. Students were informed about the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), its importance in the history of statehood, and the traditions of independence through interactive methods. The main goal of the event, held in an interesting and educational way for children, was to increase the knowledge of the younger generation about national values and our history and to strengthen their sense of patriotism. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel ITALIAN HOSPITALITY SCHOOL offers accommodation to students and our partners arriving to the city of Rome in the apartments on the Campus, at the same premises where the ITALIAN HOSPITALITY SCHOOL is located. We provide a welcoming home away from home to support your learning and life in the beautiful city of Rome! Accommodation fees: Accommodation in a Double Room: 50 EUR/night per person Accommodation in a Single Room: 110 EUR/night We can also arrange a safe, comfortable and well maintained student accommodation options, both shared and private, in other locations of the city, according to your wishes and budget. Great locations are available, all major city spots within the walking distance St. Peters Basilica, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Piazza Navona, St. Peters Square, Sistine Chapel, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Vatican, Colosseum and many more! If you have any questions about the accommodation, please send an e-mail to our housing team at info@hoschool.it. Typically the accommodation includes: Fully furbished Common living area TV Wi-Fi internet Kitchen with all the utensils, cutlery and cookware Tea/coffee making facilities Washing machine Iron A 13-year-old Mount Sion student is in the battle of his young life after suffering a terrifying health ordeal. Lorek O'Keefe fell ill on May 18 and was rushed to University Hospital Waterford (UHW) with severe chest pain and no movement in his left leg. After a CT scan and blood tests, doctors discovered an aortic dissection, or tear in the main artery (aorta) of his heart. Emergency surgery Last week, Lorek underwent a life-saving 15-hour heart surgery at CHI Crumlin. Surgeons were able to replace his heart valve and repair the top artery to his heart. While the surgery was successful, Lorek suffered three mini-strokes (or Transient Ischemic Attacks) and lost the use of his left leg. Unfortunately, a second aneurysm was found in his aorta that is currently inoperable. Lorek will need to undergo more surgery to keep the blood flow to his brain. He has also sustained injuries on the arteries leading the brain. Financial difficulties Lorek's parents are now caring for him full-time and have had to give up work for the time being. The situation has been devastating not only emotionally but also financially for the whole family. A GoFundMe has been opened to help Lorek and his family during this terrible time. Money raised will go to covering "medical costs, transport, accommodation near the hospital, and to support Loreks recovery journey". There will also be a number of local fundraising events to help Lorek and his family, with donations welcome. Mount Sion issued a statement about Lorek encouraging people to donate: "Lorek is a kind, funny, and thoughtful young man. He is the first to look out for others and is cherished by his friends and staff members alike. "As a school community, we want to support Lorek and his family in any way we can." At the time of writing, the GoFundMe had raised 12,870 of the 16,000 target. PwC Azerbaijan demonstrated its deep expertise in tax strategy and private wealth planning at a high-level seminar hosted by Henley & Partners Turkey in collaboration with Pasha Private Banking. The event, held on 22 May 2025 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baku, convened leading advisors and high-net-worth individuals to discuss modern approaches to wealth preservation and tax planning. Representing PwC, Ms. Gunel Sadiyeva, Tax Director and Leader of the Tax, Legal, and People Practice at PwC Azerbaijan, contributed expert insights during the wealth advisory panel discussion. Key Topics Addressed Ms. Sadiyeva focused on core questions faced by private investors and business owners, including: The distinction between ownership-level concerns (such as succession planning and wealth structuring) and operational issues within business management. Strategies for balancing growth aspirations with long-term wealth preservation, especially in a fast-evolving regulatory environment. Most common collective investment vehicles suitable for investment in real estate and other legal instruments that are widely used for effective wealth preservation. Critical considerations in setting up a family office, including jurisdiction, governance, and alignment with business and personal wealth objectives. Role of data in wealth management. A Global Network of Solutions As part of PwCs international network, PwC Azerbaijan offers clients access to a wide array of specialized tools, legal structuring expertise, and wealth advisory resources. Whether navigating local regulations or international structuring, PwC supports clients with a future-ready, globally informed perspective. Our goal is to create a symbiotic relationship between business growth and personal wealth preservation, leveraging PwC's global expertise in both private business and wealth management. We help align business strategy with personal wealth goals and optimize corporate and personal asset structures to separate business risks from personal wealth, said Ms. Sadiyeva. Supporting Clients Through Every Stage PwC Azerbaijan continues to serve as a trusted advisor to entrepreneurs, family-owned businesses, and high-net-worth individualshelping them anticipate risks, structure their assets wisely, and unlock opportunities for long-term success. Info about PwC At PwC, we help clients build trust and reinvent so they can turn complexity into competitive advantage. Were a tech-forward, people-empowered network with more than 370,000 people in 149 countries. Across audit and assurance, tax and legal, deals and consulting, we help build, accelerate, and sustain momentum. Over 150 professionals working in PwC Azerbaijan share their thinking, values, experience, and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice for our clients. A local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream went down a treat last week as part of the Backwater Valley Opera Festival. Celebrating its 15th anniversary year, Irelands leading summer opera festival ran for eight days and featured world-class performances and dining experiences. They took place in historic homes and venues in Lismore, Youghal, Dungarvan, and Castlemartyr. The festival also features programmes that brought opera and classical music to new audiences. One of the major highlights of the 2025 festival programme was Benjamin Britten's, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. There were four performances of the celebrated work staged in the majestic grounds of Lismore Castle. This was the first time in the festival's history that a 20th-century opera took centre stage. The opera brought to life a tale of magic, mischief, romance, and comedy, centred on the quarrel between Fairy-King Oberon and Queen Titania. Featuring an all-Irish cast of performers, under the direction of Tony Award-winning, Patrick Mason, the production brought together the Irish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy, and the Childrens Chorus, including young voices from Piccolo Lasso and the BVOF Discover Singing Education Programme. Blackwater Valley Opera Festival has evolved from a 2010 pop-up event into an established flagship festival for Waterford attracting thousands of visitors each year. The festival celebrates opera, classical music events, and dining at stunning venues including Lismore Castle and the semi-restored Dromore Yard. Over 100 performers got involved across 23 events at 12 venues during the festival. Staff at Supervalu Hypercentre have gone above and beyond to help a Waterford family in need. Nicola and Adam Doyle were on a holiday of a lifetime in California with their three young children when Adam suffered a terrible accident. He was a patient at the Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose and needed emergency surgery to remove two discs from his neck. Marie Dalton at the Hypercentre. Photo: Joe Evans The family are facing financial difficulties as Adam recuperates. The accident has drained their finances. The family are eager to return home to Ireland and are in contact with the Irish consulate. The situation is having a terrible effect on the whole family, especially the children, who are aged 13, 11 and eight months. According to Nicola, as of May 29, Adam has one more medical appointment in the US and should be fit to fly home to Ireland. She wrote on GoFundMe: "Adam can continue his rehabilitation at home, which I'm thrilled about. We can't wait to be free of this situation." Their plight has stirred their community here in Waterford into action. At Supervalu, staff have launched a bucket appeal and raffle draw to help the family in their struggles. Nicola worked in the Supervalu Hypercentre for many years and is still a cherished friend to both staff and customers. Adam was a patient at the Good Samaritan Hospital, San Diego, California. Appeal Staff member Marie Dalton told Waterford News and Star about the great response so far. Buckets have been placed on the checkout counters and in the staff room. The shop is selling off raffle tickets for a massive hamper, stuffed with chocolate, crisps, wine and cake. The appeal was launched on Thursday and is expected to last throughout the June Bank Holiday weekend, a typically busy time for the outlet. Manager Pat Sinnott told the News and Star: "We are going to have a bucket collection in store Thursday and Friday for anyone who wants to donate and also will have some draw prizes like a 100 hamper, air fryers, wine and chocolates for anyone donating." Photographer Joe Evans captured the great efforts made to help ease the family's ordeal. The Vita Community Hub has taken home the award for Best Day Care Centre award at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards. The RehabCare disability support service scoped the award for championing community inclusion for its 24 members by creating an environment that empowers and facilitates personal and professional growth. Initiatives included community engagement and a job activation programme. These innovative programmes on offer have helped individuals with disabilities to achieve greater independence and a higher quality of life. Vita Programme Supervisor James OHalloran said they are thrilled to have won the award. We have been on a high all week since winning this award. The team is thrilled to have achieved this national recognition for our dynamic educational, advocacy, and employment programmes at Vita. "This award is a testament to the unique impact of our service and the difference it has made to peoples lives, Mr O'Halloran said. In addition, the promotion of third-level education is a top priority for the Vita team. In collaboration with South East Technological University Humanities department, staff in Vita developed a pilot project, which allowed its members to study a hospitality course in the college. Throughout the academic year, individuals from Vita worked alongside hospitality students in the SETU training restaurant and ran the Growth Cafe on campus. The judges credited the service for developing a unique staged job activation programme, focused on harnessing each individuals essential job skills. Community collaboration is key for the programmes success, with the Vita team actively creating multiple partnerships with employers throughout the locality. Broadcaster Martin King was on MC duty at the ceremony in the Clayton Hotel Dublin, leading the evenings celebrations with good humour and charm. Hundreds of leaders and representatives from the disability and healthcare sectors gathered for the prestigious event to celebrate outstanding achievements in service provision. Waterfords coastline was recently recognised by An Taisce as four beaches were awarded the prestigious Blue Flag while six received the Green Coast Award Flags. Ardmore, Clonea, Tramore and Counsellors Strand in Dunmore East all received the Blue Flag, while Newtown Cove, Guillamene Cove, Kilfarrassey, Ballyquin, Curragh and Goat Island Beach received the Green Coast Flag. The Blue Flag is one of the worlds most recognised awards for beaches and marinas. The programme promotes environmental education, sustainable development of tourism, environmental management systems and ensures safety and access for beach users. In Ireland the programme is operated by An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland on behalf of the Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE). The Green Coast Flag recognises beaches for their clean environment, excellent water quality and natural beauty. Deputy Mayor of Waterford City and County, Cllr Adam Wyse with members of Tramore Tidy Towns committee. Applicant sites for this award must not only have excellent water quality, natural, unspoilt environment but also be managed in partnership with the local community. The Blue Flag was hoisted by Deputy Mayor of Waterford City and County, Cllr. Adam Wyse who reflected on the high standards of Waterfords beaches. We are blessed in Waterford to have over 100km of splendid coastline that is there for everyone to enjoy," he said. Our beaches are wonderful places to go for fun, exercise, adventure, time together with family and friends or as places to unwind, relax and get away from all the noise," he added. Its great that Waterford had such a positive outcome this year, receiving four Blue Flags and six Green Flags, and for that I commend the Environment team at Waterford City and County Council and the legion of volunteers who dedicate themselves to ensuring our beaches remain a haven for all, week in, week out," said Cllr Wyse. Members of Tramore Tidy Towns committee. Dawn Wallace, Environment SEO with Waterford City and County Council said: These Blue and Green Flag awards are a great endorsement of our coastline and its particularly satisfying that Tramore and Counsellors Strand have regained Blue Flag status this year. Not only did they meet a series of stringent environmental and safety related criteria, but they also returned excellent bathing water results." I echo the Deputy Mayors sentiments that it is a collective collaboration between the Local Authority and voluntary and environmental groups who strive to make our beaches best-in-class," said Ms Wallace. She said everyone has a role to play in ensuring the safety and quality of all beaches and coastline areas, commenting: However, everyone has a role to play; whether it's disposing of litter responsibly or following guidance at designated bathing areas. Our beaches, lakes, and coastal environments are both treasured public amenities and environmentally sensitive sites and protecting them requires a shared commitment from all who live in Waterford and all who visit our beaches. Councillors have agreed to write a letter in support of Palestine as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to escalate. The war in Gaza has claimed the lives of 54,000 Palestinian men, women and children. Meanwhile, in the Left Bank, where twin city Ramallah is located, Palestinians face persecution from Israeli military. At the recent Metropolitan meeting, Councillor John Hearne (Sinn Fein) said: "We should write as a Council to express solidarity to the people of Palestine in the time that they're having at the moment because nobody agrees with what's going on. Nobody." Settler colonialism Cllr Hearne linked the impact of colonial violence between Ireland and Palestine: "We had the likes of Cromwell. I think when Cromwell came through, about 44% of our population was wiped out. We lost a million in the Famine. "I think with the famine coming on in Palestine, I think it's very important we express our solidarity. We did so, rightly, with Ukraine. I know there's a lot we can't do but we can ask our Government parties to bring in sanctions." Councillor Jim Griffin (Sinn Fein) spoke later about the concept of 'never again'. "What I would ask, Mayor, is if you could write on behalf of us to the Taoiseach to actually do all in his power to help the people of Gaza and to stop this genocide. I think in years to come we'll be sitting here and thinking 'How did we not even mention it today?'" He ended: "I think it's important that we mark this because what's going on is an atrocity." Metropolitan Mayor Joe Kelly (Independent) said that he would get an appropriate response together. This week, the Dail defeated a Bill to restrict the Central Bank from having ties to Israeli war bonds. Waterford TDs Mary Butler (Fianna Fail) and John Cummins (Fine Gael) voted against the bill, while Waterford Deputies David Cullinane and Conor McGuinness (Sinn Fein) voted in favour. Young people from across Waterford were celebrated last week for their contribution to the local community through volunteerism, inspiring initiatives and personal triumphs. At this year's Garda Youth Awards there were four award categories, with one overall winner of the main Pat Noctor award. Chief Superintendent, Anthony Pettit and Superintendent Fogarty with Calvin Flynn, Overall Special Achievement Award Winner. Individual awards Individuals recognized for their outstanding contribution to the local community included Ciara Walsh, Eimhin Ronayne, Tess Ormonde and Eilish Norris. The overall winner in the individual awards category was Conor Curran, who volunteers each summer in the Edmund Rice summer camp, helping young people from all backgrounds. Chief Superintendent, Anthony Pettit and Superintendent Sheehan with Ardscoil Na Mara, Viking Halliwick Swim Club, Overall Group Award Winners. Group awards Group awards were handed this year to Pathways to Nature Ferrybank Group, Abbey Community College TY students, SETU BA in Business Information Systems fourth year students and the My Creative Community Group. The overall group category winners were Viking Halliwick, Ard Scoil Na Mara, a group of young volunteers who host swimming classes for people with disabilities. Special achievement awards These awards were granted to people in the community who have overcome or defied great odds, including Michael Reilly, Finn Kavanagh, Paul Lee and Ciara Ni Bheaglaoi. The overall category winner was Calvin Flynn, who through a significant amount of hard work and dedication turned his academic life around. Chief Superintendent, Anthony Pettit, Conor Curran, Overall Individual Award Winner and Superintendent Fogarty. Community Safety Award Recognising those who made their community safer, this award went to Waterford Comhairle na nOg, Presentation Waterford TY Digital Leaders/Safer Internet Day, Active Travel Campaign Ardscoil Na Mara and students from the SETU BA Practical Public Relations Third Year Hygiene Hub. The overall category winner were Dungarvan CBS TY Students, Matthew Hayes, Archie Mahony, Jake Kiely and Ben OLeary. For their work, these students were also awarded the coveted Pat Noctor Award, the main award of the night. The students identified the issue of drink driving by recognising that many of their peers were preparing for their driver theory test or would soon be driving. To raise awareness, they developed a realistic car crash simulation. For nearly three decades, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness were Australias golden couple. The pair were rarely seen without each other on red carpets, and regularly sang each others praises in public. But in September 2023, the golden couple announced they had split. Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness called it quits in 2023 after 27 years together. Credit: Getty We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage, they said in a joint statement. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth. Two years on, Furness has reportedly filed for divorce, quashing any hope of a reunion. Several gangs, including the Finks, Hells Angels and the Comancheros, have significantly expanded their presence in Canberra over the past few years. Bilal, who legally changed his name to Tony Soprano in 2002 before switching back in 2012, has registered at least two suspected straw directors to Safe Hands Group, including an associate of the Finks, in documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Safe Hands Group has expanded its business to include traffic management, professional cleaning, office management, and the provision of security services to building sites and public events. At Safe Hands Group, we tailor our labour hire solutions to meet the unique needs of every client ... we provide flexible staffing from a single team member to an entire workforce, the business claims on its website. Bilal was the original director of Safe Hands 002 Pty Ltd in June 2020, before he was replaced by his partner, Chloe Bilal, in December 2021. Finks associate Branden Jones, 26, then replaced Chloe Bilal in August 2023, and remained director until the company was placed into liquidation in April last year owing almost $894,000 in outstanding tax lodgements to the Australian Tax Office. Credit: Matt Golding Several images obtained by this masthead reveal Jones wearing Finks merchandise and socialising with patched members of the gang. The liquidator for Safe Hands 002 Pty Ltd, Jonathon Colbran from RSM, expressed concern about the continued involvement of Bilal and his wife in the business. I have discerned that the former directors [Ali and Chloe Bilal] have exerted considerable financial and managerial control over the company until its cessation, Colbran said in a statutory report to creditors in July last year. However, Colbrans investigation into the collapse of the business has been hampered by Jones failure to comply with his directors duties. I am yet to receive a completed Report on Company Activities and Property nor receive any books and records from the current director, said Colbran, who has reported Jones to ASIC over the matter. Before Safe Hands 002 Pty Ltd was placed into liquidation, another company named Safe Hands Group Pty Ltd was registered in February 2023. The company lists the director and owner as Jelena Brozinic, who has been employed by Bilal for more than a decade, including at a now-defunct hospitality business called London Burgers. Branden Jones (bottom left) at a Finks get-together. This masthead has been told by the Finks gang associate that assets and clients were transferred between the two companies in an alleged case of phoenixing. SMS messages appear to confirm Bilals involvement in the company. When asked about the companys operations, an ASIC spokesman said it was monitoring the situation. Jelena Brozinic, a director and owner of Canberra labour-hire company Safe Hands Group Pty Ltd. An ATO spokeswoman said it was unable to comment due to our obligations under taxpayer confidentiality laws. According to the ATO website, the annual economic impact of illegal phoenix activity on businesses, employees, and government is estimated to be $4.89 billion. The ASIC website cites an independent report which claims phoenixing costs the government about $1.6 billion in unpaid taxes. Bilal did not respond to phone calls or an SMS from this masthead. Brozinic and Jones also did not respond to requests for comment. Bilal has previously denied his involvement with the Finks and Rebels bikie gangs. However, police officers made submissions in the ACT Supreme Court, the ACT Magistrates Court and the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission claiming the 53-year-old was a senior figure in the ACT chapter of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang. Detective Sergeant Owen Patterson, from the anti-bikie Taskforce Nemesis, said in court in April that Bilal was previously a leader of the ACT Rebels, which disbanded and became the All Brothers Crew, or the Ali Bilal Crew in late 2022 or early 2023. Patterson told the court that members then eventually patched over to the Finks in 2023, and that Bilal was believed to have been appointed world president of the gang. In February last year, a greyhound hearing was provided with an email from NSW Police constable Mitchell Clark, who confirmed officers attended Bilals property in Wollogorang, about 60 kilometres north-east of Canberra. The police were conducting a compliance inspection for a firearm prohibition order served on Bilal, who was not home at the time. But police, according to Clarks email, were confronted by two other members of the Finks, one of whom was charged with assaulting an officer. Police located numerous items of interest in the main dwelling, including what is believed to be performance enhancing drugs and steroids ... A Finks OMCG vest was in the wardrobe of the main bedroom, this is believed to belong to Ali Bilal. Ali Bilal is the president of the Finks OMCG interstate chapter and resides at this address, Clark said in the email on September 27, 2023. In 2022, Bilal was sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty to five charges relating to using a carriage service to harass or threaten, after his conversations were captured by telephone intercepts. In one recording played to the ACT Magistrates Court, Bilal ordered a woman to arrange a meeting with an unnamed man. Loading Get him to meet me. Thats it, Bilal yelled. Im gonna f--- him, his mother, his father. Im not gonna leave anybody tonight. In another conversation, Bilal demanded to know the location of another man. Well come to the site where you are now, and well deal with you in public in front of everybody to finally make a statement in this town. The 80s-brown digital alarm clock crows. The window glows a gradually whitening aurora. I gracelessly roll off my futon like an anaesthetised horse, shuffle down the corridor in ill-fitting slippers, swaddled in a yukata, thwacking my forehead on a hefty low beam thats been thwacked by generations of yawning pilgrims. Togakushi Pilgrims Inn owner, Gokui-san, 78, is regaled in a black conical hat and powder-blue robe. The bespectacled, rally-driving Shinto priest thumps a taiko drum, chants metallically, executing the purification ceremonys esoteric formalities, by proxy launching my seven-day guided snowshoe tour of rural Nagano with Walk Japan. Snowshoeing the fields and forests of Kagami-Ike Togakushi. This week, three metres of powder snow will coat Japans Central Alps, a region Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata labelled Snow Country. Sky and earth become one profoundly white realm. Cloistered senses sharpen. Time compresses into exhilarating snippets, like a real-time slide-night. Morning rituals develop. Devour teeny bowls of provincial scrumptiousness. Squeak into snug, snow-resistant synthetic layers. Tether snowshoes to hiking boots; affix gaiters. Follow Walk Japans chirpy guides, Nick and Shiori, into the snowscape, shepherded by local enigmas like Hata-san. My husband and I were looking for a hiking trip in a group that gave us the option of not having to hike long distances in a day with a heavy pack. Then I read a story in Traveller written by Andrew Bain (in 2013) where he hiked in Abruzzo in Italy with Hedonistic Hiking. We did that same trip and were hooked. The small operation is run by Jackie and Mick Parsons and takes a maximum of 16 people and because these two have been doing this for many years, they are treated like family in the villages we visit. We are just about to do our fifth walk with them in Sardinia in September. They also do some lovely walks in Victoria in the off season. Jenny McMurray, West Pymble NSW Slip stich Loading Last year, halfway through a trip to the Galapagos, the first of four back-to-back Intrepid South American tours, I fell on wet stairs and badly lacerated my forearm. The boat was diverted to an island with a hospital; a car was waiting to take a female crew member and me to the hospital. Back on board I was well looked after by crew and fellow passengers. The Galapagos leader then contacted the Colombian guide on my next tour about care of the wound (it had 40 stitches). Once in Colombia, every other day, I was taken to a medical clinic. Alas the wound got infected, and I opted to come home. Intrepid then organised my flights home and refunded parts of the tour that fell into their guidelines. Cate Ryan, Balmain East, NSW Bring it home I hope home stays are better than 10 years ago (Traveller, May 22). We did a home stay in Vietnam as part of our Halong Bay tour and I came home with lice. Michele Sharp, Bondi, NSW Fair prices One week Im paying $180 a night to stay in an ideally located, five-star Bangkok hotel with all the trimmings including king-size bed, sumptuous breakfast, large swimming pool, gym and room service; the next Im shelling out $140 to stay overnight in a tiny room with a single bed in a nondescript NSW country motel, a couple of kilometres out of town. I know its less expensive to travel in many other countries, but the price of accommodation in our fair nation often strikes me as being simply extortionate. Ross Duncan, Potts Point, NSW Tip of the week: Alternative island Lake Toba a break from Bali. Credit: iStock I recently returned from Sumatra featuring a stay at Lake Toba. An extinct caldera, the lake is 600 metres deep and stretches for 60 kilometres. Because it is at elevation, the nights are cool and day-time temperatures are about 25 degrees. The Batak people who live there, have been compared to the Balinese for friendliness. So if you are tired of the three Ts (traffic, touts and tourists), Lake Toba is a true alternative. The Indonesian government is building an international airport and a four-lane highway close to it, so youll need to be quick before its overrun. Geoff Maloney, Altona Meadows, Victoria Fits . Im sure you will receive many letters from travellers more satisfied with their new, tailored-in-Vietnam clothes than M. OBrien of Cremorne (Traveller Letters, May 17). We went to Yaly Couture in Hoi An (yalycouture.com/en) on the advice of friends and were delighted with the kit we had tailored: a top copied from an old design I took with me, a lightweight summer shirt my husband wore to our daughters wedding and an ao dai which fits me perfectly. All are beautifully tailored and a delight to wear. Jennifer Berryman, Drummoyne, NSW and misses I had a similar bad tailoring experience in Singapore when I had some shirts made that didnt fit. I could barely get my hand through to the end of one of the sleeves. In shades of Are you Being Served I was advised it would stretch and fit better with wear. Its not a Singapore issue, just bad luck with a rogue tailor. Anthony Arrigo, Mandurah, WA Pack light We never travel without a rechargeable motion sensor under-the-cabinet light. I originally just used it for extra light in the aircraft seat, but it really came into its own during the recent power outage in Barcelona. Its also very useful for night-time toilet visits in an unfamiliar hotel, preventing falls or tripping over your bags. Warwick Harty, Maroubra, NSW Thai food fix We generally follow Ben Groundwaters advice (Traveller, May 2) when selecting restaurants overseas. And like Ben we occasionally crave an Asian meal in Europe. When we do, we opt for Thai. These restaurants are usually in the backstreets, often they are small and away from the key tourist strips. A little research of reviews and checking how busy they are gives us the confidence to try them. We have had great Thai food in Copenhagen (Baan Thai-Isarn), Athens (Tuk Tuk Thai Street Food) and Sliema, Malta (Jungle Joy Bar). Philip Smith, Waterloo, NSW Rest stop In Italy there are few public toilets and when you find one invariably it smells awful, you have to provide your own toilet paper and you have to pay. France is no better. Toilets in Japan, meanwhile, are well-signposted, plentiful, impeccably clean and free to use. C. Jones, Canterbury, Vic Loading Cancelled culture I recently booked accommodation in London with booking.com which was cancelled the night before our stay. We received the message We ....can no longer accommodate you due to closure of the accommodation (temporarily or permanently). The property was still advertising on the booking.com website and taking bookings for June. At this late stage, there was nothing available through the site in the area that we wanted. Fortunately, we were able to organise an alternative but at twice the cost. Sudden cancellations should be part of the ratings process. Eva Pragier, McKinnon, Vic Photo: State Committee for Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. A captivating musical video project celebrating the 140th anniversary of the illustrious Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli, the pioneer of the first opera in the East, was unveiled in Norway on May 28, Azerbaijans Independence Day, the State Committee on Work with Diaspora told Trend. The project was brought to life by Azerbaijani musicians residing in Norway pianist and composer Tural Raphael and pianist Aida Ramazanova. The video showcases a unique two-piano rendition of a chosen segment from Hajibeylis musical comedy Arshin Mal Alan, skillfully arranged and transcribed by Tural Raphael. The idea for the project belongs to Fariz Nadir Rzayev, coordinator for Norway of the Coordination Council of Scandinavian Azerbaijanis. The filming was supported by his company "FNR Art," operating in Norway, and the visual production was carried out by professional Azerbaijani cinematographer Orkhan Bari, who was invited from Germany. Speaking about the initiative, Fariz Nadir Rzayev emphasized that releasing the video on Independence Day was a deliberate choice, highlighting the significant role of Hajibeylis works especially Arshin Mal Alan in promoting Azerbaijans rich musical heritage. This project is not only a tribute to the legacy of the great composer but also serves to introduce Azerbaijans vibrant music culture to European audiences, Rzayev said. Notably, Tural Raphael has represented Azerbaijani music at prestigious events such as the Kongsberg Jazz Festival and Musikkfest Oslo, and has performed in countries including France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Aida Ramazanova, a graduate of the Grieg Academy and a laureate of international competitions, actively participates in classical music projects. This initiative serves as a beacon, illuminating the path toward the global acknowledgment and safeguarding of Azerbaijans rich cultural legacy. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel It was this story I was here to explore for a forthcoming report the strengthening China-Russia relationship and the record surge in cross-border trade since the Ukraine invasion, much of it passing through Manzhouli and headed north to help sustain its neighbour through the noose of western sanctions. And what impact United States President Donald Trump might have on this alignment. Trump is different. He is more pro-Russian, one Belarusian driver told me, gleefully rubbing his two index fingers together to suggest a closeness. He and [Vladimir] Putin might be friends. And [Belarusian President] Aleksandr Lukashenko. We were here midweek, a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping would meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow and declare their countries friends of steel who must decisively counter US efforts to contain them. Its a bromance that now extends beyond 45 meetings between the pair. It was the mid-spring low tourism season, but there were clear signs the two countries sputtering economies, one ravaged by war and the other by the long drag of a property market collapse, were having an impact on local businesses. Only a smattering of people were perusing Manzhoulis main strip, the China-Soviet Golden Street, where a statue of a polar bear and panda bear holding hands stands in tribute to the friendship. The strip is usually a drawcard for Russian tourists wanting cheap Chinese goods. Most of the shops spruiking faded Sino-Soviet souvenirs or clothes were empty but for their owners, and there was a sparse lunchtime audience at a nearby Russian restaurant where meals are served with a live show of traditional dancing. Russian dancers perform for mostly Chinese audiences at a Russian restaurant in Manzhouli. Credit: Sanghee Liu The Russian theme park was a ghost town where bored attendants manned empty rides. We were the only visitors, except for a group of five local Chinese, who had popped in for the day from a nearby town. All of this added to the conspicuousness of our arrival in Manzhouli, which was immediately on the radar of the local authorities. When police materialised behind the check-in desk at the Matryoshka hotel, which was grand yet also eerily empty (and intricately committed to the doll theme, down to the light bulbs and the teapots), there was no mistaking that they were here for us. They flipped through my passport and left. But sure enough, we were reacquainted again the next morning when we set out to speak with the truck drivers near the border. We were still in the weeds of small talk with two Belarusian men when a police van pulled up. Five or six officers surrounded us just as one of the drivers was proudly showing me photos of his wife with their prize-winning shih tzu that had placed second at a dog competition in the Czech Republic. Few tourists were spotted at the Russian themed amusement park in Manzhouli. Credit: Sanghee Liu The police were cordial, checked our identification, and told us we were free to continue our interviews. But as soon as they disappeared, we acquired two government minders. One of them, a man from the local foreign ministry office, would be our Russian translator, we were told. It was not an offer we could refuse, and so pressed for time, we carried on with our interviews under their surveillance. They didnt obstruct any of our questions, but it was not ideal. All translations were later independently checked. They stuck with us for several hours, but lost interest after we ducked into a Russian supermarket in the towns centre, and lingered among the imported wares. Think Lenin and Stalin-branded chocolate, vodka, fermented horse milk, a wall of Matryoshka dolls (made in China), and an aisle dedicated to Russian honey of differing flower varietals. Wed bump into our minder/translator friend again later that day, seemingly keeping an eye on us as we photographed containers of Russian coal sitting on train tracks near Manzhouli station. A Russian-style theme park in Manzhouli, a town on the Chinese-Russian border, which also serves as Chinas largest land port. Credit: Sanghee Liu Souvenir vendors at the China-Russia border tourist area in Manzhouli. Credit: Sanghee Liu Meanwhile, our day was marked by other curious coincidences. We were denied access to one of the main tourist attractions a sightseeing tower equipped with telescopes to peer across the border into the neighbouring Russian town of Zabaikalsk and, in the other direction, Mongolia. The booking system for foreigners was malfunctioning, we were told. London: Winston Churchill once dictated wartime speeches from the bath, glass of champagne in hand, cigar clenched between his teeth. But in an age of instant scrutiny and online pile-ons, Sir Lynton Crosby isnt sure the old bulldog would have stood a chance. In todays digital age, with a media obsession with gotcha moments, perpetual crises and issue trivialisation ... one wonders if [he] could survive the scrutiny, Crosby pondered this week at a private dinner in London. Winston Churchill dictated speeches from the bath. Credit: Press Association We exist in a perpetual now, he said. This has created information overload, shortened attention span and contributed to political polarisation as people can easily retreat into echo chambers that confirm their existing beliefs. The Australian political strategist, once dubbed The Wizard of Oz by the British press for masterminding Conservative victories in Britain, Australia and beyond, used an intimate address marking the restoration of the near-century life of the Britain-Australia Societys archives to issue a searing critique of modern political discourse. A few weeks ago I signed a statement from members of the Jewish community calling for an end to the Israel-Gaza war, and an end to the humanitarian crisis unfolding under the Netanyahu-led government. The statement was meant to be published as a paid advertisement in The Australian Jewish News, but I found out last week the editor was not willing to run it as it was written. I have avoided signing statements on this war until now. Here in Australia, there has been fierce conflict over how we respond to the horror of Hamas terror of October 7 and the subsequent decimation of Gaza and its people. What date to mark the beginning of it all? What label for what kind of trauma is being inflicted, and for what reason? I have kept a notebook of alternating news reports of the same event to observe this dissonance at how we describe what we are witnessing. Protesters demanding an end to the war in Tel Aviv, Israel, hold pictures of Palestinian children killed during Israels military operation in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, May 17. Credit: AP But this week, driving my children to school, I heard British plastic surgeon Dr Victoria Rose, who works at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza. Every 40 minutes, she said, a child dies there. The children dying are between 1 and 11 and many are dying because they are so malnourished their bodies cannot fight the infections from their burns and wounds. The hospital is running out of the disinfectant they need to operate. These are unequivocal accounts of a humanitarian crisis that can and must be stopped. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The Parliament of Azerbaijan has ratified the country's agreement with China on mutual visa exemption for citizens holding ordinary passports, Trend reports. The issue of ratification was discussed at the plenary session of the Azerbaijani parliament today. The draft law on the approval of the "Agreement on Mutual Visa Exemption for Citizens Holding Ordinary Passports between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of China" was put to a vote and adopted in one reading. To note, the mentioned agreement was signed on April 23, 2025, in Beijing. The crux of the agreement is to broaden humanitarian and diplomatic connections by smoothing the path for citizens' visits on solid legal footing, all while bolstering the strategic partnership between the two nations. According to the agreement, citizens of both countries holding general civil passports may enter the territory of the other party without a visa and stay there for up to 30 days per trip and no more than 90 days within every 180 days. The agreement applies only to short-term trips. To stay in the territory of the other party for more than 30 days, live, work, study, work in the media, and other areas requiring permission, citizens must obtain a visa and appropriate permission in advance. The parties have the right to suspend the implementation of the agreement in whole or in part, temporarily, for reasons of national security, public order, and public health. The other party must be informed of this through diplomatic channels. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, May 30. The process of relocating old power lines and the construction of a closed-type substation in Khankendi are nearing completion, Advisor to the President of Azerenergy OJSC on General Affairs Vugar Aliyev said at a meeting of the Working Group on Energy Supply Issues in Khankendi, Trend reports. In his assessment, the station aligns with the requisite contemporary benchmarks. "The underground laying of other lines has also begun," Aliyev explained. He mentioned that the power lines from Khankendi to Aghdara and Kalbajar have been updated. "In the future, the line from Khankendi to Aghdam will be connected to the junction substation in Aghdam. Currently, two substations are operating in Khankendi, and modernization work is underway at both of them," the official added. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Kazakhstan imported $34.6 million worth of non-oil products from Azerbaijan from January through April 2025, which is more than twice compared of the same period last year. Data obtained by Trend from the State Customs Committee indicates that this figure is 2.1 times, or $18.1 million, higher than in the corresponding months of 2024. Meanwhile, non-oil exports to Kazakhstan accounted for 3.24 percent of Azerbaijans total exports during the reporting period, placing Kazakhstan sixth among Azerbaijans largest non-oil export destinations. Meanwhile, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan reached $265.7 million in the January-April period, tripling ($178.4 million) compared to the same period in 2024. This accounted for 1.57 percent of Azerbaijans total trade turnover. Azerbaijan's exports to Kazakhstan amounted to $34.8 million, up 2.1 times, or $17.9 million, year-on-year, while imports from Kazakhstan rose to $230.9 million, a 3.3-fold, or $160.6 million, increase. Eva Osborne A range of stories feature on the front pages of Irish newspapers on Friday. The Irish Times leads with a story on the director of the Arts Council, Maureen Kennelly, saying she wanted to stay in her role but Minister for Arts Patrick ODonovan did not consent to a second term. She told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee she wanted to continue her work as director, but Mr ODonovan did not grant her a second five-year term. President Michael D Higgins said accusations that those who criticise the policies of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu are antisemitic is a slander, the Irish Examiner reports. The Echo reports on the latest Health Research Board (HRB) figures which show that nearly 300 Cork cases of problem cocaine use were treated in 2024. The Irish Independent leads with Daniel Kinahan being charged with murder and directing a crime gang after being removed from the UAE. The medicines watchdog has issued an urgent warning about a deluge of social media advertisements for counterfeit weight-loss drugs which 'pose a health risk' to the public, according to the Irish Daily Mail. The Irish Daily Mirror leads with an ex-soldier facing seven charges over the Liverpool victory parade incident which saw a car plough into a crowd of supporters. The front page of the Irish Daily Star features stories on both the Liverpool ram suspect and Sean McGovern's return to Ireland. A story about a dentist being given a lifetime ban on owning animals after what a judge described as one of the most appalling cases of animal neglect he had ever come across features on the front page of The Herald. In the UK... The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph: 'Hermer: Calls to quit ECHR like rise of Nazism'#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/KDPXQzC3g8 The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 29, 2025 Friday's front page: PIP disability claimants in key Labour areas 'at greatest risk of welfare cuts'#Tomorrowspaperstoday Latest by @Chaplainchloe: https://t.co/BYQphLsid8 pic.twitter.com/jnK2i2YR1n The i Paper (@theipaper) May 29, 2025 Photo: The Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 30. Nozimjon Kholmurodov, First Deputy Minister of Investment, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan, met with representatives of Anwei Wanshen Biological Technology and CCSP Unitedsubsidiaries of the major Chinese corporation Suzhou Wan Shen Noodle Products and discussed opportunities for further collaboration, Trend reports. The discussions focused on the potential implementation of several industrial projects within the technopark located in the Zamin district of the Jizzakh region. Anwei Wanshen Biological Technology presented plans to manufacture reinforced concrete products, process grain (particularly wheat), and produce alcohol from residual by-products of grain processing. The sides exchanged views on key areas of mutually beneficial cooperation and outlined concrete next steps for project implementation. Following the meeting, the parties reaffirmed their commitment to utilizing all available resources to ensure the successful and timely execution of the planned initiatives. Suzhou Wanshen Noodle Products Co., Ltd. is a major Chinese agribusiness company based in Suzhou, Anhui Province. Founded in 2003, it specializes in grain processing, producing noodles, starch, gluten, ethanol, and organic fertilizers. The company exports to over 20 countries and is recognized as a key enterprise in Chinas agricultural industrialization. Kazakhstan posts strong trade gains with Turkic States in 2024 Photo: Official information source of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kazakhstans Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov and OTS Secretary-General Kubanychbek Omuraliev discussed deepening economic ties among Turkic States, emphasizing expanded trade and mutual supply. Kazakhstans trade turnover with OTS members reached $11.4 billion in 2024, with efforts underway to unlock greater potential through a new trade-focused initiative. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 30. We consider Kazakhstan as a strategic partner of Italy, and this region as a strategically important crossroads, said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a meeting with Kazakhstans President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Trend reports. Meanhwile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with Kazakhstans President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as part of the official visit. According to Tokayev, Kazakhstan attaches special importance to strengthening mutual ties, friendship, and mutual trust. Your visit is a major event in our bilateral cooperation. It is no coincidence that Italy is Kazakhstans third largest trading partner globally, as well as the largest partner in Europe. I believe we must maintain the high momentum of our cooperation. Undoubtedly, your visit will play a very important role in giving an additional impetus to the development of multifaceted cooperation between our two countries, said the President of Kazakhstan. In turn, Giorgia Meloni thanked the President of Kazakhstan for the invitation and warm reception. I want to once again express my gratitude for the invitation and warm reception, as well as for giving me the opportunity to deliver a speech at the Astana International Forum, which is becoming an increasingly important platform for dialogue. We need dialogue, and you understand this very well. Kazakhstan is an important partner for Italy in many areas. Our cooperation has always been very fruitful. But, as I said yesterday, there is always the possibility to achieve more, starting from energy and ending with culture, exchange between our universities and our peoples, noted the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Italy. During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed prospects for expanding trade-economic and investment cooperation. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is on an official visit to Kazakhstan. Yesterday, at Kazakhstans capital airport, Giorgia Meloni was personally welcomed by the countrys President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. By Nazrin Abdul Azerbaijan has discussed expanding cooperation with Germany in the field of green energy. Azernews reports that this was stated by Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov, on his X account. We held discussions with Michael Harms, Chairman of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy, regarding the expansion of energy cooperation within the framework of Azerbaijans green energy agenda. We assessed prospects for collaboration with German companies on developing offshore wind energy, the Green Energy Corridor extending from the Caspian Sea to Europe, and energy supply through this infrastructure, the post reads. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. We are working on a new pilot project in Azerbaijan to reduce energy consumption by applying artificial intelligence, the Executive Director of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Analysis and Coordination Center Fariz Jafarov said, Trend reports. "One of the main directions of our cooperation with the World Economic Forum is related to Artificial Intelligence. Currently, we are working on a pilot project for the application of artificial intelligence in the energy sector. The main goal of the project is to reduce energy consumption through the use of artificial intelligence. We have local partners for this. We are collaborating with several companies as well as supermarket chains to bring this positive global experience to Azerbaijan and to share the positive outcomes of this experience with the international community at the Davos Forum next January," he noted. According to him, an Artificial Intelligence Governance Alliance is operating under the World Economic Forum. "This alliance includes representatives from the world's most famous companies. We are members of this group and participate in the discussions, sharing our experiences. Additionally, at the Ministry of Economy, under the coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Center, a project is underway to implement artificial intelligence in the Call Center. This project involves analyzing citizens' incoming calls, identifying the nature of their questions, preparing corresponding answers, and assessing our staffs performance, communication, and training needs through artificial intelligence. There is also a parallel chatbot development project. In the coming years, we plan to enable citizens to receive quick responses to their questions via chatbot. Meanwhile, infrastructure work is ongoing as well. The Ministry of Economy has already acquired the country's first supercomputer. This supercomputer is crucial because processing, analyzing, and working with large volumes of data requires a strong technological base. Such a base has now been established. Yesterday, we held a meeting with government agencies, private organizations, and civil society representatives to discuss how they can use this platform and what artificial intelligence capabilities can be created within the framework of public-private partnership in Azerbaijan. We have received many proposals and will be making announcements in this direction in the coming days," Jafarov added. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog on 12 May [Photo by Bundesregierung / Marvin Ibo Gungor] There are critical words that inevitably fall back upon their author. This is particularly true of the criticism that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz levelled at Israels conduct of the war in Gaza at the beginning of the week. Pro-government media labelled it a turning point in German Israel policy. In fact, Merzs statements are nothing of the sort. The chancellor is trying to create for himself an alibi for a crime against humanity that he has supported more unconditionally than almost any other German politician for a year and a halfwithout changing his policies in the slightest. The German government is not even prepared to stop supplying weapons to the Israeli army. When he was leader of the opposition, Merz attacked the government of Olaf Scholz from the right, a government which supplied Israel with large quantities of weapons and ammunition and persecuted any defender of the Palestinians as an antisemite. He repeatedly accused Olaf Scholz of not standing clearly enough on Israels side and delaying the delivery of weapons. In January, Merz emphasised that he would immediately end the current German governments de facto export embargo on armaments. Shortly after the federal elections in February, Merz invited the Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted on an international arrest warrant, to pay a state visit to Germany and assured him that the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court would not be executed under his chancellorship. The new government, formed of Merzs Christian Democrats (CDU) and Scholzs Social Democrats (SPD), struck a coalition agreement that invokes Israels right to exist and its security as a matter of state for Germany. In his first government statement, Merz then declared war on the intolerable antisemitism in Germany and affirmed that Germany stood unwaveringly by Israels side. If the chancellor has now changed his tone somewhat, it is because it is simply no longer possible to deny that Netanyahus regime is committing the greatest state crime since the Nazis. It has openly declared its intention to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and expel its 2 million inhabitants. To achieve this, the Israeli state is pursuing a deliberate policy of mass murder. It has starved the Palestinian population for months by stopping all supplies of food and essential medicines. The Israeli army systematically bombs residential areas, refugee shelters and hospitals and herds the inhabitants into small areas. The official death toll now stands at 54,000, the majority of whom are women and children. The number of unreported cases is likely to be many times higher. But Merz criticises even these blatant crimes in the mildest possible terms. What the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, quite frankly, I no longer understand with what aim, he said on Monday at broadcaster WDRs European Forum. The Israeli government should not do anything that its best friends are no longer prepared to accept. And on Tuesday, Merz said in Finland, The massive military strikes by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip no longer make any sense to me as to how they serve the goal of fighting terror and freeing the hostages. Conclusions? None. Merz is trying to cover his tracks in order to carry on as before. The persecution of workers, students and young people protesting against the genocide of the Palestinians also continues unabated. The Merz government, which is systematically escalating the conflict with Russia and fervently rearming, cannot tolerate any opposition to war and militarism. Its suppression of the Gaza protests is closely linked to its crackdown on any opposition to war. Merz has a free hand because all the parties represented in the Bundestag (parliament) are behind him. They only have tactical differences. As a coalition partner, the SPD is firmly integrated into the governments work. The Greens are the fiercest supporters of war against Russia and Israels right to self-defencea synonym for genocide against the Palestinians. Former Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Israel over a dozen times during her time in office. Like almost all far-right parties in Europe, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) also backs the Netanyahu regime. It too supports the rearmament of the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces), complaining it does not go far enough. It only has reservations about military support for Ukraine because it considers Russia to be the wrong opponent. The Left Party is playing a particularly perfidious role. It spouts verbal criticism in order to deflect the widespread discontent, while supporting government policy on all decisive issues. It invokes Israels right to self-defence, voted for the 1 trillion arms programme in the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) and helped Merz to be elected chancellor quickly in the Bundestag. Like all other mainstream parties, the Left Party supports the lie that opposing Zionism is tantamount to antisemitism. In reality, since its emergence in the 19th century, Zionism was a reactionary, nationalist ideology directed against the burgeoning socialist labour movement, which was gaining great influence among Jewish workers and intellectuals. Zionism denied that modern antisemitism was a product of the crisis of capitalism. This served fascist movements to divide the working class and mobilise lumpen elements against the socialist labour movement. Hitlers battle cry against Jewish Bolshevism expressed this. Zionism did not regard the emancipation of the Jews as part of the emancipation of the working class, the overcoming of every kind of social, political and national oppression. It strived for a Jewish nation-state that oppresses other nationalities and offers itself as an auxiliary to the imperialist powers. This is how the state of Israel came into being in 1948. The Palestinian population was forcibly expelled and the Zionist state served first the British and then the US as a military bridgehead in the resource-rich region, which was largely inhabited by Arabs. As we have shown in an earlier article, the German-Israeli relationship never had anything to do with reconciliation and reparations. Germany helped the Zionist state obtain urgently needed weapons and financial support. In return, reconciliation with Israel enhanced the German governments international reputation, German business gained access to the Middle East, and the Israeli government helped cover up the Nazi past of high-ranking German officials. The development of Israel into an oppressive state that commits terrible crimes against humanity confirms the warning of the Fourth International that Zionism leads to a terrible dead end. In 1940, Leon Trotsky described the attempt to solve the Jewish question by the emigration of Jews to Palestine as a tragic mockery of the Jewish people Never was it so clear as it is today that the salvation of the Jewish people is bound up inseparably with the overthrow of the capitalist system. Even if Merzlike the heads of government of Britain, France and Canada a week agofeels compelled to cover his tracks, appeals to the imperialist governments will not stop the genocide in Gaza. This is only possible through the mobilisation of the international working class in the struggle for their social, economic and political rights and for a socialist society. A US federal appeals court has ordered an administrative stay on a ruling on Wednesday by the International Court of Trade which found that Trumps liberation day April 2 reciprocal tariffs were illegal, saying that Trump had exceeded his power in ordering them. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs on April 2, 2025. [AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein] The appeals court did not rule on the legal merits of the decision but ordered a temporary stay until further notice. The decision opens the way for the Trump administration to appeal the decision, possibly securing a rapid hearing in the Supreme Court. That appeared to be the direction it is taking following yesterdays stay. Speaking on the appeals court decision, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: The judges of the US Court of International Trade brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump, to stop him from carrying out the mandate that the American people gave him. Ultimately the Supreme Court must put an end to this for the sake of our constitution and our country. The issue of the tariff war is the subject of an intense conflict within the ruling class with significant sections fearful of the damage it is doing to the American economy and the standing of the US as the pre-eminent global power. These views were articulated by an editorial in the Wall Street Journal which said Wednesdays ruling was heard around the world and was an important moment for the rule of law as much as for the economy. It said the Trump tariffs had created enormous costs and uncertainty but now we know theyre illegal. The case against the administration was brought by a New York-based wine importer VOS Selections and four other small businesses. VOS was represented by the Liberty Justice Center, described as a libertarian public litigation firm. It was supported by a coalition of 12 states led by Oregon which asked for a permanent injunction against the Trump tariffs. Trump ordered the tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) which gives the president the authority to take economic action in a national emergency. The administration has claimed that persistent US trade deficits, going back decades, had created just such a situation. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the IEEPA did not give the president the power to impose tariffs as this was the responsibility of Congress. They maintained that the IEEPA does not even mention tariffs and the deficits were neither an emergency nor an unusual or extraordinary threat as trade deficits had persisted for decades. They maintained that Congress could not delegate its legislative authority to the president. If there are any constitutional limitations to delegation at all, they apply here in a case where the executive claims virtually limitless authority to impose massive tax increases and start a worldwide trade war. The Trump Justice Department argued that the president had historically conducted foreign affairs and had dealt with national security through the regulation of trade and that in approving the IEEPA, Congress had delegated authority to the president. It said in foreign affairs, broad grants of discretion to the executive were common and that Trumps declaration of an emergency was a political question that could not be second-guessed by the judiciary. The court ruled that the executive orders issued by Trump are declared to be invalid as contrary to law. It said the Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the president to regulate importation by means of tariffs. Dealing with the claim that Congress had delegated authority to the president, the court said handing over unbounded tariff power to the president would be unconstitutional. An unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government. It maintained that the US trade deficit did not fit the IEEPAs definition of an unusual and extraordinary threat. It also ruled that the tariffs imposed by Trump against Mexico and Canada over the issue of the drug fentanyl crossing the border were illegal because they did not address the drug trafficking problem. The court also ruled in favor of the Oregon-led coalition of states. During the hearing, their legal representative Brian Marshall said the Trump tariffs were unprecedented and untenable. The government argues that so long as the president says he is confronting an unusual and extraordinary threat that he can set tariffs of any amount from any country for any length of time, and no court may review it, he said. Thats a position that no court has ever embraced and, until this year, power no president has ever asserted. There were some sharp exchanges during the Oregon-led case which maintained that the tariffs would raise the cost to public organizations of equipment and supplies. Department of Justice lawyer Brett Shumate said an injunction against the tariffs would completely kneecap the president when he was trying to make trade deals. The longest-serving judge of the court, Jane Restani, replied that the court could not, for political reasons, allow the president to do something hes not allowed to do by statute. There was back and forth over the issue of what constituted an emergency. Shumate told the court that the president identified the emergency and he decided the means to address that emergency. He said the goal of the tariff actions was to bring our trading partners to the table and create the conditions for a deal. Restani replied: It may be a very dandy plan, but it has to meet the statute. The decision of the three judges said: The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the presidents use of tariffs as leverage. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it. The administration argued that if it were to make a decision in favor of the plaintiffs, that it be only a narrow decision with no broader application. This was rejected. There is no question here of a narrowly tailored relief; if the challenged tariff orders are unlawful as to the plaintiffs, they are unlawful as to all, the panel said. There was a predictable angry response from the Trump administration to the courts decision. White House spokesperson Kush Desai said: Foreign countries non-reciprocal treatment of the United States has fueled Americas historic and persistent trade deficits. These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base facts that the court did not dispute. He then went on to outline the theory of unlimited executive power which forms the basis of the Trump administrations efforts to construct an authoritarian and fascist state. It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency. President Trump pledged to put America first, and the administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American greatness. According to this doctrine, which has been advanced in other court rulings against the administration, the president determines what constitutes a crisis and a national emergency and what action should address it without any judicial or other restraint. In response to previous adverse decisions, members of the Trump regime have railed against activist judges, lunatics, and even Marxists. They will have difficulty in doing so on this occasion. The most senior member of the panel, Restani, was appointed to the court by Ronald Reagan. Timothy Reif is a Democrat with a reputation for being a trade protectionist and was appointed to the court by Trump. The third member, Gary Katzmann, a former federal prosecutor, was appointed by the Obama administration. The International Trade Court decision is a blow to the Trump administration. But the issue is far from settled and it does not cover the tariffs imposed on autos, steel, aluminum, and shortly on pharmaceuticals. The administration is no doubt hoping that the Court of International Trade decision will be overturned by the Supreme Court. If that fails, there are other means that can be used, in particular Sections 232 and 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. The latter gives the president the power to take retaliatory action against the trade practices of foreign countries, which can include tariffs or non-tariffs to address actions deemed burdensome to the US. After hailing the stay as a big victory for the president, in an interview with Fox News, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, indicated the administration could head in that direction if the use of the IEEPA ultimately failed. He said there were different approaches the administration could take to impose tariffs. Were not planning to pursue those right now because were very, very confident because the International Court of Trade ruling really is incorrect. The WSWS urges workers to come forward with information and support this investigation. Fill out the form at the end to send us your comments. Your identity will be kept confidential. Ronald Adams Sr., his wife Shamenia, and family members [Photo by Family of Ronald Adams Sr. ] Nearly two months after the tragic death of Ronald Adams Sr., a 63-year-old machine repairman at Stellantis Dundee Engine Complex in Michigan, workers are breaking the silence and exposing the corporate negligence and union complicity that led to the fatal accident. Several Dundee workers who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site provided detailed testimony for the independent investigation into Adams death, which has been initiated by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). They spoke about the conditions leading up to Adams death, describing a toxic combination of unsafe machinery and rushed production schedules, which were allowed by the United Auto Workers (UAW). To protect them from retaliation, all workers identities have been withheld. Adams was killed in the early morning hours of April 7 when a robotic gantry system suddenly activated while he was working underneath it in a confined area. The gantrya mechanical arm designed to lift and transport engine componentswas expected to remain stationary during a dry run, a test mode meant to deactivate motion and allow maintenance work to be conducted safely. But the machine lurched into motion, striking Adams with devastating force and fatally crushing his torso. Several workers have said that a subcontractor called PARI, brought in by Stellantis to install new equipment on the line, altered the software logic of the system. Previously, the gantries were programmed to remain off during dry runs, they reported. But when PARI installed gantries and conveyors for a new engine washer, workers said, they introduced an undocumented change to the logic. Operators thought the gantry would be offlike it always wasbut it wasnt, a production worker told the WSWS. In the days before the fatal accident, workers reported, the gantry had already moved unexpectedly on at least two occasions while in dry run mode. According to workers, the layout of the machine and the logic change created a deadly trap. You think its safe because its in dry run, one explained. But because they added a new layer of programming, the machine was still live. Nobody knew. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Stellantis blocked off access to both sides of the plant, even areas far from the scene. Not like I was in any position to work anyway. I was devastated, its still unbelievable, even to this day. He didnt have to die at all. Another worker added, They changed out the gantry arm right away and replaced the part that crushed him. Dundee has been undergoing a multi-million-dollar retooling project to produce a new line of engines for gas-powered, electric and hybrid vehicles; assemble, weld and test EV battery trays; and machine front and rear beams for larger-framed Ram and Jeep models. A 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 engine, currently built in Saltillo, Mexico, is also reportedly coming to Dundee. With the retooling project behind schedule, workers described a chaotic, high-pressure environment as Stellantis rushed to complete the installations of new machinery and restart production as soon as possible. Coworkers say Ronald and many other skilled workers could work 12-hour shifts, sometimes seven days a week, because of the rush to complete the work. Due to mandatory overtime on many weekends, Ronald was only getting four days off a month leading up to the tragic accident, they said. Its been a real push to get stuff done because everythings been dragging, a production worker said. Literally, we were going to work doing nothing. They had us scraping tape off the floor and just cleaning, but nothing was moving. He added, So, it got to be crunch time and that was the word with Ronnies crew too. Several workers reported that the same pattern of dangerous cost-cutting extended to safety interlocks meant to shut down power when maintenance doors were opened. Workers described how interlocks were routinely bypassedunscrewed and left engaged while the doors were opened, allowing live machinery to be accessed unsafely. The day after Adams death, workers reported, management quietly asked anyone with an interlock key to return it without penalty, an action they considered to be an implicit acknowledgment that such unsafe practices were widespread and known. Despite the catastrophic nature of the incident, multiple workers complained that MIOSHA (Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration) investigators had not interviewed many of those working in the area where Adams was killed. They havent talked to any of the workers on the line, one worker said. How do you call that an investigation? The role of the UAW apparatus has been equally appalling, they said. They said they were conducting their own investigation, but theyve said nothing to us, one worker reported. Theyre working hand in hand with Stellantis to cover this up. Dundee Engine Plant Indeed, the UAWs only public comment came in the form of a video released for Workers Memorial Day on April 28. The video featured UAW-Stellantis Vice President Kevin Gotinsky and top Stellantis management extolling their joint commitment to safetywhile implying that accidents are caused by workers cutting corners. Thats crazy to come from the UAW, a worker said of the joint video. Whose side are they on? We already know how they are in bed together, and right now, I know they want to cover this up as much as possible. Our plant is being looked at for the HEMI engine, so you know, a blow like this could probably mess that up. Another worker added, Whatever the company wants the UAW wants. They want to keep the money flowing. Responding to any efforts to shift responsibility for the fatal accident onto Adams, a worker commented, Thats insane. Ronnie was one of the safest guys in the plant. He warned other people to stay out of danger. Theyre blaming the victim to protect the company. Adams was well-known among coworkers for his consistent advocacy of safe practices, dating back to his earliest days when he started in the plant in the early 2000s. He was always making sure we stayed out of harms way, one colleague recalled, and looking out for people. After his death, workers on the headline (a machining department where cuts and threading are done on engine blocks) refused to resume production until they were confident the line was safe, workers reported. The line Ronnie was working on, thats one of the strongest departments, as far as the rank and file. They were being told to get back to running and they would not run one part until they knew it was safe. They know exactly what went wrong. This act of collective defiance echoed another crucial moment in the plants recent history. In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the US, workers at Dundee Engine walked off the job to demand the shutdown of the plant, fearing for their lives. The action was not approved by the UAW, instead led entirely by the workers themselves. We didnt wait for the union, one worker said. We knew what we had to do to protect ourselves. Autoworkers walking out at FCA Dundee Engine Plant in Dundee, Michigan, March 18, 2020 [Photo] That tradition of rank-and-file initiative is once again being revived in the wake of Adams death. Several workers voiced support for a full, independent rank-and-file investigation. The truth has to come out, one said. They cant just bury it. Ronnie had a 13-year-old son. He was a friend. A father. A human being. Another added, We cant trust the company. We cant trust the union. Its up to us. Support for such an initiative is growing across borders. In recent weeks, workers at Stellantis Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario voiced their solidarity with Dundee workers and the Adams family after learning about the incident from the WSWS. They demanded a full investigation and denounced the unions silence. Theres no reason anyone should die in a factory, a Dundee worker said. Whether its here, in Canada, or in Mexico. Were all human beings. We all have families. Workers also expressed skepticism toward the UAW leaderships nationalist rhetoric, which pits US workers against their foreign counterparts. Yeah, jobs are going to Mexico, and we need jobs, but at what cost? one said. The answer isnt to bring sweatshop conditions here. We need to link up with workers there. They dont want to die on the job either. Many are critical of UAW President Shawn Fains support for Trump-style tariffs and Buy American rhetoric, which they see as a cover for suppressing wages and safety domestically. They say well do it cheaper and faster here, one said. Thats what killed Ronnie. In one case cited to the WSWS, a Dundee worker who sustained a shoulder injury requiring surgery was forced to report to the plant daily by taxi while recoveringjust to avoid having the injury logged as lost time. Its all about the numbers, one worker said. Theyd rather risk someones life than admit a mistake. As one worker summarized: These companies will cut any corner to save a dollar. And the union goes right along with it. We have to organize ourselves, on the shop floor, across the country, and across borders. Thats the only way well stop this from happening again. The investigation initiated by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) is aimed at providing the information workers need, and new, rank-and-file-led organizations to assert real control over workplace safety, including the power to shut down unsafe production. The WSWS urges workers to come forward with information and support this investigation. Fill out the form below to send us your comments. Your identity will be kept confidential. Last week New Zealands Treasury released a Child Poverty Report, which forecast that the proportion of children living in poverty will increase from 17.7 percent in 2024 to 18.4 percent in 2029. The report was released along with the National Party-led governments austerity budget, which starves public services, while cutting workers wages, reducing government contributions to retirement savings and barring thousands of unemployed teenagers from welfare. The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. New Zealand Finance Minister Nicola Willis [Photo: Facebook/Nicola Willis MP] Asked by a TVNZ interviewer why the government had not done more in the budget to address child poverty, Finance Minister Nicola Willis declared: there is not actually a magic money tree that allows me to show such generosity that I can solve every problem at once. Year after year, successive Labour and National Party governments have trotted out this refrain, even as they have handed tens of billions of dollars to the corporate elite through tax cuts, subsidies and bailouts, and spent billions on the armed forces. The National-led coalition governmentwith the support of the opposition Labour Partywill spend an extra $13 billion over the next four years as part of its plan to double the size of the military and integrate New Zealand further into US-led imperialist wars. Sarita Divis of the Child Poverty Action Group, a non-government organisation, pointed out in a New Zealand Herald column last month that the $3 billion annual increase in defence spending is exactly what the Treasury itself estimated it would cost to halve the level of child poverty by 2028. The governments Child Poverty Report actually understates the extent of child poverty. Its data is more than a year old, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024. Over the past year, the number of people in full-time work has fallen by 45,000 as unemployment increased from 4 to 5.1 percent, and living costs have continued to rise while wages stagnated. Moreover, the government defines poverty as less than 50 percent of the median household income after paying for housing costsan extremely low bar. While the percentage of children below this poverty line was unchanged in the year to June 2024, the number of children living in material hardshipthe poorest of the poorincreased by almost a third between 2022 and mid-2024, from 10.5 percent to 13.4 percent. Material hardship is defined as lacking access to six or more essentials, such as decent housing, heating, healthy food, warm clothes and shoes, etc. Another survey, by the Ministry of Health, found that last year 27 percent of children lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes, up from 21 percent the year before. Numerous reports illustrate an increasingly severe social crisis. The Christchurch Press wrote on May 22: Some families have moved into one heated room to keep warm, while others are taking out loans to pay their power bills as costs rise and temperatures drop. It noted that last year, Consumer NZ estimated 140,000 households had to take out a loan to pay their power bill, and a further 38,000 households had their power cut at least once as they couldnt pay their bill. In Wellington, the Post reported on May 10 that Food charities are facing an unprecedented surge in demand from struggling middle income earners. In February, one soup kitchen served 7930 meals, 1200 more than across the same month in 2024. Nationwide 500,000 people, one tenth of the population, rely on food banks on a regular basis. Homelessness continues to become more visible in every major centre. The government has boasted about reducing the number of emergency housing places from 4,000 in September 2023 to around 500 in December 2024despite the 2023 census finding that 112,496 people, or 2.3 percent of the population, are severely housing deprived, (up from 99,462 people in 2018). According to government data cited by the Press, the number of emergency housing special needs grants, which fund temporary accommodation for people in need, have dropped from 8873 in July 2023, to just 1338 in March 2025. Growing social misery and hopelessness are reflected in an unprecedented surge in the use of dangerous drugs. In Northland, the poorest region, as well as Southland and Otago, wastewater testing shows methamphetamine use has tripled in the past year. Nationwide, the amount of meth consumed between October and December 2024 was 78 percent higher than the average over the previous 12 months. There is also a profound mental health crisis, particularly affecting young people. A May 14 report by UNICEF revealed that New Zealand had the worst youth suicide rate of the 36 countries in the OECD, with 17.1 suicides per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 (based on data from 201820). UNICEF appealed to the government to increase welfare payments for families with children and to address food insecurity by expanding the provision of free school lunches. The government has made cruel cuts in both areas. The government has deflected blame for young peoples poor mental health onto social media. It is seeking to ban under-16-year-olds from social media platforms. This has nothing to do with protecting children but is aimed at strengthening state control over the internet and stopping teenagers from accessing political material, especially socialist articles explaining the real causes of inequality, poverty and war. While the Labour Party has criticised the latest budget cuts, this is entirely hypocritical. Homelessness, child poverty and the cost of living all became worse during the 20172023 Labour government, which is why it lost the 2023 election in a landslide. Labour transferred tens of billions of dollars to the super-rich through corporate bailouts, subsidies and quantitative easing measures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last years National Business Review Rich List, profiling more than 100 of the countrys richest individuals and families, showed that their collective wealth increased from $72.59 billion to $95.68 billion in just one year. More than half of this figure, over $50 billion, was held by just 10 billionaires. This enormous wealth, accumulated by exploiting the labour of working people, must be expropriated, along with the money being wasted on war, so that it can be used to eliminate poverty, expand schools and hospitals and meet all other social needs. The task facing workers and young people is to reject all capitalist parties, including Labour and the Greens, and the union bureaucracy which has suppressed any resistance from workers to the governments attacks, and to take up the fight for the socialist reorganisation of society. Workers arrested in a mass police raid in Tallahassee, Florida, May 29, 2025. [Photo: HSI Tampa] Over 100 construction workers on a job site in Tallahassee, Florida, were arrested Thursday morning in a massive police-state raid led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in coordination with the Tampa Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office and local and state authorities. Video and pictures posted on social media show workers being lined up, cuffed and transported onto buses as distressed family and community members looked on. Videos posted of the raid showed dozens of police vehicles, white school buses and heavily armed and masked agents descending on the construction site. Many of the Gestapo thugs had their faces covered and virtually all were wearing body armor, even though it appears none of the workers were armed or wanted for violent crimes. This is the second major raid led by HSI Tampa in Florida this month. On May 13, HSI, ICE, the Florida Highway Patrol, and the US Marshals targeted construction sites in Wildwood, Florida, arresting 33 people in the process. The workers affected by Thursdays raid were employed by Hedrick Brothers Construction and were in the middle of building a new student housing complex in the College Town neighborhood near the Florida State University campus. Hedrick Brothers released a statement confirming they were aware that the authorities have taken control of the site and would fully cooperate with all elements of the investigation. In a post on X, (formerly Twitter), Tampa HSI claimed those arrested were from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, and Honduras. In addition to ICE and HSI agents, personnel from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), US Marshals, and the Florida Highway Patrol participated in the raid. In an interview with Florida Capitol Correspondent Jason Delgado, Leonardo Garcia, a worker on the site, said that his uncle was among those arrested. We were just doing our job like normal, Garcia said. Five to nine, and people just came in here, barging in. Police surrounded the whole building, all the corners, and they just started barging in, telling people, Show your papers, show your verification. Some people started to run away, and they just tackled them to the ground like nothing. Delgado reported that those arrested were transported to local holding facilities, including the Leon County Jail. The massive raid drew a crowd of distressed onlookers and family members. Videos posted on social media quickly went viral, with thousands condemning the arrests of the workers. Working people [are] going to ICE detention but fraudsters, scammers, felons going free from prison, Eugene wrote in response to a TikTok video of the raid. Florida wont survive without these hard workers, Sherry added. The arrests are part of the Trump administrations ongoing mass deportation operation and an attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class. The fact that these militarized raids are taking place at active work places exposes the right-wing lies that immigrants are violent criminals and a threat to society. The attacks on immigrant workers and their families must be opposed by the entire working class, regardless of citizenship status. Trump has already threatened to go after the home growns. There is no question that the detaining and deporting of so-called illegal workers will be expanded to include all those who resist the Trump administrations drive toward dictatorship. No faith, however, can be placed in the Democratic Party to resist these attacks. The current deportation operation, while qualitatively intensified under the present administration, is a continuation of previous policies pioneered by the Democratsfrom Clintons construction of the border fence in the 1990s to Barack Obamas massive deportation operation, which Trump is now seeking to eclipse. The fact is, no faction within the ruling class or either corporate party will defend the rights of immigrants. This reality was underscored in a recent interview with Democratic Representative Vicente Gonzalez Jr. of Texas, co-founder of the El Salvador Caucus, published in Politico. Gonzalez founded the caucus alongside former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz. In the interview, Gonzalez showered praise on President Nayib Bukele, the self-declared cool dictator of El Salvador. Since 2022, the Bukele government has enforced a state of exception in the country, suspending democratic rights and imprisoning 2 percent of the population in the process. I think its undeniable what hes done has been spectacular, in terms of bringing security to over 98 percent of the population that lived in turmoil for over a generation, Gonzalez told the outlet. He added, I think that we have a lot in common, referring to Bukelea fixture at the fascistic Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and a favorite of neo-Nazi Elon Musk. And I dont think Bukele comes from an extreme right-wing history. I think hes kind of been a middle-of-the-road survivor, Gonzalez added. I think Bukele is a good person, and I really do think he means well and wants to do the best he can for his country, and I think we should work with him, Gonzalez concluded. The Bukele government, in exchange for millions of dollars from the US government, has offered up the notorious terrorism prison known as CECOT as an immigration detention center. In mid-March, nearly 300 peopleincluding Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Andry Hernandez Romerowere sent to the prison despite not having committed a crime. Andry Hernandez Romero [Photo: The Romero Family] As of Thursday, according to NBC News, at least 14 asylum cases involving Venezuelan immigrants sent to CECOT have been dismissed by immigration judges, including the case of Hernandez Romerofurther imperiling his and others chances of receiving a rightful return to the United States and any semblance of due process. NBCs David Noriega reported that lawyers for the immigrants said, in dismissing the cases, the immigrants were essentially being disappeared from the American legal system and that the US government is trying to pretend that they were never here seeking asylum in the U.S. in the first place. One of the key features of the so-called negotiations over the US reciprocal tariffs imposed on a series of countries, with some of the biggest hikes against Southeast Asian countries, is Washingtons demand that they impose tariffs and other restrictions against China. Outside the Beijing Stock Exchange in China on April 10, 2025. [AP Photo/Andy Wong] The central target of Trumps economic war is China because its economic advance, especially in the area of high-tech, is regarded as an existential threat to the global dominance of the US. The strategy to be pursued with around 70 other countries, reportedly devised by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, was set out in a Wall Street Journal article published shortly after the 90-day freeze on reciprocal tariffs was announced on April 9. The idea is to extract commitments from US trading partners to isolate Chinas economy in exchange for reductions in trade and tariff barriers imposed by the White House. US officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries, prevent Chinese firms from locating in their territories to avoid US tariffs, and not to absorb Chinas cheap industrial goods into their countries, it said. The demand for action against China was a feature of the deal with the UK, announced earlier this month, in which it was stipulated that Britain would align itself with US national security concerns over China and implement tariffs against Chinese steel. But that was very much a question of plucking the low hanging fruit. The measures agreed to are not expected to have a major impact on the UK economy. It is a very different matter for others, especially those in southeast Asia, which have close ties with China but whose main export market is the US. The most significant of these economies is Vietnam which has undergone major industrial and manufacturing growth in the past decade as a result of Chinese investment and its integration into Chinese-based global supply chains. Vietnam was one of the hardest hit by the reciprocal tariffs with a levy of 46 percent. Government officials have already held two rounds of talks with their counterparts in Washington and another round is set for next month. The immediate issue is transhipmentthe process in which goods largely made in China are rerouted via Vietnam and then exported to the US. But the US demands go well beyond the ending of this practice. It wants to break up the supply chains in which raw materials and components are supplied for goods manufactured in Vietnam. Vietnam has created a special task force to deal with smuggling and trade fraud and stop the export of goods falsely labelled as made in Vietnam, but according to a report in the New York Times, Trump officials have said this is not enough. If Vietnam is not able to escape the effect of the Trump measures, they will have a devastating impact. Manufacturing now accounts for 20 percent of the countrys GDP. In 2015 manufacturing output was around $60.5 billion. By 2023 it had risen to $102.6 billion, an increase of almost 70 percent in eight years. The countries of the region are seeking ways to counter the impact of the US economic war. Addressing a conference this week in Kuala Lumpur of the ASEAN group of nationscomprising Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnamthe Malaysian foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, emphasised the need for unity to meet the changed world situation. ASEAN nations are among the most heavily affected by the US-imposed tariffs, he said. The US-China trade war is dramatically disrupting production and trade patterns worldwide. A global economic slowdown is likely to happen. We must seize this moment to deepen regional economic integration, so that we can better shield our region from external shocks. The ASEAN gathering was followed by a meeting of the bloc with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)comprising the oil producing countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirateson Tuesday. It was also attended by Chinese Vice Premier Li Qiang. Opening the meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the inaugural meeting marked the beginning of a new chapter of cooperation. ASEAN, the GCC and China have a combined GDP of nearly $25 trillion and a market of over 2 billion people which offered vast opportunities for cross-regional investment. I am confident that ASEAN, the GCC and China can draw upon our unique attributes and shape a future that is more connected, more resilient and more prosperous, Ibrahim said. The central aim of the US is to tear countries, especially those in southeast Asia, away from their economic dependence on China, with the aim of ending their attempted strategic balancing act between Washington and Beijing. But the US has a major problem in that it has nothing to offer those countries economically, under conditions where a break from China will result in economic devastation, threatening to set off major social upheavals and possibly sparking retaliatory action, of which Beijing has warned. The outcome, at least so far, is that rather than a break from Beijing, US actions are pushing more countries into its orbit because they have nowhere else to go. The US will also be concerned that the GCC countries, from which China draws 30 percent of oil supplies, chose to publicly declare closer collaboration with the ASEAN bloc at a major meeting held in the presence of a top Chinese government leader. Similar issues are emerging in Latin America, which the US wants to integrate into an anti-China bloc. They were highlighted in a recent interview conducted by the Financial Times with the outgoing head of the 35-member Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro. He warned that the worst thing that could happen to Latin America is to be forced to choose between the US and China. The comments from the OAS head, who has stepped down after 10 years in the post, are significant because he is regarded as politically aligned with the US. China is the biggest or second biggest trading partner of practically every Latin American country, Almagro noted. Take that out of the equations and you are going to have a violent regional economic disaster. The issue is the same as in southeast Asia. With no economic concessions on the table, the US is proceeding with imperialist bullying and threats. After pushing to resume control of the Panama Canal, it has forced Panama to withdraw from Chinas Belt and Road initiatives, warned of sanctions against Colombia if it joins it and called on Mexico to reduce Chinese investment in its factories. The final performance of composer Anthony Daviss opera The Central Park Five took place May 18 at the Detroit Opera House before a packed audience. The musical drama recounts the frame-up of five minority youth for the alleged rape of a jogger in New York City in 1989. It prominently features Donald Trump, then a real estate mogul in the city, who whips up a lynch-mob atmosphere against the youths. The Central Park Five at Detroit Opera (detroitopera.org) While the opera was scheduled two years in advance, the decision of the Detroit Opera to move forward with the performances has a certain significance given the various attempts at intimidation initiated by Trump, including against the film The Apprentice. Patty Isacson Sabee, the Detroit Operas president and CEO, told the Detroit Free Press she thought it was important to have a healthy amount of fear, adding, That will help drive me to make the best decisions about how to take care of everyone. The fact that audience members had to pass through metal detectors and clear security to enter the theater was a reminder of the heightened social and political tensions Davis, 74, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, has written eight operas, including X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986); Tania (1992), about Patricia Hearst; Amistad (1997, revised 2008), about the 1839 slave revolt; and Lear on the 2nd Floor, a re-interpretation of Shakespeares King Lear. Daviss music, an eclectic blend of jazz, blues, classical and hip hop, serves as a background to the story, reinforcing moods of anguish and tension as the young men and their families go through their ordeal and the capitalist media whips up a frenzied witchhunt. In 2020 Davis won the Pulitzer Prize for Central Park Five, one year after the production premiered at the Long Beach, California Opera. The libretto was written by Richard Wesley and also includes a new and expanded orchestration by Davis. The Detroit Opera production was directed by Nataki Garrett and conducted by Anthony Parnther, who is known for his work conducting film scores. Parnther also conducts the San Bernardino [California] Symphony Orchestra and the Southeast Symphony in Los Angeles. Garrett told the Free Press, In any kind of authoritarian shift in a democratic government, one of the first things they do to signal what theyre activating is to restrict the voice of the artist, and the possibility for the artist to be able to continue to speak truth to power. She continued: I think there's danger to doing art like this in any time. I think that art that speaks truth to power has the distinctive possibility of igniting people's interest in understanding how the world really works, and wanting to activate themselves around supporting shift and justice. Any art worth its salt has the potential to be impactful in that way. The operas storyline closely follows the developments in the actual case. Five young black and Hispanic men, all juveniles in their mid- to early teens at the time, were convictedbased on coerced confessionsin the brutal beating and rape of Trisha Meili, a white woman, age 28, who had been jogging in Manhattans Central Park on April 19, 1989. The preceding decade had seen a massive growth in social inequality fueled by Reagans tax cuts, mass layoffs, wage cutting and the evisceration of social programs, which fueled a rise in the stock markets and financial speculation of all kinds. The ethos of the period was epitomized by the rise of figures like Trump. At the same time, the political establishment incited law and order hysteria, demonized the poor and escalated state repression against the working class and the poor. The Five are played by Freddie Ballentine as Kevin Richardson, Chazmen Williams-Ali as Raymond Santana, Nathan Granner as Korey Wise, Markel Reed as Yusef Salaam and Justin Hopkins as Antron McCray. Catherine Martin plays the assistant district attorney, Todd Strange the Trump character and Daniel Belcher the Masque. Brianna Robinson, Kendra Faith Beasley, Elliott Page and Babatunde Akinboboye play parents of the boys. The staging of the opera is effective. The set is divided into two levels, with the upper level representing official societythe police, the courts and the mainstream pressand the lower levels the street, so to speak. In a talk prior to the performance, conductor Parnther referred to the opera as a deeply American work. By this, Parnther, who conducted the world premiere of The Central Park Five at the Long Beach [California] Opera in 2019, was presumably referring both to the themes of the piece and its composition in a number of musical styles originating in the US. In regard to the latter, the most prominent of these styles is clearly 1950s jazz. The music often alternates between moments of high tension and calm passages punctured by a solo from one of several brass instruments. Those solos underscore the stress and uncertainty surely experienced by the Five, as their unfair arrest and prosecution unfold, due to manipulation by the powerful players involved. While in opera traditionally the music takes center stage, the libretto in this composition seems to be the dominant element. The musical score, while not atonal, is often harsh, even grating and will not appeal to all tastes. The score presents challenges to both instrumentalists and vocalists due to its complex rhythms and difficult-to-predict pitches. The mood evoked by Davis's score suggests American film noir from the 1940s and 1950s, the decades of this genre's heyday. One of Davis's musical inspirations may have been Duke Ellington's score for Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959), a brilliant and suspenseful courtroom drama. This influence could certainly be heard in The Central Park Five. The Central Park Five (detroitopera.org) Parnther noted in his talk that excerpts from Ellington and John Coltrane were sampled in the score for the opera. He suggested the music was difficult to perform, comparing it to Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (1913). The rhythm section, he explained, serves as glue to hold the various musical idioms together. The music helps to create the setting of the drama, big and bustling New York, also with its loneliness and coldness, as experienced by the main characters. The music takes on more prominence in the second act, with the clarinet given the role of a kind of independent character. While the opera may be based on American musical themes, the social content of the story is profoundly universal. Working class youth in any big city from Bangkok to Dakar, from Paris to Santiago, face unlawful police interrogation methods and retaliation for acts of protest. If a criticism is to be made along these lines, it is that the opera fails to explore the broader class implications of the Central Park Five case. Wesley, who has described the rise of Trump as the product of white backlash, in various statements, indicated he views the persecution of the Five in largely racial terms. Racism was unquestionably involved. A vile campaign was organized by the media and fanned by right-wing figures such as Trump, appealing to the basest instincts and all manner of social backwardness. Moreover, the case occurred in the context of a decade or more of reactionary, bipartisan propaganda about the poor, welfare queens, welfare chiselers and so forth, with all their racist subtexts. The youth in the case were essentially portrayed as wild animals. In the end, however, as the present drive for dictatorship by Trump demonstrates, the buildup of the police and the forces of repression, although cynically and viciously making use of race and racism, is ultimately directed at the entire working class, black, white and immigrant, and its rights and social conditions. As a reviewer in the Detroit Jewish News pointed out, the treatment of the Central park Five is reminiscent of current news stories about immigrant students and families snatched from their schools and homes and detained with no explanation. The harrowing interrogation of the five boys in the Central Park jogger case is effectively portrayed in the opera. Over the course of seven hours, without the presence of parents or attorneys, the police use all their tested diabolical stratagems to extract false confessions. In exchange for telling the police what they want to hear, the youths are falsely told they will be able to go home. The Trump character, wearing his trademark red tie and munching French fries, meanwhile addresses the press demanding the arrest and conviction of the alleged rapists intoning, They are animals! Monsters!Support our police! On May 1, 1989, Trump took out full-page advertisements published in all four of the city's major newspapers, headlined, Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police! In a typically lying and demagogic passage, Trump intoned: At what point did we cross the line from the fine and noble pursuit of genuine civil liberties to the reckless and dangerously permissive atmosphere which allows criminals of every age to beat and rape a helpless woman and then laugh at her family's anguish? And why do they laugh? They laugh because they know that soon, very soon, they will be returned to the streets to rape and maim and kill once againand yet face no great personal risk to themselves. In the Detroit production, a montage of screaming newspaper headlines flash by above the stage. Todd Strange, the tenor who portrays Trump, told the New York Times reviewer that he felt some trepidation playing the role, given the threats that the fascist president regularly issues against his critics. The audience, however, appreciated the portrayal, giving the Trump character a well-earned round of loud booing at curtain call. The second act is preceded by a suspenseful overture with a faster tempo than the one we heard through most of the first act, foreshadowing the events soon to take place. The victim has awakened from her coma, but she remembers nothing of the attack. The farce of a trial concludes and the Five are found guilty and sentenced to long prison terms. In 2002, a convicted serial rapist told New York officials that he had raped a woman in Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989. His DNA matched that found at the crime scene. Based on this new evidence the Central Park Five were exonerated by a judge, although the prosecutor and police continued to insist on their guilt. The Five went on to win a $41 million settlement for their wrongful convictions, the largest in New York state history. In 2024, the men sued Trump for remarks he made in a televised debate with Kamala Harris. He claimed the five had pleaded guilty to the crime and that someone had been killed. In April, a judge denied Trumps motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The opera concludes with the Central Park Five singing Every Day is a Struggle, signifying the fight for justice continues. Anthony Davis is currently composing a bilingual chamber opera based on the childrens story Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote. It explores the challenges faced by migrant families crossing the US-Mexico border. It is due to premiere in January 2026 in San Diego and Tijuana. The staging of an opera is a costly and complex undertaking. The Detroit Opera, formerly the Michigan Opera, has struggled financially over the years as have arts organizations at all levels nationwide. The opera suffered a near financial collapse with the withdrawal of corporate funding in the wake of the 2008 financial crash and also suffered during the pandemic. The generally abysmal level of public funding for the arts in the US and the coming to power of the new Trump administration, which plans to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, pose further challenges. Detroit Opera officials told the Free Press the company had received a $40,000 grant to support the production of The Central Park Five. It had used all those funds. The opera company, in an emailed statement, explained that We received a notice on Friday, May 2 informing us that our National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025. We have received all of the funds and will have completed our project by May 31, 2025, so this does not impact us in the same way it does many of our colleagues around the country. The production of The Central Park Five, with its unflattering portrait of Trump and reactionary, law-and-order forces, reflects wider social processes. Numerous artists and musicians have spoken out recently against the drive to authoritarianism in the US, as well as the mass murder in Gaza. The opera is an expression of the growing resistance all over the world, including by such artistic layers, to the ruling class drive toward dictatorship and war. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Azerbaijan discussed expanding cooperation in the field of green energy with Germany, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov wrote on X, Trend reports. "We held discussions with Michael Harms, Chairman of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy on expanding cooperation in the field of energy within the Green Energy course of Azerbaijan. We evaluated the cooperation opportunities with German companies on the development of offshore wind energy, the Green Energy Corridor, which will extend from the Caspian Sea to Europe, and the supply of energy through this infrastructure," the publication reads. On May 22, Zach Smith announced he would resign his position of national secretary of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU), while continuing to serve as secretary of the Victorian and Tasmanian branch. CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith, accompanied by Queensland branch secretary Michael Ravbar (right), addressing protest outside Labor Party conference in 2023. [Photo: CFMEU Construction & General QLD/NT Facebook] Smiths resignation does not constitute a break with Mark Irving, the construction unions government-appointed administrator. Instead, it is an attempt to bolster Smiths credibility with workers so that he can continue to serve as a lackey of the administrator, and, in turn, Labor and the financial and corporate elite. Last August, using the pretext of unproven media allegations of widespread corruption and links to organised crime, the federal Labor government placed the unions construction division under administration, immediately sacking almost 330 elected officials. In reality, the draconian move had nothing to do with ridding the CFMEU of rogue elements. It was about subordinating a historically militant section of the working class even more directly to the state and the employers, to facilitate attacks on their wages and conditions amid a downturn in the building sector and the economy. Smith, himself a member of the Labor Partys national executive, was one of the few officials to retain his positiontasked with suppressing opposition to the administration. Smith told CFMEU members in a May 22 statement he had made the tough decision to step down from the national role, because he was spread too thin and had come to the realisation that he could not do justice to both roles.The Victorian branch deserved his full focus. More tellingly, Smith declared, I cannot be asked to take responsibility for decisions that are not mine. This was a reference to the administrators decision on May 13 to sack Michael Hiscox from his position as acting Australian Capital Territory (ACT) branch secretary and place the branch under administration. This leaves the West Australian (WA) branch as the only one still under elected leadership. Irving claimed the removal of Hiscox was because the branch had seen an 18 percent drop in membership on the year to March and was projecting a $500,000 annual lossa figure disputed by Hiscoxs supporters. In reality, the fall in membership in the ACT is basically in line with a 17 percent decline in building approvals for non-residential construction in the territory over the past year. But more fundamentally, the move against Hiscox explodes the entire pretext of the administration. Hiscox was not accused of corruption, Irvings purported remit. And the pretext for the removal of Hiscox underscored the fact that the administration is aimed at furthering the already far-advanced corporatisation of the unions, with the well-heeled, government-appointed lawyer demanding that the ACT branch be run as a business, based on profit projections and key performance indicators. That aside, the real reason that Hiscox was dumped was clearly because less than two weeks earlier, he and Mick Buchan, secretary of the WA branch, issued a statement raising criticisms of the restructuring operation proposed by Smith and Irving. The pair said the plan to further centralise the unions day-to-day operations would deprive rank and file members of having a voice in the way that their union is run. Irvings swift reprisal against Hiscox shows that even limited and conditional opposition to the quasi-dictatorial rule of the administrator will not be tolerated. Hiscox and Buchan had not called for a membership-wide vote, let alone a mobilisation of workers against the restructure, in line with the orientation of the entire bureaucracy, including that wing which has been ousted, to manage the situation through pleas and appeals to the administrator. Hiscox and Buchan were undoubtedly concerned that centralisation would undermine the financial autonomy of their branch and their own position. But there is also little doubt that they felt compelled to issue their criticism, because of opposition from the rank-and-file to the restructure. Similar calculations lay behind Smiths resignation. Initially, he had publicly denounced criticism of the restructure plan as personal attacks from people who were hanging on to the past. But the sacking of Hiscox, Smiths own former deputy in the ACT branch, placed him in a difficult position. Smith told Radio 3CRs Concrete Gang, Mark Irving called me after hed met with Michael Hiscox and after hed made the decision. Do I support the decision? Of course I dont. Smith, attempting to cover himself, continues to insist that the restructure plan is his, not the administrators, noting in his May 22 statement, I urge the union to see it through. This underscores that his stepping down as national secretary is a tactical move, aimed at saving face in light of opposition to the axing of Hiscox. This is necessary because Smith is still considered an essential component of the Labor governments plans to complete the evisceration of the CFMEU, removing any obstacle to the rapacious profit demands of the major construction companies and property developers. Smith has been the construction unions national secretary since March 2023, and took over control of the Victorian branch in mid-2024, initially as part of backroom manoeuvring with the federal Labor government, aimed at avoiding administration or implementing it in a way that was more favourable to the CFMEU bureaucracy. Smiths move late last year to take a more hands-on role in Victoria was clearly motivated by the enormous opposition among workers to the Labor governments attack on their democratic rights, which erupted most sharply in that state. The first protest rally in Melbourne against administration involved some 40,000 workers, several times larger than demonstrations elsewhere in the country, animating calls for building industry-wide strikes, that would have involved members of other unions as well. Anxious to quash such a development, Smith addressed the second Melbourne rally, calling for business as unusual, insisting that workers could still fight for their wages and conditions despite the union being under state control. There was no need to fight the administration, much less the Labor government. Strongly supported plans for a 72-hour strike were liquidated and no further protests against the administration have been held in Australias second largest city. Smith has not acted alone in suppressing any mobilisation of workers against the administration and the Labor government. A layer of the ousted CFMEU bureaucracy, led by the former Queensland branch leadership, Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham, in September launched a challenge against the administration in the Hight Court. This case has been used ever since to shut down opposition to Labors attack, with workers told again and again that they have to wait for the court to hand down its ruling, which remains outstanding. From the outset, this legal manoeuvre was a political diversion, nothing to do with defending the interests of construction workers and instead aimed at restoring the privileges of the sacked CFMEU officials. Moreover, the case is unlikely to succeed, and in any case, the Labor government could simply amend the legislation in the event of a High Court loss. The actions of the administrator, Smith, and the ousted bureaucrats, all point to one thing. To fight the administration and defend their democratic rights, building workers need to take matters into their own hands. Rank-and-file committees, independent of any union, should be built at construction sites across the country. These would be a mechanism for coordinating unified and sustained action, not just occasional protest stunts. Such committees could make a powerful appeal for a united struggle with manufacturing, logistics and other sections of workers, who also face attacks on their jobs, wages and conditions. What is required is a political fight against the Labor government, the union apparatus, and the capitalist system itself. It poses the need for a new, socialist perspective, which rejects the subordination of construction, and every area of economic life, to the profit dictates of the property developers, the major corporations and the banks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, from left, speaks at a cabinet meeting as President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listen in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, April 10, 2025, in Washington. [AP Photo] On Wednesday May 28, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department would aggressively revoke visas for Chinese international students. Nearly a quarter of the international students in the United States are of Chinese origin. Over 270,000 students are at risk of being impacted by this move by the Trump administration. The statement declared Under President Trumps leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields, referring to the physical sciences and engineering, We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong. In a comment by Trump responding to the announcement of the revocations of the visas of Chinese students he said: These countries arent helping us. Theyre not investing in Harvard we are. So why would 31 percent why would a number so big ? I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent. We have people- want to go to Harvard and other schools, they cant get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country. I dont have a problem with foreign students. But it shouldnt be 31 percent. Its too much, because we have Americans who want to go there, and to other places, and they cant go there because theres 31 percent foreigners. This latest attack draws from the filthiest corners of the history of anti-Chinese chauvinism, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the violent anti-Chinese pogroms which followed. In addition to promoting division in the working class and diverting anger away from the oligarchs, this move seeks to prepare public opinion for war with China. We use every tool that we have to vet and to make sure we know whos coming in, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a briefing Thursday. In this particular case, the United States is putting America first by beginning to revoke visas of Chinese students as warranted. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security are preparing to initiate a massive witch-hunt against Chinese students. Students will be accused of spying for China on the basis of their ethnic origin. Such a campaign will invariably take on an anti-communist character like the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the Red-Scare in the 1950s. The planned revocation of Chinese students visas is coordinated with the fabricated charge made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against Harvard, accusing the university of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. Wednesdays State Department statement enacts the threats and rhetoric used by Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, in portraying Chinese immigrants as an invading army or a coordinated national security vulnerability directed by the Chinese government. This latest attack follows the announcement by the State Department of a pause on interview appointments for international applicants for student and exchange visas, and the attempt to revoke Harvards ability to enroll international students. DHS announced earlier this week that it was revoking Harvard Universitys ability to enroll foreign students by terminating its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. This action, subsequently blocked by court order, would affect Harvards approximately 6,800 international students from over 100 countries. The Trump administration's fascistic assault on higher education has caused significant disruption for international students, with many seeking transfers from Harvard and other universities in Trumps crosshairs. DHS has also demanded extensive records on international students from Harvard as part of a broader crackdown on universities and international students, to proscribe opposition to the Gaza genocide. The Trump administration is developing a system to screen and ban international students based on their political viewpoints. The ongoing campaign is an attempt to transform universities into surveillance centers and enforcement arms of the state, demanding control over curriculum and student activities. These attacks are part of a drive to establish a dictatorship and abolish democratic rights, carry out mass deportations, and silence dissent. They are also bound up with escalating tensions between the United States and China as a consequence of Trumps trade war and economic nationalism. The attacks on academia play a critical role in deepening preparations for a war with China. Historically, the Chinese Exclusion era was tied to the development of capitalism in the United States and the early development of US imperialism in the Pacific and East Asia. The revival of the rhetoric and policies of Chinese exclusion and the attempt to portray Chinese immigrants as an invading army is the domestic expression of the Trump administrations drive for a direct confrontation with China. The Trump administration consciously draws on arguments from and the history of the era of Chinese exclusion and invokes the Supreme Courts 1889 decision in the Chinese Exclusion Case as legal precedent for the actions that have been carried out since the start of the current Trump presidency. Workers must reject the revival of anti-Chinese sentiment. It will be the working class that will be forced to pay, in both its working conditions and its lives, in a war with China. Chinese workers and students are not the enemy of American workers and students. The working class of these two countries are allies in the struggle against capitalist exploitation and war internationally. Striking nurses in Madison, Wisconsin, May 27, 2025 [Photo: SEIU Wisconsin via X/Twitter] On Tuesday, 950 nurses employed by UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, launched a five-day strike, the first by nurses at the hospital. They are demanding improvements in workplace safety for both staff and patients, higher staffing ratios and increased pay. Striking nurse Audrey Willems Van Dijk, speaking at a press conference launching the strike, said, We have been stretched a little bit more thin, we have worked a little bit harder, we are constantly staying extra to help our coworkers and our patients, and it feels like management is taking advantage of our love of our job. The striking nurses are members of the Wisconsin chapter of Service Employees International Union or SEIU Wisconsin, whose membership comprises approximately 7,000 healthcare and service industry workers in the state. The fact that the Meriter strike is occurring in Madison is significant. Act 10, passed over a decade ago through tactics of questionable legality under former Governor Scott Walker, stripped collective bargaining rights from nurses at UW Health in Madison. That law sparked mass working class protests at the state Capitol building, and broad support for a statewide general strike against the bill. These nurses currently have a case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court to force the health system to recognize their union. In addition, SEIU Wisconsin is a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Act 10. Last year, a judge ruled parts of the law unconstitutional, although an appeal is still pending. The strike also takes place amid numerous struggles of healthcare workers nationally. Eight hundred workers at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, have been on strike since May 15th. The SEIU announced Wednesday that it was returning to the bargaining table. New York-Presbyterian Hospital also has announced plans to lay off 1,000 workers earlier this month. Hundreds of nurses from two southern California hospitals, MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center and Miller Childrens and Womens Hospital, and at Alhambra Hospital Medical Center, went on strike for one day last week. However, the union bureaucracy is doing everything it can to limit and isolate them. The SEIU just blocked a strike of nursing home caregivers in Connecticut last Friday, rather than link up that strike with the nurses in Wisconsin. Hundreds of nursing home workers in the Buffalo metropolitan area of western New York went on strike May 20 but the SEIU limited that walkout to seven days. The current contract expired on March 16, but closed-door talks between SEIU Wisconsin and hospital management have been ongoing since January. Nurses said that they chose to strike now because management has not answered their demands for increased workplace security and higher staffing ratios. The nurses are insisting on the installation of metal detectors and workplace improvements. The union and hospital management were set to resume talks Thursday while the strike is ongoing. In response to nurses demands for minimum staffing ratios, hospital management rolled out the typical objection, saying that writing specific staffing ratios in a contract would limit flexibility, reduce nurse autonomy and lead to unintended outcomespotentially affecting the ability to adjust to patient needs and staff availability in real time. Of course, staffing ratios would do no such thing. It is always possible to bring on additional nurses to meet demand over and above minimum safe staffing levels. This is evidenced by the fact that Meriter is currently using traveling nurses as scabs during the strike, having onboarded them over Memorial Day weekend. The fact that SEIU Wisconsin called a mere five-day strike shows the union bureaucracy is not willing to wage a protracted struggle on behalf of workers. Nor has SEIU Wisconsin published on its website the specific wage increases and staffing ratios, if any, that it is seeking. It could therefore declare victory on any changes at all, no matter how insignificant. Democratic politicians are using the Meriter strike to create the appearance of supporting workers, while supporting ruling class policies against them. Mark Pocan, whose 2nd Congressional District of Wisconsin includes Madison, made an appearance on the picket lines on the second day of the strike. Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted in support of the nurses. These two politicians have a long track record of directing working class resistance back into the dead end of the Democratic Party, which is fully complicit in the ruling class attack on workers. Pocan, a member and chair emeritus of the House progressive caucus, has been a reliable vote for increasing militarism and war. He voted for the $61 billion military aid package to Ukraine, an $8 billion military aid package to Taiwan, and a resolution committing the United States to unwavering support for Israel. Sanders has been resolute in supporting Israel and repeating the lie that Israel has a right to defend itself. The Democratic Party has enabled the unprecedented assault on science and public health by President Trump and his Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They have sought to restrict opposition to toothless letter-writing campaigns and stunts from the floor of Congress, because they are far more terrified of mass action on the part of workers, healthcare or otherwise, to oppose the assault. These attacks are generating enormous and explosive anger among healthcare workers in particular and the working class more broadly. The scorched earth policies being implemented at HHSsuch as the elimination of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and the wholesale undermining of vaccines, including recent rollbacks of COVID-19 vaccine recommendationswill make the situation facing nurses immeasurably more dire, with more and sicker patients. Objectively, both Meriter and UW Health nurses confront a fight not just against a single intransigent health system administration, or a single states suppression of collective bargaining rights, but a political struggle against a ruling class which is seeking to establish a dictatorship, destroy public health and further enrich itself, no matter the cost in lives. This struggle cannot be won through corrupt union bureaucracies, support for politicians of either party, or legal challenges. Meriter and UW Health nurses must take direct control of their struggles by forming rank-and-file committees that are democratically elected. These committees must then deliberate free from external influences including management pressure and the sabotage of politicians and the union bureaucracy. The committee can then adopt clear demands, including specific percentage wage increases, staffing ratios and security measures. In the case of Meriter, the committee should also demand extension of the strike on an open-ended basis. These rank-and-file committees must then unite with other such committees across the country and in other industries through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees to effect coordinated action. Only in this manner can the struggle against the ruling class and its full-scale assault on science and health be won. Members of the judicial police work next to the body of Andriy Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was shot dead on Wednesday outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025 [AP Photo/Paul White] Influential Ukrainian political operative Andriy Portnov was shot to death last week in a Madrid parking lot after dropping his children off at an American school located in an elite district of the Spanish capital. Portnov was a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and deputy head in the administration of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled in a US- and EU-backed coup in February 2014. His assassination adds another name to the long list of Russia-aligned political figures from the Ukrainian ruling class who have been killed in targeted assassinations following the full-scale outbreak of the NATO-backed proxy war between Kiev and Moscow in February 2022. According to reports, the shooting was carried out by a thin, lone gunman wearing a blue tracksuit who may have been assisted by an accomplice riding a getaway motorbike. The killing was reportedly witnessed by both children and teachers still entering the school at the time. So far, no suspect has been detained. A lawyer by trade, Portnov made his entry into Ukrainian politics as a parliament member within the party of Western-backed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, from 2005 until 2010. He then switched sides to join Yanukovychs administration where he would remain until 2014. He was well known for opposing the Western-backed coup that led to Yanukovychs ouster as president and the outbreak of civil war in the Donbass region. Undoubtedly recruited to the Yanukovych government due to his political and legal skills, which aided him in gaming the Ukrainian judicial system, in 2012 Portnov set up Ukraines national criminal code. Following the 2014 Western-backed coup that violently removed Yanukovych from power with the assistance of the countrys far-right political forces, Portnov reportedly fled to Russia and then Austria. He later returned to Ukraine following the election of former comedian and current president Volodymyr Zelensky, who at the time was not the preferred candidate of either US or European imperialism due to his own political and business ties to Moscow. In 2019, Portnov became involved in an initial set of charges for high treason against former US-backed President Poroshenko, lodged by the newly elected Zelensky government at the time, and won a number of lawsuits against rival Ukrainian media outlets who had labeled Portnov as Pro-Russian. In 2021, as the Zelensky government was moving sharply to the right and persecuting Russian-oriented political forces, the United States placed Portnov under sanctions for alleged human rights violations and involvement in mass corruption. Following the outbreak of full-scale war in 2022, Portnov once again fled the country, this time ending up in Spain where he was ultimately killed. Due to his convoluted political and personal history, which included a series of vacillations between Ukraines pro-Western and pro-Russian ruling class political factions, it is as yet unclear exactly who is behind Portnovs murder. Just days after his killing, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, citing three unnamed sources, reported that Portnov had been in Kiev from May 17 to 18 to meet with top security officials within the Ukrainian government. According to popular Ukrainian YouTube blogger Anatoli Shariy, Portnov was in fact meeting Zelensky and his advisors Andriy Yermak and Oleg Tatarov. Shariy later wrote that Tatarov had rapidly flown to Spain in order to handle the Ukrainian response to Portnovs assassination and negotiate with the Spanish government. Shariys version of events was echoed by Ukrainian parliament member Alexander Dubinsky, a former Zelensky ally who has now been charged with treason. Shariy stated: Portnov was tasked with ensuring the legal purity of the elections and Zelenskys victory by finding a way to prevent potential competitors from participating in the elections by creating judicial problems for them. The task was also set to ensure the voting of dead souls unaccounted for immigrants and dead civilians, missing soldiers, the diaspora. Dubinsky claimed that Portnov had also met with Maxim Budzhansky, the deputy head of Zelenskys Servants of the People Party, and alleged that After arriving in Spain, Portnov was immediately liquidated. The deathly silence of Zelensky, Yermak, Tatarov, and Buzhansky about Portnovs death is connected with their meetings with him, which they are trying to keep secret. Former Zelensky advisor Alexey Arestovych likewise tied Portnovs killing to Zelensky, posting on X that The murder of Andry Portnov is 99% likely Zelensky preparing for elections. Arestovych, who is preparing to challenge Zelensky in any potential future presidential elections, also wrote that he and popular Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy have received death threats on Telegram associated with Zelenskys office. Arestovych continued: The political terror unleashed by Zelenskys regime has turned into blatant international terrorism; a Ukrainian citizen was killed on the territory of a NATO and EU country. It will be interesting to see how Zelenskys dear European partners react to this. Whatever the true story behind the assassination, Portnovs extrajudicial killing just days after meeting with Ukrainian officials once again exposes the imperialist lie that Ukraine is in any way a democratic state. Zelensky, in fact, rules over a corrupt, dictatorial right-wing regime dominated by the Ukrainian oligarchy, which has a long history of settling conflicts in its ranks with violence. Far-right forces are allowed to terrorize citizens on the streets, and tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been imprisoned for opposing the war, including Ukrainian Trotskyist Bogdan Syrotiuk. Ultimately, Zelensky and the entire Ukrainian ruling class are the diseased outcome of the restoration of capitalism in the former Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy, that has resulted in the current mass poverty and the largest war on European soil since World War II. As the WSWS has continually warned, only the international working class can stop the war in Ukraine from further descending into a new and even more disastrous imperialist world war. Teamsters President Sean O'Brien with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, January 3, 2024. [Photo: @Teamsters] Last month, the union reform group Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) issued a short, tersely worded statement announcing the Teamsters United slate for next years Teamsters national leadership election. TDU participates in the TU faction, headed by General President Sean OBrien. While the endorsement of the slate will have to be confirmed at the TDU convention in November, the statement amounts to an endorsement of the fascist policies of OBrien and the Teamsters leadership. OBrien spoke last year at the Republican National Convention, where he gave a right-wing populist speech, and since then has explicitly endorsed Trumps attacks on immigrants and his trade war measures. OBrien is even attempting to break into the right-wing podcast circuit with his own channel, where he interviews people such as Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, a major figure in the January 6 coup attempt, who also plays a central role in the Trump administrations overtures to the union bureaucracy. OBrien was one of the earliest union bureaucrats to line up behind Trump. Since then, other figures, such as the United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain, have followed suit. Their embrace of the would-be dictator and fuhrer is the sharpest expression of the social chasm separating rank-and-file workers from the union bureaucracy, which is joined at the hip with management and the political establishment. The record of OBrien and other reform bureaucrats The support for Trump is a development upon a long list of sellouts, including the 2023 UPS contract, which has led to tens of thousands of job cuts, and on the railroads in 2022, where the Teamsters and other rail unions stalled for time as workers pressed for a national strike, giving Congress the space to ban a strike and impose a deal workers had already rejected. Biden, who billed himself as the most pro-labor president in American history, cultivated close ties with the bureaucrats in the Teamsters, the UAW and other major unions, which the White House used to suppress strikes in critical industries and prepare the home front for war as it poured resources into Ukraine and Israel. Last summer, Biden summed up this approach when he called the AFL-CIO his domestic NATO. President Joe Biden stands with Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, at the United Auto Workers' political convention, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Washington. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon] After the collapse of the Biden campaign and the election of Trump, many top bureaucrats jumped ship to the Republicans, seeking to carve out spaces for themselves within Trumps planned dictatorship. While workers are being thrust into struggle against the Trump government, which rules on behalf of the corporate oligarchy that rules society, the bureaucrats are lining up on the other side of the barricades. This means that the fight by the working class in defense of their democratic rights and working conditions requires a rebellion against the union bureaucracy and its replacement with new structures: rank-and-file committees democratically controlled by workers. The bankruptcy of bureaucratic self-reform TDUs continued support for OBrien follows the class logic and function of the organization, which is to prevent the emergence of a movement that escapes the straitjacket of the bureaucracy. For decades, they have promoted illusions in the idea of bureaucratic self-reform, rejecting a fight against capitalism and the fight for the political independence of the working class. Their endorsement of OBrien in the 2021 union election was the product of their thoroughly unprincipled strategy of ingratiating themselves with this or that faction within the top officialdom, allowing them to use TDU to whitewash their own record and prepare for a move up the totem pole, with leading TDU members swimming in their wake to take up positions as top bureaucrats themselves. OBrien, infamous among Teamsters members in New England as a thug, was even disciplined for threatening violence against TDU candidates more than a decade ago. But after burying the hatchet, TDU came to play the central role not only in his election campaign but in the dishonest maneuvering at UPS in 2023. TDU served as the organizers and PR people for a bogus strike ready campaign. The Teamsters bureaucracy never had any intention of calling a strike, and the campaign was designed as cover for the contract the bureaucracy had already worked out with management. The deal, which the TDU claimed was one of the greatest in the history of the union, has paved the way for mass layoffs. This is not the first time TDU has played such a role. In the 1990s, they first entered the union administration of Ron Carey. Carey was elected following a massive corruption scandal and direct federal intervention under the RICO Act. He then sold out the 1997 UPS strike with a deal with below-average wages, which was followed immediately by mass layoffs. Carey was no less corrupt than his predecessors, and was removed from office after he was caught using union funds for his reelection campaign, with the money fenced through the Democratic National Committee. To this day, TDU falsely claims the UPS strike was a milestone victory and that Carey was innocent. The TDUs announcement of next years slate comes as its sister organization in the UAW, Unite All Workers for Democracy, has collapsed after the UAW and its president, Shawn Fain, embraced Trumps trade war policies. Now, the UAW is covering up the circumstances behind the death of Ronald Adams, a skilled trades worker at the Stellantis Dundee Engine plant. The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, meanwhile, has launched an investigation, which has won support from around the world. UAWD explicitly rejected the campaign of Will Lehman, a Mack Trucks worker and a socialist, who ran against Fain for union president on a platform abolishing the bureaucracy. They also opposed his lawsuit against the massive vote suppression in the election, where more ballots were marked undeliverable than actually cast. Now, the remnants of the group play the role of Fains highly paid top advisers, while thousands of autoworkers have lost their jobs and the union doubles down on toxic America first nationalism through its alliance with Trump. In 2021, TDU hailed OBriens victory as the beginning of a nationwide reform movement sweeping the unions. In reality, it was a maneuver by factions of the bureaucracy designed to bolster their own credibility to prepare for the next round of sellouts. The election itself was marked by ultra-low turnout, just 12.9 percent, expressing the deep alienation felt by workers towards the bureaucracy. This was the second-lowest turnout of any national union election behind the UAW election the next year, which brought Fain to power. OBriens election was also financially lucrative for TDU members who entered into top union posts. This includes Matt Taibi and Willie Ford, who each made around $250,000 last year. Both are up for reelection on next years Teamsters United slate. Four years later, with next years election looming, TDU has apparently decided the less said about it, the better, so as not to attract unwanted attention from workers who feel only hatred for the union apparatus. The role of the pseudo-left TDU is part of a broader collection of pseudo-left organizations whose function is to prevent a genuinely independent movement of the working class against capitalism. The faction was founded in collaboration with Labor Notes, a magazine and political tendency founded in the 1970s, and also enjoys close support from the Democratic Socialists of America, which devotes all of its efforts to covering the Democratic Partys left flank. In 2022, Labor Notes, flush with success from the Teamsters election, held its biggest conference ever, with OBrien headlining the opening session alongside democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and others. But no amount of empty phrases about democratic unionism can cover up the gulf separating the interests of the bureaucrats and the pseudo-left from the workers. History is catching up with them. Only two years later, the 2024 Labor Notes conference almost broke apart on its first day when police moved against anti-genocide protesters outside the venue, while Chicagos Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, an ex-Chicago Teachers Union official hated for his role in suppressing demonstrations, spoke inside. Shawn Fain ended the conference with a warmongering speech calling for a new Arsenal of Democracyin plain language, preparing the working class and American industry for World War III. Sean OBrien was also present but did not speak, and literally fled the scene when a UPS worker attempted to ask him basic questions about the contract. What is being exposed is the entire conception upon which TDU, Labor Notes and others are based. Arguing that workers should avoid politics in favor of a narrow focus on the organizational machinery within the unions, this has always meant in practice a rejection of socialist politics and an embrace of the dominant, capitalist politics. Connected to this is their narrow nationalist approach, rejecting a strategy of an international movement of the working class against capitalism in favor of appealing to capitalists within the United States for piecemeal reforms. Now that the ruling class is moving towards open forms of dictatorship, such groups are acting openly to defend and to justify the bureaucracys embrace of fascism, demonstrating their essentially right-wing character and hostility to a mass movement in the working class. The trajectory of TDU is fresh confirmation that workers cannot reform the apparatus. Workers must overthrow and replace the bureaucracy with organizations that they control, and provide them with independence from both management and the capitalist parties. Above all, what the working class needs is not to chase after non-existent reformers but their own socialist politics, aimed at establishing a workers government and abolishing the power of the corporate oligarchy and the drive towards dictatorship. Western International High School in southwest Detroit, Michigan On May 20, an 18-year-old student at Western International High School in Detroit, Michigan, was arrested by police during a traffic stop and then turned over to immigration agents. He is now being held at Chippewa County Correctional Facility in Michigans remote Upper Peninsula, more than five-hours away by car, where he faces deportation proceedings. The teenager was driving himself and three classmates to attend a school field trip at Lake Erie Metropark when they were pulled over by Rockwood, Michigan, police officers, who then called Customs and Border Protection (CPB). The CPB operates across the entire state of Michigan, because it lies within 100 miles of the Canadian border. One of the students teachers explained to this reporter what happened next. The students in the car contacted me, to say, We are in trouble! ICE is here! Help! I went to the field trip via bus and I didnt have a car, so I asked park workers to drive me to the scene. There were about seven police and border patrol cars there. Police officers told me they called Border Patrol and checked immigration status of all the kids, she continued. When I told them these were high school students, they were like, Oh theyre students? This would look bad if we arrest them all. Maybe you can take some of them back. The driver of the car was 18 and he had an overstay on his papers, so they said they were definitely taking him. But then eventually they let me drive the others back. Thus, the teachers courageous intervention may have saved the other students from suffering the same fate, at least for now. The imprisoned student is a Colombian immigrant who had been in Detroit for over a year. He is not accused of any crime. Hes a very sweet kid, his teacher said. And very much still a kid. Hes not a student whos getting in trouble. This is a student who wants to graduate high school. And he has a lot of friends. People love him! He arrived in the US about two years ago and only recently turned 18. So he was a minor when he arrived and he had no control over coming here. The arrest has sent shock waves through the community. Western International High School is the main high school in southwest Detroit, a part of the city that has been a hub for Latin American immigrants for over 100 years. Everybody is upset and everybody is scared, the teacher explained. The students who were in the car with him are not OK. They all need a lot of love and compassion and they arent getting that. Everyones hurting. Some of his friends made a petition to send to his lawyer for students to support his release. Its crazy they sent him to the U.P.! Michigans Upper Peninsula, known as the U.P., is a remote and sparsely populated portion of the state, and the Chippewa County Correctional Facility is over 300 miles from Detroit. Meanwhile, the Detroit Federation of Teachers union, has not done anything, the teacher explained. I reached out to the union president [Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins] and told her what happened and she didnt respond. Which is outrageous. Workers everywhere need to unite and support each other in these situations. The student is only the latest victim caught up in Trumps anti-immigrant dragnet, which not only targets those without documents. Earlier this year, also in southwest Detroit, less than a mile away from Western High, Ricardo Prada Vasquez, a 32-year-old Venezuelan-born delivery driver living in the country legally, was arrested and deported to a concentration camp in El Salvador after he took a wrong turn and found himself accidentally at the Detroit-Windsor border crossing. These arrests are part of the Trump administrations ongoing mass deportation operation and are an attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class. The fact that high school students are now being targeted exposes the right-wing lies that immigrants are violent criminals and a threat to society. We know they are not seeking out criminals, the teacher said. Seven police and ICE cars is outrageous, for a car of harmless teenagers. They were all sitting around hungry for this. Weve seen videos of ICE pulling up to construction sites and tackling people without knowing who they are, people who are working, she said, referring to the workplace raid that took place just yesterday in Florida, in which over 100 construction workers have been arrested. Other Detroit teachers also spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the incident. One said, As a teacher that facilitates international travel, this has become a major concern. Dual citizenship holders, US-born students of immigrant families, all of them feel like gray areas where I have to be extra concerned about kids under my care getting taken at borders. Another teacher said, Even though Im an immigrant who came into the country with papers and obtained American citizenship on my own via the usual process, the cruelty and disregard for the Constitution that the current administration and those complicit with it have repeatedly shown makes me feel unsafe anyway. I have students who have family vacations and study abroad programs coming up over the summer and I worry about them coming back into the country even though theyre American citizens and/or green card holders. The attacks on immigrant workers and their families must be resisted by the entire working class, regardless of citizenship status. Trump has already threatened to go after homegrowns. There is no question that the detention and deportation of so-called illegal workers will be expanded to include all those who resist the Trump administrations drive toward dictatorship. Elevenlabs AudioNative Player HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (right) with Argentina's fascist President Javier Milei [Photo: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] The tenure of anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Trumps Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) continues to unleash a frontal assault on science, medicine and the public health infrastructure of the United States. With COVID-19 still an ongoing global threatas shown by the recent wave of infections and hospitalizations in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan due to the new NB.1.8.1 variantKennedys policies are not only dangerously anti-scientific. They are calculated to deepen social inequality and accelerate mass death, in order to drive down the life expectancy of the working class and funnel billions from social programs into the pockets of the rich. On Tuesday, Kennedy, flanked by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) head Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, announced that he couldnt be more pleased that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children over the age of 6 months as well as healthy pregnant women. The decision was made without consultation with the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the expert panel which typically sets vaccine recommendations after a careful review of research data. While vaccines against COVID-19 are still recommended for children and women with underlying health conditions, it is unclear if those shots will continue to be covered by government healthcare programs or private insurance. The loss of coverage, meaning it would be necessary to pay out of pocket, would put vaccines out of reach for the poor. Kennedys announcement was aimed at further undermining confidence in the vaccines, which have been delivered in billions of doses globally and have saved tens of millions of lives. Research has shown that the shots developed in the first year of the pandemic, two of which from Pfizer and Moderna successfully deployed revolutionary mRNA technology, have immense health benefits with minimal side effects. The removal of guidance protecting societys most vulnerableinfants and expectant mothersfrom COVID-19 will condemn countless lives to suffering and death. The consequences of undermining access to and public trust in vaccines will be disastrous. Mass vaccination campaigns aimed at eradicating an array of diseases, including measles, smallpox and polio, were one of the great advances for humanity in the 20th century. Now diseases like measles are making a resurgence in the US under Kennedy at the helm of public health. On Wednesday, Moderna announced that HHS is pulling millions of dollars in research funding it had pledged to give the company to develop an mRNA vaccine to protect against the H5N1 bird flu in humans. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon justified the decision with the false claim that mRNA technology remains under-tested. This takes place under conditions in which numerous scientists have warned that H5N1, which historically has a 50 percent fatality rate among humans, requires only one mutation to develop the capacity for human-to-human transmission. Kennedys other anti-science initiatives at HHS include a threat to ban federally funded scientists from publishing in preeminent, peer-reviewed medical journals, including The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, which he denounced as corrupt; seeking to block the culling of a herd of ostriches in Canada which tested positive for bird flu after proposing to let the disease spread freely in the United States; and boosting alternative treatments for measles and the healers who deploy them, including a doctor who appeared on video with a measles infection while treating sick patients. An official Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) report presented by Kennedy to Trump last week was found to have cited fake sources and mis-cited others. The report denounces the overmedicalization of our kids, taking specific aim at the childhood vaccine schedule, along with medications commonly used to treat depression and anxiety, which Kennedy has falsely claimed are behind rising rates of autism and other developmental disorders. This week, Kennedy also joined forces with Argentinas fascist President Javier Milei, forming a reactionary bloc aimed at dismantling the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHOfrom which Trump withdrew on his first day in officehas become a target for these forces precisely because it embodies a framework of international scientific cooperation. Among the most dangerous elements of this campaign is the drive to promote the debunked Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory. Designed to stoke anti-Chinese sentiment and prepare the population for war against Beijing, while deflecting responsibility for its catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic, the Wuhan Lab Lie has become official dogma of the Trump administration and is accepted without criticism by the Democratic Party and the mainstream press. This falsehood has already served as the pretext for an ongoing right-wing offensive against public research institutions. The attacks on virologist Peter Daszak and EcoHealth Alliancesubjected to a McCarthyite inquisition in Congresspaved the way for the latest stage in the attack on public health. This fascistic propaganda campaign coincides with the Trump administrations renewed efforts to defund Harvard and other universities, now centered on the attack on international students. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to aggressively revoke the visas of students from China. The scientific community, however, is beginning to fight back. Last week, dozens of NIH staffers walked out in protest of Bhattacharyas declaration of support for the Wuhan Lab Lie, with dozens more cheering on their colleagues. This action, while limited, signals a growing recognition among scientists that the defense of truth, public health and life itself requires political resistance. Legitimate scientists understand what is at stake: not merely their careers, but the health of society, the integrity of science and the lives of millions. Scientists cannot fight back alone. Only one force has the capacity to halt the descent into capitalist barbarism: the international working class. The knowledge and commitment of scientists, researchers, public health officials and academics must be fused with the organized power of workers across every industry and continent. Science must not serve profit or nationalismIt must serve humanity. To achieve this, it must be freed from the grip of the capitalist class. That means building a socialist movementinternational, revolutionary and rooted in the working classto overthrow a system that sees death as a means of piling up wealth and deploys ignorance as a political weapon. EIB backs green housing growth in Kazakhstan with major funding plans Photo: Baiterek Holding's official website The European Investment Bank (EIB Global) and Kazakhstan Housing Company (KHC), a subsidiary of Baiterek Holding, signed a memorandum to support sustainable and energy-efficient housing projects in Kazakhstan, with potential financing of up to $50 million. The partnership aims to promote green construction technologies, reduce energy consumption, and aligns with Kazakhstans broader ESG and green infrastructure agenda. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, April 30. The Customs Committee of Uzbekistan and the Federal Customs Service of Russia will implement an Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) starting June 1, 2025, Trend reports. The deal is set to cut through the red tape for businesses with AEO status in both nations, making the customs process a walk in the park. Its implementation is set to tighten the screws on supply chain security and pave the way for smoother trade between Uzbekistan and Russia. Under the agreement, business entities with AEO status in both nations will benefit from several customs clearance simplifications during shipment declaration and processing, including: Priority handling of customs operations; Priority customs inspections and examinations; Reduced documentary checks and customs controls, aligned with risk management system standards. Authorized Economic Operators represent a cadre of vetted enterprises engaged in international trade operations, eligible for streamlined customs protocols, thereby enhancing the velocity and efficacy of transnational commerce. In the initial quarter of 2025, the bilateral trade dynamics between Uzbekistan and Russia escalated to a substantial $2.6 billion, characterized by an 18.2 percent uptick in Uzbek exports directed towards the Russian market. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Kazakhstan discloses Italian investment figures spanning last two decades Photo: Akorda Kazakhstan and Italy reaffirmed their strategic partnership during Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melonis visit, highlighting over $7.6 billion in Italian investments and a $20 billion trade turnover, a 24% increase from the previous year. With around 270 Italian companies operating in Kazakhstan, both sides emphasized the commitment to deepening economic cooperation and expanding bilateral initiatives. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register PANAMA CITY BEACH Thousands of people are slated to flood the Beach on May 30 for Day 2 of the 2025 Gulf Coast Jam. The four-day festival is being held May 29-June 1 at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach. Here's what you need to know about Day 2: People in Panama City Beach, Fla., wait for Gulf Coast Jams main gate to open May 29, 2025. The days kick off was delayed due to heavy rain and lightning concerns. (Tyler Orsburn/News Herald) Who is performing on May 30 at Gulf Coast Jam 2025? Artists scheduled to perform are Mason Via, Emily Nenni, Darryl Worley, Tyler Farr, Randy Houser and headliner Lainey Wilson. When does everything open on May 30 at Gulf Coast Jam 2025? Will call opens at 9 a.m. Early entry begins at 1:30 p.m., with the main gates opening at 2 p.m. Weather forecast for May 30 in Panama City Beach Officials with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee note there is a 30% to 40% chance of pop-up showers on May 30, with the possibility of gusty winds and lightning during afternoon and evening hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More from PCB: Six sea turtle nests already found in Panama City Beach during first month of nesting season Temperatures this afternoon will range between about 87 degrees and 90 degrees. Temperatures this evening will range between about 78 degrees and 82 degrees. This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Here's what you need to know about Day 2 of Gulf Coat Jam in PCB The Dream Setlist for SB19s Simula at Wakas World Tour The last time SB19 headed out on an international trek was for the Pagtatag! World Tour in 2023, where the Filipino-pop group played 18 shows throughout four countries across the Philippines, United States, Canada, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. Following the release of the groups Simula at Wakas EP, which saw lead single DAM score them their first No. 1 on a U.S. Billboard chart earlier this year, the quintet is gearing up for an even bigger worldwide tour. More from Billboard Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Billboard exclusively revealed in February, SB19 set 19 dates on the Simula at Wakas World Tour, spanning cities in the Philippines, Taiwan, the U.S., Singapore, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE this year. In addition to playing some of the biggest venues of the groups career, SB19 teased more cities and shows to be announced soon, with visits to Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong on the horizon. Pablo, Josh, Ken, Stell and Justin previously told Billboard that their fans, known as ATIN, should stay tuned for new genres and performances, plus fresh arrangements of our older tracks, adding how that from our last tour they have seen more of our individuality but this time, we will be coming stronger. A stronger, bigger tour naturally requires a stronger, bigger setlist. So, before the group plays the first dates across Asia this spring, and returns to the U.S. in July, here is Billboards dream setlist for the upcoming Simula at Wakas World Tour, which will hopefully include most, if not all, of these global hits. DAM (Extended Ver.) The opening number is the song that sets the tone for your whole tour and DAM is the clear choice for several reasons. Not only is it the lead single off SB19s recently released Simula at Wakas EP, but the song scored the group their first No. 1 on a U.S. Billboard song sales chart following its debut atop the World Digital Song Sales chart in March. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But DAM didnt only resonate in the U.S., but hit No. 4 on the recently launched Billboard Philippines Hot 100, and bowed on charts in the U.K., New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and more. What better song to kick off your new worldwide tour than your biggest global hit yet? Naturally, we want to hear the extended version of the song because its military-style march opening feels like a truly epic way to kick off the show. 8TonBall Continuing the high energy set by DAM, the next move would be to jump right into another new SB19 banger with 8onBall. Not only will it keep the audience hyped, but also express the groups greater global ambitions amid their largest world tour yet. As declared by Justin and Josh in the songs intro: Wait a second, cause were going to the top. Shooting for the Stars To connect to the theme of SB19s worldwide ambitions while keeping the audience excited, Shooting for the Stars is our next pick. The August Rigopenned lyrics will ring true to the tone of the concert (Ive been shooting for the stars, aimin high/ The universe is ours, yours and mine/ Hop up on this rocket, nothings gonna stop it, no) while the addictive post-chorus hook is begging for an entire venue to singalong (High! Oh yeah!/ Ready, aim, fire, shoot! Oh, yeah!). I Want You After three songs of what will surely be intense choreography, well give the guys a break by slowing things down with the other song August Rigo wrote for them, 2023s I Want You from their Pagtatag! album, with the mid-tempo R&B jam allowing the guys a moment to catch their breath, greet the audience and focus on the passionate delivery and honeyed harmonies. The guys can bring out the mic stands or stools to sit to enhance the songs intimate, sultry vibe. DUNGKA! Time to turn the volume back up. The latest single off SB19s Simula at Wakas EP which made its debut on World Digital Song Sales earlier this month following its music video release would be a natural pick here. After I Want You, we could imagine the guys ducking out for an outfit change at this point to give them some additional breathing room and signify the shows next chapter of intensity. Wed love to see looks reminiscent of the fun and colorful looks the guys wore in the video. KALAKAL Since the groups 2023 Pagtatag! World Tour, the group has been delivering some of the best collaborations of their careers. KALAKAL with Filipino hip-hop icon Gloc 9 feels like a must-include for this tour, especially since the critically acclaimed veteran made a special appearance at the groups previous world tour finale in early 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stell will set a powerful tone with his opening lines, You cant stop this, we gonna get it /Who can? None, cause we born to take it, and wed love to see if either of SB19s top rappers Pablo or Josh might want to attempt to rap Gloc 9s lines, or even write new verses whenever Gloc isnt on hand to perform with them. Alab (Burning) (New Version) As promised by Josh in SB19s exclusive interview with Billboard, the group will be delivering new versions of their past material, and wed love to hear a fresh interpretation of the early SB19 single Alab (Burning). While the bright electro-pop track might not feel mature enough for where the group stands today (and didnt make the cut for the Pagtatag! World Tour), taking the songs theme of Burning and giving it a rock, hip-hop or EDM makeover would surely add some edge, while also serving as a nostalgic treat for those ATIN who have been with the guys since the beginning. Mapa Some felt the Pagtatag! World Tours setlist was too front-loaded with too many ballads. But no matter what you thought about the song order, the gorgeous dedication to parents, Mapa, was a standout moment, with the entire venue singing along to the soulful singalong hook. Well gladly take an extended live version of Mapa here to ensure everyone gets their ballad fix. The Boy Who Cried Wolf/ Edsa/Butata (Pablo Solo Stage) To truly show how much the group has grown, this feels like a perfect moment to introduce some solo stages. For an easy sonic transition from the fuzzy feelings set by Mapa, wed love SB19 leader Pablos performance to begin with a snippet of his stunning, slow-burning ballad The Boy Who Cried Wolf. While the song (and its accompanying video) are especially emotional, letting Pablo give a taste of the track and the lingering wolf-like woo, ooh hook before the regal trumps of his empowering single Edsa take over. Pablo can showcase his pop sensibilities on the bright track for a moment before transitioning into the much darker rap cut Batata, which lays out his ambitions over zipping, pounding production. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pablo had a busy 2024, dropping Edsa in May before unleashing both his ALON and LAON albums within a week of each other in September, so its the perfect time to show his breadth of work. While were not entirely sure how to make the jump from the stark Boy Who Cried Wolf to cheery Edsa and then the intensity of Butata, if anyone could figure it out, its SB19s genius producer Pablo. Fake Faces (Ken Solo Stage) Continuing with a heavier theme set from Pablos La Luna, wed love to see Ken a.k.a. Felip hit the stage next to deliver a song like 2024s Fake Faces. The alt-rock rager can be a moment of release for the audience to really let go and feel ready to truly enjoy the rest of the night without worrying about what anyone might think. 1999 (Josh Cullen Solo Stage) Playing off the rock vibes in Fake Faces, Josh Cullen gets his rock-star moment with a performance of his popular single 1999 from his Lost & Found album. Its another moment for fans to rock out with the guys. We might be crazy, but we could even imagine Josh crowd-surfing while belting out the track. Too much? Wed imagine not for Josh. Time After the members get some sufficient rest after the three solo stages, it feels right to bring out Simula at Wakas intense ballad Time. The track features an impressive vocal performance with a few starts and stops in the arrangement, which will require the guys to be fully prepared to tackle the all-English cut. Golden Hour (SB19 Remix) As part of SB19s continuing international crossover, the band linked up with JVKE for a special remix of his Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit Golden Hour. While JVKE raced up the charts around the world with Golden Hour in 2023 (reaching its No. 13 peak on the Billboard Global 200 in February), SB19s remix helped extend the songs impact and longevity, with an SB19-only performance being a particular treat for international audiences. Maybe JVKE could even pop by for a special appearance at one of the stops. What? (New Version) Its time to kick back up the energy with a familiar, fan-favorite single like What? Upon its release in 2021, the team that produced the track with Pablo shared how the song was particularly challenging to craft due to the multiple tempo changes. A new version that imagines the song slightly more straightforward allows fans to enjoy while taking it easier on SB19, who are, at this point, only about halfway through the concert. Mana Despite never being released as a single, Mana remains one of SB19s most-streamed tracks on Spotify with the trap-y throbber becoming one of the groups go-to live tracks. Bazinga Bazinga is our pick to follow, keeping the energy from Mana alive and connecting as yet another fire track from the Pagsibol EP, the final song from the 2021 record in this concert. CRIMZONE SB19 have shared that they considered releasing CRIMZONE as the lead single off PAGTATAG! (though ultimately going with Gento), but another fan-favorite cut that has surpassed the Spotify streams of several of the groups singles, it would truly be a crime not to include CRIMZONE and is one last big up-tempo before dream setlist spoiler! another set of solo stages. Surreal/Kaibigan (Justin Solo Stages) Justin delivered a lovely cover of One Directions Little Things during the Pagtatag! World Tour, but now SB19s youngest member gets a chance to show how much hes grown since the last tour by releasing his own solo music and kicking off his acting career. Wed love to hear a medley of his easy-listening rock-pop tracks Surreal and Kaibigan during his solo moment perhaps cutting the first 30 seconds of the latter since it may be challenging to get a similar reverb and jumping straight into the joyous pre-chorus before encouraging the audience to clap along on the singalong hook. Room (Stell Solo Stage) Stell took the audiences breath away with his powerhouse performance of Defying Gravity (performing all parts from the Wicked epic) every night on the Pagtatag! World Tour. Were looking for him to stun us once again by recreating the performance showcased in his funky 2024 single Room including, most importantly, the mesmerizingly cool chair dance he pulls off during the bridge. Take a look below in case you havent already. Ready Another crossover moment from SB19s past year includes their featuring on a single from apl.de.ap, the Black Eyed Peas Philippines-born member who has represented his heritage by rapping in Tagalog in BEP tracks like Bebop and The Apl Song. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This bumping dance track is a perfect song to transition back to the group music after Justin and Stell take the stage. Lyrics like Get ready for the night, you ready?/ Ive been waiting for this night for so long will hit with slightly harder impact when fans realize the concert is inevitably coming to a close soon after months of anticipation, but will inevitably snap into dance mode once the beat hits on the second chorus. Go Up/Moonlight In a full display of how far SB19 has come in their five years together, wed love to hear their early EDM single Go Up mashed up with Moonlight, their latest DJ collaboration with U.S.-based producers Ian Asher and Terry Zhong. Both songs feature euphoric, feel-good builds, and it feels like a special and clever way to represent artistic growth while giving newer ATIN more reasons to revisit older material. Quit Theres one more new song left to perform from Simula at Wakas with Quit acting as the EPs centerpiece rock anthem. At four minutes and forty-three seconds, its by far the longest song on the record, and the layers of harmonies on the bridge are perfect for the members to lead an epic singalong with the audience as they wave goodbye to the audience Encore: Gento but that goodbye will be short-lived because its encore time! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SB19 used What? as their final encore song on the Pagtatag! World Tour, bringing back the beloved breakout single as an official, satisfying closer for the show. We want to recreate the wonderful energy of that moment again, but this time with Pagtatags lead single, Gento, which helped the group break out even bigger and will reignite the crowd once they hear its opening beats. Encore: WYAT (Where You At) Because everything needs to be bigger on this tour, SB19 wont just have one encore song but two! Ending with the bands feel-good funk-pop single, WYAT (Where You At), feels appropriate, as the lyrics discuss searching for ones other half to complete them. Pablo, Ken, Josh, Stell, and Justin can dedicate the song to fans as a final message to officially wrap up their biggest show to date. Find out more information about and see what songs SB19 really performs with more details on the Wakas World Tour here. Best of Billboard Sign up for Billboard's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 29. The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, held negotiations with the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, in an expanded format, following which both sides adopted a Joint Statement on the expansion of strategic partnership, Trend reports. Members of the official delegations of both countries exchanged the following documents: Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the Italian Republic on the readmission of persons; Joint statement between the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, and the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security of Italy on cooperation in the field of critical minerals and critical raw materials; Memorandum of cooperation between Samruk-Kazyna and Maire Tecnimont; Cooperation agreement between Samruk-Kazyna and Ansaldo; Memorandum on the implementation of a cooperation program to promote practical solutions related to water challenges through the exchange of knowledge and best practices in water management between the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and OICE; Joint declaration between the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A., and SACE SpA; Memorandum of understanding between Samruk-Energo and SACE SpA; Memorandum of cooperation between Kazakh Invest and the Italian Trade Agency. Looking to support the LGBTQ+ community this Pride Month? Buy a waffle! Taste of Belgium, the Cincinnati-based eatery founded by native Belgian Jean-Francois Flechet in 2007, is donating a portion of its waffle sales to Cincinnati Pride during the month of June. At Taste of Belgium, we aim to provide an inclusive environment where our people can grow and thrive, and weve always celebrated authenticity and individuality. Thats why this partnership with Cincinnati Pride means so much to us, Flechet said in a press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is about more than food; its about community, inclusion and acceptance, he continued. Waffles inside the Taste of Belgium in Over-The-Rhine on Thursday, April 24, 2025. They fully support our mission and share our belief that authenticity, inclusion and community should be at the heart of everything we do," Cincinnati Pride Director of Development Jake Hitch said about Taste of Belgium. "This campaign is a celebration of those shared values." The restaurant, which has locations in Over-the-Rhine, The Banks, Rookwood and Findlay Market, is also offering special packs of its signature Belgian waffles called Love Packs. The packs will be available for purchase in person and online for $13 per pack, with $2 from each sale going toward Cincinnati Pride, the volunteer-run nonprofit dedicated to hosting the Pride festival and parade every year. Each Love Pack includes traditional, lemon poppyseed, red velvet and birthday cake waffles. When is Cincinnati Pride? Cincinnati's Pride festival and parade take place downtown Saturday, June 28. However, there are events all throughout the month. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Taste of Belgium to donate portion of waffle sales to Cincinnati Pride When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Press French keyboard wizard Jean-Michel Jarre has announced that he will release a new live album, Live In Bratislava, through Sony Music Enetertainment on September 5. It's a recoding of his historic open-air Bridge From The Future concert, performed on May 12, 2024 in Slovakia, along the banks of the Danube, to over 100,000 people, where he was joined by Queen guitarist Brian May. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The full 22-track performance is available across a range of deluxe formats, including an unseen Directors Cut of the concert film, remastered audio, exclusive vinyl, and a 40-page coffee table photo book documenting this once-in-a-lifetime production. Since that very special night in Bratislava, weve worked with a brilliant creative team to bring together the most complete, cinematic version of the concert possible," Jarre says. "The sound on this release comes from the live TV broadcast of the concert, capturing the raw, in-the-moment energy of the performance. Im proud to finally share this with everyone. Not only those who joined us in Slovakia or watched online, but all who want to relive the experience." It was Jarre's first ever collaboration with Brian May, who joined him on stage for a new arrangement of Dvoraks New World Symphony as well as newly adapted works Bratislava Time and Rendez-vous Bratislava. Live In Bratislava will be released as a 2 CD set, a Blu-ray featuring the unseen Director's Cut and the Ultimate Colector's Box, which features the 2 x CD, Blu-ray and a 10" blue vinyl featuring the unreleased track Bridge From The Future, performed as the audience arrived, as well as a deluxe 40-page coffee table photo book with behind-the-scenes and performance images. Jarre recently announced his very first European tour for nine years for June and July 2026. Pre-order Live In Bratislava. What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez listen to when shes fighting for change or passing legislation on Capitol Hill? A lot of Bad Bunny, as it turns out. In a new interview with Rolling Stone published Friday (May 30), the politician opened up about policy, the Donald Trump administration and, of course, her favorite tunes. I have had the Bad Bunny album on repeat, she told the publication, referencing 2025s four-week Billboard 200 chart-topper Debi Tirar Mas Fotos. More from Billboard Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a Puerto Rican, the album is very cathartic, and its very political, AOC continued. It speaks to a lot of whats happening to us and our people right now. The New York native added that she loves how the rapper is bringing salsa back. Rauw Alejandro is doing that, too, she noted. Im a big salsa person. Its such a nice outlet. I like it because the lyricism is so dramatic. Everyones breaking up, everyones got the love of their life. Its so funny. AOCs praise of the Titi Me Pregunto artist comes as hes gearing up to tour the globe in support of his new album, traveling around Latin America, Asia, Australia and Europe. Hes also been breaking numerous sales records while hes at it, from becoming the first Latin act to ever sell out a stadium concert in Australia to selling all-time high amounts of tickets in France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden for a Latin artist. Other than his upcoming residency in Puerto Rico, however, Bunny is notably skipping the United States on his tour. When asked for her thoughts, Ocasio-Cortez told RS, We just dont have figures like that anymore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think about the Civil Rights Movement, and I think about people like Harry Belafonte and all of these artists who really did risk everything, risk their careers and their popularity in order to support and take part in peoples movements, and to use their art its more rare now, or at least it feels that way, she continued. I wasnt around then. The pressures of the industry are to be as broad as possible. When you have someone who does something gutsy like that, first of all, people come through for it, and its super compelling. To the representatives point about Bunny being political, the three-time Grammy winner is also active in politics outside of his music. In the 2024 U.S. election, he supported Kamala Harris campaign for president, boosting her messaging about what was at stake for Puerto Rican voters. Several other Latin stars including Luis Fonsi, Marc Anthony and Ricky Martin also expressed support for Harris, though others backed Trump. In September, AOC dissed Nicky Jam and Anuel AA for endorsing the twice-impeached POTUS during a congressional hearing. I suppose that puts you and Nicky Jam and Anuel in the same boat, she told Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the far-right Center for Immigration Studies, after he claimed not to remember Trump saying he wanted to sell Puerto Rico. Best of Billboard Sign up for Billboard's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival is hosting three nationally acclaimed storytellers who will bring laughter, tears, and a range of emotions to local audiences with their words and music. Flatwater Tales will present live performances Friday and Saturday, June 6 and 7, at the Historic Grove Theater, 123 Randolph Road, Oak Ridge. Each of the three tellers has been a Storyteller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and each brings a unique approach to their tales. Through tall tales, cultural stories told with music, or folk and family tales, each teller will entertain, educate, and inspire listeners. The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival in Oak Ridge is June 6 and 7 and will feature storytellers Bil Lepp, the Rev. Robert B. Jones and Anne Shimojima. The storytellers are: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bil Lepp, a festival favorite, whose humorous, family-friendly tall tales have been described as side-splittingly funny. A five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars Contest, his stories often contain bits of truth presenting universal themes in clever and witty ways, according to his website. He hosts the History Channels Man vs. History series and occasionally hosts National Public Radios Mountain Stage. The Rev. Robert B. Jones Sr., returning by popular request, a multi-instrumentalist blues and American Roots musician, pastor, and storyteller whose message is focused on the belief that our cultural diversity tells a story that should be celebrated. A Detroit Free Press columnist described him as comfortable among juke joint loud talkers, fancy-hatted church ladies, and Ph.D.s alike. Anne Shimojima, a festival newcomer known for her elegant, mesmerizing delivery and stories full of wisdom and truth, according to the International Storytelling Center. A third generation Japanese America, she has gathered folk tales from around the world and tells the story of her family as immigrants to the U.S., including their incarceration during World War II, illuminating universal truths all listeners can find in a story. Each show is unique, as the three storytellers will perform different stories at each of the events, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, June 6, and continuing with three shows, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Saturday, June 7. Performances will be at the Historic Grove Theater, with free events offered earlier June 6. Tickets may be purchased online at https://events.humanitix.com/2025-flatwater-tales-storytelling-festival/tickets or at the Flatwater Tales website, https://flatwatertales.com, or in person with cash or check at Calamitys Coffee, 219 Jackson Square, Oak Ridge. Individual tickets for each of the four shows, in which all three storytellers will perform, are $15 for each show, or $45 for a ticket for all four shows for the cost of three. The Rev. Robert B. Jones Rev. Jones will headline the 7 p.m. June 6 performance with The History of America through Music. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is an inspirational storyteller who celebrates history, humor, and the power of American Roots music. Besides blues, the Detroit natives first love, his repertoire includes traditional African American folk music, including spirituals and gospel. An accomplished musician on guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and ukulele, he received a prestigious 2018 Kresge Arts Fellowship for his work in music composition and performance. Shimojima will be featured at the 10 a.m. show on Saturday, June 7, with her Sakura Tales: Stories from Japan. Her CD of the same name received a Storytelling World Resource Honor Award in 2019. The stories are described as sparkling with magic, laughter, and wisdom, reflecting the culture of her family heritage. A retired school library media specialist, she first realized the power of storytelling with her students, seeing they were hungry for stories and the images they created. In 2022, she received the Order of the Rising Sun, Silver Rays award, conferred by the Emperor of Japan, for her family story and for promoting Japanese culture in the U.S. through her folk tales. Rev. Jones will also present Crazy in Alabama, a musical medley of soulful stories about life at Grandmas, accompanied by his rhythm and blues guitar, at the 2 p.m. show Saturday, June 7. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lepp will headline the show at 7 p.m. Saturday, with Halfdollar Hijinx, hilarious tales of Bil and his childhood friend Skeeter. Bil Lepp Lepp is an award-winning childrens author. His first childrens book, The King of Little Things, won the PEN Steven Kroll Award and the Parents Choice Gold Award. He is a recipient of the NSN ORACLE Circle of Excellence award and West Virginias highest folk honor, the Vandalia Award. Audiences across the country, from students to corporate execs to the Comedy Centrals Hudson stage, have been entertained by his hilarious tales. Just as New Jersey has Bruce Springsteen, West Virginia has Bil Lepp, announced Goldenseal Magazine. For free programs on June 6, participants are asked to register at the Flatwater Tales website, as space is limited. Lepps program that morning at the Oak Ridge Senior Center is sold out. A free event at 3 p.m. June 6 will feature Shimojima. She will share the history of her Japanese American familys three generations of life in America since 1909, including the incarceration camp drama they faced in the 1940s, with her story, Looking Like the Enemy: An American WWII Story. This will be at the American Museum of Science and Energy, 115 E. Main St., Oak Ridge, presented by Flatwater Tales, AMSE, and the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oak Ridge Historian D. Ray Smith will offer a free Historic Tour of Oak Ridge from 12:30-2:45 p.m. on June 6, starting at the Historic Grove Theater. The self-driving guided tour will include the Alexander Guest House lobby, the grave of John Hendrix, the Scarboro Community Center, and Jackson Square and part of the Oak Ridge Historic District. For more information, see the website, https://flatwatertales.com. The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival, originated in 2018, is led by community volunteers, including volunteers from the three Rotary Clubs in Oak Ridge. Sponsors of the festival include CNS-Y-12, the presenting sponsor, and Pinnacle Financial Partners, Explore Oak Ridge, and the Breakfast, Noon and Sunset Rotary Clubs in Oak Ridge. The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival in Oak Ridge is June 6 and 7 and will feature storytellers Bil Lepp, the Rev. Robert B. Jones and Anne Shimojima. This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Storytelling Festival in Oak Ridge June 6-7 Carnival Cruise Line cancels more cruises, adds adults-only cruises originally appeared on Come Cruise With Me. "We are sorry to inform you that the above cruises, including yours, have been canceled. Thats a notice that most cruisers never expect to receive, but unfortunately, its one that some Carnival cruise passengers were blindsided by recently. Related: Carnival Cruise Line rep addresses adults-only cruise controversy First, it was some Carnival Magic and Carnival Horizon passengers who received this type of news in April, and now passengers booked on certain sailings on another ship have learned their cruises are canceled, too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why is Carnival Cruise Line canceling cruises? It all stems from changes made to the schedule for Carnival cruise ship dry docks changes that were likely outside of the cruise lines control, since the shipyard manages that schedule. Like most cruise lines ships, Carnival cruise ships are scheduled to go to dry dock every few years for routine maintenance and updates. Cruise lines typically know far in advance when each ship will be out of service for its dry dock, and they plan their cruise itineraries around that. However, sometimes schedule changes happen. Unfortunately, when those changes happen, a few cruises usually get canceled as a result. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And in this case, as some Carnival cruises were canceled, a few controversial new cruises were added too adults-only sailings that break with family cruise line tradition. Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to save money on your next (or your first) cruise. Carnival's new adults-only cruises are casino-focused specialty sailings. Image source: Carnival Corp. Carnival cancels cruises on Carnival Conquest Like Carnival Magic, Carnival Conquest just had its dry dock postponed from 2025 to early 2026. Carnival Conquest, which sails short Bahamas cruises from Miami year-round, was originally scheduled to go to dry dock in late summer 2025. Now, the ship will go in January 2026 instead, resulting in the cancellation of multiple cruises that were scheduled to depart on the ship between Jan. 5 and Jan. 26, 2026. Related: Carnival Cruise Line cancels multiple sailings on two ships Impacted passengers will receive full refunds of their cruise fares and any pre-purchased items, but are also being offered the opportunity to book an alternative voyage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carnival is protecting these passengers cruise rates on comparable sailings in similar accommodations. If they rebook on another voyage, they will also receive an onboard credit of $50 per passenger ($100 maximum per stateroom). The cruise line is also reimbursing passengers up to $200 per person for any nonrefundable air expenses and/or change fees incurred. Be the first to see the best deals on cruises, special sailings, and more. Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter. Carnival adds adults-only cruises due to dry dock schedule changes Just as the cruise line did as a result of Carnival Magics dry dock schedule change, Carnival has now added additional sailings on board Carnival Conquest in August and September 2025 in order to fill the schedule gap left by the ships postponed dry dock. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rather than add more of the ships usual three- and four-day Bahamas cruises during that time, the cruise line decided to take the opportunity to add four specialty adults-only sailings that caught many cruisers by surprise. These adults-only cruises, which are similar to a few of the sailings already added on Carnival Magic, have been a hot topic among loyal Carnival cruisers, since they dont fit with Carnivals family cruise line image. More Carnival cruise news: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its important to understand, though, that the newly added SEA cruises sailings exclusively for adults are adults-only because theyre casino cruises, which arent for kids. The SEA cruises feature expanded casino access, casino-friendly ports, and other perks to help adult passengers maximize casino playing time. These Carnival SEA cruises also arent open to the general public, at least not yet. Right now, theyre only being offered to Carnival Players Club casino loyalty program members during an early-access period that runs until June 9. After that, the limited sailings will open to the public, if theyre not already sold out. (The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.) Make a free appointment with Come Cruise With Me's Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at amypost@postcardtravelplanning.com or call or text her at 386-383-2472. This story was originally reported by Come Cruise With Me on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. Diesel and the Tom of Finland Foundation have collaborated on a Pride collection for the fourth consecutive year. The 2025 capsule collection focuses on the work of Tom of Finland, the pseudonym of Touko Valio Laaksonen, the Finnish master of homoerotic art. More from Sourcing Journal Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Illustrations of cruising scenes, including sailors, cops, construction workers and leather bars, are applied as prints to a series of T-shirts, underwear, jockstraps and a phone case. Additionally, hoodies, T-shirts, sweatpants, a tank, and a shirt and short set feature prints of photographs capturing joyful moments from Tom of Finland Foundation parties and fundraising events between 1990 and 2005. Photographer Bruce LaBruce shot the collections campaign featuring a series of portraits featuring models cast on Grindr in a simple home setting. The Tom of Finland Foundation works to protect, preserve, document and educate the public about his work and other erotic artists. One of the primary goals is to ensure the art receives academic attention. Diesels partnership with the foundation began in 2022 when it funded AllTogether, a two-installment homoerotic art exhibition in Paris showcasing work dating back to the 1940s and launched an accompanying collection featuring work by the exhibiting artists. More collections and events in Berlin, New York, Tokyo have followed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each capsule has reflected important voices from the foundations four decades of preserving the work of queer artists, many of whom have faced discrimination and misrepresentation due to the nature of what they create, Diesel stated. Through their ongoing Pride partnership, Diesel said it acknowledges the profound social and cultural impact Toms Foundation has made, in providing an open, unique space of freedom and love for this community of artists. COFFEY COUNTY (KSNT) Coffey County Commissioners were told that their application for $1.9 billion in Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) grant funds was denied; throwing the construction of a proposed Burlington computer chip factory into question. On May 19, commissioners heard from County Counselor Wade Bowie, II, about CHIPS funding. According to Bowie, the transition between the Biden and Trump administration likely resulted in the denial. In February 2023, Governor Laura Kelly announced that EMP Shield had plans to build a computer chip manufacturing facility in Burlington thanks to funding through the CHIPS Act. The governor said that the facility would create more than 1,200 jobs averaging $66,000 annually. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the news, commissioners heard that decisions would need to be made regarding the future of the property at the location. According to the minutes from the meeting, the location is ideal for an industrial park with I-35 and Highway 75 near Kansas City and other locations. Economic Development Director Jenny Tatman showed commissioners a concept map of the proposed industrial park. He discussed a possible manufacturing facility built by a solar panel company. Bowie told commissioners that there will be an update on the potential future of the CHIPS grants at the next regular meeting on June 2. What will happen to the old JCPenney space at West Ridge Mall? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of August 2024, the CHIPS and Science Act had provided $30 billion in support for 23 projects in 15 states that would add 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the Commerce Department. That funding helped to draw in private capital and would enable the U.S. to produce 30% of the worlds most advanced computer chips, up from 0% when the Biden-Harris administration succeeded Trumps first term. The CHIPS Act called for every aspect of computer chip production to be brought back to the United States specifically into rural areas of the Midwest, along with stipulations including private-public partnerships as well as the involvement of higher education institutions. For more Kansas 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. The Associated Press contributed to this article. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KSNT 27 News. WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WIVB) If you think our technology-driven, rolling, scrolling digital world has turned people away from the printed page, please take your eyes off your phone and look around you. Standing inside the 69th AAUW Used Book Sale, youll see real, feel-able books to the right of you, the left of you, and down at your feet. Theyre all for sale for $1 or $2, and they are flying out the doors! Members of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) have been hosting this sale for decades to raise money for scholarships and educational programs. And they are good at it. But it is no small feat. It is back-breaking work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They collect donated books, puzzles, and games almost year-round. They sometimes store them in their car trunks and garages. They examine them for marketability and sort them into dozens of genres. They transport them into a temporary sale site. They set up tables and neatly stack the books for sale. Then they put on their blue aprons and name tags, open the doors to book buyers for five days, and hope there is nothing left to pack into boxes and haul away when its all over. Whew! AAUW Buffalo Chapter President-elect Pat Miceli calls all this a labor of love to help students in Western New York attend college. She says, Even in this day of TV, computer games, and now AI, people still love books. Buffalo author Alice Loweecey happily finds her own book at the AAUW book sale. Buffalo author Alice Loweecey was filling a bag with books to buy, including the very first novel she wrote: Force of Habit. She discovered it for sale in the mystery section. It was just $1, but why buy one of her own books? Loweecey, author of 12 novels, said she often gives her books to friends. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres no better feeling than holding your own book in your hand. I love it when people read my books, no matter what, she said. Judy Clare has volunteered with the AAUW book sale for decades. Shes in charge of the Specialty Books section. Judy Clare has been an AAUW book sale volunteer for some 50 years. Shes the matriarch of the Specialty Books section, where more valuable and collectible books reside. She still marvels at the interest in her corner of the sale site. Almost every book there has a story to tell whether it was donated from the collection of a well-known local college professor, or contains a touching inscription written decades ago in flowing ink. She watched a book dealer from Central New York pick through her collectible section Wednesday and pull out $3,000 worth of books to take home and sell. Thursday, she watched a woman stack up $1,000 in books that the woman declared were just for her because she loves reading. In her half century of matching well-loved books with well-read book lovers, Judy has heard every dire prediction about books fading into the digital oblivion. But, she says, not so fast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Times do change, but people still love books. I cant see the future, but I cant see books disappearing, she said. The AAUW book sale is still open Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 425 Essjay Rd. in Williamsville. Admission is $1. Final sale day is Sunday, June 1 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Bring a grocery bag and fill it with books for just $5. Find information about the book sale and scholarships at the AAUW website. Latest Local News *** Jacquie Walker is an award-winning anchor and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 1983. 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. AUSTIN (KXAN) As Central Texas continues to clean up after Wednesdays severe weather, the city held a press conference to talk about the response and more. One person died in a series of water rescues following a heavy storm Wednesday evening, according to Austin-Travis County EMS and the Austin Fire Department which responded to them. Early last evening our city experienced a brief, but very powerful storm, said Austin City Manager TC Broadnax. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The storm leaving behind a wake of destruction with downed trees and branches, power lines snapped in half and there was also hail and flash flooding. The right lane of the highway was up to our knees flooded, said a driver. Emergency crews received hundreds of calls during the severe weather and some of those calls involved water rescues. We responded with our public safety partners around the county to 9 water rescue calls which ranged from people in vehicles taking on water, pedestrians that were swept away by fast moving currents and others, said Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A social media post from ATCEMS advised those who were traveling at the time to turn around dont drown. ATCEMS also advised to not travel unnecessarily. Three people were swept away in the 2200 block of West North Loop Boulevard near Hancock Creek, according to AFD. It said one person was able to get out safely, while the Austin Police Department rescued a second. ATCEMS posted on X that the rescue had transitioned to a recovery, and Thursday morning AFD confirmed a body had been found near 49th Street. AFD: 700+ emergency calls made during first few hours of severe weather Wednesday Creeks that rose in some areas covered the roadways and cause some people to get stuck in the water, several cars stalled on Spicewood Springs Road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have never seen this section of Spicewood springs at MoPac flood like this, said Sheri Gallo, former Austin City Council member. Gallo was concerned after emergency crews left the area after initially blocking it off. While they did have caution tape up, many people drove through it because it was dark and hard to see. There were cones up on one side of the street, but some cars still tried to drive through the road, and one got stuck. We have reports and we did rescue people who did go around barricades, said Assistant Chief Andre De La Reza with the Austin Fire Department. Mayor Kirk Watson later tweeted out that barriers were placed, and the Watershed Department sent out a truck to vacuum up the water. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Austin Fire Department said it received more than 700 calls during the first few hours of Wednesdays severe weather. Many of those calls were tree-down and wire-arcing calls, as well as some for water rescues of people being swept away. 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. Chamblee police are searching for a shooter after a man was killed in front of a charity building on Friday morning. Police say they were called to St. Vincent de Paul on Chamblee Tucker Road just before 7:45 a.m. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] They say they found a man who had been shot in the chest. He was rushed to the hospital, but died from his injuries. His identity has not been released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators say surveillance cameras caught the shooter running away from the scene. Police have identified the suspect as Jeremiah Clanton, 31. They say he often uses MARTA. Officials told Channel 2s Michael Seiden that Clanton and an unidentified man began fighting in front of the non-profit office just minutes before it opened. Thats when police say Clanton pulled a gun and shot the victim. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eyewitnesses stated that the suspect ran towards the MARTA station, the Chamblee MARTA station. We have partnered with the MARTA Police Department to help us try to identify the suspect, Captain Jason Waasdorp with Chamblee police said. Investigators have not tracked down Clanton, but say he should be considered armed and dangerous. St. Vincent de Paul serves about 65,000 people each year, many of whom are homeless, but others have fallen on hard times. Its unclear if Clanton or the victim were associated with the non-profit in any way. Anyone who sees Clanton or knows where he may be should called 911. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Azerbaijans' lending to small businesses sees slight decline in past month The disbursement of credit facilities to SMEs in Azerbaijan experienced a marginal contraction by the conclusion of April, aggregating approximately 1.5 billion manats. Notwithstanding this contraction, the aggregate business lending portfolio of regional financial institutions persisted in its upward trajectory, approaching a valuation of 15 billion manats. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register MEMPHIS, Tenn. Multiple law enforcement agencies are searching for a person reported to be in distress along the Wolf River. The Memphis Fire Department says one person has been rescued from the river while another is still missing. Crews are stationed in the area of Wolf River Boulevard and Walnut Grove. The Germantown Police Department and the Germantown Fire Department have joined the search for the missing person. The Germantown Police Department has deployed its drone unit to aid in the search. This story will be updated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. 10 days later, no sign of missing Kansas woman COWLEY COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) Its been 10 days since deputies found the vehicle of 81-year-old Jerry McConnell in a remote part of Cowley Countyand still, theres no trace of the missing Overland Park woman. McConnell was reported missing on May 14, prompting a Silver Alert. Surveillance footage showed her car traveling west into Cowley County the next evening. Authorities later located the vehicle on May 20, abandoned on private property near the 4000 block of 327th Road. Jerry McConnell (Courtesy: Cowley County Sheriffs Office) The discovery triggered a multi-agency search that has since grown to include local deputies, CERT volunteers, the Kansas Highway Patrol, canine units, and even dive teams from Augusta Fire and Rescue. Despite daily effortsboth on the ground and by airsearchers have uncovered no new leads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are extremely grateful for the tireless efforts of all those who participated in the search, Cowley County Sheriff David Falletti said in a news release. The collaboration among law enforcement, volunteers, and community members has been outstanding. Indecent liberties case against Wichitan to continue Authorities are asking nearby residents to check wells, outbuildings, and wooded areas for signs of McConnell. The sheriff said the search remains active and unresolved. Anyone with information is asked to contact Lieutenant Tommy Scott at the Cowley County Sheriffs Office at 620-221-5444. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. EWA BEACH, Hawaii (KHON2) The Honolulu Ocean Safety Department is celebrating a new wave of lifeguards today, as 10 recruits officially graduated from the citys rigorous training program at the Ewa Beach Training Facility. Big upgrades coming to Mauis Kahului Airport Nine men and one woman completed seven weeks of intense instruction and field training. The recruits began their program in April, mastering first aid, wound care, and CPR in the classroom, as well as hands-on ocean rescue techniques using rescue tubes and boards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Graduates trained in a variety of surf conditions across Oahu to prepare for the demands of one of the most dangerous and dynamic work environments in public safety. The milestone graduation also coincides with the one-year anniversary of Honolulu Ocean Safety becoming a standalone city department, a move implemented under the Blangiardi administration. The department will host its next round of recruit sign-ups on June 20 and 21, with physical tryouts scheduled for June 27 and 28. Starting pay for new lifeguards is $25.06 per hour. Check out more news from around Hawaii The 2025 Ocean Safety graduating class includes: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Atticus Westin-Lee Michael Kirby William Short Josiah Visitacion Ioane Jarrad Triton Salvido-Arneho Heather Madsen Liam Cashin Zoran Cullinan Kainoa Kester Those interested can find more information on the departments 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 KHON2. Tariffs were a defining promise of President Donald Trump's campaign, and they have been a defining feature of his second term in office. But just over five months in, many of his tariff proclamations havent turned into reality. While Trump has imposed a number of sweeping tariffs that have been driving up costs for American businesses and consumers buying goods from overseas, he has threatened far more tariffs than he has carried through on. That has created a climate of uncertainty that has caused some businesses to lay off workers and delay investments, as well as led to volatility in the stock market. Some financial analysts have taken to calling Trumps on-again, off-again moves TACO trade or the TACO theory an acronym for "Trump Always Chickens Out." (Asked by a reporter about the phrase, Trump called the question "nasty" and said, "Its called negotiation.") Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are 10 times Trump has threatened, then backtracked on, tariffs since he took office. Notably, in some cases, like threatened tariffs against Colombia, the administration did win policy concessions in other areas after it wielded the threat. But other tariffs threats have come and gone without other tangible results. E.U. tariffs In one of his latest tariff moves, Trump threatened last Friday to impose a 50% tariff on goods shipped into the United States from the European Union, saying the European countries werent taking ongoing trade talks seriously enough. Trump said the tariff would go into effect on June 1, but two days later, he delayed it until July 9, after he said he had spoken with E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Trump said she asked for the delay. Trump had threatened Europe with a 20% tariff as part of his "reciprocal" tariffs announced April 2. But hours after those tariffs were scheduled to go into effect, Trump reduced tariffs on Europe and most other countries to 10% for 90 days to give his administration time to work out individual trade deals. The tariff on European imports remains at 10%. Wine tariff Aside from the wider tariffs on the E.U., Trump announced March 13 on social media that he would impose a 200% tariff on wine imported into the United States from the E.U. after the E.U. threatened a 50% tariff on American whiskey. That threat came in response to Trumps earlier tariffs on European steel and aluminum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tit-for-tat over alcohol never came to fruition, with European officials saying a week later that they would delay the threatened whiskey tariff until mid-April, pending negotiations with the United States. There have been no tariffs on European wines aside from Trumps blanket 10% tariff on all imports. Canada and Mexico tariffs Among Trumps first tariff targets were the United States' neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Just weeks into office, he signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, saying they werent doing enough to stem the flow of fentanyl across the border. In response, Canada and Mexico announced their own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, and Canadians began to boycott American brands. A day before the tariffs were set to be collected, Trump said he was pausing them for 30 days. He said he was making the pause because of actions Canada and Mexico said they were taking at their borders, though a number of those steps were already underway when Trump first announced his tariffs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once the 30-day pause was up, Trump said March 4 that the 25% tariffs on Canada would go into effect. But two days after he implemented the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he said he would pause them again until April 2 for most goods. When Trump announced wider tariffs for nearly all countries on April 2, Canada and Mexico were excluded. Despite the back-and-forth, there are no tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico that fall under the North American trade deal signed during Trumps first term. Tariff on films Trump said May 4 on social media that he was directing his administration to start collecting a 100% tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands, without giving any details about when or how it would be collected. A few hours later, the White House said that no final decisions had been made and that the administration was exploring its options. By the afternoon, Trump said he would meet with industry officials to make sure they were happy with his plan. The administration hasnt taken any action since the initial social media post. Reciprocal tariffs Trump announced a variety of tariffs on nearly every country in the world as part of his so-called reciprocal tariffs in an event dubbed liberation day. Trump said it would forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day Americas destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those tariffs ranged from a baseline of 10% to a high of 49%. But on April 9, the day those tariffs were set to go into effect, Trump said he was pausing them until July 2 to have time to negotiate individual trade deals with the more than 90 countries that had reached out to his administration. In the interim, he said, he would put a blanket 10% tariff on nearly all countries. Since the "reciprocal" tariff pause, Trump has announced just one outline of a trade agreement with the United Kingdom. A trade court ruled Wednesday that Trump exceeded his authority to impose those tariffs. The Trump administration is appealing that ruling, and for now, the tariffs remain in place. China tariffs Tariffs against China have been one of Trumps most consistent threats he has accused it repeatedly of ripping off the United States with unfair trade practices. Trump had ratcheted up his tariffs on China over several months to more than 145% in April, a level that caused businesses to halt shipments coming from China and pause future orders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But just as the last of the pre-tariff imports from China had arrived in U.S. ports and shipments from China were on track to tumble, Trump said he was lowering the tariffs to 10% for 90 days, giving U.S. and Chinese officials time to begin trade discussions after an initial meeting between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart. Trump left a separate 20% tariff in place related to the country's production of the ingredients in fentanyl. The trade court ruling Wednesday struck down both the 10% and the 20% fentanyl tariffs, though they remain, for now, while the appeals process continues. Tariff on iPhones Days after he increased tariffs on China to at least 145%, Trump created a carve-out for iPhones and some other electronics made in China, lowering the tariff rate for them to 20%. Still, Trump has continued to push for iPhones to be made in the United States, not other lower-cost countries, like India, where Apple has said it is increasingly shifting manufacturing. Trump said last Friday that he would impose a 25% tariff on iPhones and other smartphones, regardless of where they were made, starting at the end of June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But senior administration officials seemed to walk back Trumps demands that iPhones be made in the United States, as well as the scope of any potential tariffs. Bessent said it was the chips in the phones, not necessarily the phones themselves, that Trump wanted to see made in the United States. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said a few days later that the administration doesnt want to harm Apple, and he referred to the move as a tiny little tariff on them right now, to try to negotiate down the tariffs. Colombia tariff On Trumps sixth day back in office, he ignited a trade spat with Colombia that lasted less than 24 hours. Trump threatened Colombia with a 25% tariff after its president barred two U.S. military aircraft carrying migrants from landing in the country. The United States is a major importer of coffee, flowers and produce from Colombia. Colombia responded with its own 25% tariff on U.S. products. But it soon said it would allow the flights, and the two countries backed down on their trade war threats. Tariff on dolls Trump said he would impose steep tariffs on toymaker Mattel even if it moves its overseas production out of China after its CEO said it was looking to shift more production out of China but didnt see it moving to the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats OK, let him go, and well put a 100% tariff on his toys, and he wont sell one toy in the United States, and thats their biggest market, Trump said in the Oval Office on May 8. Trump had said children in the United States would simply have fewer dolls if the cost of the toys increased because of tariffs. Trump has since suggested that the United States is more interested in bringing higher-skilled manufacturing with a national security element to the country rather than lower-cost consumer goods. Im not looking to make T-shirts, to be honest. Im not looking to make socks. We can do that very well in other locations, he said Sunday. We are looking to do chips and computers and lots of other things, and tanks and ships. Auto tariffs Trump announced a 25% tariff on all auto imports effective April 3 that would apply to any vehicle not assembled in the United States, which would account for nearly half of all vehicles sold in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About a month later, he signed an executive order easing some of those tariffs, addressing concerns that they would drive up the cost of cars assembled in the United States with parts imported from other countries. Trump later said he would reduce tariffs for cars made in the U.K., such as those by Land Rover and Aston Martin, to 10% under a tentative trade agreement between the United States and the U.K. that officials on both sides continue to negotiate. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com FORT BENNING (WRBL) June 1st, gates on Fort Benning will no longer have self-scan lanes as the military installation will enforce the 100% I.D. scan. It means that every single person who is coming through an access control point. We will be able to positively identify them, says Fort Benning Access Control Chief Matthew Dillon. Dillon tells WRBL this differs from the Trusted Traveler Program. He says, a Trusted Traveler could come through, scan their I.D. and they were vouching for the people that were in their vehicle. Now when they come through, theyre still the trusted traveler. Theres no change to that. The only difference is where a trusted traveler used to vouch for everybody. Now were at 100% I.D. and everybody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 100% scan is usually implemented only at night Dillon says. Starting Sunday, Fort Bennings Commander, Major General Colin P. Tuley will require 100% I.D. checks at all gates, 24/7. Dillon says, there are other ways to get on the army post without scanning your I.D. at the gate. The first way is to go to a visitor control center, Dillon explains. Were one of the few installations that has one thats open 24 hours On the other side, you can go online. We have an online system where you can actually process for a pass specifically to their event. Dillon says these processes allow for security to conduct background checks on every person coming in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wednesday through Fridays Fort Benning sees higher levels of traffic due to family days and graduations Dillon says. Prior to getting to the access gate, Dillon encourages having your ID ready for a quick and smooth entry onto the military post. He says people who have been previously denied or barred, have active warrants and other things of that nature will be denied access. For those who have yet to get their Real I.D., Dillon says additional documentation may be needed to gain access. He says this can be handled in the lane or be sent to the visitor control center. Dillon says once its taken care, it will no longer be an issue the next time you get checked at the checkpoint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. HEBER CITY, Utah (ABC4) The 100 deadliest days started this weekend, and it proved to be busy for Utah Highway Patrol. As of Monday, troopers made 77 DUI arrests, responded to 172 crashes and investigated one fatal crash. Sadly, since then, more people have lost their lives on Utah roads. One of those was a man whos called Heber City home since 2017 and worked to support his parents in Mexico, Eliezer Ramirez. The Ramirez family lost their brother in a car wreck this Tuesday. If it wasnt hard enough already to mourn the loss of a loved one, they are now focused on how to get him home to their parents in Mexico. I didnt believe it until I got there to see him, Gabriel Ramirez stated. I saw him when they brought him down. For me it was hard, very hard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Utah family prepares to bury WWII pilot who was MIA for 80 years Gabriel is Eliezers older brother. Gabriel has lived in Heber City for 18 years. His brother joined him in 2017. He told ABC4 that having his brother here was the best. He didnt want to show his face on camera because he was emotional while speaking about his brother, but he wanted to make sure he told Eliezers story. Gabriel described Eliezer: My brother is a person who is easy-going, friendly, he really liked to play with the kids [Gabriels four children], have fun, dance and work. We all came here to do well, to work, to get ahead, to help my parents get ahead, Gabriel said while explaining what brought the brothers to Heber City. Eliezer worked as a painter and helped support his parents in Mexico. They are destroyed, Gabriel added in regard to how his parents are coping. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Idle Isle Cafe up for sale, former employees speak out The family is holding a mass for Eliezer in Park City on Friday. However, that wont be their final goodbye. They are raising money (through this GoFundMe) to take Eliezer back to Michoacan so he can be buried near their parents home. It wont be an easy feat. After arriving at the nearest airport, theyll have to drive him about six hours. That normally wouldnt sound like much, but their trek will take them over undeveloped, dirt roads (there is an example of those roads in the attached video). However, itll be worth it to bring some closure to their parents. There are losses that one is never going to overcome, added Gabriel. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. CAIRO (AP) Eleven Sudanese migrants and a Libyan driver were killed Friday in a car crash in the desert in Libya, authorities said, the latest tragedy involving Sudanese fleeing a civil war in their home country. The crash between the migrants vehicle and a truck happened early Friday in the desert, 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the Libyan town of Kufra, the towns Ambulance and Emergency Service said in a statement. The dead included three women and two children, the services director Ibrahim Abu al-Hassan told The Associated Press. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A 65-year-old man and his 10-year-old son were also wounded in the crash, he added. It was the latest deadly incident involving Sudanese migrants in the Libyan desert. Earlier this month, seven Sudanese were found dead after their vehicle broke down in the desert. The vehicle broke down in a path used by traffickers between Chad and Libya, leaving 34 migrants on board stranded for several days in the desert. Libya was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. It has become a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to seek better lives in Europe. The country shares borders with six nations and has a long coastline along the Mediterranean. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Human traffickers have benefited from more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across Libyas borders with six nations, including Chad, Niger, Sudan Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. Thousands of Sudanese have fled to Libya since April 2023 after simmering tensions between the Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group exploded into street fighting across the country. The conflict in Sudan has turned into a civil war that killed thousands people, displaced over 14 million, and pushed parts of the county into famine. After posting a screenshot of two people planning to "shoot up" a Nashville school, a 12-year-old DuPont Tyler Middle School student was arrested and charged with threats of mass violence. Although his charges were later dismissed, school officials opted to expel the boy without properly assessing whether the threat was valid or whether he had authored the messages himself. Directly following a school shooting at Antioch High School earlier this year, which resulted in the death of two students and injury to a third, Nashville School District officials were on high alert for other potential threats. The day after the shooting, James, a seventh grade student, was flagged by the FBI for a concerning Instagram post. According to ProPublica, the post depicted a text conversation between two individuals: One said they would "shoot up" a Nashville school if the second would attack another. "Yea," the second replied, "I got some other people for other schools." When asked about the post, James told school officials he had reposted a screenshot from a Spanish-language news site. He was subsequently arrested and charged with making threats of mass violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under Tennessee law, when a student is suspected of threatening mass violence, a threat assessment is required "to determine whether the threat of mass violence made by the student was a valid threat." If the director of schools determines the threat is not valid, the school is not allowed to expel the student. However, records obtained by ProPublica show that school officials failed to conduct a proper threat assessment and missed crucial steps. Melissa Nelson, a national school safety consultant who trains schools on managing threats, told ProPublica that James' assessment was "gross mismanagement of a case." Rather than seek out information to help confirm whether the threat was validlike notifying and interviewing James' parentsor pursue options provided by the threat assessment tool to deescalate potential future violence, school officials jumped straight to expulsion after he was arrested. "Even if a child is expelled, what I always train is: Out of sight, out of mind doesn't help," she said. "Expelling a child doesn't de-escalate the situation or move them off the pathway of violence. A lot of times, it makes it worse." John Van Dreal, a former school administrator who helped the Nashville School District set up its current threat assessment process, agreed. Choosing to skip directly to expulsion is "actually about the most dangerous thing you can do for the student," Van Dreal said, "and honestly for the community." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During an appeal hearing, James maintained that he was not the original author of the texts. When asked if he understood that the screenshot in question appeared to be a conversation he, himself, was having, he replied, "I just wanted to let people know, feel heroic. I didn't want more people to get hurt." When pressed during that same hearing on why the school chose to expel James without additional investigation, Assistant Principal Angela Post said that it was up to law enforcement, not the school, to investigate the threat. She also admitted that the assessment did not make a determination whether James was the original author of the text, and she couldn't recall whether school staff investigated the origin of the original threat. By her logic, James' arrest was evidence enough that the threat was valid, and therefore, expulsion was necessary. But since James' arrest, law enforcement hasn't treated him like a violent threat. After serving a night in a juvenile detention facility, James agreed to six months of pretrial diversion and court supervision. His supervision was lifted earlier than expected after he completed his pretrial diversion terms, and his case has been dismissed. However, following his appeal with the Nashville School District, officials found that the decision to immediately expel James "was not a due process violation." The post 12-Year-Old Tennessee Boy Arrested for Instagram Post Says He Was Trying To Warn Students of a School Shooting appeared first on Reason.com. North Korea has sent soldiers and millions of munitions, including missiles and rockets, to Russia over the past year, according to a new report by an international watchdog, which details the extent to which Pyongyang has helped Moscow terrorize Ukraines population over its three-year war. The report was released Thursday by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), an initiative made up of 11 United Nations members, formed after Russia forced the disbandment of a previous UN panel that monitored the implementation of sanctions against North Korea. While some of the teams findings have been well documented such as North Korea sending troops to fight for Russia the report lays out the stunning scope and scale of weaponry sent from Pyongyang since Russias invasion of Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That includes as many as 9 million rounds of artillery and ammunition in 2024; more than 11,000 troops last year, and another 3,000 troops in the early months of this year; rocket launchers, vehicles, self-propelled guns and other types of heavy artillery; and at least 100 ballistic missiles which were subsequently launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorize populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, the report found, citing participating states. These forms of unlawful cooperation between (North Korea) and Russia contributed to Moscows ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure, the report said. In return, Russia provided North Korea with various valuable pieces of weaponry and technology, including air defense equipment, anti-aircraft missiles, electronic warfare systems and refined oil, the report said. A news broadcast in Seoul, South Korea, showing a Russian military facility reportedly used as a training ground for North Korean troops sent to assist in the war against Ukraine. - Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/SIPAPRE/AP Moscow has also provided data feedback on Pyongyangs ballistic missiles, helping improve its missile guidance performance, it said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These actions allow North Korea to fund its military programs and further develop its ballistic missiles programs, which are themselves prohibited under multiple (UN Security Council resolutions), and gain first-hand experience in modern warfare, the report found. It said its findings were based on MSMT participating states and cited supporting evidence from the Open Source Centre (OSC), a UK-based non-profit that uses publicly accessible information for research, and Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a UK-based research organization. Both Russia and North Korea are violating the UN arms embargo and are transferring arms and military equipment through actors and networks that evade sanctions, the report alleged. The two countries will likely continue their military cooperation at least for the foreseeable future, it added. In a joint statement, the member nations behind the MSMT Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States urged North Korea to engage in meaningful diplomacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Western governments have become increasingly concerned about the long-term implications of what appears to be a deepening strategic partnership between the two nations. In recent months, the US has warned that Russia may be close to sharing advanced space and satellite technology with North Korea in exchange for continued support for the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged in April for the first time that North Korean soldiers took part in the fighting to recover Russian territory after Ukraines incursion into the Kursk region last year. North Korea also confirmed its troop presence there for the first time in April. Though North Korean troops had been deployed to Kursk since at least November, they withdrew from the front lines in January after reports of mass casualties, Ukrainian officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both countries have denied that Pyongyang is supplying arms to Moscow, despite overwhelming evidence. However, as part of a landmark defense pact struck last year, they have both pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked. Putin has warned he would provide arms to Pyongyang if the West continues arming Ukraine. In recent weeks, Ukraines allies have lifted a ban on Kyiv firing long-range missiles into Russia, after days of Russia bombarding the Ukrainian capital and other regions with massive aerial attacks and as the US grows increasingly frustrated with Putin over the lack of a peace deal. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Rochester police are looking for information and video relating to a shooting near Clifford Avenue Thursday night, according to the Rochester Police Department. Rochester police responded to the area of Joseph Avenue just before 6 p.m. for a ShotSpotter activation. There, officers were told to go to the rear parking lot of Clifford Avenue where evidence of a shots fired was located. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators found a gunshot victim, a 17-year-old man walked into Rochester General Hospital. He was treated for a non-life threatening injury to the lower body. Police said there are no suspects in custody. Officers are asking if anyone has further information or any video pertaining to this incident to call 911. 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 RochesterFirst. KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, May 30. A meeting of the Working Group on Energy Supply Issues, operating under the Interdepartmental Center of the Coordination Headquarters, created for centralized resolution of issues in Azerbaijan's liberated territories, is being held in Khankendi city, Trend's regional correspondent reports. The meeting is being chaired by the head of the Working Group, Deputy Minister of Energy Elnur Soltanov. The convening will engage in a comprehensive discourse regarding the intricacies of energy infrastructure development, the nuances of the gasification paradigm, advancements in the transmission and distribution grid, the engineering of substations, alongside a plethora of ancillary matters. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel CHICAGO (WGN) Numerous women fought back tears as they recounted stories of how an OB/GYN from Hoffman Estates broke their trust, performed medically unnecessary tests and procedures, and charged their insurance companies for medical procedures that never happened. A total of 17 women spoke inside the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago during day 2 of sentencing for Dr. Mona Ghosh Thursday, which was adjourned later that evening and scheduled to continue on June 9 at 9:30 a.m. Previous Coverage: Suburban physician who defrauded insurance companies, Medicaid to be sentenced Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She faces up to 20 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to health care fraud in July 2024. Nora Kate was one of the women who spoke Thursday. She said she was surprised when the FBI showed up on her front door and told her they were investigating her OB/GYN. [I was] shocked, bewildered, didnt know. I didnt know any of it. Didnt know what she had done. Didnt know the testing, Kate said. None of it. Several women, like Kate, told stories of how Ghosh charged their insurance companies for visits that didnt happen. Others described the unnecessary tests and procedures she performed. I felt like she supported me. In turn, when Im finding the medical bills coming back for things that never happened, she fed on my vulnerability, on my weakness, Kate said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This was my first pregnancy so, I wasnt sure what to expect during my prenatal visits, said Lizbeth, one of the witnesses who spoke Thursday. Until I left her office and started to see a new OB/GYN. Thats when I learned she was performing unnecessary, invasive testing on me. Several women shared that they went to Ghosh for a routine pap smear, or cervical cancer screening, and were told results were abnormal. Fearful that they could have cancer, they agreed to get a biopsy. Witnesses said while they were sedated, Ghosh performed other procedures instead, including ones they said have affected their fertility. Ghoshs defense team argued that while some of these situations are health care fraud, others are medical malpractice. The victims lawyers argued Ghoshs actions constituted both. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These actually did cause real bodily harm, said Adam Snyder, an attorney with the Birth Injury Law Alliance representing the victims. These womens bodies were used as a vehicle for her fraud. 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. DENVER (KDVR) Deputies are looking for tips after finding 18 domestic rabbits, including two litters of babies, abandoned by a dumpster in Golden. The Jefferson County Sheriffs Office said on May 10, deputies found 18 domestic rabbits abandoned in cages by a dumpster at 15730 W 6th Ave Frontage Rd in Golden. This is west of the West Pleasant View neighborhood. Orangutan escapes exhibit after a malfunction at Denver Zoo Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputies found six juvenile rabbits, seven younger baby rabbits with their mother, a few adult female rabbits and one male. A body camera video of the rescue was posted on the sheriffs office Facebook, showing deputies moving the rabbits into a cruiser to find a better home, rather than a dumpster. Abandoned rabbits (Courtesy of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office) Abandoned rabbits (Courtesy of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office) Abandoned rabbits (Courtesy of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office) Abandoned rabbits (Courtesy of the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office) This isnt how responsible pet ownership works, and its illegal, the sheriffs office said in a Facebook post. The sheriffs office is asking people to call 303-271-5070 if they recognize these rabbits or if they have a tip. 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 teenager who was clinging to life after being shot in the head in Brooklyn on Monday has died, police said Thursday. Cops responding to a 2:30 a.m. 911 call discovered Jeremiah Griffiths, 18, with a gunshot wound to his head outside of a building near the corner of Myrtle Ave. and Tompkins Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant police said. EMS rushed Griffiths to Kings County Hospital in critical condition. The teen died on Wednesday after initially surviving for two days, cops said on Thursday. So far there have been no arrests as police continue to investigate. Griffiths lived in Marine Park, miles away from where he was killed, according to police. 2 AR-15s and large capacity magazines found in Arvin home following domestic dispute BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) Two AR-15 styled assault rifles were found along with large capacity magazines and a large cache of ammunition in an Arvin home Saturday night, according to the Arvin Police Department. Arvin Police responded to a domestic dispute that was reported just after 10 p.m. in the 1700 block of Olivares Court. According to a release from the department, the woman in the home alleges that her husband of 20 years had been physically abusive, prompting her to call 9-1-1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While investigating, officers found a gun safe and were able to obtain a search warrant after the suspect refused to surrender the firearms in which they found two unregistered AR-15s and ammunition. The suspect was later charged with domestic violence, possession of unregistered of large-capacity magazines, child endangerment and obstruction of a peace officer. 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. Two people were taken to the hospital after a Massachusetts State Police cruiser rear-ended an ambulance on Interstate 93 in Boston on Friday morning, authorities said. The trooper was driving on the northbound side of the highway and struck the back of the ambulance around 11:30 a.m. when it unexpectedly slowed, a state police spokesperson told Boston 25 News. The trooper and an EMT who was in the rear of the ambulance, treating a patient, were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, state police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EMT who was driving the ambulance and the patient being transported werent injured. Both the cruiser and ambulance had to be towed away from the scene. State police are investigating the crash. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW MEMPHIS, Tenn. The search has lasted weeks to find the inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail. A jail that has a series of issues. The same issues at 201 Poplar in Memphis. Ten inmates escaped from the jail in New Orleans earlier this month. It sparked a massive manhunt and garnered the nations attention. Many are asking, how this could happen? Video shows 10 inmates escape from New Orleans jail Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This facility was never designed to be a maximum security jail, the sheriff later stated. The Louisiana Attorney General also added staffing is not the only problem. She said 160 doors are broken or cant even close due to inmates tampering and jamming them. Sound familiar? The very problem was reported at 201 Poplar, the Shelby County Jail. County OKs emergency funds to fix jail doors Milk cartons that the detainees get for lunch and dinner, theyre taking those and jamming doors, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said last year. In a recent interview, Sheriff Bonner told WREG Investigators the facility in New Orleans has the same sliding-type doors that 201 does. Eventually they just wear out. Unfortunately, the inmates figured it out, Bonner said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bonner said last year, cell doors broke due to wear and tear or the inmates. The commission cut a $6 million check to replace 600 of them. As of last week, seven of the 89 pods are fixed. The work could take 18 months. Because these are steel doors, they are having to be fabricated, Bonner explained. Its yet another Band-Aid on the crumbling facility. When you put your finger in the dam in one spot, theres another spot where, you know, the dam is leaking, Bonner said. A/C out at 201 Poplar for days, closing court Data shows more than 1,800 work orders were tallied last year for things like no air conditioning, rotting cinder blocks, a fried computer system, broken elevators and escalators and water leaks on every floor that has now caused a pest infestation. Were spraying five days a week in jail, because of the bug issues that we have. It leads to another problem, because our inmates are now using the bug spray to get a high with, Bonner said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wednesday, the county commission approved another $1.2 million to cover escalator repairs. Another issue on top of a growing inmate population, and other issues like an contraband, inmate assaults, arsons and more. It can be been hard retaining and recruiting staff. Thursday, the sheriffs office announced it entered a contract with retired Criminal Court Judge J. Robert Carter to serve as a jail population management coordinator. He will meet with key stakeholders and the community to find ways to scale back the jail population. Meanwhile, the sheriff said theyve upped salaries and benefits, added signing bonuses and recruited an advertising firm to help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shelby County hiring 335 new corrections deputies Its just like in New Orleans. Every jail across the country is short of staff, and were no different, he said. Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft said hes watched the issues at 201 creep into his courtroom. I had 40 inmates today, he said. I think seven made it up. The seven were brought upstairs hours after court started. They dont know where they are in the jail, Craft said. We have no way of calling the jail and finding out, because theres only one jailer for like 40-45 inmates. Its more difficult. Its more burdensome. Oftentimes, Craft said the attorney cant wait, so the case is reset. That means the business or the plea is pushed off for a week or even a month. The person spends more time in jail. Thats like at $110 a day to the taxpayer for the food and the lodging and the medical help and all that, Judge Craft said. The inmate doesnt know when its set. Hopefully that attorney will visit him and tell him when his case is set. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Get the latest from the WREG Investigators in your inbox That doesnt always happen, so mistrust mounts. Sometimes the inmate requests a new attorney, and it delays the case even more. My concern is the inmates have a right to be in court for their case and not just have it put off, Judge Craft said. We could get them out a lot quicker if we had the personnel. Its not the sheriffs fault. Sheriff Bonners doing everything he can. Judge Craft said its slowing down the system. It really is. This morning I had to reset four or five cases, because we couldnt get their inmates up, he said. Sheriff Bonner believes a new jail will solve a lot of the problems. New designs require less staff and create a better working environment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The problem is, the people in power have yet to act. State lawmakers didnt pass a bill allowing taxpayers to vote on a sales tax increase to pay for a new jail. So far, the county remains idle. Memphis lawmakers push for new jail with tax to fund it Bonner doesnt think it will happen in this next budget, but he said work is happening behind the scenes. A jail study is wrapping up. It examined the cost to build a new jail downtown, out east on county property or in North Memphis. Bonner said the project could reach a billion dollars, because crime and population trends indicate the new jail will need another thousand beds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prices are going to go up the longer we keep kicking the can down the road. This thing is going to get more and more expensive, he said. Just like 201, the jail in New Orleans was once a state-of-the-art building, but is now an understaffed, ailing facility stretched to its capacity. That likely contributed to this jailbreak, which the escapees taunted as too easy. They wrote in the cell above a hole in the wall, Easy LOL. 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. A Suffolk County grand jury indicted a 24-year-old woman in connection with the killing of 65-year-old Joseph Donohue, who was found dead on a Charlestown houseboat in February. Nora Nelson, known to her friends and family as Andi, appeared via Zoom in Charlestown District Court for a probable cause hearing on Friday. Prosecutors announced the indictment brought by the jury against Nelson on Friday. Judge Lisa Grant scheduled a status hearing on the case for June 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nelson is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk County Superior Court at a later date. Outside the courtroom Friday, one of Nelsons attorneys, Megan Stanley, said the case has a lot of layers, but declined to comment further or answer questions around Nelsons current mental status. Nelson had been previously ordered by the court to undergo mental evaluations, which appeared to have seemingly unresolved findings. Those mental evaluations were not discussed during Fridays hearing. In an April hearing after Nelsons first mental health exam, court clinician Heather Jackson said Nelson definitively lacks understanding of the seriousness of the charges she faces, but it was unclear to her whether this was because Nelson has a mental illness, personality disorder, or another exterior motivation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nelson was given medication after it was deemed she had potential symptoms of a psychotic disorder, but as her symptoms became less genuine, Nelson had a tendency to exaggerate, Jackson said. Nelson and Donohue had a longstanding intimate partner relationship and she was living with Donohue at the time of his death, according to her attorney Ian Davis. On the night of Feb. 2, Donohues body was found wrapped inside a duct-taped tarp on the patio of his Charlestown houseboat. One of his dogs was also dead in the water alongside the boat. Nelson had greeted police at the door that night, after family members requested a well-being check for Donohue when they couldnt reach him for 48 hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nelson lied about her name and Donohues whereabouts and, at one point, asked an officer, Can I tell you something? according to court documents. The young woman was taken into custody at the scene for unrelated warrants on domestic violence charges against another Boston man in his 60s, whom Nelson had previously dated and lived with. The ex-partner told police Nelson threatened his life in November 2023. Donohues family issued a statement after he was identified in February, but has maintained their privacy since. Our family is heartbroken by this unimaginable loss. Joe was a wonderful family member, a cherished friend and a trusted colleague. Always generous and kind, he dedicated his life and career to helping others, the statement read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is loved and will be deeply missed. Were grateful for the love and support weve received, and we kindly ask for privacy during this difficult time. Aliyah Warren, Nelsons best friend from childhood in Memphis, Tenn., previously told MassLive that Nelson seemed to be going through a mental health crisis the last time the pair saw each other, six months before Donohue was killed. She just wasnt my sister ... it was kind of hard to sit there, her eyes were just dead, Warren said, adding that Nelson was wearing odd clothes and seemed like she wasnt there. Warren had been hoping for a mental health evaluation for Nelson as her case continued, because she knows something is wrong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im going to keep loving my sister because thats what she needs. She needs love ... But at the same time, I have to let the system do their job and just pray that they give her a mental evaluation so they can see that something is wrong, Warren had previously said. More News Read the original article on MassLive. Photo: Press Service of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 30. President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov has arrived in Kazakhstan on a working visit to participate in the inaugural Central Asia-Italy summit, Trend reports. Upon arrival, President Berdimuhamedov was warmly welcomed by Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, along with senior Kazakh officials and members of the Turkmen delegation. Turkmenistans active involvement in the summit underscores the countrys commitment to a foreign policy grounded in neutrality, good neighborliness, and equality. This approach, initially established by National Leader of the Turkmen People Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, continues to be successfully advanced under the leadership of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov. The nations foreign policy strategy promotes broad and multifaceted cooperation with countries worldwide, and Turkmenistans participation in this high-level meeting clearly reflects this principle. The Central AsiaItaly summit serves as a new platform to boost regional economic development, enhance cultural ties, and build mutual trust on a global scale. It is regarded as an effective mechanism for deepening practical cooperation and promoting shared interests among the participating nations. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Trees down. Blocked roads. Damaged homes. Boil-water alerts. No electricity for days. Spotty phone service. Stores closed. Scarce food. Rations on gasoline. Fights some deadly as tensions boil from people angling for necessities in snaking lines during searing heat. Such scenarios are common in the aftermath of catastrophic storms: In this case, Hurricane Katrinas ravage along the Gulf Coast particularly southeast Florida, Mississippi and southeast Louisiana. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the scenarios described above happened in Jackson, Mississippi, some 250 miles from where the hurricane made a second landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, in Buras, Louisiana. The Magnolia States capital city had prepared to take in the thousands of fleeing residents who lived in the areas projected to be hit hardest. Hurricane Katrina evacuee Joe Ragas of New Orleans spends a portion of his day at the Eudora Welty Library in Jackson, Mississippi, looking through classified ads for a place to rent in 2005. He and his mother received a letter slipped under their door at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel on High Street stating that the hotel will terminate its participation in the FEMA Hotel Rooms for Evacuees Program and that all evacuees need to leave the hotel. What Jackson was not prepared for was a storm that still would be a strong Category 1 as it unleashed its fury northward. It had short-term shelters for evacuees, but not a plan B for the prolonged consequences on its residents. I was among the editing team for the Jackson-based Clarion-Ledger (part of the USA TODAY Network). We, along with the rest of the content staff, had spent days compiling resource guides for evacuees, interviewing those who had taken early shelter and putting together a plan for post-coverage. More: A local reporter's experience covering Western North Carolina in the wake of Helene What we didn't know is wed end up among those trying to figure out how to get back home from the office via debris-filled streets, how wed care for our families and still work, how we'd account for loved ones farther south when communication was lost. On top of that, cellphones were not ubiquitous possessions. Therefore, editors who had one gave them up to staffers who were in the field. The first weekend I got mine back, my 2-year-old son dropped it in a bucket of water on the deck. And there was no way to get another one for some time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A month passed before I learned my older sister in hard-hit Gulfport survived. And though I thought Id well-handled 11 days of what felt like survival in the Outback, I finally broke down in tears when my toddlers got their first taste of a hot breakfast just oatmeal, mind you gobbling it as if they had not had a meal in weeks. Weathering and working through Katrina sharpened me as a parent and a professional. Yet this was nothing compared with what those who fled their homes faced, not to mention those whod stayed. Rebuilding after lost loved ones, lost homes, lost jobs, lost community connections A woman walks atop an earthen levee on the Mississippi River in the Lower Ninth Ward as the Steamboat Natchez passes on Aug.26, 2015, in New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans is ringed by hundreds of miles of levees to protect against flooding. The 25th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city partially due to levee breaches, is Aug. 29, 2025. Evacuees from greater New Orleans, along with the rest of the world, learned of the compounded devastation of levees failing the day after landfall. Catastrophic flooding and a surging death toll resulted. A return home anytime soon was not possible. Evacuees were dispersed to 45 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some 65% to 73% did make their way back. For the remaining, returning permanently was not feasible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hurricane Katrina still holds the distinction as the costliest hurricane in U.S history and the third deadliest. The USA TODAY Network is chronicling its lingering impact along the Gulf Coast and throughout the U.S., and the resilience of the people involved. If you or anyone you know in Delaware, South Jersey or the Philly burbs is part of the Katrina diaspora, please contact us at forms.office.com/r/F397mvN8NL and share your story. Jamesetta Miller Walker in the production room proofing pages at the Gannett-owned Clarion-Ledger in 1994. Gannett is also parent company of Delaware Online/The News Journal. Bringing the newsroom to you Meanwhile, as Ive previously mentioned, Delaware Online/The News Journal is stepping up our efforts meet you out in the actual community. We are setting up mobile newsrooms up and down Delaware where you can meet some of the staffers, get insights on how the newsroom operates, pitch story ideas and learn about community resources. You may also have the opportunity to get a free, no-strings-attached subscription. But, you have to come see us. Stay tuned for where well post up next. And send ideas on where you think would be great places for us to do a pop-up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More from this editor: Take it from Grandpa: Community coverage can be a bridge across divides Jamesetta Miller Walker is the editor for emerging audiences and inclusion storytelling. Reach her at jmwalker1@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: 25 years since Katrina, its transformative impact is fresh as yesterday The city of Lakewood is hiring a new city manager to replace John Caulfield, who announced he would retire in June after nearly 12 years. Earlier this month the Lakewood City Council announced five finalists in the running to replace Caulfield. They were chosen after a nationwide search. They are Mark Freitag, Teri Killgore, Scott Pingel, Doug Russell and Harold Stewart. Caulfield made about $241,000 in 2023, according to the latest city salary report. The public will have an opportunity to meet the finalists during a reception June 10 from 7-8:30 p.m. in the McGavick Center Ballroom at Clover Park Technical College. There residents can ask the candidates questions and provide input. Anonymous comment cards will be collected and reviewed by the council prior to finalist interviews on June 11, according to the city. There will be light refreshments, the city said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres some information about each candidate, as compiled by the City of Lakewood: Freitag served in the U.S. Army from 1988 until 2014 when he retired as a colonel after serving as the Garrison Commander at Fort Hood in Texas and deputy commander for Fort Wainwright in Arkansas, according to a summary shared by the city. He served as city manager for the city of Janesville, Wisconsin and most recently the city of Westminster, Colorado. Killgore works as the economic development director for the city of Scottsdale, Arizona. She has worked in public service since 1995 and has served as a downtown-redevelopment manager for the city of Chandler, Arizona, the city managers assistant in San Jose and the assistant city manager for the cities of Vallejo and Walnut Creek in California. Pingel has 15 years of experience as a city manager in Washington and Oregon, including as city manager of Fircrest for five years. He also worked as a city manager in Stanfield and Dayton, Oregon. He has been the city manager of Newcastle, Washington since 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russell has served as the city manager of Kalispell, Montana since 2012. He began a career in city management as the town administrator of Lovell, Wyoming in 2004 and has worked as a city manager for Arkansas City in Kansas and Yankton, South Dakota. Stewart has served as the city manager of Minot, North Dakota since 2021. He has held city manager positions with the city of Ogallala (in Nebraska), Knoxville (in Iowa) and Warrensburg (in Missouri) and began his public-service career with Douglas County in Kansas in 2005. SENATOBIA, Miss. Two Senatobia tobacco and beer businesses were the targets of a month-long investigation involving the sale of illegal drugs, resulting in three arrests. At around 9 a.m. Thursday, the Senatobia Police Department served search warrants on two separate businesses regarding the sale and possession of illegal narcotics at the stores 51 Tobacco and Beer and Tobacco and Beer. The SPD worked with the Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Commission to seize nearly two dozen large boxes of evidence, several thousand dollars in cash, five vehicles, and a motorcycle between the two businesses. They did not specify what substances were found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Parents fight at elementary school graduation, prompting zero tolerance response Reports say three men were arrested as a result of the investigation. Sultan Alsnei, 39; Ismail Shahtera, 30; and Abdulrahman Shahtera, 35, are facing charges related to the sale and possession of illegal narcotics and conspiracy to commit crimes. An employee at one of the businesses told WREG the men are brothers, one of whom owns the store. Left to right: Sultan Alsnei, Abdulrahman Shahtera, and Ismail Shahtera (Photos courtesy of the Tate County Sheriffs Office) Senatobia Tobacco and Beer, located at 5179 Highway 51, was closed on Friday morning with a sign on the front door stating that the business has been deemed unsafe by the city. A Senatobia business was deemed unsafe by the city after a search warrant allegedly revealed illegal narcotics were being held and distributed from the building (Photo by WREG) 51 Tobacco and Beer, located at 5170 Highway 51, was still open on Friday, though the display cases were empty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im a little shocked. Im surprised. Theyre very respectful. Theyre not people you would see out here in the streets, just you know, acting up or disrespecting the law to my knowledge, said one customer. 51 Tobacco and Beer empty display cases (Photo by WREG) The Senatobia Police Department says the investigation is ongoing and may result in additional seizures and arrests. The employee we spoke to says they will be handling the situation in court. If youre doing wrong, youre doing wrong. Do your time. Thats how it goes. But at the same time, I would say I hope it gets fairly looked into and fairly investigated, said a customer. 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. Three Berks County high schools have been recognized for engaging and informing their fellow students about how to get involved in the voting process. Officials from the Pennsylvania State and Education departments recognized Conrad Weiser, Antietam and Muhlenberg high school students during a virtual ceremony for their efforts. For a seventh year in a row, Conrad Weiser High School received a gold level Governors Civic Engagement Award for registering at least 85% of its eligible students to vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Conrad Weiser was one of 19 schools that received a gold designation for having high voter registration. Antietam and Muhlenberg high schools each received a silver level award for registering 65% to 84% of their eligible students. In total, state officials said about 555 students in schools across 16 counties helped register more than 5,000 of their peers to win gold- or silver-level awards. Students at these winning schools worked hard to register their eligible classmates to vote and hopefully launch them on a lifelong habit of voting, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said at a press conference Thursday in the Capitol. The future health of our representative democracy depends on engaging the next generation of voters, and students who participate in the program help make that happen. (WGN) Months after an early Christmas morning armed robbery at an Oak Forest 7-Eleven, officials on Thursday announced charges against the three men allegedly responsible. City of Oak Forest officials say 25-year-old Jamal Flex of Harvey, 22-year-old Lajuan Pouncey of Riverdale, and 24-year-old Brandon Smith of Chicago committed armed robbery at the convenience store located at 4901 W. 167th Street. Jamal Flex Lajuan Pouncey Brandon Smith Responding to the scene around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 25, officers learned that three masked offenders, armed with handguns, allegedly forced the 7-Eleven clerk to the back of the store before stealing money and other items. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three then fled on foot, police added. Officials also suspect the trio pulled off similar armed robberies in neighboring areas. Authorities did not provide further details, however. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines Oak Forest police said Midlothian, Glenwood, Chicago, and other area law enforcement agencies assisted with their 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 WGN-TV. Three Kissimmee police officers are on administrative leave after shooting a man they thought had a rifle, but it was actually a BB gun. Police Chief Charles Broadway said Matthew Wagner pointed the gun at officers behind a shopping center on U.S. 192 and Bass Road. The officers were there in response to calls about Wagner holding a gun, the chief said. Broadway said hes reviewed the body camera video, saying Wagner ignored several commands to drop the weapon. He said that video will be released after the investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He said Wagner is in stable condition at the hospital. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Century Tower on the Gainesville campus of the University of Florida. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) University of Florida President-elect Santa Ono could receive $3 million per year if the State University Systems Board of Governors confirms him next week. The proposed contract between UF and Ono includes a $1.5 million base salary for serving as president, $500,000 for serving as UF Health chair, more than $400,000 in annual performance bonuses, and another half-a-million in retirement contributions and retention payments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite unanimous approval by UF trustees, Onos presidency is being protested by some Republicans, while Gov. Ron DeSantis says he is leaving it up to the board he appointed to make the right decision. Tuesday, the 17-member Board of Governors will vote on Ono, who received unanimous approval from UF trustees this week. He is the sole finalist for the position. I appointed all those folks, so theyll make the judgement, DeSantis said of the Board of Governors final vote. Former Gov. Rick Scott, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, and U.S. Rep. and GOP gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds have publicly questioned Onos candidacy, as has Donald Trump Jr., who took to X to express his feelings on the candidate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WTF! Have the decision makers at @UF lost their minds!??? This woke psycho might be a perfect fit for a Communist school in California, but how is he even being considered for this role in Florida? Trump Jr. posted Wednesday. Every single member of the Florida Board of Governors should vote against him!!! SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ono supported diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in his previous job as president of the University of Michigan, guiding its DEI 2.0 initiative and touting benefits of such programs but ultimately closed DEI offices earlier this year. Some Republicans question the legitimacy of Onos new-found anti-DEI convictions. Now people have pointed out a lot of statements that he has made that are not exactly what were looking for in a state where woke goes to die and I cringe at some of these statements, DeSantis said Thursday, during a news conference in Fort Myers about medical negligence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But basically, I think the folks that were involved in the search, after having interviewed him, spent time with him, its their judgement that hes really kind of reached the limit on the campus leftism and he would want to leave Michigan where thats prevalent to Florida where its frowned upon, DeSantis said. Ono told trustees this week that he developed his new stance on DEI in the last year and a half after talking with students and other members of the university community. Before, he wasnt an expert on the topic, which had been universal in higher education, he said. Florida Republicans and President Donald Trumps administration have focused heavily on removing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from higher education, including banning state expenditures on such initiatives. He will lose his job if he promotes a fountain of activism or leftist indoctrination, DeSantis said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE May 29GLEN LYON The Glen Lyon American Legion Post 539 and VFW Post 8353 recently held a Memorial Day Quilt of Valor ceremony honoring three veterans for their service to our country. The honorees were presented with patriotic quilts, crafted by members of the NEPA Quilts of Valor Chapter, in recognition of their courage and sacrifices, which will never be forgotten. Corrine Linker, of Nanticoke, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1983 and trained as a Radio Operator. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She served in Stuttgart, Germany, with Unit 75 Administration Seventh Corps Headquarters and the 2nd Armored Division in Carlstadt, Germany. She also served at Edgewood Arsenal, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md. During her tenure, she served in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and in Somalia for Operation Restore. Linker received the Bronze Star, Kuwait Ribbon and Meritorious Service Award among others. Prior to her honorable discharge, Linker served at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, completing 11 years of military service. She is the Commander of the Glen Lyon Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8353. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joseph Molski, of Wanamie, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force following graduation from Newport Township High School in 1952. After basic training at Sampson Air Force Base, Geneva, N.Y., and training as a radio operator, he later transitioned to the role of clerk serving at Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda. He then served in Wiesbaden, Germany, for two years with the Military Air Transport Wing providing top-secret administrative support to the adjutant. After returning to the U.S., our honoree served with the Atlantic Division Military Air Transport Service, McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. He received an honorable discharge in 1956, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He has been a member of both Glen Lyon posts for 65 years and past commander for many years. He now serves as Chaplain. Timothy Derr, of Unityville, enlisted in the U.S. Marines shortly after graduating from Newport Township High School in 1967. After basic training at Parris Island, S.C., he completed intensive infantry training at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and further underwent jungle warfare training in San Diego, Calif. Deployed to Vietnam in 1968, he joined the 1st Marine Division in DaNang, serving as a Lance Corporal and squad leader during major fire fights as part of I-Corps located nearest North Vietnam. The honoree earned the Vietnam Campaign and Vietnam Service Medals and Combat Action Ribbon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He concluded his active service in 1970 and subsequently joined the Marine Corps Reserves, where he received an honorable discharge in 1974. He serves as finance officer of the Glen Lyon American Legion and quartermaster of the VFW. For information on the NEPA Quilts of Valor Chapter, email nepaqov@gmail.com or visit the chapter's Facebook page at Northeast PA Quilts of Valor. Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) About 300 New Haven students walked out of their classrooms Friday in a protest directed at state leadership. The students want to see better school funding from the state of Connecticut. Arrests made at state Capitol rally for increased education funding They came from at least four different schools to congregate at the New Haven Green on Friday midday. Yale University students were also participating in the walk-out, asking the university for increased funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a press conference with New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker on Friday afternoon, a senior at the Engineering and Science University Magnet School and a member of the New Haven Immigrants Coalition stated that the students took city buses to the green. We protested because we want funding, we dont want our schools to be falling apart, Ambar Santiago-Rojas said. New Haven Schools officials said theyve been talking with the students and support them in making their voices heard. However, they said they dont endorse cutting class. Several staff members were at the New Haven Green and the schools involved to keep things under control, they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I want them to know its not fair we are the future of everything, student Rhianna Espada said. The schools impacted include Metropolitan Business Academy, Hill Regional Career High School, Cooperative Arts and Humanities, New Haven Academy, Sound School and Hill House. The students say the condition inside schools is not fair. They also said some programs are being cut because of a lack of funding. Last week, ten people were arrested as hundreds of protestors demanded more funding for schools while at the State Capitol. John Carlos Seranamusser, a senior who helped organize Fridays walkout, is one of the people who was arrested at the Capitol. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Haven Public Schools admitted some buildings and classrooms are in rough shape, but less state funding means cuts in many areas. Seranamusser said that hes learned that actions in life have consequences, but he has no regrets for taking part in either protest even if it meant he couldnt attend senior prom Friday night. I have my prom tonight and that if I went on this walk out I might not be able to go, and if I cant go to prom then, at the end of the day thats the sacrifice, Seranamusser said. News 8 reached out to Yale but did not hear back. High school students will have a range of punishments, ranging from a warning to detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch the full video in the player above. 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. A sweeping proposal to provide up to $350 million to private companies to help them build advanced nuclear power generation plants in Texas is one step away from reaching Gov. Greg Abbott's desk after the House author said Thursday that he expects the chamber to accept tweaks made by the Senate. "Yessir," state Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, told the American-Statesman in a text message response to a question about whether he'll recommend sending the Senate's version of the bill to the governor. Abbott signaled early in the legislative session that he looks forward to signing such a measure into law. House Bill 14, by Harris and sponsored in the Senate by Georgetown Republican Sen. Charles Schwertner, would establish the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office and the Advanced Nuclear Development Fund under the governor's office. The new agency and funding arm would assess the need for additional nuclear generation or explore ways to promote future plant construction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill sets up guidelines and benchmarks for companies planning to develop nuclear plants to help meet Texas' seemingly insatiable appetite for electric power, and it makes available public financial assistance for both planning and constructing power plants. The Three Mile Island Nuclear power plant is seen at sunset in Middletown, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 15, 2024. "Advancements in nuclear energy offer a promising opportunity to strengthen our electric grid with reliable, dispatchable generation while supporting the growth of this innovative industry," Schwertner said as he explained the Senate version of HB 14. Both chambers passed the bill with bipartisan support, though there was some skepticism expressed about the funding provisions. Grants vs. loan to promote nuclear development "Would it not make more sense to maybe do a revolving loan so that they (power companies) would pay them back and we could re-enter and save more money into the system and encourage more nuclear development?" state Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, asked Schwertner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The proposed grant system would be a more persuasive tool, Schwertner responded. Plus, he added, the legislation contains payback provisions if companies do not deliver what they promised. "They do have risk," he said. Under HB 14, the state Public Utility Commission will develop a framework to tie grant amounts to the amount of electric generation a project would produce. Why Abbott wants a 'nuclear renaissance' In his State of the State address shortly after the Legislature convened in January, Abbott called for a "nuclear renaissance" in Texas to ensure that the rapidly growing state can meet the demand for power that comes with not only adding to its population, but also attracting more commercial and industrial development. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas is home to two nuclear power plants, but both are aging. The Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant's first phase was completed in 1990 after several delays and setbacks since construction began in 1974. The second phase of the plant, which is about 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth, went online in 1993. The South Texas Project in Matagorda County, about 90 miles south of Houston, began operations in 1988. More: Why Texas A&M University wants state-of-the-art nuclear power plants on its campus As of last year, there were 54 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 94 nuclear power reactors in 28 states, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Illinois has 11 reactors, the most of any state. The nation's largest nuclear power source, the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, has four reactors. The average age of all U.S. nuclear plants is around 42. What nuclear power projects are pending in Texas? Reed Clay, president of the Texas Nuclear Alliance, called the legislation "a giant leap forward for our state and our country." He predicted it would revive an industry that "was all but dead for decades." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "With the passage of H.B. 14 and associated legislation, Texas is positioned to lead a nuclear renaissance that is now rightly seen as imperative for the energy security and national security of the United States," Clay said in a statement to the Statesman. Meanwhile, Texas A&M University's research-focused RELLIS campus near the system's flagship institution is working to develop a nuclear generation project just a fraction of the size of traditional nuclear plants like those in Comanche Peak, and the South Texas Project. The university's permit is awaiting approval from the NRC. Also, Natura Resources is seeking federal approval for a nuclear plant in Abilene. The first small modular reactor in Texas will be located on Dow's Seadrift plant just north of San Antonio Bay near Victoria. Dow is partnering with the company X-energy on the project that was bolstered by an initial $80 million grant from the U.S. Energy Department. The formal permit application was filed with the NRC in March. Called "small modular reactors," the newer-generation plants are a fraction of the size and can be manufactured offsite, trucked to their permanent locations and buried underground, which proponents say is both safer and better protects them from being targeted by terrorists or other hostile forces. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas lawmakers near nuclear bill passage. How it'll help power grid. Photo: State Tax Service under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Azerbaijan and the World Bank have held talks to evaluate potential cooperation on carbon pricing mechanisms, Trend reports citing the State Tax Service (STS) under the Ministry of Economy. The meeting was held at the STS with the support mission of the World Banks "Partnership for Market Implementation" (PMI) on carbon pricing. The report notes that STS Deputy Head Samira Musayeva provided information on reforms in the tax system aimed at building a green economy model and improving energy efficiency. She also highlighted tax incentives and support mechanisms in the legislation. Musayeva noted that "carbon pricing is an important tool that requires a fair approach, in-depth analysis, and comprehensive research," and praised the World Banks active role in promoting "green solutions." Yasemin Orucu, the World Banks Lead Climate Change Specialist and Head of the Task Team for Azerbaijan, outlined the scope and expectations of the PMI initiative. She noted that the missions primary objective is to assess Azerbaijans readiness under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, facilitate dialogue with key institutions, and gather feedback from stakeholders. The sides also exchanged views on the accelerating transformation of global energy systems and the steps countries are taking to reduce their carbon footprints. The meeting concluded with a discussion of future areas for collaboration. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel A third person has been arrested in connection with the death of Adan Manzano, a Telemundo reporter who was found dead in his hotel room while in Louisiana to cover the Super Bowl, authorities announced Friday. Christian Anderson, of New Orleans, was arrested "for his alleged involvement in the scheme that ultimately led to Manzano's death," the Kenner Police Department said in a press release. MORE: Text messages show yearslong scheme between suspects in Super Bowl reporter's death: Sources Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Manzano, a reporter for KGKC Telemundo Kansas City and Tico Sports, was found dead face-down on a pillow in his hotel room in Kenner on Feb. 5, police said. He died from the combined effects of Xanax -- an anti-anxiety medication -- and alcohol along with positional asphyxia, according to the Jefferson Parish coroner. A woman who police said was seen going into Manzano's hotel room hours before he was found dead -- Danette Colbert -- and an alleged accomplice were previously arrested in connection with his death. Manzano's cellphone and credit card were found in her home, Kenner police said. PHOTO: The booking photo for Christian Anderson. (Kenner Police Department) Police said a review of text messages and digital communications shows that Anderson, 33, and the two suspects "played an active role in a coordinated pattern of targeting victims, drugging them, and stealing personal property." Anderson rented a car that was used by Colbert on the day of Manzano's death, according to police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Woman charged with murder in death of Telemundo Super Bowl reporter "Further evidence showed that Anderson provided logistical support, engaged in post-crime communication, and assisted in attempts to financially benefit from the victim's stolen assets," Kenner police said. "Additionally, records show Anderson and Colbert communicated extensively following the incident, and that he played a role in the group's recurring criminal behavior." Anderson faces charges of principal to simple robbery, purse snatching, access device fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, bank fraud and computer fraud. He is in custody at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. PHOTO: In this photo released by Telemundo, Adan Manzano is shown. (Telemundo) Colbert was arrested in the days following Manzano's death and initially charged with property crimes, including theft and fraud-related offenses. She was subsequently charged with second-degree murder in his death following the autopsy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The other suspect in the case, Rickey White, faces the same property crime charges as Colbert. PHOTO: The Kenner Police Department provided surveillance footage that they say shows Adan Manzano and Danette Colbert getting off the elevator in a hotel hallway. (Kenner Police Department) Earlier this month, Colbert was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a previous fraud conviction, according to the Louisiana Attorney General's Office. She was given a suspended 10-year sentence after being found guilty last year of theft, computer fraud and illegal transmission of monetary funds. The attorney general's office said it argued for a harsher sentence due to her prior fraud felony convictions, and a judge subsequently sentenced her to 25 years. "The evidence was overwhelming that this woman was a serial fraudster and took advantage of multiple tourists and innocent people over many years in the French Quarter," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement following the sentencing. "I wish we could have saved the life of Adam Manzano." "I'm hopeful and confident justice will be served in Jefferson Parish as well, where Colbert is also facing charges of second-degree murder for Manzano's death," she added. 3rd person arrested in connection with death of Telemundo Super Bowl reporter originally appeared on abcnews.go.com BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) A third person has been charged in connection to the death of a television reporter who had traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl earlier this year. Christian Anderson, 33, of New Orleans, was arrested for his alleged role in a recurring scheme that police say involved targeting victims, drugging them and robbing them. Among those alleged victims was Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and anchor for Telemundo based in Kansas City, Missouri. Manzano was found dead Feb. 5 in his hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Manzano's death came a year after his wife died in a car accident. The couple leaves behind a toddler daughter. An autopsy revealed that Manzano died lying face down on a pillow, unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and the depressant Xanax. Security video from Manzano's hotel showed the reporter and a woman, who police later identified as Danette Colbert, entering his room together on the morning of his death. About an hour later, Colbert could be seen walking out of the room alone. Authorities say the woman later used Manzanos credit card at a New Orleans gas station and several stores in the area. Colbert, whose arrest record include allegations of drugging men and theft, was charged with second-degree murder and with stealing Manzano's credit cards and cellphone. In addition, Ricky White, 34, has been charged with murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kenner police said that the vehicle Colbert used on the day of Manzano's death had been rented by Anderson. After reviewing more evidence, including text messages, police say they believe that Anderson provided logistical support, engaged in post-crime communication, and assisted in attempts to financially benefit from the victims stolen assets. Anderson has been charged with principal to simple robbery, purse snatching, access device fraud, illegal transmission of monetary funds, bank fraud and computer fraud. He is currently being held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. Jail records did not immediately list an attorney who could speak on Anderson's behalf. AVON, Ohio (WJW) Four Avon High School students have achieved what only a fraction of test takers ever accomplish: a perfect score of 36 on the ACT. Marisa Weller, Leah Carducci, Lily Fitch, and Alex Balthaser were recently recognized for the rare academic feat. Ohio school board makes unanimous decision to suspend high school According to the Princeton Review, about 0.2% of all test takers get a perfect score on the college entrance exam each year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The test evaluates students on English, math, reading and science. The four appeared together Friday on FOX 8 News This Morning, where they spoke about how they prepared. Two of the girls said it was their first time taking the test. I was just trying to do my best, one shared. I studied a lot, and it paid off. I looked at a book and did some online prep, and I knew if I didnt do my best, it was OK, another of the girls said. The thing I needed to most focus on was timing, another said. Mystery surrounds rare bird seen in Kent the past few weeks: Not from Ohio And heres their advice for other test takers: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Take lots of practice tests to figure out what you need to work on more. Get a good nights sleep. All four girls are juniors, and they have big plans. One hopes to pursue a degree in neuroscience, another biology or microbiology, one is interested in epidemiology and the fourth plans to go to law school. Find out more in the video at the top of the story. 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. May 29At least four motorists were injured, one critically, in a three-vehicle crash Thursday morning on Route 30 in Unity. Two women were taken by ambulance to AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, one in critical condition and the other in stable condition, following the crash near the Theatre Street intersection, according to Mutual Aid Ambulance Service spokesman Shawn Penzera. He said a man and woman who were in stable condition were taken by ambulance to Independence Health Latrobe Hospital for treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to preliminary information from state police, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo sideswiped a Ford F-150 pickup as the Monte Carlo went over the median and collided head-on with a Chevrolet Trailblazer. The Monte Carlo ended up facing the wrong way in the westbound lane. All three vehicles were towed. Unity firefighters responded to the collision, which occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m., a Westmoreland County Public Safety supervisor said. A section of Route 30 was closed between Theatre Street and the Route 30 Shoppes Plaza until about 11 a.m., while the wreckage was cleared and state police from Greensburg investigated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additional details were not available. Jeff Himler is a TribLive reporter covering Greater Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant Area and Derry Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on transportation issues. A journalist for more than three decades, he enjoys delving into local history. He can be reached at jhimler@triblive.com. KENTUCKY (FOX 56) Four counties and the city of Louisville have been highlighted by federal government officials for having local jurisdictions that make enforcing immigration laws more difficult. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website, these counties and cities with sanctuary jurisdictions are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. Officials reportedly formulated the list using factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for those living in the country illegally. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with Federal statutes, a statement on the departments website reads. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. Scott, Franklin, Campbell, and Jefferson counties were listed on the governments Sanctuary Jurisdiction List, which officials said could be reviewed and changed at any time. 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 56 News. AccuWeather.com Friday, May 31, 1985, was a spring day like any other. Trees and flowers were in full bloom, Memorial Day weekend was in the rearview mirror, and most residents of Pennsylvania, Ohio and southern Ontario were looking forward to the weekend. By the end of the day, however, 44 tornadoes had ripped through the region, killing 89 people. One massive twister moved from Ohio into Pennsylvania, destroying everything in its path, and still stands as the only F5 tornado on the Fujita Scale to strike Pennsylvania. Eight F4 tornadoes were also documented. The outbreak caused unprecedented damage and also remains Pennsylvania's deadliest severe weather outbreak to this day. An AccuWeather meteorologist remembers the day Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski was working at AccuWeather on that fateful day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I remember the days before the outbreak. We kept ramping up our concern for tornadoes in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. We forecast 'a swarm of tornadoes' the day before, which was very unusual for that area," Sosnowski said. An aerial photo on June 1, 1985 in Niles, Ohio shows clean-up operations after a tornado swept through destroying and damaging homes on this block on May 31, 1985. (Getty) "We didn't have cell phones or internet then, so we couldn't watch it happen in real time," Sosnowski explained. "When I got to work around midnight, the mood was somber. The word had come through that lots of people were injured or killed." 5 Boy Scouts miraculously survived an F4 tornado One F4 tornado tracked 69 miles from Penfield to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and destroyed an estimated 88,000 trees in the Moshannon State Forest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Five Boy Scouts at Parker Dam State Park were lucky to survive in a cabin surrounded by destruction. Carey Huber, an Environmental Education Specialist at Parker Dam, told WTAJ in 2018 that the destruction around the cabin "looked like matchsticks or toothpicks laying in different directions all over the place." Sue Larson stands dismayed among the rubble that was her home in Albion, Pennsylvania, on June 2, 1985. A tornado struck the small northwest Pennsylvania community on May 31, killing nine people. It was one of a number of twisters to hit the Midwest, Northeast, and parts of Ontario, Canada. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Watching the deadly storm on radar Radar was available in 1985 but only at some television stations and universities. Lee Grenci, a lecturer at Penn State University, was in the Penn State "radar room," watching the Doppler with other Penn State faculty members. It was a black and white screen, but forecasters could hold up a piece of paper to the screen to see the locations of towns and roads. A WSR-57 Doppler Radar image of one of the storms producing the F4 tornado in northern Centre County on May 31, 1985. The tornado's hook echo is clear and the twister's track is shown in orange. (PSU/AccuWeather) They were awed by what they saw, a supercell thunderstorm with a curled hook echo north of State College, Pennsylvania, home to Penn State University (PSU). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "[We] were mesmerized by the radar, and, out of the dead silence, [PSU Professor] Greg Forbes said, people are dying right now. I never, ever forgot that moment," Grenci said. In this May 25, 2011 photo, Tom Stanton, a former councilman and mayor of the community, stands by the memorial dedicated in honor of the victims of the devastating tornadoes of May 31, 1985, in Wheatland, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) Storm left scars on the land Stephen Corfidi of the Severe Local Storms Unit of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, as the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) was known in those days, was amazed by the strength of the F4 twister north of State College. "Eight years after the event, the path of the nearly mile-wide monster storm remained nearly devoid of trees - in stark contrast to the richly green forest surrounding it," Corfidi said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The storm's scar was visible on satellite maps until the early 2000s. An infamous and rare video of the F5 tornado The strongest storm of the outbreak, an F5 tornado, began in Portage County in Ohio and tracked across Trumbull County into Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Home video cameras were rare in those days, but one resident filmed the infamous storm. For the 40th anniversary of the outbreak, WFMJ talked to Ron Alfredo, who took the rare video of the tornado in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. After seeing unusually large hail, he said, the tornado came into view. He kept the video rolling. "I thought it was papers flying," Alfredo said of swirling debris that he later realized was buildings being torn apart. A dozen killed in Ontario In southern Ontario, 14 tornadoes left massive damage north of Toronto, killing 12 people. Three tornadoes were rated F3 on the Fujita Scale. "The tornado hit so hard that in some places, there was simply nothing left," CBC's Vicki Russell said at the time. Russian opposition publication Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories) has found that up to 407,200 Russians signed contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry in 2024, which contradicts the Russian authorities' statements about the flow of volunteer soldiers. Meanwhile, the rate of recruitment is declining this year. Source: Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories) "The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation is probably still overestimating the number of new contract servicemen. [Russian] Defence Minister Andrey Belousov said that 427,000 people signed a contract for service at the end of 2024, which is 5-15% higher than the budget expenditure data shows. Dmitry Medvedev's estimate of 450,000 contract servicemen is even more at odds with the budget expenditures," Vazhnye Istorii said. Over 407,000 people signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence in 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Infographic: Vazhnye Istorii Details: Vazhnye Istorii notes that the recruitment rate has slowed down compared to the previous year. In particular, an average of 1,700 people signed contracts per day in the 4th quarter of 2024, which is 1.3 times less than in the same period in 2023. Also, data from Russian regions show that the rate of contract recruitment continued to decline in the spring of 2025. However, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a twofold increase in volunteer soldiers 1,800 recruits per day. The recruitment rate of new contract soldiers to the Russian army decreased in the 4th quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Infographic: Vazhnye Istorii Meanwhile, German researcher Janis Kluge, who assesses the pace of recruitment into the Russian army, points out that "contracts with the Russian Armed Forces are now being signed by an average of about 1,000 people a day across Russia". Background: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine had estimated that the ground force of the Russian military group involved in hostilities against Ukraine in November 2024 totalled almost 580,000 Russian servicemen, including Kursk Oblast. In June 2024, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed that nearly 700,000 Russian servicemen were fighting in Ukraine. In December 2023, he stated that 617,000 soldiers had been involved in the war. At that time, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) highlighted Putin's remarks, indicating that Russian forces lose approximately 20,000 personnel monthly in Ukraine. This number roughly matches or is slightly lower than the number of new soldiers Russia recruits each month. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! BOSTON (WPRI) Four former Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) workers and one current employee have been accused of falsifying Red Line track inspection reports, according to U.S. Attorney Leah Foley. Brian Pfaffinger, 47, of Marshfield, Ronald Gamble, 62, of Dorchester, Jensen Vatel, 42, of Brockton, Nathalie Mendes, 53, of New Bedford, and Andy Vincente, 36, of Bridgewater, were arrested Thursday morning and have each been charged with aiding and abetting the falsification of records and aiding and abetting false statements. Gamble, Vatel, Mendes and Vicente used to work for the MBTA as track inspectors. The suspects are accused of falsifying track inspection reports between Sept. 13 and Oct. 15 of last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents noted that the suspects claimed to have completed several track inspections of the Red Line. Instead, the workers were spending time in the Cabot Yard, which is an MBTA location that contains coffee and a break room for employees. Cabot Yard also contains a large garage where the suspects each repaired private vehicles during work hours, according to the court documents. Surveillance footage of Andy Vincente in the Cabot Yard garage (Courtesy: U.S. Attorney District of Massachusetts) Surveillance footage of Nathalie Mendes sitting her in vehicle (Courtesy: U.S. Attorney District of Massachusetts) In one instance, Vincente was caught on surveillance footage scrolling through his phone inside the Cabot Yard during the time he supposedly performed a track inspection. Court documents added that Mendes was seen just days later sitting inside her parked vehicle until well after her documented inspection purportedly ended. Surveillance footage of Jensen Vatel on his phone at the Cabot Yard (Courtesy: U.S. Attorney District of Massachusetts) Surveillance footage of Gamble in the Cabot Yard garage (Courtesy: U.S. Attorney District of Massachusetts) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The next day, Vatel was seen on surveillance footage chatting with other MBTA employees in the Cabot Yard parking lot around the same time he claimed to have completed an inspection. Nearly a week later, Gamble was spotted detailing a private vehicle inside the garage at the Cabot Yard during a track inspection he claimed to have completed. Court documents explained that, Pfaffinger not only knew that his employees were working on private vehicles instead of inspecting the tracks, but also had them take a look at his own car during those times. Pfaffinger was caught on surveillance footage in the garage with Gamble at the same time he was supposed to be inspecting the Red Line. Even though he knew Gambles inspection report was false, court documents stated that Pfaffinger still signed off on it anyway the following day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The MBTA confirmed that four of the five suspects were fired last year, while the fifth was disciplined and is currently on leave. Their actions do not reflect the values of the MBTA, and they will not impact the improvements we continue to make across the system, the MBTA said in a statement, referring to the suspects. We are taking these allegations very seriously, as we have an obligation to the public and to our workforce to ensure that every employee meets the highest standards of conduct. 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. Follow us on social media: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. Elon Musk worlds richest man, major government contractor, top donor and adviser to the president of the United States and guy who pays to cheat at video games ended his tenure as a special government employee on Friday with a cheerful goodbye and thank-you from President Donald Trump. Asked by a reporter Friday if his time in government was worth it and what he would have done differently, Musk, sporting a bruise over his right eye, complained his Department of Government Efficiency had become a bogeyman and seemed to concede defeat to the federal bureaucracy. There are many things that occur in the government because its, its the banal evil of bureaucracy. Its sort of the frankly, largely, largely uncaring nature of bureaucracy, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So was it worth it? I think it was an important thing, Musk said. I think it was a necessary thing and I think it will have a good effect in future. One of Musks key early initiatives was a requirement for all federal government employees to send emails to their bosses outlining five things they accomplished the week prior. Musk originally threatened to fire any employee who didnt send such an email, but later backed down. Workers at the Social Security Administration are still sending the emails as of this week, while the Department of Defense asked employees for their final submissions this week as well. In honor of Musks departure, HuffPost has compiled a list of five things Musk could point to as accomplishments in a sign-off email to Trump. 1. Used Visual Aid To Illustrate Objectives (Played With Chainsaw) In a February appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the president of Argentina, who is a darling of right-wingers, handed Elon Musk a power tool and, in so doing, created the indelible image of the Musk era of Trumps second term. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, Musk said as he waved the chainsaw around, posing for the photographs that would be used for hundreds of news stories about his efforts to cut federal agencies. The chainsaw at once symbolized Musks power and his recklessness. Musk and his team constantly pushed legal and constitutional boundaries by firing federal workers, infiltrating sensitive databases and restructuring entire departments. This week, a judge allowed a lawsuit by Democratic states challenging the fundamental structure of the DOGE enterprise as unconstitutional to proceed. On Friday, a reporter asked Musk about the bruise on his face. He said his 5-year-old son did it. I said, Go ahead, punch me in the face, and he did, Musk said. CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk leaves the stage holding a chainsaw after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Andrew Harnik via Getty Images 2. Pioneered New Methods Of Increasing Death Tolls In Emerging Markets (Destroyed The U.S. Agency for International Development) Musks signature achievement as head of DOGE was the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the part of government most contrary to Trumps notions of America First. Musk bragged he put the agency into the wood chipper. (This was before hed been given the chainsaw.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decapitation of the agency resulted in the cutoff of lifesaving aid to people, including children, in poorer countries around the world. A Boston University professor estimates more than 300,000 people, two-thirds of them children, have already died in the four months since the cuts were implemented. 3. Diverted Negative Attention From Principals (Destroyed Own Reputation) Musk took big swings against federal agencies and picked some questionable targets, including the Social Security Administration, purveyor of monthly benefits to more than 70 million Americans. He falsely claimed Social Security was full of fraud and championed cuts to services Democrats used to portray Musk as the biggest villain of Trumps government. Musks approval rating tanked, sinking lower than the presidents, and so did the stock performance of his electric car company, Tesla. He mused last week that he might have spent too much of his time on politics. He claimed Friday that public opposition to his work stemmed from misunderstandings. What we found was happening was that if there were any cuts anywhere, people would assume that was done by DOGE, Musk said Friday. And so we became, essentially, the DOGE bogeyman, where any cut, anywhere, would be ascribed to DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump vouched for his top campaign funder and efficiency czar. Hes done a lot of things, Trump said. Frankly, I dont think he gets credit for what hes done. Hes a very good person. He happens to be a really good person who loves the country. 4. Achieved Significant Eventual Cost Reduction (Failed To Reach Absurd Savings Goal) Musk claimed during the campaign that he could easily save the federal government $2 trillion out of its nearly $7 trillion annual budget simply by rooting out fraud and waste. After Trump won, Musk scaled his ambition down to $1 trillion in savings. On Friday, Musk conceded that DOGE had come up with only $160 billion in savings, though the estimates posted on the DOGE website have frequently proven unreliable, and the amount is probably less. Im confident that, over time, well see a trillion dollars of savings, Musk said. 5. Gathered Critical Data To Help Other Employees Reach Country Separation Goals (Convinced The IRS To Hand Over Data To Help ICE Find More Undocumented Immigrants) Much of what generated public opposition to DOGE was the agencys seemingly relentless quest for more data. For privacy reasons, government data is often siloed off, with access restricted only to key decision makers at different agencies. DOGE pushed aside agency heads and cybersecurity professionals to get previously protected data from the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why? According to published reports, it was to build a master database to speed up immigration enforcement and make it easier for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find local undocumented immigrants and deport them. The database would be key to achieving Trump and top White House adviser Stephen Millers goals of mass deportation at a time when ICE is reportedly not meeting its deportation goals. Related... BURLINGTON, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) 54-year-old Todd Hoyte was charged with making interstate threats following the returned two-count indictment from a federal grand jury. This U.S. Virgin Islands resident has also been charged with stalking. ABC22/FOX44 previously reported that Hoyte was threatening Grand Isle County States Attorney Doug DiSabito, the one who was prosecuting him for aggravated domestic assault charges. Court records claim that Hoyte harassed the victim between roughly July 29, 2024 and September 25, 2024 with violent, often threatening messages in multiple voicemail boxes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoyte was arrested by FBI members in the U.S. Virgin Islands on April 1, but entered a not guilty plea during his District of Vermont hearing May 29. He entered that plea before a U.S. ordered Hoyte continue his detention. If convicted, Hoyte faces five years for each count. 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. The open court session continued on May 29 at the Baku Military Court in the criminal case against Armenian citizens Arayik Harutyunyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, David Babayan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, and others. They stand accused of crimes against peace and humanity, including war crimes, preparing and waging aggressive war, genocide, violations of the laws and customs of war, terrorism, financing terrorism, forcible seizure and retention of power, and other grave offenses arising from Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan. The court session, presided over by Judge Zeynal Aghayev, with Judges Jamal Ramazanov and Anar Rzayev (alternate judge Gunel Samadova), ensured that each defendant had legal representation and interpretation in their native language. The session was attended by the accused, their lawyers, several victims and their legal successors and representatives, as well as state prosecutors. At the beginning, Judge Zeynal Aghayev introduced the court staff and interpreters and explained the legal rights and obligations to the victims who were participating in the court proceedings for the first time. Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev proposed continuing the trial by interviewing the victims under two chapters of the investigation and examining the related documents. The court began questioning victims of terrorist acts and other crimes committed in April 2016known as the April Battlesand July 2020known as the Tovuz Battles. Victim Elmir Abbasov stated that he was injured during the April Wars in 2016 in the Tartar district, where he served in the military. According to the rules of war, a military unit should only engage another military unit, he said. However, they fired prohibited shells into villages and civilian areaspoisonous and incendiary munitions. The Armenian side used banned weapons extensively. He explained that in addition to cast iron fragments, the shrapnel-type shells used by Armenian forces contained more than 2,000 needles. Even a single needle can cause mass poisoning, he said. During our training, they showed us videos proving that just touching one of these needleseven without penetrationcan poison the body. Mnatsakanyan asked what military rank and position Abbasov held at the time. Abbasov replied that he was a battery commander in an artillery division and held the rank of captain. Victim Abbas Allahverdiyev stated that the village of Tap Garagoyunlu, where he lived, was regularly shelled by Armenian forces using artillery and other weapons. In response to a question from Nasir Bayramov, Head of the Department of Public Prosecutions at the Prosecutor Generals Office, Allahverdiyev said that the state had built a stone wall to shield the village in 2013. However, the Armenian army continued its attacks. On the night of April 2, 2016, they opened fire from the direction of Aghdara. On the evening of April 3, a shell landed in his yard and exploded. He was wounded in the right undereye. His house and farm were seriously damaged. Allahverdiyev also answered questions from the accused David Manukyan about the village's borders. Manukyan asked whether the Injachay River passed through the village. Allahverdiyev confirmed that it did. Victim Elvin Karimov said that the Armenian armed forces repeatedly shelled the village of Alkhanli in the Fuzuli district, where he lives, with heavy artillery. On April 4, 2016, around 4 p.m., as he was leaving his house, a shell fell into his neighbor's yard and exploded. The shrapnel hit his right knee. He was taken to the hospital the same day. Answering questions from Tarana Mammadova, a prosecutor in the Public Prosecution Department in the district courts of Baku, Karimov noted that Armenian servicemen fired at villagers while they were performing household chores. The accused Levon Mnatsakanyan asked the victim, How many firing positions were there in the area? Karimov replied, I didnt count the firing positions or our posts. How could I know that? The accused David Babayan asked how many people lived in the village. The victim said he did not know the exact number of residents either. Victim Anar Abdullayev noted that the village of Chamanli in the Aghdam district, where he lives, is located near the former line of contact. Armenian armed forces regularly shelled the village. On the night of April 2728, 2016, while he was in the yard, a shell exploded in the yard of his uncle Huseyn. He felt a fragment hit his back and lost consciousness. When he came to, he was in the hospital. He later learned that his neighbor had driven him there in his own car. Victim Sirdash Karimov said that on the night of April 2728, 2016, Armenian forces launched another round of fire on Chamanli. At around 3 a.m., he and his neighborsFamil Mustafayev (his cousin), Ali Huseynov (his uncle), Zahir Rahimov, Anar Abdullayev, and otherswere in an onion field about 100 meters from Zahirs house. From there, they saw Armenians firing Grad shells. Around 4 a.m., one of the shells landed nearby and exploded. Famil Mustafayev died on the spot. Others, including Sirdash Karimov, were injured. Ali Huseynov died in the hospital the next day. In response to a question from public prosecutor Fuad Musayev, Karimov noted that the Armenian armed forces were heavily shelling the region at that time. David Manukyan asked when he was injured. Karimov replied that it was on the night of April 2728, 2016. Manukyan asked whether the village had been shelled from 1994 to 2016. Karimov said it had. Victim Zahir Rahimov said that on the night of April 28, 2016, a shell exploded near where he was with residents Ali Huseynov, Famil Mustafayev, Sirdash Karimov, and Adil Mammadov. As a result, Famil Mustafayev was killed and Ali Huseynov was seriously injured and later died. Rahimov, Sirdash, and Adil received shrapnel wounds. One of the shells also damaged the walls of his house and destroyed the windows and barn roof. Following the break, accused David Ishkhanyan expressed a desire to review the minutes of the May 26 hearing with fellow accused David Babayan. Judge Zeynal Aghayev said conditions would be created for this, with an Armenian interpreter. Victim Simran Guliyev noted that on April 4, 2016, Armenian forces used large-caliber weapons to shell his area. At about 8 p.m., when he stepped outside, a shell exploded 20 meters away. A cannonball fragment hit his right knee. He was taken to the regional central hospital. Victim Mahbub Orujova stated that on July 17, 2020, at 14:30, a rocket-propelled device launched by Armenian forces exploded in the air above Bala Jafarli village, and fragments hit the roof of her house in Khanliglar village, Gazakh district. Responding to a question from Tugay Rahimli, Assistant to the Prosecutor General for Special Assignments, she confirmed there were no military units in or near the village. Victim Selmina Aliyeva also reported that on July 17, 2020, a shell fragment hit her houses roof in Khanliglar. She also confirmed that there were no military units in the village. Victim Vugar Sultanli said that during the Tovuz battles, Azerbaijani officersMajor General Polad Hashimov, Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev, and otherswere martyred on July 14, 2020, during an enemy artillery strike. Sultanli, injured during their evacuation, emphasized that enemy forces deliberately targeted ambulances and medical personnelactions prohibited by international humanitarian law and constituting war crimes. When asked about Polad Hashimovs death, accused Davit Ishkhanyan remarked, Based on what I've heard, he was both a good soldier and a good person, and asked whether the incident occurred at night or during the day. The victim said it occurred during the day. Victim Mahammadali Imanov stated that his village of Mahrizli in the Aghdam district was regularly shelled. On April 27, 2016, shootings resumed in the evening. That night, his son Anar, along with neighbors Siyasat and Adalat, went to the house of another neighbor, Teyyub. On April 28, at around 5 a.m., a shell hit Teyyubs house, and Anar sustained a head injury. Defendant Mnatsakanyan asked: Did they shoot only at your village or at others too? Imanov answered: Yes, they shot at other villages as well. Victim Kamil Jahanov said that on July 17, 2020, at 2:30 p.m., a shell exploded and fragments hit the roof of his house in Khanliglar village, Gazakh district. Earlier, when I went to graze cattle, Armenian soldiers fired, he added. Victim Aziz Shirinov said that a shell fired by Armenian forces damaged his house in Khanliglar during the Tovuz battles. The court also read out medical expert opinions regarding the victims. Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General Vusal Aliyev reviewed expert opinions and inspection protocols concerning Azerbaijani citizens killed by shelling of civilian areas by Armenian forces in April 2016. These included documents regarding the deaths of Rahimov Orkhan Valerik oglu (b. 1983), Asadli Farman Elchin oglu (b. 1990), Hasanli Turana Kamandar gizi (b. 2000), Dadashov Garash Shahmar oglu (b. 1954), Mustafayev Famil Ali oglu (b. 1967), Huseynov Ali Museib oglu (b. 1942), and related injuries to others. The next court hearing is scheduled for May 30. The defendants Arayik Vladimiri Harutyunyan, Arkadi Arshaviri Ghukasyan, Bako Sahaki Sahakyan, Davit Rubeni Ishkhanyan, David Azatini Manukyan, Davit Klimi Babayan, Levon Henrikovich Mnatsakanyan, Vasili Ivani Beglaryan, Erik Roberti Ghazaryan, Davit Nelsoni Allahverdiyan, Gurgen Homeri Stepanyan, Levon Romiki Balayan, Madat Arakelovich Babayan, Garik Grigori Martirosyan, and Melikset Vladimiri Pashayan are charged under the following articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Article 100 (planning, preparing, initiating, and waging a war of aggression); Article 102 (attacking persons or organizations enjoying international protection); Article 103 (genocide); Article 105 (extermination of the population); Article 106 (enslavement); Article 107 (deportation or forced displacement of population); Article 109 (persecution); Article 110 (enforced disappearance of persons); Article 112 (deprivation of liberty contrary to international law); Article 113 (torture); Article 114 (mercenary service); Article 115 (violation of the laws and customs of warfare); Article 116 (violation of international humanitarian law during armed conflict); Article 118 (military robbery); Article 120 (intentional murder); Article 192 (illegal entrepreneurship); Article 214 (terrorism); Article 214-1 (financing terrorism); Article 218 (creation of a criminal organization); Article 228 (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, and possession of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and devices); Article 270-1 (acts threatening aviation security); Article 277 (assassination of a state official or public figure); Article 278 (forcible seizure and retention of power, forcible change of the constitutional structure of the state); Article 279 (creation of armed groups not provided for by law); and other articles. French CMA CGM and Kazakhstan join forces to accelerate Middle Corridor growth Photo: Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan At the Astana International Forum 2025, Kazakhstans Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev met with CMA CGM Vice President Ludovic Renaud to discuss expanding cargo transport and infrastructure along the Trans-Caspian Middle Corridor. The meeting highlighted a 10% increase in freight volumes and a significant rise in container transit from China. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register AUSTIN (KXAN) Six cases of measles have been confirmed in Williamson County, according to an update from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) on Friday. Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD) wanted to highlight that the DSHS update includes both confirmed and epidemiologically linked measles cases. The CDC defines epidemiologically linked case: a case in which the patient has/has had contact with one or more persons who have/had the disease, and transmission of the agent by the usual modes of transmission is plausible, a press release from WCCHD said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WCCHD explained further that when health officials say someone is epidemiologically linked to a disease case, it means the person has been in contact with someone who has the disease or has been exposed to a common source of infection, such as attending the same event or living in the same household. Williamson County health officials said the county has had two confirmed cases that were verified by a test. The rest are considered epidemiologically linked cases. At this time, we are unable to provide additional details about the cases other than they are epidemiologically linked cases, WCCHD said. Earlier this month, on May 22, Williamson County confirmed its first measles case this year. The case involved a school-age child from Leander who attended Bar W. Elementary School, according to officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the Friday update by DSHS, there were no changes to the number of measles cases in Travis County (2) and Hays County (1). At this time, 738 cases have been confirmed since late January. This is an increase of nine since the May 27 update, DSHS said in its Friday update. DSHS said the best way to prevent getting sick is to be immunized with two doses of a vaccine against measles. For more information about preventative vaccines or general information about measles, visit the WCCHD 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 KXAN Austin. ANSON, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) A 600-foot protective buffer zone has been established around Ansons Bluebonnet Detention Facility to further public safety in the area. The City of Anson designated the Bluebonnet Detention facility as critical infrastructure Friday, which allowed them to enact the buffer zone. This zone will hopefully, prevent disruptions to ingress and egress routes, deter surveillance activities, and reduce the potential for protest-related interference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Protestors will still be able to exercise their constitutional rights in alternative areas outside the designated zones. Read the full press release from the City of Anson on their decision to create the buffer zone below: The City of Anson has formally designated the Bluebonnet Detention Facility as a critical infrastructure facility through a newly enacted city ordinance. This decision reflects the citys commitment to safeguarding public safety, supporting federal operations, and protecting the economic and operational integrity of the community. The Bluebonnet Detention Facility, operated under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), plays a central role in upholding national security and immigration enforcement objectives. The facility is also one of the regions largest employers, significantly contributing to the citys economy and public services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This designation ensures we can maintain the safety of our community, protect city resources, and support our law enforcement partners, said Anson Police Chief Daniel Graziose. The ordinance is a measured and necessary step to secure our local infrastructure and public order. Under the new ordinance, a 600-foot protective buffer zone is established around the facility. This zone is intended to prevent disruptions to ingress and egress routes, deter surveillance activities, and reduce the potential for protest-related interference. The city emphasizes that the ordinance preserves constitutional rights by ensuring alternative protest areas remain accessible outside the designated zone. The decision was made pursuant to Ansons authority as a home-rule municipality and consistent with Texas statutes that allow local governments to define and protect critical infrastructure, including detention facilities. By taking this proactive measure, the City of Anson strengthens its role in emergency preparedness, ensures the continuity of essential detention operations, and supports a vital economic engine for the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. A 61-year-old Alaska man is expected to make a full recovery after he ended up being pinned down by a 700-pound boulder while lying on his stomach in an Alaska creek, authorities said. The incident occurred last Saturday just before noon when the Seward Fire Department was contacted for a rescue in the Fourth of July Creek to reports of a 61-year-old male pinned by a boulder in the creek, according to a statement from the Seward Fire Department. MORE: 6 gray whales have died in San Francisco in the past week as authorities scramble for answers Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The patient was found lying in the creek on his stomach with an approximately 700 lb. boulder on top of him with his spouse holding his head out of water, authorities said. The patient was hypothermic and in and out of consciousness. Officials did not say how the boulder came to be on top of him or why it ended up pinning him down in the creek in the first place. MORE: Tourists at beach house find human remains dating back 200 years Seward Fire and Seward Volunteer Ambulance Corp responded and requested assistance from Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Department, according to the Seward Fire Department, and responded to the scene on foot, by ATV and helicopter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of Bear Creek FD Volunteers works for Seward Helicopter Tours and heard the call while working and he and a pilot volunteered to respond to the scene and pick up six firefighters via helicopter and transport them to the patient, thus cutting down 45 minutes of travel time, officials said. The patient was in a boulder field and the helicopter could only hover while firefighters had to jump from the helicopter to the ground as the helicopter could not land safely. MORE: Black bear found sitting on stove inside home after crashing through ceiling PHOTO: Alaska Trapped by Boulder (Jason Harrington/AP) MORE: Woman arrested after raccoon named Chewy found with meth pipe in driver's seat during police stop Crews used air bags, ropes and brute force to lift the boulder off the patient and pull him to safety, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once out of the water, the crew re-warmed the patient, and he became more alert, and his vitals improved, Seward Fire Department said. Officials determined there was not an effective or safe manner to bring the patient down the canyon, so they contacted the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center for assistance and they were able to hoist the man out of the canyon and take him to the ambulance that was waiting nearby. MORE: 3 climbers dead after falling off mountain while rappelling The 61-year-old man was subsequently taken to Seward Providence Hospital and authorities said he is expected to make a full recovery with no life-threatening injuries noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is no doubt that without the help from Seward Helicopter Tours this incident could have had a much different and potentially fatal outcome, said the Seward Fire Department. It is community members and businesses that we work so well with that make our jobs easier and more productive. 61-year-old man survives being pinned down by 700-pound boulder for 3 hours in Alaska creek originally appeared on abcnews.go.com NEED TO KNOW On May 28, a shooting occurred near Tacoma, Washington, injuring seven people Five victims were taken to the hospital by emergency responders, while three others went on their own Police are still investigating the incident, unsure of the number of shooters or whether the victims were the intended targets Seven people were shot and injured in a mass shooting near Tacoma, Washington Wednesday evening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lakewood police said there was a gathering of more than 100 people when some kind of dispute broke out between two groups on May 28, which led to the gunfire erupting, police sergeant Charles Porche told the AP. Officers arriving at the park found a large crowd that had gathered due to the nice warm weather. The scene was quite hectic as a large number of these people were attempting to flee the park after hearing the shots, Porche told the News Tribune. West Pierce Fire & Rescue provided medical care to five of the victims, Porche said, per the outlet. Those five were taken to a local hospital, while three others went to the hospital on their own. Unfortunately, there were unintended/uninvolved victims struck during this careless act of violence, Porche said in a news release, per the AP. Detectives will continue to sort through the information gathered to hold those involved accountable for their actions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the victims ranged from a 16-year-old girl, who was in stable condition, to a 38-year-old man who was in critical condition, the outlet reported. Three others were in serious condition. Weve had these couple of days here where the sun finally came out and its been a gorgeous time for people to get out and enjoy the park, the lake and then you have something like this that happens, Porche said. It is one of the great tragedies, right? You dont want anybody to get shot and then you end up with seven different victims that happen out of this act of violence. 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. Investigators told the News Tribune that they don't yet know how many shooters were involved or if the victims were intended targets. No arrests have been made, and the shooting remains under investigation. The shooting comes just days after a separate mass shooting in Philadelphia on Memorial Day, which left two people dead, and nine others injured. Read the original article on People 8 stories that highlight enforcement and gaps in NC firearms laws Stories by News & Observer journalists, with AI summarization North Carolina continues to debate concealed carry permit requirements, as several Senate and House bills move to permitless carry and lower age thresholds for firearm possession. Cases reveal enforcement gaps, such as minors charged with possessing firearms or using stolen guns in violent incidents, as seen in the shooting at a state trooper during a high-speed chase. Stories of domestic violence highlight loopholesone man, barred from gun ownership by court order, still acquired firearms and fatally attacked his ex-wifes boyfriend. Discussions also surface around expanding who can carry on school campuses, with recent legislation passed that lets private schools authorize armed teachers or volunteers. Together, these cases show both active enforcement and persistent holes in the laws that can impact communities. Raleigh police work outside a home Democracy Street in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday morning, Jan. 22, 2025. By Ethan Hyman NO. 1: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TOOK 4 LIVES IN WAKE COUNTY THIS WEEK. AND ITS GETTING WORSE. The danger is not just to victims, according to a key study, Deadly Calls and Fatal Encounters. | Published January 24, 2025 | Read Full Story by Tammy Grubb Kristen Johnson Law enforcement officers on the scene of a shooting that killed a man and seriously injured a Raleigh police officer Jan. 21, 2025. Under federal and state law, the shooter, Antonio Rodrigues, could not have legally owned the firearms used in the incident. By Ethan Hyman NO. 2: COULD THE SUSPECT IN SHOOTING OF RALEIGH COP LEGALLY OWN A GUN? HERES WHAT WE FOUND. Antonio Rodrigues, 70, had previously been convicted of felony stalking in two North Carolina counties, court records show. | Published January 29, 2025 | Read Full Story by Lexi Solomon Durham police say two people are now in custody after a search for suspects in a weekend incident where shots were fired at a state trooper in Orange County, Durham police said. NO. 3: 2 YOUNG TEENS CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER AFTER SHOTS FIRED AT TROOPER IN ORANGE COUNTY It all began Saturday when hots were fired at a state trooper chasing teenagers in a stolen car going over 100 mph. | Published January 29, 2025 | Read Full Story by staff reports Senator Danny Britt, who represents Columbus and Robeson Counties talks with Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger before a vote on the state budget on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 in Raleigh, N.C. By Robert Willett Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NO. 4: TOP NC REPUBLICANS BACK LEGISLATION TO ALLOW CONCEALED HANDGUNS WITHOUT A PERMIT Legislation to allow so-called permitless carry could move forward this session after previously stalling in the GOP-controlled General Assembly. | Published February 4, 2025 | Read Full Story by Avi Bajpai Zachary Bryant was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill for allegedly shooting a teenager in Spring Hope after making a 911 report about theft from his vehicle. NO. 5: VICTIM SHOOTS AT FLEEING THEFT SUSPECTS AND NOW HES THE ONE CHARGED, NC COPS SAY One shot hit a 15-year-old in the head, deputies say | Published March 17, 2025 | Read Full Story by Mark Price Senator Danny Britt, who represents Columbus and Robeson Counties talks with Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger before a vote on the state budget on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 in Raleigh, N.C. By Robert Willett NO. 6: CARRYING CONCEALED GUNS IN NC REQUIRES PERMIT, SAFETY TRAINING. THAT COULD SOON CHANGE. The bill, which could be headed to the Senate floor soon, notably has the backing of Senate leader Phil Berger this year. | Published March 18, 2025 | Read Full Story by Avi Bajpai 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. By Travis Long NO. 7: NC SENATE MOVES FIRST TO END PERMIT REQUIREMENT FOR CONCEALED CARRY OF HANDGUNS The bill passed along party lines, but not before Democrats successfully amended it to add benefits for slain police officers and their families. | Published March 20, 2025 | Read Full Story by Avi Bajpai The Garner Police Department will be pairing new gunshot-detection technology with an existing program that photographs license plates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NO. 8: PRIVATE SCHOOLS COULD ALLOW TEACHERS TO CARRY GUNS UNDER BILL PASSED BY NC HOUSE GOP lawmakers say concealed weapons will provide deterrence against shooters. Democratic lawmakers said they will make schools less safe. | Published May 1, 2025 | Read Full Story by T. Keung Hui The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A local man was recently recognized for helping individuals in need in his community. Charlie Gau, commonly known as Mr. Charlie, was named the inductee into the West Carrollton Plaza of Fame for 2024. The award recognizes current and former city residents who made a difference to making the city a better place to live. Tremendous resource: Woman recognized in West Carrollton for helping homeless Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gau helps the community through repairing bicycles for children, volunteering to provide food and furniture to people in need and holding a signature race car track. At 81 years old, Mr. Charlie is still showing upserving with humility, generosity, and a heart full of care for others, said the city. He is a shining example of what makes West Carrollton special. Individuals can click here to recognize a current or former West Carrollton resident. Your nominated person could receive the 2025 recognition. 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. Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated. Nine were injured in Kharkiv overnight on May 30 amid a Russian drone attack on the city, local authorities reported. "Specialized services are heading to the scene of the incidents," Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a Telegram post. Two 16-year-olds were injured, Syniehubov said, adding that residential buildings have been damaged in the drone attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia has intensified drone and missile attacks against Ukraine despite peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul on May 16. The talks in Turkey were largely inconclusive. Russia reiterated maximalist demands that Ukraine hand over Crimea and eastern oblasts. The two sides were able to agree to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange, which was carried out between May 23 and 25. Russian President Vladimir Putin refused President Volodymyr Zelensky's invitation to meet face-to-face in Istanbul. Instead, Russia sent a delegation of lower-level officials led by Putin's aide, Vladimir Medinsky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia has refused a ceasefire and instead insisted it would provide Ukraine with a peace memorandum shortly after the May 16 talks. Ukraine and Russia are slated to hold another round of peace talks on June 2. Meanwhile, Kyiv is still awaiting Russia's proposed ceasefire memorandum, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on May 28. Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine's northeast is a regular target of Russian missile, drone, and glide bomb attacks from across the border or Russian-occupied territories. Russia has regularly targeted civilian infrastructure in aerial attacks against Ukraine since the start of its full-scale war in February 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Infighting around EU rearmament undermines grand ambitions for European defense Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. NEED TO KNOW Silvanna Moreno, a 9-year-old California girl, died on March 18, hours after undergoing a three-hour dental procedure An autopsy report revealed her cause of death was methemoglobinemia in the setting of recent nitrous oxide administration Additionally, the autopsy shed new light on her final moments New details offer insight into the final moments of a 9-year-old girl who was put under anesthesia for a dental procedure one morning then was dead hours later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Silvanna Moreno died on March 18 hours after undergoing surgery at Dreamtime Dentistry in Vista, Calif., according to a San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office (SDCME) autopsy report obtained by PEOPLE. Her cause of death was listed as methemoglobinemia in the setting of recent nitrous oxide administration. Silvanna first complained of tooth pain in October, according to the autopsy report, and was eventually referred for surgery at Dreamtime Dentistry in Vista. After a consultation, the surgery was booked for March. "The patient was referred to our office for dental treatment under general anesthesia due to her young age and acute situational anxiety," Dreamtime Dentistry's Dr. Ryan Watkins said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. The morning before the procedure, the Southern California third grader had a 101-degree fever, according to the autopsy report. She took Children's Tylenol and her symptoms appeared to resolve. The next morning, she "complained of a headache" but did not appear distressed and around 10 a.m. local time, she was placed under anesthesia for the procedure, which lasted about three hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement obtained by PEOPLE on Friday, May 30, a spokesperson for Dreamtime Dentistry claimed they were "not aware of a fever nor any illness" and that Silvanna had a normal temperature the day of the procedure. "Dreamtime Dentistrys records show that the patient's mother completed and signed a pre-operative check-in form indicating 'NO' when asked if the patient was sick," the statement continued. "Dr. Watkins follows standard protocol. Had he been informed of any recent fever or illness, especially within 24 hours of the procedure, it would have been rescheduled until the patient was healthy. Gofundme Silvanna Moreno. Silvanna Moreno. In his own statement, Watkins previously described Silvanna as a "healthy nine-year-old with a history of regular medical checkups" and said that she underwent a "thorough review of her medical and dental history" before the procedure. Additionally, Watkins insisted that "all medications were administered according to manufacturer guidelines based on Silvanna's age and weight." Watkins said Silvanna never exhibited warning signs of methemoglobinemia, an "extremely rare condition that can occur with nitrous oxide administration," throughout either the procedure or her recovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "In patients experiencing this condition, there is typically a refractory hypoxemia, which means that even when breathing 100% oxygen with no airway obstruction, pulse oximetry readings will show abnormally low levels in the 80s instead of the normal high 90s," explained Watkins, who said he continuously monitored Silvanna throughout the procedure. After the procedure, she went to a recovery room. During that time, she was described as being "out of it" and "incomprehensibly mumbling," according to the autopsy report. According to Watkins, Silvanna remained under observation "until she was awake with stable vital signs" and before being released into her mother's care "awake, alert, and with all protective reflexes intact," the child was checked for "oxygenation, respiratory stability, consciousness, post operative pain, nausea and vomiting, and gait." The girl left the office in a wheelchair, according to the autopsy report, but was reportedly able to stand up and be helped into the backseat of a car. 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. On the drive home, she fell asleep and began snoring loudly, according to the autopsy report. When they got home, she remained asleep and was carried inside and put into bed on her side, where she was monitored. She stayed asleep for about an hour and a half before her snoring began "quieting and slowing." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Morenos family used her grandmas blood pressure cuff to check her vitals and as she remained "unresponsive," they called 911 at 4:46 p.m. A dispatcher instructed her family to move her from the bed to the floor and start chest compressions until first responders arrived. First responders transported Silvanna to Rady Childrens Hospital in an ambulance and emergency personnel continued chest compressions, supplemental oxygen and other lifesaving measures on the way. She was suffering from asystole, also known as flat-lining. At the hospital, she was "provided additional medications, ongoing chest compressions, and was intubated but her condition did not improve, per the medical examiner's report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Resuscitative efforts ended when heart testing at her bedside showed no cardiac activity. A doctor pronounced her dead at 5:44 p.m. local time. In addition to her cause of death, the medical examiner listed contributing factors as the "administration of dexamethasone, glycopyrrolate, hydromorphone, isoflurane, ketorolac, midazolam, ondansetron, propofol, and sevoflurane." According to Dreamtime Dentistry, all of those medications are "standard anesthesia drugs commonly used in pediatric dental sedation procedures" and they claim that "any interactions or negative side effects were not due to dosage but instead due to her rare but undiagnosed/undetected medical condition." While the Medical Examiner has ruled this an accident, we take this outcome with the utmost seriousness. We are conducting a thorough internal review of this case and are consulting with leading experts in dental anesthesia to ensure we continue to provide the safest possible care for our patients," Watkins said. Added Watkins, "we extend our deepest condolences to Silvanna's family and ask for continued respect for their privacy during this time of grief." Read the original article on People More than two months after a 9-year-old San Diego girl died following a dental procedure, officials have released new details on her death. The San Diego County Medical Examiners Office ruled the death of Silvanna Moreno an accident, according to an updated summary report. The girl died after she underwent anesthesia. The medical examiner listed her cause of death as "methemoglobinemia in the setting of recent nitrous oxide administration." Contributing conditions included the administration of multiple anesthetic medications. Dreamtime Dentistry in Vista, Calif. (via Google ) Methemoglobinemia is a very rare blood disorder that affects how red blood cells deliver oxygen, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Not everyone experiences symptoms, but nearly all people with the disorder have skin, lips or nails that are blue or purple. In some cases, it can be life-threatening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People can inherit the disorder, but it usually happens "when people use certain medications or recreational drugs or exposure to certain chemicals," according to the Cleveland Clinic. The dental procedure took place on March 18 at Dreamtime Dentistry in Vista. Dr. Ryan Watkins, the office's trained anesthesiologist, said methemoglobinemia can occur with the administration of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas. He said Silvanna never exhibited signs that something was wrong during the procedure. "If we had observed any indication of methemoglobinemia, we would have immediately discontinued the procedure and transported her to the hospital for emergency treatment," he said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The day before the procedure, Silvanna had a fever and was given children's Tylenol, People magazine reported, citing an autopsy report. The day of, she complained of a headache but did not appear to be distressed, it said. The dental procedure was three hours long, People reported. The dentist's office said Silvanna was a new patient and had been referred to them for a root canal on a molar. Doctors completed the root canal and restored the tooth with a crown. Some decayed "baby teeth" were extracted, as well as some decayed permanent teeth. One permanent tooth needed a crown, the office said, noting that three hours is normal for these procedures. Watkins said Silvanna was "a healthy 9-year-old with a history of regular medical checkups" and underwent the offices standard preoperative evaluation. He said he evaluated her as "an appropriate candidate for outpatient general anesthesia" and continuously monitored Silvanna throughout the procedure. Afterward, she was monitored in a recovery area "until she was awake with stable vital signs," he said. She was evaluated before she was released into her mothers care, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Silvanna's family could not be reached for comment on Friday. According to the medical examiner's summary report, Silvanna fell asleep during the car ride home and stayed sleeping upon her arrival. Family members put her in bed and checked on her throughout the day. Her family later found her unresponsive and called 911, according to the summary report. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Watkins said the office is conducting an internal review of the case and will consult with experts "to ensure we continue to provide the safest possible care for our patients." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are profoundly saddened by the tragic loss of Silvanna Moreno, and our hearts continue to go out to her family during this incredibly difficult time," he said. Watkins was previously investigated by the Dental Board of California after a 54-year-old patient nearly died in 2016, according to NBC San Diego. State investigators said the man was put under anesthesia and was given two drugs, which led to his heart stopping. Investigators had said that one of the drugs should never have been given to the man. Watkins was put on probation from 2020 to 2023, according to a decision order. The man ended up filing a lawsuit against Watkins, which was later settled, NBC San Diego reported. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com ABINGDON, Va. (WJHL) The Abingdon Police Department and Congressman Morgan Griffith are speaking out after the town was placed on the Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) list of sanctuary jurisdictions. DHS describes sanctuary jurisdictions on its website as cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. Cattle stolen from Glade Spring farm, reward offered Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanctuary jurisdictions are detailed on the DHS website under its Making America Safe Again campaign tab. The department claims that sanctuary cities and communities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril. The DHS posted a list of every county and city by state that is considered a sanctuary jurisdiction. Under Virginia, two cities in News Channel 11s viewing area are included: Abingdon and Duffield. Nearby Tazewell and all of Tazewell County are also on the list. The Abingdon Police Department posted a response on social media to its inclusion on the list on Friday afternoon. According to the police department, the town was not notified or informed as to why it was classified as a sanctuary jurisdiction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upon learning of the listing, we immediately contacted the Office of the U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith for assistance in correcting the error, the post states. We also contacted our federal law enforcement partners and have been advised that Abingdon will be removed from the list. The Abingdon Police Department stated that it has and will continue to fully comply with federal law and cooperate with all law enforcement agencies. Griffith issued his own statement in response to the inclusion of the Southwest Virginia communities on the list. The U.S. representative called the designation surprising and claimed that local law enforcement has always cooperated with the federal government, and he claimed the issue was likely due to paperwork problems. Ninth District law enforcement organizations and localities are very cooperative with the federal government in the handling and detainment of illegal aliens. It is a surprising development to see some of our localities listed as sanctuary jurisdictions by DHS. My office has been in contact with our liaisons in the federal government for an explanation and solution. As of now, we do not have a definitive answer. However, it appears that there may be some paperwork anomalies related to federal detainers, particularly at some regional jails. I will continue to monitor the situation and hope I will have specific answers within the next week. Congressman Morgan Griffith No towns or counties in Northeast Tennessee were included on the DHS list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. An exchange of experience on the implementation of the state budget of the World Bank's (WB) Public Expenditure Management Peer Assisted Learning (PEMPAL) Program was organized in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry told Trend. The event was attended by deputy finance ministers, treasury heads, representatives of the PEMPAL secretariat and experts, as well as a delegation led by Director of the State Treasury Agency of the Finance Ministry, Head of the Executive Committee of the Treasury Community of Practice of the PEMPAL Network Nazim Gasimzade. At the event, Gasimzade presented his report on the reforms implemented in the PEMPAL countries and provided detailed information on the reforms carried out in the financial sector in Azerbaijan, as well as the auctions held, the electronic organization of the treasury, the modernization of the treasury information system and other issues. The PEMPAL program was established by the WB in 2005 and is a network of state fiscal authorities for the management of government expenditures and unites 21 countries of Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe. The program aims to improve the qualifications of employees of financial institutions through the exchange of knowledge and experience in public financial management. Representatives of the countries that are members of the PEMPAL Program and international experts regularly share their positive experience and exchange ideas. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel May 29Reproductive rights organizer Sarah Dixit is running for Spokane City Council in the seat currently held by Councilman Jonathan Bingle. Bingle is one of two conservatives in the minority of the seven-member council. Fellow conservative Michael Cathcart and Bingle represent council District 1, which covers the northeastern third of the city east of Division and north of Trent. The district also includes almost all of downtown Spokane. Bingle is running for re-election for the first time after winning his first four-year term in 2021. Last year, he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination of Spokane's Congressional seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cathcart announced Wednesday that he's running for Spokane County Auditor in 2026. In challenging the incumbent, Dixit said she wants to bring a young voice to city council that will uplift marginalized communities and those who may not be civically engaged. "A lot of folks are working jobs," she said. "They have kids at home. They can't follow what's happening at city council. We need to make this whole process more accessible for people, and especially for communities of color, immigrant populations and young people." At 29, Dixit believes she can reach these underserved populations as a young, queer woman of color. Dixit said she does not see that kind of advocacy from her opponent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I don't see Jonathan in the community. At the events I'm at," she said. "I just haven't heard that type of advocacy from him when it comes to transit, bike safety investment, other issues." A big focus of her nascent campaign will be accessibility to public transit . Dixit wants to increase investments in public transit and have fares on a sliding scale, allowing those with the least resources to get the most access. Though firmly aligned with the council's progressive majority, Dixit said she would not be a "cookie-cutter" version of those already on council. Having grown up in Southern California, Dixit came to Spokane to attend Whitworth University. While in college, the first election of Donald Trump spurred her into activism. She went on to found the Christian college's first pro-choice club. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since graduating in 2018, she has advocated for reproductive and abortion rights full time at Planned Parenthood and as organizing director of Pro-Choice Washington. At Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, Dixit worked under Paul Dillon, who now serves on Spokane's city council. Dixit called Dillon a "mentor" who encouraged her to run. As a potential representative of downtown Spokane, Dixit said she has pride for the city center. "There's a lot of rhetoric about downtown that I don't necessarily agree with," she said. "I love downtown, and it's a place that makes Spokane really special." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When addressing homelessness, the city should have a "multipronged approach" that uses less incarceration and more resources to prevent someone from becoming unhoused in the first place, she said. "A lot of the issues stem from the dehumanization of folks who are unhoused. I really want to make sure that we are working on issues in a way that recognizes these folks are Spokanites too. And their humanity needs to be a part of the conversations we're having," she said. Asked about concerns she might be too young to effectively serve, Dixit said there is no shortage of older voices on council. "I approach the work in a way that comes from all my lived experiences being the daughter of immigrants, being someone who really loves the culture and the heart of Spokane. That lends itself to me being a different type of council member for Spokane," she said. Her parents emigrated from India. Endorsements for Dixit include Council President Betsy Wilkerson, Dillon, state Rep. Natasha Hill, state Sen. Marcus Riccelli and others. WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWTI) Adults ages 25 through 55 are now eligible for no-cost, industry-specific degrees at Jefferson Community College via the SUNY Reconnect Program. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the New York State Opportunity Promise initiative recognizes that higher education is a pathway to economic opportunity and upward mobility. The state launched SUNY Reconnect, a program designed to remove barriers for adult learners ages 2555. JCC offers free tuition to boost education in key fields Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Via the program, eligible state residents who have not yet earned a college degree can, after filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), receive extra funding to cover any additional costs for tuition, fees and books. Students will not have to take out loans. Jefferson Community College is proud to support Governor Hochuls bold vision to expand access to higher education for adult learners through the SUNY Reconnect initiative. We remain committed to providing the guidance, flexibility, and academic excellence necessary to help students achieve their educational and career goals. Jefferson Community College President Dr. Daniel Dupee Dedicated advising will be available for those entering the SUNY Reconnect program to help guide students through the course selection and scheduling process, to help alleviate the stress of trying to fit college into a busy lifestyle, for those who work full or part time and have family commitments outside the classroom. As part of the SUNY Reconnect initiative, here are the following JCC programs are eligible: Childhood Education, A.A. Childhood Education, Birth-Grade 2, A.A. Childhood Education, Birth-Grade 6, A.A. Nursing, A.A.S. Computer Information Technology, A.A.S. Computer Information Systems, A.S. Computer Science, A.S. Engineering Science, A.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To learn more about SUNY Reconnect and eligible programs at JCC, contact enrollment services at (315) 786-2437. 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 WWTI - InformNNY.com. JOHNSTOWN, Pa. Panelists at the Aerium Summits Breaking Barriers and Building Futures event Thursday held candid conversations about the hurdles many women, people of color and students face when entering or exploring the aviation field. The event, held in the lower hangar at Nulton Aviation Services, featured topics such as expanding aviation education and workforce programs to underserved rural and urban communities and creating pathways for students of color and women. I continue to do what I do I show up so young girls of color can see me, panelist LaQuata Sumter said. I stand in that place to tell that young girl that she can do it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sumter is a professor of computer and electrical engineering and the CEO and founder of Focusing On Me Inc. and STEAM Thru Drones. Being on stage and conversing with fellow women in the industry was a rewarding experience for her, she said. It was definitely an amazing opportunity to be on a panel with women who have some common goals, Sumter said. She was joined by Roxanne Ober, director of admissions and outreach for the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics; Elizabeth Tennyson, senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Foundation; and Talia Chippie, a Nulton Aviation Flight Academy student. Heather Tomasko, Aerium Women in Aviation Committee chair and John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport assistant manager, and Aviation Foundation of Pennsylvania President Sydney Harris served as moderators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They spoke about a variety of hurdles to education and technology that keep young, interested people from entering the aviation field; changing training techniques that once aimed for high drop-out rates; mentorship; and financial assistance. Tennyson said that even now, theres still some bias out there for women and people of color in aviation, such as the idea of appropriate roles for boys and girls. Aviation is a male-dominated field, Tennyson said, and Sumter said people of color and women obviously have a harder time entering these careers. But the entire panel encouraged everyone to pursue their passions for flight, aircraft maintenance or any related field. You are where youre supposed to be, and dont let anyone tell you you shouldnt be there, Sumter said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tennyson agreed, adding that one good aspect is that a lot of the barriers are being broken down. She said there is a significant number of financial aid opportunities for students to explore on the local, state and national level to leverage access to aviation careers. There are also expanding opportunities through career and technical education and some airlines offering tuition matches to help open doors. Ober touched on the success of student visits to hangars, and shared the example of Piedmont Airlines aircraft maintenance technician tuition payment program that helps students enter, train and gain employment in the industry. Other topics the group covered included public and private partnerships, community outreach and diversity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tennyson said many employers have found that diversity on the flight deck can be a great benefit to an organization. Women and people of color can provide varied opinions and share their experiences, which strengthens the overall team, she said. Everything is moving in the right direction, and thats fantastic, Tennyson said. The Breaking Barriers panel was the last of the two-day Aerium Summit. The conversation was immediately followed by the closing event that featured Nulton Aviation President Larry Nulton, state Department of Education Bureau of Career and Technical Education Director Judd Pittman, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry President and CEO Luke Bernstein, and state Reps. Jim Rigby and Judy Ward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additional sessions Thursday ranged from innovations in aviation maintenance to bridging the gap between education and aviation. It was also announced that the 45th Annual Pennsylvania Aviation Conference will take place Oct. 6 through Oct. 8 in Johnstown. The gathering will be hosted by the Aviation Council of Pennsylvania in collaboration with Aerium and feature panels, student tours, and opportunities for exhibits. For more information, visit www.aerium.org. The U.S. militarys top general in Africa said terrorist factions in the Sahel region have increased their presence so much in the past three years that they soon may be able to launch attacks within the United States. The region, which mainly includes Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, is the flash point of prolonged conflict and growing instability, U.S. Africa Command head Gen. Michael Langley told reporters Thursday. It is the epicenter of terrorism on the globe. Extremist groups are gaining ground and also expanding their ambitions. Therein lies the threat to the homeland, he added on the sidelines of the African Chiefs of Defense Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sahel countries have long struggled to combat violent extremist groups, with some facing greater instability after falling to military coups, U.S. officials have warned. The military juntas in power have forced out American and French troops, including in September 2024, when the U.S. completed a withdrawal from its bases in Niger after the military seized power in 2023. At the time, defense leaders predicted the pullout would endanger counterterrorism efforts in an important regional foothold. Langley reiterated those concerns, saying that we have lost our ability to monitor these terrorist groups closely. He said terrorist networks affiliated with ISIS and al Qaeda thrive in the region, particularly in Burkina Faso where the government no longer controls large swaths of its own territory as well as Lake Chad, located at the junction of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon in Western and Central Africa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Langley said one group that is of particular concern is Jamaat Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, which has expanded fourfold since 2022 and now controls much of Burkina Faso. He said one of the militants key goals is gaining access to the West African coast. Should they control the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking and arms trade, more easily supporting terrorism to American shores. Langleys warnings come as the Trump administration has canceled aid programs across Africa and is mulling consolidating its forces on the continent. China and Russia have moved to fill the void left by departing U.S. troops, investing and forming partnerships with local governments to exert influence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Langley would not say if the U.S would further cut its force levels in Africa but stressed that African militaries will need to bear more of the security burden. Our strategy is about partnership. Its about the mutual goal of keeping homelands, both ours and our partners, safe, he said. Its about building a long-term capacity, not dependence. Its about investing in Africas ability to solve African problems. 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. The Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting urges the public to take care when hiring contractors, designers, architects and engineers for building projects. DPP says some of these construction professionals actually may be engaged in illegal activitiesa problem that could prove costly to unsuspecting homeowners. But if discovered and reported, the illegitimate construction contractors could pay as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This reminder, according to DPP, comes in the wake of recent disciplinary actions by the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, including a case involving falsified licensing and unlawful permitting practices. DCCA and its respective state boards and commissions recently released a summary of disciplinary actions taken through April, DPP says. Among them was a $10, 000 fine levied against a business owner who, according to the DCCAs Regulated Industries Complaint Office, was aiding and abetting an unlicensed contractor on Oahu. In this instance, RICO investigations allege the business owneridentified as Alex G. Ramos, doing business as Triple A Electrical Serviceobtained permits on behalf of the unlicensed contractor across multiple projects, putting them in violation of state law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April that RICO case ended in a state Contractors License Board-approved settlement agreement with Ramoswho did not admit to violating any law or rule, but agreed to pay a $10, 000 fine to DCCAs compliance resolution fund, the settlement document states. DPP claims its building inspectors were the first to identify the unlicensed contractors and took immediate action by initiating revocations. Hiring an unlicensed contractor or design professional may seem like a way to save money upfront, but it can lead to serious consequences and additional corrective expenses down the line, DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said in a statement. The DPP is committed to collaborating with the DCCA to identify these contractors and hold them accountable for their illegal actions. As part of these efforts, DPP offers tips to help homeowners verify whether a contractor is properly licensed and operating legally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homeowners looking to build or renovate their property should evaluate the following steps before hiring any contractor :Verify licenses. Ensure contractor and design professionals hold a valid license with the DCCA that is Current, Valid and in Good Standing. Visit DCCAs Professional and Vocational Licensing Search to confirm credentials.Check for complaints or disciplinary actions. To do so, use RICOs resources to research past complaints and enforcement actions.Get multiple bids. Compare estimates from multiple licensed contractors and professionals. Be cautious of bids that are too low and seem too good to be true.Insist on written contracts and estimates. Avoid contracts that are vague and only show the total cost of the work. To better understand the work to be done, contracts and estimates should provide separate and specific descriptions of the various items to be performed, including payment terms, project timelines and permits required. Structure payments so they are done after work has been satisfactorily performed and appropriate inspections have been completed.Confirm building permits. Request to review all plans and permit submittal documents before they are submitted to the city or state for approvals. Keep paper and electronic copies of all documents and approved permits.Be wary of numerous excuses for why delays are occurring and frequent requests for more money. DPP says projects that require permits but proceed without them will be issued a stop-work order and cited for work without a permit. Construction cannot continue until a proper permit is obtained through legitimate channels, DPP spokesperson Davis Pitner told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email. If the issue is not resolved, a notice of order will be issued to compel compliance. He added that in cases where an unlicensed contractor is involved, the matter may be referred to RICO for further investigation and action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There will always be those who want to skirt the law for larger profits but for the most part the majority of contractors do the right thing and follow the law, Pitner said. DPPs concern is with homeowners being taken advantage of, misinformed /misled, and /or receiving faulty or not up to code construction. He asserted the number of cases or incidents DPP has investigated in the past year or so involving unlicensed contractors or other illegitimate building professionals has increased slightly. This hasnt been a common occurrence but were seeing an uptick, Pitner said. Each case is different based on the circumstances but are dealt with appropriately, whether it is revoking a building permit, issuing a violation, and /or reporting the unlicensed work to the DCCA for further investigation. Ashton Stallings, a DCCA communications specialist, said her agency continues to deal with these cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each year, hundreds of complaints are received concerning unscrupulous and unlicensed contractors targeting and scamming consumers, she told the Star-Advertiser via email. The subject of contracting is consistently among the top three of all the industry complaints received by RICO annually. In past years, DPP had noted issues with its third-party reviewerslicensed professionals brought in to help relieve staffing shortages as well as reduce its months-long building permit process. During a June 2023 City Council Zoning Committee meeting, Takeuchi Apuna told the panel that third-party reviewerswho are not regular DPP staffreview specific codes like mechanical, electrical and structural for commercial projects, and work on residential projects and the citys land use ordinance. But on April 11, 2023, DPP faulted a third-party reviewer for granting an unwarranted building permit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DPP said local architect Jimmy Wuworking on behalf of the cityreviewed and certified plans for what was later deemed a monster home in the Kalihi area. DPP issued a building permit on March 28, 2022, for the project at 1532 Hanai Loop. Based on an inquiry from Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam and former state Rep. John Mizuno, DPP re-reviewed the plans and determined incorrect information was provided to DPP by the project applicants and that the planned two-story, single-family home with nine bathrooms, no side yards and insufficient parking was a gross violation of the citys monster homes ordinance, the city said. DPP revoked the projects building permit and issued a notice of violation and a stop-work order to the owners, Junqin Chen and Maonan Wang. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This week, DPP said it was still reviewing its future use of third-party reviewers. DPP is doing its best to streamline and expedite building permit reviews so that the capacity provided by third-party reviewers is unnecessary, Pitner said. In time, DPP will be the best option for property owners when it comes to building permit review. Homeowners are encouraged to contact the DPP or visit for resources on permitting, inspections and selecting licensed professionals. For information regarding contractor legitimacy, visit DCCA at or visit RICO at. It is not entirely unusual to hear about an alligator wreaking havoc in a Florida neighborhood. Or a snake, or a wild hog, or a bear, or a bobcat. These are animals known to be nuisances, and it's not uncommon to read a local news story about a pet being snatched up by the state's formidable wildlife. It is a bit more rare however, to hear about just one duck terrorizing an entire community. But, this is exactly what is happening in Cape Coral, Florida. In an elderly community there, a Muscovy duck has attacked several people, with one person even requiring hospitalization. According to Fox 4, residents have been bitten, chased, and followed into their homes by the aggressive duck. The animal has been named Jimmy, "I sit on my porch, 7 to 7:30 at this time of the year to catch a sunset, you know, some sun, and I had my eyes closed. All of a sudden, I felt a jab on my hand and it was bleeding," resident James Sepulveda told Fox 4. He advocates for Jimmys removal. That was a tough order though, as it is a protected migratory bird. The species is protected, even though it is native to Texas, not Florida. But, after making the news for chasing not only the senior residents of Cape Coral, but the Fox 4 news reporter, Jimmy was finally captured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to The New York Post, Mark Quadrozzi with Remarkable Resques came and scooped up Jimmy, moving the anti-octogenarian to an animal sanctuary where he can live with other Muscovy ducks. Hopefully, hes better at making friends there. As for why the bird was so dang angry we can probably blame humans for that. This is a young male. Yes, thats why hes being such a punk, Quadrozzi told Fox 4. When you have a duck that wants to actually make physical contact with a person like thatits kind of a given that it was hand raised by someone. Aggressive Duck Terrorizing Elderly Neighborhood in Florida first appeared on Men's Journal on May 29, 2025 AUSTIN (KXAN) An Austin Independent School District student died following an eighth grade celebration that happened on Wednesday, Covington Middle School Principal Cedric Maddox said in a letter to the campus community Thursday. The campus identified the student as Vadir Gonzalez-Arias, and the letter said he passed away [Thursday] morning due to complications related to the incident at the 8th-grade celebration. Vadir was kind, caring, and approached each day with a positive attitude and a willingness to do what was asked of him. He treated his peers and teachers with genuine respect and made those around him feel seen and appreciated, the letter said Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, the Austin Fire Department told KXAN in a statement it responded to a medical emergency at the pool at Dick Nichols Park. The agency said Austin Parks and Recreation Department lifeguards performed initial life-saving measures. Dick Nichols Pool (KXAN Photo: Kevin Baskar) Austin-Travis County EMS medics said they transported the child to the hospital on Wednesday. KXAN reached out to the city of Austin to gather more details on life guards who were at the pool the day of the incident and whether they performed live-saving measures on the child. We received the following statement from a city spokesperson on Friday: We are aware that Austin ISD has notified staff and students of their heartbreaking loss. This is devastating news, and our thoughts are with the family of the student and the entire Covington community. At the time of this tragic incident there were eight Austin Parks and Recreation Department Lifeguards on duty, with four up on elevated lifeguard chairs; lifeguards rotate the chairs every 20 minutes. Lifeguards performed initial life-saving measures, after which Austin Fire, Austin/Travis County EMS, and Austin Police arrived on scene to provide medical assistance. City of Austin spokesperson The campus also said it would provide counseling to students on Friday, according to the letter. Students can come in any time between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Both English and Spanish speaking counselors will be at the campus to support students individually or in small groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Subscription to paid content Gain access to all that Trend has to offer, as well as to premium, licensed content via subscription or direct purchase through a credit card. AL.coms Bob Carlton looks back on 46 years covering food across Alabama as he heads for retirement BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (TRIBUNE) As longtime food and culture writer Bob Carlton retires from Alabama Media Group, he took a moment to look back on his career in a recent interview. During a recent episode of Tribune Unscripted, an online show hosted by Trussville Tribune Publisher Scott Buttram, Carlton discussed his career covering the food beat for The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as some of his memories working in journalism over the years. Friday marks Carltons last day at AL.com before his retirement, marking the end of 46 years with the news organization, which he first joined as an intern in 1979 and full-time in 1980. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch the full interview above. 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. BESSEMER, Ala. (WIAT) With 13 high school graduates, its the first of its kind at the Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School. Honestly it feels a little surreal to be here. Its been a long four years, but its been an enjoyable four years. Just happy that we made it, said ALAAHS Valedictorian Finn Payne. Payne is among first graduating class of the Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School, and with a number of flight hours already under his belt he says his goal is to go on to college and pursue his pilot license. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A similar route is ahead for his classmates Hezekiah Files and Paul Davis, who will both attend Tuskegee University to continue their interest in aviation. Ive been accepted and got a full ride and after that Ill pursue my airline transport license, said Files. Its prepared me quite a lot, even the program at Tuskegee for flight. Im already starting ahead of everybody else, which is abnormal because most 18-year-old students coming out of high school dont have a lot of flight experience. Its pretty abnormal and sets us far ahead, said Davis. Setting these students far ahead after graduation is one goal the schools founder Ruben Morris had in mind when doors opened in fall 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My goal was to create opportunities for any kid regardless of their background, regardless of their gender, regardless of their social-economic status, to have an opportunity for a career in aerospace and aviation and to see this come to fruition is tremendous, and its a proof point that education innovation is possible, said Morris. After making history this graduating class said theyre walking out believing the sky is no longer a limit. According to school leaders, the ALAAHS class of 2025 have amassed over $1.3 million in scholarships. 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. Protesters march during a non violent protest in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S., on Saturday February 22, 2025. Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice organized the event for the public to show empathy to immigrants in the wake of all the anti immigration bills currently in legislature. The Alabama Legislature considered several proposals during the 2025 session to place further restrictions on peple without legal status. Photographer: Andi Rice for Alabama Reflector Despite spending a great deal of time on the issue in the 2025 session, the Alabama Legislature only passed two bills targeting those without appropriate authorization to reside in the country. SB 63, sponsored by Sen. Lance Bell, R-Pell City, requires law enforcement in Alabama to take fingerprints and DNA samples of people without the documentation to live in the U.S. and submit them to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Alabama Department of Forensic Science. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SB 53, sponsored by Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, made it a crime, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, for people to knowingly transport a person without the appropriate documentation to reside in the country into the state. The bill also required county or municipal jail administrators to investigate those placed into custody to determine a persons immigration status and check with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security if the individual was issued an immigration detainer or warrant. Many of these bills were created to address problems that dont exist in Alabama, said Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice. The majority of these bills were copycat bills that were developed at national thinktanks and distributed out to different legislators around the country to implement in their states. But several other immigration bills stalled before getting a final vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HB 7, sponsored by Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, would have allowed state and local law enforcement to enter into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to enforce the countrys immigration laws, an authority that currently belongs only to the Alabama Attorney Generals Office. The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee approved the legislation in February, soon after the 2025 session began, but the full chamber did not vote on the measure until April. The legislation did not come to a vote in the full Senate. HB 3, sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, would have enhanced penalties for people convicted of felonies if they cannot prove they have legal authorization to be in the U.S. A Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison to a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Those convicted of a Class C felony would have their punishment upgraded to a Class B felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $30,000 fine. People who commit a Class B felony would have their convictions upgraded to a Class A felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison and a $60,000 fine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Individuals found guilty of a Class A felony, the most serious offense, would have had to serve at least 15 years in prison. Other legislation would have made labor brokers register with the Alabama Department of Workforce and must then report the foreign nationals they place with companies through contract work. Another bill, HB 297, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill, would have originally imposed a fee on international wire transfers, often used by immigrants to support families overseas. But the legislation was heavily amended to require reports on certain overseas cash transactions. All the bills eventually stalled in the Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One bill attempted to restrict those without proper authorization by limiting their ability to drive in the state. SB 55, sponsored by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, would have prohibited people who have a drivers license from another state from driving in Alabama if the state that authorized it did not review a persons legal status. The legislation stalled in the House chamber after it passed the Senate. Legislators from a slate of other states introduced nearly identical legislation, so Hamilton said the bills are not tailored to the problems that residents face in Alabama. If they were really trying to address it, there were other bills that other representatives introduced that would have been more effective, but this bill was really about continuing to oppress immigrant communities and make life difficult, she said. But those who favor more restrictions said actions are necessary to disincentivize people without appropriate authorization to live in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The objective here is to present people here with rational choices, and if they believe they are not going to succeed in what they are doing, then they either will not come to the United States at all, or if individual states within the country adopt policies that make it clear they are going to be partners in enforcement, those people will settle elsewhere in the county, said Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates for immigration legislation like those introduced. Debu Ghandi, senior director for immigration at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, cited a 2020 report from the organization that found undocumented immigrants contribute almost $80 million in federal taxes and $41 billion in state and local taxes each year. They also pay another $315 billion annually nationally through spending. Many industries often rely on their hard, and often dangerous, work, he said. Undocumented immigrants, in fact, cannot receive social and Medicare benefits, but they have to pay into these programs through the payroll taxes that they are required to pay even though they are not eligible for the benefits that these programs fund. Hamilton said there are potential negative consequences of these bills for the state. What Alabama would like in that case is a lot fewer workers and a lot fewer people, fewer restaurants, and just a sadder place, she said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) A New Mexico man is back home and recovering after a wild encounter during a family vacation in North Carolina landed him in a hospital. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sean Barton was visiting family in North Carolina when the fun day at Sunset Beach turned dangerous on Wednesday. I just got done riding a wave, standing up, I felt something bite down on calf-shin region, just bite down on my leg and then let go pretty quickly there after, said Sean Barton. He said the adrenaline kicked in. Immediately I thought, I think I just got bit by a shark and I think I should probably get out of the water now,' said Barton. He yelled for his nieces to get out of the water and ran onshore. Barton said his brother-in-law, a former Air Force EMT, patched him up on the beach chairs while his sister called 911. Overall, pretty scary. Im glad it was me and not any of my nieces or any of the kids playing in the water. And definitely lucky that it wasnt a lot worse than it couldve been, said Barton. Barton ended up in the hospital with 11 stitches. Sunset Beach Fire Department also put out a release warning people about a potential shark in the water. You really never expect something like this to happen, especially when you look at the statistics. So, I dont know if its necessarily a reason to fear the water, but you definitely have to respect that youre in the habitat of some of these creatures, said Barton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said this wont keep him from catching another wave. Making my way home now, back to the desert, maybe away from the ocean a little bit. Ill definitely be back in the water at some point in the near future, said Barton. He has to have his stitches in for 10 more days. According the the Florida Natural History Museum, last year the U.S. had 28 confirmed unprovoked shark bite incidents which is 60% of bites worldwide. 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. Alaska Man Survives 'Without a Scratch on Him' After Being Pinned for Hours Underneath 700 Lbs. Boulder in 'Extreme Terrain' NEED TO KNOW An Alaska man has survived unscathed after being pinned underneath a 700-lb. boulder while out hiking with his wife, authorities have said The man, identified as Kell Morris, told CBS News he recognizes that he's probably the luckiest man alive "I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him," Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites said, per the outlet An Alaska man is lucky to be alive after surviving hours pinned under a boulder weighing approximately 700 lbs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Saturday, May 24, the Seward Fire Department was dispatched to a rescue in the Fourth of July Creek headwaters amid reports that a 61-year-old male was underneath a boulder, a news release shared on Facebook confirmed. The fire department was among multiple authorities to respond, with crews initially heading to the area on foot and on ATVs, but they were only able to move slowly "due to the extreme terrain." Luckily, a nearby Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Department worker, who also works for Seward Helicopter Tours, heard the call while working and he offered to help authorities get to the patient quicker, cutting down 45 minutes of travel time, the release stated. Jason Harrington/Seward Fire Department via AP A 700-lb. boulder fell on Kell Morris while he was hiking near Seward, Alaska A 700-lb. boulder fell on Kell Morris while he was hiking near Seward, Alaska "The patient was in a boulder field and the helicopter could only hover while firefighters had to jump from the helicopter to the ground as the helicopter could not land safely," the post said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CBS News has identified the man as Kell Morris, stating his wife helped hold his head above water to prevent him from drowning after the boulder "crashed onto him" while they were hiking "near a remote glacier south of Anchorage." The Seward Fire Department noted in the news release that the "patient was hypothermic and in and out of consciousness" by the time crews reached him. They then "used air bags, ropes, and brute force to lift the boulder off the patient and pull him to safety." Kell Morris via AP Kell Morris and Jo Roop Kell Morris and Jo Roop Authorities "re-warmed" the man and he became more alert and his vitals improved," the release said, adding that the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center (AKRCC), through the Alaska State Troopers, was contacted to help bring the patient down the canyon. The release added that the patient was treated at Seward Providence Hospital and is "expected to make a full recovery." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "No life-threatening injuries were noted," the post confirmed, thanking Seward Helicopter Tours for their help while acknowledging that it could have potentially been a "fatal outcome" otherwise. According to CBS News, the helicopter was being used to take tourists to the area as part of a sled dog company. Jason Harrington/Seward Fire Department via AP A photo of the creek near Seward, Alaska where Kell Morris became trapped A photo of the creek near Seward, Alaska where Kell Morris became trapped Morris told CBS News on Thursday, May 29, that he realizes he's probably the luckiest man alive, saying, "And luckier that I have such a great wife." The outlet noted that Morris' wife, Jo Roop, is a retired Alaska State Trooper, who moved to Seward last fall with her husband after she started working with the local police department. The pair had headed to the more isolated area near Godwin Glacier in a bid to avoid the crowds over Memorial Day weekend, CBS News reported, citing Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites. Morris had apparently tried to avoid the big boulders on the trail, but had eventually come across an area he couldn't pass. 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. "I was coming back and everything, the whole side slid out from under me," Morris told the outlet, adding that he'd fell around 20 feet down the embankment and was lying face down in the water. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When it first happened, I was doubtful that there was going to be a good outcome," Morris told CBS News, as Fire Chief Crites said that the reason he wasn't crushed was because there were rocks under him, as well as in between his legs and around him that had caught the weight of the boulder. Crites told the outlet of the patient walking away unscathed, "I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him." Crites did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for comment. Read the original article on People U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan gives an annual address to the Alaska State Legislature on Mar 20, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon) After Alaskas U.S. Rep. Nick Begich cast a vote to advance a budget reconciliation package that would be catastrophic for Alaska, we are counting on our senators to step up. With a narrow balance of power in the U.S. Senate, if U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has the courage to work with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, he can help stop this unprecedented attack on health care and core Medicaid services. President Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to cancel Alaskans Medicaid health coverage to finance tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, and those elitists will succeed if our senators dont fight back. Alaska has one of, if not the highest rates of suicide, child abuse, domestic abuse, and sexual assault in the nation. Many of the victims utilize services that are funded by Medicaid. This may include individualized therapy and family therapy, intensive behavioral support in community and school settings, case management that secures outside resources for families in need such as food stamps, housing, therapeutic foster care placements, and reunification with families or adoption. Without access to these services, Alaskas suicide rates could climb, crime rates could increase, and more children could enter foster care without the supportive treatment they need to navigate their trauma. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a frontline mental and behavioral health worker, I worry for the youth I serve and how lack of available services and strained capacity will impact their growth. I worry that in the future, I may see youth that I have served living on the streets, turn to drugs to cope, or succumb to suicide. This month, Anchorage lost the Crisis Recovery Center that provided emergency care to teens experiencing mental health crises. Can we really afford to lose anything more? Our senators have the chance to ensure the youth of Alaska have a safe and stable future. Based on public statements, U.S. Republican Senators Murkowski, Lisa Collins of Maine, and Josh Hawley of Missouri all oppose cuts to Medicaid. Sullivan could be a deciding vote. Will he vote in lockstep to give Outside billionaires a tax cut financed by stealing Alaskans health coverage, or will he stand up for his adopted state? The stakes could not be higher. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) An Albuquerque business owner is facing a murder charge after police said he shot a fleeing shoplifter. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the Albuquerque Police Department, the owner of Moes Smoke Shop shot a shoplifter who was reversing his car away from the store. A lot of commotion. We went ahead and came to the windows by my work, we looked out, we saw a guy running out, that fled in a white Toyota Camry. Then we saw the owner of the smoke shop also out there, said an employee at a nearby business who wanted to remain anonymous. Mohtasem Mahir Thabata, the owner of Moes Smoke Shop, is facing a murder charge. According to a police report, officers arrived around 3 p.m. Wednesday to a shopping center near Lomas Blvd. and San Mateo Blvd. When they arrived, they found a burned car and a man, identified as Matthew Sedillo, on the ground with a bullet wound, where he soon after was pronounced dead on scene. Police eventually spoke to Thabata, who admitted to shooting at Sedillo, who he said stole two shirts and a glass bong from his store, before trying to flee in a car. Thabata told police he was trying to shoot the tire, but instead, Sedillo was hit and killed. The car crashed into another vehicle in the Sprouts parking lot, then ended up across the street where it hit a curb and caught fire. Thabata told officers he was angry and that he doesnt like violence, but he said Sedillo left him no choice. At the end of the day, as frustrating as it can be, its just inventory. Most businesses, including ours, has insurance for that, and its never worth taking or risking your own life for just inventory, said the anonymous employee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The total amount of stolen merchandise was $75. Thabata doesnt have a significant criminal history in New Mexico. Matthew Sedillo was recently released from jail after being found incompetent. He has a long criminal history of battery, shoplifting, burglary, and 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 KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, May 30. Gas supply to Azerbaijan's Gorchu and Goshasu villages will be provided until the end of 2026, First Deputy Head of the Gas Export Department Sarkhan Babashov said at a meeting of the Working Group on Energy Supply Issues in Khankendi, Trend's regional correspondent reports. He noted that it is planned to use polyethylene pipes when laying gas pipelines. "The projects of gas pipelines are now being reviewed by the Project Design Bureau of Azerigas Production Union. The construction of gas regulating points in Gorcha and Goshas is planned by Azerigas in accordance with the resettlement program and the demand for gas in the coming years," Babashov added. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Mondelez International, the company behind Oreo, Wheat Thins and other name-brand products, says Aldi is copying its packaging in an effort to dupe customers into buying the supermarket chain's products. In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Illinois, the snack company alleges that Aldi "blatantly copies" the distinctive packaging of its brands in order to mislead customers into thinking they are buying a Mondelez product when they are actually purchasing a store-brand version. The company is seeking monetary damages and a court order that would prevent Aldi from selling products Mondelez says infringe on its trademarks. A comparison of name brand products (top row) and the Aldi products (bottom row) that Mondelez alleges are designed as look-alikes in order to dupe customers into buying them. / Credit: Nam Y. Huh / AP Neither Aldi nor Mondelez immediately responded to CBS News' requests for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mondelez names a number of Aldi products in its lawsuit that it alleges are look-alikes of its own popular snacks such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins, Nilla Wafers cookies and Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers. The company claims the Aldi store-brand items have different names but bear similar packaging design elements including font, colors, image placement and product names to Mondelez products. Aldi's Peanut Butter Creme Filled Cookies, for example, come in a red box, similar to that of Mondelez's Nutter Butter cookies. The white script font and cookie image on the packaging also mimic the Nutter Butter packaging, the snack company claims. Aldi also sells a product called Thin Wheat, which in addition to the nearly synonymous name to Nabisco's Wheat Thins, has a similar design to the Mondelez product, including a yellow background, the word "original" and crackers pictured on the bottom half of the box, the lawsuit says. Nabisco Wheat Thins (left) is one of several name-brand snacks whose packaging Mondelez claims is being The trademark lawsuit is not the first for Aldi, which been called out numerous times over its products' packaging. Earlier this year, a U.K. appeals court ruled in favor of Thatchers, a cider company, which sued Aldi over design similarities in the packaging of its lemon cider. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mondelez is one of the worlds largest multinational food companies, with a footprint in over 150 countries. Aldi, a U.S.-based company, operates 6,600 stores across more than 10 countries, according to its website. What is the president's role in federal elections? Analyzing Elon Musk's impact on federal government as he exits White House role White House blames problems with "MAHA" report on "formatting issues" MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) The Alabama Department of Transportation is closing Upper River Road Overpass for repairs and for it to be raised. On June 6, Upper River Road will be closed between Marco Drive and Deere Road for bridge/ overpass repairs. Transportation officials said that the repairs will take quite some time to complete. Traffic will be rerouted along Bethel Road to Highway 67. ALDOT told News 19 that the goal is to have the repairs finished before the school year starts back in August. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ALDOT also released the following statement regarding an agreement with a contractor about the repairs: Were still in the process of negotiating for the repair. While we hope to reach an agreement, it is unlikely they will be able to start this work as soon as June 6. ALDOT will provide additional details once an agreement has been reached, said the Alabama Department of Transportation. 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. Originally appeared on E! Online The Chrisleys worked for their release. After Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley returned home from prison following unexpected presidential pardons from Donald Trump, the White House credits their daughter Savannah Chrisley for the decision. The celebrity part really didnt play a role in this, Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson shared on NewsNation Live May 29. Im going to say that if they did not have a daughter like Savannah who was out there fighting for them, they would not have been pardoned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These are everyday Americans who deserve a second chance, she continued. Ive really been looking at those who pose no safety risk, dont have victims of violent crimes. These people need to be returned to their families. They really get a chance to have a second shot at life. Alice commended Savannah, 27, for stepping up since her parentswho also share 28-year-old son Chase Chrisley, as well as Todd and ex-wife Teresa Terrys kids Lindsie Chrisley, 35, and Kyle Chrisley, 33were convicted of tax evasion and wire fraud in 2022. More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This woman has worked relentlessly for her parents, she said. I know that everyone in prison wishes they had an advocate like Savannah Chrisley. The Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley hostthe legal guardian of her younger siblings Grayson, 18, and Chloe, 11, since their arresthad brought visibility to her parents' case, as well as appealing the decision with the courts. After years of advocacy, Alicewhose sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018 after Kim Kardashians criminal justice reform campaignrevealed that it was their eldest daughter who first received the news. Mike Windle/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank I was there with the president when he called them, so he was the one who told them, she explained. He called Savannah to let her know that her parents were being set free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Savannah shared insight into the emotional experience, telling E! News in a statement, For the past two and a half years, Ive done everything in my power to fight for my parents freedom and bring them home. This moment is the answer to countless prayers, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for seeing the truth and restoring my family, she wrote. Today is a victory for our family, but the fight against wrongful convictions and injustice within our prison system is far from over. I will continue to use my voice and platform to advocate for those who do not have one. Keep reading for a closer look at Todd and Julies legal saga, and tune into E! on June 1 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to catch up on Chrisley Knows Best. Indicted on Tax Evasion and Other Charges Todd and Julie Chrisley were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury in Atlanta in August 2019 on charges included wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a document obtained by NBC News. Prosecutors claimed fraud began in the mid-aughtsinclusive of evading nearly $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016 and hiding over $1 million dollars from the IRS. The day before the indictment was issued, Todd maintained he and his wife were innocent, and instead said a trusted employee had been stealing from and blackmailing the couple. "We have nothing to hide and have done nothing to be ashamed of," he wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. "Not only do we know we've done nothing wrong, but we've got a ton of hard evidence and bunch of corroborating witnesses that proves it." Todd and Julie Found Guilty It wasnt until three years later that the Chrisley Knows Best stars went to trial. Following three weeks of testimonies, the pair, who had pleaded not guilty, were convicted on all counts of tax evasion and bank fraud on June 7, 2022. The U.S. attorney's office had alleged the duo and their accountant Peter Tarantinowho stood trial with themconspired to defraud banks out of more than $30 million over the course of a decade. "As today's outcome shows, when you lie, cheat and steal, justice is blind as to your fame, your fortune, and your position," Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a June 2022 statement. "In the end, when driven by greed, the verdict of guilty on all counts for these three defendants proves once again that financial crimes do not pay." Sentenced to Multiple Years in Prison Five months later, the Northern District of Georgia sentenced Todd to 12 years behind bars and Julie to seven years. (Peter was sentenced to three years in prison.) "Over the course of a decade, the defendants defrauded banks out of tens of millions of dollars while evading payment of their federal income taxes," U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a November 2022 statement. "Their lengthy sentences reflect the magnitude of their criminal scheme and should serve as a warning to others tempted to exploit our nation's community banking system for unlawful personal gain." However, Julie and Todds respective sentences were shortened in September 2023with Julie scheduled to be released a year and three months earlier, and Todd two years earlier than his originally scheduled 2035 release. "Without a doubt, Todd and Julie are model incarcerated individuals who received exorbitant sentences," Jay Surgent, the pair's attorney, told Insider in September 2023. "I believe Todd is down to 10 years and Julie is now at five years." Starting Their Sentences The couple started their respective prison sentences in January 2023, with Todd serving his time at Federal Correctional Institution (FPI) Pensacola in Florida and Julie at a different federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No Contact Six months after Julie and Todd reported to their respective prisons, their daughter Savannah Chrisley shared insight into how the duo were doing, revealing that her parents did not have contact during their time behind bars. "195 days without a word to each other" she wrote in an August 2023 Instagram story. "My heart is breakingPlease help to bring justice!" She also pushed back at rumors about their time in prison. "It's hilarious because one of them was like, 'Oh, he's let himself go,'" she said on her Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley podcast. "First off, news flash, they don't sell hair color in commissary. So of course his hair is gray! But, you know what, I would tell him today, if he was out, keep it that way. Like, it looks good! He's got a great prison barber." Todd Details Filthy Prison Conditions However, Todd spoke out from behind bars about the mistreatment he faced at the federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla. "The food is dated," he said in a phone interview on a December 2023 episode of Cuomo. "It's a year past expiration." "You've got rats, you've got squirrels in the storage facility where the food is," he continued. "They just covered it up with plastic and then tore the ceiling out because of all the black mold and found a dead cat in the ceiling, and it dropped down on the top of the food." Beyond the horrors in the cafeteria, he alleged that someone also attempted to extort his family members. "There was a photograph taken of me while I was sleeping and sent to my daughter," he noted, "asking for $2,600 dollars a month for my protection." Savannah Chrisley Speaks Out Savannah, who has custody of younger siblings Grayson and Chloe amid her parents sentences, has explained how their convictions and their lack of contact with one another has weighed on her. "The last time they spoke was the morning they went into federal prison," she shared with E! News March 2024, alleging that there's "a lot of retaliation going on against my father for how outspoken we've been about conditions." In fact, she alleged that prison officials had been "blocking a lot of his emails correspondence to my mom." And while not wanting to make the experience about herself, she admitted that it was overwhelming at times. "What's tough for me is how Mom and Dad have that feeling that life is just continuing to move on without them," Savannah explained on her podcast Unlocked in April 2024. "In a way, I have that feeling with people in my life because it's like they just continue on living their lives." "I'm still sitting here struggling to catch my breath," she continued. "Whether it's financially with the kids, trying to parent, me in a relationship." Julie's Prison Sentence Overturned Julie's seven-year prison sentence was overturned June 2024 following a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the panel upheld her convictions, the court ruled the judge in the 2022 trial miscalculated the reality star's sentence. "The district court did not identify the evidence it relied on to hold Julie accountable for losses incurred before 2007, and we cannot independently find it in the record," the judges stated in their ruling. "So we vacate Julie's sentence and remand solely for the district court to make the factual findings and calculations necessary to determine loss, restitution, and forfeiture as to Julie and to resentence her accordingly." Her case was handed to a lower court to determine how her sentencing would be adjusted while Todd's sentencing remained unaffected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Tearful Apology Three months after her prison sentence was overturned, an Atlanta court ultimately upheld Julies previous seven-year prison sentence. And she made a tearful apologyboth to her children and the court. "I would like to say Ive had years to think about what Ive wanted to say and Im sorry for my actions and situations that let us to where we are today," Julie said before the court, per People, during the Sept. 25 hearing. "Ive had 20 months in prison, but it has been much more leading up to the trial and I apologize for my actions that led to where we are today," "I have done everything I can do to get closer to my family. Ive taken tests for new skills, such as driving a forklift and serving food in proper ways," she continued, "this has been the most difficult part of my life. I cant ever repay my children for what theyve had to go through and for that, I am so sorry," she added. President Donald Trump Pardons the Chrisleys The Chrisleys are heading home. They received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, he told Savannah in a phone call May 27, 2025. "For the past two and a half years, Ive done everything in my power to fight for my parents freedom and bring them home," Savannah said in a statement to E! News. "This moment is the answer to countless prayers, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for seeing the truth and restoring my family." They were both released on May 28, 2025. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) During an emotional immigration hearing May 8, Alireza Doroudi made the decision to self-deport back to Iran. It was supposed to be the end of a grueling 44-day ordeal, starting with the 32-year-old doctoral student at the University of Alabama being detained by ICE officers at his apartment in Tuscaloosa on in the early morning hours of March 25 and being sent to Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, staying with nearly 1,200 other inmates whose immigration status was under review. Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani, Doroudis fiancee who was in the middle of planning their wedding when he was detained, told The New York Times how his mental health had deteriorated to the point that no matter what happened, the authorities would never let him out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, as of Thursday afternoon, the 32-year-old who was studying for his doctorate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama is still in ICE custody, two months after he was first taken. Claire Angelle, spokesperson for Doroudis attorney, David Rozas, said they hoped to have more information within the next couple of weeks, but a release date has yet to be set. Doroudi, who first came to the United States in January 2023, was initially picked up by ICE on March 25 for living in the United States on a revoked visa. Rozas had previously said that despite the revocation, Doroudi could have legally stayed in the country as long as he remained a student. Following his arrest, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed that Doroudi posed significant national security concerns, despite never addressing what those concerns were, or the fact that outside of a speeding ticket in Greene County in 2023, Doroudi did not have a criminal record. During an immigration hearing May 8, government officials claimed that they were planning to drop the revocation visa charge against Doroudi. However, instead of being released, Judge Maithe Gonzalez wanted to schedule another hearing for DHS to get their claim in writing, denying bond for Doroudi in the process. It was at this point that Doroudi decided to self-deport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After months of being locked up by a system that saw an alleged visa violation (proven later to be false) as justification to treat him like a threat, he chose voluntary departure. Not because he wanted to give upbut because he couldnt take the weight of it anymore, Rozas said following the hearing. Its a decision that should never have been forced on him. And its the kind of decision I see more and more of these days. No date has been set for when Doroudi could be released from ICE or when he would be expected to return to Iran. 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. An alleged squatter is behind bars on a probation violation charge less than 24 hours after a Channel 2 Action News investigation shared the DeKalb County homeowners struggles. On Thursday, Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln shared the story of a family fighting to get their childhood home back after they say squatters moved in the day after their father died. One of those alleged squatters, Dontarious Issac, turned himself in to DeKalb County police on Friday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ashli, we are so excited. One of the things that annoys me is a criminal that thinks he is smarter than everybody else, said Lisa Oliver-Heath. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Lincoln spoke with Lisa Oliver-Heath over the phone Friday after learning about Issacs arrest. She and four of her siblings inherited this home from their late parents. In an incident report, Issac first told police he owned the home, but changed his story, saying he had a lease under a rental contract after putting down $4,500. My father would be turning over in his urn, Lisa told Lincoln. Since moving in, the squatters have taken to social media to advertise a large pool party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lincoln spoke with Issac on Thursday. At the time of that interview, he was apparently in violation of a Greene County probation order. MORE FROM 2 INVESTIGATES: In 2024, Issac was charged after using a drone to deliver contraband to inmates in Georgia prisons. He was sentenced to serve five years. He received credit for time served for 180 of those days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the conditions for his probation include not being around drugs, alcohol, or weapons. The Olivers say some of the squatters approached them with weapons. That person came to the door with a rifle, Kevin Oliver said. Issac was also supposed to let his probation officer know that his address had changed. Documents list a Marietta apartment complex as his last known address. Dekalb County confirmed with Channel 2 Action News that Issac is currently in the Greene County Jail. On Thursday afternoon, Channel 2 Action News was the only station there when three sheriffs deputies arrived at the house and spoke with the man behind the social media post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the Squatter Reform Act, the Olivers filed a squatters affidavit. The act was recently passed, allowing law enforcement to cite suspected squatters criminally for trespassing. A DeKalb County incident report reveals the alleged squatters were cited in this case. Lincoln learned that several of the squatters at this property have criminal records, specifically crimes related to squatting. The alleged squatters have until Monday to answer to this affidavit. There will be a court day next week on the matter. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Country music stars both established and on the rise will take over Nashville next week as Music City hosts its annual CMA Fest. Around 90,000 music lovers are expected to attend the festival daily, which runs from June 5-8. CMA Fest will feature several heavyweights in country music with four nights of shows at Nissan Stadium featuring Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker, Kelsea Ballerini, Shaboozey, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley and Luke Bryan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to main stage performances at Nissan Stadium, the festival will features stages across downtown Nashville featuring up-and-coming artists from Ascend Amphitheater to the Reverb Stage next to Bridgestone arena. With tens of thousands of fans expected each day, the festival will cause several road closures in the week leading up to its June 5 opening. Here's when and where the closures will occur: Closed through June 6 First Avenue South from Demonbreun Street to Broadway First Avenue from Molloy Street to Demonbreun Street. This road will reopen June 4 Alley behind Acme Feed from First Avenue to Second Avenue Alley between Acme and Pesca Lot Closed May 30 Demonbreun Street westbound from Fourth Avenue to Rep. John Lewis Way will be closed rom 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed May 31 Demonbruen Street from Fourth Avenue to Rep. John Lewis Way will be closed from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed June 1 Rep. John Lewis Way from Demonbreun Street to Broadway will close from 6 a.m. through 8 p.m. June 9. First Avenue from Broadway to Church Street will close starting at 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. June 9. Demonbreun Street westbound from Fourth Avenue to Rep. John Lewis Way will be closed from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed June 2-10 South First Street from Woodland Street to Russell Street. Russell Street from Second Street to Titans Way Titans Way from Russell Street to Victory Avenue. Victory Avenue from Titans Way to South Second Street. Closed June 3-10 Symphony Place from Third Avenue to Fourth Avenue will be closed until 5 p.m. June 10. Demonbreun Street westbound from Fourth Avenue to Rep. John Lewis Way Broadway from Second Avenue to Fourth Avenue Closed June 4-9 Demonbreun Street from Fourth Avenue to Rep. John Lewis Way from 5 a.m. June 4 to 3 a.m. June 9. First Avenue from Korean Veterans Boulevard to Demonbreun Street will be closed from 5 a.m. June 4 to 3 a.m. June 9. Molloy Street from First Avenue to Second Avenue will be closed from 5 a.m. June 4 to 3 a.m. June 9. Demonbreun Street from South Second Avenue to First Avenue will be closed from 5 a.m. June 4 to 3 a.m. June 9. Closed June 5-9 Rep. John Lewis Way from Korean Veterans Boulevard to Demonbreun Street will be closed 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Demonbreun Street from Rep. John Lewis Way to Sixth Avenue will be closed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More CMA Fest: Shaboozey, Keith Urban, more to appear during festival at SiriusXM events at Chief's Closed June 9 Demonbreun Street from Fourth Avenue to Rep. John Lewis Way will be closed from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Shuttle service A shuttle service will run daily during the festival from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Here are the pickup and drop-off locations. Nissan Stadium: Woodland Street at S. First Street Downtown: Sixth Avenue between Korean Veterans Boulevard and Demonbreun Street Downtown: Commerce Street at Rep. John Lewis Way Public transportation On June 7, WeGo Public Transit will have a special event train from Lebanon to downtown Nashville for the concert at Nissan Stadium. The train will leave the Lebanon station at 4 p.m. and arrive at the Riverfront Station at 5 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Return trips to Lebanon depart one hour after the concert. Advance tickets can be purchased at ticketsnashville.com for $15 plus a $2 processing fee. SpotHero is offering advanced reserved parking. For additional CMA Fest parking, visit NashvilleDowntown.com. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Watch out for these CMA Fest 2025 road closures in downtown Nashville Americas reputation is shot. At least, that seems to be the prevailing view at the moment. Trump is Trashing Americas Reputation, exclaimed a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Trumps erratic policy is harming the reputation of American assets, read the headline in The Economist. And writing for The Conversation, Steve Dunne of the University of Warwick observed, Across the opening 100 days of his second term, Trump has devastatedperhaps irreparablyeconomic confidence in the US. The core idea in such statements is that U.S. President Donald Trumps behavior since the start of his second term has undermined the United States role as a source of global stability and has caused the country to give up the mantel of global leadership. To determine whether this is really the case, its is worth stepping back to reflect on how and whether reputation plays a role in international affairs. Reputation has been asserted as an important factor in understanding whether governments will honor obligations to repay sovereign debt, uphold commitments to allies, not back down in a crisis, or just generally behave cooperatively. Overall, cooperation is commonly framed as a positive for a countrys reputation: One typically doesnt say that a pariah state, like North Korea, has ruined its reputation by starting to cooperate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But when international relations analysts speak of reputation, whose reputation are they speaking of? There is much debate among international relations scholars as to whether reputation tends to be associated with individual leaders, with countries, or with both. To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter. If one believes that reputation is primarily attached to leaders, then a countrys reputation in world affairs is quite fluid, as it depends on who is holding the levers of power at a given time. According to this view, while Donald Trumps predictably unpredictable nature could result in a wild four years while he is in office, expectations will again reset following the 2028 election. Following his election in 2021, Joe Biden spoke of how America is Back following four years of Trump as president and he sought to reset the United States global reputation. In some respects, he did that. But the extent to which he continued with some of Trumps key foreign policies was also notable, whether those policies were economic restrictions towards China, or continuing to use the Abraham Accords to underpin a coalition against Iran. In the same way that behavior in one situation may not translate to behavior in another situation, it is questionable whether reputation in one issue area will matter in another. The other view is that international reputation is associated with countries as a whole and that there is something about the character of a country that leads to expectations about its behavior. In this view, the United States, independent of Donald Trump himself, has an international reputation. Still, even under this view, the leader a country chooses for itself can affect its reputation. Many observers abroad were willing to view Trumps first election as a flukeafter all, he didnt even win the popular vote the first time around. But the fact that Trump remained the figurehead of the Republican Party after his first term and then won reelection by securing the popular vote suggested to many that Trump is indicative of the more general character of the United States. This resets expectations about U.S. behavior going forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Setting aside questions about whether Trumps approach truly marks a new phase in the behavior of the United States or whether its even possible to render such a judgment after only a few months in office, there is evidence that the U.S. reputation prior to Trump remains intact. He was elected again, but under circumstances that were particularly advantageous to the non-incumbent party. The U.S. courts have also continued to block and slow his agenda, most recently his beloved tariff policy, and civil society actors are pushing back against his agenda in myriad successful ways. In the end, it might turn out that the U.S. under Trump perfectly illustrates the old saying attributed to Winston Churchill, that Americans can always be expected to do the right thing, after all other possibilities have been exhausted. This suggests that the United States, regardless of who is in office, has long had a reputation of being inward looking and not particularly cooperative with the rest of the world, but ultimately doing so when it is needed most. Such debates are interesting, but there is a larger question at play. Is it even worth worrying about reputation? After all, states and leaders are generally shortsighted. As Ive written before, because the international system is inherently complex, decisionmakers within states are typically just going from one fire to the next trying to avoid the worst possible outcomes. Memories are short because there is only so much that can be learned about future likely behavior from particular cases. The political scientist James Morrow made this point when he wrote that in international crises factors always vary across cases. For example, does the U.S. failure to defend country X mean that it will fail to defend country Y? Not necessarily, because countries X and Y are likely in very different situations. Consider Trumps views toward Ukraine and Taiwan. If he were to cease U.S. military aid to Ukrainea possibility that seems increasingly unlikelythis should not be seen as an encouraging sign to Beijing, because the context is very different. Defending Taiwan, an island, is very different than defending Ukraine and its large land border with Russia. Trump views the war in Ukraine as the fault of his predecessors, but likely would view a Beijing attack against Taiwan as a personal affront to him. Moreover, U.S. economic and security interests are arguably clearer with Taiwan than they were for Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the same way that behavior in one situation may not translate to behavior in another situation, it is questionable whether reputation in one issue area, such as trade, will matter in another, such as defense cooperation. The contexts are again significantly different, and a countrys reputation for behaving a certain way in trade relations may not say much about how it behaves as a partner in other contexts. In sum, it may well be desirable for a leader and a country to exhibit predictable cooperative behavior. But such predictability regarding the past doesnt supersede context-specific considerations of power and interests. Donald Trump may well understand this feature of international politics. Stated simply, reputations importance in international politics may be largely because people think it matters, not because it actually matters in reality. Paul Poast is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a nonresident fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The post Americas Reputation Might Not Matter as Much as People Think appeared first on World Politics Review. American Airlines passengers experienced a flight to nowhere on Tuesday. An affidavit says a 24-year-old assaulted a flight attendant and tried to drag them down the aisle. The captain turned the plane around and landed back in Connecticut an hour after taking off. An American Airlines flight turned around after a passenger assaulted a member of the cabin crew, an affidavit from an FBI agent says. Flight 3359 took off from Hartford, Connecticut, on Tuesday, bound for Chicago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to data from Flightradar24, it departed 4 hours later than scheduled but there was further disruption in store. About thirty minutes into the journey, a passenger stood up, started to take off his shirt, and ran to the back of the plane shouting, "Help me," per the affidavit, which was made by the FBI agent Alan Szulwach. It adds that the passenger, 24-year-old Julius Jordan Priester, then grabbed a flight attendant by the collar and "forcefully brought the victim to the ground." The affidavit says Priester then tried to drag the flight attendant up the aisle while ignoring the crew's instructions to stop. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another flight attendant notified the captain, who declared an emergency and diverted the Embraer 175 back to Hartford. The affidavit says other passengers intervened to stop Priester, who was returned to a seat. It adds that he then "continued to act in an erratic manner," and made "incoherent statements." According to Flightradar24, the E175 landed back at Bradley International Airport just over an hour after taking off from there. Priester was removed from the plane by state police and taken to a local hospital for evaluation, where he was arrested by Szulwach. The Justice Department said Priester appeared in a Hartford court on Wednesday and had been detained pending a bond hearing scheduled for Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Priester was charged with one count of interference with a flight crew. If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. American Airlines didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside US working hours. Read the original article on Business Insider BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. A road map on expanding trade, economic, and investment cooperation has been signed between Azerbaijani and German companies, the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov wrote on his X page, Trend reports. "During our meeting with Michael Harms, Executive Director of the German Eastern Business Association, we discussed prospects for strengthening ties between the business communities of Azerbaijan and Germany. We highlighted the favorable business and investment climate in Azerbaijan and the opportunities it offers for the expansion of German companies' operations in our country. As part of the meeting, the German Eastern Business Association, AZPROMO, and the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce signed a Road Map on Expanding Trade, Economic, and Investment Cooperation between Azerbaijani and German Companies. The implementation of this initiative is expected to deepen bilateral economic and trade relations, enhance investment collaboration, and support the launch of joint projects," the minister pointed out. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Nashville is included on a new list of sanctuary jurisdictions that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claims are violating federal immigration law despite Nashville not being classified as a sanctuary city. DHS appears to have published the list on May 29. According to the DHS website, a sanctuary jurisdiction is a city, county or state that is deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. The website says so-called sanctuary jurisdictions are determined by factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions and legal protections for undocumented immigrants. There are only two sanctuary jurisdictions listed in Tennessee Nashville and Shelby County. DHS says each jurisdiction will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with federal statutes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens, the DHS website reads. Its not immediately clear why Nashville or any jurisdiction in Tennessee is included on the list, given that neither has self-identified as a sanctuary city. In Tennessee, sanctuary cities have been banned for about seven years, and another state law passed earlier this year criminalizes local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants. Meanwhile, though some local officials have criticized federal immigration enforcement action, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently collaborated with the Tennessee Highway Patrol to conduct a weeklong operation in Nashville, which resulted in nearly 200 arrests. Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell was critical of ICE during the operation, asking repeatedly for the release of the names and charges of the individuals arrested in Nashville and updating an existing executive order requiring city departments to report communications with federal immigration authorities to the mayor's office on a shorter timeline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latter action has come under scrutiny from Republicans in Washington, D.C., who have vowed to open congressional investigations into O'Connell's conduct and potentially even ramp up immigration enforcement actions in Nashville. Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com. Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville among 'sanctuary jurisdictions,' Homeland Security says WASHINGTON (DC News Now) The recent rash of violence in D.C. is impacting many families, including neighbors in Southeast. Thursday night, a Ward 8 community safety meeting aimed to address residents concerns. Capital Jewish Museum reopens after deadly shooting Local leaders say a lot is already happening to prevent violence, but its not always coordinated. And thats what a big chunk of the meeting was about: organizing resources and making a game plan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Year to date, D.C. has seen almost the same number of homicides as in 2024. People need to stop being violent. What [does] it prove? I mean, nothing, said Jacqueline Leach. This week started with a triple shooting in Congress Heights on Monday, where one person died. Some folks are living in fear, said ANC Commissioner Salim Adofo, chair of ANC 8C. Adofo, whos running for the open Ward 8 council seat, organized a virtual meeting with fellow commissioners to find solutions. This is an opportunity for us to not reinvent the wheel, but to say, hey, if you got something thats already in place, let us know so we can share the information, Adofo said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several dozen leaders and neighbors in Ward 8 logged on to discuss needs in the community. Im happy to help in any way, whether thats, you know, mentorship, you know, legal services, anything like that, said Charles Ross. Tangible solutions include reporting blighted buildings and abandoned cars, to possibly prevent drug or gang activity. They discussed the need for physical upkeep in the neighborhood and the need for better relationships with police. Its very important to have clean neighborhoods because its a public safety ecosystem. Its not just the law enforcement piece, said Chanel Dickerson, former assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adofo said it takes the community working in sync to stop the shootings. This isnt going to be solved tonight, all right? It has to be a continuous conversation, Adofo said. Were going to get some marching orders, and [were] going to have to come back and continuously work to refine the plan and keep working with other people. 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. By Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung is projected to win next week's snap presidential election, a result that could reorient a major U.S. ally on policies ranging from China to nuclear weapons and North Korea. Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who was impeached and removed from office over December's short-lived martial law decree, had gone all-in on supporting Washington, taking a hard line on North Korea, and repairing ties with Japan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 election, has long taken a more sceptical view of the U.S. alliance, vowed to engage with North Korea, and was bitterly critical of Yoon's rapprochement with Japan. He made waves on the campaign trail by saying South Korea should keep its distance from any China-Taiwan conflict, later insisting he is not pro-Beijing. Tacking toward the centre in an effort to win moderates, however, Lee has taken to praising the U.S. alliance and said he would continue trilateral cooperation with Japan and the United States, seen in Washington as pivotal to countering China and North Korea. "The Yoon administration claimed to uphold democratic values in foreign policy while pursuing authoritarian tactics domestically," Wi Sung-lac, a lawmaker who advises Lee on foreign policy, told Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "In contrast, if the Democratic Party wins, the incoming government will be prepared to genuinely defend democracy and lead a foreign policy grounded in those values, proven by its long history of struggle for democratic rights in Korea." SCEPTICISM IN WASHINGTON Some in Washington wonder if Lee's pivot on a range of issues will last, and how his views might clash with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has slapped South Korea with tariffs, pressed it to pay more for the 28,500 troops stationed there, and upped competition with China. "Great scepticism remains that Lee would actually stray from his previous advocacy for conciliation with China and North Korea, nationalist antagonism toward Japan, and more independence in its alliance with the United States," said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst now at Washington's Heritage Foundation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While this pivot has expanded Lee's appeal, "it also raises concerns about future policy and governing consistency," Darcie Draudt-Vejares, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in a report. Much has changed in the three years since South Korea's last liberal president, Moon Jae-in, left office, after overseeing a trade and political clash with Tokyo over historical disputes related to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula, and an ultimately failed attempt to broker lasting diplomatic deals between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. One Western diplomat, who asked not to be named, said China's assertiveness, doubts about U.S. commitments, and North Korea's new cooperation with Russia means Lee may be unlikely to return to some of his earlier stances. Lee has vowed to cooperate with Japan on security, technology, culture and environment, but he criticised Yoon for giving too many concessions with little in return. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "While Lee may not actively walk back Yoons reconciliation with Japan... his party will react more strongly to any perceived slight from Japan over history issues," Klingner said. Yoon and his conservatives raised the prospect of redeploying American nuclear weapons to the peninsula, or even developing their own arsenal to counter the North. But Lee has rejected those calls. TRUMP RELATIONS In an interview with TIME released on Thursday, Lee praised Trump's "outstanding skills" for negotiation. He also compared himself to the American president, saying both survived assassination attempts and seek to protect the interests of their countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I believe the South Korea-U.S. alliance is the foundation of South Koreas diplomacy," Lee said at a debate on Tuesday. Still, he listed U.S. protectionism as a challenge and said he would not "unnecessarily" antagonize China and Russia. He is a savvy politician who will take a calculated approach to dealing with Trump, and given the lack of clarity on a number of Trump's policies on China and other areas, it is not certain that Lee will clash with the American president, said Moon Chung-in, a former foreign policy adviser to the previous liberal administration. "But if President Trump pushes too many demands, unlike other leaders in South Korea, Lee may not accommodate them all, which could be a source of friction," Moon said. North Korea is one area where Lee may see eye-to-eye with Trump. It may also be one of the toughest issues to tackle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lee says he will reopen hotlines with North Korea and seek to engage with Pyongyang to lower tensions. However, Pyongyang has amassed a larger missile arsenal, forged a wide-ranging security pact with Russia, and taken the historic step of officially rejecting eventual unification with the South, labelling Seoul a main enemy. "It will be very difficult for Lee to reopen the hotlines with North Korea, and the North will not respond to his call for dialogue," Moon said. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Saad Sayeed) Ancient Mayan city unearthed, including pyramids and canals Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Mayan city nearly 3,000 years old in northern Guatemala, with pyramids and monuments that point to its significance as an important ceremonial site, the Central American country's culture ministry said Thursday. The Mayan civilization arose around 2000 BC, reaching its height between 400 and 900 AD in what is present-day southern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The city named "Los Abuelos," Spanish for "The Grandparents," once stood some 13 miles from the important archaeological site of Uaxactun, in Guatemala's northern Peten department, the ministry said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is dated to what is known as the "Middle Preclassic" period from about 800 to 500 BC, and is believed to have been "one of the most ancient and important ceremonial centers" of the Mayan civilization in the jungle area of Peten near the Mexican border, it added. "The site presents remarkable architectural planning," with pyramids and monuments "sculpted with unique iconography from the region," said the ministry. The city takes its name from two human-like sculptures of an "ancestral couple" found at the site. A photo released by the Guatemalan government shows two anthropomorphic sculptures that The figures, dated between 500 and 300 BC, "could be linked to ancient ritual practices of ancestor worship," said the ministry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Unique canal system" The city, which covers an area of about six square miles, was discovered by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists in previously little-explored areas of the Uaxactun park. Nearby, they also found a pyramid standing 108 feet high with murals from the Preclassic period and "a unique canal system," according to the statement. "The set of these three sites forms a previously unknown urban triangle... These findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and socio-political organization of pre-Hispanic Peten," said the ministry. Officials released a video showing archaeologists digging at the site and recovering a variety of artifacts, as well as an animation of the complex. Officials released a video showing archaeologists digging at the site and recovering a variety of artifacts, as well as animation of the complex. / Credit: Guatemala's Culture and Sports Ministry In April, scientists discovered a 1,000-year-old altar from Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan culture at Tikal, elsewhere in the Peten department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That find was interpreted as proof of ties between the two pre-Hispanic cultures, which lived about 800 miles apart. Archaeologists also said that the altar was believed to have been used for sacrifices, "especially of children." Tikal, about 15 miles from Uaxcatun, is the main archaeological site in Guatemala and one of its biggest tourist attractions. Last October, an American doctoral student discovered a sprawling Maya city within a dense jungle in Mexico. Scientists and archaeologists have discovered ancient Mayan ruins by shooting lasers down from a plane to penetrate the dense jungle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More ICE shakeups as Trump "border czar" says arrests could be higher Bon Appetit reveals its list of the best new bars in America for 2025 What determines who gets a student visa? Former DHS official explains the vetting process ANDERSON An Anderson man has been arrested on a murder charge in the 2024 death of his wife. John Daughtery, 48, 300 block of West 22nd Street, was arrested by Anderson police Thursday and charged with murdering Leslie Houston. According to the probable cause affidavit, Anderson officers were dispatched for medical assistance Oct. 11, 2024, to the 22nd Street residence, where paramedics were performing CPR on Houston. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court document states Daughtery, who was at the residence, told police that he returned home from work and found that Houston had fallen in the kitchen and was asleep. According to the affidavit, a CT scan at St. Vincent Hospital revealed that Houston was suffering from a massive head injury. A neurosurgical team in Indianapolis determined Houstons injuries were not survivable. She died Oct. 15, 2024. An autopsy later confirmed that Houston died of an intracranial hemorrhage. The Indianapolis doctors noted Houston had bruises and other injuries in various stages of healing on her feet, arms, legs, neck and breast, according to the court document. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Physicians determined that the extent and nature of the findings were consistent with domestic abuse and possible strangulation, authorities reported. Several family members told Anderson police that Daughtery had physically abused Houston, according to the probable cause affidavit. During an interview with police, Daughtery denied physically abusing his wife. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) The Kern County Animal Services is looking to identify the person who was seen on surveillance video placing an injured dog in a dumpster in early May. In the video, the person wrapped the dog in blankets before dumping her in the dumpster in the 3300 block of Niles Street. The incident happened between 1:40 a.m. and 2 a.m. on May 5, according to the Kern County Animal Services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To provide any information anonymously to the animal services, email animalservices@kerncounty.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 KGET 17 News. McNAIRY COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) Buford Pusser is arguably the most famous sheriff Tennessees ever seen. He died in 1974, and all these decades later, his hometown still honors him. Like so many towns across America, Adamsville, Tennessee, kicks off summer with a festival, but this one is different. It has the fast rides, but the festivals also named after one man famous for single-handedly taking down prostitution and bootlegging. Buford Pusser was sheriff here more than five decades ago and sometimes it shows. Youre 10 years old, what do you know about Buford Pusser? we asked Mallory Harvile. I dont know what that is, said Harvile. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Who was legendary lawman Buford Pusser? But ask others, and it feels like Sheriff Pusser was just here. You know about Buford Pusser born and raised here? we asked. I was, said Theresa Pilkinton. What do you remember about him? Him being the sheriff. I hate to say it but my father spent time in his jail. What kind of stories would your father tell about Buford? we asked. He would tell a lot of stories because my father used to make moonshine and my grandfather. And Im sure Buford was not all that much liked in your home. No, not really, said Pilkinton. Questions remain decades after death of Pauline Pusser Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the 1960s, McNairy County was getting a bad reputation as the home of criminal organizations like the State Line Mob and Dixie Mafia. A local historian said Sheriff Pusser busted as many as 57 illegal moonshine operations in just one year, but some of those have been exaggerated over the years. So, you knew the name Buford. But what did you know about him? What were the stories shared? we asked. Well, I heard about how he cleaned up our entire county of drugs. And he did it his way. And he was bad to the bone. Back in those days. He cleaned up well. And it just grew and grew, said Joseph Young. Is he a hero? we asked Renee Couch. I think so. Well, he tried to do the right thing with everything. But a shadow has also loomed over Pussers hero status and this years festival. The report on his wife, Paulines, cold case could be released any day. The TBI exhumed her body and started taking a second look at this case a year ago after a tip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tour the memorabilia of Sheriff Buford Pusser in McNairy County Ever since her murder, some have criticized the investigation, saying Sheriff Pusser killed his wife, and covered it all up. What if this report comes back and it says that he killed his wife? How does that change McNairy County? we asked. Guess a lot of people would change minds. I say, let the festival go on. I dont think he did. So just let it rest, said Couch. 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. A provider of identity verification and fraud tools was recently targeted by what appear to be multiple North Korean IT workers managing dozens of personas. The stream of resumes to Socure for software development positions all boasted experience at brand-name tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Netflix. Turns out they were all fake. Anthony from Staten Island had a polished set of credentials and claimed he previously worked at Meta Platforms. During a Zoom interview for a senior software engineer job, the supposed New Yorker was charming and articulate as he talked about creating a key chat application at the $1.6 trillion social media giant. For the first 20 minutes, everything went smoothly. Anthony smiled, engaged naturally, and delivered polished responses to questions. Then, it all changed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What was most striking was he was really affable, recalled Rivka Little, Socures chief growth officer. You can 100% see why people would become a victim to this. When the interview advanced to more complex two-part questions that required further explanation, Anthony lost his place. He seemed more stilted and less certain, Little told Fortune. Socure believes Anthony was a North Korean IT worker, part of a sophisticated and insidious criminal organization that consists of trained technologists from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). The DPRK IT workers use American identities, real or fabricated, and apply for remote jobs in IT at American and European companies. The scheme has been a massive runaway success. Hundreds of Fortune 500 companies have unwittingly hired thousands of IT workers from the DPRK, and the IT crew sends its salaries to authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un. Kim uses the money to fund the countrys weapons of mass destruction program. The scheme generates between $200 million to $600 million a year, according to UN estimates, and the DPRK IT workers collaborate with highly skilled operatives responsible for stealing billions in crypto heists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scheme is so pervasive that some tech founders have resorted to asking potential job candidates to insult Kim before progressing to a formal interview. DPRK IT workers are constantly surveilled and insulting the supreme leader of the regime would lead to severe punishment. The threat is scaling rapidly. This year, Kim doubled the earning quotas required of the worker delegations and launched a new artificial intelligence unit called Research Center 227 to support the countrys cyber crime initiatives, according to research from security firm DTEX. Red flags, shifting tactics Socure is publicizing its experience with Anthony to alert other companies to new warning signs and also to avoid the pitfalls of overly restrictive hiring practices that might make it harder for legitimate job seekers. The challenge is the fraudulent candidates are skilled and some are very charming, Little explained. Anyone can fall for these interviewshe did really well for a long period of time, said Little. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the indicators that companies are relying on wont work in the long term, she warned. For instance, Anthony gave a surname that sounded Italian and he claimed to hail from Staten Island. During his interview however, he had an accent that didnt align with his origin story. People come in all kinds of packages, she noted. Superficial nuances shouldnt be used to eliminate candidates. And while the DPRK IT workers tend to use stereotypical Western names, if they tweaked their scheme slightly and used names that correlated with their accents, those signs would disappear. More telling, she said, were the inconsistencies in Anthonys digital footprint. Many of the fabricated resumes sent to Socure in recent months had big marquee names that made them stand out. Google, Meta, Amazon, and Netflix were often included and the job applicants claimed to have been responsible for the most innovative and interesting products at those companies. A quick check with certain internal staff who worked at Meta during the time Anthony claimed to be there revealed no one knew him. Another flag was the immaturity of Anthonys digital identity. His email address and phone number had been connected to his name for only a matter of weeks. Usually, people have phone numbers and email addresses linked to them going back years, she noted. And despite a LinkedIn profile matching his work history and displaying the bright green Open to work banner, Anthony didnt have much going on with connections, posts, or likes on the platform. It was unusual for someone with an extensive tech background. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the last thing a company should do is to create more friction and drama that would make it more difficult for legitimate job candidates, she said. Plus, while the North Korean IT worker scam creates risk to hiring companies, there are plenty of reverse schemes that target job seekers. A woman contacted Socure and told the company she had been interviewed for a job by a fake HR person and scammed out of thousands of dollars after providing her name, ID, and bank account details thinking she had been hired. It creates the need for a delicate balance, said Little. Companies need to protect themselves from fraudulent hires, but cant create so much friction that legitimate candidates find it too difficult to apply for a job. Little suggested that companies integrate passive ID verification into their HR platforms to check identity in the background without requiring upfront ID from candidates. Careful interview techniques that probe for scripted responses or the use of AI in the midst of conversation plus digital footprint clues can also help reveal fraudulent job seekers. Ive almost never seen such an intersection of fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations, said Little. Its a perfect storm. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com The Scoop Anthropic is going toe-to-toe with the Trump Administration on artificial intelligence policy, according to a person familiar with the matter, irking White House officials and bucking the trend of AI companies seeking closer ties with the government. The $60 billion Silicon Valley company responsible for some of the worlds most advanced AI models has been lobbying members of Congress to vote against a federal bill that would preempt states from regulating AI, according to two people familiar with the matter. The bill is a key component of the Trump administrations efforts to clear the way for US companies to advance the technology. One of Anthropics advisors also pushed against the recent AI deal with Gulf states that would see US technology flow to the region in exchange for an influx of investment money flowing the other direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The efforts have angered staffers within the Trump administration working on AI policy who have come to see Anthropic as an obstacle. At a recent meeting at the White House, according to one person familiar with the matter, officials lamented Anthropics efforts and called out the companys hiring of several former Biden Administration staffers, including Elizabeth Kelly and Tarun Chhabra. Ben Buchanan, another Biden official, is an adviser. Anthropic also employs policy staff who worked for Republicans, like legislative analyst Benjamin Merkel and lobbyist Mary Croghan. Anthropic declined to comment. The staffers were also annoyed by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodeis recent prediction that AI would wipe out half of entry-level, white collar jobs in the next one to five years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anthropics strategy bucks the overall trend in the tech industry, where most CEOs have taken steps to gain favor with the new administration, attempting to influence it from within, rather than fight its policies. Know More The Trump administration has reversed or rewritten many of the policies that defined former President Bidens strategy on AI. Influenced by the AI safety movement, then-President Biden signed executive orders that put in place strict guidelines for AI companies, like requirements to inform the federal government when AI models of a certain size are trained. The Trump administration has replaced many of those orders with its own that are designed to encourage the speed of development and adoption of AI models in the private sector and in government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AI safety advocates have criticized some of the changes. While congress has been slow to enact laws governing the development and use of AI, states have quickly moved ahead, and tech companies have found themselves lobbying state and local leaders. Last year, there were 600 bills regulating AI in the US, with 100 being signed into law. The Trump Administration wants to block states from passing laws that could confuse and slow the industry down. Step Back Trump officials view the private sectors development of AI as critical to US national security. Chinas AI industry has been gaining on the US and the technology is seen as a potential powerful weapon in any future conflict between the super powers. Beijing is pumping billions in subsidies into the field in an attempt to catch up with the US on AI, and has overseen an aggressive spying campaign to steal trade secrets from US companies, according to FBI officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an effort to slow Chinas advance, the Biden Administration passed strict export controls on US-designed semiconductors, preventing them from being sold in China. As part of the so-called AI diffusion rule, it also put restrictions on chips flowing to Gulf states eager to take part in the AI boom. The Trump Administration recently reversed on the Gulf policy, opting instead to allow the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to import hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips. The strategy, according to Trump administration officials, is to crowd China out of the region by drawing countries closer. The deal aims to help offset chip companies lost sales due to export controls to China and create an influx of investment money could help fund the AI ambitions of US companies, including building massive new data centers that require a reimagining of the countrys energy infrastructure. Buchanan, who has been working for Anthropic on safety and other issues, is one of the key architects of the AI diffusion rule. He has opposed the administrations efforts to cut the AI deal with Gulf states, according to the person familiar with the matter. Reeds view Anthropic was founded by a group of employees who left OpenAI to build a company more narrowly focused on AI safety. Its not surprising that the company opposes a White House that is more gung-ho on deploying and developing AI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whats unusual is that it has done so in a way that has put it on the wrong side of the Trump Administration. Most tech companies oppose some or many policies of the administration, but theyve decided to cozy up instead, even in some cringeworthy ways. Opposing the bill preempting state AI laws may not be necessary anyway, because it faces high hurdles in both congress and in the courts. In other words, Anthropics federal lobbying probably wont make much of a difference. Influencing the White House on its executive orders would have been the best shot. In the long run, though, maybe its a smart strategy. AI researchers may see Anthropic as more principled and it could help with recruiting. The Trump administration wont be around forever and Anthropic may be better positioned when the next president takes office. Room for Disagreement When President Trump repealed the Biden AI executive order, the American Civil Liberties Union called it a grave mistake in this article: Notable Azerbaijan's National Depository Center reports strategic progress in institutional dev't The National Depository Center has made solid progress in implementing its multi-year development strategy, focusing on improving efficiency, resilience, and professional capacity. The detailed report outlines key achievements, ongoing challenges, and planned next steps as the Center advances toward its strategic goals. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register (NewsNation) A new Voice of the People survey among Jewish Americans found that 78% listed antisemitism as one of the top five challenges facing them today. Noa Tishby, Israels former special envoy for combating antisemitism, told NewsNations Elizabeth Vargas Reports that antisemitism is causing fear for Jews around the world. As we see, antisemitism is the oldest form of hate and discrimination thats still being practiced today, and today it just shape-shifted into something new called anti-Zionism, Tishby said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Voice of the People, an initiative backed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, released The 2025 Jewish Landscape Report on Thursday. The report included more than 10,000 people across 80 countries. Capital Jewish Museum reopens week after Israeli Embassy staffers killed Tishby said four out of five Jews globally cite antisemitism as their greatest concern, and some responded they worry about looking too Jewish. The reports release comes days after two Israeli embassy staffers were gunned down in Washington, D.C.. Sarah Milgram and Yaron Lischinsky were exiting the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21 when they were fatally shot from behind. The suspect yelled Free Palestine as the police took him into custody, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I can tell you that a lot of Jews around the world are blown away by this rise in antisemitism, Tishby said. Tishby said the research shows the fear is not theoretical. We see that were right to be concerned, she said. Whats happening right now across America should warn everybody because weve been saying this for a very long time. What starts with the Jews doesnt end with the Jews. 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. (NewsNation) A new poll shows Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being a favorite pick among Americans for the 2028 presidential race. Wajahat Ali, host of the Democracy-ish podcast, says AOC is a favorite because voters are looking for a fighter. Clifford Young, president of public affairs at Ipsos, says she is the Democratic Partys darling because she is aligned with a broad agenda of fixing a broken system, which resonates for almost everyone. 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. AUSTIN (KXAN) Eleven children were victims of a child exploitation investigation in Austin, and a 19-year-old man was arrested in the case, Austin Police Department Child Exploitation Unit Sgt. Russell Weirich said during a media briefing Thursday. Jack Bullington was charged on 10 of the cases after APD said it received those reports in September 2024. He was accused of posting explicit images of the juveniles on social media, which were cropped on images of juveniles nude bodies that were then altered by artificial intelligence (AI), Weirich said. Jack Bullington, 19 (Photo: Austin Police Department) Bill to protect victims of deepfake revenge porn passes US Senate Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three cyber tips came into police, which were generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Afterward, police obtained a search warrant on the social media account associated with Bullington. The NCMEC is a nonprofit organization created in 1984 by child advocates with the purpose to help find missing children, fight child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization, said Jennifer Newman, executive director at the NCMEC. Every day NCMEC receives a constant flow of horrific child sexual abuse and exploitative material into the cyber tip line. Once received, we review and assess that information, add value to the report and refer it out to the appropriate law enforcement agency, Newman said during the briefing. The investigation determined that Bullington attained photographs of the victims from a variety of social media sites and platforms when the victims were younger than 18 years of age. He would then share those images on social media with another individual located overseas, Weirich said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to NCMEC, the nonprofit saw a 1,300% increase in cyber tip line reports that involved generative AI technology, which went from 4,700 reports in 2023 to more than 67,000 reports in 2024. We know its scary, and we want you to know youre not alone, Newman said. Furthermore, she said NCMEC has free resources to take down nude or sexually exploitative imagery that may be online. This comes after the U.S. Senate passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act in February, which criminalizes the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII). The act, also called S.4569, was introduced by Senators Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In terms of prevention and talking to your kids, that communication is such a key part of this. And really opening that door and having these discussions early and often with your kids is really the biggest tool in the toolbox when we talk about online child sexual exploitation. Also making sure that your kids know that youre a safe space to come to, that youre not going to respond with anger or, you know, be overly upset, that they are turning to you because theyre upset, Newman 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 KXAN Austin. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Three different courts have ruled on President Donald Trumps tariff plan over the last two days. Two lower courts blocked most of the tariff plan from taking effect. However, on Thursday, an appeals court let the Trump administration continue collecting tariffs, essentially freezing the status quo as judges consider the case. The Trump tariff agenda is alive, well, healthy and will be implemented, White House Adviser, Peter Navarro said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Navarro says the Trump administration will continue with its tariff plan whether the courts approve or not. Even if we lose, we will do it another way, Navarro said. On Wednesday, a federal court stopped most of the tariffs President Trump announced in April. The court blocked the baseline 10% tariff, the up to 50% reciprocal tariff and the tariffs meant to stop fentanyl. It didnt affect tariffs on cars, car parts, steel and aluminum. On Thursday, an appeals court paused that ruling while it considers the case. The presidents rationale for imposing these powerful tariffs was legally sound and grounded in common sense, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Truth Social, President Trump railed against the three-judge panel that blocked his tariff plan. The president appointed one of the judges. Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America, he wrote. Hes trying to do this in a backwards way and find a loophole. And the judges said, no, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said. Rayfield led the lawsuit against the Trump administration. He told The Hill on NewsNation, the president doesnt have the right to tariff imports. The Constitution gives Congress the power to set tariffs. That isnt an inherent presidential power, Rayfield said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump says the tariffs are necessary to boost the American economy and bring manufacturing jobs to the U.S. 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. May 30Due to what was termed as a "potential safety concern," at Ellis Middle School, the Austin Public Schools District has made the decision to cancel the last day of school for both Ellis Middle School and IJ Holton Intermediate School. In a letter to district parents, Superintendent Dr. Joey Page made the announcement earlier this morning. "Due to the timing of this report and our need to fully assess the situation, we have made the decision to cancel the last day of school for Ellis Middle School students," Page explained in the letter. "Additionall, IJ Holton, due to its close proximity to Ellis, will also be closed to students." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Page said he was unable to go into details regarding the situation saying only that the district was working with law enforcement to investigate the threat's nature and that it is "taking every precaution to ensure the safety of our community." "All threats of violence even those made in jest are taken seriously and may result in student discipline, including possible expulsion and involvement of law enforcement," Page's letter said. Austin Police Chief David McKichan confirmed that the district had reached out to the Austin Police Department, which continues to look into the threats. "Austin Public Schools received information about a potential safety concern involving students at Ellis Middle School. They did contact us to investigate, and that investigation is ongoing," McKichan said in a statement. "We do have two School Resource Officers (SRO) assigned to the school district. One of those is dedicated to the Ellis/IJH joint campus and is assigned this case. The other SRO, and any of our other staff, would of course assist as needed." The letter ended with Page urging parents or their students that if they hear of any threats to call 911 to report it. Heading to the Dominican Republic for a summer getaway? Discount Dominican airline Arajet is adding a new direct route from Miami to Punta Cana to its existing flights to Santo Domingo, starting in June. And in October, Arajet is launching a new nonstop flight three times a week from the Orlando area to Punta Cana with introductory fares starting under $140, according to a release. Launching service in Orlando marks another important milestone for Arajet as we continue our rapid growth across the United States, said Victor Pacheco Mendez, CEO and founder of Arajet. Florida is a cornerstone of our expansion strategy, and Orlando is the perfect place to strengthen our U.S. footprint as one of the most visited cities in the world and home to a vibrant Dominican and Latin community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "After seeing record-breaking sales and sold-out flights in Miami, expanding to Orlando is a natural next step as we grow our U.S. network and fulfill our mission of making Caribbean travel more accessible, he said. On June 4, Arajet will expand its current South Florida service from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Santa Domingo Airport (SDQ) with a new nonstop route to Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ). How much is a flight from Orlando to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic? Tickets for the new route, from the Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), are on sale now at arajet.com. Introductory fares are $138 per person from SFB to Punta Cana and the promo code #HOLAORLANDO gets you up to 30% off the base ticket price, not counting taxes and fees. The offer is good for one person per booking. The route begins Oct. 26, 2025, and will be available on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, the airline said. What is Arajet? Arajet is the largest airline in the Dominican Republic. Started in 2014 as the charter flight airline Dominican Wings, it rebranded to Arajet and began offering low-cost flights in September 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arajet now flies to 18 countries in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean out of two bases in Santo Domingo and Punta Cana7. Miami was the first U.S. Destination added, and by November there will be six more: Orlando, Boston, Chicag MAX aio3, New York, Newark and San Juan. The airline uses Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida flights to Dominican from Arajet include 2 new routes ACCOMACK CO., Va. (WAVY) Arcadia High School on Virginias Eastern Shore dismissed early Friday because of a threat investigation, officials confirmed. The school, which is located on Lankford Highway in Oak Hall, received the threat at 7:15 a.m. Friday. All students were initially moved to Arcadia Middle School while the threat was being assessed. An alert posted to the schools website and on social media shortly before 9 a.m. stated that Due to continued threat investigation, all Arcadia High School students will be dismissed this morning at 9:30 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The high school students were dismissed from the middle school. Around 11:30 a.m., the school notified students and staff that an all-clear had been given and said they could return to the high school to pick up any belongings they left behind. Students were advised they could pick up their things until 3 p.m., and to use the main entrance. The school will also be opening its doors Saturday from 8:30 a.m. and noon during Success Academy or they could wait until school resumes on Monday. WAVY has reached out to the sheriffs office for more information. Continue to check WAVY.com 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 WAVY.com. An event at the National Museum of the US Air Force hosted Miami Valley STEM students, providing them with a hands-on learning experience in aviation on Friday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] News Center 7s Mason Fletcher attended HeliStorm 2025 to see students put their learning into action on News Center 7 at 5:00. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HeliStorm 2025, held May 29 through June 1, provides STEM students the opportunity to connect with aviation professionals as well as earn scholarship money for their school. The top 3 schools with the most students at the event split a $5,000 scholarship. HeliStorm event organizer Michael Kranitz said students have the opportunity to talk to pilots and learn more about aircrafts. He said the flying machines are like video games with consequences and hopes to inspire young people with an interest in the aviation industry. What I hope they get out of it is a new discipline that they didnt know about, Kranitz said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pilot Ben Richardson said hes been flying for over 20 years. He said his obsession with aviation began when he saw someone fly one in a park near where he lived. I always liked the challenge. So the challenge was what kept me in the hobby, Richardson said. This is the first year of the HeliStorm event, but Kranitz said he hopes to keep it going to combat the national pilot shortage. If this program does what I wanted to do, itll grow into a national program thatll help bring more recruits into the industry, Kranitz said. Richardson told News Center 7s Mason Fletcher that he mentored a young man years ago who went on to be in the Air Force and is now a commercial pilot. Richardson and Krantiz said they believe this is the type of inspiration this event can create. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] May 30Five months after then-Preble County Prosecutor Martin Votel was credited by the county sheriff with turning away allegations of sexual imposition against state Rep. Rodney Creech, Creech made a substantial donation to the prosecutor's campaign for county judge. An eventual state investigation into the allegations involving Creech and a teenage minor female produced no charges, but a special prosecutor over the case called Creech's behavior "concerning and suspicious." Creech, a third-term Republican lawmaker from West Alexandria, says the state probe cleared him of any wrongdoing. Votel, who was elected Preble County Common Pleas Court judge in November, disputes Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson's characterization of Votel's involvement in the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Votel told this outlet that he sees no concerns with accepting Creech's donation. "I did not then, and do not now, feel that my campaign's acceptance of these contributions was unethical or inappropriate," Votel wrote in a statement. "Any/all allegations are, to my knowledge, presently and wholly unsubstantiated." Creech was removed from his committee posts in the Ohio House and was asked by leadership to resign once the investigation surfaced this month. He has framed the surfacing of the investigation as a "political hit job." Creech currently represents Preble and parts of Montgomery and Butler counties in the Ohio House. As the allegations against him were about to be published, he announced a run for Ohio Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheriff, prosecutor disagree In July 2023, an allegation that Creech acted inappropriately with a minor teenage female was brought directly to Sheriff Simpson by the minor's stepfather an Ohio police chief. In the time since, Simpson has seemingly told two different stories of his initial phone call with the minor's stepfather, though both of Simpson's stories end with Votel turning down the allegations in one way or another. According to a state investigative record summarizing a November 2023 conversation between Simpson and a state special agent, Simpson relayed that the stepfather felt he had to report the alleged incident as a mandatory reporter under state law. From there, Simpson relayed that he received text messages that outlined Creech's alleged May 2023 conduct, which he then took to Votel for his opinion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state's lead investigator on the case after meeting with Simpson wrote: "Simpson said Mr. Votel indicated there was no criminal complaint at that time. No report or other action took place from the sheriff's office." The alleged victim's mother called Simpson's handling of the case "an absolute dereliction of duty by a public official," according to state records. To the Dayton Daily News, Simpson said the stepfather had not actually tried to report the alleged incident. Instead, Simpson said the stepfather asked whether he had to report the potential crime under the state's mandatory reporter laws. In that version of the story, Simpson said he brought the question to Votel and Votel advised that the stepfather was not a mandatory reporter in this instance. In a statement to this news outlet, Votel seemingly denied both versions of Simpson's story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There was never a question presented to me about mandatory reporters," wrote Votel. "...Further, the office did not and would not either encourage or discourage an investigation the role of the prosecuting attorney is to consult with law enforcement when called upon, and to make criminal charging decisions based upon submitted law enforcement reports." It's unclear what Votel's actual involvement, if any, was in Preble County's initial handling of the allegations. Votel did not respond to a request for interview before publication. Both Simpson and Votel personal friends of Creech recused themselves from the eventual investigation into the allegations that came months later after it was reported in Montgomery County in September 2023. The donation Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Creech routed $4,100 from his own campaign to Votel's bid for the Preble County Court of Common Pleas on Dec. 19, 2023. Creech was Votel's first and largest donor his donation accounted for roughly 75% of the financial support Votel received. It was also the sole donation Creech's campaign has given to Votel dating back to at least mid-2019, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of state campaign finance data. And it's the fourth-largest expenditure Creech has made to an individual candidate in that same time frame, according to state records. In a statement to this outlet, Creech denied any connection between the donations and Votel's reported involvement in fielding the allegations. "Marty Votel is a tremendous public servant, and I am proud to know him," Creech wrote. "Though our friendship goes back nearly 15 years, I have donated to his campaign once the first time Marty has run a contested race since I've known him." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Unfortunately, the simple act of one conservative supporting another is now some sort of scandal in the media. There is literally nothing more to this supposed story, and I will continue to support strong conservatives in Preble County and throughout the State of Ohio." Votel had two elections to win in order to become judge: A contested March 2024 Republican primary and an uncontested November 2024 general election. He won the primary with 70% of the vote and won unopposed in November. Votel also donated $100 to Creech's re-election campaign in September 2024. ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below. Loading... Several months after fires tore through Pacific Palisades and Altadena, rent near burn areas is rising faster than elsewhere in Los Angeles County, according to an L.A. Times analysis of Zillow data. In ZIP codes within three miles of the Palisades fire, rent increased 4.8% from December to April, according to the analysis. Within three miles of the Eaton fire that destroyed swaths of Altadena, rent jumped 5.2%. In L.A. County ZIP codes farther than three miles of either burn area, the gain was smaller 2.2%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rent could be rising for multiple reasons, experts said, but it's likely climbing faster near the fires because thousands of homes were destroyed and displaced residents wanted to stay near where they had built their lives, in the process creating a surge of demand in an already drum-tight housing market. "It doesn't surprise me," said Nicole Lambrou, an urban planning professor at Cal Poly Pomona. "You're looking close to where you were because that's your community." In the weeks after flames broke out, there were widespread reports of landlords illegally price gouging, even raising rent beyond 50%. But there's been debate over how widespread and long-term the fire effects would be, leading to different responses from different government bodies. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in February passed eviction protections for many tenants economically affected by the fires, but the Los Angeles City Council declined to take similar measures amid concerns they would hurt landlords. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Federal Emergency Management Agency hasn't leased apartments for displaced residents like it has after similar disasters, saying data indicate there is enough housing available. To conduct its analysis, The Times looked at Zillow rent data at the ZIP code level for single family houses, condos and apartments and compared average rent from December the month before the fires to April. Because seasonal trends tend to push rent up during those months, The Times also compared the change to previous years and found rent grew more in the most recent period both in areas near the fires, as well as those farther away. Housing and disaster recovery experts said displacement could be contributing at least somewhat to higher rent in areas more than three miles away from the disaster zones since not everyone has been able to or wanted to find housing nearby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The largest impact, however, seems to be in areas closest to the burn areas, where rent climbed around 5% from December. Communities included in ZIP codes near the Palisades burn area were Malibu, Santa Monica and Westwood. ZIP codes near Altadena included Pasadena, Arcadia and Monrovia. In previous years, rent also rose faster in these areas compared with the rest of the county, but the gap grew post-fires, which experts said indicates the fires are the likely cause. Daniel Teles, a housing researcher with the Urban Institute think tank, said the impact for tenants depends on their own financial situation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "For a lot of people it's only a couple of percentage points, but there is a bunch of people who could barely pay their rent as is," he said. "For them a couple of percentage points is the difference between whether they paid all their bills that month." Lambrou said The Times' findings are consistent with other research, including her own on how disasters affect housing costs. She doesn't expect rent to come down as the recovery progresses, but said it shouldn't get much worse since the fires should represent a one-time injection of new demand. "We are not going to see a constant spike in rental prices," she said. Teles said the extent that rent stabilizes in areas near the fires depends on how quickly new housing is built and how many people are still in hotels or other short-term options and will soon be looking for a rental in a tight market. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If there are still people in transitional housing ... that could continue the effect onward," he said. Gladys Clark, a 72-year-old retired teacher, and husband William's search for permanent housing dragged on for months. Since losing their home of roughly three decades in Altadena, the couple bounced between several hotels, before moving into an Airbnb in Monrovia. Clark said they wanted to stay near the memories they built over the years with their five children, 21 grandchildren and one great-grandchild and inquired unsuccessfully about roughly 30 homes near Altadena. One of those they backed out of after the landlord agreed to one price only to raise it $300. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then, Clark said a client of her daughter reached out with an offer to rent, on a long-term basis, a house in Altadena. They left the Airbnb and moved in last weekend, ideally staying until their house on Grandeur Avenue is rebuilt. "It was a real difficult time," Clark said, before thanking God for helping end the months-long search. "I have to give him the glory." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Singa Renewables, a joint venture between TotalEnergies and RGE, has received a conditional licence from Singapores Energy Market Authority (EMA) to import 1 gigawatt of renewable electricity from Indonesia, Trend reports. The electricity will be delivered via a subsea interconnector jointly developed with Singapore Energy Interconnections (SGEI). The project will be powered by a hybrid renewable facility in Riau Province, Indonesia, comprising a solar farm, a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), and a subsea cable. A Co-Investment Agreement was signed in Jakarta on May 28, 2025, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. The project aims to supply clean power to energy-intensive users in Singapore and support local industry in Indonesia, contributing to regional decarbonization goals. Guess who suddenly has a "TACO" allergy? President Yuge Taco Salad himself. In the annals of four-letter words and acronyms Donald Trump has long hitched his political fortunes on, the word "taco" may be easy to overlook. There's MAGA, most famously. DOGE, courtesy of Elon Musk. Huge (pronounced yuge, of course). Wall, as in the one he continues to build on the U.S.-Mexico border. Love for himself, hate against all who stand in his way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a four-letter term, however, that best sums up Trumps shambolic presidency, one no one wouldve ever associated with him when he announced his first successful presidential campaign a decade ago. Taco. His first use of the most quintessential of Mexican meals happened on Cinco de Mayo 2016, when Trump posted a portrait of himself grinning in front of a giant taco salad while proclaiming I Love Hispanics! Latino leaders immediately ridiculed his Hispandering, with UnidosUS president Janet Murguia telling the New York Times that it was clueless, offensive and self-promoting while also complaining, I dont know that any self-respecting Latino would even acknowledge that a taco bowl is part of our culture. Read more: Column: From Trump's taco bowl to Amy Klobuchar's Elena, when 'Hispandering' goes wrong Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I mightve been the only Trump critic in the country to defend his decision to promote taco salads. After all, its a dish invented by a Mexican American family at the old Casa de Fritos stand in Disneyland. But also because the meal can be a beautiful, crunchy thing in the right hands. Besides, I realized what Trump was doing: getting his name in the news, trolling opponents, and having a hell of a good time doing it while welcoming Latinos into his basket of deplorables as he strove for the presidency. Hey, you couldn't blame the guy for trying. Guess what happened? Despite consistently trashing Latinos, Trump increased his share of that electorate in each of his presidential runs and leaned on them last year to capture swing states like Arizona and Nevada. Latino Republican politicians made historic gains across the country in his wake especially in California, where the number of Latino GOP legislators jumped from four in 2022 to a record nine. The Trump taco salad tweet allowed his campaign to present their billionaire boss to Latinos as just any other Jose Schmo ready to chow down on Mexican food. It used the ridicule thrown at him as proof to other supporters that elites hated people like them. Trump must have at least felt confident the taco salad gambit from yesteryear worked because he reposted the image on social media this Cinco de Mayo, adding the line This was so wonderful, 9 years ago today! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's not exactly live by the taco, die by the taco. (Come on, why would such a tasty force of good want to hurt anyone)? But Trump is suddenly perturbed by the mere mention of TACO. Thats an acronym mentioned in a Financial Times newsletter earlier this month that means Trump Always Chickens Out. The insult is in reference to the growing belief in Wall Street that people who invest in stocks should keep in mind that the president talks tough on tariffs but never follows through because he folds under pressure like the Clippers. Or a taco, come to think of it. Trump raged when CNBC reporter Megan Cassella asked him about TACO at a White House press conference this week. Don't ever say what you said, the commander in chief snarled before boasting about how he wasnt a chicken and was actually a tough guy. That's a nasty question. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No other reporter followed up with TACO questions, because the rest of the internet did. Images of Trump in everything from taco suits to taco crowns to carnivorous tacos swallowing Trump whole have bloomed ever since. News outlets are spreading Trumps out-of-proportion response to something he couldve just laughed off, while "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" just aired a parody song to the tune of "Macho Man" titled what else? "Taco Man." The TACO coinage is perfect: snappy, easily understandable, truthful and seems Trump-proof. The master of appropriating insults just cant do anything to make TACO his Trump Always Cares Outstandingly just doesnt have the same ring. Its also a reminder that Trumps anti-Latino agenda so far in his administration makes a predictable mockery of his taco salad boast and related Hispandering. Read more: Hiltzik: Explaining the newest Wall Street craze the 'TACO' trade In just over four months, Trump and his lackeys have tried to deport as many Latino immigrants legal and illegal as possible and has threatened Mexico one of this country's vital trading partners with a 25% tariff. He has signed executive orders declaring English the official language of the United States and seeking to bring back penalties against truck drivers who supposedly don't speak English well enough at a time when immigrants make up about 18% of the troquero force and Latinos are a big chunk of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, the economy the main reason why so many Latinos went for Trump in 2024 in the first place hasnt improved since the Biden administration and always seems one Trump speech away from getting even wobblier. As for Latinos, there are some signs Trump's early presidency has done him no great favors with them. An April survey by the Pew Research Center considered the proverbial gold standard when it comes to objectively gauging how Latinos feel about issues found 27% of them approve of how he's doing as president, down from 36% back in February. President Trump gives a thumbs up to the cheering crowd after a Latinos for Trump Coalition roundtable in Phoenix in 2020. (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press) Trump was always an imperfect champion of the taco's winning potential, and not because the fish tacos at his Trump Grill come with French fries (labeled "Idaho" on the menu) and the taco salad currently costs a ghastly $25. He never really understood that a successful taco must appeal to everyone, never shatter or rip apart under pressure and can never take itself seriously like a burrito or a snooty mole. The president needs to move on from his taco dalliance and pay attention to another four-letter word, one more and more Americans utter after every pendejo move Trump and his flunkies commit: Help. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. 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? FORT SMITH, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) An Arizona man already convicted of murdering a man in 2022 has pleaded guilty to charges related to a 2021 murder in Fort Smith and the stabbings of two Sebastian County deputies earlier this month, according to court documents. John Anthony Cole, 48, entered a guilty plea on Friday in Sebastian County to one count of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted capital murder, and one count of possession of firearms by certain persons. John Anthony Cole, 48 (Courtesy: Sebastian County Detention Center) Cole appeared pro se, without an attorney, after opting to defend himself in court and was sentenced to 200 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A news release from the Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorneys Office said Coles sentence will run concurrently with his Arizona sentence. During his sentencing, Cole tried to read a statement of his own in court that was airing his grievances with the SCSO. When the judge told him he couldnt finish his statement, he refused to be in the room anymore and was sentenced while hanging out in the hallway. Cole was originally arrested on April 7 after authorities connected him to the 2021 shooting death of Jeremiah Tel Hawthorne, 35. On May 9, the Sebastian County Sheriffs Office reported that two deputies were stabbed by an inmate, identified as Cole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Convicted Arizona killer opts to defend himself in Sebastian County homicide case At this time, I have no information that anybody did anything wrong other than Mr. Cole. But every angle will be looked at and thoroughly filtered to make sure were doing the best job we can for the safety of our deputies, for the safety of our inmates and for the safety of our community, Capt. Philip Pevehouse with SCSO said on May 9. Both deputies were taken to a nearby hospital and later released. On Friday, more criminal charges were filed against Cole in connection with the stabbings. In addition to his charges connected to the 2021 fatal shooting, Cole now faces two counts of attempted capital murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A probable cause affidavit said the two deputies were stabbed with a metal shank. The affidavit said Cole had previously threatened one of the deputies he allegedly stabbed, saying he was going to burn him in open court. During the stabbing, Cole reportedly said to the deputies, I told you I was going to do this. Click here for more information on Coles extensive criminal history. 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. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced late Thursday that the state had prevailed in a lawsuit against a Texas robocaller. According to the statement from Griffins office, the federal district judge in Texas ruled that defendant John Spiller was in contempt of a 2023 order and now may no longer operate in the telecommunications industry. Attorney General Tim Griffin taking legal action against Texas robocaller for violating permanent bans Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Griffin was joined by attorneys general from seven other states in the lawsuit, which began in June 2020. This ruling is a win for Arkansans and for many Americans who have been subjected to fraudulent and annoying robocalls by John Spillers companies, which included Rising Eagle Capital Group LLC, Griffin said, adding, The 2023 judgment limited Spillers activities in the telecommunications industry; however, Spiller violated the courts order by starting new companies under an alias and continuing his unlawful robocalls. The order also assessed more than $600,000 in court costs that Spiller must pay, with $46,930 of that going to Arkansas for attorneys fees. Florida robocall operator gets warning from Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arkansas joined with Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas in the suit. 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. Members of the Arkansas Board of Corrections attend a meeting at the North Little Rock headquarters on Feb. 12, 2025. Left to right: Lona McCastlain, William "Dubs" Byers, Chairman Benny Magness, Lee Watson, Brandon Tollett, Grant Hodges. Board member Alonza Jiles attended remotely. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas Board of Corrections on Thursday tentatively approved a $57 million contract with two architectural engineering firms chosen in April to design a planned 3,000-bed prison on 815 acres of land in Franklin County. The board agreed to meet and discuss the contract again sometime before June 10 in case members had any qualms about it being on the agenda of the legislative subcommittee responsible for further approving it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced in March 2023 her intent to have the state build the mega-prison, and the Board of Corrections has greenlit a series of steps in the past several months to get the project off the ground while the state Legislature has been less approving. Omaha, Neb.-based HDR and Little Rock-based Cromwell Architects Engineers will be the contracted design team, pending legislative approval. The board chose the two firms in April and chose the partnership of Nabholz Construction of Conway and J.E. Dunn Construction of Kansas City, Missouri, as the general contractor for the prison earlier this month. Vanir Construction Management Inc. has been the prisons project manager since October 2024, and Vanir led the charge on the architectural contract, leaning heavily on their experience in this business, Corrections Secretary Lindsay Wallace told the corrections board Thursday. Were going to design or at least let you understand what it would cost to do what 3,000 beds would look like, and then allow the state to choose how much [its] actually going to build based on how much is actually appropriated to use to build, Vanir project manager Luann Salado said. But we have to start somewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A $750 million appropriation bill to support the prisons construction died after five failed votes in the Senate in April. State officials and Franklin County residents have fought against the project, citing concerns about transparency, infrastructure and staffing. The appropriation would have covered the remainder of the projected $825 million cost of the project. An additional $75 million appropriated in 2022 for prison expansion has already been allocated to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, which can use the funding to move the project forward. The Legislature also set aside another $330 million for the project in 2023 that hasnt been appropriated yet. Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said May 5 that he does not anticipate a special legislative session this year to address the failed $750 million appropriation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Board member Lee Watson expressed concern Thursday that only part of the required 3,000-bed design might come to fruition due to funding constraints. If we utilize two-thirds of it and we stop, and then two or three years later the state picks this back up and decides to add 1,000 beds, that kind of makes me scratch my head a little, he said. Watson asked Corrections Department Chief Financial Officer Chad Brown if it would be kosher within our budgeting process to pay for the full design. Brown said the contract will be a pay as we go arrangement as long as the total payment remains under an authority dollar amount. The contract allows the state to withdraw from it with seven days notice. Watson and board chairman Benny Magness said it bothered them that the contract mentioned Franklin County by name, and Watson said he hoped the contract would allow for the possibility that we may have to begin with another location if the Franklin County site has issues that preclude it from being used. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the local frustration over the 815 acres of Franklin County land for the prison comes from the Indigenous Chickamauga Nation, which has said the project could have a negative impact on its burial sites in the area. The HDR Cromwell contract has a clause that states the Board of Corrections will appropriately adjust if anything in the project will materially change, Wallace said. The Arkansas Legislative Councils Review subcommittee next meets June 17 and will be responsible for approving the HDR Cromwell contract before it goes to the full council for final approval. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Video: TikTok challenge damaging garage doors in Cabot LITTLE ROCK, Ark. The Arkansas Supreme Court denied a request on behalf of the social media app TikTok to have the Arkansas lawsuit against it thrown out. The Arkansas lawsuit was filed in 2023 by Attorney General Tim Griffin. It charged TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, with violating the states Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). Arkansas AG Tim Griffin joins 41 other AGs calling for congressional requirement for social media surgeon general warning Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suit claimed that TikTok violated the DTPA by misrepresenting itself and, in turn, exposing minors to mature content and engineered its platform to compel people to remain engaged. This has gone so far as to harm young people, the suit alleged, as they responded to various and dangerous TikTok challenges. The suit was filed in the Cleburne County District Court, where attorneys for TikTok requested that the suit be dismissed, arguing that Arkansas had not established jurisdiction or a claim for relief. The court rejected the argument, meaning the case proceeded, and that ruling was subsequently appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court. CVS Pharmacy files suit against Arkansas over new law preventing PBM ownership of pharmacies On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, a request that the Supreme Court force the Circuit Court to rule in TikToks favor, stating that such a ruling would be inappropriate under Arkansas precedent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Griffin was pleased with the Thursday ruling. Todays ruling allows our lawsuit against TikTok to move forward, Griffin said. This moves us one step closer to holding TikTok accountable for deceiving Arkansans, especially children and their parents, about its app. Arkansas filing suit against Meta, TikTok under Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act Court records indicate that the case is scheduled to be heard on Sept. 29 in a jury trial expected to last three weeks. 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. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. A Thursday ruling by the Arkansas Supreme Court is expected to lead to a gag order being lifted in a deadly Lonoke County shooting. The case came to the court on behalf of Aaron Spencer, who is facing charges of second-degree murder in the October 2024 shooting death of 67-year-old Michael Fosler. Lonoke County deputies arrest man after altercation leads to deadly shooting According to court records, Fosler had been charged in July 2024 with numerous sexual offenses against Spencers teenage daughter, and he was released on bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the night of the shooting, Spencer realized his daughter had left the house and went looking for her. He found Foslers truck with his daughter inside and forced it off the road. After an altercation, Spencer called 911 to report he had shot Fosler. Fosler died at the scene, court records state. National pharmacy company sues Arkansas over law eliminating PBM pharmacy ownership The record continues that the state requested a gag order on the case on Dec. 4, 2024, due to what it called extensive media coverage, including a news release from Spencers attorneys that described him as a heroic father. The state argued that the coverage and public statements would lead the community to side with Spencer, thereby harming the integrity of the jury pool. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Dec. 9, 2024, Spencers attorney filed an opposition to the gag order. On Dec. 10, the court put the gag order in place without holding a hearing, according to the filing. Spencer then requested the Supreme Court issue a command, called a writ of certiorari, to the lower court to lift the gag order. His request cited the First Amendment and the Lonoke circuit court exceeded its jurisdiction. The Supreme Court honored that request on Thursday, and the writ was issued. In its ruling, the court stated: [W]e hold that the circuit courts action in entering the challenged gag order was on its face a plain, manifest, clear, and gross abuse of discretion and in excess of its authority. Further, there is no other adequate remedy except for a writ of certiorari. Arkansas Supreme Court decides TikTok vs. Arkansas case will go forward, denies dismissal request Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ruling also cautioned the court against sealing the cases proceedings from the public, citing it as a constitutional violation. Spencers attorneys, Erin Cassinelli and Michael Kaiser, said in a statement that the Supreme Courts decision has far-reaching implications. The Court has given clear guidelines for gag orders that will help the public, litigants, and courts across the state appropriately assess case-related speech as balanced with the strong First Amendment protections that are a bedrock of our society, they stated. No longer will state courts be permitted to allow a prosecutor to release alarming and potentially misleading information while a circuit court blanketly restricts a citizens public explanation of his innocence. CVS Pharmacy files suit against Arkansas over new law preventing PBM ownership of pharmacies Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They continued that they appreciated the Supreme Courts turning the lights back on in Lonoke 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 KARK. NATCHITOCHES PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) A traffic stop in Natchitoches Parish leads to the arrest of an armed robbery suspect, along with a gun and drugs being seized. Anyia Davis, 20, of Campti, Louisiana, and Jeremiah Metoyer, 18, of Fort Bend, Texas, are both in the Natchitoches Detention Center. Mother abandons children, then reports them as missing The Natchitoches Parish Sheriffs office says the two were arrested on May 24 following a traffic stop on St. Clair Street. Deputies with the NPSO Impact Team conducted a traffic stop on a 2017 Hyundai Sonata for a traffic violation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Davis, who was the driver of the vehicle, was wanted on a felony warrant for an armed robbery that happened on November 27, 2024. She was wanted for her alleged involvement in the armed robbery of Cowboys Truck Stop in Ajax, where shots were fired. No injuries were reported, but cash was taken. The sheriffs office says Metoyer was illegally carrying a handgun and then allegedly ran while being frisked. Teen fatally gunned down in Shreveport neighborhood They say he was quickly caught. A subsequent search led to the seizure of a loaded Glock 26 9mm handgun and approximately 10 grams of suspected marijuana. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities say a search of the vehicle uncovered $2,267 in cash hidden inside a camouflage ski mask. The cash was seized as evidence. Davis is a convicted felon previously found guilty of aggravated flight from an officer and aggravated assault. 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. The Mackinac Bridge in the Straits of Mackinac, May 27, 2024 | Susan J. Demas Enbridge Energys controversial Line 5 tunnel project will move forward to a 30-day public comment period after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement, which did not clear the project of all and potentially significant environmental concerns raised by activists and lawmakers opposed to the pipeline and its proposed tunnel. The proposed plan is to construct a 3.6 mile tunnel under the lakebed of the Straits of Mackinac that would house a replacement segment of Line 5. The pipeline consists of two 20-inch diameter pipes that are buried in sediment near the shore and rest on, or are anchored to, the lakebed of the Stratis, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enbridges aim is to have that tunnel approved for permitting by the federal government through the Army Corps review process. It is their preferred alternative to no action from the Corps, which the company has said could result in less environmental security and certainty. Other alternatives include bolstering the tunnel with protective materials or the decommissioning of the pipeline altogether, which is what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel set out to do shortly after they entered office in 2018. Enbridge called the release of the impact statement and opening the public comment period a significant milestone for the project. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX It is the result of more than five years of rigorous and comprehensive permit review and stakeholder engagement including input from Tribes and is a critical step forward in planning a project that will modernize energy infrastructure, protect the Great Lakes, and ensure long-term energy reliability for Michigan and the broader region, said Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy. We appreciate the extensive technical work that went into this document and the opportunity to contribute detailed responses to numerous data and information requests demonstrating our commitment to transparency and environmental, social and cultural responsibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duffy added that it was Enbridges goal for the proposed tunnel and the existing line to have the smallest possible environmental footprint. The tunnel design already reflects that intent, and we will use the USACEs findings from the [impact statement] to further refine the project, he said. Some activists who have fought against the continued operation of the line said this week that more work was needed to prevent the project from moving forward, while others said were disappointed in the states efforts to shut down Line 5. Andrea Pierce, founder of the Michigan Anishinaabek caucus and policy director at the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, said Michigan needed to have good, clean, safe water for them to drink, to fish, to hunt, to gather. Those were also the hallmarks of the treaty rights granted to Tribes in Michigan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pierce was critical of Whitmers actions thus far. Governor Whitmer has done some things. She has [attempted to] shut them down. She revoked their easement. But thats it, Pierce said. What else is being done? Its operating illegally. That pipeline for years now [has been] operating illegally. Theyre still making a profit off of us, off of Michigan citizens. They are making a profit, these Canadian companies, that needs to stop. Enbridge initially filed to apply for permits to build the tunnel in April 2020. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working on the draft economic statement since then. In April, the Corps said its evaluation would move forward on a shortened timeline following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the existence of Line 5 and its continued operation has been fought out in a winding legal battle that remains active even as the project hit a milestone of forward progress on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Public comment on the project will end on June 30. Virtual public meetings are scheduled for June 18 and June 25, and comments will be collected online or through written submissions, which can be mailed to 6501 Shady Grove Road, P.O. Box 10178, Gaithersburg, MD 20898. The impact statement released Friday factored in many rounds of previous public comment and input from Tribal organizations, as well as analysis of the project plans and potential alternatives. The upshot: Enbridges tunnel project could have numerous consequences for land ownership and land use, land and water-based recreation, water resources, area aesthetics and air quality, as well as biological, cultural and soil resources. As to the cultural resources affected, construction and operation of the tunnel would have adverse effects on archaeological sites and an existing archaeological district. Each of the activities associated with construction were listed as events that would destroy archaeological resources within the project footprint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Impacts to Tribal treaty rights were not noted in the report, but the Corps said those issues would be determined in its decision materials following the new round of public comment. A change of land ownership might be necessary at certain laydown areas as Enbridge would have to purchase land within the sites or acquire temporary or permanent easements. Direct, long-term and permanent detrimental impacts were associated with the project, the Corps said, as it related to undeveloped forest land that would need to be transformed into industrial sites, permanently altering the geology along the proposed tunnel site. Direct and detrimental effects to nearby recreational sites were noted due to the noise and aesthetic impacts of construction. Those impacts would likely end when construction was completed, however. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Groundwater could be affected, but aquifer testing along the tunnel alignment site showed the surrounding aquifer would recover in a matter of days following construction. There is, however, concern for the potential release of drilling fluids and other contaminants associated with onshore material storage and the use of heavy equipment. That said, the Corps noted that those impacts would also end once construction ceased but with a heavy caveat that the construction contractor would have to adhere to a spill plan and monitor onsite and nearby well water for up to two years following completion. To that end, surface water could be greatly affected by the project, as it would disturb the Straits during the installation of a water intake pipe. Approximately 20,000 gallons of drilling fluid consisting of water and bentonite would be released. The features would be removed following construction. Enbridge sign in St. Ignace | Susan J. Demas The turbidity and sedimentation in the area would be affected on a limited basis in the work area, but direct and detrimental impacts were noted to surface water adjacent to the construction site due to erosion and sedimentation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An adherence to mitigation measures as a part of any approved permits would alleviate some of those concerns, and any long-term increases in stormwater would be managed by a permanent stormwater system. Again, the Corps noted detrimental impacts associated with the unintended release of contaminants like equipment fuel. Vegetation and wildlife disturbances in the area were also listed as factors, the latter of which would come from blasting activities during site preparation and the presence of workers in wildlife areas. The loss of approximately eight acres of habitat for protected species was noted, which would require ongoing coordination with the federal government and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Air quality would also be disturbed during construction, and proposed ventilation fans would add to noise nuisance, but only on an intermittent basis. The possibility of harmful emissions were noted to be significantly higher with Enbridges proposed version of the tunnel project compared to an alternative that includes a gravel and protective rock cover. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reliability of the tunnel and its safety assurances were also analyzed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the report noted that the possibility of a catastrophic anchor strike, which could potentially release oil into the Great Lakes, would be eliminated with the presence of a tunnel. Decommissioning the line also carried some potential localized and short-term consequences, the Army Corps said. Reactions to the projects forward progress were mixed, at best. Great Lakes Michigan Jobs a coalition composed of the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Grand Rapids Chamber, economic development organization InvestUP, the Upper Peninsula Construction Council, labor unions and industry associations said in a joint statement issued Friday that they would support the tunnel project as the public comment period commenced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group also said that it was time to grant the project its permits to build the tunnel. Line 5 is an important piece of energy infrastructure for the continent, providing Michiganders with critical light crude and propane extracted from Canada, Brian Shoaf, vice president of Public Policy and Business Advocacy with the Detroit Regional Chamber, said in a statement. Josh Lunger, vice president of government affairs with the Grand Rapids Chamber, said the tunnel wasnt just an energy project, it was a strategic infrastructure investment. Across the entire state, we count on Line 5. It powers our businesses, our job sites, and even our homes, Lunger said in a statement. The Army Corps has been reviewing permit applications for more than five years. Its time to grant the permits. Enbridge eviction celebration, Conkling Park, Mackinaw City | Laina G. Stebbins Those who have been opposed to the project have said for years that the pipeline is a danger to the Great Lakes and the Straits of Mackinac. The tunnel project, in their view, would not alleviate the environmental concerns, but only stands to exacerbate them. As lawmakers and business leaders met for the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference this week on Mackinac Island, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who gave a speech to the conference Thursday night, so too did activists gather to express concerns over Line 5. Ahead of the governors annual speech, protesters marched through downtown Mackinac Island, where they planned to rally outside the Grand Hotel for a press conference denouncing the tunnel project. The protesters, however, were turned away at the bottom of the hill approaching the hotel by a person who said he was there on behalf of the hotel. The man informed the protesters that the sidewalks and roads leading to the hill were private property owned by the Grand Hotel. That did not deter the protesters from being heard, even as they were diverted away from the hotel. Governor Whitmer has stood up for the Great Lakes and all of us before, by revoking Line 5s illegal easement, but her work isnt done, said Beth Wallace, the Great Lakes climate and energy director at the National Wildlife Federation. Now, Enbridge wants to blast and drill through the Great Lakes for years just to extend [the] life of a pipeline that will soon reach 80 years old and has already spilled at least 35 times. Meanwhile, the Great Lakes business network and regional experts confirm the project is absolutely not needed. Wallace added that decommissioning Line 5 was the only honorable path forward, and means were honoring treaties and public trust, supporting domestic energy supplies and alternatives, creating more jobs in decommissioning, avoiding noticeable price increases, and its important to notice we are paying for the tunnel. Those price increases are going to happen in the rates that Enbridge is already setting, Wallace said. The proposed tunnel isnt about safety or providing our communities with energy, its about Enbridges profits. Michigan Advance reporter Kyle Davidson contributed to this report. This story was updated to reflect that the correct name is the Michigan Anishinaabek caucus and that Great Lakes Michigan Jobs is a coalition of business leaders, labor unions and industry associations. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 29. Kazakhstan's budget airline FlyArystan has added the 27th aircraft to its fleet - the modern and environmentally friendly Airbus A320neo, which will start operations in June 2025, Trend reports via FlyArystan. The new airliner is designed to carry 188 passengers and is named after the star Atlas a bright member of the Pleiades star cluster, symbolizing reliability, power, and aspiration for height. Adding a new aircraft to our fleet is an important step in FlyArystan's sustainable growth strategy. One of our main goals is to make air travel even more affordable and convenient for passengers. This is especially relevant ahead of the summer season when demand for air travel increases significantly. In the summer of 2025, FlyArystan will increase the number of domestic flights and relaunch seasonal routes across Kazakhstan, strengthening regional connectivity. We will also continue the gradual expansion of our international route network by opening new travel destinations, said Richard Ledger, President of FlyArystan. This summer, FlyArystan will launch a number of new international and charter flights. Among the new routes are: Karaganda Istanbul; Almaty Yining; Astana Gazipasha; Almaty Tamchy (Issyk-Kul); Atyrau Tashkent. The airline will also continue its established routes from Kazakhstans capital to Urumqi, Bishkek, Tashkent, and Baku. Passengers from Aktau will still be able to fly to Istanbul and Baku. In 2024, more than 4.2 million passengers used FlyArystans services. One in five of them flew at a fare of up to 15,000 tenge (approximately $30). COURTESY U.S. ARMY Dewayne Johnson 1 /2 COURTESY U.S. ARMY Dewayne Johnson COURTESY PHOTO Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson. 2 /2 COURTESY PHOTO Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson. COURTESY U.S. ARMY Dewayne Johnson COURTESY PHOTO Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson. A Schofield Barracks soldier, whose 19-year-old pregnant wife disappeared in the summer of 2024, has agreed to plead guilty to charges in a hearing next week, a spokeswoman from the U.S. Armys Office of Special Trial Counsel said today in an email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pfc. DeWayne Arthur Johnson IIs defense counsel negotiated a plea deal with the Armys Office of Special Trial Counsel, which is not releasing any details on the charges at this time. A June 3 5 hearing at Wheeler Army Airfield Courtroom is scheduled. Johnsons wife, Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, was six months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. The womans family last heard from her July 12, 2024. On Aug. 27, the Armys Office of Special Trial Counsel preferred charges of providing false official statements, obstruction of justice and the production and distribution of child pornography in violation of Articles 107, 131b and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and 14 unnamed specifications against Dewayne Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Preferral of charges is a formal process in the military when a prosecutor drafts the charges, and a commander signs and reads the service member the charges. See more : 0 Comments By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our. Having trouble with comments ? . The Army Criminal Investigation Division is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the death of 1st Lt. Marciano Parisano earlier this month in Honduras. Parisano, 25, was serving as a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot with the 1st Battalion, 228 Aviation Regiment assigned to Soto Cano Air Base, near Comayagua, Honduras. The base is the headquarters for Joint Task Force-Bravo, the U.S. militarys lead expeditionary force in Central and South America. On May 3, Parisano was found dead in Comayagua. He had been on a liberty pass from the air base. Honduran media reported that he was found near the Chiquito River area, and that police did not suspect that robbery was a motive in Parisanos death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Parisano was last seen on camera footage at 3:20 a.m. on May 2 outside Club Santos in Comayagua, a CID news release says. The club is located just off 1A Calle SE, between 5A Avenida SE and 6A Avenida SE, a CID poster says. Army investigators are asking people with credible information about the circumstances of Parisanos death to contact the Army CID MacDill Resident Unit at (912) 547-4626 or via WhatsApp at (571) 656-7842, the news poster says. Anonymous tips can be sent online to www.cid.army.mil/tips. Originally from Cibolo, Texas, Parisano graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 2023, and he and his girlfriend became engaged to be married in April, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Joint Task Force Bravo posted a Facebook message on May 9 that included a statement from Parisanos parents, Tom and Jessie, who said they are committed to seeking justice for Marco. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We trust the authorities will do everything in their power to ensure that accountability prevails, they said in the statement. No family should have to endure this kind of loss, and we hope that Marcos story will serve as a reminder that Gods timing is unknown, and we must always be prepared. Tom and Jessie Parisano also said their son made an indelible impression on all who knew him through his compassion, laughter, and dedication. No words can truly capture the depth of our grief, nor the pain of waking up each day without him, they said in the statement. Marco was more than just our child he was a bright light in our lives, a source of joy, kindness, and unwavering love. His presence was a gift, touching the hearts of everyone who crossed his path. The latest on Task & Purpose HONOLULU (KHON2) The husband of missing pregnant woman, Mischa Johnson, is set to plead guilty in early June. According to U.S. Army officials, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel and the defense counsel for Private First Class Dewayne Johnson negotiated a plea agreement. Army charges soldier in wife, Mischa Johnsons, disappearance Officials added that Johnson has agreed to plead guilty and noted that additional details are not releasable at this time as the guilty plea is subject to acceptance by the military judge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He will appear in a military courtroom betwen June 3 and June 5. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You Johnson has been charged with five offenses and 19 specifications related to the disappearance of 19-year-old Misha Johnson, who was six months pregnant when she was last seen in July. Charges include the murder of Mischa Johnson, intentionally killing her unborn child, obstruction of justice, providing false statements and posession/distribution of child pornography. Check out more news from around Hawaii Mischa Johnson is presumed dead, though her body has not been found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Police in New Smyrna Beach said a man has been arrested after a deadly crash in January. Officials said Mark Ruth was arrested Thursday after a four-month investigation. The crash happened on Jan. 25 on the North Causeway. A man and a woman were on a sidewalk when they were struck by a driver. The man was seriously injured, and the woman was killed in the crash. According to the New Smyrna Beach Police Department, Ruth was driving a westbound vehicle when it suddenly left the roadway and onto the sidewalk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ruth was taken to the Volusia County Jail and is expected to make his first court appearance soon. Channel 9 is working to gather more information and will provide updates on Eyewitness News. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Investigators have arrested two men in connection with a terrifying kidnapping and robbery in Culver City earlier this month. The violence, according to a news release from the Culver City Police Department, unfolded on May 13 as the victim, described only as a male, was leaving a business in the 3800 block of Midway Avenue, near Venice Boulevard when he was ordered at gunpoint by a suspect to get inside a silver SUV. The gunman and another suspect drove the victim to an unidentified bank on Palms Boulevard and forced the man to make several cash withdrawals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After attempting to obtain additional funds through a loan from a friend, the suspects drove the victim back to the bank for further ATM withdrawals, investigators said. The thieves, who made off with less than $600, dumped the victim in a nearby residential area, with a warning not to contact law enforcement. A man was kidnapped and robbed in the 3600 block of Midway Ave., near Venice Blvd. on May 13, 2025. (Google Maps) Two male suspects were arrested for kidnapping and robbery near the I-5 & Newhall Ranch Rd offramp on May 27, 2025. (Google Maps) A short time later, the man walked into the Culver City Police Department to report the kidnapping and robbery. Detectives immediately initiated an investigation which ultimately led to the identification of two suspects, now identified as 23-year-old Washington state resident Franzezo Dumitru and 21-year-old New York state resident Stan Eduardo, both of whom investigators believed to be approximately 40 miles away in the Castaic area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sinkhole off Southern California construction site swallowing adjacent property On May 27, Culver City Crime Impact Team Detectives responded to the Castaic area and located the suspects vehicle parked at a local motel, officials said. At approximately 11:20 a.m., two individuals matching the suspects descriptions were spotted and detained in a high-risk traffic stop at the Newhall Ranch Road offramp on Interstate 5. Investigators did not provide any information on possible evidence recovered on the suspects, in their vehicle or out of their hotel room, but said they were booked into the Culver City Jail for kidnapping for ransom and robbery. It is also unclear if the two men have committed similar crimes in Southern California. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men have since been officially charged by the L.A. County District Attorneys Office, 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 KTLA. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) Do you think you have what it takes to drive a school bus? Well, the Vigo County School Corporation is giving you that chance this weekend. These school buses may look scary to drive, but the Supervisor of Transportation for the Vigo County School Corporation, Carol Lewis, said they will teach you everything you need to know at their Arrive and Drive event. This gives community members a chance to come out and see what its really like to drive a bus, and if they really like it We offer training as well, free training offered by the Vigo County School Corporation to get your CDL, said Lewis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added that the event is also a perfect chance for the school corporation to fill vacant spots in its staff. We are currently short about 11 bus drivers. We have posted routes in the office currently, and we are hoping to have all of those filled by next year. The summer is a great time for training cause you have all summer to get your training done and have you ready for the first day of school next year, said Lewis. Lewis said a school bus drivers job isnt just getting kids to school on time. Bus drivers hear a lot of things about home life. Students tell them all kinds of things. They have their requirements just like a teacher does. Sometimes if they hear something that they think may be abusive or something going on, their required to report that, said Lewis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the end of the day, Lewis said its a very fulfilling job. Its very fulfilling, they will get on the bus and hug their drivers sometimes Bus drivers get to know their students very well. Theyre the first face they see in the morning, and a good morning and a smile can make someones day, especially if they are having a bad one, said Lewis. The Arrive and Drive event will be held on Saturday, May 31, at the Vigo County School Corporations Transportation Bus Lot at 3250 Maple Ave, from 9 a.m. to Noon. 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. Observing a woman get ready to go out is, for many girls, an early glimpse at the ritualistic preparations that femininity can entail. For the artist Christina Ramberg, watching her mother getting dressed for partiesin particular, putting on a corset called a merry widow, which gave her an hourglass figurerevealed the extent to which the female form was a ruse. I can remember being stunned by how it transformed her body, how it pushed up her breasts and slendered down her waist, Ramberg later observed. I used to think that this is what men want women to look like; shes transforming herself into the kind of body men want. I thought it was fascinating, she said. In some ways, I thought it was awful. These dueling reactions, fascination and repulsion, come up in Rambergs paintings, which, especially early in her career, fixated on the artifice of the female bodyall the different ways that women construct themselves, with the aid of the mass market. Her striking portraits of womens body parts feature torsos strapped into corsets, feet shoved into high heels, intricately arranged updos. The images are crisp, flat, and slyly cropped or angled to never show faces. And although theyre sensual, theyre also depersonalized and often off-kilter; sometimes, hair is parted in unnatural directions, or skin is patchy. The dueling presence of unruly and taming forces in these paintings recalls the consumer products that divide womens bodies into conquerable parts: the sprays that restrain, the undergarments that shape. As the artist Riva Lehrer puts it in one of several essays accompanying a traveling exhibit of Rambergs work, currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Without the face, the body must tell all. What it tells, in these paintings, is by turns sobering and playfuland never sanctimonious. Rambergs explorations began to take shape in the late 60s, when she was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago painting on small, cheap Masonite panels. She became affiliated with the Chicago Imagists, a loose grouping of figurative artists whose work tended toward the colorful, grotesque, and surreal (though, at times since its initial use, the label has seemed to result in a downplaying of the stylistic differences among its members). One of Rambergs teachers at SAIC and a mentor to the Imagists, Raymond Yoshida, was a deep pedagogical influence. He was an avid visitor of flea markets and instilled in students like Ramberg a loveand practiceof collecting items. Collecting, Yoshida said, was a way of establishing a pattern of looking, and Ramberg over time amassed hundreds of dolls that she displayed in her apartment. Her paintings of fragmented bodies are their own kind of collectionand their own pattern of looking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ramberg wasnt unique in probing the commodification of female sexuality, though a particular blend of compositional rigor, sly humor, and curiosity gave an engrossing velocity to her paintings across the 1970s and 80s. The period in which she developed as an artist was charged with contradictions, one that saw second-wave feminism cresting amid a cultural tug-of-war over sexual liberation. Gloria Steinem had by that point published her expose about working undercover as a bunny at Hugh Hefners Playboy Club; Playboy magazine, then headquartered in Chicago, hit the peak of its circulation in the early 70s. (Perhaps ironically, Rambergs work occasionally appeared in the publication.) Cindy Sherman would, in the early 80s, make her famed photographic series in which she posed as centerfold models, drawing attention to the mechanics of male attention. Similar cultural shorthands are at play in Rambergs paintings. Her early work pulls from the brisk visuals of advertisements, the seriality of comic panels, the close crops of voyeuristic photography: These familiar elements initially draw viewers in, and might even seem to point toward a more standard indictment of the male gaze, or of consumerism, but Ramberg threw changeups that turned her paintings darker and more intriguingly complex. One series, for instance, shows thick tranches of hair cinched into the shape of corsets, or possibly vases; the plaited tresses are sharp tricks on the viewers eye, a menacing yet sensual play on the controlling perfection that shapewear (or, perhaps, home decor) helps to enforce. The interplay between skin and fabric in some of her images also seems mischievous. Ramberg had an enduring interest in fashionat 6 foot 1, she often made her own clothesand rendered fabrics carefully. She might give a bustier a fine, pebbly texture, redirecting the viewers attention away from bare skin, while also perhaps nodding to how idiosyncratic personal taste can be when it comes to the materials we wear. In one image from 1971, a white fabric wound around a hand turns into a partial glove, snugly encasing just three fingers, leaving the other two free; with delicate humor, it hints at the thin line between what we wear and what we are. In her journals, Ramberg once described an idea she had for a painting, in which the ruffles of an item of worn clothing would actually be painted as flesh. The implication of clothing as a type of skin is creepy but clarifies Rambergs intent: She seemed to be exploring the artificiality baked into how we show ourselves to others. In Rambergs wildest imaginations, clothing is no longer simply a mechanism that pushes up breasts or slims down a waistline; it becomes an authentic, even crucial, layer of self-presentationas important to our sense of self as flesh itself. The estate of Christina Ramberg Untitled (Hand) 2.jpg Untitled (Hand) 3.jpg The surreality of this idea expands the perimeter of our emotional response. With that hypothetical conflating of skin as fabric, or fabric as skinthe blurring of our core selves and the layers we put on for the worldRamberg seemed to question whether most everything about ourselves might be constructed, and whether we are, in fact, what we construct. In all this, she was quite interested in hidden or subconscious desires. Her diaries, which she kept from 1969 to 1980, include sexual fantasies, and she describes dreams of bondage and illicit trysts. To Ramberg, like the complicated memory of her mother lacing herself into a corset, fantasies are ultimately generativeboth productive and unpredictable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even in grief, Ramberg seemed to find solace in the affordances of fantasy. In 1973, when she was 27, Ramberg lost a baby that she delivered prematurely. Some of her female forms in this period shifted away from overt playfulness, while maintaining an openness to multiple readingsone 1974 painting titled Gloved shows an austere torso, this time wrapped in gauze that could be interpreted as either medical dressing or bondage wear. The ambiguity Ramberg painted into the fabric asks us to leave room for either possibility. As Rambergs work changed over the years, the focus of her gaze shifted, too. Some of her later paintings turn womens bodies into mechanistic objectsalmost gridlike, compartmentalized structures. In one, a smaller body drops out of the bigger one, as from a factory assembly line. This seeming anxiety about womens bodies as sites of productivity reminded me of Rambergs diary entries recounting her life. She described her days as a mother (in 1975, she had a child with her husband, the artist Phil Hanson), the aforementioned dreams and fantasies, the work she did in the studio. She documented everything in one place, sometimes using different-colored ink to differentiate between aspects of her day; but she didnt cordon one part of her life off from another. The entangled accounts suggest that she saw everything she didthe chaotic overwhelm of it allas her work. The diaries also show a preoccupation with the constraints, and influence, of the domestic realm, the way that the details of the world around you can affect what you make, what you think about, what you see. To me, this is another example of Rambergs mode of looking. Her interest in fabricas functional material, spiritual armor, generative artseems distinctly connected to her interest in working with constraint, rather than trying to bust completely free. This philosophical inclination is apparent even in her later works, when she turned away from the female body: A sequence of quilted works celebrated the structure of geometric patterns, while a series known as her satellite paintingsa stark set of towers that nonetheless look vaguely torso-likemight be read as a stripped-down meditation on form and order. Ramberg died in 1995 of Picks disease, which had led to early-onset dementia; she was only 49. By all accounts, she was someone who saw art as a practice, a form of cultural critique, a crucial community; her role as a longtime teacher at SAIC, she later said, kept her connected to just beginning and deeply committed artists and helped her balance immersion in my own work. Perhaps that sense of proportionality explains why her paintings, and the ideas she probed again and again through them, have maintained their acuity. With focused precision but no piety, she explored what happens when the individuality of the person is lost to the demands of femininity, as Lehrer puts it, all the while maintaining curiosity about the powerful psychologies that helped build those expectations. And in examining the entanglements between women and the world they are a part of, Ramberg seemed to understand, ultimately, that a little bit of strangeness can bring precarity to the viewers experience, and then expand it. Article originally published at The Atlantic Since President Trump returned to office, some of the most aggressive actions taken by his administration have centered around two issues: immigration and higher education. He has launched a nationwide mass deportation program that has defied courts and stretched the bounds of his constitutional authority. He has also targeted some of the nations most prestigious colleges, revoking billions of dollars in federal funding while trying to strong-arm them into overhauling how they operate. Students who have come to the United States for college have found themselves at the center of both of these ongoing ideological battles, forced to deal with the whiplash of changing policies, a barrage of court orders and rampant uncertainty about whether theyll be able to continue their education in this country. In the past few months, more than 1,800 international students attending nearly 300 universities have had their visas revoked by the State Department only to see that decision abruptly reversed. Multiple foreign students have been detained for weeks by immigration authorities because of their political activities. The administration has tried to revoke Harvards right to host international students but has so far been blocked by a court order. On Tuesday, the Trump administration ordered U.S. embassies worldwide to pause visa interviews for prospective students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its unclear how long that pause might be in effect or how the administrations new procedures might affect the number of international students who end up coming to the U.S. next year. What is certain is that Americas longstanding position as a coveted destination for scholars from around the world has been upended. The value of foreign students Students from other nations have been coming to study at American universities for more than 100 years, and their numbers have steadily grown over the course of the past century. During the 2023-24 school year, the U.S. was the top academic destination in the world, with a record-setting 1.1 million foreign students attending American colleges, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE). A number of past presidents have viewed international exchange programs as a way to build strong relationships with other nations. They understood that the best and brightest students from all over the world would likely grow up to have great influence in their home nations and instilling them with a positive view of the United States could help with future diplomacy. We know that some other president, in other days, will be greeting you as either the prime ministers or the presidents or the first ladies of significant countries, then-President John F. Kennedy Jr. told a group of foreign students in 1962. And I hope when you do that, you will say that you were at the White House once before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As their numbers have grown, foreign students have also become increasingly important economically, both to the schools they attend and the surrounding communities. Last year, international students were responsible for adding $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported nearly 400,000 American jobs, according to estimates from the international education group NAFSA. The number of international students in the United States has nearly doubled over the past two decades, in large part because of their financial value to schools in the wake of the Great Recession. When particularly public colleges and state budgets were being cut, you could actually see how declines in state dollars going to colleges were being made up for with foreign enrollments. Those tuition dollars are pretty important to keeping the lights on, Carolyn Beeler, a reporter for Inside Higher Ed, said in an interview with The World radio network last year. Many foreign students pay significantly more in tuition and fees than locals do. They are also far less likely to rely on financial aid or scholarships. Roughly 80% of international students cover the cost of attending college in the U.S. entirely on their own, which helps schools funnel more money to their American students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres this perception that international students are coming here and that we are paying as Americans, and were subsidizing them. But the fact is, its really the reverse, Beeler told The World. Where foreign students are most important Hundreds of universities across the country have international students on their campuses, but they are especially important to some of the nations most prestigious colleges. New York University had more than 27,000 foreign students enrolled during the last academic year, by far the most of any school. Elite schools in the Northeast and the West Coast also rank in the top 10 for foreign student enrollment, along with a few top-flight schools in the middle of the country. While foreign students are important wherever they attend, they are especially valuable in the places that they flock to in the highest numbers. California and New York, the top two states for international enrollment, both saw more than $6 billion in economic impact and over 50,000 jobs supported by visiting students during the last academic year, according to NAFSA data. There is already some evidence that international enrollment may have dipped significantly for the current academic year, which started during the final months of the Biden administration. Its too early to know how big of an impact the Trump administrations policies will have on the number of students who both choose to and are allowed to come to the United States for their education. The next school year doesn't start for a few months, and there will undoubtedly be new developments, court rulings and changes to official procedures between now and then. A short pursuit came to a violent and deadly end when the driver of a luxury sports car crashed into a light pole in Los Angeles Boyle Heights neighborhood early Friday morning. The chase unfolded around 3 a.m. when California Highway Patrol officers began pursuing the driver of a silver Aston Martin, who was reportedly speeding near South Soto Street and Whittier Boulevard. The chase came to an end a short time later when the driver slammed into the pole near Soto Street and Washington Boulevard, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver initially fled on foot, according to CHP, but officers quickly tackled him to the ground. During his arrest, the man suddenly became unconscious, officials said. Paramedics arrived and performed CPR. However, the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Emergency crews respond to a fatal pursuit crash in Los Angeles on May 30, 2025. (KTLA) There was a small amount of force that was used, Highway Patrol Sgt. Dan Keene told reporters. When the fire department arrived on scene, the driver started to show signs of distress and started to vomit. Its unknown if he ingested anything or if impairment is a factor at this time. Officers said the Aston Martin was not reported as stolen, but rather registered to an address in Irvine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The intersection of Soto Street and Washington Boulevard was closed for the investigation throughout the morning. KTLAs Alexis Lewis 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 KTLA. May 29Deputies received a report of an attempted break-in at 11:02 a.m. Wednesday at 17743 750th Ave. The incident was believed to have occurred over the weekend. 1 arrested on warrant Police arrested Amber Lynn Tasker, 45, on a local warrant at 9:53 p.m. Wednesday at 79928 255th St. in Albert Lea. Juvenile cited for assault, disorderly conduct Police cited a juvenile for fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct at 11:44 a.m. Wednesday 1601 W. Front St. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tires reported slashed A tire was reported slashed on a vehicle at 4:03 p.m. Wednesday 910 S. Broadway. Theft, damage reported Two generators were reported stolen at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at 2610 Hi Tec Ave. A window was also broken to gain entry to a school bus that was stored on the property. ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 30. Cooperation between Astana and Ashgabat is on an upward trajectory, showing positive developments across many key sectors, Trend reports. This was highlighted by Kazakhstans President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during his meeting with Turkmenistans President Serdar Berdimuhamedov on the sidelines of the inaugural Central AsiaItaly summit held in Astana. Tokayev emphasized the importance of the Turkmen Presidents participation in the summit as a crucial step toward advancing multifaceted interstate relations. This is the first time Central Asian countries and Italy are engaging in high-level talks. I am confident that the summits outcomes will contribute to further expanding and strengthening cooperation between our states, said Serdar Berdimuhamedov. During their conversation, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also conveyed warm greetings to Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, wishing him continued success in his important responsibilities. Larry Householder, left, and Matt Borges, right. (Photos by WEWS/WCPO.) The attorneys for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Republican leader Matt Borges are feeling hopeful after a Cincinnati politician convicted of bribery got a pardon from President Donald Trump. Once convicted of accepting $20,000 in bribes, former Cincinnati City Councilmember PG Sittenfelds slate has been wiped clean. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Donald Trump pardoned the Democrat, who was sentenced to more than a year in prison in 2023. And with this pardon comes interest from other influential Ohio politicos. We asked Householders attorney Scott Pullins if that gives him hope for Householder. Yeah, I cant comment, obviously, on what were doing right now, what Im working on, our legal teams working on, Pullins replied. But it certainly gives us a lot of hope. Thursday, Borgess appeals attorney, Dennis Belli, said in a phone interview that the Sittenfeld pardon also gives him hope. In March 2023, a jury found Householder and Borges guilty of felony racketeering in the largest public corruption and bribery scandal in state history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And earlier this month, a panel of federal court judges upheld the convictions of Householder and Borges. Clemency We asked Gov. Mike DeWine if he believes Householder and Borges should be pardoned. Look, I dont have any comment about the pardons, he responded. These are decisions that are made by the president of the United States. I have authority in regard to state pardons, and I always will tell you about why I made a decision. Pullins has been telling us for months now that the former speaker is seeking clemency, arguing the FBI was politically motivated in arresting the former speaker. They singled out Larry, him alone, he said. No one else has been charged, no other politician period. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Legal expert Steve Goodin, partner at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, said this could be a sympathetic argument for a pardon. It obviously strikes very close to home for Donald Trump who has been the subject of these kinds of inquiries and cases in the past, Goodin said. In an interview in February, Attorney General Dave Yost refuted this allegation. He was indicted by President Trumps United States Attorney, David DeVillers, who, I believe, is the same political party, Yost said. I dont think that dog hunts. And Yost said he was against Householder getting out. Householder is also facing Ohio charges. He has pleaded not guilty to 10 felony counts in Cuyahoga County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I oppose, Yost said in February. Asked why, he said, Because Ive seen the evidence and he committed multiple crimes. Even if his appeal is successful in the federal case, there is additional evidence of criminal acts that are included in the states indictment. If convicted on state charges and appeals fail, it would take an act of the governor to clear him of that. Previously, Pullins told us in an interview that the team is hoping to leverage Householders close relationship with Trump to get him out. Asked about the appearance that Householder could be using his connections in order to get out of prison, Pullins responded, Well, yeah. He is. Hopefully, he has some friends left that can help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After our exclusive, in-depth interview in 2023, weve kept in touch with the head juror, Jerrod Haines, who convicted Householder in federal court. He said that Householder was, once again, using power to get what he wanted. I definitely feel like he is using his connections to skip his sentence, he said. I would feel that the justice system failed if he would be pardoned. I would feel that my time as a juror was wasted, even though I think it was a very valuable experience for me, my life was interrupted for seven weeks. Haines told us in 2023 that he was left disillusioned with state government, hoping political leaders would finally learn not to undercut their citizens in exchange for power and money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paula Christian from WCPO contributed to this story. This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX HONOLULU (KHON2) A beloved Waimanalo community member is being honored with a new name for a newly refreshed building. 30 best places in Hawaii for indoor fun During a ceremony on May 28, a new sign was unveiled in a multi-purpose building at Waimanalo District Park, which was renamed after Grace Adviento, also known as Auntie Grace. Born and raised in Waimanalo, Auntie Gracie continues to serve her beloved community in many ways, adding to her five decades of service. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You She has been an integral part of Waimanalo by staffing Waimanalos district and beach parks, and volunteering as a member of the Waimanalo Senior Citizen Club. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Throughout the years, she was helpful in organizing a wide variety of events and programs like carnivals, parades and kupuna classes. Check out more news from around Hawaii Now known as the Grace Adviento Multi-purpose Building, this follows the completion of an improvement project designed to protect the building from future disasters, including roof strengthening, accessibility improvements and repairs to damages caused by the April 2018 flood. 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. A Tacoma-based immigration judge ruled Thursday that a Pierce County resident who had been detained by ICE after living in the United States as a permanent resident for 50 years should not be deported to the Philippines. Relatives of 64-year-old Lewelyn Dixon cried and clapped after Judge Tammy Fitting made that ruling in a courtroom within the Northwest ICE Processing Center, where Dixon has been detained for months. Dixon, wearing a yellow and white uniform, told reporters her time in the facility had been hell, before she went back into the bowels of the federal immigration lockup to be processed and released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside, one of Dixons nieces, Melania Madriaga, said Thursdays hearing was nerve wracking, and hearing the judge rule that Dixon could remain in the United States made her emotional. Lewelyn Dixon, center, reacts to being greeted by a crowd of supporters after being released from the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Thursday, May 29, 2025, where Dixon has been detained for months in Tacoma, Wash. Liesbeth Powers/Liesbeth Powers / lpowers@thenewstribune.com Its painful, the fact that we have to go through this, Madriaga said. Madriaga traveled from her home in Hawaii to be at her aunts immigration hearing. She and about 15 other people were in attendance. Outside the facility, more than a hundred people rallied to support them. Tanggol Migrante Network, an advocacy group for Filipino migrants and their families, estimated that 275 people were there. Some traveled from Oregon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Madriaga said shed asked organizers to play music by Bruno Mars when Dixon was released. She said her aunt bought concert tickets for this weeks show in Las Vegas, Nevada before she was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After the hearing, a person told the crowd of people gathered in the street, Aunty Lynn is coming home. The news drew cheers and applause. Some people beat on drums or waved flags. Dixon was expected to be released by 5 p.m. Lewelyn Dixon greets her family after being released from the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Thursday, May 29, 2025, where Dixon has been detained for months in Tacoma, Wash. Liesbeth Powers/Liesbeth Powers / lpowers@thenewstribune.com Dixon, a lab technician for the University of Washington, was detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after she returned to the United States on Feb. 28 from a trip to the Philippines. Her attorney, Benjamin Osorio, has said she was detained due to a nonviolent criminal conviction from 2001. Dixon immigrated to Hawaii from the Philippines at age 14 in 1974 and moved to Washington in the 1990s, according to family members. Shes been employed with UW Medicine since 2015. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thursdays hearing centered on whether Fitting should grant Dixon an application for cancellation of removal. Before granting it, Fitting said she placed a good amount of weight on the fact that Dixon had come to the United States as a child, and she had been a lawful permanent resident for more than 50 years. Dixon testified during the proceeding about her criminal history, why she traveled to the Philippines earlier this year, her ties to that country and what the effects of being deported there would be on her and her family. If she was deported, Dixon said, she wouldnt know where to go. She said she had distant relatives in the Philippines, but they lived in a two-bedroom apartment occupied by 10 people, and she didnt think they could accommodate her. Dixon said her whole family was in the United States. If you take me away from them, its going to be devastating for me and for them, Dixon said in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the only place I know, Dixon said. Lewelyn Dixon, center right, is hugged by a member of Tanggol Migrante as a crowd of supporters gather around them after Dixons released from the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Thursday, May 29, 2025, where Dixon has been detained for months in Tacoma, Wash. Liesbeth Powers/Liesbeth Powers / lpowers@thenewstribune.com Asked why she had never become a U.S. citizen, Dixon explained that she had promised her father she would keep her citizenship in the Philippines because he owned land there, and one day she and other relatives would inherit it. She said the property was farmland, and it wasnt feasible to build housing for herself there. Madriaga previously told The News Tribune that Dixon traveled to the Philippines earlier this year to check on the property. The criminal conviction that triggered Dixons ICE detention was an embezzlement charge she pleaded guilty to in 2000 in U.S. District Court. She was a vault teller at White Center Financial Center when she took $6,460 from the vault over several months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dixon was sentenced in 2001 to 30 days in a halfway house and 150 days of home confinement. She later paid back the money shed taken as restitution. Asked about the incident Thursday, Dixon said temptation made her do it, and since then shed avoided work related to money. She was also charged with third-degree theft in 2011 for shoplifting, but the case was dismissed. Dixon said she forgot to pay for $27 of items at Walmart shed left under her purse in a shopping cart. She said she tried to return to pay for them but was issued a citation and had to go to court. Lewelyn Dixon, left, is wrapped into a hug by loved ones after Dixons released from the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Thursday, May 29, 2025, where she has been detained for months in Tacoma, Wash. Liesbeth Powers/Liesbeth Powers / lpowers@thenewstribune.com After Dixon finished answering questions from her attorney and a lawyer for the U.S. government, Fitting made her ruling. Dixon walked out of the detention center at about 4:15 p.m., 90 days after she was first detained. She was mobbed by a cheering crowd and hugged by family members. Someone played the song, Uptown Funk. News Tribune visual journalist Liesbeth Powers contributed to this report. The city of Aurora has recently been picked to join a yearlong program that brings together communities from around the country to improve sustainability. As one of only 16 local governments to be chosen as part of the 2025 LEED for Cities Certification Cohort, Aurora will be supported by the U.S. Green Building Council in sustainability, resilience and quality of life efforts, according to a city news release announcing the partnership. The City of Aurora is honored to take part in the LEED for Cities cohort, Mayor John Laesch said in the news release. This partnership will allow Aurora to develop a more sustainable planning process, while taking significant steps toward reducing climate change and promoting a more resilient and equitable city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is typically used to certify green buildings. However, whole local governments or communities can be LEED certified, which is what Aurora will be working towards under the yearlong cohort program. The citys participation in this program seems to align with Laeschs stated vision for the city, which includes a focus on fostering green-building jobs, but the city applied to be a part of the cohort before he was elected. According to the news release, Aurora is planning to use the program to engage the public around data-driven goals and identify opportunities to strengthen local climate and sustainability efforts. Through the program, the city will be given resources to measure and improve sustainability performance through the LEED for Cities rating system, the news release said. But according to Randal Stephens, the city grant writer who helped secure the citys spot in the cohort, Aurora will also benefit from sharing resources and best practices with others in the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Throughout the yearlong process, she said, the cohort will meet twice a month and work through nine different areas of focus: integrative process, natural systems and ecology, transportation and land use, water efficiency, energy and greenhouse gas emissions, materials and resources, quality of life, innovation and regional priorities. For example, in the natural systems and ecology category, Aurora will take a comprehensive look at the citys natural systems, identify invasive species, study soil composition and inventory typical pollution sources, according to Stephens. She said that, once the information is gathered, it can be used in future policy improvements or projects. Beyond the environmental side of sustainability, Stephens said, the program will also take a look at things like vulnerable populations through the quality of life category to identify gaps in social infrastructure instead of focusing only on built environments. LEED certification would show that Aurora took a holistic approach to evaluating its policies and practices, fostered collaboration between departments and developed a framework for continued improvement plus, it would help the city in future grant applications, since it would show the city has the capacity, experience and ability to manage these sorts of complex programs, according to Stephens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the short-term, being in the cohort will give the city a free yearlong membership to resources through the LEED online portal, which is normally paid, plus will offer discounted training courses and individual certifications, she said. According to the U.S. Green Building Councils own news release announcing the 2025 LEED for Cities Certification Cohort, nearby Cook County is also participating in the cohort program. Other local governments in the 2025 cohort include Ashland, Massachusetts; Brighton, Colorado; Delray Beach, Florida; Farmers Branch, Texas; Harris County, Texas; King County, Washington; Lafayette, Indiana; Lincoln, Nebraska; Mercer Island, Washington; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Riverside, California; Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and West Lafayette, Indiana. City governments play a critical role in advancing public and environmental health, resilience and economic prosperity across their communities, Peter Templeton, U.S. Green Building Council president and CEO, said in the organizations press release. We applaud this cohort for prioritizing these outcomes and committing to meaningful actions on sustainability and community well-being. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stephens said Aurora was invited to apply for the cohort around late last year. The idea was then discussed internally to make sure the city had the capacity to participate in the program since it covers a large range of topics and involves nearly every city department, she said, and an application was turned in around last December. One of the main reasons the city applied was to work toward goals laid out in the 2019 Sustainability Plan, including expanding renewable energy and piloting zero waste initiatives, according to Stephens. She said that, as the city reviews its current policies and procedures through the cohort program, hopefully opportunities for improvement will be identified that contribute to that plans goals. The U.S. Green Building Councils website about the Local Government Leadership Program, which the LEED for Cities Certification Cohort is a part of, says cities in the cohort are expected to be LEED certified within 12 months of starting the program. A timeline in an info packet linked on the website shows that program graduation is planned for March 31, 2026. First started in 2017, the Local Government Leadership Program has in total provided direct support to around 120 local governments across the country, which represents around 55 million people, according to the U.S. Green Building Councils news release. Beyond the certification cohort, the program also includes regional leadership summits and accelerators. rsmith@chicagotribune.com Indonesias drug enforcement laws are notoriously some of the strictest in the world. Mere possession of a minor amount of the countrys Class 1 narcotics which includes everything from heroin to meth to marijuana can equate to years behind bars, and thousands of dollars in fees. And the penalties only go up from there. For one Australian native, hes facing the most severe legal repercussions possible for accusations of trafficking cocaine into the surf-rich region of Balis Canggu. Lamar Ahchee is alleged to have smuggled (or, rather, received a package with) $1.1 million worth of cocaine, hidden in chocolate wrappers, when he was caught by authorities and now hes facing the death penalty. According to Ahchees lawyer, he was set up. He didnt know what was in the packages. Per his legal representative, Edward Pangkahila: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's not true, he didn't admit [to dealing], he is shocked about the case, he never thought that would happen. Lamar has been set up by someone called Boss. He was told to collect the package, but he actually didn't know what the package was He thought it was a normal package. He's telling me that honestly, he doesn't know what was inside. We're still looking for that somebody who tell him to take this package. Related: Snowfall in Bali This isnt the first time foreigners have faced the strict arm of the law in Bali, when it comes to drug charges. Not even close. Theres a long history of surfers attempting to smuggle drugs into the country, through creative methods, and getting caught. For example, hiding drugs in surfboards has been a common tactic although many have been caught. Diving deep into the history, in a piece highlighting the dangers of drug smuggling in Bali from a past print issue, writer Kathryn Bonella spoke with those convicted. One accused summed it up as such: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bali can be heaven one minute and hell in the next. You live the fantasy, you live the dream, but one day you wake up. Related: Cocaine Smugglers Busted for Hiding Drugs in Surfboards Aussie Faces Death Penalty for Drug Arrest in Bali Surf Hub first appeared on Surfer on May 30, 2025 (NewsNation) Graduation is an optimistic day for many, but some may have a rough road ahead as they face the toughest job market in years. According to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 41% of new graduates are now working in jobs that typically dont require a college degree, up from 39% in January. Thats why its so important where these recent college grads end up. Austin top graduate-friendly city Realtor.com analyzed more than 300 cities and towns to find the most grad-friendly rental markets in 2025, weighing factors like housing affordability, rental availability and job opportunities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Austin, Texas, topped the list for the second year in a row thanks to its low rent-to-income ratio (18.9%) and high share of jobs (29.4%) that require a bachelors degree but no prior experience. Recent college grads face toughest job market in years Austin Mayor Kirk Watson told Morning in America that the city not only offers a vibrant lifestyle but also significant opportunities in tech for young professionals building their careers. Everywhere from manufacturing in tech and semiconductor, of course, with the Samsung and NXP and all of the different semiconductors manufacturers we have, we have a real opportunity. We have real opportunities there, Watson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The technology field is, is, is across the board in Austin, Texas, and thats only getting better, he said. We have a fairly new medical school at the University of Texas at Austin, and that medical school is getting us into bio and health-related technology and jobs like never before. Spelling bee champ wins by visualizing words typed on keyboard Watson added that the city is increasing funding to its infrastructure to help provide career opportunities, like the Austin Infrastructure Academy. Thats an academy that were putting together so that we can make sure we have people that can do the work that we need to do to work in this infrastructure sector of our economy, he said. Were working closely with the trade unions, working closely with our community college, and so were able to focus on infrastructure in a way that I think is going to allow us to have even greater success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Austin also has a lively cultural scene, hosting events such as the SXSW Conference and Austin City Limits Music Festival. Its not really mentioned in this report, but is its a pretty fun place to live, too, particularly if youre a young person looking to make a life and make a career, Watson said. NewsNations Andrew Dorn contribute 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 NewsNation. Kuwaiti authorities have begun to crack down on unauthorized crypto mining, and a recent raid in the southern Al-Wafrah region led to a 55% drop in local power use within a week, according to Reuters. The enforcement efforts come as the oil-rich nation faces mounting blackouts and extreme pressure on its electrical grid. While crypto trading itself is banned in Kuwait, mining has not been explicitly outlawed, per the report. This is a loophole that miners exploited. Officials say they raided nearly 100 homes under suspicion of mining crypto, and some were using more than 20 times the energy of a typical Kuwaiti household. The country's worsening energy crisis is driven by rapid population growth, rising temperatures, and delayed maintenance at power plants, per Reuters. With summer heat spiking demand for cooling systems, authorities say crypto mining is pushing the grid to its limits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It only takes a very small share of the total bitcoin mining network to have a significant impact on the relatively small total electricity consumption of Kuwait," Digiconomist founder Alex de Vries-Gai told Reuters. Kuwait's interior ministry said crypto mining constitutes an "unlawful exploitation of electrical power" that "may cause outages affecting residential, commercial and service areas, posing a direct threat to public safety." The environmental cost of crypto can also be steep. A single Bitcoin transaction uses more than 1,189 kilowatt-hours of electricity about as much as the average U.S. household in 41 days, according to Digiconomist. Globally, over 65% of crypto mining runs on dirty fuels, according to U.N. researchers. While cleaner sources may make up more of the energy mix since the time of the 2023 report, it is clear that crypto is adding significant volumes of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere and worsening air quality as a result. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even when power comes from renewables, the grid can experience strain if there's not enough generated to support energy-intensive operations. Because of this, some companies are focused on developing cryptocurrencies that require less power. Online internet users supported the crackdown in Kuwait. "Finally a sane decision," one Reddit commenter wrote. 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. Sen. Ron Johnson at the Newsroom Pub on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner You have to hand it to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson. As Republicans across the country run in fear from their constituents, refusing to hold town halls lest they be asked to answer for brutal federal budget cuts and threats to health care, nutrition assistance and Social Security, Johnson showed up at a Milwaukee Press Club event Wednesday and appeared cheerfully unperturbed as he took questions from journalists and a skeptical crowd. Not that his answers made sense. People sitting in front of the podium at the Newsroom Pub luncheon crossed their arms and furrowed their brows as Johnson explained his alternative views on everything from global warming to COVID-19 to the benefits of bringing the federal budget more in line with the spending levels of 1930 i.e. the beginning of the Great Depression, before FDR instituted New Deal programs Johnson described as outside [the presidents] constitutionally enumerated powers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A handful of protesters chanted in the rain outside the Newsroom Pub, but overall, the event was cordial and reactions muted. In part, this was attributable to Johnsons Teflon cockiness and the barrage of misinformation he happily unleashed, which had a numbing effect on his audience. Johnson fancies himself a numbers guy. In that way hes a little like former House Speaker Paul Ryan, his fellow Wisconsin Republican who was once considered the boy genius of the GOP. Ryan made it safe to talk about privatizing Medicare by touring the country with a PowerPoint presentation full of charts and graphs, selling optimistic projections of the benefits of trickle-down economics, corporate tax cuts and the magic of the private market. But Ryan couldnt stomach Trump and hes been exiled from the party. Johnson is the MAGA version. While he doesnt dazzle anyone with his brilliance, he does a good job of baffling his opponents with a barrage of B.S. that leaves even seasoned journalists scrambling to figure out what question to ask. Where do you begin? Back in 2021, YouTube removed a video of Johnsons Milwaukee Press Club appearance because he violated the platforms community standards by spreading dangerous lies about COVID, the alleged harm caused by vaccines and the supposed benefits of dubious remedies. But this week he was back, proudly endorsing DHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.s decision to eliminate federal COVID vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children. While he hopes Kennedy goes further in rolling back vaccinations, he said, at least were not going to subject our children to them anymore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A woman in the audience who identified herself as a local business owner seeking common ground thanked Johnson for saying we dont want to mortgage our childrens future, but expressed her concern that besides the deficit spending Johnson rails against, theres also the risk that were mortgaging the future by destroying the planet. Johnson heartily agreed that everyone wants a pristine environment. I mean, I love the outdoors, he declared. But then he added, We shouldnt spend a dime on climate change. Well adapt. Were very adaptable. He claimed that something like 1,800 different scientists and business leaders have signed a statement saying there is no climate crisis. (The overwhelming consensus among scientists is that climate change is real and caused by people and the statement he referred to has been debunked.) So if its climate change youre talking about, were just at cross-purposes, he added. I completely disagree. Most of Johnsons talk consisted of a fusillade of hard-to-follow budget numbers and nostrums like the more the government spends the less free we are. Charles Benson of TMJ4 News tried to get the senator to focus on what it would take to get him to go along with Trumps big, beautiful budget bill. So, a lot of numbers out there, Benson said. Can you give me a bottom line? Do you want 2 trillion? 3 trillion? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your reaction is the exact same reaction I get from the White House and from my colleagues, Johnson chided, too many numbers. Its a budget process. Were talking about numbers. Were talking about mortgaging our kids future. Like his alternative beliefs about vaccination and climate science, Johnsons budget math is extremely fuzzy. He asserted, repeatedly, that Medicaid is rife with waste, fraud and abuse. But the Georgetown University School of Public Policy has published a policy analysis dismantling claims that there is rampant waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid that concluded, This premise is false, and the thinking is dangerously wrong. More broadly, Johnson claims that balancing the budget and reducing the federal deficit is his No. 1 concern. But hes committed to maintaining historic tax cuts for the super rich. The only way to reduce deficits, in his view, is to enact even deeper cuts than House Republicans passed, increasing hunger, undermining education and rolling back health care because hes totally unwilling to increase revenue with even modest tax increases on corporations and the very wealthy. Those cuts, not a deficit that could be resolved by making the rich pay their share of taxes, are the real threat to our childrens future. Im just a guy from Oshkosh whos trying to save America, Johnson said at the Press Club event. He recapped, in heroic terms, his lone stand against the 2017 tax cut for Americas top earners, which he blocked until he was able to work in a special loophole that benefitted him personally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He told the panel of Wisconsin journalists he will also block Trumps big, beautiful budget bill unless he sees deeper cuts, which he insisted would be easy to make. The 40 states that have taken the federal Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (which Johnson still calls Obamacare) are stealing money from federal taxpayers, he declared. Slashing Medicaid will be easy, he suggested, since nobody would be harmed other than the grifters who are sucking down the waste, fraud and abuse. Grifters? Wisconsin has 1.3 million Medicaid recipients. One in three children are on BadgerCare, as Medicaid is called here, along with 45% of adults with disabilities and 55% of seniors living in nursing homes. Our state program faces a $16.8 billion cut over 10 years under the House plan. During the Q&A session, I asked Johnson about this not just the numbers, but the human cost. I brought up Shaniya Cooper, a college student from Milwaukee and a BadgerCare recipient living with lupus, who spoke at a press conference in the Capitol this week about how scary it was to realize she could lose her Medicaid coverage under congressional Republicans budget plan. To me, this is life or death, she said. She simply cannot afford to pay for her medicine out of pocket. When she first learned about proposed Medicaid cuts, I cried, she said. I felt fear and dread. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What does Johnson have to say to Cooper and other BadgerCare recipients who are terrified of losing their coverage? Ill go back to my basic point, Johnson replied. He quoted Elon Musk, whom he said he greatly admires for his DOGE work slashing federal agencies. If we dont fix this, we wont have money for any of this [government in general], he said Musk told him. Nobody wants the truly vulnerable to lose those benefits of Medicaid, Johnson added. But again, Obamacare expanded the waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid, you know, expanding the people on it when, you know, when a lot of these people ought to be really getting a job. Some of Johnsons Republican colleagues are worried about withdrawing health care coverage from millions of their constituents. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called it immoral and political suicide. He said he wont vote for the Medicaid cuts that passed the House because they will put rural hospitals out of business, and because too many hard-working, low-income people rely on the program for health coverage and simply cannot afford to buy insurance on the private market. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Johnson remains untroubled. Hes pushing for bigger and more damaging cuts. And when asked what he can tell his constituents who are afraid theyre about to lose life-saving health care, his answer is simple and unapologetic: Get a job. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Two proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution which were a major part of GOP-priority bail reform legislation are dead after the state House declined to pass them by a Wednesday deadline. Senate Joint Resolution 1 and SJR 87 were part of the bail reform package authored by Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman and backed by Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and a bipartisan majority of the state Senate. Neither resolution, however, garnered the constitutionally required 100-vote supermajority to advance from the House to a November statewide referendum despite attempts by supporters to rally additional votes. Down to the wire: Key highlights from Texas' legislative session with one week to go Paul Castro, left, talks about bail reform at a news conference Feb. 12 at the Capitol. Paul is the father of David Castro, who was shot and killed in a road rage incident. Listening are Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Alexis Nungaray and Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston. Alexis is the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, who was allegedly murdered by undocumented immigrants from Venezuela. SJR 1 called "Jocelyn's Law" after 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, whose body was found last year in a Houston bayou after allegedly being bound, sexually assaulted and strangled to death by two men believed to be in the U.S. illegally would have kept defendants charged with a felony who are in the U.S. without legal authorization in jail until trial. It died with an 87-39 third-reading vote Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SJR 87 would have required judges to automatically deny bail to suspects accused of nine specific serious crimes including murder, capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and human trafficking if the person had been previously convicted of, or is out on bond for, one of those offenses. The resolution died Tuesday with a 97-40 vote, just three supporters short of making it on this fall's statewide ballot. The measure was not reconsidered despite indications lawmakers hoped to bring it back for another vote. Supporters of the legislation, including House sponsor Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, framed the bills as a matter of life and death, citing homicides allegedly committed by defendants who were already out on bail for a different charge. Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, explains Senate Bill 9, which would reform bail, May 19 at the Capitol. "Had we passed this constitutional amendment six years ago, there would be little boys and girls still alive today who were tragically killed," Smithee said during debate on SJR 1 last week. "I can promise you this: If we adopt this amendment and the voters approve it, it will save innocent human life. Period." Democratic House members, however, have argued the measures are discriminatory and strip suspects of their constitutional right to due process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "A lot of folks are going to be tied up in this that are members of my community," said Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, during debate on SJR 1 on Wednesday. "Laws like this, and putting this before the public and asking them to go out and vote so you can throw away the key when some undocumented person ends up in jail, that hurts our communities." More: Texas House advances bail reform package while immigration-related proposal faces challenges Lawmakers have approved several other parts of Huffman's bail reform package, including a proposed constitutional amendment which, if adopted by voters, would give judges greater discretion to deny bail to defendants charged with certain violent offenses. Senate Democrats praised the passage of that amendment, SJR 5, in a statement late Thursday after the upper chamber voted to accept House changes to the legislation and send the measure to voters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We faced two hard truths this session. One: Families have lost loved ones to violent crimes committed by people who never should have been released. Two: Our justice system holds too many people behind bars who dont belong there people not yet convicted and who arent dangerous but cant afford bail," the statement reads. "We supported SJR 5 because it acknowledges both realities." Will bail reform cause a special legislative session in Texas? At least one Republican House member belives the failure of several pieces of bail reform legislation in the lower chamber will prompt Abbott to call lawmakers back for a special session. I have no doubt that we will be called into a special session if this is not passed, Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, wrote in a post on X after a Tuesday vote. We will ask for it to be reconsidered and will not stop until it passes. Senator Kelly Hancock, left, Governor Greg Abbott, and Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows place their hands on their hearts during the Memorial Day Ceremony to Honor Fallen Texas Service Members on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Texas State Capitol, May 24, 2025. Three fallen service members were honored by the Governor and other state officials. Only the governor can call a special session. Bail reform has been one of Abbott's key issues. The Republican designated the legislation an emergency item during his biennial State of the State address in February toward the beginning of the legislative session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor has consistently voiced support for the measures on social media, firing off a spate of tweets in recent weeks urging lawmakers to vote in favor of the legislation. He also made an impromptu visit to the House last week, ostensibly to shore up support for bail reform and other legislative priorities. Speaking briefly with reporters on the House floor last week, Abbott was clearly pleased with the passage of much of the bail reform package but urged lawmakers to push through the remaining items. "We've been working hard on this for a long time," the governor said after chatting informally with several House members. "Too many people have been murdered because of the broken bail system that we've had. "It needs to get done." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bail reform bills die in Texas House. Will Abbott call special session? May 29SUPERIOR The Lake Superior Community Health Center relies on Medicaid reimbursements to fund 60% to 70% of its budget in any given year, according to CEO Lee Homan. The health care facility in East End provided space Thursday, May 29, for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., to hear from area residents about their concerns after House Republicans advanced a budget bill May 22 that would change Medicaid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldwin said the bill includes cuts that could potentially kick 14 million Americans, including 228,000 Wisconsinites, off their health insurance. However, U.S. Rep Tom Tiffany, R-Wisconsin, said "cuts" isn't the right word. It's about reforming the system that was designed to help people with disabilities, pregnant mothers and indigent people, he told the Telegram in a phone call. "We want to save the program, OK, because otherwise it's going to go broke," Tiffany said. Baldwin has a different view of the bill, which is still awaiting a vote in the Senate. "They used tricks in order to mask the cuts that they were making ... like work reporting requirements," she said. "Well, most people on Medicaid work, but these reporting requirements and having them more frequent are meant to trip you up so that you lose your eligibility even though you're eligible. There are all sorts of gimmicks, but most of it is more paperwork, more bureaucracy, and frankly more government to process that red tape." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barbara Sorensen, who has a 43-year-old son on Medicaid, told the congresswoman it takes about five weeks from receiving the first letter to recertification for Medicaid. "I can't imagine doing it twice a year, and who's going to pay for it?" Sorensen said. "It's an unfunded mandate." Her son has relied on Medicaid all of his life after being diagnosed with autism, low muscle tone and sensory integration problems, Sorensen said. She said he didn't walk until he was 34 months old but still managed to graduate from high school and has worked for the city of Ashland picking up litter since 2002. "Those people who are writing these bills don't know that they're already working," Sorensen said of many Medicaid recipients. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carla Becker said Medicaid has been instrumental in allowing her to advocate for her daughter, Willow. Adopted from foster care, Willow remains eligible for the medical portion of Forward Health, which Becker said has allowed her to get the care Willow needs to address multiple medical issues. "It seems like the amount of money being spent on something that's not health care, in my opinion, seems like waste, fraud and abuse," Becker said of the proposed reporting requirements. Brianna Pearson said her autistic son is on a children's waiver through children's long-term care, and she doesn't know what she would do if it was cut. She is also a peer support specialist with indiGO in Superior and talked about the potential impact on the people she serves. "It would not only affect their coverages," Pearson said. "It would affect the supports they get from long-term care like IRIS (Include, Respect, I Self-Direct) and Inclusa, which are a lot of the consumers I work with." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldwin said understanding Medicaid is a challenge because it goes by so many names, including BadgerCare, Katie Beckett for children, IRIS for adults and Family Care in Wisconsin, and MNCare in Minnesota. Dawn Becerra, 68, said many don't realize the "trickle down" supports provided by Medicaid. She has been caring for her mother with dementia for five years. She said without programs like Endeavors Adult Development Center in Balsam Lake, she and her husband wouldn't be able to get out together because someone has to be with her mother all the time. She said her mother's care at Endeavors is funded through the Aging and Disability Resource Center with Medicare and Medicaid funding. Baldwin noted that health care facilities in rural parts of the state have already been closing, leaving communities with little or no health care readily available. "We know that critical access hospitals that serve rural communities are on the brink," the congresswoman said. "They have very low margins. We know that skilled nursing facilities that serve out seniors, over half of which rely on Medicaid ... are on the brink." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Medicaid cuts do go through, Homan said Lake Superior Community Health Care would continue to provide care irrespective of ability to pay. But an increase in uninsured patients would have a financial impact on the organization, the CEO said. Tiffany said millions of Medicaid recipients are able-bodied adults but choose not to work. People who are in the U.S. illegally are also benefiting from the program, he argues. "There are hundreds of billions of dollars going out in Medicaid benefits to people like that this is not how the program was originally created," he said. The Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tennessee, is part of the Ballad Health hospital system. (Brett Kelman/KFF Health News) Despite years of patient complaints and quality-of-care concerns, Ballad Health the nations largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly will now be held to a lower standard by the Tennessee government, and state data that holds the monopoly accountable will be kept from the public for two years. Ballad is the only option for hospital care for most of the approximately 1.1 million people in a 29-county swath of Appalachia. Such a monopoly would normally be prohibited by federal law. But under deals negotiated with Tennessee and Virginia years ago, the monopoly is permitted if both states affirm each year that it is an overall benefit to the public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, according to a newly renegotiated agreement between Ballad and Tennessee, the monopoly can now be considered a clear and convincing benefit to the public with performance that would earn a D on most A-to-F grading scales. And the monopoly can be allowed to continue even with a score that most would consider an F. Its an extreme disservice to the people of northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, said Dani Cook, who has organized protests against Ballads monopoly for years. We shouldnt have lowered the bar. We should be raising the bar. The Ballad monopoly, which encompasses 20 hospitals and straddles the border of Tennessee and Virginia, was created in 2018 after lawmakers in both states, in an effort to prevent hospital closures, waived federal antitrust laws so two rival health systems could merge. Although Ballad has largely succeeded at keeping its hospitals open, staffing shortages and patient complaints have left some residents wary, afraid, or unwilling to seek care at Ballad hospitals, according to an investigation by KFF Health News published last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Tennessee, the Ballad monopoly is regulated through a 10-year Certificate of Public Advantage agreement, or COPA now in its seventh year that establishes the states goals and a scoring rubric for hospital performance. Tennessee Department of Health documents show Ballad has fallen short of about three-fourths of the states quality-of-care goals over the past four fiscal years. But the monopoly has been allowed to continue, at least in part, because the scoring rubric doesnt prioritize quality of care, according to the documents. Angie Odom, a county commissioner in Tennessees Carter County, where leaders have clashed with Ballad, said she has driven her 12-year-old daughter more than 100 miles to Knoxville to avoid surgery at a Ballad hospital. After years of disappointment in Tennessees oversight of the monopoly, Odom said she was not surprised by Ballads new grading scale. Theyve made a way that they can fail and still pass, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Virginia regulates Ballad with a different agreement and scoring method, and its reviews generally track about one or two years behind Tennessees. Both states have found Ballad to be an overall benefit in every year theyve released a decision. Neither Ballad Health nor the Tennessee Department of Health, which has the most direct oversight of the monopoly, answered questions submitted in writing about the renegotiated agreement. In an emailed statement, Molly Luton, a Ballad spokesperson, said the companys quality of care has steadily improved in recent years, and she raised repeated complaints from the hospital system about KFF Health News reporting. The news organization has reviewed every complaint from Ballad and has never found a correction or clarification to be warranted in the coverage. Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Ralph Alvarado has declined to be interviewed on more than a dozen occasions concerning Ballad Health. (Photo: John Partipilo) Tennessee Health Commissioner Ralph Alvarado, who has more than once described the regulation of Ballad Health as a matter of national importance, has declined or not responded to more than a dozen interview requests from KFF Health News to discuss the monopoly. Our effort and progress serve as a model for health care in Tennessee, the Appalachia Region, and the entire nation, Alvarado said in a May news release about the monopoly, adding, We do not take our role lightly as we remain committed to transparency in our COPA oversight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tennessees revised agreement was negotiated behind closed doors for more than a year and announced to the public in early May. As part of that announcement, Tennessee said it wouldnt score Ballad next year, to give the company time to adjust to the new scoring process. Under that process, the minimum score Ballad needs to meet to show a clear and convincing public benefit has been lowered from 85 out of 100 to 70 out of 100. The new agreement also awards Ballad up to 20 points for providing Tennessee with data and records for example, a report on patient satisfaction regardless of the level of performance documented. The state can also raise or lower Ballads overall score by up to 5 points in light of reputable information that is not spelled out in the scoring rubric. Therefore, Ballad can score as low as 65 out of 100, with nearly a third of that score awarded for merely giving information to the state, and still be found to be a clear and convincing benefit to the public, which is the highest finding Tennessee can bestow, according to the agreement. And Ballad could score as low as 55 out of 100 without the monopoly facing a risk of being broken up, according to the new agreement. The agreement also increases how much of Ballads annual score is directly attributed to the quality of care provided in its hospitals, from 5% to 32%. But the agreement obscures how this will be measured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tennessee sets baseline goals for Ballad across dozens of quality-of-care issues like infection rates and speed of emergency room care and then tracks whether Ballad meets the goals. The new agreement resets these baselines to values that were not made public, leaving it unclear how much the goals for Ballad have changed. Health department spokesperson Dean Flener said the new baselines would not be disclosed until 2027. Cook, the longtime leader of protests against Ballad, said she believes Tennessee is attempting to silence data-supported criticism until the final year of the 10-year COPA agreement, which ends in 2028. By then, any outrage would be largely moot, she said. If you are going to wait until the last year to tell us the new measurements, why bother? Cook said. It is clear, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Tennessee Department of Health is putting the needs and concerns of a corporation above the health and well-being of people. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Former President Barack Obama admits that if you want to find career success, you shouldnt expect to always have worklife balance; its okay to throw yourself into work, as long as you make up for it later, he says. After a hard-core campaign season, he set a strict rule as president to have dinner every night with Michelle and his two daughters, Sasha and Malia. If finding success in your career is on your bucket list, you might need to get used to working lunches and staying past 5 p.m. Thats, at least, according to former President Barack Obama, who recently revealed that achieving proper worklife balance will not always be possible. If you want to be excellent at anythingsports, music, business, politicstheres going to be times of your life when youre out of balance, where youre just working and youre single-minded, he admitted on The Pivot Podcast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a lesson heand his family learned the hard way. The 63-year-old admitted that when he first ran for president, he was on the constant grind for over a year and a half. While he said he would take some breaks during the weekends, his wife Michelle was largely left picking up the slack at home, taking care of the kids, even while she had a full-time job of her own. Though the time away from his family led to two terms in the White House, Obama admitted it wasnt sustainable. As president, he set a rule where he had family dinner every night at 6:30pmeven if he had to go back to work later. And while some leaders might think it takes away valuable work time, he said the opportunity to decompress with family was actually incredibly impactful. They ground you and give you perspective, and over time, that makes you better, he said. Worklife balance will come and go Even as a former president, Obama admitted that his political accomplishmentswhat kept him away from his familywont be what he remembers at the end of life. Instead, itll be the love and memories he had with his children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think theres a perfect formula, he said at an Obama Foundation event in 2019. I think it starts with recognizing that on my deathbed, I am confident that I will not remember any bill I passed, I will not remember any speech I gave, any big crowds. Thats not to say career aspirations are not important, he said, it just means the level of commitment someone can give to their work all depends on what life is like at homeand vice versa. There will be phases in your life where you have to prioritize different things, Obama said. There are times where it will be okay for you to just throw yourself into work because everythings in a pretty good place. There are going to be times where you have to maybe make some sacrifices on the work side because things arent all okay at home. For couples, the same premise appliessometimes sacrifice will be made to aid the other to focus on their dream, but the favor has to be returned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In both cases, (Michelle and I) try to say, you can have it allbut you cant have it all at once, he told The Pivot Podcast. You have to recognize there may be times in your life that you are going to be busy, and the other person has to put up the slack, but you have to be willing to do that for the other person as well and try to create some equity inside the family. Fortune has reached Obama for comment. LinkedIns cofounder agrees that work-life balance isnt for winners The debate over work-life balance isnt just top of mind for political leadersbut business leaders, too. LinkedIns cofounder, Reid Hoffman, has previously said that worklife balance is not much of an option for entrepreneurs who want to break through the competition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If I ever hear a founder talking about, this is how I have a balanced lifetheyre not committed to winning, Hoffman told Stanford Universitys How to Start a Startup class in 2014. The only really great founders are [the ones who are] like, I am going to put literally everything into doing this. But like Obama, Hoffman had one exception to the grind: dinner with families. When we started LinkedIn, we started with people who had families. So we said, sure, go home have dinner with your family, Hoffman said late last year on the Diary of a CEO podcast. Then, after dinner with your family, open up your laptop and get back in the shared work experience and keep working. For other leaders, having structured worklife balance is non negotiable. In fact, Laxman Narasimhan, the former CEO of Starbucks, previously told Fortune that hes very disciplined about balance. Its got to be a pretty high bar to keep me away from the family. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com BARBOURVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56) A Kentucky community is in mourning after the death of a 16-year-old student in Knox County. Lauren Buttery died Tuesday morning at her home. She was a student at Barbourville High School and a devoted Tigers fan, according to school officials. Lauren Buttery was a light to all of our hearts on School Street. She was a true Barbourville Tiger who loved her school, her friends, dancing, and cheering on her Tigers. Laurens resilience, courage, and never-quit attitude remind us all what it means to be a Barbourville Tiger. We ask that our community remember Laurens family in prayer in the coming days. Please remember our staff, teachers, and students who loved and cherished Lauren. What an honor it was for us all to know and love her. Barbourville City School Her funeral will be held Tuesday, June 3, at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Knox Funeral Home. She will be laid to rest in Mayhew Cemetery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 56 News. BATH, N.Y. (WETM) A Bath man has been charged with arson in connection with a fire that broke out at a home in early February. Timothy S. DeWolf, 47, was arrested on Wednesday, May 28, on the charge of arson in the third degree, a class C felony, as stated in a release from New York State Police. Officials say DeWolfs arrest stems from an incident that occurred around 9:21 a.m. on Feb. 6, when crews from the Bath Volunteer Fire Department, as well as New York State Police, were called to a home on 6649 State Route 415 in the Town of Bath for the report of a residential structure fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Original story: Home burns during morning fire in Bath; numerous departments respond Upon arrival at the scene, officials say troopers saw smoke coming from the left side of the home and confirmed that no one was inside. Troopers then closed a portion of State Route 415 between Faucett Road and Telegraph Road to allow fire crews to extinguish the fire. Following a preliminary investigation into the fire, officials say it was determined to be suspicious, and after further investigation, DeWolf was arrested. As a result, DeWolf was processed at the state police barracks in Bath and taken to the Steuben County Jail to await further court proceedings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WETM - MyTwinTiers.com. BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) June is National Reunification Month, which is a time to celebrate and honor families who have overcome challenges and successfully reunited. According to a news release, the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit in Bay County, Florida, which serves Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington Counties, will commemorate reunified families and their heroes. This specific event celebrates those families who have successfully reunited with their children, with involvement from the Florida Department of Children and Families and associated agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FWC announces recreational harvest closure of the gray triggerfish The Reunification Celebration will take place on Friday, June 6, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Bay County Courthouse, 300 East 4th Street. Court hearings will take place to reunify families and monitor the status of those previously unified. A reception will follow the court hearings at the Northwest Florida Health Network/Twin Oaks Community Services Offices at 910 Harrison Avenue. 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. State police killed a bear that entered an occupied home in North Canaan this week. Troopers responded to a home on Greene Road on Wednesday at 12:53 a.m. where a report indicated a bear had gotten inside, according to Connecticut State Police. When troopers arrived they found a bear near an entrance to the home and dispatched the animal, state police said. A second bear then ran into a wooded area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection responded to remove the dead bear. State police noted that DEEPs bear policy allows authorities to euthanize an animal that enters a residence and that homeowners can take the same course of action under the same circumstances. President Donald Trumps aides and allies have been laying the groundwork for his aggressive crackdown on Chinese student visas for years. Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2023 to ban Christian-hating communists, Marxists and socialists from the country, expanding on efforts from his first administration to shut down China-funded Confucius Institutes on U.S. college campuses and prosecute Chinese scientific researchers and professors at American universities. MAGA allies on the Hill have introduced legislation to this effect in recent years. And during his first term, Trump officials even discussed the early iterations of the very policy Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled late Wednesday. The plan to revoke the student visas is another example of a White House able to build on the policy foundation laid during Trumps first term turbocharged by planning that took place in the presidents four years away from Washington. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While work on student visas had been underway, the president and his aides considered that the timing of the clampdown may complicate a fragile trade truce with China. But the administration forged ahead anyway, said a White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about policy discussions. The president laid it out there in the campaign when he says hes going to do something in the campaign, he actually tries to do it, said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trumps deputy of Homeland Security during the first term. The reason people like me raised it in the first term is the reason youre hearing from Rubio there are very real security reasons to not help the Chinese advance their position in technical fields, and certainly not anyone more closely associated with [the Chinese Communist Party]. The policy released this week circulated among administration officials for months after Trump signed a day one executive order directing the secretary of State to review vetting and screening for immigrants coming to the U.S., including for visa holders. The administration is stacked with aides who have long been laser focused on cracking down on Chinas influence in U.S. institutions, including senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and Rubio. Both played key roles in finalizing this weeks policy announcement across the White House and departments of Homeland Security and State, according to the White House official. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was only a matter of time, the official said. Its something thats been so widely discussed for so long. Approximately 277,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. last year, and it remains unclear how many will lose their ability to remain in the country. Rubio vowed to aggressively revoke the visas and said the focus would be on people with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or those studying sensitive subjects. The Secretary made this decision in the administrations ongoing effort to protect our homeland from espionage and other hostile actions, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The administrations action has further fueled tensions between China and the U.S., with Beijing condemning the policy as unreasonable and one that damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and disrupted the normal cultural exchanges between the two countries. Last month, Trump placed a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods but those were reduced to 30 percent when U.S. and Chinese officials reached a temporary agreement. China also reduced its tariffs on American goods to 10 percent from 125 percent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The trade detente was already in jeopardy as the countries continue to engage in a growing supply chain standoff, with the U.S. this week curbing sales to China of critical U.S. technologies, including software used to make semiconductors. The latest move could further threaten the strained relationship. The administrations student visa crackdown follows House passage of legislation to deny DHS funding to U.S. colleges and universities with Confucius Institutes or ties to Beijings security apparatus. And Trump more broadly has targeted international students across the nations higher education system, pausing interviews for new student visa applicants this week as it weighs expanding social media screening throughout the vetting process. They may be using a machete instead of a scalpel at this point, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that looks to restrict immigration. This is just an agenda item thats been pretty high on the list because of the security importance of it. The presidents aides and allies view the visa revocations as the initial step in clamping down on Chinese influence in the U.S., with the White House official suggesting it could lead to a wider exclusion of international students from the country. Some allies are hopeful that the administration will next target funding for universities working with Chinese grad students, similar to what the House bill did. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to take things one step at a time, the White House official said. When youre trying to do something big, its best to start small. Trump previewed this weeks policy move almost two years ago at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, vowing to use Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny entry to all communists and Marxists. U.S. immigration law already bars members of the Communist Party from becoming naturalized citizens or green card holders, but these rules dont apply to people in the U.S. on student or tourist visas. Those who come to enjoy our country must love our country, Trump said. Were going to keep foreign, Christian-hating communists, Marxists and socialists out of America. But Trump allies have been planting the seeds for much longer. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in 2020 introduced legislation that sought to limit Chinese nationals from obtaining visas for STEM-related studies. The issue has continued to circulate in GOP circles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cotton applauded the administrations decision in a statement, saying Chinas use of students to spy on political dissidents and American researchers is a well-documented national security threat. Rubio, who introduced another bill alongside Cotton targeting visas for Chinese nationals in 2021, has long invested in the issue. While representing Florida in the U.S. Senate, he pressured local colleges to shut down their Confucius Institutes. He was vocal in his opposition to China, contending in 2022 it is the most formidable near-peer adversary our nation has ever faced. Andrew Atterbury contributed to this report. BELL COUNTY, Texas (FOX 44) The Bell County Water Control & Improvement District #1 (WCID 1) has released an update regarding reduced water supply during completions of critical projects. General Manager Ricky Garrett has reported that the two projects planned and funded to bring about improved reliability and enhanced resiliency are nearing completion, and critical tie-ins have been completed. Disinfection and line filling started taking place at 2 p.m. Friday. The drought restrictions are recommended to remain in place until midnight, with full service resuming after midnight on Saturday. Garrett says the drought restrictions which have allowed the past four days of work to proceed without resulting in any boil advisories should be credited to the residents and businesses that curtailed water usage in some cases at considerable expense for the greater good of the community. (Courtesy: Bell County Water Control & Improvement District #1) This comes after WCID 1 said earlier this month that it would be requesting a 30 percent reduction in water use beginning at 6 p.m. on May 26th. Two projects planned and funded to bring about improved reliability and enhanced resiliency required a shut down of a 48-inch line to make final connections. This water main delivers approximately two-thirds of the total water supply to the cities of Nolanville, Harker Heights, Killeen, and Copperas Cove along with the 439 Water Supply Corporation and Fort Cavazos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PREVIOUS STORY: Ongoing Bell County projects to cause reduced water supply A bid was awarded to McLean Construction in Killeen on April 24, 2024, in order to construct approximately 5,000 feet of 54-inch steel pipeline parallel and adjacent to the problem-riddled section of 48-inch concrete steel cylinder pipe. Since the 48-inch pipe was originally installed in 1975, there have been several main breaks resulting in reduced water supply to the approximate 265,000 population served by this system. WCID 1 said all but one line rupture occurred within a 5,000-foot section of the pipeline near North Nolan Road on the east side of the Fort Cavazos Military Reservation. The new steel pipe section was completed except for the connections to the existing 48 inch on either end. The other project was the construction of a three million-gallon concrete storage tank a few miles west of the parallel line construction. This bid was also awarded to DN Tanks at the April 2024 WCID 1 Board Meeting. This project also required a shutdown of the 48 to make the necessary connections to the transmission main. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WCID 1 said it would be initiating Stage 3 of its Drought Contingency Plan toward the end of May, seeking at least a 30 percent reduction in water usage. The district asked all of its customers to implement the stage of their own Drought Contingency Plans resulting in at least a 30 percent reduction in water use. For more information, you can contact Garrett at (254) 501-9243, or send an email to general@wcid1.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 KWKT - FOX 44. A regional conference on Enhancing the Effectiveness of Preventive Measures Against Fires was held in the city of Aghdam, as authorities prepare for the heightened risk of wildfires during the upcoming summer months, Azernews reports, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The Ministry noted that the meeting brought together high-ranking officials and experts from across the region. Attendees included Eldar Seyidov, Deputy Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in the districts of Aghdam, Fuzuli, and Khojavand; Major General Yusif Nabiyev, Chief Fire Safety Expert of the Ministry of Emergency Situations; Colonel Mirali Feyziyev, Head of the Ministrys Karabakh Regional Center; and representatives from the Presidents offices in the liberated territories. Also present were officials from the Ministries of Emergency Situations, Ecology and Natural Resources, Internal Affairs, Defense, Agriculture, and Justice, along with representatives of the Prosecutor Generals Office, State Border Service, and other relevant bodies. The primary goal of the meeting was to coordinate efforts to prevent potential wildfires in forested and agricultural areas during the dry summer season. Participants stressed the importance of inter-agency cooperation in strengthening fire prevention efforts and mitigating environmental risks. Speakers highlighted that protecting and developing forestsan integral part of the ecosystemis a key strategy in combating climate change. The meeting emphasized the importance of public ecological awareness, the creation of firebreaks around forests and farmland, and the establishment of water reservoirs to assist in fire suppression efforts. As the summer approaches, the conference underscored the need for increased vigilance from all segments of society. Farmers, livestock breeders, villagers living near forested areas, and construction workers were urged to strictly observe fire safety regulations and exercise extreme caution with fire-related activities. The session concluded with a Q&A session, where experts addressed concerns and questions from participants, reaffirming the commitment of all stakeholders to preventing wildfires and protecting the environment. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 30. During a two-day visit to Moscow, Saida Mirziyoyeva, Assistant to the President of Uzbekistan, met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and discussed key areas of bilateral cooperation, Trend reports. The discussions centered on trade, investment, labor migration, and the development of skilled personnel. Particular emphasis was placed on the strong growth in trade turnover between the two countries and the advancement of joint projects, especially in the industrial and energy sectors. The parties also examined measures to streamline migration procedures, including the possibility of relocating certain stages of patent processing to Uzbekistan. Beyond her meeting with the Prime Minister, Mirziyoyeva held talks with several senior Russian officials, including Anton Vaino, Head of the Presidential Administration; his first deputies Sergey Kiriyenko and Alexey Gromov; Presidential Assistant Vladimir Medinsky; and Valentina Matviyenko, Chairwoman of the Federation Council. In the first quarter of 2025, bilateral trade between Uzbekistan and Russia reached an impressive $2.6 billion, supported by an 18.2 percent increase in Uzbek exports to the Russian market. Sve hrvatsko! Everything Croatian is coming to downtown Gig Harbor this Saturday, May 31, as the city celebrates the grand reopening of the Skansie Brothers Netshed, which is more than 100 years old. There will be food, dance performances and music tied to the citys Croatian and commercial fishing heritage. Everybodys working hard to make the day fun and interactive, Dawn Ancich told The News Tribune. Ancich, whose father was friends with the Skansies, is a board member of the Skansie Netshed Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2015 to preserve the netshed and its history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Croatia Day event will begin at noon at Skansie Brothers Park, and will feature several performances from Croatian dance and music groups as well as opportunities for audience participation, according to a program she shared with The News Tribune. The event will conclude at 6 p.m. Skansie Brothers Netshed at 3207 Harborview Dr. is the citys oldest netshed, according to the City of Gig Harbors website. It was built in 1910 and is now operated by the Skansie Netshed Foundation. We expect a big turnout, Ancich said. Though she didnt have an estimate on the number of attendees, she said they expect over 50 performers. Skansie Brothers Park has street parking only, according to the city of Gig Harbor website. Public parking lots nearby are listed online, and Pierce Transit Route 100 provides bus service to downtown. As for parking/traffic impacts, we dont expect any more impacts than a busy farmers market day or concert in the park, city Public Works Director Jeff Langhelm said in an email. Busy, but not overwhelming. Several Croatian music and dance groups will perform at Skansie Brothers Park for Croatia Day on May 31, 2025, in Gig Harbor, Wash. Croatian food booths will be selling pastries and other bites to eat, according to a media release about the event. Facebook indicates one vendor will be Seattle caterer Baked in Bosnia, which will serve sarma: stuffed cabbage rolls eaten in Croatia and other countries in the Balkans. Other booths will have Croatian gifts, the media release says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inside the netshed, which Ancich said has a new roof, stabilized interior and a fresh coat of paint, Skansie Netshed Foundation volunteers will provide guided tours of the structure and answer questions. Visitors can also watch net mending demonstrations from commercial fishermen, and two authors will be available to talk about their books The Fleet and Just for the Halibut, according to Ancich. Book signings will also be available. The Skansie Brothers Netshed was built in 1910, according to Ancich. The netshed, which is typically open to visitors in the summer months, was closed for about a year during renovations. The netshed is one of 17 remaining wooden structures and docks in Gig Harbor that Croatian fishermen and boat crews historically used to mend nets and prepare their boats for sea, The News Tribune reported. The city of Gig Harbor identified the need to repaint, re-roof and make structural repairs to the netshed and awarded a $315,000 contract to American West Construction in March 2024. The citys Historic Preservation Commission was also involved in the project to ensure it maintained the buildings historic integrity. City staff replaced the front steps and deck structure of the netshed after the contracted work was completed earlier this year, according to a written statement by city Parks Manager Jennifer Haro. Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble performs a dance called the Lino, which is popular in the Dubrovnik region of Croatia. Following the grand re-opening May 31, the Skansie Brothers Netshed will be open to visitors from June to September at the same time as the Gig Harbor Waterfront Farmers Market on Thursdays, 1-6 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., according to the Skansie Netshed Foundation website. The farmers market runs through August 28. Free activities for families at Croatia Day celebration in Gig Harbor Coming on a budget? Not to worry: the guided tours of the netshed are free to the public. Other free perks include a coloring booth for kids where they can choose from 18 different fishing or marine-related prints from artwork donated by local artist Linda Foster; and face painting where you can choose from designs like a Croatian flag, salmon or a fishing boat, Ancich said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Performers coming to Croatia Day include the Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble, a group based in Anacortes. Ancich said the last time Vela Luka came to perform in Gig Harbor was over 10 years ago. Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble performs at CroatiaFest in 2017. Vela Luka artistic director Maria Plancich Kesovija has been with the ensemble since it was founded in 1975, and performs in it along with her mother and daughter, she told The News Tribune. Croatian dance encompasses a range of styles, varying by region and influenced by a number of neighboring countries that inspired different costumes and movements, according to Kesovija. We just really want to honor that huge transition that families made emigrating from Croatia, whether that was a century ago or more recently, Kesovija said, adding that the group plans to perform songs that audience members will remember their families singing. Editors note: An earlier version of this story misstated the artist who donated her work for kids coloring activities at Croatia Day. Her name is Linda Foster. NEW BERN, N.C. (WNCT) A fight at Pinks Pub in New Bern led to the arrest of three people on May 25. Officers witnessed a large crowd in front of the pub, with many people arguing and yelling, when they went to investigate reports of a fight on May 25. Security staff told police that the fight started inside the pub before staff closed the bar and had everyone leave the building. The crowd started to disperse when officers arrived. Stabbing at Pinkys Pub Leaves Two Injured, Three Arrested Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers followed the crowd and witnessed another fight break out a couple minutes later. Officers attempted to break up the fight between 34 year old Preston Blount and 33 year old Aaron Carter. One officer sustained a serious injury to his arm due to this. Blount also sustained a stab wound and both him and the officer were taken to ECU Health in Greenville. They have since been treated and released. Preston Blount has now been charged with disorderly conduct and resist/obstruct/delay. 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. NEW BERN, N.C. (WNCT) An officer with the New Bern Police Department was hit by a car after rescuing a citizen in distress. On Friday, May 30, at around 9 a.m., officers with the New Bern Police Department responded to a call regarding a citizen in distress near 3100 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. When they arrived, the man in distress was walking dangerously close to oncoming traffic. Officers quickly rescued him from traffic, which led to an officer being struck by an oncoming vehicle. The officer was transported to Carolina East Medical Center and is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The citizen was also taken to the hospital for evaluation and did not suffer any reported injuries. This is an ongoing investigation, and no charges have been filed at this time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more information, please contact Lieutenant R. J. Holton with the New Bern Police Department at 252-672-4289. 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. Bernard Kerik, who was New York Citys police commissioner during the 9/11 attacks, later pleaded guilty to tax fraud and was then pardoned during President Trumps first term, died Thursday night at the age of 69. FBI Director Kash Patel announced Keriks death in a post on the social platform X, saying the law enforcement officer and Army veteran died after a private battle with illness. He was decorated more than 100 times for bravery, valor, and service, having rescued victims from burning buildings, survived assassination attempts, and brought some of the worlds most dangerous criminals to justice, Patel said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His legacy is not just in the medals or the titles, but in the lives he saved, the city he helped rebuild, and the country he served with honor, the FBI director added. The New York City Police Department confirmed Keriks death, offering our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. Kerik, who was praised for his response during the 9/11 attacks, pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges in 2009, in part for getting $250,000 for apartment renovations from a construction company. He was in prison for three years, from 2010-13. Trump pardoned him in 2020. Kerik was nominated to lead the Department of Homeland Security in 2004 by former President Bush, but shortly after, Kerik withdrew his nomination, saying he had uncovered information that led him to second-guess the immigration status of his housekeeper and nanny. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kerik founded a risk management consulting firm, Kerik Group, in 2005. With over forty years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people, Patel wrote on X. As the 40th Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nations history. 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. NEED TO KNOW Bernard Kerik, who served as NYPD police commissioner during 9/11, has died at age 69 Kerik was first hailed as a hero for facilitating the emergency response to the attacks, but later fell from grace due to multiple legal woes He pleaded guilty to eight felonies in 2009 and served three years in prison, then was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020 Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has died. He was 69. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FBI Director Kash Patel announced news of Kerik's death in a Thursday, May 29 post on X, noting that Kerik had been in the midst of a "private battle with illness." Kerik led the NYPD during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and was widely regarded as a hero for facilitating the department's response, according to Reuters. His career was on a steady rise until a series of accusations and investigations in the mid-2000s including tax evasion, fraud and making false statements landed him in prison. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2020. Budd Williams/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Bernard Kerik in 2000 Bernard Kerik in 2000 Kerik, the 40th NYPD police commissioner, grew up in Paterson, N.J., and dropped out of Eastside High School. He then enlisted in the Army and was stationed in South Korea, according to the Associated Press, which reports that Kerik worked in private security in Saudi Arabia before coming back to the U.S., where he supervised a New Jersey jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His career with the NYPD began in the '80s, and Kerik was eventually tapped to oversee the city's troubled prison system. In 2000, Kerik was appointed police commissioner by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and held the position for 16 months, The New York Times reported. Kerik was on the ground at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and helped facilitate the building's evacuation. His actions on 9/11 earned him praise and many formal honors, cementing him as one of the day's heroes. Yet, his legal troubles began shortly after. In 2004, he was nominated to lead the Department of Homeland Security by former President George W. Bush. Kerik unexpectedly withdrew his name from consideration because he employed an undocumented person in his household and his failure to pay payroll taxes, according to the Times. MANNY CENETA/AFP via Getty George W. Bush and Bernard Kerik George W. Bush and Bernard Kerik His admission led to further investigations into Kerik's dealings, which revealed that he carried on an extramarital affair in an apartment meant for rescue workers at the World Trade Center site. 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. It was also revealed that he had commissioned renovations from a construction firm with alleged ties to organized crime, had committed tax fraud and had made false statements to federal investigators, according to the Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2009, Kerik pleaded guilty to eight felonies, according to CNN, including tax fraud and making false statements to federal officials. He was sentenced to four years in prison but ended up serving three for good behavior. Kerik later wrote a memoir, From Jailer to Jailed, which was published in 2015. Trump granted Kerik a full pardon in 2020, after which Kerik became a staunch supporter of the president. Like Giuliani, Kerik denied the results of the 2020 election and said former President Joe Biden won because of fraudulent voting practices, according to the Times. During the House Jan. 6 committee, Kerik provided documents implicating himself in other efforts to deny the election results. Read the original article on People Bernard Bernie Kerik, the citys police commissioner on 9/11 and a close ally of President Donald Trump, has died at age 69, sources said Thursday. Kerik had been commissioner for just one year before he was faced with the biggest terroristic attack ever on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001. He heroically led the NYPD through the devastating rescue and recovery efforts. Today, we mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X Thursday night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bernie passed away tragically on May 29, 2025, after a private battle with illness. With over forty years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people. As the 40th Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nations history. Kerik joined the NYPD in 1986. Before serving as police commissioner, he was commissioner of the NYC Department of Corrections from 1998 to 2000. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Kerik as the interior minister of the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority, and in 2004 nominated him to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Kerik soon withdrew his candidacy, however, after it came to light that he employed an undocumented immigrant as a nanny. Legal problems continued to dog Kerik in that period of his life. In 2009 Kerik pleaded guilty to tax fraud and making false statements in the court of the Southern District of New York, for which he served three years in prison. Kerik emerged triumphant in his later years, however. President Trump officially pardoned him in 2020. Afterwards he proved a stalwart ally of Trump, and supported his claims of voter fraud that lead to the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kerik was a narcotics detective in the NYPD when he went to work for then Republican mayoral candidate Rudy Giulianis campaign. He became his driver during the contest in which Giuliani defeated Mayor David Dinkins in 1992. Giuliani tapped Kerik as a chief of staff and head of security for the Correction Department, before he rose to Correction Commissioner. As Commissioner, he was known for instituting NYPD-style statistical tracking and was lauded in a New York Times piece for reducing stabbings and slashings in the system which at the time was bulging with more than 15,000 detainees. In the post, he surrounded himself with a coterie of loyalists and sometimes acted as if he was head of a mob family. In 2000, Giuliani replaced then-Police Commissioner Howard Safir with Kerik the rise from detective to head of the NYPD was now complete. After the 2001 terror attacks, Kerik along with Giuliani became national figures for their handling of the aftermath of the attacks. Along the way, Kerik was embroiled in a series of scandals. He used police personnel to take photos for his autobiography. He had affairs with a female correction officers and HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan, including an episode where he ordered detectives to find Regans purse that she believed had been stolen. One of the places he met with his paramours was an apartment near Ground Zero that had been loaned for his use by a real estate developer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The law caught up with him when he was charged with tax fraud and lying to federal investigators in 2007 after taking $250,000 from an Israeli billionaire and another $236,000 from a New York developer. He pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to 48 months in prison and released in 2013. He also befriended Lawrence Ray, who connected him with a allegedly mob-linked construction firm that did a free renovation of his Riverdale apartment. Kerik served as a cooperating witness against Ray, who later was embroiled in the Sarah Lawrence sex cult case and was convicted in 2022 of extortion, forced prostitution and forced labor. In 2020, President Trump pardoned Kerik along with former Illinois Rep. Rod Blagojevich. Kerik became a sometime advocate for prison reform as well as a regular guest on conservative talk shows and cable news. Kerik was born in Newark, N.J., to Patricia Joann (nee Bailey) and Donald Raymond Kerik Sr., a veteran of the U.S. Army. Kerik was in the hospital on May 6 after suffering a serious illness, though he was expected to recover. _____ Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who led the department during the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, has died at the age of 69, according to the New York Police Department and a source close to Kerik. The department mourned Kerik in a Thursday post on X. For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, the NYPD said. FBI Director Kash Patel also remembered Kerik in a post on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, we mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known. Bernie passed away tragically on May 29, 2025, after a private battle with illness, Patel wrote. Kerik, a Trump ally who once served three years in federal prison for charges including tax fraud and lying to officials, was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020. Kerik teamed up with former New York City mayor and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election to search for evidence of voter fraud. An attorney for Kerik later said in a letter to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol that Mr. Kerik was hired by former-President Donald Trumps legal team, to act as an investigator tasked to look into claims of election fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kerik was once a bodyguard and driver for Giuliani in 1993. He was the commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections from 1998 to 2000 before he was appointed commissioner of the citys police department in August 2000. I am heartbroken over the loss of my dear friend, Giuliani wrote in a post on X. He was a decorated police officer, Corrections commissioner and NYC police commissioner during the worst terrorist attack on American soil. He was nominated to be Homeland Security secretary by President George W. Bush in 2004 but later withdrew from consideration due to potential tax violations and a former household employees questionable immigration status. Kerik pleaded guilty to misdemeanor ethics violations related to gifts he received while leading the city corrections department in 2006. He was fined for accepting $165,000 in gifts from a construction firm. In November 2007, Kerik was indicted on federal corruption charges, and he pleaded not guilty to 16 counts, including conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2009, he pleaded guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials and was later sentenced to 48 months in prison. Kerik was released from federal prison for good behavior after serving three years, and he released a memoir in 2015. Kerik was also heavily involved in advising Navy SEAL chief Edward Eddie Gallagher during his military case in 2019. Gallagher was convicted of bringing discredit to the armed services after posing next to a dead ISIS fighters body, which is against regulations. He was then demoted in rank a decision Trump later reversed. He was born on September 4, 1955 in Newark, New Jersey and served in the US Army from 1974 to 1977. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This story has been updated with additional developments. CNNs Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Paula Reid and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan strengthen cross-border industrial links Photo: Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan At the International Forum "Astana," Kazakhstans Minister of Trade and Integration, Arman Shakkaliev, met with Kyrgyzstans Minister of Economy, Bakyt Sydykov, to reinforce their strategic partnership. They discussed expanding trade, industrial cooperation, and investment collaboration. Kazakhstan expressed readiness to increase exports in various sectors, supported by its Export Credit Agency. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register Ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was known as Americas Cop and led the citys police department through the 9/11 terror attacks, died Thursday after he was hospitalized with cardiac disease. He was 69 and surrounded by family and friends at the time of his death at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Kerik, whose high-profile career was peppered with success and controversy, shot to prominence when he was named the Big Apples top cop by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2000 and presided over a 63% drop in violent crime. Former NYPD Commissioner and national security expert Bernie Kerik has died at age 69. FREELANCE The 40th police commissioner was also dubbed the beat cop commissioner for his hands-on leadership style, making five arrests during his 16-month tenure as commissioner, including one involving two ex-convicts in Harlem driving a stolen van. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kerik, whose law enforcement career spanned four decades and involved national security work, helmed the department during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, overseeing response, rescue, recovery and investigative efforts. His actions in the aftermath of the Twin Towers attack were praised, earning him the nickname Americas Cop. For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11, the Finest said on X. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, mourned his friend of three decades. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was just this afternoon that I stopped by the hospital to see Bernie Kerik, my friend of nearly 30 years, before his passing, Hizonner said. He was a great New Yorker and American. Rest in peace, my friend. Kerik was hospitalized with an unnamed cardiac illness before his death on Thursday. FREELANCE FBI Director Kash Patel, a longtime friend, said Kerik was a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known. With over 40 years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people. As the 40th Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nations history, Patel said in a statement. His legacy is not just in the medals or the titles, but in the lives he saved, the city he helped rebuild and the country he served with honor. Kerik served as NYPD Commissioner from 2000 to 2001. EPA Kerik (right) pictured with hero Det. Joe Vigiano. Kathy Vigiano Giuliani said in a statement that Kerik was a true patriot and one of the bravest men Ive ever known. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He became police commissioner when they thought crime couldnt be reduced any further, yet he reduced it further. His work helped New York become the safest big city in America and a shining example of urban renaissance, the ex-mayor said. Then he faced the worst foreign attack since the war of 1812 on American soil September 11th. He was at my side within 20 minutes of the attack and never left. A lifetime of service Born in Newark, New Jersey, on Sept. 4, 1955, Kerik served in the US Army before joining the NYPD in 1986. In 1994, he left the force and joined the Department of Corrections, being named its commissioner four years later by Giuliani, leading up to his stint as the NYPDs top cop. He was named the 40th police commissioner of New York City during the administration of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. FREELANCE During his time at the helm of the NYPD, violent crime dropped 63% under his tenure. FREELANCE In 2003, following the US invasion of Iraq, then-President George W. Bush named Kerik to head up a provisional police force in the post-war Middle Eastern nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former Finest boss later founded Kerik Group, a private crisis and risk management consulting firm. Bush nominated Kerik to head the US Department of Homeland Security in 2004, but the ex-commissioner withdrew his nomination while admitting he had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny which led to his guilty plea to ethics violations in the Bronx in 2006. Keriks career in law enforcement spanned four decades, and was head of the police department during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as he oversaw the response, rescue, recovery, and investigative efforts. Freelance His heroic efforts in the aftermath of 9/11 earned him the nickname, Americas Cop. New York Post His legal troubles worsened in 2009, when he pleaded guilty to eight federal felonies, including charges that he evaded taxes on a $255,000 gift for home repairs and made false statements to federal officials while being considered for the Homeland Security post. Kerik served four years in federal prison before he was pardoned by Trump in 2020 during his first term in the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More recently, Kerik was grilled by Congress during hearings stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and was subpoenaed to disclose privileged Trump administration documents reportedly linked to the investigation. Before becoming NYPD Commissioner, he was the commissioner of the corrections department from 1998 to 2000. New York Post In 2024, he served as a surrogate for Trump on crime and national security issues. His honors over his career included the NYPD Medal for Valor, 29 NYPD medals for excellence and meritorious service, a Presidential Commendation from President Ronald Reagan and numerous other impressive accolades. Bruce Teitelbaum, who served as Giulianis chief of staff, said Kerik was a tough guy, who made an impact and served our city well. His place in history is secure. On X, NYPD News said, For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11, while also sending condolences to his family and loved ones. James Keivom Fearless, brave, larger than life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In public, Kerik had a tough exterior, Kathy Vigiano, retired cop and widow of 9/11 hero Detective Joseph Vigiano told The Post. Privately, he cherished his family, wife and kids, cops. He was always there for me and my family. Guardian Angels founder and Republican Big Apple mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa called him a cops cop. Kerik is survived by his wife, Hala Matil Kerik, and three children, including a son with ex-wife Jacqueline Llerena. His son Joe, 41, followed in his fathers footsteps into law enforcement and currently serves on the Newark SWAT team. Bernie Kerik, the former City of New York police commissioner who rose to fame during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has died at age 69. The FBI director, Kash Patel, confirmed Kerik's death on X on May 29, but he did not release a cause of death. Instead, Patel wrote that Kerik died after a "private battle with illness." However, Kerik's health issues were heart-related. Although the official cause of death was not released, the New York Post reported that Kerik died "after he was hospitalized with cardiac disease." He died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the Post reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Today, we mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known. Bernie passed away tragically on May 29, 2025, after a private battle with illness," Patel wrote. "With over 40 years of service in law enforcement and national security, he dedicated his life to protecting the American people. As the 40th Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernie led with strength and resolve in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, guiding the NYPD through one of the darkest chapters in our nations history. He was decorated more than 100 times for bravery, valor, and service, having rescued victims from burning buildings, survived assassination attempts, and brought some of the worlds most dangerous criminals to justice," he added. "His legacy is not just in the medals or the titles, but in the lives he saved, the city he helped rebuild, and the country he served with honor. Rest easy, Commissioner. Your watch has ended, but your impact will never fade. End of Watch May 29, 2025." However, Kerik ran into legal issues after his 2001 fame. According to Fox News, Kerik "pleaded guilty in 2009 to eight felonies, including tax fraud and lying to the White House while being vetted for the role of Homeland Security chief in 2004." He spent three years in prison before being pardoned, Fox News reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kerik was also involved, through former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, in plans to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He was, according to the Post, "grilled by Congress during hearings stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol." Related: Katie Miller Has New Job That's Grabbing Attention, Reports Say Bernie Kerik's Cause of Death Unclear, But Cardiac Issues Cited first appeared on Men's Journal on May 30, 2025 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that talks with China over trade are somewhat in limbo amid U.S. trade tensions with the country. I would say that they are a bit stalled, Bessent told Fox Newss Bret Baier of U.S.-China trade talks. I believe that we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks, and I believe we may, at some point, have a call between the president and [Communist] Party Chair Xi [Jinping]. On Wednesday, a federal court ruled that an emergency law did not give President Trump unilateral authority to impose tariffs on close to every country. The ruling blocked the presidents April Liberation Day tariffs and earlier orders putting tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said judges on the court brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump after the ruling. A federal appeals court later lifted the first ruling on Thursday, however, a separate federal court on the same day blocked the majority of the presidents tariffs. The presidents tariff policy during his first few months back in the White House has strained American relationships with longtime allies like Canada and the European Union, driven up economic uncertainty and rattled markets across the globe. Republican strategist Karl Rove said in a Wednesday opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal that Trumps tariff rhetoric could cost the GOP its majorities in Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans should hope the president really believes in reciprocitythe policy that if countries lower their tariffs, well lower ours. He should have confidence that America can compete if the playing field is level, Rove 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 The Hill. Former President Biden blasted the authors of a new book detailing his mental decline during the 2024 race for president and his final few months in office. Biden was asked about chatter regarding his health stemming from a new book, Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson after speaking at an event in Delaware on Friday. You can see that Im mentally incompetent, I cant walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them, Biden said with a smirk while speaking with reporters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former president was asked if he wanted to respond to any of the reporting in the book, which revealed the extent to which top White House aides were kept in the dark about his condition, or to questions among Democrats whether he should have run for reelection. Why didnt they run against me then? Biden replied. Because Id have beaten them. Biden announced earlier this month he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and Fridays remarks were his first since the announcement. The former president said his doctors are optimistic about his prognosis. Tapper and Thompsons book has given fuel to attacks from President Trump and his allies alleging a cover-up of Bidens condition by Democrats and media outlets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) Former President Joe Biden delivered the first remarks since he announced he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer Friday, speaking in a steady voice during a somber Memorial Day gathering and later smiling and saying he's feeling good. Biden spoke at an annual gathering marking Memorial Day at Veterans Memorial Park in his home state of Delaware, not far from his home in Wilmington. The event coincided with the 10th anniversary of his son Beau's death. It also comes amid renewed questions about Biden's mental and physical health after the recent publication of a book about his fitness for office. Speaking to reporters after the Memorial Day event, he said he was already undergoing treatment for cancer, which entailed taking a pill, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The expectation is were gonna be able to beat this, he said. Im feeling good. Biden dropped his reelection bid in July 2024 after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump, after which those in his party questioned whether he could continue as the party's nominee. Questions about his decline and how the White House staff reacted to it are at the center of a recent book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which has renewed the debate. Asked Friday if he had a response to recent questions about his mental and physical health, he smiled and engaged with the reporter. You can see Im mentally incompetent and I can walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to Democrats who question whether he should have initially run for reelection at all, he said: Why didnt they run against me then? Because Id have beaten them. During his formal remarks, he called upon the group to remember the sacrifices of those lost in battle, whose echoes he said can still be heard. He also spoke of his son, Beau, who died at 46 of brain cancer. A twice-elected state attorney general, Beau Biden was considering a run for governor, and his death deeply affected the elder Biden. This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq, and, to be honest, its a hard day, the former president said. Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier, it really does. So, thank you for allowing me to grieve with you. ___ Former President Biden made a public appearance Friday for the first time since his cancer diagnosis earlier this month, speaking at a Delaware ceremony in honor of Memorial Day. Bidens remarks came after a series of tough weeks for him, which have featured two new books containing accusations that his cognitive abilities were slipping toward the end of his presidency, topped off by his diagnosis of an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bone. But Biden could also be back in the spotlight after the release of audio from his 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Bidens handling of classified and sensitive documents. The transcript of the interview was been released last year, but the audio recording wasnt made public until this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the audios release, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced the committee plans to hold hearings on a cover-up concerning Bidens mental acuity and his use of an autopen to sign executive orders and pardons. Comer said Wednesday that hes open to bringing Biden in to testify before the committee on these topics. But Biden didnt reference any of the developments during his speech in New Castle, focusing on honoring those who served in the armed forces and calling for a defense of democracy. He also noted that Friday marks the 10th anniversary of the death of his son, Beau, who served for a year in Iraq and died from brain cancer in 2015. We come together to remember the debt we owe to the American military, he said. The military is the solid spine of our nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden referenced the division that dominates U.S. politics, but he said those who serve dont wear a uniform that says Im a Democrat or Im a Republican but Im an American. He said each generation of the United States has needed to fight to maintain democracy, and it must continue. Today, lets renew our pledge to honor our heroes not only with our words but with our deeds, he said. Biden spoke to a local news outlet last Friday at Connecticuts Bradley International Airport as he was visiting for his grandsons graduation. Despite the cancer diagnosis, Biden said he was feeling great. 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. BIG SPRING, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- The Big Spring Police Department has asked for help from the community to identify a burglary suspect. According to Big Spring PD, around 8:00 am on May 29, the man pictured bellow reportedly burglarized a Quality Inn hotel room. Anyone with information has been asked to call Crime Stoppers at 432-263-TIPS and reference case number 2-25-01332. You may also submit your anonymous tip online or by using the P3 TIPS mobile app. If your tip leads to an arrest, it could be worth a cash reward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 Yourbasin. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A bill that would allow sexual assault survivors to report the abuse at any time has cleared the Oregon House. A group of state lawmakers unanimously approved House Bill 3582 after its third reading on Thursday. If it receives further support from the Oregon Senate and Gov. Tina Kotek, it could immediately remove the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse. Downtown Salem will nix free street parking later this summer Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The office of Rep. Annessa Hartman, one of the bills chief sponsors, reported that law gives adult survivors just five years before theyre able to file a civil complaint against their abusers. Those who are underage at the time of the abuse can wait up to five years or whenever they turn 40, depending on which comes later. But according to officials, experts have determined 52 is the average age for people to report the sexual assault they experienced as children. For far too long, survivors have been silenced by arbitrary deadlines that ignore the complex reality of trauma, Rep. Hartman said in a statement. Today, weve said loud and clear: we believe you, we support you, and we refuse to let time be your abusers greatest ally. Gov. Kotek signed a similar bill into law in 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The passage of House Bill 3632 increased the statute of limitations for prosecuting first-degree sex crimes from 12 years to 20 years for adult survivors. For child survivors, the threshold was either increased to 20 years or whenever the individual turns 30, depending on which happens later. Historic lawsuit filed against big oil companies for Washington mothers heat dome death If Oregon were to pass HB 3582 as well, Rep. Hartmans office noted it would join 19 other states and the federal government in eliminating the statute of limitations for survivors of child sex abuse. The Oregon Senate read the bill for the first time on Thursday. It has since been referred to the rules committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. It happens every few generations. Its what drove the fascist oligarchs of the Confederacy to reach out and try to conquer the entire United States in the 1860s. It caused the robber barons to murder union organizers and ultimately crash America into the Republican Great Depression in the early decades of the twentieth century. And its why wages have been stagnant while billionaires wealth has exploded in the years since the Reagan revolution. What Im talking about here is the rise of greedy oligarchs who are driven by an identifiable mental illness: whats either a subset of obsessive-compulsive disorder or a defect in impulse control called hoarding syndrome. Because most hoarders never invite people into their homes, its an almost invisible illness. But, as Drs. Randy Frost and Gail Steketee write in their book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things: Recent studies of hoarding put the prevalence rate at somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of the population. That means that six million to fifteen million Americans suffer from hoarding that causes them distress or interferes with their ability to live. Thats tough enough; people afflicted with hoarding syndrome are often tortured by their obsession and socially embarrassed to the point of removing themselves from all but the most essential social situations. Theyre functionally invisible. But from a societal point of view, theyre generally only harming themselves: Hoarding syndrome is considered a psychiatric condition, not a crisis for democracy itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With one giant exception: morbidly rich people who are also afflicted with hoarding syndrome but dont live in or even close to poverty. When people with hoarding syndrome are born with or come into massive wealth, suddenly what was once a personal, psychiatric issue can become a crisis for all of society. Like Scrooge McDuck of Disney comics fame, instead of filling their mansions with old newspapers, tin cans, and balls of string, they obsessively fill their money bins, overseas bank accounts, and investment portfolios with billions of dollars. And then, driven to continuously hoard more and more moneythat now being the object of their addictionthey reach out to use the power of government itself to redirect more and more cash into their greedy hands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As historian and political scientist Michael Parenti notes: Wealth becomes addictive. Fortune whets the appetite for still more fortune. There is no end to the amount of money one might wish to accumulate, driven onward by the auri sacra fames, the cursed hunger for gold. So the money addicts grab more and more for themselves, more than can be spent in a thousand lifetimes of limitless indulgence, driven by what begins to resemble an obsessional pathology, a monomania that blots out every other human consideration. It blots out their concern for their fellow humans. It blots out their willingness to take climate science seriously. It blots out their ability to see the damage theyre doing to their own country and its democratic institutions. Ultimately, they dont care about the damage they do to society; such considerations are overwhelmed by their obsession. They dont care how many children must grow up in poverty or even die young to support their massive wealth. They dont care about destroying everybody elses future, so long as they can get more, more, more money! We defeated Confederate oligarchs with this disease back in 1865. We beat money hoarders back again after the Republican Great Depression with FDRs New Deal and LBJs Great Society. We thought we were safe, as the middle class grew from around 10 percent of us to around two-thirds of us (with a single paycheck!) by the late 1970s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But then, in 1978, in the Bellotti decision written by Powell Memo author Lewis Powell himself, five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court ruled that money is actually free speech and corporations are persons. It floated Reagan into office in 1981 on a tsunami of oil and banking industry money. Five other corrupted SCOTUS Republicans doubled down on that bizarre ruling in 2010 with Citizens United, creating an entirely new form of corrupt political bribery via something they created out of thin air that is called a SuperPAC. As a result, today these morbidly rich hoarders shovel small amounts (millions) into the pockets of captured politicians who then provide them with tax breaks, profit-driving deregulation, and government subsidies that return billions to them. And the impact on average Americans over the past 47 years that weve been living in the Reagan revolution has been dramatic. While every other developed country in the world offers free or nearly free health care to its citizens; free or nearly free education, including college; and almost universal unionization and a high minimum wage, were stuck living in the nation these billionaires have forced on us just to satisfy their own avaricious obsession with more, more, more money: Almost 30 million Americans lack health insurance altogether, and 43 percent of Americans are so badly under-insured that any illness or accident costing them more than $1,000 in co-pays or deductibles would wipe them out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Almost 12 percent of Americans, over 37 million of us, live in dire poverty, and 60 percent of us live in poverty: 201 million Americans. According to OECD numbers, while only 5 percent of Italians and 11 percent of Japanese workers toil in low-wage jobs, as CBS News reports, for the bottom 60% of U.S. households, a minimal quality of life is out of reach. (And low-income Japanese and Italians have free health care and college.) More than one in five Americans21 percentare illiterate. By fourth grade, a mere 35 percent of American children are literate at grade level, as our public schools have suffered from a sustained, four-decade-long attack by Republicans at both state and federal levels to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Fully a quarter of Americans (26 percent) suffer from a diagnosable mental illness in any given year: Over half of them (54 percent) never receive treatment and, because of cost and a lack of access to mental health care, of the 46 percent who do get help, the average time from onset of symptoms to the first treatment is 11 years. Every day in America, an average of 316 people are shot and 110 die from their wounds. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for American children, a situation not suffered by the children of any other country in the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And these are just the tip of the iceberg of statistics about how Americans suffer from Reagans 40-year-long GOP war on working-class and poor people that has managed to make America the nation with the worlds largest number of the worlds wealthiest billionaires. Almost half (44 percent) of American adults carry student debt, a burden virtually unknown in any other developed country in the world (dozens of countries actually pay their young people to go to college). Americans spend more than twice as much for health care and pharmaceuticals as citizens of any other developed country. We pay $11,912 per person per year for health care; its $5,463 in Australia, $4,666 in Japan, $5,496 in France, and $7,382 in Germany (the most expensive country outside of us). And we dont get better health or a longer lifespan for all the money; instead, its just lining the pockets of rich insurance, pharma, and hospital executives and investors, with hundreds of billions in profits every year going to the morbidly rich. Dollar Bill McGuire, the former CEO of UnitedHealth, for example, took over a billion dollars in compensation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The average American life expectancy is 78.8 years: Canadas is 82.3, Australias is 82.9, Japans is 84.4, Frances is 83.0, and Germanys is 81.3. Our public schools are an underfunded mess, as are our highways and public transportation systems. While every other developed country in the world has high-speed train service, we still suffer under a privatized rail system that prevents Amtrak from running even its most modern trains at anything close to their top speeds. In the 42 years since the start of the Reagan revolution, bought-off politicians have so altered our tax code that fully $51 trillion has moved from the homes and savings of working-class Americans into the money bins of the morbidly rich money hoarders. As a result, America today is the most unequal developed nation in the world and the situation gets worse every day: Many of our billionaires are richer than any pharaoh or king in the history of the world, while a family lifestyle that could be comfortably supported by a single income in 1980 takes two people working full-time to maintain today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the years since the Supreme Court first began down this road in 1976, the GOP has come to be entirely captured by this handful of mentally ill billionaires and the industries that made them rich. As a result, Republican politicians refuse to do anything about the slaughter of our schoolchildren with weapons of war; ignore or ridicule the damage fossil fuelcaused global warming is doing to our nation and planet; and continue to lower billionaire and corporate taxes every time they get full control of the federal or a state government. All because our courts and politicians, now well captured by right-wing billionaires, refuse to do anything about the ravages of hoarding syndrome among the very wealthy. Solving this problem wont be easy but also isnt complicated. Just like we did with the robber barons, the first step is to identify and publicize the problem of mentally ill people among the morbidly rich having seized control of our political system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We did this before. As President Grover Clevelandthe only Democrat elected during that postCivil War periodproclaimed in his 1887 State of the Union address: As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the peoples masters. And as FDR pointed out when he began to pull America out of the Republican Great Depression: For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself. FDR took on those economic royalists and defeated them. He explicitly called them out when the Democratic Party renominated him for president in 1936 in Philadelphia: These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America, Roosevelt said. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. He paused for a moment, then thundered, Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crowd roared, delighted that hed turned back the Republican Great Depression and put millions to work while undoing the climate-destroying Dust Bowl by creating, among other three-letter agencies, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, to plant millions of trees across the country. And he raised the top tax rate on the obscenely wealthy back up to 90 percent, while stopping an effort to kidnap him and turn the government fascist. In vain, Roosevelt said, they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike. Clevelands and Roosevelts work now falls to us, as a new generation of obsessively money-hoarding robber barons have emerged from Reagans tax cuts and these horrible Supreme Court decisions. Its thus now our job to educate the American people about the mental illness thats frozen our economy and is dismantling our democracy. Our task in this time of crisis is to create a societal consensus across America that were done indulging these wealthy pampered babies every desire, and begin the serious reforms necessary to put an end to this crisis and, like in the 1890s and 1930s, break up monopolies and raise their damn taxes so we can begin to pay down our nations debt and rebuild the middle class. Itll take a few years, in all probability, but its been done before. We can do it again. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Kazakhstans Vice Minister of Energy Bakytzhan Ilyas met with a delegation from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on May 30 to explore opportunities for modernizing the countrys power grid infrastructure, Trend reports. The meeting, held at the Ministry of Energy in Astana, was attended by AIIB Vice President Konstantin Limitovskiy and focused on the potential for financing key upgrades to Kazakhstans electricity transmission network. Among the main topics discussed was the proposed construction of a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line linking the northern and southern regions of the country. Participants also reviewed plans to modernize existing grid infrastructure in northern and western Kazakhstan. Vice Minister Ilyas expressed appreciation for AIIBs continued support of Kazakhstans infrastructure priorities and emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation in support of the countrys green transition and energy resilience. BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) A golden retriever is safe at home with her family after being rescued from an island in the Susquehanna River. Members of the Binghamton Fire Department gave Winnie a boat ride to shore on Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday morning at about 11:30, a member of the Hatala family was preparing to take the 3-year-old English cream golden retriever for a walk when the dog spotted some Canadian geese and chased after them, crossing their invisible fence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Hatalas launched a full-scale search near their home on Binghamtons Westside and received reports that Winnie was spotted swimming in the river. After the dog spent Wednesday night on an island in the river, a Binghamton Police drone was able to locate Winnie, and firefighters launched their rescue craft. Winnie and the Hatala family were overjoyed by the reunion, with Winnie wagging her tail before curling up for a long nap. The Hatalas say they plan to take Winnie to visit the fire station with a thank you gift in the near future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WIVT - News 34. BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) A Binghamton man will spend nearly 12 years in New York State Prison for weapons charges. Broome County District Attorney Paul Battisti announced that Dorian Raysor, 33, was sentenced to 11 years in prison to be followed by 5 years of post-release supervision for Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree, and Tampering with Physical Evidence. The sentence is the result of an investigation conducted by the Broome County Special Investigations Unit Task Force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the day of the incident, Task Force members were conducting surveillance in a hotspot area of Binghamton when they observed Raysor adjusting an object in the front of his waistband. Upon making contact with him, Raysor fled the scene on foot. During the pursuit, he discarded a handgun and a holster. Officers later recovered a loaded FN .45 caliber handgun. This conviction is the result of strong, coordinated police work and a commitment to keeping illegally possessed firearms off our streets. Mr. Raysors actions posed a serious threat to public safety, and this sentence reflects our offices dedication to holding violent offenders accountable. I thank the jury for their service and the SIU Task Force for their tireless work, said Battisti. 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 WIVT - News 34. Trump biographer Michael Wolff has suggested that the president has turned his ire on Harvard because he didnt get into the school. The Daily Beast reported earlier this week that theres a running joke in the White House that Donald Trump has set his sights on the Ivy League institution because his son Barron couldnt get in. But Wolff has suggested that its Trump himself who failed to attend. Barrons mom, First Lady Melania Trump, said her son never applied to Harvard and was not the reason for the presidents apparent vendetta against the university. Barron attends New York University. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wolff presented his theory about the president Thursday on The Daily Beast Podcast to host Joanna Coles. Its also odd because so many of the people around Donald Trump went to Ivy League universities. Several of them went to Harvard Business School, Coles pointed out. Obviously, JD Vance proudly went to Yale. So it does seem particularly odd, but perhaps hes also trying to stuff it to them. Its important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything he does, Wolff responded. But the other thing is that, by the way, he didnt get into Harvard. So one of the Trump things is always holding a grudge against the Ivy Leagues. Trump attended the University of Pennsylvania. Trump biographer Michael Wolff has suggested that the presidents fight with Harvard is personal (Getty Images) A spokesperson for the White House, Taylor Rogers, blasted the author and the outlet in a statement to The Daily Beast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Daily Beast and Michael Wolff have lots in common they both peddle fake news for clickbait in a hopeless attempt to amount to something more than lying losers, she said. The President didnt need to apply to an overrated, corrupt institution like Harvard to become a successful businessman and the most transformative President in history. The White House has previously referred to Wolff as a lying sack of s***. Its uncertain whether Trump ever applied to Harvard. No published biographies have claimed that he did. Trump enrolled at Fordham University in 1964 after attending the New York Military Academy. After two years at the school, Trump transferred to the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps niece, Mary Trump, recorded conversations in 2018 and 2019, reported byThe Washington Post in 2020, with her aunt, the late federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who said on tape that she did Trumps homework for him. Trump Barry also said a friend took his college entrance exam for him. Similarly, Mary Trump wrote in her book published in 2020 that the president paid someone to take his SATs. I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college, Trump Barry said at the time. She added that Trump went to Fordham for one year and then he got into the University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams. Trump actually attended Fordham for two years. A White House spokesperson at the time said it was false that someone took the SATs for the president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Responding to The Posts report about the recordings at the time, Trump said: Who cares? Last month, the White House announced the removal of most of Harvards federal funding after the school refused to adhere to the presidents orders to shut down diversity programs at the university. Trump has claimed that the basis for his fight with Harvard has to do with antisemitism on campus. Subsequently, on May 25, the president demanded the names and countries of all international students at the school. Trump said he would find out how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country. Wolff said on the podcast that Trump needs an enemy. Thats what makes the show great, the Trump show. He picks fantastic enemies, actually. And Harvard, for all it represents, fits right into the Trump show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He has done what he set out to do dominate the headlines, Wolff added. What do you do? You go after Harvard, and you go after Harvard in a way that is draconian, dramatic, and existential. Its threatening Harvard on that level. So Harvard will oppose this and therefore the courts will stop this from happening. But at the same time, that becomes another aspect to the Trump show, he argued. He forces them to play their part, which is to oppose him. PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) A bill now heading to the governors desk promises to help keep children on the right path. Florida lawmakers passed legislation that prioritizes early intervention, ensuring at-risk youth receive the support they need. In a bi-partisan push, the legislation revamps state statue to create a more efficient and responsive juvenile justice framework. Florida enacts Dexters and Troopers Law to combat animal abuse The bill aims to improve agency coordination with a focus on promoting education, strengthening families, and preventing youth from being involved in criminal behavior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a former Department of Children and Families attorney, I have witnessed how delayed interventions, and systemic red tape can derail a childs future. Ive seen parents begging for help, and Ive seen the consequences when help comes too late, said State Rep. Bracy Davis (D- Ocoee). Sponsors of the bill say schools, courts, service providers, and families now all have a role to play in building a better path forward for Floridas youth. These are youth who are running away from home. Theyre not showing up to school. They are right there at the cusp of something different whether thats dependency or delinquency and so the services are there to make sure that they dont go down that path, said State Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole). Jacques added that one important piece of the bill focuses on improving the education system and addressing student attendance issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the pandemic, unfortunately in Florida, weve seen a drop in attendance when it comes to school. So right now, with this bill, weve added additional measures for the schools to track how many absences are occurring and they have to report those in a more robust fashion and not just the number of absences, but who is absent so we can start intervening in a very early stage, Jacques said. Representative Jacques worked alongside the Department of Justice to get the bill across the finish line. He says this was a priority for the governors administration and expects him to sign the bill 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 WFLA. MACKINAC ISLAND In a new era of divided government, state lawmakers face a binary choice between bipartisan cooperation and gridlock. When they convened for the Detroit Regional Chambers annual policy conference in the Straits of Mackinac, where two Great Lakes meet, they remained at loggerheads. Unlike past conferences in which legislative leaders have sometimes joined the governor for a big bipartisan policy announcement, that didn't happen this year. House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton Township, described the current legislative session as uniquely unproductive. "I'm disappointed with the lack of progress," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans control the Michigan House and Democrats hold a majority in the Michigan Senate. "You think that would be an ideal situation to find common ground," said Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids. Legislative leaders pointed fingers at each other for inaction. Puri blasted Richland Township Republican House Speaker Matt Hall's leadership style. "It's an unserious approach that's going to lead to dangerous consequences," Puri said. Hall said Michigan voters can blame Democrats for a Mackinac Policy Conference that didn't feature a bipartisan bill signing ceremony on the island. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Democratic-led legislative session that came to an end last year has continued to hover over the current one, fueling tensions between the top Republican and Democratic leaders in Lansing. Bills that passed both chambers last session never made their way to Whitmer's desk, prompting the Michigan Senate to sue Hall for refusing to transmit the legislation. Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, called it an unfortunate start to the year. Brinks said she and Hall have had informal and infrequent conversations, adding that her continued invitations to sit down have gone unanswered. "It shouldn't be that way," she said. "It's absolutely a problem." Hall has defended his leadership approach during news conferences, touting policies in which House lawmakers from both parties have come together to support in one breath and singling out some Democratic lawmakers for criticism in another. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a Mackinac Policy Conference panel featuring all four legislative leaders May 29, Hall didn't take Brinks or Puri up on their personal pleas to meet. At one point, Puri held up his phone in front of the audience, saying he had his calendar pulled up to put a date to meet on the calendar. Hall told Puri he didn't need to, saying he's worked effectively with other Democratic lawmakers. Hall also said he has set an example for bipartisanship with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, citing their Oval Office visit with President Donald Trump that preceded the announcement of a new fighter jet mission for Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Whitmer declined a request for an interview with the Detroit Free Press during the conference. But in her speeches, she emphasized her commitment to cooperating across the aisle. "This isn't a platitude. This is a philosophy," she said. Whitmer has long preached bipartisanship, but she faces a new dynamic in Lansing. For the first time during her tenure as governor, one political party controls one chamber of the Michigan Legislature and the opposite party controls the other. So far, lawmakers have sent four bills since this session began January to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk for her signature: Changes to Michigans minimum wage and paid sick leave laws and a pair of bills that adjusts the deadline for politicians and candidates to file their personal financial disclosures following hiccups with the online reporting system. Whitmer's governing approach isn't the only thing on the line, so is her marquee campaign promise to "fix the damn roads" if lawmakers reach a stalemate on road funding. But she suggested lawmakers may be close to an agreement. "We're inching closer to a deal," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mackinac Policy Conference: Mike Duggan, Dan Gilbert chat about downtown Detroit and what Bill Clinton saw in 1991 The Michigan House passed a road funding plan in March that would depend on steep cuts, which Puri characterized as an austerity plan packaged as a road funding solution. Brinks has previously described it as a nonstarter. Hall has blasted Senate Democrats for not putting forward a road funding plan of their own. Brinks says Hall won't come to the table to negotiate. While lawmakers may leave potholes unfilled, they face another high-stakes test for bipartisanship during budget negotiations. The Michigan House hasn't passed a budget proposal yet, and Hall hasn't committed to passing one out of the chamber by July 1, the deadline lawmakers including Hall imposed on themselves to help schools plan for the next year before students return to class. Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Democrats say they want House Speaker to negotiate BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) UPDATE: Jennifer Moses was located and is safe. ORIGINAL: Birmingham police searching for missing 49-year-old Birmingham police are asking for the publics help finding a critically missing woman. Jennifer Moses (Birmingham police) Jennifer Suree Moses, 49, was last seen in the area the 1400 block of 17th Street North wearing a blue shirt, burgundy corduroy pants, and blue shoes. Moses is described as 510 and 208 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts is asked to contact BPD at 205-328-9311. 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. A bloodhound picked up the scent shortly after the Devil in the Ozarks escaped from a lockup in northern Arkansas. The hound didn't have to go far to begin the hunt it lives at the prison as part of a specialized unit that uses man's best friend to help track fugitives. Although the scent of convicted killer Grant Hardin was lost because of heavy rain, experts say that even days after Sunday's escape, the animal's highly developed sense of smell can still pick up a fresh trail. Thats partly due to about 300 million cells in their nose that supercharges their sense of smell, said Terri Heck, a Bloodhound handler and trainer who works with the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, District Attorneys Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyve got wide nostrils to scoop up smells, and their long ears often work to stir up scents as they drag along the ground. Even their drool plays a role, as that wetness wakes up scents, Heck said. Bloodhounds are known for being tenacious trackers, said Brian Tierney, president of the National Police Bloodhound Association. They're playing a key role in the search for Hardin, now in its sixth day. Bloodhounds are so precise that they can differentiate the smells of identical twins, said Stephanie White, who coordinates training seminars that draw dogs and handlers from around the U.S. to the Florida Public Safety Institute at Tallahassee State College. The dogs are faced with a variety of training scenarios, from wooded areas to pavement to water crossings, she said. They also save lives, as one young bloodhound did just two weeks ago in Maine. Millie, a 10-month-old hound tracked a 5-year-old girl with autism who went missing from her home on May 16, Maine State Police said. The dog found the girl waist-deep in water in a swamp, the agency said. Authorities credited Millie's dedication and incredible nose for saving the girl. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bloodhounds are also independent, a key trait for searches. When it gets to be a difficult search they dont look to you for help, that they go forth themselves, Heck said. Bad weather confounded the hunt for Hardin, who was serving a 30-year sentence for murder when he escaped from the prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas. The hound found - then lost - Hardin's scent when heavy rains blew through the area, said state prison spokesman Rand Champion. Hardin was tracked for less than a quarter of a mile when the bloodhound lost the trail. He could have gone in any direction after that. That was one of the most frustrating things, that they were able to track him but then they lost him because of the rain, Champion said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A tip that Hardin was sighted in southern Missouri has been ruled out, and searchers assume that he's still in the vicinity of the prison, Champion said Friday. Hardin took very little with him and left behind plenty of clothes, bedsheets and other items that are used to familiarize the bloodhounds with his scent, Champion said. They are shared with the dogs to give them the initial scent of the person they're seeking, Tierney said. Who is Grant Hardin? A former police chief in the small town of Gateway near the Arkansas-Missouri border, Hardin had been held at the Calico Rock prison since 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in a fatal shooting for which he was serving a 30-year sentence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hardins DNA was matched to the 1997 rape of a teacher at an elementary school in Rogers, north of Fayetteville. He was sentenced to 50 years for that crime. Eventually, his notoriety led to a TV documentary, Devil in the Ozarks. Champion said that someone should have checked Hardins identity before he was allowed to leave, describing the lack of verification as a lapse that's being investigated. Bloodhounds live at Calico Rock prison The Calico Rock prison is known for bloodhounds that live in a kennel on prison property. Its nearly one dozen dogs have helped many other agencies, including the FBI ederal Bureau of Investigation, track a variety of people over the years, according to a 2021 state audit report on the prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Southern prisons have a long history of keeping bloodhounds around in case of escapes, like the one featured in country artist Blake Shelton's song Ol' Red," about a hound that hunts escaped inmates with "a nose that could smell a two-day trail." Dogs in Arkansas' prison system have also been used to help other agencies find missing children, people with special needs or elderly people, Champion said. The bloodhounds tend to raise a ruckus when they find their mark. But the prison system uses other types of dogs in searching for children and vulnerable people who go missing, and those dogs tend to lick people and make friends with them when they are found, Champion said. Fugitives use spices, other means to foil bloodhounds Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fugitives have been known to take extreme steps to throw the dogs off their trail, Tierney said. Two convicted killers who broke out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York in 2015 collected dozens of containers of black and cayenne pepper before their escape. They intended to use the pepper to interfere with tracking dogs they assumed would be part of a manhunt for them after the escape, a state investigation found. One of the men was shot and killed during the manhunt; another was also shot but survived and was captured. Hardin has troubled past in law enforcement In his first job as a police officer 35 years ago in the college town of Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas, Hardin struggled almost immediately, his supervisors said. He was dismissed by Fayetteville police, but kept getting hired for other law enforcement jobs in northwest Arkansas over the years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By the time he was the police chief in the small town of Gateway in 2016, he was out chasing cars for no reason, Cheryl Tillman, the town's current mayor, recalled in the documentary Devil in the Ozarks. ___ Associated Press Writer Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed. The Maryland State Board of Education and Blueprint for Marylands Future Accountability and Implementation Board hold a joint meeting June 25, 2024, in Baltimore. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) Local school systems straining to comply with the states sweeping Blueprint for Marylands Future have had to report to both the Maryland Department of Education and the Blueprints Accountability and Implementation Board, a setup creating confusion since the get-go. Now, more than three years into the process, the two agencies said they are working on a memorandum of understanding that could make things a bit smoother for all concerned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alex Reese, chief of staff with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), did not tell the state Board of Education on Thursday how long it would take to finalize an agreement, but he said a memorandum is in the works. State law requires the seven-member AIB to oversee the 10-year plan and approve any Blueprint documents submitted by the states 24 school systems and other state agencies that craft elements of the Blueprint. The law also requires the department to provide technical assistance and lend expertise on education policy. The AIB and state Board of Education also hold occasional joint meetings and approve certain policies associated with the multibillion-dollar Blueprint plan. Reese said MSDE will be fully owning Blueprint implementation. We feel good about that as practitioners. We really do feel like we possess that expertise to be able to be poised to fully implement the Blueprint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An AIB spokesperson confirmed in an email Thursday evening an agreement is being worked on with the department. AIB and MSDE attorneys are working together on an MOU [memorandum of understanding] relating to the agencies respective roles and duties, the spokesperson said. There is not currently a timeline confirmed for finalizing it. Because it is an MOU directly between the AIB and MSDE, there would be no need for General Assembly approval, the email said. In a quick summation to the state board Thursday, Reese said certain processes will remain the same such as the Blueprint board providing instructions to school systems on what is required in each Blueprint plan. It will continue interagency collaboration with agencies such as the state Higher Education Commission, which focuses on two of the Blueprints five pillars, or priorities hiring and retaining high-quality and diverse teachers, and preparing students for college and technical careers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The news was welcomed by school leaders, educators and advocates who have expressed frustration over the process of implementing the comprehensive education reform plan. One of the biggest complaints, if not the biggest, has been the lack of clarity and final guidance and where we get questions answered. Weve got to run every decision by both entities [MSDE and AIB], said Mary Pat Fannon, executive director of the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland. The association released a 12-page document in December that outlined proposals to help improve the plan. One of those recommendations was clearing up the relationship between the two agencies. Restructuring and clarifying the relationship of the MSDE and AIB would be very beneficial in the implementation of the Blueprint. This change would clarify roles and responsibilities, and establish clear guidance to the LEAs [local education agencies, or school systems] that they are governed by the procedures and processes promulgated by the MSDE and the State Board, the December report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Somebodys got to be the point. Somebodys got to be the team captain on certain things, Fannon said. Otherwise, its just completely frustrating. We are happy they are doing this. This is all going to help in implementation when these guys are 100% clear with us, Fannon said of the work on an MOU. Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore) was also pleased by the discussions, which she said would help improve the process at the local and state levels. But the senator hopes an agreement can be reached before the 2025-26 school year begins in the fall. I would like to think they would make every effort to use the time between now and [when] school starts to give as much clarity to the roles and responsibilities, since it will only have a positive impact at the local level, Carozza said. That would be my expectation to keep that on track and to keep it moving. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 30. Kazakhstans Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov met with Nuriddin Azizi, Afghanistans acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, to discuss ways to strengthen trade and economic cooperation, Trend reports. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Astana International Forum. Discussions focused on expanding collaboration in key sectors such as transport and logistics, agriculture, digitalization, healthcare, and education. The leaders reviewed measures to boost bilateral trade, with an emphasis on diversifying Kazakh exports. In 2024, trade turnover between the two countries reached $545.2 million, with Kazakh exports making up $527.7 million of that figure. Strategic infrastructure projects were also on the agenda, including the proposed Turgundi-Herat railway line, part of the broader push to develop the North-South transport corridor. Kazakhstan expressed readiness to involve domestic companies in joint exploration and mineral development projects in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Bektenov reaffirmed Kazakhstans commitment to regional cooperation and highlighted the countrys role as a key grain and flour supplier to the Afghan market. He noted plans to expand exports to include other cereals, livestock products, and processed food items. To support this, Kazakhstan has opened a trade house in Herat and intends to launch another in Kabul. The Afghan side expressed strong interest in Kazakh agricultural machinery and IT technologies, with Minister Azizi describing Kazakhstan as a reliable trade partner. Both sides also welcomed the recent opening of the UN Regional Centre for Sustainable Development Goals in Almaty, expected to contribute to long-term stability and development in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The meeting concluded with a shared commitment to deepen cooperation across all mutually beneficial areas. "People talk about the Trump [Department of Justice] DOJ," Bob Menendez, the disgraced former senator from New Jersey, posted on X Friday, "but it was the Democrats who started weaponizing the Justice Dept." People talk about the Trump DOJ, but it was the Democrats who started weaponizing the Justice Dept. When, as the Chairman of the SFRC, I didn't go along with Obama's Iran deal, I was indicted, and the next day after being stripped of my position, Obama announced the Iran deal. Senator Bob Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) May 30, 2025 The timing of that message was interesting. Menendez, a Democrat, is scheduled to report to federal prison on June 17, after a jury convicted him of accepting almost $1 million in bribes in exchange for, among other things, favors that benefited foreign governments. The scheme was extensive. Menendezalong with his wife, Nadinetook gold bars, $480,000 in cash, and a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible from three New Jersey businessmen, who, in return, had Menendez leverage the power of his office in a litany of corrupt ways. That included helping secure hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Egypt; assisting Egyptian-American entrepreneur Wael Hana in preserving a monopoly granted to him by that same country; attempting to influence multiple criminal investigations in a way that would satisfy two of his bribers; and promoting the interests of Qatar so that New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes could lock down a multi-million dollar investment from a fund associated with the Qatari government. This list is not exhaustive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former senator was convicted last year on all 16 counts, which included bribery, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent, among several others. A judge sentenced him to 11 years in prison, which was, in some sense, a break, considering that the federal sentencing guidelines recommended a minimum of 24 years in prison. (His wife was convicted last month on all counts15 in her caseand is scheduled to be sentenced in June.) Menendez's Friday post coincides not only with his looming prison sentence but also with the spate of pardons recently granted by President Donald Trump. It's understandable why the former senator would want to pull out all the stops here. Prison, to put it mildly, sucks. Trump should still decline to indulge him. Whether or not the president will be moved remains unclear. Among his recent pardons is Paul Walczak, an executive who was convicted of withholding millions of dollars in taxes from his employees' paychecks and then keeping the funds for himself. His pardon came shortly before he was to report to prison for an 18-month sentenceand after his mother attended a Trump fundraiser dinner at Mar-a-Lago, where, according to the invitation, admission cost $1 million. But perhaps more analogous to Menendez's situation is the pardon given to Scott Jenkins, the disgraced former Virginia sheriff who, in exchange for cash payments, gave out auxiliary deputy sheriff badges so recipients could invoke special privileges. It is not exactly a mystery why the pardon power's reputation is in the toilet. The problem is a bipartisan oneformer President Joe Biden, for his part, issued preemptive pardons for his family members, Anthony Fauci, and others, which does not exactly instill confidence in the rule of law. Neither does pardoning people who sufficiently endear themselves to the chief executive. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin captured those motivations best on X: "No MAGA left behind," he wrote Monday, as he thanked Trump for pardoning Jenkins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the pardon power, for all the negative attention it has received in recent months, can be an incredible tool for good. It is effectively the only lever to check overzealous prosecutors and unjust sentences in the federal system. Some of Trump's pardons make the case for this. Most famously there was Alice Marie Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the '90s for her role as a drug mule in a cocaine ring; Trump initially commuted her sentence and later pardoned her in 2020. Listed in the latest round of pardons were John Moore and Tanner Mansell, two Florida diving instructors who were convicted of theft after freeing sharks they thought had been caught illegallywhich, as Reason's Jacob Sullum notes, was a bizarre misuse of the discretion afforded to prosecutors. That is the sort of thing clemency is for: to give a lifeline to people who may have been railroaded by the government, which sometimes gets creative and fanatical in its attempts to punish people. It is not supposed to be a get-out-of-jail-free card for well-connected, powerful people who can flatter the president. After all, Menendez, as a senator, was one of the most powerful people in the country. His case was not an example of politicizing justice, though a pardon would be. The post Bob Menendez Does Not Deserve a Pardon appeared first on Reason.com. Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) lashed out Friday at former President Obama, adding on to his past claims of weaponization at the Justice Department (DOJ) politically targeting him. Menendez alleged in a post on the social platform X that Democrats started the weaponization of the DOJ against him in 2015 when he was indicted in his first corruption trial, which ultimately ended in a hung jury, as he opposed Obamas Iran nuclear deal. He was subsequently charged and convicted in a separate bribery case last year based on different allegations against him, leading to his 11-year prison sentence earlier this year that he is set to begin next month. People talk about the Trump DOJ, but it was the Democrats who started weaponizing the Justice Dept, Menendez alleged. When, as the Chairman of the [Senate Foreign Relations Committee], I didnt go along with Obamas Iran deal, I was indicted, and the next day after being stripped of my position, Obama announced the Iran deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obama told me that he could not have the Democratic Chairman of the SFRC be against him. By having me removed as the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama removed my major opposition to his Iran deal, he continued. But Menendezs claims have a few factual issues. Menendez was serving as the ranking member, not the chair, of the committee when he was indicted in April 2015. He had been serving as the chair until Democrats lost their majority in the Senate following the 2014 midterms. He also voluntarily stepped down from that position following his indictment, saying that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Committee, my colleagues, and the Senate despite no rule requiring him to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Menendez is correct that he was indicted the day before a framework agreement was made on what eventually became the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, he had been under investigation for a couple of years before that. After he stepped down, Menendezs successor as ranking member of the committee was then-Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who also opposed the deal. Menendez previously made claims arguing he was politically prosecuted, saying after his sentencing that President Trump was right about the weaponization of the DOJ. Trump regularly derided the DOJ over the multiple indictments issued against him as politically motivated during the 2024 election. But the Trump administration has also come under criticism over allegations that it is pursuing political prosecutions against political opponents, like former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver (D). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Menendez was found guilty on all charges he faced, based on allegations that he accepted bribes in exchange for favors from wealthy businessmen and served as an agent for Egypt. He resigned from the Senate shortly after. Some observers have speculated whether Trump may weigh in to grant Menendez a pardon as he has granted for others who have alleged politically motivated prosecutions, but Trump hasnt commented on the case and Menendez hasnt publicly asked him for one. Trump said at a press conference at the White House on Friday in response to a question about pardoning Sean Combs that he would consider pardons based on if someone was mistreated and not whether they like me or dont like me. 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. AUSTIN (KXAN) At 8:16 a.m. on April 30, a group of students waited outside Dobie Middle School in Austin for class to start. School buses were making drop-offs, as Texas Department of Public Safety troopers pulled over Omar Gallardo Rodriguez and a woman he called his wife, Denisse Parra Vargas. School footage KXAN viewed shows students could see part of the traffic stop that led to federal authorities transporting the couple and their three children two of whom were born in the United States to Mexico a week later. Grassroots Leadership provided this photo of what they say is the family ICE transported to Mexico. We are not revealing the identities of the children. (Courtesy: Grassroots Leadership) The traffic stop lasted nearly an hour. DPS body camera video obtained by KXAN shows two troopers walking up to the white pickup truck and explaining, in Spanish, they stopped the couple because of expired plates. Troopers asked the driver, Rodriguez, if he had lived in Mexico and how long they lived in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas students worry no one is going to be home for me amid deportation push The troopers walked back to their car, and dash camera video shows less than 10 minutes later a federal agent removed Rodriguez from the truck and placed him in handcuffs. Rodriguez had been deported three times before, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge had issued a court order for Parra Vargas to leave the country back in 2019, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The couple explained to officers their oldest daughter had traveled with Parra Vargas to the U.S., but their youngest two children were born in the country. The federal agent asked Parra Vargas where her kids were, and she answered that they were at school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I want to take them with me please, Parra Vargas told the federal agent. SOURCES: ICE sends family of five to Mexico, including US-born kids, after DPS detainment near Austin school During the traffic stop, the federal agent told the couple they would fit Parra Vargas with an ankle monitor and allow her to pick up her children but instructed her to report to their offices within 24 hours. When she comes back tomorrow, they will send them off together as a family and we wont prosecute him [Rodriguez] because he has been deported before, the federal agent is heard saying on body camera video. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DHS said in a tweet, and in a statement to KXAN, it was giving undocumented mothers facing deportation the option to take their U.S.-born children with them or leave them with a designated person pushing back on assertions the federal agency was deporting children who are U.S. citizens. The legal team for Parra Vargas and her family said, for many families, its an impossible choice. DHS is taking U.S. citizen children and telling them and telling their parents that they will be separated unless they give up their home and country, Texas Civil Rights Senior Attorney Daniel Hotoum told KXAN on May 9. According to DPS officials, the traffic stop was conducted by a regional tactical strike team and in this case troopers were working alongside a Homeland Security investigator. The state agency has not disclosed why it was operating near the school or if Rodriguez was the target of the strike team operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Video shows traffic stop near school that led to ICE sending family to Mexico At the start of President Donald Trumps second presidential term, DHS rescinded a long-standing policy that discouraged immigration enforcement on or near sensitive locations such as schools or churches. Since that policy change in January, Texas school districts have been working to develop guidance for campuses in the event that immigration enforcement officers attempt to enter a school or request specific information about a student. Austin Independent School District officials have publicly released their guidance for situations in which law enforcement, including ICE, attempt to enter a campus or access student records. The policy includes instructions to call the districts legal team to review the identification and legal documentation presented. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district told KXAN it was aware that an Austin ISD parent was detained near the Dobie campus. District officials have not provided details as to its response or review of the traffic stop involving a federal immigration agent. Investigative Photojournalist Richie Bowes, Producer Santos Gonzalez, Director of Investigations & Innovation Josh Hinkle, Lead Editor Eric Lefenfeld, Evening Anchor Daniel Marin, Assignments Manager Chelsea Moreno, Executive Producer Phill Robb, Producer Jose Torres, and KXAN+ Anchor Esmeralda Zamora 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 KXAN Austin. HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) The body of 27-year-old Niklas Delisle of Chicopee was recovered from the Connecticut River following an intensive, multi-agency search that spanned more than a week, authorities confirmed on Friday. Family of man missing in Connecticut River receive community support as search continues Delisle had been missing since May 19, when the kayak he and his girlfriend were in capsized on the Connecticut River in Holyoke. Credit: Omar Adams. Credit: Omar Adams. Credit: Omar Adams. Credit: Omar Adams. Credit: Omar Adams. The incident occurred on Monday, May 19th, when Nicklas was out with his girlfriend on the Connecticut River, and their boat capsized. A fisherman saw the couple struggling in the water and went to help, but was only able to save Nicklas girlfriend, whom he was with when he went missing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A wide-ranging search operation drew resources from multiple law enforcement and emergency response agencies across western Massachusetts. The Hampden County Sheriffs Office Marine Patrol Unit recovered Delisles body as part of a coordinated effort involving the Western Massachusetts Regional Dive Team, Massachusetts State Police, and numerous local fire departments. Courtesy of Hampden County Sheriffs Office Courtesy of Hampden County Sheriffs Office Courtesy of Hampden County Sheriffs Office Courtesy of Hampden County Sheriffs Office Courtesy of Hampden County Sheriffs Office This is a tragic loss, and we extend our deepest condolences to the Delisle family, said Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni in a statement. We appreciate the professionalism and compassion shown by everyone involved in the search and recovery efforts. Sheriff Nick Cocchi also expressed his gratitude to all responding agencies and emphasized the ongoing nature of search efforts on the river. I am thankful that we, along with all our law-enforcement and first responder partners, were able to bring closure to one of the families on the Connecticut River. We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Niklas Delisle. But we will remain on the water searching for Daniel Callahan in an attempt to bring his family some peace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crews are still looking for 26-year-old Daniel Callahan, who also went missing in the Connecticut River back on March 9th, and an unidentified individual from Franklin County. Eight boats, drones, and a helicopter have been utilized to scour the river and its surrounding areas. The incident remains under investigation by the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Hampden District Attorneys Office. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Warning: Some of the footage shown in the report above is graphic and violent. Viewer discretion is advised. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) Body-worn camera footage and surveillance video shared by the San Diego Police Department on Thursday showed a man vandalizing a library in Pacific Beach with a hatchet before he was shot. Police responded to a call from the Pacific Beach/Taylor Branch Library at 4275 Cass St. on Thursday, May 8 about a man wielding an axe causing a disturbance around 4:15 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surveillance cameras inside the library showed the man, who was later identified by authorities as William John Hanley, 54, of San Diego, hacking at tables, power cords and computers with a hatchet. He was also seen brandishing the weapon at a library employee behind the circulation desk. Identities of suspect, victim in fatal stabbing in San Marcos identified Hanley then left the library and was located by responding officers in the 4300 block of Dawes Street, where officers ordered him to put down the hatchet and put his hands up. He did not comply. An SDPD officer, identified by the department as Dominic Bloemendaal, was seen approaching Hanley on a video captured by a camera inside a parked car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A camera worn by Bloemendaal captured him ordering Hanley to put his hands up and drop the hatchet. The footage also showed Hanley responding, No. Im going to create a scene and the whole world sees it. (Above: Earlier report of man wielding axe in Pacific Beach being shot on May 8, 2025) Around 4:23 p.m., Hanley was seen pulling back his arm and lifting the hatchet before Bloemendaal fired multiple rounds, striking him. Hanley fell to the ground after he was shot. Officers immediately provided him with medical aid and paramedics were called before Hanley was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was expected to survive his injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man suspected in 2023 deadly South Bay shooting arrested According to the San Diego County District Attorneys Office, Hanley was charged with assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm), exhibiting a firearm or deadly weapon with intent to resist or prevent arrest and obstruction/resisting an executive officer. He was also charged with vandalism over $400 and exhibiting a deadly weapon that is not a firearm. Officer Bloemendaal has been with the department for seven years and is currently assigned to patrol at the Northern Division, according to the San Diego County Sheriffs Office. No officers or other citizens were injured during the incident, SDPD stated. The shooting is still under investigation by SDSOs Homicide Unit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DAs office will then determine if the officers bear any criminal liability. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorneys Office will monitor the investigation. Additionally, SDPDs internal affairs unit will determine whether any policies were violated. The shooting review board will evaluate the tactics used by the officers involved. 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. KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife browsed the stalls at a literary fair in Kyiv on Friday and left with some new reading material - a book entitled "To Kill A Tyrant." Zelenskiy, who has led his country throughout the three-year war with Russia, has repeatedly described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a dictator. He did not reveal if he intended, with his book purchase, to send a message to his Kremlin counterpart. He picked up the book, by Italian academic Aldo Andrea Cassi, in the Ukrainian-language version, according to a post about his visit to the book fair on his account on social media platform Telegram. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A photo he posted showed Zelenskiy's wife, Olena, thumbing through a copy of the book as her husband stood next to her. Zelenskiy said it was one of several titles he and his wife had picked up at the fair. The full title of the book is: "To Kill A Tyrant; A History Of Tyrannicide From Caesar To Gaddafi." It was published in Italian in 2022, and according to a summary released by the publisher of the Italian edition, it poses the question: "Is it right or wrong to kill a tyrant? And if it is, who decides?" (Reporting by Olena Harmash and Christian Lowe; editing by Mark Heinrich) Kazakhstan reports bumper crop of grain exports in 2024-2025 season Photo: Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan From September 2024 to May 25, 2025, Kazakhstan exported 8.2 million tons of new harvest grain, a 58.1% increase compared to the previous year. Major export markets include Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, and Azerbaijan, all showing significant growth. The Ministry of Agriculture continues to enhance export capacity through improved logistics and market expansion. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register Protesters at an Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site in 2023. (Katie Myers | BPR) This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. The Mountain Valley Pipeline transports natural gas through West Virginia and Virginia. But for 10 years, climate activists and worried locals opposed it, even locking themselves to equipment and camping in the pipelines path. Many were opposed specifically to the transportation of natural gas, which includes methane, a highly flammable fossil fuel with a large carbon footprint. A new graphic novel, Holler, released in May, tells the story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Denali Sai Nalamalapu, a Southwest Virginia-based climate activist and illustrator, spoke with BPR on what this fight meant for people who were involved and what it means now. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Tell us a little about yourself and why you were drawn to the Mountain Valley Pipeline to begin with? I joined the pipeline fight to support, with communications and federal and congressional advocacy. As I started traveling more to the region, I got more connected to the community here that was fighting the pipeline and also to the mountains. I wanted to figure out different ways to tell the stories I was hearing, particularly stories of ordinary people who were just living their lives and then became pipeline resistors. And so I sat down with six people across the region thats impacted by the pipeline in Central Appalachia, and the book came to life from there. What did this pipeline mean, not only to the people in West Virginia that the pipeline directly impacted, but also to the broader Appalachian community? How did it unfold regionally? When the pipeline was first proposed, it was part of and continues to be part of a centuries-long history of massive extractive fossil fuel projects coming to the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Part of what made it unique though, is that it is such a huge project, being three 303 miles long, going through all of West Virginia, through Southwest Virginia, into Southern Virginia, with extensions that threaten communities in Northern North Carolina. And its methane gas, which is a highly flammable gas thats also contributing to climate change. It was such an intense, huge fight that came right after and during the fights against coal mining and specifically mountaintop removal in Central Appalachia. It did show up in this lineage of strong resistance in Appalachia that is very well known in this region, but continues to go overlooked outside of the region. Denali Sai Nalamalapu wrote Holler after some time working to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Denali Sai Nalamalapu courtesy photo) Holler is a graphic novel, which is a unique way to tell a character-driven story. Why did you choose the graphic novel format, and to explore the MVP through these six activists? All of that thinking was part of, how do I tell a story of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Fight with the voices of the resistors uplifted? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of them is pretty well known. Her names Becky Crabtree, and she is known as the Grandma who locked herself to her Ford Pinto when her sheep farm was threatened by the pipeline. And the other is a quieter resistor named Paula Mann, who is a photographer who used her skills to document the way the pipeline threatened the woods that seven generations of her family have lived in. Part of who ended up being part of the book were people who both had been part of the struggle and had been covered by the news, and who were the quieter resistors, and who were the younger resistors who were in college when they learned about the pipeline, and who were the people that were well into their 80s learning about it, and also diversity because I think central Appalachia gets thought of as this very white, very poor region that has no diversity. Oftentimes, the Monacan tribe and the other indigenous tribes in the Southeast dont get recognized as tribes and people who are continuing to fight and protect this land. The MVP ultimately was greenlit in 2024, and is continuing to make its way down through to North Carolina. Protesters may have the opportunity to carry these lessons forward. In 2020, the government approved an extension of the MVP into North Carolina called Southgate. Where does the pipeline fight go from here and whats happening now? It felt important to me that we did lose the fight, in a traditional way of deeming did you win or lose the pipeline fight, while also telling engaging and authentic stories of the community that was built through the pipeline fight and the people that were changed by the pipeline fight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And as we see the federal government in the U.S. and many powerful entities across the world not take climate change as seriously as we believe that they need to, were going to have to define winning with more nuance than, did you absolutely stop the project or not? Denali Sai Nalamalapu is the author of the new graphic novel Holler, which is available from Timber Press. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX NEED TO KNOW A 3-year-old boy died on Saturday, May 24, after falling into a pool in his backyard Officials pronounced Kaseyn Clifton dead soon after he arrived at a hospital Though his time with us was far too short, Kaseyn filled each day with so much joy," his obituary read A 3-year-old boy has died after falling into a backyard pool in Illinois on Saturday, May 24. According to the Macon County Sheriffs Office, while his mother was out running errands for about 15 minutes, Kaseyn Clifton was home in Decatur with his siblings and an aunt when he opened a back door, wandered outside and fell into the pool, per the Bradenton Herald. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When his mom came home, she found him in the pool and a family member called 911. First responders took him to Decatur Memorial Hospital, but officials pronounced him dead soon after, per ABC affiliate WICS. Our hearts are broken, and there are no words for the pain we are feeling, his mother, Jessica Lee Mares, posted on Facebook on Monday, May 26, adding, Life is so unfair!!! This world will never be the same without you! 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 Macon County Sheriffs Office has completed an investigation and did not find signs of criminal activity, according to local news station, WAND. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though his time with us was far too short, Kaseyn filled each day with so much joy. Full of life and energy, he had a smile that could light up any room and a giggle that will echo in our hearts forever, his obituary read. He loved playing with blocks, doing puzzles, watching Cocomelon, blowing bubbles, playing at the park, learning his ABCs/counting and cuddling with mommy and daddy, the obituary continued. A public information officer from the Macon Sheriffs department was not immediately available to provide additional information about the fatal incident. Drowning is the leading cause of death for kids between the ages of 1-4 years old in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read the original article on People JERSEY CITY, N.J. (PIX11) Police are investigating after an 8-year-old boy shot a 12-year-old around 2:30 a.m. on Friday, authorities in Jersey City say. According to investigators, the 8-year-old appeared to have gotten a gun from inside his family apartment at 25 Sal-Laf Court and fired a round. A 12-year-old in the apartment was grazed in the right triceps, officials report. More Local News The 12-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital by a family member and is expected to survive, police say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities say charges are pending as they continue to investigate what led up to the incident. Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found 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. NEED TO KNOW A mom was 35 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in her bathroom and experienced multiple seizures Her 9-year-old son found her and called 911, ensuring the survival of her and her unborn baby "Ill do anything just to wake my mom up," the boy, Oliver Ware, remembered thinking A 9-year-old boy is being praised after he helped save the life of his mom and unborn sister, according to reports. Niki Ware was 35 weeks pregnant when she experienced multiple seizures that could have deprived her unborn baby of oxygen, NBC affiliate WLWT, the Journal-News and NBC affiliate KMIR reported. She had been treated for pre-eclampsia earlier, but went into eclampsia on Friday, May 2, in her Hamilton, Ohio home, according to the Journal-News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats when her young son, Oliver, found her unconscious in the bathroom. I was panicking, moving her back and forth, Oliver told WLWT. I was saying, Mom, mom! His dad, Jeff Ware, was at work, so the young boy called his grandmother before calling 911, according to the Journal-News. My mom was in the restroom and she just passed out and I need your help! Oliver can be heard saying in a 911 call shared by WLWT. He told the dispatcher that his mom was pregnant then shared their address, ensuring that help would arrive. The City of Hamiltons Fire & EMS Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was mostly thinking to myself, Ill do anything just to wake my mom up, Oliver told WLWT. His quick actions ensured his mom and little sister Riley survived. When Nicky arrived at Kettering Health Hamilton, her blood pressure was alarmingly high, a nurse told the Journal-News. Another nurse told the outlet how important Olivers actions were. Time is vital in a situation like that, for mother and for baby. Had she kept having seizures, that takes away the oxygen from the baby, registered nurse Taylor Sobe told the outlet. Time is a huge factor in the outcome. 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. Jeff, who rushed to his family's side as soon as he got the news, is thankful his son found Niki and knew what to do. He had to save momma and his sister. Thats what he did, Jeff told WLWT. To me, thats the definition of a hero. Read the original article on People BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) Bradford Health Services is warning current and former employees and patients that their personal information may have been impacted by a data breach. The breach was initially detected back in December 2023. An investigation into the breach, which concluded on May 15, 2025, determined personal and protected health information could have been accessed during the breach. I screamed: Woman, toddler suffer 3rd-degree burns from charcoal buried on beach Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Information that may have been accessed includes the following: names, drivers license numbers, dates of birth, medical information, health insurance information, financial account numbers, passport numbers, payment card numbers plus a means of access to the account, and/or Social Security numbers. However, Bradford Health, in a news release, stated there is no evidence any information has been misused. For those interested in contacting the health service or knowing more about how to protect your information visit here. Bradford Health provides treatment for drug and alcohol addiction and operates 10 treatment facilities across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. In early 2025, news outlets reported that, according to a Mexican security chief, American officials allowed 17 drug cartel family members to cross the southern border into the United States despite U.S. President Donald Trump's public posturing and harsh policies against drug smuggling. Many of these stories framed the security chief's statement as confirmation that the deal occurred. The Associated Press, for example, wrote that, "Mexico's security chief confirmed Tuesday that 17 family members of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S. last week as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration." The Sinaloa cartel is a global criminal enterprise and one of two drug cartels "at the heart" of illicit drug-related dealings in the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The stories spread on social media platforms like Bluesky, X, Facebook and Reddit. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, accused Trump of allowing "17 relatives of El Chapo, one of the most notorious cartel drug dealers in the world, into America." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What kind of message does that send? Who the hell knows? Maybe you got a presidential helicopter from them, who knows," Schumer said in a May 16 Facebook video, referencing Qatar's offer of a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to the Trump administration. It is true that Mexico's security chief, Omar Hamid Garcia Harfuch, said 17 family members of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is imprisoned in the United States, crossed into America, apparently confirming reporting from independent journalist Luis Chaparro. Garcia Harfuch told reporters it looked clear to Mexican authorities that the U.S. Department of Justice granted the family members entry as part of a deal with Guzman's son, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who is also a suspected member of the cartel's leadership. However, until the Trump administration confirms a deal occurred and the details of the purported deal or documents verifying the deal took place are made public Snopes cannot put a truthfulness rating on this statement. We reached out to the administration and await a response. Mexican authorities arrested Guzman Lopez in 2023 and extradited him to the United States, where the government charged him with various drug trafficking-related offenses; he is expected to plead guilty on July 9, 2025, as part of a plea deal, per court documents filed May 6, 2025 but details of the deal were not yet public as of this writing. Journalist breaks story, citing anonymous sources On May 12, 2025, Chaparro posted a video titled, "LUN 12 MAY | EXCLUSIVA: LA FAMILIA DEL CHAPO SE ENTREGA AL GOBIERNO FEDERAL DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS" on his YouTube channel translated into English, his video title said: "MON, MAY 12 | EXCLUSIVE: EL CHAPO'S FAMILY SURRENDERS TO THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's a transcript of his report citing anonymous sources, starting at 2:21, translated into English from Spanish (emphasis ours): Seventeen members of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's family, including a daughter and Ovidio Guzman's mother, surrendered to the FBI this weekend at one of the international bridges between Mexico and the United States. According to reports from our sources, the family surrendered to the FBI at noon last Friday at the San Ysidro border port in Tijuana. And according to the same sources, among these people are Griselda Lopez, Ovidio's mother, several nephews, a grandson named Archivaldo and a daughter of "El Chapo" along with a son-in-law of the drug trafficker. It is currently unknown why they surrendered, but the fact that they turned themselves in to agents who were already waiting for them is probably linked to the deal Ovidio Guzman allegedly made with the United States government last week. The family reportedly arrived with several suitcases, at least two brand-name suitcases for each member, and between them all they were carrying more than 70,000 in cash. Chaparro also shared pictures of what he alleged were the family members at the border in his report at 3:19 but censored the faces. WMAQ's investigative team in Chicago also reported on May 13, using anonymous federal sources, that "the immigration of 17 Chapo relatives, including a sister, were part of the deal that resulted in Ovidio's guilty plea." Mexican officials corroborate report On May 13, Mexican talk radio station Radio Formula published an interview with Garcia Harfuch in which the security chief said the transfer of El Chapo's relatives was clearly part of a "negotiation" between the U.S. Justice Department and representatives of Guzman Lopez. Here's the interview, translated into English (emphasis ours): JOURNALIST: How should we read this news, Omar, which is on the front pages of virtually every national newspaper today, about Ovidio Guzman's family surrendering to the United States authorities, the FBI... 17 people? Were the facts as reported, and if so, where does this decision come from, or are they colluding with the United States? How should we read it, Omar? GARCIA HARFUCH: I think it's very clear that when it's very clear that when Ovidio we must first highlight who detained Ovidio. He was arrested by Mexican authorities in a Mexican army operation where fellow special forces soldiers were killed. Once the Mexican army arrested Ovidio, Mexico handed him over... extradited him to the United States. Ovidio, as we all saw on the news, began negotiations with the United States Department of Justice, and it's clear that since his family was leaving for the United States, it was because of this negotiation or an opportunity that the Department of Justice itself granted him. Let's also remember that this conflict in Sinaloa is understood to be an issue between the brothers themselves, and includes Ovidio and Ovidio's brothers, where they pointed fingers at other groups in the criminal organization, and it's clear that this is what's happening. JOURNALIST: So is it an agreement between a defendant in the United States and the authority that is prosecuting him? GARCIA HARFUCH: That's right. [] JOURNALIST: The 17 people, with the information you have the 17 people who left were Mexican citizens who didn't have an arrest warrant. They were exercising their freedom to cross into the United States. GARCIA HARFUCH: That's right, and [authorities] were already waiting for them in the United States. As such, per Garcia Harfuch, the family members did not appear to "surrender" to authorities, as no warrants were out for their arrest, but voluntarily crossed into the United States. It's unclear if the family members were under some sort of protective custody; their whereabouts, as of this writing, were unknown. Terms of family's entrance into US unclear Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, called on the Trump administration to provide more information on why the cartel family members entered the United States during a May 14 news conference and said the United States did not alert Mexican authorities ahead of time about the alleged deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An excerpt from her comments are translated into English below: We don't have official or public information that says why this family entered. We must recall the issue of extradition again, and yes, indeed, it is there is a policy of [the U.S.] not to negotiate with terrorists. It was their decision to name some organized crime organizations [like the Sinaloa Cartel] as terrorists. So, let them report if there's an agreement or if there isn't an agreement... they have to report it and they have to explain this to the people of the United States as well... how it is that, if they're reaching an agreement, how they're doing it. And to Mexico, obviously. Multiple news outlets reported that U.S. prosecutors and authorities declined to comment on the reported deal, including the Los Angeles Times, which also said the news outlet sent Guzman Lopez's attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman a message, and did not receive a response. Snopes reached out to DOJ and Lichtman as well and await a response. Thus, while the evidence indicates that the Trump administration may have made a deal with a suspected Sinaloa cartel drug lord, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, to bring 17 of his family members into the United States, many details remain unclear, making it impossible to rate this claim. Snopes reporters Anna Rascouet-Paz and Jack Izzo contributed to the translations in this report. Sources: Coleman, Sharon Johnson. "UNITED STATES of AMERICA v. OVIDIO GUZMAN LOPEZ | NOTIFICATION of DOCKET ENTRY." CourtListener, 6 May 2025, storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.230809/gov.uscourts.ilnd.230809.1057.0.pdf. Accessed 16 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Drug Enforcement Administration. "National Drug Threat Assessment 2024 ." Https://Www.dea.gov, May 2024, www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/5.23.2024%20NDTA-updated.pdf. Accessed 16 May 2025. El Universal. " 'Tienen Que Informar', Senala La Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum Sobre El Ingreso de Familiares de Ovidio Guzman, Hijo de 'El Chapo', a EU; Aseguro Que No Tiene Informacion Oficial al Respecto Y Recordo Que Hay Investigaciones En Curso Sobre Ese Caso." X (Formerly Twitter), 14 May 2025, x.com/El_Universal_Mx/status/1922671340277878840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1922671340277878840%7Ctwgr%5E85c6b1f1d1527f2462eb988221d1b874a65c5ab4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmexiconewsdaily.com%2Fpolitics%2Fsheinbaum-demands-us-inform-el-chapo-family-border-crossing-wednesdays-mananera-recapped%2F. Accessed 16 May 2025. Goudie, Chuck. "El Chapo Family Defects from Mexico in Deal Linked to Chicago Drug Case." NBC Chicago, 13 May 2025, www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/el-chapo-family-defects-from-mexico-in-deal-linked-to-chicago-drug-case/3744795/. Accessed 16 May 2025. "Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Sinaloa Cartel Leader, Sentenced to Life in Prison plus 30 Years." Justice.gov, 17 July 2019, www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-sinaloa-cartel-leader-sentenced-life-prison-plus-30-years. Accessed 16 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McDonnell, Patrick J. "Were 17 Members of El Chapo's Family Escorted into U.S. From Mexico?" Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2025, www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-13/were-17-members-of-el-chapo-guzmans-family-escorted-into-usa-from-mexico. Accessed 16 May 2025. PIE DE NOTA | Con Luis Chaparro. "LUN 12 MAY | EXCLUSIVA: LA FAMILIA DEL CHAPO SE ENTREGA al GOBIERNO FEDERAL de LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS." YouTube, 12 May 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwUxktADEcs. Accessed 16 May 2025. Radio Formula . "EXCLUSIVA Omar Garcia Harfuch Explica La Entrega de La Familia de Ovidio Guzman al FBI: "Es Evidente Que al Estarse Yendo Su Familia a EU Es Por El Criterio de Oportunidad Que El Departamento de Justicia Le Da. Recordemos Que El Conflicto En Sina." Facebook.com, 13 May 2025, www.facebook.com/watch/?v=998925828895324. Accessed 16 May 2025. Santucci, Jeanine. "Family Members of Drug Lord El Chapo Enter US, Mexican Officials Say." USA TODAY, 14 May 2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/14/el-chapo-family-enter-united-states/83619614007/. Accessed 16 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Son of Joaquin Guzman Loera Aka 'El Chapo' Arraigned on Federal Criminal Charges Following His Extradition from Mexico to the United States for International Drug Trafficking." Justice.gov, 18 Sept. 2023, www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/son-joaquin-guzman-loera-aka-el-chapo-arraigned-federal-criminal-charges-following-his. Accessed 16 May 2025. Staff, MND. "Sheinbaum Demands Answers on 'El Chapo' Family's Entry to US: Wednesday's Mananera Recapped." Mexico News Daily, 14 May 2025, mexiconewsdaily.com/politics/sheinbaum-demands-us-inform-el-chapo-family-border-crossing-wednesdays-mananera-recapped/. Accessed 16 May 2025. Trump, Donald J. "Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists the White House." The White House, 21 Jan. 2025, www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/designating-cartels-and-other-organizations-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations-and-specially-designated-global-terrorists/. Accessed 16 May 2025. Yuhas, Alan. "Cartel Family Members Cross Border in Apparent Deal with U.S., Official Says." New York Times, 14 May 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/world/americas/mexico-cartel-chapo-family.html. Accessed 16 May 2025. May 29A community clinic in Bridgton announced on Thursday that it will be closing in August, the latest shuttering of medical services in Maine. The announcement comes after Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville closed for patients this week, and after several birthing centers around Maine have closed in recent years. The reasons cited by DFD Russell Medical Center in Bridgton are familiar: low reimbursement rates from both government and private insurance, workforce shortages and an inability to rely on federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This decision follows a comprehensive review of persistent financial and workforce challenges," the written announcement said. "In addition to financial pressures, DFD has experienced significant difficulty recruiting and retaining highly skilled health care providers in rural Maine a challenge shared by many rural health organizations." Despite efforts to find alternatives, "continuing operations at this location is not sustainable," DFD said. The final day the medical center will see patients is Aug. 28. The Bridgton location has been open for four years, and DFD also operates clinics in Turner, Monmouth and Leeds that will remain open. "This is not a decision we made lightly, and it is not a reflection of our commitment to the Bridgton community," according to a written statement attributed to DFD's leadership team. "Rather, it is a decision rooted in responsibility responsibility to quality care, our patients, our staff and the long-term sustainability of rural health care." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DFD will help patients transition to Central Maine Healthcare and other primary care providers. DFD officials declined an interview with the Press Herald on Wednesday. The latest closure comes as Maine is experiencing a crisis in access to health care services, especially in rural parts of the state. While a record number of Mainers now have health insurance, many are finding it difficult or impossible to get help from a broad range of providers primary care doctors, medical specialists, mental health counselors, dentists. It can take months even more than a year to get an appointment with a health professional, frustrated patients told the Portland Press Herald. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Health care providers in Maine have also warned that the proposed cuts to Medicaid that were approved in the U.S. House of Representatives could eliminate health insurance coverage for an estimated 34,000 Maine residents and put more pressure on the already financially strained health care system, especially in rural communities. Copy the Story Link BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Kazakhstans crude oil exports to Italy exceeded 30 million tons in 2024, marking a 27% increase from the previous year, said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as he addressed the first-ever Central Asia-Italy summit in Astana, Trend reports. Kazakhstan ranks among the top three oil exporters to the European Union, Tokayev said. Our exports to Italy surpassed 30 million tons last year. If necessary, we are ready to increase these volumes. While reaffirming Kazakhstans role as a major energy supplier to Europe, Tokayev emphasized that the future lies in alternative energy. The gradual shift toward a low-carbon economy is a national priority, he noted, expressing appreciation for Italian investments in renewable energy projects across Kazakhstan, particularly wind and solar power initiatives. The president highlighted the importance of strengthening economic ties between Central Asia and Italy amid growing global trade tensions. As tariff disputes between major economic powers deepen, preserving and enhancing trade relations becomes vital, he said. Tokayev also reaffirmed that energy remains a central pillar of Kazakhstan-Italy cooperation, calling for deeper collaboration in the sector. Five Dallas ISD seniors have been selected as recipients of the 2025 Monty J. and Sarah Z. Bennett Dallas Scholarship Fund, awarded through Dallas Bright Futures. The scholarship recognizes students who have demonstrated academic excellence and perseverance in the face of adversity. Each winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship to support college expenses, including tuition, books, or housing. The recipients were chosen from a competitive pool through a selective process involving essays, interviews, and recommendations. These five seniors are bold, bright, and beautifully resilient. Their journeys marked by perseverance, grit, and a deep desire to uplift others deeply resonate with me, said Sarah Z. Bennett. Like them, I know what its like to walk a harder road. Thats why their academic achievements and community impact feel especially inspiring. They remind us all of the strength that can come from hard work and determination, and they truly represent the best of this rising generation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025 scholarship recipients include: Mekhiya Matthews , graduating from Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy with a high school diploma and associate degree, will study mechanical engineering at Texas Christian University. She hopes to develop engineering solutions to improve systems like voting and hospital operations. Anica Ayala , a graduate of Emmett J. Conrad High School and former English learner, will attend the University of Texas at Austin to study biology with a focus on pediatric oncology. Jesus Serrano , also from Emmett J. Conrad, plans to major in engineering at UT Austin. With a background in robotics and a passion for mentorship, he hopes to return to Dallas to inspire future engineers. Lauren Osorio , graduating from Irma Rangel Young Womens Leadership School, overcame homelessness and plans to study psychology at Willamette University, aiming to support youth struggling with mental health challenges. Sophia Olivas, also of Irma Rangel YMLS, will attend Southern Methodist University to study actuarial science. A standout math student, she created youth financial literacy programs and wants to help underrepresented communities gain economic knowledge. The scholars will be honored at a private reception on June 17, hosted by Monty and Sarah Bennett at Ashford Inc. Dallas Bright Futures, the nonprofit behind the scholarship fund, supports students from under-resourced backgrounds by providing access to higher education and opportunities for long-term success. Reception Details Date: June 17, 2025 Time: 23 PM CT Location: Ashford Inc., 14185 Dallas Parkway, Dallas, TX Media RSVP: abeach@ashfordinc.com For more on the scholarship and Dallas Bright Futures, visit https://dallasbrightfutures.org/ DENVER (KDVR) On Thursday night, FOX31 learned new information about a fatal fire in Brighton that burned a home on Mothers Day, killing an 88-year-old grandmother and four animals. Measles case confirmed in vaccinated Coloradan who flew into DIA FOX31s Talya Cunningham found out the fire was caused by a piece of furniture that could be in your house right now. The cause of this fatal fire may be surprising: an electric recliner chair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family members are truly devastated and not ready to speak on-camera, but they were spoken with on the phone, and they hope to prevent another tragedy by sharing their story. Its a device common to many households, and investigators said its the cause of the fire that sparked on May 11. The fire started around 12:30 p.m. on 132nd Avenue, and when firefighters arrived on the scene, the home was fully engulfed in smoke, with one person trapped inside. Crews rushed in, rescued her and began CPR, but it was unsuccessful. 88-year-old Kim Okada died from smoke inhalation. The family said their three dogs and cat all died of smoke inhalation as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kims husband, Paul, was outside the home when the fire started, but was unable to save her. The couple were high school sweethearts who met when they were 16 and 17 years old, and were married for 68 years. My mom was a kind woman who brought smiles to those around her. She was a loving wife, mom, grandmother and great-grandmother who is sorely missed. She was a light in our lives, said daughter Teiko Richy. Brighton fire investigators concluded the home had no smoke detectors and the fire started underneath an electric recliner. They determined a cord was pinched due to wear over time. The Brighton Fire Chief of Prevention, Elizabeth Bednracik, is warning everyone with this piece of furniture to always check the integrity of the appliance cord because it can lead to fires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Brighton Fire Department said there are several steps to take to prevent fires: Always have working smoke alarms Check electrical cords frequently Have an escape plan Use power strips over extension cords Evans, Boebert tout Big, Beautiful, Bill amid boos from Coloradans Its a difficult time right now. Were doing everything we can to help support the family and community. This is a big loss for us, and were going to be there for them during this time, said Bednracik. Theyre very grateful. Theyve reached out to me to express thanks to the crews who came out, as you can imagine, its very difficult for our responding crews who knew there was a party trapped inside. They were able to get her out and do CPR. Its a tragedy to the entire community, including our fire department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The family has set up a GoFundMe to help Paul after the incident. 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. Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, participates in a PAC reception during the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) MACKINAC ISLAND With a little over a month until the July 1 deadline, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) told the Michigan Advance she has concerns about whether the Legislature would be able to pass the states budget for Fiscal Year 2026 before the end of June. Were at the stage where we need to negotiate the differences between a House budget and a Senate budget, and the House has not passed what you can reasonably or meaningfully call a budget that we can even negotiate from. So theyre pretty far behind in the process. And so that gives me pause about that deadline, Brinks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan House Republicans took control of the chamber in the 2024 election, winning a 58-52 majority and bringing an end to Democrats trifecta control of the House, Senate and governors seat. As a result, the Legislature has deadlocked, passing only four bills since the start of the year. Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) has repeatedly refused to commit to meeting the July 1 deadline, when lawmakers are legally required to pass a budget. However, the states fiscal year does not start until Oct. 1, with Hall telling reporters in January that the budget may not be done until Sept. 30. A failure to have a budget in place by the Oct. 1 deadline would force a state government shutdown. As Democrats raise alarms about the potential for a shutdown, House Republicans have passed what they call a shutdown prevention plan which allocates $20 billion for critical programs like schools and local law enforcement if the Legislature cannot reach an agreement by the end of September. Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, left, is interviewed by Michigan Advance reporter Kyle Davidson, right, during the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) While there is no penalty if lawmakers fail to agree on a new budget by July 1, Brinks noted in an interview with the Advance during the Mackinac Policy Conference that completing the budget on time is critical for municipalities, K-12 schools and universities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre all making their plans right now for how they expend resources and serve their folks that they serve. I dont want to show up at my kids school and find out that they didnt know enough about the resources they have coming from the state to be able to hire enough teachers to teach the kids and have larger class sizes. Thats a completely unnecessary thing, and its completely avoidable, Brinks said. And while Hall has slammed the Democratic-led Senate for failing to act on bipartisan road funding legislation and policies establishing a public safety and violence prevention fund to support local law enforcement and community violence intervention organizations, Brinks said those conversations need to be held in the context of the states budget. You know something like the public safety trust fund, while theres a policy element to it, its essentially a budget conversation. So get back in the room and have a budget conversation. I know our appropriations chairs have had some conversation, but theres so much more to the process. This is exactly the kind of thing that could be worked out in a budget process, and there will, by necessity, need to be compromise, Brinks said. Similarly, allocating $3 billion towards road funding should also be subject to bipartisan discussion, Brinks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, there hasnt been a lot of willingness to actually have those conversations between us from Matt Hall, and so, you know, at that point, theyre simply just ideas that have been thrown out in the ether. The real work comes in the conversation, in the negotiation, in the sitting down and hashing things out, Brinks said. Its not glamorous, right? You dont get to start in your own press conference for two hours as a negotiation. Thats not negotiating. If he wants to do that, thats fine. But in addition to that, hes going to have to really find some time or empower his caucus, and there are some capable people there to sit down and really, do that work, Brinks said. While the House and Senate were able to break through their deadlock earlier this month to extend the filing deadline for lawmakers legally-required financial disclosures amid frustrations with the rollout of the states new financial reporting system, Brinks said there are several other policies they could be working on if Hall was interested. We could be talking about prescription drug affordability. We could be talking about ways to ensure, you know, we have more affordable housing, we could, you know, be talking about FOIA, you know, something that passed with a really strong bipartisan vote, Brinks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In January, members of the Senate voted 33-2 to advance Senate Bills 1 and 2 to the House. The package looks to extend FOIA to include the Legislature, the governor and the lieutenant governor, which are exempt under the current state law. However, Hall has declared the package dead, calling them a very low priority. While Hall has pointed to the public safety trust fund as a bipartisan slam dunk, Brinks said the same about FOIA reform. It could be an easy bipartisan win that really helps improve transparency and the ethical environment in our state, she said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Political activists occasionally propose a new constitutional convention, which would gather delegates from the states to craft amendments to the nation's founding document. It's a long and convoluted process, but the Constitution itself provides the blueprint. Article V allows such a confab if two-thirds of Congress or two-thirds of the state legislatures call for one. These days, conservatives are the driving force for the idea, as they see it as a means to put further limits on the federal government. Sometimes, progressives propose such a thing. Their goals are to enshrine various social programs and social-justice concepts. Yet anyone who has watched the moronic sausage-making in Congress and state legislatures should be wary of opening Pandora's Box. I'd be happy enough if both political tribes tried to uphold the Constitution as it is currently drafted. It's a brilliant document that limits the power of the government to infringe on our rights. Without the first 10the Bill of Rightsthis would be a markedly different nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For a sense of where we might be without it, I'd recommend looking at Great Britain and its approach to the speech concepts detailed on our First Amendment. Our nation was spawned from the British, so we share a culture and history. Yet, without a specific constitutional dictate, that nation has taken a disturbing approach that rightly offends American sensibilities. As Tablet magazine reported, "74-year-old Scottish grandmother Rose Docherty was arrested on video by four police officers for silently holding a sign in proximity to a Glasgow abortion clinic reading 'Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.'" Thousands of Brits are detained, questioned, and prosecuted, it notes, for online posts of the type that wouldn't raise an eyebrow here. The chilling effect is profound. This isn't as awful as what happens in authoritarian countries such as Russia, where the government's critics have a habit of accidentally falling out of windows. But that's thin gruel. Britain and the European Union are supposed to be free countries. Their speech codes are intended to battle disinformation/misinformation, but empowering the government to be the arbiter of such vague concepts only destroys everyone's freedoms. In 1998, Great Britain approved Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It protects a citizen's "right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference." But it comes with limits and conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The authorities may quash such speech to "protect national security, territorial integrity (the borders of the state) or public safety," or "prevent disorder or crime," or "protect health or morals," or "maintain the authority and impartiality of judges." One may not express "views that encourage racial or religious hatred." Those are open-ended terms, which has led to bizarre prosecutions. Our First Amendment includes these words: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble." A constitutional amendment stating "no law" is more protective than a statute with asterisks and exceptions. With the political Left devoted to limiting speech based on its fixations on race and gender and the political Right's willingness to, say, deport students who take verboten positions on the war in Gaza and malign reporters as enemies of the people, I'd hate to see how speech protections would fare in a refashioned constitution. Traditionally, the Left has taken a "living and breathing" approach, insisting its plain words and founders' intent are up for reinterpretation. Sadly, modern conservatives, who previously defended originalism, seem ready to ditch the Constitution when it hinders their policy aims. Just read their dissing of due processas stated in the 5th and 14th amendments, when it comes to immigration policy. When asked about habeas corpus during a Senate hearing, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said it's "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's the opposite, as habeas corpus requires the government to explain why it's detaining peopleand forbids it from holding them indefinitely. MAGA apparently believes the words of the Constitution mean the opposite of what they say. Frankly, I wouldn't want either side to be near a constitutional convention that's empowered to rewrite a document penned by men more brilliant and civic-minded than our current lot. "Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards," wrote Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in the 1927 free-speech case, Whitney v. California. "They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty. If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence." We don't need to revisit the Constitution, but to uphold the protections already within it. This column was first published in The Orange County Register. The post British Attacks on Free Speech Prove the Value of the First Amendment appeared first on Reason.com. MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) Killingsworth Cove is still recovering from the damage that an EF-2 tornado left behind last week, but a longtime project has finally been completed that could possibly help that community moving forward. To see the outpouring of support, the constant messages through Facebook and on my personal phone of people want to come out and help the organizations that have disaster relief supplies and money that want to donate that to the to the affected families, its been awesome, Killingsworth Cove Volunteer Fire Captain Nathan Aston said. City of Hanceville wont have police department until 2026, will sell off vehicles Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The storm damage cleanup process continues, but on Thursday, the community received an announcement: 600 homes in Killingsworth Cove will have access to fiber optic broadband internet. It just makes it more evident that how this underserved community, how important this broadband project is to them, Madison County Commissioner Craig Hill said. In addition to a lack of internet resources, Killingsworth Cove has poor cell reception. Broadband means more access to services that could come in handy for future severe weather, like WIFI calling. A lot of family members could not get in touch with their family members, and we have generator power on all of our systems, said New Hope Telephone Cooperative General Manager Daniel Martin. So, if they have a battery backup at the house or they have a home generator, those services will continue to work always. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grateful to be alive, its a miracle: Muscle Shoals woman paralyzed after tree falls on her car during storms The Killingsworth Cove Volunteer Fire Department has relied on dial-up internet, and Aston said this change will help them better connect with the community they serve. Weve been trying get our department, as remote as it is, access to the broadband Internet so that we could get access to training materials, lifesaving things, even our AEDs have to update over Internet for their services and supplies, and we just werent able to do any of that, Aston said. This is Madison Countys first public-private broadband partnership, and Hill said he hopes to see broadband availability spread to other communities like Maysville and Gurley. The two-million-dollar Killingsworth Cove project was funded by the American Rescue Plan and New Hope Telephone Cooperative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hill said he has been working on this project for several years. The infrastructure is officially in place, and some living in Killingsworth Cove are already connected. 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. NEW YORK Dylan, the 20-year-old Bronx public school student arrested by federal immigration authorities, sued the Trump administration late Thursday night over his ongoing detention in Pennsylvania. The habeas corpus petition asked a western Pennsylvania federal judge to find Dylans arrest was unconstitutional and violated his due process rights and order his immediate release. As long as he remains detained, his health is at continued, serious risk; his ability to (seek a green card) is jeopardized; and he will fall behind on his schoolwork, read the suit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The complaint, which was first reported by Chalkbeat, names Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security; and Pennsylvania-based immigration authorities as defendants. The Daily News has withheld Dylans last name at the request of his family. Dylan, who fled persecution in Venezuela, is currently being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. He has no criminal history and entered the country legally with humanitarian parole under President Joe Biden. He and his mother appeared on May 21 without a lawyer for a routine court hearing, where the federal government asked a Manhattan immigration judge to dismiss his case. Late last week, his newly retained lawyers at the New York Legal Assistance Group filed a motion to reconsider the dismissal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On their way out of the courthouse, two plainclothes ICE officers followed them into an elevator, handcuffed Dylan and threatened to take in his mother if she tried to record his arrest on her cellphone, according to court documents. His lawyers allege the dismissal was part of a new coordinated practice to transfer Dylan and others out of standard proceedings into a process known as expedited removal, which offers fewer protections. They say the student was selected at random. Removal proceedings are overseen by immigration judges, who are part of the U.S. Department of Justice. Through the process, people can gather evidence and present witnesses, and appeal deportation orders up to the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Circuit Courts of Appeals. By contrast, the expedited removal process which has been greatly expanded during the Trump administration is overseen by DHS. That means Dylan and other immigrants in his position have no opportunity to bring their case before a judge or appeal their decision, the lawyers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DHS earlier this week condemned a Biden-era asylum process that allowed immigrants like Dylan to enter the country with a notice to appear before a judge. The agency claimed President Donald Trump has reverted to following the law and that the student and others in his position should have faced expedited removal from the beginning. If individuals have a valid credible-fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, officials said in a statement, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation. Dylans interview with DHS over his fear claim was Thursday morning. If decided in his favor, his case would revert to the regular deportation process, according to the suit but he would remain in detention far from loved ones and counsel. His claim remained pending as of the petitions filing. His lawyers claim he did not meet the requirements for an expedited removal due to the length of time hes been in the United States and that he was legally paroled into the country when he entered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The government has not justified why it specifically targeted, arrested, and detained Dylan, a high school student without a criminal record and abiding by all immigration laws and procedures, read the complaint. And the harms of continuing to detain Dylan may be irreparable, the habeas petition argued. Dylan has a chronic illness related to his stomach, according to his lawyers, which his doctors are still trying to diagnose and treat. The process has required various medical tests to determine whether his symptoms are indicators of cancer or Crohns disease, and on Tuesday, he got results back that require an in-person appointment as soon as possible. Before he was arrested, Dylan was also in the middle of a process to obtain whats known as Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJS) status based on the death of his father, which would give him a pathway to a green card. He had a hearing scheduled in that process for Friday, which his lawyers expected to miss. Dylan turns 21 later this year and would no longer be eligible for that process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the case plays out, Dylans lawyers requested that he remain in Pennsylvania. Since he was taken into custody, Dylan has been moved among facilities in Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana and New Jersey. His lawyers accused the federal government of misrepresenting Dylans whereabouts and said they were unable to speak with Dylan until Wednesday morning a week after his arrest. In the year and change he was in New York, Dylan enrolled in ELLIS Prep, a program for English learners overaged for traditional high school. Dylan was granted work authorization and took care of his two younger siblings. While his mom worked long hours, he picked the kids up from school. And with the help of his supplemental income as a part-time delivery driver, they were able to move their family out of a homeless shelter and into their own apartment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New York politicians and immigration advocates have condemned Dylans detention, including a protest on the steps of the public school systems headquarters on Thursday, which drew hundreds of supporters and even the city schools chancellor. After distancing himself earlier this week from Dylans arrest, Mayor Eric Adams under pressure from local lawmakers on Friday released a statement that he was sad to learn of this incident, especially since Dylan was following a legal process. Keeping New Yorkers safe has always been Mayor Adams top priority, said his spokesman Zachary Nosanchuk, and he has been clear that our city is less safe when people are afraid to use public resources like sending their children to school or partaking in legal proceedings at court. _______ BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11)Brownsville moms are joining forces to fight food insecurity at their school by starting a pantry, but they need support. With the price of food going up, families in one Brooklyn neighborhood have a powerful network of moms who are making sure their children have access to resources by running a free school pantry. More Local News The shelves are bare, and the school principal fears they cant keep it open for the summer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The principal of the Riverdale Avenue Community School, Tawana Vasquez, says that when you want something done right, just ask a mom to do it. She has ten super moms helping her. Vasquez reached out to PIX11s Monica Morales to help feed more than 70 families at the school every day. It all started with a walk-in closet in 2017 and grew into a classroom converted into what they call a moms market. Vasquez says more than half of the families attending her school are from area shelters, public housing, and/or low-income housing. Their pantry needs a steady stock of dry goods, clothing, and personal hygiene products. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They are holding an emergency meeting of moms in the gym. They say one of the best solutions is finding continued support. Vasquez is hoping a big donor with a big heart will give big. If you want to help, you can do so 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. An outraged man struck a 71-year-old MTA bus operator in the head with a wrench as he stepped onto a bus rolling through Brooklyn, police said Friday at least the second assault aboard an MTA bus this month. The NYPD released images of the suspect in the May 13 attack in hopes that someone could identify him. Cops believed the assailant was called onto the bus by a woman passenger already onboard who was arguing with the bus driver, a police source with knowledge of the case said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The MTA employee was driving his B61 bus past the corner of Lorraine and Hicks Sts. in Red Hook and arguing with an unruly passenger at about 8 a.m. when the unidentified suspect boarded the bus. The two immediately got into an argument, cops were told. After a few moments, the suspect pulled out a wrench and struck the bus driver on the forehead with it. He then jumped off the bus with the woman who had argued with the bus driver and both fled the area on a scooter, cops said. They were last seen zipping east on Lorraine St. EMS rushed the bus driver to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was treated for a minor injury, cops said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Detectives recovered images of the assailant from a camera affixed to the front of he bus. The attack happened about three days after an unrelated attack on a Bronx Bx35 bus near 165 St. and Third Ave. in Morrisania when an unidentified commuter wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans began yelling at a 31-year-old man on the bus, then hit his victim on the head with a pipe. The victim, who suffered a laceration, was transported by EMS to Lincoln Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The assailant took off after the incident and remains on the loose. Early Thursday, an MTA subway cleaner was also attacked by a man with a pipe as he spruced up the Bergen St. station in Boerum Hill around 12:15 a.m., cops said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect was swinging the pipe and smashed a station call box, cops said. When the cleaner confronted him, the suspect said, Why are you following me? then swung the pipe at him twice, missing both times, cops said. The cleaner then grabbed the suspect and the two men began brawling, both falling to the platform before the suspect got up and ran off. EMS rushed the cleaner to NYU Langone Health-Cobble Hill, where he was treated for pains throughout his body and released. The man with the pipe, who was described as Black and wearing a black T-shirt and black clothing, remained at large Friday. Its not believed that the two MTA pipe attacks are connected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man wanted for the May 13 attack is described as Black, about 5-foot-6 and in his early 40s. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and tan pants. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. A Broward County Animal Care officer was hospitalized Thursday evening after an American Staffordshire Terrier attacked her at a home in Fort Lauderdale, police and Animal Care officials said. A woman called 911 shortly after 7 p.m., screaming about a dog mauling an animal control worker in the 700 block of Southwest 14 Terrace, according to Fort Lauderdale Police spokesperson Casey Liening and the 911 call released Friday. The animal control officer was on a call for a wellness check at the time of the attack, Zachary Rinkins, spokesperson for Broward County Animal Care, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emergency, please! the woman who called 911 screamed. Whats the address? the dispatcher asked. The dog is mauling her! Theres a dog mauling her! the woman shouted back. The caller said the woman who was being attacked was screaming for help. The dispatcher struggled to get any information out of the woman who called 911. She screamed and shouted for help to come continuously. Her son was trying to help the woman, she told the dispatcher. The dog could be heard growling and barking at one point in the background while the woman who called 911 yelled No! repeatedly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fort Lauderdale Police arrived three minutes after the 911 call. The animal control officer was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, Liening said. She remained there Friday with serious injuries but is expected to recover. The woman was taken to the trauma unit at the hospital, Rinkins said, and the dog was humanely euthanized. The dog had been injured during the struggle when witnesses tried to intervene, Liening said. She did not provide further information about how the injuries occurred. Broward County Animal Care is investigating, along with police, Rinkins said. Liening said the department is not expecting to conduct any criminal investigation as of Friday. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Concerns are growing after thousands of patients enrolled in UnitedHealthcares Medicare Advantage plans received notices that they will that they will no longer receive coverage at Brown University Health hospitals if the two sides dont agree on a new contract by July 1. The companies have been in negotiations since the beginning of the year but have yet to reach a deal, meaning patients may have to pay out of pocket at Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Childrens Hospital, Newport Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. BACKGROUND: Some Medicare Advantage patients in RI may lose coverage at Brown Health hospitals Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dr. Johnny Luo, a health insurance expert who runs Doctors Choice, told 12 News that people shouldnt panic since theres still time for the two companies to come to an agreement. Brown University Health systems and UnitedHealthcare have a month to figure this out, he said. Federal data shows that 60% of those enrolled in Medicare utilize Medicare Advantage plans in Rhode Island. UnitedHealthcare has not answered repeated requests for comment about the number of patients that could be affected. Dr. Luo said his company has been fielding questions from people who are concerned, but noted that there are ways to get a new insurance plan if need be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oftentimes, well see The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), offer special election periods on a case-by-case basis for those folks throughout the year, he said. The other option is to switch insurance plans during Medicares open enrollment period that starts mid-October. This is the time when folks can either switch to another Medicare Advantage plan, or they can elect Part D prescription plan, go back to original Medicare, Dr. Luo said. No time not to act: Neronha unveils plan to confront RI health care crisis Those who opt for original Medicare often will elect a Medicare supplement plan to help fill the coverage gap, according to Dr. Luo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said Rhode Island is an underwriting state, which means people will have to go through a medical evaluation process and some could be denied coverage. If they have special needs when it comes to health care, preexisting conditions, they may be denied coverage into a supplemental plan coming from Medicare Advantage plan, so thats something to be aware of, he explained. UnitedHealthcare and Brown Health have until June 30 to come up with a new deal. Brown Health has said the two companies mutually agreed to end their contract, while UnitedHealthcare has said they are still willing to come to the table. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 12 Health: Paramedic creates support network for first responders 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. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. Bruce Mitchell, right, oversees a staff meeting in The Athens News offices. (Photo credit: 1978 Greg Smith/imediaSmith.com. Photo only for use with original article.) The first time I met Bruce Mitchell, in December 2008, while I waited for our appointment, I noticed a sign hanging in the second-floor front office of The Athens NEWS at 14 N. Court Street in Athens, Ohio. A newspapers duty is to print the news and raise hell, it said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Bruce walked in to greet me, I gestured toward the sign. I love reporting the news, I grinned. And I love raising hell. He beamed back with his wide, open smile and laughed his approval. After our conversation that day, I knew kismet had found us a shared bulldog energy for public accountability against corruption combusting in our professional cores. Hard-nosed and never afraid of confrontation, but not militant or hateful, this energy is fueled not by fear, contempt, vengeance, or resentment, but an absolute love and commitment to community, humanity, truth, justice, and public service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Having for years read and admired the work of longtime Editor Terry Smith, Jim Phillips, and Nick Claussen, I knew quickly after my interviews with Terry and Bruce that The Athens NEWS would mean something in my life. Bruce Mitchell on a sales call in Athens. (Photo credit: 1978 Greg Smith/imediaSmith.com. Photo only for use with original article.) Perhaps, though, I didnt fully recognize how deep and profound its meaning until just last weekend, when many of us were reunited in Athens to celebrate Bruces life and legacy following his passing on April 29 at the age of 71. As I watched a slideshow last Saturday of Bruce living this joyful, fiercely unique, caring, heart-forward, service-oriented, wildly colorful life, I could not help but be struck by the force and magnitude of all that he and Terry had built. Of course, many others helped, from Bruces wonderful wife Susan and his business partner Guy Philips, to the countless reporters, staff and sales reps, graphics people and photographers who contributed so much along the way. I joined the NEWS at the very start of 2009, after Terry hired me as a new staff reporter over the holidays. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I had been a student reporter for the campus bureau of the paper during my senior year at Ohio University. I used those first crucial professional clips to obtain an internship in Washington D.C., which turned into a job at the National Journals The Hotline. That led to a job for the New York Observers Politicker covering the 2008 campaign cycle in then-battleground Ohio. After the election was over, they laid us all off. I needed a new reporting job, and wanted to gain a wider variety of coverage experience. Terry was looking for a reporter with political coverage chops. Bruce had already been printing the news and raising hell for more than three decades as publisher of The Athens NEWS, which he founded in 1977, fresh after graduating from Ohio University and raising plenty of hell as a campus leader and activist. While I was an undergrad, I read every twice-weekly edition of The Athens NEWS. I loved and still love the tactile quality of flipping through a physical newspaper: the feel, the sound, the smell, the vibe. The Athens NEWS was free, ubiquitous around the campus and city, and useful. With no smartphones back then, every Monday and Thursday I would sit down to lunch at one of the dining halls and read the whole thing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the NEWS, I knew every event at every venue every week throughout the city and county. I knew all the bands, all the players, all the local personalities, the best bars and food spots, the best deals, all the clubs and activities, all the festivals, all the opportunities. I knew everything Ohio University was up to, and anything nefarious the administration might be trying to pull. I knew everything the city and county was up to as well, and anything untoward any local officials might be trying to pull. I knew the crime, I knew the scandals. When I joined the full-time team, it was a blessing: With Bruces passionate, tireless crusade against public corruption and injustice of any kind, I knew I had the freedom to be the best bulldog reporter I could be. With Jim Phillips extraordinary, polished, and excellent example, I could study a master reporter at work. And with Terry Smiths steady-handed, level-headed, practical, insightful, inquisitive mentorship and guidance, I learned everything I ever needed to know about how to run a newsroom like a true pro. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I expected to be at The Athens NEWS for two years. I ended up staying for nine. We held powerful local politicians accountable to the people, and Ohio University accountable to its students and the larger community. We exposed schemes, scams, and abuse. We did all the everyday reporting that the community needed. We featured everybody making a positive impact, told our readers the heartbreaking truth about poverty and all its attendant ills in Appalachia, exposed predatory landlords and corrupt politicians, and produced every kind of special issue, student and visitor guide imaginable. I got to write everything from restaurant reviews and Goo Goo Dolls interviews, to deeply reported issue coverage of addiction in Southeast Ohio. While Terry ran the show in the newsroom ever-balancing Bruces intensity and more feverish ideas with Terrys own steady and serious news judgment behind the operation as a whole stood Bruce, a pied-piper with a wild tie and funny hat, deepening community connections, leading our march in the Halloween parade, handing out turkeys at Thanksgiving and trees at Christmas, taking us to Cincinnati for Reds games, throwing birthday pizza parties, insisting relentlessly on fun. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was one-of-a-kind, never meant for mass production, and others have written lovely tributes outlining the many memorable stories about Bruce and the wonderful things he accomplished, including former reporter Miles Layton and longtime Athens NEWS columnist Dennis E. Powell. In my time there, I got all the invaluable reporting experience I craved, covering local government, crime and the courts, education, health care, energy and the environment, natural disasters, public corruption, protests and riots. After working first in D.C. and then Columbus, I finally saw and learned how policy impacts Ohioans lives at the ground level. Id been in their homes. Id heard their stories. Id witnessed their tears. What happens at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus is not theoretical to me; I know the repercussions in my heart I know the faces of the people being harmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And perhaps therein lies the source of my largest debt of gratitude to Bruce, Terry, Jim, and the whole rest of the entire Athens NEWS team over the years. Everything I learned there became a part of me. I carry it all within me now, at the Ohio Capital Journal, with my own team. So last Saturday, as I sat there in my beloved Athens, reunited for this celebration of life, a wave of gratitude, appreciation, and admiration crashed over me. What a helluva great and noble thing Bruce had done, creating The Athens NEWS and building it into the beautiful community newspaper that it was. Over the decades, an upstart alternative newsweekly became, by the time Bruce retired in 2015 and for five years after through Terry and Conor Morris what ought to always be remembered as an absolute powerhouse of local Ohio journalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fair, fearless, free, fact-based reporting for the people. Those are actually the mission taglines for the Ohio Capital Journal, but they may as well have been the taglines for The Athens NEWS. I realize now that this whole ethos was inspired and ingrained in me during my time there. And by some wild grace I have the amazing fortune to continue it with States Newsroom, staying dedicated only to doing the best journalism possible. Before I left Bruces celebration of life last Saturday, having reflected on all of this, I made sure to tell Susan how grateful I was for the role that she and Bruce and The Athens NEWS played in my life, and how fortunate I feel to be able to try to continue some of that legacy today with the work of the Ohio Capital Journal. Graceful and gracious as ever, Susan gave me a hug and told me that Bruce had followed our work at the Capital Journal and he was proud. That made my eyes well up. I hadnt seen Bruce in the years after I moved to Columbus and they moved to Key West, but I knew that if he ever read the Capital Journal then he wouldve recognized various reflections of the kind of work we did at the NEWS. That made me smile. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bruce was a man who cared passionately about others and cared passionately about justice and community. He lived with joy, loved deeply, fought corruption relentlessly, and poured himself into his community with no reservations. He was a wild man, with a great big honest heart, and to me, that counts for everything. Bravo, my friend. Bruce Mitchell, with whom I also share a deep love of baseball. (Photo courtesy of Susan Hinkle Mitchell.) SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) argues Thursday in the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee for including the full budget request from the state Department of Safety and Professional Services in the 2025-27 Wisconsin state budget. (Screenshot/WisEye) Republicans on the Legislatures budget committee rejected a proposal Thursday to add permanent staff to the state agency responsible for ensuring that a range of professionals have licenses they need to do their jobs. Instead, the Joint Finance Committee voted along party lines to extend five contract positions for three more years as well as add a handful of other positions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025-27 state budget marks the fourth one in which Gov. Tony Evers has been rebuffed after urging lawmakers to increase staffing at the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) to speed up the agencys license and permit administration. There was no debate during the 45-minute meeting Thursday. All four Democrats on the committee spoke up, either to advocate for their proposal for the agency or to criticize the GOP proposal as inadequate. None of the Republicans, however, made arguments for their plan for DSPS or against the Democrats alternative. In addition to issuing professional licenses in health care, personal services, professions such as accounting or architecture and for skilled tradespeople such as plumbers and electricians, DSPS also oversees a variety of building and other public safety licenses and permits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starting more than three years ago, Republican lawmakers raised criticism of the agency amid heavy backlogs in the licensing process for a wide range of professionals. Democratic lawmakers as well as some outside groups representing licensed professionals have charged the backlog was a result of the Legislatures failure to authorize more positions at the department. The department is almost entirely self-funded through the fees it collects from license applications, but the size of its staff requires the approval of the Legislature. In the 2023-25 draft state budget, Evers requested 74 new positions at DSPS, but the final spending plan drafted largely by the Republican majority on the finance committee added 17.75 positions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Evers redirected pandemic relief funds to DSPS to hire more contract workers to help manage the licensing process. In the last couple of years, the backlog has been reduced so that on average a license is issued in two weeks, according to state Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay), a finance committee member. In his 2025-27 budget draft, Evers requested 30 new positions at the agency. On Thursday, Democrats on the finance committee proposed adding 31 positions, including 14 to staff the departments call center serving license applicants and nine additional employees to process license applications. Authorizing fewer people than DSPS has requested has a tremendous risk of causing significant delays or or even just making it a little bit harder for people to be able to get their license, said Rep. Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha). We want people to be able to get the licenses that they need so they can go to work. We want people to get the renewals that they need so they can continue working. State law requires about 10% of the fee revenue from professional licenses in health and business professions to be transferred to the state budgets general fund. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have been pulling funds out of an agency thats almost basically self-sufficient and dumping the money into the general fund, all while the demand for licenses is exploding, said Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee). Johnson warned the committee that if the licensing process gets bogged down again, shortages in fields such as health care in particular are likely to worsen. Falling short of funding the departments full request impacts every single person in the state, whether youre a licensee or not, said Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison). What we are doing is starving that system and making it harder for every single one of us to access needed professional services. The Democratic proposal failed on a 4-12 vote, with all the Republicans on the 16-member committee voting against it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Republican measure passed 12-4, with only Republicans support. It extends five contract call center positions that expire Sept. 30 for another three years. The GOP motion omits three lawyers and three paralegals the department had requested for professional regulation compliance and for the states Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. The motion also transfers $5 million from DSPS revenues to the state budgets general fund, in addition to the annual 10% from license fees. The Republican measure authorizes a consultant for pharmacy inspections that was part of the original budget draft. It also includes funding to continue a youth firefighter training grant that was in the original request and the Democratic proposal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The committees co-chairs, Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), released a joint statement later Thursday declaring that Joint Finance Republicans voted to invest in important government services while holding the line on spending. The statement cited funding for DSPS call center staff to help credential holders and the public navigate licensure platforms and said the funding ensures the department can operate effectively and provide these critical services to professionals. Immediately after the final vote, however, Andraca told her colleagues that the outcome was a missed opportunity. We could be sitting here claiming a bipartisan success story, because today the median time to get a license is only 15 days, Andraca said. We should be continuing the success story and taking a victory lap, and instead were chipping away the progress that weve made and thats very disappointing. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) An incident involving a Buffalo Police patrol vehicle and an ATV has yet again sparked the debate over what can be done to deter the illegal use of off-road vehicles in the city. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon vowed to put a renewed focus on ways to deter illegal ATV activity in the city. This comes after an incident that was caught on video showing a Buffalo Police patrol unit following an ATV through a local park. In the video, an impact can be seen taking place, resulting in the person driving the ATV falling off the four-wheeler. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its been a problem for a number of years, and its something that weve raised concerns about in the past. Weve increased fines, changed legislation where we can take and impound vehicles, and things like that, Scanlon said. Well continue to look at what we can do. Weve had conversations with the commissioner and others in the department about what we can do to kind of enforce this a little bit more, and hopefully we can come up with a couple things in the near future to address it. Buffalo Common Council member Joseph Golombek also expressed concerns, saying he supports efforts by police to crack down on the issue. I have been supportive of arresting and impounding the vehicles when people are driving them illegally in the City of Buffalo since Day One, Golombek said. I think each situation is different, and I think that we need to support the officers when theyre making decisions like this. Golombek wasnt alone in his concerns. His colleague, council member David Rivera, also weighed in on the issue, sharing the same concerns as his colleagues and constituents. He said seizing the vehicles before they even have a chance to be driven would be ideal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We ask the general public to provide information if they know where these motorcycles are so we dont have to get into a pursuit. We can go right to where theyre at and seize them if theyre illegal, Rivera said. So, we work with the general public, we work with the Buffalo Police Department, gathering intelligence and trying to take these ATVs off the street. An internal affairs investigation is underway related to the latest incident, according to Buffalo Police Commissioner Alphonso Wright. Buffalo Police Chief for the B-District, Tommy Champion, also weighed in on the issue. He said typically they have a non-pursuit policy when it comes to ATVs and that whether or not Sundays incident was in line with their policy will be something they investigate moving forward. Latest Local News Rob Petree is an anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in 2025. See more of his work by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) Two civil rights lawsuits against several Buffalo police officers are closer to being settled for $1.3 million. One case involved James Kistner, and his son Earl, who had a run-in with officers on New Years in 2017. The case was extensively reported by News 4 Investigates. The second case involved a separate incident with the Kistners attorney, Anthony Rupp. James Kistner was home when he noticed police officers at one of his apartments on Scharmbeck Avenue. He approached one officer while she was in her police cruiser to ask why they were there, but she struck him with the vehicle, causing a head injury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers lifted Kistner off of the road, handcuffed him, and detained him in the back of a police vehicle for roughly thirty minutes. Officers drove Kistner to ECMC, and attempted twice to get him admitted to CPEP, an emergency mental health unit at ECMC. Kistners case listed 17 claims, including unlawful seizure and arrest, malicious prosecution, retaliation, false arrest, assault and battery, and emotional distress. Erie Co. corrections officer to inmate: Open your mouth or Im going to break them teeth Earl Kistner ran to his father while calling an ambulance, but officers grabbed him and his phone, and pushed him in the middle of the road. Officers did not return his phone or license until they ran a warrant search. They also cancelled the ambulance call because they did not believe Earls father was seriously injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earl Kistner sued for excessive force, and other claims. Surveillance cameras on the Kistners home captured the encounter. James Kistner, of Buffalo, sued several city police officers in 2019 Court documents by city attorneys alleged Kistner threw himself at the police vehicle to damage a drivers side mirror. They charged him with criminal mischief in the 3rd degree, which is a felony, and misdemeanor disorderly conduct. The courts dismissed those charges. City attorneys accused Earl Kistner of resisting officers commands, which did not match up with what was on the surveillance video. The city did not launch an internal investigation until late 2019, after News 4 Investigates reported on the incident. Former Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood concluded there was not sufficient evidence to find the officers committed any wrongdoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2022, a report and recommendation by federal magistrate judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy deemed the case extremely disturbing and questioned the credibility of the testimony by officers. In 2024, the 2nd Circuit denied the citys appeal to preserve qualified immunity for several of the officers, concluding that it is the role of a jury to examine disputed facts. Alden site to be location for new Erie County jail at $428M price tag On Wednesday, Buffalo Common Councils Claims Committee recommended approving the $1.1 million settlement for the Kistners. The Common Council is scheduled to vote on the recommendation at its June 10 meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rupp, who reached his own settlement with the city for a separate incident, said they are pleased with the outcome and hopeful the payout will encourage city leaders and the police department to remind rank-and-file officers that framing innocent citizens and charging them with crimes to cover up police negligence and misconfuct is never okay. Sadly, none of the officers involved in this incident were disciplined by their department, and most of them have since received promotions. The lack of accountability for what amounted to criminal activity on the part of the officers involved is stunning, Rupp said. The city did not admit to any wrongdoing, which is typical in settlement agreements. On the same day, council will vote on a $200,000 settlement with Rupp for an encounter he had in 2016 with a city police officer near Chefs restaurant. Rupp cursed at the officer for driving without his headlights on and almost hitting two women crossing the street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The officer, who argued with Rupp for about a half-hour, ticketed him for violating the city noise ordinance. Rupp said he was not planning to sue over the incident until the same officer was involved in an incident that resulted in the death of an unarmed 20-year-old, Wardell Davis III. Officers tackled and punched Davis before they handcuffed him while on his stomach. The New York Attorney Generals Office attributed Daviss death to an asthma attack and did not file charges. The decision sparked protests demanding more police accountability. That incident persauded Rupp to launch a civil rights division, which has successfully settled numerous cases involving police officers and government officials in the region, including a $775,000 settlement with the Village of Gowanda and its police department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rupp is the attorney for another active civil rights lawsuit involving a 2019 traffic stop by two city police officers. Rupp alleged officers retailated against Bruce McNeil by planting drugs in his car for attempting to file a complaint about the officers behavior during a traffic stop. More from News 4 Investigates 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. 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. McNAIRY COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) Famed Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser died more than 50 years ago, but his daughter carried on the legacy before she died in 2018. Now the torch has been passed to the next generation. Bufords granddaughter shared what she wants people to know about her famous family. News 2 asked Madison Garrison Bush when she first started hearing stories about her grandfather. Honestly, before I came out of the womb, said Garrison Bush. A lot of people have told me he was a gentle giant until you crossed that line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Who was legendary lawman Buford Pusser? Garrison Bush never met her grandfather, but she knows him well through the stories passed down to her. He gave a lot of second chances. He would say whats right is right, whats wrong is wrong. She said the first time her grandfathers legacy really hit her, she was on a first-grade field trip with her classmates to the Buford Pusser Museum in Adamsville. That first grade field trip to the museum, and the kids were like, Will you sign our souvenirs? And they were my peers. And I was like, I guess. sure.' For Garrison Bush, her grandfather was ahead of his time. Shes proud to say that he was the first in Tennessee to hire a Black deputy. And she admits his way of serving justice would not work in todays day and age, but when need be, he showed compassion as well. She said he would allow inmates to work and earn some money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He would release them during the day so that they could go to work. So that they can provide for their family and then return back to the jail when the workday is doneTo me, he represents respect, integrity. When Garrison Bush was older, her parents allowed her to watch the 1973 film Walking Tall about her grandfather. The film chronicles both Bufords crime-fighting actions, but also his wifes, Pauline, tragic murder. Questions remain decades after death of Pauline Pusser She remembers watching the film with her mother. It hurt my mom, just like it hurt my grandad, to have to walk out during the really hard scenes when we lost part of our family during all of this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Garrison Bush left McNairy County, but shes never left behind the Pusser family legacy. Over the years, shes come back home to the festival, just like her mother, Dwana, did, in order to award the Buford Pusser Festival Law Enforcement Award to an exemplary officer of the law. To me, it is a way and such an honor to keep his legacy alive in doing what I saw my mother do my whole life. 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 Liberty Bridge is a 345-foot-long, 12-foot-wide suspension bridge over Reedy River at Falls Park in downtown Greenville, S.C. (Photo courtesy of VisitGreenvilleSC) When President Trumps top trade adviser attacked BMW in Greer, the local reaction was swift and fierce. Hes divorced from reality, said Spartanburg County Council Vice Chair David Britt, speaking of that top official, Peter Navarro. He has a twisted view of the United States. He lives in the 70s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ouch. But theres more: This is why you dont let people and passengers on a plane fly it, Britt added. In other words, Britt was inviting Navarro, architect of Trumps controversial tariff policies, to kindly butt out of the Upstates business. In ruby red South Carolina, thats some tough talk directed at Trumps influential trade adviser. What prompted the strong reaction from Britt and Upstate business leaders was Navarro blasting BWM and Mercedes for importing car parts to make finished vehicles in South Carolina. This business model where BMW and Mercedes come into Spartanburg, South Carolina, and have us assemble German engines and Austrian transmissions that doesnt work for America. Its bad for our economics. Its bad for our national security, Navarro said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Navarro was referring to BMWs sprawling manufacturing facility known as Plant Spartanburg. But he got the Mercedes plant location wrong. Its near Charleston, not Spartanburg. Navarro believes Trumps tariffs will force auto companies to manufacture all car parts, from bolt to body, here in the U.S. Peter Navarro is out of touch, Britt said. He needs to visit Plant Spartanburg with BMW if he really wants to see whats going on. My blood boils when this sort of thing happens. Tariffs raise costs The strong reaction by Britt and Upstate business leaders was really not surprising. The not-so-secret reality of the Upstate economy is that its driven by massive foreign investment and strong international imports and exports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The globalization goose lays the golden eggs. Or call it a Carolina wren. The Upstate economy is internationally connected. Tariffs raise costs, obstructing the smooth and successful operation of South Carolinas top manufacturers. Those higher costs are passed on to the American consumer in the form of higher prices. In the Lowcountry, meanwhile, David Wren reports in the SC Daily Gazette that Volvo Cars temporarily halted production at its Ridgefield plant because of a parts shortage caused at least in part by Trumps fluctuating tariffs. Trump, it seems, is a president who likes walls, whether on the southern border or in the form of trade barriers like tariffs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The average U.S. tariff rate is 17.8%, more than seven times the 2.5% Trump inherited, the Financial Times recently reported. But the Upstates iconic symbol is not a wall but a bridge. Aptly named Liberty Bridge, the expansive footbridge towers over the beautiful Reedy River Falls near downtown Greenville. The modern miracle of Greenville and if youve been around at least three decades or so, you know what a miracle it is is built on trade freedom, not on trade war. Washington speaks of economic adversaries. The Upstate seeks out economic partners. With classic Southern hospitality, the Upstate has welcomed hundreds of international businesses such as Germanys BMW (more than 11,000 workers), Frances Michelin (more than 9,000 workers), Swedens Eloctrolux, Switzerlands Nestle, Japans Fujifilm, and Germanys ZF, Bosch, Adidas, and Draexlmaier, just to name a few. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Greenville Area Development Corporation points out that South Carolina as a whole frequently ranks as the No. 1 state for attracting jobs through foreign direct investment per capita. More than 250 international firms from 28 countries have a major presence in the Upstate. We welcome this melting pot of residents and visitors with open arms, the Greenville development corporation says. Good for America In a joint statement, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and OneSpartanburg rose to the defense of BMW, drawing attention to the Upstates diversified and globalized economy: BMW Groups Plant Spartanburg drove Upstate South Carolinas transformation from a declining textile economy to a thriving center of advanced manufacturing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BMW packs an economic wallop, employing more than 11,000 workers and providing a $26.7-billion impact for South Carolina. The plant is the largest exporter of vehicles by value in the U.S., shipping 225,000 vehicles worth more than $10 billion in 2024, Upstate business leaders said. BMW has produced 5 million vehicles in Greer since the plant opened in 1994. U.S. Rep. William Timmons, who represents Greenville and Spartanburg counties in Congress, and Gov. Henry McMaster also added their support for BMWs policies. I can assure you that BMW is good for South Carolina and America, Timmons said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The SC Daily Gazettes Jessica Holdman provided a detailed and in-depth report on how Trumps tariffs could cause serious harm to South Carolinas thriving auto industry. Tariffs raise prices on imported car parts and potentially undermine car exports from South Carolina. Trump has scaled back some of his disruptive auto tariffs, but not permanently. Globalization doesnt deserve all the credit for the Upstates bustling and ever-growing economy, but international investment and free trade have been an unambiguous godsend for the region and the entire state. Upstate businesses will weather the storm, knowing that the nation eventually will return to its free-trade foundation. After all, the Upstates defining symbol is a bridge, not a wall. BURLINGTON, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) Firefighters who arrived on the scene after a fire alarm went off Thursday found they had very little left to do. The Burlington Fire Department responded to the fire alarm on North Prospect Street near the University of Vermont campus and arrived with multiple vehicles less than four minutes after it began beeping at 3:30 Thursday afternoon. But when they arrived, they discovered that while a small fire had broken out on the buildings exterior fire escape, the fire had already been extinguished by the sprinkler system. Vermont makes cocktails-to-go permanent Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Streets near the building were temporarily blocked off. The tenants of the unit adjacent to the fire temporarily had to leave the building; no injuries are reported, and firefighters said the fire had minimal effect on the interior of the building. The Burlington Fire Marshal said the cause of the fire is not yet known but it is not considered suspicious. The Burlington Fire Department said after the event that they would like to highlight the effectiveness of properly functioning fire alarms and sprinkler systems, which played a critical role in minimizing damage and risk in this incident. Vermonts Division of Fire Safety has more information about emergency sprinklers on their 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 ABC22 & FOX44. BURLINGTON, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) After the Department of Homeland Security released Friday a list of sanctuary jurisdictions that do not comply with federal immigration law, Burlington mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, whose city was specifically named along with Winooski, Montpelier, and the state of Vermont as a while, said she disagreed that the city is violating federal law. The full list has been removed from the DHS website, but you can read our archived version here: Sanctuary-Jurisdiction-List.docxDownload Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Burlington has had a Fair & Impartial Policing Policy for years this policy offers important guidance to local law enforcement officers, both to prevent discrimination on the basis of protected classifications, and to provide explicit clarity that our local police agency is not charged with enforcement of civil immigration law. This policy is crucial for maintaining trust between the community and the police department, and it ensures that people can call for help without fear of discrimination based on immigration status or other protected class. Burlington Mayor announces who she intends to hire as fire chief The citys official policy, effective as of October of last year, cites the protections against unreasonable search and seizure offered by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in saying that Burlington police officers do not have the authority to enforce federal immigration law, and may not detain people on behalf of federal immigration authorities without a warrant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read Burlingtons Fair & Impartial Policing Policy hereDownload The list of sanctuary jurisdictions complies with Executive Order 14287, which cites public safety and national security risks and allows the federal government to cut off funding to states, counties, and municipalities on the list. It calls lack of compliance with immigration authories lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law. New Hampshire bill would target sanctuary cities like Lebanon and Hanover The neighboring state of New Hampshire recently banned sanctuary cities in the state, with governor Kelly Ayotte saying, New Hampshire will never be a sanctuary for criminals, and we will keep working every day to remain the safest state in the nation. Neverthless, Lebanon and Hanover in New Hampshire were specifically named on the list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mulvaney-Stanak says she has no intention of changing the citys policies to match federal demands. Burlington, like other communities identified as sanctuary jurisdictions, has a proud history of welcoming immigrants and refugees to our City, and we will not back down from ensuring the safety of all who live, work and visit our 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 ABC22 & FOX44. If you feel as though youve been hearing your colleagues, professional acquaintances, family or friends talk about burnout more than usual, youre not imagining it. According to a recent report by Glassdoor, burnout among U.S. professionals has escalated to unprecedented highs, with burnout mentions in employee reviews increasing 32 percent year-on-year as of Q1 2025. In fact, mentions of burnout have increased by 50 percent since Q4 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic began and irrevocably changed the world of work as we knew it. This marks the highest rate since data collection began in 2016. 5 jobs actively hiring Real impact While the term burnout has become an all-encompassing phrase for everything from stress to lack of motivation, the World Health Organization describes burnout as a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The WHO characterizes burnout via three dimensions. These include feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from ones job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to ones job; and reduced professional efficacy. It stressed that burnout refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life. However, its hardly surprising that employees who are experiencing burnout are seeing the repercussions of its effects in other areas of their lives. The Glassdoor report also identified that burnout can manifest as decreased morale and diminished perceptions of career opportunities (down 21 percent), diversity and inclusion (down 17 percent), work-life balance (down 34 percent), and compensation and benefits (down 15 percent). Feeling the heat Additionally, the study found that employees who reference burnout tend to rate their employers significantly lower, averaging 2.68 out of 5, compared to a 3.61 average among those who dont mention burnout. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Glassdoors Lead Economist, Daniel Zhao, describes burnout as a slow-burn problem that can erode the overall employee experience, even among those who are otherwise content with their workplace. As businesses trim budgets and headcounts, employees and managers alike are being asked to do more with less, said Zhao. Thats a recipe for burnout as workers are stretched increasingly thin without an end in sight. He added: Employees who rate their employer 5 stars out of 5 are the least likely to apply to new jobs, but if they mention burnout in their reviews, their turnover intentions increase by 58 percent. Similarly, for an employee who rates their employer 4 stars, their turnover intentions rise 66 percent. And its not just employees that are feeling the heat. Burnout imposed a significant financial burden on employers too. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimates that burnout costs employers between $4,000 and $21,000 per employee annually. For a company with 1,000 employees, this translates to an estimated $5.04 million in annual costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While restructuring in the name of efficiency is one way to trim headcount, a negative work environment can also have a direct impact on talent retention. In fact, a survey by Isolved found that nearly 80 percent of employees have experienced burnout in the last year, resulting in lower engagement, reduced productising and an overwhelming feeling of restlessness that prompted 72 percent of existing employees to consider changing jobs within the next year. So how can employers address burnout and create meaningful solutions for their employees? While some companies have implemented stress-reduction programs and are giving staff access to mental health resources, focusing on individual responsibility doesnt work in the long term. Instead, implementing organizational changes that promote work-life balance, such as flexible working hours, four-day workweeks, childcare subsidies, and support for family care are what workers really crave. Moving forward So what can you do if you find yourself burnt out and wondering what to do, or where to go next? Seeking out a company culture that prioritizes employee wellbeing is paramount in mitigating burnout and its associated costs and if youre navigating a job hunt, The Hills Job Board is the perfect place to focus your search. Updated daily with a range of roles in policy, communications, and related fields, its an extremely valuable resource. Bookmark the link below, and visit regularly to stay up to date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ready to find a new role? Browse thousands of jobs on The Hill Job Board 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. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) A group of California legislators are urging Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to reverse a decision that terminated the legal status of a family and a 4-year-old Bakersfield girl receiving life-saving treatments. The group of legislators includes California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and U.S. House Representatives Luis Rivas and 35 others. They sent a letter to Secretary Noem urging the department to reverse its decision that strips the girl identified as SGV of her legal status in the United States and of her family. She needs specialized care: 4-year-old girl faces deportation amid battle with medical condition Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 4-year-old suffers from a rare condition that does not allow her to absorb nutrients from food and receives treatments at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. SGV and her family travel from Bakersfield to Los Angeles to receive those treatments. We urge you to reconsider the termination of SGV and her familys legal status as SGVs doctors say she could die within days without treatment, the lawmakers wrote. In April, the girls mother Deysi Vargas and her husband received notice from Homeland Security that their legal status was revoked. The legislators said Vargas then had her work authorization end in May, meaning they would have to leave the country. In these letters they tell us that we run the risk of being deported and the best thing that we should do is to leave, Vargas said at press conference Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SGV receives treatments that include being hooked up to feeding tubes and 14 hours a night connected to an intravenous feeding system. Vargas said these treatments are not available for SGV in Mexico, and without them she would die. 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. ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 30. During an official visit to Kazakhstan, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhammedov met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the inaugural Central Asia-Italy Summit held in Astana, Trend reports. The leaders discussed opportunities to deepen bilateral cooperation, with President Berdymukhammedov underscoring the importance of strengthening ties with European countries, particularly Italy. He also conveyed warm greetings from the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. This landmark summit marks the first-ever meeting between Central Asian countries and Italy. It is anticipated that the event will culminate in the adoption of agreements aimed at expanding trade, economic, and investment cooperation between Italy and the nations of Central Asia. Gov. Gavin Newsom's office sent a letter on Friday requesting that the Trump administration remove California from its list of "sanctuary" jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law. The Department of Homeland Security issued the list this week in accordance with an executive order President Trump signed in April that directs federal agencies to identify funding to sanctuary cities, counties and states that could be suspended or terminated. In the letter, Newsom's office contended that federal court rulings have rejected the argument that California law limiting law enforcement coordination with immigration authorities "unlawfully obstructs the enforcement of federal immigration laws." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This list is another gimmick even the Trump Administration has admitted California law doesnt block the federal government from doing its job," Newsom said in a statement. "Most immigrants are hardworking taxpayers and part of American families. When they feel safe reporting crimes, were all safer." California is among more than a half-dozen states that were included on the list for self-identifying as sanctuaries for immigrants without proper documentation. Forty-eight California counties and dozens of cities, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego and San Francisco, also were on the Trump administration's list of more than 500 total jurisdictions nationwide. Read more: A sanctuary law aimed to 'Trump-proof' California on immigration. What has it accomplished? The state strengthened its sanctuary policies under a law signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown that took effect in 2018 after Trump won office the first time. Then, state officials tried to strike a balance between preventing local law enforcement resources from being used to round up otherwise law-abiding immigrants without obstructing the ability of the federal government to enforce its laws within the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local police, for example, cannot arrest someone on a deportation order alone or hold someone for extra time to transfer to immigration authorities. But state law does permit local governments to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to transfer people to federal custody if they have been convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors within a given time frame. The limitations do not apply to state prison officials, who can coordinate with federal authorities. The law has been a thorn in the side of the Trump administration as it ramps up deportations, which the president has cast as an effort to rid the country of criminals despite also targeting immigrants with no prior convictions. Read more: U.S. attorney in L.A. moves to 'neutralize' California's sanctuary rules In a news release announcing the list, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said politicians in sanctuary communities are "endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law," Noem said. "President Trump and I will always put the safety of the American people first. Sanctuary politicians are on notice: comply with federal law. The Trump administration's assertion that California's sanctuary policies protect criminals from deportation appears to irk Newsom, who has repeatedly denied the allegation. Trump's threat to withhold federal dollars could also pose a challenge for a governor proposing billions in cuts to state programs to offset a state budget deficit for the year ahead. Homeland Security said jurisdictions will receive a formal notice of noncompliance with federal law and demand that cities, counties and states immediately revise their policies. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. SACRAMENTO, California State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes will not face DUI charges stemming from a Sacramento collision after a drug test showed the lawmaker was not intoxicated at the time of the incident. The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office on Friday announced a blood test the Riverside County Democrat took on the day she was involved in an accident near the Capitol was "negative for any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs." "We have reviewed all the submitted evidence, including police reports, witness statements, and laboratory results," the DA's office wrote in a statement. "Based on our ethical duty and the burden of proof in a criminal trial, the Sacramento County DAs Office declines to file any charges in this case." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cervantes was driving on a through street without a stop sign when a driver who had stopped at an intersection accelerated slowly and collided with her car, according to footage from a nearby office building's security camera. Sacramento police cited Cervantes with a DUI after she went to the hospital following the collision on the afternoon of May 19. She strongly denied she was intoxicated, saying police "accosted" her at the hospital. In a statement late Friday afternoon, Cervantes said, "As I stated from the beginning, I did absolutely nothing wrong and the Sacramento District Attorneys Office has now affirmed as much. While my name was cleared, this ordeal was entirely unnecessary. It has also caused my family and me enormous stress and pain. No one deserves this." Police later said they suspected the senator was under the influence of drugs, not alcohol, when they cited her. Cervantes produced the results of her own urine test taken the day after the collision that showed she had undetectable levels of drugs in her system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DA's office last week said prosecutors were waiting for the results of the blood test to determine whether to charge the senator. Sacramento Police Department spokesperson Anthony Gamble on Friday released a statement saying officers "observed objective signs that led them to believe Cervantes may have been impaired while operating a motor vehicle" when they met her at the hospital, but did not elaborate. Gamble said Cervantes declined to take a field sobriety test, and officers began pursuing a warrant for a blood panel. While they were waiting, he said, the senator voluntarily agreed to the drug test. Another department spokesperson previously said body camera footage showed that officers had acted professionally toward the senator, although police have not released video of the incident. California House Democrats on Friday demanded that the National Weather Service restore some terminated workers and begin hiring new forecasters after it halted around-the-clock operations at its Sacramento and Hanford weather forecasting offices, among others. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Laura Grimm, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 23 congressional Democrats decried recent cuts to the weather service, saying they represented the beginning of a public safety crisis with potentially catastrophic consequences. The weather service is a division of NOAA, which is overseen by the Commerce Department. We demand that you immediately reinstate all terminated workers at these offices, lift the federal hiring freeze for NWS, and ensure that the Sacramento and Hanford weather forecast offices are adequately staffed to maintain 24/7 operations, the congressional members wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 500 weather service staffers have left the agency since January, after the Trump administration fired probationary workers en masse and offered early retirements to an aging workforce of forecasters. The cuts left about 43% of the nations 122 weather forecasting offices with staffing vacancies above 20%. Independent meteorologists have said cuts could lead to less effective forecasting and slower severe weather warnings. The public safety concerns have become a political pressure point for the administration. The California members of Congress wrote that the weather forecasting offices in Hanford and Sacramento were particularly hit hard, leaving them no longer able to provide 24/7 staffing. The Sacramento office currently has seven vacancies for meteorologists, out of 16 positions, while the Hanford office has eight vacancies out of 13 positions leaving both offices operating at half strength as we approach the peak of wildfire season, the letter says. If the NWS weather forecast offices in Sacramento and Hanford, together covering the entire Central Valley, cannot monitor overnight conditions, that puts our constituents in danger. The weather service often supplies meteorologists to support fire crews during wildfire season, the letter notes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a reckless and unnecessary risk that offers no benefit to the American public, the letter says. Slashing staffing in half at the offices responsible for predicting wildfires, atmospheric rivers, and natural disasters is unacceptable, puts thousands of lives at risk, and does nothing to increase government efficiency. Kim Doster, the communications director for NOAA, said NWS was committed to prioritizing public safety. "The National Weather Service continues to meet its core missions amid recent reorganization efforts and is taking steps to prioritize critical research and services that keep the American public safe and informed," Doster said in an emailed statement. The weather service's Hanford office is located in the San Joaquin Valley, and is not far from where the long-dormant Tulare Lake re-formed in 2023, after a historic series of atmospheric river storms flooded the southern portion of Californias Central Valley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Central Valley produces about 40% of the nations fruits and nuts, according to the United States Geological Survey. Central Valley farmers rely on forecasts to make decisions about planting, irrigation and harvest. Meanwhile, forecasters in Sacramento are predicting triple-digit heat and elevated wildfire risk this weekend, as the region faces an early start to the wildfire season. Rep. Jim Costa, who represents part of the San Joaquin Valley that receives forecasting from the Hanford office, organized the letter to NOAA. Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Eric Swalwell and Doris Matsui are among 22 other signatories. Pressure has been intensifying on the administration over cuts to the weather service for several months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside meteorologists decried cuts to weather balloon releases at about a dozen short-staffed offices and, in one instance, said a missed balloon launch could have helped forecasters better understand the risk of tornadoes in a thunderstorm event near Omaha, Nebraska. After the incident, Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., took steps to intervene with the administration and got additional forecasters temporarily assigned to the office near Omaha. Earlier this month, five former directors of the weather service warned that additional cuts to the agencys staffing could lead to unnecessary deaths. Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life, wrote the former directors, who served between 1988 and 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NOAA has temporarily reassigned some staffers to plug holes in its workforce and also attempted to ease shortages by advertising permanent reassignments within the agency. About two weeks ago, NOAA asked for 76 meteorologists and a total of 155 staffers to consider transferring to fill critical roles. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com California state Sens. Tom Umberg and Josh Becker are asking former CBS leaders to testify in a probe into Paramounts offer to settle a legal fight with President Donald Trump for $15 million. The Democrats said in a letter Friday that they are opening an inquiry into whether the CBS parent company violated California anti-competitiveness law or breached ethical boundaries by caving to a frivolous suit. In the letter to former CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and ex-60 Minutes Executive Producer Bill Owens the senators questioned if the company considered settling to secure favorable regulatory treatment and said such behavior would raise deeply troubling implications not just for journalism, but for the rule of law and the integrity of corporate governance. Semafor first reported the development. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Key context: Owens left the network in April citing concerns about his shows independence amid the legal battle with Trump, in which the president claimed an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was deceptively edited. Paramount officials disputed the claim but nevertheless offered Trump a $15 million settlement , according to the Wall Street Journal, but Trump reportedly refused the deal , seeking more money. McMahon abruptly stepped down from her role earlier this month, saying she disagreed with the company on how to proceed. Details: Umberg and Becker, who chair their chambers judiciary and energy committees, respectively, raised concerns that the settlement could be illegally anticompetitive, putting in-state media outlets that could not afford such a settlement at a disadvantage. They also said theyre seeking to find out whether Paramount violated federal anti-bribery laws, breached its duty to shareholders or misused corporate funding by offering it to Trump. Your recent resignations from CBSs leadership, amid public reports of internal concern about the editorial and ethical implications of the proposed settlement, suggest that you may possess important, first-hand knowledge relevant to our legislative oversight responsibilities, they wrote to the former CBS leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Paramount spokesperson declined to comment. Whats next: The senators havent yet set a date for the joint hearing, but said it would be only the beginning of their inquiry and asserted their committees subpoena power under state law. WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The California State Senate has opened an inquiry into whether Paramount violated state laws against bribery and unfair competition, Semafor reported on Friday. The investigation comes after the network reportedly offered President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed against CBS over an edited interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, the Wall Street Journal previously reported. According to Semafaor, the Senate's communications committee and judiciary committee has invited two former CBS News officials to testify. (Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Chris Reese) The California State Senate has launched an investigation into Paramount Globals ongoing discussions with President Donald Trump to settle his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS. In a Friday letter, the states lawmakers invited former 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens and former CBS News president Wendy McMahon to testify as part of the probe. The chairs of the California Senates Energy, Utilities & Communications committee and Judiciary committee are seeking information from the pair on whether newsroom staff raised internal objections to the settlement or its motivations, whether any editorial decisions were impacted or overridden, whether internal counsel or leadership acknowledged the weakness of the lawsuits claims and whether anyone within the company indicated that the settlement may be advantageous or necessary in order to influence the regulatory approval of the pending $8 billion Skydance merger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your recent resignations from CBSs leadership, amid public reports of internal concern about the editorial and ethical implications of the proposed settlement, suggest that you may possess important, first-hand knowledge relevant to our legislative oversight responsibilities, the joint letter from committee chairs Josh Becker and Thomas Umberg states. If Paramount is entertaining a settlement primarily to secure favorable regulatory treatment, this raises deeply troubling implications not just for journalism, but for the rule of law and the integrity of corporate governance. The lawmakers argue that a settlement to clear regulatory approval of the Skydance deal could constitute a violation of federal anti-bribery laws, an infraction of Californias unfair competition law, a breach of fiduciary duties owed by Paramount board members to shareholders and the misuse of corporate funds vulnerable to shareholder derivative litigation. These issues go beyond internal policy, the pair said. They have real legal exposure for Paramount and its board of directors, including Ms. Shari Redstone, Ms. Barbara Byrne, Ms. Judith McHale, Ms. Linda Griego, and Ms. Susan Schuman. Becker and Umberg also said it could have a potential chilling effect on investigative and political journalism, signaling politically motivated lawsuits can succeed when paired with regulatory threats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It would damage public trust in CBS News and other California-based outlets, diminishing the states stature as a national leader in ethical journalism. Paramounts capitulation would also undermine two essential pillars of a liberal democracy: a free press and an impartial, rule-of-law regulatory system, the letter continues. The pair noted that while the invite is a voluntary request, they retain full subpoena authority under California law should additional testimony or documentation become necessary during its investigation. We respectfully encourage you to participate in this important hearing, the letter concluded. Your cooperation will help safeguard the values you have each worked to uphold in your distinguished careers. Representatives for Paramount declined to comment on the letter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Owens resigned from 60 Minutes in April, telling staff in a memo that he lost the ability to make independent decisions. Meanwhile, McMahon resigned earlier this month, saying in a memo to staff that its become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward. She described the tension between herself and Paramount as challenging. Though neither referenced the Trump lawsuit directly, both executives had previously expressed opposition to a settlement. Trumps lawsuit takes aim at the news programs Oct. 7 interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump has said was deceptively edited to make her look good. CBS News has maintained that Trumps accusations of deceitful editing were false, explaining that the promo shown on Face the Nation used a longer section of Harris answer. It also turned over the transcript and camera footage from the interview to the FCC as part of the agencys investigation into allegations of news distortion. In a March filing to dismiss the Trump suit, CBS called it an affront to the First Amendment and without basis in law or fact. In a Wednesday legal filing asking the court to deny Paramounts motion to dismiss, Trumps attorneys claimed that the interview caused him mental anguish and confusion. They also said that viewers withheld attention from President Trump and Truth Social, his social media platform, due to the false advertising and tampering tied to the Harris interview, resulting in a decrease in value for Trump Media and Technology Group and his other media holdings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump recently shot down Paramounts offer to settle the lawsuit for $15 million, with the president aiming to get at least $25 million and an apology. In addition to the California State Senate, Democratic senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden issued a similar warning to Redstone earlier this month. The Paramount-Skydance merger, which is subject to regulatory approval from the FCC due to a required transfer of broadcast licenses of Paramounts 28 owned-and-operated local TV stations, recently triggered its first automatic 90-day extension after failing to close by April 7. FCC chairman Brendan Carr has argued that the settlement talks with Trump are unrelated to the agencys review of the Skydance deal. But he has warned that all options remain on the table in the agencys ongoing investigation into alleged news distortion, including potentially revoking CBS broadcast license if the network is found to have violated the agencys public interest standard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He has also previously threatened to block M&A for companies who embrace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and is reportedly seeking concessions in the Paramount-Skydance deal. Paramounts settlement talks come as Disney previously paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Donald Trump brought against ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos. Meta also paid $25 million to settle Trumps lawsuit about being kicked off Facebook and Instagram after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Semafor was the first to report the letter from the California Senate. The post California Senate Launches Paramount-Trump Settlement Talks Investigation, Invites Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon to Testify appeared first on TheWrap. A California state senator who Sacramento police accused of driving drunk after a car crash will not face criminal charges after lab results showed there were no traces of drugs or alcohol in her system, prosecutors announced Friday. Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) was cited on suspicion of DUI after police interviewed her at a Sacramento hospital, where she was being treated after a car crash near the Capitol on May 19. At the hospital, Sacramento police questioned the state senator for hours and concluded she showed signs of intoxication and cited her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But in a statement, prosecutors said they reviewed all of the evidence, police reports, witness statements and laboratory results presented by police and decided not to charge her. Cervantes, 37, a first-year state senator, represents the 31st Senate District, which covers portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and previously served in the state Assembly. "Based on our ethical duty and the burden of proof in a criminal trial, the Sacramento County DAs Office declines to file any charges in this case," the Sacramento County district attorney's office said in a statement. Prosecutors received the toxicology results from a blood sample taken after the crash that tested negative for "any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs," according to a statement from the district attorney's office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As I stated from the beginning, I did absolutely nothing wrong and the Sacramento District Attorneys Office has now affirmed as much," Cervantes said in a statement Friday. "While my name was cleared, this ordeal was entirely unnecessary. It has also caused my family and me enormous stress and pain. No one deserves this." Cervantes' dealings with Sacramento law enforcement began after her SUV was T-boned by another vehicle. She left the scene around 1:30 p.m. and received a ride to a hospital, where police eventually showed up and questioned her. The officers who interviewed Cervantes said she refused a field sobriety test and they "observed objective signs that led them to believe she may have been impaired while operating a motor vehicle," the department said in a statement. Cervantes strenuously denied driving while impaired after news of her citation became known. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The accusation that I was driving under the influence is utterly false, she said in a statement after the citation. The Sacramento Police Departments accusations are unjust and hold no truth. Cervantes' office then released redacted medical records from her treatment at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Sacramento. She said the report shows there was no alcohol or drugs in her system. Her vital signs and behavior were not irregular either, she said. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Calls have been made for a campervan tax in the Scottish Highlands amid claims that roads cannot cope with increased tourist traffic. A Scottish Labour candidate for Inverness and Nairn for next years Holyrood election has floated the idea of a tourist tax that specifically targets campervans being driven in the area. The candidate, Shaun Fraser, said that roads can no longer handle the surge of traffic in the Highlands, much of which is on the popular driving route, the North Coast 500 (NC500). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tourists flock to the 516-mile superloop each year to drive among some of Scotlands most magnificent scenery as it weaves past glens, mountains, castles and coastline. The NC500 follows the main roads along the coastal edges of the North Highlands of Scotland, through Wester Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Easter Ross, the Black Isle and Inverness-shire. Motorhome tourism has become popular along this route, with campervans making it easy to stop in off-grid locations with the essentials they need when shops or accommodation become scarce. The Highland Council estimated that nearly 36,000 campervans toured the historic and mountainous region in 2022 alone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, with the surge in visitors has come an uptick in complaints from local residents over damaged verges, blocked passing spaces and overfilled bins, The Herald reported. Mr Fraser told the newspaper he wants to see a campervan tax introduced that would form part of a fair and well-designed visitor levy to help maintain roads and boost public services. The Labour candidate continued: Tourism is a key aspect of the Highland economy, and it is important that we are sensitive the the introduction of such a scheme, but there has been a 65 per cent increase in tourist numbers since 2012 and local infrastructure has not kept up with these demands. Initiatives such as the North Coast 500 have transformed the dynamics of Highland tourism, with a huge rise in campervans using rural single-track Highland roads. Our roads cannot cope with this. It is a mixed blessing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I would be open to looking at options attached to campervans, including number plate recognition to charge visiting campervans using Highland roads. Proposals for tourist taxes are not unheard of in the Highlands, as the Highland Council have already started a consultation process of introducing a visitor levy in the region. The Highlands are joined by Scotlands two major cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, in working their way through consultations to introduce a visitor levy. The Visitor Levy Act became law in September 2024, which allows councils in Scotland to tax overnight accommodation if they wish to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Glasgow is still making its way through the consultation stage, Edinburgh voted in January to add a five per cent surcharge on visitors overnight stays by 2026. The Highland Councils visitor levy proposal would also see a charge that would apply to overnight accommodation to improve infrastructure, such as roads and public toilets, that incur wear and tear due to tourism. With more than six million people visiting the picturesque Highlands annually, the Highland Council calculated the tax could bring in between 5m and 10m a year. If approved, the Highlands tourist tax could also be implemented by 2026. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast Youd think a president whod endured two assassination attempts would be especially sensitive to the potential threats that other public officials face. Not Donald Trump. Worse, he stokes threats against others. So it was that, just after 7 a.m. on Monday, Memorial Day, the commander in chief thumbed out 174 words on his cellphone, not one of which paid tribute to Americans who lost their lives in service to the nation. No, Trump addressed his Happy Memorial Day greeting (who says that?) to all, including the scum trying to destroy our country. His all-capitalized screed (Im dispensing with the caps) made clear whom he meant: as usual, predecessor and punching bag Joe Biden (an incompetent president), but mainly federal judges including some of his own appointees whove overwhelming been ruling against his power grabs in numerous lawsuits involving tariffs, federal spending, appointments, retribution against law firms and universities and migrant deportations. Read more: Calmes: The 'One Big Beautiful Bill' is a big, ugly mess Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Referring specifically to judges whove put the brakes on his lawless efforts to disappear untold noncitizens to foreign prisons and detention centers, Trump wrote that these USA hating judges are on a mission to keep murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members, and released prisoners from all over the world, in our country so they can rob, murder, and rape again. Theyre monsters who want our country to go to hell. And were debating Bidens stability and mental acuity? Such unhinged attacks, more pronounced than Trumps anti-courts tirades of past years, must not be dismissed as simply Trump being Trump. Yes, hes undermining Americans faith in the judicial system. But the danger is more immediate. The day after Trumps Memorial Day diatribe, a New York Times story led with this: Threats against federal judges have risen drastically since President Trump took office. In that time, not only Trump but also his vice president, attorney general and other suck-ups in his administration and Congress have regularly leveled broadsides against judges, often by name, and called for their impeachments. Its hardly unthinkable that unstable Trump supporters could take matters into their own hands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Calmes: Will the Qatar gift to Trump fly? Certainly some judges find it thinkable. Another disturbing, too-little-noted report appeared days earlier in the Wall Street Journal: Federal judges are considering forming their own armed security force. Why would they do that, you might ask, given that the judiciary receives protection from the U.S. Marshals Service? Well, federal marshals report to Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, a Trump loyalist whos damned as deranged the judges whove had the temerity to rule against him. Thats left some wondering whether they cant rely on marshals for their security. Some jurists reportedly took their concerns all the way to Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The Marshals Service itself was the source for the New York Times report on threats to judges, though its data were given to the newspaper by a federal jurist who, tragically, knows worse than threats: U.S. District Judge Esther Salas of New Jersey. In 2020, Salas 20-year-old son was killed and her husband critically injured in their home by bullets that a disturbed lawyer intended for her a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama, the attorney had written . Salas said federal marshals have told her of 103 instances in which unknown persons lately sent pizzas to judges. Message: We know where you live. Ghoulishly, 20 were delivered in her dead sons name. On Wednesday, she was on MSNBC begging, pleading for political leaders who disagree with judicial rulings to do so responsibly, to quit villainizing us. Salas didnt name Trump she didnt have to but J. Michael Luttig , a former federal appeals court judge who appeared alongside her, didnt hold back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Calmes: It's all Trump's economy now Luttig, a conservative luminary who was on President George W. Bushs short list for the Supreme Court, called on Chief Justice Roberts to condemn the invective against judges more forcefully and pointedly than he has to date . Roberts problem, Luttig suggested, is that to condemn it is to condemn the president of the United States. As far as I'm concerned, so be it. Yes, so be it. Other administration actions are unnerving judges. In April federal agents arrested a Wisconsin judge for allegedly obstructing their apprehension of an unauthorized immigrant appearing in her courtroom a warning to other officials, Bondi underscored, not to interfere in the administrations immigration crackdown. Also, Trump has taken whats been bipartisan abuse of a presidents pardon power to new heights, discarding the evidence-based convictions of judges and juries scores of times already, not counting his Day 1 clemency orders for nearly 1,600 rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Calmes: The 'USA' brand was 250 years in the making. It took just 100 days to trash it Just this week, in what the Washington Post called a clemency spree, Trump pardoned , among others: a MAGA-backing Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery (dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ, Trump claimed) . A former reality TV couple sentenced for tax evasion and massive bank fraud (Both prosecutors were Democrats, their daughter, who spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, told Fox News). A former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes and bilking employees (his mother recently dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, for a $1-million donation. And a former Republican member of Congress convicted of corruption, the ninth party lawmaker to be so favored. Meanwhile, the president was provoked to new rage, this time by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade. Appointees of Presidents Obama, Reagan and, yes, Trump on Wednesday unanimously found that his signature tariff orders exceed any authority granted to the President. (An appeals court on Thursday temporarily stayed the ruling, leaving tariffs in place while litigation proceeds.) Is it purely a hatred of TRUMP?, Trump fulminated on social media late Thursday about the decision of the backroom Hustlers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No, its simply three judges respect for the law. These days, that requires more courage than ever. @jackiekcalmes Get the latest from Jackie Calmes Commentary on politics and more from award-winning opinion columnist. Sign me up. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. CAMILLA Three city of Camilla officials, including Mayor Kelvin Owens, Election Superintendent Rhunette Williford and City Clerk Cheryl Ford, were arrested on Wednesday on election interference and other charges, the same day a Mitchell County Grand Jury returned an indictment against them. The Grand Jury handed down the 13-count indictment on Wednesday in relation to a November special election for an unexpired Camilla City Council seat that was ultimately won by council member Azalee Vereen. The arrests follow a lengthy legal case over two former city council members who were ruled ineligible to serve because they could not prove they were residents of Camilla. No bond hearing had been held in the case as of Thursday afternoon, and all three suspects remained at the Mitchell County Jail as of noon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The November election was a memorable one for residents as it saw polls remain open until 4 a.m. on Nov. 5. The special election initially was cancelled following the resignations of Ford and Williford on the previous day, leaving no one to open the polling place in downtown Camilla. However, a judge appointed new election workers on Election Day, and the polls opened shortly before 4 p.m., remaining open for the required 12 hours. The Nov. 4 general election was held separately from the city special election and was unaffected by the snafu with the city. In the first count of the indictment, Owens is charged with interference with elections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mayor is accused of willfully (attempting) to prevent a poll officer from holding an election by instructing the citys police chief to post officers outside the polling place to prevent poll officers and voters from entering the building, according to the indictment. Owens also is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud. In those indictments, he is accused of conspiring with Ford and Williford. In furthering this conspiracy, the indictment said, Owens canceled the election during a Nov. 4 meeting, instructed employees to remove election signage indicating where polls were located and personally placed a sign at the polling place announcing the cancellation. Ford was indicted on three counts of interference with elections, conspiracy to commit election fraud and two counts of failure of a public officer to perform their duty. She is accused of resigning her position the day prior to the election in order to prevent voting from occurring, attempting to prevent a poll officer from holding an election and of failing to post signage stating that any ballots cast for Ventarra Pollard would not be counted due to his ineligibility to run for office in the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pollard, along with former council member Corey Morgan, were initially ruled ineligible to run for office in July 2023 by a senior Superior Court judge from outside the South Georgia Judicial Circuit, a decision that was upheld in 2024 by the Georgia Court of Appeals. Williford was indicted on two counts of interference with elections, conspiracy to commit election fraud and failure of a public officer to perform her duties. She is accused of resigning her position the day prior to the election in order to prevent poll workers and voters from entering the polling place and in furtherance of the conspiracy to prevent the election from proceeding as scheduled. The investigation was initiated at the request of South Georgia Judicial Circuit Judge Joseph Mulhollaind on Dec. 2, 2024, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced in a press release on Thursday. The agency presented its investigative findings to Mulhollands office prior to the district attorneys presentation of the case to the Grand Jury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a previous interview with The Albany Herald, Owens said that he, Pollard and Morgan, along with council member Raimond Burley, represented the citys first progressive black voting block and that this had upset some within the city. Two Camilla residents filed a lawsuit in November 2022 challenging the residency of Pollard and Morgan. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 30. A bilateral online meeting was held between representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Finance of the Peoples Republic of China to discuss the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Development Bank, Trend reports. Uzbekistan was represented by Shukhrat Matkarimov, Deputy Director of the Department of International Relations, while Chinas delegation was led by Zhang Bo, Deputy General Director of the Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation. Throughout the deliberations, both stakeholders engaged in an exhaustive analysis of the proposed framework, governance structures, principal domains of operation, and funding modalities for the forthcoming financial entity slated for establishment. Uzbekistan underscored that this initiative will act as a crucial nexus for enhancing investment collaboration within the SCO paradigm, streamline regional infrastructure endeavors, and foster sustainable economic advancement. Subsequent to the convening, both parties reached a consensus to perpetuate dialogues at the echelon of pertinent ministries and SCO specialists to further propel the initiative. In the interim, the bilateral trade volume between Uzbekistan and China surpassed the $13 billion threshold in the preceding fiscal year, with both nations articulating a robust optimism towards achieving the aspirational $20 billion benchmark established by their respective leaderships. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) The Camp Fire burning near Fort Stanton in Lincoln County, New Mexico, remains at 877 acres with an increase in containment of 76 percent, fire officials said on Thursday, May 29, in a news release. Camp Fire in Lincoln County now 70% contained The brush fire ignited on Sunday, May 25, but the cause has not been determined. Fort Stanton is about 30 miles northeast of Ruidoso. The New Mexico State Forestry Division said that command of the fire, which started on Sunday, will transfer from the Pecos Zone Type-3 Incident Command Team to the Bureau of Land Management on Friday, May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, it rained in the fire area, which is helping to extinguish any remaining hot spots, the Forestry Division said. The Forestry Division said containment continues to increase, and firefighters will continue to patrol and monitor the area for several more days. The following list shows closed and reopened areas near the fire, according to the Forestry Division: Open Highway 220 Fort Stanton Cave Campground The Fort Stanton Historical Site Rob Jaggers Campground Closed West Mesa Road, Red Tank Road and associate dispersed camping areas The surrounding BLM land will remain closed as crews continue their work in the area Closed Trails Fort Stanton North Trail Fort Stanton South Trail Deer Valley Trail Kit Carson Loop Rio Bonito Trail Pershing Trail Mustang Trail Antelope Gap Trail Elk Meadow Trail Skyline Trail Capitan Overlook Trail Buffalo Soldier Trail Open Trails Trails on the east side of Highway 220 are open. This includes: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homestead Trail and Trail Access Loop East Mesa Trail Cave Canyon Trail East Well Trail Zamora Trail Cedar Crest Trail Lincoln Trail In addition, BLM Roswell District, Lincoln County, and the NM Forestry Division are all under fire restrictions or a burn ban. Campfires of any kind (wood, charcoal, wood stoves), chainsaw use, smoking outdoors, operating motorized vehicles off designated roads, and outdoor welding are all prohibited, the Forestry Division said. For more fire restrictions information visit 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 KTSM 9 News. NEW YORK New York City mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams on Friday qualified for just over $2 million in public matching funds Friday, while front-runner Andrew Cuomo was hit with a $675,000 penalty for improperly coordinating with a super PAC. The news out of the New York City Campaign Finance Board meeting was critical for Adams, whose late entrance into the race has been hampered by her low name recognition and insufficient funds. Shes the only major candidate in the race yet to air TV ads ahead of the June 24 Democratic primary. As of last week, Adams had raised $521,000 and transferred $219,000 from a previous campaign account. Shed spent $445,528, leaving her with just $293,994 not nearly enough to air ads. Fridays cash infusion gives her the funds necessary to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "With these funds, the campaign anticipates an aggressive, on-the-ground and over-the-airwaves blitz in the final stretch as momentum continues to build for Adriennes effective leadership, spokesperson Lupe Todd-Medina said in a statement. The board meanwhile fined the former governor for the second time this campaign cycle, charging that his campaign improperly coordinated with a super PAC backing him. The board fined Cuomo $622,056 two weeks ago over a commercial the PAC aired on Cuomos behalf, which the board suspected was created via improper coordination with the campaign. On Friday, board member Richard Davis noted the PAC, Fix the City, spent a further $675,000 to continue airing the ad in question even after the first penalty. As a result, the board withheld that amount in public funds from the Cuomo team and also counted it against his spending cap another embarrassing setback for a candidate running on his management bona fides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The board will continue to investigate the issue, he said. The CFBs decision brings the total fines levied against Cuomos campaign for improper coordination to around $1.3 million, a significant sum that will hamper his ability to run a fully functional campaign. Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi disputed the board's findings and maintained the campaign has had no improper contact with Fix the City. "We look forward to making that clear and receiving the full matching funds to which the campaign is entitled," he said in a statement. At Fridays meeting, the board also awarded Cuomo $1.8 million in matching funds, which will be added to the $3.5 million he had on hand as of last week. CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the amount of matching funds awarded to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Wildfire smoke is pouring into the Midwest from Canada as dozens of fires burn north of the border. Let's get you caught up on all the latest information: Where Is The Biggest Risk Right Now? Since the upper Midwest is closest to the fires burning in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, upper-level winds are blowing the thick smoke southward. This has prompted air quality alerts for the entire state of Wisconsin on Friday, as well as parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Minnesota. (MORE: Here's What Wildfire Smoke Does To Your Body) Chicago residents could also experience degraded air quality as the smoke pushes southward. Where The Smoke Could Invade Next From weather.com senior digital meteorologist Chris Dolce: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The image below shows near-surface smoke on Saturday afternoon this is the kind of smoke that can be unhealthy to breathe since it's at the lower levels. As you can see, the greatest concentrations of that will be in the Midwest and Northern Plains today through this weekend. However, some of it is modeled in a less concentrated fashion into the South and East this weekend: This animation shows that a much larger area will see smoke aloft that is not necessarily an air quality concern, but will lead to hazy skies and orange/red sunrises and sunsets. That is spreading into the Midwest now and will head into the South and East this weekend. As you can see, this is a much larger area, but areas that overlap with near-surface smoke have the greatest air quality concerns in the Midwest and Northern Plains: A pattern change later Monday into Tuesday will turn winds out of the south in the central U.S. ahead of a cold front coming from the West. That means relief from smoky skies and air quality issues should at least temporarily arrive as the smoke is pushed northward into Canada and away from the U.S. How To Check Air Quality On The Weather Channel App - Make sure you have the latest version of The Weather Channel app if you don't, head to your phone's app store and download/update it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement - Locate the pill that displays lifestyle options like "Allergies," "Cold & Flu" and "Skin Health." Locate the button that says "Breathing" and tap on it to load our Breathing module. - Scroll down to "Today's Biggest Impacts" and the air quality index will load. You'll also find other important information in that module. The Latest From Canada Thick wildfire smoke rises from a forest in the distance Some 17,000 residents in Manitoba remain under evacuation orders as wildfires have spread in the province, and also into Saskatchewan, BBC.com reported. "The conditions that our northern residents, communities and wildland firefighters are facing today are as severe or quite likely unlike anything we have faced in quite some time, if not ever," Scott Moe, Premier of Saskatchewan, told BBC.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A state of emergency is in effect in Manitoba and more than 80 fires have been deemed "out of control" in Canada. The entire town of Flin Flon, Manitoba, was ordered to evacuate; about 5,000 people live in the city. As the fires grew, some residents in Saskatchewan have also been ordered to evacuate their homes. According to the Associated Press: "Canadas wildfire season runs May through September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months." Editors note: This clip is from May 28, 2025 MISSOURI Various wildfires are currently burning in Canada, prompting many in the impacted areas to evacuate from their homes. Although the state of Missouri is thousands of miles away from Canada, the smoke from the wildfires is expected to hit the Midwest by the end of this week. FOX 2 meteorologists predict this weekend in St. Louis that the skies may be a bit hazy due to the ongoing fires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Smoke from the wildfires in Canada is expected to get caught in the jet stream and head south across the border, eventually hitting the Mississippi River Valley. Despite possibilities of a gray weekend, the smoke will likely remain high in the atmosphere, creating a hazy presence. The smoky atmosphere can also make an orange and red sunset over the weekend. 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. (WGN/NEXSTAR) Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada is expected to cast a haze over the skies and diminish air quality in parts of the U.S. over the coming days. There are roughly 160 wildfires currently burning across Canada, the majority of which are out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC). The high-intensity fires, scattered throughout the country from the Northwest Territories through Ontario, have prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents. The CIFFC also said the countrys National Preparedness Level has been raised to a 5 its highest level meaning wide mobilization of firefighters and requests for help from outside of Canada. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The wildfires are also sending smoke down into the U.S., affecting the air quality in much of the country by the end of the weekend. Group of Chicago firefighters, EMTs honored for saving childs life A forecast from the National Weather Service says visible surface smoke will begin creeping into the Midwest and Plains regions Friday before expanding to the East Coast and as far down as Texas and Georgia by Sunday. How bad it gets, however, depends on location. A reduction in air quality, as well as reduced visibility, is expected in the Chicagoland area through the weekend, Nexstars WGN reported. Air quality alerts and advisories had also been issued for parts of Michigan, Minnesota, and state-wide in Wisconsin. Over the next few days, hazy skies and elevated levels of fine particle pollution (PM2.5) will likely result in poor air quality conditions in much of the state, the Wisconsin DNR predicted Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Forecasts for other parts of the country can be found at AirNow.gov, a resource spearheaded by the Environmental Protection Agency. Smoke from climate-fueled wildfires contributed to thousands of deaths over 15 years: Study Canadas Manitoba province, meanwhile, has declared a state of emergency over the wildfires, which have put more than 17,000 residents under evacuation orders. The military has also been called in to help fight the blazes, which have cropped up faster in 2025 than in previous years. Researchers say the increase in wildfire activity is driven by climate change. Such fires have also contributed to about 15,000 deaths from exposure to smoke particulates in the U.S. between 2006 and 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These particles can lodge deep into lungs and trigger coughing and itchy eyes with short-term exposure. But longer term they can make existing health problems worse and lead to a range of chronic and deadly health issues. Children, pregnant people, the elderly and outdoor workers are among the most vulnerable. Were seeing a lot more of these wildfire smoke events, said Nicholas Nassikas, a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who co-authored a recent study on the subject. What does it really mean in a changing environment for things like mortality, which is kind of the worst possible health outcome? 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 The Hill. Choking smoke billowing from deadly wildfires in Canada is heading toward the U.S. this weekend. Forecasters in multiple states warned residents to expect degraded air quality and reduced visibility. Smoke from wildfires in Canada is expected to overspread portions of central Illinois during today. This may result in reduced visibility at times and contribute to health concerns for people that are unusually sensitive to air pollution, the National Weather Service in Lincoln said in a post on social media. Wildfire smoke has already shut down highways in Canada due to reduced visibility. Now, U.S. forecasters are warning residents about similar conditions as it blows over the border and to the southeast (BC Wildfire Service/Facebook) Just under three hours away, the city of Chicago which was recently hit with a historic dust storm is also expected to see impacts, as well as more storms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wyoming, and Iowa offices also told residents to prepare for hazy skies and the smell of smoke. "Most of the time, the smoke will be high-flying and dim the sun, leading to vivid sunrises and sunsets and causing a hazy appearance to the sky overhead," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said in a statement. The advisories come just under two years since smoke from Canadas worst fire season on record turned New York City an eerie burnt orange. This year, the smoke is being guided by steering winds that are blowing it to the southeast. Smoke from Canadas worst fire season filled New York City skies in June 2023. Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of such fires (Getty) Wildfires produce a mix of pollutants and particle pollution, which is also referred to as particulate matter. PM 2.5, which is considered to be a carcinogen, is the air pollutant of greatest concern to public health from wildfire smoke. It can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The health effects of this pollution can range from eye and throat irritation to heart failure and premature death. It may impact the bodys ability to remove viruses or bacteria from the lungs. Even short-term exposures are linked to an increased risk of exacerbation of pre-existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, recent research has found that PM.25 can have health effects for up to three months after exposure. Even brief exposures from smaller fires that last only a few days can lead to long-lasting health effects, said Dr. Yaguang Wei, an assistant professor of environmental medicine at Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine. Massive fire growth in Canada is being driven by hot temperatures and arid conditions. More than 700,00 acres have burned since the years start (BC Wildfire Service/Facebook) The recent threat comes as massive blazes burning across Canada have killed two people and forced the evacuations of thousands. On Thursday, the province of Manitoba declared a state of emergency. There are 175 active wildfires and 12 that cropped up on Friday. Since the years start, more than 700,000 acres have gone up in flames. The pre-summer fires come following the second-worst fire season of the century. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025 fires have also been fueled by climate change-driven heat. In Manitoba, temperatures have exceeded the average by as much as 22 to 24.3 degrees, according to nonprofit Climate Central. As heat builds in from the western U.S. next week, AccuWeather said that the hot air and any lingering smoke may also lead to ozone issues over a broad area of the north-central region. "Most of these areas in the Midwest will have days where there is little or no rain around and the sun is out over the weekend. So the smoke will be more noticeable," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said. "The smoke may reach into the Northeast as well, but with extensive clouds and showers this weekend, the smoky haze may be mixed in and not so obvious." SPRINGFIELD Plaintiffs growing, selling and delivering legal marijuana in Massachusetts now have two court decisions against them, but arent giving up. They seek to overturn a federal law they say strangles their business. They were turned back last week by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. But plaintiffs say their fight against the Richard Nixon-era Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is not over. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is fair to assume that we shall seek Supreme Court review, wrote one of their attorneys, Jonathan D. Schiller of the firm Boies Schiller Flexner. The plaintiffs include Canna Provisions, with stores in Holyoke and Lee; Wiseacre Farms, which grows cannabis in West Stockbridge; Gyasi Sellers, of Springfield, which delivers cannabis; and Verano Holdings Inc. based in Chicago. That company owns Zen Leaf Enfield, at 98 Elm St., in Enfield, Connecticut. The plaintiffs say the 1970 law is an overreach and prevents them from making use of banking services and bankruptcy protection available to most businesses. The U.S. Supreme Court receives 7,000 to 8,000 petitions each term, but hears only about 80 cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Boies in the firms name is that of David Boies, who represented former U.S. Vice President Al Gore during the recount controversy against President George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election. Boies argued in person when the case came before U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni in Springfield a year ago. The judge ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Justice and upheld the Controlled Substances Act. The companies appealed to the First Circuit and a three-judge panel ruled Tuesday, once again in favor of the government. The plaintiffs declined further comment. They sued in 2023, saying that with states legalizing cannabis for recreational use, the 1970 federal law exceeds Congressional power. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Making their argument, the companies reached back into history showing that marijuana predates the U.S. Constitution. Each of the thirteen original colonies enacted laws concerning marijuana then known simply as hemp some of which encouraged (or even required) colonists to grow marijuana, the suit read. Even the Magna Carta of 1215 created rights concerning hemp cultivation and sometimes even made the cultivation of hemp compulsory. But the appeals judges were unmoved, saying that if left unregulated, the trade in marijuana within states would impact interstate commerce. And Congress has the right to regulate interstate commerce. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a practical matter, federal law makes it harder for marijuana companies to lease farm land for fear of losing federal agricultural supports or to do banking or borrow money. The Massachusetts marijuana industry does $1 billion a year in sales, according to data kept by the Cannabis Control Commission. Commission data says marijuana retails for $125 an ounce these days, down from $416 in 2020. Ryan Dominguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition trade association, said 30 Massachusetts cannabis businesses closed in the last year. Regulation is expensive, he said. And every neighboring state except New Hampshire has legalized recreational marijuana. Many of those states have tailored their laws such as limits on how much customers can buy in one transaction to compete with Massachusetts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal law means none of them can take federal tax deductions, he said. And if they want to go out of business, they cant claim bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy issue is something the lawsuit could fix if it reaches the Supreme Court, Dominguez said. A lot of these people would have to declare personal bankruptcy, he said. And that means they would lose personal assets in addition to the business. Stories by Jim Kinney Read the original article on MassLive. As Californias employee classification law, AB5, gains legal ground, ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach could soon see major shifts in how independent owner-operators do business. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) California Court Stirs the Pot on Lease-On Model If youre leased on under someone elses authority and operating in or around California or even just watching the legal landscape pay attention. A ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just gave Californias AB5 law a major boost, making it even harder for trucking companies to classify drivers as independent contractors. The court sided with the state, saying theres nothing illegal about enforcing the law across the trucking industry even though it directly conflicts with how the lease-on model has worked for decades. Why this matters: AB5 uses whats called the ABC Test to decide if a worker is truly independent. And most leased-on owner-operators dont pass the test especially the part that says the worker must do something outside the core business of the company. (Hauling freight is the core business.) That means, in California, leased-on drivers might be forced to become employees or risk being deemed misclassified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This ruling could put serious heat on carriers that rely on lease-on contractors in California. And while this specific case was about one company, the courts message was loud and clear: Enforcement is fair game, and state labor laws can override how the trucking model is traditionally operated. What happens next? The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association might push this to the Supreme Court, but so far, no green light. If this stands, it opens the door for stricter enforcement, back-pay lawsuits and fines for companies not in line with AB5. What small carriers and leased-on O/Os need to do right now: If youre leased on : Start looking at your options. Running under your own authority may offer more protection long term if AB5-style rules spread to other states. If you run a small fleet using leased on drivers : Talk to a compliance attorney. Make sure you understand how this law could impact your operation especially if youre doing business in California. Watch for ripple effects: Other states could follow suit, especially New Jersey, New York and Illinois all of which have flirted with similar rules. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This potentially isnt just a California issue anymore. This could reshape how independent trucking operates across the country. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) Trade Court Tariff Ruling Put on Hold But Its Far from Over On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that President Donald Trumps sweeping import tariffs overstepped constitutional boundaries, briefly delivering a hard stop to one of the most aggressive trade maneuvers in decades. But the legal drama was just getting started. On Thursday, a federal appeals court stayed the trade court ruling temporarily. Depending on the final legal outcome, we could see the beginning of a major shift in the freight economy. So what happened? The trade court decided that the White House cant use emergency powers to impose broad tariffs without congressional approval specifically targeting the Trump-era global import tax that hit nearly every U.S. trading partner. The ruling also blocked a set of retaliatory tariffs aimed at China, Mexico and Canada. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit weighed in, staying the trade court order, and many legal experts agree the case is heading to the Supreme Court. If the high court ultimately sides with the trade court rather than the appeals court, thousands of small importers could be in line for massive refunds plus interest. Now, what does that mean for the freight market? If the tariffs are pulled back permanently or suspended during appeals, expect to see some key effects: More imports, more volume . Lower duties mean more goods flowing through ports, intermodal hubs and distribution centers. That spells opportunity for carriers running out of the ports or pulling freight from warehouse zones like Savannah, LA/Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, and Chicago. Spot market momentum . If manufacturing and retail sectors get tariff relief, shippers may surge back into the market to replenish inventory or accelerate imports. This could temporarily boost available loads on high-traffic lanes. Fuel for a potential rate lift. Increased freight demand paired with rising tender rejection rates weve seen in recent weeks could finally start to tip the rate scales in favor of carriers, especially if capacity continues to tighten. Heres what to watch: Legal delays . The appeals process will drag out. If this reaches the Supreme Court, a final decision could be months away so dont expect immediate change. Border ops . For now, U.S. Customs is still collecting tariffs until told otherwise. But brokers and importers are already adjusting contract terms in anticipation of future refunds or reversals. Shipper sentiment. Some shippers are already reevaluating their long-term pricing and sourcing strategies. If they believe these tariffs wont stick, theyll start planning freight moves more aggressively and that means load boards could heat up faster than usual. Bottom line: This isnt just a courtroom technicality its a potential freight catalyst. Small carriers should pay attention to trade headlines, because this could lead to more volume, more stability and stronger lanes. But until the final gavel falls, stay cautious. Legal moves this big dont play out overnight. (Source: SONAR Spot Rate Changes Over Last 4 Days (Van TRAC Map). Blue markets are showing above-average rate increases, especially in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and South Central regions. Red zones are still cooling.) Where the Numbers Are Pointing Now Despite the noise suggesting a turnaround, the real data tells us were still stuck in a holding pattern. Volume and rates may have seen temporary bumps, but capacity just isnt leaving the market fast enough to tip the scales. Instead of the large-scale exits that would tighten supply and drive up pricing power, were seeing a trickle of new entrants still flowing in and thats keeping competition stiff for small carriers trying to survive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So what does that mean? It means were in a grind-it-out season. No magic flip, no clean recovery. Just tactical execution and watching the data like a hawk. Lets unpack what the latest SONAR charts are showing us and why they might be the first signs of a market shift worth preparing for: (Chart: SONAR Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI.USA). Freight volumes are holding steady above 9,319, signaling strong tender activity from shippers even as the market navigates volatility.) We saw a meaningful 1.8% bump in tender volumes this week. Thats notable. But it needs context. Tender volumes are still down compared to seasonal expectations, and even with this increase, were not yet in peak season mode. The spike could reflect a mix of delayed Memorial Day freight, rebalancing or just a short-term burst of demand. Either way, its movement and movement matters. For small carriers, this is where you need to be watching your lane activity. Look for trends in your region are tenders climbing? Are brokers calling you instead of the other way around? This volume bump means some areas are seeing freight flow again, and you need to be first to spot it. (Chart: SONAR Outbound Tender Rejection Index (OTRI.USA). Tender rejections have climbed to 6.68%, marking a continued shift in carrier behavior and signaling increased pressure on spot market rates.) Tender rejections are creeping back up and that matters more than most folks realize. A rate near 7% isnt what wed call a tight market just yet, but its a strong signal that carriers are beginning to say no thanks to low-paying, inconvenient freight. The higher this number climbs, the more leverage shifts back toward the truck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the highest rejection rate weve seen in several weeks, and its not happening in isolation. Its part of a broader trend of tightening in key regions especially the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Texas. That tells us capacity is starting to push back, even if its not dropping off in droves. Takeaway for small carriers: If youre still taking whatever a broker throws your way, its time to reconsider. Use this as an opportunity to start building rate discipline. If youre hauling into one of the tightening regions, ask for more. Use language like, Look, rejections are up in this lane. I can take it, but not at that number. Keep it firm, not combative. Remember, the market is shifting and when it does, early movers make the most of it. You may not be able to flip every rate, but if you dont start flexing your pricing muscle now, youll be left behind when momentum really starts to turn. (Chart: SONAR National Truckload Index (NTI.USA). National truckload rates are sitting at $2.31 per mile. This is a slight decline over the past several days, just ahead of the summer shipping season.) After a brief rally earlier this month, national linehaul rates are easing back down to $2.31 per mile on the seven-day average, according to the SONAR National Truckload Index. We saw a nice post-Memorial Day lift likely driven by tighter holiday windows and carriers that sat out International Roadcheck but it didnt stick. The dip were seeing now tells a clear story: Spot shippers were willing to bump up rates temporarily, but in the long run, theyre still in the drivers seat when it comes to negotiating power. The broader market hasnt tightened enough to create lasting upward pressure just yet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What does that mean for small carriers? Its a reminder that were still operating in a shipper-favored environment. You might get lucky on a few loads, especially if youre running into hotter regions, but dont treat these bumps as the new norm. Protect your margins by doubling down on the controllables accessorials like detention time, layover pay, TONU (Truck Order Not Used) and fuel surcharges can make the difference between profit and breakeven on tighter runs. Start tracking your weekly averages across core lanes and be aggressive with follow-up negotiations. Every penny matters right now. (Chart: SONAR Carrier Details Net Changes In Trucking Authorities). Capacity remains sticky. The market isnt bleeding out yet, as small net gains in carrier authorities suggest stabilization instead of contraction.) This is the one to keep your eye on not because its explosive, but because its telling a deeper story that most folks will miss. At a glance, a net positive gain in carrier authorities might feel like a good sign. But in reality, its a red flag when were trying to signal a capacity correction. A healthy recovery for small carriers means less competition, not more. And what were seeing here is that new entrants are still trickling into the market even in the middle of a freight recession. This isnt a flood like we saw in 2021 or early 2022, but its enough to stall meaningful upward rate pressure. If carriers arent leaving and new ones are still popping up, then pricing power stays diluted. More trucks fighting over the same or even fewer loads. This is where we need to start thinking about supply and demand, not just in terms of freight volume, but in terms of how many competitors are left in the room. Every new MC that goes active adds noise to the rate negotiation process, keeps the load board crowded and makes it harder to get consistency. This is the bottleneck thats holding rates back from a true rebound. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Takeaway for small carriers: Waiting for the market to tighten is no longer a strategy its a liability. Capacity isnt leaving fast enough to do the hard work for you. So the move now is to get sharper: Build out shipper/broker relationships, refine your value proposition, and focus on making your truck stand out when it counts. That means improving service levels, delivering on time, investing in communication tools, and showing brokers and customers that youre a reliable partner when others flake. You have to outlast but more importantly, you have to outsmart. This isnt a game of patience. Its a game of precision, and the ones who thrive are the ones who stop waiting for the economy to save them and start engineering their own edge. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) Used Truck Prices Just Jumped But Heres the Full Story If youre in the market for a used truck, or even thinking about unloading one, nows the time to pay attention. Auction prices for sleeper tractors surged in April especially for newer, low-mileage models. According to the latest data, 2023 model trucks went for nearly $97,000, up over 20% from just last month. Even older 4-to-6-year-old models saw a 30% price jump compared to this time last year. Thats not noise thats movement. Why It Matters to You This tells us two things: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fleets are buying again, especially when they can grab trucks with less than 300,000 miles. These buyers arent waiting around for the next EPA mandate or another rate spike. Inventory may be tightening, which means if youre holding on to a clean truck with reasonable miles, you have leverage. Dealers and auction houses are seeing stronger bidding and more competition which wasnt the case even a few months ago. And if youre still using a higher-mileage unit thats eating you alive on maintenance? That temporary pause on tariffs from China might help stabilize some parts costs, but new truck uncertainty still looms with 2027 emission rules in limbo. Average Hammer Price (3-to-6-Year-Old Sleepers): Prices spiked hard in April especially on 3-year-olds. This wasnt a one-month blip. When you zoom out, youll notice prices are still well above 2019 levels. If you have a late-model truck, its value might be higher than you think. Auction Volume of Used Sleepers (3-7 Years Old): While prices jumped, the number of trucks sold fell. Thats classic supply and demand. More buyers, fewer good trucks to sell = stronger pricing. But dont be fooled this isnt a long-term guarantee. If rates cool or macro demand weakens, pricing could level. Bottom Line for Owner-Ops and Small Fleets: Dont panic-buy, but do start comparing pricing if youre planning to scale or replace this summer. If your truck is clean, low-mileage and well-specced, you might get top dollar right now if you need to sell or trade. Keep in mind 2027 model pricing is already inflated due to emissions prep. Used might remain a smart move for the near future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lets keep it real: Higher prices at auction dont mean the market is back but they do show signs of life. And in a freight cycle like this, every signal counts. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) Tesla Semi Delays Again But Heres What It Really Means for Small Carriers Another quarter, another delay. Teslas long-promised electric Semi has once again been pushed back, with no firm date on when wider production will begin. According to an article by Thomas Wasson, only limited deliveries are expected this year, and most of those are earmarked for internal use by Tesla and hand-picked test customers. For most small carriers and owner-ops, this headline probably feels like a rerun. And in many ways, it is. Tesla made waves back in 2017 when it first unveiled the Semi, promising 500-mile range, rapid charging and a bold new vision for trucking. But seven years later, most fleets still havent touched one and may not for a while. So what does this delay actually mean? Heres the takeaway: EV adoption in heavy trucking is still crawling, especially outside of short-haul and drayage work. The infrastructure simply isnt there yet for most small carriers to switch without major disruption. The headlines outpace the reality. Theres a lot of noise about electric trucks, but the diesel rig in your yard still has more real-world uptime, easier access to fueling and a stronger repair network than any EV on the market. If youre running a smaller fleet, this is not your signal to pivot to electric. Its your reminder to stay focused on what you can control: fuel efficiency, preventative maintenance and managing your cost per mile. Tesla isnt alone in missing timelines. Even legacy OEMs with decades of fleet relationships (like Peterbilt and Volvo) have seen rollout delays due to battery sourcing, grid challenges and high production costs. And with the EPAs 2027 emissions standards still looming in limbo, the truth is the diesel-to-EV transition for heavy trucks is going to stretch well into the next decade. Bottom line? Keep an eye on the tech but dont let it distract you from building a strong, resilient business now. Theres opportunity for small carriers in this gap while the big guys play catch-up. Final Word Windows Dont Stay Open Forever This week wasnt filled with fireworks, but it carried real freight for the sharp carriers paying attention. A court ruling that could reshape the leased-on model. Another delay in Teslas long-promised Semi. Spot rates creeping upward while volume sputters and capacity refuses to exit stage left. These arent random headlines. Theyre signals. Were not in a boom. But were not in freefall either. This is what the freight middle looks like and the ones who thrive here are the ones who know how to work it. Maybe your margins are still tight. Maybe the load board still feels like a war zone. But if youve been watching the charts, reading the tea leaves and positioning yourself in the regions where freight is heating up youre already ahead. So heres your charge this week: Dont wait for a recovery. Operate like the recovery is already testing you. Every mile matters. Every rate negotiation counts. Every move should be strategic. Until next time stay focused, stay dangerous and keep your wheels turning. The post Capacity, courtrooms and caution whats really driving the market this week appeared first on FreightWaves. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A car sustained damage after striking a utility pole and storefront Thursday afternoon. According to the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, deputies were dispatched to the 3700 block of Salem Avenue for a crash around 4 p.m. 2 dead after motorcycle crash near Dayton airport Upon arrival, officials discovered a car traveling northbound on Salem Avenue struck a utility pole after the driver failed to maintain reasonable control of the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The car then left the roadway and struck the front of Genuine Auto Parts. The driver told first responders he was uninjured, and was issued a citation for the crash. Harrison Township Fire Department states the building received structural damage. 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. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. As residents return to the territories recently liberated in Azerbaijan, passenger transportation has increased significantly, supported by ongoing restoration and reconstruction efforts as well as existing road infrastructure, said Rahman Hummatov, Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport and head of the Working Group on Transport, Communications, and High Technologies at the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters, Trend reports. During a recent meeting, Hummatov pointed out that regular routes are running like clockwork in 11 directions, having whisked away 85,000 passengers to these destinations so far. Hummatov pointed out that a whopping 1.46 million requests for travel to the liberated territories by private vehicles have been given the green light through the official portal www.yolumuzqarabaga.az. In addition to the established routes to the cities of Shusha and Lachin and the settlement of Sugovushan, since May 20, 2025, the portal has enabled citizens to travel by private cars to the districts of Aghdam, Aghdara, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Khojaly, Khojavend, Zangilan, and Khankendi, the deputy minister said. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. The Carroll County Sheriffs Office (CCSO) says they arrested a man accused of defrauding a senior citizen of around $30,000. According to a social media post from CCSO, the elderly victim believed he had canceled his yearly subscription to Norton LifeLock online, but authorities believe the website he used was a scam and was made to imitate the actual Norton site. Wenyuan Song mugshot (Courtesy: Carroll County Sheriffs Office) Shortly after, the victim received a call from a suspect posing as a Norton representative. They said his bank account was charged a $300.00 fee and offered to help him with a refund. During the process, CCSO says the victim tried to type in $300.00, but because of a possible malfunction or trickery, the decimal point did not work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arkansas Supreme Court decides TikTok vs. Arkansas case will go forward, denies dismissal request The next day, the suspect claimed to the victim that $30,000 had been refunded and showed him a fake bank statement as proof. They then ordered the victim to withdraw $29,700, and another fake Norton agent collected that cash from his home, according to the social media post. A few days later, this scam happened again, with more cash being delivered. On May 21, Carroll County deputies were alerted by Equity Bank in Eureka Springs about this fraud case and learned the scammers were trying to execute the scam a third time to receive an additional $38,000 from the victim. Deputies conducted a two-day stakeout, which resulted in them catching a fake Norton agent at the victims home on May 22 at around 3:05 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect, Wenyuan Song, was taken into custody and has a federal hold. He is charged with three counts of felony theft and has a bond set at $100,000. 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. Nearly two weeks after a massive fire tore through a parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport, drivers with cars still trapped inside say theyre frustrated by the lack of answers. Zachary Willis is one of them. Its more just very annoying, Willis told Action News Jax. We dont know where to go. I dont know if I should be truck shopping, trying to contact my insurance. His truck is still stuck on the third level of the airports hourly garage, and despite the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) saying photos should be allowed, Willis said he hasnt been able to see the damage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< I know my vehicle is in the restricted area, Willis said. They were like, We dont have it registered. Until yesterday, when they said, Weve identified your tag. Im like, oh, thats interesting. Willis said the airport call center hasnt been much help, and communication has been inconsistent. According to the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, about 100 vehicles remain trapped inside the garage. An estimated 50 cars were damaged or burned in the fire. Some of the impacted drivers are now turning to legal help. Ive reviewed every single one of these cases thats come into the office, said Ryan Will, an attorney with Morgan & Morgan. He said the firm is representing about 20 clients affected by the fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What weve informed all of our clients is the statute of limitations in the state of Florida is two years, Will explained. The State Fire Marshal is working to determine the origin and the cause of the fire. Will said each case is different, and proving negligence will depend on the results of that investigation and what evidence is uncovered. Jacksonville City Councilmember and State Farm agent Matt Carlucci said his and his wifes vehicles were also in the garage but they were able to get them out last week. But a lot of people were not as lucky, Carlucci said. Hes encouraging drivers to contact their insurance providers now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Call your insurance company, Carlucci said. Say, Can we file a pre-claim? I think by now, if they havent gotten their car back, in all likelihood, they very well may have damage. The Jacksonville Aviation Authority has contacted most of the 700 vehicle owners affected but said it is still working to reach the remaining few. If your car was in the JIA garage, you can check its status or contact the airport for assistance by visiting flyjax.com. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (WNCT) Carteret Community Colleges new Crystal Coast Fire Academy has found its home for future trainees. County leaders, members of the Carteret Chamber and more all gathered at Beaufort Fire Station 2 Thursday, May 29, 2025, for the ribbon cutting on the new Crystal Coast Fire Academy. Carteret Community College has had a fire academy since 2008, but has had to utilize different fire departments to host classes for it consistently all over the county. Now, they have a centralized location to have those classes. Were delighted to have a space in this part of the county because not only will we be able to have a home for the fire academy, but well also be able to offer courses for people in this part of Carteret County who might not be able to get to Morehead City either because they dont have transportation or the time to go that far for classes, Carteret Community College President Tracy Mancini said. So, its going to be a win-win. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The official building at Beaufort Fire Station 2 gives all trainees a home base to consistently train at. It gives us a base to come to every night to start your academy while theyre in the four months of academy, Beaufort Fire Department Chief Tony Ray said. The emergency training facility is a mile-and-a-half right down the road. So, the classroom can begin here or practical work, they can go right down there. The academy provides many people in the area with an opportunity to serve their local communities and become a member of one of Carteret Countys many stations. Its an opportunity to partner with the college. Its an opportunity to provide for the community, Ray said. As I said earlier, this is workforce development which leads to career development, which leads to community and neighborhood development. As people leave here and go back here, their career may not be in Carteret County. We have people come from all over the state to attend across the Crystal Coast Fire Academy. For more information on the 18-week academy, click here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. New Orleans As the search continues for the last two New Orleans jail escapees who are still at large, several agencies have pitched in to increase the cash reward for information leading to their arrests. The reward has been hiked to $50,000 per escapee, authorities announced Thursday, a hefty increase from the $20,000 amount that had been in place for more than a week following the brazen May 16 escape of 10 inmates from the Orleans Justice Center. Eight of the 10 have been captured. One of the men still at large Derrick Groves was convicted of murder for the shooting deaths of Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson in 2024. The other escapee Antoine Massey was being held on charges of domestic abuse involving strangulation prior to the jailbreak. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Remaining 2 fugitives may have escaped Louisiana, official says Louisiana State Police Col. Robert Hodges said in a news conference Thursday that while he does not believe Groves or Massey have the resources to flee the U.S., they may have escaped Louisiana thanks to the help from other potential accomplices, and given the amount of time that has passed. Hodges also said Massey and Groves may have also had time to change their appearance, but that time has likely taken a toll on them, adding, "they are tired, they are running out of resources." Officials hold a news conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 29, 2025, to provide updates on the investigation into the escape of 10 inmates from a New Orleans jail on May 16, 2025. / Credit: CBS News Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill had told CBS News in an interview Wednesday that the two may be in other cities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They can keep running, but they can't hide forever," Murrill said. Authorities said even some family members of the 10 escapees have called in with tips to help track down the escapees. "Some of you might be reporting a friend, a loved one, a relative," said Jonathan Tapp, special agent in charge of the FBI New Orleans Field Office, during the news conference. "It might not be easy." Hodges dismissed concerns flagged by some members of the public that family members of the escapees could try and take advantage of the reward system to split the money with the inmates themselves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He commended those family members who he said have called in helpful tips. Authorities have received more than 700 tips According to Darlene Cusanza, head of the nonprofit Crimestoppers Greater New Orleans office, three tipsters so far are set to receive awards for their help in arresting three of the fugitives and some alleged accomplices. One person has already been paid at least $10,000, and two more people are set to be paid soon, Cusanza said at the news conference. More than 700 tips from the public have poured in since the May 16 escape, Cusanza said, and the Crimestoppers office has had to open up four more phone lines to accommodate all of the calls they are receiving. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, at least 14 people have been arrested on allegations they helped the inmates either before or after the escape, including one employee of the jail. From top left, DKenan Dennis, Gary Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles and Corey Boyd are seen in a combination of photos provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. From bottom left, Lenton VanBuren, Jermaine Donald, Antoine Massey, Derrick Groves and Leo Tate are seen. / Credit: Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AP Investigation ongoing into how escape was carried out Authorities said that in the early morning hours of May 16, the 10 inmates broke out of the New Orleans jail by ripping a toilet from the wall of a jail cell to which they were not assigned, cutting steel bars, and digging out a hole in the wall behind the toilet. The men allegedly crawled out of the hole to a loading dock, scaled an exterior concrete wall of the jail complex and darted across a freeway to freedom. Outside the Orleans Justice Center jail on May 17, 2025. Ten inmates escaped from the jail on May 16. / Credit: CBS News The men even took the time to write taunting messages on the wall of the cell before they made a run for it, including, "we innocent," and another misspelled, "to easy LOL." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jail staff didn't notice the inmates were gone for more than seven hours, and it took a few more hours after that for the public to be notified. Even New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said that, on the morning of the escape, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson didn't notify her about what had occurred until after she saw media reports online during a meeting with other managers in her department. "We're all sitting here, and (a staff member) said, 'Have you heard anything about an escape?'," Kirkpatrick recalled in an interview with CBS News. "We were like, 'No we don't know anything about escape.' And then one of the other chiefs picked up his phone and said, 'It's already in the media.'" The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office has faced sharp criticism for its handling of the investigation into how the escape occurred. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hutson has alleged that for years she had been asking the city for funding to make critical upgrades to the correctional facility, but that she had been turned down repeatedly. A 33-year-old maintenance worker at the jail has been arrested and charged with helping the inmates escape, and Murrill has said more employee arrests could be coming. Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams says his office is combing through jail call logs and cross-referencing fingerprints and DNA samples to ascertain who else working at the jail may have been involved. The Louisiana Attorney General's Office is now leading the investigation into failures at the facility that allowed the escape to happen in the first place. The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office has also been a part of that investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There's so much that's been troubling," Williams said in an interview with CBS News Monday. "Everything's on the table. I think an unprecedented crisis like this, has unprecedented results." Meanwhile, officials with the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Louisiana State Police and the New Orleans Police Department said Thursday they remain laser-focused on getting Massey and Groves back in cuffs. As Kirkpatrick put it in her interview with CBS News, "I'm not out to finger point. I'm out with a mission." E.l.f. Beauty calls Hailey Bieber an industry disruptor amid Rhode sale These 3 record breakers have one thing in common Reporter's Notebook: John Dickerson reflects on his spelling woes [Watch in the player above: What is Goddards Law?] GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) Charges are pending against a tenant suspected of abandoning a cat inside an East 90th Street home after being evicted, leaving her without food or water for several weeks. Rescue workers who treated the female tabby told police she was severely underweight, dehydrated and emaciated and would have died within days had they not intervened, according to a Garfield Heights police report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ohio school board makes unanimous decision to suspend high school (Garfield Heights Police Department) Veterinarians found non-food items in Jenna Annes gastrointestinal tract, according to the report. She appeared to have been eating insulation from the walls to stay alive, it reads. She weighed just less than 4 pounds when she was brought in, and had kidney issues, veterinary records show. The tenant was ordered to leave the home on March 28, or be removed by authorities on March 31, according to an eviction filing in a Garfield Heights court. A neighbor on May 24 told police that the cat could still be seen in the window, though the home had long been unoccupied, reads the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That day, Euclid Beach Cat Project workers responded to the home and used a trap to catch the cat, according to the report. The rescue is now seeking donations for Jenna Annes treatment, which could include surgeries, according to a Facebook post. Shes got some light in her eyes. Shes gonna be OK, if she doesnt backslide, said Vicky Sprouse, Euclid Beach Cat Project director. (Garfield Heights Police Department) (Garfield Heights Police Department) Worlds largest rubber duck to waddle into Ohio this weekend Sprouse said the cat naturally passed the inedible things that were in her belly, believed to be peanut shells and pieces of popcorn, and rescue workers dont suspect the cat was actually eating insulation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, every day is a little bit better for her, Sprouse added, crediting the neighbor who made the police report with saving Jenna Annes life. She 100% did not have any more time left. I dont know how shes alive, she said. Charges are now pending against the cats owner, a spokesperson for the Garfield Heights prosecutor told FOX 8 News. 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. NEED TO KNOW Mirage, the 12-year-old cat who miraculously survived a nearly 400-foot drop that killed her owners, has been adopted by the rescuer who found her that fateful day The adult feline's original owners died after falling 380 ft. while in Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park Chelsea Tugaw, who piloted the rescue mission that recovered Mirage, adopted the cat from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary There's a happy ending for Mirage, the 12-year-old feline who survived a dangerous fall in Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park, which killed her original owners in late April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chelsea Tugaw, the search and rescue pilot who recovered Mirage and her cat carrier after it tumbled 380 feet from the peak of Inspiration Point, has officially saved the cat twice. Tugaw helped bring Mirage to safety on that fateful day in April. And in May, she adopted Mirage from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, vowing to give the cat a safe and stable home. Best Friends Animal Society Mirage the cat Mirage the cat "I'm so ecstatic to be taking Mirage home. I hope I can give her the perfect retirement life and let her be a nice lazy cat in her old age," Tugaw said in a release shared with PEOPLE by Best Friends. 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 continued, "I just hope she knows she's going to a really loving home and that it'll be her final home." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mirage was the sole survivor after her owners, Matthew Nannen, 45, and Bailee Crane, 58, crossed a safety railing at the overlook with the cat's carrier and fell over the edge, according to reporting by KUTV. They are thought to have died on Monday, April 28, or in the early hours of Tuesday, April 29. Speaking to Best Friends, Tugaw explained that rescuers initially thought that the carrier containing Mirage was a backpack, and were shocked when they discovered the cat had survived the fall. "We couldn't believe the cat was alive. I thought she was injured and was uncertain of her future," she recalled. "It gave me a lot of comfort when I found out she was going to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary to get the help she needed." Shortly after Mirage's rescue, Best Friends told PEOPLE that the cat "was matted and a bit sore, but friendly upon examination." Best Friends Animal Society Mirage and Chelsea Tugaw Mirage and Chelsea Tugaw The organization added that she "weathered the fall fairly well." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In their recent update, Best Friends revealed that Mirage had "a few broken ribs and teeth." A specialty veterinary hospital in Las Vegas later diagnosed her with "fluid around her heart," which was likely" caused by trauma from the fall." Thankfully, Mirage made a full recovery.. Once Mirage recovered, but before placing her for adoption, Best Friends reached out to Nannen and Crane's next of kin to see if they could adopt Mirage. The family could not take the pet in, and agreed that finding the pet a new home was the best for her future, leading Tugaw to adopt the feline. Best Friends Animal Society Mirage relaxing in her new home Mirage relaxing in her new home "Despite surviving a 400-foot fall, this remarkable little cat never lost her gentle spirit," Best Friends said in their initial statement. "She's a living miracle with a heart full of sweetnessstill purring, still trusting, like nothing ever happened," the organization added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking to KUTV, the Garfield County Sheriff's Office said that "preliminary investigations have not been able to definitively determine the cause of the fall," adding that they were "considering all possibilities." Read the original article on People Cat who survived 400-foot Bryce Canyon fall adopted by rescuing pilot KANAB, Utah (ABC4) The senior cat who survived a near 400-foot fall that killed both of her owners in Bryce Canyon National Park has found a new home with the pilot who rescued her. According to Best Friends Animal Society, Mirage, the cat, was found by search and rescue pilot Chelsea Tugaw and her team at the bottom of Bryce Canyon on April 29. A specialist on the mission picked up what they presumed to be a backpack, but it turned out to be a pet carrier covered in dirt. Much to their surprise, there was a cat inside. PREVIOUSLY: A miracle: Senior cat survives nearly 400-foot fall in Bryce Canyon Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mirage was taken to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, where the medical team determined her to be approximately 12 years old. She was given the name Mirage by the staff there, because surviving a fall like that was unreal. Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society Mirage is fully recovered and has found her new home. Courtesy: Best Friends Animal Society We couldnt believe the cat was alive. I thought she was injured and was uncertain of her future, Tugaw said in a press release. It gave me a lot of comfort when I found out she was going to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary to get the help she needed. X-rays of Mirage showed only a few broken ribs and teeth, but after the medical team noticed concerns with her heart, she was sent to a specialty veterinary hospital in Las Vegas. There, she received treatment for fluid around her heart, likely caused by trauma from the fall. She was determined healthy shortly thereafter and was sent back to Best Friends. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Best Friends was able to connect with the next of kin of Mirages owners. While unable to adopt Mirage, they gave Tugaw their full blessing to adopt her. Everything came full circle when Tugaw arrived at the shelter to pick her up. Im so ecstatic to be taking Mirage home. I hope I can give her the perfect retirement life and let her be a nice lazy cat in her old age, Tugaw said. I just hope she knows shes going to a really loving home and that itll be her final home. 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. JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) Its called the Eagle Rock Ranch, located near Jefferson, Colorado. Its situated just a stones throw from Kenosha Pass. Homes door heavily damaged in what homeowner believes is a TikTok trend Thats where youll find cattle rancher Dave Gottenborg. We run about 300 acres, and we run several hundred head of cattle, said Gottenborg. In addition to Gottenborgs cattle, there is another animal that loves to pasture there as well, the elk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When youve got a herd of five hundred elk on your property eating ten thousand pounds of grass a day that you have set aside for your cattle in the spring, then it causes a lot of anxiety, said Gottenborg. Elk have been grazing on farms and ranches in Colorado for generations. Its been a financial and emotional challenge for landowners like Gottenborg. Migrating wildlife like deer, elk, antelope causes damage to fences. They get tangled up in them or they run through them and break them, said Gottenborg. Thats where the brand new Elk Migration Agreement comes in. What the agreement does is it compensates Dave to leave half of his ranch ungrazed in any given year. And what that does is it leaves a ton of forage behind for the elk and makes it a little bit easier as they are migrating through it. Gives them some of that food and protections they are taking through their migration route, said Travis Brammer, the director of the Property and Enrollment Research Center Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brammer will be paying the Eagle Rock Ranch an undisclosed amount of funds to allow elk to pasture there in the winter. This is paid for entirely by unrestricted donations to PERC. No government money was involved in this, said Brammer. Is your name Ryan? Denver meetup seeks to set world record at Rockies game Gottenborg said this first-of-its-kind agreement boils down to preserving the public interest and wildlife interest as well. I think its a great step in the right direction. I want it to kind of serve as another tool in the toolbox for ranchers around the state, said Gottenborg. 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. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Ysleta Port of Entry seized over 20 pounds of cocaine this week, according to CBP. CBP says at around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 28, the seizure began when a 22-year-old man, a U.S. citizen, arrived in a truck from Mexico. A CBP officer working at the primary inspection booth selected the truck for a secondary exam after a scan revealed anomalies in the appearance of the vehicle, according to CBP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A CBP drug-sniffing dog also alerted to the presence of narcotics during a sweep of traffic as vehicles were approaching a primary inspection area, according to CBP. An X-ray scan of the truck confirmed the presence of anomalies in the firewall and dashboard area, CBP said. CBP officers continued their exam and removed eight bundles from the hidden compartment, weighing 20.1 pounds of cocaine. The contents of the packages tested positive for cocaine, according to CBP. CBP officers arrested the man and turned him over to Homeland Security Investigations special agents, and he is facing importation of controlled substances charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (NewsNation) Two years after the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine and the subsequent toxic plume of smoke that devastated the area, a lawsuit against the transport company alleges a conspiracy to deny health care to those impacted. Tara Hicks, Christa Graves and Lonnie Miller are among the 793 East Palestine residents involved in the litigation against Norfolk Southern and more than 50 other defendants, including state and local agencies, involved in the investigation and cleanup. Powell meets with Trump as president bashes Fed over interest rates Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit alleges a conspiracy to deny health care on behalf of Vanguard, BlackRock, Mercy Health and Quest. Weve been lied to from the beginning, said Hicks. Theyve said everything is fine when we know that thats not the case. And now were finding out for a fact that we were right. Weve been poisoned. CDC allegedly failed to ensure proper public health response: Lawsuit The lawsuit cites the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for failure to ensure proper public health response, testing, and medical support for the affected residents of East Palestine. It also alleges the CDC negligently instructed health professionals and testing facilities not to test for dioxins and other toxic chemicals, denying residents accurate diagnosis and critical medical care. FILE A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) FILE This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night before burn in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) FILE Cleanup continues, Feb. 24, 2023, at the site of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that happened on Feb. 3, in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Matt Freed, File) This video screenshot released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows the site of a derailed freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, the United States. About 50 Norfolk Southern freight train cars derailed on the night of Feb. 3 in East Palestine, a town of 4,800 residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, due to a mechanical problem on an axle of one of the vehicles. There were a total of 20 hazardous material cars in the train consist, 10 of which derailed, according to the NTSB, a U.S. government agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. (NTSB/Handout via Xinhua) This video screenshot released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows the site of a derailed freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, the United States. About 50 Norfolk Southern freight train cars derailed on the night of Feb. 3 in East Palestine, a town of 4,800 residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, due to a mechanical problem on an axle of one of the vehicles. There were a total of 20 hazardous material cars in the train consist, 10 of which derailed, according to the NTSB, a U.S. government agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. (NTSB/Handout via Xinhua) Just tell us the truth, said Miller. Were all adults. We can handle the truth. What were we exposed to? I want accountability. I want justice for my family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They say they were told that a letter was sent out, instructing health care officials to disregard their concerns. Testing or treatment related to train derailment not recommended: CDC letter NewsNation has obtained the clinical guidance letter from the CDC that was sent to hospitals and local health providers after the derailment and burn. Can you get unemployment benefits if you quit a job? No testing or treatment related to a specific chemical exposure is recommended, it read in part. Do not diagnose anything related to chemicals. Dont do any testing related to chemicals. This is all a stress reaction, is what Miller says she was told. Attorney believes CDC letter meant to make residents feel crazy Mindy Bish, one of the attorneys representing the residents who spoke with NewsNation, said that letter was an attempt to convince residents they were crazy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It [the CDC letter] says, specifically, we dont believe you should test or treat. And it even goes on to say that residents can feel stressed as a result of a major environmental disaster, said Bish. So when I read it, I thought that is the beginning of telling these people that theyre just crazy. Nothings really wrong with you. Youre just crazy. Miller says CDC workers in East Palestine also became sick and left the area. Im angry. Im angry because every single one of those agencies at the bottom of that form, from federal, state, local, they all failed us, said Miller. The residents say their lawsuit is about truth and accountability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Social media unites Texas girl and woman with similar heart conditions Justice has always been found with a jury and only with a jury, said Bish. So were going to find justice with juries until these companies realize that they just cant act this way anymore. NewsNation has reached out to Norfolk Southern and the CDC for comment. 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. 2025 China-Central Asia Media Cooperation Forum successfully held People's Daily Online) 09:10, May 30, 2025 The 2025 China-Central Asia Media Cooperation Forum, themed Silk Road in Unison, Media in Unity: Building a Closer China-Central Asia Community With a Shared Future, was held May 29 in Astana, Kazakhstan. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. In his letter, Tokayev said the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a strategic vision for promoting global cooperation, has gained widespread recognition from the international community. He noted that Kazakhstan attaches great importance to developing friendly relations with China. Tokayev also stated that the 2025 China-Central Asia Media Cooperation Forum aims to deepen integration and collaboration between China and Central Asian countries, and that it is a significant event built on consensus and trust in the media field, dedicated to strengthening partnerships. He expressed his hope the forum would achieve complete success and produce fruitful outcomes. Guests said media exchanges play an important role in relations between China and Central Asia. Media outlets from China and Central Asian countries should keep pace with the times, explore new avenues for cooperation and share stories of friendly partnership, contributing wisdom and strength to a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future. The forum, jointly organized by Peoples Daily and the Television and Radio Complex of the President of Kazakhstan, was attended by more than 200 participants, including representatives from the media, academia and businesses, as well as heads of relevant government departments from China and Central Asian countries. A photo exhibition and the launch of a joint reporting campaign featuring journalists from China and Central Asian countries were also held alongside the forum. (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) The Armenian Defense Ministry continues to virtually shell border villages in Western Zangezur with the "hands" of the Azerbaijani military. In the defense department of a neighboring country, they put on VR glasses and immerse themselves in a world of fantasies and dreams. Judging by the frequency of the so-called shelling of a village called Khoznavar, it should have been left in ruins long ago. As well as from another Syunik village - Khnatsi. These two names have been constantly appearing in the messages of the Armenian defense ministry over the past two months. Why these particular settlements were chosen by the Armenian Defense Ministry as a backdrop for virtual "shooting games" was a mystery to us until the statement of the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Andrei Belousov, appeared. According to Russian media, Belousov stated that "tensions remain around the Syunik region of Armenia." . If the Russian minister had said that tensions remain on the Syunik section of the conditional border, there would have been no questions. The tension really exists and is being provoked by the Armenian side in order to provoke Azerbaijan into retaliatory actions. Since there are no harsh retaliatory actions, the Armenian side has to invent them, spreading news about allegedly shelled roofs and windows in public. About bullets that mysteriously hit glass, bypassing mosquito nets and curtains. Oh well, Armenia is a wonderland, anything is possible there. That's not the point. The Russian Defense Minister spoke about the tension around the Syunik region, that is, about the presence of some kind of threat to this area of Armenia from outside. Western Zangezur borders only Iran and Azerbaijan, and it is somehow doubtful that Belousov was talking about Tehran. In this light, the news about the opening of the honorary Consulate of France in Goris on Monday is interesting. And it even explains something. The other day, at a press conference in Yerevan, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrault pleased Armenians with the news of the imminent opening of the consulate. Why in Goris? The French Ambassador to Armenia explained it this way: this city has "a special connection with the French language." Since 2006, the center for French culture has been operating here, which also supports the teaching of French in schools for some reason. It's very touching and refined in French. And what is the real reason for the deployment of the consular department of the diplomatic mission in Syunik? In fact, everything is not so subtle, but very rude. France has decided to infiltrate this region bordering Azerbaijan in order to prevent the creation of a "pan-Turkic corridor." As a diplomat by the name of Aghajanyan put it, through this corridor, "Europe hoped to gain access to Central Asia, as well as implement a plan to separate Russia from Iran and establish control over an important resource route with the military and political capabilities that follow from this." Diplomat Aghajanyan told reporters that the interests of Europe, Azerbaijan and Turkiye coincide here. But one small but proud bird named France decided to destroy these "shameful plans" by placing an honorary consulate near the borders of Azerbaijan in order to take Armenia under its wing. And don't think that France alone wanted to take custody of Armenia. She has competitors. First of all, it's Iran. In October 2022, the Consulate General of Iran was opened in Gafan, bordering with Zangilan. At the opening ceremony, the late Foreign Minister Abdollahian spoke about the unacceptability of changing borders in the region for Iran, its readiness to prevent such ideas, and so on. It was not said who was going to change borders in the region, only a certain "regional country" was mentioned. All this happened during the deterioration of relations between Baku and Tehran. In 2022, Iran still thought that it was possible to dictate the rules to Azerbaijan. The topic of the Zangezur corridor was demonized and presented as the most terrible threat to the region. And it wasn't Yerevan's idea. After his re-election as prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, despite the military defeat of Armenia, was inspired and decided that the people gave him the right to make unconventional decisions for Armenian politics. The issue of the Zangezur corridor began to be discussed in earnest. However, if the Armenian people gave Pashinyan the right to fulfill his obligations, external actors did not give him such a right. Iran was especially zealous, instilling in the Armenian minds the imaginary threat of losing the south of Armenia. And they were glad. In fact, the Iranian side had its own interest. She did not want to transfer to Armenia her role as a link between the main part of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomy. Under the new conditions, this artery could become an important part of East-West transit. Iran has long wanted to become part of the Middle Corridor, and had no doubt that with Armenia's abandonment of the Zangezur Corridor, Azerbaijan would look for alternative routes, and this alternative, of course, would be Iranian transit. Which is exactly what happened. The calculation turned out to be correct, and the Araz corridor is already being actively implemented, while Armenia has been made a fool of. But then, in October 2022, Yerevan was triumphant, rejoicing at such outspoken and loud support from its southern neighbor. The alleged threat that the Zangezur corridor project allegedly poses to the integrity of Armenia has proved tenacious. Thus, on June 2, another diplomatic mission of a foreign state will open in Western Zangezur near the borders of Azerbaijan. Such an accumulation of consulates cannot be called a normal phenomenon, soon the diplomatic missions of countries wishing to take care of Armenians will become crowded. France will join forces to "save" Armenia from a non-existent threat from the West. She really wants such a threat to really exist. I think those who believe that foreign instructors are behind the Armenian provocations on the conditional border are right. We need a reason for a diplomatic and political attack on Azerbaijan. In recent years, we have only heard about our country's plans for Syunik. The French Ambassador to Armenia regularly visits this area and examines the border of Azerbaijan through binoculars. Now the honorary consulate will take over this function, which is the most important from the point of view of Armenia's security. Well, not to go twice. Everything will be at hand here - French courses, and optical devices of varying magnification. But that's not all. What kind of diplomatic army is there without Russia? For two years now, Moscow has been trying to get Yerevan to open a consulate. Where would you think? Of course, in Syunik. Russia does not want to let this important region of Armenia out of its hands, realizing what role it will play if communications through Meghri are restored. Although Russian border guards are still stationed on Armenia's borders with Iran, the Russian presence in the country has been reduced to a minimum. So, the Russian side is seeking to open a consulate, and the Armenian allies are delaying the resolution of the issue In Yerevan, commenting as follows: the opening of the Russian consulate is under the jurisdiction of the local authorities, who will not resolve the issue of the territory under the diplomatic mission in any way. Earlier, the Russian side claimed that the issue of the consulate would be resolved by the end of May. But May is coming to an end, and no decisions have been made. Neither Armenia itself, nor, especially, France, will want such a diplomatic neighborhood. Each of the countries opening consulates in the south of Armenia is counting on the sole promotion of interests. This is especially true in France, which is located far from the region. She is not going to be friends with Russia with "diplomatic missions". Sources of the newspaper "Graparak" claim that everything will be done to prevent the Russian consulate from opening. And it looks like the truth. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. On May 30, Prime Minister Ali Asadov chaired another meeting of the Azerbaijans Economic Council, the Cabinet of Ministers told Trend. The agenda covered several key topics, including a detailed discussion of the Action Plan to ensure macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic development in the medium term, supporting economic policy instruments, budget policy, and other priority issues. The meeting heard the report by Shahmar Movsumov, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Mikayil Jabbarov, Minister of Economy. Extensive discussions followed on the relevant economic matters. Upon the culmination of the assembly, resolutions were ratified, and directives were disseminated to the pertinent entities to operationalize the issues deliberated. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Celebrated Angeleno Artist Greg Ito Unveils Short Film in Homage to Kikori Rice Whiskey originally appeared on L.A. Mag. L.A. Artist Greg Ito and Kikori founder Ann Soh Woods celebrated the spirit with a short film celebrating the spirit's roots in nature Courtesy of Kikori Rice Whiskey Fresh off a starring role at Frieze L.A., Angeleno native Greg Ito unveiled his latest art installation Wednesday night: a short film that pays homage to his grandmother and the nature that inspired the female-owned spirit brand Kikori Rice Whiskey. The event, held at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in Little Tokyo, featured installations created by Ito and Japanese-inspired cocktails sponsored by Kikori Rice Whiskey, which was founded by Korean-American Ann Soh Woods, whose childhood adventures in Japan inspired her brand. The film is centered on following a lantern carried by Kikoris Woodsman logo as it travels through the mountainous forests of Kumamoto, where the whiskey is distilled, along with volcanic lava symbolizing the regions rich soil in which the rice used to make the spirit grows, and delicate cherry blossoms - part of the nature that inspired Woods to open her company in 2015. Now as one of the only Asian American women in the liquor industry, Woods is also expanding her reach and brand into the art community. As part of that, and to celebrate Asian American Heritage Month, she collaborated with Ito, she says, to "explore heritage, resilience, and the spirit of craft through a new short film inspired by Kikoris roots in Japan. Kikori is proud to support creative voices like Gregs and champion stories that celebrate culture with heart and purpose." Ito's wife and young daughter were in attendance at the event. The little girl's favorite rocks were part of her daddy's installation. As the evening came to a close, Woods made the announcement that Kikori had made a $10,000 donation to the JACCC a vital donation that will fund their ikebana program, as well as other creative workshops. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. Emily English from the Walton Family Foundation discusses how the Market Center of the Ozarks will strengthen Northwest Arkansas' local food system during its grand opening on May 29, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) Times are tough for Arkansas farmers, who like many of their counterparts across the country, are dealing with challenges such as high input costs and low commodity prices for crops. Weather and pests also pose issues, but Jacob Rowell of Kings River Produce said the bigger problem is finding a market for produce once you grow it. I cant explain as a farmer how much time I had to spend marketing, Rowell said. Finding a market for your product is 75% of the battle, the other 25 percents growing it. You can figure out how to grow it, but it dont do you no good to have 10,000 pounds of produce if you aint got nowhere to go with it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was a game-changer for the 29-year-old farmer when he began working with Spring Creek Food Hub. The nonprofit connects local farmers to wholesale institutions, specifically nonprofits like schools, hospitals and community health care clinics, Director of Operations Nena Hammer said. Spring Creek provides technical assistance and equipment to Rowell, who said hes been growing root crops, like carrots, on his farm near Eureka Springs and selling them to the food hub, which has distributed the produce to local schools. Its awesome. It really is awesome. I could see this thing growing the food community here in this part of the state tremendously, he said. I would like to see it grow where its reaching all corners of the state. Spring Creek works with about 65 farms across Arkansas, but could potentially reach more at its new home inside the new Market Center of the Ozarks, which celebrated its grand opening in downtown Springdale Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 45,000-square-foot food hub is designed to support local farmers and food entrepreneurs by providing resources like crop aggregation, certified commercial kitchens, cold storage and technical assistance to help strengthen Northwest Arkansas local food system, according to a press release. The $31 million facility is part of the Northwest Arkansas Food Systems initiative launched by the Walton Family Foundation in 2020. Plans for the Market Center of the Ozarks were announced in 2022. The Market Center of the Ozarks celebrated its grand opening in downtown Springdale on May 29, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) Emily English, the foundations senior program officer for NWA Food Systems and director for Market Center of the Ozarks, told guests at the grand opening that the center will help shape the future of local food in Northwest Arkansas. The investment in Market Center of the Ozarks was never about creating a standalone project, English said. It was about building the missing infrastructure that enables our community partners to do what they do best. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to Spring Creek, the new facility will also house the Arkansas Food Innovation Center at the Market Center of the Ozarks. An initiative of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, the AFIC at MCO supports local entrepreneurs by offering a shared-use commercial kitchen, food processing and bottling capabilities and technical support. Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman said the facility will help Arkansas consumers more readily access food thats grown and raised by local producers. As chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Ive met with farmers and ranchers and producers from across the state who are eager to sell their products in their communities and explore new ways to sell directly to consumers, Boozman said. It makes all the sense in the world to connect the food that is grown and raised here to families and entrepreneurs in the region so they can have access to fresh food while supporting their hardworking neighbors. U.S. Senator John Boozman (left) and Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward share a laugh during the grand opening of the Market Center of the Ozarks in downtown Springdale on May 29, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) Boozman said hes confident the new facility will serve as a model for other regions of the country looking for ways to support local farmers and food entrepreneurs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You cant just keep doing the same thing, he said. You have to figure new and innovative ways to go about solving a problem, and so hopefully this will be a great example, not only for the state of Arkansas but for the rest of the country as we move forward. Solutions for supporting farmers are of particular importance in Arkansas where agriculture generates a $24 billion economic impact annually and is the states largest industry. Hunger is also a problem for the Natural State, which at a rate of 19%, has the highest prevalence of food insecurity in the nation, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released last year. Market Center of the Ozarks is just one piece of a much larger puzzle, English said. It represents whats possible when we invest not just in buildings but in people in the farmers growing our food, the entrepreneurs launching new ideas and the organizations working every day to feed our families. Together were building a more connected, resilient local food system. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Thursday saw a local service organization unveil a tangible symbol of peace. The Centerville Rotary Club Peace Pole is now on display at Grant Parks Kennard Nature Nook. The pole is inscribed with a phrase written in nine languages: May Peace Prevail on Earth, an expression of peace on a local and global scale. Concert for Peace unites two iconic orchestras Leaders with the rotary club say that peace is apart of their mission and something that the world needs right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wanted to make it visible and attractive for folks to come, said Kelly McDonald, the clubs vice president. Its a place where educators can bring students to talk about peace. We use the language of tolerance for our community to make it welcoming to everyone, and if theres one thing the world needs more of now its peace. This is the second peace pole in the area, with the other located near the Washington Centerville Public Library. 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. (FOX40.COM) The toxicology results for Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) were negative for any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs, according to the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office. Video Above: State Senator Sabrina Cervantes speaks out on DUI allegations As I stated from the beginning, I did absolutely nothing wrong and the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office has affirmed as much, Cervantes said in a statement. While my name was cleared, this ordeal was entirely unnecessary. It has also caused my family and me enormous stress and pain. No one deserves this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cervantes was cited in Sacramento last Monday for suspicion of DUI after being involved in a car crash. We have reviewed all the submitted evidence, including police reports, witness statements, and laboratory results, office officials said. Based on our ethical duty and the burden of proof in a criminal trial, the Sacramento County DAs Office declines to file any charges in this case. Cervantes made a statement after the allegations, claiming her innocence and accusing Sacramento Police Department officers of accosting her. The Public Information Officer for SPD claims there were no indications Cervantes was accosted after reviewing officers body camera footage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement released by SPD, officials claim that Cervantes declined to perform a Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, after officers observed signs of intoxication from the senator. She then agreed to voluntarily provide a blood sample, however, the warrant was already underway. 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. The Scoop The Chamber of Commerce is launching a new ad campaign to protect Republicans who support President Donald Trumps megabill and take on Democrats who oppose it. This morning, the Chamber will launch a significant six-figure ad buy backing up 10 House and two Senate Republicans who support the bill, while also hitting four House Democrats who voted against the measure. The campaign will include billboards in each state or district for a month, plus new paid digital ads to accompany them. The campaign is a sign that the 2026 midterms are going to be a huge referendum on the sweeping tax bill. We want to be there on the ground for the long haul with this thing to make sure it doesnt get defined inappropriately, a person working on the effort told Semafor. The advocacy is never going to end on this. Know More The Chambers campaign could expand as the midterms near and debate on the bill hits a fever pitch. The opening salvo is focused on 14 House members and two senators. The Chamber will run positive spots and billboards for GOP Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. The focus on the upper chamber is just getting started as the Senate prepares to take the bill up, the person working on the effort said. Notably, the group isnt yet taking on the handful of GOP senators who oppose the House-passed bill as currently written. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Chamber will also prop up 10 House Republicans with thank-you ads: Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, Lisa McClain of Michigan, French Hill of Arkansas, David Valadao of California, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, Rudy Yakym of Indiana, Blake Moore of Utah, Mike Carey of Ohio, Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma and Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. Four House Democrats all of whom are in battleground seats will get some shade from the chamber for voting against the tax cuts: Reps. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Derek Tran of California, and Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes, both of Ohio. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) The Champaign Unit 4 School District Board had their third special meeting Thursday night to decide the future of the superintendent. The meeting went sideways after yelling, tense moments, and a near fight all happened within two hours. The agenda only had two items on it, and both pertained to the future of Superintendent Dr. Sheila Boozer. It also was the third special meeting this month for the new board, and it quickly became one of the rowdiest yet. PREVIOUSLY: Champaign school board to decide on separation agreement with superintendent Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The board decided to approve the separation agreement with Boozer. They also moved to task Dan Casillas as acting superintendent until an interim is named. Both of these decisions were expected to pass and did by a 5-2 margin. What wasnt expected was the loud back-and-forth at the end between the audience and members of the board. Once again, the meeting started with fiery public comment, with many in the crowd showing support at the podium for Boozer keeping her job as superintendent. The time that is necessary is being unjustly cut short, said incoming Booker T. Washington Principal Cessily Thomas. Your legacy will endure. Youve shown us what it means to lead with integrity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another person voiced their disapproval of the decision during public comment. SEE ALSO: Agenda change causes disagreements at Champaign school board meeting Disrespected our superintendent, but you got what you wanted, they said. Shows of support also came from Champaign County NAACP President Minnie Pearson. What would it have been like if you had been as supportive of Dr. Boozer as you criticized her? Pearson said. After about an hour of public comment, the board got to new business approving an amended employment agreement with Boozer, which will see her depart from the district. This agreement has been negotiated between district lawyers and the personal lawyer of Dr. Sheila Boozer over the last couple of weeks, said Board President Tony Bruno. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justin Michael Hendrix and Grace Kang were the sole two members voting against the move. PREVIOUSLY: As the new Champaign school board wraps up their first week, questions about the superintendent continue I was not in favor of this as well, because this requires some additional money and I dont feel like that is being very fiscally responsible, said Kang. The name Sheila comes from Irish origins and Latin roots meaning heavenly. Yet we have been unable to experience this heavenly presence due to power moves I can only consider wicked, said Hendrix. The board also voted Dan Casillas as acting superintendent pending the appointment of a more full-time interim. Once again, Hendrix and Kang voted against the measure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I give it back to you all, because this is disgusting, said Hendrix. Then, the meeting went off the rails. A loud and disruptive back-and-forth happened between the board and the audience over the approved decisions, culminating with a man charging at Bruno after former Board President Gianina Baker spoke out from the crowd. Bruno confirmed that Boozer will remain on paid administrative leave until her contract expires in June 2026. He also said their agreement will eventually be made public and said Boozer will need to sign it for the agreement to go into operation. Boozer herself was not at the 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 WCIA.com. Charges: Council member cut power to 3 northern Minnesota cities originally appeared on Bring Me The News. A northern Minnesota council member illegally cut a wire on his property, resulting in outages across the area, according to charges filed this week. Joseph Christopher Vaida, 63, was charged with three counts, including damaging critical public service facilities, in St. Louis County court last week. Vaida is a councilor on the McKinley City Council. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the criminal complaint, Vaida contacted Minnesota Power and said that a guy-wire was anchored to his property outside of the easement, and threatened to cut it if the company hadn't removed it in seven days, or by Monday, May 19. The employee told Vaida that the easement had been place since 1990 and that the company was looking into the problem, but warned it would take longer than seven days to resolve. A deputy spoke on the phone with Vaida, who allegedly stated: "Monday at noon it's going down, period." The deputy told Vaida hed face criminal charges if he cut the wire. Vaida allegedly responded: "Don't even go there with me. Bye." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 19, Minnesota Power informed the sheriffs office that the wire had been causing outages in Gilbert, Biwabik and McKinley. Shortly after, Vaida was arrested during a traffic stop. A pair of metal cutters and an axe were recovered from his truck, according to the complaint. Matthew Paul Argall, Flickr This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) A Charlotte mother is facing multiple charges after allegedly assaulting two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employees earlier this month, including the now-suspended principal of Randolph Middle School. Records state the May 5 incident sent the school into lockdown and disrupted operations. Principal Jennifer Schroeder has been suspended with pay, however, CMS has not confirmed whether her suspension is connected to the reported assault. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PREVIOUS: Randolph Middle School principal suspended with pay, marking second CMS disciplinary action this May According to Mecklenburg County court records, Mariah Hector was arrested at the school after an altercation sparked by a fight involving her daughter, a student at Randolph Middle. Records state the confrontation began when the woman and several family members, including co-defendant Trinity Nixon, arrived at the school and refused to leave after being asked by staff. Photos: Mariah Hector (left) and Trinity Nixon (right) via Mecklenburg County Jail A police report describes Hector becoming aggressive with school officials after her daughter called her about the fight. When asked to leave by staff member Michael Smalls, the woman allegedly pushed past him and assaulted Principal Schroeder, pushing her into a wall. She then allegedly grabbed Area Superintendent Jennifer Lee Dean by the neck, attempting to choke her before being pulled away by staff, according to court documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PREVIOUS: Ardrey Kell High School principal suspended with pay; cause not disclosed Dean reported difficulty breathing and visible injuries to her neck, records state. Alycia Hicks is a CMS teacher and parent. She said the lack of communication when campus incidents like this happen is frustrating. Theyre losing a lot of trust with the parents and the community because its just one after another incident after incident, Hicks said. Now it makes me feel like although parents shouldnt put their hands on admin, there might be some truth into what actually happened and that was mishandled, or it was trying to be swept under the rug, or they try to handle it the wrong way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hicks said it is important for parents to have good relationships with their childrens teachers and to participate in CMS board meetings. When a lot of instruction is coming first in a lot of the classrooms, a lot of the social emotional development is left behind, which causes a lot of these fights and a lot of turmoil with the families and the parents and the admin, Hicks said. Hector now faces two counts of assault on a school employee and one count of second-degree trespass. A Mecklenburg County judge appointed a public defender, modified her bond to $5,000, and ordered no contact with school staff. Hector is banned from Randolph Middle School. Her next court date is scheduled for July 21. Principal suspension raises questions Just two weeks after the incident, on May 20, CMS quietly suspended Principal Schroeder with pay. While CMS has not confirmed that her suspension is related to the May 5 fight, the timing has raised eyebrows among some families and community members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a message to Randolph Middle families, CMS did not mention the suspension directly, instead stating that our principal is away from campus at this time and that additional leadership had been assigned during this busy testing season. To parents at least explain a little bit, give some type of detail instead of just, oh, this teacher or principal stepped away for the time being, Hicks said. Weve put somebody in their place because now you just have people questioning whats going on, on top of just everything going on within the school system already. Schroeder, 46, has worked in CMS since 2004, starting as a math teacher and eventually moving into administration. She became the principal of Randolph Middle in July 2024. Photo: Jennifer Schroeder via Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Her suspension is the second CMS leadership shakeup this May. Earlier this month, Ardrey Kell High School Principal Jamie Brooks was also suspended with pay. Brooks has since announced her retirement, effective June 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In both cases, CMS has declined to offer specific explanations, citing employee privacy laws. Its a stance thats frustrating some parents. They need to step up, in this communication department, they need to step up, said Ardrey Kell parent Kiran Fijuwara in an interview with Queen City News. When you dont know, youre going to assume, and they say you should never assume. So far, CMS has not publicly connected the Randolph school incident to Schroeders suspension. MORE FROM QCNEWS.COM Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 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. HARVEY, Ill. (AP) Winfred Wilson was struggling to make ends meet on less than $700 a month, so he moved in with his daughter, gave up his car and started relying exclusively on public transit to take him wherever he needed to go across Chicago's southern suburbs. As he waited for a bus connection in his hometown of Harvey on a recent trip to the grocery store, Wilson waved at familiar travelers who regularly pass through the key transportation hub serving one of the region's poorest areas. Many, he said, encounter little resistance from drivers when they board without paying. People in affluent neighborhoods, they have cars and personal transportation, but they dont want to get caught up in the rush hour, so they use transit, Wilson said. We couldn't live without it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Public transit agencies across the U.S. have been grappling with a fiscal cliff spurred by declining ridership and the impending sunset of federal COVID-19 relief funding. The Chicago area faces particularly bleak service cuts that officials warn could be set in motion as early as Saturday if Illinois legislators adjourn without plugging a $770 million hole in the transportation budget. The big city's commuters would be hit hard, with the Chicago Transit Authority poised to shut down four of eight elevated train lines and 74 of 127 bus routes under the worst-case scenario. But perhaps no place illustrates the range of potential outcomes more vividly than Harvey, whose mayor, Christopher Clark a lifelong resident says was once the metropolis of the Southland before plants and factories closed and disinvestment took hold. Suburb at a crossroads Already the busiest station for Pace, the region's suburban bus system that also serves paratransit customers, Harvey recently won state and federal grant money for a state-of-the-art facility that would put the buses under the same roof as the Metra commuter rail stop a block away. Plans eventually call for a high-speed bus line connecting the Harvey station to the Red Line L train that cuts through the downtown Chicago Loop. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Such an upgrade could be an economic boon for Harvey, where now-vacant businesses are found on almost every downtown block and where more than 1 in 4 residents live below the poverty line. But even if the new station is built, ending or severely cutting the buses and trains that pass through could send the city reeling in the opposite direction. It would be chaos for us in the suburbs, said Cheyane Felton, after finishing her shift at a coffee stand in the basement of Harvey's City Hall. It would cut us off. Without additional state funding, Pace could be forced to halt buses in Harvey and elsewhere on weekends and after 8 p.m. on weekdays, executive director Melinda Metzger said. The downside for this is disastrous, she said in an interview at the Harvey stop. You would be cutting back your service by at least 40%, not giving people viable rides. They might get to work, but they might have a late-night shift and cant get home, so ridership also would plummet to match the service cuts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transit's nationwide funding crunch Major public transportation agencies across the country have had varying degrees of success lobbying their legislatures for more support with the federal emergency funding set to expire at the end of the year. The metropolitan area that most closely mirrors Chicago's current situation is Philadelphia, which faces a $213 million transportation budget deficit next year, even after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro authorized redirecting some of the state's highway money to mass transit. Absent more funding, riders could see a 20% spike in fares, a 9 p.m. curfew, and the elimination of 50 bus routes and five regional rail lines, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has said. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bailout package in 2023 to help fund New York Citys subway and buses. She also opened a major new source of transit revenue by implementing congestion pricing for drivers in Manhattan, but it remains to be seen whether the new tolls will survive threats from President Donald Trumps administration to shut them down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and numerous other transit-dependent cities have also been scrambling to avert major cuts. A moving deadline? No funding without reform has been a common mantra among Illinois legislators working to hash out a solution for Chicago's transit crisis before leaving Springfield on Saturday at the end of their regular session. Technically, the money doesn't run out until the end of the year, and there will likely be a veto session that could provide another shot at an 11th-hour rescue. But transportation officials say they'll have to start laying out the specific cuts next week if the funding doesn't come through by then. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not a light switch we can just turn on or off," said Leanne Redden, executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees planning and funding for the area's transit agencies. "Even if we find funding at a future point, its a slow process to kind of unwind the unwinding. So far, there have been no major breakthroughs on funding, although a compromise surfaced this week to create a new umbrella organization that, among other things, would ensure the various agencies work in unison rather than as competitors for the same customers. They should just be able to get on and go where they want to go, and that has not been happening with the governance that weve had up to now, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. Chicago's transit agencies argue theyre more efficient than their peers in other states and get by with a smaller portion of state funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clark, the Harvey mayor, said he still envisions his community benefitting from the economic promise of a new transit facility rather than enduring disappointment once again. I guess some people want me to paint a picture that its a nuclear Armageddon or something like that, he said. I can't paint that picture because I have to remain ever hopeful that we will get what we need to get in due time. Government is a long game. NEED TO KNOW Nicholas Nick Adamski, the husband of ABC 7 Chicago Traffic Anchor Diane Pathieu, has died at age 42 Adamski had been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma brain cancer in December 2020, after a seizure led to him being rushed to the hospital He was a man who served others, uplifted everyone he met and never stopped smiling even through the hardest days," Pathieu said of Adamski following his death Tuesday, May 27 A Chicago TV news anchors husband has died at just 42 years old after being diagnosed in recent years with brain cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Diane Pathieu, an ABC 7 Chicago traffic anchor, said that her husband, Nicholas Nick Adamski, died in hospice on Tuesday, May 27, per ABC 7. He had been diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma in 2020. Pathieu shared a black-and-white photograph of Adamski on Instagram alongside a heartfelt message to announce his death. It came just days after a post revealing her plans to take time away from social media to focus on caring for him. My angel, Nicholas 'Nick' Adamski, has gained his wings. He was surrounded by love and peace, Pathieu wrote in the caption of her announcement. Firefighter. Husband. Advocate. Hero." Nick faced stage 4 glioblastoma brain cancer with unmatched courage, grace and an unshakable belief in PMA Positive Mental Attitude, she continued. He was a man who served others, uplifted everyone he met and never stopped smiling even through the hardest days." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Forever in our hearts. I love you for always, sweetheart, Pathieu concluded. Keep that PMA. Love hard. Help others. And never, ever give up, and as Nick would say, 'Peace and veggie grease. The comment section of the post was flooded with messages from people sharing their condolences. Before being diagnosed with brain cancer on Dec. 21, 2020, Adamski was a beloved member of the Milwaukee Fire Department and was awarded the Medal of Valor for saving an infant from a fire, ABC 7 reported. Adamski previously recounted that he was diagnosed after a seizure caused him to collapse just before Christmas in 2020. He was rushed to Lutheran General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with cancer despite having previously had no symptoms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The only thing I remember is my right leg going up and shaking everything," Adamski said, per ABC 7. "After that, I couldn't tell you anything." He was given slightly over a year to live, even once he began treatment for the aggressive disease that is the most common type of malignant brain tumor in adults. As he continued to defy the odds throughout the years, the former firefighter became an advocate for hope with his signature message of PMA: Positive Mental Attitude amid his treatment for the disease, per the outlet. Pathieu joined her husband in being a speaker at the annual Lou and Jean Malnati Brain Tumor Institute Minds Matter event in 2023, with the aim of fundraising for brain cancer. Photos from the event shared on Facebook and Instagram appeared to show them in good spirits. Diane Pathieu/Instagram Nicholas 'Nick' Adamski and Diane Pathieu Nicholas 'Nick' Adamski and Diane Pathieu Following Adamskis death this week, the American Brain Tumor Association referenced Pathieus Instagram tribute to him alongside a photo of the couple shared on their Facebook page. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are deeply saddened by the passing of Nicholas 'Nick Adamski, beloved husband of ABC7 Chicagos Diane Pathieu, the group wrote. A devoted firefighter, fierce advocate, and GBM warrior, Nick faced grade 4 glioblastoma with extraordinary courage, grace, and his signature PMAPositive Mental Attitude. Through every challenge, Nick never stopped smiling. He served others, inspired hope, and uplifted everyone around him, the ABTA added. His legacy will live on in the hearts of all who knew himand in the countless lives he touched. To Diane and all who loved him, the ABTA community stands with you in love and remembrance. As Nick would say: Peace and veggie grease, they said, echoing Pathieus post. Read the original article on People By Farah Master HONG KONG (Reuters) -China signed a convention setting up an international organisation for mediation in Hong Kong on Friday that Beijing hopes will be on par with the International Court of Justice and bolster the city's international credentials. The move comes amid growing geopolitical tensions that have been exacerbated by U.S. President Donald Trump's global trade war and fuelled risks of a sharp worldwide economic downturn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mediation body aims to cement Hong Kong's presence as a top centre to resolve disputes between countries, leader John Lee said earlier this week, adding that it's status would be on par with the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration of the United Nations in The Hague. Indonesia, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia and Serbia were among the countries attending the signing ceremony. Representatives from 20 international bodies including the United Nations were also expected to join, public broadcaster RTHK said. A video shown at the signing, which was presided by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said the scope of cases that would be handled include disputes between countries, between a country and nationals of another country and between private international entities. The mediation group could advance China's influence internationally and promote a more assertive role for the world's second-largest economy in global governance, some analysts said although its success remains to be seen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alicia Garcia-Herreo, chief Asia Pacific economist at Natixis, said the move was good news for Hong Kong, however she cited arbitration centres in Chinese cities Xian and Shenzhen which had not worked well. "Hong Kong has been offered as an alternative but I still think that borrowers, especially borrowers or anybody with a Belt and Road contract (BRI) related or with a Chinese leg will feel less protected nowadays," she said. Hong Kong tied with Singapore for second place, behind London, as the top choice for a seat of arbitration in 2025, according to the 2025 International Arbitration Survey conducted by Queen Mary University of London. Hong Kong's Justice Secretary Paul Lam said that the new body would help Hong Kong cope with challenges that arise when "hostile external forces are attempting to de-internationalise and de-functionalise" the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new organisation's headquarters will be located at a former police station in the bustling Wan Chai district, and is due to open by the end of this year or early 2026. Authorities in Hong Kong have been struggling to revive the financial centre after sometimes violent protests in 2019 and COVID lockdowns hammered tourism and retail industries. (Additional reporting by Edmond Ng, Anne Marie Roantree in Hong Kong, Joe Cash, Shi Bu and the Beijing newsroom; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Tom Hogue and Michael Perry) By Colleen Howe BEIJING (Reuters) - China said it would cooperate further with other countries over its rare earth export controls as shortages put auto and semiconductor makers in Europe and India at risk of closure. China, which controls over 90% of global processing capacity for the rare earth magnets used in everything from automobiles and fighter jets to home appliances, imposed restrictions in early April requiring exporters to obtain licences from Beijing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While a handful of licences have been granted, including to some Volkswagen suppliers, Indian automakers say they have received none and will have to stop production in early June. "We stand ready to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the field of export control with relevant countries and regions and stay committed to maintaining the stability of global production and supply chains," foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Friday when asked about the controls. Chinese state media reported on Wednesday that the country could relax its curbs on rare earths exports for Chinese and European semiconductor firms after meetings between industry and the Ministry of Commerce where the issue of shortages was raised. The New York Times reported earlier this week that the United States suspended some sales of critical technologies to China, including parts for state-owned plane maker COMAC, in response to China's restriction on exports of critical minerals. (Reporting by Colleen Howe; Writing by Liz Lee and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Elaine Hardcastle) China will not send its defense minister to this years Shangri-La Dialogue, shunning a chance for a high-level meeting with US and Asian counterparts as tensions simmer with Washington. China announced Thursday it will instead be represented by a delegation from the Peoples Liberation Army National Defense University, marking the first time in five years a high-level delegation from Beijing will miss Asias largest defense and security forum. The United States will be represented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the event, which often provides opportunities on the sidelines for rare face-to-face meetings between top generals and defense officials from the US and China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last year then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Minister of National Defense Adm. Dong Jun on the sidelines of the event and the two pledged to continue a US-China dialogue amid simmering military tensions over Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. Beijings decision not to send Dong this year throws into question whether there will be any meeting between the US and China at a time of heightened tensions between the two. China has railed against Americas efforts in recent years to tighten its alliances and defense posture in Asia, while economic frictions rose to historic levels earlier this year after US President Donald Trumps imposition of tariffs on China sparked a tit-for-tat between the two countries that saw duties rise to more than 100% on each others goods. While the two sides announced a temporary tariff truce earlier this month, tensions flared against this week. On Wednesday, two days before the forums opening, the US aimed a shock double punch targeting software exports to Chinese tech companies and study visas granted to Chinese students, risking a fragile trade war truce between Washington and Beijing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a Chinese Defense Ministry press conference on Thursday, a spokesperson ducked a question on why Beijing was not sending its defense minister to the Singapore forum, expected to be attended by defense chiefs from around Asia, including many more closely tied to Washington than Beijing. China was open to communication at all levels between the two sides, a ministry spokesperson said when asked about a potential sidelines meeting with the US delegation. Chinas downgrading of its Shangri-La delegation showed Beijing was not happy with Washington, a US defense official told CNN on Thursday. Theyre torqued at us, the official said. Chinese minister of national defense Dong Jun attends a meeting at the Office of the Party Central Committee in Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 14. - Minh Hoang/Pool/Reuters Its a signal that they are concerned about the level of engagement, specifically with the United States, to send a message that everything is not completely normal within that and theres probably some other underlying reasons about just uncertainty about what Shangri-La is intended to accomplish, the official said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China has traditionally had few friends at Shangri-La, where its speakers face real-time, unscripted questioning from journalists and academics attending the conference. Beijing always wants to control the narrative and discourse. Shangri-La does not enable that, said Drew Thompson, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. Last year, Defense Minister Dong faced tough questions after, in a Friday note keynote speech, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. denounced illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the South China Sea in an apparent allusion to China. Chinas military has also been in the spotlight in recent years as its top ranks have been roiled by a sweeping corruption purge, with more than a dozen high-ranking figures in Chinas defense establishment ousted since 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Analysts said the absence of a high-level Chinese delegation at the defense meeting may signal Beijing is emphasizing economics and trade over military relations in its foreign affairs at this time. While surely security engagements such as the SLD (Shangri-La Dialogue) do matter in the broader scheme of geopolitics, at this juncture it seems regional governments are perhaps even more concerned about the tariff impact on their economies, said Collin Koh, also an RSIS research fellow. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaves after a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Friday. - Edgar Su/Reuters US is here to deter adversaries Ahead of the weekend conference, much attention has focused on how US-led alliances across the region that grew during the Biden administration would hold up under Trumps second term. There was broad consensus among analysts that unlike the turmoil Trump has caused in Europe with threats to pull back from NATO and abandon Ukraine in its fight against Russias invasion the US role in Asia has largely been consistent, centered on a policy to counter Chinese influence and back Taiwan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hegseths first trip to Asia as Defense Secretary began in the Philippines on the front lines of Chinas increasingly aggressive posture in Asia where he said the US would work with allies to reestablish deterrence to counter Chinas aggression in the Indo-Pacific. On Friday, during an early morning workout with sailors aboard a US Navy ship in Singapore, he had a similar message: We send the signal to our allies and partners, hey, here in the Indo Pacific, Americas here, and were not going anywhere. Were here to deter adversaries who would seek us harm. Analysts noted that US-led military exercises, especially those involving key allies Japan, Australia, the Philippines and South Korea, have continued or even been bolstered in 2025. A US Pacific Command spokesperson told CNN there would be 120 bilateral or multilateral exercises involving US forces in the Indo-Pacific this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But while increased US involvement is welcome by those participating in such exercises, Washington must be careful they dont aggravate China so much that new tensions threaten the security of regional nations that are not US treaty allies, said Evan Laksmana, editor of the 2025 Asia Pacific Regional Security Assessment compiled by the International Institute of Strategic Studies. The deepening of US security engagement is welcome but not so far on the strategic side that it raises tensions, he said. On Thursday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said China attaches great importance to the military relations with the US, but warned Washington against conjuring up a powerful enemy for itself whether intentionally or unintentionally. Such imagination is not rational and extremely dangerous, Zhang said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thompson, the RSIS researcher, said an extra irritant for China at this years Dialogue is the large European contingent in attendance, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who gave the keynote speech on Friday night. Chinas support for Russia (in its war in Ukraine) has hugely impacted its relationship with Europe, which finds it harder and harder to ignore evidence of Chinas support for Russias war machine, making a public tongue-lashing very likely, Thompson said. This makes for an awkward environment for a high-level PLA officer trying to manage and improve relations in Asia. If you cant win, dont join them. In his speech, Macron called out Beijing as holding a double standard on what is expected in Europe and what is expected in Asia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He noted China has expressed opposition for any expansion of NATO to Asia, but not criticized North Koreas military support for Russia in its war in Ukraine. If China doesnt want NATO being involved in Southeast Asia or Asia, then they should prevent clearly the DPRK (North Korea) from being involved on European soil, Macron said. CNNs Haley Britzky and Simone McCarthy contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com (NewsNation) Chinese officials are happy President Donald Trump is back in office, political commentator Bill OReilly told NewsNations CUOMO on Thursday. They are happy Trumps president. They had no use for Joe Biden at all. Why? They considered him weak and unfocused, said OReilly, who called into the show from Seoul, South Korea. He said had recently left a meeting in Beijing with high-ranking officials from Chinese President Xi Jinpings administration. OReilly said he spoke with the officials at an off-the-record, Q&A-style seminar after receiving an invitation from a third party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elon Musk departs Washington and DOGE I said, OK, do I get a free supper? They go, Yeah, well give you a free supper, OReilly joked. The most powerful guys and one woman in the country are sitting across from me asking me questions for two hours. OReilly said China will never, ever, ever admit weakness but that they want to make a variety of deals. They want deals that are going to help them. They dont care about us as far as individuals are concerned, but China needs us, he said. As part of those deals, they are willing to do things that would advance the welfare of the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. By Laurie Chen BEIJING (Reuters) -Caught in the middle of Washington's renewed visa crackdown on Chinese international students, Beijing postgraduate Lainey is anxiously waiting to resume the visa process to study a PhD at her dream school, the University of California. "We feel helpless and unable to do anything," said the 24-year-old sociology student, who declined to give her surname for privacy reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The situation in North America this year is not very good. From applying for my PhD until now, this series of visa policies is not very favourable to us. But we have no choice but to wait." The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it would not tolerate the "exploitation" of American universities or theft of U.S. research and intellectual property by Beijing. Spokesperson Tammy Bruce did not elaborate on how many Chinese students would be affected by a new plan announced on Wednesday to "aggressively" revoke visas. The visa crackdown is the latest in a series of moves targeting the international student community, especially Chinese nationals, who make up roughly 1 in 4 of all international students in the U.S., as the Trump administration pursues its hardline immigration agenda. If applied to a broad segment of the 277,000 Chinese students already at U.S. colleges, the visa revocations could disrupt a major source of income for universities and a crucial pipeline of talent for U.S. technology companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chinese students make up 16% of all graduate science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) students in the United States. DEFER ENROLMENT? The announcement on Chinese student visa holders came after the Trump administration ordered its missions worldwide to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants. If the visa appointment system is not resumed soon, Lainey wishes to defer enrolment for a year. "Although everyone says the U.S. admissions system may be biased against Chinese students, in reality U.S. schools are indeed the top in terms of academic quality," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I may also consider (applying to) some places outside the U.S., such as Europe, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore." The measures are a sign of the increasing spillover from a bruising trade war between the two global superpowers, and threaten to derail a fragile truce reached mid-May in Geneva. A Friday editorial by China's state-owned Global Times newspaper said the new visa measures raised "the spectre of McCarthyism" and likened them to an "educational witch-hunt". "In recent years, the suppression of Chinese students has increasingly become an important part of the U.S. strategy to contain China," the commentary said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Potentially even more damaging than the immediate economic impact for the U.S. could be a long-term erosion of the appeal of U.S. universities and the subsequent brain drain. International students - 54% of them from India and China - contributed more than $50 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. "If I really have to wait until 2026 to reapply, I might not have such positive feelings towards America," said Lainey. "If I can't even get a visa, then I'd have no choice but to go somewhere else." (Reporting by Laurie Chen; Additional reporting by Tiffany Le; editing by Sophie Walker) WASHINGTON COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) The Washington County Sheriffs Office has arrested a 54-year-old Chipley woman after reports of sexual misconduct with a child under the age of 16. According to a news release, the WCSO started an investigation once a report was filed alleging that Stacy Janelle Pettis performed lewd and lascivious acts in the presence of a child. Authorities said that the investigators with the WCSO obtained an arrest warrant for Pettis once she confessed to the allegations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pettis has been arrested and transported to the Washington County Jail on charges of lewd and lascivious exhibition by an offender 18 years of age or older with a victim less than 16 years old. 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. KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, May 30. "Khankendi-1" is the first closed-type substation built in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan, Advisor to the President of Azerenergy OJSC on General Affairs Vugar Aliyev said at a meeting of the Working Group on Energy Supply Issues in Khankendi, Trend reports. He articulated that subsequent to the execution of the undertaken initiatives, the Karabakh and East Zangezur economic zones were integrated into the national energy grid via a comprehensive network of four distinct ingress points: from the 110 kV "Shukurbayli" substation located in the southern sector, from the 330 kV "Aghjabadi" and "Imishli" substations positioned in the eastern quadrant, and from the 110 kV "Ganja" substation situated in the northern region. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Panola County, Texas (KETK) The bill filed to rename FM 10 in Panola County as Deputy Sheriff Chris Dickerson Memorial Highway was passed through the Texas House on Wednesday and is making its way to the governor. Two bills that could raise homestead tax exemptions head to the governors desk Sheriffs Deputy Chris Dickerson was shot and killed by Gregory Newson on FM 10 in Panola County during a traffic stop back in 2019. Newson was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2024, his execution date has not been scheduled as of now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas Shakespeare Festival Gears Up for 40th Season Earlier this year, State Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola filed SB 1230 to rename FM 10 in Dickersons honor. The senate passed the bill and sent it to the Texas House. Longtime federal prosecutor named acting U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Texas SB1230 received unanimous votes in favor of its purpose, including eight ayes in the Senate Transportation Committee and eleven ayes in the House Transportation Committee, according to the Texas Legislature website. Now, the bill will need the governors signature before it moves on to becoming law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. Christopher Behal, the Park View Iowa man who is on trial for first degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Taylor Escontrias (McKee) of Parkview learned his fate this afternoon. Behal was arrested in March 2024 after the Scott County Sheriffs Office responded to a vehicle accident with injury near the intersection of 90th Street and Harrison Street in Mount Joy. Christopher Behal in Scott County Court. While investigating the accident, deputies found the body of a dead woman in Park View, who was identified as Escontrias. She and Behal were dating at the time of her death. Behal was taken to Genesis East for his injuries from the accident, then arrested by deputies and charged with first-degree murder. He was later charged with assault while participating in a felony, going armed with intent and aggravated misdemeanors. Behal spoke in open court and then four people gave victim impact statements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The judge said a mandatory life sentence was appropriate and sentenced Behal to life in prison without parole on the murder charge. He was consecutively sentenced to two years in prison on the domestic abuse charge and fined, but the fines were suspended. He was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to Escontrias children. 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. Guns are shown at Casos Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, New Jersey, which has been open since 1967. (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/NJ Monitor) Maine lawmakers will wait to take action on proposed legislation regarding the states 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases. The Legislatures Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to carry over LD 208, a proposal from House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) to repeal the law passed just last year that requires someone who sells a firearm to wait three days before delivering it to the buyer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the committee was divided on whether to carry over an identical bill, LD 1230, with Democrats voting in support and Republicans opposed. The votes taken Friday were not an absolute, but rather a request of the presiding officers who have the final say on what will be carried over. After the waiting period took effect in August, opponents filed a lawsuit in November claiming it violates the Second Amendment rights of people who have passed background checks. Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court judge sided with the gun rights advocates and temporarily paused the waiting period. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey appealed the decision, but a federal appeals court last week refused to reinstate the waiting period while the lawsuit unfolds. Over the past few weeks, Senate co-chair Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) encouraged the committee to carry over Faulkinghams bill and kill the other proposal to streamline the committees work and allow time for the legal process to play out before making any changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, multiple Republicans on the committee said they did not want their names on the record as voting against the bill. Im not going to have my name on that report and follow me forever, said Rep. Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan), though she agreed its important to carry over one of the bills in case changes need to be made. Stuck at a stalemate, Carney suggested Friday that the committee vote to carry over both bills, but Republicans also raised concerns with this approach. Committees are only allowed to carry over a limited number of bills from the first to second session, so some Republicans were concerned carrying over identical proposals would waste one of those slots and lead to Senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives killing one of the bills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why cant we have a conversation on the floor? asked Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), encouraging the committee to advance LD 1230 this session Rep. Adam Lee (D-Auburn), who voted to carry over both proposals, said his understanding was that the committee decided to not work on either bill while the lawsuit is ongoing. Since the committee hasnt fully workshopped the bills, Lee said sending one to the chamber floors wouldnt make sense. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE VIENNA, Ohio (WKBN) A group of concerned citizens was protesting ICE activities at a local airport Thursday. The group claims that ICE agents have been flying undocumented immigrants out of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. Many didnt want to be identified and wore face masks to prevent that. The protest started at 4:30 p.m. with three people on the east side of Route 193 across from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, while near the terminal, a half dozen police vehicles waited just in case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were protesting the ICE activity thats going on in the Mahoning Valley, said one protester. This woman was one of the leaders who did not want to be identified, and as more people showed up, some walking along the busy road, she explained that she was told that ICE agents were using the airport by way of a private charter company. That has been known to transport ICE detainees between here and Louisiana, here and Texas, here and Boston. The planes go all over the place, she said. When the protest reached 15, a Vienna policeman asked them to move across the street in front of the airports entrance, which was safer and away from the traffic. But their message was the same. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration claims that theyre criminals, theyre murderers, theyre rapists but they havent given them any due process to prove that, said another protester. While some people honked in support, others shouted obscenities or made obscene gestures which is why some wore black with facemasks. I dont want ICE agents looking for me. I dont want the people out here who will scream obscenities out their windows looking for me, she said. The airport is operated by the Western Reserve Port Authority and its Executive Director, Anthony Trevena, said that the charter company Global X is a tenant of the airports commercial operator, JETS FBO. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement the Port Authority has no say over or access to passenger manifests or destinations beyond what is viewable by the general publicthe Port Authority serves as the commercial sponsor of the federally owned Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and cannot deny access to the airfield, Trevena 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. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) May 30 is National Heat Awareness Day, and the City of El Paso, with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), is activating cooling centers across the city. According to a news release by the City, the cooling centers are indoor and air-conditioned spaces for people to take refuge from the heat. The centers are a joint effort between the OEM, the City of El Paso Parks and Recreation Department, El Paso Public Libraries, and the Extreme Weather Task Force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The following recreation centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and will be closed on Sundays: Valle Bajo Community Center and Library, 7380 Alameda Ave. Marty Robbins Park, 11600 Vista Del Sol Dr. Galatzan Recreation Center, 650 Wallenberg Dr. Nations Tobin Park, 8831 Railroad Dr. Public libraries will also be available to individuals looking to escape from the heat. The following libraries will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Armijo Library, 620 E. 7th St. Clardy Fox, 5515 Robert Alva Ave. Dorris Van Doren, 551 Redd Rd. Esperanza Moreno, 12480 Pebble Hills Blvd. Irving Schwartz, 1865 Dean Martin Dr. Jose Cisneros/Cielo Vista, 1300 Hawkins Dr. Judge Marquez, 610 N. Yarbrough Dr. Main Library, 501 N. Oregon St. The Main Library will also be open on Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m. Memorial Park, 3200 Copper Ave. Richard Burges, 9600 Dyer St. C Sergio Troncoso, 9321 Alameda Ave. Westside, 125 Belvidere Dr. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City is also encouraging residents to seek relief from the heat by visiting local malls and shopping centers. In addition, the City, in coordination with the Department of Public Health, OEM, the El Paso Fire Department, and the Extreme Weather Task Force, is launching a multi-agency public awareness effort to educate residents about how to stay safe during the summer heat. According to the City, public health officials emphasize that infants, young children, older adults, pregnant women, and those with underlying medical conditions are vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Accroding to the City, some signs and symptoms are: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heavy sweating, nausea, muscle cramps Dizziness, fainting or confusion Pale, clammy skin or a rapid, weak pulse In severe cases: high body temperature, unconsciousness Anyone experiencing signs of heat stroke should call 911 immediately and move to a cooler place. In addition, El Pasoans are encouraged to: Stay hydrated with non-sugary, non-alcoholic fluids Wear lightweight, light-colored clothing and wide-brimmed hats Avoid outdoor activities during peak heat hours Stay indoors in air-conditioned spaces when possible Use sunscreen and take frequent breaks if working outdoors Never leave children, elderly individuals, or pets unattended in a parked vehicle, even with windows cracked or the AC running Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City said to use the buddy system to check on neighbors, co-workers, or relatives who may be at greater risk. Pet owners should: Ensure pets have access to shade and fresh water Avoid walking pets on hot pavement Keep pets indoors during the hottest parts of the day Never leave pets alone in parked vehicles Veterinarians also recommend testing pets for heartworm during the warm months. The City is also partnering with the Extreme Weather Task Force to host a Summer Safety Press Conference at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 5, at Fire Station No. 5, located at 400 Revere St. The press conference will highlight seasonal safety guidance, the dangers of extreme heat and the launch of the annual Fan Drive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Extreme Weather Task Force is accepting fan donations at all El Paso and Horizon fire stations. Residents in need of a fan may dial 211 to check eligibility and receive assistance. For after-hours help or overnight shelter referrals, residents can call 311. More tips and resources are available at El Paso Ready and El Paso Health. 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. KANSAS CITY, Mo. The City of Leavenworth, Kansas, is once again suing CoreCivic the corporation thats trying to turn a vacant facility into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. This comes after the city previously sued CoreCivic in March, claiming the company was trying to reopen the facility without acquiring the necessary permit from the city. Former Leavenworth Detention Center worker recounts brutal attack Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An agreement was reached in mid-April in which CoreCivic said it would not house immigration detainees in the facility until at least a month-and-a-half (June). However, on May 23, a judge threw out the lawsuit. This new lawsuit argues again that CoreCivic is trying to bypass Leavenworth law and reopen the facility without first obtaining the necessary city permit. FOX4 reached out to CoreCivic and a spokesperson sent us the following statement: Its disappointing that Leavenworth has chosen to continue litigating this issue. The citys taxpayers shouldnt have to fund a misguided legal strategy against a project that would create 300 jobs, generate millions for Leavenworth and help address one of our countrys most urgent challenges. Weve been part of this community as a dedicated employer for more than 30 years, and our intention remains to meet the emerging needs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at our Midwest Regional Reception Center. As weve shared before, we believe our site is zoned properly, that a special use permit is not required under the city code, and we look forward to partnering with the local community as we always have. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since we are a town of prisons, we know what a good prison looks like and how its operated and we have concerns about how this last one, CoreCivic, was operated in the past prior to its closing, said Leavenworth City Manager Scott Peterson. CoreCivic has owned the now-vacant property since 1992. Until 2021, it operated a detention facility at the property. Our ordinance says if you vacate the use after two years you have to reapply for a special use permit seems pretty cut and dry from our perspective, Peterson added. The facility was vacated nearly four years ago. CoreCivic says reopening the prison would boost Leavenworths economy a point Peterson doesnt dispute. The company claims it would create 300 jobs and generate millions of dollars for the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During this time, CoreCivic became embroiled in multiple widely publicized scandals resulting from its gross mismanagement of the facility and the ensuing rampant abuse, violence, and violations of the constitutional rights of its detainees and staff, the lawsuit states. As for the people who just dont want the facility here. We listen to their concerns and the things they want here at the City of Leavenworth, wed love to have them come to the city commission meetings and express their opinion, Peterson said. You can read more about that here. The city says in the lawsuit that CoreCivics mismanagement impacted the city in countless ways, including: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By imposing unexpected maintenance costs on its taxpayers Increasing the burden on the citys police and law enforcement Impeding the citys investigation of sexual assaults and other violent crimes against detainees and staff After CoreCivic initially applied for the city permit, the lawsuit says it then withdrew its application less than a month later. It (CoreCivic) has now taken the position that it need not seek or obtain a special use permit and that it plans to start housing detainees at the facility at some point in the immediate future, all in violation of the citys lawfully enacted ordinances, the lawsuit reads. CoreCivic claims that its contract with ICE allows it to bypass Leavenworth law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In other words, CoreCivic refuses to comply with the citys permitting process because, it contends, it will take too long to do so, the city argues in the lawsuit. For more background information on CoreCivic and the scandals it was involved in, click here. The city is also suing Misty Lynn Mackey, the warden of the Midwest Regional Reception Center as well as the employees, contractors and/or agents of CoreCivic for aiding, abetting, and conspiring with CoreCivic to violate the citys development regulations. The city is asking the court to enter a temporary restraining order or injunction to stop CoreCivic from housing any detainees in the facility without applying for and obtaining a special use permit from the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Leavenworth County, Kansas, on May 23, 2025 (case no. LV-2025-CV-000180). Previous coverage 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. The city of Tacoma is pausing its search for a permanent police chief, months after former Tacoma Police Chief Avery Moore resigned. City manager Elizabeth Pauli said in a statement Friday that she made the decision to ensure the alignment of city leadership. The search for a new police chief comes as Tacoma is on track to see widespread changes in leadership: Pauli is retiring in July after eight years on the job, Mayor Victoria Woodards term is coming to a close and four City Council positions are up for election this year. The council decided to delay the search for a permanent city manager until after this years November election and recently promoted deputy city manager Hyun Kim to the interim role. Pauli said in her statement that pausing the recruitment process for a permanent police chief aligns with the transition at the city manager level of the organization, and with consideration of other organizational transitions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is prudent to empower the citys new leadership to play an integral role in confirming the appointment of a permanent police chief, the statement reads. This approach will help ensure the chosen leader fully aligns with the evolving vision and future priorities of our city government. Interim Tacoma Police Chief Patti Jackson speaks after being sworn in at her swearing in ceremony at Tacoma Police Headquarters, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, in Tacoma. Shes to remain in place indefinitely. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com Interim police chief Patti Jackson will continue to hold the position in the meantime. Her annual salary is $326,934, the same pay rate Moore received before he resigned. Moore resigned in February after a three-year stint on the job, citing a desire to transition into the next chapter of my life in the wake of an investigation into his use of a city-issued phone while on a family vacation in Sweden. He left the city of Tacoma with $479,267.15, the equivalent of 16 months of his salary and the cost of paying 16 months of health coverage, and was recently hired as assistant city manager for the city of Topeka, Kansas. A group of civil rights and legal organizations say immigrant detainees being held at two federal detention centers are being denied their constitutional right to legal counsel. One of those detention centers is a Miami facility flagged by Reason earlier this week for allegations of overcrowding and dysfunction. In letters to the Trump administration released Thursday, Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ), the American Civil Liberties Union, and several other groups urged the administration to immediately restore detainees' access to legal counsel at Federal Correctional Institution Leavenworth (FCI Leavenworth) and Federal Detention Center-Miami (FDC Miami), two Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities that are holding hundreds of detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the letters, attorneys for AIJ, Florida Legal Services, and the University of Miami Immigration Clinic "have witnessed and documented troubling systemic failures to provide individuals detained in immigration custody with access to vital legal resources and counsel" at FDC Miami. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those deprivations include regular denial of access to legal documents, legal mail, and attorney calls. The groups say these restrictions violate detainees' due process rights under the Fifth Amendment and their First Amendment right to free speech. "Denying detained immigrants access to legal documents, mail, and phone calls makes it all but impossible to fight and win an immigration case," AIJ Executive Director Sui Chung said in a press release. "The systemic denial of due process at FDC-Miami has impacted immigrants who desperately seek refuge and are legally entitled to pursue relief in the United States." The letter echoes descriptions by BOP employees and immigration lawyers of poor conditions and bureaucratic chaos in FDC Miami, where roughly 400 immigrant detainees are being held on two floors. The federal prison system has struggled for years to get a handle on crumbling facilities, understaffing and low morale, and endemic corruption, but it was nevertheless pressed into service to handle the influx of detentions under Trump's mass deportation program. A BOP employee told Reason that four of the eight elevators in the multi-story tower are broken, leading to frequent lockdowns that restrict detainees' access to phones and computers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I've been at FDC Miami for 16 years," Kenny Castillo, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 501, the union representing Bureau of Prisons employees at the lockup, said. "I've never seen the building like I see it right now." In their letter, the civil rights groups say crucial legal paperwork is going missing when detainees are transferred to and from FDC Miami. Legal mail is delayed or never arrives. They say it takes days, sometimes over a week, for attorneys to schedule a phone call with a client. "These failures and delays have seriouspotentially devastatingconsequences for detained individuals' ability access and communicate with counsel, as well as their ability to apply for protection in the U.S. and to fight their cases in immigration court, as is their constitutional right." The cumulative effect of all this is that attorneys say it's nearly impossible to plan a legal strategy for their clients. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I had a hearing this morning, and the judge ordered me to speak with [my client]," Katie Blankenship, an attorney at Sanctuary of the South, said. "I couldn't be at FDC, and they wouldn't get me on the phone with him. I had to go to court this morning and be like, 'Sorry judge, no, I did not speak to my client, because I couldn't.'" The dysfunction at FDC Miami erupted into a mini-riot on April 15, after the afternoon headcount dragged on for nearly five hours. A group of disgruntled detainees flooded a floor of the unit, and BOP correctional officers responded with concussive flashbang grenades. The civil rights groups allege similar conditions at FCI Leavenworth in Kansas, where they say immigrant detainees are subjected to lengthy lockdowns, abusive use-of-force, and medical neglect. In response to a request for comment, a BOP spokesperson said the agency is "committed to ensuring the safety and security of all inmates in our population, our staff, and the public. However, we do not comment on matters related to pending litigation, legal proceedings, or investigations." ICE did not respond to a request for comment. The post Civil Rights Groups Say Immigrants Are Being Denied Legal Access at Detention Centers appeared first on Reason.com. AUSTIN (KXAN) The ACLU and other civil rights groups announced plans Thursday to challenge a newly passed Texas bill requiring public schools display a copy of the Ten Commandments in each classroom, according to press releases. That bill, Senate Bill 10, passed in the Texas House of Representatives on May 25 with an amendment, as KXAN previously reported. The Senate concurred with the Houses changes on May 28. The final bill sent to Governor Greg Abbott clarified that Texas, not its school boards, will be responsible for any legal challenges. Abbott has yet to sign the bill into law, but he said that he would sign it in a May 1 social media post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ACLU will be joined in its challenge by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Multiple SCOTUS rulings in focus SB 10 author Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, argued in his statement of intent that the law could survive a legal challenge under the US Supreme Courts (SCOTUS) 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. Read more: What the Supreme Courts football coach ruling means for schools and prayer For 200 years, the Ten Commandments were displayed in public buildings and classrooms across America, wrote King in his bill analysis. The Court has provided a test that considers whether a governmental display of religious content comports with Americas history and tradition. Now that the legal landscape has changed, it is time for Texas to pass SB 10 and restore the history and tradition of the Ten Commandments in our state and our nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ACLU Staff Attorney Chloe Kempf said that SCOTUSs ruling in Stone v. Graham, which struck down a similar Kentucky law, still applies. The Supreme Court has never overruled it. And in fact, in more recent years, including in the Kennedy case, the Supreme Court has affirmed that there is a special constitutional concern when we are indoctrinating students in school with religious messages, she said. The Kennedy case really has no relationship to a bill that requires a religious text to be posted in schools. A similar law in Louisiana was to take effect in 2025, but was blocked by a US District Court ruling. It is currently before a US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court. That law did not require school districts to fund the posters with taxpayer money. SB 10 allows such an expense but doesnt require it. The result in either case is the same you have children being religiously coerced in schools, and you have the government favoring a very specific religious translation above all others. So I would say the outcome is unconstitutional in either way, Kempf said. Which, and whose, Ten Commandments? SB 10 requires schools use specific text for their Ten Commandments posters, which Kempf identified as an additional problem with it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a Protestant translation we heard from a lot of concerned Texas families that even in their religious traditions that do recognize the 10 Commandments, their versions are meaningfully different than the version that the Texas Legislature chose here, she said. Earlier in the legislative session, 166 faith leaders in Texas signed a letter of opposition against SB 10. The responsibility for religious education belongs to families, houses of worship, and other religious institutions not the government, the letter reads. The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text. In fact, the biblical books of Exodus and Deuteronomy contain a total of three different versions of the Ten Commandments. These passages also vary by religion and translation: The King James Version (KJV) of Exodus 20:13 reads, thou shall not kill, while the New International Version of the same verse reads you shall not murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SB 10s version is also found on a monument outside the Texas State Capitol. A legal challenge over that monument went before the US Supreme Court in 2005, with SCOTUS ruling in Texas favor, allowing the monument to remain as it constituted a passive display. The placement of the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds is a far more passive use of those texts than was the case in Stone, where the text confronted elementary school students every day, wrote former Justice William Rehnquist in the courts opinion. The Ten Commandments Monument outside the Texas State Capitol (KXAN Photo/Daniel Marin) The monuments and SB 10s take on the Ten Commandments appear to be cut-down from the King James Version of the Christian Bible, removing some text and changing thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife nor his ox, nor his ass, to thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife nor his cattle, . 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. Last month, as the 2025 climbing season began on Mount Everest , Nepals upper house of Parliament introduced a tourism bill that includes a suite of new rules that would significantly raise the bar for who is allowed to attempt the mountain, who can guide, and how much it will cost. This years proposal includes a mandate that Everest hopefuls must first climb a 7,000-meter peak located in Nepal, as well as requirements for all guides to be Nepalese citizens, for medical certificates confirming good health to be obtained from approved in-country facilities, new garbage fees, and insurance to cover the costly removal of dead bodies from the mountain. The Washington Post reported that the cost of removing a dead body from Mount Everest ranges anywhere between $30,000-$70,000. Announcements like this happen almost every year: The government floats new rules intended to improve safety and accountability on the peak, such as banning solo climbers and helicopters, or requiring tracking chips and feces removal. But theyre rarely implemented. This is due to pushback from guiding companies, and an inability to pass the proposed legislation. The current bill is still in draft form and would still need to go through both houses of Parliament, meaning that changes are likely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (National Geographic crew finds clues to Everests lost explorer, Sandy Irvin e ) A high-altitude expedition team crosses a crevasse on Mount Everest. Photograph by Mark Fisher, Nat Geo Image Collection The most controversial rules are the 7,000-meter peak requirement and the Nepali guide requirement. Both rules have been proposed before, or are very similar to previous proposals, but have never been passed into law. According to Lakpa Rita Sherpa, who guided on Mount Everest for two decades and has summited the peak 17 times, some of these new ideas are generally goodsuch as making sure climbers have some experience at altitudebut similar ones have been proposed in the past and theyve never been passed or enforced. He cited the difficulty of implementing these rules, which would require the government to track compliance across hundreds of companies and climbers, amidst high turnover in the Ministry of Tourism and the prevalence of bribery in the country. (The Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on alleged bribery in Nepal.) The reason they do it is to promote business, and to give the impression that theyre trying to make mountain climbing in Nepal safer in order to attract more people to come, said Alan Arnette, who summited Everest in 2011 and is a longtime Everest blogger, and who has been keeping track of these annual rule proposals for over a decade. The reason that it doesn't get implemented is because the operators don't follow the rules, and then the government doesn't enforce the rulesbecause everybody knows that if they enforce some of these rules that it would cause business to drop. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and the Nepal Tourism Board did not respond to requests for comment. Helicopters land and take off from the heli pad at Base Camp amidst rescues of injured climbers from Camp 2. Photograph by Max Lowe, Nat Geo Image Collecion Safety vs. tourism dollars Tourism is one of the largest industries in Nepal , and Mount Everestthe worlds tallest peakis its crown jewel. According to the most recent tourism data, there are 374 climbers from 49 countries on Mount Everest this year, which has generated $4 million in royalties from permit fees alone. (Compared to $2.48 million for 359 people in 2015). As high numbers of climbers continue to flock to the peak each year, the country reaps economic benefits but also has to reckon with the issues it bringslike on-mountain traffic jams , issues with trash and waste management , and increased fatalities . In 2023, 18 climbers died on Everest , and in 2024 eight climbers died. Some of the most common causes of death on the mountain are acute mountain sickness (AMS), falls, illness/exhaustion, disappearance, and avalanches. With an increased number of people on the mountain, support staff must ferry a higher volume of gear through the dangerous Khumbu Icefallthe location of an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas in 2015 while they were doing just that. (Microplastics found near Everests peak) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That same year, citing safety reasons, Alpenglow Expeditions moved its Everest expeditions from the South Side of the peak in Nepal to the North Side, in Tibet, writing that the Nepalese side has become overcrowded with inexperienced team members and unqualified guides. The North Side is far less crowded and far more rigid when it comes to rules, said Lakpa Rita. In China, you have to follow the rules no matter what, he said. If you dont follow them, you wont get a permit to climb. ExplorersWeb reported in September 2024 rules set by the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) that stipulate climbers must submit a climbing resume and medical certificate, have climbed a 7,000-meter peak, be accompanied by a professional mountain guide, and use oxygen above 7,000 meters. (In 2016, Melissa Arnot Reid became the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. She climbed from the Tibet side.) Two climbers participate in an early morning trek in the Khumbu Icefall with Pumori Peak illuminated in the background. Photograph by Eric Daft, Nat Geo Image Collection An expedition member steps across a bridge of aluminum ladders lashed together above a crevasse in the Khumbu Icefall. Photograph by Andy Bardon, Nat Geo Image Collection 7,000-meter experience requirement One of the more controversial proposals is that climbers must have successfully summited one of the 7,000-meter peaks within Nepal before attempting Everest. This rule would not count summits of 7,000-meter peaks in other countries, such as Denali or Aconcagua, or the popular prep climb of Nepals Ama Dablam (just shy of the requirement at 6,812 meters). While the aim is to ensure that only those with proven high-altitude experience are allowed on the mountain following several deadly seasons marked by overcrowding and underprepared clients, Arnette said that many of the accepted 7,000-meter peaks are remote and dangerous. They include peaks like Annapurna IV, Api Himal, Tilicho Peak, and Baruntse. There should be leeway for popular peaks, like Denali and Aconcagua to count toward this requirement, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reaction from the climbing community has been positive in regard to increasing the experience level of Everest hopefuls, and the pushback is mostly around the specifics of the rule and which peaks count. Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering told CNN that a 6,500-meter anywhere in the world would be a better idea. We are generally in favor of any rules that would increase the skills and experience of aspiring Everest climbers, said Suze Kelly, Director of Adventure Consultants, a New Zealand-based guiding company. And would thus discourage people from rocking up with the approach that they can attempt the summit with no prior experience, as we see each year with many of the low-cost outfitters who are prolific in Nepal. There have been many articles written about inexperienced climbers on the peak putting themselves or others in dangerLakpa Rita Sherpa said hes seen people whove never put on a crampon before who come to attempt the summit. This type of climbing prerequisite has been floated a few times over the past 30 years, with the government proposing a requirement for climbers to summit a 6,000-meter peak before Everest. The rule was discarded following pushback from expedition companies and climbers. The reason people dont want to cut the numbers on Everest is theyre worried theyll lose work, said Lakpa Rita, who has spoken with officials in the past to find ways to address overcrowding. Its all about the money. (What to know about climbing the worlds tallest mountain) Medical screenings All climbers would need to submit a medical certificate from within the last month, and from a government-approved medical institution in Nepal to confirm theyre in good health. This would require a person to pay for an expedition, travel to Nepal, and perhaps be told theyre not in good enough health to climb. Arnette thinks that regardless of the law, its a good idea to get a rigorous health check prior to climbinglike a cardiac stress test for climbers over 50, and a check of iron levels for female climbers. Head lamps illuminate the path that climbers take as they move up the Khumbu Icefall above Everest Base Camp in the early morning hours. Photograph by Brittany Mumma, Nat Geo Image Collection Nepali guides The rule that sirdars (head Sherpa), high-altitude guides, and helpers on expeditions must be Nepali citizens has been proposed before, and similar policies exist in other countries with high-altitude tourism (Ecuador has a similar mandate requiring the use of local guides on certain peaks). On Washingtons Mount Rainier, there are only three American guide services that are allowed to operate on the mountain and 15 guide services that can apply for single trips on the mountain. Lakpa Rita appreciates that proposals like this would give a Nepalese guide or employee better opportunities, and the ability to make more money, but emphasized that it would be difficult to monitor and enforce. New routes and records If attempting a new route on Mount Everest, climbers must get permission from the Ministry of Tourism. Climbers must stick to that route and can only reroute in case of an emergency and with the approval of a government liaison officer. Climbers who are attempting any kind of record must declare it in advance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (Tidying up the top of the world) Death insurance and garbage fee A new insurance requirement will cover the costly, and often dangerous, removal of dead bodies from the mountain. And to better address the problem of trash on the mountain, the $4,000 refundable garbage deposit will be replaced with a non-refundable garbage fee, and the Ministry of Tourism will manage and remove trash from the peak. According to Lakpa Rita, rules like this that focus on the compliance of expedition companies versus tracking medical and summit certificates for each individual climber, are more likely to succeed. A rule that Lakpa Rita said is being applied is the recent requirement to bring feces off the mountain using human waste bags. He said he did video chats with local officials to tell them how to execute this. When he was sirdar for Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International he required his Sherpas to use these bags on the mountain, even before any rules were in place. For things like this to work, he said, the expedition companies have to be very honest. In 2015 the Washington Post reported that climbers were leaving some 26,500 pounds of feces every season, calling the peak a fecal time bomb. Whether any of the recent proposals will be implementedand more importantly, enforcedremains uncertain. Arnette encourages climbers to take a look at the proposed rules, decide what makes sense personally, and figure out how to apply them yourself. Many guiding companies, like Alpine Ascents International and Furtenbach Adventures , already require their Everest clients to have high-altitude experience. For now, this season on Everest is coming to a close. Arnette wrote on his blog that total Everest summits, from both sides of the peak, total at least 525 people. Sonal Schneider contributed additional research. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The authorized capital of Aztelekom LLC, operating under the Azerbaijan Transport and Communication Holding (AZCON), has been increased 2.9 times from 43.2 million manat ($25.5 million) to 65.8 million manat ($38.9 million), Trend reports. This decision was made today. To note, recently, Aztelekom LLC was reorganized through the merger of Baku Telephone Communication LLC, AzEvroTel LLC, the International Automatic Telephone Station of the Aztelekom Production Union under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan, the Ganja Telecommunications Department, Azerrabitalayiha LLC, and the Sumqayit Telecommunications Node. In 1992, the "Aztelekom" Production Union was established on the basis of the Telephone Communications Production Union to provide a variety of telecommunications services throughout the Republic. "Aztelekom's" Internet provider was founded in response to the demands and wants of the regional people for access to the Internet. Today," Aztelekom" implements a variety of initiatives and steps to provide broadband Internet services in all regions of the Republic, including distant villages, to assure the convenience of the population. In 2005, "Aztelekom" launched a portable telephone - CDMA wireless communications serviceto improve citizen communications over landline telephones. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Top stories on the Friday, May 30, 2025 edition of Jacksonvilles Morning News: Afternoon storms packed a punch. First Alert Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh says a tornado was spotted near Liberty Pines Academy and 9B and St. Johns Parkway in the Durbin area. A National Weather Service survey team will investigate the tornado strength this morning. The Loop in Nocatee sustained some damage to its patio, and several thousand people in Clay County lost power. A few afternoon and evening storms are expected before a drier weekend. Clouds will decrease early Saturday and give way to sunshine for the bulk of the day. Lower humidity for the weekend. Hurricane season starts this Sunday, June 1. WOKV will present First Alert Weather, Preparing for the Storm on Monday at 9:00 am. Listen for helpful tips to prepare your home, business, or church before storms even develop. Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh will offer insight from communities that were devastated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Three Big Things to Know: A new legal battle over immigration. Jacksonvilles top attorney is advising JSO not to enforce state and local immigration laws making it a crime to be in the state and county without legal status in the country. Recall Mayor Donna Deegan refused to sign the local immigration bill over concerns it may be unconstitutional, and instead let it go into effect without her signature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Construction alert: Tonight, road crews will be working to replace finger joints on the Buckman Bridge. FDOT is also working on partial coatings and steel work along the West Beltway. Most of the work will happen overnight and on the weekends. But eventually they will take the bridge down to one lane. No FULL closures are planned. The $5.4 million project is expected to be completed in early 2026, weather and unforeseen circumstances permitting. Today marks two weeks since a fire tore through the hourly parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport and some drivers say theyre in limbo. While the state fire marshal investigates the origin and cause of the fire, an attorney representing several driver says the statute of limitations in Florida is two years, so they have plenty of time to decide whether to sue. The Jacksonville Aviation Authority says most impacted drivers have been contacted, but theyre still working to contact the rest. A missing woman from out of state has been safely rescued in Florida. Chase Robinson joins Jacksonvilles Morning News to share details of how a tip to First Coast Crime Stoppers contributed in her recovery, and why every tip matters. If you have tips, call 866-845-TIPS (8477). The Wildlife Wanderer Curtis Dvorak joins Jacksonvilles Morning News with updates on renovations at the Jacksonville Zoo & Botanical Gardens, including a new entrance, new branding, and a new Summer event -- Tunes and Blooms! Closing statements began Thursday in the Scott County double-homicide trial of Adriana Blake. District Court Judge Stuart Werling read a lengthy list of jury instructions to the court. These instructions help the jury know what evidence they can consider, how to ask questions about the case and how to determine guilt or innocence. Adriana Blake (Prieto) (Scott County Jail) Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham started closing arguments for the state just after 2 p.m. Closing statements are not considered evidence, so the jury could not take notes on the statements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said the jury has received a lot of information during the trial and explained the 90-plus pages of jury instructions further. She reviewed the charges against Blake, from felonies to misdemeanors. Cunningham said pathologists determine cause and manner of death during autopsies. Pathologists identified the two deaths involved as homicides and said that they died from the gunshots. She said there is no specific length of time that defines premeditated the time could be seconds. Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham (Linda Cook) Cunningham reviewed the differences between evidence and circumstantial evidence and how both should be considered. She also brought up evidence and testimony given by witnesses earlier in the trial. The defense will present its closing arguments Friday. After closing arguments, the case will go to the jury. Two homicides and a fire in 2024 In January 2024, Brian Goodwin, 44, and Amy Smith, 44, were found dead after a fire in a home on the 5200 block of Division Street. Both had been shot, investigators found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In connection with the incident, Blake faces two charges of first-degree murder, a Class A felony; two charges of first-degree robbery, a Class B felony; two charges of assault while participating in a felony, a Class C felony; dominion and control of a firearm by a felon, a Class D felony; two charges of going armed with intent, a Class D felony; two charges of abuse of a corpse mutilate/dismember to hide a crime, a Class C felony; and first-degree arson, a Class B felony; along with misdemeanor charges. Devon Braet (Scott County Jail) A co-defendant, Devon Braet, will be tried separately 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. Delta Extractions license revocation is the center of a lawsuit playing out in St. Louis courts between a complex web of shareholders seeking to snatch back ownership of a Waynesville facility (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent). When the company at the center of a massive cannabis product recall lost the appeal of its revoked business license in February, Missouri regulators moved quickly to ensure those involved would no longer be permitted access to a marijuana facility without supervision. But that punishment doesnt mean those involved with Robertsville-manufacturer Delta Extraction are out of the Missouri marijuana industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, long after the state initially stripped Delta Extraction of its license in November 2023, regulators approved one of the companys co-owners AJO LLC to take over a cultivation and manufacturing facility in Waynesville in May 2024. Its a far bigger operation than Delta Extraction, and it also involves several dispensaries as well. AJO LLC says it was only a passive investor in Delta Extraction, where it owns 50%. The company claims it bought 50% of the Waynesville facility in 2022 and has been running it while awaiting approval of the license transfer last year. But now Deltas license revocation is the center of a lawsuit playing out in St. Louis courts between a complex web of shareholders seeking to snatch back ownership of the Waynesville facility from AJO. They argue the state shouldnt have given its final approval for the ownership change because of AJOs involvement in a company that had a marijuana license revoked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the department that oversees the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation, said the constitution does allow regulators to deny approval for ownership changes if approval is not unreasonably withheld. However, in May 2024, Cox said Deltas appeal of its license revocation was still pending. The final verdict didnt come down until nine months later. The totality of the circumstances at the time, including the nature of the ownership change, was not sufficient cause to deny the change, Cox said. Cox also said the states administrative rules which the division drafts to interpret the constitutions intent and that take months to pass currently do not prohibit individuals who have had a license revoked from acquiring another license. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The division, Cox said, is reviewing its rules to add further detail to this authority. Agent ID revocations A scathing 137-page decision issued in February by the Administrative Hearing Commission denying Deltas appeal of its revoked license concluded the company had a corporate culture of lax compliance with regulatory requirements. Regulators are permitted to revoke agent ID cards for individuals who violate the rules. No one without an agent ID can access a marijuana facility without supervision of someone with a card, though you dont need one to own or run facilities. Within weeks of the Administrative Hearing Commissions February decision, Cox said the state revoked several agent IDs for involvement in rule violations associated with Delta Extraction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, cannabis regulators issued AJO principal Josh Corson a notice of pending revocation of his agent ID card, according to documents The Independent obtained through Missouris Sunshine Law. The notice stated that as an owner and manager of Delta Extraction, he was responsible for 17 cited rule violations, including manufacturing and selling bulk distillate in a false or misleading manner due to the failure to disclose that the distillate contained large quantities of unregulated cannabis. Corson surrendered his agent ID license shortly after receiving the notice, and the other two AJO owners Ryan Rich and Josh Ferguson have let their agent IDs expire, Cox said. Cannabis regulators revoked the agent ID cards of four of Deltas contractors as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AJO has been helping run the Waynesville operation since 2022 with Hi-Rise LLC, which is the other 50% owner. Hi-Rise has no ownership interest in Delta Extraction. Peter Barden, a spokesman for AJO and Hi-Rise, said the companies provided complete information about the owners to the state for the license transfer. In response to Corsons agent ID revocation, Barden said AJO was not managing the Delta Extraction facility. It was a passive investor, and no action of AJO has ever been the basis of any revocation. Yet pages of evidence in the Delta Extraction case including emails, depositions and testimonies from high-level employees appear to demonstrate AJO was fully involved in Deltas operations and even initiated the arrangement that led to their revocation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barden said AJO certainly monitors its investments but has not actively managed any manufacturing or cultivation license. AJOs lawsuit Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis (Clara Bates/Missouri Independent). Charles Pullium stood before a St. Louis judge in February in an emergency hearing, anxious to share what he believed would be a smoking-gun update in his lawsuit. It was just days after Delta Extraction had lost its appeal seeking to get its license to manufacture marijuana products reinstated. Pullium is an attorney representing a group hoping to wrestle the Waynesville manufacturing and cultivation license away from AJO and Hi-Rise. If Delta Extraction violated state law to the point where its license was revoked, Pullium argued, its leadership shouldnt have won state approval to operate a different cannabis facility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a huge case because it involves the revocation of a license, Pullium told St. Louis Judge Joan Moriarty at the February hearing. And why its important in this case is because when people apply for a new change of ownership they have to answer, Have any of you or your owners or anyone had a license revoked or suspended? Pullium argued the Delta revocation was key to settling a three-year legal ownership battle, which ended up in St. Louis court in 2023 when AJO and Hi-Rise filed a lawsuit. On one side of the legal battle are AJO and Hi-Rise. On the other side are 19 named individuals and marijuana companies connected to the deal, including St. Louis-based marijuana company Heya, former Missouri House Speaker Carl Bearden and Delphi Management LLC. They argue the 2022 sale to AJO and Hi-Rise was invalid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moriarty disagreed the new information was worth holding an emergency hearing for and made Pulliums client pay $3,037.50 in attorney fees for AJO and Hi-Rise, which are represented by Dowd Bennett law firm. The lawsuit is ongoing. In January, Scott Sterling, who is involved in the tangled ownership web, filed two complaints with the Division of Cannabis Regulation, alleging that AJO did not provide all the information necessary for the transfer. One crucial detail left out, Sterling contends, is that he never signed off on any sale as a 40% owner. The division has opened an investigation into Sterlings complaint, Cox said, and it is ongoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barden said the Waynesville location is legally owned by AJO and Hi-Rise and current ownership has never had a license revoked. a made for T.V. drama One of Pulliums motions in January returned the spotlight to Jason Sparks, one of Delta Extractions contractors. The facts underlying the Delta scandal read like a made for T.V. drama, the motion states, a prior felon buys out-of-state products from a nameless and unknown network which he then illegally turns into uncertified product which he then sells to a complicit Delta, who then illegally sells to unsuspecting dispensaries Sparks was among the four contractors that had their agent IDs revoked in March, and he has a disqualifying felony on his record that was overlooked by the state when he obtained that ID. However, Sparks directs the blame largely at Corson in legal filings in his company SND Leasings lawsuit against Delta Extraction. In the spring of 2023, the supply for marijuana distillate was low across the state and Delta hired Sparks to make large amounts of distillate that Delta sold to about 100 other Missouri manufacturers. Those manufacturers went on to produce gummies and vapes for their brands, which is why the product recall was so widespread. At issue was whats in the distillate. Sparks extracted a small amount of THC from Missouri-grown marijuana, which the state heavily regulates. Then he added a large amount of THC oil that was extracted from hemp, a product that is completely unregulated. Regulators pulled 60,000 products off the shelves in August 2023, arguing the use of out-of-state, unregulated THC oil violated state law and posed a public health risk. Corson was the person who found the supply for the distillate, a January motion in Sparks lawsuit states, and he was the one who signed the contracts. In his lawsuit, Sparks points to the testimony from Deltas COO Rachel Herndon Dunn during an Administrative Hearing Commission hearing in March 2024. Dunn testified that Corson reached out to a large cannabinoid-producing facility in Florida to obtain the hemp-derived THC oil needed to make their recalled distillate. Corson went down to tour their labs in Ft. Lauderdale Dunn said during the hearing. Sparks claims Delta leadership reassured him that cannabis regulators signed off on the extraction process. The reality is that (the state) never gave assurances of regulatory compliance, the suit states. Delta argued hemp is not a federally controlled substance and the state has no authority to regulate hemp-derived THC products an argument they lost in their appeal. Also, the products went through a final round of testing before they hit the shelves, Delta noted, so they didnt pose a health risk. Despite the ownership connection to Delta, state regulators told The Independent theyve found no evidence of similar practices taking place at the Waynesville facility. "Enough with the lies and accusations lets work together to make sure the aid reaches civilians, not Hamas," COGAT said on X. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) accused UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric of lying about UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher's recent visits to Gaza and the UN's framing of the Gaza humanitarian aid issue. COGAT noted that while Dujarric claimed Fletcher had seen Gaza "with his own eyes a few weeks ago," the UN official had actually not visited the enclave since February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Let's stop focusing on aid that might be in the pipeline, and start collecting the content of the 550 trucks already waiting for you inside Gaza," COGAT wrote. "For a full week now, weve been offering you alternative routes to facilitate pickup. These are are areas with active military activities, and coordination is for your own safety. "Enough with the lies and accusations lets work together to make sure the aid reaches civilians, not Hamas." According to the IDF, close to 900 trucks of aid were let through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, but due to the UN and Hamas, the trucks remain sitting there on the Gazan side of the border. The IDF said that because the UN would rather cooperate with Hamas instead of Israel, the aid does not get distributed properly. COGAT called Tom Fletcher's misinformation libelous Fletcher was previously criticized for claiming that aid trucks were piling up outside the Gaza Strip, which COGAT claimed was misinformation and stressed efforts to criticize Israel were coming at the expense of improving the humanitarian conditions within the Gaza Strip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve got 10,000 trucks on the border right now, cleared [and] ready to go, and well do everything to get them in and save lives, Fletcher told CNNs Christine Amanpour in an interview. When she repeated the number back to him incredulously, Fletcher nodded and replied, Full of food. COGAT posted the video on X/Twitter, saying, Look, its @UNReliefChief with another libelous lie. There are no 10,000 trucks waiting to go into Gaza. What there are, are hundreds of trucks worth of aid the UN hasnt picked up from the Gazan side over the last few days after we gave you plenty of routes you can use to safely distribute the aid throughout Gaza. COLCHESTER, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) Students, faculty and staff were all safely evacuated following a report of smoke and fire alarm activation Thursday afternoon. Crews were dispatched to Colchester High School at about 1:30 p.m. At the scene, school-workers said they noticed smoke coming from the kitchen, and manually activated the fire alarm as a result. Firefighters say they discovered a malfunctioning piece of technical equipment, the source of this smoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The issues was isolated by fire crews, working with Green Mountain Power and CHS staff. 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. The video above is from the archives: A report on Oct. 7, 2002, on Annie Griffins murder. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) To Annitra Griffin, her late mothers presence is so strong that she still speaks of her in the present tense. Her mother, Annie Griffin, she said, IS full of energy, and IS funny. Annie and Annitra had their issues, especially when Annitra moved to Columbus in the late 90s to escape the violence that was gripping Youngstown, but mother and daughter had been on the path toward healing for at least a year and a half before Annie went missing in September 2002. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Annies body was found Oct. 4, 2002, in several garbage bags at a site often used for dumping at Carson Street and Cantwell Avenue on the Sharon Line part of the East Side, a place where several bodies had been dumped during the 90s and the early part of the 2000s. Annie, who was 48 when she died, battled mental health and addiction issues stemming from toxic relationships. Still living in Columbus today, Annitra, 48, said their relationship was on the verge of being revived when Annie was killed. I was loving my mom again and she was loving who I was, said Annitra, who still lives in Columbus and has five children of her own. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Annie had four children, but Annitra was her only girl. She was a graduate of South High School, and Annies mother, Willie Mae McGilvary, owned the former Willie Maes Soul Kitchen at 1184 Hillman St., which has since been torn down. The restaurant had its own share of violence. According to Youngstown Vindicator files, Annitras grandmother in 1990 shot a customer who stabbed an employee. The employee died of their wounds. And in 1990, a man was shot and killed there. According to The Vindicator, McGilvary had a son who was murdered in a shootout in 1973. Annie was a native South Sider, and her kids lived there also; Annitra graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School before she moved to Columbus. She said her brothers were getting in trouble, and the city, which saw an average of almost 50 homicides a year in the 1990s, was not safe, so when she got pregnant, she decided the right thing to do for her and her child was to move. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just didnt want my son in Youngstown, she said. Annie was not pleased that her daughter was moving, and that set in motion a rift that was just beginning to be repaired when she was killed. Annie was last seen Sept. 17, 2002, by her boyfriend at the time. Annitra reported her missing. Her remains were found Oct. 4, 2002, but she was not identified until several days later. Dental records needed to be used because of the condition of her body. It was Annitra whom the police asked for permission to get her mothers dental records. She said even before she spoke on the phone, once she got the call, she knew the news would be bad. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I already knew what it was, she said. Annies car was found the day after she was last seen on West Delason Avenue, a short distance from her home on East Philadelphia Avenue. As she went missing, family members took to the media, including WKBN, to plead for any more information as to where she might be. Police got a tip from city litter control workers about the strange bags dumped on the Sharon Line a few days after the family went on television, which is when Annies remains were found. Coroners investigators could never determine the cause of death because of the condition of her body. Annitra said the way her mother was dismembered was a slap in the face to her and her family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How can they disrespect her remains like that? she asked. Its ridiculous. Its terrible. Former Chief of Detectives Capt. Robert Kane told The Vindicator Annies death was a first for him in his then 32 years on the job because of how her body was disposed of. It takes a very sick mind to desecrate a body, Kane told the newspaper then. The case was so shocking that a year after her remains were found, police went to the media to ask the public for information. They never received enough to reopen the case. Annitra said she reached out to a reporter about the case now because the memories of her mother are still powerful, and she wants whoever took part in her murder to be prosecuted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just feel like everyone forgot who she is or was, Annitra said. Anyone with information on the 2002 murder of Annie Griffin can call the Youngstown Police Detective Bureau at 330-742-8911 or CrimeStoppers Youngstown at 330-746-CLUE. This story is part of a series of cold cases that WKBN is examining. Do you have a cold case that youd like us to look into further? Submit a cold case to WKBN. Annitra also spoke with WKBN in 2002 about the case. You can see that video from our archives below: 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. Vice Chancellor Lisa Johnson provides the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education an update on measles May 29, 2025, in Bismarck. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota colleges are being advised to assess their risk and campus policies as the number of measles cases continues to grow in the state. Burke County on Thursday became the fourth North Dakota county with a confirmed measles case, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grand Forks County reported another measles case Friday, bringing the state total to 29 cases, the most for the potentially fatal disease since 1978. The health department, on its measles information website, added two additional exposure locations in Crosby in Divide County, which neighbors Burke County. The State Board of Higher Education on Thursday discussed the measles outbreak as campuses prepare to host summer youth camps and tours for prospective students. Campuses have expressed concerns about camps that they run in the summer, Vice Chancellor Lisa Johnson said in an update for the board. She noted that many campuses also are home to a child care facility. Only four of the 29 people in North Dakota who have contracted measles since May 2 are over age 19, according to the state health agency. Williams County was the first to report a measles case, followed by Cass and Grand Forks. All 29 people were unvaccinated, according to state officials. Two hospitalizations have now been reported, one in Cass and the other in Grand Forks County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson encouraged the 11 schools in the North Dakota University System to assess how many unvaccinated people are on campuses and consider being proactive. One thing that we can do as campuses is reach out to your local health providers, health department and doing some sort of vaccine clinic, Johnson said. Johnson encouraged campuses to get a handle on who is and is not vaccinated through voluntary self-reporting. If there are students in campus housing and on meal plans who are required to self-isolate because of a measles exposure, colleges will need to have a plan for providing meals and other accommodations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said that exemptions from vaccination requirements have become easier to obtain in recent years. She said she recognized that campuses are probably not eager to mandate vaccinations and then have to deal with exemption requests. Board member Casey Ryan of Grand Forks is a retired doctor. He noted the long incubation time of the measles virus, allowing people who dont realize they are infected to spread the disease. You really have to push the vaccination, Ryan said. I understand its a personal choice. Interim Chancellor Brent Sanford said the good news is that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is effective and readily available and that vaccination rate among adults in most areas of the state is high. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) A social media post from Colorado State Patrol Boulder has people weighing in about street racing, reckless driving and what should be done to enforce it. Measles case confirmed in vaccinated Coloradan who flew into DIA The need for speed in the metro area is a sound haunting a number of residents in the Lowry and Aurora area. Its troublesome, its dangerous, I wish they would do it somewhere else, Bill, a Lowry resident, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You hear the noise every night, Aurora resident Ed told FOX31. Weve got a school right down the street from where we live. And Ive had people going by my house at 72 miles an hour and probably a 25 or 30 mile an hour zone. In total, throughout 2024, the Colorado State Patrol said citizens made almost 2,000 street racing complaints on the Street Racing Working Groups website, while many more complaints were made to local police. Street racing it is a big problem in Boulder, CSP trooper Sherri Mendez said. Mendez told FOX31 street racing reports to CSP doubled so far this year, compared to the same time frame last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOX31 asked about how impounding enforcement works currently. If the officer sees the crime, they can tow the vehicle or impound the vehicle and hold it, hold it as evidence, Mendez said. But its all on whatever is happening or whats going on. The totality of the circumstances, meaning everything thats going on with the investigation. We cant just take a vehicle because someone complained about it, because they have to identify a driver. CSP Boulder posted this public survey poll on X. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 500 people voted: 70% voted yes 16% voted no 13% voted depends on the safeguards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These vehicles ought to be impounded immediately, Ed said. And if it were up to me, theyd be impounded for a damn long time. Is your name Ryan? Denver meetup seeks to set world record at Rockies game Joey Williams is a part of the car enthusiast community in Colorado. He works to organize events called chill-ins where people can show off their cars on the infield of the speedway instead of out on the street. FOX31 asked for his take on the survey. Them impounding the car and taking it from someone, I do not have a problem with that at all, Williams said. Same thing where we tell people if you obey the law, the police, in theory, shouldnt do anything. If youre going to a car meet-up and youre going from one spot to the next, youre just cruising. You should have no problem getting from point A to point B without getting in trouble. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can report street racing on the Report Street Racing 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 FOX31 Denver. The Byron Rogers Federal Building, which houses the Department of Justice's Denver Immigration Court, is pictured on Jan. 21, 2021. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline) Colorado immigrant rights advocates expressed outrage over the Thursday arrest of a family of three outside a federal immigration court in Denver, calling the tactic an escalation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that will punish immigrants who comply with the law by attending their scheduled court hearings. Emily Brock, an attorney with the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, witnessed the arrest of the family, including a 1-year-old child, shortly after they attended their hearing at the Department of Justices Denver Immigration Court at 1961 Stout St. Six unidentified plainclothes officers surrounded the family, according to the Colorado Rapid Response Network, a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups. The officers refused to let Brock speak with the family about their rights before they were taken away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a parent, I cannot imagine the terror these parents experienced as the officers surrounded them with their child in their arms and told them they were to go with them, she said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX As the officers got closer, the little boys arms clung tighter around his fathers neck, Brock added. To take enforcement action against a family following the rules, attending their proceedings, is an attack on due process and serves only to instigate increased levels of fear in the community. The arrest at a federal courthouse in Denver appears to be part of a nationwide policy shift by ICE as President Donald Trumps administration moves to carry out unprecedented mass deportations of as many as 12 million immigrants in the U.S. who lack permanent legal status. Federal immigration agents have long avoided such arrests so as not to deter immigrants from going through lawful court proceedings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But over the last week, an aggressive new initiative by ICE has abruptly reversed that policy, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times. Christina Brown, an immigration attorney and founder of the Colorado Asylum Center, said that such a policy will force immigrant families to make an impossible choice whether to attend court and face possible arbitrary mandatory months-long detention, family separation and the prospect of arguing your case from inside detention, or not appear in court and face certain targeting for deportation by ICE. Denvers ICE field office did not immediately respond to questions Friday about the arrest and where the family was being held. Colorados only immigrant detention center, in Aurora, is an adults-only facility. Under Trump, multiple ICE facilities across the country have been reopened for family detention, a practice that had largely ended under former President Joe Biden. Detaining an entire family including a baby after they did exactly what was asked of them shows how far ICE will go to punish people simply for trying to stay together and follow the law, said Raquel Lane-Arellano, communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. This is a deliberate attempt to scare our communities out of the courtroom and into the shadows. But we wont back down we will keep showing up for each other, demanding justice, and holding those in power accountable. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE DENVER (KDVR) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a sanctuary jurisdiction list of areas across the country, including several cities and counties in Colorado, that are allegedly defying immigration laws. On Thursday, the department posted a list of more than 500 jurisdictions across the country on its website as part of the executive order Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens. The department said the order requires a list of jurisdictions obstructing federal immigration laws, also known as sanctuary jurisdictions. Colorado House passes immigration protections after DOJ sues for sanctuary policies Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanctuary jurisdictions are considered cities, counties and states that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws and protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences, according to the department. This list comes about a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order cracking down on immigration laws. Border Czar Tom Homan said during a press conference when the order was signed that sanctuary cities are going to be sued by the Trump administration for not following the immigration laws. These Colorado areas are reportedly sanctuary jurisdictions The list was created to identify these jurisdictions. The department said it used factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions and legal protections for illegal aliens to determine the list. Colorado was listed as self-identifying as a state sanctuary jurisdiction. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has testified on Capitol Hill on sanctuary city policies, but the city has never formally taken on the title of a sanctuary city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boebert claims Johnston proved Denver is a sanctuary city; advocates voice support of such policies Meanwhile, several other Colorado cities and counties were also included on the sanctuary jurisdiction list. Since Friday morning, some counties have already been taken off the list. Heres which Colorado jurisdictions are on the list, as of May 30 at 11:50 a.m.: Counties Adams County Arapahoe County Baca County Bent County Boulder County Broomfield County Chafee County Cheyenne County Clear Creek County Conejos County Costilla County Custer County Denver County Eagle County Garfield County Gilpin County Gunnison County Huerfano County Jefferson County Kiowa County Kit Carson County La Plata County Lake County Larimer County Las Animas County Lincoln County Logan County Morgan County Otero County Park County Pitkin County Prowers County Pueblo County Rio Grande County Saguache County San Miguel County Summit County Washington County Yuma County Cities Boulder City of Durango City of Fort Collins Denver Lafeyette Lakewood Longmont Northglenn Town of Avon Town of Basalt Town of Carbondale Town of Dillon Town of Eagle Town of Vail Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The department said the listed jurisdictions will receive a formal notification of their non-compliance, and demands that the jurisdictions review and revise their polices to comply with the federal immigration laws. 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. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The opening of Lachin International Airport on May 28 - Independence Day - is a feather in the cap for Azerbaijans statehood and territorial integrity. Not only will the airport smooth out the wrinkles in logistics and transportation, but its also set to open the floodgates for economic growth and tourism in the strategically vital Lachin district. The opening of an international-standard airport in a strategically important region like Lachin is expected to yield multiple positive outcomes. The facility is poised to be a game changer in boosting investment inflows, creating jobs, and raising the bar for the quality of life for local residents. In parallel, the breathtaking landscapes, historical landmarks, and rich cultural heritage of Karabakh position the region as a highly attractive destination for travelers. In this context, improved air access is anticipated to inject new energy into the tourism industry. Economists are singing the praises of the airport nestled in the mountainous terrain of Lachin, which serves as a lifeline for reliable and secure transportation, especially when winter throws a wrench in the works. They further emphasize that the facility will not only strengthen internal connectivity between Lachin and other regions of Azerbaijan but also unlock new avenues for international freight and passenger transport, reinforcing the regions integration into broader economic and logistical networks. Economist Eldeniz Amirov told Trend that the establishment of any functional infrastructure in a given region typically serves as a catalyst for increased economic activity. Amirov noted that even military installations tend to stimulate the local economy where they are based. In this context, the commissioning of the Lachin airport will enhance the logistical capacity not only of Lachin itself but also of the neighboring districts of Kalbajar and the surrounding areas. It will help stimulate trade flows and position the region as a hub for both cargo and passenger transportation. Moreover, the new airport is expected to significantly boost the development of tourism and related service sectors. In parallel, it will directly and indirectly drive the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises across various industries, he noted. The economist emphasized that infrastructure projects such as airports play a pivotal role in stimulating regional employment and long-term economic resilience. One of the most significant advantages of Lachin International Airport is its ability to enhance the regions investment appeal. Access to reliable transport and logistics infrastructure remains a key criterion for investors when evaluating potential locations," Amirov noted. With the opening of Lachin International Airport, Azerbaijans network of international airports has expanded to nine. The airports foundation was laid in 2021 by President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. Equipped with a 3,000-meter-long and 60-meter-wide runway, the airport is capable of handling all classes of aircraft. Its terminal, covering 5,000 square meters, is designed to accommodate a minimum of 200 passengers per hour. Located in the village of Gorchu in the Lachin district, at an altitude of 1,700 meters above sea level, the airport spans more than 130 hectaresmaking it the highest-altitude airport in Azerbaijan. Strategically positioned just 30 kilometers from Lachin city, 70 kilometers from Shusha, and 60 kilometers from Kalbajar, the facility is expected to serve as a key transit hub, enhancing connectivity across the Karabakh and East Zangazur regions. MP Vugar Bayramov told Trend that Lachin International Airport will bring not only strategic value but also significant economic benefits through its operation in the East Zangazur region. He noted that the prolonged occupation of East Zangazur had prevented the regions vast potential from being realized. Given Lachins strategic location, establishing infrastructure in the region that meets international standards was of critical importance. East Zangazur is one of the Caucasuss most promising regions for winter, summer, therapeutic, historical, and religious tourism. Its diverse tourism potential enables the rapid revitalization of economic activity across the area. East Zangazur, which is home to oronymic toponyms of entirely Turkic origin, is considered one of the oldest human settlements. This, in turn, supports the growth of historical tourism, which has gained considerable popularity in recent decades. The airports that have been commissioned are equipped to accommodate all types of aircraft, including heavy cargo planes a key indicator of their strategic significance, Bayramov said. Jeyhun Ashurov, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Professionals Organization Public Union, told Trend that the presence of three international airports in Azerbaijans liberated territories in Karabakh and East Zangezur represents a strategic step toward securing the long-term stability and development of the region. He also highlighted the benefits of the newly commissioned airport in terms of enhancing the regions tourism potential by making access more convenient, comfortable, and efficient. Alongside the establishment of international airports, parallel efforts are underway to develop comprehensive tourism infrastructure. The construction of recreation complexes and cable car systems in our liberated territories is expected to significantly boost the tourism appeal of the region and attract more visitors. As security in these areas continues to improve, increased settlement by citizens will follow. This, in turn, will energize the local economy, encouraging not only family and relative visits but also a rise in both domestic and international tourism flows. The presence of international airports significantly enhances the convenience and accessibility of travel to the region. The transport and infrastructure developments, designed with the terrain and geographical features of Lachin and surrounding areas in mind, are breathing new life into the regions tourism potential, Ashurov concluded. In this context, the opening of Lachin International Airport is not just another feather in the cap; its a game changer that could pave the way for future opportunities and holds the key to long-term regional significance. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would have made Colorado the first state to ban landlords from using rent-setting algorithms, which many advocates have blamed for driving up housing costs across the country. RealPage is the target of a federal lawsuit filed last year that accuses the real estate software company of facilitating an illegal scheme to help landlords coordinate to hike rental prices. Eight other states, including Colorado, have joined the Department of Justice's lawsuit, though RealPage has vehemently denied any claims of collusion and has fought to have the lawsuit dismissed. Critics say RealPage software combines confidential information from each real estate management company in ways that enable landlords to align prices and avoid competition that would otherwise push down rents. RealPages clients include huge landlords who collectively oversee millions of units across the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Colorado bill, which recently passed the Democratic-led Legislature along party lines, would have prevented the use of such algorithms. In a veto letter Thursday, Polis said he understands the intent of the bill but that any collusion among landlords would already violate existing law. Reducing market friction through legitimate means that do not entail collusion is good for both renters and landlords, Polis wrote. We should not inadvertently take a tool off the table that could identify vacancies and provide consumers with meaningful data to help efficiently manage residential real estate to ensure people can access housing. In a statement, RealPage applauded Polis' veto, calling it an example of courageous leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the right outcome for all of us who desire a healthy housing ecosystem that benefits Colorado renters and housing providers alike, said Jennifer Bowcock, a spokesperson for the Texas-based firm. But Polis' decision outraged local housing advocates and the American Economic Liberties Project, a consumer rights advocacy group that has helped lead the fight against RealPage and other companies that use rent-setting algorithms. This veto sends the devastating message that corporate landlords can keep using secret price-fixing algorithms to take extra rent from people who have the least, said Sam Gilman, co-founder and president of the Community Economic Defense Project, a Colorado-based nonprofit. RealPage software provides daily recommendations to help landlords and their employees price their available apartments. The landlords do not have to follow the suggestions, but critics argue that because the software has access to a vast trove of confidential data, it helps RealPage's clients charge the highest possible rent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Colorado was the first state to pass a bill targeting rental algorithms, at least six cities have passed similar ordinances over the past year. They include Philadelphia; Minneapolis; San Francisco; Berkeley, California; Jersey City, New Jersey; and Providence, Rhode Island. RealPage has decried those measures and sued over Berkeley's ordinance, saying it violates the companys free speech rights and is the result of an intentional campaign of misinformation and often-repeated false claims about its products. RealPage argues that the real driver of high rents is a lack of housing supply. It also says that its pricing recommendations often encourage landlords to drop rents since landlords are incentivized to maximize revenue and maintain high occupancy. A clause recently added to Republicans signature big, beautiful tax bill would ban states and localities from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. On Tuesday, five Democratic senators sent a letter to RealPage asking if the company was involved in getting that clause inserted. In an email, Bowcock said RealPage was not involved in the AI moratorium language, but she said the company supports a thoughtful, well-grounded, and consistent regulatory approach to AI, rather than a patchwork of state and local legislation. Columbia Universitys commencement demonstrates the far left ideology of its faculty, but suggests that for students, much of this is performative. Last week, I attended my nephews graduation from Columbia College, Columbias Ivy League undergraduate division. As an alumnus of the college, as well as of Columbias business and law schools, I found the ceremony and left-leaning speeches familiar. As a conservative, even then, I was often verbally attacked by other students. On successive April Fools days, Columbia Daily Spectator even lampooned me as Kevin Spewak, spokesman for the fictional "Columbia Students in Opulence." Despite Columbias long-time liberal bent, including what we now refer to as "wokeness," its students generally embraced core principles of American exceptionalism, worked hard, and pursued traditional careers. Ironically, given todays problems, one of my classmates, David Friedman, became U.S. ambassador to Israel, and another, Michael Oren, became Israels ambassador to the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I attended the college, it admitted only men. Women were welcome at the engineering school, and Columbias affiliate, Barnard College. Last year, 51% of Columbias undergraduates were women (63%, including Barnard). Comparable to my class, about 15% of the graduating seniors were foreigners. Unlike my class, 63% of the Americans were minority students. That is a direct result of DEI. At the graduation ceremony, nearly every award was presented to a student pursuing studies in a woke subject, such as sustainable development or African-American studies (neither of which existed when I was a student), and most were engaged in progressive activities, such as interning with Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a hate group that advances Hamas objectives in the United States, or campaigning for tenants rights. The students gave a warm welcome to the colleges dean, Josef Sorett, a professor who focuses on African-American sexual politics and social justice, and who chaired Columbias Inclusive Public Safety Advisory Committee. Sorett was one of four Columbia deans who exchanged disparaging texts about Jews last year during a forum on antisemitism. He defended their prejudice by criticizing publication of their texts as an invasion of privacy. Only in a woke, antisemitic administration would Sorett have retained his job. The universitys acting president, former ABC anchor Claire Shipman did not receive as warm a welcome. A meaningful percentage of the seniors, and some guests, heckled her and broke into chants demanding freedom for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate student facing deportation for his role as an agent provocateur for Hamas. Shipman responded with humor and grace, and the heckling subsided after a few minutes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two days later, the Civil Rights Office of the Department of Health and Human Services found Columbia in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by "acting with deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students from October 7, 2023, through the present." Still, the substance and brevity of the protest shows both the misguided priorities of students and the performative shallowness of their concerns. Students ended the demonstration so they could receive their diplomas, giving short shrift to Khalil and those who objected to Shipmans bringing in the police to evict pro-Palestinian demonstrators from Butler Library. That pragmatism is consistent with the majors selected by the vast majority of Columbias students. While the awards went to students adopting the progressive mantra, more than 96% of the majors and concentrations selected by seniors fell into traditional disciplines such as history, political science, computer science, math, and literature. Just 70 of 1,708 majors and concentrations were in sustainable development, human rights, ethnicity and race studies, or the like. Relatively few students attended the separate graduation ceremonies for Asian, black, "Lavender" (LGBTQIA+), native, and other "affinity groups." There was little interest in what New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (best known for her concerns about flags flown by the wives of Supreme Court justices) had to say. On the other hand, while just 4% of Hispanics support the use of "Latinx," that is how they are labeled at Columbia. It also seemed that every student lauded from the stage was a dual major who studied at the "intersection" of something of progressive significance. I had a dual major when I attended Columbia. I didnt realize that made me intersectional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When a university promotes intersectional, oppressor dogma, approves of antisemitic tweets, and bestows praise only on the tiny minority of its students who exemplify progressive ideology, the result is a boot camp for DEI, open borders, social justice for criminals, antisemitism, and a liberal rules-based order. But, a look under the keffiyeh shows that the indoctrination may not endure, and the substantial majority of students of all races and national origins may soon enough refocus on traditional careers and success. For true converts, if they shun violence, the beauty of America is the right of citizens to hold and advocate misguided views. I doubt Columbia credits American exceptionalism for that liberty. Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including RealClearPolitics, The American Mind, National Review, television, radio, and podcasts. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Despite still appearing on its website, Columbus City Schools has shuttered its Equity Department. According to Columbus City Schools chief of staff and interim communications director Mike De Fabbo, the district no longer has an Equity Department. Although the webpage and staffing is still listed under CCS departments online, De Fabbo said the website is being updated and the services the Equity Department offered have been folded into a new team. Our attendance, climate and culture, restorative practices and social emotional learning work is now part of our Whole Child Supports team aligned to our board guardrail to prioritize a whole child focus, De Fabbo said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why South-Western City Schools parents are considering leaving the district The Whole Child Supports Department works to improve students social, physical, cognitive and emotional development by facilitating collaborations between public health and education. It is one of four Board of Education guardrails, or strategic operational actions the superintendent must guide the district by. The Department of Equity was created in 2020 and grew from a one-person department to a team of people working to create culturally responsive and inclusive classrooms. The department was led by Yolanda Stewart, a former CCS Educator of the Year with more than 20 years of experience in education. Stewart received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 2015 in educational policy and leadership, and joined the district in 2001. According to district appropriations data, the district spent $144,550 a month on the Office of Equity, which still received funding in May. The Whole Child Supports team does not have its own fund, but student support services, special education and accountability services have combined funds and receive around $7.5 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On April 17, Superintendent Angela Chapman and school board spokesperson Jennifer Adair jointly said the district would comply with a federal mandate to affirm the districts compliance with Title VI by not engaging in illegal DEI practices. At the time, Chapman and the Board of Education affirmed their compliance but said they were not making changes, as illegal DEI was not defined. Where in Columbus youre most likely to get pulled over for speeding At Columbus City Schools, we remain deeply committed to creating a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all students, families, teachers and staff, Chapman and Adair wrote. CCS still intends to participate in the Columbus Pride March on June 14, according to its website. The district has reaffirmed its commitment to transgender and gender variant students and the LGBTQ+ community publicly. Most recently, the district affirmed this after it reverted all students names to their birth names, which parents said outed several students, including some with legal name changes. See previous coverage of this decision in the video player above. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement De Fabbo said the former Equity Department employees will continue their work as a part of the Whole Child Focus team. School board documents and meeting agendas also did not indicate a change for Stewart, and did not exhibit a shuttering of the Equity Department, according to detailed searches of board documents from 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 NBC4 WCMH-TV. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Columbus programs benefiting businesses owned by minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community are under review after federal efforts rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The citys Office of Diversity and Inclusion has long offered free business certifications that open doors to a slew of opportunities, from increased participation in city procurement and contracting to training, networking, outreach, and engagement programs. Certification also adds businesses to the citys online vendor directory, enhancing their digital presence and allowing them to market to internal buyers, public partners in other municipalities, the private sector and residents. Along with minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community, the office certifies businesses owned by veterans along with small and emerging companies. But recent Trump administration executive orders calling for the end of DEI have prompted a review of these programs to ensure compliance with all federal laws, a spokesperson from the office of Mayor Andrew Ginther said. Watch a previous NBC4 report on the LGBTQ+ business certification in the video player above. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While we strongly disagree with this federal directive, we are working closely with the city attorneys office to evaluate and, if necessary, revise our policies to ensure compliance with federal law, the spokesperson said in a statement. Worlds largest rubber duck to waddle into Ohio this weekend Ginthers office said, under his leadership, the programs have yielded results. Minority business participation in city of Columbus contracts has grown from 8.4% in 2016 to 19.1% in 2024, representing more than $600 million in economic impact, the spokesperson said, noting that the mayors office takes pride in the fact that city investments have not only supported essential public services but have also helped minority-owned businesses grow and thrive. The review comes after Columbus and several other central Ohio cities reaffirmed to NBC4 in February their commitment to diversity programs. A spokesperson said city councils dedication to equity and inclusion remains unwavering and touted the citys Office of Diversity of Inclusion as a means to shape Columbus into Americas Equal Opportunity City. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While we are continuing to study all the federal policy changes, councils priority is a Columbus where every resident feels safe and has the opportunity to thrive, a Columbus City Council spokesperson said. Equity will continue to be a commitment to our residents. The citys LGBTQ+ business certification is one of the newer programs and was launched in 2022 in collaboration with the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Ginther said in a statement then that by expanding equity in our programs and practices, we do the right thing by becoming a more inclusive city while driving competition, generating potential savings and improving the quality of services for our residents. Damita Brown, Columbus former chief diversity officer, told NBC4 in 2022 the partnership had been on the citys radar before the COVID-19 pandemic. For Columbus to grow as an attractive city for businesses to relocate and for individuals to want to raise their families, Brown said they needed these initiatives to reflect the diverse population. Brown cited a National LGBT Chamber of Commerce study that found LGBTQ-owned businesses have generated $1.7 trillion for the U.S. economy, created 33,000 jobs, and increased $2 million in annual revenue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Columbus] is not capturing a tremendous growth opportunity for our community, Brown said at the time. So, we want to be able to say, We see you, we value you, and we want to partner with you to continue to make our city great. Thats why its important. 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. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Across the nation, more people are opting for alternative ways to pursue higher education. Some of these alternatives include online schooling and 2-year programs. Traditionally, most college students have chosen to pursue programs in-person at 4-year universities. According to the American Association for Community Colleges, nearly half of all undergraduates each year now choose to attend a 2-year-college as opposed to a 4-year. This is due to the unique program flexibility at many of these institutions. Patience Jones, a recent MCC graduate, says as a parent, a 2-year college was the best option for her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont have a big support system, its just me and my daughter [at graduation], Jones said. So without the ability to walk with her, I wouldnt be able to walk at all. With this, a higher number of students who do pursue a 4-year-program are considering 100% virtual options. The National Student Clearinghouse reported a 3.8% increase in online program enrollment last year. President of Empire State University Lisa Vollendorf oversees the fully virtual institution and says theyre seeing this increased interest. We have grown double digits every year, and this year were serving 17,500 students, Vollendorf said. We come to you, so you dont have to self-deploy to come to university. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Empire graduate Robin Hodges, who received her Masters degree on Thursday, shared as a Veteran, many of her peers are in the military and benefit from the flexibility online learning offers. She explained how many of them wouldnt be able to work towards their degree without this option. We have the largest military population out of all 64 SUNY campuses, and it just brings us together. Were actually closer because of the online accessibility, Hodges said. Vollendorf explained as the demands of modern society change, Empire State University expects to serve more than 20,000 students from all over the world by 2028. 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 RochesterFirst. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Wyandotte County commissioners on Thursday night approved the creation of an American Royal Community Improvement District (CID). The ordinance was approved in a vote of 9-0 to create the CID and levy a 1% sales tax within the district for 22 years. Man who showed no remorse for KCK deli murders gets life in prison The American Royal wants to move to a new space called Core Royal near Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The American Royal project has been in the works for the better part of a decade. The project has hit some speed bumps over the last 10-plus years. Crews broke ground in 2023, but construction stopped because there was no more money. Some residents have pushed back on the project, citing concerns about their property taxes going up. A public hearing also took place during the commission meeting Thursday night to give the community a chance to give feedback on the plan. No one from the public signed up or raised their hands to speak at the public hearing. Visit KC estimates the new American Royal would bring in more people than those who visited the Kansas Speedway and Childrens Mercy Park last year combined. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV In April, the Kansas City Business Journal reported that the Unified Government approved a $155-million-dollar STAR bond deal, which would be used to pay for the American Royals new home, similar to the Kansas Speedway and the goal for a potential Chiefs or Royals stadium. 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Mahoning County commissioners honored the Rich Center for Autism in recognition of the organizations 30 years of service to the community. On Friday, commissioners acknowledged the Rich Centers dedication to children and families affected by autism in the Mahoning Valley. For three decades, the Rich Center for Autism has been delivering education, therapy, and support to individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This special recognition comes ahead of Saturdays Rock the Rich Center fundraiser at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre downtown, featuring national recording artist Lita Ford and local band The Vindys. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently reporting that 1 in 31 children aged 8 and under are diagnosed with autism. 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. Solar panels in Damariscotta, Maine. (Photo by Evan Houk/ Maine Morning Star) The legislative committee tasked with wading through the many proposals brought forward this session to address the problems with the states clean energy credit program is advancing a bill that critics say doesnt go far enough. On Thursday night, the Maine Legislatures Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee voted along party lines with the majority in favor of an amended version of LD 1777. The bill Democrats advanced to the full Legislature asks the Governors Energy Office to develop a successor program for front-of-the-meter net energy billing projects sometime next year. The Public Utilities Commission would need to approve the plan, but only if the benefits to ratepayers outweigh the costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Net energy billing is a policy program designed to encourage customers to install or participate in small-scale renewable energy projects like solar panels by offering credits to offset their electricity bills. It was expanded in 2019 so customers can use renewable energy generators located outside of their property but within the same utility service territory, such as a community solar project. Front-of-the-meter projects include community solar projects and those included in the states current tariff rate program, which is used by nonresidential customers. If LD 1777 is enacted, front-of-the-meter projects would no longer be eligible to participate in net energy billing once the successor program is in place. I hope that it will lead to the survival in a sustainable way and, perhaps, in a more economically just way for this really important set of programs and for the value that it has produced, as it certainly has, said Rep. Sophie Warren (D-Scarborough), the bills sponsor. While the committee rejected other proposals, including those to repeal net energy billing entirely, it carried over some legislation such as LD 1936 that could serve as vehicles for further tweaks to the program in the next legislative session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As LD 1777 advances to the full Maine House of Representatives and Senate, proponents of solar energy fear these changes could harm the future of the industry. Projected savings for ratepayers During the committee discussion Thursday, Public Advocate Heather Sanborn said if passed the annual savings for ratepayers statewide over the next 16 years are estimated to be an average of $47 million from proposed changes to the tariff rate program and $20 million from changes to the kilowatt hour program. Currently, the kilowatt hour program is open to all customers and provides kilowatt hour credits on participating customers bills if they install renewable energy generators such as solar panels or join a community solar project, where customers receive a portion of a solar farms credits. The credits expire after 12 months. This program, in particular, has come under fire for providing generous incentives to solar farm developers that utility customers are helping pay for. LD 1777 creates a monthly charge for kilowatt hour projects starting January 2026 to offset the associated costs currently passed on to ratepayers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are 1,000 kilowatts in a megawatt and most community solar projects run between one and five megawatts. As of May 20, Maine has 300 community solar projects with a total capacity of just over 1,000 megawatts, according to the Governors Energy Offices solar dashboard. The proposal outlines a charge of $4.10 per kilowatt of capacity for projects between three and five megawatts and $1.20 per kilowatt of capacity for projects between one and three megawatts. However, Warren said those may be adjusted to whatever number is necessary to achieve $28 million in ratepayer savings in the first year. The tariff rate program for nonresidential customers provides dollar credits for those who use their own projects or share in someone elses. The Public Utilities Commission sets an annual rate for the credits, which also expire after 12 months, depending on the customers size and utility provider. However, Warrens legislation establishes new, tiered tariff rates for certain projects starting January 2026. The new rates would vary depending on the projects capacity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans on the energy committee opposed the bill, with multiple of them saying it doesnt go far enough to fix the problems net energy billing has created in the state. Sen. Nicole Grohoski (D-Hancock) agreed, but voted in favor because doing nothing would be completely irresponsible, she said. However, she said that if more needs to be done to modify net energy billing in the future to support Maine people who are struggling to keep up with electricity bills, she vowed to be loud about it whether shes still in office or not. Similarly, Rep. Chris Kessler (D-South Portland) said he was voting in favor with a heavy heart. Admitting it may make him a unicorn, committee co-chair Sen. Mark Lawrence (D-York) said he has been pleased with net energy billing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though she was disappointed the committee couldnt come to a unanimous vote, Rep. Valli Geiger (D-Rockland) said her fear would be that the legislation goes too far in potentially deterring solar. She said climate change is an existential threat and renewable energy is the only path forward. Maines clean energy sector has admitted net energy billing can be improved, but has cautioned lawmakers against retroactive changes to the program that could undermine investor confidence. Many of them were disappointed in the committees decision to advance LD 1777, which they feel includes drastic concessions for the solar industry, according to a news release after the vote. The Legislature today chose to both harm participants retroactively and threaten the future of the industry, said Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association. While the program can certainly be improved, it should not occur at the expense of the people and businesses that invested in good faith for our clean energy future. Editors note: A previous version of this story misstated the necessary amount of ratepayer savings in the first year. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE GREEN, Ohio (WJW) The communities of Green and North Canton are doing all they can to support the family of 13-year-old Matthew Schultz, who died after an accident on Memorial Day. Schultz fell off a parade float and was struck by the wheels. He later died at the hospital. Now, a special prayer session and a vigil are both scheduled for Friday. Local man accused of brutally stabbing puppy pleads not guilty Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Green, a rosary prayer service is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday at Queen of Heaven Catholic Church. The pastor, Father David Durkee, told FOX 8 News that while Schultz was involved with his hometown church in North Canton, hed been there before, and his grandparents often attend services there. Durkee also spent time with Schultz family on Wednesday and was inspired by their faith. He said a prayer service to try and lift the family up is important at a time when everyone is doing what they can to support the family but it will also make a difference down the line. Its going to get them through the dark times later down the road when the crowd is not around them, and to realize the memories, to know that people came out and showed their love and support, Durkee said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ohio hiking trail voted one of the countrys best Additionally, a celebration of Schultz life is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Witwer Park near North Canton Middle School. Attendees will be able to write a note for the family and are encouraged to wear blue, as it was Schultz favorite color. A GoFundMe set up to support the family has surpassed $87,000 in donations. A local T-shirt company called Hawk Creations also created a memorial T-shirt that honors Schultz. In a Facebook post, they said 50% of each sale will be donated to the family, in addition to 15% of all sales through the end of 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 Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 30. Up until now, Central Asia has been flying under the radaroften viewed as just a post-Soviet backwater or a buffer zone caught in the crossfire between heavyweights. But that view is shifting like sand in the wind. The region is really coming into its own on the world stagenot just as a hotbed for discussing pressing global issues, but as a place where the rubber meets the road and decisions are made that could steer the ship of the planets future. On May 30, the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, hosted the opening of the first-ever High-Level International Conference on Glacier Protection. The forum brought together over 2,500 participants from 80 countries, including the vice presidents of Iran, Zimbabwe, and the Maldives, as well as heads of major international organizations and representatives of the UN, UNESCO, UNICEF, and global development banks. The agenda directly concerns the regions future: the rapid melting of glaciers, worsening water scarcity, and escalating climate threats. The conference is expected to conclude with the signing of the Dushanbe Declaration on Glaciers and related statements that could influence the formation of the international climate agenda. Almost simultaneously, another major forumAstana-2025is taking place in Kazakhstans capital. Among the guests are Rwandan President Paul Kagame, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and President of North Macedonia Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova. The forum addresses key global trends in foreign policy, economics and finance, security, sustainable development, energy, and climate change. Also on May 30, Kazakhstan is hosting a summit in the Central Asia Italy format. The region is attracting increasing international attention. In April 2025, Samarkand hosted the first-ever summit between the European Union and Central Asian countries, along with an International Climate Forum. Attendees included European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The forum concluded with a joint declaration outlining a shared goal of building a strategic partnership between the EU and the region. The summit confirmed that Europes interest in Central Asia is not merely symbolicit is part of a long-term strategy. At the heart of this interest lies the Trans-Caspian route, also known as the Middle Corridor. The EU has pledged 10 billion for its development. This corridor has already become a vital artery connecting Europe and Asia, shortening supply chains and offering an alternative to routes through Russia. Meanwhile, a joint energy project between Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan is gaining momentumaimed at transmitting green electricity across the Caspian Sea to Europe. This marks a new level of trust and integration, where Central Asia is not just a resource supplier but a full-fledged participant in the global energy transition. Today, Central Asia is no longer somewhere out there. Its a region where agendas are being shaped, where cross-border initiatives are launched, and where capitals like Bishkek, Dushanbe, Tashkent, and Astana are emerging as hubs for global dialogue. The world has started to listen closely to what Central Asia has to say. Now its crucial that the region speak with confidence and clarityand back its words with concrete action. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel CLEVELAND (WJW) Words can hurt, but they can also heal. A library is a place full of words and ideas that not everybody will agree are the right words or ideas. But actions to forbid or destroy books and other items that highlight conversations about different cultures, religions, races and sexual orientation, civic leaders say, shouldnt happen in Northeast Ohio. Hate speech at any race, at any religion, at any ethnic group, at any at any entity is an attack on all of us, Congresswoman Shontel Brown said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former investigator: Man convicted of killing ex-wife, an Akron doctor, doesnt deserve to be out This roundtable of area religious, political and community leaders met Thursday to get a handle on the level of hate directed at different communities around our area. There things going on here and around the country, such as the murder of two Israeli embassy staff members, that has many worried about the future. The anti-Semitic rhetoric that fuels this kind of violence, the kind of violence that struck down young couple. Words matter and words have consequences, and we know were not immune to hatred. Closer to home, we already heard about it, Lee Shapiro of the American Jewish Committee in Cleveland said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That incident was the burning of roughly 100 books from the Beachwood branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library about the Jewish, Black and LGBTQ communities. That struck a nerve with many. So much so that this news conference was specifically held in the newest branch of the Cleveland Public Library, named after one of the most influential figures in Black history. Cleveland Clinic reverses change to copay policy Libraries have always been considered by many to be neutral places and places where all ideas are welcome, but libraries are feeling a lot of pressure to censor ideas. We cant take things off of our shelves because everyone needs access to them. Its really important that libraries stand behind the concept of intellectual freedom and making sure that democracy is held and everyone has access to it, Cleveland Public Library Executive Director Felton Thomas said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congresswoman Brown said this first meeting will hopefully set the stage for more conversations and direct action to fight against what they call forces that are out to take away the things that make the country better. 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. BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) A Bay County woman is collecting a pile of handmade quilts from around the Panhandle. Ann Leonard has 53 quilts shes going to deliver to kids fighting cancer. This Saturday, shes taking them to Camp Rapahope in Mobile, Alabama, where the children will be attending a summer camp. Leonard said she was inspired when she volunteered at the camp last year and saw how much comfort the quilts brought. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, she said she reached out, and the community responded in a big way. GCSC Foundation announces 2nd Chance Scholarships Every child whos a new camper will get a brand-new quilt to take home and to use all week and for every camper who is exiting the program, they can stay until theyre 17 and then they have to graduate, and so those young people will also get a quilt to take home, Leonard said. We were in the minute we heard what she was sharing, and we wanted to be a part. So it started, I would say, about the beginning of March. So for three months, we several people have been working on these quilts, and we ended up getting 53. And theres a group that in Fort Walton Beach and a quilt shop there called the Sewing and Training Center, retired teacher Karen McQueen said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several seamstresses are already planning for next year. The goal is to reach 75-80 quilts in order to gift every camper a quilt. If you would like to donate to Camp Rapahope, 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 mypanhandle.com. An appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trumps tariffs can move forward. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit put a hold on a decision from the U.S. Court of International Trade, which issued an injunction Wednesday against Trumps tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, among other trading partners. The legal back-and-forth over the presidents tariffs has left both sides scrambling and created uncertainty for policymakers and the business community alike. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet another ruling on Thursday by District Judge Rudolph Contreras further muddied the waters. Contreras, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled Thursday that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)which the Trump administration cited to justify imposing tariffsdoes not authorize the President to impose the tariffs set forth in the above-listed orders. This decision stops the administration from collecting tariffs from two Illinois toy importers, Learning Resources and hand2mind, which filed a lawsuit against the administration in April. That crushing burden is felt most immediately and acutely by this countrys small and mid-size businesses, including Plaintiffs, the lawsuit said. The majority of Trump's Contreras gave the administration two weeks to appeal his decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On what Trump called Liberation Day on April 2, the president imposed 10 percent tariffs on almost every United States trading partner as well as increased levies on countries such as China, on which he imposed a 30 percent tariff. Canada and Mexico were also slapped with 25 percent tariffs. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of International Trade, which included a 2018 Trump appointee, ruled that the IEEPA did not grant the president unbounded authority to impose tariffsa function that the Constitution relegates to Congress. The panel added that Trumps tariffs exceed any authority granted to the president by the IEEPA, declaring that most of his tariffs were issued illegally. The Presidents assertion of tariff-making authority in the instant case, unbounded as it is by any limitation in duration or scope, exceeds any tariff authority delegated to the President under IEEPA, the judges wrote. The Worldwide and Retaliatory tariffs are thus ultra vires and contrary to law. Stephen Miller called the court's decision a However, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit put the ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade on hold, saying the injunction would be temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers. The injunction does not apply to Contreras ruling today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration promptly filed a notice of appeal to challenge the courts decision. The Department of Justice has requested to temporarily halt the court order, saying Thursday that it needed to avoid immediate irreparable harm to United States foreign policy and national security. It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency, White House Spokesman Kush Desai said, noting that the Trump administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis. Conspiracy theorist and stalwart Trump supporter Laura Loomer called the decision a JUDICIAL COUP on Xa phrase also used by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who said, The judicial coup is out of control, on Wednesday. The judicial coup is out of control. https://t.co/PRRZ1zU6lI Stephen Miller (@StephenM) May 28, 2025 Despite the court ruling, the president could still find a way to impose his global tariffs, according to economists at Goldman Sachs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This ruling represents a setback for the administrations tariff plans and increases uncertainty but might not change the final outcome for most major U.S. trading partners, they wrote in a research note, reported CNBC. For now, we expect the Trump administration will find other ways to impose tariffs, they added. A cattleguard leading into the new military base along the New Mexico border with Mexico. On the right is a sign warning in English and Spanish: Restricted Area: This Department of Defense Property has been declared a restricted area by authority of the commander. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source NM) Late last week, acting United States Attorney for New Mexico Ryan Ellison dismissed misdemeanor charges his office had previously brought against at least three people accused of illegally entering a newly created military zone across New Mexicos southern border. Ellison explained the turnabout in a filing in which he said the arrested people had been found in an area his office thought was part of the new National Defense Area. It wasnt. As a result, three people arrested in recent weeks wont face newly created criminal charges for trespassing on a military base, punishable by up to a year in jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dropped charges point to the ongoing confusion the new 400-square-mile military zone has created across branches of government and the courts since the U.S. Interior Department transferred the land to the Army in April. It is concerning that even the Acting United States Attorney is confused by the boundaries of this new National Defense Area, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) said in an emailed statement Thursday after Source New Mexico alerted his office to the dismissals. Heinrich has criticized the new NDA and called on the Defense Department to explain what it means for recreators and others. On April 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the transfer of land from the Bureau of Land Management to the military, effectively making the 180-mile border New Mexico shares with Mexico into an extended military base tied to Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Along with increasing Army patrols and empowering the military [to] take a more direct role in securing our southern border, as President Donald Trump said, creating the zone also enabled federal prosecutors to impose misdemeanor charges on those caught in the new National Defense Area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Confusion about where that area falls exists not just among federal agencies tasked with enforcing the NDA, but also among residents who live, work and attend school along the border, including ranchers with BLM cattle leases and dual citizens who cross the border daily. Source NM spent the weekend in the area and talked with residents who described whiplash from a transfer, seemingly overnight, of federal public lands into an extended military base. The land includes parcels of private property surrounded by federal lands; the Diocese of El Paso, which owns nearby pilgrimage site Mount Cristo Rey; and the State of New Mexico, which has miles of trust land. Angel Pena looks out at the National Defense Area on Sunday. His organization, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, is alarmed at the transfer of previously public lands into a military base. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann/ Source NM) The land also traverses the Continental Divide Trail, and hosts both hikers on multi-state sojourns and hunters hoping to nab a rare Mearns quail, among heartier fare that hide among the creosote dotting the borderlands separating New Mexico from Mexico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recently, the Defense Department issued a statement telling hikers and hunters they were prohibited from entering the NDA. That incensed Angel Pena, director of Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, a Las Cruces-based nonprofit that tries to help marginalized communities experience and conserve public lands. Youre really now affecting livelihoods, Pena told Source New Mexico during a drive Memorial Day Weekend along the northern edge of the NDA. Youre affecting dinner on the table. Youre affecting recreation. Youre affecting the traditional uses of this land that help families make memories and tell stories and grow ever closer. No mans land Between April 15 and May 29, the federal government charged more than 550 people with unauthorized entry into the new National Defense Area, according to a review of federal records. Federal prosecutors dropped charges for three of them based on the errant arrests dropped May 22, per Ellisons filings. According to court records, Ellisons office learned on or about May 15 that portions of the border area previously understood as encompassed by the newly created New Mexico National Defense Area were not, in fact, transferred to the jurisdiction of the Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dismissed cases come amid ongoing legal challenges, with federal public defenders contesting the charges on a variety of fronts. Two weeks ago, a federal judge dismissed more than 100 charges against the defendants, largely because he was not convinced those arrested knew they were entering a restricted area. The circumstances of the recent dismissals regarding errant arrests are not clear. AUSA spokesperson Tessa Duberry declined to comment on where the defendants were arrested, saying the office cant comment beyond what was filed publicly. She also declined to say how many total cases the office has dismissed on those grounds or would dismiss, saying compiling that information would impose a significant burden on staff. Duberry referred comment about arrests to the Army, which told Source in a statement Friday morning that it would not speculate on charges that are awaiting adjudication, said Joint Task Force Southern Border spokesperson Jordan Beagle. Beagle also noted that only the Border Patrol makes arrests, though the Army will temporarily detain people to hand over to the Border Patrol. The border wall juts out from the southern edge of the new National Defense Area in southern New Mexico on Sunday. Recently, the United States Attorneys Office has dismissed charges against at least three people accused of unauthorized entry, due to apparent confusion on the boundaries of the new militarized zone. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source NM) The Joint Task Force Southern Border remains laser focused on our mission to achieve 100% operational control of the border, in this case maintaining security within the National Defense Areas, he said, which includes detection, temporary detainment, and apprehension of those who trespass within the National Defense Areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Border Patrol did not respond to a request for comment from Source on Thursday. According to court filings, two of the three people feds dropped charges againt were arrested April 26 about four miles east of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. Outside of the 60-foot buffer zone along the border, thats roughly a mile from Mount Cristo Rey and other privately owned land. Sources calls to the Diocese this week were not returned. The third arrest occurred April 27, according to court filings, about eight miles west of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. All three criminal complaints note, as part of the justification for charges, that signs were posted in English and Spanish that this is a restricted area and that unauthorized entry is prohibited. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The impact of those dismissals on prosecutors cases remains unclear. Even though prosecutors dismissed the trios charges for unauthorized NDA entry, each appears to still be held in detention on related misdemeanors, including charges like illegal entry by an alien into the United States, illegal entry without inspection or entering military property, according to court records. Amanda Skinner, assistant federal public defender, declined to comment on how many of her offices clients might have been affected by the dismissals, or whether she is expecting there to be any more. Heinrich, through his spokesperson, said he remains concerned about what the military takeover of the New Mexico border will mean for due process, for citizens and non-citizens alike. The Trump Administration is bypassing due process for individuals who either intentionally or unintentionally enter this newly restricted area, including U.S. citizens who may be stopped and detained by U.S. Army soldiers for trespassing on an unmarked military base, his spokesperson said. Back at the ranch One group affected by the NDA ranchers has apparently reached a slightly uneasy, informal arrangement with the Army, according to ranchers along the border and the New Mexico Cattlegrowers Association. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the last two weeks, Army and Border Patrol officials have collected the names, photographs, phone numbers, license plates and other details of ranchers who enter the NDA to round up their livestock or check on water tanks, ranchers told Source New Mexico. The collection is an effort, they said, to make sure the Army does not mistake ranchers, who often carry firearms, for those who might be trespassing on a military base. A calf turns away from a small dust storm on a ranch near Hachita, N.M. on Sunday, about 8 miles from the Mexico border. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source NM) Everybody around here in this part of the country is armed, said Nancy Clopton, a longtime Hachita rancher with 80 square miles of leased pasture in and around the NDA. I dont want to be drug out of my pickup and then, you know, Oh, shes armed. The agreement allows ranchers to drive along access roads and county roads criss-crossing the NDA. Each time, they drive over cattleguards with new signs on either side that begin with, in English and Spanish: Restricted Area: This Department of Defense Property has been declared a restricted area by authority of the commander. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About a dozen such signs are posted on cattleguards off Highway 9 between Sunland Park and Hachita, according to Sources count Sunday. Those are the same signs prosecutors use to justify criminal charges against the 550 defendants facing the unauthorized entry charges so far. Everybody around here in this part of the country is armed. I don't want to be drug out of my pickup and then, you know, Oh, she's armed. Rancher Nancy Clopton In response to questions from Source, Luis Soriano, Heinrichs spokesperson, noted that Ellison and Hegseth have both publicly said there will be no exceptions for criminal trespassing in the area, and so Heinrich doesnt consider an informal, handshake deal sufficient to ensure the safety of ranchers, sportsmen, hikers or others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For decades, ranchers and hunters alike have been accustomed to carrying firearms on what were their public lands until the transfer to the Department of Defense on April 15th, Soriano said in a statement. That history, combined with the complete lack of clarity from the Administration, is a recipe for a very dangerous situation for our local residents, Army soldiers and Border Patrol agents. Beagle, with the Army, told Source in a statement to Friday that the army is continuing to work on a formal memorandum of understanding with various groups to support the interests of the local community and the military mission within the New Mexico National Defense Area (NDA). A newly posted sign warning against unauthorized entry next to a cattleguard, pictured Sunday, May 25, 2025. An informal agreement allows ranchers to drive past these signs, though charging documents cite them as evidence justifying new criminal charges against others. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source NM) The MOU process for commercial and recreational activities, such as hunting, mining, and ranching, is complex, he said and necessitates careful coordination with multiple organizations to ensure that proposed activities do not compromise public safety and border security operations. Beagle also said the Army would release more information to the community as it becomes available. He also noted the land order that enabled the transfer was subject to valid existing rights, so he said the private property owners with land adjacent to the NDA would not be affected. But he did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how that applies to ranchers who lease, not own, land in the area. Bronson Corn, president of the NM Cattlegrowers Association, defended the arrangement in an interview with Source on Thursday. He disagrees with the idea that ranchers might be skirting the law, saying, albeit informal, the agreement allows ranchers to keep their cattle alive and maintain their leases with the BLM, while also allowing the Army to harden the border. They have not had any conflicts with the military when it comes to being able to continue on with their day-to-day operations, he said. There is some concern, theres no doubt about it, that they cant get to certain areas of their ranch due to the fact of that militarized zone. In addition to concerns about firearms, Clopton said she is concerned an influx of army personnel, potentially from out-of-state, wont be careful to close cattle gates behind them, which is a long-standing gripe she and other ranchers have with the Border Patrol. But she is withholding judgment, for now. Well see how it works out, she said. It depends on the individuals on the ground, those individual soldiers, how they treat us, how we see them. Its an experiment. Did border patrol or military officials detain or question you inside or outside of the new National Defense area? Reach out to reporter Patrick Lohmann at PLohmann@SourceNM.com or securely via Signal at PLohmann.61. Two Congressional committees announced a federal investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell on May 30, accusing the mayor of obstructing a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in the wake of a major immigration operation in early May. The Committee on Homeland Securitychaired by U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tennesseeand the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives, sent a letter demanding investigative materials from the mayor as part of a federal effort to conduct oversight of state and local jurisdictions that endanger American communities through efforts aimed at thwarting the work of federal immigration officials. The move comes after weeks of public pressure by U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who held a press conference on Memorial Day weekend calling for the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the state of Tennessee has outlawed sanctuary policies, recent actions from your office threaten to chill immigration enforcement in the City of Nashville and Davidson County, the letter reads. Accordingly, we write to request information about how your recent actions, including a directive to Nashville and Davidson County employees to disclose their communications with federal immigration officials, affects the robust enforcement of immigration law. Until May 30, OConnell had declined to comment on Ogles calls for a congressional investigation. At the mayors weekly news conference with Nashville reporters, OConnell said his office intended to appropriately respond to the requests listed in the letter from members of Congress. He also said hes not concerned about the investigation finding any wrongdoing. I am not particularly concerned, OConnell said. Were going to, again, respond appropriately to all inquiries. We have been guided by a full understanding of state and federal law and will continue to be. More: What to know about how Mayor O'Connell responded to Nashville ICE operation What is the investigation seeking? Nashville is weeks removed from the weeklong immigration enforcement operation, during which ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol made 468 traffic stops and arrested nearly 200 immigrants. The ICE sweeps were concentrated in south Nashville, in neighborhoods around Nolensville Pike and Harding Place with a large population of immigrants and Latino residents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Friday's letter condemns OConnells public statements of opposition to the ICE operation, as well as a community charity fund that, while announced by OConnell at a May 5 press conference, is run by a community nonprofit and does not utilize taxpayer funds. More: D.C. Republicans pile on Nashville mayor over ICE response and imply more action in city It also expresses concern about a previously standing executive order updated by OConnell requiring city departments to report communications with federal immigration officials to the mayor's office. The order, titled Executive Order 30, isn't new in fact, it's well over a year old, having first been issued in January 2024. But it's reemerged in the wake of the ICE operation because O'Connell amended it to allow for a shorter timeline for reporting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regardless, the order is a key focus in the investigation. This Executive Order could have a chilling effect on the ability of local law enforcement to communicate freely and candidly with federal immigration employees, the letter states, adding that there is real potential that your Executive Order could have the effect of diminishing ICE enforcement operations. The letter lists three key requests for the city, all concerning documents created between May 1 and the receiving of the letter: All documents and communications referring or relating to the amendment of Executive Order 30 All documents and communications referring or relating to ICE enforcement actions in the City of Nashville or Davidson County Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All documents and communications between or among Metro employees and non-Metro employees, including but not limited to non-governmental organizations, referring or relating to the arrest of criminal aliens in the City of Nashville and Davidson County The information is tagged with a June 13 deadline, and is signed by Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement Tom McClintock, R-California, Ogles and Green. Today, with the full support of Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, were taking action," said Ogles, in a press release regarding the investigation. "If Mayor OConnell wants to spy on federal agents doing their job, then Congress is going to investigate him for obstruction. The letter came a day after the city of Nashville was added to a federal list titled Sanctuary Jurisdictions Defying Federal Immigration Law, which was posted on the Department of Homeland Securitys website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are only two sanctuary jurisdictions listed in Tennessee Nashville and Shelby County. DHS says each jurisdiction will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with federal statutes. Its not immediately clear why Nashville or any jurisdiction in Tennessee is included on the list, given that neither has self-identified as a sanctuary city. In Tennessee, sanctuary cities have been banned for about seven years, and another state law passed earlier this year criminalizes local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants. O'Connell also commented on Nashville's appearance on the list at his May 30 news conference. He passed out copies of the state law to reporters and said Nashville complies with every single component of the law and, by definition, is not a sanctuary city. OConnell added that Nashville does not have and has never had a policy violating the state law. He said the city has asserted over the past several weeks that it has no legal authority related to immigration enforcement and does not impede law enforcement action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im puzzled about the criteria they used to include Nashville (on the list), OConnell said. We are not and never have been a sanctuary city. If you look at the state law that defines a sanctuary city policy there are six factors, and we do not and never have had a policy that violates any of those factors. Id be interested to learn what criteria theyre using. The USA TODAY Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@gannett.com, by phone at 931-623-9485, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Congressional committees announce investigation into O'Connell, city WASHINGTON, N.C. (WNCT) Friday, May 30th, Congressman Greg Murphy toured the AAF International facility in Washington to see air filters being manufactured on-site, and to learn more about the companys role in creating jobs and supporting the local economy here in the east. As a member of the Trade Subcommittee, its critically important that I hear about issues that affect trade because obviously they export and do a lot of other issues and do a lot of other things with their products and seeing how economic policies that the President has put forward helps them or possibly hinder some of their progress, said Congressman Greg Murphy. The air filters produced at AAF are used for clean-rooms, medical devices, and semiconductor production. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) says it could only be a matter of weeks before the decision to move the nations Space Command headquarters to Huntsvilles Redstone Arsenal becomes official. A report released by the Government Accountability Office stated the . Commands posture is not suitable long term in Colorado, among other findings. But Colorado lawmakers have vowed to fight moving the Space Command HQ to Alabama. Congressman Aderholt said that President Donald Trump has announced plans for Golden Dome an effort to defend the U.S. against missiles. He said the President cant move forward with that project fully until a decision is made on Space Command. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without Space Command, President Trump really cant move forward in a meaningful way with Golden Dome, said Aderholt. So, getting this to Huntsville, getting this set up, I think it is imperative for the Presidents mission with Golden Dome to move forward. Completed Northern Beltline expected to increase business, save lives in Jefferson County Congressman Aderholt said he and his colleagues are in constant contact with the White House about Space Command. We feel like that the President made that commitment to move Space Command from Colorado, and it wasnt a political decision, he said. It was a decision based on the facts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest) said the move adds to the states footprint on defense. Huntsville is known for its legacy in space exploration, its rockets, and the aerospace industry, Whitt said. But, with our current innovation with the defense industry here in Huntsville, its just a natural fit. Whitt explained Huntsville is well prepared for the move, and its impact will be far reaching on the state overall. We have over four hundred defense contractors in our city here ready to go to work for the U.S., and our safety, he said. So, were very excited about it. I think it will bring jobs, an economic boom here for the town. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congressman Aderholt said, ultimately, it will be President Trumps decision on where the headquarters will end up. He said to stay tuned. 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. PAMPLICO, S.C. (WBTW) Construction is underway on a new fire station in the small town of Pamplico, something that residents are welcoming the good news of a 24-hour staffed fire department after seeing its fair share of businesses closing recently. The plot of land on Shirley Road is just off Pamplico Highway and will serve the Florence County communities of Hannah, Salem, Friendfield and the town of Pamplico. The project is coming to light with the help of the 1% penny sales tax. The tax allocates money for improvements like road projects, public facilities, and utility upgrades. Once completed, it will be the areas first fire station capable of housing 24-hour staff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think its a good idea, Pamplico resident Herbert McNeil said. Thankful to be coming to Pamplico to stay open 24 hours a day, because [weve needed] a station like that, that will stay open 24 hours a day. Former Mayor Gene Gainey says in his 15 years in the position, he saw what a penny sales tax can help do, and hes happy to know the station is coming. People will be able to get to put out the fires faster and probably save some peoples lives as far as getting into wrecks and stuff like that, he said. Current Pamplico Mayor Bruce Bennett says the six fire districts in the Unified Fire District have given the area great coverage, and the new building will make seven, giving added protection for Pamplico and the surrounding communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is sort of the Taj Mahal of the seven, Bennett said. Its bigger, has a training room, it actually has where firefighters can spend the night which none of the others have that kind of space. So were really looking forward to it. The new station is set to be complete by March 2026. * * * 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. 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. The University of Virginia has been a critical benefactor of international students during the 2023-24 school year, according to NAFSA. (Sarah Vogelsong / Virginia Mercury) Virginias colleges and universities could lose millions of dollars and thousands of jobs after the federal government froze international student visa interviews on Tuesday, mounted efforts to require all foreign students to undergo social media vetting and announced plans to aggressively revoke Chinese students visas. The actions, spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the behest of President Donald Trumps administration, are likely to disrupt international students considering attending any of the schools in the commonwealth. Over 21,000 international students were enrolled at Virginia colleges and universities in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the National Association of Foreign Advisors Association of International Educators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement International students contributed $807.2 million to Virginias higher learning institutions in the same period, NAFSA reported in its latest data. Tim Gibson, president of the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said the student visa interview pause and other changes could negatively impact international students, who have proven to make positive contributions to U.S. universities and the commonwealth, and deter international students from pursuing an education in America, including Virginia. They just want to learn and they come here because they want to learn from us, Gibson said, and they want to learn at American universities because American universities have a stellar reputation around the world for academic freedom, for having resources to support excellent undergraduate and graduate instruction, and for having the kind of freedom of an openness to explore the questions you want to explore and to make the contributions you want to make. George Mason University, located in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, was the highest recipient of funding from international students, receiving $207.5 million, ahead of Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, VCU, and Northern Virginia Community College, which rounded out the top five institutions in the commonwealth with the most financial benefit from foreign students during the 2023-24 school year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Student visas are essential for international students to legally enter, reside, and study in the United States, including at institutions in Virginia, which, if foreign students stop attending, could face financial challenges since students from outside the U.S. pay higher tuition fees compared to in-state students. Since Tuesday, the administration has directed U.S. embassies and consulates, who are responsible for issuing visas, to suspend new visa interviews for international students seeking to study in the U.S. until further guidance is provided. The move comes after the administration accused some institutions, including Harvard University, of allowing antisemitism on campus. The administration is attempting to revoke Harvards Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which enables the university to enroll international students. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administrations attempt to do so, after Harvard filed a lawsuit to retain the right to admit international students. On Wednesday, Rubio announced the State Department along with the Department of Homeland Security will be revoking visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. The agencies will be revising visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong, Rubios statement read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gibson said the announcement is concerning for many students, especially graduate students, because they often bring their families who attend daycares and schools in the commonwealth. Now theyre threatened with deportation for no reason other than paranoia, racism, and xenophobia, Gibson said. Even just making a threat has irreparably harmed the international reputation of our universities and colleges. In a statement on Tuesday, NAFSA said the latest action by the Trump administration is another misguided and deeply troubling attack against international students, who are facing arrests, visa revocations and threats to their ability to enroll in certain U.S. institutions. The association said its also a waste of taxpayer funding to screen students who are already subject to extensive background checks, compared to business visitors and tourists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the administration believes enhanced scrutiny is necessary, it should be applied uniformly not selectively to students who have long contributed to American classrooms, communities, and cutting-edge research, a NAFSA representative said. Moreover, there is no urgent justification to halt visa appointments while internal policy updates are considered. This only adds unnecessary delays, fuels uncertainty, and damages our reputation as a welcoming destination for global talent. This weeks actions arent the first issues concerning international students the Trump administration has weighed in on. In January, the administration directed U.S. diplomats and consulates to refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to its fraud prevention unit for mandatory social media checks, through two executive orders focused on protecting the country from foreign threats and combating antisemitism. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 30. Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Turkiye Ruslan Kazakbaev met with Turkiyes Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacr to discuss joint efforts in developing technoparks in Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on the implementation of projects aimed at establishing and developing technoparks across Kyrgyzstan. The discussion was held within the framework of the decisions made by the Kyrgyz-Turkish Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. Ambassador Kazakbaev emphasized the importance of enhancing cooperation between the relevant government agencies of both countries in creating industrial zones in Kyrgyzstan, noting the potential of adapting the Turkish model based on earlier agreements. Following the meeting, the Turkish side expressed its readiness to visit Kyrgyzstan in August or September this year for more detailed discussions and to advance the proposed initiatives. According to the State Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, the country's industrial production reached 159.198 billion soms ($1.8 billion) from January through March 2025, which is a 16.3 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024. On Wednesday evening, the worlds wealthiest man announced that his sojourn in the nations capital is almost over. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, Elon Musk posted to X , the social media platform he owns. While Musk was quick to add that the White Houses Department of Government Efficiency mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government, his departure will represent the effective end of DOGE as we know it. As the Wall Street Journal reported , much of DOGEs work will shift to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is headed by Russell Vought. The DOGE team claims it identified about $175 billion in total savings . Given the federal government spent $6.75 trillion in fiscal 2024 alone, that may seem like a mere drop in the bucket. And given that Musk himself once vowed to identify taxpayer savings in the trillions of dollars albeit without much of a timeline attached to that pronouncement it certainly is a bit disappointing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But consider some of the specific outrageous spending outlays identified by Musks team as ripe for the cutting board, such as $382 million from alleged fraudulent unemployment benefits (as the Department of Labor had previously flagged ) and astonishing extravagance on the foreign stage for instance, $2 million to an organization in Guatemala advocating gender-affirming healthcare and $20 million to a Sesame Street-inspired early childhood initiative in Iraq . Such ideologically driven spending is emblematic of what Vought, in a Newsweek op-ed written two years ago during the Biden-era presidential interregnum, described as the the scourge of a woke and weaponized bureaucracy. The brief DOGE experiment, which uncovered tens of thousands of government grants and contracts to terminate that would shock the conscience of most Americans with any inclination toward sound fiscal stewardship, is proof that such a woke and weaponized bureaucracy isnt merely speculative it really exists. There is probably a lot more, furthermore, where that $175 billion in flagged waste came from. And Vought, who has worked with Musk since last year, is the right man to continue the mission once Musk fully returns to the private sector. There are now at least two additional steps that must be taken one pressing short-term item and one more difficult longer-term item. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reconciliation budget in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that passed the House last week, and which is now pending before the Senate, did not incorporate the DOGE cuts. It seems there is a procedural reason for this: The DOGE cuts are technically post hoc rescissions of presently appropriated money, and rescissions of current outlays are typically subject to their own process. An obscure figure known as the Senate parliamentarian controls the process by which the annual reconciliation budget bill a favored tool because it permits a Senate majority to bypass the chambers legislative filibuster can pass muster. And Capitol Hill Republicans apparently fear that including the DOGE rescissions would endanger President Trumps desired bill. But without Congress actually enacting the DOGE cuts into law, history will show this entire exercise to have been largely futile. Accordingly, Vought and the White Houses Office of Management and Budget must, following the reconciliation bills passage and enactment into law, transmit a fresh rescission package to Speaker Mike Johnsons desk. It is extraordinarily important that the Trump administration and the Republican-led Congress demonstrate not merely that they can identify excessive spending but also that they are willing to cut it. The longer-term problem is thornier. While DOGE has served a useful function, and while Voughts office can probably identify a good amount more in the way of woke and weaponized bureaucracy cost-cutting measures, it is a matter of basic mathematics that something more will be needed to begin to rein in Americas soaring annual deficits and our shocking national debt . Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Republican Party of Donald Trump has moved in a strongly populist direction on issues of political economy. On many fronts, such as antitrust and industrial policy efforts to reshore vital supply chains, such a shift is very much welcome. But at some point, both Republicans and Democrats alike are going to have to find some way to come together and put our entitlement programs above all, Medicare and Social Security on a path to sustainability. The political optics of being perceived as cutting either of these programs are simply horrible, so any attempt at reform will not be easy. But it must be done anyway, as the recent Moodys downgrade of the U.S. credit rating makes starkly clear. The longer we wait, the more credit downgrades and interest payment spikes we risk. Basic game theory suggests that neither party will want to blink first. Recall the 2012-era political ads accusing then-GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan of throwing grandmothers off cliffs . The politics are nasty, divisive and radioactive. But this must get done. So well have to find some way to force everyone to do it together. And in the meantime, as a down payment, lets just make sure DOGEs crucial work was not done in vain. Josh Hammers latest book is Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) A previously convicted felon was sentenced Friday to 27 months in prison for having a gun while on court-ordered supervision. On Jan. 29, 2025, a jury found 46-year-old LaPrince Stephens guilty of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. After his prison sentence, Stephens will have to serve another three years of supervised release. Four men plead guilty to daytime shootings in DC Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents state that on Jan. 6, 2019, officers with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to an apartment building in the 2200 block of Savannah Terrace SE for reports that two men were tampering with a car in the front of the building. When officers arrived, they saw two men leaving the car. One of the windows had been smashed, and the cars ignition had been punched. Officers also later found a loaded pistol at the scene, which was later linked to Stephens via DNA testing. On Aug. 24, 2023, officers arrested Stephens on a warrant outside of that same apartment complex on Savannah Terrace SE. Police recovered a loaded handgun from Stephens waistband. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia said that Stephens has several prior convictions for drug offenses, robbery, threats, assaults and firearms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. FORT SMITH, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) An Arizona man previously convicted of murder and accused of killing a Fort Smith man in 2021 is now facing more charges after he allegedly stabbed two Sebastian County deputies earlier this month, according to court documents. John Anthony Cole, 48, was arrested on April 7 for first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by certain persons. He is also being charged as a habitual offender. John Anthony Cole, 48 (Courtesy: Sebastian County Detention Center) Cole was originally arrested after authorities connected him to the 2021 shooting death of Jeremiah Tel Hawthorne, 35. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 9, the Sebastian County Sheriffs Office reported that two deputies were stabbed by an inmate, identified as Cole. At this time, I have no information that anybody did anything wrong other than Mr. Cole. But every angle will be looked at and thoroughly filtered to make sure were doing the best job we can for the safety of our deputies, for the safety of our inmates and for the safety of our community, Capt. Philip Pevehouse with SCSO said on May 9. Both deputies were taken to a nearby hospital and later released. On May 30, more criminal charges were filed against Cole in connection with the stabbings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to his charges connected to the 2021 fatal shooting, Cole now faces two counts of attempted capital murder. A probable cause affidavit filed on May 30 said the two deputies were stabbed with a metal shank. The affidavit said Cole had previously threatened one of the deputies he allegedly stabbed, saying his was going to burn him in open court. During the stabbing, Cole reportedly said to the deputies, I told you I was going to do this. Cole is being held in the Sebastian County Detention Center on a $1 million bond. He has a plea date set for 11:30 a.m. on May 30. Click here for more information on Coles extensive criminal history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a developing story. Stay with KNWA/FOX24 for the latest. 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. PULASKI, Wis. (WFRV) A small indoor play space in Pulaski is asking for help to stay open. The Cool Place, which serves infants, toddlers, and children under ten, is struggling to stay afloat this summer. Owner Jenny Hanson says without community support, the business may not survive past winter. Packers honor Wisconsin law enforcement officers with Protect & Serve Award The summer months are very hard for small businesses, Hanson said. Were competing with splash pads, parks, libraries, all the things families can do for free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hanson says business slows significantly when school is out, and the slowdown is burning through their winter savings. Last year, revenue from the businesss ice cream truck helped keep them afloat. This year, shes hoping local families will step in. This is my biggest joy, Hanson said. It kind of hurts my heart when people arent here. I just want to keep the doors open for families who need this space. Longtime visitor and volunteer Levana Gray says the play place is about more than just kids. Little kids get to meet other little kids and get that interaction, Gray said. But its also so important for parents. Moms come together, dads come together, it helps create the kind of network a community needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hanson emphasizes that The Cool Place isnt just for young children. The attached cafe is open to everyoneteens looking for a quiet spot, parents working remotely, or anyone needing a break. Wisconsin native leading Green Bay Blizzard offense to new heights We want people to come see what were about, Hanson said. Whether its for little kids or older ones, or just someone wanting a cup of coffee, were here for the whole community. Hanson says people can support The Cool Place by booking parties, buying gift passes, sponsoring playtime for other families, or simply spreading the word. 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 WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in an interview published Friday suggested the allegations that fueled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons (R) impeachment inquiry which ultimately failed were just the tip of the iceberg. Speaking to The New York Times, Cornyn placed emphasis on the importance of character as he vies for reelection next year in the Senate GOP primary against Paxton. Im willing to bet my career and my future and this job on my belief that character does matter still, Cornyn said, suggesting Paxton believed instead that he can get away with a whole litany of misbehavior and corruption that should disqualify him from the job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paxton was acquitted in the Texas state Legislatures impeachment inquiry in September 2023, which alleged he had used, misused, or failed to use his official powers in a manner calculated to subvert the lawful operation of the government of the State of Texas and obstruct the fair and impartial administration of justice. The allegations particularly suggested Paxton was inappropriately helping Nate Paul, one of his donors. John Cornyn is peddling a new fake lie every week because hes down 20 points and trying to process the fact that his 40-year political career is coming to an end, Paxton said in a statement responding to Cornyns interview with the Times. His pathetic attacks cant change the fact that he worked with Joe Biden to take away our gun rights, said President Trumps time has passed him by, and called the border wall naive, he added, a nod to Cornyns involvement in a bipartisan gun safety bill that was signed into law by former President Biden and that sparked criticism among some Texas Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans are bracing for a nasty primary between the two men which could potentially offer an opening to Democrats in Texas, as the race shows only greater signs of divisiveness and personal attacks. One Republican-aligned poll and one public poll from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University have shown Cornyn trailing Paxton in a GOP primary. However, both showed Cornyn faring better than Paxton in a general election. Cornyns campaign released a slew of ads earlier this week, first shared with The Hill, accusing Paxton of funding the left, citing grant money his office gave different Texas legal groups. Meanwhile, Paxtons allies have hit back at the campaigns allegations, suggesting theyre false, and have reminded voters that Cornyn has previously criticized Trump. The president hasnt weighed in on the primary between the two men. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Noting other Republicans have similarly recanted past criticism of Trump, Cornyn told the Times, I was wrong and President Trump was right, obviously. 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. Above: KUSI report on Sen. Corey Booker touring the Tijuana River on Thursday, May 29. CORONADO, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) County health officials have lifted the closure of Coronados shoreline that was put in place over Memorial Day weekend. The ending of the closure was accompanied by the issuance of advisories for La Playa Beach near Lawrence Street in Point Loma and the water near the Coronado Lifeguard Headquarters due to bacteria levels that exceed state health standards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The entire western shoreline of Coronado from Avenida Lunar in the south to North Beach in the north was first closed on Saturday due to the flow of sewage from the Tijuana River Valley. The closure came on the heels of a period with worse-than-normal conditions for South County residents amid work to the sewage treatment system on the other side of the border. Sen. Cory Booker tours Tijuana River sewage crisis The repairs earlier this month to a critical line connecting the San Antonio de los Buenos Plant in Mexico to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the U.S. required the diversion of wastewater into the Tijuana River. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the repairs began, Mexican and U.S. officials noted the South Bay treatment plant would try to collect as much of the extra wastewater as possible, but it could lead to temporarily increased sewage flows. The work was completed last week and concluded with minimal sewage flows crossing the border, according to a post on X by the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees the South Bay treatment plant. With the lifting of the Coronado shoreline closure, the countys ongoing beach management actions have returned to what has become normal in recent years: closures limited to perennial problem spots close to the Tijuana River estuary, like Silver Strand and Imperial Beach. As of Wednesday, advisories due to levels of bacteria exceeding state standards are also in place for other area that regularly see health warnings like La Jolla Childrens Pool, North Cove Vacation Isle in Mission Bay and the La Jolla Cove. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Two men who were suspects in an armed robbery in which shots were fired in Cahokia Heights are dead after the vehicle they were riding in slammed into a tractor-trailer truck and burst into flames in Sauget Thursday, authorities said. The driver, a 34-year-old Dupo man, was pronounced dead at the scene at the intersection of at Mississippi Avenue, which is also known as Illinois 3, and Monsanto Avenue. A second man, a passenger in the blue GMC truck, was taken to a Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where he died. Dean A. Walthes was identified as the driver, according to St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The name of the other man has not been released. Cahokia Heights police responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired and an armed robbery of a person in progress at approximately 12:15 p.m. in the area of Cahokia Street. The responding officers received a description of the vehicle, which was a GMC truck, Cahokia Heights Police Chief Thomas Trice said. As officers were en route, the suspect vehicle passed by one of the responding vehicles, Trice said. The officers circled back, attempted to locate the vehicle, he said. They found the vehicle at Jerome Lane approaching Route 3. As they turned around and turned their lights on to go after the vehicle, the vehicle went northbound on Route 3, attempting to elude officers. Officers turned on to Route 3, attempting to catch up with the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before the officers could catch up to the vehicle, it crashed into the back end quarter panel of a flatbed 18 wheeler. The vehicle immediately caught on fire. The officers put the fire out with their emergency equipment. Illinois State Police was contacted for reconstruction and and further investigation into the traffic crash and the deaths, Trice said. Sauget Police Chief James Jones said a tractor-trailer was coming off Monsanto Avenue making a left turn onto Mississippi when a blue truck disobeyed the stop light and crashed into the side of the trailer. Douglas County authorities ordered the evacuation of dozens of homes early Friday morning after a tractor-trailer tanker truck carrying ammonium nitrate lost control, crashed, and tipped over on Wilson Road near Highway 5. Carrie Jetzke, owner of West Georgia Spay Neuter Clinic, told Channel 2s Tom Regan she spotted the toppled tanker on her way to work and went to help the driver. I saw his head poke out of the window, and I immediately got out and asked if he was OK. He was in complete shock. He could barely sit up. He didnt physically seem to be hurt. I crawled up on the side and held onto what he could, and he was shaking. I just grabbed him from the waist, and pulled him out, and sat with him until EMS came, Jetzke said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jetzke said she didnt know that the truck was carrying a chemical compound that is used both to make fertilizer and explosives. TRENDING STORIES: She said she didnt smell any vapors coming from the wrecked truck. Neighbors nearby say deputies knocked on their doors and asked them to evacuate their homes. A temporary evacuation center was set up at the Dog River Library on Highway 5. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Douglas County Fire and Rescue Chief Miles Allen said as a precaution, 40 to 50 homes were evacuated within a half-mile radius of the wreck. The evacuation order was lifted around 11:30 a.m. after the damaged truck was towed away. Jetzke said shes relieved the driver, a man in his 20s, wasnt hurt. He was completely OK. Just in shock, Jetzke said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Second home owners dodging the double council tax raid will cost local authorities 334m, analysis shows. A loophole means owners can escape paying four-figure bills by flipping their properties into holiday lets and renting them out for 70 nights of the year. The move allows the properties to qualify for business rates relief and also exempts owners from paying any council tax at all. In the past year, the amount of lost council tax revenue has doubled from 170m, according to research by property firm Colliers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Experts and politicians said the figures proved the tax raid was backfiring. Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow housing minister, said: Labour couldnt even be bothered to carry out any impact assessment, nor have they asked councils to restrict the policy to where there are localised problems in the housing market. This policy has massively backfired on them and it will be local people who pay the price. In Cornwall, the second home capital of the country, 52m of council tax income will be lost to 10,731 holiday let properties. John Webber, of Colliers, said: The new policy towards second homes is making the situation even worse. The point is less money will be collected locally which will mean less to spend on services or on affordable housing that local residents actually need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The problem is not second home owners; it is politicians failing to understand the issues and having the courage to do something about it. From April 1, all local authorities were given the option to charge 100pc council tax premium on second home owners under measures brought in by the Conservative government. Those in Wales can charge premiums of up to 300pc. Some 230 out of 296 councils in England and 20 out of 22 in Wales have imposed this inflated levy with some local authorities in Wales charging even more. Telegraph Money is campaigning for the tax to be scrapped. A property is considered a holiday let if it is available for at least 140 nights and is actually let for 70 in one year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The council uses the propertys rateable value based on its type, size, location and how much income you would make from letting it to work out your business rates bill. Many second home owners will qualify for small business rates relief, which offers up to 100pc relief, if the property is the only one they let. For properties with a rateable value of 12,001 to 15,000, the rate of relief will go down gradually from 100pc to 0pc. For instance, if your rateable value is 13,500, youll get 50pc off your bill. In England and Wales, there are an estimated 73,838 holiday let properties that qualify for business rates relief. While this number has fallen from 80,000 last year, due to tougher restrictions, Colliers now expects numbers to increase because of the double tax policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before 2023, homeowners simply had to declare an intention to let a property to holidaymakers to qualify for business rates relief. In her maiden Budget, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, ended the favourable tax treatment of furnished holiday lets, which came into effect on April 6, to encourage landlords to let to long-term tenants. Despite stricter criteria, the number of properties claiming 100pc business rates in the south west of England has only slightly fallen, from 23,000 last year to 21,678 this year. Councillors are calling for the Government to tighten the restrictions. Peter La Broy, a Cornwall councillor, said: Converting homes into small businesses to be liable for business rates is simply tax avoidance. I will be relentless in lobbying to close these loopholes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mike Stoddart, an independent councillor in Pembrokeshire, said he believes there is quite a bit of tax avoidance along the lines of flipping to business rates in the county. The Welsh government has already taken efforts to close this loophole, by raising the qualifying threshold for a holiday let from 70 days to 182. A government spokesman said: Weve abolished the furnished holiday lets tax regime so landlords are not incentivised to rent homes as holiday lets, and will introduce a short-term let registration scheme to protect communities. We have already introduced tougher rules to make sure that second homes cannot be eligible for business rates unless they have rented out as holiday lets for at least 70 days last year and keep any further action under review. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Local Government Association was contacted for comment. 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. The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing administers the state's Board of Nursing and Board of Behavioral Health Professionals as well as other licensing boards. (Main photo by Getty Images; logo courtesy State of Iowa) A Quad-City social worker who was fired after refusing to be tested for intoxication at work has been sanctioned by state regulators. The Iowa Board of Behavioral Health Professionals recently charged social worker Jaime L. Roggenbauer of Bettendorf with knowingly making misleading or untrue statements in the practice of social work, or engaging in unethical conduct harmful to the public, by attempting to practice social work while intoxicated. The board also accused her of interfering with her previous employers information technology systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the board, Roggenbauer had provided counseling services at a childrens advocacy center located in Rock Island, Illinois, since January 2022. She was fired on March 19, 2024, the day her co-workers reported that she appeared chatty, animated and unsteady a departure from her typical demeanor. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The board alleges that Roggenbauer was fired after she refused a chemical test for intoxication. According to the board, she then changed the password to the centers therapy documentation system, which locked other part-time providers out of the centers database. Roggenbauer denied the allegations, but to resolve the case she recently agreed to a settlement that entails her license being placed on probation for two years, during which time she will work with a practice monitor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court records show that in 2022, Roggenbauer was convicted of first-offense drunken driving. Social workers charged with ethics violations Other Iowans recently sanctioned by the Iowa Board of Behavioral Health Professionals include: Kelly Sachau of Sioux City, who is alleged to have maintained a relationship with a patient from April 2021 to the present. According to the board, the patient received therapy services from Sachau while the two maintained a personal relationship. In October 2022, Sachau ended her relationship with the practice group where she worked and took the patients therapy records and notes with her to her new practice without the patients written consent. She was charged with failing to comply with ethics guidelines related to patient boundaries and records. Sachau denied having a dual relationship with the patient and denied improper handling of client records and information. To settle the case, she agreed to pay a $750 civil penalty and have her license placed on probation for two years during which time she will work with a practice monitor and complete training on ethics, clinical documentation and professional boundaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trisha Tonelli of Des Moines, who allegedly disclosed confidential information related to the care of a client. She was charged with failing to comply with ethics guidelines on confidentiality, and was issued a warning that similar conduct in the future could result in further disciplinary action. As part of her settlement agreement with the board, Tonelli agreed to complete six hours of ethics training. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Photo: Administration of the President of Kyrgyzstan BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. Kyrgyzstan has proposed to host the next Central AsiaItaly Summit in 2027, Trend reports. The first-ever Central AsiaItaly Summit, held today in Astana, concluded with a joint statement highlighting plans to continue and deepen regional cooperation. Moreover, leaders from Central Asian countries and Italy announced plans to hold the fourth conference of foreign ministers in Italy in spring 2026. The parties also committed to launching joint initiatives aimed at knowledge sharing and institutional cooperation across strategic sectors. A roundtable focused on water resource collaboration is planned before 2026, while another roundtable on energy cooperationwith an emphasis on sustainable energy technologies and improving energy efficiencyis scheduled for 2027. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) The County Attorneys Office announced that it has obtained a temporary restraining order to temporarily shut down a massage parlor near the El Paso International Airport. The temporary restraining order to shut down Oriental Massage Spa, 6301 Airport Road, came after an extensive investigation that showed ongoing violations of state law, the County Attorneys office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation, led by the El Paso Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, uncovered evidence of erotic services being offered at the spa, including sexual contact, along with the employment of unlicensed massage therapists, the County Attorneys Office said. In addition to these findings, the business was cited for numerous regulatory violations, including failure to maintain required employee and client records and failure to obtain proper client consultation documents, the County Attorneys Office said. The complaint outlines at least 27 violations of the Texas Occupations Code and 33 violations of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the County Attorneys Office said. The lawsuit names Oriental Massage Spa LLC, Billy Wayne Fondren, Haifeng Xiao, and Yanling Wang as defendants. Yanling Wang and Haifeng Xiao are listed as the business owners, while Billy Wayne Fondren is the recorded property owner, the County Attorneys Office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a result of the Courts order, the business will remain closed at least until June 12. A hearing to determine whether a temporary injunction will be granted is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 12 in the 168th District Court. County Attorney Christina Sanchez said: Our Nuisance Abatement Team is dedicated to addressing community problems through civil litigation. When businesses habitually violate state law and operate as hubs for illegal activity, they become a detriment to the safety and well-being of our neighborhoods. This case demonstrates how we can use civil remedies, like nuisance abatement lawsuits, to shut down operations that contribute to larger issues and improve the quality of life for the citizens of El Paso County, Sanchez said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This effort was carried out in collaboration with the Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division Human Trafficking Unit, the El Paso Police Department Vice Unit, and the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 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. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) El Paso County will celebrate the renovation of Gallegos Skatepark with a ceremony this weekend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ribbon-cutting celebration will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 31, at 7361 Bosque Rd. in Canutillo. Community members are encouraged to join County leaders as they unveil a dynamic new recreational space designed with local skaters in mind, according to the news release by the County. The County said the project was completed as part of the Countys 2021 Parks Master Plan and partially funded by a Texas Parks and Wildlife Grant. It features an expansive new skate layout and a brand-new adventure course. This celebration also highlights the recent passage of the 2024 Capital Improvement Bond, which will bring even more improvements to Gallegos Park and parks countywide, read the news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 county clerks in Orleans and Niagara counties are warning residents about the text scam involving fake Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) notifications that have been circulating extensively to residents of both counties in recent weeks. Orleans County Clerk Nadine Hanlon and Niagara County Clerk Joseph A. Jastrzesmki said while the scam is nothing new, their offices have been inundated with calls from local residents expressing concern. Like many of these so-called phishing scams, the texts look very real and are telling people they have outstanding traffic tickets or unpaid tolls and they must take action immediately to avoid consequences like fines and loss of driving privileges, said Hanlon. Let me be clear these are fake and should be deleted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Phishing texts are fraudulent messages designed to obtain data or sensitive personal information to be used to commit identity theft or trick the recipient into installing malicious software onto a computer or mobile device. No DMV office, either locally or from the state, will send you texts looking for personal information, said Jastrzemski. And if you are unsure, call our office and ask. It is always better to be safe than sorry. The New York State DMV provided some advice on how to avoid these phishing attacks: Be cautious about all communications you receive, including those that claim to be from "trusted entities." Be careful when clicking any links contained within those messages. If in doubt, do not click. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do not send your personal information via email. Legitimate businesses will not ask users to send sensitive personal information through email. Keep an eye out for telltale signs: poor spelling or grammar, the use of threats, or the URL does not match that of the legitimate site. Be wary of how much information you post online. The less information you post, the less data you make available to a cybercriminal for use in developing a potential attack or scam. To learn more about the phishing scams, visit https://dmv.ny.gov/more-info/phishing-attacks. The Trump administration has admitted that it improperly deported another immigrant in violation of a court order the fourth known case in which the administration deported someone erroneously or in breach of specific legal requirements. Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, had been in immigration detention since 2022 while deportation proceedings against him were pending. But on May 7, shortly after a federal appeals court ordered the government to keep him in the United States, immigration authorities deported him back to his native country. Matthew Borowski, a lawyer for Melgar-Salmeron, told POLITICO that he intends to ask the court to order the government to return his client from El Salvador and to hold government officials in contempt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In court papers this week, officials blamed a confluence of administrative errors, including missed emails and an inaccurate roster of passengers on the May 7 deportation flight. The Justice Department declined to comment, and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. The deportation of Melgar-Salmeron was first reported by the Investigative Post, a nonprofit news outlet in western New York. The episode is reminiscent of three other deportations that courts have declared illegal or improper in recent months: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was deported to El Salvador in violation of an immigration judges order. Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a Venezuelan man who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court-approved settlement. A Guatemalan man, identified in court by the initials O.C.G., who was deported to Mexico in what the administration now acknowledges was an error because he was not given a chance to exercise his legal right to raise fears that he would be tortured there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In each of those other three cases, judges have ordered the administration to try to bring the deportees back to the United States so that they can receive due process. The administration says it is working to return O.C.G. but has resisted the orders to return Abrego Garcia and Lozano-Camargo, claiming they are powerless because the men are in Salvadoran custody. A court order followed by a deportation flight Melgar-Salmeron, who spent years living in Virginia, had been in immigration detention since 2022 following a prison sentence for possessing an unregistered shotgun, according to court records. Though he had originally also been charged with entering the country illegally, he was allowed to plead guilty in 2021 to only the firearms charge. After his prison sentence ended, Melgar-Salmeron was detained by immigration authorities while deportation proceedings against him were ongoing. In January 2024, the Biden administration put Melgar-Salmerons proceedings on hold amid broader litigation over immigration policy. But in April, the Trump administration moved to lift that hold, court documents show. Melgar-Salmeron had a longstanding appeal pending at the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The administration asked the court to expedite the appeal and indicated that it wanted to deport him by May 9 at the latest but told the court it would not act before May 8. On the morning of May 7, a three-judge panel of the court ordered the government to keep Melgar-Salmeron in the United States while he pursued claims about fear of torture in his home country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the courts order, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at a staging facility in Louisiana loaded Melgar-Salmeron onto a plane and deported him to El Salvador. The flight departed at 10:20 a.m. 28 minutes after the courts order. Melgar-Salmeron is now in a Salvadoran prison, Borowski says. When the court learned about the deportation, it sent pointed questions to the administration about what had happened. The court demanded sworn declarations from ICE officials responsible for the mans deportation and an explanation of why the courts order to block his deportation was apparently not conveyed to the people who put him on the flight to El Salvador. The judges noted that the administration had assured them that Melgar-Salmeron would not be deported until at least May 8. They demanded to know why his deportation was abruptly advanced to May 7 less than an hour after their order. In a letter to the court on Wednesday, the administration acknowledged that the deportation was erroneous. Kitty Lees, a Justice Department attorney, said there had been a breakdown at multiple levels of the process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several inadvertent administrative oversights led to Petitioner's May 7, 2025 removal, Lees wrote, despite the express assurance made by the Government to this Court that it would forbear removing Petitioner until May 8, 2025. Among the errors: ICE Air Operations, which arranges deportation flights, had always planned to deport Melgar-Salmeron on May 7, when it had a long-scheduled deportation flight on the books. He was listed on the manifest for that May 7 flight weeks in advance. But the Buffalo-based ICE office responsible for Melgar-Salmerons case wrote a different date May 9 into his official file, a date that was relayed to the Justice Department and the court. On May 6 and May 7, ICE Air emailed a flight manifest that included Melgar-Salmeron to the Buffalo office responsible for his case. The spreadsheet was automatically forwarded to four Buffalo officers, but not the one assigned to Melgar-Salmerons case, who didnt see it until the flight had departed. Due to an oversight, and because of the volume of emails received pertaining to removal flights, the Buffalo officers who received the emails did not forward them to Petitioner's assigned Buffalo officer, Lees wrote. For an unknown reason, when ICE was boarding people onto the flight, Melgar-Salmeron did not appear and was stricken from the manifest as a no-show, Lees added. During a second sweep of the facility, they located him and escorted him onto the airplane, but the manifest was never updated to reflect that he had been found. A pattern of rushed deportations The haphazard circumstances around Melgar-Salmerons case bear some of the same hallmarks of other high-profile deportations that judges have sought to reverse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, the administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite a 2019 immigration court order that barred the government from sending him there because he could be at risk of violence at the hands of a local gang. A Justice Department lawyer acknowledged in court that the deportation had been improper, and a federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate his release from El Salvadors custody. The Supreme Court largely upheld that requirement and noted that the deportation had been illegal. A different federal judge has also ordered the administration to facilitate the return of Lozano-Camargo, who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court-approved settlement agreement that protected certain immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors. (He is referred to in court papers with a pseudonym, but POLITICO previously identified him as Lozano-Camargo.) Abrego Garcia and Lozano-Camargo remain in Salvadoran prisons. The Trump administration has claimed in court that it has no ability to force the Salvadoran government to return them to United States custody. The administration, however, says it has taken steps to arrange a flight to bring back O.C.G., the Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico in February. The man claims he was raped and otherwise targeted for being gay during a previous stay in Mexico. Administration officials initially claimed in court that he was given a chance to raise fears about being sent back to Mexico, but they later retracted that assertion and admitted they have no evidence that he was ever asked about whether he feared violence there. A federal judge ruled that O.C.G. had been deported without proper due process and ordered the government to facilitate his return. Its become a familiar cycle: Donald Trump dusts off a long-settled law, reinterprets it and attempts to wield it in unprecedented, far-reaching ways. The courts slam the brakes, saying the president's creative reimagining is just plain illegal. It happened again this week with an exclamation point when two federal courts invalidated the central plank of Trumps economic agenda: a slate of emergency tariffs that spurred uncertainty across the globe. Both courts found that Trump severely exceeded his authority when he invoked a 1977 law as the legal basis for the tariffs. That law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, permits the president to impose tariffs on an emergency basis but only in limited circumstances and for limited purposes. In the words of one judge, Trump broke with five decades of practice by presidents who never claimed the power that Trump says IEEPA gives him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both court rulings are on hold for now while the administration appeals. But they point to a broader strategy Trump has used in his effort to swiftly enact his second-term agenda: He repurposes old or obscure statutes, especially those that give presidents special powers during times of war or other national crises. Beyond the realm of tariffs, hes used the same playbook to try to supercharge his deportation program and to try to kneecap public-employee labor unions. One problem for Trump, though, is that courts are increasingly skeptical of Trumps claims about the supposed emergencies or national-security exigencies that he has claimed as justifications for deploying these seldom-used statutes. The White House insists its the judges not the president who have gone rogue, routinely referring to courts that rule against the administration as activist or politically motivated. The roster of these purported wayward jurists includes judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan, including by Trump himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves in the presidential decision-making process, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Thursday. Others point out that the administration is relying on laws that have been used by presidents of the past albeit in more limited ways that did pass muster in the courts. Deportations under an 18th century wartime power Trumps boldest attempt to exploit an old law for his own purposes is his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The founding generation enacted that law to help repel invasions or predatory incursions perpetrated by rival governments. At the time, a war with France loomed. And for more than two centuries, presidents invoked the law only three times: during the War of 1812 against British subjects, World War I against German immigrants and World War II against nationals of Japan, Germany, Italy and several other countries. Then, in March, Trump tried to wield it against alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, so that he could deport them with little or no due process. The strategy immediately strained the definitions of invasion and predatory incursion envisioned by the framers. The courts noticed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is nothing in the AEA that justifies a finding that refugees migrating from Venezuela, or TdA gangsters who infiltrate the migrants, are engaged in an invasion or predatory incursion, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled earlier this month. They do not seek to occupy territory, to oust American jurisdiction from any territory, or to ravage territory. Hellersteins ruling echoed similar decisions by judges in Colorado and Texas, who said Trumps reinterpretation of the old law exceeded his legal power. One judge, however, sided with Trump on that central question: U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee from Pennsylvania, concluded that while the meaning of a statute is fixed at its enactment, new applications may arise in light of changes in the world. She said the founders might have viewed foreign terrorist groups the label Trump has given TdA as capable of committing a predatory incursion. Reviving a registration requirement for immigrants In his bid to root out undocumented immigrants and criminalize their presence, Trump has also dusted off an 85-year-old statute aimed at requiring all immigrants in the country for more than 30 days regardless of their legal status to register with the federal government. The law, known as the Alien Registration Act, was passed shortly before the U.S. entered World War II. Its purpose was to discover foreigners who advocated for overthrowing the government, and it was later used against suspected communists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But it fell into disuse for decades until Trump, in an executive order, instructed the Department of Homeland Security to issue new guidance and start enforcing the registration requirement. A federal judge in Washington, D.C. swept aside a challenge to this effort on procedural grounds. But a magistrate judge in Louisiana dismissed the first charges brought by the Trump administration under this statute, saying prosecutors had failed to show that the five targeted defendants were even aware of the requirement to register. The magistrate judge noted that the requirement, which was last reaffirmed by Congress in the 1950s, was essentially defunct and abandoned for the past 70 years. The Trump administration is appealing the decision to a district court judge. Revoking student visas Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked yet another obscure statutory provision to target another group of immigrants: foreign-born pro-Palestinian academics at American universities. Rubio has used the provision to revoke the legal status of several prominent students and professors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The provision, adopted during a 1990 overhaul of immigration laws, gives the secretary of State the power to initiate the deportation of any immigrant if the secretary determines that the immigrants presence could cause potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences. The provision has been used just a handful of times since, and nearly always in cases that involved serious allegations of terrorism or subversive activities in the targets home countries. Rubio, on the other hand, has deployed the provision to target campus activists who participated in anti-Israel protests. Rubios letter revoking green cards or visas for Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Rumeysa Ozturk and other people studying in the United States indicated that their conduct had been legal but that their continued presence and activities in the United States nevertheless would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest. Federal judges who have weighed in on the effort have said Rubios use of the provision appears to run afoul of the Constitution, punishing foreign students and academics for exercising free speech rights. The judge presiding over the case of Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate student facing deportation, went further, noting this week that the provision used by Rubio was rooted almost entirely in concerns about people whose relevant conduct took place entirely abroad. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislative and enforcement history do not suggest that removal might be sought in these circumstances, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote. Rather, they underscore that a removal of the kind at issue here is unprecedented. Using 'national security' to remove collective bargaining Trump has also dredged up a rarely used power in federal labor law to try to strip most federal employees of collective-bargaining rights. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gives the president the ability to exclude federal agencies from unionization rights if he determines that the agencies are primarily engaged in national-security work. Trump designated dozens of agencies and subdivisions including the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Justice and Veterans Affairs as focused on national security. His directive threatens to remove collective bargaining from an estimated two-thirds of the federal workforce. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman blocked Trumps move. The Presidents interpretation of national security exceeds the scope of the meaning intended by Congress, Friedman wrote. A panel of a federal appeals court, however, has put Friedmans ruling on hold while the administration appeals. An update to the CDCs vaccine schedule seems to contradict Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s plan to only recommend their use to children with underlying conditions. I couldnt be more pleased to announce that, as of today, the Covid vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule, Kennedy said in a video posted Tuesday . As of Thursday, the CDC no longer recommends that all healthy children get vaccinated against Covid. However, the Covid vaccine still appeared on the childrens immunization schedule with a note specifying that healthy children may get the vaccine if their health care provider and parent or guardian believe they should a type of recommendation known as shared clinical decision making. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also, recommendation that pregnant women get the vaccine has been removed, and it is now listed as No Guidance/Not Applicable. The agency had recommended the shot to everyone at least six months old. In the updated schedule, most adults and immunocompromised children are still recommended the shot. An HHS spokesperson pushed back after publication on Friday, telling POLITICO that the update to the children's vaccine schedule did not contradict Kennedys earlier statements. HHS made the same case on X . The old COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children under 18 and for pregnant women have been removed from the CDC vaccine schedule. The CDC and HHS encourage individuals to talk with their healthcare provider about any personal medical decision, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote in an email to POLITICO Friday. If a parent desires their healthy child to be vaccinated, their decision should be based on informed consent through the clinical judgement of their healthcare provider. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Key context: Kennedy has raised concerns about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines for years, and the update to the schedule bucks the CDCs normal process for new recommendations. Historically, a panel of experts votes on changes to the schedule after considering the latest data. The CDC director can endorse or reject the recommendations, but nearly always defers to the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. ACIP was expected to vote on updating Covid vaccine guidance at its next meeting in June. Big picture: The World Health Organization recommends the Covid shot for pregnant women, any individual who is immunocompromised, and children and adolescents with comorbidities. CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s statements and add a comment from an HHS spokesperson. A new, highly transmissible COVID subvariant has been detected in California heightening the risk of a potential summer wave as recent moves by the Trump administration threaten to make vaccines harder to get, and more expensive, for many Americans, some health experts warn. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced this week that he was rescinding the federal government's recommendation that pregnant women and healthy children get immunized against COVID, effective immediately. Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, also said the agency will no longer routinely approve annually formulated COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy people under age 65. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We simply don't know whether a healthy 52-year-old woman with a normal BMI who has had COVID-19 three times and has received six previous doses of a COVID-19 vaccine will benefit from the seventh dose," Makary, along with another FDA official, Dr. Vinay Prasad, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine this month. "This policy will compel much-needed evidence generation." Read more: Kennedy says COVID vaccines no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women However, some experts say mandating more extensive testing could delay vaccine access for many, as those efforts may not even be complete until after the end of the upcoming winter flu-and-COVID season. "Pregnant women, infants and young children are at higher risk of hospitalization from COVID, and the safety of the COVID vaccine has been widely demonstrated," Dr. Sean O'Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that, in general, getting an updated vaccine provides children and adults additional protection from COVID-related emergency room and urgent care visits. The recent federal changes, according to some experts, could also prompt private insurance companies and government insurers to stop paying for COVID shots for wide segments of the population, including babies and children. Absent a recommendation by federal officials, Americans could end up paying the entire cost of a vaccine, experts say. The out-of-pocket cost for a COVID vaccine at CVS, for instance, is $198.99. Read more: Trump administration cancels $766-million Moderna contract to fight pandemic flu Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the emergency phase of the pandemic has long since passed, authorities note COVID remains a public health concern. A relatively new subvariant has been spreading in Europe and Asia, "particularly Hong Kong, Taiwan, other countries, Japan, etc.," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert. That subvariant, NB.1.8.1, was first documented in January and has since been detected in California, including in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area. The World Health Organization designated it a "Variant Under Monitoring" last week. NB.1.8.1 has grown exponentially worldwide in recent weeks. The Omicron subvariant represented 10.7% of genetically analyzed viral samples worldwide for the week ending April 27, WHO data show. That was up sharply from the week ending April 6, when the subvariant accounted for 2.5% of samples worldwide. "While still low numbers, this is a significant rise," the WHO said, adding that there was a "concurrent increase in cases and hospitalizations in some countries where NB.1.8.1 is widespread." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Trump officials set new requirements for COVID vaccines in healthy adults and children NB.1.8.1 isn't yet prevalent enough in the United States to be publicly tracked by the CDC. Another strain, LP.8.1, accounted for an estimated 73% of coronavirus specimens nationally for the two-week period ending Saturday. Data suggest NB.1.8.1 does not cause more severe illness, "but it is more transmissible, at least from what we're seeing around the world and also from lab experiments," said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious-disease expert at Stanford University. In Taiwan, a top health official told reporters that an NB.1.8.1-fueled outbreak was "continuing to rise rapidly, with a sustained increase in severe and fatal cases," the Central News Agency reported, prompting a shortage of COVID testing kits. Health officials said a factor in Taiwan's surge was the lack of a major COVID wave over the winter, and forecast that the island's current spike may not peak for another four to six weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NB.1.8.1 has seen increased prevalence in each of the three WHO regions that still consistently share genetic analysis of COVID samples the Western Pacific (which includes East Asia, parts of Southeast Asia, and Australia); Europe; and the Americas. The rate at which COVID tests are coming back positive in Los Angeles County has slightly increased over the past few weeks, although the overall positive rate remains low, at 3.5%, according to the county Department of Public Health. Coronavirus levels detected in the county's wastewater have increased by 6% in the last three weeks, but also remain relatively low and are about one-eighth of the peak in the summer of last year. Read more: Ex-official says he was forced out of FDA after trying to protect vaccine safety data from RFK Jr. Although California experienced a mild winter season a first of the COVID era that followed a powerful summer spike that was the strongest in years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many experts and officials have touted available COVID vaccines as effective both in warding off infection and in lessening the severity of symptoms. However, the need for otherwise healthy individuals to roll up their sleeves has been a matter of debate. In a video message Tuesday on X, Kennedy a noted vaccine skeptic said that he "couldn't be more pleased to announce that, as of today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule." Experts said they could not recall a time when a political appointee circumvented a well-established process of making vaccine recommendations, which typically involves panels of scientists advising the FDA and CDC. "It's kind of chilling," Chin-Hong said. "It's out of step with the system we've learned to trust and follow." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: WHO adopts a 'pandemic agreement' after the chaos of COVID In a statement to The Times, the L.A. County Department of Public Health urged Kennedy to listen to experts in the field including from the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is scheduled to meet next month "before decreasing access to any vaccine." As of Thursday, the CDC still had the long-standing vaccine recommendations on its website: Everyone ages 6 months and older should get the most recent COVID-19 vaccine, officially known as the 2024-25 version, which was introduced in September. The CDC also recommends seniors ages 65 and up get a second vaccine dose six months after their first. In a statement, the California Department of Public Health said that it supports the current expansive recommendation for COVID vaccines, and that it "will continue to follow the federal conversation through this dynamic situation." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccination can reduce the risk of disease, especially more severe cases that result in hospitalization or death," the department added. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the CDC did not know of Kennedy's directive until he posted it, and officials have been "scrambling to find out what it meant." Experts who spoke with The Times warned the practical effect of the edict if it becomes official could be far more costly vaccines for affected groups. "If vaccines are not recommended by the CDC, insurance companies would NOT be required to cover the cost," the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: A pediatrician's dilemma: Should a practice kick out unvaccinated kids? As a result, the vaccines may be less accessible to healthier people who still want them perhaps because they live or work with elderly or other higher-risk people, they've had severe COVID illness before, or they want to protect themselves against the latest subvariant, the agency said. If the FDA withholds a license for an updated COVID vaccination for younger, healthier adults, this group "would not be able to receive it unless their provider chooses to give it 'off label,'" the county said. When asked whether healthy pregnant women and healthy children can still get vaccinated at its pharmacies, Walgreens said its teams operate "in full compliance with applicable laws." CVS said its locations "follow federal guidance regarding vaccine administration and are monitoring any changes that the government may make regarding vaccine eligibility." Kaiser Permanente Southern California said it was aware of potential changes, but noted no new formal guidance has yet been issued. As a result, Kaiser is continuing to follow existing guidance, which recommends the shots for everyone. The L.A. County Department of Public Health said that as of Wednesday, "pregnant women and healthy children can get vaccinated for COVID-19," according to existing recommendations from an advisory panel and the CDC. Read more: RFK Jr. kept asking to see the science that vaccines were safe. After he saw it, he dismissed it Chin-Hong noted there were 150 pediatric deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19 in a recent one-year period. That's in the same ballpark as the 231 pediatric flu deaths recorded this season, and federal health officials recommend everyone ages 6 months and older get an annual flu shot. "Most people would agree that kids should be targeted for flu vaccines. It seems kind of weird to have COVID as an outlier in that respect," Chin-Hong said. In the video published this week, Makary said that "most countries in the world have stopped recommending the vaccine for children." Maldonado, however, said the U.S. doesn't use other nations' standards to dictate vaccine recommendations. The U.S., for instance, recommends other types of vaccines that have a lower prevalence than COVID that people want to get, Maldonado said, such as the meningococcal vaccine for children to guard against a serious bacterial disease that can infect the brain and spinal cord and cause death within hours. The effect of a recommendation also varies by country. Canada, for instance, recommends updated COVID vaccines for seniors and other people who meet certain criteria, such as if they're pregnant or are a healthcare worker. But the country's universal healthcare system still allows everyone ages 6 months and older to get an updated COVID vaccine. Although it's true that children overall are at lower risk of developing severe COVID illness, those under 6 months of age "have the same risk of complications as the 65-year-old-plus population in this country," said Stanford's Maldonado, who also serves on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Read more: Trump's first term brought world-changing vaccine. His second could bring retreat Among children eligible for vaccination, COVID-associated hospitalization rates are highest for those ages 6 months to 4 years, according to the CDC. "So are children going to be the highest risk group? No, they're not. But would you want to protect your child from a disease that could potentially put them in the hospital and get them on a ventilator? Yes, I would say that I would want to make that choice for myself. And why not allow the parent to make that choice?" Maldonado said. The CDC says COVID vaccination during pregnancy builds antibodies that can help protect the baby; studies have also shown that vaccinated moms who breastfeed have protective antibodies in their milk, which could help protect their babies. There have been an estimated 260,000 to 430,000 hospitalizations attributed to COVID since October, causing "an enormous burden on the healthcare system," Dr. Fiona Havers, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC, said at a recent public meeting. There have also been an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 COVID-19 deaths over the same time period. "It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in older adults, but it does affect other people, particularly those with underlying conditions, in younger age groups." COVID is also a major cause of pediatric hospitalizations, even among otherwise healthy children, she said. "If there's a summer wave this year, we'll be seeing it in children being hospitalized with COVID as well," she said. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. CHICAGO (WGN) A suspect is dead and a Chicago police officer is recovering in the hospital after a foot chase ended in a shooting on the West Side overnight. A preliminary report by Chicago police indicates that the incident began just after 10:30 p.m. when officers attempted to conduct an investigatory stop on the suspect in an alley in the 4300 block of West North Avenue in Humboldt Park. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to police, as the officers approached the suspect, he allegedly fled into a nearby backyard on foot, leading officers on a chase. The officers eventually caught up with the suspect, but while working to detain him, a struggle ensued and officers said that is when the suspects weapon went off, hitting one of the officers. Following the gunshot, one of the officers opened fire on the suspect. Police say the officer involved in the altercation suffered a gunshot wound to his leg and was taken to the hospital in serious condition. Just after 2 p.m. Friday, police announced the officer had been released from the hospital. The suspect was also hit when the officer returned fire and he later died at the hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LATEST CASES: Missing people in Chicagoland The Cook County Medical Examiners Office has since identified the suspect killed as 19-year-old Nathaniel Fejerang. Authorities said a firearm was recovered on the scene and it is It is currently unclear why officers initially attempted to stop Fejerang. An investigation into the deadly shooting is now underway by Chicagos Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), as well as CPDs Investigative Response Team is investigating. Those with information on the shooting can contact COPA on their website or by calling 312-746-3609. 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. Passengers could face fines for standing up too early on an aircraft. That is the new law that was implemented by Turkish aviation authorities on May 2. If the plane has not reached its parking position, then passengers must keep their seatbelts fastened, stay seated and keep the overhead compartments closed until the seatbelt sign has been switched off, the Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a notice sent to airlines. It is strictly forbidden to do otherwise. Please respect the disembarkation priority of the passengers in front of or around you and wait for your turn, the notice states. It also warns that passengers who do not comply will be reported and could face a fine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The penalty could be about 2,603 Turkish lira, which is around $67, according to Turkish broadcaster Halk TV. Under the Federal Aviation Administration, passengers who stand up while the plane is moving toward a gate can be reported to the pilot, according to the Washington Post. It is a safety issue, Jennifer Jaki Johnson, a flight attendant for a major carrier and CEO and founder of Jetsetter Chic, told The Washington Post in 2019. Beyond safety, some may say its also an etiquette issue. I think people need to learn proper etiquette, noted Anthony Turk, a world traveler on NBCs program, The Roggin Report. He added, The front of the plane gets off first and it should go seat by seat. Nobody should be pushing in front of anybody. More News Read the original article on MassLive. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 30. Kyrgyzstan and Italy signed an Agreement on the Promotion and Protection of Investments following a meeting between President Sadyr Zhaparov and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, held on the sidelines of the inaugural Central AsiaItaly summit in Astana, Trend reports via the presidential administration. The accord is anticipated to enhance bilateral economic synergies and proliferate avenues for commercial alliances. The parties engaged in a comprehensive dialogue regarding pivotal domains of synergy, encompassing commerce, capital infusion, energy sector dynamics, transportation logistics, hydrological governance, and the paradigm shift towards digital metamorphosis. President Zhaparov articulated Kyrgyzstans strategic receptiveness to foreign capital influx and extended an invitation to Italian enterprises to engage in expansive initiatives within the realms of hydropower, renewable energy, and infrastructural development. Meloni lauded Kyrgyzstan's recent border accord with Tajikistan, deeming it a pivotal achievement for regional equilibrium. She acknowledged Italys geopolitical engagement in Central Asia and reiterated commitment to enhancing bilateral relations with Kyrgyzstan. President Zhaparov characterized the assembly as a manifestation of reciprocal dedication to enhancing collaborative synergies, leveraging the frameworks established during his diplomatic engagement in Italy in October 2023. Both parties articulated a willingness to inject renewed momentum into bilateral and multilateral frameworks. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is flying high with a new bill that hopes to update the technology used in the American militarys helicopter fleet. With the long title of The Helicopter Operational Versatility and Enhanced Readiness Act, more quickly referred to as the HOVER Act, the legislation promises to turn the Armys tried-and-true Black Hawks into modern marvels that can fly with or without a human at the controls. Cruz said in a recent press release that the move is about peace through strength, giving our troops the very best in cutting-edge technology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The HOVER Act allows the U.S. Army to modernize its fleet with such technology, boosting military readiness and American national security. I urge my colleagues to swiftly pass this bill to ensure our military remains the strongest and most effective in the world, Cruz added. The HOVER Act authorizes the use of government funds to convert at least three Army Black Hawk helicopters into Optionally Piloted Vehicles (OPVs), a fancy term for a helicopter that can fly itself or take instructions from a pilot in a format similar to Bluetooth. The OPV tech, already proven in aviation practices outside the military, aims to lighten the load on human pilots, reduce human error, and increase survivability rates during dangerous military missions. Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas-6), a former helicopter pilot, is also sponsoring companion legislation in the House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a former helicopter pilot, I understand firsthand the demands and risks associated with complex missions in challenging environments. The HOVER Act is a step forward in aviation safety and mission effectiveness. By integrating Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) technology into Black Hawks, we will not only reduce pilot workload but also enhance situational awareness and increase survivability in high-risk conditions, Ellzey said. The bill also directs the Secretary of the Army to run a two-year test drive an operational experimentation program to evaluate how these OPVs perform in the real world. The Secretary will also have to report back to Congress within a year with progress, findings, and recommendations for OPV usage in the future. Some could argue the bill is a no-brainer. Modern combat zones are complex, fast-paced, and dangerous. Cutting-edge tech like OPVs could help pilots focus on their missions and, hopefully, reduce crash rates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cruz and Ellzey arent waiting around. Theyre betting that robotic copilot systems are the next big thing in keeping Americas pilots safe in battle. The HOVER Act is about more than just tech updates for a few choppers; its about ensuring the U.S. Armys helicopters are ready to face tomorrows modern threats. As Ellzey put it, This legislation is about giving our pilots the tools they need to be successful. It gives them the ability to execute their missions safely and effectively and come home to their families. A cryptocurrency investor and alleged kidnapper accused of torturing an Italian man in a posh Manhattan townhouse appeared in court Friday. William Duplessie, 33, stood scowling before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court wearing a beige prison smock, with his arms cuffed behind his back as a grand jury indicted him for kidnapping and other crimes. Duplessie and fellow crypto trader John Woeltz, 37, are accused of imprisoning and torturing the 28-year-old victim for 17 days at a Prince St. townhouse near Mulberry St. in SoHo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The alleged kidnappers shocked the victim with electric wires, held him upside down from the top of a staircase, cut his leg with a chainsaw, pistol-whipped him and threatened at gunpoint to kill him and his family numerous times, in a bid to coerce their Italian hostage to unlock his Bitcoin account, prosecutors said. The 28-year-old victim managed to escape the apartment on May 23 and flagged down a traffic agent, who contacted police, a second police source said. Cops searched the Prince St. apartment that day, finding a firearm and Polaroid pictures of the bound victim enduring torture. Police led Woeltz out of the $30,000-a-month, eight-bedroom apartment wearing a white bathrobe and handcuffs. Duplessie surrendered Tuesday to cops at the 13th Precinct stationhouse and was charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and possession of a firearm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men are being held without bail. The investigation into the alleged kidnapping scheme also ensnared two veteran NYPD detectives including a member of Mayor Adams security detail who were placed on desk duty for allegedly providing security for one of the defendants without department approval, police sources said. The cop on the mayors detail, Detective 1st Grade Roberto Cordero, is believed to have picked up the kidnapping victim from a local airport on May 6, a source said. Upon arriving at the townhouse, Duplessie and Woeltz confiscated the victims passport, phone and other electronics, prosecutors said. Duplessies next court date is June 11. The recent case of an Italian tourist who was kidnapped in New York City and tortured by people allegedly after his cryptocurrency is drawing attention to a rash of crimes dubbed "wrench attacks," which combine cybertheft with old-fashioned thuggery. The term stems from an XKCD comic that depicts a "crypto nerd's imagination" of the tech know-how that would be required to break into their digital wallet. In reality, the comic notes, all it would take is a heavy $5 wrench to threaten the crypto owner until they revealed their account password. Such attacks have picked up in recent months, partly because stealing a digital wallet can be easier than stealing money from a traditional bank account, said Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at TRM Labs, a crypto tracing firm. On top of that, the value of bitcoin has surged in recent months, making people with crypto holdings potentially lucrative targets for criminals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Criminals go to where the money is, and we're seeing a huge rise in the price of bitcoin," Redbord said. "Before, you needed sophisticated cyber capabilities to hack someone, but now you can be a violent criminal who can beat [the password] out of someone." He added, "I don't think I've ever been as taken aback by this type of illicit activity in crypto." The crypto world also has a culture of flaunting wealth via social media posts or appearances at crypto conference, which allows criminals to easily identify potential targets. Bitcoin traded Friday at nearly $105,000 per token, according to CoinDesk about 53% higher than a year ago. The digital currency has soared partly as people seek alternatives to put their money than traditional investments like stocks and bonds, and as the Trump administration takes steps to promote the use of cryptocurrencies, including establishing a "strategic crypto reserve." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How to crack a wallet Cryptocurrency thefts aren't new, but they've typically involved hacking, such as a massive 2022 hack at crypto exchange Binance in which thieves initially stole $570 million, as well as multiple hacks by entities the United Nations found were linked to North Korea. In response to such threats, crypto owners often try and keep their private keys off the internet and stored in what are called "cold wallets." When used properly, such wallets can defeat even the most sophisticated and determined hackers. But criminals have realized they don't need any technical skills to steal crypto assets, Redbord said. All it takes is gaining access to a person's crypto account password, because there's no third-party financial institution standing in the way of accessing funds held in a digital wallet, he explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transactions on the blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies, are permanent. And unlike cash, jewelry, gold or other items of value, thieves don't need to carry around stolen crypto. With a few clicks, huge amounts of wealth can be transferred from one address to another. NYC crypto kidnapping The case in New York City is somewhat unusual because it involves crypto investors allegedly trying to steal the assets of another investor, Redbord said. In that case, investors John Woeltz, 37, and William Duplessie, 33, face charges of kidnapping, assault and unlawful imprisonment of the Italian tourist in an effort to steal his digital wallet containing bitcoin worth millions of dollars. Court papers allege that the pair held the unidentified 28-year-old victim for weeks in an apartment in New York City's fashionable Soho neighborhood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the victim was abducted, he was shocked with electric wires, his leg was cut with a saw and he was forced to smoke crack cocaine, prosecutors allege. Items including a photo of a gun held to the Italian tourist's head were found in the apartment by investigators. Two New York City police detectives had been working security for the accused kidnappers, CBS News New York has reported. The detective have been placed on desk duty as police investigate. William Duplessie, who along with John Woeltz is accused of kidnapping an Italian tourist to steal his cryptocurrency holdings, is escorted out of the New York Police 13th Precinct after turning himself in on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in New York. / Credit: Yuki Iwamura / AP Such incidents have also occurred with increasing frequency in Europe and Asia. Several cases in France have mirrored the New York City attack, with French police arresting 20 people following several alleged kidnapping plots involving crypto investors and their families, the BBC reported earlier this week. In one case, a gang allegedly tried to kidnap the daughter and young grandson of a cryptocurrency company executive in Paris, while earlier this month the father of a crypto millionaire was rescued by police in Paris after he was kidnapped and held for ransom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aside from keeping a lower profile, crypto investors can take other steps to make it tougher for criminals, Redbord said. One option is to require permissions from several people to access a wallet, for instance. In the meantime, criminals are taking note and may be pursuing similar crimes, he added. "They are seeing successes and trying to replicate these successes," Redbord said. California track and field final begins with new rules for transgender athletes Reporter's Notebook: Words of wisdom from college graduation speeches How a toddler's brave walk into the darkness to get help inspired his family Life Star, the critical care air medical transport service, has been in the skies of Connecticut for decades. This June, the service is celebrating 40 years of service. Life Star provides air transport for a variety of patients who require care at a specialized medical facility that focuses on complex medical procedures and treatments. The service is operational seven days a week, 24-hours a day and is available to patients within a 150-mile radius surrounding the bases at Midstate Medical Center in Meriden, one at William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich and Westfield Barnes Airport in Westfield, Massachusetts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fleet includes two American Eurocopter EC-145s and one American Eurocopter EC-135 which can travel 155 miles per hour. Life Star, which is staffed by a flight nurse, flight respiratory therapist, pilot, mechanic and communication specialist, serves between 1,200 and 1,400 people annually, according to Hartford HealthCare. A typical day has two or three calls. In 40 years, there have been more than 40,000 flights. Successful initial mission Vietnam veteran Richard Magner was at the controls for the first-ever Life Star call. On June 18, 1985, he came for the night shift and the initial call happened around midnight. He had to fly to Route 44 in Canton along with Dr. Len Jacobs, a trauma surgeon, and a flight nurse and respiratory therapist. Because it was at night, I could see the emergency lights for quite some distance, Magner said. It makes it easier to fly at night. I liked to fly at night in Vietnam. The landing was uneventful on that first call. We went back to Hartford, and it was a successful initial mission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Magner said there were three total pilots when Life Star began in 1985. He said in the early years, each pilot averaged 100 missions a year. Magner estimated that he completed 5,000 flights during his career. When I would get a call at night, a phone or loud buzzer would go off and I would immediately go into the bathroom and put cold water on my face to wake up, Magner said. I put my jump suit on. I would get on the computer, make the evaluation and then get to the helicopter. Now retired, Magner lives in Glastonbury right on the Life Star path to Hartford. He said many times he will go outside and look at the helicopter in the air and could tell the aircraft by the unique sound. I missed flying and I dont think I would have missed it so much if the helicopter didnt fly over my house every day, Magner said with a laugh. In the middle of the night I can hear it a long, long ways away. I wake up imagining being at the controls. But there is a time in your life where you have to do other things. Timing is key Jacobs saw the need for this type of care well before that initial launch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Generally, we see patients when they get to the hospital and into the operating room, Jacobs said. What we found is people were not doing so well. They were bleeding to death from very bad injuries and getting worse. Why is that? Because the time of the injury to the definitive care is long. That message is old, but you dont know it until you live it. If you come to Connecticut, we are a small state. We arent Texas if you are hurt people think you are just down the road, he said. But you are not. If you are injured in Winsted or Barkhamsted, someone has to see you. Someone has to call. Somebody has to respond. That person has to assess. Years ago, a volunteer ambulance came. They have to get that patient into that ambulance and drive them 20-40 minutes to Hartford, Jacobs said. By the time that is done, you are looking at a better part of a half hour to an hour of that person being injured to being in the hospital. Thats a long time. We would like to bring that back to 10-15 minutes. The criteria to have Life Star deployed is for the patient to have a 10% chance of dying. First responders make the call, and Jacobs said they never second guess them. He said the goal of Life Star was to bring the hospital to the patient to give them a better chance to live. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, what does that mean? You have to have an alert system. At the beginning it was a doctor, nurse and a therapist. They have to have a beeper. When the beeper goes off, they have to stop what they are doing and get to the elevator and zip to the roof. The pilot jumps into the plane, Jacobs said. According to Jacobs, once they are on the aircraft, the crew members learn where they are going and what type of trauma they are aiding. In all, they are in the air about five minutes after the initial call. When you come down you have to get your wits about you and assess your patients, Jacobs said. Get them in and start the IV and get the patient evaluated and communicate with the hospital what you have, and you have about 10-to-12 minutes before you get to where you are going. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crew has to be ready to care for a newborn, someone experiencing a heart attack or a major trauma from a motorcycle or car accident or gunshot wound. When the helicopter arrives back to the hospital, there is a whole other team waiting. In all, there is a team of 60 including the emergency room that has to come together on very short notice to take care of the patient, Jacobs said. We began to get better outcomes. You have to be prepared and committed. You have to be able to do your job rain or shine, dark or bright sunshine. But you saw a big difference in outcomes. Erik Freidenfelds, 55, said his life was saved by Life Star on Oct. 31, 2024. He suffered a heart attack known as a widow maker as his left anterior descending artery to his heart was 100% blocked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Freidenfelds, who is in the environmental field, and his wife of 21 years, Ellen, were in the midst of their morning workout at their Preston home. Freidenfelds said he felt a little twinge between his shoulders but didnt think much of it. He went downstairs where his wife was using a treadmill. He did the rowing machine for 30 minutes. As he went upstairs to get ready for work, he suddenly started sweating profusely but wasnt feeling any pain. Freidenfelds said he went to find his wife, who is a hospice nurse and former paramedic. She quickly determined this was serious situation. She rushed to her car to get some paramedic equipment and laid her husband on the kitchen floor so he on a hard surface in case she had to give him CPR. She then called 911 and kept her husband talking. Preston Ambulance showed up shortly after, and Freidenfelds was on his way to Backus Hospital. I wasnt in much pain, maybe a two out of 10 but they did an echocardiogram, sent the results to Hartford and then they came back a few minutes later to tell me I would be transported to Hartford, Freidenfelds said. The Life Star crew was phenomenal, Freidenfelds said. Never once did the crew make me feel like anything was seriously wrong. You would have never known anything was going on. You felt like you were just going on a plane going somewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nurse Sam Mercer, who has been a part of the Life Star crew for five years, was on the flight with Freidenfelds. He was having a heart attack and looked very sick when we saw him, Mercer said. He was very clammy and there was something going on. We provide speed. Freidenfelds recalled that the flight felt like it lasted two minutes. Then rolled the gurney out the back and took me in, Freidenfelds said. The staff met me up there and escorted me to the Cath lab. Freidenfelds was prepped and underwent a medical procedure on his heart. By the time he was done, his wife was still driving to Hartford. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They called my wife and told them who they were and there was a silence, and I said in the background that I was OK, Freidenfelds said. There is no doubt the importance of Life Star. Freidenfelds said his life is back to normal. He is back working out five days a week with his wife before work. I think about if I wasnt on Life Star and if I was in that ambulance for an hour, would I be functioning like I am where I could do a full days work? Freidenfelds said. In my mind, its why Im here right now and I smile when I see it in the air now. Im also thankful to my wife for being there and caring for me. Looking toward the future So where will Life Star be 40 years from now? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think it will still be here, Jacobs said. We will still be moving sick patients. Technology is always improving. He said the sustainability of Life Star is what makes him so proud. Its very humbling and its very gratifying and the reason is, if you have a huge problem and if you solve the problem, you feel good, Jacobs said. But if you solve the problem and sustain it, it means it was really not you, but it was a good enough solution that other people could take that solution and improve on it. Thats what I feel go so about. We didnt do it for five years and stopped. Some of the people on Life Star werent born when it first started. Jacobs noted that the crew who ride on Life Star are incredibly talented and devoted to their work. It takes a special person to respond anytime to anything anywhere, Jacobs said. When you are in a hospital you have a unit. The crew on Life Star have to be fully trained across the spectrum. Not every run is going to go well, and you have to internalize that. You have to learn and incorporate what you learned into practice and move on. Its not easy. Flight nurse Chris Winebarger, who has been a member of the Life Star crew for the last 17 years, acknowledged that what they are able to do for the patients is unlike anything else. We move quickly, Winebarger added. If they need the care, we are going to provide it. A Ledyard man previously convicted of possessing child sexual abuse materials faces a federal charge after probation officers allegedly found him with thousands of videos and images of child sex abuse during a routine home visit. Jason Gibson, 45, appeared in federal court in Hartford on Thursday to answer to one count of possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Connecticut. The charge, which stems from a federal criminal complaint, carries a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of 20 years. The penalties are enhanced based on Gibsons prior history, federal officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to federal authorities, in February 2020, Gibson was convicted in state Superior Court on a possession of child pornography charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, suspended after 30 months, and 10 years of probation. He was released from custody in 2021 before his probation was revoked in April 2023 for violating his conditions, officials said. Gibson was then sentenced to 90 months in prison, suspended after six months, and 94 months of probation. He was released from state custody in August 2023. On March 6, 2024, during a routine home visit, state probation officers found an unapproved cellphone at Gibsons residence and seized it, federal authorities said. The device allegedly contained a dark web application. An analysis of the phone later found that it allegedly had more than 200 child sex abuse images and videos and numerous text messages with links to access more materials on the dark web, according to officials. On April 2, probation officers made another visit to Gibsons residence and seized an external hard drive. An analysis allegedly turned up more than 18,000 images and 1,400 videos depicting child sex abuse, federal officials said. Gibson has been in custody on the most recent allegations since the home visit in April. A teenager was arrested Thursday and accused of taking off from a state trooper who tried pulling him over last week in Barkhamsted, allegedly going more than 90 mph and passing other drivers during his escape. Jack Reynolds, 19, of Barkhamstead was taken into custody around 7:30 a.m. by troopers with the Troop B barracks in North Canaan, according to Connecticut State Police. Police had a warrant out for his arrest stemming from an attempted traffic stop on May 21 around 6:30 p.m. A state trooper was headed west on Route 318 when he noticed the driver of a silver BMW sedan heading in the opposite direction allegedly going very fast, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The trooper turned around and flipped on his lights and siren, but the BMW driver continued east and allegedly began accelerating, the warrant affidavit said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The trooper was able to get the vehicles license plate information and followed the driver for about a mile, according to the warrant affidavit. He went as fast as 90 mph, but the BMW driver was still allegedly pulling away, the warrant affidavit said. The road in that area is a 45 mph zone. The trooper eventually called off the traffic stop and allegedly saw the BMW driver pass other motorists in a no passing zone, narrowly avoiding a crash, according to the warrant affidavit. The license plate information showed that the vehicle was a 2000 BMW 323i. The registration was canceled and showed that the vehicle last belonged to a Meriden resident, according to the warrant affidavit. When investigators contacted the man he said he had sold the BMW to Reynolds on May 7, the warrant affidavit said. He also alleged that Reynolds stole his registration from his garage before leaving during the sale, state police wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State police went to Reynolds home and found the BMW in the garage, the warrant affidavit said. Despite several lights on inside, no one answered the door when a trooper knocked multiple times. State police found that Reynolds license is suspended and that he is on probation, the warrant affidavit said. He is also required to register with the states Deadly Weapon Offender Registry Unit, state police wrote. Authorities obtained a warrant for Reynolds arrest on charges of reckless driving, first-degree reckless endangerment, disobeying the signal of an officer, engaging police in a pursuit, unsafe passing, operating an unregistered motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without minimum insurance and operating a motor vehicle while under suspension. He is free on a $2,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in Torrington Superior Court on June 13. It could be for those who dont have the money, time or inclination to get a college degree. Southern Connecticut State University has developed an Office of Workforce and Lifelong Learning program that after a little more than a year is burgeoning in popularity beyond the universitys expectations, said Amy C. Feest, senior program director. Feest describes the program of classes as an on-ramp to employment and upscaling existing careers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its usually much less expensive (than a degree) but ends up as a credential We are growing at a rate that we did not anticipate, Feest said. The program is just over a year old and Feest said theyre looking at expansion. A lot of times people dont see themselves as being successful in college, but this is like college, with a syllabus, sometimes homework and rigorous material. A wide variety of useful courses are offered, many of them online ranging from $50 to $3,000. Those who take the courses are looking to upscale their jobs, prepare for promotions or even train for a new career, Feest said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lisa Rudd, a nurse practitioner at a clinic in North Carolina took an online course through the program in medical Spanish so she can better communicate with Spanish speaking patients. She intends to also take a second and third level course. Even after one course Rudd can ask what brings them to the clinic and get basic background information. I already see a difference from the class, she said. I had zero competency and now I can understand things. In another scenario, Taevon Walker, 27 of Ansonia, is trying to piece together a cybersecurity and technology career by taking courses like Python (a programming language), cyber security, AWS, and coding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He attended Fairfield University for electrical engineering after graduating from Amistad High School in 2016, but left after a year and a half because of money. Walker said he didnt like paying for electives like art history because they had nothing to do with his major. Then he became a licensed electrician, but tired of that with an eye toward technology. I want to get a foot in the door for cyber security, Walker said. I feel like Ill be able to land a job or career and scale up from there. The courses, that can run from a hours to months, include: mini MBA microcredentials, executive leadership in customer service, artificial intelligence, non-profit management, tourism and hospitality, computer science, education, health and human sciences, humanities, arts, social & behavioral sciences, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres also a category for Connecticut state inservice workers and the courses include de-escalation for frontline workers, redefining training with XR technologies, Spanish language and culture for front line workers, supervision in a union environment. Feest said their original target audience was in New Haven, but now theyre aiming for all of Connecticut. Feest said many of their students have a college degree, but are looking to update skills, In some cases they are looking at a promotion to supervisor and want to learn the intricacies of handling employees, how to do a budget, or how to write an evaluation, Feest said. If you go to college and you graduate, passed computer class, you dont necessarily have an expertise in PowerPoint, Feest said, but you can take a class here (in PowerPoint to give you an edge in getting a job or moving up in a job). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sometimes, Feest said, people who didnt see themselves as being successful in college, change their mind after taking the courses and enroll. Those who take the Office of Workforce and Lifelong Learning, or OWLL, courses learn, College isnt as scary as they thought, Feest said. They even have a course in MBA micro-credentials. There are courses that dont exactly a career make, but may help get a foot in the door. For instance, those who earn a certificate in tourism and hospitality may be more likely to land a job at a hotel, or museum because they know about the language of the industry, Feest said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are many technology courses and, That will absolutely open doors for you, she said Some of the programs will train for a full career, such as medical billing and coding, EKG technician, drone academy where one learns to fly a drone and prepares for licensing. We really need people who are skilled, in the workforce, Feest said. She said university officials have been very forwarding thinking in supporting the initiative. Contact Pam McLoughlin at pruddell@courant.com. By Dave Sherwood HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuba`s foreign ministry said on Friday it had issued a verbal warning to the top U.S. diplomat in Havana complaining of behavior it called "intervenionist," the latest escalation as tensions grow between the two long-time foes. Cuba said U.S. Chief of Mission Mike Hammer had incited "Cuban citizens to commit serious criminal acts, attack the constitutional order, or encourage them to act against the authorities," calling his actions a violation of the Vienna Convention norms on diplomatic relations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The immunity he enjoys as a representative of his country cannot be used as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country to which he is accredited, in this case Cuba," the statement said. Hammer, a career U.S. diplomat who arrived in Cuba six months ago, has traveled the island widely to meet with political dissidents, raising the ire of the Cuban government, which accuses him of seeking to foment unrest. The U.S. State Department defended Hammer`s actions. "Chief of Mission Mike Hammer and the U.S. Embassy proudly represent President Trump by implementing an America First foreign policy and seeking accountability for the Cuban regime for its malign influence across the Americas," a State Department official said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We will continue to meet with Cuban patriots, religious leaders, and those fighting for the freedoms of Cubans," the official said. The growing tensions come as Cubans confront the worst economic downturn in decades, a predicament the Cuban government blames on the Cold War-era U.S. embargo, a web of restrictions that impede financial transactions, trade, tourism and the import of fuel. Cuba`s decision to formally chastise Hammer comes just days the U.S. diplomat said in a press conference in Miami that the Trump administration was preparing further sanctions against the communist-run nation. Cuba has repeatedly criticized Hammer over months but has not impeded his travels across the island. (Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Alistair Bell) Jesus Rodriguez Delgado holds his granddaughter. He tried strangled himself after federal agents placed him in handcuffs at the immigration court in Miami on May 30, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Elisavel Torres) This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 or chatting online at http://988lifeline.org/. A 64-year-old man from Cuba started strangling himself and saying he was going to kill himself after federal agents arrested him at the Miami immigration court on Friday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jesus Rodriguez Delgado, 64, started yelling in Spanish that he would kill himself rather than be sent back to Cuba, said Karla De Anda, a community advocate who called for help as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents struggled to remove Rodriguez Delgados handcuffed hands from his neck. It was the most horrible thing Ive seen in my life, De Anda said in Spanish. Hopefully, theyll help him because he cant go back to Cuba. The mans reaction wasnt surprising to his partner, Elisavel Torres, who told Florida Phoenix from inside the courthouse that Rodriguez Delgado had been a political prisoner in Cuba for 28 years and had lived in Mexico for six years before coming to the U.S. De Anda added that Rodriguez Delgado had said he had been imprisoned and would be killed if deported to Cuba. Torres wept as she said that she couldnt understand why the judge agreed to dismiss Rodriguez Delgados deportation case exposing him to expedited removal. An application for permanent residency that Rodriguez Delgado submitted in January states he entered the country under humanitarian parole in 2021. Torres said Rodriguez Delgado received a work permit in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He had told me he wouldnt go back to Cuba, that he would die first, and it will be that way, Torres told the Phoenix in Spanish. ICE and Homeland Security Investigations officials arrested at least seven people during the four hours that the Phoenix reporter observed activity inside the courthouse. Reports emerged last week of arrests in immigration courts across the country after judges dismissed cases at the request of the Department of Homeland Security. Still, Rodriguez Delgados attempt to strangle himself was the strongest reaction advocates witnessed on Friday. Others arrested cried and some remained quiet and looked at the ground. The agents told Torres that they would make sure Rodriguez Delgado was OK and would give him a list of pro bono attorneys, but couldnt at the time of his arrest say where he would go. Torres, a U.S. citizen, said the couple knew about the arrests but still decided to come to the hearing from Naples rather than requesting an online hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We had faith in God that we were doing everything right, so we said we would come in person, Torres said. What a huge mistake. Her tears intensified as she told Rodriguez Delgados daughter about her fathers arrest over the phone. I was born in this country, and I am ashamed to say Im American, Torres said, adding that there were no words to describe how she felt when federal agents placed her partner in handcuffs. Immigrants lack legal representation Immigration attorney Cindy Blandon told the Phoenix that shes noticed those who end up arrested for expedited removal lack lawyers. Few people in the court on Friday morning had attorneys, with some citing money as a barrier to obtaining legal representation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Having an ongoing asylum or permanent residency case doesnt exempt people from expedited deportations, Blandon said. Being placed under an expedited removal process doesnt mean your case is closed, she said. People have a right to due process. The problem is that if you dont have legal representation and you dont know how to navigate the situation, you will likely end up deported. The mood on various floors of the courthouse grew more tense as people awaiting hearings heard about or saw the arrests. But Blandon, De Anda, and Maria Asuncion Bilbao, with the American Friends Service Committee, noted that the arrests in the court appeared much calmer compared to the mass raids, such as the one that took place in Tallahassee on Thursday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers has prompted expanded recalls across multiple U.S. grocery chains, while a separate tomato recall has been classified as high-risk. Cucumber Outbreak Sickens 26 Across 15 States Cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers in Boynton Beach, Florida, and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales were tied to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 26 people and hospitalized nine in 15 states, including Alabama, California, and New York. The FDA first announced a voluntary recall on May 19 for cucumbers sold at Bedners Farm Fresh Market from April 29 to May 14. Environmental samples from Bedner Growers tested positive for salmonella, and the FDA said that they matched clinical samples from ill individuals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The outbreak has led to recalls of cucumber-containing products sold at retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and Harris Teeter. Albertsons Companies recalled three Greek salad products sold at ACME, Safeway, Shaws, and other stores in 11 states and Washington, D.C., after Fresh Creative Foods, a division of Resers Fine Foods, identified contaminated cucumbers in their deli items. The recalled salads, sold from May 20-24, include SALAD GREEK AUTHENTIC FS (UPC: 2930700000-00901), READYMEALS SALAD GREEK SS (UPC: 29248300000), and SALAD GREEK FS (UPC: 29232900000). Other recalls include PennRose Farms repackaged cucumbers distributed to Restaurant Depot, Ukrops Homestyle Foods marinated cucumber salads sold at Food Lion and Kroger, and Walmarts Marketside Fresh Cut Cucumber Slices in Texas. Publix recalled loose cucumbers and various salads, while JFE Franchising and Supreme Service Solutions recalled sushi and veggie trays sold at Kroger and Weis Markets. The Coastal Companies also recalled 17 salsa and salad products under brands like East Coast Fresh and Wellsley Farms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FDA advises consumers to discard cucumbers of unknown origin, and return recalled products for refunds. Following a recall initiated by Fresh Creative Foods, a division of Resers Fine Foods, Inc., Albertsons Companies has voluntarily recalled three store-made deli itemsdue to possible Salmonella contamination, the FDA said. Consumers with concerns should contact Albertsons at 1-877-723-3929. Tomato Recall Classified as High-Risk Separately, Williams Farms Repack LLC initiated a Class I recall on April 29 for fresh tomatoes potentially contaminated with salmonella, the FDAs highest risk level, indicating possible serious or fatal health outcomes. The recall, triggered after Southeast Tomato Distributors notified Williams Farms of contamination from H&C Farms, affects tomatoes shipped from April 23-28 to Georgia and the Carolinas. No illnesses have been reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The recalled tomatoes include 56 25lb, 66 25lb, Combo 25lb, and other formats, with lot numbers R4467 and R4470. Generally speaking, picking and packaging produce at the farm and the facility can result in food contamination, said Jeongmin Song, a microbiology professor at Cornell University, Newsweek reported. Even if there was Salmonella on the tomatoes, most contaminated bacteria can be eliminated by washing them before consumption. Consumers should discard affected tomatoes or return them for refunds and can contact Jason Breland at 843-866-7707 for questions. Salmonella symptoms, including nausea, fever, and diarrhea, typically appear within six to 72 hours and can be severe in young children, the elderly, or those with weakened immune systems, the FDA warned. In some people, the illness may be so severe that the patient is hospitalized. Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other parts of the body, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated on its website. DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 30. President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has proposed establishing a regional laboratory for glacier research in the country during the first High-Level International Conference on Glacier Preservation, currently taking place in Dushanbe, Trend reports via the presidents administration. Highlighting Tajikistans unique geographic role, Rahmon noted that over 60 percent of the regions glaciers are located in the country. In this regard, he suggested launching a comprehensive expedition to study Tajikistans glaciers in partnership with development partners and research institutions. According to the president, the conference marks an important step toward implementing the United Nations resolution declaring 2025 as the International Year of Glacier Preservation. He described the event as a valuable platform for exchanging views on glacier protection and the sustainable use of water resources. Rahmon pointed out that 2023 witnessed the largest recorded annual decline in glacier volume, resulting in the loss of 600 gigatons of freshwater and contributing to a rise in global sea levels. Climate change, he said, has already led to the disappearance of around one-third of the worlds mountain glaciers, affecting not only ecosystems but also various aspects of human life. "To date, 1,300 of Tajikistans 14,000 glacierswhich account for around 60 percent of the regions water resourceshave completely melted, and the rapid retreat of our glaciers continues," Rahmon stated. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) is once again hosting a summer meals program for children starting in late July. The Food Service Program (SFSP) hosted by CUPHD will begin Friday, July 25. This program will provide free breakfast and lunch to children during a portion of the summer. SFSP is sponsored by the Illinois State Board of Education and will run through Monday, Aug. 11. MTD bus route updates to benefit travelers near Marketplace Mall Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These meals will be served on a first-come, first-served basis for children ages one to 18 in the CUPHD lobby, located at 201 W. Kenyon Road in Champaign, Monday through Friday. Breakfast will be served from 9:30-11 a.m. and lunch will be served from 12:45-2:15 p.m. Additionally, all of the meals must be eaten on-site, but no sign-up is required to participate. The Summer Food Service Program is a very important program, Brandon Meline, director of Maternal and Child Health, said. Many children get most of their nutrient intake from school food service nine months out of the year and it can be a challenge for some families during the summer. We are very pleased to be able to provide this service when school is out. Champaign Co. Sheriff shares Memorial Day seatbelt enforcement results Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The meals will be provided for free and are the same for all children, meaning there will be no discrimination during the meal service. Those who do experience discrimination can file a program complaint by completing the USDA Program Discrimination (AD-3027) found online and at any USDA office. Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is proud to serve as a site for the Summer Food Service Program, Administrator Julie Pryde said. This year marks our 16th year as a site for this very important service. We encourage families with children to take advantage of this program and use our building to avoid summers heat. In addition to the breakfast and lunch, we also have free books, free Wi-Fi, cold air conditioning, and Disney+ on the lobby TV. More information on SFSP can be found at fns.usda.gov. 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. LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) Thousands of seniors statewide will soon be feeling the effects of federal budget cuts. This time the cuts take aim at a program that helps low-income seniors get fresh produce. Each summer, the senior farmers market nutrition program helps thousands of low-income seniors across the state. Lackawanna County rating drops one point above junk bond But cuts to the program are limiting the number of vouchers the program can give out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Lackawanna County alone, 38,000 farmers market vouchers were requested by the countys agency on aging, the agency in charge of distributing them. But because of cuts to federal spending, theyll only be getting around 29,000. It really helps in your savings, but you want to help the farmer more-so than anything else, said Denise Mehl, Scranton. Under the State Department of Agriculture program, residents over 60 who fall within the programs income requirements are eligible to receive up to five $5 vouchers each to spend at local farmers markets. Denise Mehl visits the Scranton farmers market regularly, and while not crucial to her budget, she says the vouchers help a lot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than anything though, she worries about the farmers, about 1,000 farms participate in the program state-wide. If we didnt have them we wouldnt have anything, voiced Mehl. According to the state department of agriculture, residents in Lackawanna County used these vouchers at a higher rate than any other county last year, over 90% of them were redeemed. It hurts people. It hurts the people that we serve here in Lackawanna County, those who need the help the most, and I just think that is really inhumane that theyve done this, expressed Bill Gaughan, county commissioner, Lackawanna County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State officials say the Trump administration has only released part of the funding congress approved, forcing agencies to slash their distribution by more than 25%. We reached out to GOP Congressman Rob Bresnahan for comment on the issue. He responded in-part: The recent decision to reduce benefits for the farmers market vouchers for seniors program was made at the state level. While I do not control those decisions, I am actively working at the federal level on a bipartisan bill to expand local food purchasing from our farmers to support those most in need. I look forward to announcing that legislation in the coming weeks. Rep. Bresnahan Bresnahan says he and his team will be in contact with the Lackawanna County Agency on Aging to help ensure they receive the full funding and support they need for the program. 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 28/22 News. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) CVS and Express Scripts asked a federal judge on Thursday to block a law prohibiting pharmacy benefit managers from owning or operating pharmacies in Arkansas, challenging the first such restriction enacted by a state. The lawsuits come a little over a month after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the legislation restricting pharmacy benefit managers, also known as PBMs, which run prescription drug coverage for big clients that include health insurers and employers that provide coverage. Supporters of the Arkansas law have said it's needed because PBMs are forcing independent pharmacies, especially those in rural areas, to close. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But in its lawsuit, Express Scripts said the measure would end up having devastating consequences and force pharmacies around the state to close. And it will create mass confusion among Arkansans about where and how they can receive needed prescription medications, irreparably breaking bonds that patients have formed over many years with their pharmacists and pharmacy-provided home-visit nurses, the company's lawsuit said. In a separate lawsuit, CVS said the new law represents an assault on free commerce between the states and the foundational principles of fair-market competition that underpin the Union. CVS, which ran TV ads urging Sanders to veto the legislation, has said it would have to close its 23 retail pharmacies in the state if the law takes effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney General Tim Griffin defended the law on Thursday, saying PBMs' wield outsized power to reap massive profits at the expense of consumers. Through Act 624, Arkansas is standing up to PBMs on behalf of consumers, and I will vigorously defend our law, Griffin said in a statement. Arkansas is among several states where lawmakers have taken up efforts to regulate PBMs, and a group of attorneys general urged Congress last month to pass legislation similar to Arkansas' law. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) A group of bicyclists from Tlalnepantla, MexicoWichitas sister cityarrived in town Wednesday after completing a grueling 1,500-mile ride just in time for Riverfest celebrations. The cross-country journey took 13 days to complete. For one of the riders, this marks his 16th visit to the Air Capitalan annual tradition rooted in friendship and international connection. Wichita lands more flights this summer Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was the creator of sister cities, and he planned the world of love and companionship and friendship among all the cities of the world, the rider said, paying tribute to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. And I think that nowadays it is more important than ever to keep all those thoughts in mind. The group will spend the next five days in Wichita, taking part in Riverfest activities before heading back homethis time, by truck. 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. 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. NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) Cyprus on Friday unveiled four of its newly-delivered Airbus H145 helicopters that officials say are among the most advanced rotorcraft in the word with a proven track record that gives the Cypriot National Guard an operational edge. The helicopter is currently used by Germany, the U.S. Hungary, Belgium, Ireland and other militaries with over 500 variants currently in operation, logging over 8 million flight hours, according to Cyprus Defense Minister Vassilis Palmas. The new helicopter is a multi-role, digital instrument that is geared toward the demands of the 21st century, Palmas told a ceremony at Cyprus main Paphos air base. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two more of the state-of-the-art aircraft will be delivered, while the contract with Airbus allows for the purchase of additional helicopters, said Airbus Senior Vice President for the H145 program Daniela Dudek. Dudek said the reliability of the 3.8 ton aircraft is affirmed by its 40 years of service but the integration of advanced avionics and weapons systems make it the most military-capable aircraft in its category. What we achieved over years to quickly integrate existing technology on the market, defense technology, and it is unique what you have here. Youre even more advanced than what we currently have in Germany, Dudek said. The helicopter's advanced avionics, which Airbus codeveloped with Israeli companies in the last two years, also includes an integrated weapons system dubbed H-Force which enables the pilot to easily operate the helicopters weaponry in flight, eliminating the need for a separate weapons officer on board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dudek said another unique aspect of the Cypriot helicopters is an integrated battle management system that enables the aircraft to operate seamlessly with forces on the ground as well as other aircraft, including those belonging to the forces of other nations. Additionally, the helicopters electronic warfare and other systems afford it a strong self-protection capability. Ethnically-divided Cyprus is in the process of modernizing its defensive capabilities to bring it up to modern European and NATO standards after years of relying on mainly Soviet-era, Russian-made weaponry. The island nation continues to operate Russian-made T-80 main battle tanks, but has recently sold off 11 Russian-made Mi35 attack helicopters to Serbia. Cyprus was split in 1974, when Turkey invaded following a coup by Athens junta-backed supporters of uniting the island with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains more than 35,000 troops in the islands northern third. The Cypriot defense minister said the helicopter purchase is part of wider strategic planning for the continuous upgrading of the National Guard, enabling the island to take part in joint military drills with friendly nations. PRAGUE (AP) Czech Republic Justice Minister Pavel Blazek resigned from his post over a bitcoin-related scandal on Friday. Blazek was under fire from the opposition after his ministry accepted a donation of bitcoins and sold them for about 1 billion Czech koruna (more than $45 million) earlier this year. Blazek said that he wasn't aware of any wrongdoing, but didnt want the four-party coalition government led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala to be harmed by the scandal. Fiala said that he appreciated his resignation and believed that Blazek acted with goodwill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blazek was a close ally of Fiala in the government, and also in his conservative Civic Democratic Party. It's not clear who might replace him. The issue focused on the fact that the bitcoins were donated to the ministry by a person who was previously convicted of drug dealing and other crimes. The opposition has accused Blazek of possible money laundering, because it wasn't clear where the bitcoins came from. It was also not clear why the person donated the bitcoins to the ministry. The issue has been investigated by the police organized crime unit. The scandal took place just months before the Oct 3-4 parliamentary election. The main opposition ANO (YES) party led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis is predicted to win the vote. By Nazrin Abdul In accordance with the annual activity plan approved by the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, a visit was organised for military attaches of foreign states accredited in Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azernews reports, citing the Ministry. The visit included 35 military attaches representing 19 countries. The delegation first paid respects at the monument to National Leader Heydar Aliyev, located in the main square of Nakhchivan city. They also visited the Heydar Aliyev Museum, where they viewed exhibits detailing the life and legacy of the Great Leader and learned about Azerbaijans rich statehood heritage. As part of the visit, the guests toured the Headquarters of the Separate Combined Arms Army (SCAA). Major General Kenan Seyidov, Commander of the SCAA, met with the military attaches and briefed them on the history, development, reforms, and future goals of the SCAA. The delegation also signed the Book of Honour in accordance with protocol. The guests visited the SCAA Training and Education Centre, exploring classrooms, a simulation centre, and a training hall. Additionally, the military attaches toured the Nakhchivan Military College and the Heydar Aliyev Military Lyceum, where they were briefed on recent reforms, the current military education system, and educational and scientific activities. The visit continued with a tour of the Nakhchivan Restoration and Production Military Complex. Finally, the delegation was taken on an excursion to various historical and cultural monuments in the region. Photo: Press service of the President of Tajikistan DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 30. The President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, has departed for Kazakhstan's Astana, to participate in the inaugural Central AsiaItaly Summit, Trend reports citing the administration of the President. The forum will bring together leaders from Central Asian countries alongside Italys Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This visit marks an important step forward in deepening diplomatic and economic relations between Italy and Central Asia. The summit agenda will focus on advancing multilateral cooperation in key areas including the green economy, investments, innovation, science, and education. Meanwhile, Astana is hosting another major event the Astana-2025 forum, which gathers international leaders and experts to discuss global trends in politics, economics, security, sustainable development, energy, and climate change. Dallas Police Chief Comeaux terminated three department employees during disciplinary hearings on May 29, including a sergeant charged with drunk driving while carrying a child passenger. The firings highlight ongoing accountability challenges within the department as officials work to maintain public trust amid criminal charges against sworn and civilian personnel. Sergeant Matthew Terry, badge number 8915, received the most serious charges among those terminated. The Central Patrol Division officer was dismissed for being untruthful to a supervisor and driving under the influence of alcohol. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Terry also faced arrest on May 2, 2025 for Driving While Intoxicated with a Child Passenger, classified as a State Jail Felony. The 19-year veteran had served since September 2006. Two civilian employees lost their positions over food stamp fraud allegations exceeding $200. Research Specialist Patsy Evans from the Operational Technology Unit was terminated for Unlawful Food Stamp Use, a third-degree felony. Evans had worked for the department since September 2012. Supervisor Sheri Brown from the Records Unit faced identical charges and termination after more than two decades of service. Brown joined the department in April 2004, making her the longest-tenured employee among those dismissed. The food stamp violations represent third-degree felonies under Texas law. The terminations span both sworn officers and civilian staff across multiple department divisions. Chief Comeauxs decisions reflect the departments zero-tolerance approach toward criminal conduct by employees. ANNISTON Dann Huguley has announced his candidacy for the Anniston City Council Ward 2 seat in the upcoming municipal election scheduled for August 26, 2025. This marks the 72-year-old's second attempt at the position, following an unsuccessful run in 2020. A lifelong resident of Ward 2, Huguley currently serves as pastor at both Haven United Methodist Church and St. John United Methodist Church in Anniston. His educational journey began at Cooper Elementary, followed by Pine Avenue School and Cobb High School, from which he graduated in 1972. He later attended Ayers Technical College, now part of Gadsden State Community College, earning a degree in carpentry. Furthering his education, Huguley completed ministry studies at Emory Licensing School in Atlanta. Huguley dedicated 28 years to the steel industry in Gadsden. Despite his extensive community involvement, he has never held public office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a recent interview, Huguley said he is committed to transparency and fiscal responsibility. "As a proud resident of Anniston, Alabama, I'm a dedicated community leader," he said. "My vision for the city is rooted in transparency, responsible decision-making and a firm commitment to the needs of the people." He said he is concerned over the allocation of public funds, referencing the beer tax intended for the board of education. "Too often our tax dollars have not served the purpose that they are intended for," Huguley said. "A clear example is the beer tax, which was earmarked for the board of education but has yet to be fully delivered as promised." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huguley's platform focuses on economic development, housing revitalization and job creation. "One of my top priorities is bringing new businesses to the Anniston area," he said. "We must create an environment where small businesses can thrive and where residents have access to the goods, services and jobs that they need." Addressing housing issues, Huguley said he wants to improve living conditions. "I believe every resident deserves access to safe, affordable, and well-maintained homes," he said. "I will support initiatives that improve housing quality, eliminate blight and empower homeowners and renters alike." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the election approaches, Huguley calls for unity and collective progress. "I believe that we can bring in unity, not just for Ward 2, but for all the wards," he remarked. "I believe in Anniston. I believe we can do better together." Aside from Hugley, Candidates running in the Ward 2 race are incumbent Councilman Demetric DD Roberts, Erica Tolson and La Sha' Robinson. KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) said Friday that its employees personal information was leaked in a data breach earlier this year. In February of this year, the MDC said its cybersecurity team notified it of unauthorized access to one of its servers. City of Leavenworth files new lawsuit against CoreCivic after judge throws out previous suit At first, the department said no personal information had been compromised in the data breach. However, in April, the MDC determined that some files had been impacted by the breach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Specifically, the department has determined that current and former beneficiaries of the MDCs health benefits plan may have been impacted. However, the MDC cannot confirm exactly what data has been affected for each of the impacted individuals. The information involved may have included contact information (i.e., name, address, date of birth, phone number and email) and one or more of the following: Health benefits plan enrollment information Other personal information, such as Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers or state ID numbers. The department said its continuing to investigate with the help of law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the meantime, the MDC said individuals can take the following steps to protect themselves: Monitor any benefits statements received from health care providers, as well as bank and credit card statements, credit reports and other similar documents for any unfamiliar activity. Contact your medical provider or health plan if you identify health care services that you did not receive on your benefits statement. Contact your financial institution, credit card company or other applicable agency if you notice any suspicious activity on bank or credit card statements or on tax returns. Contact local law enforcement authorities if you believe that you are a victim of a crime. The department said it has implemented additional safeguards in addition to the IT security policies and procedures already in effect. Missouri counties denied state aid for tornado damage Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The MDC said its in the process of providing direct, written notification to potentially impacted individuals. The department said it has also provided substitute notification on its website for potentially impacted individuals who may not have sufficient address information on file with the department. MDC regrets the inconvenience and concern that this incident may have caused to our team, retirees, and current or former beneficiaries of our health benefits plan, the department said in a news release. The MDC said it will provide complimentary credit monitoring services to impacted individuals who are concerned their information may have been compromised. More information about complimentary credit monitoring services will be provided in the coming weeks, the department said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those who believe they have been affected by this data breach can contact the MDC toll-free at 800-392-3111 or PrivacySupport@mdc.mo.gov. 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. LISTENING TO FORMER CONGRESSMAN David Jolly talk about his all but certain run for governor of Florida, you want to believein his prospects, in the state and national Democratic party, and in a turning point for America. Jolly, 52, has been on a decade-long political journey. He was a Republican during his three years in the House of Representatives, then a disaffected Never Trump Republican, then (starting in 2018) an independent aligned with Democrats. Finally, last month, he became a registered Democrat. And his words are a balm to a party in dire need of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am coming into the Democratic party right now because I believe in its strength, Jolly told me Wednesday on the phone. Republicans, he said, have failed to provide an economy for all people, to ensure government is delivering services to those who need them, and to lift up and embrace the diversity of our communities and culture. He called those fundamental Democratic values and the reasons he is excited to officially join the party. Anything else? We get to accept science, and math, and public health. Its pretty incredible, right? Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis in many ways has pioneered the worst aspects of Donald Trumps presidency, from hostility to immigrants and voting, abortion, and LGBTQ rights, to attacks on corporations like Disney; from policing libraries and colleges, to installing a discredited anti-vaxxer as Florida surgeon general. DeSantis is term-limited and 2026 will be his final year in office, but Florida Democrats are not exactly greeting the opportunity with unity. Even as Jolly was signing on with them, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, Jason Pizzo, said the party was dead and became an unaffiliated voterone who might run for governor next year as an independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One Democrat summed it up this way, Politico reported: A goddamn shitshow. Hope amid a maelstrom But the larger environment could be read as favorable for Jolly, or as favorable as it gets in Florida. Theres an open seat, it looks like he wouldnt have intraparty competition for the nomination, and DeSantis and his wife, Casey, could be engulfed by scandal. The gist: $10 million that was meant for Medicaid ended up at Caseys nonprofit, and then at two dark-money groups, and then at a group (run by DeSantiss then chief-of-staff, now the states attorney general) trying to block legal recreational marijuana in the state. Legislators investigated, state prosecutors are investigating now, and a federal investigation is possible. The general drift, Jolly says, has already percolated down to normal voters who are not political junkies. It should be noted here that Jolly absolutely is a political junkie. Hes a lawyer who worked on Capitol Hill, represented a Tampa Bay-area House district, consulted on dozens of races, and ran in a few himself. Normal voters, political junkieswe welcome all and sundry. Come join the best pro-democracy community on the internet by signing up for a free or paid subscription: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So if it sounds like he knows how to frame an issue, he does. He sees Trumps overreach, instability and damaging policies as creating a change environment that will be the backdrop for state races next year, allowing candidates to prioritize state concerns and connect them to the national picture when they want. The top agenda items at Florida2026.com, Jollys pre-campaign testing ground, are addressing the unaffordability of property insurance and homes, saving underfunded public schools, and fixing an unsustainable school voucher program. The rest, like those, strike me as ranging from unobjectionable to wildly popular from a Democratic standpointcodifying the Roe v. Wade abortion framework, improving access to state universities, strengthening the economy and state ethics laws, accepting climate science, reducing gun violence, restoring veterans services, and creating a Florida for all where everyone is valued, respected, and welcomed. These are not new positions for him, Jolly says. He left Congress after dropping out of a 2016 Senate race and then losing his House seat that year in a sharp-edged contest against then-former governor Charlie Crist, a Republican turned Democrat who previewed Jollys path. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Looking back, Jolly called himself almost a man without a party while I was serving. While in the House during the late Obama years, he supported marriage equality, climate science, gun control, all those things. He was always, he says, a George H.W. Bush Republican and celebrated when Bush left the National Rifle Association during the 1990s. In December 2015, after Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants and visitors to the United States, Jolly called on Trump to withdraw from the 2016 presidential race. He said he was a born-again Christian and the beautiful thing about this country is I can stand here on the House floor, among my peers and in front of the nation, and declare that faith without fear of any reprisal. Trumps proposed ban, Jolly said, was a heartbreaking affront to that founding principle. Biblical thinking and rising farm costs Jolly tried and failed to work across the aisle in Congress. Sometimes Republicans told him not to work with Democrats. Sometimes the parties switched places. When Republicans were clamoring forwait for itdue process in a Democratic bill barring plane travel by people on no-fly lists, and Jolly was trying to add it, Democrats were told not to work with him.1 Now, in his own trial run for an executive job in his new party, Jolly is going where he wants and saying what he wants. Hes held a dozen town halls with a dozen more planned, in all parts of Florida, red and blue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes explaining to evangelical and other faith communities why he thinks Democratic values are more in line with biblical thinking. Hes talking to North Florida agriculture communities about why DeSantis and Trump immigration policies are tightening labor and driving up costs for them. And he is talking, a lot, about crime, especially the dishonest GOP conflation of immigration with crime. This serves a double purposeto remind voters about that $10 million DeSantis family Medicaid scandal, and to drive home that theyve been told a lie about immigrant crime, because research shows immigrants are much less likely than native-born Americans to commit violent and property crimes. I say if youre native born, an immigrant or a Tallahassee politician, if you break the law, were coming for you. That means if you steal $10 million from the Medicaid program, were going to investigate you, Jolly tells me. His listeners get it, no names needed. The immigration-crime decoupling is a pillar of his probable run and, if it succeeds, a model for Democrats all over. If we can take the crime issue back . . . not only have we reset the policy issues in a more accurate framing for voters, but we also shame Republicans for what theyve done. These threads of xenophobia and true anti-immigrant sentiment, we expose, Jolly says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many Republicans might defend those sentiments, but well let that contrast speak for itself, he adds. Well be the party that fights crime but not communities. And they can be the party that continues to fight communities. And Im great with that contrast. Now Jolly just has to prove that most Floridians are great with it, too. Thats a steep climb, given the states recent political history and Republican imperviousness to shaming. But the premise is moral and reality-based, and Id love to see it tested on voters who maybe, possibly, are ready for something new. Share this article with a Floridian. Share 1 Republicans pushing for due process? The past really is a foreign country. On this date in history: In 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at age 19. She had been convicted of wearing men's clothing. In 1783, the Pennsylvania Evening Post became the first daily newspaper published in the United States. In 1806, future U.S. President Andrew Jackson took part in a duel, killing Charles Dickinson, a Kentucky lawyer who had called Jackson's wife a bigamist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1868, the first major Memorial Day observance was held to honor those killed during the Civil War. It was originally known to some as Decoration Day. On May 30, 1934, the House of Representatives voted to create the Everglades National Park to preserve lands in Florida. File Photo by Michael Bush/UPI Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI In 1911, Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 with an average speed of 74.6 mph. The Lincoln Memorial is seen as snow falls in Washington, D.C., on February 15, 2016. On this day in 1922, the memorial was dedicated. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington. In 1934, the House of Representatives voted to create the Everglades National Park to preserve lands in Florida. President Harry Truman officially dedicated the park in 1947. Patricia "Patsy" Conklin, an employee in the Bioscience and Planetology Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory assembles Mariner 9 photos into large mosaics. On May 30, 1972, the unmanned U.S. space probe Mariner 9 was launched on a mission to gather scientific data on Mars. It was the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than Earth. File Photo courtesy of NASA Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1971, the unmanned U.S. space probe Mariner 9 was launched on a mission to gather scientific data on Mars. It was the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than Earth. In 1972, three Japanese terrorists used automatic weapons to kill 24 people at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2002, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the FBI would have expanded powers to monitor religious, political and other organizations as well as the Internet as a guard against terrorist attacks. File Photo by Michael Kleinfeld/UPI In 2012, former Liberian President Charles Taylor, convicted of aiding war crimes, was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2021, Helio Castroneves won the 105th Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was his record-tying fourth win. Other four-time winners include A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears. In 2024, former President Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts against him in his New York hush-money trial involving actor Stormy Daniels. After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump was sentenced in January 2025 to an unconditional discharge in the case. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A Dayton teen has been indicted after his friend was shot and killed earlier this month. The Montgomery County Prosecutors Office has announced the indictment of 18-year-old Manual Perez, regarding an incident that occurred on May 22 on Pinecrest Drive. 18-year-old dead after Wednesday shooting: Dayton PD Dayton police were called out to the 1400 block of Pinecrest Drive on reports of a shooting. Upon arrival, they found 18-year-old TayShawn Cobb with a gunshot wound to the upper torso. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cobb was transported to the hospital where he later died from his injuries. Investigation revealed Cobb and Perez had been playing with firearms in Cobbs home. Perez has now been charged with one count of reckless homicide. He is being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $50,000 bond. His arraignment is set for June 3. 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. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) A Washington, D.C. man is behind bars after he was accused of stabbing a man to death in Montgomery County earlier this month, according to police. The Montgomery County Department of Police (MCPD) said 42-year-old Guy Tyrell Johnson was charged with the stabbing death of 31-year-old Emmanuel Bisudu Sesay. The incident took place on May 15, just before 10:30 p.m., in the 11400 block of Lockwood Drive in the White Oak area. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Sesay suffering from stab wounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Trump administration targets DMV sanctuary cities, threatens federal action MCPDs investigation revealed that Johnson had gotten into a fight with Sesay in a parking lot near Lockwood Drive. During the fight, he reportedly stabbed Sesay before leaving the scene, according to police. Sesays body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where his death was ruled a homicide. On May 28, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson, charging him with second-degree murder. The next day, he was taken into custody in D.C. by the Montgomery County Task Force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Montgomery County police noted that Johnson was taken to a detention center in D.C. and is awaiting extradition to Maryland. 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. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to investigate after searching a Providence car wash on Thursday. The DEA confirmed Friday that fentanyl was seized from Kings Car Wash, but didnt provide any further information about the active investigation. Agents were seen Thursday removing evidence from the Douglas Avenue business, and at least two people appeared to have been detained. No arrest details have been released so far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kings Car Wash shares an entrance with the neighboring business, Lagos Auto Sales and Service. Owner Jubril Bamgbala told 12 News he was in his office when he heard banging on his door. Its scary, he said. Its a scary situation, especially not knowing what is going on. Surveillance video shows agents bringing Bamgbala to the ground and putting him in handcuffs before learning he had nothing to do with the alleged illegal activity next door. It was just a shock of having a gun pointed at your face while youre working. It was like, Whats going on here?' Bamgbala recalled. I mean, Im still shaken up about about it, he added. I couldnt really sleep last night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to 12 News law enforcement analyst Steven ODonnell, the agents actions appeared to be standard procedure. They cant tell that business, Were coming in. Because the idea of being clandestine, coming in unannounced, is for their safety and to avoid destruction of evidence, he explained. Once they talk to him and figure out he wasnt part of this but thats all done for safety purposes, ODonnell added. Kings Car Wash is not registered with the city, according to a Providence spokesperson. The business previously rented the space from Bamgbala, but he said theyre no longer welcome. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After yesterday, theres no coming back from that, he said. Its not just putting my life at risk my livelihood, my employees and all of that. So its just, theres no coming back from this. 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. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 30. Tajikistans President Emomali Rahmon has extended an invitation to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for an official visit to Tajikistan, Trend reports via the presidential press service. The invitation came during a meeting on May 30 in Astana, held as part of the first Central Asia-Italy Summit. The leaders discussed the current state and future prospects of bilateral relations. President Rahmon emphasized that implementing agreements reached last year in Rome will be crucial for deepening cooperation between the two nations. Both sides focused on expanding ties in key sectors such as trade, investment, energy, industry, and agriculture. Potential growth areas highlighted included mineral extraction and processing, advanced cotton production, export of finished goods, and the adoption of modern technologies. The talks also touched on boosting teamwork in culture, humanitarian efforts, healthcare, tourism, sports, and education including scholarship programs for Tajik students and setting up branches of Italian universities in Tajikistan. The leaders noted the importance of working together through international organizations to tackle global challenges like climate change and regional security. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel RAINS COUNTY, Texas (KETK) An East Texas Justice of the Peace has been indicted on two counts of official oppression and two counts of tampering with a witness after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month, where he is accused of telling a witness, I heard you have a problem with me, boy. You take that deal, boy or dead men cant testify. The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, alleges that Justice of the Peace Jenkins Franklin threatened Coby Weibe to enter a guilty plea in a criminal case over which he had no jurisdiction. Dead men cant testify: East Texas judge arrested on multiple charges released Thursday morning Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weibe alleges that the threat made in October 2023 is part of a broader pattern of misconduct that Franklin exhibited and went unchecked by county officials, leading to a Monell claim against the county. Mugshots of Robert Jenkins Franklin, courtesy of Van Zandt County Detention Center Phone records and a polygraph exam administered to Weibe led the Rains County District Attorney to file a motion to dismiss the felony sentence and Weibe has since been granted judicial clemency. This threat was intended to silence [Wiebe] from speaking in open court, suppress future legal action and force a false narrative, the lawsuit claims. As a result, [Weibe] was intimidated and coerced into providing false testimony and entering a No Contest plea under duress, calling into question the voluntariness and constitutionality of that plea. KETK News has obtained Franklins indictment from Rains County: Count One: Official Oppression Franklindid intentionally subject [a woman] to mistreatment that Franklin knew was unlawful, namely coercing and pressuring her to sign a false affidavit and Franklin was acting under color of his office as Rains County Justice of the Peace. Count Two: Tampering with a Witness Franklindid coerce [the woman], who was a prospective witness in an official proceeding, namely an affidavit for a civil lawsuit, by pressuring her as supervisor of her employment with intent to influence the woman to testify falsely in the official proceeding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge rules former Rusk Co. deputy as not eligible for qualified immunity in civil lawsuit Count Three: Official Oppression Franklindid intentionally subject Coby Wiebe to mistreatment that Franklin knew was unlawful, namely coercing and threatening him to accept a plea agreement in a criminal case, and the defendant was acting under color of his office as Rains County Justice of the Peace. Count Four: Tampering with a Witness Franklin did coerce Wiebe, who was a prospective witness in an official proceeding, namely a criminal case, by pressuring him and threatening him with intent to influence [the man] to testify falsely in the official proceeding. According to Van Zandt County Detention Center records, Franklin was arrested on Wednesday on the four counts before being released on Thursday morning, after posting bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) A popular new restaurant in the Piedmont may be the perfect place for families to celebrate Fathers Day. Dear Dads just opened six months ago, and its quickly become one of the hottest spots in the city. It stays packed, especially on the weekends and has stellar reviews online. The massive menu includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner options that customers can order any item all day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A father and son opened Dear Dads together as a way for the father to pass along his decades of restaurant experience to his son. FOX8 Foodie Shannon Smith stopped by for a taste of the new hot spot and talked with the owners of Dear Dads. You can find Dear Dads on 3929 Battleground Avenue in Greensboro. 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 FOX8 WGHP. **Related Video Above: What happens when you call 911? SHREVEPORT, La. (WJW) An investigation is ongoing following a disturbing discovery of infant remains at a commercial laundry facility in Louisiana on Tuesday, Shreveport Police Department officers said in a news release. Police were called to Alsco Uniforms in Shreveport at 5:30 a.m. for reports of a dead person who had been found. Cat abandoned in Garfield Heights home went nearly 2 months without food, water; ate insulation to stay alive, police say Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Workers there told police they first thought a doll was wrapped up in linens delivered to their facility, but upon further inspection realized they were tiny human remains. Violent crime detectives were able to determine where the body came from, learning that a Dallas funeral home recently had a funeral for a stillborn baby. The body was reportedly scheduled for cremation at Golden Gate Funeral Home but was mistakenly transported in a pile of linens to Louisiana. Mystery surrounds rare bird seen in Kent the past few weeks: Not from Ohio This is a deeply distressing situation, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith is quoted in a statement. Our thoughts are with the family of the child as this investigation unfolds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said they do not believe foul play is involved in the case and no charges have been announced. The Texas Funeral Service Commission is also investigating. 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. (FOX40.COM) A U.S. Government Employee has been arrested for attempting to provide classified information to a foreign government. Video above: Property Crime Statistics The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs stated that an IT specialist who was employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested on Thursday for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government. The suspect has been identified as Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia. He was arrested in northern Virginia and is set to make his initial court appearance in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday, according to the U.S. DOJ. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This case underscores the persistent risk of insider threats, said Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel on X. The FBI remains steadfast in protecting our national security and thanks our law enforcement partners for their critical support. Rite Aid Thrifty Ice Cream brand faces closure amid bankruptcy According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he worked with the Insider Threat Division and held Top Secret security clearance. In March, officials stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation started a probe after getting a tip that an individual now known as Laatsch offered to provide classified information to friendly foreign government agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In that email, DOJ said that the sender wrote that he did not agree or align with the values of this administration and was then willing to share classified information that the sender had access to, which also included completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation. After many conversations with the FBI agents whom Laatsch allegedly believed to be a representative of the foreign government, he began to transcribe classified information to a notepad at his desk, and over about three days, he dropped the information from his workspace. San Joaquin County DA secured guilty plea for sex crime with firearm Authorities said Laatsch then confirmed to the FBI agent that he was prepared to transmit the information. Just a little after, the FBI implemented an operation at a public park in northern Virginia, and he would drop the classified information for the foreign government to get. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around May 1, FBI surveillance caught Laatsch going to the specific location and depositing an item, stated the DOJ. After he left, crews were able to get the item, which was a thumb drive, and later found that it had contained a message from Laatsch along with multiple typed documents. Each piece of information that was typed had a portion marked up to the Secret or Top Secret level, the DOJ said. The messages showed that Laatsch had chosen to include a decent sample size of information that was classified to decently demonstrate the range of types of products to which he had access. After the confirmation was received that the thumb drive had been received, on May 7, Laatsch allegedly sent a message to the FBI agent, which included that Laatsch wanted something in return for the continuation of getting information. The DOJ officials stated that the next day, Laatsch specified that he wanted a citizenship for your country because he did not expect things here to improve in the long term. He also said he was not opposed to other compensation, since he was not in a position where he needed to get material compensation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 14, the FBI agent advised Laatsch that it was time to get more classified information, and between May 15 and May 27, he tried again and started to transcribe multiple pages of notes while logged into his classified workstation. He folded the notes and hid the information in his clothes, according to the FBI. On May 29, Laatsch arrived at the location that was pre-discussed in northern Virginia. He was arrested when the FBI received the documents. At this time, the FBI Washington Field Office is investigating this case, with assistance from the U.S. Air Force OIS. 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. Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, left, greets Gov. Jeff Landry as Landry leaves the House Chamber with his son, JT Landry, right, after speaking on opening day of legislative session, Monday, April 14, 2025, at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge. (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate-Pool) In defiance of Gov. Jeff Landry, a Louisiana Senate committee rejected a proposal to give him more authority over appointees to 32 government boards and commissions, nearly half of which help regulate health care providers. The Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 4-3 against House Bill 603 Wednesday that would have allowed the governor to appoint members to state licensing boards without input from others. Currently, the governor has to pick these board members from lists of nominees provided by trade associations and industry leaders in the applicable field. Landry was seeking more authority over boards ranging from those that regulate certified public accountants, plumbers and engineers to boards that oversee nurses, dentists and physical therapists. The number of appointees Landry would have selected varied from group to group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The legislations author, Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, said the current appointment system is problematic because it lets professional trade groups pick their own regulators. The thought was to protect the consumer, McMakin said at a public hearing this week. Sen. Greg Miller, R-Norco, backed McMakins bill and shared his concerns about the current structure of the boards. The people who are supposed to be regulated are actually the ones doing the regulating, Miller said. The bill closely resembles law changes Landry got approved last year that have already consolidated the governors power over state appointees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State lawmakers gave Landry the ability to appoint the chairs of 150 state boards and commissions directly instead of relying on the boards to pick their own leaders. These boards include the 32 Landry hoped to gain more control over through McMakins bill. Legislators also made changes in 2024 to the board of the Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority to give the governor more say-so on members of that panel. And they permitted the governor more power over appointees to the Louisiana Board of Ethics. Landry now gets to pick his ethics board appointees directly instead of having to choose from lists of nominees from Louisianas private college and university leaders. On Wednesday, Senate committee members indicated those recent changes made them wary of handing Landry more authority. Dont you think that the way the bill is strips away the voice of the particular industry to offer up potential nominees? asked Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, who voted against McMakins legislation. It makes it, in a sense, purely political. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This kind of gives even more power to an already powerful executive branch, Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans, said. I have grave concerns about it. McMakin said safeguards already in place make sure the governor selects qualified board members. The governors appointees have to meet certain standards to serve, such as holding an occupational license in the field they would have to regulate. The governors appointees also do not make up the majority of any of the licensing boards in his bill, McMakin said. Sen. Larry Selders, D-Baton Rouge, remained unconvinced that the governor should be given more authority, however. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Where is the protection? Last year, we gave the governor the authority to appoint the chairmen. Now, we are giving the governor the authority to put two or three people or various numbers on different committees. And so when is it going to change again next year? Selders said, before voting against the legislation. Despite the bill failing, McMakin said the governors office could find a way to revive it before the legislature ends its session June 12. The bill is not dead, he said in an interview. Legislators have shown less tolerance for growing the governors authority, however. A constitutional amendment aimed at giving the governor two at-large appointees to the five-member Public Service Commission failed to get off the ground earlier this spring. Landrys push to give him more sway over appointees to a New Orleans-area flood protection agency board has also died this session. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A Fulton County Superior Court hearing is scheduled for June 10 on Georgia Public Service Commission candidate Daniel Blackman's appealing a ruling disqualifying him from the Democratic Primary of June 17. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder (file) This story was updated at 3:25 p.m. May 30, 2025 with a comment from Daniel Blackman. A Georgia Public Service Commission candidate will remain on the Democratic primary ballot after appealing a decision this week disqualifying him from the race for failing to meet residency requirements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Fulton County Superior Court hearing is scheduled for June 10 when Chief Judge Ural Glanville will hear arguments on PSC candidate Daniel Blackmans appeal. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had affirmed a state court judges ruling that Blackman was unable to provide evidence that a Fulton County property is his primary domicile. Blackman is a candidate for District 3, which includes Clayton, DeKalb, and Fulton counties. Commissioners are elected statewide but must be residents of a given district for at least 12 months. Blackman served as the Environmental Protection Agencys Southeast regional administrator under the Biden administration, and hes a former PSC candidate who came close to winning a seat on the commission back in 2020. Blackmans lawyer, Matthew Wilson, said Blackmans name will remain on ballots after Glanville granted an injunction Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once were given the opportunity for a fair hearing, Im confident that Daniel will prevail because all of the facts and all of the law are on his side, Wilson said Friday. Blackman said Friday that he appreciates the legal process allowing him to defend his eligibility as a candidate. This appeal will allow us to have an opportunity to present information that we believe makes the case for us remaining in this race and on the ballot, Blackman said. The complaint against Blackman was filed by Atlanta resident Rodney Stephens, who currently resides in a home previously owned by another Democratic candidate, Keisha Waites, according to online county property records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stephens and Waites declined to comment about the residency challenge. The residency dispute involves a one-bedroom dwelling in Atlanta that Blackman leased on Oct. 4, 2024. Blackman testified that he purchased the property to live closer to work while his wife and children continued to reside in their Forsyth County home north of Atlanta, according to the 12-page ruling. The state court judge wrote that Blackman failed to provide evidence that he actually lived in the home, such as utility bills or mail being delivered to the Atlanta address. Early voting for two PSC seats began Tuesday with Blackmans name on ballots statewide. If Blackmans ban is permanent, notices will be placed in polling places advising voters of his disqualification and votes cast for him will not be counted, Raffenspergers office said. Election Day is June 17. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three other Democrats appear on the District 3 PSC ballot: Waites, a former Atlanta City Council member and ex-state representative; Peter Hubbard, founder of the clean nonprofit Center for Energy Solutions, and Robert Jones, a former utility executive. The winner will face GOP incumbent Fitz Johnson in the Nov. 4 general election. Johnson was appointed to the seat by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021. Jones said Friday he would like to see an expedited final decision in the Blackman case so candidates can focus solely on their own campaigns without having to deal with the distraction. The appeal filed Wednesday was another surprise in a race that has had too many, Jones said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Colorados Democratic Governor Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would ban surprise billing by ambulance companies, over the unanimous objections of both chambers of the state legislature. Why would Polis veto a bill thats popular with everyone, even Colorado Republicans? The governor wrote in his veto statement that drafting errors in the bill made it unimplementable and estimated that it would make insurance premiums go up by as much as $0.73 to $2.15 per person. I am committed to working with proponents and sponsors to protect Coloradans from surprise bills, but I encourage all parties to work towards a more reasonable reimbursement rate that mitigates premium impacts and nets a better deal for Colorado families, Polis wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Colorado, if legislators in both chambers repass the bill with a two-thirds majority, they can override the governors veto, especially considering that the bill passed with the support of every single legislator. But the legislature adjourned on May 7, meaning that the bill has to be passed again when the legislature reconvenes in January. For some reason, ending surprise ambulance billing nationally is not the slam-dunk issue it should be. Congress ended most surprise medical bills in 2020 but exempted ground ambulances from the bill. Was Poliss veto due to badly drafted language and a (seemingly modest) price hike in insurance premiums, as he said, or was it for a different, more nefarious reason? We might not know unless and until the bill is reintroduced next year. The Cleveland County Democratic Party will meet at the Well today from 11:30 a.m. Two Democratic strategists, Larry Wrede and Dan Nolan, will host a slide presentation on Oklahoma Democratic Strategy and Defending Public Education. One speaker will outline a pragmatic approach to rebuilding moderate political strength in Oklahoma with a focus on economic development and rural outreach. The second half will address the urgent threats facing public education and offer a compelling case for revitalizing community support for schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both presentations are rooted in local realities and designed to spark constructive dialogue. All are welcome to attend and join the discussion on charting a better path forward for Oklahoma. Additionally, the Cleveland County Democratic Party plans to offer four scholarships to highschool seniors in Cleveland County. Available are four scholarships worth $1,000 each, to be used by the winners at any career tech, vocational school, or any college or university of their choice. One of the prerequisites to be eligible is for the student to be registered as a Democrat if over 18, or have a parent or guardian that is registered if not yet of registration age. The registration will be verified. Committee Chair, Wallace Collins, says Cleveland County high schools have the requirements or that more information is available at the county party headquarters, 300 W. Gray, suite 102. All applications must be in the office on June 1, 2025. They can be mailed to P.O. Box 455 Norman, OK 73070 or emailed to info@ccdemsok.com. Scholarship winners will be determined by a majority vote of the scholarship committee. For more information call (405) 447-3366 or go to http://ccdemsok.com. Flanked by state Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) and state Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Appleton), Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) outlines a joint resolution for Pride Month, (Screenshot/WisEye) Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers are circulating four draft bills and two joint resolutions to address issues of discrimination against members of the lesbian, gay, trans and queer community. The package was announced just before Pride Month begins on June 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We celebrate the history of the LGBTQ+ movement and the future of our population, and I cant think of a more important time to do that, said Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), at a Capitol press conference Thursday. Meanwhile in Washington the Trump administration and Republicans here in Wisconsin are engaging in rhetoric and political activity that seeks to erase LGBTQ+ people and target us the goal in that rhetoric and in that movement is to make us feel alone. Embracing diversity and joining with allies give the community strength, Phelps said. Everybody who is not themselves a member of the LGBTQ+ community knows and loves at least one person in the community. And I think when they shut out all the noise and look inside, they know that they want the best for that person or those people, Phelps said. In addition to a joint resolution embracing Pride Month, the Equality Agenda legislation includes measures to: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Update various Wisconsin laws pertaining to married couples, including laws on adoption and on in vitro fertilization, to ensure they apply to same-sex couples. Prohibit conversion therapy aimed at changing a minors sexual orientation or gender identity and subjecting licensed professionals who practice it to professional discipline. Bar the use of a gay or trans panic as a defense by persons accused of crimes. Provide grants for training school counselors and social workers on LGBTQ+ rights. Also part of the package is a proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would repeal the 2006 amendment declaring marriage to be only between one man and one woman. The amendment preventing the state from legally recognizing same-sex marriages remains on the books although it was overridden by the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage across the country. With the 20th anniversary of Wisconsins constitutional amendment that banned marriage equality coming up next year, said Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit), chair of the Legislatures LGBTQ+ Caucus. It is long past time to give voters the chance to remove that discriminatory language from our constitution. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 30. President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon proposed establishing a joint investment fund between Central Asia and Italy during the first Central AsiaItaly summit, held in Astana, Kazakhstan, Trend reports via the administration of the president. The initiative would involve collaboration with Italys export credit agency (SACE) and leading Italian companies, with the goal of supporting investment across the region based on market needs and country potential. In his address, Rahmon emphasized the importance of strengthening trade and economic ties, highlighting Tajikistans capacity to contribute to regional cooperation. He invited Italian businesses to invest in key sectors such as hydropower, mineral extraction, agriculture, textiles, and construction materials, underlining the value of Italian technologies and capital. He highlighted the prevailing synergies between Tajik and Italian enterprises within the textile sector as exemplary case studies of collaborative success and advocated for enhanced participation in industrial and agro-industrial manufacturing initiatives. Rahmon also delineated regional transport infrastructure enhancement as a viable domain for synergistic engagement, underscoring the pivotal function of logistics in catalyzing trade with Europe. The Tajik leader called for stronger cooperation in climate action, referencing the ongoing International Conference on Glacier Preservation in Dushanbe. He welcomed Italys Climate Fund interest in supporting developing countries and reiterated Tajikistans openness to joint efforts. In summation, he emphasized the imperative for synergistic initiatives to tackle transnational security dilemmas, encompassing terrorism, radicalization, and cyber threats, while reiterating Tajikistans dedication to enhancing collaborative engagement with Italy in all domains of shared significance. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel DENVER (KDVR) The contents of your favorite stores beer aisle are likely starting to change, thanks in part to shifting attitudes around alcohol consumption. A new study said non-alcoholic brews are now among the most popular in the world. The IWSR formerly the International Wine and Spirits Record recently projected that this year, non-alcoholic beer will become the second largest beer category in the world, behind only lagers. A liquor store in Denver said they absolutely believe it, thanks to sales in recent years. Brighton man loses wife of 68 years, 4 pets, home in fire Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Wine Dispensary in LoDo has the word wine in its name, it isnt all they sell. Tucked away behind the bottles up front, youll find a fridge with cans, and despite being a liquor store, many dont contain alcohol at all. Overall, as a trend in the alcohol industry, weve seen people wanting to imbibe a little bit less, said Jennifer Maglieri, Wine Dispensarys co-owner. Each passing year, the shelf with non-alcoholic beers has grown. We do keep, you know, a decent amount of, like, relative percentage of the beer program to be NA, said Maglieri. The industry saw an uptick in NA sales as early as 2019. The IWSRs report said Gen Z drinks less than any prior generation at the same age, citing health as a factor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maglieri points to two 2024 studies, as well. That showed basically that theres not an advantageous amount of alcohol that can be, like, healthy for you to consume, said Maglieri. She also said one of alcohols biggest competitors has played a part. More people have been identifying as cannabis consumers than alcohol consumers, said Maglieri. To keep up with the trend, Wine Dispensary offers both local and out-of-state options for NA brews that pass the taste test. They still want to enjoy the same quality of NA beer as they would in their boozy counterparts, she said. Iconic Morrison Holiday Bar and neighboring properties hit the market for $15 million Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As time goes on, she expects the NA shelf to expand even further. Its definitely a category that is strong for us, and we anticipate having that continue, said Maglieri. Wine Dispensary also sells non-alcoholic spirits and wine, but neither has matched the popularity of NA beers quite yet. 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. DENVER (KDVR) Denver has jumped up the rankings of cities with the most incidents of dogs biting mail carriers. The U.S. Postal Service released dog bite incident data for 2024 on Thursday, revealing that Denver had the No. 10 most incidents of any city in the U.S. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Last year, Denver ranked at No. 18 with 21 dog bite incidents. That amount increased significantly to 34 incidents in 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Los Angeles remained at the top of the list with 77 dog bite incidents. Top 10 cities: Los Angeles 77 Houston 65 Chicago 57 St. Louis 47 Cincinnati 44 Dallas 43 Kansas City 40 Cleveland 40 San Diego 35 Denver 34 While Denvers dog bite numbers were higher than most cities, the Mile High City has seen worse before. In 2011, the Postal Service reported 35 dog attacks on mail carriers in Denver. That number rose to 41 in 2013 and again to 47 in 2016, landing Denver as the seventh-worst in the U.S. at the time. Colorado was not among the top 10 states for dog bite incidents involving mail carriers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement California 701 Texas 438 Ohio 350 Illinois 344 New York 322 Pennsylvania 316 Michigan 231 Florida 210 Missouri 207 North Carolina 169 The U.S. Postal Service said there were more than 6,000 dog bite cases in 2024. The postal service is beginning a month-long campaign on June 1 with the theme Secure your dog, keep deliveries on track, to raise awareness about how residents can help keep mail carriers safe from dog attacks. The postal service said mail carriers are trained to respect a dogs territory, but said owners can help by securing their dogs around the time when the mail carrier comes and making sure dogs are on leashes if outside during that time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The postal service also said that residents and children should never accept mail from the carrier in the presence of a dog, as the dog may view the carrier as a threat. 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. Downtown Birmingham viewed from Red Mountain. Two companies in the area will lose $75 million each after their grant funding was eliminated by the U.S. Department of Energy. (John Coletti/The Image Bank) The U.S. Department of Energy announced Friday the cancellation of 24 awards issued by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations that impacts two businesses in Alabama. American Cast Iron Pipe Company and United States Pipe and Foundry Company, LLC were both set to receive $75 million in grant money from the Department of Energy but will no longer receive the funding in light of the grants getting canceled. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the previous administration failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars, the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a DOE press release. Today, we are acting in the best interest of the American people by cancelling these 24 awards. A message was left with both companies Friday seeking comment. According to a press release, American Cast Iron Pipe Company made it to the negotiation stage of the awards process and was planning to use the funding to replace single cupola furnaces with four coreless induction furnaces. This would have reduced the facilitys CO2 emissions by an estimated 62% and the melting/holding process CO2 emissions by 95%. The U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company said in a press release that they planned to use the money for Phase 1 of U.S. Pipes Iron Electric Induction Conversion project. The project involved replacing a coke-fired furnace with electric induction melting furnaces and would have resulted in an estimated 73% reduction in carbon intensity at the Alabama Works ductile iron pipe production facility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of the 24 awards given, nearly 70% were signed between Election Day last year and Jan. 20. By cancelling the awards, the Department of Energy is generating $3.6 billion in savings for Americans. The DOE said the awards have been terminated because they failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars. (WFRV) The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said that a state-wide Air Quality Advisory is set to begin at 6 a.m. on Friday, and is urging residents to be cautious as a result. The Advisory is due to the smoke coming from Canadian wildfires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The Cool Place in Pulaski seeks community help to stay afloat amidst business slowdown Hazy skies and particle pollution will likely cause poor conditions for most, if not all, of the state, the DNR said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DNRs release said to expect the following: The initial round of smoke is expected in or around northwestern Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon, and pushing southeast throughout the evening On Friday morning, heavier smoke is forecast to come from the north and push south The advisory at this time is set to expire at 6 a.m. Saturday, but the smoke impact could continue in some spots Rain turns to thunderstorms for Friday The Air Quality Index is expected to reach the Orange level, which is unhealthy for sensitive individuals, across much of the state. It is also possible that it may rise to the Red level of unhealthy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Individuals should be wary of symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath. If symptoms arise, people should take a break or go inside. 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 WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. The Trump administration has put the state of Rhode Island on notice. Now a formal notification of its 'noncompliance' with federal immigration policy is forthcoming, says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Exactly what court order the Trump administration is using to base its declaration that Rhode Island is defying federal immigration policy remains a mystery. But the head of the states chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a theory. The state as well as Providence and Central Falls are on a list of 500 sanctuary jurisdictions that may lose federal funding released Thursday night by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The list was compiled based on factors like noncompliance with federal law enforcement, information-sharing restrictions, and giving legal protections to undocumented immigrants, the departments website stated. Federal fallout As federal funding and systems dwindle, states are left to decide how and whether to make up the difference. Read the latest > Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The website also states that Rhode Island made the list because of a Court Order Requiring State Sanctuary Requirements. Rhode Island Current reached out to Homeland Security for specific details and received a statement reiterating the designation factors on the departments website. Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, hypothesized that the federal government may be citing a 2014 federal court order that ruled police officers in Rhode Island cannot hold a person in custody based upon an U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer alone for more than 48 hours. Its a very basic Fourth Amendment law, Brown said in an interview. And it appears the Trump administration is upset that the Constitution prevents them from doing what they want to do. The Department of Homeland Securitys list was published as part of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump April 28 mandating federal officials identify and publicly highlight jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday. We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law. The announcement from the Department of Homeland Security states each jurisdiction on the list will receive a formal notification of its noncompliance with federal policy and must immediately review and revise its policies to align with the Trump administration. No notices received yet Gov. Dan McKees office has not received any notification as of Friday, said spokesperson Olivia DaRocha. Officials in Central Falls and Providence said their cities have not received any notice either. As we have always stated, Rhode Island cooperates with ICE on the lawful detention of criminals in accordance with a binding federal court ruling, DaRocha said in an emailed statement, referring to the 2014 court order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in a statement that he has no plans to change the citys existing policy regarding immigration. Police officers are prohibited from asking about someones immigration status and from holding a subject based exclusively on an administrative detainer, nor are they allowed to arrest suspected undocumented individuals unless federal immigration officers provide a criminal warrant signed by a judge. The Providence Police are not and will not be immigration officers and are better able to keep our community safe with this policy, Smiley said. Providence remains committed to being a safe and welcoming city for all. Smiley added that the city remains fully compliant with federal law and does not violate any federal regulations. Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera says her city stands by its laws and its community. (Screenshot from centralfallsri.gov/) Central Falls in 2019 enacted its own ordinance that prohibits local police officers from questioning people about their immigration status without probable cause, bar any compliance with detainer requests made without a warrant, and ensure municipal services are available to all residents regardless of their citizenship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera in a statement said her city stands by its values and community. Our ordinance is legal and makes our city safer building a stronger foundation for public trust in our local police department, Rivera said. Together with the city of Providence, we won this fight before during the first Trump Administration. Rivera was referring to a 2018 lawsuit against the U.S. Justice Department over requirements that recipients of a federal criminal-justice grant, known as the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, cooperate with authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration law. U.S. District Court Judge Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled in favor of the cities in 2019, which was upheld by a federal appeals court in Boston in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the chairman of Rhode Islands Republican Party said the states placement on the list was the result of deliberate, reckless choices by the governor and city officials. Lets be clear, this isnt compassion, its capitulation, party chairman Joe Powers said in a statement. McKee is harboring those who break federal law while turning his back on those who enforce it. President Trump is standing up to this nonsense, he continued. Brown, however, maintains that theres not legitimate basis from the federal government that Rhode Island or any municipalities are violating federal law. Theyre not, theyre upholding the law, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also making the list were Connecticut, and its cities of East Haven; Hamden; Hartford; New Haven; New London; and Windham. Massachusetts made the list along with 13 of its 14 counties with Hampden County excluded, and 12 cities: Amherst; Boston; Cambridge; Chelsea; Concord; Holyoke; Lawrence; Newton; Northampton; Orleans; Somerville; and Springfield. Vermont and its cities of Burlington; Montpelier; and Winooski were listed as was Maines Cumberland and Hancock counties and the city of Portland and the New Hampshire cities of Hanover and Lebanon. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Its been almost a week now since Monroe County announced that the legislature has approved automatic license plate readers for the county. Thursday, News 8s Adelisa Badzic sat down with Chief Deputy Michael Fowler with the sheriffs office on how these will work. He said these are strictly for investigations and are not red-light cameras. If we need information, if were looking for a certain vehicle for whatever the reason, a missing person, or maybe a criminal that just drove off from a robbery scene, we go into the computer type in the plate number, and it shows us when and where that picture was taken, Fowler said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This would help shave off investigation time and get to an outcome quicker. He also added that the system does not contain personal information. Also worth noting: the system to search a license plate is monitored closely and secure. Deputies will need a specific reason to search a number and there is an audit trail. Chief Deputy Fowler said they have to enter their reason in the software, which will be recorded, and they plan to follow up to make sure everyone has legitimate purposes. He said they plan to put in 150 to 160 cameras in about 80 locations throughout the county. The hope to start with hotspots first. Monroe County is one of the last major counties in New York State to get this technology. Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, New York City, theyve got them all over, and theyve had them all over for years, and theyve been reaping the success for years, Fowler said. This is a great tool for law enforcement. It solves crimes, and it saves lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the Senate level: there have been critics against ALPRs. Legislation to address privacy and mass data collection concerns have been brought up several times in Albany. One bill sponsored by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a democrat, is in the current session. It states, New York currently does not have uniform standards in place governing the use of ALPRs If passed, it would create guidelines for the use of plate readers technology. 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 RochesterFirst. GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) Deputies are asking the public for help finding a man who went missing from Georgetown Township on Thursday. Around 4 p.m., deputies with the Ottawa County Sheriffs Office were sent to Barry AFC Home on Barry Street near 8th Avenue after 53-year-old Toby Petree of Hudsonville walked away from the home. The sheriffs office said he was last seen walking eastbound on Barry Street wearing a white T-shirt and shorts. Anyone with information is asked to call the Ottawa County Sheriffs Office at 616.738.4000 or Silent Observer at 877.887.4536. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. The Burke County Sheriffs Office is searching for a man who has been accused of trying to steal multiple airplanes. The incident occurred on May 26 at the Foothills Airport. ALSO READ: What we know about the San Diego plane crash and the 6 on board who died Surveillance footage captured a white or silver SUV, possibly a Jeep Grand Cherokee, arriving at the airport shortly after 8:30 p.m. A man then exited the vehicle carrying a small military-style backpack with MOLLE webbing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputies said the incident caused significant damage to multiple airplanes. Anyone with information about the suspect or his whereabouts is asked to contact the sheriffs office at 828-438-5500. VIDEO: 911 call shows bizarre circumstances of F-35 ejection: Not sure where the airplane is, pilot says He was not the driver. Thats what Derrick Thompsons attorney subtly introduced to jurors Thursday as Thompsons murder trial got underway in the south Minneapolis crash that killed five young women nearly two years ago. Although attorney Tyler Bliss did not give the name of who he will argue was the driver, a notice of defense court document he filed Tuesday pinned the blame on brother Demarco John Thompson. The question of tragedy is not what this trial is about, Bliss told jurors in his opening statement. The question presented here in this court is whether or not the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that my client drove that vehicle, and if he had the specific mental state to commit murder, to commit homicide. And, ladies and gentlemen, they simply cannot meet that burden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors say that Derrick Thompson was driving 95 mph on Interstate 35W in a rented Cadillac Escalade SUV, passing a Minnesota State Trooper, exiting on Lake Street, and then running a red light at Second Avenue and crashing into the victims Honda Civic still at a high rate of speed just after 10 p.m. June 16, 2023. Pronounced dead at the scene were Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, 20, of St. Louis Park; Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali, 17, of Bloomington; Sahra Liban Gesaade, 20, of Brooklyn Center; Sagal Burhaan Hersi, 19, of Minneapolis, and Siham Adan Odhowa, 19, of Minneapolis. They were returning from preparing for a friends wedding. These five young women, between the ages of 17 and 20, lost their lives due to the act of another that was shockingly reckless, incredibly selfish and unspeakably foolish, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Joseph Paquette told jurors. Thompson, the 29-year-old son of a former St. Paul state representative, was originally charged with 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide for allegedly operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner and leaving the scene of an accident. In September, prosecutors added five counts of third-degree murder, which is defined in state statute as perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While hearing evidence in the case, Paquette told jurors, ask yourself, how dangerous were the defendants actions? What was his mindset when he did the things that the evidence shows he did in this case? Did the defendant flee the scene of the crash, and did his actions demonstrate an indifference to the loss of human life that he caused? In November, Thompson turned down a plea offer from the Hennepin County Attorneys Office that called for a prison term between 32 and nearly 39 years for pleading guilty to five counts of criminal vehicular homicide. A month earlier, a federal jury found Thompson, of Brooklyn Park, guilty of federal drug and weapons charges connected to the crash after more than 2,000 fentanyl pills and a Glock 40 semiautomatic handgun were found inside the Cadillac after the crash. A sentencing date has not been set. Jury selection began Tuesday at the Hennepin County courthouse and wrapped up Thursday afternoon. Judge Carolina Lamas is presiding over the case, which has shaken Minnesotas Somali community and attracted a high level of public interest and national media coverage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lamas is allowing one TV news camera to record the trial, with the video footage to be shared with other media outlets. She denied requests for a livestream. A still photographer is also permitted in the courtroom, which on Thursday overflowed with family and friends of the victims. A second courtroom was opened up to accommodate everyone. They never stood a chance Paquette read the names and ages of the five victims at the start of the states opening statement. He then played a short clip of the crash, which was caught on video surveillance. What followed in the courtroom was loud gasps from the gallery. One woman got up and left, returning a short while later with a box of tissues. They never stood a chance, Paquette said. The defendant t-boned a Honda Civic. What resulted isnt sufficiently described as a crash or a collision. It was an explosion. The Honda Civic was damaged beyond all recognition. No one from that vehicle could have survived. And no one did. Paquette told jurors they will hear from several witnesses who saw Thompson shortly after the crash. Homeowner Dorinda Pacheco saw him limping past her Second Avenue house, then cut through a neighbors yard and go down the alley toward a McDonalds parking lot, Paquette said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thompson soon asked Carolyn Stauffer if he could use her cellphone, and she let him do so. He made a call and asked the person on the other end of the phone to come and pick him up from a Taco Bell parking lot, according to Paquette. After Thompson was arrested near the fast-food restaurant, he denied involvement in the crash and said his injuries were old. He then said he had fallen earlier in the night, the charges say. This was an immediate red flag to officers, because they could tell that this was obviously a new injury, Paquette said. On the night of The five women had just gotten done preparing for their friends wedding, which was scheduled for the next day. They went shopping. A few got henna tattoos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Thompson was at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where Paquette said he was dropped off by his brother and rented the black Escalade from Hertz. Hes seen clearly on surveillance video driving away from the facility in the Escalade with no other occupants, Paquette said. He then makes his way from the airport and eventually onto highway 35 headed north. Minnesota State Trooper Andres Guerra saw Thompson speeding and, before he could catch up or turn on the squads emergency lights or sirens, Thompson cut across all lanes of traffic and exited the interstate, Paquette said. After the crash, as you saw, both vehicles were launched north of the intersection and rolled end over end, he said. The defendant crawled out of the Escalade right in front of the home of a woman named Dorinda Pacheco. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the ground near the totaled vehicles, officers found the Hertz rental agreement that listed Thompson as the driver and noted the SUV had been rented just under a half-hour before the crash, Paquette said. Youre also going to hear evidence during this trial that the defendants brother, Demarco, his DNA, was possibly found in one location of the vehicle, Paquette said. But Demarco was never seen inside of the vehicle, and it is an open question whether he ever even entered the vehicle at all. Bliss, Thompsons attorney, said Thursday, When the dust settles, the smoke clears, youll see multiple doors to this vehicle opened. You will see the DNA of multiple people in this car who are seen renting the vehicle 35 minutes before this occurs. Earlier ruling The prosecution was dealt a setback last week when the state court of appeals affirmed Lamas ruling that prosecutors cannot introduce evidence from Thompsons 2018 crash in Montecito, Calif., in which he fled from officers in a vehicle, struck a pedestrian and left the scene on foot. The victim was placed in an induced coma and she had to undergo six surgeries within eight days of the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thompson pleaded guilty in Santa Barbara County District Court in 2020 to charges of evading an officer (and) causing injury, leaving the scene of an accident (that caused) injury/death. He was released from prison about six months before the Lake Street crash. The state sought to introduce evidence from that case to prove Thompson knew that his actions in Minneapolis were eminently dangerous to others and that he acted with a depraved mind the key elements of a third-degree murder charge. The appeals court said in its May 19 ruling that while the two car crashes both involved reckless driving and caused serious injury, this commonality is too general in showing a pattern of behavior. Related Articles Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In its 19-page opinion, the appeals court ruled that Lamas did not abuse her discretion in excluding the evidence from the California crash, while also acknowledging the decision significantly reduced the likelihood of a successful prosecution of Thompson for charges of third-degree depraved-mind murder. Testimony from ex-girlfriend The states first witness was Kanitra Walker, Thompsons former girlfriend, who testified that Thompson called her from the hospital, where was recovering from his injuries, and said he was going a little fast and everything just happened so fast. She said he never made a statement about his brother or anyone else being with him at the time of the crash. The trial will resume Friday and is expected to last into late next week. Thompsons father, John Thompson, was a first-term lawmaker representing St. Pauls East Side when he was defeated in the DFL primary in August 2022 in the wake of a number of controversies, which included questions about his official residence following a July 2021 traffic stop in St. Paul. Two model homes in a master-planned Georgetown community have a star-studded touch. The models, located in a new section of the Wolf Ranch subdivision, showcase the work of acclaimed interior designer and Emmy-winning TV host Bobby Berk, formerly of Netflix's Queer Eye. And they are now open for tours as Tri Pointe Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, begins sales in its 110-home section. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Berk's latest collaboration with Tri Pointe builds on a relationship that began in 2015. In a news release from Tri Pointe, Berk said he and the company have a "shared desire to create innovative design that speaks to how people live in their homes." Your surroundings affect every aspect of your life, including your physical and mental well-being," Berk said. The two model homes are located at 1704 Morning Mist Drive and 1708 Morning Mist Drive. Home prices in Wolf Ranch start in the high $400,000s, according to the subdivision's website. Tri Pointe Homes has opened its new 110-home neighborhood in the award-winning Wolf Ranch planned community in Georgetown. Two model homes showcase the interior design work of Emmy-winning TV host Bobby Berk. The model houses are now open for tours. The Berk-designed models highlight Berk's "Organic Modern" collection and "Serene Scandinavian" collection, both of which he designed exclusively for Tri Pointe. The two-story homes have a different floorplan but each feature five bedrooms, three bathrooms and two-bay garages. Tri Pointe Homes has opened its new 110-home neighborhood in the Wolf Ranch subdivision in Georgetown. Two model homes showcase the interior design work of acclaimed designer, author and Emmy-winning TV host Bobby Berk. The model houses are now open for tours. Named by Architectural Digest in 2020 as one of the most famous interior designers working today, Berk "is focused on creating spaces that are comfortable, functional, and stylish, while contributing to overall wellness," according to Tri Pointe's news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once completed, Wolf Ranch is expected to have about 2,400 homes and amenities including an infinity-edge pool, splash pad, fitness center and walking trails. Tri Pointe Homes has opened its new 110-home neighborhood in the award-winning Wolf Ranch planned community in Georgetown. Two model homes showcase the interior design work of acclaimed designer, author and Emmy-winning TV host Bobby Berk. The model houses are now open for tours. According to Tri Pointe, Berk's design firm has become one of the most sought after in the homebuilding industry. He also just released his first book, Right at Home: How Good Design Is Good For The Mind. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Emmy-winning TV host Bobby Berk designs Georgetown model homes BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the invitation of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will take part in the summit in the Central Asia Italy format, which will be held on May 30 in Astana, Trend reports. The participation of leaders of the countries of the region and the Prime Minister of Italy is expected. In accordance with the agenda, issues of further development of multilateral cooperation will be considered, primarily in the areas of "green" economy, investment, innovation, science and education. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a news conference after a housing summit hosted at the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake City on May 29, 2025. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch) In the spirit of collaboration rather than preemption a dynamic that for several years now has undergirded policy discussions over what should be done to address Utahs affordable housing crisis Gov. Spencer Cox invited mayors from across the state to the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on Thursday to talk. Utah has more than 250 cities and towns, but mayors from about 40 cities came to the governors Built Here Housing Summit to trade ideas in a closed-door meeting. In a news conference held outside the governors mansion immediately after, Cox said they came together to work toward a shared goal that he described as very simple, but urgent. How can we work together state and local to make housing more attainable for Utah families? Cox said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the end of 2023, Cox set an ambitious moonshot goal for the state and its home builders: build 35,000 new starter homes by 2028. Since then, Cox said 5,100 have been built or are in process across the state. We know thats not enough, Cox said. Were on our way, but we desperately need to do more. With Utahs growing population, we need to do more, and we need to move faster. The biggest challenge facing city and state officials when it comes to housing policy? Cox said its the constant tension between state and local government when it comes to local control over zoning and land use and whether state leaders should use preemption powers to force local governments to allow more housing types. Though some lawmakers have wanted the state to take more aggressive actions, in recent years the Utah Legislature has taken a gentler, collaborative approach, focusing on providing a variety of planning tools to incentivize cities and developers to build more owner-occupied starter homes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, other states including Colorado, California and Massachusetts have passed housing policy changes that have prompted lawsuits from cities resisting state mandates. The Utah Legislature hasnt flexed that muscle at least not yet. Time will tell whether the toolbox the Utah Legislature has so far built to incentivize housing development will make a difference. But to gain momentum, Cox said state leaders must work with not against mayors and other city leaders to find solutions for affordable housing. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks with about 40 mayors during housing summit hosted at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on May 29, 2025. (Courtesy of Utah Governors Office) The American dream of home ownership is slowly but surely slipping away from far too many, out of reach of our children and grandchildren, he said. Reversing that trend requires collaboration, requires courage, and action from all levels of government. About a dozen mayors who attended Coxs summit also joined Thursdays news conference, including Clearfield Mayor Mark Shepherd, Herriman Mayor Lorin Palmer and Spanish Fork Mayor Mike Mendenhall all from cities that have utilized some of the zoning tools, like transit-oriented development, to build housing projects. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cox didnt name names, but he said there are still some bad actors or a few cities here and there that arent approving plans, that are taking years to get things done, that are very purposely driving up costs to make it so development cant happen. And yet, the governor added, we have dozens and dozens and dozens of cities who are doing this the right way. He said we want to learn from each other, but across 250 jurisdictions, oftentimes we dont share the wins, the things that are happening. So, Cox said, heres whats next. He announced that the state is launching a statewide housing dashboard so that everyone from residents to city planners can track progress, identify gaps and learn from their successes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were committed to ensuring Utah doesnt fall behind on housing reform, Cox said. The dashboard, circulated later Thursday afternoon by the governors office, includes a heat map of where deed restricted units, deeply affordable units, and other forms of more affordable housing have been built. It also includes data on where the 5,100 starter homes have so far been planned or built. Most 2,489 are in Utah County. Salt Lake County has 706, and Tooele County has 432, according to the dashboard. As of Thursday, however, the site was still a work in progress, with some pages saying data under development. Steve Waldrip, Coxs senior housing adviser, told reporters that the dashboard is being built using data from the University of Utahs Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, as well as data from a variety of real estate sources. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If everyone can see what communities are making progress on providing housing options and which cities arent Waldrip said the dashboard may act as a carrot-shaped stick to push cities to do more for housing. You can take it either way, he said. It will highlight those who are succeeding. And thats not a bad thing. Cox who once served as mayor of his rural hometown of Fairview said he knows local officials face challenges when it comes to housing. I have a tremendous amount of empathy for what theyre going through, he said, adding that he knows some have opted not to run for office again because of controversy over higher density housing projects. Theyll do the right thing and improve a development that will benefit future generations, and then theres a referendum, and the project gets denied, Cox said. They get voted out of office, because a small, very vocal group of neighbors can (get) very angry about any type of new housing going in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So Cox said he appreciated their willingness to engage with state leaders to be part of the solution. The mayors who spoke during Thursdays news conference framed Utahs housing issue as a personal one that threatens quality of life for their kids and grandkids. Clearfield Mayor Mark Shepherd speaks during housing summit hosted at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on May 29, 2025. (Courtesy of Utah Governors Office) Clearfield Mayor Mark Shepherd said all but one of his seven kids have homes of their own because they bought during the time when they could. But he said he has one daughter he cant afford to buy amid todays higher housing prices, and the ironic thing is, shes married to a developer. Shes married to a home builder, and cant afford to build a house, Shepherd said. The cost of everything has skyrocketed. We need a place to put our kids. We need a place to put those who want to come to the state, and thats every level of housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Though 40 mayors engaged with the governor on Thursday, Waldrip acknowledged there are still others that remain resistant to allowing more housing. I would definitely say no, not all mayors are on board with it. Some mayors have been elected in different cities on a platform of no growth. Mayors have been kicked out of office because they approved growth, Waldrip said. So those mayors feel an obligation to stick to their campaign promise. However, Waldrip said hes also talked to some of those mayors who now have changed their tune, realizing its a real problem and the lack of housing is leading some to give up on the American dream. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To Spanish Fork Mayor Mike Mendenhall, Utahs housing problem shouldnt be political and it can be fixed if leaders focus on the need for solutions rather than the barriers. If we can find a way for this problem not to be political, but be practical, Mendenhall said, Im confident that we can solve these problems for home ownership in our state. Spanish Fork Mayor Mike Mendenhall speaks during a news conference after a housing summit hosted at the Governors Mansion in Salt Lake City on May 29, 2025. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch) SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPMs Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. Stone Cold Stonewalling New details about the extent of the Trump administrations stonewalling in the case of the mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia were revealed in a court filing Thursday. After six weeks of what was originally supposed to be two weeks of expedited discovery, the government has provided virtually no meaningful discovery responses, Abrego Garcias lawyers report. Normal discovery disputes would not usually be newsworthy, but this comes in the context of a contempt of court inquiry. The administrations defiance on discovery and the associated gamesmanship cut against its already-dubious claims that it has complied with the order by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland to facilitate Abrego Garcias return an order endorsed and echoed by the Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Xinis had ordered the discovery into Abrego Garcias status and what the government had done and planned to do to facilitate his release from imprisonment in his native El Salvador for two reasons: (i) to pressure the Trump administration to abide by her Supreme Court-backed order to facilitate his return; and (ii) to determine whether the administration had violated her order with sufficient bad faith to constitute contempt of court. After the Trump administration late Wednesday asked for an extension of the May 30 deadline by which all discovery is to be completed, Abrego Garcias lawyers filed a blistering response demonstrating how little discovery the government has produced so far. It was already clear from public filings that the government had offered witnesses for deposition who had little or no personal knowledge of the facts of the case, in contravention of the judges order. The precise details of that defiance are unclear because many filings remain under seal. The new details show how desultory the governments document production has been, too. As of two weeks ago, the government had only produced 34 actual documents. In the subsequent two weeks it was given in which to produce rolling discovery, it coughed up a total of one additional partial document, according to Abrego Garcias filing. This is far from a good faith effort to comply with court ordered discovery. It is reflective of a pattern of deliberate delay and bad faith refusal to comply with court orders, Abrego Garcias lawyers argued in opposing the extension request. The patina of promises by Government lawyers to do tomorrow that which they were already obligated to do yesterday has worn thin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abrego Garcias lawyers say the government document production has included what they characterize as makeweight, non-responsive copies of existing filings in the case and of other publicly available materials that arent new or pertinent. Zero documents produced to Plaintiffs to date reflect any efforts made to facilitate Abrego Garcias release and return to the United States, they say (emphasis theirs). Judge Xinis wasnt buying it either. Assertions of diligence notwithstanding, Defendants have offered no explanation as to why they could not produce any additional documents on a rolling basis, as they had agreed could be accomplished during the May 16, 2025 hearing, Xinis wrote yesterday when she denied the administrations request to extend the discovery deadline. In addition to the paucity of document production, the government has still not fully responded to the limited set of interrogatories that the judge approved for the expedited discovery, Abrego Garcias lawyers say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump DOJ lawyers have also engaged in low-rent gamesmanship, Abrego Garcias lawyers say. While the government told the court that it had attempted to confer with them about the request to extend the deadline, in fact the DOJ lawyers reached out at 11:35 p.m. and filed their request an hour later without waiting for Abrego Garcias lawyers to respond. This is hardly a good faith attempt to obtain Plaintiffs position, Xinis observed in a footnote. Petty gamesmanship aside, the constitutional and real-world implications of the Abrego Garcia case remain enormous. The pace of the defiance has slowed since the flurry of activity in mid-March, but the constitutional clash is no less real now that it was then. [T]he Government has engaged in a pattern of intentional stonewalling and obfuscationall in service of delaying the inevitable conclusion, which is that it has not done anything to facilitate Abrego Garcias return, his lawyers concluded in their latest filing. More time will not change this, but it will multiply the prejudice to Abrego Garcia, who remains in unlawful custody in El Salvador. Going Deeper On the Key Constitutional Clash Cases The big constitutional clashes are happening in anti-immigration cases where the underlying facts are often less important than the Trump administrations conduct in court, which can be hard for laypeople to follow. The action (and often inaction) can devolve into complicated procedural maneuvering and legal arguments, so the challenge in covering these cases is to find ways to breathe life into them because theyre so important: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In one of the best pieces Ive read in a while, Adam Unikowsky unpacks the Alien Enemies Act case out of Texas that the Supreme Court has already weighed in on and which appears to be a likely vehicle for the big decisions it will make on the AEA. Steve Vladeck unravels the third country deportations case out of Massachusetts which didnt seem nearly as urgent as the AEA cases until the Trump administration started its extreme shenanigans. Trumps Rule Of Law Attacks Are Indiscriminate President Trump has gone after the courts, his own judicial appointees, the Federalist Society, and now his Supreme Court whisperer Leonard Leo. Turns Out Government Work Is Hard IMPORTANT NYT: Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans Have A Good Weekend! Passing through Nashville last night, I caught a freewheeling set of mostly Beatles covers by the bluegrass band Greenwood Rye. Heres a recent sampling (with a different lineup of musicians): Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know! LAKEVILLE, Mass. (WPRI) Detectives prevented a 73-year-old woman from being scammed out of $20,000 Thursday, according to Lakeville Police Chief Matthew Perkins. Perkins said the womans family contacted the Lakeville Police Department just before 2 p.m. after she had inexplicably withdrawn $20,000 from her bank account and was not answering her phone. An investigation revealed that a scammer had contacted the woman and convinced her that her computer was infected with a virus. The scammer claimed that the only way to protect her money was to withdraw it from her account and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perkins said the scammer also instructed the woman to not answer phone calls, even ones from her own family. Detectives determined that the womans vehicle was likely headed toward Raynham and notified patrolling officers to be on the lookout for her. Perkins said Raynham officers found the womans car parked outside Colettis Market on North Main Street while checking the Bitcoin ATMs in town. The officers were able to successfully intervene and stop the woman from completing the transaction. Perkins said the woman was still on the phone with the scammer and receiving step-by-step instructions on how to deposit her money at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This case is a powerful reminder of how sophisticated and manipulative these scams have become, Perkins said. Thanks to fast detective work, interagency cooperation and a vigilant family, we were able to stop this in time. If not for those combined efforts, the victim could have lost a significant amount of money. The Lakeville Police Department offered the following tips on how to recognize so-called crypto con scams: Scammers pretend to be from known businesses or organizations. They will use existing names or fabricate names that sound official in an effort to trick you into believing them. Scammers say theres a problem or a prize. They might claim that youre in trouble with the government, that you owe money, that someone in your family had an emergency or that theres a virus on your computer. In some instances, scammers will say theres a problem with one of your accounts and that you need to verify your information. Others will lie and tell you that you won money in a lottery or sweepstakes, but have to pay a fee to get it. Scammers pressure you to act immediately. They may urge you not to hang up so you cant check out their story. They might also threaten to arrest you, sue you, take away your drivers or business license, or deport you. Some scammers will even warn that your computer is about to be corrupted. Scammers tell you to pay in a specific way. They often insist that you pay by sending money through Bitcoin, a money transfer service or by loading money onto a gift card and then providing them with the card number on the back. Some will send you a check (which will later turn out to be fake), instruct you to deposit it and then ask you to send them the money. Residents who may have fallen victim to a similar scam are asked to contact the Lakeville Police Department by calling (508) 947-4422 and report it to the Federal Trade Commission. 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. Follow us on social media: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) Documentary director, Joey Dorsey, discussed escaped Arkansas prisoner Grant Hardins escape, saying he hopes that every minute someone talks about it, is another minute closer to justice. Dorseys 2023 documentary Devil in the Ozarks follows the story of Hardins crimes from an unsolved sexual assault case until his conviction of murder and rape 20 years later. The film draws on the testimonies of victims, Hardins family, witnesses, and the law, piecing together the story of the now escaped convict. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To Dorsey, he said the real story of the documentary is of the heroes who led to the case being solved. The heroes of the case are the people who are courageous enough to stand up and identify and point the finger at the person who did so much violence to them and face their assailants, said Dorsey. While Dorsey said there were many involved in bringing justice to Hardins crimes, he said he remembers two voices that stood out to him when working on the documentary. TIMELINE: What we know about escaped Arkansas inmate Grant Hardin Dorsey said he realized through interviews just how much Amy Harrison and Hayes Minor experienced those 20 years of an unsolved case together, and when Hardin could finally be pinned as the assailant, he said it appeared no one was happier than those two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amys the real hero here because she was willing to put herself out there and courageously, ultimately identifying and facing her own attacker, said Dorsey. But theres another hero here, too, which is Minor. The assailant walking among us is a pretty acute feeling for Minor at the time because the chiefs of the different departments of these different municipalities in the region would get together and swap notes. And here hes rubbing shoulders with the very criminal that hes looking for, who happens to be the chief of police of a neighboring town. And so, when the DNA match happened, you know, it was kind of a you got to be kidding me? moment, said Dorsey. At the same time as the documentary director learned so much about the testimonies of all those involved, he learned so much about the character of Hardin, one he said he believes represents a psychopath. The initial crime, the assault on the schoolteacher on a Sunday whos grading papers, that violation, it takes a special breed of criminal to do something so psychologically violent. At the same time the murder that he committed 20 years later, which exposed him to being matched to the DNA from the initial crime 20 years previous, that crime was so nonsensical, said Dorsey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gateway mayor and murder victims sister reacts to Arkansas prisoner escape He said he doesnt understand how Hardin could go from a calculated crime to one where it seemed as though caution was thrown to the wind. The mood and the motivation for doing it were so flimsy that it made me think, This is a criminal of a different order,' said Dorsey. When Dorsey found out about Hardins escape, he said he couldnt believe it. I looked down at my phone expecting a text about any other subject and I had to triple take it and then, of course, my first thought was about Amy Harrison, said Dorsey, along with James Appletons sisters, who he said he knows one that has spoken out regarding her fears. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he also thinks about Hardins family and the witnesses. All of those people have, you know, shouldnt be going through this right now, said Dorsey. He said, if theres one thing he wants the public to know about Hardins character while he is missing, it is that he believes Hardin is a dangerous person. You got someone whos been, you know, a fugitive twice now for the last few days, is Grant Hardin. But before that, for 20 years, the same person was an unknown fugitive, said Dorsey. 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. The Shapiro Administration is planning to invest millions of dollars to support the states child care workforce. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh was in Erie Thursday, visiting Early Connections Harbor Homes. ECGRA invests in early childhood education, 59 centers awarded ARPA grants She highlighted the states proposed investment, which includes $55 million for child care providers in the states child care works program and $1,000 per employee in recruitment or retention bonuses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said this is a part of the economic revitalization in every community across the Commonwealth. Springhill residents meet their second grade penpals from McKean Elementary There are many employers that are looking to fill empty jobs and we just hope that this funding that will come into these child care providers is viewed in that context that we know that we have parents that want to get back into the job market but if they dont have an affordable place for their child to get high quality care theyre not going to be able to do that, Dr. Arkoosh told us. The secretary also highlighted the governors proposed investments for rural hospitals and addressed workforce shortages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. Donald Trump's past friendship with Diddy recently resurfaced during a Q&A session with reporters in the Oval Office. The President of the United States has been handing out pardons to several incarcerated celebrities like Todd and Julie Chrisley. Still, one reporter wanted to know if the list would extend to his old pal. Although Donald Trump noted his relationship with the embattled rapper has been nonexistent for years, he declared his intentions to consider clemency for Diddy if he were found guilty. However, the POTUS would only step in if the rapper deserved freedom. Donald Trump Claims He Would Consider Pardoning Diddy If The Situation Called For It ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA When queried about his relationship with Diddy and the possibility of pardoning him, Trump stressed that the pair's once rosy friendship "busted up" when he got into politics. Despite their estranged bond, the leader of the United States declared it wouldn't affect his ruling in the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump said that if Diddy was convicted, but he believed the rapper was being "mistreated," he would consider granting him clemency. However, he added that he could not weigh in on the certainty of his helping out his former pal, as he had not been keeping up with his sexual assault drama. The politician, per TMZ, noted he would have to "look at what's happening" and "look at the facts" before Diddy could make the presidential pardon list. Nonetheless, having Trump as a possible lifeline must be great news to the entertainer who has vehemently denied the charges against him. A Go-Go Dancer Namedropped The President In Her Allegations Against Diddy ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA Trump might want to pay closer attention to Diddy's case, as he was part of the celebrities dragged into the music mogul's scandal. Last October, The Blast reported that a go-go dancer who worked for Diddy namedropped the most famous faces she noticed at his infamous "white parties." The woman, Adria Sheri English, claimed she saw Trump, Reverend Al Sharpton, Busta Rhymes, Ja Rule, Diana Ross, and more at these events. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although she noted she was coerced into sleeping with famous and influential people, the alleged victim did not disclose their names due to her pending lawsuit against Diddy. In her allegations, English noted she started performing as a go-go dancer at Diddy's parties in 2004, thinking it was a legitimate business. Contrary to her expectations, the rapper allegedly began asking her "to do actual favors with the guests," sexual acts that were secretly recorded and used for blackmail. The Alleged Victim Claimed She Was Manipulated With False Promises ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA English claimed Diddy began recording her sexual activities with celebrities or influential people after discovering her past as an adult film actress. She alleged he used the tapes to exploit others while promising her a career in Hollywood. "So what he did was threaten me, manipulate me, promise me, and not deliver, not pay me what he said he was going to pay me," English claimed. She noted Diddy was financially compensated whenever she slept with his guests, yet all she got were false promises. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement English also implied that not everyone who attended Diddy's infamous parties knew what happened behind the scenes. She shared that the alleged sex orgies known as "freak offs" often took place in separate rooms away from the "main party." Celebrities Are Reportedly Taking Cover Amid Diddy's Sexual Assault Case MEGA Diddy's sexual assault case kicked off early this month, with emerging reports of celebrities concerned about being dragged into the legal drama. TMZ founder Harvey Levin shared the news, claiming some A-listers did not wish to testify. He claimed these stars were worried they could be ordered to take the stand in Diddy's trial and have lawyered up to avoid that outcome. So far, entertainers like Kid Cudi and Diddy's ex-girlfriend Cassie have already testified as "star witnesses" in the case. Nonetheless, Levin believed the prosecution might call on other famous people, but he had no idea who these A-listers might be. He noted there were still four weeks left of testimony before the opposition handed it over to the Diddy's defense, meaning other star witnesses might pop up. Will Diddy Beat The Sex Trafficking Charges? Raw Image LTD/MEGA Diddy faces five felony charges for racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He initially faced single counts for these alleged crimes before additional charges were added in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Levin argued that Diddy might have a difficult time beating the sex trafficking charges thanks to Cassie's scathing testimony about her harrowing experiences. He believed her allegations proved he coerced her into performing in his "freak-offs." "So, I think Diddy has a big problem there if the jury believes it. Diddy also has a problem with the interstate transportation of sex workers, I think," Levin explained. As for Diddy's other charges, he suspected the racketeering allegations might not stick. Will Diddy be found guilty and earn a pardon from Donald Trump, or will he successfully prove his innocence? DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN) A Dothan man accused of killing his wife and dumping her body in a Florida panhandle ditch over 2 decades ago has been denied the chance to be set free before his trial. Dwight Mills plea to have his murder and corpse abuse charges dismissed was denied by Houston County Judge Henry Binford on Wednesday. Mills asked to have his charges dismissed in early May, claiming that there is no proof that his wife, Sharon Mills, was murdered based on her autopsy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mills attorney, Terry Bullard, said, There is an abundance of evidence that the alleged victim fell into a hole while stopping to urinate on the side of the road in the State of Florida in the motion. These are claims that Mills made shortly after his 2024 arrest, saying he and his wife were driving to Florida to buy alcohol on a Sunday in 2001, and when they stopped on the side of the road, she fell. A trial date for Mills has not been set. 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. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has demanded official explanations from the Austrian government regarding the recent report of the Austrian intelligence service the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, Trend reports. Earlier, Austria's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT) published a report accusing Iran of intending to build its own nuclear weapons. The document claims that Iran's nuclear weapons program is well underway and Tehran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances. In a statement, Baghaei noted that the Austrian intelligence agency's claims are false, baseless and fabricated for the purpose of anti-Iran media propaganda. He stressed that Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its nuclear program is under the strictest control of IAEA inspectors. The actions of the Austrian intelligence undermine the authority of this international organization, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. In conclusion, Baghaei urged the Austrian government to provide official explanations for the irresponsible, provocative and destructive actions of its intelligence agency. DES MOINES, Iowa Police in Des Moines are asking for the publics help to locate a missing teen who is in need of medication. The Des Moines Police Department is seeking 15-year-old Maribel. Police said she was reported as being voluntarily absent from her Indianola Hills neighborhood home. She is 58 tall and about 180 pounds. Maribel Maribel was last seen on Tuesday, May 27th and has a medical condition that requires medication. Police said she did not take the medication with her when she left. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you have any information on Maribels location, call 911. 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. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Board of Medicine) The Iowa Board of Medicine has suspended the license of a Centerville physician accused of sexual misconduct involving a patient. According to the board, Dr. Joshwa Tromblee exchanged inappropriate messages with a female patient he first saw at MercyOnes Centerville Medical Center on Sept. 24, 2021. Tromblee was a family-medicine physician at that time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tromblee saw the patient again on Aug. 8, 2022, and April 3, 2023. The patient subsequently sent Tromblee a Facebook friend request, after which the two exchanged messages on Facebook and Snapchat. The exchanges included sexually inappropriate messages and sexually explicit pictures, the board alleges. Tromblee also sent the patient money on one occasion, according to the board. At some point, MercyOne reviewed Tromblees social media exchanges with the patient and determined he had violated the standard of conduct and crossed a line by engaging in an inappropriate patient-physician relationship. He was placed on paid administrative leave on April 12, 2023, and was fired nine days later, according to the board. Twenty-three months later one week after Tromblees license expired the Board of Medicine charged Tromblee with sexual misconduct and, at the same time, agreed to a settlement to resolve the case. The settlement entails an indefinite suspension of Tromblees license. He is required to schedule a multidisciplinary fitness-for-duty assessment within 30 days, and to comply with any and all recommendations stemming from the evaluation. He also is required to complete a course on professional ethics. Once reinstated, his license will be placed on probation for three years. A physician employed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bedford has been indicted on child pornography charges, the U.S. Attorney said Thursday. Sven Knudsen Ljaamo, 70, was indicted on one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement. Ljaamo was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on April 23. He was subsequently released on conditions after a detention hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors allege that more than 100 graphic files that included photographs and videos of child pornography were uploaded to Ljaamos Google account, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court on April 22. Federal investigators seized more than 20 devices after obtaining a search warrant. Because of the volume of images, forensic analysis of all devices, including the devices described above, is ongoing, the criminal complaint states. The complaint details graphic and disturbing images and pornographic videos depicting young girls being raped and sexually abused. In one image allegedly uploaded to Ljaamos Google account, a naked man appears to be raping a girl believed to be between 5 and 8 years old, according to the criminal complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In another 37-second video uploaded to the account, a man is raping a girl believed to be between 9 to 13 years old, the complaint alleges. Federal investigators learned of the images and videos when Google submitted a Missing and Exploited Children CyberTip Report to Billerica Police, the complaint states. Google reported that the name provided by the user of the Google account was Sven Ljaamo. Google reported that between May 8, 2024 and Sept. 10, 2024, the account had uploaded 108 files of suspected child pornography to Google Drive and Google Photos. When Ljaamo spoke to investigators, he allegedly admitted to viewing, downloading and saving the pornographic material involving female minors, Foley said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ljaamo, in a written statement, confirmed that he bookmarked and accessed several websites containing child pornography involving young children and specifically sites depicting young girls engaged in sexual acts, investigators wrote in the criminal complaint. Specifically, in addition to other information, Ljaamo told investigators that that he has created folders titled Y, and that Y stands for young, the criminal complaint states. Investigators later seized Ljaamos cell phone and laptop from his home, and another cell phone from his office at the VA Medical Center. On the laptop, inside the Y folder, investigators found tens of thousands of pornographic and/or erotic images and videos, the criminal complaint states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the phone found at his home, inside the Y folder, investigators found hundreds of pornographic and/or erotic images and videos, the complaint states. If convicted of the charge of receipt of child pornography, Ljaamo faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. If convicted of the charge of possession of child pornography, Ljaamo faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. 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 Why are you ignoring the intent of the 14th Amendment, which was to give citizenship to freed slaves and their progeny? Jurisdiction means allegiance to a country, which illegal aliens do not have. Brian Jones Hi Brian, Its true that the 14th Amendment repudiated the infamous Dred Scott ruling, which had denied citizenship to people of African descent. But it doesnt follow from that premise to say that U.S.-born babies today arent citizens because their parents were here unlawfully. To the contrary, the amendment has long been understood to grant citizenship based on the geographical fact of being born here, not based on any extra allegiance factor or parentage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Basing birthright citizenship on allegiance would have weird implications for the very thing you highlight: addressing the sin of slavery. For what allegiance did people owe the country that forced them into bondage the country that didnt even treat them as people? Taking another example from the era that sparked the 14th Amendment, what about the Confederates who rebelled against the United States did they demonstrate allegiance? Its not only historical examples but modern ones, too, that make the untenable allegiance theory even less workable. What about dual citizens? What about lawful permanent residents? These and other problems would abound under an allegiance regime. Such issues will only come to pass if the Supreme Court ultimately decides to go against the weight of history. As a brief from constitutional and immigration scholars put it in the pending high court appeal, the 14th Amendments backers at the time embraced the long-standing principle that birth created allegiance, regardless of parental status. If youre born here, youre a citizen. Yet, its important to understand the argument behind your statement Jurisdiction means allegiance to a country which illegal aliens do not have because thats basically what the administration and its supporters argue in defense of President Donald Trumps executive order. (I should note that Trumps order also seeks to exclude babies whose mothers are lawfully but only temporarily present, like on a visa, which further weakens, or at least further complicates, the allegiance argument.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were still awaiting the Supreme Courts ruling following the May 15 hearing, at which the government focused not on the argument you raise but on a procedural complaint: that the judges who blocked Trumps order shouldnt have been allowed to do so on a nationwide basis. The government didnt ask the justices to say that those judges were incorrect in rejecting Trumps order. This piecemeal strategy suggests the administration thinks the justices would reject its underlying argument on the merits of the order. But its still important to understand the merits argument, so lets get into it. As a refresher, the 14th Amendments citizenship clause says: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. Its that subject to the jurisdiction thereof language through which Trump seeks to smuggle an allegiance requirement. But that language only serves to make limited exceptions to birthright citizenship today, it basically serves as an exception for children of foreign diplomats, so not much of an exception for practical purposes. Being subject to U.S. jurisdiction means being subject to U.S. law. The clause doesnt mention allegiance. That didnt stop the administration from trying to upend the settled view. The original meaning of the Citizenship Clause extended citizenship to the children of former slaves, not to people who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States, is how Solicitor General John Sauer began his rebuttal at the end of the hearing, putting in a last-ditch fighting word for the order that several justices had effectively deemed legally unserious. If I were in your shoes, there is no way Id approach the Supreme Court with this case, Justice Elena Kagan, a former solicitor general herself, had told Sauer earlier. Thats probably because the Supreme Court seemingly settled the matter more than a century ago. In its 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, the court rejected the notion that a person born here could be denied citizenship because his parents owed allegiance to China. In doing so, the court noted that the 14th Amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory[.] There are other ways that the Trump administration tries to distinguish the Wong Kim Ark precedent, but the bottom line is that the court has reaffirmed this understanding of birthright citizenship over the years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats how lower court judges around the country quickly and easily rejected Trumps order, and thats likely why his administration didnt directly challenge the substance of those judges rulings at the high court. By focusing on the nationwide injunction issue in the pending appeal, the administration stands a chance at winning a procedural battle, without requiring the court to answer the underlying merits of the citizenship question; that litigation strategy carries the added benefit of potentially curbing all sorts of injunctions against the government in Trumps second term, which has been dominated by executive actions that judges have speedily smacked down. Were still waiting for the justices to rule in the appeal, and they might not address the merits of the underlying order at all and might only answer the procedural injunction question (which, to be sure, carries important consequences in all manner of cases going forward, if the justices make it harder for people to challenge illegal executive actions). The government admits that its new view on the merits of the issue goes against the executive branchs previously established understanding. During the 20th century, it said in its Supreme Court application ahead of the hearing, the Executive Branch adopted the incorrect position that the Citizenship Clause extended birthright citizenship to almost everyone born in the United States even children of illegal aliens or temporarily present aliens. The policy of near-universal birthright citizenship, it went on, has created strong incentives for illegal immigration, leading to birth tourism in which expecting mothers travel to the United States to give birth and secure U.S. citizenship for their children. Thats an understandable political explanation for why the Trump administration wants to end birthright citizenship. But that policy preference doesnt double as a legal argument, nor does it strengthen the actual legal argument put forth by the administration. The legal issue is the meaning of the 14th Amendment as written, and the century-plus precedent reaffirming broad birthright citizenship, not some imagined version of the amendment concocted to match the administrations policy view. Of course, we know this court is willing to reverse precedent. But on top of the serious problems with Trumps merits argument, I again note that if the government were confident in that argument, it might have been eager to make it to the justices as soon as possible. Instead, it appears to be attempting to delay a final decision on the issue. The administration has been aggressive in making its arguments across a series of other cases and yet, for some reason, its not eager to hear what the high court thinks about birthright citizenship. Have any questions or comments for me? Please submit them on this form for a chance to be featured in the Deadline: Legal Blog and newsletter. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) For the second year in a row, the number of dog attacks on postal workers in New Mexico increased, according to the U.S. Postal Service. Data from USPS shows there were 48 postal employees throughout New Mexico who were attacked by dogs in 2024, which is an increase from 45 in 2023 and 24 in 2022. In Albuquerque, the number of dog attacks decreased to 20 in 2024, compared to 26 in 2023. Across the country, there were more than 6,000 dog attacks on postal workers last year, an increase from the year prior. The U.S. Postal Service ranked the top 20 cities in the country for these types of incidents. Albuquerque made the top 20 ranking and tied with three other cities for the 17th spot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city with the most reported dog attacks on USPS workers was Los Angeles, with 77 incidents. The top three states for dog attacks on letter carriers in 2024 were California, Texas, and Ohio, according to U.S. Postal Service data. A list of the top 10 states can be found below: The U.S. Postal Service shared this data as part of its month-long National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign, which begins on June 1. Dog bite attacks on postal employees are preventable. The most important message for our customers to remember during the 2025 USPS National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign is keep your dog secured and away from the carrier as the mail is being delivered. Help ensure the safety of everyone in our communities, Leeann Theriault, USPS employee safety and health awareness manager, stated in a news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The USPS also shared the following information about how dog owners can help with safe mail delivery: Secure your dog before the carrier approaches your property to minimize any potentially dangerous interactions. Keep your dog in a separate room or area away from the door when the mail carrier comes to your house. If you go outside, close the door firmly behind you and make sure it is secured so your dog doesnt slip out or bust through it unexpectedly. If you are outside with your dog while mail is being delivered, make sure your dog is secured away from the mail carrier and on a leash. Never accept mail from your mail carrier in the presence of your dog. Pet owners should remind children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier because the dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child. The USPS said if an employee is injured by a dog attack, the owner could be responsible for medical bills, lost wages, uniform replacement costs, and pain and suffering for the employee. If a carrier feels unsafe, mail service can be stopped, and would have to be picked up at the local post office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If a dangerous dog issue is not resolved, owners can be required to rent a post office box to receive mail. For more information on the USPS campaign, 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 KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. AUSTIN (KXAN) Texas lawmakers overwhelmingly supported an effort to protect pets from negligence, known as Panchos Law. Pancho died in 2021 while under the care of a dog daycare business in Dallas. His family, Paul and Maria Mecca, have spent the last four years advocating for a change to Texas law that they believe will save other animals. My husband and I quickly learned there is a loophole in Texas law that allows pet service businesses to act with impunity by simply claiming negligence, Maria told a Senate committee earlier this month. All they have to do is say I didnt mean to kill your dog. No matter how egregious their actions may have been. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House Bill 285 adds criminal negligence to the Texas Penal Code as conduct that constitutes a criminal offense of cruelty to non-livestock animals. The bills author, Rep. Claudia Ordaz, D-El Paso, told her colleagues the goal is to provide families with a legal path to justice if their animal suffered harm because someone failed to use reasonable care. Under current law, families have limited recourse when their dogs or cats are injured due to such negligence. This bill seeks to ensure accountability and prevent those who act irresponsibly from endangering other pets in the future. For several years, KXAN investigators have fielded tips about dogs who passed away while in the care of boarding, grooming and training facilities. In many cases, no lawsuits are filed and few law enforcement records of the deaths exist, beyond initial reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Brian Roby and Jordyn Hawkes lost their dog, Kali, last August, they said they quickly realized how few options they had. You know, what could we do? We could go to civil court and, Okay, your dog was worth $70. Here you go,' Roby said, noting that pets are viewed as property under Texas law. In August 2024, the couple planned their wedding and subsequent honeymoon out-of-state. They dropped Kali off to stay at an Austin-area boarding and daycare facility for part of that time. The facilitys staff was supposed drop Kali off at Jordyns fathers house, where shed stay for the rest of their trip, but she never made it home. Brian Roby holds a picture of his dog Kali, who passed away in 2024. (KXAN Photo/Ed Zavala) On the first day of their honeymoon, the newlyweds received a text alerting them that Kali had been rushed to an emergency veterinarian. KXAN investigators reviewed records from that medical provider, revealing Kali overheated in a daycare van. She and another 3-year-old dog passed away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hawkes said through tears, when recounting that day, I just had this feeling like, she was right the whole time. She was right to be scared of the car. She added, I think the most shocking part of all this process has been just the lack of regulations that the state of Texas has [for the pet services industry]. KXAN reached out to the facility in Kalis case, but it declined to comment. We were in the lobby of this hotel that we had just gotten married at the day before, and to have this, like, super high and this crushing low was Brian trailed off. He went on to say, The grief kept coming in waves. It still does, you know, randomly grab grab a hold, and its been tough. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The couple began to connect with other families who have lost dogs and cats while in the care of pet services businesses such as Katelyn Rohde. Rohde lost Roland, who she refers to as her silly goose, at a Texas dog daycare facility. Shortly after, she started a nonprofit in Rolands name, with the goal of raising awareness and pushing for change. Shes worked with other experts and advocates to publish guides to help other pet owners, such as a Dog Daycare Evaluation Guide and the Roland & Friends Guide to Selecting and Finding a Dog Trainer. Katelyn Rohde holds a picture of Roland, in her packet of information for Texas lawmakers. All this information is not intended to be like a black-and-white this is what you do, but ultimately, for you to, kind of, think through what is most important for your dog for your silly goose so you can establish what is best for them in those situations, she said. Rolands Silly Goose Crew also launched a survey of pet owners, which showed 96% of respondents would be supportive or strongly supportive of Texas dog daycare facilities adopting more consistent safety, communication and transparency standards through regulation, voluntary safeguards or other measures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 1% better is 1% better when youre starting from nothing, Rohde said. She said believes Panchos Law is the first step. As HB 285 worked through the legislative process, some people raised concerns about an exception in the law for veterinarians. A provision states that these medical professionals have a defense to prosecution for alleged conduct that occurs while performing their duties as licensed veterinarians or as a person assisting the veterinarian. Some public commenters pushed back on that provision and asked lawmakers to hold medical professionals to the same standards as others under the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ashley Morgan, with the Texas Humane Legislation Network, addressed these concerns in her testimony before a Senate committee, noting that people and veterinarians can still be prosecuted, particularly for knowing or intentional harm. She told lawmakers that she sees the need for Panchos Law regularly in her work as an attorney, when families come to her for help. I more often than not have to tell these people, There is nothing I can do for you,' Morgan testified. KXAN reached out to more than 20 pet service business owners and managers in the Austin area to get a sense of how they feel about the potential change, if the governor signs HB 285 into law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The responses were mixed: a few raised concerns. One said, in part, While I am vehemently against any form of animal cruelty, at face value the threat of criminal prosecution for operating a kennel or grooming salon is nothing short of outrageous and would be a huge deterrent for these businesses to stay open. They described thousands of owners of these facilities who often work 60+ hours a week, some just scraping by, and most of whom rely on the income of their business to live. Several business operators told KXAN they supported the law and welcomed more regulation in the industry to protect pets. One said, in part, Hopefully this bill will help hold bad apples in the pet care industry as well as individuals accountable for mistreatment and generally negligent behavior. Caring for animals is a big responsibility and should be treated as such. Some facility operators were not aware of the proposal and said they would look into it; others declined to comment. HB 285 passed the House of Representatives with 125 vote in favor and 5 votes against. It passed out of the Senate unanimously. The bill has been sent to the Gov. Greg Abbott for consideration. If he signs it into law, it would go into effect this September. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Attorney General Pam Bondi told the American Bar Association (ABA) on Thursday that the Trump administration would no longer cooperate as the organization vets its judicial nominees. In a letter, the Department of Justice (DOJ) accuses the bar association of failing to fix the bias in its rating process, a claim that follows the organization labeling some of President Trumps nominees as unqualified for the bench. Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations, Bondi wrote in the letter to ABA President William Bay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Accordingly, while the ABA is free to comment on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so. Specifically, the Office of Legal Policy will no longer direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information, including bar records. Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA, she added. The ABA did not respond to a request for comment. The White House took a similar stance during Trumps first term in office. According to Ballotpedia, the ABA rated 264 of Trumps nominees: 187 were rated well-qualified, 67 were rated qualified, and 10 were rated not qualified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though a small figure, that stands in contrast with other recent administrations, which had at most three unqualified picks during their time in office. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, blasted the move as an unjustified and blatantly political move by the Trump Administration. This decision overturns a practice that has been in place for nearly 70 years under Republican and Democratic Administrations alike in order to provide cover for unqualified and extreme nominees who would crumble under a nonpartisan review by their peers, Durbin wrote in a statement calling it a seismic change. This decision will ultimately ease the confirmation process for Trump nominees who have demonstrated bias against protected classes, dont have the judicial temperament to rule fairly from the bench, or dont have the requisite experience to be confirmed to lifetime appointments as federal court judges, negatively impacting generations of Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration has taken a number of actions targeting the ABA. An executive order from Trump directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to consider whether to suspend the ABAs role as a law school accreditor. The organization also sued over the stripping of grant funding that limited its training programs abroad, as well as another at the Justice Department for victims of domestic and sexual violence. In the DOJ case, the judge found the targeting of the ABA violated the groups first amendment rights. The government does not meaningfully contest the merits of the ABAs First Amendment retaliation claim. It points to no deficiencies in the ABAs performance of its grant obligations, Judge Christopher Cooper, a former President Obama appointee, wrote in the opinion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It concedes that similar grants administered by other organizations remain in place. It agrees that bringing a lawsuit is protected by the First Amendment. And it suggests no other cause for the cancellation apart from the sentiments expressed by Deputy Attorney General [Todd] Blanche in his memorandum, he added. Updated at 11:25 a.m. EDT 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. THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION REVELS in both-sidesism. Trump is weaponizing DOJ? So what? We are just responding to what Biden did. Its a common trope. But it is a trope that should be rejected whenever it lacks a factual foundation. More often than not, President Trumps both-sidesism is based on a false equivalency. The current debate about universal injunctionswhen federal district judges issue injunctions applicable nationwideis just such a case. Trump wants you to think that he is the victim of district court judges gone crazy enjoining his actions. To make that case he also wants you to think that what is happening to him is the same thing that happened to Bidens policiesdistrict court judges interfering with executive prerogative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But thats just not the case. And diving into the facts makes it clear that this argument really isnt about universal injunctionscases where a district court judge grants interim equitable relief that applies across the entire country. The argument is really about forum-shopping and judicial gerrymandering. MAGA has done these things. Trumps opponents dont. The facts on the ground are that the universal injunctions against Trump are truly universal. As of today, more than twenty different federal district court judges have issued injunctive relief in at least 180 different cases (and the number goes up with every passing day). There is no good evidence that Trumps opponents are forum-shoppingbringing cases before courts where there is the greatest expectation of having judges who will rule in their favor. The political valence of those judges is across the board. One of the most stunning of the rebukes to Trump came from a Trump-appointed conservative judge in South Texas who was the first judge in the nation to reach the merits of Trumps invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans and declared it unlawful. Another was when conservative icon J. Harvie Wilkinson from Virginia condemned Trumps assault on the judiciary. Support our independent political journalism by signing up for a free or paid subscription. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Likewise, Trump has lost all across the country. He has lost in Massachusetts, where his assaults on Harvard have been rejected. He has lost in San Francisco, where his wholesale reorganization of the federal government has been paused. In the immigration field he has lost not only in Texas but in Maryland, Vermont, and New Jersey. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of the universal injunction cases against Biden polices were forum-shopped to specific judges. In Texas, there are a couple of locations where a single federal district court judge presides over a division of the district (a division being a subunit). By filing a case in a particular division, a litigant could almost guarantee drawing a particular judge. It is no accident, then, that dozens of injunctions were sought by MAGA Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in two separate one-judge divisions. By March 2023, Paxtons office had filed 28 lawsuits against the Biden administration in federal district courts in Texas; of those, 18 were filed in single-judge divisions, including Judge Matthew Kacsmaryks division and a single-judge division held by another Trump appointee, Judge Drew Tipton. Judge Kacsmaryk is a Trump-appointed judge who opposes abortion. He tried to universally ban the use of mifepristonea ban that was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court. Judge Tipton, meanwhile, ruled against Bidens immigration policya decision that was overturned by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Reed OConnoranother one-judge division holderhas become the MAGA go-to judge for rulings on guns (his ban on regulating receiver banks was overturned by the Supreme Court) and opposition to the Affordable Care Act (described as a lawless . . . mockery of the rule of law that was, again, overturned by the Supreme Court). To be sure, some of the injunctions against Trump have, been overturned by the Supreme Courtmost recently and notably in affirming Trumps authority to fire the members of independent boards (like the NLRB) under his executive authority. Not all injunctions issued against Trump deserve to be sustained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But what is striking is that it is only now, when universal injunctions bite against conservative initiatives, that the Supreme Court has begun to think about reining in their use. Its almost as if, dare one say it, sauce for the liberal goose tastes more bitter when used to season the conservative gander. TO BE FAIR, SOME ASPECTS OF THE ARGUMENT really are principled discussions of judicial power and the scope of equitable relief. Some conservative jurists, like Justice Neil Gorsuch, have been complaining about the actions of district judges since before the Biden administration. And there are good-faith arguments to be made that the power to enjoin the entire nation is somewhat ahistorical (though there is equally good evidence to the contrary). More to the point, as a practical matter there are good reasons for legal analystsliberal and conservative aliketo oppose the arrogation of judicial power that allows a single judge to block federal policy. In a world in which we could have confidence in the good faith of an administration and a presumption as to its regularity of operation, universal injunctions would be a little-used safety-valve check on executive authority. But today, we live in a different world. One where MAGA gamesmanship and judicial forum-shopping were instrumental in frustrating various Biden initiatives. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it seems quite possible that the Court will depower judicial opposition in the service of conservative policy. Share Originally appeared on E! Online Donald Trump is not claiming Sean Diddy Combs as a friend. Amid the rappers federal trial for sex trafficking and racketeering currently underway in New York, the president shared insight into his former friendship with Combs and whether hed issue a pardon if he is convicted. I know people are thinking about it, Trump told reporters during an Oval Office press conference May 30 in response to a question about a possible Combs pardon. First of all, Id look at whats happening and I havent been watching it too closely although its certainly getting a lot of coverage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for where the president currently stands with the Bad Boy Records founder? I havent seen him, Trump continued. I havent spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics that relationship sort of busted up from what I read. I dont know, he didnt tell me that. I read some nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden. More from E! Online Despite where they may stand on a personal level, Trump said he would still look into the facts regarding any pardon for Combs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If I think someone was mistreated, he added, whether they like me or dont like me, it wouldnt have any impact on it. Trumps comments on a potential Combs pardon just days after the president pardoned Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley for their tax evasion crimes. The duo, who entered prison in early 2023 had been set to remain incarcerated until 2032 and 2028, respectively, before they were released May 28 on order of the president. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images Theyve been given a pretty harsh treatment based on what Im hearing, Trump told the couples daughter Savannah Chrisley in a phone call which was shared to the White House social media. Your parents are going to be free and clean. Following their release, Todd expressed gratitude to Trump, his daughter and the Chrisley Knows Best fans for their support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I want to thank every person that has prayed for us, that has stayed in the fight and that fought for the truth to come out, he said in a May 30 press conference. I am grateful for it." Keep reading for a deeper look into Combs legal battle Former Personal Assistant Said Sean Diddy Combs Threatened to Both Kill Her and Report Her to HR Sean Diddy Combs former personal assistant, who went by the pseudonym Mia during her testimony, alleged in an October 2015 WhatsApp message read during his trial that the rap mogul didnt sound in his right mind. He is slurring his words, Mia wrote to Combs then-chief of staff Kristina Khorram. He threatened my job and he threatened to kill me. He said he was on the phone with HRin other calls, he threatened to fire me. In response, Khorram wrote, If you don't call him in the next two minutes, you don't have a job. Mia, who was always expected to be available for Combs, testified that the threats made her desperate to make it right, terrified and sad. Former Personal Assistant Saw Sean Diddy Combs Crack Cassie Venturas Head Open, She Testifies While "Mia" testified May 29, she told prosecutors that she had witnessed her former employer attack his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, on multiple occasions. I've seen him throw her on the ground, Mia said. I've seen him like crack her head open. I've seen him chase her. Things like that. She alleged that while she saw Combs attack Ventura, she only saw the singer put her arms up and beg for him to stop. In one instance, she said that she and Ventura barricaded themselves in a hotel room while in Turks and Caicos, where the latter allegedly said, Puff is going to kill me. Former Personal Assistant Accuses Sean Diddy Combs of Multiple Sexual Assaults Mia alleged that the rap mogul had sexually assaulted her multiple times while working for him. She told the jury that the first alleged assault was by her employer at his 40th birthday at the Plaza Hotel in New York after she had poured her three shots of vodka. He put his arm next to my head up against the wall and leaned in to like kiss me and put his other hand up the side of my dress, Mia said, alleging that she did not consent to the experience. I was shocked, and I froze. I didn't even process what was happening. The former employee also testified that she was once forced to perform oral sex on Combs in an attack, which she said made her feel like trash. In an emotional reflection, Mia said she felt desperate and terrified and that it was my fault." Celebrity Stylist Namedrops Michael B. Jordan During Testimony Against Sean Diddy Combs As Deonte Nash took the stand, he shared insight into the brief romance between Michael B. Jordan and Ventura. "Dating, talking," Nash explained of their budding romance during cross-examination, "getting to know each other." The celebrity stylist also testified that he did hook up Ventura with the Black Panther star in 2015 after the Me & U singer split from Combs. Nash said of his decision, He fine. She fine. I mean, why not? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Denies Request for a Mistrial Judge Arun Subramanian swiftly denied the defense's May 28 request for a mistrial. Combs' team objected to testimony from arson investigator Lance Jimenez, a prosecution witness called to speak about Kid Cudi's car being set on fire in January 2012, after the official said that fingerprints lifted during the investigation had been destroyed. Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo argued that the testimony about the lost fingerprints should be stricken from the record because it suggested that "someone in the court was responsible for the destruction. The judge sustained Anifilo's objection, but denied co-counsel Alexandra Shapiro's move for a mistrial. Former Assistant Alleges Sean Diddy Combs Threatened Her and Cassie Ventura After Learning About Kid Cudi Romance After Combs learned that his on-and-off girlfriend Ventura was in a relationship with Kid Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi), the rappers former employee Capricorn Clark accused Combs of threatening to kill them. The former assistantwho also testified that she helped Ventura buy a burner phone for her relationship with Mescudi out of fear for her safetysaid that the incident took place after the rap mogul allegedly broke into Mescudis home. He was very angry, she told jurors of Combs. He was very upset. He said, I should kill you b--ches and I should cut her face. Sean Diddy Combs Allegedly Wanted to Kill Kid Cudi Over Cassie Ventura Romance Clark alleged that after Combs found out that Ventura and Mescudi had been dating, he went to the Pursuit of Happiness rappers home with a gun on Dec. 22, 2011. There were people at my door, including Combs, she told jurors. I could tell he was furious. He was pacing, and his body language looked like he had something in his hand. I couldnt really see. He just said, Get dressed, were going to go kill Mescudi, she continued. I said, I don't want to go, and he said, I dont give a f--k what you want to do. He was livid, furious, mad at me. I had never seen anything like this before. I never saw him come to my house, I never saw him with a weapon. Clark said that she allegedly called Ventura to let her know that Combs brought her with a gun to Cudis house to kill him. Former Assistant Said She Was Forced Into Taking Lie Detector Test by Sean Diddy Combs After Jewelry Went Missing Clark testified that after three pieces of high-end jewelry went missing, including a bracelet and a diamond watch, she was allegedly a suspect and was subjected to a lie detector test. She alleged that a heavy set man told her that if she failed the test, he would throw me into the East River. I was afraid of what would happen if I did not pass, she testified. He said it was inconclusive, he said, You need to calm down so I can get a read, otherwise youre going to end up in the East River. She said the test took five days to prove her innocence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Capricorn Clark: Sean Diddy Combs Beat Cassie Ventura After Finding Out About Kid Cudi Romance Former Bad Boy employee Clark alleged that, after Combs found out Ventura was dating Mescudi, he showed up at Clarks apartment early on the morning of Dec. 22, 2011, carrying a gun and told her, Get dressed, were going to kill Mescudi. Id never seen anything like this before, Clark said. The way he was acting, I just felt like anything could happen. Clark testified that Combs ordered her to call Ventura and let her know that he wasnt going to let Clark leave unless Ventura showed up. Ventura agreed, Clark said, so she went to pick up the singer and they both went back to Combs house. Combs started beating and kicking Ventura, Clark testified. She said that no one on Combs security staff intervened, and neither did she because Combs threatened that shed be next. Clark testified that she called Ventura mother, Regina Ventura, and told her, Hes beating the s--t out of your daughter. Im in over my head. Please help her. I cant call the police, but you can." Combs fired her for in 2012 for not telling him about Ventura and Kid Cudi, Clark testified, telling her that I would never work again and all these people werent my friends and he would make me kill myself." Clark said she returned to the fold as creative director for Ventura from 2016 until 2018. Capricorn Clark Took Cassie Ventura to Get a Burner Phone to Talk to Kid Cudi Clark testified May 27 that she advised Ventura to get a different phoneone that Combs wasnt paying forto communicate with Kid Cudi when they briefly dated in 2011. So, Clark testified, she took Ventura to Best Buy to get a burner phone for fear the singer was going to get us all killed. Kid Cudi Describes Sean Diddy Combs Behaving Like a Marvel Super Villain During Conversation About Cassie Ventura Mescudi recalled a conversation with Combs in 2012 not long after his car caught on fire. The Day n Night rapper alleged Combs and his associates had also broken into his house in December 2011 after learning about his brief romance with Ventura. After Mescudis car was set on fire in January 2012, which he blamed Combs for, he said they met in a Los Angeles hotel meeting room, where Combs was staring out the window with his hands behind his back like a Marvel super villain. It was just him and I in the room, the 41-year-old told jurors. We discussed the whole story of how Cassie and I started to date and how it ended. His whole point was You were with my girl and I said She told me you were broke up and I took her word for it. He was calm and he offered me water twice, he continued. It was off-putting. It was weird he was so calm. Cassie eventually came. I was upset to find out that she went back to him. She pretty much explained that we fell in love, things just happened. During Venturas four days of testimony earlier this month, in which she described alleged abuse she suffered from Combs, she said that she broke up with Mescudi after Combs told her he was going to hurt the both of us." Kid Cudi Said Sean Diddy Combs Asked If They Were Cool After Their Conversation After Mescudi and Combs met at the Los Angeles hotel meeting room to talk before things got out of hand, he said they stood up and shook hands. I said, What are we going to do about my car? Mescudi recalled. I made sure to do it while we were clasped. He said, I don't know what you're talking about, and he said, Wait, are we cool? I said, Well, you burned my car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kid Cudi Recounts House Being Broken Into and Car Catching On Fire After Sean Diddy Combs Learned About His Relationship With Cassie Ventura Mescudi shared insight into two incidents, which he blames Combs for, during his testimony. The Pursuit of Happiness musician said that he had a phone call with Combs as he and his associates allegedly broke into his home in December 2011 after learning about his relationship with Ventura, who dated Combs on and off from 2007 to 2018. He said, 'What's up?'" Mescudi told jurors. I said, 'Motherf--ker, are you in my house?' He said, 'I am here waiting for you. While he said he wanted to fight Combs, he decided not to since he wasnt sure who was with him. Then, in February, Mescudis car caught on fire due to a Molotov cocktailwhich he said was found in the drivers seatwhile he was about 45 minutes away from his home. Ventura previously alleged in her now-settled 2023 civil lawsuit against Combs that he threatened to blow up Mescudis car after learning about their relationship. Her suit alleged, Around that time, Kid Cudis car exploded in his driveway. Sean Diddy Combs Speaks Out in Court As day seven of Combs' trial came to an end May 20, the rapper had a message for everyone inside the courtroom. I love you all, he said aloud as court was adjourned for the day, per People, before adding under his breath, Yeah. Love. Following his declaration, Combs spoke to a woman in the gallery, telling her in what appeared to be a reference to his son Justin Combs, 31, Please let Justin know Im thinking of him. Cassie Venturas Mom Says She Paid Sean Diddy Combs $20,000 After He Threatened to Release Sex Tapes Regina Ventura testified May 20 that in 2011, Combs had threatened to release explicit videos of her daughter Cassie Ventura after she began dating Mescudi. I was physically sick, Regina told the court. I did not understand it, the sex tape threw me. He was trying to hurt my daughter. He wanted $20,000 because she was having a relationship with Scott Mescudi. She alleged that she and her husband Rodrick Ventura had taken a home equity loan to obtain the cash. She added, That's the only way we could get the money. As for why Combs demanded the lump sum? He was angry, she told the prosecution. He had spent money on her and she had been with another person. Sean Diddy Combs Carried Pills With Barack Obamas Face, According to Former Assistant David James shared insight into Combs travel bag during his testimony, including 25 to 30 pill bottles. He said that among the pills were some with former President Barack Obamas face. There were various pills, but one was in the form of a former presidents face, the former assistant testified, according to court transcripts obtained by NBC News, clarifying that it was President Obama. James explained that Combs also carried at least $10,000 in cash, Advil, Tylenol, Viagra and pills to increase his sperm count in his Louis Vuitton bag. He also alleged that the rap mogul also had Percocet and ecstasy packed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sean Diddy Combs Always Carried Pills to Increase Sperm Count, Former Assistant Testifies James told jurors while testifying that among Combs regularly stocked items in his overnight bag was at least $10,000 in cash, along with Advil, Tylenol, Viagra and "pills to increase sperm count. James also alleged that Combs had Percocet and ecstasy in his bag, which the former assistant said he witnessed Combs take. Hotel Room Was Stocked with Baby Oil, Pink Ketamine and $9,000 Cash When Sean Diddy Combs Was Arrested Prosecution shared a glimpse into the rappers suite at New Yorks Park Hyatt hotel at the time of his arrest on Sept. 16. The photos, taken by Homeland Securitys Special Agent Yasin Binda, who testified to the findings, included baby oil and Astroglide lubricant in Ziploc bags, five bottles of baby oil in the bathtub, two more bottles of lubricant in a drawer, two bags of a powdery substance and $9,000 in cash. According to Binda, the two bags of drugs that were found inside a prescription bottle tested positive for ketamine and a mix of ketamine and MDMA. Former Cassie Ventura Friend Says She Was Attacked by Sean Diddy Combs and Accepted $30,000 to Remain Silent A former pal of Ventura's testified May 19 that she personally witnessed Combs physically abusing Ventura while they were vacationing in Jamaica and again at a house he was renting in the Hollywood Hills. Kerry Morgan also testified that her 17-year friendship with Ventura ended after Combs attacked her at Venturas apartment in 2018. She was there listening to music, Morgan said, per NBC News, when Combs came up behind me and choked me and left finger marks on my neck and hit me in the head with a wooden hanger. Cassie was in the bathroom. It hit me behind my right ear. She hired a lawyer, Morgan continued, but never filed a lawsuit and agreed to sign an NDA in exchange for $30,000. We havent spoken since, Morgan testified. "The last time I spoke to Sean was the night of the assault and the last time I saw Cassie was when I signed the NDA. Morgan also said on the stand that she had moved on with her life and was only there because the government subpoenaed her to testify. She testified that she advised Ventura to leave Combs, "and she said she could not, because of her job, her car, her apartment." Under cross-examination by defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, Morgan said she stopped speaking with Ventura because the singer was not supportive of her after the 2018 incident, adding, I draw my line at physical abuse." Dawn Richard Testifies She Saw Sean "Diddy" Combs Try to Hit Cassie Ventura With a Skillet Danity Kane alum Dawn Richard testified May 16 that she witnessed go after then-girlfriend Ventura with a skillet full of eggs in 2009. He came downstairs angry and was saying, where the f--k was his eggs and he was telling Cassie she never gets anything right and where the f--k was his food, Richard testified, per the court transcript obtained by NBC News. And he came over to the skillet with the eggs in it and tried to hit her over the head and she fell to the ground. Ventura "went into the fetal position," Richard continued, "literally trying to hide her head." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cassie Ventura Shoots Down Accusation of Drugs in the Freak Off Baby Oil There were no drugs mixed into the baby oil that Combs liked to use during freak offs, Ventura testified May 15. A lawsuit filed against Combs in October 2024 alleged he laced the oil with GHB, or Rohypnol, which is often referred to as a date rape drug. Cassie Ventura Details Sean Diddy Combs Drug Use Under defense cross-examination May 15, Ventura testified that Combs would get jealous and have an explosive reaction when she took drugs with other friends and not with him. She said that Combs once overdosed on painkillers, and when asked by defense attorney Anna Estevao if her exs mood swings were connected to pills, Ventura said that was a part. Asked earlier in the day if she thought Combs was a drug addict, she said, I would say he was an addict. And her answer was yes when asked if Combs became angry or volatile when he was going through withdrawal. Im not a doctor, Ventura said, but coming off of certain pills he would be pretty irritated. Judge Calls For Recess Amid Cassie Venturas Testimony at Sean Diddy Combs Trial While Ventura was in the witness box May 15, Judge Arun Subramanian called a recess while Combs' defense began showing explicit emails and text messages during cross-examination. When defense counsel Estevao presented Ventura with sexually explicit messages between the former couple from 2009 to argue that their relationship was consensual, the prosecution called an objection, which the judge sustained. Following the objection, Ventura was seen whispering to the judge, with the official abruptly calling for a 10-minute break. A heated debate between prosecution and defense erupted before the jury entered the courtroom when lead defense attorney Marc Agniflio argued that more texts should be shown in the court. The judge said some messages violated federal evidence rules. However, a number of them were admitted into evidence, in which Combs and Ventura spoke in graphic detail about their sex lives. Cassie Ventura Says That She Participated in Hundreds of Freak Offs with Sean Diddy Combs Ventura testified May 15 that while its impossible to know how many freak offs, she took part in with Combs, she said it was hundreds. She alleged that her ex had filmed the sexual performances to use as blackmail against her. She said she told her that he was going to release them" and put her "career in jeopardy." "He would mention them when he was upset about something. It was just a pretty common thing," Ventura said. "I feared for my career. I feared for my family. Just embarrassing, all of it. It's horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App NEED TO KNOW Donald Trump and Elon Musk met for a joint press conference on Friday, May 30, coinciding with the Tesla CEO's final day in the administration. Musk announced on May 28 that he would be leaving the White House entirely, not just stepping back to a minor role, as previously suspected. The presser came amid a public disagreement between Trump and Musk and just hours after The New York Times dropped a bombshell report about Musk's alleged drug abuse. Musk, wearing a black "DOGE" cap, entered the event with a prominent bruise on his eye. Donald Trump and Elon Musk made a final White House appearance together on Friday, May 30, as the Tesla CEO's time in government comes to an end. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pair came face to face for a joint press conference in the Oval Office to answer questions about Musk's departure and his controversial work with the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk arrived with a visible bruise on his right eye, wearing a black "DOGE" cap and a shirt that reads "The Dogefather." Musk, 53, officially announced on May 28 that he was ready to leave his government days behind. Though he was always expected to eventually step back from leading DOGE since his special government employee status expires on Friday it was widely suspected that he would continue working for the administration in a less central role. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, Musk posted to X. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. AP Photo/Evan Vucci Donald Trump sends off Elon Musk at an Oval Office press conference on May 30, 2025 Donald Trump sends off Elon Musk at an Oval Office press conference on May 30, 2025 Ahead of Friday's press conference, Trump, 78, posted about Musk's departure on his Truth Social account. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House, the president wrote. Musk's departure comes on the heels of his public criticism toward the administration's recent decisions. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning that will air in full on June 1, Musk expressed his displeasure with his time in the political sector, noting that he felt all his work with DOGE could soon be undercut by Trump's sweeping budget legislation titled the "Big, Beautiful Bill" which passed in the House of Representatives on May 22. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Elon Musk showed up at his farewell press conference on May 30 with a bruised eye and black "DOGE" cap Elon Musk showed up at his farewell press conference on May 30 with a bruised eye and black "DOGE" cap I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The "Big, Beautiful Bill" is funding its tax cuts and military spending in part by cutting some federal health and energy programs. However, it is also poised to add an estimated $3.8 trillion to the national deficit, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I dont know if it can be both," Musk insisted. 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. Trump shot back at Musk's criticisms, claiming that he could only slash the price tag of his budget agenda so much without losing necessary Republican votes in Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have to get a lot of votes, we can't be cutting we need to get a lot of support," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on May 28. "We will be negotiating that bill. I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it." Kevin Lamarque - Pool/Getty Elon Musk attends Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 Elon Musk attends Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 Musk's final joint press conference with Trump also comes in the midst of a tough news cycle for the tech billionaire. On Friday morning, The New York Times released a bombshell report about Musk's alleged drug habits while he was working his way into Trump's inner circle. Citing sources close to the SpaceX CEO, the Times claims that Musk admitted to people around him that he used ketamine frequently, sometimes daily, to the point that it had started to damage his bladder. A September 2022 study by the National Institute of Health notes that "significant side effects on the urinary tract are associated with frequent recreational ketamine use." According to the newspaper, Musk also allegedly used ecstasy and hallucinogenic mushrooms, and was known to travel with a pill box that contained Adderall, the ADHD treatment drug, which can be a stimulant for some. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times' sources pin Musk's drug abuse to 2024, as the SpaceX CEO was ramping up support for Trump's reelection campaign, donating nearly $275 million. It's unclear whether or not the alleged drug use followed him into the White House, however, public displays of erratic behavior such as proudly displaying a Nazi-like salute and wielding a chainsaw onstage at a political conference continued after the inauguration. In a March 2024 interview with Don Lemon, Musk admitted to using ketamine, but said he only did the a small amount of the drug about once every two weeks, as a prescribed treatment for depressive moods. If youve used too much ketamine, you cant really get work done, and I have a lot of work, he claimed at the time. Read the original article on People Perrelet celebrates the mesmerising atmosphere of the Arabian desert with a one-off proposal specially designed for the Middle East. First introduced by Swiss brand Perrelet in 2017, the Weekend collection is characterised by its understated, timeless style. Its minimalist design makes it highly versatile and ideal for interpreting ever-changing identities. Classic colours such as silver, black and blue convey a classic and refined aesthetics. However, when this line embraces trendy shades such as ice blue or green mint, it exudes a more fashionable appeal. When the dial is embellished with aventurine, a semi-precious stone renowned for its sparkling appearance which evokes a starry sky, a touch of preciousness is added to the overall look. The latest addition to the Weekend collection is a special edition of just 99 pieces of the time-and-date model, designed especially for the Middle East and celebrating the charm of the Arabian desert. And the dial in the warm hue of desert sand, animated by dunes, is the undisputed standout feature of the new Weekend Sand Dunes. The Dial: Aesthetics in Motion The highlight of the new Weekend Sand Dunes is undoubtedly the dial, which portrays the breathtaking scenery of the Arabian Desert. Covering an area of 2,330,000 square kilometres (900,000 square miles), the Arabian Desert occupies almost the entire Arabian Peninsula, stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf, and from Oman to Jordan and Iraq. It is the fourth largest desert in the world and the largest in Asia. Weekend Sand Dunes Perrelet The desert landscape, a symbol of unspoilt nature, has been the inspiration for the display, which was created by experienced designers and craftsmen from the Bienne-based Maison. Here, golden sand dunes, sculpted by the wind, extend towards the endless horizon. The embossed dunes in Pantone colour 727C a faded light brown that turns to salmon pink add dynamism and depth to this timepiece. The exquisite execution of this intricate pattern endows the Weekend Sand Dunes with a sophisticated and elegant appearance, making it a standout piece in the collection.In keeping with the Arabian theme, the silvered applied hour indices, minutes flange and date in the window at 3 o'clock are displayed in Arabic. As always Super-LumiNova-coated hands ensure the time can be read clearly in low-light conditions, making the watch a useful tool for those who need to keep track of the time in these situations. The Case: the Pinnacle of an essential Design Weekend Sand Dunes features a round stainless-steel case, the shape most commonly used in watchmaking and one of the most popular with the public, with a diameter of 39 mm and a slim thickness of 9.56 mm. It is characterised by a seamless blend of polished and satin-finished surfaces, creating a refined and sophisticated style. Its dimensions are ideally suited to a timepiece with a timeless, classic appeal. Water-resistant up to 5 atm, it has a sapphire crystal protecting the dial and a see-through case back that allows a view of the automatic mechanism that powers this new creation. The case back is also embellished with a tampography depicting the dunes of the desert, created using an overlay of black and salmon pink in the Pantone 727C shade. In addition to this depiction, the case back is stamped with the Limited number 01 of 99, the inscription Middle East Limited Edition and the model reference. Weekend Sand Dunes Perrelet The Weekend Sand Dunes model comes with a brown calfskin leather strap with an alligator pattern. It is equipped with a quick-release system and fastens with a stainless-steel pin buckle customized with the Perrelet logo. At the Heart of the Weekend Sand Dunes Mechanically, Weekend Sand Dunes with time-and-date functions, is driven by the in-house Perrelet P-321 calibre. Designed and developed entirely in-house, it is manufactured by the sister company Soprod, owned by the Spanish entrepreneur Miguel Rodriguez, the same owner of Perrelet. Self-winding, it guarantees a 42-hour power reserve when not worn on the wrist and is equipped with a balance-wheel that beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz). The screw-down caseback features a transparent porthole. Adorned with a depiction of desert dunes the distinctive feature of this new timepiece it allows the owner to admire the movement's impeccable finishing, including the circular-grained bridges and the refined oscillating weight, which is decorated with the Bienne Maison logo and mounted on ball bearings. With the end of the 2025 Texas legislative session approaching Monday's finish line, the House and Senate are engaging in legislative ping pong across the rotunda with bills approved by both chambers. In this version of ping pong, each chamber decides whether to accept the changes made by the other or escalate the debate by settling differences via a conference committee. Here are some of the highlights from Thursday's floor sessions. Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, left, talks to Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, during debate of SB 31, relating to exceptions to otherwise prohibited abortions based on physicianss medical judgement, at the Capitol on Wednesday May 21, 2025. Landmark school funding bill now goes to the governor Sweeping legislation to boost funding for public schools was sent to the governor's desk Thursday, completing the "Texas Two Step" designed to change the face of K-12 education in Texas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Step one fulfilled Gov. Greg Abbott's wish for a school voucher-like program through Senate Bill 2, which will make public money available to help pay for private education. He signed it into law in an elaborate ceremony earlier this month. House Bill 2 is step two. It provides $4.2 billion for teacher pay raises, expands the merit-based pay program known as the Teacher Incentive Allotment, invests in teacher preparation and certification programs, and creates a new $1.3 billion fixed cost fund for districts to pay overhead expenses. It also rewrites the way the states special education system works, setting aside $850 million more for such programs, and provides $430 million more for school safety. More: Would school vouchers help Texas students with special needs? House to weigh 'school choice' 'Spay. Neuter. Adopt': More options for animal friendly license plates Abbott has signed legislation to expand the list of slogans available for license plates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Bill 1568 allows the Department of State Health Services to diversify plate design options to boost public interest and increase funding. The first redesign, Spay. Neuter. Adopt., will offer Texans an easy way to support pets. The Animal-Friendly License Plate Program, originally established in 1997, provides money for free and low-cost spay and neuter initiatives. Part of major water-supply legislative package advances One part of the major legislative package to address the need for a reliable water supply in Texas made it across the finish line Thursday when the House agreed to the Senate's changes to a proposed constitutional amendment. House Joint Resolution 7 is a referendum that would start the allocation of $1 billion annually to the Texas Water Fund for up to 10 years by redirecting a portion of state sales tax collections. The money will help pay for more water and to repair aging infrastructure for local entities. Texas voters will have final approval on the plan in November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The other part of the package, Senate Bill 7, was still awaiting final approval Thursday. This is the legislation that would put the law on the books. The constitutional amendment would authorize the legislation. More: Texas infrastructure fares better than U.S. average but needs major investment: report Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) discusses an amendment to SB17, which would bar certain immigrants from owning land in the state, while on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Texas Capitol Friday, May 9, 2025. Foreign-ownership bill heads to the governor Legislation to restrict land ownership from people "domiciled" in nations hostile to the United States was sent to the governor's desk Thursday. Senate Bill 17, authored by Brenham Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and sponsored by Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, in the House, seeks to bar individuals and companies from "adversarial nations" as identified by the U.S. national intelligence director currently, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from owning land or real estate in Texas. It also gives the governor authority to add or remove countries from the list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each chamber offered its own version of the legislation, and the proposal sent to the governor was the work of a conference committee, which reconciled the differences. The measure would grant the attorney general jurisdiction to investigate "land law" violations and would make it a state jail felony to knowingly purchase property despite the restrictions. The conference committee report passed largely along party lines. Democratic Rep. Gene Wu of Houston said it would have the unintended consequence of hindering some members of the Asian community with legal standing to be in the United States from being able to purchase homes and businesses. More: Some Texans, civil rights groups alarmed by bill to ban certain migrants from owning land This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Legislation on school funding, water, land ownership advances in Texas PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Later this summer, Oregons capital is dialing back on free parking. As of July 10, street parking will no longer be free in Salems downtown district. Officials plan to begin installing pay stations, which will charge drivers $1.50 per hour, next month. I-5 bridge replacement program unveils plan to minimize impact on historic sites The change is part of officials efforts to boost revenue for the city and increase the number of available spaces similar to recent efforts from the City of Vancouver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Metered parking allows downtown Salem to generate revenue that can be used to provide important city services, the City of Salem wrote. It also helps keep parking available for visitors to downtown businesses. Paid parking reduces how long people can park in an on-street parking space, thus freeing up the space more frequently for new customers. Officials additionally claimed the changes will benefit Salems Climate Action Plan by reducing the traffic congestion that comes with searching for a parking spot. The current 3-hour free parking will be replaced with metered spots that allow drivers to pay for up to 12 hours at a time. The new pay stations will ask users for their license plate numbers, which enforcement officers will later use to confirm the allotted time hasnt expired. Drivers can also download the yet-to-come Beep Beep Salem app to pay online. The current free, on-street spaces are covered by local businesses that pay a Downtown Parking Tax. Despite the upcoming changes, the tax is expected to stay in place for at least a year, according to Interim City Manager Krishna Namburi. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suspect still at large after April downtown Portland assault We need to have about a year of crossover to fund operations, Namburi told officials during Tuesdays Salem City Council meeting. When you put the parking meters into play, youre not going to be having a years worth of operational revenue in July when theyre deployed, which is what the parking tax provides. She said officials could likely remove the parking tax at a later date. The downtown parking structures owned by the City of Salem will remain free to the public. 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. NORMAN, Ark. Last week, dozens of people in Norman, Arkansas, began speaking out about animals allegedly being hoarded at a home they say has been in bad shape for months. Apryl Falcon, the director of Paws of Glenwood, an animal rescue team, said she and other rescuers went to the property on Monday. I cant make this up: Arkansas shelter rescues dogs, cats in second hoarding case in a week. They said they discovered multiple abandoned dogs on over 30 acres of land. Falcon said they saw pigs, too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of them need vet care, its over 150 animals, Falcon said. She said the dogs ribs were showing how much they had been starving. On Thursday morning, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office had gotten involved after receiving permission to do a search and rescue from a judge Wednesday night. Id say its the worst one and the most intense one from my experience, Falcon said. Dr. Kyla Dillard, a veterinarian in Montgomery County, said she and people part of Nova Star Rescue had been helping the animals in their recovery. I poured a half gallon of water into a bowl, and they drank like they havent drank in weeks, Dillard said. The outdoor dogs probably have heartworms from mosquitoes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said it will take time for the animals to recover, but as of now, they need the communitys help. Funds, we need flea and tick medication. We just need help, anything related that you feel led to give, Falcon said. Animal rescue group speaks out after man arrested, charged with 41 counts of animal cruelty More information on how to donate can be found on the PAWS of Glenwood Facebook 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 KARK. President Donald Trump's favorite celebrity doctor is standing behind his new boss on an issue that has sparked opposition even among some Republicans. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Trump-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wouldnt concede in an interview with POLITICOS newest podcast that the budget megabill passed by the House will cut Medicaid. Oz arguedin an interview on The Conversation with Dasha Burns that the Medicaid work requirements in the sprawling legislation will future proof the program in line with administration goals to protect social services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Every great people takes care of their most vulnerable, and we're a great nation, Oz said in the interview scheduled to run Sunday. We're gonna do that. So there's a lot of sensitivity about being accused, accused of not taking care of people who have disabilities or seniors without money or children. Trumps mission, Oz said, is to ensure the program remains solvent. I'm trying to save Medicaid, he said. That's the president's goal as well. He said over and over again, he wants to love and cherish these programs and we need to keep them viable. When Oz was sworn into his post in April,Trump insisted there would be no cuts to Medicaid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But aCongressional Budget Office report from May estimated that 7.6 million people would become uninsured if the Medicaid portions of the GOP megabill go into effect. Even some top Republicans, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, worry the cuts will hurt the party. A wing of "corporatist Republicans,Hawley claimed in a May New York Times op-ed, wants Republicans to build our big, beautiful bill around slashing health insurance for the working poor. But that argument is both morally wrong and politically suicidal. GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine are also expressing reservations with the House bills Medicaid cuts. Democrats, meanwhile, are capitalizing on the issue withads hammering House Republicans for voting to cut spending set to begin running next week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oz pushed back, telling Burns the vast majority of Americans agree with the White House push to enact work requirements in exchange for healthcare. We're not cutting Medicaid, he told Burns. I've seen the proposals. There is no proposal I've seen, in fact, in fairness, that doesn't increase spending on Medicaid. Kiwi Zhang, a computer science student from China, was full of hope for his academic future in the United States until his visa was revoked at the US border last week. The first-year PhD student at a university in the south of the country had just presented his research at a conference in Asia. He was returning to the US after a brief visit home when his American dream was abruptly cut short. According to Zhang, he was detained at the border for 48 hours by US officials, who confiscated his phone and laptop, and searched his belongings. He said they questioned him about his ties to the Chinese Communist Party and meetings with friends while in China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the end of the interrogation, Zhang said he was deported and barred from the US for five years, on suspicion of having shared his research with the Chinese government an allegation he denies. He is now back in China and mulling his next steps. I never imagined this could happen to me, said Zhang, who like everyone CNN spoke to for this story asked to use a pseudonym and that CNN conceal specific identifying details out of fear of retaliation. I didnt know things would get this extreme after Donald Trump returned to office. His administration is jeopardizing my academic future, and I feel powerless to defend my rights. Now, many Chinese students studying in the US fear they could meet the same fate, after President Trumps administration vowed on Wednesday to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. The announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio was brief and vaguely worded, but it sent shock waves through China, triggering widespread confusion, anxiety and fear among current and prospective students and their families, as well as strong opposition from Beijing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House earlier on May 6. - Kent Nishimura/Reuters/File Student chat groups lit up with messages of disbelief. Education consultants were flooded with panicked phone calls. Many students aired their frustration and anger on social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a regular news conference Thursday, Chinas foreign ministry accused the Trump administration of using ideology and national security as a pretext for the politically motivated and discriminatory move. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of young Chinese minds, drawn by the prestige of a world-class education and the allure of the American dream, found themselves facing a stark reality: the future they had worked so hard for now hangs in the balance, held hostage by the whims of a US administration that increasingly views them and their homeland as a threat. What strikes me is how tiny individuals are in the tide of history career plans can collapse overnight, said Joyce, who received an offer from her dream school, Harvard, to pursue a masters degree in architecture. Her visa from her undergraduate program in the US is still valid for another year, but she did not dare to return to China for the summer, worrying that she might be denied reentry at the US border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I cant help wishing Id grown up in a golden age of US-China relations, she said. Sunlight hits a dormitory at Harvard University on April 17. - Sophie Park/Getty Images/File Growing mistrust For decades, Chinas brightest minds have flocked to America, as their home country played catch-up with the worlds leading superpower. Until last year, Chinese students made up the largest group of international students in the US, contributing significantly to the economy and helping America maintain its competitive edge in scientific research and technological innovation. But as strategic rivalry between the two nations intensifies, mistrust has deepened. Both sides have ramped up national security measures and grown more protective of their advanced technologies particularly in sensitive sectors with military implications. During his first term in 2020, Trump introduced a ban that effectively denied US visas to graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields from Chinese universities believed to be linked to the military. Within just three months, more than 1,000 Chinese nationals had their visas revoked, and the order remained in place under former President Joe Biden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its unclear how quickly or widely the new revocations will be carried out. But the fear is palpable in CNNs interviews with Chinese students. Studying in a country that has long held itself up as a beacon of freedom, many were too afraid to speak openly under their real names a fear all too familiar to those back in China. They include David Yang, whose heart sank when he saw Rubios announcement. This is just too surreal, said the second-year PhD student in theoretical chemistry at a top university in the Midwestern US. When the news broke, some classmates said they were working on their final assignments but completely lost the motivation to continue. I felt the same way, he said. In recent weeks, Yang has found it nearly impossible to focus on his research, simulating how molecules interact with each other in the human body. Instead, hes been glued to the news, anxiously tracking Trumps escalating war on elite universities and international students, trying to gauge whether he might land in the crossfire. People participate in a "Harvard Stand United" rally in support of the school's international students on Tuesday. - Brian Snyder/Reuters Last week, the Trump administration barred Harvard University from enrolling international students, accusing the prestigious institution of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, among other allegations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although a federal court has since blocked the move, the State Department soon followed with a diplomatic cable instructing US embassies and consulates worldwide to halt new student visa appointments. As Yang scrolled through the headlines, periods of anxiety would suddenly hit, and he found himself compulsively refreshing news sites over and over. I felt sad, lost and helpless. Its been incredibly stressful, he said. The constant policy changes bring so much uncertainty into our lives. It really impacts productivity and, over time, takes a toll on your mental health and for me, it already has. Worried about his visa, Yang is planning on canceling his trip home this winter. His major could well fall under what Rubio called critical fields and like millions of Chinese students hes a member of the Communist Youth League, a youth branch of the 99-million-strong Communist Party for those aged between 14 and 28. Students hold flags, including the Communist Youth League of China flag, second left, during a city-wide sporting event in Yumen, Gansu province, China, in 2021. - Qilai Shen/Bloomberg/Getty Images In China, most students are Youth League members by the time they finish high school, or have party members among family and friends thanks to the partys ubiquity across government and business, as well as cultural and social sectors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The vast majority of people in China have some connection to the Communist Party so this is essentially the same as condemning all Chinese students with a single stroke, Yang said. Zhang, the student whose visa was revoked at the border, said US officials asked whether anyone in his family was a member of the Communist Party. He told them both of his parents were. They then questioned him about his own affiliation with the Communist Youth League, he said. I said Ive never had any connection with them. The Communist Youth League charges us seven or eight yuan (about $1) a year, but there are no activities at all. But the officials said: You are lying. I honestly didnt know what to say. I could only sit there, stunned, Zhang said. A US flag flutters in the wind on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2020. - Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/File Other alternatives Facing potential deportation in the middle of their hard-won education, some Chinese students are considering other options. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ella Liu, a math undergraduate at a university in the midwest, is visiting family in the southern city of Guangzhou before her summer research project in the US starts next month. Me and my parents are all praying that I wont be banned from entering the country in June, she said. Liu was drawn to the US by its academic freedom and resources. But if the hardline visa policy continues, she might consider transferring to another university in Europe or Hong Kong. I am very determined to study mathematics and there are also many excellent math resources in other countries, such as in France, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like many Chinese students, Liu comes from a middle-class family. Her parents saved for years for her to attend college in the US, where tuition and living costs can run to more than $80,000 much more than getting a degree in Europe or Asia. Some Chinese students are already looking elsewhere. In recent years, the number of Chinese students in the US has steadily declined from a peak in the 2019-2020 school year a drop that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic but also increasing friction between the two governments. Nelson Urena Jr., co-founder and director of college counseling at an education management firm in Shanghai, said that for years many Chinese families saw American universities as the gold standard for college education. Since around 2018, however, he has noticed more interest from students and parents alike in universities in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, as well as the semi-autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of families were concerned legitimately about their childrens safety, and then also just the rhetoric of, you know, whether theyre welcome in the US, he said, citing issues such as gun violence and racist hostility or even violence against Asian people. More recently, I think people are starting to see the growing disconnect between the US and China, and feeling like maybe things are going to be more difficult for them from getting the visa to making payments for tuitions. Rubios announcement Wednesday also vowed to revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from China, including Hong Kong. A woman attends a protest against the Trump administration's moves against Harvard's international students on Tuesday. - Barry Chin/The Boston Globe/Getty Images Since then, Urena has been inundated by phone calls from anxious students preparing to start their college education in the US. But he didnt have a ready response for them. Its just a lot of uncertainty right now. The students are trying to figure out what to doThe options are very limited at this point Do they do a gap year? Do they go to university elsewhere? Do they have to go back to the application process? he said. Nevertheless, for some Chinese parents, the allure of American higher education has not worn off. Arno Huang, a 56-year-old businessman from Chinas coastal Fujian province, still wants to send his kids to the US for graduate schools after they finish undergraduate studies in Hong Kong. The US represents one of the most civilized, developed, and open places for humanity. Although US-China relations are currently strained, smart people still recognize this fact, said Huang. Having kids studying in the US gives a family face, he said, using a common Chinese phrase to refer to good reputation or social standing. Once their child is in the US, they can proudly tell others, Look how successful my son is! Zichen Wang, a research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a non-government think tank in Beijing, lamented a seemingly bygone era, when Chinese officials, entrepreneurs and scientists alike were trained in the US especially those who played key roles during Chinas reform and opening-up era that began in 1978. When they returned to China, they brought back not only professional knowledge and credentials, but also a deep respect and admiration for America as an open and inclusive society, he said. I believe many Chinese people see what makes America great not merely as its economic or military strength, but its openness its world-class universities, its confidence in the marketplace of ideas, and its ability to attract top global talent, Wang added. That, at least in my view, is what many people around the world truly admire about the United States. This story has been updated with additional information. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Police arrested a man after he initially eluded officers in his car, then crashed his vehicle in Northeast Portland on Thursday, authorities said. Portland police said they attempted to stop the driver around 4 p.m. near Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northeast Columbia Street but he took off. Officers did not pursue. Estate of WA woman sues Big Oil for heat dome death Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the driver crashed his car anyway, then ran from the scene, according to police. After that, police said they started a search for the man, setting up a perimeter and using dogs to track him. He was located and arrested within an hour, Portland police 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 KOIN.com. A driver has suffered serious injuries and had to be medflighted after a motor vehicle crash in Norwood. Norwood police wrote on their Facebook page that they, alongside members of Norwood Fire, responded to a report of a single-vehicle accident in the area of 1232 Washington Street. Once on the scene, first responders saw that the vehicle had struck a parked car, causing it to roll on its side. The driver of the vehicle was quickly removed from the vehicle and suffered a significant amount of blood loss. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Members of the Canton Fire Department responded to the scene, bringing a transfusion truck to assist with the drivers blood loss. Due to the severity of the drivers injuries, they were transported by medflight to a hospital for evaluation. Our thoughts are with the injured driver, and were hoping for a full recovery. The department wrote on Facebook. At this time, Washington Street is closed between Dean and Short Streets for several hours. Police are asking the public to avoid the area and use Pleasant Street as a detour. The accident remains under investigation. 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 Burned trunks from previous fires remain in the scrub oak brush and stands of aspens in the Jemez mountainside just overlooking portion of Los Alamos National Laboratory property. LANL leadership told media during a May 28 tour that they were taking steps to prepare and mitigate the risk of wildfires. (Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory) As New Mexico water and fire managers prepare for increased drought and wildfire danger this summer, Los Alamos National Laboratory officials say the lab has taken steps to mitigate those threats on its campus. LANL provided a media tour mid-week to highlight those steps, but did not allow outside photography or recording. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were very proud of our preparedness efforts for wildfire, said Deputy Laboratory Director of Operations Mark Davis from the floor of the Emergency Operations Center, as videos of the 2022 Cerro Pelado fire played across six screens on the wall. We want to show our efforts to communicate how our mitigation efforts will protect the lab, workforce, community and environment. The state has identified the towns of Los Alamos and White Rock as high risk areas for wildfire threats, including LANL, which spans 36 square miles of mesas and canyons. The lab and surrounding town have been evacuated twice in the past 30 years due to fires. That included evacuations for two weeks during the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000, which burned 43,000 acres total, including 45 lab buildings and 7,500 acres of LANL property. Los Alamos evacuated for another 10 days during the 2011 Las Conchas fire, which burned more than 156,000 acres, though only one acre on the labs property. In 2022, during the same time the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fires raged, the Cerro Pelado fire, also caused by a controlled burn, sparked up and ultimately burned 45,000 acres, requiring the lab to move to remote work in preparation for an evacuation. In 2022, at the request of the Biden Administration, LANL released its Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Resilience Plan, which showed that increased wildfire presented the highest risks to equipment, electricity systems, onsite radioactive waste processing, buildings, water systems and communications systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Critics say climate threats to the laboratory are compounding. LANLs proposed thinning is a slow job, but certainly necessary, said Greg Mello, the executive director of nuclear nonproliferation nonprofit Los Alamos Study Group. But he said the hazards with climate change are stacking up. We just wish that the laboratory wasnt straining against every single environmental constraint that there is on that plateau, Mello said. The laboratory is too big and trying to do too much in a place that was never appropriate for a laboratory of the present scale, let alone the additional laboratory facilities and staff that they envision. The approximately 18,000 people employed at LANL work mostly in science and engineering, from modeling infectious diseases to increasing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Our missions are vital and critical to national security and they cannot fail, Davis said. A view of Los Alamos National Laboratory efforts to thin Ponderosa pines forests on lab property. Across the road, a thicker stand of forests grows on federally-owned land. (Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory) The here and now The Jemez wilderness bears scars from the Cerro Grande and Las Conchas fires. Large bald patches with skinny charred remains of the ponderosa pines stand among scrub oak brush replacing the once-forested area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recent scattered rainstorms offered a small reprieve, but the area remains in Stage 1 fire restrictions an elevated threat level that restricts all campfires or outdoor burning. Laboratory facilities are interspersed on the top of mesas to higher elevation ponderosa pine forests, separated by canyons and arroyos filled with brush. The lab is bordered by federally managed forests; San Ildefonso and Jemez Pueblos; and Santa Fe and Los Alamos County land. The patchwork of agencies has complicated firefighting and mitigation efforts in the past, said Jeff Dare, who leads the Emergency Operations Center, but Cerro Pelado offered a framework for more cooperation with members of county government and liaisons for surrounding federal agencies and tribal governments. The lab is part of the Master Cooperative Wildland Fire Response Agreement, which allocates additional resources such as helicopters and personnel to fight any wildfire that does appear, Dare said, adding: It protects the laboratory before it can get here. Hope is not a strategy The more recent focus has been trimming back the areas around lab buildings, roads and utility lines, said Richard Nieto, LANLs wildland fire program manager. Trimming has occurred on an estimated 12% to 15% of lab property. Richard Nieto, Wildland Fire Program Manager addresses the press at the East Jemez Interagency Fire Center during the Wildfire Preparedness Media Tour on May 28, 2025 in Los Alamos, New Mexico. (Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory) Hope is not a strategy, Nieto said, adding that the area needs to better adapt to fires when they happen. This area was meant to burn; its what we have to deal with, ecologically. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But overgrowth is a challenge. Much of the higher-elevation ponderosa forests sport 400 to 1,300 trees per acre, rather than the healthier 50 to 150 trees per acre, he said. Habitats for two endangered species and archeological sites also require consideration. Beyond trimming, the lab is working on developing plans for prescribed burns, but will take another three to five years to realize, he said. Preparations on the plateau On the other side of lab property, fences looped with concertina wire and sporting signs warning of radiological hazards contain Area G. Vaguely merengue- shaped white tents coated in fireproof material stand amid the juniper and pinon scrub. Inside, under crisscrossed steel frames, stacked white containers on metal pallets contain legacy waste from the labs work in the nuclear program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The facilities are geared to reducing fire concerns, said Gail Helm, the facility operations director for N3B, which is contracted to manage the 10-year $2 billion dollar cleanup of Cold War Era legacy waste. The tents include fire detection and suppression. Concrete barricades surround them to prevent vehicle accidents and potential fires. Under the Stage 1 fire restrictions, a water truck remains onsite at all times. To the west of Area G lies Technical Area 53, where the lab logs and stores new transuranic nuclear waste such as gloves contaminated with plutonium produced at the new plutonium pit production site. The waste is eventually disposed off-site at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project outside of Carlsbad. Thomas Vigil, the deputy group leader at the Chemical and Waste Facilities said LANL is doing its due diligence to follow every protocol to keep the public and workers safe. This is my state, this is where we live, he said. I live just down the road, and its important to me. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Carla Antonella Rodriguez, photographed in one of the tunnels of the mine where she works in Rio Turbio. Here, there has always been wind and cold. Along with guanacos, rheas, pumas, hares, foxes. Until someone discovered coal beneath a hill. An attractive mineral fuel, opaque, shiny, black, rigid, brittle. They drilled. They built a mine. A town formed around that mine. Workers from various northern provinces came to live in that town. There were bodies many bodies in a place where before there was no one. There were marriages, deaths, and births. Like in every town, there were people who didnt feel represented by their bodies. But there was one who decided to say it. To show it. Who fought against her family, her coworkers, her teachers, her neighbors, and anyone who stood in her way. One who chose to fight for her convictions. One who in that fight shattered a myth a legend, a tale, fiction, a chimera and made it possible that after 80 years women could work inside that mine. A person who now, in this wooden cabin, on a May morning, helmet at her side, voice steady, speaks about her body. She says she is proud of it. She says: I left my body in that fight. She is silent for a moment, perhaps sighs, and adds: I left my life in that fight. Carla Antonella Rodriguez, photographed in her home in Rio Turbio. Mariana Eliano Carla Antonella Rodriguez dreamed of becoming a miner before she dreamed of being a woman. She was born 33 years ago in Mina 3, a settlement next to the Rio Turbio coal mine, a town of 11,000 inhabitants nestled between the Andes and the Patagonian plateau, in Argentinas Patagonia. She was given the name Carlos Enrique at birth. Her father worked in the companys washing plant, and when she was five or six years old her earliest memory she would walk to the hill and sit to watch him and other men board the trucks that slowly disappeared into the mines dark hole. She attended preschool there. She smiles as she remembers that time, that community, the feeling of being protected. Because later, when she moved to Rio Turbio and started dressing as a woman, things changed. At school, she was mistreated. She felt the town rejected her. Even back then, she wanted to leave to escape the anger, the drinking, the family fights. At 10, she got her hopes up for a spot at a Salesian boarding school in Rio Gallegos. But her father, her mother, said no. Better not. A few years later, another chance at a boarding school, but again, they refused to sign the paperwork. She carried on, as best she could enduring the stares, the taunts. As she grew older, it got worse. When people saw her from a block or two away thin, wearing a floral dress theyd yell at her. Sometimes they threw snow. Other times, stones. At 14, she dropped out of high school and started working: as a hairdressers assistant, cleaning houses, cleaning the towns cabaret. Thats when the turning point came. Because the stories of trans women often share familiar threads: they discover their gender identity, come out to their families, who reject them; they suffer; they face workplace discrimination; they try to find their place in a system that excludes them. Some turn to sex work. The country, city, town might change, the context and details might differ. But society pushes them aside, alienates them. Yet Carla who had no one in the town, no one in the world drew closer to those she saw as similar. She sought out other trans women. Others who had suffered in similar ways before her. Watching them, she realized she wanted to forge her own path. She made a decision: something had to change. Looking back now, she says: I hacked the system. I set the precedent. We changed history. Carla Antonella Rodriguez, with one of her colleagues, taking a break. Mariana Eliano Legend has it that a long time ago, after a collapse in the mine, a woman went in to search for her husband. That no one ever saw her come out. That her soul remained trapped inside the mountain. That from time to time, some miners would fall under the spell of this woman the black widow and disappear as well. Thats why no other woman could enter: the tormented soul would become jealous and cause accidents. With some variations, the legend was passed down in Rio Turbio, told and retold year after year. It included one exception: on December 4, the day of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners, women were allowed to enter the mine and visit their husbands workplace. Then, outside, there would be dances, grand parties in big halls, and the crowning of the Miss Carbon, the coal queen. For 80 years, people believed and spread the myth. If women didnt go in, there would be no accidents. But even though women didnt enter, accidents still happened. Main entrance to the coal mine in the Argentine town of Rio Turbio. Mariana Eliano Its 11:30 p.m., and her six-hour shift was supposed to end at midnight, but a 5.2-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter just four miles from the town, made the ground shake. Due to the possibility of aftershocks, Carla was evacuated along with more than 180 others working the night shift inside the Rio Turbio coal mine, operated by the company Carboelectrica Rio Turbio (formerly Yacimientos Carboniferos Rio Turbio). Despite the momentary calm, with the earth unlikely to tremble again for a while, concern lingers over the town like an unmoving cloud. In February, the Argenine government issued a decree converting the state-owned company into a corporation and launched a voluntary retirement plan. The stated goal was to facilitate privatization and attract private investment. However, the taxi drivers, waiters, housewives everyone in the area know that coal doesnt sell, that the investments arent coming. They fear the mines closure. And with it, the decline of Rio Turbio and 28 de Noviembre, the two towns whose 22,000 residents depend directly or indirectly on the mine. Curled up in a lobby armchair, Carla Antonella Rodriguez says the quake caught her off guard, though it didnt scare her too much. When asked how she has managed, throughout her life, to endure hostility, mockery, and a lack of shelter, she replies: Ive thrown myself to sleep, Ive cried. But trans people are like onions with skins: layers, layers, and more layers. Maybe its because others who suffered before taught us that if someone asks how were doing, we have to say fine, even if were falling apart. If they see us hurting, its easier to hurt us more. Carla is a mechanical engineer: she fixes machines for six hours, Monday through Friday. Every two weeks she works early morning shifts. She ends the day covered in soot. Mariana Eliano She made a decision: she had to do something. As soon as she turned 18, she submitted the paperwork to work in the mine. It was a tough time for the coalfield there were strikes and protests. Two years later, she applied again. She knew that if she presented herself as a trans woman, theyd send her home. So she went with her hair tied back. And when they asked for her name, she answered firmly: Carlos Enrique. During the interview, the psychologist asked her questions about her gender identity. He probed, trying to catch her in a slip. But she gave nothing away. If I were you, Id choose something else, he said. This is the only option, she replied, determined to follow through with her goal. When they told her she was hired to work inside the mine, she thought it was a joke that they were testing her so they could later throw her weakness in her face. On her first day, as she arrived, she heard the laughter: Here comes the faggot. The second day, the same. And the third. She kept her head down and walked on. Enduring. If someone lifted 50 kilos, she lifted 60. If someone needed help, she helped quietly. Overworking herself, knowing that this job would make a difference in her life. Every time she was about to break, when she asked herself, What am I doing here? she thought about the collective struggle. She reminded herself she was setting a precedent to change things. Faced with the urge to cry, with helplessness, she closed her eyes and worked harder. Until one day shed had enough: information was power, and until that point, she had chosen not to use it. She waited. Waited for them to laugh, to call her fag, tranny. And when they did, she asked, Why are you calling me that? Werent you with my friend? The only sound then was the noise of the machines. She continued: You all talk a lot. But if I start talking, your families fall apart. This town is small and promiscuous. Around here, everything gets found out. That moment, she says along with the times of struggle, protest, demands, and community cookouts led her to unite with her coworkers. To be known. To slowly be accepted. Rio Turbio, in the province of Santa Cruz (11,670 inhabitants), largely depends on the mine. Mariana Eliano The security guard explains that, because of the gases, we have to leave our phones outside they could explode. That we must wear a helmet, a flashlight, and a self-rescuer: if something goes wrong, opening it gives us half an hour of chemical oxygen. Were going in by truck: well ride for about five miles, then walk. Carla works as a mechanical officer: Monday through Friday, she repairs various types of machines for six hours a day. Every two weeks, she rotates to night shifts. While posing for photos, she says that here, inside the mine, everyone is equal. Your genitals dont define you, nothing does. In the worst case, if something happens to someone, well all help each other, she says. But it wasnt always like this. We built that over time, explains Carla. Believe it or not, in these workspaces where there are 10 or 20 people, sometimes debates start up that help you think. When asked if she has noticed other changes, she replies: Generational changes helped. Today, most of the workers are young. Theyre not so deeply rooted in patriarchal thinking. Offices of the Rio Turbio Carboelectric Company. Mariana Eliano On May 9, 2012, Argentina passed a law recognizing peoples right to be treated according to their self-perceived gender identity. Carla completed the paperwork: her ID changed to say Carla Antonella, and under sex, an F for female. Later, when she decided to undergo surgery and get silicone implants, the mine was thrown into turmoil. She was called in by Human Resources and told she could no longer work underground. Why? she asked. Because youre a woman, they replied, and told her she would be transferred. She would be moved to an administrative position. They couldnt change her job category, her hours, or her salary, but they forced her to do office work. When she arrived, her female colleagues rejected her. When she asked to use the bathroom and requested the key, they told her the mens bathroom was down the hall. She decided to fight back. In September 2015, she submitted a written statement citing the discriminatory treatment from her colleagues and notified management that she would return to her previous position. She knew no one would oppose it within the political climate of expanding rights, it wouldve been a national scandal. The next day, her former coworkers welcomed her back with hugs. She became the first trans woman to work in a mine. In 2023, she helped create a gender department within the company. And when, in July of that year, a 1924 law was repealed a law that had banned dangerous or unhealthy work for women and was often used as an excuse to keep women out of mining or port jobs she helped design the path for more women to enter the mining industry. The effigy of Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners (her day is celebrated on December 4). Mariana Eliano In 2018, through her sister, writer Erika Halvorsen met Carla. She told her she wanted to write about her. She began interviewing her and gradually built the story that would become a screenplay. After some back and forth, the script was turned into the film Miss Carbon directed by Agustina Macri, which will premiere in theaters in Spain on June 13. Macri says there were several aspects that drew her to the story: the theme, the fact that it was an LGBTQ+ story, that it was based on real events, the setting, and the visual possibilities of a town nestled in the Andes. Often, you choose a story. But then that same story begins to unfold, to spiral inward, to a certain depth and thats how you discover there were many reasons you were drawn to it, she explains via email. Trans miner Carla Antonella Rodriguez poses in her work clothes. Mariana Eliano In the dining room, on a small table, lies The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. Carla says that reading it made her reflect on many ideas. It allowed her to think about dependency, attachment, and the need for others approval. I learned to look at myself in the mirror and to like what I see. To stop constantly chasing the hegemonic ideals set by the system: pretty, thin, tall. No. I have a strong, firm face, the hands of a laborer, hardened here in Patagonia. She smiles. This is who I am. And Im proud of who I am, of what Ive been able to achieve. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition You can actually see people dealing drugs, they dont even hide it, Mohammad Zahir says, nodding towards an alleyway on his street in Tooting. They come in expensive cars, I dont think they are scared of the police. Sure enough, a black BMW prowls around the corner, music blaring before dropping off a passenger who disappears down the backstreet. Moments later, he saunters back and is whisked away with the sun still high in the south London sky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is common on this street, says Mr Zahir, an NHS mental health worker, adding: You can hear them from the window, sometimes they become violent. We would like to see more done. The 32-year-old is among those sounding the alarm over rampant drug dealing and antisocial behaviour on Sir Sadiq Khans own doorstep, at a time when the Labour mayor of London is calling for a relaxation of the laws around cannabis possession. Sir Sadiq Khan, seen visiting a licensed cannabis business in Los Angeles, has called for possession to be decriminalised - Stefan Rousseau/PA The mayor, who grew up on the Henry Prince Estate and still lives in the borough, said this week that possessing small quantities of the drug should be decriminalised. His calls have since been stubbed out by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, who said the Government had no plans to change its policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, was also quick to note that police are not calling for a change to the law as drug use is considered one of the main drivers of crime, violence and antisocial behaviour. David Sidwick, Dorsets police and crime commissioner, went a step further in demanding that cannabis, currently a class B drug, be upgraded so that it commanded sentences on par with crack cocaine and heroin. Tooting residents have blamed cannabis for criminality and antisocial behaviour plaguing the area. The latest figures from March 2025 show a 11.4 per cent annual increase in crimes in Tooting the 10th biggest increase of all 67 London constituencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March alone on Mr Zahirs Undine Street, one road back from the bustling Tooting Broadway area, drug offences surged along with antisocial behaviour, violence and sexual offences. Another Undine resident Hayden, 29, is not surprised by the increase. That makes sense, he says. I have noticed more people on drugs. Down the road on Tooting High Street, Jafar Khan fears legalising cannabis possession could tip the scales in his battle against the drug-fuelled criminality aimed at his mango stall. There is a lot of shoplifting. They then sell it to buy drugs, the 29-year-old says, adding: By letting them do it, it will only increase. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If they allow it, it will fire everything up. It should be banned completely. A sign on Selkirk Road, just off Tooting High Street, makes it clear that it is not hard to find cannabis in the area - Heathcliff O'Malley for The Telegraph The mango seller, who commutes from Croydon, has lost faith in the authorities. No one shows up for us here. In Croydon, the crime rate is high but the police are there. Not here, he says, before taking aim at the mayor. He is focusing on reducing traffic and congestion zones but not this. It is not safe. He is focusing on how to make London look good but the crime is getting worse. Sir Sadiq has come under fire for ploughing resources into waging a fully-fledged war on motorists with his flagship ultra low emission zone policy while underinvesting in front-line officers despite crime reaching levels not seen for a decade. Mango seller Chaudhry Babar cant leave his stall for fear of being robbed - Julian Simmonds for The Telegraph Chaudhry Babar, a rival mango seller operating solo from the back of a van, is fed up of being robbed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If I leave for one minute, someone will take my mobile or if I have not locked the cash register, he says. Mango season is four to five months long, he explains, and thefts are on a monthly basis. I am robbed four or five times a season. He adds: It is people smoking doing this, people whose work is only to rob. In the more affluent area of Furzedown, where Sir Sadiq lives, residents are concerned that legalising cannabis would embolden users to smoke in public more. Tina Ena said parks such as the Furzedown Rec, home to a popular childrens playground, would be better off without second-hand smoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dont expose other people who dont want to be involved, the 69-year-old says. Sir Sadiq backed decriminalisation after his independent London drug commission, led by Lord Falconer, the former Labour justice secretary, recommended that the possession of small amounts of natural cannabis should no longer be a criminal offence. The report said that stop and searches were disproportionately targeting ethnic minority groups and in particular Londons black communities despite them being no more likely to be found carrying the drug. In 2023-24, some 26 per cent of stop and search procedures conducted on suspicion of drugs involving a white person in London led to police finding drugs. This figure rose to 28 per cent for a black person and 34 per cent for a mixed race person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Met conducted 76,068 stop and searches last year, almost double the next highest total of 38,879 by Merseyside Police, yet would no longer be able to deploy stop and search solely on the suspicion of cannabis possession under the reports recommendations. Some in Tooting believe that legalising cannabis possession would ease the burden on police, after the Met Commissioner warned years of underfunding and a population boom had left Scotland Yard ill-equipped to deal with rising crime. The number of officers in London has fallen from 402 per 100,000 of the population to 362 over the past 15 years, according to Telegraph analysis of data. At the Wheatsheaf pub in Tooting Bec, Oliver Francis says he would welcome legalisation as it would free up police time and resources. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 55-year-old social worker says: Most peoples cannabis use is no one elses concern. Police have far more important things to be getting on with. Gesturing to his pint of lager, he added: Alcohol is a lot more dangerous than cannabis. Jamaican food seller Michelle Scantlebury says legalising the drug would be helpful - Julian Simmonds Michelle Scantlebury, a Jamaican food seller on the outskirts of Tooting Market, says Sir Keir Starmer should take a leaf out of Jamaicas book when it comes to cannabis. In some countries they have legalised it. It would be helpful, the 52-year-old says. While smoking cannabis in public remains illegal in Jamaica, possession of up to 57g of cannabis has been reduced to a petty offence incurring a fine of J$500 (2.33) and no criminal record. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 20 countries have now decriminalised or legalised recreational use of cannabis, including Canada, Mexico and Germany. A spokesman for the Met said the force was aware of concerns raised by the local Tooting community about drug dealing and antisocial behaviour and tackling criminality remains a key priority for officers. He added: Officers are also working closely with the local council, as well as with shops and businesses that we know are targeted the most by criminals. A spokesman for Sir Sadiq said that under his new Police and Crime Plan, officers would be visible on the streets and working with communities on the issues that matter to them, tackling shoplifting, antisocial behaviour and drug dealing. He added: Nothing is more important to the mayor than keeping Londoners safe. A French pensioner in Tooting Bec, who wished to remain anonymous, was more laissez faire about legalisation. Almost everybody I know has smoked dope. If it is legalised, people might go on to stronger things, she said. But it smells better than those terrible vapes. 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. RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) A man is facing several charges after he reportedly ran a red light and collided with another vehicle Wednesday afternoon in Rutherford County. According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, a 2025 Volvo TT was traveling east on Murfreesboro Road, approaching the Fergus Road intersection, when it ran a red light and crashed into a 2012 Ford Fiesta. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts Officials said the Ford was traveling north through the intersection when it was hit. The Fords driveridentified as 66-year-old Michael Silverdied from his injuries. Meanwhile, his 41-year-old passenger was hurt in the crash. Both were reportedly wearing their seatbelts. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com THP said the 37-year-old man who was driving the Volvoidentified as 37-year-old Michael Alexander Gawlick of Illinoisalso sustained injuries in the crash. However, Gawlick is facing charges for vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and DUI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No additional details have been released about Wednesdays deadly crash. 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. For decades, three names have defined Miami politics: Carollo, Regalado and Suarez. Mayor Francis Suarez holds an office his father, Xavier Suarez, first won in the 1980s. Brothers Joe and Frank Carollo have alternated places in the same City Commission seat for the past 16 years. A son of former commissioner and mayor Tomas Regalado, Jose, is running for his fathers old seat on the City Commission, eight years after another son tried to win a different seat. This year, all three of Miamis dominant political families could be newly elected again. Jose Regalado is running in a contested special election on June 3, and Frank Carollo has already filed to run for a City Commission seat in November. Meanwhile, Joe Carollo, a former mayor and sitting commissioner, might run for mayor again. And with Francis Suarez reaching the end of his term this fall, his father is considering campaigning to again fill the mayoral seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A 2025 win by any member of the three families could extend a remarkable statistic in Miami politics: Since 1979, there has only been one year without a Carollo, a Regalado or a Suarez in city office. Nobody should be on the dais forever. And nobodys last name should be on the dais forever, said Horacio Aguirre, a longtime Miami activist who said he supports stricter term limits. A democracy needs new people. While bemoaned by some, the staying power of the three families could be the defining thread of Miami politics this year as voters head to the polls on Tuesday to fill the vacancy left by the late Commissioner Manolo Reyes and again in November for the citys general election. Here is a look at Miamis three leading political families and what their futures may hold. The Carollos City Commissioner Joe Carollo may be the most resilient politician in Miami history, with a career in elected office that began in 1979 and continues to this day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carollo, a former county police employee, was 24 when he first won a seat on the City Commission. Seventeen years later, he became mayor in 1996. After returning to office in 2017, hes now 70 and finishing his most recent second term as a city commissioner. Under the current rules, mayors and city commissioners in the city of Miami can only serve two consecutive terms, though they can return to office at a later time. A victorious Joe Carollo celebrates an electoral win on Nov. 14, 1995, allowing him to return to his old City Commission seat. Joe Carollo spent decades earning his reputation as a political brawler, clashing with Miami bureaucrats and raising the specter of leftist politics and communist ties to get his way. At a 1983 press conference that then-Mayor Maurice Ferre had called to trumpet getting Carollos endorsement, Carollo instead used his time at the mic to bash Ferre. One of Carollos boldest conspiracy theories turned out to be true: that ballot fraud had cost him the 1997 mayoral election against Xavier Suarez. An appellate court later agreed, handing Carollo the remainder of the four-year term as the citys mayor in 1998. By the end of that term, protesters were throwing bananas at City Hall their way of calling Miami a banana republic after Carollo, a Cuban American, forced out the police chief for not telling him about the federal raid to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. More than 20 years later, Carollo remains a lightning rod in city politics. Hes faced years of litigation tied to grievances with the operators of the Ball & Chain nightclub in Little Havana, repeated clashes with downtown residents over his controversial park installations and his recent removal as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust. Commissioner Joe Carollo defends himself from allegations as the Miami City Commission prepared to vote on a proposal to remove him as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. But this could also be a landmark year for the Carollo political brand if voters elect Joe as mayor again and his younger brother to the commission. It would be the first time the two served at the same time, rather than keeping the same seat politically warm for each other. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frank Carollo, now 55, won the District 3 seat in 2009 and held it for two consecutive terms. Joe Carollo won the election to replace him in 2017. This year, the younger brother has filed to replace the older brother. If Frank wins in November and gets reelected in 2029, a Carollo will have held the District 3 seat for 24 straight years. A certified public accountant, Frank followed his brother into politics but didnt inherit all of his rivalries. While Tomas Regalado said in a recent interview that people dont really like Joe Carollo, he had kind words for Frankie Carollo. He served with me for eight years, and we have a good relationship, he said. In Miami Dynasty, a book written by former Mayor Xavier Suarez, Frank is cast as the preferred brother: On the city commission dais, he acts professionally enough; his mumbled tirades are not nearly as vitriolic as his older brothers used to be. When Joe launched his comeback campaign for the City Commission to replace his term-limited brother in 2017, Frank initially declined to tell the Herald if he would be endorsing his brother or an existing candidate he had already praised, Zoraida Barreiro. Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo (far left) joined his mother, Graciella Carollo (center right), as she thanked supporters of her son Frank Carollo (center left), recently elected to the City of Miami commission, during a visit to the Little Havana Activities Center on Nov. 20, 2009. Asked about his lengthy tenure, Joe Carollo pointed out that hes been in elected office for less than half of the 46 years since he won his first City Commission race. He also noted he spent 16 consecutive years out of office, from 2001, when he lost his bid for reelection as mayor, to 2017, when he returned to City Hall as the District 3 commissioner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And, Carollo said, I didnt run based on anybodys last name. As a point of comparison, he repeatedly took aim at special election candidate Jose Regalado, who Carollo said is only running because of his last name and what others have accomplished. In a text message, Frank Carollo said so-called dynasties arent unique to politics but exist in every profession and that it appears that it is a natural occurrence that members of the same families converge to the same industries, professions, job fields, etc. Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo speaks during a public hearing on Nov. 25, 2009. Its true that the city of Miami hardly has a monopoly on political families in Miami-Dade County. Mario Diaz-Balart served in Congress at the same time as his brother, the late Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, a former Miami city commissioner, is the brother of a former Miami-Dade County commissioner and of a former school board member. Kendrick Meek succeeded his mother, the late Carrie Meek, in Congress. But none of those families have had such extended elected runs through a single government much less seen their political careers entwined with other rival families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joe Carollos interest in another run for mayor could set up a 90s flashback if Xavier Suarez joins the race, too. The two were rivals in the 1997 mayors election, which Carollo, the incumbent, initially lost to Suarez. That put Suarez back in office for four months, but his second tour as mayor ended in March 1998 when the appeals court flipped the results. Carollo was installed as mayor and went on to serve in that role until 2001. The two main 1997 Miami mayoral candidates, Xavier Suarez (left) and Joe Carollo (right), shake hands while avoiding each others eyes on Oct. 24, 1997. The Suarezes For now, the Suarez family is the only question mark for Miamis 2025 elections. With Francis Suarez termed-out as mayor, his father is testing the waters for a sixth run at the mayors office. In a recent text blast, Xavier Suarez, 76, asked a group of likely supporters: Can I engage you to collect 20 or more names of city of Miami residents who might be inclined to vote for me in the upcoming November mayoral election? Thanks in advance, Xavier. Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez (left) and his son, the current Miami mayor, Francis Suarez (right), discuss potential stops for Tri-Rail at Miami City Hall on Nov. 1, 2019. In an interview, the elder Suarez said he expects to make a decision by July. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont know if Im running, he said. Im notoriously bad at fundraising. Well have to see where I am by June 30th. Suarez dominated Miami politics in the 1980s, when he became the first Cuban American elected mayor. He won praise for wading into a crowd of outraged residents after the police shooting of Black motorcyclist Clement Lloyd and scorn for refusing to greet Nelson Mandela on a Miami visit, citing his praise of Fidel Castro. A late-night visit to a constituent over a letter critical of the mayor brought Suarez national attention. Former Mayor Xavier Suarez holds a press conference on March 17, 1998, on his legal plans to regain his position as mayor of Miami. Xavier Suarez embraces the idea of political synergy between father and son. In his 2024 book Miami Dynasty: How Father and Son Shaped the Magic City, he said he had considered running for Congress as an independent in 2018 but dropped the idea, in part to avoid abandoning Francis, a Republican who has been mayor since 2017. A Miami-Dade County commissioner at the time, Xavier Suarez said he wanted to continue helping his sons administration from County Hall. In 2020, when Francis was enjoying national attention as a young leader tackling the COVID crisis in his city, Xavier launched a failed campaign for county mayor that leaned on his sons popularity. The billboard that Xaviers political committee put on I-95 that year featured photos of the father and son under the slogan Two Generations of Leaders. An ad by Xavier Suarezs political committee featuring his son, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, went up on Interstate 95 as Xavier Suarez ran to be Miami-Dades county mayor in 2020. Three years later, buoyed by his viral How can I help? offer to Silicon Valley tech companies, Francis Suarez invoked his fathers example in the launch video for a brief run in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My dad taught me that you get to choose your battles, and I am choosing the biggest one of my life, Suarez narrated over footage of himself outside his childhood home. What does Suarez, 47, think about the possibility of his father running to succeed him? The mayor did not respond to an interview request. The elder Suarez said the term dynasty makes for an intriguing book premise but probably isnt appealing to voters. It wont be my slogan, Ill tell you that, he said. The Regalados Though the one family not currently in Miami City Hall, the Regalados have two members in power in county government: Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado and his daughter, County Commissioner Raquel Regalado. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tomas son and Raquels brother Jose Regalado, 40, is running for the vacant City Commission seat his father gave up in 2009 to run for city mayor. On Sept. 3, 1996, Miami City Commission candidate Tomas Regalado was losing his race early on and went to the Ermita de la Caridad church to say a prayer for victory. To his left is his daughter, Raquel. Regalado went on to win the race. Raquel Regalado, 50, said she has run every Regalado campaign since 1995. Her father, now 78, was first elected to the Miami City Commission in 1996. Another sibling, Tommy Regalado, made a run at politics in 2017 but lost his Miami City Commission race that year to Joe Carollo. The father and daughter shared a spot on the November 2024 ballot when Tomas was elected as property appraiser and Raquel won a second term as a Miami-Dade County commissioner occupying the same County Commission seat once held by Xavier Suarez. Raquel is now running her brothers campaign for the June 3 special election. She said interest in the public sector comes naturally for her family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I cant speak to the other dynasties theyre all different, she said. But in our household both before my father was elected and after we talked about government all the time. Tomas Regalado (center left) is installed as mayor of the city of Miami on Nov. 12, 2009. Behind the new mayor are his children Raquelita, Tomasito and Jose. The Regalados see the District 4 race as a proxy battle with Joe Carollo, who is backing Jose Regalados opponent, Ralph Rosado, in the June 3 special election. Carollos political committee, Miami First, is sending out Spanish-language attack ads against Jose, calling him an opportunist benefiting from his last name and political connections. Jose is running against Joe Carollo, Tomas Regalado said. Carollo is throwing everything at the whole family. Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and his son Jose Regalado walk through flooded streets in Shorecrest after a combination of rain and king tides flooded the area on Oct. 5, 2017. Conversations with Jose, an underwater photographer who shared his experiences with climate change after traveling the world, persuaded the Republican mayor to care about sea-level rise. Before deciding to run for county property appraiser, Tomas Regalado had floated his own comeback bid for Miami mayor in 2025. More recently, speculation has centered on Raquel Regalado eyeing City Hall. In a recent interview, she declined to rule out a run for city mayor this year. Im going to get through this election and lets see, she said of her brothers contest. Asked if it would be appropriate for her to serve as Miami mayor while her brother held a commission seat, Regalado responded: That would be a bit much. The dynasties question: boost or handicap? Members of all three political families gathered at a city event on Dec. 2, 2010. From left are then-Commissioner Frank Carollo, Mayor Tomas Regalado, former mayor Joe Carollo, school board member Raquel Regalado, Commissioner Francis Suarez and former mayor Xavier Suarez. The dynasty theme will likely be an attack line for other candidates in Miamis mayor race this year. Eileen Higgins, a Miami-Dade County commissioner, is running as an outsider to city politics. She used dynasty as an attack line in the 2018 campaign for her county seat, when she defeated Zoraida Barreiro, the wife of her predecessor, Bruno Barreiro. In that race, she also beat Alex Diaz de la Portilla, whose brother, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, was a county commissioner in the 1990s. Higgins sent out an attack mailer against her opponents in 2018 with the headline Arent You Tired of all the Political Dynasties, with photos of the Diaz de la Portillas and Barreiros and then-President Donald Trump with two of his children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Another candidate for mayor, former city manager Emilio Gonzalez, is also trying to run on the fresh-face mantle he thinks will appeal to a dispirited electorate. I think the voters here are pretty much beaten down, which is why we get so little turnout, he said. If you have the same people always running and they deliver no results or poor results, people say: Well, then, why do I vote? Newly sworn-in city of Miami Commissioner Tomas Regalado (second from left) joins hands with Commissioner J.L. Plummer (left), Mayor Joe Carollo (second from right) and Vice Mayor Willy Gort following his swearing-in ceremony on Sept. 4, 1996. But Miamis window for repeat political comebacks could soon come to an end. Theres now a push underway to rewrite city election law to cut short the kind of lifelong political career currently available in Miami. While the current limit of two consecutive terms for elected officials is forcing Joe Carollo to give up his City Commission seat this year, it doesnt prevent Frank Carollo from running for the seat again eight years after term limits required him to leave the commission in 2017. From left to right, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Xavier Suarez, appear at a press conference at the Miami Emergency Management Center ahead of Hurricane Irma on Sept. 9, 2017. But legislation sponsored by Commissioner Damian Pardo, who was elected in 2023 on a reform platform, could prevent politicians from running for multiple terms the way the Carollos have. Under Pardos proposed referendum language, the citys elected officials would be subjected to lifetime term limits, capping them at two terms as mayor and two terms as commissioner. The proposal specifies that no person can be elected or appointed to either position more than two times each, meaning in theory that even one day in elected office could count as a term. The caps would also apply retroactively. While still up for debate, the current language would likely blow up the possibility of the Carollo and Suarez electoral streaks continuing in 2025 if voters adopted the proposed change to the city charter in November and the new caps survived a potential court challenge. Xavier Suarez has served multiple terms as mayor, and Joe Carollos time as the citys top leader also spanned two terms. As a former two-term commissioner, Frank Carollo, would also likely be blocked from a return to the dais by the Pardo legislation. We want to have more people at the table, Pardo told the Herald in March. We want to have different people at the table. Mayor Joe Carollo is pictured on Dec. 11, 1996. Xavier Suarez is photographed before casting his vote for the 1997 runoff election on Nov. 13, 1997. City Commissioner Tomas Regalado is pictured on Sept. 4, 1996. Francis Suarez, son of Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez and a 20-year-old sophomore at Florida International University, took the witness stand on his fathers behalf in a voter-fraud trial on Feb. 18, 1998. From left to right: Jose Regalado, the new mayor Tomas Regalado and Tommy Regalado celebrate Regalados landslide victory against his opponent Joe Sanchez on Nov. 3, 2009. Family members joined Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo (left) as he took the oath of office during his second term swearing-in ceremony at City Hall on Nov. 15, 2013. His brother Joe Carollo is pictured third from the right. Francis Suarez, the newly elected city commissioner for District 4, is sworn in on Nov. 17, 2009, surrounded by his mother Rita Suarez, father Xavier Suarez and other family members at Miami City Hall. JEFFERSON COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) A boil water notice has been issued for all customers who get their water from the Union Church Waterworks Association in Jefferson County. According to the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), the notice was issued due to the presence of E. coli bacteria in routine sampling. The notice affects 521 connections. Public Water Quality Advisory issued for Pearl River Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Health officials strongly recommend that all water be boiled vigorously for one minute before it is consumed. This precaution will last at least two full days, and water system officials will be notified when the boil water alert is lifted. According to MSDH, fecal coliforms and E. coli are bacteria whose presence indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes. Microbes in these wastes can cause short-term effects such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches or other symptoms. They may pose a special health risk for infants, young children and people with severely compromised immune systems. Close Thanks for signing up! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News 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 WJTV. U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to appoint the next Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), reaffirming a key American role in NATO's military structure, Reuters reported on May 30, citing unnamed officials. The decision marks a reversal of earlier speculation that the Trump administration was considering relinquishing the U.S. military position, traditionally held by an American four-star general for nearly 75 years. According to Reuters, Trump personally informed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte of the decision, with an official announcement expected in the coming days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The leading candidate is reportedly U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, who currently serves as Director for Operations of the Joint Staff. The position, currently held by Army General Christopher Cavoli since July 2022, oversees all NATO operations in Europe and is considered one of the alliance's most critical posts. The U.S. has filled the role since its creation after World War II. The move is likely to offer short-term reassurance to NATO allies wary of a potential American drawdown. Trump's "America First" doctrine has repeatedly cast doubt on the U.S. commitment to multilateral alliances, especially NATO. In recent years, he has questioned whether Washington should defend alliance members that do not meet military spending benchmarks. The comment sparked alarm across Europe, where several countries, including Italy, Canada, and Spain, still fall short of the 2% of GDP goal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some NATO members are now reportedly considering raising the threshold to 3% of GDP by 2030. The decision to name a new SACEUR suggests the U.S. will remain engaged in the alliance's military command structure for now, even as Trump continues to push for a rebalancing of defense responsibilities among NATO members. Read also: The Hungary-Ukraine spy scandal and Russias possible role, explained Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) The East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office responded to a Thursday night shooting near Greenwell Street that left one person hurt. Deputies responded around 9:40 p.m. to a shooting in the 7300 block of Richey Drive, where one adult was injured after an argument. EBRSO said injuries were non-life-threatening. EMS confirmed they took one person to the hospital in stable condition from this scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation into this shooting remains ongoing, and more information will be shared as it becomes available. Police: Skeletal remains found in Baton Rouge canal Latest News 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 Louisiana First News. In the current state of Florida politics, the only thing rarer than a Democrat being elected governor, which hasnt happened in three decades, would be for someone to win as an independent which has never happened. That is what Sen. Jason Pizzo wants to do. He should reconsider. The ex-Democrat from Sunny Isles Beach still has more in common with his old party than the GOP, and his third-party run would assure a Republican successor to Gov. Ron DeSantis, because a Democrat will also run, so the anti-Republican vote would be split in two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Independent candidates have a steep uphill climb in states as large as Florida. They do better in New England (think Bernie Sanders) and the Midwest (remember Jesse Ventura?) with their progressive traditions. A third-party win Sidney Catts was elected Florida governor on the Prohibition Party ticket in 1916. Its the only time a candidate won statewide who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican. As a Baptist preacher and an anti-Catholic demagogue, Catts played well to a certain constituency at the time. The states population was 924,000, less than half of the population of todays Broward. NPA candidates (no party affiliation) have run many times in Florida but barely register most of the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former Gov. Charlie Crist ran as an NPA candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010. He withdrew from a Republican primary he realized he couldnt win as a moderate in a time of Tea Party strength. Republican Marco Rubio won that Senate race as Crist ran second and Democrat Kendrick Meek third. But together, Crist and Meek got 54,742 more votes than Rubio. Money may not be enough That a well-known sitting governor could not win as an NPA should give pause to Pizzo, who has virtually no statewide recognition. He does have more personal wealth $59 million, according to his latest financial disclosure. Pizzo said he would invest up to $25 million on his race. But in todays outrageously expensive campaigns, that wont go far against the likely fundraising prowess of any Republican running with Donald Trumps favor, such as U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds of Naples. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nor would it likely match John Morgan, the billionaire Orlando trial lawyer who hints that he might run under the banner of a new party he may create. By running as an NPA, Pizzo hopes to appeal to a vast electorate alienated by both major parties. Pizzos switch nearly coincided with an announcement by David Jolly, a former one-term Republican congressman from St. Petersburg, that he had become a Democrat and plans to run for governor, having created a political fundraising committee. As an MSNBC commentator, Jolly already has name recognition among Democrats and a reputation as a moderate that could appeal to the same constituency that Pizzo or Morgan would need. Dont divide the vote Florida is better served, we think, without an NPA or new party candidate splintering the opposition, which helps Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The early options on the GOP side are bleak: Neither Donalds nor Casey DeSantis, the governors wife whos said to be interested in succeeding him, is the moderate Florida so desperately needs now. In a red-and-blue America, people are accustomed to political parties, as much as many deplore them. The GOP now claims 40% of all registered Florida voters, compared to 31% Democrats and 26% NPAs. Minor parties, including Libertarians, account for only 3%, which ought to warn off Morgan. The surge in NPAs owes much to dissatisfaction with both major parties, according to findings last year by the public relations firm Sachs Media. The poll by the firm said NPAs have been decisive in close elections such as the historically close wins by less than 1 percentage point by both DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott in 2018. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The poll also found that while a slight majority of younger NPAs (52%) consider themselves liberal, voters older than 45 the majority identify as conservative, ranging from 59% to 62%. Not enough NPAs The poll found that NPAs favor legal abortion, legal marijuana and higher taxes on the wealthy, but there arent nearly enough of them to get Pizzo to the Governors Mansion. In addition, Florida is a closed primary state, which means NPA voters are prohibited from casting ballots in either partys primaries. The people of Florida deserve open primaries, at least to the extent of allowing NPAs to vote. Indeed, a majority of voters 57% favored an open primary initiative on the 2020 ballot, but that fell short of the 60% needed for approval. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With Pizzo and Morgan in the race, falling short is what will happen to Florida Democrats once again in 2026. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com. Chicago and the suburbs have seen a number of unthinkable stories detailing the plight of homeowners whove been unable to remove unwanted visitors. Marcia and Carlton Lee said they were locked out of their home for weeks by a squatter who changed the locks and refused to leave, using bogus mortgage documents to falsify ownership. The couples trouble started in April and only resolved last week, when they regained control of the South Side property theyre trying to sell. In another South Side story, a property owner named Marco Velazquez resorted to moving in with the people squatting in the house hed put on the market when he was unable to secure their eviction. He said the police told him they couldnt do anything about it. Eventually, Velazquez paid the squatters $4,300 to move out, regaining control of his property in March. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both of these stories, reported originally by WLS-Ch. 7 in Chicago, made national headlines. Viewers and readers were shocked to learn that the system was set up to protect squatters over property owners. Were thankful Illinois legislators adopted a bill that changes this dynamic. The measure, easily clearing both houses of the legislature on bipartisan votes, would allow police to more quickly remove unauthorized occupants, commonly referred to as squatters, closing loopholes that have left some property owners unable to live in or sell their homes. Before the passage of Illinois Senate Bill 1563, known as the Squatters Bill, law enforcement officers had to clear substantial hurdles before removing squatters. The existing legal framework often required property owners to initiate lengthy civil eviction proceedings, even when people occupied their homes without any lease or rental agreement. During this time, property owners were deprived of the use of their property and risked potential damages or depreciation in property value. The financial and emotional toll was considerable, especially for those relying on rental income or seeking to sell their property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SB 1563 clarifies that law enforcement may arrest individuals for trespassing and remove unauthorized persons or property where criminal trespass is occurring once the owners can prove the home is theirs. The measure enables police to act swiftly, distinguishing squatters from legal tenants. Springfields overwhelming response to these reports was encouraging. The rights of property owners arent always given the appropriate amount of respect, especially in a time of housing shortages and rising rents. We hope and expect Gov. JB Pritzker will sign this bill into law and restore some sanity to the system. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. If starving Gazans want food, they must travel to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. There, between the sea and militarized areas, the Israeli government has positioned three of the four food distribution points of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), a private, shadowy entity backed by the United States. The fourth is located in the center of the enclave. The location is no accident, according to U.N. allegations, corresponds to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus military plans to, in his own words, conquer Gaza. Israels far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said this earlier this month: Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to [] the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas or terrorism, and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries. At the time those words were spoken, the plan was already underway. Gazans had then gone two months without receiving any aid, as Israel had blocked the entry of supplies to the Palestinian enclave since March 2 and reserves were running out. A week ago, the Israeli government reopened the gates to trucks, but imposed so many restrictions that, in practice, organizations other than the FHG face great difficulties in carrying out their humanitarian work. Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, said that around 600 aid trucks are currently waiting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, but Israel has denied the U.N. permission to retrieve and distribute the supplies for the past three days. The problems are that the insecurity continues, and frankly, they are not making it easy for us to deliver humanitarian goods, he told reporters. A cargo of humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip is seen at the offload area in the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza, southern Israel, Thursday, May 29, 2025. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN) When asked about the reasons Israeli forces give for denying permits to the U.N., Dujarric stated that only Israel can provide its reasons. However, he also noted that the same government has been blocking foreign journalists from entering Gaza for nearly 20 months, preventing them from documenting what is happening. Israeli authorities have undermined the capacity of our teams to deliver genuine, principled humanitarian assistance that would reach the most vulnerable groups, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a joint statement. With these restrictions imposed on all humanitarian actors on the ground, if Gazans want to receive aid, they practically have no choice but to turn to the FHG distribution points. Jonathan Whittall, head of OCHA for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, has been one of the strongest critics of this plan. One of these [FHG] hubs is near the spot where Israeli forces killed and buried in a mass grave 15 first responders. For me this is a grotesque symbol of how life in Gaza, and that which sustains it, is being erased and controlled, he said. The message that is being sent through the establishment of these militarized hubs appears to be that in Gaza, survival is a privilege, granted only to those who comply with a military plan that has been described by an Israeli minister as being to conquer, clear and stay, he added. In the same vein, an analysis by Forensic Architecture, a research team from Goldsmiths, University of London, concludes that this new system of aid distribution is simply an extension of the existing architecture of spatial control. It explains: The routes established for civilian access to these aid distribution centers (in blue) are continuous with Israeli military raid routes (in red), forming a militarized network designed to facilitate forced displacement and population control. In addition to forcing the population to move south, toward the Egyptian border, in order to access food, the Israeli army is also conducting relentless, wide-scale bombing and forced evacuations. This reveals a strategy not of targeting militants, but of dismantling and erasing Gaza itself, said Oxfam Intermon in an analysis published on Thursday. According to its analysis, since the ceasefire broke down on March 18, Israel has issued more than 30 forced displacement orders almost one every two days covering 68 of the 79 neighborhoods, some on multiple occasions. These, together with the expanding no-go Israeli military zones, make up over 80% of the Gaza Strip, the NGO warned. The cumulative effect is the de facto confinement of the population into overcrowded enclaves stripped of infrastructure. The sheer scale and relentless frequency of these orders have made it virtually impossible for people to find refuge. On Thursday, Israel demanded the evacuation and closure of Al Awda Hospital, located in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to a statement by the enclaves Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas. A week ago, the Israeli army had already ordered the evacuation of this facility the only one still operating in the northern region where 59 people, including patients and medical staff, remain. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, three reservists filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on Thursday, demanding that the army change its policy in Gaza to prohibit the expulsion of residents. Part of the wars mission, as presented by the prime minister and the defense minister, [is] the forced transfer of Gaza Strip residents to the south of the Strip, the reservists said, arguing that this mission contradicts basic moral rules, Jewish tradition and international law, and constitutes a war crime. Depopulation is occurring within Gaza, said Scott Lucas, an international policy expert at the Clinton Institute at the University of Dublin, in The Conversation, ahead of the launch of the new aid distribution mechanism. Depopulation through killing, starvation, destruction of healthcare, displacement from housing, and lack of clean water, he said. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition The city of Kharkiv once again came under a large-scale Russian drone attack on the night of 29-30 May. Eight drones have hit premises belonging to a public transport company in the Slobidskyi district, injuring an employee. Source: Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov; Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration Quote from Terekhov: "Several explosions have been heard in the city. Kharkiv is under a large-scale drone attack." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Syniehubov said at least eight hits by kamikaze drones had been recorded in the Slobidskyi district in Kharkiv. The Russians mainly targeted the territory of one of the citys public transport companies. Terekhov noted that a fire had broken out as a result of the attack. Information on the scale of the damage is still being confirmed. Updated: At 04:13, Terekhov reported that an employee had been injured in the drone strike on the facility, as she was on the premises at the time of the attack. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! (EL PASO COUNTY, Colo.) The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners announced that Commissioner Cami Bremer has submitted her resignation. On Friday, May 30, the Board announced it had received and formally acknowledged the resignation of Commissioner Bremer. Commissioner Bremers final day will be June 10. Serving El Paso County as a commissioner has been one of the greatest honors of my life, Bremer said. I am incredibly grateful to the residents of District 5 and our entire community for placing their trust in me. As I begin this next chapter at Pikes Peak United Way, I look forward to continuing my service to this region in a new wayleading efforts to support youth success and family stability across the Pikes Peak area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Until a new board member is chosen in November 2025, Colorado statute requires the political party vacancy committee affiliated with the resigning commissioner to appoint a replacement within 10 days of the vacancy. If an appointment is unable to be made within those 10 days, Governor Jared Polis is authorized to fill the vacancy within 15 days of the vacancy being created. The appointee will serve on the board until the November general election and a new board member is elected. The Board extended its sincere appreciation for her years of dedicated public service and lasting impact on those living in El Paso County. Carrie Geitner, Chair of the Board for the El Paso County Commissioners, thanked Bremer for her service and the collaborative transition process. Cami has been a faithful representative for District 5, and we are grateful for all of her contributions to our county, Geitner said. On behalf of the Board of County Commissioners and County staff, I also want to thank the team at Pikes Peak United Way for facilitating a smooth transition that ensured no disruption in County business while allowing Cami to step fully into her new role. 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. ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) An Elizabethton man who is accused of possessing numerous images of child sexual abuse material was arrested in Florida. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Crime Watch According to the Carter County Sheriffs Office (CCSO), Michael S. Barnett was arrested by deputies with the Orange County Sheriffs Department on Thursday. Barnett, 33, of the Stoney Creek community, was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor after the CCSO searched digital media storage devices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A news release from the CCSO states an investigation began earlier in May after a tip regarding Barnett was received, along with several devices. A search warrant was obtained, and investigators searched thumb drives, SD cards and microSD cards. During the forensic search of the devices, investigators discovered numerous images depicting child sexual abuse material, the release states. An arrest warrant charging Barnett with sexual exploitation of a minor was obtained after the images were found. Cattle stolen from Glade Spring farm, reward offered After arresting Barnett in Florida, the Orange County Sheriffs Department also charged him with being a fugitive from justice. The CCSO reports Barnett is being held in Florida until he can be extradited back to Carter County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am proud of the work of my investigators and their continued commitment to protecting children by investigating and charging those who victimize them, Carter County Sheriff Mike Fraley said. The Carter County Sheriffs Office will continue to aggressively pursue those who commit crimes against children and will work with our law enforcement partners on the local, state, and federal levels to secure criminal charges against them. 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. With great excitement this week, the story tore through the press: Billionaire Elon Musk is leaving the government! May 28 and 29, the headlines were dominated by reports that the chainsaw-wielding head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was resigning from his position in government. Musk himself hustled to sell the story by giving shame-faced interviews, seeding the notion that he and Donald Trump had a contentious break-up, claiming he's "disappointed" by Trump and complaining about being the administration's "whipping boy." If it all seems familiar, that's because we've been through this cycle before. In late March and early April, we were treated to a round of "Musk is leaving" headlines, which helped temporarily boost the sinking stock price of his car company, Tesla. His exit didn't take. In late April, Musk again dramatically announced his departure, promising Tesla shareholders that "my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly." We were treated to another round of "Musk is leaving, we swear" stories in early May, complete with colorful details of the billionaire saying he'll miss sleeping over at the White House and eating ice cream with Trump. But somehow, he kept not going away. Musk was on camera in the Oval Office during Trump's racist ambush of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week. Earlier this week, Tesla faced another bleak financial report. European sales fell by half in the past year, even as other electric car companies saw robust growth. Investors got antsy again, and the growing pressure led a group of pension fund leaders to write to the Tesla board, demanding that they force Musk to return to work. Like clockwork, Musk once again announced his departure from DOGE to return to Tesla, going on CBS with an "Occupy Mars" T-shirt and telling the Washington Post he's refocusing his efforts on his alleged mission to send human beings to Mars. Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only. Credulously repeating Musk's claims that he's leaving the government, as far too many media outlets have done, helps Musk soothe the frayed nerves of his investors. However, it is not good journalism, and not just because the past few months have shown that Musk's farewells mean nothing. Musk's entire history shows that the man's word is worth less than nothing. Musk built his tremendous wealth not through innovation, tech genius, or business acumen, but on his skill at blowing smoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wired, which has been one of the few outfits reliably reporting on Musk with the proper levels of skepticism, published a critical article Tuesday laying out how Musk has more in common with PT Barnum than Thomas Edison. As Carlton Reid demonstrates, for a shocking 19 years, Musk has kept investor cash flowing by making bold predictions of dazzling products on the horizon in the next year or two. Musk promised self-driving cars, fast travel that could get you from Boston to New York City "in less than half an hour," an army of intelligent robot servants, self-charging cars, brain chips for intelligence enhancement, and affordable family cars. None of it happened, but Musk keeps pitching new ideas and making false promises so fast that investors forget how he failed to deliver on all these exciting past promises. Musk understands that people will buy anything if they want to believe your nonsense badly enough. Tesla investors are especially vulnerable to false reassurances. The truth is too hard to accept: they bet a fortune on a bad horse. Tesla's sales aren't going down because Musk isn't spending enough time at work. It's because his hard turn to the right including his infamous quacks-like-a-Nazi salute at a Trump rally poisoned his brand with the left-leaning customer base of Tesla. The protest movement against him, called "Tesla takedown," has also been successful at generating viral stories that make it seem embarrassing to own a Tesla. Just this week, for instance, pundit Chris Cillizza displayed the lack of self-awareness he's known for with a bratty article at the Daily Beast, complaining about "vandalism" inflicted on his Tesla. A photo of the alleged "vandalism" was helpfully shared in the article: Cillizza whines, "Not everything has to be political." But now there's a reason to shun the Tesla beyond just opposition to fascism, or the fact that they're ugly and hard to fix. It's also because it's the car of crybabies. Musk himself is the biggest crybaby of all, telling the Washington Post, "People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? Thats really uncool." This is the same Musk who spent months gloating about how he's ruining the lives of thousands of people with his reckless attacks on federal employees. This is the same Musk who shrugged off reports that his cuts are killing people. There is little doubt he feels the suffering of a vandalized Tesla far more than a child who is starving to death because he destroyed USAID. It's this ego that allows us to predict with confidence that Musk's departure is fake and, as he has done in previous iterations of this story, he will sneak his way back into the White House. He's too addicted to the power and attention he gets from politics to live the boring life of a respectable businessman focused on responsible management. Even before DOGE, Musk had a frightful habit of posting online, often tweeting 100 times a day. I can't manage that even on weekend days when I'm bored on my couch. There's no way he was working at his official jobs full-time, as there's a very public record showing he spent most of his days online engaging with far-right content. While he's trying to perform discipline now, mostly tweeting about his businesses, it's unlikely he'll be able to keep up the ruse for too long. Musk, like Trump, is too narcissistic. Like Trump, he won't be able to stay away from the firehose of ego gratification provided by being a leader in the MAGA cult. WASHINGTON (NewsNation) Elon Musk and President Donald Trump did not have a formal conversation Wednesday, the day Musk departed his controversial, headline-making stint at the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE. Instead, the departure of the worlds richest man was facilitated at a senior staff level, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity told NewsNation. Trumps self-proclaimed first buddy is stepping down from his role as a special government employee after leading an effort to slash spending and shutter federal agencies. Musk was restricted to serving 130 days in a 365-day period because of his special employment status. The deadline is set to be met on Friday, May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harvard, Trump court battle and polarizing debate continue Musk began the process of offboarding Wednesday evening, essentially just the necessary paperwork one does when leaving a job, another White House official noted. The Tesla and SpaceX chief, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to secure Trumps return to power, took to X, the social media platform he owns, on Wednesday to thank the president for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. He added that the cost-cutting initiative would continue without him. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government, Musk wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DOGE initially vowed to cut $2 trillion in government spending, but within four months, the target had shifted to less than a tenth of that amount, at $150 billion. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning ahead of his departure, Musk delivered a sharp rebuke of Trumps domestic policy agenda by alleging the new Republican spending bill would increase the federal deficit and undermine the work of the DOGE team. Musk underscored he has differences of opinion with the Trump administration but feels stuck in a bind when it comes to speaking out against it. Trade schools a pathway to self-reliance: Oklahoma rep. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement White House officials insist Musk left on good terms with Trump. Musk has since refocused on his businesses, which have been negatively impacted by his time in politics. Tesla, in particular, has seen falling sales. He announced on X that he would be back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms I must be super focused. Steve Davis, a longtime Musk loyalist and his right-hand man at DOGE, and Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the cost-cutting endeavor who is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have also parted ways with the Trump administration, according to a White House official. Trump said he will be hosting a press conference with Musk in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House, the president posted on Truth Social. 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. Originally appeared on E! Online Elon Musk is reporting from the Oval Office one last time. During the tech mogul and President Donald Trumps press conference May 30, Muskwho is exiting the White Housedodged a question about The New York Times report of his alleged drug use during Trumps campaign. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? Musk responded when a reporter brought up the article. Is it the same organization? I think the judge just ruled against New York Times for their lies about the Russiagate hoax and that they might have to give back that Pulitzer Prize. (Though Trump has challenged the award and filed a defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board, the title has not been revoked from The New York Times.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though neither outright addressed the May 30 New York Times article, Trump did say that the businessman had weathered outrageous abuse and slander, lies and attacks. During Trumps presidential election, the New York Times, citing people familiar with Musks activities, alleged that Musk told people ketaminewhich he's previously said he used to treat depressive episodeshad begun to affect his bladder. He also reportedly used Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and traveled around with a daily medication box holding about 20 pills, according to a photo of the box and witnesses, per the NYT. E! News has not independently verified the New York Times claims. The outlet reports it is unclear if Musks alleged drug use continued during his four-month tenure at the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House as well as reps for Musk did not respond to E! News request for comment. E! News has also reached out to The New York Times regarding Trump and Musks claims during the press conference but has not yet heard back. More from E! Online He also reportedly used Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and traveled around with a daily medication box holding about 20 pills, according to a photo of the box and witnesses, per the NYT. E! News has not independently verified the New York Times claims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The outlet reports it is unclear if Musks alleged drug use continued during his four-month tenure at the White House. In response, a spokesperson for The Times tells E! News that Musk's statements were inaccurate. "Donald J. Trumps lawsuit in Florida is against the Pulitzer Prize board, not The New York Times," the statement read. "The decision solely related to whether the case be temporarily suspended. It did not address the merits of the presidents claims. We understand the Pulitzer board will continue to defend its decision and we expect the case will show the quality of the reporting in The Times coverage." It added, "The Times has never received a request for a correction or been sued over the facts in our reporting. Wed also note that Musk didnt deny any of the reporting we published this morning." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House as well as reps for Musk did not respond to E! News request for comment. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images To Trump, however, Musk was an MVP on his team. He's one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced, Trump said during the press conference. He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation, and we appreciate it. And just want to say that Elon has worked tirelessly, helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations. Musk, meanwhile, spoke to the future of DOGE, noting the team will only grow stronger over time. He continued, I liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It's like a way of life. So it is permeating throughout the government, and I'm confident that over time, we'll see a trillion dollars of savings. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images The press conference came just two days after Musk announced the end of his four months with the administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," he wrote on X. "The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Though Musk is no longer serving alongside Trump, keep reading to see who is currently in the Presidential Cabinet. Vice President JD Vance Ohio native JD Vance worked in venture capitalism before penning the best-selling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy and pivoting to politics. The Yale-educated lawyer and former Marine was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and, after less than two years in office, was picked to be Donald Trump's 2024 running mate. As vice president, in addition to being first in line to the presidency, Vance is on hand to be a deciding vote should Senate Republicans need a tie-breaker to pass legislation. He has been married to law school sweetheart Usha Vance since 2014 and they share three children. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was a fierce critic of Trump when they both ran for president in 2016 but has since become a supporter of his former antagonist's agenda. The Miami native, born to Cuban immigrant parents, was the first and only nominee for Trump's second cabinet to be confirmed by the Senate with unanimous bipartisan support, 99 to 0. (Now former Ohio Sen. Vance is the one-seat vacancy. Rubio was technically still in the Senate then and so was able to vote for himself.) Rubio (shown here with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly) has been married to former Miami Dolphins cheerleader Jeanette Dousdebes since 1998 and they share two daughters and two sons. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent Scott Bessent's four decades of experience in global investment management include his time as CEO of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management and Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management (as in prominent Democratic donor George Soros). He also taught economic history at his alma mater Yale and, with his family, established the McLeod Rehabilitation Center at the Shriners Childrens Hospital in his home state of South Carolina. According to his government bio, he and his husband and two children split their time between Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C. "In a certain geographic region at a certain economic level, being gay is not an issue," he told the Yale Alumni Magazine in 2015 ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. "Whats fantastic is now, people in the rest of America, whether blue collar or white collar, have access to everything. If you had told me in 1984, when we graduated, and people were dying of AIDS, that 30 years later Id be legally married and we would have two children via surrogacy, I wouldnt have believed you." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Army National Guard veteran Pete Hegseth had been serving as cohost of Fox News' Fox & Friends Weekend since 2017 when Trump tapped him to be Defense Secretary. Past controversial statements about diversity and women in the military, a 2017 sexual assault allegation (which Hegseth has vehemently denied), reports of drinking on the job (also denied) and a 2018 email from his mother (that she later disavowed) calling him "an abuser of women" threatened to derail his nomination. But he was narrowly confirmed by the Senate with no Democratic votes and three Republicans dissenting. Hegseth shares three kids with second ex-wife Samatha Deering and has a daughter with third wife Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth, a former producer on Fox & Friends. They tied the knot at Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, N.J., in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney General Pam Bondi After Trump's original pick, scandal-plagued former Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew himself from consideration, the then-president-elect went with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondia member of his defense team during his first impeachment trialto lead the U.S. Department of Justice. She spent 18 years as a prosecutor with the Hillsborough County State Attorneys Office before becoming Florida's first female attorney general in 2011. Toward the end of her tenure she cohosted Fox News' The Five for three days in 2018, sparking questions about the ethics of doing so while still an elected official. "She is often on national news," a spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times, noting that she wasn't paid for her hosting gig. "The attorney general is always working. She is available 24/7 and works even when out of the state." Twice-divorced, Bondi has been romantically linked to Varner Wakefield Equity Partners founding principal John Wakefield since 2017. He has three children from a previous relationship. Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum Another 2024 presidential hopeful turned Trump supporter, billionaire software entrepreneur and venture capitalist Doug Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2017 until he was picked to head up the Department of Interior, which is responsible for the management of roughly 480 million acres of federal land, balancing resource development and conservation. After growing up in tiny Arthur, N.D., population 325, Burgum attended North Dakota State and started a chimney sweeping business that he credits for helping him get into Stanford's business school. "The [college] newspaper wrote a story about me as a chimney sweep and ran a photo of me sitting on top of an icy chimney in below-freezing weather in Fargo," he told Forbes in 2017. "The story made the AP wire service. I was later told it caused quite a stir in the Stanford admissions office." Burgum shares three children with ex-wife Karen Stoker and has been married to Kathryn Helgaas since 2016. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins Glen Rose, Texas, native Brooke Rollins has a degree in agricultural development from Texas A&M and got her JD from University of Texas School of Law. During the first Trump administration she was director of the Domestic Policy Council and Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives in the White House. Before being picked to lead the Department of Agriculture, Rollins was CEO and president of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank she founded in 2021 to promote Trump's public policy agenda. According to her government bio, she and husband Mark Rollins spend most of their free time at home in Fort Worth "taxiing their four very active children to baseball games, cattle shows, piano lessons, and Aggie football games." Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick Before joining Trump's cabinet, Howard Lutnick was CEO and president of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, where he rose through the ranks after being hired as a young broker in 1983. The New York-headquartered company infamously lost 658 employees in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when one of four hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center's North Tower. "I went to 20 funerals a day for 35 days," Lutnick, whose brother Gary was among those killed, told BBC News in 2006. "So there were times I couldn't even go to my great friends' funerals. One day, my best friend's brother was being buried at the same exact time as my roommate from college's brother. So my wife went to one and I went to one." Asked how he was able to move forward, he said, "I would describe it like being on a surf board on a giant wave, and that if you ever looked back, the wave would get you and maybe I wouldn't be able to function." Lutnick has four children with wife Allison Lambert. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer Lori Chavez-DeRemer served as mayor of Happy Valley, Ore., from 2011 to 2019 and then became the first Republican woman to be elected to Congress from her state in 2022. She lost her bid for re-election, however, leaving the California nativeand pro-union daughter of a Mexican-American Teamster dadopen to serving in Trump's second cabinet. Chavez-DeRemer is a mom of twin daughters with her high school sweetheart husband Dr. Shawn DeRemer. Marking their 33rd wedding anniversary in 2024, she wrote on Instagram, "The years fly by because we are willing to be committed to a 'great love' thats always worth fighting for." Less than two weeks after she was confirmed as Labor Secretary on March 11, 2025, the DeRemers became grandparents. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Lifelong Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threw his support behind Trump after his own 2024 candidacy fizzled. The third of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy's 11 children, the environmental lawyer who's now overseeing the so-called "MAHA" (make America healthy again) movement, has been known more in recent years for questioning the safety of vaccines and psychotropic drugs and prompting the ire of his own family. While sister Kerry Kennedy slammed his "inexplicable effort" to "desecrate" their father's memory by endorsing Trump, cousin Caroline Kennedy called him a "predator" in a January 2025 open letter urging the Senate to not confirm him as HHS secretary. On the personal front, Kennedy is a father of six: Two kids from his first marriage, to Emily Black, and four children with late second wife Mary Richardson, who died by suicide in 2012. He has been married to Curb Your Enthusiasm alum Cheryl Hines since 2014. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner Former NFL player Scott Turner represented Texas' 33rd district in Congress from 2013 to 2017 before Trump appointed him director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council in 2019. My mom and dad and my godparents always taught me to serve others, he said in a 2016 NFL Player Engagement interview. They always instilled in me to look out for other people and to work hard and to have a tremendous faith...Its not easy; you just have to make up in your mind thats what youre going to do. Also an entrepreneur and Baptist pastor, he has been married to wife and fellow University of Illinois alum Robin Turner since 1995. In 2009 the couple adopted Scott's nephew Solomon, who played football at Baylor and Hawaii before walking on at Illinois. Had it not been for my uncle and my aunt, I dont know where I would be, Solomon told Big Ten news site Saturday Tradition in 2022. Personally, it just means the world to me, not only for him to be my father figure, but to come here and do this part, its almost like Im giving back to him like a thank you." Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy Sean Duffy first made a name for himself in 1997 as a housemate on The Real World: Boston. He shares nine children with The Real World: San Francisco alum Rachel Campos-Duffy, whom he met competing on Road Rules: All Stars in 1998 and married the following year. Duffy spent eight years as Ashland County District Attorney in his home state of Wisconsin before serving in Congress from 2011 to 2019. He resigned from office that August, citing his yet-to-be-born ninth child's health issues. "After shes born, whether its two to six months after life, shes going to need open-heart surgery," he explained on Fox & Friends. "They gotta crack her open and fix the heart." Duffy added, "I love politics, but I love my family, and I think its always a balance. The schedules are grueling. Im out in D.C. four days a week, and then Im back with Rachel." Traveling around his district meeting people, he said, "we get beat up a little bit as members of Congress. Were a favorite punching bag." On The Real World, "I was forced to live with people who were so different than me," he told NCTA in May 2019. "When I first got there, I saw the stark differences I had with my roommates. But when I left, I realized I had way more in common with them than I ever imagined." He compared the experience to crossing the aisle in Congress: "It's amazing the kind of legislation you can work on together and how many points of agreement you actually have." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Self-described "energy nerd" Chris Wright is the founder of Pinnacle Technologies, which, according to his Energy Department bio, "created the hydraulic fracture [a.k.a. fracking] mapping industry." Before his cabinet nomination, he served as CEO of Liberty Energy, the United States' second-largest fracking company. Wright"a passionate father, grandfather, skier, cyclist, climber, and outdoor enthusiast," per his bioand wife Liz Wright lived in Colorado before relocating to D.C. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon Linda McMahon (nee Edwards) was 17 when she married 21-year-old husband Vince McMahon in 1966, after she finished high school. She studied to be a French teacher but ended up co-running the family business, World Wrestling Entertainment, from 1980 until 2009. McMahon served as Administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019 during Trump's first term. After he was elected again in 2024, the grandmother of six co-chaired his transition team and was picked to head up the U.S. Department of Educationwhich Trump wants to dismantle. "I'm really all for the presidents mission, which is to return education to the states, McMahon told the New York Times. I believe, as he does, that the best education is closest to the child." While they're still married, McMahon's attorney confirmed in November 2024 that the former WWE executive and her husband are separated, according to the Washington Post. Their son Shane McMahon and daughter Stephanie McMahon are both former professional wrestlers and son-in-law Paul "Triple H" Levesque is chief content officer of WWE. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins U.S. Air Force Reserve Col. Doug Collins is a lawyer and former Georgia State House representative, congressman and military chaplain. But, according to his VA bio, he's "foremost a husband to Lisa and father to daughter Jordan and sons Copelan and Cameron." Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem Governor of South Dakota since 2019, Kristi Noem was rumored to be on the short list of possible running mates for Trump in 2024, until she wrote about shooting her family's unruly dog in her memoir No Going Back. Unfazed by controversy, Trump picked Noem, who also served in Congress from 2011 to 2019 and sat on the House Armed Services Committee, to head up the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for protecting the United States from internal and external threats. The onetime South Dakota Snow Queen married husband Bryon Noem in 1992 and they share three children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App Entrepreneur and mega MAGA donor Elon Musk allegedly used mind-altering drugs on a frequent basis while campaigning for President Donald Trump in 2024, according to a detailed report. The conspiracy theory-peddling billionaire, who spent nearly $300 million to put back Trump in power often garnering headlines of his own on the campaign trail traveled with ketamine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and what appeared to be Adderall, according to The New York Times. Its unclear if he was using drugs while running Trumps Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) prior to announcing he was leaving the administration this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His behavior during his brief period with DOGE was at times seen as peculiar and concerning, such as when he ran around onstage with a chainsaw at a February conference. He showed up to the White House on Friday with a black eye, which he blamed on being punched by his 5-year-old son, Lil X, while horsing around. The 53-year-old right-wing activist has admitted to occasional ketamine use, but described his intake as moderate. The Drug Enforcement Agency describes ketamine as a dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects. Its known to distort perceptions of sight and sound and make a user feel disconnected and out of control. According to the New York Times, Musk told associates he used the drug so often if was causing bladder issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adderall is a prescribed stimulant generally used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD), though some people take it recreationally. The Food and Drug Administration warns the drug should be used sparingly and that patients using Adderall should be monitored for worsening of aggressive behavior or hostility. The New York Times notes that the period in which Musk practically traveled with his own pharmacy coincided with stressful issues in his personal life, including public revelations that hed fathered more than a dozen kids and hoped to create a legion of offspring. Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair was in a Manhattan court on Thursday as part of her ongoing custody battle regarding one of those children, whom she gave birth to in the fall. Musk responded to the Times report by trying to undermine the papers credibility in front of White House reporters Friday. Lets move on, he quipped. _____ While he spent tens of millions of dollars boosting Donald Trumps presidential campaign working his way to a prominent inner-circle role Elon Musk was reportedly using drugs intensely and regularly, including chronically using the powerful anesthetic ketamine to the point where it affected his bladder. The worlds wealthiest man who is leaving the White House this week after deploying an army of loyalists across the federal government to fire workers and slash budgets was allegedly using ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and Adderall, which he kept in a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, sources told The New York Times. The sources were not able to say if Musk was allegedly using drugs when he entered the White House as a senior adviser to the president weeks later, while leading the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the newspapers reporting notes his erratic behavior in the days leading up to and after Trump entered office, including gestures on inauguration day that mirrored Nazi salutes, his repeated clashes with top administration officials and cabinet members, and his increasingly tumultuous family life, including custody battles and the revelation of his 14th child. The billionaire experienced frequent mood swings and a fixation on having more children, according to the NYT, citing interviews, private messages obtained by the newspaper, and photographs allegedly showing Musks drug stash. Elon Musk was reportedly intensely using drugs including ketamine, ecstasy, Adderall and mushrooms during Trumps campaign (AFP/Getty) The Independent has requested comment from an attorney for Musk. During an appearance alongside the president inside the Oval Office on Friday, Musk spoke over a question about the NYT report before the reporter could outline the allegations in it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? said Musk, referring to the newspapers coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump and his allies have pushed the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the award. That New York Times? Lets move on, Musk said. The White House did not respond to The Independents questions about the allegations and whether the president was aware of them, but principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields hailed Musks work to cut waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Few CEOs in America would leave the comfort of the C-suite to serve in the federal government, he said. In just four months, Elon has accomplished more for American taxpayers than many career politicians a fact often overlooked by the legacy media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said he doesnt have any concerns about the allegations. All I can say is that DOGE has done an extraordinary job rooting out systemic waste, graft, grift and corruption from the federal government, and youre going to hear from the president today his thanks to Elon Musk for leading that effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars, he told CNN on Friday. Musk has previously publicly admitted to using a small amount of ketamine, but he has allegedly used the drug daily while mixing it with other drugs, according to the newspaper, citing people familiar with his drug use, which has been troubling some people close to him. He also took ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms at private gatherings across the United States and in at least one other country, the NYT reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around the same time he publicly endorsed Trump last July, Musk was using ketamine to the point where it was causing bladder issues, according to the newspaper. Weeks after Trumps inauguration, Musk was on stage at Februarys Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wearing sunglasses and a black Make America Great Again hat while wielding a chainsaw. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, he said. Asked to describe what is inside the billionaires mind, he said at the time: My mind is a storm. Its a storm. Musk said his mind is a storm during a bizarre appearance at Februarys CPAC after Trumps inauguration (AP) The billionaire spent more than $300m on Trumps campaign last year, including handing out oversized $1m checks to voters in swing states, before spending millions more to support conservative candidates across the country in 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ahead of Aprils state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, he wore cheesehead hats at rallies and made legally dubious pledges to personally hand voters $1m checks and give out $50 to anyone who takes a picture of themselves outside a voting booth. He frequently described the race in apocalyptic terms, warning that the destiny of humanity and future of the world were at stake. But his $20m efforts to support a conservative candidate evaporated. Liberal justice Susan Crawford handily defeated Musks choice. The billionaire spent millions of dollars promoting a conservative candidate in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race that he frequently described in apocalyptic terms (AFP/Getty) On the campaign trail, Musk predicted hardship for Americans under Trumps economic agenda. Musk and his DOGE team shredded foreign aid, gutted consumer protections and throttled funding for libraries, public health research and combating homelessness, among other programs, while collecting taxpayer information and other sensitive data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk and Trump have characterized DOGE, operating as the U.S. Doge Service, formerly the U.S. Digital Service, as tech support to end waste, fraud and abuse. But DOGE has swept through government agencies without any apparent supervision to reshape, and crush, a bureaucracy Musk despises. The pace and scope of those initial actions have led to intense public scrutiny and a mountain of lawsuits that have thrust the billionaire into more than a dozen legal battles, drawing sharp rebukes from federal judges across the country. The worlds wealthiest man allegedly experienced severe mood swings and obsessed over having more children while using drugs on the campaign trail, troubling people close to him (AP) He announced his departure from the White House this week, the end of a 130-day special government employee status, which can be renewed next year. DOGE, meanwhile, remains embedded across the federal government with a mandate from the president to recommend drastic cuts in spending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the entire cabinet remains committed to DOGE. Thats why they were working hand in hand with Elon Musk, and theyll continue to work with the respective DOGE employees who have onboarded as political appointees at all of these agencies, she said. So surely, the mission of DOGE will continue. Elon Musk has parted ways with President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, claiming his teams efforts saved $160 billion for taxpayers. However, while in the Oval Office on Friday, Musk admitted that slashing federal spending was a lot of work. He also claimed a bruise on his eye came from his five-year-old son, X, after playfully asking the boy to punch him in the face. According to Elon Musk, you can take him out of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but you cant take DOGE out of the government any time soon. The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time and the DOGE influence will only grow stronger, said Musk, wearing a black T-shirt that said, Dogefather and a black DOGE cap. He compared it to Buddhism, and said DOGE is now a way of life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk joined President Donald Trump for a final press briefing with reporters on Friday to mark Musks last day as a special government employeeand also explained away a bruise near his right eye as the result of playing with his young son, X, and asking the boy to punch me in the face. Musks stint was to last 130 days, and his time is up, he said. He claimed victory and said DOGE was responsible for $160 billion in savings for 2025-2026 and predicted the figure could eventually reach $200 billion. Musk had previously pledged to save $2 trillion while on the campaign trail with Trump, later scaling it back to $1 trillion. On Friday, Musk said he was confident that there would be $1 trillion in waste reduction over time. Musk admitted on his final day as a special government employee that cutting costs was difficult because of the sheer scale of issues to sift through. Its mostly just a lot of work, going through really millions of line items and saying, Does this expenditure make sense or does it not make sense? he said, standing next to the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office while Trump sat behind it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic state leaders cheered Musks departure. In a statement, Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs said DOGE was never about fiscal responsibility. Inside or outside the White House, Musk remains a symbol of the naked greed of those in Trumps administration, said Frerichs. Trump continues to prioritize the ultra-rich over Americans who live paycheck to paycheck and face unemployment and homelessness. Oregon Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner said Tesla, where Musk is the CEO, desperately needs his focus. DOGE was a distraction for Mr. Musk, which neither America nor Tesla could afford, said Steiner in a statement. DOGE has cost Americans thousands of jobs, pulled the plug on life-saving medical research, and interrupted vital services like Social Security that provide economic lifelines for families and communities. Mr. Musk should do what he does bestbe an innovator and an entrepreneur. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A group of investors sent a letter this week to Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm, asking the board to ensure that Musk worked full time at Tesla. Any new compensation plan offered to CEO Musk should include a commitment to devote a minimum of 40 hours per week to the management of the company, the letter stated. Musk told investors last month that he would reallocate more time for the electric vehicle manufacturer. On Friday, he said he would make himself available to Trump informally whenever the president needed him as a friend and an adviser. Elon is not really leaving, said Trump. Hes going to be back and forth. I think, I have a feelingits his baby, and I think hes going to be doing a lot of things. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump and Musk both said the majority of the DOGE team would remain. Musk said DOGE work wasnt without challenges. In addition to the massive review needed, Musk said DOGE encountered resistance to spending cuts while also claiming there were hardly any complaints at all for some cost cutting. Obviously, at times, when you cut expenses, those who are receiving the money, whether theyre receiving that money legitimately or not, they do complain, said Musk. On the other hand, he said DOGE found that there were millions of software licenses with zero people using them, and that some expenditures DOGE slashed resulted in no complaints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also lamented the fact that DOGE became what he called a scapegoat for government cuts, and got blamed for things he had nothing to do with Musk said a friends daughter, who is an intern, thought DOGE cut funding for legal internships with the U.S. Senate. We have nothing to do with that, said Musk. It just became a bit ridiculous where anything, any cut, anywhere, was attributed to DOGE, including things that made no sense, and we would agree, made no sense. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Tech billionaire Elon Musk officially announced Wednesday that his time as a top adviser in the Trump administration has come to an end. He will hold press conference with the president today. Musks departure from the Department of Government Efficiency marks the end of a bumpy chapter that included thousands of layoffs of federal employees, the shuttering of various agencies and a firestorm of challenges both in the courts and at his companies. Musk took a leading role in the administration with promises to reduce wasteful government spending and end the tyranny of bureaucracy. As he leaves his post to return focus to his business ventures, was he successful with his goals for DOGE? Musks departure Musk has been leading the department since President Donald Trumps inauguration day in January as a special government employee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A special government employee is someone within the executive branch or federal government who is appointed to serve for a period not exceeding 130 days during a period of 365 consecutive days, meaning Musks tenure at DOGE would come to an end around this time. Musk shared earlier this month during a Tesla earnings call that his time allocation to DOGE would drop significantly as shares have fallen this year at Tesla and he shifts focus to his rocket company SpaceX. At first, it was unknown when Musk would take a step back from his position with DOGE, but he announced Wednesday on X, the social platform he owns, that his scheduled time as a special government employee was coming to an end. I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, Musk wrote. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025 Musk, the worlds richest person, rose to political fame over the last year after spending at least $250 million on Trumps 2024 campaign. His influence grew after being appointed to lead DOGE and he was viewed as a key player in Republican Party politics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, his efforts to influence the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April did not pan out. Musk spent at least $3 million of his own money to elect the conservative candidate, gave out $1 million checks through his America PAC and spent more through various groups, but the state elected the liberal candidate in the race, dealing a political blow to Musk. In May, Musk said he would be spending a lot less on political campaigns in the future than he did before, saying he thinks hes done enough. He also criticized the Trump-backed big, beautiful bill. Spending and workforce cuts One of Musks leading goals was to reduce federal spending. Musk and DOGE acted at lightning speed to enact changes across agencies and departments, leaving Congress scrambling to keep up and workers wondering if they would be cut next. While Musk celebrated DOGEs cuts to the federal budget, critics said the savings came at a price and watchdogs question the numbers, reasoning and logistics behind DOGEs reporting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk first promised to cut spending by $2 trillion, which he later reduced to $1 trillion and then down to about $150 billion, The Associated Press reported. As of May 26, DOGE shared it saved an estimated $175 billion through a combination of asset sales, contract and lease cancellations, fraud and improper payment deletion, programmatic changes, workforce reductions and more. DOGE said it has saved the average taxpayer $1,086 through the cuts, its website said. However, DOGE has not said where the remaining spending cuts would come from, and a BBC analysis in April found just $61.5 billion of the total savings were itemized so far. Despite Musk and Trump insisting the administration would cut back on Biden-era spending, a CBS News report found the government spent over $200 billion more in Trumps first 100 days compared to 2024 spending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a New York Times analysis of layoffs, nearly 60,000 federal workers have been laid off. About 76,000 took DOGEs buyout offer and nearly 150,000 more are expected to be impacted by reduction plans for the federal workforce. Some of the largest cuts come from DOGEs dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Voice of America, AmeriCorps, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education, the analysis found. DOGE said on its website that it terminated nearly 500 real estate leases, totaling $216 million in savings. Nearly 50 Social Security Administration offices are expected to close within the year, even as the agency looks to require in-person identity checks in field offices for new and existing beneficiaries, with some exceptions. The changes will require people to make more trips to understaffed field offices, a new study found. Legal challenges While Musk and DOGE have faced fierce pushback from Democrats in Congress and protesters across the country for the cuts, several of the departments actions have held up in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a New York Times roundup of legal dockets, there are more than two dozen open cases against Musk and DOGEs actions, over various issues including shuttering the U.S. Institute of Peace, the department gaining access to Americans data and the American Privacy Act, mass layoffs and more. The legal battles have already begun to play out in the courts. Thousands of people fired by DOGE earlier this year were reinstated in February after a court order, but later decisions from the Supreme Court and an appeals court blocked the lower court ruling that would have reinstated the workers. Some of Musks critics are pointing to the legal battles as a reason for him leaving the administration, noting how the cases are setbacks to DOGEs efforts. What people are saying Musks departure from the administration was largely uneventful after he shared the news online later Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that Musks off-boarding process began Wednesday evening and the tech CEO did not have a formal conversation with Trump before his announcement. Musks departure was decided at a senior staff level, Reuters reported. Musk and Trump are expected to hold a press conference together on Friday. The Trump administration and GOP allies insist that Musks effort to downsize the government was effective. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed Musks departure during Thursdays press briefing, saying the administration thanks him for his service and getting DOGE off of the ground. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The departments efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse will continue, Leavitt said. Utah Sen. Mike Lee shared several posts online praising Musks time in the administration. Lee thanked Musk for his service and said he was confident that Musks critics will live to see him proven right. Thank you for everything you have done, and will continue to do, for our country, Elon, Lee said in a separate post. This is just the beginning. Thank you for everything you have done, and will continue to do, for our country, Elon. This is just the beginning. https://t.co/N2RMkeJL27 Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) May 29, 2025 Musks critics also weighed in on his step back from the administration. Former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen dismissed the idea that Musk was retreating from DOGE because his 130-day timeline as a special government employee was up. Eisen argued that the legal battles facing Musk and DOGE were the real reason he is leaving his post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Give me a break, Musk is not leaving because his scheduled time is up, Eisen shared Wednesday on BlueSky. The litigation held him accountable, & for that & other reasons he became politically unpopular & a liability. Attorney and fierce Trump critic George Conway agreed with Eisen, noting that the 130-day limit just happened to be the one law Musk complied with. Conway said Musk clashed with the courts and public opinion of him dropped, saying good riddance. After posting his farewell message on Wednesday, Musk spent Thursday posting on X about his other business ventures, including Tesla, SpaceX and Xs AI tool grok. Los Chapitos have become an endangered species. Only a few of their top bosses the very ones immortalized in corridos for a few pesos or whose initials adorn caps sold on the streets of Culiacan are still standing. Imprisoned, killed, extradited to the U.S., or voluntarily surrendered to U.S. authorities as part of plea deals to reduce sentences, the Sinaloa Cartel faction is rapidly vanishing. Only two leaders Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and his brother Jesus Alfredo remain at large. But they are increasingly cornered by Mexicos security forces, who take daily pride in announcing new arrests and deaths of the traffickers whom Washington has identified as key figures behind the fentanyl crisis. Security personnel with Moises Barnabe Barraza, alias 'Berna', Noe Moreno Montes, alias 'Pinpon', Jesus Ivan Robles Meraz, and Luis Antonio Ibarra Payan, members of Los Chapitos this Thursday in Sinaloa. SSPC The latest high-profile figure to fall within Los Chapitos is Moises Barnabe Barraza Acosta, aka Berna or Chupon, described by authorities on Thursday as the leader of the criminal cell dedicated to contract killings and drug trafficking. Alongside the 31-year-old, a joint security forces operation in Culiacan also arrested three other criminals: Noe Moreno Montes, aka Pinpon, 27; Jesus Ivan Robles Meraz, 29; and Luis Antonio Ibarra Payan, 31. They were found heavily armed though perhaps less so than one might expect from the leader of a hit squad with four long guns, 18 magazines, tire spikes, four bulletproof vests, and a stolen vehicle equipped with compartments for tire spikes. Los Chapitos named so because their leaders are the sons of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the worlds most powerful drug trafficker until his third capture and extradition to the United States, where he is serving a life sentence gained strength precisely after El Chapos fall. For Washington, they became one of the faces responsible for flooding U.S. streets with fentanyl. The White House declared war on them. In 2023, the State Department filed charges against 28 cartel members, and the prosecution sought life sentences without parole for their three leaders: Ivan Archivaldo, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez. Months earlier, in January of that year, Ovidio known as El Raton was captured in Culiacan during a difficult operation that his men responded to with gunfire and burning cars throughout the city. It was the second time authorities had tried to apprehend him, following the 2019 event known as Culiacanazo, when, after Ovidio was already in custody, then-Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was forced to order his release because his followers threatened to raze the city. After his final arrest and the ensuing U.S. legal battle, the cartels fate was sealed. El Raton was extradited to the United States in September 2023. And negotiations with the U.S. justice system began. The following summer, an unexpected move tipped the fragile balance of the Sinaloa criminal world. One of his brothers, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, kidnapped Ismael El Mayo Zambada, the historic capo of the Sinaloa Cartel, former partner of El Chapo, and the only one of his generation who had never been imprisoned. Guzman Lopez forced him onto a plane against his will, and both surrendered to U.S. authorities at a small airport near El Paso. El Mayo denounced the kidnapping through his lawyer, citing a violation of Mexican national sovereignty, played his cards, and is now negotiating a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. All signs suggest that Guzman Lopez is also negotiating with the U.S. Department of Justice, which has already confirmed that it will not seek the death penalty against him. Ovidio Guzman is extradited to the United States in 2023. Cortesia The betrayal of El Mayo unleashed a war between his loyalists, known as La Mayiza, and Los Chapitos. Since the dispute erupted on September 9, Sinaloa has recorded 1,369 murders and just as many arrests, according to the daily tally by the newspaper Noroeste, a key source for coverage of violence in the state. In October, Claudia Sheinbaum took office as Mexicos president and dramatically shifted the security strategy of her predecessor, Lopez Obrador. With Omar Garcia-Harfuch, her security czar, leading the efforts and under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump high-profile arrests and seizures have surged in Sinaloa, particularly targeting Los Chapitos, which is now on the brink following months of attacks. El Chapos sons are well aware of their decline. Earlier this month, Ovidio Guzman reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to plead guilty to drug trafficking in exchange for providing information to the authorities. The details of the negotiation remain unclear, but just days later, 17 relatives of El Raton crossed the border into California, including Griselda Guadalupe Lopez, his mother, El Chapos ex-wife, and once one of the Sinaloa Cartels main operatives. The news unsettled the Mexican government, just as the kidnapping of El Mayo had done months earlier. The capture of Moises Barnabe Berna is just the latest chapter in a series of arrests that have raised suspicions for targeting Los Chapitos disproportionately. According to EL PAISs tally based on official figures, by the end of May, the Security Ministry had reported the arrest of 72 Chapitos compared to 23 Mayitos a count that does not include those killed. On the same day as Bernas arrest, another high-profile capture took place in Sinaloa. In Los Mochis, an operation apprehended Juan Pablo El Payo Bastidas Erenas, a high-ranking member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, who was working for Oscar El Musico Manuel Gastelum, and Fausto El Chapo Isidro Isidro Meza. The Beltran Leyva cartel was powerful years ago, but now survives amid fragile alliances and betrayals. Last weekend, Garcia Harfuch announced the death of Jorge Humberto Figueroa, aka El Perris, one of Los Chapitos top field operators, head of security, and a key figure behind the Culiacanazo calling it part of the strategy to build peace. The recent capture of Berna underscores Los Chapitos downward spiral, as their ranks continue to shrink and they become increasingly trapped. If their leader, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, has avoided the same fate, its because he narrowly escaped the authorities through a tunnel just as his father did years earlier, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal. What remains of Los Chapitos is desperately trying to survive through alleged alliances with old enemies like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Anything to avoid extinction. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition A Japanese pop star is among the many women Elon Musk has fathered children with, according to a wide-ranging report about the billionaires role in the Trump administration. The claim was made by Ashley St. Claire, a right-wing influencer who shares Musks 14th known child, according to a paternity test she revealed. St. Claire, 26, told The New York Times that Musk told her he had fathered children around the world, including one with a Japanese pop star. The musician was not named in the article. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said Musk told her he would be willing to give his sperm to anyone who wanted to have a child. He made it seem like it was just his altruism, and he generally believed these people should just have children, St. Clair said. The Independent has contacted Musks representatives for comment. Elon Musk reportedly also shares a child with a Japanese pop star (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The news follows a Wall Street Journal expose in April, which suggested that the actual number of Musks children was much higher than whats publicly known. According to text messages seen by the Journal in a 2023 meeting, Musk claimed that Japanese officials had asked him to be a sperm donor for a high-profile woman. They want me to be a sperm donor. No romance or anything, just sperm, read the text message to St. Clair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The outlet reported that Musk later told St. Clair that he had given his sperm to the person who asked for it, but did not name the woman. The worlds richest man, who is a vocal pro-natalist, has at least 14 children via four different women who are already publicly known, including the musician Grimes and Shivon Zilis, an executive at his brain-computer company Neuralink. Elsewhere in The New York Times report, sources told the paper that Musk was using drugs intensely and regularly during his work with Donald Trumps Department of Government Efficiency, including so much ketamine that it was affecting his bladder. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, and traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, the Times reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Independent has requested comment from an attorney for Musk. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said he doesnt have any concerns about the allegations. All I can say is that DOGE has done an extraordinary job rooting out systemic waste, graft, grift and corruption from the federal government, and you're going to hear from the president today his thanks to Elon Musk for leading that effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars, he told CNN on Friday. Elon Musk's urinary prowess was once the stuff of legend. "Everything he does is fast," former SpaceX engineer Brogan BamBrogan told Musk biographer Ashlee Vance for his 2015 biography of the entrepreneur. "He pees fast. Its like a fire hose three seconds and out. Hes authentically in a hurry." But according to the New York Times, his indulgences in the powerful tranquilizer ketamine reached such new heights during his chaotic tenure as the de facto head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that it's started affecting his bladder, a known side effect of heavy use of the anaesthetic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk's ketamine habit was reportedly causing already bladder issues around the time he publicly endorsed Trump in July, though he'd been dabbling for some time, previously saying that he uses the drug to treat depression. "If youve used too much ketamine, you cant really get work done, and I have a lot of work," he told journalist Don Lemon last year. But what the billionaire deems as "too much" appears to be murky at best. According to the NYT, he has taken a lot of ketamine as of late, sometimes daily, and even mixing it with other substances (ecstasy, Adderall, and hallucinogenic mushrooms were name-checked in the NYT's most recent reporting, though Musk has also been linked to other substances including cocaine.) In other words, the line between medical and recreational use of ketamine and other drugs has become extremely blurry, especially with a haze of dubious science surrounding therapeutic use of the horse tranquilizer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The known side effects of chronic ketamine use certainly line up with Musk's bizarre behavior, from short- and long-term memory issues to becoming "distinctly dissociated in their day-to-day existence," as psychopharmacology researcher Celia Morgan told The Atlantic earlier this year. The drug can also lead to delusional thinking and becoming convinced that users are receiving secret messages. On a physical level, long-term use can lead to some degree of tolerance, physical dependence, and withdrawal when use suddenly stops, according to the American Addiction Centers. While studies have yet to establish any definitive causal links, scientists have previously linked prolonged use to declines in executive functioning and emotional swings, as well as changes in the structure and function of the brain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And then there are the plumbing issues. A 2012 study found that recreational use of ketamine can lead to "ketamine bladder syndrome," which "includes a small, very painful bladder, frequency, incontinence, [blood in urine], upper tract obstruction," and papillary necrosis, a kidney disorder. As the BBC reported last year, health practitioners observed an alarming increase in bladder issues among young people in the UK due to the chronic use of the drug, with people in their 20s unable to walk prolonged distances without having to go to the toilet. "Do you feel like you ever abuse it?" Lemon asked Musk last year. "I dont think so," Musk replied. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "How often do you take it?" Lemon probed. "Itd be like a small amount once every other week or something like that," Musk said. More on Musk and ketamine: Ex-FBI Agent: Elon Musk's Drug Habit Made Him an Easy Target for Russian Spies NEED TO KNOW Elon Musk showed up with a noticeable black eye during his May 30 press conference with President Donald Trump. The press conference marked the end of Musk's tenure in the Trump administration after four months of heading up the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk, who was also sporting a "DOGE" hat and "Dogefather" T-shirt, claimed that his 5-year-old son X A-12 was the source of his bruise. Elon Musk and President Donald Trump gave a joint press conference at the White House on Friday, May 30, to mark the end of Musk's tenure as a special government employee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The press conference began with Trump extolling the victories of the first four months of his second term in office, however, most eyes were on Musk. For the Oval Office occasion, the Tesla CEO sported a "DOGE" hat referencing his role heading up the Department of Government Efficiency and a T-shirt that read "The Dogefather" in The Godfather movie's font. Most notably, though, Musk arrived with an immediately noticeable bruise on his right eye. Speculation over the black eye quickly went viral on social media, with many on Musk's X platform questioning what had happened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Is it just me or does @elonmusk look a bit bruised up on his right eye?" one user wondered. "Did he get into a tussle or something?" AP Photo/Evan Vucci Elon Musk attends news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on May 30, 2025 Elon Musk attends news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on May 30, 2025 Musk's AI-generated X reply bot, grok, answered most users' questions by saying, "There's no confirmed evidence of a bruise on Elon Musk's eye as of May 30, 2025." Later, when answering questions from the press, one reporter asked if Musk would explain what happened to his face. AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump looks up as Elon Musk speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office on May 30, 2025 President Donald Trump looks up as Elon Musk speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office on May 30, 2025 After attempting a joke that he wasn't "anywhere near France" when it happened a reference to French President Emmanuel Macron's viral slapping incident with his wife, Brigitte, on May 25 Musk hesitated for a moment about sharing the backstory, during which President Trump remarked that he didn't notice the injury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After a few seconds, Musk said that he got the bruise while roughhousing with his 5-year-old son, X A-12, whom he calls "Little X." "I was walking around with Little X and I said, 'Go ahead and punch me in the face,' and he did," Musk claimed. "I didn't really feel much at the time but I guess it bruises up." Anna Moneymaker/Getty Elon Musk arrives with his son X before a meeting with members of the U.S. Congress Dec. 5, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Elon Musk arrives with his son X before a meeting with members of the U.S. Congress Dec. 5, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Friday's press conference came just hours after The New York Times released a bombshell report about Musk's alleged drug habits while he was working his way into Trump's inner circle. Citing sources close to the SpaceX CEO, the Times claims that Musk admitted to people around him that he used ketamine frequently, sometimes daily, to the point that it had started to damage his bladder. A September 2022 study by the National Institute of Health notes that "significant side effects on the urinary tract are associated with frequent recreational ketamine use." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the newspaper, Musk also allegedly used ecstasy and hallucinogenic mushrooms, and was known to travel with a pill box that contained Adderall, the ADHD treatment drug, which can be a stimulant for some. The Times' sources pin Musk's drug abuse to 2024, as the SpaceX CEO was ramping up support for Trump's reelection campaign, donating nearly $275 million. It's unclear whether or not the alleged drug use followed him into the White House, however, public displays of erratic behavior such as proudly displaying a Nazi-like salute and wielding a chainsaw onstage at a political conference continued after the inauguration. When asked about the New York Times article by reporters on Friday, Musk immediately interrupted the question to fire back at the outlet. New York Times, is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? Is it the same organization? I think it is! he said. I think the judge just ruled against the New York Times for their lies about the Russiagate hoax, and that they might have to give back that Pulitzer Prize." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has previously claimed that the Times and The Washington Post won Pulitzers for "totally incorrect reporting" about alleged collaboration between members of Trump's inner circle and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Read the original article on People The newly approved city of Starbase is apparently looking to ramp up development, telling some residents they may lose the right to continue using their property as a result of a proposed zoning ordinance for a mixed-use space, according to a memo published by CNBC. Starbase is home to SpaceXs Starship launch site, and the majority of its residents are employees of Elon Musks company. Starbase, the fledgling Texas city home to Elon Musks SpaceX, appears to be making rapid moves to advance its development. The city has notified some residents it is considering a new zoning ordinance that may require residents to lose access to their property, according to a city memo published by CNBC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city of Starbase is holding a hearing that will determine whether you may lose the right to continue using your property for its current use, please read this notice carefully, newly hired city administrator Kent Myers, the memos author, said. Starbase serves as the headquarters of SpaceX and launch site of its Starship program, which has the ultimate goal of transporting passengers on flights to the moon and Mars. Earlier this month, about 200 of the 283 residents in the area eligible to votethe majority of which were SpaceX employeesapproved a proposal to turn the coastal South Texas land into the city of Starbase. The Cameron County city, once the town of Boca Chica Village, will likely have about 500 residents, more than half of whom will be SpaceX employees. Many others will be family members of the employees. The citys leadership also has connections with Musk, including Mayor Robert Peden, a 12-year SpaceX veteran. The city is looking to develop a space that is a blend of residential, office, retail, and small-scale service uses. Residents who were sent the memo own property within the proposed zoning map. Starbase is scheduled to convene on June 23 to discuss the zoning ordinance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our goal is to ensure that the zoning plan reflects the Citys vision for balanced growth, protecting critical economic drivers, ensuring public safety, and preserving green spaces, the memo said. In the past few years, Musk has transformed some Texas towns by moving company operations to the red state that boasts few regulations and low taxes. Beyond being a hub for SpaceX, the state is also home to a research and development center for Musks tunneling venture the Boring Company, and will soon also house the headquarters of his social media platform, X. SpaceX, the city of Starbase, and Myers did not respond to Fortunes requests for comment. Starbases bumpy landing As Starbase grows, so too does SpaceXs launch plans. Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceXs request to increase its annual launches from five to 25. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not all launches have gone smoothly. The companys mega rocket Starship launches have resulted in a string of explosions, most recently on Tuesday, when a 403-foot rocket spun out of control before crashing into the Indian Ocean. SpaceXs launches take place near Boca Chica Beach, to which the Texas Senate recently allowed authorities to close off access during the launches. Republican state Sen. Adam Hinojosa introduced a separate bill that would allow Starbase to close the beach on weekdays, while Cameron County officials would have the authority on beach hours on the weekend. While many local officials have been supportive of Musks expansion to the Lone Star State and hopeful of the economic potential of the investment, not everyone is of the same opinion. The increased launch activityand rise of ensuing beach closureshas drawn the ire of some locals, who are concerned Starbases growing control of the beach makes it less accessible to those who enjoy it, as well as to the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, to whom the beach holds spiritual significance. The entire system is kind of designed to basically give them a de facto private beach, Rob Nixon, vice chair of the South Texas chapter of environmental nonprofit the Surfrider Foundation, told the Texas Tribune. Public safetys one thing, but to use public safety against the public to close it downits not genuine. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Elon Musk was using drugs far more intensely than previously known, while helping Donald Trump successfully campaign to get back in the White House last year, The New York Times reported on Friday. Musk was taking ketamine, Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, the newspaper reports, adding that his drug consumption went well beyond occasional use, possibly including the stimulant Adderall. More from The Hollywood Reporter Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He reportedly told people he was taking so much ketamine, it was affecting his bladder, the Times reports, noting that this is a known effect of chronic use. The drug use allegedly took place as Musk was dealing with drama in his relationships with the mothers of his various children. The Times pointed to Claire Boucher, the musician known as Grimes and mother of three of Musks children, jostling for control of their 5 year-old son, X. The child appeared alongside his father in the Oval Office and at other high-profile political events. Ms. Boucher has privately complained that the appearances violate a custody settlement in which she and Mr. Musk agreed to try to keep their children out of the public eye, according to people familiar with her concerns and the provision, which has not been previous reported, the Times writes. She has told people that she worries about the boys safety and that frequent travel and sleep deprivation are harming his health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times also stated it was unclear whether the controversial Tesla and SpaceX CEO had been taking drugs while participating in Trumps second administration, including by leading its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. With a focus on Musk backing Trumps earlier re-election effort, the Times said interviews with insiders and private messages obtained by its reporters revealed some people who knew him worried about his frequent drug use, mood swings and fixation on having more children. Musk and his lawyer didnt respond to requests for comment from the Times about his drug use and personal life and The White House, the Times reports, didnt respond to questions about whether it had asked Musk to take drug tests. Though, after the Times article was published, the newspaper notes that White House spokesman Harrison Fields issued a statement crediting Musk with cutting government waste but didnt comment on his drug use. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk has a history of recreational drug use, The Wall Street Journal reported last year. During his headline-making sit-down with Don Lemon in March 2024, the former CNN anchor pushed him on his drug use. Musk said he only took a small amount of ketamine, roughly once every other week, as prescribed for times when he had a negative frame of mind. If youve used too much ketamine, you cant really get work done, and I have a lot of work, he said. The Times found he had developed a far more serious habit and people familiar with his drug use said he was taking it often, sometimes daily and mixing it with other drugs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The line between medical use and recreation was blurry, troubling some people close to him, the Times reported. Musk also poured his own money into Trumps re-election campaign. The SpaceX owner at one point apparently committed to donating $45 million a month to support Trump, although he later denied making that pledge. He then began channeling his money into a pro-Trump political action committee, AmericaPAC. Musks rightward political turn and related online antics, including on his X, formerly Twitter, platform, coincided with a severe dent in brand images and sales for Tesla cars and his other businesses. The tech billionaire on Wednesday said he was ending his work with the government and focusing on his Tesla and SpaceX companies. On Saturday, Musk posted on X, I am NOT taking drugs! The New York Times was lying their ass off. I tried *prescription* ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but havent taken it since then. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response, The New York Times Commmunications X account wrote, Elon Musk is just lashing out because he doesnt like our article. We provided Musk with multiple opportunities to reply or rebut this reporting before publication and he declined, opting instead to try to distract with a social post and no evidence. June 2, 12:23 p.m. This story has been updated with Musks X post that hes not taking drugs and The New York Times response. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Sign up for THR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NEED TO KNOW A new report from The New York Times alleges that Elon Musk was abusing drugs as he ramped up support for Donald Trump's 2024 reelection campaign and donated millions to the cause. According to the Times, sources close to Musk allege that he was using ketamine frequently, sometimes daily, to the point that it began to damage his bladder. The 53-year-old tech billionaire was also said to use hallucinogenic mushrooms, ecstasy and the prescription stimulant Adderall, per the report. Elon Musk's time on the campaign trail for Donald Trump coincided with a period of increased drug abuse, according to new reporting by The New York Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times cites sources close to the 53-year-old tech billionaire, who allege that Musk admitted to using ketamine frequently, sometimes daily, to the point that it had started to damage his bladder. A September 2022 study by the National Institute of Health notes that "significant side effects on the urinary tract are associated with frequent recreational ketamine use." Musk also allegedly used ecstasy and hallucinogenic mushrooms, and was reportedly known to travel with a pill box that contained Adderall, the ADHD treatment drug, which can be a stimulant for some. The Times' sources pin Musk's drug abuse to 2024, as the SpaceX CEO was ramping up support for Trump's reelection campaign, donating nearly $275 million. It's unclear whether or not the alleged habits followed him to Trump's White House, where he spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency over the past four months. PEOPLE attempted to reach Musk and his lawyers for comment about the report. ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025 Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025 In a March 2024 interview with Don Lemon, Musk admitted to using ketamine, but said he only did the a small amount of the drug about once every two weeks, as a prescribed treatment for depressive moods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If youve used too much ketamine, you cant really get work done, and I have a lot of work, he said at the time. However, some friends and acquaintances remain skeptical about Musk's well-being. Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more, said Philip Low, a neuroscientist and former friend of the tech guru, who previously criticized him for the Nazi-like gesture he displayed onstage during Trump's second inauguration. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whether or not Musk was using drugs while leading DOGE, his public displays of erratic behavior continued after he became a top White House adviser in January. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Musk wielded a chainsaw on stage, engraved with the slogan Viva la libertad, carajo, which is Spanish for Long live liberty, damn it. The power tool had been gifted to him by Javier Milei, the president of Argentina. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, he told the crowd. Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Elon Musk wields a chainsaw onstage at CPAC on Feb. 20, 2025 Elon Musk wields a chainsaw onstage at CPAC on Feb. 20, 2025 The new reporting about Musk's alleged drug use broke on the morning of Musk's final day as an official member of the Trump administration, hours before he was scheduled to do a farewell press conference with the president in the Oval Office about his time with DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, Musk posted to X on May 28. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Musk's time at DOGE always had an endpoint his 130-day mandate as a special government employee in the Trump administration expired on May 30. However, until his announcement on May 28, it was repeatedly said that he would remain heavily involved with the administration, merely stepping back to a less-central role. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning that will air in full on June 1, Musk expressed his displeasure with his time in the political sector, noting that he felt all his work with DOGE could soon be undercut by Trump's sweeping budget legislation titled the "Big, Beautiful Bill" which passed in the House of Representatives on May 22. I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The "Big, Beautiful Bill" is funding its tax cuts and military spending in part by cutting some federal health and energy programs. However, it is also poised to add an estimated $3.8 trillion to the national deficit, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I dont know if it can be both," Musk said. Read the original article on People Elon Musk is leaving DOGE and Donald Trump's White House on Friday, and reactions are varied. The clock has run out on Musk's 130-day limit as a special government employee. Republicans are vowing that DOGE's work is not done as the effort effectively loses its spiritual leader. Love him or hate him, Elon Musk made quite the impression during his tenure at DOGE in DC. As Musk's 130-day stint as a special government employee in Donald Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" comes to a close, Musk watchers from politics to the business world are weighing in on his departure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through DOGE, Musk's focus on government spending leaned on similarly extreme cost-cutting methods he had honed at Tesla and during his Twitter takeover. He helped fire thousands of federal employees, slash entire departments, and upend congressional negotiations, to name just a few of his moves. However, the world's richest man has distanced himself from politics in recent weeks to spend more time on his bruised companies, and has said he plans to do less political spending moving forward. Though Musk's political tenure is officially over today, his influence in Washington may still loom large, with DOGE employees embedded in federal agencies. Trump himself said Musk isn't gone for good in a Truth Social post. "This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific!" Trump wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Musk's DOGE chapter comes to a close, BI rounded up some of the most noteworthy reactions and reflections to his return to the private sector. Tesla investor Ross Gerber Gerber celebrated Musk's government departure, but warned it might not fix Tesla's woes. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images A longtime Tesla investor and recent Tesla bear, Ross Gerber signaled his relief in a post on X. "Best thing that could have happened was getting the heck out of DOGE," he wrote, adding a link to Tesla's stock price. Gerber previously told BI that Musk returning to Tesla more full-time won't necessarily heal the company's wounds, though, partly because his image is so damaged. Gerber struck a similar note on CNN on Thursday, saying that he's "much happier" now, even if the brand damage runs deep, and that Tesla benefits when Musk isn't in the news. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I feel like Elon was a little bit naive and wanted to get involved with the Trump administration, and it sort of ended up working out very poorly for him, certainly around the optics," Gerber said. Sen. Joni Ernst Ernst, an Iowa Republican, leads the Senate's DOGE caucus. "In just over 100 days, Elon rooted out billions in waste, fraud, and abuse to make government more efficient," Ernst wrote on X. "This is just the start of making DOGE a lifestyle for Washington by continuing to downsize government and put taxpayers first." Fox News columnist David Marcus Marcus published an opinion piece in Fox News praising Musk's impact through DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Musk has forever changed how Americans look at federal spending, and that is a wonderful thing," Marcus wrote. He acknowledged that DOGE has cut less from the budget than originally intended Musk said DOGE has saved $160 billion, far short of the initial $2 trillion goal but said that its current and future savings "are nothing to sneeze at." More than anything, Marcus said that DOGE has brought the issue of federal spending into the public conversation and exposed programs he sees as "blatant and frivolous waste." Joe Kernen Kernen, the co-anchor of CNBC's show "Squawk Box," lamented that "The Swamp" had beaten the world's richest man. "Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. Is there going to be any deficit reduction? Nothing ever works. Here we are," he said. Scott Galloway Days before Musk announced his official departure, Galloway responded to Musk's announcement that he was scaling back political spending. The New York University marketing professor said on an episode of the podcast "Pivot", which he hosts alongside journalist Kara Swisher, that Musk's links to DOGE sparked "one of the greatest brand destructions" of all time. Scott Galloway said Musk's turn to politics is the reason for his business troubles. Courtesy of Scott Galloway Galloway said that Musk's turn toward politics is to blame for Tesla's recent backlash, much of which has come from liberals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He is a brilliant guy, but he's alienated his core demographic," Galloway said. Scott Jennings Jennings, a political commentator and author, underlined that the first major fight over Musk's DOGE-related legacy is about to unfold as Congress considers making $9 billion in proposed cuts permanent. "I'm grateful to @elonmusk for what DOGE accomplished. I'm not sure we've ever had a more efficient government employee," Jennings wrote on X. "It's now up to the GOP to CODIFY the cuts and rid the bureaucracy of the fraud and waste that Elon exposed." Robert Reich A former Labor Secretary, professor, and outspoken DOGE critic, Reich said in a social media post that Musk's departure might not change much. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Elon may be on his way out, but DOGE is still gutting countless government programs and services that millions of Americans rely on," Reich wrote, along with a video about job cuts and other changes. Wall Street analyst Dan Ives Wall Street analyst Dan Ives is ready to lead the Tesla bulls again. This "is music to the ears of Tesla shareholders with Musk now laser focused on Tesla and the autonomous vision ahead," Ives wrote on X. "A new chapter ahead for Tesla and Musk " The White House "We thank him for his service," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. "We thank him for getting DOGE off the ground, and the efforts to cut waste, fraud, and abuse will continue." Leavitt told reporters that the White House thanks Musk for his time. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Other politicians across the aisle weighed in Sen. Elizabeth Warren Warren, a former Democratic presidential hopeful, signaled that she wasn't ready to turn a new page with Musk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Good riddance but Musk isn't off the hook for his chaos and corruption," the Massachusetts senator wrote on X. "We must hold him accountable." Sen. John Kennedy "Elon Musk is a total baller," Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, wrote on X. "Man's got tiger blood." Gov. Tim Walz The former Democratic vice presidential nominee didn't waste another opportunity to troll Musk. "Finally rooting out waste and abuse," Walz wrote on X. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz trolled Musk on social media. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Sen. Ted Cruz "I think what you said is exactly right, the American people should be saying to Elon, 'thank you, thank you, thank you,'" Cruz, a Texas Republican, said on Fox News Wednesday night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He came for four months and worked free of charge, didn't collect a salary, he made nothing," Cruz said. "He rooted out massive waste, fraud, and abuse, and he did so at an enormous cost to himself." Read the original article on Business Insider Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics teams latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In todays edition, Jonathan Allen reviews Elon Musks stint in the White House as he prepares to leave Washington. Plus, we have the latest on the back-and-forth in the courts over President Donald Trumps tariff regime. Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adam Wollner Elon Musks missed opportunity Analysis by Jonathan Allen Elon Musk rocketed out of the Beltway this week having blown a golden opportunity to make bigger, better and more beautiful changes to the way the American people are served by their government. The megabillionaire misjudged his own popularity and that of his mission, alienated key stakeholders in both parties, overpromised and underdelivered. The shame of it for those who believe in deficit reduction and government efficiency is that Musk might have found more utility in a scalpel than his famous faux chainsaw. Its not shocking that someone who is accustomed to making unilateral decisions about corporate strategies, budgets and functions would fail to live up to his own expectations about retrofitting a government in which power is diffuse and the shareholders American citizens have concerns that go beyond the bottom line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If voters cared only about profit and loss, the nation would not be $36 trillion in debt, with more deficits lined up on the horizon. Surely, Musk can claim success in having cut some federal programs, reduced the workforce and canceled contracts. But its a drop in the bucket. Even his DOGE website claims only $175 billion in savings a far cry from his target of at least $2 trillion. And he and his team misrepresented their work over and over and over and over again. DOGEs most important legacy may be in catalyzing a modernization of government systems though critics have raised concerns about his teams access to Americans personal data. And it remains unclear how various lawsuits against DOGE actions will turn out. Musk could have come into Washington with the modest promise to make the government run more smoothly at a lower cost to the public. He could have taken bipartisan congressional interest in his plans as an invitation to work with lawmakers the people who authorize and fund the executive branch to make lasting changes. Instead of reading Donald Trumps election as a blank check from the citizenry, he could have marketed his plans through a national campaign to build public support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Musk chose to see everyone outside his insular group of advisers as an enemy, and he tried to vanquish them all with a shock-and-awe strategy more suited to corporate warfare than governance. By the time the White House quietly acknowledged his departure Wednesday night, Musk had become a lightning rod in Washington. He emerged as a leading political boogeyman for the Democrats while angering some congressional Republicans by slashing programs they like and forcing them to try to fill the budgetary hole left by his unmet goals. By one measure, his national approval rating is slightly below 40% making him a drag on Trump. Tesla, his car company, has recovered from bottoming out earlier this year, but its stock is still down about 5% for the year. And while SpaceX hasnt disintegrated without him at the helm full time, some of its projectiles have. Musk whisked into Washington with a mandate from the man in charge and hes walking away having failed to achieve it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A blast from the past: Musk isnt the first case of one of the worlds richest men taking an influential position in Washington that didnt quite go as planned. As Scott Bland writes, his story has some key similarities to that of Andrew Mellon, who served as treasury secretary to three GOP presidents in the 1920s and 30s. Whiplash: Appeals court temporarily allows Trump's tariffs to move forward This time, it was the courts that were responsible for a round of off-again, on-again tariffs. On Thursday afternoon, an appeals court reversed a federal trade panels ruling some 24 hours earlier that struck down a slew of President Donald Trumps tariffs targeting other countries, Rob Wile and Steve Kopack report. A second court ruling earlier Thursday by a U.S. district court came to a similar conclusion as the trade court. By granting the Trump administrations request for a stay, the appeals court put those tariffs back into effect while it weighs the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The trade courts ruling would have the effect of lowering the U.S.s average effective tariff rate from 15% to 6.5%, according to Capital Economics consultancy. The ruling did not affect import duties on automobiles, auto parts, and steel and aluminum. How the markets responded: Markets initially cheered the possible elimination of some import taxes. But by Thursday afternoon, most gains had dwindled. Experts said the courts decisions ultimately add another layer of uncertainty to Trumps trade war effort. How the White House responded: Trump administration officials said that they were considering alternative ways of reimposing the affected tariffs, but were confident that their original directives would be reinstated. Were going to see what happens on appeal, and were very confident in our success there, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told Fox Business. But the fact is that there are things, measures ... that we could start right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But were not planning to pursue those right now because were very, very confident that this really is incorrect, Hassett added. Read more POLL: Will Trump's tariffs fully go into effect? Vote in our reader poll! Today's other top stories Thats all From the Politics Desk for now. Todays newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Ben Kamisar. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you have feedback likes or dislikes email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com And if youre a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Elon Musks use of ketamine was so intense during the 2024 campaign that he complained it was negatively affecting his bladder function, according to a New York Times report detailing the billionaires drug use as he joined President Donald Trumps circle last year. The Times paints a picture of a man caught in an erratic cycle of substance abuse and family drama. While Musk has previously spoken of using ketamine as a scheduled prescription treatment for depression, sources who spoke to the Times say his use of the anesthetic was frequent almost daily and regularly in combination with other drugs while in the throes of campaign season. The billionaire also took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms as he campaigned for Trump, and traveled with a box of daily medication, including Adderall, according to a photo obtained by the Times. Its unknown whether Musks drug use continued into his time leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)s teardown of the federal government, although he exhibited erratic behavior throughout his time in the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musks ketamine use reportedly became so chronic last year that he began to experience some of the negative side effects of frequent consumption: namely, complaining of issues with his bladder. Studies have shown that frequent recreational ketamine use can lead to a condition known as ketamine-induced cystitis, or inflammation of the bladder and urinary tract. A report published by the National Institute of Health states that common KIC-related problems are urinary pain and discomfort, bladder epithelial barrier damage, reduced bladder storage and increased pressure, ureter stenosis, and kidney failure. Furthermore, it becomes a vicious cycle when KIC patients attempt to manage their urinary pain with increased ketamine use, the study adds. Speculation about the extent of Musks drug use, and its effects on the management of his various companies as well as his foray into the federal government, has existed for some time now. Last year, The Wall Street Journal spoke to various sources within and around Musks companies who expressed concerns that the moguls regular drug use was not only a major liability to his businesses, but could spiral into a full-blown health crisis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the year and change since the Journals report, Musks personal and corporate life have only become more erratic. The billionaire is caught in multiple high-profile child support, paternity, and custody battles with the various mothers of his ever-growing brood. According to the Times, the musical artist Grimes, who is mother to three of Musks children, privately indicated that she feared for the safety of her son X A-12 (X), who is frequently seen in the public eye alongside Musk in what Grimes says is a violation of their custody agreement. Grimes reportedly expressed concerns that the five-year-olds health was being affected by the long travel and irregular sleep schedule. Today, Musk will officially step back from his role as de facto head of DOGE. Publicly, the departure is being attributed to the expiration of Musks authorization as a special government employee. Meanwhile, reports have emerged that executives at Tesla considered replacing Musk as his plummeting popularity and reckless government tenure continued to harm the companys stock valuation, and led to widespread national protests against the electric-vehicle manufacturer. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. WASKON, Texas (KETK) Elysian Fields ISD Superintendent Monica Simmons announced her resignation from the position last week after serving the district since 2002. Tyler Public Library to host Summer Kick-Off event for all ages Photo of Monica Simmons, courtesy of Elysian Fields ISD Simmons spent her time at Elysian Fields ISD as both an administrator and teacher, where she started out as a student teacher before becoming a first grade teacher. Simmons has worn many hats at EFISD including curriculum director, federal programs director, testing coordinator, teacher, assistant principal and principal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2022, Simmons took over the superintendent position after Maynard Chapmans retirement and she accomplished many feats. Her role in developing EFISDs Strategic Plan laid down a new vision for the districts future by helping pass the 2024 bond that secured resources for facility and transportation upgrades. I am incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished together, Simmons said. The progress weve made is a direct reflection of the unwavering dedication of our students, staff, families, and community. It has been an honor to work in partnership with each of you in support of a shared vision for excellence. Smith County ESD2 holds push in ceremony for new fire engine According to EFISD, the bond allowed the construction of a new elementary school that is currently being built and is expected to open in Fall 2026. Simmons will continue as the superintendent until the end of July when the district is expected to find a new person for the job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. View of an 18-centimeter hand made at the University of Tokyo in an image provided by the school. The goal sounds like science fiction: to create a prosthetic that moves like a natural part of the body, can regenerate, and is built using the patients own cells. But it isnt fiction its a developing line of research in bioengineering. Ambitious and still years away from full realization, it is nonetheless tangible and making rapid progress. In February, the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with Waseda University, created an 18-centimeter arm from human muscle tissue, capable of moving its fingers. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has successfully emulated the internal structure of muscle using 3D bioprinters, allowing not only for reproduction of its natural form but also for functionality. In the future, this technology could be useful for the development of prosthetics, drug testing targeting muscle tissue, or research into muscle physiology, explains Professor Masaharu Takeuchi, from University of Tokyos Graduate School of Science and Technology in an email. It could also be applied to soft robotics systems that require smooth, user-friendly movements, Takeuchi notes that the hand developed by his team is the largest of its kind ever built in a lab. Its composed of fine muscle tissues, grown in a nutrient-rich solution, while the mechanical components are made from biocompatible polymers materials that can interact with the body without causing adverse reactions, such as allergies or toxicity and thin support cables. The professor explains that the greatest challenge was generating enough force from the muscles to move the hand. That requires more muscle mass, but if the tissue is too thick, nutrients and oxygen cant reach all the cells, causing them to die. The solution was to roll thin sheets of muscle tissue like sushi rolls and assemble them into a more complex, multi-joint structure the researchers have named MuMuTAsshort for Multi-Muscle Tissue Assemblies. These MuMuTAs were then integrated into a cable-driven robotic structure. The team of scientific researchers from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in a provided image. IBEC The arm is electrically stimulated to stay active. When electricity is applied to the muscles, they contract and pull on the cables connected to the fingers, allowing them to bend, move, and grasp objects, similar to real tendons. These are movements that were not possible until now with biohybrid robots, explains the Japanese scientist. At Spains IBEC, researchers are exploring alternatives to this external electrical stimulation for the biological robots or biobots they are developing. Using sensors and electrodes integrated directly into the muscle, they have created more localized and controlled stimulation systems. Until now, like Takeuchis group, we stimulated the entire culture medium [a liquid that mimics the bodys internal conditions and which the biobots use to stay alive] with large electrodes, like two pens. Now were developing much smaller, more flexible systems integrated into the structure, explains IBEC director Samuel Sanchez via video call. This approach not only allows for better emulation of how real muscles work, but also makes it possible to study muscle responses to drugs and other active compounds like those they applied to aging cells in a project for a cosmetics company. Functional muscles The engineering of living systems at the Spanish institute is driven by their use of 3D bioprinters, which work with bioink a blend of biocompatible materials and living cells. They started seven years ago printing simple shapes like circles and rectangles, and have since advanced to complex forms, including multiple types of human muscle. This has led to IBECs most recent breakthrough: reproducing the organized internal architectures that make organs functional. Using a programming code, we were able to precisely control all aspects of the bioprinter, says IBEC researcher Florencia Lezcano. This allowed us to orient the fibers and obtain muscle structures very similar to those we have in our bodies. Until now, with bioprinting, you could reproduce the silhouette of a muscle, but you couldnt guarantee that it would work. You could print a specific shape, but the internal fibers werent arranged like those in humans. One of the scientists working with one of the 3D bioprinters at IBEC in Barcelona in a provided image. IBEC The rapid progress has fueled researchers hopes. Theyve gone from printing shapes that looked more like worms than biceps to creating muscles that not only resemble their human molds but are also functional and can be locally stimulated. Imagine being able to contract your biceps wherever we want, as well as being able to train it, make it stronger. Putting your own cells in it and rebuilding your muscles, says Sanchez. What does it take to make this a reality? From Tokyo, Takeuchi says the key is developing a way to control muscle tissue using neural signals like those coming from the brain or peripheral nerves. Furthermore, we need to ensure the long-term viability of the tissues outside the laboratory environment, he adds. At IBEC, researchers say the main challenge is vascularization the process of forming blood vessels within tissue. If we could conceive of a prevascularized organ, what would have to be done is connect it directly to the recipient body, as if it were a transplant. But we are still far from that technology, says Lezcano. Sanchez identifies two other major challenges. One is designing a casing that replicates the conditions in which a real hand operates: a stable temperature around 37C (98.6F) and a system to continuously replenish nutrients as cells consume them. The second is scalability developing a system that can support an organ or muscle at its natural size. We are going in the right direction. The fact that we can print functional human cells and study their response to certain stimuli is a revolution in itself, he says. Beyond the dream of a bionic prosthesis, bioengineering promises to revolutionize how medical and pharmaceutical testing is conducted. Instead of using animals, labs could rely on lab-printed human biological models, accelerating results and improving precision. In the U.S., the FDA already allows, in some cases, skipping animal testing in favor of evaluating drugs with bioprinted tissue. In Europe, the process is moving more slowly. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Originally appeared on E! Online Emilie Kiser wants to mourn the loss of her child out of the public eye. The influencerwhose 3-year-old son Trigg Kiser died May 18 following what she described as an accidental drowning at their homefiled filed a lawsuit against multiple Maricopa County, Ariz., public offices to keep records containing details about the toddler's passing private, according to documents obtained by NBC News May 29. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the filing, Emilie expressed concerns about her family's privacy being invaded, saying that over 100 public record requests have already been made with the Chandler, Ariz., city and the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office since Trigg's May 18 death. "Emilie and her family desperately want to grieve in private, but sadly, the public will not let them," the document read. "Triggs death has become a media frenzy." The suit went to say that part of why Emilywho also shares son Theodore, 2 months, with her husband Brady Kiserdoesn't want the details to be disclosed to the public is because she does not want to be exposed to the information herself. More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After all, according to the suit, the content creator never plans to review the police report, security camera footage, body camera footage or autopsy reports for the case. "The records requested presumably reveal graphic, distressing, and intimate details of Trigg's death that have no bearing on government accountability," the filing continued. "To allow disclosure in these circumstances would be to turn Arizona's Public Records Law into a weapon of emotional harm, rather than a tool of government transparency." Instagram Emphasizing that Emilie is going through "a parent's worst nightmare," the lawsuit added, "Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving son, two-month-old Theodore. But every day is a battle." In response to her lawsuit's filing, Maricopa County's Office of the Medical Examiner spoke out on its efforts to maintain the family's privacy amid the tragedy. Instagram/Emilie Kiser "When Maricopa County learned the family was pursuing a court order to prevent the release of these records," director of communications for Maricopa County Jason Berry told NBC News May 29, "the Office of the Medical Examiner worked with the family to place a seal on the record." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Spokespeople for the city of Chandler and Chandler Police Department told the outlet that the offices do not comment on pending litigation. Trigg was found unconscious by authorities after they responded to a drowning call at the Kiser's Arizona residence on May 12, according to NBC affiliate KPNX. After first responders attempted CPR, he was transported to the hospital, where he passed away following six days in critical condition. And while Emilie and Brady have not yet spoken publicly about their son's untimely death, local authorities shared a statement at the time offering their condolences to the toddler's loved ones. Out of respect for the familys privacy, Chandler Police Department spokesperson Sonu Wasu told E! News May 19, we will not be releasing additional details until the investigation is closed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For a closer look at Emilie's life as a mom, read on... (E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.) Husband and Wife Emilie Kiser and Brady Kiser tied the knot in 2019. A Family of Three... The couple welcomed their first son, Trigg, in July 2021. ... and Then Four They became parents again in March 2025 with the arrival of their second son Theodore. The Sweet Life Emilie often documented life at home with her two boys on social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enjoying Every Moment The family celebrated a happy Easter holiday together. Better Together Emilie shared this sweet photo shortly after Theodore's birth. Bath Time After welcoming Theodore, Emilie wrote on social media, "The love I have for my boys is infinite." For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App A canal flows through south-central Utah. (Getty Images) Utah has some of the best infrastructure in the country when compared to other states, although its canals and levees are in need of repair. Thats according to the American Society of Civil Engineers report card, released Thursday, which gives the Beehive State an overall C+ grade. Thats tied with Georgia and Wisconsin for the highest score of all U.S. states and territories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A C+ means our infrastructure is meeting the needs of Utahns, but theres still room for improvement, said Craig Friant, a civil engineer who worked on the report. This is a sign that were doing things well here in Utah. While the state has one of the highest grades, the rest of the country is not far behind. The national grade is C, and most states and territories received a C or C- grade South Carolina and Louisiana each received a D+, West Virginia received a D and Puerto Rico received a D-, the lowest grade. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, or ASCE, an A grade is defined as exceptional and fit for the future; B is good and adequate for now; C is mediocre, requiring attention; D is poor and at risk; and F is failing, requiring critical attention and unfit for purpose. The report lists 12 separate areas of infrastructure for each state. Consider Utahs report: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aviation: C+ Bridges: B Canals: D+ Dams: C+ Drinking water: B- Hazardous waste: C+ Levees: D- Roads: B+ Solid waste: B- Stormwater: C Transportation: B- Wastewater: C The majority of the states levees and canals are old, according to the report most levees are more than 60 years old, and many of the states canals were built in the 19th century for irrigation purposes. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The report also noted that data isnt readily available for levees and canals, which poses another risk. These are systems that protect households and businesses from flooding, yet we dont know their condition in many cases, which is a major public safety hazard, said Friant, who pointed to outdated levees in Salt Lake County that protect residential areas from flooding during runoff or storms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These levees dont currently meet the Army Corps of Engineers standards, putting them at risk of being delisted if that happens, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, could eventually reclassify the land surrounding the Salt Lake City International and Provo City airports as flood plains, according to the report. That could drastically alter how the land is assessed and insured, engineers say. Recommendations for improving Utahs infrastructure What can the state do to boost its grade? The report gives several recommendations, including more analysis and better funding when it comes to infrastructure. Specifically, detailed written plans are critical for the areas of water resources, canals, transportation, transit, and waste management, the report reads. The state should be providing consistent financial support for project improvements, maintenance, resiliency, and risk reduction through reliable funding streams year after year that facilitate this planning. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prioritizing funding for bridges is another recommendation. Even though Utah received a B, engineers say many of the states bridges are nearing the end of their service lives. The state should also increase funding for its Dam Safety Program. Utah currently has hundreds of dams considered high hazard, which means if they fail, it would cause severe damage and loss of life. That includes the Panguitch Lake Dam, which showed signs of seepage last year after cracks appeared near the top, likely the result of ice pushing up against the concrete. The roughly 1,700 residents of Panguitch were put on notice to prepare for evacuation, but crews were able to break the ice away and stabilize the dam. To avoid a repeat scenario, the report recommends the state dump at least $10 million each year into the Dam Safety Program and try to rehabilitate all dams within 50 years. An increase to $20 million per year would allow faster repairs but could still require 25 years for all required repairs, the report reads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bolstering multi-modal transportation options like expanding bus or train networks is another recommendation as the state deals with rapid population growth. And lastly, Utah should make sure the Great Salt Lake reaches and remains at healthy levels replacing canals with pipelines will help reduce evaporation, and could ultimately result in more water flowing to the lake, according to the report. WASHINGTON (KSNW) Nearly $4 million in federal Brownfields Grants is heading to Kansas to help clean up and redevelop contaminated properties, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week. The grants will support cleanup projects in Beloit, Topeka, and across several eastern Kansas counties. Theyll also fund dozens of environmental assessments and planning efforts led by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). In a news release, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the grants are part of a broader $267 million investment nationwide aimed at turning polluted sites into usable spaces for businesses and housing, ultimately boosting local economies and benefiting families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Kansas, the grants include: $418,620 to Beloit to clean up a former juvenile detention center and prepare it for redevelopment into housing. $1 million to the Flint Hills Regional Council to establish a loan fund supporting cleanups in seven counties. $2 million to KDHE to assess more than 100 sites and develop cleanup plans in Kansas City, Eureka, and El Dorado. $500,000 to Topeka to evaluate and plan reuse of sites like the former White Lakes Mall and two closed schools. Kansas ash trees under attack from returning pest KDHE Secretary Janet Stanek said the investment will raise property values, create jobs, and transform vacant land into productive assets for communities across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senator Roger Marshall called the funding an important step in revitalizing Kansas communities and protecting public health, crediting the Trump administration for prioritizing clean air, land, and water. A brownfield site is a previously used propertyoften industrial or commercialwhere redevelopment is complicated by potential environmental contamination. Since 1995, the EPAs Brownfields Program has supported over $42 billion in cleanup and redevelopment efforts across the country. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 29MORRISON Prefacing his decision with comments about the difficulty he faced in reaching a decision, a Whiteside County judge Thursday, May 29, acquitted an Erie man charged with sex assault crimes that could have put him behind bars for the rest of his life. David Skinner, 62, was found not guilty of all seven counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child younger than 13 that he faced. The charges were filed against him in August 2021 and accused of him of having sexual contact with a child younger than 13 multiple times between October 2014 and July 2016. According to court records, the girl was 12 when the first alleged assault occurred. Skinner, if convicted, could have received a sentence of 6 to 60 years in prison on each charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A week after the conclusion of Skinner's two-day bench trial, Whiteside County Circuit Court Judge James Heuerman on Thursday issued his decision. Heuerman said the decision to reach the "right verdict" was difficult. Finding Skinner guilty on even one charge could essentially send him to prison for life and it was impossible to know with certainty based on the nature of the charges whether the crimes did or did not occur, Heuerman said. He said Skinner did not have to prove he didn't commit a crime; instead, it is the state's responsibility to prove, through evidence, that he was guilty. Heuerman said he based his decision on the evidence presented at trial, and the evidence was not enough to prove, with certainty, that Skinner committed the crime. "That's not a finding that he didn't do it," Heuerman emphasized, adding for someone who wasn't there, there was "some minimum reasonable doubt." Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at her recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would cause people to die, responding, Well, were all going to die. The awkward moment came at a town hall meeting on Friday in Butler, Iowa, while Ernst defended the spending reforms in a House-passed budget reconciliation package that are intended to stop people who crossed into the country illegally from receiving federal benefits. Someone in the crowd tried to talk over Ernst, interrupting her answer about changes to Medicaid and SNAP, yelling out that people are going to die because of the reforms. Ernst answered: Well, were all going to die. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That quip produced a raucous jeer from the crowd. For heavens sakes. For heavens sakes, folks, Ernst said, expressing frustration about some people in the crowd not listening to her explanations of the goals of the reforms. What you dont want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable, she said. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them. Ernst emphasized: Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa. If you dont want to listen, thats fine. But what Im doing is going through and telling you that those that are not eligible, those that are working and have opportunity for benefits elsewhere, then they should receive those benefits elsewhere and leave those dollars for those that are eligible for Medicaid, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And Ernst also said SNAP overpayments that the states have been making will need to stop. She said the reforms in the reconciliation bill are intended to root out overpayments and the payment of benefits to people who are not eligible for federal assistance under the law. When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, theyre not eligible, so they will be coming off, Ernst said at one point, finishing the sentence over shouts of protest from the crowd. A spokesperson for Ernst said the senator is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans and accused Democrats of trying to whip up fear among voters for political reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Democrats fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans, the spokesperson said. Theres only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and shes working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse, the aide added. Updated at 12:36 p.m. 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. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) With the recent arrest of an Estacada man, the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office is saying they have made the largest drug bust in their history, thanks in part to the FBI. Back on May 24, MCSO deputies followed a rental vehicle driven by 29-year-old Anthony Barrera, who had been heading from California back to Oregon, after learning of his intent to sell and distribute large quantities of drugs. Sweet Home High School evacuated after fake shooting report following, police say Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barrera was stopped by deputies and the FBI at a rest stop near Cottage Grove and was arrested. When deputies and agents searched the vehicle, officials said they found more than 278 pounds of meth, as well as two pounds of cocaine. Later that day, investigators also searched Barreras home and found two firearms hidden under a closet floor. VIDEO: Driver seriously injured after crash involving 2 semi-trucks, 1 arrested Barrera appeared in a federal court in Portland on Tuesday. A U.S. Magistrate Judge ordered that he be detained pending further court proceedings. 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. The European Union is insisting that any agreement reached in the trade dispute with the US government must be permanent. "If we reach an agreement, it cannot be the case that new tariffs are imposed just a few days later," Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's Trade Committee, told Deutschlandfunk German public radio. If a stable solution cannot be found, the EU is prepared to impose counter-tariffs, Lange asserted. "We will not allow ourselves to be pressured or blackmailed," the EU negotiator added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lange is currently in Washington for talks with the US government. The two sides have until July 9 to reach an agreement. If they fail to do so, US President Donald Trump wants to impose high tariffs on EU imports. Although the federal Court of International Trade had declared almost all of the tariffs imposed by Trump under an emergency law to be illegal, a US appeals court recently temporarily overturned the decision. According to Lange, this is a transitional arrangement until the matter is finally clarified. He stressed that customs policy is a matter for the US Congress and should not be subject to the whims of the US president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EU continues to seek an agreement and has offered higher imports of liquefied natural gas and semiconductors, he pointed out. On the question of possible concessions on the part of Europe, Lange said that the removal of certain tariffs and the mutual recognition of standards could be discussed. However, European legislation for example on food, chemicals or in the digital sector was not negotiable. He cited the ban on hormone-treated beef as an example. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, little has been done to contain Russias consolidated dominance in the murky waters of the Black Sea. The dissolution of the Soviet bloc saw Moscow inherit much of the Black Sea fleet, a regional force it shared with Ukraine, and a leasing arrangement for the strategic naval base of Sevastopol, Crimea. Vladimir Putins eventual illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula not only gave him complete control over the fleets home base but also further territory to dominate the Black Sea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It allowed Russia control over Ukraines shipping routes, and the modernisation of its military presence on the peninsula saw the introduction of area denial capabilities known as A2/AD in military parlance such as coastal defences, more submarines and surface-to-air missiles to contest Natos presence. Vladimir Putins illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula gave him territory to dominate the Black Sea - Alexey Druzhinin/AFP On the first day of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, Putins men pushed as far as Snake Island, a 46-acre rocky outcrop just off Ukraine. Kyrylo Budanov, Kyivs spy chief, once said the island grants control of the surface, and to some extent the air, situation in southern Ukraine. But more than three years since Putins full-scale invasion, Snake Island is back in Ukrainian hands and the Russian choke hold over the Black Sea has all but ended. Through Kyivs use of domestically engineered maritime drones and missiles donated by the West, such as Storm Shadow and Atacms, the Black Sea fleet has been driven back to ports on the Russian coast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, with the Black Seas waters once again up for grabs, the European Union has rolled out its first Black Sea Strategy in the hope of countering any Russian re-emergence in the region. Of the six countries bordering the landlocked waters, two Bulgaria and Romania are EU members. Ukraine is a key ally and on the verge of also joining the bloc. The same applies to Georgia, although it has drifted from its EU path in recent years. Turkey, a Nato ally, is technically still a candidate for accession. The last nation, Russia, is now and it took a generation a sworn enemy. With this in mind, Kaja Kallas, the EUs top diplomat, unveiled what is an attempt by Brussels to project itself as a geopolitical power in the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its three-pronged approach aims at loosening the Russian choke hold on the Black Sea to protect trade routes and critical infrastructure, as well as boost preparations for war. The most striking promise is to invest in regional ports, railways and airports to make it faster and easier to deliver military hardware to the region in the event of hostilities heating up. Upgrades will help ensure troops can be where they are needed, when they are needed. Getting equipment to the region faster strengthens deterrence and also supports Nato, Ms Kallas told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday. Kyivs maritime drones and Western-donated missiles have driven the Black Sea fleet back to ports on the Russian coast - Alexander Demianchuk/TASS Crumbling infrastructure has long posed one of the biggest threats to the Western military alliances ability to rush troops eastwards if Russia ever attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two of the five key logistical routes designated to deter invasion by Moscow travel through Bulgaria and end in Romania. Brussels is essentially left in charge of improving the civilian transport links that could one day be used by the military. Previous estimates have suggested that at least 75 billion (62.8 billion) would be the cost of upgrading transport infrastructure across the entire continent to make it fit for military use. Any investments in Romania and Bulgaria will be carefully monitored to prevent ports, railway lines and airports coming under questionable foreign ownership. China has been trying to muscle in with purchases of ports in Georgia. Secondly, Brussels aims to open a monitoring command centre, dubbed Black Sea Maritime Security Hub, to give the blocs members better situational awareness over the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EUs strategy is designed to deliver real-time information from space to seabed about the movements of Russian vessels, both military and civilian. In theory, it would provide early warning alerts about potential Russian sabotage of the undersea section of an electricity cable running between Azerbaijan and Europe or offshore oil and gas rigs belonging to Romania and Bulgaria. Monitoring trade routes is seen as necessary after Russia proved how easy it was to shut down Ukraines grain exports through the Black Sea. Kyiv eventually managed to open a protected corridor, which hugs Romania and Bulgaria, but threats remain to the key revenue generator. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another application could be the monitoring of Russias so-called shadow fleet of sanction-busting oil tankers or any future ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Monitoring trade routes is seen as necessary after Russia shut down Ukraines grain exports through the Black Sea - Yulii Zozulia/Getty Images The exact size, shape and location of the monitoring station is still up for negotiation between EU member states, Ms Kallas said. Other EU projects could be extended to map, monitor and eventually remove mines that were placed in the Black Sea by both Ukraine and Russia. Lastly, the EUs strategy foresees an attempt to boost partnerships across the region, which it describes as a vital trade artery between the bloc, the southern Caucasus and Central Asia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want to develop new energy, transport and digital corridors in the region that will connect us to the Caucasus and Central Asia, Marta Kos, the EUs enlargement commissioner, said. Partnering with Turkey will be one of the key challenges. While officially an EU candidate country and a member of Nato, Turkey maintains its own, significant, interests in the Black Sea, including continued trade with Russia. Through the Bosphorus strait, Ankara controls access and trade in and out of the Black Sea. This means there is little to no hope of any significant European naval presence being brought into the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the terms of the Montreux Convention, Turkey essentially closes the Black Sea to foreign warships and submarines in times of war. Only vessels belonging to Black Sea nations are allowed to return. Turkey controls access in and out of the Black Sea through the Bosphorus strait - Murad Sezer/Reuters Ms Kallas said that the new strategy is also an invitation for closer cooperation on issues of interest to all countries around the Black Sea, including Turkey. She added: We are committed to working closely with our partners and also to exchanging information about what is happening and what we can do about it with all Black Sea partners. And this is in Turkeys interest as well. Given its interests and influence over the region, Turkey is likely to push back against any large-scale attempt by Europe to muscle in on the Black Sea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is unlikely to allow Brussels to challenge Russia head-on, and will instead seek to balance influence in the region. 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. The Progress Pride Flag flies over the Wisconsin Capitol. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner) For the seventh time, Gov. Tony Evers ordered the Progress Pride Flag to fly over the Wisconsin State Capitol for LGBTQ Pride Month. This year, Pride Month begins on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which gave same-sex couples the right to get married in 2015. But Evers celebration of LGBTQ pride is occuring as the administration of President Donald Trump attacks the rights of transgender people and a recent Gallup poll found that Republican acceptance of same-sex marriage has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the Pride Flag flies above the Peoples House, it sends a clear and unequivocal message that Wisconsin recognizes and celebrates LGBTQ Wisconsinites and Americans, Evers said in a statement. Every day, but especially today and this month, we reaffirm our commitment to striving to be a place where every LGBTQ kid, person, and family can be bold in their truth and be safe, treated with dignity and respect, and welcomed without fear of persecution, judgment, or discrimination. I promised long ago that, as governor, I would always fight to protect LGBTQ Wisconsinites with every tool and every power that I have. I will never stop keeping that promise. In the executive order Evers signed Friday, he notes that the LGBTQ has been under attack in recent years, including in Wisconsin where Republicans have tried more than once to pass legislation attacking transgender children. Despite historic victories, in the last several years, there has been a significant increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in state Legislatures across the country, including in Wisconsin, that have targeted LGBTQ kids and people and increased dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, as well as efforts on a state and national level to erase LGBTQ history and stories. The Progress Pride Flag flying above the Capitol includes the recognizable LGBTQ rainbow colors and a chevron of additional stripes that represent LGBTQ people of color, the transgender community and people with HIV/AIDS. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has made a controversial and offensive remark directed at opposition priest Bagrat Srbazan. Srbazan, go deal with your own family matterswhat does that have to do with me? Pashinyan wrote. And no, this isnt a joke or a fakeits a real statement from the head of the Armenian government. P.S. Bagrat did not respond. Perhaps he was busy. In fact, Pashinyans comment to Bagrat Galstanyan is just one in a series of public attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church. Under the leadership of Catholicos Garegin, the church has become one of the few organized forces opposing Pashinyans government. Their mutual animosity goes back years. Bagrat Galstanyan once declared that Armenians should either not vote at all or immediately seek to remove Pashinyan, partly because he and his wife, Anna Hakobyan, never married in a church. Pashinyan replied that they had not even had a civil ceremony either. Since then, Bagrat has turned the topic of Pashinyans marriageor lack thereofinto one of his recurring talking points. Pashinyan, in turn, has not held back. Just recently in parliament, he compared churches to cluttered closets, igniting outrage among clergy. The Armenian Church responded through media and social platforms, accusing Pashinyan and his wife of trying to discredit the institution. Naturally, the counterattacks followed. Bagrat was labeled a fraud and accused of inappropriate conduct. Criticism of the church intensified, and Pashinyan personally took to Facebook to lash out not only at Bagrat but at the entire church. And this was just before noonby then, Pashinyan had already accused Bagrat and his supporters of attempting a power grab and committing acts of vandalism. To top it off, Pashinyan publicly questioned whether priests actually honor their vows of celibacy. He claimed they dontand even threatened to release evidence. Now, he declared, the church would be held accountable. In 2017, biologist Nicolas Rascovan discovered something that made no sense. He was analyzing DNA extracted from the remains of people who had died thousands of years ago. In one of the samples taken in Canada, he found leprosy one of the oldest and most stigmatizing diseases in history. But this was impossible, since all textbooks say that this disease was brought to America by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. Since then, Rascovan, a 41-year-old Argentine working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, has been gathering DNA samples from many countries across the Americas to try to solve the mystery. On Thursday, after analyzing more than 400 samples from living people and almost as many from ancient remains, he presented the conclusion of his research: by the time Europeans arrived in America, leprosy had already been circulating for centuries among the Indigenous populations of the continent. The study, signed by 40 scientists from America and Europe, was published in Science, a benchmark of the worlds leading science. The key to the discovery is that there are not one, but two major lineages of pathogenic bacteria that cause leprosy a disease that, despite having a cure, still affects about 200,000 people every year in 120 countries. Leprosy is caused by a bacterium that attacks the skin and nerves. If left untreated, it causes horrible wounds that disfigure the face or hands. For centuries, leprosy patients were treated as outcasts, marginalized and isolated in leper colonies that no one wanted to go near. The new study is the most comprehensive to date on this pathogen, having examined ancient bone remains from various regions and clinical samples from Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Paraguay, and French Guiana. Most positive cases were detected in Mexico and the United States, which likely reflects a greater presence of the pathogen in those regions. Maria Lopopolo, first author of the study, with Nicolas Rascovan. N. R. The strain analyzed in the new study is called Mycobacterium lepromatosis. The research shows that this pathogen was already affecting people in America more than 1,000 years ago and produced symptoms very similar to the better-known variant of the disease, associated with the bacterium M. leprae. The study details that this American strain of leprosy spread rapidly across the continent, as they have found affected individuals from Canada to Argentina over 600 miles apart dating from a relatively recent period. It remains a mystery whether this spread occurred through animals acting as hosts or through human-to-human transmission, which would imply a dense network of communication and contact in pre-Columbian America. The role of the conquistadors The truth is that when the first Europeans arrived in America, they brought with them the better-known variant of leprosy, which then spread like many other imported diseases, causing significant damage to the local population. Today, this variant remains predominant in the American countries where leprosy still exists, including the United States. However, a few cases of infection with the native variant have also been detected. Until now, we barely knew what [diseases] people were getting before contact with Europeans, Rascovan explains. Now weve discovered that theres the entire diversity of the leprosy bacteria on the continent, hidden somewhere, which has the potential to infect humans. We need to go out and monitor and understand where its hiding, in which animals or which humans, and what strategy it uses to keep evolving on the continent for 10,000 years. The leprosy bacterium does not grow in laboratories, which has traditionally complicated its scientific study. Researchers have had to sequence i.e. read the entire DNA of each sample and isolate the genetic fragments of the bacterium. Their results show that the two major branches of leprosy diverged between two million and 700,000 years ago. The study provides the first reference genome of this leprosy variant. One of the biggest questions is whether it arrived in America from Asia with the continents first inhabitants, or if it came earlier through animals and later started affecting people. This is the theory favored by Rascovan. The study revealed a deeply divergent variant of M. lepromatosis that still infects people in the United States. This lineage differs from all other known strains by a significantly greater number of mutations and is estimated to have separated from the rest more than 9,000 years ago. The research also uncovers another mystery about this variant of leprosy. One of the few places outside America where this new variant has been found is the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was not found in human remains or living people but in red squirrels. Researchers also analyzed the genome of these strains and believe the bacterium arrived in the British Isles in the 19th century. Again, how it got there is unknown: it could have been through the introduction of American squirrels or infected humans. The studys authors emphasize that this project was carried out in collaboration with Indigenous communities from North and South America, who actively participated in some cases. The genetic data generated was made available to descendant communities through ethical data-sharing platforms. Inigo Olalde, a geneticist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, who did not participate in the study, highlights the value of the new work. Its a good scientific study that should make us think about all the unproven assumptions we have about diseases in the Americas before and after the arrival of Europeans, he says. The study is also interesting because it provides the first reference genome of this new variant, which Olalde adds, is key to understanding it. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield and his wife will stand trial over the alleged mishandling of thousands of dollars raised through political funds, a district judge ruled May 30. Chatfield, a Levering Republican who held the most powerful position in the Michigan House of Representatives in 2019 and 2020, faces 13 embezzlement, conspiracy and larceny charges. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessels office claims he knowingly used money from political funds to pay for vacations, dinners at upscale restaurants and other non-permitted items when he was a lawmaker. Prosecutors also claim Chatfield submitted mileage reimbursement requests from the House for trips he did not take. His wife, Stephanie Chatfield, is charged with two counts of felony embezzlement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges. Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield appears in court with his wife Stephanie Chatfield for a preliminary exam on charges of embezzlement, conspiracy and larceny at the 54B District Court in East Lansing, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. A preliminary exam for both Lee and Stephanie Chatfield was held in February. In a 20-page opinion published May 30, East Lansing 54B District Judge Molly Hennessey Greenwalt ruled there is enough evidence to send them to a jury trial. Unlike at trial, where prosecutors must prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard of evidence at a preliminary exam is to establish probable cause that a crime may have occurred. Hennessey Greenwalt denied a motion from prosecutors to include an additional larceny charge against Lee Chatfield. She wrote that there is not enough evidence Lee Chatfield took money from associates, including his brothers and a childhood friend who worked on his state House campaigns, without their approval. The Chatfields are set to be back in court June 11 for an arraignment hearing in Ingham County 30th Circuit Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our investigation uncovered extensive evidence of elaborate schemes to embezzle and misappropriate private and public funds to bankroll Lee Chatfields lifestyle during his time as Speaker of the House, Nessel said in a statement. I am glad to see this case finally move forward to a trial in circuit court. My office will continue to pursue public corruption with every tool at our disposal and push for stronger transparency and good governance in our state. At the center of the charges against the former Speaker and his wife are a series of political nonprofits Lee Chatfield used to raise money. For politicians, a 501c(4) fund can be advantageous because the organizations are subject to fewer public disclosure requirements and contribution limits than traditional candidate committees, allowing for greater fundraising and less scrutiny. Lee Chatfield was considered a proficient fundraiser for his political causes. He raised "millions and millions" of dollars with the funds, his attorney Mary Chartier said at the conclusion of his preliminary exam in February. Though 501c(4) social welfare funds are allowed to pay for certain political causes, Nessel's office alleges the Chatfields used the funds to pay for things personal in nature. Witness testimony from the preliminary exam stated that one such fund controlled by Lee Chatfield, the Peninsula Fund, paid off nearly the entirety of a $153,000 credit card balance. A forensic accountant hired by prosecutors testified many of the purchases on the card didn't appear to line up with the Peninsula Fund's stated goals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chartier argued that it was up to the law firm managing the fund, the Dykema firm in Lansing, to make sure the spending remained in compliance. The most serious charge Lee Chatfield faces carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, if convicted. Stephanie Chatfield's charges each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, if convicted. In Dec. 2021, Rebekah Chatfield, Lee Chatfields sister-in-law, told Lansing police she had been sexually assaulted by Lee Chatfield from the time she was 15 years old and a student at the northern Michigan religious school where Lee Chatfield taught. She also reported misuse of campaign funds at the time, according to her court testimony in the case. Lee Chatfield has denied any sexual assault. Chartier previously said a years-long consensual affair took place between Lee Chatfield and Rebekah Chatfield when both were adults. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan State Police began investigating Lee Chatfield, and were later joined by Nessels office in the investigation. When Nessel announced the financial charges against Lee and Stephanie Chatfield in April 2024, she said the investigation into the sexual assault allegations was closed without charges. Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Speaker Chatfield, wife to stand trial over embezzlement charges By Idrees Ali and Raju Gopalakrishnan SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop build up along their border to levels before conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbours this month, a top Pakistani military official told Reuters on Friday, although he warned the crisis had increased the risk of escalation in the future. Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The spark for the latest fighting between the old enemies was an April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. New Delhi blamed the incident on "terrorists" backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad. On May 7, India launched missiles at what it said were "terrorist infrastructure" sites across the border and as Pakistan responded with its own attacks, both countries built up additional forces along the frontier. General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan's chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in an interview that the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels. "We have almost come back to the pre-22nd April situation... we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now," said Mirza, the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement India's ministry of defence and the office of the Indian chief of defence staff did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza. Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move towards nuclear weapons during this conflict, it was a dangerous situation. "Nothing happened this time," he said. "But you can't rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different." He also said the risk of escalation in the future had increased since the fighting this time was not limited to the disputed territory of Kashmir, the scenic region in the Himalayas that both nations rule in part but claim in full. The two sides attacked military installations in their mainlands but neither has acknowledged any serious damage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan this month that New Delhi would target "terrorist hideouts" across the border again if there were new attacks on India. 'DANGEROUS TREND' The two countries have fought three major wars, two of them over Kashmir, and numerous armed skirmishes since both were born out of British colonial India in 1947. India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of Kashmir that began in 1989 and has killed tens of thousands. Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris seeking self-determination. "This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powers...in the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan," Mirza said. "This is a very dangerous trend." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reuters has reported that the rapid escalation of hostilities ended in part because of behind-the-scenes diplomacy involving the U.S., India and Pakistan, and the key role played by Washington in brokering peace. India has denied any third-party role in the ceasefire and said that any engagement between India and Pakistan has to be bilateral. But Mirza warned that international mediation might be difficult in the future because of a lack of crisis management mechanisms between the countries. "The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community," he said. Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Delhi has maintained a hard line on any possible rapprochement. If there are talks, it will only be on terrorism and (Pakistan Kashmir)," Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. "If Pakistan is serious about talks, it should hand over terrorists...to India so that justice is served. Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions, or informal talks, to ease tensions. He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, India's chief of defence staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La forum. "These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, on the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield," Mirza said. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Additional reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) By Samia Nakhoul and Parisa Hafezi DUBAI (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia's defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: take President Donald Trump's offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel. Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabia's 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son, Prince Khalid bin Salman, with the warning destined for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the sources said. While media covered the 37-year-old prince's visit, the content of the King Salman's covert message has not been previously reported. Prince Khalid, who was Saudi ambassador to Washington during Trump's first term, warned Iranian officials that the U.S. leader has little patience for drawn-out negotiations, according to the four sources. Trump had unexpectedly announced just over a week earlier that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. He did so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had travelled to Washington hoping instead to win support for attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Tehran, Prince Khalid told the group of senior Iranian officials that Trump's team would want to reach a deal quickly, and the window for diplomacy would close fast, according to the four sources. The Saudi minister said it would be better to reach a deal with the U.S. than face the possibility of an Israeli attack if the talks broke down, according to the two Gulf sources. He argued that the region - already riven by recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon - could not withstand a further escalation in tensions, said the two Gulf sources and one senior foreign diplomat familiar with the discussions. Iranian authorities did not respond to a request for comment before this story was published, but after its publication Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei "categorically denied" Reuters' report, according to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. Authorities in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The visit by Prince Khalid - the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman - was the first by a senior member of the Saudi royal family to Iran in more than two decades. Riyadh and Tehran had long been bitter rivals, often backing opposing sides in proxy wars, until a rapprochement brokered by China in 2023 helped to ease the tensions and restored diplomatic ties. Over the past two years, Iran's regional position has been undermined by heavy military blows inflicted by Israel on its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and toppling of its close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Western sanctions, meanwhile, have hit its oil-dependent economy hard. Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank in Beirut, said that Tehran's weakness had offered Saudi Arabia the opportunity to exert its diplomatic influence, seeking to avoid a regional conflagration. "They (the Saudis) want to avoid war because war and confrontation with Iran will have negative implications on them and their economic vision and ambitions," he told Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement IRAN WANTS A DEAL Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the prince's message on Iran's leadership. In the meeting, Pezeshkian responded that Iran wanted a deal to ease economic pressure through the lifting of Western sanctions, the four sources said. However, the Iranian officials, the sources added, expressed concerns over the Trump administration's "unpredictable" approach to negotiations which have veered from allowing limited uranium enrichment to demanding the complete dismantling of Tehran's enrichment program. Trump also has threatened to use military force if diplomacy fails to rein in the clerical establishment's nuclear ambitions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the Iranian sources said that Pezeshkian emphasized Tehran's eagerness to reach a deal but that Iran was not willing to sacrifice its enrichment program just because Trump wanted an agreement. The ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran have already been through five rounds to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, but multiple stumbling blocks remain, including the key issue of enrichment. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Iran might pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. releases its frozen funds and recognises its right to refine uranium for civilian use under a "political deal" that could lead to a broader nuclear accord, according to two Iranian sources familiar with the talks. The semi-official Fars news agency in Iran quoted a foreign ministry spokesman denying the report. The White House did not directly address Reuters' questions about whether it was aware of the Saudi warning to Iran. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "President Trump has made it clear: make a deal, or face grave consequences, and the whole world is clearly taking him seriously, as they should," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Trump said on Wednesday he warned Netanyahu last week not to take any actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran, and said the two sides were "very close to a solution now". Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment. HIGH STAKES A four-day visit by Trump to the Gulf this month annointed Saudi Arabia as the most prominent member of a new axis of Sunni states in the Middle East, filling the void left by Iran's shattered alliance. During the trip, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman mediated a reconciliation between Trump and Syria's new Sunni leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tehran's regional sway, meanwhile, has been diminished by military setbacks suffered by Iran and its allies in the Shi'ite-dominated Axis of Resistance, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias In the meeting, Prince Khalid urged Iran to rethink its regional policy, noting such a shift would be welcomed, especially by Riyadh, the sources said. Although he stopped short of directly blaming Iran, the Saudi minister voiced concern over a possible repeat of the 2019 drone attacks on the facilities of state oil company Aramco - attacks the kingdom attributed to Iran and its Houthi allies, despite Tehran's denial. Iranian officials maintained that while Tehran holds some influence over the Houthis, it does not fully control their actions, the Iranian sources said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Decades of hostility between the Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia destabilised the Gulf and fuelled regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria. The 2023 detente was driven in part by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed's economic ambitions and desire for stability, and has led to increased contacts between the governments. However, neither Saudi Arabia nor other regional powers see Iran as a dependable partner for peace and they fear its actions could jeopardize their ambitions for economic development, diplomats and regional experts say. Prince Khalid implored the Iranians to avoid actions by them and their allies that might provoke Washington, stressing that Trump's response would likely be more strident than his predecessors, presidents Joe Biden and Barak Obama. In turn, he assured Tehran that Riyadh would not let its territory or airspace to be used by the United States or Israel for any potential military action against Iran, the sources said. (Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Dubai newsroom; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Daniel Flynn) By Michael Martina, Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard WASHINGTON/TAIPEI (Reuters) -The United States plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taipei to a level exceeding President Donald Trump's first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the democratic island, according to two U.S. officials. If U.S. arms sales to Taiwan do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump's commitment to the island. It would also add new friction to the tense U.S.-China relationship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they expect U.S. approvals for weapons sales to Taipei over the next four years to surpass those in Trump's first term, with one of the officials saying arms sales notifications to Taiwan could "easily exceed" that earlier period. They also said the United States is pressing members of Taiwan's opposition parties not to oppose the government's efforts to increase defense spending to 3% of the island's economic output. The first Trump administration approved sales of approximately $18.3 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan, compared with around $8.4 billion during Joe Biden's term, according to Reuters calculations. The United States is Taiwan's most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Washington and Taipei. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even so, many in Taiwan, which China claims as its own, worry that Trump may not be as committed to the island as past U.S. presidents. On the election campaign trail, Trump suggested Taiwan should pay to be protected and also accused the island of stealing American semiconductor business, causing alarm in Taipei. China has vowed to "reunify" with the separately governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future. The U.S. officials said administration officials and Trump himself were committed to "enhancing hard deterrence" for Taiwan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "That's where the president is. That's where all of us are," one U.S. official said, adding that they were working closely with Taiwan on an arms procurement package to be rolled out when Taiwan secured domestic funding. Taiwan's Presidential Office told Reuters the government is determined to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and pointed to its proposals to increase defense spending. "Taiwan aims to enhance military deterrence while continuing to deepen its security cooperation with the United States," Presidential Office spokesperson Wen Lii said. Taiwan's defense ministry declined to comment on any new arms sales, but reiterated previous remarks by the island's defense minister, Wellington Koo, about the importance of "solidarity and cooperation of democratic allies." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China's foreign ministry reiterated its opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan on Friday, with spokesperson Lin Jian telling reporters that the United States should stop creating "new factors" that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait. 'DON'T GET IN THE WAY' Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aim to increase defense spending to 3% of GDP this year through a special defense budget. But the island's parliament, controlled by opposition parties the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), passed budget cuts earlier this year that threatened to hit defense spending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That triggered concerns in Washington, where officials and lawmakers have regularly said the U.S. cannot show more urgency over Taiwan's defense than the island itself. "We're messaging pretty hard (in Taipei) to the opposition. Don't get in the way of this. This isn't a Taiwanese partisan question. This is a Taiwanese survival question," one of the U.S. officials told Reuters. Three people in Taiwan with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that the U.S. government and U.S. congressional visitors have been pressing the opposition parties in Taiwan not to block defense spending, especially the coming special defense budget, which is expected to be proposed to parliament later this year. "As long as they knew there were people from the opposition in the room, they directly asked them not to cut the defense budget," one of the people said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alexander Huang, director of the KMT's international department, told Reuters it was "beyond question" that the party firmly supports increasing the defense budget and its "doors are open" to the U.S. government and the ruling DPP for consultations. "Supporting an increased budget does not mean serving as a rubber stamp, nor does it preclude making adjustments or engaging in negotiations regarding the special budget proposals put forth by the DPP administration," he added. The much smaller TPP said it has "always had smooth communication with the U.S. side and has continued to engage in in-depth dialogue on issues such as national defense and regional security." Reuters reported in February that Taiwan was exploring a multi-billion dollar arms purchase from the U.S., hoping to win support from the new Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New weapons packages are expected to focus on missiles, munitions and drones, cost-effective means to help improve Taiwan's chances of rebuffing any military action by China's much larger forces. For years, China has been steadily ramping up its military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over the island that is home to critical chip manufacturing vital to the global economy. Separately, one of the U.S. officials said the Trump administration would not object to a transit this year through U.S. territory by Lai, whom Beijing labels a "separatist." Past visits to the United States by Taiwanese officials have triggered angry objections by China, which sees such trips as inappropriate given that the United States has diplomatic relations with Beijing, not Taipei. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taiwan's presidential office spokesperson Lii said there are currently "no plans for a presidential transit through the United States at the moment." (Reporting by Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Don Durfee, Daniel Wallis and Lincoln Feast.) The Sydney Morning Herald recently interviewed a director at Shein, who revealed insights as to how the fast-fashion giant operates. What's happening? Tara Skene-Haygarth is the director of product at Shein's Australian sub-brand, Aralina. She argued that Shein's on-demand model ensured that there was a bare minimum of overproduction, leaving little unused stock sitting in storage. "The on-demand model really isn't spoken about," said Skene-Haygarth, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. "I feel like for us, the operating model is quite sustainable." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, experts point out that fabric isn't made on demand. Waste from production is commensurate with the high volume of finished products Shein produces. "There are minimum order quantities, and there are typically huge amounts of excess fabrics left over from production because of this, and this is pervasive across the industry," said founder of Circular Sourcing Courtney Holm, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Skene-Haygarth went into detail about how the fast turnaround of new products and how digital-first retail experiences are now the norm. Product photography in particular plays a big role, she said. "It's all very competitive," said Skene-Haygarth, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's really about having such a unique point of view with the creative art direction, the way you shoot So it is tough, but it's all just about performance, too." Why is Shein important? Shein is the biggest polluter in the fashion industry. By its own reports, its carbon pollution nearly tripled in three years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fast fashion more broadly creates loads of issues. Production pollutes local waterways. Much unused stock gets destroyed by retailers. Once in a landfill, organic fibers decompose and produce methane. Along with other polluting gases, methane heats the atmosphere, exacerbates extreme weather patterns, raises sea levels via melting sea ice, and both warms and acidifies oceans. The clothing industry generates roughly 10% of global pollution. This is partly thanks to a growing proportion of clothing relying on oil-based synthetic materials. The oil production itself introduces even more atmospheric pollution. The plastics, namely polyester, shed into microplastics, which find their way into oceans. Once there, they bioaccumulate in the fish we eat and eventually in humans. These microplastics can introduce a wide range of immune, endocrine, and reproductive health problems once in the body. What's being done about fast fashion? Some companies are attempting to support more circular clothing models. Trashie, thredUp, and GotSneakers are just some marketplaces that can find a second life for clothing that's otherwise on its way out. This can elongate the lifespan of existing clothing and reduce the need for buying something new. 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. CHICAGO (WGN) Thursday marked the final Board of Education meeting for embattled Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, who landed a new job after previous board members fired him late last year. Martinez reflected on his time with CPS, calling the chance to lead one of the nations biggest school districts the experience of a lifetime. Martinez revealed that the journey first began after his family migrated from Mexico when he was 5 years old. I was at Walsh Elementary, where I learned how to speak English, where teachers began to see the potential in me that I did not see in myself, Martinez said. That trend continued to Benito Juarez, where teachers and counselors encouraged me to challenge myself. And guide me towards being the first in my family to go to college. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ousted CPS CEO Martinez earns nod to lead Massachusetts Board of Education But his role as CPS CEO, which he accepted in 2021, likely did not end as he envisioned. Last December, Martinez was fired without cause amid conflict with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and his refusal to take out a high-interest loan to help finance a new Chicago Teachers Union contract and a pension payment for non-teacher staff, a move Martinez said was fiscally irresponsible. Nonetheless, Martinez says hes proud of the work he leaves behind. Our graduation rate has never been higher; over 84%, he said. Nearly seven out of 10 CPS graduates are enrolling in college. More than half of our CPS students are earning college credit and industry certification or another career credential while still in high school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Martinez has since been hired to lead the Massachusetts Board of Elementary Education. Through all the turmoil, CPS and CTU reached an agreement on a new contract in April. Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates also attended Thursdays board meeting. The CTU boss held a press conference earlier in the day on charter school renewals and wished the outgoing Martinez well. Reaction pouring in after Board of Education voted to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez CEO Pedro Martinez, I wish you Godspeed and the best of luck in your new endeavor, she said. I also would suggest very strongly to you to get to know Jessica Tang and Max Page, two very honorable labor leaders who would love to partner with you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for the search for a new CPS CEO, Several brainstorming sessions are still scheduled. As of this writing, the job description has not been finalized or posted yet, however. 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. Elon Musks political death certificate arrived Wednesday night, Washington time, when the richest man in the world announced on his social network, X, that he was resigning from the mission for which Donald Trump had recruited him: dismantling the administration at the helm of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In reality, his farewell tour had begun much earlier, in late April, shortly after Trump completed the rite of passage of his first 100 days in office. At the time, Musk compared himself to an enlightened leader. DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism, Musk said. Is Buddha needed for Buddhism? On Tuesday, he reiterated his hope for a future in which the chainsaw to cut public spending can continue to roar with someone else at the helm. The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government, he wrote on X. That, however, is far from guaranteed: the department was created by recruiting about 20 young engineers some barely out of their teenswho, inspired by Silicon Valley and armed with an iconoclastic spirit, stormed federal agencies one after another to uncover secrets, enforce cuts, and fire tens of thousands of public employees. Their guide was Musk himself, who had tested this shock therapy in some of his own companies including, besides X, aerospace company SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla so it remains unclear who will lead them now. For the moment, Musks right hand at DOGE, Steve Davis, an employee of another of his companies, the tunneling firm Boring Company, who had traveled to Washington to help out, is also leaving. And more high-profile resignations are expected. As a special government employee a category the White House used to avoid having his appointment approved by the Senate Musk was legally limited to working in that role for 130 days. That deadline was set to expire on Friday, the day Trump and Musk will hold a joint press conference in the Oval Office. At the start of his second term, the president hinted he might bend that rule. [Friday] will be his last day, Trump wrote on Truth Social. But not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! During his time at the helm of DOGE, the South African-born billionaire has faced resistance he clearly did not expect. He thought he would be welcomed as a national hero someone who would put aside his lavish life as the richest man in the world to pitch in for a country facing serious problems due to its massive public debt. His cuts have plunged the Washington region and its nearly 300,000 public employees into a decidedly gloomy mood, and the residents have responded with protests against Musk. A protest outside a Tesla dealership in Kansas City, Missouri. Charlie Riedel (AP) His time at the White House left behind a trail of public and private conflicts with members of Trumps Cabinet, along with four months of unforgettable images unthinkable before his foray into politics making his tenure one of the most extravagant in U.S. history. There was the time he appeared in the Oval Office with his four-year-old son; when Trump turned the White House into a Tesla showroom to support him amid angry consumer backlash; or the iconic image of Musk brandishing a chainsaw, a gift from Argentine President Javier Milei, on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference a Trump rally where he was welcomed like a rock star. That day, he defended his mission leading DOGE, as well as his right to carry it out without giving up a sense of humor, which he said was back thanks to Trump. Yet in Washington and beyond, Musk often struggled to get the public to laugh at his jokes. Musk may hope for the DOGE mission to become a way of life throughout government, but its clear he doesnt have much faith in that outcome. His definitive farewell came just one day after statements were made public in which he criticized the big, beautiful bill, a fiscal initiative being pushed by Republicans in Congress under the pressure of the U.S. president, who has pinned his legislative agendas success on its passage. Musk expressed disappointment over the massive spending the bill would bring an amount that the Trump administration itself estimates at over $3 trillion. Considering that Musk entered the political arena promising to cut $2 trillion from a $6-trillion deficit, the feared effects of this law do little to burnish his record at DOGE. He later lowered his savings target to $1 trillion, but departs having cut only $175 billion a figure far short of what he promised. Trump and Musk attend the launch of a Starship rocket last November in Texas. Brandon Bell (via REUTERS) He also leaves having inflicted considerable damage to the reputation of his companies damage that wont be easy to repair. Across U.S. highways, a number of Teslas now sport bumper stickers put there by their owners that read: I bought this before we knew Elon went crazy. Over the past four months, Tesla dealerships, vehicles, trucks, and charging stations have been targets of vandalism, and the company saw its profits drop by 71% in the first quarter. Pressure from investors Those losses tested the patience of Tesla investors, and their mounting pressure was one of the key reasons Musk decided to return to his businesses and stop focusing his energy on Washington a city he had all but moved to permanently. On Tuesday, Musk posted on X that it was time to get back to his old routine: spending long days and nights in the factories he runs with obsessive dedication, according to his employees. His time in the swamp of Washington a place he failed to drain and that nearly swallowed him whole has also sparked lingering suspicions. Namely, that he may have used his unprecedented access to federal secrets to obtain information that could be highly valuable to his private ventures, particularly SpaceX, whose biggest client happens to be the very government he was tasked with downsizing. This has also been the week in which his flagship project at the space company suffered yet another blow: the third consecutive failure this year of the test launch of the Starship megarocket the largest ever built and the one he hopes will one day carry humanity to Mars, another promise he made during Trumps inauguration, the same day he gave a Nazi-style salute. Unsurprisingly, its a promise he hasnt been able to fulfill. This time, the rocket didnt explode shortly after takeoff, as it had on previous occasions but it did disintegrate on its way to outer space. Elon Musk speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington. Evan Vucci (AP) In the past month, according to several U.S. media outlets, Musk has also tasted the bitter lesson often learned by those who get too close to Trump only to fall out of favor. Though both men insist their friendship remains intact, its clear that the honeymoon phase of their relationship has ended. That initial infatuation began when Musk backed Trumps campaign with a record-breaking donation of over $260 million. But it seems to have soured, as evidenced during the presidents recent trip to the Middle East, according to The New York Times. While Trump and his family were busy closing lucrative deals, largely ignoring inconvenient ethical questions, Musk had to wait in line to greet him something unimaginable just a few weeks ago. A cartoon in The New Yorker on Thursday was even more unkind. It depicted a dreary office scene in a Washington building, with the citys iconic obelisk visible in the background. On a table sat a lonely soda and a bag of chips. A sign reads: Bye, Elon. One character says: Were sorry, but the goodbye-party budget was gutted by DOGE. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Spring wildfires in Wales are posing serious threats to vulnerable species, according to the BBC. What's happening? Grassfires in South Wales are up by 1,200% compared to the same time last year 110 square miles of land across the U.K. has already suffered wildfires. A lengthy dry spell, high heat, and leftover fuel from last year have created ideal conditions for fire outbreaks. Why are wildfires important? Hen harriers, water voles, golden plovers, and bluebells are just some of the species put at risk due to this extreme habitat loss. Endangered barn owls are particularly challenged by reduced prey opportunities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "A few weeks ago they had all of this area to find food for their chicks and suddenly they don't have that any more," said Rob Parry from the nonprofit Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC), per the BBC. "I don't know how they are going to cope. A wildfire just makes that habitat disappear overnight." Wildfires have destroyed habitat for many species, putting them at risk. This includes the western gray squirrel, the southern steelhead trout, and the northern hairy-nosed wombat. While biodiversity damage is front of mind, the wildfires also release phosphates that wash into waterways and diminish local water quality. What's being done about wildfires? The INCC has called for increased controlled burn oversight, especially for farmers. Farmers are also becoming a part of the solution by restoring peat bogs, which prevent fires and sequester carbon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The real tragedy of the issue is that many wildfires are started deliberately. This has spurred renewed education campaigns at Welsh schools by local firefighters. "We see the death of local wildlife, we see the destruction of their habitat," said firefighter Mark Bowditch, per the BBC. "We accept that some fires can be accidental, but deliberate fire setting is a crime and that's the message we'd like to get out." Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. 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. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) The Bridge Alzheimers & Dementia Resource Center invites the community to open house tours every other Tuesday. The tours will allow guests to learn about The Bridges programs, meet the team, and delve into its available services supporting caregivers and individuals living with Alzheimers and other dementias in the region. CHRISTUS highlights speech therapy for communication disorders Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Guests will also be able to see The Bridge Adult Day Center, Northwest Louisianas first dementia-centered adult day program. This program provides individuals with dementia with a safe, inviting environment while caregivers relax and refresh. We want people to know that theyre not alone, said Toni Goodin, Executive Director of The Bridge Alzheimers & Dementia Resource Center. These tours are a simple way for anyonewhether a caregiver, family member, or healthcare providerto come see what we offer and ask questions in a relaxed, welcoming setting. The first tour will take place on Tuesday, June 3, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration is not required. For more information, visit The Bridge during tour hours. 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. Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) was behind explosions near Desantnaya Bay in Russia's Vladivostok on May 30, which reportedly damaged military personnel and equipment, a source in HUR told the Kyiv Independent. If confirmed, the Vladivostok operation would be Ukraine's furthest incursion into Russian territory - approximately 6,800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. According to the source, two blasts occurred early in the morning at a site where Russia's 47th Separate Air Assault Battalion of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade was stationed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 155th Marine Brigade has been actively involved in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including battles in Mariupol and Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast, as well as operations in Russia's Kursk Oblast. Local media reported two loud bangs, followed by temporary road closures and emergency vehicles seen in the area, but did not mention anything about a military base. Russia's Anti-Terrorist Commission of Primorsky Krai attributed the explosions to the ignition of propane-butane cylinders inside a vehicle. No official casualties have been reported. One of the explosions allegedly happened near a checkpoint, while the other hit the location of personnel and the unit's command. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Manpower, military equipment, and special equipment were hit," the source claimed. The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims. Desantnaya Bay is located in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East, which lies some 185 kilometres (114 miles) from the Russian-North Korean border. Read also: Russia testing Europes capacity to help Ukraine by intensifying air attacks Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. We now have a picture showing a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle down-range in the Middle East with an air-to-air loadout that includes six seven-shot 70mm rocket pods, as well as four AIM-9X and four AIM-120 missiles. This comes a week after TWZ was the first to report on testing of the laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) rockets as a new armament option for the F-15E. As we noted at that time, the exact loadout were now seeing on a deployed Strike Eagle turns the jet into a counter-drone and cruise missile weapons truck with a whopping 50 engagement opportunities, not counting the internal gun. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) posted the picture in question, seen at the top of this story, today on social media with a basic caption offering no additional context. TWZ had reached out to CENTCOM and the Air Force for more information. U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. pic.twitter.com/xxg6F6LlqB U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 30, 2025 There are indications that the image was taken at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, which has long been a known hub for U.S. F-15E operations in the region. Picture posted by USCENTCOM Twitter account showing an F-15E with an anti-UAV loadout.Geolocation is: 31.827123, 36.797503 (Muwaffaq Salti AB, Jordan.F-15E is 87-0210 from 389th Fighter Squadron, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T17:47:36.641Z The image of the rocket-toting F-15E that had emerged last week via social media channels associated with The Merge military aviation podcast was taken at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, but it remains unclear when. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Eglin AFB test community through strong partnerships have aggressively conducted integrated test of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, Gabriel Myers, a spokesperson for the 96th Test Wing at Eglin, previously told TWZ when asked for more information about that picture. By working at speed to ensure advanced capabilities have the intended effects, we increase warfighter readiness and lethality to meet the global demands of the joint force. The picture of the rocket-armed F-15E at Eglin that previously emerged, annotated to provide a closer look at the fully loaded seven-shot pods under the jets left wing. Unattributed via The Merge The U.S. military still does not appear to have officially announced the integration of laser-guided APKWS II onto the F-15E. Originally designed as an air-to-ground munition, APKWS II is cleared for use on Air Force F-16C/D Vipers and A-10 Warthogs, as well as U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers and F/A-18C/D Hornets on the fixed-wing side. The precision-guided rockets are also part of the arsenals available for Marine AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters, as well as U.S. Navy MH-60R/S Seahawks and U.S. Army AH-64D/E Apaches. Each APKWS II rocket consists of a laser guidance package inserted between a standard 70mm rocket motor and one of a variety of warhead options. Regardless, it is not at all surprising that an F-15E with the heavy rocket loadout has now emerged in the Middle East in an operational context. As we previously wrote: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But its the Strike Eagle and APKWS II combos potential in the air-to-air role that is perhaps most exciting. As we noted earlier, Air Force F-16s first began employing the laser-guided rockets in an anti-air optimized configuration to shoot down Houthi drones during operations over and around the Red Sea last year, which TWZ was first to report. The Air Force had announced back in 2019 that it had demonstrated APKWS IIs ability to be used as an air-to-air weapon in a test wherein an F-16 downed a surrogate for a subsonic cruise missile, something we were also first to report on. APKWS II is also combat-proven in the surface-to-air role against drones, as well as in air-ground modes and surface-to-surface modes. U.S. Fighter aircraft shoot down Iran-backed Houthi one-way-attack drones with AGR-20 FALCO Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) Laser Guided 2.75" Rockets.#HouthisAreTerrorists pic.twitter.com/bDoVnKwotc U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 19, 2025 Since January, F-16s have been observed flying the Middle East carrying air-to-air loadouts that include one or two seven-shot 70mm rocket pods, as well as traditional air-to-air missiles and LITENING targeting pods. This had already underscored the magazine depth benefits of APKWS II. A typical air-to-air for the Viper consists of six air-to-air missiles. Just having a pair of rocket pods on one pylon effectively triples the number of anti-air engagement opportunities per sortie. The F-15E with six seven-shot rocket pods, along with eight air-to-air missiles, goes far beyond that capacity. Together with aerial refueling support, an F-15E armed with APKWS II rockets and traditional air-to-air missiles could provide a far more persistent counter-air screen with a huge magazine depth against drones and some cruise missile types. This kind of general scenario is what Air Force Strike Eagle crews found themselves in on multiple occasions while defending Israel from Iranian attacks last year, during which, running out of missiles became the limiting factor. A pair of US Air Force F-16s with air-to-air loadouts flying somewhere in the Middle East on Feb. 11, 2025. The Viper at the rear has a pair of seven-shot 70mm rocket pods under its right wing. USAF The F-15E also has the advantage of being a two-seat aircraft, which allows the pilot in front to focus on flying the plane while the back-seater engages targets in the air or on the ground and performs other tasks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is worth mentioning that Muwaffaq Salti was a major staging point for the aforementioned F-15E sorties in the defense of Israel last year. Stunning accounts of those operations have since emerged. This includes at least one instance in which a Strike Eagle crew switched to the jets 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon after running out of missiles, but was unable to shoot down anything with the gun. It would make sense that an APKWS II capability for the F-15E, particularly for use in the air-to-air role, would have been rushed into service after those experiences, and subsequently fielded to Strike Eagle units deployed in Jordan. APKWS II is limited in the air-to-air role to engaging non-reactionary, low-performance targets that fly along relatively steady courses like one-way-attack drones and subsonic cruise missiles. Currently, targets have to be manually designated, or lazed, throughout the entire course of the engagement, as well. APKWS IIs prime contractor, BAE Systems, is now working on a dual-mode guidance package that incorporates an infrared seeker that is designed to offer a pseudo-fire-and-forget capability to make it easier to move on from engaging one target to the next, as you can read more about here. A mock-up of the dual-mode APKWS II with the additional infrared seeker on display at the Sea Air Space 2025 conference earlier this year. Jamie Hunter At the same time, the aforementioned magazine depth, together with the lower unit cost of an APKWS II rocket compared to traditional air-to-air missiles, offers clear benefits. The latest variants of the AIM-120 cost around $1 million apiece, while current-generation AIM-9Xs each have a price tag around $450,000. The most expensive part of an APKWS II rocket is the guidance section, which costs between $15,000 and $20,000, with the rocket motor and warhead adding a few thousand dollars more to the total price point. As shown by the F-15E in the newly released picture, air-to-air loadouts incorporating APKWS II can also still include air-to-air missiles for prosecuting more demanding threats. It remains likely that APKWS II will be integrated onto further fixed-wing aircraft in the future for use in the air-to-air role, such as the U.S. Navys F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. The Air Forces F-15E Strike Eagle fleet has now gotten a major firepower boost, especially for hunting down incoming drones and cruise missiles. Contact the author: joe@twz.com Lockheed Martin's CEO announced plans for an uncrewed F-35. The F-35 and F-22 will gain next-gen stealth, electronic warfare, and weapons improvements, he said. The US Air Force wants uncrewed aircraft to support piloted ones and add mass to its force. Lockheed Martin is developing an advanced version of its F-35 stealth fighter jet that could potentially be uncrewed, the company's CEO said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Bernstein's 41st Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, CEO Jim Taiclet floated the possibility of an F-35 whose pilot could be "optional" within a "relatively modest time frame." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He outlined what he called "fifth-gen-plus" aircraft, where within two or three years both the F-35 and the older F-22 Raptor would feature several capabilities, including stealth coatings, electronic warfare improvements, and an unspecified weapons improvement, he said. Lockheed is repurposing much of this tech from its failed bid for the F-22 Raptor replacement, advances whose capabilities could rival those of the winning jet design at a much lower cost. Lockheed said it was integrating some systems from a sixth-generation design that would have replaced its F-22 Raptor. US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jacob M. Thompson Boeing secured the contract for the US Air Force's Next-Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD, to develop the sixth-generation F-47. Lockheed Martin didn't protest the decision. "Our target is 80% of the capability of an NGAD sixth-generation at 50% of the unit costs," Taiclet said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These improvements would be introduced in stages, he said, with consideration to how the aircraft will be integrated with other systems. Some updates could be done in two to three years for "a meaningful increase in capacity," Taiclet said. That includes stealth coatings on the aircraft's surface and adjustments to its shape, as well as electronic warfare and weapons capabilities upgrades. Sixth-generation are a class of aircraft whose stealth, speed, automation and extended range are expected to make them the world's premier aircraft as they enter service in the 2030s. More than 1,200 F-35s have already been delivered to the US and 12 additional countries' militaries. The F-35 program has hit several snags over the years, including costs and goals. The lifetime F-35 program costs top $2 trillion, and sustainability costs are also rising. Last year, the US Government Accountability Office assessed that the F-35 isn't hitting mission-capable goals and hasn't for years. On a company earnings call in April, Taiclet said the fifth-gen plus upgrade focused on better capabilities at a lower cost but details were sparse. "We're basically going to take the [F-35] chassis and turn it into a Ferrari," he said. AI-guided fighters The Air Force and other military programs have been working on unmanned aircraft that can fly alongside piloted aircraft. US Air Force photo by Richard Gonzales Autonomous or uncrewed capabilities in aircraft have been a top priority for the US Air Force. Its Collaborative Combat Aircraft initiative has focused on unmanned aircraft capable of operating alongside piloted aircraft or autonomously for a variety of missions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Air Force leadership has touted these "loyal wingmen" as not only giving pilots a variety of options for how to employ them as sensors, weapons carriers, or jamming platforms but also offering the possibility of having enough with lower costs than crewed aircraft. That could be key in a conflict with a peer adversary, like China or Russia. A pilot could direct a CCA on missions too dangerous for crewed fighters. At the conference, Taiclet said Lockheed Martin's interest in pilot-optional F-35s lent itself to the CCA. "We're thinking of the F-35 not just as a standalone aircraft, but how it can interface with sixth generation and with unmanned aircraft and itself be optionally manned," he said. Efforts for F-35 autonomy would be similar to the Air Force's AI-guided F-16 fighter jet that's been used in recent years to test AI pilots. The aircraft is part of the Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)'s AI fighter jet pilot program, which has been working on testing, iterating, and updating AI agents to fly the jet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last year, then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall flew in the X-62A pilot by AI, "witnessing several AI agents as they autonomously maneuvered the X-62 against a manned F-16 in dogfighting engagements," an Air Force official said at the time. Those manned-unmanned dogfights have been ongoing and the service has said it's learning a lot of information from them, especially on how autonomous aircraft could aid or support manned pilots. Read the original article on Business Insider Claim: Elon Musk solved an unsolvable math problem after a Harvard professor called him rich but dumb. Rating: Rating: False In May 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that the tech entrepreneur and former Trump adviser Elon Musk solved an "unsolvable" math problem after a Harvard professor called him "rich but dumb." A Harvard Professor Mocked Elon Musk as 'Rich But Dumb'Then Musk Solved an 'Unsolveable' Math Problem in 2 MINUTES! The Crowd Went SILENT! Dr. Edward Kline, a 62-year-old calculus professor at Stanford with a reputation for his rigorous teaching style, was among the skeptics. "Mr. Musk, you may have billions, but intelligence isn't something you can buy. I doubt you could solve a basic Harvard problem that my students struggle with." Kline handed Musk a whiteboard marker with a smirk, saying, "Let's see if you can handle this in under 10 minutes. I'll be impressed if you even get halfway." What happened next left the room in stunned silence.... The claim circulated mostly on (archived) Facebook (archived) and X (archived), accompanied by two images that claimed to show the moment Musk triumphantly solved the math problem. Some self-described fictional YouTube (archived) videos (archived) presented a similar narrative around May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, we found no proof that the alleged encounter at Harvard University actually happened. Searches on online search engines brought up no credible reports about the event (archived) (archived) (archived). One of the images that accompanied the claim featured a logo for Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by the Musk-owned company xAI. Online detectors rated the other image highly likely to have been generated by AI. Furthermore, we found no trace of "Dr. Edward Kline," allegedly a Stanford University mathematics professor. Therefore, we rate this claim false. The claim circulated since at least May 23, 2025, alongside two images. These images carried several clues that the claim was false. Firstly, one of the images was generated by AI, as evidenced by the Grok logo in the bottom-right corner. Additionally, the Grok image poorly resembled Musk, as evidenced by recent authentic photos. (Grok/Snopes Illustration) The other image featured alongside the story did not carry a visible sign it was generated by AI. However, online detectors SightEngine and Hive Moderation said the image was highly likely to be AI-generated. Hive Moderation said Grok likely created the image. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (Sightengine/Hive Moderation/Snopes Illustration) In addition to the AI-generated images, aspects of the claim text also contained inconsistencies. For example, the text said "A Harvard Professor Mocked Elon Musk" but then identified the professor as "Dr. Edward Kline, a 62-year-old calculus professor at Stanford." There was also no trace of a Dr. Edward Kline at either Stanford or Harvard universities. A broader online search found multiple Dr. Edward Klines but none who taught mathematics at either Stanford or Harvard. Despite the above, the claim might include one grain of truth: A Harvard professor did warn Elon Musk about a problem he "will never solve" in 2024. However, the problem wasn't (entirely) mathematical. Jason Furman, an economist and Harvard economics professor, said Musk could not cut $2 trillion from the U.S. budget "on his own" the original goal set for Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The "professor mocked Elon Musk" story is also reminiscent of an urban legend long told about Albert Einstein in which, as a college student, the future theoretical physicist humiliated an atheist professor by demonstrating that God can co-exist with evil. An "unsolvable math problem" tale that turned out to be true involves a college student mistaking examples of unsolved statistics problems for a homework assignment, took them home and solved them. Snopes has investigated a plethora of rumors about Elon Musk including whether he remotely shut down Tesla cars owned by Democrats or whether Starlink, his satellite internet service provider, can't operate in South Africa because Musk isn't Black. Sources: 6,091 Elon Musk Photos & High Res Pictures - Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?family=editorial&phrase=elon%20musk&sort=newest&specificpeople=4448862. Accessed 30 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "AI Image Detector. Detect AI-Generated Media at Scale." Sightengine, https://sightengine.com/detect-ai-generated-images. Accessed 30 May 2025. "Dr. Edward Kline, 81, Retired Official of G.E." New York Times, 2 Apr. 1990, https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/02/obituaries/dr-edward-kline-81-retired-official-of-ge.html. Economist Warns Elon Musk Will Never Solve This One Problem on His Own. 22 May 2025, https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/mrcbg/publications/economist-warns-elon-musk-will-never-solve-one-problem-his-own. "Elon Musk Harvard Professor Unsolvable Problem." Bing, https://www.bing.com/search?q=elon+musk+harvard+professor+unsolvable+problem&form=QBLH&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=elon+musk+harvard+professor+unsolvable+problem&sc=0-46&qs=n&sk=&cvid=A5178A3AAE314C8DB6630874AFC75683. Accessed 30 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elon Musk Harvard Professor Unsolvable Problem - Yahoo Search Results. https://uk.news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrLA4VXrTloFAIAH6RLBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=elon+musk+harvard+professor+unsolvable+problem&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t. Accessed 30 May 2025. Elon Musk Harvard Professor Unsolvable Problem at DuckDuckGo. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=elon+musk+harvard+professor+unsolvable+problem&ia=news&iar=news. Accessed 30 May 2025. Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=elon+musk+harvard+professor+unsolvable+problem&sca_esv=3cef0c337813fef5&source=lnms&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZrjP_Cx0LI1Ytb_FGcOviEiTm5uW1q0uNfK7KsnoL8hUg06K347Xr_kWFCjXpD3giPlOu6Ip_C2gm4sgfyGeJGwujJwEDuT0pjPMndqq7CSACzRYwCcd-Ru77rPsMRcR-opyh7qN7BLNitQ9Xx1aBLZW6_ssAAXIGRbPtzkxTgpMvVFXPnCcwNtBAG9YfIHyIUPIcnQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjF05mnocuNAxXN-AIHHab8IKQQ0pQJegQIBxAD&biw=1470&bih=712&dpr=2. Accessed 30 May 2025. Hive Moderation. https://hivemoderation.com/ai-generated-content-detection. Accessed 30 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inc, Kaniewski Funeral Homes. "Obituary for Dr. Edward Alton (Ed) Kline." Obituary for Dr. Edward Alton (Ed) Kline, https://www.kaniewski.com/obituary/DrEdward-Kline. Accessed 30 May 2025. People Directory: Stanford Who. https://stanfordwho.stanford.edu/ords/r/regapps/swho/public-people-directory?p24_redirect_search=Edward%20Kline&clear=RR,24&cs=3W_B_aqWwknP7lXWaT98EXvup-mhuifEUmF_nLY6nreGohDPd3jSxmHAY_1tnUqmm3O0rRtXoBvQ-j0LAnbi_VA. Accessed 30 May 2025. Scholastic Volume 115, No.4 . 7 Nov. 1973, https://archives.nd.edu/Scholastic/VOL_0115/VOL_0115_ISSUE_0004.pdf. University, Harvard. "Search." Harvard University, https://www.harvard.edu/search/. Accessed 30 May 2025. (Reuters) -The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is waging a campaign against Harvard University, the country's oldest and richest school, across multiple fronts, including funding freezes, investigations and threats to the school's tax-exempt status. The president says he's trying to force change at Harvard - and other top-level universities across the U.S. - because they have been captured by leftist "woke" thought and become bastions of antisemitism. The Trump administration has opened numerous investigations into Harvard. Some are looking at threats against Jewish students and faculty after pro-Palestinian protests broke out following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli military actions in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others are probing if Harvard discriminates based on sex and gender, along with the school's ties to foreign governments and international students. Harvard and other universities say Trump's attacks are threats to freedom of speech, freedom of academics and the schools' very existence. Here are the main avenues Trump's administration is using to take on Harvard: FEDERAL GRANTS AND CONTRACTS The Trump administration in April sent a letter to Harvard demanding it make far-reaching changes in how it operates. Harvard's President Alan Garber publicly rejected the demands, saying they amounted to ceding control of the university to the government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hours after Garber rejected the demands, the Trump administration announced it was freezing more than $2 billion in federal contracts and grants with Harvard, which mostly fund scientific and medical research. A total of some $3 billion in funding has now been frozen by the Trump administration after more blocks were announced. Those were mainly through frozen National Institutes of Health grants along with blocked monies from eight different federal agencies and the Centers for Disease Control. Harvard is fighting the funding cuts in court. Trump in May said he's considering taking previously awarded grant money for scientific and engineering research away from Harvard and giving it to trade schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOREIGN STUDENTS The Trump administration in May revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students and said it was forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal immigration status. Harvard sued over that action, and a judge has temporarily blocked the administration's action. More than a quarter of Harvard's students come from outside the U.S., and they serve as a vital revenue source at the Ivy League school and at hundreds of other colleges across the U.S. In late May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would start "aggressively" revoking visas issued to Chinese students attending Harvard and all U.S. schools. Republican concerns over Chinese students in the U.S. are not new - many have expressed worries China is manipulating Harvard and other universities to gain access to U.S. advanced technology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The action on Chinese students is a direct blow to Harvard's strong links to China, and it has left Chinese students in a legal limbo as they contemplate their academic futures. TAXES There are two main ways the Trump administration is using the tax system to attack Harvard. First, they are threatening the university's tax-exempt status, which experts say likely saves the school hundreds of millions of dollars each year. It is unclear, however, if the Internal Revenue Service would rescind that tax exemption, or if it would hold up before courts. Most universities, including Harvard, are exempt from federal income tax because they are deemed to be charitable organizations operated exclusively for public educational purposes. The exemption also allows people to make tax-deductible donations to such organizations, a valuable source of income for colleges with wealthy alumni. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The second prong on this front is language in Trump's massive spending bill that is before Congress. It would drastically hike taxes that Harvard and other elite schools pay on the profits their massive endowment investments make. Critics say that would weaken the ability of Harvard and other rich schools to provide generous financial aid packages to poorer students. (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Alistair Bell) West Virginia's Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion rate stands at 49.8%. (Getty Images) More West Virginia students are completing the college financial aid application, known as the FAFSA, following pandemic interruptions and nationwide issues with the form over the last year. According to data tracked by the National College Attainment Network, the states Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion rate stands at 49.8%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state now ranks 15th in the nation for students completing the FAFSA, which is up from 19th last year, according to a news release from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Brian Weingart, senior director of financial aid at the commission, said the HEPC has worked side-by-side with schools, counselors and communities to make sure students had a clever path to financial aid. HEPC credits the success to statewide partnerships. Whether its through hands-on FAFSA events, real-time data tools, or text message nudges, were meeting students where they are and helping them take that critical next step toward college. Behind every completed FAFSA is a student whos one step closer to their future, he said. The federal governments 2024 botched rollout of the new FAFSA form prompted former Gov. Jim Justice to declare a state of emergency and suspended a requirement that college-bound high school seniors fill out the FAFSA in order to receive state financial aid, including the states Promise Scholarship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike some other states, West Virginia didnt have a statewide FAFSA mandate. Instead, the HEPC said it focused on strategic outreach and community engagement. A WV FAFSA day in February brought together more than 50 high schools and colleges. The organization also used TXT 4 Success, a text message program that provides personalized guidance and nudges to help students stay on track with financial aid deadlines. West Virginias success, and approach, offer a lot for other communities and states to learn from, said Bill DeBaun, senior director at the National College Attainment Network in Washington. Thoughtful, coordinated efforts like these that support practitioners in districts and schools make a big difference. West Virginias Chancellor of Higher Education Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker added, We built momentum through strong partnerships with our schools and counselors, innovative tools and a shared commitment to our students futures. I am deeply proud of our team and the many school counselors, educators, and families who have rallied around this cause. Together, were showing whats possible when we put students first. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX ST. LOUIS A man from Fairview Heights, Illinois, admitted in court on Friday to sexually assaulting a woman at Gateway Arch National Park in 2023. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office of the Eastern District of Missouri, Monte Derrell Boatman, 37, assaulted the victim on Dec. 6, 2023, around 5:30 p.m. after allegedly grabbing the victim from behind and forcing her into the bushes. Boatman was caught on camera after he had taken Metro Transit from Fairview Heights and exited at Lacledes Landing around 5:15 p.m. He was later captured on surveillance video passing the victim near 4th Street and Washington Avenue and began following her a few minutes later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Big Give Back initiative turns parking lot into lifeline for tornado victims Boatman allegedly grabbed the woman from behind, wrapped his arms around her, and, with a razor to her neck, forced her into bushes. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Boatman threatened her life multiple times while assaulting her. Two days later, Boatman was arrested by rangers with the National Park Service. The rangers struggled to arrest Boatman, which led one ranger to seek medical treatment. The U.S. Attorneys Office said Boatman had an active arrest warrant for violating probation in a 2009 armed robbery case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Boatman pleaded guilty to one felony count of aggravated sexual abuse and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 12. The sexual abuse charge is punishable by up to life in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. 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. On June 15, it will be 13 years since the start of the program that has allowed one million children who arrived in the U.S. illegally to stay. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was the initiative that the Barack Obama Administration devised to legalize hundreds of thousands of migrants living as irregular immigrants in what they consider their own country, as they arrived as young children and have few to no memories of any other place. The average age of its beneficiaries was six and the time they had been in the U.S. was a quarter of a century. They are now professionals, entrepreneurs and have started families, but their immigration status continues to hang on a thread. After several years of litigation, the deadline to appeal the latest ruling, issued in January, expired two weeks ago. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Texas judge who found the program to be illegal, but limits its illegality to Texas. That means that those who were legalized by DACA in Texas will lose their work permits, while in the rest of the country, they will be able to continue as before. The ball is back in the court of Judge Andrew Hanen, who declared it illegal in the first place. Immigration experts and lawyers for the migrants do not yet know how Hanen will implement the ruling and whether they will be able to process new applications, which have been stalled since 2021. What they do know is that Donald Trumps anti-immigration crusade and his desire to carry out the largest deportation in history are a latent threat to the 538,000 current beneficiaries of the DACA program. I feel a bit in limbo. Now Im really more afraid, admits Yaquelin, who does not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. Born in Michoacan, Mexico, she came to the U.S. when she was six. Violence and poverty made her mother leave her two older daughters at home while she and Yaquelin set out for the U.S. with the help of a coyote or guide. Two years later, the mother would return to Mexico for her other daughters and two nephews. Yaquelins brothers were born U.S. citizens, but her sisters are still undocumented and, although she herself has DACA protection, she lives with the anxiety of not knowing what may be in store for her family and herself. Fear has altered her life. She used to travel around the country to work as the youth program director for a nonprofit, teaching civic engagement and community management. Thats what Im passionate about, working with young people so that they have a safe space; teaching them that they can use their voice, whether they have papers or not, she says. She now avoids traveling to states that most align with Trumps anti-immigration policies, such as Texas and Florida. Before, she voluntarily accompanied undocumented immigrants who had a court date, to act as a translator. Now she does not set foot in an immigration building. These are situations I can no longer put myself in to help the community, because I dont know what can happen, she says. DACA advocates protest in Washington, DC, in January 2018. Zach Gibson (Bloomberg) Yaquelin has also shut down her social media accounts, after receiving crude messages urging her to return to Mexico, telling her that she does not belong in the U.S. When Trump won, I said I definitely cant post anything anymore. There are more than half a million people like Yaquelin the so-called Dreamers, from nearly 200 countries, who do not know how much longer their status will be lawful. Their situation has always been precarious; Trump tried to end the program in his first term. The Biden Administration allowed them to access health care under ACA (popularly known as Obamacare), but several Republican states have challenged that. A new blow comes with Trumps so-called big, beautiful budget bill, which was approved last week by the House of Representatives. If it gets the green light from the Senate, it will withdraw public assistance services such as Medicaid and other programs to those who do not have permanent residency, as is Yaquelins case. The administrations hostile attitude to DACA contrasts with the popularity of the program, which has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support. Even when the opinions of Democrats and Republicans contrasted on immigration, they generally agreed to support DACA recipients, even though a path was never established to grant them permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. The ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals raises the question of whether applications will begin to be processed in all states bar Texas. Some immigration experts believe that, because of the general acceptance of the scheme, the administration will not dare to openly eliminate DACA, but will slowly kill it instead. The judge of the Court of Appeals has prohibited the deportation of its beneficiaries, but the executive has already expelled migrants with similar protection. Yaquelin has to renew her DACA status next year. Once she missed the appointment because she was traveling for work, and it resulted in a great amount of stress because making another appointment was hard. She wants to go visit her grandmother, who lives all alone in Mexico, but she is afraid to do so. Because she has DACA, she is the only woman in her family who can travel and the only one who has visited her grandmother over the years. Now she fears that something will happen with the program while she is away and she will not be able to return. Sometimes, she wonders if she should just leave America altogether. I dont necessarily want to live in a country that doesnt want me, even though Ive studied here, even though Ive been here for more than 35 years and Im paying taxes, she says. Evenezer Cortez Martinez, a 40-year-old Mexican DACA beneficiary, father of three and a maintenance worker who arrived in the U.S. when he was two years old, said in an interview with Telemundo that on his return from Mexico last March, he was prevented from entering the U.S. and was deported. Cortez Martinez spent two weeks beside himself with worry until lawyers helped him to return. It was very stressful. I thought I had lost everything, he says. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition WASHINGTON D.C. (WCIA) A congressional consideration of a new Farm Bill is moving from the House to the Senate. One of the staff members of the Illinois Corn Growers Association was one of the witnesses at a recent Senate hearing. From the Farm: Illinois wheat yields and looming elections Megan Dwyer, the Director of Conservation Programs and Nutrient Management Issues, was asked by the top Democrat on the Senate Ag Committee to offer her thoughts about what conservation policy should be included in the Farm Bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) The Weather Authority is tracking the second wettest May on record, with 10.88 inches of rain so far for the month. Image Credit: The Weather Authority All of that rain has saturated the ground in the region. Thursday evening, News 19 spoke with several farmers at the Greene Street Market in Huntsville. Many said that the substantial rains have had an impact on their crops. Broadband project brings internet to 600 homes in Killingsworth Cove Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Josh Sharp of Sharp Farms in Priceville said, It was a rough year for strawberries with all the rain. He explained that excess moisture on the berries led to disease. All kind of diseases comes from rain, and too much of it will just cause the plants to wilt and die and cause them to get bacterial and that kind of infection, Sharp said. He said they had to throw out around 200 to 300 gallons of strawberries this year. However, thankfully, his strawberry crop wasnt a total loss. They did make a lot, and we were able to sell a lot and make money still, but we did throw a lot away, Sharp said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Low staffing temporarily closes the Salvation Army emergency shelter The Alabama Cooperative Extension System said that too much rain can cause damage to crops. When we get too much rain, were going to have a hard season in terms of diseases on our plants, said Horticulture Extension Agent Holt Akers-Campbell. When the leaves stay wet, that invites a lot of those fungal diseases to take hold, Akers-Campbell said. He said other crops could also see a negative impact. Were looking at some challenges with blackberries and peaches and other crops right now, Akers-Campbell said. However, overall, a lot of the fresh fruits and veggies at the Greene Street Market looked in good condition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sharp had a whole table of zucchini, potatoes, squash, onions and more ready to sell. This stuff, it doesnt hurt it near as bad, and its actually beneficial for a lot of things to have substantial rain, Sharp said. He said farming is all about adapting to whatever is thrown your way. Farming is one of those things where you just roll with the punches and you have to take, you know, what the good lord gives you, Sharp said. The Greene Street Market is every Thursday, May through October, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., rain or shine. 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. In 2024, a Massachusetts man was bit by a tick. Days later, he collapsed and was hospitalized. Weeks later, he was dead. Now his family is hoping that their tragedy could help to save other peoples lives. As CBS News reports, the family of Kevin Boyce is kicking off the summer season by sharing their heartbreak. In April 2024, Boyce got a tick bite without even realizing it. Within a few days, he began experiencing a number of debilitating symptoms that mimicked the flu, including an extreme headache and vomiting. Not long after that, the 62-year-old collapsed in his home and was rushed to Bostons Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with Powassan virus. Related: How to Prevent Diseases From Ticks According to the New York State Department of Health, many people who are infected with Powassan virus never develop any symptoms. Those who do develop symptoms usually begin experiencing them within one to four weeks of the bite, with fever, headache, vomiting, confusion, and seizures among the initial symptoms. For more severe cases, the onset of symptoms seems to occur more quickly and can include tremors, paralysis, coma, or death. Powassan can also cause encephalitis and meningitis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Powassan virus is rare, but approximately 10 percent of all cases are fatal. And the number of infections appears to be on the rise. In 2024, the scientific journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection published data that indicated a four-fold rise in the number of cases between 2014 to 2023, compared to 2004 to 2013. In Boyces case, the disease progressed quickly. Boyces sister, Erin, explained that Kevin was in the ICU, but ultimately the damage his brain sustained was too much. Just a few weeks after being admitted to the hospital, he passed away. Related: The Key to Fighting Lyme Disease Could Be in Your Sweat His brain had blown up so much, from the encephalitis, and he had really bad brain damage, Erin said of her brother, who left a wife, two sons, and a granddaughter behind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One year later, Boyces family wants to turn their tragedy into a learning lessonand a warning for others. We just want the public to know what to look for and be wary of ticks, Erin said, especially if you have one on your body. A Fatal Tick Bite Caused a Mans Brain to Blow Up first appeared on Men's Journal on May 30, 2025 Police are investigating the second murder-suicide to devastate the same Oklahoma family in two years a father, son, young woman and dog all found dead amid signs of long-unchecked mental illness. Police found the bodies of Rodney Shippy, 58, Logan Shippy, 10, and a dog in their Broken Arrow home around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, according to a Broken Arrow Police Department press release. A medical examiner is working to identify a third, female body found in the home, believed to be 20-year-old Alyssa Shippy, the department said. Due to the "condition of the home," the body wasn't initially seen by officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Broken Arrow Police Department was at the home serving a search warrant after out-of-state family members had contacted police, per the outlets, telling them that they had not seen or heard from Alyssa since November. In August of 2022, according to the outlets, 41-year-old Lisa Shippy Rodney Shippy's wife and the children's mother took her own life at the same West Roanoke house, according to the Broken Arrow Sentinel, KJRH and her online obituary. Five months later, Lisa's mother, 56-year-old Diane Carpenter, was stabbed to death by her husband, 66-year-old Kenny Carpenter, in south Broken Arrow before he took his own life after a 4-hour standoff with police in January 2023, according to Fox 23, the Longview News Journal and the Broken Arrow Sentinel. Legacy.com Diane Carpenter, the grandmother of the slain children, was killed in a January 2023 murder-suicide Diane Carpenter, the grandmother of the slain children, was killed in a January 2023 murder-suicide Online court records reviewed by PEOPLE show that the U.S. Bank National Association filed a foreclosure notice on the Shippy's house in January in Tulsa County District Court for $135,000 in unpaid principal. Rodney Shippy had until June to file an answer to a court notice, according to the documents. 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. Property records show that Rodney and Lisa Shippy purchased the home in 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A GoFundMe launched by surviving family members for the children's burials has raised nearly $1,700 since it was launched on Thursday. Neighbors told KJRH that 10-year-old Logan had autism and was nonverbal; they often saw him playing outside, and he loved posting YouTube videos. A family member told the outlet that a recent video showing the interior of the family home alerted them to possible disorder in the household. Not suitable for a child, no running water, trash looked like a completely different house," relative Patti Williams told the outlet. "[Rodney] seemed to be holding it together months after [Lisa] passed... then he started estranging himself to everyone. Floral Haven Funeral Home Lisa Shippy, the childrens' mother, took her own life in 2022 Lisa Shippy, the childrens' mother, took her own life in 2022 The tragedy is the latest in a string of murder-suicides in the Tulsa suburb. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Phillip Jason Hammock shot his wife and son dead in May 2023 before turning the gun on himself, according to the Broken Arrow Sentinel, Fox 23 and News on 6. He survived, and was deemed unfit to stand trial for two first degree murder charges due to a resulting traumatic brain injury. The Broken Arrow Sentinel, Fox 23 and News on 6 also reported on a July 19, 2024 incident in which Jacob Haas, 26, shot his brother, grandfather and aunt to death before fatally shooting himself. Brian and Brittney Nelson were found dead with their six children in an October 2022 house fire at their Broken Arrow home police investigated the deaths as a murder-suicide and subsequent autopsies showed they had all been shot, according to NBC News, NPR and KTUL. Domestic violence homicides are rising in Oklahoma, according to February data from the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 122 domestic violence-related homicide victims identified in 2023 is the highest number since the DVFRB started collecting data in 2002. The total marks five consecutive years where the DVFRB has identified more than 100 victims who were killed due to domestic violence in Oklahoma," the board wrote in their report. Read the original article on People Dan Bongino has only been FBI deputy director for a short time, but hes already complaining about the job. Bongino, who was a Secret Service agent and peddler of conspiracy theories before President Donald Trump tapped him for his current position, appeared on Fox & Friends Thursday to discuss three Biden-era cases the FBI has recently reopened, including an investigation into a bag of cocaine found at the White House in 2023. However, the part of the interview that is getting the buzz was Bonginos admission that he isnt enjoying his new job one bit especially the work-life balance, or lack thereof. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The biggest lifestyle change is family-wise, Bongino lamented, explaining that he took the civil service job at the presidents behest. It was a lot, and its been tough on the family. People ask all the time, Do you like it? No. I dont, he said. But the president didnt ask me to do this to like it nobody likes going into an organization like that and having to make big changes. At one point during his Fox News interview, the former podcaster told an anecdote about a woman who said she missed his show. Bongino said he told the woman, I miss me too, and then explained to his interviewers, Part of you dies when you see this stuff behind the scenes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He then griped about how people are treating him and FBI Director Kash Patel, who is having his own on-the-job struggles. I dont know what people think me and Kash [Patel] are doing all day. I mean, I gave up everything for this. I mean, my wife is struggling and Im not a victim, Bongino insisted. Im not [former FBI Director James] Comey. Its fine. I did this, and Im proud that I did it. Although Patel has been accused of not taking the FBI director position seriously, Bongino defended his boss. If you think were there for tea and crumpets, well, I mean, Kash is there all day, Bongino stressed. Our offices are linked. He turns on the faucet, I hear it He gets in at, like, 6 oclock in the morning. He doesnt leave until 7 at night. Im in there at 7:30 in the morning. He uses the gym. I work out in my apartment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bongino then made a somewhat confusing statement about the current status of his relationship with his wife. But I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., by myself, divorced from my wife not divorced, but I mean separated, divorced and its hard. I mean, we love each other, and its hard to be apart. Heres a clip of Bonginos remarks. Dan Bongino has a nice cry on Fox & Friends: "I gave up everything for this. I mean, you know, my wife is struggling ... I stare at these four walls all day in DC, you know, by myself, divorced from my wife. Not divorced, but I mean, separated. And it's hard." (Note that Brian pic.twitter.com/mrM0Zaf9YR Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2025 Bongino may have hoped for sympathy from Fox News viewers, but his apparent self-martyring (as the Independent described it) didnt get that reaction from people on social media. He gave up a podcast and has been on the job for a few weeks. There are many qualified people who will gladly and expertly fill this job if Bongino cant handle it. https://t.co/geCd9dQoJC Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) May 29, 2025 I mean, can you imagine if a woman FBI director had made these comments? Im not against showing emotion or ones personal side but there is no way a woman in his position could say these things and not be just crushed for it. https://t.co/8dPEL8zcDZ Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) May 29, 2025 Did they think senior roles in the government were 9-5?? You are in charge of the largest law enforcement agency in the world superpower! Meghan McCarthy (@MeghanMcCarthy_) May 29, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You know why? Because it's easier on the sidelines bitching about others doing the job and fabricating wild conspiracy theories about people in intelligence to fleece your easily duped fanbase out of their money than it is to ACTUALLY DO THE JOB. This tale is as old as time. John Rocha (@TheRochaSays) May 29, 2025 Bonginos sob story on live TV at Fox feels less like vulnerability and more like emotional blackmail. He gave up everything for a movement that thrives on grievance and division, and now he wants sympathy while still peddling outrage. Worst thing is not knowing if youre Evaristus Odinikaeze (@odinikaeze) May 29, 2025 He gave up no more than anyone who has ever taken an appointed position, but that has never prevented him from attacking them. Machine Pun Kelly (@KellyScaletta) May 29, 2025 Having that job is a law enforcement career capper, a top leadership post in one of our premier agencies, and he is sniveling about it. There really is nothing there with these guys. It's all a corrupt charade. Tom Mallory (@tom_mallory) May 29, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This guy has bullied people relentlessly over the course of the last decade and has contributed immensely to our fractured society. Now hes in one of the most powerful positions and he wants pity? Bro youre a piece of shit AC Tatum (@actatumonline) May 29, 2025 Related... Key Points Over 250,000 pounds of canned beef stew were recalled due to wood contamination. The product was produced on February 4, 2025, and distributed to retail locations nationwide. Consumers are urged to discard the cucumbers or return them to the place of purchase for a refund. If you recently purchased canned beef stew to stock your pantry, check the label. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a recall of 256,185 pounds of canned beef stew due to wood contamination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The recall was initiated on May 28, 2025, by Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Tucker, Georgia. The product was produced on February 4, 2025, and distributed to retail locations nationwide. According to the FDA, the establishment notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the contamination after receiving three consumer complaints reporting that they had found pieces of wood in the canned beef stew. The recalled product information is below, with the establishment number "EST 199G" printed on the label: 20-oz. metal cans containing Dinty Moore BEEF STEW with BEST BY FEB 2028 and lot code T02045 printed on the can. The lot code may have an additional number at the end. According to the FDA, there have been no confirmed reports of injury resulting from the consumption of this product, but the FSIS is concerned that some of the product may still be in consumers' pantries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consumers who have purchased the recalled product are urged to dispose of it immediately or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions or concerns can contact Hormel Foods Corporation by calling 800-523-4635. Read the original article on Martha Stewart South Dakota Department of Social Services Secretary Matt Althoff speaks at a press conference in Sioux Falls on April 25, 2025. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakotas proposal to implement work requirements for Medicaid expansion could be an exercise in futility now that the federal government is also considering it, said state Department of Social Services Secretary Matt Althoff. The state began drafting its proposal immediately following the end of the state legislative session in March, Althoff said, before debates about work requirements heated up at the congressional level. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Department officials presented their plan at the state Board of Social Services meeting Friday morning via video conference, just before the first of two public hearings on the proposal. Respectfully, humbly, we ask for your grace, Althoff told board members, because were asking for your feedback on something that might be obsoleted by the vote of 100 senators and the stroke of a pen from our president. Medicaid is government-funded health insurance for people with low incomes. South Dakotans voted in 2022 to expand Medicaid to adults with incomes up to 138% of the poverty level, a decision that allowed the state to capitalize on a 90% federal funding match funding that could be in jeopardy, pending the outcome of congressional action. Last year, voters passed another constitutional amendment to let the state seek approval from the federal government to impose work requirements on expansion enrollees. Difference between SD and federal proposals At the federal level, proposed Medicaid work requirements would mandate those between ages 19 and 65 who rely on the program to work, participate in community service, or attend an educational program for at least 80 hours each month. The work requirement would be applied at the time of application, and Medicaid renewal would be changed to every six months instead of an annual basis. South Dakotas plan would require adult Medicaid recipients work, train, attend school or serve as a caretaker for a child or elderly or disabled person in their home unless they meet an exception. Compliance with the state-level work rules would be reviewed on an annual basis, at the time of Medicaid renewal, rather than at the time of application. The state would not require a set number of hours of work or education time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heather Petermann, Medicaid director at the department, said the requirement would be a complement to Medicaid to encourage work without trying to track arbitrary work hours. This approach really recognizes that for many individuals who need assistance with health care, that comes first, Petermann said. Then it allows them to maintain their health so that they can work, or obtain the health needed to seek employment. The federal government also has more exceptions in its proposal than the state, including tribal community members, people who are in foster care or were in foster care who are younger than 26, and people released from incarceration in the last 90 days. South Dakota would allow exceptions for people who are: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pregnant or postpartum. Disabled, as determined by the Social Security Administration. Diagnosed with cancer or another serious or terminal medical condition by a physician. In an intensive behavioral health treatment program, hospitalized or living in a nursing home. In an area with unemployment 20% or more above the national average and are exempt from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. As of last month, 30,542 South Dakotans were covered by the Medicaid expansion. The state estimates 80% of them already work or qualify for an exception. The proposed state-level work requirement would reduce enrollment by an estimated 5-10% in the first year. That would save the Medicaid program between $48.9 million and $71 million in the first year, the department says. The federal proposal as it stands now will cost more administratively than South Dakotas proposed work requirements, Althoff added. States will be asked to absorb costs if the federal proposal is adopted. The states proposal requires less administrative oversight to reduce anticipated costs, due in part to the states tight budget approved by the Legislature this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats just sort of naming the tension about how not having new funds is sort of an important wrinkle to our development process, Althoff said. Its really having to be done within an existing budget. Board member Colleen Winter said the proposal is respectful of the individuals the department serves. Work requirements are already in place for some federal programs, such as SNAP, and state efforts, such as child care assistance and parental reunification expectations within Child Protection Services. Department hears from one person during public hearing While more than 20 people sat in on a virtual public hearing regarding the states proposed Medicaid work requirements on Friday, only one member of the public spoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney Nathaniel Amdur-Clark spoke on behalf of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board. He said his client wants to see an exception for Indian Health Service beneficiaries. Native Americans who are tribal enrolled members are eligible to receive health care services through the federal Indian Health Service. Those individuals are eligible for Medicaid coverage even if they do not meet other Medicaid requirements, such as income limits, to implement and further trust and treaty obligations the U.S. has to provide health care for tribal members, Amdur-Clark said. Though Althoff and Petermann did not respond to Amdur-Clarks comments about IHS patients, they did address the subject during the earlier board meeting. Petermann said the proposal includes geographic exemptions, including areas of the state with high unemployment. Things like that would also apply to tribal members and American Indians, but we otherwise did not call out or exclude American Indians, Petermann said. The approach is that this is a benefit and we want that dignity and pride to be part of the benefit for everybody, so they would be treated the same in this approach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amdur-Clark added that there are technical concerns regarding exemptions in the proposal and that more work is needed to achieve real tribal consultation. The department met with some tribal leaders last week to discuss the proposal, Althoff said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Shelly Ten Napel, CEO of the Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas, said in an emailed statement that her organization is monitoring state and federal work requirement proposals closely. The group did not give input at the first public meeting, but plans to share its perspective on state work requirements during the public comment period. Ten Napel opposed last years ballot measure authorizing the states pursuit of work requirements. Compared to the work requirement proposal being considered in Congress, Ten Napel said, the state proposal is overall pretty reasonable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Larry Rhodens administration did a careful job of responding to concerns raised during the debate last year, Ten Napel said, including administrative burdens and exceptions. We look forward to working with them to ensure smooth implementation of the new rules if they are approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Ten Napel said in the statement. We also encourage members of Congress to take a careful look at the common sense approach South Dakota is taking and rethink some of the heavy-handed rules currently under consideration in the Big Beautiful Bill. The big beautiful bill is the budget reconciliation legislation that the U.S. House sent to the Senate last week, including a Medicaid work requirements provision. Petermann said during the board meeting that South Dakota could perhaps seek to impose its own work requirements, even if the federal legislation passes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For example, some of the draft language does include references to things like the provisions from the federal legislation cannot be waived, but we dont know whether that means states still could or couldnt have something that is less or more restrictive, as long as it has the same components, Petermann said. We really dont know for sure yet. If the state moves forward, it will submit an application to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in July or August. After that, the proposal would go through a federal comment period and application review. The departments next public hearing on the proposed Medicaid work requirements is set for 11 a.m. Central on June 12 at the Sioux Falls office of the Department of Social Services, and online. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A federal appeals court Thursday temporarily paused rulings by a panel of judges that halted several of President Donald Trumps tariffs on international trading partners. The judgments and the permanent injunctions entered by the Court of International Trade in these cases are temporarily stayed until further notice, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a brief ruling. The decision pauses the lower courts decision until at least June 9, when both sides will have submitted legal arguments about whether the case should remain paused while the appeal proceeds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An attorney for the plaintiffs, Jeffrey Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement that the ruling is merely a procedural step as the court considers the governments request for a longer stay pending appeal. We are confident the Federal Circuit will ultimately deny the governments motion, Schwab said. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox News that "this is a big victory for the president." "We're very pleased with the ruling," he said. Peter Navarro, the White House senior counsel for trade and manufacturing, predicted the administration would find a way to institute the tariffs even if it's eventually unsuccessful in this case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even if we lose, we will do it another way, Navarro said, because Trump has multiple options to keep the tariffs in place. He said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would lay out how the administration will respond within the next two days. The judgment Wednesday was from the U.S. Court of International Trade, which typically hears cases that originate from around the country involving tariff classifications, import transactions and customs law issues. The administration had been trying to have challenges to the tariffs heard in that court, but after the ruling, senior White House adviser Stephen Miller accused the New York City-based court of engaging in a "judicial coup." In its decision, a panel of three judges made up of Reagan, Obama and Trump appointees found that the decades-old International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a federal law that Trump cited in many of his executive orders, didnt delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the President. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump described the appeals court's pause as fortunate and took aim at the lower court's three-judge panel in a Truth Social post on Thursday. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of 'TRUMP?', Trump wrote. Trump appointed one of the three judges who heard this case, Judge Timothy M. Reif, who took the bench in 2019. "The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY," he added. "Backroom 'hustlers' must not be allowed to destroy our Nation!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier Thursday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a similar ruling, finding a number of Trump's tariffs unlawful. The decision by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, however, affects only a pair of educational toy makers whod filed suit arguing the president didn't have the authority to impose sanctions and that his shifting tariffs were threatening to sink their small businesses. Contreras said the main question in the case is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) enables the President to unilaterally impose, revoke, pause, reinstate, and adjust tariffs to reorder the global economy. The Court agrees with Plaintiffs that it does not. He noted that no other president has ever used the IEEPA to impose tariffs and said allowing Trump to do so would mean congressional limitations on his powers would be eviscerated if the President could invoke a virtually unrestricted tariffing power. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has used tariffs and the threat of tariffs to kick-start trade negotiations with scores of countries he has accused of "ripping off" the United States with unfair trade practices. In court filings, the administration had urged Contreras not to block the tariffs, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in a declaration that doing so would cause significant and irreparable harm to U.S. foreign policy and national security because negotiations with trading partners are in a delicate state. "The Cabinet officials claim that were a court to enjoin the tariffs announced in the Challenged Orders, U.S. trading partners could retaliate against the tariffs.; the U.S. would be embarrassed on the global stage; and the U.S.s manufacturing position may be so weakened that the country may 'not be able to produce the weapons and other resources necessary to defend itself,' Contreras wrote in his decision. He said the "consequences described by the government officials in their declarations will flow, if at all," from the trade court's order Wednesday, not his much narrower one, but he also suggested the administration had only itself to blame. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The President cannot act unlawfully and then use the effects of having that action declared unlawful as a putative shield from judicial review," he wrote. The administration is appealing Contreras' ruling, as well. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com The Supreme Court has given the U.S. administration the green light to end the humanitarian parole program that granted temporary residency to 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela. The court thus responded to the Trump administrations emergency appeal and leaves the beneficiaries without protection from deportation. With its decision, the Supreme Court temporarily lifted the order of a district judge who had blocked the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 20 canceling the humanitarian parole program. Although the most recent decision lifts protections, the case has not ended and will now return to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented, warning that the majority had failed to consider the devastating consequences it will have on the lives of people legally residing in the country. Humanitarian parole was a program devised by the Joe Biden administration to reduce the number of illegal arrivals and accommodate migrants fleeing countries in critical situations. Recipients were required to have a sponsor in the United States, and they received temporary residency and a work permit. The Biden administration extended the program for Venezuelans in late 2022 and for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in January 2023. This reduced unlawful arrivals of hundreds of thousands of migrants at a time when failure by Congress to approve a reform of the immigration system had triggered a surge in irregular border crossings. I suppose that it is in the publics interest to have the lives of half a million migrants unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims, Jackson stated sarcastically in her dissent. She added that the decision undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million non-citizens while their legal claims are pending. Migrants on parole fled situations of violence and economic crisis in their countries of origin. By losing their status, beneficiaries would be left with the options of self-deporting and returning to the countries which they fled, or staying and exposing themselves to detention and deportation by immigration authorities. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority of six justices against three progressive ones, had already authorized the government to cancel the TPS (Temporary Protected Status) program for 350,000 Venezuelans who were legally in the country. The TPS program offered temporary residency to migrants fleeing countries plagued by violence or natural disasters. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition May 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday temporarily reinstated President Donald Trump's tariffs while the court sorts out arguments over their legality. The appellate court temporarily granted the Trump administration's stay motion, which reinstated the tariffs in a four-page ruling made Thursday afternoon. Attorneys with the Department of Justice argued the stay is needed to prevent "immediate irreparable harm to United States foreign policy and national security," ABC News reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It is critical for the country's national security and the president's conduct of ongoing, delicate diplomatic efforts that the court stay its judgment," the DOJ filing says. "The harm to the conduct of foreign affairs from the relief ordered by the court could not be greater," the attorneys argued. Tariffs give the president leverage while negotiating trade agreements with other nations, the DOJ said. Eliminating the tariffs would endanger existing trade deals and make the nation vulnerable to nations whose leaders would be emboldened by the court order, the DOJ argued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency," White House spokesman Kush Desai told media. The Trump administration will use "every lever of executive power to address this crisis" of trade deficits with other nations, Desai added. The appellate court also granted the administration's motion to combine two separate lawsuits filed by business entities and 12 states that are challenging Trump's ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval. The stay temporarily blocks an earlier ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade, which ruled against theTrump administration and permanently enjoined "certain executive orders imposing various tariffs." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Washington, D.C.-based appellate court ordered all parties in the combined case to respond to the Trump administration's stay motion no later than June 5. The Trump administration also has until June 9 to respond to the motion to combine the two federal cases. A three-judge panel in the New York-based federal Court of International Trade on Wednesday ruled the Trump administration's tariffs were "contrary to law" and ended them. The judges said the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not grant unlimited powers to the president to impose tariffs. Trump announced the tariffs during an April 2 "Liberation Day" event at the White House. Floridas traditional preparations for hurricane season are being blown off course by a budget stalemate in Tallahassee and sharp cuts in Washington, D.C. A dispute between GOP state House and Senate leaders means the typical sales tax holiday on hurricane preparedness items wont be held at the onset of hurricane season as it usually does. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 till Nov. 30. And the winnowing of the federal workforce has hit some agencies important to hurricane forecasting and response, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), leading some to question whether the state will be able to handle a busy hurricane season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am worried that FEMA is going to fail this summer, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Coral Springs Democrat, told a U.S. House committee May 11. Moskowitz was Florida's emergency management director under Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019-2021. He agrees FEMA needs reform and could give block grants to states something DeSantis has repeatedly argued for but was alarmed that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem advocated for shuttering the agency entirely. And when Cameron Hamilton, the acting FEMA administrator, told a Congressional committee on May 7 he didnt believe they should shutter the agency, he was ousted the next day. Moskowitz believes eliminating FEMA would bankrupt small states hit with a disaster and could even imperil large states: Florida and Texas might be able to survive one hurricane this summer without having to cut health care or education or their (transportation) budget but not two. Federal layoff push hits weather agencies hard At NOAA, which houses the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center, nearly 1,000 employees were fired or took buyouts under pressure from the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaders at NOAA and FEMA have said they still retain the resources necessary to be prepared for hurricane season. Gov. Ron DeSantis, too, has said Florida will be ready with or without FEMA. At an event in Tampa recently, he said Floridas preparation gathering resources and coordinating utilities and line workers to restore power is done without federal help. FEMA reimburses local governments for debris removal and helps individuals with housing, food and supplies in the aftermath of a storm; DeSantis said he assumes those programs will still be available. On the core preparation, response and then stabilize and get people back to normal - just know that weve never relied on FEMA for any of that here in the state of Florida, DeSantis said. If were called upon to do it again for this hurricane season, we will do it again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Florida residents could miss out on a sales tax holiday to stock up on their own gear to prepare for storm season. House and Senate leaders have deadlocked over the budget, including over a tax cut bill, meaning no hurricane preparedness sales tax holiday has been approved yet this year. Lawmakers have passed 11 such holidays since 2006, including at least one every year since 2017. The holiday typically includes items like batteries, radios, tarps, generators and flashlights that would be exempt from sales taxes. The Senate included a holiday that would run from May 1531 in its tax package (SB 7034) but the House didnt include any sales tax holiday in its bill (HB 7033). House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, has pushed for an overall reduction in the sales tax for all items, moving it from 6% to 5.25%, and slighted the idea of sales tax holidays in the process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This will not be a temporary measure, a stunt or a tax holiday, Perez said March 26 in unveiling his plan. This will be a permanent, recurring tax reduction. This will be the largest state tax cut in the history of Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a press conference with Speaker of the House Danny Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. DeSantis signed anti-illegal immigration legislation then took questions from the media. But Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, has been wary of cutting the rate too drastically. And DeSantis killed a tentative framework for a deal between the chambers that included a smaller sales tax cut, leaving a budget stalemate in place. Lawmakers have until June 30 to pass a final budget, which DeSantis then must approve, to avoid a partial state government shutdown. The state's 2025-26 fiscal year starts July 1. If a hurricane preparedness sales tax holiday is included in a final tax cut bill, it is unclear when it would start. But it likely wouldnt be until well into hurricane season, as the state's Department of Revenue and retailers would have to prepare for it even after the bill was signed into law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis, who included the sales tax holiday in his budget recommendations, said May 29 he wants lawmakers to include it in any final bill. Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Will budget battles put Floridas hurricane readiness in peril? ALEXANDRIA, Va. (DC News Now) An IT specialist who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested Thursday for allegedly trying to give national defense information to a foreign government. The U.S. Attorneys Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release that 28-year-old Nathan Vilas Laatsch of Alexandria had been communicating with an undercover FBI agent. Florida Congressman introduces bill to rename Metro WMAGA, Trump Train Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents, Laatsch (who started working for the DIA in 2019) was the subject of a tip saying that someone had offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. In that email, the sender wrote that he did not agree or align with the values of this administration and was therefore willing to share classified information to which he had access, including completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation,' the USAO wrote. Court documents said that Laatsch believed that an undercover FBI agent he contacted multiple times was an official with the foreign government. According to the USAO, over around three days, Laatch repeatedly transcribed classified information at his desk before telling the agent he was ready to provide the information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI used a public park in Northern Virginia as the supposed drop-off site. On May 1, FBI surveillance saw Laatsch go to the park and leave behind a thumb drive that agents later found had a message from him and several typed documents that were marked as Secret or Top Secret. Leader of DC, Maryland drug trafficking crew sentenced to 10 years in federal prison After he confirmed that the thumb drive had been received, Laatsch allegedly sent the FBI agent another message asking for citizenship for your country in return as he did not expect things here to improve in the long term. The USAO said that Laatsch once again transcribed pages of notes between May 15 and May 27, smuggling the notes out in his clothing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 29, Laatsch once again went to a prearranged location where he was meant to send classified documents to a foreign country. The FBI got the documents and arrested him. 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. May 29Ohio and seven other states have received a permanent ban against a Texas-based robocaller behind billions of illegal calls, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a release. According to the release, John C. Spiller II previously offered robocall dialer and Voice Over Internet Protocol services to telemarketers, leading to huge volumes of robocalls, many of which targeted numbers on the Do Not Call Registry. In 2023, he was put under a court order that barred him from placing or facilitating robocalls, but used aliases to launch new companies providing the same kind of robocalls, the release said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a result, a federal judge in Texas recently found Spiller in contempt of court and imposed the strictest penalty, permanently barring him from launching future telecommunications companies, operating in the telecom industry, collaborating with those that helped in his illegal businesses, make deceptive statements or use aliases in government filings, the release said. He was also ordered to pay more than $600,000 in attorney's fees and litigation costs for violating the order. Attorneys general from Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas were involved in the contempt order. "This scammer's line is dead and it's not coming back," Yost said. Department of Corrections | Susan J. Demas A federal judge on Thursday said the director of the Michigan Department of Corrections and other defendants did not meet their burden of proof when they alleged that the plaintiffs in an ongoing dangerous conditions lawsuit did not exhaust their administrative remedies before going to court. It was yet another win for the plaintiffs in Bailey v. Washington, which has been gestating in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan since 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an order released Thursday by U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy of the Eastern District of Michigan, the court found significant flaws with the departments grievance process. MDOC Director Heidi Washington and other department defendants said that the plaintiffs failed to use that process to its fullest extent before filing a lawsuit, but Murphy noted that the flaws in the system prevented the plaintiffs grievances from being heard by the department. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX By detailing the consequences of the inadequate ventilation in their grievances, the plaintiffs gave MDOC a fair opportunity to address [the] claims on the merits before federal litigation was commenced, Murphy wrote. Washington and the department defendants moved twice for summary judgment in the case but were denied. After the defendants moved for an evidentiary hearing to resolve factual issues, the matter was moved to a magistrate judge, who found Washington and department officials failed to meet their burden of proof in showing that plaintiff Paula Bailey and others did not do everything they could to raise concerns over the prisons declining conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Washington and the defendants challenged the magistrate judges findings, specifically objecting to the assertion that the grievances related to ventilation in the prison had sufficiently put the department on notice. Murphy on Thursday said at least two relevant grievances shared in the evidentiary hearing had effectively put the department on notice. Murphy also noted that the department had repeatedly rejected grievances as untimely despite circumstances beyond the control of inmates. bailey-order-overruling-226-objections-and-ado Washington and the defendants had challenged that portion as going outside the scope of the courts referral on the factual matters in question, but Murphy said the mail system used by Corrections and its inherent delays were a large part of why the grievances were deemed untimely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Faced with this and other issues, the Report found that the grievance policy was unavailable to the plaintiffs Bailey, Clark, and Zentz, Murphy wrote. In doing so, the report commented on the prison mailbox rule. The reports findings, and the way in which [U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford] explained her findings, may have an impact on future cases. But the court will not hold off on adopting the two pages just because they may have consequences in other cases. The objection is overruled. The lawsuit alleges that the department maintained poor conditions at the Huron Valley Womens Correctional Facility, which later led to the presence of toxic mold. The case was initially dismissed along with Pearson v. Corrections, but was later revived by the courts on an amended complaint. Brendan Demich speaks at a rally outside HHS offices in Washington, D.C. on May 22. (AFGE webstream) Brendan Demich was on a bus to Washington, D.C. last week to attend a rally outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services office. At the same time, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was assuring lawmakers that critical programs in his department, specifically those protecting coal miners, would continue despite drastic cuts to his agencys staff and budget. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was the third in a series of contentious hearings for Kennedy. And for Demich, a Pennsylvania employee of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a research agency in Kennedys department, they were hard to stomach. Hes part of a roughly 100-person team at NIOSHs Bruceton facility in Allegheny County that studies the best ways to prevent injuries, illnesses and death in coal mines. Last month, he and all of his colleagues were notified that their jobs would be eliminated in June. Another team in Spokane, Washington, focused on safety in non-coal mines received similar notices. Combined, they conduct the bulk of the agencys mine safety research. [Kennedy]s claiming that he hasnt fired any scientists, and that the only people that theyre cutting are doing duplicative work, but that is absolutely not the case, Demich told the Capital-Star. Our titles may be engineers, but we do science And theres no other agency that does the work we do here at NIOSH. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The picture Demich paints is different from Kennedys. The work at NIOSH will not be interrupted, Kennedy responded to a question from a lawmaker about layoffs. The work on mine safety will continue. We understand its critically important to function and we dont want to see it end. The hearings took place over the last three weeks after reports emerged that critical and legally required programs to help miners with black lung disease were no longer functioning, after an estimated 90% of NIOSHs roughly 1400 full-time staff were laid off, offered early retirement or placed on administrative leave pending termination in early April. Miners developing black lung, an irreversible and degenerative disease, were suddenly not able to get approved for a program facilitating transfers to less dusty mines. Black lung screenings that can help miners with the disease receive federal benefits were also stopped. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This led to a class action lawsuit and pressure from Republican lawmakers to reverse the layoffs of federal workers whose jobs were ensuring mine safety. So, earlier this month, Kennedy brought back over 300 NIOSH employees, including the Morgantown, West Virginia, team that studies black lungs and ensures benefits for programs for miners who develop it continue to function. Kennedy also restored a team focused on the health of 9/11 first responders, as well as a team that works on the same Pittsburgh campus as Demichs that tests and certifies respirators used by miners, firefighters and other professionals. But Demichs division is still expecting to be laid off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this month, at a meeting, Demich said Pittsburgh employees in the mine safety division were told they no longer had to come into work, though a handful still do. There had been hope with the Trump administrations rhetoric around increasing coal mining and U.S. Health Departments statements on the importance of miner safety that the job cuts would be reversed. But when NIOSH staff in other departments were brought back, Demich said, it crushed morale in the mining division. A lot of people see it as writing on the wall that were not being saved. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to detailed questions from the Capital-Star about future plans for the mine research divisions. But a spokesperson provided a statement saying, Secretary Kennedy has been working hard to ensure that the critical functions under NIOSH remain intact. The Trump administration is committed to supporting coal miners and firefighters, and under the Secretarys leadership, NIOSHs essential services will continue as HHS streamlines its operations. Ensuring the health and safety of our workforce remains a top priority for the Department. Demich finds HHS statements on preserving critical programs frustrating, given the cuts on his and similar teams. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont know how you can say that youre maintaining essential services for coal workers and miners when youre cutting the divisions that mainly do the research and provide the services to prevent mine injuries, illnesses and fatalities, he said. Our work does not overlap at all with the [Morgantown] division, other than that we both want to prevent black lung. Aerial shot of the NIOSH campus in Bruceton, Allegheny County. (Photo from the CDC) Those functions are going to disappear There is virtually no operational mine in the United States that hasnt implemented safety measures based on research conducted by NIOSH. The U.S. government got into mine safety research when the Bureau of Mines was established in 1910, after a series of deadly explosions killed hundreds of miners in just a few short years. The bureau was tasked with researching safer practices, inspecting mines and collecting data on the industry. The work was successful. For decades, miner fatality rates steadily and precipitously decreased. That continued after the Bureau of Mines was shuttered and effectively rolled into the Department of Health and Human Services in the 1990s, where it now sits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NIOSHs mine safety divisions dont set or enforce rules, but research it conducts has led to breakthroughs in technology that detects coal dust levels in real time, prevents mine roofs from collapsing, increases mineshaft ventilation and provides barriers between miners and powerful explosions. Those functions are going to disappear and Im not quite sure who else would be able to do those, said Tony Iannacchione, a former employee of NIOSHs coal mine safety team who now teaches at the University of Pittsburghs Swanson School of Engineering. Theres some pretty unique expertise. And if you dont have a government agency thats keeping its thumb on the pulse and coming up with modifications and improvements to the systems being used in mines, were gonna be in a bad way. Iannacchione says that work is only getting more important. The more coal thats extracted, the deeper miners have to dig to find it. That makes for more dangerous mines and requires new research and safety protocols. As you go deeper, you get higher concentrations of methane gas and all these problems just get worse, he said. For the industry to react to all these problems, its really beyond their capability. You need the government involved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Iannacchione cited recent NIOSH research that set new industry standards for blast walls that are placed between miners and explosives, as well as new methods for placing roof supports. The Pittsburgh team has also done extensive work on preventing hearing loss, which is an issue in underground mines that are full of loud machinery. The coal mine safety team in Pittsburgh is also developing technology that can read silica dust levels in real time, but that has yet to be deployed. As miners dig into tougher terrain, theyre exposed to much more silica dust, which has led to an increase in the development of silicosis and black lung among younger miners and develops at an accelerated rate. Widespread use of real time monitors, Iannacchione said, could save lives. But its unclear if the work will be finished by the time the layoffs fully take effect in June. Demich, the chief steward of the union representing Pittsburgh-area NIOSH workers, said he was working on a virtual reality training program for first responders and rescue teams to simulate mine disasters. They had begun training teams around the country, but the cuts effectively ended that work. He believes, with a little more time, they could have brought it to almost every mine rescue team in the U.S. Benefit of the doubt Sam Petsonk has been an advocate for coal miners for his entire career. The West Virginia-based lawyer led the recent lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services that resulted in an injunction ruling last week, effectively requiring the return of NIOSH workers running Black Lung programs in Morgantown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He successfully argued that the department was breaking the law by effectively shuttering congressionally-approved programs for miners with black lung by laying off the staff that implemented them. But, as he sees it, the law also requires the kind of research done by NIOSHs teams that are still facing layoffs. These Pittsburgh programs are every bit as mandatory under the Mine Act, Petsonk told the Capital-Star. I would like to give Secretary Kennedy a bit of the benefit of the doubt here that hes still digesting his obligations here. But the mandate is far less clear, with statute generally requiring NIOSH to conduct research, demonstrations, and experiments to support the Department of Labors Mine Safety and Health Administration, which sets and enforces rules for mine companies to follow. The injunction ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger focused on the availability of black lung programs, but also said the Court orders that there be no pause, stoppage or gap in the protections and services mandated by Congress in the Mine Act and the attendant regulations for the health and safety of miners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked if he would bring a lawsuit if the mine safety research teams are not brought back, Petsonk said he wants to wait until the end of the 20-day period that Berger allowed to comply with the injunction. That will be on June 2. If they look at it, they will see the need to revive the mining research labs within NIOSH, Petsonk said. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to questions from the Capital-Star about whether it believes the injunction applies to the research teams, or whether law requires them to be operational. They should just follow the law and re-open the research labs in Pittsburgh and Spokane because miners need it, Petsonk said. While its unclear if a legal remedy would be available to advocates like Petsonk who want mine safety research at NIOSH to continue, Demich is trying another way. When he was in Washington, D.C. last week, he and his NIOSH colleagues met with the staff of an estimated 15 to 20 lawmakers in an attempt to inform them about the research being lost and ask them to restore their jobs and research funding. As it stands, even though Demich and his coworkers in Allegheny County are still technically employed, strict limits on research spending and travel would prevent them from doing a lot of their previous work. Demich would not say which lawmakers staff he and his colleagues met with, since discussions are still ongoing. But he said the initial conversations were promising. He personally met with staff from lawmakers from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. He did note they were two Democrats and two Republicans. Theres a lot of questions about coal mines and about all the work were doing here in Pittsburgh, Demich said. A lot of people want to follow-up and I think well be reaching out. Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Family members of an undocumented man arrested in Milwaukee say they are receiving death threats after federal officials issued a news release claiming he threatened to assassinate President Donald Trump. That claim made by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is now coming under scrutiny. Ramon Morales Reyes, 54, a Mexican immigrant living in Milwaukee, was arrested May 22 on Milwaukees south side, shortly after dropping his daughter off at a school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement six days later accusing Morales Reyes of writing a letter threatening to assasinate Trump. The letter published by DHS reads, I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in (h)is head. The "30 yard 6" mentioned in the letter likely refers to a type of hunting rifle. The DHS news release said an intelligence officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received the letter in the mail on May 21, a day before agents arrested Morales Reyes. However, his family members and his attorney say Morales Reyes who does not speak English and is not proficient at writing in Spanish could not have authored the letter. Photo of a letter published by the Department of Homeland Security, allegedly written by Ramon Morales Reyes According to his lawyer, Kime Abduli, Morales Reyes is from a rural part of Mexico where education beyond second or third grade was not readily accessible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A CNN report citing a "high-level law enforcement official who was briefed on the case" also said officials had already determined Reyes did not write the letter by the time they interviewed him. Reyes' handwriting and the handwriting on the letter didn't match, the source told CNN. DHS was "careless" with their issuance of the statement, according to Abduli. She said the public statement from Noem has already done irreversible damage to the family and prompted numerous death threats against them on social media. Morales Reyes is a victim in a robbery and assault case and was in the process of applyling for a U-visa, Abuduli said. U-visas allow undocumented victims of certain crimes to stay in the U.S. for up to four years if they agree to help law enforcement in the investigation of the crime. According to Abudli, his family believes the letter may have been written by someone connected to the case in an attempt to get Morales Reyes deported before he could testify. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to CNN, investigators also believe this is the case. Morales Reyes is currently detained at Dodge Detention Center in Juneau. Advocates call for federal officials to retract statement Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant rights group that has been in contact with Morales Reyes' family, is urging DHS to retract its news release and issue a correction to clear Morales Reyes' name. "Because of this lack of investigation, they are putting other people's lives under threat, and they're interfering with his due process rights and his pending legal cases," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director at Voces de la Frontera. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DHS did not answer the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's questions May 29 about what evidence connected the letter to Morales Reyes. "The investigation into the threat is ongoing," a senior DHS official said in an email. "Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody." According to the DHS statement, Morales Reyes entered the U.S. without authorization at least nine times between 1998 and 2005. Publicly available records connect Morales Reyes to two incidents in 1996, one where he was accused of a hit-and-run and another where he was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property, related to domestic violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on the available documents, Morales Reyes was not charged for the alleged hit-and-run and the criminal damage charge was dismissed. He received a non-criminal conviction for the disorderly conduct charge, which usually refers to a ticket, the documents show. Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown facing legal challenges The arrest of Morales Reyes comes amid the Trump administrations aggressive nationwide crackdown on unauthorized immigration. The administrations efforts have included tripling arrest quotas for immigration agents, detaining students who participated in campus protests, deporting children who are U.S. citizens along with their undocumented parents, and wrongly deporting a Maryland man to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Immigration officials also recently carried out four arrests at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, leading to federal charges against a judge accused of helping an undocumented defendant evade federal agents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal governments actions are the subject of multiple legal challenges in various courts over whether they violate the Constitution. Neumann-Ortiz said the family is under a "tremendous amount of stress" and the DHS statement has added to that. "They want his name cleared, and they want those death threats to stop," Neumann-Ortiz said. "They're based on something that's not true." Eva Wen is a reporter with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Reach her at qwen@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee mans ICE arrest sparks scrutiny of federal agents account BOSTON (SHNS) Four former MBTA inspectors and one current T supervisor pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges that they falsified Red Line track inspection records while using an agency garage as their own automobile repair shop. Prosecutors alleged the quintet of employees submitted or greenlit reports last fall describing track inspection work, despite surveillance video showing them engaged in conversation, using cellphones or working on motor vehicles at the same times that the inspections supposedly took place. Prosecutors charged 62-year-old Ronald Gamble of Dorchester, 42-year-old Jensen Vatel of Brockton, 53-year-old Nathalie Mendes of New Bedford, 36-year-old Andy Vicente of Bridgewater and 47-year-old Brian Pfaffinger of Marshfield with falsification of records and making false statements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All five pleaded not guilty, according to U.S. Attorney Leah Foleys office. An MBTA surveillance camera image of then-track inspector Jensen Vatel, circled in red, apparently engaged in conversation during the time on Sept. 24, 2024 when Vatel claimed to be conducting a Red Line track inspection. (Provided by U.S. Attorneys office via SHNS) The charges are a federal overreach into an internal personnel matter which should be handled by the MBTA, not the court system, said Michael Tumposky, an attorney for Gamble. Mr. Gamble looks forward to exonerating himself at the conclusion of this process. Attorneys for the other four defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prosecutors alleged in the 25-page indictment that the quintet and other unnamed Red Line employees treated and operated the Cabot Garage as an automobile repair shop during MBTA work hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The falsification of reports allegedly took place between at least Sept. 3 and Oct. 15, 2024 while the MBTA was approaching the end of a year-long repair campaign designed to eliminate subway speed restrictions required by federal regulators due to concerns about the state of MBTA infrastructure. IndictmentDownload Prosecutors alleged that each of the four inspectors in that span filed a report claiming to have examined Red Line tracks. But during the timeframes they claimed to be out on the system, surveillance cameras recorded Vicente working on non-MBTA vehicles, Mendes sitting inside her car, Vatel chatting with other employees outside the Cabot Yard garage, and Gamble inside the garage moving private vehicles. In one case, the indictment alleged, Gamble claimed to have verified four separate defects, on different tracks, within one minute, in the final minute before his inspection ended. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pfaffinger, who according to prosecutors still works at the T, allegedly submitted a false work order for a falsified inspection report filed by Gamble covering a period of time when the two were together inside the garage. Foleys office said Pfaffinger allegedly not only knew that his subordinates worked on private vehicles during work hours, but had his subordinates work on his own vehicle. WCVB reported in October that employees at Cabot Yard were on leave amid an investigation into whether they worked on personal vehicles while on the job. By December, a total of eight employees had been terminated in connection to the probe, according to WCVB. Gamble, Vatel, Mendes and Vicente no longer work at the MBTA, according to the indictment, which describes them as former employees. The indictment calls Pfaffinger a current employee and previously a supervisor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MBTA Transit Police referred the matter to the U.S. attorneys office last year, the T said. The MBTA thanks the U.S. Attorneys office for their thorough investigation and diligent work toward holding people accountable for alleged criminal activity. As a public agency, it is our responsibility to be good stewards of public resources and deliver safe and reliable service to transit users. Thats why General Manager Phil Eng took immediate action to hold these employees accountable when this misconduct came to light, MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said in a statement. Their actions do not reflect the values of the MBTA, and they will not impact the improvements we continue to make across the system. We are taking these allegations very seriously, as we have an obligation to the public and to our workforce to ensure that every employee meets the highest standards of conduct. All five defendants face charges of making false statements and falsifying records. Inspections typically take place using MBTA-issued cellphones and an app called MaxTrax, according to the indictment. An inspector opens the app and walks the relevant length of track, recording any issues they observe, then confirms the process is complete by touching a finger to the phone and signing their name. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The MBTA is overseen by the state Department of Public Utilities and by the Federal Transit Administration. The T conducted a major track overhaul campaign last year after a series of problems thrust infrastructure woes into the spotlight. Officials announced in November that successful repairs allowed the Red Line to run end-to-end without speed restrictions for the first time in at least 20 years. Also on Thursday, former MBTA Transit Police Sgt. David Finnerty was convicted of aiding and abetting the filing of a false report. Finnerty had been charged for helping to cover up the physical assault of a man by Transit Police Officer Dorston Bartlett. Finnerty helped Bartlett draft a false arrest report regarding the incident, with the intent to impede any federal investigation of Bartletts unconstitutional use of force, Foleys office wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Photo by Sgt. Joshua Syberg/Indiana National Guard Federal officials could be eying Indianas Camp Atterbury as a temporary holding site for immigrant detainees as nationwide deportation efforts continue and detention demands grow. While no official decision has been announced, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Thursday that the agency is actively exploring all options to meet current and future detention needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The statement comes amid a push by President Donald Trumps administration to stage the largest deportation operation in American history, vowing to deport millions of people. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements enhanced enforcement operations and routine daily operations have resulted in a significant number of arrests of criminal aliens that require greater detention capacity in Indiana, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement. While we cannot confirm individual pre-decisional conversations, we can confirm that ICE is exploring all options to meet its current and future detention requirements. So far, however, the Indiana National Guard has no tasking or request from federal authorities, a spokesperson told the Capital Chronicle. The federally owned facility is licensed to and operated by the Indiana National Guard. It offers a variety of training ranges, live-fire venues, managed airspace with air-to-ground firing capabilities and an LVC simulation and exercise center. Details still limited For now, DHS officials have declined to provide a timeline or identify specific sites under consideration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Camp Atterbury, located about 30 miles south of Indianapolis, has previously been used for large-scale federal operations. Most recently, in 2021, the facility temporarily housed thousands of Afghan refugees evacuated during the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. During Operation Allies Welcome, the base accommodated over 7,000 Afghan evacuees in 82 lodging buildings across six neighborhoods, complete with dining facilities and medical centers. The infrastructure includes dorm-style housing for families and open bay barracks for individuals, all equipped with heating, air conditioning and plumbing. Camp Atterbury wouldnt be the first military or state-owned site proposed to be repurposed by federal officials for immigration-related operations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most recently, Fort Bliss in Texas was identified as a potential deportation hub, with plans to hold thousands of detainees in massive tents on the Army base. The site could serve as the model for a dozen other holding facilities on military bases nationwide. A lack of detention space could be a reason for ICE to tap Camp Atterbury and other locations. The newest data released last week by DHS showed a drop in the number of immigrants in detention across the country for the first time since January from 49,184 on May 4 to 48,870 on May 18 but the shift could be due to existing detention facilities reaching capacity. Congress allocated funds for 41,500 detention beds this year, almost 20% fewer than the current number of detainees. Indiana ramps up enforcement Its unclear exactly how many people are currently being held in Indiana. Numbers can fluctuate daily as detainees are released or moved, so specific data is difficult to track. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recent reporting by Mirror Indy revealed at least 400 ICE detainees have been held at the Marion County Jail in Indianapolis this year. And the federal government is paying Marion County $75 per day for each person held. As of March 17, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University reflected an average daily population of eight detainees at the Marion County Jail; and an average of 238 detainees at the Clay County Jail in Brazil, which is operated by the Clay County Sheriffs Department and began housing ICE detainees in 2013 under contract with the federal government. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US Using Camp Atterbury instead of local jails could save the federal government money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are an estimated 11 million immigrants who are not legally authorized to live in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank. A separate report released Thursday by the Center for Migration Studies found the nationwide population of people without permanent legal status to be closer to 12.2 million. Indianas unauthorized immigrant population was estimated to be around 102,000 as of 2019. During the 2025 legislative session, state lawmakers passed multiple measures to boost immigration enforcement and ensure local compliance with federal directives. That included House Enrolled Act 1393, which requires local law enforcement to notify federal immigration authorities about undocumented immigrants in custody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After sharp debate, a separate and stricter immigration proposal failed to pass, though. House Bill 1531 would have required local law enforcement officers to comply with federal detainer requests for undocumented immigrants. The bill would have also banned employers from hiring unauthorized residents. Though the bill passed out of the House on a 64-26 vote, it never got a hearing in the Senate. This story has been updated to clarify the number of ICE detainees at the Marion County Jail. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX U.S. President Donald Trump responded Thursday on Truth Social his own social media platform to the U.S. Court of International Trades decision to strike down his so-called reciprocal tariffs and import taxes on goods from China, Mexico, and Canada, which had been imposed under the pretext of combating fentanyl and illegal immigration. After more than 24 hours of silence, Trump posted a lengthy message in which he criticized the judges, including one he had appointed, and defended the primacy of presidential power over Congress. He praised the suspension of the rulings enforcement and called for it to be overturned. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power The Presidency would never be the same! he posted. Meanwhile, his team is preparing a Plan B to implement the tariffs by other means if required. The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order, Trump said. Trumps global trade war tariffs were struck down as illegal by the International Trade Court. The challenged Tariff Orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined, the three judges unanimously concluded. One of them, Timothy Reif, was appointed by Trump himself; another, Jane Restani, by Ronald Reagan; and the third, Gary Kazman, by Democrat Barack Obama. Trump, echoing comments made by his team, criticized the judges, even though one of them was appointed by him. Where do these initial three Judges come from? he asked in the post. How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of TRUMP? What other reason could it be? The judges, in their ruling, sided against Trump. They found that he had violated the U.S. Constitution and the law with his tariffs, overstepping his authority something he has done repeatedly during the increasingly authoritarian drift of his second term. While he did not say so explicitly, the president attempted to justify his appointment of one of the judges. I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real sleazebag named Leonard Leo, said Trump, adding that he was disappointed with the advice he was given. In his second term, Trump unapologetically nominated Emil Bove his former personal attorney as a judge on a court of appeals Trump then addressed the ruling itself. The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! he said, without offering any arguments to support this claim. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Three of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by Trump during his first term. The court has a majority of six conservative justices versus three progressive justices. The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs, Trump protested highlighting, yet again, his pattern of overstepping legislative boundaries. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power The Presidency would never be the same! Trumps post ended this message: This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America. Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America. Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, money that will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It would be the harshest financial ruling ever leveled on us as a Sovereign Nation. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. In reality, Trumps tariffs have slowed the economy, generated uncertainty, and caused significant tensions in the financial markets, which have welcomed each backtrack by the president and also greeted the ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade on Thursday. The New Yorkbased courts decision declares illegal and annuls the 25% import taxes on goods from Canada and Mexico, and the 20% tariffs on imports from China, which had been imposed under the pretext of combating fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. It also invalidates the so-called reciprocal tariffs on all other countries, announced on the misnamed Liberation Day, which were broadly reduced by 10% after the president backtracked and granted a partial 90-day pause in response to market pressure. However, an appeals court on Thursday granted a temporary administrative stay on the ruling, keeping the tariffs in place while it reviews the case over the coming weeks and decides whether to uphold the Court of International Trades decision. If the stay is lifted, the Trump administration could still appeal to the Supreme Court. Plan B The ruling does not address the 25% tariffs on imports of steel, aluminum, vehicles, and parts, which were imposed under different legal provisions. Hypothetically, Trump could attempt to impose new tariffs on other products or use alternative delegations of authority. In fact, Trumps team is already actively exploring a Plan B in case the ruling is not overturned. The judges own decision noted that the Trade Act of 1974 grants the president the authority to impose tariffs for a limited period of 150 days and up to a 15% rate in response to trade deficit imbalances. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, this is the first path Trumps aides are considering. It would allow him to maintain most of the current tariffs while launching specific country-by-country investigations to impose tariffs in response to unfair trade practices, as permitted by another provision. Although this process is lengthy and complicated, it has a stronger legal foundation. Its the approach Trump used during his first term to impose tariffs on China. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition DES MOINES, Iowa A painful chapter in Des Moines history is coming to a close with the sentencing of the final defendant in a deadly drive-by shooting outside East High School in 2022. The Polk County Attorneys Office said Nyang Mai Chamdual was sentenced to life in prison on Friday. Because of his age at the time of the shooting, 14, he will have the possibility of parole. He previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and has been held at the Boys State Training School in Eldora. He turns 18 next month. Previous stories: Deadly East High School shooting Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chamdual was one of 10 teens charged in the March 7, 2022 shooting that killed 15-year-old Jose Lopez and injured Kemery Ortega and Jessica Lopez Torres. The three were outside of East High School when shots were fired from three passing vehicles. The Polk County Attorneys Office says Chamdual fired a .38 revolver from the back seat of a Ford F-150 truck in the incident. During sentencing, Chamduals attorney Van Plumb argued for leniency for his client and said he had made tremendous leaps and bounds toward his rehabilitation, and that Hes a changed man. Chamdual received his high school diploma while incarcerated. In the end, Chief Judge Michael Huppert sentenced Chamdual to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He applauded Chamduals progress but said it did not balance the scales of his actions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huppert did not set a mandatory minimum sentence, leaving the decision on when Chamdual is released up to the Board of Parole. Chamdual must also pay restitution of $150,000 to Jose Lopezs estate. The Polk County Attorneys Office provided a summary of the other defendants and their dispositions, along with their current age: Alex Santiago Perdomo, 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime. Romeo Perdomo, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime. Octavio Lopez Sanchez Jr., 20, was sentenced to 70 years in prison in January 2024. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury. Daniel Hernandez, 21, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury causing a serious injury. He was a juvenile at the time of the shooting. Henry David Valladares Amaya, 21, was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury causing serious injury. He was a juvenile at the time of the shooting. Manuel De Jesus Buezo, 20, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury causing serious injury. He was a juvenile at the time of the shooting. Braulio Damien Hernandez-Salas, 20, pleaded guilty to two charges of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Kevin Isidro Martinez, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Gumaro Marquez-Jacobo, 21, was sentenced to a four-year suspended sentence. He had pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact, one count of person ineligible to carry a dangerous weapon, and one count of providing a pistol or revolver to a person under 21. Metro news Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Members of the St. Paul Fire Department's 2025-A Fire Academy class enter the 3M Auditorium for their graduation ceremony at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Thursday, May 29, 2025. 21 new firefighters/EMT-paramedics joined the department after completing a 14-week training academy. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) St. Paul Firefighter Frank Todd, second from right, and his wife Shannon, second from right, poses for a photo with their sons and newly minted St. Paul Firefighters Brex, second from from left, and Blaze following a ceremony at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Olivia Weinberger, center, takes the firefighter oath during the graduation ceremony for the 2025-A Fire Academy class at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Weinberger was one of 21 new firefighters/EMT-paramedics who completed a 14-week training academy. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) St. Paul Firefighter Academy class 2025A graduate Manuel Fortoso has his badge pinned onto his shirt by his father Felix Fortoso. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Hannah Lundstrom, second left, is photographed with St. Paul Fire Chief Burch Inks, left, Assistant Chief Jeremiah Melquist, second right, and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter after being promoted to firefighter following her graduation ceremony with the 2025-A Fire Academy class at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Thursday, May 29, 2025. 21 new firefighters/EMT-paramedics joined the department after completing a 14-week training academy. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Show Caption1 of 6St. Paul firefighter Frank Todd, center, pins a firefighter badge on his son, Blaze Todd, as another son, Brex Todd, left, waits his turn during the graduation ceremony for the 2025-A Fire Academy class at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Thursday, May 29, 2025. The two brothers were among 21 firefighters/EMT-paramedics joining the department from the department's academy. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)Expand Four current and retired St. Paul firefighters pinned badges Thursday on their sons who are newly-minted firefighters and Frank Todd did the honors twice. Both his sons joined him in the ranks of the St. Paul Fire Department as they graduated from the departments academy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Todd, a St. Paul firefighter for 27 years, said he was feeling as proud as his wedding day and the days his two children were born. The graduation ceremony for 21 new St. Paul firefighters was in the Minnesota History Centers auditorium and Blaze and Brex Todd set at least recent history: In Fire Chief Butch Inks 31 years in the St. Paul department, he doesnt remember another time that siblings graduated from the academy at the same time. The closest he could recall were brothers who graduated 11 months apart. All the new firefighters went through 14 weeks of intense training in the departments fire academy. I know that we have two firefighters in our graduating class who are siblings, but let me tell you, we have 21 who are brothers and sisters, Mayor Melvin Carter said of the close-knit academy class. And you join as brothers and sisters in a large department of people who literally must have each others backs in order for anything to work. Dad told them: Best job in the world Blaze Todd, 23, and Brex Todd, 21, both said they were inspired by their father to become firefighters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their names were influenced by Frank Todds work. When wife Shannon Todd was pregnant with their older son, they were at church and Frank Todd pointed out a reference in scripture to a blaze of fire. I went, Yup, thats it,' she said Thursday of deciding on the name Blaze. Blaze Todd said hes become accustomed to people telling him, You were bound to be a firefighter with a name like that. For their younger sons name, Frank Todd was listing off equipment on a firetruck and got to axe, which led to them to think of the name Brex. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a kid, Brex Todd remembers visiting his dad at his fire station, and hearing his stories. He always told us its the best job in the world, he said. St. Paul was their goal Both Blaze and Brex Todd did EMT and fire training at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, near where their family lives in rural Wisconsin. They got experience at an ambulance service and a volunteer fire department. Related Articles They both wanted to become St. Paul firefighters and went through the testing process, though they and their parents never expected theyd be selected to join the department at the same time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I really just didnt think in a million years that they would ever be in the same academy class, said Shannon Todd. We thought it would be amazing if they eventually did work for St Paul, but its hard to even get to the point of being in the class. Inks, speaking during the graduation ceremony, said he jokingly thought during the hiring process of the brothers: Well, how can we only hire one? What would Christmas be like if we did that? Thank you! Shannon Todd shouted from the audience. Pride and nerves Shannon Todd said she knows shell worry about her sons, as she used to about Frank when he became a firefighter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the years, you just kind of get used to it, she said of settling into Franks work. She hopes the worry will also ease up this time around, although its different with your kids, she added. Frank Todd, 57, works at Station 19 in the Highland Park neighborhood. Im going to stay a little longer now because I want to work with them, he said. He and his sons will all work the same shift, though new St. Paul firefighters move around to various stations. Blaze Todd said he felt proud and nervous on Thursday. I just hope that we can carry on the name that our dad has put out there, he said. Finding firefighters in new ways Seven of St. Pauls new firefighters came from pathways programs aimed for people who might not otherwise consider a career as a firefighter or have the educational opportunities. The programs are the departments EMS Academy, where they earn their emergency medical technician certification, and the departments Basic Life Support ambulance unit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New firefighter Manuel Fortoso, 21, said after he graduated from St. Pauls Central High School, he wasnt sure what he wanted to do, but I wanted to do something that I felt like I had purpose in. Fortoso found the fire departments EMS Academy, which he went through, and later worked for the Basic Life Support unit. His father also pinned his new badge on him Thursday. Four of Thursdays graduates are women, and they took part in Twin Cities Female Firefighter Fitness its run by women to connect with and prepare women who are looking into becoming firefighters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since Inks took over as fire chief in 2018, Thursdays class was the 11th academy to graduate and it marked 208 firefighters hired, which is nearly half of the departments firefighters. The new firefighters bring the departments ranks to 19 above authorized strength, which allows them to be fully staffed as people retire or otherwise leave the department, Inks said. PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) Leaders from The DeLong Company were joined by federal, state and local leaders to break ground Thursday on a $26 million project thatll take grains and feedstuffs from across the country and prepare them for international shipment. The Portsmouth Agricultural Intermodal Export Facility will sit on the former CSX Intermodal Yard at Pinners Point. The Wisconsin-based company is leasing the property from the railroad and using a $750,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia to upgrade the railyard. Itll be the first facility of its type not only for Portsmouth, but also the East Coast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike other transload terminals that receive agriculture products after trains drop off other cargo at rail yards, unit trains carrying exclusively grain will be able to pull in to the Pinners Point facility. Portsmouth to become international hub for shipping of agriculture products, mayor says You achieve higher efficiency, better rates, so thats the big difference, said Brandon Bickham, vice president of exports at The DeLong Company. Bickham said it was in 2023 when DeLong, CSX and the city of Portsmouth Economic Development Department began negotiations to locate in Hampton Roads. However, Bickham said DeLong has been working with the Port of Virginia for several years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a great local supply of grain, and we really wanted to tie a local supply with the Midwest origination area, Bickham said. And this site, this port, allowed us to do that. Weve had a great working relationship with the Port of Virginia. Part of the development will include a 15,000-metric-ton storage silo and a grain leg thatll rise to roughly 150 feet above ground. When a truck or train comes into the terminal, the soybeans, corn, wheat, DDGs or soybean meal will be transferred into shipping containers bound for Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and China. The facility is expected to handle 15,000 to 20,000 containers annually and help cut down on empty containers being placed on ships. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bickham said its also expected to aid local farmers. Soybeans are the top agricultural export in Virginia, accounting for $1.4 billion in exports in 2023, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. It should actually, improve [local farmers] revenue, Bickham said. So theyll have another grain bid. We should add value to the current price of grain. Bickham said roughly 15 to 20 new jobs will be created by the export facility. This is the the first of two proposed facilities focusing on agribusiness in the city. Less than a mile away in Port Norfolk, Canadian-based Ray-Mont Logistics plans to do just the same at the Norfolk Portsmouth Beltline Railroad. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Portsmouth to become international hub for shipping of agriculture products, mayor says The pair of companies will join Perdue Agribusiness in Chesapeake in the exporting of grain. In Hampton Roads, we have a strong farming community in many of our cities, Mayor Shannon Glover said. And so what this facility will enable them to do is to participate in moving their products to different markets. I think thats incredible. And I think its something that shows collaboration, regionalism with a focus on helping our businesses to grow and prosper. 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 WAVY.com. Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty. ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. (WGNO) On Thursday, May 29, the Covington Police Department announced that five men have been arrested for alleged child sex crimes in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes. According to the CPD, the arrests were the result of the Northshore Internet Crimes Taskforce. They targeted people allegedly attempting to solicit minors on online platforms as summer vacation was beginning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reward increased to $50k per remaining 2 fugitives still on the run Police say the following individuals were arrested and face the following charges: Mathew Miller (Courtesy: Covington Police Department) Kyle Baltrukevich (Courtesy: Covington Police Department) Stephen Shirley (Courtesy: Covington Police Department) Michael Dore (Courtesy: Covington Police Department) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jason Stevens (Courtesy: Covington Police Department) 40-year-old Mathew Miller, of Covington: computer-aided solicitation of a minor and indecent behavior with juveniles. 34-year-old Kyle Baltrukevich, of Pearl River: computer-aided solicitation of a minor and indecent behavior with juveniles. 43-year-old Stephen Shirley, of Mandeville: pornography involving juveniles and nonconsensual disclosure of private information. 57-year-old Michael Dore, Hammond: computer-aided solicitation of a minor and indecent behavior with juveniles. 39-year-old Jason Stevens, of Independence: computer-aided solicitation of a minor, indecent behavior with juveniles, and unlawful use of a social networking website by a sex offender. Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter. Latest Posts 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 WGNO. AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) Five Richmond County defendants face various prison sentences after pleading guilty to illegally possessing a master key for postal service mailboxes and other felony counts occurring in 2023. Davion Chelsea Easterling, 26, and Corey Jamario Gunter, 24, both of Augusta, await sentencing after pleading guilty to Aiding and Abetting Possession of a Stolen Mail Key. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, plea agreements subject each defendant to a statutory penalty of up to 10 years in prison, along with substantial financial penalties and up to three years of supervised release upon completion of any prison term. According to court documents, Easterling was employed by the U.S. Postal Service and shared a residence with Gunter. An investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Richmond County Sheriffs Office in 2023, led to a search of their residence pursuant to a state search warrant, where investigators reportedly found large quantities of stolen mail and multiple postal bins, along with a master key used to access postal service boxes. The investigation revealed that mail was stolen from a USPS Blue Box, located at the U.S. Post Office, 3108 Peach Orchard Road in Augusta. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall will schedule sentencing hearings for Easterling and Gunter upon completion of pre-sentence investigations by U.S. Probation Services. Cameron Martinas Curry, 22, and Quavaun Enreco Rhodes, 22, both of Augusta, await sentencing after pleading guilty to Possession of a Stolen Mail Key, Possessing Stolen Mail Matter, Bank Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft. Both face up to 30 years in prison, along with substantial financial penalties and up to five years of supervised release upon completion of any prison term. Curry and Rhodes were detained by the Columbia County Sheriffs Office for a traffic stop after suspecting that the defendants had stolen mail from a USPS Blue Box, located at the U.S. Post Office, 125 Commercial Boulevard in Martinez. Upon contact with the defendants, the deputies observed what appeared to be stolen U.S. Mail inside the vehicle. An investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service determined that there was no forced entry on the USPS Blue Box. After searching the area, a pair of U.S. Postal Master Keys were found less than thirty yards from the vehicle. A federal search warrant was obtained for both defendants phones and agents found several check images with a face value totaling $485,000. Court documents showed that text messages and screenshots revealed that they had stolen checks from the mail and had been depositing, altering or selling them for the Purpose of Bank Fraud or Identity Theft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen will schedule sentencing hearings for Curry and Rhodes upon completion of pre-sentence investigations by U.S. Probation Services. Earl Demetrius Overton, 32, of Augusta, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person, Bank Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft related to stolen mail. He faces up to 30 years in prison, along with substantial financial penalties and up to five years of supervised release upon completion of any prison term. Overton was arrested by RCSO, pursuant to an arrest warrant, while driving a vehicle. The defendant was reportedly found to be in possession of a firearm and is a prohibited person because of a previous felony conviction. A follow up search warrant of the defendants home revealed numerous stolen checks, stolen mail, and various debit cards belonging to other people. Investigators revealed that Overton was stealing checks from the mail and depositing, altering or selling them for the purpose of Bank Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall will schedule a sentencing hearing for Overton upon completion of pre-sentence investigations by U.S. Probation Services. These cases are examples of individuals who made a decision to engage in criminal misconduct involving the U.S. mail that will not go unpunished, said Rodney M. Hopkins, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is committed to protecting our customers and preserving the integrity of the mail. If you believe you are a victim of mail theft from the Martinez Post Office, or the Peach Orchard Road Post Office between the dates of March 1, 2023 and November 30, 2023, and you have not been contacted by the United States Attorneys Office, you can file a report by June 30, 2025, with the United States Postal Inspection Service at USPIS.gov/report, referencing USPIS Case Numbers 4183320-MT and 4207963-MT. This investigation is on-going. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WJBF. Drug cartel members are suspected of murdering five Mexican band members, who went missing after being hired to perform a concert in a crime-ridden city in the northeast of the country. The Diario de Mexico newspaper said on Thursday that the bodies of the five musicians had been discovered after they went missing on Sunday, and nine suspects were arrested in connection with their abduction and killing. According to authorities, the nine suspects are part of the Los Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel, which operates in the city of Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, near the United States border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement arrested nine individuals considered likely responsible for the events. They are known to be members of a criminal cell of the Gulf Cartel, Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios told a news conference. Tamaulipas is considered one of Mexicos most dangerous states due to the presence of cartel members involved in drug and migrant trafficking, as well as other crimes, including extortion. The announcement of the arrests came hours after officials said five bodies had been found in the search for the men, who were members of a local band called Fugitivo. The musicians were hired to put on a concert on Sunday but arrived to find that the location of their proposed performance was a vacant lot, according to family members who had held a protest urging the authorities to act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Relatives had reported receiving ransom demands for the musicians, who were aged between 20 and 40 years old. Mexican musicians have been targeted previously by cartel members amid rivalry, as some receive payment to compose and perform songs that glorify the exploits of gang leaders. Investigators used video surveillance footage and mobile phone tracking to establish the musicians last movements, Barrios said. Nine firearms and two vehicles were seized, he said. More than 480,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence and organised crime, and about 120,000 people have gone missing, in Mexico. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Rochester activists will be holding events marking what they call five years of resistance. On this day in May 2020, protests began in Downtown Rochester after the murder of George Floyd during an encounter with police in Minneapolis. Hundreds of people showed up to Rochesters Black Lives Matter rally, but as it was ending, chaos ensued near the Public Safety Building. Cars were seen burning, police cars were vandalized, and there was looting. Multiple people were arrested and charged with the car fires and destruction of public property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Multiple community members praised the peaceful protests but condemned the destructive aftermath. Police said it was caused by professional protesters and outsiders. Then-Mayor Lovely Warren said the actions of these people overshadowed the protests. After the destruction, many residents in the community pitched in to help as businesses that were affected began to rebuild. Protests continued and would pick up again later that year, upon the community learning about the death of Daniel Prude. Free the People Roc plans to hold an event at 6 p.m. Friday evening at the Lodge in MLK Park. The event is described as a celebration and a time to look to the road ahead. 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 RochesterFirst. Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) pushed Republicans to speak out on President Trumps foreign policy in a Thursday opinion piece for The Washington Post. Americas global leadership has never been perfect, but it has been indispensable. For decades, our willingness to engage to lead not only with our military or markets but also with our values has helped sustain global stability and promote freedom. That role is now in jeopardy, Flake said in the piece. That brings us to Congress particularly my fellow Republicans. The responsibility to speak out now rests with you, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the first few months of his second term, the president has strained relationships with longtime allies like the European Union and Canada over trade policy and went after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who the U.S. had previously largely supported throughout his countrys war with Russia. During President Trumps first term, those who valued Americas global leadership could take some comfort in knowing that senior officials were quietly working behind the scenes to mitigate the presidents more reckless instincts, Flake, who served in Congress during Trumps first term, said in the Thursday piece. But today, that containment is gone, he added. The voices of restraint within the administration have largely fallen silent. Degrading our allies and admiring autocrats are no longer exceptions they are part of the message. Diplomatic damage control is rare, if it happens at all. Flake also has his own notable foreign policy experience, having served during the Biden administration from 2022 to 2024 as the ambassador to Turkey. He also announced his backing of former Vice President Harriss failed 2024 presidential bid back in September. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Having spent the past three years overseas as a U.S. Ambassador, Ive seen up close that we have very real enemies abroad, Flake said in a prior statement posted to the social platform X. We also have vital and indispensable allies. I want to support a presidential candidate who understands and appreciates the difference, he added. 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. Attorney General James Uthmeier issued subpoenas Friday to Florida-based hospitals to ensure they comply with price transparency laws. Patients are still consumers, and they deserve transparency, Uthmeier said in a video posted on X. The big healthcare industry complex continues to rake in billions off Americans in their most vulnerable moments. We must protect patients. Uthmeier said under Florida law, a hospitals failure to provide price disclosure may constitute an unfair and deceptive trade practice. He said his subpoenas are related to patient charges, disclosures, billing practice, price transparency and surprise billing protections. The attorney general said his investigation is in line with President Donald Trumps price transparency executive order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patient advocacy groups in Florida have been pushing for more price transparency. Hospitals have hidden their prices yet have forced patients to sign a blank check before they can get care, said Cynthia A. Fisher, founder and chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, a nonprofit focused on healthcare price transparency. As long as prices have been hidden, hospitals have been able to charge whatever they want. The attorney generals action aims to protect patients by providing actual, upfront prices. This investigation will protect Floridians from hospitals predatory practices, prevent overcharges, and make bills accountable. Uthmeiers subpoenas were delivered to Southern Baptist Hospital of Florida in Jacksonville and Adventist Health (Advent Health) in Central Florida, according to the advocacy group. PatientRightsAdvocate.org released its seventh semi-annual Hospital Price Transparency Report in fall 2024, which examined 2,000 hospitals compliance with the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule. The November 2024 report indicates that only 29% of hospitals in Florida were fully compliant with the federal price transparency rule, a drop from 41% in February 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Only 39 of 135 Florida hospitals reviewed were fully complying with the rule. By keeping their prices hidden, hospitals continue to block American consumers from their right to compare prices and protect themselves from overcharges, Fisher said. During a patients most vulnerable hour, all too often, hospitals require them to sign contracts accepting full financial responsibility without acknowledging any prices. Florida law clearly states that unfair and deceptive acts and practices are unlawful, which include omitting material information like prices. Yet, that is exactly what Florida hospitals have been doing. Florida Health Price Finder is a state-operated website developed by the Agency for Health Care Administration to show prices of common services. South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com. ORLANDO, Fla. Leslie and Frank Hall had just rebuilt their home on the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Idalia in 2023 when they watched in horror as Hurricane Helene a monster of a storm barreled into their coastal community last September and wiped out their house and business. It was a staggering one-two punch for the couple and thousands of other Taylor County residents, who had just gotten back on their feet from Idalia. Making matters worse, Helene which destroyed hundreds of homes and caused more than $50 million of damage in Taylor County came nearly two months after Hurricane Debbie plowed into Floridas Big Bend last August causing extensive flooding and days-long power outages. Idalia also hit Taylor County in August 2023, causing nearly $100 million in damage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, Leslie Hall is not looking forward to this years hurricane season, which starts June 1 and runs through Nov. 30. Im very nervous, she said. If a hurricane hits us again, there will be no coming back from that. We have used every bit of money that we had trying to rebuild [from Idalia and Helene]. Mother Nature cannot be that cruel. The early storm forecasts all show a good chance of a hurricane hitting the United States this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts a 60% chance of an above average hurricane season this year with between 13 and 19 storms forming in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Of those storms, six to 10 will be hurricanes, including three to five as major hurricanes. A major hurricane is a Category 3 or higher and has sustained wind speeds of at least 111 miles per hour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weather experts at Colorado State University in their April forecast also showed an above-average storm season, with 17 named storms, of which nine will become hurricanes, including four reaching major strength. Forecasters there give a 51% chance that a major hurricane will strike the countrys mainland. Like the Halls, many Gulf Coast residents are anxious that after four hurricanes in two years Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton another storm could deal a devastating blow to their small coastal communities, which have long relied on economies of fishing, scalloping, canoeing and visitors. Hurricanes and tropical storms thrive in warm waters. And waters in the eastern subtropical Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean are warmer than normal for this time of year. But the good news is they are cooler than a year ago. And that means we could be in for a less intense hurricane season than 2024, according to meteorologists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yes, it is good news that they are not as warm as last year, said Levi Silvers, a research scientist for the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University. But last year was literally off the charts. And Im surprised that last year was not as bad or as brutal as we expected. Still, Silvers cautioned the April forecast calls for an above average hurricane season and Florida residents should be well prepared. Were expecting a season of somewhere in between last year (with 18 named storms) and normal (of 14.5 named storms), he said. The chance of a hurricane making landfall on the Gulf Coast between Cedar Key and Brownsville, Texas, is 33%, slightly higher than the 27% average, according to the CSU report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In coastal Central Florida: There is a 46% probability of a named storm striking Volusia County, but just a 3% chance it would be a major hurricane. In Brevard County, there is a 51% probability of a storm impact and a 7% chance it would be a major hurricane. But after two years of devastation, Taylor County faces one of the lowest probabilities of a storm impact among Floridas coastal counties with a 43% chance of a named storm striking, and just a 1% of it being a major hurricane. Does that mean that Floridas Big Bend region is likely in the clear this year from a hurricane striking? The chances of that happening are pretty low, but they are not zero, Silvers said about a storm hitting the Big Bend. But if I was playing poker, I would not bet against it. Residents of the Caribbean and Gulf always need to be aware and be prepared. Even getting one major storm is a life-changing event. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CSU meteorologists will release additional forecasts through the hurricane season. Those later forecasts, Silvers said, tend to be more accurate regarding the number of storms and intensities because of changing weather patterns, wind shear and dust in the atmosphere. In Sarasota County, Milton a powerful Category 3 hurricane struck Siesta Key last October, killing 42 people in Florida and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage. Much of the damage was from deadly tornadoes along Miltons path across the state. The central and northern part of our island really took the brunt, said Howard Tipton, town manager of Longboat Key. Surprisingly, it was Helene, not Milton, that caused much of the damage on Longboat Key, he said. Thats because of Helenes storm surge of up to 8 feet that inundated older properties built decades ago at ground level. More than 90 homes were destroyed on Longboat Key. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tipton recalled sitting in Town Hall last September as Helene stormed across the Gulf dozens of miles away. When I saw a wall of saltwater go down the road, I thought: This is not good, he said. I was unable to leave Town Hall. My vehicle was totaled. A storm doesnt have to be close to have a significant impact. Helene was 125 miles from our coast. But it was the worst storm we had in a hundred years. In Taylor County, officials have launched promotional and advertising campaigns to lure visitors, especially for the scalloping season which runs June 15 through September 1. The county recently held fishing tournaments that have led to hotel rooms being booked in Perry. Were bouncing back, said Dawn Perez, executive director of the countys Tourism Development Council. There is some fear. But were keeping our spirits up. We want everyone to know, were open for business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taylor County Commissioner Michael Newman agreed. Weve had some awful experiences, he said. But weve seen some good things, such as our churches and nonprofits helping with our recovery. We dont look past the sense that many of our residents are still struggling with their recovery. But were thankful to be in this place. Since Helene, the Halls have been renting a home while continuing to pay the mortgage on their destroyed house. They recently restarted their business Spring Warrior Fish Camp and Charter in Perry and have rooms ready to book for the scalloping season, a heavy tourist draw in Taylor County. But rebuilding their home will be a challenge as a new structure will have to be built at least 18 feet higher, a cost they cant afford and they are still waiting for money from FEMA. But Leslie Hall is optimistic. We are ready and open for business, she said. --------------- A black bear stands next to a backyard fence in Connecticut. Connecticut is inching closer to instituting a bear season after the state Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow wildlife officials to authorize a hunt when public safety is at risk. The move comes on the heels of Floridas approval of its first bear season in nearly a decade and is an indication of a broader trend in state-level responses to growing black bear populations. The Connecticut Senate easily passed Senate Bill 1523 on May 22, with a vote of 34-2. The bill would amend an existing law that allows individuals to request a permit to use deadly force against a bear if it is injuring or killing livestock, crops, or honey bees to make it easier for landowners to kill nuisance bears. But a provision tucked into SB 1523 would also authorize Connecticuts governor to direct the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to open a black bear hunting season if DEEP finds that bear conflicts with people, pets, and livestock in the state have reached a level that poses a public safety threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Connecticuts most recent State of Bears briefing, which points to a long term increasing trend in human-bear conflicts, suggests that conflicts may have already reached that level. DEEP estimates more than 1,200 black bears are roaming the state. In 2024, bears were reported in 159 of Connecticuts 169 towns and cities, with thousands of reported human-black bear conflicts, which far exceeds conflicts in neighboring states where bear hunting is legal. According to the report, Connecticut had 67 instances of black bears entering homes last year and had two bear attacks on humans. Because the frequency and severity of human-bear conflicts have increased significantly over the past decade, DEEP supports this legislation, DEEP commissioner Katie Dykes told lawmakers in her submitted testimony, we believe a regulated bear hunt is a critical and needed addition to the suite of black bear management tools we currently employ to protect the public, reduce human-bear conflicts, and support a healthy and sustainable black bear population. Read Next: What Do Black Bears Eat? While Connecticuts proposed legislation sets the stage for a conditional bear season, Florida is taking a more direct approach. On May 15, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-1 to give preliminary approval for the states first bear hunt since 2015. The proposed 3-week hunt, scheduled for December 2025, would permit the harvest of up to 187 bears and allow the use of bait and dogs. The vote follows Floridas first fatal bear attack on May 5, which claimed the life of an 88-year-old man in Collier County. A final vote for the proposed hunt is scheduled for August. Prosecutors are moving forward with the case against a Cape Coral man accused of threatening to assassinate the President. The U.S. Attorney announced that Christopher Davies has appeared in Federal court on one count of making threats against the President. If convicted, Davies faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. Prosecutors claim that Davies wrote and mailed a letter to the Charlotte Correctional Institute, which included a detailed threat against the Presidents life. The U.S. Secret Service investigated the letter before Davies was charged. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. The big story: Schools out for summer. Across the Tampa Bay region and Florida, students are signing yearbooks, saying see ya to friends and teachers and otherwise getting ready for some time away from classes. Pinellas children had their last day of school on Thursday, while Hillsborough and Pasco kids end today. Just a handful of districts, including Miami-Dade, run into June. That doesnt mean learning has to halt, though. Districts will kick off summer classes as early as next week. Some are even offering fun camps. Read more here. Hot topics University presidents: The University of Florida has proposed paying Santa Ono almost $3 million a year as its next president, Inside Higher Ed reports. Gov. Ron DeSantis said some of Onos past comments made him cringe, but hes staying out of the politically charged hiring process, Florida Politics reports. Concerns remain across Florida about whether university president searches are transparent enough, WUSF reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Superintendents: Manatee County school board members soon will begin searching for a new superintendent, Bay News 9 reports. Funding: Private university leaders called on state lawmakers to reconsider a proposal to end state-funded grants for their students, Florida Politics reports. Diversity, equity and inclusion: Duval County school officials have proposed eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion rules from their policies, saying they dont want to lose federal funding, WJAX reports. Campus expansion: A Jacksonville civic leader is urging the city to reject a proposed land swap that would provide a site for the University of Floridas graduate center campus, Jacksonville Daily Record reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the court docket ... A former Polk County school district planner filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the district, contending it ignored state concurrency laws when reviewing school capacity, the Ledger reports. Dont miss a story. Heres a link to yesterdays roundup. Before you go ... Howd you like a little morning jazz? Im not sure its possible in a single column to adequately address the depravity of Marco Rubios blinding self-interest. But Im going to try. Lets start with the current situation with Venezuelans fleeing the oppressive, Communist government of Nicolas Maduro. In 2021, the Biden Administration recognized the ongoing exodus of millions of Venezuelans fleeing their country as it crumbled under Maduros dysfunctional and violent rule. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After years of calls for help, the United States offered an estimated 250,000 Venezuelans something called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to live and work in the United States as sanctioned refugees for a period of time, subject to renewals. Rubio, as a U.S. Senator from Florida, was the lone Republican sponsor of the Venezuela TPS Act. He not only championed the relocation of Venezuelans in the U.S., but he urged the Biden Administration to be more generous with admissions, arguing that denying Venezuelans more expansive entry was exposing many of them to a very real death sentence. Fast forward four years, and the situation in Venezuela hasnt changed much. Maduro is still in power, re-elected in January for the third time. And things there are still grim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres what the current U.S. State Department says about Venezuela in an official travel advisory: "Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure. The U.S. State Department recommends that people traveling to Venezuela should update their wills, hire their own private security guards, and establish proof of life check-ins with their loved ones. A protest over Venezuela's presidential election held July 28, had more than 100 Treasure Coast residents turning up at the Cashmere Shell Station at Southwest Cashmere Boulevard in Port St. Lucie, Aug. 18, 2024. More than 100 residents from across the Treasure took part in the global protest over the poll results in Venezuela's presidential election. The government-controlled electoral commission in Venezuela declared President Nicolas Maduro was the winner, for a third six-year term in office. The opposition said their candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was the winner and they wanted the data from the polling stations to verify the election. Venezuela's Supreme Court backed Maduro on Aug. 22. Unlike Venezuela, Rubios situation has vastly improved during the past four years. He has leveled-up to become U.S. Secretary of State, and his name keeps bubbling to the top of the list of potential Republican presidential nominees after Trumps term is up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Youd think the elevation of Rubio would be good news for the Venezuelans seeking asylum in the United States. But its terrible for them because Rubios conscience is on indefinite hiatus as he engages in career self-care by carrying out the anti-immigration policies of President Donald Trump, who has called for an end to TPS. The Rubio who once worried about abandoning Venezuelans now limits himself to echoing the bigot-baiting of the man Rubio used to say would ruin this country if elected. "For years to come, there are many people on the right, in the media and voters at large, that are going to be having to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump," the Marco Rubio of 2016 said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, the Marco Rubio of 2025 is happily ensnared in that trap, supporting Trump by abandoning the Venezuelans Rubio had championed just a few years ago. Rubios new position is that TPS facilitates and encourages mass migration, and the United States can no longer allow the Venezuelan beneficiaries of the program to remain in the United States. The State Department will no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration, he wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, will prioritize securing Americas borders. While Rubio was betraying Venezuelans through his Trumpy epiphany on TPS, he was traveling in Latin America, speaking as if he were the same champion of those refugees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I guess he forgot to remember his betrayal. Just five days after issuing his letter supporting the end of TPS status for Venezuelans, Rubio was in Costa Rica calling Venezuela's government an enemy of humanity. When asked if those words were too harsh, he disagreed. I do not know how else to talk about a regime that has forced about 8 million citizens to leave Venezuela, Rubio said. They imprison, they torture innocent individuals. And as if that never happened, the next day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a notice that announced that TPS for Venezuelans has ended, declaring that conditions in Venezuela were safe for return. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rubio said nothing. Somewhere a cock was crowing three times. I only hope that one day Rubio fulfills his own prophecy from 2016. That there comes a day when he is faced with explaining and justifying how he came to lose his moral compass and fall into the trap of the man he used to call a con artist. I cant wait for that Marco Rubio to happen. Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Florida Network. He can be reached at fcerabino@gannett.com This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rubio's views on Venezuelan refugees flip-flop to align with Trump DES MOINES, Iowa Weve warmed today with plenty of sunshine, though its been filtered by wildfire smoke that looks to stick around through the weekend. Your weather timeline takes you into Sunday: Lows tonight will be warmer than nights past, setting us up for more warming on Saturday. As mentioned above, smoke from fires (mainly in Saskatchewan) looks to hang around in the upper atmosphere. At this point it doesnt appear that much of it will make it down to the surface with the exception of the timeframe from Saturday evening into Sunday morning. The Iowa DNR monitors and issues alerts related to air quality, and well pass the information along. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to cool weather the past couple of weeks, our dewpoints have stayed fairly low. That changes late Sunday into Tuesday, and this increased moisture will set us up for thunderstorm chances. We do see a slight chance for a stronger storm in southern Iowa on Tuesday, as shows in Colorado States graphics below, but better chances will be in place south of our state. The extended outlook slideshow below steps you through timing for precipitation Tuesday and Thursday. Highs for the next 6 days are above, and your WHO 13 7-day forecasts below: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our chances for heavier rainfall, and maybe stronger storms, seem to increase toward the middle of June as shown in the extended graphics below. Well keep you updated! 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. SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) A man formerly stationed at Fort Stewart was convicted of sexually assaulting two children by the Southern District of Georgia. Austin Michael Burak, 32, Oak Harbor, WA, was convicted of Abusive Sexual Contact of a Child, or Attempt and Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child, or Attempt following jury trial. We are committed to protecting our most vulnerable citizens, said Acting U.S. Attorney Lyons. In collaboration with our law enforcement partners, we will strive to keep our children and our communities safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As described in courtroom testimony, in August of 2017, Burak sexually abused a minor by fondling the childs genitals when the child was merely nine years old. On the same night in 2017, Burak anally raped another child who was only thirteen years old. The trial was held on May 12-15, 2025. Burak awaits sentencing upon the U.S. Probation Services completing a presentence investigation. This sends a clear message: Army CID and our law enforcement partners will not tolerate these heinous acts, said Special Agent in Charge Michele Starostka of the Department of Army Criminal Investigation Divisions Western Field Office. We are committed to aggressively investigating all crimes, establishing the facts, and supporting the legal process against those responsible. No child should have to experience this heinous abuse. The FBI is committed to tracking down and holding accountable people like Burak who prey on children, said FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown. We will ensure that criminals engaged in this depraved conduct are held accountable in a court of law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. GROESBECK, Texas (FOX 44) The Groesbeck Police Department is mourning the loss of a former chief. Police Chief Chris Henson announced Thursday evening that former chief Charles H. Chuck Walker has passed away. He says Walker served the citizens of Groesbeck with honor from 1980 to 1997, and is believed to be the departments longest-serving police chief. Chief Henson went on to say that Walker was a formidable lawman whose commitment to the profession was beyond reproach. He raised the bar for what was expected of his officers and maintained that standard throughout his time with the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chief Henson says the department had the privilege of visiting with Walker when he stopped by in May 2017. Even then, all the officers stood a little straighter when he entered the room. The department is extending its heartfelt condolences to the Walker 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 KWKT - FOX 44. TOPEKA (KSNT) The former chair of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas pleaded guilty Thursday to a child sex crime. 27 News obtained court documents showing that on May 29 Lester Randall entered a guilty plea to a count of sexual exploitation of a minor receipt of child pornography. Randall also agreed to pay $3,000 in restitution to each victim in this case. The U.S. District Court of Kansas, following Lesters guilty plea, agreed to dismiss the other counts included in his federal indictment. This agreement also includes a tentative sentence of 120 months or 10 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man fired gun at occupied SUV prior to arrest in central Topeka: court documents For more crime 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 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 KSNT 27 News. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Nevadas parole board denied parole for a former police officer who is in prison in connection with the murder of a woman in 1997, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned. Arthur Sewell, 58, will continue to serve time in prison for Nadia Iversons death. Sewell began serving a six-to-15-year prison sentence in 2023 after entering a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon enhancement. Sewell also received credit for time already served in jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A parole hearing was held on May 5. Iverson, 20, died of a gunshot wound in May 1997. Her body was found inside a home under construction in downtown Las Vegas. An investigation revealed that Iverson may have been sexually assaulted. Marie Coker, Iversons sister, who lives out of state, traveled to Nevada for the parole hearing to speak against Sewells release from prison. So he gets to see me and my sister, Coker said in a previous interview. Every chance I get up there to stand to be a voice for her. The crime was unsolved until 2018 after the state of Nevada tested decades-old rape kits. Sewells DNA was found to be a match in Iversons killing, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Las Vegas Metro police said Iverson was a sex worker who struggled with a drug problem, Iversons loved ones told the 8 News Now Investigators she was not a sex worker. Coker said that she had only been in Las Vegas for a short period and had been going through a tough time after a failed relationship, and her mother was in a serious car accident. In a video obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators, two cold case detectives interviewed Sewell and told him a gun that he owned was connected to the crime scene. For more than an hour, Sewall denied involvement before admitting to killing Iverson. I went out with the intention of sexual gratification, and when my .357 went off, it freaked me out and I bolted and panicked, Sewall told the detectives. A Clark County District Court judge later determined Sewells confession could not be used in the murder case because detectives kept questioning Sewell without an attorney. The judge also determined that his Miranda rights were violated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Months before Iverson was killed, Sewall resigned from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He was convicted of abusing his power as a law enforcement officer after he was caught on video exchanging favors for sexual acts. Sewell is serving his time at Ely State Prison. According to prison records, Sewell has used both Sewell and Sewall for his surname. Coker said the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners initially informed her Sewell would be up for parole in 2026. A victim services coordinator later informed her that this was incorrect and confirmed a May 2025 hearing. Sewell will not be eligible for parole again until October 2027, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections. Records show he will finish serving his sentence in May 2028. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) Former Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives Lee Chatfield and his wife Stephanie Chatfield will stand trial, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Chatfield, 35, will stand trial in Ingham Countys 30th Circuit Court for multiple felony charges, including running a criminal enterprise and embezzlement. Fmr. MI House Speaker Lee Chatfield and wife Stephanie plead not guilty. (Still image from: Judge Greenwalts Daily Docket YouTube channel) Our investigation uncovered extensive evidence of elaborate schemes to embezzle and misappropriate private and public funds to bankroll Lee Chatfields lifestyle during his time as Speaker of the House, Nessel said. I am glad to see this case finally move forward to a trial in Circuit Court. My office will continue to pursue public corruption with every tool at our disposal and push for stronger transparency and good governance in our state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both have been charged with: One count of conducting a criminal enterprise, a 20-year felony One count of conspiracy to conduct a criminal conspiracy, a 20-year felony Three counts of false pretenses, $1,000 or more but less than $20,000, five-year felonies One count of false pretenses, $20,000 or more but less than $50,000, a 15-year felony One count of embezzlement, $100,000 or more, a 20-year felony One count of filing a false tax return, a five-year felony A pretrial date has not been set, according to Nessel. 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. Julie Rochman. (Courtesy photo) It remained unclear on Friday who will become the treasurer for New Mexicos ruling political party, following the previous treasurers resignation after just one month on the job. Julie Rochman, of Albuquerque, resigned as treasurer for the Democratic Party of New Mexico on Wednesday, in a resignation letter addressed to all of the partys members, who elected her and the rest of its leadership on April 26. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rochman wrote she is concerned DPNMs officers dont reflect New Mexicos diversity. Including herself, three of the four officers are not originally from New Mexico, two are older white women, one comes from a rural area and none speak Spanish, she wrote. Most distressing to me, in our minority-majority Hispanic state, is DPNMs lack of a single Hispanic executive, Rochman wrote. This is a glaring deficit and strategic negligence. Rochman wrote the party should replace her with someone who represents the very people weve overlooked for too long ideally a Hispanic leader rooted in a rural space. DPNM spokesperson Daniel Garcia told Source NM on Friday party rules do not determine a timeline for replacing its treasurer, however, DPNM wants to move expeditiously in finding a replacement to fulfill the positions work without interruption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new treasurer will be selected by the partys officers, Garcia said, including Chair Sara Attleson, Vice Chair Cam Crawford, Secretary Brenda Hoskie and the six congressional district vice chairs. Right now there are not specific individuals under consideration, but the process will be conducted in a thorough, transparent process, Garcia said. Rochman wrote that Attleson and Crawford have squashed efforts for all officers to work together as a team and intentionally excluded her. They dont inform or engage with me, Rochman wrote. In short, theyve made clear that my expertise and input are unwelcome. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, Attleson denied Rochmans allegations that she wasnt welcome in the party, and defended its leaders diversity. Contrary to her letter, we welcomed Julie to be a part of the movement were building, Attleson said. Unfortunately, shortly after the election, she decided this team wasnt an ideal fit for her. Attleson pointed to the majority of New Mexicos statewide and federal elected leaders being Hispanic, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, along with several of the congressional district vice chairs. Rochman told Source NM it is great that so many elected officials in New Mexico are Hispanic, but it doesnt excuse the fact that the party doesnt look like the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attleson also pointed to Crawfords background as a young Black man, and Hoskies membership in the Navajo Nation and fluency in Dine. New Mexico Democrats proudly draw our strength from our diversity, which is apparent in our leadership, Attleson said. At a time when billionaires are dictating public policy and Donald Trump is eliminating essential services, we have to stay focused on fighting for working class New Mexicans, not turning on each other. Trumpian nondisclosure agreement refused Rochman wrote that she received a nondisclosure agreement in late May after weeks of no communication about ongoing party affairs and strategic planning. Rochman told Source NM in an interview that Sean Ward, the partys executive director, asked her to sign it. A copy of the unsigned NDA shows it would have barred Rochman from saying or doing anything that would damage the reputation of any of the partys officers, staff or volunteers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rochman wrote in her letter that the NDA is inconsistent with her values and undermines her right to free speech and her obligation to speak truth to power. Essentially, it would be a gag order for the rest of my life, she wrote. Rochman told Source NM that she feels the documents non-disparagement language was very targeted at her because she doesnt get along with Attleson. It seemed very Trumpian to me, Rochman said. There had been some other things that were rather Trumpian, and I just didnt want to be associated with an administration that was going to govern that way. This story has been corrected to accurately reflect the number of congressional district vice chairs in the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Source regrets the erorr. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) On Wednesday, the state board overseeing police pension and retirement approved a former officers disability pay after he was caught on camera slamming an elderly man to the ground. News 4 was the first media outlet to report in March that former Oklahoma City Police Department Sgt. Joseph Gibson resigned. While the department shared no reasons given for Gibsons departure, an internal investigation had been previously launched, stemming from an October traffic stop involving Gibson. Exclusive: New video shows aftermath of former OKC officer slamming Lich Vu Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On October 27, 2024, 71-year-old Lich Vu and then-Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Joseph Gibson got into a verbal argument after Vu attempted to explain why he didnt believe he deserved a ticket for allegedly making an improper U-turn. The Oklahoma City Police Department, on November 8, 2024, released less than six minutes of video from the incident to the public. In the video, the verbal argument between Gibson and Vu escalates. Vu is seen tapping Gibsons vest with the back of his hand after telling him to shut up. Gibson is seen grabbing Vus arm before slamming him to the ground. Vu suffered a C1 fracture, an orbital fracture, and a brain bleed as a result of the incident. He also had to have surgery, and his attorney says hes still in poor health. The department placed Gibson on administrative leave pending the outcome of internal criminal and administrative investigations that would determine potential charges or disciplinary actions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In December 2024, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna charged Gibson with aggravated assault and battery without sending the case to a grand jury. In a news release, Behenna said the amount of force Gibson used was not reasonable. A probable cause affidavit argued that a long-time veteran in the police department had also investigated and spoken with de-escalation control and defensive tactics instructors within the department, which found the use of force unreasonable. The affidavit said Gibson was in robust health while Vu was in poor health. Also in December, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond went over Behennas head and dropped the charges. Drummond argued that Gibson acted within the scope of his training and that Vu never should have put his hands on Gibson. Local OKCPD officer who slammed Lich Vu to the groun Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Attorney General, I will not permit Oklahoma police officers to face criminal prosecution for conduct adhering to their training, said Drummond in a December statement. While the outcome of this incident is unquestionably devastating for Mr. Vu and his family, I do not believe the officer exhibited criminal intent. A spokesperson for Drummonds office has declined interviews to explain the matter further. In April, News 4 reported Pennsylvania attorney Devon M. Jacob had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Vus family. The lawsuit names Gibson, Drummond, and the City of Oklahoma City as defendants. The City of Oklahoma City declined to comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, an attorney on Gibsons legal team, argued the lawsuit completely distorted the facts surrounding the incident. Hunter said that Gibson reacted to a confrontational and belligerent individual consistent with his training. He said he was confident a federal judge would see the matter in the same light. In March, News 4 received a tip that Gibson had filed an application with Oklahomas Police Pension and Retirement System (OPPRS) for disability in the line of duty retirement. Gibsons name was listed initially on a draft agenda posted online but the state agency, but Executive Director Ginger Sigler confirmed to News 4 in April that a vote was not taken at that meeting regarding the application. At the time, News 4 also filed an open records request with OPPRS for Gibsons application, noting that any redactions that needed to be made to protect sensitive information could be discussed over a phone call. Sigler responded, saying that Gibsons file would be confidential according to state statutes. I feel like we as taxpayers should be able to get access to these records and we should have access those records because we as taxpayers are paying for this, said Vietnamese Community of Oklahoma President Thuan Nguyen during an interview with News 4 on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 28, OPPRS board members met again, this time actually considering and approving Gibsons application, according to an email from Sigler Thursday morning. Sigler said that anyone who receives an in the line of duty retirement received 50% of their final average salary if they have served 20 or fewer years. MAY-AGENDADownload Public salary records online allege, last year, Gibson made around $91,000, which would leave him at around $45,000 a year. News 4 also asked Sigler for information about how individual board members voted, but Sigler said it wouldnt be available until the meeting minutes are approved at a June 18 board meeting. Sigler said the minutes would be uploaded online after approval. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement News 4 shared the same information with Nguyen for the first time on Thursday. Its injustice on Mr. Vus part, said Nguyen. Because, you know, hes the person, elderly gentleman, that actually has three types of cancer and now cant seek out treatment for his cancers because of this. He cant even, he cant really move. He cant even walk anymore. News 4 reached out to attorneys for Vu and Gibson on Thursday. Vus attorney declined, and Gibsons attorney, former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, did not respond. Hunter did speak about how Gibson was doing during an interview with News 4 in December last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes having a hard time, but again, we feel strongly he didnt do anything wrong, said Hunter. News 4 also reached out to Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Nelson on Thursday, who is listed as an OPPRS board member online. Nelson has publicly supported Gibson, but a spokesperson said he had no comment Thursday. Nguyen said hes worried about more potential costs. I just know that it will end up costing a lot for our taxpayers, said Nguyen. Its unfortunate, we dont want it to happen, but it had to happen this way. 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. KANSAS CITY, Mo. A former member of the Pagans Motorcycle Club pleaded guilty on Friday for his involvement in the armed theft of a firearm from a member of a rival motorcycle club. Michael R. Browell, also known as Dirtbag, 35, of Savannah, Missouri, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting in the possession of a stolen firearm. Man pleads guilty to shooting, killing 6-year-old boy in Kansas City, Kansas Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents say on April 25, 2023, a member of the Border Saints Motorcycle Gang was chased down and confronted by Pagans Saint Joseph Chapter President Jeremiah Z. Hahn, a/k/a Pass Out, and former Pagans St. Joseph Chapter Sergeant at Arms Michael Browell, in Saint Joseph. The Border Saints member (victim) had previously been requested by Hahn and other Pagans members to set up a meeting with the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang over their possible presence in the Saint Joseph area. The Border Saints were a support club for the Outlaws and the victim was deemed responsible by the Pagans for arranging the meeting. According to court documents, after the victim said that he had failed to do so, Hahn and Browell told the victim to remove his Outlaws support shirt. The victim refused. Browell then got an axe handle from his motorcycle and threatened the victim with it. As the victim was giving up his support shirt, Hahn took the victims firearm from him. The firearm was a Smith & Wesson, model M&P Shield, .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun. Afterward, Hahn and Browell left with the firearm and support shirt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hahn was later found in possession of the firearm when arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on May 3, 2023. Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV On May 20, Hahn pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm, one count of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and one count of attempting to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. A sentencing hearing for Browell will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation 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 FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. May 30 (UPI) -- Former President Joe Biden made a public appearance Friday, his first since revealing his cancer diagnosis earlier this month. Biden, 82, delivered remarks at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Del., during a Memorial Day event, which also marked the 10th anniversary of the death of his son Beau Biden. "This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq. And to be honest, it's a hard day," the elder Biden told those in attendance Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Being with all of you quite frankly makes things a little bit easier, it really does. So thank you for allowing me to grieve with you." Beau Biden served in the Delaware National Guard and was exposed to toxic burn pits on military bases while deployed to Iraq, something many military veterans blame for health conditions later in life. Earlier this month, former President Joe Biden confirmed he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI Biden has said he believes the exposure to toxic burn pits contributed to his son's death from brain cancer at the age of 46. While still in office last year, Biden announced $150 million in funding "to make cancer removal more precise." Earlier this month, the former president confirmed he has been diagnosed with an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He later thanked people for their support on social media but has not made public remarks until Friday's appearance at the annual event. Biden urged supporters to get behind veterans and put political differences aside. "The women and men we honor today are no longer with us, but you can still hear their echoes. Literally, can't you? ... They're asking, what will we do? ... They're asking us to stay true to what America stands for," the former president said during his remarks. "They're not asking us to do their jobs. They're asking us to do our job, to protect our nation in our time now, to defend democracy, be part of something bigger than ourselves. So today, let's renew our pledge to honor our heroes." Mako Komuro, formerly Princess Mako, gave up her royal status to marry Kei Komuro, a commoner. After their wedding, the couple moved to New York City, where Kei works as a lawyer and Mako reportedly spent time interning at the Met Museum. Now, the couple are new parents, as confirmed by Japan's Imperial Household Agency. The baby, whose name and gender have notbeen disclosed, is the first grandchild for the Crown Prince of Japan and Crown Princess. If Prince Akishino ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the baby will become the grandchild of the Japanese Emperor. This is a matter for a person who has left the Imperial Family, and we had hoped that she would spend her time in a quiet environment, Naomasa Yoshida, grand master of the Crown Prince's Household, said in a press conference, per Japan Times. We decided to make the announcement, however, in light of some media reports. Mako and Kei, both 33, met as students at the International Christian University in Tokyo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paparazzi photos published by a Japan paper show the couple pushing a stroller in a suburb of Manhattan. We found out she was pregnant around fall of last year, and from then on, we started planning the move at a rapid pace, a friend of the Komuro family told Josei Seven. Kei searched for a property in the midst of his busy schedule, hoping to fulfill Mako's wish that they should raise their child in a detached house, and finally found their ideal home. This time, they decided not to rent, but to buy so that they could live together as a family for a long time. You Might Also Like LONDON (AP) Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams won his libel suit against the BBC on Friday over a claim that he authorized the killing of an informant inside the Irish republican movement. A jury at the High Court in Dublin ruled in Adams favor and awarded him 100,000 euros ($113,000) in damages. Jurors deliberated for just under seven hours after the monthlong trial before reaching a verdict, rejecting the BBC's argument that it had acted in good faith and in a fair and reasonable way. Adams sued Britains public broadcaster over a claim in a decade-old television documentary and online article that he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson, a long-serving Sinn Fein official who acknowledged in 2005 that he had worked for British intelligence. He was shot dead at his cottage in rural Ireland four months later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the BBC program, broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Adams gave the final say. Adams denies involvement and called the allegation a grievous smear. Adams lawyer, Paul Tweed, said outside the court that his client was relieved and satisfied that jurors had reached the unequivocal conclusion that the subject allegation was highly defamatory. Adams, 76, is one of the most influential figures of Northern Irelands decades of conflict, and its peace process. He led Sinn Fein, the party linked to the Irish Republican Army, between 1983 and 2018. He has always denied being an IRA member, though former colleagues have said he was one of its leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking after the ruling, Adams said: Ive always been satisfied with my reputation. Obviously, like yourself, we all have flaws in our character, but the jury made the decision and lets accept the outcome, and I think lets accept what the jury said. Adams was able to sue in the Republic of Ireland because people there could watch the BBC Northern Ireland program. Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, said the program had been made with careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence. He said the implications of the jurys verdict were profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyones could, and they warned how todays decision would hinder freedom of expression, Smyth said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around 3,600 people were killed in the Troubles, Northern Irelands three decades of violence involving Irish republican and British loyalist militants and U.K. soldiers. The IRA stopped fighting and disarmed after the 1998 Good Friday peace accord largely ended the violence, though small splinter groups opposed to the peace process continued to mount occasional attacks. A splinter group known as the Real IRA claimed responsibility in 2009 for killing Donaldson. An Irish police investigation remains ongoing. Lawyers for the BBC argued that the documentary didnt claim that Adams had sanctioned murder, merely putting that forward as an allegation alongside Adams denial. They also argued the program didnt harm Adams reputation, because he was widely considered to have been an IRA commander and so had little reputation to lose. May 30 (UPI) -- Former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams Friday won $113,486 in a defamation lawsuit against the BBC. Adams claimed in court that the BBC defamed him in a documentary and online article that said Adams had sanctioned the murder of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson. After the courtroom win, Adams said, "The British Broadcasting Corporation upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view it's out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday agreement. It hasn't caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully, in the time ahead, unity." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The BBC maintained it acted in good faith and the Donaldson death claim was presented as an allegation and not as fact. But attorneys for Adams said it was "reckless journalism" and an "unjustified" attack on a man credited with helping advance the peace process in Ireland. They called the BBC report a "hatchet job" and a "grievous smear." Adams denies any role in Donaldson's murder. Donaldson was killed by a point-blank shotgun blast months after he admitted during a 2005 press conference with Adams that he had been a British intelligence agent with Sinn Fein and the IRA for over 10 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The BBC said the allegation it reported regarding Donaldson's killing was corroborated by five other sources. But jurors rejected the BBC defense that its reporting of the allegations was "fair, reasonable and in the public interest." BBC Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth said outside court after the verdict, "We are disappointed by this verdict. We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this program, and to the accompanying online article." Adams led Sinn Fein from 1983-2018 but denies ever belonging to the IRA. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A Tigard police officer resigned from his post and was barred from becoming a police officer again in Oregon after pleading guilty to official misconduct. The now former Tigard police officer, Jacob Teeney, will surrender his police certification with the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training after it was determined he lied during the course of his official duties. Armed man arrested after standoff at Papa Murphys Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Teeney lied about how he accessed text messages in an investigation, something discovered by a lawyer preparing for trial who noticed discrepancies between his police report and body-cam footage. After the Tigard Police Department was notified about the attorneys allegation in November of last year, the department placed Teeney on paid administrative leave the same day. To ensure an impartial investigation, the Clackamas County District Attorneys Office investigated the incident, which was completed in February. Teeny made his initial court appearance earlier this month before pleading guilty to one misdemeanor charge on Thursday. Kotek, Wilson plan to build more Portland housing Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Teeny was first hired by the Tigard Police Department in 2021. As a result of the charge, all other reports and investigations conducted by Teeny during his tenure with Tigard police are being reviewed by both the police department and the Washington County DAs Office to ensure the facts can be independently supported, officials said. The internal review is expected to be completed in the coming weeks and will be submitted to DPSST. 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. A former White House lawyer who served President Donald Trump during his first term took a jab Thursday at press secretary Karoline Leavitt with a new nickname as he called her out for attacking federal judges who blocked the presidents tariff plans. Leavitt slammed three U.S. Court of International Trade judges at Thursdays White House press briefing, labeling them activist judges and accusing them of abusing their power to usurp the authority of President Trump. The press secretarys comments came shortly after the judges paused Trumps sweeping tariffs Wednesday, arguing that the president exceeded his authority by imposing the tariffs under an emergency powers law. The tariffs were not blocked for long, however, after a federal appeals court temporarily reinstated most of them Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process, Leavitt said. America cannot function if President Trump or any other president for that matter has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges. Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb told CNNs Erin Burnett on OutFront that Leavitts comments are clearly so defensive and so ill-informed that people might largely [tune] her out. I dont think creepy Karoline when she speaks I dont think anybody in America really takes her seriously on a matter of substance. I mean, shes not learned by any imagination, Cobb said. The CNN guest tells Burnett the courts are not trying to participate in international trade but are ruling on whether a statute authorizes actions by a president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The statute in question has never in history been used in connection with tariffs, Cobb said. So I think the likelihood is that this statute will be upheld and enforced in a way that precludes the president from trying to pretend that he has these all-encompassing powers. Related... FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) After more than 40 years working throughout Northwest Arkansas law enforcement agencies, Former Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder has many memories of his career, including a run-in with now-escaped Arkansas prison inmate Grant Hardin. In 1979, Helder began his career in law enforcement with the Washington County Sheriffs Office as a dispatcher, eventually working his way up to a field deputy position. In 1982, Helder was hired by the Fayetteville Police Department, where he spent more than 20 years of his career, in various positions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1990, Helder served the department as an administrative lieutenant, the same year that Grant Hardin was hired to the FPD as an officer. In the nearly 200-page personnel file on Grant Hardin released by the FPD and obtained by KNWA/FOX24, Helders name can be seen on one of the many documents concerning Hardins employment status. Helder was also a part of an Oral Interview Board where Hardin was an applicant. On that board, Hardin scored the lowest among four other officers, receiving a 5.80 compared to the highest score, a 15.58. In an interview with KNWA/FOX24, Helder says he has only some recollection remaining of Hardin, most of which arose when Hardin was charged with murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arizona man sentenced to 200 years for 2021 murder, stabbing of two Sebastian County deputies I vaguely remember him, most of that came up whenever he was charged with the murder up in Benton County and then also the rape that had occurred some years before that, and then we started bouncing back and forth information about Grant, Helder said. Helder says there were a few things about Hardin that stuck out in his field training, saying Hardin was odd. Grant was observed by his training officers he would basically resist the tutelage, he said. There were also some incidents where he did not really pick up on officer safety instincts and survival instincts, and he was written up a few times for that kind of thing. So those are the things that I remember about him. He just was an odd fellow that just didnt fit the mold of a police officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Helder says that while Grant was just off, he didnt act outrageously, and didnt raise any suspicions that we would commit such crimes. It wasnt like he was acting outrageouslyhe was just odd, Helder said. This was you, and you deserve to go to prison, Victim Says After 21 Year Cold Case Helders name can later be seen on a recommendation for Hardins termination and decertification from the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training board. The final decision was ultimately made by then-Chief Richard L. Watson. In 2005, Helder was elected to become the Washington County Sheriff, where he spent 18 years, meaning Helder became the person to make decisions on officer employment based on field training performance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his time as sheriff, he was able to see and help those who had a passion for serving the community. The training program was just one way that people would get weeded out. We got to have the right people that are carrying guns and dealing with the public and solving their problems, you know? So, I think today, as opposed to back then, I think he probably would have been washed out and he would never have gotten back in law enforcement, He said. Helder says that testing for police positions has come a long way, but there may have been some holes in the process years ago that can be seen in Hardins case. Hardin passed many tests needed for the police academy, but his personality was a red flag. I would agree with those that Ive seen responding to Grants personality and everything. He more than likely is a sociopath, Helder said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a letter to the CLEST, Hardins decertification as an officer was requested. Helder told KNWA/FOX24 that although it was signed by Chief Watson, he was more than likely to one to write that letter. In the letter, it states that Hardin did not meet standards for certification and was subsequently released from FPD. The letter states in part, Although Grant. M. Hardin is an extremely nice individual, I strongly recommend his decertification by CLEST. A response from the CLEST board is then documented in Hardins Personnel file. It states in part, Hardin was not eligible for certification until he completed his one-year probationary period. Therefore, the decertification of Hardin is not necessary since he was still in his probationary period and had not been certified. All documents were put into his personnel file. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following his time at FPD, Hardin worked for the Huntsville Police Department. It is unclear if that is where he was able to receive CLEST certification. According to the Department of Public Safety, Hardin is still not decertified as an officer, however, he does not meet the minimum standards to work in law enforcement. A statement from DPS obtained by KNWA/FOX24 states, As a minimum standard for employment in Arkansas CLEST Rule 1034 (3)(d) states: Be free of a felony record. A felony record means having entered a plea of guilty, been found guilty, or otherwise having been convicted of an offense, the punishment for which could have been imprisonment in a federal penitentiary or a state penitentiary. The fact that an individual has received a pardon, or their record has been expunged, shall not release the individual from having a felony record for the purposes of this rule. Therefore, he is excluded from law enforcement due to his felony conviction. According to Benton County records, in 2008, Hardin received a majority vote of 64.91% in Township 1 to serve as constable, running against Lee R. Paull. He ran unopposed in 2012, granting him the role of constable once again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of Friday, Hardin is still at large. The Arkansas Federal Bureau of Investigation is now offering a $20,000 reward for any information leading to his arrest. 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. Former White House Press Secretary Shares Powerful Message Regarding Joe Bidens Cancer Diagnosis (Exclusive) originally appeared on Parade. Karine Jean-Pierre is sending her love to former President Joe Biden. The political advisor, 50, who served as White House press secretary from May 2022 to January 2025 and as a senior advisor to Biden from October 2024 to January 2025, exclusively told Parade she has reached out to the 82-year-old after he was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have been in contact with the family, she said on the red carpet at American Ballet Theatres 85th anniversary Spring Gala, honoring Susan and Leonard Feinstein, at Cipriani South Street in New York City. SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox I think they know how I feel, she continued. I've been very clear about the news and how heartbreaking it was to hear, but one thing that I know about Joe Biden is that hes a fighter. I wouldnt bet against him, and this is obviously an issue that's incredibly personal to them when it comes to cancer. Bidens son Beau died in 2015 at age 46 from brain cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jean-Pierre then went on to praise the former POTUS for how much he cared for his staff at the White House. I have to tell you this personal story, she began. When my mom during my tenure as White House press secretary had cancer and only a few people knew, he was one of the people who knew because I wanted to keep that really private and because it was such a personal matter to go through. Biden reached out to Jean-Pierre personally to check up on her and her mother, who was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer. (Jean-Pierre said in a January Vanity Fair piece that her mother finished treatment a year ago.) He reached out, and he asked me all the questions, Jean-Pierre told Parade of Biden. How is she doing? What can I do? Where is she? What kind of treatment is she getting? He was so tuned in because he understands how personal something like this is and how hard it can hit a family, and so my heart goes out to him and obviously his family. Related: 16 Must-See Movies Premiering This Summer At the ABT gala on Wednesday night, Jean-Pierre also encouraged people struggling in the current political climate to remain hopeful and look to your community and see how you can be helpful to your neighbors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added, Joy is resistance. Joy is important right now. We can't let them take that away, but understanding that there are people who are living next door to us who are indeed suffering and having a difficult time in this moment, I think it's important to show up and be very, very present. Former White House Press Secretary Shares Powerful Message Regarding Joe Bidens Cancer Diagnosis (Exclusive) first appeared on Parade on May 29, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. NEW YORK (AP) Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City's police commissioner on 9/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69. FBI Director Kash Patel said that Kerik's death Thursday came after an unspecified private battle with illness. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who tapped Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and later appointed him to lead the NYPD, reflected on their long history on his show Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve been together since the beginning. Hes like my brother, Giuliani said through tears. I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a former NYPD officer, said hed visited Kerik, his friend of nearly 30 years, at a hospital earlier in the day. Kerik, an Army veteran, was hailed as a hero after the 9/11 attack and eventually nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, before a dramatic fall from grace that ended with him behind bars. He served nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, making false statements and other charges. The charges stemmed partially from apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say wanted Kerik to convince New York officials it had no links to organized crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During Kerik's sentencing, the judge noted that he committed some of the crimes while serving as the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has. President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was one of the guests feting Trump after his first federal court appearance in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents. Kerik grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he dropped out of the troubled Eastside High School later depicted in the 1989 film Lean on Me. He joined the Army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. He went on to work private security in Saudi Arabia before returning stateside to supervise a jail in New Jersey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s and was appointed in the 1990s to run New Yorks long-troubled jail system, including the citys notorious Rikers Island complex. Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000 and was often by the mayor's side in the period after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was at my side within 20 minutes of the attack and never left, Giuliani recalled in a statement following Kerik's death. In Kerik's 2015 book, From Jailer to Jailed, he described becoming Americas Top Cop" after the attacks. But Id give anything for that day not to have happened. I wish it hadnt. But it did, he wrote. And I happened to be there at the time. I was there, and I did the best I could do under the circumstances. Its all any of us did. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was tapped by President George W. Bush to help organize Iraqs police force in 2003, then nominated to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the following year. But Kerik caught the administration off guard when he abruptly withdrew his nomination, saying he had uncovered information that led him to question the immigration status of a person he employed as a housekeeper and nanny. More serious legal troubles followed, culminating in his conviction. In 2005, Kerik founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm. More recently, he worked for Giuliani again, surrounding the efforts to overturn Trumps 2020 loss. ___ This story has been corrected to show that Kerik pleaded guilty in 2009, not 2010. UTICA, N.Y. (AP) A former upstate New York prison guard pleaded guilty Friday for his role in what prosecutors called a coverup of the beating death of inmate by fellow guards. Joshua Bartlett entered guilty pleas to hindering prosecution and falsifying records, both felonies, in connection with the March 1 death of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, near Utica. Bartlett appeared for a hearing in Oneida County Court in Utica, where sentencing was set for Aug. 8. Ten correction officers, not including Bartlett, were indicted in connection with the fatal beating. Two of the 10, Jonah Levi and Caleb Blair, are charged with second-degree murder. All 10 have pleaded not guilty. Bartlett is the first guard to plead guilty in connection with the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nantwi died from injuries he sustained in a series of beatings by guards that began in his room and continued even when he was lying handcuffed on the floor of the infirmary, the indictment says. Bartlett was accused of helping other guards cover up what happened, including filing a false use-of-force report. Bartlett was beaten after an emergency response team was called to Nantwis room to help National Guard members who became concerned when he involved himself in another inmates effort to obtain medication and was resistant during a headcount, according to prosecutors. The National Guard was deployed to Mid-State and other prisons because of an unauthorized, three-week strike by guards who were upset over working conditions. The situation was resolved by the time the response team arrived. Nantwi objected to being handcuffed for no apparent reason and grabbed Bartlett's vest, with several guards immediately raining blows on his head and body using their fists, batons and boots, the indictment said. The attack intensified when Nantwi bit the hands of two guards, prosecutors said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nantwi became unresponsive and guards transported him toward the infirmary, but he was assaulted a second time in a stairwell, according to prosecutors. Nantwi died several months after Robert Brooks was fatally beaten at the Marcy Correctional Facility near the Mid-State prison. Six guards were charged with second-degree murder in Brooks Dec. 9 beating. One of those guards pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree manslaughter under a plea deal. Another three prison employees were charged with manslaughter in the Brooks case and an another officer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted tampering with physical evidence. Bartlett was among 18 guards, including the 10 who were indicted, who either resigned or were suspended after Nantwi's death. Prosecutors have said several guards who weren't indicted agreed to cooperate with authorities. OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) Four arrests have been made by investigators with the Opelousas Police Department in connection with the shooting death of Justin Washington, which occurred on May 24, at 10:30 p.m. Authorities have arrested Jasean Mansfield, 18, Sharona Glaude, 31, Latravien Glaude, 19 and Koby Glaude, 18, in connection with the shooting. According to authorities, during the course of the investigation, detectives interviewed several individuals who were present at the scene of the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through further questioning and evidence analysis, officials determined that Mansfield was responsible for discharging the firearm that resulted in the death of Washington. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KLFY Daily Digest Officials said in an interview conducted with Mansfield, he confessed to his involvement in the incident. He was subsequently sent to a St. Landry Parish jail, on the charges of negligent homicide and obstruction of justice. Officials said they also discovered that, following the shooting, multiple individuals inside the residence where the incident occurred attempted to clean up the crime scene before law enforcement arrived. Those individuals were identified as Sharona, Latravien and Koby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each individual was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice for their role in attempting to conceal the incident. This case remains under investigation. There is currently no information regarding the bond of these individuals. Top Left: Jasean Q. Mansfield, Bottom Left: Sharona Glaude, Top Right: Latrevian Glaude, Bottom Right: Koby Glaude Latest news 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. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) Four men pleaded guilty to three different shootings that took place in D.C. between April 2022 and January 2023, officials said. In a statement, the U.S. Attorneys Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia said that the following people pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder or armed crime of violence on Friday: Derrico Johnson, 21 Ronald Henderson, 19 Daveon Robinson, 18 Demarco Robinson, 22 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The USAO said that the four admitted to being in a crew based out of Henson Ridge called Get Back Gang or the Z. Prosecutors said that this is part of a larger group that has been driving violence in Washington, D.C. over the past several years called Fox 5 Gang. Trump administration targets DMV sanctuary cities, threatens federal action Derrico Johnson also pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon. These charges were in connection to a drive-by shooting at Shipley Market that took place around 12:20 p.m. on April 12, 2022. Clayton Marshall was hit and killed, and another victim was injured. Prosecutors said that neither of them seemed to be the intended target of the shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson and Ronald Henderson additionally pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed. The USAO said that on May 26, 2022, around 11:20 a.m., 16-year-old Justin Johnson (also known as 23 Rackz) was shot and killed in the Savannah Circle on Savannah Terrace SE. Henderson and Daveon Robinson also pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon for a third shooting at a convenience store. The USAO said that around 4:50 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2023, two bystanders were hurt in a drive-by shooting at Alabama Convenience Store. The four men have a sentencing scheduled for Sept. 12. The USAO said that the pleas include the following agreed-upon sentences: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Between 19.5 and 23 years for Derrico Johnson Between 18 and 23 years for Ronald Henderson Between six and 10 years for Daveon Robinson Demarco Robinson will have to face a sentence that is concurrent to a previous sentence in a firearms 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 DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles Spices Up the Rooftop With La Ola originally appeared on L.A. Mag. All photos courtesy Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles For years, the poolside rooftop on the fourth floor of the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills housed a breezy lunchtime spot, Cabana until two years ago, when Matthew Kenney debuted his ephemeral Plant Food + Wine concept. Now, executive chef Jesus Medina (who pioneered the dining concepts at Four Seasons Westlake Village before joining the Beverly Hills team) is injecting some of his personal Mexican heritage into the fourth-flour dining spot with La Ola, a lively new eatery that will be open starting today for lunch, golden hour and dinner daily. La Ola (Spanish for "the wave") is his take on Coastal Mexican and it comes complete with a vibrant new design in natural textures and beachy tones, alongside new cabanas, umbrellas and chaises. "I'm very excited to introduce this concept Coastal Mexican is deeply in my heart, it's my rich culture, so I can express myself," said Medina at a preview event. "And it's an amazing journey for Four Seasons, as we're [the Four Seasons'] only Mexican concept in the U.S." Signature guacamole Guests can enjoy signature guacamole, ceviches, shrimp aguachile, octopus chicharron and tacos, or opt for heartier entrees like the catch of the day, carne asada and grilled prawns all served with elegant presentation. Sip house margaritas garnished with sea asparagus, or seasonal paleta cocktails with herbs and mezcal and mini slushie welcome shots. Desserts include platano macho with a burst of cotja snow and a sweet taco de elote with amarth and blueberries. taco de elote Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fiesta continues all summer with a weekly seafood market-style experience (Mercado Mariscos), tarot and tequila nights, live DJ sets, mariachi performances, ceviche tastings and mixology pop-ups plus "surprise and delight" moments on weekends, which will include a medley of Mexican treats for poolgoers (Tajin-dusted melons, paletas and Mexican-inspired ice creams). Added Medina: "I want for you all to raise a glass, and we're all going to say this in Spanish, and we all know this: Salud!" For more information or to make a reservation, click here or call 310-273-2222. Chef Medina (center) at La Ola This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. Four individuals received their sentences Wednesday, May 14, in Laurel Circuit Court before Judge Michael Caperton. The cases are as follows: Scott Edward Pressley, 51, of London, was sentenced to 23 years and 7 months. The sentencing comes after Pressley accepted a plea deal amending his murder charge to wanton murder last month. Pressley was charged with the Aug. 30, 2021, death of Reanna Dodd, a 53-year-old U.S. Army veteran. Dodd had been reported missing by family members after they did not hear from her. The last information family members relayed was that Dodd was going to Pressleys home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pressley was arrested and charged with murder after Dodds body was found inside his home. Dodd had been bound to a mattress in a back bedroom of Pressleys home. Information in the case indicated that Pressley said he bound Dodd and found her dead the next day. He then covered her body with items from the home in an attempt to hide her body. However, an autopsy revealed that Dodd had been suffocated, resulting in Pressleys arrest. Dodds mother Joyce Larkey Barboa and sister addressed Pressley directly in court. Dodds sister began by telling Pressley the amount of hurt he caused her family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What my family has been through the past few years has been excruciatingly painful the kind of hurt that words can never express, the kind of hurt that no one should ever feel in a lifetime, Dodds sister stated. Dodds sister went on to say her family lives in fear daily, asking if he cares. She said the family learned that Dodd was missing through a Facebook post by the local sheriffs department. A few hours later, Dodd was found deceased in Pressleys home under hundreds of pounds of debris. Dodds sister said Pressley had been out driving Dodds truck after, and was found playing slot machines. Barboa spoke following her daughter, sharing that she has been under stress to the extent of having heart surgery because she cant get rest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont know how you can rest, Barboa told Pressley. There isnt a day that goes by, or a moment, that I dont think of her. No child should ever leave before their parent mother or father. Throughout her statement, Barboa said her faith has helped her with the loss. Pressleys prison assignment was not available at press time. He is expected to become eligible for parole in August 2041. In 2022, a London couple Brandon Robert Johnson, of Willow Branch Road, and Sada Elizabeth Caldwell, of 225 Taylor Circle Road were indicted on seven counts. Caldwell was sentenced to 15 years for her amended charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Caldwell pleaded guilty to complicity to second-degree rape by aiding, abetting and failing to prevent Johnson from committing second-degree rape against a child being 11 to 15 years old at the time. She was sentenced to 10 years to run concurrently with 15 years for use of a minor in a sexual performance. The last charge involved the youngest child who would have been a week old to 21 months old at the time the acts took place. Shade Tyler Witt, of Little Arthur Ridge Road in East Bernstadt, received five years for third-degree rape, while a count of second-degree sodomy involving a minor child, was dismissed. The incidents, according to a 2023 indictment, occurred around Dec. 20, 2023 just a week before the victim turned 13 years old. Further, Witt must register as a sex offender for 20 years. Timothy V. Rader of London was sentenced to one year probated for one year for first-degree wanton endangerment. Additional charges another count of first-degree wanton endangerment, resisting arrest, reckless driving and third-degree criminal mischief were each dismissed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The charges stemmed from confrontations with two London Police officers on Feb. 21, 2023. The mischief charge accuses Rader of fighting with police and damaging the boots of five city police officers. According to a joint release from Laurel County Sheriff John Root and former London City Police Chief Chuck Johnson at the time of the arrest, the incident occurred just after 1 a.m. on Feb. 21 as members of the Laurel County Drug Interdiction Task Force conducted a traffic safety checkpoint at the intersection of KY 30 and Slate Lick Road. Officers say that Rader approached the checkpoint in a red GMC Sonoma and refused to roll his window down before taking off, nearly hitting several. He crashed on Slate Lick Road a short time later, hitting a tree head on. When police searched his truck, they found a pistol and determined that Rader was a convicted felon who was also wanted on outstanding warrants. Sleeper trains are undeniably the transport of the moment right now. New routes have received a flurry of media attention, and travellers are bumping a night on the rails to the top of their bucket lists. In fact, passenger data from France suggests night trains could continue to see record traveller numbers - if only supply could meet the demand. According to a recent report by French climate campaign group Reseau Action Climat, the biggest challenge facing the success of sleeper services is a lack of trains. France's night trains see record passengers in 2024 Night trains in France are on track to be one of the countrys most popular forms of transport. 2024 was a record year for the sleeper services, with more than a million passengers using them in France. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Night trains were 76 per cent full on average, and even more than 80 per cent full on the two main routes, Paris-Toulouse and Paris-Nice. The line between Paris and Toulouse attracted nearly 100,000 additional passengers between 2019 and 2024 (growth of 64 per cent). Night trains are becoming an increasingly popular option with business travellers, who made up 30 per cent of users in 2023. On the only two international lines (Paris-Vienna and Paris-Berlin), passenger numbers were also high, despite numerous delays and a three-month suspension of services in 2024. According to a survey by the Europe on Rails collective, 72 per cent of French people would be willing to take the night train if the ticket price was acceptable and the connection available. France is struggling to meet night train demand While these soaring passenger numbers should be a positive sign, Frances limited fleet of trains cant cope with the demand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, this is forcing travellers to choose alternative, often more polluting forms of transport, or cancel their trip completely, the climate groups report found. To relieve congestion on existing lines and open new ones, it found, France needs to expand its fleet far beyond the current 129 sleeper cars. Plus, lines need to expand to connect cities other than Paris to other European hubs. Night trains are a multi-beneficial solution The report stresses that getting night trains back on the right track would have multiple benefits. Firstly, they are an effective way of connecting rural or isolated areas with cities without requiring passengers to change mid-journey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although longer than flying, night trains are also a more environmentally friendly way to get between Europes major cities. Of the 10 main air links from France to the rest of Europe, at least six could be made by night train (Paris-Madrid, Paris-Barcelona, Paris-Milan, Paris-Rome, Nice-London, Paris-Venice). Choosing a sleeper service over a high-speed TGV daytime equivalent can also save you money. The night train from Paris to Toulouse, for example, starts at nearly 30 cheaper than the TGV, and you dont need to pay for a night in a hotel. How France can revolutionise its night train offering The report proposes two options for expansion with a deadline of 2035. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The less ambitious goal is to reach a fleet of 340 sleeper cars, which would allow for the reopening of lines such as Paris-Barcelona or Nice-Strasbourg. This scenario would make it possible to transport 3.6 million passengers and save 400,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, it says. The more ambitious proposal is to expand to 600 cars, which is the fleet size recommended by the Ministry of Transport's 2024 report on night trains. This would allow for the reopening of lines such as Paris-Venice or Bordeaux-Lyon, making it possible to transport 5.8 million passengers and save 800,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related By 2040, the report proposes an expansion to 1,200 cars, which would pave the way for international lines without going through Paris (e.g., Lyon-Rome, Nantes-Barcelona, Marseille-London). These would carry 12 million passengers and save 2 million tons of CO2 equivalent. The record ridership in 2024 demonstrates the French people's appetite for night trains, Reseau Action Climat writes. Political will was there when it came to reversing the trend in 2020 and relaunching night lines. It is needed again today to change the scale. The Hawaii Department of Education said free meals will be offered at 68 public schools statewide, starting June 12. The meals will be available Monday through Friday, except on the Fourth of July holiday, through the U.S. Department of Agricultures Seamless Summer Option program. Breakfast will be served from 7 :15 to 8 :45 a.m., and lunch from 10 :30 a.m. to noon. Children must be 18 and younger to qualify, but do not need to be enrolled in public school to participate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For many of our students, school meals are a vital source of daily nutrition, said Superintendent Keith Hayashi in a news release. Our cafeteria teams are stepping up once again to make sure kids across Hawaii stay healthy and well-fed this summer. We encourage families to take advantage of these free mealsno sign-up or enrollment is needed. All meals must be eaten on campus ; no grab-and-go options are available. To qualify, schools must have at least 50 % of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and host a summer program on campus. Parents may call their nearest participating school directly for details. Participating schools OAHU (40 schools )August Ahrens Elementary ; Campbell High ; Dole Middle ; Ewa Makai Middle ; Farrington High ; Fern Elementary ; Hauula Elementary ; Hokulani Elementary ; Kaala Elementary ; Kahuku Elementary ; Kahuku High & Intermediate ; Kailua Elementary ; Kaimuki High ; Kalakaua Middle ; Kalihi Elementary ; Kalihi Waena Elementary ; Kaneohe Elementary ; Kapalama Elementary ; Kauluwela Elementary ; Laie Elementary ; Lehua Elementary ; Leihoku Elementary ; Maemae Elementary ; Maili Elementary ; Makaha Elementary ; Nanaikapono Elementary ; Nanakuli Elementary ; Nanakuli High & Intermediate ; Pearl City High ; Pope Elementary ; Puohala Elementary ; Puuhale Elementary ; Roosevelt High ; Stevenson Middle ; Waianae Elementary ; Waianae Intermediate ; Waianae High ; Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate ; Wheeler Elementary ; Wheeler Middle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HAWAII (15 schools )Hilo High ; Honokaa High & Intermediate ; Kapi olani Elementary ; Kau High & Pahala Intermediate ; Keaau Elementary ; Keaau Middle ; Kealakehe Elementary ; Konawaena Elementary ; Mountain View Elementary ; Na alehu Elementary ; Pa auilo Elementary & Intermediate ; Pahoa High & Intermediate ; Waiakea High ; Waiakea Intermediate. MAUI (9 schools )Baldwin High ; Ha iku Elementary ; Kahului Elementary ; Kalama Intermediate ; Kekaulike High ; Lokelani Intermediate ; Maui Waena Intermediate ; Waihe e Elementary ; Wailuku Elementary. MOLOKAI (2 schools )Kaunakakai Elementary ; Molokai Middle. KAUAI (2 schools )Kapaa Elementary ; Kaumualii Elementary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 3 Comments By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our. Having trouble with comments ? . YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) The Full Spectrum Community Outreach Center which supports the Youngstown areas LGBTQIA+ Community is hosting a Spring into Summer Festival to raise money for a homeless shelter. The festival began Thursday in the parking lot of the Youngstown Playhouse on Glenwood Avenue. There were rides, food, and games. It will continue through Saturday. Were working on a shelter, a transitional shelter for people who are homeless, people who need support away from their families. Lots of wonderful things that we can do to benefit them, said organizer Katie Coriston. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The festival runs Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. and on Saturday from 1 to 10 p.m. 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. Getty Images 1950present Latest News: Larry Hoover Gets Commutation from President Trump President Donald Trump has commuted the federal life sentence of Larry Hoover, but the 74-year-old notorious gang leader isnt leaving prison anytime soon. The commutation applies to Hoovers federal conviction in 1997 on 40 criminal counts, including conspiracy, extortion, and drug charges. However, Hoover, who founded the Gangster Disciples street gang in Chicago, will remain in prison for his 1973 conviction in Illinois state court for the murder of 19-year-old drug dealer William Pooky Young. He received a sentence of 150 to 200 years in prison for the killing. According to his attorneys, Hoover was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facilityalso known as ADX Florencein Colorado in solitary confinement. He was no longer in federal custody as of May 29, the day after the president issued his commutation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoovers son, Larry Hoover Jr., appeared on The Breakfast Club radio show after the commutation and said the family will continue to advocate for his release from state prison. Hoover has a parole hearing later this year. Im not saying that my father wasnt in [gang] leadership at one point and wasnt involved in the streets, but hes had a transformation, Hoover Jr. said. He was an illiterate, dyslexic child when he went to jail. He taught himself how to read, he taught himself how to become a man. Who Is Larry Hoover? Larry Hoover grew up in Chicago and became the leader of the Supreme Gangsters, which merged with a rival gang to become the Black Gangster Disciple Nation. In 1973, Hoover was sentenced to 150 to 200 years in prison for killing a drug dealer. Despite attempts to portray himself as reformed, he was indicted in 1995 for continuing to orchestrate gang activity from prison and convicted two years later on 40 criminal counts. In May 2025, President Donald Trump commuted Hoovers federal life sentence. Quick Facts FULL NAME: Larry Hoover BORN: November 30, 1950 BIRTHPLACE: Jackson, Mississippi CHILDREN: Larry, Larry Jr., and Tyree ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius Early Life of Crime Larry Hoover, also known as King Larry, was born on November 30, 1950, in Jackson, Mississippi. His parents moved the family north to Chicago when Hoover was 4 years old. By age 13, he was on the streets with a group called the Supreme Gangsters, engaging in petty crimes such as theft and mugging. His criminal activity soon evolved to shootings and assaults. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoover ascended to a leadership role as the Supreme Gangsters grew, and he later joined forces with rival gang kingpin David Barksdale to form the Black Gangster Disciple Nation. In 1969, after Barksdale was wounded in a shooting, Hoover took charge of the Gangster Disciples. The gang assumed control of the South Side drug trade, making more than $1,000 a day in profits. Murder of William Young By his early 20s, Hoover had been in and out of prison several times and had endured at least six separate shooting attempts on his life. However, he was unable to escape the reach of the law when he and another Gangster Disciple, Andrew Howard, were charged with murdering drug dealer William Young on February 26, 1973. The two men were convicted and sentenced to 150 to 200 years in prison, with Hoover sent to the maximum-security Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. But Hoovers power seemed only to grow inside Stateville. He began protecting other inmates, who in turn became devotees and new recruits for the Gangster Disciples. His control over the other prisoners was recognized by the wardens office, which began looking to Hoover as a positive influence to quell riots and uprisings within the prison system. Hoover, inspired by the biography of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, began discouraging violence among his followers. Instead, he made education mandatory for members of the Gangster Disciples and instructed his army to go to school, learn trades and develop... talents and skills, so that we will become stronger in society. Changing the G.D. of Gangster Disciple to Growth and Development, Hoovers move to reform began gaining positive attention from the outside. Growth and Development created nonprofit organizations that registered voters, a music label that helped needy children, a series of peaceful protests to fight the closing of public programs and even a clothing line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dubious prison officials, however, saw Hoovers good intentions as a ploy to get out of prison and resume his illegal activities. While friends and allies on the outside lobbied to get Hoover paroled for his contributions to society, law enforcement agents insisted that he was finding new ways to expand his criminal ventures. The Gangster Disciples had grown to more than 15,000 members in at least five states. Their drug profits had also risen well into the millions of dollarsall of which gang members attributed to the leadership of Hoover. Transferred to another prison in Vienna, Illinois, Hoover was living a luxurious lifestyle that involved new clothes, expensive jewelry, specially prepared meals, and private visitations from friends and loved ones. Suspicious authorities began wire-tapping Hoovers private meetings and discovered that he was running the Gangster Disciple group from within the prison system. Worse still, informants revealed that Hoovers nonprofit organizations were actually fronts for laundering drug money. According to the testimony of Gangster Disciple members, none of the proceeds for any of the so-called charities actually went to helping anyone in need. Federal Charges and Commutation On August 31, 1995, after a five-year undercover investigation by the federal government, Hoover was indicted on drug conspiracy charges. He was taken from his prison cell and moved to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago to stand trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1997, Hoover was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to six life sentences. He began serving his sentence at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado. The case received renewed attention decades later in December 2021, when rappers Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Drake hosted a Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to promote prison and sentencing reform. In May 2025, President Donald Trump commuted Hoovers federal sentence amid a series of pardons. However, Hoover remains in prison for his Illinois state sentence for Youngs murder. Wife and Children Hoover has been in a long-term relationship with Winndye Jenkins for more than 50 years. In January 2020, the state of Colorado legally recognized the couple as married. They have one son, Larry Hoover Jr. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoover has two other children, Larry Lil Larry Bernard and Tyree Hoover, from prior relationships. Each has advocated for his release. Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesnt look right, contact us! You Might Also Like NAGOYA - Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday said it will become the first major automaker to offer racing karts, in the hopes of nurturing a new generation of auto enthusiasts. The world's largest automaker by volume is developing karts and plans to sell them for about a quarter of the current market price to make them affordable for families with children interested in motor sports. Pricing and launch details have yet to be released. In Japan, racing karts currently retail for about 1.5 million yen ($10,400) -- a major obstacle to wider popularity. Toyota hopes to spark greater interest in automotive careers by giving children easier access to motor sports, aiming to inspire future drivers, engineers and mechanics. Related coverage: Toyota April global sales up 10% on year ahead of U.S. tariff impact Toyota unveils latest RAV4, 1st to incorporate new software system FOCUS: Japan carmakers focus on popular models to soften U.S. tariff impact KANSAS CITY, Mo. A gas leak shut down a road in Lawrence, Kansas, for several hours on Friday, the Douglas County Sheriffs Office said. Sometime before 9:30 a.m., the sheriffs office said a driver hit a gas line, causing the leak. Lawrence on Trump administrations sanctuary jurisdiction public list The sheriffs office said N. 1500 Road (15th Street east of Lawrence) was closed between E. 1625 and E. 1750 roads since 9:30 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of 2:15 p.m., the road has reopened, the sheriffs office said. At this point, deputies believe a vehicle struck the line, the sheriffs office said Friday morning on Facebook. Deputies have since located the driver, according to an update from the sheriffs office. Thank you to the community for the assistance. Its unclear if the driver will face any 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 FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. British holidaymakers may face disruption ahead of summer as staff at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are to stage fresh strikes in a dispute over pay and conditions. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union based at sites near Gatwick airport will walk out on June 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18, following stoppages in January and March. Pay negotiations for 2025-26 are under way, but PCS warned the gap between the two sides was significant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary, said: Were frustrated and disappointed after management imposed a 2024 pay offer without engaging in meaningful negotiations. The current offer a one-off, non-consolidated payment of 1,150 has been rejected by union members as inadequate amid rising living costs and concerns about long-term pay erosion. Our members deserve a fair pay rise that reflects the cost of living, restores the value of their salaries and recognises the value of their work. Instead, CAA has chosen to bypass negotiations and impose a deal, which is unacceptable to us. Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary: Were frustrated and disappointed after management imposed a 2024 pay offer without engaging in meaningful negotiations - Mark Kerrison/Getty A spokesman for the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: We continue to engage with our PCS trade union colleagues, and after prolonged discussions it is disappointing that PCS trade union members are taking industrial action in June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PCS trade union members make up approximately 5 per cent of the CAAs employees and we do not anticipate any disruption to the aviation sector, or any impact on our regulatory oversight activities or other safety and security critical work, as a result of this action. Previously in April, Unite, the union, warned of flight delays, cancellations, long queues at check-in and baggage delays, in Gatwick. Staff who worked for Red Handling, a firm that provides baggage handlers, check-in staff and flight dispatchers for the airlines Norwegian, Delta, TAP and Air Peace, staged the strike over the Easter weekend. 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. SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has recently proposed a widening of Interstate 16. According to GDOT, the proposed project would widen I-16 from two to three lanes eastbound and westbound between I-95 and (SR) 67 in Bulloch, Bryan, Effingham, and Chatham counties. As part of the widening, 20 bridges in 10 locations will also be widened or replaced. The proposed project will improve existing substandard pavement conditions within the I-16 corridor. GDOT is holding in-person public information open houses on the following days: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 4 p.m. 6 p.m. Bulloch County Center for Agriculture 151 Langston Chapel Road Statesboro, GA 30458 Thursday, June 12, 2025 4 p.m. 6 p.m. Bloomingdale City Hall 8 West US Highway 80 Bloomingdale, GA 31302 GDOT is asking for comments on the proposed I-16 Widening project (P.I. 0020168 and 0020739) as part of the Public Information Open House (PHOH) comment period. The public is asked to review and submit comments on any aspect of the project. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can learn more about the proposed plan on GDOTs 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 WSAV-TV. A LaGrange police officer is facing charges after being arrested over Memorial Day weekend. The police department confirmed that Sergeant Meghan Keith was arrested and charged with boating under the influence by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on May 24. Its unclear what led up to her arrest. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] She is currently on administrative leave, the department confirmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keith has been with the LaGrange Police Department since December 2018. According to jail records, she is no longer in the Troup County Detention Center. TRENDING STORIES: [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] German customs officers have been called in to help police cope with stricter checks on the borders aimed at turning back migrants attempting to enter the country irregularly, a Finance Ministry spokeswoman told dpa on Friday. The request was being evaluated, the spokeswoman said. Customs falls under the Finance Ministry. Hours after taking office on May 6, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt imposed stricter border checks, instructing that all asylum seekers should be turned back. The measures do not apply to pregnant women, children or other vulnerable people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The GdP police union said that these stricter controls could be maintained only for a few weeks, but Dobrindt rejected this. Germany's federal police force is responsible for the country's borders. The customs office has been supporting police along the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland since mid-October 2023. The arrangement was extended to all borders from mid-September. The customs spokeswoman added: "A further increase in support for the federal police from customs should not be allowed to jeopardize statutory duties in other areas of customs, for example, airports and seaports." Interior minister defends stricter border controls Dobrindt on Friday defended the stricter border controls on his first visit to Prague since taking office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Germany has a strong magnetic effect on illegal migration in the world," Dobrindt said, calling for this to be reduced and the numbers of migrants brought down. He acknowledged the greater burden on police, but said the checks were having an effect. Germany and the Czech Republic share a border of more than 800 kilometres. Both countries are members of the Schengen free travel area. Dobrindt said a pan-European solution was required, and said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition, which took office at the beginning of the month, would no longer hold back in Brussels when it came to taking joint measures against irregular migration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan called for a rapid return to Schengen rules on freedom of travel. The Prague government saw the current German measures as an "exceptional situation," he said. Rakusan said he had agreed with Dobrindt that the new checks would be re-evaluated after a month at the beginning of June. According to the Prague government, transit through the country is at a five-year low, with most rejections at the German border affecting Ukrainians with right of residence in the Czech Republic but not elsewhere in Europe. Migrants from countries like Syria were now the exception, he said. Many Czechs commute across the border for work in Germany. BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's new digital ministry said any levy on online platforms would have to be internationally coordinated and not result in higher prices for end consumers, in a sign on Friday of possible divisions within government over plans for such a tax. The Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer had said in an interview published on Thursday that officials were working on a levy which would hit platforms such as Alphabet's Google and Meta's Facebook. A levy of 10% would be reasonable, he said - without specifying if this were a tax on revenue or profit. Germany's ruling parties agreed earlier this year to consider the introduction of a digital services levy, but this was not on the list of projects the coalition wants to prioritise. Weimer's proposal had not yet been agreed upon by the government, officials had said. "The decisive factors in evaluating such a levy are that it is designed in a targeted manner, is internationally coordinated and compatible with EU law, that any potential revenue benefits Germany as a hub for innovation, and that ultimately no higher prices are passed on to end consumers," a spokesperson for the digital ministry said. The proposal comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to travel to Washington soon to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, although a trip has not yet been officially announced. Trump has in the past said he will not allow foreign governments to "appropriate America's tax base for their own benefit". Industry association Bitkom warned that the levy could lead to price increases that would impact businesses, public administrations, and consumers. "These price increases will hinder and slow down the urgently needed acceleration of the digitalization of public services and the digital transformation of companies," said Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst. "What we need is not more, but fewer financial burdens on digital goods and services." (Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Additional Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Sarah Marsh;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, on Friday praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a "beacon of freedom" during a conference held in Budapest. Addressing her audience in English, Weidel said: "The wind of change is blowing." Referring to a decision by Germany's domestic intelligence agency to classify her party, which took second place in the February elections, as extremist, Weidel said: "They spy on the opposition, to denounce the AfD as an enemy of the constitution, fabricating a pretext for outlawing our party." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weidel said to loud applause from the audience that moves to have the AfD banned by the German courts would not prevail. The intelligence agency has said it will refrain from classifying the AfD as "confirmed right-wing extremist" until a Cologne civil court has ruled on an urgent application from the party. The annual gathering in Budapest is linked to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the United States. Orban uses the event to promote networking between international right-wing organizations. A common thread is a favourable attitude towards Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This year the conference drew attendances from Herbert Kickl, head of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. US President Donald Trump sent greetings by video. The delivery of German arms to Israel will be evaluated and possibly restricted in the light of Israeli action in the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says in remarks to the Suddeutsche Zeitung daily published on Friday. Wadephul said that Israel had to be able to defend itself against attacks by for example the Houthis, Hezbollah or Iran - by means of German weapons systems as well. "A different issue is whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is consonant with humanitarian international law," he told the national daily. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are checking this, and based on this evaluation, we will approve further arms deliveries where necessary," Wadephul said. He indicated that this could lead to a partial halt to deliveries. Speaking to US broadcaster Fox News on Wednesday, Wadephul said that Germany stood with Israel and had responsibility for the security and existence of Israel in the light of German history. "We have delivered weapons, and we will do so in the future," he added. To the Suddeutsche Zeitung, he said that current aid deliveries to Gaza were a drop in the ocean. "This is about ensuring basic human rights. The sick and the weak and the children die first," Wadephul said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As a result, we have changed our language and will also probably change our political action in the next step," he added. There has been a shift in relations with Israel indicated recently by Wadephul and Chancellor Friedrich Merz. They believe Israel has not met its commitment to provide for the Palestinian population via the new Israeli-US distribution plan. By Alimat Aliyeva The UK could face a shortage of drinking water within the next decade if new reservoirs are not built, according to a stark warning from Emma Hardy, the newly appointed Minister for Water Resources, Azernews reports. Her comments follow a government announcement to accelerate the planning process for two major reservoir projects located in the Fens region one in Cambridgeshire and the other in Lincolnshire. In a significant policy shift, final decisions on these projects will now be made directly by Environment Secretary Steve Reed, bypassing local authorities. The government argues that this approach will cut through red tape and allow vital infrastructure to move forward more quickly. While the centralisation of decision-making may streamline the process, critics warn it could also sideline local communities and spark opposition. Even with expedited planning, it could still take more than a decade for the reservoirs to become fully operational. Emma Hardy emphasized that without these new water storage facilities, parts of England could face severe water shortages by the mid-2030s a scenario driven by a combination of climate change, rising temperatures, and a growing population. Experts say that building new reservoirs is only one piece of the puzzle. Scientists and environmental groups are calling for a comprehensive national water strategy, including stronger efforts to reduce domestic water consumption, fix leaking infrastructure, and promote sustainable water use across agriculture and industry. Currently, the average person in the UK uses around 140 litres of water per day. The Environment Agency has set a target to reduce this to 110 litres by 2050. Some water companies have already introduced smart meters and public awareness campaigns to help households cut usage. The Fens reservoir projects are part of a broader plan to secure the countrys long-term water future. Once completed, the two sites are expected to supply water to millions of homes and businesses in the East of England one of the driest and fastest-growing regions in the country. In the face of increasing drought risks and the unpredictability of extreme weather events, water security is rapidly becoming one of the UK's most pressing environmental challenges. Without decisive action, the country could find itself unprepared for a crisis that is already beginning to unfold. TOKYO - Japan's government said Friday that China has agreed to begin procedures to resume imports of Japanese seafood, lifting a ban imposed after the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. Chinese authorities are expected to issue a public notice easing the blanket ban in place since August 2023 and soon open registration for Japanese facilities that process and preserve marine products, sources familiar with the matter said. The two nations have agreed on "technical requirements for the resumption of seafood exports" to China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a meeting of related ministers, part of which was open to the media. Meanwhile, Japan will continue to seek the removal by China of remaining restrictions on food imports from 10 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima, which were imposed after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear disaster, Hayashi added. Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who assumed his post on May 21, told a press conference that the restart of seafood exports from 37 prefectures to China would be "a significant milestone." It may take a few months for shipments of Japanese seafood to China to begin, as the registration process must be completed and the products must pass radiation checks, the sources said. Japanese and Chinese officials held talks in Beijing on Wednesday to reach the agreement, which only covers businesses that were allowed to export products to China before Japan started discharging the wastewater in August 2023, according to the sources. In September last year, the two governments agreed to gradually resume seafood trade on the condition that third-party countries would monitor the water release from the nuclear plant. China had strongly opposed the discharge, citing potential risks to human health and the environment. Following the agreement, China collected marine samples near the Fukushima plant under the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency and did not find abnormal concentrations of radioactive substances. China's ban on Japanese seafood has been a major source of tension between the two Asian neighbors, who remain at odds over issues including territorial disputes and Beijing's military activities. Related coverage: China, Japan hold technical talks over seafood import ban China finds no abnormalities in samples taken near Fukushima plant Germanys Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul believes that his country is no longer in a state of clear peace with Russia due to ongoing hybrid attacks from Moscow. Source: Wadephul in an interview with German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, as reported by European Pravda Details: Wadephul noted that, given Russian acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, it is necessary to consider possible response measures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I would avoid using the term war, but we are no longer in a situation of clear peace. We must find new methods to deal with this," Wadephul said. He cited situations where drones fly over military facilities or when critical infrastructure is destroyed outside German territory. Quote: "Do we have the right to take action against this, do we have the right to defend ourselves? This needs to be settled. We must be able to defend ourselves fully." Background: Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that Russias behaviour in negotiations over the Russo-Ukrainian war indicates the Kremlin's desire to drag out time rather than to reach a real peace agreement. Merz also said that his country and its partners are determined to defend the entire territory of NATO. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Friday defended stricter border controls on his first visit to Prague since taking office. "Germany has a strong magnetic effect on illegal migration in the world," Dobrindt said, calling for this to be reduced and the numbers of migrants brought down. He acknowledged the greater burden on police, but said the checks were having an effect. Customs officers were being asked for support, in addition, and spot checks were being used at smaller border crossings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Germany and the Czech Republic share a border of more than 800 kilometres. Both countries are members of the Schengen free travel area. Dobrindt said a pan-European solution was required, and said Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition, which took office at the beginning of the month, would no longer hold back in Brussels when it came to taking joint measures against irregular migration. Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan called for a rapid return to Schengen rules on freedom of travel. The Prague government saw the current German measures as an "exceptional situation," he said. Rakusan said he had agreed with Dobrindt that the new checks would be re-evaluated after a month at the beginning of June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the Prague government, transit through the country is at a five-year low, with most rejections at the German border affecting Ukrainians with right of residence in the Czech Republic but not elsewhere in Europe. Migrants from countries like Syria were now the exception, he said. Many Czechs commute across the border for work in Germany. Hours after taking office on May 6, Dobrindt imposed stricter border controls, instructing that all asylum seekers should be turned back. The measures do not apply to pregnant women, children or other vulnerable people. The president of the German-Israeli Society in Berlin has strongly criticized the far-right members of Israel's government for comments he says amount to calls for "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza. "My job to defend Israel is becoming more and more difficult because there are voices in the Israeli government which are totally unacceptable," Beck said in an interview with the Israeli television channel Kan, which is to be aired on Friday. "If ministers are calling for starving the population in Gaza, or for 'sending them abroad,' which is nothing else than ethnic cleansing, this makes our task very difficult," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 64-year-old, a well-known supporter of Israel, was referring to recent statements by far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Smotrich recently said he wants Gaza "completely destroyed" and that residents should be concentrated in a "humanitarian zone" in the far south of the coastal territory. From there, he said, they should leave Gaza in large numbers for other countries. Ben-Gvir spoke out against the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after Israel's blockade. The Israeli government rejects the accusation of ethnic cleansing and maintains that the military operations in the Gaza Strip are aimed at destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. When asked by Kan what message he had for the two ministers, Beck said: "I would ask them to stop the racist talk to all Palestinians, and make it clear that Israel is fighting Hamas, and not Arabs." German Armed Forces Chief Inspector Carsten Breuer has justified the significantly increasing defence expenditure for Germany. The discussed spending amounting to 3.5% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is not unfounded, the highest-ranking soldier of the Bundeswehr told the news magazine Der Spiegel in remarks published on Friday. "It is clearly derived from a significant threat posed by Russia. We must arm ourselves against this danger, both as the Bundeswehr and as a NATO member," Breuer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be deterred by a percentage figure, Breuer further stated. It is about growing capabilities, reasonable equipment, "combat-ready units and soldiers" who could be alerted at any time. "To be able to achieve this, the target of well over 3% is very realistic," Breuer said. Combat readiness means for the armed forces that they are ready for deployment in terms of materiel and personnel, he explained. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently stated that the federal government agrees with the target presented by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to increase defence spending to 3.5% of GDP and to provide an additional 1.5% for militarily necessary infrastructure. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius mentioned a period of five to seven years in which the 3.5% could be achieved. "We must become the engine of deterrence in Europe," said Breuer. He defended his warning that Russia could be ready by 2029 to turn against NATO states as well. "We are examining this and, if necessary, we will authorize further arms deliveries based on this examination," Wadephul said. Germany will decide whether or not to approve new weapons shipments to Israel based on an assessment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung published on Friday. Wadephul questioned whether what is happening in Gaza is in line with international law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are examining this and, if necessary, we will authorize further arms deliveries based on this examination," he added. The comments build on a shifting tone from Berlin and mounting international criticism of Israel in recent days as the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza after an Israeli aid blockade and mounting civilian deaths test German support. Wadephul said it was important that Israel can defend itself given the threats it faces, including from Houthi terrorists, Hezbollah, and Iran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini seen over an AI image of the Iranian octopus (illustrative) (photo credit: GROK/X/ Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS) "For me, there is no question that we have a special responsibility to stand by Israel's side," he said, reiterating the principle of "Staatsraeson" which underpins German support for Israel in atonement for the Holocaust of World War Two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "On the other hand, of course, this does not mean that a government can do whatever it wants," he said. Accusations of genocide against Israel Three months into the war, South Africa filed a case to the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the accusations as outrageous. On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said airstrikes on Gaza were no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas. A German neo-Nazi has been detained and deported after giving the Hitler salute at a far-right march in Paris. The German man was taken into police custody for "glorifying crimes against humanity" and for "rioting" on the fringes of a far-right march in Paris on May 10, French broadcaster BFMTV reported on Friday, citing the police. Two days later, the Paris police prefect ordered the deportation of the German with the aim of "removing him very quickly." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wearing clothing "reminiscent of the Hitler Youth" and with "neo-Nazi insignia," the German was observed "raising his hand and striking his heels together in a Nazi salute," BFMTV quoted a decision by the Paris Administrative Court as saying. The court rejected an appeal by the man against his expulsion from France. His behaviour was "a serious incident that endangers democracy and, due to the hate messages and discriminatory statements, poses a threat to the maintenance of public order," the court found. The German was taken into custody and deported. He is not allowed to return to France for a period of two years. Germantown Police round up herd of horses MEMPHIS, Tenn. Germantown Police rounded up a small herd of horses roaming through a neighborhood Friday morning. Just before 6 a.m., officers responded to a report of three loose horses near Dogwood Road and Forest Hill Irene. Video posted by the Germantown Police Department shows the horses calmly walking through a residential area under police escort. (See video above) GPD posted around 11 a.m. that all three had been safely returned to their owners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fitting timing, as the Germantown Charity Horse Show trots into town next week, GPD 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 WREG.com. Ever since the end of the Second World War in 1945, a rehabilitated Germany has built close ties to the U.S. and committed to Western democratic values. The country has put its moneyor rather, its goldwhere its mouth is. That financial commitment to the U.S. is now being put to the test, as calls from within Germany grow louder to pull the countrys vast stock of gold reserves out of the Federal Reserve. Germany has the worlds second-highest stockpile of official gold reserves, at 3,352 tons. More than a third of that, around 1,200 tons, is stored in the Fed, equivalent to about $130 billion in value. Yet President Donald Trumps adversarial rhetoric against the country and its allies has prompted calls to check on those reserves, and, if possible, bring them home. German gold and the U.S. Following the Second World War, Germany had effectively depleted its gold reserves to fund its various conflicts. The blank slate on which the country built up its fresh batch of reserves mirrored the countrys new diplomatic strategy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Germany prioritized moving vast amounts of gold out of the country and far from the Soviet Union, fearing for its status during the Cold War. The countrys close ties with the U.S., which has historically held up the Western World order, made the Fed an obvious resting place for the commodity. In a whirlwind opening salvo to his presidency, though, Trump has rocked the established geopolitical order, slapping import tariffs on traditional allies like the European Union and threatening to take control of the territory of Greenland by force. Germany has also been prompted into a multibillion-dollar pledge to beef up its military, partly motivated by Trumps rhetoric on NATO and the war in Ukraine. Several voices across Germany now believe the U.S. is no longer a safe haven for its multibillion-dollar gold reserves. Speaking to German publication Bild last month, Christian Democratic Union politician Markus Ferber said: I demand regular checks of Germanys gold reserves. Official representatives of the Bundesbank must personally count the bars and document their results. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a follow up interview with Reuters, Ferber said: Trump is erratic and one cannot rule out that someday he will come up with creative ideas how to treat foreign gold reserves. The Bundesbanks policy for gold reserves has to reflect the new geopolitical realities. Ferbers latest comments came as the German Taxpayers Federation sent a letter to the Bundesbank asking for Germanys central bank, the Bundesbank, to repatriate the countrys gold. Trump wants to control the Fed, which would also mean controlling the German gold reserves in the U.S, the federations vice-president, Michael Jaeger, told Reuters. Its our money, it should be brought back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To date, the Bundesbank has been careful not to ruffle feathers in the U.S. with regard to the status of its gold reserves, publicly backing the Fed as a protector of its assets. Countries have been taking different approaches to how they think about the location of their gold since Trump. Indeed, many nations have decided to create closer ties between their assets and the country to avoid negative repercussions. In late January, the FT reported that waiting times to get gold out of the Bank of England had increased eightfold as countries rushed to get their reserves across to the U.S. to safeguard the commodity from potential tariffs. Germany itself holds about 13% of its gold reserves at the Bank of England. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Gerry Adams has been awarded 100,000 (84,000) in damages after winning a libel case against the BBC. The former Sinn Fein leader said that a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official and MI5 agent Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement. On Friday, a jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also found the BBCs actions were not in good faith and that it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way. Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent over 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 gave the final say. In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing. Mr Adams said the allegation was a grievous smear while the BBC has described the legal action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation. Putting manners on the BBC Speaking outside court, Mr Adams said: From my perspective, taking this case was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I know many, many journalists. I like to think that I get on well with the most of them, and I wish you well, and I would uphold your right to do your job. But the British Broadcasting Corporation upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view its out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement. It hasnt caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully, in the time ahead, unity. Mr Adams says: From my perspective, taking this case was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation - Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 from the BBC. However, the broadcaster had argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The jury determined that Mr Adams should be awarded 100,000, which the jury heard falls on the medium scale for defamation. Mr Justice Owens sent the jury out to begin deliberations at 10.25am on Thursday morning, in the fifth week of proceedings. The jury was tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC Spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Donaldson. Mr Justice Owens said they were to consider whether it was more likely than not that a hypothetical reasonable reader would take that meaning from the words. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The BBC had argued that the jury should not find that this was the meaning of the words, instead saying the claim had been put forward as an allegation that was immediately followed by Mr Adamss denial. Having agreed with Mr Adams on that point, the jurors then had to consider whether the BBCs actions were fair and reasonable as well as whether it acted in good faith. They determined that the broadcaster had not acted in such a manner. They returned with their verdict on Friday, after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations. Profound implications Mr Justice Owens told the jury that the BBC had put forward the position that Mr Adams had no reputation at all and the broadcaster had argued to the jury that it should award only nominal damages, putting forward the option of just one euro. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Adamss team had argued that the defamation fell within the very serious or exceptional end of the scale seeking at least 200,000. Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, expressed disappointment at the outcome. Speaking outside court, he said: The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBCs case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyones could, and they warned how todays decision would hinder freedom of expression. Mr Adams said the case could have been settled a long time ago, adding that it would be BBC licence payers who would pay for the action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Mr Smyth said outside court that in common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims. Palestinian keffiyeh Mr Adams wore a black-and-white checked Palestinian keffiyeh under his suit. It bore a resemblance to the keffiyeh he was gifted by Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas leader, during a visit to Gaza in 2009 when he was the president of Sinn Fein. The traditional scarf from Palestine, often used as a headdress, has become a commonly used symbol of pro-Palestinian support throughout the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and is frequently worn by demonstrators worldwide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On his lapel, Mr Adams wore a poppy badge carrying the words Free Palestine and a silver ring, known as a fainne, which signals competence in oral Irish. His red tie was covered with writing and symbols from the old Irish alphabet, a language not spoken since c. 900. 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. By Julie Steenhuysen and Deena Beasley (Reuters) -Gilead Sciences says it still plans to supply its twice-yearly injection for preventing HIV infection in low-income countries if it wins U.S. approval despite funding uncertainty over the Trump Administrations pullback in aid spending. Some AIDS experts, including activists and doctors, say the Gilead drug, lenacapavir, could help end the 44-year-old epidemic that infects 1.3 million people a year and is estimated by the World Health Organization to have killed more than 42 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An FDA approval decision is expected by June 19 for lenacapavir, which proved to be nearly 100% effective at preventing HIV in large trials. If the Food and Drug Administration green lights the drug, and its view is seconded by the WHO, the shots could start to roll out early in 2026 to at least 2 million people in 18 low-income countries based on Gilead's agreement with the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund, a worldwide partnership targeting HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. Gilead agreed to provide lenacapavir at cost for two-to-three years while six generic drugmakers, which were granted licenses to make the medicine for low-income countries, ramp up production. Experts said a successful launch of a long-acting HIV prevention drug could help stall the epidemic. Until recently, the only pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) options for people at high risk of infection were daily pills, requiring careful adherence to be effective. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You can foresee a day where there are no new HIV diagnoses. It doesn't happen if we only do this in the U.S.," Gilead Chief Commercial Officer Johanna Mercier said. "We need to make sure we have a global approach to this launch." PEPFAR being part of the effort is Gilead's intent and goal, Mercier said. "Unfortunately, if they're not part of that mix, our goal is still to meet that objective of 2 million people getting access." Wall Street has a close eye on lenacapavir, one of the highest-profile drugs to undergo FDA review since President Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and promised to upend the status quo. Most of the drug's profits are expected in the U.S., with annual sales reaching $1 billion by next year, according to analysts' estimates compiled by LSEG. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 'INCREDIBLE DISMAY' Whether all of the agreed funding for low-income countries - most of which are in Africa - will come through is unclear. Countries that rely on aid are already reeling from funding cuts by the Trump Administration, including to PEPFAR, and AIDS researchers are bracing for the worst. The United Nations program on HIV/AIDS earlier this month said many HIV prevention programs supported by PEPFAR were stalled, although services for pregnant and breastfeeding women were technically exempt from the cuts. Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, told Reuters the group intends to fund as much of the lenacapavir rollout as possible, but it will need to start slowly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Its not just the uncertainty over PEPFARs funding thats an issue, but the uncertainty over our funding," Sands said, adding that the group's first priority is treating people already infected with the deadly virus. Much will depend on the success of the Global Fund's effort to raise $18 billion to fund its work from 2027-2029. The U.S. is its largest donor, committing $6 billion in the previous funding round. It is unclear what the U.S. may provide this round, or whether other big governments will step up. UNAIDS estimates that the permanent discontinuation of HIV prevention and treatment programs supported by PEPFAR would lead to an additional 6.6 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2029. The U.S. State Department, which oversees PEPFAR, did not respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gilead declined to comment on its manufacturing cost for lenacapavir, whose U.S. price is likely to be on par with current preventive medications at around $25,000 per year. ViiV Healthcare's Apretude, an injection given every two months, costs about 124.20 pounds ($168) in low- and middle-income countries. Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS nonprofit AVAC, estimates the eventual annual cost at $100-$120. The lower the price, the more people who could receive it, he said. Warren said PEPFAR could still participate, and others may come forward. The Gates Foundation and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation are "actively involved in all of these conversations," he said, as is the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Linda-Gail Bekker of the University of Cape Town, who led lenacapavir clinical trials in South Africa and Uganda, said she was elated when she first saw the findings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The huge feeling I have now is one of incredible dismay," said Bekker of uncertainty over the Trump administration's commitment to PEPFAR and HIV prevention in poor nations. "It felt like the stars were aligning, and one of the stars has fallen out of the sky." (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London; editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot) The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- China agrees to begin steps to resume Japanese seafood imports: Tokyo TOKYO - Japan's government said Friday that China has agreed to begin procedures to resume imports of Japanese seafood, lifting a ban imposed after the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. Chinese authorities are expected to issue a public notice easing the blanket ban in place since August 2023 and soon open registration for Japanese facilities that process and preserve marine products, sources familiar with the matter said. ---------- Japan PM says mutual understanding "deepened" with Trump over tariffs TOKYO - Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Thursday he and U.S. President Donald Trump deepened their understanding of each other's positions on tariffs and agreed that their ministers should accelerate ongoing negotiations in greater detail. Ishiba made the comment after a roughly 25-minute phone call with Trump ahead of the next round of bilateral tariff negotiations at the ministerial level. ---------- U.S. appeals court says Trump's hefty tariffs can continue for now WASHINGTON - A U.S. federal appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump's administration to continue with its most sweeping tariffs for the time being. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington granted the administration's request to temporarily suspend a lower court ruling a day before that invalidated its so-called reciprocal tariffs along with some other levies. ---------- Japan's April jobless rate remains unchanged at 2.5% TOKYO - Japan's unemployment rate in April remained unchanged from the previous month at 2.5 percent, government data showed Friday. The job availability ratio was also unchanged from March at 1.26 in the reporting month, meaning there were 126 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, according to separate data. ---------- Ex-Japan PM Abe's widow Akie meets Putin, welcomed with large bouquet TOKYO - Akie Abe, widow of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, his presidential office said, with a photo showing him welcoming her with a large bouquet of flowers. Putin, who held in-person talks 27 times with Shinzo Abe during his tenure as prime minister until 2020, was quoted by the office as saying, "We remember his contribution to the development of Russian-Japanese cooperation." ---------- Japan, U.S. eye "2-plus-2" security talks in Washington TOKYO - Japan and the United States are considering holding "two-plus-two" ministerial security talks in Washington this summer, Japanese government sources said Thursday, as the allies face ongoing security challenges from China and North Korea. The meeting involving foreign and defense ministers from the two countries will be the first for the governments of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump. The two leaders took office in October last year and January, respectively. ---------- Sony's financial arm aims to launch overseas businesses after listing TOKYO - The top executive of the financial unit of Sony Group Corp. said Thursday that it aims to launch overseas operations after it is spun off from the parent company and listed on the Tokyo stock market later this year. Toshihide Endo, CEO of Sony Financial Group Inc., said the company will focus on "honing our business model at home "through March 2027, adding that expanding its business abroad is "on the menu as an excellent strategy for the mid-term." ---------- Group held in Cambodia for alleged fraud involves some 20 Japanese TOKYO - Japanese police said Thursday that at least 20 Japanese were among roughly 30 people believed to be involved in scams and detained by local authorities in northwestern Cambodia. The group's detention in Poipet, mostly comprising people in their 20s, comes amid a rise in cases of Japanese nationals committing fraud and scams while hiding in Southeast Asia. Video: Japan Business Federation appoints new chief WOOD COUNTY, Texas (KETK) An East Texas man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting his adopted children. In 2018, the Wood County Sheriffs Office began investigating Kevin Ray Larsson after one of his adopted children reported he had been sexually abusing them. According to officials, the child reported that Larsson had improper relations with her when she was 5-years-old. Dead men cant testify: East Texas Justice of the Peace indicted on witness tampering, official oppression Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the investigation continued into 2023, at least six of Larssons adopted children claimed that he had sexually assaulted them, according to a press release from the Wood County District Attorneys Office. Larsson later admitted to having inappropriate sexual conduct with one of the children. On Thursday, Larsson pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, indecency with a child and indecency with a child sexual contact committed against his adopted children, the press release stated. Following his guilty plea Larsson was sentenced to 30 years in state prison and ordered to pay $2,800 in fines. A lifetime protective order was also granted for all of Larssons nine adopted children, he is prohibited from having any contact with them and hell have to register as a sex offender, according to the press release. Two bills that could raise homestead tax exemptions head to the governors desk Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wood County Criminal District Attorney Angela Albers spoke about the tragedy of the case and the lasting impact it will have on the victims. This case is a horrible tragedy for these children. They were adopted by this man and he was supposed to care for, provide for, and nurture theminstead, he turned into a monster and committed heinous actions against them that they are still suffering the effects of to this day. My office had numerous conversations with the victims and the victims mother and discussed the probability of the children being retraumatized by the effects of having to testify against the Defendant in a jury trial. After those discussions, the victims agreed to the terms of this plea bargain and made it clear they wanted to put this monster behind them and move on with their lives. This defendant committed vile acts against young children, and he is going to spend the next few decades of his life behind bars for it. I hope that this allows the victims to move forward with their lives and heal from this tragedy. As they told the defendant in court, they are not his victimsthey are survivors. My office will continue to protect children just like them in Wood County and hold the people that harm them accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Angela Albers 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. For many European gays, the festive Eurovision Song Contest each May marks the unofficial kickoff to the global Pride season. As usual, there were soaring highlights and scandalous lowlights among the competing Eurovision nations at the 2025 edition of the contest in Basel, Switzerland, this month. But another country was on the lips of many queer jet-setters this year: the United States, with its spate of new anti-trans and anti-immigrant policies that are causing some LGBTQ travelers to reconsider their upcoming American itineraries. Several European countries, including Denmark, Finland and Germany, have issued official cautions for LGBTQ travelers visiting the U.S., particularly those with an X gender listed on their passport. Meanwhile, out of concerns for participant safety, Canadas leading LGBTQ rights group, Egale Canada, pulled out of participation in WorldPride DC, and the African Human Rights Coalition has called for a boycott of this edition of the international Pride event, coordinated by InterPride and usually held every two years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It doesnt feel right to at the moment, Karl Krause told NBC News at Eurovision in Basel, referring to travel to the U.S. Krause, who is German by birth, lives in Amsterdam with his Dutch partner, Daan Colijn, and together they are travel-focused content creators known to their followers as Couple of Men. In 2021, Lonely Planet awarded them its first Best in Travel LGBTIQ Storyteller Award, a nod to their work for the LGBTQ community. Daan Colijn and Karl Krause during Fort Lauderdale Pride in 2023. (Couple of Men) As gay men traveling to the U.S., we are probably still the more privileged part of the community, Krause said. But we had some interesting conversations recently in Bilbao with a trans person who was like, I cannot, I literally cannot travel to the U.S., because I have no idea how they would receive my diverse passport, if I would be put in detention or whatever. I have my little daughter Im not going to risk any of this. Krause said that was the moment he realized that while he and Colijn as gay men may not yet be feeling the full effects of the Trump administrations policies, they were already having an impact on other travelers within the LGBTQ community. So how can we in good feeling promote this destination? he asked. How can I send a trans friend or nonbinary friend and try to inspire them to go to the U.S. when they are in whats supposed to be the best time of their year, to spend in a country where they dont feel safe? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colijn added that he and Krause want to send their followers somewhere where they are safe, where they feel welcome. At the moment, of course a lot of people will still feel very, very welcome in the majority of America a lot of places are still the same, or maybe even trying to do better. But we just want to be careful in what we are supporting, Colijn said. John Tanzella, president and CEO of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association, or IGLTA, told NBC News that such concerns are commonplace this year. Weve heard from travelers feeling uncertain about visiting the U.S., especially trans and gender-diverse individuals, he said. These decisions are often driven by concerns about safety, treatment at the border and access to affirming health care. Some have canceled their trips. Many others are still coming, but theyre being more selective about where they go. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nicolo Manfredini, an Italian trans man living in Valencia, Spain, said he was recently able to enter the U.S. without incident thanks to having an M marker on his passport, but the governments anti-trans policies currently make America a place he would rather not visit again. Originally I had planned to go to WorldPride, but not now, he said. Given the current environment in the U.S., Manfredini added, he said he would only travel to the U.S. if he had to do so for work. Even American gender-diverse people are adjusting their travel plans because of Trump administration policies, according to a study released earlier this month by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Of the more than 300 transgender, nonbinary and other gender-diverse people surveyed, 70% said they are less likely to go on vacation to U.S. states they view as less trans-affirming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Krause said that despite usually attending at least one and sometimes several U.S. Pride events every year, this year will be different. We were actually planning to go to Washington, D.C., for WorldPride, but this is off the table for us How safe can we be in Washington? Just saying that scares me a little bit, he said, noting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was particularly concerning. I dont know what is going on there now and who is coming, and I dont feel safe with the idea that Im going there and Im walking and maybe there is a mob [coming] from whatever direction. Capital Pride Alliance, the organizers behind WorldPride DC, which started earlier this month and continues through June 8, did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News, but the events website details security protocols and includes a passport advisory for transgender and nonbinary travelers. Sahand Miraminy, director of operations for Capital Pride Alliance, told The Washington Post this week that security measures at WorldPride DC will include weapons screening at the entrance to the street festival June 7 and 8, which will also be fenced in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to the local and federal "agency support that we have, we also hire private security and have many forms of safety measures and surveillance that we may not share at all times with the public, he said, but there are certainly conversations that were having with those agencies on a weekly basis. Organizers at NYC Pride, arguably the most globally popular of U.S. Pride events each year and held like most big cities during Pride Month in June, are also stepping up security plans for 2025. NYC Pride has contracted a private firm with vast experience managing LGBTQIA+ events to lead on-site security, spokesperson Kevin Kilbride said. Given the size and visibility of our events, NYC Pride is monitored and secured by municipal agencies at every level of government to protect our freedom of expression and ensure a safe space for our community. A reveler looking out a window during the 2023 Pride Parade in in New York City. (David Dee Delgado / Reuters file) Tanzella said that since safety is unfortunately never guaranteed for the LGBTQ community, careful planning is more essential than ever for LGBTQ travelers coming to the U.S. this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Research destinations with strong reputations for inclusion and visible LGBTQ+ support, he advised. Connect with local LGBTQ+ organizations for on-the-ground insights, stay informed about local laws and current events, and have a plan for accessing affirming health care if needed. Most importantly, prioritize places where you feel respected and supported. Cities and states with long-standing reputations for LGBTQ inclusivity are getting more attention, Tanzella added. In this climate, a destinations visible commitment to inclusion through its policies, community engagement, and public support truly matters, he said. In October, the IGLTA will host its annual global convention in Palm Springs, California, a destination Colijn said he and Krause can and will enthusiastically visit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were there just last year, and we felt how amazing and welcome and how much old queer culture is there, he said. So of course we want to go there, and we can fully tell people to go there. Unless of course we might get in trouble at the border. Krause, however, noted that he and Colijn still havent booked their Palm Springs trip just yet, because they fear that under the Trump administration everything can change overnight. There is no long-term planning, he said. Kilbride said he understands the need global queer travelers feel to exhibit caution this year, but he said he believes Pride remains one of the most powerful tools in the collective struggle for equality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We stand with the international LGBTIA+ community, particularly our trans and nonbinary siblings, he said. But we also believe the fight for our community is more important now than ever. We need to show up big to make it clear: Were here, were queer, and were not going anywhere. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com How strange and chilling it is that my introduction last week of the issue of unconditional forgiveness this week has a tragic echo in the news of the brutal murder of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, who were attending an American Jewish Committee event on Middle East cooperation. I brought up the issue of unconditional forgiveness as a remembrance and tribute to Father Tom who believed deeply in it as a foundational belief of Christianity. I would push back at him with the contrary Jewish belief that only repentant sinners need to be forgiven. Now we have a bloody and agonizing test case for what had been just an abstract and theoretical topic. Now we have the issue before our souls. Do we have a spiritual obligation to forgive that clearly unrepentant murderer who was dragged away screaming his hateful antisemitic slogans? Not only can I not forgive him, I want his soul to rot in hell, and this has nothing to do with the fact that I am a rabbi and he killed Jews. I felt the same thing after the 2015 murder of nine Christians at a church Bible study group at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C. and yet the families of those victims found it in their hearts to forgive that predator. Tommy admired them. I was bewildered by them. What does it mean, I must ask, to forgive someone who was happy to murder? Doesnt it mean on some level that you are forgiving not just the murderer but also the murder? How can one forgive the killer without also forgiving the killing? I just cannot fathom what it means to forgive someone who luxuriates in their sin. That is where I am at. That is what my faith teaches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However Interfaith dialogue of the type that forged my friendship with Father Tom requires that you remain open to the possibility that you are wrong or at the very least open to the possibility that viewing things from another perspective might bring you a wisdom that has eluded you in your inherited teachings and could nourish you in your future spiritual growth. So I can say that I am open to at least considering what it would mean to transform vengeance into love? I am open to the argument that unconditional forgiveness deprives the sinner of exactly what he or she wants most and that is to crush your spirit and poison your soul? Seen in that way, forgiveness becomes the best revenge. The forgiveness allows you to swim in the waves of the world without also trying to hold onto a heavy rock of anger, hatred and vengeance that will surely pull you down under the waves unless and until you just let it go. Where do you stand, my dear readers, on this bloody dilemma? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like so many of you, a reader named J wrote to me with her eloquent beliefs about unconditional forgiveness: Dear Rabbi Marc, with regard to your piece On unconditional forgiveness, I shall quote a saying thats on my refrigerator door. Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could be any different. Im on the side of the repentant with a look toward the future where perhaps one would sin no more. As imperfect human beings, that probably wont happen but my prayers are always full of hope! Well said. God bless you, dear J. As for me and as for now, I am willing to consider the possibility that such unconditional forgiveness might be an aspirational value. That is, it might be a belief you could hope to embrace someday, even if you are unable to embrace it now. That is as close as I can get to Tommys saintly love. However, now I am furious and frightened at the rise of antisemitism in our world, our universities and our culture. I am consumed by trying to figure out how our country can find a balance between free speech that must be protected and hate speech that must be contained and confronted. Wiser minds than mine must put an end to this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I want to be able to enter a classroom or a synagogue or a meeting hall without having to first encounter an armed guard. I want to be able to write back to the college kids from my synagogue who wrote to me during some campus demonstrations, Rabbi Gellman, should I wear my Jewish star necklace in public? I want to write back to them, despite my fears for their safety, YES. Wear your Star of David and wear it with pride! While we debate forgiveness let us find a way to live together in peace. Republican Sen. Joni Ernst faced a number of agitated constituents at a town hall on Friday who expressed concerns that the Republicans' cuts to Medicaid under their major legislative effort to advance President Donald Trump's agenda would cause people to die. Her response: "Well, we all are going to die." Audience members at the Butler County, Iowa, event raised concerns that proposed cuts to Medicaid under the Trump's "big, beautiful bill" being mulled in the Senate could threaten the lives of individuals who lose access to health care or food benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As Ernst explained her position on removing those who should not qualify for Medicaid under the current law from eligibility, an audience member could be heard shouting back at her, "People are going to die." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: GOP senator says resistance to Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' could stop it in the Senate Ernst quipped back, "Well, we all are going to die," she said. Ernst pushed back as the audience reacted, explaining her position. PHOTO: Senator Joni Ernst speaks during The Hill & Valley Forum 2025 at The Capitol Visitor Center, April 30, 2025. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images ) "Well, what you don't want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those who are most vulnerable. Those who meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid we will protect. We will protect them," Ernst continued. "Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa. If you don't want to listen, that is fine, but what I am doing is going through and telling you that those that are not eligible, those that are working and have the opportunity for benefits elsewhere, then they should receive those benefits elsewhere and leave those dollars for those that are eligible for Medicaid." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Medicaid benefits have become a key focus of negotiations on a massive spending package that Republicans, under the direction of Trump, are working to move through Congress. House Republicans passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" last week. The House version of the bill implements Medicaid reforms and changes to other programs while extending the Trump 2017 tax cuts and plussing up spending in areas such as border security and defense spending. It will also add about $3.8 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). MORE: Crowds boo House Republicans at town halls over Trump's 'big, beatiful bill' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans stress that their version of the bill aims to create savings in Medicaid by targeting "waste, fraud and abuse," in the system. Speaker Mike Johnson has said the proposal includes going after those who are "defrauding the system." The Medicaid provisions proposed by Republicans have not yet been scored by the CBO, though a score is expected next week. The Senate has promised modifications to the bill, a fact that Ernst pointed to repeatedly during her town hall. Still, in her home state, concerns about Medicaid ruled the discussion. Concerns over the bill have led to raucous town halls recently, with crowds booing Republican Reps. Mike Flood and Ashley Hinson at town hall events earlier this week. On Friday, Ernst addressed a constituent who identified as a health care worker about her concerns that the bill would affect health care in Iowa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We know the House has their provisions for Medicaid, and I actually agree with most of their provisions. Everyone says that Medicaid is being cut, people are going to see their benefits cut, that is not true," Ernst said -- eliciting boos from the crowd. As she continued to explain that she believes the bill will strengthen Medicaid by removing those who have options for other forms of health care off of the program, audience members could be heard shouting "Tax the 1 percenters; they don't pay for it." PHOTO: Sen. Joni Ernst speaks during a hearing with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Capitol Hill, May 20, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Ernst's assertion that the bill would not cut Medicaid was met by blowback from a constituent. One such constituent said that while many people on Medicaid have jobs, they do not earn a living wage. The audience cheered as she spoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "That is why they are on Medicaid and that is why they deserve Medicaid and the fact that you want to take that money and route it to people that make billions of dollars who have more money than anybody in this room together," the constituent named Jen said. Ernst said children will continue to get the coverage they need. "Well I would say, Jen, we are not going to cut those benefits for those children," Ernst said as the audience audibly grumbled. "What we are doing is making sure that those that are not Medicaid eligible are not receiving benefits." Ernst, who is a member of the Senate DOGE caucus, also gave a defense of the work that the Department of Government Efficiency has done and continues to do. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What we are seeing in federal government is the right sizing of the federal governments and allowing the states to take up the role that our forefathers intended," she said. In response to this, a member of the audience shouted "chaos" at Ernst. "It may be chaos to you, but we do have to get back to a semblance of what our country was founded for," Ernst said. "We are $36 trillion in debt. Both sides have contributed to this. But when does it end. When does it end?" 'We all are going to die': Republican Sen. Ernst defends Medicaid cuts at town hall originally appeared on abcnews.go.com SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) The Utah section of the American Society of Civil Engineers released its 2025 Report Card for Utahs Infrastructure on Thursday, with grades released for 12 different categories that were measured. A spokesperson with the Utah Department of Transportation shared his thoughts on the report card. Overall, Utah earned a C+ grade, one of three states to receive this grade, along with Georgia and Wisconsin. The grade is also the highest the ASCE has given to any state and is just above the national average of C in the Report Card for Americas Infrastructure, which was released in March. Police ramp up education for 100 Deadliest Days Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The states aviation infrastructure was the only category to see a grade increase, while three categories saw decreases: bridges, stormwater and transit. All other categories remained the same from 2020. Here are the grades for each category measured: B+ Roads B Bridges B- Drinking Water, Solid Waste, Transit C+ Aviation, Dams, Hazardous Waste C Stormwater, Wastewater D+ Canals D- Levees Craig Friant, Chair of the Report Card, said that state leaders have taken steps to ensure the reliability of infrastructure systems as more people move to the state, but he added that will also create problems with water supply. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A growing population and more frequent droughts also mean our water supply faces ongoing threats, Friant said in the report. While Utahns have drastically reduced their water usage, there are ongoing challenges, and leaders need to be proactive with their solutions. The report cited that the investment in infrastructure from Utah leaders helped the state earn high grades for roads and bridges. It also cited state lawmakers approval of $14 billion in funding for transportation in 2023, spread over six years, as another factor in the grade increase for roads. John Gleason, the public relations director with UDOT, shared his thoughts on the grades for roads and bridges, most of which are managed by the department. We put a lot of focus into maintaining our roads, keeping them in good shape. We have a saying that good roads cost less, and what that means is if we can do these maintenance projects and keep them in shape then that staves off the big capacity projects, Gleason told ABC4. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UDOTs bridge management program is very robust, Gleason shared. He said that UDOT has a great understanding of the life cycle of bridges and what maintenance needs to be done to make them last. He said that funding for these projects is what helped roads and bridges receive these higher grades. Weve had a lot of big capacity projects in the last few decades, you know, it was a different story before the Winter Olympics 2002, but over the years weve had a major commitment by our state leaders, Gleason stated. They understand the importance of a good transportation system and what that means for the economy. Gleason said that UDOT has been innovating with its construction of bridges. He stressed that this innovation helps them be wise with the taxpayer money that goes into these projects. Weve been leaders in the way that we build bridges and the way that we maintain bridges for a long time, he said. We dont say this is the way its always been done in the past, we always look for new innovative ways that are going to save time and money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Double-tracking the frontrunner is a big project for UDOT, Gleason shared. He said that they have committed not only to moving vehicles, but moving people. UDOT is also working on improvements to walking and biking trails as well as connections to transit. It really speaks to the quality of life that we have here in Utah Gleason said. We want to make sure that we can maintain that and even make things better here in the future. The full report is available here. Latest Headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) With Kansas in the middle of severe weather season, there has been a lot of concern over staffing cuts at the National Weather Service. Friday morning, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran said he has reassured the Goodland NWS office that it can hire more people. The Goodland NWS office is short-staffed and has been unable to fill vacant positions due to the hiring freeze, resulting in the office being closed overnight, he said on social media. I spoke with NWS Director Ken Graham about the impact of these vacancies, and next month he plans to implement a temporary, rotating staff to keep the office open 24/7. Earlier this year, the Trump administration mandated cuts and a hiring freeze that affected more than 1,000 jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lawmakers in Washington said the layoffs included NWS meteorologists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National Weather Service staffing impacts Kansas KSNs Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman has noticed how the cuts have affected the Goodland office. The last couple of weeks, due to the staff shortage, they have not been updating certain products like they did, which is the result of the office being closed overnight, she said. Despite the staff cuts, Teachman said the Goodland NWS did an incredible job on the tornado warnings the day of the Grinnell and Plevna tornadoes. Damage from the Grinnell damage the day after it struck on May 19, 2025 (Courtesy: Kansas Highway Patrol) Goodland, Dodge City and Wichita all did fabulous jobs of issuing timely and accurate warnings, even with all the staffing issues as seen here in Goodland, Teachman said. We had no deaths and very few injuries. Considering the number of tornadoes and of EF-3 intensities that day, this was a job well done for Kansans under the Weather enterprise, as I call it, including government, media, emergency management, and other safety support entities. This is a partnership built and grown together over decades. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moran said the Goodland office can begin hiring meteorologists and weather forecasters. Rainfall amounts across Kansas While it will take time to re-open these job applications and hire the needed staff, this is a positive step in returning the Goodland NWS Office to 24/7 weather forecasting, he said. Hundreds of people have responded to Morans Facebook post. Many applaud the announcement, but others say that the cuts should never have happened and that all of NOAAs staff and funding should be fully restored. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) Google is teaming up with Arable to help replenish groundwater in key river basins across the Carolinas. The goal is to help the tech company replenish more water than it uses by 2030. Locally, the project will support the Edisto-Santee River Basin, aiming to help farmers make informed irrigation decisions using Arables crop intelligence platform. Google will fund the use of Arables technology on 20,000 acres in South and North Carolina, which could help save more than 500 million gallons of water annually over eight years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The companies say this initiative is expected to have a significant and positive impact on groundwater in some of the most at-risk river basins and aquifers between the two states. Supporting responsible and sustainable water use in agriculture is essential for the long-term health of ecosystems and communities, said Suzie Shin, Data Center Sustainability Programs Manager at Google. With data center campuses in both North Carolina and South Carolina, were proud to build on our work with Arable to bring this solution to a region we have called home for nearly 20 years. You can visit arable.com 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 WCBD News 2. On the final day of the most consequential tech antitrust trial in decades, a question from the bench may have gotten to the core of Googles (GOOGL) defense: Could artificial intelligence already be doing what regulators hope to accomplish through the courts? U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who will soon decide whether Google should face structural penalties for allegedly monopolizing online search, asked Department of Justice attorneys Friday whether AI tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity represent a new form of search or something else entirely. If AI is a new kind of search, that could be an entirely new kind of competition that weakens Googles dominance without judicial intervention. Mehtas broader question captured that uncertainty: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do you think someone is going to come off the sidelines and build a new general search engine in light of what we are seeing? he asked, according to Reuters. The exchange hints at how Mehta may be approaching the case. While the DOJ has focused on Googles multibillion-dollar default search deals particularly with Apple (AAPL) the judge appears to be looking at whether the concept of a search market still applies in an AI-driven world. David Dahlquist, a DOJ attorney, told Mehta that search is far from obsolete. He said the governments proposed remedies aim to stop Google from leveraging its dominance to stifle AI-based rivals before they get a foothold. Prosecutors maintain that Googles position stems from entrenched defaults, not superior products and that AI tools still rely on Google infrastructure and arent full substitutes for traditional search. Any uncertainty could benefit Google. The very technology threatening its business model AI may now bolster its legal defense. In this penalty phase of the trial, Google has argued that regulators proposed remedies are overreaching, disproportionate, and unnecessary, partly because the market is already shifting under its feet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Mehta finds that AI platforms are emerging as viable alternatives to traditional search, he could conclude that competition is arriving on its own no court order required. That would undercut the governments core claim: that without intervention, Googles grip on the market is too entrenched for any rival to compete. But Mehtas question also points to a broader consideration: whether the market Google has allegedly monopolized still exists in the same form today,and whether remedies designed for that era still make sense in 2025. More pointedly: Is the market Google allegedly controls already being redefined by forces beyond the courts reach? That legal ambiguity may be central to the final outcome. If generative AI counts as search, the court may see Google as already under pressure from entrants. If it doesnt, the governments argument that search remains a closed market dominated by one firm gains strength. Mehtas decision is expected in August. If he rules in favor of the government, Google has indicated plans to appeal. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Republican lawmakers are breathing a sigh of relief that the courts are putting the brakes on President Trumps trade war, which has pummeled markets, created economic uncertainty and taken a bite out of Trumps approval ratings. Its unclear who will win the final legal battle, which could end up in the Supreme Court. But Republicans for now are mostly hoping Trump takes a political win in the form of judicial decisions that could hold back his trade war or even put the tariffs on ice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im sure that Republican senators are secretly rooting for the Supreme Court to uphold the lower-court decision, said Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide. He said GOP lawmakers are quietly applauding the decision by two courts Wednesday and Thursday to halt Trumps tariffs, because it saves them from having to deal with the tariff issue, which has proven to be unpopular. Theyre very happy about the decision, as long it takes it off the table for a long period of time and doesnt commence another round of tariffs by different means, he said. In a way, these courts were taking actions most Republicans couldnt, given the potential political costs of GOP senators taking Trump head-on over trade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clearly, tariffs is an important issue for President Trump personally. Its something hes talked about and hes been pushing for a long, long time, Darling said. Most Republican senators have no reason to go and talk about a tariff decision that blocks tariffs, because they know its not going to go over well on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. One Republican who has been vocal in his criticism of the Trump tariffs is Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.). He applauded the courts ruling, arguing the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, exclusive authority to tax imports. I have said time and time again that the Founders wanted to prevent one person from having unilateral control and decision-making powers. Thats why the power of the purse and the ability to tax lie with Congress, not the president, Paul posted on the social platform X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two decisions that went against Trump took place Wednesday night, when the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the president had exceeded his authority to impose tariffs, and Thursday, when a second federal court issued a separate ruling on similar grounds. Both decisions said he could not cite emergency economic powers to impose his tariffs. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit later Thursday lifted the first ruling blocking Trumps tariffs. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decisions to the Supreme Court, which could weigh in as soon as Friday. GOP lawmakers have said for months they want to give Trump room to strike deals with foreign trading partners, but with June only a few days away, the president has yet to show significant progress in his trade talks, other than a deal with the United Kingdom that did little to calm the financial markets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three judges on the trade court who issued the summary judgment found that Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to impose tariffs, blocking the reciprocal tariffs he imposed on almost every country in the world before later lowering them to 10 percent for a period of 90 days. The trade court also blocked the tariffs Trump levied separately against Canada, Mexico and China in response to what the president identified as threats posed by drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Senate Republicans who had criticized or expressed skepticism about Trumps tariff policies stayed mostly quiet Thursday in response to the court ruling, but GOP strategists say they are breathing a sigh of relief. A senior Senate Republican aide warned that Trump was risking his reputation on the economy by wielding tariffs as a weapon against trading partners, a tactic that has started to depress corporate earnings projections for the rest of 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Target, one of the nations biggest retailers, last week cut its sales outlook for the rest of the year, citing weaker discretionary spending and consumer uncertainty because of tariffs. HP, the information technology company, cut its annual profit forecast Wednesday because of tariff-related costs. Its shares plunged 14 percent before gaining back some ground later in the day. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has long expressed skepticism of using tariffs to build up the domestic economy. But he has muted his personal views on tariffs since becoming Senate GOP leader in January, telling reporters since then: I think everybody knows my views on tariffs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, he noted Trump won a decisive victory in the 2024 presidential campaign after running on a promise to use tariffs to negotiate better deals for the United States. Thune asked constituents at a public meeting last month to give Trump time to strike trade deals, urging patience to see what kind of deals he can strike. Thunes home-state colleague, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), has warned that tariffs are pinching farmers in South Dakota. Rounds told The Hill in March that while many farmers in South Dakota are really strong Trump supporters, they wanted him to communicate to the president what tariffs are going to do to their businesses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) last month called tariffs a tax on American consumers. I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity. I dont think that would be good economic policy. I am not a fan of tariffs, he told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who faces a tough reelection race next year, said Trump and his top advisers need to show progress on trade deals before the end of June to create more certainty for businesses, warning that otherwise, Republicans could face political headwinds in the election year. At the end of the day, the voters are largely driven by the question, Are you better off than you were fill-in-the-blank years ago? And clearly, if we have this kind of froth next year, then its a real challenge for Republicans, Tillis said last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The North Carolina senator, however, has to tread carefully on the issue as he faces a potential primary challenge next year. Tillis on Thursday pushed back against media reports about the TACO trade on Wall Street, in which speculators buy the dip in prices after Trump announces a new round of tariffs on the premise that Trump always chickens out and will soon ease them. The media is citing unnamed Wall Street hacks to attack President Trump, he posted on social media. Theyve clearly never run a business or learned why adaptability is the key to success. Complex negotiations are not a straight line. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday was a rare GOP lawmaker who defended Trumps authority to levy tariffs in the wake of the trade courts ruling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think its pretty clear that the president has tariff authority. Congress gave it to him. You can debate whether that was a prudent move or not, but I think its pretty clear that he has tariff authority, he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. 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. TOKYO - The Japanese government on Friday vowed to explore new overseas markets and provide support for more efficient production as part of efforts to increase rice exports in response to an envisioned long-term contraction in domestic consumption. In the annual white paper on food and agriculture for fiscal 2024 approved by the Cabinet, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recommends increased rice exports despite the Japanese government recently introducing measures to curb soaring domestic prices, driven in part by shortages. The report identified China, Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan as target markets for exports. With the popularity of Japanese food booming abroad, the country's exports of agricultural goods reached a record 1.51 trillion yen ($10.5 billion) in 2024, as it sets a target of 5 trillion yen in 2030, the paper said. To achieve that target, the government wants to increase rice exports, which trended higher to 12.03 billion yen in 2024 -- 27.8 percent above the year before -- through sales at Japanese restaurants and stores. The government set a goal to boost rice exports by nearly eightfold to 353,000 tons in 2030 from 2024 in its medium- to long-term basic plan for agriculture, released in April. To bolster productivity for rice exports, the government aims to increase the acreage managed by export-focused farmers with fields of 15 hectares or larger. It also seeks to reduce the current production costs of 16,000 yen per 60 kilograms nearer to 9,500 yen for exports to help domestic producers better compete with foreign-grown rice, according to the plan. New farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi also urged rice growers to increase output, despite the government issuing a guideline annually for each major producing region to match expected demand, a step that has led to adjustments in supply. He said last week that even if there is a surplus, rice could be exported overseas or the government could find new ways to market it. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is also supportive of increasing agricultural exports, saying in a recent TV program, "Rather than saying, 'We will export if there is a surplus,' we should aim to export from the beginning." The paper, which includes a chapter dedicated to agricultural exports for the first time, said, "It is essential to shift to earning money in growing overseas markets" as domestic consumption is expected to decline due to the falling population. Related coverage: Japan opposition chief rebuked for calling gov't reserve rice "animal feed" Japan gov't vows reserve rice supply to countryside amid price spike Half of Japan's stockpiled rice sought by retailers under new scheme Fresh off a huge victory in passing their big, beautiful bill through the House, Republican lawmakers are finding that President Trumps agenda is a much tougher sell at home. In a series of contentious town halls, rank-and-file Republicans seeking to promote the virtues of the massive domestic policy package have run into a buzzsaw of criticism from constituents leery that the legislation will do more harm than good. Some of the critics are voicing concerns that the proposal cuts too deeply into federal programs that benefit Americans across party lines. Others are griping that the package piles trillions of dollars onto federal deficits, breaking an early promise from GOP leaders that the bill would help bring budgets closer to balance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pushback not only highlights the headaches facing Republican leaders battling to get Trumps domestic agenda to the presidents desk this summer, but also forecasts the political challenges facing the GOP as it fights to keep control of the House in next years midterms in the face of persistent attacks from Democrats, who like their odds of flipping the chamber and are vowing to make the big, beautiful bill a central piece of their pitch to anxious voters. Those tensions were all on full display in recent days in parts of the Midwest, where a pair of lawmakers staged town halls a strategy GOP leaders have cautioned against and got an earful from voters furious over the legislation. In Nebraska, Rep. Mike Flood (R) faced a tsunami of misgivings about his vote in favor of the big, beautiful bill, with voters asking about Medicaid changes; cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps; and how the package would pile on to the federal deficit. How do you justify extending the 2017 temporary tax cuts and offsetting that federal loss by cutting Medicaid and SNAP benefits tax cuts [that are] expected to add $5 trillion to [the] deficit? one participant asked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the most viral moments from the event, however, came in response to a question about a small provision in the package that seeks to restrict federal judges ability to hold government officials in contempt when they violate a court order. The language a small paragraph in the 1,000-plus-page bill flew largely under the radar ahead of the vote. Asked about why he supported a bill with those terms, Flood said it was unknown to him when he cast his vote a signal that he did not read the full bill before formally weighing in on the matter. I am not going to hide the truth: This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill, Flood said, prompting the crowd to break out in shouts. And when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern. In Iowa, GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson encountered a similarly tough crowd, which erupted into a chorus of boos when the third-term Republican hailed the legislation as a generational investment in American prosperity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I cant believe you would boo tax relief for working Americans, she responded. And in Colorado, members of the states Republican delegation held a press conference to tout the bill, only to be shouted over by protesters throughout their remarks, Colorado Public Radio reported. Its unclear how many attendees of the GOP town halls are Republicans, and how many are Democrats who opposed the legislation from the start. Outside liberal groups such as Indivisible have encouraged their members to attend such events, and the Nebraska Democratic Party urged supporters to pack Floods recent town hall in Seward. Still, Flood made a point to shake everyones hand at the outset of the event, and he rejected the accusations from many in his party including some GOP leaders that Democrats are paying people to heckle Republicans in public settings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think one of you is here because youre getting paid, Flood said. I dont think one of you is here because you were trucked in. The heat Republicans are facing is unlikely to subside any time soon. The Senate is expected to make changes to the bill in the coming weeks, then send the package back to the House for a final stamp of approval, forcing GOP lawmakers to vote once again on the contentious provisions, potentially sparking a new round of criticism back home. Conservative Senate Republicans are pushing for steeper spending cuts Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), for example has said he wants federal spending to roll back to 2019 levels while moderates are warning against deep slashes. Medicaid is also poised to be the subject of debate in the upper chamber, with moderate Republicans along with conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) saying they will not support a bill that makes cuts to the social safety net program. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), for his part, has urged Senate Republicans both privately and publicly to make minimal changes, citing the very delicate equilibrium he achieved within his conference to get the package over the finish line. Trump, however, has given the upper chamber the green light to make whatever tweaks they wish, which could set up another politically prickly vote for House Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I want the Senate and the senators to make the changes they want. It will go back to the House and well see if we can get them, Trump said last weekend. In some cases, the changes may be something Id agree with, to be honest. I think its going to get there, he added of the package. I think they are going to have changes. Some will be minor, some will be fairly significant. The contentious town halls are far from a new scene for House Republicans. Since Trump took office, numerous GOP lawmakers across the country have faced crowds hostile to Trumps boundary-busting mass deportations, blanket pardons for loyalists, and other actions that have defined the early months of his second term. The events grew so extensive and tense that House GOP leaders in March urged their members to avoid in-person town halls and instead host call-in and livestream conversations to avoid the chaotic confrontations. The recent protests have been unique, however, in that the lawmakers have become the target based on their votes in favor of Trumps specific policy agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was also proud to vote for President Trumps one big, beautiful bill last week, Hinson said at the beginning of her town hall, prompting boos from the audience. Im here to clear up a lot of the misinformation thats out here today she added, prompting laughs because this bill is about securing our borders, this bill is about providing continued tax relief for working Americans and returning out country to prosperity. Democrats, meanwhile, are hoping to capitalize on both the internal GOP divisions surrounding the debate, and the unpopularity of the more controversial provisions of legislation, like the Medicaid and SNAP cuts, which theyre hoping will backfire on Republicans in the midterms. Now that vulnerable Republicans are on the record voting for it, this betrayal of the American people will cost them their jobs in the midterms and Republicans the House Majority come 2026, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), head of the Democrats campaign arm, said after the House vote. 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. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) got an earful from angry constituents about Republican legislation that includes major cuts to Medicaid and food assistance relied upon by millions of vulnerable Americans. People will die, one woman is heard shouting at Ernst at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, on Friday, according to a video of the event obtained by HuffPost. People are not well, we all are going to die. So, for heavens sakes, folks, Ernst responded, prompting more jeers from the audience. The House-passed legislation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, combines $1 trillion in cuts to federal health and food programs as a way to offset the cost of nearly $4 trillion in tax cuts, mostly benefiting higher earners. It would result in an estimated 8 million fewer Americans having health insurance, mostly because of cuts to Medicaid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Republicans argue that $880 billion in cuts to the health care program relied upon by over 70 million Americans are not really cuts since they are targeted toward nondisabled individuals. The bill would expand work requirements, limiting Medicaid benefits for unemployed adults without disabilities or dependents. Were not going to cut those benefits, what we are doing is making sure that those who are not Medicaid eligible are not receiving benefits, Ernst, who is facing reelection next year, said of the GOP bill at the town hall. Experts, however, consider tightening Medicaid eligibility and thereby reducing its expenditures to be the same as cutting the program. One major study also found that Medicaid reduced the risk of death. Nathan Sage, a Democratic candidate vying to unseat Ernst in 2026 who was also at the town hall on Friday, criticized her comments about Medicaid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shes not even trying to hide her contempt for us. Shes mocking us to our faces, because she does not give a shit, Sage said in a statement. This is simple: these cuts will kill people. But Joni Ernst cant even pretend to care. She shrugged it off. Its disgusting and vile. Iowa deserves so much better. The House GOP bill also includes significant cuts to federal food assistance programs. It would result in an estimated 3.2 million Americans losing their food assistance due to stricter eligibility requirements and an additional 1.3 million losing benefits as a result of the bill forcing states to cover a significant portion of SNAP benefit costs. Republicans call their SNAP cuts savings and reducing waste, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said earlier this month. But those are euphemisms. What it really means is increasing hunger, increasing poverty, and increasing the wealth of the ultra-rich. It is morally indefensible. The Senate is expected to take up the bill as early as next week. Republican senators have demanded changes to the House bill, including additional spending cuts to address the fact that it would add trillions of dollars to the deficit. Several moderate Republican senators have also expressed concerns with the legislations cuts to Medicaid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Major changes to the bill in the Senate could threaten its support in the House, where it will need to be approved once more if and when Republican senators pass it under the so-called reconciliation process, which side-steps a filibuster. I encourage them to do their work, of course, as we all anticipate, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told CNN on Sunday. But to make as few modifications to this package as possible, because remembering that weve got to pass it one more time to ratify their changes in the House. And I have a very delicate balance here, very delicate equilibrium that weve reached over a long period of time. And its best not to meddle with it too much. Related... Republican Senator Joni Ernst had a particularly unhinged response to questions from her constituents at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, on Friday. Ernst was asked about the GOPs budget bill kicking people off of Medicaid, and her condescending answer quickly became callous and flippant as the Iowa politician smirked at the audience. When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid, 1.4 million, theyre not eligible, so they will be coming off, so Ernst began, before an audience member shouted, People are going to die! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People are notwell, we all are going to die, Ernst responded, as the audience drowned her in loud protests. Sen. Joni Ernst, when told people kicked off Medicaid by Trump's "big beautiful bill" will die without health care: "Well, we are all going to die." During today's town hall at Aplington-Parkersburg High School. pic.twitter.com/WtDRzhzUGv Amie Rivers (@amierrivers) May 30, 2025 What was Ernst thinking with that answer? Almost every Republican town hall this year has gone badly for the politician holding it, thanks to President Trump upending the federal government, and Ernst surely knew that choosing death over Medicaid wouldnt go over well with the crowd. Earlier this week in Nebraska, Representative Mike Flood was heckled after he admitted that he didnt read the budget bill. Ersnts town hall wasnt even the first one in Iowa to go badly for a Republican. On Wednesday, Representative Ashley Hinson was met with jeers and boos, with audience members in Decorah, Iowa calling her a fraud and a liar. But at least Hinson had the good sense not to seemingly embrace death over a vital, lifesaving government program. Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) announced Thursday they will hold a hearing next month on what theyre calling President Bidens cognitive decline while in office and the mainstream medias subsequent coverup. It will be the first full congressional committee hearing on the topic. For four years, when the American people saw Joe Biden, they saw someone who was clearly not capable of making major decisions for the nation. Yet those closest to the president and the mainstream media did everything they could to hide this truth, Schmitt said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its time to expose how a cadre of Biden aides and family members were the de-facto commander-in-chief, while President Biden was sidelined. I look forward to getting the American people the answers they deserve, Schmitt added. He and Cornyn will co-chair a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing June 18 about Bidens mental and physical condition while serving in office. For this conspiracy between mainstream media, Joe Bidens family, and his inner circle to have hidden the impairment of the president of the United States for years, and lied consistently to the American people about his capacity to make decisions, which are solely vested by the Constitution, is unacceptable, Cornyn said in a statement. The Texas senator said he and his colleagues would use this hearing to uncover the facts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden and former first lady Jill Biden have pushed back on claims in a new book written by CNNs Jake Tapper and Axioss Alex Thompson that Bidens condition was worse than publicly known. They reported that Bidens senior aides discussed whether the president would need a wheelchair for his second term. They also reported that Biden failed to recognize George Clooney, a Hollywood star and major Democratic donor, at a fundraiser for the president in June. Biden this month insisted during an appearance on ABCs The View that he merely had a bad night at his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in Atlanta. They are wrong, he said of the allegations in the book. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us. And they didnt see how hard Joe worked every single day, Jill Biden told the program. I was with Joe day and night. I saw him more than any other person. I woke up with him; I went to bed at night with him, so I saw him all throughout the day, she said. And I did not create a cocoon around him. I mean, you saw him in the Oval Office, you saw him making speeches. He wasnt hiding somewhere. Separately, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chair of the Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has sent letters to 28 former Biden Cabinet officials asking them to answer questions about Bidens cognitive and health decline during his time in office and while running for re-election. Johnson wrote in those letters that what Cabinet officials were telling the public about the former presidents health and what they were apparently witnessing and saying privately is astonishing, particularly considering that the former president was seeking re-election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. The top strategist for former President George W. Bush has issued an ominous warning to Republicans over President Donald Trumps ping-ponging tariff policies. Namely, that they could well cost the GOP control of Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections. Thats because voters will soon grow wise to the fact that theyll be the ones stuck with higher prices at the cash register, ex-Bush politics brain Karl Rove wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "His tariff demands are weighing him down. Only 37% of Americans told a May 15 Marquette Law School poll that they approve of tariffs, while 63% disapproved," Rove, who won the White House twice for Bush, wrote. Fifty-eight percent said tariffs hurt the U.S. economy; a mere 32% believe they help. That starts to explain why stock markets drop when Mr. Trump rattles his trade saber and rebound when he walks back his tariff threats. All that back and forth has left voters confused, Rove continued. And the messaging runs smack dab into basic economics, Rove continued. For instance, Trump has insisted that American companies can absorb higher import costs, pointing to a May 17 post on Trumps Truth Social network where the Republican demanded that big box giant Walmart EAT THE TARIFFS and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As younger voters might say, the math isnt mathing there. Arkansas-based Walmart had a 2.75% profit margin in April. If it follows Trumps mandate, it cant break even, Rove wrote. The retailer cant absorb the cost of an imported pair of kids jeans inflated by the 46% tariff Mr. Trump threatens on Vietnam, or the 37% tariff for Bangladesh, or the 32% tariff on sneakers from Indonesia that Mr. Trump proposed, Rove continued, noting that other retailers such as Target and Best Buy are in the same boat. The president can blast all-caps posts all he likes, but inevitably parents will be unhappy with his tariffs when its time to outfit the kids for school, Rove wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Americans everyday experiences as we shop and work are already reinforcing that wenot the exporters or importerswill pay most of Mr. Trumps tariffs," the GOP strategist observed. More political news Read the original article on MassLive. Gov. Ron DeSantis is on pace to set a record for the number of executions in one year, having already presided over the deaths of five convicted murderers by the end of May, with two more scheduled to die in June. The seven death warrants DeSantis signed so far this year are the most by a Florida governor since 1984 and 2014 when the governors then the late U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott signed eight. In 2023 when DeSantis was running for president, we saw six executions," said Maria DeLiberato, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Now, when the Trump administration, whose attorney general is from Florida (referring to former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi), calls for increased use of the death penalty, Florida is executing people at an unprecedented rate, DeLiberato said about this year's schedule. Many of the state's conservative leaders laud DeSantis for carrying out a capital sentence, however. In 2023, after he signed death warrants for Donald David Dillbeck and Louis Bernard Gaskin, then-Attorney General and now-U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody pointed to DeSantis at an event and said, "I have never been so proud to be a Floridian. A lot of it is due to this guy right here." A photo of Florida's electric chair at Florida State Prison at Starke, Fla taken before Ted Bundy's execution. Also, state Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, has credited DeSantis with initiating and driving the push for expanding the death penalty, especially in cases involving child sex abuse. Martin sponsored the bill to make child rape a capital crime and thanked DeSantis for his leading the effort to get the Supreme Court to "reconsider" executing rapists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes standing between the child molesters and the wokeism (and our kids). We need to continue to support him and maybe, some day, hell have more of a decision on these federal judges, Martin said. U.S. presidents appoint federal judges. After the governor ended his run for the Republican presidential nomination last year, DeSantis fully embraced Trumps agenda as a governing guide for Florida. After Trump signed an executive order his first day in office directing U.S. attorneys to seek the death penalty for any conviction for which it is permitted, DeSantis responded with seven signed death warrants in three months. A request for comment is pending with the governor's press office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From 2023: Executions climb across U.S. because of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, report shows DeSantis also proclaimed Florida the leader when it comes to immigration enforcement assistance to Trumps drive for mass deportations, and he criticized Congress for lack of support of Trumps Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut government spending and started a Florida DOGE to streamline government. Why? Hes focused on the presidency because, if he wants to stay in politics, thats the only slot available for him since he doesnt seem to be interested in the (U.S.) Senate, said Charles Zelden, a professor of history and political science at Nova Southeastern University in Broward County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, Fox News recently placed DeSantis third in a ranking of potential 2028 GOP presidential candidates, behind Secretary of State Marco Rubio, until recently a U.S. senator from Florida, and Vice President J.D. Vance. The Florida Board of Governors is visited by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Florida A&M University hosts the board's meetings in its Grand Ball Room on March 26, 2025. And Zelden sees DeSantis maneuvering to leverage the power he has as governor to position himself in a race for the nomination against two Washington-based competitors. When he ran for president last year, a report by a death penalty watchdog group attributed a 25% increase in executions nationwide to Florida under DeSantis. While a majority of registered Republican voters support the death penalty as a crime-fighting tool, overall public support for it is at a 50-year low. States like Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Ohio, all carried by Trump in November, have introduced bills to abolish it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Florida has included child rape as a capital offense, in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and made it easier to impose a death sentence by repealing a unanimous jury requirement. The governor must wait until inmates exhaust all appeals and the Board of Executive Clemency clears their case to sign a warrant for a death sentence to be imposed. About 100 death row inmates, including seven added to the list this year, are eligible for execution. DeSantis, who is term-limited, will leave office in 18 months and the Iowa and New Hampshire GOP primaries are a year after that. Hes running out of time, Zelden said during a discussion of DeSantis, capital punishment and presidential politics. He believes in the death penalty ... and hes trying to see that it gets carried out before he leaves. A look inside Florida's death chamber Nine states have executed people this year. Florida leads with five executions, followed by Texas with four and South Carolina with three, including one by firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Florida next is scheduled to execute Anthony Wainwright on June 10 for the 1994 kidnapping, rape, and murder of a woman, and Thomas Lee Gudinas is set to die June 24 for another 1994 rape and murder. DeLiberato said she believes everyday Floridians don't support executing convicted murderers. She bases that on what she thinks is a telling anecdote: Of the 12 executions carried out since 2023, dozens of capital punishment opponents have gathered outside the state prison in Raiford in silent protest, she said. But for only two of the executions, there's been just a single person standing across the field in support. An empty cell on Florida's Death Row. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gov. DeSantis signs 7 death warrants in 3 months amid Trump pivot MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (AP) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says President Donald Trump would be going back on his word to her if he pardoned two men who are serving prison sentences for leading a 2020 plot to kidnap her. Whitmer, a Democrat, told Michigan Public Radio on Thursday that Trump asked her about a month ago how she would feel if he pardoned the two men. I said, I think it would be the wrong decision, Whitmer recounted. I would oppose it and he said, OK, Ill drop it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whitmer, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, recounted the conversation one day after Trump said he was considering a pardon for the men, saying, I will take a look at it. It's been brought to my attention. The Republican president said he followed the men's trial and it looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job. He said the men were drinking and I think they said stupid things. The U.S. Justice Departments new pardon attorney also said this month he would take a hard look at pardoning Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox. Croft, 49, and Fox, 42, were portrayed as leaders of the kidnapping scheme. They were convicted of conspiracy in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2022. Croft, a trucker from Delaware, was also found guilty of a weapons charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Croft was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison, while Fox, a Grand Rapids man, got a 16-year term. They are being held at a prison in Colorado the most secure in the federal system. Whitmer later told an audience following a speech at the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference that she plans to talk to Trump again about the pardoning matter. We have an ongoing dialogue now ... very different from the first term, she said about Trump and turned to smile at the audience. A spokesperson said the White House cannot confirm nor deny any upcoming actions. The White House does not comment on the Presidents private meetings, and any speculation about future pardons is just thatspeculation," principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whitmer and Trump clashed publicly during his first term, with Trump referring to her as that woman from Michigan. She has blamed Trump for the political anger that motivated the plot to kidnap her right before the 2020 presidential election. Whitmer also hinted Thursday at anger over the possibility of pardons, saying she was disappointed to hear the news he was considering it. No one should hesitate to condemn political violence, she said, noting the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiros residence and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last year. Whitmer has faced scrutiny from some Democrats for taking a more collaborative approach to the Trump administration in his second term. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat who has criticized Whitmer for working with and appearing with Trump, said releasing the convicted men is no laughing matter. The reward you get for cozying up to Trump is him threatening to pardon the terrorists who plotted to kidnap and murder you, she said on social media. Whitmer's collaboration with Trump has come with several awkward moments for her this year, including when she was unexpectedly in the Oval Office during a press conference as Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate two former members of his previous administration who had publicly criticized him. Their new dynamic also led to some wins for her administration, including securing new jets at a military air base in Michigan and a commitment from Trump to fund a project to protect Lake Michigan from invasive carp. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) A new poll suggests Gov. Dan McKee is in serious political peril as he prepares to seek reelection next year. The latest Ocean State Poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center pegs McKees job approval rating at just 19%, down from 29% a year ago in the same survey. His disapproval rating in the poll was 71%, while 9% expressed no opinion. The survey also finds strong opposition to McKees plan to run for another term in 2026. Just 11% of those polled said the governor deserves to be reelected, while 74% said he does not, including 60% of Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It puts him in the Lincoln Chafee range, said 12 News political analyst Joe Fleming, recalling the independent-turned-Democratic governors poor poll numbers from 2011 to 2015. Its a very dangerous range for a governor. (Story continues below graphic.) UNHs finding on McKee is markedly worse than a poll last month by another firm, Morning Consult, which put his job approval rating at 43% and his disapproval at 41%. The governors campaign team has cited Morning Consults data as evidence he has a path to reelection. A YouGov survey in March put his job approval rating at 36%. Separately, the new UNH poll puts President Trumps job approval rating in Rhode Island at 37%, down slightly since March. It also finds 54% of voters think Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed deserves another term when he seeks reelection next year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The survey of 653 Rhode Island residents was conducted by UNH online and by text message from May 22 to May 26 using a probability-based web panel. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Fleming said McKees political team should be particularly concerned about his numbers among self-identified Democrats polled by UNH, 63% of whom disapprove of his job performance. Former CVS executive Helena Foulkes is planning to challenge McKee again in next years Democratic primary, and others are also interested. The governor has some serious work to do over the next six months or so to show voters that hes doing a good job and deserves reelection, Fleming said. If he cant do that, I think youll see Democrats lining up to run for the office. The poll shows 32% of voters definitely or probably want Foulkes to run next year, while 26% dont and 42% have no opinion. Among former candidates, 23% are open to former Republican candidate Ashley Kalus running again, and just 19% are open to former Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo doing so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across four New England states surveyed by UNH, McKees job approval rating is far lower than his counterparts. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is at 52%, while Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte are both at 49%. Housing is cited most often as the top issue facing Rhode Island, named by 23% of voters in the UNH survey, followed by infrastructure (11%) and corrupt or incompetent government (10%). (Story continues below graphic.) Screenshot As state lawmakers debate the proposed Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban Act, the poll shows 55% of voters support banning the sale and manufacture of firearms with military-style features, while 37% oppose the policy and 8% expressed no opinion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the federal level, Trumps numbers have moved little in Rhode Island during the early months of his administration, according to UNHs polling. The only noteworthy change was on his handling of foreign policy, where approval of his actions has dropped from 39% to 34% and disapproval has risen from 60% to 66% since March. Across the states tested by UNH, Trumps job approval is highest in New Hampshire (45%) and lowest in Massachusetts (34%), with roughly similar numbers in Rhode Island and Connecticut. More than two-thirds of Rhode Island voters say it is inappropriate for the U.S. to accept a luxury jet from Qatar to serve as Air Force One and then be given to Trumps presidential library. However, 57% of Republicans say the move is appropriate. The poll shows 51% of Rhode Island voters think the U.S. is doing too little to help Ukraine, while 18% think its doing about the right amount, 15% say its doing too much and 16% arent sure. Democrats are far more supportive of assisting Ukraine than independents or Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ted Nesi (tnesi@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesis Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and 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. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Nesi's Notes 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 WPRI.com. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) Rockford Police Officer Jon Vargas was awarded the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor from Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly on Thursday. The Medal of Honor is awarded to officers who performed acts of heroism. Officer Vargas lost his former K9 partner, Nyx, in a shooting on January 28th, 2024. According to police, Malik Trotter, 28, shot and killed the K9 during a police pursuit that ended in the 2900 block of 11th Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police were able to track a phone stolen from the scene to an 11th Street address. K9 Officer Jon Vargas spotted Trotter and a foot chase ensued, during which K9 Nyx was shot and killed. Trotter allegedly shot at Vargas, and was shot in the leg by returned fire. In April, the police department announced Vargas would partner with a new 2-year-old Dutch Shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix, named K9 Rip. Twenty-three officers from 10 police agencies were honored in Springfield today. Today, we pay tribute to our heroic police officers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty while protecting our communities, said Pritzker. From Palatine to Chicago to Granite City, our honorees saved lives and offered comfort and support to countless others. While we will never be able to repay their bravery in full, we hope that this recognition can serve as a public reminder of our gratitude and a symbol of the sincere reverence we hold them in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2024 recipients for the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor being honored this year are: Chicago Police Department Officer Roy De La Huerta Officer Michelle Drapala Officer Edwin J. Gramajo Officer Luis M. Huesca Officer Omar Jimenez Officer Carlos Martinez Officer Enrique Martinez Chillicothe Police Department Officer David J. Buchanan Cicero Police Department Officer Luis Martinez Officer Reynol Ramos DeKalb County Sheriffs Office Deputy Christina M. Musil DeKalb Police Department Officer Brian Bollow Chief David Byrd Sergeant Keunte Mallett East Moline Police Department Sergeant William R. Lind Granite City Police Department Officer Douglas B. Nicoson Illinois State Police Trooper Clay M. Carns Trooper Adam D. Fitts Master Sergeant Ross A. Green Trooper Corey S. Thompsen Trooper Blake D. Thompson Palatine Police Department Officer Shane P. Murray Rockford Police Department Officer Jonathan A. Vargas Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Thai and Cambodian armies agreed on Thursday to withdraw troops from a disputed border area, where a brief exchange of gunfire took place on Wednesday, the Thai army said in a statement. The agreement was reached after a meeting between Thai Army chief Phana Klaewplodthuk and the commander of the Royal Cambodian Army, Mao Sophan, at the Chong Chom border crossing, a border checkpoint in Thailand's northeastern province of Surin, said the statement. According to Thai Army spokesperson Winthai Suvaree, commanders of the two armies also agreed to use the Joint Boundary Committee (JBC), a bilateral government-level framework, to expedite the resolution of border disputes. Meanwhile, a statement from the Royal Cambodian Army said the meeting between commanders of the two armies lasted 45 minutes at a border checkpoint. "The two sides will continue to resolve the situation through all existing mechanisms, such as the Joint Boundary Committee, the Cambodia-Thailand General Boundary Committee, and the Memorandum of Understanding in 2000 on the Measurement and Demarcation of the Cambodia-Thailand Land Border," it said. Both sides will exercise restraint and resolve all issues through the JBC, which will be held within the next few weeks, it added. (NewsNation) Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, have filed a series of lawsuits against Norfolk Southern and state and federal agencies, alleging they did not do enough to protect the town after a train derailed in 2023, devastating the area. They also said locals are still sick. Nearly 800 residents are involved in the litigation. One of those people is Jami Wallace, who told NewsNations CUOMO that the government didnt help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CDC comes in, and (we) get sick, and they leave us here. They betrayed us, Wallace said. Our government betrayed us. Were taxpaying United States citizens, and our government left us. Still nothing, not even a bottle of water. Her attorney, Don Keenan, called what happened afterward a cover-up. CDC told health providers not to treat after East Palestine derailment: Lawsuit The agencies named in the lawsuit include the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. On the night of Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying flammable and other hazardous materials derailed, going up in flames. Two days later, people living in the area were evacuated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials allowed residents to return by Feb. 8, just five days after the incident. Toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride, were emitted into the air and soil. According to the CDC, vinyl chloride is a human carcinogen, so it can cause cancer. Within days, the colorless gas, which is highly combustible, can break down into other harmful substances. Some people who have breathed vinyl chloride for several years have changes in the structure of their livers, according to the CDC. People are more likely to develop these changes if they breathe high levels of vinyl chloride. Regulators fell short after toxic derailment in Ohio, advocate says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keenan, the attorney representing Wallace, said a civil jury trial is needed. 200 years ago, the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution provided a civil jury trial remedy. These people need a jury. They need a jury of their peers to take a look at this evidence and to see clearly the cover-up that was done, Keenan said. Keenan said he would not consider a class action lawsuit. In a jury trial, a jury decides the outcome, whereas in a class action lawsuit, a judge determines a universal outcome for the large group of plaintiffs involved. I cant believe that they thought the people would be that stupid. Well, these people are not stupid, and theyre standing up, Keenan said. And theyre going to get their day in court before a jury, not a conveyor belt, mass tort class action debacle, which has preceded this thing. They knew that wasnt right, so its the jury trial coming up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Oregon's governor, Tina Kotek, approved a ban on firefighting foam that contains forever chemicals. As Environment America reported, Kotek made Oregon the 16th state in the U.S. to ban perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in firefighting missions. She signed Senate Bill 91 into law at the request of the state Senate Interim Committee on Energy and Environment. This firefighting foam ban is good news because experts have linked PFAS to many health and environmental issues. The ban will protect firefighters from toxic chemical exposure as they risk their lives to save others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These substances are called forever chemicals because they don't break down in the human body or in natural environments. Even small amounts of exposure to them can lead to serious health conditions, including cancer, birth defects, organ damage, and developmental delays. Fortunately, many states have been working to pass laws to reduce exposure to forever chemicals. Because of the growing body of research connecting PFAS to health risks, lawmakers have proposed banning them from hospital equipment and common household products. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a ban on a commonly used, toxic solvent called N-Methylpyrrolidone because of its health risks. As new laws are gradually implemented to keep forever chemicals out of everyday life, you can protect yourself by reading product labels and avoiding plastic products. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For example, you can choose plastic-free alternatives for the products you use and support brands that use plastic-free packaging. The Statesman Journal reported state Rep. Courtney Neron as saying: "When our first responders are getting sick from the very tools meant to keep us safe, something has to change. Safer alternatives are already being used by the military, at Oregon airports and fire stations in numerous states across the country." Celeste Meiffren-Swango, state director of Environment Oregon, thanked Kotek and the Oregon legislature for eliminating PFAS-laden firefighting foam to protect firefighters. "Together, we can keep working to eliminate PFAS from consumer products and help build a cleaner, greener, safer future in Oregon," she said, per Environment America. 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. Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank launches summer meal program to fight child hunger BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) As summer break begins, thousands of children across south Louisiana are at risk of going hungry without access to school meals. To meet this critical need, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is launching a seasonal program to provide free meals to kids and teens in rural areas. Starting in June, the food bank will operate 13 summer meal distribution sites across 11 parishes, focusing on regions where grocery stores and food assistance are limited. When you talk about the number of children who are food insecure or hungry in our area, its a challenge, said Mike Manning, President and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each child 18 and under is eligible to receive one meal box per week, containing seven days worth of shelf-stable breakfasts and lunchesno cooking or refrigeration required. No ID, proof of income, or citizenship status is necessary to participate. All they need to do is identify their site, pay attention to the date, and show up to get the food, Manning explained. The initiative is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and carried out in partnership with local libraries, churches, and community organizations. The Food Bank is deliberately targeting rural areas, as larger parishes like East Baton Rouge already have federally supported programs in place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our goal is to address food insecurity where its not already being covered, said Manning. Dont be afraid or hesitantthis is about your kids. The program runs through early August. Families can text FOOD or COMIDA to 304-304 to find the nearest participating location. Summer Meal Site Locations and Schedules (Sample of 5 sites listed below. Visit the Food Banks website for the full list.) St. Helena Branch Library Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., June 5Aug. 7 Clinton Branch Library Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 4Aug. 6 Morganza Branch Library Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., June 3July 29 Grosse Tete Branch Library Mondays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., June 2Aug. 4 Erwinville Community Childrens Org. Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., June 3July 29 Want to Help? The Food Bank is also in need of donations and volunteers to support this summers operations. To get involved, visit brfoodbank.org or call the Food Bank directly. Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 Louisiana First News. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) In the Town of Greece, folks celebrated the official opening of the brand new Skate Park at the town hall campus. Greece got to work in 2021, creating a modern skate park and the towns first inclusive playground. Greece officials say they felt it was important to engage the community on all aspects of the design of the park and brought nationally recognized skate park designers to work on the project. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At 27,000 square feet, they say the new space includes customized ramp and a bike rack, and welcomes all types of wheels: such as roller blades, scooters, and bikes. Greece town officials including Town Supervisor Bill Reilich were all there to cut the ribbon. Youll notice beautifully some stone columns, Mediterranean style landscaping, and details that reflect the heritage of Greece connecting us to the namesake and honoring the towns historical roots, Greece Town Supervisor Bill Reilich said. The Greece Skate Park will be open every day at 8 a.m. until sunset. 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 RochesterFirst. Lewelyn Dixon, a green card holder who had been held at an ICE detention center in Tacoma since late February, has been released. A KIRO 7 News crew caught the moment Dixon was released from the facility and reunited with her family. She has lived in the United States for more than 50 years and works as a lab technician at UW Medicine. She was detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after a trip to the Philippines and her family believes a nonviolent criminal conviction more than twenty years ago triggered the detention. This is a developing story. Check back to KIRO7.com for updates. Milwaukee-based hospitality group 41Fork is taking over a venue once operated by wedding company Black Swan MKE, which shuttered abruptly earlier this year. Black Swan was ordered to vacate from its Third Ward wedding venue known as Plant No. 4 in December 2024, but customers only found out in March leaving dozens of couples scrambling to save their wedding plans. On May 23, 41Fork announced on its Facebook page that it signed a lease for the venue and is offering a 30-day window for former clients to reclaim their reservations. What happened to Black Swan MKE and Plant No. 4? Online court records show that the owners of the Plant No. 4 property sued to evict Black Swan MKE in November and that the eviction was granted in December. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April, the property owners filed a separate lawsuit against Black Swan seeking more than $238,000 in unpaid rent, maintenance costs, and storage fees, alleging the venue failed to meet its obligations under the lease, according to court records. Although Black Swans owner acknowledged receipt of the lawsuit in late April, no formal response had been filed by the May 19 deadline, according to court records. Black Swan is also being sued by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue for more than $7,000 in unpaid sales tax, court records show. The company was run by father and son duo Peter and Stephen Sheperd, who have not responded to requests for comment. What is the hospitality group 41Fork? 41Fork is a collective of hospitality brands offering catering services, mobile bars and event venues. The group also operates at the following Milwaukee locations: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Noble Catering and Events, a catering company located at 400 E. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 102 Vault, a cocktail lounge located at 111 E. Kilbourn Ave., Suite 210 River Center Market, a food hall located at 111 E Kilbourn Ave., Suite 110 What is 41Fork offering former Plant No. 4 clients? Until June 20, the company is inviting former Plant No. 4 clients who had previously booked events to reinstate their reservations. 41Fork said it will honor any payments those customers made to Black Swan, with the understanding that clients will be required to use NEAT, 41Fork's in-house bar service. Owner Kaelyn Cervero said 41Fork will not book new clients until June 23 to honor the former contracts and avoid double bookings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Affected clients can contact 41Fork by email at events@41fork.com, or through the contact form on its website. Have Black Swan's former clients gotten their money back? Multiple consumers who filed complaints with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection have received refunds from Black Swan, according to department spokesperson Caleb Kulich. One of them was Brooke Moder, who paid a $6,025 deposit in July in hopes of having her wedding hosted by Black Swan. Moder filed a complaint with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on March 21. The agency said on April 4 that Black Swan had agreed to issue a refund. Moder received a check for the full amount three days later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moder noted the check appeared to come from the wife of Black Swan's owner, which she called "a bit odd." Quinn Clark is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee's 41Fork takes over former Black Swan wedding venue Police are investigating a suspicious death after finding human remains inside of a burning car in a commercial business parking lot in Davidsonville, Maryland. According to The Bay Net, the Arundel County Police and Fire departments responded to a vehicle fire at 9:25 pm on May 24. The emergency services arrived at the parking lot to find a car totally on fire when the fire was extinguished, there was a body discovered in the passenger side. The Anne Arundel County Criminal Investigations Division has taken over the suspicious death investigation, while the Anne Arundel County Fire & Explosives Investigations Unit is investigating the cause of the vehicle fire. Located in the Annapolis area and less than 30 miles away from Washington D.C., Davidsonville is typically considered a quiet and affluent community. - - On May 24, 2025, at 9:25 p.m., Anne Arundel County Police officers and Fire personnel responded to 600 West pic.twitter.com/EZpw1IQZ9x Anne Arundel County Police Department (@AACOPD) May 25, 2025 As of this writing, the identity of the person in the car has not been disclosed. The remains were sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, and investigators are questioning people who work in and frequent the area. Law enforcement will also be looking over surveillance footage for more clues as to what happened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to WBAL 11 the car seemed to be a late model silver Ford, though that has not been yet independently verified by law enforcement. This is an active and ongoing investigation, a post from Anne Arundel County Police Department stated. Detectives ask that anyone with information that could help this investigation contact them at 410-222-4731. Gruesome Discovery Shakes Wealthy Small Town in Maryland first appeared on Men's Journal on May 29, 2025 By Sofia Menchu GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -A top Guatemalan court on Friday sentenced three former paramilitaries each to 40 years in prison after they were found guilty of raping six Indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, the bloodiest period of the Central American nation's civil war. The trial against the former members of the so-called Civil Self-Defense Patrol, armed groups recruited by the army, began four months ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The soldiers arrived late at night, threw me onto the ground and raped me," Paulina Ixpata, a Maya Achi woman, said during the trial. Prosecutors presented more than 160 pieces of evidence against the men. "That's how the whole night went," Ixpata said, recounting how she was held for 25 days by the military patrol. Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos sentenced the three for crimes against humanity in the form of sexual violence. "The women recognized the perpetrators, they recognized the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the second trial in the so-called Maya Achi case, and follows reports of sexual violence filed between 2011 and 2015 by 36 victims against former military personnel, military commissioners and civilian self-defense patrol members. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former patrol members sentenced to 30 years in prison. They remain incarcerated. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q'eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves at the Sepur Zarco military base, a landmark case that marked the first convictions in Guatemala of military officers for wartime rape. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison, where they remain incarcerated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court also stipulated a reparations program, whose progress remains limited despite advocacy by the 15 women who were at the trial, known as the "Grandmothers of Sepur Zarco." (Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Kylie Madry and David Gregorio) UPDATE: U.S. Congressman Neal Dunns office officials report that seven bottlenose dolphins have been cleared for removal. A waiver has been issued and signed by NOAA that will allow them to be moved to another park very shortly. The dolphins in Gulf World Marine Park should be in a new home by Saturday. Congressman Neal Dunn confirmed the news. Weve been moving literally as fast as the legal process allows us to. But now were trying to leapfrog over that process, U.S. Congressman Neal Dunn said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Friday morning, U.S. Congressman Neal Dunn confirmed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is just one step away from obtaining a permit that will allow the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to immediately relocate the 11 dolphins left at Gulf World. The permits could be issued today. I dont know if that means the dolphins could be moved today or tonight, frankly. But by tomorrow, we feel pretty confident that they will be in a new home, Dunn continued. Fish and Wildlife Commission wants to do the right thing, and they want to do it immediately. I mean, today, right now, this hour. So all they need is that last piece of information for NOAA to issue this all-important transport permission, Dunn added. That would only address the issues with the dolphins, not for any other animals that may still be housed at the park. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Agriculture went through it, did a complete inspection on the place back in February and again in March. What they say is theyre less risk in this situation. Theyre easier to care for, if you will, Dunn stated. Thursday, News 13 confirmed that Gulf World employees are being interviewed at the state attorneys office, which caused the sudden closure on Tuesday. Gulf World said it will reopen on June 3. But when you go to their website, no tickets are available, not just for that day, but for the rest of the year. If and when FWC removes the dolphins, where they are going will be unknown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NOAA is being quite secretive about where they would move them. And that has to do with they dont want to run into protests on the way that would somehow delay the arrival of the dolphins, Dunn said. Dunn said the entire situation has brought to light a need for more jurisdictional clarity when it comes to marine mammals. Theres too many agencies involved. You would think theres some one agency that had authority over dolphins, but no, its at least two at the federal level. And I gather theres at least two at the state level as well. And so one of the things we would look to do after this emergency is resolved is to see if we could streamline this process, Dunn added. While there is no confirmation on where the dolphins are going, Dunn confirmed the agencies are looking at facilities in Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is a continually changing story. Keep checking here for the latest information. ORIGINAL STORY: PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) U.S. Congressman Neal Dunn said he feels confident the 11 dolphins still left at Gulf World Marine Park will be in a new home by Saturday. Less than 3 days after a 5th dolphin died at the facility, Dunn confirmed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is just hours away from issuing the permit that will allow the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to immediately remove and relocate the dolphins to other suitable facilities. They assure me they have all the information they need except for one piece, which Gulf Worlds trying to pull together for them today. So the permits could be issued today. I dont know if that means the dolphins could be moved today or tonight, frankly. But by tomorrow, we feel pretty confident that they will be in a new home, Dunn said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dunn said the delay in moving the animals has been due, in part, to the various agencies involved and the lack of jurisdictional clarity. Dolphin deaths at Gulf World Marine Park spark criminal probe Weve been moving literally as fast as the legal process allows us to. But now were trying to leapfrog over that process, Dunn said. It is unclear where the dolphins will be relocated to. Dunn said NOAA is not releasing any of those details due to safety concerns over the dolphins. However, Dunn did confirm they are looking at locations in Florida. It is a continually changing story. Keep checking here for the latest information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen walk their yaks and prepare for a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) A herdsman and his yak run to the start line for a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) A staff member examine the yak's teeth to determine its eligibility for the race before a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) A herdsman competes in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) A herdsman comforts his yak before a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan) Herdsmen take part in a traditional yak racing in Lhasa, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, May 29, 2025. Herdsmen and a total of 132 yaks participated in the traditional yak racing in Lhasa on Thursday, attracting many local spectators. (Xinhua/Tenzin Nyida) An estimated 1.8 million Muslims are preparing to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca which begins on June 4. The Hajj is the largest annual gathering of Muslims from all over the world and a once-in-a-lifetime journey for many. In this visual explainer, we cover 10 frequently asked questions about the Hajj, providing insights into its significance, rituals and preparations. 1. What is the Hajj? The Hajj is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and it is the fifth and final pillar of Islam, along with declaration of faith (shahada), five daily prayers, obligatory charity (zakat), and fasting during the month of Ramadan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The word comes from the Arabic root h-j-j, which means intending a journey or to set out for a definitive purpose. It is obligatory once in a lifetime for all adult Muslims who are physically and financially able to undertake the journey. (Al Jazeera) 2. When is the Hajj performed? The Hajj is performed between the 8th and 12th (or 13th) of Dhul-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar. The timing falls roughly 70 days after the end of Ramadan, though this can vary slightly depending on the lunar cycle. In 2025, the Hajj will take place from June 4 to June 9, but many start arriving in the days and weeks ahead to prepare for the journey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because the Islamic calendar follows a lunar cycle, with months lasting 29 or 30 days, the Hajj shifts 10 to 12 days earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar. Notably, this year marks the last time for the next 16 years that the Hajj will fall during Meccas peak summer heat. Interactive_Eid_Hajj_2025_2-02-1748416539 3. Why do Muslims perform the Hajj? Muslims believe that the Hajj is a direct commandment from Allah (God), as outlined in the Muslim holy book, the Quran. It was affirmed during Prophet Muhammads farewell pilgrimage in 632 AD, in the 10th year of the Islamic calendar. Islamic tradition holds that the Kaaba, a stone structure draped in black silk at the centre of Meccas Grand Mosque where many Hajj rituals take place, was built by Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) and his son Ishmael (Ismaeel) under Gods command. This marks the origins of the Hajj, which was instituted as a divine ritual for the first time. Prospective pilgrims perform prayer at the Masjid al-Haram during their Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 23, 2023 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images] The journey is a spiritual one, and it is considered to allow Muslims to seek forgiveness, purify their souls and demonstrate their submission to God. The word Hajj is mentioned 12 times across the Quran, including one chapter named after it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hajj also serves as a reminder of the Day of Judgement, and by performing it, Muslims follow the example of Prophet Abraham and his family, whose actions are commemorated during the pilgrimage rituals. Ultimately, it is a way to fulfil a key religious obligation and strengthen ones faith. 4. How long does the Hajj last? The Hajj lasts five to six days, depending on how it is performed. It begins on the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah, a day known as Tarwiyah, when many pilgrims travel to Mina, a desert valley located about 8 kilometres (5 miles) from Mecca, where they spend the night in preparation for the next days rituals. It ends with Tashreeq days, where pilgrims return to Mina for the symbolic stoning of the Devil at a site called Jamarat, after which they perform final rituals to symbolise the end of the Hajj. Some may leave on the 12th if they complete their rites early, while others stay until the 13th. Muslim pilgrims pray around the holy Kaaba at the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca on September 27, 2014 [Muhammad Hamed/Reuters] 5. What is the difference between the Hajj and Umrah? While the Hajj is a compulsory pilgrimage for all able-bodied Muslims once in their life, Umrah is a recommended smaller and simpler pilgrimage that Muslims can perform any time throughout the year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The graphic below shows some of the key differences between the Hajj and Umrah: Interactive_Eid_Hajj_2025_2-04-1748416655 6. Which key rituals do Muslims perform during the Hajj? Muslims perform many rites and rituals during the days of the Hajj, which can be explained in the following steps. Interactive_Eid_Hajj_2025_2-03-1748416711 DAY 1 Ihram Entering the state of Ihram is both a physical and spiritual condition, involving the niyah or intention to perform the Hajj, wearing specific garments (two unstitched clothes for men and modest attire for women), and adhering to prescribed conduct. This ritual must occur before entering Mecca, either in the pilgrims home country or at one of the designated locations on Meccas outskirts. Arrival Tawaf After entering Mecca in Ihram, many pilgrims perform an initial Tawaf by circling the Kaaba seven times in a counterclockwise direction. This symbolises unity in the worship of the One God. Pilgrims can then perform the sai, a ritual of walking seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwa, located within the Masjid al-Haram. Mina Pilgrims proceed to Mina, located about 8km (5 miles) east of the Kaaba, where they will spend the night in prayer and reflection. Mina is famously known as the city of tents due to the vast expanse of white tents to house the millions of pilgrims. DAY 2 Day of Arafah On the second day of the Hajj, pilgrims arrive early at the plains of Arafah, about 15km (9 miles) from Mina. They spend the afternoon in wuquf (standing) from midday to sunset, praying and repenting. Arafah is the most important ritual of Hajj. Muslims worldwide are encouraged to fast on this day. Muzdalifah After sunset, pilgrims travel to Muzdalifah, some 9km (5.5 miles) away, where they pray Maghrib and Isha prayers before collecting pebbles for the next days ritual. There they spend the night under the open sky. DAY 3 On this day, Muslims from around the world celebrate the first day of Eid al-Adha, or the celebration of the sacrifice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rami al-Jamarah al-Kubra (stoning the largest pillar) Pilgrims return to Mina where they throw seven pebbles at the largest of three stone pillars. This ritual represents the stoning of the devil which symbolises rejection of Satans temptations. Qurbani (animal sacrifice) Pilgrims, or agents on their behalf, offer an animal sacrifice in remembrance of Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. Halq or Taqsir (shaving or trimming hair) Men shave or trim their heads and women cut a small portion of hair. This symbolises spiritual renewal. Tawaf al-Ifadah (main Tawaf) Pilgrims return to Mecca to perform Tawaf followed by Sai. DAYS 4 and 5 Mina Pilgrims return to Mina and perform Rami (stoning) of all three stone pillars each day. DAY 6 (optional) Mina Pilgrims who remain for an extra day repeat the stoning ritual at all three pillars. Farewell Tawaf Before leaving Mecca, pilgrims perform a final Tawaf around the Kaaba, known as the Tawaf al-Wada or a farewell tawaf, signifying a spiritual farewell to the holy sanctuary. Pilgrims leave after offering prayers outside the Grand Mosque during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on June 14, 2024 [Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo] 7. What are the different types of Hajj? There are three types of Hajj to facilitate the pilgrimage for Muslims from different locations and abilities: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hajj al-Tamattu (the eased Hajj) Hajj al-Tamattu is the most common type of Hajj, particularly for international pilgrims or those living outside Mecca. In this form of Hajj, pilgrims first perform Umrah, exit the state of Ihram, and then re-enter Ihram to perform Hajj. For those performing Hajj al-Tamattu, sacrificing an animal is obligatory, unless one is unable to afford it, in which case fasting is required instead. Hajj al-Qiran (The combined Hajj) In Hajj al-Qiran, pilgrims combine Umrah and Hajj, similar to Tamattu, but without exiting the state of Ihram. Pilgrims remain in Ihram throughout both rites. Sacrificing an animal is also required for those who can afford it. Hajj al-Ifrad (Hajj alone) Hajj al-Ifrad is intended for pilgrims who perform Hajj alone, without combining it with Umrah. This form is usually performed by residents of Mecca. This form of Hajj does not require the sacrifice of an animal, though it can be performed voluntarily. Muslim pilgrims gather at the top of the rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 15, 2024 [Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo] 8. What is not permitted during the Hajj? The etiquette of the Hajj bans several actions that are otherwise permitted in Islam, including sexual relations (and anything leading to it, like embracing or kissing), cursing, arguing, hunting, shaving or cutting hair and nails, using perfume, arranging or conducting a marriage, wearing stitched clothes (for men), covering the head (for men), and covering the face (for women). If a pilgrim unintentionally or unknowingly does something prohibited during the Hajj, there are usually specific actions and steps to rectify their situation. This often involves repentance, as well as making up for the mistake by offering charity or an animal sacrifice. 9. What should one pack for the Hajj? Packing for the Hajj requires careful planning to ensure you have everything you need without overloading. The graphic below provides a practical checklist of things one should pack before embarking on the journey. 10. How do Muslims mark the end of the Hajj? Muslims mark the end of the Hajj with Eid al-Adha, celebrated on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah and lasting up to three days in many countries. Muslim pilgrims perform the Tawaf, circling of the Kaaba, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage on the first day of Eid al-Adha in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on August 21, 2018 [File: Dar Yasin/AP] The day begins with a special prayer shortly after sunrise, as Muslims gather in mosques or open areas wearing their finest clothes. The rest of the day is spent sharing meals, exchanging gifts, and visiting family and friends. The greeting Eid Mubarak, meaning Blessed Eid, is commonly exchanged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eid al-Adha also involves the ritual of animal sacrifice, known as Qurbani. Muslims who are able to do so sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow or camel, and the meat is divided into three parts: one for the family, one for relatives and friends, and one for those in need. Scientists say 4 billion people, about half the worlds population, experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat because of human-caused climate change from May 2024 to May 2025. The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and health care systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross. Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event, the report said. Many heat-related deaths are unreported or are mislabeled by other conditions like heart disease or kidney failure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scientists used peer-reviewed methods to study how much climate change boosted temperatures in an extreme heat event and calculated how much more likely its occurrence was because of climate change. In almost all countries in the world, the number of extreme heat days has at least doubled compared with a world without climate change. FILE Laborers sleep under a bridge during a hot summer day in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan,File) FILE A man walks on a hot summer day in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan,File) FILE Bathers cool off in the water while others sunbathe on a Barcelona beach, Spain, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti,File) FILE Heatstroke patients receive treatment at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan,File) FILE A jogger runs along a trail in McAllister park as temperatures hit record highs, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay,File) FILE Tourists cool off at Trevi fountain as temperatures are reaching up to 37 Celsius degrees (98.6 Fahrenheit) in Rome, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia,File) FILE People sunbathe on a promenade in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Several regions of Spain are under alert for high temperatures. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti,File) Caribbean islands were among the hardest hit by additional extreme heat days. Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, endured 161 days of extreme heat. Without climate change, only 48 would have occurred. It makes it feel impossible to be outside, said Charlotte Gossett Navarro, chief director for Puerto Rico at Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit focused on social and environmental issues in Latino communities, who lives in the San Juan area and was not involved in the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even something as simple as trying to have a day outdoors with family, we werent able to do it because the heat was too high, she said, reporting feeling dizzy and sick last summer. When the power goes out, which happens frequently in Puerto Rico in part because of decades of neglected grid maintenance and damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017, Navarro said it is difficult to sleep. If you are someone relatively healthy, that is uncomfortable, its hard to sleep but if you are someone who has a health condition, now your life is at risk, Gossett Navarro said. Heat waves are silent killers, said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the reports authors. People dont fall dead on the street in a heat wave people either die in hospitals or in poorly insulated homes and therefore are just not seen, he said. Low-income communities and vulnerable populations, such as older adults and people with medical conditions, suffer the most from extreme heat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The high temperatures recorded in the extreme heat events that occurred in Central Asia in March, South Sudan in February and in the Mediterranean last July would have not been possible without climate change, according to the report. At least 21 people died in Morocco after temperatures hit 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) last July. People are noticing temperatures are getting hotter but dont always know it is being driven by climate change, said Roop Singh, head of urban and attribution at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, in a World Weather Attribution statement. We need to quickly scale our responses to heat through better early warning systems, heat action plans, and long-term planning for heat in urban areas to meet the rising challenge, Singh said. City-led initiatives to tackle extreme heat are becoming popular in parts of South Asia, North America, Europe and Australia to coordinate resources across governments and other agencies. One example is a tree-planting initiative launched in Marseille, France, to create more shaded areas. The report says strategies to prepare for heat waves include monitoring and reporting systems for extreme temperatures, providing emergency health services, cooling shelters, updated building codes, enforcing heat safety rules at work, and designing cities to be more heat-resilient. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But without phasing out fossil fuels, heat waves will continue becoming more severe and frequent and protective measures against the heat will lose their effectiveness, the scientists 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 WFLA. Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., left, and Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Twp., participates in a PAC reception during the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) MACKINAC ISLAND Republican leaders in the Michigan Legislature say they plan to support an initiative to hold a constitutional convention to rewrite the document. The proposal automatically appears on the ballot every 16 years. The November 2026 general election will be the fourth time since the states current governing document, which went into effect in 1963, that voters decide whether to go back to the drawing board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said he does think we need a Con-Con. They stuff so many things in this Constitution, all kinds of things, every time, Hall said, pointing to ballot proposals legalizing marijuana and creating an independent redistricting commission that were approved by voters as examples. Some of those proposals sounded good, but then had intentions that the public is frustrated about, Hall said. While Hall was focused on taking things out of the states constitution, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) sees it as an opportunity to make updates that he said Lansing leaders havent had the political courage to actually get done. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those include making the state superintendent an appointment of the governor rather than of the state Board of Education, as well as changes to how university boards are selected. I think theres a lot of things that should be discussed, Nesbitt, who is running for governor, said. And the constitution could be a lot simpler than what it is right now. That simplification could touch all aspects of the states guiding document. Eric Lupher, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan, previously told the Michigan Advance that if a constitutional convention were to be approved, everything is fair game, from Article One through Article 12, so its not a piecemeal approach. It is an open document that will be examined from A-to-Z. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said she hasnt given it much thought but is open to hearing pros and cons. House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said he wasnt familiar with specifics of the proposal but that it didnt sound like something he would support. If voters did call a constitutional convention, a special primary and general election for delegates would be held, with one delegate elected in each of the states 110 state House and 38 state Senate districts. The convention would convene in October 2027 with no limit on how long it would last before proposing a new constitution, which voters would either approve or reject. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislative leaders were speaking during a Detroit Regional Chamber PAC reception during the final night of the Mackinac Policy Conference. The unusually tense reception marked the first meeting of the four so-called quadrant leaders, representing the four key positions in the Michigan House and Senate, with no quadrant meetings having been held since last year. Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp., Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Twp., and House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, participate in a PAC reception during the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) Brinks said the Democratic majority in the Senate is willing to work with the Republican majority in the House on priorities like transparency reform and long-term road funding. She said that starts by having more regular conversations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its important for us to sit down and negotiate the differences, Brinks said. Thats how the Legislature works, and its particularly important when we have a Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate to sit down and just hash out those differences. Puri said it should be easy to set up plans for another meeting, pulling out his phone and saying he has time next Tuesday at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. But Hall said he doesnt need to meet with the other legislative leaders, arguing that the House is getting things done on their own, though the state has seen just four bills signed into law so far this year. Hall pointed to an Epic-MRA poll saying he has a 60% approval rating as evidence that his current strategy is working. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Puri said the polling numbers arent indicative of the states actual perspectives. I congratulate the Speaker on his polling numbers. Contrary to what youre saying, that was not statewide in Michigan, that was a select few lobbyists and Lansing insiders telling you that youre doing a great job, Puri said. I dont get my validation by pleasing lobbyists, and I see some in the room, Im sorry. My validation is waking up to a family that loves me. Hall said he does work well with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, citing a positive vision while criticizing Brinks and Puri for offering a negative vision. I would encourage the Democrat leaders to empower your governor, Gretchen Whitmer, Hall said. Empower her in negotiations, and her and I will get a deal done, and well get it done very quickly, on the budget, on roads, on many things. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Hamas said Friday it was still reviewing a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 27 people were killed in new Israeli airstrikes, according to hospital officials. The ceasefire plan, which has been approved by Israeli officials, won a cool initial reaction Thursday from the militant group. But President Donald Trump said Friday negotiators were nearing a deal. Theyre very close to an agreement on Gaza, and well let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, Trump told reporters in Washington. Late in the evening, asked if he was confident Hamas would approve the deal, he told reporters: Theyre in a big mess. I think they want to get out of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. negotiators have not publicized the terms of the proposal. But a Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. In a terse statement issued a few hours before Trump spoke, Hamas said it is holding consultations with Palestinian factions over the proposal it had received from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. A United Nations spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, urged the parties to find the political courage to secure an agreement. While changes may have been made to the proposal, the version confirmed earlier called for Israeli forces to pull back to the positions they held before it ended the last ceasefire. Hamas would release 10 living hostages and a number of bodies during the 60-day pause in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 100 serving long sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each day, hundreds of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter Gaza, where experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade slightly eased in recent days has pushed the population to the brink of famine. Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal, Qatars ambassador to the United Nations, Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani said Friday, referring to talks between her country, the United States and Egypt. We are very determined to find an ending to this horrific situation in Gaza. On Thursday, a top Hamas official, Bassem Naim, said the U.S. proposal does not respond to any of our peoples demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine. The uncertainty over the new proposal came as hospital officials said that 27 people had been killed Friday in separate airstrikes. A strike that hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed 13, including eight children, hospital officials said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, the bodies of 12 people, including three women, were brought to Shifa Hospital on Friday from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the bodies of two others were brought to a hospital in Gaza City. Hospital officials also said Friday that at least 72 had been killed in Gaza during the previous day. That figure does not include some hospitals in the north, which are largely cut off due to the fighting. Since the war began, more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages. Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza, but Israel believes 35 are dead and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are doubts about the fate of several others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some Gaza residents said their hope for a ceasefire is tempered by repeated disappointment over negotiations that failed to deliver a lasting deal. "This is the war of starvation, death, siege and long lines for food and toilets, Mohammed Abed told The Associated Press in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. This war is the 2025 nightmare, 2024 nightmare and 2023 nightmare. Abed said he and his family struggle to find food, waiting three hours to get a small amount of rice and eating only one meal daily. Its heartbreaking that people are being starved because of politics. Food and water should not be used for political purposes, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another Gaza resident, Mohammed Mreil, said about the possibility of a truce that: We want to live and we want them (Israelis) to live. God did not create us to die. Mroue reported from Beirut. Aamer Madhani and Michelle L. Price in Washington, and Farnoush Amiri and Edith Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this report. Sens. Regina Birdsell, Tim Lang, and Cindy Rosenwald sit at a Senate Finance Committee session, May 29, 2025. (Photo by Will Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin) In April, the New Hampshire House passed a budget that eliminated a number of state boards, including the Commission for Human Rights, the Housing Appeals Board, the Commission on Aging, and the State Council on the Arts. This month, Senate Republicans are moving to save those entities. But each could look slightly different moving forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a series of votes, the Senate Finance Committee gave initial approval to amendments that would reverse the cuts with conditions. Those amendments must be approved by the committee again next week, and then by the full Senate on June 5. Heres what the Senate has proposed. A business tax credit to fund the arts The House budget had eliminated the Arts Division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, including the New Hampshire Council on the Arts. That division had received about $1.7 million in state funding, and $2 million in federal funding. The Senates proposed amendment, passed Thursday, would restore the division, but change how it is funded. Rather than receiving general fund dollars, businesses could donate to the Granite Patron of the Arts Fund, and receive 50% of that donation as a credit against the business profits tax. The tax credit could give out a maximum of $350,000 a year, which would translate to a maximum potential budget of $1.4 million over two years for the arts fund. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The amendment is a shift in approach for Sen. Tim Lang, a Sanbornton Republican, who earlier proposed reducing funding for the Arts Division to $1. My inbox was filled when I allocated $1 for the Council on the Arts, and I took that to heart and I made changes, he said. This will allow for a tax break system it will still allow them to collect donations, but make it more incentivized by allowing those corporate donations or private donations. Democratic Sen. David Watters, of Dover, called the compromise very helpful. I think that making sure that we have the core operations covered, so that there can be somebody who actually goes out and tries to sell these tax credits, that is good, and I think that will keep the office functioning, he said. A position cut for the Housing Appeals Board The Senate restored funding to the Housing Appeals Board, which is designed to give developers and residents an alternative to the state court system to resolve conflicts with local zoning and planning boards. The House had cut that panel entirely, which costs $560,864 over two years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Senate Finance Chairman James Gray said the committee would recommend eliminating a position within that board, and would attach the board to the states Board of Tax and Land Appeals, which handles disputes over state and local taxes as well as property assessments. Gray said the attachment was designed to save on personnel costs to run both boards. Aging commission restored; Commission for Human Rights to receive more scrutiny The Senate Finance Committee recommended reviving the Commission for Human Rights, a panel designed to investigate discrimination complaints and pass them on to the Attorney Generals Office for potential prosecution under state anti-discrimination statutes. The House had abolished the commission, but the Senate restored it, at a cost of $2.7 million over two years. But another Senate amendment would require the Department of Justices civil rights unit to oversee the commission. The amendment would also mandate that the chairperson of the commission be a licensed attorney in the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The committee also proposed restoring funding to the State Commission on Aging, at $150,000 per year. Currently, that is funded at $280,432 per year; the House had voted to eliminate the commission. The commission, established in 2019, is charged with making recommendations on how the state can support older residents and increase the health care workforce for direct care. Senators revise expected revenues higher The votes this week came as the Finance Committee decided to follow a rosier outlook for revenues the next two years. On Wednesday, Lang, who is also the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said Department of Revenue Administration Commissioner Lindsey Stepp had recommended new projections for the states business profits tax, meals and rooms tax, and real estate transfer tax. The new projections would increase business tax revenues by $75 million over the biennium; the meals and rooms tax by $27.8 million; and the real estate transfer tax by $5 million. Lang cited analyses from Morningstar and Kiplinger, two research firms, that suggested New Hampshire could benefit from uncertain economic conditions by attracting people seeking to save money or take local vacations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Dan Innis, a Bradford Republican, backed up Langs analysis, arguing he believes revenues will come in even stronger than Langs proposed increase. But a Democratic senator, Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua, said she disagrees with the move to increase projected business tax collections. Rosenwald said she had her own conversation with Stepp, and had received a more mixed assessment of businesses. If the tariff stuff doesnt calm down, thats going to lead to more business uncertainty, but if the extension of the federal tax cuts gets made (in Congress), businesses will like that, because they like certainty, Rosenwald said. So Im not comfortable with increasing the business tax rates. Adopting those new projections will allow the Senate to plan for nearly $108 million more in revenue over the next two years, which could help it ease some cuts imposed by the House. The committee voted to approve the new revenue figures on party lines, 5-2. Affordable housing money increase blocked The committee voted on Wednesday against a proposal to increase the amount of money transferred to the states affordable housing fund from $5 million to $7 million. That money comes out of the states real estate transfer tax. Watters argued that the fund should be increased to allow more development because the current amount is not enough. Initially, Democrats and affordable housing advocates had pushed for the annual transfers to the fund to be doubled, to $10 million. Haribo is recalling bags of its fizzy cola bottles in the Netherlands after cannabis was found in some of them. Authorities began investigating when several people, including children, became unwell after eating candy from one-kilo (2.2-pound) bags of Haribo Happy Cola F!ZZ, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) told CNN. Samples taken from the cola bottles revealed that the product was laced with cannabis, NVWA said, adding that Dutch police are now investigating how the candy became contaminated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How the cannabis ended up in the sweets is still unknown, the food standards regulatory body said. CNN has contacted the Dutch police for comment. Through a statement issued by NVWA, Haribo said it was recalling bags with a best-before date of January 2026 and warned consumers not to eat the candy. It said the measure was precautionary, as only three bags were found to be contaminated as of Thursday. The recall is limited to a specific product and batch in the Netherlands, with products in other countries unaffected, the German confectionary giant told CNN in a statement. The company is working closely with the authorities to support their investigation and establish the facts around the contamination, it added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Incidents of candy becoming contaminated with illegal drugs are not uncommon, though they rarely involve commercial products. In 2023, more than 60 elementary school students were hospitalized in Jamaica after unknowingly eating cannabis-laced candy. The same year, two people were arrested and charged when seven Virginia elementary students ate gummy bears from a plastic bag with fentanyl residue on it. In 2019, Pennsylvania police warned parents after finding packets of THC-laced edibles made to look exactly like Nerds Rope candies. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) A Dauphin County woman is accused of stealing more than $23,000 from a man trying to get his family from Vietnam to the United States. According to the charges filed by Swatara Township Police, Gracie Deguia-Reed, 54, of Harrisburg, allegedly never filed to sponsor the victims family despite telling him she was in the process of getting them to the U.S. The charges filed show the victim was trying to get six people to go through the U.S. immigration process, and Deguia-Reed claimed shed sponsor them if she was paid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deguia-Reed is accused of leading the victim on for months despite collecting thousands of dollars. Police said they saw in January months worth of texts that showed how detailed the alleged scam was. Business owner paying back Pennsylvania families he stole $200k from in casket, gravestone orders A total of $23,500 was stolen from the victim, who made four different payments to Deguia-Reed, according to police. After making the first three payments to Deguia-Reed, she allegedly claimed she could have his family in the U.S. by Thanksgiving 2024, and asked the victim for more money for travel expenses. She then told him shed pay him back eventually, police noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanksgiving came, and Deguia-Reed told the man that his family would be here by Christmas, and when that came, she again pushed back the date to sometime in February, the charges filed state. Excuses she allegedly presented to the victim included Donald Trump becoming President, delays with the U.S. Embassy, and pending documents. Police said the victim went to Deguia-Reeds home to confront her, but found out she didnt live there anymore since she was previously arrested by Lower Paxton Township Police. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Severe Weather Alerts Deguia-Reed proceeded to spend the money on gift cards and a Republic of the Philippines passport found in her old room at the house she used to live, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were contacted by police and reported they had nothing filed by Deguia-Reed regarding sponsorship. It was also discovered that she is not a legal U.S. citizen, the charges filed noted. Police said when they spoke with her at Dauphin County Prison, Deguia-Reed allegedly lied nearly the entire time. Police said they can not determine what she told them was true, but she did allegedly admit to certain parts of the scam. Deguia-Reed faces a felony charge of theft in connection with the immigration sponsorship investigation and is currently in Dauphin County Prison after Magisterial District Judge Michael Smith set bail at $25,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 9. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was also noted by police that she was previously arrested in 2017 for stealing more than $180,000 from a client while she was a caregiver. 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 ABC27. Harvard University President Alan Garber took a not-so-subtle jab at President Donald Trump on Thursday as his administration continues to pile on its attacks toward the Ivy League institution. Garber, who has previously ripped the administrations perplexing approach to federal funding cuts, used his welcoming remarks at the universitys commencement ceremony to knock Trump without saying his name. Members of the class of 2025 from down the street, across the country, and around the world, said Garber, who was initially met with a minute-long wave of cheers and applause when he graced the stage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He went on to stress, Around the world, just as it should be. His comments, which got a roaring ovation from the thousands of graduates and Harvard community members in attendance, appeared to be a swipe at the Trump administrations push to bar the university from enrolling international students, a plan that was blocked by a federal judge. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs extended an order blocking the move she imposed on the administration at a federal court in Boston last week, not from Harvards campus. Garbers remarks seemingly drew the ire of deputy White House press secretary Harrison Fields, who, in a statement to The Daily Beast, reiterated one of the pretexts for the administrations attacks on the Ivy League school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The real threat to higher education comes when places like Harvard let their students civil rights get trampled in a spineless attempt to coddle pro-Hamas activists, Fields said. President Trump is standing up for every student denied an education or safe campus because left-wing universities fail to protect their civil rights. He continued, Colleges are hooked on federal cash, and Mr. Garbers public outbursts only fuel the push to shut off the taxpayer money propping up their institution. So far in its fight with Harvard, the White House has frozen billions in federal funding to the university and has reportedly considered canceling all remaining federal contracts with the institution, all while Trump has threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status. Related... (NewsNation) Disagreements about Harvard Universitys policies continue, even as the academic institution gained a legal edge Thursday in its battle with the Trump administration over international students. A federal judge Thursday extended an order blocking the Trump administrations attempt to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students, part of a wider fight between the president and the Ivy League school. Harvard grads cheer commencement speakers who urge the school to stand strong Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brooke Goldstein, executive director of the pro-Israel Lawfare Project, faults Harvard for not cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security, which has sought information from Harvard about its international students. Having a student-exchange and visa program, being able to import students from abroad, is a privilege. Its not a right, and it comes with a lot of responsibilities, Goldstein told NewsNation Now Thursday. And No. 1 (in) that responsibility is transparency. Critics have said Harvard has tolerated an environment in which Jewish students feel afraid in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. The Trump administration has targeted international students whom officials say are supporting Hamas or working counter to U.S. foreign policy interests. Harvard history professor Maya Jasanoff said criticisms of Harvards shortcomings have been overblown. She says the Trump administration is effectively trying to seize control of the institution for political reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transparency and the rule of law are vital to this country, Jasonoff said, but what were seeing here is a wild overreach that goes way beyond any recognizable rule of law for political purposes. In his continuing fight with Harvard, Trump has frozen billions in federal funding and has suggested the universitys tax-exempt status should be revoked. One Harvard professor, Steven Pinker, recently suggested the president may be suffering from Harvard Derangement Syndrome. 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. Swiss doctor Kiu Caracani (4th R) discusses treatment plans with other medical workers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, March 24, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Jinzheng) HEFEI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- In a quiet consultation room filled with herbs and meridian charts, a seasoned Swiss doctor takes a patient's pulse -- practicing a centuries-old Chinese healing art far from home. Trained in both Western and Chinese medicine, Swiss doctor Kiu Caracani is currently seeing patients and engaging in medical exchanges at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. His visits to the hospital have become an annual tradition -- part of his long-standing dedication to exploring and sharing the healing philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). "In my eyes, TCM is like music," he said. "Just like when we hear a beautiful melody in a restaurant and our bodies start to sway unconsciously, TCM brings harmony to the body and peace to the mind." For more than 50 years, Caracani has devoted his life to practicing and promoting TCM around the world. His journey began not in China, but as a boy in the Italian countryside, where at the age of five, he met a Chinese doctor who treated patients with acupuncture and herbs. "I saw people cured with just a few silver needles and herbal concoctions," Caracani recalled. "That day, I decided to become someone like him." Starting with the study of acupuncture points and meridian systems, Caracani practiced needling techniques on himself. Over time, he became a strong believer in the integrative power of TCM. "Acupuncture works fast," he said. "Western medicine rarely shows such immediate results. And Chinese medicine has been evolving for over 5,000 years -- each era bringing new insights." Today, Caracani is founder and CEO of the International Group of Researchers and Development for Complementary Medicine (IRCM), based in Switzerland. He operates TCM clinics in Lausanne, Geneva and Oxford, providing monthly care to over 400 patients. His clinical expertise spans cancer support, neurological disorders and mental health, where he combines Eastern techniques with Western diagnostics. "When I help one patient, they often return with their entire family," Caracani said. "I remember a regional governor who came in for treatment -- and next time, he brought 20 people with him." In Switzerland, TCM is officially recognized and included in the national healthcare system, following a public referendum. "My hometown Lausanne alone has about 35 TCM clinics," he noted. "There are Chinese practitioners, but also many trained Europeans. Our patients span all ages and backgrounds." Caracani's influence extends beyond Switzerland, reaching as far as Peru, Georgia, Russia and countries across Europe, where he treats patients and advocates for the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine through lectures and collaboration. Nowadays, coming to China has become a regular part of Caracani's life. Whether organizing teams of doctors for professional development or bringing his own patients for joint treatment and academic exchanges, he rarely comes alone. "I work with Chinese doctors and specialists almost every month to provide online consultations for international patients, tailoring integrated treatment plans that combine both Western and Chinese medicine," said Caracani. In addition to offering customized treatment plans for international patients, Caracani also plans to collaborate with universities and hospitals in Anhui to train TCM practitioners from Europe, with the initiative set to launch in 2026. Caracani is not just a practitioner -- he's a cultural ambassador. His organization, IRCM, regularly hosts international TCM events. In 2021, he invited students from Anhui University of Chinese Medicine to attend a conference in Lausanne. In 2023, he traveled to Huangshan City in Anhui to attend the Xin'an Medicine Development Conference. He planed to co-host an international acupuncture symposium in partnership with Chinese universities. He is also working with doctors and researchers from France, Germany, India, Russia and China on an English-language encyclopedia of Chinese medicine. Currently, TCM gains greater global influence. Customs data showed that China exported TCM products worth 5.28 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. China has signed cooperation agreements on TCM with over 40 foreign governments, regional bodies, and international organizations. As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, 30 high-quality TCM centers have been set up overseas. "Doctors from Europe and the United States are deeply interested in traditional Chinese medicine, but often face a lack of structured education and clinical training opportunities," Caracani said. "I hope to help them better understand TCM via China's rich academic and practical resources." Swiss doctor Kiu Caracani (2nd R) practises Wuqinxi, a traditional Chinese exercise that imitates the movements of five animals, with other medical workers and patients at the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, March 24, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Jinzheng) HONOLULU (KHON2) Looking for free meals for your keiki this summer? Hawaii Foodbank has you covered. Hawaii Foodbank expecting cuts from federal funding as need continues to grow Sun Meals and Kaukau 4 Keiki, Hawaii Foodbanks summer programs for students, are making a return this summer, providing free food for students when school is not in session. For many households, school-provided meals are a critical resource that helps families make it through each school day. But for families and children facing hunger, summer can mean up to 90 days without their most consistent source of food, said Hawaii Foodbank President and CEO Amy Miller. These programs help to fill that gap. By providing free meals for students throughout the summer, we hope to take some of the stress off both keiki and their parents to ensure everyone is able to come back healthy and ready to learn in the falland reach their full potential in the future. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You Sun Meals will be holding various meal sites across the island with no registration required. The locations and times are listed here: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Linapuni Elementary 1434 Linapuni St, Honolulu, HI 96819 June 3 to June 27, closed June 11 Lunch: 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Wahiawa Elementary School 1402 Glen Ave, Wahiawa, HI 96786 June 9 to June 30 (closed June 11) July 14 to July 25 Lunch: 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Salt Lake Elementary 1131 Ala Lilikoi St, Honolulu, HI 96818 June 18 to July 10, closed July 4 Lunch: 10:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. The Shelter 47-323 Ahuimanu Road, Kaneohe, HI 96744 Thursdays: June 12, 19, 26, July 10, 17 Lunch: 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. Waimanalo Emergency Shelter 41-490 Saddle City Road, Waimanalo, HI 96795 June 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26; July 1, 8, 10, 15, 17 Lunch: 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement City & County of Honolulu at Kualoa Regional Park 49-479 Kamehameha Hwy, Kaneohe, HI 96744 (Campground A) June 20, 21, 27, 28; July 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26 Friday Supper: 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday Lunch: 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Liliha Public Library 1515 Liliha St, Honolulu, HI 96817 Every Friday for eight weeks of summer, excluding July 4 Lunch: 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Kaukau 4 Keiki will allow parents or guardians to pick up weekly meal boxes for each of their children at six different distribution sites starting June 2 through Aug. 1. Each box will contain groceries to prepare seven days of breakfast and lunch for one child, including fruits and vegetables, proteins, milk, fresh produce, bread and more. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You For more information, visit the Hawaii Foodbanks website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. NEED TO KNOW Legislators in Hawaii are implementing a hefty tax on tourism that they believe will help the state government take action against climate change Known as the first ever "Green Fee" in the country, Hawaii's Act 96 will raise the state's current transient accommodations tax (TAT) to 11%, meaning travelers staying in a hotel room that costs $300 per night will have to pay a $2.25 fee The money will then be used for civic projects such as replenishing sand on eroding beaches in Waikiki, implementing hurricane clips to secure roofs, and clearing flammable brush that contributed to the 2023 wildfire Legislators in Hawaii are implementing a hefty tax on tourism that they believe will help the state government take action against climate change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the Associated Press and USA Today, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signed a bill on Tuesday, May 27, that increased a tax on hotel room, vacation rentals and cruise ships to raise money to be used for issues such as eroding shorelines, wildfires and more. Known as the first ever "Green Fee" in the country, Hawaii's Act 96 will raise the state's current transient accommodations tax (TAT) by 0.75%, making the taxes on nightly lodging rates 11%. The tax will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, according to a press release from Green's office. According to USA Today, travelers will have to pay a fee based on the nightly rate of their travel accommodations. For example, travelers staying in a hotel room that costs $300 per night will have to pay a $2.25 fee. Getty Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. "Once again, Hawai'i is at the forefront of protecting our natural resources, recognizing their fundamental role in sustaining the ecological, cultural and economic health of Hawai'i," Green said in a statement. "As an island chain, Hawai'i cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action. We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cruise ships were previously able to bypass this fee, according to the outlets, but the new bill hopes to promote "equity across the tourism industry, ensuring that all visitors to Hawaii contribute to the islands long-term resilience and well-being," per the press release. Officials estimate that the signing of this bill, which comes nearly two years after the Maui wildfire that more than 100 people and wiped out almost an entire town, will generate nearly $100 million annually. The money will then be used for civic projects such as replenishing sand on eroding beaches in Waikiki, implementing hurricane clips to secure roofs, and clearing flammable brush that contributed to the 2023 wildfire, according to the AP. Green added that other projects will include building more firebreaks and paying a soon-to-be-hired fire marshal a new position created after the 2023 fire, per the AP. Getty A hotel resort in Kauai. A hotel resort in Kauai. 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 governor also said that hotels in Hawaii were largely supportive of the tax. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I mahalo the tourism industry for stepping up and collaborating on this initiative, which will preserve Hawaii for kamaaina and visitors alike," Green explained. "The fee will restore and remediate our beaches and shorelines and harden infrastructure critical to the health and safety of all who call Hawaii home, whether for a few days or a lifetime." Hawaii State Senator Lynn DeCoite said that it was "common sense and responsibility" to implement this tax. "I think it's really about our kuleana, to the state, to the people of Hawai'i. Climate change is here and has been a super-huge challenge for all of us," she added in the release. "...The bill shares the responsibility of caring for our home with those who come to visit, to ensure that our natural resources are cared for, for future generations." Read the original article on People Hawaiian hoteliers are expressing concern about a new tourist tax signed into law by Governor Josh Green this week that could keep visitors away from the popular US holiday destination. "I am extremely worried about getting too expensive for the people that come here to Hawaii," Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance, said. "You always have to balance those decisions, and we're certainly getting up to a point where we need to really be careful and watch it." Gibson was speaking after Green signed the relevant bill the first of its kind in the United States on Tuesday. "As an island chain, Hawaii cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action," Green posted on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future," he said. Hawaiian authorities expect the new tax to bring in almost $100 million per year. Almost 10 million visitors came to the Pacific Ocean islands during 2023. The tax is being billed as a reaction to the catastrophic wildfires that hit Maui, the second-largest island in the archipelago, in August two years ago. More than 100 people died, and Lahaina, a popular tourist destination, was devastated. That devastation was attributed in part to climate change. The 11% Transient Accommodation Tax represents a rise of 0.75% on the taxes tourists already pay, according to USA Today. It will be charged to tourists staying in hotels or holiday accommodation from January 1 next year. Two unique job training centers in Hawaii are slated for closure in a Trump administration move to terminate the federal governments 61-year-old Job Corps program. The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday that Job Corps operations nationwide, which provide low-income youth and young adults with vocational training and schooling, will cease by June 30. Labor Department officials said the federally funded program operated by contractors has high costs and failed to achieve satisfactory results. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement announcing the decision. However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve. We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the programs possibilities. There are two Job Corps centers in Hawaii among about 125 nationwide : one in Waimanalo on Oahu and one in Makawao on Maui. Both provide students with on-campus housing, meals, health care, activities and a basic living allowance during their academic and vocational training. The program is free to students, who must be ages 16 to 24, and is wholly funded by the federal government. Between the Oahu and Maui campuses, there are 209 enrolled students and 161 staff. There were also 50 students awaiting acceptance into Hawaiis program, which provides vocational training in about a dozen industries, including culinary arts, hospitality, landscaping, construction, auto repair, health care, office administration, painting and security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chris Lum Lee, chair of the Oahu Workforce Development Board, a city entity that helps provide education and job training to youth and adults, said losing Job Corps will leave a hole in the states workforce development ecosystem. Its pretty bad, he said. I dont think theres anything like it out there or anything that could really do what they did. The Labor Department said it is collaborating with state and local workforce partners to assist current students in advancing their training and connecting them with other education and employment opportunities, and that there will be an orderly transition for students, staff and communities. Lum Lee said the Oahu Workforce Development Board and its service provider attended a resource fair at the Waimanalo Job Corps campus Wednesday to enroll some students into board programs. But he said the specialized industry training that Job Corps provided in a live-and-learn setting cannot easily be replaced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For them to go out, it really is a loss, he said. U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, said she plans to fight the shutdown, which she called shortsighted and reckless. This isnt budget management ; its a betrayal, Tokuda said in a statement. Job Corps works. It gives vulnerable youth the tools to build stable futures and creates economic opportunities in our communities. As part of the basis for shutting down Job Corps nationally, the Labor Department cited results from an analysis of program operations nationwide during 2023 that it released April 25. Study results included a finding that participants after leaving the program earned $16, 695 annually on average, and that 39 % of students graduated from the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Program expenses averaged $155, 601 for every graduate and $80, 285 per year per student, according to the report. The study also said there were 14, 913 safety incidents in 2023, including 2, 702 reports of drug use, 1, 808 hospital visits, 1, 764 reported acts of violence, 1, 167 safety or security breaches and 372 reports of sexual harassment or assault. For Hawaii in 2023, the study found that 63.5 % of students graduated and that it cost $34, 088 per graduate and $14, 795 a year per student, while the average annual income after leaving the program was $15, 164. The report said there were 79 incidents at Hawaii Job Corps, though incidents were not categorized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hawaii Job Corps cost $4.3 million in 2023, according to the report. The Labor Department said Job Corps overall cost about $1.8 billion in 2023 and is projected to incur a $213 million deficit this year. Management &Training Corp., a Utah-based company that operates 16 Job Corps centers, including the two in Hawaii, called the Labor Departments decision deeply troubling. Hawaii Job Corps, according to MTC, has consistently been among top-performing centers nationally, with academic and career technical training programs currently ranked No. 1 and placement services currently ranking in the top five. Their staff capture the true essence of the aloha spirit, bringing hope and career pathways for countless young adults for the state of Hawaii and greater Polynesia, company spokesperson Emily Lawhead said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MTC claims that the Labor Department study presents a distorted picture of the program by focusing on high costs, alleged inefficiencies and almost entirely minor incidents while failing to recognize what MTC called undeniable successes that include students gaining higher-paying jobs, joining the military or enrolling in further schooling. We are devastated by this decision, as it marks a tragic step backward for young people across the country, the company said. The closure of Job Corps represents not just a loss of educational opportunity, but also a loss of hope for many who rely on this program to break the cycle of poverty and achieve career success. According to MTC, the report ignores the total average cost per student of $49, 769 that is comparable to community college costs when adjusted for housing, meals, medical care and other things provided by Job Corps. MTC also said the programs 38 % graduation rate in 2023 was better than a 31 % national average for two-year colleges, and that pre-COVID-19, the Job Corps graduation rate was over 60 %. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, MTC said the median annual income for Job Corps graduates in 2024 was $31, 000 and that this exceeded federal goals. For the Hawaii Job Corps program, MTC said graduates in 2024 earned $17.87 per hour on average, or almost $4 more than minimum wage, and that participants provided more than 17, 000 hours of community service work. The federal program was established as part of the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act under a war on poverty initiative of then-President Lyndon Johnson. The first Job Corps Center in Hawaii opened in 1966 as a regional center serving Hawaii residents as well as people from Pacific islands with ties to the federal government, including Guam, Micronesia, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For a long time the main Hawaii Job Corps Center campus was on the slopes of Koko Crater ; it later moved to a new $13 million facility in Waimanalo due to plans by the city to expand Koko Head District Park. There also had been satellite campuses on Kauai and Hawaii island previously. Its unfortunate that its shutting down, Lum Lee said. There was a lot of value to the program. The governor did not appear at Wednesdays heariing for his bill, which he has dubbed the Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act. (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current) Republican Gov. Joe Lombardos wide-ranging crime bill was heavily criticized at its first hearing this week for not only seeking to undermine previous reforms passed in 2019, but for being crafted without any consultation with organizations involved in criminal justice reforms. With four days left in session, I dont view this as being a sound approach to policy making, said Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the ACLU of Nevada to the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Its just, I think were out of time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lombardo was absent from Wednesdays hearing of Senate Bill 457, which he has deemed the Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act. The legislation was presented by the Washoe County District Attorneys office and George Togliatti, the director of the Nevada Department of Safety. The bill reduces the felony threshold for theft from $1,200 to $750, and proposes harsher punishment for a variety of crimes, including for people charged with repeated felony DUI offenses and those in possession of child pornography. The legislation would provide stricter punishment for youth who commit repeated crimes against teachers or social service workers, while also limiting eligibility for diversion programs for those convicted of felony abuse, neglect or exploitation of children or the elderly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Nevada Crime Statistics shows property crimes, violent crimes and domestic violence have all decreased from 2023 to 2024. In a presentation to state lawmakers in February, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department noted that property crimes had decreased nearly 13% since 2023. When I look at some of these increases to the threshold for theft, I just think that we are putting more people into a situation which is going to really lead to higher recidivism rates, said Democratic state Sen. Rochelle Nguyen. In addition to not deterring crime, the legislations opponents said that move, along with other aspects of the bill, could drastically increase the prison population at a time the Nevada Department of Corrections is experiencing a budget shortfall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is a $42 million fiscal note attached to the bill. We heard already at a (legislative) committee meeting of almost $60 million in overtime being paid out, Haseebullah said, on top of lacking money to make needed repairs including to air conditioning systems. SB 457 was introduced April 7, roughly halfway through the session. Lawmakers questioned how a bill calling for substantial changes to the legal process has had so little input from anyone outside of the governors team, law enforcement and district attorneys. Its a lot to ask any organization to anticipate that the governors office is going to bring a bill of this magnitude, Nguyen said. I cant believe that this wasnt worked on during the last 18 months, since the last legislative session, since some of the provisions look very similar to what was presented in the last governors public safety bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tim Robb, the Homeland Security Adviser for the governors office, told lawmakers that we worked with anybody that reached out to us and said they made every effort to work with as many people who were available. That apparently didnt include public defenders from Clark or Washoe County, the ACLU of Nevada, or any other groups involved in criminal legal reforms. We werent involved in this at all, Angela Knott with the Washoe County Public Defenders Office. We never received any other communication until yesterday, when we got the apology for not being included in this process. There has never been any genuine effort by the DAs office or the governors office to hear from the people who are most directly affected by this bill. Republican state Sen. Ira Hansen, who said he supports several of the bills provisions, agreed that people that sponsored the bill may have dropped the ball and the discussion around the bill should have been going on prior to the hearing in front of us with four or five days left. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn Monday. Still fighting those 2019 reforms On the campaign trail in 2022, Lombardo vowed to undo legislation passed in 2019 that brought modest reforms to the criminal legal process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of our laws in Nevada were changed by that, Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks told lawmakers Wednesday. I think theres a lot of arguments in support and a lot of arguments that can be made negatively about that bill. He added the governors bill this session, seeks to strike the balance. Clark and Washoe County public defenders, the ACLU of Nevada and the Nevada Fines and Fees Justice Center prepared a counter presentation not only to raise concerns about various aspects of the legislation but to remind lawmakers why they passed reforms in the first place. The 2019 legislation came together after years of data collection that began under Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval in 2018, said John Piro with the Clark County Public Defenders Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It wasnt just public defenders coming up with ideas, Piro said. The Department of Justice came here to Nevada to study ways to reduce crime, reduce recidivism, and improve outcomes while saving money. At the time legislation was being drafted in early 2019, we were 15th highest in incarceration, Piro said, adding that data showed 66% of first-time non-violent offenders entering into the prison system had no prior felonies. The states legal process not only threatened to explode the prison population and significantly increase costs a data analysis projected the current trajectory would increase the prison systems budget by an additional 9 percent by 2028, costing an estimated $770 million it also didnt address root causes of why people enter prison or focus efforts on reducing recidivism. The legislation lawmakers ultimately passed in 2019, which lowered penalties for non-violent theft and drug crimes while increasing access to diversion programs and specialty court programs, had several iterations as it incorporated concessions based on input from district attorneys and police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similar input from public defenders, the ACLU and other groups werent considered in the legislation Lombardo is proposing now, Piro said Wednesday. There are some provisions in Lombardos bill, such as those addressing DUI offenses, that those against the bill could support, he added. These are things that we could have told them had they come and talked to us before, Piro said. Weve been here the whole time. Lawmakers took no action on the bill. PIERCE CITY, Mo. A public hearing is held for residents to voice their concerns about several new poultry feeding operations looking to operate in Newton and Lawrence Counties. The meeting in Pierce City was held by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and centers on whether to grant wastewater operating permits for seven proposed concentrated animal feeding operation facilities or CAFOs. Neighbors and stakeholders, they have a right to have their voice heard on how they feel about these types of facilities. So, this kind of engagement is really important for us to be able to hear what they have to say and consider those comments either for this permit or for future permitting decisions, said MO DNR Operating Permit Section Chief, Ashley Grupe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the applications, most of those operations would be in Lawrence County, near Wentworth and Verona. Lawrence County Resident, Jenny Anger says shes concerned about groundwater contamination. To have such a high concentration of CAFOs in such a small area is greatly concerning to myself and my husband, my kids, and my grandkids, said Anger. Robert Brundage, environmental attorney and general counsel to the Missouri Cattlemans Association, says he supports issuing the permits. These facilities here are dry poultry manure. Just the facility itself is dry poultry manure, under a roof where its not rained on or its coming in and taken off site. So, the CAFO itself is not going to be polluting any waters of the state, said Brundage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DNR says each comment will be taken into consideration. Well review the comments, see what we can do within our authority under the Missouri Clean Water Law, and then we will render a decision to either issue the permit or deny the permit application, said Grupe. No date has been set for making a final decision. 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. Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller repeatedly butted heads with CNN anchor Pamela Brown during a wide-ranging and often heated interview on Friday that touched on several topics that included the presidents tariffs, the recent Supreme Court decision on temporary immigration protection status and Elon Musks reported drug use. Browbeating and insulting Brown throughout the lengthy and tense discussion, the Situation Room host finally shot back after the White House deputy chief of staff refused to let her get a word in edgewise or allow her to conduct the interview. Stephen, this is my show, Brown scolded her guest at one point as he continued to performatively shout. I want to hear what you have to say. Ive been respectful and given you the opportunity. But I also need to jump in because time is of the essence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amid a spate of bombshell headlines surrounding the Trump administration over the past 48 hours, Miller was first asked about Donald Trumps claim on Friday that China totally violated the interim deal that resulted in both countries dialing back their retaliatory and punitive tariffs. President Trump alone has had the courage to stand up and say that we are not going to allow China to economically dominate the United States, Miller dramatically declared. We are not going to allow China to take from us the materials, the manufacturing capacity, the industrial capacity that we need to protect America and to keep America safe. Trump aide Stephen Miller argues with CNN anchor Pamela Brown during a heated exchange on Friday. (CNN) Brown, meanwhile, wondered what the White House would specifically do to China now that it says its violating the agreement with the United States, and whether that included raising the tariffs back up to 145 percent. Miller suggested that the State Departments plan to aggressively revoke student visas of those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party was how the administration was retaliating against China. At the same time, he wouldnt divulge whether Trump would increase tariffs against the American adversary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, Im not going to detail for you right now on the entire hand that the president is willing to play, he shot back. I would just put it this way. There are measures that have already been taken. After Miller railed against the Chinese for a couple of more minutes, Brown finally stepped in so she could ask him about the Supreme Court ruling that the administration could revoke humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants. We have other topics, but I wanted to make sure you said what you wanted to say. And I hope that you got your response out there on China, she noted. I want to go to what is a big win today for the administration from the Supreme Court. Still, Miller took offense a moment later when Brown pointed out that while the White House is extremely happy with this ruling, it was just a day ago that members of the administration were complaining about rogue judges over court decisions they dislike. Especially when she wondered if it was the administrations position that courts should just act as a rubber stamp for the president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Let me finish, let me finish, I will answer the question happily, Miller fumed over the implication of Browns question. But look, when you have these kinds of lazy assumptions built into questions, it makes it hard to have a constructive dialogue. The heated back-and-forth, which Brown has had to contend with recently from other Trump allies, continued over the next 10 minutes, eventually resulting in the veteran CNN host informing Miller that she was in charge of the interview. This is my show, she exhaustedly pointed out, wanting to dive into the recent controversy over an undocumented migrant potentially being set up over a threat to the president. In the end, though, that exchange also fell apart as Brown suggested Miller was speaking to her disrespectfully. Stephen, I want this to be and call me naive a good faith discussion about whats happening right now, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, when we use language thats designed to obscure the truth, thats not good faith, he sneered, insisting that she use the term illegal alien rather than undocumented migrant. As for the recent reports that departing first buddy Elon Musk whose last day as a special government employee is Friday was using drugs intensely and regularly while working with DOGE, Miller whose wife is leaving the administration to work for Musk full-time said he had no concerns. All I can say is that DOGE has done an extraordinary job rooting out systemic waste, graft, grift and corruption from the federal government, and you're going to hear from the president today his thanks to Elon Musk for leading that effort to save taxpayers billions of dollars, he told Brown. Several dozen wildfires burning in Canada have led local authorities to declare states of emergencies and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Now, they are expected to send smoke drifting into the United States on Friday. As of Friday, there are 174 active wildfires in Canada, with 94 of these considered to be "out of control," meaning fires that are being observed and assessed, but not immediately suppressed, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. PHOTO: Manitoba, Canada Wildfires Force Evacuations, Sherridon - 29 May 2025 (Government Of Manitoba/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) Smoke blowing into the United States Some of the smoke from these fires will run along winds that are turning south in the coming days -- carrying it into the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Northern Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and most of Wisconsin are under air quality alerts, with the smoke considered dangerous for sensitive groups. Most people can still remain active outdoors, but should take breaks indoors and monitor if symptoms like shortness of breath or coughing arise. PHOTO: ABC News (ABC News) Heavy smoke will reach Green Bay, Wisconsin, at approximately noon local time on Friday, creating hazy skies. Going into Friday afternoon and evening, noticeable smoke is expected over Michigan and Chicago. PHOTO: ABC News (ABC News) Sunset in Milwaukee and Chicago on Friday may have an orange hue, as well, with heavy wildfire smoke projected to reach the area by nightfall and potentially spreading as far as Detroit. PHOTO: ABC News (ABC News) The smoke will continue to disperse as it moves into Appalachia and the Southeast on Saturday, with another batch of smoke expected to travel into the Dakotas and Great Plains. What we know about the fires As of Friday, the areas in Canada with the most fires include British Columbia with 61 and Alberta with 51. The country is also now at the highest National Preparedness Level, meaning they have requested international help to put out the flames and equipment and personnel from every jurisdiction in Canada is being put to use. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe declared a state of emergency for the Canadian province on Thursday amid a spate of wildfire outbreaks. PHOTO: Smoke rises from the Kiskatinaw River wildfire (G70422) which has prompted evacuation orders, ten kilometres southwest of Kelly Lake, British Columbia, Canada May 29, 2025. (BC Wildfire via Reuters) There were 17 active wildfires in Saskatchewan as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency President and Fire Commissioner Marlo Pritchard said during an afternoon press conference. Of those, three were contained, eight were not contained and five were under assessment, he added, while one was listed as "protecting values" -- referring to a process of setting up tactics, such as water sprinklers, to guide the fire away from areas that could increase risk or damage. MORE: Greer Fire expands to 20,000 acres, over 700 personnel battling flames Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Travel may be impacted due to forest fires in northern Saskatchewan," the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline said in a post on the Government of Saskatchewan's Facebook page on Thursday afternoon. "We've had to evacuate and support the evacuation of about 15 communities," Moe said during the same press conference on Thursday. He explained there has been a "significant lack of moisture" in the northern parts of the province causing "over 200 wildfires" in Saskatchewan this spring. PHOTO: A wildfire burns in Sherridon, Manitoba, Canada, May 27, 2025. (Government Of Manitoba/AFP via Getty Images) Amid his emergency declaration, wildfires continued to spread in the northern part of the province and into other parts of Canada. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The neighboring province of Manitoba had first declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as wildfires forced some 17,000 people to flee, according to The Associated Press. MORE: Why glaciologists believe the Birch Glacier collapsed, burying a nearby Swiss town Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered "Canada's full support" to the province in a post on X on Wednesday. "The premier and I are in close contact, and the federal government stands ready to assist Manitoba's provincial wildfire teams," Carney wrote in the post. The region saw 15 active fires as of Thursday night, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. ABC News' Ellie Kaufman, Kenton Gewecke and Daniel Manzo contributed to this report. Map: US states could face unhealthy air quality due to Canada wildfires originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The Senate Armed Services Committees top Democrat is blasting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his decision this week to appoint a new director of the Pentagons operational test enterprise and rapidly cut its staff by more than half. Hegseth said his directed reorganization, which would reduce the staff, budget and resources at the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), supports the Defense Departments America First strategy, according to a Tuesday memo. But Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said Thursday the move is reckless and damaging to military accountability and oversight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For decades, DOT&E has played a vital, legally mandated role in safeguarding the integrity of major defense programs and ensuring military systems are effective before they are put into warfighters hands, Reed said in a statement. He said Hegseth has given no logical reasoning for this action, and he is worried the move appears retaliatory, driven by Mr. Hegseths opposition to some of DOT&Es recent, legally required oversight decisions. The Pentagon chiefs change up of the DOT&E will see its staff of 94 personnel including 82 civilians and 12 service members axed back in seven days to just 30 civilians, 15 military personnel and one senior leader, the newly appointed acting Director Carroll Quade. Quade, who was up until now the Navys deputy for test and evaluation, takes over from Raymond OToole, who has served as acting director of the office since January and twice as an acting deputy director since January 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hegseth also ordered all contractor personnel support to end within seven days of the memos release. The Pentagon chief justified the cuts by claiming an internal review identified redundant, non-essential, non-statutory functions within ODOT&E that do not support operational agility or resource efficiency, affecting our ability to rapidly and effectively deploy the best systems to the warfighter. He estimated the changes will save more than $300 million annually. The Defense Departments test and evaluation office is in charge of validating weapons and platforms across the U.S. military, setting policies, providing oversight and publishing annual testing updates on such major weapons programs as the F-35 fighter jet, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Columbia-class submarine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But cutting the office back to a skeleton crew with limited contractor backing may prevent it from providing adequate oversight for critical military programs, risking operational readiness and taxpayer dollars, Reed said. This kind of politically motivated interference undermines independent oversight and leaves warfighters and the public more vulnerable to untested, potentially flawed systems, he added. 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. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Singapores top leaders Friday to strengthen military ties as tensions simmer across the Indo-Pacific region. The bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing occurred on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit. The discussions underscore Americas pivot toward countering Chinas growing influence in Southeast Asia. Singapores strategic location makes it a crucial partner for Washingtons regional deterrence strategy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hegseth emphasized Singapores central role in U.S. efforts to re-establish military deterrence throughout the Indo-Pacific. Both sides exchanged views on mounting regional security challenges. The leaders focused heavily on maintaining what officials call a free and open Indo-Pacific. This phrase has become diplomatic shorthand for countering Chinese territorial claims in contested waters. Still, the talks produced concrete commitments beyond rhetoric. Both nations agreed to expand rotations of American naval and air force assets through Singapore. These expanded deployments build upon a 1990 agreement governing U.S. military facility usage in the city-state. The arrangement allows American forces to maintain a persistent regional presence without permanent bases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hegseth also pledged continued support for training Singapore Armed Forces personnel in the United States. The partnership has deepened military cooperation between the longtime allies for decades. The meetings reflect broader American efforts to shore up partnerships across Asia amid rising great power competition. Singapores modern military and strategic ports offer valuable staging areas for U.S. operations. Lisbon, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Thursday nominated Luis Montenegro as prime minister, following legislative elections and consultations with parliamentary parties. Montenegro, leader of the Democratic Alliance (AD) and president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), was asked to form a government after the AD coalition won the most seats in the May 18 snap elections, though it fell short of an absolute majority. The appointment will be formalized after the final election results are confirmed and the newly elected Assembly of the Republic holds its first session. Support for Montenegro's nomination came after separate meetings with Andre Ventura, leader of the far-right Chega party, and Carlos Cesar of the Socialist Party (PS). For the first time in its history, the PS fell to third place in Parliament -- a result widely described as unprecedented and politically damaging. Chega secured 60 seats, overtaking the PS, while the AD won 91 seats in the 230-member legislature. Although short of a majority, the AD is expected to lead a minority government with conditional backing from Chega and/or the PS. President Rebelo de Sousa confirmed that Montenegro was only granted the mandate to form a government after both Chega and the PS assured him they would support the installation of the new Executive and enable conditions for stable governance. Portugal, a parliamentary republic, held its third snap election in under four years on May 18, following the dissolution of Parliament by the president on March 13. Undated photo of the Pecos wilderness (courtesy Ralph Vigil) U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) renewed his call for the Upper Pecos watershed to be protected from mining claims in a letter sent recently to the top federal forestry official. In the May 23 letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, Heintch notes that watershed is crucial for fishing, agriculture and traditional uses, but has a history of poorly managed mining projects. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He noted New Mexico officials are still cleaning up pollution from a 1991 spill when snowmelt flooded an abandoned mine. The slurry spilled into the Pecos River and killed thousands of fish across 11 miles. New Mexico has spent millions of dollars on the cleanup, which remains ongoing. I would like to extend an invitation to you to visit New Mexico and the Pecos area so you can hear firsthand from local leaders, Tribes, community members, farmers, business owners, recreationists, and others while experiencing the beauty of this watershed, Heinrich wrote. While there, you can see why this river is so valuable and witness the very real threat of mining pollution that still exists. The invitation comes as the Trump administration reversed a decision to temporarily ban new mining development in the Upper Pecos made in December, prompting rebuke from members of the delegation, local officials and Pueblos of Jemez and Tesuque. Heinrichs letter contained additional entreaties from tribal leaders to visit, so Schultz can better understand the regions importance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Water is the blood of the Pueblo and all nearby communities. We cannot afford to again place our life-giving waters in the hands of foreign-owned mining corporations, wrote Tesuque Gov. Earl Samuel in a separate letter. Emails to the U.S. Department of Agriculture requesting comment about the letter and any response from Schultz went unreturned Friday. Luis Soriano, a spokesperson for Heinrich, said the office had not received a response to the letter as of Friday afternoon. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Ive never got an hour of help." Thats how Steven Smith sums up his experience with Leo Human Services, the for-profit agency that according to Medicaid billing records reviewed by KARE 11 charged taxpayers thousands of dollars for supposedly helping him find and keep a home. Don't miss Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Smith, whod just finished inpatient treatment for substance-use disorder, says he only received a few phone calls and never met anyone in person. Yet the company still sent a bill to Minnesotas Medicaid program. Smith's situation is part of a broader KARE 11 investigation that is shaking confidence in Minnesotas Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program, designed to help people with disabilities including those with mental health issues and substance-use disorders to find and maintain housing. Since its launch in July 2020, this initiative has already cost taxpayers $248 million, but investigations show it may not be reaching the vulnerable Minnesotans that it was designed to help. Allegations of forged signatures The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) which oversees the HSS told KARE 11 the housing and transition services are intended to help seniors and people with disabilities to get hands-on assistance with finding and maintaining housing. According to state rules, at least half of those services must be delivered in person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Smith says he received only a handful of phone calls. His girlfriend, Rachel Lien, has a similar story after Leo Human Services charged Medicaid $14,000 in her name. "I had never heard of this company," Lien told KARE 11. I never met with them. I never talked to them on the phone. Billing data shows that Leo Human Services run by Asad Adow out of a strip-mall office in Brooklyn Park billed Medicaid $1.2 million in 2024. When KARE 11 asked Leo Human Services for Smith's records, the paperwork included an electronic signature that Smith insists he never wrote. The signature also misspelled his name as Steven Jr Smith. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why would I say that Im Steven Jr Smith? Smith asked. My middle name is actually Steven Dwayne Smith. KARE 11 investigators took a look at the metadata taken from the PDF document that Smith allegedly signed and found that Smiths electronic signature which was dated August 28, 2023 was actually written the following day on August 29. The signature was also reportedly authored by someone who goes by the name of Wats Hanin. KARE 11 was unable to locate anyone by that name, and under DHS rules, providers are barred from signing documents for clients. When KARE 11 reporters confronted Adow in the parking lot outside his office, the latter denied any wrongdoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People say youre not doing work, that youre billing thousands of dollars for work thats not being done, said KARE 11 reporter A.J. Lagoe. Im doing everything correctly, Adow insisted before climbing into his car and driving off. Fraud worries around HSS are hardly new. According to KARE 11, a 2024 report from the housing nonprofit Hearth Connection warned of predatory activity to enroll individuals without their knowledge, including recruiters waiting around emergency shelters and misrepresenting their companies offerings. In a Senate hearing in January 2025, then-DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead downplayed the issue, saying theres a lot of rumors of fraud more than there is actual fraud. She resigned from her position just weeks later. Her interim successor, Shireen Gandhi, has taken a different tack: DHS now lists HSS as a high-risk service, subjecting providers to fingerprint checks and unannounced site visits. She confirmed 40 active fraud investigations are underway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its clear that these critical services need more oversight, Gandhi said in a press release. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan works every single time to kill debt, get rich in America and that anyone can do it What to do if you think you've been targeted When providers siphon off Medicaid dollars, the people HSS is meant to serve risk losing legitimate help at a time when affordable housing is scarce. It also breaks the public's trust in legitimate services, putting other important programs at risk. If you think youve been targeted by a fraudulent housing assistance program, there are steps you can take: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Verify the provider : Confirm the agency is enrolled and in good standing on the DHS website. Collect your records : Request detailed service logs and signatures, and remember to keep all correspondence. Report suspected fraud: Call the DHS Program Integrity hotline or submit an online tip using the Program Integrity Oversight hotline form. You can also file a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney Generals Office or your countys human services fraud unit. If you need assistance, seek help from verified programs. Housing navigators in your county and Continuum of Care agencies can connect you to legitimate support. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Housing Choice Voucher and Section 811 programs also offer rental assistance for people with disabilities. With new investigations launched and stricter screening on the horizon, state officials say theyre working hard to protect both vulnerable residents and public funds. But for people like Smith and Lien, their wish is simple: I think they need to be held accountable." What to read next Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like what you read? Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise straight to your inbox every week. Subscribe for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) Two fundraisers will be held and a GoFundMe has started for Cynthia Gaile Luna, who was tragically killed in Sonora, Texas earlier this week. Sonora murder suspect captured on Wednesday afternoon For anyone that would like to donate directly to the GoFundMe, click here. At the time this article was written, there has been $12,300 raised. A bake sale will be held for Luna on May 31, at Sonora Bronco Stadium starting at 9:30 a.m. The second fundraiser will be brisket plates for sell. The plates go on sell at 11 a.m. on May 31, at the Bank in Trust in Sonora, Texas. The brisket plates are sold by donation and will be cash only. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All proceeds will go towards the Funeral and to the kids of Luna. 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. Sara Kehaulani Goos journey to save her familys land on Maui began in 2019 with an email she read at her kitchen table in Washington, D.C. Sara, the Hana property taxes went up 500%, her dad wrote. If we cant find a way to pay, then the trust funds will be depleted in 7 years and we may be forced to sell it. Goo, who is Native Hawaiian, said it was the moment she realized she had to fight for her ancestral home, or risk it being lost forever. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In her new memoir, Kuleana a Hawaiian word that loosely translates into both privilege and responsibility Goo describes the efforts she and her relatives undertook to fight the tax increase and ensure that the land would remain in their family. But Kuleana is more than a story about rising taxes in Hawaii, its about what it means to be Indigenous and reclaim identity in diaspora while highlighting the costs of colonial land theft and its continuing harm to Hawaii. Goo challenges readers to think about what their responsibility to Hawaii is in light of how Indigenous land loss has drastically altered Hawaiis environment and made the archipelago precariously dependent upon imported food. Despite the U.S. overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Goos family had kept the title to their ancestral land that theyd received from Hawaiian royals, and they had the documents to prove it. They had setup a trust fund to pay for the property taxes, but despite those precautions, rising property taxes partially driven by out-of-state millionaires and billionaires buying up land threw the future of the familys land into question. Goo is a former staff writer at The Washington Post and former editor-in-chief of Axios. Grist spoke with her about what she learned writing her memoir, and what she hopes her readers take away from it. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q. Your memoir focuses on your fight to keep your familys land. Can you tell us more about what that land meant to you and why it was so important to keep it? A. Some people might think of it as an inheritance, but its more than that. This was something that my grandmother talked about to our family as something that she promised to her mother and her grandma. That it was something that she wanted us to continue to carry on. So it was an intergenerational promise, and even before I knew the word, it was how I understood kuleana to be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was very aware of how far a distance there was between me and Hawaii. That was uncomfortable for me, and I think thats why sitting there reading that email in my home in Washington, D.C., felt so uncomfortable: It could be the end of the line, and I very much did not want that to end with me. So I realized I needed to act and it was more than just about money. It was more than being about me. I needed to act on behalf of my children. It was a big wake-up call about where I was in my life and where my generation was in our lives. We had drifted too far from Hawaii in more ways than one. Q. Climate change doesnt figure heavily in this book, but it is something you acknowledge as an ongoing threat to the islands that compounds the trauma of colonialism. How do you see the relationship between Indigenous land ownership and climate change? A. One thing I hope that people will take away from this book is that they will think about, What is my kuleana? Because I think that it is a word that Hawaiians can teach the world. The word gets boiled down to responsibility, but I dont think its just that. The Western concept often feels like a burden, right? But the Hawaiian concept is much more than that, it is more about honor. Its more about your role in society and being part of a whole. That concept was part of the Hawaiian way of life and it had to do with stewardship, not just my role and my responsibility, but how do I care for something? My stewardship and my responsibility for my part of an ahupuaa (land divisions, often from the mountains to the sea). If you think about the way Hawaiians lived, that is something theyre trying to get back to today. You have a place that once was self-sustaining for up to 800,000 people in the middle of the ocean because they figured out how to sustain themselves with just the natural resources around them. And today, Hawaii imports 90 percent of its food. Now Hawaiis looking at, How do we go back to that? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think that Hawaiians can inspire future sustainability concepts by looking to the past. Thats not a crazy idea. I think its quite an inspired idea. And especially when you think about the Lahaina fires, you look at what has gone wrong and its not too hard to figure out. My book is not about policy, but I do think that it is about how you draw that line through history to understand a little more context for how we got here. Thats a big reason I wrote this book: It wasnt really to tell a story about me. I really felt like as a journalist, the story of the Hawaiian people and the real story of their history was not accurately understood, even by people who visit Hawaii and love Hawaii. I felt like that story really needed to be better understood. Q. Can you tell us more about what that real story of Hawaii is that you say needs to be better understood? A. Ten million people visit Hawaii every year and they love it, and I think whats missing is the real story about the economic crisis and displacement of the Hawaiian people. Its not even just the Hawaiian people, its the local people: The economy is not working for them and hasnt been working for them for quite a long time. It made a headline for a week, maybe, when the census in 2020 showed that more Native Hawaiians live outside of Hawaii than live on the islands. But what is Hawaii without Hawaiians? This has been a slow boil crisis that no ones been paying attention to. As a journalist, Ive seen this happening where housing and real estate have been out of reach for a very long time. The housing that exists is of poor quality. Its multiple generations of a family living under one roof and homes are unoccupied and owned by people who dont live there: Theyre owned by investors, theyre owned by people who live off-island. And you have no place that is worse than in Maui, where now you have thousands of people who have had to leave because of a fire. Meanwhile, you have all these homes available for them that are empty. But theyre not for them. Theyre for wealthy vacationers. So who is Hawaii for? Its not for local people. Who is the food for? Its not for local people. What is going on? Were importing people, importing food it doesnt feel like a real place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I wanted to tell a real story here about our most recent colonial experience that we still havent quite dealt with the aftermath of, and no one wants to talk about it because we just want to have a lovely vacation. I just have to bring up a really uncomfortable truth here because Ive been seeing it and experiencing it for quite a long time, my whole life. This is the reality. Q. One of the aspects of your experience was your frustration with government bureaucracy. How would you describe the role of government in your fight to keep your familys land? A. We were fighting just the latest version of this kind of faceless, shape-shifting bureaucracy when it came to this tax fight. We didnt know who was on the other side. We didnt know when we were going to hear back. We didnt know what the timetable was. We didnt know why any decision was made. It didnt feel like we had any recourse. And I think what was interesting is that I would look through all the documents that my family had collected over the course of the 175 years this land had been in our family, and it felt like we were always fighting the same faceless bureaucracy. We had all kinds of paper-trail evidence of court documents declaring that the land was deeded to us. Weve been in this fight all along; this was just todays modern version of it, and were always going to be in it. My kids are going to be in it too. At the end of the day, it didnt matter who was on the other side: You feel powerless. You feel like youre just at the mercy of some bureaucrat with a rubber stamp with an official set of documents, and its very frightening. Q. Many other Indigenous people face similar experiences of feeling disconnected, either from their land, their culture, or their communities. What can they learn from your book? A. Were all given breadcrumbs of our family history and some of us have more and some of us have less. We all have a choice in what we choose to do with that. Some of us kind of let it go and others of us choose to investigate and are curious and we want to know more. And so thats all up to you. For me, I was so curious and I was surprised to learn that even my cousins who lived in Hawaii, some of them had the same insecurities that I did about being Hawaiian. And I realized if theyre feeling uncertain about their Hawaiian-ness and Im feeling uncertain about my Hawaiian-ness, then who is anyone else to tell me how Hawaiian I am? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You either live your culture or you dont. You either embrace it or you dont. You either pass it on to your children or you dont. Its either part of you and speaks to you and brings you joy or it doesnt, and you only have one life to live, so why worry about what other people think? I think that we all are on our own journeys and each person has to decide to either connect with their community or not, and how you want to do that. But you have to do so with intention. Q. One of the most meaningful aspects of your book was your experience learning hula and how that anchored you in your Hawaiian culture. But there were challenges too: You wrote about how your children didnt want to attend hula and how your daughter refused to wear a lei. What happened with that struggle after the book ended? A. It has a happy ending. So my daughter Chloe is now in the eighth grade, and she has her eighth grade promotion next month. And she read the book and said, Mom, I was young and I didnt know, I didnt understand. And she said, For my eighth grade promotion, will you make me a lei? And I said, Of course I will. So I feel like Hawaiis in their heart, you know? At some point you have to let your kids go and they will find their own way. You cannot force them. My kids have said, Hula is not my thing, but they have to find their thing. It may not be next year or the year after, but they have to find their own way. I just hope that I have given them enough. Im grateful that I found myself and was able to teach them what I could and had surrounded them, I think, with enough other people in their lives to teach them, and that they will find their own way back to Hawaii and the culture, and then it speaks to them. But that is up to them and their own journey. So I can just hope that its part of their journey. It means a lot to me, and I wrote this book for them. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline In her new book, Kuleana, Sara Kehaulani Goo fights to keep her familys land on May 30, 2025. MEMPHIS, Tenn. A shooting in the Hickory Hill neighborhood Friday morning left a woman severely injured, according to the Memphis Police Department. Officers responded to the shooting in the 6100 block of Knightsbridge Drive. A woman was found on the scene and taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition. See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid-South. Sign up for WREG newsletters and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. Police say preliminary information shows that the incident stemmed from a dispute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is unclear who fired the shots. We will provide updates as information becomes available. If you have any information that could help police, call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH. 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. A police shootout at a busy intersection in Hickory Hills Tuesday night left a suspect in an armed robbery dead, police say. Hickory Hills police Chief Adam Gulczynski said officers responded about 8:45 p.m. Thursday to a call of a vehicle robbery attempt in a parking lot near 95th Street and Roberts Road. The suspect was found in the parking lot of a nearby gas station, where he attempted to run away and began firing at officers with a handgun, Gulczynski said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One officer fired back, and the suspect went down an alley on the 9400 block of Roberts Road while continuing to shoot at police, he said. The suspect was found with a gunshot wound to the head that Gulczynski said appeared to be self-inflicted. Im pretty convinced that the fatal wound wasnt from us, Gulczynski said. We had an exchange of gunfire. Were still working on determining the extent of things, but informally, he didnt run a block or half a block with a hole in his head. Phil Tsoukanaras, manager of The Pit Rib House near the scene, said Friday he wasnt working when the shooting occurred, but police told the on-duty manager to keep employees and patrons inside. He said it was a slow night and the restaurant closed soon after. They told him that something happened outside and nobody go out, Dsoukanaras said. Thats all we know. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police brought the suspect to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at about 9:30 p.m. The Cook County medical examiners office has not released the name or autopsy results, but listed him as 42 years old. An officer was taken to the hospital for a minor leg injury and later released, Gulczynski said. And then we had him checked out just because, you know, somebody attempted to kill him, Gulczynski said. Hickory Hills Police Department is cooperating with Illinois State Polices Public Integrity Task Force, which is investigating use of force on the part of officers. ostevens@chicagotribune.com A teen hiker ended up stuck on a steep and rugged mountain in Washington, prompting a rescue. Rescuers got a call at about 2:25 p.m. Monday, May 26, about the boy on Mount Si, Seattle Mountain Rescue President Doug McCall told McClatchy News by phone on May 30. Three high school seniors set out to hike the mountain that afternoon, but one boy got stuck on the Haystack, which McCall said requires Class 3 scrambling up a rock formation at the top of the mountain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haystack is 150 feet of a near-vertical face with EXPOSURE, meaning theres nothing beneath you or around you to break your fall, a hiker wrote in a trip report for the Washington Trails Association. McCall said he didnt know how much hiking experience the teens had, but one of them got scared on their way up after slipping and couldnt make it down on his own. He was able to sit in a safe spot while the other boys went down the Haystack and called for help, he said. Multiple teams set out to help the boy while McCall said he used a drone to pinpoint where the teen was on the mountain. Drone footage shows rescuers reach the boy and use a rope system to help walk him down the steep mountain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No one was injured, McCall said. McCall also said it took rescuers about an hour to hike up the mountain to reach them. Everyone was taken back to the trailhead at about 6:30 p.m. Now rescuers want to remind hikers to prepare for any situation by bringing the 10 essentials: Map Compass First aid kit Fire starter Sun protection Knife Extra clothing (not cotton if in the Pacific Northwest) Extra food and water Head lamp Water proof shelter An emergency rescue blanket, for example, can be used as a shelter, McCall said. Rescues in Washington are free because search and rescue teams are made up of highly trained volunteers, McCall said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The teams are funded from donations, not part of the sheriffs office. Mount Si is about an 8-mile round trip hike with an elevation gain of 3,150 feet, according to Washington Trails Association. Dead hiker was alive and friends who called 911 were on mushrooms, NY rangers say 700-pound boulder pins man in creek as spouse fights to save him, AK officials say Man threatens group of hikers with sledgehammer in California mountains, cops say NEED TO KNOW A hiker was rescued via helicopter after a 30-foot fall in Butte County, Calif. According to the search and rescue team, the hiker was attempting to take a photograph of a waterfall when the incident occurred Rescuers executed a "high risk" evacuation, airlifting the hiker to receive medical aid One hiker learned a valuable lesson after they sustained a serious fall in Butte County, Calif. over Memorial Day weekend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Butte County Search & Rescue team shared stunning footage on social media of an individual being airlifted out of the Pulga area after they fell 30 feet down a waterfall, sustaining serious injuries that required immediate extraction. Kevin Soukup, a spokesperson for Butte County Search & Rescue, told McClatchy News that the fall occurred after the hiker attempted to get a picture of the waterfall. Butte County Sheriff's Search & Rescue Hiker rescued after falling while attempting to take a photo of a waterfall in California Hiker rescued after falling while attempting to take a photo of a waterfall in California The Search & Rescue team shared that the "remote location" where the hiker fell meant that "a short haul helicopter rescue was executed using a 150-foot extended rope." The team described the mission as "an advanced and high-risk method that allowed us to safely evacuate the patient from the scene." They noted that they worked alongside the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Butte County Fire to successfully extract the hiker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the clip shared by Butte County Search & Rescue, the hiker laid flat on their back, secured to a backboard. A member of the rescue team was physically connected to the victim as they traveled through the air on a wire over rocky terrain, a forest of trees and a waterfall. Fellow rescuers could be heard cheering in the background as the rescuer and the victim made it out of the remote location. 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 patient was then flown and transferred to Enloe FlightCare for further medical treatment, according to the Search & Rescue team. PEOPLE has reached out to the Butte County Search & Rescue team for updates on the hikers condition and additional details on the accident. Read the original article on People NEED TO KNOW Hiking influencer Hannah Moody, 31, was confirmed dead after her body was discovered along a trail in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 22. She was reported missing the day prior On Wednesday, May 28, Hannah's mother, Terri Moody, spoke to Arizona's Family about grieving as the family awaits more clarity about what happened to her daughter, who had over 42,000 followers on Instagram Terri said she believes the tragedy was due to heat-related causes. It was over 100 degrees outside on the day Hannah disappeared during her hike Hannah Moody's mother is speaking out less than one week after the hiking influencer's body was discovered along a trail in Arizona. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hannah was reported missing on May 21 and found dead on May 22, per a press release issued by the Scottsdale Police Department last week. On Wednesday, May 28, her mother, Terri Moody, told Arizonas Family about how she's been processing the heartbreaking death of the 31-year-old social media star. Yeah, its been...its numbing. I feel like its not real, Terri told the local outlet. The late influencer who had over 45,000 Instagram followers was found about 600 yards off the actual trail about 24 hours after she embarked on the hike. Hannah Rose/Facebook Hannah Moody. Hannah Moody. Related: Body of Hiker Hannah Moody, 31, Found Near Arizona Trail 1 Day After She Was Reported Missing It's ... a mystery to us right now," said Terri. "And were trying to piece it all together because we dont know of any conditions that she had or anything like that that would have caused anything." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added, "Were all assuming it was heat-related, but you know thats inconclusive. There were no signs of foul play." Per Arizona's Family, it was 102 degrees outside on the day of Hannah's fatal hike. Per the press release from authorities, her body was discovered around noon, "near the Gateway Trailhead of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale. Terri told the publication that Hannah intended to hike a trail she was fond of. She was meant to meet people for lunch after completing the route. Her friends reported her missing after she failed to show up for their plans. Anytime she could climb on top of something and look out over the nature and see the sunrise or the sunset, those were her favorite things to do, said the grieving parent. itshanrose/Instagram Hannah Moody. Hannah Moody. Related: Influencer Dies at 28 After Falling 65 Feet While Mountain Climbing Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Terri also shared her appreciation for the many groups comprised of both friends and strangers who joined search and rescue teams in the initial effort to find Hannah: The fact that there were so many people who loved and cared for her that took on that role, all when we couldnt was reallywere really grateful for that," said Terri. She also shared a reminder for other hikers, urging them to learn from the tragedy. I feel like the best thing people can do is bring a friend. I know thats hard because people like to be in their solitude, but that would be my advice, Terri said. Arizona's Family reported that Terri and the wider Scottsdale community will host a memorial hike in honor of Hannah on what would've been her 32nd birthday this Saturday, May 31. Read the original article on People Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) denounced the Trump administrations decision to axe temporary protected status for Afghan immigrants the latest break by the centrist Republican from President Donald Trumps administration. In a joint letter with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the senator urged the administration to reconsider the cancellation of the temporary protection, which affords Afghans a work permit and legal status in the U.S. This decision endangers thousands of lives, including Afghans who stood by the United States, Murkowski and Shaheen the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote. This decision represents a historic betrayal of promises made and undermines the values we fought for far more than 20 years in Afghanistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letter which was sent May 23 and released Friday comes amid reports that the State Department is shuttering the office that coordinated Afghan resettlement for those who helped with the war effort, part of an agency-wide reorganization aligning with the Trump administrations moves to reduce foreign aid and assistance and refocus on America First priorities. Murkowski has not been shy about criticizing her own party, while encouraging her fellow GOP senators to do the same. The Republican has rebuked President Donald Trump for his close relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing the U.S. of walking away from our allies. But she also acknowledged a reticence within Republican circles of defying Trump saying we are all afraid of Trumps retaliation. Shes also not the only Republican to raise red flags about the cancellation of TPS protections for some immigrants, with Miamis members of Congress also urging the Trump administration to continue the protections for Venezuelans and Haitians. The Alaska Republican first criticized the decision on TPS shortly after it was announced by the Department of Homeland Security, calling it concerning in light of promises from Noem to address a backlog of asylum applications which could dramatically increase as former TPS holders look for avenues to stay in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But eliminating TPS has been one of Trumps key campaign promises from the start, after calling the program corrupt and saying the legal status had been extended for too long. The battle over TPS has made its way to the courts. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to revoke TPS protections for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans. Murkowski has previously called out the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which happened under the Biden administration, saying the botched operation endangered many who then came to the U.S. and that ending protections would only exacerbate the problem. This administration should not compound that misstep by forcing them to return to the Talibans brutal regime, Murkowski wrote on X earlier this month. GAZA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, according to Palestinian security and medical sources. Medical sources told Xinhua that the casualties included women and children, and that all the wounded were taken to hospital. In a statement, the Israeli army said its forces had continued operations across the Strip over the past 24 hours, targeting "terrorists, military buildings, observation and sniper positions that posed a threat to the forces, underground infrastructure, and other terrorist structures." In a separate statement, the army said its forces operating in the Khan Younis area, acting on intelligence about the presence of underground Hamas infrastructure, had "uncovered and destroyed an underground tunnel approximately one kilometre long." "The tunnel's route was used to carry out terrorist attacks, and the terrorists blatantly exploited the civilian infrastructure in the area," the statement said. Since Israel resumed its intensified military campaign on March 18, at least 4,058 Palestinians have been killed and 11,729 injured, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to 54,321, with a total of 123,770 people injured, according to health authorities in Gaza on Friday. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) After a Washington womans death during the 2021 heat dome in the Pacific Northwest, a new lawsuit filed by her daughter is seeking accountability from major oil companies. Misti Leon filed the first-of-its-kind wrongful death lawsuit in King County Washington on Thursday, against some of the largest oil companies in the world, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and Conoco Phillips. The lawsuit argues that the companies have been deceptive to the public about their knowledge of fossil fuels driving climate change and extreme heat events, which led to the death of 65-year-old Juliana Julie Leon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Portland has the worst housing crisis outlook, LendingTree finds The lawsuit stems from the 2021 heat dome that blanketed the Pacific Northwest in heat for five days in late June. During those five days, two days were above 90 degrees while three days saw high temperatures well above 100 degrees. During the heat dome, hundreds of people died across Oregon and Washington. The day Julie died was the hottest day ever recorded in Washington with temperatures in Seattle, where Julie died, peaking around d 108 F, the lawsuit states. Residents appeal Oaks Amusement Parks plan to install 135-foot Drop Tower ride Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The morning of July 28, 2021, Julia Leon drove almost 100 miles from her Ferndale home to a doctors appointment in Seattle, following up after undergoing bariatric surgery two weeks prior. It was the third consecutive day above 100F and record nighttime temperatures prevented the built environment from being able to dissipate the heat it had absorbed throughout the day. In effect, Seattle had turned into an oven, the lawsuit notes. On that day, Julie was overcome by heat while driving through Seattle with her windows rolled down, the suit explained, noting the air conditioning in her car was broken. She managed to safely pull off the highway and onto a residential street before losing consciousness. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KOIN Morning Digest Court documents then describe how a good Samaritan found Julie in her car about two hours later, unresponsive and hot to the touch. First responders administered over a dozen rounds of CPR and other lifesaving measures but could not revive her. The lawsuit says Julies internal temperature was 110 F when she died, with her official cause of death determined to be hyperthermia. The extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil duel-driven alteration of the climate, the lawsuit alleges. Portlanders hold opposing protests over funding parks vs. police Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit claims that the major oil companies have been deceptive about climate harms and have documented knowledge about fossil fuels driving climate change. Defendants have known for all of Julies life that their affirmative actions and omissions would claim lives, the lawsuit says. Julie is a victim of Defendants conduct. The suit claims that as early as the 1950s, the oil companies knew their products were already impacting the structure of the atmosphere. Largest K-12 budget in Oregon history advances in state legislature Defendants deceptive conduct has resulted in very real consequences: accelerated alteration of our climate, extreme weather events (such as heat domes), and loss of life, the lawsuit argues. These companies knew that their products, if used as intended, would cause many people to die. Despite this knowledge, defendants aggressively sought to build demand for their products without ever providing warnings to consumers. Further, defendants affirmatively misrepresented their products dangers and the actions needed to mitigate them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The complaint continues, Beginning as early as the 1970s, Defendants conspired to discredit the burgeoning scientific consensus on the existence and cause of climate change, deny their own knowledge of climate change-related threats, create doubt about the consequences of burning fossil fuels, and delay the transition to a lower-carbon future. Attorneys for Leons estate noted that climate scientists say the heat dome would have been virtually impossible,' without climate change, citing a study published in World Weather Attribution. Defeat for democracy? Waldport City Council reinstates mayor after hostility complaints The lawsuit seeks a court ruling that the oil companies engaged in wrongful conduct along with an economic award for damages. Misti Leon is also hoping to hold the companies accountable for her mothers death, their role in driving climate change, and to reduce the number and likelihood of deaths from future climate disasters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement to KOIN 6 News, Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP, counsel for Chevron Corporation, said, Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed. Spokespeople for BP, Conoco Phillips and Shell declined to comment on the pending litigation. KOIN 6 News has also reached out to Exxon Mobil. This story will be updated if we receive a response. 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. HOLYOKE A city panel has recommended that Holyokes Board of Public Works move forward with a new 10-year contract with Veolia. This recommendation comes as the citys previous 20-year contract with Veolia nears its conclusion at the end of September. Nothing is official until negotiations are finished, followed by a recommendation from the Wastewater Long-Term Service Agreement Committee to the Board of Public Works to accept the contract, and then a recommendation for the mayor to sign it, said Mary L. Monahan, chair of the Board of Public Works. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We anticipate that the board will review and make a recommendation at their meeting on June 16, Monahan said. The new contract is expected to take effect on Oct. 1. and promises better infrastructure maintenance and economic development opportunities. Foundations for mismanagement Past issues with Veolia stemmed from poor contract terms and management by both the contractor and the city, she said. Assistant City Solicitor Michael D. Bissonnette said that in the past, aside from the annual fee to run the plant, a yearly true up would add funds for sewer system repairs and maintenance. That process alone would create a deficit, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bissonnette said the annual true up reflected actual repair costs and has been in the range of $500,000 to $1.2 million, thereby resulting in an automatic deficit in the sewer enterprise fund. When sewer rate approval moved from Public Works to the City Council, it became harder to approve rate increases, and revenue hasnt kept up with service costs, he said. The sewer enterprise fund began running large deficits which, by state law, had to be paid as part of the property tax burden instead, he said. Each year, that sewer deficit would be added to the amount to be raised by property taxes when setting the tax rate. In addition, there were a number of consulting, legal and other initial expenses that were amortized by Veolia over the 20-year contract, he said. Amortization refers to paying off costs over a period of time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also should be pointed out that Veolia has paid almost $400,000 towards the consultants used in developing the request for proposals and financial management plans for this plant. They also split the ($50,000) fine imposed by the EPA in the consent decree settlement, he said. The 2023 consent decree from the Environmental Protection Agency was for excessive sewage overflows into the Connecticut River. They were also required to provide half of the funds required for consultants on current projects. That total credit from Veolia was $360,000 for engineering and management consulting, including the fine, he said. Selection committee Despite past mismanagement issues, in a unanimous decision the wastewater service panel recommended negotiating a new contract with Veolia during its May 19 meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This was a tough call to reach, and there was silence after this two-hour conversation, and someone said, Well I guess were done, Monahan said. In a May 13 letter to Monahan, the five-member selection committee of DPW professionals said it carefully considered Veolias prior performance, which included shortcomings in communication, transparency and meeting obligations. We are confident that Veolia will be able to demonstrate improvements in these areas, provided that the city provides routine and systemic oversight of performance, the letter said. Veolia is a French transnational business worth about $25.2 billion. The committee held its first meeting on May 12, 2023, and concluded this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During this period, the committee conducted interviews with Veolia and two other international companies: Jacobs, which operates in over 50 countries, and Inframark, headquartered in Katy, Texas, for the new contract. The committee critically assessed costs and proposals, infrastructure and wastewater operations, Monahan said. Based on the review and scoring, Inframark, while the lowest proposal submitted, didnt score sufficiently on performance, which excluded it from final review. Jacobs and Veolia scored the same on performance, but Veolias base price was $854,952 lower than Jacobs, the committee said in its letter. The review committee is still finalizing the numbers, but the annual service fee for the new contract will be less than what the city is currently paying, Monahan said. Long-term service agreement Veolia North America has its corporate headquarters in Boston. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a recognized leader in the water industry, our local teams manage nearly 200 municipal water contract operations sites across the continent including 60 facilities right here in the New England region," said spokesperson Christopher Halleron. Halleron declined to answer any specific questions about the operation in Holyoke until the contract with the city has been signed. Monahan said the new long-term service agreement is now 10 years instead of 20, as new technologies and regulations make it easier to project costs for both the public project owner and the private contractor with a shorter term. Monahan said the city has struggled with maintenance, often waiting until things break to fix them, which she finds frustrating. She believes residents deserve well-maintained infrastructure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new contract aims to fix past problems by giving the city a budget to hire a consultant team for better management and monitoring. It includes $750,000 annually for repairs and improvements to the wastewater system. The contract also requires the contractor to explore new technologies, like green power generation, to reduce costs and potentially generate revenue. The $750,000 for repairs is an increase from the current $100,000 contractual figure and represents a more accurate calculation of this annual expense to maintain the system from line breaks and equipment failure, Bissonnette said. As Holyoke and Veolia enter the final stages of contract negotiations, the city will require a timeline and plan for implementation for any elements, projects, or innovations that were promised in their bid responses, he said. Bissonnette said, while the original 2005 private-public partnership was an exciting new venture into managing a city utility, Holyoke took a two-year deep dive into understanding all the lessons to be learned from those 20 years of experience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As always, the devil was in the details, he said. The end result of all that work is now a much less financially burdensome consent decree and a better working relationship with federal and state environmental agencies. The mayors administration made the commitment to a new cost-effective system of management and oversight of the city sewer operations. The City Council helped provide the tools to do that work, and the Board of Public Works might consider making an award recommendation as soon as June 16, he said. He said the city is optimistic that changes should eliminate future budget overruns billed back to taxpayers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About a decade ago, Monahan argued against public-private partnerships. Who would have known that years later I would find myself here leading an effort with respect to a public-private partnership for the city of Holyoke, she said. She didnt support them in the past, because big global companies often exploit economically challenged communities like Holyoke. Although the companies didnt do anything intentionally, they brought in large legal, technical and financial teams with global expertise the city didnt have, she said, which is what happened with the contract in 2005, she said. So, I said to the mayor (this time), We need to find a team that can help us maneuver in that international world, she said. Monahan now thinks that having a team to manage the contract can make these partnerships good for both the community and the contractor. Its a success story, she said. more news from Western Massachusetts Read the original article on MassLive. May 30The Department of Homeland Security says three Maine law enforcement agencies are violating federal immigration law and "endangering lives." The city of Portland and Cumberland and Hancock counties were specifically called out on the agency's website which falls in line with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that requires DHS to publish a list of communities that "obstruct the enforcement" of federal immigration laws. Portland Mayor Mark Dion said in a written statement that he has seen the notice indicating the city "may be subject to challenge by federal officials on unspecified questions" about immigration enforcement, but he has yet to receive a formal letter directly from DHS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said will not comment until he receives the letter with "specific facts supporting their assertion." The list comes five months after leaders in Cumberland and Hancock counties received letters from some of Trump's advisers warning them they could face legal problems for unlawfully protecting people who may have immigrated illegally, and have been arrested on criminal charges. At the time, Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said he has never refused to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement and denied being called a "sanctuary" office. He said in an email Friday that the new letter appears to be nearly the same as the notice he received months ago. Joyce said he expected Cumberland County to appear on the DHS list because he had heard in May that any agency that didn't sign up for ICE's 287(g) program, where local law enforcement can be accredited to assist the federal agency, would be considered "uncooperative." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are housing ICE inmates for ICE so I am not sure how it can be claimed that we are not cooperating," he said in an emailed statement. "With that said, we are not doing the work of ICE because we don't have the expertise or authority to do so." The Cumberland County Jail is currently holding 77 federal inmates for ICE, the sheriff's office said. The jail had lost its contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to hold federal inmates in 2022 due to staffing shortages, contributing to the nearly $1 million deficit in the jail budget. But recently, the facility renewed the contract, despite some concerns about the additional stress to corrections staff from housing more inmates. Last June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accused jails in both Hancock and Cumberland counties of not fully cooperating with its requests to hold suspects who may be living in the country illegally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These "detainer requests" ask a law enforcement agency to notify ICE before releasing the suspect from jail and potentially hold them up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release date until ICE can take them into custody and determine whether they should be deported. Jails in Hancock and Cumberland counties do accept requests from ICE to detain suspects, though leaders for both facilities have said they will not hold the suspects beyond their scheduled release date. The Hancock County Jail administrator did not respond to questions on Friday about the latest federal action. Portland police leaders have said they take a hands-off approach to immigration enforcement. In an interview this spring, Chief Mark Dubois said that his officers don't contact ICE for any reason, even if they see a detainer request. If a person is arrested after committing a more serious crime, Dubois said, officers leave it to the jail or the courts to handle the immigration enforcement process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Maine, the first and only police partnership with ICE was put on hold earlier this month after backlash from the community. The Wells Police Department had planned to assist the federal agency through a "task force model." Immigrants in the state have expressed fear and uncertainty amid high-profile arrests and detentions for ICE and U.S. Border Patrol ramping up nationwide. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded a peak number of arrests in the past two decades, with 113 people detained in Maine. Last week, 42 detainees suspected of being in the country illegally were flown from Presque Isle to Detroit, Michigan, for further court proceedings, according to the Houlton sector of the U.S. Border Patrol. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Nashville now finds itself on a list that includes Los Angeles, Chicago and a handful of states as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified Music City as a sanctuary city. The list was created to identify sanctuary jurisdictions, which are determined by factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens, according to DHS. Metro Nashville appears to quietly remove names from immigration report following GOP criticism Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The determination by DHS could lead to a felony charge because there is a Tennessee law that criminalizes sanctuary city policies. DHS is putting politicians on notice to comply with federal law, saying sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril. Nashville is the only Tennessee city on the list with Shelby County as the only county to make the list. Each jurisdiction on the list will reportedly receive formal notification of its non-compliance with federal statutes. DHS is demanding these jurisdictions immediately review and revise policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Metro document released this week detailed 35 immigration-related interactions between Metro police and federal agencies. As of Thursday, May 29, all names have been removed from the public version of the report The move to make that information public was criticized by some Tennessee lawmakers. TN congressman criticized for social media post about Nashville Community Review Board Speaker Cameron Sexton released a statement to News 2, which reads: It is reckless, irresponsible and against the law for anyone to dox federal agents and law enforcement. We must get to the bottom of how this happened. I am asking Mayor OConnell and Metro government to explain how and why this happened, who approved this and whether Metro legal also signed off or voiced any opposition to the release of the agents names. Tennessee law bans sanctuary cities and harboring illegal immigrants. Any violation puts the city at risk of losing state-shared tax dollars. Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell addressed the Metro report during an appearance on Friday, May 30, saying it was never the citys intention to release agent names, which is why the information was removed as soon as officials realized it was made public. He Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amid accusations of putting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents at risk and misusing taxpayer money, OConnell has denied any wrongdoing, including improper spending of tax dollars. He added that Metro does not impede ICE activity, require warrants on ICEs behalf, or place any restrictions on state or federal agencies. According to OConnell, the goal of the citys ICE data reporting is to promote transparency while prioritizing the safety of federal agents. Weve had a training process, and I will say our Metro Nashville Police Department has been very effective in this. We will be reviewing not just how that information is recorded as it comes in to publicly available processes, but also then what does get posted. The interest here is just in transparency; it is not in obstruction, OConnell explained. Ogles claims federal investigation into Nashville mayor has begun Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement OConnell also responded to the sanctuary city designation Friday, saying Metro is following the law and pointing to the states ban on sanctuary cities. Im puzzled about what criteria they used to include Nashville. As I said at the beginning, we are not and never have been a sanctuary city, the mayor stated. If you look at the state law that defines a sanctuary city policy, there are six factors, and we do not and never have had a policy that violates any of those factors. News 2 reached out to Metro Legal and the Tennessee Attorney General for comment on Nashvilles appearance on the DHS list. The AGs office has no comment, and Metro Legal has yet to respond. 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. Federal officials say Maryland is too welcoming to undocumented immigrants, listing the state and several of its counties and cities among more than 500 "sanctuary jurisdictions" nationwide. (Maryland Matters file photo) The Trump administration on Thursday said Maryland and several of its counties and cities are sanctuary jurisdictions for immigrants, a designation that will bring a warning from federal officials along with a vague threat of the loss of unspecified federal funds. The Maryland governments were among more than 500 jurisdictions nationwide, including states and local governments, labeled sanctuary jurisdictions by the Department of Homeland Security, in response to an April 28 executive order by President Donald Trump (R). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanctuary jurisdictions come in many forms, but they are generally governments with policies that limit the ability of local authorities to cooperate with federal immigration agencies. Supporters say the policies make local communities safer by increasing immigrant trust in local police agencies and making them more willing to work with police. But Trump, in his executive order, said sanctuary policies violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration laws in a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law. The order directs the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to contact jurisdictions on the list, and it further requires federal agency heads to identify grants, contracts and other funds that could be withheld from the jurisdictions as appropriate. The Homeland Security list tagged the state of Maryland, eight counties and 10 municipalities. The department said it determined whether a government was a sanctuary jurisdiction by factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens. The department said Maryland was on the list because of its Self-Identification as a State Sanctuary Jurisdiction, but doesnt summarize what that entails. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens, the departments statement said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the administrations repeated claim that sanctuary policies violate federal law or obstruct federal immigration enforcement, the policies do neither. And local officials were already pushing back Thursday against threats from federal officials. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) released a statement Thursday that mentions the possibility of suing the administration, after his city was listed as a sanctuary jurisdiction. To be clear: by definition, Baltimore is not a sanctuary city, because we do not have jurisdiction over our jails. We follow our limited obligations as defined under federal immigration law, Scott said. But we are a welcoming city, and we make no apologies for that, his statement said. We are better because of our immigrant neighbors, and we are not about to sell them out to this administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The no apologies approach was echoed by Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) in a statement released Friday. The Trump Administration continues to violate the Constitution and our values by unilaterally sending Maryland residents to a foreign prison, Jones statment said. In Maryland, we are focused on defending policies that protect due process for all our residents and promote public trust and public safety in our communities. Six of the 10 Maryland municipalities the department designated as sanctuary cities are in Prince Georges County: the towns of Cheverly and Edmonston, and the cities of College Park, Greenbelt, Hyattsville and Mount Rainier. Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince Georges), chair of the Legislative Latino Caucus, said in a text message Thursday night that labels such as sanctuary jurisdiction oversimplify work done to serve and protect residents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maryland, Prince Georges County and our municipalities have long embraced policies that create welcoming, inclusive communities where all residents regardless of immigration status can live with dignity and safety, Martinez said. These local approaches are rooted in public trust, safety and effective governance, not political defiance. In addition to Baltimore City, the other Maryland cities on the list are Annapolis in Anne Arundel County, and Rockville and Takoma Park in Montgomery County. Maryland counties on the DHS list were Anne Arundel, Baltimore County, Charles, Howard, Montgomery, Prince Georges, Queen Annes and Talbot. Maryland does offer limited benefits to undocumented immigrants in the state, including the ability to get a drivers license and to be able to buy health insurance in the state marketplace under some circumstances. But state lawmakers also approved a watered-down version of an immigration bill last month, in the final minutes of the 2025 legislative session, That bill was originally going to prohibit so-called 287(g) agreements, which allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to delegate some federal enforcement authorities to local officers. But the Senate stripped that language out and the House relented. The final version of the bill, which becomes law Sunday, gives limited protection against immigration actions in sensitive locations, such as churches, schools or hospitals. This article was update on Friday, May 30, to include react from House Speaker Adrienne Jones. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Texas homeowners are facing skyrocketing insurance costs, with policies becoming harder to find and more expensive because of natural disasters' increasing severity, reported KHOU 11 News. What's happening? New homeowner Jonathan Leopold discovered this harsh reality while trying to secure insurance for his Houston home. "You have to have home insurance that qualifies with the mortgage company. It was a little frustrating that I had to shop multiple insurance agencies," he shared. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Insurance broker Melody Fontenot confirmed this trend is widespread. "I'm going to say about 10 to 15% higher. Definitely. Yes. And in some areas even more," she explained. The situation has become dire for many Texans. "A lot of people are just being priced out," Fontenot noted. Insurance companies are increasingly pulling out of flood-prone areas that have experienced multiple flooding events. When fewer companies serve a region, remaining insurers can raise rates even higher. Attorney John Black, who represents homeowners against insurance companies, highlighted the growing tension: "Insurance companies are charging more and giving less, covering less." Why is rising home insurance important? This insurance crisis is a result of our changing climate. As warming temperatures drive more severe weather events across Texas, from hurricanes to floods, insurance companies face mounting claims and financial pressure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When smaller companies can't handle the rising costs of climate-related disasters, they're forced to merge with larger firms or go out of business entirely. Consolidation reduces competition, allowing remaining companies to charge higher premiums. Without adequate coverage, homeowners face devastating personal and financial losses when disasters strike. Many families may need to compromise on protection, leaving them vulnerable during increasingly unpredictable weather events. Do you think home heating costs are higher than they should be? Definitely Depends on the season Depends where you live No Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. The situation also disproportionately affects people in particularly vulnerable communities. For instance, if you live in an area that's already experienced flooding, you may find it nearly impossible to secure affordable coverage. What's being done about rising insurance costs? Despite these challenges, homeowners have options to help manage insurance costs. Fontenot recommends shopping around for new rates each year to find better deals as the market changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can also work on improving your credit score, which can lower your premium costs over time. Many people don't realize how much their credit rating affects their insurance rates. Using an insurance broker rather than contacting companies directly can save you time and money. Brokers work with multiple companies and can find options you might miss on your own. For his part, Leopold persevered through the difficult process. "I just continued to shop and did not get discouraged," he said. Industry experts also suggest considering higher deductibles to lower monthly costs, bundling home and auto insurance for discounts, and installing protective features like storm shutters or reinforced roofing that can qualify you for premium reductions. 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. An immigrant from Colombia, just married in February and with no criminal record, is now separated from her husband after agents arrested her outside the couples Alpharetta apartment. Daniela Joly Landin, 24, entered the United States last May, turned herself in to the U.S. Border Patrol and applied for asylum. Channel 2s Bryan Mims talked to her husband, Richard Landin. He said she was threatened by violent paramilitary groups because of her work with charities promoting civil rights and helping people get off drugs. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] But in September, an immigration judge in Georgia denied her asylum request. She filed an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals, and a decision is pending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For months, Daniela Landin had been wearing an ankle monitor. On the morning of May 12, three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knocked on her apartment door. Richard Landin said the agents initially told them they were here to check her ankle monitor, but after she stepped outside, they announced she had an order for deportation because of her asylum denial. She looked over to me, and I saw her eyes all teary, Richard Landin said. She looked terrified, she looked scared, her eyes were watering. Daniela Landin spent nearly two weeks at the Stewart Detention Center near Columbus but was moved to the El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas on May 25. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For someone that has a flawless record, it kind of just doesnt make sense, he said. He said shes among 80 women in a pod at the facility, and they talk by phone every day. There are times she sounds anxious and defeated, he said. She tries to have a brave face. The two met online and soon went out to dinner, where they talked for hours and hit it off. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We just kind of talked about our lives, our hopes and dreams, he said. On Feb. 8, they were married in Alpharetta. Richard Landin is now living with his mother in Marietta, too upset to return to his apartment. Its painful being there without her, he said. We moved into that apartment together. Jameel Manji, Daniela Landins immigration attorney, said ICE detentions have spiked across the board since President Donald Trump took office. Generally speaking, shes not high on the priority list of individuals they need to worry about, he said. But he said the Trump administration has zeroed in on undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years, whether they have committed crimes or not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two years is kind of an arbitrary marker that this administration is using, but basically when someones been in here for less than two years, they consider them prime candidates for expedited removals, he said. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] In previous administrations, he said, someone appealing an asylum ruling would not be detained while a decision was still pending. The way generally individuals will get into detention if they have a pending case is if they break the law, Manji said. As for why Daniela Landin was denied asylum, he said applicants have a high threshold to meet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asylum is very difficult to win, in particular in Georgia, he said. The couple has hired other attorneys who are trying to get her released from detention on bond. Honestly, I just miss my wife, he said. Thats really just it, I miss my wife. I miss being able to hug her, I miss being able to see her face to face. HONG KONG (AP) Hong Kong's prominent pro-democracy and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham was released from prison on Friday after serving over four years in the city's biggest national security case under a Beijing-imposed law. Sham's activism made headlines during 2019 anti-government protests, when he was the convenor of a now-disbanded pro-democracy group that organized some of the biggest peaceful marches that year, including one that drew an estimated 2 million people. Sham was among 47 activists arrested in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election. He was sentenced with 44 other activists last year after judges ruled that their plans to effect change through the primary would have undermined the governments authority and create a constitutional crisis. Only two of the original defendants were acquitted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even behind bars, Sham continued to fight for recognition of his same-sex marriage registered overseas at the city's top court, which later ruled the government should provide a framework for recognizing same-sex partnerships. It was a landmark decision for the citys LGBTQ+ community. I feel happy. No matter whether theres a change in (my) freedom, I am definitely freer compared to yesterday, Sham told reporters Friday after he was reunited with his family. But I also know many people are suffering. This makes me feel I shouldnt be too happy. Asked if police had warned him not to talk to anyone, he said he censored himself on some sensitive questions. Sham also sounded unsure whether he was a free man. Maybe tomorrow, you still can see me, I am free. Maybe tomorrow, I will go back to the jail. I dont know, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The activist said he has no plans to leave Hong Kong for now. "So what I can do in the future and what I should, and where the red line lies, I still have to figure it out again. Sham and three other activists freed on Friday Kinda Li, Roy Tam and Henry Wong are the second batch to be reunited with their families, following the release of four pro-democracy former lawmakers last month. The years of separation have pained the activists and their relatives. The case involved democracy advocates across the spectrum. They include legal scholar Benny Tai, who got a 10-year prison term, and former student leader Joshua Wong, who has to serve four years and eight months. Critics said the national security law has effectively crushed the city's pro-democracy movement, but Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist it brought back stability to the city. Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang said in a press briefing Thursday that those who were jailed for national security offenses and freed from correctional facilities enjoy freedoms, including freedom of expression, like other residents. He said their conviction would not affect a certain aspect of their freedoms. Theres a chance crews might be able to save a historic church that went up in flames on Thursday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Crews were called to the fire at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Maria Stein around 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. Workers on the roof were placing shingles when they saw smoke and called 911. Large flames and black smoke were later seen coming from the church. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While it hasnt been cleared as safe to go inside yet, crews started the salvage work from the outside on Friday. They used cranes to pull the church bells out. >> PHOTOS: Smoke, flames pour from large fire at local Catholic church Its very hard to see, you know, the church is the center of our community, Holly Rethman said. As shown on News Center 7 at 5:00, community members, like Rethman, have spent years at St. John the Baptist. My kids were baptized here, they made their first communion, they married here, and Ive buried two husbands here, Kay Sanders said, calling the fire a gut punch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, parishioners watched the church burn, including the moments when the steeple collapsed and fell to the ground. Yesterday was definitely hard, Rethman said. And then, when we saw this steeple fall, the realization was this church is probably gone. Thats the fear, but News Center 7 learned Friday theres hope that St. Johns could be saved. TRENDING STORIES: The roof either burned away or came straight down into the nave, and the steeple fell away from the church building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They think those two elements indicate that the walls may still be structurally sound, Jennifer Schack, Archdiocese of Cincinnatis Director of Media Relations. The pastor at St. Johns and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati each said Friday that they are still assessing the damage and dont know for sure, but that hope remains. The indication at this point is that the walls staying up is a very good sign, Schack said. The church community got a visit from Archbishop Robert Casey on Friday. He celebrated Mass at Precious Blood Catholic Church, which is just up the road from St. Johns in Chickasaw. The two churches are part of the same family of parishes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The parish family live-streamed the 9 a.m. Mass on its Facebook page. This is what we do as family. When faced with difficult situations, when confronting the depth of mourning a loss, we come together, we lean on each other, we lean on God, Archbishop Casey said during Mass. Sanders was at the Mass and spoke to News Center 7 about the Archbishops visit. That meant a lot. I mean, that means hes paying attention to us, she said. As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, the two normal weekend masses at St. Johns have been moved up the road to Precious Blood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said that it will take many years for the federal government agencies to rebuild from the destruction by tech billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel. Stansbury, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Thursday night on MSNBCs The Last Word that investigations into DOGE are ongoing because many court cases are in play against the advisory panel, whose work has resulted in the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers led to effectively shutting down entire agencies. I mean, these actual investigations are ongoing because theres so many court cases against whats going on. You know, it was just announced today that a judge was allowing a court case thats actually led by the Attorney General of New Mexico to continue because of the lawless way in which theyve been conducting their activities under DOGE, Stansbury said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So I think its going to take, frankly, not only many years to rebuild from the destruction that Elon Musk unleashed on the government, but to even understand what they did inside these agencies, Stansbury told host Lawrence ODonnell. And also, I mean, the impacts are still being felt to this day. Musk served as a special government employee in President Trumps administration, advising DOGE on cost-cutting efforts in hopes of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse and slashing down the national debt. Those efforts have received strong pushback from Democrats in Congress. Musk said Wednesday he is leaving the White House, shortly after criticizing Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a massive GOP budget bill that contains the presidents legislative agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit and it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, Musk told CBS Sunday Morning. On Thursday night, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would hold a press conference with Musk on Friday at 1:30 p.m. EDT This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House, the president wrote. Stansbury told ODonnell that the impact of DOGEs work is felt in her home state. Last night, I was talking to a doctor here in New Mexico, who said he cant renew his license to give prescriptions right now because DOGE messed up the DEA website, the New Mexico Democrat said. So I mean, DOGE is still there, frankly, wreaking havoc on the federal government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. NAIROBI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Under the gleaming lights of the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, a landmark in Kenya's capital Nairobi, streams of visitors moved from booth to booth at the 26th Auto Expo Africa, pausing to examine cutting-edge automobile parts, accessories, and energy solutions. Desmond Kabugi, a motor vehicle parts dealer from Nyeri in central Kenya, navigated the crowded aisle lined with products in search of quality and affordable products to meet the needs of his clientele. "Chinese manufacturers have emerged as a reliable source of innovative products for my business," Kabugi said, stopping at the booth of China's Guangzhou Kaijie Power Supply Industrial Co., Ltd., which displayed a wide array of batteries tailored for trucks, buses, and motorcycles. Charlotte Ho, sales executive at the Chinese firm, said their battery solutions are engineered to meet the unique demands of African roads and climatic conditions. Like Kaijie, Chinese automotive firms drew strong interest at this year's expo, which ran from Wednesday to Friday and attracted more than 100 exhibitors from over 30 countries. Among the standout pavilions was that of China's Xiamen Songli New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., known for its sealed lead-acid batteries. Yumi Liu, sales manager at Songli, said that his company's products are built for durability and minimal maintenance. "Our energy solutions are tailored to meet the needs of both urban and rural mobility in Africa. We see great potential in Kenya and the wider East African market," he said. For many local entrepreneurs, the expo offered valuable opportunities to connect directly with manufacturers. Kevin Mahinda, who runs a garage in Machakos County, welcomed the chance to explore a wide range of car accessories. "I am always looking for motor vehicle parts that can help me grow my business and Chinese booths have the variety and pricing I am after," Mahinda said. Benson Lekolool, a car enthusiast, was drawn to the sleek electric scooters displayed by Yongkang Aijiu Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., which are gaining popularity among Kenya's urban population seeking greener mobility options. Lekolool observed that these Chinese e-bikes are bridging a gap in the green mobility sector through developing and recruiting local after-sales support and network. Melvin Kioko, an automotive engineer at a local car assembly plant, praised the lubricants and fluids from PetroKing Petroleum Hebei Co., Ltd., including brake fluids and engine coolants. Their products are well-formulated to protect engines under the harsh driving conditions typical on Kenyan roads, Kioko noted. Simon Yan, general manager of PetroKing, said the company employs advanced technology to develop high-performance lubricants designed for extreme conditions. Democrats are demanding answers about a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plan to purchase a new $50 million jet for Secretary Kristi Noem. The jet, slotted in as a line item to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) budget, comes as the department argues its current plane is beyond its operational usage hours. Reports indicate this jet would cost $50 million and replace one of the two Gulfstream jets already at your disposal. Funding the acquisition of this new jet would come at the cost of other USCG investments, including sorely needed modernization of the USCGs aging aircraft fleet used by service members for search and rescue and other critical missions, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote in a letter to Noem alongside Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Democrats sit on the House Homeland Security panel. Thompson is the panels ranking member. Simply put, your purchase of a new jet would directly diminish the availability of other USCG aircraft to carry out critical missions, the two wrote. The letter from the two lawmakers describes an aging fleet of Coast Guard aircraft, noting that many entered service in the 1980s and 1990s, in contrast with the current Gulfstream used for Noems travel, which was purchased in 2002. They also point to a Government Accountability Office report finding that the Coast Guard has had trouble securing parts for its helicopters as the manufacturer no longer produces them. The letter asks DHS to detail flights taken by Noem on two existing jets used for travel as well as a breakdown of all Coast Guard aircraft that have a service life expiration date prior to the two Gulfstreams. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DHS did not immediately respond to request for comment Friday but has previously defended the need for the jets. The current CG-101 G550 is over twenty years old, outside of Gulfstreams service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, said in a statement when news of the budget request was first reported. This is a matter of safety. Much like the Coast Guards ships that are well beyond their service life and safe operational usage, Coast Guards aircraft are too, she added. This Administration is taking action to restore our Nations finest maritime Armed Service to a capable fighting force. DHS has defended the need for the jets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The current CG-101 G550 is over twenty years old, outside of Gulfstreams service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for government aircraft, the agency said in a Friday statement. This is a matter of safety. Much like the Coast Guards ships that are well beyond their service life and safe operational usage, Coast Guards aircraft are, too. This Administration is taking action to restore our Nations finest maritime Armed Service to a capable fighting force. DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels. Coast Guard Adm. Kevin Lunday was grilled about the request when appearing before the House Appropriations Committee earlier this month. I was horrified last Friday when we received a last minute addition to your spend plan for fiscal 25, a new $50 million Gulfstream 5 for Secretary Noems personal travel coming from the Coast Guard budget. She already has a Gulfstream 5, by the way, this is a new one, said Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the committees Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lunday described the plane as old, and its approaching obsolescence and the end of its service life, the avionics are increasingly obsolete, the communications are increasingly unreliable, and its in need of recapitalization, like much of the rest of the fleet. Thompson and McIver said the bid for a new plane for Noem echoes President Trumps efforts to secure a new Air Force One from Qatar. We know President Trump has set a high bar for wasteful luxury travel by government officials with his unconstitutional attempt to personally acquire a $400 million jet from a foreign government. That does not mean members of his Cabinet must follow suit, they wrote. Your desire to travel in luxury should not eclipse the need for USCG service members to fly safely and conduct lifesaving missions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Updated at 12:28 p.m. EDT 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. OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) While several still needed a vote to override from the Senate, House lawmakers overwhelmingly agreed to override several of the governors vetoes, including one that wouldve extended coverage surrounding mammography screening. While it was voted in the House as of Thursday evening, the Senate still hadnt taken up most of the House bills for a vote to override. Claps from lawmakers in the House followed the override vote for House Bill 1389, authored by Rep. Melissa Provenzano. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Provenzano said her idea for the bill came about after she got a call from a single mom in her district. Veto overrides could be on the way during final week of legislative session She said the woman went in for a routine mammogram, but when her doctor saw something concerning and recommended a second diagnostic mammogram, her insurance wouldnt cover it. And it was $1,200, Provenzano said. The governor, earlier this month, vetoed the bill and said: I am deeply sympathetic to the women across our state who have bravely fought breast cancer. While early detection and access to care are critical priorities, this legislation imposes new and costly insurance mandates on private health plans that will ultimately raise insurance premiums for working families and small businesses. Mammograms are already covered, and when a doctor sees the need for further tests, they are empowered to order further tests that can be covered by insurance. Without fail, when the government gets involved in markets, prices rise for everyone. Rather than expanding government mandates, we should focus on empowering individuals and encouraging innovation in the marketplace to improve access and affordability. Governor Kevin Stitt The other bill that had overwhelming support was House Bill 2164, which would have strengthened state bidding and purchasing laws to ensure public officials cannot use their positions of power for personal gain. It clarifies what a conflict of interest is and what requires disclosure, and the measure ensures that officials receive ethics training. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor announced his veto of that bill Thursday morning and said, While I support the core goals of the bill, it would mandate ethics training for every newly elected or appointed head of a state agency, board, or commissionimposing the extreme penalty of removal from office for noncompliance. With hundreds of state agencies, boards, and commissions, this would create excessive bureaucracy with little meaningful impact. The Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is running for Governor of Oklahoma, quickly came out with a statement against that veto and said: HB 2164 could prevent future scenarios such as that of Swadleys and the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation, when the sole bidder for a state contract landed a sweetheart deal that allegedly spurred flagrant overcharging of the state. HB 2164 would conceivably prevent a situation like what we saw several years ago at the Oklahoma Employment Securities Commission, when the employer of the agency directors spouse won a lucrative software contract with OESC. Attorney General Gentner Drummond Several other votes for overriding his vetoes came throughout the day, but by late Thursday evening, the Senate had yet to finish their votes. 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. An investigation into stolen pickup truck tailgates has uncovered a deeper, more alarming trend in Houston: thieves are using high-tech tools to clone key fobs and drive away with vehicles in under eight minutes. According to the Harris County Sheriff's Office, victims whose tailgates were stolen worked together to track down the suspects by searching social media posts, passing that information along to local authorities. When deputies intercepted the suspects, they discovered more than just stolen tailgates. Don't miss Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement KHOU 11 reported that officers found a stash of blank key fobs and a key programming device evidence of a growing problem with high-tech car theft in the area. Officials are warning vehicle owners to take additional precautions as key fob-related car thefts rise both in Texas and across the country. "Eight minutes tops. Five minutes. We've seen the fastest and they're gone," Harris County sergeant Eduardo Rivera told KHOU 11. As thefts rise, authorities are providing tips to residents on how to help safeguard their vehicles. Heres the rundown and what you can do to help avoid getting bumrushed. How thieves can use key fobs to steal your car The investigation into the stolen tailgates started when victims noticed their parts being listed online. After organizing with law enforcement, they confronted the suspects, Lieutenant John Gonzalez of the Harris County Sheriff's Office auto theft unit told KHOU 11. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a big aftermarket for truck parts, especially for Ford and GM models, Gonzalez said. Thieves access a vehicles onboard diagnostics (OBD) port, usually located under the dashboard. Using a specialized programmer, they create a new key fob that lets them unlock, start and drive away with the car sometimes in five minutes. Another technique called "relay theft" targets keyless entry vehicles. Criminals use electronic devices to capture the signal from a key fob inside a home, transmit it to a receiver near the car and trick the vehicle into starting. Thefts like these are big business. Tailgates alone can fetch up to $10,000 on the aftermarket, and stolen cars are often sold at steep discounts through online marketplaces, luring unsuspecting buyers. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan works every single time to kill debt, get rich in America and that anyone can do it How to protect your vehicle from key fob theft Vehicle theft is on the rise in Texas, and authorities are urging drivers to take extra precautions. Even though car thefts have declined at the national level, with 850,708 cars stolen in 2024 and 1,020,729 in 2023, as per the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), that doesnt mean thieves arent getting more creative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To protect your vehicle: Lock your tailgate and vehicle doors: This simple step can protect your tailgate and limit theft. Use OBD port protection: Devices that block access to the OBD port can prevent cloning. Store key fobs in a Faraday bag: These pouches block the signal from your fob, stopping thieves from capturing it. Install a steering wheel lock or aftermarket alarm: Old-school mechanical locks are highly effective deterrents. Park in a secure garage: When possible, keep your vehicle out of sight and out of reach. Turn off your fob's wireless signal: Some newer fobs allow you to disable the signal when not in usecheck your owner's manual. Upgrade your home security:** Motion detectors and cameras can add an extra layer of protection. Install a car camera: Adding a dashboard or rear camera can help deter thieves and provide police with important evidence. Add an AirTag or other GPS device: This can help you track your stolen car. But be sure to tell police; don't try to recover the car yourself. As high-tech theft methods continue to evolve, staying vigilant and taking preventive measures can make a crucial difference in keeping your vehicle safe. Even with the best precautions, theft can still happen. If your vehicle is stolen, contact the police immediately to file a report. Then, if the car is financed, contact your car insurance company and lender. They can help you with the next steps. What to read next Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like what you read? Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise straight to your inbox every week. Subscribe for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. Honolulu police are looking for the gunman who opened fire during a fight between two groups in Makaha on Wednesday night, killing a 19-year-old man and wounding four others. At 9 :07 p.m., Honolulu Police Department officers responded to multiple 911 calls reporting individuals being shot at. Four people were injured, and one was pronounced dead at the scene. According to preliminary information, a group of suspects parked west of the location and approached the victims on foot. A physical altercation broke out between the two groups, which escalated when the suspects opened fire, shooting multiple rounds at the victims, according to an HPD description of the shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Honolulu Emergency Medical Services officials said personnel responded around 9 p.m. to a Lahaina Street address where multiple people had been shot. A 19-year-old man was dead on arrival, according to EMS. Police said the four people wounded during the gunfire are two 19-year-old men, a 21-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman, according to police. Detectives are interviewing witnesses at local hospitals and on scene, while evidence specialists are processing the area and collecting physical evidence, according to HPD. No arrests have been made, and the second-degree murder investigation is ongoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement EMS said late Wednesday night that paramedics treated three shooting victimstwo men and a womanand took them in serious condition to a hospital. Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Joe Logan said in a post on HPDs social media feeds that this is a tough time for our Waianae community. We want to assure everyone right now, the scene is safe, and were doing all we can to make an arrest in this case, said Logan. We know the community wants to helpand the best way to do that is to give us the time we need to carry out this investigation carefully and thoroughly. Also, share any information that you think could help. The Department of the Medical Examiner redirected the Honolulu Star-Advertisers request for the identification of the 19-year-old who was killed to the police department. HPD officials declined to release his identification, citing the pending investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HPD said anyone with information, photos or videos to share with police should call 911 or CrimeStoppers at 808-955-8300. State Sen. Samantha DeCorte, state Rep. Darius K. Kila and Council member Andria Tupola denounced the fatal shooting Thursday, calling it heartbreaking and unacceptable, and urged community members to sign their for Waianae, which outlines a list of laws, initiatives, and youth programs that are currently lacking in our community. While emotions are running high, I urge everyone to remain calm, refrain from retaliation, and allow law enforcement to carry out their investigation. Responding to violence with more violence only puts more lives at risk. Our youth are losing their lives to this string of violence and this cycle must stop ! said DeCorte in a statement. Kila said the West side community is grieving another loss over a senseless act of violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were working with law enforcement to get answers. This must stopviolence is never the answer, said Kila. Tupola said youth in her area need to get positively engaged after high school. We are working with law enforcement and local leaders to address root causes, increase accountability, and keep our neighborhoods safe, Tupola said.------------This story has been updated to reflect that HPD declined to release the fatal shooting victims identity.------------ COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) The attorney for former Columbus City Manager Isaiah Hugley tells WRBL that his client plans to fight his termination. Scott Grubman pulled no punches this afternoon in the first public comments since seven city councilors voted to fire Isaiah Hugley late Tuesday night. According to his attorney, Hugley is weighing his options in the wake of his termination on a 7-3 vote of the city council on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since April, Hugley has been threatening legal action against six of the seven city councilors who voted to fire him. Grubman focused on the role of Councilor Charmaine Crabb. Look at the termination letter. Guess whose first signature is right there? Grubman said. Its Councilwoman Crabb. I think it is obvious that this was motivated by racial bias. Grubman claims Councilor Crabb made racial statements to Sheriffs Office investigators during an investigation of the citys Finance Department. Crabb and other councilors did not respond to a WRBL request for comment. They have not spoken publicly about Hugleys firing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Again, you had a councilwoman saying racist things, Grubman said. Apologizing for it. But then a week later firing the long-term city manager based on nothing more than a pretext. Thats racism. Thats discrimination. Thats actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. So, I think a federal lawsuit is highly likely. Hugley was planning to retire at the end of the year after two decades as city manager. The termination notice says he will paid salary and benefits through Dec. 31st. What did I say in every single letter? Grubman said. Please just let Mr. Hugley serve out the remainder of his term without harassment or discrimination. And what did they do in response? They fired him after accusing him of being in the Mafia for going to black churches. That is the legal definition of discrimination. So is it going to get messier? Its going to get a lot messier? Grubman says Hugley wants to pursue an appeal of his firing. Though his office is conflicted out of the case involving Hugley and council, City Attorney Clifton Fay says Hugley does not have any appeal rights through the city. Grubman understands it differently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to any sort of litigation that might be filed under the city code Mr. Huguely is entitled to a public hearing, and we will be requesting that public hearing, Grubman said. But we are going to avail ourselves of the hearing because we think its very important for the public, for the people of Columbus, to see whats going on here. All of this comes amid speculation that Hugley, the citys first black city manager, is considering a 2026 run for mayor. 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. BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Five human rights groups including Amnesty International challenged in court Hungary's legislation that created a legal basis for police to ban Pride marches by the LGBTQ community, the groups said in a statement on Friday. Hungarys parliament, where the ruling Fidesz party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that creates a legal basis to ban LGBTQ marches and lets police use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend. It also approved constitutional changes in April stipulating that Hungary recognises only two sexes, male and female. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Activists say the measures amount to a de-facto ban on Pride marches. Prime Minister Viktor Orban - whose ruling party has a Christian conservative agenda - has said organisers "should not even bother" organising Pride in Budapest this year. Orban, who has been in power since 2010, faces elections in 2026 where a new opposition party is mounting a serious challenge to his rule. Five groups including Amnesty and leading LGBTQ rights groups Hatter Tarsasag and the group that organises Pride, said in their statement that the march planned for June 28 will go ahead in Budapest irrespective of the court ruling, which is expected next week. "Organisers are preparing for the biggest Pride march Hungary has ever had," their statement said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The groups launched the legal challenge on Thursday after police banned a smaller march planned for June 1. They said when police banned the event, it cited the new legislation, which says assemblies that are considered harmful to children cannot be held, and that protecting children would supersede the right to assemble. "Police did not provide evidence on why the (June 1) march or the Pride march that is considered similar could amount to a violation of children's rights," the statement said. On Tuesday, seventeen European Union countries accused Hungary of contravening fundamental EU values by passing laws that target LGBTQ+ people, as tensions deepen between Budapest and a majority of member states. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Five men pulled off the theft of hundreds of bicycles, snatching them in a carefully orchestrated scheme while the bikes were in transit to L.A. County from a distributor, according to L.A. County sheriff's investigators. Truck drivers were redirected, and box trucks and passenger vehicles were used to transport stolen cargo to waiting warehouses, according to detectives with the sheriff's Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team. The bicycles were recovered and tied to a separate investigation that began April 21 when ARI Bikes of Utah reported to the sheriff's Compton Station the theft of 337 bicycles valued at about $1.7 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Working with the bike community and ARI, detectives identified multiple suspects and warehouse locations suspected of housing stolen goods. Two multilocation search warrants were served. Detectives found 288 stolen bicycles along with other stolen merchandise. The five suspects were taken into custody, and investigators are continuing to examine "their direct involvement in the ARI Bikes theft," sheriff's officials said. Those taken into custody were identified as Samvel Karapetyan, 38; Vazgen Avagyan 36; Narek Badalyan, 32; Vladimir Gyulankaryan, 32; and Davit Grigoryan, 40. Detectives say they have observed growing sophistication in criminals diverting and intercepting valuable goods being trucked into and out of Southern California in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The thieves have moved beyond breaking into trailers and are getting into the electronic delivery system," sheriff's Capt. Calvin Mah told The Times. Computers, high-end medications and other expensive products have become the key targets of cargo thefts, which can net millions of dollars. Last month, Los Angeles police recovered nearly $4 million in stolen cargo in a case involving a South American crime ring that looted coffee, tequila, shoes, body wash, pet food and bitcoin-mining computers from tractor trailers and other locations. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. When the U.S. Naval Academy stripped 381 books tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from its library, retired Commander William Marks saw more than censorship he saw a threat to the Navys future. But last week, after immense public outcry, most of those books returned to Nimitz Library shelves. Do you believe it? asked Marks, a 1996 alum who spearheaded a campaign to maintain student access to the books. What great news. Were thrilled. All the books the academy removed in early April had one thing in common: Officials flagged them for DEI themes. They include Maya Angelous I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird and Elizabeth Reis Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex. The purge followed directives from Trump-appointed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has called DEI initiatives divisive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Determined to ensure that students could still read the works, Marks began crowdfunding to replace them on April 5. The motto of the Naval Academy is from knowledge, seapower, said Marks, who served as a Navy commander for 22 years. What we mean is without knowledge, education and intellectual growth, we will never become a strong Navy. So this contradiction really struck me, that instead of encouraging knowledge and encouraging discussion, the Pentagon was actually suppressing knowledge and limiting discussion. About 4,400 students, members of the Brigade of Midshipmen, attend the Naval Academy while on active duty in the U.S. Navy. After graduation, they are required to serve in the Navy or Marine Corps for at least five years. Women represent more than a quarter of the student body, while men make up over 70 percent of midshipmen. Initially, Marks hoped to fundraise $3,810, which he figured would be enough to cover the cost of the books pulled from Nimitz Library. Since Marks lives in Arlington, Texas, he tapped Old Fox Books & Coffeehouse in Annapolis, Maryland, home to the academy, to be his local partner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Donations have far exceeded his goal, topping $70,000. Jinny Amundson, an owner of Old Fox Books, said by the time she got the call from Marks, she had already heard about the books removed and had started compiling a list of them to purchase for the stores inventory. For a bookseller, the idea of censoring any kind of books just gives us heart palpitations, Amundson said. And its our community. The [midshipmen] think of our shop as a place that they love and one of their sort of unofficial bookstores. We have the mids, the faculty, the administration that come in and think of our space as their own. Amundson said she understood that the removal of books was an order, which has to be followed within the military. But she found the loophole: Her bookshop could store the titles targeted. It is conveniently located about a block away from the Naval Academy gates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The day before the institutions May 23 graduation, Amundson learned that most of the pulled books were back on the librarys shelves. She went to see for herself, took pictures of the books and sent them to many of the authors, who had personally contacted her when the restrictions on the works took effect. Jinny Amundson, co-owner of Old Fox Books, purchased some of the books that were banned at the United States Naval Academy and offered them for free to all midshipmen at the local bookstore. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post/Getty Images) Now, just 20 books are being sequestered pending a formal compliance review, according to the Department of Defense. A Navy spokesperson did not provide details to The 19th about those titles. Ultimately, a narrowing of the search terms used to flag books for review resulted in the return of hundreds of books to the Nimitz Library, as the Department of Defense first issued broad guidance about book removals to the military services. What struck me was the very arbitrary and even cruel nature of the books that got removed, Marks said. These books were a cross-section of American culture. They were important to the discussion of American history. In an updated May 9 memo, the Pentagon instructed the military services to use 20 search terms to pinpoint books in their academic libraries that might need to be set aside because of how they engage race or gender. Among those terms were affirmative action; critical race theory; gender-affirming care; transgender people; and diversity, equity and inclusion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People across the political spectrum expressed alarm about the book restrictions, which have been widely opposed, according to Marks. We really shouldnt be banning any books, he said. That includes those with unpopular, or even offensive, ideas like Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf, which managed to evade the Naval Academys book purge, he noted. He calls his effort to maintain the midshipmens access to all books in the Nimitz Library Operation Caged Bird, after the 1969 Angelou memoir that was likely targeted because it describes racial segregation and child abuse. The name Operation Caged Bird also alludes to the feeling of being restrained by censorship. I almost felt like I could feel the bars closing in on me in terms of what I can read and cant read, Marks said. That didnt sit right. Marks GoFundMe campaign has raised enough money to supply 1,000 books in 2025 and fund a three-year initiative at Old Fox, ensuring midshipmen can access any contested title for free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If youre a midshipman and youre writing an essay paper and theres a book you cant find, maybe its been removed or banned, you can call them, and theyll order it for you, and then you just pick it up free of charge, Marks said. Hes also coordinating with other service academies, anticipating similar battles. At the Navys three other educational institutions, fewer than 20 books have been flagged as potentially incompatible with the militarys mission, as have a few dozen at the Air Force Academy and other Air Force academic institutions. The Army has also been ordered to assess library books at its educational institutions, but a spokesperson from West Point told The 19th that no books have been pulled at this time, as its compliance review is still underway. The return of nearly 400 books to the Naval Academy library coincides with a pending lawsuit accusing Department of Defense-run schools of violating K-12 students constitutional rights for limiting books and subject matter related to gender, race and sexuality. The American Civil Liberties Union filed E.K. v. Department of Defense Education Activity in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of 12 students. A hearing will take place June 3. The ACLU seeks a preliminary injunction to give the youth access to materials it argues have been restricted to align with President Donald Trumps executive orders and political agenda. Amundson said she was pleasantly surprised that it took just weeks for the books to be returned to the Naval Academy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I believe that what happened and the response that was given in Annapolis I think that made the administration be much more careful this time around as theyre going for these other libraries, the other Department of Defense libraries around the world, she said. Amundson said using the funds raised from the GoFundMe campaign, the bookstore was able to give away nearly 500 books in the days leading up to the Naval Academy graduation. For weeks, letters of support piled up and people stopped by the bookstore with gratitude, some even driving from hours away to show their support in person. In addition to Operation Caged Bird, Amundson said there were powerful arms at work. There was pushback on the book removals from members of Congress, the Naval Academys Board of Visitors and the superintendent who wrote an open letter signed by hundreds of alumni. For right now, this was a huge win for us, Amundson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The post Hundreds of DEI books are back at the Naval Academy. An alum and a bookshop fought their removal. appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter. Ukraine's rocky relationship with Hungary reached new lows this month with the uncovering of an alleged spy ring run from Budapest. Arrests, tit-for-tat expulsions, and a stream of accusations from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban soon followed in a diplomatic scandal with potentially massive ramifications for both countries. "This is probably the most-discussed Ukraine-related news (in Hungary) since the beginning of the full-scale invasion," Andras Racz, a senior fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) Center for Security and Defense, told the Kyiv Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's truly unprecedented," he added. Adding to the intrigue are the questions looming over the motives of the alleged spies, who were allegedly tasked with gathering sensitive military information that would be highly valuable to one country in particular Russia. What happened? Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on May 9 said it had uncovered a Hungarian espionage network in western Ukraine in what was the first case of its kind. SBU counterintelligence detained two alleged agents and identified their supervisor as a Hungarian military intelligence officer. According to the SBU, one of those detained is a 40-year-old former Ukrainian military officer who was recruited by Hungarian intelligence in 2021 and placed in standby mode. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kyiv has long accused Budapest of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty through political interference and pursuing an active policy of issuing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians in the region. They claim he was "activated" in September 2024 when he began to conduct reconnaissance on the deployment of Ukrainian Armed Forces and the coordinates of S-300 air defense systems in the region. The spies tasks also included identifying official vehicles belonging to Ukraine's army, and gathering data on the presence of aircraft and helicopters in Zakarpattia Oblast. They were also tasked with gauging local attitudes to various scenarios including the deployment of a Hungarian "peacekeeping contingent." Local residents walk along a street in Berehove, Ukraine, on March 7, 2022. (Attila Kisbenedek / AFP via Getty Images) Why is Hungary interested in Zakarpattia Oblast? At the center of the spy scandal is Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, a region that has long been home to a large ethnic Hungarian minority that numbered 70,000-80,000 in 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Relations between Ukraine and Hungary have been historically strained because of issues relating to Zakarpattia Oblast Kyiv has long accused Budapest of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty through political interference and pursuing an active policy of issuing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians in the region. In turn, Budapest accuses Kyiv of discriminating against the Hungarian ethnic minority there, especially over Ukraine's language laws that require at least 70% of education above fifth grade to be conducted in Ukrainian. A map showing Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast (The Kyiv Independent / Nizar al-Rifai) While Budapest has called this measure discriminatory toward the Hungarian minority, Kyiv denies it is discriminatory, saying it only aims to ensure that every Ukrainian citizen has sufficient knowledge of the country's official language. These issues have taken on extra significance since the start of Ukraine's accession talks which formally launched in June 2024. Hungary which as an existing member of the EU holds veto power over accession decisions has held up the process, citing discrimination against its Hungarian minority as a key obstacle. What has Hungary said about the spying scandal? Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of collaborating with his political opposition, Tisza party leader Peter Magyar, to orchestrate a campaign to discredit him ahead of a planned referendum on Kyiv's EU membership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The day before the SBU announcement, Magyar released an audio recording of a 2023 conversation in which Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky talks of preparing the country's military for war the opposite of what he and Orban had been saying in public, Magyar said. "Thus, the Hungarian opposition party took an active part in the special operation of the Ukrainian secret service," Orban said on May 13, adding: "Such a thing has never happened in our memory." Peter Magyar holds a Hungarian flag during a protest in Budapest, Hungary, on March 15, 2025. (Janos Kummer / Getty Images) Budapest also on May 9 expelled what it claimed were two "spies" working under diplomatic cover at Ukraine's embassy in Budapest, a move met with reciprocal expulsions by Kyiv. Another two Ukrainian "spies" were allegedly uncovered on May 20. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the scandal, Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Levente Magyar refused to come to Ukraine on May 12 for planned talks about the Hungarian national minority, Ukraines Justice Ministry said on May 11. How did Ukraine react? According to Racz, just the fact that Ukraine's SBU went public with the information is in itself significant. "Usually, espionage-related affairs are handled in a silent, non-public way. Even if there are expulsions, usually both sides are interested in minimizing tensions and the damage inflicted," Racz said. "Why would Budapest need the location and exact type of the air defense systems so much that they specifically instructed one of the agents to go there and take pictures of the installations? [...] I find no other plausible answer than Russia." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And the timing of the announcement may also have been deliberate according to Viktor Yahun, former deputy head of the SBU, the release of the information on May 9, Russias Victory Day, was to "show once again how close the contacts and intentions of Hungary and Russia are." Orbans Russia connection Complicating matters further is the fact that Orban is widely seen as the EU's most pro-Russian leader, and has repeatedly opposed military aid for Ukraine, arguing that Western support prolongs the war. He has maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, holding official meetings despite the full-scale invasion and amplified Kremlin narratives in Europe. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has visited Russia 13 times in the past three years, far more than any other EU diplomat, and even more than some of Russias closest allies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Hungarian FM visits Moscow, eyes further economic cooperation with Russia Largely because of this, Hungary has shifted into a "gray zone" regarding intelligence sharing with EU countries, Vitalii Diachuk, the Institute for Central European Strategy (ICES) analyst, told the Kyiv Independent. The intelligence exchange process became more formalized, and Hungary ceased receiving analytical intelligence from NATO and EU countries, and stopped providing any of its own intelligence related to Russia, he added. Diachuk said there was nothing irregular about a country collecting general intelligence on its neighbors "especially when there is a war going on," but said a line would be crossed if that information "poses a threat to Ukraine's national security." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The SBU's claim that Hungarian spies were collecting information about Ukraine's air defenses would most certainly cross this line, Racz said "If the SBU's claims are well-grounded then it is very hard to imagine why this information would be relevant for Hungary," he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on July 5, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin / POOL / AFP via Getty Images) "Why would Budapest need the location and exact type of the air defense systems so much that they specifically instructed one of the agents to go there and take pictures of the installations?" Given the highly unlikely scenario that Hungary is planning to attack Ukraine and thus needs to know where its air defenses are located, the remaining possible explanations are limited. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "At present, unfortunately, I find no other plausible answer than Russia," Racz said. Yahun told the Kyiv Independent that it's within the realm of possibility that Orban was acting under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Some of my colleagues have said that it is possible that during Orban's meeting with Putin (in July 2024), he could have persuaded Orban to exchange some intelligence information that is sensitive to Hungary and Russia," Yahun said. Yahun also said it's unlikely that Orban didn't know about the spying operation given his closeness to Major General Norbert Tajti, the head of Hungary's Military National Security Service (KNBSZ). Before his appointment, he served in Hungarys Joint Forces Command and as Orbans aide in the Prime Ministers Office. "(Tajti) had been a personal assistant to Orban for three years. This means that this person is completely devoted to Orban, and any actions on his part could not have been operated independently," Yahun said. Racz also said that Orban's explanation that the entire thing was an orchestrated campaign between Ukraine and his political opposition is unlikely as Orban would not have missed the opportunity to present solid evidence and "frame Peter Magyar's Tisza party as a Ukrainian agent." The Kyiv Independent contacted the SBU to ask how long the alleged Hungarian spying operation had been ongoing, and if it was broader than just the two individuals already detained. "All information about the investigation that is currently permitted to be made public has already been posted on the official resources of the (SBU)," it said in a written statement. Read also: Ukraine attacks elite Russian unit base nearly 7,000km away in Vladivostok, source claims Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. ASTANA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The 2025 China-Central Asia Media Cooperation Forum was held Thursday in Astana, Kazakhstan, with the theme of building a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. Tokayev said in the letter that the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping has won wide recognition from the international community as a strategic concept to promote global cooperation. "Kazakhstan attaches great importance to developing friendly relations with China," Tokayev said. "This forum aims to deepen the integration and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries. It is an important event based on consensus and trust in the media field and dedicated to strengthening partnerships. I wish the forum a complete success and fruitful achievements!" The participating guests expressed the belief that media exchanges are an important part of the relations between China and Central Asia. Media outlets from China and Central Asian countries should grasp the trend of the times, expand cooperation, jointly tell stories of friendly cooperation, and contribute wisdom and strength to building a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future. The forum was jointly hosted by China's People's Daily and the Kazakh Presidential Radio and Television Administration. More than 200 media representatives, officials, experts, scholars, and business representatives from China and Central Asian countries attended the event. During the forum, the launching ceremony of the "2025 China-Central Asia Media Cooperation Forum Photo Exhibition" and the "China-Central Asia Media Joint Interview on High-Quality Belt and Road Initiative Cooperation" were also held. SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) The post office in Huron will now hold a new name. Family members, friends and residents gathered to honor fallen Army First Lt. Thomas Michael Martin by renaming the Huron post office in his memory, a news release from the United States Postal Office said. Buffalo Chip announces rally lineup According to the USPS, Martin was killed in action on October 14, 2007, in Iraq. Martin was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Purple Heart Medal posthumously. Hes buried in the West Point National Cemetery and his hometown post office will be known as the First Lieutenant Michael Martin Post Office Building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds and Huron Mayor Mark Robish attended a ceremony at the post office in Huron along with family members. Tom began his life here, died in Iraq fighting for freedom that each of us enjoy every day. Our family is so proud that this beautiful historic facility in what Tom always felt was his hometown, will now be the First Lieutenant Michael Martin Post Office Building, Martins father Ed said in a news release. Martin was born October 10, 1980, in Huron and in 1998, he enlisted in the United States Army as a Field Artilleryman. In 2001, he was accepted for admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and later graduated from Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He majored in Military Science, commissioned as an Armor Officer and completed the course at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He reported to the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Richardson, Alaska where he assumed responsibility as the Sniper Platoon Leader and deployed with the unit in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September 2006, a news release said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) The Hutchinson Fire Department said three dogs died following a house fire Thursday. The fire happened in the 700 block of N. Lorraine around 7:47 p.m. Hutchinson fire crews arrived to find smoke coming from the front and fire coming from the back of the home. Firefighters entered the home to search for victims and found the three dogs inside. They were removed, and special equipment was used to try to revive them. The fire department said an occupant of the home wasnt injured and is receiving assistance from the American Red Cross. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Botanica to save 3-million gallons of Wichita water The cause of the fire is still being investigated. The home experienced fire damage throughout. 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. 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. NEW IBERIA, La. (KLFY) The Daughters of the American Revolution hosted a dedication ceremony where they presented a historical marker in New Iberia, to pay tribute to the founding fathers who helped shape the United States into what it is today. Organizers say the location of the DAR marker is significant, because it is the place where a home was built by Dr. Leonard J. Smith in 1836. His nephew, Smith also lived in the home and planted the two oak trees when his first child was born. The trees are all that exist today. The community came together to honor three founding fathers, Francisco Segura, Gabriel Lopez and Juan Miguel. In addition, they honored the diverse cultures of the Spanish, French, Acadian, Anglo and Africans, who rallied behind Bernardo de Galvez to fight the British during the American Revolution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the members of the daughters of the American Revolution, Susan Lissard, say the war played a huge part in America. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KLFY Daily Digest This mark commentates the Louisiana Patriots who contributed to the cause of Americas freedom and who settled along the banks of the Bayou Teche right here on what would one day become New Iberia, said Lissard. The New Iberia chapter of the daughters of the American Revolution are also celebrating 100 years of service, while the United States is celebrating 250 years since becoming a country. This is a diverse group and oftentimes they are left off and so in the end the diversity of them coming together, it shows that our history really consists of all of these people and the things that they did to provide for our independence, said Lissard. Latest news Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested three people Thursday at a Honesdale restaurant, according to the boroughs mayor. Mayor Derek Williams said the agents arrived at the Wayne County Courthouse late Thursday morning. They suited up and drove to Elegante Restaurant and Pizzeria, which was open at the time. Williams said around 10 agents descended on the restaurant, located in the 800 block of Main Street, blocked off the sidewalk and windows, and came out with two men and a woman in custody. He said they were there for an hour, with a few agents staying after the arrests looking around and interviewing people at the restaurant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three people taken into custody work at the restaurant and live in Honesdale, Williams said. A post on the restaurants Facebook page stated it was temporarily closed Thursday afternoon. The post apologizes for the inconvenience and offers refunds for missed orders. Wayne County District Attorney A.G. Howell said in an email two detectives from the office assisted federal agents. He said federal agents from Homeland Security served warrants at a local business in Honesdale. Howell said he couldnt discuss the matter because it is an open investigation and not being handled by his office. Attempts to reach the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the arrests were unsuccessful Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Williams said its the second time federal agents have raided the restaurant in two months. In March, agents arrested one male employee at the restaurant. He said the agency didnt inform borough police of the arrests in advance. Williams said the arrests affect the restaurant and community, adding he knows the people taken into custody. Its tough, he said. 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) In his six years helping run the Casa San Jose Bail Fund, Guillermo Perez says lately, he has been attending more ICE bail hearings and helping getting more undocumented immigrants out of detention than ever. People are scared right now, immigrants are being attacked like never before, said Perez, an immigration activist and retired Steelworkers union organizer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In late April, ICE raided a popular Mexican restaurant in Beaver County, 1942 Tequilas and Tacos. Eight employees were detained, one of several that activists say have been happening in Pittsburgh at laundromats, apartment buildings, and even school bus stops. The latest raids in the region were in Braddock and Wilkinsburg in the final days of May. For activists like Perez, each raid put them into a scramble to figure out how they could assist immigrants and their families affected. One way is through the Casa San Jose Bail Fund, which he helped found. The fund is helping to ease fears by getting immigrants out of detention and giving them legal resources to fight deportations. Founded during the first Trump Administration in 2019, the Casa San Jose Bail Fund has raised more than $200,000 from people in the Pittsburgh area. Unlike criminal bonds, bond seekers only have to post 10% of the bond cost, which many families cant afford. Since its inception, its made 61 loans to various families and helped protect dozens of families from deportation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across Pennsylvania, two other ICE bail funds have emerged to help immigrants in detention. In Lancaster, where 42% of the population is Latino according to the U.S. Census Bureau the Parish Resource Center maintains the Immigration Bond and Advocacy Network. In Philadelphia, the New Sanctuary Movement maintains the Community Fund for Bond and Legal Support. Unlike the Casa San Jose ICE bail fund, which raises all of its money locally, both funds are part of the National Bail Fund Network. The network also helps in providing bail funds for American citizens jailed on criminal charges. They connect different bond funds, says Peter Pedemonti of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia. So if we might not have all the money, we could connect with a fund in Massachusetts or somewhere else to pull money together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Pedemonti says that there is a growing nationwide movement aimed at getting more immigrants out of ICE detention. At a time where theres been a daily assault on immigrant families, both on the ground with ICE agents and also from the White House with policy coming out. I think it is, it is really important to have that, like that concrete small action and that concrete action of liberation,, says Pedemonti. Its a small victory for one family. Studies have shown that immigrants who can get out of immigration detention are far less likely to be deported. Some fleeing violence can seek asylum and other venues to achieve legal status successfully. The process can often take years, but some immigrants have found legal ways to stay in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, those who stay in detention are sometimes subject to isolation and conditions, which advocates have often described as inhuman and unsanitary. What they do is they put tremendous pressure on people to just go ahead and sign away their rights to due process, said Perez. They just use incarceration as a way of pressuring people to self-deport. In this aerial view, Mexican immigration officials and police escort deportees after they were sent back into Mexico on Jan. 22, 2025, as seen from Nogales, Arizona. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) The fund works with a network of immigration attorneys to review the circumstances of each case and assess the likelihood that a bond could be successful. If we assess that they do have a possible path for why they should be allowed to legally stay in the United States, then we go ahead and try to get them legal representation so that they can see if theyre eligible to get a bond, said Perez. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike traditional bail funds, Casa San Jose does not charge interest and allows families to repay the bail over the years. The funds are then reused to help other immigrants get bail. Perez says it has helped mobilize immigrants around Pittsburgh to become politically active in groups like Casa San Jose. Rather than just handing somebody money and wishing them best of luck, we want them to continue to be involved (with) Casa San Jose, to be involved in helping other people in the community who are being impacted by deportations as well, said Perez. So the goal of the bond fund is not only obviously (to) get people out of detention, but also to try to convey that the community is stronger when we support each other. Some donors sign up to give the fund $20 a month, but the bulk of the money comes from several large fundraisers. A variety of community groups in Pittsburgh are holding these types of events to support its efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In late March, Temple Sinai was packed with over 100 Jewish activists who showed up for the De-ICE Ball. Theres nothing like when the Jewish community shows up. You guys are no joke, said Monica Ruiz, the director of Casa San Jose, to a clapping crowd of Jewish activists. The event raised more than $18,000. Im shocked at how many people showed up, said Harry Hochheiser, one of the organizers. Hochheiser is a member of the Dor Hadash Synagogue. In 2018, one of their congregations members, Dr. Jerry Rabonwitz, was killed when a shooter killed 11 Jews who attended three different congregations located in the Tree of Life Synagogue complex, just a few blocks from Temple Sinai. The Oct. 27, 2018, attack is the deadliest attack against Jews in American history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The shooter said that he murdered them because their congregations were fundraising to help immigrants through the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. I think to some extent, thats faded from peoples memories a little bit, even here, but its definitely in the back of my mind, Hochheiser said. Hochheiser said Jews, though, are largely motivated to help immigrants due to their own history of persecution. He pointed out the fundraiser was taking place right around the 86th anniversary of the United States turning away the SS St. Louis, which was carrying over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler. They were denied entry to the United States and 254 of the passengers would later be killed in the Holocaust when they were returned to Europe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its knowing your history, and its looking back to think, Hey, you know what, what was it like for my grandparents,' he said. I cant imagine being turned back or turned away. At a time when many activists say that they feel helpless in stopping the Trump administrations deportation efforts, organizers say giving to the Casa San Jose Bail fund gives them a tangible way to help people. I think particularly at this moment, there are a lot of people who are just looking to do something, said Hochheiser. Mike Elk is a freelance reporter based in Pittsburgh. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Yessenia Ruano, the Milwaukee teacher's aide who publicly fought her deportation, learned that she will have to return to her home country of El Salvador in a matter of days despite having a pending visa application for trafficking victims. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on May 30 ordered Ruano to carry out her own deportation on a June 3 flight. Her attorney, Marc Christopher, said he and Ruano were considering petitioning for a "stay," or a pause, on her deportation order, although success was far from likely. Ruano, whose story drew the support of immigrant-rights advocates in recent months, has said if ICE orders it, she will leave with her twin U.S. citizen daughters, who will turn 10 years old one day before the flight. Emerging from the ICE offices on East Knapp Street, Ruano was tearful and said she was devastated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I don't believe it," she said. "I'm still processing it." At previous appointments, ICE officers had signaled that they may give her more time for her application for a trafficking victims' visa to be processed by another federal agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She arrived at the appointment optimistic, she said, because she had a receipt from USCIS confirming that they'd received the application and all the materials were there. It turned out that it didn't matter, Ruano said. Previously, people with open applications for visas for trafficking or crime victims, known as T and U visas, were protected from deportation. Christopher said he gleaned from ICE officers that the new policy under the Trump administration is that ICE will no longer wait for decisions on those applications for people with deportation orders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The process is backlogged. Years ago, Christopher said, T and U visa decisions came from USCIS in a few months. Now, people face wait times of two years or more. "It's punishing people like Yessenia, people who are the victims," Christopher said. ICE representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ruano is holding onto some hope that a last-ditch legal filing, such as a petition to pause the deportation, would keep her in the U.S. a bit longer. But she only has about three days two of which are weekend days to make that case before her scheduled flight. "Our hands are tied," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ruano has lived in the U.S. for 14 years, and her daughters were born here. She has a valid work visa and is employed at a bilingual public elementary school as a kindergarten aide. She has no criminal record. Ruano fled gang violence in El Salvador. She received a death threat before she left, she said. Her brother later was murdered, and so were several friends. In 2011, Ruano crossed the U.S.-Mexico border by paying $3,500 to smugglers, who brought her to a small house where 30 people stayed. They were locked in the home for two weeks, fed once a day, and Ruano was in charge of cleaning. She was sexually abused, she said. Yessenia Ruano, left, an MPS teacher's aide from El Salvador, is joined by Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, and her attorney, Marc Christopher, outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices on May 30, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. Her situation has exemplified the Trump administration's push to expand deportations beyond those who are convicted of serious crimes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Having seen a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about Ruano's upcoming hearing, a group of about 40 protesters picketed outside the ICE offices May 30. The crowd was mostly made up of retirees who belong to the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee as well as some advocates from Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant-rights organization. "This is breaking up our community," said Michael Pointer Mace, a Unitarian member and an organizer of the protest. "I just can't see this as anything productive." Unitarian church member Deborah Conta of Milwaukee said she was outraged. "She's a person who belongs in this community," Conta said. "She's done everything that's been required of her. There's absolutely no reason for her to be deported. It's a sick statement about who's being targeted." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the protesters marched and sang, several people arrived for their own appointments with ICE and USCIS, which are housed in the same building. It was a reminder that Ruano is among many immigrants confronting an uncertain future as the administration seeks to turbocharge deportations nationwide, increasingly arresting people at their routine check-ins and immigration court hearings. After the appointment, Ruano said she planned to meet with her attorney then would begin packing her suitcase. She became emotional when she told reporters who were gathered that her daughters, who were in school, didn't know the news yet. Ruano has relied on her devout Catholic faith to guide her through her months-long ordeal. And leaving the ICE offices, she leaned on it again. "Even with the bad news, my faith is inside of me," she told the crowd through a megaphone. "God is with me. You all are with me." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter who reports on religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact her at scarson@gannett.com or 920-323-5758. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ICE orders MPS teacher's aide Ruano to self-deport to El Salvador On May 29, officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Florida Highway Patrol and four other state and federal agencies swarmed a Tallahassee construction site and started checking immigration status for at least 200 people in possibly the largest single-day operation yet in Florida. More than 100 people were taken into custody at the site of the construction of a student housing complex near Florida State University. On May 13, ICE had targeted constructions sites in Wildwood, south of The Villages, arresting more than two dozen people. According to a Homeland Security video posted to X, they were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and some had been deported before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under Florida law, it is illegal to knowingly employ, hire, recruit or refer any person who is not legally allowed to work in the state. In February, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a package of bills addressing illegal immigration, including one that made simply entering the state without legal status a crime with a mandatory nine-month jail sentence, although that has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. So why are construction sites still hiring undocumented immigrants? "The Feds are pursuing the subcontractor responsible for hiring the illegal alien workers," DeSantis said in an X post, when asked that question. After the Wildwood raid, Homeland Security said it was investigating whether construction companies were hiring undocumented immigrants in Florida, "the fastest growing region in the U.S." BREAKING! @HSITampa is diligently working to determine if construction companies in the fastest growing region in the U.S. is employing illegal aliens & violating federal immigration law! @EROMiami @FLHSMV @OfficialBOP pic.twitter.com/4OJETnJd9C HSI Tampa (@HSITampa) May 13, 2025 Can construction companies in Florida hire undocumented immigrants? For many years, the Sunshine State has looked the other way with porous immigration laws to help support or at least not heavily restrict the agricultural, hospitality and construction industries that relied on a steady source of inexpensive labor to keep costs down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A study from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that about 1 in 10 people in Florida in 2022 were noncitizen immigrants, and they made up about 12% of the total workforce, 34% of the construction workforce, a whopping 47% in farming and fishing, and 17% in transportation. However, undocumented workers may be paid under the table and off the books, making a true number hard to count. And until recently, few companies saw any penalties for hiring them. When asked if the day's dramatic raids were a warning to construction companies who hire undocumented immigrants, the governor's office deflected questions to HSI. DeSantis did comment on social media, saying: "State law enforcement making a huge impact on immigration enforcement efforts. Major bust in Tallahassee!" What are the penalties for hiring undocumented immigrants in Florida? According to Florida Statutes 448.09, the penalties for employing or hiring undocumented immigrants are: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First offense: Contractors may face a fine of $500 or less, regardless of how many people discovered in the violation. The first offense is a noncriminal violation. Second offense: Employers who have been previously convicted of employing or hiring undocumented immigrants who do it again face a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $500, regardless of the number of undocumented people in the violation. Subsequent offenses: After the second conviction, any further violations will be considered a separate second-degree misdemeanor for every person In 2020, under pressure from DeSantis, the Republican-led Legislature passed a law requiring state employers, contractors and subcontractors with 25 or more employees to use the federal E-Verify system when hiring workers, which effectively exempted the states powerful agriculture industry. Three years later, DeSantis signed SB 1718 that, among other things, added that requirement to private companies with 25 or more employees. However, the Tampa Bay Times pointed out that still accounted for less than 20% of Florida companies and wasn't difficult to get around. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When state lawmakers passed the newest anti-immigration laws during a special session in February, they did not expand the E-Verify requirements and did not increase penalties for companies that violated them, the Tampa Bay Times said. An amendment from Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, to remove the 25-employee threshold was ruled out of order, although DeSantis said he supported it. A new bill in this year's Florida Legislature that would finally have required all private employers in Florida to use E-Verify for any number of employees passed the House but was one of about 1,300 bills withdrawn and indefinitely postponed in the Senate after the session bogged down over state budget arguments. For real or political posturing? Florida illegal labor crackdown might be a Trump preview Have any Florida companies been fined for hiring undocumented immigrants? The DeSantis administration had not taken action against employees violating the hiring requirements, despite the tightened laws, until January, when DeSantis sent warning letters to 40 companies after Republican lawmakers started asking about the lack of enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During discussions of new immigration bills, Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, pointed out that only eight or nine companies had been flagged by the state for potential violations under the E-Verify law. DeSantis blamed the lack of funding for E-Verify violation enforcement, but the new bills the next month didn't add any more and there was no request for funds in the budget request submitted in October. DeSantis' social media post after the Tallahassee arrests and the dramatically increased ICE presence enforcing President Donald Trump's plans to deport millions of immigrants suggest that more crackdowns are coming. More than 1,100 immigrants were detained across Florida during five days in May as part of "Operation Tidal Wave," a joint immigration operation between ICE and Florida state and local law enforcement that Larry Keefe, executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, called the "Florida blueprint" for federal authorities to enact mass deportations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some federal investigations have resulted in penalties for Florida businesses. In January, a Fort Pierce building company was sentenced in federal court to serve two years of probation for employing undocumented workers after a Homeland Security investigation. Martinez Builders Supply, which does business on the Treasure Coast as East Coast Truss, was also required to pay a fine of $100,000 after it had already forfeited $450,000 to the government as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. Gray Rohrer, Elena Barrera and Ana Goni-Lessan of the USA TODAY Network Florida contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ICE raid in Tallahassee, Florida: Do construction companies get fined? After three months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a Filipino green-card holder who had been arrested at Seattle-Tacoma Airport has finally gone home. Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old University of Washington lab technician, was released on Thursday from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, after a judge ruled that she does not qualify for deportation. Dixon, whos had legal permanent status in the U.S. for 50 years, had been in ICE custody since late February, when she was detained after coming back from a visit to the Philippines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside the detention facility, Dixon thanked a crowd of supporters and spoke about her experience and the conditions in the facility. It was horrific; it was awful, it is crowded -- super crowded, they release maybe nine, bring back seven, release one, they bring three, she said, according to local NBC affiliate King5. Dixons niece Lani Madriaga told NBC News that in the hours since her release, shes been spending time with loved ones. Last night, we had dinner together as a family and just chatted, Madriaga said on Friday. Shes just getting readjusted. Benjamin Osorio, Dixons attorney, previously told NBC News that a decades-old embezzlement conviction likely caught the attention of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the airport, triggering her detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dixon had been a vault teller and operations supervisor at Washington Mutual Bank at the time and removed cash from the vault on eight separate occasions without the banks authorization, according to her plea agreement. She removed a total of $6,460. While Dixon pleaded guilty to the nonviolent offense in 2000, she was ordered to pay restitution and spend 30 days in a halfway house, court documents show. By 2019, she completed her payments. Dixon has been in the U.S. since she was a teenager and has long been eligible for citizenship, but she promised her father that she would maintain her Filipino nationality so that she could retain property in her native country. However, Osorio said, Dixon likely did not understand the risk involved with staying on a green card. Madriaga said the ordeal has been emotional for her aunt, but its also given her a renewed purpose in helping detainees. During her time in ICE custody, Dixon attempted to help others navigate the immigration and court system, Madriaga said. Dixon plans on staying in touch with the detainees at the Tacoma facility, with whom she said she grew close. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think its going to stop her from helping others, even though shes been out, the niece said. The case has been shocking for her family, particularly because Dixon had kept her conviction a secret from them. We dont think her any different after we found out about her conviction, Madriaga said. She turned it all around and she really worked hard and really focused on health care, where its really about helping the community. In fact, Madriaga said, Dixon plans to head back to work soon. In the meantime, Dixons first priority is obtaining her citizenship. Dixon is among several other green-card holders who have been detained amid the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration. Earlier this month, Maximo Londonio, 42, was also detained at an airport in Seattle after coming back from vacation with his family. Londonio, a green-card holder, was likely detained due to previous nonviolent convictions, his family members believe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another legal permanent resident, Fabian Schmidt, was detained in March after being arrested at the Boston Logan International Airport. The German national, who had a previous misdemeanor marijuana conviction, was released in May, after he filed a motion to terminate the immigration proceedings. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com AMHERST Federal agents, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, took two people into custody Wednesday in two separate incidents here, the town said in a statement. The ICE enforcement happened despite, or possibly because, Amherst is a sanctuary community. That means town officials have asked the police not to assist federal agencies with immigration arrests. The two incidents occurred between 7 and 8 a.m., the town administrators office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It has also been reported that this is not the first time ICE has taken members of the community into custody, the statement reads. At least some of the ICE activity took place near the Amherst College campus. On Wednesday morning at 7:40, Amherst College police became aware of federal law enforcement activity in the alumni parking lot, said college spokeswoman Caroline Hanna. Campus police responded and spoke with federal officers who were engaging in processing an activity that occurred off campus and did not involve an Amherst College community member, Hannah said in a written statement. There was no response from ICEs Boston office when queried Thursday or Friday. No information on the arrests was available at U.S. District Court in Springfield. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the enforcement took place just as ICE agents rounded up 40 people on Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket on Tuesday. On Thursday, Homeland Security declared a new initiative to step up enforcement in what it calls sanctuary communities. Amherst passed a sanctuary ordinance at its Town Meeting in 2017, according to town records. It prevents, to the extent permissible by law, a town department, or officer or employee of a town department from performing the functions of an immigration officer. The commonwealth of Massachusetts as a whole, as well as Amherst, Northampton, Holyoke and Springfield, and Hampshire and Franklin counties, are considered sanctuary jurisdictions, the Department of Homeland Security said this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law, the department said in a message on X. Stories by Jim Kinney Read the original article on MassLive. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 DAMASCUS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) has asserted responsibility for a roadside bombing in southern Syria that killed one soldier and wounded three others, an attack monitors describe as the group's first confirmed strike against the country's new authorities since former President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024. In a statement released on Wednesday, the extremist organization said its operatives planted an explosive device targeting a Syrian army patrol from the 70th Division in the southern Sweida province. Some regional analysts view the bombing as a potential escalation, indicating the Islamic State's intent to reassert its presence amid Syria's fragile political transition. This attack follows a reported surge in Islamic State activity in May, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group. The Observatory noted increased operations in areas controlled by Kurdish forces as well as by the new authorities in Damascus. The monitor documented two incidents in territory held by Damascus this month, including the Sweida bombing, which collectively left four people dead. Separately, it recorded 32 attacks in northeastern regions under the control of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). These operations reportedly involved ambushes, targeted killings, and improvised explosive devices. The Deir al-Zor region, a former key stronghold for the Islamic State, particularly the Baghouz area, remains a focal point for militant activity and sleeper cells. Despite the dissolution of its territorial "caliphate" in 2019, the Islamic State has persisted as a low-level insurgency, launching attacks from remote desert redoubts and employing hit-and-run tactics that continue to challenge the nation's fragile security. Syrian authorities reported earlier this week the arrest of an alleged Islamic State cell near Damascus, accused of plotting attacks. In a separate security operation in Aleppo, one security officer and three suspected IS militants were killed. This uptick in violence occurs as Syria's new leadership actively seeks to rebuild international relationships. Thomas Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Syria, who recently oversaw the reopening of the American ambassador's residence in Damascus, indicated that U.S. President Donald Trump intends to remove Syria from Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism. Earlier this month, Trump met with Syria's interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh, urging him to bolster efforts to prevent a resurgence of extremist groups, according to official readouts of the meeting. Nevertheless, despite these diplomatic overtures and renewed pledges of investment, the persistent threat posed by the Islamic State underscores the formidable challenges confronting Syria's post-conflict recovery and stabilization efforts. Previous coverage: Gov. DeSantis speaks about immigration in Tampa TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a huge construction site operation in Tallahassee on Thursday that ended with the arrests of over 100 immigrants without legal status. ICE Tampa led the operation, which included support from the FBI, DEA, ATF, FDLE, U.S. Marshals and IRS Criminal Investigation. Officials did not name the construction site or employer, but said the migrants who were arrested were from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia and Honduras, among other countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ICE said one immigrant was taken into custody for resisting arrest and is being charged with four counts of assault on officers, and another attempted to draw a weapon. This is not the first large-scale arrest that has happened in Florida since President Trump took office in January and DeSantis signed on as a partner in his mass deportation plans. Earlier in May, over 1000 migrants were arrested in Operation Tidal Wave. All Florida counties have entered into agreements with the federal government to deputize their officers for immigration enforcement, enabling these massive operations to take place. 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. Members of the Idaho House of Representatives hold a floor session on March 10, 2025, at the Idaho Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) EDITORS NOTE: This story was updated June 2 to reflect that the League of Women Voters of Idaho posted messages to social media opposing House Bill 93 and then urged Gov. Brad Little to veto the bill. The co-president of the League of Women of Voters of Idaho said state agencies including Gov. Brad Littles office and the Idaho State Tax Commission have not accepted the leagues invitation to work together on a public awareness campaign highlighting a new state education tax credit Little signed into law this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response, state officials and the Idaho State Tax Commission said they dont yet have the answers to the questions the league is asking and it would not have been possible or appropriate to undertake a public awareness campaign at this time. Founded in 1920, the League of Women Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to increase voter participation and access, and inform the public about major policy issues. Jean Henscheid, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Idaho, walks away from the lectern after testifying at a Senate Health and Welfare Committee meeting on March 10, 2025, at the Idaho Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) Co-President Jean Henscheid said members of the league tried working for weeks with the Idaho State Tax Commission and Littles office to create a public awareness campaign around the new Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit. The law has been effective for nearly six months. Henscheid said members of the league felt it was important to try to facilitate a discussion or public forum on how families can participate in the tax credit and how accountability will work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the course of the 80 years we have been active in Idaho we have provided dozens, if not hundreds, of opportunities for public education events including candidate forums, roundtable discussions, community events asking people what they think of particular polices and providing them with the kind of information they need to be informed voters, Henscheid said. Even in its embryonic state, there is enough interest in this $50 million initiative that we felt it would be a service to the public to offer and to facilitate it, which is what the league has done for 80 years, Henscheid said. In February, the League of Women Voters of Idaho sent social media posts opposing the bill that created the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit and then urged Little to veto the bill. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX State still working out details on tax credit program that would allow public dollars for private schooling Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Idaho State Tax Commission said the state does not yet have answers to many of the questions the League of Women Voters of Idaho gathered for a public awareness campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were still working out the details of the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit program, Idaho State Tax Commission public information officer Renee Eymann said Wednesday. This is a complex piece of legislation, and we want to have the correct information available. The law creating the tax credit has already taken effect. House Bill 93 was written so that it took effect retroactively on Jan. 1, 2025. The new credit in House Bill 93 provides up to a $5,000 refundable tax credit for qualifying education expenses, including tuition at a private, religious school. Under the law, parents, guardians or foster parents can receive the credit for qualified expenses such as private school tuition and fees. Eymann said officials with the Idaho State Tax Commission are still: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reviewing the definitions as they relate to taxes Looking at the reporting requirements so the commission can roll them into the application process Determining the commissions administrative duties and how theyll align with the laws requirements Henscheid said the league was open to all sorts of ideas for a public forum or public awareness campaign including a town hall event, a webinar, a literature campaign or a Q&A of some format. If they thought meeting on aisle 12 at Walmart and talking to people about it would help, we would have done it, Henscheid said. Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed new tax credit into law During his Jan. 6 State of the State address Little said: I recognize the growing desire to expand school choice, especially for students with unique physical or developmental conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Little then recommended spending $50 million to further expand education options for Idaho families, and he signed House Bill 93 into law on Feb. 27. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US For this article, Littles office referred questions about the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit and the League of Women Voters of Idahos outreach efforts to the Idaho State Tax Commission. Parents will be able to apply for the new Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit on Jan. 15, 2026, Eymann said. Once the Idaho State Tax Commission has the details and requirements of the new law sorted out, officials will seek to share those details with the public, the commission said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As we finalize more information, well be sharing it with all groups that are willing to help us spread the word, Eymann said. This will include issuing news releases, compiling frequently asked questions, providing steps on how to fill out the application for the credit, and explaining what 300% below poverty level means. A list of some of the questions the League of Women Voters of Idaho gathered from the public this spring Financial Information How do tax credits work in general? Are there examples similar to the Parental Choice Tax Credit Program? Will the same system used for determining qualified expenses through the Empowering Parents grants be used for the Parental Choice Tax Credit Program? Who will be responsible for determining the eligibility of individual family expenses (e.g. qualified instructional materials or travel)? Will the Empowering Parents grants program process be combined with this process? Will levels of compliance and noncompliance be reported publicly (see also accountability Question #23 below) Can families who do not file taxes apply? Could you clarify the following: Parents seeking an advanced payment may also receive a tax credit in the same year. Is that correct? Does that mean one student could receive as much as $10,000 or $15,000 during the first year of eligibility? Is there a limit to the number of children per household who may be eligible for the tax credit? Will a student who registers for an enrichment program, after school activity, or music lesson through a public school, public charter school, public virtual charter school, public magnet school, or part-time public kindergarten while they are using the tax credit forfeit the entire credit for that term? How will this impact future applications? Who will be tasked with tracking ineligible enrollment and recovering the tax credit? Will a nonpublic school that disenrolls a student during an academic term in which a tax credit is being used retain the tax credit funds? If not, will the remaining funds be returned to the state or to parents? Who will be tasked with tracking this? Will a closing nonpublic school receiving tax credit funds retain those funds or return the remainder to the parents? Do closing nonpublic schools have any obligations to enrolled students using the tax credit funds? Application Process What information will be required on the application form? How was the 60-day application window determined? Is this like other programs? Will parents whose modified adjusted gross income does not exceed 300% of the federal poverty level have an early window during the 60 days to apply? If not, how will the preference process work? The law says parents who are reapplying will be given preference over parents who qualify under the federal poverty level criteria. This seems to shift the programs priorities from the first year. Is this correct? Will parents have someone to help them through the application process? Student Learning The law states that tax credits may be used to cover academic instruction in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social science. Who will be tasked with verifying (and reverifying) that these subjects are taught? Will it be a self-report by the school? Who will be tasked with defining a portfolio of evidence or learning record that indicates the students growth? Will this be up to each school? Will portfolios and learning records be housed at the Tax Commission? If so, will they be secured? Does the student retain ownership of the intellectual property in these documents? Who will conduct the audit of these records to establish that the instruction meets the requirements listed in Question 14 above? What does sufficient evidence for an audit mean? Accountability Could you tell us more about what is meant by an accredited school? How will parents reapplying for the program certify that they have completed the mandatory satisfaction and engagement survey? What evidence will be required? Will someone be tasked with ensuring that students with disabilities are receiving services under 20 U.S.C. 1412 of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? Will parents of students with disabilities have an advocate who will help students get the help they need? What remedy will be applied if the Tax Commission determines that services mandated by federal law are not provided by the nonpublic school to students with disabilities? The law states that its provisions shall not be construed to permit any government agency to exercise control or supervision over any nonpublic school student and nonpublic schools shall not be required to alter their creeds, practices, admissions policies, or curriculum in order to accept students using parental choice tax credits. Are remedies through the state available to parents if schools fail to comply with the disabilities education act or are identified through the satisfaction and engagement survey as failing in their duty to students? Do the Legislature, Governors Office, or Tax Commission constitute government entities not permitted to control or supervise nonpublic school students or impact creeds, practices, admissions policies, or curriculum of nonpublic schools? If not, why is this the case? Which state employee or employees will be responsible for developing the mandatory satisfaction and engagement survey? Will results be available to participating parents, nonpublic schools, or other stakeholder groups outside the Tax Commission, the governor, and relevant legislative leadership and committees? Will results be made available to the public as state-generated documents? Will results be analyzed? If yes, by whom and for what purpose? Will results be used to improve the program, the nonpublic schools, or student learning? Will results of the annual program report to the governor and relevant legislative leadership and committees be made public and/or used to inform program improvement? SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE According to testimonies from soldiers in the field, Thursday night was one of the most intense since the beginning of the operation. More than 250,000 Palestinians were evacuated from Jabalya to the shelter area in the past few hours, security sources said on Friday. According to estimates, in addition to announcements urging Palestinians to quickly move to the humanitarian shelter areas, the forces are using air and ground fire to kill terrorists in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A critical juncture has been crossed on the way to achieving the objectives of the latest operation in Gaza. According to testimonies from soldiers in the field, Thursday night was one of the most intense since the beginning of the operation. Defense Minister Israel Katz said on X/Twitter that the IDF is continuing its operations in "full force, striking and dismantling Hamas strongholds, while evacuating the local population from every combat area and attacking the territory from the air, land, and sea on an unprecedented scale to maximize the protection of our soldiers as maneuvering forces enter each area and throughout the operation. An Israeli military vehicle patrols the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, May 29, 2025. (photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN) "Our foremost commitment is to the protection of our brave soldiers, both in regular service and in the reserves, above all other considerations," Katz continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said that in each place, after killing terrorists and clearing the area, the IDF remains in the position and holds it. "The Hamas murderers will now have to choose: Accept the terms of the 'Witkoff Deal' for the release of the hostages, or be annihilated," Katz concluded. All of the IDFs troops in the Gaza Strip advanced to their targets set by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, according to defense sources. Regarding the sentiment that the military is advancing at a slow pace, sources said on Friday that the divisions in the field are carrying out the mission thoroughly, including performing extensive engineering activity, so that terrorist cells will not be able to return to the terror infrastructure above and below ground. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, Zamir stressed that the safety of the troops is more important than the speed of the operation. Hostage deal talks continue amid operation Estimates in Israel suggest that the weight of the decision-making process regarding the deal to release the hostages has shifted from the Gaza Strip to abroad, especially after the elimination of Mohammad Sinwar several weeks ago, beneath the hospital in Khan Yunis. The leadership situation is causing Hamas's decision-making to slow down. At this stage, the IDF is ignoring the hostage deal negotiations and is acting in accordance with the operational plans and timelines set by the chief of staff while preparing to make adjustments according to directives from the political echelon. CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) As smoke from wildfires in Canada makes its way south to Illinois, the Illinois Department of Public Health is issuing a warning on the health concerns this smoke could have. Officials said some of the smoke could reach the ground, presenting a problem for anyone, but especially for people sensitive to air pollution. WEATHER NOW: Dirty weather ahead literally! Breathing wildfire smoke can have immediate health impacts, including respiratory and cardiovascular effects, IDPH officials said on the agencys website. Particle pollution may also affect the bodys ability to remove inhaled foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria, from the lungs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Children, older adults, people with chronic respiratory or cardiovascular disease and people with low socioeconomic status are described as being the most at-risk from wildfire smoke: Children due to their developing lungs, high exposure due to playing outdoors and engaging in more vigorous activity, requiring more oxygen Older adults due to pre-existing respiratory and heart conditions, and a decline in their immune systems People with heart of lung diseases due to the fine particles in the air People with low socioeconomic status due to living or working near other sources of air pollution. Moreover, the impoverished have a disproportionate level of heart and lung diseases. People are advised to limit their exposure to wildfire smoke by limiting outdoor activities or reducing the intensity of exercise or strenuous work, keeping indoor air as clean as possible and to consider wearing a respirator like an N95 mask surgical and cloth masks will not protect peoples lungs from the particles found in wildfire smoke. 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. Illinois lawmakers have passed a bill that could create more requirements for safe gun storage. The Safe Gun Storage Act (SB0008) would require guns to be kept in a secure locked container so a minor, an at-risk person or someone who is not allowed to have a gun cant get to them. Illinois state police would also be able to revoke firearm owners identification cards if a person doesnt report a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours two or more times. House Republicans argue the bill is unconstitutional and will challenge it in court. The bill passed the House 69-40 and passed the Senate in April. The bill now only needs the governors signature to become law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. Push for transparency and limit excessive rental fees clear the Senate executive SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) Illinois is one step closer to banning excessive rental fees. The Senate Executive Committee passed a bill that will ban landlords from charging tenants things like pest control fees, double charging new tenants, and putting caps on how much landlords can charge for late payment fees. The bill that cleared the Senate had a looser restriction than when it was introduced. The first one would have stopped landlords from charging tenants anything before moving in, which meant no security deposit, move-in fees, or application processing payments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pritzker says he will veto any budget with broad tax increases After discussion and negotiation, the bill was revised with an amendment that would allow landlords to pick what to charge from security deposit, moving or move-out fees, but they cant double charge tenants for the same service. They must choose one or the other. Bill sponsor Sen. Mike Simmons (D-Chicago) said this is to protect families who are already having a difficult time. This bill will prevent bad-actor landlords from taking advantage of tenants, nickel and diming tenants who are already struggling to find affordable housing, feed their families, and who have to increasingly worry about how they will pay for basic necessities, Simmons said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After-hours maintenance, lease renewal, and application fees would also be banned under this bill. If a tenant needs a background check, the amount is not to exceed $20, but there are other ways they could waive their background check fees if they provided a recent report within 30 days. Landlords couldnt charge more than $10 on the first $1,000 of rent. Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) raised questions about whether people who lock up and call the landlord late at night should be responsible. Simmons said those are not included, but for maintenance reasons, people shouldnt be charged. Illinois House passes bill to offer medical assist in dying to the terminally ill We did take out the lockout fees that is one of the compromises I made after meeting with the realtors. We took that over the weekend. I think it makes sense, Simmons said. But for maintenance reasons people shouldnt be charged. What happens when someone has a boiler that goes out at 9 p.m. and theyre afraid to call the landlord because a landlord said, Im going to charge you $175 if you call me after 9 p.m. That to me creates a safety hazard for both the tenant and the landlord. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Tracy endorsed her concern with college towns where some younger people often dont follow renting etiquette. You have a younger population renting that dont understand about freezing pipes and the like, Tracy said. And when they go on break, they dont winterize properly causing pipes to freeze. The Realtor Association in Chicago still opposed the bill, saying it needs improvement and they would be willing to continue to work on it during the summer. But chair of the committee Sen. Cristina Castro (D-Elgin) raised concern about high fees and didnt accept the delay. She said both parties will work on it before summer. Bill heading to Pritzkers desk to prevent time limit on anesthesia Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once someone signs that lease, theyre stuck with it and theyve already signed that contract. So they have no choice and have to pay these exorbitant fees, Castro said. Id like to do this in the summer is not an excuse. You will work with Senator Simmons on this bill, but we also need a good faith partner on the other side. Sponsors said the bill is to create transparency between landlords and tenants. Landlords must disclose all non-optional fees on the first page of the lease, such as whether utilities are a part of the rent. If they dont mention it on the first page, the tenant cant be held liable for them. If any landlord chooses to charge move-in fees, they cannot charge more than 20% of the first months rent. The bill passed the Senate Executive Committee with nine votes in favor of it and four against it. Now, the bill heads to the Senate floor for full debate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) The Illinois House has passed the Clean Slate Act, which would automatically seal criminal records of those convicted of nonviolent felonies. The bill, which has been debated in the statehouse for years, would seal the records for offenders only if they served their punishment and were not convicted of another crime within the three years following their release. Currently, convicted criminals are barred from many careers and certifications due to their felony convictions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Assistant Majority Leader Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-92nd Dist), who authored the bill, said, After more than six years working on this legislation, I am thrilled to see the Clean Slate Act pass the House today. Too many Illinoisans who have served their time and paid their dues to society are still struggling to get access to the housing and employment opportunities that can set them on the pathway to success. By automatically sealing records for nonviolent offenders, we can help these individuals rebuild their lives, improve public safety, and address the workforce shortages facing businesses across our state. The bill now heads to the Senate. 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. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) After an emotional debate, a proposal to provide options for people who only have months to live has passed one chamber of the Illinois statehouse. The bill to offer medical aid in dying to people with terminal illnesses, sponsored by Rep. Robyn Gabel, passed the House of Representatives Thursday evening 63-42. It now heads to the Senate. The bill would require multiple steps before any medication is offered, including a waiting period of five days before a doctor can proceed and two witnesses to verify the person is of sound mind. In order to be considered terminal under the law, the person must have gotten a diagnosis that they only have six months or less to live. Additionally, the option would only be available for adults 18 or older who are able to orally ask for the procedure; no caregivers or guardians would be able to request it for the person they care for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Illinois Secretary of State warns against DMV text scam Supporters of the bill called it a win for terminally ill individuals. We are so grateful for House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, all of our sponsors, our dedicated legislative champions, and the members of the Illinois House for their leadership in advancing this critical and compassionate legislation, Callie Riley, Regional Advocacy Director for Compassion & Choices Action Network said. We are very excited and we look forward to working with the legislators in the Senate to pass this important bill and deliver it to Governor Pritzkers desk for his signature. Many legislators on both sides of the proposed legislation shared personal stories of taking care of loved ones on the floor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several anti-abortion groups are against the measure, saying the idea devalues human life. Legalizing [physician-assisted suicide] sends a dangerous message that some lives are less valuable than others, particularly those facing illness or disability, Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander said in an email Thursday morning urging supporters to lobby against the bill. 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. BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Education (MOE) is working with the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Public Security to crack down on illegal and harmful information regarding the annual college entrance exam, the MOE said Friday. The authorities urged relevant online platforms to identify and eliminate fake news about leaked exam content, sales of "answers," and enrollment fraud, among others. Those creating and spreading online rumors, disrupting public order or circulating false exam content will face severe legal penalties, the authorities warned. They also called on students and their parents to refrain from exam-related crimes and remain vigilant against fraud. China's national college entrance exam, also known as the gaokao, will begin on June 7 and will involve 13.35 million students this year. CHICAGO (WGN) As public transit workers rallied Thursday for quick legislative action to avert a massive fiscal cliff in next years budget, one of transit reforms lead negotiators, State Sen. Ram Villivalam, presented a plan to the Senate Transportation Committee to avoid sending regional transit agencies over the edge. I dont think any of us standing here can stomach what will happen if we dont act on this, Villivalam said. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) faces a $770 million budgetary gap in 2026 due to the expiration of Federal COVID-19 grant funding. If the shortfall is not addressed, the CTA, Metra and PACE could face an estimated 40% cut to services, leading to thousands of employees losing their jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Villivalams proposed legislation would create the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which would shift oversight of the CTA, Metra and Pace from the Regional Transit Authority to a 20-member board. Illinois Governor, the Mayor of Chicago and the Cook County Board President would each appoint five members to the board, while collar counties would appoint one board member each. Villivalams plan would create a unified fare system that provides unarmed staff for customer service assistance at stations and on trains, and develops a law enforcement task force with a regional safety strategy in mind. Importantly, Villivalam said the funding estimates would cover the fiscal cliff, but likely wont amount to the $1.5 billion advocates have been calling for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are happy to see a package that includes revenue, but have major concerns with the revenue proposals in there, Illinois AFL CIO Frances Orenic said. Those proposals include a tollway surcharge, a public electric vehicle charging fee, and the extension of the Real Estate Transfer Tax and rideshare fee to suburban Cook County and the collar counties. This is a billion-dollar bailout for Mayor Brandon Johnson being paid for by suburban taxpayers without giving them a real voice at the table, State Sen. Don DeWitte said. Villivalam described the fee increases as a shared sacrifice. Their job is to do whats needed for the people, said Tiffany Rebb, a member of ATU Local 241. Our job is to commute the people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Negotiations on Villivalams plan are ongoing with some changes possible, but the clock is ticking. State lawmakers have until Saturday at midnight to pass a transit budget plan, otherwise, service cuts could begin to take place. 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. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) A bill that would allow a doctor to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients passed the Illinois House on Thursday. The End of Life Options Act would give a mentally sound adult with six months or less to live the option to get medication to die peacefully with the help of a prescription. I think that one of the most frightening things about death for most of us is that it means the ultimate loss of control, Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) said. Death, like life, is easier to navigate when you know you will have options to choose from, even if you never need to or even if you choose not to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the bill, a physician must first provide information about comfort care, palliative care, and pain control, and the patient must be able to self-ingest the medication. They would have to make two oral requests and a written request, and the request must be witnessed by two people who attest the patient is acting voluntarily and with a sound mind. Oral and written requests for aid in dying may be made only by the patient and shall not be made by the patients surrogate decision-maker, health care proxy, health care agent, attorney-in-fact for health care, guardian, nor via advance health care directive, the bill reads. This legislation will also require doctors to talk about all end-of-life care options, including medical aid in dying. Life insurance payments cannot be denied to the families of those who use the law. A poll taken two years ago showed that 7 out of 10 Illinois voters supported medical aid in dying legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Catholic Diocese of Rockford was among the groups opposing the act, with Bishop David Malloy saying, In states with legalized suicide, there are documented cases of insurance companies refusing to pay for the necessary care of the terminally ill while at the same time, they will cover the small cost of the drugs resulting in the end of life. Malloy also quoted the American Medical Association as saying, Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physicians role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would provide serious societal risks. If passed by the Senate and signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois would become the 11th state to allow medically assisted suicide. 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. SPRINGFIELD In the final days of the spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers this week advanced a bill to the Senate that would prohibit public schools from denying a student access to free education based on that childs immigration status or that of their parents a move aimed at reinforcing long-standing constitutional federal protections amid renewed scrutiny of immigrant rights at the state level. The bill, sponsored in the House by Chicago Democratic Rep. Lilian Jimenez, would prohibit a child within Illinois from being deprived of free public education through high school based on the childs perceived or actual immigration status or the childs parents or guardians perceived or actual citizenship or immigration status. The legislation also says a school must not exclude a child from participation in or deny a child the benefits of any program or activity for those same reasons. The proposal comes as the Tennessee state Senate earlier this year passed a bill requiring citizenship or immigration documentation for schoolchildren in the state. Though that legislation has since fizzled for now because of pushback from opponents, including immigration rights advocates, according to news reports, it has highlighted a broader national tension. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Illinois measure, which seeks to create clear statutory language protecting immigrant school-age children or children of undocumented immigrants, passed Wednesday night by a 70-40 vote through the Democrat-led House. Two Democrats sided with Republicans in voting against it: Diane Blair-Sherlock of Villa Park and Michael Kelly of Chicago. The bill is now in the Senate for its consideration. In a brief interview Thursday morning, state Rep. John Cabello, a Republican from Machesney Park, said he voted against the bill because he believes free education should be reserved for citizens. Im Mexican, but I still believe that you should be a tax-paying citizen to receive anything free from the government, he said. Why would we give people that are not from our country free schooling? Jimenez said she grew up with a parent who was undocumented, and after Donald Trumps second presidential victory, she feared for the future of families like hers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the House floor debate, Jimenez noted that federal law prohibits denying or eliminating access to public education based on immigration status but said that the right to public education is eroded whenever people are afraid to exercise it. In our state, there are parents who are afraid to send their children to school and children afraid to be at school. This is not conducive to learning, said Jimenez. It impacts all of our schools, families and communities. This bill is an opportunity to reassure families and students that their schools are safe as can be and to restore a proper learning environment. State Rep. Dagmara Avelar, a Democrat from Bolingbrook, recalled growing up as an undocumented student. She said not a day went by without her fearing immigration authorities would go after her parents at work. This was something that I was thinking about when I was a young person, she said in support of the bill. Yet, decades later, it seems that were seeing the same struggle and the same trauma with children happening right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill would require a school to develop procedures for reviewing and authorizing requests from law enforcement agents trying to enter a school by July 1, 2026. It would also allow anyone aggrieved by a violation of the measure to file a civil lawsuit up to two years after the alleged infraction occurred. Chicago Public Schools has maintained a firm, clear policy to not allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to access school facilities unless they present a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. The district will also not share student information with ICE without a court order or parental consent. CPS security video shows Secret Service trying to enter Hamline Elementary School In a statement, a CPS spokesperson said that in alignment with state and federal law, CPS strictly prohibits any form of discrimination or harassment and ensures that no student is denied access to educational services based on their immigration status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CPS policies firmly uphold that every child residing in Chicago regardless of background is entitled to a high-quality education in a safe and supportive environment, the statement said. For the Illinois legislation, Jimenez is among 30 House Democratic sponsors of her bill, a group that includes House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch. There are also 12 Democratic Senate sponsors of the measure so far. In an interview this week, Jimenez said her legislation is especially important in light of the Trump administrations decision to rescind a Biden-era policy to protect certain areas like churches and schools from immigration enforcement. She also noted how last month, agents from ICE tried to enter one or two schools in Los Angeles but were not let in. Jimenez also noted there were double-digit percentage drops in attendance in certain schools in January in her district, which includes schools with large Latino populations in Chicagos Humboldt Park, Belmont Cragin and Hermosa areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her district includes undocumented and mixed-status families, she said. Data obtained by the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that attendance rates fell at all schools across CPS the week of Jan. 20, when the 47th president was sworn in. Over 50% of students attending the 10 schools that experienced the biggest attendance drops are Latino, according to enrollment data on the districts website. The names of the schools are being withheld at the request by CPS out of concern for potential retaliation from the federal government. Erika Mendez, director of pre-K-12 policy at the Latino Policy Forum, cheered the legislations advancement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, in our communities, immigrant parents and their children are under incredible stress and anguish when considering whether it is safe to go to school. Schools should be safe and nurturing environments where all students, regardless of their immigration status, can thrive, and where parents can trust that they will see their children at the end of the school day, Mendez said. The Safe Schools for All Act would help give parents and children that peace of mind. The bill, Jimenez said, remains a priority for the legislative Latino Caucus. She added that she has been working with the Illinois attorney generals office to make the bill more resistant to any federal action. For her, it is personal. Her mother was undocumented for the majority of her life because of the difficulties with the immigration system, Jimenez said. Though her mother never had a criminal record and was an exemplary volunteer in her community, Jimenez said someone else in the same situation as her mother is being targeted right now. She wants to ensure that families in that same situation have peace of mind amid so much uncertainty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre knocking on peoples doors. Theyre going to schools, Jimenez said of the Trump administration. Also, the fact that theyre throwing due process out the window Everything theyre doing in the courts is completely unprecedented. Laura Rodriguez Presa reported from Chicago. CHICAGO State lawmakers met Thursday to discuss how to avoid a large public transit budget shortfall and the plan that was discussed could mean toll increases and public charging station fees for electric vehicles. Facing a $770 million budgetary gap in 2026 due to the expiration of Federal COVID-19 grant funding, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) has warned riders could see significant service cuts soon, if the shortfall is not addressed. Illinois lawmakers debate plan to overcome $770 million CTA budget shortfall Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, State Sen. Ram Villivalam presented a plan to the Senate Transportation Committee that he says could help prevent Chicago-area transit agencies from going over the edge. The proposed legislation would create the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, which would shift oversight of the CTA, Metra and Pace from the Regional Transit Authority to a new 20-member board. IDOT: Drivers taking Kennedy Expressway from downtown to OHare can use express lanes again starting Saturday The plan would cover the pending fiscal cliff, but agencies say even more money is needed to make long-term changes to transit systems. The bill, if passed, would also create a unified fare system that would provide unarmed staff for customer service assistance at stations and on trains, and develop a law enforcement task force with a regional safety strategy in mind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The revenue proposals in Villivalams plan would include toll increases up to 50 cents, a public electric vehicle charging fee of 6 cents per kilowatt hour, and the extension of the Real Estate Transfer Tax and rideshare fee to suburban Cook County and the collar counties. Negotiations on Villivalams plan are ongoing with some changes possible. State lawmakers now have until Saturday at midnight to pass a transit budget plan, otherwise, service cuts could begin to take place. 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. LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) Hundreds of people attended a rally Thursday evening on the steps of the New York City Department of Education. The group is demanding that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement release a 20-year-old Bronx High School student from ICE custody. The man, identified only as Dylan, is from Venezuela and was going through the legal process of seeking asylum. More Local News Power Malu, who is in touch with Dylans family, said Dylan and his mother went to an immigration hearing last week without an attorney. Malu said Dylan was duped into giving up his asylum seeker status, and ICE agents were waiting in the hallway outside the federal courtroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Malu added, He was doing everything the right way, following all the procedures, and being compliant, and he shouldnt have been kidnapped. Immigrant Advocates say about a dozen other people were also detained by ICE agents on Wednesday morning while attending immigration hearings at 201 Varick Street. U.S. Congressman Dan Goldman said he also witnessed it on Thursday. Goldman said, This is Gestapo behavior, where plain clothes officers wearing masks are terrorizing immigrants who are doing the right thing. Rosa Cohen-Cruz with the Bronx Defenders told PIX11 News that people seeking asylum should still attend their court hearings, but bring an attorney. If they cannot afford one, Cohen-Cruz said, if the government tries to file a motion to dismiss, or seek to dismiss on the record, they can ask for the motion in writing, they should oppose the motion. PIX11 News requested a response from ICE regarding the rally and the detention of the other immigrants in courthouse hallways. We have not yet gotten a response but Homeland Security previously issued this statement regarding Dylan on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dylan Josue Lopez Contreras is an illegal alien from Venezuela who illegally entered the U.S. more than one year ago. Under the Biden administration, he was encountered at the border and RELEASED into the country. On May 21, 2025, Contreras was arrested and placed in expedited removal proceedings. Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals. Biden ignored the law and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been. If individuals have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation. 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. May 29By Allison Kite, The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS) MINNEAPOLIS Micaela has spent three decades tirelessly cleaning houses, working as a clerk and now owns a shop in the Twin Cities that she tends to seven days a week, only closing Christmas and New Year's Day. But those efforts have left telltale signs on her body. She struggles to walk because of debilitating knee pain brought on by years of grueling cleaning work she performed when she first arrived from Mexico. Micaela's daughter, Isis, helps her to and from the car, stocks the shelves and escorts her to the bathroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Micaela, who only gave her first name because she is undocumented, was hopeful she could finally get treatment when Minnesota opened its state health insurance for low-income residents to undocumented immigrants. She has an appointment scheduled for her knee next month. Now, she's not sure she'll be able to get surgery as the state weighs revoking coverage for Micaela and thousands of fellow immigrants under a budget deal struck between lawmakers in St. Paul. She said she's leaning on her faith for support. "God knows what we can do at this point," Micaela said via translator. "We just we're at His mercy." The Minnesota Democratic trifecta voted in 2023 to open MinnesotaCare to undocumented immigrants, but since the program began in January, enrollment has far exceeded expectations. The state had projected about 5,800 people to sign-up by the end of March, but more than 17,000 people entered the program. By the end of April, enrollments hit more than 20,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Only about 4,300 enrollees have had appointments for which the state has paid out, but Republicans warn the costs of the program may balloon as additional claims roll in. Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders struck a budget agreement this month that would remove undocumented adults from MinnesotaCare but allow children to remain on the program. Approximately one-quarter of enrollees are minors, according to the state. The deal, which has not yet been approved by the Minnesota Legislature, has been met with backlash from progressive lawmakers and organizations that advocate for immigrants. In the two weeks since the deal was announced, protesters at the Capitol have shamed Walz and legislative leaders and accused them of abandoning immigrants. Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, criticized Republicans, who have made rolling back MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants a priority this legislative session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It is especially sad that they have injected into the conversation that some people must simply be left to die because their costs are too expensive," Agbaje said at a news conference at the Capitol. Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, said the costs to provide coverage are too great and Minnesota shouldn't "incentivize illegal immigration" by providing benefits like MinnesotaCare. He said his constituents and neighbors are glad to see the Legislature "put Minnesotans first." He noted that Illinois and California are scaling back coverage or pausing enrollment in health plans for undocumented immigrants because of the costs. "It's actually quite unusual to have a broad-based, taxpayer-funded healthcare benefit for illegal immigrants," Rasmusson said, "and in the states that have tried it, it hasn't worked." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Micaela first came to the U.S, she was often required by employers to scrub floors on her hands and knees. After a while, the physical demands of the work took their toll on her joints. "There's not a single day or minute that she doesn't pass with pain," her daughter Isis said via a translator. When Micaela's not at work, she's resting to prepare herself for another day. Micaela said she tried to buy health insurance in the private market, but she couldn't without a Social Security number. She inquired about paying out of pocket for surgery to help with her knee pain, but she can't afford it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sitting behind the counter of her store, which sells probiotics and other items, Micaela said she doesn't like to ask for handouts. "It gives us shame to even think about being supported by government," Micaela said, "but the thing is, I haven't asked for anything at this point, and I pay for taxes when I run my business." "Everything I've done, I still can't afford to even cover my surgeries," she added. Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez's father also faces the possibility of losing his access to health insurance as he undergoes treatment for cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chavez spoke about his father's diagnosis in a news conference at the Capitol earlier this month. He had been keeping his father's illness relatively private, he said in an interview, but decided to go public in the hope that "maybe...someone would think about not stripping health care away from our most vulnerable community members." "For my father," Chavez said, "I had to." Chavez said his father did not want to be interviewed. Chavez joined Agbaje and other lawmakers in the People of Color and Indigenous, or POCI, Caucus at the Capitol to urge their colleagues to protect MinnesotaCare. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He criticized Democratic legislative leaders for using health care "as a bargaining chip to balance a budget" and said Democrats' top priority had been protecting health care access "for all Minnesotans." "I'm disappointed that that isn't a priority anymore," he said. On social media, he said he was "extremely disappointed" that Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, signed off on the deal given Democrats control the Senate by a one-vote majority. "We won't forget that your re-election is next year," he wrote. POCI Caucus members pounded on the door of the governor's reception room as Walz, Murphy and House leaders announced their proposed budget deal, accusing them of "killing our communities." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Faith groups have held news conferences at the Capitol and read stories of immigrants like Micaela hoping to sway lawmakers. A factory worker in southern Minnesota lost a foot to diabetes she couldn't consistently manage, said Melissa Gonzalez, a pastor at Tapestry Richfield. Now on MinnesotaCare, she has access to insulin and regular doctor's appointments. Murphy and House Democratic Leader Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, have said the decision was a difficult one. "I'm not at all surprised that this is the response," Murphy said as DFL lawmakers and others pounded on the door two weeks ago. "They are Minnesotans," she said. "They work in our communities. They work with and alongside us. They go to church with us. They are our neighbors." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With a tied House and a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate, legislative leaders are struggling to put together a budget. Lawmakers adjourned May 19 without a budget, and with each week that passes, Minnesota draws closer to a partial government shutdown. Whether to end MinnesotaCare for people like Micaela has proven among the most contentious issues and could make it difficult for leaders to get DFL votes for a budget deal without health care for immigrants. Rep. Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, who volunteers as an emergency medical technician, said he feels compassion for those who need access to health care, but lawmakers have to ensure the system is solvent to serve "law-abiding Minnesotans." Backer, co-chair of the House Health Finance and Policy Committee, said he has to "look at the whole ecosystem of our healthcare system." Micaela's appointment for her knee is just around the corner, and as she awaits treatment, she's heartbroken that MinnesotaCare might be revoked. To keep her spirits up, though it's exhausting, she says she'll keep coming to work. ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) The Utah Bureau of Land Management has issued Stage 1 Fire Restrictions for multiple Southern Utah counties due to rapidly increasing fire danger. Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, June 1, Stage 1 Fire Restrictions will be in effect for portions of Washington, Kane and Garfield counties. This includes all BLM and National Park Service-managed land, unincorporated private lands and all state-owned land. Map of fire restrictions effective June 1, 2025 (Utah Bureau of Land Management). Utah BLM says the increase in Stage 1 Fire Restrictions is due to an increase in fire activity as conditions become hotter and drier in the coming months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The following activities will be prohibited during these restrictions: No campfires or open fires outside of agency-improved and maintained campgrounds and homesites in southwest Utah. Running water is required on cabins or homesites on unincorporated private land. Devices fueled by liquid petroleum are allowed. Building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire, campfire, charcoal, coal, or wood stove fire, except within a developed recreation site or improved site. No discharging of fireworks or other pyrotechnic devices outside of incorporated city limits or on public lands (city-specific restrictions may apply). Fireworks are always prohibited on all federal lands. No shooting of exploding targets or tracer ammunition. No cutting, grinding, or welding of metals in areas of dry vegetation. This includes acetylene torches. No use of equipment without a working a properly maintained spark arrestor (if required). No smoking near vegetation or outside of a developed recreation site, personal vehicle, or building. No open fires of any kind are allowed in Zion National Parks Watchman Campground (Stage 2 Fire Restrictions). Campfires are allowed in improved and maintained campgrounds at Lava Point in Zion National Park. Campfires are allowed at Glen Canyon in established campgrounds within established rings or below the high-water mark, only in areas completely void of vegetation. 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. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) A judge decided there is enough evidence against a Wichita man for the legal proceedings against him to continue. Samuel Loredo makes a first appearance before a judge on Nov. 22, 2024. (KSN News Photo) Police alleged that Samuel Loredo, 22, arranged for a 14-year-old to travel to Wichita last November and then had inappropriate relations with the teen. Officers found the teen walking near 21st and Woodlawn and began investigating and arrested Loredo. Ten counties could lose Meals on Wheels programs Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the district attorneys office, District Judge Quentin Pittman listened to evidence during a preliminary hearing on Thursday and bound Loredo for arraignment on these charges: Four counts of criminal sodomy, Indecent liberties with a child, Indecent solicitation of a child, Aggravated interference with parental custody, Two counts of contributing to a childs misconduct, and Two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Loredo remains in jail with bail set at $300,000. His arraignment is scheduled for July 3. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Registered voters in Maryland who are not affiliated with a political party are prevented from voting in much of the state's primary elections. A lawsuit filed this week hopes to change that. (File photo William J. Ford/Maryland Matters.) Five Maryland voters who are not affiliated with any political party filed a lawsuit this week asking a state judge to declare Marylands restrictions on primary elections a violation of the state constitution. Maryland, which has a partially closed primary system, requires voters to affiliate with the Democratic or Republican party if they want to vote in the primary election. The five unaffiliated voters, represented by Republican former Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, said the elections paid for with tax dollars are a violation of their right to vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The point is, it really is a voting rights issue, Rutherford, who is now an attorney with Davis, Agnor, Rapaport & Skalny in Columbia, said in an interview. Its not an attack on the parties. Its a question of what is fair for 22% over a fifth of the voting population approaching 25% of the voting population that has chosen not to be affiliated. Former Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R) is representing a group of unaffiliated voters in a lawsuit challenging the states closed primary system. (File photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maryland Matters.) The 15-page lawsuit filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court on behalf of the five unaffiliated voters challenges the current primary election system. All five said they were barred from voting in the 2022 and 2024 primary elections because they opted not to affiliate with either major political party. Requiring party affiliation to vote creates a barrier of partisan primaries that the state endorses and supports and funds, which is contrary to the plain reading of the state constitution and the Declaration of Rights, Rutherford said. It is a subject with which Rutherford has some personal experience. In 2015, he told The Washington Post that he was a registered independent but changed his affiliation to Democrat to vote in primary elections in the District of Columbia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for the Maryland State Board of Elections did not provide a comment on the pending litigation. John Willis, who served as secretary of state under Gov. Parris N. Glendening, and is a professor of public affairs at the University of Baltimore, said the lawsuit is misplaced. Primary elections are for political parties. Theyre not for 4 million individual voters, said Willis, who is also an attorney. Theyre a process for nominating candidates for a general election. The whole notion that theyre somehow open to everybody, the public theres no constitutional right to that. Unaffiliated voters in Maryland can cast votes in state primaries for nonpartisan races such as the election of judges and school board members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But. the voters in the lawsuit compare the process to taxpayers funding the selection of officers to private clubs or in this case private entities. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US Rutherford said it is the use of taxpayer dollars that conflicts with his clients rights. Were just saying the state should not be paying for it, because the state would be paying for something thats unconstitutional, Rutherford said. This is, again, its a voting rights question, so the state should not be supporting something that is unconstitutional. In Maryland, the number of voters who identify as unaffiliated has grown to nearly one in five voters in the state. Willis said that growth is a legitimate thing to talk about. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But I dont think its a lawsuit. I think its a political debate or a philosophical debate. Its an OK political debate to have, but I dont think its a legal constitutional debate. To Willis, the appropriate venue for making a change is the legislature. Rutherford, in an interview, said the legislature is unlikely to make those changes. I dont think the legislature sees it in their interest, even though they should, because it is a question of voting rights, Rutherford said. We think the courts need to take it up, just like the Voting Rights Act or Brown versus Board of Education. The legislature alone is not going to do it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Willis said the current political system dates back more than 100 years. Since the Civil War, in Maryland, weve been a two-party system, he said. Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery), vice chair of the Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters.) Legislation sponsored in 2023 by Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) called for allowing unaffiliated voters to affiliate with a party as late as the day before the start of early voting. Kagan, who was not available for an interview, said in 2023 testimony that many unaffiliated voters do not understand our closed primary system. Then, when they arrive to vote, they are told they can vote in nonpartisan races. That sometimes causes voters to become frustrated and sometimes quite angry, Kagans written testimony said. Her bill and an identical House bill both died in their respective committees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2000, the Maryland Republican Party did briefly change its rules to let unaffiliated voters cast ballots in its presidential primary. The change was short-lived. A spokesperson for the Maryland Democratic Party declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. A representative of the Maryland Republican Party was not immediately available for comment. The lawsuit is backed by the Open Primaries Education Fund, a nonprofit that advocates for allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in primary elections. The group also promotes the use of litigation toward that goal. Rutherford said the group and its local affiliate reached out to him about challenging the state primary system after the two-term lieutenant governor authored an opinion piece calling for allowing unaffiliated or independent voters to participate in primary elections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And while the debate over Marylands primary system is not new, Rutherford said the lawsuit is novel in its approach. Its been challenged in other states, one, generally in the federal courts. Not as much so in the state courts, said Rutherford, adding that he believes there has never been a challenge under the Maryland Constitution. The constitution, Rutherford said, sets out specific rules for qualifying voters. Maryland residents 18 years old and older shall be entitled to vote at every election, all elections, Rutherford said. They said all elections, Rutherford said. Nowhere in the constitution does it state anything about primaries or political parties or anything of that notion. And then the Declaration of Rights, which is part of the constitution, goes further by stating that it talks about the right of suffrage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maryland is one of nine states that have a partially closed primary system, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In such systems, the parties can choose to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in their respective primary elections. Seven states are considered open to unaffiliated voters. Those systems allow unaffiliated voters to vote in the party primary of their choice. Voters who are affiliated with a political party must vote in that partys primary. Another 15 states have open primaries voters are not asked to affiliate with a party. Voters can then choose which primary they wish to cast a ballot in. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China commemorated its National Sci-tech Workers' Day on Friday as artifacts related with outstanding scientists were displayed in a museum dedicated to their achievements. The China Scientists Museum in Beijing showcased 10 significant items, including a group photo of scientists involved in the development of atomic bomb, ballistic missile and satellite and a prestigious medal awarded to engineering expert Qian Qihu. The event featured narratives from the scientists themselves, their family members, and students. Wan Gang, president of the China Association for Science and Technology, addressed the event, calling on scientific and technological workers to contribute to national development. He urged them to carry forward the innovative elements within China's fine traditional culture, and work for high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology. The event coincided with the first anniversary of the China Scientists Museum. Over the past year, the museum attracted over 170,000 visitors and curated 14 thematic exhibitions to showcase scientists' achievements and spirit. NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India will use the firepower of its navy in response to any future aggression by Pakistan, India's defence minister said on Friday, weeks after the fiercest fighting in decades between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Relations between India and Pakistan are tense after four days of fighting this month, which involved fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery before a ceasefire was announced. "If Pakistan resorts to anything evil or unethical, it will, this time, face the firepower and ire of the Indian Navy," Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off the coast of the western Indian state of Goa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for Pakistan's military referred Reuters to a May 12 statement, which said there would be a "comprehensive and decisive" response whenever Pakistan's sovereignty was "threatened and territorial integrity violated". The latest fighting erupted after 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, were killed in an April 22 attack in Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan territory claimed by both nations. New Delhi blamed the attack on "terrorists" backed by Pakistan, which denied the charge. A ceasefire took effect on May 10 and a top Pakistani military official told Reuters on Friday that both countries were close to reducing their troop build-up along their border to pre-conflict levels. The Indian Navy has said it deployed its carrier battle group, submarines and other aviation assets in the northern Arabian Sea within 96 hours of the April 22 attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Defence Minister Singh said 'Operation Sindoor', under which India launched the strikes on Pakistan, was paused, but not yet over. "We stopped our military actions on our own terms. Our forces had not even started showing their might," he said. (Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Editing by Kate Mayberry) Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith expressed his terror over upcoming Pride Month, a month dedicated to recognizing the LGBTQ+ community, in a frantic social media post Friday. PRIDE MONTH ALERT: The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids! the post from Beckwith said. WARNING: Corporate America and government institutions are launching their annual siege on childhood innocenceand this years Pride Month agenda is more aggressive than ever. Pride Month, which goes from June 1 to June 30, celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and the progress theyve made in gaining more rights and combating discrimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for the conspiratorial Beckwith, Pride Month is a way to reprogram society into being more compassionate, which is apparently bad. This isnt about tolerance, his post said. Its a state-corporate-pagan alliance to reprogram society. Theyve swapped biology for identity constructs, swapped scripture for Harvey Milk sermons, and swapped parental rights for government-sanctioned grooming. Beckwith ended his post with a link to a self-described Christian Independent Press website that references the rainbow beast in a post with an anonymous byline. On his biography page, Beckwith said he is a pastor who stepped up after seeing the woke agenda threatening our schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beckwith also came under fire last month for comments he made about the Three-Fifths Compromise, calling the 18th century law that counted an enslaved person as 60% of a free person a great move. I would like to share with you, the Three-Fifths Compromise is not a pro-discrimination compromise, he said in a video about the pro-discrimination compromise. It was not a pro-discrimination or a slave-driving compromise that the founders made. It was actually just the opposite. Republican Gov. Mike Braun gave a mealy-mouthed response to Beckwiths slavery comments. Im a believer that you better start thinking about what youre saying before it comes out, Braun said. So, Ill leave it at that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, demonstrators with Indivisible Central Indiana showed up to Beckwiths town hall to make their displeasure known. The group refers to itself as an inclusive, progressive ACTIVIST grassroots organization. The protest was meant to raise public awareness about Beckwiths dangerous ideology and his efforts to dismantle democratic norms under the guise of religious extremism, the group said in a statement. Brauns office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Beckwiths latest comments. The entrance to the Office of the Public Access Counselor's Government Center South suite on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Another agency, which previously occupied the now-vacant work areas within view of the door, relocated years ago. (Leslie Bonilla Muniz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Tippecanoe County resident Pamela Frazee just wants to know if her messages went through. Phone calls to Indianas Office of the Public Access Counselor (PAC) route directly to a voicemail box and arent returned. Emails including allegations of public access law violations that the office weighs in on go unacknowledged. No opinions from this year are online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frustrated Hoosiers report the office has gone mum after a leadership shake-up. Its not been a good transition at all if you dont even have people who can answer the phones, said Frazee, who sought confirmation that her time-sensitive complaints were received. Former PAC Luke Britt, who ran the office for about 12 years under previous Govs. Mike Pence and Eric Holcomb, announced plans to resign mid-February, WFYI reported. In late March, new Gov. Mike Braun named Indianapolis attorney Jennifer Ruby as the successor. The office has one other employee, Kyra Helming, listed in the states transparency portal. Britt, the states longest-serving PAC, pointed to an overwhelming workload in a niche area of law. New Public Access Counselor Jennifer Ruby, in an undated photo. (Courtesy governors office) I dont envy what shes having to deal with right now at all, he said. Its not my place to give her the benefit of the doubt. But I certainly do. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brauns administration, meanwhile, pinned blame on him. When Gov. Brauns public access counselor appointment began in March, she inherited dozens of cases from 2024 that were not finalized, Governors Office spokesman Griffin Reid said. With that backlog successfully addressed, she is focusing her efforts on the 2025 cases and the statutory responsibilities of the office. Gov. Braun is fully committed to transparency at all levels. The Capital Chronicle requested comment from Ruby May 9 and in the past week, but didnt receive a response from her. No one answered the office door when reporters showed up. The PAC provides guidance on state public records and open meeting laws. The officeholder responds to informal inquiries on the laws, issues non-binding advisory opinions and educates officials and Hoosiers on their rights and responsibilities, according to the website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Indiana General Assembly created the office in 1999. Keeping up For Frazee, who filed two formal complaints mid-May and hasnt heard back, the PAC clock is ticking. Formal complaints must be filed with the office within 30 days of either an agencys denial of records access or notice of an improperly held meeting. A complaint is considered filed on the date it is received, according to the offices public access law handbook. Once a complaint is accepted, the PAC notifies the alleged offending agency and gives it 20 business days to respond. Do I need to resend it? Did you assign it? Did you toss it? Frazee worried. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said a confirmation that a filing has been received always sent during Britts tenure would provide reassurance that I have submitted the PAC complaint in a timely fashion, where I dont have to worry about it being tossed. Keeping up with demand proved a challenge, per Britt. The workload grew annually, sometimes by an exponential amount. And volume-wise, it was even overwhelming for me at times, just trying to keep it all straight, be responsive, he recalled. He said constituent relations responding to Hoosier queries was his top priority and became most of his workday. An influx of 50-100 calls and emails were coming in daily by the time he left, Britt estimated. He described a benchmark for getting messages answered within 24 business hours. If I had time, or I would take work home in the evenings, to actually write opinions, he continued. Legislation that went into effect last July de-emphasized opinions even more, so I would try to resolve those conflicts informally as much as I could. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House Enrolled Act 1338 limited the PAC to using only the laws plain text despite statutory ambiguities and official court orders in writing opinions. Also, the governor can now remove a PAC at any time, instead of for cause. Britt still wrote opinions, though and imposed a benchmark for them, too. The goal was to have all of of the the previous years opinions done before the first quarter of the next year ended. By the time he left, Britt said, hed distributed the 2024 opinions but hadnt uploaded them online; he hadnt started on the 2025 complaints. His longtime deputy or an administrative assistant would usually handle tasks like uploading opinions. (Only about half those written are uploaded, according to a formal complaint guide.) But both staffers left partway through 2024, as the term-limited Holcomb administration neared its end. Britt said thats when the office fell behind on uploads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He ran the agency solo for nearly a year. Then he resigned. I was worried when I left that there would be a lot of loose ends, Britt said. There was a lot of work in progress. There always was. No matter when I left, I knew I couldnt even begin to wrap everything up with a bow. I did what I could and tried to leave behind as many breadcrumbs as I could, but there was just too much. He estimated leaving behind 11 pending complaints and recalled Ruby mentioning the backlog had grown to about 40. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX INDIANOLA, Iowa An Indianola pharmacist has been arrested for allegedly stealing pills and tampering with documents to cover up the theft. Jeffrey Bates The Indianola Police Department said Jeffrey Bates, 42, was arrested Friday morning following an investigation into fraudulent prescription practices at the Hy-Vee pharmacy in Indianola. Bates is charged with: Prohibited Acts 8 Counts (Class C Felony) Theft-1st Degree 1 Count (Class C Felony) Identity Theft 1 Count (Class D Felony) Tampering with Records 1 Count (Aggravated Misdemeanor) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said their investigation began on April 18, after being contacted by Hy-Vee management at the Indianola store about discrepancies in medication inventory that had been identified. While Bates was employed at the pharmacy, investigators said he unlawfully diverted controlled substances and created fraudulent prescription records. Hes also accused of stealing prescription pills and tampering with documents. Perry business owners and residents react to potential 500 jobs from JBS plant More than 3,000 pills, with a value totaling over $14,000, were taken by Bates, according to police. The crime was determined to be isolated in nature and involved only Bates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement IPD was assisted in the investigation by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals and the Warren County Attorneys Office. Iowa news 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. CATLETTSBURG A Boyd County grand jury indicted a South Point woman this week on numerous charges after bystanders reported she nearly drove off the 12th Street bridge while high on fentanyl with a baby in the backseat. Shanndon Pringle, 27, was indicted on Tuesday on charges of second-degree criminal abuse, first-degree wanton endangerment, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful transaction with a minor. According to an arresting officer with Ashland Police Department, he was dispatched to the area of the Paramount Arts Center after a 911 caller reported a car driving all over the roadway, suspecting a possible DUI around midnight last Saturday (May 24). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The officer located an allegedly unconscious Pringle still inside the drivers seat in a parking lot near the Bluegrass Inn with burnt aluminum foil in her lap and Narcan beside her. The officer said he knocked on the window multiple times before Pringle became alert and alleged Pringle later confessed to smoking fentanyl. Once Pringle was detained, the officer turned his attention back to the car where he located a six-month-old infant asleep in a car seat. According to the police report, EMS suspected the baby may have inhaled smoke from narcotics as the babys pupils were constricted. In addition to allegedly being subjected to fentanyl exposure, the child was allegedly endangered prior to the police making contact with Pringle, as the 911 caller reported Pringle almost drove off the 12th Street bridge into Ashland and nearly struck a pole when turning near Burger King. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The witness also said Pringle nearly drove into oncoming traffic on 13th Street before swerving toward the curb by the Paramount, continuing eastbound on Winchester, driving over the roundabouts before pulling into a parking lot near 17th Street. According to court records, CPS was contacted and Pringle was transported to the Boyd County Jail where she now sits on a $250,000 cash bond. An indictment is not an indication of guilt, rather grand jurors found probable cause to continue felony prosecution. Charges may be lessened, changed or dismissed entirely throughout the court process. The following individuals were also indicted by grand jurors this week: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charles W. King, IV, 18, of South Port, Florida, was indicted on a sole count of first-degree criminal mischief. Benjamin Hughes, 50, of Ironton, was indicted on a sole count of first-degree promoting contraband. Brandon M. Wilburn, 31, of Greenup, was indicted on a sole count of first-degree promoting contraband. Danny Spurlock, 32, of Catlettsburg, was indicted on a sole count of first-degree promoting contraband. Jeffrey Hurn, 41, of Ashland, was indicted on charges of first-degree fleeing or evading police, two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment of a police officer and other traffic-related violations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wilkie Ervin Dial, 30, of Milton, West Virginia, was indicted on a sole count of first-degree promoting contraband. Tabitha S. Harrison, 46, of Ashland, was indicted on charges of second-degree escape and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device. Keith A. Wilson, 64, of Ashland, was indicted on chargers of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of a substance, fourth-degree domestic violence assault, resisting arrest and second-degree strangulation. Leslie Shawn Franklin, 50, of Catlettsburg, was indicted on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana. Originally appeared on E! Online The hiking community is mourning a loss. Influencer Hannah Moody was found dead along a trail in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Scottsdale Police Department confirmed in a press release. She was 31 years old. According to authorities, Hannah had been reported missing by friends on May 21, after which an initial search took place before being called off for the evening. Just after noon the following day, her body was found near the Gateway Trailhead of Scottsdales McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nearly a week after the tragedy, her mom Terri Moody, expressed her grief. It's numbing. I feel like its not real," she told Arizonas Family on May 28. It's ... a mystery to us right now. And were trying to piece it all together because we dont know of any conditions that she had or anything like that that would have caused anything." However, Terri doesn't believe there was foul play, noting the brutal Arizona weather. More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Were all assuming it was heat-related, but you know thats inconclusive," she said. "There were no signs of foul play." She further expressed her gratitude towards Hannah's hiking friends and community, as they joined together in the initial effort to find her. The fact that there were so many people who loved and cared for her that took on that role," she added, "Were really grateful for that." Instagram/@itshanrose And she hopes that others will learn from the tragedy by taking addition precautions when setting off on a hike. I feel like the best thing people can do is bring a friend," she said. "I know thats hard because people like to be in their solitude, but that would be my advice." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, the grieving mother reflected on her daughter's passion for the outdoors. Anytime she could climb on top of something and look out over the nature and see the sunrise or the sunset," she emphasized, "those were her favorite things to do. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App President Donald Trumps decision to approve the foreign sale of U.S. Steel, an American manufacturing icon, came after months of sustained pressure from a group of Rust Belt Republicans. Advocates for the deal say the lobbying effort was crucial to the presidents reversal of his campaign pledge to block the nearly $15 billion sale, which he will formalize in a speech at the companys Pittsburgh headquarters on Friday. That should have been a no-brainer, frankly, and lawmakers in Trumps corner helped him see that, said one former Republican official, who is in favor of the deal and familiar with the discussions at the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group of roughly a half-dozen GOP lawmakers from Pennsylvania and other states with U.S. Steel operations launched a series of meetings and group text chains shortly after Trumps November election victory, developing a plan to pitch his top economic officials on the merits of the sale, according to six people familiar with those discussions, granted anonymity to reveal private details of conversations. Eventually, and somewhat unexpectedly, they got an audience with the president himself. The message the group delivered: If the incoming president did not reverse his predecessor, Joe Bidens, decision to block Nippon Steels purchase of the countrys second-largest steel producer, it would lead to major manufacturing job losses in Pennsylvania and other states in the steel production supply chain. Rather than abandoning the deal, as Trump promised to do during the 2024 campaign, they called on administration officials, including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to push Nippon Steel to increase its promise of billions in investments in the companys steel infrastructure in exchange for approval. The president echoed many of those arguments last week in a Truth Social post, declaring his support for a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy. He added: This is the largest Investment in the History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The about-face, after months of hinting that he was softening on the proposed sale, comes at a time when Trump is threatening waves of new tariffs to try to force foreign companies to manufacture their products in the U.S. And its a reminder that, as much as the president has embraced certain ideological positions including the protectionist agenda of labor unions who vociferously opposed Nippons purchase he is still primarily a transactional policymaker, something the GOP lawmakers seized on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is really about just a good deal for the state of Pennsylvania, said one person familiar with negotiations. Steel is very important to this administration, and I think once the president understood, and negotiated a better deal where the U.S. national security risks were placated, he felt comfortable with it. A White House official declined to say how much the lawmakers influenced Trumps decision but said, The president certainly appreciates the insight from lawmakers and members of Congress whom he respects." Trump first weighed in on Nippons proposed purchase of U.S. Steel, announced in December 2023, after a meeting with the Teamsters Union in Washington the following month, promising to block it instantaneously. He reiterated his opposition to the sale in a social media post as recently as January 2025, though it didnt dampen hope among supporters of the deal that Trump would ultimately be more open to it than Biden, a longtime labor union ally, had been. That was certainly the case among the group of lawmakers who lobbied for the deal. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), whose district is situated just to the north of U.S. Steels Pittsburgh headquarters, and fellow Pennsylvania Republicans Sen. Dave McCormick and Rep Dan Meuser along with Reps. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), co-chair of the Steel Caucus, were generally in favor of some version of a deal since long before the president publicly softened his position. But few dared to challenge the presidents opposition publicly, particularly during the height of the 2024 presidential campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Were realists on the timing. That doesnt mean we were quiet, it means that things were actually happening faster, said one staffer involved in the effort. As the new Trump administration got up and running, the lawmakers and their teams initially discussed trying to plead their case to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent or possibly Vice President JD Vance. But more recent discussions focused more narrowly on changing Trumps perspective. The group was pleasantly surprised by the presidents remarks in February that suggested he would be open to Nippon Steel taking a minority stake in the company, two people close to the talks said. A group of lawmakers gathered in the Oval Office as recently as May 22, where they worked to bat back arguments from some critics who said that Japan was seeking rogue influence through the purchase. Japan, after all, is a strong ally of the United States, the lawmakers argued to the president. Pennsylvanias lawmakers focused their appeals on the risk of thousands of job losses, pointing in particular to comments U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt made in September 2024, when he told The Wall Street Journal that if Nippons bid fell through, the company would likely have to close steel mills in their state and Indiana, which employ thousands of workers. Burritt said the nearly $3 billion that Nippon Steel pledged to invest in the companys mills was crucial to maintain them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That warning didn't move Biden, who blocked the deal in one of his last acts before leaving office, after an interagency review identified certain national security risks associated with the deal, though it did not come to a conclusion on whether to reject it. Backers of the deal, as well as international business experts, complained that the review was highly politicized, however, after the sale became a lightning rod in the 2024 election campaign, particularly in the Rust Belt. The United Steelworkers union, which wields particular influence among blue-collar voters in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, strongly opposed the deal. The union maintained that stance in a May 28 statement questioning the terms of the new partnership Trump hinted at in his Truth Social post. Our core concerns about Nippon Steel a foreign-owned corporation with a documented history of violating U.S. trade laws remain as strong and valid today as ever, and that is so whether U.S. Steel and Nippon adhere to the same deal that they have pursued since December 2023 or whether they tweak the terms to satisfy concerns in Washington, the statement read. But as a second corporate lobbyist in favor of the Nippon deal observed, The politics of the election is over and the reality is setting in. We cant make the kind of specialty steel that is needed, we dont have the capacity." After his inauguration, Trump began changing his tone on the sale, telling reporters he wouldnt mind greatly, if Nippon Steel took a minority stake in the company. In April, Trump directed the interagency committee, known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, to take a fresh look at Nippons bid. The new review was due to the president on May 21. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After months of discussions, Nippon offered to raise its investment in U.S. Steels infrastructure to $14 billion, Reuters reported last week. That and the promise that U.S. Steel will remain based in the United States, as well as American veto power over various company decisions, nudged Trump to greenlight the purchase. Thats been the stumbling block are we turning over U.S. Steel to the Japanese. And the answer to that problem is, a negotiated agreement that will have Americans having a seat at the table, said Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Trump, who has long supported some version of Nippons acquisition. Nippon Steel and the White House declined to confirm details of the agreement. But the White House official said Trump will reveal more details about the plan Friday, when he is slated to deliver a major economic speech in Pittsburgh. This is something he talked about on the campaign and has continued to work on, the official said. It's a very big deal for Pennsylvania, and for the steel industry and for the working class. Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report. Credit: CCTV At first glance it could be a school classroom, with bright fluorescent lights, posters on the wall and long tables down the middle. But look closer, and the students are actually Chinese paramilitary police officers, the notices are instructions on how to build attack drones, and there are CCTV cameras watching their every move. This is the workshop for one of Chinas feared armed police units, in the eastern Shandong province. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a rare glimpse into Chinas arms manufacturing, a dozen or so officers can be seen seated at the long tables tinkering with their creations. Another 40 or so unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are mounted on the wall in front of them as they work. Credit: CCTV Speaking to Chinese state media, which produced the footage, one uniformed officer explains that each of the drones are assembled by a member of the Peoples Armed Police (PAP) force in Shandong. For a skilled worker it should take no more than two hours to complete one device. Known as Chinas other army, the PAP is one of the countrys police forces responsible for national security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike the civilian police force, which handles routine law enforcement, the PAP falls under the Central Military Commission and is often deployed for border security, riot control and counterterrorism, and has been part of the violent campaign against the Uighurs in Xinjiang province and in Tibet. While the exact number of officers is unknown, reports estimate it could be anywhere from 500,000 to 1.5 million, spread out over 32 regional commands, each with at least one mobile unit. The direction of travel is clear. In 2010 the PAP budget was 6.8 billion. By last year, it had more than tripled, to 15.9 billion. The unit in Shandong is the latest example of what it has been spending that money on. The drones are not just for surveillance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a combat drill last month, two members of a PAP unit in western Yunnan province worked together to take out a target behind a closed window. The first drone smashed the glass and the second flew through the gap to strike the target. Other camera drones can be armed with grenades, which are dropped on perceived threats. And then there are disruptor drones, fitted with systems that can locate, track and soft-kill enemy UAVs, according to state television. Training is intense. Before being allowed to fly actual drones, the operators have to work on simulators for about two months, according to state television. Then they are let lose on complicated aerial assault courses, with tight turns and high speed manoeuvres, before being allowed to use them in the field. Credit: CCTV Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Experts have said that drones would be central to any conflict between China and Taiwan, should Beijing decide to attack the island, which it claims as its own despite staunch opposition from the government in Taipei. Both China and Taiwans interest in drone warfare has expanded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 given the central role that UAVs have played in the conflict. Earlier this month, China announced that its new drone mothership, known as the Jiu Tan, which is capable of releasing swarms of 100 kamikaze UAVs at once, would launch on its maiden voyage in June. In Shandong, the officer in the video explains that the team is producing first-person view (FPV) drones of different sizes, from 3-inch to 9-inch models, at what he calls the UAV innovation studio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the footage, the personnel are seen assembling drone frames as well as testing camera and antenna placements. The UAVs are designed for both reconnaissance and precision strikes. Both China and Taiwans interest in drone warfare has expanded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 The studio also has a 3D printer, which is used to design and manufacture various components. The officer explains that it is currently making landing pads, which it can print in three minutes. He then shows the camera a drone with a 3D-printed ammunition mounting platform, which he says can carry different types of weapons, significantly enhancing the drones strike capabilities. There is variation in the vehicles too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Footage shows the unit using drones with long fibre optic cables, as seen in Ukraine and Russia. These drones do not rely on radio signals and therefore cannot be jammed by enemy signal blockers. While drones can be used for humanitarian purposes such as during disaster relief operations in the hands of the PAP they can also be weapons of oppression. In Shandong, the officer in the video demonstrates what he calls the UAV innovation studio The forces focus in recent years has been on Xinjiang province, where it has been responsible for the persecution of Uyghur Muslims, as well as Tibet. Xinjiang hosts the largest concentration of PAP mobile units in the country with an estimated 200,000 troops. They have been using surveillance drones for a number of years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Uyghurs and Tibetans have been targeted by the central government in Beijing for decades, with abuses ranging from mass detentions to forced sterilisations. The Uyghur Human Rights Project accused the PAP of being among the prime actors in carrying out the genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. With their new tools, the PAP shows no sign of changing course. Beyond its domestic role, experts have also said that the PAP would likely play a key role in any future attack against Taiwan. In January, Chinese state media reported that some PAP officers in Fujian province had taken part in official combat training, which suggested that in the event of war, the forces could join the fight as a military unit. Experts have said that the Peoples Armed Police would likely play a key role in any future attack on Taiwan - Ma Shibao Lyle Goldstein, an Asia expert at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank, said that since China views Taiwan as one of its provinces, Beijing would see it as completely legal to use armed police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The PAP could also play a central role if martial law were declared following an invasion of Taiwan. The International Institute for Strategic Studies said: As the PAPs mission sets have become more focused, their more centralised command structure, reorganisation and enhanced use of modern technologies have turned the PAP into a more potent force ready to carry out the CCPs vision of correct policy and maintaining the Partys control. 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. The Federalist Society was the force behind Trumps third of the Supreme Court. Now, MAGA wants to see the groups demise. Late Thursday evening, Trump attacked the conservative legal giant and Federalist Societys former executive vice president Leonard Leo a key figure in his judicial selections during his first term calling him a real sleazebag in a Truth Social post. I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations, he wrote. It was a remarkable souring on the nonprofit that supported Trumps push to install hundreds of judges across the federal judiciary and tilt courts in conservatives favor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the presidents allies had been sowing discontent with Leos operation long before Trump publicly turned on his onetime adviser. Frustration had been growing among Trump and MAGA loyalists as a series of court rulings have hampered elements of Trumps second term agenda including by the Supreme Court, appellate courts and district courts and by judges Trump installed on the bench during his first term with Leo and the Federalist Societys guidance. Now conflict is openly breaking out among the constellation of conservative judicial leaders that used to operate alongside one another. Nobody knew who Leonard Leo was before President Trump gave him a key role picking judges, Mike Davis, a key Trump ally on judicial nominations who now runs the conservative advocacy group the Article III Project, said in an interview. Leonard Leo took too much credit from President Trump and he got filthy rich then he abandoned President Trump, especially during the lawfare against Trump. On Friday, conservative activist Laura Loomer posted on X that shes been warning for weeks that anyone from the Federalist Society shouldnt be in Trumps inner circle, arguing that the organization has sought to undermine him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Federalist Society did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, Leo said in a statement, Im very grateful for President Trump transforming the Federal Courts, and it was a privilege being involved. Theres more work to be done, for sure, but the Federal Judiciary is better than its ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trumps most important legacy. Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Trumps judicial picks are America First judges who respect the Presidents authority as opposed to unelected politicians in robes. Founded in 1982 during Ronald Reagans first term, the Federalist Society has long been the preeminent conservative legal organization in the country. Members of the society can be found at all levels of government and the group has been widely credited with helping Republican lawmakers install conservative-minded jurists across the federal judiciary. Leo and the Federalist Society have been boxed out of the judicial nomination process as the second Trump White House has begun to name jurists for vacancies. But the Federalist Society had already been making moves in anticipation of some tension with Trump, given his recent rhetoric on the judiciary, said one person in conservative legal circles granted anonymity because of the sensitive dynamics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whereas the former leadership was averse to involving the organization in politics, the new CEO Sheldon Gilbert has realized that the Federalist Society cannot be on the wrong side of a Republican White House and has been strengthening his connections around the administration, the person said. Separate from his work with the Federalist Society, Leo also chairs conservative public relations firm CRC Advisors. CRC touts close ties to Trump the firms clients are involved in White House policy discussions and several of the firms employees have left in recent months to join the administration with Leos blessing and support, said a person familiar with Leos operation, granted anonymity to discuss private dynamics. Yet Davis, who says he advises the White House on judicial nominations, contended that Leo and his allies have sought to undercut Trump. He pointed to the recent nomination of Emil Bove, a top Justice Department aide, to sit on the Third Circuit as a flashpoint in the MAGA judicial wars. The nomination has divided conservative legal circles between those cheering the potential elevation of Trumps fiercest enforcer at the Justice Department and those concerned that the nomination forecasts Trumps intent to nominate judges loyal to him during his second term. Prominent conservative legal commentator Ed Whelan, who has spoken at more than 200 Federalist Society events by his own count, vocally opposed Boves nomination, prompting social media pushback from administration officials and Davis allies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The groups that used to all share the same goal in Trumps first term getting conservative jurists on the bench are now riven by the split that Trump widened even further with his Thursday comments. Theres a lot of people who voted for this president and followed him because they felt they could finally have judges who would read words and not make up what those words meant, said John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance and longtime member of the Federalist Society. And those people are on his side all this time, and they are often a useful resource, and why chase them away? Makes no sense to me. The New Civil Liberties Alliance is a libertarian non-profit that has challenged the presidents tariffs in court. The organization has taken funding from groups linked to Leo in the past, but Vecchione denies Leo having any involvement in the groups tariff lawsuit. For Trumps allies, the Federalist Society now represents the old guard that hide[s] behind a philosophy instead of supporting the Republican cause, said one conservative consultant, who was granted anonymity in order to speak freely about dynamics in the Republican legal world. They want more people like Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and fewer people like Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the person said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barrett, whom Trump nominated in 2020 to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has come under fire among the Presidents allies in recent months after she sided with the courts liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts in rebuffing a bid by the Trump administration to quickly block a court order requiring the administration to pay out $2 billion for past foreign aid work. Barrett again faced a barrage of attacks when she joined the courts Democratic appointees in dissenting from a decision that complicated efforts to mount a broad legal challenge to Trumps bid to deport Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act. Her reputation among Trumps allies has transformed from being known as a bonafide conservative to a so-called member of the liberal resistance to the president. They dont want someone whos just going to be like, Were going to follow the law and do the originalistic thing, and whatever the result is, so may be it, said the consultant. They want someone [who] can figure out how to get the result that they want. Josh Gerstein and Daniel Lippman contributed to this report. LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) When a hurricane threatens the coast, most people board up, pack up, and head inland, but for a small but mighty team based in Lakeland, evacuation isnt part of the plan because their job is to fly directly into the eye of the storm. They are NOAAs Hurricane Hunters, a brave crew of pilots, scientists, engineers, and flight directors who risk their lives to gather the data that helps meteorologists predict where hurricanes will go and how powerful theyll be when they arrive. Surviving the Storm: A look back at 2024s wild hurricane season Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We just hit a pocket of lightning, and the whole interior of the aircraft lit up, said NOAA pilot Andrew Reves, describing one of many intense flights. You can hear the radios pop. Flying into a hurricane takes an entire crew. It is tightly coordinated and scientifically essential. Each flight delivers real-time data to the National Hurricane Center in Miami data that satellites alone cant provide. A lot of times, people ask if were scared when we do this, said Captain Nate Kahn, Commanding Officer at NOAAs Aircraft Operations Center. Absolutely. But in the moment, youre so focused, so trained, youre not afraid. Using two 50-year-old WP-3D Orion turboprop planes nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy, the Hurricane Hunters slice through intense rain bands. Despite their age, the aircraft havent had major structural upgrades theyre designed to ride the storm, not fight it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We allow the storm to push us up and push us down, Kahn explained. If we tried to maintain a set altitude, the storm would break the airplane. These planes often experience rapid vertical drops sometimes 1,500 feet or more in mere seconds, making each flight feel more like a rollercoaster than a routine operation. But its whats inside that makes the difference: an array of sensors and instruments that collect detailed measurements of wind speed, barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity. Its sort of like taking a CAT scan of the storm, said aerospace engineer Nick Underwood. All that data gets pushed together to give us a clear picture of how the storm is developing. One of the most critical tools is the dropsonde a small device launched at specific points throughout the storm that transmits data as it falls. When combined with radar and other instruments, these tools provide the 3D model forecasters rely on. Were constantly communicating with the ground and making sure were collecting the data that matters, flight director Jon Zawislak said. That all goes into the models. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While new technology is beginning to play a role like autonomous drones that can fly within 100 feet of the oceans surface its still the Hurricane Hunters who provide the highest-quality, in-storm data. Were using uncrewed systems to collect data we couldnt get any other way, said Capt. Bill Mowitt, Director of NOAAs Uncrewed Operations Center. Its already showing us ways we can improve our models. For many of these scientists, the mission is personal. Some call Florida home meaning they often fly into storms threatening their own neighborhoods. We were the crew on the final mission before Hurricane Milton made landfall, Zawislak said. We could see the effects on Tampa Bay and St. Pete. We were flying right over it. And as hurricane season approaches, these men and women have one message for the people on the ground: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Be prepared. Thats what makes all of this worth it. From the heart of the storm to our local forecast, the data collected by the Hurricane Hunters is crucial for keeping communities safe. WFLAs Surviving the Storm Hurricane special is airing on May 31 at 7 p.m. You can watch it at 7 p.m. on air on WFLA News Channel 8 or through the WFLA CTV app. 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. YINCHUAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A court in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Friday sentenced 15 individuals for their roles in a gas explosion at a barbecue restaurant in 2023, which killed 31 people. The defendants received prison terms ranging from one to six years for the crimes of causing serious accidents or providing false certification documents, according to the Xingqing District People's Court in Yinchuan, the regional capital. Zhang Hongxian and Liu Guo, who co-invested and operated the restaurant, were among those convicted. Cui Wenbo, the actual controller of the gas supplier, and Zhou Zhiguo, the legal representative of a gas testing agency, were also found guilty. Three of the defendants were banned from working in related professions for a certain period, while three frontline employees with lighter liability were given suspended jail sentences in accordance with the law. The blast took place at Fuyang Barbecue Restaurant in Yinchuan on June 21, 2023, when liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) leaked at the restaurant and caused the blast, leaving 31 dead and seven injured. The court found that the direct cause of the blast was the LPG distributor providing the restaurant with substandard cylinders, which were incorrectly operated by the restaurant staff. Zhou and two others, as staff members of the gas testing agency, were found to have intentionally provided false certification documents -- a criminal act. Outside the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, Wash., on Thursday, May 29, 2025, where a new juvenile detention center called Harbor Heights will soon open. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard) ABERDEEN For the past few weeks, Kendrick Rochelle has been going to Washingtons overcrowded youth prison in Chehalis to build relationships with the young men held there. Rochelle is trying to recruit them to join a leadership program at a new juvenile detention center called Harbor Heights on the grounds of an adult prison near Aberdeen, where hell serve as superintendent. Harbor Heights is set to open June 9. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He eats lunch with the young men incarcerated at Green Hill School, and just tries to be consistently present. At first, some were skeptical. But Rochelle says hes been getting two or three applications per day from the men trying to get out of the poor conditions at Green Hill and better themselves. Rochelle, who grew up without a father, started his career as a correctional officer before moving into criminal justice leadership roles in Ohio, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. The goal of his visits is to show them a man with the same background as them that made it, he said. State officials showed off Harbor Heights on Thursday. The facility will start with eight men transferring from Green Hill, growing to a maximum capacity of 46 by the end of the fall, state Department of Children, Youth and Families Secretary Tana Senn said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harbor Heights will be open to those between the ages of 18 and 25 who are considered medium security. While on the Stafford Creek Corrections Center campus, Senns agency will run the facility. Department of Corrections Secretary Tim Lang likened his agency to a landlord. Harbor Heights will be a six-month rotation with perks for those chosen to move there. Each man will get his own room, with a small TV. Each room has a window, one of the biggest renovations made to the former adult prison isolation unit. The windows were previously opaque frosted glass. The facility has drawn criticism from some who say retrofitting the long-unused Department of Corrections unit is like putting lipstick on a pig. The unit toured Thursday features painted aquamarine accents, rooms filled with board games and books, photographs of beach scenes and motivational quotes throughout. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Welcome to the Harbor; where your future will take you to new Heights, reads one. While at Harbor Heights, the young men will be able to develop leadership skills, receive therapy and learn to be a mentor before either returning to Green Hill or being released from custody. Theyll also have expanded opportunities for visitors and access to a three-quarter-acre yard. Senn sees potential for a hopeful place that provides a vision for what community can be after release. The facility provides small relief for the overcrowding that has enveloped Washingtons juvenile detention system. At Green Hill, one of the states two prisons for juvenile offenders, the population has fluctuated between 220 and 240, despite a safe operational capacity of 180, for many months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the young people held there, who are 17 and older, this has meant unsafe conditions wrought with fights and drugs, as well as more time isolated in their rooms without enough staff to supervise the programs that tend to make juvenile facilities more appealing than prisons. The crowding has come amid ballooning juvenile crime, with state law also changing in recent years to send young adults convicted of crimes committed under age 18 to youth detention, instead of adult prison, until they turn 25. Senn, a former state representative, calls the Harbor Heights opening an important start. This is not going to solve the overcrowding issue at Green Hill, she acknowledged, noting her old colleagues in the Legislature need to provide money for additional capacity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two-year budget Gov. Bob Ferguson signed last week included $25 million to run Harbor Heights, but lawmakers failed to deliver a policy solution to address the broader crowding crisis, despite bipartisan interest. Lawmakers set aside another $3 million to scout new medium-security juvenile detention facilities. One top prospect has been a minimum-security womens prison in Mason County, which is slated for closure. But any new facility would be at least four years out, Senn has said. A sign in support of Jeanette Vizguerra, a nationally known immigration rights activist who is detained in the ICE facility in Aurora. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline) Few Trump administration agencies are so out of control as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE in recent months has disappeared people from American communities, a hallmark of unaccountable authoritarianism. The agency releases scant information to the public about its activities, and it withholds information even in court proceedings. Its agents wield the awesome power to deprive people of their liberty, and theyve used that power to deposit hundreds of people in a brutal foreign prison, likely for life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Demand for oversight has rarely been so great, and no tool of ICE oversight should be left unused. Members of Congress have at least one method by which to oversee the agency they can show up at ICE detention centers unannounced and perform inspections. But U.S. representatives and senators in Colorado exercise this authority too infrequently. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE ICE this year has undertaken aggressive immigration enforcement efforts as part of President Donald Trumps plan for mass deportations. In Colorado, which Trump made a particular focus of his anti-immigration program, the agency has undertaken several raids and other operations that have resulted in scores of people being held at its detention center in Aurora, operated by private prison company the GEO Group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People there are often denied constitutionally guaranteed due process, targeted for their exercise of First Amendment rights, and held without being charged with a crime, according to court documents and immigration advocates. About 12 detainees were removed from the Aurora facility to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. Federal authorities have gone about this business with essentially no transparency. Thats where oversight comes in. In 2019, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, tried to inspect the ICE facility after learning about poor health conditions there. He was denied entry, prompting him to pursue on-site oversight authority, which he helped secure in law. Members of Congress, according to language that is included annually in appropriations legislation, now have the authority to conduct unannounced oversight visits at Department of Homeland Security facilities. This was no empty gesture. Crow has routinely invoked the authority ever since, and he posts to his website reports about visits to the detention center in Aurora. His office has already completed two oversight visits this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the same authority by which three U.S. representatives from New Jersey recently tried to conduct oversight at an ICE facility in that state. They were denied entry, and the Trump administration charged one of the lawmakers with a crime. But ICEs refusal to respect oversight authority is no cause to idle it. Its reason to assert it to its fullest extent. Crow should not be alone in conducting inspections in Aurora. Democratic U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado should also show up. Hickenlooper has expressed anger over the Trump administrations lawless approach to immigration enforcement, even suggesting in April that the countrys going to rise up in response. But to a reporters question about what senators like him could do, he said, You want me to get my pitchfork? No. But lawmakers can get inside a facility where Colorado residents, snatched off the streets by the federal government, now face unconstitutional removal to prisons run by foreign dictators, and at least demonstrate to ICE and the people of Colorado that theyve got their eye on MAGA malfeasance in Denvers backyard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other members of the U.S. House from Colorado can also exercise oversight of ICE. The detention center in Aurora sits in Crows district, and territorial deference is doubtless a factor, especially among fellow Democrats. But Crow could arrange a multimember visit. The detention center in New Jersey sits in McIvers district, and two other members of Congress from neighboring districts had arrived to inspect the facility with McIver when they were denied entry. Strength in numbers sends a message that the members will do everything they can to hold an outpost of authoritarianism in Colorado to account. A member of Hickenloopers staff accompanied a Crow staff member during one inspection in March. In response to questions from Newsline about whether theyd visited the Aurora facility, the six Democratic members of the Colorado congressional delegation Bennet, Hickenlooper, Crow and Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen responded in a joint statement: Oversight is a key part of our jobs, and a responsibility we dont take lightly. The Trump Administrations recent attempts to intimidate Members of Congress from conducting oversight of ICE detention facilities are alarming and we will not back down. We are fully committed to providing the necessary oversight and transparency of the GEO ICE facility in Aurora to ensure these facilities are run in full accordance with the law, and our offices will continue to perform the critical casework to ensure detainees are treated fairly. The oversight authority alone wont enable members of Congress to stop the abuses that ICE commits in Aurora. Crow helped establish the authority at a time when immigration advocates were most concerned about health conditions, not cancellation of basic rights. No facility walk-through can remedy the profound injustices at work there. But at a time when Democrats seem overwhelmed and impotent as the Trump administration dismantles constitutional order, every available counterweight should be applied with maximum force. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE An employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency is accused of attempting to share classified material with a foreign government out of frustration with President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice said Thursday. Nathan Villas Laatsch, who worked in IT for the military intelligence service, offered to share classified material with an unspecified friendly foreign government, according to court documents and an announcement by the DOJ. The recent actions of the current administration are extremely disturbing to me, he said in the email, according to an FBI affidavit filed with the court. I do not agree or align with the values of this administration and intend to act to support the values that the United States at one time stood for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI obtained the email and set up an operation to communicate with Laatsch while posing as representatives of the foreign country. Good afternoon, I received your message and share your concerns, the FBI responded, according to special agent Matthew T. Johnsons affidavit. Laatsch worked in the DIA's Insider Threat Division, a unit devoted to detecting employees who might be disclosing or prone to disclose sensitive information. He was arrested Thursday by the FBI in northern Virginia after the undercover agent received material from him at a pre-arranged location, according to the DOJ. The DIA employee allegedly told authorities he was requesting citizenship in the foreign country because of conditions in the U.S. Ive given a lot of thought to this before any outreach, and despite the risks, the calculus has not changed, the documents quoted him as writing. I do not see the trajectory of things changing, and do not think it is appropriate or right to do nothing when I am in this position. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case, and Laatsch is scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Alexandria, Virginia on Friday. This case underscores the persistent risk of insider threats, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X. The FBI remains steadfast in protecting our national security and thanks our law enforcement partners for their critical support. Josh Gerstein contributed to this report. ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4 Utah) Intermountain Health is now offering a national first-of-its kind expansion of CAR-T Cell Therapy, bringing cutting-edge cancer care closer to patients in Southern Utah and Nevada. Intermountains new CAR-T Cell satellite clinic in St. George marks a significant milestone to improve access to FDA approved CAR T-cell therapies at a regional clinic and is the first time in the United States that CAR T-Cell collections are now available at a remote site away from a primary treatment center. Before expanding the CAR T-Cell therapy program, patients in southwest Utah, Nevada and beyond, had to travel hundreds of miles to Intermountain LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City for collection, transplant, and follow-up care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This innovative expansion of stem cell collection and CAR T-cell collection procedures at the Intermountain Health St. George Cancer Center provides advanced cancer treatment options closer to home for patients in the region. Expanding CAR-T Cell Therapy to Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital is a testament to our commitment to providing accessible, state-of-the-art cancer treatment, said Brad Hunter, MD, medical oncologist and director of the CAR T-cell program at Intermountain LDS Hospital. This clinic will significantly enhance the quality of care for patients in Southern Utah and beyond our state boarders, offering them hope and healing without the need to travel long distances. CAR-T Cell Therapy is a form of immunotherapy that harnesses the power of a patients own immune system to fight cancer by genetically reprogramming T-cells to target and destroy cancer cells. This therapy has shown remarkable success in treating certain types of leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and were grateful for the chance to make it more accessible, said Dr. Hunter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This process is customized to each individual oncology patient and involves collecting the patients immune cells or T cells, which are then sent to a different location and re-engineered. About two to three weeks later the patient will travel to Intermountain LDS Hospital for the re-programmed cells to be transplanted back to the patient. The new cells then target and kill the cancer cells by binding to the specific proteins or antigens on the cancer cells. The patient is observed to confirm the treatment is working and then sent home, with follow up appoints close to home. Jacqueline, 68, from Las Vegas, Nevada, received CAR-T therapy for her Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma last year at Intermountain LDS Hospital and says it saved her life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was really miraculous, said Jacqueline. I could see the back of my throat and see the lymph nodes, so swelled up and then within two weeks of the treatment, suddenly, they were just gone. They even scanned me and everything was gone. Jacqueline and her husband had to travel to Salt Lake numerous times and stay for a month, they say the new Intermountain Health St. George CAR-T Cell satellite clinic will save some miles and will be nice for future cancer patients to have treatment, just down the street. CAR T-Cell therapy is currently FDA approved for patients who have a variety of hematologic cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), B-cell lymphomas, and multiple myeloma. For more information about the Intermountain Health CAR-T Cell Therapy program and services, go to Intermountain Health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now ABC4 Breaking News Alerts Sposored by Intermountain Health. 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. The Trump administration keeps shifting the battleground over international students visas as it pulls more and more government levers to crack down on the group. What started with allegedly combating campus antisemitism by going after pro-Palestinian activists has escalated into attempts to take away all of Harvard Universitys foreign students, threats to cap international student admissions at 15 percent at all colleges and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing he would aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students. The moving goalposts are difficult to navigate for students and universities and could do long-term damage to a process that experts say brings minds and money to U.S. shores while exporting American values and culture. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think he has multiple legitimate motives for taking the actions hes taking, and that those motives are at least in some ways connected. Theres a general theme that underlies them. And the general theme is that that Trump appears concerned that a segment not the average, but a segment of international students are coming for political purposes, not educational or scientific ones, said Jay Greene, senior research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. President Trump has made cracking down on immigration one of his signature agenda items, though the moves against student visas in particular started off comparatively small, with the administration going after pro-Palestinian protesters it accuses of supporting Hamas and posing a threat to U.S. foreign policy. But then Trumps more specific animus toward Harvard found a new outlet, with the Department of Homeland Security trying to take away the universitys ability to enroll international students and ordering those now at the school some 27 percent of its student body to transfer. Harvard quickly won an emergency court ruling to block that order. Meanwhile, the administration Tuesday ordered U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to halt student visa interviews while it weighs increased screening and vetting procedures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And then Trump on Wednesday floated a cap of maybe around 15 percent for the portion of campus populations made up of foreign-born scholars, while Rubio that same day announced a crackdown on Chinese student visas in particular. All these policy actions and statements are interconnected, said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. So some are directed towards students, but what you also see is that other kind of levers are directed towards institutions. Feldblum said the combination of surprising policies and threats is causing chaos and uncertainty and volatility, and schools do not have the tools or the information or the partnership with the government to be able to comply with directives while also supporting students. We are in a situation in which significant damage has already been done, and we can see outlooks for greater chaos in the future, she added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Hill has reached out to the White House for further comment. We have people [who] want to go to Harvard and other schools, [but] they cant get in because we have foreign students there, Trump said in the Oval Office. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country. We dont want to see shopping centers exploding. We dont want to see the kind of riots that you had. And Ill tell you what, many of those students didnt go anywhere. Many of those students were troublemakers caused by the radical left lunatics in this country, he added. Harvard has shown it is possible to freeze the administrations moves in court, at least temporarily, but the international scholar system is a delicate one, and many are already reconsidering plans to study in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If it doesnt get reversed quickly enough, it can mean that for so many students who have already accepted offers, that they may not be able to come in time to start the fall semester. So, this is an urgent matter for the administration to address, Feldblum said. A court filing from Harvards director of immigration services said some foreign students are looking to transfer and others declined offers to go to Harvard over the Trump administrations attacks. The filing added that colleges in other countries are already stepping in to recruit the scholars, warning of a potential brain drain. Greene said he doesnt expect the Trump administration to stop until universities can demonstrate that they were willing and able to enforce their rules regarding misconduct in a uniform way, applying to all students and readily reporting misconduct by international students to the administration. The reason why the Trump administration demanded disciplinary records is because they had reason to believe that students were not being punished in normal ways for fear that they would be deported, for fear that they would have their visas revoke, he said, citing a report from a House committee that found some students referred for disciplinary action were not suspended. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And so, thats unusual, and that suggests that perhaps they were behaving as [a] sanctuary city and concealing this behavior from the federal government, he added. Others fear the Trump administration has already indicated where it may go next, with his nominee to lead the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services saying he wants to end the optical practical training program, which allows foreign students to work in the U.S. after graduation. That would be devastating, not only for the international students and part of their educational journey and experience in the U.S., but for thousands of employers across the country and communities. This would be devastating in terms of the economic contributions that international students make as theyre working for U.S. companies, Feldblum 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 The Hill. In 2024, Florida welcomed nearly 45,000 international students. The state is seventh in the nation with the largest international student population. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a pause on visa interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, as it works on its social media vetting system. Im looking forward to studying in the United States, said Paula Castro, an international student who is still in Brazil working on the final details before her trip, scheduled for 2026. I think some people are scared about the new politics. I was a bit concerned because I knew it was going to be a little bit harder, but Im following the law, so Im doing everything right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just like Castro, hundreds of thousands of international students from all over the world choose the United States as a place to develop their academic careers. According to the U.S. State Departments Open Doors Report, for the 20232024 academic year, Florida hosted 44,767 international students, marking a 5.1% increase from the previous year. The University of Central Florida was among the top five schools in the state with the largest international student population. UCF enrolled approximately 3,196 international students, accounting for about 4.6% of its total student population. On top of higher education, a lot of the students come to the U.S. for language classes. At YOUSA Learning Institute, about 90% of the students come from different countries. Now, they are preparing for changes as the Department of State plans to roll out its new social media vetting process for new student visas. We offer English, yes, for international students {shorten pauses, please, Elizabeth Martins, with YOUSA Learning Institute. Whatever needs to be done needs to be done, but obviously changes means impacts obviously. In 2024, International students contributed approximately $1.5 billion to Floridas economy during this period, the U.S. State Departments Open Doors Report shows. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new vetting systems should, according to immigration experts, ensure those who apply for a student visa will come to the United States for the right reasons. A lot of people do abuse the immigration systems, and a lot of people do apply for a certain visa, like a student visa, but with an intent to permanently stay here, which is not the proper route, said Andrea Bowers, an Orlando immigration attorney. However, I am not so sure that suspending these interviews is actually a measure of national security, as more it is a measure to limit people that are coming here with the supposed intention of study but actually wanting to permanently stay in the U.S. The visa-requesting process takes several months, depending on where the petitioner is located around the world. The hosting school must submit a document I-20 confirming to the immigration department that the candidate is qualified to enroll in the program, whether it is a language proficiency, professional, or higher education program. With the acceptance letter from the school, the student then proceeds to the consulate and goes through the interview with an immigration representative to find out if their visa has been approved or declined. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The benefit of adding the extra layer is to guarantee that the persons intentions are aligned with the visa that theyre applying to, Bowers said. My main concern is how long the suspension of the interview is going to be held in place because that is a hit not only to the U.S. Economy, because the students, they move over $150 billion a year, but also a hit to the U.S. as an attraction of foreign talent in their research centers and their universities. Channel 9 reached out to Valencia College and UCF to ask about the possible impacts of the visa interview suspensions for them, but did not hear back. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement saying they will be working with Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with potential connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying critical fields. The United States, I further can say here, will not tolerate the CCPs exploitation of US universities or theft of US research, intellectual property, or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection, or repress voices of opposition, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. The Trump administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding our national security and public safety through our visa process, obviously very openly and transparently applied by Secretary Marco Rubio, she continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The news of this has spread quickly at the University of Washington, especially among international students. According to the school, there are over 8,000 international students on campus; 3,886 are from China, which makes up 7.5% of the entire student population. ...if we dont have international students from China, I feel like that would be a huge detriment to the diversity to the school, Nancy, a second-year student from Washington, said. KIRO7 spoke with international students about the State Departments announcement. Even those who arent from China are very worried about the ripple effects this could have. But the fact that could become a reality..it kind of sucks. Like I dont know how else to put it, Shota, a student from Thailand said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many students at UW would argue that what makes the school great is its dedication to diversity. I really value to be able to interact with people of different backgrounds, Nancy said. Basically having a melting pot of different people and all that stuff, Shota said. I mean, that is kind of what the US is known for, right? he continued. The University of Washington sent KIRO7 this statement on how the school is addressing the State Departments decision: At this time, it is not known what criteria or legal justification will be used, or what fields are considered critical. The University is closely monitoring this situation and international student services offices will communicate directly with potentially affected students. Victor Balta PLATTSBURGH In an effort to address the growing need for legal professionals in rural regions, a new internship initiative is launching this summer across the North Country, placing four law students in Clinton and St. Lawrence counties over a six-week period. An application was sent out to law schools across New York state and the interns were picked amongst a pool of applicants. Chosen students, in pairs, will spend three weeks in each county, then swap. They will get the chance to network with local legal professionals and experience the offerings the region provides. While in Clinton County, the students will be interning at Stafford Owens Law Firm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District Attorney Andrew J. Wylie explained the goal of the program. We are trying to encourage law students to practice in rural areas, Wylie said. We need more lawyers for prosecutors and public defender offices. Rural areas such as Clinton and St. Lawrence counties have faced a shortage of legal professionals, with many attorneys nearing retirement and fewer replacements stepping in. Organizers hope early exposure and mentorship will help reverse that trend. Presiding Justice of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division Third Judicial Department, Elizabeth A. Garry said the easiest way to get students interested in the area is to invite them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I made the request to invite these students to do fun things with you and really show them what it is that makes this home a place you love, because thats the key to this, Garry said on May 21 at a dinner discussion on the program. Really inviting people in and sharing with them that this is a great place and heres why. The four students participating in the program attend school as close as Albany Law School all the way to Florida, Garry further emphasizing that you just need to invite these students to get them interested in practicing in the area. The program will run from June 2 until July 11. Hopefully the students will talk about the program and try to get more lawyers interested in the North Country, Garry said. Representatives of tourism enterprises in Jingdezhen of China and Rize of Turkiye sign cooperation documents in Rize, Turkiye, May 30, 2025. The Turkish Black Sea city of Rize and China's renowned "porcelain capital" Jingdezhen came together on Friday to celebrate their shared cultural heritage, honoring centuries-old tea traditions as part of the two cities' Friendship Day. The event brought together government officials and industry representatives from the tourism, arts, and culture sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Li Zhenbei) RIZE, Turkiye, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish Black Sea city of Rize and China's renowned "porcelain capital" Jingdezhen came together on Friday to celebrate their shared cultural heritage, honoring centuries-old tea traditions as part of the two cities' Friendship Day. The event brought together government officials and industry representatives from the tourism, arts, and culture sectors of both countries. Hosted at Rize's historic tea bazaar, the gathering featured a variety of cultural performances, including traditional Chinese music, Rize folk dance, and Chinese porcelain painting demonstrations. The aim was to highlight the significance of tea in both cultures, promote cross-cultural tourism, and strengthen bilateral cooperation. Addressing the event, Chinese Ambassador to Turkiye Jiang Xuebin said tea and porcelain are among the most sincere and powerful cultural symbols connecting China and Turkiye. "Today, these two have come together again in Rize. This is an important result of cultural communication between China and Turkiye," he said. "We hope that we can further deepen and continue our friendship formed through tea and porcelain. We can further strengthen the bond between China and Turkiye and bring more benefits to the people of both countries," he added. Governor of Rize Province Ihsan Selim Baydas said, "Tea is more than just a beverage -- it is a language of friendship. With this event, we are building a cultural bridge between Rize and Jingdezhen." "In China, tea and porcelain are inseparable, and in Turkiye, so are tea and the tea glass. We aim to create a cultural and tourism-based bridge through these shared values," Baydas said. Rize Mayor Rahmi Metin said the relationship between the two cities would yield future benefits in tourism and the economy. "This event reflects the spirit of the ancient Silk Road in a modern form... Just as porcelain and tea have gone hand in hand in China, tea and the tea glass have long been intertwined in our culture," Metin said. "We will now present Rize tea in porcelain, reflecting a new era of cultural unity. Bringing this together with China's traditions will lead to even more diverse and meaningful collaborations," he added. A woman experiences Chinese tea culture in Rize, Turkiye, May 30, 2025. The Turkish Black Sea city of Rize and China's renowned "porcelain capital" Jingdezhen came together on Friday to celebrate their shared cultural heritage, honoring centuries-old tea traditions as part of the two cities' Friendship Day. The event brought together government officials and industry representatives from the tourism, arts, and culture sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Li Zhenbei) People experience Chinese tea culture in Rize, Turkiye, May 30, 2025. The Turkish Black Sea city of Rize and China's renowned "porcelain capital" Jingdezhen came together on Friday to celebrate their shared cultural heritage, honoring centuries-old tea traditions as part of the two cities' Friendship Day. The event brought together government officials and industry representatives from the tourism, arts, and culture sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Li Zhenbei) A woman experiences Chinese porcelain culture in Rize, Turkiye, May 30, 2025. The Turkish Black Sea city of Rize and China's renowned "porcelain capital" Jingdezhen came together on Friday to celebrate their shared cultural heritage, honoring centuries-old tea traditions as part of the two cities' Friendship Day. The event brought together government officials and industry representatives from the tourism, arts, and culture sectors of both countries. (Xinhua/Li Zhenbei) The Davenport Police Department has asked the assistance of The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Scott County Sheriffs Office in a shooting incident involving a woman and two officers, according to a news release from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. On May 12, the Davenport Police Department requested assistance from the other two agencies. About 3:13 a.m., Davenport officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance involving a knife in the 1700 block of Jersey Ridge Road in Davenport. Law enforcement found two women involved in a domestic incident outside of the residence, the release shows. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While officers were outside interviewing the two involved parties, gunshots were heard from inside the residence. Shortly after hearing the gunshots, 26-year-old Davionce Lackey went out the back door of the house armed with a handgun. Lackey pointed the firearm in the direction of the involved parties and the officers and fired. The officers returned fire, striking Lackey multiple times, the release says. Officers provided emergency medical care to Lackey, who was later transported to a medical center. Lackey was treated for her injuries and released. The officers and the other two involved parties were not injured during the incident, the release says. The Davenport Police officers both four-year veterans- were Dan Hylton and Michael Hogan, who remain on critical-incident leave pending a review by the Scott County Attorneys Office, according to the release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is an ongoing investigation. As of 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Lackey was not listed among the people who are in custody in Scott County Jail. Search warrant details A Scott County search warrant was executed in the case, according to Scott County Court documents, which show an officer collected shell casings, bullet projectiles, fingerprints and DNA swabs. 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. An independent investigation into Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett's response to alleged harassment by his former Chief of Staff Thomas Cook found that the city didn't break any laws in its response to those complaints, but raised new questions about the end of Cook's tenure as chief of staff back in 2020. Chicago-based law firm Fisher Phillips' months-long, $450,000 investigation found that Cook was allowed to stay on as chief of staff for 68 days following the city's 2020 investigation that found Cook had violated city policy by having another relationship with a subordinate. The law firm said that time period warrants further investigation, and multiple City-County Council members criticized the Hogsett administration for the decision. The overall finding from the law firm, presented to the Indianapolis City-County Council's investigative committee on May 29, is that Hogsett's administration acted within the law during three investigations conducted in 2017, 2020 and 2023 as the result of Cook's alleged behavior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two of the women who accused Cook of harassment and sexual assault were not immediately available to comment on the report's contents, though one expressed alarm that she was not given a copy of the report until it was already released to the public. IndyStar reported last year that three women alleged that Cook sexually harassed them while he was their supervisor, and Cook engaged in another consensual relationship with a subordinate employee. One of the women alleging harassment against Cook also said that he sexually assaulted her. "While complainants 1 and 2 challenge the existence, timing, and integrity of the investigations into their raised complaints, the response by Mayor Hogsett and his administration was legally sufficient and reasonable under the circumstances," according to the law firm's final report. However, the report noted that while the mayor's decision to allow Cook to resign as opposed to face termination was "not inconsistent with the law," the fact that Cook had knowingly violated a prior directive against having relationships with employees "would reasonably cause the City-County's decision to be questioned." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, the law firm noted that "some individuals interviewed during this investigation shared their perception that (Cook) was given an opportunity to use the period from November 2, 2020, through December 30, 2020, to position himself for personal gain by negotiating contracts for his own benefit," according to the report. "We also recommend (the city) identifies action steps the City-County can take to minimize potential for City-County employees to negotiate contracts for personal gain while employed at the City-County or for the 12-months following their departure," according to the firm. Several council members on the investigative committee including Democratic committee Chair Crista Carlino said they felt there was a difference between the administration's legal obligations and its ethical ones. "Just because something's perfectly legal, doesn't make it right," Carlino said. She said the council should look further into Cook's departure from the city in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fisher Phillips also recommended that the city dissolve its current human resources structure in favor of an independent one, as well as appoint an independent inspector-general. Fisher Phillips' attorney Danielle Kays said 12 people were interviewed over the course of the investigation, including Hogsett and two women who said they were harassed by Cook. Kays said the firm reached out to Cook multiple times and received no response. Cook previously apologized for his conduct in a statement to IndyStar last year. He has not been charged with a crime. The meeting was tense and emotionally charged. At one point, Carlino recessed the meeting as Lauren Roberts, Hogsett's former deputy campaign manager, who was on speaker phone, pleaded with Carlino to get a copy of the report, which she had not received even as the law firm presented their findings about her case to the public. "This entire thing has been torture," Roberts said. "I'm sitting here being dissected in public." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carlino said no one from the council or public besides its general council had access to the report before it was presented by the law firm. "I know the wait has been excruciating for those survivors," Carlino said. Hogsett said in a statement after the report presentation that "the findings are clear that the earlier investigations and resulting sanctions were handled appropriately and confidentially," though clarified he hadn't had time to read the report in full. "It remains crucial that the city has the best system in place for reporting, investigating, and dealing with harassment of any kind, which is why I will work with the City-County Council on how these recommendations may further strengthen efforts to create a safer, better workplace for everyone throughout the citys operations," Hogsett said. What did the report say about 2017 investigation? One of the key parts of the report centered around whether and to what extent the city investigated Roberts' report of harassment and abusive treatment by Cook during Hogsett's inaugural 2015 mayoral campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roberts reached out to Hogsett about Cook back in 2017, requesting a phone call and stating that she wanted to talk about Cook. "I'm not afraid anymore," she emailed. She later followed up with stating that Cook's behavior "both in the office and outside of it were completely inappropriate and over the line." She alleged a hostile working environment and that she was "overwhelmed with what was happening to me. You need to do something." The investigators noted in the report that Hogsett stated that he first learned from those emails that Roberts had complaints about Cook, and confirmed that Hogsett, through the campaign, retained Taft law firm attorney Mick Terrell to investigate Roberts' complaint. The investigators found that Roberts' allegations did not trigger any legal requirements for the city. Terrell completed his report on Oct. 27, 2017, and issued the campaign a written report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report notes that about four and a half months passed between Roberts' first communication of allegations of general misconduct and the completion of Terrell's investigation into the claim, but it was unable to determine when that investigation started. One of the recommendations from Terrell was that Hogsett "in his role as mayor, admonish (Cook) and direct him to not have any contact with subordinate employees at the city." "Mayor Hogsett told investigators he then spoke to (Cook) and made clear to him that he had to be of the 'most exemplary behavior' based on his leadership position" and that he would not tolerate any other relationship with a city employee or subordinate. The report found that neither Hogsett nor his campaign told Roberts about its investigation in 2017, nor did it document the 2017 directive to Cook in the HR department. Additionally, no HR monitoring mechanism had been created to ensure Cook's compliance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "While some criticism could be made of not memorializing the directive in (Cook's) personnel file or in HR, the fact remains that the allegations did not arise in the context of (Cook's) employment with the (city)," the report found. What did investigators find about Cook's departure from the city? The investigative report also delved into Cook's resignation from the city back in 2020, which occurred after the city's then-HR director Renee Madison became aware of an alleged inappropriate relationship between Cook and another employee of a city-affiliated agency. The HR director learned at the outset of her investigation into the relationship that Cook had previously been the subject of misconduct allegations and had been directed not to have relationships with other employees. Madison informed Hogsett of the allegations and the mayor decided to again retain Terrell of Taft to independently investigate the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fisher Phillips investigators found that both Cook and the employee each initially denied a romantic or sexual relationship before ultimately admitting it. Based on the findings at the time, the HR director recommended to Hogsett that Cook be terminated. Likewise, Hogsett's independent investigation from Terrell, completed on Nov. 2, 2020, found both Cook and the other employee had violated the city's non-fraternization policy and that Cook violated the mayor's 2017 directive. But instead of a termination, Terrell's report recommended that Cook leave the administration with a requirement that he disclose the reason for his departure to any subsequent employer, and that he be permitted to complete his existing projects with the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cook submitted his resignation notice on Dec. 17, 2020, and said that his last day of employment would be Dec. 31, 2020. He requested that his resignation not be shared with the staff as the mayor would be making a "more holistic announcement" closer to the end of the year. In a Dec. 30, 2020 announcement, Hogsett thanked Cook for his "indelible impact on Indianapolis over the past five years." Cook accepted a position shortly after as a partner at Bose, McKinney & Evans LLP. The report found that the city has no written record of Bose requesting information from the city about Cook's employment or departure. Hogsett denied helping Cook obtain a position with the firm. How did we get here? The City-County Council launched an investigative committee last year to probe Hogsett's response to the alleged harassment by Cook. IndyStar reported in 2024 that Cook faced sexual harassment and assault claims by three women who worked under Cook over the course of a decade. The sexual harassment allegations in Mayor Hogsett's administration: What you need to know Cook also had a relationship with another subordinate employee while he was serving as chief of staff, which prompted him to be asked to resign from the administration back in 2020. Two of the women have alleged that Hogsett didn't handle the allegations properly. Roberts, for example, has said that Hogsett didn't respond to her when she reached out about Cook's alleged treatment of her during the campaign, and that she was never interviewed as part of any investigation over the conduct. Hogsett previously apologized to women who say they were harmed by Cook, but has also defended his response. After the allegations against Cook came to light, there was a surge in reports of harassment and unwanted advances among current and former city workers, sparking at least a half dozen internal investigations and one firing. The Fisher Phillips investigation didn't cover allegations against any other city employee. Contact senior government accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@indystar.com. Sign up for our free weekly politics newsletter, Checks & Balances, by IndyStar political and government reporters. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Here's what law firm found on Hogsett's response to sexual harassment DES MOINES, Iowa After a missing teenager was reunited with her family earlier this week, community leaders and lawmakers are calling for a change in how these types of crimes are prosecuted in the state. Stiffer penalties, said State Representative Rob Johnson (D) District 34, Des Moines. You can make it so tough, and you even think about doing it and you get caught? You are going to be looking at a much, much stiffer penalty than you were before. Rep. Johnson told WHO 13 News that he is using the interim of the 91st General Assembly to work on legislation with lawmakers on the other side of the aisle and community members to deter bad actors from committing the events that were alleged this weekend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will stop at nothing to protect our babies, said Rep. Johnson. Former Marshalltown substitute teacher accused of sexually exploiting student The founder and CEO of Creative Visions also spoke with WHO 13 News about how glad the family is to have their child back, and what the community will do to continue to support the family. Counseling is needed, not only for our victim, but her little brother. You see it in him, he is traumatized, said Ako Abdul-Samad. We have to talk about what has transpired, what has traumatized this child and what this child had went through and what other children to date are going through, those children that dont have the result that this child had. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abdul-Samad reiterated that the community will be there for the needs of the family, whatever those may be. West Des Moines Police Department told WHO 13 News that because of the case being an active and open investigation, there was nothing new to add at this time. Metro News: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. INTERNAL SECURITY AFFAIRS: For a fistful of dollars, Israelis are ready to assist Iran in its war against Israel. Roy Mizrahi and Almog Atias, both 24 and childhood friends, are residents of Nesher, near Haifa. Mizrahi was deep in debt due to a gambling addiction, and Atias was not far behind. Then an opportunity arose that offered to them a way out of their financial mess. A member of an online swingers group, Mizrahi made the acquaintance of an anonymous member who asked him to do a bunch of seemingly unrelated and harmless tasks, and in return he was paid handsomely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First he was told to photograph the area around his home and then document a car dealerships sales board. He was then asked to burn a note with a message against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, the missions became more sinister, and at some point, according to police investigators, Mizrahi became very aware that the people calling the shots were Iranian, and he was doing their beckoning. Next, he transferred a bag buried in the ground he believed to contain a bomb from one location to another. Then, it was time for the main mission. THE LAHAV 443 Police Unit in Lod. For every individual who accepts the Iranian offer, others also contacted by Iranian operatives cut off communication and report the approach to the police. (photo credit: YOSSI ZELIGER/FLASH90) Together with Atias, who was also recruited by the anonymous online member, a surveillance camera was purchased and the two rented a hotel room in Tel Aviv, before traveling to Kfar Ahim, the southern Israel home of Defense Minister Israel Katz. They were ordered to install a camera facing the access road to Katzs home, but the mission was aborted due to the presence of security guards. Defense officials told the court that the surveillance was part of a larger plan to assassinate the defense minister. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MIZRAHI AND Atias are not an abberation. It seems that every couple of weeks a new story emerges about the recruitment of Israelis by Iranian intelligence. According to a Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) report issued in January, the year 2024 saw a 400% increase in espionage cases compared to the previous year. Supt. Maor Goren, head of the security division at the Israel Polices Lahav 433 The National Crime Unit, told KAN Reshet Bet that the arrest of Mizrahi and Atias marked the 20th case his unit and the Shin Bet have handled over the past year involving Israelis suspected of spying for Iran. There is no doubt that Tehran has used the period since the start of the Israel-Hamas War to step up its efforts to lure Israelis into spying for the regime. Twenty espionage cases have so far come to public light, and 30 indictments have been filed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not all the stories are similar, but some clear patterns emerge. Those recruited are invariably in financial difficulty and are seeking a quick fix to settle debts. Many are new immigrants, often lacking the patriotic attachment to the state most veteran Israelis have. Most of those recruited are useless and are on the margins of Israeli society, explained Yossi Melman, an espionage expert and coauthor of Spies Against Armageddon. But whats worrying is that a country dedicated to Israels destruction has managed to penetrate Israeli society. And Melman has an explanation as to why the Iranians are succeeding. Its connected to the disintegration of Israeli society that has been accelerating over recent years. There is no longer cohesion and solidarity, he explained. Today its each for their own, and even the government only cares about its own survival. People feel that if officials can work for Qatar, why cant they work for Iran? Goren noted, however, that for every individual who accepts the offer, others also contacted by Iranian operatives cut off communication and report the approach to the police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Iranian recruitment method is relatively simple, lacking sophistication, and without a huge financial outlay or years of planning, involving sleeper cells or similar deep penetration methods. Social media phishing is the preferred recruitment method, and it only takes a few gullible Israelis to take the bait. The Iranians are targeting haredim, new immigrants, people with a criminal background, and ordinary citizens, often going after those with financial difficulties motivated by the prospect of making some quick money. The targeting of new immigrants a number of those arrested have been from the former Soviet Union also may have an unfortunate ripple effect beyond a threat to Israeli security: fostering suspicion and stigmatizing specific demographics among the public. Furthermore, Iran has been able to cast a wider net, largely thanks to social media, which they leverage to recruit people. The digital approach to recruitment allows Iran to reach segments of the population that they would not have been able to access before the advent of platforms like Telegram. Iran has reached out to Israelis across social media You may have unwittingly come across such recruitment attempts yourself. Iranian intelligence has reached out to Israelis on various platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, offering generous payments for simple tasks such as taking a photo of a particular individual or site, or spraying graffiti. Sometimes the ad will seek a private investigator to obtain information on Israeli officials. There is initially no mention of Iran, and most Israelis who were recruited claimed that, initially at least, they had no idea they were working for Tehran. Other phishing campaigns posted surveys asking Israelis to enter their personal information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Shin Bet has an impressive track record in thwarting Irans espionage efforts, and so far, as far as we know, there has been no serious damage caused to Israels security. However, the espionage effort is ongoing, and it is entirely possible that individuals working for Tehran have still not been exposed. Criticism has been voiced over lenient sentencing by the courts for the individuals who are enticed by Iranian intelligence. The relatively mild punishments handed down by the courts usually a few years in prison are unlikely to deter people who are tempted by Irans generous cash payments. And for Iran, the capture of individuals or a cell operating on its behalf has no consequences at all. The spymasters in Tehran merely wait patiently until the next victim answers their social media messages. Moshe Attias, an 18-year-old resident of Yavne, received the following message. Thank you for contacting Iranian intelligence. To speak with our experts, send a message to the Telegram user below. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attias received around $1,800 via a digital wallet to document the ward in the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba where former prime minister Naftali Bennett was staying when hospitalized for a week in April. Attias, posing as a relative of Bennett, also described to his Iranian handlers the security arrangements in place in the hospital for the former prime minister. Last August, Israeli police arrested 73-year-old Moti Maman, from Ashkelon, for allegedly plotting to assassinate Netanyahu, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar. Maman was smuggled into Iran twice to meet with his Iranian handlers. In Iran, he allegedly requested an advance payment of $1 million, according to the indictment against him. Getting so close to Bennett is an achievement for the Iranians, and it shows they are still trying, explained Melman. But still, their efforts pale into insignificance when compared to Israeli intelligence penetration of Iran. Maman told his handlers there was no way he could get access to top-level officials and suggested instead the mayors of Acre or Nahariya. In March a resident of Beersheba was arrested on suspicion of offering to sell an Iranian agent information on the Negev Nuclear Research Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last year a couple were recruited by an Iranian intelligence network that specifically focuses on Jewish immigrants to Israel from the Caucasus region, after being initially approached by an Israeli national with Azerbaijani origins. According to the indictment the couple received $600 per day for gathering information on potential targets, including surveillance of Mossad headquarters. A seven-member Haifa cell, indicted last year, allegedly photographed dozens of military bases, Iron Dome batteries and other strategic sites across Israel, receiving between $500 and $1,200 per task. According to the indictment, one of their surveillance targets was the Nevatim Air Force Base, which was later hit in an Iranian missile strike. Not all those recruited are Jewish. Last October seven Palestinians from east Jerusalem were arrested after being recruited by Tehran. The cell plotted to assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist and the mayor of a major city. To date, the Iranian espionage efforts dont appear to have resulted in a spectacular success, and through a combination of digital surveillance and undercover operations the Shin Bet has succeeded in thwarting Iranian efforts. No senior Israeli figures have been assassinated. The surveillance efforts may have provided Tehran with real-time intelligence on more than one occasion but do not amount to a game changer. But we dont know what we dont know, and whats really worrying is that Israelis are ready to betray their homeland for a fistful of dollars, said Melman. Herb Keinon contributed to this report. Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagur argued that so long as the Witkoff proposal doesn't interfere with the civilian campaign against Hamas, it may be worth accepting. The new Witkoff Proposal's "apparent irrelevance" may actually be the reason Israel should accept it, Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagur, former deputy head of the Palestinian Arena in the IDF Planning Directorate, suggested in an interview with Maariv on Friday. "Yesterday, we opened with headlines that the US and Hamas are close to agreeing on the Witkoff Framework, which includes a new proposal. Without delving into the specifics, it involves a ceasefire, the release of about half the hostages, the release of prisoners in exchange, and guarantees for continued negotiations, Yagur said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, a framework that was appropriate and useful a month or two ago, focused on the military-security aspect, now operates within a completely different strategic context in Gazaa civilian one." The new food distribution mechanism that began operating this week in the Gaza Strip is a major strategic turning point. For the first time, it strips Hamas of its main elements of sovereignty and begins to liberate the population from its grip, while preparations are underway for the implementation of a voluntary emigration plan, Yagur explained. Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. February 22, 2025. (photo credit: Ali Hassan/Flash90) This is a process which, if not stopped now, is irreversibleand its putting Hamas under extreme pressure. The breach of Hamas flour warehouses by Gaza civilians, among other things, shows Hamas that even what remains of its military power is irrelevant here. The language has changed. This pressure may intensify to the point where Hamas will agree to release hostages just to halt the erosionand ultimately even agree to exile its members and disarm, Yagur continued. Despite appearances suggesting that the current situation demands rejection of the Witkoff Proposal, Yagur believed otherwise. At first glance, there are plenty of reasons to reject the Witkoff Framework, now that Hamas is with its back against the wall. Under the claim that we must finish the job and dismantle Hamasa goal we all share and want realized as soon as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But, he added, if we dig a little deeper, we find that Israel, despite numerous threats in recent months, has not yet carried out full-scale, irreversible military operations to conquer Gaza. This could be in order to enable the release of more hostages, or perhaps due to a lack of political will, inability to act without incurring heavy costs for the hostages and our forces, or due to American requests in the background. Thus, the so-called completion of the mission through total military effort has not occurred, despite our ability to do so long ago. It's an empty concept at this stage, he explained. The civilian mechanism is what fatally wounds Hamas We need to look at the issue from a different anglethe strategic shift. The backbone of the campaign against Hamas today is mostly civilian (with military support). So, if the Witkoff Proposal primarily addresses the military-security dimensionan effort that has not significantly advanced on the groundand does not interfere with the civilian campaign, then it actually serves three goals, Yagur explained: Free additional hostages (since concessions like prisoner releases no longer impress the Gaza public and won't help Hamas maintain power). Temporarily relieve Israel of the need for ongoing military pressure that has not escalated, allowing focus on the more effective civilian campaign against Hamas, with the military dimension providing security backing. Align with US policy, particularly with Trumps vision of ending military conflicts in the Middle East to make room for regional rehabilitation and a new order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Yagur, any move that weakens the civilian mechanism is a strategic error: The continued need to provide security coverage for the civilian mechanism in the Gaza Strip and for border communities dictates a continued IDF presence in those areas. Israel must oppose any full withdrawal that could significantly harm the only mechanism currently dealing a severe blow to Hamasthe civilian one. A "seemingly irrelevant" proposal that might be just right In light of the above, Yagur argued, its precisely the irrelevance of the Witkoff Proposal to the current context that may make it worth accepting. Hostages will be released alive, while the process of Hamass civilian erosion will continue at an accelerated pace, and there will be no agreement to end the war. The security dimension (which the Witkoff Proposal focuses on) would provide security backing and control, while the actual military campaign could be paused. After 60 days, Yagur promises, well be dealing with a different Hamasone willing to make very significant concessions, even to the point of disarmament and exile. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Yagur emphasized one condition: The Witkoff Proposal will only be relevant if it does not halt the civilian process in Gaza. If, on the contrary, it calls for freezing the current aid mechanism, or seeks to revert to old frameworks like the UN or UNRWA and abandon the American-led system, then Israel must reject it outright, as that would not be the right format for dismantling Hamas via the civilian axis. ISIL (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, representing the armed groups first strike at government forces since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to analysts. In a statement released late on Thursday, ISIL said its fighters had planted an explosive device that struck a vehicle of the apostate regime in southern Syria. The bombing appears to mark an escalation by ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus as illegitimate but has so far concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The blast, in the al-Safa desert region of Sweida province on May 22, reportedly killed or wounded seven Syrian soldiers. A second bomb attack, claimed by ISIL earlier this week, targeted fighters from the United States-backed Free Syrian Army in a nearby area. ISIL said one fighter was killed and three injured. There has been no official comment from the Syrian government, and the Free Syrian Army has yet to respond. Members of the new Syrian government that replaced al-Assad after his removal in December once had ties to al-Qaeda a rival of ISIL but broke with the group nearly a decade ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, over the past several months, ISIL has claimed responsibility only for attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast. The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the convoy blast was the first ISIL-claimed operation targeting the new Syrian military. ISIL was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 but maintains sleeper cells, particularly in the countrys central and eastern deserts. While the groups capacity has been diminished, the latest attacks suggest it may be seeking to reassert itself amid shifting alliances and weakening state control. While the Syrian government said it conducted two raids in Damascus earlier this week, to arrest ISIS operatives, it has not yet acknowledged any attack by the terror group. Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks on the new Syrian government, which would be the first move against the new Syrian government since it took power in December, according to a war monitoring group and international media reports on Friday. The bombs allegedly killed and wounded multiple government soldiers and members of a government-allied militia, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ISIS said it had planted a bomb on a "vehicle of the apostate regime" in the desert of the southern province of Sweida last Tuesday and claimed to have killed a member of the US-backed Free Syrian Army in a second bomb attack this week. While the Syrian government said it conducted two raids in Damascus earlier this week to arrest ISIS operatives, it has not yet acknowledged any attack by the terror group. Syiran President Ahmed al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump. (photo credit: Canva/Kaboompics.com, Engin Akyurt from Pexels, BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP, Getty Images/LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP) Islamic State's hold on Syria While ISISs hold on Syria was significantly reduced in 2019 after large-scale efforts by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, small cells have continued to carry out attacks. Kurdish authorities struck a deal with the Syrian government earlier this week to begin clearing camps of ISIS families in eastern Syria, TheJerusalem Post's Seth Frantzman reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement THE KURDISH authorities and the Syrian interim government have reached an agreement to empty the notorious al-Hol camp from Syrians and return them to their homes, a Kurdish official said on Monday, according to a report from Kurdish media Rudaw on Monday. Syria warms ties with the United States as ISIS ups threat level against Western world While Syrias interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was once a member of a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, he has since distanced himself from the group in order to seek alliances among Western nations. While Sharaa has warmed ties with the Trump administration, ISIS has planned several attacks against the US. An ISIS-affiliated attack claimed the lives of 14 people in New Orleans in January and only two weeks ago a national guardsman was arrested for allegedly planning an attack in the name of the group. An anonymous senior US defense official told Reuters that following the New Orleans attack, there had been growing concern about the Islamic State increasing its recruiting efforts and resurging in Syria - worries which were heightened when the Assad regime fell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A UN team that monitors Islamic State activities reported to the UN Security Council in July a risk of resurgence of the group in the Middle East and increased concerns about the ability of its Afghanistan-based affiliate, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), to mount attacks outside the country. European governments viewed ISIS-K as the greatest external terrorist threat to Europe, it said. In addition to the executed attacks, the number of plots disrupted or being tracked through the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Levant, Asia, Europe, and potentially as far as North America is striking, the team said. REUTERS contributed to this report. The independent board of Ben & Jerrys has claimed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in a move that threatens to further inflame tensions with its parent company Unilever. The ice cream brands independent board said: We join with those around the world who denounce the genocide in Gaza. We stand with all who raise their voices against genocide in Gaza from petition-signers to street marchers to those risking arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The comments were made in a statement seen by Reuters. Its description of Israels actions as genocide comes just weeks after one of the brands co-founders, Ben Cohen, was arrested in the US Senate for protesting against the provision of military aid to Israel during testimony by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary. The statement by the independent board threatens to deepen the disagreement between Ben & Jerrys and Unilever. The two sides have been at odds over Israel and Gaza for many months. Ben Cohen, co founder of Ben & Jerrys, was arrested in the US Senate for protesting against military aid given to Israel - Leah Millis/Reuters The ice cream brand sued Unilever in November 2024, claiming that the company had attempted to block it from making public statements about the conflict. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two companies have clashed over Israel before, including in 2021 when Ben & Jerrys stopped selling its ice cream in the occupied West Bank, arguing that doing business there was inconsistent with its values. In response, Unilever sold its Israeli ice cream business, causing a legal battle that was later resolved. Founded by Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1978 in Vermont, Ben & Jerrys has repeatedly spoken out on issues such as refugees rights, LGBTQ+ issues and climate change. Though it has been owned by Unilever since 2000, an agreement was written into its $326m (241m) acquisition deal to allow the company to continue operating with an independent board. This effectively protected the companys ability to take a stand on social issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Ben & Jerrys has accused its owner of undermining that deal. In March, the brand accused Unilever of ousting Dave Stever, its chief executive, over his outspoken approach to political and social issues, rather than because of performance. Escalating tensions threaten to overshadow the much-anticipated spin-off of Unilevers ice cream arm into a separate business in an effort to streamline and focus on its core business of consumer goods such as Dove soap and Hellmanns mayonnaise. A Unilever spokesman said: We took notice of the comments made by members of the social mission board of Ben & Jerrys. Unilever supports efforts for a peaceful resolution and the end of violence to conflicts around the world. Unilever is in litigation with the above mentioned board and will not comment on its positions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ben & Jerrys and its founders were approached for comment. 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. Israel has struck western Syria, the Israeli military and Syrian state media have reported, in the first such aerial attack on the country in almost a month, the day after the United States envoy to Damascus said conflict between the neighbouring countries is solvable. Syrian state media reported late Friday that one person was killed and three others injured by an Israeli air strike on the coastal city of Latakia. The SANA news agency said earlier that the Israeli military targeted three sites in the countryside of the Latakia and Tartous governorates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that jets likely to be Israeli struck military sites on the outskirts of Tartous and Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast. The Israeli strike follows Syria acknowledging indirect talks with Israel earlier this month to calm tensions. The Israeli military claimed responsibility for the strike, saying it had struck weapon storage facilities containing coastal missiles that posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation, in the Latakia area of Syria. In addition, components of surface-to-air missiles were struck in the area of Latakia, it said, adding that it would continue to operate to maintain freedom of action in the region, in order to carry out its missions and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli strike came a day after US envoy to Syria Thomas Barracks visit to Damascus aimed at rebuilding ties under Syrias new administration, during which he said the conflict between Israel and Syria is solvable and needed to start with dialogue. Id say we need to start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders, Barrack told journalists on Thursday. The two countries have technically been at war since the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. A state of heightened tension and deep enmity between Israel and Syria accelerated during the 1967 war, which also drew in Egypt and Jordan, and Israels subsequent occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights. Israel has carried out frequent attacks in Syria both during the Bashar al-Assad rule and since his ouster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly before the fall of al-Assads regime, Israel seized more Syrian territory near the border, claiming it was concerned about President Ahmed al-Sharaas interim administration, which it has dismissed as jihadist. During a meeting between US President Donald Trump and al-Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier in May, the US leader urged al-Sharaa to normalise relations with Israel. While al-Sharaa has not commented on possible normalisation with Israel, he has stated his support for returning to the terms of a 1974 ceasefire agreement that created a United Nations buffer zone in the Golan Heights. Both opposition chair, Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu chair, Avigdor Liberman, said Israelis deserve honesty over where tax dollars are going. Israeli officials have expressed uncertainty over the funding for the distribution of aid in Gaza through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, The Jerusalem Post learned Friday. Although no information has been released regarding Israels and possibly the United States involvement, there has been speculation over direct Israeli involvement in the funding, notably from opposition leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opposition head MK Yair Lapid questioned the government about the source of funding for two agencies involved during a Knesset plenum debate on Monday. Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman claimed that the Mossad and the Defense Ministry are funding the aid distribution in Gaza in a post on X/Twitter on Tuesday. Lapid questioned whether Israel had secretly financed humanitarian aid to Gaza through two shell companies, GHF and the lesser-known Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), established in Switzerland and the US. According to Lapid, Gulf states were expected to fund the aid but declined, citing concerns about the companies structure. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it has begun distributing food aid in the Gaza Strip on May 26, 2025. (photo credit: GHF) Former GHF CEO Wood claims funds from west Europe Despite this, $100 million appeared in the organizations' budgets, with GHFs former CEO, Jake Wood, claiming the money came from "a country in western Europe," though no nation has acknowledged it. Wood later resigned, saying the aid plan couldn't fully adhere to humanitarian principles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If this money is indeed Israeli and the government is concealing it, it would not only be a deception of Israeli citizenswhose taxes fund itbut also one of the greatest diplomatic blunders in the countrys history, Lapid said. If our tax money is already purchasing humanitarian aid, funding food and medicine for children in Gaza, then let's at least gain international recognition for it. For once, lets have global headlines highlighting something positive Israel has done in Gaza. "Hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of Israeli citizens," Liberman wrote on X. Eliav Breur contributed to this report. BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The value of China's international trade in goods and services reached 4.37 trillion yuan (606.8 billion U.S. dollars) in April, an increase of 6 percent year on year, official data showed on Friday. In U.S. dollar terms, the country's exports of goods and services amounted to 326.5 billion U.S. dollars, while imports totaled 280.3 billion U.S. dollars, resulting in a surplus of 46.2 billion U.S. dollars, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. Of the total, the export value of goods reached 2.1 trillion yuan and the import value stood at 1.65 trillion yuan -- which meant a surplus of 446.4 billion yuan. The export value of services reached 250.5 billion yuan while the import value of services was 364.4 billion yuan in April, resulting in a deficit of 113.8 billion yuan. CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli strikes targeted Syria's coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, killing one person, the Syrian state news agency reported on Friday, despite recent talks between Israel and Syria's interim government. The Israeli military confirmed shortly after it struck what it described as weapon storage facilities containing missiles that "posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation" in Latakia. One civilian was killed in the strike on Latakia, the Syrian state news agency reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has for years waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that destroyed much of the country's military infrastructure and this ramped up since the Israeli war in Gaza. But the strikes have largely stopped in recent weeks as the two sides engaged in direct talks aimed at avoiding conflict. (Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Jaidaa Taha and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) About 200 Ivy Tech employees will lose their jobs after the Indiana Legislature cut $54 million from the budget and refused to allow the college to raise tuition rates, college officials said Friday. As you are aware, all state higher education institutions received a 5% cut in state funding. In addition, the State Budget Agency may withhold another 5% of our allocated funds. For Ivy Tech, this totals more than $54 million dollars over a two-year period, Ivy Tech Community College President Sue Ellspermann wrote in an email to college employees obtained by WTWO. At the same time, the Governor and Indiana Commission for Higher Education have recommended a 0% tuition increase for all state educational institutions. About 202 people will be laid off statewide, and eight individuals will be let go in the Terre Haute area, college officials added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beginning today, Systems Office and campuses will notify some of our colleagues of a Reduction in Force (RIF). While most notifications will happen today, a few more will occur next week. At this time, we do not anticipate further RIFs, Ellspermann wrote. Staffing reductions are always difficult decisions that we do not make lightly. Every individual impacted has made meaningful contributions to our students, our campuses, and our mission. These changes do not reflect the value of their work, but rather the harsh financial reality we currently face. We are truly grateful for their dedication and service to Ivy Tech. She added that the employees who are laid off will receive a separation package. This is a challenging moment for our College, but I know Ivy Tech is strong. I remain confident in our resilience and in our commitment to our students and to one another, Ellspermann wrote. Together, we will navigate this period with compassion, integrity, and a continued focus on our educational mission. 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. Ivy Tech Community College's Indianapolis campus on May 30, 2025. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Ivy Tech Community College will lay off 202 employees statewide as it responds to significant cuts in state funding and frozen tuition rates, the school systems president, Sue Ellspermann, announced Friday. The layoffs affecting both full-time and part-time workers represent about 2.8% of Ivy Techs total workforce, including 180 full-time positions, or 5.3% of its full-time staff, according to data provided by the college. The reductions include 38 faculty members, 162 staff and two administrative faculty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a Friday letter to school employees, Ellspermann said the layoffs are a result of a $54 million shortfall over two years, driven by a 5% cut in state appropriations to higher education institutions. An additional 5% in potential funding held in reserve by the State Budget Agency deepened the financial strain. Because the colleges primary revenue sources are state appropriations, tuition, and fees, these developments have had an immediate effect on our planning, Ellspermann wrote in her letter. We have reached the difficult decision to adjust our staffing levels, in addition to efforts to reduce our operational expenses. Story continues below. Important Budget Update and Staffing Changes Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Staffing reductions are always difficult decisions that we do not make lightly, Ellspermann continued. These changes do not reflect the value of their work, but rather the harsh financial reality we currently face. Layoffs began Friday and will continue into next week. Affected Ivy Tech workers will receive separation packages, according to Ellspermanns letter. The largest number of layoffs occurred at the colleges Systems Office in Indianapolis, which is slated to lose 44 employees. Among the other campus cuts are 21 staff in Indianapolis; 14 each in Bloomington and Columbus; 12 in Kokomo; 11 in Evansville; and another 11 in South Bend/Elkhart. The General Assembly appropriated about $243 million and $245 million for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, respectively. The latest state budget passed earlier this year will drop that funding to about $236 million in both the 2025-26 and 2026-27 fiscal years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a separate letter sent to state lawmakers on Friday, Ellspermann said that student services and academic quality remain priorities, noting that all 19 campuses across Indiana will remain operational. She emphasized that the college has no tenured faculty and will have the continued ability to adjust the size of our faculty nimbly as enrollment and industry needs fluctuate. Ellspermann added that Ivy Tech has previously implemented other cost-saving measures, including rolling technology fees into tuition and eliminating distance education charges, which together cost the college more than $9 million annually in lost revenue. This is a challenging moment for our college, but I know Ivy Tech is strong, Ellspermann said. I remain confident in our resilience and in our commitment to our students and to one another. 2025-05-30 Ellspermann Letter to General Assembly SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX More than 200 employees are expected to be laid off at Ivy Tech campuses across the state as a result of the Indiana General Assembly's decision to cut funding to the college system. This announcement was made by Ivy Tech's president, Sue Ellspermann, on May 30, as she broke the news to many who were affected by this sudden development. Layoffs began the same day and continue into next week. Dr. Sue Ellspermann, president of Ivy Tech, speaks during the unveiling of Ivy Tech's new Courses Curbside Food Truck on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Dairy Barn in Indianapolis. Also shown, Jenni Browning, CEO of the American Dairy Association Indiana. Emily Sandberg, Ivy Tech's assistant vice president of communications, confirmed in an email to the IndyStar that the Indianapolis campus is expected to lay off seven faculty and 14 staff members, and the Hamilton County campus is expected to lay off two staff members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Ellspermann's letter, she notes that the Indiana government's decision to cut 5% of the school allocated fund, on top of the 5% cut from the state budget agency, would equate to an expected loss of $54 million over the next two years. These cuts, coupled with Gov. Mike Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education recommending a 0% tuition increase for all state educational institutions, left the school with another revenue option. "Because the colleges primary revenue sources are state appropriations, tuition, and fees, these developments have had an immediate effect on our planning," Ellspermann said in her letter. "We have reached the difficult decision to adjust our staffing levels, in addition to efforts to reduce our operational expenses." During the 2023 budget session, the General Assembly appropriated about $243 million and $245 million for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, respectively. For 2025-26 and 2026-27, that will drop to about $236 million each. That doesn't count additional reductions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Laid-off Ivy Tech workers will receive separation packages, according to Ellspermann's letter. However, details regarding the separation packages were not provided in the email, noting that laid-off employees will meet with human resources representatives to determine their package. In total, 202 people will be affected by these layoffs across Ivy Tech's 45 locations in the state. "This is a challenging moment for our college, but I know Ivy Tech is strong," the letter reads. "I remain confident in our resilience and in our commitment to our students and to one another." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at npadilla@indystar.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Courier & Press reporter Jon Webb contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ivy Tech will lay off over 200 employees due to Indiana budget cuts Vice President J.D. Vance thinks the courts have no business questioning President Donald Trump's use of a wartime law to summarily deport alleged criminal aliens during peacetime. "I think that the courts need to be somewhat deferential," Vance told New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. "In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the people's elected president of the United States." There's just one problem with Vance's view: He's wrong about both the design of the American constitutional order and the judiciary's role in it. Let's start with the role of the courts. The idea that the judicial branch owes special deference to the elected branches of government was thoroughly rejected by the framers and ratifiers of the Constitution. "As to the constitutionality of laws," Luther Martin told the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on July 21, 1787, "that point will come before the judges in their proper official character. In this character they will have a negative on the laws." Federal judges, Martin explained, "could declare an unconstitutional law void," thereby overruling the actions of the elected branches. None of the delegates disagreed with that. "This Constitution defines the extent of the powers of the general government," Oliver Ellsworth told the Connecticut Ratification Convention on January 7, 1788. "If the general legislature should at any time overleap their limits, the judicial department is a constitutional check. If the United States go beyond their powers, if they make a law which the Constitution does not authorize, it is void; and the judicial power, the national judges, who, to secure their impartiality, are to be made independent, will declare it to be void." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement James Madison, often called the "father of the Constitution," made the same point in his June 8, 1789, speech to Congress introducing the Bill of Rights. The proper role of the courts, Madison said, was to act as "an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of judicial deference, is it? Now let's examine the specific legal issue on which Vance thinks that Trump is entitled to "extremely deferential" treatment from the courts. Vance's statement came in response to a question about Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to direct the "removal" of certain aliens "whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government." Trump invoked this wartime law in the hopes of deporting alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a street gang that first sprang up in Venezuela. But the Alien Enemies Act does not say what Trump claims that it says. There is no "declared war" between the United States and Venezuela, and there is no "invasion or predatory incursion" of the U.S. by "any foreign nation or government." Tren de Aragua is not a foreign state, and the gang's alleged crimes do not qualify as acts of war by a foreign state. Trump's position disfigures the text of the Alien Enemies Act to the point that it is no longer recognizable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That is the "political judgment" that Vance finds so deserving of the judicial rubber stamp. "I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people," Vance told Douthat. "You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for." But of course, the courts can and should "tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for" if what they "voted for" happens to be unlawful or unconstitutional. Indeed, that is the whole point of our constitutional system. We do not live in a pure democracy in which the president gets a blank check after every election. We live in a representative republic that is chock full of meaningful checks and balances, including the very important check against presidential overreach that we call judicial review. The post What J.D. Vance Gets Wrong About Judicial Deference to Executive Power appeared first on Reason.com. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into multiple assaults involving inmates on Tuesday at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Ten inmates were injured, 5 of them with stab wounds, and three went to the hospital. At one Oclock on Tuesday afternoon, chaos broke out at the prison in Sioux Falls. Dell Rapids native to perform at Levitt at the Falls Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Multiple attacks came simultaneously in different sections of the Jameson Annex. Attorney General Marty Jackley says the precise timing of the assaults is one of the reasons he believes this is probably gang-related. I asked Jackley why this incident is so different from others in the past. I think the coordination is one, I think the level of violence. When you have five inmates stabbed and another five injured, in my mind, that is what makes this significant, said Jackley. Three inmates were taken to Sioux Falls hospitals with stab wounds from homemade weapons, and the other two were treated inside the prison. Some inmates were beaten with homemade clubs, and others with fists and feet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jackley says if he can prove the attacks are gang-related, those convicted will face stiffer penalties. The legislature has given prosecutors the authority if we can prove gang activity. We are allowed to enhance any charges by one felony level, so if its a class 4 felony, it becomes a class 3 felony, said Jackley. Jackley says his ultimate goal is to keep corrections officers and prisoners safe. You can expect there will be a swift response in the charging decisions, said Jackley. DCI is working on the investigation with the South Dakota Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General. No corrections officers were hurt during the attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WNCT)- A Jacksonville family is seeking community support after losing their belongings and dog in a house fire. Nina Taylor and her childrens lives were uprooted after her husband tragically lit their home on fire on May 7th. The Onslow County Sheriffs Office confirmed he later went to a secondary location to commit suicide. Mental health, it is a real thing. Suicide is a real thing, and families experience it every day, Taylor said. I have long term effects that are very difficult to navigate through. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taylor has three children all who once called their Jacksonville house home. The family moved to the area nearly 10 years ago and immediately felt welcomed. I just believe right here in Jacksonville and throughout the world that people do care and people want people to have productive lives, Taylor said. Thats what our goal is. Monetary donations can be made at this link . The family is also seeking other forms of support including housing, basic needs and toiletries, school supplies, clothing and any other resource that can help them rebuild their lives. 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. HOLYOKE Jacqueline Glasheen will become the new assistant superintendent of Holyoke Public Schools starting June 1, a month before the district takes back local control. Glasheen will succeed current Assistant Superintendent Stephen R. Mahoney, who is leaving at the end of the school year to return to his passion, a more hands-on position as principal at Veritas Prep High School in Springfield, his hometown. Glasheen started working in the Holyoke schools in 1992 as a special education teacher at Lynch Middle School. She later became the assistant principal at Marcella R. Kelly and William G. Morgan Elementary schools, and then the principal at Kelly and Edward Nelson White schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Glasheen has seen the district through its many challenges, including receivership. In May 2015, Glasheen was one of hundreds of people who gathered at the Holyoke War Memorial Building when the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to place the district in receivership. There were people crying, and it was heartbreaking, and then six months later when we were opening schools in September, I thought, I think I am going to learn something. I think I am going to be a better leader. I think I am going to use data better and be able to support my teachers better, she said. While receivership initially hurt and made it seem like the district was losing itself, it ultimately allowed for the emergence of strong leaders and training, she said. At the time, she was principal at Lynch Middle School. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before, principals did not have the necessary training, rarely met and were competitive, she said. It was more like, Here are the keys to your school, and good luck, Glasheen said. Now, Glasheen said there is a collaborative team of school leaders who meet regularly to share best practices, ideas and problem-solve. Receivership has helped reorganize schools and the way the district works. This allows the district to use its expertise to improve teaching. Instead of schools serving the district, the district now serves the schools, Glasheen said. Today, I am walking away from receivership as a school leader and a district leader stronger than I was nine years ago, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Glasheen said being part of the community and having her children attend school in the district is a blessing, because it informs her understand of the effects of district-level decisions on families and parents. However, she also acknowledged the challenges, noting, Its also a curse, because at times you cant see beyond yourself. The next step to solidifying local control is staying the course, she said. On July 1, as the district regains local control, Glasheen will lead academics, school leadership, student services, and the districts educational vision. In a statement, Anthony Soto, receiver and interim superintendent, praised Glasheen as a beloved member of the school community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since 2021, Glasheen has empowered principals and championed the districts educational vision, in her role as executive director of school leadership, he said. Her past experiences, commitment to Holyoke, belief in our students and educators, and passion for learning make her the ideal person to be Holyokes next assistant superintendent, said Soto, who named her to the position. A look back When Soto became receiver and superintendent in 2021, he created the assistant superintendent position to improve organization and teamwork in the central office, Mahoney said. This role was designed to better organize resources and support student learning effectively, Mahoney said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While he is proud of his many achievements playing a key role in William J. Dean Tech High Schools turnaround, significant results with the early literacy program, focusing on curriculum, launching dual language program and redistricting schools last summer Mahoney told Soto he wanted to finish his career as a high school principal, because it is his jam. Even though the district still faces challenges, such as committing to equity, supporting teachers and opening a new middle school, Mahoney and Gleason hope families wont feel the transition too much as he leaves and she enters the post. We have been so tightly aligned in our philosophies and vision for schools. Its a different face, but were singing the same song, she said. This leadership change takes places after the School Committee unanimously appointed Soto as interim superintendent in January. Sotos appointment is pending contract negotiations and the districts exit from receivership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stable leadership is a critical component of our districts transition out of receivership and into local control. We are confident that Mr. Soto will provide the guidance and support needed to continue to lead our schools forward during this pivotal time, School Committee Chair and Mayor Joshua A. Garcia and Yadilette Rivera Colon School Committee Vice Chair previously said. more news from Western Massachusetts Read the original article on MassLive. A woman accused of fatally stabbing a U.S. Postal Service worker inside a Harlem deli was sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting her guilt, officials said Friday. Jaia Cruz learned her fate during a sentencing hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday. At least 10 years was shaved off her sentence, which was part of a plea agreement made in April a deal that angered victim Ray Hodges loved ones, who felt the sentence was too light. If she had been convicted of murder at trial, Cruz, 24, could have received 25 years to life in prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the sentencing hearing, Hodges relatives called Cruz pure evil and a disgusting excuse for a human being, as they gave impact statements in front of Judge Gregory Carro, according to the New York Post. Cruzs attorney claimed his client, a transgender woman, lashed out against Hodges because the 36-year-old postal worker had made a slur about her gender identity. Hodges and Cruz were waiting in the sandwich line at the deli counter at Joes Grocery, on Lenox Ave. near W. 118th St., on Jan. 2 when the postal worker accused her of cutting the line. Cruz claimed that Hodges had ridiculed her with homophobic remarks and struck her several times before she pulled a knife and fatally stabbed him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She showed no remorse for her actions when interviewed by detectives at the 28th Precinct in Harlem. I hope hes maggot food, Cruz told detectives, according to court documents. I killed him laughing. Oh, well. Ill piss on his grave. Hodges had struck Cruz at least three times during the deli fight before she stabbed him, she claimed. I told him, You come to me and Ill kill you, Cruz told investigators. No motherfers are going to put their hands on me no more. He tried to mess with me because Im trans, and I poked him up, Cruz said. Medics rushed Hodges to Harlem Hospital, where he died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cruz stands a towering 6 feet 5 inches tall. Witnesses to the murder described her as huge, and said she appeared to be high on drugs during her confrontation with Hodges. One witness said that she and another woman made multiple attempts to break up the fight but that neither combatant was willing to back down. Cruz fled to her apartment, located on W. 118th St. just a few doors down from the deli, before her arrest later that night, police said. This alleged broad-daylight stabbing shook the neighborhood, including the deli workers and customers who witnessed the attack, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said when Cruz was indicted. My thoughts are with those grieving the loss of Ray Hodges, a postal worker and beloved father of two. Hodges, who joined the U.S. Postal Service in 2022 and worked out of the Morningside Post Office, was remembered as an honorable man by friends and family. Ray was a great person, his brother told The News the day after Hodges death. He was an honorable man. He took care of his family and everybody. Respectful. CLEVELAND (WJW) A Jamaican national living in Cleveland who was busted with 150 pounds of a popular party drug intended for distribution is now headed to prison. Tonie Neno Mitchell, 34, previously pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, according to a news release from Carol Skutnik, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. I-TEAM: New development in unsolved Cleveland Metroparks double murder Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A federal judge on Thursday, May 29, sentenced Mitchell to 100 months, or a little more than eight years, in prison. U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigators raided Mitchells Cleveland residence in July 2024. It was the result of a money laundering investigation into Mitchell and others through which investigators had already seized more than $350,000 in suspected drug money, according to the release. Mitchell tried to flee when authorities came in, but was arrested. Inside a closet, investigators found about 70 vacuum-sealed bags containing a total of 70 kilograms of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA. The Schedule I drug, otherwise known as ecstasy or molly, is a popular party drug, since it reduces inhibitions and makes users feel euphoric, according to the DEA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cat abandoned in Garfield Heights home went weeks without food, water; ate insulation to stay alive, police say Investigators also found a loaded 9-millimeter handgun, ammunition, a ledger for drug purchases, $50,000 in cash and eight cell phones, according to the release. Authorities determined he had been in the country illegally since about August 2023, according to the release. 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. People pose for photos at a ceremony to mark the installation of the first communication, information and signaling (CIS) systems of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) at the Kota SAS Station in Pahang state, Malaysia, May 30, 2025. The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a mega rail project in Malaysia being built by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), marked another key milestone on Friday with the installation of its first communication, information and signaling (CIS) systems at the Kota SAS Station in Pahang state.(Xinhua/Cheng Yiheng) KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a mega rail project in Malaysia being built by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), marked another key milestone on Friday with the installation of its first communication, information and signaling (CIS) systems at the Kota SAS Station in Pahang state. Designed to meet international standards, the CIS systems form a critical component of the ECRL's overall engineering system. These systems play a vital role in ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable railway operations through functions such as automatic train protection, traffic control, and real-time passenger information, CCCC said in a statement following a ceremony to mark the installation. These advanced railway technologies are crucial for automatic train protection, traffic control, and real-time passenger information, CCC-ECRL Managing Director Deng Bo said. "The CIS systems are often described as the nervous system and brain of the railway. ECRL KotaSAS Station is the first station equipped with these critical components of ECRL operations. This First-Article Assessment serves as the cornerstone for verifying construction feasibility and setting quality standards, laying the foundation for system installation across the 20 ECRL stations stretching from Kota Bharu to Port Klang," he said. Malaysia Rail Link Chief Executive Officer Darwis Abdul Razak said the project is committed to meeting the highest standards of quality, interoperability, and compliance for rail operators. "Today's assessment ceremony signifies a thorough and transparent evaluation of ECRL's engineering systems -- the benchmark model that will be deployed across the entire ECRL's network," he said. The ECRL extends from Malaysia's largest transport hub Port Klang and across the peninsula to the northeastern Kelantan state. It is expected to greatly enhance connectivity and bring more balanced growth to the Southeast Asian country by linking its less-developed region on the east coast to the economic heartland on the west coast. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The James Webb Space Telescope spies a black hole-powered quasar (pink, spiky dot in the center of the image) dating to the first billion years after the Big Bang. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, S. Lilly (ETH Zurich), D. Kashino (Nagoya University), J. Matthee (ETH Zurich), C. Eilers (MIT), R. Simcoe (MIT), R. Bordoloi (MIT), R. Mackenzie (ETH Zurich), A. Pagan (STScI) Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have unveiled a hidden population of supermassive black holes in the early universe that have never been seen before. This fascinating discovery could bridge the gap between classical quasars and the lesser-known "Little Red Dots" recently detected near the dawn of time, which may represent baby quasars . Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Classical quasars are active galactic nuclei (AGNs), galaxies dominated by actively-feeding black holes that are surrounded by complex dust environments. These AGNs are powered by large supermassive black holes and are extremely bright, which makes them easily detectable despite the surrounding dust. But in December 2022, scientists using JWST discovered a strange new type of AGN that they dubbed Little Red Dots so named because they look like tiny, faint red spots in images. In contrast to classical quasars, these dots are smaller and dimmer, and they tend to be hidden by a lot of dust. The connection between the two AGN types remains a mystery, prompting astronomers to search for objects with intermediate properties. For more than a decade, astronomers have been looking out for distant quasars with the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, and have identified several galaxies within the first billion years after the Big Bang . While the light from these galaxies was not typical of a classical quasar, the intensity of light was too high to be due to star formation alone. They suspected that these galaxies harbored AGNs, which were somehow hidden in dust. But astronomers could not prove that they were indeed a different type of AGN due to technical limitations in telescopes at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: James Webb telescope discovers frozen water around a distant, sunlike star Now, using the more sensitive JWST to reanalyze those puzzling objects spotted by Subaru, an international team of astronomers has confirmed the presence of fast-moving gas under the influence of the strong gravity of supermassive black holes. This proved that the objects were AGNs after all but a type never seen before. The findings were reported on May 7 in a study uploaded to the preprint database arXiv . The best of both worlds Out of 13 distant galaxies examined in the new study, astronomers found that 9 displayed clear signs of a new population of active, supermassive black holes and their patterns of light carry the unmistakable fingerprint of quasars hidden behind heavy dust. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We were surprised to find that obscured quasars are so abundant in the early universe," Yoshiki Matsuoka , associate professor at the Research Center for Space and Cosmic Evolution at Ehime University, and lead author of the study, told Live Science in an email. "This means that a significant fraction of active [supermassive black holes] have been overlooked in the past ground-based surveys." These newly discovered "hidden" quasars are as bright as classical quasars, but the level of dust obscuring their light resembles what astronomers have found in the case of Little Red Dots. Combining the ground-based data with JWST's detailed follow-up observations, researchers may have found the missing link between rare, bright quasars and the more common Little Red Dots seen by JWST. "These results are robust due to the high-quality of the light spectra of these objects, with clear signatures of gas powered by supermassive black holes," Jorryt Matthee , assistant professor and head of the research group Astrophysics of Galaxies at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, who was not involved in the new study, told Live Science. Six JWST images of Little red dots spotted in the early universe. Astronomers are still trying to figure out how the dots differ from typical black hole-powered quasars. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Kocevski (Colby College) "While the number of new objects is high, it is not so unexpected," Matthee said. "The gap between the two known populations is very vast, and indeed, these new objects may belong to that missing population, but there's probably more." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He adds that as astronomers find more of these hidden quasars and gather additional observations, the light they emit can be used to estimate the masses of stars and supermassive black holes in their host galaxies. This information will offer fresh insights into how these giants evolved in the early universe. Additionally, by comparing the number of hidden quasars discovered with what theoretical models predict, scientists can test whether these findings challenge the standard model of the universe. RELATED STORIES 'Baby quasars' spotted by James Webb telescope could transform our understanding of monster black holes Astronomers find hundreds of 'hidden' black holes and there may be billions or even trillions more Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement James Webb telescope spots rare 'missing link' galaxy at the dawn of time Meanwhile, the team led by Matsuoka plans to use JWST to observe 30 more objects from the same Subaru Telescope sample. They are hoping to uncover more hidden quasars, including Little Red Dots. First reported just a few years ago, Little Red Dots are still shrouded in mystery. They're poorly understood because they appear so faint and tiny in the sky. Matsuoka explained that by combining their results with other follow-up observations to study the surrounding gas and environments, the hidden quasars will provide a vital clue to unveiling the mysterious nature of Little Red Dots. TOKYO (AP) Japan's coast guard has dispatched a patrol vessel to rescue an injured crewmember of a Chinese survey ship in the contested waters in southwestern Japan, officials said Friday. The Chinese survey ship Ke Xue requested the rescue by the Japan Coast Guard on Wednesday, saying that one of the crewmembers suffered a hand injury during the survey operation in the area off the southern coast of Miyako Island, according to the JCG. The JCG patrol vessel picked up the crewmember, a Chinese national in his 40s, from the survey ship and transported him to Naha on the main Okinawa island for hospital treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ke Xue is one of a number of Chinese survey vessels that operate in waters in the East China Sea, where China has increasingly stepped up maritime activity and routinely sends survey vessels, coast guard ships, as well as warships and aircraft, often violating Japanese territorial waters and airspace. Japanese officials said that on Monday, another Chinese survey ship lowered a wire into the sea known as the Japanese exclusive economic zone an area where Japan claims rights to conduct economic activity east of Japans southernmost island of Okinotorishima, without permission from the Japanese government. The JCG patrol aircraft warned the survey ship to move out of the waters, and the Japanese government lodged a protest to the Chinese side. JOHNSTOWN, Pa. Johnstown Area Regional Industries President and CEO Linda Thomson has long been synonymous with Showcase for Commerce. She has helped shape the business and defense contracting expositions identity since joining JARI in July 2000. Billions of dollars of production and investment have been made in the local economy thanks in part to her efforts. Now Thomsons time with JARI and Showcase for Commerce is coming to an end. She plans to retire this summer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This years 34th annual Showcase for Commerce is scheduled to conclude Friday with the John P. Murtha Breakfast, press conference, public exhibition inside 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial, and luncheon. Its just been something that Ive really enjoyed, even though its a lot of work and effort, Thomson said. I think its something that we can all be proud of and something that, as a region, weve really become known for excellence in this defense industrial base area. Showcase was the vision of U.S. Rep. John Murtha, the longest-serving congressman in Pennsylvania history. The event has brought businesses to the Johnstown region, developed the local defense contracting industry and provided networking opportunities. Thomsons first Showcase was in 2001. Murtha died in February 2010. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Linda and I both realized that we needed to transform the Showcase to keep it relevant and to keep that value that had been created by Mr. Murtha, Showcase for Commerce Chairman Ed Sheehan Jr. said. She and I were very devoted to that cause. Sheehan is the president and CEO of Concurrent Technologies Corp., one of the defense contractors that have benefited from Showcase over its more than three decades. Sheehan said he and Thomson both recognized how important the Showcase was and what it meant to the region, but also what it meant to the defense industrial base and our national security. A video tribute to Thomson was presented during the Government Acquisition Leaders Briefings and Panel Discussions Thursday. Comments were given by numerous people, including former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., former U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, current U.S. Reps. Glenn GT Thompson and Dr. John Joyce, and Murthas widow, Joyce Murtha. Thompson also spoke about Thomson during his keynote address inside the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Linda, let me summarize things up this way, we love you, Thompson said. Thank you for all that youve done to make Showcase such a great success and a great model. Its pretty easy to brag about this three-day event in Washington with my colleagues from all across the country. Showcase is put on by JARI and the Cambria Regional Chamber. Many local businesses, international companies, elected officials, colleges and representatives from the U.S. Department of Defense have also participated. It has just been such a pleasure and honor to work for all these years with people who are so committed to our region and to our economy, Thomson said. When looking back at Showcases impact, Thomson said, The bottom line is its grown our economy, its diversified our economy and its helped bring dollars flowing into us, into our area. That has created jobs and economic viability. Thats certainly the bottom line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cambria Regional Chamber President and CEO Amy Bradley credited Thomson for her role in that success. Linda is great at what she does, Bradley said. She is a great convener of people and a great organizer. Shes well-known and shes well-liked. I think for a lot of people she is synonymous with Showcase for Commerce. Bradley praised Thomson: Ive seen her really work to transform lives. JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) A three-day outage of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) background check system caused no shortage of frustration for a Johnson City gun store. Gun stores across Tennessee received an email from the TBI that stated the outage was tied to a planned system change. The bureau told store owners that the outage was outside of its control. Photo: An email sent to gun vendors by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation regarding a recent background check system outage. (Courtesy of Firearms 4 U LLC) The system came back online on Thursday, but the three-day outage led to several stores experiencing a significant decline in sales. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abingdon PD responds after town placed on Homeland Securitys sanctuary jurisdictions list While the outage was active, background checks required for firearm purchases could not be conducted. Mark Nash, a manager at Firearms 4 U in Johnson City, told News Channel 11 that the outage irked both stores and potential customers. We have a list of customers ready to come in to buy a firearm and leave, and they just cant do it, Nash said. Some of them will if theyre patient. But, rightfully so, some people just get frustrated in the process and leave, and we dont know if well ever see them again or not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said shorter outages hit the background check system almost every week, but they are not nearly as long as the one that affected the final week of May. Nash echoed sentiments from other gun stores across the state by asking for more accountability from the TBI. He called for a redundancy system to be put in place so stores would not lose sales when the system crashes. 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. RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCT) Attorney General Jeff Jackson has declared May as Law Enforcement Safety and Support Month at the North Carolina Department of Justice. Supporting law enforcement is right at the heart of our mission at the Department of Justice, Attorney General Jeff Jackson said. Our officers risk their safety every day to protect our families and communities. We need to make sure they have the support and resources they need to do their jobs well and defend our state. This year, Attorney General Jackson has personally met with over three dozen federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Attorney General is also publishing today an open letter to the families of North Carolina law enforcement officers, thanking them for their sacrifice and support. You can read Attorney General Jacksons letter 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 WNCT. DENVER (KDVR) Public health officials confirmed that an animal found in Jefferson County tested positive for rabies. Jefferson County Public Health said in a press release Thursday that a bat in the Westlake neighborhood area of Arvada tested positive for rabies after an investigation led by local animal control and health officials. Bat tests positive for rabies after coming in contact with dog at Boulder residence Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last year, there were five total animals that tested positive for rabies in Jefferson County, according to JCPH. The rabid bat marks the first positive case for the county so far in 2025. The rabies virus is deadly for both animals and humans if medical care is not received before symptoms begin. It is commonly transferred through the saliva of infected animals. This is a good reminder that rabies remains a risk in our community, especially during the warmer months when wild animals are more active, said Rachel Reichardt, Environmental Health Specialist and Zoonosis Lead. Residents should avoid contact with wildlife, ensure pets are up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations, and report any animal acting strangely to your local animal control agency. The county provided the following tips to protect yourself and your furry friends: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keep pets and livestock up to date on rabies vaccines. Avoid contact with any wild animals, especially those that are behaving strangely. Teach children to stay away from all wild animals, stray pets or dead animals, and to tell an adult if they are scratched or bitten. Keep pets close where you can keep an eye on them while they are outside. If someone has been in contact with a wild animal or was bitten by a stray pet, seek medical attention immediately and notify your local animal control agency. Other cases of rabid bats were recently confirmed in Weld County and Boulder County. Boulder County Public Health said last week that rabies is found in about 15% of all bats tested in Colorado, and the virus usually spreads through a bite or scratch from an animal with rabies. Jefferson County said that people should report animal concerns to their local animal control agencies. More information about rabies can be found on the Jefferson County Public Health website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. This is an adapted excerpt from the May 29 episode of The Briefing with Jen Psaki. On Thursday night, the United Federation of Teachers joined state and local officials at the Tweed Courthouse in lower Manhattan to protest for the release of Dylan Lopez Contreras, a Bronx high schooler. Contreras is an asylum-seeking migrant from Venezuela. He goes to a school called Ellis Prep in the Bronx and works as a delivery driver to help support his family. Last week, he became the first known New York City public school student to be arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Donald Trumps second term began. All week, we have seen protest after protest for his release. The people of New York are clearly outraged, and theyre not the only ones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennett, Missouri, may be about as different from New York City as a place can be. While we dont have election results for the city itself, it is the largest city in Dunklin County, which voted for Trump last year by a margin of more than 4 to 1. You would think that if anywhere in the country would support Trumps immigration policies, it would be a place like Kennett. But when Carol Hui, a long-time resident of Kennett and mother of three who works as a waitress at the local diner and is an active member of the local church, got arrested by ICE earlier this month, the residents were shocked. I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here, one resident told The New York Times. But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves This is Carol. The diner that Hui worked at, Johns Waffle and Pancake House, is normally closed Tuesdays. But last Tuesday it stayed open. They called it Carol Day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The staff and their families wore shirts that read Bring Carol Home. All of the proceeds from every meal went to a fundraiser for her. They filled every seat and raised nearly $8,000 that way. But more people wanted to help than the diner had seats, so they put out a donation box for people who couldnt get in, and they raised nearly another $12,000 that way. On every table, in between the jelly packets and the ketchup, was a petition to bring Hui home hundreds of locals have signed it. The Trump administration is reportedly aiming to deport a million people this year. Big numbers like that are abstract and hard to wrap your head around. But when someone from your own city, your own town, becomes one of those 1 million people, it becomes much more real. Maurilio Ambrocio is a pastor at a local church in a town just south of Tampa, Florida. Just a few weeks ago, Ambrocio was arrested by ICE and is now slated for deportation. Speaking to NPR, one of Ambrocios neighbors said he voted for Trump, but when he heard about what happened to the pastor, he was beside himself. The neighbor said he was hoping Trump would target people without papers or with criminal records. But he never expected someone like Ambrocio to be taken away. Youre gonna take, you know, a community leader, a pastor, a hardworking man, the neighbor said. What, did you need a number that day? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, during an appearance on Fox News, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller answered that question. Under President Trumps leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, Miller said. And President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day. To put that quota system in perspective, in the first 100 days of Trumps new term, ICE averaged 665 arrests a day. That means this quota system is pushing ICE agents to arrest 4.5 times as many people per day than their already unbelievable pace. On Wednesday, Axios reported that when Miller announced this quota internally, people at the Department of Homeland Security left the meeting feeling their jobs could be in jeopardy if the new targets arent reached. Beyond how much these arrests have upset their communities, another thread links the arrests of Contreras, Hui and Ambrocio: Contreras was arrested at a courthouse after he showed up for a routine immigration hearing. Ambrocio, who has done a check-in with immigration agents once a year for the past 10 years without incident, was arrested at this years visit. Hui got a sudden call late last month asking her to drive three hours to ICE offices in St. Louis. It felt suspicious, but as she put it to the Times, I didnt want to run ... I just wanted to do the right thing. She was arrested and put in jail while she awaits deportation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These stories are, unfortunately, the new normal. All across the country, immigrants are showing up to routine court hearings and check-ins, doing their best to follow the law to become citizens legally, only to be arrested, jailed and slated for deportation. Trump claims his immigration agents are only going after the worst of the worst, hardened criminals. But to get the kind of deportation numbers Trump is aiming for, ICE appears to be arresting anyone it can. Earlier this week, The Los Angeles Times reported about a 4-year-old girl in California with a life-threatening medical condition who, along with her family, was ordered to leave the country despite her doctors warning that if treatment is interrupted, she would die in a matter of days. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported on a 2-year-old American citizen who was deported to Brazil alongside her undocumented parents. However, since the girl is not a citizen of Brazil, she has become all but stateless. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this month, the Supreme Court stripped 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants of their protected status, opening them up to deportation. And Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States will aggressively revoke student visas from Chinese students. There are roughly 275,000 Chinese students studying in the U.S. right now. What are the odds that one of those Venezuelan immigrants or one of those Chinese students lives in your city or your town? How soon until we all know a Dylan Lopez Contrera or a Carol Hui or a Pastor Maurilio Ambrocio from our own lives? This article was originally published on MSNBC.com CORNING, N.Y. (WETM) The famous sub-chain Jersey Mikes was found to be opening a store in Corning after a successful stint at a location in Horseheads. The Corning location now has a grand opening date after speculation on when the shop would open. The shop, located at 372 W. Pulteney St. in Corning next to the Starbucks, is set to have a grand opening on Wednesday, June 4, according to a release from Jersey Mikes Subs. To celebrate the opening of the new location, the stores owner, Evan Mayer, and General Manager, Harlan Iverson, will hold a celebratory fundraiser to benefit the Guthrie Corning Hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Previous Post: Jersey Mikes Subs coming to Corning From Wednesday, June 4, until Sunday, June 8, customers who received a special fundraiser coupon through a grassroots effort can contribute a minimum donation of $3 to the Guthrie Corning Hospital for a regular sub. For our grand opening, we have decided to partner with Corning Guthrie Hospital, an upstanding and vital aspect of Cornings community, said Iverson. Our tremendous team and I are looking forward to spreading our core values to the community, giving, making a difference in someones life, building great relationships, and having fun, Iverson said. The Corning location is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, and can be contacted directly by calling 315-519-4045. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WETM - MyTwinTiers.com. Jessup will hold a public hearing next month as borough council looks to enact stricter legislation addressing data centers to protect residents. Over the past six months, companies have proposed building large computer-filled campuses that draw power from the high-voltage power lines running through the Midvalley. So far, Archbald has received applications for three data center campuses along Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road. Officials also point to a possible data center in Jessup, though nothing has been proposed. Lackawanna County municipalities that do not adequately address data centers in their zoning ordinances must hold public hearings and meetings in order to amend their land-use legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jessup will hold a public hearing June 11 at 6 p.m. at its Borough Building, 395 Lane St., regarding possible amendments to its November 2020 zoning ordinance to govern data centers, according to a public notice published Thursday in The Times-Tribune. Archbald is working on similar legislation. In phone interviews Thursday, Jessup Councilmen Curt Camoni and Gregg Betti said they both independently reached out to borough Solicitor Maura Armezzani Tunis about legislation addressing data centers, with Camoni contacting Tunis around early February and Betti contacting her in March. Seeing the spread of data centers not just in Pennsylvania but across the country, and knowing the amount of power they would need, Camoni said its inevitable and only a matter of time before they come to Jessup. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What I was looking to do was just try to put Jessup in a position where we were going to have a say in how this was going to happen, and that our residents would be the top priority, he said. Betti said he contacted Tunis after seeing what was happening in Archbald with data centers. Both Archbald and Jessup hired the same company to create their zoning ordinances, and as a result, they have similar zoning for data centers. Archbald officials previously said they saw data centers as smaller, external buildings when they passed their March 2023 zoning ordinance. Camoni and Betti shared the same sentiment. Though Camoni was not on council when Jessup drafted and adopted its zoning ordinance, Betti was the chairman of the comprehensive plan committee that worked on the zoning a process that began in late 2018. At the time, borough officials envisioned a data center as a server room, not large facilities that look like warehouses, Betti said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Data centers werent what they are six years later, he said. The definition to cover a data center wasnt what it was six years ago. The goal isnt to keep data centers out of Jessup, but instead to find the right situation where they will benefit residents without being intrusive or having a negative effect, Camoni said. That means dictating where they can be built by putting them above the Casey Highway and away from residential homes while also establishing reasonable restrictions to protect the town, he said. Nobody wants to see a 70-foot-tall data center right in a residential area, Camoni said. Currently, the only definition in Jessups zoning for data centers is, Data Center, which may include an Internet Server Building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a draft of the zoning amendment ordinance, that line will be deleted and replaced with: A facility used primarily for or intended to be used primarily for the housing, operation, and/or co-location of computer and communications equipment and for handling, storing, and backing up the data necessary for the operation of a business or organizational entity. It also reclassifies data centers from principally permitted uses to conditional uses, which allows borough council to hold public hearings and impose conditions for any data center proposal that it approves. If council passes the ordinance, data centers will become conditional uses in the boroughs light industrial/business park, general industrial and interchange commercial districts. The draft legislation removes data centers from the boroughs mixed use zoning district, which is a large strip of land between Breaker Street and the Casey Highway extending from near Hill Street to the Archbald border. The amendment would apply seven conditions to data centers: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They must be at least 1,000 feet from residential uses. Proposals must include a letter from the electrical provider certifying the network has the capacity to meet the demands of the proposed facility while maintaining sufficient levels to service existing borough residents and businesses. Data centers will be limited to 80,000 gross square feet for any one building and must have at least 300 feet between other similar uses. Data center buildings can be a maximum of 80 feet tall. Any proposal for a data center must include pre- and post-construction sound studies, with the post-construction sound study required before the borough issues an occupancy permit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Data centers must include roof-mounted solar panels to offset power needs. Data centers must include the latest technology in water conservation, including using closed-loop systems in order to reduce the demand for public water. Betti pointed to potential noise issues when data centers use fans rather than water cooling. The conditional uses will address that kind of thing, he said. Basically that its safe, as quiet as possible and doesnt interfere with residents daily lives. Betti also wants to ensure the construction of any data centers wont impact residents. As of now, Jessup will only hold a public hearing June 11, without voting on the proposed zoning amendment. The borough has to wait for the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission to complete its review of the ordinance before council can vote on it, Betti said. If the county finishes its review in time, council could vote that night, Betti said. If council is able to vote on the legislation, the borough will advertise a special meeting, Tunis said. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng addresses the opening ceremony of the fourth Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilizations in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 30, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) LANZHOU, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Han Zheng has called for resolving differences and misunderstandings through dialogue and communication to promote harmonious coexistence among diverse civilizations. Equal exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations provide strong impetus for the progress of human civilization and the peaceful development of the world, Han said on Friday when addressing the opening ceremony of the fourth Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilizations in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. "We should respect and empower each other, jointly advocate respect for the diversity of world civilizations, and promote the flourishing of all civilizations and harmony in diversity," Han said. He noted that Chinese modernization, as a new form of human advancement, has learned from other civilizations and contributed unique wisdom to the development of world civilizations. China will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, uphold multilateralism with other countries, actively implement the Global Civilization Initiative, and promote the in-depth and solid Belt and Road cooperation, Han added. About 400 people attended the meeting, including political leaders, scholars, and heads of international organizations and non-governmental organizations from multiple countries. They shared the view that China had provided stability and certainty to the world through its own development. It is believed that China-proposed global initiatives, including the Global Civilization Initiative, will facilitate the mutual understanding and learning among various civilizations, and lay a solid foundation for developing the new-type international order featuring harmonious coexistence and win-win cooperation among nations. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng poses for a group photo with the participants before the opening ceremony of the fourth Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilizations in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 30, 2025. Han addressed the opening ceremony of the event on Friday. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) The U.S. Department of Labor and the Trump administration announced that they will pause operations at Job Corps centers nationwide, including in Chicopee. Job Corps is a free residential and job training program for students 16 to 24-years-old. A majority of the students in the program come from low-income backgrounds. They want to come here because this is a program where they can get training on carpentry electrical, plumbing, food service, medical trades and more. We also help get them there high school diplomas and licenses says David Baker, Director of Westover Job Corps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chicopee electrical fire prompts reminder of smoke detector importance This comes after major cuts to the federal government. The Department of Labor said in a news release that the pause of all centers will happen by June 30th. The program has been operating at a $140 million deficit since fiscal year 2024. The deficit is projected to reach $213 million in fiscal year 2025. The Department of Labor states that they are collaborating with state and local workforce partners to assist current students in advancing their training and connecting them with education and employment opportunities. The Westover Job Corps currently has more than 170 employees and 350 students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I got actually hired for my trade for pharmacy tech but that doesnt make it any less scary for my friends. Theyre all going to be homeless, theyre losing their trades, they dont get their license and now they dont get their diploma says Sophia Difilippo, a student at Westover Job Corps. As Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, I am deeply troubled by the Trump Administration and the U.S. Department of Labors decision to close Job Corps centers across the country, including the vital site in Chicopee. This abrupt move not only jeopardizes the futures of students who depend on Job Corps for hands-on career training and economic opportunity but also threatens the livelihoods of dedicated staff who support their success. At a time when Massachusetts and the nation face a growing need for skilled workers, closing these centers is a step in the wrong direction. It undermines efforts to build a stronger, more inclusive workforce and leaves vulnerable communities behind. Sophia DiFilippo, a student at Westover Job Crops, told 22News, I got hired for my trade for pharmacy tech but that doesnt make it any less scary for my friends cuz theyre all going to be homeless theyre losing their trades they dont get their license now they dont get their diploma. This comes as the U.S. Labor secretary says the program quote no longer serves the outcome students deserve. I just completed culinary and I was supposed to go to advanced training in California and then from there go to the American cruise line basically I cant do the cruise line no more, says Student Faith Kielhorn. Director David Baker adds, They want to come here because this is a program where they can get training or carpentry electrical plumbing food service. I have medical trades, we also get them their high school diplomas and licenses. Last month, the Labor Department released their first ever transparency report citing reasons for operations being paused. Data shows that the average graduation rate is just over 38%. The average cost per student to attend a program annually is $80,000, and the cost per graduate comes out to more than $155,000. They also released a rise in incident reports from programs nationwide. Data from 2023 shows that there were more than 14,000 of them. Including more than 370 reports related to inappropriate behavior and sexual assault, 1,700 acts of violence, and 1,100 breaches of safety or security. My office is actively assessing the full impact of this decision and remains in close contact with state and federal partners to demand answers and advocate for all those affected. State Senator Jake Oliveira Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community, however, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve. We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the programs possibilities. Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer There are more than 120 Job Corps centers across the country, 99 of which are run by the Department of Labor. The remaining ones are run by the agriculture department and will not be impacted. The Trump Administration says this fiscal year, it would cost taxpayers more than $1 billion to keep the centers open. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Credit: US Network Pool via Reuters Joe Biden has revealed hes very optimistic about his cancer diagnosis, saying hes going to be able to beat this. In his first public appearance since being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Mr Biden said he feels good and is working with a leading surgeon. The prognosis is good. Were working on everything. Its moving along and I feel good. All the folks are very optimistic, the former US president told reporters after making a speech at a Memorial Day service in Delaware. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Biden, 82, revealed he has started taking medication to treat his cancer. Its a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill for the next six weeks and then another one, he said. The expectation is were going to be able to beat this. Theres no cancer in any organ, my bones are strong, it hadnt penetrated. Mr Biden said he was working with one of the leading surgeons in the world, adding that the doctor had received the same diagnosis 32 years ago and is alive and well. The former president appeared in good spirits during the event on Saturday, although he coughed several times throughout his speech. His wife, Jill, kept a low profile. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mrs Biden, who has been under intense scrutiny following the publication of a book which claimed her husbands declining mental state was covered up during his time in the White House, stayed under the radar. The book, Original Sin, by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, painted a picture of Mrs Biden silencing critics and rising to become one of the most powerful first ladies in history, managing the White House behind the scenes. The couple have in recent months presented a united front, posing for a selfie together with their cat Willow, following the announcement of Mr Bidens cancer, and joining the hosts of The View for a joint interview. Joe and Jill Biden arrive together at Veterans Memorial Park - Ken Cedeno/REUTERS The controversial View interview ruffled some feathers, with Mrs Biden accused of speaking over her husband, finishing his sentences, and secretly communicating with him to stop speaking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the couple were pictured arriving at Veterans Memorial Park, Newcastle, on Friday, Mrs Biden was nowhere to be seen as her husband stepped behind the podium. She also did not appear to be sitting in the front few rows when he stepped away to sit back down. In other similar public appearances Mrs Biden has stood or sat nearby her husband, often greeting him once off-stage. Giving an impassioned speech, Mr Biden paid tribute to his late son Beau, who died of brain cancer 10 years ago. This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq. And to be honest, its a hard day, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier, it really does. So, thank you for allowing me to grieve with you, he said. Mr Biden also applauded the US armed forces, and those who died in action. Folks, every year we come together to remember, to remember, to remember the brave women and men who gave their all for this nation, or as Lincoln called it, the last full measure of devotion. Thats what it was, the last full measure of devotion. They laid down their lives so we could live our lives in peace, he said. Only around one per cent of all Americans defend 99 per cent of us, he added. Just one per cent of Americans risk the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much more than we can ever repay them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite his diagnosis of late-stage prostate cancer, the 82-year-old former president appeared more forceful and vigorous than he had been in a while, particularly more-so than when he was the Democratic candidate, before being replaced by Kamala Harris. Mr Biden speaks with vigour - Ken Cedeno/REUTERS Claims that it was Mrs Biden who orchestrated the alleged cover-up of her husbands mental and physical decline show no sign of evaporating. The White House stepped into the fray with Karoline Leavitt, Mr Trumps press secretary, launching a personal attack on Mrs Biden. Frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what we saw in regard to her husband and when she saw it and what she knew, Ms Leavitt said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because I think anybody looking, again, at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a bit of common sense can see this is a clear cover-up and Jill Biden was definitely complacent in that cover-up. She added: They were just on The View last week. She was saying everything is fine. Shes still lying to the American people. She still thinks the American public are so stupid ... And frankly, its insulting and she needs to answer for it. 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. (NewsNation) Mad Men creator Matthew Weiners directorial play debut puts one of Americas most notorious killers in the spotlight. John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only, brought to life with the help of producer Ken-Matt Martin, centers on the man who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln. Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist takes plea deal in fatal crash: report We learn a lot from studying our villains, Weiner told NewsNation. And the thing that really got to me is how much we live in the shadow of his act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Examining infamous figures tells us more about who we are as a country than it does just looking at our heroes, Martin said. A scene from John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only. (J Fannon Photography) Booth, a Baltimore native, was 26 at the time of Lincolns assassination. When asked about the parallels between Booth and Luigi Mangione who is accused of killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Martin and Weiner emphasized the importance of interrogating violences place in American history. Mangione is also from Maryland and was 26 years old when Thompson was killed. The thing that I think is at the core of why its important for us to be producing and looking at, its not to glorify, but its actually to better understand and contextualize why people do the things that they do, Martin said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chrisleys set to make TV comeback after Trump pardons Weiner echoed that sentiment. America is proud of its anti-authority nature, he said. But the reality is most of the changes that have happened in this country eventually come into the hands of violence. It is part of, unfortunately, the way this country was born, and its part of our mythology. This is a challenging thought to open your mind to, Weiner continued. The idea that there is something particular to America that produces people like this, and that we live in their destruction, and that we need to understand them so that we can move beyond this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The play will run from May 15 to June 15 at Baltimore Center Stage. It is recommended for audiences 14 and older. 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. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) A circuit court judge has barred the City of Rockford from enforcing rules meant to slow the growth of gambling in the city. 17th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Fabiano issued the ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by Kelly Quinby, the proprietor of Spinning Slots, at 1625 Sandy Hollow Road, after the city refused to license a 6th video gaming terminal (VGT) at the location, despite allowances by the Illinois Gaming Board to do so. The states 2009 Video Gaming Act allows any business licensed to serve liquor to install up to six slot machines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, to slow the growth of gambling machines within the city, Aldermen passed an ordinance that would require venues to derive at least 50% of total revenue from food and alcohol sales. The ordinance was designed to help existing bars and restaurants that wanted to add gambling terminals as a source of extra income, and discourage independent operators from opening establishments where gambling was the primary source of revenue. According to the lawsuit, the city refused to license Spinning Slots 6th gaming terminal, despite its authorization by the Illinois Gaming Board, and denied renewal of its liquor license because the establishment did not meet the 50% income threshold. On Thursday, the court ruled that the City lacked the authority to regulate video gaming establishments, as this power resides with the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ruling prevents the City from enforcing any local ordinances that limit the number of video game terminals in the city. 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. Judge Reportedly Claims 'Teen Mom 2' Alum Will Eventually 'Kill Someone' originally appeared on Parade. Teen Mom 2 alum Nathan Griffith will serve up to four years in prison after allegedly strangling his ex-girlfriend, a violent act that violated his probation which he was on for allegedly strangling his sister years earlier. Jenelle Evans' ex with whom she shares 10-year-old son Kaiser will serve a "maximum of 48 [months] with a minimum parole eligibility of 14 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections," according to the sentence filing obtained by The Sun on Thursday, May 29. Griffith reportedly received 11 days already served. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to an eyewitness in court, the judge told Griffith: "You are a danger to others and you're going to kill someone.'" Griffith allegedly sobbed as the sentence was handed down. Per multiple outlets, the former Marine pleaded guilty to the felony charge of "Battery Constituting Domestic Violence- Strangulation" in the alleged April assault of Biddle, 21. Per The Sun, Biddle was in court at Griffith's sentencing, as was his estranged, but still legal, wife, May Oyola who recently shared an Instagram photo of a large bouquet of flowers from Griffith, signed "Your Husband." Griffith's sister, who accused him of strangling her in 2023, was also in court. Though Evans was not present in the courtroom, she caught major heat from Teen Mom fans after defending Griffith on TikTok following the altercation with Biddle. At the time, she claimed that Griffith and Biddle were both at fault, and offered her ex stay at her house specifically, in Kaiser's room. (Evans previously claimed that Griffith hadn't seen his son in two years.) Evans' estranged husband, David Eason, has his own strangulation charge against him. He was charged with felony Assault by Strangulation" after allegedly strangling Evans' 15-year-old son Jace. Eason has denied the claims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to Jace and Nathan, Evans is also mom to 8-year-old daughter Ensley, whom she shares with Eason. If you or someone you know has been a victim of domestic violence, help is available 24 hours a day through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit their website. Judge Reportedly Claims 'Teen Mom 2' Alum Will Eventually 'Kill Someone' first appeared on Parade on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. Over a month after a Palm Beach County self-defense instructor was arrested on charges of beating two women, a judge set strict limits on his access to firearms. Maoz Muskal, 49, the owner of a Boynton Beach shooting club, is accused of putting his girlfriend in a chokehold, punching her best friend in the face and then dragging his girlfriend back inside their West Boca home by her hair in March, according to a probable cause affidavit. He has pleaded not guilty. I still hear the screams of my friend as he was choking her, the friend said through tears Friday morning, standing in court across from Muskal and his attorney as she addressed the judge. I do not feel protected and struggle to understand how the community is safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most domestic violence cases come with pretrial release conditions that forbid defendants from possessing firearms. But at Muskals first appearance in April, a Palm Beach County judge signed an order allowing him to keep his guns for work purposes, a decision that baffled the best friend and those close to her. Prosecutors then filed a motion on May 20 seeking to revoke his access to guns, saying the friend did not get a chance to be heard. On Friday, after listening to her emotional statement, Judge Lauren Burke amended the earlier decision, issuing an order requiring that Muskal only possess firearms while teaching at his facility in Boynton Beach during set hours. The issue of Muskals access to firearms comes in the aftermath of a Tamarac triple murder in February, when Nathan Gingles shot and killed his wife, her father and a neighbor. His wife had a domestic violence injunction that required him to surrender his guns, including the gun he used the day of the shooting. Muskal, a former Israeli special forces soldier who goes by Commander M, owns the gun club SSC Tactical, which offers training to law enforcement as well as civilians and teaches self-defense classes to women including Krav Maga and shooting techniques. Videos on the companys social media pages depict Muskal training people to shoot a range of weapons, including AR rifles and handguns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is difficult to conceive of any justifiable reason why someone would need to train with assault rifles under the guise of self-defense, the friend said in her statement. It is deeply troubling that this individual continues to instruct women in self-defense while his own partner remains vulnerable and unprotected in the face of his actions. The contradiction is not only alarming, it also dangerous. Muskals girlfriend, the other victim, declined to prosecute the night of the incident, telling deputies that she didnt want to get him in trouble. The two women are now on opposite sides of the case; the girlfriend was also present in the courtroom Friday, sitting beside Muskal. After the victim testimony, Burke questioned Muskal and his attorney, Patrick McKamey, on the specifics of when and where he needs to possess guns. McKamey explained that his client needs to be able to handle them to do his job, which includes teaching advanced SWAT techniques to individuals and groups, such as to law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies are still hiring him when he has pending violent charges? Burke asked, adding that the work purposes justification originally provided is too vague, too inappropriate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later Friday morning, she issued an order specifically limiting Muskals gun usage to his Boynton Beach facility during working hours, and requiring him to report his work schedule to the court every week. A case disposition hearing is set for June 9. The Adams United Methodist Church will be hosting a rummage and bake sale on Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7 at the Wardwell Street entrance on 36 East Church Street in Adams. The sale will go from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday. Items like books, games, toys, clothing, shoes and household items will be for sale. The event is cash only and no credit/debit cards will be accepted. 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 WWTI - InformNNY.com. Summer's first month could feature hotter-than-average conditions in the nations northern tier and parts of the West, while a wet month in the South might help keep big heat at bay in that region. Heres a look at what to expect in June, according to the latest outlook issued Friday by Atmospheric G2 and The Weather Company. Temperature Highlights -Most Persistent June Heat: Areas from the Northeast to the Great Lakes, upper Mississippi Valley and West are favored to have the best shot at above-average temperatures, so those heading to beaches and pools will be in luck if you enjoy the feel of summer. That could include New York City and Boston to Chicago, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Seattle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement -A Large Area Can Expect A Typical June: Most other locations from the Plains to the South, Ohio Valley and southern mid-Atlantic are favored to be near to slightly above average. For context, you can see what June's usual average highs are like at the bottom of this article. -Upside-Down Pattern A Harbinger Of Summer: The expected mid-June transition to a warm-north, cooler-south pattern aligns with the general summer forecast, and we expect this pattern to be the dominant one through August, said Todd Crawford, Vice President of Meteorology at Atmospheric G2 -Keep In Mind This Is An Overall Monthly Trend: For example, a chunk of the West will see near to cooler-than-average temperatures as June begins, but the 30 combined days in the month are expected to finish above average as a whole. Precipitation Highlights -Wet End To Spring Carries Into June: Much of the Southeast has been soaked by above-average rainfall in May, including Atlanta, Jackson, Mississippi, and Columbia, South Carolina. This is the same general region where rainfall in June has the best shot at winding up above average. It also explains why temperatures in the region could be held in check to near average, although it will still be plenty humid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement -Pacific Northwest Dryness Continues: Moderate drought conditions are ongoing in western parts of Washington and northwest Oregon, including Seattle and Portland. While the Northwest region kicks off its usual drier summer months in June, the outlook calls for it to be even drier than usual, which could worsen or expand drought. What June Highs Usually Look Like -Northeast, Midwest: Average highs are in the 70s and 80s for much of these regions. The expectation of a hotter-than-average June might mean a few more 80s and 90s this year for areas from Minnesota to the Great Lakes and New England. -South: 80s and 90s are commonplace in summers first month, as well as plenty of humidity. Locations, where a wet June is forecast, might skew pretty close to these averages through the month. -West: Geography plays a big role here, with average highs ranging from the 60s and 70s in higher elevations and the Pacific Northwest to the 90s and 100s in the Desert Southwest. Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with weather.com for nearly 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s. The swing from spring to summer is what June is known for, and with that comes some weather changes as the atmosphere reacts to increasing warmth just like we do by modifying our clothing selections. While hurricane season's start comes to mind first when talking about June, there are four other changes we also watch for in the month: 1. Usually A Slow Beginning To Hurricane Season Big Picture: June 1 marks the start of the six-month-long hurricane season, though it's usually a slower month compared to August, September and early October. The southeastern U.S. coast, the Gulf and the northwestern Caribbean Sea are typical breeding grounds for tropical storms in June. Since that's close to land, it increases the chance of impacts along the Gulf and Southeast coasts of the U.S. when a storm forms. Deeper Dive: On average in the Atlantic Basin, one named storm forms every one to two years in June and a hurricane develops about once every five years. Recent Junes have proven to be more active, with two named storms forming in four of the last five Junes. Continental U.S. hurricane landfalls in the month are rare with only four since 1950 and the last one in 1986 (Bonnie), however tropical storms have proven to be impactful numerous times. (MORE: June - Hurricane Season's Opening Act) 2. Greatest Tornado Threat Area Shifts Big Picture: Tornadoes can happen just about anywhere in the Lower 48 this month, given the widespread warmth and humidity. However, the area at greater risk of tornadoes in June stretches from the Plains into the upper Midwest and Great Lakes. In the Southeast, June tornadoes tend to be fewer compared to earlier in spring since the jet stream shifts to the north. Deeper Dive: June tallied up an average of 186 tornadoes each year between 2004 and 2023, the 3rd most of any month behind only May and April. It's not just about tornadoes, as peak hail activity also occurs in June, especially in the Plains, according to some studies. Not only that, but damaging wind gusts are also common, sometimes occurring in what's called a derecho, which contributes to the widespread destruction of trees, power lines and sometimes structures. 3. Flash Flooding And Lightning Dangers Increase Big Picture: Drenching thunderstorms and June, as well as the rest of summer, go hand-in-hand. Heavy rainfall rates of an inch per hour or more can rapidly trigger flash flooding anywhere from the South to the Midwest and Northeast. Not only that, more of us are outside this time of year, which increases the odds of lightning being a danger for activities like going to the beach or participating in sports. Deeper Dive: More water vapor can exist in warmer air this time of year, which increases the rainfall potential for both individual thunderstorms and larger-scale complexes of storms in many parts of the country. Not only that, the jet stream slows and moves north, which causes storms to move slower, increasing their rainfall potential. And of course, the early part of hurricane season can introduce the possibility of flooding from tropical storms. (MORE: 5 Reasons Its The Most Dangerous Time For Flash Flooding) 4. A Growing Chance Of Heat Waves Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Big Picture: Temperatures continue to rise toward their July peak in much of the U.S., which means the chance of multiday heat waves increases. Average highs are in the 70s and 80s for much of the Northeast and Midwest regions. 80s and 90s are commonplace in summers first month across the South, as well as plenty of humidity. Geography plays a big role in the West, with average highs ranging from the 60s and 70s in higher elevations and the Pacific Northwest to the 90s and 100s in the Desert Southwest. Deeper Dive: Average highs in the month jump considerably from start to finish, as these examples illustrate: New York City: 75 degrees June 1 84 degrees June 30 | Chicago: 76 degrees June 1 84 degrees June 30 | Dallas: 89 degrees June 1 94 degrees on June 30 | Denver: 78 degrees June 1 88 degrees June 30 | Phoenix: 100 degrees June 1 107 degrees on June 30 5. June's Gloomy Spot Big Picture: It's not all sunshine, storms and heat everywhere in the U.S. during June. Coastal California is prone to what's called "June gloom", which is a mixture of fog and low clouds that often make an appearance in the morning. These clouds often clear by early afternoon as heating from the sun arrives, but sometimes they can be stubborn to leave and last deep into the day, especially at beaches. Deeper Dive: Known as the marine layer, its formation is driven by cold, more humid air coming from the chilly ocean waters that can be pushed onshore due to a pressure difference between high pressure off the California coast and a thermal low-pressure system that develops inland due to intense heating. Low clouds form and are pushed inland into places like Los Angeles and San Diego. Sometimes the low clouds can be deep enough to produce drizzle or light rain showers. Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with weather.com for nearly 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s. JUNIATA COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) A Juniata County church took to social media Friday for help in identifying two vandals. Good News Lutheran Brethren Church, located at 32868 Route 35 N in McAlisterville, posted on Facebook, writing that two people broke into the church, vandalized it, and stole from it. It happened between 11:45 p.m. and 1 a.m. overnight. The alleged culprits appeared to have arrived and then left on bicycles, the church wrote. The church also posted a picture of the suspects. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The church wrote that State Police are investigating. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now abc27 Evening Newsletter If anyone knows anything, the church is asking for them to give a call at 717-463-4030 or you can contact them online through their 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 ABC27. The commemorative conference on the 120th anniversary of Edgar Snow's Birth and the academic symposium on establishing a more effective international communication system is held in Beijing, capital of China, May 30, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua) BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A commemorative conference on the 120th anniversary of U.S. journalist Edgar Snow's birth was held on Friday at Peking University in Beijing. Snow was born in 1905 to an ordinary farming family in Missouri. In 1936, at a time when China was embroiled in internal conflict and faced external aggression, Snow made his way to the remote headquarters of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, where he conducted extensive interviews with top Party leaders, including late Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Snow's firsthand reporting culminated in "Red Star Over China," which was published a year later and provided not only the West but also China with a rare and authentic account of the Red Army, its leadership and its steadfast commitment to improving the lives of the Chinese people. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Snow visited the country three times and was warmly received by its top leaders. He remained concerned about China following his visits, firmly supported the just cause of the Chinese people, and actively promoted friendly relations between China and the United States. Speaking at the conference's opening ceremony, Fu Hua, president of Xinhua News Agency, said that Snow was a sincere friend of the Chinese people, an envoy for China-U.S. relations, and a revered journalist. "Through his cross-border, cross-cultural journalistic practice, Snow provided the world on both sides of the Pacific with an accurate, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China," Fu said. "The values contained in Snow's work -- honesty, curiosity, courage in the face of political pressure -- are ones that must be reaffirmed, renewed, even amplified to truly honor his memory," said Samuel Colin Maclean, a relative of Snow and a representative of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. "Snow believed communication -- unsentimental, unfiltered -- was the only way to bridge the gap between the two countries and to prevent unnecessary conflict," Maclean noted. As this year marks the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, Sun Hua, director of Peking University's China Center for Edgar Snow Studies (CCESS), noted that "Red Star Over China" played a crucial role in introducing the CPC's idea of forming a united front against Japanese aggression. Sun explained that as a result of Snow's work, U.S. groups, including military observers, traveled to northern Shaanxi to support China's anti-fascist efforts. "The book not only helped unite the Chinese people but also played a significant role in rallying international support, including support from the United States and Britain." "Let us carry forward Snow's spirit, bridging not only geographical distance but also divides in ideologies and worldviews, while promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning between nations and regions," Fu said. Co-organized by Peking University and the Xinhua Institute, the event was attended by Snow's relatives and close friends, as well as seasoned journalists and specialists on Edgar Snow studies and international communication. During the event, guests explored how China can focus on building a more effective international communication system, centering on topics such as "Presenting the real China to the World" and "Talent development & the legacy of Edgar Snow's spirit." Nancy Hill, president emeritus of the Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation, addresses the opening ceremony of the commemorative conference on the 120th anniversary of Edgar Snow's Birth and the academic symposium on establishing a more effective international communication system in Beijing, capital of China, May 30, 2025. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong) BELVIDERE, Ill. (WTVO) Alize Smith, 28, has been found guilty of first-degree murder for killing Andrew Hintt and his two sons, Benjamin, 7, and Sebastian, 5, in their Belvidere home in 2021. Their bodies were found on Dec. 19, 2021, inside their Union Avenue Home. Hintt was found in the living room, and the two boys in the master bedroom, all three shot in the head. According to prosecutors, Smith and Hintt were involved in selling marijuana, and Smith owed the other $10,000 at the time Hintt and his boys were killed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Smith was seen exiting their home that same day, just after noon, taking the Ring doorbell off the door. Prosecutors said that a person was seen driving Hintts stolen truck on the Chicago tollway. The next day, Smith went to meet a friend in Michigan, who later turned him in and called the police. He was arrested on December 21, 2021. Smith, of Huntley, was charged with the crime in January 2022. A seven day trial concluded this week in Boone County, with a jury finding Smith guilty on three counts of murder. He faces a mandatory life sentence in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for July 10th, 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Pilot-optional F-35 Joint Strike Fighters could be coming in the future as Lockheed Martin looks for ways to ensure the jets remain relevant for decades to come. Technology from the companys unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Air Forces Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) sixth-generation fighter competition, along with new coatings and other modifications, could also go into what it has previously called a Ferrari or NASCAR upgrade to the F-35s core chassis. The feasibility of this proposal, as well as the huge claim that it could produce a jet with 80 percent of the capability of a sixth-generation design at 50 percent of the cost, remains very much in question. In the meantime, Lockheed Martin says overall demand for the F-35 remains strong and that new customers, potentially including Saudi Arabia and India, could be on the horizon. US Air Force F-35As. USAF Speaking at Bernsteins Strategic Decisions Conference yesterday, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said he thinks that, in the space of two to three years, we could have a meaningful increase in capability for the F-35 by porting some of the NGAD technologies over. In March, the Air Force announced that Boeing had won the NGAD combat jet competition with a design now designated the F-47. The two-to-three-year timeline relates to first flight and integration, Taiclet added, noting that any upgrades would have to be phased into production gradually because you cannot introduce too much new equipment or too much new software at once, necessarily without interrupting the production flow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for the kinds of technologies being considered, Taiclet specifically mentioned new infrared and radar coatings applied on the surface of the aircraft. The implication here is that sixth-generation stealth coatings developed under the NGAD program could be applied to the existing F-35 airframe for an improvement in its low-observable qualities, and likely also its maintainability. The U.S. military has also been observed conducting secretive tests of new mirror-like coatings on F-35s, as well as F-22 Raptor and F-117 Nighthawk stealth jets, in recent years. A US Navy F-35C test jet with a mirror-like coating. USN Taiclet also raised the possibility of more invasive design changes that would address parts of the F-35s core structure. There have been some adjustments or learnings, Ill say, on outer mold line, which is the actual shape of the aircraft itself, especially with regard to engine inlets and outflow nozzles that we might be able to again improve on the F-35 without redesigning it, the Lockheed Martin CEO explained. Engine intakes and exhausts are some of the most sensitive areas for low-observable (stealthy) aircraft. The F-35s rear aspect radar signature is a known weak spot of the design, and improvements here would clearly be welcome, especially as enemy air defenses become more potent. A view of a US Air Force F-35A from the rear. USAF Theres also electronic warfare improvements, networking improvements, and autonomy, Taiclet added. Of these, autonomy is judged as being really critical and would be the factor that could make the F-35 pilot optional. Since a lot of the work on autonomy has already been done, Taiclet thinks that a pilot-optional version of the F-35 could become a reality over a relatively modest timeframe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lockheed Martins chief executive did not elaborate on what might be required, technically, to add pilot-optional capability to the F-35, but it does seem readily feasible given the aircrafts digitized, open architecture avionics and communications suite. At the same time, the benefits that a pilot-optional F-35 might offer would seem to be of debatable value. The F-35 is also already set to get major electronic warfare enhancements and more as part of the forthcoming Block 4 upgrade package, which we will come back to later on. Finally, in terms of bringing NGAD technologies into the F-35, Taiclet mentioned the possibility of introducing unspecified weapons that have been developed, or which are in development, for the sixth-generation fighter. US Marines load munitions onto an F-35B during an exercise. USMC Lance Cpl. Fabian Ortiz With some or all of these new technologies, Lockheed Martin sees the opportunity to transform the F-35 into what Taiclet described as a more capable fifth-gen-plus version of the Joint Strike Fighter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The idea of a reworked F-35 is something that Taiclet had raised back in April, soon after Boeing was selected as the winner of the NGAD crewed fighter competition, with its F-47. At the time, he had discussed a Ferrari or NASCAR upgrade for the F-35, but did not provide concrete details of what that might entail. He did, however, note a goal of offering 80-percent of the capability of the NGAD crewed fighter capability at just half the cost. Yesterday, Taiclet reiterated the 80 percent/50 percent target, which remains highly ambitious. Thats a set of targets that were going after as a company, he said. Were recommending consideration of some of those ideas to the U.S. government right now. Absent from Taiclets conversation yesterday was the so-called F-55, a purported development of the F-35 that U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned while talking to the press earlier this month. Trump described the F-55 as a twin-engined F-35 and also discussed an F-22 Super that would be an upgraded version of the Raptor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At yesterdays Strategic Decisions Conference, Lockheed Martins Taiclet did say that a similarly ambitious upgrade effort to the one described for the F-35 could be applied to the F-22. The F-22 fleet is already set to receive a number of important upgrades in the coming years, including a new Infrared Defensive System (IRDS), additional sensor improvements, and stealthy drop tanks. Work to modernize the Raptors had already been feeding into the NGAD program. A pair of F-22s assigned to the 411th Flight Test Squadron, along with Boeings 757 Flying Test Bed aircraft, better known as The Catfish, fly together in 2024. USAF Chase Kohler Its also worth noting that Trump had raised the prospect of an F-55 while on a trip to the Persian Gulf region, raising the question about whether it might have been tied to interest from the countries in the region. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabian officials had again met with their American counterparts about the possibility of purchasing F-35s. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have reportedly sought to buy Joint Strike Fighters in the past, as well. Concerns about the erosion of Israels so-called qualitative military edge and operational security issues are reported to have hampered progress on such sales in the past. The Israeli Air Force is currently the only F-35 operator in the Middle East. Its also interesting to note here that Qatar and Saudi Arabia both played significant roles in Boeings development of versions of the Advanced Eagle, which the U.S. Air Force is now benefiting from with its F-15EX Eagle II. Israeli F-35Is. Israeli Air Force Now, in air superiority, theres a discussion about a path to fifth generation in Saudi Arabia, Taiclet said yesterday. Therell be multiple steps in that. It could take some time, but I think if we can work with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE on really bolstering their air superiority capabilities and their integrated air and defense capabilities there will be really significant opportunity for the company along those lines, and a few others too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not entirely clear from Taiclets remarks here if he means there might also be a pathway emerging for potential fifth-generation fighter sales to Qatar and the UAE, as well as Saudi Arabia. New air superiority capabilities and their integrated air and defense capabilities could include sales of advanced F-16s, which are already heading to the region for the Royal Bahraini Air Force, as well as ground-based air and missile defense systems that Lockheed Martin produces. Lockheed Martin has already found significant export opportunities in the Middle East for its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system and the PAC-3 series of interceptors for the Patriot surface-to-air missile system. An advanced Block 70 F-16D for Bahrain seen during a test flight. USAF Taiclet also talked about the potential for F-35 sales to India and re-raised the possibility of selling that country a particularly advanced F-16 derivative called the F-21. Though hard details remain elusive, the Indian Air Force looks to have lost at least some number of fourth-generation fighters in the course of a brief, but intense conflict with Pakistan earlier this month that also put the spotlight on Chinese fighter exports. I think the F-16 also has strong legs, if you will, and more [and] increasing interest as we go forward from a number of countries that arent quite ready for F-35, Taiclet said. There are some countries that could see F-21 or F-16, for India, for example, as a stepping stone to F-35. Weve already started with the wing section. So, F-16 wings are co-produced in India for export to other nations, the Lockheed Martin CEO added. Weve made commitments to literally the highest level of the Indian government, that should they choose F-21, which is the modernized version of the F-16, that we would initiate production as feasible in India for final assembly of the aircraft, as well as the wings. A rendering of the F-21 concept in Indian Air Force markings. Lockheed Martin Circling back to the F-35, in general, Taiclet also talked yesterday about the ongoing issues with that program. Work on the aforementioned Block 4 package, and the Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) improvements that the jets have to receive first, continues to face delays. Taiclet blamed issues tied to an upgrade to the Distributed Aperture System (DAS), which is one part of Block 4, as being a major factor. You can read more about the existing DAS, and the threat warning and general situational awareness capabilities it offers, here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TR-3 is a technology refreshment, a technology upgrade, from the prior F-35 core processor, which is basically the onboard server computer; a data storage unit, which is much more robust and can hold and process a lot more information; and then a pilot display generator that is the next generation, is more sophisticated, more capable, Taiclet explained. Then there is a software package, or firmware package, really, that integrates the core processor server, the data storage unit and the display, display generator, into the aircraft itself. The hardware is complete. Its being produced at scale at L3Harris. The software integration with the aircraft is also complete, and so TR-3 has met its completion milestones. Whats going on now is that aircraft are being run through the factory with TR-3, plus the first hardware component, or one of the initial hardware components, of the Block 4 upgrade to the aircraft hardware, he continued. That piece of equipment is called a Distributed Aperture System, which is six apertures or antennas located around the aircraft that provide lots of sensing capabilities. The holdup now is that the sensor set a new piece of hardware and its own software and its own firmware has to now integrate with the TR-3 aircraft, and that is a little bit behind schedule, he added. Once that catches up, we think by the end of this year, then all those aircraft that have been delivered will be combat-capable. The ongoing struggles with Block 4 and TR-3 do raise further questions about the fifth-generation-plus F-35 proposal, which involves relatively drastic changes to the aircraft beyond what is being worked on now, as well as the 80 percent/50 percent claim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are also ongoing supply chain and other sustainment problems that present serious cost growth concerns for current and future operators, something TWZ has explored in detail in the past. Our first priority is the health of the F-35 program. What we suggested is longer-term production and sustainment agreements where we could stabilize the supply chain, get some costs down, and make sure that we can deliver on time and on schedule more reliably, according to Taiclet. It remains to be seen whether a fifth-generation-plus variant or derivative of the F-35 ultimately materializes. At the same time, Lockheed Martin at least working toward that end could provide the U.S. military a hedge against delays or other issues in the continued development of the F-47. The future outlook for the U.S. Navys F/A-XX next-generation stealth fighter is currently murky, as well. The F-35 presents an in-production design that can be leveraged, potentially even just in name. As a comparative example, the Navy first fielded the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, a significantly different aircraft from preceding F/A-18 Hornet variants, after the cancellation of far more advanced, expensive, and entirely new designs. Regardless, Lockheed Martin looks committed to seeing how far it can push the bounds of the design, including possibly removing the pilot from the equation, as it pursues new export opportunities. Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com Report child sexual assault material to law enforcement by contacting the ICAC Tip Line at (801) 281-1211 or your local law enforcement agency. KANAB, Utah (ABC4) A registered sex offender in Kanab has been arrested after a cyber tip revealed he possessed Child Sexual Assault Material (CSAM). Law enforcement says that he poses a risk to minors in the community due to what was found at his home. Tyi Kay McKinlay, 43, has been arrested and faces 50 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one misdemeanor count of possession of a child sex doll. He was previously convicted of sexual abuse of a child in 2004 and was placed on the sex offender registry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to documents, on May 1, an officer with the Kane County Sheriffs Office received a case assignment from the Utah Attorney Generals Office Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. A CyberTipline report from Google reported that more than 100 files of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) were associated with a Gmail account. Sex offender arrested for attempting to meet child in Lehi, documents say On May 12, the officer received another case assignment, this time with 1,668 files of CSAM associated with the Gmail account. The name on the account was McKinlays, and the date of birth matched his. An IP geolocation also matched McKinlay. The officer confirmed that at least 50 files of CSAM were on McKinlays cell phone. On May 28, a search warrant for McKinlays vehicle, person, and house in Kanab revealed he had several disturbing possessions. According to the officer, McKinlay had photos of local, underage females and a jar containing a female childs underwear. He was also in possession of a doll depicting an underage female child. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McKinlay was booked into the Kane County Jail and is currently being held without bail due to the risk officers believe he poses to the community. 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. Five lawsuit plaintiffs, three women and two physicians from Lawrence, are part of a constitutional challenge of a Kansas law nullifying the end-of-life medical care decisions of pregnant women. The suit was filed Thursday in Douglas County District Court. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA Two physicians and three women are plaintiffs in a Kansas lawsuit challenging constitutionality of a state law invalidating advance medical directives outlining end-of-life treatment for pregnant patients. The groups lawsuit seeks to prohibit enforcement of a Kansas statute interfering with health care decisions outlined in living wills based exclusively on an individuals pregnancy status. Kansas is among states permitting state interference in advance directives for pregnant patients, regardless of the gestational age of a fetus, when a person was incapacitated or terminally ill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Issues surrounding end-of-life state law recently took on urgency as a brain-dead pregnant Georgia woman was placed on life support in deference to that states abortion ban. Kansas patient plaintiffs Emma Vernon, Abigail Ottaway and Laura Stratton as well as Kansas physician plaintiffs Michele Bennett and Lynley Holman argued in the Douglas County District Court complaint filed Thursday the Kansas law violated rights of personal autonomy, privacy, equal treatment and freedom of speech under the Kansas Constitutions Bill of Rights by disregarding clearly articulated end-of-life choices of pregnant people. Because Im currently pregnant, I dont get the peace of mind a living will is meant to provide, said Vernon, a Lawrence resident who is pregnant. I shouldnt have to fear that my pregnancy could cost me my dignity and autonomy. Vernon said she outlined in a living will the medical care she would want if faced with a life-threatening condition, but Kansas law meant she wouldnt have control over her end-of-life care while pregnant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am no less capable of planning my medical care simply because I am pregnant. I know what is best for me, she said. Many states established a boundary for medical directives of pregnant individuals no longer capable of participating in end-of-life care in terms of the viability of a fetus. Kansas statute invalidated decision-making authority of pregnant women regardless of gestational development of a fetus. Holman, a Lawrence physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, said responsibilities of health care professionals should be centered on honoring patients autonomy and privacy. When a law compels me to act against my patients clearly expressed decisions, it not only undermines the trust at the heart of the patient-provider relationship, but also threatens the ethical foundation of medical care, Holman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Defendants in the Kansas lawsuit are Kris Kobach, the state attorney general; Richard Bradbury, president of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts; and Dakota Loomis, district attorney in Douglas County. The lawsuit seeks to prevent Kobach and Bradbury from enforcing state law nullifying directives of pregnant women. The case was filed by attorneys with Compassion & Choices, a Colorado nonprofit working to improve patient autonomy at the end of life; If/When/How, a California reproductive rights legal nonprofit; and the Topeka law firm of Irigonegaray & Revenaugh. Attorney Pedro Irigonegaray said Kansans valued individual rights and personal freedoms, but the states pregnancy exclusion betrays those values by denying pregnant people the right to control their own medical decisions. Our plaintiffs are simply asking for the same fundamental rights the Kansas Constitution guarantees to all Kansans, said Jess Pezley, senior staff attorney at Compassion & Choices. Categorically stripping individuals of their right to make deeply personal end-of-life decisions because they are pregnant is not only offensive, its fundamentally at odds with the values enshrined in the Kansas Constitution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit says Kansas law unjustly, discriminatorily and categorically disregards the clearly expressed end-of-life decisions of pregnant women. The women plaintiffs asked the district court to affirm that the protections guaranteed by the Kansas Constitution apply equally to them and ensure that their most personal end-of-life decisions will be respected regardless of their pregnancy status. In addition, the petition says the physician plaintiffs were deeply committed to the foundational medical principle that patients have a fundamental right to determine what treatment they receive, and that providing treatment without a patients informed consent violates both medical ethics and the law. Yet, Kansas law compels them to disregard their patients clearly expressed end-of-life decisions, forcing them to provide their pregnant patients with a lower standard of care than any of their other patients receive, the petition said. It demands this diminished care without offering any clarity on what end-of-life treatment they are required to provide leaving them to guess at what the law expects while exposing them to civil, criminal and professional consequences for getting it wrong. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Kansas City police are asking for the publics help locating a 27-year-old woman who was last seen in April. Britany Phillips was last seen in the area of Barry Road and Northwest Prairie View Road in the Northland around 8:30 p.m. on April 25, according to police. Third suspect arrested in connection with death of Kansas City sports reporter Phillips is described as a white woman with brown and blonde hair. She has blue eyes and is about 5-feet tall, weighing around 100 pounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was last seen wearing a black shirt, black leggings and black shoes. Britany Phillips was last seen April 25, 2025 near Barry Road and Northwest Prairie View Road in Kansas City, Missouri. Family members are concerned about her health and wellbeing, police said. Police said she is known to frequent Barry Road between North Congress Avenue and North Oak Trafficway. Police initially shared information about Phillips disappearance on May 16. In an update on Friday, police were looking for additional help finding Phillips. Investigators believe someone knows of her whereabouts, police said. The police department is asking for tips from anyone who may have information. Those people are asked to call the KCPD Missing Persons Unit at 816-234-5043 or call 911. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Linda Manley, left, and Sarah Ruiz attended the House Democrats "fight back" rally Thursday in Topeka. (Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA Kansas House Democrats opened their fight back tour Thursday night in the capital city, drawing more than 220 people to sit through rain showers and talk about the importance of strengthening their partys voice in upcoming elections. Theres a lot to lose, so we have a lot to fight for, said Carla Gardner, of Lawrence, as she waited in line to get into the event. Its sad that in 2025 we feel we have to fight back. But a lot of, well, women, potentially, could lose, the LGBTQ+ community, health care, veterans there are just so many groups, people of color, just all the marginalized groups, that stand to lose a lot more. We have to fight back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Linda Manley and Sarah Ruiz, both of Topeka, said they attended the rally because they feel the need to get involved more at the local level after watching national news. Why did they come listen to Democrats in the rain? The chaos in the world and trying to find out what we can do, Ruiz said. Loss of our Constitution, loss of our courts, checks and balances I know it needs to start locally, Manley added. Their words were echoed by many of the House Democrats in attendance, as well as Gov. Laura Kelly, who spoke briefly at the event. This was exactly the right response to what happened in November of 2024, in this last legislative session, she said. We need to be out there now and forever, leading up to the August 2026 primary when, in addition to electing candidates, we also have to make sure that we defeat that amendment to elect our Supreme Court justices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kelly referred to a proposed constitutional amendment that would put Kansas Supreme Court justices on the ballot, instead of the governor appointing one of three finalists selected by a nonpartisan review panel. I dont know about you, but I have no interest in being like Wisconsin on this where there are millions and millions of dollars coming into that state to sway the one group that is supposed to be impartial and not motivated by political leanings, the governor said. Kelly encouraged everyone in attendance to learn to speak Republican and talk to people throughout the state. Talk about the issues that matter to people, and talk about electing a person, not a party, she said. Representatives (from left) John Alcala, Alexis Simmons, Kirk Haskins and Brandon Woodard took part in a panel in Topeka Thursday to kick off the House Democrats fight back tour. The panel was moderated by Jacquie Lightcap. (Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector) Rep. Susan Ruiz, before the event started, emphasized that same message. The Shawnee Democrat said anyone paying attention to what happened in the Legislature during the recent session should be concerned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A more collaborative relationship is needed in the Statehouse to push forward things Kansans care about, she said. I want to see more Democrats running and winning so that we can have a fighting chance, she said, referring to the Republicans supermajority. But it would be nice to see some moderate Republicans also win because we can band together. Theres a lot of things that we can do together that would be good for the majority of the people in the state, and not the Koch brothers of the world. Rep. Kirk Haskins, a Topeka Democrat, said before speaking at the event that the fight back tour, which will go to at least 11 more stops throughout the state, is important to get messaging out for the Democrats. Theres a lot of Kansans that have had their opinion not heard, he said. For example, 80% of Kansans want us to see some sort of expansion of Medicaid, but yet it doesnt come up. We also feel like its time for the House Democrats to lead the opportunity for them to be heard, and so were traveling across with an agenda purpose to share whats happening, but also to learn, not just from Democrats, but from all Kansans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haskins said hes been concerned about how business is being conducted at the Statehouse, and also what is happening at the federal level. Important items are buried in details, for instance. We saw this during the past session many times over, he said. Property tax relief started off as something they campaigned on, but then when it came out, theyre making sure that luxury jets get property tax relief. Rob Fillion, executive director of the Kansas GOP, said the House Democrats are not on a fight back tour. This is the out-of-touch tour, he said by email. Do the legislators not know that people are tired of larger government? Do they not understand that people like lower taxes, secure borders and parental rights? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The gathering drew former elected officials like Joan Wagnon, who served in the House and as Topeka mayor, along with 13 current representatives and senators, Kansas Board of Education members, Topeka Mayor Michael Padilla and others. After Kelly spoke, a panel made up of House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, of Lenexa, and Topeka Reps. Alexis Simmons, John Alcala, and Haskins answered questions from the audience. Those questions focused primarily on what actions people could take to make a difference, as well as concerns about Medicaid cuts and mental health services. The panel encouraged people to contact their legislators, to go to their offices and be heard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im on my soapbox. Settle in, Simmons said, drawing laughs. Yall know how many races in the state of Kansas, in the state Legislature, are won or lost by only double digits? Its crazy. There are so many. We just lost a state senator in Leavenworth he lost by 31 votes. Simmons encouraged people to talk to everyone and tell them to vote all the way down the ballot. Do not vote only for president. Dont vote only for Congress. Vote all the way down, she said. The next fight back tour events will be in Wichita on June 5 and Newton on June 6. Details are on the House Democrats Facebook page. TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNW) Kansas is extending a digital welcome mat to federal workers seeking new opportunities. Governor Laura Kelly announced on Friday the launch of a new web page designed to help displaced federal employees explore job openings and support programs across the state. $1.9 billion CHIPS grant denied for Kansas The talent recruitment website offers job listings, links to employment assistance programs, and access to the State of Kansas job portal. It highlights incentives like the Rural Opportunity Zone program, providing student loan repayment assistance and a 100% state income tax credit in 95 eligible counties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As many federal employees find themselves in need of new opportunities, Im excited to launch a web page that showcases all the great career opportunities Kansas has to offer, Kelly said in a statement. With highly rated schools, low cost of living, and a competitive housing market, our state is ready to welcome new employees and their families with open arms. The initiative aims to attract talent back to Kansas and reverse out-migration, focusing on boomerangsformer residents considering a return. The job resource page is now live at lovekansas.org. 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. 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. A Kansas state law that revokes a persons decisions about end-of-life care if they are pregnant is now being challenged in court. Three women, one of whom is currently pregnant, and two doctors filed a lawsuit in Kansas over a clause in the states Natural Death Act that denies people who are pregnant with the ability to accept or refuse health care if they become incapacitated or terminally ill. The plaintiffs argue that the clause violates their rights to liberty and personal autonomy and infringes their right to privacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emma Vernon, the plaintiff who is currently pregnant, wrote an advance health care directive outlining the care she would like to receive if she is diagnosed with a terminal condition. Vernon said she would like to only accept life-sustaining treatment if there is a reasonable medical certainty that her child would reach full term and be born with a meaningful prospect of sustained life and without health conditions that would impair its quality of life, according to the lawsuit. But her directive has not been given the same deference the law affords to others who complete directives because of the Pregnancy Exclusion, the lawsuit argues. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobachs (R) office did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill about the lawsuit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All states have laws that give people the right to craft advance directives on the health care they would like to receive if they become unable to make their own health decisions. And many of those laws have caveats excluding pregnant people, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the lawsuits filing. Kansas is one of nine states with a law that invalidates an advanced directive of a pregnant patient regardless of if the fetus can survive, according to Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit organization that advocates for end-of-life care. The doctors who joined the lawsuit filed Thursday say the law forces them to provide pregnant patients with a lower standard of care than other patients and opens them up to civil and criminal lawsuits and professional penalties. Compassion & Choices, along with the abortion and reproductive rights lawyer group If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice and the law firm Irigonegaray & Revenaugh, filed the lawsuit on behalf of all five plaintiffs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement End-of-life care laws have come under scrutiny recently amid reports of a brain-dead pregnant woman in Georgia whose family says doctors are keeping on life support until her baby can be delivered to abide by the states abortion ban. 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. Karen Reads defense called its first witness on Friday, marking a new phase in her retrial in the killing of John OKeefe, her off-duty Boston police officer boyfriend whose body was found buried in the snow outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022. Read whose first trial ended with a hung jury has already promised a more robust case than the one her attorneys put on last year, when they called six witnesses for less than two full days of testimony. Their case this time is broader and deeper, Read told reporters last week, saying it will include more witnesses and last at least a week. Prosecutors have accused Read of putting her Lexus SUV in reverse and striking OKeefe with her vehicle just after midnight on January 29, 2022, after the couple went out with drinking with friends who were gathering for an after party at a home on Fairview Road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Reads defense argues she has been framed by other off-duty law enforcement who were inside that home, alleging they killed OKeefe and conspired to frame her. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Reads defense teams first witness, accident reconstruction expert Matthew DiSogra, testified Friday that OKeefes last recorded interaction with his phone its manual locking was more likely to have happened after Reads vehicle stopped going in reverse in front of the home at 34 Fairview. The manual phone lock happening after the trigger event of the Lexus goes against the theory previously laid out by the Commonwealth, with prosecutors claiming OKeefes phone was locked right at the time Read began driving in reverse which ended with her sideswiping OKeefe with her vehicle. Court adjourned Friday afternoon, with testimony scheduled to resume on Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A key question is whether Read will take the stand. She did not testify in the first trial. But jurors in her retrial have already heard from the defendant: Throughout their case, prosecutors led by special prosecutor Hank Brennan have played numerous clips taken from interviews Read gave reporters or documentary film crews, working to use her statements against her. This is my version of testifying. Doing this film is my testimony, she said in Investigation Discoverys A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) I want to say what happened, she added, exactly as it happened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The last thing played for the jury by the prosecution before it rested its case Thursday was a clip from the documentary showing Read telling the film crew her attorney informed her, she may have some element of culpability. I thought could I have run over him? Could he have tried to get me as I was leaving, and I didnt know it? The music was blasting, it was snowing, I had the wipers going, the heater blasting. Did he come and hit the back of my car, and I hit him in the knee, and hes drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something? Read says in the clip. Read then talks about hiring her attorney, David Yannetti, and asking him those questions. I said David what if what if I ran his foot over? Or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out? and David said, Then you have some element of culpability. Prosecutors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rested their case in chief on Thursday after calling 38 witnesses over more than 20 days of testimony, including the victims friends and family; members of state and local law enforcement who played a role in the investigation; and experts who analyzed a raft of digital and physical forensic evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Notably absent from the prosecutions case was Michael Proctor, the former Massachusetts State Trooper who led the investigation into OKeefes death but was dishonorably discharged from the agency earlier this year for sexist and offensive text messages he sent about the suspect. Proctor apologized for the texts during his testimony in the first trial, but Reads defense attorneys used them to paint a picture of a flawed and biased investigation a strategy they have so far echoed in the retrial. Proctor is included on the defenses list of prospective witnesses, but whether he will testify again remains to be seen. This story has been updated with additional information. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com CANBERRA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Health Minister has said that the federal government has "no plan" to introduce a sugar tax despite a poll finding strong support for the proposal. Mark Butler said on Friday that the government has a "range of measures" under consideration to reduce rising obesity rates but that it would focus on education rather than taxation. "Obesity is really one of the big public health challenges we face today, and it's going to grow into the future," he told Seven Network television. "We're focused more on educating shoppers with good front-of-pack labeling about the things they're thinking about buying in the supermarket. There is no plan in our government for a sugar tax." Health NGOs have for several years repeatedly called for Australia to introduce a new tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to tackle the obesity "crisis". In a pre-budget submission to the government in March, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said that obesity has overtaken tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death in Australia and recommended a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages at a rate of 50 cents per 100 grams of sugar. A survey published by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) on Wednesday found that 56 percent of Australians support a tax on beverages high in added sugar. The same survey found that 83 percent of Australians support clear advisory labels disclosing added sugar content and 73 percent support banning marketing sugary drinks to children. AMA President Danielle McMullen said in March that Australia's "obesity crisis" will cost the country's health system 38 billion Australian dollars (24.5 billion U.S. dollars) over the next four years "if nothing is done". A 2024 report from the government agency the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare said that, as of 2022, 66 percent of Australian adults and 26 percent of children and adolescents aged 2-17 were overweight or obese. Republican strategist Karl Rove said in a Wednesday opinion piece that President Trumps tariff rhetoric could cost the GOP its majorities in Congress. In the Wall Street Journal piece, Rove said the Trump administrations messaging around trade is a muddled mess. Republicans should hope the president really believes in reciprocitythe policy that if countries lower their tariffs, well lower ours. He should have confidence that America can compete if the playing field is level, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, a federal court ruled that an emergency law did not give Trump unilateral authority to impose tariffs on close to every country, barring a series of tariff announcements going back to earlier this year. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said judges on the court brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump after the ruling. A federal appeals court later lifted the first ruling on Thursday, however, a separate federal court on the same day blocked the majority of the presidents tariffs. Trumps tariff rhetoric in the first few months of his second term has shaken markets, increased uncertainty about the economy and resulted in raised economic anxiety. The presidents trade policy has also strained relationships with longtime American allies like the European Union and Canada. Unless reciprocity prevails, the presidents chaotic trade talk will badly damage Republicans in the midterms. And if the House or Senate flips, the president will find it much harder to advance his priorities in his final two years, Rove said in his Journal piece. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Voters wont blame foreign countries for higher prices or fewer goods. Theyll blame Donald Trump and his Republican Party, he added. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment. 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. Katie Miller has taken a new job that's grabbing attention. A post she made on X on May 28 is also going viral. Miller worked as a "top adviser" and spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency at the White House, according to CNN. However, with the exodus of Tesla CEO Elon Musk from that department, Miller's own next step is drawing scrutiny. She is now working for Musk, three sources told CNN. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Miller is the wife of the deputy chief of staff in the White House, Stephen Miller. In the X post, Katie Miller shared a screenshot that quoted Musk calling the department "a way of life, like Buddhism." Musk was discussing the "imminent shift" he's making to focus on running his companies, the post says. Most of her other recent post shares are focused on Musk. Stephen Miller hasn't addressed his wife's job change on his X page. Katie Miller will be working "full time" for the Tesla CEO, CNN reported, with one source telling the network that Katie Miller "has been helping arrange Musks interviews that are unrelated to his time in government." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His interviews recently have included interviews with Ars Technica, The Washington Post, and CBS News, according to CNN. Katie Miller was previously classified as a "special government employee," CNN reported. She has not publicly commented on the job reports. According to The Cut, Katie Miller has held a number of government positions, including working as a vice presidential press secretary. According to The Times of Israel, Stephen Miller and the former Katie Waldman married in 2020. Related: Elon Musk Shows Up With Black Eye to Major Event Related: Elon Musk Just Started a New U.S. City With This Surprising Name Katie Miller Has New Job That's Grabbing Attention, Reports Say first appeared on Men's Journal on May 29, 2025 HONOLULU (KHON2) Just one day after current Kauai Police Chief Todd Raybuck announced his retirement, the Kauai County Police Commission has announced the start to search for his replacement. Kauai police officers ready to move forward as Chief finally announces retirement date The Commission looks to gather community input through an online survey designed to collect opinions regarding the traits and qualities the next Chief should possess. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The results of this survey will be used to help guide the selection process. The public can share their input through the Police Chief Desirable Traits survey until June 30. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Current Police Chief Raybuck is set to retire on June 12. Officials said the Commission is excited to move forward with the selection process of a new chief, with officers saying it will allow for a much-needed reboot of the department. Its something weve been talking about for more than a year now is that this department really needs a complete refresh to start back over to build up what its lost over the last couple of years, said Dustin Derollo, SHOPO attorney. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers found issues with his leadership style, which caused a lack of trust among officers. Check out more news from around Hawaii In 2021, he was disciplined for violating the countys policy against discrimination after comments he made at work, and was suspended for three days after he left his gun in a station bathroom. 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. SHAWNEE, Kan. A local longtime foster family is encouraging others to get involved. May is National Foster Care Month as thousands of kids across Kansas and Missouri are in need of homes. They get adopted or get a good foster home, Foster Parent Sheri Rice said. And it can change a kids life. Missouri counties denied state aid for tornado damage She knows firsthand how a supportive foster home can change the trajectory of a childs life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She and her husband, Ron Rice, fostered and adopted their son. They went on to become foster parents to more than 50 kids over the next ten years. Now, this couple has once again opened their home to a 15-year-old who was in a group home. People can think theyre too old, like us, can do it. It isnt as hard as you might think, Sheri Rice said. We dont always agree because Im 75 and shes 15, but at the end of the day, she comes and wants her hug. If the couple hadnt stepped in to foster, Ron Rice said the 15-year-old was at risk of being sent to live in another community. If they wouldve moved her, that would have pretty much been at least not the end, but stopped any frequent visits with her siblings, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are nearly 700 youth in foster care in Johnson and Wyandotte Counties as of April, according to KVC Kansas. KVC is a family of non-profits designed to strengthen families, prevent child abuse and improve mental wellness. They currently support more than 450 Kansas foster parents. In Missouri, the Dept. of Social Services says more than 11,000 youth are in foster care, hoping for a caring place to temporarily call home. It is alarming, Valencia Eason, supervisor with Foster Case Management at KVC Valencia, said. Eason said the goal of foster care is reunification. Support and community is the biggest thing that helps grow and move these families toward reunifying, Eason said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said right now, theres a great need for foster parents, like Sheri Rice. Shes also on the Board of Foster Care Ministry at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shawnee. She said through donations, they provide support to foster families like food, clothing, furniture, even babysitting. Ron Rice said in the last three years, theyve answered more than 300 requests for assistance. That does help to make a difference in a childs life, he said. Sheri Rice said last year, they placed 60 beds in homes. Iconic KCK burger drive-in reopens under new ownership Forty-nine of those beds went to families, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and that meant 49 kids got out of foster care because of St. Joseph Church because they were able to provide a bed for them, Sheri Rice said. So that makes my heart happy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last year, Foster Care Ministries were in seven parishes in the archdiocese. Now, 12 parishes provide support to foster families. Sometimes just having that support will keep a family from stopping foster care or keeps them from taking kids in because they wont have support, Sheri Rice said. And we provide that, we try to help them. If youre interested in fostering or adopting or want to find a way to use your gifts to give back, 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 FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) The Kern County Sheriffs Office is scheduled to host an event for connection and conversation in the Lamont area. The event is scheduled for May 31 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the McDonalds located at 10320 Main Street, according to officials. This is a time to meet deputies who serve the community and share your thoughts and perspective. Lets work together for a safer, stronger neighborhood come out and be part of a meaningful dialogue with your local deputies, an event flyer states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. If he is not careful, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could find himself metaphorically riding alongside Lord Cardigan astride his horse Ronald in a modern day version of the Light Brigades disastrous cavalry charge. For Starmer, it is not the valley of death in Balaclava he faces, which was brilliantly described in Alfred Lord Tennysons poem of tribute to the brigades immortal six hundred men. Instead, this valley of death is the concept of a defence dividend the Labour Party is counting on to remove itself from political life support. Unlike the promised peace dividend arising from the end of the Cold War that was never delivered, Starmers defence dividend is intended to supercharge Britains economic growth, and thus save the Labour Party from an ignominious defeat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2027, the UK will increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of its GDP. This stimulus, the public has been told, will strengthen both the British military and provide hundreds of thousands of jobs to build a new arsenal of democracy. However, as with Cardigan, this charge has more than a few problems that must be fixed if Labour is to retain power. Consider three. This increase in defence spending, according to currently serving senior British military officers, will not sustain the already tiny UK force, most likely bringing further reductions. Along with the submarine nuclear deterrent, the Royal Navy has two aircraft carriers and sixteen surface combatants. The Army is down to about 70,000 soldiers. The Royal Air Force musters 137 Typhoon fighter-bomber jets and with the RN 35 F-35Bs scheduled to be increased to 74 by 2033. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As former UK Chief of Defence General The Lord David Richards notes, the brigade he commanded (about 5-7,000 soldiers) in Germany during the Cold War had more firepower than the British Army has today. So unless a new strategy or real change is imposed, the defence dividend will not improve the state of the UK military. Second, if history matters, more defence spending is unlikely to empower the substantial economic growth Labour needs to become competitive. Under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, large defence spending increases were made. But the economic impact was minor and huge budget deficits accrued. Third, the most important consequence is strategic. Increasing defence spending will do nothing to address the most dangerous threat currently posed by Russia. Devastated by losses in Ukraine, a Russian military attack on Western Europe or even the threat of one should not be the principal strategic focus. That Russia is supposedly stiffening defences on its 1400 mile border with Finland is meant to justify the threat to the West. An example is a small decrepit hospital being upgraded near that border. Almost certainly, the hospital is being renovated to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of wounded Russians as far from public view as possible. Yet, who in power in the West will argue that the likelihood of a Russian attack West is practically zero? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No one can win or would fight a nuclear war. It will take five and probably double that number of years for the Russian military to recover from the thrashing it is taking in Ukraine the US military needed about a decade to rebuild after Vietnam. So what does Vladimir Putin do? The answer is active measures, often mischaracterised as hybrid, asymmetric war or grey zone operations. Active measures include espionage; infrastructure and cyber attacks; mis- and disinformation; psychological operations; assassinations and intimidation; and massive propaganda among other tools from Lenins playbook. Clearly the West is not ignorant of this threat. But complaints are not action. Can some of this defence dividend be used to counter Russias active measures beyond whatever resources are currently allocated? Rather than spend a bit more to defend against active measures, money will go to deterring a distant conventional military threat that may never fully materialise. Active measures cannot be countered with what the defence dividend and spending on traditional forces will buy: ships, aircraft, expensive combat systems and vehicles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And, frankly, when the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) is released, do not count on it addressing this issue. So can this strategic disconnect with Russian active measures be repaired? Putin must be thinking what a geostrategic windfall this is for him. Putin knows that reconstituting his forces takes time. But the US and its European allies are convinced that the Russian army still represents a potent military threat to Nato. Thus, Putin can run virtually unchecked in exploiting active measures. Is anyone in Number 10 listening? Harlan Ullman is UPIs Arnaud de Borchgrave Distinguished Columnist 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. With local units of government still trying to get a handle on the impact of legislation to lower property taxes, the only option may be increasing the local income tax. Members of the Indiana General Assembly approved a bill that will provide a $300 deduction in residential property taxes. The problem facing local units of government and local school systems is a reduction in the amount of revenues being made available through property tax collections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Property taxes historically have provided the majority of funding for government entities and school systems. Every school system and government entity in Madison County will be looking at a reduction in funding through property taxes. As part of the recently passed legislation, local government officials, not including school boards, can increase the local option income tax to a maximum of 2.95%. Currently, the Madison County local option tax rate is 2.25%. For every $100 in earnings the local income tax, if approved at the 2.95% rate, would climb from $2.25 to $2.95. Its not hard to determine the potential impact of taxes owed at the higher rate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The countys tax council, in which Anderson and Madison County have the most votes, can vote to increase the local income tax to the maximum allowed by the Legislature. The only good thing about a local income tax is that everyone earning an income pays the tax regardless of whether they own property. But it doesnt address the potential loss in property tax revenues for local schools. A referendum could be sought to generate more money, but it would be difficult to get approval from local voters. The property tax legislation has also put the proposed South Madison Fire Territory expansion to include Lapel, Ingalls, Markleville and the respective townships in a holding pattern. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Legislature capped the amount of funding, which is threatening the merger of the fire departments. Years ago Indiana capped residential property taxes at 1% of the assessed value. But increased property value assessments have caused property taxes to rise in Madison County, as elsewhere across the state. A higher assessed value means a residential property owner pays more in taxes, but it also indicates a residence is worth more in a possible sale. With most local government units starting work on 2026 budgets, it will be interesting to see whether an effort is made to raise the local income tax rate, or whether there might be significant cuts in operating budgets. Its imperative that officials make every effort to explain to all county residents why there is a need to increase the income tax, if that is the option they choose. Kennesaw City Council members discussed reducing the punishments for cannabis possession to possible community service and a small fine. The cannabis decriminalization discussion was prompted by Councilmember Anthony Gutierrez. He said Georgia as a state was behind the times when it comes to legalization, and Kennesaw should take steps to modernize the approach to how it handles cannabis in the city. If the council drafts legislation based on the talks and passes it, the decriminalization effort would reduce fines from up to $1,000 and a one-year sentence to $35 and/or community service for someone with less than an ounce of cannabis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The version initially proposed would have also reduced the misdemeanor charge. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] During the discussion Tuesday, Gutierrez said decriminalization was needed in relation to the importance of passing a harm reduction ordinance, particularly concerning drug use and improving safety in the city. He was specific that it was not an effort to outright legalize marijuana and cannabis in Kennesaw, but that they had the ability to modify rules to lower punishments. Gutierrez said other municipalities have passed their own guidelines in Georgia, including Atlanta, Athens, South Fulton and others, and he was interested in Kennesaw following the trend. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the nearly hour and a half meeting of the council work session, discussion of cannabis decriminalization took up roughly 50 minutes. Gutierrez said decriminalization would be a way for Kennesaw to step forward. Other members of council agreed the monetary fine of up to $1,000 was high and had questions about how fines and fees for other misdemeanors compared, including giving alcohol to minors and street racing, among others. Councilmember Madelyn Orochena noted that fines for those other charges were much less than the one for simple possession of less than an ounce of cannabis or marijuana, without intent to distribute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Councilmember Pat Ferris asked Gutierrez why he brought up the issue, saying it was inherently political especially this close to an election this fall. Ferris noted that regardless of the monetary fine, even a $35 fine would mean you would have a criminal record for misdemeanor possession, so it was still a criminal charge. Gutierrez said his focus was solely on possession, versus driving under the influence, which he was not open to reducing penalties for. The city council did not come to a consensus on how to move forward, instead moving to open the topic for further discussion at a later date. Gutierrez said he would withdraw the motion for now, with plans to bring it forward again later with more details and specifics in the language. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has voluntarily dropped a challenge to the states abortion restrictions. (ACLU photo by Kira Meador) The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has voluntarily dropped a challenge to the states abortion restrictions. The Friday dismissal comes about six months after the chapter filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Louisville woman who, at the time, was pregnant and seeking an abortion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman, identified by the pseudonym Mary Poe, later traveled out of state for an abortion, which is illegal in Kentucky in most circumstances. Amber Duke, the ACLU of Kentuckys deputy director, Nov. 8, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes) Amber Duke, the executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement that decisions about health care are and should remain private, and we will not be providing additional details about the dismissal. People have the right to control their own bodies without government interference, and we will never stop fighting to restore abortion access in Kentucky, Duke said. We are strategizing our next steps in this fight. In the meantime, our work to address the commonwealths maternal mortality rates and lack of widespread paid leave coverage will continue as long as Kentucky remains a forced-birth state. Attorney General Russell Coleman celebrated the suit dropping, saying Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today. Attorney General Russell Coleman. (UK photo by Carter Skaggs) Poes lawsuit was the fourth challenging Kentucky abortion laws since the United States Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had protected the right to abortion for almost 50 years. The ruling triggered Kentuckys ban into effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first challenge, filed by abortion providers, advanced in Jefferson Circuit Court but was rejected on appeal. In December, a woman filed a lawsuit similar to Poes challenge, stating she was pregnant and did not wish to be. Within days of filing her lawsuit, though, the pregnancy lost viability and she ended her challenge of the law. In two cases, Kentucky courts, including the state Supreme Court, have rejected challenges to the ban on grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the action; the U.S. Supreme Court has likewise avoided ruling on the merits of abortion bans. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) A Kentwood Public Schools social worker accused of inappropriate communication with multiple children has been charged with two felonies. Dequindre Wiggins, 26, was arraigned Friday on charges of accosting children for immoral purposes and using a computer to commit a crime. School social worker arrested for inappropriate contact Investigators say that earlier this month, a parent came forward to report the inappropriate communication. Court records allege Wiggins tried to send a student an explicit photo through Snapchat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While investigating, the school resource officer discovered that Wiggins had additional contact with other children online, the Kent County Sheriffs Office previously said. Wiggins was arrested in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 21 and had to be brought back to Michigan to face charges. At arraignment, his bond was set at $20,000. Hes expected back in court for hearings June 11 and June 18. 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. WUHAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The first downtown duty-free shop in central China's Hubei Province began trial operations in its capital city of Wuhan on Friday, marking also the first such store to open in central China, according to the provincial department of commerce. In August last year, five government departments including the Ministry of Finance jointly made a statement that a downtown duty-free shop would be opened in each of the eight cities, namely Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Xi'an, Changsha and Fuzhou. Previously, China had already established six downtown duty-free shops in cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Dalian, Xiamen, and Sanya. The downtown duty-free shop in Wuhan marks the first newly opened downtown duty-free store in China since the new policy was implemented, the authorities said. It is located in a luxury shopping mall within Wuhan's core commercial districts, which received over 32 million visitors last year and achieved annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars). The duty-free shop's investor and operator, a joint venture company, has secured cross-border direct procurement agreements with over 100 international brands. These partnerships span multiple categories including fragrance and cosmetics, wines and foods, digital electronics, luxury accessories, domestic cultural-creative products, as well as coffee and tea products. The shop also showcases culturally distinctive intangible heritage products, as part of its strategy to promote "fashionable goods" of domestic brands in the global market. "The launch of Wuhan's downtown duty-free shop marks a new phase in the opening-up of China's inland cities," said an official with the provincial department of commerce, adding that the project, upon operation, is expected to serve the needs of over 2 million international travelers that visit Hubei each year. (Reuters) -The twists and turns in U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies have not only rattled global financial markets but have also taken investors on a roller-coaster ride. Companies are counting the cost of the trade war that is now being estimated at more than $34 billion in lost sales and higher expenses, a Reuters analysis showed. Adding to the uncertainty are tariff-related legal challenges and Trump's assertion that he would hammer out bilateral deals with trade partners. On June 11, Trump announced that a U.S. deal with China was done, with Beijing to supply magnets and rare earth minerals, although specifics of the latest agreement and details on how it will be implemented remain unclear. He also signed an agreement on June 16, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, formally lowering some tariffs on imports from Britain as the countries work toward a formal trade deal, even as key issues such as steel and aluminium remains unresolved. Here's a timeline for key upcoming events and dates that could have a bearing on the U.S. tariff policy: June 26 : European Union leaders and the European Commission, which negotiates trade agreements on behalf of the EU, will discuss how to respond to Trump's July 9 deadline in Brussels. July 8: "Liberation Day" tariffs to take effect following the 90-day suspension period, potentially affecting imports from multiple countries. July 9: Deadline for United States and the European Union to negotiate a deal to avert 50% tariff duty on all EU imports. July 14: The EU's 90-day pause on its own retaliatory tariffs to end. (Reporting by Sameer Manekar, Abhinav Parmar and Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; editing by Arpan Varghese, Anil D'Silva and Shinjini Ganguli) Under the direction of Division 36, the Kfir Brigade has killed dozens of terrorists, as well as destroyed Hamas infrastructure and weaponry as part of Operation Gideon's Chariots The Kfir Brigade, under the direction of Division 36, joined the fighting in Khan Yunis as part of Operation Gideons Chariots, the IDF said in a statement Friday. The troops have killed dozens of terrorists, located and destroyed terrorist infrastructure and weaponry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The team used drones to destroy explosives sites and booby trapped buildings used by Hamas. The Kfir Brigades return to Gaza The Kfir Brigade previously served under the command of Division 162 for nearly three months in northern Gaza, finishing the operation in January. "We operated for sixty-four days in northern Gaza. Sixty-four days of operating without breaks or rotations. We worked to destroy Hamas above and below ground," Kfir Brigade sources said. " IDF publishes footage of Kfir Brigade operation in Khan Yunis, May 30, 2025. "We killed over 300 terrorists, including senior operatives who caused a lot of trouble. We paid a very heavy price in the fighting. In six incidents, we lost 12 soldiers and commanders. We had dozens of wounded, some of whom have already returned to combat." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kfir Brigade has been operating in Gaza and southern Lebanon, and has conducted counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank since Israel's multi-front war began in October 2023. IDF commandos destroyed tunnels, killed terrorists Under the direction of Division 98, commando units operating in Khan Yunis were able to work with Yahalom combat engineers to destroy a Hamas underground route approximately one kilometer long, killing several terrorists. IDF commando unit operates in Khan Yunis, May 30, 2025. Leader of the Georgian opposition party "Coalition for Change," Nika Melia, was detained by authorities on May 29, NewsGeorgia reported, citing Melia's associates. Melia is being investigated for refusing to testify before a parliamentary committee probing former President Mikheil Saakashvili's time in power. The opposition leader was arrested just before he was scheduled to appear on a television show, Melia's associates said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I do not know what his detention was connected with. In fact, he was kidnapped. They acted aggressively and without explanation," Melia's lawyer, Georgy Kondakhashvili, claimed. The ruling "Georgian Dream" party has tightened its grip on power, passing a foreign agents law similar to Russia's. Mass protests erupted in Georgia in 2023 and 2024 in response to moves by authorities, which have isolated the country from the West. Many opposition figures have not recognized Georgia's ruling party, following disputed parliamentary elections in December 2024. Melia's commission hearing was postponed from May 29 to May 30, he has refused to attend the proceeding thus far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kondakhashvili claims there are no legal grounds for Melia's arrest and says the charges were likely fabricated to forcibly bring the opposition leader to the hearing he has boycotted. Melia does not view the parliament and commission led by the "Georgian Dream" party as legitimate, and in late April, refused to pay a bail of 50,000 lari ($18,200), NewsGeorgia reported. Georgia's accession to the EU has been suspended due to the actions of the ruling authorities since the spring of 2024, the European Commission said in October. Georgia applied for EU candidate status in March 2022, following Ukraine, which applied in February 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: No one has seen it yet Zelensky slams Russia for stalling on ceasefire memorandum ahead of Istanbul talks Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Photo courtesy Milkweed Arts Earlier this month, I joined a group of Arizona small business owners on a trip to Washington, D.C., to speak directly with our U.S. senators about what small business support actually looks like in 2025. I didnt go as part of a lobbying firm or large trade association I went as a working artist and entrepreneur from Phoenix who knows firsthand what happens when policy and practice dont align. I own Milkweed Arts, a fused glass education center and gallery in central Phoenix, and Unique Glass Colors, a small U.S.-based manufacturer of enamels for glass artists. Were part of a creative economy that blends education, local manufacturing, and arts-based entrepreneurship and, like many Arizona businesses, were deeply affected by federal decisions around wages, tariffs, and technology access. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In D.C., I met with staffers for Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego to talk about three major issues facing businesses like mine: access to AI tools, the importance of raising the federal minimum wage and the increasingly harmful impact of international tariffs on small domestic producers. Lets start with AI. While big tech often dominates that conversation, artificial intelligence tools are now essential for smaller operations like mine. We use AI to transcribe and caption educational videos for accessibility, to generate art marketing materials and to help with customer support when Im teaching, traveling or fulfilling orders myself. Its not replacing jobs; it allows us to function without burning out. Without equitable access to AI, businesses like mine lose one of the few tools we must have in order to compete with bigger, better-funded entities. Federal policy must support responsible and affordable AI access for small businesses, not just billion-dollar platforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then theres wages. I support raising the federal minimum wage not because its trendy, but because it works. My employees are better workers when they can afford to live. Customers spend more when they arent living paycheck to paycheck. Local economies grow when small businesses and workers thrive together. A business model that only survives by suppressing wages is not sustainable, or ethical. We need a federal wage floor that reflects the realities of todays cost of living, not outdated assumptions from decades ago. And, finally, tariffs. While proponents portray them as tools to level the playing field, theyre currently punishing the wrong players. As a small manufacturer who occasionally sources materials overseas materials that simply arent produced in the United States Ive seen my costs spike. Unlike large corporations, I dont have the power to absorb the cost or renegotiate with suppliers. Every price hike chips away at already thin margins. These policies, when poorly targeted, dont protect American small businesses. They strain them. We need smarter trade strategies that acknowledge scale and intent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both senators offices were highly engaged in the discussion, asking questions, listening carefully and taking notes throughout. Im hopeful that even brief meetings plant seeds for further conversation. In each meeting, I emphasized that creative small businesses arent just hobbies or side hustles. Were employers, community anchors and vital parts of Arizonas economy. We host classes that enrich lives. We keep our supply chains local when we can. We offer dignified jobs. And we represent the very kind of innovation and resilience that Arizona should be proud to support. I also extended invitations for each office to visit Milkweed Arts. Our kiln rooms, classrooms and local partnerships offer a clear picture of how cultural and economic development go hand in hand. Small businesses dont need performative praise. We need clear, thoughtful policy. That means AI legislation that doesnt disproportionately impact small operators. It means fair wages. And it means tariff strategies that consider business size and capacity, not just product category. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its easy to hold press conferences about supporting small businesses. Its harder, but more important, to listen to us, ask the hard questions and shape policy that meets us where we are. Im grateful for the opportunity to represent Arizonas creative economy on Capitol Hill. But one trip isnt enough. Real support starts when policymakers treat small business not as a photo op, but as an equal partner in shaping Arizonas future. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE NEED TO KNOW A fight broke out amongst a group of adults attending a May 28 kindergarten graduation in West Memphis, Ark. The brawl, which was captured on camera, occurred at Faulk Elementary School, and children in the background could be heard begging for it to stop The West Memphis School District promised swift consequences for those involved Chaos erupted in the hallway of an elementary school after a fight broke out amongst adults attending a kindergarten graduation ceremony in West Memphis, Arkansas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, May 28, several attendees of a graduation at Faulk Elementary School began throwing punches after a heated exchange that was caught on camera and shared with WREG. In the clip, a group of women appeared to be having a verbal argument as two men looked ON. However, the situation soon turned physical. Although they appeared to originally attempt to hold the women back, the men were quickly involved in the fight. Children in the background could be heard crying and begging for the adults to stop fighting. Other adults in the crowd appeared to be leaving the scene. In the aftermath, one of the women appeared to have had a wig pulled off her head, while one of the men had the neckline of his shirt dramatically stretched out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is not clear what started the fight. The West Memphis School District denounced the behavior and promised consequences for everyone involved in a statement shared on Facebook. "The district is aware of an incident involving parents that occurred today at Faulk Elementary School. The safety and security of our students, staff, and school campuses remain our top priority. We have zero tolerance for any behavior by parents, students, staff, or visitors that disrupts the learning environment or threatens the wellbeing of anyone on school grounds," the statement, attributed to superintendent Eric Foister, reads. It continues: "Such actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The district is fully cooperating with the West Memphis Police Department and will actively support efforts to prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law. We are committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and secure environment at all of our schools." 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. Imagesbybarbara/Getty Stock image of a young student with their diploma Stock image of a young student with their diploma Speaking to FOX13, Foister said that the school district is examining other video footage of the brawl amid the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have our own camera system with sound. So we have gathered all that. Obviously, we are a small community, so we have the names. We've presented those names to the local law enforcement. They are now doing their investigative process, and we'll just wait and see how the legal system plays out," he explained. He told the outlet that he would hold those involved "to the fullest accountability I can working with our local law enforcement." George/Getty Stock image of a child attending a graduation in a cap and gown Stock image of a child attending a graduation in a cap and gown "I'm going to press any and all charges that I can," he said, adding that he would "ban" the adults from being on the school's property. "The only way, if you're a parent, you can have access to obviously dropping your kid off and picking your kid up," he said. "And you would have access to a scheduled meeting with a principal that's approved, with a teacher. We're not going to; I don't want to punish the child for the parents' action," he said. Foister told the outlet that no one had reported any serious injuries after the fight. Read the original article on People The investigation into the bitcoin torture case in New York City has revealed gruesome details about the alleged kidnapping and beating of an Italian man for his fortune in the cryptocurrency. What we know about the bitcoin torture case The unidentified 28-year-old man managed to escape from his alleged captors on May 23 in the affluent SoHo neighborhood in Manhattan, according to the New York Police Department. Bloodied and not wearing shoes, the man then found an NYPD traffic agent, who alerted police, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two cryptocurrency investors, 37-year-old John Woeltz and 33-year-old William Duplessie, have been charged with kidnapping, assault and unlawful imprisonment in the case. They're being held without bail. Attorneys for the suspects have declined to comment on the case. John Woeltz, 37, appears for arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court after he was arrested for allegedly holding an Italian tourist hostage in an apparent scheme to steal the man's cryptocurrency fortune in New York City, May 24, 2025. / Credit: Curtis Means/Pool via Reuters When investigators went through the SoHo town house where the man said he was held, they found a saw, crack cocaine, chicken wire, body armor, night-vision goggles, pictures of the man with a gun pointed to his head and ammunition, according to prosecutors. Woeltz, who is originally from Kentucky, was arrested when police went to the town house. Prosecutors said the large house has eight bedrooms and that Woeltz had the means to flee the jurisdiction if granted bail, with access to a private jet and a helicopter. Duplessie turned himself in to police on May 27, the NYPD said. His attorney said in court that Duplessie's involvement in the case is hotly disputed and he decided to turn himself in when he found out about Woeltz's arrest, CBS News New York reported. William Duplessie appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for his alleged involvement in a cryptocurrency kidnapping, in New York City, May 30, 2025. / Credit: Jefferson Siegel/Pool via Reuters The Italian man arrived at the town house on May 6, according to prosecutors. The suspects are accused of previously threatening to have the man's family killed unless he paid them in bitcoin, and the suspects allegedly lured him to New York with an offer to return the bitcoin to him in person, prosecutors said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspects then allegedly held the man captive for over two weeks as they tried to get him to give up the password for his bitcoin wallet. During that time, the suspects are accused of shocking the man with electric wires, hitting him on the head with a gun and pointing a gun at his head several times, prosecutors said. An AirTag tracking device was tied around the man's neck, and the suspects allegedly told him they would find him if he left the house. Prosecutors also said the suspects allegedly hanged the man over the ledge of the building and threatened to kill him if he didn't give up his password. The suspects also allegedly threatened to have the man's family killed if he didn't give them what they wanted, prosecutors said. The man told authorities the suspects cut his leg with a saw, forced him to smoke crack cocaine and urinated on him during his captivity, according to prosecutors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "To be tortured for 17 days in terms of a chain saw cutting your leg, in terms of putting your feet in water and electrocuting him, in terms of making the person ingest narcotics, horrible crime," NYPD Chief of Department John Chell, the police department's highest-ranking uniformed member, told CBS News New York. The Manhattan town house where an Italian man was allegedly tortured for weeks in an attempt to gain access to his bitcoin wallet is seen in New York City, May 29, 2025. / Credit: Reuters/David "Dee" Delgado The man escaped after telling Woeltz he would give him the password, but it was on his laptop, prosecutors said. When Woeltz went to get the laptop, the man went downstairs and bolted from the house. Police sources told CBS News New York that two NYPD detectives did private security work for the suspects, but there isn't any indication that the detectives knew about the alleged kidnapping. One of the detectives picked up the Italian man at an airport and brought him to the SoHo town house, two sources told CBS News New York. The detectives were placed on desk duty May 28 and had their guns and badges taken from them pending an internal affairs investigation into the off-duty work, which the NYPD said wasn't authorized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the detectives was assigned to the security detail for New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty," Kayla Mamelak Altus, Adams' press secretary, said in a statement. "We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty." California track and field final begins with new rules for transgender athletes Reporter's Notebook: Words of wisdom from college graduation speeches How a toddler's brave walk into the darkness to get help inspired his family COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Two Mifflin Township police officers were shot while conducting a traffic stop on Wednesday night on the northeast side, just outside of Columbus city limits. The officers were both rushed to the hospital. One was released from the hospital just a day after the shooting while the other has a long road to recovery. When bullets hit your body, its not like the movies. A bullet hits your body and it completely destroys anything in its path, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #9 President Brian Steel said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One officer was shot in the arm and released from Grant Medical Center on Thursday, according to Steel. That officer will have to return to get surgery, but Steel said he is eager to get back to work. Suspect in fatal southeast Columbus shooting over Memorial Weekend arrested He said this shows the dedication of police officers, even after getting shot. The officers that were shot, they knew what they were doing. They knew there was a danger, Steel said. They do that because the community is worth it and thats why they signed up for it. The other officer was brought to Grant in critical condition, but Steel said he was changed to stable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes alive by the grace of God, by the aid that was rendered by the medical staff at Grant. He is still with us. Hes got a long road, Steel said. I just ask your viewers to continue to pray for him. He is fighting. Police officers from multiple jurisdictions were in and out of Grant Medical center on both Wednesday and Thursday. Mifflin Township Police Chief David Briggs said Columbus police and the Franklin County Sheriffs Office have been a great help during this tough time. They had two officers outside their rooms at all times. They had several officers downstairs in the lobby outside the emergency room everywhere to escort family and friends to where they needed to go. It was overwhelming support, Briggs said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steel said right now, the officers and their families need to focus on rest and recovery. You have emotional injuries youre going to have from these events. Youre going to have physical injuries, Steel said. Time will tell for both of them. 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. A Los Angeles hospital is asking for the publics help in identifying a patient who arrived there early Friday morning after he was found unresponsive on the street. The unidentified man was brought to California Hospital Medical Center in downtown L.A. around 1:15 a.m., after he was found near the intersection of West 7th and Alvarado streets in the Westlake District. Due to patient confidentiality laws, the hospital did not disclose his exact condition, but photos shared with KTLA show the unidentified man hooked up to a breathing apparatus, wearing a neck brace and having a bandage on his head. Dignity Health officials are seeking the publics help in identifying a man who arrived at California Hospital in downtown Los Angeles on May 30, 2025. (Dignity Health) The hospital, which is part of Dignity Health, asked for the publics help in identifying him as he has no documentation or other evidence of his identity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes described as a white man, approximately 55 years old, with gray hair and brown eyes. He weighs about 125 pounds and stands around 5 feet 11 inches. He also has many tattoos across his body, including some notable ones that may aid in his identification. The word OMERTA is tattooed on his neck, the letters CMF on his right chest, a skull and an intricate design on the left part of his torso, among others. Anyone with information is urged to contact Dignity Health officials at California Hospital by calling 213-266-1122 or 213-742-5500. 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. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) Here are the top headlines from this morning. UnityPoint Health announced that it intends to acquire MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center. UnityPoint Health intending to acquire MercyOne Siouxland A longtime Sioux City restaurant now also has a food truck. Tastee food truck travels around Siouxland The Union County Long Term Recovery Group will host a food pantry to help people impacted by last years flooding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upcoming flood-related events in North Sioux City Check out even more stories in the video above. 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. Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States deplane at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Friday, May 2, 2025. Credit - Ariana CubillosAP Hundreds of thousands of migrants could be at risk of deportation after a divided Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Trump Administration canfor nowend a Biden-era program that extended humanitarian parole protections to migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The CHNV special-parole program allowed migrants from the four countries to travel legally to the U.S. and stay and work in the country for up to two years. It was used by at least 530,000 migrants since late 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Courts ruling, the latest of several decisions the court has issued green-lighting the Trump Administrations aggressive approach to immigration, gives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem the discretion to revoke the parole program while legal challenges to its termination move through the courts. [The Biden Administration] allowed more than half a million poorly vetted aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members to enter the United States through these disastrous parole programs; granted them opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said after the ruling came down. Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First. Several immigration advocacy groups said the decision will have devastating consequences on immigrant communities. This is a deeply tragic decision that penalizes half a million people for complying with our immigration laws, Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, wrote in a statement emailed to TIME. This decision will have devastating and immediate consequencesThe government failed to show any harm remotely comparable to that which will come from half a million people losing their jobs and becoming subject to deportation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres what to know about the program and the Supreme Courts decision. What is the CHNV program? The program, rolled out during the Biden Administration, allowed migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to obtain authorization to come to the United States legally, as well as to stay and work legally in the country and seek humanitarian relief or other immigration benefits, if they were eligible, during a two-year parole period. It was initially adopted in 2022 as a response to high levels of illegal immigration, specifically for Venezuelan immigrants, says David Beir, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. The program was predated by a similar program created in early 2022 for Ukrainian immigrants in response to the surge of Ukrainians who came to the border seeking asylum after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The program required migrants from Venezuela to obtain a sponsor in the United States who would be willing to take some measure of financial responsibility for them, as well as an airline ticket to fly directly, and legally, to the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Biden Administration rolled out the program in hopes that it would give the government control to vet incoming migrants and manage the flow of arrivals through air travel, rather than across the southern U.S. border, Beir wrote in 2023. Eligibility for the protections was later extended to people from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti, as well. What did the Supreme Court rule? The Supreme Courts Friday decision overruled a lower court in Massachusetts that temporarily blocked the federal government from implementing Noems March 25 order to revoke the legal status given to migrants under the program. That order was in line with President Donald Trumps Jan. 20 Executive Order Securing Our Borders, which instructed Noem to terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States established in my Executive Orders. The Supreme Court ruling will allow the Administration to end the program while the case proceeds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision was unsigned and not accompanied by an explanation. Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson issued an incensed dissent, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, stating that the court has plainly botched this assessment today. What will the impact of the ruling be? The program had been widely lauded by immigrant rights groups as a humanitarian relief program utilized to help those in unstable conditions in their own countries seek refuge. Even within an immigration system that is decades overdue for a Congressional overhaul, the CHNV parole processes stood out as an innovative model for creating legal and orderly pathways, wrote Schulte, of FWD.us. Granting parole to people fleeing harm dramatically reduced unauthorized migration to the southern border, and it allowed people to work and contribute, bringing greater stability to families, employers, and communities across the country. Beir, of the Cato Institute, said that terminating the program could quickly end the legal status of migrants who have been protected under the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration's already empowered its agents to arrest people who are on parole, to arrest people who are applicants for asylum, Beir told TIME. The practical upshot is that a lot of these people had parole for two years, and if they haven't applied for asylum, then there's really no basis for them to be in the country, and they start accumulating unlawful presence as soon as this decision takes effect. According to Beir, it is unclear how many migrants will be affected and potentially deported due to the ruling. Certainly half a million came in through the program, Beir said. But then, a lot of these people were from Haiti and Venezuela, have temporary protected status, which you know the administration is eventually going to revoke as well. And then, of course, the backstop of being an asylum applicant for many people will be another way for them to be able to keep working legally and, you know, going through the process and stay here. Beir says an important aspect of this decision that must be highlighted is that the migrants who used the program went through legal pathways to enter the United Statespathways opened based on promises made by the United States government when the program began: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They pay for their own flights. They travel on airlines like any other visitors to the United States and the other you know, part of this is really completely unprecedented for an administration to en masse terminate the status of people who've come to the United States legally like this. Contact us at letters@time.com. Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, addresses a symposium marking the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)' Academic Divisions in Beijing, capital of China, May 30, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Ye) BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang on Friday called on academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to pioneer breakthroughs in core technologies and cultivate talent to build China into a self-reliant sci-tech powerhouse. Addressing a symposium marking the 70th anniversary of CAS' Academic Divisions, Ding, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, emphasized the academy's historic role in overcoming strategic tech bottlenecks and cultivating world-class talent. Highlighting the role of academicians as a "backbone force" in China's sci-tech advancement, he urged them to prioritize breakthroughs in core technologies, cultivate strategic talent, play a crucial part as advisors on the CPC Central Committee's major decisions related to science and technology, and undertake more forward-looking, strategic and fundamental research. He also stressed the importance of expanding international scientific cooperation while advocating scientific spirit and inspiring younger researchers to dedicate their careers to national rejuvenation. Authorities were tasked with refining support mechanisms to foster an innovation-friendly ecosystem. The event was attended by CAS leadership, academicians, and officials of related departments. Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, a Westerly Democrat, rises to defend his bill that would regulate the psychoactive compound kratom during the Rhode Island House of Representatives' floor session on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) For the second year in a row, the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed a bill that would legalize and regulate the sale and manufacture of kratom, the psychoactive drug derived from a plant native to Southeast Asia. The bills sponsor, Speaker Pro Tempore Brian Patrick Kennedy of Westerly, returned to the House chamber just in time to see the legislation succeed by a 40-23 vote. Kennedy has been absent from the House floor since April 22 for medical reasons, chamber spokesperson Larry Berman confirmed in a Thursday evening email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedys successful bill, H5565A, would remove Rhode Island from a list of six states that ban outright the sale and manufacture of kratom. The plant contains dozens of psychoactive alkaloids the chemicals responsible for an array of effects including stimulation, euphoria and sedation. Due to its interaction with the brains opioid receptors, some people who use kratom are recovering from or trying to quit opioids. The alkaloids mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine are largely responsible for kratoms dose-dependent effects and are the substances most frequently targeted by legislation. Most states do not regulate kratom, but some have started to adopt legislation backed by the kratom industry and advocacy groups nationwide. Fourteen state legislatures have passed kratom consumer protection bills as of March 2025, according to KFF Health News. Like those bills, Kennedys legislation and its companion S0792 in the Senate sponsored by Sen. Hanna Gallo, a Cranston Democrat puts in place the regulatory framework for the drugs sale and distribution with the intent of reining in gray market sales in places like head shops and gas stations. The measure passed last year in both the House and Senate during the waning hours of the legislative session in mid-June. But Gov. Dan McKee vetoed the legislation when it arrived on his desk a few weeks later, citing regulatory confusion and the advice of state health officials. Its unclear if McKee will nix the bill again this year. This years bill is called the Rhode Island Kratom Act, and adds a new licensing and tax mechanism in coordination with the Department of Revenue, which was absent in last years iteration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were looking for new sources of revenue for the state of Rhode Island, Kennedy said on the House floor. This actually will provide us with a new source of revenue. The Kratom legislation pending in the General Assembly is different than last years bill, so the Governor will carefully review the final bill that reaches his desk, if and when it does, Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee, said via email Thursday. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Gallos bill was heard in committee on April 8 but has yet to be scheduled for a committee vote. Sends a conflicting message Among the 23 dissenting votes in the House were Republicans and progressive and moderate Democrats alike. Four representatives rose in opposition to the bill, with Rep. Michelle McGaw, a Portsmouth Democrat, reprising arguments she voiced during the bills floor vote last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think it comes as a surprise to anyone in this chamber that I have concerns about kratom being available on our streets, in local convenience stores, in gas stations, McGaw told her colleagues. Rep. Chris Paplauskas, a Cranston Republican, said legalizing kratom could strain the states health care system even further not to mention conflict with legislation the House passed in April. This body also recently voted in favor of harm reduction sites as a way to combat opioid addiction, Paplauskas said. Expanding access to kratom, a substance that acts like an opioid, undermines those efforts and sends a conflicting message. Rep. Marie Hopkins, a Warwick Republican, offered a cautionary blast from the past. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For those of you in the room who are as old as me, you might remember a little drug called ma huang, which was really popular in the 90s, Hopkins said. We put it in all our energy drinks. You could buy it in any gas station. Ma huang is another name for ephedra, which is similar to kratom in that it contains multiple psychoactive alkaloids including ephedrine, which is synthesized for over-the-counter decongestants like Sudafed and Primatene. Ephedrine, which is considered a regulatable drug and not a supplement, remains available in pharmacies under strict controls. But parent compound ephedra was as ubiquitous as Hopkins described, sold on its own or mixed into weight loss and energy supplements. A number of deaths, including 30 in a five-year period among otherwise healthy military personnel, led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban ephedra in 2004. We dont need a repeat of that, and passing this bill will be a repeat of that, Hopkins said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedy defended his bill. Its much longer compared to the previous effort, at 25 pages a length at which industry advocates bristled during committee hearings in April, fearing Kennedys redux departed too far from industry goals. It also incorporates input from the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. He reiterated his belief in the drugs safety: The FDA dose-finding study concluded kratom is safe at all dose levels, and they really put a lot of kratom into people for that to be determined. The dose-finding study in 2024, however, did not convince the FDA to change its stance on the drug. The agencys website, updated in August, still reads: There are no drug products containing kratom or its two main chemical components that are legally on the market in the U.S. FDA has not approved any prescription or over-the-counter drug products containing kratom or its two main chemical components, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. Independent Rep. Jon Brien of Woonsocket pointed out a contradiction between the chambers decisions when it comes to drug use. He offered the example of the flavored vape ban that passed as part of last years budget. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We shut down actual existing businesses in the state of Rhode Island because they were selling grape-flavored, banana-flavored, frutti-tutti-flavored vapes. But we did that because we said, The children, we got to save the children. Brien said he felt terrible about opposing Kennedys measure on his first day back, but he pushed forward. What message are we sending? Brien asked. We just constantly send these inconsistent messages from this room. You cant vape tutti-frutti, but you could buy some kratom at the gas station and get out in your car and take it right away. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin expects Russia and Ukraine to discuss the list of conditions for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine next week in Istanbul, its spokesman said on Friday, praising the U.S. role in mediating the talks. Russia has proposed holding the second round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2. However, Ukraine wants to see Russia's proposals for a peace deal before it sends a delegation to Turkey, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation would be travelling to Istanbul and would be ready for talks with Ukraine on Monday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "At the moment, everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being developed," Peskov told reporters. He said the details of the memorandum will not be published. Reuters reported earlier this week that Putin's conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards. U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said earlier on Friday that Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance. Commenting on Kellogg's statement, Peskov said that Putin has been consistently conveying Russia's position on the inadmissibility of NATO's eastward expansion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington. And, of course, this is quite appealing to us in terms of the mediating role that Washington continues to play," Peskov said. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Philipp Lebedev and Gleb Bryanski,Editing by Alison Williams and Ros Russell) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian delegation will be in Istanbul on Monday morning for peace talks with Ukraine and will show its memorandum there. Source: RIA Novosti, Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency; Russian Telegram channel Vy Shushali Mayak ("You have been listening to Radio Mayak") Quote from Peskov: "Of course, nothing will be made public. It cannot be made public. Both draft memorandums, the Russian and Ukrainian ones, we hope, will be discussed at the second round of talks, for which the Russian delegation will be ready on Monday morning in Istanbul." Background: Defence Minister of Ukraine Rustem Umierov, who headed Ukraine's delegation at the talks with Russia in Istanbul, gave Russia a document that reflects the Ukrainian position and is awaiting their own memorandum in response. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on what conditions Russia would set out for a ceasefire in its draft memorandum, saying that this should be discussed privately. Heorhii Tykhyi, Spokesperson for Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Russia's unwillingness to officially hand over its memorandum for negotiations indicates that it contains unrealistic demands and is an attempt to stall the peace process. Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha said that Ukraine is ready for the next round of talks with Russia, but it is still waiting for the promised text of the ceasefire memorandum from Moscow. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! A claim by the Russian Defence Ministry that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was "in the epicentre of a drone attack" has turned out to be a staged performance by the Kremlin. Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet Details: Russian state media claimed earlier this week that when Putin visited Kursk Oblast for the first time since the hostilities began in the area, his helicopter came "under fire from Ukrainian drones". In reality, this was not a combat incident but a meticulously staged event. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four sources within the government and the Kremlin told The Moscow Times that security officials promoted this shocking and "risky" episode in the media to convince Russians that their leader is not hiding behind others, but is also supposedly taking risks and making sacrifices. Amid regular drone strikes, chaos at airports and mobile communication outages, this televised stunt was intended to portray Putin as someone who "shares the dangers" with the country and thus sends a message to the public "war is war". The Moscow Times reported that Putin had indeed visited Kursk Oblast, to which, according to the official narrative, he had travelled by helicopter. In fact, the oblast is frequently targeted by Ukrainian attacks. However, the sources said Putins security had been ensured at the highest possible level. "No one would ever allow such criminal negligence. Not even in a nightmare," said one official close to Putins administration and familiar with his security system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Moscow Times reported that the "sensational claim" that Putins helicopter had found itself "in the epicentre of a large-scale enemy drone attack" was disseminated by the Russian Defence Ministry via the state-run VGTRK television channel. Kremlin-aligned reporters did not accompany Putin on this trip, nor did a professional filming crew. The footage was captured by other individuals, including a security officer, two informed sources told The Moscow Times. Background: Earlier, Ukraines Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security denied claims that Putins helicopter came under attack from the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Russias Kursk Oblast. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! The Kremlin has welcomed a statement by Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trumps special envoy for Ukraine, that the United States considers Russias concerns about NATO expansion to be justified. Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency Interfax, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, as reported by European Pravda Details: Peskov said that Russia welcomes the fact that Washington "understands" its negative stance on NATOs eastward expansion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Peskov: "President Putin consistently conveys to foreign officials, including American representatives, our position on the inadmissibility of NATOs expansion to the east from the standpoint of Russias strategic interests. We are glad that the presidents explanations are being understood, including in Washington." [N.B. Ukrainska Pravda does not recognise Putin as president ed.] Details: Peskov added that this understanding by the US is "very pleasing" to Russia in light of the mediating role Washington continues to play. Meanwhile, he noted that it is preferable to discuss this issue during a closed-door interaction. Peskov agreed that Kelloggs recent statements could be considered the result of such confidential negotiations. Background: In an interview with ABC News, Kellogg stated that the United States considers Russias concerns about NATO expansion fair and is ready to discuss the matter. "And they're not just talking Ukraine they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova, they're talking, obviously, Ukraine," Kellogg noted. "And we're saying 'Okay, comprehensively, you know, we can stop the expansion of NATO coming close to your border'. That's security concerns from them." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously stated that Kyiv must be present at the NATO summit in The Hague, and the absence of an invitation would appear as "a victory for Putin over NATO". Earlier, it was reported that because of Trump, NATO is preparing a mini-declaration for the summit in The Hague that will likely not mention Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Donald Trump has begun to unravel. Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump's allies. But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trumps deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said. As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded his handwriting and the threatening letter didnt match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. Its not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim. In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said "the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody. His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record. The revelations were first reported by CNN. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Immigration and Customs Enforcements records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond. Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July. Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application. The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter and the county district attorney's office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abduli, Morales Reyes attorney, says he could not have written the letter, saying he did not receive formal education and can't write in Spanish and doesn't know how to speak English. She said it was not clear whether he was arrested because of the letters. There is really no way that it could be even remotely true, Abduli said. We're asking for a clarification and a correction from DHS to clear Ramon's name of anything having to do with this. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Kroger says there is no rodent issue at its Union Avenue store, despite WREG showing the company a video of a mouse running down an aisle away from employees Wednesday morning. This comes two weeks after someone posted a video of a bread bag with holes in it, claiming the Midtown store was infested with mice and rats. Another person also posted a video of a mouse running across what looked like a store aisle. The video that you had from yesterday was taken to the pest control company, and the goal is to find out how that mouse got into the building and make sure it doesnt happen again, said Associate Communications and Engagement Manager George Brown. Kroger on Union Avenue. WREG photo Brown said as soon as Kroger saw the social media posts, they contacted a pest control company to investigate, and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture did not find any signs of rodents in the building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We really want to thank the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, which came out right away. They didnt find any rodent activity in any of the food areas, which was great because we could confidently serve our customers, said Brown. The TDA told WREG its Food Safety office has not received any consumer complaints, but decided to inspect the store after also noticing the social media posts. During a May 14 visit, the TDA reported that no rodent activity was observed, but acknowledged that a store manager had previously reported seeing signs of rodent activity. Kroger said it has taken steps to protect the property from rats spotted outside near a former fast-food restaurant next door. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The business has been closed for years, and it appears that homeless individuals have been staying there, leaving behind food and trash. Closed fast food restaurant next to Union Ave. Kroger. WREG photo Closed fast food restaurant next to Union Ave. Kroger. WREG photo Closed fast food restaurant next to Union Ave. Kroger. WREG photo Closed fast food restaurant next to Union Ave. Kroger. WREG photo Closed Closed fast food restaurant next to Union Ave. Kroger. WREG photo Closed fast food restaurant next to Union Ave. Kroger. WREG photo Rat traps at vacant property next to Kroger. WREG photorty next to Kroger. WREG photoclosed rests Rat traps at Kroger in Midtown. WREG phot Rat traps at vacant property next to Kroger. WREG photorty next to Kroger. WREG photo Rat traps at vacant property next to Kroger. WREG photorty next to Kroger. WREG photo Several rats were spotted in the shrubs surrounding the vacant property on Thursday. As you saw, that abandoned property is attracting rodents and other issues. We contacted the health department and reported that we want to protect our business, and we also want to protect the neighborhood, because if that building stays that way, the problem could get worse, Brown said. Several rat traps have been placed around the former restaurant. Kroger has also placed traps around the back of its store. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for the city stated that another company has purchased the restaurant property, but code enforcement is referring the matter to environmental court through the Neighborhood Preservation Act. The Tennessee Department of Agriculture said it will conduct a follow-up visit to the Kroger store within the next 30 days. Kroger said they always want customers to feel safe in their stores and know that the food they are getting is safe. 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. Yehor Cherniev, Head of the Ukrainian Parliaments permanent delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, believes that the Alliance will not make any official decisions on non-expansion, as demanded by Russia. Source: Cherniev in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine on Friday 30 May, as reported by European Pravda Details: Chiernev said this after Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trumps special envoy for Ukraine, said in an interview with ABC News that Washington considers Russia's concerns about NATO expansion to be justified and is ready to discuss them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It is highly unlikely that Kellogg's statement will have any consequences or influence the peace process," Cherniev said. "After all, as far as can be understood from his remarks, the US is ready to give Russia verbal promises that will not be legally binding." According to Cherniev, the Kremlin has always emphasised that it needs written guarantees in the form of official international legally binding documents. However, he is convinced that no one will give it such guarantees. He noted that the adoption of such a decision would contradict the NATO Charter and the decisions of previous summits. "Secondly, it would mean official recognition of Russia's veto power over Alliance decisions," he added. "Thirdly, such a decision could not be taken by NATO itself due to the position of many countries that unconditionally support us on the path to accession. Therefore, no official NATO decisions on this matter will be taken." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He noted that Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin may be satisfied with verbal guarantees and promises only if he desperately needs a few years' respite to gather strength for another war. Background: The Kremlin has welcomed Kelloggs statement that the United States is ready to discuss NATO non-expansion, which Russia insists on. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! L.A. Weekend Guide: Monsterpalooza, Ricky Gervais at the Bowl, Crime Scene Live originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Courtesy Monsterpalooza Every Thursday, Los Angeles magazine curates a list of the best events in and around Los Angeles. Craft a great last-minute schedule with our Weekend Guide to L.A., and don't forget to sign up to have the guide delivered to your inbox every week by clicking HERE Monsterpalooza at the Pasadena Convention Center May 30-June 1 Since 2009, monster lovers have come together to celebrate the magic and nostalgia of the horror genre at this creepy convention. Cool vendors, engaging demos and a focused approach to the art of creating practical effects and the creatures that haunt our nightmares, make the three-day con a must for fans of scary stuff. Don TabakCourtesy Crime Scene Live Crime Scene Live at Loews Hollywood Hotel May 30-31 Fans of true crime should head over to this immersive live show led by retired LAPD homicide detective Don Tabak and produced by Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees) and Erich Recker (Criss Angel: Mindfreak). Fresh cases like Karen Read, the Idaho Four, or the Menendez Brothers are referenced and older ones OJ, the Hillside Strangler, and John Belushi get the full interactive treatment, from forensic clues to psychological profiles, all at the hotels famed Panorama Suite. (Weekend dates available through July) Courtesy Live Nation/Mortality Tour Ricky Gervais at the Hollywood Bowl May 31 The comedian and actors last performance at the Bowl broke the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing single stand-up performance ever, and his new show called Mortality is set to be just as successful. Delving into heady topics like death and aging, expect Gervais signature acerbic wit and uncensored hot takes. Courtesy Dedicated to You/Footsies Advertisement Advertisement Art Laboe Disco at Footsies May 31 Older Native Angelenos, especially Latinos, know and love radio legend Art Laboe, whose oldies and dedication-driven shows spoke for a generation. He passed away in 2022, but you can still hear his old shows (with new dedications!) on KDAY. For a more immersive oldies n' soul jams experience, check out this tribute night at Footsies bar. Courtesy Jason Bonham Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Evening at the Greek Theatre May 31 We loved seeing them discuss their beginnings in the recent doc Becoming Led Zeppelin, but the likelihood that the remaining members might share a stage together again is slim. This Jason Bonham tribute show is the next best thing, and worth it for fans as the drummer definitely inherited his dad Johns skills on the skins. Michael Gorman, Liberty (Nothing Else Matters), Mixed Media on CanvasCourtesy Bruce Lurie Gallery Michael Gormans Grit and Grace Bruce Lurie Gallery May 31 The Bruce Lurie Gallery, which burned down in the recent LA wildfires in Pacific Palisades, hosts its first major art show in a new Santa Monica location exhibiting the vibrant work of Gorman, a contemporary abstract painter based in L.A. Courtesy Paramount Pictures Summer of Camp June 1-Aug. 30 The Academy Museum explores the idea of over the top guilty pleasures on film with this audacious series, beginning on Sunday with Mommie Dearest, going on all month long. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China and Japan held a new round of technical talks in Beijing on Wednesday over the safety of Japanese aquatic products, with the two sides achieving "substantive progress," according to China's top customs authority. Initiated at Japan's request, the talks marked the latest step in a series of technical exchanges this year, the General Administration of Customs said Friday. LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) The officer who fired his weapon during a chaotic pursuit of a domestic violence suspect in La Mesa earlier this week has been identified by authorities. The events that led up to the pursuit began around 10:40 a.m., when La Mesa Police Department officers responded to a report of a man strangling a woman in the area of 7700 Normal Ave. According to the San Diego Police Department, who is leading the investigation into the shooting, officers saw the suspect get in a vehicle with the woman inside and drive away as they arrived on scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bodycam footage shows man brandishing hatchet before police shooting La Mesa police officers then attempted a traffic stop on the vehicle. The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Jahlil Johnson, did not yield. However, he did pull over briefly to let the woman out of the vehicle before taking off again, SDPD said. Officers pursued the vehicle until it was learned that two young children, ages 5 and 7, were also inside, prompting the chase to be called off. According to SDPD, Johnson returned to the location where the female passenger was let out a short time later to let the kids exit the vehicle. With the kids out of the vehicle, SDPD says La Mesa police officers reinitiated the pursuit. A tire deflation device was deployed at this time, but Johnson continued driving. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect was eventually stopped in the area of 4400 Parks Ave. with a police vehicle stopping behind him. According to SDPD, the officer in the passenger seat then attempted to get out of the vehicle to conduct a high-risk vehicle stop, but Johnson backed up into the front of it. Upon impact, the officer hit his head. In response, he fired his weapon multiple times at the vehicle. The officer, who hit the vehicle but not the suspect, was identified Friday as Taylor Persitza, an eight-year veteran of the La Mesa Police Department. He was transported to a hospital for treatment to his head injury following the collision. After the crash, the suspect then fled again, taking him into the city of San Diego. Tire deflation devices were deployed twice more to no avail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pursuit finally came to an end in the area of 7800 University Ave. after a relative of Johnson stepped in front of the vehicle, according to SDPD. Once stopped, he exited the vehicle to attempt to flee on foot. The suspect ran for about two blocks, but officers with La Mesa, San Diego and El Cajon were able to catch up to him. A taser and K-9 were used to take him into custody. Johnson sustained non-critical injuries in the arrest and has since been released. He was booked into a San Diego County Jail and faces multiple felony charges including domestic violence and child endangerment, according to SDPD. While the suspect was not shot, SDPDs Homicide Unit was called in to lead the investigation into the incident under the countys memorandum of understanding regarding shootings involving police officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cause, manner of death revealed for 9-year-old who died after dental procedure Once the investigation concludes, it will be handed to the San Diego County District Attorneys Office for review to determine if the officer bears any criminal liability for his actions. The La Mesa Police Department will also conduct an administrative investigation into the discharge of the weapon. According to SDPD, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorneys Office will also be monitoring the investigation. Authorities are encouraging anyone with information regarding this incident to call SDPDs Homicide Unit at 619-531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. The Department of Labor (DOL) announced this week it will pause operations at Job Corps centers nationwide, a move that has already gotten pushback from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. The department said Thursday it will begin a phased pause initiating an orderly transition for students, staff, and local communities. The pause will occur by June 30, the office said. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the program has been found to no longer achieve the intended outcomes that students deserve, citing what she described as a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the programs possibilities. Job Corps, established as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, is a free residential education and job training program for low-income people between 16 and 24 years of age. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) defended the program in a statement expressing strong opposition to the DOLs move to pause operations. Serving nearly 500 students in Maine, the Loring Job Corps Center and the Penobscot Job Corps Center have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults, Collins said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats why at an Appropriations hearing just last week, I urged Secretary Chavez-DeRemer to resume enrollment at Maines two Job Corps centers and to reverse the Departments proposed elimination of the Job Corps program, she continued, adding that, while atop the funding committee, she will continue to work to support this valuable program. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees annual DOL funding, also called the step by the Trump administration one in the wrong direction, exacerbating our states workforce shortage, locking students out of good-paying jobs, and hurting our Made in Wisconsin economy and businesses who rely on skilled workers to compete and grow. Congress appropriated funding for Job Corps, and the Trump Administration cant just decide to not spend it because they want to make room for tax cuts for billionaires, she said in a statement on Friday. The department noted its decision to suspend operations aligns with President Trumps fiscal year 2026 budget proposal and pointed to what it called significant financial challenges faced by the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its the latest instance of the administration drawing criticism from top appropriators in Congress as it continues a sweeping operation aimed at cutting costs and shrinking the size of government. 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. BARTOW, Fla. (WFLA) Some chicken and rice, said Eddrena Thornton, taking out a tray of food she has prepared for the five people who live with her in her home. I feel like Im doing a mission that God wants me to do. Its my calling, said Thornton. Since 2020, Thornton has run a state-licensed adult family care facility in her home with a focus on people with mental health issues. They dont have nowhere for them to go because they cant afford to go to assisted living because they may not have long-term care plus their income is low. They cant afford to live on their own. Their familys not taking them in so they go back to the street, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In February, she opened what the city of Bartow considers to be a group home in a rental house across the street on Bluebird Avenue. Unlike with her adult family care home, she did not notify any governmental agencies. Because the people were living independently, she said. I always heard that as long as youre not doing nothing for them, then youre OK. Its like theyre just renting a room. Youre collecting money. You are engaging in a business where your sole goal is for people to live there as a group then that would be considered a group home, said Tray Towles, director of code compliance and neighborhood services for the city of Bartow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Towles said group homes require an application and permit approval. It goes to our planning and zoning board who reviews that application, makes sure it fits within the scope of the ordinance, said Towles. Towles said the violation was the result of a lack of communication. When she actually opened her licensed facility, she reached out to the city of Bartow and made sure that she was in compliance with all of our codes at that time. She did not do that in this instance when she opened up the group home at 2226 Bluebird, said Towles. The owner of the home, a Texas-based company, is in the process of evicting Thornton as a renter. All the residents have moved out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Towles said, because the residents are no longer there, there will be no further action or fines imposed on Thornton. The Bartow Chief of Police has been in touch with representatives of the Wind Meadows HOA to strengthen communication and a team approach to addressing safety concerns in the neighborhood, said city manager Mike Herr in a statement. Towles said there are no other known group homes in the neighborhood. A neighbor tells News Channel 8 that many residents have concerns about who Thornton is housing in the neighborhood. The violation was discovered when, earlier this month, Thornton allowed an 18-year-old named Moses Ojeda to move in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thornton said a placement agency and Ojedas mother contacted her as Ojeda was being released from the hospital after being Baker Acted. I looked at the psychiatric evaluation. He had issues for him to get Baker Acted but the psychiatric evaluation said that he was calm and stable, normal, had good talk and he said he was ready to get discharged and go home with his mom, said Thornton. Thornton said she was not able to meet him but allowed him to move in because of his mothers desperation. Later that night, Thornton saw Ojeda outside. She said she tried calling his mother to pick him up because of his strange behavior but she did not answer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thornton said she slept on the sofa in the group home to keep an eye on Ojeda and talked to him that morning. He sat down and he was talking to us about God and about life and death and all this stuff[while] the man in the room dead! said Thornton. According to the Polk County Sheriffs Office, Ojeda fatally stabbed an 81-year-old man more than 100 times in the night. This tragedy happened to me to not put my heart first but to always make sure I follow my steps no matter if the person is gonna be homeless. Thats not my problem. Ill see you tomorrow, said Thornton. 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. LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) A Lafayette man will spend the next two decades behind bars for producing child porn, prosecutors said. Jaylen Mouton, 24, of Lafayette, was sentenced in federal court to 20 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release. According to information presented in court, in the spring of 2024, Mouton met a girl on Instagram, began having sex with her and recording those sexual encounters. At the time, the girl was 14 years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mouton was indicted in October 2024 and pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography on Feb. 21. He was originally charged with four counts of indecent behavior with juveniles and two counts each of production of pornography involving juveniles and carnal knowledge of a juvenile, all felonies. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KLFY Daily Digest Latest news Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Opponents to carbon sequestration pipelines gathered outside of the Iowa Capitol Oct. 8, 2024. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Gov. Kim Reynolds has just two weeks to either sign or veto a controversial bill that would impact carbon dioxide pipelines in Iowa. On a Friday press call, landowners urged Reynolds to uphold Iowa and GOP values around property rights by signing the bill into law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House File 639 advanced from the Senate May 13, following four years of effort from a group of landowners and House lawmakers. The bill would do a number of things including require carbon sequestration projects prove they are a common carrier, in order to use eminent domain. The legislation, and landowner support, comes largely in response to a proposed carbon sequestration pipeline project, the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, that would connect to nearly 60 ethanol plants and pipe the sequestered carbon dioxide through Iowa and surrounding states to underground storage in North Dakota. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Those opposed to the project say a private company should not be given the right to condemn agricultural land. South Dakotans recently codified that opinion with a law that specifically bans CO2 pipelines from the right of eminent domain, which has caused Summit to reevaluate its path through the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marty Maher, an affected landowner from Montgomery County, urged Reynolds to uphold the Iowa Republican platform, which opposes the use of eminent domain by the use of a private party or for-profit entity. Do party platforms mean anything to the elected Republican officials, or are platforms just feel-good projects for the party faithful? Maher asked. Maher said the bill levels the playing field between landowners, neighbors and the utilities commission. I am sure that you want to be remembered as the governor that supported common sense property rights in Iowa and leveled the playing field for all residents in the state for many years to come, Maher said, addressing his comments to the governor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mary Powell, a Shelby County landowner, shared a similar sentiment and recalled times the governor quoted Iowas motto, Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain. Like many Iowans, I appreciate Gov. Reynolds stating the Iowa motto is a belief and not empty words, but Iowans need action, Powell said. We need Gov. Reynolds to sign 639 into law. Reynolds said last week on Iowa Press she was meeting with stakeholders on both sides to determine her stance on the bill. Another Shelby County landowner, Cindy Hansen, said on the Friday call that she and other landowners met with the governor and her advisory team Thursday evening to share their point of view. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hansen said the governor did not ask any questions or give an indication as to how she would act, but did listen to the landowners perspective. The bill would also increase the insurance requirements for CO2 pipeline operators to cover any accidental or intentional discharges and any insurance rate increases landowners face because of the pipeline. The bill additionally requires Iowa Utilities Commissioners to be present at all hearings and expands the scope of who may intervene in IUC proceedings. Meghan Sloma, said on Fridays call that as a neighbor to the pipeline, she was not allowed to testify in the IUC hearings because it didnt go through her property, even though she would be very much affected by the pipeline. I think thats very important, that the right that I have for my voice to be heard regarding what happens to my land, that it be protected, Sloma said. To me, it is just basic fairness and equality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sloma said while the pipeline project brought up the need for this legislation, the bill is not anti pipeline or anti progress. Opponents of the bill include farming organizations like Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, who argue the legislation would stop Iowa from entering the ultra-low carbon ethanol market. This loss of market, they argue, would in turn hurt Iowa farmers and the states economy. IRFA also argued in a press conference last week, that the bill has a slew of unintended negative consequences. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE LAS VEGAS, N.M. (KRQE) A Las Vegas deputy is in trouble with the law again, now facing new charges. On Sunday, New Mexico State Police were called out to the disturbance at Storrie Lake outside of Las Vegas. Clovis police arrest teen accused of shooting at cars According to witnesses, San Miguel Sheriffs Office Deputy Justin Padilla and his brother, Jeffery, attacked a man, beat him unconscious, and took his gun. Witnesses told police that they had seen the Padilla brothers standing over the unconscious victim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justin Padilla told officers the victim had been pointing the gun at people at the park, and he had to be disarmed. Hes facing robbery and aggravated battery charges. In 2023, Padilla was accused of holding down a woman while another woman hit her. He was placed on administrative leave for that incident, and a judge dropped the most serious charge after the NMSP officer failed to show up to the hearing. 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. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A 41-year-old Las Vegas man was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $3.5 million in restitution in a Utah bank fraud case, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Utah. Kyle Eugene Duncan-Carle admitted a 2023 scheme involving stolen U.S. Treasury checks that totaled nearly $8 million, according to court documents. Prosecutors said he stole the checks and then assumed the identities of the recipients, opening credit union accounts and depositing the checks. He then withdrew the funds. As a result, Duncan-Carle cost the United States government, financial institutions, and a financial institutions insurance provider $3,490,634.75, according to a news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duncan-Carle was sentenced in Salt Lake City. The case was investigated jointly by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen P. Dent and Luisa Gough of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Utah prosecuted 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 KLAS. Key Points Plans to add a second airport in the Las Vegas area just reached a significant milestone. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Bureau of Land Management are set to prepare an environmental impact statement, the first step in approving a new commercial airport. The statement will evaluate how the new airport may affect the local environment, such as desert tortoises and rare wildflowers. Las Vegas could soon get a brand new airport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Plans to build a second airport in the Las Vegas metropolitan area just took a major step forward. On May 19, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Bureau of Land Management issued a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport in the Ivanpah Valley, located between the small towns of Jean and Primm. Preparing an environmental impact statement is the first step in the federal process for approving a new commercial airport. Local officials called the start of the review a major milestone for the future airport. This important step brings us closer to addressing the increasing demand for air travel in one of the nations fastest growing regions, Rosemary Vassiliadis, the Clark County director of aviation, said in a statement obtained by Travel + Leisure. The new airport would have two runways and a single terminal building. The proposed site is about 23 miles from the Vegas strip, and could accommodate both domestic and international flights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Plans to build a second airport for the Las Vegas area have been in the works for more than 25 years, but the project has taken on new urgency. Passenger numbers at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) are estimated to meet its full capacity of 63 million to 65 million fliers per year by 2030, according to the Clark County Department of Aviation. As a second commercial airport, SNSA will add much-needed capacity, improve service reliability, and ensure Southern Nevada continues to thrive as a global destination for business and tourism, Vassiliadis said. With its opulent resorts, over-the-top casinos, and thriving nightlife scene, Las Vegas is a perennial hit with travelers. And in recent years, it's been growing even more popular among visitors, thanks to new events and attractions such as the Las Vegas Grand Prix and the immersive concert venue, the Sphere, which opened in September 2023. The next step in the proposed airports approval process is for the FAA and the BLM to hold a series of three public meetings in July to cover the potential environmental impact the new facility could have on the surrounding area. One concern, according to the local newspaper The Nevada Current, is whether the airport will threaten endangered species in the Ivanpah Valley, including the desert tortoise and the rare white-margined beardtongue wildflower. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first meeting will be held virtually on July 29, and participants can register on the project's website. Two in-person meetings are scheduled to take place on July 30 at the East Las Vegas Library and on July 31 at Primm Valley Casino Resorts. Read the original article on Travel & Leisure President Donald Trump said he is going to double the tariff rate on steel from 25% to 50%, a dramatic increase that could further increase prices for the metal used to make housing, autos and other goods. Trump was speaking at U.S. Steels Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, to announce investments by Japans Nippon Steel. The price of steel products has increased roughly 16% since he became president, according to the governments producer price index. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also Friday, Trump hosted an Oval Office news conference alongside billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency architect Elon Musk. The worlds richest man is leaving his job having accomplished far less than he set out to do, although his tumultuous tenure will likely leave a lasting mark on the federal government. Heres the Latest: Trump official threatens to pull funding from New York over its Native American mascot ban Secretary of Education Linda McMahon accused the state of discriminating against a school district that refuses to get rid of its Native American chief mascot and could face a Justice Department investigation or risk losing federal funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahon said during a visit to Massapequa High that her agency determined that the state violated federal civil rights law by banning the use of Native American mascots and logos. The departments civil rights office deemed it discriminatory because names and mascots derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the Dutchmen and the Huguenots, are still permitted. McMahon said the state will have 10 days to sign an agreement rescinding its ban and apologizing to Native Americans. State education department spokesperson JP OHare dismissed her visit as political theater and said the district is doing a grave disservice by refusing to consult with local tribes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These representatives will tell them, as they have told us, that certain Native American names and images perpetuate negative stereotypes and are demonstrably harmful to children, he said. Trump says doubling of tariff on steel applies to aluminum, too The president said the higher 50% rate takes effect June 4. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers, he said on his social media platform after his rally in Pennsylvania. Department of Energy axes nearly $4 billion in clean energy grants Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday that he canceled the $3.7 billion in grants, another massive blow to clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts under the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The grants, largely awarded during former President Joe Bidens final few months, were primarily for programs to capture carbon emissions and store them underground. Other efforts concern cleaner cement, natural gas and more. Some of the 24 grants were $500 million for Heidelberg Materials US Inc.; $375 million for Eastman Chemical Company; $95 million for Nevada Gold Mines LLC; and $270 million for Sutter CCUS, according to a list provided by the Department of Energy. Sublime Systems, which lost an $87 million grant, said it was surprised and disappointed. Conrad Schneider, a senior director at the Clean Air Task Force, said the cancellations are bad for U.S. competitiveness in the global market and contradict the administrations stated goals of supporting energy production and environmental innovation. FACT FOCUS: Trumps claims about remedial math at Harvard dont add up Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amid a battle with the nations oldest and wealthiest university, the president is falsely claiming that Harvard offers remedial mathematics on topics such as simple addition. CLAIM: Harvard announced two weeks ago that theyre going to teach remedial mathematics, remedial, meaning theyre going to teach low grade mathematics like two plus two is four. How did these people get into Harvard? If they cant, if they cant do basic mathematics, how did they do it? THE FACTS: Harvard does not offer a remedial math class covering basic arithmetic. Asked whether Trump was referring to a specific class, a White House spokesperson provided information about Mathematics MA5, introduced in fall 2024 as a new format for an existing course that offers extra support in calculus. The original course Mathematics MA is still offered. James Chisholm, a spokesperson for the universitys Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said Harvard does not offer any so-called remedial math classes and Math MA5 is a college-level calculus class. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more about the presidents Harvard claim Career pathways in the US dim for international students as Trump cracks down on visas Many international students arrive with hopes of gaining work experience and returning to their countries or pursuing a career in the U.S. But the administrations intensifying scrutiny of international students and signs that formal career pathways for them may be closed are leading some to reconsider their plans. Beyond the steps already taken expanding the grounds for terminating international students ability to study in the U.S., adding new vetting for student visas, moving to block foreign enrollment at Harvard a key nominee has raised the possibility of ending a program that encourages them to stay and gain work experience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About 240,000 of the 1.1 million people on student visas are on Optional Practical Training a one-year post-graduation period when they are authorized to work in fields related to their degrees. It can last up to three years for graduates in science, math and technology. Read more about international students Trump finishes speech by thanking steelworkers The president wrapped up his speech in Pennsylvania by thanking steelworkers for their decadeslong contributions in helping build the countrys military equipment and cities. With the help of patriots like you, were going to produce our own metal, unleash our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our destiny, he said. We are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America like never before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Current and ex-Steelers also at Trump event Earlier the president was joined onstage by three current and former Pittsburgh Steelers, including Steelers Hall of Honor running back Rocky Bleier, who gave Trump a Steelers jersey, No. 47 with Trumps name on the back. Bleier called Trump a hall of fame president and an honorary Steeler. Also coming up onstage were quarterback Mason Rudolph and safety Miles Killebrew, who said to the crowd, How bout this president? Trump, referencing the Steelers unsettled quarterback situation, said of Rudolph: I have a feeling hes going to be the guy. The crowd then broke out in chants of Here we go Steelers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Employees join Trump onstage Trump was joined by several U.S. Steel workers including Jason Zugai, the vice president of the United Steelworkers local union at the Irvin finishing plant that defied the international union in supporting Nippon Steels bid to buy U.S. Steel. Zugai, whose father lost his job in a steel mill years earlier, lobbied local officials and members of Congress to support the deal, believing that U.S. Steel would otherwise shut down its Pittsburgh-area plants eventually. In his remarks, Zugai told Trump, I knew you wouldnt let us down. He called Nippon Steels proposed $14 billion in investments life changing. Nippon Steels $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel was blocked by then-President Joe Biden on national security grounds before Trump who had said he would block the transaction, too changed his mind. Trump calls it an incredible deal for steelworkers The president has not said whether the deal between Japan-based Nippon and U.S. Steel has been finalized, and there are no details on how much control U.S. Steel will retain. But he nonetheless hailed it as an incredible deal for American steelworkers. Trump said all steelworkers would keep their jobs, there would be no layoffs and all facilities would remain open. He also said every U.S. Steel worker will soon receive a $5,000 bonus. He said currently operating blast furnaces will remain at full capacity for at least 10 years. Youre not going to have to even think about that. Frankly it wont matter, because theyre going to be here for a long time, a lot longer than that, Trump said. Trump to double the tariffs on steel to 50% The president said hes going to double the tariff rate on steel to 50%, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, autos and other goods. Trump was speaking at U.S. Steels Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, to announce investments by Japans Nippon Steel. The price of steel products has increased roughly 16% since he became president, according to the governments producer price index Trump says domestic steel production is a matter of national security The president made the remark at a rally in Pennsylvania to celebrate a deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel. Trump said jobs in Pittsburghs iron and steel mills were obliterated. He said the country was getting army tanks, boats and ships produced in China. The strong steel industry is not just a matter of dignity or prosperity or pride, he said. Its, above all, a matter of national security. Trump takes the stage in West Mifflin The president told a friendly crowd inside the steel fabrication plant that he was there to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company. Trump told the workers there is a lot of money coming your way and said, Youre going to stay an American company. You know that, right? He thanked Nippon Steels chief negotiator Takahiro Mori, without getting into any details of the deal. He also thanked members of his cabinet and Republican lawmakers in attendance. Trump gets a golden hard hat, peers at large coils of steel backstage Before taking the stage at a steel plant in Pennsylvania, the president spoke to three workers who gave him a golden hard hat. Trump smiled as he held it up and pointed at it for nearby reporters to see. But he didnt put it on his head. He then chatted with the workers as the group walked past large rolls of steel. Trump looked in different directions, closely examining the coils. Other products that include steel were on display nearby, including appliances. Steel workers say details on the deal Trump is set to announce remain scarce Steel workers attending the presidents rally at a plant in Pennsylvania said they still are not sure what the agreement between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel will entail. Clifford Hammonds, a line feeder, said that at the very least it will upgrade an aging and underproducing plant. Its putting money back into the plant to help rebuild it, because this plant is old, its falling apart, he said. Kevin McNeil, who works in the facilitys hot mill, said the constant rumors of a shutdown are like living in limbo. But McNiel said the assertion that the federal government could prevent layoffs or plant shutdowns in the Nippon Steel acquisition was important in giving workers confidence. I think its really important to get the government behind us, McNiel said. Before beginning his speech, Trump chatted briefly with a small group of workers. Kristi Noem said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of the president has begun to unravel. Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trumps allies. But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote the letter. As part of the investigation, officials contacted Morales Reyes, asked for a handwriting sample and concluded that his handwriting did not match the threatening letter and that the threat was not credible, the person said. Its not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim. Read more about the unraveling claim Mike Balsamo, Scott Bauer and Adriana Gomez Licon Musk put a spotlight on federal spending but cut less than he wanted Elon Musks effort to dramatically cut government spending is expected to fall far short of his grand early pronouncements, and perhaps even his most modest goals. According to experts across the ideological spectrum, a major problem was a failure to deploy people who understood the inner workings of government to work alongside his team of software engineers and other high-wattage technology talent. Even that might not have achieved Musks original target of $2 trillion, which is roughly the size of the entire federal deficit. Musk, whose last day spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency is Friday, slashed his goal for savings from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to finally only $150 billion. The current results put Musks efforts well short of President Bill Clintons initiative to streamline the federal bureaucracy, which saved the equivalent of $240 billion by the time his second term ended. The effort also reduced the federal workforce by more than 400,000 employees. Read more about Musk and DOGE Trump lands in Pennsylvania The president has arrived in Pennsylvania for a rally in suburban Pittsburgh. The president disembarked Air Force One under a large umbrella and waved to reporters but did not offer any comments before climbing into his motorcade. Trump is set to speak shortly about a details-to-come deal between U.S. Steel and Japan-based Nippon Steel. Trump picks right-wing lawyer and podcaster who promoted 2020 election lies as watchdog agency head The presidents pick to lead a federal watchdog agency is a former right-wing podcast host who has praised criminally charged influencer Andrew Tate as a extraordinary human being and promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Paul Ingrassia would lead the Office of Special Counsel, an agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers that is also responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which restricts the partisan political activities of government workers. In a social media post on Thursday, Trump called Ingrassia a highly respected attorney, writer and Constitutional Scholar. Ingrassia was most recently working as the White House liaison for Homeland Security after briefly serving in the liaison position at the Justice Department. Ingrassia called his nomination the highest honor. Ingrassia has also promoted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. PBS sues Trump administration over defunding, 3 days after NPR filed similar case PBS filed suit Friday against the president and other administration officials to block his order stripping federal funding from the 330-station public television system, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network. In its lawsuit, PBS relies on similar arguments, saying Trump overstepped his authority and engaged in viewpoint discrimination because of his claim that PBS news coverage is biased against conservatives. PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms, lawyer Z.W. Julius Chen wrote in the suit. But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBSs programming, including by attempting to defund PBS. It is the latest of many legal actions against the administration for its moves, including several by media organizations impacted by Trumps orders. US Steel plant gets ready for Trump speech on Nippon Steel deal Workers, supporters of the president and others streamed into a massive warehouse on the grounds of the Irvin finishing plant in Pennsylvania to hear him speak about a details-to-come deal with Japan-based Nippon. Stands were flanked with giant American flags hanging from the ceiling, and a banner read, The Golden Age. Trump has pitched it as a partnership in which Nippon will have partial ownership of an enterprise that will keep the iconic American steelmaker under U.S. control. However, Nippon Steel has not said it is backing off its intention to buy the company outright for $14.9 billion. Trump is holding the rally at a plant where local United Steelworkers union leaders broke with the international union to support the deal out of fear that the plant could close otherwise. Workers say there is some split among unionized employees over the deal, but they like Nippons pledges to invest in the aging plant. One of Musks biggest impacts: dismantling USAID DOGE worked to eviscerate the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world. Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a result of the cuts. The State Department responded by saying most of USAIDs programs on HIV, known as PEPFAR, remained operational. However, the statement did not address any of the other cuts while calling on other nations to dramatically increase their humanitarian efforts. US says Ukraine has right to defend itself from Russia A U.S. diplomat at the United Nations says the United States supports Ukraines right to defend itself from Russias invasion. Political adviser Anton Jongeneel said Russia called a U.N. Security Council meeting about Ukraine on Friday to advance the claim that European countries, by providing assistance to Ukraine, are undermining efforts to restore peace. That is not the case. Ukraine, as a sovereign country, has the right to defend itself from aggression, Jongeneel said. He said Ukraine is ready to accept an immediate ceasefire and that Russia is the obstacle. We share the concern expressed by other members of this Council that Russia could be uninterested in peace and instead bent on achieving a military victory, Jongeneel said. said. He urged China, North Korea and others to stop supplying weapons or troops to fuel the war. A reporter asked Musk a question about Tesla. Trump answered for him The tech billionaire who dominated administration briefings early in the term didnt even get to answer a question about his own company at his farewell press conference. Trump answered most of the questions and at the end even took one that was addressed to Musk, about the impact of his tariffs on Tesla. The president praised Musk for assembling most of his autos in the United States, but noted that several parts are still imported both by Tesla and its competitors. He said thatll stop. You build a car, Trump said, make it in America. And then the joint appearance was over. It was clear who remains at center stage. Trump says Harvard trying to be a bigshot in lawsuit I dont think Harvard has been acting very nicely, Trump said before praising Columbia and other schools that have yielded to demands by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring federal funding. Trump accused Harvard of trying to be a bigshot by suing his administration to stop the freeze of more than $2 billion in grants. Musks black eye from horsing around The tech billionaire stood in the oval office for more than 30 minutes with a visible black eye before a reporter was able to ask him directly about it. Initially Musk quipped that he wasnt anywhere near France, a reference to video of President Macron being pushed in the face by his wife. Then Musk said he was just horsing around with his 5-year-old son, named X, and I said go ahead and punch me in the face. It turns out, he said, that even a 5-year-old can give you a black eye. Taking oddball questions, Trump says hed look at the facts when deciding whether to pardon Diddy Trump and Musk have taken questions on an odd assortment of topics -- from colonizing Mars to the possibility of a presidential pardon for Diddy, who is still on trial. Asked about pardoning Sean Diddy Combs, Trump responded, Nobodys asked. But I know people are thinking about it. The reporter acknowledged that his question was fodder for gossip columnists. But Trump took it seriously, as he did other strange queries. The president didnt commit one way or the other on Combs case, nothing, I havent seen him, I havent spoken to him in years but also adding, I would certainly look at the facts. Trump has pardoned several high-profile supporters lately. But he insisted that Combs politics wouldnt sway him. If I think somebody was mistreated -- whether they like me or the dont like me -- it wouldnt have any impact on me, Trump said. Trump weighs in on Macron getting pushed by his wife Trump said he spoke with French President Emanuel Macron after his wife appeared to push him as their plane landed in Vietnam. Video captured Macrons wife, Brigitte, pushing her husband away with both hands on his face. The couple later claimed they were just playfighting. Asked if he had any advice for Marcon, Trump said: Make sure the door remains closed. That was not good. Trump said that Macron was doing fine and theyre two really good people. Mars or DOGE? Musk got a softball question about what would be tougher: colonizing Mars or cutting government spending. Its a tough call, Musk replied. He then began to detail how difficult it was to get his arms around government spending and cut it. Trump says Israel-Hamas very close on temporary truce deal Theyre very close to an agreement on Gaza, and well let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, Trump told reporters. Trumps optimistic outlook comes after the White House announced Thursday that Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Israel backed and supported the new proposal. Hamas officials, however, gave the Israeli-approved draft a cool response, but said they wanted to study the proposal more closely before giving a formal answer. Musk bemoans his team becoming DOGE bogeyman Musk says his government cost-cutting team was unfairly blamed for actions it never took. He complained that about any efforts to reduce the size of government people would assume that was done by DOGE. Musk added that his Department of Government Efficiency team became essentially the DOGE bogeyman. Musk says he expects to remain friend and advisor to Trump I hope to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like, Musk said at Fridays news conference. I hope so, Trump cut in before Musk said he hopes to still achieve $1 trillion in federal spending cuts over time. Trump gives Musk a key for his DOGE work President Trump gave Musk what appeared to be a gold-colored key for his work establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to layoff federal workers and close government agencies to achieve cost savings. Trump said that he would only bestow this gift to very special people and that it was a presentation from our country. Musk compares his work cutting government to personal Buddhism Musk likened his work in cutting the size of government to a personal form of Buddhism, saying it will continue to permeate through the government even after hes left his post. Its a way of life, Musk said. He also promised to continue visiting the White House and be a friend and adviser to the president. Musk said that, even in his absence, his team would continue to try and cut the size of government despite greatly exaggerating the cost savings and fiscal impact of his teams work so far. Elons not really leaving, Trump says Trump said that even though Musk is formally departing the administration he will still be involved. Hes going to be back and forth, I imagine, Trump said. Trump noted that DOGE employees will remain embedded with government agencies and said the billionaire will probably want to keep tabs on his baby. Musk himself followed the presidents oval office remarks by saying hed be back in this amazing room. He praised Trumps gold leaf additions and renovations of the fabled space. Trump talks making DOGE cuts permanent Trump listed examples of what he called countless wasteful and unnecessary contracts that DOGE has cancelled, including Education Department diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; temporary housing for migrants in New York City and social and behavioral change in Uganda. We are totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent, he said. While Trump celebrated DOGEs slashing of federal government contracts, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk accomplished far less than he hoped. He dramatically reduced his target for cutting spending from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to $150 billion and increasingly expressed frustration about resistance to his goals. Trump ousts head of the National Portrait Gallery Trump is terminating the head of the National Portrait Gallery, continuing his aggressive moves to reshape the federal governments cultural institutions. Trump announced Friday on his Truth Social platform that he was ousting Director Kim Sajet, calling her a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Sajet, a Dutch citizen raised in Australia, was appointed to the post in 2013 by President Barack Obama. She had previously served as president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.. Trump has repeatedly criticized the national network of museums and cultural centers as leftist and anti-American. Earlier this spring, he ousted the leadership of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, dismissing the chairman and president and replacing most of the board with loyalists, who then voted Trump the new chairman. In early May, he abruptly dismissed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. ABUJA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 60 suspected terrorists were killed by Nigerian troops who thwarted an attack on a troop location in the country's northeastern state of Borno early Friday, the army said. The army said in a statement on X that suspected terrorists attempted to hit a military base in Bita, located in the southern part of Borno, but were overpowered through the joint efforts of the land and air troops. The area has seen increased terrorist attacks in recent weeks, prompting intensified military action. The army said the Friday morning anti-terror operation "marked a significant success in the ongoing counterterrorism efforts in the northeast." It said the air troops delivered precision strikes that destroyed two enemy gun trucks, hitting "over 60 terrorists" in the initial engagement. At the same time, ground forces commenced exploitation operations to pursue fleeing elements. BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) The West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy found in 2023 that West Virginia places children in foster at the highest rate of any state in the country, four times the national average. The study found that while West Virginia had only 0.5% of the national population, 2.2% of American children entering foster care were from West Virginia. The study also found that the number of children in foster care in West Virginia jumped by 57% between 2012 and 2021, despite an overall population decline of 4%. Additionally, the study found that parental rights of West Virginia parents are terminated more often than that of any other state, at a nearly 40% higher rate of speed. West Virginia Delegate Elliott Pritt, a Republican lawmaker who represents District 50, said the foster care system and needs of foster care children and others is now a strong consideration in the state education system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The foster care system is inundated with kids, and I think our public schools are inundated with kids that have problems, societal problems, familial problems, and its not just foster kids, said Pritt, adding that a number of children in family living situations have needs which require special support from the education system. Data on public state websites showed around 6,292 foster children were enrolled in public schools in West Virginia in 2023. Ten interesting facts you might not have known about West Virginia Christy Day, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Education, said that 2,142 foster children had an Individualized Education Plan, or an IEP, to meet special educational needs, in the 2023-2024 school year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The data shows that around 35% of students in foster care in 2023 required special education, compared to 22% of students who were not in foster care during the same year. It was unclear on Thursday, May 29, 2025, if the percentage accurately reflected the number of foster children who were in need of an IEP. Pritt said on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, that, due to recent legislation, state law now requires public schools to maintain a certain ratio of counselors, in order to meet students special needs. Day said that the West Virginia Schools for Diversion and Transition employ professionals who solely provide support to students in foster care, adding that the title of Education Recovery Specialists had been transitioned to a new name, Foster Care Education Specialists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This program is a referral-based program and provides services to foster and kinship youth as needed, Day wrote in an email. It also supports those youth identified by schools. Day said the program assists foster care students and foster parents with document retrieval, enrollment, post high school college planning, programs and support referrals, and transcript analysis. Beckley attorney fears Senate bill could have negative effect on mental health services for at-risk transgender youth in the state Pritt said that private schools also play a role in addressing the educational needs of the state as it relates to students who are in foster care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said that state law did not grant tax breaks to private schools which admit foster children, but he pointed out that the Hope Scholarship program, which takes money from public school coffers to allow parents or guardians to transfer a child to a homeschool or private school, provides tax dollars to private schools. I would hope that now, taking public money, that many of these schools would loosen up requirements or understand that theres a need in our communities, especially religious private schools, said Pritt, that they are serving a community that has needs and that they would accept the applications of some of these kids. Lawmaker aims to abolish alimony in West Virginia Pritt added that if foster children disagreed with the philosophy of a specific private or public school or homeschool curriculum, they could notify their caseworkers and request a change of educational setting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Day said that the WVDE Office of Special Education oversees the progress of disabled students in public and charter schools. 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 WVNS. Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Allie Friesen speaks with a member of House staff before a committee meeting April 17, 2025, at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY Lawmakers overnight Thursday voted to fire the states embattled mental health commissioner. Saying that they had lost confidence in Allie Friesens ability to lead the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, legislators voted overwhelmingly to remove her effective immediately. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It marked the first time in recent history that lawmakers had taken such a step. The move follows a series of legislative hearings probing financial disarray at the agency, which is responsible for a budget of more than $700 million. Lawmakers had to make a multi-million dollar emergency appropriation to cover payroll and ensure contracts were fulfilled, while the state auditor recently released a critical audit. The legislative maneuver drew the ire of Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt who has continued to defend Friesen. He called it a politically motivated witch hunt. Stitt said he tasked Friesen to bring accountability and transparency to the agency and suggested the mismanagement went back a decade or more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She disturbed the status quo and questioned long held practices at the agency, Stitt said. An agency rife with sweetheart deals and criminal elements was disrupted, and now elected officials are quickly working to set the apple cart right for those who seek to get rich off of Oklahoma taxpayers. Senate Concurrent Resolution 12, authored by Sen. Paul Rosino, R-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, said state law allows the Legislature to remove the Friesen with a two-thirds vote in both chambers. The measure passed the Senate by a vote of 43-1. The House passed it by a vote of 81-5. Our job is to come up here and make tough decisions, West said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rosino said the vote was needed to protect people that needed mental health services. He said the resolution didnt mean Friesen was dishonest or bad, adding that she was kind and nice. But she was not competent to run the large agency, he said. We do not have a choice, Rosino said. He said that he didnt want the agencys issues to fester in the interim. Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, cast the lone Senate vote against the bill, saying Friesen was trying to fix the agency, which opened up a hornets nest. This is not the way to handle business, he said. The measure does not require the signature of Stitt, who appointed Friesen to the post in January 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Friesen has blamed the financial situation on prior administrations, but Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond called for her termination. While I cannot begin to understand why Gov. Stitt has chosen to protect Allie Friesen instead of our tax dollars, I applaud the legislative resolution to remove this failed bureaucrat from office, Drummond said Thursday. Stitt will now have to appoint a new person to run the mental health agency. Senate confirmation is required. Emma Murphy contributed to this report. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) Lawmakers in Hartford honored workers who lost their lives on Connecticut roads Friday at the Capitol. Connecticut lawmakers close to a deal on two-year state budget, Speaker Matt Ritter says Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier and Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) worker Andrew DiDomenico died last summer while working on Connecticut highways. State Rep. Aimee Berger-Girvalo (D), the chairwoman of the transportation committee, said that there are several bills focused on work zone and pedestrian safety this season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to passing some road safety legislation, we are also honoring Trooper Pelletier as well as Andrew DiDomenico, the DOT worker who was killed on our roads last May I believe, Berger-Girvalo said. She went on to say that roads in Connecticut will also be named in honor of Pelletier and DiDomenico. 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. LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) A Lawrence County man has been sentenced to 300 years in prison for multiple child sex crimes. David Edward Collier II, 47, of Moulton, Alabama, was sentenced to a total of 3,600 months in prison. In January, Collier pleaded guilty to 13 charges of crimes against children, including four counts of sexual exploitation of children, eight counts of transportation of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the indictment, Collier used, induced, or coerced minor children to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce a visual depiction of that conduct between January 2017 and August 2022. Between October 2022 and September 2023, officials say Collier transported the child pornography. My office and our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners are committed to protecting children from the devastating and lifelong impacts caused by defendants like David Collier, said U.S. Attorney Escalona. Rest assured that if you commit crimes against children in the Northern District of Alabama, we will prosecute you and send you to federal prison. This tremendous sentencing demonstrates the steadfast commitment of the FBI and our partners to investigate cases involving violent crimes against children, to include child pornography, and we work closely with our partners at the U.S. Attorneys Office to hold them accountable, said David R. Fitzgibbons, Special Agent in Charge, Birmingham Division. Let this be a warning to sexual predators that we will stop at nothing to protect every child from horrendous perpetrators like David Collier. We have now ensured one less predator is victimizing the most innocent and vulnerable members of our community. All agencies that assisted during the case include FBI North Alabama Violent Crime Task Force and Cybercrime Squad, Lawrence County Sheriffs Office, Moulton Police Department, Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles, Madison County Sheriffs Office, Huntsville Police Department, and Limestone County Sheriffs Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Two men who say they were repeatedly abused while living at a group home on Cypress Island decades ago are now suing the facilitys operator, alleging it failed to protect vulnerable children from rampant sexual and physical abuse. Cypress Island is northwest of Anacortes is only accessible by boat. In a federal lawsuit filed May 28 in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington, the plaintiffs, identified as D.P. and J.S., accuse the nonprofit group home Secret Harbor of negligence, abuse, and discrimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement D.P. lived at the home between 1977 and 1979; J.S. was placed there between 1982 and 1984. Both say they were victimized while under the facilitys care. The lawsuit claims the home failed in its duty to safeguard children who had already suffered trauma. Instead, it allegedly created a culture of fear, violence, and silence. Secret Harbor, also known by other names over the years including Secret Harbor Farms and Youth Net, operated a group home for boys with behavioral challenges. The plaintiffs say the isolation of the home contributed to an environment where abuse could flourish unchecked. According to the complaint, boys were often housed with others who had histories of perpetrating abuse, while staff lacked the training or information needed to keep children safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents describe the home as being referred to by residents as Juvenile Alcatraz, and detail accounts of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by staff and other residents. The lawsuit claims Secret Harbor hired and retained staff with criminal backgrounds or substance abuse issues, sometimes without checking references or providing adequate training. Although names are provided in the lawsuit, since this is not a criminal lawsuit, KIRO 7 will not be naming the individuals accused in the civil lawsuit. G.G., allegedly nicknamed The Strangler, who had no formal childcare experience and was promoted despite reports of physical abuse. B.S., hired in 1984, reportedly had a known substance abuse problem, but Secret Harbor allegedly did not conduct background checks before hiring him. K.D., hired in 1988, had previously been placed on the states child abuse registry, according to the suit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A former executive director is accused of drinking on the job and encouraging staff to do the same. One incident allegedly involved him directing staff to abandon children in Anacortes while intoxicated. The suit alleges that the organization not only ignored abuse but also discouraged staff from reporting incidents to Child Protective Services. Reports were allegedly altered or suppressed entirely to avoid scrutiny. According to the complaint, D.P. was sexually abused multiple times by a staff member during his placement at Secret Harbor in the late 1970s. J.S. alleges he was repeatedly assaulted by fellow residents in the early 1980s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men claim the abuse led to lifelong emotional and psychological trauma. The lawsuit also includes a discrimination claim under Washington state law, asserting that D.P., as a member of a protected class, was treated differently due to his gender or disability. His attorneys say that status was a substantial factor in the abuse he suffered. The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys fees, and other relief. They have demanded a jury trial. KIRO 7 News has reached out to Secret Harbor for comment. This article was originally published in Chalkbeat. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters The campaign pushing for the release of a Bronx high school student arrested by immigration authorities last week continued to escalate with a new legal petition challenging the validity of his detention. Attorneys for Dylan, 20, a native of Venezuela, made several moves Thursday they hope will slow, and ultimately stymie, the governments efforts to fast-track his deportation following his arrest last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents after a routine court date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dylan is the first known current New York City public school student to be detained by immigration authorities in President Donald Trumps second term. In the days following Chalkbeats Monday report on Dylans arrest, his case has become national news and galvanized local efforts to oppose Trumps immigration policies, including a rally Thursday on the steps of the citys Education Department headquarters in lower Manhattan. Dylans attorneys from the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, filed a habeas corpus petition late Thursday night in federal court in Western Pennsylvania, where Dylan is being held, arguing that immigration officials violated his due process rights by preventing him from making full use of the court system. They assert that Dylan is ineligible for expedited deportation because he had legal permission to enter the country under a Biden-era humanitarian program. Related Hundreds of High Schools Wrongfully Refused Entry to Older, Immigrant Student Dylans arrest was part of a nationwide enforcement blitz where government lawyers move to dismiss migrants immigration cases, allowing authorities to arrest them on the spot and thrust them into a fast-tracked deportation process with fewer legal protections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials from the Department of Homeland security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new legal petition. They previously criticized former President Joseph Bidens policy allowing migrants like Dylan to enter the country and said ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been. Legal case builds momentum after slow start For the first week of his detention, Dylans lawyers could not reach him because he was shuttled so rapidly between four different states, according to a NYLAG spokesperson and his mother, Raiza, whose last name is being withheld at her request to avoid retaliation. His lawyers finally managed to make contact Wednesday morning just in time to prepare him for an interview with an asylum officer about whether he has a credible fear of returning to Venezuela a hurdle Dylan must clear to avoid immediate deportation. The interview took place early Thursday morning, with no advance notice to Dylans lawyers. They were only able to get a lawyer patched into the interview after Raiza alerted them shortly before, according to one of the attorneys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A determination on that hearing could take several days or more. But even if Dylan prevails, he likely will not be immediately released, and will have to continue to litigate his asylum case from detention, according to his lawyers. Thats why they also filed a habeas corpus petition Thursday night, asking a federal judge to order ICE to release Dylan immediately and to prevent him from being moved to any other detention sites. Dylans arrest and ongoing detention cause him enormous and continued harm, the filing alleges. He has been ripped away from his high school studies, his work, and his mother and young siblings who rely on him. The full-time student at ELLIS Prep, which caters to older newly arrived immigrants, has also been working part-time as a delivery worker, helping his mom and two younger siblings move out of a shelter and into their own apartment. His attorneys argue that Dylans arrest and detention have curtailed his ability to access the court system a violation of the due process rights guaranteed to anyone in the U.S., regardless of immigration status. In addition to his asylum claim, Dylan is applying for Special Immigration Juvenile Status, a type of legal protection for youth under 21 who cant be reunited with both parents (his father passed away years ago), according to the petition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dylan was scheduled to have a hearing in family court for that case Friday morning but was unlikely to be able to attend from detention endangering his case, according to his attorneys. The lawyers argue that Dylan was never eligible for expedited removal in the first place, since the procedure is not meant for people who were admitted or paroled into the country like Dylan was, according to federal immigration law. Adding to the urgency of the situation is the fact that Dylan is facing severe gastrointestinal issues that doctors were still trying to diagnose when he was detained. These specialists are currently in the process of assessing whether Dylans symptoms are the result of cancer or [Crohns] disease, and recommended an immediate in-person follow up appointment, the filing states. Trump administration officials have recently discussed suspending habeas corpus as part of their efforts to increase deportations, but legal experts say an act of Congress would be required to do so. Dylans detention continues to draw widespread attention Meanwhile, Dylans case has continued to pick up public attention. An online fundraiser that launched Wednesday to help Dylans mom with expenses related to his legal case and caring for her two younger children had collected more than $27,000 by Friday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And hundreds of supporters including elected officials and city schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos rallied outside of the Education Departments downtown Manhattan headquarters calling for his release. Chants of Free Dylan echoed through the crowd of teachers union members, immigration advocates, students, and anti-Trump protesters. Dylan is a student, a worker, and part of our community. He did everything right, and still, ICE tore him away from his life and family in New York, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velasquez said in a statement, the second federal elected official to publicly challenge Dylans detention. Aviles-Ramoss brief comments sought to reassure families that schools are safe and that the city school system stands firmly with its immigrant students, but offered few specifics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her presence at the rally was notable given Mayor Eric Adams refusal to speak out about Dylans case in recent days. Asked at a press conference on Tuesday whether he had concerns about Dylans detention or whether he would push for his release, Adams repeatedly declined to weigh in. Related As Immigrant Students Flee in Fear of ICE Raids, Teachers Offer Heartfelt Gifts On Friday, City Hall released a statement encouraging New Yorkers to not live in fear and to continue using public resources, such as sending children to school or dialing 911 when they need help. While the Adams administration had no involvement in the apprehension of Dylan, we are sad to learn of this incident especially since Dylan was reportedly following the legal process to seek asylum when he was taken into custody, the statement said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other speakers emphasized that even if schools themselves havent been targeted in ICE raids, immigration enforcement that sweeps up students elsewhere still has ripple effects that spread into schools. Our public schools are doing social work, theyre doing wraparound services, said Naveed Hasan, a Manhattan parent and member of the Panel for Educational Policy. And that means that, while schools are safethe other places that are near schools, [on] the way to schools, have to be guaranteed as safe places. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) A man was sentenced Thursday for his role as the leader of a drug trafficking crew that operated throughout D.C. and Maryland, according to the United States Attorneys Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia. Cila Melgar Rodriguez, 36, of Hyattsville, Md., was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, five years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $100,000. DC police looking for two suspects after fatal Northwest shooting Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rodriguez, aka Paipa, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine/crack cocaine and admitted to being the leader of the drug trafficking crew. According to court documents, on August 12, 2023, one of Rodriguezs co-conspirators organized a sale of five kilograms of cocaine to a confidential source for $120,000. On August 18, 2023, the sale was set to take place in a Costco parking lot, and there, DEA agents arrested the co-conspirators. Agents searched the co-conspirators car, where they seized a Smith and Wesson .38 caliber revolver and over 3.6 kilos of cocaine. The USAO states that Rodriguez was not present at the deal, but he was the one who provided the cocaine to the dealers and organized the operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An initial investigation determined the co-conspirators had received the cocaine from Rodriguez outside of an apartment building in Northwest. The USAO adds that the cocaine provided by Rodriguez for the deal was recovered by officers. 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. At least 28 people were killed in Israeli attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said on Friday. Health officials in the Gaza Strip reported that at least 28 people were killed in the embattled coastal area since Thursday night. The information could not initially be independently verified. "Over the past day, the IAF [Israeli Air Force] struck dozens of targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including, terrorists, military sites, observation and sniping posts that posed a threat to the troops in the area, underground infrastructure, and additional terrorist infrastructure," the Israeli military said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Palestinian hospital sources, 20 Palestinians were injured by gunfire on their way to a distribution centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). They were reportedly shot by Israeli soldiers near al-Bureij. The information could not be independently verified. The Israeli military did not initially comment on the incident. Israel has been fighting the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the massacre of October 7, 2023. Two weeks ago, the Israeli armed forces launched a new major offensive in the coastal area. Many deaths are reported every day. Israel's stated goal is to completely destroy Hamas and free the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. Israel's actions have been met with international criticism. ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) Torrents of predawn rain unleashed flooding that killed at least 111 people in a market town where northern Nigerian farmers sell their wares to traders from the south, officials said Friday, predicting the death toll would grow. The Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency did not immediately say how much rain fell after midnight Thursday in the town of Mokwa in the state of Niger more than 180 miles (300 kilometers) west of Abuja, the capital of Africa's most populous nation. Communities in northern Nigeria have been experiencing prolonged dry spells worsened by climate change and excessive rainfall that leads to severe flooding during the brief wet season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In videos and photos on social media, floodwaters covered neighborhoods and homes were submerged, with their roofs barely visible above the brown colored waters. Waist-deep in water, residents tried to salvage what they could, or rescue others. We lost many lives, and the properties, our farm produce. Those that have their storage have lost it, Kazeem Muhammed, a Mokwa resident, said. Besides the 111 confirmed dead, more bodies have just been brought and are yet to be counted, Niger state emergency agency spokesman IIbrahim Audu Husseini told The Associated Press by telephone Friday afternoon. Mokwa, nearly 380 kilometers (236 miles) west of Abuja, is a major meeting point where traders from the south buy beans, onions and other food from farmers in the north. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mokwa community leader Aliki Musa told the AP the villagers are not used to such flooding. The water is like spiritual water which used to come but its seasonal, said Musa. It can come now (and) it will reach another twenty years before coming again." The chairman of the Mokwa local government area, Jibril Muregi, told local news website Premium Times that construction of flood-control works was long overdue. This critical infrastructure is essential to mitigating future flood risks and protecting lives and property, he said. In September, torrential rains and a dam collapse in the northeastern city of Maiduguri caused severe flooding that left at least 30 people dead and displaced millions, worsening the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency. LEBANON, Mo. The Lebanon Police Department (LPD) are searching for a suspect after a reported shooting on Wednesday, May 28. According to a LPD press release, the shooting occurred at around 6:07 p.m. on Wednesday around the 2200 block of Audrey Lane in Lebanon. Police first responded to a dispatch of a reported driver traveling the wrong way near Mile Marker 128 on Interstate 44. Not long after the report, authorities received a call of a shooting near the same location. There was a report shortly after of a gunshot victim who had arrived at Mercy Hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When LPD officers arrived at the hospital, they located a man who was suffering from a gunshot wound. St. Clair deputies respond to home burglary, shots fired The man had driven himself to the hospital after traveling on the wrong side of the road on I-44 and crashing into a cable median barrier. When the man arrived at the hospital, he was provided urgent care and later was transported via an air ambulance to a regional hospital. The mans condition is currently stable. Police say a vehicle that matched a description of the shooting suspects vehicle was found at Gasconade Park. LPD tells Ozarks First that they later detained occupants they found with the vehicle, but are unsure if the vehicle is connected to the suspect. The occupants were later released by police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said they believe the suspect drove on side streets intersected with Ivey in neighborhoods west of Beck. They also believe the suspect fled north on Beck to Commercial. The suspect was last seen fleeing west on Commercial in Lebanon. The LPD are asking residents and businesses with cameras to review footage recorded between 6 p.m. of a maroon four-door vehicle on May 28. The LPD ask if anyone has any information involving the shooting or the suspects, please call (417) 532-3131. 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. JERUSALEM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces arrested 80 people across the occupied West Bank over the past week, the military said on Friday, as tensions continue to rise in the territory amid Israel's ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the operations also led to the seizure of seven weapons and more than 7 million shekels (around 2 million U.S. dollars), which it described as "funds intended for terrorist activities." Separately, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz visited the site of Sa-Nur, a former Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank slated for reconstruction, according to a statement from his office. Sa-Nur is among 22 settlements approved by Israel's Security Cabinet in what government ministers have described as the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in decades. Many of the sites already exist as unauthorised outposts and will now be granted legal status under Israeli law, while others are new, Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said. Sa-Nur and another site, Homesh, were evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Their planned reconstruction has drawn criticism internationally and from Palestinians, who seek the West Bank as part of a future state. Settlements in the West Bank are widely considered illegal under international law and remain one of the most divisive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tensions have surged in the West Bank since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. The Israeli military has intensified its operations in northern areas of the West Bank, amid a rise in settler violence and near-daily clashes with Palestinian groups. According to international humanitarian organizations, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war. Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank, in the 1967 Six-Day War. Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied Palestinian territory, and its annexation by Israel is deemed illegal. LEBANON, N.H. (ABC22/FOX44) The Lebanon Police Department on Wednesday welcomed Officer Felicia Figol and her K-9 partner, Aris, a duo with a combined 28 years of service in the force. Figol served with distinction for 20 years in the Newtown Police Department in Connecticut. Newtown is about 25 miles west of New Haven. Aris became her official partner in 2017 after being born in Slovakia the previous year. From left to right: Lieutenant Michael Wright, Officer Felicia Figol, Chief Phillip Roberts, Deputy Chief Alan Lowe, and Captain Adam Leland. (Courtesy: Lebanon PD) Figol was sworn in on Wednesday. She and Aris will now begin training in the field as they transition into service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. May 29An Uzbekistan national is at the center of an expanding legal battle over whether migrants illegally entering from Mexico can also be convicted of trespassing on New Mexico's new military border zone. On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico focused on the case of Dishoda Rozlkova in appealing the dismissal of the misdemeanor military trespass charges filed against her and hundreds of other defendants earlier this month. The issue now goes to a U.S. district judge for consideration. The U.S. Border Patrol encountered Rozlkova in Dona Ana County on May 4, about 7 miles east of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, court records show. Court records reveal little else about her except that she speaks Uzbek. That meant she couldn't proceed in English or Spanish when she appeared in court May 8 in Las Cruces on charges of illegal entry, violating security regulations and entering military property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While maintaining the illegal entry charge, Gregory Wormuth, the state's chief U.S. magistrate judge, ruled May 19 that the government lacked probable cause to charge Rozlkova with knowing she was entering the restricted 60-foot-wide strip adjacent to the international border while she unlawfully entered the U.S. The area, which stretches an estimated 180 miles, became military property in mid-April after President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Department of Defense to incorporate it, as the New Mexico National Defense Area, into the U.S. Army Fort Huachuca installation based in Arizona. The White House wanted the military to take a more direct role in securing the border, the appeal states. But the action effectively increased the potential punishment for those charged with the misdemeanor of illegal entry into the U.S. The added offenses carry up to 18 months in prison combined. Often times, misdemeanor illegal entry results in brief jail time awaiting resolution of the case, followed by deportation. Rozlkova "argues that she did not violate these laws because she was not aware of the (national defense zone's) reassignment to the Department of Defense or the area's resulting status. That claim should have been rejected," states the appeal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Virtually all aliens who enter the District of New Mexico from Mexico through an area that is not a designated port of entry and thereby enter the ... restricted military area without authorization are not 'engaged in apparently innocent conduct' but are instead aware of the unlawfulness of that conduct," the appeal states. Government prosecutors say Wormuth erred in requiring an "additional element of knowledge that the defendant has entered the NMNDA (defense zone)." Federal signs warning of the restricted military area reportedly have been posted in Spanish and English about every 100 yards in the zone, but some defense attorneys have contended their clients never saw the signs, couldn't read them, or spoke a different dialect or language and weren't aware they were trespassing. Rozlkova's attorney couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, but Rozlkova is believed to be in federal custody awaiting a translator. U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Ryan Ellison is asking the district court to overrule Wormuth's order and reinstate the dismissed charges. To date, nearly 700 people have been charged with the military trespass-related misdemeanor charges, along with illegal entry. On what was supposed to be the final day of the 2025 session of the Oklahoma Legislature, two lawmakers filed a resolution to remove the embattled commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, and it quickly passed both legislative chambers. Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 was filed by Sen. Paul Rosino, R-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Josh West, R-Grove. Copies of the resolution were distributed in the Senate chamber about 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 29. About three hours later, the Senate voted 43-1 to remove Commissioner Allie Friesen from her post. The House followed with an 81-5 vote around midnight. By law, the Legislature must adjourn its current session by 5 p.m. Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stitt appointed Friesen in January 2024 and has defended her work, even as multiple financial issues have engulfed the state agency. The agency is the subject of multiple investigations, both executive and legislative. Legislators had to make a special appropriation for the agency to complete the current fiscal year. According to the resolution, the budget shortfall is about $30 million. The resolution said the Legislature has a right, under law, to remove Friesen from her post with a two-thirds vote of both legislative chambers. It was not immediately clear early Friday morning, after both chambers had voted to approve the resolution, what the next steps would be. The votes landed one week after an audit conducted by State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrds office, which found that department staff were made to sign non-disclosure agreements and were discouraged from cooperating with investigators who were trying to unravel the cause of the agency's financial crisis. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has called for Friesen to be removed, citing a financial meltdown of her agency that showed nothing short of government malpractice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The House and Senate have the legal authority to hold Friesen accountable for her ineptitude and mismanagement, and I urge every legislator to vote in favor of her removal, Drummond said Thursday night. Stitt said before the votes occurred that the controversy surrounding Friesen was "a politically motivated witch hunt.""I tasked Allie Friesen with bringing accountability and transparency to the agency," Stitt said. "She disturbed the status quo and questioned long held practices at the agency. An agency rife with sweetheart deals and criminal elements was disrupted, and now, elected officials are quickly working to set the apple cart right for those who seek to get rich off of Oklahoma taxpayers." A legislative resolution calls for the removal of Allie Friesen as the commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. He said West and Rosino should ask themselves what they stood to gain by removing Friesen. On the Senate floor, Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, asked Rosino if Rosino should be carrying the bill and asked if Rosino's wife worked for the mental health agency, an issue Stitt also had raised. Rosino said his wife was a part-time employee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sixteen other senators debated the bill, all in support, with many of them rebuking Jett's comments in bringing Rosino's wife into the debate. Jett was the lone vote against the resolution in the Senate. After the vote, Rosino thanked the senators who'd supported him and said it had been a difficult day for him and his wife while dealing with the accusations. In the House, some lawmakers also expressed disdain for Stitt, with House Speaker Pro Tempore Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, suggesting Stitt wasn't fit to lead Oklahoma. The resolution said Friesen has the duty to oversee the delivery of all prevention, treatment, and education of mental health and substance abuse in the state and to ensure that the agency performs those services while having a budgetary and expenditure methodology that serves not only those Oklahoma citizens in need, but the employees and providers that deliver them. It went on to cite the budget shortfall and said, (T)he Senate and the House of Representatives have lost confidence in Commissioner Friesen to identify, oversee, and manage the critical services delivered by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. (This story was updated to add new information.) This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma lawmakers pass resolution to remove mental health commissioner Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks at his weekly media availability on May 28, 2025. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY The legislative session, which ended Friday, was a mixed bag for Gov. Kevin Stitt. He got his income tax cut, business courts and ban on cellphones in schools, prompting him to say Wednesday it was probably the best session in his seven years in office. Look. The governor should be very happy, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said early Friday. He got everything he wanted this session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But then came Thursday, effectively the final day of the legislative session. Lawmakers removed his embattled mental health commissioner and spent hours overriding dozens of his vetoes, including House Bill 1389, which expands insurance coverage for diagnostic mammograms. Stitt panned both the veto overrides and Friesens firing. State Superintendent Ryan Walters didnt fare well, watching lawmakers and Stitt halt his efforts to require citizenship status checks for students and the completion of the naturalization test for teachers. They also balked at his $3 million request to purchase Bibles for public school classrooms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But lawmakers stopped short of putting the kibosh on his controversial social studies standards, dictating what must be taught in school, and which have already drawn a court challenge. The standards include language requiring students be taught about unfounded 2020 election discrepancies, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and Bible stories. Democrats said they were largely left out of the budget process. While Stitt championed it, Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said the .25% income tax reduction was the worst bill of the session. It cuts the top bracket from 4.75% to 4.5% and contains a pathway toward eliminating the tax entirely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is going to undermine our options as a state, Kirt said. Stitt let the general appropriations bill, outlining the states nearly $12.6 billion budget, take effect without his signature. The budget gives most agencies a flat budget, but provides $250 million for the Oklahoma State University veterinary school and $200 million for a University of Oklahoma pediatric heart hospital. Perhaps one of the most controversial measures passed and signed into law was a bill putting more restrictions on the process voters use to get things on the ballot. Senate Bill 1027, which among other things implements restrictions on the number of people who can sign initiative petitions, is expected to draw a legal challenge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sports betting failed to get across the finish line for yet another year. A bill that would have barred synthetic dyes and over a dozen other ingredients from food got left on the cutting room floor, as did a measure requiring a Ten Commandments display at the Capitol. A bill that would add items to Oklahomas back-to-school sales tax holiday didnt muster the support needed for passage nor did a measure that would have made Nov. 5 President Donald J. Trump Day in Oklahoma. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Earlier this year, we told you about Lester Holts announcement that hes stepping down as the anchor of NBC Nightly News. Holt will anchor his final broadcast of the program tonight at 6:30 p.m. EDT. You can watch it LIVE on Channel 11. NBC News reports that Holt will continue at the network with a full-time role at Dateline, which he has also anchored for 15 years. He has been the anchor of NBC News Nightly for 10 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tom Llamas will take over as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News on June 2. Llamas is currently a senior national correspondent and anchor of Top Story with Tom Llamas on NBCs streaming platform, which he will continue each weeknight. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW To the editor: Organizations that canceled their diversity, equity and inclusion programs as the path of least resistance should take a hard look at the team theyve joined ( Target learns that bowing to anti-DEI backers can be costly, a lesson for those bowing to Trump, May 28). Its all part of the same argument throughout time. Pre-Civil War: Teach the enslaved to read and theyll be harder to keep subjugated (diversity is bad). Post-Civil War: Let them vote and theyll elect Black people (inclusion is bad). Post-civil rights: Give them equal opportunity and theyll take your job (equity is bad). In the viewpoint President Trump sells, winning requires a loser. If DEI efforts create new winners, by that logic, they turn former winners into losers, and the status quo winners are white, male, straight and wealthy. The ultimate end of this line of thought was on display May 21 in the Oval Office, where Trump used flagrantly and instantly disprovable lies to publicly accuse the Black president of South Africa of being complicit in genocide against white people apparently, the consequence of sacrificing apartheid in favor of allowing diversity, equity and inclusion into their democracy. Michael Maniccia, Alhambra Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement .. To the editor: I pass several Targets while going from place to place doing my weekly tasks. I was not a regular Target shopper, but when they announced their commitment to DEI, I started intentionally shopping there for many of my household goods. I also continued to support them after they hired my very well-qualified African American cousin. Speaking with her recently, she is actively seeking new employment in a DEI-supportive company and is no longer shopping at Target. I am supporting businesses such as Costco that are openly and vigorously advertising their commitment to the principles of DEI. Sheila Troupe, Redondo Beach This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. To the editor: Upon receiving my bachelor of architecture degree in 1973, I was hired by the urban design unit of the city of Chicago's planning department. My job was to be the main writer of a community development guideline document for the redevelopment of the downtown banks of the Chicago River. This position was funded in its entirety by a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the document was published in 1974 ( Art for arts sake, or the presidents? May 27). After moving to San Diego in 1982, my wife and I returned to Chicago in 2019. Much to my genuine glee, as we crossed the Michigan Avenue bridge over the Chicago River, I saw that nearly every concept in that NEA-funded document had come to fruition. The desired public-private investment into what was then a severely underutilized urban "amenity" had produced a full-of-life area in place of a semi-forgotten element of the city's core (except for when its being dyed green on St. Patricks Day). Accessibility, climate considerations and the like were promoted in that 1974 document, and the proof of its value was in that corridor. Would the city have paid for the document without the NEA? Perhaps, but with the NEA's help, I am sure it was created much sooner and now has proved its long-term value. Saving a relative few dollars on such a valuable resource (for all of the arts) makes little sense. Dan Linn, La Jolla This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. To the editor: If Deysi Vargas could afford a million-dollar-a-plate dinner at Mar-a-Lago, she might be able to save her daughter, like the mother of the tax criminal Paul Walczak ( 4-year-old Bakersfield girl facing deportation could die within days of losing medical care, May 27). He was pardoned after his mother bought a seat at President Trump's recent dinner. If her daughter were a Republican governor convicted of campaign finance fraud like former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, she could be pardoned ( Trump issues pardons for politicians, reality TV stars, a union leader and a rapper, May 29). If her daughter were a rioter who tried to overthrow the peaceful transfer of our democracy like the Jan. 6 criminals, she could be pardoned. But Vargas' daughter is simply a 4-year-old of Mexican descent who needs the lifesaving medical treatment she can obtain in the United States. Her daughter, by her innocence and lack of affluence and without allegiance to Trump, is apparently too much of a danger to remain free in the U.S. Fred Burgess, Camarillo This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. In a significant move toward closer regional ties, negotiations have been fully completed on the upgrade of the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA). ASEAN business leaders voiced enthusiasm for strengthening cooperation with China, particularly focusing on the fast-evolving AI industry. Produced by Xinhua Global Service UTICA, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) One of the guards accused in the beating death of Messiah Nantwi will have to wait for his day in court after a hearing on Friday. Jonah Levi, a former guard at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy, is accused of second-degree murder in Nantwis death. He is one of ten guards who are facing charges in Nantwis death, and the last person in the case to appear regarding a plea deal. However, in Oneida County Court on Friday, May 30, Judge Michael Nolan adjourned Levis case to August 8. Attorneys on both sides cited other court cases on their dockets as the reason for the almost two-month adjournment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lewis Spicer Levis attorney also objected during proceedings on Friday on audio-visual media coverage during Levis trial, citing that there would be enough press coverage to possibly influence the jury. However, Nolan overruled that objection. During the proceedings, Assistant District Attorney Sara Fitzpatrick warned the defense that the prosecution will not keep this offer open forever, referring to Levis plea deal. It is unknown what sentence Levi will face with the plea deal. Alongside the second-degree Murder charge a Class A-I Felony Levi is also facing the following charges: first-degree Manslaughter, a Class B Violent Felony, first-degree Gang Assault, a Class B Violent Felony, second-degree Gang Assault, a Class C Violent Felony, fifth-degree Conspiracy, a Class A Misdemeanor, and first-degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing, a Class E Felony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Levis next court date is set for Friday, August 8 at 9:30 am. You can check out the video from todays proceedings above. 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. MIDLAND, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) Opening in 2020, Liberty City Rage Room in Midland has been offering the opportunity to release stress in a new form of therapy. Jared Morrison is the co-owner alongside his brother Jason, of Liberty City Rage Room and told me what his favorite part of owning the business was. Seeing the way that people get liberated when they go in there, seeing people just go in there with just so much frustration, so much stress, so much anger to go in there and just cuss, scream, pray, do whatever. I see that and it helps people out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WATCH: Liberty City Rage Rooms full story Owner Q&A What is the most unique item that yall offer to destroy here? We get some old computers in here a lot, like 80s computers sometimes and those are interesting because those have a lot of gold content in them and what we do with the electronics is recycle it and get the gold, copper and all the precious metals and rare earth minerals and metals in it and recycle all that. Whats your personal favorite item to destroy? My favorite is probably the old box TV. Is there anything else you would like to discuss? Were taking donations right now because were running week to week with our stuff and its kind of nervous because if we run out of stuff, well have to turn people away. So were taking donations on a lot of stuff like glassware, figurines, bottles, printers, electronics, monitors, TVs, whatever youre trying to give up. Give us a call and well come get your stuff. Liberty City Rage Room Details Business Hours Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Monday: CLOSED Tuesday: CLOSED Wednesday: 1pm-10pm Thursday: 1pm-10pm Friday: 1pm-10pm Saturday: 1pm-10pm Sunday: 1pm-9pm Liberty City Rage Room is located in the basement of 401 W Texas Ave, Midland, TX 79701. You can contact them at (432) 400-5911. Or you can visit their website https://libertycityrageroom.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 Yourbasin. HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) A 19-year-old suspect in the Little River party-boat shooting arrested Thursday in Illinois waived extradition and will be returned to Horry County to face charges, authorities said. Shawon Shamarion Williams, 19, was taken into custody outside a U.S. naval station in Lake County, Ill., in connection with the Memorial Day weekend shooting that injured 11 people. He signed an extradition waiver, according to the Lake County, Illinois, sheriffs office. North Myrtle Beach police say officer accidentally shot himself in leg during Little River shooting response Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Horry County police said Thursday that Williams is expected to be charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Horry County police spokesperson Mikayla Moskov said late Thursday afternoon in an email news release that other people could be charged as the investigation continues. News13 reached out to Jacklyn Bellamy, one of the organizers of the boat event and Williams mother. We asked if she had any comment regarding Williams arrest, if she knew he was at the boat event, why he was on the boat since hes younger than 21, and whether he was searched before getting on the boat. He is innocent, thats all, Bellamy told a News13 reporter. Horry County Police Chief Kris Leonhardt said Tuesday at a news conference that three of the 11 people injured in Sundays shooting were still hospitalized. He also said it was an isolated incident that happened while the boat was docked in the Watson Avenue area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Little River shooting latest episode of high-profile crimes since March The shooting happened aboard the Hurricane II, which is part of a fleet of charter boats based in Calabash, North Carolina. According to the Associated Press, a flyer online advertised a party Sunday night with a DJ on a three-hour cruise ending at 9 p.m. A woman who answered a phone number on the flyer early Monday said she was distraught seeing her friends get shot but then said she didnt want to talk and hung up. Someone who answered the phone at the company that owns the boat said he didnt want to talk to a reporter. Randy Evans told a Charleston newspaper that his 25-year-old son was shot in the ankle and toe but managed to use his bathing suit as a makeshift tourniquet to help people who were more severely injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The surgery was better than they expected, Evans told The Post and Courier after his son didnt need pins in his foot or ankle. Hes going to be OK. Evans said his son told him that an argument after the boat docked turned ugly. No additional information was immediately available about Thursdays arrest. Police encouraged anyone with information or materials relevant to the investigation to reach out to the departments crime tip line at 843-915-8477 or to email crimetips@horrycountysc.gov This is a developing story. Count on News13 for updates. Information from the Associated Press was included in this story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * * * 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. DENVER (KDVR) After the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a list accusing more than 500 jurisdictions across the country of not complying with federal immigration laws, several Colorado officials are speaking out. On Thursday, the department released a sanctuary jurisdiction list, which claims that certain cities, counties and states, including several in Colorado, are sanctuary jurisdictions that are obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws. These Colorado areas are listed as sanctuary jurisdictions by Homeland Security Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jump to: Archived live blog with updates below. The department said it used factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions and legal protections for illegal aliens to determine the list, which documented 14 cities and over 40 counties in Colorado. FOX31 has reached out to the Colorado cities and counties on the sanctuary jurisdictions list. Heres what some of them said: Real-time coverage: How Colorado jurisdictions responded 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. WASHINGTON (NewsNation) President Donald Trump and advisor Elon Musk spoke from the Oval Office Friday, just two days after the tech billionaire announced his time in government is coming to an end. Trumps self-proclaimed first buddy is stepping down from his role as a special government employee after leading an effort to slash spending and shutter federal agencies. Musk was restricted to serving 130 days in a 365-day period because of his special employment status. The deadline is set to be met on Friday, May 30. Musk began the process of offboarding Wednesday evening, essentially just the necessary paperwork one does when leaving a job, another White House official noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Todd Chrisley maintains innocence, vows to fight for prisoners The Tesla and SpaceX chief, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to secure Trumps return to power, took to X, the social media platform he owns, on Wednesday to thank the president for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. He added that the cost-cutting initiative would continue without him. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government, Musk wrote. DOGE initially vowed to cut $2 trillion in government spending, but within four months, the target had shifted to less than a tenth of that amount, at $150 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning ahead of his departure, Musk delivered a sharp rebuke of Trumps domestic policy agenda by alleging the new Republican spending bill would increase the federal deficit and undermine the work of the DOGE team. Supreme Court lets Trump end humanitarian parole for 500K people Musk underscored he has differences of opinion with the Trump administration but feels stuck in a bind when it comes to speaking out against it. White House officials insist Musk left on good terms with Trump. Musk has since refocused on his businesses, which have been negatively impacted by his time in politics. Tesla, in particular, has seen falling sales. He announced on X that he would be back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms I must be super focused. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 27 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Friday, while Hamas was reviewing a new Israeli-approved ceasefire proposal after giving it an initial cool response. President Donald Trumps Mideast envoy had expressed optimism this week about brokering an agreement that could halt the Israel-Hamas war, allow more aid into Gaza, and return more of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas, around a third of whom are alive. Experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade of Gaza slightly eased in recent days has pushed the population of roughly 2 million Palestinians to the brink of famine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israels war in Gaza has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began with Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which left around 1,200 dead. Here's the latest: Israel says it struck weapons depots in Syria The airstrikes late Friday targeted missile storage facilities on Syrias Mediterranean coast that the Israeli military said posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation, according to a brief statement. State-run news agency SANA said the strikes in the Latakia area resulted in material damage but no casualties were reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria targeting military infrastructure since Syrian Islamist insurgents toppled the government of Bashar Assad late last year. Israeli forces have also captured a buffer zone along the Golan Heights. Friday's strike comes a day after the U.S. special envoy to Syria reopened the long-shuttered U.S. ambassadors residence in Damascus a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government. Iran nuclear deal remains on the horizon, Trump says Trump also said Friday say that he still thinks a deal between the U.S. and Iran could be completed in the not too distant future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They dont want to be blown up. They would rather make a deal, Trump said of Iran. He added, That would be a great thing that we could have a deal without bombs being dropped all over the Middle East. Trump said hes warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from carrying out preemptive strikes on Irans nuclear program while the talks are playing out. Trump says Israel-Hamas very close on temporary truce deal Theyre very close to an agreement on Gaza, and well let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, Trump told reporters on Friday. Trumps optimistic outlook comes after the White House announced Thursday that Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas. U.S. negotiators have not publicized the terms of the proposed deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March. However, changes may have been made. UN says it only picked up 5 truckloads of aid from border because of nearby fighting Currently, after supplies enter Gaza from Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing, aid workers are required to unload them and reload them onto their own trucks for distribution. Yesterday, we and our humanitarian partners only managed to collect five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kareem Shalom crossing, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. The other 60 trucks had to return to the crossing due to intense hostilities in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An Israeli official said his country has offered the U.N. logistical and operational support but the U.N. is not doing their job. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said other organizations had succeeded in collecting aid from the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. The official declined to provide details on how many truckloads were collected or which organizations were able to collect them. What is a famine and who declares one? For months, experts have warned that Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of famine. Israel eased its blockade on the territory a few weeks ago, but the U.N. humanitarian aid office said Friday that deliveries into Gaza remain severely restricted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No famine has been formally declared in the war-torn territory. Often, U.N. officials or governments will make a formal statement, based on an analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on hunger crises. Theres a widespread misunderstanding that someone has to declare a famine before it is a famine. That is not the case, said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. When IPC shows the data that hits the threshold for a famine, then its a famine. The IPC considers an area to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications. Armed Palestinians steal medicine and food meant for kids from a hospital, UN says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The looters took medicine, health equipment and nutritional supplements intended for malnourished children from warehouses at a field hospital in Deir al-Balah on Friday, and U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. This appeared to be much more organized and different from recent looting episodes in which desperate Palestinians took food from warehouses or aid trucks, Dujarric said. There have been episodes of looting by armed gangs throughout the war, however there's concern that desperation and hunger could lead to a breakdown of law and order in Gaza after three months of near-total Israeli blockade. Israeli strike on families in a tent kills 13 people, including 8 kids Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the southern city of Khan Younis on Friday afternoon, killing 13 people including eight children, hospital officials said. The strike killed members of two different families, according to Nasser Hospital records viewed by The Associated Press. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike. Israeli forces killed 72 people on Thursday, Gaza medics say Hospital officials said Friday that at least 72 had been killed in Gaza during the previous day. That figure does not include some hospitals in the north, which are largely cut off due to the fighting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hamas and other Palestinian factions are still studying the ceasefire proposal Hamas said in a terse statement Friday that it is holding consultations with Palestinian factions over the proposal it received from the U.S. Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff. Qatars UN envoy says negotiations are ongoing on Gaza ceasefire proposal Qatar is intensively engaged with the United States and Egypt to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and end the war, said the Gulf country's ambassador to the United Nations. Negotiations are ongoing on the current proposal, Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani told reporters at the U.N. on Friday. We are very determined to find an ending to this horrific situation in Gaza. Throughout the war, Qatar has been an important location for negotiations, and it has served as an intermediary for Hamas Many Palestinians in Gaza trek for hours to secure just 1 meal a day Mohammed Abed said he and his family suffer greatly trying to find food and eat only one meal a day because of shortages. He said he waits for three hours daily to get a small amount of rice. Its heartbreaking that people are being starved because of politics. Food and water should not be used for political purposes, Abed told The Associated Press in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Fuad Muheisen from Deir a-Balah said if charity kitchens shut down all of Gaza will die. No one will stay alive. Mnawar al-Rai said she has been displaced five times with her family and now is settled in Deir al-Balah where they tried to collect aid in recent days but came under fire. She said they have to walk to three or four locations every day to collect a plate of food to feed the children, adding that almost nothing is available in markets because merchants are exploiting people. Palestinians hope a ceasefire ends what they describe as a meaningless nightmare Mohammed Abed said people in central Gaza grow optimistic when they hear that a ceasefire is near, only to be disappointed when a deal is not reached. This war has no meaning. This is the war of starvation, death, siege and long lines for food and toilets, Abed said. This war is the 2025 nightmare, 2024 nightmare and 2023 nightmare. Another Gaza resident Mohammed Mreil said about the possibility of a truce that: We want to live and we want them (Israelis) to live. God did not create us to die. US- and Israeli-backed foundation says it distributed over 2 million meals The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said Friday it distributed more than 2 million of what it described as meals within four days of starting operations. It said that on Friday it distributed six truckloads of food at one distribution point. Palestinian aid-seekers have described getting basic items like bags of pasta, rice and cans of beans. Hunger and malnutrition have mounted among Gazas 2.3 million Palestinians since Israel barred entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies nearly three months ago, allowing a trickle of aid in only the past two weeks. The GHF has faced criticism by aid groups and Palestinians for a chaotic rollout since it began operations this week. More than a dozen Palestinians described chaos at all three aid hubs on Thursday, with multiple witnesses reporting a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and they said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds. The group said that it was committed to safely and effectively supplying food to a large, hungry population." It said it planned to scale and build additional sites including in the north of Gaza in the coming weeks and that it was testing and adapting its distribution model to safely deliver as much aid as possible to the greatest number of people. Read more about chaos at new distribution sites Families of hostages plead with Netanyahu Families of hostages held in Gaza are pleading with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure that any agreement to end the war must include the freedom of all the hostages. There are 58 hostages left in Gaza, of whom Israel believes approximately a third are still alive. Ayelet Samerano, the mother of Yonatan Samerano, whose body is being held in Gaza, was among the family members who met with Netanyahu on Thursday. She said the news that only 10 hostages and several bodies would be released had once again plunged the families into indescribable uncertainty. Its again a selection, you know, all the families, we are right now standing and thinking, is it going to be my son? Isnt it? What will be after part of them will come, what will be with the rest? Israel has accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas, the White House said Thursday, while Hamas has had a cooler response. If they (Hamas) want guarantees, we will give them guarantees that after the last hostages will back to Israel, we will stop the war, Samerano said. Im telling you, Netanyahu, say yes. All our countries say yes, the families say yes. All the families, when we are saying, stop the world and give us the hostages back. At least 14 killed in Gaza strikes, medics say Hospital officials and paramedics say Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people and wounded others. Officials at Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza said the bodies of 12 people, including three women, were brought Friday from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the bodies of two people as well as nine others who were wounded were taken to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City. It said one of the wounded is a doctor who works at the same hospital. Hamas is reviewing a new ceasefire proposal Hamas said Friday it was reviewing a new Israeli-approved ceasefire proposal. The White House said Thursday that Israel accepted a new U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Hamas. Hamas officials, however, gave the draft a cool response, saying that it seeks to perpetuate Israels policies of killing and starving people in Gaza. Still, the group said it was going to thoroughly review it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to end the war until all the hostages are released and Hamas is either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu undergoes a routine colonoscopy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent a routine colonoscopy on Friday morning in Jerusalem, his office said. The office did not provide further information about whether Netanyahu was moderately sedated or under general anesthesia for the procedure. Netanyahu, 75, underwent successful surgery in December to have his prostate removed. Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to bolster a public image of himself as a healthy, energetic leader, as he manages multiple crises including the war in Gaza and his trial for alleged corruption, despite a series of recent health setbacks. An iron fence was placed on top of the La Doctora clinic in Huntington Park. It's since been vandalized. (Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times) For the last three years, an unknown number of homeless people have been living on the rooftop of Tahani Soliman's medical practice in the city of Huntington Park, the doctor says. The group, she says, has caused fires, damaged the roof and taken apart air-conditioning units for parts, all of which shes had to repair or replace, costing her nearly $100,000. In an effort to ward them off, Soliman said she installed an iron fence with razor wire and a metal cage around an outdoor faucet. She said shed complained to the city and the police about the vandalism but that theyd failed to address the problems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The police told me to install cameras, and I told them I have cameras, she said. They told me I should put them on the roof. The roof, can you believe that? The city of Huntington Park told The Times it planned to reach out to Soliman to address her concerns. Dr. Tahani Soliman says she has spent tens of thousands of dollars repairing damage to the roof and air-conditioning units installed there. (Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times) The Huntington Park Police Department said it is committed to addressing public safety concerns and that it was working with stakeholders to investigate not only the problems at Solimans building but also the broader issues in the neighborhood. Alongside our crime prevention efforts, the department continues to address the challenges associated with the unhoused population through a compassionate and balanced approach, the statement read. Our officers regularly engage with unhoused individuals, connecting them to mental health services, social support programs, and shelter options in collaboration with city and county partners." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Solimans medical practice La Doctora Spanish for the doctor, is one of three businesses nestled within a commercial property thats adjacent to a two-story parking structure. She said the vandals use the top floor of the structure to access the rooftop of her building, which she said she manages. She said that prompted her to install the iron fence with razor wire but that it was eventually damaged by the trespassers. On a recent, warm Thursday afternoon, a portion of the razor wire hung from the black metal fence down to a trash container sitting next to the caged water faucet. A purple sweater dangled on a branch of a jacaranda tree. Two doors down from Solimans medical practice is American Bio-Clinical Laboratories. Past the double glass doors, Maria Pascual, an employee, sat in front of a computer, her forehead clammy from the warmth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We havent been able to turn the air conditioning on, Pascual said. She said she noticed the AC unit was not working when she tried to turn it on during the recent heat wave. She later learned from Soliman that the AC units had been damaged again. Its happened before, she said. Soliman said the homeless people had scrapped the units again for parts. The Huntington Park police said the thefts occurred on May 7 and that officers were actively investigating. Were living in misery, Soliman said. The physician said she expected to have to spend thousands of dollars again to replace the air-conditioning units and make necessary repairs to the rooftop. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fed up, she shared with The Times a handwritten itemized invoice of the projected cost of installing the AC units: $20,800 for four AC units, $2,300 to deliver and use a crane to hoist the units and $6,000 for labor costs. The owner of a medical practice said homeless people have been sleeping on the rooftop of her building, which they've accessed through a parking structure next door. To deter people, Tahani Soliman installed an iron fence with razor-sharp wiring that has been damaged. (Ruben Vives / Los Angeles Times) The invoice also showed the cost of installing a new iron fence around the units, bringing the total cost to $35,900. She said the costs and lack of response from the city and police had led her to consider two things: retirement and the possible closure of her business. I cant take it anymore," she said. "No one is protecting me. Soliman said the source of the problem is a two-story parking structure that sits next to her building and has also been the source of many other problems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Broken glass, human excrement and charred areas were visible on the floors and stairways of the parking lot on Thursday afternoon. On the top floor, motorcycle tire marks from burnouts were visible, and metal bars of the iron fence installed by Soliman had been bent apart. Across from the parking structure is a residential building. Watering her plants on her balcony, Maria Luiza, 78, said she had seen drug use not just by the homeless people but also young people from the area at the parking structure. She said motorcycles have done burnouts and there had been several fires. She said the problems became so bad that the owner of her building had to install gates on the building carports to keep people away. They need to permanently close that structure down, she said. Its nothing but problems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across the street, walking to their apartments, Marta Becerra, 50, and Margarita Mota, 60, said people from the parking structure had wandered into their apartment complex, stealing bicycles and other items from peoples porches. There had also been car break-ins. Weve made a lot of complaints," Becerra said, "but nothing happens." The police dont do anything about it, Mota said, chiming in. Theres not a lot of patrolling going on around here. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. MAUREPAS, La. (Louisiana First) A Livingston Parish woman has been arrested in connection with a case involving the production and possession of child sexual abuse material. According to the Louisiana State Police, Christy Babin, 39, of Maurepas, was booked into the Livingston Parish Jail on multiple charges. On May 20, 2025, investigators with the LSP Special Victims Unit (LSP/SVU), along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), began an investigation into the production and possession of child sexual abuse material. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation started after the LSP SVU received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about the potential exploitation of children. After investigating, law enforcement identified Babin as the individual responsible for possessing the child sexual abuse material. On May 29, 2025, a search warrant was executed at Babins residence. She was arrested for one count of possession of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13. Further investigation revealed that Babin also took the images of the juvenile. She was also charged with production of pornography involving juveniles. The case remains under investigation. Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 Louisiana First News. MEXICO CITY, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday confirmed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send a mission next week to assess the possibility of reopening the border to Mexican cattle exports. Both Mexican and U.S. producers have been demanding this step to reactivate a key commercial activity affected by a ban imposed by the U.S. government in mid-May after detecting the presence of screwworm in livestock. "There is progress, and it must be reopened because the United States needs it too. It's not just a need for Mexican ranchers," Sheinbaum said at a daily morning press conference. "We do not want this pest to spread" so "all necessary measures are being taken," she added. "We hope this will open the border," Sheinbaum said, adding that Mexico's Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegue will follow up on the case. On May 12, Washington announced a 15-day ban on the entry of live cattle from Mexico due to the pest. The measure has since been in place. RAVENNA, Ohio (WKBN) A Springfield Township firefighter facing rape charges in Mahoning County is now facing similar charges in Portage County. Read next: Inmate tied up, beaten sues private prison for $25K An indictment filed Thursday in Portage County Court of Common Pleas charges Brian Swansiger, 28, with two counts of rape, two counts of sexual battery, gross sexual imposition and two counts of kidnapping. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The indictment states that Swansiger allegedly raped and restrained a 25-year-old woman around January 1, 2024 in Portage County. Swansiger was arraigned in Portage County on Monday and is being held without bond. He also faces charges in Mahoning County, with a pretrial in that case set for August 5. Prosecutors in Mahoning County said Swansiger is accused in what theyre describing as a series of date rape incidents involving multiple victims. Prosecutor Lynn Maro aid at the time that additional people were coming forward with information, some from outside the area. Swansiger had been working as a firefighter in Springfield Township but is now on unpaid leave from that position pending the outcome of his criminal cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gerry Ricciutti and Kristy Regula 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. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) A powerful tribute to fallen heroes is making a stop in the Mahoning Valley this weekend. The Wall that Heals a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial continues its mission of remembrance and education. It arrived in Warren this week, giving local residents a chance to honor those who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War. From noon to 3 p.m. Friday, families and students gathered for special programs focused on the importance of remembering this pivotal time in American History. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kids dont always get to learn about the Vietnam War. They dont get to know what the Vietnam vets went through when they came home, so just getting to sit down with them and talk to them while were doing these things, saying, So what do you think about that wall up there? Do you know why its so important?' said Aimee Wehmeyer, director of the Warren Heritage Center. Organizers say the wall will remain in town through the weekend with other events planned to encourage reflection, education and healing. 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. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) Angel Williams said as a victim of stalking, she has seen a need for more resources to help survivors. She is taking up some of those responsibilities with a new local nonprofit organization called Shielding Angels. Registered with the state in 2023, she is now ready to hit the ground running. The organization has a couple of fundraisers planned and has been working with victims of stalking and harassment to offer guidance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What I found was the communities that we live in are not really equipped for the things that stalkers are doing these days, especially if it involves a technology component, Williams said. Williams said she saw that others were going through the same things that she experienced. I decided to be the answer, so to speak, to be the help that I needed myself or that other people needed when its not readily available right now, she said. One in three women and one in six men will experience stalking at some point in their lives, according to SPARC (Stalking, Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center). The most common stalking tactics experienced by victims are unwanted phone calls, but 52% of victims reported that they had been followed and watched. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Williams said many stalkers are now more emboldened by technology, and it is easier than ever to keep tabs on someone. What she said is worth noting is that most stalkers are just acquaintances and not even those that victims may know well, according to data from SPARC. Williams said, despite how common stalking is, she has not seen it being made as a priority. That is where she said Shielding Angels can help bridge the gap. For whatever other organizations or law enforcement may not have time to do or think is priority, we would step in and do whatever we can legally in order for a person to be supported or to feel secure, she said. She said she and Shielding Angels can help victims of stalking keep their addresses private. The Secretary of State has a Safe at Home program which allows victims of domestic violence, stalking, human trafficking, rape or sexual battery to shield their address from public records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Williams said she can also help people make their devices and technology more secure. In the future, she would like to find a property to use as a safe haven for someone trying to transition to a safer living arrangement. Although she said she is not completely out of her own situation, she advises other victims to do what they can in increments to regain their peace. [Stalking] can be really invasive to a point where it disrupts your life, of living normally, of having a normal life. For me, I try not to make it where thats my only priority or thing to think about during the day. With all the damage that a stalker can do, people miss out on money, they lose jobs, relationships are sabotaged survivors have a cry for just wanting to be left in peace. Thats what it does it disturbs your peace. It takes your peace away, she said. Williams has partnered with Fred Astaire in Warren for an Awards Gala in December. The event includes speakers on stalking awareness, Fred Astaire Dance Studios will perform, and awards will be given to community heroes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joshua Daffron, dance instructor at Fred Astaire, said when they heard about her cause, they were more than willing to help out. We really at Fred Astaire like to pride ourselves on our involvement in the community, whether it would be this type of event or any other type of charity event, were always open to helping out with different causes and needs throughout the community. Angel came in and told us about this event and said shed really like us to perform there, and were going to get her to perform, too, and just happy to support the cause, Daffron said. The event takes place at 4 p.m. December 6. To RSVP, call Williams at 330-978-5213. Shielding Angels is also hosting Dinner and a Movie at Buena Vista Cafe, located at 1305 Buena Vista Ave, on May 31. For more information and to buy tickets, visit Shielding Angels website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can also find more information about Shielding Angels on its 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 WKBN.com. Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, speaks on her floor amendments to Senate Bill 3. The logo on the cap says National Assembly of Sportsmen's Caucuses. Webb's amendments were defeated and she voted against the bill. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) A long time Eastern Kentucky Democrat has announced she is joining the Republican Party. Sen. Robin Webb, a Carter County lawmaker who has served in the state legislature since 1999, was one of two Democrats left in the statehouse representing parts of Eastern Kentucky. The region was once a Democratic stronghold, turning into a Republican area over the last couple of decades. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She and other Republicans said it was a sign that the Democratic Party isnt what it once was. In a press release from the Republican Party of Kentucky, Webb said that she didnt leave the Democratic Party, but the party left me. She added that her core values have not changed, just the letter next to my name and she will continue to focus on issues in rural Kentucky. The Kentucky Democratic Party has increasingly alienated lifelong rural Democrats like myself by failing to support the issues that matter most to rural Kentuckians, Webb said. First and foremost, Im a mother, a rancher and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentuckys coal country. As the Democratic party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values. It has become untenable and counterproductive to the best interests of my constituents for me to remain a Democrat. Webb thanked Republican Senate President Robert Stivers, other colleagues in the General Assembly and RPK for the warm welcome. She said she looks forward to continuing to focus on sound policy with rural Kentuckys best interests in mind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Webb was elected to the state Senate in 2009 after serving in the House for a decade, making her one of the current longest serving members of the General Assembly. Her district includes the northeastern Kentucky counties of Boyd, Carter, Greenup and Lewis. With Webbs switch, Democrats superminority in the Senate dwindles to six members. Republicans now have 32 seats in the chamber. She was often seen as the caucus more conservative member, sometimes voting with Republicans on culture war issues, like this years bill to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public Kentucky universities. Webb was also recently appointed by Stivers as the Senate co-chair of the Disaster Prevention and Resiliency Task Force, which will meet during the interim session. She sponsored a resolution to establish the panel. Webb also often worked across the aisle to get support for her legislation, particularly on agriculture and rural policies. Earlier this year, one of her bills gained passage in both the Republican-controlled Senate and House. Signed into law by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, the bill established new allied animal health professional licenses for equine dentistry and animal chiropractic practice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stivers, of Manchester, welcomed Webb to the majority caucus in a statement and said Republicans have reached a historic milestone of 32 members in the chamber. Robins policy record speaks for itself, Stivers said. Whether its her advocacy for Kentucky coal and our energy independence, her support for responsible budgeting, or her commitment to rural infrastructure, workforce development and judicial matters, she has long worked alongside Republican colleagues to advance the interests of Eastern Kentucky. Her decision to officially join the Senate Majority Caucus is more than symbolic it reinforces the strength of our shared policy priorities and our ongoing focus on delivering tangible results for Eastern Kentucky and the whole state. Rep. Patrick Flannery, an Olive Hill Republican who represents Webbs home county and other parts of the Senate district in the House, said in the RPK press release that the party switch makes sense for Webb and her constituents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robin and I have always had an excellent working relationship, Flannery said. She has served as a mentor to me and many others. We represent the same constituency, and shes making the same decision that many of our people have already made by changing her registration. Other Kentucky Republican leaders praised Webb for joining the party. RPK Chairman Robert J. Benvenuti III said in a statement that he met Webb when he was a state representative. I always respected that she approached issues in a very thoughtful and commonsense manner, and that she never failed to keenly focus on what was best for her constituents. It is my pleasure to welcome Sen. Robin Webb to the Republican Party, he said. Like countless other Kentuckians, she has recognized that the policies and objectives of todays Democratic Party are simply not what they once were, and do not align with the vast majority of Kentuckians. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was first elected to his seat in 1984 at a time when Republicans held few elected positions in Kentucky, praised Webbs decision on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congratulations to my longtime friend & former Democrat, Kentucky State Sen. Robin Webb, on making the right choice, joining the GOP. Robin is an admirable advocate for East KY families & I was proud to personally welcome her to the Party this morning, McConnell said. He announced earlier this year he is not seeking reelection to the U.S. Senate. Kentuckys Republican National Committeeman John McCarthy and RNC Co-chair KC Crosbie, of Kentucky, also welcomed Webb to the partys ranks. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Democratic Party said in a press release that Webb was betraying her constituents in the process of changing her party affiliation. Senator Webb has chosen to join a political party that is currently working around the clock to take health care away from over a million Kentuckians, wipe out our rural hospitals, take food off the table of Kentucky families and take resources away from our public schools. If those are her priorities, then we agree: she isnt a Democrat, said KDP Chairman Colmon Elridge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Democratic Floor Leader Gerald Neal, of Louisville said in an afternoon statement that Webbs decision will not change the course and diligence with which the Democratic Caucus has and will continue to operate. He added that his caucus looks forward to continuing to work with Senator Webb and all of our Republican colleagues to make Kentucky a better place to live, work and raise a family. The Democratic Caucus remains committed to working to bring Kentucky a brighter future by fully funding public education, protecting workers rights, and fighting for the well-being of Kentuckys families, Neal said. We will continue to support investments in job training and workforce development; expand access to affordable healthcare; provide solutions to food insecurity; establish affordable housing initiatives; prepare for and effectively manage disaster response and ensure responsible budgeting for the Commonwealth. In the statehouse, the lone Democrat in the mountains left is Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty, of Martin. Webb can seek election again in 2026. She had no opponents in the 2022 election. Correction: This story was updated to reflect when Webb was elected to the Kentucky Senate. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX TYLER, Texas (KETK) A longtime federal prosecutor has been named by President Trump as the acting United States Attorney of the Eastern District of Texas. Jay R. Combs has been working for the Department of Justice since 2006, where he started as Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) on the U.S.- Mexico border. While he was at AUSA, Combs focused on immigration, narcotics and human trafficking cases along with fraud and white collar crimes. Dead men cant testify: East Texas judge arrested on multiple charges released Thursday morning Courtesy of the U.S. Attorneys office Through his tenure, Combs received multiple nationwide awards and was recognized for his contributions to the fight against international drug cartels. Combs served in the United States Army as a Judge Advocate General for six years after serving 20 years in the U.S. Army. While in the Army, he served in several roles, including Executive Officer of an Air Defense Artillery Battery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Combs looks to carry out the current administrations goal of keeping Americans safe. I am thankful to President Trump and Attorney General Bondi for this opportunity and humbled by the honor of leading the Eastern District of Texas, Combs said. This opportunity to serve the American people is both a tremendous responsibility and a great privilege. This office plays a critical role in ensuring the American people are kept safe. I look forward to advancing the administrations core priorities of immigration enforcement; combatting human trafficking and smuggling; attacking transnational organized crime, cartels, and gangs; and protecting the federal, state, and local law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line to protect us all. I look forward to working alongside our great prosecutors, staff and brave law enforcement partners. As federal prosecutor, Combs will oversee one of the busiest districts in the United States that prosecutes more foreign drug cartel leaders than most other U.S. Attorneys Offices nationwide. The district represents 43 countries and over 3.5 million people. The district currently comprises six U.S. District divisions with federal district courts in Beaumont, Sherman, Plano, Tyler, Lufkin and Marshall. 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Loretta Swit, the Emmy Award-winning actress who played no-nonsense U.S. Army combat nurse Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the hit TV series "M*A*S*H" for more than a decade, died on Friday at the age of 87. Swit, a mainstay of one of the most successful and acclaimed series in U.S. television history, died at her home in New York City from what was suspected to be natural causes, her publicist, Harlan Boll, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Swit earned two best supporting actress Emmys and 10 nominations for her role as "Hot Lips," the lusty, tough but vulnerable, patriotic Army career nurse in the series that ran from 1972-1983. As the only regular female character in the groundbreaking show set in the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War of the 1950s, "Hot Lips" endured the insults, pranks and practical jokes of the fun-loving male surgeons. The show's cast also included Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Larry Linville, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Gary Burghoff, David Ogden Stiers and Jamie Farr. Swit defined her role by playing a strong, determined, independent woman, who had input into the development and storyline of her character, including her split from her married lover Major Frank Burns, hilariously played by Linville, and her own wedding and divorce. She appeared in nearly all of the more than 250 episodes and the series finale, which was the most watched episode of any TV series in history when the show ended in 1983. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The TV series was based on the real-life experiences of an Army surgeon, who penned the 1968 book "MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors," and on director Robert Altman's 1970 black comedy film of the same name. "While we were shooting, even from the very beginning, we were aware of how very special it was," Swit said about the series in a 2017 interview with Fox News. "The symbiosis, the camaraderie, the love and respect we had for each other." ALWAYS WANTED TO PERFORM Loretta Swit was born on November 4, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey. After finishing school, and against her strict parents' objections, she began training as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She worked as a stenographer while auditioning for roles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The first thought I ever had in my head was being an actress. I can't remember ever not wanting to perform, she told the Star magazine in a 2010 interview. The tall, blonde stage and TV star was a strict vegetarian and animal lover. She started her career in theater and appeared in guest roles in TV dramas such as "Gunsmoke," "Mannix," "Bonanza" and the original "Hawaii Five-O," before landing her signature role. Swit also originated the character of Detective Christine Cagney in the pilot for "Cagney & Lacey" but could not take on the role in the TV series because of her contract with "M*A*S*H". The actress made her Broadway debut in "Same Time, Next Year" in 1975. She performed in the musical "Mame" on tour and starred in the one-woman play "Shirley Valentine" more than 1,000 times over three decades. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Acting is not hiding to me, its revealing. We give you license to feel," she said in an interview with the Star magazine in 2010. "Thats the most important thing in the world, because when you stop feeling, thats when youre dead. After "M*A*S*H" Swit appeared in TV movies, on game shows and on the stage and in films but she never found the same level of fame. She also devoted herself to animal rights and was a former spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States. She married actor Dennis Holahan, who played a Swedish diplomat in an episode of "M*A*S*H," in 1983. The couple divorced in 1995 and had no children. Although "M*A*S*H" ended decades ago, Swit found new generations of fans through syndication of the series. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The show has never been off the air! A lot of people dont realize that," Swit told the Huffington Post in 2018. "Ive seen it in Thailand, in Egypt ... Its a phenomenon." (Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Diane Craft and Nia Williams) With dog attacks on postal workers climbing to more than 6,000 cases in the past year, the U.S. Postal Service is launching its annual National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign beginning June 1. According to USPS data, Los Angeles recorded 77 dog attacks on postal workers in 2024, the highest number of any city in the country. Houston followed with 65 incidents, and Chicago ranked third with 57. Other California cities also made the top 20 list, including San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Stockton, and Oakland. Rank City, State Number of Attacks 1 Los Angeles, California 77 2 Houston, Texas 65 3 Chicago, Illinois 57 4 St. Louis, Missouri 47 5 Cincinnati, Ohio 44 6 Dallas, Texas 43 7 Kansas City, Missouri 40 7 Cleveland, Ohio 40 8 San Diego, California 35 9 Denver, Colorado 34 10 San Antonio, Texas 32 10 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 32 10 Detroit, Michigan 32 10 Columbus, Ohio 32 11 Minneapolis, Minnesota 30 12 Indianapolis, Indiana 26 13 Phoenix, Arizona 25 13 Memphis, Tennessee 25 14 Omaha, Nebraska 24 14 Louisville, Kentucky 24 15 Rochester, New York 23 16 Toledo, Ohio 21 16 Sacramento, California 21 16 El Paso, Texas 21 17 San Francisco, California 20 17 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 20 17 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 20 17 Albuquerque, New Mexico 20 18 Stockton, California 18 18 Oakland, California 18 19 Youngstown, Ohio 17 19 Salt Lake City, Utah 17 19 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 17 19 Miami, Florida 17 19 Des Moines, Iowa 17 20 St. Petersburg, Florida 15 20 Fort Worth, Texas 15 20 Birmingham, Alabama 15 Nationwide, California led all states with 701 dog bite incidents, Texas ranked second, while Ohio came in third. 2024 Dog Bite/Dog Incident Data STATE Number of dog bites Top 10 States 1 California 701 1 2 Texas 438 2 3 Ohio 350 3 4 Illinois 344 4 5 New York 322 5 6 Pennsylvania 316 6 7 Michigan 231 7 8 Florida 210 8 9 Missouri 207 9 10 North Carolina 169 10 This years campaign, themed Secure Your Dog, Keep Deliveries on Track, urges pet owners to take responsibility for keeping dogs properly restrained during mail delivery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The initiative runs throughout June and uses the hashtag #dogbiteawareness to spread awareness across social media. The best way to keep safe from dog attacks is to recognize and promote the responsibility of pet ownership, Leeann Theriault, USPS employee safety and health awareness manager, said in a statement. All dogs regardless of breed, size, or age have the potential to bite. The USPS emphasizes that many attacks occur unexpectedly, even from dogs that have no history of aggression. Mail carriers are trained to stay vigilant in neighborhoods where dogs are present and to follow safety protocols, such as never startling a dog and using items like mail satchels to create a barrier if threatened. The Postal Service advises customers to secure their dogs in a separate room or area away from the door during mail delivery. Pet owners should also avoid opening the door while the carrier is present and ensure children do not retrieve mail in the presence of a pet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to physical harm, dog attacks on USPS workers can lead to costly repercussions for dog owners, including medical expenses, lost wages, and uniform replacement costs. If a mail carrier feels unsafe, mail delivery to the residence can be suspended until the dog is properly secured. Residents would then need to retrieve their mail from their local Post Office. In some cases, the USPS may require pet owners to rent a P.O. box to resume service. As part of its annual campaign, the USPS urges pet owners to take preventive action. The most important message for our customers to remember is to keep your dog secured and away from the carrier as the mail is being delivered, Theriault said. Help ensure the safety of everyone in our communities. 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. VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) Saturday marks a somber anniversary six years since a mass shooting at Virginia Beachs Municipal Center Complex killed 12 people and seriously injured four others. Virginia Beach Mass Shooting The city will hold a remembrance ceremony at 4 p.m. to honor the lives lost and the survivors still healing from the unthinkable tragedy which took place May 31, 2019. The ceremony will be held at the Mary C. Russo Volunteer Recognition Gazebo at 2401 Courthouse Drive, with a moment of silence to be held at 4:06 p.m. signaling the time when the first 911 call went through. Saturdays ceremony is open to the public and will take place rain or shine, the city said. The community is invited to wear blue, the color of remembrance. 5/31 was the darkest day in the history of Virginia Beach and always will be, said Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer. Twelve people were killed that day in the mass shooting at the Municipal Center Complex in 2019. The shooter, a city engineer, also injured four others before police shot and killed the suspect. Three hundred in the room, in the building at the time, had memories of that senseless act of violence, Dyer said. The city is inviting the community to show love for VB at the remembrance ceremony and is asking everyone to wear blue to show unity. If there was one thing heartening during that terrible time, [it] was the way the community all embraced and came together, Dyer said. And I tell you what, that was remarkable. A $14 million memorial is in the works to honor the lives lost. Crews are working now on the framework for the fountain at the corner of Princess Anne Road and Nimmo Parkway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement VB mass shooting memorial will cost an additional $4.3 million It will go on in perpetuity, Dyer said, as our love for all those who are adversely affected. That memorial, were told, is on schedule to open May 31, 2026. Complete Coverage: Virginia Beach Mass Shooting For more information, visit LoveForVB.com. On May 30, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered that all U.S. and Commonwealth of Virginia flags be flown at half-staff on all state and local buildings in memory of the victims of May 31 shooting. I hereby order that the flags shall be lowered at sunrise on Saturday, May 31, 2025, and remain at half-staff until sunset. Gov. Glenn Youngkin 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 WAVY.com. Midway through this month, Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries sent out a fundraising text saying that he recently announced a 10-point plan to take on Trump and the Republicans. But the plan was no more recent than early February, just two weeks after President Trumps inauguration. Its hardly reassuring that the House minority leader cited a 100-day-old memo as his strategy for countering the administrations countless moves since then to dismantle entire government agencies, destroy life-saving programs and assault a wide range of civil liberties. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is so unpopular with the Democratic base that a speaking tour for his new book abruptly postponed just before it was set to begin more than two months ago still hasnt been rescheduled. The eruption of anger at his support for Trumps spending bill in mid-March made Schumer realize that being confronted by irate Democrats in deep-blue states wouldnt make for good photo ops. Last month, a Gallup poll measured public confidence in the Democratic congressional leadership at just 25 percent, a steep drop of nine points since 2023 and now at an all-time low. Much of the disaffection comes from habitual Democratic voters who see the partys leaders as slow-moving and timid while the Trump administration continues with its rampage against democratic structures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Away from the Capitol, the partys governing body the Democratic National Committee is far from dynamic or nimble. Maintaining its twice-a-year timetable, the 448-member DNC isnt scheduled to meet until late August. In the meantime, the DNCs executive committee is set to gather in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Friday for its first meeting since December. That meeting is scheduled to last three hours. The DNCs bylaws say that the executive committee shall be responsible for the conduct of the affairs of the Democratic Party in the interim between the meetings of the full (Democratic National) Committee. But the pace of being responsible is unhurried to the point of political malpractice. The extraordinary national crisis is made even more severe to the extent to top Democrats do not acknowledge its magnitude. Four months into his job as the DNCs chair, Ken Martin has yet to show that the DNC is truly operating in real time while the country faces an unprecedented threat to whats left of democracy. His power to call an emergency meeting of the full DNC remains unused. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This week, Martin received a petition co-sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction, urging the DNC to convene an emergency meeting of all its members fully open to the public as soon as possible. The petition adds that the predatory, extreme and dictatorial actions of the Trump administration call for an all-out commensurate response, which so far has been terribly lacking from the Democratic Party. Among the 7,000 signers were more than 1,500 people who wrote individual comments (often angrily) imploring the DNC to finally swing into suitable action. As several dozen top DNC officials fly into Little Rocks Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, they will bring with them the power to begin shifting the direction of the Democratic Party, but the chances of a positive course correction look meager. The DNCs current executive committee is a bastion of the party establishment, unlikely to signal to grassroots Democrats and the general public that the party is no longer locked into automatic pilot. The pattern is a sort of repetition compulsion, afflicting Democratic movers and shakers along with the party as an institution. While many journalists focus on the ages of congressional leaders, the lopsided power held by Democrats in their 70s and 80s is merely a marker for a deeper problem. Their approaches are rooted in the past and are now withering on the political vine. Even with the rare meeting of the DNCs executive committee just a couple of days away, the official Democratic Party website was still offering no information about it. The apparent preference is to keep us in the dark. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But anyone can sign up to watch livestream coverage from Progressive Hub, during a four-hour feed that will begin at 12:30 pm Eastern time on Friday. Along with excerpts from the executive committee meeting as it happens, the coverage will include analysis from my RootsAction colleagues Sam Rosenthal, wholl be inside the meeting room in Little Rock, and former Democratic nominee for Buffalo mayor India Walton. The livestream will also feature an interview with Congressman Ro Khanna, who has endorsed the call for an emergency meeting of the full DNC. Right now, the Democratic Party appears to be stuck between Little Rock and a hard place. The only real possibilities for major improvement will come from progressives who make demands and organize to back them up with grassroots power. JAKARTA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's national rice reserve has reached a historic milestone, surpassing 4 million tons as of Thursday, the highest level recorded since the establishment of the country's state food company Perum Bulog in 1969. Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman hailed the achievement as inseparable from the instruction of President Prabowo Subianto, who persistently encouraged rice production in the country. The realization, he explained, is highly contributed by the current government purchase price. "Farmers now enjoy profitable selling prices, even during the main harvest," the minister said in a statement. In the Southeast Asian country, rice is one of the most closely monitored and regulated commodities, given that it is the country's primary staple in terms of consumption. The national stockpile enables the government to intervene through market operations to control the domestic price of rice. According to data from Statistics Indonesia, the national rice production during the January-May period this year is estimated to reach 16.55 million tons, an increase of 11.95 percent from the previous year. As of the end of this month, Perum Bulog has absorbed more than 2.4 million tons of local rice. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the figure has jumped more than 400 percent compared to the average absorption in the same period in the last five years, which was around 1.2 million tons. The minister also said that Indonesia is ready to export rice to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states as long as the domestic stockpiles remain abundant. "A directive from the president has allowed us to prepare rice for those friendly countries, particularly neighboring countries, which need rice," he said. In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves issued straight talk newsletters on his support for law enforcement and his opposition to government waste. He praised the big, beautiful tax cut bill, called for a more secure border and requested investigation into cancer cases at a local school. Theres no harm in taking positions that align with voters in your district, but its worth asking if something important is flying under the radar. Put it this way: If youre flying into Newark Liberty International Airport (or any airport for that matter), how concerned are you about the border or tax cut extensions until the wheels touch the ground? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On two occasions within the last month, air traffic controllers lost radio and radar contact with flights at Newark for 90 seconds. Following a fatal in-flight collision in Washington, the Newark outages serve as a terrifying reminder of the rickety state of aviation infrastructure in the country. As chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Graves has enormous clout that should be directed toward fixing this mess. Now it comes as good news that the massive federal spending bill that moved through the House contains $12.5 billion in badly needed modernization to the nations air traffic infrastructure. It shouldnt have taken this long. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is blaming the Biden Administration for doing little to fix problems in the aviation industry. This is not as off-base as it sounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Put it this way: If youre flying into Newark, are Bidens electric vehicle charging stations going to do anything for you when the tower loses radio contact? Biden lavished a lot of money on U.S. infrastructure, but much of that investment seemed to go to the green agenda instead of fixing problems with the Federal Aviation Administration. Its a fair point that merits discussion. But the problem for Duffy is hes the transportation secretary right now, not Pete Buttigieg. The problem for Graves is hes chairman of the transportation committee, not the border czar or ways and means chairman. As chairman of the committee devoted to transportation, Graves should be demanding answers from those who are in position to make things safer for Americans right now. Low-hanging rhetorical fruit wont fix this mess. Pamela Bacon has been selected to become Luther College's new provost. (Photo courtesy of Luther College) Luther College has chosen a new provost who is scheduled to start this summer. Pamela Bacon, coming to the Decorah college from two universities sharing the same administration in Minnesota, will begin in her new role in July, according to a news release. She is filling the position left vacant by college president Brad Chamberlain when he was announced as president in October 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Luthers reputation as a selective liberal arts college that is known for its involved students, committed faculty and staff, and a strong sense of community inspired me to apply, and I am delighted to accept President Chamberlains offer, Bacon said in the release. Given my experience at a faith-based residential liberal arts college and my own life-changing experiences attending a residential liberal arts college, I am excited to engage with the challenges and opportunities that are ahead for Luther College. Bacon previously served as faculty and administrator for the College of Saint Benedict, a womens college, and Saint Johns University, a mens college, as the institutions share curriculum, faculty and leadership. There she worked to oversee academic affairs and the colleges division of student success, according to the release, among other duties. Once at Luther College, Bacon will oversee a combined department of academic affairs and student success and engagement, the release stated. The college brought academic and student affairs together into one program in 2021, Chamberlain said in the release, and its more holistic methods of serving students have seen success. Bacon said in the release shes ready to work with the Luther community to ensure that students receive a holistic, immersive experience that is both academically enriching and personally transformative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chamberlain said he is excited to work with Bacon and see her impact on improving the experiences of students, faculty and staff at the college. Dr. Bacon brings to Luther College a passion for supporting the holistic development that students should experience, inside and outside of the classroom, at residential, liberal arts colleges, Chamberlain said. Informed by her academic training as a social psychologist and her progressive experience as an academic administrator, Dr. Bacons empathetic, relational and collaborative approach emphasizes engaging stakeholders, considering alternative perspectives, and using data to inform decision-making processes. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Two additional Democrats, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), on Thursday launched their bids for the top Democratic spot on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Mfume, in a letter announcing his candidacy, stated he was prepared to meet that moment; as my lifelong friend, successor, and predecessor Elijah Cummings did when he was Oversight Chair under the first twisted Trump administration. The dismantling of our democracy at the hands of the Trump administration and his congressional enablers demands Committee leadership that meets this moment with vigor, experience, principle, and resolve, Mfume wrote in a Dear Colleague letter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a letter by Lynch obtained by Punchbowl News, he highlighted his work with the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who stepped back from his daily responsibilities as ranking member earlier this year due to his battle with cancer. Connolly died earlier this month. As we all know, Gerry Connolly was all about the work, and I am honored to have earned his trust and endorsement to continue this important work and lead Oversight Democrats at a moment when our decisions and our actions over the coming months may determine the course of our American experiment, Lynch said in his letter. He also mentioned his more than two decades of experience on the Oversight Committee, which would make him well-prepared to manage an extremely talented group of Oversight Democrats as we fight like hell against every action taken by the Trump Administration to curtail individual rights, dismantle our democratic institutions and unload the costs of reckless economic plans onto the backs of Americas workers and vulnerable communities. Earlier on Thursday, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was the first Democrat to officially announce his candidacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the Trump administrations attacks on the rule of law, weaponizing the government against its critics, and decimating the services our constituents rely uponthere is a clear and immediate threat to our democracy, Garcia wrote in a Dear Colleague letter. As citizens, patriots, and members of Congress, we must organize, fight back, and defend the principles of freedom, equality, and justice. Im ready to help lead that fight. Both Mfume, 76, and Lynch, 70, had voiced interest in the role before announcing their bids. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), 44, has also expressed interest. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who lost her bid for the position to Connolly late last year, passed on running earlier this month. The House Democratic Caucus is slated to hold the election for the ranking member position on June 24. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. NEW YORK, N.Y. (WSAV) Loretta Swit, the two-time Emmy Award-winning actress best known for her role as Major Margret Hot Lips Houlihan on M.A.S.H. has died. She was 87. Swit appeared in all but 11 episodes of the series, nearly four times longer than the Korean War itself. She pushed for a better representation for women. One of the things I liked, with Lorettas prodding, was every time I had a chance to write for her character, wed get away from the Hot Lips angle and find out more about who Margaret was. She became more of a real person, Alda told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. FILE Actress Loretta Swit arrives at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 3rd Annual Television Academy Honors in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday, May 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File) FILE Actress Loretta Swit poses in Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 21, 1983. (AP Photo/Wally Fong, File) FILE Jamie Farr, left, and Loretta Swit present a tribute to Mr. Rogers at the 45th annual Daytime Emmy Awards on April 29, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File FILE Cast members from M*A*S*H, foreground from left, William Christopher, Jamie Farr, Loretta Swit and Henry Morgan, back row from left, Mike Farrell, Alan Alda and William Ogden Stiers, pose with their Peoples Choice Award for best comedy series in Santa Monica, Calif., on March 19, 1982. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac, File) The CBS show aired for 11 years from 1972 to 1983, revolving around life at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which gave the show its name. The two-and-a-half-hour finale on Feb. 28, 1983, was watched by over 100 million viewers, at the time the most-watched episode of any scripted series ever. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement M.A.S.H. won a Peabody Award in 1975 for the depth of its humor and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war. 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. PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) A proposed law, named after a dog, will soon be introduced in the Pennsylvania House and will work to prevent discrimination against different breeds. Macs Law would prevent homeowners from being discriminated against solely based on the breed of dog they own. In a memo, Representative Kathleen Tomlinson shared that a constituent in her area spoke up on issues that they had with getting homeowners insurance due to the fact that they owned a pitbull. Mac the pit bull never had a history of being aggressive, and to be perfectly clear, he wouldnt hurt a fly. He was judged by an insurer purely because of his breed, Tomlinson wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pennsylvania parking ticket fines could change under new bill The proposed legislation would prohibit this type of discrimination. The stereotype against pitbulls isnt something thats new as its estimated that nearly 800 cities and towns have Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL). Things like breed discriminatory legislation are the result of misinformation, stereotypes and irresponsible ownership that can reinforce it. BSL most often impacts Pitbulls, Staffordshire Terriers, English Bull Terriers, but its been known in other areas to include Rottweilers, Mastiffs, Dalmatians, Chow Chows, German Shepherds and Doberman Pinschers. It can also affect mutts or other dogs that resemble them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that there are 4.7 million dog bites each year and 800,000 will require medical attention. Its also worth noting that critics argue that 100% of locations that have BSL will continue to see reports of bites as safety is not a breed-specific issue. Tomlinson goes on to argue in her memo that while prohibiting discrimination, her legislation would also take into account if a dog has an aggressive history. Get the latest news, weather forecasts and sports stories delivered straight to your inbox! Sign up for our newsletters. You can read the full memo 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 WTAJ - www.wtaj.com. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) A machinery fire has broken out at the Arrowhead Parkway project in Sioux Falls Friday afternoon. A viewer sent the video of the fire after spotting it while driving by around noon on Friday. Structure fire burns townhomes in north Sioux Falls From the video it appears that a tractor being used to remove dirt from the project was ablaze. KELOLAND News reached out to the Split Rock Volunteer Fire Department for more information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Instead of "applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state," the Foreign Ministry said. "There is no humanitarian blockade [in Gaza]. That is a blatant lie," the Israel Foreign Ministry wrote on Twitter/X on Friday, in response to comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier in the day. "President Macron's campaign against the Jewish state continues. The facts do not interest Macron," the post added. Within the past week, Israel has facilitated the entry of nearly 900 aid trucks into Gaza, with hundreds more ready for UN collection and distribution, and the Gaza Humanitarian Fund has provided Gazans with two million meals and tens of thousands of aid packages, the MFA wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The distribution of aid directly to Gazans, sidestepping Hamas, has "already changed the situation on the group," according to the MFA. GAZA RESIDENTS carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, near the Netzarim Corridor, yesterday. (photo credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters) Yet, instead of "applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state," and is looking to impose sanctions on Israel, the statement added. Hamas has praised Macron's statements in response, it concluded. 'Citizens of France, wake up,' tweets Ben-Gvir "Macron plays into the hands of Islamic terrorism," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter/X on Friday. "Islamic terrorism will explode in the faces of all French citizens. By the time Macron understands this, it will be too late," he added. Aid distribution disrupting Hamas control in enclave The early success of the American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation-run aid centers has the ability to significantly dent Hamass control over food distribution in the coastal enclave, The Jerusalem Post learned Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aid has been flowing into the enclave, IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin confirmed in a video on Friday morning, while at the Kerem Shalom crossing. "The responsibility now falls on the UN and international organizations to ensure its proper distribution." "Two centers are operating so far and the third will be ready in the coming days," Defrin said. "The aid is coming in, but UN organizations prefer to cooperate with Hamas than with us," he added. Macron willing to impose sanctions if alleged aid blockade continues Macron on Friday said that France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza and reiterated that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground," Macron said at a joint press conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. "And so, if there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position," Macron said, adding that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers. "But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response." France stands behind a two-state solution French President Emmanuel Macron said in April that France could recognize a Palestinian state in June, adding that, in turn, some countries in the Middle East could recognize the state of Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We need to move towards recognition [of a Palestinian state]. And so over the next few months, we will. I'm not doing it to please anyone. I'll do it because at some point it will be right," he said during an interview on France 5 television. "And because I also want to take part in a collective dynamic that should also enable those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in their turn, something that many of them are not doing," the French president declared. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot delivered a speech on Wednesday, reiterating the country's stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, urging "the implementation of a two-state solution." Barrot also announced that France will co-host, alongside Saudi Arabia, a United Nations conference in June regarding this topic. The American embassy argued in response that the implementation of a two-state solution would constitute a "reward for Hamas' shocking attack on Israel," in reference to the Washington shooting attack at the Jewish Museum in which Elias Rodriguez killed two Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Reuters contributed to this report. DOHA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China is launching a trial policy granting ordinary passport holders from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain visa-free entry for stays from June 9, 2025, to June 8, 2026 of up to 30 days, Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. "With the United Arab Emirates and Qatar that have implemented reciprocal visa-free policies with China since 2018, China now grants visa-free treatment to all GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. We welcome more friends from the GCC countries to embark on an impromptu trip to China," said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the ministry. The announcement has been warmly welcomed across various sectors in the four countries, with many expressing heartfelt joy and optimism about the policy's potential to enhance bilateral exchanges, strengthen cultural and people-to-people ties, and inject new momentum into cooperation between China and the GCC nations. "The impromptu 'China Tour' has finally become simple!" said Ayidh Al Yami, international office director of the Saudi Ministry of Investment. "I'm really glad to see that the relations between China and Saudi Arabia are getting closer and closer, and cultural exchanges and people-to-people connections have become more convenient," he added. A Saudi businessman with his company in Shanghai, Tariq Abdullah Buqnah, CEO of Buqnah Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., welcomed the announcement with great joy. "This step is not merely a simplification of travel procedures -- it is, in my view, a true reflection of the growing strength in relations between Saudi Arabia and China," he noted. Omani political analyst Ahmed Al-Shezawi said: "Visa exemption will contribute to facilitating the movement of business people, investors and tourists." Echoing Al-Shezawi's view, Hamed Abdulqader Altwallah, general manager of the Saudi Employee Department at China Railway 18th Bureau Group (Saudi Arabia), said "it will greatly facilitate Saudi suppliers' visits to China for inspection and procurement, broaden our company's procurement channels, and introduce more high-quality and suitable resources for project construction." Hailing the move as "highly significant," Omani columnist Khalfan Al-Touqi said the trial policy serves the citizens of these countries by making travel to China easier, and benefits China by attracting more tourists from these countries. It also demonstrates and aligns with China's opening-up, he added. Hebah Abbas, chief engineer and technical adviser of the Ministry of Education in Kuwait, chairwoman of the Sustainability Committee at the Kuwait Water Association and member of AmCham Kuwait, said this policy greatly facilitates her visit to China to explore renewable energy projects, attend environmental conferences and engage in technical exchanges with Chinese companies, adding that the access lays a foundation for mutually beneficial partnerships. Ahmed Al-Salloom, businessman and chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee at the Bahraini Council of Representatives, said the policy "marks a qualitative leap in the trajectory of economic and trade relations" and "will lead to a notable increase in trade volume." Noting its direct impact on enhancing trade exchange between Bahrain and China, as well as the GCC countries more broadly, he said, "Such facilitation measures will significantly ease mobility, broaden opportunities for direct engagement, and allow closer inspection of markets and products." Abdul Majeed Haji, General Manager of Bahrain's Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper, said the important and timely step underscores China's will to "strengthen cultural and people-to-people ties with Bahrain and the wider GCC region." "It will open new horizons for media professionals and experts from both sides, fostering greater cooperation in media and culture," said Haji. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that his country could apply sanctions against Israelis unless the government in Tel Aviv responds to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Speaking during a visit to Singapore on Friday, Macron said the international community could not remain passive while Palestinians in Gaza face a deepening hunger crisis. The comments raise further the international pressure building on Israel, which has blockaded the Palestinian enclave for close to three months, with aid agencies warning of famine. The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground, Macron said at a joint news conference alongside Singapores Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If there is no response in the coming hours and days in line with the humanitarian situation, we will have to harden our collective position, he added, suggesting that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers. Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs lashed out later in the day, saying, The facts do not interest Macron. The ministry claimed that there was no humanitarian blockade on Gaza and that asserting the contrary was a blatant lie, despite UN top officials and international organisations having repeatedly stated that Israel has blockaded all entry of aid since March 2. Frances President Emmanuel Macron takes part in a news briefing with Singapores Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Singapore on May 30, 2025 [Ludovic Marin/AFP] Israel recently said it was bowing to international pressure and would allow minimal supplies of food and medicine into Gaza, on which it continues to wage an intense military assault. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the trickle of aid entering the strip under the control of a new, shadowy NGO backed by Israel and the United States has been accompanied by intensive bombardment and the shooting of Palestinians desperately trying to reach aid distribution points. In his comments, Macron called for an end to assumptions that Israel is respecting human rights. But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response, he added. The French leader also stressed that recognition of a Palestinian state is not only a moral duty, but a political necessity, although he added that its establishment would need to come under specific conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His remarks followed a joint statement earlier in the week with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto condemning any Israeli plans to seize control of Gaza or expel its population. Paris is hoping to rally momentum for a conditional recognition of Palestinian statehood, which would require, among other things, the demilitarisation of Hamas. French officials are weighing up the move before a United Nations conference, which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting between June 17-20, to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israels security. However, some diplomats and experts suggest that such moves would infuriate Israel and deepen Western splits. Imminent starvation Despite some aid starting to trickle into Gaza after the Israeli blockade, the humanitarian crisis remains dire. Experts warn that one in five people faces imminent starvation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private initiative supported by the United States and Israel, expanded its relief operations on Thursday. But the groups efforts have been widely condemned by the United Nations and other agencies as insufficient, poorly managed and not adhering to humanitarian principles. GHF centres have become sites of chaos, violence, and desperation, with scenes of disorder running through the week as huge numbers of hungry people have overwhelmed security forces at distribution points. Palestinians carry an injured man after he was shot at an aid distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organisation approved by Israel in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 29, 2025 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP] An Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza reported on Friday that several people were wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the centre of the enclave as they tried to reach an aid distribution point set up by GHF. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday that it was prepared to deliver supplies including food parcels, hygiene kits and medical aid from its warehouses in Amman, just a few hours drive from Gaza, if allowed access. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, talks over a ceasefire in Israels war with the Palestinian armed group Hamas continue, with the US having put forward a new proposal. Hamas has said the proposal is still under discussion, but in its current form would only result in the continuation of killing and famine in Gaza. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned of a global divide between the major powers of the United States and China; At the same time, he called for closer cooperation between Europe and Asia. At the opening of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore, he spoke out in favour of a "coalition of independence" with universal values. Referring to the struggle for influence between the US and China, Macron said that the greatest risk at present was a division of the world, "a division between the two superpowers" with instructions to everyone else to choose sides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If we do that, we will kill the global order and we will destroy methodically all the institutions we have created after World War II," Macron warned, adding, "We need them probably much more than before." France is working with both the US and China, the French president said, adding that his country did not want to be dependent. Strategic autonomy is crucial for Europe, Macron said. This also included new partnerships. European and Asian countries should cooperate on defence, security and value chains and promote open trade and dialogue. The Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore is considered the most important security policy forum in the Indo-Pacific region. The so-called culture war is made up of fights over all kinds of social and cultural issues, but in the recent past, it appeared marriage equality was no longer near the top of the list of contentious disputes. The Supreme court made same-sex marriage the law of the land; polls showed broad and bipartisan public support; and even congressional Republicans moved on. The civil rights fight was over. Fairness and human decency had prevailed. Theres fresh evidence, however, that a growing number of Republicans are starting to move backwards on the issue. NBC News reported: While Democratic support for gay nuptials has risen steadily since [the Supreme Courts Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015], Republican support has tumbled 14 points since its record high of 55% in 2021 and 2022, according to a Gallup report released Thursday. As recently as a few years ago, Gallup found that a narrow majority of self-identified Republican voters agreed that same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. But over the last three years, GOP support for marriage equality has fallen from 55% to 41% the sharpest slide since the national pollster started keeping track even as attitudes among Democrats and independents move in the opposite direction. (For more information on the polls methodology and margin of error, click the link.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, Gallups latest data suggests GOP voters are roughly back to where they were in 2016, surrendering nearly a decade of progress. Complicating matters, the survey isnt the only discouraging news for civil rights advocates. Circling back to our earlier coverage, even after the Supreme Courts Obergefell ruling, then-Sen. Marco Rubio (before the Floridian became secretary of state) was one of the most prominent Republicans who not only said he disagreed with the justices decision, the Floridian also vowed to look for ways to change the law in order to stop same-sex couples from getting married. Soon after, in October 2020, Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas complained in a dissent about the victims of the courts marriage equality ruling, and a month later, Alito delivered an unusually political speech to the Federalist Society in which he complained about social pressure surrounding anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You cant say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman anymore, the conservative justice whined, as if he were a candidate seeking social conservatives votes. Until very recently, thats what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now its considered bigotry. A year later, Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, argued that if you support marriage equality, it means youre not a movement conservative. All of which is to say that it seemed as though the debate over marriage equality had run its course, but for too many on the right, thats apparently no longer the case. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com After Donald Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020 and exited the White House, his Republican allies on Capitol Hill continued to look for ways to venerate him. Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, for example, introduced legislation that wouldve renamed the immediate waters surrounding the United States, labeling them the Donald John Trump Exclusive Economic Zone. Now that the president has returned to power, Steube is still thinking along similar lines, though as The Hill reported, the GOP congressman now has found something new he wants to rename. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) introduced a bill Thursday to rename the Washington, D.C., subway system after President Trump and his MAGA slogan. The Make Autorail Great Again Act would withhold federal funding to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, known as WMATA, until it rebrands as the Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access, or WMAGA a similar acronym to the Make America Great Again slogan and renames the Metrorail the Trump Train. The legislation which, incidentally, is quite real and not something I made up to make members of Congress appear foolish has not yet picked up any co-sponsors, though if recent history is any guide, that will soon change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The proposal joins a growing list of related Republican measures that are currently pending on Capitol Hill: Whats more, this list doesnt include kindred efforts from the incumbent presidents sycophantic allies, including measures to nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize and to allow Trump to seek a third term. Rutgers University historian David Greenberg recently told Politico that there have been huge cults of personality around former presidents, but even allowing for that on its own terms, [the spate of Trump-themed legislation is] pretty crazy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The point isnt that any of these proposals are likely to pass. Theyre not. The point is that these measures are unlike anything in the American tradition, reinforcing a fundamentally unhealthy trend in Republican politics. As The New York Times recently summarized, A competition of sorts has broken out for whom the Republican base will see as the most pro-Trump member. From the article: The rush of flattering legislation, some of which even the lawmakers concede is unlikely to pass, stands apart from merely carrying out Mr. Trumps agenda. ... It shows the power that Donald Trump has within the Republican Party these days, and that Republican members want to stay on his good side, said Sean M. Theriault, government professor at the University of Texas at Austin. A lot of these people are in really safe districts, but theyre also thinking about what their next step is. And so if they have designs on being in the Senate or running for governor or even a position in the administration, then theres no better way to get on his good side than to do these over-the-top moves toward him. That was published before most of the aforementioned bills were introduced. Im reminded anew of something Filipe Campante, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, said about these efforts: The reason why this is bad is the very fact that its transparently ridiculous: It shows how this is becoming a Kim Jong-Un-style cult of personality, where the sycophants try to outdo one another in their groveling to get the attention of Dear Leader. That competition, alas, is apparently intensifying. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com During Donald Trumps first term, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel was a routine annoyance. The OSC not to be confused with appointed special counsels such as Jack Smith or Robert Mueller frequently investigated allegations of misconduct and ethical lapses at the White House, which led to multiple findings related to Hatch Act violations. The president was apparently determined to bring the office to heel in his second term, which is why he fired Hampton Dellinger as the head of the independent ethics agency just a couple of weeks after his second inaugural. This touched off a legal fight, which the White House ultimately won, and offered Trump an opportunity to choose a new OSC chief. We now know that he made an indefensible choice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an item posted to his social media platform late Thursday, the president announced plans to nominate Paul Ingrassia to lead the office, describing Ingrassia, the current White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, as a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar. That can charitably be described as an incomplete description of what makes Ingrassia notable. The Washington Post reported: Ingrassia ... has publicly advocated for white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes, publishing a Substack titled Free Nick Fuentes and writing on X that dissident voices such as Fuentes should have a place in conservative politics. He was also part of a legal team representing self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and forming an organized-crime group in Romania, as well as rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, Ingrassia likened Tate to the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence. Whats more, as The New York Times reported, Ingrassia also hosted a podcast, called Right on Point, and in December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of his election defeat, the podcast posted on Twitter that it was time for outgoing Republican president to declare martial law and secure his re-election. In case that werent quite enough, a CNN report from earlier this year noted that Ingrassias podcast account also posted a quote from President John F. Kennedy the night of the Jan. 6 attack that read, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, (will) make violent revolution inevitable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The same CNN piece added, Ingrassias tweets have likened Pence to Brutus and Judas, saying he belongs in the ninth circle of hell. He has repeatedly called for expelling traitors from the GOP. The Atlantic noted that Ingrassia has called Nikki Haley, Donald Trumps former United Nations ambassador who ran against him, in the Republican primary, an insufferable b---h who might be an anchor baby too. After Trump announced his selection which will require Senate confirmation Ingrassia said online that he intends to make every effort to restore competence and integrity to the Executive Branch ... and Revitalize the Rule of Law. Given his radical background, that seems extraordinarily unlikely. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com Donald Trumps agenda on trade tariffs has long rested on a shaky legal foundation, predicated in part on the idea that theres an emergency that allows the president to unilaterally impose economic penalties based on nothing but his whims. This week, that dubious foundation started to shake when two separate courts a three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade and a U.S. district court judge ruled that the White Houses gambit was illegal. Those rulings were soon after paused by an appeals court, but Trumps back-to-back defeats represented an important embarrassment on one of his top policy priorities. As is usually the case, the president and his team responded to the legal setbacks by lashing out, with varying degrees of hysterics, at the countrys judicial system, as if there were something inherently outrageous about independent courts adjudicating cases involving the presidents agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But one nagging detail got in the way: One of the judges that ruled against the White House was appointed by Trump and confirmed by Senate Republicans. The political problem was obvious. And so, as Politico reported, the president has opened up a new line of attack. President Donald Trump leveled unusually pointed criticism of a prominent conservative legal activist and organization Thursday as he railed against a ruling that struck down his sweeping tariffs. The president, in a post on his social media platform, slammed Leonard Leo, the former chair of the Federalist Society, calling him a sleazebag who probably hates America. As part of an odd and meandering online rant, the Republican wrote, I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten! For those unfamiliar with the Federalist Society, it is a conservative organization that has long been seen as one of the most successful projects of the conservative movement. Indeed, throughout Trumps first term, the group was a key part of a brutally efficient assembly-line process: The Federalist Society would vet and recommend far-right ideologues for the federal bench; the White House would use the organizations lists for judicial nominations; Senate Republicans would rubber-stamp the presidents choices; and Americans would watch the judiciary lurch to the right to a degree unseen in generations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for Trump and some close to him, that victory wasnt good enough because some of the jurists backed by the Federalist Society have occasionally ruled in ways the Republican Party hasnt liked. Sure, they were conservative, but not enough of them were mindless, knee-jerk conservatives who were willing to abandon free thought altogether. Some even had the nerve to take the rule of law seriously. In fact, a year before Election Day 2024, The New York Times reported that Team Trump had begun looking at Federalist Society members as squishes. The article quoted Russell Vought, 15 months before hed begin his latest tenure as the director of the White Houses Office of Management and Budget, saying, The Federalist Society doesnt know what time it is. That was in late 2023. Now, midway through 2025, as several Trump-appointed federal judges rule in ways the president does not like, he wont blame himself, and hes won't blame Senate Republicans for confirming his picks but he can blame the Federalist Society for recommending jurists who sometimes see themselves as neutral arbiters in a separate and coequal branch of government. Thats precisely why Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, appeared on CNN the morning after Trumps online rant and accused the Federalist Society of creating a broken system. He added, Were not going to be using the Federalist Society to make judicial nominations at all going forward. As for what Team Trump might replace it with, watch this space. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com One in six Maine children have been diagnosed with anxiety, and 7% are struggling with depression, according to data from the John T. Gorman Foundation.(Photo by Getty Images) As the state continues to grapple with its record of not providing adequate behavioral health support for young people, a proposal to make funds available for schools to hire licensed behavioral and mental health experts has received initial backing from the Maine Legislature. The Maine House of Representatives passed LD 858 on Wednesday with 79 members voting in favor and 68 opposed. The Senate passed it without a roll call vote. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lori Gramlich (D-Old Orchard Beach), will go back to both chambers for final enactment votes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill establishes a program within the Maine Department of Education to provide grants to districts that contract licensed professionals for behavioral and mental health services. The funds can only be used to cover those not otherwise covered or reimbursable through MaineCare, the states Medicaid program. Proponents of the bill including educators, administrators and medical professionals say the grant program is much needed as Maine educators are not adequately trained to manage worsening student behavior issues, according to a 2025 Maine Education Policy Research Institute report. Critics of the proposal said it infringes on a parents rights when their child seeks counseling at school, and raised concern about the limited information about what kind of services would be covered under the grants. Gramlich said one in six Maine children have been diagnosed with anxiety, and 7% are struggling with depression. Further, 20% of Maine children have experienced two or more Adverse Childhood Experiences higher than the national average of 17%. ACEs include experiences like violence or abuse, and the stress and trauma that accompanies them can have a lasting negative impact on a childs wellbeing, according to data from the John T. Gorman Foundation that she cited during the floor discussion Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some school districts do offer these types of services in a school-based setting, but the current availability of school-based services is nowhere near adequate. Even when these school-based services are currently available, the funding of these services is so lean and precarious that the future of these programs is constantly in question, she said, of the proposal that will cost $1.3 million in state funding. These kids need help now. LD 858 would be an important step toward ensuring Maine students have the mental and behavioral health services they need, she said. Rep. Sheila Lyman (R-Livermore Falls) raised concern about what she said was a lack of clarity around the scope of services provided. What specific behavioral and mental health interventions are we funding? Who decides what is appropriate for each child, and how will parents be informed or asked for consent? she asked. This bill does not sufficiently protect a parents right to know and direct the mental and behavioral care their child receives in a school setting, Lyman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Legislature passed a similar bill last year that died on the special appropriations table, where bills that pass but arent otherwise provided for in the state budget compete for remaining funds. Those that are not explicitly funded by the budget committee ultimately die. Maine has a record of not providing adequate youth mental health support. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state under the Americans with Disabilities Act for unnecessarily segregating children with behavioral health needs and failing to ensure they could thrive in a community-based setting. The state settled last November, with Gov. Janet Mills saying her administration and the Legislature will continue to invest in mental and behavioral health resources. We all strongly agree that in-community behavioral health services are critical, and we are committed to continuing to strengthen the delivery of those services for Maine children who need them, Mills said in a statement at the time. While the settlement agreement required Maine to expand the availability of community-based behavioral health services for children, it did not specifically add any of these services to schools. The bill, if funded, would provide Maine school-aged children with support they need by meeting them where they are most often, and that is their school, Gramlich said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Durham, North Carolina At Riverside High School in Durham, North Carolina, the food is as fresh as can be because most of it comes from local growers. "We receive local shredded carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, because we feel that we need to support people in our own communities," Jim Keaten, who runs the nutrition program for Durham Public Schools, told CBS News. Keaten said the school district's produce comes from local growers under a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that was cut by the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Immediately, my thoughts were, what are we going to do?" Keaten said of his first response when he learned the program funding had been cut. "Because these are the funds we use to provide local foods to kids." In March, the White House cut two federal programs that provide just over $1 billion in annual funding to school districts and food banks nationwide. It slashed $660 million in funding to the Local Food for Schools program, and another $420 million to the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which goes to food banks and other local groups. The impact is being felt in every state, including North Carolina, where CBS News followed the trail of food and funds to assess the impact of the cuts. One of the growers providing food to schools is Pine Knot Farms in Hurdle Mills, about one hour's drive from Riverside High School. Linda Leach-Hughes, co-owner of the farm, said last year it sold $150,000 in produce to local schools. She calls the sudden loss of revenue "devastating." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If we do not have this extra income coming in to help local folks in the community, then we will have to lay folks off, we can no longer employ folks," Leach-Hughes told CBS News. Pine Knot Farms also provides produce to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Amy Beros, the food bank's president and CEO, said its share of lost aid from the cuts is now at about $2 million. "I don't understand," Beros said. "We're facing one of the worst hunger crises in decades, and now we're going to increase the need even more. The access to this food makes them not have to choose between the life-saving medicine they need and food for that month." The concern over who gets fed is especially felt by those who grow it. "How are you going to make America great again if you're taking food out of the mouths of babies, senior citizens, nursing homes, rehab centers, hospitals, all of these agencies that are dependent on federal dollars?" Leah-Hughes asked. "How are you going to make America great again?" E.l.f. Beauty calls Hailey Bieber an industry disruptor amid Rhode sale These 3 record breakers have one thing in common Reporter's Notebook: John Dickerson reflects on his spelling woes NAIROBI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- China's housing policies have made significant contributions to poverty reduction, job creation, and post-crisis economic recovery, according to a senior Chinese official on the sidelines of the resumed second session of the United Nations Habitat Assembly in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. "China's poverty alleviation campaign has prioritized ensuring housing safety for rural impoverished populations as a core objective, historically resolving housing safety issues for 23.416 million impoverished households," Dong Jianguo, vice minister of housing and urban-rural development of China, said on Thursday. China's central government has allocated more than 310 billion yuan (about 43 billion U.S. dollars) in subsidies for the renovation of rural dilapidated housing, with additional matching funds provided by provincial, municipal, and county governments, Dong noted. Dong also said China has focused on developing affordable housing tailored to diverse groups, and "efforts have been made to advance urban dilapidated and old housing renovation." These approaches continue to improve people's well-being while supporting broader goals of economic stability and inclusive development, Dong said, adding that "in 2025, China plans to build and provide over 1 million additional affordable housing units." The resumed second session of the UN-Habitat Assembly, the world's highest-level decision-making body on sustainable urbanization and human settlements, runs from Thursday to Friday. It has brought together 1,200 delegates from 193 UN member states, including 39 ministers, 16 deputy ministers, governors, city mayors, donors, innovators, civil society representatives, and scholars. Anaclaudia Rossbach, executive director of the UN Human Settlements Program, called for greater political commitment and policy reforms to secure the financing needed for expanded access to decent shelter and to accelerate urban renewal. She emphasized the need for enhanced collaboration, sustained funding, and the transfer of knowledge and technology to achieve inclusive, adequate, and affordable housing across the Global South. Johnson Sakaja, governor of Nairobi, said Kenya's affordable housing program, backed by state subsidies, has helped address critical urban issues, such as crime, youth unemployment, and pollution. "To prevent urban decay, we are called upon to invest in modern housing units for the low-income population. The construction sector will also gain from investments in housing, unlocking job opportunities," Sakaja said. NEW YORK During the genesis of Zohran Mamdanis now-surging mayoral campaign, the candidate and his democratic socialist allies said it was highly likely or even certain that Mamdani would lose the mayors race. Instead, the goal from the campaigns inception was to build the New York City arm of the Democratic Socialists of America, said six Democrats who relayed private discussions and meetings with Mamdani, a campaign staffer and DSA leadership. All were granted anonymity to freely discuss private strategy. He was pretty clearly like, I know I'm not running to win. I know I have no path to victory, said one Democrat, who spoke directly to Mamdani shortly before he launched his campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strategy appears to be working. Since Mamdanis October campaign launch, DSA membership has grown 40 percent and a DSA leader told POLITICO the campaign has put together a trove of data the party can repurpose to launch primary challenges in areas where Mamdani is popular. Since Zohran launched his mayoral campaign, we have gained over 2,400 members, Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA, said in a statement. New members often mention Zohrans success and the refreshing nature of a candidate and movement that puts working people and affordability first. Mamdani joined the race with little name recognition, less than four years in public office and a spot at the bottom of the crowded pack of candidates. Early polls put him at 2 percent or less in the race. But since his launch, he has risen to take a decisive hold on second place. His longshot effort has morphed into the strongest opposition to mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani was the first to max out in the citys public campaign finance system, has the backing of a super PAC and has the very real potential of landing key progressive endorsements from the Working Families Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as their top-ranked candidate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ocasio-Cortezs membership in the NYC-DSA and her national popularity have made her a power broker on the left. But barring a primary win, the yardstick for measuring Mamdanis success may end up being subjective. Some on the left, who are already rankled by his rise, are more inclined to preemptively view his run as a failure. Many progressives fear Mamdanis label as a Democratic Socialist repels voters in a city ruled by a moderate Democratic governor and a moderate Democratic mayor-turned-friend of President Donald Trump. Mamdanis positions on Israel and thin legislative experience dont endear him with the political establishment, either. All of this, they claim, is blocking other candidates closer to the center-left who could be capable of building a broad enough coalition to beat Cuomo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayoral hopeful Brad Lander has the cash, legislative record, experience winning a citywide election and support from Democratic electeds to theoretically attract a base big enough to win the primary but Mamdani has prevented him from breaking out of an increasingly distant third place. While a Marist College poll conducted earlier this month shows just one-fourth of Democratic voters in the city identify as very liberal a potential ceiling for Mamdani a poll released this week showed him surpassing that benchmark in later rounds of ranked choice voting. The survey found he came within just eight points of beating Cuomo in the final round. From the day he entered this race, Zohran has been running to win and nothing demonstrates that quite like the latest polls, which have us less than nine points away from defeating Andrew Cuomo, Mamdanis spokesperson, Lekha Sunder, said in a statement. With still three weeks to go, millions in cash-on-hand, and 25,000 volunteers who believe in this movement, we are on a clear path to victory and to a city New Yorkers can actually afford." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DSA leaderships statements and resolutions also show the organizations members can range from reluctant to outright hostile when it comes to embracing other anti-Cuomo candidates in the citys ranked choice voting system. Their goal was to get in third place and to build the party, build the DSA, and now their goal seems to be to get into second place and build the DSA, said another Democrat, who spoke directly with top DSA leadership this fall after Mamdani launched his campaign. Members of the DSA who were present during the fall forum when Mamdani sought the DSAs endorsement say the campaign was pitched as a party-building exercise, instead of a genuine path to City Hall. It was just said over and over again, that this was a way to build the base that would make it easier to win campaigns in the future, said one DSA member. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Mamdani spokesperson, Mausser and Michael Whitesides, the DSAs current electoral working group co-chair, deny this. That was not how this was framed to me, Whitesides said. I don't think DSA takes on races we feel like we cant win. We can appreciate its a long shot and think about the consolation prizes like grow capacity or learn new skills but we as an organization are not in races to lose. The thrust of the pitch to run Zohran was to try and win. Mamdanis campaign also directed POLITICO to previous statements from the candidate, including in late February when he said , We always were setting up a campaign that could win this race. But the citys DSA chapter which hasnt supported a mayoral candidate since David Dinkins run in 1989 is open about the fact that Mamdanis campaign is simultaneously serving as a vehicle for the future of the party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We're seeing a crazy amount more interest in voting for a socialist than I would have guessed eight months ago, Mausser said. One thing we'll be looking at is: OK, what neighborhoods voted for Zohran number one? Are these places that we can and should be running in the future? In recent weeks, Mamdani has stood out as the candidate willing to boost other candidates who all trail Cuomo by even wider margins than Mamdanis. Hes the only candidate who has promised to endorse someone else as a No. 2 ballot choice through the citys ranked choice voting system, and he encouraged his supporters to donate to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams mayoral campaign after he raised the maximum amount through the citys public campaign finance program. Despite these efforts, the DSAs local party leadership, who are fully behind Mamdanis bid, have stood in the way of supporting other candidates. Mausser confirmed the party passed a resolution calling for DSA-endorsed elected officials to announce their intentions to rank Mamdani first on their mayoral ballot if they dont, it could count against them the next time the organization is doling out endorsements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last month, Gustavo Gordillo, NYC-DSAs other co-chair, applauded Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera for endorsing Mamdani and cheered his decision to not endorse Lander, whose positions on the Israel-Hamas war and freezing rent put him at odds with the DSA. Credit to Gustavo Rivera for not being afraid to tell Brad no and buck the left-liberal orthodoxy, Gordillo wrote in a since-deleted X post. Mausser stressed the DSA does not have a formal position on the other candidates and is only rooting against Cuomo, who polling shows is projected to capture 50 percent of both Black Democratic voters and Democratic voters from the Bronx. Hes also projected to win the support of 41 percent of Latino voters. And while Mamdani places second in all recent polls, he has struggled to gain ground with groups representing a disproportionate share of low-income earners the very demographic the DSA purports to be focused on persuading. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An April Siena College poll found Mamdani captured just 10 percent of Black voters, who, along with Latinos, make up the largest share of the citys low-income residents. He won only 2 percent of the vote in the Bronx, where median income significantly trails other boroughs. You can't win a mayoral race as a progressive without the support of working and middle class, black and brown communities, and this campaign does not have those relationships, one DSA member told POLITICO. They have not had that from the jump, and as the race has unfolded, that has continued to be the case. Sunder, Mamdanis campaign spokesperson, said the campaign has knocked on about 12,000 doors in the Bronx and won endorsements from current and former Bronx elected officials like Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who left office in January. The campaign also touted Mamdanis support from Latino voters, which Marist clocked at 20 percent in its poll. Gordillo said in another social media post that the DSA is using Mamdanis campaign to, in part, increase awareness residents have of their own position in the citys socioeconomic strata. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NYC DSA is the only org on the left trying to use the mayoral race to change the political terrain on our terms and to raise class consciousness, he wrote . I think this experiment will have outsized effects like Bernie did in 2016. The line between Mamdanis campaign and Gordillo and Maussers DSA chapter has been hazy from the start. The party helped orchestrate Mamdanis launch, and Mamdani made it clear he would not run for mayor unless he had the DSAs support. There are weekly meetings between the campaign and the chapter, and DSA members are helping with strategy in addition to taking the lead on his canvassing operation, Mausser said. So far, with the DSAs help, Mamdani has knocked 545,000 doors, according to his campaign. While Mausser claimed the DSA and Mamdani are in it to win it, regardless of whether he wins or loses, the post-primary prospects for the party and Mamdani are already looking up. She pointed to the possibility of a failed mayoral bid cementing Mamdanis influence over the left flank of city politics, an outcome similar to the one experienced by Cynthia Nixon, Cuomos 2018 gubernatorial primary challenger. Nixon hasnt run for office since, but she hosted a fundraiser for Mamdani in March. Even if he loses, we'll now have an assemblymember who's dedicated to working with us, who has a huge profile and who can use his political clout to fight for DSAs priorities in Albany, Mausser said. Cynthia Nixon is still a much sought endorser, and Zohran can find himself in a similar position as being something of a power broker for the progressive left. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) A man was arrested after robbing an ATM technician in Baton Rouge in 2023. According to the Baton Rouge Police, Gregory Moore was named a suspect in the investigation. On Jan. 20, 2023, detectives started an investigation into a robbery at Kims Food Mart in the 4600 block of North Street. Authorities learned the victim was servicing an ATM when Moore allegedly robbed him of a bag, holding about $7,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moore was arrested in East Feliciana Parish and later transported to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of simple robbery. Police said Moore has a criminal history dating back to 2018, including two armed robberies, two previous simple robberies, and first-degree robbery. Latest News 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 Louisiana First News. Man arrested for allegedly setting car on fire in February GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) A man was charged Thursday with first-degree attempted arson connected to an incident a few months prior. Ashanti Schmitt, 31, is accused of setting a vehicle on fire around 11:10 p.m., Feb. 26, in a parking lot in the 2800 block of Orchard Avenue. No one was injured from the blaze. Ashanti Schmitt After a thorough investigation, Grand Junction Police Department detectives identified Schmitt as the suspect. He was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Mesa County Detention Facility. He was also charged with second-degree arson, criminal mischief, possession of incendiary parts and domestic violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GJPD said it believes this was an isolated incident. Schmitt was in court Friday for a hearing on advisement. He was eventually given a $10,000 cash-only bond. During the hearing, the victim asked the court to have Schmitt stay in custody as she believed hed been following her. She also said she and her children are afraid he might retaliate against them. There was additional concern about Schmitt reappearing to court if he posts bond. The 21st Judicial District Attorneys Office noted he has around 15 failures to appear over the past few years. As part of the protection order, Schmitt cannot have any weapons and must be under pre-trial supervision. He is also to stay away from four different addresses in Mesa County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is due in court on June 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 WesternSlopeNow.com. Atlanta police said theyve arrested a man in connection with a 2023 fatal shooting, but they are still looking for a second suspect. Blain Stafford was charged Tuesday with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Atlanta PD reported. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Stafford was already in custody at Fulton County Jail on an unrelated charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The arrest is in connection with the fatal shooting of Julian Kolb, 20, at 1376 Allegheny St. SW on Feb. 17, 2023, police said. TRENDING STORIES: Police found Kolb with apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say they are also seeking a second man, Jyquez Harvey, in connection with Kolbs slaying. Jyquez Harvey has been sought on felony warrants since March 2023. Warrants for Harvey, 20, were issued in March 2023 for felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, the Atlanta PD says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harvey is listed on the Atlanta PDs most wanted, and authorities are offering a reward of up to $2,000 for his arrest. PREVIOUS STORY: If you locate Harvey or any person found on the list, call local police, Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS (8477) or Atlanta Police Department Fugitive Unit at 404-546-4220. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] KANSAS CITY, Mo. The United States Department of Justice says that one man has been charged in connection to a bank robbery earlier this week near Kansas Citys Country Club Plaza. The DOJ says that 41-year-old Christopher Curtner is being charged with bank robbery in a federal complaint filed Wednesday, May 28. Man pleads guilty to shooting, killing 6-year-old boy in Kansas City, Kansas Court records allege that Curtner robbed a UMB Bank on Tuesday, May 27. After speaking with a teller, Curtner wrote a note saying, Give me the money this is a robbery. The teller then activated the banks duress code and gave Curtner $1,400 in case before he fled the scene. A bank robbery suspect who stole money from the UMB Bank near the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, on the morning of Tuesday, May 27, 2025. A bank robbery suspect who stole money from the UMB Bank near the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, on the morning of Tuesday, May 27, 2025. A bank robbery suspect who stole money from the UMB Bank near the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, on the morning of Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Investigation by the FBI identified Curtner as the robber. Kansas City Police Department then located Curtner on foot in the KC metro, and took him into custody shortly after as he entered another financial institution, the DOJ says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No injuries were reported in the incident, according to the DOJ. Now, Curtner is facing up to 20 years in prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the investigation is complete with the United States Probation 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 FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. (KRON) The Berkeley Police Department said a man has been formally charged by the District Attorneys Office with several sex crimes against a minor. BDP said the individual, identified as Jason Hoopes, is currently in custody. BPD said the investigation started after the victims family and friends raised concerns about the suspects interaction with the victim. With the cooperation of the victim, the victims family, multiple units within the Berkeley Police Department, and our Detective Bureau, we were able to identify and arrest the suspect without incident, said Berkeley police in a news release. We commend the efforts of our officers in resolving this case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators are encouraging anyone who may have been an alleged victim of Hoopes or has information related to this case to contact the Berkeley Police Departments Sex Crimes Unit at (510) 981-5735. 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. KANSAS CITY, Mo. A 32-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, man is facing charges in connection to a hit-and-run in a Costco parking lot last month that left a woman seriously injured. Jackson County prosecutors on Thursday charged Demontae Reese with first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. Former Pagans member pleads guilty in armed theft of firearm According to court documents, on the afternoon of April 21, the Kansas City Police Department responded to the Costco at Linwood Boulevard and Gillham Plaza for a serious injury hit-and-run crash involving a black 2015 Mercedes-Benz ML350 that struck a woman in the parking lot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigation into the incident revealed the suspect had followed the female victim to the crash scene, operating a 2024 Kia Sorento with a Nebraska license plate, court documents say. A witness stated the suspect left the Kia and entered the Mercedes-Benz as a passenger earlier in the day. The witness and victim drove the suspect to the Plaza, where the victim and witness left the vehicle and went shopping. The suspect then stole the Mercedes-Benz from the Plaza and the victim and witness called for a ride back to Costco, where the suspect had left his vehicle parked, according to court documents. Court documents say the victim saw the Mercedes-Benz parked, at which time the victim attempted to recover her vehicle by going to the drivers side door and opening it. The suspect began driving through the parking lot with the victim holding onto the drivers door. The victim stated she lost her grip on the door and fell to the ground. The suspect then ran over the victim with the vehicle and left the scene. The victim was taken to an area hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 23, a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) responded to a single-vehicle crash involving the stolen Mercedes-Benz in Polk County. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android According to the MSHP crash report, the suspect went off the side of the roadway, struck a ditch, causing the vehicle to overturn several times and was ejected from the vehicle. Court documents say the suspect was speeding when the crash happened. He was taken to a Springfield hospital with serious injuries. 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) A jury has convicted a man of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Chicopee woman. Officer-involved crash in stolen vehicle leads to three arrests in Springfield Kaysone Walters was found guilty in the killing of 25-year-old Brianne Boiselle back in August of 2021. On August 11th, Boisselle was found on Baldwin Street in Springfield with several stab wounds and died from her injuries. An investigation led Springfield Police to apply for an arrest warrant for Walters, who was believed to be the suspect in the alleged murder and armed carjacking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Springfield police along with the U.S. Marshals Service, State Police and the Hampden County Sheriffs Department later learned that Walters left the state and was in Lakeland, Florida. On October 7th, the U.S. Marshals Florida Task Force went to Lakeland and spotted Walters attempting to run away. He was caught and arrested by the officers. Walter was charged with Fugitive from Justice Warrant and was brought back to Massachusetts to face murder charges. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. A Fall River man has been convicted of attempting to rape a woman as she walked on a rail trail in Fall River on a summer morning three years ago, prosecutors said. Paulo Silva, 28, of Fall River, was found guilty by a Bristol Superior Court jury on Thursday of assault with intent to rape, attempted kidnapping and related charges, according to Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn III. A woman, then 52, said Silva accosted and attempted to sexually assault her on the Quequechan Rail Trail in Fall River on July 18, 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fall River Police were called to the path around 7 that morning, where the woman said she had noticed Silva interacting with a pregnant woman. As she walked past the pair, Silva began to follow the woman, she said. He grabbed her arm and began to push her off the trail and toward a grassy embankment of the Quequechan River, while verbally indicating he was going to sexually assault her, according to prosecutors. The woman screamed for help, and Silva ran away as two people nearby rushed to the commotion. Fall River detectives viewed surveillance video showing Silva entering his car at the trailhead soon after the incident. He later told the investigators he had tried to obtain the phone number of a woman walking on the trail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Silva admitted to grabbing the victim as she strode past and pulling her toward the embankment. He indicated to police that he planned to sexually assault the woman, but released her and ran when she called for help, prosecutors said. It is extremely concerning that a woman cant even enjoy a morning walk without being attacked, Quinn said in a statement. The defendant also approached and harassed a pregnant woman before trying to rape the victim. The defendant poses a clear danger to the public and does not belong on the street. Silva was sentenced Friday to between four-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years in state prison, followed by two years of probation, according to Quinns office. The sentence was shorter than the one sought by assistant district attorneys Kalene Kobza and Gillian Kirsch, who prosecuted the case and requested that Silva be locked up for seven to 12 years. More public safety stories Read the original article on MassLive. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, poses for a group photo with other guests at the signing ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed) in Hong Kong, south China, May 30, 2025. The signing ceremony was held here on Friday. Wang Yi attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. (Xinhua/Chen Duo) HONG KONG, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Mediation (IOMed) serves as an important public good in the field of the rule of law for better global governance, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here on Friday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivered a speech at the signing ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the IOMed in Hong Kong. Wang said that as an innovative step in international rule of law, the IOMed has great significance in the history of international relations. Wang noted that the establishment of the IOMed is an actualization of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and will fill an institutional gap in international mediation. The birth of the IOMed can help transcend the "you-lose-I-win" zero-sum mentality, promote the amicable resolution of international disputes, and foster more harmonious international relations, Wang said. The IOMed respects the wishes of parties concerned, and draws upon the strengths of being more flexible, cost-effective, convenient, and efficient, he said, adding that it will complement and form synergies with litigation, arbitration and other existing international dispute settlement mechanisms. Emphasizing the importance of enhancing the participation of developing countries and improving the representation and say of the Global South in international governance, Wang called on parties to put in place at an early date a set of world-class mediation rules and mechanisms featuring autonomy, flexibility, pragmatism and high efficiency. As decided through consultation among countries participating in the negotiation of the convention, the IOMed will be headquartered in Hong Kong, Wang said, adding that the city, with affinity to the motherland and connection to the world, enjoys exceptional advantages in international mediation. China looks forward to the signatories' early ratification of the convention and welcomes the active participation of more countries, said the foreign minister. About 400 high-level representatives from 85 countries and nearly 20 international organizations attended Friday's signing event. Among them, 33 countries signed the convention on-site, making them the founding members of the IOMed. Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Amon Murwira, Nicaragua's Attorney General Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina, Serbian Minister of Justice Nenad Vujic, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis and UN Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua delivered speeches at the event. Acknowledging that the IOMed is in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, they stressed its importance to multilateralism, global governance and global rule of law, and called on more countries to sign and ratify the convention. They also appreciated China's role as a major country and expected the IOMed's contribution to the peaceful settlement of disputes and friendly cooperation among countries. John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, welcomed the establishment of the world's first intergovernmental international legal organization dedicated to resolving international disputes through mediation in Hong Kong, adding that Hong Kong will give full play to its institutional advantages of "one country, two systems" and fully support the operation of the IOMed. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attends the signing ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed) and delivers a speech, in Hong Kong, south China, May 30, 2025. The signing ceremony was held here on Friday. (Xinhua/Chen Duo) PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) Police in Prince Georges County were at the scene of a deadly shooting that happened in the middle of the morning on Friday. Details remain limited, however, in a social media post made just before 11 a.m., the Prince Georges County Police Department (PGPD) said officers were at the scene in the 7000 block of Allentown Road. Gov. Moore welcomes new facility to Hagerstown, bringing over 100 jobs Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PGPD had responded an hour earlier at around 10 a.m. to the report of a shooting. There, they found a man outside on the ground suffering from gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives were working to establish a potential motive and identify suspects into the late morning and early afternoon. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Prince Georges County Crime Solvers. Check DCNewsNow.com for updates. To keep up with the latest news and weather updates, download our Mobile App on iPhone or Android. 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. AUSTIN (KXAN) Authorities are searching for a man they said escaped from a psychiatric hospital in northeast Austin on Wednesday. According to the Grimes County Sheriffs Office, McArthur Deashy Mathis escaped from the Cross Creek Psychiatric and Addiction Hospital, located at 8402 Cross Park Drive. GCSO said Mathis is a 62 Black man who weighs approximately 185 lbs. He was described as having multiple tattoos on his head and neck, being bald and having brown eyes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was last wearing a navy blue shirt and teal pants, according to GCSO. Mugshot of McArthur Deashy Mathis (GCSO photo) Authorities said Mathis was arrested in January on multiple warrants out of Grimes County and out of Victoria, Texas including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. They also said he was a registered sex offender. After his arrest, Mathis was taken to the psychiatric hospital May 21. GCSO said Mathis escaped the facility by kicking the back door open and jumping over a 6-foot fence. According to the Austin Police Department, a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) was issued for Mathis, but as of Friday morning, he had not yet been located. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement APD said it was actively working on this case. Due to Mathiss history of numerous aggravated offenses, anyone who comes in contact with him should consider him armed and dangerous. If you see Mathis, do not approach him. Call 9-1-1 immediately, APD said. The Cross Creek Psychiatric and Addiction Hospital provided the following statement related to the incident. We are aware of an incident involving a patient who left Cross Creek Hospital without authorization. While we are unable to comment on individual patient matters, local law enforcement was notified and is actively involved. We want to extend our sincere gratitude to the law enforcement for their prompt response and continued partnership. Cross Creek Hospital remains committed to providing a supportive environment for all individuals in our care. Cross Creek Psychiatric and Addiction Hospital Anyone with information on Mathis whereabouts was asked to contact the Grimes County Sheriffs Office at 936-873-2151, Grimes County Crimestoppers (936) 873-2000 or www.p3tips.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 KXAN Austin. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A man is in custody and facing murder charges for allegedly killing a roommate during an argument over a cellphone bill in early May. Delvision Escalona-Hernandez, 26, was arrested in Los Angeles on May 14 and extradited to the Clark County Detention Center on May 28, where he remains in custody. The stabbing happened on May 4, around 11:25 a.m., in an apartment in the 3200 block of East Desert Inn Road, near South Mojave Road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man stabbed to death in southeast Las Vegas valley apartment A witness, who was also a roommate, told police two roommates got into an argument over late payments on a cellphone bill, and when the victim stepped into the argument to defend one of the roommates, Escalona-Hernandez walked into the kitchen and grabbed a six-inch knife and attacked the victim stabbing him repeatedly in the face and chest, according to the arrest report. When Las Vegas police arrived at the apartment, Escalona-Hernandez had already fled from the scene, police said. The victim died at Sunrise Hospital. The arrest report stated Escalona-Hernandez has a history of multiple arrests. Hes scheduled for a bail hearing on June 5. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A man is in custody after shooting at multiple vehicles on I-5 Thursday morning, injuring one person and damaging a vehicle, Oregon State Police said. Jason Duane Duncan, 44, was lodged in the Washington County Jail and charged with third-degree assault, reckless endangering and unlawful use of a weapon. Police say Duncan fired shots on the side of the highway between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. between mileposts 288 and 286, near the Interstate 205 and Elligsen Road exits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police say they are looking for additional victims and witnesses. 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. A man was sentenced in Wyandotte County court Thursday for the killings of two people inside a Kansas City, Kansas market in 2019, according to a news release from the Wyandotte County District Attorneys Office. Jermelle Byers, 45, was sentenced to two life sentences Thursday after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the fatal July 10, 2019 shootings of 62-year-old Dennis G. Edwards and 42-year-old Lachell Day. Kansas City Kansas police responded to Edwards Original Corner Market at 81 N. Mill St. on July 10, 2019, around 3 p.m. on reports of a shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There, officers located Day, injured, and Byers, who pointed a handgun at police. Officers retreated from the building, and Byers was taken into custody after a two-hour standoff with police. Inside the market, officers found Edwards dead and Day with critical injuries, from which she died. Officers said the shooting was related to a domestic disturbance between Byers and Day. Edwards Original Corner Market closed permanently after the incident. Byers will serve his sentence in the Kansas Department of Corrections, according to the news release. He will become eligible for parole on March 10, 2071. The Stars Kaitlyn Schwers and Katie Moore contributed reporting to this story. TOLEDO, Ohio A man arrested in Toledo will be deported following his prison sentence for illegal reentry into the United States. Jose Tiscareno-Rangel, 35, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Jack Zouhary after pleading guilty to illegally reentering the United States. He will be deported to Mexico upon completion of his prison sentence. Prosecutors say Tiscareno-Rangel admitted to illegally re-entering the country after he was removed in 2018. He also had a previous conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1.5 kilograms of heroin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tiscareno-Rangel was found in July 2024 during an encounter with law enforcement at a gas station in Toledo. The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative against illegal immigration with the goal of eliminating cartels, criminal organizations and perpetrators of violent crime, according to the Department of Justice. 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. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) A 59-year-old mans identity has been released by the Kern County Coroners Office after he was killed by a train on May 17. William Loyal Hattabaugh Jr., 59, of Bakersfield, was fatally hit by a train at Morning Drive and Edison Highway May 17, according to the coroner. Hattabaugh Jr. was pronounced dead at the scene. Bank robbery suspect fled from Valley Strong on Coffee Road: police Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident occurred at about 7:32 a.m. If you have any information regarding this incident, reach out to the Kern County Sheriffs Office at 661-487-4553. 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. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) Police said a man was taken to the hospital after he was shot near the Waterfront Metro Station on Thursday afternoon. Details are limited; however, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said officers were called to the 400 block of M Street SW, just before 4 p.m. on May 29, for the report of a shooting. This is near the Wharf. Florida Congressman introduces bill to rename Metro WMAGA, Trump Train Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upon arrival, police found a man who had been shot, conscious and breathing. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, and the extent of his injuries is unknown. The police department urges anyone with information about this case 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. 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. CHICKASHA, Okla. (KFOR) A man has pleaded guilty to two charges of First Degree Murder regarding a 2020 homicide in Chickasha. On November 30, 2020, Chickasha Police officers responded to an apartment on Virginia Ave. Upon arrival, they found 37-year-old Ashley Cannon deceased. She was 36 week pregnant at the time of her death. Ashley Cannon. Image courtesy OSBI. LOCAL NEWS: Former OKCPD officer who slammed Lich Vu to the ground approved for disability Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials say the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation was asked to help in January 2020. The investigation led authorities to 41-year-old Kenneth Johnson, who was later charged in November 2023 with two counts of First Degree Murder by the Grady County District Attorneys Office. Kenneth Johnson. Image courtesy OSBI. On May 29, 2025, Johnson pleaded guilty to both charges of First Degree Murder for the deaths of Cannon and her unborn child, Nala. He was been sentenced to life in prison with all but the first 40 years suspended. 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. URUMQI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Horgos Port, a major railway hub in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has handled over 4,000 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips this year after a train loaded with electronics and mechanical equipment departed for Germany's Duisburg on Thursday. To date, Horgos railway port has processed a cumulative total of more than 46,000 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips, with 87 operational routes linking 46 cities and regions across 18 countries, according to China Railway Urumqi Group Co., Ltd. Situated on the China-Kazakhstan border, Horgos Port and Alashankou Port, also known as Alataw Pass, are Xinjiang's two primary rail gateways. Earlier data showed that, as of Monday, Alashankou Port had handled over 3,000 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips this year, with 123 routes connecting 21 countries, including Germany and Poland. Over the past three years, cargo throughput at these two railway ports has sustained double-digit growth. In 2024, the ports handled 27.5 million tonnes of goods, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the region's total land-based import and export volume. Additionally, the number of China-Europe freight trains passing through the two ports represented over 50 percent of the national total. In 2024 alone, the two ports processed 16,400 China-Europe freight train trips, up 14 percent year on year. KANSAS CITY, Mo. A man who investigators say fired shots from a car that killed a 6-year-old boy who was playing outside in Kansas City, Kansas, more than two years ago has pleaded guilty to three charges, including second-degree murder. Lakevis Sloan, 22, pleaded guilty to murder, aggravated assault and aggravated endangering a child in a shooting where SirAntonio Brown was killed near N. 31st Street and Greeley Avenue on May 3, 2023. Family said three people in masks were in the car and fired nearly three-dozen bullets. A photo of SirAntonio Brown seen at a vigil on May 10, 2023. Brown was shot and killed outside of a home in Kansas City, Kansas on May 3, 2023. (Photo by Kevin Barry/FOX4) Sloan was on the run for more than two weeks after the shooting and was caught with a suspected accomplice who was 17 years old at the time of the shooting when they got off a bus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family told FOX4 during the initial investigation they believed Sloan was likely targeting a family member. The search for Sloan prompted outcry from the community for justice, and led to memorials and vigils for Brown where the boy was mourned as many tried to make sense of what happened. He loved karate. He loved motorcycles. He loved making sure that his family was OK, Shawna Davis-Scott, Sirs great aunt, said just days after the shooting. KCKPD detectives watched surveillance video of the shooting captured by a nearby homeowners camera. Court documents say video showed one of the suspects limping away from the scene. Detectives also saw one of the suspects wore unique black-and-white Jordan 12s. Armed with that evidence, Kansas City, Missouri, gang detectives identified the suspect with a limp as a known gang member who lost his leg when he accidentally shot himself, and had to wear a prosthetic limb. The suspects social media profile had a picture of him wearing the same shoes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Missouri counties denied state aid for tornado damage The investigation also led to an obstruction charge filed against Cassandra Sledge, who was 18 years old at the time, and was accused changing her story regarding the car used in the murder. Detectives said she made a call to someone after her interview, and even though she tried speaking Pig Latin to disguise her message, investigators determined she told the person on the other end of the line: Yes, they know everything, and Its on video and everything, and They know yall was there. A plea hearing for Sloan took place Friday morning in Wyandotte County District Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sloan faces more than 56 years in prison as a result of his guilty pleas, but court documents say that he and his lawyer will argue for a sentence between 15 and 26 years. FOX4 has asked when Sloans sentencing date is scheduled. 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a Port Angeles robbery. Back in March of 2024, a fumbling armed robber at a Port Angeles Dollar Tree store dropped bullets as he threatened employees. Clallam County deputies report he was in disguise, waving around what looked to be a semi-automatic handgun before pointing it at two employees, threatening to shoot them if they didnt give him money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As he made the threats, he fumbled the gun, which caused two 9mm bullets to fall to the floor, according to deputies. He then told a clerk to sit down while a manager opened the safe and gave him $1,894 in cash, before speeding off in a car. Almost a year later, in February of 2025, the Clallam County Sheriffs Office identified the man as 30-year-old Justin J. Radisich with the help of surveillance and DNA evidence. Just two days later, the Bellingham Bike Patrol found and arrested Radisich. He was then booked into the Clallam County Jail on a $100K bond. Finally, on May 29, 2025, Radisich was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree robbery with a firearm enhancement. His sentence includes 120 months for the robbery charges, an additional 60 months for the firearm enhancement, and 18 months of community custody. Justice has been served, and we thank everyone who contributed to the investigation, wrote the Clallam County Sheriffs Office. NEED TO KNOW A man in Scotland has been sentenced to life in prison for the "exceptionally savage" and "brutal" murder of a mother-of-two Lucretia "Keshia" Donaghy, 32, was killed in the town of Elgin after suffering multiple "blunt force head injuries;" her body was found on Nov. 16, 2023 Owen Grant, 43, was found guilty of her murder and will serve a minimum of 24 years in prison before parole will be considered A man in Scotland has been jailed for life for the "exceptionally savage" and "brutal" murder of a mother-of-two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, May 29, Owen Grant, 43, was found guilty by the High Court in Edinburgh of the killing of 32-year-old Lucretia Donaghy, known as Keshia, in the town of Elgin in November 2023, a Police Scotland news release stated. He was sentenced to life in prison and must serve a minimum of 24 years before parole can be considered. Per a Judiciary of Scotland release, judge Lord Scott said that the jury had decided "it had been proved beyond reasonable doubt" that the suspect had "murdered an unarmed and [defenseless] woman in her own home by repeatedly striking her on the head and body with a claw-hammer or similar implement." "Lucrezia Donaghy died as a result of blunt force head injuries," Scott added, per the release, which noted that Grant had denied he was responsible for the victim's death. Kiesha Donaghy/Facebook Keshia Donaghy Keshia Donaghy "There were seven individual injury sites on her head and neck, some of which represent multiple impacts and, therefore, the exact number of impacts was not able to be determined, however it was likely to be in double figures. The damage sustained to her scalp, skull and brain was significant enough to account for death," the judge continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The judge said there "were fractures to the index and ring fingers" of the victim's right hand "that were likely to have been sustained by an impacting object such as a hammer, whilst her fingers were against a hard surface such as a wall or desk, or the skull, as an attempt to deflect blows to the head." "Whatever implement you used, whether a claw-hammer or something similar, the murder weapon was never found, undoubtedly disposed of by you in calm and calculated efforts to conceal your crime and dispose of any evidence in its immediate aftermath," the judge continued, stating the attack "was exceptionally savage, frenzied, and, as your own Senior Counsel rightly said, brutal." The BBC reported that a neighbor had heard what seemed to be an argument coming from the downstairs apartment before Donaghy's death, with the victim allegedly calling out, "No, no, no." Her body was discovered in a bedroom with the outlet reporting she had "[sustained] multiple blunt force head injuries." Per the report from Police Scotland, her body was discovered on Nov. 16, 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lord Scott told the court that the reasons for "this brutal murder remain unknown," but said they "appear almost certainly to have been related to money," per the release. Police Scotland Owen Grant Owen Grant The judge stated that the suspect had been "struggling to pay" his rent at the time, and reportedly owed money to the victim for drugs. "Almost immediately after her death, you embarked, once again calmly, on a spending spree involving attending to your own needs and drug habit," the judge said, stating that Grant went from having not a lot of money in the bank to "frittering away hundreds" of what was thought to have been the victim's money on cocaine "in a matter of three or four days." "You started to do so before her body had even been discovered, within no more than two hours of her death," the judge said, later noting that the suspect had a "history of previous violent and dangerous behavior." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Donaghy's mother, Amanda Gow, paid tribute to her late daughter in a statement shared by Police Scotland. "Life without Keshia will never be the same. She was my only daughter and my first born. Her two daughters will have to live their lives without their [mom]," Gow said. "I still cannot get my head around the fact that she is gone and that her life was taken in such a brutal way," she added, asking for privacy at such a tough time. 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. Detective Superintendent Lorna Ferguson said, per the police release, My thoughts remain with Keshias family and friends as they continue to try to come to terms with what happened. I hope the verdict will bring them some form of justice." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This was a complex enquiry and I would like to thank the local community for their patience and assistance throughout our investigation," Ferguson added. Grant now faces the consequences of his actions," the officer continued. Violence such as this is never acceptable in our communities and we will work tirelessly to ensure those responsible are brought to justice." Read the original article on People A young man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of a 17-year-old girl in west Charlotte. Alysha Johnson had just graduated from Hopewell High School in 2019 and had plans to attend nursing school. Before she could accomplish that goal, Johnson was killed along Beatties Ford Road. Juan Zamora was later arrested and charged in connection with her death. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents, Zamora and others tried to carjack Johnson at random in front of a store. However, when she fought back, Zamora shot and killed her. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man pleads guilty to 2019 killing of 17-year-old in north Charlotte On Friday, Channel 9s Hunter Saenz spoke with Johnsons friends and family after they faced her killer in court. They told Saenz that they finally have a sense of closure. She was just always there for everyone she loved, said Roziairah Young-Kosh. Young-Kosh said Johnson was more than a friend to her; she was a sister. She was really one of my ride-or-die friends. One of the people I would go to for anything. Such a light, said Young-Kosh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said six years after the murder, she still doesnt know why the situation escalated the way it did. For the first couple of years, it was hard to deal with. But I can say now, Im healed, and Ive been healing, and I just shed the light and the love that we had for her, said Young-Kosh. On Friday, a judge sentenced Zamora to life in prison without the possibility of parole. One of the other suspects, Andy Garcia, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in connection with Johnsons death and was sentenced to up to 18 years in prison. The second suspect, a 15-year-old, was also charged in this case and pleaded guilty to lesser charges. VIDEO: Man sentenced to life for murder of woman, unborn child NEW YORK (PIX11) A Manhattan man will be spending decades behind bars for stabbing a transgender woman outside a homeless shelter on Randalls Island two years ago, authorities said Friday. Jesse Diaz Ramos, 33, was sentenced to 25 years in state prison after a jury convicted him of attempted murder as a hate crime and assault earlier this month, prosecutors said. More Local News Ramos attacked the 32-year-old victim while she was waiting at a bus stop near the Randalls Island homeless shelter in July 2023, prosecutors said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ramos hurled an anti-gay slur and pulled a knife after the two exchanged punches. The defendant then stabbed the woman in the left side of her chest, according to court records. The victim was able to get away and ran inside the shelter for help, where officers from the Department of Homeless Services treated her before taking her to the hospital, officials said. The woman needed surgery after suffering a partially collapsed lung, and a punctured stomach and diaphragm. Ramos, emboldened by his biases, selected and assaulted the victim, seriously injuring and traumatizing her. I hope the victim can take comfort in knowing that Ramos has been brought to justice and I hope she continues to recover from the reeling effects of this violent conduct, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ramos attorney could not be reached Friday. If you or someone you know has been a victim or witness to a hate crime or bias incident, please call 911 or report it at 212-335-3100. Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She has been with PIX11 News for two years. 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 PIX11. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) D.C. police are investigating after a man was shot in the Trinidad neighborhood Thursday night. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) told DC News Now that officers were called to the 1300 block of Staples Street NE, just before 10:25 p.m. on May 29, for the sounds of gunshots. Amid surge in Southeast DC violence, leaders discuss solutions at safety meeting While canvassing the area, officers found a man who had been shot in his arm in the 1300 block of Florida Avenue NE, according to the police report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Medics took him to the hospital for treatment. The circumstances of what led up to the shooting remain under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 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. 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. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) One man is dead after being struck by an SUV in Salt Lake City late Thursday night. Salt Lake City Police Department said the crash happened just before 11:45 p.m. The victim, identified only as a 46-year-old man, was crossing the north side of the intersection at 500 South and State Street when he was struck by an SUV. Despite life-saving efforts, the man died at the scene due to his injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kearns man charged with alleged kidnapping and sexual assault of 16-year-old girl According to a preliminary investigation, the SUV had a green light to go through the intersection, and the man appeared to be walking outside of the crosswalk when he was struck. The SUVs driver and three passengers stayed at the scene after the crash and cooperated with police during their investigation. Another driver who witnessed the crash also stayed on the scene and spoke with officers. Police do not believe the driver of the SUV was driving under the influence. State Street and 500 South were both briefly closed in the area as Salt Lake City Police investigated and cleared the crash scene. The road has since been reopened in time for the Friday morning commute. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. WASHINGTON (AP) Since coming from China as a teenager for boarding school, Bob Zeng has imagined building a career in the United States. But as he prepared to graduate Thursday from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it felt like the last chapter of his life in America. Zeng said he has been rethinking his plans because of the Trump administration's pledge to aggressively revoke the visas of Chinese students. Having completed a masters degree in science and management, he is thinking about moving to Europe. Or going home to China. I am worried about working here, said Zeng, 30. You never know whats going to happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many international students come to the U.S. with hopes of gaining work experience and returning to their home countries or pursuing a career in the U.S. But the administration's intensifying scrutiny of international students and signs that formal career pathways for them may be closed are leading some to reconsider their plans. Beyond the steps the administration already has taken expanding the grounds for terminating students' ability to study in the U.S., adding new vetting for student visas, moving to block foreign enrollment at Harvard a key nominee has raised the possibility of ending a program that encourages international students to stay and gain work experience. About 240,000 of the 1.1 million people on student visas in the U.S. are on Optional Practical Training a one-year post-graduation period where they are authorized to work in fields related to their degrees. It can last up to three years for graduates in science, math and technology fields. President Donald Trump's nominee for director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said during his confirmation hearing on May 21 that he would like to see an end to post-graduate work authorization for international students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What I want to see would be essentially a regulatory and sub-regulatory program that would allow us to remove the ability for employment authorizations for F-1 students beyond the time that they are in school, said Edlow, referring to the F-1 visas on which most international students attend college in the U.S. A program offers international students a foothold for careers in the US The opportunity to gain career experience at U.S. companies, especially in technology and other fields where American companies dominate, has long been a draw of studying here. Many enter the H-1B visa lottery, hoping to be selected for one of the employer-sponsored visas that offer a pathway to permanent residency in the United States. Threatening practical training opportunities would have long-term consequences for the U.S. in attracting international students, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, which represents international educators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We turn global talent away at our own expense, Aw said. Like many international students, Marko, 29, finds himself glued to the news with a growing sense of alarm. His Optional Practical Training expires in a month, and he has applied for an extension but hasnt heard back, leaving him in limbo. Lawyers for the tech company where he works in New York City advised him to carry proof of his legal status in his wallet, which he finds dehumanizing. The message being sent now is that: You are not one of us, and we are going to get rid of you, said Marko, who asked that only his first name be used because he is worried about being targeted for removal from the country. He has lived in the U.S. for a decade spanning college and graduate school, but his family and friends back home have encouraged him to leave. His hope is that he gets the OPT extension and can then apply for an H-1B visa and continue his life in the U.S., but he also worries about anti-immigrant sentiment and who will be targeted next. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Guy, an HIV researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital who declined to provide his last name for fear of retaliation, came to the United States in 2018 for a PhD program at New York University. Hes now in his second year of OPT and would have to return to the United Kingdom if the program was terminated. Although he still feels welcome in New York City, he said it feels like theres a war on immigrants in this country. Its not a particularly attractive place to stay and do science right now, he said. Foreign students have been targeted on several fronts In his first administration, Trump floated the idea of curtailing OPT, but that did not materialize. During the campaign, he suggested he would give green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges, a sentiment that students and educators hoped would signal more welcoming policies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But his administration has cracked down on international students in several ways. In April, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began terminating the legal status of people with student visas who appeared in a database of police encounters. Many caught up in that effort were on OPT, and had to leave their jobs or risk violating laws about working without legal authorization. ICE eventually restored students status after widespread legal challenges, but not before some chose to leave the country pre-emptively, fearing deportation. In mid-May, some recent graduates received letters threatening to terminate their status if they did not update their employment records. While the letters gave them an opportunity to fix any reporting issues, it sent another wave of uncertainty through international graduates. This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the government would move to revoke visas of Chinese students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yurong Luanna Jiang, a Chinese student who graduated Thursday from Harvard University, said in an interview that she had hoped to stay in the U.S. for a few years but she has been unsettled by the Trump administration's crackdown on visas. "In terms of the plan going forward, I would say everything is up in the air at this point, said Jiang, who is now open to going anywhere in the world to work in international development. At this point, its difficult to say what will happen. ___ Gecker reported from San Francisco, Toness and Michael Casey contributed from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Collin Binkley contributed from Washington. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ___ The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. BANGKOK (AP) Two months after a deadly earthquake ravaged much of central and northeastern Myanmar, recovery is just inching along, with huge numbers of people living in temporary shelters while facing the heavy rainfall and strong winds of monsoon season. The 7.7 magnitude March 28 quake caused significant damage to six regions and states, including the capital Naypyitaw and Mandalay, the countrys second-largest city. The confirmed death toll from the disaster has reached 3,740, with 5,104 injured, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday. Bodies are still being found Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the task of rebuilding grinds along, the grim work of recovering the dead is continuing. The Myanmar Fire Services Department said on its Facebook page this week that its teams had recovered four bodies from the rubble of the collapsed buildings of the Sky Villa Condominium in Mandalay on Tuesday and Wednesday. More than 100 bodies have been recovered from the condominium site and search operations will continue as more bodies are believed to be buried under debris, an official of the Myanmar Rescue Federation (Mandalay), which works with the firefighters, told The Associated Press on Friday. He asked not to be named because he fears arrest for speaking without authorization. Myanmar has a major ongoing humanitarian crisis Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Humanitarian needs in Myanmar have reached record levels, with 19.9 million people identified as needing assistance, and an additional 2 million in urgent need following the quake, said a report issued on May 23 by OCHA, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Myanmar already plunged into turmoil in 2021, when the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which triggered nationwide nonviolent pro-democracy protests that escalated into armed resistance and what now amounts to a civil war. Myanmar continues to face significant humanitarian challenges, driven by recurrent disasters, persistent conflict, and grave protection risks, with an estimated 3.5 million people displaced across the country, OCHA said. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmars military government, said at a Thursday fund-raising ceremony for disaster relief that more than half a million people from 2,081 villages were affected by the quake, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hundreds of roads and bridges were damaged or destroyed and more than 700 hospitals and clinics also suffered varying levels of damage, according to his figures. Many survivors are still in inadequate temporary housing Shelter is a major problem, even as people leave temporary camps to return home. The official from Myanmar Rescue Federation (Mandalay) said about half of the disaster victims who were sheltering in camps have returned to temporary accommodations built on land where their homes once stood. Aung Kyaw, who supervises recovery activities in Hmike Su ward in Mandalays Amarapura township, told The Associated Press on Friday that more than 150 people from his ward were still living in roadside shelters in tarpaulin tents He said they were suffering due to strong winds and constant rain for days, and urgently need metal roofing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I need iron sheets for a roof to build a shelter on my land. I would be satisfied just to be able to safely sleep at my house, said Aung Kyaw, whose home was destroyed. I dont want to badger for anything else. Now we are just sitting in the rain." He said the people living in temporary shelters will also likely face floods due to heavy monsoon rains in the coming months. In Naypyitaw, the capital, government personnel have moved to modular low-cost prefabricated buildings built around the compound of the central railway station while debris is still being cleared from their damaged state housing. In other damaged residential areas, people have completed clearing the debris on their own, but most of them are still living in tents. CARACAS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said Thursday that Washington's decision this week to revoke the so-called licenses of transnational companies operating in the South American country has had no impact on oil production. "PDVSA (the state-owned oil company) workers maintain their production plan," Rodriguez said. Though the U.S. Department of the Treasury revoked licenses from transnational oil companies operating in the country on May 27, the oil fields are producing as planned. "Both PDVSA and Partner B (transnational corporations) are victims of unilateral coercive measures," or sanctions, and the so-called licenses "are not recognized by the Venezuelan legal system," said the vice president. "We maintain and respect the production agreements signed with them. If they are not there, our workers are there producing," she said. The vice president made the remarks at Fedeindustria Expofair, a trade show put on by the Venezuelan industrial association, where she offered an overview of the country's economic situation. According to Rodriguez, Venezuela has already surpassed 1 million barrels of crude oil production, and the trend continues. MARIA STEIN, Ohio (WDTN) Residents are left reeling after intense flames and plumes of black smoke engulfed a pillar of their community this week. On Thursday, the St. John the Baptist Church in Maria Stein caught fire, prompting nearly 20 fire departments to fight the flames for hours. As officials assess the damage, the community is left to wonder what comes next. A big loss: Church steeple, roof collapse in massive Maria Stein fire Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over 135 years worth of history is now left in a damaged state, with several members of the Maria Stein community in shock at the devastation. Residents who attended this church said when they heard the news on their phone, they had to come see it firsthand. Immediately had tears, and I was so devastated that the church was gone, said Sharon Kremer, churchgoer for 40 years. My kids all have their sacraments there. We just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary here. On Friday, as officials investigate and begin clearing debris, more people came to survey the damage. I just felt like, sad and really bad for everybody that got married, first communion, everything in there. Like it was a beautiful church and we all loved it, said Alexis Winner, who was baptized at the church. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For many in the Maria Stein community, this church held memories of marriages, baptisms and more. Knowing that I grew up and I was raised and baptized at this church, I was just really surprised to know that I didnt know really where I was going to go to church, said Carter Knapke, who was also baptized at the church. 2 NEWS got to speak with Sheila and John Heinl, who have had generations of their family come to this church. She was baptized in this church, and his parents, you know were probably married in this church. And the funerals were in this, said Sheila Heinl, local resident. Its a community thing and its devastating to the community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Memories go deep for many like the Heinls, who say this church served as a center piece to their familys story. That used to be my dads store over there. And my grandmas brickhouse there. But, you know, my parents funeral mass, both of them were here, said John Heinl, resident. This means a lot to the people of this community. And I think, regardless, this community will find a way to make it happen again and rebuild it. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati surveyed the damage on Friday, as church leaders begin looking to what the future holds for the 135-year-old building. The hope is that the wall, that the structure is sound, but theres still work, obviously, to be done and theres not quite the space to get inside the building yet as of this point, said Jennifer Schack with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Maria Stein community is grieving, but many are confident they will come together to restore this historical landmark. For now, Mass that was planned to take place at St. John the Baptist will move to Precious Blood Church in Chickasaw, on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. 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. NEED TO KNOW A U.S. Marine of 20 years pinned a man down on an All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Houston when he claims a man tried to open the emergency exit door Sergeant Major Jody Armentrout said he was handed zip ties by flight attendants to secure the passenger and sat beside him until the plane landed in Seattle That was not the only hiccup in Flight 114's route, as another passenger punched the lavatory door while the plane was on the tarmac in Seattle A U.S. Marine acted quickly after noticing a man grab the emergency exit door. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sergeant Major Jody Armentrout, who has served in the Marines for 20 years, was on a flight from Tokyo to Houston on May 24, when he noticed a man acting suspicious. The fellow passenger took his backpack into one of the lavatories before he walked out, went into a second lavatory, and then a third. "He came out of that one and began pacing up and down the aisle, so that just threw my radar on," Armentrout, who is stationed in Japan, told NBC News in a phone interview about his All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Houston. Keeping a steady eye on the suspicious passenger, Armentrout, 50, said he saw the man eyeing the emergency exit door adjacent to him. Thats when the Marine intervened by standing up and blocking the mans way to the door. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Stock Images stock image of an All Nippon Airways flight stock image of an All Nippon Airways flight Armentrout said he saw the passenger turn around and run straight through the galley to another emergency exit door. Thats when Armentrout's instincts and training kicked in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He grabbed a strap around the door, pulled it off, and about that time is when I took him and slammed him, put him on the ground," Armentrout told NBC News. "And then there was an older gentleman sitting on that side that woke up, and he got up and kind of helped me." Getty Stock Images stock image of a plane galley stock image of a plane galley Flight attendants handed Armentrout zip ties to keep the man secured to the seat while the plane took a detour to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In the meantime, Armentrout sat next to the man for the duration of the flight. "His eyes you could definitely tell there was something going on," Armentrout said of the passenger acting suspiciously. 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. All Nippon Airways released a statement regarding Flight 114, saying a passenger became unruly during the flight with service from Haneda Airport to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man was escorted off the plane, where he was brought in for questioning and later identified, according to a Port of Seattle Police report obtained by PEOPLE. The FBI informed the officer on call that they were not going to place the man into custody. Instead, he was transported to a local hospital where he received "further medical evaluation," the report states. "Prosecutors are reviewing reports and witness statements to determine whether the case is appropriate for federal prosecution," a spokesperson for the FBI Seattle field office told PEOPLE. U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Jody G. Armentrout Sgt. Maj. Jody G. Armentrout That was not the only hiccup for the All Nippon Airways Flight 114 that departed Saturday morning. As the flight sat on the tarmac in Seattle, another passenger who "was frustrated at the flight diversion" punched a lavatory door, the FBI's Seattle field office reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The flight passenger was removed from the flight and has not been identified. The FBI reported that neither flight passenger received charges as of Tuesday. Flight 114 eventually made it to Houston on Saturday at 12:42 pm CDT, according to FlightAware.com. Armentrout admitted, "It was a weird flight." On Friday, May 30, Armentrout will make the trip back to his base in Japan, which he told the news station has him feeling a little anxious after the last flight. With that, he issued a strong advisory to travelers. "I want to make sure everybody understands what time we are in in this world nowadays and that they need to be aware of their surroundings all the time," he said. Read the original article on People MARLBORO COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) The daughter of McColl Mayor Robert Outlaw was arrested on multiple charges including assault, the Marlboro County Sheriffs Office said Thursday. Kelly Outlaw was charged with third-degree assault and battery and unlawful communication. She was booked into the Marlboro County Detention Center, where she awaits a bond hearing. The incident stemmed from a dispute that started on a Facebook news post and escalated into a series of threatening messages sent through Facebook Messenger, totaling 40 messages, including audio messages regarding the McColl town government disputes, according to the sheriffs office. Outlaw was apprehended at her residence, and while she was being apprehended, she allegedly threatened to harm the victim in front of the investigators arresting her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The town has seen its share of controversy in the past year, with former Mayor George Garner who was being investigated by SLED dying in a car crash less than a week after the towns entire police department resigned. Early last week, the town appeared to have a new police chief with the appointment of Billy Stubbs. However, days later, Stubbs backed out. 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. * * * Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, often mentioned among Democrats as a potential presidential candidate, has been saying for months that he isn't running for the White House in 2028. That hasn't stopped persistent talk about his future political plans, especially when he continues to make appearances outside Maryland that raise his national profile. On Friday, Moore traveled to speak at the Blue Palmetto Dinner in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina, where he told a ballroom of Democrats that it's time for their shared party to take swift action to improve outcomes in areas like job creation and education outcomes, rather than slow and more deliberate moves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I'm here on a mission, Moore told a packed room of party donors, activists, candidates and elected officials. This is the moment for us to say together in one voice: gone are the days when the Democrats are the party of no and slow. we must be the party of yes and now.we must be the party of action, and that action must come now. Moore's remarks served as a way to introduce himself to the voters who will play a pivotal role in the party's next nominee. While it will be months until the 2028 presidential nominating calendar is set, South Carolina led off Democrats' 2024 calendar, and party chair Christale Spain has said that she will renew the argument to keep the state's No. 1 position in the next cycle. The trip to South Carolina included meetings with business prospects. Earlier Friday, he toured Scout Motors' electric SUV production facility in Blythewood, just north of Columbia. In a social media post, Moore characterized that trip as fact-finding that would help him keep bringing opportunities and business like yours to Maryland, so that we can continue building and diversifying our economy. Moore has been intentional about face time with South Carolina Democrats before. Last summer, he was one of several potential presidential hopefuls to address the state's delegation on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Friday, drawing several standing ovations, some of Moore's most impassioned remarks came as he levied criticism at President Donald Trump, who he said is, albeit rashly, quick to take action. Donald Trump doesn't need a study to use the Constitution like it's a suggestion box, he said. Donald Trump doesn't need a white paper to start arbitrary trade wars that will raise the cost on virtually everything in our lives. Anybody who is talking about 2028 doesn't understand the urgency of 2025, Moore added. When asked directly about 2028, though, the governor is clear. Im not running, Moore told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. He also said, when asked, that he isnt trying to get his name in the conversation for a potential vice presidential candidacy, either. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And people should get very used to me going all over the country bringing business back to Maryland, because that's exactly what I plan on doing as long as I'm the governor of the state, Moore said after a dedication in Annapolis for a memorial to former Rep. Parren Mitchell, the state's first Black congressman. In the third year of his first term, Moore plans to run for reelection next year in heavily Democratic Maryland. He says being the state's governor during a challenging time has his full attention. That includes working to navigate the difficulties of dramatic federal downsizing under the Trump administration, which poses an outsize economic impact on Maryland. The state is home to a large number of federal workers toiling in the shadow of the nations capital about 256,000 Marylanders received a federal W-2 in 2021, representing about 8% of taxpayers, according to an analysis by the state's comptroller. Earlier this month, Maryland lost its triple-A bond rating from the Moodys economic rating agency. State officials had cited the rating for more than 50 years as a sign of strong fiscal stewardship that enabled the state to pay the lowest rates when it sells bonds to pay for infrastructure. Two other rating agencies, Standard & Poors and Fitch, have recently affirmed the states triple-A bond rating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moore and other leading Democrats in the state blamed the Trump administration's downsizing for the Moody's downgrade. The governor just had the most challenging legislative session of his tenure. Facing a $3.3 billion budget deficit, he worked with the legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, to reach a balanced budget that included about $2 billion in spending cuts throughout state government and about $1.6 billion in new revenues through tax and fee increases. Most of the tax increases were imposed on high-income residents, including two new higher tax brackets for people who make more than $500,000 and a new 2% tax on capital gains for people with income over $350,000. The governor has said most Marylanders won't see a tax increase, and some will receive a modest tax cut. Still, Maryland Republicans have been pouncing on the tax increases an issue sure to be raised often by the GOP's next nominee for governor. Moore, 46, is the states first Black governor, and the only Black governor currently serving. He is the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty nonprofit. He also is a Rhodes scholar and a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The buzz around Moore has persisted since the bestselling author won Marylands governorship in his first bid for public office in a landslide in 2022, after prevailing in a crowded Democratic primary that included former national party chairman and former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez. ___ Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland. Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP Maui Police Department announced Thursday afternoon that an 11-year veteran of the department was arrested for alleged sexual assault in the first degree. A 48-year-old man from Kahului has been placed on administrative leave, according to an MPD news release. His department-issued credentials and firearm have been temporarily removed. His identity was not immediately released. Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said in a statement today, Any Maui Police Department employee who violates the law will be held accountableboth criminally and administratively. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Chief, I stand firmly behind the dedicated men and womenboth sworn and civilianwho serve our community with integrity and commitment. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of accountability and transparency. When our officers fall short of these standards, we must address those failures with impartiality and integrity, Pelletier said in a statement. Our community deserves accountability. We are taking deliberate steps to reinforce our commitment to fair and equitable law enforcement practices, ensuring that every individuals rights are upheld. MPD said the investigation remains ongoing and no further information is available at this time. Editor's note: Letters to the editor reflect the views of individual readers. Scroll to see how you can add your voice, whether you agree or disagree, or click on this link to fill out the form. We welcome diverse viewpoints. Re: Mayor outlines 'challenging' budget recommendations in State of Metro, May 1. There is one thing noticeably absent in the Mayors agenda for Nashville. This city has struggled with food apartheid, measured and mapped by Dr. Padgett decades ago. It still has not been resolved in 2025, and so the It City continues to strive for access to healthful, culturally-appropriate foods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Two decades after a landmark study, food insecurity in North Nashville persists Food insecurity rates will continue to increase as the federal government cuts SNAP and USDA grants. Food insecurity will further increase as the state government cuts school meals and summer meals and fails to pass grocery tax relief. And so, it is left to this metropolitan government to address the systemic inequities of our food system to feed Nashvillians. Mayor Freddie O'Connell delivers the State of Metro address Thursday, May 1, 2025 at the Downtown Nashville Public Library. Metro funded FeedBack Nashville, a year-long study of Nashvilles food system, from agriculture, to access, to disposal. But the city has not shared the studys results. Nor has Metro taken any action to address the problems or implement the solutions found in the study. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opinion: As a nurse in rural Tennessee, I know how food deserts harm residents I urge the Mayor and the Council to consider and address the many implications of Nashvilles broken food system each time they talk about the state of our city. I urge them to follow up on the investment made in FeedBack Nashville. And I urge them to set aside funding for further food systems work in the new budget. People cannot work without food. Children cannot learn without food. Nashville cannot thrive without a just food system. Jeannie Hunter, Madison 37115 Agree or disagree? Or have a view on another topic entirely? Send a letter of 250 words or fewer to letters@tennessean.com. Include your full name, city/town, ZIP and contact information for verification. Thanks for adding to the public conversation. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Mayor O'Connell should fix Nashville's broken food system | Letters THOMSON, Ga. (WJBF) Its been just over a year since McDuffie County school leaders broke ground on a state-of-the-art elementary school. Now theyre working to finish construction in time for the upcoming school year. At last years groundbreaking, school leaders were expecting to finish construction on the new J.A. Maxwell Elementary School this week. But, this week also marks 8 months since Hurricane Helene hit our area, which put a pause on this $36 million project. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The hurricane, along with snow storms during the winter months, pushed back construction by two weeks. Despite the minor setback, the project is back on schedule. Right now, were probably at 95 to 98% complete. We should be finishing up soon. Well have a fire marshal inspection on June 13th, which we hope will get a temporary CO so we can start getting furniture moved in, said Director of Administrative Services, Neal Tam. Work crews have been on the grounds the last several months getting the structure built. With most of the outside complete, the last phase is getting the inside in top notch shape. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Youre going to have high efficiency HVAC systems, youre going to have state-of-the-art LED lightsand all of that saves energy for us as residents and taxpayers, Tam said. Superintendent Dr. Mychele Rhodes says theres other key features for the new school that will set itself apart from others in the county. This school will have an outdoor classroom area at the front of the school, we have a track for our Pre-Kindergarten students to ride their tricycles. This school also has 4 STEM labs, and that is going to be a huge part of instruction here on a daily basis, said Rhodes. She says it will also be easy to access for parents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well have a Pre-Kindergarten entrance that is separate for our smaller students, we have a car rider entrance for our K through 3, and well also have our bus rider entrance. The design of this school will allow for easy flow of traffic off of the Thomson Bypass, and it also allows our buses to enter the rear of this school from our current middle schoolwhich also eliminates some traffic on the Bypass and White Oak Road, Rhodes said. Rhodes also served in various roles for Maxwell Elementary nearly 20 years ago. She couldnt be more excited for the schools future. Its just going to be something that the children in this community will enjoy for many years to come, and its going to provide a state-of-the-art education for our children, said Rhodes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rhodes says after a few more finishing touches, she expects construction to finish by the end of June, and will open the school just in time for the 2025-26 school year. We are right now planning to have teachers in in the next couple of weeks, because its important to our district that the faculty and staff of this school see their building first. Then after we begin the move-in process in mid-June, we will be announcing a community ribbon cuttingbut that has not been scheduled yet, Rhodes added. The new J.A. Maxwell Elementary School will hold approximately 740 students from Pre-K through 3rd grade, and will combine students from the current Maxwell Elementary school and Thomson Elementary. 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 WJBF. Many of Californias reservoirs have filled nearly to capacity this year with runoff from the ample snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. But the situation is very different along the Colorado River, another vital water source for Southern California, where a very dry spring has shrunk the amount of runoff streaming into reservoirs. The latest forecast from the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center shows that the rivers flows into Lake Powell probably will be about 46% of average over the next three months. We are noticing that runoff is low. There is no doubt about it, said Luke Gingerich, a farmer who grows peaches near the river in Palisade, Colo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The snowpack in the upper Colorado River Basin reached 89% of the median level April 1, but the outlook has worsened over the last two months because of persistent dryness, warm temperatures and dry soils in the mountains that have absorbed a portion of the runoff. This is another year that is not going to help the Colorado basin's long-term water crisis. It's going to make things worse, said Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist. This year will once again be putting more stress on the Colorado system. The water level of Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona border, sits at 33% of capacity. Downstream near Las Vegas, Lake Mead is about 31% full. With the meager snowmelt, the countrys two largest reservoirs probably will decline further this year, and could approach critically low levels that require additional cuts in water deliveries in the next couple of years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Representatives of California and six other states have been negotiating long-term plans for reducing water use after 2026, when the current rules expire, to deal with the ongoing shortages. But disagreements over competing proposals have created a deep rift among the three states in the rivers lower basin California, Arizona and Nevada and the four states in the rivers upper basin Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. Read more: Groundwater is rapidly declining in the Colorado River Basin, satellite data show The latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the rivers dams, show that the rest of 2025 will be another very dry year and the consequences will be significant, authors and water researchers Eric Kuhn and John Fleck wrote in a blog post . Kuhn and Fleck said the latest federal figures reveal that despite ongoing conservation efforts including programs paying farmers who agree to temporarily leave some of their fields dry further declines in the reservoirs are expected. Recent estimates show we are once again failing to rebuild reservoir storage, they wrote. Were draining the system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Colorado River provides water for cities from Denver to San Diego, 30 Native tribes and farmlands from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico. The river has long been overallocated, and its reservoirs have declined severely since 2000. The average flow of the river has decreased about 20% since 2000, and scientists have estimated that roughly half that decline has been caused by global warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels and rising levels of greenhouse gases. Read more: Colorado River in Crisis: A Times series on the Southwests shrinking water lifeline In recent years, the states have adopted a series of incremental water-saving plans to try to prevent reservoirs from reaching perilously low levels at times voicing fears that inaction might eventually drive Lake Mead to dead pool , a point at which water would no longer flow downstream past Hoover Dam. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At very low reservoir levels, there are also other risks. The states of the upper and lower basins have stated conflicting interpretations of a certain provision of the 1922 Colorado River Compact concerning how much water the upper basin must deliver to the lower basin over a 10-year period, which Kuhn and Fleck have described as a looming tripwire that might trigger a legal fight. This years low runoff underscores the need for a new set of post-2026 river management guidelines, because the current rules arent preventing reservoirs from declining toward critically low levels, said John Berggren, regional policy manager for the nonprofit group Western Resource Advocates. What we're seeing is the importance of a new set of guidelines for another 20 years that actually does respond to climate change, that does proactively prepare for these shortages, and does stabilize the system, Berggren said. Read more: They sounded alarms about a coming Colorado River crisis. But warnings went unheeded Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Southern California uses more water from the Colorado River than any other state, supplying cities and farmlands. Although the regional water shortage is likely to continue to drive conservation efforts, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has a record amount of water banked in reservoirs and underground storage areas, benefiting from supplies delivered during the last three years in California. In the Colorado River Basin, April and May were very dry. Warmer-than-average temperatures in parts of the region have contributed to the diminished runoff. Increasing temperatures in recent decades are having a real impact on runoff, Berggren said, describing this years projected runoff as similar to 2022, which also was one of the lowest in recent years. It's something that, unfortunately, we're going to see more and more of, where you need well above average snowpack to come somewhere close to average runoff because of the warming temperatures, Berggren said. With the reservoirs at low levels and the inflows shrinking, he said, we're kind of on a knife's edge between being OK and being in very scary, catastrophic situations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scientists have determined that the last 25 years probably have been the driest quarter-century in western North America in 1,200 years, a severe megadrought that research shows is being intensified by rising temperatures. As of last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor website shows that about 51% of 11 Western states are experiencing some level of drought, and that parts of the Colorado River Basin are in severe or extreme drought. Although Southern California is classified as being in a drought, Northern California is not. The states largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, is about 91% full. Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir, stands at 100% of capacity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the Sierra Nevada has had average or above-average snow for the last three years , the snowpack has melted quickly this year because of dry conditions and warm average temperatures, especially warm nighttime temperatures in the mountains. Almost all the basins have melted out really fast, Swain said, describing it as a signature of the warming climate. We are seeing earlier melt-out of western mountain snowpack, particularly at lower to middle elevations, he said. The latest seasonal forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that hotter-than-average temperatures probably will persist this summer across much of the West, including the Colorado River Basin and California. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The earlier snowmelt in many areas probably will mean that soils and vegetation in the mountains dry out earlier, which could lead to increased wildfire risks in the coming months, Swain said. The last few years, we've seen snowpacks so good at high elevations in California that there really hasn't been a fire season" in high-elevation forests, Swain said. So I think that we may see more fire activity as a result this summer compared to the last couple of years in the mountains. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A student delivers a speech at the "Chinese Bridge" competition at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe, May 30, 2025. (Xinhua/Tafara Mugwara) HARARE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese language learners in Zimbabwe on Friday showcased their language skills during the 24th "Chinese Bridge" competition organized by the Confucius Institute at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, the country's capital. Drawing participants from primary schools, high schools, and colleges, the competition consisted of a speech in Chinese and a talent show. Kudakwashe Makoni, a student of political science and diplomacy at the University of Zimbabwe, stood out with his grasp of the Chinese language and knowledge of Chinese culture. He told Xinhua that the Chinese language serves not only as a practical skill to learn in a globalized world, but also as a bridge between the two countries. "Learning Chinese provides huge opportunities for Zimbabweans. You can get scholarships to study in China, and also, with the rapidly growing Chinese economy, there is an opportunity for trade, so we can leverage the opportunity to create an amicable relationship between Zimbabwe and China," he said. Thandeka Risinamhodzi, a high school student from Harare, was elated to be crowned the champion in the high school students' segment. "Chinese is a very exciting language that you can learn. Learning Chinese benefits in many ways, like in Zimbabwe, most things involve the Chinese, like job opportunities," she said. Makoni and Risinamhodzi will represent Zimbabwe at the international finals of the "Chinese Bridge" competition in China later this year. In his address to the contest, Attwell Mamvuto, pro-vice-chancellor for academic affairs and administration at the University of Zimbabwe, said the competition not only celebrates linguistic excellence, but also marks the enduring friendship and cooperation between the two countries. "Learning a new language opens doors to new opportunities, fosters understanding, and builds bridges between people from different backgrounds. The Chinese language, with its rich history and vast number of speakers, is a particularly valuable asset. It also augurs well with the University of Zimbabwe's strategic thrust on the internationalization agenda as well as academic and cultural exchanges," he said. Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding said the growing number of Zimbabweans learning Chinese demonstrates the language's global prominence and the importance and vitality of the enduring partnership between China and Zimbabwe. "This year, as we celebrate the 45th anniversary of China-Zimbabwe diplomatic relations, which are rooted in solidarity, shared aspiration, and mutual benefit, we also celebrate decades of our joint achievements, which include the robust educational and cultural collaboration between our two countries," Zhou added. NEED TO KNOW Three people have been confirmed to have measles, their illness connected to exposure on a Turkish Airlines flight that landed in Denver on May 13, officials confirmed The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has issued a list of known exposure locations where the sickened individuals were present while contagious Officials urge that people protect themselves and their families with the MMR vaccine; Three people in the U.S. have died from measles so far this year Three people have been sickened by measles due to exposure from an international flight that landed in Denver, officials have confirmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An out-of-state traveler who was infectious on the flight, a vaccinated adult and a child younger than five have the highly infectious disease, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a May 29 statement. All three were on board Turkish Airlines flight 201, which landed in Denver on May 13. ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Stock image of a Turkish Airlines plane. Stock image of a Turkish Airlines plane. Health officials shared a list of six known exposure locations where the three individuals with measles visited while infectious that include restaurants, a gym and shops; As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control points out, the disease is spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes, and the virus stays in the air for up to two hours. If you were at these locations during the exposure window and develop symptoms, immediately contact your health care provider by phone, officials said in their statement, which cautions people who were at these locations to consider avoiding public gatherings or high-risk settings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Symptoms to watch out for include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a characteristic rash. These can begin up to 21 days after exposure. While officials note that measles is highly contagious and can often lead to dire health outcomes, it is preventable. 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 measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine provides strong protection. Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself, your family and your community, Colorado officials say, noting that its rare for vaccinated people to develop measles, but when they do, their symptoms are usually milder, and they are less likely to spread it to others. Getty Stock image of a measles rash. Stock image of a measles rash. This outbreak is part of an ongoing rise in reports of measles exposures in the U.S. In March, there was exposure on an Amtrak train to Washington, D.C. In May, someone attended a Shakira concert in New Jersey while infectious with measles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Measles isn't just a little rash, the CDC says. It also comes with a high fever, cough, runny nose and may lead to pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain), which can cause hearing loss and cognitive disabilities. It can also be fatal: There have been three deaths in the U.S. this year from measles, the CDC says, and 1,088 confirmed cases of the disease. Read the original article on People For years, Utahs early childhood vaccination rates have been declining. (Getty Images) Amid national outbreaks, a confirmed measles case hasnt yet hit Utah but as nearby states report cases, the highly contagious virus could be closing in. Meanwhile, Utahs childhood vaccination rates have been on a steady decline for years. Local and state public health officials say its likely a matter of time before the Beehive State gets its first measles case, and theyre bracing for if or when it happens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were always looking at cases in other states, Rich Lakin, immunization program manager at the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, told Utah News Dispatch this week. Weve been ready for a long time, but so far so good. We havent had any cases here in Utah. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX But to be prepared, Lakin said state public health officials are working with local health departments, clinics, and physicians to ensure they know how to quickly identify a measles case and properly handle it when someone comes in for treatment. Nic Rupp, spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Health Department, said county health officials monitor the status nationwide every day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will likely see a case locally as infections get closer geographically and as people travel more this summer, Rupp said. In the meantime, he said the Salt Lake County Health Department is encouraging populations with low rates for the MMR vaccine (which protects against measles, mumps and rubella) to get up to date on their shots as part of efforts to minimize the spread of the virus when a case does show up here. The last reported measles infection in Utah was reported in March 2023, according to state health officials. A person who was not vaccinated traveled outside the U.S. and brought measles back to Utah, the states website says. We do not believe anyone else in Utah got measles from this person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before that 2023 case, three people in Utah had measles in February 2017. Outbreaks So far this year Utahs neighboring state of Colorado has confirmed five cases, according to NBC News outbreak tracker. New Mexico has seen 79 cases, 14 of which have been reported in the last four weeks. In Texas, 753 cases have been confirmed, with 60 reported in the last four weeks. As of Thursday, a total of 1,088 confirmed measles cases have been reported in 2025 from 33 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those include Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Fourteen outbreaks have been reported so far in 2025, and 90% of those confirmed cases (977 of 1,088) have been outbreak associated, according to the CDC. For comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024, and 69% of cases (198 of 285) were outbreak associated. Utahs vaccination rate is dropping, on pace with regional declines For several years now, Utah health officials have tracked a decline in the states early childhood MMR vaccinations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the states immunization dashboard, the percentage of Utah children that received at least one dose of the MRR vaccine at 24 months old has dropped from 94.5% of those born in 2019 to 89.8% of those born in 2021. It has dropped, Lakin said. (Courtesy of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services) He pointed out that the region, which also includes the states of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, has gone from a 98.3% for the birth year of 2019 all the way down to 86.4%. So the region as a whole is not doing very well, he said. That concerns public health officials because travelers tend to visit nearby states, anytime you get cases in other states, then it increases our chances of getting a measles case here in Utah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ideal vaccination rate to reach herd immunity protection against measles is 95%, he said. Young children are also most at risk if they contract the virus. The thing that would concern us the most would be for an adult to get measles, and then you pass it to a 6-month-old that hasnt been vaccinated yet, he said. The states dashboard is currently using the latest available data from 2023, Lakin said, but state officials are working to update it soon with 2024 data. Health officials expect that Utahs immunization rate has continued to decline. The expectation is, yes, it is continuing to decline, he said, though he added, by how much, I do not know yet. State 2023 data shows public school districts tend to have higher immunization rates than charter schools. In Salt Lake County, Canyons, Granite, Jordan, Murray and Salt Lake City school districts, all had more than 95% immunization rates for the second dose of MMR vaccine in K-12 schools, compared to 91.8% in charter schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, according to that data, only 92.3% of kindergartners in Salt Lake County are up to date on measles vaccination below the ideal 95% herd immunity threshold. Last year, Axios reported Utah has one of the nations highest rates of childhood vaccine waivers. Religious exemptions accounted for the fastest-rising share of exemptions since before the pandemic, accounting for 13% of Utahs waivers last year, up from 5.9% in 2019, according to a state report released last year. The vast majority, however, are attributed to personal belief, accounting for 84.9% of the waivers in the 2023 to 2024 school year. Measles vaccine is safe and saves lives Given the troubling pattern of declining vaccination rates across Utah and other states amid deepening distrust of institutions in the U.S., Lakin acknowledged its difficult to encourage people to vaccinate their children, but he said health officials will continue to try to ensure Utahns get accurate information. Look at the history, he said, adding that back in the 1800s, if your child lived to be an adult, you were very happy. Because they either got smallpox or they got measles or they got mumps, or they got rubella, tetanus, or diphtheria. I mean, think of all these vaccine preventable diseases that we just dont see anymore, and its because of vaccinations. Lakin said unfortunately people are losing sight of what these vaccinations are doing and getting the wrong information in such a fast-paced world that we live in now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre not getting the right information anymore, he said. Thats what our continued message is that vaccinations have been one of the greatest public health achievements we have seen, and we want to continue to keep people safe through vaccinations. In a news release issued back in February after Texas announced the first death of a school-aged child from measles the Salt Lake County Health Department urged people to ensure theyre protected. For decades, the MMR vaccine has been proven safe and effective, said Dorothy Adams, executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department. Ensuring now that you and your loved ones are adequately protected will help prevent serious illness in our community if this current multistate measles outbreak spreads to Utah. Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known, and it can be so easily spread that people who are not immune have a 90% chance of catching it if they go near an infected person. Someone with measles can spread it to others even before they know they are ill, and the virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Salt Lake County health officials said the best protection against measles is to be immunized with two doses of the MMR vaccine, which can prevent more than 97% of measles infections. In the remaining 3% of cases when a fully vaccinated person catches measles the symptoms are milder, the illness is shorter, and the infected person is less likely to spread it. Unvaccinated people, including children who are too young to be vaccinated, are more likely to experience severe complications from a measles infection. How to know if youre up to date on measles shots Measles vaccine recommendations vary based on age and vaccination history. Heres what public health experts recommend: Children should receive two doses of measles vaccine: one dose at 12 to 15 months of age and another at 4 to 6 years. Adults born before 1957 generally do not need to be vaccinated because they are likely already immune to measles due to widespread infection and illness before the measles vaccine became available in 1963. Adults who were vaccinated before 1968 should have a second dose because the vaccine used from 1963 to 1967 was less effective than the current vaccine, which became available in 1968. Adults who were vaccinated in 1968 or later are considered fully protected whether they have one or two doses, though certain higher risk groups (college students, health care workers, international travelers) should have two doses. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Contract negotiations between Butler Hospitals unionized staffers and management have stalled once again. The New England Health Care Employees Union (SEIU 1199NE) and Butler Hospitals parent company Care New England officially resumed talks Wednesday, nearly two weeks after hundreds of frontline staffers walked off the job. SEIU 1199NE, which represents more than 800 workers at Butler Hospital, said both sides negotiated for 10 hours Wednesday with a federal mediator, but made no progress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement RELATED: Butler Hospital accuses striking staffers of harassing patients We remain committed to reaching a fair contract but until management recognizes our worth and returns to the table in good faith, we will have no choice but to continue our strike, registered nurse Dawn Williams said. SEIU 1199NE claims that managements latest offer would leave union workers with even less than the last, best and final proposal that was put forth earlier this month. Management gave us a set of proposals with lower wages, higher health care costs, less on retirement and no movement on our workplace violence committee, Williams said. We are more than ready to return to work and resume caring for our patients, but we should never have to choose between our safety, our livelihoods and the profession we love. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Butler Hospital has already spent more than $2 million on a temporary workforce to ensure there is no disruption in patient care throughout the strike. MORE: Striking Butler Hospital workers rally at State House Mary Marran, president and COO of Butler Hospital, said the financial strains that come with maintaining a temporary workforce will continue to significantly impact what management can offer as the strike goes on. Future proposals will factor in the changed circumstances caused by the strike, which has impacted our patients, employees, the community and the hospital, Marran explained. In light of this, and to preserve the long-term sustainability of our operations, we have put forward a reduced economic proposal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, it is important to note that our current offer still includes significantly higher wage increases than those provided in the recently expired contracts, she continued. SEE ALSO: Butler Hospital warns striking staffers that benefits will expire Marran said the union made no movement on Thursday either, and instead sent a letter urging state lawmakers to picket alongside them while negotiations were still in progress. By planning to picket with lawmakers Friday, Marran said management was left to conclude that the union had no intentions of attempting to reach an agreement. Through the federal mediator, the sides mutually agreed to seek new dates for future negotiations, Marran said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the stalemate, Marran said Butler Hospital will welcome employees back to work at any time. We continue to urge SEIU 1199NE to engage in good-faith negotiations so we can reach a resolution that refocuses our shared commitment on what matters most our patients and the dedicated professionals who care for them, she said. SEIU 1199NE claimed late Thursday night that hospital management has refused to consider new contract proposals until next week, even though the striking workers insurance benefits expire on Saturday. Its crystal clear management is using our access to health care as a weapon to break our resolve, said Dan Camp, who works for Butler Hospitals Behavioral Health Services Call Center. We remain committed to the negotiating process, but Care New England needs to stop playing games and invest in workers without demanding unnecessary and devastating concessions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SEIU 1199NEs open-ended strike began a couple of weeks ago, and comes nearly two months after the union first entered into contract negotiations with Butler Hospital and Care New England. The union is urging management to address the critical safety and economic concerns that workers believe have contributed to a staffing shortage at the hospital. NEXT: City issues noise-related fines to striking union workers 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. Follow us on social media: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. Lawmakers created a long list of study committees during the 2025 legislative session, laying the groundwork for a busy offseason. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder School may be out for the summer, but at the state Capitol in Atlanta, lawmakers are gearing up for their own version of summer school. Study committees, which meet outside the regular 40-day legislative session, have already begun gathering information and soliciting expert testimony on topics ranging from chronic student absenteeism to improving tourism. All told, 16 different House study committees and 20 Senate panels will convene under the Gold Dome, which is the most each chamber has seen in the past decade. Here is a look at a few notable ones. Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been a hot-button issue both in Georgia and around the country. During the 2025 session, legislators in both chambers introduced bills aimed at increasing regulations on the use of AI technology, but none managed to pass through both chambers by the Sine Die deadline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, two new study committees will allow legislators in the Senate to continue compiling research and drafting a report that may guide their efforts when lawmakers reconvene for the 2026 session next January. Senate Resolution 391, introduced by Roswell Republican Sen. John Albers, creates a new committee dedicated to examining the use of AI across industries like education, health care and financial services. The committee will also explore the use of digital and cryptocurrency, and how to better prevent security threats. A second AI-related committee, created by SR 431, will study the impact of social media on children across Georgia, examining privacy implications and the impact of chatbots and other AI features on minors. The resolution was introduced by Atlanta Democrat Sen. Sally Harrell, who will serve as co-chair alongside Johns Creek Republican Sen. Shawn Still. Elections Lawmakers are getting a jump start on election policy this year, perhaps hoping to avoid a repeat of the months-long battle between Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the five-member State Election Board that characterized the lead-up to Georgias 2024 election. House Resolution 885 established a special panel that will examine Georgias existing election code and how responsibilities are shared between election officials at the local and state levels. It will be chaired by Rep. Tim Fleming, a Covington Republican. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another study committee, created by SR 429, will research ways to remove barriers for those who are seeking to restore their voting rights after a felony conviction. Georgia has one of the longest parole and probationary periods in the nation and the highest number of individuals under supervision per capita of any state, according to the resolution. Insurance rates The fight to overhaul Georgias civil litigation landscape may be settled for now, but discussions over Georgias insurance rates are set to continue. A newly created panel will investigate the driving forces behind insurance rate hikes throughout the state by analyzing insurance industry practices, profit margins and compliance with state regulations. It will be chaired by Duluth Republican Rep. Matt Reeves. House lawmakers will also delve into how the states reinsurance landscape intersects with climate change in a study committee created by HR 40. Citing the estimated $6.46 billion in damage that Hurricane Helene caused in Georgia, lawmakers are hoping to combat insurance-related challenges that businesses may face during future storms and severe weather events. Co-chaired by Republican Reps. Darlene Taylor of Thomasville and Noel Williams of Cordele, the committee aims to collaborate with the Georgia Office of Insurance and Department of Agriculture to mitigate rising property and casualty insurance costs for small businesses across the state. Medical cannabis Cannabis consumption, both medical and recreational, was another prominent issue that surfaced during the 2025 legislative session. While House Bill 227 and Senate Bill 220 both sought to widen access to medical cannabis, neither bill managed to make it over the finish line before lawmakers adjourned for the year. Instead, two separate study committees will tackle the issue over the summer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A House study committee led by Augusta Republican Rep. Mark Newton, who works as a doctor, will dive into Georgias medical marijuana policies. In the Senate, lawmakers on the Study Committee on Intoxicating Cannabinoids in Consumable Hemp Products will tackle the issue of regulating recreational products like THC-infused drinks, which are chemically similar to medical cannabis but more broadly available to consumers because they fall under the federal 2018 Farm Bill and the Georgia Hemp Farming Act. State income tax Georgia lawmakers at both the state and federal level are pushing for legislation that would overhaul the current tax code, replacing the current system with a fixed consumption tax that proponents refer to as FairTax. The congressional version of the bill, which was first proposed in 1999, was sponsored this year by U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who recently announced a bid for the U.S. Senate. At the Georgia Capitol, the Senate State FairTax Study Committee will examine similar legislation that would apply a fixed sales tax rate within the Peach State. The committee will be chaired by Rome Republican Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, who also heads the Senate Finance Committee. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE MEDINA, Ohio (WJW) Medina Fire Chief Larry Walters is being honored by the state of Ohio for his heroic actions to save a woman trapped inside her burning home. It was in October 2024 when authorities in Medina County responded to a house fire on Branch Road in York Township. Among them was Walters, who said at the time that firefighters knew they had to move quickly after learning that a 31-year-old woman was trapped in the smoke-filled basement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Community leaders hold roundtable against hate after Beachwood library books burned Some of the first responders found a basement window that they smashed out and spoke with the victim, who warned them that she was not tall enough to reach the window. Unfortunately, because of the small window, their first rescue attempt was unsuccessful. With the flames closing in, Walters volunteered to climb down into the basement, where he told the terrified victim that he would make sure that she got out safely. The rescue team outside handed the chief a firefighters tool called a Halligan bar that he used to help pushed the woman up and out the window into the waiting arms of the other first responders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fact that she was out was a big relief, said Walters. The chief remained in the basement as he tried in vain to save the victims dog, but he soon realized that he was running out of time. Thats when he used the Halligan bar to step up toward the window. His fellow rescuers helped him climb out and then pulled him away from the burning house just before it became fully engulfed in flames. Walters said the rescue of the victim is a testament to teamwork. All of the right people were there at the right time in the right places, doing the right things and we had a good outcome as a result of it, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Raccoon breaks into box truck for Pop-Tarts: Photos For his courage under fire, the state of Ohio honored Walters with its Fire Service Valor Award. As part of the ceremony in Columbus, the woman saved by the chief , 31-year-old Gina Curie, appeared in a video about the rescue and was able to express her gratitude. The award is definitely well, well deserved. Never did I think that I was going to be in this situation but I cant be more thankful for the whole department, York Township and Medina, and saving me so I can be there for my children every day, she said. That means much more to Walters than any award. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Knowing that she has two young children and a family that she gets to continue to watch grow and be a part of, thats very satisfying, very rewarding, 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 Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) Youve probably seen their trucks scooting around town. Meiborg Brothers has been hauling freight for more than 40 years. Leaders at the Rockford-based business said the future is bright. Meiborg companies were founded in 1981 by my father, Bill Meiborg, said Zach Meiborg, the companys President and CEO. He started off as a single truck leasing and with a company out of Milwaukee hauling dry goods to the west coast and produce back. He said the company has grown over those 40-plus years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve grown the Meiborg company to 200 trucks, 700 trailers, almost 3 million square feet of warehousing, a truckload brokerage and a 24/7 repair shop that has its own wrecker and service truck, he said. Meiborg gave us a tour of their facilities in Rockford to show us their operations. This here is the nerve center of what we do at Meiborg, he said while walking through the companys offices on Harrison Avenue in Rockford. Its our operations floor. We have customer service, we have dispatches, we have planning, we have truckload brokerage, accounting, and even our executive team sits out on the floor here because you cant really run the company if you dont know whats going on in the company. And the best way to know the company is to be in the company. He said the companys asset division, which are their trucks, operates primarily out of the Rockford-Chicago market, Houston, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We do service the full 48 states as well as Mexico, Canada, and we have roundtrips to Alaska. But 80% of all the freight that our assets run go between these three points, he said. What they haul and warehouse is varried. Products like forklifts, food products, solar panels, are part of what they help move around the country and world. Everyday things that you use that come and go by truck or go for export overseas or imports comes through our logistics hub, Meiborg said. Some of the really neat freight that we haul are like concert loads. Today, we have six trucks in the Chicago moving Beyonces concert into the south side of Chicago there to perform. Weve also done Metallica, Taylor Swift, Alabama. Weve done some really neat bands over the years. He said his drivers cover a lot of ground each day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The goal is to run the truck about 550 miles a day and generate as much revenue as you can in that 550 miles. A driver can legally drive 11 hours within a day, 14 total hours on duty, and within a week, 70 hours maximum, he said. As a company, we generate about $105 million of revenue a year, Meiborg explained. Thats not profit, thats revenue. And trucking goes through some wild economic ups and downs. Some years are great years. Other years are not so much. This is why we balance the trucking aspect of our company out with other revenue streams, such as the warehousing, the truck repair, fuel aggregation to blend things out and make it more smooth. Now all of this revenue gets generated and this is the team that sorts it out. This is our accounting team. We have payroll to process. We have taxes that we need to pay, fuel taxes. We have to purchase trucks and pay vendors. So as much money comes in, theres a lot that goes out. Meiborg said hes proud of where the company came from. Were happy with where were at, he said. The future of our company definitely lies in the next generation. Im a third-generation truck driver and second-generation owner of the company. My boy here, Luke, is a fourth-generation truck driver and eventually soon will be a third-generation ownership of the company. Im very proud of what weve accomplished as a company. Its not just me, though. It is absolutely the team effort, whether its the technicians to the dispatchers, to the drivers, they do a great job of moving the freight forward and making sure that we are the best transportation firm for our customers, employees and vendors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Mama bear mode has been activated for Melania Trump. The First Lady recently spoke out to defend her 19-year-old son Barron Trump from messy rumors that all started with her husband President Donald Trumps recent bizarre attacks on Harvard University. Trump vs. Harvard Trump has had a problem with Harvard since he began his second term, calling out the university to eliminate its DEI programs, change policies around hiring and admissions, and not allow as many international students, which Harvard has refused to comply with, per NPR. Recently, Trump moved to cut approximately $100 million in federal contracts for Harvard and has tried to limit the number of international students Harvard can accept. More from SheKnows Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, the State Department ordered U.S. embassies to temporarily stop scheduling new student visa appointments. Trump said, per CBS News, Harvard has to show us their lists. I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country. We dont want to see shopping centers exploding. We dont want to see the kind of riots that you had. WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: U.S. President Donald Trump stands with his son Barron Trump inside of the inaugural parade reviewing stand in front of the White House on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump was sworn in as the nation's 45th president today. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Previously, the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in research funding from Harvard because Trump claimed that the university isnt doing enough to address antisemitism on campus. On Monday, Trump proposed on Truth Social to send $3 billion in federal research funding cut from Harvard to trade schools across the country. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!! he wrote, per NBC News. Harvard has taken the administration to court, claiming that they are being targeted by the White House as part of its pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the Governments control over its academic programs, per CBS. Harvard President Alan Garber told Morning Edition this week that Trumps actions are perplexing. He added, Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift, Garber said, adding that these dollars are awarded to efforts deemed high-priority work by the federal government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, a reporter asked Trump how the conflict with Harvard will end, and the president issued an ominous warning. I dont know. Harvards got to behave themselves, he said, per CBS. Im looking out for the country and for Harvard. I want Harvard to do well, I want Harvard to be great again. How It Relates to Barron Trumps attack on Harvard has sparked backlash and rumors that the president has a vendetta against the Ivy League institution because his son Barron allegedly got rejected from the university. The teen recently completed his first year of college at New York Universitys Stern School of Business. Nick Clemens, a spokesperson for the Office of the First Lady, issued a statement on behalf of Melania about Barron. Barron did not apply to Harvard, he said, per E! News. Any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false. TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump (L) walks with First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron as they arrive at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on August 16, 2020. Michael Wolff, who has written several bestselling books on Trump, shared that Barron being rejected from Harvard was a running joke at the White House. Because theyre like, What is he doing? This is, you know, this is crazy stuff, Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast of people in Trumps orbit. He speculated: Why would this be happening? And then they tell the Barron joke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It makes sense that Melania is protective over Barron, as its not his fault what his dad does. Criticize Trump, but leave his teen son out of it. There may be another reason why Trump is upset with Harvard. Wolff alleged that Trump himself didnt get into Harvard, which is why he is so hard on them right now. Its important not to lend too much calculation and planning to anything [President Trump] does, Wolff said. But the other thing is that, by the way, he didnt get into Harvard. Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for Trump, rejected this claim. Rogers told USA TODAY, The President didnt need to apply to an overrated, corrupt institution like Harvard to become a successful businessman and the most transformative President in history. Before you go, check out Michelle Obamas best quotes about being a mom. Best of SheKnows Sign up for SheKnows' Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A member of Congress who made an unannounced visit to the Krome North Service Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade County said migrants in deportation proceedings are being subjected to overcrowded and inhumane conditions where they are forced to carry out bodily functions without privacy. Its wall to wall people here and its very troubling, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat who represents parts of Broward Country, said after emerging from a three-hour visit Thursday inside the detention facility. Wasserman Schultz said the detention center, which made headlines recently after two men in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody died inside, was built to hold 882 people. On Thursday, there were 1,111 detainees. There were two tents on the property to accommodate overflow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is not a nice place. Theres no one in your family that you would ever want to be here, not only because you wouldnt want your family detained, but because you wouldnt want anyone that you care about to be in the conditions that these people are being held in, she said. They have people who are being held and are forced to sleep on cots in between the bunks. As part of President Donald Trumps mass deportation plans, the Department of Homeland Security has been ramping up arrests. The expansion has worried immigration advocates and members of Congress like Wasserman Schultz who have been increasingly concerned following the two deaths at the Krome detention center and another of a Haitian woman at the Broward Transitional Center. While the Miami-Dade Medical Examiners Office ruled that the two men at Krome died of natural causes, a Miami Herald investigation found evidence of what experts described as questionable medical care for the two immigrants. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Broward County, talks to the media after visiting the Krome North Service Processing Center in southwest Miami-Dade County on Thursday May 29, 2025. Wasserman Schultz said while she could not say that cruelty was taking place inside Krome or that immigrants were being denied due process she saw rooms where they could meet with lawyers the conditions were nevertheless disturbing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That includes hearing from migrants how sometimes there are plans to move them away despite an upcoming hearing. She saw multiple small cells, she said, where between 25 and 35 men are held for upwards of 48 hours. The consensus was that they are there in those rooms with all of those other men, eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom in that room sleeping on the floor, having to urinate and defecate in front of other people in that in that small room, the congresswoman said. Even when they shower there is no privacy, the men complained. The two constituents I spoke to definitely described conditions that were extremely unpleasant, not conditions that you would want anyone you care about to be subjected to, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wasserman Schultz arrived at the facility after 3 p.m. The staff was surprised by her unannounced visit, she said, but she was allowed in without incident after having to wait for about 20 minutes. There was some chatter about whether she could speak to detainees, but she pushed back and was able to talk to two detainees a Cuban national and Jamaican national who lived in her district. The reason she was able to show up unannounced is because of a 2020 law she helped write that prevents DHS from interfering in congressional oversight, she said. I can tell you that some of the things I saw would not have looked like that if I had given them notice, she said. Still, as she walked the facility, she got inconsistent answers depending on who I was speaking to and asking the question to and from the leadership that was walking me through, to the personnel that I was talking to. This was the case, she said, when she inquired about the two detainees deaths. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wasserman Schultz said her concerns about the conditions of detainees in custody are fueled by a number of factors. One is the push by the Trump administration to allocate $45 billion in the federal budget to expand immigrant detention facilities and services. The big, ugly bill, she said, was rammed through last week in the middle of the night by one vote, and the administration is going to attempt to ramp up and process even more detainees. When they do that, you start to fill up even more facilities like Krome, the congresswoman said. Then the conditions are going to get decidedly worse. Wasserman Schultz, who represents the largest district of Venezuelan-American voters in the country, said another concern she has is the administrations track record on immigration. The administration is lying when they say that theyre really only prioritizing criminals. I am getting calls from constituents who say, U.S. citizen children have been deported along with their undocumented parents, she said. Trump has absolutely no regard for the law. He is the most anti-immigrant president in American history, and he is hell bent on essentially bleaching, bleaching out the United States. Wasserman Schultz said she plans to aggressively engage DHS as a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee to ensure that we can make conditions better in these facilities and also fight back on their outrageous extreme immigration policy that are not targeting people who are criminals and who are here to do anything other than to make a better way of life for themselves and their families, and have credible fear from countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba places that are in no condition to send anyone back to right now. In one sense, Elon Musk failed at DOGE: he came nowhere near to cutting $2 trillion in federal spending, the goal he set for the endeavor before revising expectations downward. He destroyed USAID and a few other programs that had been the focus of right-wing culture war offensives, he demolished hundreds of NIH grant projects, and he hobbled a few offices devoted to regulating his businesses. But even with him somewhat out of the picture (its worth being skeptical about his claims of retreat), the rampage will continue. Thats partly because DOGE wasnt only Musk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House structured it via a series of executive orders that installed DOGE teams in agencies across the federal government. Those teams will continue like an autonomous termite machine. Per other executive orders, new appointments at federal agencies need to be made after consulting with the agencys DOGE team leader; other reports indicate that some DOGE officials have already taken staff positions within agencies themselves. With Musk gone, its also unclear who will take his place as ideological leader, chieftain, memelord, or doge of DOGE whatever you want to call his strange mixture of direction and marketing. Some rumors hold that Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought will be the next DOGE leader, though as others have noted, we never did learn who the true administrator of DOGE was, did we? All of this is to say that DOGE has slowed down. Musk is vocally disappointed with how the effort played out. At the same time, the effort is continuing: the fight is not over. Josh Kovensky Some of DOGEs legacy will lie with Congress As DOGE enters its next chapter, Congress is now finally getting around to addressing DOGEs vast cuts to the executive branch. This is the rescissions process, which my colleague Nicole has been keeping tabs on for months: Some Republican lawmakers have clung to the theory that all of DOGEs cuts will someday be voted on by Congress, a way to avoid accusations that theyve surrendered the power of the purse to President Trump and Musk. Without Congress, they are not official, this theory goes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first such vote is likely to come in June. As Josh writes above, DOGE, while falling far, far short of Musks $2 trillion-in-decimation goal, did a lot of damage. It seems next to impossible that Congress will rubber stamp all of it, including the decimation of USAID and the clawed-back grants to academic research institutions that impact lawmakers communities directly. Will this flagrant violation of the separation-of-powers ever be resolved? Our guess is no. Its another aspect of DOGEs legacy that remains murky. John Light MAHA Commission report references studies that dont exist This is just a theory, but this may be another example of the administrations enthusiasm for artificial intelligence outpacing the technologys abilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NOTUS has the exclusive. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his Make America Healthy Again Commission report harnesses gold-standard science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources dont appear to exist at all. Later on Thursday, the report was republished with the fake reports removed. Poland is the next front in the fight over the MAGAfication of Europe Karol Nawrocki, a 42-year-old historian, is the right-wing Law and Justice partys candidate. His opponent is the liberal mayor of Warsaw. From the AP: Nawrockis supporters describe him as the embodiment of traditional, patriotic values. Many oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ visibility and say Nawrocki reflects the traditional values they grew up with. He is also the preferred favorite of Trump, with the conservative group CPAC holding its first meeting in Poland on Tuesday to give him a boost. Kristi Noem, the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary and a prominent Trump ally, strongly praised him and urged Poles to give him their vote. A common refrain from his supporters is that Nawrocki will restore normality, as they believe Trump has done. U.S. flags appear at his rallies. The run-off election between the two candidates is on Sunday. In Case You Missed It Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From US Aid Withdrawal Hits the Worlds Most Fragile Locations Trump Admin Signals It Will Return One Wrongfully Deported Man What Happens With Trumps Trade War Now? Yesterdays Most Read Story Trump Stonewalls Federal Judges In New Round Of Brazen Defiance What We Are Reading Paramount Has Offered $15 Million to Settle CBS Lawsuit. Trump Wants More. A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion Immigration courts are dismissing cases of those sent to El Salvador, potentially cutting off their return Two students wait for the final of the 18th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Zambia, in Lusaka, Zambia, May 30, 2025. The Confucius Institute at the University of Zambia on Friday hosted the final round of the Chinese language proficiency competition. The event featured 10 students competing in the final of the 24th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in Zambia, and nine students in the 18th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Zambia. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun) LUSAKA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Confucius Institute at the University of Zambia on Friday hosted the final round of the Chinese language proficiency competition. The event featured 10 students competing in the final of the 24th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in Zambia, and nine students in the 18th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Zambia. Participants demonstrated their proficiency in the Chinese language and showcased their knowledge of Chinese culture through poetry recitations and performances of Chinese pop songs. Speaking at the opening of the event, Wang Sheng, minister counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Zambia, said the Chinese Bridge competition serves not only as a platform for language and cultural expression, but also as a bridge connecting China with the rest of the world. He encouraged the students to use the competition as a springboard for continuous personal development and cultural exchange. "I hope that through the Chinese Bridge competition, more and more Zambian youth will develop a passion for the Chinese language, master it, and gain a deeper appreciation of China from a multidimensional and comprehensive perspective," he said. Wang further said China and Zambia are all-weather friends and that cooperation in all sectors, including people-to-people exchanges, has grown, guided by the principles of mutual respect, equality, and common development. He urged young people to embrace the development opportunities brought about by the friendship between the two countries through learning the Chinese language. Felix Masiye, acting vice-chancellor of the University of Zambia, praised the Chinese language for being a vital bridge that connects nations and cultures, facilitates access to technology and business, and fosters people-to-people relationships. Masiye commended the Confucius Institute for its role in promoting the learning of Chinese in Zambia and for training local teachers. He said such efforts would significantly contribute to the widespread teaching and adoption of the language across the country. Mubanga Museba, a student at Kasama Girls Secondary School in northern Zambia, emerged victorious in the secondary school category. She expressed her joy over the victory, noting that the outcome was unexpected given the high level of competition among the contestants. Museba said she began learning Chinese out of love and passion for the language, as well as a desire for self-development. A man who allegedly killed two people and wounded three others, including his girlfriend, at a Hammond bar will undergo a court-ordered mental competency evaluation, records show. Caprice Cashaw, 31, of Merrillville, is charged with two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Each charge includes a firearms enhancement in the commission of the crime. He is in custody, being held without bond. Two psychologists were ordered to evaluate him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Such reports typically take a long time to complete and it is extremely rare for a defendant to be declared incompetent for trial. Court records allege Cashaw a heavy gambler just lost at least $7,000 on March 30 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond before he randomly pulled over near the Portside Pub, 1516 Indianapolis Blvd., and started beating his girlfriend. Four people in the bar stepped outside to help her. When she tried to run, he opened fire. Bartender Paul Olivares, 25, of Whiting, and patron Lorraine Reyna, 59, of Whiting, were killed outside. Cashaws girlfriend was shot multiple times and survived. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His next court date is Aug. 6. In a Facebook post after the shooting, Portside Pub said they were devastated and heartbroken. Representatives could not be immediately reached for comment Friday. mcolias@post-trib.com MERCER COUNTY, WV (WVNS) A Mercer County woman was sentenced for a witness tampering conspiracy in a sex trafficking case that involved a minor. According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, on Thursday, May 29, 2025, 58-year-old Laurel Blankenship, of Bluefield, was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by one year of parole, for conspiracy to commit witness tampering. Mercer County man sentenced for witness tampering conspiracy in sex trafficking case Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The press release stated that Laurel Blankenship and her husband Terry were found guilty on January 18, 2024 guilty of conspiracy to commit witness tampering. Evidence at the trial showed that the couple planned to influence a witness testimony in a federal sex trafficking case against Terry Blankenship from around April 4, 2023 through about July 25, 2023. Information in the press release stated that the witness, a 12-year-old girl, reported that Terry Blankenship paid her for sexual activity with items that included vapes. Due to the allegations, Terry Blankenship was indicted on a charge of sex trafficking of a minor under 14-years-old. According to the United States Department of Justices press release, the allegation was taken back by the minor victim during an investigation by West Virginia Child Protective Services (CPS) that could have ended in the minor being put into foster care. Mercer County man sentenced after being discharged from drug court Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Information in the press release stated that multiple audio and video jail calls that were recorded when Terry Blankenship was in jail waiting for the trial for the sex trafficking case, the couple reportedly discussed making sure that the minor stood by her recantation that was reportedly given to CPS. The recordings reportedly involved talking about using an iPhone to bribe the minor to keep the recantation. According to the press release, at his sentencing the Court, using evidence from earlier hearings, found that Terry Blankenship engaged in sex acts with the minor female, and that her report of the sexual abuse was accurate and the recantation was incorrect. Terry Blankenship was also found to have obstructed justice by falsely testifying at an earlier hearing. The press release stated that Terry Blankenship was a registered sex offender at the time of the incident due to pleading guilty on December 5, 2008 to possession of child pornography in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Due to the crime, Terry Blankenship was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison and was serving a lifetime of parole at the time of the reported sex trafficking offense and the witness tampering attempts that followed, according to the press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two people face charges after reported child abduction in Summers County Despite knowing that her husband was on federal supervised release and not permitted to be around children, Laurel Blankenship allowed children into their home including overnight. She fostered the environment that allowed her husband to sexually abuse the child. Lisa G. Johnston | Acting United States Attorney On Tuesday, May 27, 2025, 56-year-old Terry Leon Blankenship, of Bluefield, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of parole, for obstruction of justice related to a sex trafficking prosecution. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston, who thanked the Mercer County Sheriffs Office for their work on the 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 WVNS. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) A lawsuit is underway challenging newly revised air quality regulations here in Colorado, and the Board of Mesa County Commissioners just joined the fight. The suit, initially brought by the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, comes in response to recent enactments of new greenhouse gas rules by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission. The Board of Mesa County Commissioners are, as of May 20th, co-plaintiffs in the suit. Commissioner Cody Davis sat down with WesternSlopeNow this morning to explain the decision. A lot of times those rule-makings or even legislature dont consider those impacts to the local community, says Commissioner Davis. They may be well intended. Who doesnt want clean air and clean water? All those things, thats were all fighting for. But it doesnt consider the impacts to industry. To the economics locally, to our people who work in those industries, and also to the price of energy as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The county Commissioners office tells us the new regulations require a conversion to electric power for oil and gas companies operating pipelines, compressor stations, and other midstream facilities. They say, these conversions will have heavy effects on rural areas like Mesa County. We believe theyre driving out jobs, driving out good dollars, and in the end, possibly even decreasing their water quality. So we just see it as a poorly thought-out mission, almost political in nature. There are some who think we just need to get rid of oil and gas, regardless of the impacts, regardless of the unintended consequencesI think at the end of the day enough is enough, and so were pushing back. WesternSlopeNow has reached out multiple times to the Air Quality Control Commission, who declined comment on pending litigation. 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 WesternSlopeNow.com. (Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Tech giant Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, testified on an Ohio bill to require age verification to download from app stores. Millions of kids use social media. Im a parent, Jennifer Hanley, head of safety policy in North America at Meta, said. I know teens are on so many apps. Thats why Hanley headed to the Ohio Statehouse to testify in support of House Bill 226, which would require age verification for all app store purchases or downloads for minors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The broad support of parents and lawmakers across political and ideological spectrums should not be ignored, she said. State Rep. Melanie Miller, who introduced the bill, said this would hold companies accountable ones like Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Manufacturers would need to create a way for parents to give consent for kids under 16 to download any application, and then that will be sent to social media apps. Im introducing this legislation to protect children from harmful content, reduce mental health risks, enhance data privacy, and encourage responsible technology use, Miller said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, likes the bill, she is skeptical of the tech giant. All you have to do is look at the opposition that they have waged not only in state legislation in this space, but also federal legislation in this space, Russo said. Meta has been filing lawsuits against social media age requirements across the country, including in Ohio. The state legislature passed restrictions on media apps for kids under 16 in 2023, but it has now been blocked by a federal judge due to free speech concerns. This bill is different because it is not just targeting social media apps, but all apps, Hanley testified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit, saying that the company used manipulative tactics to entice teens and tweens. Russo agrees, adding that the company could be doing much more to protect kids. Do I think that it is going to be as effective as some of the other things we know they have the capacity to do using their own algorithms? she said rhetorically. Probably not. Only in the past year, Meta created a teen program to monitor and restrict what minors can access and who they can talk to. Were always learning, were always building, Hanley said. Teen accounts are a really great example of that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill will continue being heard in the coming months. This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Metro Nashville has apparently revised its public immigration report following pressure from Republican lawmakers who said the city endangered federal law enforcement officers. A city document released earlier this month detailed 35 immigration-related interactions between Metro Police and federal agencies. The report initially named individuals, including a Metro Council member, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement analyst, and Homeland Security officers. However, as of Thursday, May 29, all those names have been removed from the public version of the report. The revision follows criticism from state and federal Republican leaders who argued the publication of those names jeopardized agent safety. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nashville criticized for sharing ICE interactions State Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) was one of the most vocal critics, calling out Mayor Freddie OConnells executive order that requires Metro to document and publish ICE interactions. Freddie OConnell is using taxpayer resources to endanger DHS and HSI officials, Garrett wrote on social media platform X. His Trump Derangement Syndrome knows no bounds, and he ought to be ashamed of endangering those working to keep our communities safe. Garrett, along with U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), contended that the mayors executive order could expose federal agents to threats. Both lawmakers support a state investigation, in addition to the federal probe that Ogles confirmed earlier this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Ogles, the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees will look into the mayor, his conduct and whether or not the city used federal dollars in criminal enterprise related to immigration. OConnell has previously disputed claims that he and Metro leaders obstructed ICE agents. Congressman Andy Ogles confirms federal investigation into Nashville mayors office over illegal immigration Other Tennessee Republicans have joined the call for action. Its also just impeding in other ways, said state Rep. Lee Reeves (R-Franklin). Weve got sanctuary city laws on the books here in Tennessee, and whether [OConnell] has violated any of those laws, I think, deserves some looking into. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Garrett doubled down, saying, Nashvillians should be irate. I think folks in Nashville should be calling for the mayors resignation. He went further, suggesting the order itself may be illegal: Under his new revised executive order, in my opinion, is probably an illegal executive order because theyre not reporting criminal activity to the courts. He is basically harboringviolating the law, hes still creating and wants Nashville to be a sanctuary city, and thats illegal in the state of Tennessee. Meanwhile, Homeland Security issued a comprehensive list of sanctuary jurisdictions that are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens Thursday, saying that the department is exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law. Homeland Security demands the jurisdictions on the list which included Nashville revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws, as well as renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. TN congressman criticized for social media post about Nashville Community Review Board Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reeves echoed Garretts concern, warning that the policies could affect more than just Nashville: What happens in Nashville doesnt stay in Nashville. It bleeds over into other communities, and certainly Im concerned about Brentwood and Franklin and Fairview and Thompsons Station. Reeves also said he agrees with other lawmakers who believe OConnell should consider stepping down, describing the mayors actions as putting criminals above the citizens of his city and his county. Garrett emphasized that public safety should transcend political lines: It should be easy. It shouldnt be a partisan issue, whether youre Republican or Democrat or dont identify with any party, that the public safety should be paramount and second to nothing, and this mayor is doing just that. News 2 reached out to OConnells office for comment on the document changes and the growing controversy. We have yet to hear back. News 2 has also reached out to Metro Legal and the Tennessee Attorney General for comment on Nashvilles appearance in Homeland Securitys list, but there has been no response yet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) One Metro Councilmember big on greenery, wildflowers and trees has introduced tasty additions for a couple Nashville parks. Jordan Huffman, Metro Councilmember for District 14, planted eight pawpaw trees in Hermitage Park and Ravenwood Park this week. The trees, which are native to Tennessee, produce a custard-like fruit that all in the community will be welcome to enjoy. Neighborhood News: Stories impacting your community | Read More Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The trees will take a while to fully mature and bear fruit around four to five years but Huffman said it will be worth the wait. He added that he hopes itll be a huge hit across the community, allowing people to access fresh fruit in Metros parks. Theyre sustainable. Theyre great for the environment. Theyre excellent [for] pollinators, Huffman told News 2. Theyre excellent for the ecology for the entire area, and the more native things that we plant, the better. Huffman added that hes been working closely with Metro Councilmembers in other districts to plant more pawpaw trees. He also said he plans to propose legislation that would increase the amount of native trees planted across the Metro area. Do you have news happening in your neighborhood? Let us know by sending an email to neighborhoodnews@wkrn.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Metro police narcotics officers recovered more than 800 pounds of marijuana during an investigation involving an illegal growing operation on Thursday. Police said they executed a search warrant and found 814 pounds of marijuana at a residence in a northwest valley neighborhood near Alexander Road and Tenaya Way. (Photo: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) A photo released by Metro police showed about 80 boxes of evidence lined up on the street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers said they dismantled the grow operation. No information is available on arrests in the case. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the investigation is 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 KLAS. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican authorities said they seized more than 3 million liters (792,516 gallons) of illegally stored fuel at a property in the country's southeast state of Tabasco, the latest in a string of major fuel-related seizures across the country. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The seizure on Thursday is part of Mexico's ongoing battle against fuel smuggling, which includes both the theft of fuel from state-run oil firm Pemex's pipelines and imports under false classifications to evade taxes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement KEY QUOTES "Eighteen vehicles, three pieces of machinery, and 3,904 metal-structured containers containing the hydrocarbon, identified as a petroleum derivative, were secured," Mexico's security cabinet said in a joint statement on Thursday. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday the seizures have to do with a recent system of "traceability" of fuel imports from their origin until they reach the point of sale. CONTEXT State-owned Pemex has for years faced rampant theft of crude and refined products through illegal pipeline taps across Mexico, resulting in massive losses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BY THE NUMBERS Over the past weeks, authorities have discovered 1.5 million liters of fuels in two raids in the state of Tabasco and 10 million liters in the state of Tamaulipas from a ship from the United States that had arrived weeks before in Mexico. (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Bill Berkrot) HOBBS, N.M. (KRQE) The New Mexico Environment Department is offering free domestic well water testing for Hobbs residents on Thursday, June 5. The event is taking place at the New Mexico Junior College at 3 p.m. to be followed by a community town hall from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The testing is part of the Cabinet in Your Community event by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The goal is to engage communities, address local issues, and improve state policies. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Test results will be mailed to the participants household within two to three weeks. The department says only water from homes relying on private wells for drinking water will be tested. Well water tests typically cost about $150, according to the New Mexico Environment Department. Here are some guidelines provided by the department for gathering a well water sample: Let the water run for two to three minutes before collecting the sample Fill a clean glass or plastic container without any odors with at least a quart or liter of your well water If the home has a whole-house filtration system, collect the water at the well head before any filtration or softener systems, if possible Fill the container with water as close to the time of testing as possible Residents are also asked to bring basic information about the well such as well depth, depth to water, well casing material (such as steel or PVC), well latitude and longitude, and distance from the well to the nearest septic tank or leach field system. If someone cant attend the event, a family member or neighbor can drop the sample off as long as it has the owners name, phone number, address and well information attached. 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. KIEV, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he discussed the meetings of Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Turkiye in a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The prisoners-of-war exchange was "an important but unfortunately, the only one" achievement of the first meeting in Istanbul, which took place on May 16, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. He emphasized that a ceasefire is necessary in order to make further progress toward peace. The two leaders also discussed the possibility of a next meeting, including the conditions under which Ukraine would be ready to participate. "We share the view that this meeting cannot and should not be empty," Zelensky noted. He added that the conversation also touched on the potential organisation of a four-party meeting involving the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Turkiye, and the United States. NEW MEXICO (KRQE) Some of New Mexicos top elected leaders are now warning about the impact the state could feel if a signature piece of President Donald Trumps policy agenda passes Congress. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Mexico Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury is among the states elected leaders pushing back against the Trump administrations One Big Beautiful Bill Act which is now making its way through Congress. The fear is over what could happen to funding at the state level. They wanna cut critical healthcare services, they wanna cut nutrition, food assistance, and education programs, said Javier Martinez, Speaker of the House. He created a new legislative committee to analyze potential cuts. As it stands now, the state is forecasting the potential loss of $290 million in SNAP or food stamp funding if the federal legislation passes. We know that one in five New Mexicans is on food assistance, we know that our food banks will not be able to make up the difference if the food assistance is taken away through SNAP, Stansbury. And Speaker Martinez said theres no way New Mexico could fill in the entirety of potential federal SNAP funding cuts. The state is prepared to pick up some of that at some level for a period of time, but for us to absorb the entirety of these cuts is impossible, said Martinez. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres also fear over Medicare and Medicaid cuts, programs that speaker Martinez said nearly two-thirds of New Mexicans use. Im horribly, horribly concerned about what could happen to rural hospitals, which are already on the verge of closing in some cases if Medicaid funding is cut. The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act has passed the House, but the Senate is now expected to propose its own changes. So far, every member of New Mexicos fully Democratic federal delegation has either voted against or said they will oppose the bill. 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. May 29The Economic Development Department this week announced it's fronting $25 million to boost quantum technology development. It's part of a broader effort by the state to support tech industries and brand New Mexico as a quantum hotspot, which the state is also advancing through its participation with the regional Elevate Quantum consortium and designation as a federal Quantum Tech Hub. "This is a significant investment from the state into creating a quantum technology industry in New Mexico," said Nora Meyers Sackett, director of EDD's Office of Strategy, Science and Technology. The office is responsible for the request for proposals process and managing the resulting contract. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The RFP specifically seeks proposals that merge physical infrastructure with program and financial support mechanisms to stimulate startup formation in the state. EDD is offering $12.5 million for the development of a physical space for a quantum venture studio and another $12.5 million for operations. It's a good starting point for New Mexico's quantum ecosystem, said Ivan Deutsch, director of the Quantum New Mexico Institute, a joint entity between the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories. "There's a lot of hopes and expectations, and quantum is really on a very steep rise at the moment," Deutsch said. He said public-private partnerships and pressure on a global level for the U.S. to stay competitive with China in the quantum industry presents "a real opportunity here to make a difference." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What we all would like to see is a growing and accelerating tech economy here in New Mexico in quantum," he said. "And what we hope to be able to do is to attract companies to New Mexico." The deadline for proposals is June 24. More information on how to submit proposals can be found online at edd.newmexico.gov/public-notices. Fridays Top Stories Fridays Five Facts [1] Complaint filed against NM school after questions about students immigration status A local teachers union is claiming a New Mexico school district has been asking students about their citizenship status. Espanola Public Schools have used optional career-readiness programs that help connect students with potential future employers. According to a group of teachers in the district, as part of one of the programs assessment, the district directed teachers at Espanola Valley High School to ask students for their country of origin and their alien registration number. The union has filed a complaint against the school district, arguing the directive is out of the educators agreed upon work conditions. The district says theyve started an investigation into the concerns and will take appropriate action if any violations are found. [2] Las Vegas deputy charged with aggravated battery and robbery A Las Vegas deputy is in trouble with the law again, now facing new charges. On Sunday, NMSP were called out to a disturbance at Storrie Lake. According to witnesses, San Miguel Sheriffs Office Deputy Justin Padilla and his brother, Jeffery, attacked a man, beat him unconscious, and took his gun. Justin Padilla told officers the victim had been pointing the gun at people at the park, and he had to be disarmed. Hes facing robbery and aggravated battery charges. In 2023, Padilla was accused of holding down a woman while another woman hit her. He was placed on administrative leave for that incident Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [3] Breezy with more storms, then cooler weather around New Mexico Temperatures continue to heat up into Friday. Isolated storm chances will continue into the weekend, mainly around the mountain. Widespread rain is likely on Monday. Storms will continue to develop each afternoon through Sunday, with the best chance for rain and thunderstorms in the mountains and nearby areas. Temperatures will continue to warm through Friday afternoon, but stay very warm to hot across the state through the weekend as well. [4] Roswell expected to be the location of new Amazon facility The City of Roswell is one step closer to getting a new Amazon facility, and the potential economic opportunities that come with it. Amazon is eying a 7.5 acre plot of land on Roswells south side by the airport to build a new Last Mile Facility. This will make it easier to route deliveries to their final stops in southeast New Mexico. The city is offering the land for $60,000, saying the return on the sale could bring hundreds of jobs and the potential of expanding. [5] Bernalillo County animal shelter well over capacity The Bernalillo County Animal Care and Resource Center is beyond over capacity, and they need help to get their furry friends adopted before its too late. The shelter can fit about 120 dogs comfortably, but with more than 150 in their care right now, the shelters resources and staff are strained to the limit. There will be a spay and neuter clinic at the end of next month. All adoption fees at the shelter are currently waived. 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. That National Weather Service has issued an air quality advisory for most of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, southern Michigan and southeast Michigan from Friday, May 30, into the morning of Saturday, May 31. A cold front moving down from Ontario will bring wildfire smoke in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan into Michigan, according to the NWS. The smoke will move into southeast Michigan late in the afternoon and into the evening Friday, May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The air quality levels could rise into unhealthy for sensitive groups (orange) or unhealthy (red). More: Canadian wildfire smoke expected to affect air quality in Southeast Michigan on May 30 More: Why is it so hazy? How fires in Canada will affect Michigan Although Michigan's ozone season generally runs between the warmer months of March and October, particle pollution from sources like power plants, vehicle emissions and industry can reach unhealthy levels year-round. Some of these pollutants are so small, PM2.5, they can be inhaled into your lungs and can even enter your bloodstream with serious health consequences. Other sources of particle pollution include unpaved roads, construction sites and wildfire smoke, like the spate of unhealthy air days Michiganders experienced in the summer of 2023 when Canadian wildfires darkened Detroit's skyline. Michigan's current air quality The map below displays the current air quality at monitoring sites in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Air monitoring sites are color-coded based on the pollutant (ozone or particulate matter) with the highest value. Particles that are less than 10 micrometers and 2.5 micrometers in diameter are called PM10 and PM2.5, respectively. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An AQI of 50 or below means the current air quality is good. The shaded areas of the map show the approximate boundaries where air quality is available and listed as anything other than good. The information is updated hourly. Good Moderate Unhealthy for sensitive groups Unhealthy Very unhealthy Hazardous Air Quality Index guidelines (ozone and particle pollution) Some people are more sensitive to air pollution because of their age or health. People who are active or work outdoors are also at higher risk when the air quality is poor. Health concerns related to poor air quality may include difficulty breathing, coughing or wheezing and more serious health effects such as lung damage, asthma attacks, heart attacks and stroke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's how to interpret the Air Quality Index values, according to the U.S. EPA: Good (0-50) : The level of pollution in the air is of little to no risk. Moderate (51-100) : For people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution, a moderate health concern may exist. Unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150): People who are more sensitive to air pollution may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected. Unhealthy (151-200): Some people may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects. Very unhealthy (201-300) : An alert is triggered; the general population is at risk for more serious health effects. Hazardous (301-500): Emergency conditions health alert: Everyone is likely to be affected. For more information about air quality, visit AirNow.gov. Free Press reporter Kylie Martin contributed to this report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kristi Tanner is a data reporter. Contact her at ktanner@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @midatalove. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Air quality in Michigan: Map index shows if it's bad, good Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said President Donald Trump previously told her that he wouldnt pardon the men convicted of plotting to kidnap her in 2020, despite him telling reporters on Wednesday he would consider it. The men charged in the case conspired to kidnap the Democratic governor from a vacation home and blow up a bridge to delay law enforcement but were arrested first, authorities said. Eight men were charged on the state level and another six were indicted on federal charges in 2020. Ultimately, nine were convicted or pleaded guilty in the case, and five were acquitted. Whitmers comments come after Trumps response to a question Wednesday on whether he had plans to pardon the men. Im going to look at it, Trump said in the Oval Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its been brought to my attention. I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job. Ill be honest with you, it looked to me like some people said some stupid things, Trump said. You know, they were drinking, and I think they said stupid things, but Ill take a look at that. And a lot of people are asking me that question from both sides. Actually, a lot of people think they got railroaded. A lot of people think they got railroaded. Whitmer, whose dynamic with Trump has appeared to shift from adversarial in his first term to more amicable during his second, said Trump would be going back on his word if he granted the pardons. I talked to the President about a month ago, and he asked me how Id feel about this. And I said I think it would be the wrong decision. I would oppose it. And he said okay, Ill drop it. Now, we see this revelation. So, Im not sure how to process it, Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio on Thursday. Whitmer said she condemned violence when Trump was injured last year after a shooting at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I will just point out that when the man shot at the president when he was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, I was one of the first office holders on either side of the aisle to condemn it, Whitmer said. Because anything short of condemnation creates a dangerous space for people that are sworn an oath to do the work of the public. We dont take up arms and harm one another. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks as US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth (L), and US President Donald Trump (R) look on during remarks to the Michigan National Guard at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Warren, Michigan, on April 29, 2025. - Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images When asked if she thinks Trump is serious about pardoning the men, Whitmer said, I dont know. When I talked to him before, we had a thoughtful conversation about it, and he said hed drop it. So, Im not sure what to make of this new revelation, but I will be reaching out over the weekend. Her comments come as Trump has issued a slew of pardons to individuals with ties to his political allies. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told CNNs Erin Burnett on Thursday that Trump is not a good faith actor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You cant count on the president to keep his word. And if Governor Whitmer thinks that his promise alone will be enough, then unfortunately, I got a bridge to sell her, Nessel said. And, you know, this is dangerous. The thought of pardoning people under these circumstances. These are domestic terrorists. Trump criticized Whitmer in 2020, claiming she didnt thank him after authorities announced they foiled a plot to kidnap her while falsely claiming she called him a White Supremacist. My Justice Department and Federal Law Enforcement announced today that they foiled a dangerous plot against the Governor of Michigan. Rather than say thank you, she calls me a White Supremacist, Trump said in a social media post at the time. The two have recently appeared friendlier toward one another; the president publicly complimented her during a recent trip to Michigan. Prior to that visit, Whitmer visited the White House earlier in April with a bipartisan delegation to discuss a laundry list of issues affecting her state, where Trump briefly lauded her during remarks in the Oval Office. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Chief Growth Officer Hilary Doe speaks during a press conference with Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist on the porch of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., during the second day of the Mackinac Policy Conference on May 28, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) MACKINAC ISLAND Michigans first chief growth officer announced the state is creating a welcome program offering perks to new residents and recent college graduates staying in the state. Participants in the Make MI Home program will receive free access to Michigans state parks, opportunities to connect with others through curated events and discounts at various local attractions and businesses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two years after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the creation of Chief Growth Officer Hilary Does position in her Mackinac Policy Conference keynote, Doe said the state is beginning to trend in the right direction, with Detroit and Flint both showing population growth for the first time in several years. Every year, there are more people moving to Michigan and fewer moving out than there were in the year before, Doe said. But she said there is still work to do to ensure those trends continue, which is why the state announced more than $700,000 of grant funding for five programs aimed at reversing Michigans population decline. Make MI Home offers grants to programs throughout the state to help people with things like housing and relocation support, access to coworking spaces and more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among the grant recipients is the City of Detroit, which will receive $210,000 to launch the Detroit Tech Fellowship Program, which will target recent graduates from Michigan universities to scale their startups in Michigan, providing access to coworking space, housing support, and cohort events to network and collaborate with peers and local entrepreneurs. What were talking about today is making it easier for people to say yes to living in Michigan, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist said. Gilchrist said he understands the need for the funding as someone who was born and raised in Michigan but left the state to pursue his career after graduating college. We grow our population one decision at a time, one person deciding where theyre going to take their next step in life, where theyre going to build their next chapter, where theyre going to make their family and their future and their career real, Gilchrist said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Michigan Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Heres a look at May 29, 2025, results for each game: Winning Daily 3 numbers from May 29 drawing Midday: 4-5-0 Evening: 3-8-9 Check Daily 3 payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Daily 4 numbers from May 29 drawing Midday: 3-5-3-9 Evening: 1-4-5-1 Check Daily 4 payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Lucky For Life numbers from May 29 drawing 09-14-20-31-46, Lucky Ball: 07 Check Lucky For Life payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Poker Lotto numbers from May 29 drawing 6C-8D-9D-2S-8S Check Poker Lotto payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Fantasy 5 numbers from May 29 drawing 09-23-25-33-35 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 02-08-11-21-26 Check Fantasy 5 payouts and previous drawings here. Winning Daily Keno numbers from May 29 drawing 03-09-11-15-18-19-20-21-25-28-29-32-34-47-50-53-54-55-64-65-67-68 Check Daily Keno payouts and previous drawings here. Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results Are you a winner? Heres how to claim your lottery prize All Michigan Lottery retailers can redeem prizes up to $600. For prizes up to $99,999.99, winners have the option to submit their claim by mail or in person at one of Michigan Lotterys Regional Offices. To claim by mail, complete a ticket receipt form, sign your winning ticket, and send it along with original copies of your government-issued photo ID and Social Security card to the address below. Ensure the names on your ID and Social Security card match exactly. Claims should be mailed to: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan Lottery Attn: Claim Center 101 E. Hillsdale P.O. Box 30023 Lansing, MI 48909 For prizes over $100,000, winners must claim their prize in person at the Michigan Lottery Headquarters in Lansing located at 101 E. Hillsdale in downtown Lansing. Each winner must present original versions of a valid government-issued photo ID (typically a drivers license or state ID) and a Social Security card, ensuring that the names on both documents match exactly. To schedule an appointment, please call the Lottery Player Relations office at 844-887-6836, option 2. If you prefer to claim in person at one of the Michigan Lottery Regional Offices for prizes under $100,000, appointments are required. Until further notice, please call 1-844-917-6325 to schedule an appointment. Regional office locations are as follows: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lansing: 101 E. Hillsdale St. Lansing; Phone: 844-917-6325 Livonia: 33231 Plymouth Road, Livonia; Phone: 844-917-6325 Sterling Heights: 34700 Dequindre Road, Sterling Heights; Phone: 844-917-6325 Detroit: Cadillac Place, 3060 W. Grand Blvd., Suite L-600, Detroit; Phone: 844-917-6325 Grand Rapids: 3391-B Plainfield Ave. NE, Grand Rapids; Phone: 844-917-6325 Saginaw: Jerome T. Hart State Office Building, 411 E. Genesee Ave., Saginaw; Phone: 844-917-6325 For additional information, downloadable forms, and instructions, visit the Michigan Lottery's prize claim page. When are Michigan Lottery drawings held? Daily 3 & Daily 4: Midday at 12:59 p.m., Evening at 7:29 p.m. Fantasy 5: 7:29 p.m. daily Poker Lotto: 7:29 p.m. daily Lotto 47: 7:29 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily Daily Keno: 7:29 p.m. daily This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Michigan editor. You can send feedback using this form. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Lottery Daily 3, Daily 4 results for May 29, 2025 (WHTM/AP) Several Pennsylvania counties and communities are among those the Department of Homeland Security labeled as sanctuary jurisdictions in a list published Thursday. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release. Locally, Adams and Dauphin counties as well as Gettysburg borough and York city are listed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Statewide, counties included range from urban centers like Lehigh and Allegheny to rural areas like Clarion and Montour. Each municipality on the list, DHS says, will receive formal notification that they are believed to be noncompliant. The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download the abc27 News+ app on your Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV devices Theres no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction. The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement. Pennsylvania municipalities included in the list include: Adams County; Allegheny County; Centre County; Chester County; Clarion County; Dauphin County; Delaware County; Lehigh County; Montgomery County; Montour County; Northampton County; Gettysburg borough; Philadelphia city; Pittsburgh city; State College borough; York city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Communities that dont cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if theyre a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime. Sanctuary policies are legal and make us all safer, said a coalition of local officials from across the country and a nonprofit called Public Rights Project in a statement Thursday. They said the list was a fear tactic designed to bully local governments into cooperating with ICE. 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 ABC27. Rockdale, Tx (FOX 44) A Milam County grand jury has indicted Terri Ann Frank and Joel Lee Rubio on charges related to the death of a woman mauled by dogs. The 65-year-old Frank and 61-year-old Rubio had been arrested in April on the charges that stem from a December 18, 2024 death at a home on Beverly Drive, just outside the city of Rockdale in Milam County. The indictment charges attack by dog resulting in death. Milam County deputies were called to that location at 1:11 p.m. that day and found the deceased woman, identified as 88-year-old Delores Woolverton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Autopsy reports indicated the woman`s cause of death was by canine mauling. Seven dogs located on the property at the time were removed and secured, with a justice of the peace later ordering they be euthanized. Joel Rubio and Terri Ann Frank were arrested and booked into the Milam County Jail Monday morning. Both posted bail and were released mid-afternoon. Investigators determined that at least one of the dogs involved had a prior history of an unprovoked attack against an ambulance employee, fulfilling the requirements of a dangerous dog as described under Lillians Law. Lillians Law was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2007 and imposes criminal liability on a dog owner if the animal attacks and kills another person. The law was named for 76-year-old Lillian Stiles who died in 2005 after being attacked by several large dogs in her own front yard in Thorndale while she was mowing her lawn. Under the law, prosecutors must show that the dogs owners should have known the dog was dangerous. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Violation which leads to injury is a third-degree felony which means a conviction can result in a sentence of from two to ten years and up to a $10,000 fine. If the victim dies, the charge is bumped up to a second-degree felony bringing a sentence of up to twenty years. The law was passed following a campaign by Lillian Stiles 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 KWKT - FOX 44. BAKU, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan's parliament on Friday ratified an agreement with China establishing a mutual visa-free travel regime for holders of ordinary passports, Sputnik Azerbaijan reported. Lawmakers approved the agreement in a single reading during a plenary session of the Milli Majlis (the parliament of Azerbaijan). The pact allows citizens of both countries to travel without a visa for stays of up to 30 days per visit, and no more than 90 days within a 180-day period. The visa exemption applies only to short-term visits. Travelers planning to stay longer than 30 days, or seeking residence, employment, education, or work in media and other regulated fields, must obtain a visa and the appropriate permits in advance. Either country may suspend the agreement partially or entirely on grounds of national security, public order, or public health, with prior diplomatic notification. The agreement was signed late April by the two countries' foreign ministers in Beijing during a ceremony attended by the heads of state of China and Azerbaijan. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) One week after a private jet crashed into a military housing community in Murphy Canyon, many of the evacuated families have returned home, expressing deep gratitude to the charities that supported them through the crisis. Most of the military families displaced by the May 22 crash were allowed to return on Wednesday, though many are still recovering from the damage including the loss of personal belongings and vehicles destroyed in the blaze. More Murphy Canyon Plane Crash Coverage Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Something about sleeping in your own bed, having the privacy, and everything back to normal standards its amazing, said Navy Corpsman Racan Aqrabawi, whose home is just a few doors down from where the plane exploded on impact. Aqrabawi and his family fled without essentials, narrowly escaping flames fueled by burning jet fuel that flowed down Sample Street. We didnt have shoes on, my wallet, we had no IDs on us, he said. Within minutes of the crash, several charity organizations, including the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS), mobilized to provide immediate assistance. They gave us shoes, they gave us clothes to last us the day because we didnt know when we were going to come back, Aqrabawi said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Retired Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler, now chief operations officer at NMCRS, said the nonprofit has agreements with the Navy and Marine Corps to operate offices on all major bases around the globe. The organization offers financial support to service members facing unexpected crises. We are there as a resource for sailors, Marines and their families who find themselves in financial need it could be a transmission repair or a disaster like this, Cutler said. Volunteers also set up temporary support centers at nearby schools where evacuated families found refuge. They provided assistance to service members who were immediately impacted and needed financial help, said Tricia Clark, NMCRS director at Naval Air Station North Island. They had their disaster kits and were able to write grants to cover immediate out-of-pocket needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While families are grateful to be home, many are still in need of support. Some lost vehicles in the fire and are struggling to recover fully. Thank you very much. We appreciate everything, and we look forward to giving back what we can and paying it forward, Aqrabawi 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 FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. ALTUS (KFDX/KJTL) From an outsiders perspective, one might expect to see smaller planes like fighter jets at an air force base. Thats not always the case. Altus Air Force Base is a bit different, housing planes that are slightly larger than fighter jets. One of which is the C-17, piloted by Lt. Col. J.D. Shaw. Altuss mission is to train pilots and loadmasters how to operate this airplane so they can go out to their base, whether it be Charleston, McChord, Dover, McGuire and then employ this airplane around the world, Shaw said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Altus Air Force Base specializes in air mobility. All three planes they train, the KC-135, KC-46, and C-17, accomplish this through their unique missions. The C-17 is most specialized toward cargo delivery, according to Loadmaster trainer, Sr. Master Sgt. Kris Mack. Were more concerned with the cargo compartment as far as loading cargo, and you have to be prepared, Mack said. It could be a tank in there, it could be a palette, it could be something quite easy. It could be humanitarian aid. It could be, you know, things that take a little bit more concentration as far as the restraint. Another aspect of air mobility is ensuring that planes can travel from point A to point B, regardless of the distance. Lt. Col. Broderick Lockett trains crews to refuel planes in midair with the KC-135. You know, think youre going 400 miles an hour down the highway and actually reaching out with another car and holding on to each other, and you know, shaking hands, Lockett said. Thats what we do. Except at 26,000 feet, you know, going up to 600 miles an hour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not all air refueling looks or works the same. Altus Air Force Base also has one of the more advanced aircraft designed for mid-air refueling, the KC-46 Pegasus, which can both give and receive fuel. A unique trait that Lt. Col. Scott Heinlein believes makes it a vital tool in any situation the aircraft is in. Instead of having to fly all the way back to our base, get gas again, we can find another tanker that has already taken off from that base, take that fuel in the air so that it extends that range even closer, Heinlein said. So, the net result is we get our receivers closer to the fight, making them more effective in combat. At the center of it all, for the base, though, is the relationship it has with the city of Altus. Lt. Col. Shaw says hes been more involved with the surrounding community at Altus than at any other base hes ever been to. The city is super welcoming, Shaw said. I think they recognize the value that Altus brings to the city. And so, it is a true relationship that one could not survive without the other. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both city and base, dedicated to the same mission for over 80 years. Keeping Americas Air Force mobile and strong. 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. An NYPD detective reportedly provided security at a ritzy SoHo townhouse where two cryptocurrency kingpins allegedly kidnapped and tortured an Italian tourist to obtain his Bitcoin passcode. The detective, News 4 New York reported Thursday, is part of Mayor Eric Adams security detail. Both he and another member of the force were placed on modified desk duty this week. The detective, who was working off-duty, is also believed to have picked up the tourist at the airport, sources told the outlet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its unknown how aware either NYPD member was of what allegedly took place at the Prince Street townhouse. Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty, City Hall told the NBC affiliate in a statement. We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing. John Woeltz was arrested Friday for the kidnapping and torture of an Italian national over his Bitcoin passcode. / WABC Two men, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, have been taken into custody for allegedly holding the tourist captive for 17 days. The 28-year-old Italian national told police that they stole his passport and electronic devices upon his arrival, and demanded his Bitcoin passcode. When he refused, their methods of torture included shocking him with electric wires, putting a gun to his head, hitting him with the gun, holding a chainsaw to his leg, and dangling him over the ledge of the five-story staircase. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After relinquishing his password last Friday, the victim managed to escape the $40,000 per month townhouse and flag down an NYPD traffic cop. Police said he was shoeless and bloodied. Prosecutors said that when police arrived on scene, they found Polaroid photos depicting the alleged abuse. They also found cocaine, body armor, a gun and ammunition, and chicken wire. The townhouse where the alleged torture occurred / New York Daily News / Barry Williams Woeltz, who has been referred to as the Crypto King of Kentucky, has a net worth of around $100 million, according to NBC New York. The 37-year-old was arrested Friday in his bathrobe outside the townhouse. Woeltz was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday and denied bail. He has a June 11 arraignment, at which time the charges will be unsealed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duplessie, who had been living in Switzerland, was an early supporter of Bitcoin, having claimed back in 2017 that the value of one unit would reach $1 million. He turned himself in on Tuesday, with an indictment forthcoming. Sources told News 4 New York that the three mens relationship was complex, and like Wolf of Wall Street/frat guys gone wild. Authorities have confirmed the identity of a body that washed ashore in San Diego County last week as a 10-year-old girl who was reported missing after a Panga boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast. Mahi Brijeshkumar Patel was one of four passengers who died after their boat capsized on May 5, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. She had turned 10 just two days before the accident. Her body washed ashore at Torrey Pines State Beach on May 21. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her 14-year-old brother, Prince Brijeshkumar Patel, also died in the incident. His death was ruled an accidental drowning. The siblings' parents were both rescued but the father remains in a coma, officials said. The family is from India. The family was aboard the Pangaboat, a small boat with an outboard motor, along with several other people when it capsized at Del Mar Beach. Read more: Dad in coma, son dead and 10-year-old daughter missing after migrant boat capsizes; 5 charged The U.S. Coast Guard received a call around 6:30 a.m. that a small panga-style boat with an estimated 16 people on board had overturned just north of Torrey Pines State Beach, said Hunter Schnabel, a Coast Guard public affairs officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The third drowning victim was identified as Marcos Lozada-Juarez, 18. The fourth victim has not yet been identified. Authorities have not confirmed a final total of how many people were aboard the boat. Authorities began making arrests soon after the capsized boat was reported. Two people Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30, both Mexican nationals were arrested on the beach on suspicion of smuggling the passengers on the boat, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A few hours later in Chula Vista, just 10 miles from the Mexican border, Border Patrol agents spotted a car, which had been seen earlier near the accident scene, and arrested three of its passengers, but the driver got away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Agents continued their investigation and eventually stopped two other vehicles involved in the smuggling incident and discovered eight of the nine missing migrants, according to prosecutors. The drivers of the vehicles Melissa Jenelle Cota, 33; Gustavo Lara, 32; and Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, 31 were arrested and charged with the transportation of undocumented immigrants, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Times staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. HOLYOKE Nicklas Delisle, the Chicopee kayaker who went missing on the Connecticut River earlier this month, has been found dead, officials said. Delisle, 27, was found by the Hampden County Sheriffs Department Marine Patrol Unit early Friday afternoon in Holyoke near the South Hadley line, according to Rob Rizzuto, public information officer for the Sheriffs Department. The site was not far from where Delisles kayak originally capsized, Rizzuto said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delisle went missing on May 19 while on a fishing trip with his girlfriend, Mya Ballard, 23. Ballard was rescued that evening by a passerby, according to Delisles uncle, Nevin Bastin, at the time. Bastin said on Friday afternoon that some in the family were still coming to grips with Delisles death. I had come to accept he was gone, Bastin said. Some needed that extra closure of finding Nick. On Saturday afternoon, there will be a sympathy service for Delisle at Chicopee Comprehensive High School. There will be time for those who knew him to reminisce, share memories and photographs of him, Bastin said. Later in the afternoon, there will also be a traditional ceremony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bastin remembers his nephew as a kind-hearted, gentle person. We once went walking along the riverbank and came across some homeless people. Nick went over to them and started talking to them, he said. Delisle also loved fishing and often went to the river. He also enjoyed carpentry, and he spent time learning about woodworking from his older neighbors in Chicopee, Bastin said. He was a genuinely likeable guy, Bastin said. The search for Delisle began almost immediately after he disappeared around a bend in the river. Multiple agencies, including the Sheriffs Department, the Western Massachusetts Regional Dive Team, the Massachusetts State Police, the Connecticut River Task Force, Westfield Fire Department, Holyoke Fire Department, Chicopee Police Department, Southwick Police Department, South Hadley Fire District 1, Agawam Fire Department, and Northampton Fire Department, used resources to locate Delisle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a tragic loss, and we extend our deepest condolences to the Delisle family, said Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni. We appreciate the professionalism and compassion shown by everyone involved in the search and recovery efforts. The incident remains under investigation by the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the DAs office. Search for Daniel Callahan Meanwhile, it has been more than 80 days since Daniel Callahan, a 26-year-old from East Windsor, Connecticut, went missing in the river. In April, bright signs about the missing man were posted along the Connecticut River in the Nutmeg State, including information about where he was last seen and what he was wearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On March 9, shortly after midnight, authorities received a report that a man had walked into the river at the end of Walter Street in Chicopee. The following day, Callahans car was pulled from the water. A multi-agency search also was ongoing for Callahan, but had slowed in April. The search for him is still ongoing, according to Nick Cocchi, sheriff of Hampden County. I am thankful that we, along with all our law-enforcement and first responder partners, were able to bring closure to one of the families on the Connecticut River. We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Niklas Delisle, Cocchi said in the DAs statement. But we will remain on the water searching for Daniel Callahan in an attempt to bring his family some peace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Callahans family could not be immediately reached Friday afternoon. This story has been updated with comments from Nevin Bastin. more news from Western Massachusetts Read the original article on MassLive. HONOLULU (KHON2) Honolulu Police Department said no foul play is suspected after a missing hiker was found dead on the Maili Pillbox Trail. Firefighters locate missing hiker off Lulumahu Falls Trail The 911 call came in around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28. More than 15 Honolulu Fire Department personnel were sent to the trail to begin their search, with the first company arriving seven minutes after the initial call. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Command was established and HFD personnel made their way to search for the missing hiker on foot. A second unit secured a nearby landing zone to prepare for air operations, said HFD in a news release. The hiker was later found unresponsive. HFD personnel packaged the victim before taking him off the trail to be treated by Honolulu Emergency Medical Services at 1:30 a.m. Check out more news from around Hawaii Honolulu police said the death pronouncement was made and notified the Medical Examiners Office to continue the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) The 2025 Municipal General Election in Mississippi will be held on June 3, but voters are already heading to the polls to vote absentee. Cities have reported a spike in voters as election day gets closer. For absentee voters, they want their voices heard in the election process. Mississippis 2025 Municipal Election: Key voter reminders In the City of Jackson, citizens are hopeful that the new administration will lead the capital city in the right direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I want leaders with integrity who will work together with internally and with other agencies to provide Jackson with the resources needed to move forward, said John Thomeson, an absentee voter. The last day to vote in-person absentee is Saturday, May 31. Municipal Clerks Offices will be open from 8:00 a.m. until noon. All mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, June 3 (Election Day). To track your mail-in absentee ballot, visit the My Election Day portal. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News 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 WJTV. MOSCOW, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Investigative Committee said Friday it had prevented a terrorist attack in Moscow and seized explosives planned to be used in a crowded place. The attack was allegedly prepared on the instructions of the Ukrainian special services, the committee said in a statement, adding that a suspect had been detained. A criminal case has been opened against the suspect for preparing to commit a terrorist act, it added. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) Mississippi lawmakers passed a budget for Fiscal Year 2026 during a special session called by Governor Tate Reeves (R-Miss.). House and Senate lawmakers had to pass more than 100 bills that will make up the $7.135 billion budget. The new fiscal year will start on July 1, 2025. Senate lawmakers completed their work on Thursday. The House worked overnight and finished a few hours after midnight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Senator Jeremy England (R-District 51) said the process would have been smoother if the House members were at the State Capitol while the Senate was working. Mississippi absentee voters cast ballots ahead of Tuesdays election I definitely agree with what the Speaker says. He talks about more transparency, wants a more transparent process with the budgeting, certainly gaveling in at midnight and going until 2:00. Thats not very transparent, England said. House Speaker Jason White (R-Miss.) said the House is disappointed in Senate leadership for not supporting local and county projects. We believe Mississippians find their tax dollars well spent when bridges are built, roads are repaired and sewage issues are addressed in their hometown, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawmakers who were not part of the budget talks ahead of the special session still have questions. Im not asking them to let the minority make the budget, but Im asking them at least be transparent, so we can know whats in it., the citizens can know whats in it. Were not going to get anywhere. I dont think this was contemplated to be a closed door process. I think the public and at least the members of the legislature should know whats in this budget, said State Sen. Rod Hickman (D-District 32). Reeves said the budget will fund the core functions of the states government. It keeps us in the best financial shape in state history. It prepares us for more tax relief for our people by eliminating the income tax, the governor said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News 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 WJTV. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) The Metro Nashville Police Department announced that an arrest had been made in connection with a deadly stabbing in the parking lot of a Madison church earlier this week. ORIGINAL STORY: Man fatally stabbed in Madison church parking lot At about 12:04 a.m. Monday, an MNPD officer with the Madison Precinct saw 44-year-old James Cane Jr. and 36-year-old Terrance Trice engaged in a physical struggle in the parking lot of the Madison First Baptist Church on Gallatin Pike South. Cane was critically injured and transported to Skyline Medical Center where he died from his injuries. Trice fled the scene, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MNPD detectives were able to recover surveillance video of Trice following the victim north along Gallatin Pike before the shooting. The motive is unclear, police added. CRIME TRACKER | Read the latest crime-related reports from across Middle Tennessee Trice has been charged with criminal homicide in connection with this deadly stabbing. He was also charged with a sex offender registry violation. The MNPD said that he has prior convictions for a variety of charges, including felony drug possession, domestic assault and assault. As of publication, he remains jailed on a $160,000 bond. 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. Family Guidance Centers offers medications to people meant to counteract the effects of opioid overdoses from a clinic. But whether its access to transportation, child care needs or physical limitations, the nonprofit knows there are many people who need the lifesaving drugs but cant get to the clinic, said Ron Vlasaty, Family Guidance Centers chief operating officer. With the help of a Cook County grant of nearly $1 million, Vlasaty and county officials celebrated the rollout of a van that will bring the medications to more than two dozen south suburbs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The program was announced Friday during a news conference outside the Posen Fire Departments headquarters, with the new van and another already in use by Family Guidance Centers parked outside. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said while opioid overdose fatalities are trending in the right direction, the problem is still of major concern. This crisis is everywhere, Preckwinkle said. This is a challenge we have all over the country, not just in Cook County. With the rollout of the van, a refurbished ambulance, residents will no longer need to overcome transportation or access issues, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are able to deliver the care and services right where they are, Preckwinkle said. The van is equipped with a nurse, peer recovery support specialist and outreach staff to deliver care directly to communities most affected by the opioid crisis, according to the county. It carries methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, FDA-approved medications for opioid and other drug overdoses. Family Guidance Centers other van delivers naloxone, also known as Narcan, which can revive a person suffering an opioid overdose, Vlasaty said. Posen police Chief William Alexander said opioid overdoses are one of the most urgent challenges faced by first responders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are losing far too many lives to addiction and senseless violence, Alexander said. Preckwinkle said, with the rollout of the van, health care officials are working to operate in a backdrop of possible federal spending cuts that would help their efforts. The nearly $1 million grant to Family Guidance Centers comes from the countys allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We see at the federal level a discouraging and alarming willingness to cut health care services, Preckwinkle said, vowing Cook County will continue to provide services to those in need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If someone needs help we want to make sure they get it, she said. Deborah Sims, former Cook County commissioner for the 5th District, which includes many south suburbs, said this is a good day. Sims said that in delivering health care, agencies always want people to come to us. If we can take it to the community its always better for us and better for the residents, she said. The grant program is part of the countys Stronger Together initiative, a countywide effort focused on behavioral health equity, system coordination and the expansion of community-based care, according to the county. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The county grant to Family Guidance Centers is spread over three years, and the mobile unit will operate Monday through Friday. Tom Nutter, chief behavioral health officer with the Cook County Office of Behavioral Health, said opioid addiction affects people from the very start, creating a dependency that requires increasing amounts of drugs. For those with addictions, Nutter said their day begins with how will I get the drug and how will I pay for it? Nutter praised Family Guidance Centers for its work, saying they bring unquestionable dedication to the job. The Cook County Office of Behavioral Health was established by the county in 2023 to address the behavioral health needs of county residents, particularly those from historically marginalized and underserved populations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vlasaty said that the Family Guidance Centers operates 14 locations in Illinois, including eight in Cook County. He said the Harvey clinic takes in residents from many south suburbs, but people cant always get to that location. Vlasaty said the van will be able to go to patients homes or central locations, such as village halls and police and fire stations, to distribute medications. He said the nonprofit already distributes naloxone, which can help revive someone suffering an opioid overdose, to south suburban police departments through a smaller van it purchased with help of a previous county grant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family Guidance Centers also has a naloxone distribution point at Harveys Pace bus station, established about a year ago. He said it needs to be refilled every couple of days and was done in conjunction with the county and Pace. Vlasaty said Family Guidance Centers will put up informational posters at municipal buildings, liquor stores, gas stations and food pantries and wherever people congregate to publicize the new mobile unit. We need to get the word out to where people are at to let them know this is available, he said. NEED TO KNOW Kelly Lalonde, 35, passed away on May 26, eight months after police rescued the mother of three from the home of her then-boyfriend, Jonathan Zieroff Zieroff, 30, allegedly held Lalonde captive in his home for days, torturing her and causing injuries that left her brain dead, according to police Police arrested Zieroff in September and he has remained in custody ever since, but he could now be facing a murder charge pending the results of Lalonde's autopsy A Michigan mother found brain dead in a filthy bed has passed away eight months after being found alive by police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kelley Lalonde, 35, was found bruised and beaten, lying in her own urine in a bed at the home of Jonathan Zieroff on Sept. 12, 2024, according to a copy of a criminal complaint filed in Saginaw District Court and obtained by PEOPLE. In addition to the bruising and cuts on her body, Lalaonde also suffered internal injuries, which included bleeding in her brain, the complaint said. Exactly eight months later, Lalonde was declared brain dead, according to the complaint, and on May 26 she passed away. Now the man accused of torturing her could be facing a murder charge. Case and Company Funeral Directors Kelly LaLonde Kelly LaLonde Carrollton Township Police arrested Zieroff, 30, last September and he was subsequently indicted in Saginaw County Circuit Court on charges of assault with intent to cause great bodily harm and domestic violence in the second degree, according to court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jail records show that Zieroff's bail was set at $50,000, which he did not post, so he has remained in the custody of the Saginaw County Sheriff's Office ever since his arrest. 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. However, the case against him was dropped in circuit court just days before Lalonde's death, with a nolle prosequi a formal decision by prosecutors to stop pursuing charges entered on his behalf. The court docket noted that the request was granted and the case was dismissed in the best interest of justice. At the same time, a new case was filed against him in Saginaw County District Court charging him with torture on May 13. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zieroff could soon be facing an additional charge of murder pending the results of Lalonde's autopsy. The sister of Lalonde announced her death in a GoFundMe post seeking donations to help with the cost of her funeral services. "Kelley received her angel wings and is now watching over all of us at this difficult time," April Reed wrote. That post notes that her three children ages 14, 11 and 3 were asking for help. Kelly was described as "a loving mother to her three children" whose "family was her pride and joy," in her obituary. It went on to say: "Her legacy will continue to shine through the lives she touched and the love she gave so freely." Read the original article on People NEED TO KNOW A 39-year-old Indianapolis man has been charged with attempted rape, attempted child molestation and other counts stemming from a May 24 incident According to reports, Bruce Pierce was shot by a mother who found him allegedly attempting to rape her 12-year-old daughter Pierce was treated at a local hospital but has since evaded Indianapolis police, who refused to comment on the investigation A mother pulled out a gun and shot a man who she found attempting to rape her 12-year-old daughter in an Indianapolis area hotel room earlier this week, according to police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bruce Pierce, 39, was critically injured in the shooting and later charged with attempted rape, attempted child molestation, unlawful possession of a firearm, and confinement, according to Fox 59 and WTHR, which cite court documents. Pierce has been registered on Indianas Sex Offender registry since September 2019, according to state records reviewed by PEOPLE. A warrant is currently issued for Pierces arrest in connection with the latest incident, records show. The 39-year-old waste management worker was previously convicted twice on child molestation charges in 2016 and is currently classified as a sexually violent predator, state records show. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for the previous charges. On Saturday, May 24, a mother allegedly walked into a hotel room to find Pierce pinning down her 12-year-old daughter with a gun in his hand, according to Fox 59 and WTHR, citing court documents. The womans daughter allegedly had part of her shirt ripped and said that Pierce was attempting to rip her clothes off while holding her arms down against the bed, the outlets reported, citing court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for the Indianapolis Police Department would not comment on the investigation and the ongoing search for Pierce when reached by PEOPLE. 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. According to WTHR, the 12-year-old girl and her sister woke up their grandmother on the night of May 24 after realizing their mother hadnt come home. The grandmother and the two children drove to a local Baymont Inn where they discovered the mother with Pierce in the hotel lobby, the outlet reported, citing court docs. The mother and her other daughter were taking items to the familys car when the 12-year-old girl was left alone with Pierce in his hotel room, WTHR reported. According to the outlet, when the mother returned, court documents allege she heard her 12-year-old daughter saying, No, no, no, while Pierce was allegedly on top of her and holding her down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mother then fired multiple shots at Pierce using her own weapon, WTHR reported, citing court documents. Fox 59 and WTHR report the family was able to get away from Pierce and drove from the scene, while Pierce was later taken to Eskenazi Hospital and treated for his injuries. Pierce was last seen at a local Regal 8 Inn on West Washington St. in Indianapolis, according to WTHR, but has been missing since Tuesday morning. 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. Read the original article on People At 4:06 p.m. Saturday, residents across Virginia Beach will gather in silence. The moment marks the time an emergency call reporting a mass shooting inside the citys municipal center was received six years ago. Inside Building 2, a city employee shot and killed 12 people and wounded five. In the years since, community members and the city have worked to remember the victims and uplift the survivors. At the Mary C. Russo Volunteer Recognition Gazebo behind City Hall, the city will host an intimate gathering for those who want to meet in person. The event will begin at 4 p.m. and include a moment of silence and reading of names. The event is free and open to the public, and residents are encouraged to wear blue, the color of remembrance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Residents at home can also hold their own moments of silence. At locations across the city, forget-me-not flowers will be on display. The symbol will be painted at Mount Trashmore Park, and remembrance flags will be placed at 40 locations in Virginia Beach. Blue lights will also shine at Building 30, the Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center and the Greenwich and Lesner bridges. The city also created a Love For VB Facebook frame for residents to show public support online. Since the tragedy, the 5/31 Memorial Committee has worked to develop a permanent location to honor the victims and survivors. The site is still under construction, which is why this years events are behind City Hall. The memorial park will be built on 1.3 acres of city land at the corner of Princess Anne Road and Nimmo Parkway, across the street from the municipal complex. It will feature timelines representing the 12 people 11 city workers and one contractor who died. It will also include a grove of trees that pays homage to the survivors and a large hero tree dedicated to the first responders from the shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the entry space of the memorial grounds, the Survivors Grove greets and invites all visitors into this place of remembrance and healing, the design plan for the memorial says. Construction on the memorial is scheduled to be completed by May 31, 2026. City spokesperson Ali Weatherton said construction costs are $12 million, with the projects full budget coming in at $14 million. City Council in October unanimously approved moving another $4.3 million from the general fund to the 5/31 Memorial project. It was the third allocation for the park. The city previously approved $1.2 million for design and $8.5 million for construction. Weatherton said contractors have completed most of the sites demolition and installation of stormwater drainage piping. Currently, crews are working on the sites fountain, including its framework and pump room. Next, crews will move on to its plumbing. Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCBD) A Moncks Corner couple has been charged with stealing more than $20,000 from a vulnerable adult, according to the South Carolina Attorney Generals Office. Larry Darnell Broadnax Jr., 42, and Charmaine D. Broadnax, 44, were arrested by the AGs Vulnerable Adults and Medicaid Provider Fraud unit. According to information provided by the AGs office, their arrests stem from a multi-department investigation which revealed that between June 30, 2022, and June 27, 2024, the Broadnaxs made unlawful, unauthorized, or improper use of funds and assets of a vulnerable adult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Larry Broadnax, who was acting as the victims power of attorney and entrusted with their funds and assets, allegedly misappropriated over $10,000 from the victims bank account through Cash App transfers and checks, depositing the funds into his own account for personal use. He is charged with exploitation of a vulnerable adult and breach of trust with fraudulent intent, valued $10,000 or more. Charmaine Broadnax is accused of linking the victims bank account to her personal Cash App account and withdrawing over $10,000 for her own personal use. She is charged with exploitation of a vulnerable adult and obtaining a signature or property under false pretenses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both were booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center. 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. Its never too early to start preparing for your childs educational future. Jim Lyons of Edward Jones joined us in studio to discuss the benefits of saving money for your children with a 529 plan. 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 WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. The entrance to the Montana Supreme Court (Photo by Eric Seidle/ For the Daily Montanan). In a sprawling, 61-page decision that had about as many opinions attached to it as members of Montanas highest court, a majority of justices said that the State of Montana, specifically the governors office, should pay attorneys fees in a public documents fight between the office and groups wanting more information about a mining executive. However, the particular details before the court were not whether a former mining executive should be permitted to lead a mining company after his former company was found to be a bad actor by state law. Instead, the Montana Supreme Court weighed in on when the government should pay attorneys fees in the public records dispute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a fractured mix of majority, concurring and dissenting opinions, at least four justices agreed that Lewis and Clark District Judge Christopher Abbott should have given attorneys fees to the Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthworks, which had sued Gov. Greg Gianforte for documents related to Phillips S. Baker, Jr., and permitting documents related to both Hecla Mining and the Montanore mine. The MEIC argued that the state had not enforced its bad actor provision against Baker, the Hecla CEO, because of his leadership in a company that went went bankrupt, while leaving millions of dollars of mining mess to be taken care of in perpetuity by the state. MEIC and Earthworks, which won the public documents fight against the governor, also asked for attorneys fees because they brought the lawsuit under the Montana Constitutions right-to-know provisions. In the state, judges have discretion to award attorneys fees when private groups or individuals are successful in vindicating constitutional rights, like obtaining public documents. Previously, the Montana State Supreme Court had been reluctant to recommend a checklist of conditions that have to be met in order to award attorneys fees, instead relying on the judgment of district or trial court judges. However, a majority of the court decided to take up the issue, saying that more guidance was necessary for judges, something a minority, including Chief Justice Cory Swanson, balked at. The dissenting opinions centered on the idea that judges should still have latitude to decide on a case-by-case basis, and that if the Legislature wanted to mandate attorneys fees, it should be done in law. Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote the majority opinion, with James Jeremiah Shea, Katherine Bidegaray and Ingrid Gustafson concurring. Justices Jim Rice and Beth Baker, along with Swanson were in the minority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The majority pointed out in the case that the governors office had employed a novel legal theory that Abbott debunked, but even so, the court found the governors office shirked its clear legal duty to MEICs request. When a party succeeds in litigation based on a right to know request, it has performed a public service in ensuring that Montanas government is appropriately transparent and accountable to the people, the majority opinion said. The justices reasoned that if constitutionally protected rights are meaningful, then litigation or the ability to take the government to court must be accessible. The result of the district courts order that MEIC prevailed and undeniably performed a public service, yet it is denied attorneys fees is dissonant with the foundational purposes of Article II, Section 9, and actively disincentivizes citizens from enforcing that right, the majority opinion said. For citizens to be able to enforce the provision against the government, litigation must be accessible; for litigation to be accessible, there should be a basic presumption towards awarding attorneys fees when the party seeking to enforce the right to know has prevailed on its merits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The majority shifted the blame back to the Montana Supreme Court, saying the states provisions for awarding attorneys fees had created a vacuum of necessary guidance, and the majority wanted to more fully develop the advice. Abbott had determined that because Gianforte had not acted in bad faith, and because attorneys fees would essentially be borne by Montana taxpayers, he decided not to award attorneys fees. However, the court said the calculus Abbott used whether there was evidence of bad faith shouldnt be the deciding factor in the right-to-know cases. When a plaintiff prevails on the merits of a right to know dispute, it means that, whether in good faith or bad faith, the government pushed back against the constitutional presumption and, in doing so, violated a fundamental right, the opinion said. But because we have previously neglected to suggest a presumption or even a preference for awarding fees in this context, even plaintiffs with an exceptionally strong case and an egregious violation must carefully consider whether it is worth the risk of winning the documents but losing fees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The courts opinion also said it was taking up the matter because its essential for courts and citizens to understand fundamental or Constitutional rights. We seek to provide basic guidance that works to encourage and strengthen the peoples exercise of a fundamental constitutional right. This presumption does not eliminate judicial discretion, but rather structures it to reflect the constitutional emphasis on transparency, the ruling said. This presumption is not a novelty imagined at the whims of this court; it is part of the fabric of the right to know which has been errantly lost to an unboundedly deferential standard that allows for results fundamentally at odds with the Constitution. Leaders from both Earthworks and MEIC cheered the decision, saying the decision was a win for residents who want to keep tabs on government officials. Montanas Constitution guarantees the public the right to know what government is up to. Justice only works when every person has the ability to oversee their government, said Anne Hedges, executive director with MEIC. This decision will ensure the public can continue to access government documents and will prevent abuse when the government officials refuse to comply with the constitution. MEIC Earthworks right to know decision (MONUMENT, Colo.) The Monument Police Department (MPD) is seeking additional victims in a sexual assault case after detectives uncovered allegations that dated back more than four years. On February 14, 2025, the Monument Police Department launched an investigation following a report of sexual assault; one of the suspects was identified as 19-year-old Spencer Adam Johnson. During the investigation, detectives uncovered additional allegations against Johnson, some that dated back more than four years. Spencer Adam Johnson. Courtesy: Monument Police Department. Johnson has since been charged with kidnapping and multiple sexual offenses. He is currently in custody in Texas and is awaiting extradition back to Colorado. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on that information, detectives believe there may be other victims who have not yet come forward. Anyone with information, or who believes they may have been victimized, is urged to call the Monument Police Department Investigations Division at (719)-419-9791. The case remains an active and 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 FOX21 News Colorado. Representatives vote on a draft resolution during a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on May 30, 2025. The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to renew for a year, until May 31, 2026, an arms embargo against South Sudan as well as targeted sanctions of travel ban and asset freeze against individuals and entities. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua) UNITED NATIONS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to renew for a year, until May 31, 2026, an arms embargo against South Sudan as well as targeted sanctions of travel ban and asset freeze against individuals and entities. Resolution 2781, which was adopted with nine votes in favor and six abstentions, also extends the mandate of the Panel of Experts, which assists the work of the South Sudan Sanctions Committee, until July 1, 2026. The African members of the Security Council -- Algeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia -- abstained, along with China, Pakistan and Russia. The resolution reiterates the Security Council's readiness to review arms embargo measures, through modification, suspension, or progressive lifting of these measures, in light of progress achieved on the key benchmarks as set out in Resolution 2577 of 2021, and encourages the South Sudan authorities to achieve further progress in this regard. It also decides to keep the targeted measures under continuous review and expresses the Security Council's readiness to consider adjusting the measures, through modifying, suspending, lifting or strengthening measures to respond to the situation. The resolution requests the UN secretary-general, in close consultation with the UN Mission in South Sudan and the Panel of Experts, to conduct, no later than April 15, 2026, an assessment of progress achieved on the key benchmarks. It also requests the South Sudanese authorities to report, by the same date, to the Sanctions Committee on the progress achieved in this regard. South Sudan's UN ambassador Cecilia Adeng (front) speaks at a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on May 30, 2025. The Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to renew for a year, until May 31, 2026, an arms embargo against South Sudan as well as targeted sanctions of travel ban and asset freeze against individuals and entities. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua) A Moorpark school van driver was arrested on the job Wednesday on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to authorities. The driver, who operated a small van for the Moorpark Unified School District, was picking up a student Wednesday morning when the child's parent reportedly smelled alcohol on the driver, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. The parent promptly called the school district, which notified the Moorpark Police Department. A statement from Supt. Kelli Hays said the district's transportation dispatch instructed the driver to pull over and stop the van immediately after receiving the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The students on the van were transferred to a backup van and safely arrived at school on time, and their parents were contacted shortly after the police investigation concluded, the superintendent said. Deputy KLynn Jackson, the school district's resource officer, confirmed to The Times on Thursday that police conducted a field sobriety test, including a breathalyzer check, but she was not authorized to share the results. The driver, 39-year-old Jason Watson of Moorpark, was arrested and booked at the Ventura County Jail. Read more: SoCal boy takes round of ammo to school to show friends; dad is under arrest, officials say Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a written statement to The Times on Thursday, Hays commended the parent who made the initial report and the Moorpark Police Department. "The safety of our students and staff is our top priority," Hays' statement continued. "MUSDs Transportation Department maintains a strong safety record and requires all drivers to complete extensive background checks and training. In addition, all drivers are subject to strict federal drug and alcohol regulations, including pre-employment screening and random drug and alcohol testing throughout the year." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. At least 115 people have been killed after heavy flooding submerged the market town of Mokwa in Nigerias northcentral Niger State, destroying thousands of homes, according to an emergency services official, in a country beset by deadly storms every year. Head of the operations office in Minna, capital of Niger State, Husseini Isah, said on Friday that many people were still in peril as rescue efforts continue. We have so far recovered 115 bodies and more are expected to be recovered because the flood came from far distance and washed people into the River Niger. Downstream, bodies are still being recovered, a Niger State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) spokesman, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, told the AFP news agency. So, the toll keeps rising. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Torrential rains battered Mokwa late on Wednesday and lasted for several hours, washing away dozens of homes, with many residents still missing. A dam collapse in a nearby town caused the situation to rapidly deteriorate. It is difficult to say how well-placed rescue efforts are to salvage people because every rainy season we continue to see things like this, said Al Jazeeras Ahmed Idris, reporting from Abuja. Warnings have been put out by authorities for people exposed or communities living along river banks to move to higher ground, especially when the rains start to peak, but every year we continue to see more and more lives and property damaged because of rainfall, said Idris. In certain areas, proper drainage isnt there and most of these disasters take officials of emergency management agencies in various states by surprise even though there has been consistent flooding over the past three years, said Idris. As a result, a lot of people dont believe it will be any different this time around. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mokwa is a key meeting and transit point for traders from the south and food growers in the north of the country. In the town, Mohammed Tanko, 29, a civil servant, told reporters that he lost at least 15 people from the house he grew up in. The property [is] gone. We lost everything, Tanko said. For fisherman Danjuma Shaba, 35, the floods destroyed his house, forcing him to sleep in a car park. I dont have a house to sleep in. My house has already collapsed, Shaba told the AFP news agency. As Nigerias rainy season begins, typically lasting for six months, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency has warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigerias 36 states, including Niger State, between Wednesday and Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The most concerning thing about these floods is this isnt even the peak of the rainy season, said Idris. In some states, the rains have only been there for a month and yet were seeing this. However, scientists have warned that the effects of climate change are already being felt, as extreme weather patterns are becoming more frequent. The heavy rainfall causes problems for Nigeria every year as it destroys infrastructure and is further exacerbated by inadequate drainage. In September 2024, torrential rains and a dam collapse in the northeastern Maiduguri city caused severe flooding, killing at least 30 people and displacing millions. Last year, more than 1,200 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced in at least 31 out of 36 states, in one of the countrys worst floods in decades, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. SOUTH DAKOTA (KELO) We often talk about farmers having to keep a close eye on the weather as they head into planting season and beyond, but also important for them is the economy. And this year, its projected that market conditions and potential returns are favoring corn over soybeans. The USDA projects South Dakota farmers will plant 6.2 million acres of corn and 5.1 million acres of soybeans. Farmers in South Dakota have had a strong start to the year with some early planting followed by steady rainfall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dell Rapids native to perform at Levitt at the Falls As a farmer, its nice to take a break because of rain, Kevin Deinert, president of the South Dakota Soybean Association, said. According to the USDA, about 85% of South Dakotas corn crops have been planted with 50% already emerging from the ground. As for soybeans, about 70% of those crops have been planted in the state. Thats on trend with what Kevin Deinert has been seeing in his area. Id say for the general area around here in Mt. Vernon, everyones fairly well completed but theres some fields, some pockets here and there, Deinert said. Generally, 90 percent complete with a few soybean fields here or there that still need to get going. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Corn and soybeans are two of South Dakotas top crops that farmers typically rotate between each year. But this year, one of those is looking more profitable than the other. As we came into this year, it sure looked like the economics of corn were more favorable than soybeans and a lot of guys around here mostly stuck to their regular rotation of corn and soybeans while mixing in a few small grains as well, Deinert said. Matthew Elliott with the SDSU Ag Extension says more corn this year also has to do with last years crops. We had a lot of soybean acres and less corn acres last year so that allowed us to build even bigger soybean supplies relative to demand, Elliott said. We were shorter on corn acres so then our supply relative to demand on corn shrinks, so that market is kinda flipping back and forth. So, were going the other way now so were incentivizing more corn, expect to have more corn production this year. Expect to be about 4.7 million acres of shift from more corn acres this year than last. Theres about 3.6 million acres less of soybeans planted this year than last. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While theres more demand for corn over soybeans this year, Elliott says tariff talk and trade disruptions are putting pressure on prices for both crops, as well as wheat. You know, soybeans and wheat, we rely predominantly on exports in order to have the prices weve observed, historically speaking, Elliott said. Corn, less so, we still export about 20-25 percent of our corn but even more of that is domestically consumed. But still, all of them are interrelated. So, they all kind of move together. If soybeans are weak, wheat is weak, corn will be weak. They all rely on those export markets and so anything that disrupts exports for commodities. Its going to put pressure on prices. Deinert says one thing farmers can do to help off-set their needs is add more diversification into their planting. A lot of guys maybe have put in some oats or some milo, crops that arent generally planted, Deinert said. Some guys looking for some hay for the future in case things turn dry again or just some diversification in their farms. Keeping that diversification to hopefully increase the profitability for everybodys farm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And as we head into the summer, farmers will be watching for what comes next in the economy. Looking towards the market, seeing what tariff talks do and what our trade talks do, Deinert said. Hopefully, we can get some of that sorted out so we can keep a profitable environment for each of our farmers and everybody to keep on farming. The top export market for corn in the United States is Mexico while the top export market for soybeans is China. 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 woman holds her newborn baby in her Los Angeles home. More legislatures in Republican-led states are passing paid parental leave for public employees. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) More Republican-led states are giving paid parental leave to public school teachers and other state employees, signaling a broader acceptance of family-friendly workplace policies once championed primarily by Democrats. All of these red states, I think were late to the party, said South Carolina state Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who sponsored a bill this year to increase state employees paid parental leave from six to 12 weeks. It passed the majority-Republican South Carolina House in April with strong bipartisan support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This year, Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi joined 37 other states in granting paid parental leave to thousands of state workers. The trend has gathered steam in recent years. Some experts link it to the cascade of state abortion bans that followed the U.S. Supreme Courts 2022 Dobbs decision, which dismantled the federal right to abortion. Under fire from critics to do more to care for babies once theyre born, at least a dozen conservative-led states with abortion bans have since granted or expanded paid parental leave for their state employees. But others say the increasing bipartisan support for measures that help working parents is also a reaction to economic realities. What weve seen, especially in more conservative states, is the public sector has experienced a lot of turnover, said Kameron Dawson, legal director of the Southern Office of A Better Balance, a legal organization focused on workplace rights. Theyre looking for tools to recruit younger employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paid parental leave is the time off granted to workers for the birth or adoption of a baby, to care for a child, or to recover from a stillbirth or miscarriage. Without it, employees are left to cobble together their sick leave and vacation leave or go unpaid to stay home with a child and heal. Were trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and were in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well. Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver watched her daughter, a public school teacher, struggle to get the leave she needed after the births of her children in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With her second, she had complications in her pregnancy and used up her [paid vacation and sick] leave before she even had the baby, Shaver told Stateline. Her daughter contracted COVID-19, and the baby had to spend time in neonatal intensive care. It was a very difficult time, and she had to take unpaid leave. Last year, Shaver and Democratic state Sen. Vivian Figures worked to win approval of a paid parental leave bill for state employees. It failed. But they tried again this year. With the support of Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, the state legislature which has a Republican supermajority passed it nearly unanimously. The new law gives female state employees, including teachers, eight weeks of paid parental leave in connection with birth, stillbirth or miscarriage, and gives male employees two weeks. Adoptive parents get eight weeks for one parent and two for the other. Shaver said she thinks the law passed thanks to vocal support from the governor and increased awareness of the issue due to the work she and Figures did in previous sessions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And the fact that all of the southeast states around us offered it, Shaver said. Were trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and were in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well. Keeping talent For many Republicans, the workforce development argument for paid leave is a persuasive one. For states such as Alabama and South Carolina that have some of the lowest workforce participation rates in the nation, paid leave can be a tool to keep more people particularly women working. And it can be a way to retain educators as many states struggle with teacher shortages in K-12 schools. For several years weve seen state legislatures acknowledging the importance of child care to businesses and the economy, said Feroza Freeland, policy director at the Southern Office of A Better Balance. But in the last few years, weve seen a growing recognition that paid leave is another piece of that puzzle. States have taken up the issue because the federal government has not. The United States is a global outlier; among 38 peer nations, its the only one that doesnt mandate paid parental leave, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. The group comprises 38 democracies with market-based economies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993 and extended in 2020, only requires public agencies and companies with at least 50 employees to give up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for parents of newborns or newly adopted children, or caregivers of sick family members. GOP support During his first term, President Donald Trump publicly supported some forms of paid family leave and signed a defense bill that gives 12 weeks of paid parental leave to most federal employees. Paid family leave was a signature issue for his daughter Ivanka Trump, at the time a senior adviser to the president. She even held a paid leave and child care summit at the White House in late 2019. That set the stage for other Republicans to take up the issue more publicly. And after the Dobbs decision, family-friendly policies have increasingly become conservative talking points in states with restrictive abortion laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the Mississippi House unanimously passed a paid parental leave bill earlier this year, Republican House Speaker Jason White celebrated the bill as a reflection of Mississippis status as a pro-life state. In a post on X this week announcing her signing of a new paid parental leave law, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds called Iowa a pro-family state. North Carolina was one of the first Southern states to grant paid parental leave to state workers in 2019 when then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed an executive order. In 2023, several months after the Dobbs decision, the states majority-Republican legislature extended paid parental leave to public school employees by tacking it onto a law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Meanwhile, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order in March to add up to eight additional weeks of paid leave for childbirth recovery to the states existing four weeks of paid parental leave. Running the gamut The new laws wont apply to most residents, because they only cover state employees. But they could have a downstream effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shaver, the Alabama lawmaker, said she hopes her states new law will not only help the state be competitive with the private sector, but also set a precedent for other employers to follow. I hope they will see its in their benefit to offer what they can, she said. It may not be eight or 12 weeks, but even offering a reduced or flexible work schedule can help families. Just over a quarter of private-sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employer as of March 2023, according the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Among the lowest-wage earners, that share drops to 6%. State paid leave programs run the gamut in terms of what they offer. While Alabamas new law offers up to eight weeks of leave for all state employees, including teachers, Mississippis offers six and does not require public schools to offer paid parental leave to their employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Iowas new law grants four weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child and one week of paid paternity leave. Tennessees law, passed in 2023, only offers paid leave to workers in the states executive and judicial branches. But a few states are already expanding their offerings: Last year, Georgia legislators voted to double paid parental leave from three to six weeks. And some states have gone further than just state employees: 13 states and the District of Columbia have mandated paid family leave for all workers, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Most of those states are located in New England or on the West Coast and all are Democratic-led. Ten more offer voluntary paid family leave statewide thats provided through private insurance. Sandwich generation Experts say the shift in attitude toward family-friendly policies can also be attributed to a generational shift. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of younger lawmakers are more willing to champion the issue of paid leave, said Freeland, of A Better Balance. Theyre understanding it because theyre seeing it in their own lives, or seeing friends and family members going through this. In South Carolina, Bernsteins bill faced some opposition from members of the states ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus and Family Caucus. Some lawmakers questioned the potential costs of the bill, or criticized it as government overreach. South Carolina Republican state Rep. Josiah Magnuson, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said he believed the bill would be a financial burden on public school districts that could lead to raised taxes. Youre saying, lets tax the people of South Carolina, most of whom dont get paid parental leave, and give them to state employees who already have six weeks paid parental leave, Magnuson told lawmakers in April before the House voted to pass the bill. He also said he doesnt like that the increased paid leave puts the foot in the door a little more for the government to be involved in the home. The opposition frustrated Bernstein, who pointed out that the states 2022 law that granted six weeks of paid parental leave passed the legislature almost unanimously. This years bill expanding that leave passed the House but hasnt seen movement in the Senate. It can be picked up again when the legislature returns in January. Other South Carolina Republicans backed the bill, citing their own families experiences following the birth of their children, reported the South Carolina Daily Gazette. More conservative states are also responding to the needs of sandwich generation employees who may be caring for aging parents as well as children, Freeland said. Earlier this year, Tennessee became the first Southern state to expand its state paid leave policy beyond just parental leave. The state legislature voted almost unanimously to extend its six-week paid leave policy to cover state workers providing end-of-life care to a family member. Were seeing a growing recognition that people need support for these types of family or caregiving needs, said Freeland, and that it strengthens the workforce and economy to be able to provide that. Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE May 30More Republican-led states are giving paid parental leave to public school teachers and other state employees, signaling a broader acceptance of family-friendly workplace policies once championed primarily by Democrats. "All of these red states, I think we're late to the party," said South Carolina state Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who sponsored a bill this year to increase state employees' paid parental leave from six to 12 weeks. It passed the majority-Republican South Carolina House in April with strong bipartisan support. This year, Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi joined 37 other states in granting paid parental leave to thousands of state workers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The trend has gathered steam in recent years. Some experts link it to the cascade of state abortion bans that followed the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which dismantled the federal right to abortion. Under fire from critics to do more to care for babies once they're born, at least a dozen conservative-led states with abortion bans have since granted or expanded paid parental leave for their state employees. But others say the increasing bipartisan support for measures that help working parents is also a reaction to economic realities. "What we've seen, especially in more conservative states, is the public sector has experienced a lot of turnover," said Kameron Dawson, legal director of the Southern Office of A Better Balance, a legal organization focused on workplace rights. "They're looking for tools to recruit younger employees." Paid parental leave is the time off granted to workers for the birth or adoption of a baby, to care for a child, or to recover from a stillbirth or miscarriage. Without it, employees are left to cobble together their sick leave and vacation leave or go unpaid to stay home with a child and heal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We're trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and we're in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well. Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver watched her daughter, a public school teacher, struggle to get the leave she needed after the births of her children in recent years. "With her second, she had complications in her pregnancy and used up her [paid vacation and sick] leave before she even had the baby," Shaver told Stateline. Her daughter contracted COVID-19, and the baby had to spend time in neonatal intensive care. "It was a very difficult time, and she had to take unpaid leave." Last year, Shaver and Democratic state Sen. Vivian Figures worked to win approval of a paid parental leave bill for state employees. It failed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But they tried again this year. With the support of Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, the state legislature which has a Republican supermajority passed it nearly unanimously. The new law gives female state employees, including teachers, eight weeks of paid parental leave in connection with birth, stillbirth or miscarriage, and gives male employees two weeks. Adoptive parents get eight weeks for one parent and two for the other. Shaver said she thinks the law passed thanks to vocal support from the governor and increased awareness of the issue due to the work she and Figures did in previous sessions. "And the fact that all of the southeast states around us offered it," Shaver said. "We're trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and we're in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well." Keeping talent Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For many Republicans, the workforce development argument for paid leave is a persuasive one. For states such as Alabama and South Carolina that have some of the lowest workforce participation rates in the nation, paid leave can be a tool to keep more people particularly women working. And it can be a way to retain educators as many states struggle with teacher shortages in K-12 schools. "For several years we've seen state legislatures acknowledging the importance of child care to businesses and the economy," said Feroza Freeland, policy director at the Southern Office of A Better Balance. "But in the last few years, we've seen a growing recognition that paid leave is another piece of that puzzle." States have taken up the issue because the federal government has not. The United States is a global outlier; among 38 peer nations, it's the only one that doesn't mandate paid parental leave, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. The group comprises 38 democracies with market-based economies. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993 and extended in 2020, only requires public agencies and companies with at least 50 employees to give up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for parents of newborns or newly adopted children, or caregivers of sick family members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GOP support During his first term, President Donald Trump publicly supported some forms of paid family leave and signed a defense bill that gives 12 weeks of paid parental leave to most federal employees. Paid family leave was a signature issue for his daughter Ivanka Trump, at the time a senior adviser to the president. She even held a paid leave and child care summit at the White House in late 2019. That set the stage for other Republicans to take up the issue more publicly. And after the Dobbs decision, family-friendly policies have increasingly become conservative talking points in states with restrictive abortion laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the Mississippi House unanimously passed a paid parental leave bill earlier this year, Republican House Speaker Jason White celebrated the bill as a reflection of Mississippi's status as a "pro-life state." In a post on X this week announcing her signing of a new paid parental leave law, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds called Iowa "a pro-family state." North Carolina was one of the first Southern states to grant paid parental leave to state workers in 2019 when then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed an executive order. In 2023, several months after the Dobbs decision, the state's majority-Republican legislature extended paid parental leave to public school employees by tacking it onto a law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Meanwhile, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order in March to add up to eight additional weeks of paid leave for "childbirth recovery" to the state's existing four weeks of paid parental leave. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Running the gamut The new laws won't apply to most residents, because they only cover state employees. But they could have a downstream effect. Shaver, the Alabama lawmaker, said she hopes her state's new law will not only help the state be competitive with the private sector, but also set a precedent for other employers to follow. "I hope they will see it's in their benefit to offer what they can," she said. "It may not be eight or 12 weeks, but even offering a reduced or flexible work schedule can help families." Just over a quarter of private-sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employer as of March 2023, according the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among the lowest-wage earners, that share drops to 6%. State paid leave programs run the gamut in terms of what they offer. While Alabama's new law offers up to eight weeks of leave for all state employees, including teachers, Mississippi's offers six and does not require public schools to offer paid parental leave to their employees. Iowa's new law grants four weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child and one week of paid paternity leave. Tennessee's law, passed in 2023, only offers paid leave to workers in the state's executive and judicial branches. But a few states are already expanding their offerings: Last year, Georgia legislators voted to double paid parental leave from three to six weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And some states have gone further than just state employees: 13 states and the District of Columbia have mandated paid family leave for all workers, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Most of those states are located in New England or on the West Coast and all are Democratic-led. Ten more offer voluntary paid family leave statewide that's provided through private insurance. Sandwich generation Experts say the shift in attitude toward family-friendly policies can also be attributed to a generational shift. "A lot of younger lawmakers are more willing to champion the issue of paid leave," said Freeland, of A Better Balance. "They're understanding it because they're seeing it in their own lives, or seeing friends and family members going through this." In South Carolina, Bernstein's bill faced some opposition from members of the state's ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus and Family Caucus. Some lawmakers questioned the potential costs of the bill, or criticized it as government overreach. South Carolina Republican state Rep. Josiah Magnuson, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said he believed the bill would be a financial burden on public school districts that could lead to raised taxes. "You're saying, let's tax the people of South Carolina, most of whom don't get paid parental leave, and give them to state employees who already have six weeks' paid parental leave," Magnuson told lawmakers in April before the House voted to pass the bill. He also said he doesn't like that the increased paid leave "puts the foot in the door a little more for the government to be involved in the home." The opposition frustrated Bernstein, who pointed out that the state's 2022 law that granted six weeks of paid parental leave passed the legislature almost unanimously. This year's bill expanding that leave passed the House but hasn't seen movement in the Senate. It can be picked up again when the legislature returns in January. Other South Carolina Republicans backed the bill, citing their own families' experiences following the birth of their children, reported the South Carolina Daily Gazette. More conservative states are also responding to the needs of "sandwich generation" employees who may be caring for aging parents as well as children, Freeland said. Earlier this year, Tennessee became the first Southern state to expand its state paid leave policy beyond just parental leave. The state legislature voted almost unanimously to extend its six-week paid leave policy to cover state workers providing end-of-life care to a family member. "We're seeing a growing recognition that people need support for these types of family or caregiving needs," said Freeland, "and that it strengthens the workforce and economy to be able to provide that." Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at [email protected]. YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. A woman holds her newborn baby in her Los Angeles home. More legislatures in Republican-led states are passing paid parental leave for public employees. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) More Republican-led states are giving paid parental leave to public school teachers and other state employees, signaling a broader acceptance of family-friendly workplace policies once championed primarily by Democrats. All of these red states, I think were late to the party, said South Carolina state Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who sponsored a bill this year to increase state employees paid parental leave from six to 12 weeks. It passed the majority-Republican South Carolina House in April with strong bipartisan support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This year, Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi joined 37 other states in granting paid parental leave to thousands of state workers. The trend has gathered steam in recent years. Some experts link it to the cascade of state abortion bans that followed the U.S. Supreme Courts 2022 Dobbs decision, which dismantled the federal right to abortion. Under fire from critics to do more to care for babies once theyre born, at least a dozen conservative-led states with abortion bans have since granted or expanded paid parental leave for their state employees. But others say the increasing bipartisan support for measures that help working parents is also a reaction to economic realities. What weve seen, especially in more conservative states, is the public sector has experienced a lot of turnover, said Kameron Dawson, legal director of the Southern Office of A Better Balance, a legal organization focused on workplace rights. Theyre looking for tools to recruit younger employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paid parental leave is the time off granted to workers for the birth or adoption of a baby, to care for a child, or to recover from a stillbirth or miscarriage. Without it, employees are left to cobble together their sick leave and vacation leave or go unpaid to stay home with a child and heal. Were trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and were in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well. Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver Alabama Republican state Rep. Ginny Shaver watched her daughter, a public school teacher, struggle to get the leave she needed after the births of her children in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With her second, she had complications in her pregnancy and used up her [paid vacation and sick] leave before she even had the baby, Shaver told Stateline. Her daughter contracted COVID-19, and the baby had to spend time in neonatal intensive care. It was a very difficult time, and she had to take unpaid leave. Last year, Shaver and Democratic state Sen. Vivian Figures worked to win approval of a paid parental leave bill for state employees. It failed. But they tried again this year. With the support of Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, the state legislature which has a Republican supermajority passed it nearly unanimously. The new law gives female state employees, including teachers, eight weeks of paid parental leave in connection with birth, stillbirth or miscarriage, and gives male employees two weeks. Adoptive parents get eight weeks for one parent and two for the other. Shaver said she thinks the law passed thanks to vocal support from the governor and increased awareness of the issue due to the work she and Figures did in previous sessions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And the fact that all of the southeast states around us offered it, Shaver said. Were trying to attract and retain state employees and teachers, and were in competition with everyone around us, and the private sector as well. Keeping talent For many Republicans, the workforce development argument for paid leave is a persuasive one. For states such as Alabama and South Carolina that have some of the lowest workforce participation rates in the nation, paid leave can be a tool to keep more people particularly women working. And it can be a way to retain educators as many states struggle with teacher shortages in K-12 schools. For several years weve seen state legislatures acknowledging the importance of child care to businesses and the economy, said Feroza Freeland, policy director at the Southern Office of A Better Balance. But in the last few years, weve seen a growing recognition that paid leave is another piece of that puzzle. States have taken up the issue because the federal government has not. The United States is a global outlier; among 38 peer nations, its the only one that doesnt mandate paid parental leave, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. The group comprises 38 democracies with market-based economies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993 and extended in 2020, only requires public agencies and companies with at least 50 employees to give up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for parents of newborns or newly adopted children, or caregivers of sick family members. Gov. Kim Reynolds calls Iowa a pro-family state During his first term, President Donald Trump publicly supported some forms of paid family leave and signed a defense bill that gives 12 weeks of paid parental leave to most federal employees. Paid family leave was a signature issue for his daughter Ivanka Trump, at the time a senior adviser to the president. She even held a paid leave and child care summit at the White House in late 2019. That set the stage for other Republicans to take up the issue more publicly. And after the Dobbs decision, family-friendly policies have increasingly become conservative talking points in states with restrictive abortion laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the Mississippi House unanimously passed a paid parental leave bill earlier this year, Republican House Speaker Jason White celebrated the bill as a reflection of Mississippis status as a pro-life state. In a post on X this week announcing her signing of a new paid parental leave law, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds called Iowa a pro-family state. North Carolina was one of the first Southern states to grant paid parental leave to state workers in 2019 when then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, signed an executive order. In 2023, several months after the Dobbs decision, the states majority-Republican legislature extended paid parental leave to public school employees by tacking it onto a law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Meanwhile, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order in March to add up to eight additional weeks of paid leave for childbirth recovery to the states existing four weeks of paid parental leave. Iowa law gives four weeks of paid leave The new laws wont apply to most residents, because they only cover state employees. But they could have a downstream effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shaver, the Alabama lawmaker, said she hopes her states new law will not only help the state be competitive with the private sector, but also set a precedent for other employers to follow. I hope they will see its in their benefit to offer what they can, she said. It may not be eight or 12 weeks, but even offering a reduced or flexible work schedule can help families. Just over a quarter of private-sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employer as of March 2023, according the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Among the lowest-wage earners, that share drops to 6%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State paid leave programs run the gamut in terms of what they offer. While Alabamas new law offers up to eight weeks of leave for all state employees, including teachers, Mississippis offers six and does not require public schools to offer paid parental leave to their employees. Iowas new law grants four weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child and one week of paid paternity leave. Tennessees law, passed in 2023, only offers paid leave to workers in the states executive and judicial branches. But a few states are already expanding their offerings: Last year, Georgia legislators voted to double paid parental leave from three to six weeks. And some states have gone further than just state employees: 13 states and the District of Columbia have mandated paid family leave for all workers, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Most of those states are located in New England or on the West Coast and all are Democratic-led. Ten more offer voluntary paid family leave statewide thats provided through private insurance. Sandwich generation Experts say the shift in attitude toward family-friendly policies can also be attributed to a generational shift. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of younger lawmakers are more willing to champion the issue of paid leave, said Freeland, of A Better Balance. Theyre understanding it because theyre seeing it in their own lives, or seeing friends and family members going through this. In South Carolina, Bernsteins bill faced some opposition from members of the states ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus and Family Caucus. Some lawmakers questioned the potential costs of the bill, or criticized it as government overreach. South Carolina Republican state Rep. Josiah Magnuson, a member of the Freedom Caucus, said he believed the bill would be a financial burden on public school districts that could lead to raised taxes. Youre saying, lets tax the people of South Carolina, most of whom dont get paid parental leave, and give them to state employees who already have six weeks paid parental leave, Magnuson told lawmakers in April before the House voted to pass the bill. He also said he doesnt like that the increased paid leave puts the foot in the door a little more for the government to be involved in the home. The opposition frustrated Bernstein, who pointed out that the states 2022 law that granted six weeks of paid parental leave passed the legislature almost unanimously. This years bill expanding that leave passed the House but hasnt seen movement in the Senate. It can be picked up again when the legislature returns in January. Other South Carolina Republicans backed the bill, citing their own families experiences following the birth of their children, reported the South Carolina Daily Gazette. More conservative states are also responding to the needs of sandwich generation employees who may be caring for aging parents as well as children, Freeland said. Earlier this year, Tennessee became the first Southern state to expand its state paid leave policy beyond just parental leave. The state legislature voted almost unanimously to extend its six-week paid leave policy to cover state workers providing end-of-life care to a family member. Were seeing a growing recognition that people need support for these types of family or caregiving needs, said Freeland, and that it strengthens the workforce and economy to be able to provide that. Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org. We will see another chance for rain to end the work week. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Storm Center 7 continues to TRACK these rain chances. Storm Center 7 Weather Specialist Nick Dunn has the latest TIMING on when we will see drier weather this morning on News Center 7 Daybreak from 4:25 a.m. until 7 a.m. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Showers will arrive this morning across parts of the area with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. Photo from: Nick Dunn/Staff Dunn says the steadiest rain will likely be before lunchtime. Some redevelopment of isolated showers or even a thunderstorm is possible this afternoon into the evening, but no severe weather is expected, he stated. Photo from: Nick Dunn/Staff Dunn added that some elevated wildfire smoke from Canada will move into the area later this evening. This may spark some colorful sunsets depending on the timing of when it arrives. No major surface impacts are expected locally, he said. It will dry out this weekend with warmer temperatures expected next week. Storm Center 7 will continue to update this story. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] TOPEKA (KSNT) A Satanic organization is planning additional protests at the Kansas Statehouse after an earlier Black Mass ceremony turned violent and ended in several arrests. Michael Stewart, president of the Satanic Grotto, said his organization has plans to hold more protests in Topeka in the coming days. Stewart and other participants were arrested during a controversial Black Mass ceremony inside the Kansas Statehouse in March this year, but that isnt deterring Stewart from returning to the home of the states Legislature. Stewart told Rebekah Chung with 27 News Capitol Bureau that he is planning to hold other events at the Statehouse soon. One of these includes a Witching Hour Protest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yes, thats what were working on, Steward said. Were gonna send in a permit here pretty soon for what I like to call the Witching Hour Protest. Well be showing up here at midnight and we will be inviting not just Satanists but pagans, wiccans. Former Kickapoo leader pleads guilty to child pornography crime Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay told 27 News earlier this week his office has yet to make a decision on whether or not charges will be filed in connection to the Black Mass event on March 28. Four people, including Stewart, were arrested as Stewart tried to hold the ceremony inside the Statehouse building. The Black Mass sparked controversy in the days leading up to it, especially among Catholic and Christian organizations. Members of the Kansas Legislature and Governor Laura Kelly issued statements as the Black Mass approached with many legislators condemning it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The goal behind this new one [Witching Hour Protest] I think is to start getting solidarity between these fringe religions and groups here in Kansas that might feel isolated and feel like they dont have any power on their own, Stewart said. What new Kansas laws go into effect on July 1, 2025? For more Capitol Bureau 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 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KSNT 27 News. Did you know Oklahomans can soon forage for morel mushrooms on state property? Or that hospitals will face lawsuits for violating price transparency laws? While much of the news from Oklahoma's Capitol in recent weeks has focused on taxes and the state budget, an impressive number of other policy bills reached the final stage: The desk of Gov. Kevin Stitt. The governor decided this year to avoid personally taking action on bills he doesn't think are priorities. As of Wednesday, May 28, Stitt has allowed 234 bills to go into law without his signature. Last year it was just 19 bills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Out of the hundreds of new laws that will go into effect in 2025, here are five that you might not have heard about yet. 1. Oklahoma opens public land to morel mushroom hunting Although Senate Bill 447 allows foraging for any edible plant or nut, Oklahomans might be especially interested to know that they can also soon start hunting for morel mushrooms on certain state-owned land. Finding and picking morels, considered a tasty but expensive variety of mushroom, has become a popular springtime activity. Starting Nov. 1 when the law officially goes into effect, sharp-eyed Oklahomans can expand their search to state-owned or state-managed property that is accessible to the public. Stitt chose not to sign the bill, but it still became a law because he didn't veto it before it took effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Along with fungi, the bill also authorizes foraging for nuts and edible plants, like berries. Don't expect restaurant chefs to be traipsing through state parks looking for them, however. The law clearly states that the foraging must only be done for personal consumption. Foragers are encouraged to wear hunter safety vests. Foraging will be prohibited in university research crops, from plants that are threatened or endangered, along roads and highways, in areas owned by law enforcement or used for their training, and near correctional facilities and jails. 2. Poorly written record requests can be denied In an attempt by its authors to streamline Oklahoma's open records process, authorities will be allowed to deny records requests that aren't "reasonably specific." The new law found in Senate Bill 535 codifies the right of public bodies to require people fill out a form if they're seeking government records. It also says that "if a records request does not describe the requested records with reasonable specificity," the public body can ask the requestor to clarify. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It will become law, although without the governor's signature, on Nov. 1. The law says these three things meet the definition of reasonable specificity: Proposing a specific time frame for when records would have been created or transmitted Requesting identifiable records, instead of asking for general information without specifics, and Including search terms that will help the public body find those records If the requestor again fails to clarify, the public body can then deny the request. The bill's author, state Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, said it was a product of negotiations between the Oklahoma Municipal League and the Oklahoma Press Association. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Daniels faced questions on the Senate floor about a provision in the bill that allows public bodies to ask for a deposit on records requests that will generate a cost to the requestor. Under existing Oklahoma law, governments can charge a copying fee of 25 cents per page. They can also charge a "reasonable fee" to cover the direct costs of searching and copying records if the request is made solely for a commercial purpose or if responding to the request would "clearly cause excessive disruption of the essential functions of the public body." Her bill lets governments require an advance deposit when the estimated cost of producing those records exceeds $75, or if the requestor has unpaid fees from previous requests. Oklahoma City Democratic Sen. Regina Goodwin questioned the lack of protections in the bill that would guarantee that a requestor who pays the deposit gets the records they asked for. However, state law already requires public bodies to be responsive to requests, and Daniels said the records request form authorized in her bill would help clarify what records are wanted. 3. Hospitals now face major penalty for price transparency violations While both federal and state law require hospitals to post their prices online, patient advocates say that most Oklahoma hospitals aren't fully complying. Senate Bill 889 adds sharp teeth to require hospitals follow the state law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In their latest annual report, PatientRightsAdvocate.org said it found that 37 out of 42 Oklahoma hospitals complied with price transparency laws. More: 2024 analysis finds Oklahoma hospitals not transparent enough when it comes to prices Starting Nov. 1 (a common date for new laws), anyone facing facing medical debt collection who believes a hospital is not in compliance with the state transparency law can sue to have a court determine whether that's the case. If so, the hospital will be barred from collecting any debt owed for the items or services. The hospital will also have to refund any payments and also pay a penalty equal to the amount of total debt. Senate Bill 889 also allows the State Department of Health to monitor each hospitals compliance request a corrective action plan. Hospitals that ignore the request or fail to follow their own corrective action plan can be penalized administratively by the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opponents of the bill expressed concern that rural hospitals who get caught up in a lawsuit would face yet another financial threat to their survival. Stitt signed the bill into law. 4. New harsh punishment for superintendents who don't report abuse Oklahoma law currently requires anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect to report it to authorities or face a misdemeanor charge, up to a year in county jail and a $500 fine. House Bill 2798, which after the governor's signature officially becomes law in November, increases the penalty to a felony if that person is a school administrator or superintendent. The new law requires superintendents and school administrators in both public and private schools to promptly report child abuse and neglect. If they knowingly and willfully fail to report, or if they interfere with another person's report, they could face between two and 10 years in state prison, a fine of at least $20,000, or both. They would also have to complete a term of community service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "School administrator" includes principals and anyone who performs a supervisory or administrative role in a school district. 5. Appliance rebate crackdown favors natural gas In the last week of session, Stitt signed a bill that could stop regulated electric utilities from offering incentives for customers to switch from natural gas. The incentives typically come in the form of appliance rebates, which help customers offset or eliminate the cost of compatible machines. Senate Bill 335 specifically bans the use of ratepayer-funded incentives and goes into effect July 1. During discussion on the House and Senate floors, opposition lawmakers criticized the bill as a protectionist measure to support the natural gas industry, especially because natural gas companies would still be able to utilize ratepayer income to incentivize switching. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Here's 5 new Oklahoma laws, from mushroom hunting to hospital prices (NEXSTAR) The 97th Scripps National Spelling Bee took place this past week, showcasing the orthographical talents of the best and brightest youngsters in the nation. And unlike us, none of them were using Google to doublecheck their spelling. In honor of this years Bee, WordUnscrambler.pro an online resource for wordsmiths and Scrabble enthusiasts has attempted to determine the most misspelled word in each state by studying the volume of Google searches containing phrases like How do you spell [X] or How to spell [X]. The sites analysts also enlisted the help of Ahrefs, a marketing and SEO company, to determine the volume of searches and the variations of possible spelling queries for the analysis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The results, according to WordUnscrambler.pro, are indicative of Americas most misspelled words. Spelling bee champ wins by visualizing words typed on keyboard A representative for the site said many of the commonly misspelled words shared similar attributes, such as silent letters, tricky vowel sounds, or foreign etymologies. Having autocorrect on our phones and computers may also be contributing to poorer spelling ability, the spokesperson noted. We simply forget things that we delegate to technology, the spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement obtained by Nexstar. Misspellings might be on the rise not because we know less, but because we need to know less. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Which words do Americans often misspell? On a national level, the results of the analysis determined that Americans misspell the word definitely more than any other, with 33,500 searches for the words correct spelling recorded from January 1 through May 16, 2025. Separate and necessary followed behind with 30,000 searches and 29,000 searches respectively. Americas most misspelled words, according to WordUnscrambler.pro Definitely 33,500 searches. Separate 30,000 searches. Necessary 29,000 searches. Believe 28,500 searches. Through 28,000 searches. Gorgeous 27,000 searches. Neighbor 25,500 searches. Business 24,200 searches. Favorite 23,000 searches. Restaurant 22,500 searches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When it comes to individual states, many of those same words appear to be most difficult for residents to spell. Some of the notable outliers include: residents of Hawaii, who often appear to have trouble with luau; residents of Tennessee, who arent so sure how to spell broccoli; and Google users in Vermont, who more often request the correct spelling of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Americas most misspelled words by state, according to WordUnscrambler.pro: Alabama Different Alaska Tomorrow Arizona People Arkansas Quesadilla California Appreciation Colorado Sergeant Connecticut Schedule Delaware Beautiful Florida Compliment Georgia Necessary Hawaii Luau Idaho Definitely Illinois Congratulations Indiana Taught Iowa Through Kansas Different Kentucky People Louisiana Through Maine Pneumonia Maryland Character Massachusetts Beautiful Michigan Scratch Minnesota Successful Mississippi Beautiful Missouri Temperature Montana Appreciate Nebraska Beautiful Nevada School New Hampshire Protective New Jersey Congratulations New Mexico Appreciate New York Different North Carolina Secret North Dakota Daughter Ohio Crochet Oklahoma Patience Oregon Business Pennsylvania Scissors Rhode Island Cancelled South Carolina People South Dakota Beautiful Tennessee Broccoli Texas Protect Utah Definitely Vermont Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Virginia People Washington Appreciation West Virginia Beautiful Wisconsin Different Wyoming Beautiful Scripps spelling bee celebrates a century of testing young learners Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The results of the analysis were released just in time for the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which itself came just in time to make Americans everywhere feel slightly worse about their own spelling abilities. Faizan Zaki, 13, a student from Allen, Texas, won the competition after correctly spelling the word eclaircissement, which Merriam-Webster defines as a clearing up of something obscure. He then fell to the floor as confetti rained down upon the stage. One thing that differentiates him is he really has a passion for this, a friend of his told the Associated Press. In his free time, when hes not studying for the bee, hes literally looking up archaic, obsolete words that have no chance of being asked. 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. JERUSALEM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday warned Hamas to accept the Gaza ceasefire deal proposed by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, "or be destroyed." Witkoff's proposal includes the release of 10 living Israeli hostages and 18 bodies in two phases in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza as well as the release by Israel of 1,236 Palestinian detainees and prisoners, along with the bodies of 180 Palestinians, according to media reports. In a statement issued by his office, Katz said the Israeli military continued its operations in Gaza with full force, carrying out attacks by air, land, and sea on an unprecedented scale "for maximum protection of our soldiers in preparation for the entry of the maneuvering forces in each area." In a statement issued on Friday, the Israeli military said that since Thursday, its air force, alongside ground forces, had struck dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip, which "eliminated terrorists, dismantled weapons, terrorist infrastructure, and underground infrastructure sites." It added that during the military operations, two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at Israeli troops, lightly wounding three soldiers. Of the 251 hostages seized during the October 2023 Hamas attack, 57 remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military. HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) A missing 4-year-old girl and her mother, who were the focus of an intense search by authorities and the community, have been safely located in Charlotte. The Huntersville Police Department confirmed on Friday that Lila Willis and her biological mother, Jennifer Glackin, were found safe and are no longer considered missing. Lila Willis, via HPD Jennifer Glackin, via HPD Were thankful to report that Lila Willis and Jennifer Glackin have been safely located, in Charlotte, the department said. The Huntersville Police Department appreciates the communitys swift response, shares, and support. Your help made a difference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lila Willis had been reported missing early Friday morning, with police believing she was taken by Glackin, 39, who currently has active warrants with the department. The pair was last seen near Gilead Road and Commerce Center Drive, potentially traveling in a Honda Civic with North Carolina license plate KMN-7030. Photo of vehicle: Huntersville Police Department Local agencies, including the Huntersville Fire Department and town government, joined police in a coordinated effort to locate the child. The investigation remains ongoing, and no additional details have been released at this time. 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. LONDON (AP) The mother of a pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Egypt is seriously ill in a London hospital after resuming a hunger strike aimed at pressing for her sons release, her family said Friday. Laila Soueif was admitted to St Thomass Hospital on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels. A couple of hours ago I thought we were going to lose her, her daughter, Sanaa Souief, said outside the hospital. The bottom line is, were losing her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added: (Prime Minister) Keir Starmer needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday, but right now. Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike since Sep. 29 to protest the imprisonment of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a British-Egyptian dual national who has been in prison in Egypt since September 2019. He was sentenced in December 2021 to five years in prison for spreading false news and should have been released last year, but Egyptian authorities refused to count the more than two years he had spent in pre-trial detention and ordered him held until January 2027. Laila Souief spent weeks camped outside Britains Foreign Office and the prime ministers Downing Street office to highlight her sons case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was previously admitted to hospital in February, with doctors warning she was at high risk of sudden death. She agreed in early March to move to a partial hunger strike after Starmer pledged to press Egypt to release her son. She resumed her full hunger strike on May 20, saying: Nothing has changed, nothing is happening. The family says Souief has lost 42% of her bodyweight during the 242-day hunger strike. They say she has received glucagon treatment, which induces the liver to break down stored fat to obtain glucose, but continues to refuse glucose, which would provide her with calories. Abdel-Fattah has been on his own hunger strike for 90 days following his mothers admission to hospital in February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thousands of critics of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi have been locked up under dire conditions after unjust trials, human rights groups say. The British government said that Starmer raised Abdel-Fattahs case in a call with the Egyptian president last week, and Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer discussed it with Egypts Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday. We are concerned to hear of Lailas hospitalization. We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare," the Foreign Office said in a statement. We are committed to securing Alaa Abdel-Fattahs release and continue to press for this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government. KANSAS CITY, Mo. A motorcyclist who police say refused to pull over for a traffic stop ended up crashing near E. 12th Street Friday in Kansas City, Missouri. Around 8:30 a.m., KCPD said an officer tried to stop a motorcycle for speeding near Independence Avenue and Garfield Avenue. Police said the motorcyclist refused to stop, and the officer didnt attempt to chase them. City of Leavenworth files new lawsuit against CoreCivic after judge throws out previous suit Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the motorcycle was speeding along E. 12th Street near Van Brunt Boulevard when it ran off the road onto the sidewalk before crashing into a wooden electrical pole. The motorcyclist was thrown from the motorcycle after crashing, according to police. KCPD said the motorcyclist was hospitalized with critical injuries, but their condition has stabilized. The investigation is 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) A motorcyclist was seriously injured in an early morning crash involving a Manatee County Sheriffs deputy, authorities said. The crash happened just after 6 a.m. on Thursday, May 29, in the 3600 block of 44th Avenue East in Bradenton, according to the Manatee County Sheriffs Office. Traveler caught on video attacking TSA agent at Florida airport The sheriffs office said the deputy was on duty at the time, but did not provide any further details on the circumstances surrounding the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The motorcyclist remained hospitalized Thursday. Deputies said their investigation into the crash was ongoing. 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. 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. MOUNT GILEAD, Ohio (WCMH) The community gathered for a candlelight vigil Thursday to honor 31-year-old Morrow County Deputy Daniel Sherrer, who was shot and killed on Memorial Day. He died after responding to a domestic disturbance call where he found himself alone confronting an armed man. This has really hit the community really hard, attendee Cathy Brake said. There were lots of tears, hugs, silence and prayers Thursday as people remembered Sherrer. Ive lived in Morrow County my whole life and just to hear about this incident thats happened, its breathtaking and its really heartbreaking to the community, resident Jennifer Fisher said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside of the growing memorial for Sherrer at the Morrow County Sheriffs Office, hundreds gathered for the candlelight vigil. Just a really deep, deep emotion of just thinking about his family and all of the officers that work here in Morrow County, Brake said. The tight-knit community has been shaken to its core by Sherrers death. Very, very sad thing especially for a small community like this and it almost made me tear up to see the community come together and support in a time like this, said resident Hayden Styer. What we know about the conditions of the Mifflin Township officers who were shot Sherrer was a 2012 graduate of St. Charles Preparatory Academy in Bexley and studied at Bowling Green State University and Columbus State University. He spent his law enforcement career at the Morrow County Sheriffs Office since he was hired in May of 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Especially with how young he was in the department, only four years on, he had so much more to give, attendee Abby Pence said. And from what Ive read and heard it sounded like he was one of those good cops. 31-year-old Sherrer was engaged to be married and is survived by his parents and other relatives. Just knowing that hes never going to have children, grandchildren, its just sickening, Brake said. Those at the vigil said in times like this there are often more questions than answers. Many are still struggling to make sense of Sherrers death. Now, theyre trying to find hope. Just seeing the community come together for this blue line family, its definitely really meaningful to see how much support they actually have, said Abby Pence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its very heartwarming and it just shows the tightness of the community and the caring people that we have here, Brake said. According to Morrow County Sheriff John Hinton and loved ones, Sherrer always had a smile on his face and loved the community he served. According to his obituary, Sherrer was an organ donor, choosing to help others after his death. Funeral arrangements have been finalized for Sherrer. According to Snyder Funeral Homes, visitation will be held from 1 to 7 p.m. on June 3 at Northmor High School in Galion. The school is located at 7819 State Route 19. Services to honor and celebrate Sherrers life will take place at the school on June 4 at 11 a.m. Private graveside services will be held at Marion Cemetery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More details about Sherrers funeral can be read here. A donation fund has been set up for his family. Donations can be mailed in or dropped off at Morrow County Federal Credit Union located at 800 West Marion Rd. in Mount Gilead. Checks should be made payable to Daniel Sherrer, In Memory of. 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. FORT DRUM, N.Y. (WWTI) Fort Drum soldiers and their families found a wealth of information and networking opportunities earlier this week inside The Peak during the Mountain Meet-Up resource fair. The fair, which took place on Thursday, was hosted by the Relocation Readiness Program. There were representatives from dozens of community agencies and organizations in attendance, the fair covered health care, education, recreation, volunteering and family support services. Fort Drum museum makes military history accessible, relevant to soldiers, community The idea behind Mountain Meet-Up is to bring together on- and off-post organizations that can help our Soldiers and families build their community connections. Theres a lot of things here that they can get involved with or receive assistance with whether they are new to the area or maybe retiring soon or transitioning out of the Army. Kelly Bice, event organizer Bice added having organizations such as North Country Spouses Club, the YMCA, Jefferson Community College, and the Family Advocacy Program at the resource fair demonstrates the depth and breadth of opportunities available for people to thrive in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leon Donelson, with the Fort Drum Employment Readiness Program, held captive audiences at his booth, sharing stories with soldiers while getting to know them. He said it was important, especially when talking to people new to the area or to the military, to give them the kind of information that will help them make positive, informed decisions. Were talking about their lives and were talking about their careers, because employment readiness is about being ready all of the time, Donelson said. If people are comfortable enough to have a conversation, then theyll start talking about the things they might not normally tell the general public. And thats when I can see how we can help. With Northern New York famous for its outdoor recreational activities, organizations such as the Minna Anthony Common Nature Center, Adirondack Mountain Club, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation, and the 10th Mountain Alpine Club had plenty of suggestions for off-duty excursions. I found some nice places and things to do that are outdoors, said Spc. Ryan Gonzalez, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, First Brigade Combat Team. Being new to the area, I heard the hiking here is great. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Community members can stay apprised of local events and activities at the Community Information Exchange, held at 10 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month. It is livestreamed at www.facebook.com/drum.10thmountain/ but people attending it inside The Peak have the added benefit of a mini-resource fair available before and after the meeting. The Relocation Readiness Program also hosts a Spouse Connection event at 9 a.m., before the CIE, and at 6 p.m., at the Family Resource Center. The family-friendly event is an opportunity for spouses to meet and mingle while receiving information relevant to military life. For more information, call (315) 772-6556. 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 WWTI - InformNNY.com. MIDLAND, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- One person has been arrested after a crash Thursday night that left a Midland Police Department officer seriously injured. According to a City spokesperson, around 10:45 pm on May 29, the MPD responded to a crash with serious bodily injuries in the 2400 block of W Wall Street and learned that another officer, whose marked patrol unit had been parked in the roadway with its emergency light activated, had been struck by another vehicle while he assisted with a minor crash. MPD said the officer was standing near the rear of his vehicle when a Ford F-250, operated by 24-year-old Cody Justin Garcia, of Lyford, Texas, crossed multiple lanes of traffic and struck both the officer and his patrol unit. The police officer, whose name was not released, was taken to Midland Memorial Hospital with serious injuries. Garcia was also taken to the hospital for treatment for injuries he sustained in the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MPD reported Garcia faces the following charges: intoxication assault causing serious bodily injuries to a peace officer, possession of a controlled substance and unlawfully carrying a weapon. The investigation into the incident is 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 Yourbasin. Citing low enrollment and budgetary constraints, Milwaukee Public Schools plans to stop offering a full Italian immersion program and scale-down to an Italian class beginning in the 2025-26 school year. The Italian immersion program currently has 24 students enrolled in the two-teacher K4 through fifth-grade program, MPS Deputy Superintendent Eduardo Galvan said during a May 29 School Board meeting. The district plans to offer an Italian language class within Victory K8 School, where the immersion program has been housed since it opened in 2006. According to Victory K8's website, the immersion program is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Christina and Michael Balistreri wrote an op-ed published May 27 on JSOnline.com urging the School Board to maintain the program "envisioned" by their father, Tom Balistreri, a former MPS school board member and principal of Rufus King International High School. "Unfortunately, MPS administration decided to dissolve the Italian Immersion Program with little communication with the community group they were collaborating with for nearly two years. After this decision, a letter was sent to parents informing them of this devastating change, leaving many feeling blindsided and confused," the op-ed reads. Christina and Michael Balistreri said MPS' proposal "strips the program of the immense benefits of full immersion" by offering a language class alone rather than all classes taught in Italian. During the May 29 meeting, Galvan said the district is "carefully evaluating how to best sustain and grow the Italian language and culture offerings." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We must grow this program in order to preserve it for years to come. Specifically, we are looking to ensure that the Italian language is offered to all K-8 students at Victory," he said. Ten people spoke during a public hearing on the topic at the meeting; all opposed ending Italian immersion in MPS. The School Board took no action during that meeting but the district later confirmed its plans for the immersion program are contingent upon a future vote by the board. During the May 29 meeting, several speakers said MPS could grow enrollment by moving the program to a more central location in the city. Within Victory K8 school, the immersion program is at 2222 W. Henry Ave., on the far south side of the city near Greendale. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Let the Italian immersion school reboot somewhere new, centrally located. Victory was not the ideal for growth, and it was never, ever meant to be a permanent home," said Gina Jorgensen, an MPS educator and parent of a child who attended the school. Jorgensen petitioned the board to hold the public hearing, and for the School Board to have the final say in the future of the immersion program. "We have asked many times, for a decade, for this school to be moved. And here we are now today," Jorgensen said. Among the speakers at the meeting was Sandy Winard, president of the Italian Community Center of Milwaukee and the executive director of Festa Italiana. She described the east side, Brady Street and Third Ward areas of Milwaukee as among "the most vibrant building block areas of this city." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She also pointed out that MPS operates immersion programs in other languages: French, German and Spanish. "We would like to see our culture, our language, have the same opportunity," she said. Signs for Victory K-8 & Milwaukee Italian Immersion School at 2222 W. Henry Ave., in Milwaukee, Wisconsin are seen on May 29, 2025. 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: MPS to end full Italian immersion, switch to language class MEMPHIS, Tenn. A Mexican citizen who had been charged with a child sex crime in Mississippi has now been indicted for illegally re-entering the country, according to the U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Mississippi. Filiberto Gonzalez-Tovar, 34, from Ecru, Mississippi was charged with two counts of rape. In August 2024, he was arrested by the Pontotoc County Sheriffs Office after an investigation into a report of a sexual assault of a minor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a release, the Department of Homeland Security determined that Gonzalez-Tovar was deported in 2017, and DHSs investigation led to an indictment for illegal re-entry after his deportation. 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. TEHRAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Austria's charge d'affaires in Tehran on Friday to protest "misleading and baseless" claims in an Austrian intelligence report about its nuclear program. Senior Iranian diplomat Alireza Molaqadimi met with Michaela Pacher to convey Iran's objection to the report issued by Austria's Directorate of State Protection and Intelligence Service, according to a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The Austrian report, published on Monday, alleged that Iran was continuing to pursue "an active nuclear weapons programme" aimed at bolstering its regional influence and deterring external threats. Molaqadimi rejected the accusations, saying they contradicted assessments by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and reiterated that Iran's nuclear activities were in full compliance with its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), according to the statement. He described the Austrian agency's assessment as "irresponsible and provocative," and called on Vienna to provide an official explanation. "The move casts unwarranted doubt on the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme," the ministry said. Pacher assured Iranian officials that she would convey Tehran's protest to her government, according to the Iranian statement. Earlier on Friday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, also dismissed the Austrian report as "fake and baseless," accusing Vienna of participating in a media campaign against Iran. The report comes amid ongoing indirect talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme and the lifting of U.S. sanctions, with five rounds of negotiations held since April under Omani mediation -- three in Muscat and two in Rome. A New York man filed a lawsuit Friday against the Diocese of Orlando alleging he was molested by a priest while a student at a Catholic school in Brevard County the same priest who was killed last year by his childhood friend. The lawsuit seeks not less than $25 million in damages from the diocese for alleged negligence arising from the sexual abuse of a child by Father Robert Bob Hoeffner, 76, who was shot to death Jan. 28, 2024, in his Palm Bay home. Hoeffner had spent 25 years in Orlando parishes, including a stint as a teacher at Bishop Moore Catholic High School, before taking a post in Brevard. He retired in 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit claims the diocese was warned of Hoeffners inappropriate behavior with young boys but took no action a charge the diocese denies. Palm Bay police said Brandon Kapas, 24, killed Hoeffner, Sally Joan Hoeffner, 69, the priests housemate and sister, and Kapas grandfather, William Michael Kapas, 78, who was fatally shot at a separate residence. Kapas also wounded two Palm Bay police officers before they shot and killed him. Police said at the time they had not been able to identify any motive or relationship between Kapas and the priest. But a 76-page investigative police report now shows Kapas aunt, with whom hed been living, told investigators the priest had bought Kapas a Nissan Sentra and shared a bank account with him. The two also had a weird relationship, according to Hoeffners surviving sister, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the murders, the aunt told police she suspected Hoeffner had sexually abused her nephew, though the young man never told her that, the report shows. The aunt and her husband described the relationship between Kapas as Hoeffner as unhealthy. The lawsuit, filed by the Herman Law firm in Boca Raton, alleges Hoeffner abused Shawn Teuber, who now lives in New York but as a child attended St. Joseph Catholic School in Palm Bay. The lawsuit claims Hoeffner was a prolific sex abuser of children, particularly young boys, he encountered in his duties for the church. It suggests he abused Brandon Kapas but doesnt make that claim definitively. Teuber, 26, called Palm Bay police after the shootings to tell officers Hoeffner had molested him when he was a boy. He told police he went to Catholic school with Kapas but did not know for sure if Kapas or other children also had been abused. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a press conference in Orlando on Friday, Teuber said he still has sleep problems and mood swings because of the abuse. He feels anxiety whenever he walks by a church and does not consider himself a person of faith anymore. He hopes his lawsuit and public discussion of his case will help others abused as children. I want to be the voice that youre not alone, and that Im here and I believe you, he said. Teuber said he was shocked by the Hoeffners killings. Kapas was not a violent person, and he had the most warm heart, Teuber said. He would basically give you his last dollar in his pocket to help other peopleI almost didnt want to believe it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jennifer Drow, a diocese spokesperson, said in an email Friday the Diocese of Orlando was not made aware of any allegations of abuse during Fr. Robert Hoeffners pastoral leadership, nor after he retired in 2016. We continue to pray for the Palm Bay and St. Joseph communities and all involved. At the conference, attorney Jeff Herman said the abuse began after Hoeffner started asking Teuber about sexual issues during confessions. Teuber said the priest would use some of what he confided in him, including from confessions, but didnt explain how. The alleged sexual abuse took place from 2012 when Teuber was in seventh grade through 2014 and occurred on multiple occasions and in different locations, including in the school counselors office, at the priests Palm Bay home and in the priests car. Shootings in Brevard take life of retired Catholic priest who worked in Orlando Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the lawsuit, the Teuber frequently spent time in 2013 and 2014 with Kapas at the priests home. There, Father Bob sexually abused plaintiff in his bedroom on multiple occasions. Often, following these abuse incidents, the priests sister Sally was waiting outside the bedroom with B.K., who would then enter the bedroom with Father Bob while the plaintiff waited outside with Sally. B.K. is a reference to Brandon Kapas, Herman said Friday. Another student told a school counselor he was concerned about what Hoeffner would do to Teuber and Kapas when he would take them into classrooms alone but no action was taken, Herman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He wants the diocese to release Hoeffners internal file and hopes to obtain it as a result of discovery in the lawsuit. The church and the school were expressly warned that he was doing something inappropriate with Shawn and another boy, he said. But Teubers family was never alerted nor was anyone else. The parishioners, the students and their families were never warned, he added. It was covered up, and those poor boys were served up to this alleged predator, Herman said. Hoeffner, ordained in 1973, had moved from service in Orlando in 1998 to Palm Bay, becoming pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church. Both the parish and an affiliated Catholic school are named as co-defendants in the 12-page lawsuit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The diocese said he moved to Palm Bay to be closer to his parents, who were in poor health. According to the investigative report, neighbors recalled seeing a male matching Kapas description at the Hoeffners home on a number of occasions, but it appeared to always be friendly interactions. On the day the Hoeffners bodies were discovered, police said they found no evidence of forced entry at the home and nothing appeared to have been rummaged through. Officers found in what appeared to be Hoeffners office 46 pages of hand written notes consisting of stories of child sexual abuse, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kapas aunt told police Hoeffner had been terminated from St. Josephs and was no longer allowed on the property. Herman said his law firm had heard that, too. We have spoken to people who tell us that he was forced to retire because of some concerns that had come forward, he said. In fact, at one point Father Bob returned to the church and he was escorted off the property, he added. Why didnt the Bishop talk about that last year? Drow, the diocese spokeswoman, did not respond to an emailed question about whether Hoeffner had been forced to leave his position at the church. At the time of his death, diocese officials said he had retired and described him as a humble and sometimes funny man who spent decades serving his church. Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the lawsuit claimed the priest had abused his killer. It suggests that happened but doesnt say so definitively. Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk appeared in the Oval Office on Friday with a black eye, which he said was the result of his young son punching him in the face while they were horsing around. Musk appeared alongside President Trump to mark his departure as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Tesla CEO had a noticeable bruise on the corner of his right eye. He wore a black DOGE hat and all-black outfit while standing next to Trump, who sat at the Resolute Desk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Hills Brett Samuels asked Musk what happened to his eye, and Musk responded that it was caused by his young son, X. I was just horsing around with little X and I said, Go ahead, punch me in the face. And he did. Turns out even a 5-year-old punching you in the face actually is , Musk said. Trump replied, That was X that did that? X could do it. If you knew X, he could do it. Musk then said X is currently with his mother. The young child made an appearance in the Oval Office in February and has also accompanied the president to Marine One. But, I didnt really feel much at the time, and then I guess it bruises up. But I was just horsing around with the kid, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I didnt notice, actually, Trump said. Musk earlier had acknowledged the black eye, telling reporters, Ive got a little shiner here and pointing to his right eye while laughing. His comment was prompted by a question to Trump about French President Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on a video apparently being hit in the face by his wife, first lady Brigitte Macron. The French president said they were joking around, The New York Times reported. Trump said he spoke to Macron after the incident and that the first couple of France is fine. Hes fine, theyre fine, Trump said. I dont know what that was all about, but I know him very well, and theyre fine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump and Musk also fielded several questions from reporters during the Oval Office press conference, including about New York Times reporting on Musks alleged drug use. Musk brushed off the question and bashed the outlet. 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. When Elon Musk last appeared with President Donald Trump to take questions from reporters, he was on top of the world. A month into Trumps second term, Musks Department of Government Efficiency was ripping through Washington in a largely unchecked mission to root out waste, fraud and abuse and hobble the bureaucracy. Musk was the governments chainsaw-wielding tech support, and Trump and his Cabinet appeared to adore him for it. When Musk returned to the Oval on Friday, wrapping his time as a special government employee, the political, reputational and personal fortunes of the worlds richest man had changed dramatically. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for nearly an hour, he once again played favored son, accepting praise from the president, jousting with the media and touting his achievements. His criticisms of Trumps big beautiful bill didnt come up either by Trump or the selected reporters in the room. Teslas decrying of the legislation for gutting clean energy tax cuts was overlooked. Congress unwillingness to codify many of his most significant cuts was unmentioned. Elon has worked tirelessly to lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations, Trump said of Musk. Trump presented Musk with a golden key, which the president said he reserves for very special people. Elons really not leaving, the president added. Hes gonna be back and forth I think, I have a feeling, [DOGE is] his baby. After four months in Washington, Musks baby has slashed just a fraction of the federal spending he once projected, and the courts have stymied many of the attempted workforce reductions. Musk has clashed, publicly and privately, with Cabinet secretaries and other top Trump advisers. And as Democrats centered the billionaire in their messaging, his favorability plummeted, and Republicans feared he had become a liability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk began to fade from view. Then, on Tuesday, CBS News aired a clip of Musk criticizing Trumps big, beautiful bill, saying he was disappointed that Trumps landmark legislation for which the president personally muscledGOP defectors into submission to pass the House would undermine DOGEs spending cuts. It marked a stunning criticism by a senior aide on a bill central to the presidents agenda. On Wednesday, Musk confirmed that his time as a special government employee was coming to a close. And on Friday morning, The New York Times alleged Musk had used illicit drugs at the same time he was campaigning and working with Trump. None of that came up in the Oval, where Musk donning a black DOGE hat and DOGE Father shirt stood silently for much of the press conference. Asked about the Times report, the billionaire retorted that a judge on Thursday had found that a defamation suit filed by Trump against the paper could proceed. That New York Times? Musk asked. Let's move on. Trump and Musk emphasized that DOGE would continue to search for waste, fraud and abuse and that almost all members of the DOGE team will stay on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk, after first projecting that DOGE would save the government $2 trillion, walked that figure back to $1 trillion still a vast overestimate for the $175 billion the initiative says it has cut. Even that figure may be inflated, since DOGEs accounting has been rife with errors, according to multiple news reports. Musk on Friday said he still believed DOGE would ultimately find $1 trillion in savings. This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning, Musk said. The head of the United States Institute of Peace says its Washington, D.C. headquarters near the Lincoln Memorial was left to rot after billionaire Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency took it over in March, resulting in water damage, graffiti and, worse yet, an infestation of roaches and rats. After DOGE replaced the independent, fully government-funded nonprofits board with MAGA loyalists and fired the entire staff, Musks crew left it with a level of staffing woefully insufficient to properly protect and maintain the $500 million Moshe Safdie-designed concrete-and-glass structure, according to a May 23 affidavit filed in D.C. federal court by USIP President and CEO George Moose. Vermin were not a problem prior to March 17, 2025, when USIP was actively using and maintaining the building, Mooses affidavit states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The filing, which is part of a broader legal action by USIP in an attempt to regain full control of the organization, was first reported on Friday in the weekly Court Watch newsletter . The office, which is congressionally funded but is not part of the U.S. government, was established in 1984 by Ronald Reagan with a stated mission to advance international stability and conflict resolution. Still, shortly after he was sworn in for his second term as president, Donald Trump issued an executive order taking aim at USIP as unnecessary. George Moose (left), then the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, seen here in 1997 with French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette, was unceremoniously booted by DOGE as president of the United States Institute of Peace (AFP via Getty Images) On Friday, March 14, Moose, a career diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Benin and Senegal in West Africa, was abruptly terminated by the White House. He went back to the office on Monday and was removed from the USIP offices by police and replaced by Kenneth Jackson, a DOGE administrator, a move Moose immediately vowed to fight. Speaking to reporters outside after he was shown the door, Moose dubbed USIPs unilateral annexation an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation, saying it had been very clear that there was a desire on the part of the administration to dismantle a lot of what we call foreign assistance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 19, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the DOGE seizure of USIP was unlawful , and ordered Moose and his staff reinstated. In handing down her opinion, Howell said Trumps efforts here to take over an organization represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better. The following day, Moose became concerned after hearing from USIP employees that the buildings condition had been allowed to deteriorate, his affidavit states. With the help of his attorneys, and following Judge Howells order, Moose arranged to get back into USIP headquarters on May 21. Vermin began to run wild after Elon Musk's DOGE seized control in March of the United States Institute of Peace, its reinstated president says (Getty Images) When my team and I arrived, the only persons in the building were two security guards and a small cleaning crew, he says in the affidavit. In my experience, that level of staffing is woefully insufficient to properly protect and maintain the building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Moose told reporters that, at first glance, nothing immediately seemed amiss. We just did a quick walk-through externally, visibly, things look to be in pretty good shape, he said . I didnt see anything, any destruction, if you will, no damage that I can see that is visible. Yet, the following day, a more thorough inspection turned up myriad problems, according to Mooses affidavit. On May 22, members of my staff, including our chief of security and our contract building engineer, spent the day surveying and documenting the condition of the building, to include photographs, he stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They reported evidence of rats and roaches in the building, which he said was a first. Elon Musk is now out at DOGE, while George Moose is back in at USIP (Getty Images) Moose says in his affidavit that staff reported other deficiencies in the maintenance of the building, including the failure to maintain vehicle barriers and the cooling tower, water leaks, damage to the garage door, and missing ceiling tiles in multiple places in the building (which I have been told suggest likely water damage). In addition, the affidavit contends, I learned from my team that sometime in the past several days, before we regained control of the property and assumed control for security, someone had scrawled graffiti on one of the outside spaces. This occurred, according to the affidavit, because the building ha[d] been essentially abandoned for many weeks, during which time DOGE left USIP HQ with only a few security guards on site, with no perimeter patrols. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Mooses affidavit, he immediately resumed his duties at USIP, and reached out to staff and board members to begin working there again. It says USIP has once again assumed control of their building, has engaged a private security firm to guard the premises, and has taken over responsibility for the buildings maintenance. At the same time, Musk is leaving DOGE as his 130-day tenure as a special government employee comes to an end. Trump and DOGE have appealed Howells ruling. Moose did not respond on Friday to The Independents requests for comment, nor did the attorneys representing him and USIP in court. Messages seeking comment from Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Carilli, DOGEs lawyer in the case, and the White House, also went unanswered. Alleged drug use by tech billionaire and close President Trump ally Elon Musk on the campaign trail during the 2024 presidential election has sparked concerns, according to an explosive New York Times report published Friday morning. The article comes as Musk is exiting the Trump administration after a whirlwind several months in which he led efforts to cut down on the governments size. Musk told people he was using ketamine so often that it was impacting his bladder, along with utilizing psychedelic mushrooms and taking ecstasy, the Times reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tech executive, who was advising the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel on federal government cost-cutting measures, would travel every day with a box containing 20 pills, the Times said, citing individuals who have seen the box and the photo of it. Some of the pills were marked as Adderall. Musk has said previously that he has a prescription for ketamine. The billionaire, who heads six companies, spent well north of $250 million to help Trump get elected in November last year. One of those companies is SpaceX, an aerospace firm, that is a significant contractor with the federal government. Because of that government relationship, SpaceX has to maintain a drug-free workplace. The paper reported Musk has gotten advanced warnings of SpaceX drug tests, citing individuals close to the process. The Times reporting included interviews with dozens of individuals Musk worked with or knew, along with obtaining private messages. Musk and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment sent by the outlet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When asked on Friday if he was concerned about Musks alleged drug use, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters that the drugs that were concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border. Musk announced Wednesday that he would be departing the White House as his 130-day period as a special government employee expires. The worlds richest person criticized the House GOP budget bill, which contains Trumps legislative agenda, saying the legislation undercuts the work DOGE has done in the past four months. I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit and it undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, Musk said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump, who earlier this week shrugged off Musks criticism of the bill, said Thursday night that he will hold a press event Friday with Musk at 1:30 p.m. EDT. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House, Trump wrote on Truth Social. According to the Times, some of Musks friends have severed ties with the tech billionaire over his public behavior. Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more, Philip Low, a neuroscientist, told The Times. The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2024 that Musk has used cocaine, LSD, psychedelic mushrooms and ecstasy at private parties, prompting concerns from board members and executives at SpaceX and Tesla. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASAs request, to do 3 years of random drug testing, Musk wrote in a social media post shortly after that article was published. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. @WSJ is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird . Updated at 12:16 p.m. EDT 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. Elon Musk is exiting the White House with little to show for his cost-cutting push and a list of frustrations from his time in the Trump administration. Musk entered politics with grand ambitions of slashing federal spending and chipping away at the $36 trillion in national debt. But after months of serving Trump as a loyal supporter and close adviser, Musk has grown increasingly critical of the presidents fiscal policies as his own efforts fall short. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tech billionaire announced his departure Wednesday shortly after voicing concerns about thw sweeping tax and spending bill backed by Trump and congressional Republicans, which is expected to add trillions of dollars to the national debt. Hes running into the realities that weve been trying to cut government for decades and trying to cut spending, and its been incredibly difficult, Republican strategist Chris Johnson told The Hill. I think Musk leaving is probably due to that frustration, just the reality of running into the same problem that conservatives have been running into for 30 years, where without big, bold acts of Congress theres really limited stuff that youre going to be able to cut. And ultimately, theres just not an appetite for those kind of cuts apparently in the House right now. Trump announced Thursday night that he would hold a press conference Friday with Musk to mark the end of his official government service, tamping down on speculation of a rift between the two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House, Trump posted on Truth Social. But Musks willingness to go to bat for Trump and his alignment with the presidents agenda are in question after his tumultuous White House stint. Musk began Trumps second term with big plans to cut up to $2 trillion from the federal budget, an attempt to begin paying down a record-shattering national debt he pinned on leaders in both parties. As the head of Trumps Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel, Musk led a crusade to dramatically cut the size of the federal government and its spending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But as DOGE hit several well-worn roadblocks to serious debt reduction, the cost-cutting team claimed to identify $160 billion in potential spending cuts, some of which must be approved by Congress. A source close to the White House suggested Musk tried to make a good-faith effort but ran into the limitations of the government. Heres a guy who can put rockets on moon and somehow he ran into government, they said. Just the mechanization of government. And for him, I think, that was very confounding and difficult. Meanwhile, Congress is ramping up efforts to pass Trumps big, beautiful bill, which would extend and expand tax cuts from the presidents signature 2017 tax law, in addition to making sweeping new cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the new cuts, the bill is expected to grow the federal debt by roughly $3.8 trillion over 10 years, drawing Musks ire. I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, Musk said in a snippet of an interview with CBS Sunday Morning set to air later this week. Johnson underscored that the deficit has never been a key priority for Trump, as opposed to issues such as immigration, trade and foreign policy. Theres always the Take Trump seriously, not literally thing. I wish they had taken him a little more seriously, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This sort of America First, new right, MAGA crowd is much more comfortable with using state power and expanding the state in certain places and spending government money to do certain things, Johnson added. If Elon had taken that a little bit more seriously going in, he probably wouldnt be as frustrated and be much more levelheaded about what the likely outcomes would be and what was the art of the possible, he continued. The Trump administration and House Republicans appeared keen to appease Musk on Wednesday, indicating they would move quickly on long-promised DOGE cuts in Congress. The White House now plans to send a package clawing back $9.4 billion in funding to lawmakers next week, while Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) vowed to codify the cuts and touted Musks incredible work exposing waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Musk has indicated that rising debt levels arent his only concern with the bill. The Tesla CEO reposted a social media post from his company Tesla Energy late Wednesday, suggesting the legislation moves too quickly to phase out Biden-era low-carbon energy tax credits. The tech billionaires opposition comes at a key moment for the bill, as it faces an uncertain future in the Senate amid a growing chorus of complaints from fiscal hawks in Congress and other prominent conservative voices. This isnt the first time Musk has clashed with Trump and other conservatives during his four-month stint in the White House. Even before Trump was sworn in, Musk was sparring online with other conservatives over H-1B visas, a temporary, nonimmigrant work permit. He and other Silicon Valley leaders argued the program was key for bringing in international talent to U.S. companies, while more hard-line GOP voices alleged it was taking jobs away from Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once Trump took office, the tech billionaire still didnt hold back, publicly criticizing the presidents Stargate initiative with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, which aims to funnel $500 billion into new artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the U.S. Musk also clashed with Trumps trade adviser Peter Navarro on tariffs, a key part of the presidents economic agenda. The Tesla CEO argued for a zero-tariff situation between the U.S. and Europe, shortly after Trump levied wide-ranging reciprocal tariffs on numerous countries, including the European Union. In private, he butted heads with Trumps Cabinet, reportedly arguing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a closed-door meeting and engaging in a heated exchange with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the West Wing. However, Musk appeared eager Thursday to dispel the perception that his departure was spurred by the latest spat with Trump and Republican lawmakers, reposting several social media posts downplaying the clash and underscoring the legal limits of his role as a special government employee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk was legally required to leave his current role after 130 days. The original deadline was May 30, although the tech mogul had already pulled back from his government work in recent weeks to refocus on his companies. The DOGE teams efforts inspired intense political blowback and threats to Musks business empire. Tesla, in particular, became a symbol for the billionaire and DOGE, prompting peaceful protests and violent demonstrations. The electric vehicle firms bottom line also felt the pinch, as its liberal buyers sought to distance themselves from Musk and his company, in some cases ditching their Tesla vehicles. After Tesla reported a steep 71 percent drop in earnings last month, Musk announced he would be stepping back from DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He underscored his renewed commitment to his business empire last weekend, saying he was back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms. His comments prompted Teslas stock to jump Monday. Musk also said last week that he would pull back from political spending in the future, after pouring at least $250 million into the 2024 election to boost Trump. However, he has continued to stand by his DOGE work. He lamented in a Washington Post interview Tuesday that the cost-cutting effort had become the whipping boy for everything. He took a lot of hits personally and professionally, the source close to the White House said, adding, That was a lot of heat for anyone to take. Musk was a weapon for Trump because Musk was taking as much heat, if not more at times, than Trump. Brett Samuels contributed. 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. By Brad Heath, Jason Lange, Andy Sullivan, Grant Smith WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Elon Musk once famously wielded a chainsaw on stage in a theatrical demonstration of his effort to drastically cut U.S. federal spending under President Donald Trump. As he leaves government, official data shows he achieved something closer to a trim with scissors. In the four months since Musks Department of Government Efficiency began slashing federal spending and staffing, a handful of the agencies he has targeted trimmed their combined spending by about $19 billion compared with the same period last year, according to U.S. Treasury Department summaries reviewed by Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That is far below Musk's initial goal of $2 trillion in savings and amounts to about a half of 1% of total spending by the federal government. Musk said on Wednesday he is leaving the administration but that its cost-cutting work will "only strengthen over time." It remains to be seen, however, how enthusiastically Trump's cabinet secretaries will continue to downsize their departments. DOGE says it pulled the plug on more than 26,000 federal grants and contracts that are worth about $73 billion, while more than 260,000 government workers have been bought out, taken early retirement or been fired. But the DOGE tallies have been riddled with errors, according to reviews by numerous budget experts and media outlets, including Reuters. That has made them difficult to verify, and some of the announced cuts are not saving the government any money because judges have reversed or stalled them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That leaves the Treasury Departments daily reports on how much the government is spending as the clearest window into the scope of the administrations cost-cutting. The view they offer so far is modest: The government has spent about $250 billion more during the first months of Trumps administration than it did during the same period of time last year, a 10% increase. And even some parts of the government Trump has cut the most deeply are, for now at least, spending more money than they did last year. One big factor driving costs is largely outside Trump's immediate control: interest payments on the United States' growing pile of debt, which amount to about $1 in every $7 the federal government spends. Debt interest payments are up about 22% from a year ago. Spending on Social Security, the safety-net program for the elderly and disabled, totaled about $500 billion since Trump's inauguration, up 10% from a year earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To be sure, the view offered by the Treasury Departments daily reports is incomplete. Many of the cuts DOGE has made to the federal workforce, grants and contracting will reduce what the government will spend in the future but do not show up in its checkbook today. For example, while thousands of workers have taken buyouts, the government will continue to pay their wages until October. So far, the Labor Department has estimated there were only about 26,000 fewer people on federal payrolls in April than were on the books in January, after adjusting the figures for typical seasonal swings. Tallying savings from future cuts, however, is seldom straightforward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It could be that in the future we never replace these workers and we save billions of dollars, or it could be that they come back and its even more expensive than before, said Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale, a nonpartisan budget analysis organization at Yale University. The White House declined to offer an explanation for DOGE's figures. Spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement that DOGE is working at record speed to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, producing historic savings for the American people. Reuters estimated the administrations impact by tallying outlays at agencies that had been targeted for cuts and whose spending had dropped from the same time last year. Among the agencies hardest hit are the Department of Education, State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other independent agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rachel Snyderman, an expert on fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the spending declines at agencies could be reversed if the Trump administration doesn't get congressional approval to cancel outlays from this year's federal budget, as required by law. AN $11 BILLION EDUCATION CUT The most obvious sign that the Trump administration is making a dent in federal spending is in the Education Department, which Trump has ordered shut down. The administration cut the departments staff by about half in March. DOGEs website lists 311 Education Department grants and contracts it says it has eliminated for a savings of about $1.6 billion, though it is not clear how it arrived at those figures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some cuts have not stuck. A federal judge in March ordered the administration to restore some of the grants it had cut, and another judge this month ordered it to rehire 1,400 workers. Still, the Education Department under Trump has spent close to $11 billion less than it did over the same period last year, the Treasury reports show, far more than what DOGE says it has cut. One reason could be that layoffs have made it harder for the government to process payments for special education and low-income schools. School districts that have sued over the cuts alleged that states were already experiencing slowdowns in receiving money. Another factor for the reduced outlays: The department has stopped handing out the $4.4 billion that remains to be distributed from the hundreds of billions of dollars approved in previous years to help schools weather the COVID-19 crisis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment. OTHER AREAS DOGE HAS CUT Other agencies targeted in Trumps overhaul are also starting to show declines in their spending compared with the same time last year. Spending is down about $350 million at the CDC and about $1 billion at the National Institutes of Health. The Trump administration has moved to slash spending across those agencies, cancelling grants and ending leases for office space. The Department of Health and Human Services has reported terminating close to 2,000 grants that planned to disperse more than $20 billion. Many of the grants were to boost labs that fight new infectious diseases, or to fund state mental health programs. Some $14 billion of the grant money had already been spent prior to the termination, with roughly $7 billion effectively frozen, according to a Reuters analysis of the government's tallies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration has effectively dismantled USAID, which handled most U.S. foreign assistance, firing nearly all of the agency's employees and cancelling most of its humanitarian aid and health programs, though federal courts have forced the government to continue making some payments. USAID spending is down about 40%, to about $4.6 billion, from last year. Spending at the State Department where DOGE says it has cut nearly $1 billion in grants and contracts is also down about 20% from 2024. WHY WE CANT KNOW MORE Measuring the impact of the administration's actions is difficult because many cuts will not yield savings for months or years even as spending elsewhere increases. Spending on federal employee salaries, for example, is up by more than $3 billion under Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the grants and contracts DOGE cut were due to be paid out over several years, and many remain the subject of lawsuits that will determine whether they can be cut at all. DOGE says it has saved taxpayers $175 billion, but the details it has posted on its website, where it gives the only public accounting of those changes, add up to less than half of that figure. It says the figure includes workforce cuts, interest savings and other measures it has not itemized. It is also hard to know exactly how much the government would have spent if the administration had not started cutting. (Reporting by Brad Heath, Jason Lange and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Grant Smith in New York, Editing by Ross Colvin and Matthew Lewis) Tech billionaire Elon Musk slammed The New York Times on Friday over a detailed report that his drug use on the campaign trail sparked concerns. Fox Newss Peter Doocy asked Musk, while standing next to President Trump in the Oval Office, about the new reporting, saying it accuses you of blurring the line between Musk interrupted him and bashed the outlet, which reported that Musk told people during the campaign he was using ketamine so often that it was impacting his bladder, along with utilizing psychedelic mushrooms and taking ecstasy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Is The New York Times is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? Is that the same organization? I think it is, he said, turning to Trump. I think it is. Trump replied, it is. I think the judge just ruled against New York Times for their lines about the Russiagate hoax, and they may have to give back their Pulitzer Prize. That New York Times. Lets move on, he said, pointing to Doocy and then gesturing away. The Tesla CEO was referring to a recent ruling from a judge allowing Trumps lawsuit against the Pulitzer Board to proceed. Trump had sued the board after it refused to rescind the coveted journalism prize The New York Times and The Washington post received for coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Lawyers for the Pulitzer Board earlier this year asked the court to pause the defamation lawsuit until Trump is no longer president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no indication that The New York Timess Pulitzer Prize award has been impacted as the case makes its way through the courts. The New York Times report Friday about Musk cited photos and messages with people who knew him and noted he would travel every day with a box containing 20 pills, some of which were marked as Adderall. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller earlier Friday shrugged off a question about the report, saying, The drugs that were concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border. Friday marks Musks last day at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the president started the press conference in the Oval Office with a length recap of DOGEs accomplishments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." More than 1,800 works from five continents are showcased in the reimagined Michael C. Rockefeller Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is set to reopen on May 31 following a multiyear renovation. Among them are pieces that the late Rockefeller personally collected from Dutch New Guinea 64 years ago, when he was 23 years old. Rockefeller, the youngest son of then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, never returned from that trip to a continent 9,000 miles away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael Rockefeller disappeared on Nov. 19, 1961, after swimming away from his overturned catamaran several miles off the coast of New Guinea, seeking help for himself and an anthropologist companion. Land was visible but far awayit could have been as far as 10 miles. Rockefellers last words to that friend were I think I can make it. Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo After an intense search by multiple governments joined by thousands of people, not a trace of Rockefeller was found. On Feb. 2, 1964, a Westchester County judge declared Michael Rockefeller died by drowning while on exploration off the coast of Dutch New Guinea. That conclusion has been questioned ever since, with theories ranging from Rockefeller being eaten by sharks or crocodiles, willfully escaping from Western society to live in New Guinea, being captured and held prisoner by indigenous tribes, and being murdered and even consumed by tribes that practice headhunting and cannibalism because of a grievance against Dutch police. The questions about Rockefellers fate have not died away but seem to be growing ever-louder, fueling an army of podcast episodes, YouTube videos, documentaries, and a New York Times bestseller, Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefellers Tragic Quest, by journalist Carl Hoffman. Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo For some, the disappearance without a trace of a handsome young man with a famous last name has become a nostalgic scandal in our modern era of true crime documentaries and Internet sleuthing. In the photos that survive of Rockefeller in New Guinea, he looks as if he's mesmerized by his surroundings, lending a sense of foreboding to the images. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was routinely described as kind, gentle, hardworking, and without pretense, Hoffman wrote in Savage Harvest. However, being so young and coming from one of Americas richest families may have not equipped Rockefeller with the perception and caution needed in a place that could be dangerous. When Rockefeller traveled among New Guineas Asmat people, seeking objects to acquire for his fathers new museum of then-called primitive art near the Museum of Modern Art, he seemed unconscious of his own role in distorting the local economy and disrupting village ceremony, or of the contradictory nature of his entire enterprise. Here was the heir to one of the largest fortunes on earth plundering sacred objects for penniesthe most privileged person on earth dabbling in the world of the most marginalized, Hoffman wrote in Savage Harvest. In a recent interview, Hoffman says, The legacy of Michael Rockefeller is a conversation we can have about the collecting of indigenous art. We can use his story to talk about him and about the practices of collecting art now that we know better than in 1961. Michael Rockefeller was raised in New York City. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in history and economics. But art always called to him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael was the most purely aesthetic member of the family, according to The Rockefellers, an American Dynasty, by Peter Collier and David Horowitz. He showed enthusiasm about art from a young age, which was a tradition in the Rockefeller family. Nelson Rockefellers mother, Abby Aldrich, was the driving force behind the founding of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. On his honeymoon, Nelson collected the first object (a Sumatran knife handle in the shape of a shrunken head) in what would become the best primitive art collection in the country, according to The Rockefellers. At the age of 31, Nelson was the president of MoMA. New York Daily News - Getty Images As a child, Michael enjoyed accompanying his father on weekend art dealer visits and being around great works of art. He wanted to study architecture but was pressured to major in economics, according to books about the Rockefellers. After a six-month stint in the U.S. Army Reserve, Michael heard about an exciting opportunity: an expedition by the Film Study Center at Harvards Peabody Museum. A group of anthropologists and a film crew were planning to study tribes in the Baliem Valley in Dutch New Guinea untouched by Western culture in order to step back into the Stone Age. Michael was hired as a sound man and photographer for the film. He had a great eye for beauty and craftmanship, Hoffman says. Michael was transformed by the trip, taking many photographs and writing letters that reflected his fascination. He was particularly drawn to the Asmat tribe in the coastal area of New Guinea, writing, The Asmat is filled with a kind of tragedy. For many of the villages have reached that point where they are beginning to doubt their own culture and crave things western. Keystone - Getty Images Michael deeply wanted to understand and honor these cultures. The Asmat were famous for their elaborate woodcarvings, particularly ancestor poles (called bisj poles) and spirit masks. However, the Asmat also carried a reputation for headhunting, which was embedded in their spiritual beliefs and complex rituals of revenge against rivals. While the Dutch later assured the Rockefellers that headhunting had been eradicated in the area, many authorities agree it was still going on in the 1960s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael flew home to New York after the Peabody film was finished and he had completed his subsequent trip to see the Asmat. In the last weeks of his trip, he'd purchased a number of bisj poles and some shields. According to Hoffman's reporting, Rockefeller paid for the Asmat people's work with tobacco, axes, fishing lines, and hooks. While back in New York, his parents announced a decision to divorce, which upset all the children. Michael decided to return to New Guinea as soon as possible in order to collect the art of the Asmat. According to some sources, he was determined to turn away from a finance career and seek a graduate degree in anthropology. When Michael went to New Guinea for his second trip, he bartered for poles, canoes, drums, shields, and other carved objectshundreds of objects. Rockefeller was traveling among the Asmat communities when rough waves overturned his catamaran and, after 24 hours clinging to it, he decided to swim to shore, assuring his anthropologist friend he was a strong swimmer. Michael Rockefeller had a twin sister, Mary, who accompanied their father Nelson to fly to New Guinea after Michael was reported missing. She wrote in her book, When Grief Calls Forth the Healing: A Memoir of Losing a Twin, All the evidence, based on the strong offshore currents, the high seasonal tides, and the turbulent outgoing waters, as well as the calculations that Michael was approximately 10 miles from shore when he began to swim, supports the prevailing theory that he drowned before he was able to reach land. No conclusive evidence of another fate besides drowning has ever been introduced to a legal authority. However, following Michaels disappearance, rumors began to spread of a killing and were collected by the Dutch priests who lived among the Asmat as missionaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his book, Hoffman, who traveled to the Asmat region twice and learned the Indonesian language spoken there, investigated these persistent rumors. He uncovered some of the initial reports made to Dutch officials and, to immerse himself in the community, briefly lived in the home of a man believed to be related to a member of the group that may have killed Michael. One theory is that Michael was killed not because of personal animosity toward him but because he, as a white man, represented white authority. Five Asmat men were shot in a Dutch police altercation several years earlier. It was a struggle between the powerful and the conquered, Hoffman says. Rockefeller was caught among colliding forces, Hoffman believes. While trying to honor the Asmat, Michaels collecting reflected colonialism and the acquisition of the treasures of the conquered. Brigit Beyer It's beyond debate that Michael Rockefeller was drawn to the beauty, complexity, and mystery of the bisj poles. He wrote that the poles showed a revenge figure . Whose placement usually preceded a headhunt in former days. The figures represented people who have been headhunted and will be avenged. In the reimagined Michael C. Rockefeller wing, visitors will see those Asmat woodcarvings and soaring poles, illuminated by filtered daylight from Central Park through a custom-designed, state-of-the-art sloped glass wall. The wing's galleries are devoted to three major collections: the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania. Among the monumental statues and exquisite metalwork displayed today, objects that span five continents and hundreds of cultures, the art of the Asmat has a valued place. In 1962, when Rockefeller's collected objects were first shown in New York and people could see the bisj poles, drums, shields, and ancestor figures, the New York Times said it was "a collection that has no counterpart on this continent." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Art is not Rockefeller's only legacy. In 1965, his family created a memorial fellowship at Harvard. The fellowship enables recipients to "seek, as Michael did, a deeper understanding of our common human experience and their part in it, through the respectful exploration of a different culture." Since then, more than 200 Rockefeller Fellows have traversed the globe. Michael Rockefeller's life was cut tragically short. He left footprints that can be seen, and shared, many decades later. You Might Also Like The bill comes after two sitting House members died last year, leaving their seats vacant for five months. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom) New Jersey lawmakers are considering changes to the states special election rules after two sitting members of New Jerseys House delegation died in office last year, deaths that led each of those seats to remain vacant for five months. The legislation, which would shorten timelines for special elections to fill House vacancies, comes as another New Jersey member of Congress could step down by next January. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill are among six Democrats competing in June 10s gubernatorial primary, and if either is victorious in the primary and then in November, they would have to vacate their House seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bill sponsor Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex) said the states current rules on filling House vacancies need to be changed. I thought it was pretty important that we get rid of this so that the people of New Jersey have representation, and if they dont have it, make sure that gets filled as quickly as possible, he told the New Jersey Monitor. He added: Weve got two members of Congress running for governor, so theres a reasonable likelihood there will be another vacancy starting in January, whenever the transition occurs. Sherrills and Gottheimers Democratic rivals have criticized both of them for putting their seats in jeopardy of being vacant if they win the primary. Republicans have just a two-seat majority in the House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Senates state government committee on Thursday briefly discussed the New Jersey bill, but it did not vote on it. Though New Jersey law and the U.S. Constitution allow New Jersey governors to make interim appointments to fill empty Senate seats as when Gov. Phil Murphy appointed his former chief of staff George Helmy to fill a Senate vacancy after Bob Menendez resigned the Constitution requires House vacancies to be filled by elections, if they are filled at all. Presently, New Jersey has three separate structures for filling House vacancies, and timing determines which is used. If a seat becomes empty at least 70 days before a June primary for any office, the governor is required to order them filled at the next general election, with nominees decided during that primary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the seat becomes vacant within the 70 days preceding a primary but more than 70 days from the general election in an odd-numbered year, the governor may but is not required to call for the seat to be filled at the states next general election. In such cases, a districts county committee members choose their partys nominee. State law also allows the governor to call for special elections with both primaries and generals to fill House vacancies. Gov. Phil Murphy called for a special election last year after Rep. Donald Payne Jr.s April death. Then-Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver won the special primary in July to be the Democratic Partys nominee and won the special election in September to serve the remainder of Paynes term (she won election to a full term in November). Murphy did not call for an election in August when Rep. Bill Pascrell died. Democratic officials picked then-state Sen. Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) to replace him on the November ballot, and she was elected to a full term. Under current law, when the governor is required to call for a special election, there is no required timeline for them to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They can keep that seat vacant until the next general election, and they frankly might do that for politics if theres a razor-thin margin and its a Democratic seat, or vice-versa, bill sponsor state Sen. John McKeon (D-Essex) said Thursday. The bill would require the governor to call for a special election within 10 days of a seat becoming vacant unless there are fewer than 100 days remaining in the unexpired term. First introduced following Paynes death, the bill would require special elections including primaries to be held between 74 and 80 days after a seat becomes vacant when there are more than 180 days left before the end of the current Congress. Vacancies incurred with between 100 and 180 days left in the term would be filled by special elections held between 80 and 86 days after the seat becomes vacant. In that case, there would be no special primary, and district county committee members would select parties nominees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If a House seat becomes vacant within 100 days of the end of the congressional term, it would be filled at the next regular election. County committees would select replacements for candidates who die after theyve been placed on the ballot, as they do under current law. That timeline especially is condensed by the bill. Under current law, House vacancy races with special primaries can sit empty for more than five months. This is now practical as opposed to theoretical. We went through it with the death of Congressman Payne and then the death of Congressman Pascrell, McKeon said. We figured out what a nuisance it is, quite frankly, and a nightmare to fill those congressional seats. Zwicker said he hoped to have the bill passed before the end of Murphys term in early January. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fears about another vacancy redoubled after Rep. Donald Norcross (D-01) was hospitalized for an infection that turned septic in early April. Norcross was discharged from the hospital after roughly a month following the life-threatening episode. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX CAIRO, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Friday condemned Israel's decision to establish 22 new settlements in the West Bank. In a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the move a provocation and a flagrant violation of international law and Palestinian rights. The decision is "rejected by the international community, which aspires to peace on a just basis," said the statement. The decision constitutes a flagrant violation of international legitimacy resolutions, the statement read, adding the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people and a legitimate, irreversible international demand. It also emphasized that Israeli settlements have no legal basis and constitute a major obstacle to achieving a two-state solution and a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace. On Thursday, Israel said it will establish 22 new settlements across the occupied West Bank, in what Israeli officials described as a strategic expansion of Israeli presence in the Palestinian territory. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the Security Cabinet's approval of the plan, calling it a "historic decision" to "strengthen our grip" on the West Bank. Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has expanded settlements there ever since. Currently, more than 720,000 Israeli settlers live in heavily-guarded communities there. The UN Resolution 2334, along with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, maintains that all Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal. The international community widely considers the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where the Palestinians wish to establish their future state, an obstacle to achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. A man purchases cannabis at a legal dispensary in Elizabeth. Lawmakers are debating whether to criminalize the sale and purchase of unlicensed marijuana. (Photo by Amanda Brown for the New Jersey Monitor) Lawmakers mulled Thursday whether New Jersey should ramp up enforcement against unlicensed cannabis sellers by passing a bill that would criminalize the purchase of unlicensed marijuana. The bill riled cannabis activists who say it would bring back the criminalization of weed that New Jerseys marijuana legalization law was supposed to end. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the bill, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Union), it would be a third-degree crime to operate an unlicensed marijuana business and a disorderly persons offense to knowingly purchase from one. A person who leads an illegal marijuana business network would be charged with a second-degree crime. We have a problem where people are opening up brick-and-mortar stores, small stores, unlicensed to sell these products, and quite frankly, theyre just selling them and this state is doing nothing about it, Scutari told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. We need to do something more about those brick-and-mortar stores, but we also need to continue to fight back against drug dealers because those are alive and well. Scutari spearheaded legalizing recreational cannabis, first introducing legislation to regulate it for adult use in 2014. After bills languished in the Legislature, recreational cannabis was legalized in 2020 by voters, and Scutari was the primary sponsor of the bill to launch the legal marijuana industry. Scutari said the new legislation would be a corrective measure in response to the black and gray market that has flourished even though hundreds of cannabis dispensaries have opened statewide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recriminalization is not regulation. Its retaliation. Michael Brennan, board member of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey has some of the most expensive cannabis in the nation for both medical and recreational users. The industry has raked in over $1 billion since sales launched in April 2022. The committee did not vote on the bill, which does not yet have a companion in the Assembly. Lawmakers generally voiced support for Scutaris proposal to address the unlicensed THC products that they say undermine the regulated industry. Sen. Joe Lagana (D-Bergen) said hes seen questionable cannabis products in every single gas station I walk into, every convenience store, every corner store. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But senators also repeatedly placed blame on the Attorney Generals Office, accusing it of not enforcing the states cannabis laws. Sen. Mike Testa blasted Attorney General Matt Platkin for what he called absentee leadership. And Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said that once certain laws arent enforced, the community loses respect for government. Bramnick suggested the committee should call on Platkin to appear before them on the issue and said ignoring the law is disrespectful to this body. Platkin spokesman Michael Symons said his office is committed to enforcing the states cannabis and hemp statutes using all mechanisms allowed by state law. But the challenge presented by unregulated marijuana and hemp sales is pervasive. We look forward to continuing to work with the Legislature to address some of the issues and concerns with clarifying legislation, so that unwanted loopholes are closed and further enforcement efforts are successful, Symons said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cannabis advocates who helped usher in the recreational market criticized Scutaris bill as a dangerous reversal. One of them, attorney Bill Caruso, told committee members they need to speak to local mayors and law enforcement about the tools they need to fight against unlicensed cannabis sales. We dont need to reinvent the wheel here, and I dont think we need to go backwards in recriminalizing particularly consumers, he said. He also agreed that the attorney general needs to explain to the elected officials of this body why laws arent being enforced. Michael Brennan is a cancer survivor who takes cannabis for chronic pain and is a board member of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana. Grant called the bill deeply unethical and the opposite of what legalization set out to achieve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People with cancer or chronic pain disability could be arrested simply for accessing a plant that helps them survive, he said. Recriminalization is not regulation. Its retaliation. Scutari said hes open to changes to the bill, but establishing the crimes of selling and, in some cases, purchasing unlicensed marijuana is necessary in order to drive people to a place where they can buy it legally. We would not accept the corner store that didnt have a liquor license to sell liquor. We should not accept the corner store selling cannabis product without a license, nor should we accept people selling it out of their garage, he said. We have a legal marketplace now, and there are good reasons for it because it is safe for people to ingest that product. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Happy Friday and TGIF! We have a decent day of weather ahead, especially compared to where were heading for Saturday. Temperatures are in the 50s/60s this morning with patchy dense fog, a leftover sprinkle, and partly to mostly cloudy skies. Theres also a mild, comfy, light south breeze of about 5 to 10 mph. Well top out in the upper 60s to middle 70s this afternoon with a mix of sun, clouds, and a leftover shower or two. Overnight into Saturday morning, were building back in the clouds with lows in the mid 50s. Saturday will showcase a nasty Noreaster rolling in with a steady, soaking, and at times, heavy rain. Saturdays forecast will be a near wash from sun up to sun down, especially in Vermont and New Hampshire. Temperatures will average the upper 50s to low 60s with a brisk northeast wind. Overnight into Sunday morning, well remain under the clouds but that steady rain will taper to scattered showers with lows in the 40s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sunday will be the pick of the weekend as it will feature lesser rain chances. Its more so some scattered showers Sunday morning before gradually drying out by late in the day. Temps will top out close to 60 with a breezy northwest wind Sunday afternoon. Early next week looks much drier, brighter, and warmer with highs back in the 70s. Rainfall totals will tally up to 0.5 inch in St. Lawrence county, New York. Elsewhere in the North Country to Vermont and New Hampshire, its looking like a healthy 1 to 2 inches of rain with localized pockets of 3 inches from southern Vermont to the Northeast Kingdom and into New Hampshire. Its because of that heavier rainfall that theres a marginal risk for flash flooding in those aforementioned regions (smaller creek/streams will struggle but the main stem rivers should remain in check). Stay safe, vigilant, and weather aware friends! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Doctors for America is trying to join a Tennessee lawsuit to ensure women can get abortions when their lives or health depend on the procedure. The organization is a national collection of more than 30,000 medical professionals that advocates for policies that expand access to affordable health care. Doctors for America on May 30 asked to intervene in a lawsuit brought by a different health care group, the Catholic Medical Association, which opposes abortion access. Catholic Medical Association sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 10 looking to overturn a 2022 directive that federal law requires hospitals provide abortions if doing so is necessary to stabilize a medical crisis. Protesters gather against anti-abortion legislation on the Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville on May 21, 2019. Doctors should not be forced to choose between following the law and saving a patients life, Dr. Christine Petrin, president of Doctors for America, said in a news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doctors for America is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, the National Womens Law Center and Democracy Forward. Doctors for America explained in its May 30 filing it is intervening now because of the change in presidential administrations. "DFA cannot rely on the federal government to adequately defend (its) interests," the court filing states. More: What are abortion laws in Tennessee and where is the procedure legal? The law at question here is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a 1986 federal law often referred to as EMTALA. The law ensures the public can access emergency health care even if they cannot pay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the wake of the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022, during President Joe Biden's administration, HHS issued guidance that EMTALA requires that emergency rooms that accept Medicaid provide abortions when they are medically necessary, even if doing so violates a state law prohibiting abortion. That guidance was challenged in court and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices declined to give a ruling on it. It seems likely the current iteration of the HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will reverse the previous administration's position. In a filing in this lawsuit in April, it wrote, "New leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services is actively considering how best to respond to the Complaint ... including to evaluate whether it may be possible to resolve this case without litigation" meaning the Catholic Medical Association may get what it wants through a policy change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Catholic Medical Association has argued that the 2022 guidance ensuring access to medically necessary abortion care runs afoul of the Supreme Court precedent set in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled there is not a constitutional right to abortion. The Catholic organization said it is urging the court to "allow doctors to perform their life-giving duties without fear of government officials forcing them to violate their beliefs. More: Federal judge temporarily blocks part of TN's abortion travel ban on free speech grounds While most, if not all, state laws allow for abortions to be performed in very limited circumstances, Carrie Flaxman, senior legal advisor at Democracy Forward, said revoking EMTALA's guidance on abortion will "sow confusion for providers." Pregnant people have suffered needlessly, and some have died, because of the chaos and confusion that abortion bans have caused for patients and their doctors, Flaxman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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: Medical org asks to join TN lawsuit to advocate for abortion access DENVER (KDVR) Aquatic biologists with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said Friday that they are continuing to observe a quicker-than-anticipated increase in native fish in the recently finished Colorado River Connectivity Channel project at Windy Gap Reservoir, near Granby. The aquatic biologists completed the first-ever raft electrofishing survey at the river connectivity channel in early May, according to CPW, which said the researchers estimated nearly 850 brown trout and about 221 rainbow trout more than six inches in length already live within a one-mile reach of the connectivity channel. Section of Lovelands Recreation Trail Loop under construction to reopen June 1 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was very exciting to see a healthy number of adult trout occupying all of this new habitat, said Jon Ewert, CPW Hot Sulphur Springs Area Aquatic Biologist, in a statement. Especially considering that we have not stocked a single fish into the channel. The Colorado River Connectivity Project reconnected aquatic habitats that were fragmented by the construction of the Windy Gap Reservoir in 1985. The project was finished in the fall of 2023. CPW biologists also previously observed extensive brown trout spawning activity in the river connectivity channel last fall, along with moderate rainbow trout spawning activity this spring, the agency said. The agency also documented positive signs of native fish repopulating in the river connectivity channel earlier than anticipated last fall, with an aquatic research team finding evidence at that time of native sculpin returning to the upper Colorado River and the river connectivity channel after several decades of absence in nearly 30 miles of their former habitat. Sculpin from the Colorado River Connectivity Channel swim in a bucket during a fish survey in fall 2024. (Courtesy Colorado Parks and Wildlife) A close-up of a juvenile sculpin documented below the Colorado River Connectivity Channel during a fish survey in fall 2024. (Courtesy Colorado Parks and Wildlife) CPW said it may take years for the beneficial effects of the river connectivity channel to be fully realized, but that their findings suggest the health of the river could be improving faster than expected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Orangutan escapes exhibit after a malfunction at Denver Zoo Seeing such positive results with water flowing through this new river section for just over a year, we anticipate that this fish population will continue to grow, Ewert said. The new river section is currently closed to public fishing access, according to CPW, which said it expects to open the area to the public after it has had sufficient time to fully revegetate, via a couple more growing seasons. Coloradans who would like to learn more about the Colorado River Connectivity Channel Project can find more information online. 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. Customers wait outside the DMV office in east Raleigh on Friday, May 30, 2025.(Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) Every day at the east Raleigh DMV office, customers begin lining up at 7 a.m. Most of them wait around three and a half hours for service. For a few minutes on Friday, Gov. Josh Stein joined them. North Carolinas Department for Motor Vehicles is facing a months-long backlog of appointments with a typically busy summer season ramped up further by demand for REAL I.D. Stein has tapped a new commissioner for the department, whos outlining both a series of quicker fixes and a longer-term overhaul. He and top transportation officials visited one of the offices as they delivered remarks on the plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Know that were working, said Paul Tine, who was named DMV commissioner at the end of April. Know that these folks have not been empowered in the way that they need to, and thats my job to do that. From left: North Carolina DMV Commissioner Paul Tine, Gov. Josh Stein and Secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins speak to reporters about the DMV on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) Tines first order of business, he says, is improving working conditions and morale in the understaffed offices. The department is moving to increase pay for examiners. Theyre beginning to upgrade some long-outdated equipment, and issue new uniforms for the first time in five years. And theyre shuffling employees around to reinforce frontline desks assigning both volunteering central staff and summer interns into high-demand offices. Motorists visiting DMV offices in the coming months can also expect to see some changes, Tine said. Staff are beginning to triage walk-in customers meeting them as they walk up and making sure they have correct documents so they dont waste time in line. Four additional offices, and 20 total, are now open for some hours on Saturdays. And the DMV has been aiming to streamline its website, making it easier to navigate options and clearly identify if you need a REAL I.D. and if so, what documents you need to bring. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tine says a longer-term strategic plan to transform the department is in the works. But part of that plan depends on the General Assembly and whether lawmakers choose to invest more money into hiring additional examiners and bolstering DMV resources. House Republicans proposed budget largely follows the governors lead, allocating money to fund dozens of new examiner positions. That budget also green-lights efforts to modernize the DMVs technology and proposes a study to determine whether the DMV could be privatized. The Senate budget does not include such additions, with Senate leader Phil Berger expressing skepticism that the department deserves more tax dollars. State Auditor Dave Bolieks office is currently conducting an audit of the department, with results expected in the coming months. Tine, who currently owns Midgett Insurance Agency, is a former state representative. He was elected as a Democrat but left the party later, calling himself an independent and choosing to caucus with Republicans. He co-chaired the transportation appropriations committee while in the General Assembly. Frustrated by hours-long waits at DMVs across North Carolina, state leaders announced new efforts to shorten lines and improve service. Its outrageous. This is sinful, said resident George Holden Jr. Lines at the DMV across the state are very common. N.C. DMV resumes summer hours, opens earlier Adetricia Tucker even said lines were so bad Friday she tried two locations in Charlotte. Tucker said she struggles to stand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im crippled, she said. I cant stand for a long time, so I had to get somebody to stand in line for me. Ive been here since about a quarter-til-7. DMV officials along with North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein announced on Friday that they are working to address the issue. Some things they are working on include: Checking with people in line to ensure they have proper paperwork before going inside. Reorganizing the DMV website to make it easier for people to navigate. Moving personnel from the central office in Raleigh back into the field. Increasing pay for examiners to try and retain them and recruit more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to get DMV working better for our people, Stein said. We can do it now and we must do it right. Stein said he is also requesting money in the budget to hire 85 more people at DMV across the state. The House has added that to their budget. The Senate has not. Officials are still warning drivers lines will be long over the summer despite these efforts. Holden said the current state of the department is not acceptable. He said his friend waited over 10 hours at the DMV with his daughter for her to get a license. North Carolina DMV adds walk-in opportunities at some locations People have jobs, he said. Im lucky Im retired but people have jobs, people have careers. This is outrageous. Its just disgusting how they run this place. Extended hours are going to continue at DMVs across the state. VIDEO: North Carolina DMV adds walk-in opportunities at some locations Boise police arrested two men from Texas on Wednesday who are suspected of being involved in at least 195 robberies at Ulta Beauty stores nationwide. Police estimated that over $100,000 in products was stolen. The Boise Police Departments Organized Retail Crime Unit was alerted to the presence in Idaho of the suspects after one allegedly stole things from an Ulta Retail store in Burley. Ulta Retail is part of the Organized Retail Crime Association of Idaho, which comprises police departments and businesses that work together to stop organized retail crime. The Ulta store in Burley provided the Boise Police Department with information about the suspects appearance and vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police estimated the travel time from Burley and waited at the Ulta Beauty store on Milwaukee Street in case the suspect headed there. At approximately 3:30 p.m., officers observed the suspect arrive in the parking lot, enter the store and allegedly leave with merchandise valued at over $1,500 products that had not been paid for, police said. The suspect, as well as a second individual who was driving the vehicle, were arrested and booked into the Ada County Jail. These arrests highlight the outstanding work being done by our Organized Retail Crime Unit, Detective Marshall Plaisted said in a news release. Their proactive approach, collaboration with retailers, and swift action not only led to the arrest of a suspect connected to over 195 thefts nationwide, but also helped protect Idaho businesses from ongoing significant financial losses. Sign up for CNNs Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a nearly 3,000-year-old Mayan complex in Guatemala, revealing sanctuaries, pyramids and a unique canal system that could shed further light on the ancient civilization, the countrys culture minister said Thursday. The complex was discovered across three sites Los Abuelos, Petnal and Cambrayal near the significant Mayan site of Uaxactun in the Peten region of northern Guatemala, the ministry said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Mayan civilization arose around 2,000 BC and reached its height between 400 and 900 AD, predominantly in modern-day Mexico and Guatemala. During its height, people built temples, roads, pyramids and other monuments, and developed complex systems of writing, mathematics and astronomy. The complex was discovered in northern Guatemala. - Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sports Los Abuelos, which means The Grandparents in Spanish, lies around 13 miles (21 kilometers) from Uaxactun and gets its name from two human-like rock figures found at the site, believed to represent an ancestral couple, the ministry said. These figures, along with several sacred sanctuaries, suggest it was an important site for Mayan rituals, said Luis Rodrigo Carrillo, Guatemalas vice minister of culture and sports, in a press briefing announcing the findings. Located here is one of the most important ritual centers in the region, with notable sanctuaries, helping to reassess our understanding of Mayan history, the ministry said in a video announcing the discovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement East of Los Abuelos lies Petnal, which features a 33-meter-high (108-foot) pyramid. At its peak are two preserved rooms adorned with murals depicting various symbolic representations, Carrillo said. In Cambrayal, around three miles (4.8 kilometers) from Los Abuelos, scientists also identified unique water canals inside a palace, marking a notable discovery, the ministry said. These sites form a previously unknown urban triangle whose existence we were unaware of until now These new archeological discoveries constitute a testament of Mayan cultures greatness, which today we are making known to the whole world, the ministry said. The discoveries were made by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists, alongside international experts, as part of the Uaxactun Regional Archaeological Project (PARU) and with backing from Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While rare, discoveries of new Mayan sites still occasionally happen, thanks to new research and technological improvements. In April, archaeologists uncovered a mysterious 1,700-year-old altar containing human remains in the nearby ancient city of Tikal, approximately 23 kilometers (14 miles) south of Uaxactun. Although discovered in a ruined Mayan city, archaeologists believe it wasnt decorated by Mayans, but was instead the work of artists trained hundreds of miles away in Teotihuacan. Scientists in recent years have also detected new sites using laser mapping technology, revealing the interconnectivity of Mayan cities, towns and villages. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com The prosecutions chance to try to tear down Netanyahus narrative at trial is the moment the PM has dreaded since 2016. There have been so many historic moments in the public corruption saga surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the upcoming one may be the most important of all. The trial has gone on so long that it started when he was prime minister in 2020, continued through the entire June 2021-December 2022 that he was out of office, and has continued throughout his entire new current term. The prosecution brought witnesses from April 2021 to summer 2024, and after a several-month recess, which was granted to Netanyahus lawyers to prepare, the prime minister has been presenting his side of the case since December 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And yet, the moment that he will be cross-examined by the state prosecution next week may be the most decisive moment of the trial and the most impactful on the verdict, and thus on Netanyahus political fate and the fate of the country. To date, the prosecution has scored some big wins in Case 1000, the Illegal Gifts Affair. Netanyahu always had a big advantage in Case 2000, the Yediot Ahronot-Yisrael Hayom attempted media bribery affair, and has probably retained that advantage, with few expecting a conviction in that case. Case 4000 has been more of a split. The prosecution has drawn blood in the legal sense for a potential conviction for the minor charge of breach of trust but appears to be losing on the major charge of media bribery. THE HIGH COURT of Justice holds a session. In the past, the court ruled that women cannot be forced to take a specific seat on a bus, the writer notes. (photo credit: DEBBIE HILL/REUTERS) SIZING ALL of that up together, in June 2023 the three judges presiding over the case Jerusalem District Court President Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Judge Moshe Baram, and Judge Oded Shaham tried to get the sides to cut a plea bargain relatively friendly to Netanyahu to make the case go away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Friedman-Feldman is not afraid to convict high-level officials; she was one of the judges who sent former prime minister Ehud Olmert to jail for public corruption. So this clearly suggests she saw major holes in the largest charge in the case media bribery for Case 4000 and viewed the more minor charges of breach of trust in the various cases as matters that might not lead to jail time and might not disqualify Netanyahu from remaining in public office. Based on that, the judges had recommended that the state prosecution cut a deal where Netanyahu would confess to some breach of trust charges but would escape jail time and escape a finding of moral turpitude meaning he would be able to continue his role as prime minister. The prosecution flatly rejected that offer. Why? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of it is a moral statement that they wanted the full case heard in open court and the judges to render a public judgment for the nation on the corruption affairs. But much of it was because they knew they would have a shot at Netanyahu on cross-examination the moment that has arrived. One crucial, unanswered question is whether the prosecution now having suffered nearly six months of being hammered by the master messenger, Netanyahu himself wishes it had taken that June 2023 plea deal. Netanyahus broad narrative The premier started testifying in December 2024. Most of his narrative has been relatively simple. In Case 4000, he has said that the media has always been biased against him and that all he was trying to do in pushing Yediot Ahronot (Case 2000) or Walla (Case 4000) to give him more positive coverage was to even the playing field so that the coverage of him would be less biased. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Netanyahus testimony, even after all his efforts, neither Yediot nor Walla paid off for him, with both still generally having given him negative coverage and having only limited wins in pushing back on the left-wing bias against him. So, he says, if they did not even report so positively about him, how can anyone claim bribery? Moreover, Netanyahu testified that even if he had made several small attempts to balance general media coverage, he was not involved in the 315 specific charges of media bribery interference into specific articles attributed by the prosecution to his lieutenants or the 150 charges where the prosecution insists he was personally involved. Rather, Netanyahu testified that his many lieutenants Zeev Rubinstein; Nir Hefetz; his wife, Sara Netanyahu; son Yair Netanyahu; and some others acted without his knowledge to try to balance media coverage, and that as premier he has far more important matters taking up his day. How Walla media charges against Netanyahu and his response direct his testimony According to the amended indictment, from January 17-19, 2013 days before the January 22, 2013 election Netanyahu, through middle man Rubinstein, made six demands for Walla owner Shaul Elovitch to influence media coverage positively for him and negatively relating to Naftali Bennett and his Bayit Yehudi Party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rubinstein was a longtime friend of Netanyahus, and Elovitch and had business connections to the latter. Nearly all of the plans of Netanyahu, Rubinstein, and Elovitch led to the coverage the prime minister wanted, such as negative coverage of Bennetts wife allegedly eating at a non-kosher restaurant, which the prosecution has sought to prove with various witnesses. Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua, and later other editors and reporters from the media group, gave a detailed description of exactly how they went about fulfilling Netanyahus demands, which included numerous take-downs of articles that were good for his competitors. These changes went far beyond the typical access for coverage arrangements that other politicians regularly make with the media, which for one, does not lead to reducing coverage for competitors, the prosecution has argued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In contrast, Netanyahu testified that Rubinstein either acted independently or under orders from Sara Netanyahu, and that she also acted independently. The prime minister also said that if he personally had wanted to influence coverage, he would have called Elovitch, the owner, as he did with Yisrael Hayom, where he would call Sheldon Adelson directly when he had a problem with the outlets coverage. Also, Netanyahu testified that the extent of his relationship with Elovitch was more focused on what he saw as Wallas potential as a whole. He noted in one of his testimonies that Walla could have been what today is Channel 14 and that he saw in Elovitch someone who had a similar political orientation to his own but was afraid to advance it in the news outlet he owned, leading to what his defense team showed was negative coverage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement REGARDING BENNETT, Netanyahu noted a fawning interview by Walla, saying that the outlet was overtly campaigning for him and not for Netanyahu. In general, the prosecutions approach to specific incidents of positive coverage for Netanyahus rivals or negative coverage of him by Walla has been to argue that it doesnt matter if he influenced all of the coverage by the outlet to go his way. Rather, the prosecution has said all that matters is that his alleged deal with Elovitch, which used positive policy moves for the media mogul as a quid pro quo, substantially influenced the coverage by Walla. Put differently, a media bribery scheme is still a media bribery scheme, even if it only succeeds part of the time. According to prosecution testimony, all of this stemmed from a December 27, 2012, dinner of the prime minister and his wife, in which they hosted Elovitch and his wife, Iris which the prime minister denies and frames sarcastically as the prosecutions telepathy charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahu highlighted that in one case where he did speak to Elovitch to get Walla to cover a ruling by the Israeli Election Commission against Bennett posting flyers of Netanyahu-Bennett together, most of the rest of the media covered the story as well and covered it earlier and in more detail. According to Netanyahu and his lawyer Amit Hadad, if there was a media bribery scheme, it would be unthinkable that Walla would post about this story later and in less detail than other outlets which is what happened. Also, regarding the Barkat endorsement, Netanyahu said he was not involved in the request and that Walla only published a short news-flash item about it, when other media outlets gave the endorsement more extensive coverage. Former top Netanyahu aide Nir Hefetz gives prosecution what it wants The biggest problem for Netanyahu in this part of the case is Hefetz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahu can say that Hefetz made up lots of things, but his former aide has said that Netanyahu is a control freak who would never let him or any other lieutenants act alone with the media. He also has given granular details that make his narrative believable, such as testifying that Netanyahu sat next to me while they edited a video draft of an interview on my laptop which the prime minister had given to Walla but was unhappy with. Hefetz referred to the dynamics surrounding an interview Netanyahu gave to Walla on March 11, 2015, leading into the March 17 elections as an example of Walla being completely enlisted for Netanyahus reelection. The premier was furious at the Walla reporter for interrupting some of his answers, noted Hefetz, and exploded afterward, originally ordering that the news outlet be prohibited from airing the interview at all. Eventually the interview aired, but only after the heavy personal editing by Netanyahu, Hefetz said. Netanyahus spokespeople did not reveal how he will defend against this. Bezeq govt policy charges and how Netanyahu responded in his direct testimony. Regarding the testimony of his former aides Hefetz and Shlomo Filber against him in improperly directing government telecommunications policy in favor of Elovitchs company Bezeq, Netanyahu testified that they were forced to lie. The prime minister said that, like former adviser and chief of staff Ari Harow, Hefetz was caught by trumped-up crimes by the police so that he would give false testimony against him. I was angered by him, said Netanyahu, but later I understood that he had to lie. He clarified that at first, I was very angry with him, but after seeing the torture he went through I understood the circumstances in which he was forced to satisfy his investigators. Netanyahu said that elements of Hefetzs testimony, such as claims that 2013-era regulatory policy was adjusted in Bezeqs favor to benefit Elovitch, were intended to please investigators. Hefetz had also testified that he would speak to Netanyahu and his wife about how to please Bezeq before contacting Filber. Netanyahu said that the supposed chain of communications was ridiculous. The prime minister slammed the probes into his regulatory policies as stalling progress to improve the countrys Internet infrastructure. Former top Netanyahu aide Shlomo Filber goes rogue against prosecution Netanyahu also got some unexpected help from Filber. Following Hefetzs testimony, Filber was expected to testify that on May 17, 2015, as soon as Netanyahu formed a new government, he fired Avi Berger and replaced him with Filber to carry out Elovitchs wishes regarding Bezeq. Filber was also supposed to testify that shortly after that on June 7, he was called to a special meeting with Netanyahu, during which the scheme was hatched. But Filber ended up calling into doubt the date of the meeting, as well as whether Netanyahus instructions to him were merely designed to help Elovitch or were also good policy. Messing with the date made the prosecution look amateurish. And if Netanyahus moves were also good policy, then much of Case 4000, certainly the most serious and jail-worthy bribery charge, falls apart. And yet, Filber still provided the prosecution with some real legal ammunition against Netanyahu. In one instance, he testified that his former boss called him on a Saturday night in 2016 screaming, Who is this Haran? What is this Haran? What is he doing there? All kinds of sentences which were not clear. Netanyahu was referring to then-Communications Ministry deputy director-general for economic affairs Haran Levaot, who was leading efforts to force Bezeq to accept a number of reforms and was trying to slow or block an allegedly problematic Bezeq-YES merger, along with a majority of the ministrys other professional level staff. The prosecution presented Netanyahus alleged 2016 call to Filber as powerful evidence that even after their initial meeting in June 2015, in which the former prime minister allegedly ordered him to favor Bezeq in government policy for the media bribery scheme, Netanyahu took strong actions going forward to ensure that Filber carried out his orders. The problem for Netanyahu in saying that Shlomo Filber, former director general of the Communications Ministry court hearing in the trial against former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the District Court in Jerusalem on April 27, 2022. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90) lied here is that his former aide tried to help him in many areas of testimony. This would make it seem like Filber didnt make up allegations that he stuck to which harmed him. Netanyahus spokespeople did not reveal how he will defend against this, either. Case 1000 From 2011-2016, Netanyahu allegedly received from billionaire Arnon Milchin NIS 267,254 ($75,700) in cigars, and Sara Netanyahu received NIS 184,448 ($52,200) worth of champagne. He and his family also received another NIS 229,174 ($64,900) in champagne and cigars from billionaire James Packer between 2014 and 2016. For Case 1000, Netanyahu has stuck to the narrative that he and Arnon Milchin were friends and that all the champagne, cigars, and jewelry he and Sara were given was typical for a super-wealthy friend like Milchin. He has called Milchins aide, Hadas Klein, a liar and said that the narratives she told where she interacted with him directly about the gifts were made up. In one instance, Klein testified in July 2022 that Mr. Netanyahu called me from his office, I said to him that I had been [unfairly] hit with threatening screams [by Sara Netanyahu] and that I had received a very difficult call over something where I had done nothing wrong. He said to me that I just did not understand and that Klein should give Sara all the cigars and champagne she wanted because they had gotten it approved by a legal adviser. This all played out as Milchin had gotten sick of the years of required gifts and told her to tell Sara that they would need to stop giving the gifts or reduce the volume because they were getting suspicious questions from their accountant about the legality. Sara pushed back and eventually allegedly took out her anger on Klein, according to her court testimony. Cross-examination dynamics A major question for the cross-examination stage of the trial is: Will Netanyahu be his own worst enemy? Basically, the prosecution has proven that Hefetz and Filber each undertook potentially criminal actions which could be the separate parts of a media bribery scheme. What Netanyahu has been counting on to beat back the bribery charge is that his aggressive testimony since December caused the judges to: 1) doubt that he knew what Hefetz and Filber were trying to do; 2) doubt that he realized that his or their actions could be interpreted as a crime; or 3) be convinced that they made up various stories against Netanyahu to save their own skin from charges against themselves. In determining this issue for the judges, Netanyahus cross-examination, which he cannot be fully prepared for and which he will sometimes need to respond to spontaneously, could be much more decisive than his testimony on his behalf, which was well prepared and coordinated. In the Holyland trial a decade ago, former prime minister Ehud Olmert thought that he was such a spectacular spin doctor that his testimony would help him torpedo the public corruption trial against him. It turned out that this made Olmert his own worst enemy. He presented himself as the smartest person in the room, with a condescending comeback to every single move by the prosecution, and he barely hid his indignation to the court itself for holding the trial. This made it harder to convince the court that he was ignorant of all of the wrongdoing around him. At one point, that courts judge, David Rozen, even advised him to leave legal arguments to his lawyers and to only discuss his personal knowledge. Netanyahu has also denigrated the prosecution regularly and sometimes put down the court itself. Rather than satisfying himself with narrow modest legal claims in which he admits the truth of aspects of claims against him by some of his former aides, he has often said that all or nearly all of what they said were lies. He has skillfully dissected dozens of media articles that the prosecution presented against him, but then claimed that in real time he had no idea that his aides were taking actions regarding these articles. Netanyahu has also claimed that he did not care about how he was portrayed, when at other times he has made it clear that he has worked to transform the media sector more than any other prior prime minister. ANKARA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the second round of talks planned in Istanbul should have strong delegations to "maintain momentum toward a peaceful resolution." In a phone call with Zelensky, Erdogan emphasized Turkiye's continued efforts to help establish a just and lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia, the Turkish presidency said in a statement. He said that holding talks at the leadership level following inter-delegation meetings would contribute to the peace process and emphasized the importance of not delaying such discussions. He welcomed the recent prisoner exchange, reached by Moscow and Kiev during their first round of talks in Istanbul, as a positive outcome of the negotiations. Erdogan said addressing a potential ceasefire during the second round of talks in Istanbul would lay the groundwork for peace. The second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine is scheduled to be held in Istanbul on June 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. The Russian delegation, to be led by Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, will hand over a draft peace memorandum to Ukraine during the meeting, Lavrov said. Russia and Ukraine held direct talks in Istanbul on May 16, their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A key piece of legislation received final approval Thursday night in the Nevada Legislature, putting an end to a fight over education funding. Raises for charter school teachers, a missing component in the education budget, were approved as the Nevada Senate passed Assembly Bill 398 (AB398). Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo had threatened to veto the $12.4 billion education bill because it left out charter school teachers. He called those raises non-negotiable. On Friday night, Lombardo posted on X: Yesterday evening, after the legislature took the final vote to give permanent pay raises to all charter school teachers, I signed the education budget. Im proud to say that, now, all public school teachers will be on an equal playing field. Nevadans can rest assured that I will continue my efforts, in collaboration with the legislature, to expand accountability, transparency, and real parental choice this session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AB398 allocates nearly $38 million $19.3 million annually for the raises. The bill also includes $45 million to fund additional compensation for teachers across the state in hard-to-fill positions, including Title I schools. The bill passed 20-0 in the Senate, a bipartisan display of the Legislatures commitment to treat charter school teachers the same as any other teacher employed by a Nevada school district. Education support professionals (ESPs) are included in the charter school plan. State report shows Nevada charter schools outperform public schools in test scores This is a major victory for Governor Lombardo, the legislature, and all Nevadans. For more than three sessions, I have worked on education reform and getting permanent teacher pay raises. I am honored that we got it done with bipartisan support, Republican Assembly Minority Leader Gregory Hafen said in an emailed statement. Hafen and Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager sponsored the bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview this week with 8 News Now, Yeager said theres a reason for keeping charter school raises separate from the overall education funding. We segregate it out in a different bill because we want to make sure that that money actually goes to increase compensation both for teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) and its not just supplanting other money, Yeager said. It allows legislators to stay involved in the process over the next two years to make sure that happens. And then going into the next legislative session, we can decide whether we want to put it in the base budget or not, he said. Charter schools will be required to provide the State Public Charter School Authority with certain basic information, including the number of teachers and ESPs employed as of October 1, 2024, and October 1, 2025. A plan to provide the salary increases is also required. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Money for the raises will be allocated by the Legislatures Interim Finance Committee and distributed through the charter authority. Lawmakers have already dipped into the Education Stabilization Account, known as the rainy day account for schools, to meet spending outlined in the $12.4 billion budget. On May 8, lawmakers approved a $115.7 million withdrawal on top of $126.9 million allocated from the same fund on May 7. In total, lawmakers are drawing that account down by about a quarter-million dollars, leaving it with an estimated reserve of $639.6 million. 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. The University of Floridas board of trustees unanimously chose a new president for the university this week, just shy of a year after the last president stepped down. In July 2024, former UF President Ben Sasse resigned around 17 months into the job, after his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy. Former UF President Kent Fuchs was appointed as the interim president of the university in August 2024. Fuchs was the president of UF for a little less than 10 years. Now that the universitys board of trustees has made their selection, the Florida Board of Governors must ratify the decision before the new president officially takes his place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Who is it? His name is Dr. Santa Ono, and he comes to Florida from the University of Michigan, where he recently closed the universitys DEI office. Heres what we know about Dr. Santa Ono and a list of past University of Florida presidents. Who is the next president of UF? Who is the highest paid person at the University of Florida? The next president of the University of Florida will be Dr. Santa Ono, who was most recently the president of the University of Michigan. If the Florida Board of Governors confirms his election, hell become one of the highest-paid university presidents in the U.S., The Gainesville Sun reported. Newly named University of Florida President Dr. Santa Ono is set to receive a five-year compensation package worth up to $15 million, making him one of the highest-paid public university presidents in the country, The Sun reported this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The contract, part of the Florida Board of Governors' agenda packet for its June 3 meeting when it is expected to formally approve the hire includes an annual base salary of $1.5 million, along with an annual 3% raise and an annual 20% retention bonus. From Gainesville: Here's how much Dr. Santa Ono will receive as president of the University of Florida Who is Dr. Santa Ono? Where did Ono go to college? Santa J. Ono, Ph.D. Ono was the president of three other universities before being selected as the University of Florida president: the University of Michigan, the University of British Columbia in Canada and the University of Cincinnati. He also previously held faculty appointments at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Harvard University and University College London. Onos doctorate degree is in experimental medicine from McGill University. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We recognize that, for most of the past year, he was not setting 'policy' in consideration of the best interests of our community but was trashing and burning our institutional values and norms as a performance for University of Florida trustees, Rebekah Modrak, a UM professor who served as Faculty Senate chair from May 1, 2024, through April 30, 2025, told The Gainesville Sun. On March 27, President Ono, who we now know was being considered to be the next president of the University of Florida, discontinued the DEI 2.0 plan, closed the Office of DEI at UM, and fired valuable staff who led key assessment and strategy work for DEI, among other measures that took the university more than two steps back. More on Dr. Ono, from Michigan staff: Michigan faculty say Ono cut DEI, clamped down on student activists to impress UF How long was Kent Fuchs president of UF? Kent Fuchs, the president of The University of Florida, delivers comments during a ceremony for the unveiling of a new historical marker for the first Black students to attend and graduate from the UF, on campus, in Gainesville, Fla. Sept. 15, 2021. The marker, know as the UF Integration Pioneers Historical Marker, is located in Emerson Courtyard, near where the old law school was when the first Black students graduated from UF. After President Ben Sasse resigned to care for his wife who was diagnosed with epilepsy, former UF President Kent Fuchs was chosen to serve as interim president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prior to his stint as interim president of UF, Fuchs spent almost 10 years in the position. Fuchs was the 12th president of the University of Florida, from 2015 through 2023. Just a few months after Fuchs announced he would be stepping down, a scandal over academic freedom erupted on campus. A federal lawsuit was filed by three professors, who alleged that Fuchs and the universitys board of trustees were stifling faculty speech and violating First Amendment rights. Fuchs is also (more positively) remembered for leading the university into a higher ranking in the U.S. News and World Reports college rankings. He may be best remembered for guiding UF to reach a decades-old goal of joining the nations top-10 public research universities as measured by U.S. News and World Reports Best College Rankings, UFs website says of Fuchs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The university then ascended into the top 5, a feat that few believed possible when he defined that goal in his inauguration address. List of past UF presidents Heres a list of UFs past presidents, from 1904 through present day, from the UF Website: Andrew Sledd, 1904-1909 Albert Murphree, 1909-1927 James Farr, interim president, 1927-1928 John J. Tigert, 1928-1947 Harold Hume, interim president, 1947-1948 J. Hillis Miller, 1948-1953 John Allen, interim president, 1953-1955 J. Wayne Reitz, 1955-1967 Stephen C. OConnell, 1967-1973 E.T. York, interim president, 1973-1974 Robert Q. Marston, 1974-1984 Marshall Criser, 1984-1989 Robert Bryan, interim president, 1989-1990 John Lombardi, 1990-1999 Charles E. Young, 1999-2003 Bernie Machen, 2004-2014 Kent Fuchs, 2015-2023 (interim 2024-25) Ben Sasse, 2023-2024 This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Santa Ono likely next UF president. Is he a doctor? As the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station works to get its runways extended, the neighboring Niagara Falls International Airport is working on a taxiway improvement project of its own. The Niagara Frontier Transit Authority is looking at an $11 million realignment of a taxiway at the airport's eastern edge of the grounds, eliminating intersections it has with the airports main runway. It looks to have plans finalized later this year and start construction in 2027. This past March, the NFTA released a draft environmental assessment that shows on the commercial side, 1,288 feet of Taxiway D would be realigned to be parallel with Runway 10L-28R. That 10,800-foot runway is also used by the air stations military aircraft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NFTA Director of Aviation Lee Weitz said currently, the taxiway leading to the airports main terminal does not go to the end of that runway, with commercial aircraft taking off from the same locations military aircraft do. The change would also decrease the chance of planes colliding. Taxiing on the current taxiway system on both sides can be confusing to pilots because you have to cross an active runway to get to another active runway, Weitz said, noting how the ends of the airports two main runways intersect. This project will fix the so-called hotspot. A hotspot is an area where airport runways and taxiways intersect which can create confusion among pilots, causing potential crashes. The Federal Aviation Administration looks at hotspots at airports across the country to identify which ones should be fixed. The taxiways proposed route would go through a wetlands area on the airport property, which may require the relocation of a pond. Project diagrams also show some taxiway realignments and new pavement on the air reserve station side as part of a separate project involving runway extensions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Airbase officials had previously told the Gazette they wanted the runways extended so the air tankers stationed at the base can carry more fuel for refueling planes mid-air. Of the $11 million project cost, $9.9 million will come from the federal government. The remaining $1.1 million would be evenly split between the NFTA and the State of New York. Weitz said the NFTA plans to have a completed design, file permits, and do any mitigation efforts for the wetlands by the end of the current federal fiscal year, which is Sept. 30. He noted there is usually a gap year between design and construction for federally funded projects like this, so the earliest construction work would start would be the spring of 2027. Weitz feels they could complete that work within one construction season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No passenger facility charge funds will be used for the construction efforts, though $50,000 was used during the design project. That is a $4.50 charge collected from every passenger leaving one of the NFTAs two airports that are used for construction projects. Allegiant Air is the only commercial airline currently flying out of Niagara Falls, flying to Myrtle Beach, Punta Gorda in Florida, Orlando-Sanford, and St. Petersburg-Clearwater. NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56)Since becoming chief of the Nicholasville Police Department in 2023, Michael Fleming has worked to ensure that the law goes far beyond arrests and incarceration. His mission is to work to have the police department play a bigger role within the community. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our whole goal is to do much more in this community than just take people to jail. Its all about community service. And what better way to serve the community than to have tools in every officers hands that can save lives, said Fleming. One of those tools is the automated external defibrillatormore commonly known as an AED. Its a great tool for not only cardiac arrest but opioid response as well. A lot of opioid overdoses result in cardiac arrest, Fleming explained. We are usually closest to these types of calls. And for officers to have this type of tool on hand immediately saves time. And time is what you know is paramount when youre talking about saving a life thats in cardiac arrest. Previously, the Nicholasville Police Department had about eight bulkier, less advanced AED units. Now, Fleming said the department bought 85 smart AEDs. That is enough for every patrol officer, detective, administrator, and even school resource officer to have with them wherever they go. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The devices are also connected to the 911 dispatch system, meaning officers can be alerted to emergencies even when theyre off duty. Its great for officers. They even will take it into their house at night, and one of their neighbors can end up having a cardiac event, and they could rush over and save their life, he said. Perhaps the most important aspect of the new AEDs, though, is that they are incredibly easy to use. Simply by turning the device on, it begins telling the user what to do, as well as providing safety instructions. The device can be used in English or Spanish. Fleming demonstrated using the device in an interview with FOX 56 News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He pointed out how the device tells the officer when to begin doing CPR. It even plays a ticking rhythm to do chest compressions to. For officers that are CPR trained once every two years, this is giving them those step-by-step instructions for that high-stress time when they may forget something, said Fleming. Really, the AEDs telling them everything. Police find no evidence of human trafficking at Louisa motel after viral post Equipping the department with these advanced AEDs didnt come cheap. The total cost was more than $200,000. However, the investment was made possible through Kentuckys share of 2022 legal settlements with opioid manufacturers that contributed to the rising opioid crisis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fleming pointed out that these devices are a good thing this money is going toward. He told FOX 56 he hopes the new AEDs will help officers save some lives when duty calls. 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 56 News. By Ope Adetayo ABUJA (Reuters) -The Nigerian military has detained over two dozen soldiers and members of the police force over sales of weapons from military stockpiles to armed groups, including Islamist insurgents, a spokesperson said. Africa's most populous country and biggest energy producer, Nigeria is battling insecurity on many fronts, including a long-running insurgency in the northeast and armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Captain Reuben Kovangiya, spokesperson for the military's anti-insurgency operation, said the arrests were part of a crackdown on racketeering involving ammunition. Local media reported that 18 soldiers, 15 policemen and eight civilians were taken into custody. "It is part of the counter-arms and ammunition racketeering operation conducted in every theatre of operations," Kovangiya told Reuters. "If any personnel engage in any act that is inimical to the system, they are arrested and tried." Kovangiya did not elaborate on the types and numbers of weapons sold but said the suspects would be prosecuted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nigeria has this year experienced a surge in attacks by militants from Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, who have overrun some military bases in the northeastern state of Borno. In the course of most of the raids, militants have seized weapons from army bases. (Reporting by Ope Adetayo; editing by Mark Heinrich) Sanctuary city concept and illegal immigration law government enforcement policies as a highway sign directing to welcoming immigrants with no legal status as a 3D illustration. (Getty Images) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday released a list of sanctuary jurisdictions it says are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril. DHS includes 23 of New Mexicos 33 counties on its list, along with the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The list follows President Donald Trumps executive order in April requiring such a list. Following that executive order, City of Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber told Source the City of Santa Fe does not specifically identify itself as a sanctuary city and he did not think the order applied to the city. The City of Santa Fe passed a resolution in 1999, which was reaffirmed in 2017, declaring itself a welcoming city for immigrants and refugees. We treat everyone in our city the same: with respect and a welcoming attitude, regardless of a variety of factors including whether theyre here with documentation, Webber said. That continues to be our city policy. In a written statement provided to Source last month, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller last month emphasized that Trumps executive order is counterproductive to addressing crime. We remember when Trump tried to extort immigrant-friendly cities like ours before, but threatening to defund the police is the exact opposite of what Albuquerque needs to be safe, Keller said. Our communities are stronger when people of all backgrounds feel safe reporting crimes and working with police, and our officers will keep arresting anyone who breaks the law, regardless of their immigration status. Each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with Federal statutes, the DHS stated in posting the list. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to the list, leaders from several civil rights and immigration organizations issued statements decrying its publication. New Mexico has a proud tradition of welcoming immigrants, Lena Weber, interim policy director with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, said in a statement. Immigrants and mixed-status families are integral to our communities. We talk a lot about public safety in this stateand we know that we are all safer when our families can go to school, work, and health centers without fear of being torn away from their loved ones. Fabiola Landeros from El CENTRO de Igualdad y Derechos said in a statement that, We are proud of the legacy weve built in New Mexico, including the passage of policies that promote public safety, safeguard civil rights, promote immigrant integration, and recognize the vast contributions of our immigrant communities. The Trump administrations terrifying vision of mass deportation and family separation and their willingness to trample on constitutional rights and utilize illegal tactics is not only against New Mexican values, but it will also have a devastating impact on our communities and economy. Jessica Inez Martinez, director of policy and coalition building at New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, described labeling sanctuary policies as lawless insurrection is not only inflammatoryit is legally baseless and a reckless distortion of the rule of law. At the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, we see every day how immigrant families are building lives rooted in care, resilience, and hope. They are our neighbors, coworkers, and caregiversessential to the cultural and economic life of New Mexico. The 10 NM counties not listed as sanctuary jurisdictions by DHS: EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) A New Mexico man is in federal custody after being indicted by a federal grand jury in El Paso in 2021 and expelled to the U.S. by Mexican authorities earlier this week, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas said. Jaime Renteria-Fernandez, 31, of Albuquerque, is charged in a superseding indictment with nine counts related to alleged offenses committed in support of the Barraza Drug Trafficking Organization, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Co-conspirator Alex Barraza was the leader of the drug-trafficking organization and was sentenced to life in federal prison Oct. 24, 2024, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Renteria-Fernandez made his initial appearance in federal court on Thursday in El Paso. The indictment includes multiple counts related to drug possession and trafficking, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, as well as discharging firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking and murder resulting from the use and carrying of firearms during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years, with a maximum of life in federal prison, and possibly the death penalty, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homeland Security Investigations El Paso is investigating the case with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Texas Attorney Generals Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Johnston, Andres Ortega and Susanna Martinez are prosecuting 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 KTSM 9 News. Defense attorney Alan Jackson on Friday morning made a push to get the murder case against Karen Read thrown out, however, he was unsuccessful in doing so. As expected, Judge Cannone denies defense request to stop trial now and find Read not guilty. Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) May 30, 2025 Live court video, updates: Defense in Karen Reads murder retrial calls first witness 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 on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Commonwealth has simply not proven, even in a light most favorable to them, that there was a collision on January 29th, 2022, at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, Jackson argued in his required finding for not guilty motion. Defense lawyer Alan Jackson questions Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik during the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, May 9, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool) The prosecution rested its case Thursday after calling 38 witnesses to the stand over six weeks of testimony. Testimony provided by the prosecutions witnesses focused on evidence collected at the scene of OKeefes death, "triggering events" in Reads SUV that crash experts claim showed a three-point turn and a backing maneuver, and witnesses who claimed they heard Read repeatedly say, I hit him. There was no collision proven to have occurred. There was no eyewitness presented. There was no video evidence, no audio evidence, and no evidence in the form of physical evidence at the scene by searches that were done by officers on the morning of January 29, 2022, Jackson argued. The Commonwealth, through suspect experts based on circumstantial technical data, only sought to prove a backing event. And thats important. They sought to prove that at 34 Fairview, the SUV went backward. They did not prove. And every single one of their experts was asked this question. They did not prove that there was actually a collision associated with that backing event." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After hearing Jacksons argument and special prosecutor Hank Brennans rebuttal, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Cannone quickly announced, The motion is denied. The defense then called its first witness to the stand. Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone during the Karen Read murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool) Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into OKeefe after she dropped him off at the 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. 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. A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile. Get caught up with all of the latest in Karen Reads retrial. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW President Donald Trump took to social media Friday morning to register his displeasure with Chinas trade conduct, claiming the Asian powerhouse is in violation of a recently struck agreement that saw massive retaliatory tariffs put on hold. Trump said the temporary trade deal, reached after top U.S. and Chinese trade officials met in Geneva, Switzerland, two weeks ago, was a win for both countries but is now in jeopardy thanks to Chinas violation of terms of the agreement. Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger!, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, civil unrest. I saw what was happening and didnt like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didnt want to see that happen. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Washington. Trump said Friday, May 30, that China is violating a recent trade deal. | Evan Vucci Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY! Whats in the U.S.-China trade agreement? In a deal announced May 12, both countries agreed to roll back reciprocal tariffs to a 10% rate for a 90-day period beginning May 14. Other, sector-specific U.S. trade levies on steel, aluminum and automobiles remained in place, as did a 20% tariff Trump announced earlier this year to address fentanyl trafficking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement followed two days of meetings in Geneva between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with a delegation of Chinese officials. We had very productive talks and I believe that the venue, here in Lake Geneva, added great equanimity to what was a very positive process, Bessent said when the deal was announced. We have reached an agreement on a 90-day pause and substantially move down the tariff levels. Both sides on the reciprocal tariffs will move their tariffs down 115%. Trump, at the time, lauded the deal as historic. Cranes load containers onto trucks at the Yangluo Port in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Friday, May 23, 2025. President Donald Trump said Friday, May 30, that China is violating a recent trade deal. | Andy Wong The talks in Geneva were very friendly, the relationship is very good, the president said. Were not looking to hurt China. China was being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories, they were having a lot of unrest and they were very happy to be doing something with us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump also suggested the biggest win out of the negotiations was the possibility that China could be on the cusp of agreeing to creating broader access for American goods and businesses within Chinese borders. The biggest thing that were discussing is the opening up (of) China and theyve agreed to do that but its going to take a while to paper it, Trump said. If we do get it, I think its the most important thing to have. We opened our country to China and they didnt open their country to us. Theyve agreed to open China, fully open China. I think its going to be great for unification and peace." U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on April 8, 2025. | Mark Schiefelbein In comments made during a Friday interview with CNBC, Greer mirrored Trumps allegation, saying were very concerned with Chinas purported noncompliance with the temporary trade deal. The United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance, Greer said. JERUSALEM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel has decided to ban the entry of foreign ministers from Arab countries who planned to visit Ramallah in the West Bank on Sunday for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's state-run Kan TV News reported on Friday night. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials were quoted as saying that the planned visit by foreign ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates was "a defiant act" intended to advance discussions on the establishment of a Palestinian state. The officials noted that the Palestinian Authority still refused to condemn the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. "Israel will not cooperate with moves aimed at harming it and its security," the officials were quoted as saying. AUSTIN (KXAN) Thursday, the US Department of Homeland Security released a comprehensive list of jurisdictions it believes are defying federal immigration law. Designation of a sanctuary jurisdiction is based on the evaluation of numerous factors, including self-identification as a sanctuary jurisdiction, noncompliance with Federal law enforcement in enforcing immigration laws, restrictions on information sharing, and legal protections for illegal aliens, a DHS spokesperson said. According to DHS, each of the states, cities or counties listed will get a notification from the federal government of its non-compliance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Austin City Council passes resolution countering stalled state immigration law DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens, the agency said. There are no Texas cities on the list, though DHS told KXAN the list is actively reviewed, will be regularly updated, and can be changed at any time. The Trump administration has previously indicated cities not complying with federal immigration law may be passed over for funding opportunities. For example, the secretary of the Department of Transportation released a memo earlier this year indicating cities that require compliance with immigration enforcement will be prioritized for federal transportation funding opportunities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: sanctuary jurisdictions should immediately cease violation of Federal law and cooperate with law enforcement, a DHS spokesperson said after KXAN reached out asking about penalties associated with making the list. State law prohibits sanctuary cities in Texas Earlier this year, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into the city of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department over possible sanctuary city policies, according to a release from the AG in March. The law is not optional. Local governments do not have the authority to disregard state and federal immigration laws, said Attorney General Paxton at the time. Texas lawmakers effectively banned sanctuary cities in 2017 through Senate Bill 4. That now-law prohibits any local policy that would interfere with state or federal immigration enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city of Austin initially fought against it, passing freedom city resolutions that identified legal loopholes in SB 4. For example, while state law allows officers to question someone on their immigration status, the city instructed police to inform people of their right not to answer that question, NBC News reported. Inside Austins Agenda: City Council Member Mike Siegel Since then, state lawmakers have also passed a bill that allows local law enforcement to arrest people they believe are in the U.S. illegally. That one came in 2023 and has been tied up in federal court since. Just like the previous council, Austin addressed that one with a resolution as well. We really want our police officers focused on investigating violent crime. Thats where their time and resources should be spent. Not carrying out this policy that we know leads to racial profiling, that will separate families and could potentially lead to deportations, Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes (she is now the mayor pro tem) said after that resolution passed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Trump immigration order, ICE force multiplier agreements with Texas police surge But between state and federal rules, the city of Austin and other Texas cities are largely restricted on what more they can do in broad brush strokes. That is, if the dont want to lose massive chunks of funding or face legal penalties. So thats where you cant, quote, unquote, be a sanctuary city. You know, we cant use our police officers to disrupt ICE enforcement, things of that nature. Or, you know, frankly, our chief of police could lose her law enforcement license. We could have funding taken away from our city, Austin City Council Member Mike Siegel said. And so thats kind of the balance, you know, SB 4 and other state legislative efforts that constrain our local control. We have to stay within those parameters and still do as much as we can. 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 new Voice of the People survey among Jewish Americans found that 78% listed antisemitism as one of the top five challenges facing them today. Noa Tishby, Israels former special envoy for combating antisemitism, joins Elizabeth Vargas Reports to discuss antisemitism and how its causing fear for Jews around the world. There was an understanding that this has been settled after World War II. But, as we see, antisemitism is the oldest form of hate and discrimination thats still being practiced today, Tishby says. She says today it has shape-shifted into something new antizionism. 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. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) Paul Nolley, executive director of Project First Rate, kicked off his campaign to unseat Illinois Rep. Darin LaHood (R) in Congress on Thursday. Nolley is running as a Democrat for Illinois 16th Congressional seat in 2026, to represent Northern and Central Illinois, including Rockford, Peoria, Bloomington, Harvard, and Galena. Nolley took to the local IBEW Hall, where he addressed a crowd of supporters. He accused LaHood of being afraid of his constituents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im not scared of my community, Im not afraid to meet with people, to hold meetings and hear different voices, even those that I disagree with, and I think that the incumbent is scared to meet with his constituents, said Nolley. So, Im just a regular person here to serve the people, and Im happy to meet with and hear the voices, concerns and issues of regular people. I believe that Darin LaHood is not okay with that. Our politics are broken. Too many politicians have forgotten who they work for. They work for the people, not the big corporations and donor class, Nolley said a month ago. Im running because its time for regular people to stand up and say enough is enough. Working families have been hit hard by policies from both parties for decades, and too many people struggle to get by while corruption runs wild in Washington and the ultra-rich have watched their wealth grow to unimaginable levels. Nolley has served as executive director of Project First Rate, which works with union contractors and tradespeople, since 2020. Im from a working-class family and grew up working at the local racetrack, in kitchens, retail, and farm fields, not around the powerful and well-connected. Im here to provide a new vision and opportunity for residents of the 16th, and that campaign begins today, Nolley said in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a press release, Nolley is centered on protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; rebuilding American manufacturing and family farms; rooting out pay-to-play corruption; strengthening unions and workers rights; and investing in policies that make raising a family in todays economy easier. Nolley is running against incumbent LaHood (R), Joe Albright (D), and John Kitover (R). 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. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Questions remain as to how another Shelby County Jail inmate died while in custody. Daniel Neal was the sixth inmate to die inside the jail this year alone. While its unknown how Neal died on Wednesday, WREG has learned more about Neals background. Neal, 41, was charged with aggravated burglary and vandalism. He was accused of violating his probation in Coffee County, nearly four hours away. Neal was also listed as a member of the Aryan Nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inmate dies after waiting one year to be picked up by TDOC Just City, a nonprofit focusing on crime reform, is now asking why he was transferred here. Shelby County residents deserve to know why that decision was made, because the thing is, if you die in Shelby County, thats on all of us, Just City bail specialist Laramie Wheeler said. Thats on our Shelby County Commission. Thats on our Sheriff and his leadership. Were at the point where these things cant be random anymore, because were not addressing the root causes of why people are dying in jail. Neal was here for over a year, and according to the Shelby County Sheriffs Office, the State of Tennessee was supposed to pick him up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is unknown why TDOC did not take Neal into their custody, but said this is an ongoing problem, with SCSO typically holding 100 convicted prisoners for TDOC, the sheriffs office said in a statement. Wheeler sees both the Tennessee Department of Corrections and the Shelby County Sheriffs Office at fault. She says Shelby Countys lack of pursuing immediate transfers for state prisoners is a big issue. From my experience, I would put more of the blame on Shelby County in not pursuing proper and immediate transfer for people who have been sentenced, and not getting the correct paperwork over to TDOC, Wheeler said. In my experience, Shelby County is very slow to do that. We have reached out to TDOC for comment on Shelby Countys claims but have not heard back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. May 30Maine's first comfort dog, Baxter, had been rescued as a puppy and bottle-fed by volunteers for a nonprofit in New Hampshire that pairs trained dogs with veterans and first responders. "We're heartbroken," the organization's founder, Laura Barker, said in an interview on Friday, a day after the Maine Department of Public Safety announced Baxter had been found dead in a state vehicle. "We know that Baxter was loved his whole time on Earth," Barker said. "He also helped a lot of people while he was here." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barker said she and her colleagues are still in shock at the loss, and are confident that the department will conduct a thorough investigation. It's still unclear exactly what led to Baxter's death. The 3-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever had been working as a comfort dog for dispatchers under the Maine Bureau of Emergency Communications since he was introduced to the state in the fall of 2022. A spokesperson for the department said he was found dead Wednesday afternoon after the vehicle "unexpectedly" shut off while he was inside. The vehicle was parked at the communications center in Bangor, where the National Weather Service recorded temperatures up to 82 degrees that afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shannon Moss, a Department of Public Safety spokesperson, said she could not answer questions about the type of vehicle and how long the dog was left inside. She confirmed that Brodie Hinckley, the director of the Bureau of Emergency Communications, had been Baxter's handler. Hinckley did not respond to requests for an interview on Friday. Moss did not answer follow up questions asking if Hinckley was placed on leave. Some newer vehicles have an auto shut-off feature, where the engine is disabled after a certain amount of time if it's left running while parked. In recent years, some police departments have purchased technology that will alert officers if the car shuts off or gets too hot. The Humane World for Animals, formerly known as the Humane Society, notes that temperatures inside a car can rise rapidly in minutes. Even with the windows opened slightly, temperatures can reach 102 degrees within 10 minutes on an 85-degree day, according to Humane World. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baxter was trained through Hero Pups and AT&T FirstNet paid for the dog's vet visits and supplies before he joined the bureau in 2022, according to Hero Pups and the Department of Public Safety. Barker, Hero Pups founder, said Baxter's DPS handler took care of him full-time after his first birthday, but he came back to the New Hampshire nonprofit occasionally for training. She encouraged the public to wait to hear all of the details before assuming what happened. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We do not enable comments on everything exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn brought his town hall tour to North Charleston on Thursday, urging attendees to use the most powerful tool at their disposal to resist President Donald Trumps administration: their vote. We must break our silence, Clyburn told dozens of voters who filed into the banquet room of Royal Missionary Baptist Church on a rainy night. We cannot allow things to be said and go unanswered, and the loudest voice that you can raise is your vote. It was the latest stop on a series of listening sessions that Clyburn, the states lone congressional Democrat, has been holding across the state as he seeks to rally supporters against Trumps chaotic, destructive agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At each one, a common theme has emerged, the congressman told News 2 in a brief interview after the event. People are very, very concerned about the direction of the country, he said. This country is at a crossroads. You can sense it. Clyburn spoke during the more than two-hour town hall about the impacts of the Republicans sweeping tax bill, which passed the House last week. It includes many of the presidents legislative priorities, from extending tax cuts enacted in 2017 during Trumps first term to increased funding for immigration enforcement to scaling back federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. GOP runs into voter buzzsaw of criticism on Trumps big, beautiful bill Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill imposes stricter work requirements for Medicaid recipients, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would result in more than $700 million in spending cuts but also lead to millions of people losing health coverage. I think the Medicaid cuts are alarming, Sam Lourie, a 30-year-old who lives in West Ashley, told News 2 after the event. I just dont think the average American realizes how close its going to hit home until it does, and for me personally, I think its very unnecessary for the overarching goal that [Republicans] are trying to accomplish. Clyburn also addressed the economic consequences of Trumps 25% tariff on the auto industry, tying it to job losses at Volvos Ridgeville plant. He criticized a May 8 deal made with the United Kingdom, a hub for luxury car manufacturing, that slashes tariffs to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles imported to the United States. He did not give a break to them, Clyburn said, referencing the thousands of workers employed by automobile companies in South Carolina, including Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The event concluded with the congressman fielding questions on various issues, from a veteran who worried about losing his benefits to a rising high school senior concerned about how he will pay for college next year. In responding to 17-year-old Zuriel Nyamutsakas question about higher education, Clyburn emphasized the importance of federal Pell Grants, a need-based scholarship that more than six million students rely on. He pointed to a provision tucked into the big, beautiful bill that would increase the number of credit hours required to receive the maximum grant amount from 12 to 15, noting that about a quarter of current recipients would lose close to $1,500 if it passed. Why? he asked rhetorically. So that some billionaires can get another big tax credit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But not all the frustration was directed toward Republicans, with some lamenting about what they see as an inability on the part of Democrats to effectively counter the growing right-wing movement, both from elected officials and their fellow voters. Im disenchanted with our party, one woman said. We need to stop being so polite. We dont have to be rude, but we need to stop being so polite and we need to fight back. Speaking to News 2 afterwards, Clyburn defended his partys tone and efforts in the early months of Trumps second term. I dont think were doing anything wrong, he said. I think that the problem that we have is that Democrats are civil in our approach. You dont see us using profane language when we try to connect with people. You dont see us doing things that would be detrimental to people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, he pointed to recent wins in special elections across the country as evidence that Democrats messaging is resonating with voters. We may not be connected to all the people in the viewing audience, but we seem to be making pretty good connections with those people when they go to the polls, he added. Thursdays town hall was hosted by the Racial Justice Network. 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. WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABC22/FOX44) One group of North Country students took a trip to the nations capital to take a stand against Big Tobacco. In a two-day event in Washington, students from around the country met to discuss their common cause, and protested outside the lobbyist office for Altria, one of the nations biggest tobacco companies. Canadian border crossings plunge in 2025, tourism industry concerned Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We did a rally on the day of Altrias shareholder meeting, said McKenna McGrath, a sophomore at Beekmantown Central School. Theyre targeting children theyre using a highly addictive chemical like nicotine to addict kids at a young age. Tobacco-Free Clinton Franklin Essex and Reality Check (Tobacco-Free CFE) is a program under the Champlain Valley Family Center that aims to reinforce the tobacco-free norm in communities throughout New York State. Its specific goals include ending tobacco sales at pharmacies and achieving smoking bans in parks and apartment buildings. Legislators push rent reforms amid housing crisis Ada Burgess, a freshman at Plattsburgh High School, said, I think one of the key things is about looking in your community and seeing the specific issues your community faces. One of the issues, in my school specifically, a lot of kids vape. We want to try to help kids and not just tell them, Oh, smoking is bad.' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the tenth year Tobacco-Free CFE has helped send students to Washington for this event. 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. Jamie Azure, chair of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, speaks during the Tribal Leaders Summit in Bismarck on Sept. 4, 2024. Turtle Mountain, Spirit Lake Nation and three tribal citizens are challenging a ruling in a voting rights case. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Spirit Lake Nation and three tribal citizens this week asked the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to review a three-judge panels finding that they lack standing to bring a voting discrimination case against the state of North Dakota. In a 2-1 decision earlier this month, the panel overruled a North Dakota federal district courts decision that a redistricting plan adopted by the state in 2021 diluted the voting power of Native voters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turtle Mountain fought hard for a fair and legal map. When the state draws unlawful districts, Courts must step in to protect voters not pave the way for injustice, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Chairman Jamie Azure said in a statement published by the Campaign Legal Center, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs in the suit. We will continue to fight for fair representation. The panels decision didnt speak to whether the map itself was discriminatory; instead, the judges found that private individuals cannot use a key federal civil rights law as a vehicle to file cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which outlaws race-based voting discrimination. The panel in its ruling sent the case back to North Dakota U.S. District Judge Peter Welte with instructions to dismiss the lawsuit. If its ruling stands, North Dakota would revert back to the 2021 map. But if the plaintiffs request for an en banc rehearing is granted, the case would go before all 11 judges on the 8th Circuit for review. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Section 2 is the foundational statute that Congress enacted to fight the scourge of racial discrimination in voting, but citizens in this circuit can no longer enforce the right it provides them, the plaintiffs argue in a brief urging the full appellate court to consider the case. Private individuals and groups previously could file discrimination lawsuits against governments under just Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act without having to invoke Section 1983, a separate civil rights statute. Then, the 8th Circuit in a controversial 2023 ruling on an Arkansas voting rights case found that Section 2 alone doesnt give private parties the right to sue. Instead, the circuit declared that it is the responsibility of the U.S. Attorney General to file Section 2 discrimination cases. For more than a year, the question remained open as to whether Section 1983 offered a viable alternative for bringing such Voting Rights Act claims. In a May 14 ruling, the three-judge panel decided it does not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a majority opinion, the panel wrote that the language of the Voting Rights Act indicates that Congress didnt intend for citizens to file race discrimination claims through Section 1983. The lone dissenting judge on the panel Chief Judge Steven Colloton noted in his opinion that private plaintiffs have brought more than 400 actions under Section 2 since 1982. The plaintiffs in their brief point out that the 8th Circuit is the only appellate circuit in the country to rule that Section 2 cannot be enforced through lawsuits brought by private citizens. The circuit includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas. Outside of this circuit, every American citizen can rely on an unbroken line of Supreme Court and circuit precedent to enforce the individual rights given to them by Congress in the Voting Rights Act, their filing states. But as a result of the panel decision here, and the prior decision in Arkansas, American citizens in this circuit are denied that right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit was triggered by a redistricting plan adopted by the North Dakota Legislature in 2021 that placed the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake reservations in new districts. Lonna Jackson-Street, chair of the Spirit Lake Nation, speaks during a summit between state and tribal leaders on June 25, 2024. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor) U.S. District Court Judge Peter Welte in 2023 ruled that the new map was discriminatory and ordered the Legislature to implement a new map that placed the reservations in the same voting district. Three Native American lawmakers from that district were elected in 2024: Sen. Richard Marcellais and Rep. Jayme Davis both citizens of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Rep. Collette Brown, a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation and plaintiff in the lawsuit. The fair map we secured led to a historic first a Spirit Lake Nation member elected to the North Dakota Legislature, Spirit Lake Nation Chairperson Lonna Jackson-Street said in a Wednesday statement published by the Campaign Legal Center, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs in the case. This decision threatens that progress and weakens our voice in state government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marcellais had previously served 15 years in the statehouse until he lost his bid for reelection in 2022. He was reelected in 2024. Davis was first elected in 2022, then reelected last year. If the 2021 map is reinstated, three state lawmakers would move to different districts, according to the North Dakota Secretary of States Office. Rep. Colette Brown, D-Warwick, would go from representing District 9 to District 15. Rep. Donna Henderson, R-Calvin, would switch from District 15 to District 9B, while Sen. Kent Weston, R-Sarles, would switch from District 15 to District 9. They would all have to seek reelection in 2026. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SEOUL, May 30 (UPI) -- Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia has enabled Moscow to increase its missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, the United States, South Korea and nine other allies said in a new report. The report, released Thursday, was the first produced by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group formed in October after Russia vetoed the mandate for a U.N. panel to continue its work overseeing North Korean sanctions violations. The MSMT collected evidence that North Korea and Russia "engaged in myriad of unlawful activities" in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to the 29-page report. These violations include transfers of artillery, missiles and combat vehicles from North Korea to Russia for its war against Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In return, North Korea has received air defense systems and technical weapons expertise from Russia. The MSMT also found that Moscow has supplied shipments of refined petroleum products far in excess of a yearly cap under U.N. sanctions and maintained banking relations with Pyongyang. These forms of unlawful cooperation have "contributed to Moscow's ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure," the report said. The military relationship "also provided the resources to allow North Korea to fund its military programs and further develop its ballistic missiles programs ... and gain first-hand experience in modern warfare." North Korea sent over 11,000 troops to Russia in 2024, and another 3,000 in the early months of this year, the report said, citing MSMT member states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement North Korea acknowledged sending the troops for the first time last month, claiming they helped recapture lost territory in Kursk Province from Ukrainian forces. The MSMT includes the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Korea. The team was established after Russia used its U.N. Security Council veto in March 2024 to end the mandate of the Panel of Experts, which had overseen North Korean sanctions monitoring since 2009. The Panel of Expert's final report cited numerous sanctions violations by North Korea, including an estimated $3 billion generated from cyberattacks used to fund the regime's illicit weapons program. Thursday's MSMT report covers the period between January 1, 2024 and April 30, 2025. It concludes that North Korea and Russia intend to continue their military cooperation "at least for the foreseeable future." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Citing an unnamed MSMT participating state, the report claims that North Korea shipped as many as 9 million rounds of mixed artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition to Russia in 2024 aboard Russian-flagged cargo vessels. The North also sent Russia at least 100 ballistic missiles, the report said, which were "subsequently launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorize populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia." In return, Russia has transferred air defense systems, including at least one Pantsir-class mobile combat vehicle, according to unnamed participating MSMT countries. Moscow has also provided data feedback on Pyongyang's ballistic missiles, leading to improvements in missile guidance performance. Under U.N. Security Council sanctions, North Korea can procure no more than 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum per year. The MSMT report estimates, however, that Russia supplied more than a million barrels of oil to North Korea between March and October 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About 8,000 North Koreans have been sent to Russia to work in IT, construction and other sectors, the report added, while the two countries are actively conducting financial transactions through ruble-denominated bank accounts. Both are violations of U.N. sanctions. In a joint statement, the 11 MSMT member states urged North Korea to "engage in meaningful diplomacy." "We will continue our efforts to monitor the implementation of U.N. [Security Council Resolutions] on the DPRK and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade U.N. sanctions," the statement said, using the official acronym for North Korea. KHARTOUM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 26 civilians were killed in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on three towns in Sudan's western Kordofan region, the Sudanese government announced on Friday. "In recent hours, the RSF militia has committed a series of horrific crimes, deliberately targeting civilian areas and claiming the lives of innocent people," Sudan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Today (Friday), the militia targeted Al-Daman Hospital in El-Obeid city, killing 16 patients who were receiving treatment and injuring several others," the ministry said, adding, "On Wednesday, the militia also attacked a public market in the town of Al-Khiwai with drones, killing eight civilians." The RSF also targeted a residential area in the town of Al-Dibaibat, South Kordofan, killing two civilians, the statement said. The ministry described the RSF attacks as part of a deliberate and systematic campaign targeting civilians, humanitarian organizations, critical infrastructure, and essential services, with the intent of inflicting maximum civilian harm. It accused the RSF of bombing World Food Programme warehouses in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, on Thursday and setting them ablaze, destroying large quantities of food supplies. Armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF have intensified across the Kordofan region, which includes North, West, and South Kordofan states. On Thursday, the RSF claimed control of the towns of Al-Dibaibat in South Kordofan and Al-Khiwai in West Kordofan. The Sudanese army has not yet responded to the claim. 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. While the peak of the heat wave wasn't as sweltering as expected on Friday, toasty temperatures accompanied by a dose of unexpected tropical moisture are anticipated across Los Angeles this weekend. The heat sent the mercury rising above 100 degrees in Woodland Hills and Chatsworth and was powerful enough to topple at least one record. Downtown Los Angeles reached 96 degrees on Friday, edging out the record of 95 degrees set in 1972, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to be slightly cooler into the mid-70s to low 80s along the coast and low 90s inland with increased humidity in Los Angeles County on Saturday. Highs in the 90s to just above 100 degrees are expected across the valleys, lower mountains and deserts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heat advisories in effect for a large swath of Southern California are set to expire over the course of the weekend. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Alvin continues to weaken along the southern tip of the Baja coast but will still funnel tropical moisture into Southern California. Forecasters are warning of a chance of showers and isolated thunderstorms in Los Angeles County and potentially Ventura County. Amounts would be light, forecasters say, and not every location will get rain. By Friday and Saturday, daily high temperatures will begin pushing record levels for this time of the year across parts of the Western U.S. On these maps, you'll see NWS HeatRisk, which is an experimental color-numeric-based index that provides a forecast risk of heat-related pic.twitter.com/Nr3yljh10S National Weather Service (@NWS) May 27, 2025 For days, officials have cautioned the public about the risks associated with record-breaking heat. In Los Angeles County, the Public Health Department issued a heat advisory for residents in the western and eastern areas of the San Fernando Valley, as well as the Santa Clarita Valley, warning of the high risk of heat-related illness for sensitive populations adults who are 65 and older, as well as children and those with chronic illnesses. Forecasters are expecting temperatures to reach as high as 100 degrees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Along the Central Coast, temperatures remained in the high 90s on Friday but are expected to ease on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service's Monterey Office. Locals and travelers headed to the Cuyama Valley, southern Salinas Valley or the mountain and valley areas of San Luis Obispo County are being warned of high heat risks. Temperatures as high as 106 are forecast for a portion of Central California including Merced, Madera, the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno, the Yosemite Valley and the Sierra foothills on Saturday. An extreme heat warning will remain in effect for Death Valley, where temperatures are expected to exceed 115 degrees, through Saturday night. The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a fire weather watch from Saturday morning through Sunday evening due to gusty winds, low humidity and the chance of dry lightning. There is a 10% to 15% chance of isolated dry thunderstorms with gusty, erratic winds primarily in the Sierra. How to protect yourself during a heat wave For residents living in areas with general to extreme heat advisories, health officials advise you to: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Drink plenty of fluids. If possible, stay in air-conditioned rooms. Check on relatives and neighbors. If you have to be outside, wear lightweight and loose-fitting clothing and a hat, and use an umbrella. Avoid going out during the hottest hours of the day. Stay in shaded areas as much as possible. Never leave pets or children alone in a car. Cars get very hot inside, even with the windows cracked or open, officials said. If you don't have access to air conditioning or a cool environment, there are free cooling centers, splash pads and community pools in Los Angeles County. You can find which cooling centers are near you by checking the Find Relief From the Heat section of the Ready L.A. County Website. Public health officials say heat-related illnesses, such as exhaustion and heatstroke, increase significantly during extreme heat. Symptoms of heat-related illness include vomiting, dizziness, confusion, and hot, red, dry or damp skin. If you see or experience any of these symptoms, move to a cool place and call 9-1-1. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The Laurel Generation Station power plant in Laurel Montana as seen in September 2023. (Aerial photography by Ed Saunders) NorthWestern Energy, the states largest public utility, tried to stop an energy engineer who planned to testify about climate change from participating in a rate case as an expert witness. It also attempted to curtail testimony based on an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The monopoly utility argued some of the testimony was an attempt to introduce inadmissible hearsay and exhibits, such as the IPCC report. The IPCC is an international United Nations body set up to assess science related to climate with 195 members. The utility also said the energy engineer sought to offer improper legal opinions as a nonlawyer and requested the Montana Public Service Commission strike that testimony. On a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Montana Public Service Commission supported a staff recommendation to allow the engineer, with the Montana Environmental Information Center, to testify as an expert witness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the PSC agreed he could not offer legal conclusions, as also recommended in the draft order from staff. A minority on the commission tried to block expert testimony from the witness. The order to allow the engineer to testify as an expert happened when PSC President Brad Molnar urged the commission to avoid a double standard and treat the witness fairly. The PSC is all Republican, and Molnar said if the commission determined the MEIC witness wasnt an expert, a future commission with a different political makeup could use the same rationale to disqualify witnesses for NorthWestern Energy. He also said the commission will have the ability to test the engineers testimony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If there is one golden nugget in there, either substantiated by cross examination or refuted by cross examination, it has been worthy of our time, Molnar said. Molnar also said the argument to silence the engineer was not based in fact. What we have is a desire to stop one person from testifying because one other moving party (NorthWestern) in this soon-to-be drama doesnt want people to hear what he has to say, Molnar said. And I cant go with that. The dispute is one small debate in another rate case filed by NorthWestern Energy and already drawing scrutiny after a 2023 settlement the PSC approved that hiked electric bills nearly 28%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Montanans have been fighting about the effects of climate change in different political arenas, including at the utility regulatory agency. The witness whom NorthWestern tried to block, Nick Fitzmaurice of the Montana Environmental Information Center, said in written pre-filed testimony the utility has neglected to account for risks that climate change poses to its operations and credit. Corporate analysts have specifically and repeatedly noted that climate change creates multiple risks for NorthWestern Energy, Fitzmaurice said in part of his testimony. Moodys identified climate change as posing multiple risks to NorthWestern Energy. Attempts to cull and curate witness testimony in cases arent new, but the debate this week shows the pending rate case as another battleground over the role played by climate change in energy costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an email to the Daily Montanan, NorthWestern spokesperson Jo Dee Black said the utility was not attempting to disallow information in the case. This motion was made not to limit an issue or topic but to ensure the professional standards for qualification as an expert witness were upheld, Black said. NorthWestern did not have any issues with this witness testifying as a lay or fact witness. However, Anne Hedges, with the Montana Environmental Information Center, said NorthWestern admits it doesnt employ any scientific expert on climate change itself. Hedges said its disingenuous for the utility to try to bill customers for climate impacts such as wildfire yet try to stifle the person giving testimony about climate change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not having testimony means the commission cant consider climate change at all, and that is exactly what they want, Hedges said of NorthWestern. So good for Brad Molnar. Good for the commission. In its motion, NorthWestern called on the PSC to strike irrelevant evidence from Fitzmaurice, energy transition engineer for the MEIC. Fitzmaurice holds a bachelors degree in industrial management systems engineering from Montana State University and has worked in energy policy and modeling, according to his MEIC biography. The utility tried to exclude his statements about its emissions and the economic impacts of climate change in Montana, and it tried to exclude testimony from Kyle Unruh of Renewable Northwest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NorthWestern also disputed Fitzmaurice as an expert witness experts are allowed to rely on reports, or hearsay not personally experienced, to explain their opinions. NorthWestern, though, said Fitzmaurice should only be allowed to testify as a lay witness meaning he could testify only from personal experience, which would exclude testimony based on an IPCC report. Witnesses in rate cases file written testimony in advance of hearings. At the meeting this week, PSC legal counsel Lucas Hamilton said staff found some of the testimony Fitzmaurice provided to be impermissible legal conclusions more appropriately submitted later on in the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Hamilton said staff recommended finding Fitzmaurices testimony relevant, contrary to NorthWesterns motion, although he said its credibility would be up to the commission to determine. Before the PSC approved the recommended order from staff, Commissioner Annie Bukacek moved to disqualify Fitzmaurice, with support from Commissioner Jennifer Fielder. Bukacek said Fitzmaurice has not done enough actual work in his field, and she had yet to meet an expert in climatology or energy policy who didnt have a doctorate degree. Standards matter in any field that provides critical information, such as energy policy, Bukacek said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to a question, however, Hamilton said without a point of reference from the parties, the standard for qualifying a person as an expert within the field of energy policy is discretionary. In the meantime, he said, the Montana rules of evidence call for a liberal interpretation of who is an expert and allow an experts testimony to be scrutinized. PSC staff attorney Pamela Snyder-Varns said if the PSC deemed Fitzmaurice a lay witness as opposed to an expert, it would effectively preclude him from testifying altogether. There wouldnt be much left of his testimony, Snyder-Varns said. The move to oust Fitzmaurice from the list of experts failed, with only Bukacek and Fielder in support. Commissioners Randy Pinocci and Jeff Welborn supported Molnars move to adopt the draft order prepared by staff. Pinocci said he didnt want a disqualification by the PSC to lead to a costly lawsuit alleging the commission had drawn an improper conclusion about an expert. Unruh, with Renewable NorthWest, declined to comment beyond his written testimony. The order from the PSC denied NorthWesterns move to strike his remarks. Relying in part on an IPCC report, Unruh argues NorthWestern is putting Montana ratepayers at substantial economic risk and regulatory risk by ignoring the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. But Hedges, with the MEIC, said NorthWestern Energy has become more bullish, and the rate case is demonstrating their new aggressive position toward the commission and toward customers. Editors note: This story has been updated to correct a misattributed quote. The PSC staff attorney who discussed the effects of changing a witness from an expert to a lay witness was Pamela Snyder-Varns. TYLER, Texas (KETK) The ban on THC in Texas has local businesses and East Texans concerned. Senate Bill 3 will ban all THC products and now waits for Abbotts signature. Co-owner of Dragons Breath in North Tyler said a full THC ban will do more harm than good. We were disgusted Civil Rights activists call for Tyler Police resignations When the House and Senate passed the bill, co-owner, Lauren Gilmore made all THC products 25 percent off and she believes SB-3 becoming law would be harmful to Texans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Honestly, just putting peoples lives at risk and making ordinarily law-abiding citizens into criminals, Dragons Breath co-owner, Lauren Gilmore said. The bill was spearheaded by Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick. AG Commissioner, Sid Miller, has supported the bill and said taking away THC will protect kids. You have seventh graders to walk in a convenience store buy a bag of gummies. You know Delta-9 gummies which is full strength marijuana and take those back to junior high and pass them around. That wasnt illegal. We never intended for that to happen, AG Commissioner Sid Miller said. The GOP is split on it. Theres a lot of them would like to keep it the status as is, or at least legalize some form of legal use of THC outside of medicinal use. Theres a portion of the Republican Party that is dead set against it. Hes kind of between a rock and a hard place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think people should be able to be trusted with what theyre putting into their body. Its all up to them. It should not be up to the government. This should not be a nanny state, Gilmore said. Dragons Breath strictly follows the 21 or older law when selling in Gilmores store. THC sales is 30% of their business at Dragons Breath. Nearly 6000 shops around the state will be affected by the bill. Its unfortunate that theyre going to be affected negatively economically, but that was a risk they took and they knew that going in doesnt make it any better, Miller said. If SB-3 becomes law, Gilmore is worried for the wellbeing of her customers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some people are using it, you know, just for aches and pains from joint muscles, arthritis, lots of anxiety and depression, Gilmore said. She believes people will find cannabis on the streets and their lives may be in danger. I had a friend who actually ODd from laced fentanyl cannabis on the streets, which is to me is way more dangerous getting it on the street than inside a shop where all of these products have been tested by a lab, Gilmore said. Dragons Breath will remain open and Gilmore will try to keep all of her staff. If signed by Abbott, the law will take effect in September and stores in Texas will have until January to be in full compliance with the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that a FedEx Boeing 757-200s belly landing in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was caused by the failure of the alternate gear extension system, which prevented the landing gear from being lowered during an emergency. On Oct. 4, 2023, FedEx (NYSE: FDX) flight 1376 experienced an abnormal runway contact when the flight crew was unable to extend the landing gear during the approach to Chattanoogas Lovell Field. Shortly after takeoff from Chattanooga, the captain called for gear up, and the first officer raised the landing gear control lever to retract the landing gear. Both the main landing gear and nose landing gear retracted to their up and locked position. Digital flight data recorder data showed that 22 seconds after gear retraction, the hydraulic fluid quantity and pressure in the left hydraulic system began to decrease. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After troubleshooting the hydraulic issue per procedures in the Quick Reference Handbook, the flight crew made the decision to return to Chattanooga. While preparing to land, the landing gear did not extend as expected when the landing gear control lever was positioned to its down position. Gear disagree. The gear is not coming down, the first officer confirmed, according to cockpit voice recorder data documented by the NTSB. Despite multiple attempts to deploy the landing gear using both normal and alternate extension systems, the crew was forced to perform a belly landing. The aircraft slid off the departure end of Runway 20 and impacted localizer antennas before coming to rest about 830 feet beyond the end of the runway. Findings Postaccident inspections of the landing gear system found that hydraulic fluid was leaking from the left landing gear door actuator retract hydraulic hose. Inspections also found that the engine indication and crew alerting system showed the left hydraulic system had only 32% fluid quantity remaining after the main landing gear door retraction shortly after takeoff, which is considered fully depleted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Analysis of the failed hydraulic hose revealed multiple broken wire strands along its length and a rupture in its inner liner. The cause of the broken wire strands most likely originated from an overload event as evidenced by the necking down of the wire strands and a reduction in their area, investigators shared. More critically, electrical system inspections of the alternate extension system found no electrical continuity between the alternate gear extend switch and the alternate extension power pack. A visual examination revealed a break in a wire between the circuit breaker and the alternate gear extend switch, which prevented the system from functioning as a backup. Analysis of the wires fracture surfaces showed a reduction in area and circumferential cracking of the coating, consistent with tensile loading, the final report stated. No obvious defects or anomalies were observed on the fracture surfaces. Evacuation issues The investigation also identified issues with the aircrafts evacuation equipment. After the airplane came to a stop, the jumpseat occupant attempted to open the L1 door, which only rotated halfway open and would not fully deploy. The R1 door also became lodged on the slide pack before the jumpseat occupant used force to open it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators found that the R1 doors bannis latch did not conform to the configuration required by an FAA Airworthiness Directive from 1986, which caused the slide pack to jam during evacuation. The NTSB determined the probable cause of this accident to be the failure of the alternate gear extension system, which prevented the landing gear from being lowered. The cause of the system failure was a broken wire, due to tensile overload, between the alternate gear extend switch and the alternate extension power pack, preventing the AEPP from energizing and supplying hydraulic fluid to the door lock release actuators for the nose landing gear and main landing gear. Contributing to the accident was the loss of the left hydraulic system due to a ruptured left main gear door actuator hose from fatigue, which prevented normal landing gear operation. The NTSB noted that the crew of FedEx flight 1376 demonstrated good Crew Resource Management during the emergency, remaining calm and professional throughout the accident sequence. They displayed effective workload management by distributing tasks among themselves, with the captain flying and the first officer working to resolve the issue with air traffic control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crew maintained clear and concise communication between all crewmembers to include a jumpseat occupant, and with ATC, actively soliciting feedback and input, and crosschecking with one another to ensure everyone was working with the same mental model, the report stated. As a result of this investigation, the NTSB issued four new safety recommendations to the FAA and three new recommendations to Boeing on March 27, 2025. These recommendations address the need to inspect and modify bannis latches on Boeing aircraft doors and update aircraft maintenance manuals with correct configurations. Following the accident, FedEx implemented a 275 Flight Hour check on the alternate extension system, including performing a general visual inspection while the nose landing gear and main landing gear doors are open while on the ground. Related: FedEx 757 accident prompts NTSB call for door latch inspections (This article is republished from Airline Geeks.) The post NTSB cites hydraulic and electrical failures in FedEx 757 gear failure appeared first on FreightWaves. NEW YORK Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos joined immigration advocates on Thursday to demand federal authorities release Dylan, a Bronx high school student detained in an immigration courthouse. Dylan, 20, an asylum seeker from Venezuela and a student at ELLIS Preparatory Academy, was arrested at a routine court hearing last week after the government moved to dismiss his case. Dylans last name has been withheld at his familys request through their lawyers. In the week since, Dylan has been shuttled between detention centers in Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana and New Jersey complicating efforts to connect with his legal team and receive medical care. He has not been accused of any crime and entered the country legally through a Biden-era asylum process, which has since been rejected by the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our hearts go out to the student, Dylan, who was detained by ICE, Aviles-Ramos told hundreds of protesters on the steps of Tweed Courthouse, the public school systems headquarters in lower Manhattan. We are deeply saddened for his family. The chancellors brief statement marked the strongest opposition yet from the Adams administration after the mayor earlier this week attempted to distance himself from ICEs actions, which he and Aviles-Ramos both stressed did not take place at a public school. Local elected officials, however, urged Mayor Eric Adams to make his own public plea for Dylans release. I understand the limited role we have locally on immigration. But Mayor no, Deputy President Eric Adams, all I want you to do is be as vocal about immigration issues as you were under Biden, said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Zachary Nosanchuk, a spokesman for the mayor, said the chancellors remarks speak for the entire administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the event, Dylan received a flood of support from politicians, local teachers and faculty unions, and public school parents who attested to his character as a hard-worker, father figure to his two younger siblings, and immigrant who legally sought asylum. They chanted to Free Dylan and carried signs calling on the federal government to keep their hands off of students and children. When the Trump administration tells you that they are only going after criminals, know that that is a flat-out lie: Dylan wasnt detained to make our communities safer, said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y. Dylan was detained to send the message that no location is safe, even in a state like New York where we have laws that are supposed to protect people from ICE arrests at courthouses. Councilwoman Rita Joseph, D-Brooklyn, chair of the education committee, added: He did everything right. He showed up a routine immigration check-in, Joseph said. And for that, he was taken, detained, stripped from his life, his school, from his community all for daring to follow the process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The rally was the second in almost as many days where local schools stood up against Trumps immigration policies and their impact on education. On Tuesday, about 500 high school students walked out of class to protest federal actions that they said made their immigrant classmates feel unsafe. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this week condemned Bidens decision to let immigrants into the country with a notice to appear before a judge. The federal government said ICE is now following the law and placing Dylan and others in expedited removal proceedings, as officials claim they always should have been. If individuals have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation, the agency said in a statement. Dylans detention has also drawn the condemnation of New Yorks governor, who at an unrelated press conference Thursday in Hells Kitchen made a distinction between assisting in the removal of people who have been accused of crimes and separating families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I will continue to work with ICE in those circumstances where they present a warrant for arrest always have, always will, Gov. Hochul said. But short of that? Leave our families alone. Let our students get the education especially those who are trying to follow the law, presenting themselves at an immigration center, following the rules. Dylans mom, Raiza, watched a livestream of the rally out of fear for her safety. Through an advocate, she thanked the crowd for their love and outpouring of support. _____ (With Evan Simko-Bednarski.) _____ SOHO, Manhattan (PIX11) Two NYPD officers are on administrative leave for allegedly working security for the cryptocurrency investors accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian Bitcoin millionaire, sources told PIX11 News. Sources said one police officer was part of New York City Mayor Eric Adams security detail. Its believed the 28-year-old victim may have been picked up from the airport by one of the officers and driven to the luxury SoHo townhouse where he was kept captive, according to sources. More Local News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim was shocked with electrical wires, forced to smoke crack, cut with a saw on his leg and beaten with a gun while he was held for more than three weeks, court documents said. John Woeltz, 37, and 33-year-old William Duplessie were both arrested in connection to the kidnapping, according to authorities. Police officers are not permitted to work private security detail without approval from the NYPD. A spokesperson for Adams told PIX11 News that the mayor was unaware of what an officer on his team was doing on his personal time. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty. We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing, City Hall wrote in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Woeltz has been denied bail following a grand jury indictment on Thursday. Duplessie, who turned himself in, is also being held without bail and due back in court Friday morning. 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. 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. NEW YORK (AP) New York City police are investigating two detectives who worked security at an upscale Manhattan townhouse where a man says he was kidnapped and tortured for weeks by two crypto investors who wanted to steal his Bitcoin, a city official said Thursday. One of the detectives serves on Mayor Eric Adams security detail and is believed to have picked up the victim from a local airport and brought him to the townhouse, the official said. Its not immediately clear if the other detective, who is a narcotics officer, has any connection to the incident. The detectives have been placed on modified leave pending the outcome of the inquiry, according to the official, who was briefed on the case and spoke anonymously to The Associated Press because they are not authorized to discuss the internal investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is not uncommon for members of the NYPD to do private security work outside of their city jobs but they need to receive prior approval. At this point, the official said, the department is looking into whether the officers received that approval. Adams office confirmed one of the detectives provides security detail for the Democrat, but said the mayor has no knowledge of what the officer does on his personal time. Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty, the mayors office said in an emailed statement. We are disturbed by these allegations. In response to an emailed inquiry, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed two members were placed on modified duty Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lawyer for the labor union representing NYPD detectives said there's absolutely no indication either officer witnessed any of the alleged illegal activity. James Moschella described the officers as outstanding public servants with distinguished careers who were working a legitimate job driving a private client in their off-duty hours. There is simply no way to have predicted the true activities of what by all objective accounts were legitimate businessmen, he said in a statement emailed Friday. Had they actually witnessed any such activity, we are certain they would have been the first to take action to stop it. We therefore ask everyone to withhold their judgment of these members until all the facts are in. Crypto investors John Woeltz and William Duplessie have been charged in the case. Their lawyers have declined to comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities allege that on May 6, the two men lured the victim, who they knew personally, to a posh townhouse in Manhattans Soho neighborhood by threatening to kill his family. The man, a 28-year-old Italian national who has not been named by officials, said he was then held captive for 17 days, as the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high. He eventually agreed to hand over his computer password Friday morning, then managed to flee the home as his captors went to retrieve the device. The investigation into the officers began, incidentally, on the same day Adams headlined a crypto convention in Las Vegas, where he described New York as the Bitcoin capital of the country. Police on Friday released surveillance images of a hooded suspect who shot two people on a Far Rockaway street in Queens, killing one of them, police said. Victim Johnny Ellis, 42, and a 36-year-old man were walking toward the intersection of New Haven Ave. and Beach 19th St. about 12:20 a.m. when two men dressed all in black approached them. Each suspect pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting Ellis twice in the chest and twice in the stomach, a police source said. The younger victim was hit once in the back as he turned and tried to escape. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Medics rushed Ellis to Jamaica Hospital but he could not be saved. The other victim was taken to the same hospital in stable condition, police said. It wasnt immediately clear who the intended target was. At least six shots were fired. The two suspects stormed off west on New Haven Ave., cops said. No arrests have been made. Cops canvassing the area recovered surveillance footage of one of the two men walking near the shooting scene. Detectives released the image in the hopes someone recognizes him. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. RICHFIELD SPRINGS, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) New York State Police in Richfield Springs are asking for the publics help in identifying several suspects who broke into a property in the town of Springfield last week. The incidents occurred at two separate times Sunday, May 18, shortly after midnight,t and Sunday, May 25 at approximately 2 am. Both incidents occurred at the same property, on State Highway 80 in the town of Springfield. The suspects allegedly stole things from the property, though what was stolen from there is unknown. State Police also say that the group broke several windows, toilets, and sinks. The group also damaged plumbing and tore down ductwork inside the property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New York State Police have provided pictures, one featured above and one below. The below picture shows that there were multiple people on the scene, while the above picture shows the identity of at least one of the suspects. (Photo courtesy of Trooper Aga Tinker, New York State Police) State Police are asking anyone with any information to contact them at 607-561-7400. When contacting police on this case, you are asked to reference case number NY2500448469. 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. Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Dalany Phommavongsa (R), presents the official appointment letter to the head of the Lao Tourism Promotion Center in China, in Vientiane, capital of Laos, on May 29, 2025. Laos' Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism held a signing ceremony for the terms of reference for the Lao Tourism Representative in China, aiming to more effectively promote the Lao tourism brand to Chinese travelers and further enhance bilateral tourism exchanges between Laos and China. VIENTIANE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Laos' Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism held a signing ceremony for the terms of reference for the Lao Tourism Representative in China, aiming to more effectively promote the Lao tourism brand to Chinese travelers and further enhance bilateral tourism exchanges between Laos and China. During the event on Thursday, Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Dalany Phommavongsa, presented the official appointment letter to the head of the Lao Tourism Promotion Center in China, recognizing their role in leading tourism promotion efforts in the Chinese market. In his speech, Vongdeuan Keosulivong, deputy director general of the ministry's Tourism Marketing Department, said that the Lao Tourism Promotion Center in China has made significant contributions to advancing Lao tourism. He expressed hope that tourism exchanges between the two countries would continue to grow, helping to raise the international profile of Lao tourism. Since 2019, the ministry has established tourism promotion centers in China's Beijing and Changsha. The ministry has also developed and managed official online platforms to promote Lao tourism. TURIN, N.Y. (WWTI) The New York State Police are seeking the publics assistance in locating a stolen trailer in Lewis County. According to authorities, a DR Power Versa-Trailer Pro XL2000 trailer with dump bed and boom lift, was allegedly stolen from the East Road area in the town of Turin sometime between May 12 and May 29. The trailer is missing the rear tailgate and was loaded with rough cut pine boards of various lengths, which were stolen with the trailer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information is asked to contact the State Police at 315-366-6000. Reference case number NY2500462198. (Courtesy of New York State Police) 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 WWTI - InformNNY.com. Journalists from The New York Times (NYT) have discovered that a memorandum that Ukraines Defence Minister Rustem Umierov handed over to Russia contains provisions for a ceasefire not only on land, but also at sea and in the air. Source: The New York Times, citing an unnamed senior Ukrainian official Details: The source reports that the Ukrainian document contains provisions on a ceasefire on land, at sea and in the air, and also provides for monitoring by international partners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The NYT notes that other Ukrainian officials interviewed by journalists believe that Russia may set a trap by proposing conditions in its memorandum that are unacceptable to Kyiv. This particularly refers to a possible demand to withdraw Ukraines troops from territories claimed by Russia. Ukrainian officials fear that Moscow will try to take advantage of this situation to accuse Kyiv of disrupting the negotiations if it refuses to accept conditions that are known to be unacceptable. Background: Umierov, who headed Ukraine's delegation at the talks with Russia in Istanbul, gave Russia a document that reflects the Ukrainian position and is awaiting their own "memorandum" in response. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on what conditions for a ceasefire Russia would set out in its draft "memorandum", saying that this should be discussed privately. Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Russia's unwillingness to officially hand over its "memorandum" for negotiations indicates that it contains unrealistic demands and is an attempt to stall the peace process. Ukraines Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stressed that Kyiv is ready for the next round of talks with Russia, but is still waiting for Moscow to deliver the promised text of the "memorandum" on a ceasefire. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! By Greg Torode SINGAPORE (Reuters) -New Zealand is seeking to expand Asia-Pacific military deployments in its quest to show it was now "pulling our weight" with increased spending on its armed forces, the South Pacific nation's defence minister said in Singapore on Friday. Defence minister Judith Collins raised the prospect of welcoming increased warship visits to the country, deepening joint training and other cooperative efforts with its traditional defence partners including ally Australia, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Britain and the Philippines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "So we're open for business, we're back in the world and we're pulling our weight," Collins told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore. The New Zealand government announced in April that it would boost defence spending by NZ$9 billion ($5 billion) over the next four years, with the aim of nearly doubling spending to 2% as a share of gross domestic product in the next eight years amid growing international tensions. The new spending is a significant boost to the defence budget of just under NZ$5 billion in 2024/25, and follows its first national security review in 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The review called for more military spending and stronger ties with Indo-Pacific nations to tackle issues of climate change and strategic competition between the West, and China and Russia. The USS Blue Ridge, the command ship of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, visited Wellington earlier this month and further visits from partners could be expected, Collins said. The ship was just the third U.S. warship to visit in 40 years. When asked about Chinese concerns at New Zealand's more assertive military posture, she said Beijing realised Wellington had "actually got a spine", but "I don't think China stays awake at night worrying about us." "I don't think we're any threat to China, or anyone else really," Collins said, describing relations with China, an important trading partner, as "very mature". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regional military attaches and analysts say that after years of relative neglect, New Zealand still had to improve its ability to sustainably project power given its small, ageing navy and air force but supporting its traditional relationships were key. Nuclear-free since the 1980s, New Zealand maintains an independent foreign policy but remains part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network with the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada. Deployments of its four new Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft are being closely watched, given how they can help other countries plug gaps in the hunt for Chinese submarines, analysts say. Collins said New Zealand and Australian pilots now had the ability to fly each other's P-8 and transport planes - a sign of growing "interoperability" in action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Collins said the P-8s had already flown up towards Canada and she expected further patrols in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. "I think you'll see quite a lot of that," she said. "We go everywhere. Everywhere where we're wanted we go, if we can." (Reporting by Greg Torode in Singapore; editing by Shri Navaratnam and Raju Gopalakrishnan) A gunman was pronounced dead Thursday night after he was wounded during a struggle with a Chicago police officer and his gun discharged in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, officials said. Shortly after 10:35 p.m., officers on patrol in the 4300 block of West North Avenue attempted to stop a male suspect in an alley. As they approached the suspect, he fled on foot into a backyard. A chase ensued followed by a struggle, Chicago police reported. During the struggle, the suspects weapon discharged, striking an officer, police said. An officer opened fire, striking the suspect. The suspect was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead. An officer who was struck to a leg, was taken to a local hospital where his condition was stabilized, police said. A weapon was recovered from the scene. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability was investigating. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) Three people were arrested in Springfield after a police chase in a stolen vehicle led to the seizure of an illegal firearm. Springfield Technical Community College hosts 58th Commencement The Springfield Police Department states that officers observed a stolen vehicle on Genesee Street on Thursday. A traffic stop was conducted a short time later on Albany Street. The driver, who was identified as 18-year-old Zachary Hardy of Gardner, tried to escape the police and crashed into a police cruiser with two other passengers inside. No one was injured in the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hardy put the car in park and was placed under arrest. An unloaded firearm, which was capable of holding 15 rounds of ammunition, was found inside Hardys cross-body bag. Springfield Police Department Springfield Police Department Springfield Police Department Both of the passengers, 18-year-old Teyvaun Williams-Santiago and a 16-year-old boy, were also placed under arrest. The car was reported stolen out of Worcester. Zachary Hardy of Gardner is charged with: Receiving a Stolen Motor Vehicle Failure to Stop for Police Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Suspended License Assault & Battery with a Dangerous Weapon Carrying an Unloaded Large Capacity Firearm on a Public Way Reckless Operation of a Motor Vehicle Teyvaun Williams-Santiago of West Springfield is charged with: Receiving a Stolen Motor Vehicle Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The juveniles name, booking photo, and charges will not be released due to his age. 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. MACON, Ill. (WCIA) The Macon County States Attorneys Office concluded their investigation into the shooting that involved Decatur Park Police officers and a man wielding a machete and shotgun. Friday afternoon, States Attorney Diane Couri said they determined that the police officers were justified in their use of force. Decatur woman convicted of child porn sentenced after six-month delay On May 3, at 11:50 a.m., deputies from the Macon County Sheriffs Office responded to the P&V gas station in Macon for the report of a person that had wrecked their car into a semi-truck and was armed with a machete. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After officers attempted to negotiate with the subject, 38-year-old Oscar McCurry Jr., he gained control of a squad car, rammed into a Decatur Park Police vehicle and aimed a shotgun at officers. McCurry was subsequently shot by officers, and a Decatur Park Police Officer was hospitalized due to injuries sustained during the incident. As of May 30, Illinois State Police has concluded their investigation into the shooting, and the Macon County States Attorneys Office has reviewed the case file and all the video evidence. Upon review, the States Attorneys Office determined that each officer involved from both Macon County and Decatur Park was justified in their use of lethal force, Couri said in the release. Due to the ongoing criminal prosecution of McCurry, the States Attorneys Office is not providing further information on this situation. On Monday May 12, he was arraigned on the following formal felony counts: Aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon Felon in possession of a weapon Aggravated battery/use of a deadly weapon Aggravated battery to a peace officer Possession of a stolen vehicle Possession of a stolen firearm Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UPDATE: More info released on drowning death of 3-year-old Decatur boy On May 28, McCurry waived his preliminary hearing and took a not guilty plea. A pre-trial date has been set for July 3 at 9 a.m. McMurry remains in the custody of the Macon County Sheriffs Office. Additionally, State Police is currently compiling the video footage for release to the public and will release the footage as soon as practicable. 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. Flamingo fans in Navi Mumbai, India, should go to DPS Lake, where conservation efforts have enabled the return of the leggy birds, the Free Press Journal reported. After public protests, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation unblocked two channels that connect DPS Lake to Thane Creek. This conservation effort came after the deaths of several migratory flamingos, 10 of whom died from the disrupted water flow in 2024, per The Popular Flamingo. From signatures to demonstrations, many people applied pressure on the government to do something. Some protesters went as far as forming a human chain around DPS Lake, holding signs with bold messages like, "Don't Turn Pink Lake Into Red," per Times of India. DPS is now in the running for conservation reserve status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That freely flowing intertidal water may be matched by a new flow of people. With the return of the beloved flamingos, it didn't take long for tourists to swoop in for easy bird-watching and photo ops. "This is the scene we have longed to see," bird-watcher Satish Dabral exclaimed, per the Free Press Journal. Waterways are vital ecosystems supporting various plant and animal life. What happened with the flamingos at DPS shows how cleaning natural spaces up can draw in once-frequent or rare species. Dolphins surprising New York commuters on the Bronx River in January 2023 is a perfect example. Uncontrolled water pollution often kills aquatic species, creating a negative economic effect on local fishing industries. Human life is at risk when the only source of fresh water for people becomes contaminated, forcing residents to travel miles for the next cleanest source. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tourism booms with a clean lake since it provides a hotspot for boat tours, swimming, water sports, and restaurants. For example, according to Travel North Tahoe, Lake Tahoe's tourism generates as much as $5 billion in direct spending. Statista forecasts India's overall travel and tourism market to continually increase by $11.8 billion between 2024 and 2029. Having vital lakefronts can only improve that forecast or even increase expectations. Other lake conservation efforts have also had good results. Lake Powell's water levels reached a three-year water level high thanks to reduced consumption and more wet weather. Thanks to dam repair, Nevada's Cave Creek Reservoir is back to full capacity after five years of dryness. 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. Security advisors from the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany will attend planned peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on June 2, U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said in an interview with ABC News on May 29. "We'll have what we call the E3. That is the national security advisors from Germany, France, and Great Britain... When we were in London, they kind of helped us mold a term sheet for Ukraine," Kellogg said. Ukraine and Russia held peace talks in Istanbul on May 16, where both sides agreed to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange. The peace negotiations were largely inconclusive, with Moscow reiterating maximalist demands and sending a delegation of lower-level officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What they're doing with their ballistic missiles, with the Iskanders firing into cities like Kyiv, or using their drones shooting into Kyiv... When they did that the other day, that's a direct violation of what's called the Geneva protocols," Kellogg said, reiterating previous statements. Trump, on May 19, held a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which Russia reiterated its refusal to a full ceasefire in its war against Ukraine. "He's killing a lot of people... I don't know what the hell happened to Putin, I've known him for a long time," Trump said on May 25. In the same statement, Trump told journalists sanctions against Russia could be on the table amid Russia's intensified attacks. Despite the peace talks in Turkey, Russia has increased drone and missile attacks against Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite recent peace talks, Moscow has refused a ceasefire and instead insisted it will provide Ukraine with a memorandum of a peace proposal. Russia has not given Ukraine the proposal despite indicating it would once peace talks concluded on May 16. Kyiv has not yet officially announced it will attend the next peace talks slated to take place on June 2 in Turkey. Kellogg on May 27 criticized former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for comments that alluded to the threat of World War III, calling them "reckless" and "unfitting of a world power." "Trump... is working to stop this war and end the killing. We await receipt of (the Russian) Memorandum... that you promised a week ago. Cease fire now," Kellogg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The indiscriminate killing of women and children at night in their homes is a clear violation of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols designed to protect innocents. These attacks are shameful," Kellogg said on May 25, following Russian attacks on Kyiv. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia reports 2nd consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. People in uniforms perform security duties outside the Shangri-La Hotel, the venue for the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, May 30, 2025. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua) SINGAPORE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's leading defense summit, convenes from Friday to Sunday in Singapore, with more than 550 delegates from over 40 countries expected to attend. China will be represented by a delegation from the National Defense University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. As the annual summit takes place amid rising geopolitical tensions, analysts say key topics will likely include regional cooperation, the U.S. security policies and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The implications of sweeping U.S. tariffs are also likely to attract attention, as officials will use the platform to reassure partners and navigate an increasingly multipolar security landscape. PERSISTING U.S. TRUST DEFICIT High on the agenda of the gathering are seven plenary sessions, two ministerial roundtables and three special forums. Topics range from regional stability and defense innovation to cyber and space threats. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to speak on Saturday about America's "new ambitions for Indo-Pacific security." Observers say he faces a tough task in convincing Asian allies, many of whom remain uneasy about President Donald Trump's disruptive policies, not least those related to trade. Experts like Tan See Seng from Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies argue that Washington's reassurances are often transactional in nature. Trump's reassurances are better understood as deals "with their requisite pounds of flesh," he wrote. William Choong, senior fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, deems the effort to restore trust an "impossible mission." "Whatever Hegseth might say in terms of strategy or priorities will sound hollow compared to what the United States has done since President Donald Trump came to power on Jan. 20," he said. French President Emmanuel Macron is set to deliver a keynote speech late Friday at the Shangri-La Dialogue, where he's expected to position France -- and Europe -- as champions of international cooperation and rules-based trade. Prior to his trip to Singapore, Macron visited Vietnam and Indonesia. Since launching its Indo-Pacific strategy in 2019, France has steadily strengthened ties with Southeast Asia, noted Jean-Loup Samaan of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. LOUDER ASEAN VOICES Amid mounting geopolitical and economic uncertainties, Southeast Asian countries are expected to project a more unified and independent stance at the Dialogue. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will give a speech and make clear how, amid global geopolitical uncertainties and sharpened geo-economic fault lines, Malaysia as ASEAN's current chair, provides strategic leadership for the region and beyond, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the organizer. In response to U.S. tariffs, ASEAN has called for greater unity among its members and with like-minded partners. The Dialogue comes just days after the inaugural ASEAN-China-GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council) summit, which have forged a groundbreaking path in cross-regional cooperation. At the 46th ASEAN Summit this week, leaders issued the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, reaffirming commitments to regional peace, a rules-based order and ASEAN unity, which are, as analysts observe, likely to be reflected in Anwar's address. Tan See Seng emphasized the value of Asian pragmatism: "What Asia has done well, it must now do even better amid the challenging conditions set by Mr. Trump." CHINA'S VIEWS EXPECTED As the global security landscape fractures and the multilateral system faces unprecedented strain, all eyes are turning to China's stance. On Thursday, Chinese defense ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang confirmed the attendance of a delegation from the PLA's National Defense University at the forum. He said that China has consistently engaged in various constructive dialogue platforms to elaborate on its visions and initiatives, communicate with all parties, enhance mutual trust, dispel misgivings and deepen cooperation. Regarding China-U.S. interactions, Zhang said China's values are expected to be a central topic throughout the summit. On this, Zhang said China puts emphasis on its military relations with the United States and remains open to communication at all levels. China's active role in global security governance has been increasingly acknowledged. In 2022, China introduced the Global Security Initiative (GSI). As of the end of 2024, with the support of 119 countries and international and regional organizations, the initiative has been written into 123 bilateral and multilateral cooperation documents. China's position at this year's Shangri-La Dialogue is expected to be closely followed, with many viewing China as a stabilizing force in a volatile world landscape. "We need China to take a more active role in the discussion, as it can help alleviate the conflict that affects the global community," said Nuriyeni Kartika Bintarsari, head of international relations at Jenderal Soedirman University. Han Yong Hong, associate editor of Singapore's newspaper Lianhe Zaobao, wrote that China is currently not eager to engage with the United States on trade or security, but is instead focusing on expanding markets and building supply chains. "Other trading nations around the world may also be willing to form flexible new frameworks for cooperation with China," she said. On top of U.S.-China relations, the summit is also expected to grapple with the protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict and simmering India-Pakistan tension, though analysts caution against expecting substantive progress on these issues. As a freewheeling event, the dialogue often features debates rarely seen in public elsewhere and provides the opportunity for more discreet bilateral and multilateral talks, analysts and diplomats were quoted by Reuters as saying. But that informality means it is unlikely to involve any breakthroughs to major issues. People in uniforms perform security duties outside the Shangri-La Hotel, the venue for the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, May 30, 2025. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua) People in uniforms perform security duties outside the Shangri-La Hotel, the venue for the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, May 30, 2025. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua) ILLINOIS One metro East homeowner was not happy with what her camera caught, which ended up being a bear at her front door. Like a duck to water and a bear to honey, thats exactly what she noticed outside her door: a black bear trying to get to her honey. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says theyre aware of the incident of black bear sightings in the area. The department urges residents to not approach or feed any bears. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Black bears that are hungry seek easier food sources, which can be bird feeders, outdoor grills, trash and dog food. If anyone comes into contact with the animal, authorities say its best to secure any food items that are outside of the home. Contacting the authorities and informing them about the incident is also crucial. 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. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) posted on social media Friday that the Congressional investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell has begun. Ogles said the federal investigation of OConnell, connected to this months ICE operation, is moving forward. Ogles posted a letter from two House committees, requesting the mayor turn over documents to Congress by June 12. Click here to read the full letter. Instead of defending our state, Mayor Freddie OConnell is sabotaging it. Hes weaponized his office to dox and surveil federal agents who are trying to stop violent criminals and worse, hes embraced those criminals by creating a taxpayer-funded program to aid illegal aliens. The recipients of these funds are untraceable. The purpose is crystal clear: help illegal foreigners evade the law. I refuse to sit back while our communities are overrun while our neighborhoods are destroyed and our daughters are assaulted. And I doubly refuse to stay silent while blue city mayors aid and abet this invasion. Today, with the full support of Chairmen Jim Jordan and Mark Green, Im taking action. If Mayor OConnell wants to spy on federal agents doing their job, then Congress is going to investigate him for obstruction. Rep. Andy Ogles Homeland Security identifies Nashville as sanctuary city Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Nashville Community Review Board recently called out Ogles for what the executive director described as a reckless social media post amid the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Ogles claimed the board was protecting illegal aliens, and now the board said its getting ugly calls from people across the country. The public safety operation involving ICE and Tennessee Highway Patrol has led to at least 196 arrests in Nashville this month, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS recently identified Nashville as a sanctuary city on its list, which was created to identify sanctuary jurisdictions, which are determined by factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens, according to DHS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also announced Friday that she sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi formally requesting the U.S. Department of Justice launch an investigation into the actions of OConnell and his office for attempting to undermine President Donald Trump and ICE in their work to make Tennessee communities safer by arresting illegal aliens and getting dangerous criminals off the streets. You can read Blackburns full letter by clicking here. Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go. Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox. Find todays top stories on WKRN.com for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee. This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes 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 WKRN News 2. Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson. Photo from the Ohio Senate. In March, Franklin County, Ohio judges passed a pair of local rules barring immigration arrests at the county courthouse. A new measure in the state Senate aims to invalidate such restrictions statewide. Federal fallout As federal funding and systems dwindle, states are left to decide how and whether to make up the difference. Read the latest > After President Trump took office, his administration quickly issued guidance giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement the greenlight to make arrests in or near courthouses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the months since, there have been several highly publicized arrests at courthouses around the country. In one instance FBI agents even arrested a Wisconsin judge, alleging she obstructed an immigration arrest. Judge Hannah Dugan has filed a motion in federal court to have her charges dismissed. Franklin Countys rules prohibit any civil arrest without a judicial warrant in the courthouse itself or on the sidewalk and entryways. ICE agents typically use an administrative warrant signed by an agency official rather than a judge. The rules also prohibit the execution of a judicial warrant in a courtroom unless the judge agrees to allow it in writing, and restricts court staff from requesting or sharing information about a persons immigration status. In a press release, the court emphasized its responsibility to ensure due process for the public at large. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That mission is jeopardized when victims, witnesses, and defendants are afraid to come to the courthouse to testify and participate in ongoing cases, fearing civil arrest and deportation from courthouse grounds, the release stated. People deciding not to show up, the court argued, undermines the fairness of trials for citizens and non-citizens alike. COLUMBUS, Ohio JUNE 07: State Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, speaks during the Ohio Senate session, June 7, 2023, at the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal) Senate bill 172 State Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, believes the court overstepped its authority. Her proposal specifies that persons who are unlawfully present in the United States are not privileged from arrest. State law already bars civil, but not criminal, arrest in several circumstances. You cant get arrested going to the polls on Election Day, on the Fourth of July, on Sundays generally, or at a place of worship on the traditional day of worship. The same privileges apply to court. The parties to a case, witnesses, jurors, and court officials, cant be arrested for civil violations at, or on the way to and from court a point cited in the local rules. But Roegners proposal would remove those privileges for undocumented individuals, and she said it was drafted in response to Franklin Countys changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Bill 172 would provide much needed support for federal immigration authorities, she argued, by requiring state and local public offices and public officials to allow the arrest or detention of any person who is suspected of being in the United States illegally for that persons removal or for other immigration related purposes. The proposal also prohibits any public office in Ohio from enforcing rules that bar cooperation with immigration authorities. How wide a net? State Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, quipped that its amazing thing that we would even have to do this. But the scope of Roegners proposal gave others pause, particularly in the context of the Trump administrations recent track record with immigration enforcement. Up until the first Trump administration, immigration authorities generally avoided places like courts, schools, hospitals and churches. But in 2018, an ICE directive laid out a policy that increased courthouse arrests substantially. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump campaigned for his second term promising mass deportations, and his administration has tried to fast-track those removals at the expense of due process. Last week a federal judge in Boston ruled a deportation flight to South Sudan violated his previous court order. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the administration could not deport a group of more than 170 Venezuelans with just 24 hours notice. In its ruling, the court pointed to a different, highly publicized case in which Kilmar Abrego Garcia was accidentally deported to El Salvador. Had the detainees been removed from the United States to the custody of a foreign sovereign, the majority wrote, the government may have argued, as it has previously argued, that no U.S. court had jurisdiction to order relief. State Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said he understood Roegners concern about illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. But he expressed doubts about giving free rein to officers seeking someone only suspected of being in the U.S. unlawfully. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With some of the stories that have come out about immigrants who have been wrongfully detained or even wrongfully renditioned out of the country, I was just curious what your thoughts are on protections for legal residents legal immigrants who may feel concerned that they could be wrongfully targeted in this? he asked. Roegner said the U.S. is a country of immigrants and pointed to her own mother immigrating to the country from Finland. But she insisted were also a country of laws, and if someone is here legally they would really have nothing to fear. So yeah, will mistakes happen? Probably, yes, they happen all the time, Roegner said. But they can be cleared. They can say, yep, no, Im a legal immigrant, and heres my paperwork, and they can prove that theyre here rightfully. Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX May 29The Ohio House approved a bipartisan bill this week that would require all Ohio correctional facilities to provide menstrual products to inmates free-of-charge. House Bill 29, passed Wednesday by a vote of 91-to-0, now heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration. If it makes its way into law, the bill should have no substantial impact on the prisons run by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, as it's already the ODRC's policy to offer free tampons and pads to inmates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The impact of H.B. 29 could come, however, at the county level. The state's nonpartisan Legislative Budget Office found that many county jails already provide these products for free. Those jails that don't can expect costs to increase based on how many female inmates they have, the lengths of their stay, and the costs of products provided. Dayton Democrat and first-term legislator Rep. Desiree Tims told this outlet that she voted for the bill "because it will ensure some form of dignity for women menstruating while incarcerated." An identical bill passed the Ohio House 92-0 in 2024 before stalling out in the Ohio Senate under the leadership of then-President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, who now leads the Ohio House. He said the bill's fate in his former chamber wasn't an indicative of a lack of support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I don't think it will have any problem getting passed in the Senate," Huffman told reporters Wednesday. Current Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, however, said he doesn't have a personal opinion on the bill and said his caucus has not yet discussed the bill. When asked for her stance, Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said feminine hygiene products were akin to toilet paper and asked posed a hypothetical about a Statehouse without T.P. "It would not be healthy, it would not be hygienic, and the same thing is true of feminine products. They should be provided absolutely everywhere without cost to the people who are using them." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below. Loading... COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Ohio lawmakers are considering a sweeping change to the make up of Ohios teacher pension fund that could force retirees and teachers off their own board. The States Teachers Retirement System (STRS) has been embroiled in controversy of late, with retirees saying theyve been denied promised cost of living increases while investment staff gets bonuses despite losing billions of dollars. Currently, a legislative subcommittee is reviewing pension boards around the country that could possibly change who sits on the STRS board. Over the past few years, teachers and retirees have worked to get reformers elected to the board. These reformers won a majority of the seats of the 11-member board but retirees said multiple Ohio government officials are working to strip their power away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Everybody gets rich at STRS, our consultants get rich. Our investors get rich, our STRS management get rich, said Robin Rayfield, the CEO of the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association. The only people who dont get rich are the people who put the money in, and that is the teachers. A manual outlining benefits was given to tens of thousands of Ohio teachers when they were hired, which says they are promised pension with a cost of living increase of 3% annually. Nearly a decade ago, STRS took that away and since 2020, retirees said they have lost 23% of their buying power. So we have teachers that are, you know, trying to live on 40, $50,000 I mean, they have roofs on their house that need to be replaced. They need to buy cars. I mean, how do you have an investment like that? said Dean Dennis of a retiree watchdog group. FTC, FBI issue warnings about deals that sound too good to be true Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This watchdog group has worked to get reformers elected that demand investment transparency and an end to lavish bonuses for investment staff members. Some of these bonuses are as high as $300,000. The group said they are receiving push back, first from Gov. Mike DeWine. A board member Wade Steen was previously kicked from the board by Gov. DeWine, before appointing G. Brent Bishop to replace him. But at the beginning of 2024, an appeals court determined DeWine overstepped his authority in removing Steen from the position. The governor called for an investigation into the board, claiming there is a hostile takeover by private interests at STRS. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost obliged, and called for the removal of Steen and Rudy Fichtenbaum from the board in May of 2024. Retirees said Steen and Fichtenbaum were targeted because they backed reform. The people that we have elected want the most basic, simple things. They want transparency and accountability, said Dennis. Thats all were looking for, because without accountability and transparency, you cant fix a broken pension system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Republican controlled Ohio Retirement Study Council is looking into changes to the make-up of the board. Rep. Sean Brennan (D-Parma), a retired teacher, serves on the bipartisan legislative subcommittee and is keeping an open mind. Ive always believed in looking for best practices, said Brennan. So if there is something that we could be doing in Ohio thats better than what were doing now, then why not take a look at it? And as retirees, we paid in and have very much a vested interest in the future of the system. And I think we we are required to have a voice, and entitled to a voice. 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. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Ohio officials recently released a report that details statistics about children who went missing in 2024 and highlights unsolved disappearances from years past. The Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse, a repository run by the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation since 1993, releases an annual missing childrens report. The initiative stems from a coordinated effort between local law enforcement agencies and the National Crime Information Center. Each American state has a missing children clearinghouse that collects and disseminates information. What did the report find? The report covering 2024 revealed 21,342 people were reported missing in Ohio, a number that decreased by 1,032 compared with 2023. The downward trend remained true for missing children, who made up 16,404 of total missing people, which is 1,001 fewer than the previous year. (Photo courtesy/Ohio Attorney Generals Office) Of the missing children, 96.5%, or 15,834, were recovered safely before the end of the year while three were found dead, the report states. Over 500 cases remained open at the end of 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Every missing person is someone to somebody a child, sibling, loved one or friend, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. I am proud of the dedication shown by Ohio law enforcement to keep Ohios children safe and commit that my office will continue to do everything in its power to support that mission. The report found 8,758 of the missing children were girls and 7,646 were boys. Minors between the ages of 13 and 18 made up 14,681 of the missing children, with those aged 6 to 12 representing 1,556 cases and kids between 0 and 5 making up 167 cases. Franklin County saw the highest number of missing children, at 2,792. Montgomery followed close behind at 2,760, then Cuyahoga at 2,717. Franklin and Cuyahoga are the most populated counties in the state, while Montgomery has the fifth-highest population. Where in Columbus youre most likely to get pulled over for speeding Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In missing children cases where the circumstances were specified, 8,415 were classified as runaways, 37 were abducted by a noncustodial parent and nine were abducted by a stranger. Last year, Ohio issued 13 Amber Alerts involving 15 children. Fourteen of the kids were recovered safely and one was found dead. The state also sent out 17 endangered missing children alerts involving 18 individuals, 17 of which were safely recovered while one was found dead. Endangered missing children alerts are issued for disappearances where police cannot determine whether the child was abducted, but the circumstances otherwise meet Amber Alert criteria. Data from the clearinghouse report is taken from missing child reports from law enforcement, which is entered into the National Crime Information Center database. Once a child is found, the report is closed and the case is updated in the database. Unsolved disappearances featured The report put a spotlight on the case of Ashley Summers, who disappeared at 14 years old on July 9, 2007. She was last seen in the vicinity of a relatives house on West 44th Street in Cleveland, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Summers has a tattoo of the name Gene surrounded by a heart on her right arm. Today, she would be 31 years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also included in the report is Neveah Holton, who went missing at 2 years old. While she was last seen at a doctors appointment on Nov. 13, 2012, she was first reported missing by a social worker six years later. Holton has a distinctive white patch of hair as she was diagnosed with Waardenburg Syndrome, a genetic condition that affects pigmentation. Today, she would be 15 years old. Ashley Summers around the time she went missing and a photo age progressed to 29 years old. Nevaeh Holton around the time she went missing and a photo age progressed to 14 years old. Nylo Lattimore around the time he went missing. No age progressed photo has been made available. Jamel Williams around the time he went missing and a photo age progressed to 27 years old. Nylo Lattimore went missing at 3 years old on Dec. 4, 2020. The childs stroller was found near the Ohio river in Cincinnati, where his mothers body was discovered. Desean Brown has been accused of killing the pair and is set to go on trial this year. Police believe Lattimore was thrown into the river, but he has never been found. Today, he would be 7 years old. The final disappearance included in the report is that of Jamel Williams, who went missing at 3 years old on May 25, 1994. His mother reported him missing, claiming she last saw him on the rear steps of her apartment in the east side of Toledo. Police stated neighbors reported that they never had seen the child at the apartment since his mother began living there in April 1994. Today, Williams would be 34 years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone who has information about an unsolved disappearance included in the report should contact the police department for the city where the individual went missing. 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. (WKBN) Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the states Sales Tax Holiday will run for two full weeks this year. Ohios Sales Tax Holiday will be August 1-14. During that time period, shoppers will be able to make qualifying purchases both in-store and online without paying state sales tax. To see which items are eligible, visit the Ohio Department of Taxations website. In 2024, the Sales Tax Holiday lasted ten days instead of the usual three days. It was also expanded to include a wider range of items. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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) The Oklahoma City Police Department announced on Friday, 42-year-old Pepe Morales is now in custody facing robbery, drug and weapons-related charges. According to authorities, Morales was arrested last month and has since been connected to other cases of burglary, robbery, kidnapping, and sexual assault. Moore PD hosts Cola with a Cop May 31 42-year-old Pepe Morales, Image courtesy Oklahoma City Police Department Facebook page Police say, victims are female and from the Hispanic community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you have been victimized, or have any additional information on Morales contact Crime Stoppers 405.235.7300 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. SYDNEY, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The environmental authority in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has taken action against chemicals giant 3M after "forever chemicals" were detected at a testing site. The NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said on Friday that it issued a clean-up notice to 3M Australia after per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were identified in soil, sediment, and water across 100 hectares of the inactive quarry site in Brogans Hill, 150 km northwest of Sydney. The EPA said the limestone quarry site was historically leased by 3M Australia from 1980-2000 to test firefighting foams containing PFAS, a group of over 4,000 chemicals commonly known as "forever chemicals" because of their persistence in the environment and human body. David Gathercole, director of operations at the NSW EPA, said in a statement that it was the first time that the agency had taken action against 3M Australia, which is a subsidiary of the U.S.-based multinational 3M Company. "This is a significant moment for the EPA and one that represents an important milestone in our efforts to address legacy environmental harm," he said. In addition to the PFAS contamination identified at the quarry, the EPA said that forever chemicals were detected above the national drinking water guidelines up to eight km downstream of the site, including in a national park. Under the clean-up notice, 3M Australia has 60 days to submit a detailed plan to the EPA outlining how it will assess the pollution and manage associated risks. Gathercole said the company has so far been cooperative and voluntarily offered to conduct investigations into the nature of PFAS contamination at the quarry site. If the company fails to comply with the clean-up notice, it faces a maximum fine of two million Australian dollars (1.26 million U.S. dollars) as well as a further 240,000 Australian dollars (151,200 U.S. dollars) for each day the offense continues. OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma is now one of the states with the harshest penalties for child sex offenses after lawmakers paved the way for the death penalty for crimes against children. Gov. Kevin Still signed Senate Bill 599 into law on May 22. Grove man convicted of sexually abusing child; jury recommends life sentence The new law grants prosecutors the authority to pursue the death penalty for individuals convicted of child rape on a first offense. Additionally, it allows judges to sentence individuals found guilty of lewd molestation of a child under the age of 14 to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meet Brenda Andrew; Oklahomas only woman on death row Delaware and Ottawa County District Attorney Doug Pewitt said a current U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the death penalty in child rape cases. If the court ruling changes, then we will seek to enforce the law, said Pewitt. In May, Idaho lawmakers approved legislation allowing the death penalty in child rape convictions. Tennessee and Florida passed a law in 2024 and 2023, and Alabama is seeking to pass a similar law. In the 2008 Supreme Court ruling Louisiana permitted capital punishment for the rape of a child under 12 years old. In that case, Patrick Kennedy was convicted of violently raping his eight-year-old stepdaughter she needed emergency surgery to correct her injuries. Kennedy maintained his innocence and was sentenced to death. After the 2008 ruling, Kennedy was eventually sentenced to a life sentence. Not since 1964 had anyone in the U.S. been executed for any form of rape. Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008) Oklahoma is sending a clear and unequivocal message: crimes against our most vulnerable citizens, our children, will be met with the harshest consequences, said Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stitts signing the bill into law reaffirms Oklahomas commitment to justice and to protecting children from predators, 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 KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com. Rep. Annie Menz, D-Norman, front, talks with Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, and Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City, while awaiting votes on a veto override during the Senate session on Thursday. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma House rose for a standing ovation Thursday after overturning the governors veto of a bill expanding access to mammograms for early breast cancer detection. Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, the bills author, said the standing ovation was powerful and a reminder that people are humans before they are politicians. She was battling breast cancer for the length of the legislative session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite a nearly five hour delay in the Senate, the measure was one of nearly four dozen vetoes the House and Senate overturned on the penultimate day of session as they worked past midnight and into Friday morning before adjourning. Lawmakers moved to overturn the majority of Gov. Kevin Stitts vetoes. Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, speaks on the House floor on Nov. 20. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) Provenzano was met with another round of applause Thursday night when she returned to the House chamber after the Senate voted to finalize the veto override. Im just reminded again, that were humans first, politicians second, Provenzano said. And I think every member and every staff member and the people in this building, if what we experienced here is going on in the state of Oklahoma, then its time for something like this. Because everybody had a story of a sister or a mother, an aunt, a wife. And so it was just powerful. Stitt said he vetoed the bill because while he is sympathetic to those battling breast cancer, the legislation would have imposed new and costly insurance mandates on private health plans and raised insurance premiums. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To override a veto from the governor, two-thirds of representatives and senators must vote in favor of the measure or three-quarters if the measure contains an emergency provision. The dozens of overrides ranged from measures that aimed to increase public access to open records to missing and murdered indigenous people. Some of the vetoes lawmakers overrode included: House Bill 2785 that gives the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services the ability to review the budget and finances of the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, which has had ongoing financial troubles. The governor said it was nonsensical and ineffective to task one executive agency with micromanaging another; House Bill 2163 that gives the Attorney Generals Office the power to enforce violations of the Open Records Act. Stitt said the bill would give Attorney General Gentner Drummond sweeping and unchecked authority to access records from all state agencies, an unprecedented power in Oklahoma. Drummond had previously urged lawmakers to override the veto; House Bill 2048 that prohibits insurers and pharmacy benefit managers from discriminatory reimbursement practices. Stitt wrote in his veto message that this was a federal issue and the Legislature should not insert itself. House Bill 1137 that removes a requirement that the Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons be federally funded, opening it up to state funding. Stitt said he vetoed the measure because he doesnt endorse legislation that singles out victims based solely on their race. Stitt posted a video Thursday afternoon telling voters to closely watch how lawmakers vote on veto overrides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is stuff I know is bad for Oklahoma, bad for taxpayers, he said in the video. And youve got the Senate and House and special interest groups that are trying to override my vetoes. Gov. Kevin Stitt is pictured May 14 during his weekly press availability. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) Stitt said Thursday that he had vetoed 68 bills this session that would overregulate businesses and create higher taxes for Oklahomans. He said voters should pay attention to which lawmakers supported overrides of his vetoes. Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, referenced Stitts comments while making a motion to override a veto on one of his bills, House Bill 2459, which pertains to fire safety in mobile food vehicles. Evidently, since the governor has called for all of us to be primaried that override his vetoes today, and his staff cant seem to read a bill correctly and they vetoed my bill, I make a motion to override the veto, he said. National guard bill dispute draws out legislative day Legislative proceedings stalled for nearly five hours after Senate leaders struggled to get the required number of votes necessary to override House Bill 2769. The measure contained a series of amendments to the leadership requirements and rules of the Oklahoma National Guard. The Senate passed the override just after 9 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stitts override message said he vetoed the bill because it made major changes to the National Guard and state finances without a thorough fiscal analysis. While I applaud all our men and women who serve our country and our state in the National Guard, I cannot allow this bill to become law, he wrote. The policies in this bill should be considered, reviewed, and debated as separate and distinct bills. The bill makes several amendments to the qualifications necessary to serve as adjutant general of the Oklahoma National Guard, an officer overseeing administrative and personnel matters. The position could now be filled by someone with a rank of colonel or higher. It also grants the officer additional powers. The officer is to be compensated at the same rate of pay afforded to a major general. Several changes were also made to the Oklahoma Uniform Code of Military Justice. Editors note: This story was updated May 30 at 2:15 p.m. to clarify lawmakers actions. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE UPDATE @ 10:30 P.M. The Senate Resolution to remove Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Allie Friesen passed by a vote of 43-1 late Thursday night. The resolution will now go to the House, where it must pass before Friesen is removed. ORIGINAL STORY OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Oklahoma lawmakers in the Senate began the process of removing the head of an agency plagued by budget issues. An initial financial report called for by Oklahomas governor says the states mental health agency faces numerous errors and a nearly $30 million budget shortfall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In early May, Governor Kevin Stitt announced a series of steps to stabilize the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) amid ongoing issues with public confidence, transparency and financial and operational mismanagement. Governor Stitt shared the first step would be bringing in an independent financial expert to take temporary control of the departments finances. A news release said that individual would assess the agencys financial shortfall to give the legislature an accurate and credible supplemental budget request. The head of that agency is Commissioner Allie Friesen. She defended her ODMHSAS tenure to legislators earlier in the month, alleging the payroll problems stem from former department officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NonDoc first reported, ODMHSASs project manager Michael Rupke confirming the agency needed $23 million in supplemental funding to make payroll for the rest of the fiscal year. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond openly expressed that she should be removed from the job. Commissioner Friesen offered no satisfactory answers for the agencys ability or inability to meet payroll obligations. The commissioner is simply not equipped for the job and she never was, Drummond said. Gov. Stitt hired a counselor who doesnt have a license to run our Mental Health Department, nor does she have the leadership experience. Is it any wonder the department is in financial meltdown? Drummond is running for Governor. Since joining ODMHSAS, Ive been clear that I want to ensure this department is in the best position possible to care for those who need our services most. Im grateful to Governor Sitt, David Greenwell, and the team at OMES for their assistance in this matter. We are going to come out stronger on the other side. Commissioner Allie Frisen Drummond said in a statement Thursday evening: While I cannot begin to understand why Gov. Stitt has chosen to protect Allie Friesen instead of our tax dollars, I applaud the legislative resolution to remove this failed bureaucrat from office. The House and Senate have the legal authority to hold Friesen accountable for her ineptitude and mismanagement, and I urge every legislator to vote in favor of her removal. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond Gov. Stitt said in a statement Thursday evening: From the start, this was nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt. I tasked Allie Friesen with bringing accountability and transparency to the agency. She disturbed the status quo and questioned long held practices at the agency. An agency rife with sweetheart deals and criminal elements was disrupted, and now, elected officials are quickly working to set the apple cart right for those who seek to get rich off of Oklahoma taxpayers. Josh West and Paul Rosino need to first answer what they stand to gain from Allie Friesen being removed. What are they trying to keep covered up? What conflicts of interest are they trying to hide? Is Senator Rosino trying to help his wife avoid responsibility for her role in the finance department there? Oklahomans deserve answers. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt Governor Stitt calls for support of initial ODMHSAS audit Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Financial issues found leading up to Mental Health Commissioner appointment Report: Oklahoma mental health agency facing nearly $30 million budget hole Financial experts dig into Dept. of Mental Healths money woes; still no exact number on shortfall Lawmakers frustrated with lack of financial answers from Mental Health Department Shocking email sent to legislators about payroll problems with ODMHSAS 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. A working oil pump in Oklahoma is pictured. (Photo by Trawick Images/Getty Images) The oil and gas industry is a major economic engine in Oklahoma, contributing significantly to jobs and tax revenue. But, we are paying for this lucrative driver of our economy with environmental degradation and harm to community health. And unfortunately our state and federal leaders have continued to have little interest in passing regulations governing the industry that would protect public health despite first being alerted to risks over four decades ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaders first became aware of the threat to public health in 1982 when the American Petroleum Institutes Committee for Environmental Biology and Community Health issued a report that highlighted the fact that materials of interest to the oil and gas industry contain measurable quantities of radionuclides in equipment, product streams or waste. Every stage of production can produce what is known as technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material, or TENORM. During oil and gas drilling, radioactive elements are carried to the surface. And radioactive elements are often present in the massive volumes of wastewater produced by a working oil or gas well. Currently, there are no dedicated federal regulations to ensure comprehensive and safe management of radioactive oil and gas materials. The industry was granted a federal exemption in 1980 that legally defined its waste as nonhazardous, despite containing toxic chemicals, carcinogens, heavy metals, and radioactivity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This leaves Oklahomans reliant on state regulations and oversight, which unfortunately, are spotty at best. Oklahoma has no general radiation provisions and therefore does not regulate TENORM waste. This lack of regulation means there are no specific rules in place to control the disposal or handling of this waste, potentially leading to exposure risks for workers and residents. If this TENORM is not adequately managed and disposed of, it poses significant health threats to oil and gas workers, their families and nearby residents. That health risk includes the increased risk of cancer. Through mismanagement, waste can leak out of storage pits, tanks, and landfills or spill during transportation. It is sometimes purposely spread over land and mixed with the soil in an industrial waste management practice known as land farming. Wastewater may be used for dust suppression or deicing roads. A 2021 paper published in the journal Energy Economics examined two decades of data from 76 Oklahoma counties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The authors found that an increase in the number of fracked wells led to a statistically significant reduction in life expectancy. They also noted increases in those countys mortality and rates of cancer, cardiac diseases, and respiratory diseases. The industry is trying to pivot now toward the treatment of oilfield waste, but the problem is that if you remove the radioactive heavy metals that are already at elevated levels, you just concentrate them. There are also very limited ways to dispose of the wastewater, and the chief method is injection wells, which account for 96% of disposal. Oklahoma has over 10,600 such wells. Unfortunately, injection wells pose their own set of problems. The U.S. Geological Survey has linked them to earthquakes. In Oklahoma, earthquakes have increased 900-fold since 2008, when fracking became more prevalent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of these wells are also now leaking their waste back to the surface across America. If deep formations fail to contain the toxic waste injected into them, that waste can migrate and end up in shallow freshwater aquifers. Despite the potential environmental and health threats few municipalities have strong ordinances to protect residents from these sites and an injection site may be permitted with little to no community knowledge or involvement. Is it any wonder that Oklahoma has such poor health outcomes, including the fourth highest cancer death rate in the country? If lawmakers really want to improve Oklahomas lagging health outcomes, perhaps new laws governing the oil and gas industrys disposal processes would be a place to start. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission is no longer requiring cannabis businesses to enter labor peace agreements in order to obtain or renew a cannabis license, the agency announced Thursday. The decision comes after a federal judge ruled Oregon Ballot Measure 119 unconstitutional earlier in May. Earlier this month, a federal judge issued a ruling barring the enforcement of Ballot Measure 119. Given this ruling and in consultation with the Oregon Department of Justice, the OLCC will no longer require labor peace agreements as part of cannabis license applications and license renewals, the OLCC said in a press release Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Portland has the worst housing crisis outlook, LendingTree finds Measure 119, also known as the United for Cannabis Workers Act, was passed by Oregon voters in November 2024 and took effect in December of that year. The measure required cannabis retailers and processors to remain neutral in their communications to employees from labor organizations about bargaining rights. After Measure 119 passed, the OLCC adopted the labor peace agreement requirement in order to comply with the ballot measure, which required cannabis processors, retailers, and labs to provide labor peace agreements with a bona fide labor organization in order to obtain or renew cannabis licenses. The measure was challenged in a lawsuit filed in February by two Portland cannabis businesses, arguing the measure violates the First Amendment and will harm cannabis companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Eye on Northwest Politics United States District Judge Michael H. Simon in Portland agreed with the cannabis companies, ruling Measure 119 is preempted by the (National Labor Relations Act) and violates the First Amendment. Measure 119 is not limited to restricting only threatening, coercive, false, or misleading speech, but instead prohibits all speech by employers that is not neutral toward unionization. Therefore, Measure 119 violates Plaintiffs First Amendment rights to free speech, Judge Simon wrote, in part. In response to Judge Simons ruling, the plaintiffs attorneys with Fisher Phillips LLP told KOIN 6, We are pleased with Judge Simons ruling. Judge Simon reached the right conclusion on this important case of first impression regarding National Labor Relations Act preemption and Constitutional First Amendment speech protections as related to laws requiring businesses to enter into labor peace agreements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Armed man who threatened Papa Murphys employees was pepper-sprayed multiple times, police say The plaintiffs attorneys continued, This case is poised to have far-reaching impacts, as many states are considering imposing similar requirements not only on cannabis licensees, but also in other sectors, and this decision helps maintain the proper balance between labor and management and allows cannabis employees to decide for themselves whether to organize without undue influence. Governor Koteks office added that the governor who was named among defendants in the lawsuit respects the courts ruling. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for UFCW 555, a labor organization that has been a strong proponent of Measure 119, told KOIN 6 News We now have conflicting federal rulings, with a judge in Oregon putting Measure 119 on hold while a California judge has upheld a similar law. One of these rulings is destined to be overturned on appeal. Our strong suspicion is that Judge Simons opinion, which flaunts Supreme Court precedent, will be the one reversed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Hours after reports emerged Friday that Elon Musk had been under the influence of heavy drugs during his time advising the president, Musk and Donald Trump stumbled and fumbled their way through a White House press conference recognizing the end of the tech billionaires special government employee status. The wildly unusual joint conference featured Musks black eye, a giant gold key that Trump said he only gives to very special people, cringe-worthy regurgitations by Musk of Trumps take on his Pulitzer Board defamation suit, and claims that Musks unpopular and controversial time in the White House was not quite over. But as Trump continued to praise Musk and his time atop the Department of Government Efficiency, the presidents verbal gaffes became more apparent. He claimed that DOGE had uncovered $42 million in wasteful spending, referring to expenditures related to Uganda, which Trump pronounced as oo-ganda. The 78-year-old also mentioned he would have Musks DOGE cuts cauterized by Congress, though he quickly corrected himself by saying they would be affirmed by Congress, instead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps on-camera slippage has gotten worse in recent weeks: Earlier this month, Trump dozed off while in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That is despite the fact that the president received a clean bill of health in a medical report released in April that described Trump as being in excellent health, including neurological functioning. Musk, meanwhile, refused to acknowledge emerging reports of his alleged drug use. But the news of White House drug use under Trumps helm is nothing new: In fact, if the reports prove true, it would be little more than a return to form. Last year, a report by the Department of Defense inspector general indicated that the West Wing operated more like a pill mill than the nations highest office. Common pills included modafinil, Adderall, fentanyl, morphine, and ketamine, according to the Pentagon report. But other, unlisted drugslike Xanaxwere equally easy to come by from the White House Medical Unit, according to anonymous sources that spoke to Rolling Stone. While other presidents were known to take a mix of drug cocktails to fight off back pain (like JFK) or bad moods (like Nixon), no previous administrations matched the level of debauchery of Trumps, whose in-office pharmacists unquestioningly handed out highly addictive substances to staffers who needed pick-me-ups or energy boostsno doctors exam, referral, or prescription required. It was kind of like the Wild West. Things were pretty loose. Whatever someone needs, we were going to fill this, another source told Rolling Stone in March 2024. Meanwhile, pharmacists described an atmosphere of fear within the West Wing, claiming they would be fired if they spoke out or would receive negative work assignments if they didnt hand pills over to staffers. Penny production in the U.S. is grinding to a stop. More than 3 billion pennies were minted in the U.S. last year, but according to the U.S. Mints annual report from 2024, theyre now more expensive to make than the one cent that theyre worth. In February, President Donald Trump said he would order the Treasury Department to stop minting pennies to save money. And as of May 2025, the Mint placed its final order of penny blanks. Once those blanks run out some time in 2026, no more new pennies will be made. The old pennies you have will still be acceptable to use as payment, but any rare pennies you might have lying around could be worth more than the one cent that they represent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres a quick explainer on rare pennies and how to tell if you have a rare penny worth more than a cent. Are pennies going extinct in 2025? The Mint hasnt stopped making pennies yet. Pennies will still be produced, until the Mint runs out of blanks for them, which is expected to be sometime in 2026. What's next for the penny? The details on US decision to end penny production Are old pennies worth money? According to American Bullion, an investment service that specializes in precious metal IRAs, most pennies are only worth one cent, but there are certain minting years that can dramatically increase their value. Penny collectors, also known as numismatists, value pennies based on their minting year, rarity, condition, and production errors, American Bullion says. Some rare pennies can be worth far more than their face value, reaching the thousands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Are your old pennies worth millions? Experts say you shouldn't bank on it What is a wheat penny? What makes a penny rare? A wheat penny, sometimes also called a Lincoln wheat cent or a Lincoln penny, is a penny that has Abraham Lincolns portrait on one side and two ears of wheat on the other. These pennies were minted from the years 1909 through 1958 and can be worth thousands of dollars, depending on the year they were made. Most Lincoln wheat pennies are generally valued at a few cents. If they are found in good condition, they can be worth up to $20 or $30 on average, according to Bullion Exchanges. However, Lincoln Pennies with certain dates, low mintages, or errors can be worth a significant amount of money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet, told USA TODAY that while the odds of having an incredibly rare wheat penny worth thousands are similar to the odds of winning the lottery, there are some that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Depending on their condition, those 1943 Lincoln wheat pennies would be worth at most between $100,000 and $250,000, Feigenbaum told USA TODAY. Heres a list of rare pennies worth more than one cent, from American Bullions website: 1943 Copper Penny: Almost all 1943 pennies were made of zinc-coated steel, but a few copper versions were mistakenly minted. These pennies are scarce and can be worth up to $85,000. 1955 Doubled-Die Penny: Because of the doubled text, these pennies are worth more than one cent. While their value can vary depending on their condition, some have sold for over $1,000. 1969-S Doubled-Die Penny: These pennies can also fetch a significant sum. In pristine condition, they can be worth up to $70,000. 1943: During World War II, copper was crucial for the war effort, leading the U.S. Mint to produce pennies from zinc-coated steel. However, a few copper pennies from 1943 were mistakenly minted, making them rare and highly valued. 1955: Known as the 1955 doubled-die cent, these pennies were minted with an error that makes the Liberty and In God, We Trust inscriptions appear doubled. The coins date also appears twice. 1969-S: A handful of pennies were mistakenly minted with a doubled die, making the image and text appear slightly doubled. These pennies are rare and highly sought after by collectors. 1972: This year also saw a batch of doubled-die pennies, which, although not as rare as the 1955 or 1969-S, are still worth significantly more than face value. 1909-S VDB: One of the most coveted pennies among collectors, only 484,000 were minted. The initials VDB come from the designer Victor David Brenner. 1914-D: The Denver Mint produced fewer pennies this year, which increased their value significantly. 1922 No D: The Denver Mint was the only one to produce pennies this year, but some were mistakenly minted without the D mint mark. Collectors highly seek after these. 1931 S: With just 866,000 produced, these pennies are worth quite a bit. However, many were hoarded, so theyre not as rare in uncirculated conditions. 1970-S Small Date: This variation has a smaller and higher date than regular 1970 pennies, making it rare and valuable. How to tell if an old penny is worth money Heres how to tell if your penny is rare and worth more than one cent, according to American Bullion: Check the Year: The minting year can tell much about a pennys value. Look for the years mentioned above. Inspect for Errors: Errors, like double dies or wrong metal use, can significantly increase a pennys value. Examine the coin closely for any inconsistencies. Look at the Mint Mark: The Mint Mark shows where a coin was minted. Some mints produced fewer pennies in specific years, increasing their rarity and value. As a result, the mint mark is usually located below the date. Assess the Condition: The better a coins condition, the more valuable it is. A penny in mint or near-mint condition will fetch a higher price than one worn or damaged. Contributing: Mike Snider, George Petras, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Pennies going away. What a rare penny might be worth OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) One person has been taken into custody following a drive-by shooting Friday morning, police say. According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, officers responded to the area of NW 23rd St. and Villa Ave. regarding a drive-by shooting. No one was injured and the suspect left the scene. LOCAL NEWS: Police find narcotics in NW Oklahoma City bar, multiple in custody Officials say officers were able to find the suspect at a home near SE 44th St. and Bryant Ave. and take them into custody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No more information is available as the investigation continues. 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. Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG It wasnt simply opposition to recreational marijuana that led a GOP-led state Senate panel to roundly reject a Democratic pitch to legalize the drug earlier this month. Lawmakers balked at selling cannabis at state-run stores similar to Pennsylvanias liquor shops and shutting out existing medical dispensaries. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now This Week in Pennsylvania Since that vote, there hasnt been any public movement on legalization, and its unlikely any deal will be reached by the June 30 budget deadline. Thats because of the complexity of the issue and lawmakers significant remaining areas of disagreement, including just how much of a leg up existing cannabis companies should get in a potentially multibillion-dollar market. As the legislature mulls that question, major companies that sell medical marijuana in Pennsylvania and recreational cannabis in other states are spending millions of dollars to influence them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least two of the legalization proposals circulating in Harrisburg would allow medical sellers to convert to recreational sales, according to the bills sponsors. Entering the recreational market first offers a major advantage, often letting sellers begin operating before stricter regulations are fully enacted and capturing a significant share of customers before competitors are off the ground. That happened in Maryland when recreational cannabis was legalized in 2023: medical dispensaries were allowed to immediately begin selling to recreational customers, while social equity applicants had to wait nearly a year for licensing approval before beginning the process of setting up stores. As they waited, medical and adult-use sales exceeded $1.1 billion. Cannabis companies are willing to spend heavily to secure that kind of head start, said Chris Goldstein, a Pennsylvania-based advocate with the pro-legalization National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2024 alone, cannabis companies spent at least $1.6 million lobbying lawmakers in Pennsylvania. Big cannabis companies also have the resources to sue when they oppose regulations. A lawsuit brought by a multistate operator, for instance, led federal courts to strike down Maines requirement that license holders be state residents. Goldstein said lobbying and lawsuits can make it difficult for states to enact consumer protection regulations that succeed at making a market competitive for smaller businesses. States are trying to compete against international multibillion-dollar corporations who have lobbyists, lots of money, and are quite litigious to boot, Goldstein said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Goldstein favors excluding existing medical cannabis dispensaries from recreational sales, a proposition that appears unlikely to succeed with Pennsylvania lawmakers. But other consumer advocates say there are ways for the state legislature to prioritize small businesses, especially those impacted by the war on drugs, while still allowing medical sellers to participate in the industry. Kristal Bush is a cannabis advocate who formerly worked for Trulieve, one of the largest cannabis companies in the U.S. If Pennsylvania legalizes recreational cannabis, she believes it should delay commercial sales to give small businesses time to set up dispensaries. Moving too quickly without giving them this setup time, she said, is what enables legacy businesses to dominate the industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If were just pushing for legalization this year thats not enough time to get people that [are not] on the legacy market the resources to be able to compete, Bush told Spotlight PA. Were really setting our people up for failure. Bush said the state should work with small businesses to provide pre-industry support over the next few years. That includes the state proactively looking for social equity applicants, providing training and technical assistance for those applicants, and creating workforce development programs for the cannabis industry, all before legalization occurs. She supports allowing medical dispensaries to convert their existing licenses to permit recreational sales. However, Bush thinks all new licenses should be reserved for small business owners, particularly those from communities disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of cannabis. All of the proposals on the table in Pennsylvania include social equity measures. Ideas include directing tax revenue to grant and loan programs for communities impacted by the war on drugs and expunging the records of individuals convicted of nonviolent marijuana-related crimes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Damian Fagon director of the Bronx Cannabis Hub, which helps residents navigate New Yorks cannabis laws, and former chief equity officer of the states Office of Cannabis Management said the legislature can also implement policies to make the industry more equitable once its up and running. For example, he suggested lawmakers could require dispensaries to stock a certain percentage of their inventory from cannabis growers based in Pennsylvania or from those who qualify as social equity licensees. Fagon emphasized that achieving equity depends on allowing medical sellers and small businesses to access the recreational market at the same time, though he acknowledged that synchronizing this rollout would be challenging. New York did not initially allow its small network of medical cannabis sellers to join the recreational market, instead prioritizing the establishment of dispensaries run by those harmed by marijuana prohibition. The lack of licensed dispensaries resulted in a large illicit market. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are entrenched interests in Pennsylvania that you know will have a lot of influence over this legislative process, and not in the way that advantages small business, Fagon said. Lobbyists for large medical cannabis companies have pushed back against proposals aimed at excluding existing sellers, arguing that these approaches would just harm consumers. Meredith Buettner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition a trade group representing medical cannabis sellers and associated businesses said medical companies have already invested millions to build a robust network that could easily transition into the recreational market. She also warned that barring medical dispensaries from the recreational market could lead to a surge in unlicensed sellers, similar to what happened in New York. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead of reinventing the wheel, Pennsylvanians would be best served by allowing the medical industry to continue in the market they already invested millions in, Buettner told Spotlight PA. Several consumer protection advocates who focus on the countrys burgeoning recreational cannabis industry told Spotlight PA that they would have reservations about bills that allow well-established sellers to enter Pennsylvanias new market without strict guidelines, such as limits on how many licenses medical sellers can obtain or mandating the dispensaries to stock products from local growers. Lawmakers are floating legalization proposals in Harrisburg, but none have formally introduced bill language yet. However, a previous version of a bill backed by state Sen. Dan Laughlin (R., Erie) who heads a key committee and has the best shot at pushing a measure through the chamber included restrictions on the number of licenses and required medical sellers seeking a recreational license to sponsor a social equity candidate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Laughlin has declined to comment on when he plans to reintroduce his bill, saying recently its not ready yet. While many lawmakers goal was to include a legal cannabis deal in this years budget bringing with it badly needed revenue its looking less likely, according to at least one key member. Asked whether a cannabis agreement looked possible by the end of next month, state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D., Philadelphia), a sponsor of his chambers now-dead state store bill, told Spotlight PA, I dont think so, unless [the state Senates] tune changes. The Senate has to get serious, and they have to either bring up the bill for reconsideration or send us something else, he said. State House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said his chamber, having already advanced its pitch, is taking a backseat. Hes now waiting to see if the state Senate will pass its own legalization bill. A spokesperson for the upper chamber did not return a request for comment. BEFORE YOU GO If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. 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 ABC27. Armed police are seen putting the dog suspected of the attack into a waiting kennel van at the scene - ASP A one-year-old baby is among three people in hospital after a dog attack in Greater Manchester. Police, including armed officers, attended the scene on Baslow Road in the Haughton Green area of Denton just before 6pm on Thursday. Paramedics and the air ambulance also attended. The condition of those injured remains unknown. Witnesses claimed people were left covered in blood following the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One told MailOnline: One person close to the incident said, Theres people covered in blood and a babys been taken to hospital. There were others who looked injured. A dog section and armed police went in with guns. Another witness claimed the baby had horrific facial injuries. Police were called to Denton, in Greater Manchester, late on Thursday afternoon - ASP The road remains closed off while police inquiries continue. A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: We were called to Baslow Road, Denton, at around 5.50pm May 29 to reports several people had been attacked by a dog. Three people, a one-year-old child and two adults, are in hospital being treated for their injuries. 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. SINGAPORE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The 22nd edition of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defense and security summit, opened here on Friday amid geopolitical tensions. This year's dialogue drew representatives from 47 countries, including 40 ministerial-level delegates, 20 chief of defense forces-level delegates, over 20 senior defense officials, and prominent academics, according to the Singapore Ministry of Defense. A Chinese delegation from the National Defense University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is attending the event. French President Emmanuel Macron is set to deliver a keynote speech late Friday, where he's expected to position France -- and Europe -- as champions of international cooperation and rules-based trade. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to speak on Saturday about America's "new ambitions for Indo-Pacific security." Observers say he faces a tough task in convincing Asian allies, many of whom remain uneasy about President Donald Trump's disruptive policies, not least those related to trade. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will also give a speech on Saturday and make clear how, amid global geopolitical uncertainties and sharpened geo-economic fault lines, Malaysia as ASEAN's current chair, provides strategic leadership for the region and beyond, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the organizer. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas is also scheduled to speak on Saturday. Analysts say key topics will likely include regional cooperation, the U.S. security policies and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The implications of sweeping U.S. tariffs are also likely to attract attention, as officials will use the platform to reassure partners and navigate an increasingly multipolar security landscape. The Dialogue runs from Friday through Sunday. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) One person is dead after a fire destroyed a Mifflin Township home Friday morning, northeast of the city. Mifflin Township and Columbus Division of Fire crews were called to the 2700 block of Baughman Avenue in Arlington Park, where a home caught fire at around 6:56 a.m. Heavy smoke and flames were seen from the first and second floors as well as from the back of the home. Officials release video showing when 2 Mifflin Township officers were shot Mifflin Township Fire Chief Brian Dunlevy confirmed that one person is dead, and a second person made it out of the home with unspecified injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cause of the fire remains unknown as crews continue to contain the blaze, but Dunlevy said it does not appear to be suspicious in nature. 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. Update at 4 p.m. DANVILLE. Ill. (WCIA) The Vermilion County Coroners Office has released the name of a Danville man who died in Friday mornings crash on U.S. Route 150. In a news release, Coroner Jane McFadden identified the man as 60-year-old Robert J. Wilson. His family has been notified, and an autopsy was scheduled for later in the morning. Officers who shot at machete wielding man in Macon were justified: States Attorney Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McFadden did not release any details from that autopsy. The crash is still under investigation by the Illinois State Police and the Vermilion County Coroners Office. DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) One person is dead following a crash on U.S. Route 150 near Danville Friday morning. The crash happened between Interstate 74 and Henning Road. Officials with the Illinois State Police said that at 1:30 a.m., a Chevrolet Equinox was driving the wrong way going westbound in the eastbound lane when it hit an eastbound vehicle head on. Vermilion Advantage gets grant to create jobs, improve economy The driver of the eastbound vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the westbound vehicle was airlifted from the scene and was taken to an area hospital with injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Route 150 was shut down in both directions for several hours after the crash, with traffic being diverted onto Henning Road and I-74. The road has since reopened, according to Danville Police. The investigation into the crash is still open, and State Police said no further information could be provided. 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. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. In my 30 years of studying the literature and culture of Louis XIV, I never thought I would see an American president actually model himself on the Sun King, to the point that a recent essay in the New York Times declared the current Oval Office decor a gilded rococo hellscape. Along with the anti-royalist sentiment that used to characterize U.S. politics, I always assumed that most Americans had no real stomach for the hubris and sheer garishness that defined the style and surroundings of Frances most famous king. When Ive taken students to Versailles, Ive noticed that as much as they admire the size and ambitiousness of the chateau that Louis XIV declared the center of French government, they nonetheless agree with the caustic assessment of the Duke de Saint-Simon, Louis XIVs greatest critic: Its a masterpiece of bad taste. In fact, the White House is the third residence that Trump has tried to make resemble Versailles. Interior designer Angelo Donghia incorporated some gold elements into his initial vision for the penthouse apartment at Trump Tower, and Henry Conversano added much more in a later redesign, with the result being something New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger described in a 2017 talk as a pseudo-Versailles in the sky. But its less well known that the ghosts of Versailles also haunt Mar-a-Lago, where, when adding a ballroom, Trump ditched the Spanish theme of the original building and chose instead to mimic the Sun Kings Hall of Mirrors. A 2007 appraisal of Mar-a-Lago made for the Trump Organization by the firm Callaway and Price described the ballroom as in the style of Versailles, in a Louis XIV gold and crystal finish, with huge crystal chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling mirrors on one wall. Apparently its this ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, with its $7 million of gold leaf, that Trump wants now to re-create in the East Wing; the gold cherubs have already been brought up from Florida. No doubt, if its ever completed, this third Versailles revamp will have a ceiling painting to rival the original by Charles Le Brun depicting Louis XIVs military victories. (Perhaps, instead, Donald Trump vanquishes DEI?) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More disturbing, of course, than the presidents taste is the administrations view of executive authority. This evokes the absolutist rhetoric of Louis XIVs worst sycophants, which Saint-Simon despised. One can almost hear the echoes of the Versailles courtiers in the Trump Cabinets paeans to the presidents leadership, and Saint-Simons description of the Sun Kings appetite for adulation, found in the writers secret Memoires, published after his death, surely suggests our own leaders vulnerability to such praise: The self-effacement, the self-abasement, the look of admiration, subjugation, supplication, most of all the look of negation except through him, were the sole means of pleasing him. (That translation is my own.) Saint-Simon knew that when kings embrace their own flattery, they open themselves to manipulation, and the writer viewed Louis XIV as an illusory absolutist who was in fact controlled by fawning scoundrels. Sort of like if an American president were to be hoodwinked by a Russian dictator offering him a complimentary portrait. The irony is that Donald Trump is not governing like Louis XIV, and we would probably be better off if he did. The Sun King massively invested in science, technology, the arts, and intellectual activity; Trump disdains them all. Louis XIV created the Royal Academy for Sciences, the Royal Academy for Painting and Sculpture, the Royal Academy for Dance; Trump cuts the National Institutes of Health, bullies the Kennedy Center, threatens Big Bird. Louis XIV built roads, paved streets, carved canals, constructed ports; Trump freezes infrastructure spending and may decimate the National Park Service. You dont get Versailles by firing state workers. No, in terms of incompetence, ideology-driven decisionmaking, and a deliberate lack of imagination, the president resembles less Louis XIV and more his great-great-grandsona man who became king by accident, married a woman from central Europe, and was unable to assume the grandeur of his Versailles forebear. He ruled as Louis XVI, and perhaps his finest decision was supporting the rebellious American colonists against Frances oldest enemy, the British. Because of this mediocre king, who clung so desperately to the fantasies of absolutism that he was later overthrown and guillotined by his own people, the American experiment with republican government was able to commence. Its an irony of history that Trumps love affair with Louis XIV may mean that this experiment will ultimately be continued somewhere elsein some land we probably now consider backward and uncivilized, and where a gilded hall of mirrors has less attraction than a system of laws and values against authoritarianism. HILDALE, Utah (ABC4) Hildale City announced Thursday via Facebook that one of two water wells that went offline after failing two days ago has been repaired. This comes after the city announced via Facebook on Tuesday May 27 that two of the citys water wells failed, advising residents to only use culinary water for drinking and indoor use. One well has been repaired, but the other well remains offline as of Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hildale Mayor Donia Jessop said in an interview with ABC4.com that the tanks that supply the wells are recovering, and the city has been able to move into Stage 2 Water Restrictions, which includes limiting outdoor watering to every other night. Jessop said that the city will keep these restrictions in place until the other well is repaired. In terms of water restrictions, Jessop told ABC4.com that it is fairly common for the city to have some sort of restriction in place. She added that the city has been working to avoid having any restrictions, but that issues like these can change city plans rapidly. I always tell people, its like when youre driving your car down the road and the tire blows, Jessop said. You did everything to make sure your car was in good repair and going down the road, but your tire blows, so you have to pull over and fix it. Thats essentially what happened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joseph DeGolyer and MJ Jewkes contributed to this story. 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. HOLYOKE OneHolyoke Community Development Corp. will host a lunch event Building & Sustaining Livable Communities on June 16 that will address challenges and opportunities for Gateway Cities amid federal cutbacks and economic uncertainty. Speakers at the event at the Wyckoff Country Club include U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who will headline the event, Michael Moriarty, executive director of OneHolyoke, who will serve as moderator, Richard Sullivan, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, and Elise Rapoza, senior research associate at MassINC Policy Center. Topics will cover the role of resources, innovation, advocacy and how working together can addressing the current economic challenges. Rapoza will present her report on fostering mixed-income neighborhoods. The event begins at 12 p.m. with a suggested donation of $50, which includes lunch. Registration is available at OneHolyoke.org. Read the original article on MassLive. Getty Images Louisiana is set to outlaw a new, lucrative industry that deals in the online buying and selling of restaurant reservations. The state Senate unanimously approved House Bill 90 by Rep. Troy Hebert, R-Lafayette, without discussion Thursday. The proposal would ban companies such as Appointment Trader, Dorsia and ResX from arranging reservations through their platforms if they do not have explicit contracts with restaurants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heberts bill is expected to become law with Gov. Jeff Landrys signature, having received unanimous approval in every committee hearing and floor vote in both chambers, Reservation trading platforms allow diners with hard-to-get table reservations to sell them online in auction-style transactions similar to eBay. Prospective buyers can also use the platforms as a concierge service, offering a flat fee to anyone who can secure them a table at a particular establishment. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX While the practice of paying for restaurant reservations is more common in places such as New York and Miami, the trading platforms have come under scrutiny in Louisiana since the Illuminator reported on high-dollar trades in New Orleans during Super Bowl weekend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The transactions included a $2,138 reservation for a table of four at Antoines. In a previous interview, Hebert said some local eateries reported confusion over complaints from diners who bought reservations without realizing the restaurants werent the ones selling them. Were not talking about Chick-fil-A here, Hebert said. Its a select group of restaurants theyre doing this to Theyre profiting off of a restaurants brand, and the restaurants dont even know about it. Backed by the National Restaurant Association, versions of the legislation began popping up in state capitols last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reached after Heberts bill advanced Thursday, Appointment Trader founder Jonas Frey said his small business is facing seemingly insurmountable odds. Only a few years old, his startup logged more than $6 million in trades over the past 12 months. Im weighing my options, but it certainly feels like a David versus Goliath situation, Frey said. At the center of the debate is a market space currently dominated by the booking platforms OpenTable and Resy, which operate under a very different revenue model than the nascent trading platforms. OpenTable makes money by charging restaurants a fee every time someone reserves a table through its app, while the trading apps charge diners a percentage of the winning bid price for each trade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the newer trading platforms can secure partnerships with restaurants, they would pose a serious threat to the well-established booking apps. Restaurants would no longer have to pay the third-party booking platforms whenever diners make reservations and would actually make money every time someone books through a trading platform. Frey said he offers contracts to restaurants giving them an equal share of the winning bids for every reservation. It would give dining businesses a new revenue stream from something that currently costs them money, he said. However, Louisiana lawmakers dont believe its a viable industry and see reservation trading as an opportunistic industry that is artificially inflating demand just to cash in on wealthy tourists. Hebert and his colleagues have argued that tables would be easy and free to reserve if software bots werent snapping them up from OpenTable and then listing them for sale on the trading apps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frey disagreed with that assessment and said he doesnt think technology could even do that. Large booking sites have several security layers, such as requiring personal phone numbers with text message verification, in order to make a reservation. The trading apps had no lobbyists or advocates speaking on their behalf against Heberts bill, so lawmakers have only heard one side of the argument. Hebert said his intent is not to end the practice of reservation trading but to simply give the restaurants back their right to control their own bookings. If the trading apps continue to operate in current form after the new law takes effect, they could face fines of up to $1,000 per trade. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE So Donald Trump got a temporary win Thursday when a federal appeals courts stayed the decision from the International Court of Trade, which ruled that his tariffs were illegal. Trump aides went on Fox News to crow about their big victory, but they may be back to eating crow soon: The stay was granted on an administrative basis only. In addition, a second federal court has also issued a ruling blocking the tariffs. Meanwhile, the administration suffered another huge legal setback this week when a different federal judge ruled that Harvard University can keep admitting foreign students for the time being, overruling the administrations efforts to derail the university. Naturally, the attack on Harvard is just phase one in Trumps attempt to Orbanize, if I may put it that way, American higher education. Its a nakedly ideological and authoritarian attack, for which the administrationwhile asking to see the coursework of every international studentis presenting to the courts no actual evidence of wrongdoing, and it will lose. This is the week that TACOor Trump always chickens out became a thing. The phrase was coined in early May by a Financial Times writer. It has since spread to Wall Street, where traders mock him for always reliably backing down on his most extravagant trade war proposals. A White House reporter asked Trump about his new nickname. Little Donnie got very mad. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its funny. But its worth noting that he doesnt always chicken out. Most of the time, he just loses. The New York Times keeps a running tab of the number of court cases that have gone against the administration. As of May 29, the number of losses clocked in at 181. And in her Substack on Tuesday, Heather Cox Richardson cited research by the political scientist Adam Bonica of Stanford, who found that the administration suffered a 96 percent loss rate in the courts in May. The administration is losing these cases for a simple reason: Theyre breaking the damn law. Theyre invoking old and obscure laws and insisting that they confer upon them the authority to do things they dont have the authority to do. Theyre trying to stretch other laws and regulations to suit their authoritarian purposes. God knows theyve done a lot of damage. But its also been heartening to see that, thanks to the courage and commitment of a lot of people who care about democracy and the law and are putting themselves on the line to defend them, theyre seeing that limits do exist in this country that should prevent them from imposing full-on fascism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But all of this assumes that the Trumpies will obey the law. That is not an assumption we can make. This week we have Stephen Miller calling the trade courts ruling a judicial coupremember, it was delivered by a three-judge panel; two were Republican appointees, and one of those an appointee of Trump himselfand saying: We are living under a judicial tyranny. Likewise, we have tariff consigliere Peter Navarro saying, in essence, To hell with the law. You can assume that even if we lose, we will do it another way, Navarro told reporters Thursday. With respect to the Harvard case, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that if these judges want to be secretary of state or the president, they can run for office themselves. And the Times reported that lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security hinted that the Trump administration was pursuing other ways to bar international students from enrolling at the Ivy League university. In other words: Theyre going to continue to break the law. Or maybe theyre going to have young graduates of Ave Maria law school scour the books and find weird 1846 statutes under which they can exercise their authority to deport people for writing newspaper op-eds. The day is going to come, perhaps soon, when Trump just says openly of a major court decision that the decision is illegitimate and he will not obey it. (Theyve flouted court decisions, as in the refusal to comply with the Supreme Courts order on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but theyve generally done so without trying to provoke direct confrontation.) None of this is an accident. Trump and Miller want this fight. As retired conservative federal Judge J. Michael Luttig told the Times: This was a planned war that he had been planning since he lost the last election. From Day 1, the president, the vice president, and then eventually his entire Cabinet have been attacking the courts and the judiciary because they knew to a certainty that the courts would strike down his initiatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In other words, these initiatives and the way the Trump administration is going about themusing the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as ostensible legal cover for obviously illegal deportationsare part of a larger plan. Theres a particular assault on immigrants, another particular assault on standing trade law and congressional (rather than executive) authority, another particular assault on higher education, and more. Theyre all real, and theyre all frightening. But theyre all just smaller parts of a broader assault on the rule of law itself. Theyre pieces of a puzzle, and the puzzle, once filled in, will show a Republican-dominated legislative branch that has willingly conceded most of its authority, a judicial branch that has been stripped of its own, and a unitary executiveKing Donaldwith all the power in his hands. Ah, you say, but Trump has always said hed obey the Supreme Court. True. He has. And that means what, exactly? Whos gullible enough to take that seriously? All it means is that hes at least smart enough to know that he has to say that for now. So Stephen Miller is right, in a way. There is a judicial coup going on in this country. Its just that its being waged by Trump, Miller, and their gang of rogues against the judges, not the other way around. OpenAI is a strange company for strange times. Valued at $300 billionroughly the same as seven Fords or one and a half PepsiCosthe AI start-up has an era-defining product in ChatGPT and is racing to be the first to build superintelligent machines. The company is also, to the apparent frustration of its CEO Sam Altman, beholden to its nonprofit status. When OpenAI was founded in 2015, it was meant to be a research lab that would work toward the goal of AI that is safe and benefits all of humanity. There wasnt supposed to be any pressureor desire, reallyto make money. Later, in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary to better attract investorsthe types of people who might otherwise turn to the less scrupulous corporations that dot Silicon Valley. But even then, that part of the organization was under the nonprofit sides control. At the time, it had released no consumer products and capped how much money its investors could make. Then came ChatGPT. OpenAIs leadership had intended for the bot to provide insight into how people would use AI without any particular hope for widespread adoption. But ChatGPT became a hit, kicking off a growth curve like nothing we have ever seen, as Altman wrote in an essay this past January. The product was so alluring that the entire tech industry seemed to pivot overnight into an AI arms race. Now, two and a half years since the chatbots release, Altman says some half a billion people use the program each week, and he is chasing that success with new features and productsfor shopping, coding, health care, finance, and seemingly any other industry imaginable. OpenAI is behaving like a typical business, because its rivals are typical businesses, and massive ones at that: Google and Meta, among others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Read: OpenAIs ambitions just became crystal clear] Now 2015 feels like a very long time ago, and the charitable origins have turned into a ball and chain for OpenAI. Last December, after facing concerns from potential investors that pouring money into the company wouldnt pay off because of the nonprofit mission and complicated governance structure, the organization announced plans to change that: OpenAI was seeking to transition to a for-profit. The company argued that this was necessary to meet the tremendous costs of building advanced AI models. A nonprofit arm would still exist, though it would separately pursue charitable initiativesand it would not have any say over the actions of the for-profit, which would convert into a public-benefit corporation, or PBC. Corporate backers appeared satisfied: In March, the Japanese firm Softbank conditioned billions of dollars in investments on OpenAI changing its structure. Resistance came as swiftly as the new funding. Elon Muska co-founder of OpenAI who has since created his own rival firm, xAI, and seems to take every opportunity to undermine Altmanwrote on X that OpenAI was funded as an open source, nonprofit, but has become a closed source, profit-maximizer. He had already sued the company for abandoning its founding mission in favor of financial gain, and claimed that the December proposal was further proof. Many unlikely allies emerged soon after. Attorneys general in multiple states, nonprofit groups, former OpenAI employees, outside AI experts, economists, lawyers, and three Nobel laureates all have raised concerns about the pivot, even petitioning to submit briefs to Musks lawsuit. OpenAI backtracked, announcing a new plan earlier this month that would have the nonprofit remain in charge. Steve Sharpe, a spokesperson for OpenAI, told me over email that the new proposed structure puts us on the best path to build a technology that could become one of the most powerful and beneficial tools in human history. (The Atlantic entered into a corporate partnership with OpenAI in 2024.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet OpenAIs pursuit of industry-wide dominance shows no real signs of having hit a roadblock. The company has a close relationship with the Trump administration and is leading perhaps the biggest AI infrastructure buildout in history. Just this month, OpenAI announced a partnership with the United Arab Emirates and an expansion into personal gadgetsa forthcoming family of devices developed with Jony Ive, former chief design officer at Apple. For-profit or not, the future of AI still appears to be very much in Altmans hands. Why all the worry about corporate structure anyway? Governance, boardroom processes, legal arcanathese things are not what sci-fi dreams are made of. Yet those concerned with the societal dangers that generative AI, and thus OpenAI, pose feel these matters are of profound importance. The still more powerful artificial general intelligence, or AGI, that OpenAI and its competitors are chasing could theoretically cause mass unemployment, worsen the spread of misinformation, and violate all sorts of privacy laws. In the highest-flung doomsday scenarios, the technology brings about civilizational collapse. Altman has expressed these concerns himselfand so OpenAIs 2019 structure, which gave the nonprofit final say over the for-profits actions, was meant to guide the company toward building the technology responsibly instead of rushing to release new AI products, sell subscriptions, and stay ahead of competitors. OpenAIs nonprofit mission, together with the legal structures committing it to that mission, were a big part of my decision to join and remain at the company, Jacob Hilton, a former OpenAI employee who contributed to ChatGPT, among other projects, told me. In April, Hilton and a number of his former colleagues, represented by the Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, wrote a letter to the court hearing Musks lawsuit, arguing that a large part of OpenAIs success depended on its commitment to safety and the benefit of humanity. To renege on, or at least minimize, that mission was a betrayal. The concerns extend well beyond former employees. Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto who last year received a Nobel Prize for his AI research, told me that OpenAIs original structure would better help prevent a super intelligent AI from ever wanting to take over. Hinton is one of the Nobel laureates who has publicly opposed the tech companys for-profit shift, alongside the economists Joseph Stiglitz and Oliver Hart. The three academics, joining a number of influential lawyers, economists, and AI experts, in addition to several former OpenAI employees, including Hilton, signed an open letter in April urging the attorneys general in Delaware and Californiawhere the companys nonprofit was incorporated and where the company is headquartered, respectivelyto closely investigate the December proposal. According to its most recent tax filing, OpenAI is intended to build AGI that safely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return, so disempowering the nonprofit seemed, to the signatories, self-evidently contradictory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Read: Were definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI] In its initial proposal to transition to a for-profit, OpenAI still would have had some accountability as a public-benefit corporation: A PBC legally has to try to make profits for shareholders alongside pursuing a designated public benefit (in this case, building safe and beneficial AI as outlined in OpenAIs founding mission). In its December announcement, OpenAI described the restructure as the next step in our mission. But Michael Dorff, another signatory to the open letter and a law professor at UCLA who studies public-benefit corporations, explained to me that PBCs arent necessarily an effective way to bring about public good. They are not great enforcement tools, he saidthey can nudge a company toward a given cause but do not give regulators much authority over that commitment. (Anthropic and xAI, two of OpenAIs main competitors, are also public-benefit corporations.) OpenAIs proposed conversion also raised a whole other issuea precedent for taking resources accrued under charitable intentions and repurposing them for profitable pursuits. And so yet another coalition, composed of nonprofits and advocacy groups, wrote its own petition for OpenAIs plans to be investigated, with the aim of preventing charitable organizations from being leveraged for financial gain in the future. Regulators, it turned out, were already watching. Three days after OpenAIs December announcement of the plans to revoke nonprofit oversight, Kathy Jennings, the attorney general of Delaware, notified the court presiding over Musks lawsuit that her office was reviewing the proposed restructure to ensure that the corporation was fulfilling its charitable interest to build AI that benefits all of humanity. Californias attorney general, Rob Bonta, was reviewing the restructure, as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This ultimately led OpenAI to change plans. We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware, Altman wrote in a letter to OpenAI employees earlier this month. The for-profit, meanwhile, will still transition to a PBC. The new plan is not yet a done deal: The offices of the attorneys general told me that they are reviewing the new proposal. Microsoft, OpenAIs closest corporate partner, has not yet agreed to the new structure. One could be forgiven for wondering what all the drama is for. Amid tension over OpenAIs corporate structure, the organizations corporate development hasnt so much as flinched. In just the past few weeks, the company has announced a new CEO of applications, someone to directly oversee and expand business operations; OpenAI for Countries, an initiative focused on building AI infrastructure around the world; and Codex, a powerful AI agent that does coding tasks. To OpenAI, these endeavors legitimately contribute to benefiting humanity: building more and more useful AI tools; bringing those tools and the necessary infrastructure to run them to people around the world; drastically increasing the productivity of software engineers. No matter OpenAIs ultimate aims, in a race against Google and Meta, some commercial moves are necessary to stay ahead. And enriching OpenAIs investors and improving peoples lives are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The greater issue is this: There is no universal definition for safe or beneficial AI. A chatbot might help doctors process paperwork faster and help a student float through high school without learning a thing; an AI research assistant could help climate scientists arrive at novel insights while also consuming huge amounts of water and fossil fuels. Whatever definition OpenAI applies will be largely determined by its board. Altman, in his May letter to employees, contended that OpenAI is on the best path to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone. But everyone, in this case, has to trust OpenAIs definition of safe progress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The nonprofit has not always been the most effective check on the company. In 2023, the nonprofit boardwhich then and now had control over the for-profit subsidiaryremoved Altman from his position as CEO. But the companys employees revolted, and he was reinstated shortly thereafter with the support of Microsoft. In other words, control on paper does not always amount to much in reality. Sharpe, the OpenAI spokesperson, said the nonprofit will be able to appoint and remove directors to OpenAIs separate for-profit board, but declined to clarify whether its board will be able to remove executives (such as the CEO). The company is continuing to work through the specific governance mandate in consultation with relevant stakeholders, he said. Sharpe also told me that OpenAI will remove the cap on shareholder returns, which he said will satisfy the conditions for SoftBanks billions of dollars in investment. A top SoftBank executive has said nothing has really changed with OpenAIs restructure, despite the nonprofit retaining control. If investors are now satisfied, the underlying legal structure is irrelevant. Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, wrote in a statement that SoftBank pulled back the curtain on OpenAIs corporate theater and said the quiet part out loud. OpenAIs recent restructuring proposal is nothing but window dressing. Lessig, the lawyer who represented the former OpenAI employees, told me that its outrageous that we are allowing the development of this potentially catastrophic technology with nobody at any level doing any effective oversight of it. Two years ago, Altman, in Senate testimony, seemed to agree with that notion: He told lawmakers that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of powerful AI. But earlier this month, only a few days after writing to his employees and investors that as AI accelerates, our commitment to safety grows stronger, he told the Senate something else: Too much regulation would be disastrous for Americas AI industry. Perhapsbut it might also be in the best interests of humanity. Article originally published at The Atlantic To encourage Americans to start families, the White House recently proposed baby bonuses, a policy where the government would offer one-time financial payments of $5,000 to parents upon the birth of a child. With the cost of living rising, its clear Americans need economic support. Particularly for income constrained families, $5,000 could provide a near-term boost maybe help pay for a year of diapers and baby formula. But what happens once the bonus runs out? Without wraparound supports, like quality education, affordable health care and pathways to meaningful employment, many parents will find themselves right where they started: stuck in a cycle of financial insecurity and unable to afford basic necessities. Quick fixes, like a baby bonus, dont work. This moment requires people-focused investments that are durable and both short and long term, so working people and their kids and grandkids can thrive in the years to come. The formula to make that happen calls for combining cash for today with capital for tomorrow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One way our federal government can invest in capital for tomorrow, is in the form of baby bonds. Baby bonds are a bipartisan, government policy in which every child would receive a publicly funded trust account upon birth that they could access at 18. The amount would vary based on household income, with children from working families or lower income backgrounds receiving more. This substantial start-up capital would allow young adults to pursue research-based wealth-building activities including home ownership, entrepreneurship, and debt-free college or training. In fact, legislative guardrails ensure the resources are applied only to these eligible purposes. If we think of income as an essential flow of resources to support daily living, wealth is a stock or reserve of resources that buffers us from economic shocks and allows us to lead lives that are more fulfilling and self-directed. For most of us, income, hard work, and education arent enough to get us to this next level of prosperity. Programs like the Child Tax Credit or a guaranteed income, similar to President Trumps stimulus checks during the pandemic, are important cash for today provisions, keeping families afloat. But, to achieve real economic security and freedom over lifetimes, Americans need opportunities to build wealth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Research shows that while baby bonuses may lead to a temporary uptick in birth rates, the effect often fades over time. Studies have also found that the cost of a baby bonus scheme would be substantial relative to any marginal increase in births, raising questions about whether the investment could create a greater impact if put into childcare, housing or education, instead. Conversely, by establishing a strong foundation of capital for low-income individuals, the baby bonds program recognizes that we all have different starting points and works to create a world where those facing economic barriers can access similar opportunities to those who are born into resources. With bipartisan support, Connecticut became the first state to pass and fund a baby bond effort in 2023. This initiative provides $3,200 to every child whose birth is covered by the states Medicaid program. This seed capital is invested and carefully managed by the State Treasury. Beneficiaries can keep the funds in their accounts until age 30, with the value projected to grow to nearly $12,000 by the time the first recipients turn 18. On the heels of Connecticuts implementation, another 20 states red, blue and purple have either introduced or are seriously considering similar legislation. Another 11 baby bond pilot projects are also in the works, including in Vermont, Georgia, Missouri, New Mexico and Maryland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Research suggests that a nationwide baby bond proposal (like the American Opportunity Act as introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)) would significantly close the countrys extraordinary wealth gap and have positive effects on family wealth, student debt, home equity and retirement savings across gender, race and ethnicity. A separate 2024 study by the Urban Institute found that a federal baby bonds program would decrease the share of people that take on student loans and reduce the total amount of debt held by student loan borrowers. We know the ingredients needed to promote families, grow a vibrant middle class and build an economy that works for all of us: a combination of cash for today, capital for tomorrow and policies that make lifes essential needs, like health care and housing, more affordable. More than a baby bonus, this recipe will provide the base level of resources necessary to allow people the freedom to make the choices they want, such as starting a family, without worrying about financial survival. In these times, wanting and being able to afford the American Dream are two different things. It will be family-first, wealth promoting investments like baby bonds not just baby bonuses that will get us there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement David Radcliffe, State and Local Policy Director, The New Schools Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy 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. ULAN BATOR, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 100 forest and steppe fires have been recorded across Mongolia in the first five months of 2025, ravaging 632,352 hectares of land, the country's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Friday. The wildfires have caused total losses of 5 billion Mongolian tugriks (over 1.4 million U.S. dollars), according to the NEMA. According to experts, most of the forest and steppe fires were caused by human negligence, careless handling of fire, and burning of grass in the spring. In view of this, the NEMA has warned residents of Ulan Bator and 21 Mongolian provinces not to make bonfires or throw cigarette butts on the ground in dry weather. The total number of forest and steppe fires across Mongolia at the end of 2024 reached 137, with most recorded in the eastern Mongolian provinces of Sukhbaatar, Khentii, and Dornod, according to data released by the agency. Whats the best way to measure a schools quality? It depends on whom you ask. Parents, educators, employers and policymakers hold many different opinions about the goals of education and, therefore, about how to judge school performance. Yet virtually every educational aim rests on the same foundation: giving students a strong academic grounding and developing the knowledge and habits of mind that allow them to think critically, communicate effectively and acquire knowledge and skills over time. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter At this challenging moment in American education, with student achievement in decline, FutureEd and the Keystone Policy Center decided to approach the question of how best to measure schools from scratch. We combed the research about the features of schools that make the greatest contribution to academic achievement and identified five research-based characteristics that together provide a more complete and precise picture of school quality than is typically available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All the measures can support school improvement and provide parents and the public with a fuller understanding of school performance. But not all are suitable for high-stakes accountability decisions. Some metrics lack the reliability, validity and comparability necessary for ranking schools, replacing their staff or closing them. 1. Growth in Student Achievement For decades, accountability systems judged schools based primarily on state test scores. But these correlate strongly with demographics and family income, making it difficult to gauge the real contributions of schools to improved student outcomes. A fairer, and increasingly popular, way to judge schools also considers how much they contribute to growth in students test scores over the year. 2. Access to Rigorous Instruction To achieve at high levels, students need access to challenging coursework. Policymakers can address this in accountability systems by measuring whether schools offer access to a broad range of course offerings, including the arts, sciences and technology, so schools dont narrow their focus to just reading and math. To help teachers deliver strong instruction, research increasingly points to the importance of using high-quality, standards-aligned instructional materials, which many states and districts are starting to emphasize. Research also has found that completion of one or more advanced math and science classes in high school predicts both college readiness and later health, job satisfaction and well-being. This can be measured by the availability of and enrollment in Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and dual-enrollment programs, for example, but only if they are made accessible to students who may have been shut out in the past. Related Why Teachers Dont Use the High-Quality Instructional Materials Theyre Given Student surveys also provide insight into whether schools provide a learning environment that promotes high achievement. But any use of surveys should include safeguards against adults influencing responses, and states must ensure they are valid and reliable. Thats why many states and districts use surveys for school improvement rather than accountability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Accountability systems also could include reviews of student work, with a focus on instructional rigor, though doing so requires systematically collecting and evaluating work samples across schools. 3. Effective Staff Research consistently shows that teacher and principal quality contribute more to student achievement than any other school-based factors. Traditionally, teacher quality has been measured by years of experience and subject-specific expertise, such as degrees earned or passing of teacher-licensure exams. But these measures often dont correlate with student achievement. A sounder strategy would be to identify the percentages of effective or highly effective teachers in a school through teacher evaluation systems that use multiple measures of quality and classroom observation, though few states have such systems at scale. States and districts can measure a principals impact on student success using multiple measures and several years worth of achievement data. Educator surveys of principal-teacher and teacher-to-teacher trust; principals instructional leadership; and teachers commitment to their school also provide an important window into a schools overall professional capacity. To prevent pressure from influencing survey results, states and districts should limit such measures to school improvement. 4. Supportive Climate Many states include chronic student absenteeism in their accountability systems as a proxy for student engagement and whether a schools climate is safe and conducive to learning. It is a reasonable strategy. But well-designed and well-implemented student, teacher and educator surveys again, with sufficient validity and reliability safeguards can provide more direct measures of school culture. Such surveys also can provide key insights into where improvement is needed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related Opening the Door for Robust and Joyful Teaching and Learning 5. Postsecondary Outcomes Test scores are proxies for long-term measures that parents value. But metrics such as whether students attend and graduate from college or career-training programs, enroll in the military, find gainful employment, and lead healthy and fulfilling lives are better gauges of readiness for adulthood. Though few states measure outcomes such as college enrollment when evaluating schools, better connecting pre-K-12 data systems to postsecondary and labor market data could help monitor a range of important post-high-school outcomes. Many high-performing countries use inspection systems that combine test scores and other quantitative measures with classroom observations and interviews conducted by teams of trained experts who visit schools to gather information on important features of success. These reviews typically include a school self-assessment followed by team site visits. They result in a comprehensive report describing a schools strengths and weaknesses and recommended steps for improvement. While such inspection systems have spread rapidly around the world, the cost and logistics of conducting valid and reliable school site reviews at scale has slowed their adoption in the U.S., particularly for high-stakes accountability decisions. Test scores matter. But by themselves, they provide an incomplete measure of school success. They also offer little guidance or support on how schools can improve. A more comprehensive set of research-based metrics would provide parents, educators and policymakers with a richer understanding of what makes schools successful and a clearer sense of how to strengthen them. Measurement systems that combine standardized test scores, access to rigorous and advanced coursework, prevalence of effective teachers and school leaders, evaluations of respectful and supportive school cultures and data on student success after high school are most likely to promote higher student achievement. Responsibility for weighting each strand and the specific metrics within them should rest with state and local education officials. But each component should play a role in evaluating school success. Im old enough to remember when Republican President Ronald Reagan, during his 1988 State of the Union Address, dropped a heavy stack of papers, comprising that years budgeting megabill, next to the podium. He declared that Congress shouldnt send another one, because he would not sign it. He got a rare bipartisan standing ovation for that. Many of you are old enough to remember when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the Affordable Care Act, We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her next sentence clarified that she meant the bill could be understood best away from the fog of the controversy. But that first sentence soon became a political rallying cry for some Republicans upset with the passage of a bill so large no one could properly digest it. Times change. This is a much more hyper-partisan period in history. Its apparently so partisan that party faithful dont get the irony. Who has read it? Todays proposed budget another megabill totaling more than 1,000 pages is being pushed by a Republican president. He apparently doesnt mind how big and heavy it is. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky posted a plaintive plea on X last week before the House voted: Shouldnt we take more than a few hours to read a bill this big and this consequential? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Was he implying we may have to pass it to see whats in it? So far, we know it makes changes to Medicaid, extends the tax cuts enacted during the first Trump term, removes some tax credits for clean energy and increases spending for border security. A measure to eliminate taxes on tips passed the Senate separately on a unanimous vote and is now awaiting action in the House. More deficit spending We also know that, taken together, these would add $3.8 trillion over 10 years to the rapidly growing national debt, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. A lot of tips probably already dont get reported as income, but the Peter G. Peterson Foundation estimates the no-tax bill on tips would cost $110 billion over 10 years, even though its limited to people earning less than $160,000. That may not be much in a Washington where deficits run in the trillions, but its still moving in the wrong direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the bill doesnt stop there. It would bar states from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years. Utah has been a leader in passing laws that protect its people from malicious AI, including its use for mental health services. But the budget bill tells states to repeal all such laws. Legal handcuffs It also would curtail the federal courts power to hold government personnel in contempt for disobeying judicial orders an ominous provision given the number of Trump actions courts have found to be illegal. Its a rule Republicans may quickly regret the next time a Democrat takes control of the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 80s are long gone. We no longer have Reagan and his eye-catching stack of budget bills. Everythings electronic these days, anyway. But we do have Elon Musk, the DOGE slasher, who told CBS News he doesnt like what hes seeing. I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, he said, adding this interesting observation: I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I dont know if it can be both. Budgets and priorities Strip away the PR, and budgets are statements about priorities. Thats true whether its your household budget or that of a stamp-collecting club. By that measure, this bill speaks loudly and with increasing clarity as it awaits Senate action. But what its size and breadth say about a representative governments deliberative process, and what its totality says about overspending, are causes for concern. So is its implied message about political parties and the fluidity of principles. Im guessing Mr. Reagan would not be amused. Donald Trump has been called a reality television president so many times by his detractors (or the detractors of reality television), it no longer feels clever. Or even much of an insult. Still he appears to be doubling down on that reputation after pardoning Todd and Julie Chrisley, the stars of the long-running and shockingly popular USA Network reality show Chrisley Knows Best. (USA Network is owned by NBCUniversal, MSNBC's parent company.) The couples lawyer, Alex Little, in material he prepared for the Justice Department asking for a pardon, said their conviction exemplifies the weaponization of justice against conservatives and public figures, eroding basic constitutional protections. While Little would disagree, I dont think were looking at a witch hunt here. Indeed, as any scholar of the reality television arts and sciences will tell you, the Chrisleys are actually late to a well-established trend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chrisley Knows Best centered around Todd Chrisley, a flamboyant Southern real-estate mogul who was always hounding his children and freaking out when things didnt go his way. The producers were clearly working to create a sitcomlike vibe, but less in the mold of Friends and more like the old three-camera series starring men such as Jim Belushi or Kevin James as underappreciated, breadwinning heroes with inexplicably hot wives. The show ran from 2014 to 2023 and also included a separate spinoff on E! (E! is also owned by NBCUniversal.) It only ceased production because the principal characters became indisposed, and by indisposed I mean that they were sent to prison. The Chrisleys, unlike their sitcom counterparts, were conspicuously wealthy rather than working class. The proud owner of a very American McMansion, they made most of their money buying, selling and flipping similar homes in suburban environments in Southern states. The lavish lifestyle, however, was not entirely legitimate. In 2022, Todd was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Julie to seven for their involvement in a tax and mortgage fraud scheme that predates the premiere of their show in 2014. The show itself made them plenty of money, and the couple was also convicted of trying to hide that income from the IRS and skipping out on nearly $500,000 in back taxes. (Julies conviction was vacated on appeal in 2024 after a judge decided prosecutors did not tie her specifically to the very first year of the bank-fraud scheme.) Prosecutors proved the couple had bilked Atlanta-area banks out of $36 million by applying for mortgages with fake documents, not repaying loans, and taking out false loans just to repay the old false loans. They used that money on a classic reality TV smorgasbord designer clothes, exotic cars and flashy trips. But the self-made element of their wealth was always an important part of their brand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The other part of Todds brand is flamboyance. His love of fashion and Botox has long made him the subject of rumors about his sexual orientation rumors that he always shut down. His affect is sort of like if Snagglepuss and Charles Nelson Riley had a gay child through surrogacy. It was always a weird conceit that seemed to contrast with the shows more traditional family values themes and fan base. Indeed, leveraging that conservative base and deploying the Trumpian language of victimhood that may have helped secure the Chrisleys their pardon. Its no coincidence that Savannah Chrisley, the couples daughter who is featured prominently in the show, argued in prime time last summer at the Republican National Convention that her family was targeted by rogue prosecutors. In reality TV fashion, the truth is less exciting. Reality television attracts extreme personalities because that is what pops on camera and connects with fans. Extreme personalities do extreme things and that sometimes means breaking the law. The television age were currently experiencing was arguably ushered in by the runaway success of Survivor in the summer of 2000. Richard Hatch, who is gay, took home the inaugural $1 million prize. In 2006, Hatch was sentenced to 51 months in prison for not declaring his winnings to the IRS. Post prison, he appeared on Celebrity Apprentice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice was also on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012 only to be fired by Trump himself. Like the Chrisleys, she and her husband, Joe, were known for spending money freely, including dropping $120,000 on furniture in the shows pilot episode. Teresa paid in cash. In 2013, she and Joe pled guilty to mail, wire and bank fraud for taking out loans with fraudulent documents, also much like the Chrisleys. Teresa got 15 months in prison (but only served 11) and Joe served 41 months. Since the Italian-born Joe never became a naturalized citizen, he was scheduled to be deported in 2019 during Trumps first term. Teresa and Joe said they never formally asked for a pardon from the then-president, the couples eldest daughter, Gia Giudice, set up a Change.org petition to request that our President, Donald J Trump review our petition and pardon my father. The pardon never came. While Trump might have some sympathy for people who commit loan fraud, after all, a New York judge did find Trump and the Trump Organization had committed civil fraud. But he shows very little leniency for illegal immigrants. In 2022, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah pleaded guilty to wire fraud and is serving out a 6 year sentence, though its been repeatedly shortened. The estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne was convicted of fraud last summer. (She has not been accused of any involvement in the fraud and denies all wrongdoing.) Peter Thomas, who was on Real Housewives of Atlanta when he was married to star Cynthia Bailey, just pleaded guilty to not paying his taxes. But Trump likely guessed he could use the Chrisleys and their story unlike, say, Jen Shahs tale of woe. This pardon sends a message to MAGA world: Yes, the deep state is out to get you and other hard-working, God-fearing Americans. Or at least it was under President Joe Biden. And the only person who can stop the injustice is President Donald J. Trump. With a swipe of his overworked pen, Trump not only freed Todd and Julie he might have also gotten their show back on the air. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This narrative, like so many of the canned storylines on Chrisley Knows Best is an illusion. Not that it matters to Trumps fans. Theres no nefarious plot here; that would be more interesting. Law enforcement agents arent targeting reality TV stars, theyre just following the evidence. And sometimes that evidence is beamed directly into millions of homes across America. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com From the value of allies to the importance of keeping secret communications secret, I have disagreed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on many things. Weve had different backgrounds, experiences and incentives that have shaped our very different perspectives. Its no secret that I strongly opposed his earlier stance and comments against allowing women in combat arms. But I have to give credit where credit is due: His recent order that the military adopt a sex-neutral fitness standard for combat arms branches is not just reasonable its the right policy. The March 30 order directed all military branches to end separate fitness standards for men and women in combat arms occupation. Gender-normed standards have been left in place for non-combat roles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The directive requires the services to submit their change plans by the end of May, and implement them by the end of the fiscal year. Already, the Army has announced its plan to implement sex-neutral fitness standards for 21 combat arms jobs beginning in June. In a previous lifetime, I was the commander of one of the Armys first sex-integrated infantry companies. Back then, amid a wave of bad-faith arguments in the press, I wrote an op-ed describing my experience. In it, I tried to have an honest conversation about the ground truth and what it actually meant to have women in the infantry. I was frustrated that everyone was yelling past each other. One side screamed that women were biologically unfit, citing hormones, physiology and unit cohesion. The other side insisted that women had to be integrated, largely because not doing so hurt womens promotion potential and failed to meet diversity goals. I staked out what I thought was a reasonable position: allow women in combat arms, and require them to meet the same standards as anyone else. No quotas, no shortcuts, just standards appropriate for the job, applied to everyone equally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The piece caused a stir. It was cited as a lead expert opinion in a case before the Supreme Court of India regarding women serving in the navy there. It was grossly misquoted in a United Nations report on equal opportunity for women in defense. The article was controversial enough that no public affairs or legal officer would approve it, and it took approval from the Pentagon to publish. Despite the chaos, no one seemed to read past where I said women should be allowed in the infantry the celebration and condemnation stopped there. It felt like everyone skipped my argument that women should continue to serve in combat arms roles under age- and gender-neutral, combat-focused standards. Thats still my position today. Which brings us back to Hegseth. Given that he recently stated, straight up we should not have women in combat roles, it would have been reasonable to assume he would follow through on his threats and send the military back a decade. When he was nominated to be secretary of Defense, I told Fox News that I didnt understand why someone in that role would be more interested in turning away soldiers who are willing and able to fight and refighting culture wars than in preparing our military to fight real ones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So when he expressed his change of heart about women in combat arms during his confirmation hearings, I figured it was perfunctory or performative. I didnt expect much these days, it seems like its the norm for most high-level nominees to say one thing during questioning, then do the opposite when its time to govern. But Hegseth followed through. And whatever else is going on at the Pentagon and in D.C. right now, this is one policy I can fully support. As a company commander, some of my favorite memories about this issue came from watching some of my female soldiers max their physical fitness test scores and then keep going. Afterwards, Id congratulate them on their perfect scores, and theyd respond with frustration, It was only a 94 percent on the mens scale. Most of them didnt want special treatment. They didnt want to slip through just to fill a quota. They were there because they asked to be and because they wanted to do the job and do it well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats exactly the spirit we want in the men and women we entrust to fight on the front lines of our nations wars. The men and women who dont have that mentality and capability (and let the record reflect, there are plenty of men and women in that category) are the ones who dont belong in combat arms. Of course, we should remain vigilant. Given Hegseths past rhetoric, its more than fair to wonder whether he is simply testing the waters for more malicious policies more in line with his previously stated beliefs. But we also shouldnt reflexively oppose good policy just because we dont like the person introducing it. If we can separate the policy from the person, and our emotions from the argument, we should be able to agree that this policy is a win for a more capable and more lethal military. By the same token, this is not an endorsement of Hegseth but of the standard one that is long overdue and too often distorted in the culture war. As I wrote in 2019, we should never weaken standards just to meet quotas. We need people regardless of sex who are eager, ready and able to meet the demands of the job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, yes lets give credit where credit is due. I couldnt have imagined saying this six months ago, but here we are: Good job, Secretary Hegseth. Micah Ables is a former active-duty U.S. Army infantry officer. He led an all-male heavy weapons infantry platoon on a deployment to Afghanistan and led a mixed-gender mechanized infantry company on a rotation to Poland and Georgia. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Department of the Army or Department of Defense. 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. Donald Trump is losing support fast. Voters are souring on the president due to his mishandling of the economy and brazen attacks on constitutional rights and the rule of law. Yet a coherent roadmap for how progressives can take back the House in 2026 likely the single most important short-term step to push back against the MAGA agenda has yet to emerge. James Carvilles advice for Democrats to sit back and watch Trump unravel is a dangerous gamble. Whats more, it would do nothing to help Democrats reverse the long-term bleed of working-class voters that allowed Trumps victory in the first place. To win the future, Democrats need a positive and convincing message that resonates with the many Americans who either voted for Trump in 2024 or who stayed home because they didnt like the options on offer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Centrists will try to convince progressives to moderate their critiques of elites and their economic proposals, but dont be fooled: they are evoking the failed Clinton-era strategies that pushed the working class away from Democrats in the first place. So what should Democrats do? Join team economic populism, using three key steps in the economic populist playbook. First, welcome hatred of billionaires and corporations, and dont be afraid to attack the party establishment. To succeed as an economic populist, you must first pick a real fight with economic elites. Democrats must offer a whole-cloth condemnation of the corporate takeover of our country, delivered in a visceral, raw style that makes working-class voters take note. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not that Democrats never critique economic elites. Even Kamala Harris not widely regarded as a raging populist regularly talked about corporate price-gouging and the need to rein in bad actors on the 2024 campaign trail. But these never came anywhere close to conveying that she really understood how angry people feel, or that she would do anything meaningful to put economic oligarchs in their place. Too many Democrats talk about jobs, unions and the economy in safe, bloodless terms that fail to acknowledge the resentment that working-class voters feel after decades of economic devastation. They must do more than just acknowledge that families are struggling to make ends meet. Democrats in competitive districts need to speak compellingly about how the economy was rigged against ordinary Americans by both corporate elites and the political leadership of both major parties. They must acknowledge that trade deals like NAFTA, corporate deregulation and financialization championed by centrist Democrats and Republicans alike decimated millions of good jobs and left entire communities hollowed out. Research from the Center for Working-Class Politics suggests that both parts of this equation attacking elites as well as the establishment are winning strategies for reaching working-class voters. Second, craft a bold, bread-and-butter policy platform that pushes the limits of whats possible. Tapping into voters distrust of politicians and the government is crucial, but so too is an accompanying set of policies that gives voters a sense of how you would translate critique into action. Democrats must adopt a comprehensive economic agenda that tackles the structural challenges faced by working-class Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not enough to talk about good jobs. Candidates must outline an aggressive plan to create new and better jobs for Americans left behind, and reject the trade, tax and other policies that that cruelly pushes them aside. This means proposing major investments in infrastructure and industrial policy, using government contracts and incentives to keep jobs in the U.S. and closing loopholes that allow big companies to shift jobs out of communities. It means putting an end to stock buybacks and renegotiating unfair trade deals to include built-in protections for workers. It means raising taxes on mega-corporations and increasing access to vocational training to help give American workers a fighting chance. Candidates must also fight to give workers a stronger seat at the table. They must strengthen labor rights through legislation such as the PRO Act, which would make it easier to form a union, and the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act, which would penalize employers who undermine union activities. Its important to note the only sustainable path forward to rebuild communities hit hard by job loss and deindustrialization is through massive, targeted investments. This includes a federal jobs program, alongside broader spending on infrastructure, industrial policy and workforce training. Not only are these policies popular the jobs guarantee proposal, for example, consistently receives majority support in surveys but it is hard to paint such policies as unearned government handouts. The scale of the economic challenges at hand means that without such ambitious initiatives, many working-class communities will continue to fall farther behind further eroding Democratic support. Third, Democrats must show the base that economic populism doesnt conflict with core progressive values. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the short term, the lefts electoral priority must be to defeat more Republicans, while its long-term strategy hinges on building durable majority coalitions in traditionally purple and red districts. This can only be accomplished by reversing the trend of working-class voters drifting toward Republicans. The 2024 data are clear: Democrats dominated in the 12 states where the percent of college graduates was above 40 percent, none of which were swing states. In contrast, Democrats captured only one of the 29 states with college-educated shares below 35 percent. This is the structural and cultural backdrop that has enabled Trumps pseudo-populist rhetoric to resonate with so many working-class voters, increasingly across race and ethnicity. Trumps anti-elitism focuses on highly educated cultural elites who occupy roughly the top 10-20 percent of the economic spectrum. His favorite targets include the news media, academia, Hollywood and, of course, Democratic politicians. In targeting cultural elites, Trump deflects attention away from the concentrated economic power at the tippy top: billionaires, Wall Street and mega-corporations. Its important to understand why this strategy works. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, there is the undeniable reality that many cultural elites have earned their share of blame for enabling the rise of neoliberalism, runaway inequality and the consolidation of wealth and rising power of the ultrarich. For decades, politicians and operatives from both parties embraced free trade deals that threw American workers into a global race to the bottom, along with a suite of policies that were bad for working people (e.g., cuts to social programs and tax breaks for the rich). This is why its so essential for candidates to openly criticize the political establishment, to establish even a baseline of credibility with disaffected voters. Trump then lumps these blameworthy political actors and institutions together with everyone in the educated classes (at least the liberals), who can be viewed as condescending and oblivious to the realities and hardships of the majority of Americans. People tend to feel resigned to economic forces (like they are to the weather), but condescension has a human face. When affluent liberals parrot phrases like basket of deplorables, people see red. Its not hard to tap into and channel this anger. Then, when Trump goes after vulnerable communities, he weaves these attacks together with this anti-elitist rhetoric. For example, the subtext of Trumps final 2024 campaign ad (which targeted transgender students) was that Kamala Harris cares more about catering to this special group (that you harbor prejudice against) than she cares about hard-working people like you. But efforts to connect with working-class voters must not lead Democratic candidates to become Trump-lite versions of themselves on cultural and social issues. The solution isnt to throw vulnerable communities under the bus. Democrats must lead with popular economic fights while also showing genuine commitment to stand up for the rights and freedoms of everyone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consider Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who visibly opposed a law that would have banned discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and allowed teachers to refuse to use transgender students chosen pronouns. Bashear built the popular support he enjoys in Kentucky by fighting visibly for the working class, including to protect public education, for better jobs and better pay, to expand Medicaid and more. Because of how Bashear has defined himself, it makes it much harder for MAGA opponents to define him on social wedge issues. We think theres a lesson here for other Democrats. To be clear, the lions share of blame for increased social division lies with Trump and Republicans who actively demonize marginalized groups, using wedge issues to keep working people divided. But when Democrats are unwilling to pick these fights with the economically powerful, Trump and the GOP get to tell people who to blame, uncontested. So long as Democrats fail to open up an offensive battlefront, theyll be stuck fighting defensive battles on the terrain where the GOP much prefers to fight. The antidote to Trumps psuedo-populism is a full embrace of real progressive economic populism. This requires the courage to name the real culprits: the billionaires and powerful corporations that have rigged our economy and political system against working people, along with the political actors that enabled them including when they are in our own party. Jared Abbott is the director of the Center for Working-Class Politics. Jonathan Smucker is a political organizer, campaigner and strategist. He is co-founder of Popular Comms Institute, PA Stands Up, Lancaster Stands Up, Common Defense, Beyond the Choir and Mennonite Action, and author of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. San Franciscos public high schools recently tried to implement a massive change to their grading system part of a grading for equity program under which students can pass with scores as low as 41 percent. Moreover, homework, attendance and classroom participation would no longer factor into students grades, which would instead depend mainly on a final exam which, of course, they could retake multiple times if needed. Understandably, parents were outraged, in particular because this absurd system has been adopted by other cities and has failed to improve performance. After receiving significant backlash, the plan was canceled. What a shock. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our public schools are in trouble, and even Democrats are noticing. Politico reports that Rahm Emanuel, former congressman, chief of staff to President Obama, Chicago mayor and ambassador to Japan, wants to run for president in 2028 on a platform of education reform. Emanuel has reportedly been road testing the outlines of a stump speech, and its a good one. He recently said in an interview, I am done with the discussion of locker rooms, I am done with the discussion of bathrooms and we better start having a conversation about the classroom. Later, Emanuel told Bill Maher, We literally are a superpower, were facing off against China with 1.4 billion people and two-thirds of our children cant read eighth grade level. The feisty former mayor is stealing a powerful issue from the Republican playbook. Its a gutsy move. Attacking our education establishment, and especially calling out the teachers unions, has long been the third rail of Democratic politics. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are, to lefty politicians, the most sacred of sacred cows. Not only do those two organizations claim enormous membership rolls the NEA has 3 million members and the AFT has 1.8 million that can help get out the vote and mobilize the public, they also spend tens of millions of dollars for political candidates, with more than 90 percent going to Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For proof, look at the 2023 mayoral race in Chicago, during which both the disgraceful shortcomings of the citys schools and rampant crime were on the ballot. Paul Vallas, a tough-on-crime Democrat known as an accomplished school reformer, faced off against another Democrat, Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and labor organizer who was the favorite of the Chicago Teachers Union and its nearly 30,000 members. The race should not have been close. Vallas had a track record of success and the backing of the police. But he lost to Johnson anyway, who received over $5 million from CTU and other teachers unions. From 2011 to 2019, Emanuel served as mayor of the Windy City. During those years he attempted school reform and took on the teachers unions. The sparring resulted in the strike of 2012, which unions today celebrate because they won significant concessions, such as higher pay and reduced accountability. That strike also squashed the budding reform movement that had led to some school closings and efforts to set higher standards. It is credited with paving the way for similar walkouts in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Denver in the years that followed. The CTU calls the 2012 work stoppage The strike that brought teachers unions back from the dead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of this makes Emanuel a peculiar person to talk up school reform. Thats not to say he isnt right in calling out the failures of our public education. In his home city, testing from last year showed that fewer than one in three students could read and fewer than one in five could do math at their elementary grade level. Among Chicagos 11th graders, only 22.4 percent could read at grade level in 2024, and only 18.6 percent performed math proficiently. This is unacceptable. Nationally, the news is grim as well. The most recent assessments from the Program for International Student Assessment tests 15-year-olds in over 65 countries; the U.S. places 18th overall, with an overall score of 1468, well below leader Singapores 1679 and runner-up Chinas 1605. In math, the U.S. comes in 26th. The Chamber of Commerce Foundation reports that students in Singapore scored 110 points more than their American peers [in math] five staggering academic years ahead of U.S. students. As they point out, These results have huge implications for the United States global competitiveness and national security. Our countrys education system is not short of money; U.S. public schools are spending over $17,000 per student on K-12 education. In 2019, our outlays per pupil were 38 percent above the level of other OECD countries. Something is wrong with this picture, and Americas parents know it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We should care not only about national security and U.S. competitiveness, of course; we should also care about the kids mostly non-white kids who fall through the cracks of our broken schools every year and whose fates are often sealed by that failure. Recent state exams reveal that in 40 percent of Baltimores high schools, not a single student was proficient in math. In Chicago, there are 22 schools where not a single student can read at grade level. How can local politicians nearly all Democrats, who routinely ask for minority votes accept that? Tackling the teachers unions, imposing high standards, discipline and innovation like using AI and other new technologies to augment in-class teaching is part of the answer. Pushing school choice, which introduces competition into our sclerotic and underachieving system, is essential. President Trump and Republicans are on the right side of these issues, and must prioritize reforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emanuel is right to challenge the teachers unions, and our failing schools. But his record shows hes not the guy to get the job done. Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company. 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. Pakistan has violated the spirit of the treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India, said Indias Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Parvathaneni Harish, last Friday, referring to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. India suspended the World Bank-brokered agreement the day after gunmen killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists at Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan also claims Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi blames Islamabad for harboring militants who staged the April 22 attack, as Harish noted in his remarks at a U.N. Security Council Arria-formula meeting titled Protecting Water in Armed Conflict Protecting Civilian Lives. Pakistan has denied responsibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By Indias count, Pakistani terror attacks have taken more than 20,000 Indian lives in the past four decades. It is against this backdrop that India has finally announced that the treaty will be in abeyance until Pakistan, which is a global epicenter of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border terrorism, Harish announced. It is clear that it is Pakistan which remains in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty. Indias action is the first-ever suspension of the pact. The treaty, a rare beacon of cooperation between India and Pakistan, allocates waters in the Indus basin. India got control of the eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Pakistan controls western rivers, the Chenab, the Indus and Jhelum. The treaty is generous to Pakistan, allocating to it about 70 percent of the total water carried by the Indus River System. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Water stoppages pose a dire threat to Pakistan. Rivers covered by the treaty provide almost 80 percent of its water for drinking and irrigation. Water is a vital national interest of Pakistan, a lifeline for its 240 million people and its availability will be safeguarded at all costs, a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson said on April 25. Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an act of war and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power, the Pakistani spokesperson continued. Complete spectrum of national power is a significant phrase, given that Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nuclear war is always on the menu. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 against known terrorist sites in Pakistan, and for four days the two nuclear-armed powers hit each other with air, drone and missile strikes. After India targeted the Nur Khan and Mushaf airbases, both close to Pakistans nuclear weapons installations, an alarmed Trump administration intervened and brokered a ceasefire. Ishaq Dar, Pakistans deputy prime minister and foreign minister, told CNN on May 12 that the cease-fire could fall apart if the water issue is not resolved. India currently does not have the ability to deny water to Pakistan, because its upstream dams have only limited storage capacity. The most New Delhi can do with the current infrastructure is affect the timing of water flows to Pakistan. New Delhis goal is to prevent any water from leaving India, however, and the country is planning to improve its system of dams so that they do not have to release water into Pakistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained a hardline stance. Water and blood cannot flow together, Modi has said. Terror and talks cannot happen at the same time. Terror and trade cannot happen simultaneously. Most analysts believe that Pakistans forces got the better of India in the four days of fighting. Whether that is true or not, Pakistans army came out ahead at home. Rather than deterring its rival, India precipitated a retaliation that ended up burnishing the Pakistani militarys reputation and boosting its domestic popularity, wrote Georgetown Universitys Aqil Shah in Foreign Affairs. So expect more hostilities. Shahs piece is titled The Next War Between India and Pakistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There will be one for sure. Operation Sindoor, Modi said, had drawn a new line under the fight against terrorism. This is a new phase, a new normal. If there is a terror attack on India, we will give a jaw-breaking response. Modi has recently said that Operation Sindoor has not yet ended. The conflict could spread to include another nuclear weapons state. Beijing, for instance, could intervene by blocking water flows into India. The headwaters of the Indus are in China. So are the headwaters of the Brahmaputra. This could well overshadow any previous, containable conflict between India and Pakistan, writes Gregory Copley, the president of the International Strategic Studies Association and editor-in-chief of Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, on the next war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It could be the big one. Gordon G. Chang is the author of Plan Red: Chinas Project to Destroy America and The Coming Collapse of China .. 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. The last article of the U.S.-United Kingdom trade deal raises the important issue of intellectual property. Its admittedly a placeholder. The obligations will have to be worked out later. But if theres serious intent behind it, this aspiration should inform the template for Trumps upcoming bilateral negotiations. In Trumps America First Trade Policy memo from February, he called for a study to identify any unfair trade practices by other countries and recommend appropriate actions to remedy such practices. He has two that do this: the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report and the 2025 Special 301 Report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latter document, which lost its voice during the Biden administration, is back. Its once again touting the fact that intellectual property directly or indirectly accounts for 63 million high-paying jobs and 41 percent of U.S. GDP. And it names and shames countries that dont sufficiently protect and enforce American intellectual property. China and India were named and shamed. They have been priority watch list countries for years and represent markets with the most significant intellectual property issues. Trump is negotiating with both countries. Start with China. The Special 301 Report spends 10 pages detailing concerns. For example, China is the worlds largest source of counterfeit goods and has rampant online piracy. Other challenges are much more nuanced. For example, Beijings party-controlled Chinese courts have issued anti-suit injunctions to curtail foreign litigation over standard essential patents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This gives China undue influence in setting fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory royalty rates on 5G and countless other technologies. Not just in China, mind you, but in other countries. The U.S.-China Joint Statement signed on May 12 says that the countries will establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations. Trump should hold China accountable for upholding the Phase 1 deal he signed with Beijing, and push for more. The deal covers intellectual property commitments, many of which China has not implemented, particularly with respect to patent enforcement, patent term extensions and patentability standards. Trump should also seek commitments that build on the Phase 1 deal such as regulatory data protection, which would make it more difficult for China to backslide. Then theres India. The U.S. and India are negotiating a multi-phase bilateral trade deal. To fulfill President Trump and Prime Minister Modis vision of more than doubling total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, intellectual property issues must be comprehensively addressed early and upfront. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet, as the Special 301 Report concluded, India remains one of the worlds most challenging major economies with respect to the protection and enforcement of IP. India needs to commit to intellectual property protections comparable to those that Indian innovators enjoy in the U.S. Early commitments would signal Indias seriousness about the negotiations and its intent to be a reliable partner. Finally, consider the European Union. Like the U.K., it has a high-standard intellectual property regime. Unlike China and India, it isnt written up in the Special 301 Report. But the National Trade Estimate Report records that U.S. exporters have many concerns. Some ring familiar, like copyright protections under the Digital Single Market Strategy. Others are more nuanced, such as the evaluation of risk under the EUs new AI Act, which might violate intellectual property protections on source code and trade secrets, for example. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then there are the legislative proposals that would exploit biopharmaceutical-related intellectual property and other incentives to achieve localization objectives and expand the use of compulsory licenses. Online piracy, domestic content and language requirements are also evident across various EU members. More generally, Brusselss preferences on digital trade dont line up with those of the U.S., as originally penned by Trump in his first term. Theres a ready-made forum in which to negotiate these gaps: the U.S.-E.U. Trade and Technology Council. The council is meant to spur transatlantic cooperation and competitiveness, but it has faltered in recent years. An upgraded mandate to address intellectual property, along with its emphasis on digital technologies, would help in this regard. If Trumps trade deals are to be successful, they must prioritize the protection and enforcement of intellectual property. As the Department of Commerce observed, the entire U.S. economy relies on some form of IP because virtually every industry either produces or uses it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marc L. Busch is the Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. 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. With the passage of the House reconciliation bill, the majority party is working on sending one big, beautiful bill to the Oval Office. While Medicare debates dominated the budget conversation, President Trumps number one economic development project ever in our country, Opportunity Zones, is uniting lawmakers across the aisle. One of the administrations key achievements was a first-of-its-kind tax incentive designed to uplift the nations most vulnerable communities. Known as the Opportunity Zones tax incentive, the federal program gave working-class Americans a chance to benefit from a growing economy many of whom had been overlooked during the 2008 financial crisis. Opportunity Zones leverage capital gains that otherwise would remain on the sidelines in investors portfolios, deploying those gains into low-income neighborhoods desperate for capital to come and stay in their communities. If investors keep their funds in these communities for 10 years, the gains are tax-free, a win-win for investors and residents of low-income neighborhoods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bipartisan initiative flooded low-income communities with private capital and helped breathe life into previously neglected neighborhoods. Now, Congress should prioritize expanding Opportunity Zones or making the tax incentive permanent, ensuring that funding continues to reach the nations underserved communities. Since its 2017 inception, the program has been a success. The results speak for themselves. Opportunity Zones have raised employment growth by 3 to 4.5 percentage points in OZ communities relative to similar non-OZ areas. Corporations and manufacturers made massive investments domestically that created good-paying jobs for millions of Americans. According to a 2022 report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds have raised more than $85 billion in equity with another three years of investment beyond that. Over half of this money has gone toward new housing projects alone a victory for families working hard to achieve the American dream of homeownership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Previously overlooked communities like Erie, Pa. once home to one of the poorest ZIP codes in America benefitted from Opportunity Zones. Erie alone saw over $400 million in new, long-term capital investment, with similar success stories across all 50 states and territories. The federal incentive doesnt dictate where investments should go; instead, it empowers communities to develop the resources they need. While Opportunity Zones have significantly expanded housing stock, they have also spurred major investments in new businesses, industrial revitalization and manufacturing development. Projects have ranged from research and development labs, and academic spaces to more localized initiatives like constructing a grocery store in a former food desert. Other examples include the launch of a 5G technology manufacturing center and the transformation of long-vacant buildings into job training hubs, employment centers and entrepreneurship incubators. The incentive benefits rural communities, too. In Eastern North Carolina, Promised Lands Opportunity Zone fund has invested in a 4,000-acre working farm that produces potatoes, corn and soybeans on a massive scale, adding a $4 million state of the art grain bin system. The farm improved its long-term productivity and, importantly, the communitys economic sustainability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These projects are crucial as nearly 40 million Americans live in poverty and grapple with high living costs and limited access to economic opportunities. Opportunity Zones align their needs with investors searching for new opportunities as they navigate a volatile stock market. Before the Opportunity Zones program was imagined, President Trump reshaped the skylines of our nations busiest hubs changing their trajectory in the process. That same legacy lives on through this important initiative only this time touching more communities than ever before. Federal lawmakers should make it a priority to extend or make permanent the Opportunity Zones program. Shay Hawkins is deputy director for Opportunity Zones at America First Policy Institute. Jill Homan is advisor for Opportunity Zones at America First Policy Institute. 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. ALMATY, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Kazakhstan plans to introduce administrative liability for illegal trade on electronic trading platforms, the country's Kazinform news agency reported Friday. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin said in response to a parliamentary inquiry that the Ministry of Trade and Integration is working to improve legislation in the field of e-commerce. According to him, members of the Mazhilis, or the lower house of Kazakhstan's parliament, have proposed amendments to the Law on Consumer Rights Protection. The draft amendments seek to clarify the terminology related to e-commerce entities, such as electronic trading platforms, marketplaces, online stores, and information and advertising platforms. The proposed legislation would also introduce a number of obligations for these entities, including requirements to provide accurate information about sellers and products. "To protect the legitimate interests of consumers and rights holders, the draft law proposes administrative liability for the absence of such information, as well as for illegal trade conducted via online platforms," Zhumangarin said. Marylands Gov. Wes Moore (D) recently caused a stir in the movement for reparations in his state. The nations only Black governor, he vetoed a bill to assess the wrongs of slavery and Jim Crow and propose various remedies. The act had been championed by the state legislature and the Black Caucus, and there is even now talk of overriding his veto. However, Marylands Black political leadership may be overlooking an alternative strategy to address the politics of reparations. It draws inspiration from how America handled the rebuilding of Europe and Japan after World War II. And Moore, as the nations only sitting Black governor, can reframe the issues politics and enhance Black community self-governance. He can initiate a summit to establish a development bank for the descendants of slavery and Jim Crow. What follows is a description of how such a bank can benefit the quest for reparations, why Moore was probably wise to veto the state bill and why Maryland is the place to incorporate a reparations bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After World War II, the U.S. led the effort to establish a development bank to finance the reconstruction of war-torn Europe and Japan. The multilateral initiative was crucial to a broader package of assistance that came to be known as the Marshall Plan. In a similar fashion, Moore can take the lead to charter a bank to finance the reconstruction of distressed Black communities. Beyond the current efforts of advocates to pursue restitution through piecemeal claims, a bank could be a more efficient way to center the creation of Black institutional wealth. Moore could oversee a summit of political leaders and community banking professionals to craft a mission statement for the reparations bank. It could include members of Marylands legislative Black Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus and consultants from Black-owned financial institutions like the Harbor Bank of Maryland. The charter would designate the entity under federal regulations for community development financial institutions and Marylands community banking laws. Though located in Maryland, the fund would invest in worthy projects for moderate-income Black communities across the country. It would be administered by banking professionals and monitored by an independent accounting service. The development bank would primarily seek private donations and corporate depositors and would pool the funds and collaborate with Black-owned banks, credit unions and attuned financial institutions to vet proposals for planning grants, microfinancing and long-term loans. It could invest in small-scale projects in areas such as cooperative housing and stores, community development corporation charter schools, healthcare and infrastructure projects, and programs for occupational training and entrepreneurship. It would have a rotating board of directors selected from dues-paying organizations that represent the foundational Black community namely, those that suffered the wrongs of slavery and Jim Crow. Moore was wise to veto the state bill. American political culture has changed dramatically since the days of racial justice activism after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. During that period, advocates for reparations in California, Illinois and New York found sympathetic allies for legislation to study the subject. But even those initiatives skirted the issue of cash reparations in favor of noneconomic measures like a formal apology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, public sentiment has turned against proposals for racial remedy, and especially the use of public funds for restitution. Other than Black Americans, most groups tend to oppose the idea of reparations, and the empathy for the Black Lives Matters movement was short lived, according to the Pew Research Center. And Democratic Party leaders have expressed concern about the effect of identity politics in the presidential election. As such, advocates may need to explore alternative strategies other than lobbying for a public accounting in the states. The development bank proposal would rely on private funding rather than public. The Trump administration is openly dismissive of Black history and its meaning for contemporary justice. On the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, for example, the president condemned diversity policies in the armed services during a speech at West Point. Yet Trump brushed aside the historic role of 700 Black patriots free and enslaved that participated in the founding of the U.S. Army under frigid conditions at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. And, though speaking to cadets during the Memorial Day weekend, he neglected to describe how ex-slaves started the Memorial Day holiday after the Civil War. The first commemoration of American war casualties is believed to have occurred on May 1, 1865. Thats when emancipated Black workers unearthed a mass grave of Union soldiers near a Confederate prison in Charleston, South Carolina. They reburied the men in a dignified manner and honored their sacrifices to preserve the Union and to end slavery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, Maryland is the place to get the ball rolling. In criticizing Moores veto, the legislative Black Caucus noted that the statehouse in Annapolis is less than a mile from the old slave port at the city dock. Yet Maryland symbolizes far more in Black history and contemporary political culture foremost, its distinction for a high level of statewide political influence. This trend began in 2022 with the election of Moore as governor and Anthony Brown as attorney general the first Black leaders elected to those offices in the 237-year history of the Free State. Meanwhile, Angela Alsobrooks extended the momentum in her winning campaign for a U.S. Senate seat last year. Maryland is thus the only state where representatives of a sizable Black community have deep roots in the political culture. As such, it is arguably the symbolic capital of Black America. And as governor, Moore is in a position to host a historic summit for the establishment of a development bank for the descendants of slavery and Jim Crow. Roger House is professor emeritus of American Studies at Emerson College and the author of Blue Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy and South End Shout: Bostons Forgotten Music Scene in the Jazz Age. His forthcoming book is Five Hundred Years of Black Self-Governance: A Call to Conscience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Believe it: The coalition behind Making America Healthy Again will play an outsized role in deciding the 2026 Congressional midterm elections in more than 500 days from now in November 2026. Thats because the issues that go into MAHA close the gender gap and maintain the voter margins with young voters. But MAHA has been years in the making, going back long before President Trump won his second term and even prior to the political accession of current Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. My organization is now prioritizing the voters in the top 50 battleground U.S. House seats and 10 U.S. Senate seats, including the open seats in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota. The voters in all of the prioritized battleground Congressional races fully support the common-sense, nonpartisan health policies about making our nation healthy again. We will be bringing them and their constituent voices to meet in person with their U.S. senators and Representatives in Washington starting next month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. senators who oppose their constituents heartfelt, passionate support for these policies will lose in 2026. This includes making epinephrine an over-the-counter drug (something FDA Commissioner Martin Makary voiced support for in his March confirmation hearing) the elimination of taxpayer-funded sodas from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, expansion of regenerative farming, and elimination of glyphosate herbicides and other poisons in the food supply. Conversely, senators and representatives, regardless of party, who support their constituents and the policies we work for will earn the support of their constituents on election day. Our coalition is truly bipartisan, based on an Executive Order issued by a Republican president and implemented by a scion of the Democratic Party. This has helped my organization scale to become the fastest-growing nationwide public health advocacy coalition, which is ready to be activated in a micro-targeted deployment to battleground U.S. House and Senate races in the midterm elections. Perhaps most importantly, leaders in Congress from both parties support our goals. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are all acutely aware of the power our coalition has now, and all four are working with us in support of their respective conferences. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why? Because the 50 battleground House seats and 10 U.S. Senate seats will be decided by mere thousands of votes. Our coalition will be a deciding factor in many if not all of these toss-up Congressional election races. What differentiates our organization from any other entity is our unprecedented structure and confluence with the electorates mindset and policy priorities. We are free of the corporate groups that traditionally mete out retribution upon those who boldly do what is right. And we have secured the immediate branding of a disruptive force that enjoys trust from voters trust on the policies they care most about. Dont take our word for it. Every congressional incumbent in a battleground district or state has met with us, and many are relying upon us and our voters to be re-elected. In more than 30 years of working with Congress and White Houses of both Republican and Democratic political parties, I have never seen so much certainty among congressional leaders that these issues will determine their political fate and build the next congressional majority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With 522 days to go until election day, each senator and representative working with us understands that his or her race is being won, right now, by MAHA issues and MAHA voters. Robert K. Houton is founder of the Make America Healthy Again Coalition, is a former U.S. Senate candidate from Maryland and candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee. 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. Last year, landlords in Los Angeles filed almost 90,000 eviction cases. These cases are hard on tenants: Beyond just the immediate loss of housing, eviction leads to drops in income, higher rates of homelessness, serious health issues, and even increased risk of death. Yet the vast majority of Angelenos who navigate the complex eviction court process do so alone. That is about to change. Last month, Los Angeles joined 18 other cities, two counties, and five states across the nation where most or all tenants are guaranteed a lawyer when they go to court for an eviction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These right-to-counsel programs improve outcomes for individual tenants, but their impact goes further: They can help to coordinate services, change the way the courts operate, and open up new possibilities for tenant organizing. As researchers who study eviction in the U.S., we urge more jurisdictions to push forward housing justice and stability for renters by extending the right to counsel. These programs are particularly important now. Over the last twenty years, rents have gone up much faster than incomes, leaving half of renters cost-burdened. Faced with these sorts of affordability challenges and given evidence that homelessness is at an all-time high and rising the federal government should be taking steps to protect renters. Instead, it is making the situation worse. The Trump administration is proposing shrinking the Department of Housing and Urban Development and gutting key benefits such as Housing Choice Vouchers. Right-to-counsel programs provide an example of what state and local governments can do to step into the leadership void created by federal retrenchment. Pop culture has sold us the myth that every defendant has the right to an attorney. But thats not true. Americans arent necessarily guaranteed a government-funded lawyer when faced with a civil action such as debt collection, a child custody claim, or a landlord-tenant dispute. Theyre on their own unless they can afford a lawyer, and most people cant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These civil actions are far more common than criminal cases. In any given year, almost half of Americans have to deal with a civil legal case. Take eviction, for example. An average of 7.6 million Americans face eviction cases annually; only 4 percent of these tenants have lawyers to help them through this rapid, complicated, and deeply consequential process. That started changing in 2017, when New York City established the nations first right to counsel program. Since then, this movement has expanded protections for renters in San Francisco, Baltimore, Detroit, and dozens of other places. Although programs differ in who receives access to a lawyer and when in the process they can get help, the basic idea is the same: to provide tenants with legal assistance during what may be their darkest hour. For tenants who now have lawyers, these programs make a world of difference. Eviction filings are less likely to result in a tenant being removed by court order, and even those that do result in evictions often leave the tenant owing less money. The benefits to health and well-being are also substantial. For example, the availability of right to counsel during pregnancy reduces adverse birth outcomes among newborns. At the end of the day, a lawyer cannot make up for missed rent. But in our work studying how jurisdictions have implemented right-to-counsel, we have seen how the presence of lawyers defending tenants can lead to wholesale culture shifts in civil courts something that rental assistance and other one-time interventions dont achieve. We have seen courts where, rather than just rubber-stamping landlords eviction cases, judges now inform tenants of their rights and postpone hearings to make sure that they are represented. Courts can become a place where advocates and social workers connect tenants with services and resources and diversion is a priority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To meet their full potential, state and local leaders need to provide the stable, long-term funding necessary to launch and run these programs right. That means adequate money for outreach and education so that tenants know that protections are available if they show up to court. It also means sufficient funding to ensure that enough lawyers are available, a challenge that the New York City program has faced. San Francisco provides a model of how to do this right, steadily increasing funding, even expanding support during the pandemic when other programs were being cut. Right to counsel programs are bringing change, justice, and hope for renters experiencing one of the most difficult challenges of their lives. As the federal government pulls back supports and reverses longstanding legal protections for low-income renters, its time for state and local leaders to work together to expand protections like right-to-counsel in a sustainable way that can help as many families as possible avoid the irreversible fallout of eviction and the risk of homelessness. Peter Hepburn is an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University-Newark and associate director of Princeton Universitys Eviction Lab. Emily A. Benfer is a professor of clinical law at the George Washington University Law School and a research collaborator at the Princeton University Eviction Lab. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. The American Family Association Actions Center for Judicial Renewal doesnt particularly like it when you say that it wants to impose an unconstitutional religious test on appointees to the Supreme Court and other federal courts. But thats what it is. And this aggressive and exclusionary Christian nationalism, embraced by much of the religious right and the MAGA movement, is wrong, unconstitutional and un-American religious discrimination. The argument is that theres a big difference between a preference for specific religions among judges and an actual religious test for holding office. But that distinction means little when a political group uses its influence to pressure presidents and U.S. senators to treat their preference as a de facto religious test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bottom line is that conservative organizations are delving into the religious beliefs and practices of conservative judges to decide whether they would be acceptable to serve on the Supreme Court. The Center for Judicial Renewals site lists worldview as the first of 10 Principles of a Constitutionalist Judge, explaining that the greatest predictor of their faithful and constitutional performance on the bench is their worldview or Christian faith. The organization has put several conservative judges considered potential Supreme Court nominees on its unacceptable red list. The public version of its serious concerns dossier on Judge Neomi Rao includes under a Faith and Worldview heading the fact that Rao was raised in an immigrant family of Zoroastrian tradition and converted to Judaism when she got married. So it appears that only Christians are acceptable to them, and then only Christians who meet the religious rights biblical worldview standard. The change in the language on their website from biblical worldview to worldview after public criticism does not change the substance of the effort. The American Family Association tells prospective students of its biblical worldview training course, In order to make an impact in culture, we must first submit ourselves to the clear teaching of Scripture and acknowledge its authority to dictate every area of our lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the association and its allies apply this definition to legal and public policy questions, their standard requires opposition to legal abortion and equality for gay and transgender people and same-sex couples. It means accepting an interpretation of the Bible that dictates right-wing social and economic policies. It means undermining the separation of church and state and enforcing a right-wing view of religious liberty as a sword to justify discrimination rather than a shield to protect freedom. This religious worldview test betrays the letter and spirit of the Constitution, whose authors put in writing that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. In other words, no public official can be required to hold particular religious beliefs. Along with the First Amendment, its a core of our constitutional guarantee of religious liberty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To demand judges have a relationship with Jesus on the grounds that they will be fairer seems like not only a religious test, but also a smear against fair-minded people who dont share this religious worldview. Im a Christian, and it offends me. It certainly does not show respect for the peaceful pluralism that is a defining characteristic of our nation, where ones rights as a citizen, including the right to serve in public office, are not dependent on having particular religious beliefs. Indeed, some of the nations founders had unorthodox Christian views that some might view as falling short. One key characteristic of Christian nationalism is the belief that certain kinds of Christians should hold a privileged and dominant place in society. Right-wing groups are attempting to impose just that with their effort to hang a sign on our courthouses that says no Jews, Muslims, liberal Christians or secularists need apply. Other Trump-aligned Christian nationalists want to impose explicit tests for anyone holding public office. These calls raise the question of which religious or government figures would be responsible for evaluating whether someones Christianity passes muster. When it comes to judges, the opinion piece argues that the White House and Senate should outsource that evaluation to those who adhere to its beliefs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump has recently created a Religious Liberty Commission whose ostensible mission is to protect every Americans religious liberty. One test of its sincerity would be whether it would publicly reject and disavow this attempt to impose religious discrimination on our courts. Trump and every U.S. senator should do the same. Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way . 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. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he hoped to make an announcement regarding the hostages in a day or so. Not surprisingly, given that only 20 of the remaining 59 hostages remain alive, the statement raised the hopes of the hostages families, including those who simply wished to have their family members receive a proper burial. Yet shortly after what seemed to be a promise by the prime minister, his office issued a statement in the name of a so-called senior official that Netanyahus statement was not meant literally. Instead, the statement averred, the prime minister meant that we will not give up on freeing the hostages, and if we dont achieve that, hopefully in the coming days, we will achieve it later on. Not surprisingly, the families of the hostages were furious. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is far from clear how late later on is. Israel has now been at war with Hamas for more than 19 months. Dozens of hostages have died. And, as Netanyahus backtracking implicitly acknowledged, there is no immediate prospect for the remaining living hostages to be freed. Indeed, it is not at all evident that Netanyahu prioritizes freeing the hostages. On the contrary, he recently stated that bringing the hostages home is a very important goal, but the war has a supreme goal, and the supreme goal is victory over our enemies, and this we will achieve. Previously, winning the war and freeing the hostages had both been primary goals. Evidently that is no longer the case. It is also noteworthy that Maj. Gen. David Zini Netanyahus choice to replace Ronen Bar, whom he fired as chief of Israels internal security service reportedly told his military colleagues, I am against hostage deals. This is an eternal war. The ousted Bar, like many in Israels military leadership, had been a strong proponent of a ceasefire in order to obtain the release of at least some of the remaining living hostages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zinis purported description of the war with Hamas as eternal evokes echoes of Americas forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Relative to the duration of Israels previous armed conflicts, the Gaza operation is indeed a forever war. If that were not the case, Hamas should have been defeated months ago. It appears that the only way Israel can truly defeat Hamas is if it succeeds in driving the entire population out of Gaza. Indeed, Netanyahus security cabinet, echoing President Trumps suggestion, approved a plan to organize a voluntary transfer for Gaza residents to move to third countries. And Jerusalems policy of restricting humanitarian aid to the enclave appears intended to encourage volunteers to leave. The vast majority of Gazans show no interest in leaving their homes, however. And Israels bombing attacks continue, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Gazans, including women and children. Whether Hamas is accurately reporting the numbers of dead is less important than the reality of the destruction that Israel continues to wreak upon the Gaza Strip and its inhabitants. There is no clear end in sight, nor is there any indication that either the living and dead hostages will be released any time soon, unless Netanyahu does an about face and accepts an American-negotiated ceasefire. Israel appears to have rejected the latest Hamas offer for a limited ceasefire in exchange for five living and 10 dead hostages. Washington is now proposing the release of 10 living and 18 dead hostages in exchange for a 60-day truce and the resumption of U.N. humanitarian aid. However, Jerusalem has consistently blamed Hamas for undermining any deal by refusing to give up its weapons, accept that its leadership go into exile and demanding that Israel not resume fighting once a ceasefire took place. For its part, Hamas has demanded that Israel withdraw all its forces from Gaza. Both sides have refused to budge. In the meantime, more hostages suffer at the hands of their captors, while Gazans, and indeed Israeli soldiers, continue to die. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel is not about to withdraw from Gaza to satisfy Hamass demands. In any event, even if the Netanyahu government were to agree not to recommence hostilities with Hamas after a ceasefire, it would still have every opportunity to do so, since it could claim it was responding to renewed rocket attacks emanating from Islamic Jihad with Hamass tacit approval Yet Israels own ceasefire conditions also seem unrealistic. Even were Hamas to agree to disarm, it is not clear how Israel could ensure that it do so. Rebel movements have a way of hiding their weapons even in the face of the most intense harassment. Similarly, if Hamas agreed to exile its leaders and since the death of Mohammed Sinwar, it is uncertain who those leaders even are exile would not prevent them from managing terrorism from afar. In the meantime, more of Israels allies and friends, notably German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and even President Trump, are becoming increasingly critical of its relentless attacks. In addition, Britain has called off negotiations to expand free trade with Israel, while the EU appears on the verge of reviewing its economic ties with the Jewish State. Netanyahu has admitted that international pressure forced him to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza though even in that case, many are questioning the means and process by which Israel actually is distributing that aid. Perhaps the prime minister will soon also find himself under an unprecedented level of economic pressure to agree to a ceasefire. Should Netanyahu continue to resist that pressure, he may cause his country such serious economic damage that it will take decades to have a hope of anything like a complete recovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987. 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. Yes, Utah is having fewer babies, down 26% over the past decade. As a former public school principal, though, I can assure you declining birth rates dont fully explain shrinking classrooms. Families arent just having fewer kids theyre actively choosing different ways to educate them. COVID didnt start this shift. It accelerated it. Parents finally saw classrooms up close, and many didnt like the view. Yet, school districts often respond by doing nothing, watching enrollment decline until closures become inevitable. Granite School District recently announced plans to close more schools due to falling numbers. Last year, the Salt Lake School District shut down four elementary schools. And the year before that, Alpine School District faced similar closures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Where are these students going? To alternatives. Charter schools, private schools, microschools and homeschool pods are drawing families in with flexibility, personalization and often smaller environments. Homeschooling doubled in the US between 2020 and 2023. Charter schools have grown by more than 1.6 million students since 2000. Microschools are surging as well. A 2024 survey found that 37% of parents are more interested in microschools or hybrid options than they were before the pandemic. When I was a principal, one of my first graders excelled in math but lagged in reading. His father, Alex, grew frustrated with a rigid system unable to nurture his sons unique abilities. After I left public education, Alex did too. He founded Wilderland Academy, a nature-based microschool in Eden, Utah. His story isnt unusual. Across the country, parents and teachers are launching new schools rather than waiting for traditional ones to change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stories like Alexs are multiplying. Parents and teachers arent waiting for permission. Theyre creating what kids need. And its not just about new schools. Lawmakers invested in Davis School Districts Catalyst Center. The Catalyst program brings in local business and industry leaders to work with the students. It provides real-world experience in industries ranging from aviation and computer science to business, construction and digital media (YouTube). These are the kinds of public school innovations that deserve to grow. Just as a healthy forest has a variety of trees, a healthy education system has a variety of options. Policymakers should take note and find ways to continue their support of all options. To achieve this, Utah should expand the Utah Fits All scholarship so that every student who applies receives support no lottery, no waitlist. At the same time, lawmakers should continue cutting red tape. Theyve made progress by allowing microschools in all zones and easing building rules. But they can continue to find these restrictions and remove them for education entrepreneurs. At the same time, they should make it easier to launch charter schools and expand innovative programs like Catalyst. The changing nature of education isnt a crisis; its a wake-up call. As a former principal now working alongside microschool founders, I can tell you exactly what parents want: education thats more human, more personal and responsive to their kids needs. If traditional schools refuse to adapt, Utah families will find education elsewhere. President Donald Trump has a well-deserved reputation for gaslighting, and several members of his Cabinet have taken great efforts to continue his willful duplicity. Over the course of the past week alone in the name of academic, scientific and online freedom Trump and his administrations bigwigs have explicitly threatened free speech in at least a half-dozen different ways. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who during the 2024 campaign frequently cosplayed as a free speech activist and a victim of censorship said on a podcast Tuesday that he might bar government scientists from publishing in some of the most venerable and respected, peer-reviewed medical journals. Theyre all corrupt, Kennedy claimed, citing the fact that they sometimes publish studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies. Kennedy also said hed like to create an in-house publication, a nifty way of controlling what government-employed scientists publish. Already, Dr. Kevin Hall, a nutrition scientist at the National Institutes of Health, resigned last month, citing censorship of his work because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agencys leadership about ultra-processed food addiction. In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon was asked about the administrations intent to cancel all federal grants to Harvard University upwards of $9 billion in research funding. The secretarys reply was telling: Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as theyre abiding by the laws and in sync, I think, with the administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The free speech tourists of the Trump administration probably know this already which is why its fair to call it gaslighting but it is not the mission of academic institutions to be in sync with any presidential administration. Theyre supposed to be bastions of free thought and inquiry, and though many (especially Harvard) havent kept to those principles in recent decades, its hard to fathom how blackmailing colleges into ideological submission could possibly further anyones rights to freedom of expression. Moreover, McMahons justification for sanctions on Harvard that the university violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by insufficiently policing antisemitism on its campus is remarkable insincerity. For starters, just this week the administration promoted Kingsley Wilson who posted multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories online last year to Defense Department press secretary. On Thursday, Trump announced his nomination of former far-right podcast host Paul Ingrassia to lead the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Ingrassia, in 2023, advocated for conservatives to welcome dissident voices like antisemitic white nationalist Nick Fuentes into the larger MAGA movement. And then theres the matter of President Trumps executive order earlier this month directing the federal government to stop using a key enforcement mechanism of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Trump has threatened another lawsuit against CBS in his brazen attempt to shake down Paramount Global for millions of dollars to settle a bogus lawsuit over what he erroneously claims was a deceptively edited 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The presidents harassment and Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstones apparent prioritization of getting federal approval for a business merger over journalistic integrity have already led to the departures of 60 Minutes long-time executive producer Bill Owens and CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon. Lets be very clear: Trump is threatening both costly litigation and government retaliation against a news organization over its interview with a political rival. Thats censorship, plain and simple, because the threats themselves have widespread speech-chilling effects. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday offered a particularly bold stroke of free speech gaslighting, announcing in a post on X a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Basically, Secretary Rubio is threatening to ban anyone who enforces online content moderation laws and policies abroad that affect U.S. citizens. One former State Department official put a rhetorical question to Politico, If theres an American Nazi posting stuff in France and France is like, banning pro-Nazi stuff, is Rubio going to say that the owners of that French platform doing content moderation are barred from entry to the United States? If that werent enough free speech gaslighting, this is all happening as the U.S. detains and attempts to expel from the country foreign students for such offenses as writing op-eds critical of Israel for their college newspapers. Every time I find one of these lunatics I take away their visa, Rubio said in March. On Wednesday the State Department issued a cable to embassies and consulates advising them to halt student visa interviews in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting. And on Friday, the department announced it would be starting this program with Harvard. Even the lack of a public-facing social media presence would be used by the government as evidence against student applicants, as it may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicants credibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Put plainly, the Trump administration is going to scour international students social media posts for potential thought crimes against America or even a lack thereof in the name of protecting American values. Free speech is essential to the American way of life a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority, Rubio posted Wednesday. Rhapsodizing about the glories of free speech out of one side of his mouth while threatening draconian censorship out of the other is a long-standing Trumpian tactic. And some of Trumps most senior deputies this week proved adept at matching their bosss deception and hypocrisy. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com When news broke that the White House had appealed the U.S. Court of International Trades ruling that most of President Donald Trumps tariffs are illegal, I thought of the old familiar story of the man who lived by the river. Upon hearing a weather report that the river will flood, he resolves to stay. God will save me, he says. After being swept into the river, hes carried past a branch he doesnt reach for. God will save me, he says. He doesnt take the hand of a fisherman in his boat because, again, God will save me. When the drowned man gets to heaven, he asks why God let him drown, and God replies, I sent you a weather report, a branch and a boat. What are you doing here? Over the four months that Trump has blundered ahead with sweeping tariffs, he has been offered chance after chance to change course and rejected them all. But unlike the man in the story, Trump isnt by himself in the river. We all are. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The earliest warning to the president came from the markets. They tumbled as he imposed and pulled back on tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico and then things got worse. When Trump revealed his Liberation Day tariffs in April, he promised, The markets are going to boom. In fact, they plunged in their worst day since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. After a week of promising the tariffs would be imposed as scheduled, Trump announced a 90-day delay for all countries other than China. At this point, the pattern is so predictable stocks drop when Trump threatens tariffs and rise when he delays those threats that traders have a new strategy: TACO or Trump Always Chickens Out. Informed of the TACO acronym by CNBCs Megan Casella at a media availability Wednesday, the president lashed out at the nasty question and told Casella, Dont ever say what you said. Voters were the next to warn Trump he was headed the wrong direction. The presidents polling decline accelerated after the Liberation Day announcement and stabilized only after he paused those tariffs. The Court of International Trades decision and a similar ruling from a federal district court judge Thursday provided Trump with the perfect excuse to make the tariff pause permanent. The trade courts three-judge panel (one Democratic and two Republican appointees) ruled unanimously, and the reasoning was straightforward: A decades-old emergency powers law didnt delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the president, and both the reciprocal tariffs of Liberation Day and the levies on Canada and Mexico exceeded the presidents authorities under that law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A sane administration, facing voters, markets and courts throwing up their hands and shouting stop! would heed those calls. But even as Trump delays and delays most of the blanket tariffs, he hasnt abandoned them (and his 25% tariffs on steel, cars and aluminum remain in place). There is no reason to think court rulings will change his mind. The presidents advisers reacted to the trade courts decision with both rage (a judicial coup, said Stephen Miller) and dismissal (a hiccup, said National Economic Council Chair Kevin Hassett). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has already temporarily paused the ruling. And even if the trade courts decision survives, there are multiple other statutes Trump could use to reimpose tariffs, albeit in a more deliberative and limited fashion. No wonder, then, that, though stock futures jumped ahead of markets opening Thursday, those gains disappeared almost entirely. Investors quickly realized that Trump is still Trump and chaos still reigns. Other than the investors winning TACO trades, the country is hurting from the chaos. The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter, even without the worst effects of sweeping tariffs. Consumer spending grew 1.2%, less than half the average from 2022 to 2024. A Reuters analysis of disclosures from America, Europe and Japans largest companies finds an overwhelming majority say the erratic nature of Trumps trade policies has made it impossible to accurately estimate costs and that Trumps on-again, off-again trade war has already hit those companies with $34 billion in higher costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, small businesses, lacking the financial resources and the political influence of the largest companies, face even stronger headwinds. Duties on materials for everything from water bottles to cowboy boots have raised costs and many, if not all, of those costs will be passed on to us. And those are just the most tangible effects. What were really not seeing is the businesses that arent being started, economics professor Justin Wolfers told MSNBCs Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday. Theres a factory that could be built, but the cost of imports either just went up 50% or went up 10%, but no one can be sure. The markets, the voters and two courts have all offered Trump a hand to rescue him from this river of madness. But he has rejected every entreaty. As is so often the case with Trump, though, itll be others who drown. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com An injunction from the little-known Court of International Trade permanently enjoined President Trump on Wednesday from enforcing many of his tariffs under the 1977 International Economic Emergency Powers Act. Neither executive authority nor congressionally delegated power allows the President to institute unprecedented global tariffs using emergency powers, the federal court unanimously ruled. On Thursday, a second federal court also blocked most of Trumps tariffs, including the so-called Liberation Day ones. But just hours later, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily paused the trade courts block. These rulings bring to forefront two constitutional debates in American history: the limits of executive authority and the right of Congress to regulate commerce. The Court of International Trade is correct to limit executive authority. Before a prostrate GOP-led Congress, the judgment reminds elected officials about the sources and legitimacy of their power: the American people and their Constitution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Commerce Clause of the Constitution gives Congress the power to to regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes. Initially enacted to regulate interstate commerce, over the last 250 years the law evolved to increase federal authority over international commerce and restrict one states ability to regulate commerce in another. Powers reserved to the states, which Republicans traditionally championed, have stood against granting Congress unchecked authority to regulate commerce. Presidents have historically claimed vast executive authority. Before Trump, several presidents employed the International Economic Emergency Powers Act to place economic sanctions on states that threatened U.S or international security. But Trumps use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act for tariffs was unprecedented. In its 49-page ruling, the trade court noted that Congress does not provide the president unbounded tariff power and that the law would only be valid to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared. Trump invoked emergency powers on two grounds: a purported fentanyl import crisis from Canada and Mexico, and the supposed worldwide lack of reciprocity on trade. Empirical evidence on the former, especially in the case of Canada, was spurious, despite the administrations continuing dissembling about fentanyl seizures. On trade reciprocity, the administration concocted a mathematical formula equating lack of reciprocity with trade deficits that makes no sense on economic grounds, let alone the practical and profitable aspects of businesses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congress ought to have stepped in at this point, but it lacked the spine to act. In fact, the trade court called attention to the improper abdication of legislative power. The trade court heard two cases, a lawsuit led by Oregon from 12 Democratic state attorneys general and another from a group of small businesses. In the former case, states rights are being asserted by Democratic states arguing that Trumps tariffs stood in the way of provision of services. Conservatives, including Trump, often appeal to states rights on issues such as religion, guns, schools, abortion, marriage and civil rights. The small business case was led by a wine-making company named VOS Selections, which argued that tariffs would make the business unprofitable. Economists would agree, as did the trade court. While small businesses went to the trade court, big business has been strategically vocal about the harmful impact of tariffs. With neither the businesses nor the states supporting the presidents trade policy, one must ask whom the president represents in his trade policy measures. Public polling on trade might provide an answer: die-hard MAGA supporters, who tend to be rural, under-educated and fearful of anything global or cosmopolitan. They are entitled to these fears. The question is if the president can enact trade policy on their behalf. The answer is yes only if one agrees with Trumps political calculations, not the Constitution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the trade court, Trumps lawyers made a political argument, ostensibly on behalf of the MAGA fearful. They contended that these tariffs were necessary and that the president had the political mandate to negotiate new trade measures with countries around the world. The three-judge panel made up of Reagan, Obama and Trump appointees unanimously dismissed these political claims. Instead, the panel focused on the legal and constitutional limits on executive power. The immediate appeal to the Circuit Court provided an at least temporary victory, and the case is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court. The White House already has a new argument that unelected judges cannot rule on these matters. Not only does this argument negate constitutional checks on executive power, but the president also continues to overestimate his electoral mandate. An emerging set of conservative champions of executive authority, citing classic sources, almost equate presidential power with the absolute or divine rights of kings. Vice President JD Vance in particular propounds such views. These divine right conservatives now must confront the traditional champions of pragmatic conservatism in America: businesses, consumers, markets and the states. The courts are unlikely to uphold new conservative arguments for unchecked executive power. The Supreme Court has leaned in favor of states rights on many questions. In the case of trade, the states rights argument is now the bailiwick of Democratic states. Politics continues to make for strange bedfellows. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the meantime, markets rose after the court ruling Wednesday. J.P. Singh is Distinguished University Professor at Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, and Richard von Weizsacker Fellow with the Robert Bosch Academy (Berlin). He is co-editor-in-chief of Global Perspectives. 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. During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump promised "no tax on overtime" an exemption for federal income taxes on extra pay for working overtime. So how's that coming along? There is a provision in the "big, beautiful bill" passed by the House in May. The Senate is now considering the legislation. The details remain to be seen, but for now the tax break is much smaller than you might assume and more short-lived, as it would expire when Trump leaves office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are answers to some common questions about the "no tax on overtime" proposal: What did Trump promise on overtime taxes? Trump first proposed to end overtime taxes at a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, on Sept. 12, about two months before Election Day. It was part of a broader set of proposals thrown out with little detail in the final weeks of the campaign. That gives people more of an incentive to work. It gives the companies a lot. Its a lot easier to get the people, he said. You know, I went to some economists, great ones, and I said, What do you think? They said, It would be unbelievable. Youll get a whole new workforce by doing that, he added. As with all of his campaign proposals, details were scant. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation pegged the cost at somewhere between $227 billion and $1.5 trillion, depending on how it would be implemented. Its now clear that the proposal is on the smaller side, including only a deduction for federal income tax and not any other taxes. The Congressional Budget Office said the current overtime proposal would reduce revenue by only $124 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the budget provision lacks a lot of details, which means the provision will likely require hundreds of pages of IRS guidance and send taxpayers through a maze of new rules and compliance costs, according to the Tax Foundation. What would the House bill do about overtime taxes? The Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the House, includes an exemption on overtime taxes. But as with the proposed $1,000 baby bonus and exemption for taxes on tips in the bill, the overtime tax break would be temporary, expiring just as Trump leaves office in 2028. That helps Republicans in Congress keep the cost of the bill down while setting up the next president to have to decide whether to spend political capital extending the exemptions or take a hit in the polls by letting them lapse. Under the House bill, only workers making less than $160,000 per year would qualify for the exemption. It would also apply only to the amount workers are paid for overtime over their regular salaries, which employers would be required to include in a new box on your annual W-2 form. There is no cap on how much overtime a worker could claim in a year. What will the Senate do about overtime taxes? The Senate has not voted on its version of the spending bill, which will have to be reconciled with the House version for a final vote before heading to the president's desk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For now, the Senate version of the bill does not include an exemption from overtime taxes. There are several standalone Senate bills to create the exemption, however, and senators could still choose to add it to their bill. Lawmakers plan to vote on the final version of the bill by the end of summer. How much would this help me? The White House Council of Economic Advisers who work for Trump estimated that the average overtime worker would get a tax break of $1,400 to $1,750 per year until it expired in 2028. But an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy pegged the average tax savings at a much lower $330 per year. What's more, it found that it would benefit higher-income workers more, with the bottom 60% snagging an average of $80 and the top 20% pocketing an average of $940. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You would need a Social Security number to claim the deduction, so it would not cover people here on work visas. So, do economists really agree with Trump, like he claimed? This was more likely campaign hyperbole, like the "big, strong men" with tears in their eyes whom Trump often describes. In fact, economists have mixed thoughts about the exemption because of the loss of revenue, which would increase the national debt, and the potential for unexpected side effects in the labor market. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, nonexempt employees working overtime must be paid at 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for all hours they worked past 40 in a workweek. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since that pay would now be tax-free, it's even more lucrative. This could mean more workers volunteer for overtime hours, leading employers to hire fewer new workers. Or employers could decide they're spending too much on overtime and switch to more part-time staffing. Or it might have no effect on either workers or employers, since it's only a temporary tax break. At the macro level, the tax break might boost the economy a little by putting more cash in workers' pockets, but the loss in revenue might increase the national debt, which is starting to hurt the economy. No one knows, and the effects might be so small that they can't be measured, so we may never know. The bottom line is that this was not an idea that economists dreamed up. It was a campaign pitch to some groups of Trump supporters the Fraternal Order of Police, for one, endorsed the idea who tend to work a lot of overtime. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com ISTANBUL, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained 873 people in a large-scale security operation in Istanbul aimed at maintaining public order and apprehending criminal suspects, the city's police department said on Friday. The operation, carried out on Thursday, involved road checkpoints at 215 locations across the city, supported by a police helicopter and five patrol boats from the Marine Port Branch. Officers also conducted inspections at numerous public venues. Police said they checked a total of 550,751 individuals. Among those detained were 539 people wanted for various offenses. Security forces seized 27 unlicensed pistols, five rifles, five blank-firing guns and 299 rounds of ammunition. Authorities also confiscated 1,733 grams of narcotics and 1,300 drug pills. The latest operation follows a similar sweep on May 8, during which police detained 982 suspects. The Istanbul Police Department said such operations would continue. Today Americans often use the words liberty and freedom interchangeably. But historian David Hackett Fischer, in his work Liberty and Freedom, draws a crucial distinction. The word liberty, rooted in the classical Latin tradition, implies release from bondage and the ability to act without interference. Freedom, by contrast, comes from the Germanic Freiheit, a root also to the word friend. Freedom conveys a sense of full membership in a community having the rights, protections and responsibilities of citizenship. Freedom is also about living together under the rule of law: When all abide its confines, all live in safety and freedom. This meaning is echoed in Revolutionary-era phrases like the rights of free-born Englishmen, which emphasize that belonging and freedom are about shared civic life. The men and women in uniform whose shortened lives and ultimate sacrifice we celebrated on Memorial Day gave their all that we might live together under the rule of law, with mutual commitment to our common good and devotion to the deepest meaning of the word freedom. They safeguarded our shared constitutional order, and we must too. This will take some work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., bears the inscription: Freedom is not free. It is a reminder that the protection of rights comes at great cost. It also points to the truth that freedom is not only secured on distant battlefields. Freedom is something we all sustain, every day, through our actions as citizens. In a constitutional republic, freedom depends on strong civic bonds, mutual responsibility and a commitment to one another. This teaching became real to me while I was working for the Society of the Cincinnati. I became friends with a Vietnam veteran who had served as a helicopter pilot. During a resupply mission near Hue in support of Operation Prairie, the lead helicopter was shot down over dense jungle. Under heavy fire, my friend rescued the downed crew without landing his helicopter and was later awarded several distinguished medals. Yet he once told me, Id give them all back if I could have saved one more soldier. His words reflect a deeper truth: that freedom is not just about individual rights, but about the bonds we share. This kind of freedom lives in loyalty, sacrifice and a commitment to one another. For many Americans, World War II was the last war without moral ambiguity. Since then, conflicts in countries like Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan have sparked deep political debate over purpose, cost and justification. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But honoring the fallen doesnt require agreement on wars politics. It does, however, evoke a commitment to the idea of freedom as both rights and responsibilities rooted in strong, shared communities. Now that Memorial Day has passed, lets honor the legacy of those who died in service by embracing freedom as a shared responsibility. Lets strengthen the kind of connected communities the fallen gave their lives to protect, where every ordinary American has a stake in our shared civic life. (NewsNation) Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who is leading a multistate lawsuit against President Donald Trumps tariffs, said Thursday federal appeals court stays dont alter the fundamental legal problems with the administrations use of emergency powers to impose trade duties. Youve had four judges in the United States that have ruled that the president has misused his emergency powers, and one of these judges was even appointed by Trump, Rayfield, a Democrat, told The Hill on NewsNation. A stay is just that, it periodically pauses the given action so that the appellate court can consider the merits of the case. This isnt a ruling on the merits. The Oregon attorney generals comments followed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuits temporary lifting of a lower courts block on some Trump tariffs, although a separate Washington, D.C., ruling keeping other tariffs on hold remains in effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harvard, Trump court battle and polarizing debate continue Rayfield argued that Trump violated constitutional principles by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act instead of traditional tariff authorities under Title 19, which previous presidents have used. He said the emergency powers law lacks the safeguards and time limits that Congress built into standard trade remedy statutes. The Constitution gives Congress the power to set tariffs. That isnt an inherent presidential power, Rayfield said. Every single president has used Title 19 laws. He used an emergency power. No president has ever used that power, and thats why he got struck down. Hes trying to do this in a backwards way and find a loophole, Rayfield told NewsNation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attorney general warned that Trumps tariffs would cost Oregon households an average of $3,800 annually and have already reduced state revenue by more than $700 million, affecting funding for schools and health care. He cited instances of Canadian products being pulled from shelves at Oregon businesses due to trade uncertainty. State Department scrutiny adds hurdles for international students White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has defended the tariffs as being within the presidents authority, saying judges who blocked them brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump. However, Rayfield noted that the three-judge panel that initially blocked the tariffs included appointees from the Reagan, Obama and Trump administrations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When asked whether tariffs could help Oregons rising unemployment rate, which has outpaced the national average since June 2023, Rayfield dismissed the possibility. He said the economic disruption from trade disputes was harming rather than helping job creation in his state. The real facts here are that this is incredibly harmful to all of us, Rayfield said. I would love people to just ask their neighbors: Can you afford another $3,800 a year? The legal challenges are working their way through multiple courts, with briefing schedules extending into June as appeals courts consider whether to extend the temporary stays or allow the lower court blocks to take effect. The White House says the Supreme Court will likely need to step in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NewsNation partner The Hill 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 NewsNation. Flooding on Oregon Route 42 on March 17, 2025 near Coos Bay. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek declared an emergency March 19 due to heavy rains which have washed out roads, cut power and caused at least one death. (Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation) Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Friday asked President Donald Trump to declare a disaster, the first step to obtaining federal funding to help Coos, Curry, Douglas and Harney counties recover from the aftermath of intense spring flooding and landslides. In March and April, parts of southern Oregon experienced flooding from rapid snowmelt, record-level rainfall and overflowing rivers. The floods resulted in landslides that destroyed homes, businesses, bridges and utility systems. In response to the landslides in southern Oregon, Kotek declared a state of emergency on March 18 followed by another declaration of emergency on March 31 in response to the severe flooding in the southeastern part of the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal funds Kotek is requesting would support road and building repair, assist families displaced by flood damage and strengthen flood protection infrastructure. President Donald Trump has previously called the federal agency issuing emergency funds to states a disaster and suggested that states should take care of natural disaster damage on their own, Stateline reported. Nonetheless, Kotek is expecting the federal government to support Oregons rural communities impacted by the 2025 floods, her press secretary Roxy Mayer told the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Although this disaster hit some of the most economically vulnerable communities of our state, residents had each others back and got through the initial emergency, Kotek said in a news release. But they cant do recovery alone. These communities urgently need both state and federal support to help them recover. Harney County was hit the hardest, as flooding breached levees and led to the failure of the only wastewater system serving the city of Burns and the Burns Paiute Tribe. Sewage-contaminated floodwaters caused serious public health hazards, damaged homes and forced extended evacuations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the second major disaster Harney County has faced in a year, following wildfires in 2024, Oregon Department of Emergency Management Director Erin McMahon said in the news release. With limited local capacity, federal resources are essential to help these communities recover and to prevent future devastation. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Sen. Lisa Reynolds sought clarity from the state's top ethics watchdog over whether a health care bill she authored would pose a substantial conflict of interest. (Rian Dundon/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Oregons statewide ethics watchdog on Thursday referred a Portland-area lawmaker to the Legislature for clarity over whether a bill she authored that could benefit her medical practice raises a substantial conflict of interest. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission said Sen. Lisa Reynolds decisions regarding votes and bill introductions were within the purview of the Legislature and its legal counsel, according to a Thursday letter written by Susan Myers, the commissions executive director. Introduced in January, Senate Bill 28 would mandate commercial insurers reimburse independent primary care clinics at rates equal to those of clinics owned by hospital systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the letter, Myers said that Reynolds, D-Portland, would be met with a conflict of interest unless she is able to receive a class exception. The rule is traditionally adjudicated by the commission, determining whether an official action by a public official would impact all members of a class, such as business owners or members of a particular industry, equally. But its up to the Legislature, not the Commission, to decide whether the exception applies because the matter relates to the performance of legislative functions, Myers wrote. Lawmakers are allowed to cast votes and perform legislative tasks under Oregons speech and debate rules for public officials even when they do declare conflicts of interest. Reynolds told the Capital Chronicle she hasnt decided whether she will seek further advice. She said that she will consult with her staff and tends to err on the side of caution. Ill see going forward, she said. It would be interesting to note the votes Ive taken. For example, the provider tax which funds Medicaid do I have to say thats a conflict of interest because my clinic takes Medicaid? I dont think so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The advice follows a request from the commission in a May 6 letter written by her chief of staff, Christopher McMorran, a day before the Oregon Journalism Project ran a story in which Reynolds said she was open to seeking the ethics commissions advice and declaring a conflict of interest. McMorran sought information about potential conflicts of interest because of Reynolds job as a primary care provider at The Childrens Clinic, an independent clinic in the Portland region. SB 28 would likely result in a financial gain for her clinic, along with all other independent primary care clinics in the state, he wrote to the commission. We are curious if her introducing, sponsoring and supporting this bill qualifies as a conflict of interest or if she would be considered a member of a class and be exempt from conflict of interest laws. Reynolds said the advice was reassuring and that she believes she would likely qualify for a class exemption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im a citizen legislator. My day job is that of a pediatrician. In fact, I was in the clinic all last weekend, she said. I still see patients and I actually ran as Dr. Lisa Reynolds. I ran for office leaning into the fact that I am a physician and it informs all that I do in the Legislature. Her legislation is currently sitting in the Joint Ways and Means Committee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Central Florida Red Cross representatives are springing into action to lend a hand after tornadoes recently caused destruction in areas of the Midwest and South. In mid-May, the deadly twisters claimed more than two dozen lives. On Friday, Red Cross disaster relief teams will head to storm-damaged areas of Missouri to help residents. Volunteer John Lanzetti will head from Orlando to Missouri to help recent tornado victims. Seven volunteers from Central Florida will be among those helping with support efforts, including long-time volunteer John Lanzetti. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lanzetti deployed from Orlando and will spend two weeks in Missouri, using his expertise to support storm victims in many ways. Channel 9 met up with him at the Orlando chapter of the American Red Cross just before he headed to the airport. Volunteer John Lanzetti will head from Orlando to Missouri to help recent tornado victims. Aside from comforting people, Lanzetti and his team will focus on an area of older homes badly damaged near downtown St. Louis. We will be going building to building, assessing the damage to those buildings, and then that information will be uploaded to national headquarters, Lanzetti said. Well make a decision on how many more people to bring in, what kind of support the community actually needs, what kind of infrastructure, and how to pass that information on to other agencies so we can get that help to the people who need it, he added. Volunteer John Lanzetti will head from Orlando to Missouri to help recent tornado victims. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. JACKSON, Ohio (WCMH) A 6-year-old was among several injured after a man fled troopers at speeds over 100 mph and crashed while trying to avoid stop sticks, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. James Walker, 28, of Dayton, was driving on U.S. 35 in Jackson County when a trooper attempted to pull him over for a violation of following too closely, according to a media release. Walker allegedly drove at speeds over 100 mph while continuing to drive east on U.S. 35, troopers said. About six miles up the road, Walker swerved in an attempt to avoid stop sticks when he crashed into another vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver of the other vehicle was hospitalized with what troopers described as serious injuries, along with the passenger in Walkers vehicle. The 6-year-old, also in Walkers vehicle, was hospitalized with minor injuries, according to OSHP. Walker was taken into custody on charges of possession of drugs, trafficking of drugs, failure to comply, tampering with evidence, aggravated vehicular assault, and child endangerment, according to troopers. The investigation 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 NBC4 WCMH-TV. Journalists working with volunteers have identified more than 110,000 Russians who have been killed in the war against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. The data shows an extremely uneven distribution of losses across Russian regions: men from Tyva or Altai are 30-40 times more likely to be killed in the war than residents of Moscow. Source: BBC in collaboration with Russian news outlet Mediazona Details: The journalists' research reveals that the highest number of deaths was recorded in Tyva (120), Buryatia (91) and the Altai Republic (89) per 10,000 male population. In Moscow, this figure is only 3 deaths per 10,000 men. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is reported that in Tyva, almost a quarter of those killed were convicts recruited into private military companies or the army, and another third were career military personnel. In Altai, 47% of those killed were volunteer soldiers who signed up after 2022. In Buryatia, 25% of those killed are professional soldiers, 34% are volunteers, and one in five are conscripts, which is twice the national average. In Moscow, 10% of those killed are convicts, 26% are volunteers, 15% are conscripts, and 20% are career military personnel. Demographers say the regional differences in the level of losses are linked to socio-economic factors. In the poorest regions, the army acts as a social ladder, compensating for the lack of opportunities in education and the labour market. In Moscow, a military career is less popular. At the beginning of the full-scale war, regions with large military units, such as Krasnodar, Pskov, Dagestan and Buryatia, suffered significant losses Stock photo: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subsequently, most of the mobilised troops were recruited from subsidised regions dependent on the federal budget. "People from regions where life expectancy is already low and the probability of dying from external causes is already high were more willing to participate in the war. Such people are driven not so much by poverty as by a lack of prospects and a feeling that they have nothing to lose," the article says. The researchers also note that the losses in Tyva and Buryatia significantly exceed similar figures in other national republics for example, in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan, they are two or three times lower. According to the demographers, this indicates that social inequality, rather than ethnic factors, plays a key role. "If sending national minorities to the front were a deliberate policy of the Kremlin, we would see high levels of losses among all national republics. But this is not the case. In Dagestan, Ingushetia, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, the level of losses is two to three times lower than in Buryatia and Tyva. So, the correlation must be sought elsewhere," a demographer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, journalists explain that the actual number of deaths significantly exceeds the data from open sources. Based on an analysis of obituaries, reports from relatives, photographs of burials and publications in local media, it has been established that open sources allow only 45% to 65% of the dead to be identified. This is due to the fact that some bodies remain on the battlefield, and their evacuation is complicated by the danger of drone strikes or the unwillingness to risk the lives of other soldiers. Taking this assessment into account, the actual number of Russian casualties could be between 170,000 and 246,000. However, if we add to this the losses among the militants of the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics" [self-proclaimed and non-recognised quasi-state formations in Ukraines Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts respectively, backed by Russia ed.] which, according to the publication's estimates, range from 21,000 to 23,500 dead the total number of deaths on the pro-Russian side could be between 191,000 and 269,000. Journalists note that they use open sources to count the dead, including reports from regional leaders, local administrations, media publications, posts by relatives and photos from funerals. Reports from official or independent sources, posts by relatives or other publications containing photos of the burial site are considered confirmation of death. The basic count does not include losses of the so-called "DPR" and "LPR", but researchers include Russians who voluntarily joined their units in the total list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: In January, BBC journalists, in collaboration with Mediazona, reported that they had identified 90,019 Russians who had been killed in the war against Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. Twenty-three per cent of them had signed up after the start of hostilities. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! (FOX40.COM) State and local law enforcement partners seized about $123.5 million in illegal cannabis in the Central Valley. Video above: 2024 California cannabis market outlook report According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, the states task force was dedicated to removing illegal cannabis operations by conducting a large-scale and multi-agency operation in the Central Valley, which led to 105,000 illicit cannabis plants and 22,057 pounds of processed cannabis that was worth $123.5 million. During the week of May 5, the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force including more than 200 officers and staff from 15 states, local and federal law enforcement partnered together to coordinate a multifaceted search warrant operation through Kern, Kings, and Tulare Counties in an area that was about 4,600 square miles, Newsom said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Let this be a reminder to all who grow cannabis illegally: we wont tolerate the undermining of our legal industry and impacts to our environment. I appreciate the multi-agency, cross-county efforts to take on the illicit market, said Gov. Gavin Newsom. Rite Aid Thrifty Ice Cream brand faces closure amid bankruptcy Newsom stated that there was a total of 17 search warrants that were served, and nine firearms were confiscated. Through the course of the operation, many individuals were detained, and several arrests were made. This operation represents the power of collaboration across agencies with a shared commitment to protecting our natural resources and preserving the integrity of Californias legal cannabis market, said Director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Charlton H. Bonham. The scale of this historic effortand its successwould not have been possible without the dedication and coordination of every agency involved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Newsom, officers found some evidence of banned or restricted pesticides at eight of the locations. These chemicals and waste products pose a serious environmental threat to Californias native species, plants, and habitats, which also pose health risks to those who ingest the cannabis that has been laced with the products. This operation sends a clear message: California will not tolerate illicit cannabis activity that threatens public safety, the environment, and the integrity of the legal market, said Director of the Department of Cannabis Control Nicole Elliott. The scale of this enforcement effort reflects the strength of our partnerships and our shared commitment to holding illicit operators accountable while protecting communities and ecosystems across the state. Newsom stated that the cannabis task force was established in 2022 to enhance collaboration and enforcement between state, local, and federal partners. To learn more, 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 FOX40 News. WARSAW, May 30 (Xinhua) -- World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka vowed on Friday to continue speaking out forcefully about what he sees as serious flaws in the American anti-doping system, following his re-election to a third and final term as head of the global watchdog. Banka, a former Polish sprinter and Minister of Sport and Tourism, along with China's former Winter Olympic champion Yang Yang, was re-elected during a virtual Foundation Board meeting on Thursday. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) later, in a social media post, called it the "ultimate 'bait and switch,' first promising governance reforms following the Russian anti-doping scandal and then quietly changing the rules the second the world looked away." On Friday, WADA's president responded to USADA's criticism. "I'm not particularly surprised that such words were said in the USA." Banka told Polish outlet Sportowe Fakty. "Representatives of this country actually tried to undermine my leadership in WADA and attempted to change the leader. The American government stopped its contribution to WADA, lost a representative on the board of our institution and ultimately also influence on the elections." "I'll continue to speak boldly about the shortcomings of the American anti-doping system," he added. "Large and highly developed Western countries love to lecture us all. They love to talk about how the anti-doping system should look, but when we look at their solutions, it turns out that the biggest problem is with them," he said. "This applies to the US, for example, but also to Germany. When we had the case of 23 Chinese swimmers, they were the loudest, but they don't pay attention to how big a problem they have with their own national systems," Banka explained. Banka and Yang were originally elected as WADA's president and vice president at the 2019 World Conference on Doping in Sport. Both will begin their new three-year terms on Jan. 1, 2026, and serve until Dec. 31, 2028. In November, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure G, which promised to transform county governance. The process that will implement its reforms begins now with the creation of the Governance Reform Task Force, and L.A. County leaders, residents and media need to be engaged because, as the saying goes, The devil is in the details. For too long, the county has underserved the people of Los Angeles. With nearly 10 million residents, our county is more populous than 40 U.S. states, yet it is governed by only five supervisors, each overseeing about 2 million people. The result has been reactionary leadership that maintains the status quo when the challenges we face require speed and innovation. Read more: Editorial: Voters just passed L.A. County's most important government reform in decades Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At its core, Measure G is about ensuring that the county can meet our greatest challenges. After all, the design of a government shapes the behaviors of those who govern us. The Board of Supervisors will be expanded, over time, to nine members from five. And an elected county executive will provide for the separation of executive and legislative powers, and a more accountable county government. Take for example the devastating January fires. The Palisades and Eaton fires tore through the cities of Los Angeles, Malibu, Pasadena and Sierra Madre. The largest devastation in terms of deaths, homes lost and residents displaced was in the unincorporated neighborhood of Altadena. Instead of having one voice and one plan leading fire response and recovery at the county level, residents must navigate a maze of district by district bureaucracy to put the pieces of their life back together. Imagine if there was just one elected county executive guiding one regional strategy this is the future we can create. Read more: Your guide to Measure G: Expanding the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, electing a county executive Now lets consider homelessness the most pressing issue facing the county year after year. Despite spending billions of dollars each year, the county has yet to move the needle far enough in addressing the issue. When an audit was mandated by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, the county learned of eye-popping inefficiencies and nepotism, leading it to pull its funding from the city-county Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and leading to the resignation of the agencys chief executive. Is this effective governance? Is this the best we can do? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In their recent book Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson point to the need for proactive government in fostering innovation and breaking stagnation that places such as Los Angeles face. But ending the status quo wont be easy. So many entities will resist change agencies that have been allowed to underperform, vendors who overcharge, nonprofit organizations whose million-dollar contracts with the county may change because an opaque county system is working for them. Read more: Two workers fired from LAHSA had accused top executive of improper behavior Right now, the vision and continuity of the county change on an annual basis along with the rotating chair structure of the five-member board. Most actions get decided based on district preferences instead of the regional greater good. But as the founding fathers noted, government works best with checks and balances. The county supervisors, as the legislative branch, should have a healthy level of friction with an executive to keep them accountable to the people. Measure Gs addition of an elected county executive establishes those checks and balances. This change is critical to the leadership needed to tackle major crises such as homelessness and emergency response. The new task force will also define the scope of a new independent ethics commission mandated by the measure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Los Angeles homeless chief to resign after the county guts her agency Measure G is not just governance reform it's also democratic renewal. Los Angeles Countys form of government hasnt changed since 1912, when our population was just 500,000 and women didnt have the right to vote. To have world class transportation countywide, to transition to a green economy, to lessen disparities between rich and poor requires innovation. As the task force begins the process to implement the voter-approved Measure G, we need the voices of all 88 cities and our hundreds of neighborhoods to help define the future of county government. Tune in for our livestreamed meetings, email your ideas to the task force and be sure to get involved as the task force develops and rolls out a community engagement strategy in the coming months. We cant afford to waste this opportunity. As a member of the task force, I welcome your participation in shaping the county we all deserve. This thrilling process starts Friday join us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sara Sadhwani is a politics professor at Pomona College and was appointed by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, co-author of Measure G, to serve on the Governance Reform Task Force. measureg.lacounty.gov. If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. County prisons in Northeast Pennsylvania have stopped providing mug shots of accused criminals to media organizations, with officials citing a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling as the reason for the change. The unanimous high court ruling in April in Mezzacappa v. Northampton County states that mug shots are categorized as identifiable descriptors and county agencies are prohibited from distributing them under the states Criminal History Record Information Act, or CHRIA. Police departments may provide mug shots to noncriminal justice agencies, such as media organizations, and individuals. The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association takes issue with the ruling and submitted a brief to the state Supreme Court before its decision, stressing the importance of transparency when it comes to the dissemination of public documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The records in this case provide significant insight into law enforcement actions and the administration of justice, and they have been available to press since law enforcement began using photography to document individuals taken into government custody, the brief read. Melissa Melewsky, attorney for the news media organization, said that mug shots do not only provide a photo of an accused criminal at the time of their arrest; they provide a historical account of the demeanor of the accused at the time of their arrest. For instance, the mug shot of civil rights icon Rosa Parks displays dignity and resolve in the face of racial segregation and conveys commitment to her act of civil disobedience, in addition to serving as an official record of the fact that she was arrested, she said. Another example Melewsky provided was Jerry Sanduskys mug shots released first by the Pennsylvania attorney generals office after his 2011 arrest and then by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections after he began serving his sentence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These photographs were used in media coverage initially to illustrate the defendants custody, appearance and countenance, and then later, to confirm that the defendant was incarcerated as required by law, she said of Sanduskys mug shot. Also significant was the release of President Donalds Trump mug shot in 2023, interesting to both his supporters and detractors, she said. Trump himself posted the image to his account on X, formerly Twitter. Local impact Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher has put a pause on providing mug shots to media sources while his office evaluates the opinion to ensure the office is complying with the law. Gallagher also plans to contact district attorneys from other counties in the state to have an understanding of their interpretation of the ruling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Luzerne County prison officials received a memo Thursday morning indicating they were no longer at liberty to provide mug shots to media sources because of the ruling. A Schuylkill County Prison employee told a Times-Tribune reporter that the prison had stopped providing mug shots to the media as of Wednesday and that officials were reviewing the ruling. * Trump (SUBMITTED) * Jerry Sandusky (SUBMITTED) * The front of the Lackawanna County Prison in Scranton Thursday, April 10, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * ROSA PARKS (SUBMITTED) Show Caption 1 of 4 Trump (SUBMITTED) Expand Supreme Court decision Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case that ultimately led to Aprils Supreme Court decision had its roots in a Nov. 7, 2020, Right to Know request. Tricia Mezzacappa submitted the request to Northampton County Prison for the mug shots of two individuals who had allegedly been detained at the prison. The county denied the request Dec. 15, 2020, claiming the records were exempt from disclosure because they related to criminal investigations. Mezzacappa appealed and the county released the mug shots to her. In Dec. 28, 2020, Mezzacappa filed a second Right to Know request, seeking all mugshots taken of all inmates at the jail from October 2020 to present, including inmates released on bail and other documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Feb. 3, 2021, the county denied Mezzacappas request for the mug shots, indicating they were insufficiently specific and unduly burdensome in the context requested. In denying the request, Northampton County said the mug shots comprise criminal history record information under CHRIA and that the photos could be released only by state or local police departments. In March 2021, Mezzacappa appealed the denial to the Office of Open Records, which directed the county to provide the mug shots. Northampton County, however, challenged the decision in Commonwealth Court, which ruled in favor of the Office of Open Records and directed the release of the mug shots. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, the county challenged that decision in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled in its favor and reversed the Commonwealth Court ruling. We conclude that mug shots constitute identifiable descriptions as contemplated in CHRIAs definition of criminal history record information, the court wrote. We further conclude that criminal history record information may only be disseminated to noncriminal justice agencies and individuals by a police department, and, thus, that the County, as a non-law enforcement agency, is prohibited from releasing the mug shots requested. History of mug shots The official use of mug shots can be traced to Birmingham, England, in 1848, when police officers began taking photos of prostitutes and thieves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A book from that time period titled Accusare: Storia del Novecento includes mug shots, indicating that at least some of those photos became public, according to a recent collection of mug shots and information compiled by local historian Nicholas Petula in his book, Faces of the Accused: A History of Scranton Mugshots and Criminal Activity. Scranton, with a growing crime problem, began using a mug shot system in the 1890s, with photos accompanied by a description of the accused. Many of those mug shots became public and are included in Petulas book. By Asif Shahzad ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan will designate an ambassador to Afghanistan, the first since Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, the country's foreign minister said on Friday, announcing an upgrade in diplomatic ties that shows some easing of tensions between the two neighbours. Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan's top envoy in each other's country is a charge d'affaires, a lower level than ambassador. Pakistan has not yet said who will be nominated to the upgraded post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Announcing the decision to upgrade diplomatic representation, Pakistan's foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said bilateral relations had been on a positive trajectory since he visited Kabul with a Pakistani delegation last month. "I am confident this step would further contribute towards enhanced engagement," he said on X. Afghanistan's foreign ministry and Taliban's charge d'affaires in Islamabad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China, which hosted an informal meeting last week between the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban administration, said afterward that the two countries planned to upgrade their diplomatic ties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pakistan and Afghanistan have had a strained relationship since the Taliban administration took power after the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces. Islamabad says that Islamist militants who launch attacks inside Pakistan use Afghan soil. Kabul denies this, saying such militancy is Pakistan's domestic problem to handle. No country has formally recognised the Taliban administration since it took power, with foreign powers calling for it to change course on women's rights. Pakistan becomes the fourth country after China, UAE and Uzbekistan to designate an ambassador to Kabul. Although those governments say they have not formally recognised the Taliban's government, diplomats and experts say that having an ambassador officially present their credentials represents a step towards recognition. (Reporting by Asif ShahzadAdditional reporting by Charlotte GreenfieldEditing by Frances Kerry) KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) Shehada Hijazi woke at dawn. It was his best chance, he thought, to get his hands on a package of food at a new distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of others, equally desperate to feed their hungry families, had the same idea. By the time Hijazi walked the 7 kilometers (4 miles) to the southern tip of the territory, a militarized zone that has been evacuated of its residents, it was chaos. People pushed and shoved for hours as they restlessly waited outside the site, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, earth berms and checkpoints. When it opened, the crowd charged, rushing toward hundreds of boxes left stacked on the ground on wooden pallets. Hijazi described what he called 15 minutes of terror Thursday at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the U.N. in feeding Gaza's more than 2 million people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israeli soldiers opened fire in an attempt to control the crowd, he and other witnesses said. His 23-year-old cousin was shot in the foot. They quickly abandoned hope of getting any food and ran for their lives. The gunfire was very intense.... The sand was jumping around us, he told The Associated Press. The military did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the situation at the center Hijazi visited Thursday. It acknowledged firing in the vicinity of another center in central Gaza that day. On Friday, Hijazi said he would wait before returning, though he is desperate for anything to feed his extended family now about 200 members living together in a displacement camp in the southern city of Khan Younis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hunger has hit home. I cant wait around to watch my family die of hunger," the 41-year-old said. Turmoil at food-distribution sites It's a reality faced by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, plagued by rising hunger and malnutrition after a nearly three-month Israeli blockade barring all food and supplies from Gaza. Israel has let in a trickle of aid this month for the United Nations to distribute through its networks nearly 1,000 trucks the past 12 days, the military says, far below the rate even at the highest times during the war when several hundred trucks a day would enter. Israel says GHF will eventually take over all food distribution, despite opposition from the U.N. and most humanitarian groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In its first week of operations, GHF's three distribution sites have been plagued by turmoil. Multiple witnesses have reported Israeli troops opening fire at GHF centers. At least six people have been killed and more than 50 wounded around the sites, according to Dr. Ahmmed al-Farrah at Khan Younis' Nasser Hospital, where casualties were taken. Giant crowds of tens of thousands of people have overwhelmed the facilities, sometimes breaking fences to reach food boxes that they say quickly ran out. At a center in central Gaza on Thursday, Associated Press videos showed smoke bombs arching through the air and an Israeli tanks moving amid audible gunfire. The military said it fired artillery because of a threat to its troops in the area but that it was not in the direction of the GHF center or civilians. It also acknowledged firing warning shots Tuesday near another center to control a crowd. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GHF said in a statement Friday that no civilians or individuals involved with the distribution of aid were injured, no lives were lost. It has previously said that no shootings took place at its distribution sites. Israel demanded the new system, saying it must prevent Hamas from siphoning off supplies, though it has provided no evidence of systematic diversion. U.N. agencies say their mechanisms already prevent significant diversion. Witnesses reported that there were no ID checks at the new centers and that in the free-for-all, men muscled forward to take cartloads of multiple food boxes. Hijazi and others said it appeared organized gangs were taking the food to sell and that already boxes are in the markets going for exorbitant prices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This farce and humiliation are by design, Hijazi said. A staff member working on the ground for GHF told The Associated Press on Friday that the system is evolving. The staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said that given peoples desperation and hunger, the focus is on safely distributing as many supplies as possible, and once the situation stabilizes, more emphasis will be placed on managing who receives it. GHF said it had distributed food boxes capable of producing more than 2 million meals this week. The boxes contain basics like sugar, lentils, pasta and rice. This is just the beginning," said John Acree, interim executive director of GHF. "Our commitment to safely and effectively supplying food directly to a large, hungry population is unwavering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The difficulty of distributing aid The U.N. and other aid groups have refused to participate in the GHF system saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it puts aid under Israel's control to use to carry out its announced plans to move Gazas entire population to the south. They also say it cannot meet the massive needs of the population and endangers those seeking food. There have been unruly crowds around Gazas communal kitchens, but scenes like those at GHF hubs have been rare at U.N. distribution sites. The U.N. and other aid groups have run hundreds of distribution points around Gaza and often use a coupon system to organize when families pick up aid to ensure it is handed out equitably and to avoid large crowds at a single location. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A few times, hungry crowds have broken into aid warehouses, when the flow of aid has plunged particularly low, usually because of Israeli military restrictions, U.N. workers say. U.N. aid trucks have also come under attack by what the U.N. says are armed criminal gangs, or crowds of desperate people have swarmed trucks taking supplies. The U.N. says such attacks virtually stop when the aid flow is well. People dont understand why it is difficult to give out food in crises, said Ruth James, humanitarian coordinator for Oxfam. Managing large crowds and preventing stampedes takes planning and clear communication, she said. In a crowd, usually the most powerful get to the food or parcels, and the people most in need are overlooked. Despite his frustration, Hijazi said he will try again on Sunday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People are ready to eat each other to provide for their families, he said, adding that the new system is moving people around like chess pieces. It is an unimaginable tragedy. ___ El Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report. The Verdenia Baker era is over, and Palm Beach County officials must choose a new county administrator. It's an important job, almost akin to running a Fortune 100 company. The key word here is "almost" as Palm Beach County is so much more than a private enterprise, and its government deserves an administrator with a proven track record. Palm Beach County is Florida's fourth-largest. The county is home to more than 1.5 million and growing. Its 39 municipalities are varied and diverse, ranging from an island enclave of billionaires to more underprivileged rural and working-class communities. It is one of the nation's wealthiest counties, but at the same time, it struggles with ever-increasing cost of living, particularly in housing and rentals. Traffic combined with over-development is also a concern. Outgoing county administrator Verdenia Baker, who announced her retirement in March, appears at a county commission meeting in downtown West Palm Beach on March 11, 2025. Its county government runs on a $9 billion budget and is one of the few counties in the nation with an AAA credit rating. Still, the county must balance a lot in meeting the demands from a variety of constituents from residents and small business owners, to corporate interests and developers, to state and municipal governments. To put it bluntly, the next county administrator has some very big shoes to fill and had better have the credentials and experience to fit them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement County commissioners who have the final say in picking a new administrator initially passed on conducting a national search, a procedure that would assure the best available and experienced candidates. Instead, they opted to advertise the job, winnow the 200 applicants down to six finalists through the county's Human Resources office and a task force of volunteers selected by commissioners. The commission will interview them and make a final selection later in June. Editorial: Florida's new parks law is just a start in protecting our state's environment New administrator must put the public's interests first Under normal circumstances, the county's approach in choosing Baker's successor might be appropriate. But, for anyone who's been paying attention, these aren't exactly normal times. In Tallahassee, state lawmakers aren't yet close to an agreement that will guarantee the state has a new budget. The ongoing grudge match between Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Daniel Perez offers little reassurance that the county will come out whole in the process. It's not much better in Washington, where House Republicans passed President Trump's big beautiful bill that contains major cuts in key programs that many Palm Beach County residents have come to depend on Medicaid services, food stamps and Medicare. Add to that the ongoing chaos of executive orders and DOGE pursuits that have hollowed out several federal government services and eliminated important grants that have helped Palm Beach County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Editorial: Boynton Beach moves closer to creating its very own downtown Closer to home, there's talk within the business community that Palm Beach County will "open up" after Baker leaves county government. In a contentious lawsuit against the county over what it should pay the county for six acres of land in West Palm Beach, the backers of Transit Village, the Miami-based BH Group, noted in a court filing that Baker's retirement could lead to a settlement. Growth and economic development remain important. However, the next county administrator shouldn't simply be a doormat for developers. There's a larger interest to be served, and it is the regard for the public that must be the priority. Any candidate failing to grasp that isn't qualified to hold the job. Neither Baker nor her predecessor, former county administrator Bob Weisman, had a problem with keeping the county's concerns in the forefront of the many decisions they made, whether it was formulating a county budget, creating a workforce housing program or successfully getting voters to approve bond referenda for needed road improvements, school services or housing programs. That priority was shaped by years of county government service. It's a high benchmark for any of the six finalists. Hopefully, it will be readily apparent in Baker's replacement. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County's administrator search marks new era | Editorial (PALMER LAKE, Colo.) Late on Thursday evening, May 29, the Palmer Lake Board of Trustees voted that an annexation request for the proposed Buc-ees in northern El Paso County is meeting legal requirements. Only one board member, Atis Jurka, voted against the annexation during the meeting on Thursday night. The rest of the board submitted votes of approval, including Mayor of Palmer Lake Glant Havenar. A limited number of people were allowed inside the contentious meeting, which left many forced to stand outside and watch online. Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Jack Young Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Jack Young Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Jack Young Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Jack Young Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Jack Young Public comments were taken from those that were allowed inside, with some neighbors in the area arguing they dont necessarily want to stop Buc-ees altogether, they just dont see Palmer Lake as the right fit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not fair to these people, and its not fair to this whole community, the way one company, just because they have a lot of money, can change everything, said one neighbor outside the meeting on Thursday. I dont want to stop Buc-ees. Lets go on an area like Loveland did, where its a flat plain, where theres nothing else out there, where theres a lot of land, and they can make it work. Others argued the land where Buc-ees would be builtwest of I-25 off of County Line Roadis not eligible for annexation because of how close the property is to Douglas County. The Town of Palmer Lake argued the travel center would generate more than $955,000 in needed yearly sales tax revenue for Palmer Lake. There are still a few more steps before the annexation is officially approved, and the Buc-ees can start being built. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. President Donald Trump, accompanied by Pam Bondi, speaks before Bondi is sworn in as U.S. Attorney General in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Credit - Andrew HarnikGetty Images The Department of Justice has announced that it will be curtailing the ability of the American Bar Association (ABA) to rate candidates for tenure in the federal judiciary. This will hinder the ABAs ability to vet nominations put forth by President Donald Trump. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a letter to the ABA president William Bay on Thursday, May 29, that she is cutting off the associations access to non-public information about Trump nominees. Bondi referred to the non-partisan membership organization as an activist group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic Administrations, said Bondi, accusing the ABA of having bias in its ratings process. There is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so. Bondi went on to say that judicial nominees will no longer need to provide waivers to allow the ABA access to non-public information, nor will they respond to questionnaires or sit for interviews with the association. In a subsequent social media post, Bondi doubled down, saying: The American Bar Association has lost its way, and we do not believe it serves as a fair arbiter of judicial nominees. The Justice Department will no longer give the ABA the access theyve taken for granted. Stephen Gillers, a professor of law at New York University, says that this move from the Department of Justice carries slight significance, calling the motivation for the announcement performative and symbolic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ABA can still evaluate nominees based on the public record and information submitted to the judiciary committee, he says, noting that the difference lies in the fact the ABA will not be able to give the Justice Department its evaluation before the nomination is made. The move against the ABA came a day after Trump announced six new judicial nominees, which included top Justice Department official Emil Bove being put forward to serve as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Bove will end the weaponization of Justice, restore the rule of law, and do anything else that is necessary to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Bove defended Trump during his hush-money trial, during which the President was convicted on 34 counts. Trump also nominated Kyle Dudek, John Guard, Jordan E. Pratt, and Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe to serve as Judges on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and Ed Artau to serve as a Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The President has previously threatened to revoke the ABAs status as the federally-recognized accreditor of law schools in an Executive Order signed on April 24. As part of his wide-scale crackdown on DEI efforts, Trump said that the ABA has required law schools to demonstrate commitment to diversity and inclusion, something which he says is a "discriminatory requirement" and that "similar unlawful mandates must be permanently eradicated." Critics have recently raised concerns over current practices at the Department of Justice. I think what's happening in the Department of Justice right now is that it's being transformed into Donald Trump's personal law firm," said Liz Oyer, the DOJs former pardon attorney. "The Attorney General has made it clear that directions are coming from the very top, from the President, and she is there to do his bidding. Read More: Democrats Grill AG Pick Pam Bondi Over Whether She Can Defy Trump What is the American Bar Association and what does it do? Founded in 1878, the ABA works on the commitment to set the legal and ethical foundation for the American nation, according to the organizations website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its main three areas of focus revolve around advocating for the legal profession, eliminating bias and enhancing diversity, as well as advancing the rule of law. It is the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary that typically oversees and conducts the judicial nominee vetting process, something it has done since 1953. According to the ABA, the committee makes a unique contribution to the vetting process by conducting a thorough peer assessment of each nominees professional competence, integrity, and judicial temperament. The organization asserts that these assessments are non-partisan, providing the Senate and sitting Administration with confidential assessments of the nominees professional qualifications. Gillers echoes this, highlighting how the ABA does not look at ideology during its evaluation of nominees, but instead at competence. Evaluations are based on the nominees experience and knowledge, not their positions on controversial issues that could come before the courts, he says. Contact us at letters@time.com. WASHINGTON Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday informed the American Bar Association that she is cutting off its access to nonpublic information about President Donald Trumps judicial nominees because she thinks the nonpartisan organization is an activist group. Unfortunately, the ABA no longer functions as a fair arbiter of nominees qualifications, and its ratings invariably and demonstrably favor nominees put forth by Democratic administrations, Bondi said in a letter to ABA president William Bay. There is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so, she said. Specifically, the Office of Legal Policy will no longer direct nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information, including bar records. Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An ABA spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost that the organization has seen the letter and has no comment for now, but the group will have one going forward. Heres a copy of Bondis letter: Attorney General Pam Bondi told the nonpartisan American Bar Association that it won't be allowed to vet Trump's judicial nominees in advance because she believes the group is biased toward Democrats. Department of Justice Conservatives have bemoaned the ABAs ratings of judicial nominees for years, so Bondis move isnt entirely surprising. President George W. Bush ended the the organizations veto power over his nominees in 2001, claiming it had a liberal bias. The group responded by evaluating Bushs nominees after they were submitted to the Senate. President Barack Obama restored the ABAs role in the judicial nomination process in March 2009. But contrary to Bondis claims, the ABA isnt an activist group. Its a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students nationwide. The ABA has been around since 1878 and has played a role in federal judicial nominations since 1948. It launched its committee on the federal judiciary in 1953 and has since been vetting judicial nominees on a scale of not qualified to well qualified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Bondis move blatantly political and said shes trying to provide cover to extreme and unqualified nominees who would crumble under a nonpartisan review by their peers. This decision will ultimately ease the confirmation process for Trump nominees who have demonstrated bias against protected classes, dont have the judicial temperament to rule fairly from the bench, or dont have the requisite experience to be confirmed to lifetime appointments as federal court judges, negatively impacting generations of Americans, Durbin said in a statement. Ten of Trumps judicial picks earned embarrassing not qualified ABA ratings in his first term, which is likely another reason why Bondi is shutting out the group. How can we forget Trumps former judicial nominee Brett Talley? The then 36-year-old lawyer and former paranormal activity investigator tweeted about Hillary Clinton being rotten and said his solution to the Sandy Hook shooting massacre would be to stop being a society of pansies and man up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was Matthew Petersen, then a 36-year-old lawyer who couldnt answer basic questions about law in his confirmation hearing and was basically shamed into withdrawing his nomination. Jeff Mateer, then a 52-year-old lawyer who described transgender children as evidence of Satans plan and endorsed gay conversion therapy, was withdrawn too. Some of Trumps past judicial nominees did get through, though, despite being rated not qualified. Sarah Pitlyk, then a 42-year-old lawyer and former clerk to then-D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh, was unanimously rated not qualified because of her very substantial gap in trial or litigation experience. Ms. Pitlyk has never tried a case as lead or co-counsel, whether civil or criminal. She has never examined a witness, reads Pitlyks ABA review in 2019. Though Ms. Pitlyk has argued one case in a court of appeals, she has not taken a deposition. She has not argued any motion in a state or federal trial court. She has never picked a jury. She has never participated at any stage of a criminal matter. Republicans still confirmed her to her seat on a U.S. District Court in Missouri. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was also Lawrence VanDyke, then a 46-year-old lawyer and former solicitor general of both Nevada and Montana. The ABA interviewed 60 people in its evaluation of VanDyke, including 43 lawyers and 16 judges. It found that his colleagues would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community. Mr. VanDykes accomplishments are offset by the assessments of interviewees that Mr. VanDyke is arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules, reads the particularly brutal ABA review of VanDyke in 2019. There was a theme that the nominee lacks humility, has an entitlement temperament, does not have an open mind, and does not always have a commitment to being candid and truthful. VanDyke cried during his Senate nomination hearing when these details were read back to him. Still, despite the ABAs findings, Republicans confirmed him to his current seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Pam Bondi said the ABA won't be allowed to review Trump's judicial nominees in advance, which has been the standard for years, because she thinks the nonpartisan organization is an "activist group." via Associated Press Beyond any lingering grievances Trump may have against the ABA from his first term, he may also just be straight-up retaliating against the group for condemning his brazen attacks on federal judges and on the rule of law itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, the ABA president issued an unusual statement criticizing unnamed Trump administration officials for making repeated calls for the impeachment of judges who issue opinions with which the government does not agree. There are clear choices facing our profession. We can choose to remain silent and allow these acts to continue or we can stand for the rule of law and the values we hold dear, Bay said. We acknowledge that there are risks to standing up and addressing these important issues. But if the ABA and lawyers do not speak, who will speak for the organized bar? Who will speak for the judiciary? he said. Who will protect our system of justice? If we dont speak now, when will we speak? NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Pardoned reality TV star Todd Chrisley said Friday that the experience of being in prison has changed him, vowing to not forget the men he met and befriended there and to work to make their lives better. You cant go through what weve been through and walk away from it, he said at a news conference in a Nashville, Tennessee, hotel two days after his release. As bad as this experience has been, theres also been a lot of blessings to come from it. I have met some wonderful men. I have listened to some horrific stories about things that have gone on in our system. Convicted on fraud and tax charges, the Chrisley Knows Best" star maintained his innocence, saying he and his wife Julie were victims of a corrupt prosecution. He said they will detail the proof of the wrongful conviction in an upcoming television show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were blessed to have our family back, and were blessed to be coming back to television because we have a much bigger story to tell now than we ever have," he said. Addressing whether his familys fame and connections helped him and his wife get a pardon from President Donald Trump, Chrisley said, Its not something you can look at and say that had nothing to do with it. I dont know if it did or it didnt. His daughter Savannah Chrisley, also speaking at the news conference, was adamant that it was her hard work that won the day. She has been a staunch Trump supporter and endorsed his candidacy while also speaking about her parents in a speech at the Republican National Convention last summer. Todd Chrisley described the experience of watching his daughter's work from a distance as being consumed with pride while at the same time knowing that this is a longshot, because so many people are told, No. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he recognized that the conditions at the minimum-security prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, where he was held were relatively good, and that even there the privileges were not evenly distributed. "It's important to understand that I was at a camp," he said. He was able to work out every day, walk a track, email his wife and talk to his children. "Being in the prison system, anyone that says that its a fair shake its not. Because I dealt with young African American males in the prison that I was in that were not treated the same. They were denied programing. They were denied access to certain things. I was not denied that. But we know why I was not denied that, he said. Chrisley said his time in prison deepened his walk with Christ in addition to opening his eyes to many problems in the prison system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement God has said when you know better you do better," he said. "And its our job at this point to expose all of that and to try to make those men and womens lives better if we can. Chrisley Knows Best ran from 2014 to 2023, chronicling the extravagant exploits of the boisterous, tightly knit family of the couple and their five children, from high-end cars to luxury vacations and stunning mansions. It was recorded in the Atlanta area at first and then in Nashville. In 2019, the show spawned the spinoff Growing Up Chrisley, which featured the couples children Chase and Savannah living in Los Angeles. The Chrisleys were indicted in 2019 under a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney and found guilty by an Atlanta jury in 2022. A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld their convictions last year. Until this Wednesday, they still had years left on their sentences: Julie Chrisley was expected to be released in 2028, and Todd Chrisley in 2032. In addition to their prison sentences, the couple had been ordered to pay $14 million in restitution that they will no longer owe, attorney Alex Little told reporters Friday. He said the government had seized some money from the Chrisleys but he believes it was less than $100,000 and that it was unclear whether any of that would be returned. Passengers on a British Airways flight were left sweltering inside the cabin for two hours after the air conditioning failed before takeoff in Dubai. Flight BA104 was set to fly seven hours from Dubai International Airport on Saturday, 24 May, to London Heathrow. However, before takeoff, the Boeing 787 experienced an auxiliary power unit (APU) failure, which prevented the cabin airflow and cooling systems from working properly, travel blog Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement APUs are small devices that work as power sources for the aircraft, which are used mostly on the ground while the main engines are inactive. Usually, ground equipment can be used instead of a faulty APU, and once the engines start, the cooling systems would resume. The aircraft, therefore, decided to push back from the gate and begin taxiing, but it stopped while making its way to the runway because a cockpit warning light signalled. With the gate now occupied by the next scheduled plane, it was diverted to a cargo area, leaving passengers stuck in stuffy conditions in the cabin. A post from a passenger on a Facebook complaints forum, which now appears to be deleted, described passengers suffering from the high temperatures inside the cabin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said that babies had to be stripped down to their nappies to try and cool them down, and she was worried for her own health due to having high blood pressure, dealing with the heat and the stress. The passenger also said flight attendants handed out one cup of water each, but the doors remained closed without air conditioning as engineers continued to work. We baked inside the plane for 2 hours as engineers worked on the flight deck, she claimed, according to Paddle Your Own Kanoo. The plane got hotter and hotter and recorded 47 degrees. In a statement, a British Airways spokesperson said: We thank our customers for their patience while we resolved a technical issue with the aircraft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our crew provided water to customers on board and worked hard to ensure our customers remained as comfortable as possible whilst we resolved the issue. This is not the first time passengers have had to deal with soaring cabin temperatures inside planes. In July 2024, dozens of Qatar Airways passengers endured an heatwave in Greece while stuck inside for three hours on the tarmac without air conditioning. The extreme temperature inside the flight caused nosebleeds in travellers, while some had to rely on oxygen masks. That same month, passengers were also left sweltering inside a Juneyao Airlines plane without air conditioning during a two-hour flight delay. It took one passenger to faint for the staff to allow passengers off the plane and back to the gate. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast MOSCOW/KIEV, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Kremlin announced Friday that it expects both Russian and Ukrainian draft peace memorandums to be reviewed during upcoming negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation is scheduled to depart for Istanbul and will be ready to begin the next round of talks with Ukraine on Monday morning. Peskov added that the two sides will discuss conditions for a potential temporary truce, with safe navigation in the Black Sea likely to be a key component of any future agreement. He also noted that high-level contacts between Russian, U.S., and Ukrainian leaders are possible, depending on the outcome of the talks. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Wednesday that Ukraine expects to receive Russia's draft peace memorandum ahead of Monday's meeting. He said that Ukraine had already delivered its own memorandum to the head of the Russian delegation. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Friday that the Russian delegation will arrive with a draft memorandum and additional ceasefire proposals. Also on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan discussed preparations for the new round of Russia-Ukraine talks during a phone call, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Fidan, who visited Russia earlier this week and is in Kyiv on Friday, briefed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Russia's position regarding the ongoing peace process, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Russia and Ukraine last held direct talks on May 16 -- their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022. Those talks, also held in Istanbul, concluded without a ceasefire agreement. National Weather Service officials are expecting patchy smoke from Canadian wildfires to move into the Chicago area Friday along with a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to move into portions of northeast Illinois after 4 p.m. Friday, which could see a high temperature near 75 degrees. Officials said smoke from Canadian wildfires could move in as well before 1 a.m. Saturday. Air quality alerts were issued in central, east central and northeast Wisconsin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Chicago, scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop across northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana Friday afternoon and early evening. Officials said the strongest storms are expected to be capable of producing large hail and damaging winds. Current afternoon conditions at Midway Airport are mostly cloudy at 74 degrees. Farther north at OHare International Airport conditions are overcast at 70 degrees. Friday night, there is a 60% chance of rain with temperatures in the low 50s, officials said. Saturday, highs are expected in the upper 50s followed by highs in the mid 60s Sunday. Weeks after Donald Trump declared that he was cutting federal funding for public broadcasters, PBS followed in NPRs footsteps and sued the president to block his executive order, calling it unconstitutional and blatant viewpoint discrimination. In the complaint that was filed in the U.S. District Court of Washington Friday, the network which was joined by member station Northern Minnesota Public Television accused the administration of violating the broadcasters First Amendment rights. The lawsuit also claimed that the executive order broke the laws that forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBSs programming, including by attempting to defund PBS. After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public televisions editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations, a PBS spokesperson said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. PBS is suing to block President Donald Trumps executive order that cuts funding to public broadcasters, calling it blatant viewpoint discrimination. (AP) The executive order makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech, the lawsuit stated. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination. The complaint added: And the EO smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage. That all transgresses the First Amendments protection of both speech and freedom of the press. The public broadcasters lawsuit comes days after NPR filed a similar complaint against the president. NPR, which gets roughly 2 percent of its annual budget from the federal government, argued that Trump overstepped his powers by trying to strip funding that had been Congressionally appropriated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president has no authority under the Constitution to take such actions, alleges the NPR lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday. On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress. It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. But this wolf comes as a wolf, the NPR complaint added. The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President's view, their news and other content is not 'fair, accurate, or unbiased. In his executive order earlier this month, Trump accused the public broadcasters of biased coverage and said that federal funds should instead go to fair, accurate, unbiased and nonpartisan news coverage. The order came after he had repeatedly threatened to claw back the funding allocated to NPR and PBS. Trump has also attempted to fire members of the Corporation for Public Broadcastings board of directors, resulting in another lawsuit to block those terminations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers dime, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told The Washington Post earlier this week. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective. PBS relies more heavily on government funds than NPR, with nearly 16 percent of its $373 million annual budget coming directly from grants provided to it by the coproration. The networks lawsuit also claims that Trumps order could potentially harm the large portion of its funding that comes from local station dues. Public Broadcasting Service on Friday sued the Trump Administration over the presidents recent executive order to cancel federal funding for public broadcasters like PBS and National Public Radio. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. and obtained by TheWrap, said the presidents executive order violates its First Amendment rights; the filing also claimed President Trump does not have the authority to make decisions over funding for public broadcasters. President Trump, the lawsuit added, was engaging in viewpoint discrimination because he has claimed PBS is biased against him and other Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms, the lawsuit said. But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBSs programming, including by attempting to defund PBS. Fridays lawsuit comes a few days after NPR filed a similar lawsuit. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president has also called NPR and PBS radical left monsters that Republicans must defund in recent social media posts. PBS has said it is receiving $325 million this year from the CPB, which accounts for 22% of its funding. Last week, PBS chief Paula Kerger said the executive order 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Friday, PBS was joined in its lawsuit by Lakeland PBS, a station that serves rural parts of Minnesota. The station said the presidents push to defund PBS posed an existential threat to it. Whether Trump achieves his goal of defunding public broadcasters is to be determined. Congress has already allocated $535 million for public broadcasters this fiscal year, and beyond the NPR and PBS lawsuits, he is facing a lawsuit from CPB over a related issue his decision to fire three of its board members. The post PBS Sues Trump Administration Over Push to Defund Public Broadcasters appeared first on TheWrap. PBS and one of its affiliates in Minnesota has sued the Trump administration over its efforts to defund funding for the public broadcaster. The suit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., argues that the administration is violating PBS and its stations First Amendment rights, and that efforts to influence funding decisions from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are unlawful. More from The Hollywood Reporter Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public televisions editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations, a spokesperson for PBS says. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers dime, White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields says. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective. Trump has signed both an executive order targeting funds for public broadcasting, and has pursued rescission packages, while also trying to get Congress to withhold funding from its budget. The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations private editorial discretion, the lawsuit states. The EO also seeks to impose an unconstitutional condition on PBS Member Stations receipt of federal funds by prohibiting them from using federal funds to access PBS programming and services. And the EO smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage. That all transgresses the First Amendments protection of both speech and freedom of the press. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If allowed to stand, the EO would override Congresss decision to remove the administration of federal funding for public television from the governments editorial purview, the filing continues. And it would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS Member Stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans. PBS and Lakeland PBS bring suit to preserve their ability to serve their viewers and communities without political interference, as both Congress and the First Amendment mandate. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Sign up for THR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. PBS is suing President Donald Trump and other members of his administration in an effort to halt his order stripping federal funding from the television network. The lawsuit, filed Friday, argues that regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBSs programming, including by attempting to defund PBS. Trump and his administration have targeted a wide array of media companies he views as his adversaries, including looking to strip federal funding from public media organizations. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order to restrict public funds to both NPR and PBS. In his order, Trump claimed the organizations engage in biased and partisan news coverage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PBS argues in its lawsuit that Trumps order violates the First Amendment because it makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations private editorial discretion, the suit states. In a statement to POLITICO, the White House disputed PBSs accusations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS, said deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective. Both NPR and PBS have been regular targets for Trump, outgoing Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk and the administrations allies on Capitol Hill. A PBS spokesperson previously told POLITICO that government dollars accounted for roughly 16 percent of its funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The television system also names Education Secretary Linda McMahon in the suit, after the Education Department cut grants to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting the independent, congressional-funded organization that provides grants to public media for Ready to Learn programming, which includes making shows like Sesame Street. The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are also named in the suit because PBSs technology is used as a backup for the nationwide emergency alert system. PBSs lawsuit comes just three days after NPR filed a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration. Like PBS, NPRs lawsuit accuses the presidents order of violating the First Amendment. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is also suing the Trump administration after the president tried to fire board members. PBS is suing President Trumps administration on First Amendment grounds, arguing the president is trying to pull funding the from the broadcaster because of editorial coverage he disagrees with. The suit filed Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., accused the president of trying to upend public television and argues the law forbids him from pulling funding to it and other public broadcast outlets. PBSs suit follows a similar lawsuit filed earlier this week by NPR, which similarly argued Trumps executive order targeting funding to public media violates the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause by disregarding Congresss express commands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement to The Hill on Friday, a spokesperson for PBS said, after careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public televisions editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations. Trump and his allies have long attacked NPR and PBS over their funding, some of which comes from taxpayer dollars but a larger portion of which is derived from private donations and member stations. On Capitol Hill, a push among Republicans to strip federal funding from public broadcasters is gaining steam, though some lawmakers expressed skepticism. At a hearing last month, PBS president Paula Kerger defended the outlets editorial strategy and funding model, arguing the network provides vital services to Americans and particularly children through educational programming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Trump, in his executive order that has now sparked a pair of lawsuits, argued PBS and NPR are biased against his agenda in their news coverage and are undeserving of federal dollars. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize, his executive order on the matter reads. Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax paying citizens. 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. PBS and one of its member stations in northern Minnesota sued President Trump and several cabinet officials on Friday over Trumps executive order targeting the public broadcasting system. PBS alleges that the presidents May 1 order violated the First Amendment of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit asks the US District Court in Washington, DC, to affirm the orders unconstitutionality and bar the Trump administration from enforcing the presidents demands that PBS be defunded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public televisions editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations, a PBS spokesperson said Friday. CNN has asked the White House for comment. The networks radio and podcasting counterpart, NPR, filed a similar First Amendment lawsuit earlier this week. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private entity that disperses taxpayer funds to public radio and TV stations, has also sued Trump over his attempt to fire three board members. For the time being, the CPB is ignoring Trumps demand. But if federal funding to public media is indeed halted, some smaller stations could be forced off the air. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both the PBS and NPR lawsuits focus on Trumps own claims about the public broadcasters. He has repeatedly lambasted public media for perceived political bias, charging that NPR and PBS are unfair to conservatives. PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms, Fridays lawsuit filing states. But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBSs programming, including by attempting to defund PBS. In legal parlance, the alleged First Amendment violation is known as viewpoint discrimination. Trumps order makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech, the lawsuit continues. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations private editorial discretion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit also notes that the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act expressly insulated PBS and its member stations from political interference. With the May 1 executive order, Trump is attempting to circumvent Congress, which allocates funds for public media every year, the lawsuit adds. When NPRs lawsuit was filed, the White House charged that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. Attorneys for NPR said the White House statement amounted to further evidence of viewpoint discrimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PBS took pains in its Friday filing to reject conservative claims about liberal bias on its airwaves. It said the White Houses talking points about radical, woke propaganda were misleading and misrepresentative of the variety of PBS programming. The involvement of Lakeland PBS, a member station in northern Minnesota, is meant to buttress the lawsuits arguments. The station is the only local TV news provider in the part of the state where it operates. Without Lakeland PBS, many residents in its coverage area would have no access to television covering local issues, the lawsuit states. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -PBS sued Donald Trump on Friday over the U.S. president's executive order to cut its federal funding, calling it an unconstitutional attack that would "upend public television." In a complaint filed in the Washington, D.C. federal court, PBS and a public TV station in Minnesota said Trump's order violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment by making the president the "arbiter" of programming content, including by attempting to defund PBS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The May 1 order "makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech," PBS said. "That is blatant viewpoint discrimination." PBS is short for Public Broadcasting Service. Its programming has included "Sesame Street," "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," "Frontline" and several Ken Burns documentaries including "The Civil War." Member stations also broadcast public affairs shows such as "Washington Week." Trump's order demanded that the taxpayer-backed Corporation for Public Broadcasting cut federal funding to PBS and NPR, short for National Public Radio. All three entities are nonprofits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PBS said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides 16% of its $373.4 million annual budget. It also said the funding ban would apply to local member stations, which provide 61% of its budget through dues, including millions of dollars in federal funds. In a statement, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was "creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS." NPR filed its own lawsuit on May 27 to block Trump's order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PBS SAYS LAWSUIT 'SMACKS OF RETALIATION' Formed in 1969, PBS has 336 member stations including the plaintiff Lakeland PBS, which serves about 490,000 people in northern and central Minnesota. The executive order was part of Trump's effort to sanction entities he believes are opposed to his political agenda. Trump said that by funding PBS and NPR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ignored Americans' right to expect that taxpayer dollars going to public broadcasting "fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage." The White House separately accused PBS and NPR of using taxpayer money to spread "radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In its complaint, PBS said Trump's order "smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage." The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives funding from Congress two years in advance, to shield it from political interference. It sued Trump last month after he sought to fire three of its five board members. The case is Public Broadcasting Service et al v Trump et al, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 25-01722. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman) PBS sued the Trump administration over an executive order to cut public media funding. The lawsuit said the order violates the First Amendment and targets PBS for its content. CPB grants make up 16% of PBS's budget; NPR filed a similar complaint. The Public Broadcasting Service is suing the Trump administration over an executive order that would eliminate federal funding for public media. The nonprofit filed a lawsuit Friday in a US District Court in Washington, DC. The lawsuit argues that the administration has violated the First Amendment by targeting PBS and lacks the authority to influence funding decisions made by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech," according to the lawsuit. "That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion," the complaint read. According to the complaint, CPB grants comprise around 16% of PBS's $373.4 million annual budget. The CPB allocates around $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS. PBS is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from Trump's executive order and asking the court to declare the order unconstitutional. NPR has also already filed a similar complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations," PBS said in a statement to Business Insider. The lawsuit is a part of ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and public media. Last month, the CPB sued Trump over attempts to remove board members. "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime," Harrison Fields, Principal Deputy Press Secretary, told Business Insider in a statement. "Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS." Read the original article on Business Insider DALLAS, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) Leaders with the school district and the Dallas Township. Police Department have confirmed the shooting never happened. At a gun violence survivor rally in Kentucky back in February, Calvin Polachek claims he survived a school shooting in Dallas in 2017. As we reported yesterday, the event he described never happened. Expert weighs in on why people lie about tragedy Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of Polacheks former classmates, who served alongside him on student council, says she was stunned when she heard his story. At first, I was extremely shocked and didnt really know what to think about it, said Courtney Moss, former classmate. Courtney Moss says she was in disbelief when she saw the video of Calvin Polachek sharing his fake story about how he lost his best friend, his brother, and nine classmates in a Dallas school shooting back in 2017. She discovered the footage earlier this week. Now even two days later, Im still like in complete disbelief on how someone can take such a huge tragedy that so many people go through, not even just around the country, but even like around the world all the mass shootings and lie about it and say that he survived one when he didnt, voiced Moss. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group who organized the rally, Everytown for Gun Safety, says Polachek is not an active member and lied to volunteers to be a part of the rally. Moss says these false claims hurt real victims and survivors of tragedy. It breaks my heart for people who actually have lived through this and suffer through this every single day and reliving the worst day of their lives just for someone to go and to lie about an experience with it. Its just wrong, expressed Moss. A representative from Everytown for Gun Safety tells 28/22 News they will work to make sure what happened at their rally in Kentucky never happens again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We reached out to the University of Louisville where Polachek is currently a graduate student, a representative there confirmed his enrollment and said that they are aware of the allegations against him. Our attempts to reach Calvin have been unsuccessful. 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 28/22 News. HELSINKI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The EstLink 2 electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia, which was damaged on Christmas Day in 2024, is now expected to return to commercial operation on June 25, earlier than previously anticipated, Finland's national transmission system operator Fingrid announced on Friday. Repair work on the undersea cable began in May and has progressed faster than expected, thanks to favorable sea conditions, said Fingrid. Technical repairs are scheduled for completion shortly after Midsummer (June 21), followed by a series of final tests to verify the cable's functionality. The operation entails the replacement of approximately one kilometer of submarine cable. The planning and coordination of the complex repair process have been ongoing since the damage occurred, involving multiple stakeholders across both countries, said Fingrid. EstLink 2 is vital for enhancing electricity transmission capacity and ensuring grid stability between Finland and Estonia. Need a penny for your thoughts? You might want to start charging more. The U.S. government announced that it will soon halt production of the one-cent coin, citing ballooning manufacturing costs, as each penny now costs nearly four times its face value to produce. After 233 years of production, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that the production of the penny will come to an end, and the only ones available will be pennies currently in circulation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As pennies are phased out, prices will start to change, with items being rounded up to the nearest nickel, meaning everything can be essentially 1 to 4 cents more expensive. Why is the penny not going to be made? President Donald Trump announced that the production of the penny will end as a cost-saving measure for the national budget. As the penny is phased out, the nickel will become the smallest denomination used in cash transactions. While nickels are also produced at a loss costing about 13.8 cents to make a coin worth only 5 cents the penny is even more inefficient by percentage, costing 3.7 cents to produce a coin worth just 1 cent. That means each penny costs 370% of its face value, compared to 276% for each nickel. And because the U.S. Mint produces roughly four times more pennies than nickels each year, the total budget impact of penny production is significantly higher making it the more logical first step for elimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, with the penny gone, the expected increase in nickel production could offset some of those savings by driving up overall coin manufacturing costs. How many pennies are made each year? In the 2024 fiscal year, around 3.2 billion pennies were manufactured When does the production of the penny stop? The last order for pennies has already been taken by U.S. mints, and the Treasury told multiple news outlets that pennies will stop being put into circulation early in 2026, according to the Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSN, and Business Insider. Are old pennies worth anything more than 1 cent? Think that old penny you have in the drawer might be worth something? Well, some are, but most aren't worth more than their face value. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There are million-dollar pennies, but there are no $100 million pennies," said Donn Pearlman, spokesman for the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation's rare coin experts. "Only a few Lincoln cents dated 1909 to 1958 with the wheat stalks design on the back ("wheat pennies") have sold for $1 million or more." If you find a 1943 copper Lincoln wheat penny, you might have something. These copper 1-cent pieces were produced accidentally as the U.S. mints were supposed to use zinc to save copper for the World War II effort, said John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet. The penny is worth some money, but only a few have gone for $1 million. How can I tell if my pennies are worth anything? A quick Google search can give you an idea of whether the coin you have is rare and if it could be worth anything. But if you have questions, you can also reach out to the American Numismatic Association. The nonprofit educational organization is dedicated to educating and encouraging people to study and collect coins and other items related to it. Beyond doing your own research, the easiest way to see if your coin is worth anything is to get it appraised. You can find a list of recommended coin appraisers from the American Numismatic Association at coin-dealer-directory.money.org. Will Texas businesses continue to accept pennies for payment? Even after production stops, pennies will remain legal tender in the U.S. That means businesses can accept them for payment, and most will, especially as long as people still have them in circulation (which could be years). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the total amount you're paying is correct, and you use pennies to make up that cost, most businesses will take it, just like they would with any valid coin or bill. For instance, if you're charged $10.05, and use five pennies, it's likely most businesses will accept. However, businesses are not required to accept any specific form of payment under federal law, including coins. Any business can opt for cashless-only payments, or even state, "we don't take pennies anymore." What should I do with my existing pennies? Just because the U.S. is halting penny production doesnt mean your jar of copper coins is worthless. Pennies will remain legal tender, so youve got several options for putting them to good use: Cash them in: Most banks will accept rolled pennies, and coin-counting machines at grocery stores (like Coinstar) offer cash, gift cards, or donation options. Just keep in mind: some charge a fee for cash payouts. Spend them: Pennies are still valid for transactions, so if youve got exact change, go ahead and use them, especially while theyre still in circulation. Donate them: Local charities, schools, and community causes often accept spare change. A handful of pennies may not seem like much, but together, they can add up. Hold on to a few: With production ending, todays common penny might become tomorrows nostalgic keepsake or even a collectors item. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: US ending penny production. What to do with your leftover pennies (WHTM) Twenty veterans a day take their own lives. Its an alarming and tragic statistic, but a new healthcare regimen hopes to reverse the pain of PTSD and depression. The Aurelius Program at Harrisburg University is a pilot, and its showing promise. My depression is gone, Mike OKeefe said, who completed the Aurelius Program. Im just motivated. Like, I feel the fog is lifted. Close Thanks for signing up! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now abc27 Evening Newsletter A fog that enveloped OKeefe nine years ago after an armed robbery on the turnpike where he worked. He ran for his life from the gunman, thankfully, the bullets missed, but the pain didnt. OKeefe shared his anguish with us in 2017. He was suffering from PTSD, anxiety and depression. Years of doctors, drugs and therapies didnt help, but the Aurelius Program did. Im back to normal, OKeefe said. Joking. Having a good time carrying on. Support dairy farms around the state during Pennsylvanias 2025 Ice Cream Trail Promising results for the fledgling program that combines exercise, hyperbaric oxygen, and magnetic pulses to the skull. It is hours a day for several weeks straight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We had no idea about the damage it was doing to our heads, one veteran said. This vet drove a Navy speedboat where he was routinely slamming into waves. For he and his colleagues, the aftermath is becoming routine. The Navy veterans were suffering from speech problems, insomnia, speech problems and outbursts. For those symptoms, these vets from across the country hope to ease at Aurelius headquarters in Harrisburg University. Were seeing a lot of success, Aurelius Human Performance Director & Researcher Audrey Johnson said. Johnsons collecting data from these vets, hoping to prove what she suspects. That oxygen and brain stimulation together can change lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They have all these wounds and lesions on their brain, Johnson said. So that tissue healing and getting oxygen to that area to heal those cells, theyre still able to be healed. Dr. Joseph Maroon is a neurosurgeon and brain researcher at UPMC Pittsburgh. Hes also an Aurelius consultant who sees great promise. Every day is a Memorial Day for 20 veterans, plus or minus, who commit suicide due to depression, anxiety and PTSD, Maroon said. So the question is, what do you do about that. The private businessmen funding Aurelius hope it is the answer, and theyre not charging the veterans in the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download the abc27 News+ app on your Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV devices To try to move the needle with the VA, Aurelius co-founder Anson Flake. With our government, and just find a way to accelerate the recovery cycle for these guys before the Depression gets too significant and suicides and suicides start to take place. Right now, 11 states provide hyperbaric chambers for veterans battling PTSD. Pennsylvania is not one of them. Something advocates here would like to change. 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 ABC27. PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) Two Pennsylvania Senators announced legislation that aims to prohibit discrimination based on an individuals sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Senators Steven Santarsiero (D-Bucks) and Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia) argued in their new bill that in Pennsylvania, no one should be fired from a job, or denied housing or excluded from public spaces because of who they are. Their bill is a reintroduction of Senate Bill 150, which was co-sponsored by over 10 Senators. In Pennsylvania, the Human Relations Act prohibits discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations based on an individuals race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, education status, handicap or disability. However, the act does not cover sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pennsylvania should be seen as a place that welcomes any individual who wants to work hard, succeed, and contribute to our economy without the fear of being fired, refused services or denied something as basic as a place to live because of who they are, The legislation reads. Surveys repeatedly show that over 70% of Pennsylvanians agree. Get the latest news, weather forecasts and sports stories delivered straight to your inbox! Sign up for our newsletters. The Senators argued that while there has been an increase in the number of Pennsylvania municipalities that have passed non-discrimination ordinances, without a statewide law, there are individuals across the Commonwealth who risk not being protected. The legislation noted that other states have already passed similar bills safeguarding an individuals sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. 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 WTAJ - www.wtaj.com. ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) A Pensacola woman is accused of using another persons identity to buy a Chevrolet Silverado at an automobile dealership in Escambia County, Florida. Teen arrested in Fairhope shooting Brandi Michelle Neal, 51, is in the Escambia County Jail on several fraud charges and grand theft of a motor vehicle, News 5 has learned. She is being held without bond, jail records show. Brandi Michelle Neal. (Escambia County Jail View) She would steal anothers identity and try to buy that truck in that innocent persons name without their knowledge, an Escambia County Sheriffs Office Facebook post said. She entered a local dealership and, using the name thats not her own, purchased a bright red Chevrolet Silverado. Brandi Neal poses alongside the vehicle she allegedly purchased with a false identity. (Escambia County Sheriffs Office Facebook page) According to the ECSO post, after Neal took possession of the truck, an acquaintance of hers later had it. The next day, a private landowner requested that the abandoned truck be towed off the property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, the truck was reported stolen by fraud and returned to the dealership, ECSOs post said. Neal then learned that her truck had been recovered and contacted deputies about having it returned to her, still under her false identity, according to ECSO. Deputies ultimately did not return the vehicle to her, and she was taken into custody under the name Brandi Michelle Neal, as stated by the sheriffs office. The sheriffs office stated that she also goes by the name Chyna White (Chyna Whyt) on Facebook. UPDATE: Federal Bureau of Prisons responds to Todd Chrisleys allegations about FPC Pensacola Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This investigation remains active. 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. Joni Ernst is a senator from Iowa. Pool / Getty Images She held a townhall on Thursday, and a clip of her comments about SNAP and Medicaid cuts are going viral: At her town hall, when the crowd says people will die due to Medicaid and SNAP cuts, Joni Ernst responds "well we all are going to die." #iasen pic.twitter.com/2zV7LplIqc danny (@dabbs346) May 30, 2025 ABC/dabbs346/Twitter: @dabbs346 When someone from the crowd shouted, "People are going to die," Joni responded, smiling, "Well, we all are going to die." Related: "I Know You Arent Trying To Hurt Me." Doctors, Nurses, And First Responders Are Revealing The Most "Haunting" Last Words They've Heard From A Patient Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Hill reports Ernst went on to say that they'd protect Medicaid for "the most vulnerable." She defended her earlier statement, saying, "SNAP overpayments that the states have been making will need to stop," and "When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, theyre not eligible, so they will be coming off." Soooo, people aren't happy about the comments. Related: 26 People Who Had Overwhelming Gut Instincts They Couldn't Ignore...And Were Right People are calling this "one of the worst politician quotes" they've ever heard. This person said she "could not have explained this worse if she tried." This person couldn't believe how "fucking callous" it was. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And @thegr8brittan said this was a "Hell of a campaign slogan for 2026." "New GOP slogan: 'We're all gonna die!'" Needless to say, we'll be seeing this comment in the 2026 midterms! Also in Internet Finds: 51 Wildly Fascinating Photos Of Disorders, Injuries, And Variations In The Human Body That I Cannot Stop Staring At Also in Internet Finds: 23 People Who Tried Their Best, But Crapped The Bed So Bad Also in Internet Finds: 27 Grown-Ass Adults Who Threw Such Unbelievable Temper Tantrums, Even The Brattiest Toddler Couldn't Compete OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Oklahoma holds the distinction of being responsible for the longest wrongful conviction incarceration in U.S. history; Glynn Simmons spent almost 50 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. KFOR has have been reporting on Simmons case for more than 20 years. In 2023, when he was finally released from prison, the state of Oklahoma allowed for $175,000 for victims of wrongful incarceration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Simmons, that was less than $10 a day for the time he served behind bars for a crime he didnt do. This week, a bill to provide more compensation for Oklahomans who were served long sentences after wrongful incarceration became law. Phuong Cao fled communist Vietnam to build a better life for his family in America. They came to Oklahoma City for a fresh start in the early 1980s. Cao and his wife, worked multiple jobs to support their five children. In 1991, he was falsely accused and wrongfully convicted. His second oldest daughter, Trang Green, was in the first grade when her father disappeared. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My mom didnt say anything, Green remembered. She just cried and cried and days went by and like, dads not home. Something happened to dad, but mom was not saying anything. Then finally my mom took us to a big red building downtown behind a glass window with my dad in a in a jumpsuit. And were like, whats going like, whats going on? Cao spent almost ten years in prison for a crime he didnt commit. Its bittersweet exonerated man responds to $7.15M civil rights settlement After his release in 2001, his family fought to prove his innocence, and they did. Caos accuser recanted her allegation. It was a lie. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not only did he suffer, but we all suffered. I dont think a lot of people realize, Green said. And because he was an immigrant, he had a check in with ICE every year, and he was on the deportation list still for something he didnt do. He couldnt even go bury his own father (in Vietnam) while he was fighting for his right to exonerate himself. Cao is one of 44 oklahomans found to be wrongfully convicted. About half have sought compensation, capped at $175,000. Nobody would take $175,000 for ten years of your childrens life. Nobody would take that, said Green. She reached out to her her State Representative, Cyndi Munson (D-Oklahoma City), to talk about a solution for familys like hers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to an interim study Munson requested years ago, all of the neighboring states around Oklahoma provide compensation tied to the number of years served. Whats going on in states around Oklahoma? Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, all do it better, Munson said. And so, she wrote bill to update Oklahomas wrongful conviction compensation, which hasnt changed in 20 years. $12.59 billion Oklahoma budget bill heads to governors desk We want to provide compensation that has some dignity because weve taken all of your life opportunities away and taking you away from your family and your community, and were going to make that right, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Munsons bill, HB 2235, has bipartisan authors and support and provides $50,000 a year for every year of wrongful incarceration, an additional $50,000 a year for time on death row and $25,000 a year for years on parole. Offenders who previously pleaded guilty to a crime, but are later found to be innocent, remain eligible for compensation. So its a huge win for criminal justice reform for Oklahomans and quite frankly, for justice in Oklahoma, she said. This is what Oklahomans are looking for; solve problems of everyday people and find ways to work together, even if you are on different sides of the aisle. Phuong Cao actually never filed for compensation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The law is not retroactive. For him, its too late. Almost four decades after he was wrongly accused, after exoneration and naturalization, Cao was finally able to obtain an American passport and travel to Vietnam to see the family he left behind. Were talking almost 40 years that he hasnt hugged his mother, and he finally got to do it like three summers ago. It was a tearful, new chapter in this family 40 year long nightmare. Governor Kevin Stitt line-item vetoed two portions of this measure: a mechanism to pay for college tuition and health insurance for the wrongfully convicted. Munson vows to continue to work on those efforts next session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new law goes into effect July 1. 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. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) Nearly 100 West Texas veterans recently traveled to Washington, D.C., on a three-day journey to visit the memorials built in their honor a trip filled with reflection, remembrance and healing, made possible by the nonprofit Permian Basin Honor Flight. The organization, based in West Texas, provides all-expenses-paid trips to Washington for local veterans to see the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, and other sites of national significance. Veterans visited a total of 14 memorials and museums over the course of the trip. Wesley Smith, who took over as flight director in 2023, said the programs goal is simple: to give these heroes the recognition and gratitude they deserve while theres still time. The Honor Flight is for us to bring those war heroes to this memorial, to the Korean Memorial, to the Vietnam Memorial before its too late to honor them and serve them and show them the respect that they so deserve, and to show them the world is changing, Smith said. Its not going to be the same world these Vietnam vets came home to. And to show the Korean War vets theyre never going to be forgotten. The history books tell them its the forgotten war, but its not Smith has been involved with the Honor Flight team since 2015 and served as board president from 2018 to 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement absolutely love getting to lead men and women heroes to care for them and honor them with the upmost respect that they deserve, he said. The trip is made possible entirely through community fundraising and sponsorships. Each veterans flight, lodging, meals, and transportation cost about $2,000 none of which is charged to the veteran. So we have to raise that money all year long or these vets dont get to come up here, Smith said. The last thing we want to do is say, Hey, youve been selected for a beautiful trip, but you owe us money. And were not going to do that. So it takes a community it takes all community efforts to bring this together and make this happen The emotional impact of the trip was evident in conversations with veterans and their guardians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Going through this and being out here and how therapeutic it is and getting to kinda rehash some of the things and let some of the emotions out that maybe youve held up a long time is great, said Danny Davis of Midland, who volunteered as a guardian for the trip. To the workers, I would say thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Im so grateful I was chosen for this flight, and Ive enjoyed it, said Trinand, a Vietnam veteran on the trip. The personnel, the people our friends. They are my friends. Were brothers because of the war, but now were friends because we have met. For some, the visit to the memorials brought back powerful memories and a sense of closure. I would suggest that they all come here and visit the memorials, said Vietnam veteran William Tolbert. Im thoroughly enjoying it, and I wouldnt want to come here in the summertime, but its really impressive. Oh man, this trip has been awesome just honoring our vets that set the pace for us, you know, led the way, said Army veteran Manuel Payan. Its an honor just to be around them. And its great to just make new friends, especially with people like that that served. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to moments of solemn reflection, the trip also included time for connection and celebration from dancing to storytelling as veterans connected and made new memories together. The Permian Basin Honor Flight continues its mission through year-round fundraising to ensure future generations of veterans receive the honor and healing theyve earned. 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. PERRY, Iowa JBS USA announced Thursday that it plans to build a $135 million state-of-the-art facility in Perry to process sausages. Dirk Cavanaugh, the Mayor of Perry, said that JBS could bring up to 500 Jobs. Its going to start out with a single shift plant, 250 employees, and hopefully within a few years theyll ramp up to double shift and have around 500 people working there, Cavanaugh said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Darryl Pettigrew, a caterer in Perry, said he noticed a downturn in business after the Tyson Plant closed last year. Prior to that year, before sales went down pretty, quite, quite a bit. So, even a lot of people right here on the, right here downtown said the sales have dropped and theyve noticed a lot of people have already left town, Pettigrew said. Forecast: Hazy skies expected in Iowa as smoke from Canadian wildfires moves in Pettigrew said he is hopeful that the new JBS plant will bring more jobs to the community. I mean, 500 people, thats a lot. So, Perry is hopeful, Pettigrew said. Choy Mangor, a former Tyson plant worker, stayed in Perry after the plant closed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mangor said he wants jobs to come to Perry, even if it takes time. I dont know how long it would take, but it will help out my town, you know, it will help a lot, Mangor said. Betsy Peterson, the owner of Betsy Peterson Designs, LLC, said shes excited to have diverse manufacturing come to Perry. Perrys been really a great community to integrate and accept and enjoy each others cultures and diversity. So, bring it on. Were ready. Yeah, its going to be fun. And then the Axel company thats coming from Italy, were excited about that too. That just diverse to find the manufacturing here, Peterson said. Iowa News: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. BERLIN, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) Police in Berlin identified two individuals Thursday, one of which had an active arrest warrant out for second-degree attempted murder. Officers say they were advised about a vehicle near the U.S. Route 302 Burger King. Authorities believed he vehicle in question was belonged to persons of interest in a attempted murder case that occurred in Caledonia County. Authorities found the vehicle and conducted a stop. Police identified the occupants inside as Anthony Guichard, age 27, of Dorchester, MA, who had a warrant for attempted murder, and Kayla Keithan, age 27, of St. Johnsbury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pair was taken to VSP barracks in Berlin, and additional details are not yet 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 ABC22 & FOX44. Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales posted a photo on social media on May 30 highlighting that he was spending "personal time" in Europe with his wife. Less than an hour later, he was on stage at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Hungary where he gave a speech touting President Donald Trump's leadership and Indiana's investment "in international partnerships" during his time in office. Morales spoke for just under six minutes on the second day of the CPAC Hungary event during a segment titled "No border, No order." But Morales made a point to highlight a recent visit Hungarian officials made to the Indiana Statehouse when his wife, who is a Hungarian immigrant, was recognized as the honorary consul of Hungary to Indiana. "President Trump believes in America first, but that does not mean America alone," Morales said. "In Indiana, we are also investing in international partnerships. Just recently, we welcomed the Hungarian ambassador, the deputy speaker of the house and other dignitaries to strengthen economic and cultural ties." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his remarks he praised Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban as "a great leader" and highlighted his 2022 victory "as the first Hispanic Latino elected to a statewide office." He drew connections between Trump and his elected office. "As Indiana Secretary of State, I oversee our elections in Indiana, and I am proud to say that under Republican leadership, including President Trump's renewed focus on election integrity, we have strengthened confidence in our electoral system," Morales said. But the CPAC Hungary speech comes amid heightened criticism of the secretary of state's travels in recent months for trips that statewide elected officials and lawmakers have criticized for going beyond the scope of his office. In March, he traveled to India for a privately-funded "economic development" trip, which is outside the primary functions of his office. A spokesperson for Morales this week said he was away for the week on "personal time," language he has used in multiple posts on X about his travels in Hungary. But social media posts and news articles indicate he has also taken meetings with Hungarian officials. "Secretary Morales receives invitations for meetings and functions throughout the year as his title remains Indiana Secretary of State at all times," Spokeswoman Lindsey Eaton said in an email to IndyStar on May 28. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Morales' speech was not his first at the CPAC Hungary event. He also spoke at the conference in 2023. 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: What Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales said at CPAC Hungary HAVANA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Cuban government summoned the highest diplomatic representative of the United States in the country, Mike Hammer, to protest his "provocative and irresponsible" behavior, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday. The ministry delivered a note of protest to Hammer, charge d'affaires of the United States in Havana. "By inciting Cuban citizens to commit criminal acts of marked gravity, attack the constitutional order or encourage them to act against the authorities, and to demonstrate in support of the interests and objectives of a hostile foreign power, the diplomat assumes a provocative and irresponsible conduct," said the note. It indicated that the immunity enjoyed by Hammer as a representative of his country cannot be used as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country before which he is accredited. According to the note, the diplomat has violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and also the agreement to re-establish diplomatic relations signed between the two governments. In recent weeks, Hammer visited several Cuban cities, where he met with opponents of the government. He also announced that the White House will apply new measures to tighten the blockade that the United States has applied to the island for more than six decades in a press conference in the U.S. city of Miami. A 16-year-old boy who claimed self-defense for fatally stabbing his mothers boyfriend in an apartment building south of Tacoma was justified in the killing, authorities said. Pierce County prosecutors on Thursday dismissed the criminal case against the teen, who had been charged with second-degree murder for the April 30 death of 23-year-old Malik Session, according to the Pierce County Sheriffs Office. We are thankful this case can finally be closed, and this young man can move forward with love and support from his family and community, the office said in a post on Facebook. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The teen, who was 15 years old at the time of the incident, had said Session punched and strangled him before the teen closed his eyes and swung a knife he had grabbed for protection, The News Tribune previously reported. Session clutched his neck after being struck, screamed and said, You stabbed me, according to the teen. The boys account of the incident stemmed from a video-taped statement played in a Pierce County courtroom on May 13. The incident in the 1000 block of 76th Street Court East was preceded by a domestic dispute between Session and the boys mother, according to the Sheriffs Office. I am elated and, on some level, I appreciate that the Prosecutors Office could not dismiss a murder case without a lot of thought, attorney Bryan Hershman, who was representing the teen, told The News Tribune after the case was dismissed. They did the right thing. They absolutely did the right thing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a motion filed in court to dismiss the case, the Prosecuting Attorneys Office noted that officers were previously prevented from interviewing the suspects 9-year-old brother who witnessed the incident. He ultimately was interviewed on Wednesday and clearly described that the (teen) acted in self-defense and defense of another, the office said, according to spokesperson Adam Faber. Both prosecutors and law enforcement also said that state law passed in 2021, requiring juveniles to have access to a lawyer before they can be questioned, prolonged efforts to hear the teen suspects side of the story. Hershman said he understood that the investigation was hampered by the fact that detectives couldnt interview the 9-year-old brother at the scene because his mother wouldnt allow it, nor could they immediately speak to the suspect due to state law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As such, Hershman said he had access to information that authorities did not. Even so, from just what he learned at the scene, Hershman said it was a defense-heavy case that offered no doubt that his client had acted in self-defense. This was not a close call, he said. This is a case that would have resulted in a defense verdict in the first week and half. Frankly, the first week. In motions previously filed in court, Hershman said his client was defending himself, his brother and his mother who indicated to detectives that Session hit her in the face and she woke up on a floor, The News Tribune previously reported. Photographs also presented in Pierce County Juvenile Court earlier this month showed bruises to the teens neck and face, consistent with choking patterns and being punched, according to Hershman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The photographs contradicted reports from Sheriffs Office deputies that stated the teen had no visible injuries, The News Tribune previously reported. During a videotaped interview from Remann Hall, the juvenile detention center in Tacoma where the teen had been held until May 13, the teen said he woke up at about 1 a.m. to the sound of a slamming door and heard his mother crying. He added that he thought he heard Session hit her. The teen said he was pretty upset and (s)o I said shut up. Session threatened to knock him out, according to the teen, who went to the kitchen seeking protection and grabbed a knife. In the apartment hallway, the teen said he heard crashing again in his mothers bedroom and her yelling, Please! before the bedroom door opened and Session ran toward him, prompting their altercation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The prosecution said in court earlier this month that Session was not alive to dispute accounts of what occurred and it referred, at the time, to the defenses evidence as one-sided, The News Tribune previously reported. The teen was potentially facing 12 to 20 years in prison if convicted in adult court, a prosecutor had said. (Photo courtesy of themncolumn, from "Pine City Pride 2012," Flickr.) Two decades ago, a quiet but radical act took place in Pine City, Minnesota. It didnt involve picket signs, marches or sweeping legislative change. It was a picnic. In a park. With a rainbow flag fluttering from a folding table, a handful of brave souls gathered near the Snake River to celebrate who they were out loud for the first time in their rural town. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That picnic was the beginning of East Central Minnesota Pride. And, unbeknownst to many at the time, it was the first rural LGBTQ Pride event in the United States. This June, Pine City population 4,200 and growing will celebrate the 20th anniversary of that event. In doing so, we celebrate more than a milestone. We honor the legacy of a place that chose community over conformity, compassion over silence, and inclusion over fear. The story of rural Pride didnt begin in a metro center with corporate floats or glitter bombs. It started in a town known more for fishing derbies and Friday fish fries than for progressive firsts. Back in 2005, when rural queerness was still mostly whispered or erased, a small group of LGBTQ locals and allies chose to be visible. Their gathering was met with curiosity, quiet resistance, and eventually, something even more powerful: acceptance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, the event drew enough attention that by 2007, the Star Tribune ran a headline that captured both the controversy and the charm of it all: Hot-button issues with potato salad. The picnic may have seemed simple on the surface, but it challenged deeply held assumptions about who belongs in rural spaces and how loudly theyre allowed to exist. Over time, East Central Minnesota Pride became an anchor both for LGBTQ residents, and for the whole region. Today, the event features live music, drag performances, speakers and families pushing strollers past booths staffed by churches, businesses and nonprofits. The small town where it began now hosts crowd sizes that crack the thousand mark each year, including people from towns that still dont have a Pride of their own. What Pine City proved is that Pride doesnt require a skyline. It requires courage. And community. And a willingness to believe that small towns can be big-hearted. Don Quaintance, one of the events founding members, put it best: Small-town Pride events are the ones that create the change. Its easy to blend in with 500,000 of your friends at the Twin Cities Pride festival and another to be one of 500 in Pine City. That takes a good deal of courage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In many ways, Pine Citys embrace of Pride helped shape its evolution. Last year, the town elected Minnesotas only openly gay mayor, Kent Bombard a lifelong resident who volunteered for the other big event in town, the Pine County Fair long before running for office. The city continues to grow, becoming more diverse, inclusive and welcoming with each passing year. Of course, it hasnt always been easy. There have been critics, letters to the editor, even threats. But each year the rainbow returns to the town square at Robinson Park, each year families attend together, and each year more younger people see a future for themselves here without needing to leave home to live authentically. That matters. Because for every rural LGBTQ person who finds support in their hometown, we chip away at the idea that queerness belongs only in cities. We push back against the false choice between authenticity and belonging. And we remind the world that rural America is not a monolith. As someone who grew up in Pine City and has watched this transformation firsthand, I can tell you that the real success of rural Pride isnt measured in crowd size or media mentions. Its measured in conversations between neighbors. In rainbow stickers on truck bumpers. In the kid who doesnt flinch before saying my boyfriend at Walmart. Thats where the revolution lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are now more than 20 rural and small-town Pride celebrations across Minnesota, and dozens more nationally. Some have grown big and bold; others remain intimate. All of them owe a quiet debt to Pine City. As we gather again on June 7 to celebrate 20 years of rural Pride, we do so with gratitude for the founders who risked being seen, for the allies who showed up, and for the small-town queers who keep choosing visibility. Because visibility in rural America is powerful. Its political. And its deeply personal. Pride in Pine City may have started as a picnic, but it became a proclamation: We are here. Weve been your neighbors. And were not going anywhere. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted 54 pounds of marijuana at Pittsburgh International Airport, leading to a Massachusetts womans arrest. CBP officials say Jetta Monet Corbett, of Brockton, Mass., was arrested by Allegheny County police after officers found drugs in her London-bound luggage on May 24. Monet, 30, is charged with one felony count of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While inspecting passenger baggage being loaded onto a London-bound flight, officers reportedly found numerous vacuum-sealed packages inside two suitcases. Officers identified Corbett based on baggage tags and did a second search, during which they found 49 total packages, officials say. The contents were field tested positive for marijuana. Corbett and the marijuana were turned over to Allegheny County police. The marijuana has a street value of about $240,000 but could have been worth more in Europe based on potency, officials say. CBP bulk marijuana seizures at PIT are extremely rare, officials say. However, CBP officers across the country have seen a trend of attempted marijuana transportation to Europe and Africa through passenger baggage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone considering making a quick buck by carrying bulk marijuana loads for drug trafficking organizations should realize that the consequences you face can be severe when Customs and Border Protection officers catch you, said James Hindes, CBPs acting port director for the Port of Pittsburgh. One way that law enforcement agencies can combat transnational criminal organizations is to hit them hard in the wallet, so CBP will continue to seize these marijuana loads when we encounter them and deprive criminals of this illicit revenue. CBP officers seized an average of 1,571 pounds of dangerous drugs last year at and between air, sea and land ports in the U.S., officials say. CBPs enforcement statistics can be found here. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW NEW YORK (PIX11) Welcome to PIX on Politics Daily with Dan Mannarino, where we break down the days political news, headlines, and issues that matter most to you through in-depth conversation. Join us daily on PIX11+ streaming at 1 p.m. as we invite the newsmakers, lawmakers, and key players shaping policies that impact local communities. More News: PIX on Politics On Friday, Henry Rosoff speaks with New York City Council Member, Erik Bottcher, about developer Related Companies decision to abandon its proposal for a casino on Manhattans Far West Side. Instead, the company plans to construct thousands of housing units near the Hudson Rivera shift prompted by strong opposition from both the local community and Bottcher himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Plane Passenger Allegedly Drags Flight Attendant Down Aisle originally appeared on Parade. A terrifying incident unfolded midair when a Kansas man allegedly dragged a flight attendant down the aisle during a flight. Julius Jordan Priester, 24, was on an American Airlines flight from Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut, to Chicago on Tuesday, May 27 when about 30 to 60 minutes into the flight, Priester stood up, removed his shirt, and ran toward the back of the plane shouting for help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a statement from the Department of Justice shared a day later, Priester then grabbed a seated flight attendant and forcefully dragged them across the cabin, shouting, Youre coming with me. SIGN UP for Parades Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox As the situation escalated, several passengers quickly intervened, managing to restrain the man and return him to his seat. However, Priesters behavior remained erratic, with incoherent statements and agitation. The captain then declared an emergency, resulting in the flight being diverted back to Bradley International Airport. Once on the ground, Priester was removed by Connecticut State Police and taken to a hospital for evaluation. According to the statement, he faces charges of assaulting a crew member and interfering with flight crew members, with a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Priester was detained, and a bond hearing is scheduled for Friday, May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement American Airlines stated, We do not tolerate violence, in a statement to CBS Newsand thanked both the crew and passengers for their professionalism in handling the situation. The FBI and Connecticut State Police are investigating the matter, and authorities are working to determine the cause of Priester's erratic behavior during the flight. Plane Passenger Allegedly Drags Flight Attendant Down Aisle first appeared on Parade on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. The presidential run-off election in Poland this weekend is set to be a very tight race, with surveys released on Friday showing the two candidates separated by a razor-thin margin. A survey commissioned by the Onet portal shows liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafa Trzaskowski in the lead with 50.1% of the vote, followed closely by right-wing conservative Karol Nawrocki with 49.9%. Another survey, commissioned by the Wirtualna Polska portal came to a different conclusion, putting Nawrocki narrowly ahead with 50.63% of the vote and Trzaskowski with 49.37%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sunday's election promises to have a decisive impact on Poland's future course and its relationship with the European Union. A win for pro-European Trzaskowski, who belongs to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition, would allow Tusk to push ahead with his reformist agenda. Nawrocki, meanwhile, comes from the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party, like the incumbent President Andrzej Duda, who has blocked many of the government's legislative projects with his veto power. In Poland, the president holds a five-year term and has broad powers, including representing the country abroad, influencing foreign policy, appointing the head of government and the Cabinet and serving as commander-in-chief of the armed forces in the event of war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Polling stations close at 9 pm (1900 GMT) on Sunday. While preliminary estimates will be available shortly afterwards, their margin of error is greater than the difference between the two candidates in the polls. The official result is expected on Monday. A day after KTLA reported on denizens of a rooftop homeless encampment terrorizing a doctors office in south-central Los Angeles County, city officials released a statement saying they are continuing to address the challenges associated with the unhoused population at the location. Dr. Tahani Soliman, a general practitioner, in Huntington Park owns the building where she runs her practice out of at the corner of Rugby and Zoe avenues. A multi-level parking garage next door to her practice has reportedly been a hub for unhoused people, who are easily able to access her roof, camp out, steal electricity and scrap metal from her air-conditioning units and start fires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The doctor said she estimates shes spent more than $100,000 on repairs and deterrents such as barbed wire and a fence that the homeless simply tear down. Staff told KTLA that police said there was little they could do and that Solimans calls to city officials were never returned. Frustrated and angry about the lack of support for her business, staff and patients, shes had enough. A rooftop homeless encampment in Huntington Park has terrorized a neighboring doctors practice for years. (viewer pic) A rooftop homeless encampment in Huntington Park has terrorized a neighboring doctors practice for years. (viewer pic) A rooftop homeless encampment in Huntington Park has terrorized a neighboring doctors practice for years. (viewer pic) A rooftop homeless encampment in Huntington Park has terrorized a neighboring doctors practice for years. (viewer pic) A rooftop homeless encampment in Huntington Park has terrorized a neighboring doctors practice for years. (viewer pic) A rooftop homeless encampment in Huntington Park has terrorized a neighboring doctors practice for years. (viewer pic) We are living in hell, Soliman said. No protection for my employees, for my patients or my tenants. Thats why Im going to retire. Because of this, I lost everything. In a news release, the Huntington Park Police Department said that it is actively investigating a May 7 theft that occurred at 6526 Rugby Avenue, which is Dr. Solimans building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While authorities did not mention the May 27 fire at the parking garage encampment, the alleged electricity theft from the doctors building or the damaged air conditioning units, officials said they were committed to ensuring public safety. Rooftop homeless encampment in L.A. terrorizing doctors office Our officers regularly engage unhoused with unhoused individuals, connecting them to mental health services, social support programs and shelter options in collaboration with city and county partners, the statement said. Officials added that they are working with community stakeholders to investigate the matter at Solimans building, as well as addressing broader issues affecting surrounding neighborhoods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information about the May 7 theft is encouraged to contact HPPD Lt. Soberanis at 323-826-6636. Additional questions can be directed to Lt. Elsa Cobian at 323-826-6695. Those wishing to report concerns or individuals seeking assistance can call the Unhoused Hotline at 323-926-1393. 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. ST. LOUIS FOX 2 was at the intersection of Route 3 and Monsanto, where a high-speed police pursuit ended in a fiery crash that claimed two lives thursday afternoon. While police have not yet confirmed the identities of the deceased, friends of the suspects told FOX 2 who they believe was behind the wheel. Cahokia Heights police say around 12:15 p.m., they responded to a report of an armed robbery and shots fired on Cahokia Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Officers later spotted a GMC Truck matching the suspect description and tried to pull it over. But the vehicle sped offand minutes later, it had collided with a tractor-trailer right here, bursting into flames. Friends say Dean Walthes was the one driving and owned the truck. Mike Hamilton, originally from St. Louis, had lost his wife just last year. Cahokia Heights Police, Illinois State Police, and Accident Reconstruction teams are investigating. Officials say they have more information about the robbery but are withholding it to protect the integrity of the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2025. U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal district court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) - U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal district court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. The move has cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, and pushed the total number of people who could be exposed to deportation to nearly one million, local media reported Friday. To address the growing number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration created a parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in late 2022 and early 2023, authorizing them to work in the United States for two years after going through certain process. The program protected roughly 532,000 people from the risk of deportation. But soon after beginning his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to terminate all parole programs. Acting on the executive order, Noem in March announced ending the parole program, with any grants of parole still in effect expiring by April 24. A federal district court judge in Massachusetts agreed to halt Noem's blanket revocation of migrants' temporary legal status when a group of 23 individuals including several parolees and a nonprofit organization challenged Noem's termination of the program. The Trump administration first appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, which declined to pause the district court's order pending appeal; and then sought the Supreme Court's intervention. U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2025. U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal district court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2025. U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal district court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2025. U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal district court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 30, 2025. U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal district court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) Police said Thursday theyre looking for a hit-and-run driver who struck two pedestrians in Falcon Heights. The pedestrians sustained non-life threatening, but severe injuries and were transported to a hospital for emergency care, according to a statement from St. Anthony Police, which provides police services in Falcon Heights. The crash happened in the 1800 block of Snelling Avenue at 10:52 p.m. on Wednesday. The vehicle is believed to be a gray, silver or tan Buick LeSabre from the late 1990s or early 2000s, and may have damage to the front passenger side, police said. It was last seen north on Fairview Avenue at Minnesota 36 near Rosedale Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police are asking anyone with information to call them at 612-782-3350. Related Articles OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) A police raid turned up narcotics in Northwest Oklahoma City Friday morning. According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, a bar near NW 122nd St. and Rockwell Ave. was open past 2 a.m., prompting officers to go inside. LOCAL NEWS: We have to do right by people: New law updates compensation for the wrongfully convicted Officials say officers found illegal narcotics and detained multiple people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upon our inspection, we ended up detaining a number of people that were still inside, said Captain Ben Weir with OKCPD. During our inspection, we located an amount of illegal narcotics. No more information is available as the investigation continues. 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. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) A 19-year-old woman from Lansing has been arrested in connection with a shooting in the parking lot of the Meridian Mall in Okemos that injured two people. Police are asking the public for help finding vehicles they believe to be involved in the incident. Police from Meridian Township, East Lansing and Michigan State University responded to the scene, in the parking lot near Dicks Sporting Goods at around 1:25 p.m. When officers arrived, all of the people involved had already left the scene. Police say those involved were identified and found at a nearby hospital, and a 19-year-old woman from Lansing was arrested by police. Large police response to Meridian Mall parking lot. (WLNS) Large police response to Meridian Mall parking lot. (WLNS) Large police response to Meridian Mall parking lot. (WLNS) Large police response to Meridian Mall parking lot. (WLNS) Meridian Township police posted the following statement on its Facebook page: The Meridian Township Police Department is investigating a shooting at the Meridian Mall. Please avoid the East side of the Mall near the Dicks Sporting Goods entrance at this time. It is not believed that there is a continued threat to the public. Police tell 6 News the mall remains open for business, the area is secure, and there is no threat to the public. Further information about the conditions of those who were shot is not available at this time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Meridian Township Police are asking for help finding two cars they believe to have been involved in the shooting: Burgundy sedan, possibly a Chrysler 300 or Toyota Camry with dark-tinted windows and dark colored rims Black sedan, possibly a Chevy Malibu with tinted windows Anyone with information on this incident is urged to call the Meridian Township Police Department at (517) 853.4800. Information can be directed to Detective Sergeant Brian Canen at canen@meridian.mi.us, or an anonymous tip can be submitted through the departments social media platforms. 6 News will keep you updated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. FRIDAY UPDATE: A warrant has been issued for an armed and dangerous suspect in connection with a Thursday shooting that wounded a man in East Moline, according to a news release from East Moline Police. Michael Craft (East Moline Police Department) Shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday, May 29, East Moline Police responded to a report of gunfire in the 800 block of 19th Street. Officers found a man who had suffered gunshot wounds, and who was transported via private vehicle to MercyOne Genesis Medical Center in Silvis. Officers secured the crime scene, where multiple shell casings were recovered. The Illinois State Police Crime Scene Unit processed the area for forensic evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An investigation was conducted by the East Moline Police Departments Investigations Division, and the suspect was identified as 36-year-old Michael C. Craft. A warrant was issued by the Rock Island County States Attorneys Office. Craft, who faces felony charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm, is considered armed and dangerous, the release says. The public is urged not to approach or attempt to apprehend him. If seen, immediately call 911. The East Moline Police Department encourages anyone with information about the incident to call 309-752-1555. Information also can be shared anonymously through Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities at 309-762-9500 or the P3 Tips App. EARLIER UPDATE: One person suffered gunshot wounds late Thursday afternoon in East Moline, East Moline Police Chief Jeff Ramsey has told Our Quad Cities News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One victim suffered gunshot wounds and is being treated at a local hospital, Ramsey said via Messsenger. The injuries are being reported as non-life-threatening. No one else was injured and there is no further threat to the public, he said, adding Investigators are working on the incident. We will likely have a media release out sometime tomorrow with more information. EARLIER: Police remained on the scene at 6:30 p.m. Thursday after responding to a report of gunfire at 8th Avenue and 19th Street in East Moline. (Bryan Bobb, OurQuadCities.com) In an area across from the Gas N Dash Mart, Our Quad Cities News crew saw at least 10 evidence markers in the street. An Illinois State Police crime scene technician was at the scene. (Bryan Bobb, OurQuadCities.com) Police said the call came in about 4:10 p.m. The investigation continued Thursday evening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We do not know whether anyone is in custody or faces charges. We will remain in contact with police to provide details as soon as they become 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 WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. MAKAHA, Hawaii (KHON2) Honolulu Police are still investigating what led to a deadly shooting in Makaha on Wednesday night that left a 19-year-old dead, and four others hospitalized. So far, no arrests have been made. 1 dead, multiple injured in apparent Makaha shooting Crime scene investigators returned to the scene on Thursday, May 29, with a search warrant and were seen looking inside the Lahaina Street home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One man who lives nearby said he heard four gunshots just after 9 p.m. Real fast like pah, pah, pah, pah, in rapid succession, said the neighbor, Chris. Then I heard tires screech after that, he added. So far, police said the investigation has revealed that a group of suspects parked down the road from the Lahaina Street home and walked to the house on foot. They started fighting with other people on the scene and the physical altercation turned bad when one of the suspects shot multiple rounds at the victims group, Lt. Deena Thoemmes, Honolulu Police Homicide Detail, said Thursday morning at the scene. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You A lot of witnesses left the scene prior to arrival and are at the hospital being interviewed, she added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The family of the 19-year-old is asking for privacy at this time. Last night shook our community, it shook me as a mother, as a family member, said Sen. Samantha DeCorte (Ko Olina, Waianae, Makaha). The biggest thing Im concerned about right now is the possibility of retaliation, she added. Its so important we get the message out to the 96792 to stay calm and let HPD do their job. Chief Joe Logan said in a statement: Without a doubt, this is a tough time for our Waianae community. We want to assure everyone right now, the scene is safe, and were doing all we can to make an arrest in this case. We know the community wants to help and the best way to do that is to give us the time we need to carry out this investigation carefully and thoroughly. Also, share any information that you think could help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other community leaders have started a petition to create a safer community in West Oahu and are asking residents to help with a public safety plan. You can find it here. Check out more news from around Hawaii Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or CrimeStoppers at (808) 955-8300. 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. WAVERLY, N.Y. (WETM) A Waverly man has been arrested as a fugitive out of Bradford County after police say he failed to appear in court on separate charges. Quentin A. Wilcox, 26, was arrested on Tuesday, May 27, after being wanted by the Bradford County Sheriffs Office for failure to appear on the charge of attempting to elude a police officer, as stated in a release from the Waverly Police Department. Waverly woman arrested as fugitive out of Bradford County Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police say Wilcox was arrested after a brief foot pursuit after he attempted to run from police officers. He was then arrested on the fugitive warrant and an additional charge of obstruction of governmental administration. As a result, Wilcox was placed in the Tioga County Jail in New York to await further court proceedings. 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 WETM - MyTwinTiers.com. MARSHALL, Ill. (WTWO/WAWV) A graduate of Marshall High School had multiple incendiary devices and was planning to use them at her former school, authorities said Friday. On Thursday, Ahnna Tipton, 19, now of Evansville, was being taken to a facility for evaluation was police discovered an unusual item in her backpack, according to a news release from the Evansville Police Department. Tipton told police she had constructed the device and had more of them at her home. When asked what she planned to do, Tipton said she planned to deploy the devices at her former high school in hopes of harming other people, police wrote in a news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tipton was arrested and charged with possession of a destructive device. In a statement, Marshall, Ill., police and the Marshall Community School District thanked the officers for their work in this investigation. The safety of our community, students, and staff is always our top priority, and we remain committed to ensure this even when school is not in session. 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. Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current) A ballot measure to establish an open-primary, ranked-choice voting system in Nevada may have been rejected by voters last November, but its underlying message of voter disenfranchisement clearly struck a chord with Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager. The Assemblys top Democrat, who opposed that ballot measure, said he suspects changes to Nevadas closed primary system are coming whether the political establishment wants it or not: The dam is going to break one way or another. The question is: Are we going to be part of the process? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To that end, Yeager is proposing Assembly Bill 597, which would allow nonpartisan voters to participate in either the Republican or Democratic primary. He introduced the bill as an emergency measure on Monday, a week before the end of the session, and presented it to the Senate and Assembly committees on legislative operations and elections during a joint meeting Thursday. Yeager described his bill as a pushing back to Question 3, the election reform proposal approved by voters in 2022 but rejected by voters in 2024. That ballot measure, which needed to pass twice because it proposed amending the state constitution, was heavily funded by out-of-state election reform groups. Those groups viewed Nevada as a playground in which they can experiment, Yeager said. We know they will continue to attempt to exploit this issue of closed primaries to fool around with our elections. AB 597 is much simpler than Question 3. There would still be Republican and Democratic primaries. The only change would be that a registered nonpartisan voter could cast a ballot in one of them. (Question 3 proposed putting all candidates on the primary ballot regardless of political party, with the top five finishers appearing on the general election for voters to rank in order of preference.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yeager described AB 597 as a common sense solution that addresses the growing number of nonpartisan voters in the state. I see this as a very limited concept, he added. As of April 2025, 34.9% of registered voters in Nevada are nonpartisan, 29% are Republican and 29% are Democrats, according to the Secretary of States Office. The remaining 7% of registered voters are members of minor parties like the Independent American or Libertarian parties. That means nonpartisan and third-party voters are the biggest voting bloc in the state. Yet they are unable to participate in the primary elections their tax dollars pay for unless they agree to temporarily affiliate with a major political party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Nevada State Democratic Party, which opposed Question 3, has not expressed support or opposition for AB 597. But Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat and the states top election official, spoke in support of the bill. The Nevada State Republican Party is strongly opposed to AB 597, as they were to Question 3. Representatives from the state party and affiliated local party groups argued that allowing nonpartisans to participate in party primaries would dilute party values and invite interference from outsiders. Opponents also argued the bill is unnecessary because nonpartisan voters can already participate in a primary by temporarily registering to a political party. Nevada offers same-day voter registration, which means nonpartisan voters have that option all the way through election day. I think that practically that just doesnt happen, Yeager countered. People are not going to change party registration and then change back. Theyre not partisan for a reason or not affiliated for a reason. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some election advocates worry nonpartisan voters may similarly be turned off by the process laid out in AB 597. Yeager plans to introduce an amendment to require nonpartisan voters request a political party primary ballot by the 7th Monday before the election day. (In real terms: That would have been April 23 for last years June 11 primary.) Nonpartisans after that date would have to vote in person. Yeagers proposed amendment would also keep the state-run presidential preference primary closed. Doug Goodman, the founder of Nevadans for Election Reform, has pushed for fully open primaries for more than a decade. He took a neutral position on AB 597, saying the bill is far from ideal and only a small start. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill doesnt address disenfranchisement of voters registered to minor parties, who still would be unable to participate in a major political party primary without leaving their preferred party. It also doesnt address the issue of voters not being able to cast ballots in the significant number of races decided in competitive primaries where the winner goes on to run unopposed in a general election. That is a particularly common occurrence in districts that lean heavily toward one party. Sondra Cosgrove, another outspoken advocate for election reform in Nevada, took a similar position as Goodman, though she described herself as reluctantly in support of AB 597. In America elections belong to the people, not the political parties, she said in a statement to the Current. So, I plan to run a ballot question in 2026 to adopt a fully open primary so that the people of Nevada can discuss how we would like our primary election to be managed. Many political commentators believe major election reform will only come to Nevada through a ballot measure backed by outsiders because the existing political establishment benefits from the current system. The Legislature must adjourn Monday, leaving lawmakers only a few days to pass Yeagers bill. If they do, it could still be vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who has already vetoed one election bill this session. A new poll reveals that Kamala Harris is not the number one choice for Democrats in the 2028 presidential primary. The poll, released on May 30 by Atlas Intel, found Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and former transportation secretary in the Biden administration, to be the top pick among Democrats who responded to the survey. A total of 31.5% of self-identified Democrats who responded to the poll said they would vote for Buttigieg for president in four years, according to the poll. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other surveys in May from firms such as Echelon Insights and McLaughlin & Associates have found Harris in first place in the hypothetical primary, making Atlas Intels poll stand out among the rest. Harris is the third most popular pick among Democrats in the poll, falling behind U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Among Democrats, 19.4% said they would vote for Ocasio-Cortez, while 16.6% said they would vote for Harris. While Buttigieg, Ocasio-Cortez and Harris are the top three picks for Democrats, none of them have made explicit statements saying they will run for president. Harris herself has been weighing a run for governor in California or another run for president, according to CBS News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was the fourth most popular pick for presidential candidate among Democrats, with 10.4% saying they would vote for him. Behind Booker is California Gov. Gavin Newsom with 7.1%, followed by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at 4.8% and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with 3.7%, according to the poll. A total of 3.6% of the Democrats surveyed replied none of the above, and 1.4% said they would vote for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. The Atlas Intel poll was conducted between May 21 and May 27 with a sample size of 3,469 U.S. adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2%. More on Politics Read the original article on MassLive. Key Points The first-quarter report showed progress. A deal with Qatar Airways lifted optimism. A new settlement with the Department of Justice is in the works. 10 stocks we like better than Boeing Boeing (NYSE: BA) stock is up around 14% so far this year, and analysts have been raising their price targets after the company reported a narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss in late April. While it's been a bumpy flight for Boeing investors in recent years, there are clear signs that the embattled aerospace titan is making real progress on its turnaround plan. Here are three reasons you should consider starting a position in Boeing -- or adding to your position -- right now. 1. Operational momentum During the company's first-quarter earnings call on April 23, CEO Kelly Ortberg said that Boeing's "recovery plan is in full swing." Boeing's first-quarter results provided plenty of fuel for Ortberg's optimism. Boeing reported a net loss of $31 million, a drastic improvement over the $355 million loss in Q1 2024 (and a drop in the bucket compared to its $11.8 billion full-year loss from 2024). Boeing also delivered a rare earnings beat, with a core loss of $0.49 per share that topped analysts' estimates by $0.81. First-quarter revenue was up 18% to $19.5 billion. The big story behind the top-line growth was Boeing's continued progress on stabilizing its key commercial programs. Boeing delivered 130 commercial jets during the quarter -- compared to 83 in the year-ago quarter -- lifting commercial aircraft sales 75% higher. Notably, the company continued to ramp up production of the 737 MAX, the latest iteration of Boeing's best-selling jet. Ortberg emphasized that Boeing is making strides in its quality control, which has been at the heart of the company's manufacturing woes. On the all-important 737 MAX production line, Boeing has seen a roughly 50% reduction in "traveled work" -- work not done where originally planned -- and a 25% reduction in rework hours, according to Ortberg. In layman's terms, that means more work is getting done the right way -- the first time. "Even more importantly, almost every customer I talk with reports an improvement to the quality of the airplane," Ortberg said during the Q1 conference all. 2. Quatar Airways order Just a few weeks after the Q1 positive earnings surprise, Boeing and Quatar Airways announced that the airline will buy up to 210 Boeing widebody jets in a deal that the White House valued at $96 billion. Image source: Getty Images. The size and scope of the deal are significant. Not only is it a vote of confidence from one of the world's most respected airlines, but it also underscores the robust global demand for Boeing's widebody jets -- particularly the fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner. Sir Sadiq Khan has called for cannabis possession to be decriminalised. The Mayor of London backed calls for decriminalisation this week because of concerns that drug laws were having a negative impact on relationships between the police and ethnic communities. We asked Telegraph readers: Should cannabis possession be legal? A staggering 71 per cent of over 79,000 respondents voted it should remain illegal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your reasons ranged from health concerns to its adverse effect on the community and anti-social behaviour. Sir Sadiq, who oversees the Metropolitan Police, Britains biggest force, came out in favour of decriminalisation following an independent commission led by Lord Falconer, the former Labour justice secretary, which found current cannabis laws were disproportionate to the harms it can pose. One reader, a retired police officer, has seen the impact of cannabis abuse first hand. Mark Kelly said: It should never be legalised. The paranoia and schizophrenic episodes caused by it are devastating to families. Malcolm Fannon, a fellow retired officer, said: If I had a pound for every minute I spent rolling around on the ground with people supposedly mellow on cannabis, Id be a very rich man. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no such thing as a soft drug the laws around all illegal substances should be strengthened, not diluted. Many of you agreed, highlighting the adverse health impacts. Sue Procter noted: It is highly addictive and can cause depression, anxiety and in some cases extreme psychosis. These effects are permanent, and our liberal attitude to this drug is why our younger generation are all out of work because of their mental health. A number of readers also pointed out that cannabis can be seen as a gateway drug leading to other substances. Janet McHugh said: Drug addiction often starts with this drug in young people who think its safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robert le Gaillard added: Having worked with drug addicts for 20 years, I can confirm that Khan is a fool. Cannabis is the gateway drug to hard drugs. Sir Sadiq Khans commission on drugs has claimed that laws on cannabis are disproportionate to the harms it can pose - Stefan Rousseau/PA Others drew attention to the smell associated with the drug. Edward Thomas said: Im sick of the smell of cannabis wafting from benches occupied by derelicts in my local park when I grab a moment in a very busy week to walk the dogs with the kids in the evening. Some readers, who have tried cannabis themselves, agree that it should remain illegal. Sean Seekins shared an experience of having a space cake in Amsterdam. Seekins said: Any substance that affects the brain in such a way will do damage in the long run. One of our readers recently visited Portland, Oregon, where drug possession had been decriminalised. Peter Cumpson said: On the airport train, a couple got on and started snorting cocaine. Everywhere in the centre of town, youd see dishevelled broken people looking a bit dangerous. I vowed never to go back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amid the uproar surrounding Sir Sadiqs proposal to decriminalise the drug, several Telegraph readers voiced support for his position. Some highlighted the potential for regulated sales to deliver a significant economic boost, while others emphasised the drugs medicinal benefits. Reader Donald Morris said: There is a simple solution here. Cannabis production should be regulated, and only consumption of regulated cannabis allowed. In agreement, Cassandra Blackley commented: We should legalise natural cannabis. A well-regulated and well-taxed market for pre-rolled spliffs would mean that users could lawfully enjoy the recreational and relaxation benefits of cannabis in the privacy of their own homes. This would raise millions of pounds for the Exchequer, reducing the millions spent on pointless enforcement and gutting the black market for criminal gangs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Adrian Rainer said: I personally dont think anything natural should be illegal in the first place. But I do disagree with Sadiq Khan turning this into a race thing. Reader John Crawley lives in Canada, where recreational cannabis use has been legal since 2018. He said there have been no problems with anti-social behaviour. He continued: We can buy it in all forms and use it to help with sleeping, instead of using prescribed sleeping tablets. Cannabis has so many therapeutic benefits, including controlling epilepsy, insomnia and other medical issues. Angela Smith, a UK citizen, has lived in California for the last 16 years. She said: There is overwhelming evidence demonstrating the incredible medicinal benefits of cannabis. Forcing people underground who benefit from it for various medical conditions serves no one but drug dealers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I believe it saved the life of my son, who had cancer at the age of 11 and was able to be given cannabis oil with the blessing of his oncologist. It dismays me that attitudes in my home country are so far behind the US when it comes to cannabis. We need to stop framing this as a dangerous recreational drug and start integrating it into medical treatment modalities. Its shameful that the UK is so slow to respond to science. Please wake up people we have a very valuable medicine here that is being overlooked. 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. Smoke from Canadian wildfires will produce unhealthy air quality in Wisconsin on May 30. The Department of Natural Resources said in a statement May 29 that as the wildfire smoke pushes in ahead of a cold front, much of the state will potentially reach the Red Air Quality Index, which is considered unhealthy for people. The state is expected to remain at level orange, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups, and the southwestern portion of the state, mostly along the Mississippi River valley, will mostly stay at level yellow, or a moderate level of poor air quality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Out-of-control wildfires prompted a state of emergency in Manitoba, Canada, where thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes. The DNR is asking Wisconsin residents who are part of sensitive groups, like people with preexisting respiratory conditions like asthma, should make outdoor activities shorter and less intense. The National Weather Service is issuing the air quality alert for the entire state. The May 30 forecast calls for highs in the 70s with storms expected in the afternoon and evening. It's OK to be active outdoors but take more breaks, the DNR said. Watch for symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Residents can check air quality in Wisconsin at airquality.wi.gov/home/map. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Poor air quality expected in Wisconsin from Canadian wildfires LIMA, Peru (AP) Pope Leo XIV hasn't forgotten his responsibilities as a Peruvian citizen: He updated his national registration information Friday with his new Vatican address and a headshot. Perus national registry agency said in a statement that the pope updated his information as part of the South American country's efforts to keep track of Peruvian citizens around the world. Leo was born in the United States but received Peruvian citizenship a decade ago. Four Peruvian officials met the pope at the Vatican headquarters and collected his fingerprints and signature, according to the statement from the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Miguel Stigler, a public information officer with the registry, told The Associated Press that Leo indicated that he wished to pick up his updated identity document during a future trip to Peru. The pope's travel plans to Peru are unknown. Leo was granted Peruvian citizenship in August 2015, the month before Pope Francis, his predecessor, appointed him bishop of Chiclayo, a city in the country's north. To qualify, he had to live in Peru for at least two years and pass a civics test. All adult Peruvians, including naturalized citizens, are required to vote in elections through age 69. Voting in Perus presidential election next April wont be mandatory for Leo. He turns 70 in September. LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN) According to the U.S Census data, 38,000 people called La Vergne home in 2020. Now, the city has 42,000 residents, with Mayor Jason Cole only expecting that number to grow. As people continue to choose La Vergne, more and more businesses are opening in the city. On Wednesday, May 28, Chipotle opened its doors. Meanwhile, an Aldi grocery store opened just a month ago. These are just two examples of the many stores setting up shop in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SEE ALSO | New mixed-use development could come to La Vergne Mayor Cole told News 2 that approximately 11,000 homes are set to be built at the intersection of Waldron Road and Blair Road. In addition, the surrounding road is set to become five lanes, which are all examples of how a cityknown as the Gateway to Rutherford Countyis becoming a growth hotspot. We see Nashville pushing out due to high taxes, at the same time we see people moving in from other states like California, Texas and New York, Cole said. Then we also have a group thats moving from outside the country, weve got residents that Ive that are naturalized citizens from Iraq, Afghanistan and different parts of the Middle East. However, the challenge the city is reportedly facing revolves around improving city services, such as fire and police. Cole said he expects the city to reach a population of 60,000 people in the next 10 years, which will spur even more restaurants, retail and other industries to the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the hot bed of Middle Tennessee, Cole added. I can see future boards building upon our successes and bringing in other retail, bringing in more quality and setting new standards beyond what weve set. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com To give a perspective of how La Vergne has changed, Cole said he remembers when his community only had one yellow light when he first moved to the city 35 years ago. Now, city council has given Starbucks the green light for construction, and Panda Express is reportedly on its way for development. Also, many city services are relocating to the new Public Works and Community Development Services Facility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To learn more about La Vergnes future growth, 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 WKRN News 2. By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Scientists have identified an object about 435 miles (700 km) wide inhabiting the frigid outer reaches of our solar system that might qualify as a dwarf planet, spotting it as it travels on a highly elongated orbital path around the sun. The researchers called it one of the most distant visible objects in our solar system, and said its existence indicates that a vast expanse of space beyond the outermost planet Neptune and a region called the Kuiper Belt may not be deserted, as long thought. The Kuiper Belt is populated by numerous icy bodies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Given the name 2017 OF201, the object falls into a category called trans-Neptunian objects that orbit the sun at a distance beyond that of Neptune. The object takes about 25,000 years to complete a single orbit of the sun, compared to 365 days for Earth to do so. The researchers said 2017 OF201 was identified in observations by telescopes in Chile and Hawaii spanning seven years. "It is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet. Its orbit is very wide and eccentric, which means it experienced an interesting orbital migration path in the past," said astrophysicist Sihao Cheng of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who led the study with collaborators Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang, graduate students at Princeton University. Its size is estimated to be a bit smaller than Ceres, which is the smallest of the solar system's five recognized dwarf planets and has a diameter of about 590 miles (950 km). Pluto, the largest of those dwarf planets, has a diameter of about 1,477 miles (2,377 km). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mass of 2017 OF201 is estimated to be about 20,000 times smaller than Earth's and 50 times smaller than Pluto's. "We don't know the shape yet. Unfortunately it is too far away and it is a bit difficult to resolve it with telescopes," Cheng said. "Its composition is totally unknown yet, but likely similar to other icy bodies." The discovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union, an international organization of astronomers, and detailed in a study posted on the open-access research site arXiv. The study has not yet been peer reviewed. Earth's orbital distance from the sun is called an astronomical unit. 2017 OF201 is currently located at a distance of 90.5 astronomical units from the sun, meaning 90.5 times as far as Earth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But at its furthest point during its orbit, 2017 OF201 is more than 1,600 astronomical units from the sun, while the closest point on its orbit is about 45 astronomical units. That means it sometimes is closer to the sun than Pluto, whose orbital distance ranges from 30 to 49 astronomical units as it travels an elliptical path around the sun. The researchers suspect that the extreme orbit of 2017 OF201 may have been caused by a long-ago close encounter with the gravitational influence of a giant planet. "We still don't know much about the solar system far away because currently it is difficult to directly see things beyond about 150 astronomical units," Cheng said. "The presence of this single object suggests that there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbit and size. They are just too far away to be detectable right now." The five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union are, in order of distance from the sun: Ceres, which is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, then Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris, which all orbit beyond Neptune. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organization defines a planet and a dwarf planet differently. A planet must orbit its host star - in our case the sun - and must be mostly round and sufficiently large that its gravitational strength clears away any other objects of similar size near its orbit. A dwarf planet must orbit the sun and be mostly round but it has not cleared its orbit of other objects. Cheng said the discovery of 2017 OF201 has implications for hypotheses involving the potential existence of a ninth planet in our solar system, dubbed Planet X or Planet Nine. This is because 2017 OF201's orbit does not follow the pattern exhibited by other known trans-Neptunian objects, which tend to cluster together. Some scientists had hypothesized that such clustering was caused by the gravity of a yet-to-be discovered planet. "The existence of 2017 OF201 as an outlier to such clustering could potentially challenge this hypothesis," Cheng said. (Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Daniel Wallis) HOWELL COUNTY, Mo. (KNWA/KFTA) The Howell County Sheriffs Office in Missouri received a report of a suspicious person in the Moody/Bakersfield area who was believed to resemble a male prisoner recently escaped from Calico Rock, Arkansas. At approximately 3:40 p.m. on May 25, inmate Grant Hardin, 56, was discovered missing from the prison facility, according to a news release. He is considered extremely dangerous and should not be approached, according to the Stone County Sheriffs Office (SCSO). A faded red car was also observed near the person of interest, though no further details about the vehicle were provided, according to a HCSO Facebook post. Deputies responded but were unable to locate anyone in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moody/Bakersfield is about a 45-minute drive from Calico Rock, Arkansas. TIMELINE: What we know about escaped Arkansas inmate Grant Hardin I have spoken with Sheriff Melton of Izard County Arkansas and the Arkansas State Police to advise them of the possible sighting, HSCOs Sherrif Matt Roberts said in the post. At this time, we have no information indicating with any degree of certainty this suspicious person was the escapee or that he is even in the State of Missouri. Howell County deputies and investigators continue to canvass the area in an effort to identify the individual seen. A Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson said that they are aware of the tip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities urge anyone with information to call the Howell County Sheriffs Office at 417-256-2544. 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. Fisherman are pictured on the Big Hole River near Wise River, Montana. (Jordan Hansen / Daily Montanan) Potentially dangerous and possibly record-breaking warm weather is headed to western Montana this weekend. On Thursday, the National Weather Service Office in Missoula issued a heat advisory from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday. Temperatures in the upper 80s and 90s are expected for a wide swath of western Montana stretching from the Canadian border down through the Flathead, Missoula and Bitterroot valleys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NWS Meteorologist Jennifer Kitzmiller, based in Missoula, said seeing temperatures in the 90s this early in the year was atypical. Anaconda, Eureka, Libby and Philipsburg are some of the places that could approach their daily high record mark, if not break it. Were looking at setting records for daily high temperatures tomorrow and a lot of places in western Montana, Kitzmiller said. And previous records date back to 1986 we havent seen temperatures this warm, this time of year, for like 40 years. The heat is being driven by a strong ridge of high pressure in the West, according to a NWS national report. Temperatures are expected to dip back down on Sunday. Its not going to be hugely different, but itll cool us back down, Kitzmiller said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The weather service also issued some recommendations, including drinking plenty of water and staying out of direct sunlight. Warm weather also draws people to bodies of water, especially on a weekend, which can add a degree of danger. May 24 was particularly deadly as a woman drowned near Missoula near Maclay Bridge and a kayaker died near Craig. Additionally, a 68-year old Missoula man last seen on Wednesday is presumed to have drowned near the Lochsa River in Idaho. Lifevests should always be worn when on or in the water, and a close eye should be kept on children. Additionally, alcohol can enhance hypothermia, and cold water can make even experienced swimmers lose muscle control. The rivers and streams are still running fast and cold, Kitzmiller said. And theres that extra threat, despite the warm temperatures, for hypothermia. Saiga antelope known for their distinctive large snouts have had a turbulent existence on this planet. They once walked the Earth alongside woolly rhinos and mammoths; early humans painted them in rock art 19,000 years ago. But within just the last 100 years, due to overhunting and climate-exacerbated disease outbreaks, their population has plunged to a fraction of their earlier numbers. Fortunately, dedicated conservation efforts have allowed the saiga population to stabilize and rebound, CNN reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The saiga once were found everywhere from Canada to France; today, they live only in Kazakhstan, with some small populations in Uzbekistan, Russia, and Mongolia. Their numbers were decimated by hunting in the mid-20th century, when both Chinese and Soviet poachers killed them for their meat, hides, and horns. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, this resulted in approximately 150,000 antelope killed each year in the 1950s and '60s, and the species was labeled as critically endangered in 2002. To save the beloved species, Kazakhstan's government banned hunting the saiga in 1999, implementing education and training to help border guards crack down on poachers and smuggling. Additionally, the country's Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative was founded in 2006 in order to help conserve the wildlife of the Kazakh steppe, including saiga antelope. Since then, it has been able to secure an area the size of Denmark in protected land. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Daniyar Turgambayev, chair of the forestry and wildlife committee at Kazakhstan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, told CNN that the government was committed to increasing that area by designating up to 30% of the country as a protected area for wildlife. "Naturally, given that Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country in the world, this is a huge territory," he said. Between the hunting bans, the crackdown on poaching, and the conservation efforts, there has been a dramatic rebound in the saiga's population, up from 21,000 in Kazakhstan in 2003 to 2.8 million in 2024. The species' threat level has been downgraded to "near threatened" on the IUCN Red List. Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Saiga are still susceptible to disease, however. Four major outbreaks have slashed their numbers in the last 15 years, including in 2015 when over half the global population died in a span of three weeks. IUCN specified that this bacterial infection was likely triggered by warmer-than-usual temperatures during calving season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Considering that temperatures aren't on track to drop anytime soon, groups like Altyn Dala are hoping to keep saiga safe by regularly monitoring for disease outbreaks. Because of their prolific birthing rate 60% of saiga give birth to twins the species is able to rebound quickly. 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. May 30 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating a trade agreement with the United States. "I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn't want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!!," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president did not specify which trade agreement China was violating. Just over two weeks ago, the United States and China reached a deal to pause tariffs between the countries for 90 days. China also reduced tariffs on American goods to 10%, down from 125%, while American officials cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% as part of the deal. President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating a trade agreement with the United States. Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI Trump in early April announced he would enact tariffs on several countries worldwide. He later upped the number to 145% on China after that country responded to the initial levy with duties of its own on U.S. goods. China later said it could punish other countries that side with the United States in the trade war. President Donald Trump on Friday in a social media post did not specify which trade agreement China was violating. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI Earlier this week a federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from enacting the tariffs on most American trading partners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "President Trump is carrying out the long-overdue work of rebalancing the global economy to the benefit of the American people," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X Thursday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier this week called trade talks in general with China a bit stalled. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI "I am confident that the Chinese, and the rest of our trading partners, will come to the table thanks to his leadership." Bessent also called trade talks in general with China "a bit stalled." United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC Friday that China is "slow rolling their compliance, to the trade deal between the two countries. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI At the time the agreement was reached in Geneva, Switzerland, Bessent said the two sides engaged in "very robust discussions." Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer led the American delegation during discussions. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday as he he explained how China had violated a trade agreement with the United States. Photo by Francis Chung/UPI The "United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance," Greer told CNBC in an interview Friday. The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has reiterated its stance against the proposed limitations on state and local tax (SALT) deductions for specified service trades or businesses (SSTBs) in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The body sent a second letter to the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees highlighting the need for modifications to the 'troubling' tax proposals. In the letter, the AICPA said: We are sensitive to the challenges in drafting a budget reconciliation bill that permanently extends tax provisions, enhances tax administrability, and balances the interests of individual and business taxpayers. While we support portions of the legislation, we do have significant concerns regarding several provisions in the bill, including one which threatens to severely limit the deductibility of SALT by certain businesses. This outcome is contrary to the intentions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is to strengthen small businesses and enhance small business relief. The AICPA called for an allowance for business entities, including SSTBs, to deduct SALT paid or accrued in trade or business activities. This move aligns with the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act's original intent and has been sanctioned by the Internal Revenue Service. The current House version of the bill is criticised for unfairly targeting SSTBs by restricting their SALT deduction capabilities. The AICPA also addressed the risks of contingent fee arrangements in tax preparation, suggesting they could lead to abuse. They recommended removing an amendment that could permanently disallow business losses without offsetting business income. The letter warned against laws that financially harm businesses and discourage professional service-based business formation. The AICPA supported provisions in the bill, such as using section 529 plan funds for credential expenses, tax relief for natural disaster-affected individuals and businesses, and making the qualified business income deduction permanent. They also advocated for the preservation of the cash method of accounting and increasing the Form 1099-K reporting threshold. In addition, the AICPA endorsed permanent extensions of international tax rates and provisions that offer greater certainty and clarity. It also shared a list of endorsed legislation, principles of good tax policy, and a compendium of proposals for simplifying and technically amending the Internal Revenue Code. AICPA Tax Policy & Advocacy vice-president Melanie Lauridsen said: While we are grateful to Congress for many provisions in this bill, the unfair targeting of certain types of businesses creates inefficiencies in business decision-making and could result in negative, long-lasting impacts on the economy. President Donald Trump bid farewell to Elon Musk during a joint press conference from the Oval Office on Friday, with the president thanking Musk for making a colossal change to the federal government during his time leading the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon gave an incredible service, President Trump said. Nobody liked him, and he had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame, because hes an incredible patriot. At one point early in the press conference, the president pulled out a laptop and played a clip of CNBC anchors lauding his administration and DOGE. The president, sitting at the Resolute Desk, smiled as the clip played, while Musk stood next to him in a black DOGE hat and a black shirt that said The Dogefather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump also listed a number of cuts DOGE made during the past few months, including axing $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma and $20 million for Arab Sesame Street.' Nobody knows what thats all about, the president commented. Shortly after that, President Trump presented Musk with a gold key to the White House. The press conference was Musks send-off as his 130-day term with the Trump Administration comes to a close. Musk spent $275 million to help President Trump and other Republicans win during the 2024 election. He then joined the Trump Administration in January, spearheading the new department aimed at slicing government spending; Musk has said DOGE would ideally cut $1 trillion-$2 trillion from the annual federal budget, and as of Friday, DOGE has estimated it has cut $175 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning, Musk said. He said the DOGE team will only grow stronger in the years ahead, as its influence begins permeating throughout the government. Its sort of like Buddhism; its like a way of life, Musk said. He added he is confident the government will ultimately reach his goal of slashing at least $1 trillion from the budget. Fridays press conference comes a few days after Musk said he was disappointed with President Trumps Big Beautiful Bill and felt DOGE had become a political whipping boy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Tesla CEOs work with DOGE led to severe blowback against his electric car company, with violent protestors attacking company stores. A number of clips also went viral of vandals keying and damaging Tesla cars and trucks in the months following President Trumps inauguration in January. Teslas stock took a major hit as a result, dropping from about $380 per share at the beginning of the year to around $220 per share in April. The companys stock has since rebounded in the last month, surging to about $350 per share by Friday afternoon. On Friday, President Trump said Musk does not get the credit he deserves for serving his administration, before calling him a very good person. The president added: Well remember you. The post President Trump Bids Elon Musk Farewell From Oval Office: Well Remember You appeared first on TheWrap. President Donald Trump bid farewell to Elon Musk in the Oval Office on Friday, providing a cordial conclusion to a tumultuous tenure for the billionaire entrepreneur. Musk is leaving his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, and hell be rededicating himself to running his businesses, including electric automaker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X. Trump credited Musk with a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington and said some of his staff would remain in the administration. Musk, who wore all black, including a T-shirt that said The Dogefather, nodded along as the president listed contracts that had been cut under his watch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job, Musk said after accepting a ceremonial key from the president. Theyre going to continue to be doing an incredible job. He left a searing mark on the federal bureaucracy, including thousands of employees who were fired or pushed out. Some government functions were eviscerated, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world. Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a result of the cuts. The State Department responded by saying most of USAIDs programs on HIV, known as PEPFAR, remained operational. However, the statement did not address any of the other cuts while calling on other nations to dramatically increase their humanitarian efforts. Despite the upheaval, Musk also fell far short of his goals. After promising to cut $1 trillion or even $2 trillion in federal spending, he lowered expectations to only $150 billion in the current fiscal year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its unclear whether that target has been hit. The DOGE website tallies $175 billion in savings, but its information has been riddled with errors and embellishments. Musk had a bruise next to his right eye in the Oval Office, which he explained by saying he had been horsing around with his young son. I said, go ahead punch me in the face, he said. And he did. Trump said Musk had led the most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations. He suggested that Musk is really not leaving and hes going to be back and forth to keep tabs on whats happening in the administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were signs, however, that attention was already shifting away from Musk, who once appeared omnipresent in Washington. He often stood quietly next to Trump as reporters peppered him with questions about the French president (hes great), Joe Bidens autopen (its bad) and the potential for pardoning Sean Diddy Combs (hell look at the facts). When Musk was asked about the impact of tariffs on Tesla something Musk has expressed concerns about in the past Trump jumped in to answer. Musk, the worlds richest person, recently said he would reduce his political donations. He was Trumps top donor in last years presidential campaign. Trump appeared eager to end Musks service on a high note. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way, Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. Elon is terrific! As a special government employee, Musks position was designed to be temporary. However, he had speculated about staying indefinitely, working part time for the administration, if Trump still wanted his help. Musk has brushed off questions about how DOGE would continue without him, even suggesting it could gain momentum in the future. DOGE is a way of life, he told reporters recently. Like Buddhism. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (DC News Now) Upper Marlboro residents and Prince Georges County leaders are searching for answers after an empty casket was found dumped along a road Thursday. Dajae Nelson lives in the neighborhood and saw the casket Thursday morning while she was jogging. Man to spend over 5 years in prison for spree of Maryland, DC bank robberies It was just strange to see, and I go running all the time in Upper Marlboro, and Ive never seen anything like that. I am really just curious to know how it got there, and why would someone leave it there? Nelson asked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prince Georges County at large Councilman Calvin Hawkins has many questions. A resident notified him around 8 a.m. Thursday morning to let him know about the mysterious casket. Hawkins took pictures and posted on social media, hoping to discover who dumped the casket at Bishop Bequest and Lords Landing Roads. Even though it is a casket, it is still illegal dumping, and if you see the community where it was dumped, it is a beautiful community, and just to drop it there in plain sight, I was like Who would do that? Hawkins said. A Department of Public Works crew picked up the casket and took it to a location where it will be recycled. 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. The British royal family is living complicated days. King Charles is very ill with cancer, with rumors that succession planning is already underway. Prince William and Kate Middleton are already preparing for the next stage and taking on added responsibilities. And then theres Prince Harrys most recent BBC interview, where he suggested he was looking for a reconciliation with his father. His relationship with Prince William isnt any better. And on top of that, new intimate details about the family keep resurfacing. The latter is, perhaps, impossible to control. Being royalty is living in the spotlight, and that part is to be expected. But a new book Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors written by royal biographer Tom Bower is, perhaps, shedding more light on some of the royal dynamics than were usually used to. And one of the things Bower discussed in his new book is the reaction of Princess Dianas sisters to Meghan Markle, which reportedly wasnt what Prince Harry expected. More from StyleCaster Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: Did William really cheat on Kate? Harry assumed that Dianas family and friends would see a similarity between Diana and his fiancee. Both, he said, shared the same problems. He was so disappointed, the book claims. Despite Harry being convinced that Princess Diana would be over the moon at his choice of bride, her sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, reportedly did not agree. In fact, according to the book, they thought Meghan would not fit in. No one agreed that his vulnerable mother had anything in common with his girlfriend. More discomforting for him, they thought Meghan would not fit in with the Royal Family. This did not discourage Prince Harry, who would go on to marry Meghan. The couple now shares two children. Harry would go on to discuss what he saw as his wifes similarities to his late mother in a 2022 Netflix documentary, saying, So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum. She has the same compassion, the same empathy, the same confidence. She has this warmth about her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bowers words come at a difficult time, as there have been reports that Prince William would strip Prince Harry and Meghan Markle of their titles as soon as he ascended to the throne. Its no secret William wants Harry more harshly dealt with. He thinks he has betrayed the family from top to bottom, which is the ultimate Windsor crime. It wouldnt take much to provoke him to flex his muscles when he is king, a palace insider told The Daily Beast. As always with the royal family, thats not the end of the story. Recent reports have indicated Kate Middleton has been pushing for a reconciliation between the brothers and that King Charles might be ready to meet with his son, with whom he is currently not on speaking terms. All of this comes after Harrys interview, which reportedly angered the family, but in which he made clear he wants a reconciliation. Whether thats in the cards or not, and whether this family can stop being fractured anytime soon, remains to be seen. Best of StyleCaster Sign up for Stylecaster's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Prince William doesn't completely leave royal work behind when on family vacations with Kate Middleton and their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The Telegraph tagged along with the Prince of Wales on a recent visit to the Duchy of Cornwall, the $1 billion estate that provides funds for the heir to the throne, and learned that William's mission to make life better for its residents doesn't pause during private time. When they visit Tresco a favorite destination for the family located in the Isles of Scilly, which is part of the duchy the prince is known for chatting with locals about ways to improve the community. His conversations have resulted in changes such as a new healthcare facility equipped with a maternity suite, a housing plan for key workers such as teachers and doctors and a project aimed at creating more sustainable tourism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family trips to the Isles of Scilly, off the southwest coast of England, are a throwback to Prince William's own childhood, when he and Prince Harry were taken to the islands by their parents, Princess Diana and the future King Charles. During a 2020 vacation there, a fellow vacationer told the Daily Mirror, "William and Kate were riding their bicycles, having a laugh. They looked so happy enjoying the weather. I did do a double-take. They were really friendly and said hello." Samir Hussein/WireImage Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince Louis and Prince William on Dec. 25, 2024 Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince Louis and Prince William on Dec. 25, 2024 In May 2024, Prince William visited the Isles of Scilly on royal duty, revealing that George, now 11, Charlotte, now 10, and Louis, now 7, were jealous of his work trip. "My family are very upset I'm here without them," he said, according to the Daily Mail. "The children will kill me if I don't go home later." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He did purchase pastries from the On the Quay cafe, possibly to bring home and share with his family. BEN BIRCHALL/POOL/AFP via Getty Prince William visits the Isles of Scilly on May 10, 2024 Prince William visits the Isles of Scilly on May 10, 2024 Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Established by King Edward III in 1337, the Duchy of Cornwall spans 130,000 acres of land, farms and other assets which provide funds to support the heir to the throne and his family. However, Prince William is also determined to make life better for its residents through sustainability objectives, mental health initiatives, charitable partnerships and more. Prince William told The Telegraph, "Im trying to make sure Im prioritizing stuff thats going to make peoples lives, living in those areas, better. This is what were going to do to make peoples lives in Cornwall better." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That, I feel as Duke of Cornwall, is something I should be doing," he added. "Its about responsibility, its about leadership and doing whats right on the social issues of our time." The duchy's secretary, Will Bax, described the Prince of Wales as "a man on a mission" and "pretty demanding," in a good way. "Hes easy to follow because hes got great conviction and personality, and he really wears his heart on his sleeve in terms of social interest and his desire to have a positive impact in the world," Bax said. Estate director Ben Murphy told the outlet that the heir has a "healthy impatience, as his father did," which "puts the wind in our sails." Read the original article on People SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) Illinois Governor JB Pritzker honored law enforcement officers from across the state on May 29th. Rockfords own Officer Jonathan Vargas and the late K9 Nyx were two of many officers awarded medals of honor. Photo: Rockford Police Department We honor the bravery of K-9 Nyx and the courage of Officer Vargas, whose actions embody the highest standards of law enforcement, said an Illinois official. Vargas and Nyx were honored for their dedication to protecting the community. Nyx was fatally shot while chasing a suspect in January 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. UPDATE: Scott Stopa was located on Saturday and is in good condition, according to the Niagara County Sheriffs Office. LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) A Lockport family is pleading for help to find their loved one, a prominent Niagara County attorney who went missing earlier this week. Scott Stopa, 46, of Cambria, was last seen around 8:30 Tuesday morning. His loved ones have not heard from him since, and now police are investigating, hoping to find him and bring him home to his family who are devastated by his disappearance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scott, we love you so much, please come home if you see this, his sister, Jenny Ryan said, fighting back tears. We miss you, we love you, were all here for you, and we want you to come home. Ryan said that her brother said he was heading to work when he left Tuesday morning, but thats the last theyve seen or heard from him. He was in the process of opening up his own law office at the Bewly Building in downtown Lockport, according to the family. Efforts have been made by multiple family members to reach him, unfortunately he doesnt have his phone on him, Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti said. So, theyre very concerned because they havent had contact with him for now going on three days, and they contacted us to assist them in locating him. Stopas family said that he had been dealing with personal issues, including depression. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Filicetti said they believe he could still be in the area. We have some indications that hes still local based on our investigation, so again were still trying to locate him, Sheriff Filicetti said. Were using the usual techniques that we would normally do to try to find somebody. Through the use of technology we can indicate that his vehicle has been in the area the last couple of days. So, again, were going to continue to stay local here for our purposes, for the investigation. Stopas family remains devastated by his disappearance and are praying that he comes home safely. Theyre urging anyone with any information on his whereabouts to come forward. We are devastated. We just want him home safely, Ryan said. We miss him, we love him, and we just want him home safely. Please, please contact the Niagara County Sheriffs Department immediately even if its the smallest tip no matter what, we need information as soon as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stopa was last seen driving a black 2014 Jeep Compass with New York registration LNN1422. Anyone with any information on his whereabouts is urged to call the Niagara County Sheriffs Office at (716) 438-3394. Latest Local News Rob Petree is an anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in 2025. See more of his work by clicking 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. SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) Its officially peak tick season in Rhode Island, which means everyone should remain vigilant while spending time outside. Thomas Mather, director of the University of Rhode Islands Center for Vector-Borne Disease and the TickEncounter Resource Center, told 12 News the population of ticks across New England is the highest and most diverse its ever been. There are four different species of ticks currently in Rhode Island, according to Mather, including black-legged deer ticks, American dog ticks, Lone Star ticks and Asian longhorned ticks. He said the most popular species are black-legged deer ticks and American dog ticks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mather offered a series of precautions everyone can take as tick season ramps up: Cover up Mather has a new mantra for tick prevention: tuck, treat, tight. He said its important to tuck clothes in, treat clothes and shoes to repel them, and wear tight clothing to prevent them from getting underneath. Specifically, Mather recommends everyone tuck their shirts into their pants and their pants into their socks to limit skin exposure. He also suggested spraying clothing with a repellant that contains 20-30% DEET or permethrin. Those hiking in the woods or tall grass should stick to the middle of the trail if possible, he added. Conduct a thorough check Mather urged everyone to carefully check themselves, their children and their pets for ticks before heading inside. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said its important to have tweezers and a resealable bag ready to remove and collect the tick. Mather also warned against attempting to squish ticks, especially while theyre still attached to their host. Remove and report Even though it can be tempting to flush the tick away after removing it, Mather is asking everyone to submit a photograph of it to URIs TickSpotters. Mather said knowing the species of tick can make a big difference, since only black-legged deer ticks can carry the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease. To submit a tick for identification, Mather requests the photograph be taken of the topside of the tick and provide as much information as possible about the encounter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We dont expect everyone to be a tick biologist, Mather said. But thats why were here. Mather said TickSpotters will identify the tick and respond to the submission with a risk assessment and easy-to-follow tick bite prevention tips. Even though the diseases that ticks carry varies by species, Mather stressed that all ticks need to be protected against. Weather Watch Theres also an easy way for Rhode Islanders to evaluate tick risks before heading outside, according to Mather. He said everyone can simply look out the window and assess their yard conditions to determine whether ticks will be out and about. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ticks dont like dry weather, he said. If you have to water your lawn thats actually not good for ticks. Mather said wet weather provides the climate ticks need to reproduce. Thats actually why clothes should be thrown into the dryer instead of the washer after spending time outside. 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. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. There were contrasting emotions in and around Rhythm City Casino Thursday morning. Congressman Jim Jordan, R.-Ohio, joined congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks and her supporters for a reception and discussed president Trumps recent One Big Beautiful Bill, a piece of legislation that passed through the House of Representatives. We just want to make sure she wins, and she is going to. She is a great candidate, but we are here just to help, Jordan said. There are provisions in (the One Big Beautiful Bill) for every Iowan and every American, and there are provisions that strengthen and preserve Medicaid, Miller-Meeks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside of Rhythm City, however, some of Miller-Meeks constituents were not happy. Care about your voters, care about people who arent voters, said Tracy Jones, one of the protesters. (Miller-Meeks) doesnt want to be held under the microscope for her terrible decisions, and its wrong. Protesters were upset with Rep. Miller-Meeks for not holding a townhall meeting and supporting trumps One Big Beautiful Bill, which includes significant cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Who would vote to take food from children? Thats not a good person, Jones said. When you are in Congress, you are supposed to be the voice of the people that put you there, and they deserve to have answers on what you are doing, said Travis Terrell, a Democratic candidate for Rep. Miller-Meeks 1st Congressional District seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Miller-Meeks, though, feels as if she is doing just that. We are absolutely voting in (the constituents) best interest because we voted to preserve and strengthen Medicaid, Miller-Meeks said. Had we not done that, the trajectory of Medicaid spending is unsustainable. Protesters, however, said they wanted more transparency. If you are scared to be transparent with your constituents, its because you know you betrayed them, Terrell 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 WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. Analyst resets Nvidia-backed AI stock price target after 200% surge originally appeared on TheStreet. With all eyes on Nvidias (NVDA) first-quarter earnings, one under-the-radar AI stock has already gained momentum, surging 30% in the past five days. That company is CoreWeave, now Nvidias largest holding, making up more than 78% of the AI chipmaker's disclosed portfolio. CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV) is a cloud infrastructure company specializing in GPU-accelerated computing for artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Founded in 2017, the company transitioned from cryptocurrency mining to providing AI-focused cloud services. Now, the company is quietly delivering explosive growth and winning support from Nvidia and OpenAI just weeks after its IPO. On March 28, CoreWeave launched its initial public offering, pricing shares at $40 each, below its anticipated range of $47 to $55. Still, the IPO raised $1.5 billion, making it one of the largest AI-related listings since 2021. Since then, the stock is up more than 200%. Nvidia holds approximately a 7% stake in CoreWeave.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images CoreWeave posts 420% revenue growth CoreWeaves data centers are equipped with Nvidia GPUs, and Nvidia holds approximately a 7% stake in the company. The chip giant has invested in CoreWeave since April 2023, before it went public. In the first quarter of this year, Nvidia bought 24,182,460 shares following the IPO, according to WhaleWisdom data based on 13F filings. Related: Analysts issue rare warning on Nvidia stock before key earnings On May 14, CoreWeave posted its first earnings since going public, with a 420% year-over-year revenue increase to $981.6 million for the first quarter. This growth might remind investors of Nvidias explosive performance during the AI boom of 2023 and 2024. Demand for our platform is robust and accelerating as AI leaders seek the highly performant AI cloud infrastructure required for the most advanced applications, Chief Executive Michael Intrator said in a statement. CoreWeave's net loss for the quarter widened to $314.6 million from $129.2 million a year earlier, partly due to $177 million in stock-based compensation tied to the IPO. The company expects revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion in 2025, up 363% year-over-year and above Wall Street estimates. It also projects capital expenditures of $20 billion to $23 billion for the year. In the first quarter, OpenAI signed a five-year deal with CoreWeave worth up to $11.9 billion. After the quarter ended, the two companies signed an additional $4 billion contract, Intrator told CNBC. Related: Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller quintuples stake in top semiconductor stock Nvidias investment portfolio includes Arm Holdings (ARM) , Applied Digital (APLD) , Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX) , Yandex (YNDX) , and WeRide (WRD) . May 29SANTA FE A committee of Roundhouse lawmakers will help guide the state's education department as it attempts to comply with the latest court order in a decade-long legal battle over the quality of education in New Mexico. The Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC) met Thursday for the first time since a Santa Fe judge ruled that the New Mexico Public Education Department had not met its end of the bargain in the landmark 2018 Yazzie-Martinez ruling. In his ruling, Judge Matthew Wilson ordered the PED to create a remedial plan to fix its primary and secondary educational system after finding it had not done enough to improve since his predecessor, the late Sarah Singleton, ruled that the state was violating students' constitutional rights by providing an insufficient education. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Wilson's ruling was considered a win for the plaintiffs, one of their requests was to have the LESC lead and implement the remedial plan instead of the PED. Wilson rejected that, and stated in his order that the committee is not the proper entity to come up with the remedial plan because it is not a party in the case. However, the ruling does allow the LESC to help the PED with the first two steps something the committee confirmed Thursday it will do and a handful of its members seemed to think it was necessary. The order states PED must select an outside expert consultant by July 1, produce a draft of the remedial plan by Oct. 1, and file a comprehensive remedial plan and a status report by Nov. 3. "I think it's super important, and it behooves the state that we at the LESC are a part of whatever plan does get developed because we have been working on it these past few years," Rep. G. Andres Romero, D-Albuquerque, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The initial case was brought about in 2014, when Wilhelmina Yazzie, the parent of a student at Gallup-McKinley County Schools, and Louise Martinez, the parent of an Albuquerque Public Schools student, joined other parents in the suit against the state. They were represented by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "As policymakers and appropriators, our involvement in this is essential," Rep. Brian Baca, R-Los Lunas, said on Thursday. "I want to hold us accountable, and I want to hold PED accountable so that we can finally address this and help kids and put this thing to rest." While some committee members sided with the plaintiffs or voiced frustrations with the PED, Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, went to bat for the state's education department and questioned the legal defense it has received. "We've been doing a lot. I just think the problem is so intensive. It's just so problematic that we have all these issues," Stewart said. "I just want to shout out PED and LESC and the Legislature for the work we've done, and it's extensive, I just hope those attorneys know what they're doing." Russian President Vladimir Putin is "fundamentally in favor" of meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on May 30, according to Russian state news agency TASS. The statement comes amid renewed diplomatic maneuvering to schedule the next round of peace talks in Istanbul, tentatively proposed for June 2. Peskov stressed that a high-level summit would require concrete outcomes from the negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "President Putin has repeatedly said that he is fundamentally in favor of high-level contacts, which are undoubtedly needed," Peskov said. "But they must be prepared, and first, a result must be achieved in negotiations between the delegations." Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on May 30 that Turkey would be open to hosting a possible meeting among the three leaders, with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well. Fidan's statement followed his visits to both Kyiv and Moscow. Zelensky previously invited Putin to Istanbul for direct talks on May 16, proposing a three-way format with Trump to push forward peace efforts. Putin declined to attend, sending a low-level delegation led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. The Istanbul talks ended without agreement on a ceasefire or broader political settlement, though the sides did agree to the largest prisoner exchange of the full-scale war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Join our community Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight. Support Us Moscow has rejected Kyiv's repeated calls for a complete and unconditional ceasefire, despite mounting international pressure. Russia has instead intensified its aerial assaults across Ukraine and is reportedly preparing for a renewed summer offensive. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed on May 29 that Moscow plans to present a draft "ceasefire memorandum" at the June 2 meeting in Istanbul. He added that Medinsky's team would be prepared to explain its content to the Ukrainian delegation. Zelensky's Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said on May 29 that Kyiv is open to the talks but insists that Russia share the memorandum ahead of the meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kremlin has repeatedly attacked Zelensky's legitimacy as president, pointing out that his first presidential term was originally meant to end on May 20, 2024. Ukraine's constitution prohibits elections during martial law, which has been in effect since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. As a result, Zelensky's term has been extended, which constitutional lawyers argue is permitted under Ukrainian law. Trump, who held a two-hour phone call with Putin on May 19 and is pushing to broker a ceasefire deal, has backed the idea of a high-level summit. Putin and Zelensky have met only once in December 2019, during the Normandy Format talks in Paris. Read also: Russia testing Europes capacity to help Ukraine by intensifying air attacks Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing companies that fail to fulfil state contracts during martial law to be placed under external management. Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet Details: The document states that in such cases, shareholders are deprived of control and the functions of the head of the company are transferred to a structure proposed by Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision applies to companies in the aviation and shipbuilding sectors that produce civilian goods, their contractors, as well as manufacturers of military equipment working with foreign clients. The Russian authorities have intensified efforts to confiscate private property since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. Russia's Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov said that the authorities have nationalised assets worth RUB 2.4 trillion (over US$26.5 billion). In 2024 alone, Russia seized nearly 70 companies with a total revenue of RUB 807.6 billion (over US$8.9 billion) and assets worth RUB 544.7 billion (over US$6 billion). The largest of these include companies belonging to the former owner of Yugra Bank, Alexei Khotin (over RUB 100 billion more than US$1.1 billion), the car dealer Rolf (RUB 68 billion over US$750 million) and the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant (RUB 61 billion around US$680 million). Background: Russia plans to complicate or completely block the return of assets to foreign companies that left the country after the start of the full-scale war. Putin stated that companies which "slammed the door" and left the Russian market will not be allowed to buy back their assets at low prices or reclaim their former market positions. Russian business representatives met with Robert Agee, the President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, to discuss the lifting of sanctions in certain sectors of the economy. US President Donald Trumps special envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, held closed-door talks in Switzerland on the possible supply of Russian gas to Germany via Nord Stream 2. The United States and Russia are discussing the possibility of economic cooperation in the Arctic, including natural resource exploration and the use of new trade routes. Putin ordered his Cabinet of Ministers to prepare for the return of Western companies to the Russian market. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! AUSTIN (KXAN) A bill that would require the state to track what happens to students served and summoned to court for missing too much school is not likely to pass this legislative session. This week on Inside the Investigation, Senior Investigative Producer David Barer explains the challenges to understanding the efficacy of Texass truancy courts when the state is not tracking the students who experience it. Related reading Join KXAN Investigative Reporter Kelly Wiley every Friday at 10:30 a.m. on KXAN+, YouTube, Facebook, or KXAN.com for a recap of the latest reporting from the KXAN Investigates team. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can also listen to KXANs investigative podcast, highlighting some of our award-winning teams latest reports exposing corruption, safety concerns and system failures across Texas. We also feature audio versions of our weekly Inside the Investigation discussion with the journalists working on those stories. 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 summer boating season brings wakeboarding, fishing and good times on the water. It also brings the dreaded quagga mussel. The destructive aquatic invasive species infest lakes and reservoirs, typically from being transported on boats or other watercraft. They attach to hulls, propellers, rudders, keels and intake and exhaust ports. A single mussel can reproduce over 1 million eggs per year. Quagga mussels have shown up in several western states, including Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and California. Unlike the mussels you find at the seafood market, quagga mussels are not edible, so people dont harvest the tiny mollusks for food as a means to get rid of them. In this photo released by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources on April 17, 2008, quagga mussels cover a boat's propeller at Lake Mead, Nev. | Natalie Muth, Associated Press Removing quagga mussels is expensive and time consuming. Once theyre established, theyre almost impossible to eradicate. They have an astounding ability to resist chemical and other methods of removal, according to the Utah Department of Natural Resources. The most effective way to decontaminate equipment is to prevent quagga mussels from being transported from one body of water to another. Inspections and violations Over this past Memorial Day weekend, DWR, Utah State Parks, Arizona Game and Fish Department and the National Park Service and Utah Department of Natural Resources officers inspected 10,988 boats and performed 141 decontaminations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of those total numbers, 1,829 of the boat inspections and 63 of the decontaminations took place at inspection stations in the Lake Powell area, where the mussels were first found in 2012. Statewide, DNR officers found 113 violations of Utah laws established to prevent the spread of the invasive mussels. A boat is seen against the backdrop of Lake Powells bathtub ring, a light-colored coating of mineral deposits left on the canyon walls during periods of higher water in the reservoir, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, near Bullfrog. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News The majority of the violations last weekend were due to: Boaters failing to take the mandatory mussel-aware boater program course and not paying the associated aquatic invasive species fee for motorized boats. Boaters failing to remove drain plugs while transporting their watercraft. In addition to quagga mussels, wildlife agencies were also looking to prevent the spread of Eurasian watermilfoil, an invasive plant species. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While officers performed thousands of inspections that weekend, some drivers pulling boats blew right past mandatory checkpoints. We opened a new aquatic invasive species mandatory inspection station in Kanab, and unfortunately, we had some boaters drive past it over the holiday weekend, Lt. Bruce Johnson, of the Utah Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Aquatic Invasive Species Statewide Operations, said in a press release this week. Even watercraft that have been inspected at Lake Powell are required to stop at operating mandatory inspection stations to verify their inspection. DWR quagga technicians Curtis Hutchinson, right, and Kaitlyn Winget discuss the quagga mussel decontamination process with Jeff Hammett as he arrives to boat at Deer Creek Reservoir, Thursday, May 7, 2015. | Ravell Call, Deseret News Boat cleaning Utah has 40 inspection stations located at various boat ramps, along highways and at port of entry stations. The DWR and its partners have also installed five dip tanks across the state that more efficiently and effectively decontaminate complex boats. The dip tanks are free to use and are typically close to either the entrance of a state park or near a boat ramp. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dip tanks are located at: What is a quagga mussel? The quagga mussel is a species of freshwater mussel native to the Aral, Black and Caspian seas and the Dnieper River drainage in Ukraine. Its closely related to the zebra mussel. Quagga mussels were introduced to the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, likely as a result of ballast water discharge by ships from Europe, and spread quickly to other U.S. waterbodies via contaminated boats and other watercraft. The thumbnail-sized, two-shelled mollusks are shaped like the letter D and vary in color from brownish yellow to black. Quagga mussels reproduce via eggs that free-float in the water until fertilized, and then the microscopic larvae called veligers emerge after three to five days. Veligers are dispersed in the water while they grow and are free swimming for up to a month until they are large enough to secure an attachment site on just about any kind of surface. They go through metamorphosis and grow an adult shell, reaching maturity in one to two years, per the DWR. Destructive mollusks According to the DWR, quagga mussels: A fire department in the Bay States Merrimack Valley is mourning the unexpected death of an active-duty firefighter. Firefighter Jeffrey Deschenes died this week at a local hospital after experiencing a medical emergency, North Andover Fire Chief John Weir and Deputy Chief Graham Rowe announced Friday. He was 54. Deschenes was named North Andovers first EMS Coordinator in 2019 and is credited with bringing the fire department to the forefront of pre-hospital care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jeff Deschenes brought the North Andover Fire Department into the modern era of emergency medicine and treatment, and his lifes work undoubtedly saved and improved the lives of countless people, Chief Weir said in a statement. He was a quiet hero in our community and a true brother in the fire service. He will be missed. I speak on behalf of all the men and women of the North Andover Fire Department in extending my heartfelt sympathies to Jeffs wife, children, and his entire family. We mourn this loss with you. Deschenes was also named a Firefighter of the Year by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2019 for his response to the 2018 Merrimack Valley natural gas disaster, in addition to earning an array of other accolades. Jeffs impact reached far beyond his firefighting duties, touching the lives of many in the Merrimack Valley and the region, Deputy Chief Rowe said in a statement. He was always willing to lend a helping hand in any way possible, looking out for his fellow firefighters, friends, family, and the community. Deschenes began his career with the Lawrence Fire Department in 2000 and served 12 years there before transferring to North Andover in 2012. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Town Manager Melissa Rodrigues added, The Town of North Andover mourns the loss of a good and dedicated firefighter, friend, and a true professional. Our community offers its unwavering support to his family at home and his family in the firehouse during their time of need. Deschenes is survived by his wife and two children. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW SINKS GROVE, WV (WVNS) A raccoon tested positive for rabies in part of Monroe County. According to a post on the Monroe County Health Departments Facebook page on Thursday, May 29, 2025, a racoon around Scott Hollow Road in the Sinks Grove area of Monroe County tested positive for rabies. Anti-rabies clinics to be held in Raleigh County In the post, the Monroe County Health Department stated that rabies, which is a viral disease, can be spread through bites or saliva to people, pets, and livestock. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the Monroe County Health Department, people are advised to: Avoid contact with wild animals such as raccoons, foxes, skunks, and bats. Make sure that any pets or livestock have updated rabies vaccinations. If a person or pet was possibly exposed to rabies, contact veterinarians and/or healthcare providers as soon as possible. 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 WVNS. Thom Yorke, June 2022 (Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns) Thom Yorke has released a statement about Israel and the war in Gaza. The Radiohead and Smile frontman began his statement by acknowledging the pro-Palestine concertgoer who shouted at him about the war during an Australian show last year. Some guy shouting at me from the dark last year when I was picking up a guitar to sing the final song alone in front of 9000 people in Melbourne didnt really seem like the best moment to discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Yorke shared. Afterwards I remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow being taken as complicity, and I struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour. Yorke continued by stating his opposition to Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government. (Around the time Radiohead last performed in Israel, in 2017, Yorke also made clear his opposition to Netanyahu.) I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease, the musician wrote. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Bank permanently. Additionally, Yorke called the blockade of aid to Gaza horrific. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yorke also condemned Hamas, admonishing the Palestinian Islamist group that governs the Gaza Strip for the October 7, 2023, attacks that precipitated the Israeli militarys offensive in the region. Why did Hamas choose the truly horrific acts of October 7th? he asked. The answer seems obvious, and I believe Hamas chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people, in an equally cynical fashion for their own purposes. For much of the rest of his note, Yorke discussed the largely online conversations about Israel and Palestine. I sympathize completely with the desire to do something when we are witnessing such horrific suffering on our devices every day. It completely makes sense, he said. But I now think it is a dangerous illusion to believe reposting, or one or two line messages are meaningful, especially if it is to condemn your fellow human beings. There are unintended consequences. The musician also made reference to those i work with, likely alluding to his Radiohead and Smile bandmate Jonny Greenwood, who has been a subject of interest with regard to the war in Gaza. Greenwood is married to Sharona Katan, an Israeli artist of Egyptian and Iraqi descent, and he has collaborated closely with the Israeli musician Dudu Tassa. The musicians also recently had two UK concerts canceled after pressure from the the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Find Thom Yorkes full statement below. Some guy shouting at me from the dark last year when I was picking up a guitar to sing the final song alone in front of 9000 people in Melbourne didnt really seem like the best moment to discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Afterwards I remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow being taken as complicity, and I struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour. That silence, my attempt to show respect for all those who are suffering and those who have died, and to not trivialize it in a few words, has allowed other opportunistic groups to use intimidation and defamation to fill in the blanks, and I regret giving them this chance. This has had a heavy toll on my mental health. I would hope that for anyone who has ever listened to a note of the music of my band or any of the music i have created over the years, or looked at the artwork or read any of the lyrics, it would be self-evident that I could not possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanization of others. All i see in a lifetimes worth of work with my fellow musicians and artists is pushing against such things, trying to create work that goes beyond what it means to be controlled, coerced, threatened, to suffer, to be intimidated .. and instead to encourage critical thinking beyond borders, the commonality of love and experience and free creative expression. Sounds naff but true. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For others let me fill in the blanks now, so were nice and clear. I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Bank permanently. I believe this ultra-nationalist administration has hidden itself behind a terrified & grieving people and used them to deflect any criticism, using that fear and grief to further their ultra-nationalist agenda with terrible consequences, as we see now with the horrific blockade of aid to Gaza. While our lives tick along as normal these endless thousands of innocent human souls are still being expelled from the earth for what? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time the unquestioning Free Palestine refrain that surrounds us all does not answer the simple question of why the hostages have still not all been returned? For what possible reason? Why did Hamas choose the truly horrific acts of October 7th? The answer seems obvious, and I believe Hamas chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people, in an equally cynical fashion for their own purposes. I also think there is a further and extremely important point to make. Social media witch-hunts (nothing new) on either side pressurizing artists and whoever they feel like that week to make statements etc do very little except heighten tension, fear and over-simplification of what are complex problems that merit proper face to face debate by people who genuinely wish the killing to stop and an understanding to be found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This kind of deliberate polarization does not serve our fellow human beings and perpetuates a constant us and them mentality. It destroys hope and maintains a sense of isolation, the very things that extremists use to maintain their position. We facilitate their hiding in plain sight if we assume that the extremists and the people they claim to represent are one and the same, indivisible. If our world is ever able to move on from these dark times and find peace it will only be when we rediscover what we share in common, and the extremists are sent back to sit in the darkness from whence they came. I sympathize completely with the desire to do something when we are witnessing such horrific suffering on our devices every day. It completely makes sense. But I now think it is a dangerous illusion to believe reposting, or one or two line messages are meaningful, especially if it is to condemn your fellow human beings. There are unintended consequences. It is shouting from the darkness. It is not looking people in the eye when you speak. It is making dangerous assumptions. It is not debate and it is not critical thinking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Importantly, it is open to online manipulation of all kinds, both mechanistic and political. What is the alternative? I cant answer that easily. I do know in communities around the globe this subject is now dangerously toxic and we are in uncharted waters. We need to turn back. I am sure that, to this point, what I have written here will in no way satisfy those who choose to target myself or those i work with, they will spend time picking holes and looking for reasons to continue, we are an opportunity not to be missed, no doubt, and by either side. I have written this in the simple hope that i can join with the many millions of others praying for this suffering, isolation and death to stop, praying that we can collectively regain our humanity and dignity and our ability to reach understanding .. that one day soon this darkness will have passed. Thom Yorke Originally Appeared on Pitchfork While Democrats search for a new party leader, one old name keeps coming up in conversation: Rahm Emanuel. The Democrat has been an investment banker, congressman, White House chief of staff, Chicago mayor, and U.S. ambassador to Japan, and now hes been thinking about adding another title to his long resume: president. Theres just one problem: As well-known as he is, people dont really know him, said former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who is in touch with his former House colleague. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, Israel and other Democrats familiar with Emanuel, 65, say it would be unwise to count him out. After all, Democrats say there arent many people on the list of potential candidates who can raise money and organize better than Emanuel, who helped run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 and was credited with flipping the House back to Democrats in that cycle. What fascinates me about him is that for him its all about winning, Israel said. And he knows how to win the most challenging of battles. Emanuel hasnt made a decision about whether hell run for president and the Democratic nomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sources close to him say hes still making up his mind while consulting with his family (including his brother Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood mega agent) and other key Democratic allies. But he is already leaving breadcrumbs about a potential run, including making an appearance at the all-important stop for any Democrat with big political aspirations: the September fish fry in Iowa. He has also signed a contributor contract with CNN and has hit the speaking circuit. I am in training, Emanuel told the hosts of The View earlier this month, not hiding his intentions. I dont know if Ill make the Olympics. In the meantime, since leaving his post as ambassador to Japan under the Biden administration, he has been making the rounds and offering his blunt assessments of the state of the Democratic Party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week, he called the Democratic brand toxic and weak and woke. Im tired of sitting in the back seat when somebodys gunning it at 90 miles an hour for a cliff, Emanuel told the Journal in the interview. If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebodys got to be articulating an agenda thats fighting for America, not just fighting for [President] Trump. (Those who have spoken to him in recent months say in typical Emanuel fashion hes even more candid in private about how pathetic the current state of the party is and how rudderless its leadership is.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In regular columns in The Washington Post, he has also been giving Democrats advice on how to reemerge from the so-called wilderness. Yes, we should oppose the MAGA agenda at every turn. But given that we control neither the bully pulpit nor any congressional gavel, we need to focus foremost on whats winnable: next years midterm elections, Emanuel wrote in a column earlier this month. Our task is to help the public understand what the Republicans are doing and how it affects them. Those who know Emanuel whom one Democrat described as a whip smart bulldog say he meets the moment. No one and I mean no one is feistier than Rahm, one major Democratic bundler said. He can land punches like no other, and he would be Trumps worst enemy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hed know exactly what to say not only to bust his chops but to live in his head, the bundler said. Thats exactly what we need right now. Theres a huge void there. The bundler also predicted that few people could raise as much money as Emanuel, something that would give him an automatic advantage in what is expected to be the most crowded presidential field in modern history. He would start from a position of strength, the bundler said. But one Democratic strategist said Emanuels record particularly as mayor of Chicago could be a thorn in his side. His record as mayor of Chicago is absolutely something that I would expect to be used against him, the strategist said. He carries a lot of unresolved baggage from that tenure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And what might hurt him even more is that hes been around the block and Democrats could be wanting to kick the establishment to the curb. Less of a commentary on Rahm, its very likely that the moment is going to call for Democrats to make a clean break with the past and with the status quo, the strategist said. One big hurdle for him is that he is both. But Israel said Emanuel offers the electorate a broad range of dimensions. Trump wins because he organized MAGA, but Rahm always wins because he organizes mega, He puts together progressives and [moderate] Blue Dogs. He knows how to win these coalitions, Israel said, referencing the caucus of centrist Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strategist has some doubts. This is a guy who used to do that, the strategist said. But we live in a different era. Amie Parnes covers the White House and presidential politics for The Hill. She is also the co-author of several bestsellers, including the recent Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. 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. Analyst resets Nvidia stock price target after CEO slams U.S. chip policy originally appeared on TheStreet. Jensen Huang does not hide his frustration with U.S. chip policies. On Nvidias latest earnings call, the CEO said the $50 billion market for AI chips in China is now effectively closed to U.S. industry. That followed the U.S. government's April decision to require Nvidias H20 processor, previously approved for China, to obtain an export license. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter As a result, the chipmaker booked a $4.5 billion charge for the fiscal first quarter, ended April 27, and added that it would have recorded an additional $2.5 billion in revenue without the restriction. The H20 export ban ended our Hopper data-center business in China, Huang said. Related: Palantir's stock price surges on AI news, gamma squeeze Nvidia wasnt the only company caught in the geopolitical crossfire. Hours before its earnings report, shares of chip-design firms Cadence (CDNS) and Synopsys (SNPS) slid after the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration had told them to stop selling software to customers in China. Nvidia is the top supplier of graphics-processing units, which are essential to power and train large AI models worldwide. China remains a key market for Nvidia, accounting for 13% of its sales in the past financial year. To adapt to the new rules, the company plans to launch a cheaper AI chip for the Chinese market, with production set to begin as early as September, according to Reuters. Year to date, Nvidia stock is up 3.65% while the S&P 500 Index is up 0.52%.Image source: Chih/Bloomberg via Getty Images Policy tensions grow, but Nvidia keeps climbing While Huang has long warned that export controls could hurt U.S. chipmakers, some experts argue that policymakers could hardly reverse course as broader national-security interests justify the tradeoffs. U.S. semiconductor policy isnt about one firms earnings or market access its about protecting Americas strategic edge in a high-stakes geopolitical contest, Dewardric McNeal, managing director at Longview Global, wrote on CNBC. Related: Analyst resets Nvidia-backed AI stock price target after 200% surge Sometimes that means stepping back from markets that were never going to remain open anyway, he added. Even so, Nvidia stock (NVDA) performed well. The stock rose 3.25% to close at $139.19 on May 29 a sharp contrast to the previous quarter, when it plunged 8.48% after the company reported earnings. Back in 2022, Huang cautioned that U.S. export controls could significantly harm Nvidia by restricting its ability to sell advanced chips to China. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Tecumseh High School will host its graduation ceremony slightly later than expected. Tecumseh Local Schools announced that the high school graduation ceremony will be on Saturday, May 31 due to expected wet weather. 2 NEWS is showcasing the Class of 2025 from across the Valley! The ceremony was initially scheduled for today, but was pushed back to one of the two available rain dates on the school calendar. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All times and activities will remain the same, we are simply shifting the date to our rain date. The weather for Saturday looks beautiful and we want to ensure a wonderful time for our Class of 2025, along with their friends and families, the district said in the post. 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. Unlike other midwestern states, Wisconsin does not boast a large number of top-ranked colleges and universities. While Illinois, for example, houses three of U.S. News' top 35 national universities in the country, Wisconsin has just one school in the top 40 and two in the top 100. This list specifically focuses on national universities within the state. It does not consider national liberal arts colleges, regional colleges, or regional universities. Thus, schools such as Lawrence University (liberal arts), Beloit College (liberal arts), the Milwaukee School of Engineering (regional), UW-Eau Claire (regional) and UW-La Crosse (regional) are not included. Related: Big Ten schools ranked academically by U.S. News for 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. News defines a national university as a school that "offers a range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs, and emphasizes faculty research or awards professional practice doctorates." That differs from a liberal arts college, which "focuses almost exclusively on undergraduate education and awards at least 50% of its degrees in the arts and sciences," and a regional university, which "offers a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs." Wisconsin has only five national universities ranked within the top 330. Here is how U.S. News ranks those five, led by the University of Wisconsin -- Madison. 5. Concordia University National ranking: No. 329 (tied) Tuition and fees: $34,250 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enrollment: 2,525 (fall 2023) Acceptance rate: 68% Location: Mequon 3 (tie). University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee National ranking: No. 315 (tied) Tuition and fees: N/A Enrollment: 18,428 (fall 2023) Acceptance rate: 95% Location: Milwaukee 3 (tie). Edgewood College National ranking: No. 315 (tied) Tuition and fees: N/A Enrollment: 1,220 (fall 2023) Acceptance rate: 99% Location: Madison 2. Marquette University National ranking: No. 86 (tied) Tuition and fees: $51,170 Enrollment: 7,652 (fall 2023) Acceptance rate: 87% Location: Milwaukee 1. University of Wisconsin -- Madison Bascom Hill is shown Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at the UW-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin.Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel National ranking: No. 39 (tied) Tuition and fees: $42,103 (out-of-state), $11,603 (in-state) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enrollment: 37,817 (fall 2023) Acceptance rate: 43% Location: Madison Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Where UW-Madison ranks among US News top-ranked colleges in Wisconsin May 30A tick-borne illness typically found in the Northeast is moving farther south, and the Baltimore region is one of Maryland's hot spots, according to a study released last month. Cases of babesiosis, a rare disease most commonly spread by bites from deer ticks, are growing in Maryland and the mid-Atlantic region, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, and so is the range of ticks infected with the parasite that causes the disease. While the idea of a new tick-borne disease to watch out for can be worrisome, researchers are aiming to ensure that residents and health care providers are informed about the illness and its growing threat in the area, especially as summer approaches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's not a freak-out issue because we can diagnose it and we have a cure," said Ellen Stromdahl, an entomologist who worked at the Defense Centers for Public Health's vector-borne disease laboratory in Aberdeen. "It's an awareness issue." Stromdahl was one of nearly two dozen researchers who collected and tested ticks in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, looking for ones that carried the parasite that causes babesiosis. Less than 3% of the deer ticks researchers tested were found to be infected with the parasite, according to the study. Maryland's Eastern Shore and the Baltimore region are hot spots for ticks carrying babesiosis, the study says. Many people with babesiosis don't feel sick or have symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but some may experience flu-like symptoms such as a fever, chills, sweating, body aches, appetite loss, nausea or fatigue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Symptoms may start a week after being infected, but typically develop over the course of a few weeks or months. The illness can be worse even life-threatening for older people or for those who have weakened immune systems. "It's rare, but if it's overlooked, the consequences can be really bad," Stromdahl said. The number of reported cases of babesiosis in Maryland remains low, though data from the Maryland Department of Health show an increase over the past decade. Baltimore County's 'unprecedented infestation' of midges: What to know In 2023, for instance, there were 29 reported babesiosis cases in Maryland a jump from seven cases in 2022 and 13 cases in 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lyme disease, Maryland's most common tick-borne illness, is far more prevalent, with 2,463 probable cases reported in 2023. Some symptoms of Lyme disease can be similar to babesiosis, but the two illnesses are treated differently, Stromdahl said. Related Articles All international travelers should get measles vaccinations, CDC says Canadian wildfire smoke may bring 'red haze' to Baltimore on Tuesday Exercise boosts survival rates in colon cancer patients, study shows Early detection, constant communication key in dealing with prostate cancers RFK Jr. says autism 'destroys' families. Here's what those families want you to know Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doctors generally prescribe antibiotics for Lyme disease. But if you're still sick even after taking antibiotics, it may be time to return to the doctor and ask about babesiosis, Stromdahl said. How to stay safe If you spend time outside in grassy, bushy or wooded areas, wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. When you come inside, check your clothing and body for any ticks. And if you find a tick, remove it quickly using tweezers. You can dispose of the tick by putting it in a sealed bag or submersing it in alcohol. If you're bitten by a tick, you can save it to show to a doctor, too, Stromdahl said. Have a news tip? Contact Natalie Jones at najones@baltsun.com. Originally Published:May 29, 2025 at 6:22 PM EDT OVERLAND PARK, Kan. More details were revealed on Thursday, May 29, about the mortgage purchase an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals made on the old Sprint Campus, now known as Aspiria. The team confirmed the news with FOX4 on Wednesday, but said no stadium decision has been made yet. According to the Kansas City Business Journal, Occidental Management, which owns the property northwest of 119th and Nall, needs to make a more than $232 million loan payment by August 9. ACLU accuses Leavenworth facility of breaking the law, violating ICE detainees rights Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Levy Craig Law Firm Real Estate Attorney Tracey Steele said on Thursday that the Royals affiliate didnt buy this mortgage to give the borrower, Occidental Management, better loan terms. They have their own agenda for the property. We dont know if they actually want to build a stadium there or if this is about leverage in negotiating with lawmakers, you know, both in Missouri and in Kansas, Steele said. When the Royals confirmed the affiliates mortgage purchase Wednesday, the team said they still had not determined where they wanted to build their new stadium. Steele says that if Occidental Management cant make that payment in two and a half months, the property could be foreclosed on. The Royals affiliated entity, theyre not a bank, but they are the lender, Steele said. Theyre the holder of the mortgage. Theyre the entity that has security interest in this piece of property, so if they foreclose, they will get the deed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The August 9 timeline falls after the Missouri Legislature returns for a special session where a stadium package will be discussed. It also falls after the Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) Bond package expires on June 30 in Kansas. The STAR Bond package can be extended for another year. Steele says the affiliated entity buying the mortgage on the property allows the Royals to talk to Missouri lawmakers about the opportunity that they could have in Kansas. They can say, We have this Special STAR Bond that we can use to incentivize this development in Overland Park,' he continued, talking about the Royals. We have a piece of property in Overland Park that we dont own yet, but we have an interest in that land that may turn into full ownership of the land in August, so if you dont give us a sweet deal to develop somewhere in Missouri, we already have bird in hand in Kansas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kansas Policy Institute Chief Executive Officer Dave Trabert says he hopes Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council (LCC), made up of State House and State Senate leadership, does not extend the STAR Bond offer. The LCC can do that without having the full State House and State Senate vote on it. Lawrence police searching for person who stabbed elderly woman It would be sad if they did, given that this is the same legislature that was unable to do property tax relief as they promised for individual property owners, some of whom are being taxed out of their homes, to turn around and give billion-dollar subsidies to private entities. [That] would be a real slap in the face, as well as bad economic policy, Trabert said Thursday when asked about the possibility that the LCC extends the STAR Bond package. FOX4 reached out to the office of LCC Chair and Republican State Senate President Ty Masterson Thursday afternoon to see if they were interested in extending the STAR Bonds. Mastersons spokesman said that an extension would most likely be short-term and would be decided at a date closer to the deadline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmers attack on Nigel Farage to shore up Labours standing in its traditional working-class heartlands has appeared to fall on deaf ears, with the party losing to Reform UK in a local by-election in the ward of Lliedi in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. An impressive victory in the south-west of Wales, Reform UK won 43 per cent of the vote share in Lliedi with Labours plunging to just 23 per cent, a drop of 35 percentage points. There wasnt much good news for the Tories, with theirs dropping into single digits, registering just seven per cent. The new councillor, Michelle Beer, is the wife of Gareth Beer the Reform UK candidate who came within 1,505 votes of unseating the sitting Labour MP for Llanelli, Dame Nia Griffith, at last years general election. The result in Lliedi follows Reforms gain at Labours expense last month in a local by-election for the Bridgend ward of Pyle, Kenfig Hill and Cefn Cribwr in south Wales. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But why is the governing party losing its grip on these Welsh heartlands? There are a variety of factors at play one being Welsh Labours spectacular mismanagement of the National Health Service (with healthcare being a devolved responsibility). According to a recent report produced by a group of independent experts, there is a high risk of increasing patient harm if there is not an urgent improvement and turnaround in the Welsh NHS with emergency care and cancer treatment cited as areas which needed addressing. While Labour has sought to blame the previous Tory government for troubles with the NHS in England, it has nowhere to hide in Wales, which has had a Labour First Minister since the creation of the Welsh Assembly. However, the ongoing small-boats emergency on the English south coast cannot be overlooked, with its reverberations now impacting on local politics in the south of Wales. Llanelli recently witnessed protests over the four-star Stradey Park Hotel being pencilled in as a venue to house 207 asylum seekers, with the Home Office eventually u-turning on the matter. But the damage has been done, with established communities in Welsh towns knowing that they have been eyed up by Whitehall for the relocation of illegal Channel migrants. With Labours smashing the gangs strategy failing miserably and the Tories having lost all credibility over immigration, Reform UK are well positioned to cash in electorally on this front. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reforms spectacular surge in the recent English local elections, which saw the party gain council control in Durham and Doncaster, shows that Farages turquoise army is more than capable of parking their tanks on Labours red lawns. Labour is running the risk of an electoral bloodbath in Britains traditional Left-wing heartlands at the hands of an insurgent challenger party of the Right which is led by a man who once wanted to keep the Thatcherite flame alive. Rather than go on the attack, Starmer would be wise to undertake a serious period of reflection. 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. (NewsNation) An independent expert who tested the area around East Palestine, Ohio, following a toxic train derailment and fire says residents were misled about the health dangers they faced. Scott Smith blames regulators for not doing a deep enough dive into contaminants that linger following the February 2023 catastrophe. Now, hundreds of residents have filed a lawsuit claiming there was a conspiracy to deny them health care as they exhibited signs of illness. Its pretty simple: I say, you cant find what you dont look for, Smith, president of nonprofit testing firm Blue Shirt Justice League, told Elizabeth Vargas Reports on Thursday. My heart totally goes out to the residents, and to gaslight these residents in East Palestine is just unacceptable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Erin Brockovich: $600 million settlement not enough for East Palestine Smith said he did 31 rounds of environmental testing during 27 trips to East Palestine. I found a mixture of chemicals unprecedented, from dioxins to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to persistent chemicals, that do not go away, that build up in your body, he said. Smith contends corporations and captured government agencies tend to collude following environmental disasters like the one in Ohio. He said hes hopeful the Trump administration sets things right, following a visit to the site by Vice President JD Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin earlier this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. (Photo by simpson33 via iStock / Getty Images Plus) State regulators have reinstated the license of an Iowa insurance agent who was convicted of falsifying records that resulted in increased commissions. State records indicate that in February 2024, Country Mutual Insurance notified the Iowa Insurance Division that it had fired one of its agents, Pablo Castillo of Norwalk, for allegedly submitting forged documents that he had created to establish clients eligibility for coverage and to provide them with discounts on home insurance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was alleged that in order to sell an auto insurance policy to three separate consumers, Castillo fabricated letters from another insurance company to falsely suggest each of the consumers had no prior gaps in their insurance coverage. In a fourth case, Castillo allegedly fabricated a letter from State Farm Insurance to explain a consumers involvement in two accidents. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Douglas Ommen is Iowas insurance commissioner. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Insurance Division) Castillo was also accused of fabricating roofing invoices from fictitious businesses for at least four clients as a way of enhancing the value of any subsequent claims related to roof repairs. In October 2024, the Iowa Insurance Division charged Castillo, 38, with engaging unfair, deceptive and dishonest conduct. Division records indicate that at a hearing on the matter, Castillo admitted falsifying the records, explaining that he did so to ensure his clients would be covered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Iowa Insurance Commissioner Douglas Ommen subsequently suspended Castillos license for 30 days, stating that he found Castillo to be a sincere, well-intentioned individual with generally good moral character. In November 2024, Polk County prosecutors charged Castillo with fraudulent sales practices and felony insurance fraud for falsifying records so he would earn commissions on his sales that would otherwise be denied by the company. In April 2025, Castillo pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor tampering with records. He was sentenced to two years of probation, fined $855 fine, and granted a deferred judgment that will seal any court records related to the conviction upon the successful completion of probation. Earlier this month, the Iowa Insurance Division ordered that Castillos license be reinstated. Pursuant to the 2024 suspension order, Castillo will be required to file with the division a periodic summary of his work in the business of insurance. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE By Trixie Yap and Shariq Khan SINGAPORE/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Asia's jet fuel exports to the U.S. West Coast are expected to hit at least a one-year high in May, according to shiptracking data and three trade sources, as refinery outages in California boosted prices and import demand. The exports for May, mostly from South Korea, are pegged at nearly 600,000 metric tons (4.28 million barrels), according to shiptracking data from Kpler and estimates from two of the sources. The exports were last at similar levels in February of last year, the Kpler data showed. "The main reason behind the increasing volume of imports into the USWC region is primarily associated with unexpected outages in local refineries," said consultancy Wood Mackenzie's research analyst Rodrigo Jacob. The surge in imports comes at the start of the American summer travel season, potentially impacting travel costs and highlighting the vulnerabilities of U.S. West Coast supply. Motorist association AAA said near-record numbers of domestic airline passengers were expected to have flown over the May 22-26 Memorial Day holiday period this year. This years forecast represents a 2% increase over last year and is just shy of 2005's record of 3.64 million passengers, AAA said. Outages at refineries in California owned by PBF Energy and Valero Energy since early this year have limited overall U.S. West Coast fuel production. [REF/OUT] "These outages combined with a decline in local inventories, drove local prices higher and triggered increased interest from traders in sourcing cargoes for import, predominantly from North Asia," Jacob said. ARBITRAGE The strength in U.S. jet fuel prices against Asia's opened the arbitrage window last month, traders said. The spread averaged more than $17 a barrel in April, Reuters calculations showed, while the average cost of chartering a medium-range vessel carrying 300,000 barrels of jet fuel for the roughly 30-day voyage was $5.50 a barrel, ship broking data showed, providing a good margin for Asian sellers. In the near term, strong jet fuel supply from China could depress benchmark prices in Singapore and keep arbitrage export trade to the U.S. open, said Matias Togni, an analyst at market insights provider Next Barrel. China's jet fuel exports hit a 13-month high in April, official customs data showed, while industry estimates for May volumes were above 2 million tons. "China prioritised jet fuel above other products in their export quotas, flooding Singapore storage tanks and forcing South Korea to redirect their flows towards the U.S. West Coast," Togni said. Almost nine months after the U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for a Texas family of four whose boat capsized off the coast of south-central Alaska, officials announced their vessel and human remains have been recovered. The discovery was made possible after three private Alaskan companies volunteered their services in April, including the use of sonar equipment for underwater searches, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Public Safety on Wednesday. Earlier this month, they found the missing boat along with human remains in 180 feet of water in Kachemak Bay near Homer, 220 miles southwest of Anchorage, the department said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Volunteers from Alaska Dive Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team and Alaska Wildlife Troopers were then able to recover three sets of remains from the sunken vessel during dives on Tuesday and Wednesday. David Maynard, 42, Mary Maynard, 37, Colton Maynard, 11, and Brantley Maynard, 8, were reported missing (GoFundMe) The remains have been taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office to perform autopsies and identify them, according to the public safety department. It did not say how long identifying the remains would take. The missing family from Troy, Texas, includes David Maynard, 42, and Mary Maynard, 37, along with sons Colton, 11, and Brantley, 8, according to the statement. Next of kin have been notified as volunteer search teams continue to recover a fourth set of human remains, troopers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alaska State Representative Brad Buckley expressed both grief and relief over the discovery, stating that while it does not make the loss of the Maynard family any easier to bear, there is relief in knowing that they will be able to be laid to rest in a meaningful way. Mapped: Kachemak Bay The search for the family was launched after reports that a 28-foot aluminum boat carrying eight people had begun taking on water on August 3, 2024, about 16 miles west of the Homer Spit, the U.S. Coast Guard said at the time. Other ships in the area were notified of the situation, and a boat nearby rescued four people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Coast Guard scoured Kachemak Bay and Alaska search and rescue crews tried to use sonar equipment to find the family, according to the state's public safety department. They were not successful and, by the next evening, the search was suspended pending the development of new information. Kachemak Bay (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) In October, several months after the Maynards disappeared, an Alaska jury reportedly declared the family of four dead. Days after the disappearance, a GoFundMe was launched on August 6, 2024, with the family expressing hope of bringing their loved ones home. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God, wrote Tanashea Aviles, who organized the fundraiser, which raised more than $21,000 to support the relatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Christi Wells, who provided a statement on behalf of Mary Maynard's parents at the time, said the family enjoyed spending time with friends and relatives, and traveling, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Mary Maynard was a traveling nurse and David Maynard stayed at home with the children and had a lawn care business, she said. (NewsNation) A whistleblower recently told NewsNation that a Biden-era loan forgiveness program meant to help farmers was only provided to minorities, and passed over anyone who was white. The whistleblower from the U.S. Department of Agriculture pointed to Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided loan relief for socially disadvantaged farmers. It provided race-based loan forgiveness, granted only to those who qualified as socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers. White farmers from across the country later sued in federal court and alleged that the act was race-based and violated the equal protection clause under the Constitution. The judge in that case later found the loan forgiveness program was an actual constitutional harm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CDC told health providers not to treat after East Palestine derailment: Lawsuit GOP Rep. Mark Alford from Missouri joined NewsNations Elizabeth Vargas Reports to talk about the loan program. He said it was not right, and equal weights and measures are needed when providing help for all farmers. The USDA needs to get back in the business of helping farmers, Alford said. Our farmers are going out of business. We are losing 1,000 farms a month, and our food security is national security. Alford added the program is highly illegal, and called it reverse discrimination. He also said he would be working to find out if farmers in his district were affected by the Biden administrations program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is ridiculous, farmers are hardworking people and they sacrifice so much to grow corn and soybeans in my district, Alford said. We should not be withholding aid simply because of their skin color. 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. (NewsNation) State Department head Marco Rubio announced the agency would be moving forward with its plan to revoke the student visas of Chinese nationals at universities. According to a statement from Rubio, the State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to revoke visas, and the agency would also be revising the criteria for visas to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong. The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields, Rubio said in a post on social platform X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge blocks Trump administration from revoking Harvard foreign students enrollment Mao Ning, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China, called it a politicized and discriminatory move that contradicts the freedom and openness the United States touts. GOP Florida Rep. Greg Steube joined NewsNation Now on Thursday to discuss the Trump administrations student visa crackdown. He said it was a step in the right direction to ensure the country is safe. Were free and open for our citizens; were not free and open for the No. 1 national security threat to the United States, which is the Chinese Communist Party, Steube said. I applaud Secretary Rubio for taking this measure. I think all the student visas in this country should be examined if theyre coming from countries that put their national security before ours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steube said he and other Republicans in Congress are in the process of drafting a bill that would not allow Chinese Communist Party members to come into the Department of Energy or have access to U.S. nuclear sites because of national security risks. 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. Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency reach into a car to pull Edgardo David Campos out on May 9, 2025 in Nashville. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell continued to serve as a social media target for federal officials Thursday over his response to the mass detainments of immigrants in Nashville earlier this month. On Thursday a Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs accused OConnell of harboring immigrants without legal status and doxxing immigration enforcement agents echoing comments made by Tennessee 5th District Congressman Andy Ogles the day before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It certainly looks like Mayor OConnell was involved in some sort of obstruction or the harboring of criminal illegal aliens in the great city of Nashville, Tricia McLaughlin said in a media interview posted on the official X account of the Department of Homeland Security. But also just last night his office put out the names of Homeland Security investigators and doxxed our ICE enforcement officers, she said. They claimed it was a mistake. Theres zero chance it was a mistake and there will be repercussions. Late Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security published a list of cities, counties and states across the nation it said were deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. The list came with this demand that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. Nashville and Shelby County in west Tennessee, the county seat of Memphis, appear on the list, which was entitled Sanctuary Jurisdictions Violating Federal Immigration Law. Neither Nashville nor Shelby County have adopted so-called sanctuary city policies, which are barred under Tennessee law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The accusations against OConnell center on a longstanding executive order requiring city departments to report interactions with immigration officials. OConnell revised the order in early May to require the reporting to take place within 24 hours. The revision took place in the midst of a joint operation by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which led to the detainment of nearly 200 immigrants during traffic stops in South Nashville, a diverse neighborhood that is home to many of the citys immigrant communities. The majority of those detained had no criminal records. The mayors order requires all emergency and some non-emergency city agencies and officials to report any interaction with federal immigration to the Mayors Office of New and Indigenous Americans, a department created to foster civic participation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The department posted a spreadsheet with summaries of the interactions on its website. As of Wednesday, there were 35 interactions reported between city officials and immigration authorities in May. One entry identified an ICE analyst by first name. Two others listed the full names of Homeland Security Investigations officials. A fourth entry listed the full name of an immigration supervisor. By Thursday morning, the names had been removed from the citys website. A statement from the mayors office said the names had been posted in error. It is not the normal practice to include the names of individuals in EO30 (the executive order) reporting. Any names mistakenly included have been removed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Questions to the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday to clarify McLaughlins comments about repercussions for the mayors actions went unanswered. The public comments about OConnell by federal officials came a day after the announcement by White House border czar Tom Homan that as a result of OConnells public stance against the mass enforcement actions multi-agency immigration crackdowns could soon return to Nashville. Well flood the zone in the neighborhoods to find the bad guy. Well flood the zone at work sites to find the bad guy, but were going to do it, and hes (OConnell) not going to stop us, said Homan, the White House executive director of enforcement and removal operations. Earlier this week, Ogles held a press conference to denounce OConnell, a Democrat, for aiding and abetting illegal immigration. Ogles accused the Nashville mayor of obstructing the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, citing OConnells public statements and executive order. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) A new report said the University of Rhode Island is strategically positioned to expand the states primary care physician workforce by developing a public medical school, though there are still unanswered questions about how it would work. The overview, authored by medical education consulting firm Tripp Umbach, was presented on Friday to the R.I. Senates special legislative commission to study the states health care workforce. Founder and president Paul Umbach said Fridays report was a concept overview and that a draft feasibility report would be done sometime this summer. The Senate passed a resolution in June that created the 21-member panel, which is also tasked with analyzing the potential of establishing a medical school at URI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With over 300 additional primary care providers needed statewide, and nearly half of the current physicians nearing retirement, the situation has reached a tipping point, the report said. RELATED: Hundreds more physicians needed to address RI primary care shortage While Rhode Island has been home to Brown Universitys Alpert School of Medicine since 1972, no other medical schools have been established in the state. The report noted that Browns medical graduates also primarily pursue specialties rather than primary care. A study published last year in the Rhode Island Medical Journal also found that out of 106 medical students who did their residencies in primary care during the 2022-23 academic year, just 15 planned to practice primary care in Rhode Island after graduating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The consultants said if the school were to have a program that emphasized primary care and community-based training, it would not only help to retain more graduates in the state, but would also generate economic growth, research activity, and healthcare access improvements. URI offers a strong foundation for a new school of medicine through its existing pharmacy, nursing, and health sciences programs, which provide infrastructure, interprofessional education opportunities, and established clinical partnerships, the report said. These programs offer existing infrastructure such as simulation labs, research facilities, and experienced administrative teams, which can be shared to reduce startup costs and streamline operations. The report also highlighted how URIs existing clinical partnerships and rotation sites developed for nursing and pharmacy students could accelerate the development of clinical training placements for medical students. These programs also help establish academic pipelines, encouraging students from related fields to pursue medical education through pre-med tracks and early assurance programs, the report added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In February, the university announced that it earned an R1 designation in the latest Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The university said the designation signifies that URI has achieved the highest level of research activity, which was measured by the number of doctoral degrees awarded, in addition to the amount of spending dedicated to research and development. Tripp Umbach said that designation significantly enhances its capacity to attract top-tier faculty, research funding, and high-caliber students. With strong stakeholder support and backing from the state government, URI is strategically positioned to lead a transformative effort to expand the physician workforce and improve healthcare equity across Rhode Island, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the report noted that critical challenges remain, like securing funding, expanding clinical training capacities, and managing potential resistance from existing institutions. The authors said incentives like loan forgiveness and tuition reimbursement would help attract more applicants. The long-term benefits of addressing Rhode Islands physician shortage outweigh these hurdles, the reports authors added. No time not to act: Neronha unveils plan to confront RI health care crisis The report also pointed out that creating a medical school at URI would yield substantial economic benefits, including job creation, research funding opportunities, and advancing Rhode Islands biomedical sector. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Typically, the annual operations of a public medical school in the early years of development have an economic impact of approximately $150 million and supports approximately 1,000 jobs directly and indirectly, the report said. The firm concluded that each physician whos trained, completes residency, and remains in the community has an annual $2.2 million economic impact and supports 15 jobs directly and indirectly. The reports authors said that what remained unclear is how the state would secure clinical training sites, attract local students, and establish sustainable financial and legislative support for the proposed school. Where would clinical training take place? The report said in order to ensure there are clinical training sites, URI has to secure partnerships with a broad array of health care providers across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These institutions can serve as anchor institutions for clerkships, residencies, and potentially faculty recruitment, the report said. ALSO READ: What to do if Brown Health, UnitedHealthcare dont strike a deal Additionally, Tripp Umbach recommended that URI should try to leverage both community hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers across the state to fulfill rural and primary care training requirements. The reports authors said they believe there is sufficient training capacity in the state for a medical school class of 100 students. How would the school attract students from Rhode Island? The report suggested that the school should use a multi-faceted, mission-driven recruitment strategy, in addition to emphasizing a strong commitment to training physicians who will serve within the state, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One way the school could attract students is with tuition incentives or offering student loan repayment for graduates who practice in Rhode Island post-residency. How much will developing a public medical school cost? Tripp Umbach said the estimated capital costs to create a school would be approximately $125 million. The firm said its projection was based on recent benchmarks from comparable institutions, including the University of Central Florida, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. In an effort to manage both cost and efficiency, the authors said URI should consider locating the new school within the existing health science infrastructure at the university or designing a phased construction plan. Tripp Umbach concluded that start-up costs to launch the school, like curriculum development, accreditation, recruiting founding faculty and marketing, were projected to be about $90 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A private lead donor will be instrumental in generating momentum and credibility for the campaign, catalyzing broader philanthropic support, the report said. Additionally, the report said to ensure long-term financial sustainability and quality programs, the school would need $20 million in annual state operating revenue, plus a recurring state budget line item for operational support, with a recommended annual appropriation of $25 million. In all, the report concluded a new school would cost $225 million in the first 10 years of development and operation, but noted that financial figures may change after a final analysis. The commission is scheduled to issue its own recommendations to the Senate by the end of the year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NEXT: Mediated talks between Butler Hospital, striking staffers stall again 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. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. TAYLOR COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) A Taylor County teen called police on a woman he says crawled into his bedroom window after he hired her for an act of prostitution then threatened him after he shortchanged her $17. Sky Gutierrez was booked into the Taylor County Jail for Sexual Assault of a Child Wednesday in connection to the allegations. Court documents state a 16-year-old male told police he contacted Gutierrez on a website that was selling sex, and she agreed to meet him if he paid $150 for the sex acts and $50 for gas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gutierrez then met the teen at his house, entered through his bedroom window, and engaged him in multiple sexual activities, according to the documents. The teen paid Gutierrez $183, which was all the cash he had, and the documents state she didnt count the money before she left, and the next day, she began threatening him over the missing $17. After receiving the threats, the documents state the teen called police and advised them Gutierrez had committed a child sex crime and was promoting prostitution online. Gutierrez now remains held in the Taylor County Jail on a $50,000 bond. 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 KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. The Republican Party is joining President Donald Trump in becoming our country's biggest bullies. Bullies pick on people smaller and weaker than they are ("House passes Trumps big, beautiful bill, May 23). Their big beautiful bill strips $625 billion from Medicaid, which will lead to 7.6 million Americans losing health insurance over the next 10 years, cuts $300 billion from SNAP and continues Trump's war on immigrants. Their beautiful bill gives the big tax breaks to the wealthy while increasing our country's debt by $3.8 trillion. Not only does the Grinch reside in Congress, but Republicans are incapable of feeling or expanding their hearts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mary Maronek, Mt. Pleasant Opinion: We asked readers about arrest of Milwaukee Judge Dugan. Here's what you said. Letters: US economy has consistently performed better under Democratic presidents Tips for getting your letter to the editor published Here are some tips to get your views shared with your friends, family, neighbors and across our state: Please include your name, street address and daytime phone. Generally, we limit letters to 200 words. Cite sources of where you found information or the article that prompted your letter. Be civil and constructive, especially when criticizing. Avoid ad hominem attacks, take issue with a position, not a person. We cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions. We don't publish poetry, anonymous or open letters. Each writer is limited to one published letter every two months. All letters are subject to editing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Write: Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 330 E. Kilbourn Avenue, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI, 53202. Fax: (414)-223-5444. E-mail: jsedit@jrn.com or submit using the form that can be found on the on the bottom of this page. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Beautiful bill' gives tax breaks to wealthy, increases debt | Letters From left to right, House Speaker Julie Fahey, former Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, and Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, speak in support of House Bill 2006, which would cap the number of bills a lawmaker could request be drafted for consideration in the Oregon Legislature. (Shaanth Nanguneri/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Despite bipartisan support for an Oregon bill limiting the amount of legislation a lawmaker can introduce every session, the measure has angered some prominent Republican lawmakers, who called it a partisan power grab during its first committee hearing. Three of the bills leading supporters Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, former Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, and House Speaker Julie Fahey argued in front of the House Committee on Rules on Thursday that the number of bills the Legislature has had to consider in the past session has been overwhelming. They described the onslaught of reviews staff and legislative analysts must conduct to draft legislation as swamping the public with excessive bureaucracy that impedes good governance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each bill takes staff time, legal review, printing, scheduling, said Fahey, D-Eugene. Thousands of taxpayer dollars go into processing bills that dont become law or even get here. What were talking about today being more focused and deliberative in how we introduce legislation isnt about stifling good ideas. Its about improving the system. House Bill 2006, introduced in mid-April by six Democrats and five Republicans, would cap individual lawmakers to requesting 25 drafts during the 160-day long sessions in odd years. Lawmakers have historically limited bills in the 35-day short sessions in even years in 2024, for instance, lawmakers could introduce two bills apiece. The number of bills lawmakers have been considering in the past years has increased steadily, particularly during odd years. This session, legislators have introduced more than 3,400 pieces of legislation since February. Republicans on the committee, however, said further limits on the legislative process would continue to shut them out of opportunities to pass legislation in the minority. The new bill revives another limitation effort that popped up after the last time the Oregon Legislature saw a record number of bills introduced nearly 3,300 in 2001. At that time, lawmakers considered similar restrictions that eventually failed in the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I routinely propose bills that are similar to other bills in the building and the only reason for that is because my district wants me to have that voice, said House Republican leader Rep. Christine Drazan, R-Canby. And what ends up moving is the Democrat bill time and again. Other provisions of the legislation include allowing 400 bills for state agencies and the governor to introduce, 15 bills for each legislative committee, 25 apiece for the secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer and commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, and 100 for the Judicial Department. The Joint Ways and Means Committee is excluded from the bill. The bill wouldnt preclude sponsors from introducing more than 25 pieces of legislation if, for instance, another sponsor requested the drafting from legislative counsel. Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, said the idea of bill limits is great, but that the bill is extremely problematic. She noted that the legislation would allow for the Senate president and speaker of the House to authorize additional measures for members or committees. Combined with the 400 measures the governor and state agencies could introduce, thats a problem, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You have the majority party being able to authorize, she said. Theres no limit on that. The opposition to the bill doesnt fall squarely along partisan lines, however. One Democrat has called the bill capricious and warned of unintended consequences for lawmakers. The meager number of vehicles would more than likely accomplish the following: increased authority for the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and most policy committee chairs, wrote Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, in a Wednesday letter to the committee. He has filed the most bills this session as a single lawmaker over 300. This will exacerbate the power differential between leadership, policy, and budget specialists. During the hearing, however, Fahey said she agreed that 400 bills for state agencies and the governor was an excessive estimate, though it was not clear how far shed be willing to lower the limit. Another Representative, Jason Kropf, D-Bend, said that even 300 bills would be going too far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We use the exact same limits and language in the bill, with two exceptions, increasing the baseline number of bills from legislators to 20 to 25 and the number of committee bills from 10 to 15, Fahey told the committee. This drafted bill will go into effect in the 2027 session. Back in 2001, that bill had bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition, and I fully expect that this bill will have the same. Passing the legislation would make Oregon the 14th state in the nation to put explicit laws on the books that restrict the amount of bills a legislator can introduce. The bill would essentially make the maximum number of bills per session on an odd-year at least 2,850, if each lawmaker, committee, agency, state official and the governor introduced the maximum number of bills they are allowed under the legislation. Because the Joint Committee on Ways and Means is excluded from the legislation, that number is likely an undercount. Another piece of legislation, Senate Bill 1006 by Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, would limit introductions of bills to committees and legislators, preventing agencies from introducing legislation. It has been parked in the Senate Committee on Rules since March. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Republicans in the United States Congress are pushing for an increase in taxes on US universities, under a new bill championed by President Donald Trump that narrowly passed in the House of Representatives last Thursday. The bills supporters argue that a provision relating to higher educational institutions is crafted to target woke universities. Universities have taken a hit from Trumps executive orders and decisions aimed at changing education and immigration in the country, alongside cracking down on pro-Palestine protests that took place on US college campuses last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new tax plans aim to increase taxes on what US universities earn from their endowments. So, what exactly is an endowment? An endowment refers to funds or assets donated to a university to keep it financially sustained in the future. Endowments typically comprise charitable donations from alumni, other donors and companies. The bill before the US Congress sets tax rates for universities based on their effective endowments per student by dividing their total endowments by the number of full-time students at the institution. Earnings from investments made from endowments will be taxed, if the bill becomes law. Have universities been taxed so far? Most colleges have not been taxed on their endowments for centuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Revenue Act of 1909 exempted educational institutions as nonprofits which operate for public interest exclusively for religious, charitable, or educational purposes. As a result, educational institutions did not pay taxes on their investment gains. This changed during Trumps first presidential term. In 2017, the US Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which introduced a 1.4 percent tax on colleges with per-student endowments of at least $500,000, and at least 500 students who paid tuition. Hence, the tax applies only to some of the wealthiest institutions in the country. This endowment tax generated approximately $380m in 2023, from 56 universities that met the taxation bar. What do Republicans want to do now? On May 22, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed, with a 215-214 vote, what Trump and the legislations authors have called the One Big Beautiful Bill. Within this bill is a proposal to raise taxes on elite universities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The proposal is tiered, and aims to levy a tax of: 1.4 percent on investment returns of institutions that have a per-student endowment of more than $500,000 but less than $750,000. 7 percent on institutions that have a per-student endowment of more than $750,000 but less than $1,250,000. 14 percent on institutions that have a per-student endowment of more than $1,250,000 but less than $2,000,000. 21 percent on institutions that have a per-student endowment of more than $2,000,000. These percentages apply to universities that had at least 500 tuition-paying students in the previous taxable year and where 50 percent of their full-time tuition paying students are in the US. Universities identified as qualified religious institutions are exempt from this tax. The proposal was drafted by Republican legislators in the Ways and Means Committee, the oldest tax-writing body in the House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For too long, universities have received beneficial treatment from our tax code while disregarding the interest of taxpayers, Jason Smith, Missouri Republican and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said shortly after the bill passed. A fact sheet released by Smith says the tax holds woke, elite universities that operate more like major corporations and other tax-exempt entities accountable. The bill is now headed to the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats and Democrats hold 47. It is unclear when the vote will take place, but Trump is urging Republican senators to promptly pass it. On May 22, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: 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! How many colleges could be affected by this? An investigation by The New York Times found that at least 58 schools could potentially be affected by this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Major universities could fall under the highest tax slab. In the 2024 fiscal year, Harvard Universitys total endowment was worth approximately $53.2bn the largest of any university. There are 24,596 students at Harvard, which means the per-student endowment is $2.16m. That means it will have to pay a 21 percent tax if the bill becomes law. Yale Universitys endowment is valued at $41bn and the university has 15,490 students, bringing the per-student endowment to about $2.7m. While the institute currently pays the 1.4 percent tax, it too will have to pay a 21 percent tax if the bill becomes law. Likewise, Stanfords endowment is $36.5bn and it has 17,529 students, making the per-student endowment about $2.1m. While the institute currently pays the 1.4 percent tax, it will have to pay a 21 percent tax if the bill becomes law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By contrast, University of Pennsylvanias total endowment was $22.3bn as of June 2024 and the institute has 24,219 full-time students, making the per-student endowment $920,764. While the institute currently pays the 1.4 percent tax, it will have to pay a 7 percent tax if the bill becomes law. But because the bill determines which universities are taxable based on per-student endowments, it isnt just big schools that will be affected: Even smaller private institutions, that previously paid 1.4 percent tax, might now have to pay much more. Pomona College in Claremont, California, had a total endowment of $3bn in 2024, of which the institute uses 5 percent each year. The university says 60 percent, or $36m, of financial aid at Pomona is covered by endowment, which also covers about half the institutes operating budget. It has 1,747 students, which means Pomona has a per-student endowment of $1.7m. Until now, it paid a tax worth 1.4 percent of the endowment; if the bill passes, it will be taxed at 14 percent. Can this be enforced? If the bill passes in the Senate, Trump is almost certain to sign it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the version of the legislature that makes it out of Congress might be different from the one passed by the House. Even if the Senate passes the tax, its possible that they change the amount of the tax and the criteria for its application in the process, said Emily Saulnier, editor-in-chief of the Boston College Law Review, a publication at Boston College Law School. Centrist and conservative Republicans in the Senate are divided on the bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged Republican senators to revise it as little as possible. If Senators pass a revised version, the House will need to vote on that new text for it to be passed onto Trump, who will then sign it into law. Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson has opposed the bill in its current form, arguing it will increase the national deficit, which is the difference between the amount of money the federal government spends and the amount it earns through revenue. Johnson said the House bill would add $4 trillion to the deficit. In 2024, the deficit was $1.83 trillion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul raised similar concerns during a Fox News interview on May 25, saying while he supports parts of the bill, it would explode the debt. But if the bill does pass and is signed by Trump, it will apply to all colleges and universities that meet the conditions set in the legislation, Saulnier said. How have universities reacted? This legislation presents a greater threat to Yale than any other bill in memory, Yale President Maurie McInnis said in a statement released on May 22. The endowment tax places more financial burden on students by making college less affordable. Taxing schools reduces the revenue available for financial aid, she wrote, adding that the endowment tax will undermine the countrys global leadership in technology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a faculty meeting in 2024, Harvard President Alan M Garber called a raise in endowment taxes the threat that keeps me up at night. How did we get here? The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked higher education institutions, alleging they fail to curb anti-Semitism, or for illegal and immoral discrimination in the form of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes. Last year, pro-Palestine protests and encampments sprang up in several US universities, including Columbia, Yale, New York University (NYU) and Harvard. On January 29, Trump signed an executive order titled Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, ordering executive department heads to submit a report on all criminal and civil authorities and actions available for fighting anti-Semitism. A day after he signed this order, Trump was quoted in a White House fact sheet, saying: To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before. Trump has since frozen federal funding to several universities, including Columbia and Harvard. With that funding at risk, universities are even more reliant on their endowment funds to sustain the research they conduct. However, endowments are subject to restrictions and donors decide how most of the endowment is spent. In Harvards case, donors decide where 70 percent of the annual endowment distribution is spent. On May 22, the Trump administration revoked Harvards certification to enrol any new foreign students. This move has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. On Tuesday, the government ordered US embassies abroad to stop scheduling new visa interview appointments for foreign students and exchange visitors, according to an internal cable seen by news agencies. A recent study by the University of Colorado at Boulder revealed elevated levels of mercury in Colorado mountain wetlands. Lead author of the study Hannah Miller, a CU Boulder and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Ph.D. student, explained that these findings are climate-driven and "starting to get more attention." What's happening? The planet is getting hotter. Glaciers and permafrost in the mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado, are melting, exposing rocks and dislodging minerals that contain a form of sulfur called sulfate. Sulfate is flowing downstream into local watersheds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Researchers from CIRES are studying the impact of sulfate on the area and confirmed that the elevated levels have caused an increase in a strong neurotoxin called methylmercury. Methylmercury can accumulate up the food chain and cause several health concerns for humans. This research is brand-new, so there are a lot of unknowns. Why are elevated methylmercury levels important? Researchers know that toxins in runoff can alter the balance of the ecosystems they affect. This issue is having a huge impact, according to Phys.org. The North Boulder watershed has seen a 200% increase in sulfate concentrations over the past 30 years, and similar evidence has been documented in over 150 bodies of water globally. Methylmercury is the most toxic form of mercury, and the conditions in the wetlands are optimal for it to flourish. The study shows that the difference in vegetation is a factor in methylmercury production. Moderate sulfate concentrations resulted in the highest levels of mercury. Too much or too little, and the levels are lower. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our findings show there is a risk and raise important questions about how this toxin may impact the communities and wildlife that rely on that water source now and in the future," Miller said. What's being done about the toxic methylmercury levels? Researchers are continuing to study the runoff and subsequent rise in methylmercury levels so they can better understand how to prevent or slow the process and how it affects ecosystems and human health. We can take action to reduce our impact on the planet by getting involved in local community efforts. Taking steps to reduce waste, limiting the use of single-use plastics, switching to more eco-friendly methods of transportation, installing solar panels, upgrading appliances in our homes, and shopping secondhand are just a few ways to help. The warming of the planet is the catalyst for increased methylmercury levels in Colorado. "It's a really interesting climate-driven signal," Miller added. 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. Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets: Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas. Telegram's blockbuster deal with xAI, which would see Elon Musk's AI company integrate into Telegram and the two firms share revenue, is still a work in progress despite an announcement from Pavel Durov earlier Wednesday, U.S. time, that the deal was inked. TON, a token affiliated with Telegram's ecosystem, is trading at $3.30, rallying there from $3 after the initial now refuted announcement of the partnership was made. The token is down from an earlier high of $3.68, after Elon Musk posted on X that no deal had been signed between the two companies. TON is still up 11% on the day, according to CoinDesk market data. While Durov has now confirmed that no deal has been signed, the Telegram founder said there is an "agreement in principle" which might be why TON still has significant support at the $3.30. All eyes will be on Telegram and xAI as the Asia business day begins to see if more clarification comes from either side. (CoinDesk) Decentralized BlueSky isn't a Web3 Company, Says CEO VANCOUVERJay Graber, the CEO of fast-growing decentralized social media platform Bluesky, got her start in Web3 as a developer for privacy coin zCash, but she wants to keep her X competitor firmly in Web2. Speaking at Web Summit in Vancouver on Wednesday, Graber argued blockchain technologys permanence and resource-intensive design make it unsuitable for consumer-oriented social networks, where content is fleeting and personal. Jay Graber, CEO, Bluesky, speaks at Web Summit in Vancouver (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile) Why do you need your picture of what you post for lunch being maintained forever in this digital archive? she asked on stage, highlighting the inherent scalability and cost limitations that drove her decision to avoid blockchain at Bluesky. Graber, to be sure, isn't against crypto. She says there's still genuine value in the technology for things like payments and digital identity, even if sometimes Web3 often presents solutions in search of a problem, and has a trend of gravitating towards centralization. Theres a period where everyone was creating blockchain like this hammer, and we were just going to try blockchain for everything, Graber said. Every system that's trying to do it ends up with concentrations because it's easy, and convenience ultimately wins at the end of the day." For her, Bluesky's future lies in combining the ideals of decentralization, such as user autonomy and portability, with practical, Web2 infrastructure to create a platform that prioritizes users' needs. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) The remaining residents at the Sycamore Townhomes in southwest Lansing are pushing the federally-appointed receiver to give them more time and more money to leave the property, deemed unsafe and hazardous. The residents need another two months to be able to safely relocate, and they need $3,500 to $5,000 in order to relocate, says William Lawrence, secretary of Rent Is Too Damn High. Were in an economy where if you put down deposit and first months rent, thats $3,000 right there. And were talking about application fees. Were talking about the costs of moving moving expenses. And then the lost wages that people are suffering, having to deal with the situation, child care they may have to get in order to be able to, you know, deal with the housing search, especially right when schools ending. The situation Lawrence references dates back months in court proceedings and years in housing safety compliance issues and concerns. City officials sued the New Jersey-based owners of the property in court seeking a receiver. The entry to the leasing office of Sycamore Townhomes. (WLNS) A receiver is a court-appointed official, usually an attorney, who oversees the restoration of a business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on the record before the court, including the documentary evidence and testimony presented at the evidentiary hearing, the Court finds that the conditions at Sycamore have been, are currently, and absent judicial intervention will continue to be incompatible with human health and safety, Judge Jane Beckering of the U.S Federal District Court Western District of Michigan, Southern Division wrote in her Sept. 18, 16-page decision and order appointing John Polderman as receiver. Polderman sought approval from the federal court in February to initiate a $15 to $16.5 million improvement plan for the property. In her April 10 order approving Poldermans plan, Bickering concurred that relocating all the remaining residents from the approximately 350-unit property was necessary. She approved offers to residents who were current on rent to assist in relocation costs and $1000 to move, plus security deposits. The city of Lansing has filed for the appointment of a receiver for Sycamore Townhomes in southwest Lansing. (WLNS) Late Thursday afternoon, Polderman told 6 News he has agreed not to pursue court evictions against residents currently on the property until June 20. Hes also agreed to forgive back rent for anyone who voluntarily vacates. Lawrence tells 6 News that residents are happy with concessions from Polderman. He says they are looking forward to further conversations with the receiver in the coming weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Polderman tells 6 News that around 50 units remain occupied, representing between 60 and 70 people facing an imminent deadline to move in days. Poldermans April filing and update to the court in Grand Rapids, representing the month of March, shows 60 residents owed over $218,000 in unpaid rent obligations and were facing eviction proceedings in Lansings 54-A District Court. Those records show one tenant owed $18,784.18. The lowest amount was just over $177. When Polderman took over operations in September, he says he was not given access to all the records from the company. We have some some of those records we have, some of those we dont, he says. So when I took over in September, I received some records, but I would not say they were complete or full records. So, some of the weve had to try to reconcile and its been difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While some residents seeking an exit route from the unsafe housing at Sycamore may have provided a security deposit, Polder says he did not receive an account for the security deposits. Previous photos from Sycamore Townhomes Construction debris piled in front of the leasing office at Sycamore Townhomes and Apartments. (WLNS) One of many buildings in Sycamore Townhomes and Apartments complex in south Lansing that is red-tagged as unsafe by city officials. (WLNS) One of 146 red tags on units are Sycamore Townhomes and Apartments in South Lansing. (WLNS) A door to a townhome at Sycamore Townhomes and Apartments apparently kicked in. (WLN) The same building from file photos that showed a kicked in door. Now the townhome in Sycamore Townhomes is boarded up. (WLNS) Boarded up townhomes in Sycamore Townshomes in Lansing. (WLNS) The destroyed contents of a home dumped at the back of the Sycamore Townhomes complex. (WLNS) A boarded up townhome in the Sycamore Townhomes. (WLNS) A building in Sycamore Townshomes showing roof damage. (WLNS) Michigan rental laws require landlords to put security deposits in a separate banking account and inform renters of the name and address of the financial institution where the money is being held, the Michigan Legal Help webpage of the Michigan State Bar Foundation reports. In press events, activists like Lawrence from The Rent Is Too Damn High, and residents have claimed some the residents facing eviction had put their monthly rental payments into escrow. Escrow is a legal tool for tenants to pay their rent, but withhold it until a landlord addresses concerns about the property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Polderman says only two residents have provided evidence that they have an escrow account, and he is considering allowing those residents to use that money as part of their housing relocation funding. More on this story Apartment complex owners ordered to pay nearly $50K in fines Lansing property owners from New Jersey miss court fine deadline City asks court to put Lansing apartment complex in receivership Federal judge orders troubled townhomes into receivership Lansing officials react to receivership order at Sycamore Townhomes Dumpsters removed from troubled Lansing housing complex Troubled Lansing housing complex tenants would be removed before renovation, Mayor Schor says He says about half of the remaining residents are paying rent and are current with payments. Thats a requirement under the court order for residents to obtain moving assistance and the $1,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some, you know, are in good standing and some are not in good standing, Lawrence from The Rent Is Too Damn High says. But were not here to play good tenant, bad tenant. The fact is, these are all human beings, and they all need the help to be able to relocate. Doug Fleming, executive director of the Lansing Housing Commission, tells 6 News his agency had 34 people with Housing Choice Vouchers formerly known as Section 8 renting at Sycamore in October. All but five have new housing, he tells 6 News. He also tells 6 News it was initially difficult to work with the receivership, specifically in obtaining references for residents to use in preparing to move to other locations. He says his agency stopped paying subsidies on May 1, when the April 29 30-day notice to quit was mailed to residents on the voucher system and other residents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fleming says that for the 60 to 70 people remaining in the complex, finding housing is going to be extremely difficult. The reason? A housing shortage in the city and region. This lack of housing and difficulty in finding a place to move to is fueled by the urgency to move within the 30 days required in the notice letter from Polderman, says Lawrence, the advocate. So, absolutely, that was not enoughnot enough notice, says Lawrence. Theres hearsay, theres this place may have to get shut down. Theres obviously, if you look around and look out here, you can see that it hasnt been a good situation. And so people have wondered whats going to be happening. But moving is expensive. People have their families out here. People have their friends and neighbors out here. And so some people havent wanted to leave, and other people havent had the means to be able to leave. Lawrence, whose organization has been involved in a deep way for the last three weeks, says there has been a communications failure by the receiver and particularly the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frankly, it should have been the city that put in place a comprehensive relocation, you know, case management plan months ago, he says. If the city knew that this was going to be happening. There should have been an organized plan to with all the tenants, figure out who had which needs in which situations and prevent people from falling through the cracks. That was utterly failed. Whoever was supposed to take responsibility for that did not do so. And thats why were here in the 11th hour trying to pick up the pieces and get people that support they deserve. Scott Bean, spokesman for the city of Lansing, sent this statement to 6 News responding to the criticisms. City officials have been actively involved and onsite for the past four years. When the receiver was first appointed in September 2024, representatives from Code Enforcement, HRCS, the Mayors Office, Refugee Development Center, and the Lansing Housing Commission knocked on all doors with the Receiver over the course of 8 days in an attempt to reach everyone there and provide information and resources. Since then, city officials have remained involved and on-site daily monitoring ongoing serious building conditions and health hazards while also engaging with residents. The Receiver has informed the city of its plans to invest up to $16 million to renovate this complex and bring back online nearly 340 rental units. The Receiver is required to provide notice to residents under the court order. We are encouraged that the Receiver is going to transform this complex and make it safe for hundreds of families once again. Polderman, the receiver, says he thinks there has been appropriate communication throughout the process. Lansing City Spokesman Scott Bean, email May 29 The management company posted notices on everyones door. Theres been multiple news stories about the situation at Sycamore. Weve had 24-hour security thats on site at all times over the past month. We did have someone in the office a few hours as well, Polderman tells 6 News. So, I do believe that there has been communication. Theres been a phone number. Theres been an email for residents to call. 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. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) Public input is pouring in on the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) latest proposals to reroute the The LOSSAN (Los Angeles San Diego San Luis Obispo) rail corridor along Del Mars deteriorating coastline. A large crowd turned out Thursday night at a music venue on the Del Mar fairgrounds to hear from project managers and share their thoughts, which will ultimately help SANDAG further refine how the project will evolve over time. It comes after SANDAG released a new Notice of Preparation on May 16, teeing up a 30-month environmental review process which will eventually lead to a report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was actively playing on the bluffs west of the tracks with my son who is 27 as he was growing up, and thats all gone, said local resident, Jack Jaeger. So, Ive watched 25 feet go in 44 years. Jaeger knows first-hand just how bad the coastal bluff erosion is near his 10th street home in Del Mar. He wants a seat at the table when decisions are made to realign the rail lines. Up for debate are four options undergoing further study by the SANDAG Board of Directors. What were looking for in this project is to make the lines safer, efficient and resilient, said Keri Robinson, SANDAGs deputy director of Mega Projects, Border, and Goods Movement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One option would involve tunneling under Camino Del Mar, while another would move the tracks from the San Dieguito bridge to Interstate 5, also involving some tunneling. Theres also the option to tunnel under Crest Canyon or keeping the tracks where they are but adding double tracking. Or theres a no-build option, which would involve more stabilization efforts. I think its ludacris, absolutely ludacris, said Jaeger. Darn near legally actionable for them to maintain the tracks on the bluffs. Opinions vary widely on the best way forward with the multi-billion-dollar project. I think it makes more sense to go under Camino Del Mar, said Gary Hoffman, who lives on the outskirts of Del Mar on Racetrack View Drive. It would be easier, faster, less money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said if the tracks move close to where he lives, noise is a major concern. So, Id rather see it some other place, which is kind of what everybody wants not in my backyard, Hoffman continued. The public will have until June 30 to provide comment on the four realignment options. Other ways to share your feedback include the following: Email: lossancomments@sandag.org Mail: SANDAG, Attn: LOSSAN Comments, 1011 Union St., Ste 400, San Diego, CA 92101 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. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Theres no age limit when it comes to serving others. Thats what one Walker Homes resident believes after spending his retirement years doing what brings him joy helping others. People living in the Walker Homes neighborhood know that when they see this truck parked at the corner of Rochester and Mitchell, theyre in for a treat. Photo by WREG Photo by WREG The chef behind the meal is 67-year-old Robert Campbell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I retired about 10 years ago, and I work more now than I ever did since I retired, said Campbell. Having lived in the community his entire life, Campbell is known among residents primarily for his food truck. She is the hero: Woman donates kidney to childhood friend When he first opened the food truck roughly 11 years ago, he sold the food and gave the leftovers away. However, that business plan didnt last long. A lot of people was glad to get it. So, for the past ten years, I just go right up there on the corner of Rochester and Mitchell and Id just give it away, Campbell said. Every holiday, Campbell buys tons of food using his senior citizens card, spends days preparing the meals by himself, and then gives it away to anyone who pops up at his truck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And people talking about You love to cook?. No, I dont because when you cook, you got to cook everything right because if I mess up one time theyre going to say Aww man, I got some bad stuff,' he said. See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid-South. Sign up for WREG newsletters and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. Campbells cooking isnt the only thing hes known for. He also has a lawn care service, and much of the work he does is free as well. Some days I might just say I just feel like blessing some people, because I know when you do good, good follows you, said Campbell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Campbell says the desire to give and serve others was ingrained in him by his mother. And he says even though hes retired, he has no plans on slowing down. When am I supposed to get old? I dont know. I dont feel it, he said. I just like doing it, and Im blessed. 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. Today the stereotypical anthropologist sits all day philosophizing about the most basic human interactions while waiting for layers of ethics committees to approve any contact with real people. But anthropology was once a swashbuckling, adventurous field, built around freewheeling interactions with alien peoples in far-flung lands. Ursula Graham Bower was one such early anthropologistand boy did she swashbuckle. In 1937, she left Britain to visit a friend in the colonial government of India. Instead of finding a husband, as she was expected to do, Bower fell in love with Nagaland, a hilly and unruly frontier zone where her friend was stationed. She spent a decade doing full-time anthropological research there. Although Nagas had a strict gender hierarchy, Bower became an "honorary man" to them by showing off her rifle skills on the hunt. Then Japan invaded the British Empire in 1942. Bower partnered with a Naga leader named Namkiabuing to form "V Force," a special operations unit that battled Japanese infiltrators. Everyone involved expected to die. The men of V Force went into battle wearing their funeral beads, and the Japanese army put a bounty on Bower's head. But she survived the war and became a celebrated author in Britain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Intrepid Women: Adventures in Anthropology, a coffee table book published jointly by Oxford's Bodleian Libraries and Pitt Rivers Museum, is filled with characters like Bower. Makareti was a Maori noblewoman who built up New Zealand's tourist industry and became a high-society celebrity in the 1900s before beginning serious academic work on Polynesian culture. Elsie McDougall was a widow who, with no academic training, became a world-class expert in indigenous Central American textiles and survived a 1935 shipwreck. These stories of a more adventurous time are illustrated with photos of strange and beautiful artifacts from the museum. The post Review: The Wild Adventures of Women in Anthropology appeared first on Reason.com. Read our liveblog for the latest on Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedys war on health care in the U.S. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who just a few weeks ago told the American people, I dont think people should be taking medical advice from me, is now dishing out vaccine recommendations for pregnant people and children. Youve likely heard about the video he posted on X, formerly Twitter, which was accompanied by the caption today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommended immunization schedule. Going against Kennedy, though, the CDC on Thursday published its new recommendations and still suggest the vaccine for children. But, in line with Kennedys X announcement, the COVID vaccine is no longer recommended for pregnant people, according to the CDC website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is all confusing and, particularly if youre pregnant, its only natural to be worried. But its not currently clear what this will actually mean for the vaccine come fall when the new formulation is available. Reproductive rights are under attack. HuffPost is committed to reporting the truth, amplifying voices, and covering this fight with depth and care. Support our work by joining our membership program today. The first thing I do want to tell every reader is that the ACIP, or the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is still going to meet in June, and I think this is important to remember because although RFK sidestepped really what is a decades-long practice of having independent reviewers review all the science and then make a vaccine recommendation ... the ACIP could potentially disagree with RFKs blanket statement, Dr. Anita Patel, a pediatric critical care doctor in Washington, D.C., told HuffPost. Also, since Kennedy did not qualify this change with science-backed reasoning, Patel is hopeful that this decision could be overturned. Suffice to say, you shouldnt panic, but you should take this threat seriously. Doctors spoke with HuffPost about why this move is dangerous, what you can do to advocate for vaccine access and how to stay healthy if you cant get the jab come fall: First things first: A COVID infection is more dangerous for pregnant people and babies. Kennedys announcement of the removal of the COVID vaccine from the recommended vaccination schedule for pregnant people and children is a strange move for many reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When we really look at who would benefit from COVID vaccines, we do really see value in continuing to vaccinate pregnant women and babies, particularly young children who have never had a primary series, said Dr. Lori Handy, the associate director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. The vaccine is important for pregnant people because theyre immunocompromised during pregnancy, Handy said. More, when pregnant, the physiology of how your heart and your lungs work changes because [your body] redirects a lot of your blood flow to the placenta to support the fetus, and that makes COVID infection more risky for pregnant moms, Handy added. Beyond the health of the pregnant person, the COVID vaccine also benefits the growing fetus. When a pregnant person gets vaccinated, they then pass those antibodies on to the fetus, she noted. And we know that children under 1 are hospitalized at rates second only to people over age 75. So, theyre the second most hospitalized group to the elderly, which really states just how significant the infection is for babies and how important it is to get them protected, Handy said. The COVID vaccine also reduces the risk of stillbirth and preterm labor, Patel said. Get in touch with your elected officials to voice your frustrations. [People who] really want to continue to have access to vaccines, the key thing they could do right now, actually, is talk with their local, state and federal legislators, let them know Handy said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Please advocate for us and help protect this resource, because we want to have it available even if the guidance changes. ... We want to make sure that vaccines stay available for all of the people that want it, Handy said. Your voice matters, and this fight isnt over, Patel said. It is also important to remember that the representatives, whether its a congressperson or a senator, they work for you, Patel noted. You can directly call or email your elected officials and let them know you arent going to vote for them again if they dont fight against the COVID shot restrictions. So, using language that is very literal and deliberate, saying I will not vote for you if you support this decision to rescind the recommendation regarding COVID-19 vaccinations for pregnant individuals and people under 65, Patel said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And I really, I really believe in this process, because although we havent been able to overturn everything, there has been a lot of movement in these executive orders and unlawful announcements, and that is because of the voice of the American people, she said. Patel added that the Trump administration is trying to upset us. They are trying to paralyze us so that we cant act, and if us as a society and us as a populace in America allow them to do that, we will lose our voice. But if we continue to push back, we will not, Patel said. COVID-19 infections can cause severe complications in those who are pregnant. FatCamera via Getty Images If you do want a COVID shot, there may be some loopholes. With regard to pregnant individuals, although the administration has taken the stance against vaccinating pregnant persons against COVID, their doctor, whether its their OB or their primary care doctor, can still say My patient is at high risk for adverse outcomes secondary to COVID-19, and therefore it is medically indicated for this patient to receive the vaccine, Patel said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And the truth is that RFK actually allowed for that loophole in his announcement when he said that they will continue to cover the vaccine for vulnerable populations, Patel said, and added that inactivity is one of the underlying conditions that can make you eligible for the jab. So there are a lot of underlying conditions that people may not even realize are on that list. This administration is creating lots of chaos with its inflammatory and scary decisions, but those decisions havent necessarily trickled down yet into a sphere in which they are appreciably affecting peoples ability to get the vaccine, Patel said. I cant say whats going to happen once the ACIP has met, but at this moment in time, children can still get the COVID-19 vaccine ... and as long as an OB-GYN appropriately justifies the indication for the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant persons, that pregnant person should still be able to get it, Patel noted. If your doctor does not agree to give you a COVID-19 vaccine, Patel recommends that you seek out a second opinion. If you cant get a COVID vaccine this fall, heres what you can do to protect yourself. There are things you can do to protect yourself if a worst-case scenario unfolds and pregnant folks arent able to get the COVID-19 vaccine come fall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you are in any way at risk of a more severe outcome from respiratory infections, wear a mask when you go to crowded places, Handy said. You should also practice good hand hygiene washing your hands regularly and using hand sanitizer when youre out and about. People should worry about COVID, but also flu, rhinovirus, all of these infections can make people, particularly pregnant people or immunocompromised people, very ill, and we want to keep those people safe, Handy added. When it comes to keeping babies, and particularly newborns, safe, Handy said she tries to surround them, essentially cocoon them, with other healthy people. This may look like turning away a sniffling babysitter or leaving a friends house when you notice their coughing 2-year-old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trying to stay around healthy people is just logistically hard in a busy life, but it does protect your child, particularly during winter seasons, when a lot more viruses circulate, Handy said. Its also important to get all of the other recommended vaccines for your baby on time, Handy noted. You can ask your pediatrician any questions you have about vaccines, but just recognize when your health care provider makes a recommendation for a vaccine in the first week of life, for a vaccine at 2 months of life, that is really done to give the baby the most protection they can. And changing that schedule or delaying just increases the time that that babys at risk, Handy said. So, if we do face a world where baby cant have COVID protection, making sure theyre protected from every single other thing, and then practicing those good infection prevention practices, is really the best well be able to do, Handy noted. Related... A Rhode Island man was charged by a federal grand jury for leading police on a chase and shooting at officers in Vermont. May 30OSWEGO The National The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Deepwater Shipwreck Expedition at Lake Ontario wraps up today, and the two-week mission has created stunning results with the help of a remotely operated vehicle making its inaugural dives. "This has been a first of its kind expedition in a sanctuary," said Holly D. Pettus, deputy expedition leader. "We've used the University of Rhode Island's brand new ROV, Rhody, to document shipwrecks in order to construct awesome 3-D models." The ROV was developed by the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The expedition set out on May 18 from Oswego aboard the 180-foot research vessel Lake Guardian, owned by the EPA. NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the University of Rhode Island's Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute collaborated on the project. "It's been so cool to take Rhody on its maiden voyage and to see it in action for the first time," said expedition photographer and videographer Marley Parker. "I've been impressed by how reliable Rhody has been in this expedition and it's been amazing seeing it get in the water and doing its thing all day, every day." A U.S. National Marine Sanctuary, managed by NOAA, is a zone where the marine environment enjoys special protection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary, designated last year, acts as an educational and cultural gateway between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean and protects culturally significant places, resources and artifacts integral to American history and the heritage of indigenous peoples. The sanctuary features a collection of 63 known shipwrecks and one known submerged aircraft, among the best preserved in the world, discovered over decades by local recreational scuba divers and shipwreck explorers. It ends just past Tibbetts Point Lighthouse in Cape Vincent, where Lake Ontario flows into the St. Lawrence River. Pettus and Parker, both from OCEI, spoke Wednesday during a live-streamed video of expedition highlights. They said 12 shipwrecks had been documented in the expedition, with a goal of 14. They were confident they would reach the goal by the end of the expedition today. "I've been so amazed by this team," Parker said. "When I first looked at the expedition plan and saw that it had 14 shipwrecks in two weeks, I thought there was no way we could do that. I've worked on a lot of ships and rarely worked on a team as tenacious as this one getting after it every day." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The expedition is a 24-hour operation, Parker added. "During the day, our ROV team is up early and getting the ROV in the water, first thing. We often do multiple dives in one day. They close up shop in the evening and then our mapping team comes online. The team has been imperative to making this expedition as successful as it's been. They have identified many new, previously undiscovered wrecks within this sanctuary and we've been able to pinpoint their locations with survey maps." Pettus said that with a team of skilled divers, it could take more than five days to explore and document a shipwreck. "Yesterday, we completed four dives," she said. "We are all systematic and have gotten into a great rhythm, and that's allowed us to move pretty quickly." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The expedition targeted shipwrecks not accessible to most SCUBA divers. "The typical recreational SCUBA diver can only go to about 120 feet," Pettus said. "A lot of the wrecks we've been going to are over 200 or 300 feet and sometimes much deeper." "Not to mention how much more efficient and quickly Rhody can make these maps and imagery happen, compared to humans," Parker said. Expedition technology, Pettus said, has rapidly advanced in the past two decades. Software developments have allowed the creation of 3-D models of shipwrecks with stunning accuracy. Another promising element is the ability to have Rhody remotely operated. For example, during it's Lake Ontario mission, it was controlled at one point by Jake Bonney at the University of Rhode Island. "In the future, it's going to look a lot different in another 10 or 20 years from now," Pettus said. "We're going to see a massive increase in remote piloting. That opens up all kinds of opportunities." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pettus said Rhody could be used for emergency response or to simply check out underwater architecture. "It's an instrument that can easily mobilize," Parker said. "I'm excited to look back years from now after Rhody has done multiple projects and maybe even some emergency response work and to look back and think, 'I remember when Rhody was brand new and on its first expedition.'" The Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute team will return home to Rhode Island after today. "Meanwhile, the marine archaeologists will spend hundreds and hundreds of hours reviewing and closely examining all of the data we've captured, because they are basically hunting for clues in the footage of what and where to find artifacts within these vessels that could help them to glean information about the exact identifications of some of these wrecks," Parker said. "This baseline information will help protect and preserve these artifacts on the bottom of the (lake) floor," Pettus said. "The small but mighty team at NOAA's office of Marine Sanctuaries are working hard to make sure all of these wrecks are protected, preserved and the ones that can be accessed will be properly buoyed, so the public can come out and enjoy these things as well." KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) The superintendent of Knox Countys juvenile detention center has announced he will be retiring this summer after Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs called him out for firing two employees in apparent retaliation. On Friday, Richard L. Bean announced he would be retiring from his role as superintendent of the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center effective August 1. In a release shared by a mediation center, it was cited that Beans intent to retire was hastened by Jacobs loss of confidence in his administration at the center. Jacobs released a statement on Beans decision to retire. Richard Bean dedicated a large portion of his life serving and assisting the troubled youth in our community. Thats something we should never forget. In the end, he recognized that the best way to continue helping was to step aside, and thats what he did. There is a reason his name is on that building, and when people drive by and see it, I hope they will remember Richard as I do a man who made some mistakes, like all of us do, but, in the end, chose to do the right thing. Knox County mayor calls out apparent retaliation at juvenile detention center Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The release cited a letter from Bean to the Chair of Trustees, John Valliant. In the letter, Bean was quoted as writing an employee of the Center that I believed was not only underperforming, but adversely affecting the day-to-day management of the Center, was fired. In a video released on Thursday, Jacobs shared that two employees, including the centers only nurse, were fired in apparent retaliation for reporting problems at the center. The move left the center without medical personnel and unable to meet state law requirements. On Friday, 6 News obtained a letter from Jacobs to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee which stated that he learned there were issues at the center with medication going missing, issues with medication reporting, a lack of medical protocols and documentation, and even medication going to the wrong detainees. Jacobs also said there was not an electronic system in place to track medication or health issues. The release announcing Beans retirement also shared that he noted the center has been understaffed, but he was working to recruit qualified personnel to help the Centers population of troubled and sometimes dangerous youths. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawsuit: Detention center unlawfully locked minors in solitary confinement for days Before his departure, Bean is looking to shapeshift the center, and he is willing to cooperate with any state agency assistance or oversite, the release stated. The document also said juvenile services across the state have been hampered by issues within the Department of Childrens Services. On Wednesday, Jacobs and Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Irwin met with Bean to demand the reinstatement of the two employees who were fired, and Bean complied, Jacobs said in his video statement. The mayor added that he also learned of information that suggests there could be other potentially serious issues. 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. May 29There's a lot of water in Richard. Not a big surprise, really. The tiny, incorporated area just beyond Sabraton on Earl L Core Road (W.Va. 7) sits in a floodplain. Except the water is always there. Rain, no rainit doesn't really matter. There it is, pooling in places it's not supposed to be, like basements, driveways and backyards. Exactly what, or who, is causing the problems and exactly what can, or should, be done about it depends largely on who you ask. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When it comes to the water in Richard, there's also a lot of disagreement. Chad Matheny, who operates Core Metal Roofing & Supply as well as two neighboring rental houses in the area, has been appealing to the Monongalia County Commission recently to try to get some answers. Matheny said he's been dealing with "extreme flooding " on his rental properties for the last two years or so. He applied for, and received, a permit to raise the elevation of the properties, but that permit was later pulled over concerns the fix would simply shift the water down the street. That concern was expressed by neighbors who said some of this problem originated when the current Core Metal Roofing property was similarly built up out of the flood plain. Matheny explained that was done prior to his involvement with the property, though he did clear and raise an adjoining parcel to be the business's parking lot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, Matheny went back to the county and received permission to dig a hole in order to explore what lies beneath his flooded yards. He found a decades-old, broken down terracotta storm drain. "This took excessive pumping. I have a three-inch trash pump that pumps over 200 gallons a minute. It pumped for approximately six hours to get caught up with the incoming water. If it runs out of gas for five minutes, it takes 30 or 40 minutes to catch back up, " Matheny said, explaining the water is running into his property from both directions. "Based on that, I feel there's approximately 200 gallons, per minute, of water coming out of this old drain tile." He said the water doesn't equalize until there's approximately two feet standing in the backyard. And when there's two feet in the yard, there's double that trapped in the basements. But neighbors, like Kevin Dailey, say the issue has nothing to do with terracotta pipe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You can't create a problem and then look around and say, 'Gee, how do we fix it ?" Dailey said, claiming much of the flooding problem can be traced to property owners improperly filling in a natural stream that helped pull water out of Richard. "This problem began and exists because the natural creek that ran at the foot of Eastgate Hill has been filled in and blocked due to three landowners in the community of Richard ..." Dailey said. "These landowners have added up to three feet of filler dirt without permits in a flood zone." When Dailey previously brought his concerns to the commission, the body told him it was out of their hands and that he needed to work with the floodplain coordinator. That's basically what was explained to Matheny on Wednesday. "The commission has indicated in the past that we're willing to be a participant in the solution down there. However, I don't know what the solution is. We don't have any jurisdiction over private property matters, " Commission President Jeff Arnett said. AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) This effort is part of Sheriff Eugene Brantleys plan to build the relationship between the sheriffs office and downtown business owners. Part of the new Downtown Safety Plan is to have at least two deputies on each downtown block of Broad street from 9pm-3:30am. This plan has been fully implemented, and one business owner says he has already seen the impacts. I think its pretty amazing to see how this is almost an overnight difference, in 6 months to have this difference of policing and the initiative that theyre trying to do and how theyre going about it is pretty amazing and you dont see this very often, said Dylan Pope, Augusta Business Owner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was a chance for business owners to be able to meet with and ask members of the sheriffs office any questions they had. Pope says its imperative for not only the sheriffs office but also the Augusta commission to speak and listen to business owners and residents. I think thats what weve all been talking about, the lack of communication, the lack of transparency in the past and to see that the commission wants to have these meetings, to see that the sheriff wants to have these meetings, it goes to show that were trying to make these steps in the right direction for a better downtown, Pope said. Pope continued to say, We all want a better downtown, and we all want downtown to grow in a positive and safe way and Sheriff Brantley and his staff have definitely given that route and have already made big changes in the last 6 months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Statistics show crime has decreased tremendously since Sheriff Brantley took office but he says there are always things they can improve. I think you could hear that what weve down thus far is better than what was previously being done. We still have some things we have to tweak and work on to continue to make downtown safer, said Eugene Brantley, Richmond County Sheriff. The sheriffs office plans to have these meetings every 4 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 WJBF. Key Points The Duquesne Family Office purchased Taiwan Semiconductor shares in Q1. TSMC is expected to deliver strong growth over the next five years. The stock still trades at an attractive valuation. 10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Individual investors should monitor the activities of some of the most successful investors. Billionaire hedge fund managers have access to more resources and information than individual investors, and following them is a great way to confirm decisions you've already made or generate ideas. One billionaire I follow is Stanley Druckenmiller, who runs the Duquesne Family Office. Every quarter, funds with more than $100 million in holdings must report their holdings at the end of the quarter. Then that information is made available to the public 45 days later in a 13-F form. The latest round of those was released on May 15 and included some valuable information. The Duquesne Family Office loaded up on my favorite way to invest in the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race: Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM), also referred to as TSMC. I think this is a genius move by Druckenmiller. Image source: Getty Images. TSMC is a neutral AI play The Duquesne Family Office didn't just buy some shares of TSMC; it loaded up. Prior to Q1, it owned just over 100,000 shares of the company. It has massively increased its position this quarter and now owns just shy of 600,000 shares. Its TSMC stake now makes up about 3.33% of its total holdings and is one of its 10 largest positions. So what makes it so bullish on Taiwan Semiconductor? TSMC is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, able to produce chips based on the unique designs of its customers. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, as this way clients don't need to maintain factories or spend resources on developing chip manufacturing technology, and TSMC doesn't need to design or market its chips. Based on how TSMC is positioned, the company doesn't need a winning AI technology to win the AI arms race; it just needs its clients to spend heavily on the computing power that fuels it. An investment in TSMC is a bet that the world will use more computing power and more advanced chips over time. That's a no-brainer, which is why the company is at the top of my list for best AI stocks in which to invest. Because of Taiwan Semiconductor's unique position of being a chip supplier to nearly every company involved in the AI arms race, it has unparalleled access to information about demand. Chip orders are placed years in advance, as evidenced by TSMC's Arizona factory already selling out production through 2027. So when management gives a projection, investors would be wise to listen. Rick Caruso Vows to Breathe Life Back into Fire Ravaged Pacific Palisades originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Rick Caruso vows to bring the fire-ravaged community back to life by inviting Angelenos back to Palisades Village early next year Courtesy of Connie & Stewart Photography Developer Rick Caruso - a longtime Pacific Palisades resident whose own home was damaged while his daughter's home was reduced to ash in the deadly and devastating wildfire that tore through his community - is vowing to breathe new life back into the beloved neighborhood perched above the ocean by reopening his shopping center. During a press conference in an active construction zone Wednesday, Caruso was flanked by fashion powerhouse Elyse Walker who lost her longtime flagship store to the wind-fueled flames as she announced she will rebuild at Palisades Village, the lifeblood of the neighborhood that was left largely unscathed by the January fires. Walker's announcement that her boutique empire - which began in the Pacific Palisades and now can be found on the trendiest streets of New York City and Newport Beach - will be a sprawling centerpiece in the revitalization and rebuilding of the area was a much-needed sign that the beloved community will make a strong comeback. One that Caruso believes could come as early as the start of 2026. "I knew that I wanted a store to feel like a home base within the community," she said. "More than a store, it was where friends & family got together to connect, celebrate and of course, shop," she said. "We fully intend to recreate the elysewalker experience at the Village and cannot wait to be back in our beloved Palisades community. Fashion powerhouse Elyse Walker will reopen her flagship store at Palisades Village when the beloved shopping center reopens in 2026Courtesy of Connie & Stewart Photography Caruso also announced that his company has already committed roughly $50 million to upgrade Palisades Village and improve the surrounding streets and sidewalks as residents who want to rebuild begin a return to their lives. He applauded Walker for her "shared determination to bring back the Palisades better and stronger." "When a retailer chooses to invest here, it is a powerful voice of confidence in a bright future," Caruso said. Reopening Palisades Village, a vibrant mecca of clothing, dining, and the arts, will be part of a dedicated effort to ensure that their "community remains a place where families flourish, businesses succeed, and neighborhoods thrive. Designer Elyse Walker and Developer Rick Caruso have vowed to "bring back the Palisades better and stronger" in a press conference announcing her new flagship store will be part of he reopening of Palisades Village Courtesy of Connie & Stewart Photography The Palisades Fire devoured nearly 37 miles of the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and claiming a dozen lives. Corrine Verdery, the CEO of Caruso, said that the company has made a long-term commitment to making Palisades Village a symbol of "resilience and optimism for the future" of the neighborhood. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles will on Saturday highlight the risk of a new cycle of nuclear proliferation in Europe and Asia, driven by China's rapid nuclear modernisation, Russia's strategic ties to North Korea and lapsed treaties. The Cold War arms control framework focused on numbers, warhead types and delivery systems is inadequate to grapple with the weaponisation of space, cyber and the ability to integrate nuclear weapons with autonomous systems, Marles is expected to tell the Shangri-La Dialogue, an Asian security forum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition," excerpts of his speech seen by Reuters say. In the speech Marles criticises Russia for threatening to use nuclear weapons in its conflict with Ukraine, which gave up its nuclear arsenal decades earlier, and says the probability Russia is transferring nuclear weapons technology to North Korea places "intolerable pressure on South Korea". "China's decision to pursue rapid nuclear modernisation and expansion, which aims in part to reach parity with or surpass the United States, is another reason the future of strategic arms control must be revitalised," he is expected to say. There is a risk of a new proliferation cycle that jeopardises the U.S. extended nuclear deterrence arrangement, he says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marles will repeat Australia's assurances that the nuclear powered and conventionally armed submarines it is acquiring from the United States in the next decade under AUKUS comply with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Defence ministers, senior military and security officials and diplomats from around the world are attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore from May 30-June 1. (Reporting by Kirsty Needham; editing by Giles Elgood) Dr. Robert Jarvik, who was a key designer of the first permanent artificial heart implanted in a human, died on Monday in his Manhattan home at age 79. Jarvik received his medical degree at the University of Utah, and the implant of the first permanent artificial heart took place at the school as well. The surgery became the subject of both public fascination and fierce debate over medical ethics. According to The New York Times, Jarviks wife, Marilyn vos Savant, said his cause of death was complications from Parkinsons disease. Who was Robert Jarvik? Jarvik was born in Midland, Michigan on May 11, 1946, and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. His father, Norman, was a physician who ran a family practice and his mother Edythe ran scheduling at the practice, according to The New York Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Growing up, he was a tinkerer who planned to study architecture but turned his interest to medicine after his father survived an aortic aneurysm, the Times obitury said. Norman Jarvik later died of a second aortic aneurysm. Jarvik attended Syracuse University before studying medicine for two years at Italys University of Bologna. Jarvik received a masters degree in occupational biomechanics from New York University and then moved to the University of Utah in 1971 where he completed a medical degree in 1976. Jarvik did not follow the traditional medical career path of internship and residency, because he was more interested in developing an artificial heart, per The New York Times. He married Vos Savant in 1985, who survives him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jarvik had two children, Kate Jarvik Birch and Tyler Jarvik, from his marriage to playwright and former Deseret News journalist Elaine Levin Jarvik, to whom he was married from 1968 to 1985. Vos Savant also has two children from a previous relationship, Mary Blinder and Dennis Younglove. Jarvik had five grandchildren. Dr. Robert Jarvik, developer of artificial hearts, speaks on Jan. 30, 2007, at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Jarvik donated the Jarvik 2000 FlowMaker and loaned the Jarvik 7 artificial heart, which was implanted in dentist Barney Clark in 1982, to the National Museum of American History. Clark lived for 112 days with the Jarvik 7, the first artificial heart implanted in a human. | Karen Bleier The first artificial heart Jarvik was on a team that worked with Dr. Willem Kolff, the director of the universitys Division of Artificial Organs, to design a series of mechanical hearts. One of them, in 1982, was implanted in a cow named Alfred Lord Tennyson, who survived for 268 days, setting a record for an animal. It was in 1982 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave permission to the University of Utah to implant a permanent artificial heart in a human. On Dec. 2, 1982, Dr. William C. DeVries led the surgical team that implanted the Jarvik-7 model in Barney Clark, a 61-year-old retired dentist. To encourage excellent work, Kolff put a students name on a version of the heart to which theyd made a significant alteration, which is how the heart became the Jarvik-7, as Deseret News reported. The surgery to implant the Jarvik-7, made of aluminum and plastic, lasted seven hours and afterwards Clark told his wife, I want to tell you even though I have no heart, I still love you, per the University of Utah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clark survived 112 days attached to a 400-pound air compressor roughly the size of a dishwasher which helped the Jarvik-7 pump blood through his body. He never left the hospital and the complications included seizures, kidney failure and a broken valve on the artificial heart. Clark died on March 23, 1983, of complications of a bacterial infection of the colon. The second and third patient lived 620 days and 488 days, respectively, after receiving the experimental heart. According to The New York Times, their survival showed that people could live long term on the plastic and metal device, but that the complications the recipients suffered impaired the quality of their lives and blunted initial enthusiasm for the heart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reporters from all over flocked to University of Utah hospital to cover the artificial heart. The news was celebrated by some, criticized by others. By the mid-1980s, medical ethicists and theologians were debating whether artificial hearts improved life or extended a painful decline toward death, per The New York Times. The Jarvik-7 was implanted in five patients as a permanent artificial heart and used hundreds of times as a temporary implant as patients waited for a donor heart. The FDA withdrew approval in 1990. Jarviks legacy In 2018, Jarvik was honored by United Business Media for Lifetime Achievement, according to The University of Utah. After leading Symbion, Inc., which was based in Salt Lake City, Jarvik founded Jarvik Heart, Inc. in 1987, based in New York. The company developed smaller, less obtrusive ventricular assist devices that helped pump blood from the hearts lower chambers to the rest of the body. The Jarvik 2000 is around the size of a C battery and its pediatric version, the Jarvik 2015, is about the size of a AA battery, per The New York Times. (Corrects spelling of 'INDONESIA' in media identifier; no change to story text) JAKARTA (Reuters) -At least 10 people in Indonesia's West Java were killed and six injured on Friday following a rock collapse at a quarry, the disaster agency said, with search efforts ongoing to find people buried beneath the rubble. The collapse took place in Cirebon in West Java, where television footage showed excavators working to move huge rocks and personnel moving bags containing bodies to an ambulance. Kompas TV earlier said about 10 people were missing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The national disaster management agency said heavy machinery, including three excavators, were also buried under rocks and operations would continue on Saturday. It gave no estimate on the number of people missing. West Java's governor, Dedi Mulyadi, on his Instagram account said the site was dangerous and "does not meet safety standards for workers". (Reporting by Dewi Kurniawati; Editing by Martin Petty) A Rocky Time in the White House For Elon Musk Comes to an End originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is stepping back from his government work after a major presence in the Trump Administration.Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images A destructive Tesla boycott, viral chainsaw video and alleged Nazi salute later, tech mogul Elon Musk is booking his ticket out of Washington. After months as a major player in the Trump Administration, from his part in co-creating DOGE to his key presence on the campaign trail, Musk announced that his time as a special government employee is over. The Tesla founder, who once called himself first buddy to the president, is distancing himself from the administration he helped build, being named the biggest political spender of the 2024 presidential campaign, donating almost $300 million. Im happy to be first buddy! Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2024 Musk said he is grateful to President Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, in a post on X yesterday. The announcement comes after a noticeable departure from Musk, who is putting greater focus on Tesla and SpaceX, while also shedding light on his own concerns for the president. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an upcoming appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, Musk shares some criticism of the big, beautiful bill his former partner is proposing, set to add $3.8 trillion to the current budget deficit. A bill like this can maybe be big or it can be beautiful, but it cannot be both, he explains in the CBS trailer. I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficitand undermines the work the DOGE team is doing, Musk said in the interview, airing Sunday, June 1. DOGE, a Trump-era branch of government, stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, which was put in place to streamline government operations and cut overall expenditures. The new initiative, started by President Trump just after his inauguration, appointed Musk special advisor and dedicated a spot for him as a special employee. His time with the president was a scheduled time, Musk said on X, where he was given just 130 days to make his dent in White House operations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump was offered the opportunity to fire back at Musks critiques of the bill, but he declined to comment directly; instead saying at the White House yesterday, Im not happy about certain aspects of [the bill], but Im thrilled by other aspects of it. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson are unveiling their plans to bolster housing development in the Rose City with a series of strategies, informed by a workgroup with multiple local stakeholders. This comes after the duo previously announced a plan to waive system development charges earlier this month. I believe in a vision for Oregon and for Portland where everyone can afford a home, where people can live in the places they want and still make ends meet at the end of the month, Governor Kotek said. Rolling up our sleeves together like this is how we are going to make that happen. Thank you to Mayor Wilson for convening this workgroup with me and to the developers who shared their experiences to guide these actions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Largest K-12 budget in Oregon history advances This past spring, Kotek and Wilson convened the Multifamily Housing Development Workgroup, which informed the leaders on recommendations to spur more multifamily housing construction. The workgroup members and attendees included multiple Portland City councilors, state housing officials, and people representing housing, construction and development organizations. One major focus in the slate of strategies is cutting down on the permitting process. Portland is open for business for housing, for opportunity, and for a thriving future, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said. By expanding Self-Certification and investing in office-to-housing conversions, we are cutting red tape and accelerating the creation of much-needed homes for Portlanders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the initiatives being adopted as part of the effort to accelerate multifamily housing construction include streamlining the permitting process, as well as increasing the number of permits for developers, converting some office structures into housing and allowing more affordable housing to be built. The plan also includes Kotek sending staff from the states Building Codes Division down to the Portland city level. They wont be replacing the city staff, but rather, working with them. Shes also ordered a mutual aid agreement between the state and the city to share the workload in the plan review process. Kotek said theyre focused on customer service. Our Building Codes Division staff will be helping the City of Portland achieve greater goals in the work that theyre doing. Its going to bring down the cost of construction, because when you get through your permitting, faster time is money thats going to help build things more effectively and more affordably, Kotek said. As part of Wilsons plan to bring back and expand the citys Self-Certification program, experienced developers would be able to certify on their own that their plans meet building codes and regulations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bypassing that review process should speed up construction. However, Wilson said the health and safety of the projects will still be front of mind. Life safety issues wont be self-certification. Were talking about window subsets. Were talking about glazing on windows that weve trusted our developers whove done thousands, if not tens of thousands of those jobs. We know that they can do it. They can deliver it as well. Gov. Kotek said its about looking at everything in the entire approval process and seeing if any steps can be shortened for the sake of streamlining development while still adhering to high standards. I think we can be smarter while also keeping people safe and our communities exactly where we want them. This is about not getting stuck in the paperwork that has been kind of grown over time. We can take some of those things off the table and still build good, safe affordable housing communities around the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When it comes to the states Building Code Division workers setting up shop at the city level, Kotek said this may be a valuable add-on and ally to Portlands needs during a tight budget. However, none of the state workers will replace any of the essential core services or jobs run by the City of Portland. Though the previously announced plan to waive system development charges has to be formally approved by Portland City Council in June, may council members have already expressed being united on the plans. 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. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) The man accused of killing his landlord who was also his roommate during an argument about his eviction was identified by police as Christopher Rainey. The victim, whose identity is expected to be officially released by the Clark County Coroners office at a later time, was found inside the home Thursday afternoon suffering from gunshot wounds. Another person who lives in the home wished to remain anonymous but said that the victim had been a friend for the last 15 years, dating back to their years living in New York. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was my friend, and he didnt deserve to die like this, the roommate said. The victim died at the home, which is located in the 3600 block of North Campbell Road near West Gowan Road in northwest Las Vegas. Rainey, 36, faces murder and assault charges, according to Clark County Detention records. A roommate said Rainey had lived at the home for two years and described him as quiet. He kept to himself, the roommate said. He was a creepy, sneaky, son of a [expletive] up there, stockpiling bullets in his room. According to a resident at the house, Rainey recently lost his job and was behind on rent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was asked what was going on, and he just snapped, the roommate said. Las Vegas Metropolitan police said the victim served Rainey with an eviction notice that caused Rainey to become upset, and after a brief verbal exchange, he shot the victim several times. Las Vegas man shoots, kills landlord who attempted to evict him, police say According to police, a person who lived at the house called 911 to report the shooting. In all, four roommates lived in the home, including the victim who was also the landlord. Rainey was taken into custody without incident. Rainey was expected to appear in court Friday, but did not appear. Hes next due in court on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Who doesnt love getting a giftespecially one thats meaningful and well thought out? So naturally, it was fascinating to see the kinds of gifts presented to the royal family after a huge moment in history. Recently, the royal familys official Instagram account shared a carousel of photos showcasing some of the presents King Charles has received. And no, I'm not talking gift cards or luxury watchesthese gifts are on a whole other level and they all have one thing in common: they are all so thoughtful and meaningful. According to the caption, the items shown "were given to The King, as Head of State, to mark his Coronation in 2023, a milestone moment in his reign." Gifts to members of the Royal Family come in many shapes and sizes, and from all corners of the globe, the caption noted, adding that they often reflect the senders culture, values or connection to the monarchs work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among them? A contribution from the people of Australia toward the conservation of the endangered Western Ground Parrot. The President of Ireland gifted a native Irish Oak treea beautiful symbol of strength, wisdom, truth and courage. And Indigenous leaders from the Amazon presented a traditional feather crown, tobacco bowl and inhaler, representing their rich cultural heritage. One particularly royal addition: a small statuette of a mounted Guardsman, gifted by The Kings Company. And lets not forget Queen Camilla. She and King Charles were each awarded a gold Blue Peter badgea special honor in the UK given to people whove done something really impressive or made a meaningful impact. His was in recognition of his environmental advocacy and support for young people, while hers celebrated her dedication to literacy and education. King Charles's coronation took place on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbeyand judging by these incredible gifts, it clearly struck a chord with people around the world. Want all the latest entertainment news sent right to your inbox? Click here. King Charless Body Language Spoke Volumes During His Visit to Canada Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas, targeting students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party and those who are studying in critical fields. His two-sentence announcement on Wednesday spared any details explaining how the administration plans to do any of that blindsiding universities and foreign students now scrambling for guidance about what comes next. But officials wont publicly say how theyre deciding whether they believe students are connected to the countrys ruling party or what those critical fields of study even are. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We dont give details about what our methods are, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters Thursday. Giving away the nature of how we choose to do things could give up our hand and undermine national security, she added. Marco Rubio announced a plan to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas as the Trump administration cracks down on international student admissions in U.S. higher education (AFP/Getty) The State Department says its scrutinizing Chinas exploitation of universities including theft of research, intellectual property and technologies exported to students home countries, according to Bruce. Everyone who is here on a visa has to recognize that America takes their visas seriously, she said. Vetting is not a one-time process, its continuing. And if things happen you get arrested, if theres some kind of an issue its probably going to be seen at some point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chinese student visa holders must recognize that the Trump administration is taking our national security seriously, she added. And we are looking at their visas, and if everythings fine, terrific, but that will be a vetting that certainly continues and its important clearly to the administration, she said. Rubios announcement on Wednesday said the State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong, he added. A graduating student wears their hat, decorated with a statement of support for international students, during Harvard Universitys commencement ceremonies on May 29 (Reuters) Roughly 277,000 Chinese students studied in the United States last year, making them the second-largest group of foreign students in the country. Foreign students studying in the U.S. last year contributed approximately $44 billion to the U.S. economy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement also follows the Trump administrations attempt to revoke Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students which has been blocked in court and Rubios order to pause any new appointments for student visas globally. The administration accused Harvard of coordinated activity with Chinas ruling party, including training members of a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the university of fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. Chinese Communist Party was emphasized in boldface. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration has launched what critics argue is a politically motivated effort to bend universities and institutions to his ideological commands, including unprecedented scrutiny, funding threats and the arrests and deportations of foreign students involved in pro-Palestine demonstrations against Israels war in Gaza. Advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers argue the administrations latest maneuvers escalate a years-long campaign of xenophobia that now risks a serious brain drain in the U.S. The wholesale revocation of student visas based on national origin and without an investigation is xenophobic and wrong, stated the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Turning these students away many of whom simply wish to learn in a free and democratic society is not just shortsighted, but a betrayal of our values. Students pictured at Beijing Foreign Studies University on Thursday in Beijing, where officials condemned Trump's threats to Chinese students studying in the United States as political and discriminatory (AFP/Getty) Rubios sweeping policies targeting students based on their country of origin and field of study mark a dangerous escalation in xenophobic rhetoric and risk undermining Americas global leadership in science, research, and innovation, according to the Asian American Scholar Forum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This policy threatens to dismantle the international talent pipeline that has long fueled American innovation and excellence, according to the groups executive director, Gisela Perez Kusakawa. Chinese students contribute immensely to our campuses, communities, and economy, she said. Treating them with blanket suspicion not only violates principles of fairness, due process, and our democratic values it sends a chilling message to the world that America no longer welcomes global talent. Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning also called Rubios announcement politicized and discriminatory. The action lays bare the U.S. lie that it upholds so-called freedom and openness, she said Thursday. Hong Kongs Chief Executive John Lee told lawmakers that the city would welcome students who face unfair treatment in the United States. I think this is an opportunity for Hong Kong, he said Thursday. We will work with our universities to provide the best support and assistance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A widely shared post from Hong Kongs University of Science and Technology also invited Harvard students to the school to continue their academic pursuits following Trumps threats to international student visas at the Ivy League school. Average in-state tuition at public colleges and universities is roughly $21,270, and $37,430 for out-of-state. International students pay between $874 and $5,218 more in tuition and fees than out-of-state students, according to a report from the American Council on Education, which represents leaders at 1,600 colleges and universities. Private tuition rates are thousands of dollars higher. If Rubio pulls Chinese student visas, the damage to the United States could be enormous and hard to undo, according to Holger Hestermeyer, Professor of international law at Kings College London. Now imagine your family in China coughs up that money. And after two years your visa is pulled, he wrote. Refunds? What happens now? And for all future students: is that a risk worth taking? BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) is reportedly planning to purchase around 10% of the shares offered in Circle Internet Group Inc.s upcoming IPO, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move highlights the growing intersection between traditional finance and the crypto sector. BlackRock Reportedly Plans to Invest in Circle Internet's Upcoming IPO Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, along with some of its shareholders, aims to raise up to $624 million through the IPO, as revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 27. The filing also noted that Cathie Woods Ark Investment Management has expressed interest in acquiring up to $150 million worth of shares. Circle officially filed for a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange on May 27. The offering includes 24 million Class A shares, of which 9.6 million are being offered by the company and 14.4 million by existing stakeholders. In addition, underwriters are expected to receive a 30-day option to purchase up to 3.6 million more shares. According to Bloomberg News, investor demand for the offering has significantly exceeded the number of shares available. The IPO is expected to be priced on June 4. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) currently manages a government money market fund on behalf of Circle, which holds 90% of the reserves backing the companys USDC stablecoin. As of April 30, 2024, that fund held nearly $30 billion in net assets. The structure of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)'s potential investment could vary, and the firm may proceed through an affiliated entity or ultimately choose not to participate, the sources said. Both BlackRock and Circle declined to comment on the matter. BLK is up by nearly 26% in the past 12 months. While we acknowledge the potential of BLK 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 BLK and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ MORE: Why These Energy Stocks are Losing This Week and 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now Disclosure. None. CHICAGO, Ill. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Runways will be redesignated, and one will be decommissioned or made inactive at Chicagos Midway International Airport. Chief Transportation Correspondent and Pilot MayCay Beeler explains what prompted the change and what it means for safety. 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. Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault. The comedian and actor appeared at Londons Southwark Crown Court on Friday for a hearing where he formally denied all five charges against him, including one allegation of rape, one allegation of indecent assault, one of oral rape and two further counts of sexual assault. The allegations relate to four separate women in incidents that occurred between 1999 and 2005. More from Variety Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 49-year-old will now face a trial, which due to court delays wont begin until June 3, 2026. Wearing sunglasses, an open pin-stripe shirt, jacket and skinny jeans, Brand arrived early Friday morning flanked by his lawyer Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky who successful defended Kevin Spacey against sexual assault allegations in 2023. The hearing lasted a matter of minutes. Brand was charged by Londons Metropolitan Police in early April following an investigation that began in September 2023. He first appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on May 2, where the chief magistrate granted him bail and, due to the severity of the allegations, referred the case to Londons Central Criminal Court. The venue was later changed to the Crown Court, where Spaceys trial took place two years earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the charges were first brought, Brand now living in the U.S. took to his social media channels to deny the allegations, as he has since they first arose. When I was young and single, before I had my wife and family, I was a fool, was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord, I was a drug addict, sex addict and an imbecile, he said in a video. But what I never was a rapist. Ive never engaged in non-consensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes. The Met investigation was first launched after the police received several allegations in the wake of a major investigation made by both Channel 4s Dispatches documentary series and The Sunday Times. The 2023 expose saw Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse. A rep for the show said that Five women, four of whom asked to remain anonymous, agreed to share their stories of serious sexual allegations in the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plea of not guilty plea at Southwark marks the next chapter for Brand. While his star-power had already dimmed long before the allegations came to light, he was a major figure on British TV and radio in the mid-2000s and would later find fame and fortune in the U.S. thanks to movies such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, not to mention a high-profile if short-lived marriage to Katy Perry between 2010 and 2011. Since moving out of the mainstream limelight a decade ago, he began amassing a following online for his political views, first on the left-wing before shifting to the right, using his YouTube and Rumble channels to post about conspiracy theories, most notable connected to COVID, and offer his support for Donald Trump, whose inauguration he attended in January. Months after the expose ran in late 2023, Brand also converted to Christianity and has been outspoken about his new faith. Last year he prayed on stage with Tucker Carlson and later Jordan Petersen at events in the U.S. Earlier this month, Carlson went on social media to call for the Trump administration to rescue Brand from what the rape and sexual assault charges he described as political and absurd. Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NEED TO KNOW Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges in London The comedian and actor appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London at 10.30 a.m. local time on Friday, May 30 Brand was charged by London's Metropolitan Police on April 4, after four women came forward to allege that he sexually assaulted them in England between 1999 and 2005 Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brand, 49, was arraigned at Southwark Crown Court in London at 10.30 a.m. local time on Friday, May 30, wearing dark sunglasses, a grey suit and an unbuttoned shirt. The comedian and actor spoke to confirm his name, then entered a plea of "not guilty" to one charge of rape, one of oral rape and three counts of sexual assault. At the close of the 10-minute hearing, Brand was bailed ahead of a trial starting June 3, 2026, that's expected to last up to 5 weeks. Jeff Spicer/Getty Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London The hearing comes after Brand appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Friday, May 2, where he was granted bail by Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brand was first charged by London's Metropolitan Police on April 4, after four women came forward to allege that he sexually assaulted them in England between 1999 and 2005. One of his accusers claims she was raped by Brand in southern England in 1999. A second accuser claims that he sexually assaulted and orally raped her at an address in London in 2004. The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers, said Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, said at the time. The Met's investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police. Jeff Spicer/Getty Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London Russell Brand arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London The accusations follwed a 2023 joint investigation by U.K, newspapers The Sunday Times and The Times and Channel 4 current affairs show Dispatches, which focused on the claims of five women over events that took place between 2006 and 2013 including one woman who was 16 years old at the time of the alleged incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, Brand posted on social media ahead of the story's release. But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute." 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. Read the original article on People Russell Brand has formally pleaded not guilty to allegations of sexual misconduct against him. The comedian and actor appeared in Londons Southwark Crown Court, where he denied all allegations of rape and multiple counts of sexual assault involving four women. Russell Brand pleads not guilty in UK Court Russell Brand appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London on Friday. There, he pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. The comedian, dressed casually in a black blazer and dark jeans, appeared along with his lawyer, Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky. When the charges were formally read, Brand stood and firmly denied all five counts, which include rape and multiple sexual assault accusations. The judge agreed to maintain Brands conditional bail while awaiting trial. After the hearing, Brand acknowledged court staff with a brief thanks before leaving. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The allegations against Brand involve four women and relate to incidents spanning from 1999 to 2005. Among the charges are claims that Brand indecently assaulted a woman in 2001 by forcibly pulling her toward a mens restroom, and that in 2004, he touched another woman without her consent. Police formally charged Brand on April 4 with rape, oral rape, indecent assault, and two sexual assault counts. These charges followed an investigation launched in September 2023 after The Sunday Times and Channel 4 published reports featuring allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse by four women. One accuser even stated she was 16 years old when she began a relationship with Brand. Brand has consistently denied any non-consensual behavior since these allegations surfaced two years ago. Previously, in 2025, the comedian posted a statement on social media saying, I have never engaged in non-consensual activity. I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court and Im incredibly grateful for that. The trial is scheduled for June 3, 2026. Meanwhile, a pre-trial hearing is expected in May of next year. The post Russell Brand Pleads Not Guilty to Sexual Assault Charges appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. Russell Brand arriving at court in London on May 30, 2025. - Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images Russell Brand pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of rape and sexual assault at a London courthouse Friday, May 30, The New York Times reports. The hearing lasted just 10 minutes, during which Brand reportedly stood in a plexiglass box at the back of the courtroom and responded to each charge against him with Not guilty. The judge then scheduled June 3, 2026, as the start date for Brands trial, estimating the trial would last about four to five weeks. More from Rolling Stone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brand is facing five counts: Rape, oral rape, two counts of sexual assault, and one charge of indecent assault. The charges stem from alleged incidents with four women that occurred between 1999 and 2005. At a hearing earlier this month, Brand was granted conditional bail, which requires him to keep the court informed about his whereabouts, whether hes staying in the U.K. or the U.S. (the comedian and YouTuber primarily lives in Florida). He also must attend all future court hearings, and any violations could potentially lead to being taken into custody. At the May 2 hearing, prosecutors detailed the charges against Brand. Hes accused of raping a woman in 1999 at a hotel room in Bournemouth after a Labour Party conference, while a second woman accused him of grabbing her by the forearm and trying to drag her into a TV station bathroom in 2001. A third woman alleged that Brand grabbed her breast, pulled her into a bathroom, and orally raped her in 2004. And the fourth woman, who met Brand while working on a Big Brother spin-off between 2004 and 2005, claimed he grabbed her by the face, pushed her against a wall, kissed her, and grabbed her breasts and buttocks. The Metropolitan Police opened their investigation into Brand in September 2023 after the allegations against him were first reported publicly in The Times and Channel 4s investigative show, Dispatches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brand has repeatedly denied all allegations against him. In a video posted to social media in April after he was charged, he said, Ive always told you guys that when I was young and single before I had my wife and family I was a fool, man. I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and an imbecile. But what I never was, was a rapist. Ive never engaged in nonconsensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. British comedian Russell Brand remained firm this week in denying he sexually assaulted four women from 1999 to 2005. The controversial "Get Him to the Greek" actor, 49, appeared in a London court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. Brand, who was charged in April, said "not guilty" after each count was read in Southwark Crown Court. A legal representative for Brand did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment on Friday. Brand, who is best known for starring in raunchy comedies including "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Rock of Ages" and "Arthur," entered his not guilty plea months after U.K. authorities announced its counts against the comedian. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Russell Brand denies allegations after U.K charges him with rape and sexual assault The charges stem from four separate alleged incidents involving different women. Prosecutors allege Brand raped a woman in the English seaside area of Bournemouth in 1999. He also allegedly indecently assaulted a second woman in 2001, orally raped and sexually assaulted a third woman in 2004 and sexually assaulted the fourth woman between 2004 to 2005. The final three allegations occurred in Westminster, according to U.K. officials. At the time, Brand denied the allegations via social media. I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile. But what I never was was a rapist. Ive never engaged in nonconsensual activities," he said in a video shared to Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). "I pray you can tell that by looking in my eyes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before he was charged, Brand faced previous allegations of rape and sexual assault in September 2023, when the Times of London published its joint investigation with Dispatches, a news program on Britains Channel 4. Several women came forward with allegations that Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013. At the time, Brand refuted the very, very serious criminal allegations and claimed he was being targeted by the mainstream media because of his views. Since distancing himself from Hollywood, Brand in recent years has refashioned himself as an anti-establishment commentator and platformed conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 9/11 attacks. Read more: Russell Brand: Baptism is 'opportunity to leave the past behind amid sexual assault allegations In November 2023, the actor was sued for sexual assault in New York by a woman who said she worked as an extra in Brand's 2011 film "Arthur." That same month, the BBC said it received multiple complaints about the risque comedian relating to his workplace conduct when he hosted radio programs from 2006 to 2008. In recent years, Brand has also turned his focus to religion. In 2024, he doubled down on his commitment to Christianity and was baptized in the River Thames. At the time, he said it was "an opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christs name. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As he arrived to court on Friday, Brand was seen clutching a copy of The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers. His trial is set to begin June 3, 2026, and is expected to last four to five weeks. Times staff writer Meredith Blake and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The Russians have attacked Ukraine with two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and 90 Shahed UAVs and decoy drones of various types since the evening of 29 May. Ukrainian air defence has managed to down 56 drones, although hits have been recorded in 12 locations. Source: Ukraine's Air Force Quote: "As of 08:00, air defence downed 56 Shahed attack UAVs (and other types of drones) in the country's south and north. Twenty-six were downed using firepower and 30 disappeared from radar or were suppressed by electronic warfare. Strikes were recorded in 12 locations." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: The Russians launched drones from the Russian cities of Millerovo, Oryol, Shatalovo, Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the missiles were launched from Russia's Voronezh Oblast. Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk oblasts came under attack. "Aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare units, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups from Ukraine's defence forces were involved in repelling the attack," the Air Force summarised. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Moscow will send a delegation to Istanbul for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, despite the absence of a commitment from Kiev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. "It will be ready on Monday morning for the continuation of negotiations, the second round of the talks," Peskov said. He expressed the hope that proposals for an end to the war prepared by both sides would be discussed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Monday's meeting on Wednesday. The make-up of the Russian delegation led by presidential adviser and former Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky is unchanged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, said that Kiev was not opposed to a meeting, but wanted to see the Russian proposals beforehand. While Kiev says it has presented its list of demands to Moscow, the Kremlin has declined to do the same, on the grounds that they should not be discussed in public ahead of the meeting. The two warring sides last met in Istanbul in mid-May, their first direct public contact in three years. The meeting resulted in a large prisoner exchange. According to comments from both camps, the second meeting is to focus on a ceasefire. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he hopes Russia and Ukraine can resolve the conflict during the talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are convinced that progress can certainly be made as long as we remain at the negotiating table," he said on Friday in Kiev during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha. Ukrainians block army recruitment vehicle in western city Meanwhile, some 100 people blocked an army recruitment vehicle and punctured its tyres in the western Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, according to official reports late on Thursday. "The citizens' actions showed signs of organized resistance," the district military registration and enlistment office in the Khmelnytskyi region said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The situation could only be brought under control with the help of the police and the military, it added. The authorities threatened those involved with prosecution for high treason, among other charges, for attacking military personnel during martial law. Videos showed an angry crowd in a residential area, some of whom were hitting the vehicle. Prior to this, a young man was reportedly dragged from the street into the car by military personnel. Several passers-by rushed to the man's aid, causing the situation to escalate. In recent weeks, there have been increasing reports of attacks, sometimes violent, on employees of district military recruitment offices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said between 25,000 and 27,000 men are currently being drafted into the Ukrainian army every month. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for more than three years. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 who are eligible for military service are only allowed to leave the country with permission from the district military recruitment office. Russian drone attack targets Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine Early on Friday, officials reported a large-scale Russian drone attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. At least eight people were injured in the attack, including two teenagers, military governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strike, which involved at least eight combat drones, targeted a "municipal enterprise," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, without providing further details. He added that a major fire broke out on the company premises. The Russian military has been intensifying its attacks on major Ukrainian cities for several weeks, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has proposed building two nuclear power plant units in Kazakhstan with a total capacity of 2.4 GW for US$5.47 billion nearly half the previously estimated cost. Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet Details Following negotiations, the Kazakh side "expressed interest in learning from Chinas experience in ensuring nuclear and water-ecological safety at all stages of the nuclear power plant project". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CNNC not only offers a lower price but is also ready to share technologies and allow Kazakhstan full control over the nuclear fuel cycle. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced its readiness to cooperate with Kazakhstan on the project. Other shortlisted contenders for the construction of the nuclear plant in Kazakhstan include Russias Rosatom, South Koreas KHNP and Frances EDF. The data of Kazakhstans Ministry of Energy shows that the project was previously estimated at US$10-15 billion. The government had warned that due to rising material and service costs, the amount could increase by 1.5 times. Kazakhstan has the worlds second-largest uranium reserves and controls 43% of global uranium production through the company Kazatomprom. The country previously operated a nuclear power plant the Shevchenko plant built during the Soviet era, which was decommissioned in 1999 due to the risk of weapons-grade plutonium production. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Russia is prepared to consider a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine, but only if Kyiv stops receiving Western weapons and halts mobilization, Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's envoy to the United Nations, said on May 30, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. "In principle, we are ready to consider the possibility of establishing a ceasefire, which would subsequently allow for a sustainable resolution of the root causes of the conflict," Nebenzya said at a U.N. Security Council meeting. Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, convened the meeting to accuse European nations of undermining peace efforts. The Russian ambassador said that any ceasefire would require Western governments to end their support for Ukraine's armed forces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "During the ceasefire, it is essential that Western countries stop supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime (the Ukrainian government) and that Ukraine halt its mobilization," Nebenzya said. The statement comes just days ahead of the next round of peace talks in Istanbul on June 2. Despite the stated offer, Nebenzya also pledged that Moscow would "continue and intensify military operations for as long as necessary." Ukraine swiftly rejected the demand as disingenuous. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the remarks a "slap in the face to all who advocate for peace," including countries like China and Brazil, which have pressed both sides to end the war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When the entire world insists that it is time to stop the killing immediately and engage in meaningful diplomacy, Russia uses the highest fora to spew such belligerent rhetoric," Sybiha wrote on X. "We insist that the pressure on Moscow be increased already now. They do not understand normal attitude or diplomatic language; it is time to speak to them in the language of sanctions and increased support for Ukraine." Despite growing global calls for a truce, Russia has so far rejected Ukraine's U.S.-backed proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire. The Kremlin has instead escalated its aerial assaults across Ukrainian territory and is reportedly preparing a new summer offensive. Moscow is expected to present a draft "ceasefire memorandum" at the June 2 talks in Istanbul. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 29 that the proposal would be delivered by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led Russia's delegation at the previous round of talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Volodymyr Zelensky's Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said on May 29 that Kyiv is open to the talks but insists that Russia share the memorandum ahead of the meeting. According to Reuters, Moscow's demands for ending the war include Ukraine's withdrawal from four partially occupied regions, a pledge to abandon NATO ambitions, and the lifting of key Western sanctions conditions Kyiv and its allies have categorically rejected. Read also: Ukraine attacks elite Russian unit base nearly 7,000km away in Vladivostok, source claims Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. As Russia ramps up its missile and drone strikes countrywide, all eyes are on Europes capacity to continue supporting Ukraine, with the future of U.S. military aid growing ever more uncertain. Ukraine should have enough air defense missiles despite the persisting shortage to avoid the worst of the attacks, but much depends on the intensity of the Russian campaigns, according to experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent. I think what the Russians are doing now is trying to test how deep the pockets are and how large the inventories are on the Ukrainian and European side, said Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, professor at the University of Copenhagen, who specializes in military strategy and defense policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the Russians are actually able to, which they might not be, continue a very high operational tempo and thus deplete Ukrainian stocks, then I think it would be more difficult. Europes ability to bolster its own production line of air defense missiles and the possibility of continuing to buy interceptors from the U.S. to increase its capacity would be the major factors for Ukraine, the experts said. Ukraines increasing reliance on Europe comes four months after U.S. President Donald Trump, who has held close ties with Russia, took over the White House. Trump has since then pushed both sides for a peace deal to end the war at all costs, threatening to walk away if there is no progress made in the near future. Uncertainty mounts over the future of the military aid and intelligence sharing from the U.S., Ukraines most important ally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even as Moscow stepped into the peace talks and held a direct meeting with Kyiv for the first time in three years, Russian troops intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, far from the battlefield. The deadly attacks raised questions about Moscows intent. Read also: Amid missile shortage, Ukraines air defenses are struggling under Russian ballistic attacks Missile shortage Over the weekend, Russia launched a series of aerial assaults on Kyiv and other cities using dozens of missiles and drones, with the May 25 campaign killing 12 civilians across the country, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Ukraine has faced a shortage of air defense missiles, a source in the Air Force told the Kyiv Independent in April. The chronic shortage forces Ukraine to ration its resources even as Russia deploys more ballistic missiles in such attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Ukraine has received a variety of air defense weapons since the onset of the war, only the PAC-3 Patriot air defense missiles offer a reliable shield from Russias ballistic missiles due to their speed. The Dusseldorf-based defense company Rheinmetall announced that talks are ongoing to create a joint venture with the U.S. Lockheed Martin, which produces PAC-3 Patriot missiles. The aim is to produce up to 10,000 missiles from long-range ATACMS to PAC-3, and that it would be ready in about a year, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said. Lockheed Martin said that it produced 500 PAC-3 Patriot missiles in 2024 and plans to produce 650 per year. Experts argue that Europe should have ramped up the production of these crucial weapons sooner, as such a process takes time. An Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) is fired during a U.S.South Korea joint training at an undisclosed location on Oct. 5, 2022. (South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images) This process (European arms production) has been much too slow going since 2022, and it is still not at the tempo we would like, Professor Rasmussen told the Kyiv Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Copenhagen-based expert believes that Ukraines ability to defend its own sky would depend in the short term on whether Europe is willing to empty its own stocks and (whether it is) able to buy from the Americans in order to supplement stocks. Ukrainian aviation expert Kostiantyn Kryvolap also stressed that his country critically depends on Europe, as it is the only partner we can count on with Trumps return to power. I think that Europe could transfer some of the missiles from the Patriot systems to us, but they keep them, as they say, in reserve, just in case, Kryvolap told the Kyiv Independent, though the data on Europes stocks remains unclear. Kryvolap pointed out that as the war moves into a phase of harder strikes and more attention to the (remaining) resources, Europes dependability is important. But rather than waiting for the missiles to fly toward Ukrainian cities, the expert said the bigger focus should be on the long-range strikes on companies that produce components and fuel for these missiles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. would continue sending military aid to Ukraine that was already committed before, at about a billion dollars a month "for quite a while," according to Retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). This is a priority area for Europe both because of Ukraines own urgent needs and because this is recognized as gap in Europes own defenses. Cancian said that with Trump showing frustrations for Russias intensifying aerial attacks, it is likely that the U.S. would still allow Europe to buy American inventories, as it also helps both domestic employment and manufacturing. For the near term, Europe buying missiles and launchers from the U.S. should be enough for Ukraine to get by until it rebuilds its own defense industry, according to Cancian. He added that cheaper and more available variants such as U.S.-provided NASAMS air defense missiles and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) should prevent most Russian attacks, with Moscow firing only a handful of ballistic missiles. German servicemen transport MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems during Defense Minister Boris Pistoriuss visit to the German military compound in Jasionka, Poland, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images) It wouldn't stop everything but it would maybe stop the most dangerous attacks, Cancian told the Kyiv Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. has received about 1,900 PAC-3 Patriot missiles, which are the most up-to-date variants, and produces about 20 a month, Cancian said. But the real concern is if the U.S. does shut off its military aid to Ukraine, again, as it did in February after the Oval Office clash with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Europeans will always produce some, so its not like Ukraine would have nothing, Cancian said. But obviously what the Ukrainians want, understandably, is more. Luigi Scazzieri, a senior policy analyst for defense at the Paris-based European Union Institute for Security Studies, pointed out that another key question is whether the U.S. would greenlight Europe to hand over the U.S. interceptors produced in Europe to Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That could be a significant source of supply and there are signs that the U.S. is willing to do so earlier this month it allowed Germany to transfer Patriots to Ukraine, Scazzieri told the Kyiv Independent. This is a priority area for Europe both because of Ukraines own urgent needs and because this is recognized as a gap in Europes own defenses. Read also: Infighting around EU rearmament undermines grand ambitions for European defense Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian attacks against Ukraine killed seven people and injured 39 others over the past day, regional authorities said on May 30. Ukrainian forces downed 26 out of the 90 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported. Thirty drones were intercepted by electronic warfare or disappeared from radars without causing any damage, according to the statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Drones that disappear from radars before reaching their targets are usually decoys. Russia launches them alongside real drones to overwhelm Ukraine's air defense. A Russian drone attack on the city of Kharkiv injured two women aged 61 and an 84-year-old woman, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. The attack also damaged 39 trolleybuses. Nine more people, including two children, were injured in a Russian attack on the village of Vasyliv Khutir in Kharkiv Oblast, according to Syniehubov. A Russian drone attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, damaged 39 trolleybuses on May 30, 2025. (Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office) Russian attacks near Polohy and Vasylivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast killed two people and injured five other people, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak said that Russian forces attacked the Nikopol district in the region, injuring a man and a woman aged 25 and 48. One person was killed in Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. Ten other people suffered injuries in the region over the past day. In Kherson Oblast, Russian forces targeted 35 settlements, including the regional center of Kherson. Four people were killed, and 11 others injured, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia reports 2nd consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The Russian captain of a container ship that crashed into a US oil tanker in the North Sea has denied killing a crew member. Vladimir Motin, 59, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter at the Old Bailey on Friday. Appearing via video link from HMP Hull, he spoke briefly via a Russian interpreter to confirm his identity before denying the charge. Mr Motin, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, is accused of the unlawful killing of Mark Angelo Pemia, a crew member and Filipino national, 38, while in charge of the MV Solong during the incident off the East Yorkshire coast on March 10. Smoke rises from the Solong after it collided with a fuel tanker in the North Sea on March 10 - Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty The Portuguese-registered ship was sailing down the eastern Scottish coast from Grangemouth to the Netherlands when it hit the US-registered oil carrier, MV Stena Immaculate, which was anchored off the coast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 140 metre-long Solong was travelling at about 15 knots when it hit the port side of the 183 metre-long Stena Immaculate, which had come from an oil refinery in Greece. All 23 people on the tanker were rescued along with 13 crew from the Solong, but Mr Pernia could not be located. Mr Pernia was working in the forward deck of the Solong, in an area where there was an explosion, following the collision. The crash sparked fears of a major environmental disaster, but catastrophe was averted after most of the jet fuel burned off. Millions of plastic beads, known as nurdles, were washed ashore in Norfolk after being released from a container aboard the Solong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Mark Lucraft KC agreed to the timetable outlined by the prosecution, with a defence statement to be filed by June 20. The prosecution also added it would be seeking expert evidence relating to the collision. A further hearing has been set for Sept 10 to update proceedings ahead of the defendants trial on Jan 12 next year. The clean-shaven Mr Motin, who was wearing dark glasses, sat impassively during the brief hearing and was updated on the proceedings by his interpreter. He was remanded in custody. 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. LONDON (AP) The Russian captain of a cargo ship that collided with a U.S. tanker in the North Sea pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of one of his crew at a U.K. court hearing on Friday. Vladimir Motin, 59, from St. Petersburg, appeared by video link from prison for the pretrial hearing at Londons Central Criminal Court. Assisted by a Russian interpreter, he denied a charge of gross manslaughter over the death of 38-year-old Mark Angelo Pernia. Motin was ordered detained until his next hearing, and his trial was set for Jan. 12. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Portugal-flagged cargo ship Solong was traveling at about 15 knots (17 mph or 28 kph) when it hit the anchored tanker MV Stena Immaculate about 12 miles (19 kilometers) off the coast of northeast England on March 10, sparking a fire that lasted nearly a week. The tanker was transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military. Rescuers saved 36 people from both ships. Pernia, from the Philippines, is missing and presumed dead. U.K. authorities have said that there's nothing to indicate that the collision was connected to national security. Environmental damage from the collision was far less than initially feared, though thousands of pellets used in plastics production, known as nurdles, from the ruptured containers on the Solong have since washed up along Englands east coast. Conservationists say the nurdles aren't toxic, but can harm animals if ingested. LONDON (Reuters) - The captain of a container ship that crashed into a U.S. tanker off Britain's east coast pleaded not guilty on Friday in a London court to manslaughter by gross negligence over the death of a crew member in the collision. Russian national Vladimir Motin, 59, was captain of the Portuguese-flagged Solong that hit the Stena Immaculate tanker, carrying military jet fuel, on March 10. Motin was charged four days later with causing the death of Filipino national and Solong crew member Mark Pernia, 38, who is missing and presumed dead. He appeared at the Old Bailey by videolink on Friday and pleaded not guilty to one count of gross negligence manslaughter. (Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James) Moscow will send a delegation to Istanbul for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, despite the absence of a commitment from Kiev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. "It will be ready on Monday morning for the continuation of negotiations, the second round of the talks," Peskov said. He expressed the hope that proposals for an end to the war prepared by both sides would be discussed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Monday's meeting on Wednesday. The make-up of the Russian delegation led by presidential adviser and former Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky is unchanged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, said that Kiev was not opposed to a meeting, but wanted to see the Russian proposals beforehand. While Kiev says it has presented its list of demands to Moscow, the Kremlin has declined to do the same, on the grounds that they should not be discussed in public ahead of the meeting. The first round of talks was held on May 16, after being postponed by a day over disagreement about whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin would participate in person, among other things. The meeting resulted in a large prisoner exchange. According to comments from both camps, the second meeting is to focus on a ceasefire. The Russian military launched a large-scale drone attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, authorities reported early on Friday. At least eight people were injured in the attack, including two teenagers, military governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. The strike, which involved at least eight combat drones, targeted a "municipal enterprise," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, without providing further details. He added that a major fire broke out on the company premises. The Russian military has been intensifying its attacks on major Ukrainian cities for several weeks, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence, which started in February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A Russian drone has struck a five-storey residential building in the city of Bilozerske, Donetsk Oblast, on the night of 29-30 May, injuring two people; more people might be trapped under the rubble. Source: Donetsk Oblast Prosecutors Office on Telegram Quote: "At 02:30, the occupiers struck Bilozerske. A Russian Geran-2 UAV hit a five-storey residential building. The strike caused a fire." The aftermath of the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photo: Prosecutors Office Details: A 40-year-old woman and her 16-year-old son sustained injuries while inside their flat. The aftermath of the attack. Photo: Prosecutors Office "The injured have been diagnosed with blast injuries and carbon monoxide poisoning. Medical assistance has been provided." the prosecutors office summed up. The aftermath of the attack. Photo: Prosecutors Office Updated: Later, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported that two more people might still be trapped under the rubble. "The search and rescue operation is ongoing," they said. The aftermath of the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photo: State Emergency Services of Donetsk Oblast Background: Ukraines Air Force reported that on the evening of 29 May, Russia launched two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and 90 Shahed-type attack UAVs, along with various decoy drones. A total of 56 drones were shot down, but impacts were recorded at 12 locations. On the same night, Russian forces targeted Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk oblasts. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! A Russian drone attack has destroyed the last petrol station operated by OKKO, a Ukrainian network of petrol stations, cafes, car washes and shops, in the town of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast. Source: OKKO on X (Twitter) Quote: "The one that continued operating and refuelling despite daily attacks with guided aerial bombs and missiles. Until recently, it remained an island of calm and a place of strength for many locals, especially for our defenders." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: OKKO reported no fatalities among the staff members of the petrol station. Background: Due to the risk of Russian strikes, OKKO petrol station networks try to operate "with very minimal fuel reserves". Although this is not optimal from a logistical perspective and results in higher prices, the company says it proves effective during attacks. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Russian soldiers have been rewarded with almost $200,000 for shooting down the first US F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine. Twelve servicemen received the prize from Russian oil giant Forse in a ceremony on the border attended by commanders. Fores has delivered on its earlier promise to transfer 15 million roubles to members of the Russian Armed Forces for downing the first F-16 in the special military operation zone, the company said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Twelve servicemen involved in downing the target received money certificates, it added, saying the ceremony took place on May 29. Gen Sergey Shmotyev, the director of Fores, promised a reward to the first people to shoot down an F-16 on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The award was formally announced on the messaging app Telegram by the Russian ministry of defence last summer. Since their delivery in August 2024, at least three Ukrainian F-16s have reportedly been lost, with two pilots confirmed dead. Above and beyond One of the aircraft was confirmed to have been downed by enemy fire, while the causes of the other two crashes remain under investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crash in April of this year saw a long-range 40N6 surface-to-air missile deployed by Russia take out an F-16 deep inside Ukrainian-controlled airspace. There is no official confirmation as to whether this is the incident leading to the reward. The rewards are part of a wider strategy to incentivise Russians to go above and beyond in destroying Western equipment. Fores previously announced cash prizes for the destruction of Nato-supplied tanks in Ukraines east, with several payments reportedly made to Russian servicemen. Fores, which makes proppants for the oil industry, has supported the Russian war effort since the beginning of the invasion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The company has donated over $3 million to the war, funding purchases of hardware, communications devices, jamming systems, thermal sights, medicines and evacuation equipment. It has also helped compile more than 500 tons of healthcare products and medicinal drugs for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. Sophisticated jets Ukraine has been urging the West to supply it with F-15 and F-16 jets, developed by General Dynamics, a Virginia-based defence contractor, since the beginning of the war. The country began receiving the jets in the summer of 2024, following a pledge by Denmark and the Netherlands to supply 60 US-made F-16s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similar pledges have been made by Norway, Belgium and Greece. Ukrainian pilots have undergone training at the European F-16 training centre located in Romania. The Institute for the Study of War has highlighted the challenges Ukraine faces in piloting the sophisticated jets, as well as issues with maintenance equipment, spare parts, and consumables. 03:17 PM BST Todays live coverage has ended. Heres a round-up of the days events: Russia launched a gruelling assault on Ukraines Kharkiv region overnight US will prevent Ukraine joining Nato as Russias demands are fair, Trump envoy Kellogg said US told Putin: take the deal or we walk Russia has still refused to share its peace memorandum with Ukraine As a result, Kyivs attendance at the June 2 peace talks is still uncertain Zelensky refused to comment on whether Germany will send Taurus missiles to Ukraine Kremlin is considering three-way meeting with Zelensky, Trump and Putin Britain will attend the next Russia-Ukraine talks Macron said Trump faces a credibility test over Russia stalling peace talks 03:06 PM BST Ukraine keeps Russia guessing over its participation in next peace talks Ukraine on today resisted pressure from Moscow and Washington to commit itself to attending peace talks with Russia on June 2, saying it first needed to see the proposals Russian negotiators plan to bring to the talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are ready for dialogue, but we demand clarity - clear and, most importantly, balanced proposals, the Ukrainian presidents chief of staff Andriy Yermak said. There has been days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend the further meeting proposed by Moscow in Istanbul. Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide its proposed peace settlement in advance of the talks, which Moscow has refused to do. Expectations for the talks are modest because the positions staked out so far by the two sides are far apart and work between them has yet to begin in earnest on narrowing the gap. 02:46 PM BST Pictured: Ukrainian ballerinas in Kharkiv as theatre reopens Ballerina Antonina Radiievska in the underground area of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre amid ongoing Russian attacks in Kharkiv - REUTERS Ballerina Olena Shliahina practices for the revival of Chopiniana, the first since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 - REUTERS 02:16 PM BST Macron warns Nato could expand in Asia Emmanuel Macron has warned China to stop North Korea from sending forces to help Russia in Ukraine if it wants to avoid Nato expanding its role in Asia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If China doesnt want NATO being involved in Southeast Asia or in Asia, they should prevent DPRK to be engaged on European soil, the French president said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. 01:55 PM BST Medinsky to lead talks again in Istanbul Vladimir Medinsky will lead Russias delegation during potential peace talks in Istanbul on Monday. Medinsky, an aide to Vladimir Putin and historian, also led the delegation earlier this month. Ukraine is yet to confirm whether it will attend. Who is Vladimir Medinsky? An ultranationalist populist historian, he is alleged to have ghostwritten a number of the Russian presidents academic articles, including his famous essay of 2021 that provided the rationale for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine the following year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It questioned Ukraines right to exist as a separate entity, arguing that Ukrainians and Russians were one people and that the US had turned Ukraine into an anti-Russia. He also co-authored a history textbook now in use in all Russian schools that claimed Ukraine was an ultranationalist state where opposition is forbidden and that the West had used it as a battering ram to destroy Russia. The book also presents Joseph Stalin as a wise leader who improved the lives of ordinary people and justified the deaths of the millions of Russians and Ukrainians who fell foul of him, saying they got what was coming to them for their lack of patriotism. 12:59 PM BST Russian captain denies killing crewman in North Sea crash The Russian captain of a container ship that crashed into a US oil tanker in the North Sea has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vladimir Motin, 59, the Solongs master, is accused of the unlawful killing of crew member Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, in the collision off the East Yorkshire coast. On Friday, Mr Motin appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from HMP Hull for a plea hearing before Judge Mark Lucraft KC. Assisted by a Russian interpreter, Mr Motin, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, confirmed his identity before pleading not guilty to a single charge of the manslaughter of Pernia, a Filipino national, on March 10. Mr Motin was charged over Pernias death after his vessel collided with Stena Immaculate, an American tanker, near the Humber Estuary on March 10. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All 23 people on the tanker were rescued along with 13 crew from the Solong, but Pernia could not be located. Smoke rises from the MV Solong cargo ship off the coast of east of England, on March 11 - AFP 12:42 PM BST Russia attacks Ukrainian town that borders Nato Russian forces targeted a Ukrainian town that borders Nato member Romanian overnight, Ukrainian officials said. The drone attack hit the town of Izmail, Ukraines biggest port on the Danube river in the Odesa region in southwestern Ukrtaine, which is important for critical imports and which lies across the river from Romania. A post office branch was destroyed in the drone attack, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said. He reported no casualties. 12:20 PM BST Pictured: Aftermath of drone attack in Odesa Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze in Odesa - AFP 12:08 PM BST Britain to attend next Russia-Ukraine peace talks Jonathan Powell, Britains national security adviser, will attend the next round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks on Monday alongside other US and European officials. General Keith Kellogg, the US envoy for Russia-Ukraine, told ABC News: Well have what we call the E3. That is the national security advisers from Germany, France, and Great BritainWhen we were in London, they kind of helped us mould a term sheet for Ukraine. Moscow and Kyiv are expected to meet for their second round of talks in Istanbul, where they held their first direct negotiations in more than three years earlier this month. It follows pressure from Donald Trump, who this week labelled Vladimir Putin crazy and appeared to set the Russian leader a two-week deadline for peace. Gen Kellogg said Mr Trump was ready to stop Ukraine and other Eastern European nations from joining Nato in order to secure peace, a position he said was shared by other members of the alliance. Weve said that, to us, Ukraine coming into Nato is not on the table. And were not the only country that says that. You know, I can probably give you four countries in Nato, and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come into Nato. 11:08 AM BST Kremlin considering summit with Putin, Trump and Zelensky The Kremlin said it was considering a three-way peace summit between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. But it said it would only do so if peace talks on Monday yielded results. President Putin has repeatedly stated that he is fundamentally in favour of high-level contacts, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding: But first, results must be achieved through direct negotiations between the two countries. Moscow has proposed Istanbul for the next round of peace talks on June 2, the same location where the two sides held their first direct negotiations in three years earlier this month. Kyiv has said it wanted to ceasefire Russias proposals for a peace deal before sending officials to the talks. Speaking on Friday, the Kremlin said the conditions of a potential ceasefire would be discussed on Monday. Peskov, Putins spokesman, also said he was glad Putins messages are heard in Washington after Mr Trumps peace envoy said the US would not allow Ukraine to join Nato. 10:51 AM BST Trump is enthralled by Putin Listen to the latest episode of Battle Lines below: 10:18 AM BST Turkey offers to host Trump, Zelensky and Putin meeting Turkey has offered to host a meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Vladimir Putin as part of a push to end the war in Ukraine. We sincerely think that it is possible to cap the first and second direct Istanbul talks with a meeting between Mr. (Donald) Trump, Mr. (Vladimir) Putin and M. (Volodymyr) Zelensky, under the direction of Mr. (Recep Tayyip Erdogan), Turkeys foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said on a visit to Kyiv. 10:05 AM BST Zelensky refuses to comment on Taurus missiles Volodymyr Zelensky has refused to be drawn on whether Germany will allow Ukraine to use its long-range Taurus missiles. Asked about the delivery of long-range cruise missiles, Mr Zelensky said: We are working in this direction. There are certain topics that Chancellor Friedrich Merz and I have agreed not to discuss in public. I promised him this, and I am keeping my promise. Mr Merz, meanwhile, said delivering the missiles was within the realms of possibility. 09:04 AM BST Take the deal or we walk, US tells Putin Vladimir Putin should reach a peace settlement in Ukraine or risk losing us involvement in negotiations, a senior US official has said. A 30-day ceasefire was Russias best possible outcome, according to John Kelley, acting deputy US ambassador. If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict, he said. We want to work with Russia, including on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict. The deal on offer now is Russias best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal. Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday - via REUTERS 08:40 AM BST Russia and Ukraine want a ceasefire, says Turkey Both Russia and Ukraine want a ceasefire that brings about an end to three years of war, Turkeys top diplomat has said. I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start. Both parties want a ceasefire. No one says they dont want it, Hakan Fidan, Turkeys foreign minister, said as he made his way to Kyiv following a trip to Moscow. 08:15 AM BST Ukraine a test of credibility for US, says Macron Emmanuel Macron has said that Donald Trump faces a credibility test over his response to Russia dragging its feet on a Ukraine ceasefire. Moscow has rebuffed calls for an immediate ceasefire and kept up an intense bombardment of Ukraine even as diplomatic efforts to end the war have gained momentum. Mr Trump called Vladimir Putin crazy late on Sunday in a rare rebuke of the Russian leader but he has yet to follow up on repeated threats to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow. Macron said that if Russia gives confirmation that it is not ready to make peace Washington must then confirm its commitment to impose sanctions on Moscow, stressing it was a credibility test for the Americans. I spoke 48 hours ago to President Trump who showed his impatience. The question now is what do we do? We (Europeans) are ready, he said during a visit to Singapore. 07:50 AM BST Zelensky: Russia has not shared ceasefire memorandum Russia has not sent its outline of a future ceasefire to Ukraine ahead of next weeks peace talks, Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Words do not work with Moscow. Even the so-called memorandum, which they promised and allegedly spent over a week preparing, no one has seen it yet, Mr Zelensky said. Both sides agreed during negotiations earlier this month to outline their vision of a future ceasefire, which would be shared before the next round of talks on Monday. 07:37 AM BST Europes plan to take back the Black Sea from Russia After the collapse of the Soviet Union, little has been done to contain Russias consolidated dominance in the murky waters of the Black Sea. The dissolution of the Soviet bloc saw Moscow inherit much of the Black Sea fleet, a regional force it shared with Ukraine, and a leasing arrangement for the strategic naval base of Sevastopol, Crimea. Vladimir Putins eventual illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula not only gave him complete control over the fleets home base but also further territory to dominate the Black Sea. It allowed Russia control over Ukraines shipping routes, and the modernisation of its military presence on the peninsula saw the introduction of area denial capabilities known as A2/AD in military parlance such as coastal defences, more submarines and surface-to-air missiles to contest Natos presence. On the first day of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, Putins men pushed as far as Snake Island, a 46-acre rocky outcrop just off Ukraine. Kyrylo Budanov, Kyivs spy chief, once said the island grants control of the surface, and to some extent the air, situation in southern Ukraine. But more than three years since Putins full-scale invasion, Snake Island is back in Ukrainian hands and the Russian choke hold over the Black Sea has all but ended. 07:25 AM BST Bus destroyed in Russian attack on Kharkiv Russia continued its relentless assault on Ukraine overnight, launching a massive drone attack that injured several people, including two teenagers, in Kharkiv. The Ukrainian air force said Moscow launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles, targetting Kharkiv, Odesa, and Donetsk. The Kharkiv regions main city also came under attack which targeted a trolleybus depot and injured two people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Today, Kharkiv suffered another attack: the enemy fired 8 shaheds at one of the depots where our trolleybuses were being repaired and maintained, he said on the Telegram messaging app. 07:22 AM BST Russias Nato demands are fair, says Kellogg The US will prevent Ukraine from joining Nato as Russias concern over the alliances eastward enlargement is fair, the US envoy for Russia-Ukraine has said. General Keith Kellogg told ABC News: Weve said that to us, Ukraine coming into Nato is not on the table, and were not the only country that says that - you know I could probably give you four other countries in Nato and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to Nato. He continued: Theyre not just talking Ukraine, theyre talking the country of Georgia, theyre talking Moldova. It follows a report by Reuters that Vladimir Putin wants a written pledge from western leaders to stop Ukraine from joining the military alliance as part of any potential peace deal. 07:17 AM BST Welcome to our live coverage Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Well bring you the latest news and analysis throughout the day. 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. US based digital banking platform Bluevine has joined forces with Stripe to launch invoicing and payment link capabilities. This collaboration enables Bluevine customers to create professional invoices and payment links, accept multiple payment methods and get paid directly into their Bluevine accounts. With Stripe's payment processing infrastructure, Bluevine aims to provide a secure and seamless payment experience for small business owners. The new features are part of Bluevine's strategy to become an all-in-one platform for small and medium-sized businesses, integrating various financial management functions in one place. The Invoicing and Payment Links feature is designed to help business owners manage their financial operations, without the need to switch between different platforms. Businesses can accept payments via card, digital wallet, or ACH, with funds deposited directly into Bluevine Business Checking accounts. Among the key features of Bluevine Invoicing and Payment Links include helping customers create, send, and track invoices from their Bluevine dashboard in just a few clicks and for free; sending payment links to customers in minutes via text, email, social media, or on an invoice. Bluevine CEO and co-founder Eyal Lifshitz said: "Small business owners want to get paid fast but they don't like spending time on invoicing and chasing down customer payments. By streamlining and simplifying how business owners accept payments and integrating accounts receivable tools directly into their Bluevine checking account, we're giving them back valuable time to focus on running their business. This is a foundational step in building the all-in-one financial operating system they deserve." Bluevine serves as a small business banking platform in the US, providing a financial operating system for startups and small businesses. Its platform's unified dashboard offers a group of integrated products, including high yield business checking, accounts payable, debit and credit cards, loans, and lines of credit. Earlier this month, Stripe launched the AI foundation model for payments and expanded its money management capabilities with stablecoin-powered accounts. "Bluevine collaborates with Stripe to offer invoicing and payment links " was originally created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand. Residents in Russian regions along the Ukrainian border complain the area is increasingly uninhabitable due to the government's actions amid Moscow's attempt to establish a "buffer zone," according to a call intercepted by Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) and posted May 29. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on May 22 that he ordered the military to begin creating a "security buffer zone" along the border of Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod oblasts. In the call, a resident of Russia's Belgorod Oblast claims that authorities have cut off gas along the border. The speaker predicts mandatory evacuations will follow as living conditions worsen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Well, in short, it's clear that they're going to kick everyone out of the border areas and create a gray zone," the unidentified individual says. "Gray zones" refer to areas along the border and front lines where there is contested or unclear control. The resident speaking on the call anticipates that the area will become so heavily militarized it will be partitioned from the rest of the region. "Let them make temporary settlements, zones, and that's it. They'll even fence it off with barbed wire," the resident says. Russia's Belogorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk oblasts, is regularly used as a staging area for Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory. Russian officials have also accused Kyiv of repeatedly launching strikes on the region and the city of Belgorod since the war began. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine launched a small-scale offensive in Belgorod Oblast in late March, marking Kyiv's second cross-border operation in Russian territory after the August 2024 Kursk incursion. Russian forces are now reportedly amassing along the border in preparation for a possible offensive against Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, according to the State Border Guard Service. Moscow has repeatedly indicated plans to create a buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia in the area. Escalated violence along the Sumy border has triggered mass civilian evacuations, with tens of thousands of Ukrainians ordered to leave their homes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia reports 2nd consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian troops are operating in small assault groups in the northern part of Kharkiv Oblast, trying to identify weak spots in the Ukrainian defence. The National Guard Brigade Khartiia has stated that there are currently no signs of Russia preparing for a large-scale offensive. Source: Captain Oleksii Krymeniuk, head of the planning department of the Khartiia Brigade, on Suspilne Details: Krymeniuk said that the Russians were trying to break through from different directions, looking for weak spots in the Ukrainian defence, but without success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "There is no significant build-up of enemy assets and personnel, and we do not expect a large-scale offensive on our front. Meanwhile, they are replenishing these assets and personnel in order to find a gap in the defence and carry out a larger assault operation. In recent weeks, there have been several attempts by the enemy to storm the positions, but the attempts were unsuccessful; their equipment was destroyed and infantrymen were killed or wounded." Details: The captain also noted the active use of motorcycles, ATVs and light vehicles, in particular UAZ-452 vans, by the Russians. These vehicles are usually used not for direct attacks, but to transport personnel to their positions. "Motorcycles are effective in all weather conditions. Their tactic is to use small assault groups, because the larger the group, the greater the likelihood of being hit by our drones," Krymeniuk added. Background: On 21 May, Andrii Pomahaibus, chief of staff of the 13th Khartiia Brigade, reported that Russian troops were amassing personnel near the state border on the Kharkiv front, preparing for active assault operations. He stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were ready to repel attacks and that talk of a summer offensive was pointless, as the Russians were attacking constantly. Later, the analytical project DeepState emphasised that the situation described by the commander is typical for most sections of the front. DeepState noted that the Russians regularly try to probe the defences and, if they find a weak spot, increase the pressure. It was also noted that the build-up of personnel was explained by the replenishment of units that had suffered significant losses. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, has stated that Russia is "in principle" ready to consider a ceasefire with Ukraine, but only if the other side takes reciprocal steps. Source: Russian media, citing Nebenzya in a speech Quote: "In principle, we are ready to consider the possibility of establishing a ceasefire regime, which could subsequently allow us to move towards a sustainable resolution of the root causes of the conflict. But for this, we must see reciprocal steps from the other side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the duration of the ceasefire, at the very least, Western countries must stop supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime and Ukraine must halt mobilisation." Details: Nebenzya said that Russia is not satisfied with a scenario that would allow Ukraine to "catch its breath, lick its wounds and stop the collapse of the eastern front". Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! NEED TO KNOW The highly publicized "Sad Beige Lawsuit" is coming to a close, as both plaintiff Sydney Nicole Gifford and defendant Alyssa Sheil asked a judge to dismiss the case over a year after it was filed In April 2024, Gifford brought on eight claims against Sheil, alleging that she "replicated" her "aesthetic" curated with neutral tones like beige and cream Sheil denied all claims in her initial response, and after both parties requested to drop the case entirely, she celebrated setting a precedent to protect future "young influencers" against "bullying" In April 2024, Sydney Nicole Gifford filed a lawsuit alleging fellow influencer Alyssa Sheil "replicated" her "neutral, beige, and cream aesthetic" across various social media platforms. Over a year later, the two creators have asked a judge to dismiss the first-of-its-kind case, which has come to be known as the "Sad Beige Lawsuit." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Per the stipulation filed on Wednesday, May 28, both parties agreed to request the release of all Gifford's "claims and potential counterclaims" related to the initial action. Sheil's legal representation at AZA law firm issued a written statement confirming the dismissal of all eight claims brought on by the plaintiff, which included federal copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, Digital Millennium Copyright Act violation, trade dress infringement and misappropriation. According to the firm's statement, Sheil, 22, successfully motioned to dismiss three of Gifford's original claims in December 2024. Because the defendant already responded to the suit, Gifford, 25, needed Sheil's permission to surrender the case, which she obliged. In a quote included by AZA, Sheil celebrated how the lawsuit's outcome might help protect creators from similar situations in the first place. Sydney Nicole Gifford/Instagram Sydney Nicole Gifford. Sydney Nicole Gifford. "This was about more than just me. This sets a precedent that young influencers can fight back and not give in to bullying, said Sheil in the AZA statement. Ms. Gifford tried to intimidate me into leaving this industry. But she failed and the truth prevailed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gifford's social media content centers around her home, fashion and the "must-have" items she finds on Amazon. Her posts consistently maintain a neutral-toned vibe, with content showcasing shades of brown and tan hues. "I think I feel more calm in neutral spaces, Gifford told The Verge in late November. Now my favorite color is beige," she added, which explains the hashtag she'll occasionally use on her content (#sadbeigehome). "It is a sad beige home, and I like it." Like Gifford, Sheil made her name curating content that aligns with the beige aesthetic, and she regularly posts about her neutral-toned outfits, home decor and makeup routine. "Its definitely very calming, Sheil said of her decor when speaking with The Verge, who visited the Texas-based influencer for an interview a few days prior to meeting up with Gifford in her Minneapolis home. "I just want it to all be cohesive and plain." Alyssa Sheil/Instagram Alyssa Sheil. Alyssa Sheil. According to the original filing from April 2024, which was obtained by PEOPLE, Gifford's lawsuit stated that she had been curating her "brand identity" and "credibility" online for five years. She claimed to have become known for her promotion of Amazon products, like apparel and household goods. She has "grown her business into a multi-thousand dollar operation," her lawsuit states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gifford and Sheil met in person in December 2022 with the intent to support each other's businesses, per the filing. It continues to state that after they got together in January 2023, Gifford blocked Sheil from viewing her content. In August 2024, four months after Gifford's initial filing, attorneys for Sheil asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to dismiss claims brought forth against her. Per the court documents, Sheil denied "every allegation" in the complaint. "Sheil has never infringed on any work of Giffords, because Sheils work is independently developed, does not use anything belonging to Gifford, and is not based on anything posted by Gifford," the court document reads. Sydney Nicole Gifford/Instagram Sydney Nicole Gifford. Sydney Nicole Gifford. The response issued by Sheil's attorney claimed that the case stemmed from "jealousy." The documents note that when the two creators first met, Sheil was "younger and more successful on certain social media platforms that Gifford had not yet maximized." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The filings allege that "it was Gifford who asked Sheil" content-related questions, but Sheil did not seek out "a meritless lawsuit" claiming that Gifford "stole her likeness," read the court document Sheil's legal team emphasized "the very nature" of the fashion and influencer industries: "Similar influencer content creators collaborate, adopt, and evolve on trends and looks to promote products to their audience and followers." Read the original article on People Floridians may be treated to brilliant sunsets soon as two huge plumes of Saharan dust blow over the state, starting at the end of May. But for some people, dust in the air can mean anything from an itchy throat to more serious, lasting conditions. Every year from around June to September, a mass of sand, dirt and dry, dust air from the North Africa desert is pulled into the atmosphere to blow west. It's called the Saharan Air Layer (SAL), and it can help keep the hurricane season calmer as it dries out the air over the Atlantic and Caribbean basins. It's a thin layer, and many people may not even notice it other than marveling at the suddenly more vibrant skies at dusk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But it's still dust. Particulate matter is not good for human lungs. "Saharan dust lowers air quality by increasing the concentration of mineral dust, things like silica and quartz," Dr. Samuel Gurevich, a pulmonologist with Cleveland Clinic in Florida said in an email. "These tiny particles can travel deep into the lungs and cause significant inflammation." The dust also tends to make the air drier, which can further irritate airways, Gurevich said. This might mean a runny nose or itchy eyes. "But, for people with respiratory conditions, it can cause more serious symptoms or flare ups," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Studies have shown dramatically increased admissions to emergency rooms for asthma, pneumonia, heart failure and respiratory events during dust storms. A 2020 study in Miami showed a marked increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ER visits during a Saharan dust event. Here's what to know. Who is most at danger from Saharan dust? "People with respiratory conditions, like asthma and COPD (including chronic bronchitis and emphysema), are especially vulnerable," Gurevich said. "Exposure to the dust can trigger asthma attacks or COPD flare-ups, leading to serious symptoms like shortness of breath and coughing, and sometimes sever enough to require an ER visit." Saharan dust can also affect people living with heart disease or diabetes, and its especially risky for babies, children, pregnant women and older adults. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The effects can last for weeks after exposure, Gurevich said. How can I protect myself from Saharan dust? Gurevich suggests staying indoors on bad days with poor air quality, with the windows closed and the air-conditioner running. Air purifiers can help, especially if fitted with HEPA filters. "If you need to go outside, consider wearing a dust or surgical mask," he said. "And if youre driving, make sure to keep the windows up and the AC on to help filter the air." If you have a respiratory condition, keep your inhalers and medications with you and ready to use at all times, If you're with someone who has asthma, especially younger children or older adults, keep an eye on them as they may not recognize or speak up about their symptoms right away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Extra precautions should be taken for children, who are more susceptible to poor air quality, according to the American Lung Association. Their lungs are still developing, and they breathe in more air (and consequently more pollution) for their size than adults. And don't forget your pets. You can track air quality in your area at airnow.gov. When should I seek medical help from Saharan dust? Even healthy people may experience irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath during times of heavy dust. The symptoms should fade once you remove yourself from the area or the air quality improves. "If you notice difficulty breathing, wheezing or tightness in the chest, or if your inhaler isnt helping like it should, don't wait for symptoms to worsen," Gurevich said. "Seek medical care right away. The longer you wait, the harder and more dangerous it is to treat." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you're not sure, the American Lung Associations Lung HelpLine at 1-800-LUNGUSA is staffed by nurses and respiratory therapists and is a free resource to answer any questions about the lungs, lung disease and lung health, including how to protect yourself during days of poor air quality. What is PM2.5 and PM10 pollution? Particle pollution is ranked based on the size of particulate matter (PM) a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air, according to the EPA. It's also called particle pollution. Particle pollution is ranked as: PM10: Inhalable particles with diameters generally 10 micrometers and smaller PM2.5: Fine inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and smaller. That's 30x smaller than the diameter of the average human hair. The microscopic solids and droplets can get into the lungs and possibly the bloodstrea This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Saharan dust to sweep over Florida. Here's how to protect your airways SALINE COUNTY, Ark. The Saline County Sheriffs Office and the county judge gave an update on the vandalism and subsequent arrest at a county public works project site. SCSO Chief Deputy Dustin Robinson said 42-year-old Clint Guthrie of Cabot, a former employee of the excavation company, was arrested on Thursday. Guthrie had his initial hearing on Friday, Robinson said, and was assigned a $50,000 bond in the matter. Suspect arrested in connection with Saline County construction equipment vandalism Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Guthrie is facing charges of felony criminal mischief after two excavators used for work on the Southwest Trail construction site were seriously damaged, including one being buried and one being rolled into a creek at the site. Robinson said the arrest came after detective work by the sheriffs office. One of the keys to developing the case was the use of camera footage from various cities, he said, including one camera that did not capture a visual image but did pick up audio of the machines running, which helped investigators establish a timeline. Chief Deputy Dustin Robinson holds a list of previous charges against 42-year-old Clint Guthrie of Cabot at a news conference about vandalism at the Southwest Trail project, May 30, 2025 (NEXSTAR) Guthrie has a long criminal record, Robinson said, with 25 arrests in the past 20 years. Guthrie was on probation when deputies arrested him in connection to the vandalism, Robinson said. Southwest Trail construction site vandalized in Saline County, reward for information climbs to $75,000 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Included in establishing the timeline was footage from an Arkansas State Police trooper who wrote a ticket to Guthrie the night of the vandalism after a traffic accident, Robinson said. That allowed investigators to establish a timeline as Guthrie was on his way back to his Cabot home. It also showed Guthrie being muddy and wet, as were the conditions where the vandalism took place. Records show Guthrie is still in custody in the Saline County Detention Center. County Judge Matt Brumley said the damage to the area was extensive and not just to the equipment but the fuel and hydraulic fluid that was spilled into the creek, forcing the county to abate the damage. Saline County breaks ground on its portion of 65-mile-long Southwest Trail Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brumley said the countys Office of Emergency Management was successful in containing the spill and protecting nearby homes, but the final costs for equipment repair or replacement and environmental damage will range from $500,000 to $750,000, and a one-month delay in the project. 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. Cucumbers grown by a Boynton Beach company are making dozens of people sick in a widening salmonella outbreak. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention announced on Friday that they are investigating Salmonella Montevideo infections linked to recalled cucumbers in Florida and 17 other states. The cucumbers were grown by Bedner Growers in Boynton Beach and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales of Delray Beach. They were sold to retailers, distribution centers, wholesalers, and food service distributors from April 29 to May 19. The cucumbers may have been sold individually or in smaller packages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone who eats the contaminated food usually will show symptoms within 12 to 72 hours. The symptoms usually last four to seven days and include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Children under 5, the elderly, and individuals with weakened immune systems are more likely to experience severe infections. Consumers who have symptoms should contact their health care provider to report their symptoms and receive care, the federal agency advises. Some potentially contaminated cucumbers were available at Bedners Farm Fresh Market in three Florida locations including Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach. Some retailers further processed the cucumbers by using them as ingredients in new products or by repackaging them. Target is conducting an additional recall for products that used cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers. Walmart sold the recalled cucumbers under its Marketside label. FDA has posted a list of additional recalls being conducted by retailers The FDA is urging restaurants, retailers, and distributors that purchased potentially contaminated recalled cucumbers to notify their customers of the potential health concern. Florida and Georgia have the most reported cases of salmonella linked to Bedner Growers cucumbers as many as seven cases each. There have been 45 cases and nine hospitalizations linked to the outbreak, but no deaths. Other states with reported cases include Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. If you cannot tell if your cucumber was grown by Bedner Growers, throw it away, the FDA advises. The agency also suggests when eating out over the next week, ask if cucumbers were from Bedner Growers or Fresh Start Produce Sales. South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) The Salt Lake City Police Department Bike Squad seized about 6.5 pounds of methamphetamines and more than $6,200 in suspected drug money, police announced Thursday. The SLCPD Pioneer Bike Squad began this investigation at around 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 24, after they received information about possible drug activity. With that information, officers found the suspect and witnessed a drug transaction, according to police. The suspected buyer in the deal was stopped with the help of the Cottonwood Heights Police Departments K-9 team, and officers found about 2.2 pounds of methamphetamine in the suspects vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A nearby hotel was identified as being connected to the suspect over the course of the investigation, and SLCPDs Central Bike Squad, Special Investigations Unit, and Violent Criminal Apprehension Team came to assist the Pioneer Bike Squad. Kanab sex offender charged with 50 felonies for sexual exploitation of a minor After officers obtained a search warrant, they recovered an additional 4.3 pounds of methamphetamine and $6,258 in cash. This case is a great example of what our officers can achieve when they build strong partnerships and have strong interagency cooperation, Chief Brian Redd of the SLCPD said in a press release. Disrupting a suspected methamphetamine supply chain like this is a major win for our officers and the city. Im proud of the work by our officers and I am very appreciative for the support we received both in-state and out-of-state on this case. SLCPD Chief Brian Redd Police said that the case is still under investigation, and they will not release the names of individuals involved in the case in order to protect the ongoing investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) Salt Lake County Sheriffs Search and Rescue crews conducted four rescues in one day across the Wasatch Front over Memorial Day weekend. Rescue crews had their hands full over Memorial Day weekend, with teams responding to four rescues within about six hours of each other on Sunday, May 25. The rescues included two cliffed-out hikers in Little Cottonwood Canyon, two lost hikers in Red Pine Canyon, and a dehydrated hiker on Mt. Olympus. All teams from each incident were reportedly off the mountain before 9 p.m. Incident #1 White Pine, Little Cottonwood Canyon Two hikers were cliffed out on the ridgeline between White Pine and Red Pine Canyons (Pink Pine) in Little Cottonwood Canyon. A four-person search and rescue team responded to the incident, ascending the mountain on foot to reach the individuals. Ultimately, the team determined a helicopter was necessary to conduct the rescue, and two individuals were hoisted from the area. Incident #2 Bells Canyon While the White Pine rescue was underway, the Salt Lake Co. Sheriffs Office received a call from the Sandy City Fire Dept. requesting help with a fallen hiker who injured his ankle near the first waterfall in Bells Canyon. Several teams ascended the trail on foot to the injured person and were able to carry him in a Stokes basket back to the trailhead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Courtesy of Salt Lake County Sheriffs Search and Rescue Incident #3 Red Pine, Little Cottonwood Canyon As the team from the White Pine Rescue was hiking down, some crew members reportedly diverted into Red Pine Canyon to help two lost hikers. The hikers had gone off trail, officials said, though the rescue team was able to find both individuals and get them back to the trailhead. Incident #4 Mt. Olympus Again, as the rescues above were taking place, the sheriffs office received yet another call for assistance. This rescue involved a dehydrated hiker about one mile up the Mt. Olympus trail. Several rescue crew members headed up the trail on foot and were able to reach the individual, who had reportedly already started making his way down. Crew members provided a medical assessment on the person and then helped them back to the trailhead. For a detailed guide on hiking safety, visit the National Park Service website here. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. TAYLORVILLE, Utah (ABC4) A Salt Lake woman died on Thursday evening after she crashed into two other cars at an intersection while allegedly driving a stolen car, police say. The Taylorsville Police Department said the incident started around 9:30 p.m. on May 29 when police found a car that had been reported stolen from Layton. Officers attempted to stop the car, but the driver, identified as Caysee Rebolloso, 35, of Salt Lake City, fled. Taylorsville Police said they did not initiate a pursuit of the vehicle but did request the help of a Department of Public Safety helicopter to follow the allegedly stolen car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers then used tire deflation devices along 500 West to try to stop the vehicle. However, the driver continued to flee north, Taylorsville PD said in a statement. Man struck by SUV in Salt Lake City crosswalk dies in crash Shortly after, Rebolloso went through the intersection at 4800 South and 500 West and crashed into two other cars. Taylorsville Police said she was taken to a local area hospital, where she later died due to her injuries. A passenger in the second vehicle was also hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The driver of the third vehicle was later taken to the hospital by a family member after suffering from minor injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An investigation of the crash is still ongoing, led by the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction (CAR) Team, a multi-jurisdictional effort that handles major traffic accidents that include injuries and deaths. 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. AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) is well-positioned to continue edging higher. That's the sentiment echoed on May 27 by BMO Capital as the firm reiterated an Outperform rating on the stock. Additionally, the analyst firm hiked its stock price target to $4,100 from $3,850. BMO Capital Hikes AutoZone Price Target to $4,100, Affirms Outperform Stance An engineer at a workbench surrounded by automotive parts, tools, and microchips. The stock has gained 13%, outperforming the S&P 500, which is up by nearly 1%. The impressive runs stem from AutoZones strong performance over the past year, characterized by a 32% return. In addition, it boasts a healthy gross profit margin of 53.13% and a free cash flow of over $2 billion. Tristan Thomas-Martin of BMO Capital shared insights on the automotive parts companys latest performance and its future outlook. Autozone delivered impressive third-quarter fiscal 2025 results as the company's international business continues to deliver strong results. The results also came in better than expected, attributed to the company's aggressive expansion. The company opened 54 new stores in the US, 25 in Mexico, and five in Brazil. Revenue in the third quarter was up 5.4% to $4.5 billion. Same-store sales were up 3.2%, driven by a 5.0% increase in domestic sales as international same-store sales grew by 8.1%. However, net income fell by 6.6% to $608.4 million, and diluted earnings per share shrunk by 3.6% to $35.36. Thomas-Martin acknowledged challenges affecting AutoZones margins, including commercial sales growth, currency headwinds, and ongoing investments. Despite this, he remains optimistic about the companys long-term market potential in a fragmented industry. AutoZone is a specialty retailer that deals in automotive replacement parts and accessories. It offers a wide variety of hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products. In addition to their retail stores, AutoZone also provides commercial sales to repair shops and other businesses. While we acknowledge the potential of AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) 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 AZO and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. In their upside down, Alice-in-Wonderland version of reality, the left has a point when they cast George Orwell as a prophet of our times. Our world increasingly resembles the soul-crushing landscape of manipulation the English writer limned in the pages of "1984" and "Animal Farm." Powerful forces in government, media, academia, and business have transformed much of the news into propaganda. During the Biden years, for example, the left cast their push for censorship as a commitment to truth and the coercive control of everyday life as the flowering of freedom. Talk about Orwellian. Now that Donald Trump is back in office, they are once again insisting the president and his populist supports on the right are an existential threat to liberty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blessedly, however, we still live in a relatively open society. Many of us can see through and expose their deceit. Thats why Hans Christian Anderson rivals Orwell as our most useful modern prophet. His tale, "The Emperors New Clothes," captures the daily experience of watching very serious people holding very serious conversations about total nonsense. Its why watching the news makes us channel our inner Elvis - give me a gun so I can shoot that TV. The most recent front-page example is the wall-to-wall coverage of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompsons new book, "Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." They report that hundreds of people knew that Biden was not up to running the country, and yet this scheming horde hid this secret from the legacy media. It was only after they lost the election that these conspirators decided to spill the beans. In fact, polls show millions of people knew the score on Biden well before the election. One didnt need special access, just two eyes to see the truth. Yes, it is nice to have the books detail on the consternation about Bidens infirmities, but that just confirms rather than expands our knowledge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even as it pretends to reveal the truth, "Original Sin" is another exercise in gaslighting, because it tries to make the starting point of the story - the effort to hide Bidens incapacity - its endpoint. The pressing issue, however, is not the cover-up, but the cover-up of the cover-up. Which unelected officials were running the government in Bidens name? How did they do it? How did they justify it? Turning the old Watergate question around: What did the president not know and when did he not know it? And, why did so many of the nations most influential news outlets participate in this charade? How was Bidens health discussed in top newsrooms? Who made the decision to dismiss these consequential concerns? Answering those questions and naming names is the urgent task for media outlets who have already lost the trust of much of the country because of their partisan coverage. Instead of experiencing a come-to-Jesus moment, however, the legacy media is likely to use its coverage of the book to bury the Biden years under the claim that the key questions have now been asked and answered. It will use the "lessons" it learned as a reason to pound Trump even harder, including questioning his mental fitness. If Democrats and their media stenographers have learned anything, it is that they will almost certainly get away with it. The Biden cover-up is part of a decades-long pattern in which they have stridently misled the American people - against all evidence - about the biggest issues of the day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The short list includes advancing the clearly bogus claims that Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election; attacking those who made the obvious connection between the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology; delegitimizing reports about the material on Hunter Bidens laptop detailing the Biden familys influence-peddling schemes; and the truly Orwellian effort to disparage honest challenges of official narratives as "misinformation" and "disinformation." Going back nearly two decades, there was the 2006 Duke lacrosse case, in which local and national media outlets echoed a local Democrat district attorneys assertion that a bunch of rich preppies had raped a poor black stripper. There was never any real evidence for this heinous crime, apart from the troubled womans claims. Yet the young men were convicted in the press simply because of their alleged privilege. A few years after this shameful episode, the media were back it, advancing false narratives about the deaths of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and Michael Brown in 2014 to allege a war on blacks - setting the stage for the racist convulsions of the Black Lives Matters movement and DEI programs. None of these missteps resulted in soul-searching - though a few did result in Pulitzer Prizes. The next few years promise more of the same: the Orwellian twisting of facts that will bombard us with dangerous lies. As the aptly named group "Talking Heads" once sang: Same as it ever was, same as it ever was. Its enough to make you go full Elvis. J. Peder Zane is an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics. Follow him on X @jpederzane. Along with four other terrorists, Walid Daqqa murdered IDF soldier Moshe Tamam and later made headlines by fathering a child through smuggling sperm from prison. Sanaa Daqqa, the widow of Walid Daqqa, was arrested during operational activity by police near the Nablus Gate in Jerusalem on Thursday night, an Israel Police spokesperson confirmed. She was arrested on suspicion of incitement, the spokesperson said. Daqqa was said to have published inciting material against the state and IDF soldiers Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Israel Police will reach out to any person, anywhere, who calls for incitement against the State of Israel and IDF soldiers and will bring them to justice to the fullest extent, the spokeswoman affirmed. Police Commissioner Danny Levi ordered her arrest following a request from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, police said. Daqqa praised a number of terrorists on social media, including her husband and eliminated Hamas leader Yahya Sinar, Walla reported. Who is Walid Daqqa? Israeli-Arab PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqa, who participated in the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier in 1984, was celebrated by terrorists in 2020 after he reportedly smuggled his sperm out of Gilboa Prison to father a child. Walid Daqqas efforts were reportedly fruitful as his wife gave birth to Milad, according to Palestinian Authority TV. Amnesty International claimed he had only been allowed to see his daughter once before his death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He received extra time on his sentence for participating in phone smuggling into Ktzi'ot prison, according to Israeli media. Walid Daqqa died of cancer in 2024 after serving 37 years behind bars following Israels refusal of his efforts to gain early release. Along with four other terrorists, Walid Daqqa murdered IDF soldier Moshe Tamam. The courts found that he had ordered the kidnapping of Tamam for ransom purposes, but ordered his murder should any complications arise, according toprevious reporting by theJerusalem Post. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Rochester is one of many cities, counties, and states, spotlighted for its sanctuary status on a national list published by the Department of Homeland Security Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security has released the list claiming these areas are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens. DHS argues that sanctuary cities shield dangerous criminal illegal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement at serious risk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On April 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to identify and publicly call out jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The Department of Homeland Security is dedicated to revealing these lawless jurisdictions to the public and holding them accountable for not adhering to the rule of law. These sanctuary city politicians are putting Americans and our law enforcement at risk to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated. We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who shelter criminal illegal aliens and violate federal law. President Trump and I will always prioritize the safety of the American people. Sanctuary politicians are warned: comply with federal law. The cities and counties listed will receive formal notifications regarding their non-compliance and any potential violations of federal criminal statutes. The Department of Homeland Security insists that these jurisdictions must promptly review and amend their policies to comply with federal immigration laws and reaffirm their duty to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City of Rochesters status as a sanctuary city was spotlighted after an incident in March involving ICE and the Rochester Police Department. According to city leaders, Border Patrol called for back-up after stopping a van near Lyell Avenue, and some RPD officers spoke with the occupants in the van and detained at least one person. Rochester is facing a lawsuit by the federal government over its sanctuary city laws and policies. The lawsuit alleges that the laws and policies are illegal and designed to intentionally interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration law. The plaintiffs cite a resolution requiring authorization for requests from CBP or ICE, accusing the city of restricting them from sending information on peoples immigration statuses. To view the complete list of sanctuary jurisdictions, click here. The Department of Homeland Security mentioned that the list can be reviewed and modified at any time and will be updated frequently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City of Rochester released a statement to News 8 Thursday, saying its sanctuary city policy is legally sound: Rochesters Sanctuary City policy is legally sound and always has beenincluding during the entirety of the Trump administrations first term. The City will continue to vigorously defend the legality of this policy and confront the Federal administrations overused tactics of distortion, distraction and division. 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 RochesterFirst. Israel has said it will not cooperate with plans from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to host a Saudi-led delegation of foreign ministers in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli official told CNN on Friday. In order to travel to the meeting in Ramallah, ministers from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and Turkey needed approval from Israel who controls access to the West Bank. It would have been the highest-level Saudi visit to the area since it was occupied by Israel in 1967. The Israeli official dubbed the meeting provocative and told CNN Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The official added that the PA must stop violating its agreements with Israel on all levels. It is unclear which agreements they are referring to. On Saturday, a Saudi source with knowledge of the matter told CNN that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan had postponed his planned trip to the West Bank the first ever by such a high-ranking Saudi official since 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Hussein Al-Sheikh, vice president of the PA, had told CNN on Friday that an Arab ministerial delegation led by Prince Faisal planned to arrive in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The visit would have come as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman pushes for international recognition of Palestinian statehood as the war in Gaza drags on and as prospects of Saudi-Israeli normalization grow more distant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mazen Ghoneim had told Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya that the Saudi foreign minister would be joined by the top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan and other countries. The ministerial visit is considered a clear message. The Palestinian cause is a central issue to Arabs and Muslims, Ghoneim said. An Israeli source familiar with the matter told CNN that Israeli authorities were notified of the visit. CNN has reached out to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Qatar for comment. Shaul Arieli, the head of T-Politography, a think tank which studies the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said it would be the first such high-level delegation to visit the occupied West Bank since Israel seized the territory in 1967. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He told CNN the visit would be unprecedented and underscores a rise in Saudi support for the Palestinian Authority that emerged after the start of the war in Gaza. Its a dramatic change, Arieli said. The Saudis have made clear since the conflict began that they support the two-state solution according to 67 borders, they support the establishment of the capital of a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, and they are ready tosupport the budget of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers are stationed in central Jenin, West Bank on Tuesday. - Mojahid Nawahda/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images CNN understands that Saudi Arabia is frustrated at Israels refusal to end the war in Gaza and is exerting intense diplomatic efforts to convince Western states to recognize Palestinian statehood, including the United States. The kingdom is confident that France will be among the states that will do so in June. Riyadh is also working to prop up the Palestinian Authority as it sees no viable alternative to its role as the political representative of the Palestinian people. In his initial term, US President Donald Trump brokered landmark normalization deals between Israel and multiple Arab states. Yet, his primary ambition remains securing an agreement between Saudi Arabia, a key Muslim power, and Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Normalization talks between the kingdom and Israel were progressing before Hamas October 7 attack. Saudi Arabia was to establish diplomatic relations with Israel and in exchange receive a lucrative defense treaty with Washington, including the possibility of a nuclear program in the kingdom. But as the death toll in Gaza rose and anger spread across the Arab and Muslim world, Saudi Arabia told US officials that it would not normalize relations unless Israel agreed to a pathway for a Palestinian state and calm in Gaza. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman doubled down in his criticism of Israel, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza a claim Israel has denied. His top diplomat told CNN last year that recognition of Israel would not happen without a Palestinian state. In June, Saudi Arabia is expected to co-chair with France a high-level conference in New York for a two-state solution, which envisions the creation of a Palestinian state beside Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking in Singapore on Friday, Macron said the eventual recognition of a Palestinian state, was not only a moral duty, but a political necessity. What we are building over the coming weeks is obviously a political response to the crisis (in Gaza). And yes, its a necessity. Because today, over and above the current humanitarian tragedy, it is the very possibility of a Palestinian state that is being questioned. he said. He warned that Israel has hours or days to improve humanitarian situation in Gaza or face tougher European stance. Riyadh appointed a non-resident ambassador to the Palestinian territories in 2023, weeks before Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel that left 1,200 people dead and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. The ambassador, Nayef Al Sudairi visited the West Bank in September 2023 to present his credentials to Abbas in what was the highest-level official Saudi visit in decades at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Historically, two Saudi kings have visited Jerusalem, including King Saud in 1954, and King Faisal in 1966. This story has been updated. CNNs Tamar Michaelis, Eyad Kourdi, Angus Watson and Martin Goillandeau contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Iran is open to a deal but distrusts Trump. Saudi Arabia is trying to prevent a regional war that could hurt its economy and stability. Saudi Arabia's defense minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: take President Donald Trump's offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel. Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabia's 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son, Prince Khalid bin Salman, with the warning destined for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the sources said. While the media covered the 37-year-old prince's visit, the content of King Salman's covert message has not been previously reported. Prince Khalid, who was Saudi ambassador to Washington during Trump's first term, warned Iranian officials that the US leader has little patience for drawn-out negotiations, according to the four sources. L to R: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump against backdrop of Iranian flag (illustration). (photo credit: Hossein Beris/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images, Olivier Douliery-Pool via Getty Images) Trump had unexpectedly announced just over a week earlier that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. He did so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had traveled to Washington hoping instead to win support for attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Tehran, Prince Khalid told the group of senior Iranian officials that Trump's team would want to reach a deal quickly, and the window for diplomacy would close fast, according to the four sources. The Saudi minister said it would be better to reach a deal with the US than face the possibility of an Israeli attack if the talks broke down, according to the two Gulf sources. He argued that the region, already riven by recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, could not withstand a further escalation in tensions, said the two Gulf sources and one senior foreign diplomat familiar with the discussions. Authorities in Saudi Arabia and Iran did not respond to requests for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The visit by Prince Khalid, the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, was the first by a senior member of the Saudi royal family to Iran in more than two decades. Riyadh and Tehran had long been bitter rivals, often backing opposing sides in proxy wars, until a rapprochement brokered by China in 2023 helped to ease the tensions and restored diplomatic ties. Over the past two years, Iran's regional position has been undermined by heavy military blows inflicted by Israel on its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the toppling of its close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Western sanctions, meanwhile, have hit its oil-dependent economy hard. Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank in Beirut, said that Tehran's weakness had offered Saudi Arabia the opportunity to exert its diplomatic influence, seeking to avoid a regional conflagration. "They want to avoid war because war and confrontation with Iran will have negative implications on them and their economic vision and ambitions," he told Reuters. Iran wants a deal Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the prince's message on Iran's leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the meeting, Pezeshkian responded that Iran wanted a deal to ease economic pressure through the lifting of Western sanctions, the four sources said. However, the Iranian officials, the sources added, expressed concerns over the Trump administration's "unpredictable" approach to negotiations, which has veered from allowing limited uranium enrichment to demanding the complete dismantling of Tehran's enrichment program. Trump also has threatened to use military force if diplomacy fails to rein in the clerical establishment's nuclear ambitions. One of the Iranian sources said that Pezeshkian emphasized Tehran's eagerness to reach a deal but that Iran was not willing to sacrifice its enrichment program just because Trump wanted an agreement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran have already been through five rounds to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, but multiple stumbling blocks remain, including the key issue of enrichment. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Iran might pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. releases its frozen funds and recognizes its right to refine uranium for civilian use under a "political deal" that could lead to a broader nuclear accord, according to two Iranian sources familiar with the talks. The semi-official Fars news agency in Iran quoted a foreign ministry spokesman denying the report. The White House did not directly address Reuters' questions about whether it was aware of the Saudi warning to Iran. "President Trump has made it clear: make a deal, or face grave consequences, and the whole world is clearly taking him seriously, as they should," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump said on Wednesday he warned Netanyahu last week not to take any actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran, and said the two sides were "very close to a solution now." Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment. High stakes Trump visit to the Middle East A four-day visit by Trump to the Gulf this month anointed Saudi Arabia as the most prominent member of a new axis of Sunni states in the Middle East, filling the void left by Iran's shattered alliance. During the trip, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman mediated a reconciliation between Trump and Syria's new Sunni leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. Tehran's regional sway, meanwhile, has been diminished by military setbacks suffered by Iran and its allies in the Shi'ite-dominated Axis of Resistance, which includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the meeting, Prince Khalid urged Iran to rethink its regional policy, noting such a shift would be welcomed, especially by Riyadh, the sources said. Although he stopped short of directly blaming Iran, the Saudi minister voiced concern over a possible repeat of the 2019 drone attacks on the facilities of the state oil company Aramco - attacks the kingdom attributed to Iran and its Houthi allies, despite Tehran's denial. Iranian officials maintained that while Tehran holds some influence over the Houthis, it does not fully control their actions, the Iranian sources said. Decades of hostility between the Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia destabilized the Gulf and fueled regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria. The 2023 detente was driven in part by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed's economic ambitions and desire for stability, and has led to increased contacts between the governments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, neither Saudi Arabia nor other regional powers see Iran as a dependable partner for peace, and they fear its actions could jeopardize their ambitions for economic development, diplomats and regional experts say. Prince Khalid implored the Iranians to avoid actions by them and their allies that might provoke Washington. He stressed that Trump's response would likely be more strident than that of his predecessors, presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. In turn, he assured Tehran that Riyadh would not let its territory or airspace be used by the United States or Israel for any potential military action against Iran, the sources said. May 30DIXON Sauk Valley Community College is partnering with the American Red Cross to host a community blood drive Monday, June 30. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Dillon Mall on the college's Dixon campus at 173 state Route 2. The drive, sponsored by the SVCC Student Activities and Student Government Association, invites students, faculty, staff and the community to help save lives through blood donation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Donors are encouraged to bring a photo ID, eat a healthy meal and drink plenty of water before donating. The donation process typically takes about an hour, and all donors will receive a $15 e-gift card. Although walk-ins are welcome, organizers recommend scheduling an appointment in advance as spots tend to fill quickly. Appointments can be made by visiting redcrossblood.org or by calling 815-835-6432. To streamline the process, participants can save time by using RapidPass, which allows donors to complete pre-donation reading and health history questions online. For more information, visit redcrossblood.org/RapidPass. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) Texas House Bill 3 proposes a ban on the sale and consumption of any product containing any amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but what will the move mean for Texans who rely on these types of products for alternative medical uses? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas House bans THC products, reduces criminal penalty for possessing intoxicating hemp It comes in gummies, chocolates, or even just the traditional flower form. THC products can be found in a variety of styles with uses that span beyond simply recreational. Texas Senate Bill 3, which has now passed both the Texas Senate and House, seeks to completely ban the consumption and sale of hemp products that contain any amount of THC, though it would not affect the sale of non-psychoactive cannabinoids such as CBD and CBG. Brittany Manske, the owner of the Abilene CBD House of Healing, expressed concerns about the bill and claimed that Texas lawmakers are mischaracterizing the product she sells. The picture that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has painted just doesnt apply to businesses like ours. We operate with integrity, high standards in regards to quality and safety, Manske said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill is now on Governor Greg Abbotts desk and just needs his signature to become Texas law. Now, many who rely on the product as a substitute for various treatments for both medical and mental ailments are voicing their concerns about this action. CBD and other hemp products make their mark on the Key City One of those individuals is retired Veteran Andrew Peterson, who regularly uses THC products to help with pain management from injuries he sustained while he was serving, and says that more military members like him are switching to using THC products as a safer alternative than other coping mechanisms. I feel like when people get out of the military, its a lot better than choosing to go directly to alcohol and ruining their lives and going down that rabbit hole, Peterson explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Valerie Armstrong said that she uses THC products for a variety of ailments, including both physical and mental, and speaks to the benefits of the product, as well as proposing monetary ventures that could benefit the state. It is good for people who have cancer. It helps them eat. It helps them get through their day. You say this is going to affect our kids? Yeah, it could affect our kids, Armstrong said. You know what we could do? We could take the money from the taxes. We can no longer make kids pay for school food. Lawmakers hope to expand medical marijuana program as state bans intoxicating hemp products At this point, no action has been taken by the governors office regarding SP3, but Brittany Manske says shes not waiting around and has decided to take action. Manske and her business have set up a petition to veto Texas Senate Bill 3 and are seeking 100,000 signatures to present to Governor Abbott. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the bill is signed into law, the ban will take effect in September of this year. However, the proposed law will not apply to individuals in Texas who possess a license for medical THC use. 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 KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. COLUMBUS (WJW) A man who investigators said is responsible for billions of robocalls made across the country, including in Ohio, has been banned from the telecommunications industry, according to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. This week, Yost and attorneys general in seven other states won their ongoing court battle against John Spiller, who was found in contempt of court by a federal judge in Texas. According to court records, Spiller owned several companies, including Rising Eagle Capital Group, JSquared Telecom and Rising Eagle Capital Group-Cayman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More salads, cucumber products sold at Ohio Kroger stores recalled Investigators said the companies facilitated a massive number of robocalls, including 69 million sent to phone numbers with Ohio area codes. Court records show that more than 32 million of those numbers were on the Do Not Call List. The businesses were ordered to be shut down in 2023, but according to Yost, Spiller violated his court order by starting new companies Every1 Telecom and ATX Telco and continuing the robocall scams. According to the attorney generals office, a federal judge this week imposed a permanent ban on Spiller, prohibiting him from launching future telecommunications companies or otherwise operating in the telecom industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This scammers line is dead and its not coming back, Yost said. Raccoon breaks into box truck for Pop-Tarts: Photos He also must pay more than $600,000 in attorneys fees and litigation costs for violating the court order, the attorney generals office said. The judges latest ruling sends a strong message that bad actors cannot evade court orders by simply operating under different business names, Yosts office said in a press release. Other attorneys general were involved in the legal fight, including in Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota and Texas. 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. After months of discussion, the Frederick County Board of Education in a split vote approved a districtwide cellphone usage policy for students. The school board began drafting Policy 118 in September 2024. Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyson at the beginning of this school year added new regulations in the Student Code of Conduct for device use in school. She has said the guidelines intended to build a foundation for the policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The school board voted 4-3 on May 21 to approve the policy. School board members Rae Gallagher, Dean Rose, Karen Yoho and Janie Inglis Monier voted in favor of the policy. Colt Black, Jaime Brennan and Nancy Allen voted against the policy. Although expectations for device usage in school was outlined in the Student Code of Conduct, consequences for violating the policy were not enforced in Term 1, which began Aug. 21, 2024, and ended Oct. 29, 2024. The school district has said it wanted to familiarize students, staff members and families of the expectations without consequences. FCPS in Term 2 began enforcing those consequences. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consequences for violating cellphone usage expectations could include a school administrator confiscating the device. This would require a parent or guardian to come to the school and get the device back. Repeated offenses would result in an administrative referral. Guidelines for device use differ between grade levels. The word devices includes smart watches, tablets and e-readers, and is flexible to include new technology created in the future. Elementary school students must have devices silenced and out of sight throughout the entire school day. This means elementary school students cannot use cellphones during non-class periods, on FCPS transportation to and from school, and at lunch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Middle school students are permitted to use cellphones for expressly approved instructional purposes, as well as on FCPS transportation. They are prohibited from using devices at lunch and between classes. High school students are allowed to use cellphones also for instructional purposes, on FCPS transportation, at lunch and between classes. To create the policy, FCPS has said it spoke with community members, including school administrators and students. School board discussion At the school board meeting on May 21, FCPS chief legal counsel Steven Blivess said while the draft policy contained a mandatory annual review and potential update, staff members were recommending a two-year review instead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said an annual review of the policy would be too cumbersome. Every year, the technology changes a lot, but I dont know that it changes quite that quickly, Blivess said. He added that three school board members together can bring the policy back to the Policy Committee for further revision. Yoho mentioned at the meeting that five bills attempting to govern student cellphone use in schools all failed in the Maryland General Assembly this past legislative session. Brennan said she liked the policy, but her concern is that the school district will not be significantly enforcing the policy. She mentioned an incident that happened when FCPS students accessed a video chatting website called Thundr on school-issued Chromebooks and on FCPS Wi-Fi. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A parent of a student at Oakdale Middle School said he spoke with parents of students who accessed the website, and said students saw sexual content during live video chats while they watched on their Chromebooks in school and on the school bus. FCPS in response said staff members at Oakdale Middle submitted requests to block the website on March 5 and 6, and that the website was blocked on March 7. Tom Saunders, the director of middle schools at FCPS, said at the school board meeting that he meets with the middle school principals every two weeks to discuss different problems to ensure consistency across the 13 middle schools in the district. Black said at the meeting that he was concerned about the section of the policy that discusses violations because the policy reads: Examples of violations may include, but are not limited to ... Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The policy then lists 20 examples of device use that would violate the policy, including racism, sexual harassment, and installing or using unauthorized software. Black said this part of the policy was too open to interpretation, and asked if there were more examples the school board would need to list for that section to not be open-ended. And if not, I think we need to close the door on that, so its very specific and spelled out, so that this can be clearly followed by administration, he said. Black said an open-ended section like this leaves room for uneven implementation and application across schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blivess said the policy has a pretty comprehensive list, and there was no way the policy could predict every example of a violation of the policy. We have some very smart students who may find ways to make use of it that we didnt anticipate, and to create a closed system, like youre suggesting, would mean that if they found a way to use it that was outside of this 20-item list, FCPS couldnt invoke the policy for appropriate consequences, he said. A 39-year-old Ventura County man who works as a school transport driver is reportedly facing charges of driving under the influence, officials announced Thursday. The frightening incident, according to a news release from the Ventura County Sheriffs Office, unfolded May 28 when a Moorpark School Resource Officer received a report of a school district transportation driver who smelled of alcohol. The call allegedly came from a concerned parent who smelled the odor of alcohol on the suspect, identified as Moorpark resident Jason Watson, when he arrived to pick up a student for school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is unclear if the parent allowed the child to get into the vehicle with Watson, but as soon as officials at Moorpark Unified School District were notified, they contacted law enforcement and instructed the 39-year-old to pull over and park the transportation vehicle. A Moorpark Unified School District bus is seen in this undated photo. (MUSD) Moorpark patrol deputies, as well as district officials, arrived a short time later. An investigation was conducted, and Watson was arrested for driving under the influence, the release noted. VIDEO: Sinkhole off Ventura construction site swallowing adjacent property He was then booked into the Ventura County Jail. The Moorpark Police Department encourages parents and students to report suspicious activity in compliance with the school districts See something, say something mantra, the release stated. All reports regarding the safety of students and school staff are handled with a great level of importance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Beginning this afternoon on Friday, May 30, nearly every Florida public school student will officially be on summer break. This means parents and guardians now have to find ways to keep kids busy until school starts again in August. Bouncing around from daycare to summer camps to relative's houses can easily add up. According to childcare agency Tootris, the average annual cost of full-time child care in Florida can range from $9,139 to $12,639, depending on the children's age. With these expenses, some families might be wondering if their children are ready to stay home alone. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you make the decision. At what age can can kids stay home alone in Florida? What's the youngest legal age? Florida doesn't have clear laws that specify an exact age for when children can legally stay home alone. Its up to parents to decide when their children are old enough. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state agency overseeing the welfare of children recommends they not be left home alone before age 12. The state does have more specific laws surrounding child abandonment and neglect. According to Florida State Statutes, it is a felony of the third degree to deprive a child of necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment. Can a 12-year-old babysit siblings in Florida? According to the Florida Department of Children and Families, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign recommends children should not be left alone before the age of 12. It also notes that older siblings should not supervise younger children until 15. What do other states say about leaving children home alone? Of the states that have laws regarding when children can be left home alone, the age requirement varies widely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the lower end of the spectrum, Kansas allows children 6 to 9 years old to be left home alone for short periods, and children 10 and over to be left alone for somewhat longer periods. Among other factors, the Kansas guidance adds that parents should weigh their kids level of maturity and behavior in the absence of adults before leaving children alone. On the other end, Illinois law says any person who leaves a child under 14 years old without supervision for an unreasonable period is guilty of neglect. Several states, such as Tennessee and Washington, do not have an official age requirement but recommend children are at least 10 years old before staying home alone. Checklist to determine if your child is ready to stay home alone, according to the National SAFE KIDS Campaign Most experts agree that whether or not a child is ready to stay home alone depends on the individual child and parent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To help determine if your child is ready for the responsibility, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign shared a list of questions to get a better idea: Is my child comfortable, confident and willing to stay home alone? Does my child consistently follow my rules and guidelines? Has my child demonstrated good independent judgment and problem-solving skills in the past? Is my child able to stay calm and not panic when confronted with unexpected events? Have I brainstormed with my child about what unexpected situations could possibly come up while he or she is alone, and how to handle them? Is my child consistently truthful with me? Does he or she readily come to me with problems and concerns? Does my child understand the importance of safety and know basic safety procedures? Will my child make decisions to stay safe, even at the risk of seeming rude or overly cautious to other children or adults? Does my child have the ability to calmly provide his/her name, address, phone number and directions to our home in an emergency? Can my child lock and unlock the doors and windows of our home? Can my child tell time? Is my child able to work independently on homework? Have my child and I established a clearly structured routine for when he or she is home alone, with defined responsibilities and privileges? If I have more than one child staying home, have the children demonstrated the ability to get along well and solve conflicts without physical fighting or adult intervention? Have my child and I had some dry runs to allow him or her to practice self-care skills while I am at home, butpurposefully not available? Is our neighborhood safe? Do we have neighbors that my child and I know and trust? See additional tips for parents and caregivers Once you have determined that your child is ready to stay home alone, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families shared tips to help caregivers prepare children for being home alone: Have a trial period and start small . When your child is ready, leave them home alone for a short time while staying close to home. This is a good way to see how they will manage. Talk about it beforehand . Encourage your child to share their feelings with you about staying home alone and address any thoughts or concerns they may have before leaving home alone. Teach them about safety. Before leaving your child home alone, make sure they are mature enough to handle the responsibility and understand the safety rules. Develop a family emergency plan to help them handle those situations, such as what to do in case of a fire, power outage, or stranger approaching the house. Practice basic first aid and teach them what to do if they have to contact emergency services, perhaps including a role play. Establish family rules and set boundaries . Set clear guidelines about what your child can and cannot do while home alone. Establish rules for screen time, internet usage, and the use of kitchen appliances or any other potentially dangerous items. Don't overdo it . Avoid leaving your child at home alone overnight or for overly frequent periods. Consider other options or resources, such as family or friends or programs offered by their school, community centers, youth organizations, or faith-based groups, to help with supervising your child. Follow up. After your child is left home alone (including during any trial period), talk about the experience with them. How did they feel about it? Were they nervous? Did anything unexpected come up? If they were watching another child, ask how they felt about doing so. When does school start in Florida for the 2025-2026 school year? While some schedules are still being finalized, almost every Florida school is proposed to start the 2025-2026 school year on the first possible date Monday, Aug. 11 after Aug. 10. Here's when most counties go back to school: Contributing: Maia Pandey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida laws on leaving kids home alone: What do they say? A version of this story appeared in CNNs What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. Rather than set government straight, Elon Musk is leaving Washington with the federal budget all cattywampus. Deficit spending is increasing, not waning, and there is a growing school of thought that his efficiency effort could end up costing the government as much as or more than it saved. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO came to Washington with a cut-till-it-hurts mindset and carte blanche from President Donald Trump. Musk quickly dialed back his campaign-trail bravado of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget, but as recently as a Fox News interview in March, he said that by the time he left government, his Department of Government Efficiency will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead, Musk will leave government work disappointed that the Republicans he helped put in power are working to pass a bill that is estimated to add some $3.8 trillion in deficit spending and which Trump calls big and beautiful. Theres no accounting trick to correct that imbalance. The budget is trillions out of whack, and the shock-and-awe campaign Musk and Trump imposed across the federal workforce has led to some serious PTSD for federal workers and contractors while claiming only to have saved $175 billion. Thats not chump change, but its not going to radically reform the US government. Whats listed on the still-rudimentary DOGE website is also not an accurate reflection of what the group might actually have accomplished. DOGE will live on in the White House, like Buddhism without Buddha, Musk has said, and CNN has reported that more cuts are planned after his departure. But the pace of DOGE activity has slowed, at least as reflected on its website. Musks departure is an opportunity to consider whether the Department of Government Efficiency has lived up to its name. DOGE claims $175 billion in savings. Why is that figure probably wrong? CNNs Casey Tolan is among the reporters who have been trying to match what DOGE claims to have saved or cut with what has actually been trimmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Picking apart the estimated savings of $175 billion on the DOGE website, Tolan told me that less than half that figure is backed up with even the most basic documentation. That means its possible only even to start investigating about $32 billion of savings from terminated contracts, $40 billion of savings from terminated grants and $216 million of savings from terminated leases that DOGE claims. Plus, some of the specific terminations that are included in those numbers have no details at all. And Tolan has reported on the fact that DOGEs tally has been marred by various errors and dubious calculations throughout the entire time theyve been releasing this info. Elon Musk at a Cabinet meeting held by President Donald Trump at the White House on February 26, 2025, in Washington, DC. - Andrew Harnik/Getty Images DOGE claims to have saved $1086.98 per taxpayer. Is that right? Probably not. The figure is based on 161 million individual federal taxpayers, according to the DOGE website, which drastically undercounts taxpayers in the US. That 161 million figure is more likely a reflection of individual tax returns and would not reflect married people who file jointly, according to Betsey Stevenson, a former chief economist at the US Department of Labor during the Obama administration who is now a professor at the University of Michigan. This distinction is about trying to get that number as large as possible. If instead it was expressed as per American then it would be $514, and only if you assume DOGE has saved $175 billion, which it probably has not, she told me in an email. How could DOGE cost taxpayers? Workers who generated revenue from the government have been fired, Stevenson points out. For example, staffing cuts at the IRS will mean the US brings in less revenue but so will operating national parks short-staffed. Plus, a universe of litigation related to DOGEs efforts to cancel contracts and fire workers seemingly without cause is percolating through courts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, estimates suggest that what has been spent to generate these cuts may be as great as the cuts. In the long run, its not clear that DOGE generated any savings, she said. Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, has estimated in a back-of-the-envelope way that DOGE cuts could end up costing the US $135 billion simply because it will need to retrain and rehire elements of the work force that have been let go. The federal workforce is literally in trauma something Trumps director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, said was an aim of his. Stier estimates the federal workers will be much less productive after DOGEs efforts, for a variety of reasons. Workers are now worried about losing jobs; their morale is depleted; they are distracted from their work; and many top performers are being reassigned or are leaving entirely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a previous interview, Stier described the DOGE effort to me as arson of a public asset. Protesters gather at a rally organized by the American Federation of Government Employees against DOGE purges and resignation offers made to the federal civilian workforce outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 11. - Allison Robbert/AFP/Getty Images How can we quantify what DOGE has accomplished? We probably cant, according to Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who has tried to keep track of DOGEs accounting for its cuts. While Musk has promised maximum transparency, it has been impossible to verify much of what DOGE has said it has done. We expect the government to show receipts, Malkus told me in a phone interview. And the receipts that DOGE has shown that are posted publicly are nonetheless woefully inadequate to back their claims, he said. Far from fundamentally changing government, the savings DOGE claims wont actually be realized unless and until Congress, which has the power of the purse in the Constitution, passes a rescission bill to claw back the funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, weve just canceled contracts, he said. The money is still spent because Congress spends the money. Where DOGE has been effective The DOGE effort has certainly changed the tenor of the conversation around government spending. Its aggressiveness came as a shock to many Americans. They have shown that theyre willing to inflict pain in the pursuit of reducing government expenditures, Malkus said, adding that most Americans think the government spends too much money. That resolve is something rare and potentially valuable, Malkus said. DOGE also brought in a tech mindset of cutting more than is necessary with the aim of building back, something that could be argued occurred with the rehiring of nuclear safety workers, for instance, or the reinstatement of certain contracts. Elon Musk holds a chainsaw onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 20, 2025. - Nathan Howard/Reuters Not the best business partner Jessica Tillipman, an expert in government procurement law at George Washington University, is troubled by the idea that the government has gone from being the best business partner to one contractors approach with caution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governments not acting like a good business partner right now, Tillipman said. Theyre squeezing contracts that have been fairly negotiated between the government and contractors. What will be the DOGE legacy? Its always possible DOGE could end up reforming government in positive ways, but the evidence is not yet there, Tillipman said. What have we seen? You require everybody to come back to work and you dont have office space, she said as one example. You have people doing work that theyre not trained to do. You have talent drains, Tillipman said, pointing out that most of the government firings so far were among recently hired workers often brought on with a particular expertise. Half the training programs for the government have been canceled, so these pipelines that the government spent decades working on to make sure that theres a steady supply and the governments an attractive place for high-quality talent have gone away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The long-term effect of those changes will not be clear for some time. Theres a long way to go before this is going to actually shift the way agencies work, Malkus said. It just takes longer than four months. Stevenson pointed out that despite everything DOGE claimed to do, government outlays are on track to rise by 9% in 2025 compared with 2024. Thats because Americans are living longer and drawing more from programs like Medicare and Social Security. Its those programs that are driving the deficit and debt, not the discretionary spending Musk targeted. Chainsaws and bluster cant solve the yawning gap between revenue and spending that has led American debt to rise to unsustainable levels, Stevenson said. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com SCRANTON A 20-year-old Scranton man stomped a cat to death on Wednesday, Scranton police charge. Noah Gillis is facing a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. According to the criminal complaint: Police responded to an area of Parker Street for the report of a man who had just killed a cat near the intersection of Main Avenue and Dean Street. When officers go to the scene, they found Gillis walking north on Main Avenue, with a juvenile walking behind him, pointing at him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers directed Gillis to sit down on the curb and spoke with the juvenile witness, who said he had been sitting near his window when he spotted Gillis stomping on a cat. The juvenile immediately left his residence and ran to help the cat. But by the time he got to the animal, it was covered in blood and appeared to be dead. He then ran up to Gillis and asked him why he had killed the cat. Gillis said, Its none of your business, you dont know what happened, according to the complaint. Animal Control Officer Katie Gallone confirmed the animal a domestic orange and white cat was dead and still warm. It appeared to have been killed by multiple blunt force trauma. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. on June 11 before District Judge Joanne Corbett. Gillis remains at Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail. CALICO ROCK, Ark. The manhunt continues in Izard County for escapee Grant Hardin, a convicted rapist and murderer who walked out of the North Central Unit prison wearing what officials say appeared to be an Arkansas Department of Corrections officers uniform. Now in its fourth day, the search effort has grown into a round-the-clock operation involving state and federal agencies. Law enforcement officers, through rain and shine, remain committed to locating Hardin, who has deep ties to the state and once served as the Gateway police chief before his conviction. Who is Grant Hardin, the Devil in the Ozarks? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is tough terrain, said Donathan Speak, a local resident who lives just down the road from the prison. Bluffs, canyons, cavesits easy to hide out here. I dont think hed try to go into a house with more than one person, but I do fear for folks who live alone. Speak believes Hardin could still be in the area, pointing to the dense, isolated landscape as a possible reason he has not yet been found. With the roadblocks and patrols, I dont think he had time to get too farunless someone was already waiting and helped him leave before anyone noticed, Speak said. Hardin, 56, a former police chief in Gateway, was sentenced to three decades in prison and another 50 years for rape and first-degree murder convictions, is now facing a second-degree escape charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI said that Hardin has ties to the Huntsville, Holiday Island, Garfield and Eureka Springs areas. FBI officials added Hardin is around 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches tall, has a bald head and weighs over 250 pounds. FBI offering $10,000 reward for information on Arkansas inmate escapee Grant Hardin Law enforcement officials have established checkpoints throughout the region, including along West First Street and Highway 56 in Calico Rock, where they are stopping drivers and at nearby businesses sharing wanted posters bearing Hardins photo. Donald Lemley, owner of Lemleys Country Store and Lodge, located next to one of the checkpoints, has posted the wanted flyer on his front door and checkout counter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We all know what he looks like, Lemley said. Weve been informed. Were all on the lookout. Hardins escape has sent shockwaves through the small town of Calico Rock. According to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, Hardin was released by a corrections officer while wearing a uniform that allowed him to blend in with staff. Officials have not said whether the release was accidental or if further internal breaches are suspected. This is different from past escapes, said Speak. We had one beforethey caught him that night. But this guy has a history of violence. That makes me nervous. Ive got grandbabies. Were country folkswe have guns and we have them loaded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Arkansas State Police and U.S. Marshals Service are leading the search and are offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to Hardins capture. Through rain and shine, the around-the-clock search continues into Thursday night. If its miserable for the cops, said Speak, imagine what its like for him out there. Hes either going to starve out or already be hurt somewhere. I just hope they get him real soon. Gateway mayor and murder victims sister reacts to Arkansas inmate escape The community remains on edge as authorities continue to scour the bluffs, caves, and thick woods of the region. Anyone with information is urged to contact local law enforcement immediately or the Federal Bureau of Investigations by submitting a tip online at tips.fbi.gov. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. May 30Laura M. Vaughn, 52, and James R. Castillo, 32, both of Mount Ayr were taken into custody May 27, after search warrants were executed at four Ringgold County addresses, collectively known as Ramsey Farms, where controlled substances and drug paraphernalia were located. The Ringgold County Sheriff's Office said four properties of Ramsey Farms, located in the 2200 block of 270th Street in Mount Ayr, were suspected as a "drug hub" and hangout for selling and using controlled substances. With assistance from multiple local agencies, a list of individuals and criminal activity supporting the suspected activity was compiled over several months, resulting in search warrants being obtained and executed. During the search warrant execution, Castillo was taken into custody on an outstanding federal indictment arrest warrant charging him with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vaughn was also taken into custody at the same location and charged with keeping premises or vehicle for controlled substance violations, gathering where controlled substances are used, possession of a controlled substance methamphetamine, second offense and possession of drug paraphernalia. According to Ringgold County reports, Vaughn and her late mother were long-time caretakers and event planners for Ramsey Farms and both lived on the property for several years. Around the time of her mother's passing, it became apparent Vaughn had allowed several people participating in the sale and possession of illegal controlled substances to live or stay on the property. During the search warrants, controlled substances and drug paraphernalia were located in all of the occupied homes. A baggy containing a white crystalline substance was located on the kitchen bar of Vaughn's living quarters. The substance field tested positive for methamphetamine. In October 2024, the Ringgold County Sheriff's Office was made aware of a publicly-posted Facebook event at Ramsey Farm. The event was taken down by the individual who had created it but was described as a birthday celebration party for Jimmy, Vaughn's son, and two other people, that would include a "fun night of drugs, drinking and dancing." The event was scheduled to take place at 8 p.m. Oct. 26. Before the event took place, Ringgold County deputies gained permission from the Lesanville Operations Board to look for signs of suspected criminal activity inside Ramsey Farm's event buildings. While there, deputies collected a sample of debris left on tables in each building. These samples field tested positive for the presence of cocaine and methamphetamine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Castillo and Vaughn are being held in the Ringgold County Jail without bond and $9,300 cash bond, respectively. Agencies assisting Ringgold County with the investigation and execution of the warrants were sheriff's offices from Taylor, Decatur and Union counties; Afton, Creston and Maryville police departments, Iowa Division of Narcotic Enforcement, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Ringgold County Conservation and the Multi-Jurisdictional Entry Team. LEHIGH TOWNSHIP, WAYNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) A second man has been charged after a home invasion in late April. Curtis Strunk, 42, of Old Forge, has been charged two counts of Aggravated Assault, two counts of Simple Assault, and two counts of Burglary among other charges. Pennsylvania State Police say Strunk along with Thomas Hermann allegedly broke into a victims home and assaulted him with a chair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man charged after allegedly hitting victim with chair The victim sustained multiple lacerations, and as the defendants were leaving, they allegedly threw a vacuum through the window. Strunks bail is set at $100,000 and his next court appearance will be at 9:00 a.m. on June 4 at the Wayne County Courthouse. 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 28/22 News. By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -A second man has been indicted in New York after being charged with kidnapping a man for three weeks in Manhattan's upscale SoHo neighborhood, shocking him with electric wires, and dangling him over a staircase to try to get him to give up his bitcoin password, prosecutors said on Friday. A Manhattan grand jury's indictment of William Duplessie, 33, came after he made a brief court appearance earlier on Friday, three days after his arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office say Duplessie and John Woeltz on May 6 took a man's electronics and password and demanded they share his password so they could steal his cryptocurrency. When the man refused to share his password, Duplessie and Woeltz allegedly began a series of brutal beatings over three weeks in a luxury townhouse until the man managed to escape. Woeltz was indicted on Thursday. Neither Duplessie nor Woeltz has yet entered pleas, and their lawyers have declined to comment. Both are due back in court on June 11. Local media have called Woeltz, 37, a cryptocurrency investor and described the alleged victim as an Italian man. Both Woeltz and the alleged victim had ties to a crypto hedge fund in New York, the New York Times reported, citing an internal police report described by a law enforcement official. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Woeltz and Duplessie are accused of tying the man's wrists, hitting him on the head with a gun, and threatening to kill his family, according to criminal complaints against the two men filed in court. The alleged incident comes as three cryptocurrency-linked kidnappings or kidnapping attempts have taken place in France so far this year. The rapid rise in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent years has created a new group of wealthy investors, who could be tempting targets for criminals, security experts told Reuters. (Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Aurora Ellis) Bondcote Performance Textiles, manufacturer of coated, laminated and composite fabrics, has acquired coated textiles innovator Graniteville Specialty Fabrics. Bondcotea subsidiary of XFS Global, which produces performance textiles for military, government, commercial and industrial usesaid it sees the acquisition of Graniteville as a means of advancing its capabilities as a supplier to the United States defense industrial base and commercial textile sectors. More from Sourcing Journal Graniteville Specialty Fabrics brings a legacy of excellence, innovation, and customer focus that aligns perfectly with our values and strategic direction, said Jacob Furbee, group president and CEO of XFS Global & Bondcote Performance Textiles. This acquisition is more than combining product linesit strengthens our shared future as a trusted partner to the defense and industrial textile markets. Graniteville Specialty Fabrics was established during the post-World War II era, and over the decades the company has supported mission-critical applications, including military tentage, fire-resistant fabrics and high-durability materials for the industrial sector. Their fabrics have been used by the U.S. armed services and first responders, as well as in commercial uses across construction, transportation and recreation. We are proud of our 70-year legacy, and the Graniteville Specialty Fabrics team is excited about our future as part of Bondcote Performance Textiles, said Doug Johnson, chief operations officer for Granitville Specialty Fabrics. We are dedicated to ensuring a seamless transition process and creating synergies between our teams to benefit current and future customers. Graniteville Specialty Fabrics will continue operating in its Greenville, S.C., facility, but the companys team, brand and product lines will integrate into Bondcote Performance Textiles. Pulaski, Virginia-based Bondcote said this integration will create enhanced synergies in research and development, manufacturing efficiency and product development. Bondcotes acquisition of Graniteville was backed by Lake Country Capital, a Minnesota-based equity investment firm with investments across a wide range of sectors, from food to industrial equipment. A Nashville murder suspect wanted in connection with a November 2024 robbery-turned-fatal shooting at a South Nashville Park was arrested in North Carolina on May 30. Now 18, the suspect was 17 at the time of the shooting. Police said the teen girl killed Mohamed Keita and was arrested by authorities in Hampstead, North Carolina. Police said criminal homicide charges are pending in juvenile court. A second suspect, a now 18-year-old Clarksville woman who was also 17 at the time of the shooting, was previously arrested March 6 after admitting to police she set up and participated in the robbery of Keita that turned fatal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Tennessean is not naming either suspect as they are charged in juvenile court. Mohamed Keita, 23, of Riverdale, Georgia, was found dead in the driver's seat of his car, backed into a parking space in the lot at William Pitts Park on Dec. 1. Police said they believe Keita was shot the night before. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Second teen girl arrested in connection with 2024 Nashville homicide A secret underground network of London World War II tunnels that inspired the James Bond books is set to turn into a brand-new spy museum, with new details now revealed. The capital is set to gain a new visitor attraction hidden in plain sight 40 metres below High Holborn, as the tunnels will now become open to the public after being kept in relative secrecy for nearly 70 years under the Official Secrets Act. The London Tunnels, the company that looks after this underground labyrinth, has recently announced a collaboration with the Museum of Military Intelligence (MMI) on the project, two years after the plans were first announced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The below street-level network is known as the Kinsway Exchange Tunnels and was constructed during the Blitz as a deep-level air raid shelter under the London Underground. The mile-long series of tunnels was shortly after occupied by the Special Operations Executive, a clandestine organisation established in July 1940 under the orders of then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, during the later stages of World War II. The tunnels were used by military intelligence throughout World War II and the Cold War (The London Tunnels) It was during this time that Bond author Ian Fleming was working as a liaison officer within the wartime administration, and it is thought that the tunnels inspired the research and development Q Branch in his novels. After a few other uses for the network, the tunnels were used for a secure hotline that connected the White House to the Kremlin during the Cold War, before it was taken over by BT. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, the tunnels will have a new life as a major tourist attraction that hopes to welcome up to three million visitors per year. The tunnels will have a permanent exhibition showcasing the history of military intelligence and its use of the tunnel complex, including a special exhibition centred around the Special Operations Executive. The tunnels were intially constructed to shelter civillians during the Blitz (The London Tunnels) The displays will spotlight original artefacts, equipment, weapons, documents and images through a modern high-tech experience that promises to bring to life the history and techniques used by military intelligence. The exhibition will feature stories from the Battle of Britain and D-Day, the espionage operations of the Cold War and the Falklands War. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It will also display more recent military operations, including peace-keeping missions and the response to terrorism threats that have occurred within the 21st century. Visitors will also be able to delve into how the British military works today and what operations they carry out. The London Tunnels said high tech exhibitions will feature in the new museum (The London Tunnels) Angus Murray, CEO of The London Tunnels, said: We are delighted to become the home of the public exhibition of the Museum of Military Intelligence. This new location will provide convenient central London access to an important and unique collection which has until now been largely hidden. The tunnels, built and designed to protect Londoners during the Blitz, are the ideal backdrop to tell the remarkable, and untold, stories of the men and women who played a vital role in protecting Britain then, and the role of the armed services protecting Britain today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In its 2023 consultation documents, London Tunnels said the new museum would increase local spending up to 80m per year, create 40 onsite jobs and offer free trips for local schools. The London Tunnels said work is scheduled to begin in 2027, with completion in 2028. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast FLOYD COUNTY, Ky. (FOX 56) Leaders with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KYFWR) are asking residents of Floyd County and surrounding areas to keep their eyes peeled for wild pigs and to report any sightings. Wild pigs displace game species like deer and turkey, negatively affecting hunter harvest, the department wrote in a news release on Friday, May 30. They also destroy crops and food plots, and they consume an ample amount of acorns in the fall, which many wildlife species heavily rely on as a food source. KYFWR said a group of wild pigs had been found and reported back in April, and officials want help capturing them, which also protects the pigs from being poached. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: If I find wild pigs, how can I catch them? KYFWR said free trapping services are available to anyone with a wild pig presence on their property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wild pigs have been a problem in Kentucky ever since misguided hunters reportedly released them in groups in an attempt to create more hunting opportunities. Anyone with information about wild pig sightings, damage to property, forest crops, or illegal release is encouraged to submit a report online at the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website or by contacting Terri Brunjes, wild pig biologist with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, at (502) 892-4548. 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 56 News. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) One month ago, state agents seized the assets of The Anchor restaurant near Old Town and slapped a seizure notice on the door. The Kansas Department of Revenue said The Anchor owed more than $32,000 in taxes. On Friday, McCurdy Real Estate & Auction announced two auctions involving the property in the center of Wichita, on East Douglas, just east of Washington. The real estate auction is for more than half an acre, including The Anchor restaurant space, the former Douglas Avenue Chop Shop, the former Hell Bomb tattoo shop, and additional parking lots. This represents a remarkable opportunity for someone to step in and preserve a beloved Wichita institution or pursue a prime commercial redevelopment in the heart of the Douglas Design District, Braden McCurdy, CEO and auctioneer, said in a news release. The Anchor has been a fixture for over two decades, and this auction gives the right buyer a chance to reinvigorate this legacy while also offering the potential for additional revenue streams. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State issues blue-green algae warnings for Kansas lakes The first auction is Wednesday, June 4, starting at 9 a.m., at 1109 E. Douglas. It will include property that was stored on the second and third floors of the buildings. Bud Palmer Auction will conduct the auction. Click here for a list and pictures of the items. The real estate auction will be handled through online-only bidding at McCurdy.com. The bidding opens at 2 p.m. on July 1. Bidding will close at 2:30 p.m. on July 9. Click here to register to bid. Fifteen minutes after the real estate auction ends, the remaining business assets, trade fixtures, intellectual property, and general intangibles will be auctioned collectively. McCurdy said this allows the buyer to get a complete, operational bar and restaurant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McCurdy says the new property owner could also immediately lease out the former butcher shop and tattoo shop spaces and turn the upper floors into possible residential properties. Were seeing interest from both restaurant operators who want to preserve The Anchors community connection and investors who recognize the broader potential of this prime real estate, McCurdy said. The location, established brand recognition, and multiple income stream potential combine to make this a standout opportunity in todays market. The auction is part of a workout agreement with the Kansas Department of Revenue. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) High-profile federal officials have been stopping by the sewage river separating the United States and Mexico. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey is the latest politician to experience the foul and hazardous environment in person. The air conditioning in our car did not stop the stench from coming through, it did not, we were smelling this all the way down the road, Booker said about the toxic Tijuana River. One of the highest-ranking Democrats in the country visited the U.S.-Mexico border with Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre to see for himself what the environmental disaster looks like. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am extremely concerned about the health effects and what those long-term health effects. So, thats why are calling yet again on our president to declare a state of emergency, so that we can expedite the necessary fixes to this unacceptable emergency, Aguirre said. This is not the first high-ranking federal officials to tour the Tijuana River Valley looking for a solution. The secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin has also been weighing in on the crisis that seems to be becoming more bipartisan by the week. When asked why other constituents from across the U.S. should care about spending money in California, Booker replied, Its not sending money to California to me, its sending money to rescue Americans from an environmental disaster. 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. GOP Sen. Joni Ernst on Friday faced concerns from town hall attendees over potential cuts to Medicaid and SNAP programs as a result of President Donald Trumps sweeping domestic policy bill, saying at one point, Well, we all are going to die, and insisting that those who are eligible for Medicaid will continue to receive payments. One audience member at the meeting in Parkersburg, Iowa, raised concern that changes in the legislation to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are formally known, could harm local economies and cost jobs. Ernst, in response, emphasized that those who are in the country illegally or do not qualify for the programs under current law will be removed as recipients from the rolls. When someone in the audience yelled out, People will die, Ernst replied, People are not Well, we all are going to die. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The comment drew sizable reaction from the crowd. Ernst went on to say, For heavens sakes, folks. OK What you dont want to do is listen to me when I say that were going to focus on those that are most vulnerable. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them. Ernst was among the few Republican lawmakers who held town hall meetings during Congress recess this week. Those meetings the first since the House GOP passed its version of the sweeping tax and spending cuts bill have featured a steady drumbeat of questions related to the package and its Medicaid provisions. The Senate is preparing to take up and is expected make changes to the House-passed version of the bill when lawmakers return to Washington. Changes to Medicaid eligibility have become a flashpoint in debate over the legislation, with several GOP senators warning that they dont want to see their constituents lose coverage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Discussing the Houses version of the bill, Ernst said, Some people currently on Medicaid would not be able to receive Medicaid, but she argued, Thats because theyre not currently eligible by the original definition of Medicaid, and they will be moved off of those Medicaid rolls. When we are talking about the corrections in this reconciliation bill again, its corrections of overpayments and people that have not been eligible for these programs by law as it is currently written, she continued, as audience members began to shout over her. If you dont want to listen, thats fine, Ernst later added, but what Im doing is going through and telling you that those that are not eligible, those that are working and have opportunities for benefits elsewhere, they should receive those benefits elsewhere and leave those dollars for those that are eligible for Medicaid. In response to a request for comment on the exchange, which was swiftly seized on by critics of the proposed changes, a spokesperson for Ernst said: While Democrats fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and shes working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse, the spokesperson continued. The House version of the bill would institute work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, a longtime GOP goal. It would also reduce federal support for Medicaid by nearly $700 billion over a decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis. However, House Republicans made several changes to the legislation before final passage in the chamber, which were not evaluated in this CBO report including moving up the timeline so that the requirement will take effect by the end of 2026. The legislation would additionally extend the work requirement for SNAP to those ages 55 to 64, as well as to parents of children between the ages of 7 and 18. Plus it would curtail states ability to receive work requirement waivers in difficult economic times, limiting them only to counties with unemployment rates above 10%. CNNs Tami Luhby contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said he's demanding answers about reports that the Trump administration is prioritizing separating families instead of focusing on threats to public safety when it comes to immigration enforcement. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, Ossoff cited the cases of two immigrant mothers who were recently deported and separated from their children. The first woman, Heidy Sanchez, was detained during a routine immigration check-in appointment in April and deported to Cuba without her U.S.-citizen baby daughter, who has a history of seizures and was still being breastfed. Sanchez's attorney, Claudia Canizares, told NBC Miami that the woman "had no criminal records." Heidy Sanchez with her husband, Carlos Valle, and their daughter. (Courtesy Carolos Valle) Immigration authorities didnt comment on the case. The Trump administration has said in previous comments that deported parents have been given the choice to take their children or not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The second woman, Yorely Bernal, was deported to Venezuela in April without her 2-year-old despite having authorized her removal alongside her daughter's. The toddler was instead taken into U.S. custody and bounced around three foster families before being reunited with her mother in Venezuela. The Trump administration justified the separation at the time by alleging the girl's parents were affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang, though it didn't give specific evidence. Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, second from left, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, left, watch as 2-year-old Maikelys Espinoza is reunited with her mother, Yorely Bernal, at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on May 14. (Zurimar Campos / Miraflores press office via AP) "I write with grave concerns about reports of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) separating families," reads the letter, which was first obtained by NBC News. "I urge you to reprioritize threats to public safety in immigration enforcement and use your discretion to grant humanitarian parole to keep infants and young children in their parents care." Both cases illustrate the stepped-up pace of deportations of immigrants who dont have criminal charges or convictions, even though President Donald Trump said during his election campaign that the focus would be on deporting violent criminals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a case NBC News first reported in March, a 17-year-old U.S. citizen in a mixed immigration status family was left behind in the United States when his siblings, one of whom is an 11-year-old U.S. citizen girl recovering from a rare brain tumor, were removed to Mexico when immigration authorities deported their undocumented parents. A 10-year-old girl recovering from a rare brain tumor was deported from the U.S. with her undocumented parents in February. The Texas Civil Rights Project blurred the photo for safety purposes. (Texas Civil Rights Project) Two mothers deported to Honduras in April were removed with their U.S. citizen children, including a 4-year-old boy with Stage 4 cancer. The childrens fathers were residing in the United States and were unable to make decisions about their children before they were flown to Honduras, according to Gracie Willis, their attorney. "DHS seems to prioritize those in closest reach, including individuals appearing at immigration check-ins, on monitoring programs, or in the wrong place at the wrong time, regardless of their criminal history and sometimes even regardless of their citizenship status," Ossoff wrote. "DHS has deployed significant enforcement resources to cruelly separate young children from primary caregivers who pose no threat to public safety." Ossoff cited the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has said family separation "can cause irreparable harm, disrupting a childs brain architecture and affecting his or her short- and long-term health." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also asked Noem's office to provide information by June 6 about the impact Trump's immigration crackdown is having on children who are deported, left behind in the United States or sent abroad with their deported parents. In April, the latest month for which data is available, federal immigration authorities deported over 17,200 people, an increase of about 29% compared with April 2024, when over 13,300 were deported. There are 48,674 people in immigration detention last week, according to NBC News' tracker. Only a third have criminal convictions, and about a quarter have pending charges that may or may not be sustained in court. Deporting more than 17,200 people in a single month still doesnt put Trump on track to make good on his Inauguration Day promise to deport millions and millions. It is still less than half the pace it would take to reach the record number of 430,000 deportations in a single year, set during the Obama administration in 2013. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Investing.com -- The U.S. Senate is preparing to advance a bill next week that would impose sanctions on Russia and nations purchasing Russian oil and other goods. This development came to light on Friday, following discussions between Senator Lindsey Graham and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Graham, a member of the Republican party, visited Kyiv accompanied by Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat. During his visit, Graham criticized Russian leader Vladimir Putin for allegedly stalling the peace process. Graham also expressed his skepticism over the second round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, which Russia proposed to be held on Monday in Turkey. He said he anticipates these discussions to be nothing more than a "Russian charade." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine has not yet confirmed its participation in these talks. The Ukrainian government stated that it wants to first review a Russian memorandum outlining Moscows proposals for a settlement. Related articles Senate to advance bill on new Russia sanctions next week - Lindsey Graham Western powers to urge U.N. to declare Iran in breach of nuclear obligations Trump says Russia and Ukraine to begin ceasefire talks after call with Putin Senate Republicans have announced plans to launch their own probe into former President Joe Biden over his cognitive abilities while in office, claiming they want to investigate who was running the country during what they call Biden's decline. Republican Sens. Eric Schmitt and John Cornyn will co-chair a first-of-its-kind Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next month on the subject, which they say was covered up by members of the media. The focus echoes President Donald Trump's oft-repeated claims about Biden's mental fitness while president and criticism of Biden's use of autopen, a mechanical device to automatically add a signature to a document that's been utilized by several past presidents, including Trump in his first term. "We need to get past the failures of the media, which were legend as you pointed out, or the political issue of 'were you for Biden or against Biden?' This is about a constitutional crisis, where we basically have a mentally incompetent president who's not in charge," Cornyn said Thursday on Fox News' "The Will Cain Show." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Biden, on 'The View,' takes blame for Trump's win and rejects reports of cognitive decline "The question is: Who is in charge? Whose finger is on the nuclear button or has the nuclear codes? Who can declare war? How do we defend the nation when we have basically an absent president? And those are constitutional issues we need to address and correct," Cornyn said. On Friday, after delivering his first public remarks since his office announced he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, Biden responded to reporters who asked him about Democrats who say he shouldn't have run again. "Why didn't they run against me then? Because I'd have beaten them," Biden said, adding that he has no regrets. Biden denied any accusations of mental decline, saying that he's proud of his record as president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement News of the upcoming hearing comes after Cornyn penned a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi last week, urging the Justice Department to investigate whether the Biden administration was being lawful in how they presented his cognitive condition to the country. PHOTO: Sen. John Cornyn in Washington, Dec. 19, 2024 and President Joe Biden in Washington, Sept. 30, 2024. (Getty Images/AP) He asked that the Justice Department open a probe into "any potential violations of federal law surrounding the representations made to the American people about the health and wellbeing" of Biden. "Congress' responsibility is actually bigger than just that. It is to provide oversight and to make sure that there's more transparency for future presidents so we understand how this happened and how can we prevent it from happening again," Cornyn said on Fox News. Cornyn, in his letter, cited the May 18 report from Biden's representatives that announced he had been diagnosed with late-stage aggressive prostate cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Why Biden may not have known about his 'aggressive' prostate cancer until recently Other Republicans have also been calling for answers about Biden's health during the course of his presidency. PHOTO: Sen. John Cornyn during his meeting with Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner nominee, Rodney Scott in the Hart Senate Office Building, April 7, 2025 in Washington. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images) White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that former first lady Jill Biden should testify in front of Congress over the alleged "cover-up" of Biden's health. "I think, frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw in regards to her husband and when she saw it and what she knew," Leavitt said. PHOTO: Former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden pose for a selfie photo, in this handout social media picture released May 19, 2025. (Joe Biden/X via Reuters) "I think anybody looking at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see, this was a clear coverup, and Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that cover-up. There's documentation and video evidence of her clearly trying to shield her husband away from the cameras," she claimed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, a Republican, recently called for a number of high-ranking Biden White House staffers to do transcribed interviews surrounding the topic of Biden's alleged decline. Comer, speaking to Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday, also suggested he might subpoena both Joe and Jill Biden, as well as former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, during the House's investigation of the former president's health and examination of his use of an autopen to sign legislation and executive orders. PHOTO: President Joe Biden embraces First Lady Jill Biden after she received a medal for distinguished public service at a Department of Defense Commander in Chief Farewell Ceremony, in Arlington, Virginia, Jan. 16, 2025. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images) Comer also recently requested that Biden's White House physician, Kevin O'Connor, appear for a transcribed interview as part of the investigation. The calls for the probes into Biden come after the release of "Original Sin" by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, which made claims about "the Bidens' capacity for denial and the lengths they would go to avoid transparency about health issues." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to the book's release, a Biden spokesman said "there is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover up or conspiracy." "Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn't otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency," the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. "In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill." Top Democrats have largely avoided defending Biden as new details surrounding the former president's health and alleged cover-up have emerged in recent weeks. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, when asked by CNN host Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday whether Democrats can be trusted as new details are emerging, circumvented commenting directly on the former president's condition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What I can say is that we're not looking back, we're gonna continue to look forward because at this moment, we've got real problems that need to be addressed on behalf of the American people, including the Republican effort to snatch away health care, to snatch away food assistance and hurt veterans," Jeffries said. During a recent press conference, Jeffries also accused Republicans of "peddling conspiracy theories" intended to make the country look "backward at a time when they are actually taking health care away from the American people." "No, as House Democrats, we are going to look forward," Jeffries added. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also dodged any questions about Biden's health, responding to CNN's Kasie Hunt earlier this month by saying, "Kasie, we're looking forward." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But other Democrats, such as Rep. Ro Khanna -- who defended Biden's mental and physical fitness during the 2024 campaign -- admitted he was wrong, but said there wasn't a cover-up of ahead of the election. "I don't think it was a cover-up ... but I do think that the advisers and people close to Joe Biden owe an explanation What I don't think the Democratic Party can do is just say, 'Let's talk about the future. Let's move past this,'" Khanna told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl last Sunday. GOP senators plan hearing on Biden's perceived cognitive decline originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Sen. Joni Ernst is encouraging her constituents to think big-picture about the Medicaid cuts in the big, beautiful bill President Donald Trump and House Republicans passed last week. The Iowa Republican tried to justify the cuts which are expected to kick at least 10 million people off the health care program during a town hall event today, an attendee appeared to yell out: People are going to die! Ernst began to respond but then stopped herself, exasperated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, we all are going to die, she said, smirking as the audience jeered. Republicans have been struggling to justify the tax bills cuts to Medicaid and other social services, which are wildly unpopular. GOP lawmakers have been arguing that the millions of Americans who are expected to lose health care over the cuts are undeserving and are abusing the system. Its corrections of overpayments and of people who have not been eligible for these programs, by law as it is currently written, Ernst said before her constituent pointed out that people will die. When you are arguing about illegals who are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, they are no eligible, so they will be coming off. This is total bullshit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) pointed out while arguing against the bill last week that of the millions of Americans projected to lose coverage because of the big, beautiful bill, exactly zero are undocumented, as undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Medicaid. The tax bill does, however, cut federal Medicaid funding to states that use their own funds to provide care for undocumented immigrants. The cuts, which will affect millions of vulnerable American citizens, are in service of giving the wealthiest Americans a tax break. Ernst continued to claim that Republicans are looking out for the less fortunate, though. Listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable, she said in response to her constituents booing her. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them, OK? Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa. Its becoming increasingly clear that Americans are starting to see through the lies Republican lawmakers are pushing about their legislation to make the rich richer at the expense of the poor. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Chinese FM meets counterparts from Pacific Island countries Xinhua) 09:22, May 30, 2025 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Federated States of Micronesia's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Lorin S. Robert attending the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) XIAMEN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday held respective meetings with foreign guests attending the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Xiamen, Fujian Province. When meeting with the Federated States of Micronesia's (FSM) Secretary of Foreign Affairs Lorin S. Robert, Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the two heads of state had reached an important consensus on strengthening mutual trust and friendship, and on deepening mutually beneficial cooperation. China appreciates the resolution passed by the Congress of the FSM in support of the one-China principle, and believes that the FSM will continue to support China's just position on Taiwan-related issues firmly, Wang said. China is ready to expand cooperation with the FSM in key areas such as infrastructure, climate change response and marine research, and promote the continuous development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, he added. Robert extended his congratulations on the successful conclusion of the foreign ministers' meeting and affirmed the FSM's steadfast commitment to the one-China principle. The country is willing to continue developing its comprehensive strategic partnership with China, he added. When meeting with Vanuatu's Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade Marc Ati, Wang said that the China-Vanuatu comprehensive strategic partnership has continued to develop under the guidance of the leaders of the two countries. Since the new government of Vanuatu took office in February, it has maintained a positive, friendly policy on China, which China appreciates, Wang said. The two countries should seize this opportunity to strengthen exchange at all levels and expand practical cooperation, he noted. Ati said that China's support not only helps Vanuatu improve its people's livelihoods, but also enhances its confidence and resilience in development. Vanuatu's government adheres firmly to the one-China principle, and is ready to strengthen the synergy of development strategies with China, accelerate negotiations for bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), promote cooperation in such fields as education, infrastructure, health and law enforcement, and move toward a more prosperous future, Ati said. When meeting with Papua New Guinea's Minister for Foreign Affairs Justin Tkatchenko, Wang said that the two countries should implement the consensus reached between their leaders, open FTA negotiations as soon as possible, and deepen cooperation in various fields. China values Papua New Guinea's influence as a major power in the South Pacific, as well as its role as a gateway to Asia, Wang said, adding that China is willing to work with Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island nations to implement the outcomes of the foreign ministers' meeting, and to make greater contributions to regional peace and development. Tkatchenko said that Papua New Guinea's relationship with China is crucial. The government of Papua New Guinea is in firm support of China's efforts to uphold its national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Papua New Guinea is willing to communicate and coordinate closely with China to promote Belt and Road cooperation, and to enhance practical cooperation on agriculture, education, telecommunication, energy and regional development. Wang also met with Nauru's former President and current Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Russ Kun, Fiji's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Lenora Qereqeretabua, and the Pacific Islands Forum's Deputy Secretary General Esala Nayasi. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Vanuatu's Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade Marc Ati attending the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Papua New Guinea's Minister for Foreign Affairs Justin Tkatchenko attending the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Fiji's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Lenora Qereqeretabua attending the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, May 29, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian airline Azul aims to exit Chapter 11 proceedings early next year, Fabio Campos, institutional and corporate vice-president, told reporters in a press conference on Friday. Asked about plans to combine operations with local airline Gol, Campos said Azul will now focus primarily on its financial restructuring process. Azul filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States earlier this week. Abra, the majority investor in Gol and Colombia's Avianca, announced in January with Azul that they had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the intent of combining their businesses in Brazil. Campos also noted that the MoU with Gol, although not Azul's current priority, remains valid. Azul completed this week its initial Chapter 11 hearing, with the court granting approval for the carrier to immediately access $250 million of its $1.6 billion debtor-in-possession financing, he added. The amount, combined with other judicial approvals and revenue generated from ongoing operations, will provide enough liquidity to support uninterrupted operations, the company said. According to Campos, Azul is not planning massive layoffs in the face of its financial restructuring, with sales and operations unaffected by the proceedings. Prior to filing for Chapter 11 protection, Azul had entered into agreements with key financial stakeholders, including existing bondholders, aircraft lessor AerCap, and partners United Airlines and American Airlines. Additionally, the executive noted on Friday that talks with other lessors, beyond AerCap, are ongoing. Azul was the latest Latin American carrier to file for bankruptcy, joining a list of airlines in the region that have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao PauloEditing by Matthew Lewis) BELGRADE (Reuters) -Serbia and Russia will jointly investigate how Serbia-made ammunition reached Ukraine, President Aleksandar Vucic said, after Moscow accused Belgrade of exporting arms to the government in Kyiv. The SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, accused Belgrade of "a stab in the back", alleging Serbia's defence manufacturers were selling ammunition and weapons to Ukraine. "They (arms sales) have one clear purpose - to kill and maim Russian military personnel and the civilian population," the SVR said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The SVR said Serbia sends arms shipments to Ukraine through NATO intermediaries, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria, as well as some African countries. Serbia maintains a balancing act between its historical ties with Russia and the European Union. Belgrade has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but has so far refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow. Vucic told state RTS TV he discussed Serbian arms exports to Ukraine with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin when he visited Moscow on May 9, and denied some of the SVR's allegations. "We have formed a working group, together with Russian partners, to establish the facts. Some of the things that have been said are not true," he told RTS TV late on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a classified Pentagon document, Serbia in 2023 agreed to supply arms to Kyiv, despite the country's professed military neutrality. Moscow has criticised Belgrade several times over the issue. The Serbian defence industry produces weapons and ammunition with designs largely stemming from the ex-Soviet military technology of the 1980s, similar to those used both in Ukraine and Russia. "Our factories must live and work. About 24,000 people work directly in the defense industry," Vucic said. Serbia wants to join the European Union, but Russia, a Slavic and Orthodox Christian ally, remains its biggest gas supplier, and the country's sole oil refinery is majority-owned by Gazprom and Gazprom Neft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Belgrade has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, it has condemned Moscow's policies in the United Nations and expressed support for Ukraine's territorial integrity, including territories held by Russia. Vucic has also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at least three times. (Reporting by Aleksandar VasovicEditing by Ros Russell) HONOLULU (KHON2) A Hawaii-based company has been honored for the sixth year in a row for the achievements of its management teams. Servco Pacific has once again been named a U.S. Best Managed Company Gold Standard Honoree. Dermatologist says skin damage from the sun can only take 10 to 60 minutes Jondi Anderson, vice president of human resources at Servco Pacific, said the recognition is part of a global Deloitte Private program. She noted this is the sixth consecutive year the company has received the honor, which they believe reflects their management philosophy and reinforces Servcos 106-year legacy in the islands and its commitment to the future. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You While the award highlights the accomplishments of management teams, Anderson emphasized that its a collaborative effort made possible by team members who embody the companys service-minded mentality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news The U.S. Best Managed Companies program recognizes outstanding private companies for achievements in four key areas: strategy, execution, culture, and governance and financial performance. An external panel of judges selects honorees based on those criteria. 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. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. The NAMI Hope Center in downtown Springfield is providing a vital network of support for individuals seeking a safe and welcoming environment to address mental health challenges. The center offers free daily group therapy and serves as a community safe haven for anyone in need. This week, as part of our Serving the Ozarks series, we highlight the impactful work of the local NAMI chapter and the story of one man who rebuilt his life with their help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are about everybody just knowing that were all in this together, said Jess Pratt, Director of the NAMI Hope Center. The NAMI Hope Center is a crucial resource, particularly for the one in five adults who experience a mental health condition. Serving the Ozarks: On Angels Wings People can drop in and receive services. Everything that we have here is free, Pratt explained. We have our daily support groups, and each support group is led by someone that lives with that mental health condition. The center operates with the help of dedicated volunteers who create a supportive foundation, enabling individuals to take steps toward stability in their lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pratt emphasized the importance of peer support, stating, Just knowing that you have people that get it and have been through the struggle, and they just know that they can come here and be free and be at peace. And this is their safe haven. Randy Wayne Rossell first learned about NAMI while he was unsheltered. We ended up getting off the street and into our own place, Rossell said. And so every now and then, we come up here, do a little volunteering, come to classes. NAMIs free services were instrumental in helping Rossell and his girlfriend rebuild their lives. Theyve done everything from helping us filling out paperwork to helping us with argument stuff, Rossell said. Theyll help you with anything to help you charge your stuff, help you get bus passes to get to jobs. I mean, theyre a godsend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Serving the Ozarks: Dogwood Ranch This non-profit organization is serving the Ozarks by offering peer support and tackling various issues without the burden of stigma. The trials, the trauma, but yet still the happy side of it too, Pratt reflected. Ive seen families reunited that havent been able to talk to each other in a very long time. Weve been able to make that happen. Ive seen so much, and its just so amazing and so powerful. Rossell added, Its amazing what they can do for people if you just let them. You do not need a diagnosed mental health condition to access NAMIs services, and relatives and caregivers are also welcome to receive free support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more information on how to get involved or access services, visit NAMI.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 KOLR - OzarksFirst.com. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) A growing number of states are calling on the federal government to tighten restrictions on what items can be purchased with food stamps, aiming to promote healthier eating habits among low-income Americans. Governors in Indiana, Arkansas and West Virginia are leading the charge, asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to restrict the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for items such as soda, candy and other junk food. The health crisis is not a partisan issue, said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. And spending taxpayer dollars wisely is not, hopefully, a partisan issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Supporters of the move argue its about promoting better nutrition and reducing long-term health care costs. Critics, however, say it restricts personal choice and stigmatizes low-income families. If those families want to spend money on that junk food, thats their choice, Rollins added. But taxpayer dollars should be spent more responsibly. Despite calls for reform, questions remain about whether banning certain foods will actually improve health outcomes. Rollins pointed to the significant cost of the program. Of the $110 billion that we spend on food stampsnot all nutrition programs, but just food stampsthe biggest cost-driver is sugary drinks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are taking a different approachtargeting who uses SNAP. The latest version of the Big Beautiful Bill Act includes expanded work requirements for certain recipients. Rob Rodgers, with Volunteers of America, a group that works with disadvantaged communities, voiced concerns over the changesespecially in rural areas. Im concerned about any changes involving children and food programs, because that is significant down here, especially in the rural areas of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, Rodgers said. The Senate is expected to begin work on the bill when Congress returns next week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) The Polk County Sheriffs Office shared a video updating on the condition of Stella, a Great Dane rescued from an animal cruelty situation. The sheriffs office took custody of the pup on Tuesday, after her owner, Auburndale Public Utilities Director Bradford Thomas, was arrested and charged with animal cruelty. City of Auburndales public utilities director accused of neglecting his dogs Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 8-year-old dog weighed just 60.8 pounds when she was brought to Polk County Animal Control, half of the recommended 120 pounds for a dog her size. We fed her ourselves, and she was very grateful to eat a lot, Detective Jacob Durrance said. Was not a picky eater at all. Like Mr. Thomas claimed she was. In addition to being severely emaciated and in obvious pain, Stella was also covered in fleas, dirt, scabs and had swollen, infected feet. Polk County Sheriffs Office Polk County Sheriffs Office Polk County Sheriffs Office Polk County Sheriffs Office The sheriffs office said shes already gained 8 pounds in the few days shes been in their care, and is already looking happier and healthier. You can obviously tell she loves to be loved on, Durrance said. She got a nice bath today and is no longer covered in fleas and flea dirt, but she does have a long road to recovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputies also rescued Bella, a Terrier mix they estimated to be around 18 years old. Bella was suffering from flea dermatitis on her back that resulted in hair loss. Both dogs are now recovering at Polk County Animal Control and will hopefully be up for adoption when theyre fully healed. 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. SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has announced a $100,000 competition to reimagine Market Street. Co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute San Francisco and the Civic Joy Fund, the competition is calling for ideas to reimagine the future of a great American street, according to the competitions web page. Bay Area city named best place to raise a family: study Submissions for ideas for Market Street are not limited to SF residents. The initiative describes itself as an international call for ideas that identify new urban possibilities for the street that cuts through downtown SF, responding to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, remote work, and other cultural changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The competitions website says it is open to residents, business owners, urbanists, optimists, visionaries, community builders, students, professionals and all who have a vision toward the future. The $100,000 prize will be administered by the jury to a pool of winners. The jury panel for the competition includes former San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King and iPhone designer Jony Ive, among others. We need your help. We have to reimagine Market Street. This is a world-class boulevard, and we need world-class ideas, said Mayor Lurie in a video message. No matter how big, no matter how small, I want you to submit some great ideas. We have the Urban Land Institute and the Civic Joy Fund partnering up. Weve got Jony Ive and John King and a whole host of other judges. We need your help. Lets go San Francisco. Once San Franciscos main business and traffic artery, Market Street has been closed to traffic apart from buses, bicycles and robotaxis, since 2020. Recently, there has been a push to reopen the roadway to cars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. (Reuters) -Chevron has terminated the oil production, service and procurement contracts it had to operate in Venezuela, delegating its joint-venture governance to its partner, state company PDVSA, but it plans to retain its direct staff in the country, four sources close to the decisions said. A key license for Chevron to operate in Venezuela was revoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's government in March and a two-month period granted to wind down transactions expired this week, putting and end to the license, the company said. However, in recent days the U.S. producer received a narrow authorization from the Trump administration allowing it to preserve assets including its joint-venture stakes and retain staff, which it had expanded in recent years. The guidelines are similar to the terms of a U.S. license Chevron had between 2020 and 2022 before President Joe Biden's administration broadened it to allow the company's expansion in Venezuela and the resumption of crude exports to the U.S. Chevron and several European firms had requested U.S. permits to keep assets in the South American country amid Trump's restrictive policy toward the nation. It was not immediately clear if other companies received similar instructions. Following the new guidelines, Chevron executives this week met with contractors and Venezuelan top officials including oil minister Delcy Rodriguez to inform about the next steps, the sources said. Under the new authorization, Chevron cannot operate oilfields in Venezuela, export its oil or expand activities as its intention is to avoid any possible payments to President Nicolas Maduro's administration. The U.S. Treasury Department did not reply to a request for comment. Chevron said it remains in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including the sanctions framework provided for by the U.S. "Attacks and illegal action against PDVSA have not stopped our growth," the state company said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that output at oilfields was normal. "Our contribution to the economy's growth does not need licenses." Venezuela in April canceled cargoes scheduled to Chevron citing payment uncertainties related to U.S. sanctions, which cut short a May 27 deadline to wind down transactions. Chevron was exporting as much as 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan oil or over a third of the country's total before that. PDVSA, which is the majority stakeholder of the joint ventures, is expected to continue overseeing oilfield workers, though extra compensation bonus Chevron had implemented for its joint-venture workers might be suspended, three of the sources said. SHARON, Pa. (WKBN) Its been a tumultuous five months for Sharon Regional Medical Center but on Thursday, workers, executives and local officials celebrated a ribbon-cutting. The hospital, which closed in early January and reopened three months later, now has a new name Sharon Regional Health System. Administrators are doing what they can to spread the word. Going into the community to do outreaches, and events in the park, and rotary, the chamber of commerce. So were reaching wide, said Radha Savitala, Sharon Regional Health System CEO. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, the hospital received $2 million from the state, which was matched by landlord Medical Properties Trust to make needed capital improvements. Were also investing in the equipment, especially in the cath lab, so that we can maintain the quality standards, Savitala said. Senator Michele Brooks, who helped obtain the state funding, says the hospitals closing created huge ripple effects. On a daily basis, I heard the just terrible stories whether it was from the patients, their families, their neighbors on the impact of this closure, she said. In the meantime, hospital employees who survived the shutdown say the new leadership is making a difference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is so nice for them to come check on us, make sure theyre listening to our wants and needs to keep the hospital going since we know what it needs to stay open, said Carla Lee, a nurse. I think we have a really great core group of people that stayed, that are loyal to the Shenango Valley and to the hospital, and I think we can only build from there, said Madeline Combine, another nurse. Executives stress their goal is to return the hospital to the full-service community facility it had been. 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. Staycee Dains was about a month into her job overseeing the Los Angeles city animal shelters when an employee openly defied her. Dains asked the employee to clean a kennel. Instead, the employee picked up a hose and sprayed a dog in the face, Dains said. Dains thought the employee should be fired, but she said the city's personnel department recommended five days of leave. Mayor Karen Bass hired Dains in June 2023 after promising to make L.A. a national model for animal welfare" by turning around its troubled shelters, where some dogs live in overcrowded and dirty kennels and volunteers have complained that animals sometimes don't get food and water. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But in an interview with The Times, Dains said she felt powerless to solve entrenched problems that included severe understaffing and employees who mistreated or neglected animals. She said she was repeatedly told by the personnel department, which functions like a human resources department at a private company, that she couldn't fire problem employees. She also clashed with one of the unions that represents shelter employees. At one point, Dains even reached out to L.A. County prosecutors for help. Meanwhile, as the overcrowding worsened, more dogs and cats were euthanized in city shelters under her watch than in the preceding years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We need to tell the unfiltered, unvarnished truth about what is happening in the shelters, Dains said. In August, after a little more than a year as Animal Services general manager, Dains went on paid leave. A few days later, a top Bass advisor told Dains that her last day would be Nov. 30 and that she was free to resign before then. Zach Seidl, a Bass spokesperson, pushed back on Dains' accusations. "Many of these characterizations are misleading and some are just plain inaccurate," he said in an email. Dains, in a series of interviews, said the city does not provide enough funding to meet the basic needs of the animals in its six shelters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Mayor Bass said she'd save L.A.'s shelter animals. More dogs and cats are dying During Bass' first year in office, amid critical reporting by The Times and others about conditions in the shelters, the mayor offered an 18% budget increase far less than the 56% the Animal Services department had requested. The following fiscal year, her budget proposal slightly lowered the department's funding. Last week, in passing a budget that closed a nearly $1-billion shortfall, the City Council spared Animal Services from major cuts. Dains, who previously held top shelter jobs in San Jose and Long Beach, said her employees were desensitized to the suffering of the animals after witnessing it day after day. The understaffing was so bad that three people were responsible for 500 dogs: cleaning kennels, setting up adoptions and working with the medical team, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I couldnt sleep knowing that animals were just in those hellholes suffering," said Dains, who now works at a shelter system in Sacramento. "It was awful." A dog available for adoption barks at Chesterfield Square South Los Angeles Animal Services Center on Aug. 31, 2024. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) Dains, who made about $273,000 a year in L.A., said she witnessed some of her employees "terrorizing" dogs by banging on their kennels, or spraying them with water to move them back. She told the employees to stop the behavior, but some said they had been trained to treat the dogs that way, she said. To ensure that animals were fed and their enclosures cleaned, Dains suggested starting a schedule that tracked when each task was done. But a union representative worried that the information could be used to punish employees, Dains said. Ultimately, Dains said, she dropped the proposal because of the opposition from the union, Laborers' International Union of North America Local 300. A representative from the union declined to comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dain said that personal entanglements and gossip among employees sometimes made it hard to hold them accountable. Some supervisors had had sexual relationships with their subordinates, which led them to overlook the employees' poor work performance, according to Dains. Others used the "dirt" they had on co-workers to protest when confronted about their own behavior, she said. Dains said she suspected that some employees were sleeping during night shifts instead of cleaning cages or doing paperwork. She showed The Times a photo of dog beds arranged on the floor of a staff room like a "nest." She said she also witnessed employees watching videos on their phones, rather than working. Others ignored people who walked into the shelter looking to adopt a pet, she said. Some employees told her that colleagues failed to give food or water to cats and dogs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, Dains said, other employees went "above and beyond constantly" to make up for those who didn't pull their weight. "Theres a significant portion of staff that just arent doing their jobs," she said. I saw this constantly." Dains put some of the blame on supervisors, who were "not requiring them to perform." When she tried to discipline supervisors, she faced pushback, she said. After she put a supervisor on leave who was accused of bullying people, Laborers' International Union of North America Local 300 filed a grievance against her, Dains said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The personnel department declined to comment on Dains. Spokesperson Bruce Whidden referred The Times to a city law allowing general managers to suspend or discharge civil service employees, provided it is for cause. He said the personnel department "provides HR support in accordance with due process principles and any related policies." Read more: Top leadership in flux at troubled L.A. Animal Services department as general manager takes unexplained leave At the same time, Dains acknowledged that she should have been tougher on some of the assistant general managers who reported directly to her. But she said she wanted to maintain working relationships with them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is a "tricky thing to do to start writing up executive-level managers that you are trying to work with," she said. A shelter employee, who requested anonymity because he didn't have permission to talk to the media, agreed with Dains' assessment. Theres no accountability, theres no repercussions, he said. And the staff who do work have to work twice as hard. A dog sits in a kennel at Chesterfield Square South Los Angeles Animal Services Center on Aug. 31, 2024. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) A report last year by Best Friends Animal Society, which highlighted the poor conditions in the shelters and suggested possible solutions, criticized Dains as the biggest barrier to improvement. The shelters lacked written protocols, and the euthanasia policy changed five times in the last year without communication about the changes, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a Times analysis, the number of dogs euthanized at city shelters from January through September last year increased 72% compared with the same period the previous year. The number of dogs entering the shelters increased each year since 2022, but the number put to death far outpaced the population gain. In the crowded conditions, animals started behaving poorly and suffered mental and emotional breakdown, according to the Best Friends report. That made them less likely to be adopted and more likely to be euthanized. Dains, in her interview with The Times, defended her euthanasia decisions, arguing that it wasn't safe for the animals, staff, volunteers or the public to "warehouse" dogs in kennels for months or years. She said that there was no euthanasia policy when she arrived and that the department was creating one during her tenure. Read more: 'It's inhumane': Dogs at L.A. animal shelters go weeks or months without being walked Bass was Dains' boss, but Dains' main contact was Jacqueline Hamilton, deputy mayor of neighborhood services. Dains said she spoke often with Hamilton and told her about the personnel problems and other issues. But Hamilton didn't offer any meaningful help and didn't want her to publicize the poor conditions at the shelters, Dains said. I am not getting any movement or traction," Dains told The Times, describing her work experience. Seidl, the Bass spokesperson, said Dains "was given support to succeed, including assistance in communicating the status of the department to the public and decision makers." Dains said that shortly after she became general manager, she asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Kimberly Abourezk, who worked on animal cruelty cases, to send a letter to the mayor about poor conditions at the shelters. Venusse D. Dunn, a spokesperson for the district attorneys office, said Abourezk didn't send the letter because she visited city animal shelters and didn't find evidence of any crimes. The office "is not in a position to tell another agency how to operate their facility," Dunn said. Annette Ramirez, a longtime Animal Services staffer, is now interim general manager. The "severe overcrowding crisis," as the department described it in news release this month, continues. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. MEMPHIS, Tenn. The Department of Homeland Security has named Shelby County on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions they say are defying federal immigration law. DHS says the list of sanctuary jurisdictions released Thursday was determined by factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens. MORE: Trump administration increases pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions with public listing Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release, as reported by the Associated Press. Nashville was the only other Tennessee jurisdiction on the list of more than 500 local governments, which did not include any cities or counties in Arkansas or Mississippi. Each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with Federal statutes, the agency wrote. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens. WREG reached out to county Mayor Lee Harris for a response to the DHS designation. We reject cliched labels that try to divide us up and define us, Harris said in a statement. Shelby County is not a sanctuary jurisdiction, whatever that means. Shelby County is proud to be the most diverse county in Tennessee. And we are proud to be in a nation where due process is usually protected. Unfortunately, here in Shelby County today, like elsewhere in this version of America, Trumps orders have led to widespread fear in our immigrant communities, due process rights being flouted, and even our churches having to end in person services out of concern for the safety of their congregation. Memphis Mayor Paul Young pointed out that the city, which makes up about two-thirds of the population of Shelby County, was not on the list. He clarified that Memphis and Shelby County are separate governments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City of Memphis is not a sanctuary city, nor does it have policies that obstruct federal immigration enforcement. Tennessee state law explicitly prohibits sanctuary jurisdictions, and Memphis complies fully with that law, he said in a statement. Our focus remains on ensuring public safety for all residents, and we continue to operate within the bounds of state and federal law. A Tennessee law that passed in 2018 without then-Gov. Bill Haslams signature bans local governments from having sanctuary policies and threatens to withhold future state economic and community development money from those not complying. Haslam told reporters at the time that Tennessee has no sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities bill to become Tennessee law despite governors reservations Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Eads) responded Friday, saying he sent a letter to federal immigration authorities asking for more attention to the issue locally. When Memphis has a serious crime challenge, it is mind-boggling that our county government is not doing all that it can to help federal authorities remove criminals who shouldnt be here in the first place, Taylor wrote on his Facebook page. He also said that he was assured during a recent tour of the Shelby County Jail that people found to be in the country illegally after their arrest were being detained for ICE custody. 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. McNAIRY COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) One sheriff has had a massive influence on law enforcement decades after his death. Buford Pusser is a Tennessee legend, even Hollywood took notice. News 2 spoke with the current McNairy County sheriff about Pussers impact on crime fighting. Sheriff Buford Pusser kept law and order in McNairy County back in the 1960s. When Hollywood portrayed him in the 1970s film Walking Tall, he carried a big stick to fend off criminals. However, that stick, historians say, is somewhat of a myth. Whats not a myth is how Pusser left a permanent mark on law enforcement. Whatever you think of him good, bad he did motivate people to get into law enforcement for the right reason. I think my whole generation of law enforcement officers, not just in Tennessee, but across the country and all across the world, who were motivated by those movies, said Sheriff Guy Buck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Who was legendary lawman Buford Pusser? Buck currently occupies the sheriff seat in McNairy County that Pusser once sat in. Even though more than 50 years have passed, Buck still gets asked about his famous predecessor. Pusser was well-known for serving justice with his own style. According to one story, instead of hauling a car theft suspect off to jail, he tied the man to a pole to publicly humiliate him. Sheriff Buck admits that law enforcement today is not what it was when Pusser served this small county from 1964 to 1970. Law enforcement is very different. We would all go to jail for the things that we did in 1984, much less the things they did in 1964. Its a different world. Its a completely different world, said Buck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Good guy, bad guy, something in between? we asked Buck. Buford Pussers granddaughter says grandfather represented respect and integrity I think he was a human being. And he was a sheriff in the 60s. And, I think, if you were to ask anybody about any sheriff in the 60s, they would have different opinions. Some would think they were good, some would think they were bad. Obviously, Buford is no different, said Buck. Buford Pusser is no longer top cop in McNairy County, but his name is truly synonymous with law enforcement. And, also creating an opportunity for this county to become a place where visitors can come from all over and pay their respects to law enforcement. In fact, they recently unveiled this memorial to do just that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is a granite wall that contains 796 names of every police officer who has died in the line of duty since Tennessee became a state, said Buck. So many of those stories have never had a voice, and they do out here now. The county also hosts an annual law enforcement appreciation ceremony at the Buford Pusser Festival. Leaders here envision a future McNairy County where people from Memphis to Johnson City can gather to pay their respects to law enforcement, and it all started with one man, Sheriff Buford Pusser. You cant say sheriff without thinking of Buford Pusser, said Buck. Sheriff Pusser was known for professionalizing the department by hiring paid deputies and purchasing squad cars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. MCNAIRY COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) For many Tennesseans growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, and especially those in McNairy County, Sheriff Bufford Pusser was a hero. Hollywood made the big hit movie Walking Tall about the lawman, but a shadow of controversy has also loomed over the McNairy County sheriff. His wifes murder remains a cold case to this day and some say Pusser is responsible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pussers image of a big stick-carrying sheriff who cracked down on crime continues to this day. However, not everyone believes Pusser was a saint. You look into these things and you find it didnt happen that way at all, said Mike Elam, author and podcaster of Buford Pusser: The Other Story. He walked on both sides of the law. Who was legendary lawman Buford Pusser? Elam is an outsider. Hes from Arkansas, where he spent years in law enforcement. He started digging into Pussers past. For him, the hero story wasnt adding up especially that Pussers wife Pauline was mistakenly murdered in an ambush that was intended to take him out. Elam believes Pusser killed his wife and covered it up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I believe it was staged to fit Bufords narrative, Elam told News 2. But when you look at the evidence, its so convincing that he didnt tell the entire truth. Elam launched a podcast called Buford Pusser: The Other Story. He also operates the a tour called The Truth has no Agenda where he takes his guests including many law enforcement officers on a guided tour of the different crime scenes from the night of the murder. Dennis Hathcock is one of the locals on the tour. Pusser cracked down on his familys business, The Plantation Club, on the state line. Annual Buford Pusser Festival celebrates legendary sheriff Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was evil. Thats the only thing I can say Because he could put out that persona that hes a good man fighting crime and corruption when, if you really knew what was going on, Hancock told News 2. Thats the importance of the tour and taking the route Buford took that morning because that alone convinces a lot of people that it did not happen the way that Buford claimed, said Elam. Elam said that other red flags at the crime scene included the location of blood splatters, and bullet holes. In fact, a tip last year led the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to re-examine the cold case and exhume Paulines body. However, this revision of the Sheriff Pusser hero legend has ruffled some feathers in McNairy County. Its very frustrating these people coming from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arksansas trying to be the Bufford Pusser expert, Steve Sweat said. They dont have a clue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why were Pauline Pussers remains exhumed? Sweat is the honorary Pusser expert for the state of Tennessee. Hes not happy with tours like Elams that tell a different story about Pusser. As far as Im concerned, it happened the way the sheriff said it did because he was there and we werent, Sweat told News 2. As far as I know, thats the way that ambush went, the way the sheriff said it did. I just think the truth is important, Elam said. On my podcast, I always end it saying, The truth has no agenda.' Elam said a tip to his podcast is what led the TBI to re-examine the cold 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 WKRN News 2. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) A Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office deputy arrested by agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) in March has been demoted. Cedric Brignac, 42, was charged with operating a vessel while impaired. LDWF said agents who were patrolling Lake Maurepas in Livingston Parish encountered him a few times before he almost crashed into a wooden barrier. He also had slurred speech. The incident report stated that Brignacs boat was near the agents. They could smell alcohol coming from his direction. The agents also saw beer cans scattered throughout the boat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the incident report, Brignac admitted to drinking about four Natural Lights and continued to sway during field sobriety tests conducted onshore. Kenner Police make third arrest in connection to drugging death of news reporter Sheriff Jason Ard confirmed Brignac, formerly a Major in the Training Division, has been demoted to Captain. He was also cited for a first offense of operating a vessel while intoxicated. The off-duty incident was self-reported by Brignac (Training Division). The matter was turned over to the District Attorneys Office for processing just as all other cases are, Ard said. Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 Louisiana First News. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A local sheriffs office has seen an increase in scam calls and text messages recently. The Greene County Sheriffs Office is reminding residents to be vigilant against cellphone scams. Law enforcement has received several reports of residents getting texts and automated phone calls stating they have unpaid fines or toll fees. Many of these are attempts to gain personal information or money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of these scams will threaten the recipient with arrests or heavy fines to pressure them into hasty decisions. The sheriffs office recommends remaining skeptical of all unsolicited messages and calls. Residents should research and look into the official phone numbers to compare with the number that communicated with them. The Greene County Sheriffs Office reminds residents that they will never attempt to call an individual to inform them about a warrant or ask for payment over the phone. If you believe you are the recipient of a scam, contact local law enforcement. 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. CAMBRIA Niagara County Sheriffs Office investigators are seeking help from the public to locate a missing Lockport attorney. Sheriff Michael Filicetti confirmed Thursday that family members reported Scott Stopa missing earlier this week. They told police that Stopa, 46, has not been seen or heard from since Tuesday. Our family is extremely concerned for his safety and well-being, Stopas sister Jenny told the Gazette Thursday night. No ones heard from him and his phone is at his home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jenny Stopa-Ryan said friends and family spent much of the day Thursday looking for her brother. We have no idea where he might be. Weve been looking everywhere, his sister said. We searched near his home, his office, anywhere we could think of where he might be. Stopa is a partner at Ben & Stopa Attorneys-at-Law on East Avenue in Lockport. He lives in the Town of Cambria. We just want him home safely, Jenny said. Stopas online profile indicates that his legal practice is family-law focused. The profile says Stopa represents clients in divorce, custody, paternity, and guardianship proceedings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is also described as a court-certified child guardian. Filicetti said members of his offices Criminal Investigation Bureau have been working on Stopas disappearance since the missing persons report was first filed. The sheriff said help from the public may assist investigators. Stopa may be driving a black Jeep Compass with New York license plate LNN-1422. Every piece of information helps, Filicetti said. Were asking anyone who may have information to contact our investigators at 716-438-3393. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Two men were left injured after shots rang out at a gas station in Hickory Hill on Thursday night, Memphis Police say. Officers arrived at the Circle K gas station on Mt. Moriah Road and Ridgeway Road just before 10:30 p.m. regarding a shooting call. When they arrived, two men were seen knocking on a car window. When they noticed the officers, both of the men ran off. Officers then found a man in the drivers seat suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inside the car, police reportedly found a black handgun on the passenger floorboard and a large bag of what appeared to be marijuana. See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid-South. Sign up for WREG newsletters and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. While officers were driving southbound toward Apple Tree, a short while later, a man ran out of the wooded area. Police say he was suffering from a gunshot wound and was immediately detained. He was taken to Regional One in non-critical condition. A witness told police she was vacuuming her car when she saw two men walk from behind the business up to a grey car parked on the lot. They got in the car, and soon after, she says she heard arguing and then multiple gunshots. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At this time, it is still unclear who fired the shots, but video footage shows the men exiting a white Nissan Altima with temporary tags parked on the side of the building. If you have any information that could help police, call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH. 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. China's coal industry is currently experiencing an oversupply, leading to increased stockpiles after a significant expansion in production, reported Reuters, citing sources. Despite having the world's largest thermal power fleet, China is producing more coal than it can consume, resulting in a 42% year-on-year (YoY) increase in mine stockpiles and a 25% annual rise in inventories at northern Bohai area ports. This expansion was a response to the energy shortages and blackouts that occurred in 2021. According to the report, power plants are being encouraged to purchase coal from these northern ports to help reduce the high stockpile levels and support miners, according to three sources. These directives from the National Development and Reform Commission come after persistent appeals from industry groups and companies to cut back on coal imports and production. Despite record imports of 542.7 million tonnes of coal in 2024, coal imports have decreased by 16% in April compared with the previous year, the report said. Chinese coal production continues to rise, with a 6.6% increase from January to April, reaching 1.58 billion tonnes. This growth persists even as industry profits have plummeted by 48.9% YoY for the same period, as shown by official data. Moreover, the price of medium-grade coal has been on a downward trend, reaching 620 yuan ($86) per tonne, the lowest mark since March 2021. This decline has led some buyers to attempt to renegotiate long-term contracts in favour of more advantageous spot sales. Furthermore, China has temporarily lifted its ban on the export of rare earth elements and other dual-use items to 28 US companies. This suspension, which will last for 90 days, is part of a broader trade detente with the US and could signal a relaxation of economic tensions between the two nations. "Chinas energy sector ramps up coal buying amid rising stockpile levels" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. Protesters gather at the immigration court in downtown Phoenix on May 22, 2025, to guard against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting people showing up for their scheduled court hearings. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Federal immigration officials continued targeting people at the Phoenix Immigration Courthouse on Thursday, surveilling and detaining migrants whose cases were dismissed minutes earlier in ways that appear to be an attempt to minimize attention from both protestors and media. Berta, a soft-spoken 48-year-old woman who was afraid to give her last name, spoke to the Arizona Mirror while she and her lawyer took refuge near protesters. She said that the United States has been her home longer than Mexico ever was. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its been 28 years, she said. More than half my life. Returning to Mexico terrifies her, she said, and shes been working with an immigration lawyer to make sure that never happens. On Thursday, she went to Phoenix Immigration Court to attend a mandatory hearing. ICE agents were waiting. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Berta is one of hundreds of people across the country with tenuous legal protections who have lately been caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trumps mass deportation campaign. Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would deport millions of people. But doing so has proven more difficult than simply declaring that it would happen, and Trump has reportedly spent months angry that immigration agents havent rounded up more immigrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In what legal experts have derided as a bid to boost deportation numbers, the Trump administration has recently launched raids at immigration courthouses in multiple cities, targeting migrants and asylum seekers who show up for scheduled immigration hearings. Last week, more than a dozen people were detained by ICE agents in Phoenix, shortly after federal prosecutors filed to dismiss their cases, effectively leaving them open to deportation. That same pattern played out in Bertas hearing on Thursday afternoon. The federal prosecutor made a motion to dismiss her case, and the judge granted it. The consequences were almost immediate. When she and her lawyer, Erica Sanchez, exited the courtroom, they noticed ICE agents. Thinking quickly, they ducked into the bathroom to wait it out. Later, the pair were able to exit the courthouse building and stood with immigrant rights advocates until Sanchezs husband arrived to pick them up. At the same time that Berta and Sanchez climbed into the black Jeep, a federal agent raced down the stairs from the courthouses covered carport towards them, but they drove away before he could stop them. On the second floor of that parking structure, which is directly across from the courthouses entrance, ICE agents could be seen looking through binoculars and speaking into walkie talkies, ostensibly taking note of which cars immigrants were leaving in and relaying that information to other federal officials waiting in white paneled vans and vehicles with out-of-state license plates in the surrounding streets. Protesters take pictures of Immigration and Customs Enforcement vans parked near the Phoenix Immigration Court on May 29, 2025. ICE agents have been arresting people showing up to their scheduled court hearings in order to swiftly deport them. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Thursday was the second day ICE agents employed a new tactic of following migrants outside of the courthouse grounds and pulling them over blocks away. Immigrant rights advocates say the move is intentional: detaining people in the surrounding streets instead of the elevator or courtroom lobby makes it more difficult for advocates to protest or film the arrests. At least one woman was observed by a reporter being detained after being pulled over in her car, but its unclear how many more people were arrested under the new strategy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But opponents of the raids havent let that new difficulty deter them from at least trying to monitor ICE activity. Members of pro-immigrant groups, including the Phoenix branch of Indivisible, Common Defense, Fuerte and the Borderlands Resource Initiative, organized themselves via text messages, Signal chats, phone calls and walkie talkies. Some protestors gathered in front of the courthouse entrance and warned migrants entering and exiting the building that ICE agents were watching. Others stood near two white paneled vans with U.S. Department of Homeland Security license plates parked behind the courthouse on 9th Avenue and Van Buren Street. A few jumped into a car to respond to a tip sent to the ICE watch hotline set up by immigrant advocacy groups in January, in anticipation of Trumps hostile agenda. And when an immigrant woman whose case had just been dismissed approached protestors waving posters at oncoming traffic advising them of ICEs presence, a man who would only identify himself as P for fear of repercussions, accompanied her to the McDonalds across the street and ordered her a Lyft home. P, who teaches music in the Creighton Elementary School District, said that it was clear the woman was being followed by ICE because the duo had cut through a construction area, crisscrossed streets and turned down corners only to consistently find ICE vans nearby. He said it was surreal to watch federal agents try to arrest a person simply attending a scheduled immigration hearing going through the same legal process border hawks have for years advocated for. Artie, who also teaches at Creighton Elementary School District, said he was inspired to join the handful of protestors because of his own history with the immigration system. In 1979, at just 14-years-old, Artie left Guadalajara, Mexico, with his parents to immigrate to the United States. Hes since become a citizen, but that experience helps him empathize with the fear that people attending immigration hearings on Thursday felt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im here to support, to try to get ICE to be less effective, he said, calling their strategies crazy. While the threat of a detainment persists at Phoenix Immigration Court, migrants with scheduled hearings have no other option but to show up. Those who skip a hearing have a deportation order filed against them and their case is closed; getting back into the legal process is much more difficult if that happens. Carlos accompanied his wife to Phoenix Immigration Court on Thursday morning. While she attended her hearing inside, Carlos waited across the street on a public bench. He was nervous and restless, walking back and forth between the bench and the courthouse, then up and down the public sidewalks near both. When Phoenix police officers arrived to keep protestors away from the courthouse entrance, he kept a close eye on them, worrying that they might be ICE agents. He had heard about the arrests of the past two weeks, and said the news scared him and his wife. It almost makes you not want to show up, he said. You show up and you get deported anyway. But, he added, they went to the hearing despite the risk because the alternative only guarantees a deportation order. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) Calling Lords, Ladies, young squires and noble maidens, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council calls upon thy neighbors to join their free event filled with sword fighting, craft and more. The Shire of Ardanroe will host a grand Medieval Art Faire on Saturday, May 31st with faire action and craft. There will be a mere spectacle for thine eyes with action craft thine own heraldry, calligraphy, knights in swordplay demonstrations. (Courtesy of Shreveport Regional Arts Council) The Shire of Ardanroe, a local chapter of the Society of Creative Anachronism, invites all residents to live a medieval life at the Caddo Common Park, 869 Texas Avenue, from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rhythm & Blooms Music Night at Shreveports Urban Farms Their chapter is located in the Kingdom of Gleann Abhann, according to the Shire of Ardanroes (SoA) social media page. Their admin, Mike Dudley, says they are looking for people to display their medieval collection. Calligraphy tent: framed scrolls, personal calligraphy projects, tools Wax tent: examples of real or mock wax seals Heraldry tent: cups, boxes, favors, or anything else with your heraldry on it Leather tent: stamped or tooled leather projects Fighter tent: water, snacks, Display tent: anything else! Garb, art, pictures, feast gear, Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to SoA, they have been practicing their swordsmanship since early 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 KTALnews.com. May 29By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune (TNS) A Delta jet made a late-night unscheduled landing at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after a passenger's pet dog fell ill, an airlines spokeswoman said Thursday. The flight left Monday night from Detroit and was heading for Los Angeles when the captain made the call to divert the airliner to the Twin Cities airport once learning about the sick dog, Delta spokeswoman Bre'onna Richardson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The crew was alerted of a dog in the cabin not feeling well," Richardson said. "A veterinarian onboard assisted in providing care until medical personnel met the flight upon arrival at MSP." The flight continued on as the passenger and the dog stayed behind for continued medical attention, she said, adding that Delta policy prevents her from disclosing the seriousness of the dog's illness. "It's the crew that makes that determination, and the captain has the final say-so" on making such an unscheduled landing, Richardson said. She said landings under these circumstances are "not something that happens very often. ... Everyone is trained to assist when something does take place." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The side trip caused a 2 1/2 hour delay for the 180 remaining passengers and six crew members, with the flight landing in Los Angeles early Tuesday, Richardson said. In other news about animals causing air travel disruptions, a Delta flight on Saturday was delayed leaving MSP because a couple of unauthorized pigeons tried to catch a ride. Passengers were on board when the first pigeon flew through the cabin. Baggage handlers came in and caught it. But after the jet left the terminal, a second bird came out of hiding. A few people screamed until one brave man stood up and used his jacket to catch the bird. The flight carrying 119 passengers and five crew members arrived in Madison, Wis., 56 minutes late due to the commotion. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) A new pilot program in Iowa will help dozens of schools buy more locally sourced foods, with a few of those recipients being right here in Siouxland. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig has announced that 33 schools or school districts have received grants to participate in the Choose Iowa food purchasing program for schools. The one-year program connects schools with Choose Iowa members to encourage school food service programs to buy products from local farmers and businesses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Choose Iowa is a state branding and marketing program that promotes food and beverages that are grown, raised, and made in Iowa. The local school districts that were awarded the grant include: OABCIG, Sheldon, Hinton, West Sioux, and Westwood Community School Districts. 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. The U.S. flag outside the Rhode Island State House flies at half staff on April 21, 2025, after the death of Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, who held the Senate District 4 seat for over 40 years. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current) A battle for the open Senate District 4 seat is taking shape, with half a dozen candidates filing declaration papers with the Rhode Island Secretary of States office by Fridays 4 p.m. deadline. The upcoming special election features four Democrats, one Republican and one independent candidate. The upcoming Aug. 5 special election marks the first time the district spanning North Providence and the northern part of Providence will have a new state senator in over 40 years. Voters will choose the person who will fill the unexpired term of Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, who died April 21, at age 76. Ruggerio was first elected to the Senate in 1984. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each declared candidate still must secure 100 signatures from certified voters within the district to qualify for the ballot. The signature deadline is June 10. The four Democratic candidates would first compete in a special primary on July 8. Among the Democratic contenders is former state representative Marcia Ranglin-Vassell of Providence. The 64-year-old Providence Public Schools teacher served three terms representing Rhode Islands House District 6 before deciding not to run again in 2022. In a May 2 Facebook post announcing her intent to run, Ranglin-Vassell touted a proven track record of fighting and winning. During her six years in the House, she championed progressive policies like a $15 minimum wage and gun control alongside education and equity initiatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Education reform was a top priority for fellow Democratic candidate Manny Taveras. Taveras, 40 of North Providence, also emphasized housing and small business services in his May 14 campaign announcement. Manny Taveras is the younger brother of former Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, who led the capital city from 2011 to 2015. The younger Taveras also worked for the Providence mayors Office of Neighborhood Services from 2008 to 2010, according to his LinkedIn page. He now works as an account executive for private pharmacy benefits manager MedImpact, according to his LinkedIn. This will be his first run for elected office. Also in the running is Democratic North Providence Town Councilman Stefano Famiglietti. Famiglietti, 33, recently opened his own law practice in Providence focused on employment matters, and has served as a city councilor since 2018. In a May 20 campaign announcement, Famiglietti stressed municipal services and responsible budgeting as priorities if elected to the state Senate seat. Rounding out the Democratic primary ballot is Lenny Cioe Jr., a nurse at Blackstone Valley Community Health who unsuccessfully challenged Ruggerio in the last three Democratic primaries. The 65-year-old North Providence progressive announced he was entering the race Friday afternoon, 30 minutes before the deadline to file paperwork with the Rhode Island Secretary of State. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cioe in a statement said his campaign will focus on local issues, including price gouging by utility provider Rhode Island Energy, and protecting Medicaid and other health programs from federal funding cuts. The lone Republican, Alexander Asermely, also waited until the final day to formally enter the race. He said in a statement he felt it was time to step up and use my voice, lamenting economic, educational and infrastructure shortcomings across the state and within the district. The 39-year-old father and lifelong North Providence resident works as an attorney for Bellotti Law Group in Boston, according to his LinkedIn page. Asermely is also a political newcomer, having never run for office before. Asermely does not have any primary opponents, putting him on the path to the August special election as long as he submits the requisite voter signatures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also bound for the general election ballot: independent candidate Stephen G. Tocco. The North Providence resident and retired chief of Rhode Island Capitol Police served on the Smithfield Town Council from 2004 to 2007. He also ran multiple unsuccessful campaigns for state Senate, including against Ruggerio in a three-way Democratic primary in 2022. All but one of his prior candidacies for office have been as a Democrat; in 2020, he ran as an independent candidate for the Senate District 22 seat, which spans parts of Smithfield, North Providence and Lincoln. While the seat was held by a Democrat for the last 40 years, the district is nearly evenly split between registered Democrats and independents, who comprise 45% and 44%, respectively, of its 22,300 registered voters as of May, according to data with the Rhode Island Department of State. The remaining 11% of voters are registered Republicans. Voters have until June 8 to register, or disaffiliate, ahead of the July 8 primary election. Early voting is set to begin June 18, running through July 7. The winner of the election will serve the rest of Ruggerios two-year term, through 2026. State lawmakers are paid $19,817 a year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Flight 149: Hostage of War is the title of a new Sky feature documentary that recounts one of the most extraordinary and until recently, officially denied chapters of the Gulf War, the Comcast-owned company said Friday in unveiling a trailer for the original film that will debut in the U.K. and Ireland in June. On Aug. 2, 1990, just after Saddam [Hussein]s forces storm Kuwait, a civilian flight unwittingly touches down in the middle of the war zone, reads a synopsis for the doc. The passengers and crew find themselves trapped, held as hostages by Saddam Hussein, becoming pawns in a rapidly escalating international crisis that will reshape the Middle East. More from The Hollywood Reporter Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Calling the doc an unflinching exploration of a geopolitical scandal, Sky also highlighted the stakes. For over three decades, the British government denied any prior knowledge of the invasion before the planes ill-fated landing. Now, new information has come to light to challenge the official narrative, and the surviving hostages are taking the British government and BA [British Airways] to court to seek justice and the truth. Premiering June 11 on Sky Documentaries and Sky streaming service Now, Flight 149: Hostage of War promises to combine powerful firsthand testimonies from the key players, including the surviving hostages, Kuwaiti resistance fighters, investigative journalist Stephen Davis, and political insiders. When plans for the doc were first unveiled, Sky highlighted that more than 385 men, women and children were on board of the flight. Saddam Hussein broadcasts to the world that the passengers of the plane are now his guests and are not allowed to leave, it noted back then. They are held as human shields in military and chemical plants across Iraq in a rapidly escalating international crisis. Over the next five months, a tense hostage story unfolds with the world watching. It coincides with a pivotal moment in geopolitical history that will change the Wests relationship with the Middle East forever. The hostages become pawns caught up with a ruthless dictator, a plane full of spies, a British government cover-up, and unexpected involvement from Richard Branson. The trailer for the feature doc, produced by Drum Studios, gives a first taste of what to expect in Flight 149: Hostage of War and includes footage of the likes of then-U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher next to then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush, a shot of Saddam Hussein, as well as a range of former hostages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch the trailer below. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Sign up for THR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) A Midvale man has been arrested after almost hitting officers with his vehicle while fleeing during a traffic stop. The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) says he was driving on a suspended license when they stopped him. Austin Jeffery Giles, 24, has been charged with felony assault on a peace officer with the use of a dangerous weapon, felony failure to respond to an officers signal to stop, and misdemeanor driving on a suspended or revoked license. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kearns man charged with alleged kidnapping and sexual assault of 16-year-old girl According to police, detectives with SLCPDs Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) conducted a traffic stop on March 28, 2025. During the stop, they discovered that the driver, Giles, was driving on a suspended license. Detectives ordered Giles to exit the vehicle, and he complied. According to documents, Giles appeared to be nervous while speaking. Officers told Giles that they would be performing a frisk, and upon hearing this, he jumped back into the vehicle and attempted to drive away. A female passenger put the vehicle back in park and told him to stop while Giles tried to drive away. Detectives tried to remove Giles from the vehicle, but he eventually succeeded in speeding away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man who allegedly held Millcreek family hostage for months charged with 13 felonies According to a press release from SLCPD, he is accused of placing officers directly in the path of the moving car, creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury. One officer was almost hit with the vehicles door, and another nearly had his foot run over while he accelerated away. Court documents note that Giles is a known gang member and has a history of possessing weapons. He also reportedly refused to comply with a blood draw after a search warrant was obtained. On May 23, 2025, VCAT detectives located Giles, and he was booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail. He is currently being held without bail. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this post as new information becomes available. UPDATE, 7:19 p.m. Brent Weisberg with the Salt Lake City Police Department announced in a press conference that the victim was a very young child, and the victim died in the hospital a few minutes before Weisberg began speaking to the press. At this point in the investigation, police are not releasing the exact age of the child. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to police, CPR was already being performed when officers arrived on scene, and Salt Lake City firefighters and Gold Cross Ambulance continued providing medical care. (KTVX/Ryland Sparrow) (KTVX/Ryland Sparrow) (KTVX/Ryland Sparrow) (KTVX/Ryland Sparrow) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver was operating an SUV in a driveway when he hit the child, and officers believe that this was a low-speed crash. The driver is related to the child, and he remained at the scene and is cooperating with officers. Wilson Avenue continues to be closed between 300 East and 400 East, and police say it is expected to remain closed for several hours while detectives process the scene. Weisberg said that this is shaping up to be a horrible accident, with no foul play suspected. Police reported that SLCPD social workers responded to the scene to assist those impacted by the incident, and a SLCPD chaplain also responded to the hospital to support the family. Original Story, 6:52 p.m. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) Salt Lake City Police is investigating a slow speed crash that sent a minor to the hospital with life-threatening injuries Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SLCPD announced in a post on X around 6:30 that there was a slow speed, critical injury crash near 350 East Wilson Avenue, at 1750 South. Salt Lake City Police respond to the crash, courtesy: SLCPD They said that the crash involved a minor who is in critical condition at the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police stated that Wilson Avenue is closed between 300 and 400 East. Reportedly, the Salt Lake City Police major crash team is responding. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin BTC rose and stock index futures surged early Thursday after a U.S. court declared President Donald Trumps broad-based tariffs regime invalid. The positive sentiment was buoyed by AI giant Nvidia's upbeat earnings. On-chain data showed large wallets, those holding over 10,000 BTC, have shifted to selling from buying as the largest cryptocurrency holds close to its record high, with an increase in exchange deposits also pointing to selling pressure. Meanwhile, options market data signaled potential for volatility ahead of Friday's monthly settlement. Ether ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, jumped to $2,780, the highest since Feb. 24, consistent with the bullish signals from the derivatives market. The token has been bid this week, supposedly on SharpLink's $425 million Treasury plan. Notably, U.S.-listed spot ether ETFs saw a net inflow of $84.89 million on Wednesday, extending their streak to eight consecutive days. Canada-listed investment firm Sol Strategies said it filed a preliminary prospectus with local securities regulators to raise up to $1 billion to boost its investment in the Solana ecosystem. Still, SOL was flattish at around $170. In the broader market, TON, PEPE and FLOKI led other coins higher while FARTCOIN, PI and JUP nursed most losses. Open interest in TON perpetual futures surged 33% to $190 million, clocking the highest since Feb. 18. Stablecoin issuer Circle froze wallets connected to the Libra token containing millions of dollars worth of USDC. Metaplanet issued $21M in bonds to finance more bitcoin purchases. In traditional markets, some investment banks said Trump has other tools to sidestep the court ruling on tariffs. Yields on the longer duration Treasury notes ticked higher, suggesting dollar strength. Stay alert! What to Watch Fire quickly spread throughout a home in Sheraden. Allegheny County dispatchers said crews were called to the 2700 block of Sacramento Avenue shortly after 2 p.m. on Friday. Video shared by a neighbor showed smoke billowing out of the house. As she got closer, she saw massive flames burning out of the top of the home. When Channel 11 got to the scene, there were several firefighters working to put out the flames. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was intense; black smoke. Then, I got up closer, then the flames were fully engulfing the second floor and shooting out and it took quite some time. The roof was still here when I got up here, neighbor Marian Conti said. Another neighbor said the woman who lives in the house was not home when the fire started. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW NEED TO KNOW Canadian wildfires burning in Saskatchewan and Manitoba are expected to bring smoke and affect air quality in the Midwestern U.S. The fires have already prompted air quality alerts in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota So far, 17,000 people in Canada have been forced to evacuate in a situation Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called "very serious" Wildfires in Canada are expected to impact air quality in the United States as strong winds blow smoke south into the Midwest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fires in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have triggered a statewide air quality alert in Wisconsin and regional alerts in Minnesota and Michigan, according to The Weather Channel, which reported that Chicago could also see a drop in air quality from the fires. The Washington Post reported that Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio may all see effects from the wildfires, too, when smoke is pushed into the region on Friday, May 30. While the smoke is expected to be concentrated mostly in the Midwest and Northern Plains from Friday through Sunday, June 1, The Weather Channel said that it could also move to the southern and eastern U.S. in lower concentrations. The smoke will likely be pushed north on Monday, June 2, according to The Weather Channel. The outlet reported that "relief from smoky skies and air quality issues should at least temporarily arrive" thanks to winds coming into the region from the southern U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Canadian wildfires, which have already blazed through hundreds of thousands of acres, have forced 17,000 people in the country to evacuate so far, according to USA Today. Canada's Department of Natural Resources said "rising temperatures, steady winds and low relative humidity" have sparked the fires, which Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called "a very serious situation." "I do fear things are going to deteriorate with the weather we have ahead of us in the days ahead," Moe said in a Thursday, May 29, press conference, USA Today reported. 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. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The situation is so dire that the military has been called in to assist with evacuations, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said at a news conference, according to the paper. Kinew said the evacuation was the largest "seen in most peoples living memory." The wildfires come two years after 2023 blazes in central Canada turned skies orange in the U.S., triggering air quality alerts across the country. At the time, New York City experienced the highest pollution level in the world on June 6, 2023. Read the original article on People No charges will be filed against the California state senator from Riverside who was accused of driving while intoxicated. Sabrina Cervantes, a Democrat who represents Senate District 31, was cited for driving under the influence on May 19 after she went to a local hospital following a crash in Sacramento. At the hospital, Cervantes showed signs of intoxication, police said, though she claimed the officers accosted her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cervantes denied being under the influence, and on Friday, the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office backed up her claim and declined to file charges. Riverside Democratic Sen. Sabrina Cervantes is seen in this file image. (California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus) The toxicology results were negative for any measurable amount of alcohol or drugs, the DAs Office said in a statement. We have reviewed all the submitted evidence, including police reports, witness statements, and laboratory results. Based on our ethical duty and the burden of proof in a criminal trial, the Sacramento County DAs Office declines to file any charges in this case. Cervantes had not yet publicly commented on prosecutors announcement before publication, but police issued a statement to KTLAs Capitol correspondent Eytan Wallace to provide clarity while maintaining transparency and respect for all involved. The statement defended officers actions and explained that Cervantes declined to take a field sobriety test, though it also acknowledged the controversial nature of the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Sacramento Police Department has received numerous public records requests about this incident, the statement said. We will be releasing responsive documents today on the initial requests and will process the remaining requests as soon as possible. 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. (NewsNation) The commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, told CBS News that he believes artificial intelligence could improve customer service at the agency. Bisignano said, Were bringing a massive technology effort to transform the servicing agenda. Were gonna bring AI into the phone system I intend it to be completed this year. No taxes on overtime pay: What to know about tax break in GOP budget bill Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Social Security data shows that the agency receives nearly 400,000 calls each day. The average wait time for calls in April was 68 minutes, which is down from 112 minutes in January. Bisgnano said that the agency will meet our beneficiaries where they want to be. This comes as the SSA announced in March that in-person identity checks would be required at local officers. However, the White House rolled back that requirement after it faced backlash. Frank Bisignano claims Social Securitys function wont be threatened by cuts Bisignano argued that, despite the cuts to employees at Social Security, the agencys efficiency will not be affected. He said that through technology and process engineering, the agency can become more efficient. Can you get unemployment benefits if you quit a job? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bisignano also wants to make sure that those who file for Social Security in 10 years will still receive all their benefits when the time comes. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that by 2033, funds could be gone. Theres lots of senators that Ive heard from that have all ideas about how to fix it. So, we need to just go to work on how to fix it, Bisignano said. He also said, Everybody is committed to Social Security for the rest of time. Social Security using X to communicate now Back in April, the agency announced that it would be using the social media platform X to make all announcements going forward. Social Security calculator: Figure out your monthly benefits Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public formerly known as Twitter, Linda Kerr-Davis, SSA Midwest-West Regional Commissioner, told employees, according to Federal News Network. This will become our communication mechanism. Kerr-Davis also said that we are in different times now, and If youre used to getting press releases and Dear Colleague letters, you might want to subscribe to the official SSA X account. 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. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) South Dakotas proposal to place work, training and education requirements on some of the adults who receive Medicaid benefits might not be submitted for federal approval, according to several of the state government officials who have overseen its design. South Dakota Social Services Secretary Matt Althoff and state Medicaid director Heather Petermann outlined the proposal called SD Career Link on Friday, first to an advisory board, and later at a general public meeting. SFPD: 7 confirmed overdose deaths so far in 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They said Congress is considering a variety of stricter Medicaid work requirements that recently received approval from the U.S. House of Representatives as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and now await formal action in the U.S. Senate. South Dakotas possible changes would affect only those men and women who became eligible for Medicaid benefits after South Dakota voters in 2022 approved expanding the maximum household income to qualify. What had been 100% of the federal poverty level was raised to 138%. In April, South Dakota provided Medicaid benefits to 147,234 women, men and children. Those include 30,542 men and women who became eligible as a result of the expanded income threshold. The proposed work, training and education requirements would apply only to those in the expansion group. Althoff said South Dakota already has work, training and education requirements for adults whose households receive SNAP, TANF and child-assistance benefits. He said work is a component for many of the departments programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of what were doing today has become an exercise in futility, Althoff acknowledged to the state Board of Social Services on Friday morning. He said South Dakotas proposal would continue to go forward on a contingent basis because of uncertainty about the federal legislation at the congressional level and the Trump White House. South Dakotas proposal would need approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Board member Howard Grinager of Sioux Falls asked whether South Dakota could still submit its plan as a variation that works best for South Dakota, even if Congress passes its legislation. Althoff replied that he doesnt know what will happen in Congress or whether President Donald Trump would sign Medicaid-related legislation into federal law. So everything is entirely speculative, Althoff said. Its premature for me to answer that question. South Dakotas proposal wouldnt require applicants to provide any proof of work, training or education up front. Their compliance would be checked when they apply for renewals each year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal legislation as passed by the U.S. House, on the other hand, would require applicants to show right away that they are working at least 80 hours per month, or spending at least 80 hours per month in community service, or attending work training at least 80 hours per month, or taking education courses on at least a half-time basis, or some combination totaling at least 80 hours per month. The federal legislation also more aggressively calls for renewals twice a year, while South Dakota currently requires annual renewals. The federal legislation exempts all people who are Indian Health Service beneficiaries, as well as people who have recently been released from incarceration in prisons and jails, while South Dakotas proposal doesnt at this point. Medicaid director Petermann said approximately 80% of the roughly 30,000 adults currently enrolled under the expanded income threshold would already meet South Dakotas proposed work, training and education requirement or would be specifically exempt. She said South Dakotas proposed exemptions would include adults with mental and physical disabilities, pregnant and postpartum women, and people living in a geographic area with high unemployment rates. There also would be what Petermann described as good cause exemptions that would be reviewed internally for acceptance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As to the proposals potential impact, Petermann said that is difficult to estimate. She said the expectation is a 5 to 10% reduction after the first year, and the numbers would stabilize in subsequent years. Added Althoff, There are a lot of assumptions the department has no control over. South Dakota currently is in the middle of a public-comment period on the proposal. A second public session is scheduled for June 12 in Sioux Falls. Written public comments will be accepted through June 18. Althoff said South Dakotas three members of Congress have been in active dialogue with Gov. Larry Rhodens administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Board member Colleen Winter of Pierre, a former state Department of Health employee, asked about administrative costs for monitoring. Petermann said there would be some costs for system upgrades. We dont know for sure how much those things would cost at this point, especially because you have to have approval first, Petermann said. Althoff added, The voters voted on something that didnt have a cost component to it. He said the Medicaid expansion benefits have been running less than two calendar years and state government is still watching and learning about how much the expansion beneficiaries are costing and how frequently theyre using the services. The department would need to administer the work, training and education portion within the existing budget, according to Althoff. Not having new funds and new money for that is an important wrinkle to our process, he said. Board member Grinager said the message behind the proposal is that work has a beneficial part in peoples lives. Its not just a requirement for requirements sake. Were going to start gently and let people work into it, he said. So I really appreciate the approach that you, our department, has taken in putting this together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Said Winter, Its very respectful of the individuals that we serve and are in need of services. The public information session that followed was offered primarily by teleconference. It drew only a handful of people to the call and the only ones in the meeting room were DSS officials and a news reporter. One person spoke during the public comment period. Nathaniel Amdur-Clark, a lawyer representing the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board, said the department wasnt following the federal pattern of government to government consultations with each tribe. Amdur-Clark said the proposal as currently written would have serious and deleterious effects on tribal populations. He called for a specific exemption for Indian Health Service beneficiaries and pointed out a variety of other issues with the proposal, including a lack of follow-up with people who lost Medicaid coverage as a result of work, training and education requirements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Althoff said there was a tribal consultation meeting last week. He said there is a convention in South Dakota that there are quarterly meetings that rotate locations. Theres also ways to arrive at a convention colloquially, Althoff said. He said there was some very robust exchange and outstanding feedback received from that group last week. When no one else responded to several prompts for comments, Althoff gave a closing summary. He stated, Theres been no final determinations made. He added that the department was responding to the wishes of South Dakota voters who last year approved allowing state government to pursue additional requirements. Althoff described the proposal as a very light touch approach to the requirement aspect and a hope-filled approach, noting that people would be allowed to seek medical care and have a year to find work or training or education. That, he said, is intended to offer a lift up rather than be a hammer or lever. 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. NEED TO KNOW Pfc. Dewayne Johnson II has allegedly agreed to "plead guilty" to charges related to the death of his wife, Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson He was arrested after reporting that Mischa Johnson, 19, had disappeared from their home on the Schofield Barracks, O'ahu, Hawaii, in August 2024 Dewayne Johnson, 29, guilty plea is "subject to acceptance by the military judge" at a hearing scheduled for next week A U.S. Army soldier has negotiated a plea deal after being accused of killing his wife, who was six months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Private First Class Dewayne Arthur Johnson II was given five charges and 19 specifications concerning the disappearance of his wife Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, 19, according to a statement provided by the U.S. Army. As previously reported, the charges came six months after she was last seen in their home on Schofield Barracks, O'ahu, Hawaii, on July 31. On Thursday, May 29, Michelle McCaskill, a spokesperson for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, confirmed that Dewayne, 29, has now agreed to plead guilty at a hearing scheduled to take place at Wheeler Army Airfield Courtroom next week, per the military news source Stars and Stripes, local outlets The Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now. PFC Johnson has agreed to plead guilty, however, further details are not releasable at this time as the guilty plea is subject to acceptance by the military judge, McCaskill said in a statement shared with Stars and Stripes. If PFC Johnsons guilty plea is accepted, the judge will sentence him pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement during the sentencing hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Mischa disappeared last year, the Army Criminal Investigation Division announced a $10,000 reward for information that could help to locate her. A search on and around Schofield Barracks was sparked when her husband reported her missing on Aug. 1, per Stars and Stripes. Dewayne allegedly told officers involved in the search that his wife was emotionally distraught, the outlet reported. He went on to be arrested and placed in military pretrial confinement. In February, the U.S. Army shared an update that Mischa was presumed deceased and her body has not been found. Officials added that Dewayne waived his right to an Article 32 preliminary hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The general nature of his charges includes the murder of Mischa Johnson, intentionally killing her unborn child, obstruction of justice, providing false official statements, possession of child pornography and the production and distribution of child pornography, according to the U.S. Army website. Army Criminal Investigation Division Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, Mischa Mabeline Kaalohilani Johnson, 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. Details on whether Mischa's remains were located before Dewayne's plea deal this week have not been shared at this time. If we cant have Mischa, the least that we can do is make sure that man stays in jail and spends however needed to... he needs to stay in jail, her sister, Marianna Tapiz, previously said, per Hawaii News Now. The U.S. Army did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Friday, May 30. Read the original article on People A woman attempting to visit her military husband in Hawaii was detained and eventually deported after the Department of Homeland Security said it flagged her for dubious behavior. Nicolle Saroukos, of Australia, landed at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Oahu, Hawaii, on May 18, to visit her husband Matt, a U.S. Army lieutenant stationed in the area, according to Hawaii News Now. She was then selected for secondary screening by Customs and Border Protection officers, who pulled her aside after becoming suspicious of recent long-term trips to the United States and suspicious luggage, a DHS senior official told Military Times in an emailed statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers determined that she was traveling for more than just tourism, the statement read. She was unable to remember her wedding date just four months prior. Saroukos met her husband during a trip on Dec. 13, 2024, the same day her ex-partner left her, according to the official. The statement did not specify the location of that trip, but provided further details of her romantic life, stating that Saroukos and her husband spent eight days together before she returned to Australia on Dec. 21. Saroukos then got married on January 24, 2025, after only knowing her husband for just over a month, the statement said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homeland Security eyes new $50M jet for Noem, Coast Guard officials Saroukos told Hawaii News Now that it was her third visit to see her husband in Oahu, and that shed never experienced problems until the day she was detained. She was reportedly taken to a holding room, along with her mother, who accompanied her on the flight. There, Saroukos bags and phone were searched, according to local reports, and she was questioned about her work as a former police officer and whether her tattoos were gang-affiliated. Officers told her she had too many clothes in her suitcase, which they suspected indicated an attempt to stay in the U.S. longer than her VISA allowed, Hawaii News Now reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Afterward, DHS took fingerprints and DNA swabs of Saroukos mouth, conducted a body cavity search and escorted her to the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu, the report stated. Her mother was allowed to leave. DHS told Military Times that concerns over her cell phone were also partly to blame for her detention. During screening, CBP noted there was unusual activity on her phone, including 1,000 deleted text messages from her husband because she claimed they caused her anxiety, a DHS senior official said. Saroukos even claimed that her husband was going to leave the U.S. military, despite him telling CBP he was adding her to his military documents. Saroukos told local media that she was strip-searched at the detention center, before being denied dinner and spending the night there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her husband told Hawaii News Now that he waited at the airport for several hours, asking officials the status of his wifes arrival. He said no one would answer his questions initially. When he was finally told that his wife was at a detention center, he was not permitted to call or see her, the report said. A U.S. Army spokesperson told Military Times that the husbands unit and its leaders were providing support to the service member. Saroukos is now back in Sydney, according to Hawaii News Now. Her husband is reportedly on leave visiting her. If you attempt to enter the United States under false pretenses, there are consequences, the DHS senior official told Military Times. SOMERSET, Pa. Advocates for early education cited big numbers and small children Thursday in Somerset in an effort to solve a Pennsylvania-wide teacher shortage in the child care field. Somerset County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ron Aldom quoted a new report that Pennsylvania is losing $6.5 billion annually in earnings, productivity and tax revenue because so many parents have to stay at home with their children. Standing next to a group of pre-kindergarten students, The Learning Lamp CEO Leah Spangler said her organizations Somerset center could be preparing 63 more kids for elementary school if just seven more teaching positions were filled. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats 63 futures, she said. That total would grow to 25,000 more children statewide and thousands of families would benefit if the statewide teacher shortage was erased, Spangler added. Aldom and Spangler were among the early childhood education advocates aiming to ramp up support for a $55 million state budget proposal to help address the shortage. Its at a crisis point and Pennsylvania, its businesses and its next generation of workers are all being impacted, said state Sen. Patrick Stefano, R-Fayette, who supports the measure. The child care teacher shortage has continued for years across the region, which has seen child care centers struggle to find staff and, increasingly, close as a result. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It all boils down to the reality that early child care teachers are paid near-poverty-level wages less than half of their elementary school counterparts, Stefano and Spangler said. They earn an average of just $29,480 annually statewide barely enough for one person, let alone a parent with a family of their own, to survive in todays economy, United Way of the Southern Alleghenies CEO Karen Struble Myers said. Low wage-earning families and the child care workers who serve them are trapped in a cycle where underfunded care equals underfunded staff. (That equals) unaffordable care and workforce shortages, she said. Its a downward spiral that hurts everyone. There are people on the sidelines who want to work, Aldom said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They just cant, he added, because for many people, the cost of child care offsets the money they make. Thats one reason why child care providers such as The Learning Lamp cannot solve the teacher wage crisis by simply ratcheting up tuition costs for the working families they serve, Spangler added. The Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young People cited an Early Learning PA Coalition study that showed 83% of likely voters surveyed in March supported increasing state funding for child care teacher recruitment. Stefano, a state Senate Aging and Youth Committee member who has backed efforts to solve the issue, said theres reason for hope this budget cycle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed adding $55 million to the early education budget specifically for child care recruitment and retention a move that may be a first for a Pennsylvania governor, Stefano said. Its important to make sure the topic remains a bipartisan priority as budget discussions continue, he said. Lawmakers need to settle on a final dollar amount and how it will be paid for and, separately, work with Pennsylvania businesses to clear regulatory hurdles that are barriers to supporting child care-needy employees, Stefano said. Shapiro was in Erie Thursday advocating for a stronger investment in early childhood education. Part of his proposal calls for a Child Care Works recruitment bonus program aimed at retaining new hires. Stefano said its going to take several different measures to solve the issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its going to require public-private partnerships, he added. He said the fact that Chambers of Commerce statewide, including Somerset Countys, are lobbying Harrisburg to address the teacher shortage adds weight to the movement. Aldom said its a no-brainer for businesses. I think were all on board with this idea, he said. Child care is vital to the future of our economy and the well-being of working families everywhere. PANAMA CITY The rotunda of city hall was packed to the brim with suits, ties and collared shirts on May 28 as community and state leaders rubbed elbows and city staff prepared the festivities. Panama City hosted its inauguration for the incoming mayor and city commissioner while welcoming a familiar face back to the table. Commissioners Brian Grainger and Janice Lucas reunited with returning Ward 4 Commissioner Josh Street and celebrated their new co-workers, Mayor Allan Branch and Ward 1 Commissioner Robbie Hughes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was a lengthy invocation followed by The Pledge of Allegiance, after which a city staffer moved the event along with a wooden gavel. Newly elected Ward 1 Commissioner Robbie Hughes is sworn in on May 28 at Panama City city hall. Hughes was the first invited to the front to take his oath of office, after which he took to the podium to make his remarks. He started by commending his campaign team and family, kicking the speech off with a comedic tone and gathering some laughs from the crowd. The new commissioner thanked everyone for sticking by him through what some Panama City readers may recall as a somewhat contentious election season, before continuing on to the value of service in his new position. "It fills a hole in my soul to be able to come and help somebody else with no expectation of anything in return," Hughes said. "I'm working for you, I need to make every decision and think about how it affects you, how it affects the people of Panama City, because every vote affects people." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He leaned into his business background and how he wants to take what he has learned there and apply it to city government. Hughes said he was not a politician, which Branch later corrected in a comedic tone. "Every time you lay your head on the pillow, just know that I've done everything I can possible in working with this team and seeing all the staff to make the quality of life better in Panama City," Hughes said. "I thank you for your time, I thank you for your vote, and I thank you for your support. And hopefully in the future we're going to see some really good progress." Returning Ward 4 Commissioner Josh Street speaks during inauguration at at Panama City city hall on May 28. Next up was Street, whose speech had a more serious tone of community resilience. "Standing here today is one of the greatest honors of my life, and I do so knowing the difficult job that we have and the difficult job ahead, but this moment isn't about me," Street said. "It is about a collective unity amongst all of us as citizens of the United states and citizens of the city of Panama City." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He then covered some of life in the city over the past several years and its affects on the community. "We belong to a community that refuses to quit, a city that keeps getting back up through tornadoes, floods and hurricanes," Street said. "We've proven that tomorrow can be better than today, and we're willing to do the hard work to make it so." Street then told an anecdote about talking to his St Andrews neighbor whose house had been severely damaged by tornadoes. Attendees at Panama City's inauguration ceremony May 28. "What stayed with me most wasn't what was broken in that moment, it's (that) what couldn't be shaken was hope," he said. "She looked me in the eye and said 'we'll be fine, God's brought us through worse." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Street talked about his dedication to residents of the community, his faith, and reiterated the resilience he believes Panama City to have. Last but not least was the new mayor, Allan Branch. After his oath of office he ditched the podium to move around the room and make gestures toward the crowd. Branch's speech was jovial in nature yet touched on the progress he believes he has seen in the city. "You can love something and acknowledge that there's challenges and hurdles and there's flaws in it," Branch said. "Since Hurricane Michael, my goodness, we've come so far, the progress we've made, we've challenged ourselves." Newly elected Panama City Mayor Allan Branch works the room during his address at Panama City's inauguration on May 28. Branch said that he would like to see the progress they've seen made in one part of the city, presumably downtown, to spread out to other areas of the city. He talk about how the common trait he's seen in accomplished people that he admires is their desire for feedback and their relentlessness. Branch would like to see the city emulate these qualities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Being relentless usually comes from having something to prove," Branch said. "I have something to prove, and I think the city of Panama City has something to prove, not just to other cities, not just to the doubters, but to ourselves." Branch went on to talk about his past experiences growing up and his family's prominent role in the local business scene. He later moved on to talking about a plaque that all mayors get and what he wanted it to say. Newly elected Mayor Allan Branch takes his oath of office on May 28.. "You are a part of what makes this town special, a neighbor, a teacher, a business owner, a builder, a dreamer," Branch said. "You do not need a title like mayor or commissioner to shape this town. Help someone who needs it, speak up even with a shaky voice. Real change does not wait for permission, it starts with people like you, and that's how a city becomes a community." After a long prayer, attendees then moved on to snapping photos and enjoying some catered snacks. This article originally appeared on The News Herald: New Panama City mayor calls for feedback, relentlessness at inauguration Accenture announced on Wednesday that David Droga, CEO of its technology-focused creative group Accenture Song, will step down from his role in September. Droga will transition from his day-to-day leadership role into a broader strategic role as vice chair of Accenture. Most Read from Fast Company As part of the transition, Ndidi Oteh, who currently serves as the Americas lead for Accenture Song, will become the CEO of Accenture Song, the company said. He will also join Accentures Global Management Committee. Meanwhile, Nick Law, current creative chairperson for Accenture Song, is set to become the creative strategy and experience lead. Once-in-a-generation creative leader An award-winning creative executive, Droga founded his New York-based namesake advertising agency, Droga5, in 2006. Under his leadership, the creative agency won numerous awards for its innovative advertising campaigns. In 2019, Droga sold Droga5 to Accenture Song (formerly Accenture Interactive). The agency has offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo. He became CEO of Accenture Song in 2021 after Accenture chair and CEO Julie Sweet asked him to step into the leadership role, as Sweet told Modern CEO in January. She saw the benefit of bringing his creative perspective to the leadership team. Drogas ideas helped to transform Accenture Song and accelerated the companys growth. As CEO, he introduced an operating model that merged creativity, design, technology, AI, data, and strategy into one connected platform. Droga spoke about how AI was transforming the advertising industry on Fast Companys Brand New World podcast in February. In a news release, Sweet described Droga as a once-in-a-generation creative leader and business builder who has lived our core value of stewardship and has developed the next generation of leaders who will build an even better Song. I am ready to catch my breath In todays company news release, Droga expressed appreciation and conveyed his optimism for the future of Accenture Song. With such extraordinary leadership in place, it felt like the right time, he said. He also discussed his next chapter. After 30 plus years of leaping, I am ready to catch my breath. And being vice chair will allow me to do that, but also to contribute in new ways. TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) The states so-called free kill law is here to stay. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he is vetoing a bill that would have allowed more families to file wrongful death lawsuits against hospitals. Lack of communication led to unpermitted group home where murder occurred, Bartow official says The bill was aimed to close what supporters call a deadly legal loophole. DeSantis said he is protecting the states health care system, but families today told us hes protecting the wrong people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My son Jo-Jo died, and Florida law allowed it, said Marcy Shepler, a supporter of HB 6017. A group of families gathered in downtown Tampa with stories that differ in detail, but the outcome is the same. Family members said their loved ones died in Florida hospitals, and state law still denies them a chance to hold anyone accountable. One single signature could have restored justice for many families, Sabrina Davis said. The bill aimed to close a legal loophole that prevents some parents and children from suing for non-economic damages like pain and suffering when a loved one dies due to medical negligence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It will lead to higher costs for Floridians, DeSantis said. It will lead to less access to care for Floridians, and it would make it harder for us to keep, recruit and maintain physicians in the state of Florida. But what we saw today is that Governor DeSantis basically said that, you know, our loved ones are collateral damage in the health care system so that we can keep the health care and the insurance lobbyists costs down, said one HB 6017 supporter named Lauren. DeSantis said the state needs caps to prevent costly lawsuits and protect access to care. But some families argues those same caps let hospitals avoid accountability. Well, now all they have to do is have the goal of lets make it cost more than the caps, and youre right back where you were, Travis Creighton said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. A Terre Haute plant that was originally designed to manufacture CDs in the 1980s is continuing efforts to diversify with a new partnership that will take it into the semiconductor space. Sony DADC on Tuesday announced a partnership with Terre Haute-based D&D Automation and KLA Corp. in California to manufacture specialized shipping canisters used to transport chip components. KLA designs and manufactures components for the inspection of semiconductor chips during manufacturing, and D&D Automation is a vendor for KLA that makes the canisters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sony DADC said it became involved in the process because of its 110,000-square-foot cleanroom space, which it previously used to make CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays and video game discs. KLA, through its partnership with D&D Automation, will use the space to assemble its shipping canisters. The canisters are machined from solid blocks of stainless steel and are precision-cleaned before assembly, the company said in a news release. Due to the sensitive nature of the components made by KLA, no particles, oils, or any other type of contaminant can be present on the canister. This necessitates an extremely clean environment for assembly. KLA is investing $200,000 in the new operation in Terre Haute. A spokesperson for Sony DADC said two full-time jobs are being added as a result. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Terre Haute plant opened in 1983 and produced the first compact disc in North America and later over 23 billion CDs. It was the largest employer in the city with 2,000 workers. However, due to a downturn in the demand for discs, the company laid off thousands of workers after 2010, with about 90% of its workforce gone in 10 years. In recent years, the facility has begun courting other companies, especially in the medical device manufacturing space, because of its cleanroom capabilities. Inside INdiana Business reporter Kylie Veleta spotlighted those efforts on a November 2023 edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's left-wing presidential frontrunner Lee Jae-myung on Friday proposed amending the constitution to make it more difficult to impose martial law, aiming to prevent political crises like the one that erupted last year. As candidates entered the final stretch before a snap presidential election on June 3, Lee and his Democratic Party urged South Koreans to turn out to vote to end the political turmoil that has gripped the country since ousted conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived martial law declaration in December. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our national prestige has fallen, but it (martial law) happens. We have to make that impossible systematically," Lee told a live-streaming talkshow on YouTube. "Overcoming the insurrection (crisis) is a no-brainer. Without it, our country will collapse," Lee said, adding that economic growth and unity would be among his other top priorities. Lee said he would seek to revise the constitution to strengthen martial law requirements, for instance by not allowing leaders to implement martial law without getting parliament's approval within 24 hours. More South Koreans turned out for early voting on Friday after reaching record numbers on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When early voting ended at 6 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Friday, 34.74% of eligible voters had voted, the second highest turnout to date. Lee also said a special prosecutor should investigate the December 3 martial law incident to make sure those responsible were punished, although he called for leniency for those in the military who were reluctant to follow orders. Yoon Yeo-jun, chair of the Democratic Party's election campaign, said that the vote would be an opportunity to set the country right so that the "Yoon Suk Yeol tragedy would never happen again." Kim Moon-soo, Lee's rival candidate from the conservative People Power Party, said he would stop "legislative dictatorship" by Lee's Democratic Party, which holds a majority in parliament. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Stephen Coates and Giles Elgood) Southern California residents are bracing for what forecasters say will be the hottest day of the week on Friday. Were looking at a heat advisory thats now in effect, and if youre traveling through the Barstow area, an excessive heat warning is also in effect, KTLAs Kirk Hawkins said. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued the heat advisory, which will remain in place from 11 a.m. through 8 p.m. Friday, for parts of the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Central Ventura County Valleys, Cuyama Valley, San Luis Obispo County Interior Valleys and Mountains, and the Southern Salinas Valley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Forecasters are calling for temperatures between 92 and 102 degrees in those areas. A heat advisory map is seen on May 30, 2025. (KTLA) The extreme heat warning includes Barstow, Fort Irwin and Death Valley National Park and will remain in place through Saturday evening for temperatures up to 105 degrees, according to the NWS. Fridays warmer weather also brings an increased risk of grass fires and an elevated risk for heat-related illnesses, especially for sensitive individuals such as the very old, very young, those without air conditioning and people participating in outdoor activities. A chance of rain and thunderstorms will arrive over some of our mountain, desert and foothill areas on Saturday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Increasing cloud cover as a result of some tropical moisture for your Saturday evening forecast. It will start to feel a little bit humid as well. And then Sunday, we will also see a continuation of that chance of showers and maybe even thunderstorms, Kirk said. Closer to average temperatures are expected to return along with sunny skies for early next week. 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. HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) Officials broke ground on the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Hall at the University of Southern Mississippis (USM) Gulf Park campus on Friday, May 30. The new facility will expand the life-changing work of DuBard School for Language Disorders and The Childrens Center for Communication and Development. Southern Miss, MGCCC unveil Coastal Pathways Scholarship For decades, The University of Southern Mississippi has stood committed to serving the needs of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said USM President Dr. Joe Paul. Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Hall is proof that we have taken seriously our charge to lead, to innovate and to serve. Together, we celebrate a promiseto our children, to their families and to future generations who will receive services that will equip them to navigate life with confidence and hope. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This new facility, named in honor of a gift from the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Charitable Foundation, was made possible through a combination of federal funding sources, private philanthropy and additional donor support. These investments reflect a shared commitment to supporting children with complex communication and developmental needs across Mississippis Gulf Coast. The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park campus held a groundbreaking ceremony for Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Hall. (Courtesy: USM) The facility was named in recognition of a $1.5 million gift from the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Charitable Foundation. (Courtesy: USM) The facility will enable both programs to mirror services provided on the Hattiesburg campus to the Gulf Coast community. The space will include specialized classrooms, therapy and observation rooms and a multipurpose area. DuBard School and The Childrens Center have collectively served more than 5,000 children since their founding. The programs also provide hands-on training to students in speech-language pathology, audiology, early childhood education and other related disciplines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News 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 WJTV. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) More than a year after breaking ground, Albuquerque is now just months away from opening a major new hub for fire, police, and social workers on the corner of 98th Street and Amole Mesa. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That station is just one part of a newer experiment for Albuquerque, making its first regional public safety center with space for firefighters, police officers, and Albuquerque Community Safety. It was March of last year when they broke ground, and now, the Southwest Public Safety Center is just months away from opening its doors. Starting in August, we will open this station with an ALS engine. So itll be an engine, fire engine that carries the water, the hose, all of that. And then itll also be staffed with one paramedic and then three firefighters that have our EMT basics so that we can provide paramedic coverage and fire suppression coverage, said Albuquerque Fire Rescue Chief Emily Jaramillo. The new hub will serve the Southwest Mesa, one of the fastest-growing areas of the city thats only expected to get bigger. AFR said its planning for that growth by building extra space for more fire engines expected to call Station 23 home over the next decade. One of the biggest benefits will be faster response times for AFR in that area. Weve really relied on our automatic aid agreement to meet response times in this area of the city with Bernalillo County fires. So right now, Bernalillo County Fire is covering quite a bit of this area for us to make sure that we are meeting response times. However, now, AFR being here, this is all city jurisdiction. Were going to be able to meet those response times with our own apparatus, said Jaramillo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The center will be one of two planned spaces for ACS on the Westside. Were going to have an admin staff here. The thing with our responders is that theyre always responding to calls. And so, this will be a nice touch point for them to be able to come in and finish a report. But itll be a nice space for everybody to collaborate. We can receive referrals from our counter departments here, and were really excited to be here, said Jodie Esquibel, director, Albuquerque Community Safety. Phase one of the project should be open by August. Eventually, the city is also hoping to transit center and a community center on the property. 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. Generally speaking, drug testing in the workplace is supposed to be conductd at random intervals but according to insider sources, that's not the case for the sometimes-world's richest man. A New York Times expose about Elon Musk's fear and loathing on the campaign trail found that the billionaire not only has been on boatloads of risky and illegal drugs during his turn into hard-right politics, but was also being tipped off about when he'd be tested for them. As we've long known, SpaceX's federal contractor status requires that all its employees including its mercurial CEO pass drug tests. Given Musk's admitted penchant for mind-altering substances, and for ketamine in particular, his ability to pass those tests has long been a concern. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the NYT's sources are to be believed, we may now know how the 53-year-old keeps passing: because he's been warned in advance when the "random" tests are going to occur, and been able to plan accordingly. (Though those sources didn't get into it, anyone who's ever had to pass a drug test themselves knows that there are typicaly two options: drink so much water that you pee all the drugs out of your system, or get urine or hair from someone else and pass it off as your own.) As those same sources allege, Musk's substance use increased significantly as he helped propel Donald Trump to the White House for a second time. He purportedly told people that his bladder had been affected by his frequent ketamine use, and had been taking ecstasy and psilocybin mushrooms too. The multi-hyphenate businessman and politico also carried around a daily medication box with at least 20 pills in it including ones with markings that resemble the ADHD drug Adderall, according to people who saw photos of it and regaled it back to the NYT. (He's also been linked to cocaine and a cornucopia of other substances.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When it comes to stimulants like Adderall and anything else in Musk's daily pill box which, despite how the article makes it sound, is not that abnormal a thing for a man in his 50s to be carrying around there's a good chance that the billionaire has prescriptions that could excuse at least some abuse. He also has claimed that he was prescribed ketamine for depression, though to be fair, taking so much that it makes it hard to pee would suggest he's far surpassed his recommended dosage. As Futurism has noted before, Musk's drugs of choice described here are not often screened for on standard drug panels. Though we don't know how in-depth federal drug tests are, standard tests primarily screen for cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, opiates, and PCP, though some include ecstasy/MDMA as well. Testing for ketamine is, on the other hand, pretty rare. If Musk is being tipped off about his drug tests and is either flushing his system or taking a sober underling's urine or hair none of that would matter. But given that the worst of his purported substance abuse revolves around ketamine, there's always a chance that he's in a recurring K-hole and getting off scot-free, unlike his employees, who are held to a much higher standard. More on Musk's drug use: Ex-FBI Agent: Elon Musk's Drug Habit Made Him an Easy Target for Russian Spies North Dakota House lawmakers meet during the final hours of the session on May 3, 2025. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor) A special session of the North Dakota Legislature is still up in the air as the attorney general reviews options to fix an error with a line-item veto. Meanwhile, legislative leaders this week directed staff to do legal research on possible scenarios that would prompt the Legislature to come back into session, including a recent appeals court ruling that affects legislative districts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Kelly Armstrongs general counsel has asked for an attorney generals opinion on his line-item veto of Senate Bill 2014. Armstrongs veto message only indicated he objected to a $150,000 grant, but the message was accompanied by red lines crossing out a section of the bill that also included $35 million for the Housing Incentive Fund. Attorney Chris Joseph wrote in his request for an opinion that the red marking merely serves as a color-coded visual aid. He asked for an opinion on whether the governors written veto message or the visual pen marks on the bill satisfy the constitutional requirements of a line-item veto. Mike Nowatzki, spokesman for the governor, said the opinion will determine the next steps. Armstrong previously said he would call lawmakers back for a special session if necessary to correct the mistake. Legislative Council estimates a special session would cost $65,000 per day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said Wednesday during a meeting of Legislative Management that he asked Legislative Council staff to brief legislative leaders on scenarios that might prompt lawmakers to reconvene. One question Hogue raised is whether the Legislature has a duty to act in response to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that overturned a 2023 district court ruling that found the states 2021 redistricting plan unlawfully diluted the voting power of Native American voters. A federal judge had ordered the Legislature to change its district map, but if the appellate courts ruling stands, the state would revert back to the 2021 plan. The plaintiffs, which include the Spirit Lake Nation and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, have asked for a rehearing before the full 8th Circuit. Hogue also asked staff to provide a legal briefing related to the governors vetoes and whether that would prompt legislators to reconvene. Armstrong issued seven line-item vetoes on six bills after the session adjourned. Previously, Legislative Council Director John Bjornson said a special session was the only obvious legal remedy to fix the error with the veto, but he said this week his staff continue to research the issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other situations that might prompt the Legislature to reconvene are a significant drop in the price of oil that changes the states budget outlook or federal funding cuts that have major impacts to state or local subdivisions, Hogue said. If lawmakers call themselves back into session, they have six remaining days of their 80-day limit. If Armstrong calls a special session, that would not affect the 80-day limit. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX (NewsNation) It may not be spooky season yet, but tariffs may have already frightened some of the Halloween fun away. Spirit Halloween announced it wont be holding its annual grand opening the retailers flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, because of international disruptions and supply chain challenges. Though the continents largest Halloween retailer didnt explicitly mention tariffs when announcing the decision, the pop-up shop outsourced costume manufacturing to locations in Asia, per Dragon Sourcing. President Donald Trumps legally contested tariffs have mainly targeted China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Businesses could see tariff refunds, but consumers likely wont Despite the events cancellation, the company clarified it is far from the cemetery. Spirit Halloween is still very much alive, with over 1,500 stores on track to open! We will begin opening stores in mid-August for another killer season, the chain announced on Instagram. Spirit Halloween plans on bringing back the grand opening in 2026. 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. e.l.f. Beauty has agreed to acquire Hailey Biebers lifestyle beauty brand Rhode for $1bn, further diversifying its brand portfolio. The deal is set to propel e.l.f. Beauty into a transformative phase of global expansion, leveraging both companies' commitment to innovation and disruption in the beauty sector. e.l.f. Beauty will pay $800m at closing, consisting of $600m in cash and $200m in newly issued e.l.f. Beauty common stock, equivalent to around 2.6m shares. The deal also includes an additional $200m earnout based on Rhodes performance up to 2028. The closing purchase price is 3.8 times Rhode's last 12 months (LTM) net sales of $212m as of 31 March 2025. e.l.f. chairman and CEO Tarang Amin said: e.l.f. Beauty found a like-minded disruptor in Rhode. Rhode further diversifies our portfolio with a fast-growing brand that makes the best of prestige accessible. We are excited by Rhodes ability to break beauty barriers, fully aligning with e.l.f. Beautys vision to create a different kind of company. Rhode is a beautiful brand that we believe is ready for rocketship growth. Subject to standard closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Rhode doubled its consumer base and generated $212m in net sales in the 12 months leading up to 31 March 2025. Its products, which have been exclusively available on rhodeskin.com, are set to debut in physical stores through a partnership with Sephora in North America and the UK in the second half of 2025. Bieber will maintain her role as founder and take on additional responsibilities as chief creative officer and head of innovation, as well as act as a strategic advisor to the combined entity. Rhode co-founder and co-executive chairman Michael Ratner and its co-founder, president and chief brand officer Lauren Ratner, along with CEO Nick Vlahos, will continue to lead the brand from its Los Angeles office. Bieber stated: We cant wait to bring Rhode to more faces, places and spaces. From day one, my vision for Rhode has been to make essential skin care and hybrid makeup you can use every day. Just three years into this journey, our partnership with e.l.f. Beauty marks an incredible opportunity to elevate and accelerate our ability to reach more of our community with even more innovative products and widen our distribution globally. As I continue as founder and step into an expanded role of chief creative officer and head of innovation, I look forward to leading the brand into this exciting new chapter of possibilities alongside my co-founders Michael Ratner and Lauren Ratner, who have helped bring my vision to life from the start. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. A business owner charged with financial exploitation of the elderly and multiple counts of stealing and deceptive business practices has paid over $100,000 in restitution as part of a plea agreement with state prosecutors. A judge on Thursday approved the agreement between the Missouri Attorney Generals office and Richard B. Gillette, 53, of Bella Vista, Ark. Gillette pleaded guilty to three felony counts of deceptive business practices, two felony counts of stealing, and one felony count of Financial Exploitation of an Elderly Person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was accused of deceiving three Greene County, Missouri, residents out of more than $46,000 in up-front payments for siding installation or deck construction. Those victims cited in probable cause statements told investigators they paid Gillette 50 percent deposits for work that was never done. Demands for refunds also went unfulfilled. Circuit Judge Kaiti Greenwood suspended imposition of a prison sentence but ordered him to serve 3 years on unsupervised probation on each of six counts. At the time of the sentencing, Gillette paid a lump sum of $107,293 in restitution, which also includes repayment for losses to victims in other counties in Missouri, according to the Missouri Attorney Generals office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a condition of probation, Gillette is barred from accepting any upfront payments from consumers as down payments for future contracting work. 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. SPRINGFIELD Show up, stand proud and lets make history together. Thats the message of the fourth annual Springfield Pride Parade, which steps off next weekend amid a time that is tense and uncertain for the LGBTQIA+ community. Being a Black man of the community, those are two things that are truly under attack, people of color and the LGBTQ community, Taurean Bethea, who is executive director and founder of the Springfield Pride Parade Organization, said. Springfield has just an array of different backgrounds and all types of people. We want to make sure that our youth feel seen and supported, especially in this time. President Trumps second administration has set forth a flurry of executive orders, largely aimed at the LGBTQIA+ population, including the restriction of gender-affirming care and the removal of federal funding from organizations that support gender ideology. The American Civil Liberties Union has reported a total of 588 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States as of May. While Massachusetts only accounts for five of those bills, the political atmosphere has many in the LGBTQIA+ community feeling tense and uncertain about the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is not the time for us to cower or be victims, Bethea said. We need to stand up and be loud and proud and really hold our elected officials to account and make sure that theyre taking care of our needs. Bethea is a gay man. The idea for the first Springfield Pride Parade came from a hate comment that was posted his social media in 2017 about his sexual orientation. At the time, he was closeted. Now, hes loud and proud about who he is, and he wants to spread that message and encourage everyone to live who they are unapologetically. And this weekend in Springfield, there will only be joy, acceptance and above all, pride. The Springfield Pride Parade is not just a one-day event, but a weekend-long celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community in the region. It begins on Thursday, June 5, with a flag raising ceremony at Springfield City Hall at 10:30 a.m. and a youth community panel at Springfield Technical Community College from 1-3 p.m., featuring Springfield Pride Parade DJ Kenneth Kyrell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The You Ball gala will be held in MGM Springfields Aria Ballroom the following night, June 6, starting at 6 p.m. The galas theme is inspired by Studio 54, a former nightclub in Manhattan, and true to its name, the night will be full of sparkles, sequins and all things disco. General admission tickets are $200 and can be purchased on Springfield Pride Parades website. Funds raised from the You Ball gala will support the Pride Parade organizations Safe Space program, an afterschool initiative to empower and provide a safe community for LGBTQIA+ youth in grades 6 to 12 in Springfield schools. It almost feels like we have to shield them to make sure that they still have their head held high and are confident, even in these very trying times, Bethea explained. We really want to make sure that they know that they are our next generation, because there is going to be a lot of work to do. The Safe Space program offers a combination of both summer and after-school programs year-round for LGBTQIA+ youth, including guest speakers, internships and leadership opportunities, advocacy workshops and more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pride weekend culminates with the Pride Parade and downtown block party on Saturday, June 7. This is the fourth parade the first parade was expected to have a turnout of around 500 people, Bethea said, and they ended up welcoming more than 6,000 people into the city in that first year. The number has only grown since then, he said. This year is a little different because we are actually trying to take our messaging more national, so were reaching out and expanding our reach overall, Bethea said. So, were reaching into Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and really just trying to gather everybody within the region to come and celebrate and support. The result of which, Bethea hopes, will be an even bigger celebration this year. The parade steps off from Springfield Technical Community College at noon sharp, but if youre participating in the parade, plan to be there by 10 a.m. Im very adamant about the 12 oclock [step-off], Bethea said with a laugh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those interested in marching in the Springfield Pride Parade can register on the organizations website, springfieldprideparade.org. Students interested in marching can reach out directly to their schools and programs. Everyone is encouraged to line the streets to Stearns Square and be loud and proud, Bethea said. Everyone is welcome to march with us, he said. We need as many people as possible because we have to make a statement this year. Following the parade, a free block party will be held in Stearns Square from 1:30 to 6 p.m. The party will include food, vendors, live music by DJ Kenneth, and special guest Dawn Richards of Danity Kane, a 2000s R&B/pop group best known for songs like Damaged, Show Stopper and Ride for You. Come out and lets make our pride loud a-f, Bethea said. Thats our theme this year. Its a pretty edgy kind of hashtag were using, but I think now is the time for us to be loud. For more information about Springfield Pride Parade events, visit springfieldprideparade.org. Read the original article on MassLive. Over 700 cases of food and treats were recently donated to the Wisconsin Humane Society from St. Francis-based Gott Pet Products. Owner of brands Charlee Bear natural dog treats and Hound & Gatos premium pet food, Gott Pet Products donated treats and food worth over $56,000, according to a May 28 news release. Specifically, the donation included 200 cases (2,400 bags) of Charlee Bear treats and 528 cases (6,336 cans) of Hound & Gatos canned dog food. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rob Cadenhead, general manager of Gott Pet Products, said the company believes in giving back to the community and helping pets in need. The Wisconsin Humane Society does incredible work caring for homeless animals and finding them loving homes, and were proud to support their mission with nutritious meals and treats for the pets in their care, Cadenhead said in the release. The Wisconsin Humane Society has campuses in Milwaukee, Saukville, Mount Pleasant, Sturgeon Bay, Green Bay and Kenosha, according to the organizations website. Services include spay/neutering, vaccine clinics, animal surrender and rehoming, pet food pantry, and end of life services. The release said this donation will provide dogs with high-quality, nutritious treats while they wait to be adopted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Billy Zakrzewski, associate director of corporate philanthropy at the Wisconsin Humane Society, said in the release that the organization is beyond grateful for this very generous donation of dog food and treats from Gott Pet Products. Their kindness and support allow us to continue our mission of making a difference for animals and the people who love them, he said. To learn more about these Gott Pet Products brands, visit charleebear.com and houndgatos.com. For more information on the Wisconsin Humane Society, visit wihumane.org. Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on X @Redheadliner. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: St. Francis pet food company donates $56K of food to humane society Citing concerns about spot zoning, the St. Paul Planning Commission has dealt a setback to a proposal to add more than 200 units of affordable, multi-family and artist housing at the Hamms Brewery campus in Daytons Bluff. The city has worked closely with developer JB Vang for years on efforts to install affordable apartments between Payne Avenue and Seventh Street, on five city-owned acres of the long-underutilized brewery. That effort has been opposed by brewpub owner Rob Clapp, who operates St. Paul Brewing and owns several other buildings on the same campus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clapp has said the new housing should be reconfigured as it would take up about half of a shared 148-stall parking lot he uses for his existing and nascent businesses. They include an industrial crafting shop, the 11 Wells Distillery, a planned pop-up bar and a future cocktail tasting room he hopes to launch at the distillery, which adjoins the shared parking lot. Vote on zoning On Friday, the Planning Commission debated rezoning five parcels of land, most of it currently zoned I2, or general industrial zoning, to H2, T3 and RM 2, which are residential, traditional neighborhood and medium-density family zoning, respectively. After an hour-long debate, they approved rezoning three of the parcels, but voted 9-2 against removing industrial zoning from existing brewery buildings at 680 and 694 Minnehaha Ave. East, as well as the shared parking lot. Clapp, in his letters to the city, pointed out the proposed new T3 zone would be isolated from any other nearby T3-zoned parcel, creating an island of residential zoning with three smaller islands of industrial zoning within it, and common driveways connecting them. In effect, the proposal will authorize a new kind of hybrid zoning where uses that the city has previously concluded are incompatible could exist within the same site, said his attorney, Dan Hall, in a separate letter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hall pointed to the hypothetical possibility of a future crematorium, municipal incinerator, gun shop, shooting gallery, pawn shop, auto repair, or warehousing and storage that could overlap with residential housing targeted specifically to families with young children. Instead of pursuing rezoning, Clapp said a developer might seek a variance for adding an apartment building within an industrial zone, so there are certainly other ways to advance, he wrote. A protracted debate Minnesota courts have long frowned on spot zoning, or rezoning small, isolated plots of land within a larger area with incompatible zoning. This is pretty clearly spot zoning, said Commissioner Richard Holst leading into the vote, noting the city should have done more to find common ground between what he deemed as two respected developers, or simply rezoned half the campus T3. Im looking at a map with three spots on them. We made the spots by going around them. If this doesnt look like spot zoning, I dont know what does. The Planning Commission debated those arguments at length, noting one of the land parcels was already split-zoned between residential and industrial. Rezoning for that particular parcel was later approved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think its complicated because were talking about so many individual parcels, said Planning Commission Chair Kristine Grill. I think it can look challenging on the map, but be practical in reality. Thats where I came down on voting in favor. Commissioner Nate Hood noted the commissions zoning committee and the city attorneys office previously found the series of rezonings would not constitute spot zoning, given the mix of businesses and residences nearby. After debating both sides, he said he ultimately disagreed. You have two or three islands (of industrial use remaining) within the larger parcel, Hood said, acknowledging that future development in that long-range hypothetical could cause incompatible uses. Related Articles Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chris Hong, a city planner, said two district councils had recommended approving the rezoning, which supports the redevelopment vision laid out in neighborhood plans and the citys overarching Comprehensive Plan. Established in 1865 and supported by German immigrant labor, the Theodore Hamm Brewing Company peaked in the 1950s as the fifth-largest brewery in the nation, with St. Paul as its headquarters. Its real estate has been sold, piecemeal, since 1997, with the citys Housing and Redevelopment Authority acquiring the vacated southern half of the campus in 2004. The Comprehensive Plan has designated the site as an Opportunity Site, which calls for higher density, mixed-use developments or employment centers, said Hong, addressing the Planning Commission. The rezoning would facilitate the development of these parcels, which have been vacant for nearly 30 years. The Planning Commission decision could yet be appealed to the St. Paul City Council. Lily Yaps 15 years of animal welfare experience in Texas and Louisiana didnt leave her with stories about ocelots or maybe rattlesnake charmers. But working in the Dallas-Forth Worth metro area, she had some exotic-pet encounters with a tiger cub and a rare cobra, she said. And her experience coordinating successful clear-the-shelter events one of which arranged 341 pet adoptions in a single day made her a top candidate for her new position as director of Stanislaus Animal Services Agency. The agency has waged an endless adopt-a-pet campaign to relieve crowding at the animal shelter on Cornucopia Way in south Modesto. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are out every single weekend in the community working to find positive outcomes for animals, the new director said. Yap took over as SASA director in April, inheriting the shelter and administrative duties from former full-time director Vaughn Maurice and an interim director Craig Gundlach. Lily Yap is the new executive director of the Stanislaus Animal Services Agency. In her previous job, Yap was animal services division manager for Grand Prairie, Texas, overseeing the Prairie Paws Adoption Center and a team of nearly 40 employees. Her experience also included leadership roles with Dallas Animal Services over expanding foster and volunteer programs and the launch of a neonatal kitten nursery. Yap hasnt announced any new initiatives within the member communities of Stanislaus Animal Services Agency but plans a clear-the-shelter effort for the entire month of August, rather than a single day or weekend. Adoption fees will be waived in order to reduce the shelter population and save dogs and cats at risk of euthanasia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recent adoption events held at businesses including Ceres Tractor Supply were initiated by the local animal services team before she arrived, Yap said. Our offsite adoption events have been very effective, she said. Even if folks are not in a position to adopt, it raises awareness of the challenges we face as a community. People can volunteer or donate or spread the word to someone whos looking for a pet. Yap returned to her home state of California in accepting the new position. She was raised in San Francisco and later moved with her family to Texas. She earned a masters in business administration at the University of Texas in Austin and was on a career path to be an investment banker. Her plans changed, however, after volunteering at an animal shelter that was hiring. I have always been an animal lover, she said. I started working there and it just kind of stuck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While working in Baton Rouge, La., Yap created a foster program pairing cancer patients with furry companions. Yap brings management and strategic leadership skills to her new position. She serves on the board of the Association of Animal Welfare Advancement, which gives her access to the brightest minds, she said. Her focus on leadership, innovation, customer service and commitment to improving outcomes for animals and the community makes her the ideal person to lead Stanislaus Animal Services Agency, Jewel Warr, chairperson of the SASA joint powers authority board, said in a news release. The agency provides animal services in Modesto, the county, Ceres, Hughson, Patterson and Waterford. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yap said Wednesday she is still learning about the specific needs of the Stanislaus community, one of which may be a reported feral cat boom in central Modesto. She said the animal services agency benefits from the many groups and volunteers that support the shelter. (FOX40.COM) A Stanislaus County Sheriffs deputy made his first court appearance Thursday, facing multiple felony charges connected to alleged sexual misconduct while on duty in the Hughson area. Israel Morales, 30, is accused of aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault. His arrest follows a months-long investigation by the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office. Morales was charged with oral copulation by use of authority, oral copulation by force or fear, aggravated kidnapping, false imprisonment, and solicitation of prostitution, according to the Stanislaus County District Attorneys Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In court, a judge issued a criminal protective order for three victims. Their names are not to be released to the public to protect their identities. Defense Intelligence Agency IT Specialist arrested for allegedly sharing classified information The case has sparked widespread concern, especially among community advocates working with survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking. Any time there is a light that gets shined on whats happened, I hope that there is some kind of learning in terms of people learning how to be safer people for folks in their community, said May Rico, executive director of HAVEN, a nonprofit supporting survivors of abuse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rico emphasized the importance of viewing public safety as a shared responsibility. We as a society need to stop thinking about this as something that happens between private people, its not our business, and realize the safety in our community is everyones business, Rico said. While no victims were present in the courtroom, several friends and family members of Morales attended. Cameras were not allowed during the hearing, and both the prosecution and the defense declined to speak in detail. In addition to protective orders, the judge also ordered Morales to immediately surrender all firearms to law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement San Joaquin County DA secured guilty plea for sex crime with firearm Law enforcement officials are urging other potential victims to come forward. This is the time when theyre listening, this is the time when they are paying attention to what is the atmosphere that these revelations are happening in, Rico said. In a public statement, Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse said: I am deeply troubled and outraged by Moraless actions and condemn the behaviors described in this case. Such conduct is reprehensible, criminal, and a violation of the publics trust. It is completely contrary to the mission, values, and standards that every member of the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office is sworn to uphold. The actions of one individual do not, and will not, define the character or integrity of our organization or the dedicated men and women who serve our community each day with honor and professionalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of the Sheriffs Office. With that, let me be clear: any criminal actions by a law enforcement official, including members of this department, should be held to the same standard as any citizen. The Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office will continue to serve with integrity, transparency, and respect for every member of our community. Moraless bail has been set at $1,150,000. He will remain in custody until his next court date, scheduled for June 27th at 1:30 PM at the Stanislaus County Courthouse. An investigation is ongoing. Anyone who may have been affected is encouraged to contact the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. A Stanislaus County sheriffs deputy did not enter a plea Thursday in his first court appearance on charges of sexual assault and kidnapping while on patrol in the Hughson area. Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Edward Lacy ordered that Israel Morales, 31, remain in jail on $1.15 million bail and return June 27 for further arraignment. Morales wore a jail uniform with red and white stripes and had his wrists shackled during the brief hearing. As he entered, he mouthed a greeting to apparent supporters in the gallery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two alleged victims were not named in the complaint filed Thursday by the District Attorneys Office. They were represented at the hearing by a victim advocate from that agency. The complaint alleges that Morales forced one woman into oral copulation on Aug. 28, 2024, and another on May 1 of this year. Both cases involved the armed deputy kidnapping and threatening to arrest the women if they did not cooperate, the filing said. All of the charges are felonies. Morales also faces misdemeanor charges of soliciting prostitution on June 7 and June 18 of last year. The location and other details were not disclosed. Defense does not comment afterward, but sheriff does Defense attorney Josh Olander declined to comment to the media after the hearing. He told the judge he would arrange to have Morales two personal firearms turned over to law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Morales had been booked on $1.3 million bail following his arrest at work Tuesday. The reason for lowering it to $1.15 million was not discussed in court. The defense can seek a further bail reduction June 27. The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Larissa Jones, also did not comment to reporters. The office did release a statement Wednesday from District Attorney Jeff Laugero. As a former police officer, any incidents of police misconduct concern me greatly, he said. Public trust demands our law enforcement professionals adhere to the highest ethical standards. An allegation of police misconduct erodes that public trust and negatively reflects on the law enforcement profession. And late afternoon Thursday on his departments Facebook page, Sheriff Jeff Dirkse posted a statement that reads, in part: I am deeply troubled and outraged by Moraless actions and condemn the behaviors described in this case. Such conduct is reprehensible, criminal, and a violation of the publics trust. It is completely contrary to the mission, values, and standards that every member of the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office is sworn to uphold. The actions of one individual do not, and will not, define the character or integrity of our organization or the dedicated men and women who serve our community each day with honor and professionalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of the Sheriffs Office. With that, let me be clear: any criminal actions by a law enforcement official, including members of this department, should be held to the same standard as any citizen. Tip came from man arrested in another case The investigation began in March when a man arrested by Hughson Police Services on unrelated misdemeanor charges reported that Morales was engaging in sexual acts with women while on duty, according to the Sheriffs Office. The Sheriffs Offices Major Crimes Unit immediately launched an investigation, according to a press release. Morales remained on patrol until May 6, when he was placed on modified duty and stripped of his peace officer powers, meaning his gun and badge were taken away. Morales has been employed by the Sheriffs Office since June 2018, starting in the jail. He was transferred to street beat duty in 2022 and was assigned to the Hughson area in April 2024. The city contracts with the county for policing. May 29Elon Musk announced Wednesday that he's stepping down from his role advising President Donald Trump, but a New Mexico congresswoman and the state's Republican Party expect the Department of Government Efficiency to continue its work. Musk played a high-profile role in launching the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a project to cut government spending and bureaucracy. The project oversaw thousands of layoffs, but Musk's spending cut goals shrunk from $2 trillion to $150 billion, The Associated Press reported. DOGE's aggressive cuts and access to agencies' data also led to a flurry of lawsuits. "I think that it is very likely that DOGE is going to continue as a formal entity across the federal government," said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. "Certainly its impacts are going to be felt for years to come." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk's role as a special government employee was always meant to be temporary, although the Trump administration was vague about his end date. Stansbury said she thinks Musk is not going away even though his official advisory role may be over, pointing to his business ties to the federal government through companies such as Starlink. Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy Barela is confident Musk's team will continue his efforts, despite the tech mogul's departure. "Elon's dedication to uncovering fraud and eliminating wasteful spending has been both commendable and transformative. His investigative insight and fearless approach to transparency brought significant clarity to areas long in need of reform," Barela said in a statement. Stansbury is ranking member of the Delivering on Government Efficiency House congressional subcommittee, which was created to aid DOGE's efforts. Committee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., notified members that a DOGE hearing is scheduled for next week focused on nonprofit status, Stansbury said. "The full scale attack on our democracy, our institutions, the Congressional separation of powers, the rule of law, the press, free speech, civil society, is continuing, and DOGE is continuing to be at the tip of the spear for the administration on it," Stansbury said. Everyone has a newsletter now, even the United States Department of State. And, since taking to Substack in late April, the agency tasked with articulating and representing Americas foreign policy interests on the world stage has published a manifesto of sorts touting the need for this country and Europe to recommit to our Western heritage. The piece in question was titled The Need For Civilizational Allies In Europe. It was published on Tuesday and authored by Samuel Samson, a senior adviser in the departments Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Among other things, Samson argued there is an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself that includes digital censorship, mass migration, [and] restrictions on religious freedom. On both sides of the Atlantic, we must preserve the goods of our common culture, ensuring that Western civilization remains a source of virtue, freedom, and human flourishing for generations to come, Samson wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Substack post made headlines because it came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new wave of visa restrictions on Chinese students and foreigners deemed to be complicit in censoring Americans. Yet the post was important not just because it was another salvo in President Trump and the rights fight against content moderation and alleged censorship. Samsons rhetoric arguing against mass migration and in favor of Western heritage sharply echoes the ideology of many extremist and even white nationalist groups. A backgrounder published by the Anti Defamation League in 2020 laid out how figures involved in alt right politics tend to avoid explicit white supremacist references and instead use terms like culture as substitutes for more divisive terms such as race, and promote Western Civilization as a code word for white culture or identity. That rhetoric was used for the promotion of the 2017 Charlottesville rally, which included multiple neo-Nazi groups. Affiliated organizations like the explicitly pro-Trump antisemitic group National Justice Party, which has a podcast named for the Holocaust, have used the term. The Proud Boys, a militant group whose leadership has included four people charged with seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack before being pardoned by President Trump, also describe themselves as focused on Western Chauvinism. Samsons piece also waded into European politics and similarly promoted ultranationalist perspectives. He defended a far-right party and candidate Germanys Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party and French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and suggested they have faced undue censorship. German intelligence has labeled AfD as extremist for suggesting Muslim immigrants are not equal. Candidates promoted by Le Pen and her party have made racist comments and engaged in Holocaust denial. TPM reached out to the State Department on Thursday to ask about the essay and the fact it echoes some of this white nationalist rhetoric. A spokesperson asked us to extend our deadline for comment until Friday, but did not reply to subsequent emails. An exterior view of the US Department of State headquarters. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) Alt right and white supremacist-adjacent ideals promoting western civilization, denunciations of immigration as a threat to culture, and links with far-right figures in Europe have all been a feature of the second Trump administration. In March, Trump signed an executive order aimed at stopping federally funded historical sites, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and other parts of the Smithsonian Institution, from promoting what it described as divisive, race-centered ideology rather than Western values. Vice President J.D. Vance also touched on these themes in a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think that what weve learned over the last few months is that the American people, and I think western peoples, are a hell of a lot more resilient than our elites give them credit for, he said, later adding, I think if we speak the truth, if we refuse to live by lies, then I think we can redeliver on the promise of Western civilization. And earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to Germanys designation of AfD as an extremist group as tryanny in disguise. Rubio and his State Department have also been at the forefront of Trumps efforts to curb immigration and have continually discussed this in terms that echo those of the American alt right and European ultranationalists. On Thursday, the State Department notified Congress about plans for a sweeping reorganization that would include cutting jobs, reworking the agencys refugee bureau into a Remigration office aimed at returning immigrants to their home countries, and prioritizing Western values at its human rights bureau. Samson, the author of the State Departments Substack manifesto, is representative of a wave of young activists and staffers who have gravitated towards these nationalist perspectives. His career and activism prior to joining the government was boosted and guided by conservative groups that are promoting these ideas. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Samson spent over two years at American Moment, a nonprofit whose major funders include the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization that was deeply involved in Trumps attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss. American Moment, which was founded in 2021, is designed to identify, educate, and credential young Americans who will implement public policy. The groups priorities include restricting immigration and promoting traditional values in the West. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before writing for the State Department on Substack, Samson published pieces for a variety of conservative publications, including a 2022 article for The Federalist that declared, the modern West is itself a culture looking down. Our culture is dominated by passions, of pursuit for the sake of good feelings and satisfaction, Samson wrote. Activity is reduced to binge streaming, social media scrolling, face stuffing, and chronic porn watching. Samson has locked his page on the site formerly known as Twitter. The Internet Archive shows that he maintained a presence on the site, including penning poems that criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys efforts to solicit international aid for his countrys war with Russia. Samson graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. Coverage from the schools Daily Texan newspaper indicates he spent his college years involved in the Young Conservatives of Texas, the Zionist Organization of America, and working as a legislative staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). He also participated in a 2019 event with conservative commentator Steven Crowder where, according to the paper, Samson argued in front of other students that there are only two genders. In multiple articles published by the college paper, Samson suggested he faced harassment on campus for his conservative views. The young man who would go on to publish arguments against migration also made an interesting early comment about his pathway to right-wing politics. In a 2018 interview in which he endorsed Cruzs re-election bid that year, Samson said his mother was an immigrant who went through the naturalization process. She worked her butt off wanting to come to this country, and I think thats a microcosm of why Im a conservative, Samson said. (NewsNation) The additional vetting of the social media accounts of international students enrolled in or applying to American universities represents a new challenge to a population of foreign-born collegians already facing steep hurdles, according to law and educational experts NewsNation spoke with. They argue the State Departments order for U.S. embassies to halt student visa interviews and dig deeper into immigrants digital footprints adds an extra layer of anxiety for those hoping to further their education in the United States. It could also take a deeper toll on higher education institutions as immigrants rethink their college futures elsewhere, Jennifer Behm, an immigration attorney and partner at Bernardi Immigration Law, told NewsNation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FBI offers $10K reward in manhunt for Grant Hardin These are peoples lives at stake here, and its hard to invest in your education in the United States when you have a system that may be working against you, and there are just so many unknown factors, Behm said. The challenge of international students finding their way Under a rule invoked by the first Trump administration in 2019, student visa seekers are required to present five years worth of personal social media identifiers. This allows consular officers to screen applicants for potential security threats by cross-referencing other databases that raise concerns about a particular applicant. The State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment from NewsNation, has not specified how the social media screenings will change. President Donald Trump told reporters that the additional scrutiny will help to weed out troublemakers who may not love this country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the gray areas created by the new directive leave the students in the dark, Behm said. The uncertainty comes as the participation of international students in campus rallies protesting the Israel-Hamas war and other expressions of free speech has led to student visas being revoked and immigrants facing deportation. It feels like were trying to put lipstick on a pig here and pointing at a problem that may not be the actual problem, Behm said. However, the State Department cable that highlights international students has also placed universities facing uncertain financial futures in a precarious position. Schools are already required to maintain a robust database of international students. Those databases include names, date of birth, country of birth, academic profile, enrollment status, disciplinary actions and a students work authorization upon graduation, Behm said. Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary Of Education, speaks during opening ceremonies for the Third Anniversary Of Lets Move! With First Lady Michelle Obama at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois on FEBRUARY 28, 2013. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Schools are required to report any changes to those statuses within 21 days, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses that information to monitor whether those changes flag a student for a possible change in their immigration status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When those statuses change, the pathways to either coming to the United States to study or maintaining a student visa become even more difficult. But as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration with a renewed focus on international students, some insist this is all part of the presidents bigger plan. Its incredibly troubling, and weve never seen anything like this in our nations history, Arne Duncan, who served as U.S. secretary of education under President Barack Obama, told NewsNation. You can listen to peoples words and rhetoric, but I try and watch peoples actions, and this is truly the opposite of making America great again. Advocates of Secretary of State Marco Rubios plans, including a call for a crackdown on student visas among some Chinese students at Harvard, support the deeper levels of scrutiny international students face. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., called the plan a step in the right direction as it keeps students who support communist ideologies from entering the United States. Steube said he is not opposed to students from countries like Great Britain and Israel to study here but said others who represent a threat to national security should be shut out entirely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think all of the student visas in this country should be examined, Steube told NewsNation, specifically referencing students coming from countries with communist beliefs. He said: Chinas the No. 1 national security threat to the United States, and so thats certainly top of (the) list but if it is a country that is a threat to the United States, those individuals should not be in our country. Trump administration working to return Guatemalan man deported to Mexico Studies show international students, including those from China and India, brought an inflow of nearly $44 billion to the American economy during the 2023-24 academic year, which some higher education experts believe is enough to question the Trump administrations motives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fanta Aw, the executive director and CEO of the Association of International Educators, characterized the State Departments actions to freeze visa interviews as another misguided and troubling attack on international students that she fears will weaken the strength of higher education in the United States. Aw called the additional student screening a poor use of taxpayer dollars, which is troublesome when business visitors and tourists visiting the U.S. are not subjected to the same background checks as international students seeking visas. Undermining (international students) ability to study here is self-defeating, Aw said. With these actions, the United States will alienate the very minds that fuel its success. Educators fear visa crackdown could hurt American schools The New York Times reported that Rubio issued a cable instructing consular officers to refer certain student and exchange visa applicants to the fraud prevention unit for a mandatory social media check. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Behm, the immigration attorney, believes that forcing universities to become surrogate immigration agents and ideological gatekeepers puts unnecessary pressure on institutions already facing threats should they challenge Trumps policies on diversity, equity and inclusion and antisemitism. Video reportedly shows DNC official questioning Bidens power in WH If the administration believes enhanced scrutiny is necessary, it should be applied uniformly, not selectively, to students who have long contributed to American classrooms, communities, and cutting-edge research, Aw said. Behm insists that consular officials, already facing overwhelming workloads in vetting students, will become overtaxed. She fears that artificial intelligence could be added to the equation of determining whether a student poses a security threat, which would create more issues and uncertainty as curveballs are thrown at them by the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response, Behm has instructed her clients considering traveling to the United States or those already here thinking about returning home for a summer break to stay put until further notice or until more specifics about the social media screenings are provided. (International students) have other options, and other countries offer immigration systems that feel a little more predictable, and they know what theyre getting into in terms of navigating that structure, Behm said. Duncans concerns extend beyond international students facing the increased attention from the Trump administration. Its not just the brain drain of folks not coming from overseas, Duncan told NewsNation. Were going to see more and more U.S.-born students choosing to go to college elsewhere because they dont feel comfortable coming to American universities because of the instability, drama and chaos that Trump is inflicting on higher education and many other parts of our society, unfortunately. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Elon Musk's influence on the Trump administration will encounter further legal scrutiny after a federal judge allowed a constitutional challenge against him to move forward. The case, brought by 14 states, focuses on Musk's leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has administered major changes to the federal workforce and digital infrastructure. What Happened: On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the federal government's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit against Musk and DOGE, according to CNBC. Don't Miss: The plaintiffs, led by New Mexico, claim that Musk is exercising federal authority without a proper appointment and that DOGE has no legislative foundation. Attorneys for the White House tried to portray Musk as occupying a temporary and advisory role. The judge disagreed, noting that Musk's responsibilities "extend throughout the executive branch without any known limits," despite attempts to "minimize Musk's role, framing him as a mere advisor without any formal authority." Why It Matters: Judge Chutkan wrote that Musk "occupies a continuing position" and "exercises significant authority," even though he was not confirmed by the Senate or appointed via formal procedures The court also found that the states' claims about DOGE obtaining "unauthorized access" to "private and proprietary information" were "sufficient to allege an injury." Although Trump was initially named in the lawsuit, Chutkan dismissed him from the case. She clarified that the judiciary "may not enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties," and stressed that the president has "highly discretionary" power to nominate officials under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. This ruling comes just as Musk publicly expressed disappointment with President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill", claiming it "undermines the work" DOGE has been doing. Read Next: The State Department has told U.S. consulates and embassies to immediately begin reviewing the social media accounts of Harvards student visa applicants for antisemitism in what it called a pilot program that could be rolled out for colleges nationwide. The cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, obtained by POLITICO, was sent late Thursday. It says consular officers should conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose. The policy, while primarily affecting students, will also include faculty members, researchers, staff members and guest speakers at Harvard. The policy will take effect immediately, per the cable. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The document puts into motion a proposal the Trump administration floated earlier this week for expanded social media vetting of all foreign students applying to U.S. colleges, pausing new appointments for student visa applicants in the meantime. Increased social media vetting did already exist, but it was previously primarily intended for returning students who may have participated in protests against Israels actions in Gaza. Notably, State Department leadership wants consular officers to consider whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to private or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicants credibility. The cable also instructs consular officers to inform applicants with private social media accounts that they could be viewed as evading vetting and request they make their accounts public while the Fraud Prevention Unit reviews their case. It also adds to the White Houses battle with elite academic institutions over alleged mishandling of cases of antisemitism during campus protests in response to Israels military operations in the Gaza Strip against militant group Hamas. The cable specifically identifies antisemitism and antisemitic viewpoints as the focus for consular officers but does not spell out what specifically would rise to the level of inadmissible antisemitism in the eyes of State Department leadership. It says that the Harvard review process will also serve as a pilot for expanded screening and vetting of visa applicants and that this pilot will be expanded over time, indicating it will likely reach other universities in the Trump administrations crosshairs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new guidance comes as the U.S. government continues its showdown with Harvard for alleged failures to address antisemitism on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The federal government has stripped Harvard of billions in research funding and entered in dueling litigation with the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school. It had also suspended Harvards ability to enroll international students by briefly blocking visa applications before that decision was blocked by a federal judge. It also comes as the administration has targeted other academic communities, including Chinese nationals studying at U.S. colleges and universities. Rubio said Wednesday the administration would aggressively revoke visas of Chinese nationals studying in sensitive fields, the potential implementation of which has flummoxed State Department officials. TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNW) State health and wildlife officials have issued warnings for several Kansas lakes due to potentially toxic blue-green algae blooms, urging residents and visitors to stay alert while enjoying water activities this summer. Car crashes into Garden City home The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), in coordination with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), issued a public health advisory as part of its Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) response program, which runs each year from April through October. Current advisories include: Warning: Frazier Lake (Grant County) Gathering Pond (Geary County) Marion Reservoir (Marion County status elevated May 30) Watch: Augusta Santa Fe Lake (Butler County status lowered May 30) Lifted: Pony Creek Lake (Brown County) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials say blue-green algae can appear as foam, scum, or paint on the waters surface, in colors ranging from blue and green to brown or red. Blooms can form quickly and may be harmful to humans and animals through skin contact, ingestion, or inhalation. Symptoms from exposure may include rash, vomiting, diarrhea, sore throat, and fever, KDHE said. If you or your pets come into contact with algae, rinse thoroughly with clean water. The advisory outlines different safety levels: A Warning means harmful algae is expected or present. Swimming and water contact should be avoided, and pets should not drink or enter the water. A Watch indicates algae may be present. Water activities near visible blooms are discouraged, but boating and fishing are generally safe with precautions. A Hazard statusnone currently in effectsignals extreme conditions and could lead to lake closures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement KDHE encourages Kansans to report suspected blooms year-round and offers resources for identifying algae and staying safe at kdhe.ks.gov/HAB. Blooms can be deadly for pets, the agency warns. Dogs are especially vulnerable if they drink or come into contact with contaminated water or eat dried algae on the shore. For updates, public advisories, and a map of affected lakes, visit the KDHE Harmful Algal Bloom 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. (FOX40.COM) California has launched a new online tool that helps people understand the severity of heat waves in their area and provides them with resources to hopefully prevent heat-related illness. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced CalHeatScore on Thursday, saying its the first heat-ranking tool in the nation and one of the only in the world. Defense Intelligence Agency IT Specialist arrested for allegedly sharing classified information Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It works by updating a daily heat score based on forecasting for every ZIP code in the state. The area gets a score of 0-4, zero being the lowest heat threat and four being the highest. Each ZIP code is also given information about its most vulnerable populations based on demographics, like the elderly and children. There are also resources for people, like tips for spotting the signs of heat-related illness and a list of the cooling centers closest to where youre at. CalHeatScore was developed by the California Environmental Protection Agencys Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Newsom said the tool comes at a critical time, after the Trump Administration cut some funding for the National Weather Service at the beginning of the year. The tool also comes following a 2021 recommendation from the California Department of Insurances Climate Insurance Workgroup that the state create a platform like this. In addition to CalHeatScore, Newsom also announced more than $32 million in funding for 47 communities across the state to help with extreme heat mitigation efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. New Mexico Public Education Department Assistant Secretary of Policy and Technology Gregory Frostad speaks during a Legislative Education Study Committee meeting on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) Members of the Legislative Education Study Committee voiced concerns this week about the tight deadline the New Mexico Public Education Department has to meet new court orders in the longstanding lawsuit concerning equitable public education. The LESC met for the first time during the interim Thursday and received an update on the Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit. Parties in the case returned to court last month to consider a motion of non-compliance filed by the plaintiffs in September 2024. First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson agreed with the plaintiffs that the PED has not complied with previous court orders and ruled the state needs to produce a plan for providing equitable education for at-risk students and tracking progress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents, the PED must identify an outside expert to assist with the development of the plan and file a status report by July 1. A draft plan must be filed with the court by Oct. 1 and a final plan must be available for review by the court by Nov. 3. Lawmakers questioned PED representatives about the court order and whether the department will be able to meet Wilsons timeline. We are going to do whatever it takes to meet these deadlines, PED Secretary Mariana Padilla told committee members. We are not starting from scratchwe have so much ready to build upon, which is why I feel that this is doable. Is it going to be difficult? Absolutely. PED Assistant Secretary of Policy and Technology Greg Frostad told lawmakers that the department is currently working to identify an outside expert as quickly as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) encouraged Padilla to take into consideration the voices of stakeholders from outside the PED, including advocacy organizations and the plaintiffs in the suit. She also asked Padilla to use the plaintiffs motion as a guide when implementing the plan because it outlined nine primary goals for creating a multicultural and multilingual educational framework; an education workforce; increasing technology access; developing methods of accountability; and strengthening the capacity of the PED. Were too programmed, Roybal Caballero said during the meeting. It takes a great deal of resolveand commitment to say, Im going to take that bold leap and step outside of what Im familiar with. Trust the experts that come from our state of New Mexico, the experts that have been delivering this core education to our students, despite or in spite of PED, and trust that what they said and stated and presented in the plaintiffs motion is valuable. President Pro Tempore Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) said she agreed with her colleagues sentiments, but added that she believes the PED has stepped up in a huge way to address the courts original findings in the suit: that the state was not providing Native students, English language learners, low-income students and students with disabilities equitable education they constitutionally have a right to. Ill say that I think part of our issue is that we lost our first judge. [The late] Judge [Sarah] Singleton listened to this for years and ruled, and I believe that she kind of understood where the problems were. But shes no longer with us, and that has, I think, produced all of this lack of focus for all of us, Stewart said. I think this is a much bigger picture and I like the idea of an outside expert that will come in and look at everything weve doneBecause weve not been doing nothing; weve been doing a lot. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Friday shrugged off a question about new reporting that tech billionaire and adviser to the president Elon Musk sparked concerns on the campaign trail with his drug use. The drugs that were concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border, Miller said. The New York Times reported that Musk told people during the campaign he was using ketamine so often that it was impacting his bladder, along with utilizing psychedelic mushrooms and taking ecstasy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report also cited photos and messages with people who knew Musk and noted he would travel every day with a box containing 20 pills. Some of the pills were marked as Adderall, according to the Times. Friday marks Musks final day as a special government employee, where he has led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in its efforts to slash the size and scope of government. Musk is expected to attend a press conference alongside Trump on Friday afternoon at the White House. 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. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) A familys call for justice is now back to square one after the case did not even make it to trial before a federal judge dismissed the charges. Samuel Sterling, 25, was killed in August 2024 after former Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Brian Keely hit Sterling with a cruiser. Sterling was hospitalized and later died. The message that it is sending is that law enforcement is able to do whatever they want to do, Jermar Sterling, Samuel Sterlings cousin told News 8. My last 24 hours have been sleepless. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keely was charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. His case started in state court, but was moved into federal court after a motion by the defense, which said it belonged there because Keely was acting as part of a U.S. Marshals task force when the death happened. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessels office has disputed that argument. Judge tosses case against former MSP sgt in death of Samuel Sterling On Thursday, a federal judge dismissed the case. That decision sparked outrage among the family. I am motivated, Im tired, Im tired of no accountability, I am tired of seeing my people, which are my community feared and not knowing what to do next. I am tired of being traumatized based on the presence of law enforcement, Jermar Sterling said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I still believe in our justice system, I just believe right now our justice system is being exposed and I believe God is trying to shine a light on our justice system, where those city leaders and our elected officials who wont step up now in the limelight. Nessel chimed in on the decision, calling it incredibly disturbing. Miscarriage of justice, AG says after murder case against former MSP sgt. dismissed To have robbed the family of that opportunity even to have their case in court, again, nothing short of a miscarriage of justice, Nessel told News 8. I think its one that will result in just fundamental distrust between the community and the law enforcement agencies that serve them, and I dont think that benefits anyone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nessel did say that she is both considering and looking into appeals options. Jermar Sterling said they are calling on Nessel to do so quickly. During the appeals process, we still got to continue to fight for these policies, he said. It will be a long drawn-out process dealing with this appeal process, but our Sterling family and the Cage family have the endurance to continue to fight during this process. Brian Keelys attorney Marc Curtis said in a statement that the ruling sends a strong message. But Sterling says its the wrong one. Abomination of justice: Community leaders react to Keely case dismissal Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It sends a strong message in support of those who serve with honor and integrity, Jermar Sterling said, citing Curtis statement. Wow, what a great message to send. Honor and integrity of killing unarmed. Not just black men and women, but men and women period across the United States of America. As the family waits for what is to come next, Jermar Sterling said the fight is not over for justice, as they lean on the community for strength. I know we live in a fearful time of law enforcement right now, but dont let your fear silence you, allow your fear to ignite you, he said. Sterling then had one message to share with Samuel, to show their fight will continue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It aint over man, it aint over, Jermar Sterling said. We fighters, we cut from a different type of bloodline that dont back down, that dont give up and we will make the necessary noise to be heard. No justice, no peace, so we are hoping that justice will not be denied. 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. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) Sofia is a fighter and so is her community. The four-year-old Bakersfield girl has short bowel syndrome and must be connected to a feeding system for more than half of the day. Her mom Deysi Vargas brought her to the United States legally to receive life-saving treatment. After two years of treatment and recovery, her mom says their humanitarian parole has been unexpectedly terminated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, Sofias attorneys begged the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider the familys immigration status. In support, California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff signed a letter alongside 36 Democratic Congress members urging DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to reconsider Sofia and Deysis legal status. The letter said, Without action, Sofia will die. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, Any reporting that Vargas and her family are actively being deported is false. This family applied with USCIS for humanitarian parole on May 14, 2025, and the application is still being considered. Sofias attorneys say the family has been told to leave the country immediately after reapplying for parole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We did our best to give them the benefit of the doubt and let them know we think they made an error, said Gina Amato Lough, Directing Attorney for Public Counsel. We have not heard anything back. We subsequently filed for new applications for humanitarian parole, and similarly have not received a response. 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. CoreCivic, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the state's biggest donors to lawmakers, scored a recent tax refund from Tennessee. (Photo: John Partipilo) Tennessees private prison operator is suing a consultant for $500 million for allegedly stealing a contract for non-detention services with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. CoreCivic, a Brentwood-based company that runs four Tennessee prisons, filed suit against Universal Strategic (US) Advisors this year, claiming it breached a deal to bring in business for CoreCivic by landing its own $73 million contract with ICE in March. The case was filed in Metro Nashville Circuit Court, but US Advisors is seeking removal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wanting to expand its web beyond federal and state prison operations, CoreCivic hired US Advisors for $30,000 a month to help it ink an agreement with ICE to handle administrative work dealing with undocumented immigrants who are under federal supervision. The job involves people who are released from detention on humanitarian grounds, bond or parole, those waiting for removal after immigration proceedings or people classified as fugitives from ICE or should be removed for other reasons, according to the filing. The idea was to enable ICE agents to work the front lines amid increased deportations under the Trump administration with CoreCivic taking over personnel and administrative work such as checking records, collecting documents, answering phone calls, entering data and doing criminal history checks. CoreCivic signed a one-year contract with US Advisors and paid the company $1.56 million. But, according to the lawsuit, shortly after President Donald Trump was sworn in, the consulting firm notified CoreCivic in early February it was ending the contract in 30 days. Both companies hoped to take advantage of inside contacts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement US Advisors chief executive officer, Tim Robbins of Utah, had held numerous leadership jobs in ICE and was an old acquaintance of Bart Verhulst, vice president of federal relations for CoreCivic. He was privy to the CoreCivics proprietary information and helped shape its plan to penetrate the Department of Homeland Security market. CoreCivic contends Robbins was supposed to avoid conflicts of interest, and he helped CoreCivic submit a proposal to ICE in 2023 for case management services. It was re-submitted in August 2024 and January, and CoreCivic was told that ICE was interested in its proposal. But out of the blue, on Feb. 9, CoreCivic received a letter from US Advisors terminating their agreement. In early March, much to its shock and dismay, CoreCivic found out US Advisors and Robbins, while under contract, submitted their own proposal to ICE and then won the contract. Is there no honor among profiteers? We hate money Tennessee is using a vendor on shaky ground in other states to send out the money for its private-school voucher programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state has been contracting with Student First Technologies for two years, with an annual licensing fee of $695,000, for the Education Savings Accounts targeting low-income students in three counties and its Individualized Education Account program for special needs students, according to the Department of Education. The department executed an amendment to the contract in early April to launch the so-called Education Freedom Scholarships for up to 20,000 students, depositing money into students online accounts to pay for tuition and other expenses at private schools, but not directly to parents. The legislatures Fiscal Review Committee approved the expansion in March at a cost of $625,000 for the initial buildout and launch. Privatizing education isnt cheap. The newest iteration is costing north of $140 million annually, at least half of it going to students already enrolled in private schools, while the cost for ESAs could reach $25 million a year. Add the $1.3 million for disseminating money, and youre creating a cottage industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The problem is that Student First Technologies promised West Virginia officials in September 2024 it wouldnt go after more business until it repaired glitches that caused more than 3,000 unfilled orders and forced parents to spend their own money for books, technological equipment and other services, according to a States Newsroom report. Besides those shortcomings, Student First lost a $15 million contract for an Arkansas voucher program when it couldnt do the job correctly. Tennessee and Student First have run into some of their own technical problems, but the company apparently has handled them. And instead of looking for another vendor, the state is doubling down with more work and a bigger contract. The states relationship with Student First comes on the heels of a $2.5 million no-bid contract with Florida-based ClassWallet that used Career Ladder funds for teachers to pay the tab. Former Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, who is going for a deputy secretary position in the U.S. Department of Education, caught the ire of lawmakers when she inked the deal without taking bids. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Which is worse, skipping the bidding process or sticking with a company facing lawsuits for shoddy work? Its a toss-up. Metro Nashville Councilmember David Benton, far left, is on the hot seat with Nashville Democrats after participating in an anti-immigrant press conference with 5th District U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, at lectern. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) The inquest continues Nashville Democrats are trying to recall Metro Councilman David Benton after his appearance with xenophobic U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in an anti-immigrant press conference at the State Capitol, on Memorial Day no less. While Ogles accused Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell of opposing President Trumps efforts to deport people without legal documentation, Democrats are peeved that Benton is backing the move to Stop the invasion. Recalling a Metro Council member could be difficult. The last time it happened took place way back in 2009 when Nashville attorney Jamie Hollin defeated Pam Murray, who was tied up in turmoil over allowing mobile vendors on Cleveland Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aside from Democrats, the Metro Councils Immigrant Council also condemned Benton, saying his racist propaganda is especially problematic because he represents a district with a large Latino population, which was targeted by ICE in a South Nashville roundup two weeks ago. Nashville immigrant caucus 5-29-25 Never mind that many of the people Ogles and his ilk want to deport are washing the dishes, cooking the food and changing the bed sheets for white-bread America. Also put out of your mind that a handful of state lawmakers, mainly from Williamson County, used the State Capitol on a federal holiday to conduct a publicity stunt inside the Old Supreme Court chambers on the first floor, which is controlled by the governor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to one report, the event was moved abruptly into the Capitol because of the threat of rain. But a press release sent out on Friday, May 23, said it would be held in the Old Supreme Court. Did it rain that day? Now I will stand in the rain on the corner / I watch the people go shufflin downtown. * * Fool in the Rain, Led Zeppelin SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) Spring is in full swing in New York City with Pride Month just around the corner and to celebrate a number of festivals and parades with take over the streets throughout the weekend. Among some of the events happening on Saturday and Sunday include the following. Saturday Times Square Springfest A 10-block spring street fair held along Seventh Avenue Street closures: Seventh Avenue between 47th Street and 57th Street Sunday Philippine Independence Day Celebration Parade The 35th annual celebration of Filipino culture on Madison Avenue. Kicks off at 8 a.m. with a flag-raising ceremony and mass and wraps up with a street fair finishing at 6 p.m. Street Closures Formation: 37th and 38th Street between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue 36th Street between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Route: Madison Avenue between 27th Street and 38th Street Dispersal: 27th Street between Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue Festival: Madison Avenue between 24th Street and 26th Street 26th Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue Asian American Pacific Islanders Heritage Parade The fourth annual cultural event held in Midtown along Sixth Avenue. The parade will step off at 12 p.m. and wrap up at 3 p.m. Street Closures: Formation: 44th Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue 45th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue Route: 6th Avenue between 44th Street and 55th Street Dispersal: 55th Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fun on Fifth Ave Festival Run by the non-profit organization Bay Ridge Fifth Ave Business Improvement District, the event promotes the economic and cultural diversity of the neighborhood. The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Street closures: Fifth Avenue between Bay Ridge Avenue and 85th Street Guyana Independence Parade The event celebrates the 59th anniversary of Guyanas independence with a parade that kicks off at noon and wraps up with a celebration concert at 2 p.m. at 1450 Utica Ave. Street closures: Formation Church Avenue between Brooklyn Avenue and East 35th Street Route Church Avenue between Brooklyn Avenue and Utica Avenue Utica Avenue between Church Avenue and Glenwood Road Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dispersal Utica Avenue between Glenwood Road and Farragut Road New Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival The second oldest and second largest pride parade in New York City thats held in Jackson Heights annually on the first Sunday in June. The parade will march down 37th Avenue from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Street closures: Formation: 89th Street between 35th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue Route 37th Avenue between 89th Street and 75th Street Dispersal: 75th Street between 37th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue Festival: 75th to 76th Street between 37th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue 37th Road between 74th Street and 77th Street Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found 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. Participants walk through the Broadway Townhouses in Camden, N.J., as part of a training program to help neighborhoods affected by violence. The Community-Based Public Safety Collective, which offered the training, is one of at least 554 organizations affected by the U.S. Department of Justices abrupt termination in April of at least 373 public safety grants. (Photo courtesy of Aqeela Sherrills) Community-based violence intervention programs nationwide have long worked alongside law enforcement officers to deescalate conflict, prevent retaliatory shootings and, in some cases, arrive at crime scenes before police do. In many communities, these initiatives have been credited with saving lives and reducing violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the Trump administration last month abruptly terminated at least 373 public safety grants from the U.S. Department of Justices Office of Justice Programs, pulling roughly $500 million in remaining funds across a range of programs, according to a new report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank. The cuts come just as summer is approaching a season when violence consistently peaks. The grants were initially valued at $820 million, but many were multiyear awards at different stages of rollout, which means some of the money has already been spent. At least 554 organizations across 48 states are affected by the cuts, many of them small, community-based nonprofits that rely on this money. The rescinded grants supported everything from violence prevention and policing to victim advocacy, reentry services, research, and mental health and substance use treatment. Some of the grants also were cut from state and local government agencies. Another new report from the Council on Criminal Justice dug deeper into local effects: It found that the Trump administrations cuts also eliminated 473 minigrants known as subawards passed from primary recipients to smaller groups that often face challenges accessing federal dollars directly, such as rural government agencies and grassroots nonprofits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About $5 million of those subawards was intended for state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies working to reduce violence in rural areas, according to the report. Experts warn the timing couldnt be worse. The summer months historically linked to higher rates of violent crimes are approaching, and the safety net in many cities is fraying. A growing body of research has found a correlation between spikes in temperature and violent crime, with studies suggesting that heat waves and sudden weather swings can inflame tensions and increase aggression. These programs are having to cut staff and cut services, and that will be felt in communities in states all over the country at exactly the time when theyre most needed, said Amy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and the lead author of the report. Solomon also previously served as assistant U.S. attorney general in the Biden administration, where she led the Office of Justice Programs the Justice Departments largest grantmaking agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many of the primary grants that were terminated contained no references to race, gender or diversity-related language, according to the report despite claims from federal officials that such criteria were driving the cuts. Primary grant recipients received their funding from the feds directly. Wasteful grants U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the cuts in a late April post on X, stating that the department has cut millions of dollars in wasteful grants. She also signaled that additional cuts may be on the way. In her post, she specifically cited grants that supported LGBTQ+ liaison services in police departments and programs providing gender-affirming care and housing for incarcerated transgender people. The Department of Justices cuts come amid a broader push by the Trump administration and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency to pull funding from a range of federal programs a move they say is aimed at reducing spending and saving taxpayer dollars. For some groups, the sudden withdrawal of funds has meant scaling back crime victim services or pulling out of some neighborhoods altogether. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Community violence prevention groups aim to stop shootings and other forms of violence before they happen by working directly with those most at risk. Staff often with experience in the justice system mediate conflicts, respond to crises, and connect people to support such as counseling or job training. In some cities, theyre dispatched to high-risk areas to deescalate tensions, often before police arrive. And research shows that community-level violence prevention programs can contribute to drops in crime. After a historic surge in homicides in 2020, violent crime in the United States dropped in 2024 to pre-pandemic levels or even lower in many cities. Preliminary 2025 data suggests that the downward trend is continuing in major cities, including Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. But the progress hasnt reached every community. Some neighborhoods are still grappling with high rates of gun violence and car theft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organizations that faced the toughest financial cuts had been funded through the U.S. Department of Justices Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative the federal governments primary mechanism for supporting this work. Since the programs launch in 2022, the federal Office of Justice Programs has invested about $300 million in community violence intervention efforts and related research. But nearly half of that funding has now been wiped out, according to the Council on Criminal Justice report. Its really unprecedented to see these kinds of grants cut midstream, Solomon told Stateline. This was an effort that had bipartisan support [in Congress] and in the field all across the country. Impact on communities nationwide In late April, Aqeela Sherrills received a letter from the federal Justice Department terminating a $3.5 million grant that supported the Community-Based Public Safety Collective. Sherrills is the co-founder and executive director of the national organization, which focuses on community-led approaches to preventing violence, including mediating conflicts, building relationships in high-risk neighborhoods and connecting people to resources such as housing, mental health care and job training. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letter said the organizations efforts no longer aligned with the federal Justice Departments priorities, which include supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault. Until the end of April, the collective had an agreement with the Justice Department to provide training and technical assistance to 95 local groups including community groups, police departments, city and county governments, and state agencies that had each been awarded $2 million over three years to run community violence intervention programs. We're bracing for what could potentially be a high-violence summer. Aqeela Sherrills, co-founder and CEO of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective But after the department cut $3.5 million, the Community-Based Public Safety Collective was forced to lay off 20 staff members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without the significant funding it destabilizes the organizations. Peoples ability to be able to provide for themselves and their family is at risk, Sherrills said in an interview. Were bracing for what could potentially be a high-violence summer. The deepest funding cuts hit states led by both Republican and Democratic governors, including California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington. About $145 million in violence intervention funding was rescinded overall, along with an additional $8.6 million for related research and evaluation efforts, according to the Council on Criminal Justice report. Some of the canceled grants funded studies and research on forensics, policing, corrections issues and behavioral health. Now, those projects may be left unfinished. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the largest losses hit intermediary organizations, such as the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, that support smaller programs by providing microgrants, training and technical assistance. For organizations such as the Newark Community Street Team in New Jersey, the loss of federal funding has left some areas of the city without coverage. The funding had allowed staff to monitor neighborhoods and engage directly with community members to prevent violence. That included weekly community walks, where team members connected with victims of crime and people who may have witnessed violence, linking them to resources such as counseling or legal aid. The team also operates a hotline where residents can report crimes or alert staff to tensions that might escalate allowing the team to step in before violence occurred. Some of the lost funding also supported school-based initiatives, where mediators helped students resolve conflicts before they escalated into fights or other forms of violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of the 15 Newark positions affected by the cuts, four employees were reassigned to other departments; the others were let go. Some of the teams staff members are formerly incarcerated, a vital trait that helps them connect with residents and build trust in communities that are often wary of traditional law enforcement. We just have to continue working and serving our community the best we can, said Rey Chavis, the executive director of the street team. That work appears to be contributing to a decrease in the communitys crime rates. City crime data from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2025, shows a significant drop in violent crime in Newark compared with the same period in 2024. The total number of violent crimes reported to police fell by 49%, driven largely by a 68% decrease in robberies, according to Statelines analysis of the data. Homicides dropped by 53%, while aggravated assaults declined by 43%. Rapes dropped slightly by 3%. Stateline reporter Amanda Hernandez can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The global economic agenda has been seriously disrupted since the Trump administration took office, and the market volatility has generated new questions about where economic blocs now sit in an era of deglobalization. Recent developments will introduce severe challenges across the board, but European tech companies stand to benefit as the sands shift in the global landscape. Two key factors of progress are turning in Europes favor: access to growth-oriented capital investment and appeal to top talent. Although all the major economies have been affected by market instability, American-facing businesses are now navigating a more cautious investment environment, with forecasts indicating a potential recession or stagflation is on the cards. The turbulence effectively froze IPO activity, with the likes of eToro, StubHub, and Hinge putting listing plans on hold. That IPO window is likely to remain closed while volatility endures, leaving a long backlog of late-stage IPO-ready companies in limbo, and dampening liquidity across the ecosystem. Luring capital and tech talent For European tech, this could be an inflection point. As U.S. policy shifts inwards, and its currency is set to further weaken, investors will continue to rebalance their portfolios. This made its mark on the relative stock market, with Europe outperforming the U.S. The comparative uncertainty facing other major blocs makes Europe a more appealing destination for capital and talent. It would be naive to think that companies that have announced New York listing ambitions will about-face and go public in London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt. But if American markets are seen as a riskier bet once the dust settles, some of that liquidity will likely move toward Europe. This also applies to private investments. Europes early-stage tech ecosystem has gained ground on the U.S. in terms of companies started over the past decade, but has lagged on later-stage and growth funding. This rebalancing could be the catalyst for more growth capital funnelling into European tech. And Europes appeal as a tech hub isnt by default. The region has made deliberate efforts to foster a balanced and values-driven approach to entrepreneurship. Its ecosystems, while still fragmented, have in just 15 years turned into a thriving startup scene. Strong roots in academia and research create fertile ground for innovation, while high-quality public health and education options are a draw for talent. That said, Europe has work to do if it wants to bring larger-scale investment to its shores. We still underpay senior talent compared to the U.S., and immigration for top talent remains cumbersome. This makes it harder to attract and retain those skilled professionals who drive innovation, and we too often lose our world-class graduates to higher-paying opportunities in the US. Participants walk through the Broadway Townhouses in Camden, N.J., as part of a training program to help neighborhoods affected by violence. The Community-Based Public Safety Collective, which offered the training, is one of at least 554 organizations affected by the U.S. Department of Justices abrupt termination in April of at least 373 public safety grants. (Photo courtesy of Aqeela Sherrills) Community-based violence intervention programs nationwide have long worked alongside law enforcement officers to deescalate conflict, prevent retaliatory shootings and, in some cases, arrive at crime scenes before police do. In many communities, these initiatives have been credited with saving lives and reducing violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the Trump administration last month abruptly terminated at least 373 public safety grants from the U.S. Department of Justices Office of Justice Programs, pulling roughly $500 million in remaining funds across a range of programs, according to a new report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank. The cuts come just as summer is approaching a season when violence consistently peaks. Per the council, the grant cuts in Kentucky exceeded $89 million, most of which came from the Lexington-based Council of State Governments. The grants were initially valued at $820 million, but many were multiyear awards at different stages of rollout, which means some of the money has already been spent. At least 554 organizations across 48 states are affected by the cuts, many of them small, community-based nonprofits that rely on this money. The rescinded grants supported everything from violence prevention and policing to victim advocacy, reentry services, research, and mental health and substance use treatment. Some of the grants also were cut from state and local government agencies. Another new report from the Council on Criminal Justice dug deeper into local effects: It found that the Trump administrations cuts also eliminated 473 minigrants known as subawards passed from primary recipients to smaller groups that often face challenges accessing federal dollars directly, such as rural government agencies and grassroots nonprofits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About $5 million of those subawards was intended for state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies working to reduce violence in rural areas, according to the report. Experts warn the timing couldnt be worse. The summer months historically linked to higher rates of violent crimes are approaching, and the safety net in many cities is fraying. A growing body of research has found a correlation between spikes in temperature and violent crime, with studies suggesting that heat waves and sudden weather swings can inflame tensions and increase aggression. These programs are having to cut staff and cut services, and that will be felt in communities in states all over the country at exactly the time when theyre most needed, said Amy Solomon, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and the lead author of the report. Solomon also previously served as assistant U.S. attorney general in the Biden administration, where she led the Office of Justice Programs the Justice Departments largest grantmaking agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many of the primary grants that were terminated contained no references to race, gender or diversity-related language, according to the report despite claims from federal officials that such criteria were driving the cuts. Primary grant recipients received their funding from the feds directly. Wasteful grants U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the cuts in a late April post on X, stating that the department has cut millions of dollars in wasteful grants. She also signaled that additional cuts may be on the way. In her post, she specifically cited grants that supported LGBTQ+ liaison services in police departments and programs providing gender-affirming care and housing for incarcerated transgender people. The Department of Justices cuts come amid a broader push by the Trump administration and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency to pull funding from a range of federal programs a move they say is aimed at reducing spending and saving taxpayer dollars. For some groups, the sudden withdrawal of funds has meant scaling back crime victim services or pulling out of some neighborhoods altogether. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Community violence prevention groups aim to stop shootings and other forms of violence before they happen by working directly with those most at risk. Staff often with experience in the justice system mediate conflicts, respond to crises, and connect people to support such as counseling or job training. In some cities, theyre dispatched to high-risk areas to deescalate tensions, often before police arrive. And research shows that community-level violence prevention programs can contribute to drops in crime. After a historic surge in homicides in 2020, violent crime in the United States dropped in 2024 to pre-pandemic levels or even lower in many cities. Preliminary 2025 data suggests that the downward trend is continuing in major cities, including Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. But the progress hasnt reached every community. Some neighborhoods are still grappling with high rates of gun violence and car theft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organizations that faced the toughest financial cuts had been funded through the U.S. Department of Justices Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative the federal governments primary mechanism for supporting this work. Since the programs launch in 2022, the federal Office of Justice Programs has invested about $300 million in community violence intervention efforts and related research. But nearly half of that funding has now been wiped out, according to the Council on Criminal Justice report. Its really unprecedented to see these kinds of grants cut midstream, Solomon told Stateline. This was an effort that had bipartisan support [in Congress] and in the field all across the country. Impact on communities nationwide In late April, Aqeela Sherrills received a letter from the federal Justice Department terminating a $3.5 million grant that supported the Community-Based Public Safety Collective. Sherrills is the co-founder and executive director of the national organization, which focuses on community-led approaches to preventing violence, including mediating conflicts, building relationships in high-risk neighborhoods and connecting people to resources such as housing, mental health care and job training. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letter said the organizations efforts no longer aligned with the federal Justice Departments priorities, which include supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault. Until the end of April, the collective had an agreement with the Justice Department to provide training and technical assistance to 95 local groups including community groups, police departments, city and county governments, and state agencies that had each been awarded $2 million over three years to run community violence intervention programs. Were bracing for what could potentially be a high-violence summer. Aqeela Sherrills, co-founder and CEO of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective But after the department cut $3.5 million, the Community-Based Public Safety Collective was forced to lay off 20 staff members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without the significant funding it destabilizes the organizations. Peoples ability to be able to provide for themselves and their family is at risk, Sherrills said in an interview. Were bracing for what could potentially be a high-violence summer. The deepest funding cuts hit states led by both Republican and Democratic governors, including California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington. About $145 million in violence intervention funding was rescinded overall, along with an additional $8.6 million for related research and evaluation efforts, according to the Council on Criminal Justice report. Some of the canceled grants funded studies and research on forensics, policing, corrections issues and behavioral health. Now, those projects may be left unfinished. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the largest losses hit intermediary organizations, such as the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, that support smaller programs by providing microgrants, training and technical assistance. For organizations such as the Newark Community Street Team in New Jersey, the loss of federal funding has left some areas of the city without coverage. The funding had allowed staff to monitor neighborhoods and engage directly with community members to prevent violence. That included weekly community walks, where team members connected with victims of crime and people who may have witnessed violence, linking them to resources such as counseling or legal aid. The team also operates a hotline where residents can report crimes or alert staff to tensions that might escalate allowing the team to step in before violence occurred. Some of the lost funding also supported school-based initiatives, where mediators helped students resolve conflicts before they escalated into fights or other forms of violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of the 15 Newark positions affected by the cuts, four employees were reassigned to other departments; the others were let go. Some of the teams staff members are formerly incarcerated, a vital trait that helps them connect with residents and build trust in communities that are often wary of traditional law enforcement. We just have to continue working and serving our community the best we can, said Rey Chavis, the executive director of the street team. That work appears to be contributing to a decrease in the communitys crime rates. City crime data from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2025, shows a significant drop in violent crime in Newark compared with the same period in 2024. The total number of violent crimes reported to police fell by 49%, driven largely by a 68% decrease in robberies, according to Statelines analysis of the data. Homicides dropped by 53%, while aggravated assaults declined by 43%. Rapes dropped slightly by 3%. Stateline reporter Amanda Hernandez can be reached at ahernandez@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. Participants hold candles at a vigil for striking nurses outside Meriter hospital in Madison Thursday evening. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner) Roughly 150 nurses and their allies gathered at dusk Thursday for a vigil to show support for the strike underway at Meriter hospital in Madison. The crowd was smaller than the throngs that have gathered outside the hospital during daily picketing and rallies, but the feelings they conveyed were no less intense. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were holding this vigil because beneath the charts, beneath the chants, beneath the signs and beneath the daily strength that it takes to strike is something deeply serious, said emergency room nurse Shelby Davis. Were not just here for better contracts. Were here for safety, for dignity, for the basic right to care for our patients without risking their lives or our own. With the vigil, organized with the involvement of two church pastors, the nurses and their union sought to cast the issues that led to the five-day walkout as a matter of moral principle. You are doing holy work, said Pastor Justin Dittrich of Lake Edge Lutheran Church, opening the vigil at Brittingham Park on Madisons near South Side, a block from the hospital grounds. The strike is not the end, but the beginning of a more just health care system for all people, workers and participants, Dittrich added. We stand with the nurses of Meriter because they are healers, truth tellers, and agents of faith and justice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UnityPoint Health-Meriter and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin are in the midst of negotiations for a new labor agreement for about 1,000 nurses who work at the hospital. The nurses union began a five-day strike Tuesday after a bargaining session May 19 ended without a new agreement, and after the unions bargaining team said management negotiators were not responding adequately to their concerns about staffing levels, hospital security and compensation. Negotiations resumed Thursday, during which union bargaining team members reported some progress, and continued on Friday. Among the unions primary issues in negotiations has been a demand for specific ratios of nurses to patients. Even though I work in the ER and not on the floor, I see how staffing levels affect every part of the hospital, said Davis. Ill never forget the one moment during my nurse residency, a new grad was recognized for taking care of seven patients on their own. Seven. That wasnt a badge of honor, that was a red flag. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The hospital management has said dictating ratios would interfere with its need for flexibility to respond to changing conditions. Speakers said the demand is not just in the interest of nurses, but a matter of concern for patients as well. Ratios are for us yeah, absolutely, said nurse Dara Pierce. But theyre also for everybody else and I think sometimes that goes unnoticed. The fear of violence in the workplace has driven nurses to demand a stronger role in formulating security policy, speakers said, along with measures such as metal detectors. Weve had violent or unpredictable situations come through our doors with just one security guard assigned to ER and no metal detectors, said Davis. No one should have to feel unsafe when theyre coming to a hospital and no nurse should be expected to risk their life just to do their job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began five years ago, continues to weigh on health care workers, nurse Annette Bernas told vigil participants. We were considered essential, but lets be honest, we were expendable, she said. We didnt complain. We showed up. We held hands when family members couldnt. As the pandemic laid bare the importance of health care and health care workers, we were hopeful that everything we gave would open the eyes of the world to the importance of nurses and support staff, Bernas said. But here we find ourselves in a deeper crisis. The burnout is real. Nurses are leaving in waves. PTSD from those years is something we still carry, and yet were being asked to do more with less. After the speeches the crowd walked behind a large yellow banner, carrying flickering candles from the park to the hospital entrance on Brooks Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There Pastor Raymond Monk of Milwaukee offered a benediction. This new course has caused many of you all to make a decision to make sure that your voices are heard and the voices of those who are hurting, their voices are heard also, said Monk. I want to encourage you at this pivotal moment in history to continue to defy the norms and to make known to the world that things must change and that things must change right now. Faith upholds their cause, he suggested, adding that God is always on the side of the oppressed. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) Here are this mornings top stories with KELOLAND On the Go. A structure fire could be seen on the northeast side of Sioux Falls on the 2200 block of West 8th Street. We were able to capture the smoke through our downtown Sioux Falls live cam. Structure fire burns apartment in north Sioux Falls The Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into reports of several assaults on the South Dakota State Penitentiarys campus this week. This latest incident concerns Project Prison Reset task force members for a number of reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Task force reacts to inmate assault reports Temperatures will be rising into the weekend, well into the 80s in most locations. We do expect a few scattered hits of rain in central SD tomorrow morning. Smoke arrives this weekend; Thunderstorms likely next week 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. Counselors who work with foreign students eager to attend college in the U.S. are advising them to purge their social media accounts of posts that could attract the attention of U.S. State Department officials. "Any new student who comes on board especially an international student who doesn't have a U.S. passport we would be going through their social media with them and talk to them about what they are saying on Snapchat, in group chats," said Kat Cohen, founder and CEO of IvyWise, an educational consultancy firm for college admissions. "Because, if the information comes off as being radical or anti-American in some way, it is not going to help them." The focus on international students' online profiles follows a new push by the Trump administration to scrutinize social media accounts as part of the evaluation process for student visa applications. In a cable dated May 27 and obtained by CBS News, the State Department said it was preparing to expand social media screening and vetting. The agency did not specify exactly what type of content it would be looking for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "President Trump will always put the safety of Americans first, and it is a privilege, not a right, to study in the United States," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. "Enhanced social media vetting is a commonsense measure that will help ensure that guests in our country are not planning to harm Americans, which is a national security priority." The new vetting measures build upon an April statement from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announcing that the agency will be taking into account "antisemitic activity on social media" as "grounds for denying immigration benefit requests." No politics Advisers who cater to international students applying to U.S. schools told CBS Moneywatch they are reluctant to advise them to delete their social media accounts outright. But they are urging students to eliminate political-themed posts, especially if they relate to controversial topics such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. IvyWise also discourages foreign students from reposting any information they haven't verified themselves, given that it might be inaccurate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We don't think students should delete their social media accounts completely," Cohen said. "But we do need to make sure we go through their social media accounts with them to make sure that they are presenting themselves in the best possible light." Mandee Heller Adler, founder of International College Counselors, also recommends that students weed out potentially controversial posts, including any opinions or content related to politics. "I'm not saying that they have to get rid of the whole thing altogether, but certainly delete any political posts," Adler told CBS MoneyWatch. "This is kind of an easy way for kids to protect themselves." Sasha Chada, who has led Texas-based college admissions counseling group Ivy Scholars for over a decade, said that asking students to delete their social media would be a "tall order" given how deeply ingrained the platforms are in their lives. People aged 18 to 24, for example, make up the largest share of Instagram users worldwide, at 32%, according to Sprout Social, a social media management platform. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chilling effect? Some critics think the State Department's scrutiny of international students' social accounts will inhibit their freedom of expression. "While social media vetting of visa applicants isn't new, should the administration's 'expanded vetting' consider political viewpoints, it will certainly scare some would-be applicants into silencing themselves on any topic they feel might contradict the views of President Trump, or his successors," said Robert Shibley, special counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which promotes free speech on college campuses. The State Department did not respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment. "We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country, and we're going to continue to do that," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters this week, when asked about student visas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mahsa Khanbabai, an immigration attorney based in Massachusetts whose firm assists with student visas, said she has spoken to dozens of foreign students both overseas and in the U.S. some of whom have decided to delete their social media accounts or change them from public to private for protection. Students, she said, are not just concerned about posts on political flashpoints like Gaza, but also their personal views on topics like climate change and reproductive rights advocacy. Recent consultations Khanbabai has had with foreign students have been focused, she said, on helping them determine how strongly they feel about publicizing their views, and giving them a sense of the potential trade-offs when deciding to post or not to post. "I meet with students to ask them, 'Are you willing to pause engagement on social media to achieve longer-term goals like your career and education, knowing that in the short term you're ultimately kind of maybe sacrificing some of your ethical or moral values?'" she said. California track and field final begins with new rules for transgender athletes Reporter's Notebook: Words of wisdom from college graduation speeches How a toddler's brave walk into the darkness to get help inspired his family The skyline of Huntsville, Alabama. A new report from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama says that the Rocket City remains Alabama's largest city. (Jeremy Edwards/Getty Images) A new report from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) found that several cities across Alabama have stalled in population growth. According to PARCA, in 2024, Birmingham, which used to be the states largest city, dropped to third place. Huntsville and Mobile have seen population increases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report says Mobiles recent population growth came from annexations of neighborhoods within the county in 2023, which pushed the citys numbers from less than 190,000 in 2020 to nearly 210,000 residents. However, PARCA reported even with the annexation, Mobile managed to lose 500 residents over the last year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau reflects a trend we anticipated: continued population decline in some of the citys older neighborhoods, despite the gains made through our successful annexation in 2023, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson wrote in an e-mail. Stimpson said Mobiles population decline can likely be attributed to the age of the housing stock and lack of large areas for new development and urban blight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are continuing to make historic investments in affordable housing and blight remediation, but we know these issues dont turn around overnight and require sustained focus and investment from the public and private sectors, he said in the statement. PARCA found that Birminghams population fell by over 29,000 residents from 2023 to 2024, while Montgomerys dropped by only 289 residents in the same time frame. Steven L. Reed, mayor of Montgomery, said in a statement that PARCAs data doesnt reflect the reality of the city. While the report notes a population decline, were not fully confident in the accuracy of those numbers and are actively exploring the possibility of a mid-decade census count to get a clearer picture of Montgomerys population, the mayor said. Reed said Montgomery has announced business expansions and new developments which have brought jobs and investment to the city. He added that Montgomery has also approved thousands of housing units and new houses in the city showcases the growing demand and confidence in our communitys future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We remain focused on building a Montgomery that attracts new residents and retains existing ones. From public safety and education to infrastructure and innovation, we are laying the foundation for sustained growth and opportunity. Were confident in the progress were making today, Reed said. Other areas saw growth. According to PARCA, Brookside, a town in Jefferson County, grew by 13% from 2023 to 2024, the largest of any city or town in the state. This comes as a new neighborhood is being built in the town. Huntsville, Foley, Madison and Athens all saw population increases in 2024 making them the top four cities in Alabama to bring in the most new residents by numbers. Huntsville added 4,100 new residents last year and the neighboring city of Madison and Foley in Baldwin County added just over 3,000 residents to their population. Athens, which borders Huntsville, added just over 1,600 residents to their city. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A 3.6-mile tunnel proposed for construction beneath the Straits of Mackinac lake bottom to house a new oil and gas pipeline would cause "direct, detrimental effects" such as loss of trees, wetlands and other habitat; underwater and surface water disturbances; potential loss of archeological features and potentially years of snarled traffic in the area, a draft environmental impact statement released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finds. But most of the detrimental effects of the project proposed by Canadian oil transport giant Enbridge would occur only during the tunnel's construction, and would lessen or alleviate afterward, the Army Corps study released May 30 finds. Enbridge's tunnel proposal "would have a beneficial cumulative effect on reduced risks of a petroleum leak in the Straits" and improve water-based recreation if accompanied with a decommissioning of the existing underwater pipelines, the study finds. The report arrives with controversy. The Army Corps announced in April it would expedite its review of the contentious pipeline tunnel project to comply with President Donald Trump's energy emergency executive order. Critics of the move contend a project of the scope and potential long-term magnitude of the pipeline tunnel, in the area where Great Lakes Michigan and Huron connect, should be careful and deliberative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Built in 1953, Enbridge's Line 5 moves 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids per day east through the Upper Peninsula, splitting into twin underwater pipelines on the Straits of Mackinac bottom, before returning to a single transmission pipeline through the Lower Peninsula that runs south to Sarnia, Ontario. Many have expressed concern about the aging pipes over several years, as anchor strikes, missing pipeline supports and loss of protective pipeline coating have been discovered. A 30-inch oil transmission line also owned by Enbridge ruptured in July 2010 in Marshall, spilling more than 1.1 million gallons of oil, fouling 38 miles of the Kalamazoo River and prompting a cleanup that took four years and cost more than $1 billion. Many fear a similar pipeline mishap on the Straits bottom would be greatly more devastating. More: Trump administration orders Consumers Energy to keep Michigan coal-fired power plant open More: DNR halts state land leases for utility-scale solar projects Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enbridge proposes to build a 21-foot diameter, 3.6-mile tunnel underneath the bed of the Straits of Mackinac to house a new, 30-inch diameter pipeline to move the oil and natural gas liquids. The tunnel pipeline would replace the twin pipes currently on the Straits bottom. Enbridge officials have said that placing the pipeline in a tunnel beneath the Straits lessens risks and potential impacts. Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy called the draft environmental impact statement release by the Army Corps of Engineers "a significant milestone in the development of the Great Lakes Tunnel ... a project that will modernize energy infrastructure, protect the Great Lakes, and ensure long-term energy reliability for Michigan and the broader region." Enbridge officials push back on the notion that evaluation of the project has been rushed or less than comprehensive. The draft environmental impact study "is the result of more than five years of rigorous and comprehensive permit review and stakeholder engagement," Duffy said. 'Direct, detrimental effects are probable' during construction The Army Corps' environmental impact examined multiple scenarios: Enbridge's pipeline and tunnel plan; a do-nothing alternative; a proposal to keep the existing pipelines operating on the Straits lake bottom but put a protective cover of rocks and gravel over them; and three different decommissioning alternatives to stop operation of the more than 70-year-old twin pipelines on the Straits bottom, one option leaving the pipes in place, others removing portions of the pipelines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Corps study found Enbridge's tunnel plan would disturb and remove 19 acres of vegetation, including the clearing of more than 5 acres of forested land and nearly 5 acres of permanent wetlands loss. Direct, detrimental impacts to groundwater would occur for the duration of shaft and portal construction, expected to last six and eight months, respectively, and while the tunnel boring machine was in operation, the Army Corps found. Groundwater aquifers would be drawn down by 2 feet in a 360-foot radius during shaft and portal construction, but testing indicates the aquifer "would recover within a few days of (tunnel boring machine) operations in a given location," the study states. Potential negative impacts to groundwater quality from drilling fluid releases, contaminants from onshore materials storage and the use of heavy equipment are also possible. "The associated impacts would end following construction," the report states. Surface water impacts include that "approximately 20,000 gallons of drilling fluid (water and bentonite) would be released" during installation of a water intake structure and pipe for the tunnel project, the Army Corps report states. "Approximately 31.4 acres total ground disturbance would occur within proposed construction footprints, which could result in direct, detrimental impacts to surface waters adjacent to construction footprints due to erosion and sedimentation," the study additionally finds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Noise and vibration during tunnel installation, along with blasting, could impact area recreation and both land and aquatic animals, but would cease after tunnel construction, the study finds. A tunnel construction would bring 162 daily truck round trips to the south side of the Straits of Mackinac and another 120 daily truck round trips to the north side, which the Army Corp found "would increase traffic safety risks and degrade level of service on public roadways "especially during the peak commuting hours and peak recreational seasons and holidays. Direct, detrimental effects are probable and would occur throughout the construction period (approximately 6 years) which would end following construction." Environmental groups call on Whitmer for help Following the conclusion of a 30-day public comment period, the Army Corps is expected to issue a final environmental impact statement sometime this fall. The tunnel project also needs two state permits, one from Michigans Public Service Commission that was already approved but will need renewal after expiring in early 2026; and the other from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy related to impacts to submerged lands in the public trust. Environmental groups are calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to use the state's part of the permitting process to stop the Line 5 pipeline tunnel."The laws protecting the Great Lakes are not up for debate. For years, its been clear state and federal permits are being crafted with forgone conclusions that provide yet another handout to Big Oil," said Beth Wallace, Great Lakes climate and energy director for the environmental nonprofit National Wildlife Federation's Ann Arbor office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Governor Whitmer and Michigan officials have a duty to protect the Great Lakes, which are held in public trust for all. This is why the State of Michigan has to require a full review of risk to our bottomlands, under the Submerged Lands Act. This is not just about Line 5. A failure to fully consider this project will not only put our economy and the drinking water for millions at risk to drilling spills and explosions, it also opens the door for other oil corporations to follow suit." The bottomlands of the Straits belong to the people of Michigan, not to Enbridge, and it is the states duty to act on its residents' behalf, said Ashley Rudzinski, climate and environment program director at the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, a nonprofit organization based in Traverse City. "That means requiring a full, independent review of the proposed drilling and blasting of the Great Lakes bottomlands not rubber-stamping a project that serves corporate profits over public good," she said. Debbie Chizewer is managing attorney for the Midwest office of Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to litigating environmental issues. In collaboration with the Native American Rights Fund, the organization is representing the Bay Mills Indian Community, whose largest section of reservation is located in Chippewa County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are horrified by the alternatives that are being considered," she said. "There is no need to transport fossil fuels through the Great Lakes. The tunnel project is a false solution to the risk posed by the dual pipelines. There's a world in which there could be no fossil fuels crossing the lakes, and that's the one that is not even being considered here." 'Strategic infrastructure investment in Michigans future' A coalition of labor, business and industry groups calls for the Line 5 tunnel's permitting and approval. Line 5 is an important piece of energy infrastructure for the continent, providing Michiganders with critical light crude and propane extracted from Canada, said Brian Shoaf, vice president of public policy and business advocacy at the Detroit Regional Chamber. Building the Great Lakes Tunnel will make a safe pipeline even safer, and getting it permitted signals the continued partnership between the two countries and the economies reliance on each other. Josh Lunger, vice president of government affairs at the Grand Rapids Chamber, expressed similar support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Great Lakes Tunnel is not just an energy project; it's a strategic infrastructure investment in Michigans future," he said. "Across the entire state, we count on Line 5." The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District will hold two virtual public meetings from 1-4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 18; and 5-8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 25, to allow the public to learn more about the potential impacts from the various alternatives and provide feedback. Public comments will be accepted on the draft environmental impact study through June 30, and can be made at https://www.line5tunneleis.com/comment-here-new/ or by mail to: Line 5 Tunnel EIS, 16501 Shady Grove Road, P.O. Box 10178, Gaithersburg, MD 20898. Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Environmental impact study on Line 5 tunnel in Straits: What it shows The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration's request to categorically revoke humanitarian parole for more than 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and order them out of the country. The court did not explain its order staying a lower court decision that temporarily blocked the administration's abrupt policy change. In March, the Department of Homeland Security revoked protections for migrants from five countries issued by the Biden administration. The agency gave them 30 days notice to leave the country unless they had legal protection under another program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: What the Constitution, Supreme Court say about 'due process' for Trump deportees: ANALYSIS A number of migrants and immigrant advocacy groups sued over the move, alleging that federal law did not give DHS Secretary Kristi Noem discretion to categorically eliminate humanitarian protections -- only to do so on a case-by-case basis. A federal district court agreed. The high court's decision means the Trump administration can move forward with it's policy change even as the litigation continues in lower courts on the merits. PHOTO: The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 25, 2024. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP, Files) Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jackson, writing in opposition, accused the court's majority of callously "undervalu[ing] the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending. "Even if the Government is likely to win on the merits, in our legal system, success takes time," Jackson wrote, "and the stay standards require more than anticipated victory. I would have denied the Governments application because its harm-related showing is patently insufficient." Earlier this month, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to terminate "Temporary Protected Status" for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans who were protected from deportation and allowed to work in the United States. MORE: Supreme Court allows White House to end protections for 350K Venezuelans for now Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the administration's moved to restrict immigration and turn away refugees from countries like Afghanistan and Haiti, it recently accepted white South African refugees -- prompting criticism. The administration's falsely claimed a genocide is taking place against white Afrikaner farmers, which South Africa's president pushed back on during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Supreme Court allows Trump to begin removing 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela originally appeared on abcnews.go.com WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants that was granted by the Biden administration, making them subject to deportation. The court granted an emergency application filed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that ends the Biden program that gave 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela permission to temporarily live and work in the United States. The people directly affected by Friday's order may still have other avenues available to stay in the country, such as by applying for asylum, with their lawyers saying thousands have already sought to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The brief order, which did not explain the court's reasoning, noted that liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Jackson wrote that the court had failed to take into account "the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending." The administration was contesting a ruling by Massachusetts-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who said the administration could not sweep each persons status away without an individualized determination. That decision is now on hold while litigation continues. "The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era," said Karen Tumlin, a lawyer at Justice Action Center who represents affected immigrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I cannot overstate how devastating this is: The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities," she added. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the decision was a "victory for the American people" that corrected an error made by the Biden administration to allow "poorly vetted aliens" into the country. A Haitian family, including a mother-to-be, boards a U.S. Border Patrol van to be taken to a processing center after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 10, 2021, in Yuma, Ariz. (John Moore / Getty Images file) Starting in 2022, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas granted what is called parole for two years to people from the affected countries in part to alleviate the surge arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The policy, known as the CHNV parole programs, allowed people to enter the country and stay if they passed a security check and had a sponsor in the United States who could provide housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similar parole programs have applied to people from certain other countries, including those fleeing violence in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in court papers that Talwani did not have authority to rule on the issue, with Noem given authority to make her decision under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. The same law gave Mayorkas the discretion to allow the affected people to enter and stay in the country. The Department of Homeland Security said in October 2024 that each person's parole would not be extended once their two-year approval period expired. Noem's move to unwind the Biden action was challenged in court by individuals who would be affected, as well as the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant rights group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their lawyers wrote in court papers that Talwani's decision did not prevent Noem from ending the program, only that the government could not immediately rescind the status of the people already enrolled via a single sweeping order. The dispute is one of dozens of cases in which the Trump administration has complained about lower court judges blocking its policies even as President Donald Trump has sought to aggressively expand the power of the presidency without the authorization of Congress. In a separate case, the Supreme Court on May 19 allowed the administration to revoke temporary protected status for a group of almost 350,000 Venezuelans. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administrations emergency request to revoke former President Bidens parole program that extended legal protections to hundreds of thousands of migrants from four Latin American countries. It marks the second time the high court has sided with the administrations efforts to rescind a group of migrants temporary legal status, part of President Trumps sweeping immigration crackdown that has sparked a burst of lawsuits. The justices in the majority did not explain their reasoning. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, two of the courts three Democratic appointees, dissented. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The duo said their colleagues failed to consider the immense harm to migrants whose lives would be thrust into limbo, risking their removal from the country well before the legal issues in the case reach a resolution including the potential for an ultimate victory by migrants, allowing them to remain in the U.S. It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm. And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending, wrote Jackson, joined by Sotomayor. It is apparent that the Government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage. Lower courts had previously rejected the administrations attempt to end the two-year parole given to 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, saying Trumps Department of Homeland Security failed to conduct the necessary case-by-case review. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Biden administration started the parole program as a way to ease pressure at the border. Migrants from the four countries could apply in advance to enter the U.S. and be given a two-year work permit so long as they could secure a U.S.-based financial sponsor. But the program earned gripes from Republicans who saw it as an abuse of humanitarian parole, saying the concept of waiving requirements for those who might not otherwise meet immigration standards should only be done on a limited, case-by-case basis. Trump has also sought to rescind Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for both Venezuelans and Haitians, with the Supreme Court siding with Trump in lifting a lower court ruling blocking him from ending the protections from deportation for some 300,000 Venezuelans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, there has been a small pocket of pushback from within the GOP to the end of both types of status. All four countries contribute to immigrant communities that are strongholds of the Miami area, and a trio of South Florida GOP lawmakers have asked the Trump administration to rethink its wholesale rescission of both parole and TPS, instead revoking it on a case-by-case basis. Obviously I understand what the president is doing and the administration is doing, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) told The Hill. But logic would tell you that you probably have a better chance to have legitimate asylum claims if youre coming from places like Cuba, Venezuela. While the Friday high court ruling suspends a lower court decision protecting parole for the four countries, it does not lift an additional ruling from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani that protects other types of parole given under the Biden administration, including for Afghans and Ukrainians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. By Echo Wang and Milana Vinn NEW YORK (Reuters) -Cybersecurity firm Netskope has hired Morgan Stanley to lead preparations for a U.S. initial public offering that could raise more than $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Netskope is aiming to go public as early as the third quarter of this year, two of the sources said, with one of them and two further sources indicating the IPO could value the company at more than $5 billion. All the sources cautioned that factors including timing, valuation, and the amount the offering would raise are subject to market conditions. They also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. Netskope did not respond to a comment request. Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Founded in 2012, Netskope provides cloud-based security software that helps companies protect apps, websites, and data from cyber threats. It competes with companies such as Rubrik Inc and Zscaler Inc. Santa Clara, California-based Netskope has been backed by investors including Morgan Stanley Tactical Value, CPP Investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. It was valued at $7.5 billion in 2021, although valuations of technology startups have broadly dropped since then. Among Netskope's clients include retailer Ross Stores Inc and Yamaha, according to its website. Chief Executive Sanjay Beri told Reuters in June 2024 that the company had been making internal preparations for an IPO, and going public would help grow awareness of its brand. Expectations for a strong rebound in U.S. IPO activity this year have been tempered by geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, including tariff-related concerns. Still, signs of market stabilization in recent weeks have offered companies and their advisers encouragement of a more robust IPO pipeline for the remainder of the year. Fintech firm Chime and trading platform eToro, which had postponed their IPOs amid market volatility triggered by new tariffs in April, have since moved forward with their listing plans. Meanwhile, shares of cybersecurity peer Rubrik have surged nearly 200% since their debut in April, boosting investor interest in the sector. (Reporting by Echo Wang and Milana Vinn in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski) The Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trumps administration to suspend a Biden-era humanitarian parole program that allowed half a million immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to temporarily live and work in the United States. It was the second time this month that the high court sided with Trumps efforts to revoke temporary legal status for immigrants even as Trump has continued to rail against the federal judiciary. The Supreme Court previously cleared the way for the administration to revoke another temporary program that provided work permits to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. The courts brief order was not signed and, as if often the case on its emergency docket, did not offer any reasoning. Two liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though the emergency decision from the Supreme Court is not final the underlying legal case will continue in lower courts the order will allow the administration to expedite deportations for an estimated 530,000 migrants who had previously benefited from the program. An unknown number of those beneficiaries may have applied for other forms of protection or immigration relief. I cannot overstate how devastating this is, said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, which was part of the legal team representing the migrants. The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities. In a scathing dissent penned by Jackson and joined by Sotomayor, the courts junior liberal member said her colleagues had plainly botched the formula used to decide whether lifting a lower court ruling would have negative consequences for parties involved in a dispute, particularly one involving scores of individuals at immediate risk of deportation to countries they fled. The majoritys decision, she wrote, undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court has now apparently determined that the equity balance weighs in the governments favor, and, I suppose, that it is in the publics interest to have the lives of half a million migrants unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims, Jackson wrote in dissent. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, told CNNs Pamela Brown on Friday that the administration is celebrating the fact that the migrants can now be deported because the Supreme Court justly stepped in and stopped these crazy lower court injunctions. The ruling dramatically increases the number of migrants from the four countries who could be subject to removal by the Trump administration, even though many would likely object to being returned to their home country, according to Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. In that sense, the ruling is likely to raise the already high stakes of another emergency case from the Trump administration pending before the Supreme Court. In that case, Trump is asking the justices to allow the government to remove migrants to countries other than their homeland without providing them a meaningful opportunity to contest their removal, Vladeck said. Parole program dates to Eisenhower era Federal immigration law since the 1950s has allowed an administration to parole certain migrants arriving at the border for humanitarian and other reasons. The Eisenhower administration, for instance, paroled tens of thousands of people fleeing Hungary during a Soviet crackdown after World War II. Paroled migrants may legally live and work in the country typically for two years, though their status is temporary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Biden administration announced in 2023 that it would grant parole to qualified migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who submitted to review by authorities rather than attempting to enter the country illegally. Applicants were required to have an American sponsor and clear security vetting. Trump signed an order on his first day in office seeking to unilaterally end the program. No one disputes that, under federal law, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has broad authority to grant or revoke parole status. The question is whether the department may revoke the status for all migrants immediately with the stroke of a pen, or whether the agency must conduct a case-by-case review of each migrant. Though the two sides dispute the facts, the Biden administration appears to have conducted at least some individual review of each migrant before granting parole. The Trump administration told the Supreme Court that its decision to terminate parole status for the migrants at issue was one of the most consequential immigration policy decisions it has made. Lower court orders temporarily blocking its policy, the administration said, upended critical immigration policies that are carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry, vitiating core executive branch prerogatives, and undoing democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election. After a group of migrants who benefited from the program sued, US District Judge Indira Talwani temporarily blocked the administration from carrying out its effort to end the program wholesale. The administration, she said, could still end parole for individuals after a case-by-case review. Former President Barack Obama nominated Talwani to the bench in 2013. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A federal appeals court in Boston declined to block Talwanis temporary order on May 5. The order from a panel of three judges two appointees of former President Joe Biden and a third appointed by former President Barack Obama expressed skepticism that Noem had the power to categorically end the parole program. The parole program case was among more than a dozen emergency appeals that have reached the Supreme Court since Trump took office in January, including several that involve immigration. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on May 15 about the presidents efforts to end birthright citizenship and the power of lower courts to temporarily block him from doing so. The court required the administration to facilitate the return of a Salvadoran national mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year. The court has also repeatedly barred the administration for now from rapidly deporting a group of Venezuelans in northern Texas under a sweeping 18th century wartime authority. CNNs Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report. This story has been updated with additional details. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com The Supreme Court ruling on Friday again cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million. The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The court has also allowed the administration to revoke temporary legal status from about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case. Trumps administration filed an emergency appeal after a federal judge in Boston blocked its push to end the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a dissent joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote that the majority is having the lives of half a million migrants unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims. More on Politics Read the original article on MassLive. The Supreme Court has granted the Trump administrations bid for permission to revoke temporary legal protections for more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela pending further litigation, in a decision that a two-justice dissent said creates devastating consequences. The administration had asked the high court to halt a Massachusetts judges order that stopped the Department of Homeland Security from revoking a Biden-era grant of temporary relief (called parole) to noncitizens from those countries. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. In her dissent, joined by Sotomayor, Jackson criticized the majority for letting the lives of half a million migrants unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims. She said the court let the government do what it wants to do while rendering constraints of law irrelevant and unleashing devastation in the process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Calling the high courts intervention Friday not appropriate, the Biden appointee said the courts decision created significant problems for the migrants in this case that far exceeded any potential harm to the government. On the one hand, she said, they could choose to leave the U.S. and confront dangers in their native countries, family separation and risk forfeiting their ultimate legal claims. On the other hand, she said, they could stay in the U.S. after their parole termination and risk imminent removal at the hands of Government agents, along with its serious attendant consequences. The majority did not provide an explanation for granting the administrations application, as is typical when deciding emergency appeals. This application seeks to correct a recent, destabilizing trend in immigration cases, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote to the high court May 8, in one of many emergency applications to the justices in Donald Trumps second term, as many judges find legal issues with the administrations actions. This case is one of several urgent government appeals involving immigration specifically. The previous Administration granted parole categorically to aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, resulting in the parole of 532,000 aliens into the United States, Sauer wrote. He argued that the Massachusetts judge, Obama appointee Indira Talwani, failed to properly defer to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems discretion to revoke parole. The judge said case-by-case review was required. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opposing emergency relief, lawyers for the immigrants wrote that the government was seeking the high courts permission to execute the largest mass illegalization event in modern American history. They wrote that if the district judge hadnt blocked the administration, then approximately half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans lawfully in this country would have become undocumented, legally unemployable, and subject to mass expulsion on an expedited basis. They said the judge properly held that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed in proving that Secretary Noems decision to trigger the first ever mass revocation of parole contravened express limits on her authority and was predicated on an erroneous legal conclusion. 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 President Trump may seek to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants who recently entered the United States under a two-year grant of parole, the Supreme Court decided Friday. Over two dissents, the justices granted an emergency appeal and set aside rulings by judges in Boston who blocked Trump's repeal of the parole policy adopted by the Biden administration. That 2023 policy opened the door for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to apply for entry and a work authorization if they had a financial sponsor and could pass background checks. By the time Biden left office, 530,000 people from those countries had entered the U.S. under the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. "The court plainly botched this," Jackson wrote, adding that it should have kept the case on hold during the appeals. Friday's unsigned order is not a final ruling, but it is a strong sign that Trump's order will be upheld. The majority would not have lifted the judge's order if they thought her ruling was correct. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the decision a victory for Americans. Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First," she wrote in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was the second time in two weeks that the justices upheld Trump's authority to revoke a large-scale Biden administration policy that gave temporary legal status to some migrants. The first revoked program gave temporary protected status to around 350,000 Venezuelans who were in this country and feared they could be sent home. The parole policy allowed up to 30,000 migrants a month from the four countries to enter the country with temporary legal protection. Biden's officials saw it as a way to reduce illegal border crossings and to provide a safe and legal pathway for carefully screened migrants. The far-reaching policy was based on a modest-sounding provision of the immigration laws. It says the secretary of Homeland Security may "parole into United States temporarily ... on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons any alien" who is seeking admission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Trump may end temporary protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans, Supreme Court rules Advocates for immigrants said the decision will devastate and unleash "widespread chaos" on the affected communities. The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era," said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center. Upon taking office, Trump ordered an end to "all categorical parole programs." In late March, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the parole protection would end in 30 days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But last month, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani blocked DHS' "categorical" termination of the parole authority. The law said the government may grant parole on a "case-by-case basis," she said, and that suggests it must be revoked on a case-by-case basis as well. On May 5, the 1st Circuit Court in a 3-0 decision agreed that a "categorical termination" of parole appeared to be illegal. Three days later, Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer filed another emergency appeal at the Supreme Court, arguing that a judge had overstepped her authority. The parole authority is "purely discretionary" in the hands of the DHS secretary, he wrote, and the law bars judges from reviewing those decisions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the Biden administration "granted parole categorically to aliens" from four countries, he said the Boston-based judges blocked the new policy because it is "categorical." He accused the judges of "needlessly upending critical immigration policies that are carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry, vitiating core Executive Branch prerogatives, and undoing democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election." Immigrants rights advocates had urged the court to stand aside for now. Granting the administration's appeal "would cause an immense amount of needless human suffering," they told the court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They said the migrants "all came to the United States with the permission of the federal government after each individually applied through a U.S. financial sponsor, passed security and other checks while still abroad, and received permission to fly to an airport here at no expense to the government to request parole." "Some class members have been here for nearly two years; others just arrived in January," they added. In response, Sauer asserted the migrants had no grounds to complain. They "accepted parole with full awareness that the benefit was temporary, discretionary, and revocable at any time," he said. The Biden administration began offering temporary entry to Venezuelans in late 2022, then expanded the program a few months later to people from the other three countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In October of last year, the Biden administration announced that it would not offer renewals of parole and directed those immigrants to apply to other forms of relief, such as asylum or temporary protected status. It's unclear exactly how many people remained protected solely through the parole status and could now be targeted for deportation. It's also not clear whether the administration would seek to deport many or most of these immigrants. Read more: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelan migrants Parolees who recently tried to adjust their legal status had hit a roadblock. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a Feb. 14 memo, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was placing an administrative hold on all pending benefit requests filed by those under the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, as well as a program for Ukrainians and another for family reunification. The memo said the federal agency needed to implement "additional vetting flags" to identify fraud, public safety or national security concerns. But on Wednesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ordered the Trump administration to lift the hold. The DHS memo said the government could extend the parole for some of them on a case-by-case basis. But Trump's lawyers said migrants who were here less than two years could be deported without a hearing under the "expedited removal" provisions of the immigration laws. Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, said the government should not be allowed to strip people of lawfully granted legal status without sufficient reason or notice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inlender, who defended the program against a challenge from Texas in 2023, said she expects swift individual legal challenges to the Trump administration's use of expedited removal. "So many peoples lives are on the line," Inlender said. "These people did everything right they applied through a lawful program, they were vetted. And to pull the rug out from under them in this way should be, I think, offensive to our own idea of what justice is in this country." Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The opportunity not to vote for Sandi Toksvig should never be lightly passed over, so I shall be casting a ballot in the elections for the chancellor of Cambridge. Excitingly, you can do so online, though Id prefer to be obliged to turn up in person. Browsing through the manifestos is a dispiriting experience. Its not just Sandi whose mission is to further diversity and inclusion; everyone is determined to engage in outreach and brag about being at a state school. But the former host of the News Quiz also makes quite a thing about being a woman: The first known chancellor of Cambridge was Richard of Wetheringsett who served sometime between 1215 and 1232. After that we have had a plethora of other Richards, many Johns and an awful lot of Stephens. After over 800 years I wonder if it isnt time for a change? No, Sandi. Not if it means having a really annoying broadcaster representing the university. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another candidate not to vote for is Gina Miller. Shell go down well in some bits of Cambridge on account of Brexit, but the notion of having someone at the helm who says I have spent my life speaking truth to power is not inviting. I mean, one previous chancellor who really did speak truth to power was Bishop John Fisher and he had his head chopped off. His successor, Thomas Cromwell, was a good fundraiser (another big issue), though unfortunately at other peoples expense; he too was quite a name to reckon with. But thats the thing. The list is gloomily unimpressive, from the bloke who wants to champion inclusive excellence (which is either meaningless or contradictory) to the one who declares that the universitys powerful brand enables it to generate significant income, which ought to be reinvested into its core mission. Brand? Mission? Its a university, not a business; at least, not wholly, not yet. Or theres the candidate who wants flourishment. Is flourishment a thing? What, exactly, is it? Or how about the one who declares: Cambridge is more than a university it is a living idea. It speaks through the rustle of books in dawn-lit libraries, in the quiet authority of our porters, the resilience of our cleaners and caterers, the curiosity of our students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dawn-lit libraries? No undergraduate I know has ever seen a library at dawn. The quiet authority of the porters is funny, and I remember when half had been in the military. Lord (John) Browne, ex-BP, tells us about having been a closet homosexual. Do we really need to know? If this selection is indicative of the quality of our public life, let alone our academic life, we have a problem. Hardly anyone on the list is an individual of real substance. I remember when the chancellor was Prince Philip (he was very good at it) and the vice-chancellor was a formidable scientist, Rosemary Murray (who would have been a brilliant chancellor herself). That was more like it. By comparison with past chancellors, from Prince Albert to Stanley Baldwin, our lot are dire. In fact, the Cambridge chancellorship is quite a good way of estimating the kind of establishment we have, and it looks to me like a collection of unfascinating technocrats or media showoffs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It looks then like I shall have to vote for Chris Smith, who pushed it a bit when he said that as Culture Secretary he made all the national galleries and museums free (quite a few were free already) but at least he cared about culture and can write English. But its a single transferable vote systemLord knows whom I should pick for the rest of the selection. At least I know whom Im not voting for; thats a start. Looking at the competition, I have to ask myself...what stopped me throwing my hat in the ring? 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. SALINE COUNTY, Ark. Officials with the Saline County Sheriffs Office said that a man has been arrested in connection with construction equipment vandalism. SCSO officials said that the arrest comes after a significant act of criminal mischief resulted in extensive damage to heavy equipment owned by the James A. Rogers Excavating Company on the Southwest Trail construction site. Southwest Trail construction site vandalized in Saline County, reward for information climbs to $75,000 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The damage led to concern in the community and the excavation company offered a $75,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. After working alongside officers with the Cabot Police Department and troopers with the Arkansas State Police, deputies said that 42-year-old Clint Guthrie of Cabot, a former employee of the excavation company, was arrested on Thursday. Were grateful for the collaborative response from our partner agencies and the citizens who came forward, Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright said. This arrest demonstrates how law enforcement and the public can work hand in hand to protect property and preserve the integrity of public works projects like the Southwest Trail. Company offering $12,500 reward for info on Southwest Trail construction site vandalism in Saline County Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials said that the case remains under investigation and formal charges against Guthrie are pending the Saline County Prosecutors Office. Anyone with additional information regarding the incident is asked to contact the SCSO at 501-303-5608. 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. DENVER (KDVR) Fort Collins Police Services arrested a suspect in connection with a bank robbery, according to a post on X from the agency. On May 27, around 2:03 p.m., Fort Collins police responded to a reported bank robbery at the ENT Credit Union at 1107 West Drake Road. Brighton man loses wife of 68 years, 4 pets, home in fire When police arrived at the bank, the staff reported that a masked male armed with a firearm robbed several employees of an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing the area on foot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The officers contacted a man in the area who matched the description given and took him into custody and booked him at the Larimer County Jail on charges, including: Felony menacing, three counts Felony aggravated robbery Felony theft over $20k The suspect was identified as Isaac Meraz. During the incident, Rocky Mountain High School was placed on secure status due to the close proximity to the incident. The bank was closed for nearly three hours during the investigation. Detectives said that while executing a search warrant at a residence in the area of the 1200 block of City Park Avenue, key evidence was recovered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As we remain committed to keeping our neighborhoods safe, we want to assure the public that swift action was taken following this armed bank robbery. The suspect was apprehended without further incident, and no injuries were reported. We thank the community and the witnesses for their vigilance and we encourage everyone to remain aware of their surroundings and report suspicious activity, said Assistant Chief Frank Barrett in the social media post. 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 suspect was shot after shooting at law enforcement and then causing a chase in Marysville on Friday morning, according to our news partners, WBNS. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Officers were called to a domestic dispute on White Oak Court around 2:15 a.m. When they got to the scene, they found the suspect and interacted with him. During that interaction, the suspect reportedly pulled out a gun and fired shots at the officers from inside his vehicle, WBNS reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The officers returned fire, but the suspect then drove off from the scene, hitting multiple vehicles, including a Marysville police cruiser, in the process. TRENDING STORIES: The suspect was later found at State Route 31 and U.S. 33. He then started going west on U.S. 33, leading to a chase with law enforcement. WBNS reported that the chase ended when the suspects vehicle stopped in the median while on U.S. 33. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect got out of the vehicle with his firearm, and a Union County Sheriffs Office approached him. Shots were fired, and the suspect was hit multiple times. The suspect was taken to a Marysville hospital before being transported to a hospital in Columbus. His condition is unknown at this time. Police confirmed with WBNS that a Marysville officer was injured during the shooting incident at the original scene. That officer was taken to a hospital and was later released. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was contacted to help with the investigation. Police have also confirmed that the suspect is expected to face several felony charges. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's Foxconn will soon announce a second Japanese auto partner, Chairman Young Liu said on Thursday, as the company best known as Apple's main iPhone maker continues its diversification push. "There are two Japanese automakers; one has already been announced, and the other is almost ready to be," Liu said at the company's annual shareholders meeting, without elaborating. Foxconn subsidiary Foxtron Vehicle Technologies and Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors this month signed a memorandum of understanding for the supply of an electric vehicle model. Foxconn views partnerships in Japan as a major opportunity for growing its EV business, Jun Seki, the Taiwan contract manufacturer's chief strategy officer for EVs, said at a Tokyo seminar in April. The Apple supplier's interest in working with Japanese car makers comes as they face growing competition from Chinese brands that are aggressively making inroads in markets such as Europe, Brazil and Thailand. Mitsubishi Motors is a junior partner in the long-standing alliance of Nissan Motor and French automaker Renault. Foxconn has previously said it would consider taking a stake in Nissan for cooperation, as it has ambitions to diversify into EVs. Foxtron, the company's EV joint venture with Yulon, counts Yulon-owned Luxgen as its main client in Taiwan. (Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Saad Sayeed) 36-year-old Kevin Boyette, charged with killing 21-year-old Tatyiana Flood earlier this month, was allowed to stand behind a door, away from our courtroom camera at his murder arraignment in Roxbury District Court. Shortly after 6 AM on May 20th, Tatyiana Floods lifeless and battered body was discovered in a wheelchair in a parking lot on Roxburys Annunciation Road. Authorities say video cameras recorded the suspect beating Tatyiana with a hammer inside a parked jeep, ten hours before she was found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And then two hours later, continuing the assault The suspect exits rear driver side of the vehicle and can be seen pulling an unconscious, seemingly unconscious motionless body of the victim out of the vehicle. The body does fall to the ground at which time the suspect can be seen delivering a kick to the body, prosecutor Ben Sabol told the court Tatyianas parents are originally from Ireland, they now live in Massachusetts. They attended the arraignment and heard the horrific details of their daughters death. Do you have any understanding of what happened here? I asked Tatyianas father, John. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Only the facts about what happened, thats it, John Flood said. Its really sad. Just really sad, Lilly Flood, Tatyianas mother, said. We initially thought it was an overdose because we know she had been taking drugs. But then to find this out makes it even worse. Kevin Boyette was ordered held without bail. He is due back in court in July. 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 YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Reports said a woman who was arrested for an East Side shooting late Thursday evening had been denied entry into the Mahoning County Jail a few hours before her arrest. Breasia Skinner, 27, was booked into the jail on a charge of felonious assault, hours after the jail denied her entry when city police tried to book her in on an assault and disorderly conduct charge. Skinner was instead released on citation, then accused of shooting a woman in the leg at about 11:50 p.m. on Eastway Drive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was arraigned Friday in municipal court, where Magistrate Donna McCollum set Skinners bond at $30,000. When police were called to the shooting, reports said they found a woman sitting on a curb who had a gunshot wound to her leg. An officer put a tourniquet on the wound to stop her bleeding while an ambulance was on the way, reports said. The victim was ultimately taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center. The woman told police it was Skinner who shot her and that she had been arguing with Skinner for most of the day, including about 5:45 p.m., when police were called to Dupont Street, where Skinner was reportedly involved in a fight over money stolen from juveniles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reports said she was taken to the jail from Dupont Street to be booked on charges of assault, a first-degree misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. However, reports said she was denied entry to the jail. The sheriff said thats because Youngstown Police needed to take her to the hospital for a possible orbit fracture around her eye. Without the release from the hospital, the jail medical staff could not accept her. She was instead issued a citation with a court date for Friday. After the shooting, Youngstown Police apparently did take Skinner to the hospital and got the release, then the jail took her in, the sheriff said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Skinner is also accused of going back to Dupont Street after the jail would not take her, breaking into an apartment, stealing a television and throwing the toothbrushes inside the toilet. As officers were wrapping up their investigation, Liberty Police found Skinner and detained her for city police, reports said. Lt. Mohammad Awad of the Detective Bureau said detectives were wrapping up witness interviews this morning in 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 WKBN.com. CAIRO (AP) A suspected drone attack by Sudanese paramilitaries Friday hit a hospital in southern Sudan, killing at least six people and knocking the facility out of service, officials and rights advocates said. The Emergency Lawyers, a rights group, blamed the Rapid Support Forces for the attack on the Obeid International Hospital, al-Dhaman, in Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan province. At least 15 others were wounded in the attack, it said. In a statement on social media, the hospital said the attack resulted in severe damage to its main building. Services at the hospital, the main medical facility serving the region, were suspended until further notice, it said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sudan plunged into civil war on April 15, 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare in the capital Khartoum and other parts of the country. The Emergency Lawyers, which tracks Sudans war, said the attack on the hospital was part of a large-scale artillery offensive on the city, which is held by the military. Obeid is 363 kilometers (225 miles) south of Khartoum. There was no immediate comment from the RSF. The attack was the latest on Obeid. On May 10, at least 20 inmates were killed in a drone attack on the citys main prison. That attack was also blamed on the RSF. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The war in Sudan has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups. The conflict created the worlds worst humanitarian crisis and pushed parts of the country into famine. Thousands of people have been killed and over 14 million were forced to flee their homes. Two men suspected in the kidnapping and torture of a 28-year-old Italian cryptocurrency investor have pleaded not guilty, while the investigation into their case appears to have expanded to the New York Police Department itself. New York police had previously arrested William Duplessie, 33, and John Woeltz, 37, on the charges, as well as a third individual, Beatrice Folchi, 24, though her prosecution is being deferred. The victim has not been publicly named. The men are accused of kidnapping the victim and holding him hostage in a luxury townhouse in Manhattans ritzy SoHo neighborhood for more than two weeks. During that time, New York City police say the trio tortured the man, forcing him to take drugs, dangling him from a ledge, urinating on him and electrocuting him in an effort to force him to hand over the private keys to his bitcoin. The alleged perpetrators are accused of making t-shirts of the victim with a crack pipe in his mouth and taking Polaroids of the victim with a gun to his head. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim escaped last Friday, grabbing his laptop and getting out of the townhouse and then seeking help from a traffic officer. Duplessie entered a not-guilty plea to five different charges, including kidnapping with an intent to collect a ransom, kidnapping and causing a physical injury, criminal possession of a loaded firearm, assault with an intent to cause a physical injury with a weapon and unlawful imprisonment, according to the court docket. Woeltz was charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, and he also pleaded not guilty, according to his court docket. Two NYPD officers, including a detective assigned to Mayor Eric Adams' protection detail, worked for both Duplessie and Woeltz in their off-duty hours and have now been placed on modified duty, Bloomberg reported Thursday. A source familiar told CoinDesk that the two officers are not believed to be part of the kidnapping, but rather did security work for the defendants. They may have driven the victim from an airport to the townhouse, but have not been tied to his torture, the source said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for the NYPD said the matter was "under internal review." A spokesperson for the mayor's office said in a statement that, "Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty. We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing." UPDATE (May 29, 2025, 22:27 UTC): Adds additional detail. Wetland near the Annette Nature Center in Warren County. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch) A federal judge has ruled in favor of intervening environmental groups and dismissed a lawsuit against a decades-old rule that connects wetland protections to federal farm benefits. The lawsuit, filed by CTM Holdings LLC against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleged the law, commonly known as swampbuster, is unconstitutional. In March, federal representatives and intervening environmental groups argued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa that CTM Holdings had no standing in the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit arose when CTM Holdings sought to farm a 9-acre portion of property that had previously been designated a wetland. The company, which rents the property to farmers, alleged in the complaint that the USDA unconstitutionally conditions its farm benefits through swampbuster. The company also argued the wetlands in question were dry but the federal agency would not remove the wetland designation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Iowa Farmers Union, Iowa Environmental Council, Dakota Rural Action, and Food & Water Watch intervened in the case in support of the USDA with the goal of upholding the swampbuster rule, which they argued protects water quality, habitat and land. Iowa Environmental Council attorney Michael Schmidt said swampbuster serves as a foundational conservation practice to protect wetlands and habitat, prevent flooding and improve water quality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This courts thorough decision upholds the practical conservation measures that have been the standard for decades, Schmidt said in a statement. Commonsense measures like Swampbuster support Iowa farmers and everyone downstream from them. Judge says plaintiff repeatedly lacks the standing to bring any of its claims The intervenors argued, and Chief Justice C.J. Williams upheld that CTM Holdings had not suffered injury from swampbuster, nor had the company exhausted its administrative remedies, such as asking for a redetermination of the area. In March, during oral arguments on a motion, legal counsel from Pacific Legal Foundation and Liberty Justice Center, on behalf of CTM Holdings, said the company requested a redetermination of the land by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, but said the agency hardly ever changes a determination. The counsel representing the USDA said the agencys records do not show a request for redetermination. Williams agreed with the USDA and the intervenors following a review of the communications and forms between the USDA and CTM Holdings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If plaintiffs intention was to request a review of the 2010 wetlands determination, nobody else in the world could possibly have known it, Williams wrote in the ruling, adding that the companys alleged injury was not actual or imminent but rather a speculative chain of possibilities. If the 9-acre area was indeed no longer wetland and the company actually requested a redetermination of the land, Williams wrote that CTM Holdings should have no problems. Arguments of unconstitutionality fail The lawsuit argued swampbusters, formally known as the Wetland Conservation Compliance provisions of the 1985 Farm Bill, is unconstitutional for two reasons. First, it argued that government benefits cannot be conditioned. Per swampbuster, landowners must agree to avoid any activity that alters natural wetlands to remain eligible for USDA benefits like crop insurance and other subsidies farmers rely on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Williams wrote that the argument for unconstitutionality misses the point as it is framed in the suit. He explained that swampbuster is an exercise of Congress spending power, which may have conditions attached to it. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch ) The complaint also alleged swampbuster is an unconstitutional taking of private land, and the requirement to avoid altering the property is akin to an unpaid easement. Williams rejected this argument as well, noting that CTM Holding does receive reimbursement for the wetland area in the form of USDA benefits. Additionally, he noted that property owners can still do many things to the designated wetland while complying with the law, including logging, which CTM Holdings did. Williams dismissed the case with prejudice meaning it cannot be refiled at a later date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Liberty Justice Center, one of the litigation firms representing CTM Holdings in the case, said the decision was disappointing but the group plans to appeal the case to the Eighth District Court of Appeals. Were confident that the appellate court will ultimately rule that this federal law is unconstitutional, Liberty Justice Center said in a statement. This law has been taking land from farmers for years, and we look forward to continuing to fight this unconstitutional law. Aaron Lehman, president of the intervening Iowa Farmers Union, said he is very happy with the dismissal and believes the decision will be upheld, no matter how far the plaintiffs want to take it. Farm programs need to have integrity, Lehman said. When we have voluntary participation in programs, we expect that its going to have conservation compliance attachments that make sense for the farm, make sense for the neighbors and (make) sense for the entire community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dani Replogle, a staff attorney with Food & Water Watch, said the decision is an unequivocal victory for sustainable farms and clean water. The message is clear: we will not let fringe legal theories turn our wetlands into sacrifice zones for corporate landlords, Replongle said in a statement. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE This story was originally published on ESG Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily ESG Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice issued a joint statement last week supporting a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a coalition of Republican-led states alleging that BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street violated antitrust laws and conspired to artificially restrict the coal market. The [FTC and DOJ] have interests here in ensuring the correct application of the antitrust laws, including in Americas energy markets, the May 22 statement said. Doing so protects Americans from anticompetitive behavior that reduces the production of domestic energy, raises energy prices for consumers and businesses, and undermines Americas energy dominance. The joint statement of interest begins to lay out how Attorney General Pam Bondi will direct the DOJ to fulfill an executive order from President Trump targeting state climate change and ESG policies and initiatives. The statement cites this order, as well as another declaring a national energy emergency, as aspects of the United States interest in the case. Dive Insight: Paxton initially filed the lawsuit against the nations three largest asset managers in November, supported by 10 other Republican-led states. The lawsuit alleges BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street acquired substantial holdings in public coal companies and then pushed those companies to reduce their output. Paxton accused the companies of forming a cartel to rig the coal market in a press release at the time. BlackRock and State Street called the allegations baseless in separate comments to ESG Dive at the time, and all three asset managers filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March. Their motion said the states have offered no plausible facts to support their claims and said the case spins a farfetched theory. While the FTC and DOJs statement affirms that antitrust laws allow for passive investing, corporate governance-focused shareholder advocacy and active investing that doesnt harm competition, they said the allegations in this case go further than that and alleges the coordinated use of the power of horizontal shareholdings to distort output and prices in energy markets. The agencies said the nations official view is that the asset managers have misunderstood the standards and exceptions to the applicable antitrust laws, and the court should reject the motion to dismiss. GENEVA (AP) Switzerland's president on Friday said evacuees from an Alpine village whose homes and businesses were destroyed by a landslide caused by a glacier collapse were not alone," and the government was calculating ways to help. Karin Keller-Sutter spoke after a helicopter flight to see for herself the damage to the village of Blatten that was largely destroyed on Wednesday as an estimated 10 millions of tons of mud, ice and rock thundered down from the Birch glacier overhead. The force with which the mountain here wiped out an entire village is indescribable, Keller-Sutter said. Id like to tell you all that youre not alone. The whole of Switzerland is with you, and not just (people) in Switzerland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials limited access to the area and warned that waters from the Lonza River, which has been dammed up by deposits stacked tens of meters high over a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) swath of valley, had pooled into a lake. The future course of those waters could not yet be predicted precisely. Unfortunately, the danger has not yet been averted, Keller-Sutter said. While the authorities were not able to prevent the natural disaster, the country has the expertise and financial resources to cope with such events, she added. Blatten had been evacuated about 10 days earlier after experts determined a growing threat from the loosening glacier. However, a 64-year-old man remains missing and authorities have called off a search for him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stephane Ganzer, an elected official who runs security in the Valais, said no evacuations were as-yet planned for villages downstream from Blatten that could face flooding if the Lonza's welled-up waters break through the pileup of mud. "We don't want anybody else to go missing," he said. We will put no person in danger on the ground: No police officer, no soldier, no specialist, no member of civil security or fire squads. He added: Someone asked me before: Whos the chief in charge here? And I replied, theres only one chief: nature. The major renovation at the Swope Art Museum that started in March has now reached the point where the museum must close to the public, the Swope's executive director said Thursday. The museum will reopen to the public in January 2026. Much work has been going on for the last three months, and now it is time to start the process of replacing the existing elevator which will restrict access to the upper floors where the majority of exhibits are, Fred J. Nation, executive director of the Terre Haute museum, said in a news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the first major renovation of the Swope Block in 25 years and when it is finished, we expect the museum will be well prepared to preserve, protect and exhibit our collection of great American art and make the museum accessible to all, he said. During the closure, the staff will continue to work, and the museum will continue offering programming to the community. The Third Annual William T. Turman Plein Air event will bring dozens of artists to Vigo County June 20-25, where they will paint outdoor scenes. The works will be exhibited July 1 August 15 at the Gallery at Arts Illiana with a reception July 11, 6 8 pm. The 81st Annual Wabash Valley Exhibition will be on view August 19 - October 31 with an awards reception on Aug. 29 from 4 to 8 pm in the Yang Family Gallery at Indiana State University. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Art Start, a free weekly program for children ages 3 to 5, will resume in September at the Vigo County Public Library. In addition, several other off-site events are planned. We realize our closure period will disappoint some, including visitors from out of town who come to see our collection, Nation said. However, the investment today will make the future of the museum more secure and preserve and protect our collection. In addition to the new elevator, the renovation project includes a second interior stairway, new art storage, the Mary Ann Carroll Family Education Center and a new HVAC system. A successful Great Art for All capital campaign has raised $6.5 million for the renovations and endowment of the Swope. SYRACUSE, Utah (ABC4) The Syracuse Police Dept. is actively searching for the suspect of an assault investigation that began on Tuesday, May 27. Authorities have released a new photo of the suspect, and have said that the vehicle associated with him has been found. At around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night, police responded to an assault near 2700 W and 3300 S. At the scene, they found a 26-year-old woman with significant injuries. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Syracuse police are currently looking for Daniel Herson Vazquez, 34, as their prime suspect in the investigation. The department said the vehicle associated with Vazquez has been found, and that they are working with local, state, and federal agencies to find him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A new photo of Vazquez, as well as the truck associated with him, are pictured below: If you have any information about Vazquezs whereabouts, or details related to this case, please call Syracuse police at 801-825-4400 and reference case number Y25-06695. 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. DAMASCUS (AP) The lifting of economic sanctions on Syria will allow the government to begin work on daunting tasks that include fighting corruption and bringing millions of refugees home, Hind Kabawat, the minister of social affairs and labor, told The Associated Press on Friday. Kabawat is the only woman and the only Christian in the 23-member cabinet formed in March to steer the country during a transitional period after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December. Her portfolio will be one of the most important as the country begins rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war. She said moves by the U.S. and the European Union in the past week to at least temporarily lift most of the sanctions that had been imposed on Syria over decades will allow that work to get started. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before, she said, we would talk, we would make plans, but nothing could happen on the ground because sanctions were holding everything up and restricting our work. With the lifting of sanctions they can now move to implementation. One of the first programs the new government is planning to launch is temporary schools for the children of refugees and internally displaced people returning to their home areas. Kabawat said that it will take time for the easing of sanctions to show effects on the ground, particularly since unwinding some of the financial restrictions will involve complicated bureaucracy. We are going step by step, she said. We are not saying that anything is easy -- we have many challenges but we cant be pessimistic. We need to be optimistic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new governments vision is that we dont want either food baskets or tents after five years, Kabawat said, referring to the country's dependence on humanitarian aid and many displacement camps. That may be an ambitious target, given that 90% of the country's population currently lives below the poverty line, according to the United Nations. The civil war that began in 2011 also displaced half the countrys pre-war population of 23 million people. The U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that about half a million have returned to Syria since Assad was ousted. But the dire economic situation and battered infrastructure have also dissuaded many refugees from coming back. The widespread poverty also fed into a culture of public corruption that developed in the Assad era, including solicitation of bribes by public employees and shakedowns by security forces at checkpoints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syria's new rulers have pledged to end the corruption, but they face an uphill battle. Public employees make salaries far below the cost of living, and the new government has so far been unable to make good on a promise to hike public sector wages by 400%. How can I fight corruption if the monthly salary is $40 and that is not enough to buy food for 10 days? Kabawat asked. Women and minorities The countrys new rulers, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa the former head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a Sunni Islamist insurgent group that spearheaded the offensive against Assad have been under scrutiny by western countries over the treatment of Syrian women and religious minorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, clashes between government security forces and pro-Assad armed groups spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks on members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs. Hundreds of civilians were killed. The government formed a committee to investigate the attacks, which has not yet reported its findings. Many also criticized the transitional government as giving only token representation to women and minorities. Apart from Kabawat, the cabinet includes only one member each from the Druze and Alawite sects and one Kurd. Everywhere I travel the first and last question is, What is the situation of the minorities? Kabawat said. I can understand the worries of the West about the minorities, but they should also be worried about Syrian men and women as a whole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said the international community's priority should be to help Syria to build its economy and avoid the country falling into chaos. Rebuilding our institutions Despite being the only woman in the cabinet, Kabawat said now there is a greater opportunity for women than under Assad and that today there is no committee being formed that does not have women in it. Syrian women have suffered a lot in these 14 years and worked in all areas," she said. "All Syrian men and women need to have a role in rebuilding our institutions. She called for those wary of al-Sharaa to give him a chance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the West has warmed to the new president -- particularly after his recent high-profile meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump others have not forgotten that he fought against U.S. forces in Iraq after the invasion of 2003 or that his HTS group was formed as an offshoot of al-Qaida, although it later cut ties. People used to call (Nelson) Mandela a terrorist, and then he became the first leader among those who freed South Africa, and after that suddenly he was no longer a terrorist," Kabawat said. She urged skeptics to "give us the same chance that you gave to South Africa. Cant understand it: Mom attacks 12-year-old girl with knife, leaving her under bush, sheriff says **Related Video Above: What happens when you call 911? PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (WJW) Detectives report a Florida woman confessed to stabbing her 12-year-old daughter in the face and neck, leaving her barely alive under some shrubs on Memorial Day. According to a news release from the Charlotte County Sheriffs Office, 35-year-old Gwendolyn Girard, 35, was arrested on aggravated battery and child abuse charges following her alleged confession. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local man accused of brutally stabbing puppy pleads not guilty In my 33-year career, there are only a handful of times that I have been left speechless. This is one of those times. To attack a child with a knife I cant understand it, Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement. Photo courtesy Charlotte County Sheriffs Office Multiple local outlets, including WINK, confirmed Girard was the girls mother and that the girl played dead in order to survive the attack that took place at Cecil Webb Wildlife Management Area, according to court documents. Deputies said they were called to the recreational area by passersby who had found the girl with stab wounds and weak. They spoke to the girl who identified the attacker as Girard and said she drove off in a gold van. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Girard and her vehicle were found in Lee County, where she was taken in for questioning and eventually arrested, the sheriffs office said. Reunited and it feels so good: Todd Chrisleys daughter picks him up from prison after Trump pardon The girl is reportedly in stable condition following treatment at a hospital. Girard appeared in court for the first time Thursday. Her bond was set at $750,000, according to the sheriffs office. It is only by Gods grace that she is still with us today, and I pray for her as she heals from this horrific incident, Prummell said of the girl. Unfortunately, the mental trauma inflicted on her may never heal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. SPRINGFIELD After misconduct in state drug labs in Amherst and Boston, more than 30,000 cases tainted by the scandals were dismissed in 2017 and 2018. Still ongoing, though, is a federal class action lawsuit trying to get the automatic return of property from those exonerees taken through civil asset forfeiture, a process that allows police to seize property if they suspect its connected to a crime. A federal appeals court dismissed the class action lawsuit in January, and now the plaintiffs are pursuing a review request with the Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last month, the plaintiffs submitted a request to the high court to extend the deadline for filing a formal petition for the court to review the case, saying they needed more time to research and prepare. That request was granted, and the plaintiffs attorneys now have until late June to file their petition. In the plaintiffs request to the Supreme Court, they write that, despite the unprecedented government malfeasance behind the states drug lab scandals and dismissal of tens of thousands of cases as a result, the lawsuit defendants say that they can nevertheless keep millions of dollars in cash and property (cars, cellphones, etc.) that were taken from the innocent victims of those scandals in many cases, literally from their pockets and continue to be unlawfully withheld today. The Supreme Court is not obligated to hear any case. Of the more than 7,000 petitions for review that the court receives each year, it accepts about 100 to 150. Sonja Farak was a chemist at the states drug testing lab in Amherst. She was arrested in 2013 and admitted that she used the drugs she tested for years. Annie Dookhan, a chemist at a similar lab in Boston, served time for crimes related to falsifying test results. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because of the misconduct, the states highest court vacated tens of thousands of cases. The states Supreme Judicial Court said those whose cases were thrown out could get automatic refunds for most of the money paid related to the criminal cases, like court fees, but not for property taken through civil asset forfeiture. After law enforcement takes property it believes is connected to a crime, prosecutors file a separate civil case to keep the funds. If taken through the civil court, the funds are then split between the county district attorneys offices and local law enforcement. The Springfield Republican and New England Public Media co-published a series last year about the civil asset forfeiture practice. While the states highest court ruled against automatic forfeiture returns in the vacated cases, it said each person could file individual motions to attempt to get their property back. In response, Boston attorneys William Fick, Daniel Marx and Northampton attorney Luke Ryan filed a class action lawsuit 2018 in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. The suits defendants include the commonwealth, the attorney general, the governor and all the states district attorneys, including Hampden Countys Anthony Gulluni. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jennifer Cotto, a Ludlow woman, is a lead plaintiff. In 2008, she was arrested by Springfield police on a drug charge, and police seized the $518 she had with her, according to the lawsuit complaint. A decade later, the case was thrown out because it had been tainted by the drug lab scandal. Others from Western Massachusetts are named in the complaint. Travis Moran, of Springfield, had $4,528 and his 1994 Honda Accord taken in 2006, and Todd Moton, of Adams, had $878 taken from him when he was arrested in 2009. Like Cotto, their case dispositions were dismissed because of the drug testing lab scandal. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court dismissed the case because of the 11th Amendment, which prohibits individuals suing a state in federal court, Judge Julie Rikelman wrote in the Jan. 21 opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Like the SJC, we acknowledge the tremendous harm caused by Farak and Dookhans egregious misconduct. But the Eleventh Amendment bars federal courts from providing the relief plaintiffs seek here, it reads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im happy that the federal courts now have sided with us, Gulluni said of the decision. These are efforts funded by George Soros and the ACLU, so theyre just going to keep spending money until theres nowhere to spend it, he told The Republican on Wednesday. So theyre going to appeal to the Supreme Court. It wont get accepted. It wont go anywhere. When asked why he thought they were involved, Gulluni said: Money. Its called money. Gulluni was unavailable Thursday for additional explanation. Soros is a billionaire left-leaning philanthropist, and The Republican has no evidence Soros is involved in the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are no attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union listed on the case in any of the dockets, as well. The ACLU of Massachusetts was involved in a separate, prior litigation that resulted in overturning convictions tainted by the drug lab scandals. The ACLU of Massachusetts said Friday that it was not involved in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs attorneys on the current civil asset forfeiture case are from two private firms, Fick & Marx LLP and Strehorn, Ryan & Hoose. In the plaintiffs recent filing with the Supreme Court, they say the withholding of the forfeited funds violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits excessive bail, fines and punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendments protection of due process. Their formal petition for court review is due June 20. Fick and Marx did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and Ryan was not immediately available for comment on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Attorney Generals Office declined to comment. This story has been updated to include a response from the ACLU of Massachusetts. Read the original article on MassLive. Academics and economists have long warned that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence will wipe out jobs and upend the global economy. Now that call is coming from inside the house. On Thursday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned on CNN that the technology will spike unemployment sooner than political leaders and businesses expect and they arent ready for it. Amodei believes the AI tools that Anthropic and other companies are racing to build could eliminate half of entry-level, white-collar jobs and boost unemployment to as much as 20% in the next one to five years, he told Axios on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, his company, a leading artificial intelligence lab, is selling AI technology that it says can work nearly seven hours a day, the length of a typical human workday. A recent World Economic Forum survey found that 41% of employers plan to reduce their workforce because of AI automation by 2030. However, some experts say AI will automate certain tasks rather than entire jobs. And skeptics say the rapid growth of artificial intelligence tools may slow down as companies run out of high-quality data to train their models and that the kinds of highly complex jobs human can reliably do are still far out of reach for artificial intelligence. Still, Amodeis comments are notable, coming from the CEO of a major AI company. Here are four takeaways from his interview with CNNs Anderson Cooper. White-collar, entry-level jobs are in danger Amodei said the skills needed for white-collar, entry-level jobs ability to summarize a document, analyze a bunch of sources and put it into a report, write computer code could be done with AI, which is as good as a smart college student. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amodei predicts AI tools could eliminate half of white-collar, entry-level jobs, bringing the unemployment rate to up to 20% in the near future. While AI companies could reap big profits if businesses widely adopt their products, Amodei did say he supports levying taxes on AI companies. Its definitely not in my economic interest to say that, but I think this is something we should consider. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei takes part in a session on AI during the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos on January 23, 2025. - Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images/File The timeline is faster than we think Amodei said he didnt have an exact timeline on when these jobs will become obsolete for humans. But, he said, its eerie the extent to which the broader public and politicians, legislators, I dont think, are fully aware of whats going on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to make sure that people have the ability to adapt, and that that we adopt the right the right policies but we have to act now. We cant just sleepwalk into it. AI isnt just a chatbot anymore Amodei said humans will have to soon grapple with AI outperforming them at almost all intellectual tasks. Eventually, no one will be safe from AI automation replacing their jobs even CEOs like him, he said. If that happens, were going to have to think about how to order our society, Amodei said. More people still use AI for augmentation, which enhances human abilities, rather than automation, which replaces humans totally. But that gap is quickly narrowing: Currently, 60% of people use AI for augmentation and 40% for automation, according to Amodei. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We can see where the trend is going, and thats whats driving some of the concern (about AI in the workforce), he said. What humans can do Amodei said its important for people to learn how to use artificial intelligence. Learn to understand where the technology is going. If youre not blindsided, you have a much better chance of adapting, he said. Its important for humans to spot when AI-generated content doesnt make sense. People should think critically for moments when the AI system messes up intrinsically, he said, adding that the entity thats controlling it, in some cases, may not have your best interests at heart. CNNs Clare Duffy contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com By Aaron Ross NAIROBI (Reuters) -Lawyers for Tanzania's jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu filed a complaint on Friday to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a bid to ramp up international pressure for his release. Lissu, chairman of Tanzania's main opposition party and runner-up in the 2020 presidential election, was arrested last month and charged with treason, a capital offence, over comments he is alleged to have made calling on supporters to prevent national elections in October from going ahead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tanzania's government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While President Samia Suluhu Hassan has won plaudits for easing political repression, she has faced questions about unexplained abductions of government critics in recent months. Hassan, who will stand for re-election in October, has said her government respects human rights and ordered an investigation into the reported abductions. Lissu's international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said the confidential complaint to the U.N. working group, which issues opinions but has no enforcement power, was part of a wider pressure campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The European Parliament this month adopted a resolution denouncing Lissu's arrest as politically motivated, and Amsterdam said he would petition the U.S. State Department to impose sanctions. "Right down to prosecutors, judges, police - all the people that are involved in this false show trial had better be aware that they should protect their U.S. assets," Amsterdam told Reuters. In response to the European Parliament resolution, Tanzania's foreign ministry said outside criticisms about the case were based on "incomplete or partisan information". The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack for which no one has ever been charged, will appear in court on Monday. Before he appeared in court last week, authorities detained a Kenyan and a Ugandan rights activist who had come to attend the hearing. They were abandoned several days later near the borders of their home countries, and the Kenyan activist, Boniface Mwangi, said both were badly tortured while in custody. Tanzanian officials have not responded to requests for comment about the allegation. Hassan has warned outsiders against "invading and interfering in our affairs". (Reporting by Aaron Ross; editing by Giles Elgood) SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into reports of several assaults on the South Dakota State Penitentiarys campus this week. This latest incident concerns Project Prison Reset task force members for a number of reasons. Where were at today, that opportunity for those inmates to injure a correctional officer exists, and we need to eliminate that, South Dakota Republican Representative Greg Jamison said. Jamison said Tuesdays reports reflect the challenges prison staff face when it comes to separating inmates inside the current mens prison facilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a news release, Attorney General Marty Jackley says, Evidence suggests that the assaults are gang related. One of the challenges with the prison is to separate those gang members or opposing gang members, if you will, so they never wind up in the same area at the same time because these fights are probably inevitable, Jamison said. South Dakota Republican Senator Jim Mehlhaff worries the current facilities are not safe for staff or prisoners. Just the design of it. Blind corners and dead ends, Mehlhaff said. Its difficult to put prisoners where they need to be because of the overcrowding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The issue is what sometimes leads to inmate fights. Imagine youre in a space, as you can appreciate, in a crowded area, and all of a sudden you start pushing and somebody pushes back. It turns into a fight pretty easy, Jamison said. That overcrowding piece has just got to get fixed, and the new prison is going to eliminate that. Its one of the task forces top priorities when it comes to building a new mens prison. Having more rehabilitation resources is important, too. We dont want to take people off the streets and just hold them indefinitely and put them back out on the streets to recidivate again, Mehlhaff said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A new prison is going to be a safer place for the employees. Thats one of the things Im hopeful for and Im looking for, Jamison said. The current setup right now is not a safe place. 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. ESPANOLA, N.M. (KRQE) A local teachers union wants to know why a New Mexico school district is asking students about their citizenship status. The union has now filed a complaint against the district, hoping to get more answers. We would like to prevent it from happening again, said Mary Parr-Sanchez, President of the National Education Association of New Mexico (NEA-NM). Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an effort to prepare students for real-world jobs, Espanola Public Schools has used optional career-readiness programs that help connect students with potential future employers. One of those programs is a standardized test called the ACT WorkKeys Assessment. To take the test, students must provide personal information. Collecting demographic information on students is not out of the norm, Parr-Sanchez said. Like, if theyre male or female, how old they are, their ethnicity, that type of thing. That is normal demographic information. Whats not common are questions related to students citizenship status. But, according to a group of teachers with Espanola Public Schools, as part of the assessment, the district directed teachers at Espanola Valley High School to ask students for their country of origin, and their alien registration number. We were contacted by educators and their leadership from Espanola that Espanola Valley High School was asking teachers to collect immigration data, Parr-Sanchez explained. According to Parr-Sanchez, a former teacher with 25 years of experience, and someone whos administered standardized tests, these types of questions raised concerns. As the current president of the NEA-NM, a local teachers union, shes taken steps to figure out who sent the directive, and why, by filing a complaint with the state. The district has until June 2nd to formally respond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were terrified to be asked to give private information about their students, Parr-Sanchez said about the teachers who brought the incident to her attention. The union argues the incident goes against a bargain reached by the district and teachers union, arguing the directive is out of educators agreed-upon work conditions. They also believe it violates FERPA, a federal law that protects student privacy. Our mission is to educate every child that comes to our schools regardless of their race, ethnicity, country of origin, Parr-Sanchez added. Espanola Public Schools said theyve started an investigation into the concerns and will take appropriate action if any violations are found. Its unclear who, or why the directive was sent out. The district sid they are unable to comment further, as the investigation takes place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NEA-NM provided KRQE News 13 with a quote from the ACT testing group, that states ACT does not ask for, or collect information about examinees immigration status this is not a requirement for taking our exams and is not information we collect or use in any way. 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. President Donald Trump has created an aggressive, America-first agenda for his second presidency. Part of his focus has been bringing manufacturing back into the United States, as evidenced by his continued comments about reshoring amidst the topsy-turvy of his tariff strategy. In some industries, thats a feasible proposalbut in fashion and apparel, it may prove a bit more difficult. More from Sourcing Journal Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sourcing strongholds like China, Vietnam and Bangladesh offer brands and retailers the ability to purchase mass quantities of goodsoften made cheaper than they could be in the United States. But with their supply chains in jeopardy due to tariffs and general economic uncertainty, some companies have taken a harder look at what reshoring would actually require. Niki English, senior director of brand development at AJG Fashion Consulting, said that brands have long shown interest in nearshoring or onshoring, but most ultimately balk at the prices associated. It has always been a discussion: Hey, can we manufacture closer? Can we manufacture in the U.S.? When we run cost scenarios, it just doesnt play out because of the cost of production in the U.S., she said. For some brands, it can definitely be workable, but for people looking to compete in the mass market or lower-price retail space, its often just not workable. Kristen Anderson, design director at womens intimates brand Iteration, said the company is among the many that have investigatedbut ultimately shied away frommanufacturing in the U.S. She said that products that have technical components to them, like bras, are even harder to find qualified manufacturers for in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even if it was possible, it would be so costly that nobody would want to buy it because we wouldnt be able to afford it, Anderson said. While Anderson said her team would love to produce products in the U.S., Iteration couldnt find a manufacturer that could feasibly make its products in a cost-effective way. Instead, the brand turned to Sri Lanka, which faced a prohibitive tariff of 44 percent on Trumps Liberation Day. Tariffs on most countries remain on hold because of 90-day pauses instated by Trump, meant to usher in trade deals, and uncertainty over Trumps authority to instate double-digit tariffs remains. But part of the equation for domestic manufacturing is often importing the textiles or components that need to be included in a finished product. Once final tariff rates have been settled, whether by Trump or by his Republican allies in Congress, added costs for materials could make onshoring aspirations difficult to turn into reality in a cost-effective way, said Mark Burstein, senior vice president, Americas at supply chain management company Inspectorio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many brands and retailers have actively dispatched teams across the U.S. searching for domestic apparel producers. However, a significant challenge remains: limited fabric availability. Most domestic apparel factories havent been able to scale operations effectively due to constraints like small order volumes that fail to achieve efficiency targets or price points so low that factories would operate at a loss, Burstein told Sourcing Journal. While high tariffs imposed on major international apparel partners could potentially create opportunities for domestic growth, the persistent lack of fabric variety remains a substantial barrier. Immigrants impact While brands onshoring aspirations have increased since Liberation Day, Trumps immigration policies may have a deeper-than-expected impact on fashion and apparel companies ability to source products domestically. When Trump was elected in 2016, the then 70-year-old campaigned on a promise to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Once he became president, he enacted a series of pro-business policiesincluding cutting the corporate tax rate, rolling back regulations and taking a hardline stance against trade partners like Chinato support that goal, according to The Poynter Institute. Simultaneously, Trump made immigration a central issue of his presidency, frequently warning about the dangers of undocumented immigrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But immigrants play a critical role in domestic manufacturingparticularly where the apparel industry is concerned. In 2016 alone, an estimated 23.1 percent of workers in the textile, apparel and furnishings sector in the U.S. were undocumented immigrants, according to New American Economy. That amounts to roughly 120,000 individuals powering a key segment of the industry. Almost 10 years later, Trump is still singing the same tune. Before his second term began, Trump stated On Day OneWe will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. And he has kept true to his promise. Earlier this year, Trump sent planes full of Latin American migrants to Colombia, fulfilling his repeated campaign promise to deport undocumented immigrants en masse and using that as a bargaining chip for U.S. economic gain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Witness at the Border, a migrant advocacy group, Trump sent at least 350 deportation flights out of the U.S. between Jan. 20 and mid-March. Those flights went to countries like Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, among others. He has also repeatedly promised to secure the Southern border of the U.S. to prevent the flow of illegal immigration. As part of his latest efforts to curb illegal immigration, former President Donald Trump signed a proclamation in May launching Project Homecoming, a program aimed at encouraging undocumented immigrants to voluntarily leave the U.S. According to the White House, the initiative offers two options: Depart voluntarily with federal support and financial assistance, or remain and face stricter enforcement and penalties. The continued presence of illegal aliens in our nation forces American taxpayers to bear a tremendous fiscal burden to support them, Trump said. As president, it is my legal obligation to exercise all tools at my disposal to end this invasion, remove the illegal-alien invaders from the United States and protect the American people, [which is why Im launching] Project Homecoming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But that kind of policy could be a mismatch with Trumps apparent reshoring aspirations. Jamie E. Wright, founder and CEO of the Wright Law Firm, a labor and employment law firm, said domestic apparel manufacturers are likely to face significant headwinds as a result of Trumps policies. The labor shortage in U.S. manufacturing is already significant, and if immigration restrictions under a second Trump administration mirror or tighten past policies, we could see a real contraction in the available workforce, Wright said. The apparel sector is particularly vulnerable because such a large percentage of the labor force has historically included undocumented or immigrant workers. If enforcement ramps up and pathways to work remain limited, the pool of eligible workers will shrink, fast. There are several problems that come alongside Wrights assessment. Losing a large subset of workers also means that domestic factories will lose those workers specialized skillsand according to those in the industry, that could be daunting to backfill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prior to working with Iteration, Anderson worked for several brands, including one that sold swimwear. She said the company employed several sewists to help make samples, but noted that filling those positionsand retaining the workersproved difficult because of high demand for their specific skill set. We never had a sewist in the sample room that was under the age of 50, she said. Almost every single one of them was mature and speaking another language primarily. That population is going to get smaller and smaller with all of the [changes] happening right now, and theyre going to be more and more afraid to work. Anderson and other experts said they worry about the treatment of immigrant workers for that exact reason; Eric Kingsley, partner at Kingsley Szamet Employment Lawyers in California, said more restrictive immigration policy opens the door for poor treatment for, in particular, undocumented workers. The clothing sectors reliance on immigrant labor, and in particular those who are undocumented, creates a situation where workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation. More restrictive immigration policies serve to embolden the worst perpetrators in the sector to drive down wages, ignore safety standards and punish complaining workers, knowing that such workers fear deportation, Kingsley told Sourcing Journal. As these policies continue to tighten, we can expect deteriorating working conditions and more widespread wage suppression, not only for undocumented workers but throughout the entire labor market, as fewer and fewer workers feel secure in demanding their rights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those issues compound an already stark reality: As of January 2024, more than 600,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs remained unfilled, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the problem is worse in nondurable goods than it is in durable goods manufacturing. For many Americans, working in a factory or manufacturing facility isnt an attractive proposition. Tech as a tactic? With a president hyperfixated on onshoring, a labor shortage, a lack of large-scale facilities, steep offshore competition and tight immigration policies as the backdrop, it could be difficult to find a skilled labor force capable of handling apparel and fashion manufacturing in the immediate near term. But if onshoring becomes more of a reality, experts believe technology could help plug somethough not nearly allof the gaps left behind. English said that while technology is suited to handle some tasks, it cannot fully replace the work of a sewist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive seen fully automated sewing machines for things like towels or square [items], but as soon as you start to have 3D shapesyou need to have that human involved, English said. The way I think automation could help the most would be efficiencieslaying out a pattern on the fabric most efficiently to reduce waste, or those types of planning [functions]. When it comes to the actual making, were not anywhere near being able to replicate that. Farzin Shadpour, partner at Silicon Foundry, said that while automation is likely to aid reshoring in the fashion and apparel industries, the technical infrastructure inside U.S. apparel manufacturing facilities today is sparse, and other industries have a leg up. With that in mind, he said the industry would need to digitize existing records and remove data silos, then automate the physical world. Bringing the fashion and apparel industries manufacturing prowess up is also likely to require building new factories in hubs suited to handle the volume of incoming demand. Its possible to improve what we have, but if youre reshoring something and you want to compete with outside, then it should be built from the ground up with automation in mind, Shadpour told Sourcing Journal, noting that any new-build factory would take at least two years to come to fruition. Whats more, even if a company can expedite the construction of a new facilityor look to purchase robotics and automation tools that could make current factories more efficientthe inventory for such items may not exist, Shadpour said. A robot is not something that they have sitting around on the shelf, Shadpour said. Most of [them are] made to order. Lets say you order 100 robots. They make it for you, and then they ship it to you in three months, so its not something that can happen overnight. Max Ma, CEO of merchandising software company 7thOnline, said that while he believes reshoring is potentially feasible in the longer term, the government would likely need to help subsidize the costs of building new factories, integrating emerging technologies and upskilling existing workers, something Trump seems unlikely to support give his tanks and technology over T-shirts and sneakers comments. I dont see any reason for the government not to incentivize the business in the first place, if they believe this will generate jobs and generate tax income, Ma said. But even if technology is integrated in a meaningful way into existing or emerging manufacturing facilities, English said another major part of the equation will be reskilling employees who have previously worked in manufacturing facilitiesor training a completely new sector of the workforceon how to work side by side with emerging technologies. Kingsley said immigrants employed by todays manufacturing facilities could be excluded from such trainingparticularly if they are undocumented. And with a president largely unsympathetic toward immigrants success, that could lead to obsolescence for a large subsection of workers powering the apparel manufacturing operations in the U.S. today. Systematic discrimination in recruitment or training can exclude these workers from emerging opportunities even if they have transferable skills, Kingsley said. Without targeted policies creating avenues for legal status, open retraining schemes and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, these obstacles will remain. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) An 18-year-old from Depew was arraigned on an indictment charging him with attempted murder after he allegedly shot a Dollar Tree employee multiple times earlier this month, according to the Erie County District Attorneys Office. Around 6:15 p.m. on the evening of May 7, the then-17-year-old allegedly shot the 20-year-old employee multiple times in the parking lot with an illegal gun, according to police. She was taken to ECMC and treated for serious injuries. The teenager then fled the scene and barricaded himself in an apartment on Main Street for around three hours before surrendering to a SWAT team, according to Village of Depew Chief of Police James McNamara. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The teen was arraigned on an indictment charging him with second-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault, first-degree assault, and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He is scheduled to return to Youth Part on June 30. He is currently being held at the Erie County Youth Services Center and a temporary order of protection for the victim remains in effect. Latest Local News Kayleigh Hunter-Gasperini joined the News 4 team in 2024 as a Digital Video Producer. She is a graduate of Chatham University. 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. (EL PASO COUNTY, Colo.) A 17-year-old has been arrested on multiple charges after a string of car thefts and break-ins in the Cimarron Hills area. According to the El Paso County Sheriffs Office (EPSO), deputies originally responded shortly before 5 a.m. on Saturday, May 24 after multiple 911 calls reported a group of suspects breaking in to cars in the 2300 block of Kein Place in Cimarron Hills. Callers also reported hearing gunshots, and one victim was allegedly threatened by the suspects during the attempted break-ins. When deputies arrived, they discovered an abandoned stolen car in the neighborhood. Through their investigation, deputies also identified 14 additional car break-ins and confirmed another vehicle had been stolen in the area. Surveillance footage showed that between four and six suspects were involved in the crime spree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The following day, around 12:12 a.m. on May 25, deputies were alerted by Flock Safety cameras that a stolen car was near the Citadel Mall, and the car was identified as the one stolen from Cimarron Hills the night before. EPSO said the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) and Colorado Springs Police Department assisted in locating the car at the Taco Star on Circle Drive. The stolen car had to be blocked in by law enforcement vehicles, and the driver and front-seat passenger both ran away on foot, leaving two passengers in the car. After a short foot chase, CSP troopers captured the driver, who allegedly had a gun on him at the time of his arrest. The 17-year-old driver was booked into the Zebulon Pike Youth Services Center on multiple charges, including motor vehicle theft, vehicular eluding, juvenile in possession of a firearm, and violation of a restraining order. The two teens left in the car were interviewed and subsequently released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. ROCKDALE TOWNSHIP A Cambridge Springs Volunteer Fire Department pumper truck sustained minor damage when a 17-year-old struck it in a crash over Memorial Day weekend, according to a report from Pennsylvania State Police at Meadville. Neither the two drivers nor two passengers in the firetruck were injured in the crash, which took place Saturday at about 9:46 a.m. on Miller Station Road just south of Mackey Hill Road, according to the report. When he saw a car coming fast around a curve toward the stopped firetruck he was driving, Chief Nathan Walczak had one thought on his mind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was holding on, hoping they were going to stop in time, but they did not, Walczak said, recalling the crash in a phone interview Thursday. It couldve been way worse. Everyone got very lucky nobody was hurt. Thats the most important part. The crash occurred when the 17-year-old girl was traveling south on Miller Station Road and the firetruck, a 2013 Spartan Motors pumper, was stopped in the northbound lane, police reported. The girl, traveling at a high rate of speed, tried to navigate a right-hand curve in the roadway but crossed over into the northbound lane and struck the truck before she could stop. Walczak said that Cambridge Springs firefighters had been on a training exercise with Rockdale Township staff members and were following their counterparts back to the Rockdale Township building, located near the intersection of Miller Station and Mackey Hill roads. As a Rockdale Township front loader was pulling into the township building, he saw the 17-year-olds car coming around the curve just north of where he was stopped. The girls 1999 Toyota Corolla sustained functional damage in the crash, according to police, who did not release the drivers name due to her age. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fire truck sustained minor damage to its front bumper, Walczak said, and remains in service. In addition to Walczak, two other firefighters were riding in the truck, a 63-year-old man and a 28-year-old man. Both drivers and passengers were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash, according to police. The crash was recorded by security cameras at the Rockdale Township building, according to police. After reviewing footage of the incident, police charged the 17-year-old driver with failure to drive on the right side of the roadway. Walczak said it was the first time a department vehicle had been involved in a crash since he became chief in 2023. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) A teenage driver was killed and at least one other person was seriously injured in a street racing crash in Antioch Thursday night. The crash happened just before 9 p.m. in the 2900 block of Anderson Road in the Priest Lake neighborhood. Homeland Security identifies Nashville as sanctuary city (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) (Photo: WKRN) According to Metro police, an Infiniti M37 was racing another vehicle when officers attempted to stop them. However, both vehicles reportedly fled and police decided to not pursue them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A short time later, both vehicles crashed. Officials said the Infiniti ran off the left side of Anderson Road, hit a mailbox, a parked van and light pole before colliding into a home. Meanwhile, officials at the scene told News 2 the other vehicle lost control and hit two other vehicles in an intersection. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com The 18-year-old driver of the Infiniti died at the scene. Police added he and his two 17-year-old passengers were not wearing seatbelts. Both passengers were reportedly taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, with one suffering from life-threatening injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said toxicology testing will be conducted to determine whether impairment played a role in the deadly crash. No additional details were released. Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go. Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox. Find todays top stories on WKRN.com for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee. This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes 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 WKRN News 2. TERRA ALTA, W.Va. (WBOY) Following the recent resignations of its mayor and town recorder, Terra Altas Town Council held an emergency meeting Thursday evening to appoint people to serve as interims in those positions. During the emergency session, the council appointed James Monk Tasker as interim mayor and Jason Verbonitz as interim town recorder, both will serve in these roles until July 1. The towns municipal election will be held on June 10. So, filling that vacancy of mayor and recorder, we had to fill that so that we can continue to move forward to pay our bills, our utilities, things like that so we arent falling behind with late fees and things being shut off, Terra Alta Town Clerk Kambra Sisler said. So, now that we do have an active mayor and a recorder, we can proceed with paying our monthly bills as usual and try to take steps forward to get moving in the right direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this month, former Terra Alta Mayor Dan Hauger took responsibility for the towns failure to meet its 2025-2026 budget deadline, which could jeopardize the towns ability to collect taxes for the next fiscal year. The West Virginia State Auditors office previously told 12 News that the town was seven weeks behind on submitting an extension to submit its budget. Levy funds in jeopardy for Terra Alta Public Library We did submit the budget last Friday, [May 23], we sent that by email to the state, Sisler said. We got an email back that said that it was their standard acknowledgement that we submitted the budget, and that they had received it, that the acknowledgement does not imply it is being processed at this time. I must speak with our legal department before I consider processing this budget document that you have submitted. So, I do have phone calls into the state today. During the meeting, concerned community members questioned the four council members about the town charter and the recent appointments of the mayor and recorder. Town officials admitted they could not locate the current charter and only found an outdated version from before the town was officially established. They also explained that they were following guidance from the state code in making the appointments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite Haugers resignation, he is the sole candidate listed on the ballot for mayor in the upcoming election, making his re-election highly likely. Should Hauger be re-elected, he will be required to resign once more, prompting the council to appoint a new mayor for the term beginning July 1. A comparable situation applies to former town recorder Mikaela Bernard, who is running as a write-in candidate against two others. If elected, she would also need to resign, and the council would once again appoint someone to fill the position. 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 WBOY.com. The Kyiv Independents Chris York sits down with Michael Carpenter, former U.S. Ambassador to OSCE and senior director for Europe at the National Security Council, to discuss the current lagging U.S. military support for Ukraine amid the ongoing ceasefire talks with Russia. Carpenter also offers his predictions for the future of Ukraines occupied territories. Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) announced on Wednesday that it has officially purchased 4,710 bitcoins, valued at over $512 million, marking the company's first move into cryptocurrency. The purchase mirrors a strategy popularized by MicroStrategy and represents the video game retailers shift toward digital asset investment. GameStop Corp. (GME) Slides as Investors React to $500 Million Bitcoin Purchase The acquisition was made at an average price of $108,837 per bitcoin. GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) had initially signaled its interest in adding crypto to its balance sheet earlier this year, with CNBC reporting the plan in February. The company later confirmed in March that there was no cap on how much bitcoin it might acquire. Despite the scale of the investment, GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) shares fell by 10.9% on Wednesday. This decline came after the company revealed it would be moving away from its traditional video game retail business to focus more on cryptocurrencies. According to a March SEC filing, GameStop aims to raise $1.3 billion through convertible notes as part of the shift. The filing noted that the strategy is designed to maintain liquidity for daily operations while seeking higher investment returns. Vitaliy Shtyrkin, chief product officer at crypto payment processor B2BINPAY, believes that Bitcoin might not be the perfect solution GameStop expects. He pointed out that Bitcoins well-known price swings, which attract Strategy investors, bring additional risks for GameStops investors. He also noted that the companys stock is already struggling due to falling video game sales. He made the following comment: "Bitcoin is exciting for a loyal investor base, but it distracts from core fundamentals: if crypto prices drop, GameStop may easily end up in a double-bind." GME has surged by nearly 2% since the start of 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of GME 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 GME and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ MORE: Why These Energy Stocks are Losing This Week and 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now Disclosure. None. NEED TO KNOW Julius Jordan Priester, 24, was charged after allegedly attacking a flight attendant mid-flight The disturbance led to the plane being diverted back to Bradley International Airport Priester faces federal charges for assaulting a crew member and interfering with flight operations charges that carry up to 20 years in prison A Kansas man is facing charges after he allegedly grabbed a flight attendant and dragged them up the aisle of a plane. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Julius Jordan Priester, 24, from Kansas, was arrested and charged with assaulting a crew member on a flight leaving from Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. On May 27, Priester was onboard an American Airlines flight heading to Chicago, per the statement. About 30 minutes to an hour later, he stood up, began to take off his shirt and ran to the back of the plane yelling, Help me. Prosecutors say Priester then grabbed a flight attendant, who was seated, and shouted, youre coming with me, forcing them onto the ground. He then allegedly attempted to drag the flight attendant up the aisle. Several passengers intervened and were able to get Priester back to his seat, the statement said. Authorities say he continued acting erratically and making incoherent statements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This led to the plane captain declaring an emergency where they diverted the plane back to Bradley Airport. After the plane landed, Priester was removed by Connecticut State Police and taken by an ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation, the statement said. Priester will be detained pending a bond hearing on May 30, prosecutors say. The charges of interfering with flight crew members and attendants carries a maximum term of 20 years of imprisonment. 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. American Airlines said it does not tolerate violence, in a statement to CBS News. We thank our team members for their professionalism and our customers for their assistance, the airline added. Priesters case is being investigated by the FBI and Connecticut State Police, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Read the original article on People Austinites may soon be able to hop in a Tesla robotaxi, as Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker targets a possible June 12 launch and has already started testing its driverless Model Y vehicles in the city. Musk posted on his social media site X on Thursday, saying Tesla has already started testing self-driving Model Y cars in Austin over the past several days. The company previously promised a June start date for testing. For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in drivers seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents. A month ahead of schedule. Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025 Musk announced initial plans to bring a paid ride-hailing service, powered by Tesla's robotaxis, to Austin this year. That date appears to be sooner rather than later, as Bloomberg reported the Austin-based automaker is prepping for a June 12 robotaxi launch, although the date could change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some reports earlier this month indicated that Tesla had not started testing without drivers as of mid-May. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wrote in a May 8 letter to Tesla that the agency, "would like to gather additional information about Tesla's development of technologies for use in 'robotaxi' vehicles to understand how Tesla plans to evaluate its vehicles and driving automation technologies for use on public roads." This data is key for public safety and for approval from NHTSA. The Model Y robotaxi vehicles are the same as those sold to the public. Tesla has faced significant delays with the production of a newer, more affordable version. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Neither Tesla nor Musk has provided explicit details about how Tesla's rideshare service will operate. Musk unveiled the self-driving Cybercab robotaxi models last October at his company's "We, Robot" event. The two-door models feature no steering wheels, gas or brake pedals. At the event, Musk claimed the fully autonomous vehicles would be "10 times safer than a human." The tech billionaire first teased the robotaxi in 2019 and has claimed since 2016 that Tesla is about a year away from delivering a self-driving car. Musk's company will not be the first autonomous raid-hailing service in Austin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In partnership with Uber, Waymo launched across Austin ahead of this year's South by Southwest Conference and Festival. The signature differences between Waymo and Tesla's self-driving vehicles is that Musk's company relies majorly on camera sensors, whereas, Waymo's vehicles rely on lidar, radar and camera sensors for guidance. Tesla's June target for a robotaxi launch aligns with its CEO's renewed focus on his businesses. Musk, who has served as the head of the federal government's Department of Government Efficiency since President Donald Trump took office, announced this week that he is officially walking away from Washington. His role with DOGE, which was always meant to be temporary, abruptly came to an end this week. Tesla has faced a substantial decline in sales this year, with profits in the first quarter of 2025 falling 71% compared to the same period last year. The company also recently recorded its fourth consecutive month of slumped European sales, even though electric vehicle adoption rates are up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Tesla's April earnings call, Musk said he'd be spending more time at his companies in the coming months, but that has since shifted to completely leaving politics behind. Ahead of his aerospace company SpaceX's launch on Tuesday, he told a journalist that he spent "too much time" on politics this year. Musk's move back to work also comes just after Tesla investors, who collectively own about 7.9 million shares in the company, penned a letter to the company's board chair demanding that Musk return to a 40-hour work week at the company. Teslas stock price volatility, declining sales, as well as disconcerting reports regarding the companys human rights practices, and a plummeting global reputation are cause for serious concern, the letter stated. Moreover, many issues are linked to Mr. Musks actions outside of his role as Technoking and Chief Executive Officer at Tesla, including his high-profile role as an architect of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Tesla's self-driving cars are testing in Austin as company aims June robotaxi service launch TEXARKANA (KTAL/KMSS) Torn reactions from community members after departments in Texarkana, Arkansas, announced a joint project to clean up a street that some residents labeled a nuisance. Following numerous complaints about littering, vandalism, and loose animals, the city of Texarkanas public works, street, animal control, and police departments addressed the issues on the 1000 block of Prince Street. The area is a known homeless encampment. Bringing in excavators and clean-up teams, the city took on the job and shared an update on Facebook, where the communitys reactions were divided. Some residents expressed gratitude for the cleanup, while others were disappointed, questioning if tearing down the space was morally correct. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One comment noted, These were peoples homes, the only place most of them had. This is so cruel. Why not help them or take them to a place you people are willing to let them live? On the other end, some believe that taking action is the best way to assist. If we keep people who are homeless from setting up encampments on other peoples property, you eventually force them to seek help. The post for the city gathering over 300 comments from locals taking a side on the matter. People living at the encampment were notified of resources within Texarkana and the surrounding area for assistance. One arrest was made for a person who had an outstanding warrant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city says the operation was part of the College Hill Rejuvenation project started in January 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 KTALnews.com. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has completed a three-year digital overhaul of its most extensive historical map collection, making more than 8,000 surveying documents accessible online for the first time. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced Thursday that the GLO Sketch Files collection now features a comprehensive digital index covering records from the 1830s to the present. The digitization effort transforms how surveyors, researchers, and history enthusiasts can access crucial Texas boundary and surveying records that have shaped the states development for nearly two centuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a proud ninth generation Texan, I am honored to be a steward of our states rich history which has been preserved by the GLO since its founding in 1836 through the preservation of thousands of precious records, maps and documents, Buckingham said. The collection contains 8,122 unique documents, including surveyor sketches, field notes, correspondence, and court judgments related to original land surveys. Archives staff spent nearly three years modernizing the massive collection while adding crucial metadata such as alternate titles, contributors, and dates to aid in locating specific documents. The collection remains active, with surveyors continuously submitting new materials to the GLOs Surveying Services Division. Buckingham praised the Archives and Records Division for bringing this vital collection into the 21st century, making it easily searchable for surveyors, researchers, and Texas history enthusiasts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The digital index represents the GLOs latest effort to modernize historical preservation. Buckingham, who became Texas first female Land Commissioner in 2022, has previously announced pre-sales for historical map books, including Texas Takes Shape and the Alamo Defenders Heritage Map of Texas. The digitized Sketch Files Collection Index is now available as a free PDF download through the GLOs historic Texas maps website. AUSTIN (KXAN) For the second consecutive session, legislation targeting drag story time events died in the Texas House of Representatives. Senate Bill 18 missed a key deadline this week to be fully considered on the House floor, effectively ending its chances of becoming state law. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick identified the legislation as a priority this session after a similar measure died in the House in 2023. Before stalling in Texas Senate, homosexual conduct bill made legislative history Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill called for stripping public funding for any library that hosted a childrens reading event led by a drag performer. Supporters argued it was needed to protect kids from the confusion of seeing someone dressed in drag and concerns about them being exposed to inappropriate content. However, opponents accused lawmakers of using this to crack down further on the LGBTQ+ community and said it would do nothing to actually protect Texas children. The legislation passed the Texas Senate in February along a party line vote, and a House committee then took up the legislation in May and recommended it for consideration in the full chamber. Even though SB 18 made it onto the intent calendar Tuesday, the House took no action on it in the rush of the final few days of the session. Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, reintroduced the bill this year after the previous iteration of it met a similar fate in the lower chamber two years ago. The legislation advanced further than it did then because a House committee actually debated the bill, which never happened in 2023. KXAN reached out Thursday to Hughes office for comment about SB 18 dying this session and asked whether he would file it again when lawmakers reconvene in 2027. This story will be updated whenever Hughes shares a response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reporting about his previous proposal, Senate Bill 1601, was featured in a KXAN investigative project called OutLaw: A Half-Century Criminalizing LGBTQ+ Texans. It looked in-depth at the historic number of bills filed in the 2023 session impacting the states LGBTQ+ 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 KXAN Austin. AUSTIN (Nexstar) Deadlines for passing bills on second and third readings have come and gone in the Texas Capitol, and now lawmakers turn their attention to the final steps of passing remaining bills in the final days of the session. At this point in the session, House bills amended by the Senate and Senate bills amended by the House are being returned to their originating chamber for final approval. The sponsor of the bill must tell each body if they concur with the changes made to their legislation. If not, the bill moves on to conference committee, like House Bill 3071 by State Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican from Fort Worth. He got up to the front mic of the House chamber to talk about amendments made to his bill, which relates to the cancellation of certain solid waste disposal permits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre not any good and I am requesting to go to conference, Geren said to thunderous cheers in the chamber, a point of levity after long consecutive days and nights of debating and voting. What happens in conference committee? When a conference committee request is approved there are five members selected, known as conferees, from each chamber, including the two bill sponsors. What has been described as a closed-door negotiation between the ten members is actually more like a negotiation between two people. Dennis Bonnen, the former Speaker of the House, said most of the time negotiations begin even before a conference committee is called. Your lead author in the House, your lead author in the Senate, theyre already talking. Theyve been talking through the whole process, Bonnen explained. In fact, the other conferees are more symbolic and only provide a signature once an agreement has been made between the bill authors. Mark Strama, a former state lawmaker, and Bonnen both agreed they forgot they were conferees on a conference committee until they were asked to sign on to the final language of the bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For a bill to pass out of conference committee it needs three signatures of approval from each coalition of conferees. It then goes back to each chamber for final approval from the full body. A majority of conference committees work just like that, but there are instances where legislation is significant enough that all members of the conference committee are contributing to the solution. One prime example is the appropriations bill, which funds the state over a two-year period. Theyre bigger issues. Theyre more significant. Theres more volume to be dealt with, Bonnen explained. This session, Bonnen believes the states Compassionate Use Program (TCUP) is one of those bills that will need all hands on deck. Negotiations between the Senate and House have been ongoing for the past couple of weeks as the legislature moved to ban all hemp-derived intoxicants. There is a push to expand the TCUP to allow more people to be eligible for the medical cannabis program, and make it easier for patients to get their prescription. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Strama also pointed out that conference committees can be used to revive bills that died either on the chamber floor or in committees. For the most part, conference committees are deciding between the differences in a House-approved and Senate-approved bill. But there is a procedure where the committee conferees could go out of bounds to add in additional provisions from other bills. Its known as going out of bounds. To do this, the conference committee would have to go to each floor and ask for a resolution to go out of bounds. A majority of both chambers would need to approve that resolution. When youre out of power, youre looking for ways to stretch a conference committee report to extend to something to one of your bills that failed, Strama 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 KXAN Austin. A school finance bill that includes teacher pay raises is headed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The Texas House on May 29 accepted Senate changes to House Bill 2, which directs $8.5 billion to public schools. The vote was 122-13. Rep. Brad Buckley, a Salado Republican and the bills author, outlined the legislation as approved by the Senate on May 23. He said it directs $4.2 billion to teacher salaries through a new teacher retention allotment designed to reflect the value of experience in the teaching profession and offer educators the opportunity to pursue teaching as a career that can support their families. The raises would take effect in the 2025-2026 school year, according to the lieutenant governors office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Teachers will see the following raises from the allotment in districts with more than 5,000 students: $2,500 for teachers with three to four years of experience. $5,000 for teachers with five or more years of experience. In smaller districts with fewer than 5,000 students, the teacher pay raises are: $4,000 for teachers with three to four years of experience. $,8000 for teachers with five or more years of experience. The bill sets aside $500 million in flexible funding for non-administrative staff pay raises, such as entry-level teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, custodians and bus drivers, Buckley said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Buckley said other funding initiatives include: $677 million for early learning programs. $430 million for school safety funding. An $850 million increase for special education. $200 million in charter facilities funding. A $300 million increase in an allotment for small and mid-sized schools. $153 million for career and technical education. $135 million for teacher preparation and certification initiatives. The bill also directs $1.3 billion to schools, Buckley said. Districts get $106 per student for expenses that include transportation, costs related to retired teachers, utilities, property and casualty insurance, health insurance and employee benefits, according to the bill. Members, this final piece is a fiscally conservative, bipartisan response to points this body raised on the committee dais and on the floor, Buckley said. The most recurring requests we heard from our schools was to increase the basic allotment. By allocating this dedicated funding to address rising costs in the operation of districts, we can ensure that more of our basic allotment dollars stay in the classroom where they belong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The basic allotment is the base amount of funding districts get per student. The bill the House passed earlier in the session included $395 to increase the basic allotment. The bill headed to Abbott increases the allotment by $55. Much of the legislative session has centered on school funding, as lawmakers considered public school funding and private school vouchers. Abbott signed the voucher bill into law May 3. The program lets parents use state dollars for their childs private education or home schooling. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows praised the bill in May 22 statements, announcing details of the school finance bill, as agreed to by leadership in both chambers. We are proud to announce that House and Senate leaders have agreed upon a public education investment that will direct record new funding where it will make the biggest difference in the lives of students and teachers, Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, said at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abbott can sign the bill into law or veto it. We have been working diligently with the House in countless meetings and thoughtful discussions throughout the session to create the most effective school finance bill in Texas history, Patrick said in the May 22 statement. House Bill 2 targets specific needs that will help create the best education system in America. I am proud of the work that members in both chambers, and both parties, have done. My priority has always been to pay teachers as professionals and focus on student outcomes over the 1,200 districts across Texas. Members of the House Democratic Caucus in May 29 statements supported the increased funding for schools, while cautioning there is still more that schools need. As a former educator and school administrator, I know that our schools need funding without delays, said Rep. Alma Allen, a Houston Democrat. I voted to pass HB 2 because for too long, our educators have been asked to do more with less. After years of legislative gridlock caused by Greg Abbott, and a school closure crisis that needs addressing now, we must take this step forward while continuing the fight to fully fund our schools at the level they deserve. Our childrens education cannot be held hostage to political games, and I will continue to fight for the comprehensive school finance reform that Texas children deserve. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Content warning for discussions of sexual violence and harassment. Usually asteroids are distant features of the cosmos, occasionally crashing down to Earth or threatening the planet. Not so for former Texas solicitor general Judd Stone, who's been accused of making the distant space rocks a focal point in violent and bizarre fantasies about a coworker that he regaled to other people. Needless to say, that's wildly inappropriate and unacceptable. As 404 Media reports, Stone has now resigned from his position after a damning letter aired the allegations, which involved apologies in advance a phallic asteroid used as a sexual implement, like some sort of grotesque riff on a Chuck Tingle book. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a letter sent by Texas' first assistant attorney general Brent Webster, Stone who had at the time taken a leave of absence to defend Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial joked during a 2023 lunching with other government employees about a "disturbing sexual fantasy" that involved a "cylindrical asteroid." During the debacle, Stone described using said asteroid to sexually assault Webster while his wife and children watched. That letter, which is five pages long and full of additional allegations of sexual harassment and lies Stone allegedly told, is replete with gory details about this case that we won't regale you with. What's striking to us at Futurism, however, is the "cylindrical asteroid" of it all. Where did Texas's now-former solicitor general get such an idea, and what could it mean about who he is as a person and, more importantly, how did it affect the people he worked with? While we don't have answers to those first two, it's quite clear from the letter how Stone's gruesome asteroid "joke" affected him and his colleagues. Along with Webster's own concerns about Stone's violent state of mind and his fear that his family could be in danger, the assistant AG added that a female employee who had been present for that stomach-turning lunch discussion had been so upset by the topic that she excused herself only to return to japes from others at the table who said she "couldn't handle people talking about dicks." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That same woman "exhibited emotional distress" when recounting the anecdote to Webster, and also told him, through tears, that she had been sexually harassed on other occasions by Stone and was concerned about the way he treated women. When confronted with the sexual harassment allegations against him, Stone admitted to them all immediately, including the bizarre asteroid fantasy. He was, as 404 notes, given the grace to quit or be fired, and chose the former. More on Texas-based misogyny: In Leaked Text, Elon Musk Harangued Woman to Have as Many of His Babies as Possible EL PASO, Texas (EL PASO MATTERS) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton can move forward with his efforts to gather records from El Pasos Annunciation House to investigate his claims that the migrant shelter network was harboring undocumented immigrants, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. We conclude that the trial court erred in its constitutional holdings. We likewise conclude that the courts related injunctions, which prevent the attorney general from even filing a quo warranto action, were premature at best. Our primary holding is that the attorney general has the constitutional authority to file his proposed quo warranto action, which simply allows the usual litigation process to unfold, the states highest civil court said in an 8-0 decision. Quo warranto is a centuries old legal term, with roots in English common law, that requires a person or organization to show what authority they have for exercising a right or ability they hold. In this case, Paxton is challenging Annunciation Houses right to do business in Texas. The ruling noted that this is the first time in more than a century that the Texas Supreme Court ruled on a quo warranto proceeding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ruben Garcia, founder and executive director of Annunciation, told El Paso Matters Friday that the organization is looking at the full ruling and couldnt comment until they have a complete understanding of all its implications. The court overturned a July 2024 ruling by 205th District Judge Francisco Dominguez of El Paso, who ruled that the outrageous and intolerable actions by the Attorney Generals Office were unlawful and relied on unconstitutional statutes. Paxtons office appealed the decision directly to the Texas Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in January. Paxton and all the justices on the Texas Supreme Court are Republicans. Dominguez is a Democrat. Justice James Sullivan, who was appointed to the high court last year by Gov. Greg Abbott, did not participate in the decision. Supreme Court justices arent required to explain reasons for recusing from cases. Annunciation House says it has operated in compliance with all laws and in accordance with Catholic teachings. Federal immigration agencies have long worked with the organization, which has operated for more than 40 years, to provide care for migrants after they are released by federal authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The shelter network said Paxtons request would give his office access to confidential records, and violated Annunciation Houses religious freedom. 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. GATX has entered a definitive agreement to purchase around 105,000 railcars from Wells Fargo for $4.4bn via its newly-established joint venture (JV) with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and its institutional partners. The initial equity ownership of the JV is divided between GATX, which holds 30%, and Brookfield Infrastructure, which holds 70%. GATX also has options to gradually acquire full ownership of the JV in the future. GATXs portfolio includes tank and freight railcars, aircraft spare engines, and tank containers. The acquired portfolio, primarily freight cars (95%), has a 97% utilisation rate and a diverse mix of car types. GATX president and CEO Robert Lyons said: Throughout our 125-plus-year history, we have developed unique asset, commercial and operational expertise that positions us to acquire and integrate this fleet. Importantly, by acquiring the assets in this manner, we will maintain the financial flexibility and capacity to continue growing all of our businesses while capitalising on the value creation opportunities inherent in the assets acquired. Additionally, Brookfield Infrastructure has also agreed to acquire Wells Fargos rail finance lease portfolio, which includes around 23,000 railcars and approximately 440 locomotives. GATX will act as manager of the railcars in the JV, as well as the finance lease railcars and locomotives owned by Brookfield Infrastructure. GATXs initial $400m equity contribution in the JV will be funded through operating cash flow and financing, with future call options, if exercised, allows the company to acquire Brookfields stake in ten years or less. Besides the partner equity contributions, for the JV financing a completely underwritten $3.2bn five -year unsecured term loan and a $250m unsecured revolving credit facility is provided by Wells Fargo Securities, BofA Securities, MUFG Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). BofA Securities advised GATX and Brookfield Infrastructure. Mayer Brown is acting as legal counsel for GATX, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is providing legal services to Brookfield Infrastructure. The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026 or earlier. "GATX, Brookfield Infrastructure to buy Wells Fargos rail assets for $4.4bn" was originally created and published by Railway Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. One bust involved a man accused of smuggling five illegal aliens; another netted a bus passenger wanted for rape. Here are this weeks three biggest criminal apprehensions at the Texas border: 1. Yukon or Tahoe? Border Patrol Busts Alleged Smuggler With 5 Aliens A Border Patrol chief announced the arrest and prosecution of an alleged human smuggler last week but the details seemed to shift depending on where you looked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez of the Rio Grande Valley sector posted on X on May 21 that agents had intercepted a white Tahoe allegedly used in an alien smuggling operation near Weslaco. Great Teamwork! she wrote, alongside a photo showing one detained driver and five apparent illegal aliens. DRIVER ARRESTED & PROSECUTED!! RGV Sector Border Patrol Agents from the Weslaco Station and our LE partners intercepted the driver of this white Tahoe involved in alien smuggling. Great Teamwork! pic.twitter.com/VXNAhI8i1d Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez (@USBPChiefRGV) May 21, 2025 A separate post by the same Border Patrol sector this time on Facebook described the vehicle as a white Yukon. The types of vehicles described are very similar. However, the photo depicts a GMC, and only GMC makes the Yukon. Both posts claimed the driver was prosecuted under 8 U.S. Code 1324, a statute commonly used in human smuggling cases. The names of those involved have not been released, and neither post included a specific date of arrest or location beyond the general sector. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to federal law, 1324 violations can carry up to 10 years per count, with heightened penalties if the smuggling was done for profit or in a manner that endangered human life. The incident appears to be one of several recent smuggling cases in the Rio Grande Valley, a region that federal officials routinely cite as a major corridor for illegal entry and trafficking. 2. Minnesota Rape Suspect Nabbed at Border A man wanted for rape in Minnesota was arrested over Memorial Day weekend while attempting to enter the United States through a Texas port of entry, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CBP officials say 50-year-old Nestor Martinez Carrillo was traveling by bus when he arrived at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge near Laredo on May 24. Officers reportedly flagged Carrillo for secondary inspection, then used biometric tools and law enforcement databases to confirm his identity. Officials say Carrillo had an outstanding felony arrest warrant issued by the Stearns County Sheriffs Office in Minnesota. The warrant, originally filed in August 2020, stemmed from a third-degree criminal sexual conduct case involving a failure to appear in court. He was transported to the Webb County Jail and booked the same day, The Dallas Express reported. Jail records show Carrillo now faces a charge of sexual assault. Like all criminal charges, the allegations remain unproven until tried in court. CBP officials cited the National Crime Information Center a federal database for active warrants as the tool that allowed officers to confirm Carrillos fugitive status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The arrest was one of several over Memorial Day weekend. According to CBP, another individual wanted in Dallas County for allegedly soliciting minors online was apprehended on May 26, while yet another man accused of rape in Illinois was caught on May 21. A twice-deported sex offender, convicted of assaulting a 14-year-old, was reportedly picked up that same day. These types of apprehension perfectly exemplify CBPs ongoing commitment to keeping our communities secure, said Port Director Tater Ortiz in the agencys press release. 3. Jesus Cedillo Turned A $6K Job Into A 10-Year Sentence for Moving Cocaine A man who admitted to transporting nearly 30 kilograms of cocaine through a Texas Border Patrol checkpoint was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas announced May 28. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal prosecutors say Jesus Cedillo, 36, was stopped on October 28, 2024, near the Falfurrias checkpoint. A Border Patrol K-9 reportedly alerted to Cedillos vehicle, prompting agents to search the car. Inside the speaker boxes in the trunk, they allegedly discovered multiple bundles of cocaine totaling 28.6 kilograms. Cedillo pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute and was sentenced to 126 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He admitted that a former co-worker had recruited him to make the delivery to Houston for $6,000. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Bird prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the source and destination of the drugs remain undisclosed, the bust adds to a growing pattern of drug couriers using everyday vehicles to ferry large narcotics loads through inland checkpoints, sometimes for relatively small compensation. To read about last weeks biggest border busts, click here: Texas Takedown Weekly: Borders Biggest Busts (May 23) Texas has become the latest state to pass a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. The bill, which is already being legally challenged and is unlikely to pass constitutional muster, is part of a recent trend of red states attempting to inject religious texts into the classroom. Senate Bill 10 requires public schools to "display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments." The poster is required to only contain the text of the Ten Commandments and must be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall. Further, if a school doesn't have an acceptable poster in each classroom, the bill requires them to accept any privately donated poster. The bill was passed by the Texas state House on Saturday and overwhelmingly approved in the state Senate with a 283 vote on Wednesday. While S.B. 10 has not yet been enacted, Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbot said in a social media post earlier this month that he would sign the bill if it passed the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similar bills have been recently signed into law in Louisiana and Arkansas. While Louisiana's Ten Commandments bill tried to avoid legal scrutiny by directing schools to only use private donations, not public funds, Texas' bill makes no such distinctions. The bill states that a school "may, but is not required to, purchase posters . . . using district funds." Louisiana's bill was halted in federal court last November, shedding doubt on the Texas bill's ability to survive a First Amendment challenge. The day after the bill was passed, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other groups announced that they were suing to stop the bill from becoming law. "We all have the right to decide what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice. Government officials have no business intruding on these deeply personal religious matters," reads a Thursday statement from the ACLU. "S.B. 10 will subject students to state-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments for nearly every hour of their public education. It is religiously coercive and interferes with families' right to direct children's religious education." The post Texas Ten Commandments Bill Is the Latest Example of Forcing Religious Texts In Public Schools appeared first on Reason.com. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety captured one of the states 10 Most Wanted fugitives, wanted on assault charges, earlier this week. DPS Troopers arrested Eliud Perez Reyes a violent offender in a traffic stop near the southern border on May 26, according to a press release. Reyes was wanted in Hidalgo County and Fayette County on charges ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to theft of property. The troopers pulled over the 45-year-old Reyes in Palmview, a small town along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the release. The suspect was driving a white 2014 Ford Escape, and he initially provided a false name to officers when asked for identification. The Palmview Police Department assisted in Reyes investigation. He was considered armed and dangerous. Reyes was booked into the Hidalgo County Jail May 27, according to jail records. His charge from Fayette County carries a $10,000 bond, and his charge for failing to identify as a fugitive carries a $5,000 bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reyes was wanted from Hidalgo County since December 2024 on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, assault of a family or household member by impeding breathing or circulation, and sexual assault, the release said. According to Hidalgo County Jail records, he allegedly committed all three offenses on December 10, 2022. Fayette County in Central Texas also issued a warrant for his arrest in January for alleged theft of property, according to the release. Since Reyes lied about his identity in the most recent traffic stop, he also faces a charge for failure to identify as a fugitive from justice. The Mission Police Department had previously arrested Reyes in December 2022, according to jail records. He faced charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, assault of a family or household member by impeding breathing or circulation, and sexual assault. Each charge carried a $5,000 bond. Reyes was booked into the jail on December 12 and released on December 23. Earlier that year, in March 2022, the La Joya Police Department arrested Reyes for driving while intoxicated, according to jail records. He was given a personal recognizance bond of $5,000. Reyes was booked on March 6 and released the same day. Texas Most Wanted Texas DPS is still seeking the publics help finding the nine other fugitives on the 10 Most Wanted list, according to the release. The governors Public Safety Office funds cash rewards for any person who provides information that leads to the arrest of one of Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Sex Offenders or Criminal Illegal Immigrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of these suspects Stephen Joseph Vess, an alleged pedophile has ties to Rockwall County, in the eastern portion of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. He is wanted for sexual assault of a child and possession of child pornography. Vess was arrested in Rockwall County for sexual assault of a child and bonded out in 2014, according to the listing. He allegedly committed sexual assault of a child on August 26, 2014, according to Rockwall County Jail records. His bond was set at $50,000, and he was released on September 18 that year. He reportedly failed to appear in court later that year, and warrants for his arrest were issued from Rockwall County on November 13, 2014. Officials are offering up to a $3,000 reward. The Most Wanted suspect with the most recent arrest warrant is Trevor Rhea McEuen. The Kaufman County Sheriffs Office arrested him in May 2023 for alleged involvement in the shooting and killing of his neighbor in Forney, just east of the DFW metroplex. While living near Grand Saline in East Texas, McEuen allegedly removed his ankle monitor on May 5, 2025, and failed to appear for trial in Kaufman County. Since then, county officials issued arrest warrants for capital murder by terror threat, murder, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Another warrant was issued out of Van Zandt County for arson of a home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police have been seeking another suspect, Arthur DeWayne Carson, for the longest time among those on the Most Wanted list nearly 12 years. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles issued an arrest warrant in October 2013 for a parole violation, and the Hays County Sheriffs Office issued an arrest warrant in September 2014 for aggravated robbery. Carson was last known to be in Austin and believed to be homeless. Texas DPS maintains another, separate 10 Most Wanted list for sex offenders, several of whom have ties to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. In Dallas, Cecil Colby Smith is wanted for child abuse and failure to register; Billy Morris Kelly is wanted for failure to comply with registration. In Grand Prairie, Gregory Jon Pecina Jr. is wanted for kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, failing to register as an offender, and violating probation after being charged with sexually assaulting a child. In Irving, Michael Evan Scott is wanted for violating registration requirements, and violating probation after being charged with indecent exposure to a child. All tips are anonymous regardless of how they are submitted and tipsters will be provided a tip number instead of using a name, the release reads. Do not attempt to apprehend these fugitives; they are considered armed and dangerous. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) According to the Tom Green County Sheriffs Office online inmate roster, only one person was booked into the Tom Green County Detention Center during a 24-hour period spanning from Thursday, May 29, to Friday, May 30. A jail lieutenant says there were more bookings than that, however. As of the time of publication, the agencys inmate roster reports that a singular individual was booked into the jail throughout the 24-hour period lasting from 7 a.m. on May 29 to 7 a.m. on May 30. RELATED: May 30, 2025, jail logs Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lt. Levi Vance, who works at the detention center and handles jail records, stated that a technical issue caused by an update to the software used to manage the online inmate roster prevented booking entries from being input into the system. This resulted in only one booking entry being displayed. It is strictly a technical issue, and thats why it shows just the one, Vance said. Vance said that in reality, approximately 16 to 17 people were booked during the 24-hour period from May 29 to May 30. Due to the technical difficulties caused by the software update, these entries were filed on paper. The issue was resolved around lunch on May 29, as per Vance. He confirmed that the online inmate roster should now display booking entries as intended. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) The Tom Green County Sheriffs Office sent out a press release regarding their online jail roster. The Tom Green County Sheriffs Office would like to announce to the community that our Inmate Roster and Warrants on our website will be down for maintenance temporarily, said TGSO. This press release came after a Conchovalleyhomepage.com reporter spoke to Lt. Levi Vance, who works at the detention center and handles jail records, and which he stated that a technical issue caused by an update to the software used to manage the online inmate roster prevented booking entries from being input into the system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lt. Vance reported that the issue was resolved around lunch on May 29, but the online jail roster is back down. TGSO also stated in the press release that they will turn off the inmate roster daily alert notifications and will resume when the roster is back online. We appreciate your patience, and we look forward to announcing the return of these features to the website soon! said TGSO. 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. NEED TO KNOW A theater director at an Arizona community college has been accused by students of instances of inappropriate behavior, according to reports The instructor allegedly encouraged students to undress on stage during a class activity exploring vulnerability The school has since confirmed that an "internal investigation" was underway A theater director at a community college in Arizona is reportedly under investigation after being accused of encouraging students to strip on stage during an exercise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement to PEOPLE, a Maricopa County Community College District spokesperson said they were "aware of the allegations made against a faculty member," which has prompted an "internal investigation" that was "initiated following District policy and procedures." The teacher was identified as theater program director Mace Archer, according to the Arizona Republic and local FOX affiliate KSAZ-TV. According to the reports, the drama instructor was accused of encouraging students to undress on stage during a class activity exploring vulnerability, while the remainder of the class was made to watch. "Because this is an active personnel matter, we cannot provide specific details to protect the privacy of those involved," the school district spokesperson's statement continued. "However, we can confirm that the matter is being addressed and appropriate action will be taken based on the outcome of the investigation." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our colleges take any allegations of misconduct seriously and are committed to fostering a safe, respectful, and supportive environment for students, faculty, and staff," they continued. "We will continue to follow appropriate processes and procedures to ensure fairness and accountability for all parties involved." Archer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment on Friday, May 30. Mesa Community College/Facebook Mesa Community College Mesa Community College Students at Mesa Community College alleged that three women stripped during the activity one student said the point of the midterm "risk assignment" was to face fear. Gabrielle Monroe told the Arizona Republic that attendance was mandatory during the exercise and that the instructor had discussed undressing as one of multiple ways students could complete the assignment, although the student noted that some students opted to dance or give monologues. "We were supposed to do something that made us uncomfortable," the student said. "We couldn't harm ourselves, we couldn't harm others and we couldn't harm the space." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Monroe said that Archer didn't try to pressure her into undressing, but that the way he treated some women made her uncomfortable. The paper previously reported that students also kept a file documenting Archer's other alleged conduct over a period of two years. According to the outlet, one woman complained to administrators in February and said they promised to look "into the learning objectives" of the acting courses. The midterms were held on March 18 and 20, according to the Arizona Republic. Thea Moore, a student in another of Archer's classes, told the Arizona Republic that the instructor behaved in ways that made students uncomfortable, and she felt administrations didn't take complaints about his behavior seriously. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Archer's Acting 2 class is required for some theater majors at the school, according to the report, and he was initially hired as co-director of theater in 2021. The instructor previously served as play director at the University of Tennessee and as an assistant professor at Randolph College in Virginia. Read the original article on People HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) Alabama Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth announced that a 12-bill package passed the Legislature during the 2025 session, with all bills focused on improvements for veterans who call Alabama home. The bills address a wide variety of needs, with Ainsworths Office saying the bills will help ensure that our state remains the nations friendliest and most welcoming for active service members, veterans, and their dependents. TVA asking Jackson County residents for input on proposed Pumped Storage Hydro project Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At first glance, veterans said that while the bills look great in writing, they have to wait and see the plans come to fruition. Theyre great as theyre written, Veteran Bobby Lee said. They have the right words. They say the right things. Its now up to the people that are going to execute it. Do you stick to the letter of the bill? The bills cover topics from expanding the Veteran Treatment Courts to making certain allowances for military spouses with out-of-state job licenses. Veterans said two efforts stuck out the most: working to improve mental health services and the new Veteran Resource Center. Its a very good start, Lee said. Again, its got to be the emphasis; it cant just be the flavor of the month. Not everybody that has a mental health issue is the person thats huddled up against a building and got their knees pulled up. There are folks out there every day who you dont knowMental health is the big ball in the sky, so to speak, with health care right now for all veterans, theres a stigma attached to itWeve got to get people to overcome that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Broadband project brings internet to 600 homes in Killingsworth Cove Mostly the mental health, and I know thats a big issue, Veteran Joseph Gaur said. I hope itll create more awareness and more classes to make more veterans aware of their mental health and to help them. The bills aim to do what Gaur is addressing through several methods. Arguably, the most notable effort is the opening of the Veteran Resource Center in Montgomery. Ainsworths office said it is aimed to assist military members entering the private sector with employment services, benefits navigation, education opportunities and mental health services. Alabama Veterans Resource Center is going to address an awful lot of overarching issues, Still Serving Veterans CEO Rich Landolt said. Three stressors in anybodys life are death of a loved one, whenever youre moving and whenever you start a new job. And, that veteran is doing two of those three as soon as he starts transitioning out. So, the sooner you can get him into a job and, create that stability in the family, everybody is in a better place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rich Landolt is the CEO of Still Serving Veterans and a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. He said the work theyre planning to do at the new center is some of what his non-profit does daily, from career transition assistance to benefits navigation. Because of this, Landolt said Still Serving Veterans will be a key player in the Veteran Resource Centers development. Were a victim of our own success, and my VA team here has a three-month backlog, Landolt said. As a member of the Workforce Board, the Governors Workforce Board, and as a CEO of Still Serving Veterans, I can help guide the discussion down in Montgomery as well. And, thatll be helpful, because Ive already told them wed be happy to train up a couple of our counselors to live down there and help with helping that veteran find a job. Landolts proposal to hire some of SSVs personnel at the new center is looking like it may become a reality. Vice Chairman of the Governors Workforce Board is a man named Greg Shuman, and he reached out to us with this proposal to hire a couple of our people down there in Montgomery, Landolt said. And we jumped right on it. So weve been able to influence the discussion before this came out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are no official plans or an intended opening date for the Veteran Resource Center, as it is still in its early planning stages. 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. Authorities arrested a third person in connection to the shooting of a teenage girl in January. Antonio Fonseca, 19, of Brockton, was indicted on charges of assault and battery with a firearm, armed robbery, carrying a firearm without a license, and possession of a large capacity firearm. 19-year-old Xavion Barnes and 18-year-old Anthony Lopes, both of Brockton, are already facing charges for the shooting. On January 14, officers responded to a parking lot at the Avalon apartment complex on Robert Drive around 2:30 p.m. for a report of a shooting, according to Easton Police Chief Keith Boone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arriving law enforcement entities found a 16-year-old girl who had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. The victim survived the attack but is still recovering from significant injuries, according to police. On Friday, Chief Keith Boone says officers issued a warrant for Fonsecas arrest. He was taken into custody in Brockton with the help of Brockton Police and the Massachusetts State police. Fonseca was arraigned in Fall River Superior Court on Friday. He was held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing on June 4. Id like to commend our Detective Division for their work on this case and thank the numerous law enforcement agencies that assisted us with the investigation Chief Boone said in a statement. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW The post Thom Yorke Releases Statement Clarifying Stance on Israel and Palestine appeared first on Consequence. Thom Yorke has posted an extensive statement addressing recent criticism from some fans regarding his responseor apparent lack thereofto Israels ongoing war in Palestine. Radiohead has played concerts in Israel several times over the course of their career, including in 2017 when they ignored a request by Roger Waters to cancel a gig in Tel Aviv in support of the BDS movement. Yorke was also notably heckled by a pro-Palestine audience member during a solo concert in Melbourne, Australia in October 2024, prompting him to briefly walk off stage. There has also been much criticism directed at Yorkes Radiohead and The Smile bandmate, Jonny Greenwood, who recently played a concert in Tel Aviv with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa. Greenwoods family also recently lost a nephew serving in the Israel Defense Forces. In his statement, Yorke said he chose not to engage with the heckler in Melbourne because it didnt really seem like the best moment to discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Afterwards I remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow being taken as complicity, and I struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That silence, my attempt to show respect for all those who are suffering and those who have died, and to not trivialize it in a few words, has allowed other opportunistic groups to use intimidation and defamation to fill in the blanks, and I regret giving them this chance, Yorke added. This has had a heavy toll on my mental health. Yorke continued, I would hope that for anyone who has ever listened to a note of the music of my band or any of the music I have created over the years, or looked at the artwork or read any of the lyrics, it would be self-evident that I could not possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanization of others For others let me fill in the blanks now, so were nice and clear. He proceeded to denounce Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his crew of extremists who are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and added the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. And yet, Yorke continued, the unquestioning Free Palestine refrain that surrounds us all does not answer the simple question of why the hostages have still not all been returned? For what possible reason? Why did Hamas choose the truly horrific acts of October 7th? The answer seems obvious, and I believe Hamas chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people, in an equally cynical fashion for their own purposes. Yorke also condemned social media witch-hunts (nothing new) on either side pressurizing artists and whoever they feel like that week to make statements etc do very little except heighten the tension, fear and over-simplification of what are complex problems that merit proper face to face debate by people who genuinely wish the killing to stop and an understanding to be found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can read Yorkes full statement below. Some guy shouting at me from the dark last year when I was picking up a guitar to sing the final song alone in front of 9000 people in Melbourne didnt really seem like the best moment to discuss the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Afterwards I remained in shock that my supposed silence was somehow being taken as complicity, and I struggled to find an adequate way to respond to this and to carry on with the rest of the shows on the tour. That silence, my attempt to show respect for all those who are suffering and those who have died, and to not trivialize it in a few words, has allowed other opportunistic groups to use intimidation and defamation to fill in the blanks, and I regret giving them this chance. This has had a heavy toll on my mental health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I would hope that for anyone who has ever listened to a note of the music of my band or any of the music I have created over the years, or looked at the artwork or read any of the lyrics, it would be self-evident that I could not possibly support any form of extremism or dehumanization of others. All I see in a lifetimes worth of work with my fellow musicians and artists is a pushing against such things, trying to create work that goes beyond what it means to be controlled, coerced, threatened, to suffer, to be intimidated .. and instead to encourage critical thinking beyond borders, the commonality of love and experience and free creative expression. Sounds naff but true. For others let me fill in the blanks now, so were nice and clear. I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease. Their excuse of self-defence has long since worn thin and has been replaced by a transparent desire to take control of Gaza and the West Bank permanently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I believe this ultra-nationalist administration has hidden itself behind a terrified & grieving people and used them to deflect any criticism, using that fear and grief to further their ultra-nationalist agenda with terrible consequences, as we see now with the horrific blockade of aid to Gaza. While our lives tick along as normal these endless thousands of innocent human souls are still being expelled from the earth for what? At the same time the unquestioning Free Palestine refrain that surrounds us all does not answer the simple question of why the hostages have still not all been returned? For what possible reason? Why did Hamas choose the truly horrific acts of October 7th? The answer seems obvious, and I believe Hamas chooses too to hide behind the suffering of its people, in an equally cynical fashion for their own purposes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I also think there is a further and extremely important point to make. Social media witch-hunts (nothing new) on either side pressurizing artists and whoever they feel like that week to make statements etc do very little except heighten the tension, fear and over-simplification of what are complex problems that merit proper face to face debate by people who genuinely wish the killing to stop and an understanding to be found. This kind of deliberate polarization does not serve our fellow human beings and perpetuates a constant us and them mentality. It destroys hope and maintains a sense of isolation, the very things that extremists use to maintain their position. We facilitate their hiding in plain sight if we assume that the extremists and the people they claim to represent are one and the same, indivisible. If our world is ever able to move on from these dark times and find peace it will only be when we rediscover what we share in common, and the extremists are sent back to sit in the darkness from whence they came. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I sympathize completely with the desire to do something when we are witnessing such horrific suffering on our devices every day. It completely makes sense. But I now think it is a dangerous illusion to believe reposting, or one or two line messages are meaningful, especially if it is to condemn your fellow human beings. There are unintended consequences. It is shouting from the darkness. It is not looking people in the eye when you speak. It is making dangerous assumptions. It is not debate and it is not critical thinking. Importantly, it is open to online manipulation of all kinds, both mechanistic and political. What is the alternative? I cant answer that easily. I do know in communities around the globe this subject is now dangerously toxic and we are in uncharted waters. We need to turn back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am sure that, to this point, what I have written here will in no way satisfy those who choose to target myself or those I work with, they will spend time picking holes and looking for reasons to continue, we are an opportunity not to be missed, no doubt, and by either side. I have written this in the simple hope that I can join with the many millions of others praying for this suffering, isolation and death to stop, praying that we can collectively regain our humanity and dignity and our ability to reach understanding .. that one day soon this darkness will have passed. Popular Posts Subscribe to Consequences email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox. Credit: Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation via Facebook Ferocious wildfires in western Canada have forced thousands of people to flee their homes in Manitoba. Some 17,000 Canadians were evacuated before the blaze spread to neighbouring Saskatchewan. Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan, has declared a state of emergency, with 14 wildfires raging in the province. The conditions that our northern residents, communities and wild land firefighters are facing today are as severe or quite likely unlike anything we have faced in quite some time, if not ever, said Mr Moe on Thursday evening. Some 166 fires are burning across Canada, including 84 deemed out of control, many in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. Smoke rises from a wildfire in Flin Flon, Manitoba, where soldiers have been deployed to help evacuate residents - Government of Manitoba/Anadolu via Getty The Canadian armed forces have been deployed to Manitoba to help evacuate residents, according to Wab Kinew, the provinces premier, who said: This is a moment of fear and uncertainty. There is a risk that smoke from the fires could spill across the southern border and into the US, affecting air quality in Minneapolis, Detroit, Michigan, Wisconsin and Chicago. Elsaida Alerta, who lives in Flin Flon, Manitoba, said she could barely breathe as she raced to leave her home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The town is absolutely smoked out here, she said. Were just kind of in a panic here. A wildfire takes hold near Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Some 84 fire burning across Canada are said to be out of control - Reuters Canada suffered its worst wildfire season in 2023, with more than 42 million acres of land burning. Scientists have pointed to climate change as the reason for Canadas worsening problem, with 40 per cent of the countrys land mass considered Arctic, where temperatures are warming three times faster than the global average. 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. By Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany is considering a 10% tax on large online platforms like Alphabet's Google and Meta's Facebook, its new minister of state for culture told magazine Stern, in a move likely to heighten trade tensions with the Trump administration. The proposal comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to travel to Washington soon to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, although a trip has not yet been officially announced. Trump has in the past said he will not allow foreign governments to "appropriate America's tax base for their own benefit". Culture Minister of State Wolfram Weimer said officials were drafting a legislative proposal while also seeking talks with platform operators that he accused of "cunning tax evasion" to explore alternative solutions like voluntary contributions. "These corporations do billions in business in Germany with extremely high profit margins and benefit enormously from the countrys media and cultural output as well as its infrastructure but they pay hardly any taxes, invest too little, and give far too little back to society," he told Stern in an interview published on Thursday. Alphabet and Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Germany's ruling parties agreed in a deal earlier this year to consider the introduction of a digital services levy, but this was not on the list of projects the coalition wants to prioritize. Weimer's proposal had not yet been agreed upon by the government, officials said. If the government goes ahead with the tax on sales revenue generated by digital services providers within its borders, it would join a raft of other countries to have done so such as Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Austria and Canada. During Trump's first term, the U.S. Trade Representative's office launched a Section 301 investigation into unfair trade practices against several of these countries, finding they discriminated against U.S. companies, paving the way for retaliatory tariffs on certain imports. In February, Trump ordered his trade chief to revive investigations aimed at imposing tariffs on imports from countries that levy digital service taxes on U.S. technology companies. That does not, however, appear to have deterred the new German government, which took office earlier this month. Weimer accused the big digital platforms of building up "monopoly-like structures" that not only restrict competition but also concentrate media power too heavily", posing a risk for freedom of expression. BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) Thousands of people rallied on Friday in Serbia's capital demanding early elections following seven months of persistent anti-corruption protests that have shaken the populist rule of President Aleksandar Vucic. The protest in Belgrade was organized by Serbia's university students, who have been a key force behind the nationwide demonstrations triggered by a collapse on Nov. 1 of a concrete train station canopy in the country's north that killed 16 people. Many people in Serbia believe that the deadly crash was the result of flawed renovation work on the station building, and they link the disaster to alleged government corruption in major infrastructure projects with Chinese state companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Protesting university students have been demanding accountability for the crash and the rule of law in Serbia, a Balkan nation that is formally seeking European Union entry but where the ruling populists have been accused of clamping down on democratic freedoms. After months-long protests drawing hundreds of thousands of people, the student movement is now seeking a snap vote, arguing that the current government cannot meet their demands for justice for the crash victims. Presidential and parliamentary elections are otherwise due some time in 2027. Vucic, whom critics accuse of an increasingly authoritarian rule despite the proclaimed EU bid, initially dismissed early elections but on Friday suggested they may be held, though without saying exactly when. No one has been sentenced in connection with the tragedy in the northern city of Novi Sad. Authorities have indicted over a dozen people but doubts prevail that the proceedings will uncover the alleged corruption behind the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A huge, noisy column of protesters in Belgrade marched by the state prosecutor's offices before reaching the government building. They carried a big banner urging elections. Maja Rancic said she was hopeful the protests can bring about changes: I really hope and wish, and I think it will happen. Vucic's government has stepped up pressure on the protesting students and Serbia's universities, claiming without proof that they were instructed by foreign powers to stage a revolution in the country. Students are planning more protests all over the country this weekend. JEANERETTE, La. (KLFY) Three people have been arrested in what authorities are calling an arson in Jeanerette overnight. Jeanerette Fire Department and the Jeanerette Police Department said they are working an arson investigation in the Church and Pellerin area. Authorities ask motorists to stay clear of the area as first responders work. Louisiana State Fire Marshals Office investigators are en route to the location. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three suspects are in custody, officials said. No other information has yet been released. Anyone with further information is asked to contact the Jeanerette Police Department at 337-276-6323 or email jpdrecords@jeanerette.com. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Latest news Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. STATESVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Three men were arrested Wednesday after being accused of cashing fraudulent checks at a Statesville business. According to the Iredell County Sheriffs Office, deputies received a call from a convenience store on Houpe Road, where an employee expressed concern about the legitimacy of checks they had been receiving. They had reportedly been used since the beginning of the month to obtain more than $130,000. Shots fired after suspected road rage incident near I-77 in Statesville Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This business then contacted the sheriffs office to to report forged checks. Deputies say later in the afternoon, three suspects returned to the store and attempted to pass more checks. Store employees called the sheriffs office, and deputies located the three suspects: Juan Dario Carcomo, Merin Arnoldo Sorto-Mata, and Ezequiel Cruz Garcia. When the suspects saw the deputies, they allegedly ran, and a foot pursuit ensued. Multiple sheriffs office canines arrived to track the suspects, and two of the suspects were immediately located. The third suspect was soon located and arrested after resisting the deputies, which led to him being hit with a Taser. All three suspects were arrested and taken to the Iredell County Detention Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Juan Dario Carcamo, 29, of Texas, was charged with: Two counts of Misdemeanor Resist, Obstruct, and Delay of a Law Enforcement Officer Felony Conspiracy Two counts of Felony Uttering a Forged Instrument, and Felony Possession and Transporting a Counterfeit Instrument. Magistrate M. Russel gave him a secured bond of $10,000. Merin Arnoldo Sorto-Mata, 23, of Houston, Texas, was charged with: Felony Conspiracy Two counts of Misdemeanor Resist, Obstruct, and Delay of a Law Enforcement Officer. He was given a secured bond of $6,500. An immigration hold was placed on this suspect; his address his listed as homeless Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ezequiel Cruz Garcia, 23, of Statesville was charged with: Two counts of Misdemeanor Resist, Obstruct, and Delay of an Officer, Misdemeanor Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer, and Felony Conspiracy. He was given a secured bond of $15,000. An immigration hold was placed on this suspect; his address was listed as homeless Two other individuals, Javier Cortez and Junior Mendez, were identified in this investigation and charged with fraud. Felony warrants have been issued on these two suspects. The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges may be pending. 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. BERESFORD, S.D. (KELO) President Donald Trumps big beautiful bill will have a direct impact on people in KELOLAND, including babies. Trump accounts would set aside one thousand dollars for each child born in Trumps second term. The accounts would be funded by the U.S. Treasury. Being able to set money aside into an account that is going to increase as the economy expands and succeeds that, it would, its a benefit that would be passed on to families. So, I think thats sort of the thinking behind it, said Senator John Thune. Dell Rapids native to perform at Levitt at the Falls Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thursday, Senator Thune also weighed in on Elon Musks time as a Special Government Employee coming to an end. I think we all, as taxpayers, want to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being used in the most efficient, effective way possible. And I think that was his objective, and I think there are people around who will carry on that work, but I wouldnt be surprised if you see him emerge again at some point, for a return visit, said Thune. We also asked Thune about plans to revoke student visas for Chinese students attending colleges throughout the U.S. So, I think what the objective in all this is to make sure that if somebody comes into this country to do that kind of research, that theyve been properly vetted to make sure that they dont represent any sort of a national security threat, given the sort of adversarial relationship we have with China right now. So, I think itll be a policy that continues to evolve and continue to be evaluated, said Thune. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thune says the goal is to make sure people doing important research are in the country for the right reasons. 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. DOLTON, Ill. (WGN) Tiffany Henyard is no longer the mayor of south suburban Dolton but legal cases continue to haunt her. A Cook County judge previously held Henyard in contempt of court for failing to turn over records from her tenure as required by state transparency laws. Henyard reportedly told the judge Friday she was the face of the village but didnt handle record-keeping. The judge ordered Henyard to appear in person on Friday, June 6. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jason House sworn in as Dolton mayor, marking end of Tiffany Henyard era The Edgar County Watchdogs, Inc. sued the Village of Dolton for failing to produce credit card and other records after Henyards administration ignored Freedom of Information Act requests in January of 2024. The massive public exposure given to the Defendant that has brought Illinois corruption into the national public spotlight needs to be addressed immediately to save further harm to the states reputation, read the Edgar County Watchdogs complaint. WGN-TV also sued Henyards administration for failing to comply with state transparency laws. After Henyards overwhelming re-election loss in the spring, the village resolved the dispute with WGN by releasing additional records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Henyards spending and leadership have been the focus of nearly two years of reporting by WGN Investigates. WGN Investigates: Investigating public corruption, crime & fraud The FBI has also issued subpoenas and interviewed Henyard associates as recently as this spring. Henyard has not been charged with a crime. 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. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) A viral TikTok star filed a lawsuit in an attempt to keep records about her 3-year-old sons fatal drowning incident earlier this month, according to court documents obtained by News 8 WROC. Death of TikTok stars child prompts reminders on pool safety ahead of summer Attorneys for Emilie Kiser, an influencer on the social media app who just surpassed 4 million followers, filed a lawsuit in Arizona Superior Court on May 27 to prevent the release of public documents related to her son Triggs death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit confirmed Trigg died as a result of an accidental drowning at the Kiser family home on May 12. Attorneys said Emilie is going through a parents worst nightmare [] Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving son. Emilie gave birth to her second child in March, weeks before Triggs death. Attorneys said the Kiser family has been trying to privately grieve, but fans of the social media star have not allowed them to do so. Triggs death has become a media frenzy, the lawsuit reads. Appallingly, 100+ public record requests have been filed with both the City of Chandler and the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office. The lawsuit claims the materials requested presumably reveal graphic, distressing, and intimate details of Triggs death that have no bearing on government accountability. Attorneys for Emilie note she has not seen any of these materials, and does not plan to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emilie is now pleading with the court through attorneys to prevent the profound invasion of privacy that would result from the public disclosure of these sensitive materials and hopes the Court enters an order permanently enjoining [those requesting documents] from granting public access to any investigative or post-mortem records related to the tragic death of her son. The lawsuit also urges the court to conduct an in-camera review of all records temporarily enjoin anyone from releasing any portion of the record if the court finds a degree of access to the materials should be allowed. Emilie and her family will suffer specific, material harm if the post-mortem records are released to the public, the lawsuit continues. While Emilie is unaware of the identities of the requesting parties, it is believed many of them seek the subject information for commercial purposes [] The public was not involved in his passing. The lawsuit can be read in full below: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CV2025-018383Download 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 RochesterFirst. Originally appeared on E! Online Emilie Kiser wants to grieve privately after her sons tragic death. Nearly two weeks after her and her husband Brady Kisers 3-year-old son Trigg Kiser died after being rescued from a pool in their backyard, the TikToker shared more details surrounding the unfortunate incident in a lawsuit filed against Maricopa County public offices May 27. In the docs, obtained by NBC News, Emilie's lawyer detailed the influencer's grief over the "heartbreaking accidental drowning." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Emilie is going through a parents worst nightmare right now," her lawsuit states. "She lost her young son." The suit continued, "Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving son, two-month-old Theodore. But every day is a battle." She requested that the court prohibit the public release of details surrounding his death, saying it would be a "profound invasion of privacy." In response to the suit, Maricopa County's Office of the Medical Examiner said it "worked with the family to place a seal on the record" once it "learned the family was pursuing a court order to prevent the release of these records," director of communications for Maricopa County Jason Berry told NBC News May 29. More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 12, the Chandler Police Department responded to a drowning call at the familys Arizona residence, per USA Today, for a child who had been pulled unconscious out of a backyard pool. Upon arrival, police and firefighters administered CPR before taking the toddler to Chandler Regional Hospital. He was later transferred to Phoenix Childrens Hospital. But less than a week later, local authorities confirmed Trigg succumbed to his injuries and assured they are formally looking into the matter. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the childs family and loved ones during this unimaginable time, Chandler Police Department spokesperson Sonu Wasu said in a May 19 statement to E! News. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident remain ongoing. This is still an open investigation. Instagram/Emilie Kiser In the weeks leading up to Triggs death, Emilie shared insight into her life as a mother through various snapshots of her spending time with her kids. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Throughout the sweet montage, Emilie could be seen sitting on a picnic blanket outside cradling her youngest son before Trigg came over and gave her a kiss. In another clip, the TikToker watched with pride as her husband playfully hoisted their son into the air. Instagram/Emilie Kiser "POV: the joy of being a mother," Emilie wrote over the heartwarming video posted to Instagram May 11, adding in the caption, "Forever grateful that I get to be a momma." And last month, the lifestyle blogger shared a glimpse into her daily routine as a mom of two. "I thought it would be fun to do a little night vlog with our new norm, which is two kids," Emilie said in an April 3 Instagram video, during which she nursed Theodore and put him down for bed before taking Trigg out for a swim. "Which is crazy to say." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more of Emilies life as a mom, keep reading. (E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.) Husband and Wife Emilie Kiser and Brady Kiser tied the knot in 2019. A Family of Three... The couple welcomed their first son, Trigg, in July 2021. ... and Then Four They became parents again in March 2025 with the arrival of their second son Theodore. The Sweet Life Emilie often documented life at home with her two boys on social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enjoying Every Moment The family celebrated a happy Easter holiday together. Better Together Emilie shared this sweet photo shortly after Theodore's birth. Bath Time After welcoming Theodore, Emilie wrote on social media, "The love I have for my boys is infinite." For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App Tim Miller, former RNC Spokesperson, Justin Wolfers Economics Professor at the University of Michigan join Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to Donald Trumps continued blame game for the impact that his tariffs are having on the global economy, with the President accusing China of breaking their trade agreement. (NewsNation) When the Titan submersible imploded, no survivors were found. Now, nearly two years later, the U.S. Coast Guard has revealed that they found items that survived the implosion. The U.S. Coast Guard found a still-intact ink pen and other items while going through the remains of the Titan submersible. Stylist testifies he jumped on Diddy to protect Cassie In a TikTok video by Discovery, a member of the Coast Guard talked about the recovery process and revealed how the pen was found. The pen allegedly belonged to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Investigators also found business cards, Titanic-themed stickers, remnants of clothing and human remains. All of those items have been cataloged by the Coast Guards Marine Board of Investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Coast Guard official in the video explained, Items that were inside of the Titan at the time now become encased inside of the endcap. OceanGate Titan submersible had sludge-like remains: Coast Guard After the submersible was drained of all its water, officials were able to go through its sludge-like remains of carbon fiber, fiberglass and electronic parts. This is where they found part of Rushs suit still intact. A submersible vessel named Titan was used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP) Matthew McCoy, at left, a former OceanGate employee, talks with the Coast Guards Thomas Whalen after testimony ended during the final day of the Coast Guard investigatory hearing on the causes of the implosion of an experimental submersible headed for the wreck of the Titanic, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) The Titan Marine Board listens to testimony from Amber Bay, Former OceanGate Director of Administration at the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool) Amber Bay, Former OceanGate Director of Administration breaks down into tears while giving a final statement at the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool) FILE This undated image provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the companys Titan submersible. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File) The logo for OceanGate Expeditions is seen on a boat parked near the offices of the company at a marine industrial warehouse office door in Everett, Wash., Tuesday, June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ed Komenda) This photo provided by Travel Weekly shows OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush on May 27, 2023. Rush was piloting the Titan submersible when it imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Arnie Weissmann/Travel Weekly via AP) FILE Submersible pilot Randy Holt, right, communicates with the support boat as he and Stockton Rush, left, CEO and Co-Founder of OceanGate, dive in the companys submersible, Antipodes, about three miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., June 28, 2013. Rescuers are racing against time to find the missing submersible carrying five people, who were reported overdue Sunday night, June 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) We were all just kind of getting all-hands-in and separating what needed to be considered as human remains and what was just other wreckage pieces. As we were pulling it apart, that is how we realized it was Mr. Rushs clothing, the Coast Guard official said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Titan pilots clothing was allegedly found caked in sand. This is where they found the ink pen and other items. Inside of that sleeve it was the ink pen, business cards and stickers for the Titanic, and there was nothing else but that, the official said in the video. Audio released from OceanGate Titan submersible implosion In February 2025, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an audio recording of what it believes was the moment the submersible imploded. According to NOAA, the sound came from a moored passive acoustic recorder around 900 miles from the implosion site. The sound of static can be heard in the 23-second recording, followed by a boom, then more static. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Titan had lost contact after an hour and 45 minutes, with officials spending four days searching for the submersible that is, until evidence was found on the ocean floor of the implosion. Along with Rush, four other people were killed on the Titan: Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood. OceanGate stopped operations after the implosion. An investigation by Wired showed that Rush had allegedly overstated the timeline for the project and lied about issues with the hull of the vessel. OceanGate Titan meant to take customers to Titanic wreckage The OceanGate Titan submersible was made of carbon fiber and titanium. It was supposed to take paying customers down to the wreckage of the Titanic, which is over 12,000 feet underneath the waters surface. The implosion killed all five people on board in June 2023. This photo provided by Travel Weekly shows OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush on May 27, 2023. Rush was piloting the Titan submersible when it imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Arnie Weissmann/Travel Weekly via AP) FILE This undated photo provided by Engro Corporation Limited shows Suleman Dawood. The missing submersible Titan imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, Stockton Rush, and Hamish Harding, the U.S. Coast Guard announced, Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Engro Corporation Limited via AP) FILE Commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet laughs at Black Falcon Pier in Boston on Sept. 1, 1996. (AP Photo/Jim Rogash, File) In this photograph released by Action Aviation, company chairman and billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding looks out to sea before boarding the submersible Titan for a dive into the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the Titanic on Sunday, June 18, 2023. Rescuers raced against time Tuesday, June 20, to find the missing submersible carrying Harding and four other people, who were reported overdue Sunday night. (Action Aviation via AP) Rush was one of the driving forces behind creating the OceanGate Titan and using it for tourism purposes. The debris is still being examined by the Marine Board of Investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. This story was originally published on C-Store Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily C-Store Dive newsletter. Global Partners longtime board chairman Richard Slifka passed away last week at the age of 85, according to a company announcement. Slifka was the son of Global Partners founder Abraham Slifka, who started the business in the 1930s, and the uncle of Global Partners President and CEO Eric Slifka. He is survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren. Richard helped lay the foundation for what Global is today, working alongside my father with quiet strength and enduring values, Eric Slifka said in the announcement. He brought diligence, consistency, and a sense of purpose to everything he did, always putting people and community at the center of his work. He will be deeply missed. Upon joining his fathers company in 1963, Slifka and his late brother Fred transformed the business from a heating oil company to a notable wholesale fuel distributor and convenience retailer. Today, Global Partners portfolio includes nearly 1,700 owned, leased or supplied gasoline stations, including 300 directly operated convenience stores, primarily in the Northeast Slifka held numerous leadership positions during his six decades with Global Partners, formerly known as Global Companies, including treasurer; director; president of Global Petroleum, a privately held affiliated company; and vice chairman. He had been chairman since 2014. Slifka was also president of the Independent Fuel Terminal Operators Association and a past director of the New England Fuel Institute. He was involved with Global Partners charitable work, having sat on the board of directors of Boston-based homeless shelter St. Francis House and Boston Medical Center in addition to being a director of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. A spokesperson from Global Partners said they had no information on who Slifkas replacement will be atop the companys board of directors. Recommended Reading NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) The Nashville Community Review Board called out U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) for what the executive director described as a reckless social media post amid the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Ogles claimed the board was protecting illegal aliens, and now the board said its getting ugly calls from people across the country. The public safety operation involving ICE and Tennessee Highway Patrol has led to at least 196 arrests in Nashville this month, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of these immigrants are here working, whether theyre here legally or what, Walker Holloway said. Nashville criticized for sharing ICE interactions That is how the NCRB which serves as an independent oversight committee for the Metro Nashville Police Department opened its meeting on Wednesday, May 28. Earlier this month, the government organization posted a video on its social media pages that said, If you believe you experienced or witnessed [an] immigration related event involving MNPD officers, then you can file a complaint through the NCRB. Officials included the phone number for the confidential complaint line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ogles shared a picture of the post on X, writing, This is on Nashvilles official website. This is a flagrant protection of illegal aliens. We need to investigate this immediately. I felt really strongly that this information and how it was retweeted was reckless, in my opinion. It could have caused more harm, Jill Fitcheard, executive director for the NCRB, said. Congressman Andy Ogles confirms federal investigation into Nashville mayors office over illegal immigration According to Fitcheard, thats when her office received more than 55 phone calls. The first calls that we got were from maybe 10 or 12 people who seemed to be localbut the next calls that came in, and they just kept coming in, were mostly people who did not live in Tennessee or live in Nashville, and they said a lot of ugly things, and some of my staff members were really concerned, Fitcheard said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Ogles announced on Monday, May 26 that there will be a federal investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie OConnell for allegedly aiding and abetting illegal immigration, without providing proof, prompting criticism from immigrant rights groups. The congressman, along with several Tennessee elected officials and representatives from law enforcement agencies, announced the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees will look into the mayor, his conduct, and whether or not the city used federal dollars in criminal enterprise related to immigration. Tennessee Republican lawmakers urge local police to work with ICE, help with deportations So when a mayor stands up and is defending those types of individuals over our hard-working law enforcement, Homeland Security, ICE, THP, the sheriffs department in the city, hes choosing criminals over Tennesseans, Ogles said on Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mayor has nothing to hide, Holloway said. Less than two weeks before Ogles confirmed the federal investigation into OConnell, the mayor stood firm against claims that he and other Metro leaders obstructed ICE agents. 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. MEMPHIS, Tenn. The Supreme Court of Tennessee denied an application Wednesday from a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city of Memphis regarding the citys backlog processing sexual assault kits. This weeks denial by the high court leaves earlier appeals court decisions in place. The plaintiff can no longer appeal. Three women filed a class action lawsuit against the city over the rape kits in 2014. Only one plaintiff remained, who was named Janet Doe in the suit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. Heres a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 30, 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: 93 degrees (1953) Low temperature: 35 degrees (1873) Precipitation: 1.49 inches (2004) Snowfall: None 1923: Nannette Anderson became Chicagos first lady speeder sentenced to jail. She received a $50 fine and a one-day jail sentence. She stayed locked up for an extra five hours because her husband showed up late with the payment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 1924: A week after 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered and his body was discovered adjacent to Wolf Lake, investigators were still trying to piece together who might be responsible for the crime. Then, a slip of the tongue pointed all eyes on Nathan Leopold. He admitted to owning a similar pair of the rare, expensive glasses as those discovered near Franks body and losing them at the same spot while supposedly birdwatching a few days earlier. Further questioning connected him as owner of the typewriter on which a ransom letter was typed. When Leopold could not produce either item, he became a suspect. His friend Richard Loeb was also questioned by police. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Leopold and Loeb Both men claimed they took a Leopold family car for a joyride that night, but their alibi fell apart when the familys chauffeur said the vehicle was in the garage the day of Franks murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The perfect murder Leopold and Loeb thought they had constructed actually left investigators with no other suspects but them. With the retrieval of Leopolds typewriter from a harbor in Jackson Park, the chain of evidence that connected the two young men to the crime was complete. Both confessed to killing Franks. 1937: Striking workers clashed with police on Memorial Day at the Republic Steel plant on the South Side the only one in the Chicago area that had stayed open during a bitter nationwide showdown between a number of steel companies and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, which was trying to unionize the plants. Flashback: Chicagos place at the forefront of labor history Ten demonstrators were killed and 60 were injured, as were 60 police officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly after Memorial Day, the strike folded as workers streamed back to their jobs in Chicago and elsewhere. Ultimately, however, the union won its contract. 1995: In the largest takeover of its kind, federal housing officials took control of the Chicago Housing Authority four days after its chairman, Vince Lane, and the CHA board resigned under a cloud of mismanagement. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo removed CHA from its list of troubled public housing authorities on Aug. 1, 1998, and returned control of the agency to the city of Chicago on May 1, 1999. 2020: A Chicago protest, in response to George Floyds killing by police in Minneapolis, became violent and looting took place around the city for the next three days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 5 years after killing of George Floyd, protest in Chicago decries Trump directive to empower police 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 Todd Chrisley has wasted no time in entering fight mode after his release from prison. The Chrisley family patriarch shared a few thoughts with the public as he enjoyed the first few hours of his newly minted presidential pardon after spending 2+ years behind bars. Todd Chrisley and his wife, Julie Chrisley, got lucky on May 27 when President Donald Trump informed their prison reform activist daughter, Savannah Trump, about his decision to let her parents walk free. Todd Chrisley Insists He Did No Wrong In Post-Prison Press Conference WENN.com Newscom/ MEGA The Chrisley family and their legal team held a press conference in Nashville to discuss this development. The family appeared alongside attorneys Alex Little and Zack Lawson in Nashville on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Savannah opened the event by describing her parents' pardons as delightful. As always, she expressed gratitude to the Trump administration and others who helped secure their release. But she minced no words for the Department of Justice, which she claimed has been politicized. As soon as the younger Chrisley was done, Todd began his speech by thanking everyone for their support. He shone the light on Savannah, who was at the forefront of their fight for freedom from prison, acknowledging the battles she fought while their situation went on. As reported by TMZ, Todd also reaffirmed his belief that he was wrongfully convicted. The 56-Year-Old Pulls A Trump Move During Press Conference ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA Todd wasted no time in hitting the ground running. During his press conference, the reality star expressed his intention to highlight the injustices federal inmates experienced nationwide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He specifically showed interest in the poor conditions Black inmates are subjected to, with a promise to expose every irregularity in the prison system. As the briefing went on, the reality star got chatty with a reporter who asked him if he felt any remorse for his actions, which got him locked up. In response, Todd jokingly suggested that a reporter who inquired about his remorse might be affiliated with CNN, echoing a familiar tactic used by Trump. Todd also shared bits from his daily prison life, revealing that he maintained a routine that included working out for over an hour, reading, and speaking with Savannah every day. Todd And Julie Chrisley Reportedly Had No Communication While Behind Bars Nutrisystem/ MEGA While Savannah got the golden opportunity to speak with her doting dad every day, her mom could not enjoy the luxury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As reported by The Blast, Savannah revealed in a March episode of her podcast that her parents, who were serving time at separate federal prisons at the time, had not spoken to each other since their sentence began. Todd served his time in Florida, while Julie was held in a federal correctional center in Kentucky. Savannah described the situation as a challenge, noting that it should never be that way. The 27-year-old clarified that the lack of dialogue between her parents was absolutely not of their doing but instead a testament to the inefficiency of the prison system. She slammed the correctional facility for never making "anything easy" for inmates, including her mother and father. Savannah Chrisley Described Her Parents' Reaction To Their Pardon Ron Sachs - CNP for NY Post / MEGA When news of Todd and Julie's presidential pardon landed on Savannah's table, she joyfully contacted her parents to inform them about their homecoming. "They didn't believe it. I think it literally just came in from nowhere," the podcaster detailed during the press conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As shared by The Blast, Savannah recalled receiving the presidential call that her parents were coming home while she went shopping. Savannah expressed her gratitude to Trump and his administration, stating that she would always be thankful for their support. She shared her excitement about the preparations she and her siblings were making for their parents' return, including gathering clothes and organizing their room upstairs. Overwhelmed with emotion, she encompassed her feelings with a simple word: "speechless." The podcaster responded to her critics who alleged that she had used unethical means to obtain President Donald Trump's signature on the pardon documents. "I didn't have to do anything. I simply stood firm in my beliefs and convictions, fighting for my parents and what is right," she emphasized to the naysayers. Todd Chrisley's Wife Got Teary-Eyed During Court Trial Last Year Nutrisystem/ MEGA The Blast shared last year that during her resentencing hearing last September, the matriarch of the Chrisley family became emotional as she addressed her family in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reflecting on her time behind bars, she expressed deep remorse for her actions that led to the family's current situation. In a heartfelt apology, she conveyed her feelings to the court and specifically to her older children, Savannah and Chase, who were present. Julie acknowledged the significant impact her incarceration had on her family, stating, "This has been the most difficult part of my life," and she lamented not being able to repay her children for their struggles. She concluded by sharing that she had been working on developing new skills to strengthen her bond with her family. Julie bagged a seven-year prison sentence alongside her husband in 2022, who got a twelve. She served her time at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, until her presidential pardon three days ago. Will Todd Chrisley live up to his promises on prison reforms? Todd Chrisley spoke for the first time publicly following the presidential pardons that released him and his wife, Julie Chrisley, from federal prisons. "I want to thank President Trump," Todd Chrisley said. He and daughter Savannah spoke for about 30 minutes at the news conference, held May 30 at a Nashville hotel. They were joined by attorneys Alex Little and Zack Lawson. When asked if the family plans to stay in Nashville, Chrisley did not commit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Nashville will always have a special place in our heart, but we have other plans," he said. The Chrisleys were released from federal prison May 28 after being sentenced to serve time for bank fraud and tax evasion. President Donald Trump announced the pardon for the couple when White House communications advisor Margo Martin posted a video clip of him calling their children to give them the news. The stars of "Chrisley Knows Best" will be returning to reality television, Savannah Chrisley said during the news conference. Filming began on a new show that will document the reunification of Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley. "It's honestly felt like a dream to have them at home," Savannah Chrisley said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Julie Chrisley was not at the news conference. Todd Chrisley said she was at home with daughter Chole Chrisley. "Julie and I have been together for over 30 years and she is my best friend," he said. More: 'Trump knows best': Todd and Julie Chrisley get presidential pardon. Will they be back on TV? What to know Savannah Chrisley said she spent countless hours and money in her campaign to free her parents. "I fought hard and I was exhausted and I begged for meetings. There was nothing that I was never too good to ask," Savannah said. Todd Chrisley had been imprisoned at FPC Pensacola, in Florida, while Julie Chrisley was incarcerated in Kentucky at FMC Lexington. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Todd Chrisley said maintained a fitness regimen, and joked about his Bureau of Prisons "glow," saying, "Maybe it's all the residual botox that never wore off." He said he also grew in his faith while behind bars. "I have nothing to do other than to read and to work out," he said. "And so I worked out every morning at 10:45 a.m. until 12 with my buddies there, and I read and my walk with Christ became deeper." Todd, Julie Chrisley faced bank fraud, tax evasion charges The Chrisleys were first indicted in federal court in Georgia in August 2019, four years after the couple moved to the Belle Meade area of Nashville. During their trial, prosecutors said the Chrisleys defrauded banks of more than $36 million in fraudulent loans and received millions in proceeds, according to court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Chrisleys defrauded financial institutions and the Federal Government through tax evasion and other fraudulent means in an effort to minimize their tax liability (and) project an image of wealth, James E. Dorsey, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office, said in a November 2022 news release following their sentencing. This sentencing serves notice that no matter a persons celebrity status, there are severe consequences for defrauding the American tax system. Julie was sentenced to seven years while Todd was sentenced to 12 in prison. They reported to prison in January 2023. Savannah Chrisley said during the May 30 press conference that she was with younger brother, Grayson Chrisley, when she received the call that her parents were being pardoned. Todd Chrisley said he felt numb after hearing he was being pardoned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "All I could think about was the guys that I was leaving behind," Todd Chrisley said. "And when I left that day, there was only 317 men in our camp, but they were lined up shouting when I was walking out, and they were saying 'don't leave, don't forget us.'" U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross ordered the couple to forfeit more than a combined $22 million as pardon of their sentences; Trump's pardon wipes that debt clean since it was part of the court order and not a civil matter. Todd, Savannah Chrisley maintain family was targeted for status Savannah Chrisley has been vocal on her parents' behalf, arguing that they were unfairly targeted for their politics and celebrity status. "Thats what you get from an Obama-appointed judge, Savannah Chrisley said in federal court in Atlanta in September 2024, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Julie Chrisley apologized during that hearing. I apologize for my actions and what led me to where I am today, Julie Chrisley said then. When asked about Julie's apology, Todd Chrisley argued she had no other options. "You're placed in a position as a defendant to either bow down and kiss the ass of the Department of Justice and accept responsibility for things that you did not do in order to avoid a stronger sentence," Todd Chrisley said. "And the corruption that went on in our case is going to continue to unfold, and Alex is going to continue to give each and every one of you the evidence." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Todd's part, he said he has no remorse. "I'd have remorse if it was something that I did," he said. Savannah Chrisley recently appeared on Lara Trump's Fox News program pushing for a pardon for her parents. Lara Trump is the president's daughter-in-law. When asked what Todd Chrisley would say to people who think he and his wife were only pardoned because of their status, he said he could understand it. "I understand that that's not something that you can look at and say, well, that had nothing to do with it," he said. "I don't know if it did, because I wasn't involved in the process...and if that's the case, I don't know how to address the fact that if it is the case, but I'm grateful to God for whatever reason it was that we were able to get the pardon in the first place." This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Todd Chrisley makes first statement in Nashville after Trump pardon For the first time since his pardon and release, reality star Todd Chrisley answered questions from the media, and he is still insisting he did nothing wrong. Channel 2s Michael Doudna was the only Atlanta TV station reporter in Nashville at the news conference on Friday, where Chrisley maintained he was a victim in this prosecution and that he was a target because of his celebrity status. He then thanked God, President Donald Trump, and his daughter for his release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks], I woke up the first morning, and I was looking around, and Im like, this is really real. Im home, Chrisley said. Trumps pardon absolves Todd Chrisley and his wife, Julie, of federal convictions years in the making. Channel 2 Action News first reported in 2017 on how the Chrisleys lied about where they lived and owed thousands in back taxes while broadcasting their lavish lifestyle. In 2022, a federal court sentenced the couple to years in prison for bank fraud and tax evasion, something Todd Chrisley maintains he never did, despite his wife apologizing in court last year. RELATED STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do I have any remorse? I would have remorse if it was something that I did, Todd Chrisley said. Well, your wife did apologize last year, Doudna told Chrisley. Well, let me explain to you how that works, if you dont mind. Youre placed in a position as a defendant to either bow down and kiss the ass of the Department of Justice and accept responsibility for things that you did not do in order to avoid a stronger sentence, Chrisley said. I can say this, post-conviction pardons are given to the guilty, which I think speaks for itself, said Kevin Ward, who represented one of the Chrisley creditors. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Ward said the pardon seems political, especially as Savannah Chrisley vocally supported Trump at the RNC last year while pushing for a pardon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It smacks a little bit. If you have fealty, you get favors, Ward said. People think, Oh, youre a celebrity, youre white, you have money, that we got an upper hand, and we didnt, Savannah Chrisley told reporters. In the end, the pardons provide a clean slate, reuniting a family and freeing them for future opportunities. Were blessed to have our family back, and were blessed to be coming back to television, Todd Chrisley said. He said they will also be fighting for better conditions for those in federal prison after their experience with the system. Originally appeared on E! Online Todd Chrisley is standing by his and Julie Chrisleys innocence. After the Growing Up Chrisley patriarch and his wife were pardoned by President Donald Trump, he vehemently denied committing tax evasion and wire fraud. I would have remorse if it was something that I did, Toddwho, along with his wife, was convicted at trial in 2022 after pleading not guiltyexplained during a May 30 press conference. The corruption that went on in our case is going to continue to unfold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While he didnt provide further details about their future legal plans, he did address Julies September 2024 apology from her resentencing hearing, in which the judge ultimately upheld her seven-year prison sentence. (Todd and Julie were set to be released in 2032 and 2028, respectively.) You're placed in a position as a defendant to bow down and kiss the ass of the Department of Justice, Todd told reporters, and accept responsibility for things that you did not do in order to avoid a stronger sentence. The Department of Justice declined to comment. More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After being incarcerated for over two years, the reality star praised their daughter Savannah Chrisleywho took legal guardianship of her younger siblings Grayson, 18, and Chloe, 11, after their arrestfor advocating on their behalf. "She has fought a long fight, and for any parent to see their child fight this hard, it's a double-edged sword, he reflected. It's a blessing, and then your heart breaks because your child has been placed in that position to fight for you, when, as a parent, you're supposed to fight for your children." It was a sentiment that the White House Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson, who helped facilitate their release, echoed. The celebrity part really didnt play a role in this, she explained on NewsNation Live. Im going to say that if they did not have a daughter like Savannah who was out there fighting for them, they would not have been pardoned. Andrew Eccles/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank This woman has worked relentlessly for her parents, Alicewhose sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018 after Kim Kardashians criminal justice reform campaignsaid. I know that everyone in prison wishes they had an advocate like Savannah Chrisley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Savannahs part, she emphasized that she had done everything in her power to fight for Julie and Toddwho are also parents to son Chase Chrisley, 28, as well as Todd and ex-wife Teresa Terrys kids Lindsie Chrisley, 35, and Kyle Chrisley, 33to come home. This moment is the answer to countless prayers, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for seeing the truth and restoring my family, she continued in her statement to E! News. Today is a victory for our family, but the fight against wrongful convictions and injustice within our prison system is far from over. I will continue to use my voice and platform to advocate for those who do not have one. For a closer look at Todd and Julies legal battle, keep reading and tune into E! on June 1 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to catch up on Chrisley Knows Best. Indicted on Tax Evasion and Other Charges Todd and Julie Chrisley were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury in Atlanta in August 2019 on charges included wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a document obtained by NBC News. Prosecutors claimed fraud began in the mid-aughtsinclusive of evading nearly $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016 and hiding over $1 million dollars from the IRS. The day before the indictment was issued, Todd maintained he and his wife were innocent, and instead said a trusted employee had been stealing from and blackmailing the couple. "We have nothing to hide and have done nothing to be ashamed of," he wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. "Not only do we know we've done nothing wrong, but we've got a ton of hard evidence and bunch of corroborating witnesses that proves it." Todd and Julie Found Guilty It wasnt until three years later that the Chrisley Knows Best stars went to trial. Following three weeks of testimonies, the pair, who had pleaded not guilty, were convicted on all counts of tax evasion and bank fraud on June 7, 2022. The U.S. attorney's office had alleged the duo and their accountant Peter Tarantinowho stood trial with themconspired to defraud banks out of more than $30 million over the course of a decade. "As today's outcome shows, when you lie, cheat and steal, justice is blind as to your fame, your fortune, and your position," Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a June 2022 statement. "In the end, when driven by greed, the verdict of guilty on all counts for these three defendants proves once again that financial crimes do not pay." Sentenced to Multiple Years in Prison Five months later, the Northern District of Georgia sentenced Todd to 12 years behind bars and Julie to seven years. (Peter was sentenced to three years in prison.) "Over the course of a decade, the defendants defrauded banks out of tens of millions of dollars while evading payment of their federal income taxes," U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a November 2022 statement. "Their lengthy sentences reflect the magnitude of their criminal scheme and should serve as a warning to others tempted to exploit our nation's community banking system for unlawful personal gain." However, Julie and Todds respective sentences were shortened in September 2023with Julie scheduled to be released a year and three months earlier, and Todd two years earlier than his originally scheduled 2035 release. "Without a doubt, Todd and Julie are model incarcerated individuals who received exorbitant sentences," Jay Surgent, the pair's attorney, told Insider in September 2023. "I believe Todd is down to 10 years and Julie is now at five years." Starting Their Sentences The couple started their respective prison sentences in January 2023, with Todd serving his time at Federal Correctional Institution (FPI) Pensacola in Florida and Julie at a different federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No Contact Six months after Julie and Todd reported to their respective prisons, their daughter Savannah Chrisley shared insight into how the duo were doing, revealing that her parents did not have contact during their time behind bars. "195 days without a word to each other" she wrote in an August 2023 Instagram story. "My heart is breakingPlease help to bring justice!" She also pushed back at rumors about their time in prison. "It's hilarious because one of them was like, 'Oh, he's let himself go,'" she said on her Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley podcast. "First off, news flash, they don't sell hair color in commissary. So of course his hair is gray! But, you know what, I would tell him today, if he was out, keep it that way. Like, it looks good! He's got a great prison barber." Todd Details Filthy Prison Conditions However, Todd spoke out from behind bars about the mistreatment he faced at the federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla. "The food is dated," he said in a phone interview on a December 2023 episode of Cuomo. "It's a year past expiration." "You've got rats, you've got squirrels in the storage facility where the food is," he continued. "They just covered it up with plastic and then tore the ceiling out because of all the black mold and found a dead cat in the ceiling, and it dropped down on the top of the food." Beyond the horrors in the cafeteria, he alleged that someone also attempted to extort his family members. "There was a photograph taken of me while I was sleeping and sent to my daughter," he noted, "asking for $2,600 dollars a month for my protection." Savannah Chrisley Speaks Out Savannah, who has custody of younger siblings Grayson and Chloe amid her parents sentences, has explained how their convictions and their lack of contact with one another has weighed on her. "The last time they spoke was the morning they went into federal prison," she shared with E! News March 2024, alleging that there's "a lot of retaliation going on against my father for how outspoken we've been about conditions." In fact, she alleged that prison officials had been "blocking a lot of his emails correspondence to my mom." And while not wanting to make the experience about herself, she admitted that it was overwhelming at times. "What's tough for me is how Mom and Dad have that feeling that life is just continuing to move on without them," Savannah explained on her podcast Unlocked in April 2024. "In a way, I have that feeling with people in my life because it's like they just continue on living their lives." "I'm still sitting here struggling to catch my breath," she continued. "Whether it's financially with the kids, trying to parent, me in a relationship." Julie's Prison Sentence Overturned Julie's seven-year prison sentence was overturned June 2024 following a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the panel upheld her convictions, the court ruled the judge in the 2022 trial miscalculated the reality star's sentence. "The district court did not identify the evidence it relied on to hold Julie accountable for losses incurred before 2007, and we cannot independently find it in the record," the judges stated in their ruling. "So we vacate Julie's sentence and remand solely for the district court to make the factual findings and calculations necessary to determine loss, restitution, and forfeiture as to Julie and to resentence her accordingly." Her case was handed to a lower court to determine how her sentencing would be adjusted while Todd's sentencing remained unaffected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Tearful Apology Three months after her prison sentence was overturned, an Atlanta court ultimately upheld Julies previous seven-year prison sentence. And she made a tearful apologyboth to her children and the court. "I would like to say Ive had years to think about what Ive wanted to say and Im sorry for my actions and situations that let us to where we are today," Julie said before the court, per People, during the Sept. 25 hearing. "Ive had 20 months in prison, but it has been much more leading up to the trial and I apologize for my actions that led to where we are today," "I have done everything I can do to get closer to my family. Ive taken tests for new skills, such as driving a forklift and serving food in proper ways," she continued, "this has been the most difficult part of my life. I cant ever repay my children for what theyve had to go through and for that, I am so sorry," she added. President Donald Trump Pardons the Chrisleys The Chrisleys are heading home. They received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, he told Savannah in a phone call May 27, 2025. "For the past two and a half years, Ive done everything in my power to fight for my parents freedom and bring them home," Savannah said in a statement to E! News. "This moment is the answer to countless prayers, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for seeing the truth and restoring my family." They were both released on May 28, 2025. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App Reality TV star Todd Chrisley, seen with a microphone in his face, during a press conference. UPDATE (2:15 p.m.): The Federal Bureau of Prisons has released a statement to WKRG News 5 after Todd and Savannah Chrisley held a press conference Friday morning. When she called me, she was crying: Nanny Fayes local friend on Todd Chrisleys release During the press conference, Todd claimed that some inmates at the prison camp were being discriminated against. In an email to us, FBOP officials said, We are aware of the statements and have forwarded them for proper review. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The email continued, saying, The Federal Bureau of Prisons takes allegations of staff misconduct seriously and, consistent with national policy, refers all allegations for investigation. Incidents of potential criminal activity or misconduct inside BOP facilities are thoroughly investigated for potential administrative discipline or criminal prosecution. Officials said all employees undergo training and are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that fosters respect for the BOP, Department of Justice, and the U.S. Government. Staff members are also reminded annually about the Standards of Employee Conduct, according to officials. PREVIOUS REPORTING PENSACOLA, Fla. (WKRG) Reality TV star Todd Chrisley and his daughter, Savannah Chrisley, held a press conference Friday morning for the first time since Todd was released from jail under a presidential pardon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the press conference, Todd discussed the conditions inside the prison camp he was in the Federal Correctional Institution in Pensacola. WATCH THE FULL PRESS CONFERENCE According to Todd, not all 317 men inside FPC Pensacola were treated the same. Being in the prison system, anyone that says that its a fair shake, its not, because I dealt with young, African American males in the prison that I was in that were not treated the same, said Todd. They were denied programming, they were denied access to certain things. I was not denied that. Todd followed this comment by saying he believes society needs to look at the bigger picture and realize we are one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to an Associated Press report from December 2024, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is closing and demolishing its Pensacola location due to significant disrepair. I will continue to fight for all the guys that I dealt with and that I was blessed to be with at FCP Pensacola, said Todd. I will continue to expose the injustices that go on there and throughout the bureau of prisons. Todd and his wife, Julie Chrisley, starred on the USA Network reality series Chrisley Knows Best from 2014-2023. The couple were found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion in 2022. Todd was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Julie was sentenced to seven. Both Chrisleys reported to their respective prisons in January 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Donald Trump pardoned them this week, and both were released from prison on Wednesday, May 28. Todd served at FCP Pensacola; Julie served at Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Fairhope and Daphne hit by 80 mph winds as surprise storm downs trees across Baldwin County This story is developing. News 5 will update this article as more information becomes 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 WKRG News 5. Hegseth says US will stand by Indo-Pacific allies against 'imminent' threat of China SINGAPORE (AP) U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reassured allies in the Indo-Pacific on Saturday that they will not be left alone to face increasing military and economic pressure from China, while insisting that they also contribute more to their own defense. He said Washington will bolster its defenses overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly developing threats by Beijing, particularly in its aggressive stance toward Taiwan. China has conducted numerous exercises to test what a blockade would look like of the self-governing island, which Beijing claims as its own and the U.S. has pledged to defend. China's army is rehearsing for the real deal, Hegseth said in a keynote speech at a security conference in Singapore. Top officials at the Department of Government Efficiency are set to leave their roles following the departure of DOGE head Elon Musk. Three officials adviser Steve Davis, adviser and spokesperson Katie Miller, and attorney James Burnham are leaving the administration, a White House official told The Hill. Davis served in a leadership role at DOGE and has worked with Musk at several of his companies, including the Boring Company, SpaceX, and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Serving as DOGEs chief operating officer, Davis spoke to Fox News in March, calling the work an inspiring mission that was worth doing. Davis also appeared at a briefing alongside Musk at the White House with a small group of reporters, when Musk spoke about DOGEs work and its future. Steve Davis (left) poses for a picture alongside Rep. Aaron Bean and Elon Musk. Davis served as the chief executive officer at DOGE (Rep. Aaron Bean / X) Miller is the wife of Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller and was also part of the first Trump administration. She was named to the DOGE advisory board in December. Burnham was DOGEs general counsel. Hes also the president and founder of Vallecity Capital LLC and earlier served as a Supreme Court clerk for Justice Neil Gorsuch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday night, Musk took to X to share his gratitude to President Donald Trump. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, he said. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Yet Musk earlier this week courted controversy as he slammed the large spending package put forward by Trump and congressional Republicans, which passed the House last week, and is currently expected to massively balloon the debt to $4 trillion even amid huge cuts in public services. I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing, the billionaire told CBS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Musk and the other top officials at DOGE were limited by a 130-day restriction on their status as Special Government Employees. Musk has said that he will return full-time to his companies. Musk is stepping down just after a former DOGE associate has said that he was removed after an interview in which he spoke about his work was published earlier this month. Engineer and tech startup founder Sahil Lavingia wrote in a personal blog post that he got the boot from DOGE the day after Fast Company published an interview with him. In the interview, he discussed finding fewer inefficiencies than he had expected. He was assigned as the senior adviser to the chief of staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Government Executive noted. I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions, Lavingia told Fast Company. The outlet noted that Lavingia noticed that there were plenty of mission-driven people working in the government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But honestly, its kind of fine because the government works. Its not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins, he said. Elon Musk thanked President Donald Trump as he announced his departure from government (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) Fiscal conservatives, meanwhile, are frustrated that the spending cuts put forward by DOGE arent being codified, and worried about Trumps spending plan boosting expenditures. To see Republicans in Congress cast aside any meaningful spending reductions ... is demoralizing and represents a betrayal of the voters who elected them, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on X. Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on Wednesday: Personally I want to pass DOGE cuts every single week until the bloated out of control government is reigned back in. As a country, we cannot survive our national debt and honestly, we may be past the point of return. We should be aggressively attacking our debt and aggressively, cutting all waste fraud, and abuse and unnecessary programs. GM Korea Company, the South Korean subsidiary of US automaker General Motors (GM), revealed it plans to sell non-core assets in an effort to reduce costs as business conditions continue to get tougher. The companys exports are under increased pressure following the introduction of new import tariffs in the US, while in the local market the company is struggling with rising competition from local automakers and importers alike. GM Korea confirmed it plans to sell off its nine directly-managed aftersales service centres, as part of its efforts to sustain its overall operations in the country amid weakening demand, with the staff to be redeployed to other operations within the company. It also plans to sell unused properties and facilities around its main Bupyeong vehicle assembly plant, without affecting its production operations. GM Korea said it plans to begin consultations with relevant stakeholders to secure the financial sustainability of its South Korean operations. The companys CEO, Hector Villarreal, said in a statement: Unlocking value from surplus assets and eliminating loss-making service operations are critical to supporting ongoing sustainability. GM Korea's total vehicle sales in the first four months of 2025 declined by over 9% to 154,161 units, with local sales plunging by 41% to 5,434 units while shipments to overseas markets declined by over 8% to 148,727 units. Around 80% of the companys output is exported to the US. Mr Villareal emphasized that vehicle production will not be affected by the cuts, pointing out that the companys current vehicle programmes still have many years to run and that the current restructuring is important to ensuring GM Korea is running as efficiently as possible." Earlier this year, GM Koreas CFO, Paul Jacobson, said the company may consider relocating its manufacturing operations to the US if the new US import tariff hikes become permanent. "GM Korea to sell non-core assets" was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand. ST. LOUIS FOX 2 went back to a St. Louis neighborhood, the scene of heartbreak and resilience following the May 16 tornado, to see if anythings changed. We were struck Wednesday by the silence in the Academy/Sherman Park neighborhood, broken up by the occasional homeowner cleaning up with the help of neighbors. At the time, we saw no signs of any help from the government. What a difference a day makes. The sound of chainsaws was a hint of what we were about to see on a what was a quiet street Wednesday. It was hard to believe it was even the same street this time with action that you could both see and hear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The St. Louis Forestry Department showed up in force Thursday to remove a colossal tree that tore its way inside this home during the tornado. Sheriffs Dept. turns over findings in daycare death to Prosecuting Attorneys Office It was a remarkable comparison to the previous days scene, where we found the homeowner alone and working against the odds with his single chainsaw. He was one of many people who feared help would never come. Yeah, its been surprising; been people from everywhere but not the government, resident Willie Thomas said. Twenty-four hours later, Thomas mood has changed. Theyre here, ha-ha-ha! Thomas exclaimed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The citys presence bolstered the efforts of private volunteers who have been there from the start. We were supposed to come out and do the chainsaw work and, thankfully, the city showed up, volunteer Victor Malmgren said. That allowed volunteers to hit other needed areas, such as the home where we saw Fred Thomas sitting alone on his stoop. He was surrounded at the time with chaos and no visible help. On Thursday, his front walk was bustling with help. Progress is already being made, so we gotta move onto the next place, Malmgren said. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Breaking News Its an endless path of destruction in all directions. We found decimated vehicles with their windows smashed out and giant pieces of steel piled up on one of the cars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre doing what they can do, Thomas said. I mean, aint nothing overnight. Especially when you consider some damage is far out of reach, like the missing roof from the historic Westminster Presbyterian Church. The massive damage towers 100 feet above. We took video from our drone to see how daunting the job will be. The damaged area is bigger than some billboards and its easy to spot from blocks away. At least neighbors are now thankful they are also starting to feel seen. 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. GHENT, WV (WVNS) The National Weather Service has issued multiple tornado warnings and watches for counties across southern West Virginia. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALERTS Tornado watches were issued for the entire WVNS region in southern West Virginia. The watches include Mercer, Greenbrier, Raleigh, Fayette, Summers, Pocahontas, Monroe, Wyoming, and McDowell Counties. Tazewell County, Virginia is also under a tornado watch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tornado watches are expected to end at 8:00 PM. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning in McDowell County until 1:45 PM. 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 WVNS. ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) The Tornado Watch continues to get cancelled where storms have already moved out. The watch continues off to the east from Richmond up into Washington where the severe storms remain. As the storms move out, the severe threat ends with only a few lingering showers possible as the front moves through. 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 WFXRtv. In a landmark piece of legislation, Hawaii has become the first state to enact a green fee or a tax on tourists, aimed at fighting future climatological disasters set to go into effect January 1st, 2026. The tax, specifically, will apply to travelers staying in hotels, short-term rental homes, and cruise ships. And how much exactly? The transient accommodations tax (TAT) will be increased by 0.75 percent translation: a nightly rate of $300 in a hotel will have an extra $2.25 per night added to the bill. Senate Bill 1396 was signed by Hawaii Governor Josh Green earlier this week, enacting what they are calling the Green Fee, the first-of-its-kind for any state, going into effect next year. Governor Green said via press release: Today Hawaii ushers in the first Green Fee in the nation. Once again, Hawaii is at the forefront of protecting our natural resources, recognizing their fundamental role in sustaining the ecological, cultural and economic health of Hawaii. As an island chain, Hawaii cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action. We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future. Related: Lahaina Harbor Reopens to Surfers After Maui Wildfires Of course, Hawaii is one of the worlds most trafficked hubs for tourism. And all those people take a toll on the historic, and culturally significant island chain. So, this tax is an attempt to get ahead of future environmental impacts the islands may experience a reserve, of sorts, for future disasters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I mahalo the tourism industry for stepping up and collaborating on this initiative, which will preserve Hawaii for kamaaina and visitors alike, continued Governor Green. The fee will restore and remediate our beaches and shorelines and harden infrastructure critical to the health and safety of all who call Hawaii home, whether for a few days or a lifetime. If youre traveling to Hawaii, and youre staying in a hotel or short-term vacation rental, starting in 2026, its gonna cost you an extra $2.25 per day to surf. But, instead of an extra fee, consider it an investment in the natural beauty and the future prosperity of this sacred place. Related: Controversial Gondola, Zipline Proposed for North Shore of Oahu Tourists Will Be Charged $2.25 Per Day to Surf in Hawaii first appeared on Surfer on May 30, 2025 Haribo is recalling packs of sweets in the Netherlands after some were found to contain traces of cannabis. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Agency warned any potential customers of the 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) bags of Happy Cola F!ZZ not to eat the sweets because they may cause dizziness. Saida Ahyad, a spokesperson for the agency, told French news agency AFP that, "Cannabis was found in the cola bottles in question." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agency also said the issue only concerns three bags so far but all stock has been recalled as a precaution, adding that it is working with authorities to investigate the cause of the contamination. Local Dutch media reported that a family in Twente became "quite ill" after eating the candy and reported the incident to police. After a forensic investigation, police discovered traces of cannabis and alerted the food and product safety agency, according to the media reports. A Haribo spokesperson told CBS News partner BBC News it was working with police to "establish the facts around the contamination." Haribo Vice-President of Marketing told AFP the incident is "a live issue and we are working closely with the Dutch authorities to support their investigation and establish the facts." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The recall applies to the items under the production code L341-4002307906, with a best before date of January 2026. Sean "Diddy" Combs' former assistant alleges he threatened to kill her multiple times Google, Justice Department wrap up landmark antitrust case Supreme Court allows Trump to end legal protections for over 500,000 immigrants CANFIELD, Ohio (WKBN)- Two local agencies are trying to decrease cases of animal abuse by training community members. Weve unfortunately reported on many cases of people abusing or neglecting their pets. Some of the agencies that deal with these cases recognize its a big problem thats happening, and they are working on a solution. Thats why on Friday, Angels for Animals and the Columbiana County Humane Society are hosting an animal abuse investigation training. The course will cover the standards for animal neglect and cruelty, common problems of investigating animal crimes, and understanding the mandatory probable cause hearing when an animal is seized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The training is open to law enforcement, judges, attorneys, or anyone who wants to help. I dont know what its going to take to stop it, but if every person involved in some small way, I think we could put a little more of a dent in it, said Sarah Underwood of the Columbiana County Humane Society. The person leading the training has been a special prosecutor for animal cruelty cases for decades. Law enforcement and legal professionals can get certification through Fridays training. Registration is required to attend. 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. HOMEWOOD, Ala. (WIAT) All the wet weather has kept tree removal companies in central Alabama very busy this month. CBS 42 News met up with Brothers Tree Service in Homewood after a 40-foot tree came down. Thankfully, the tree was not located near the house. Other folks have not been so lucky this month. A tree expert we spoke with said there are steps you can take to try and prevent damage to your home. Homewood resident Ron Condon came upon a downed tree in his sons yard on Thursday and consulted with Brothers Tree Service for removal. Condon said given the amount of rain weve received this month, hes not surprised. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive got two sump pumps in my basement and theyre going off every 15 to 20 seconds, he noted. Homewood Fire Department installs new technology to prevent first responder accidents on emergency calls Keith Jowers, who owns Ox Tree Service, said there are things you can look for before severe weather hits if you want to try and reduce the chances of having a tree come down on your home: If you look at the base, theres holes in there, where waters actually flowing through it looks like it has some sort of root rot going on with this one, he noted while examining a large oak tree. You can kind of feel the ground around there, it feels really soft, so thats a good telltale sign that when the wind blows its putting pressure on the root system, and ultimately the thing could come down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jowers said depending on the condition of the tree, there may be pre-emptive steps you can take which include period trimming to lighten the load. However, not all trees are worth saving, including the large oak tree he was examining. I would say it needs to come down, the sheer size of it, and nature will take its course, gravity. Jowers said just a small section of a mature oak tree can weigh four or 500 hundred pounds. If its a 110-foot tree, it could weigh 80,000 pounds. He adds that theyve been very busy this month with all of the storm damage, and that the ground being saturated is leading to more trees falling during heavy winds, even healthy trees. So far in the month of May, the Birmingham metro region has received 11.12 inches of rain so far compared to 3.50 inches last May. According to CBS 42 News Chief Meteorologist Dave Nussbaum, the average total rainfall for May should be 4.99 inches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) The trial for a 15-year-old charged in the shooting death of a 12-year-old in York County begins Monday. Nolan Grove, of Red Lion, is headed to trial as an adult on murder, involuntary manslaughter, firearm and recklessly endangering another person charges, online court records state. President Judge Maria Cook will preside over the trial scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Kain Heiland was shot and killed in April 2023, on 1st Avenue in Red Lion. Court documents filed by Pennsylvania State Police show they found Heilands body and one bullet casing at the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation, which also included a grand jury, revealed that Grove was allegedly playing with a gun, pointed it at Heiland, and was also making comments about Heilands mother prior to the shooting, court documents show. Court docs state that Heiland and Grove exchanged words around 8:30 p.m., and that is when Heiland was fatally shot. Court records indicated the gun belonged to Groves father and was taken out of a safe by Grove, and the caliber of the casing that was found by Heilands body was linked to the gun. The father is not facing charges in the case. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe Now Morning Weather Forecast Grove posted his bail, which was set in August 2024, at $50,000 by Cook, despite him being charged with third-degree murder. Usually in Pennsylvania, if someone is charged with first-degree murder, bail is denied. Grove is charged with third-degree murder, meaning it depends on the cases circumstances and is up to a judge to grant the person bail or not. Also in August, Cook ruled during a hearing that Grove would remain charged as an adult in 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 ABC27. Goldman Sachs downgraded Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH) from Neutral to Sell on May 28. The firm also slashed the price target to $94 from $108. According to the firm's analysts, Booz Allen Hamiltons (NYSE:BAH) space for revenue and earnings growth is limited. As such, there is no incentive for investors to pile into the stock. A key factor that the analysts cited for the gloomy earnings expectations is that they anticipate pressures on federal civilian spending and shifting priorities within the Department of Defense (DoD). Goldman Sachs Downgrades Booz Allen Hamilton to Sell, Cuts Target to $94 A professional banker in a suit consulting with a small business owner in an office. Goldman Sachs also expressed concerns about potential risks to profit margins due to changes in contract structures. The firm noted that Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) trades at 17 times price-to-earnings and 12 times EBITDA on calendar year 2026 estimates. Goldman Sachs' analysis indicates that valuation levels could decline if Booz Allen Hamiltons earnings fail to trend upward. The firm maintains a cautious stance, warning investors about potential downside risks to the stocks future performance. Interestingly, the downgrade comes just days after Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) reported robust Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings results. For instance, the company posted a record Q4 backlog of $37 billion and a trailing 12-month book-to-bill ratio of 1.39x. It also managed 12.4% revenue growth to $12.0 billion and adjusted diluted EPS of $6.35, a 15.5% increase. Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE:BAH) is a global consulting and technology firm. It provides a broad range of services that support defense, intelligence, civil government, and commercial sectors like healthcare, energy, and finance. While we acknowledge the potential of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BAH) 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 BAH and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. PITTSBURGH The Meadville Tribune won a Golden Quill Award for excellence in journalism on Tuesday night. The Press Club of Western Pennsylvania announced the winners of the Golden Quills, a competition that honors professional and student excellence in print, broadcast, photography, videography and digital journalism in western Pennsylvania and nearby counties in Ohio and West Virginia. Mike Crowley won a Golden Quill in the Excellence in Written Journalism, Science/Environment category with a his reporting on invasive species in Pymatuning Reservoir and Conneaut Lake. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is a real honor and privilege to work with the talented news team at the Tribune. I am incredibly proud of the work that Mike and Chloe are doing for us and I look forward to many more awards and nominations for them and our other reporters and photographers in the future! Publisher Devon Stout said. The Tribune also was a finalist in six other categories: Traditional feature, Crowley, Going for gold: Student competes in major league of marching band. Public affairs/politics/government reporting, Chloe Forbes, Critical Pa. swing county remains in limbo as Election Day nears, and Crowley, Bye-bye biomass: Crawford Central pulls plug on energy initiative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Business/technology/consumer reporting, Crowley, Parking puzzle: Town hall shows meter increases unpopular, other options limited, and Forbes, Meadville weighs if skill games regulations are a good bet. Education: Crowley, Much ado, but few books removed: One year after PENNCREST library policy changes. Our entire news team is dedicated to community-focused journalism, and these awards are a reinforcement of the quality of work were doing on a daily basis, Editor Rick Green said. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) United Way of Greater New Haven held a fun event all for a good cause. Thirteen teams of five adults rode child-size tricycles while raising over $10,000 to support United Ways work fighting hunger in the Greater New Haven region. Shahs Halal Food in New Haven hosts free food giveaway on their opening day News 8 spoke with organizers who explain the importance of stepping up to make a difference. Raising funds for United Way is a great way to give back to the community, Yale University Diversity Support Specialist Devon Riley said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, left and served in the military, volunteered across the world for multiple different spots. But coming back home really feels like its home because to see my community go through any kind of struggle hurts knowing I can actually get up and do something for my community. Riley said working with both United Way and Yale University is great because it brings many people, both from and outside the city, together. 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. TROY, Mo. The Troy (Missouri) Police Department is asking for the publics help after someone allegedly threw a homemade firebomb into a vehicle earlier this week, a case authorities described as a deliberate act of arson. Police responded to a vehicle fire around 1 a.m. Monday on Creekwood Boulevard. Investigators later determined that an incendiary device, described as a homemade firebomb, had been thrown into the vehicle. The Troy (Missouri) Police Department is asking for the publics help after someone allegedly threw a homemade firebomb into a vehicle earlier this week, a case authorities described as a deliberate act of arson. (Photo provided by: Troy Police Department) A photo shared by police shows significant fire damage to one left-side passenger door and seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a VERY disturbing incident that could have resulted in serious injury or death, said the Troy Police Department via Facebook. Detectives processed the crime scene and canvassed the area after for additional leads. However, at this time, police have not identified any suspects or established a motive. Police are asking residents who live near Creekwood Boulevard to check their security cameras and doorbells cameras between midnight and 1:30 a.m. Monday to see if they notice anything or anyone suspicious. Anyone with relevant information should contact Detective Greg Turner with the Troy Police Department at 636-462-7644 or gturner@troypolicemo.gov. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. The Trump administration has plans to turn the idea of remigration a term associated with the far-right in Europe and the forced removal of all immigrants back to their native countries into an official federal office that will be dedicated to escalating deportations across the United States. In a move to follow through with President Donald Trumps vow to lead the largest mass deportation operation in American history, his administration proposed the creation of an Office of Remigration, which will be a hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking. The plan was detailed in a more than 100-page notification sent by the State Department to six Congressional committees, outlining its intentions to make widespread changes, including reducing immigration, the closure and restructuring of offices, and staff firings at its Washington, D.C., headquarters, according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the document. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Per the outlet, the notification states that the Office of Remigration will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the Presidents immigration agenda. State Department funds will be used to intra-agency policy work to advance the Presidents immigration agenda and will use State Department funds to actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the State Departments proposal in April. The plan submitted to Congress was the result of thoughtful and deliberative work by senior Department leadership, Rubio said in a statement. We have taken into account feedback from lawmakers, bureaus, and long-serving employees. The reorganization plan will result in a more agile Department, better equipped to promote Americas interests and keep Americans safe across the world. The departments plan also calls for the elimination of most of the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor bureaus regional offices, according to Reuters. Rubio proposed appointing a new deputy assistant secretary who would oversee a new Office of Natural Rights to build the foundation for criticisms of free speech backsliding in Europe and other developed nations. According to CNN, the document also confirmed earlier reporting that a majority of the disaster relief work by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, would be absorbed into the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The decision has been denounced, following devastating cuts to USAID by billionaire Elon Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which threaten to leave the worlds most vulnerable people without access to life-saving supplies of food, clean water, and medicine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a testament to Trump and his administrations obsession with deporting migrants, around which they are focusing an obscene amount of federal resources. Stephen Miller, the White House adviser and fervent immigration hawk, reportedly yelled at top immigration officials earlier this month because they werent deporting enough people, and on Thursday the administration shook up the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) . Miller posted ahead of the election last year about remigration, writing on X: THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION! Now that Trump is back in office, the plan appears to be taking shape. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A sweeping plan to revamp the State Department would establish an Office of Remigration, a term popularized by far-right activists in Europe and white nationalists who want the mass removal of immigrants. The proposed new office was included in a 100-page-long notice to Congress from the State Department, which has been viewed by publications including CNN, Wired and The Handbasket. That document reportedly describes the Office of Remigration as a hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking aimed at facilitating interagency coordination on removals/repatriations. It also reportedly details using State Department funds to help advance the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The term remigration is an alarming one thats effectively a euphemism for ethnically cleansing non-white people from Western countries, Christopher Mathias previously wrote for HuffPost. Remigration is an immigration policy embraced by extremists that calls for the removal of all migrantsincluding non-assimilated citizenswith the goal of creating white ethnostates in Western countries, Wireds David Gilbert explains. Its been promoted by Germanys far-right party, Alternative fur Deutschland, as well as Austrias far-right Freedom Party, and the term is rooted in the premise of forcibly deporting non-white people from Europe regardless of citizenship status, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. The Freedom Party, for instance, has backed the remigration of uninvited foreigners with the goal of promoting a more homogenous country, The Associated Press reports. Its also a term that Trump and his senior adviser Stephen Miller have used before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [We will] return Kamalas illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration), Trump wrote in a September 2024 Truth Social post. I will save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America. THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION! Miller added on X. Experts note that remigration is often promoted in conjunction with the racist and conspiratorial Great Replacement theory, which claims that elites are trying to displace white people with people of color in Western countries. Far-right leaders believe the answer to this supposed threat is to remove immigrants and people of color wholesale. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration on Thursday issued new guidelines barring federal agencies from considering race or gender in the hiring process. The guidelines, part of a Merit Hiring Plan sent to agency leaders, also call for preventing the hiring of workers unwilling to faithfully serve the Executive Branch. The overly complex Federal hiring system overemphasized discriminatory equity quotas and too often resulted in the hiring of unfit, unskilled bureaucrats, the Office of Personnel Management wrote in a memo to agency leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The memo stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office that seeks to restore merit to government service. The administration has already moved to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs within federal agencies and sought to extend that effort to institutions and companies that interact with the federal government. The hiring plan comes as the federal government has been implementing mass layoffs known as reductions in force, or RIFs, though that process has been put on hold at multiple agencies by federal courts. The administration has also restricted how many new hires agencies can add to their ranks with only one new position for every four people who depart. At least one group that advocates for good governance criticized the memo, saying its yet another example of the Trump administrations efforts to reshape the federal workforce into one thats loyal to the president, not the American people. The memos focus on the presidents executive orders was particularly troubling, said Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. He pointed to a question that many job candidates would be required to answer as part of their application: How would you help advance the Presidents Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is deeply problematic because it is, again, an effort to highlight loyalty to the individual over the rule of law and to the critical functions of the job, said Stier, who also voiced concern about the memo dictating that agency leadership namely political appointees would be involved in the hiring process. Overhauling the hiring process OPM is seeking to reduce the hiring process to fewer than 80 days. The memo also calls for eliminating unnecessary degree requirements in favor of skills-based hiring, which both Republicans and Democrats have supported. However, it also requires that agencies use rigorous, job-related assessments to ensure candidates are selected based on their merit and competence, not their skin color or academic pedigree, which has been a focus of Republicans. The 30-page memo orders agencies to stop using statistics on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin or the concept of underrepresentation in hiring, recruiting, retention or promotion decisions. It also prevents agencies from releasing data on the compositions of their workforces based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin. And it ends all programs and initiatives related to hiring, training and promotions based on these criteria, while warning that any hiring manager or employee will face disciplinary action if they engage in unlawful race preferential discrimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An asserted interest in diversity or equity cannot justify discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin, the memo reads. OPM also takes a shot at the nations top universities, several of which the Trump administration is targeting, in its mandate to broaden early career recruitment efforts. Federal hiring too often focuses on elite universities and credentials, instead of merit, practical skill, and commitment to American ideals, the memo reads. Instead, the office directs agencies to target recruitment at state universities, religious colleges, community colleges and trade schools, homeschooling groups, faith-based groups and the military, among others. Axios first reported on the memo. This story has been updated with additional details. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Medical Watch Digest for May 29 Trump Administration Cancels Funding For Vaccine Development The Trump Administration scraps funding for a vaccine development. Nearly $800 million dollars was awarded to Moderna to come up with a vaccine against potential, pandemic influenza viruses. This includes the h5n1 bird flu. The cancellation comes as the drugmaker announced positive results from a vaccine trial targeting that virus. Scientists are worried, the bird flu virus could become more harmful or spread more easily among people Possibly causing a pandemic. Surge in American doctors seeking to move to Canada The United States may be losing doctors to Canada. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NPR reports that since President Trump was elected, a skyrocketing amount of doctors have filled out applications to become licensed in Canada. According to The Medical Council of Canada those applications have increased more than 750%, from 71 applicants to 615 for the same time period last year. Some doctors have disclosed they are specifically moving because of the trump administration. The White House has not commented on the report. More Coverage: WGNs Medical Watch Study: Cannabis use can lead to greater risk heart disease A new study has uncovered a link between cannabis use and heart troubles. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco found even people who used edible cannabis instead of smoking it had greater risk of cardiovascular issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A study from 2024 found that people who reported using marijuana daily had a 25 percent higher risk of a heart attack, and a 42% higher risk of stroke. Researchers say using cannabis in any form could be associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Sign up for our Medical Watch newsletter. This daily update includes important information from WGNs Dina Bair and the Med Watch team, including, the latest updates from health organizations, in-depth reporting on advancements in medical technology and treatments, as well as personal features related to people in the medical field. Sign up 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 WGN-TV. Over the last four decades, the United States has built a web of federal policies and funding to address domestic and intimate partner violence, a pervasive health and safety crisis. In just 130 days, the Trump administration has put that safety net in jeopardy. Funding pauses, cuts, firings and information purges have destabilized the infrastructure that helps victims of abuse. At the same time, federal teams dedicated to preventing sexual violence are being decimated. Departments in charge of administering grants that fund shelters for those fleeing assault have been deemed duplicative, DEI or simply unnecessary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first budget recommendation proposed by the administration of a man found liable for sexual abuse suggests eliminating the team tackling rape prevention and education. It takes a limited view of who is worthy of help to flee abuse. These changes limit how federal funds can be used to support survivors and emphasize criminal consequences for perpetrators over a more holistic view of justice. The federal government has long recognized domestic violence and violence between romantic partners as a critical public health and safety issue. Four out of every 10 women say theyve experienced violence at the hands of an intimate partner, according to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among men, a quarter reported being victims. Intimate partner violence can be deadly, particularly for women: More than half of all women homicide victims are killed by a current or former partner, according to a CDC study. In 1994, Congress recognized violence against women as a national crisis and passed a law that supercharged the governments funding and attention to the issue. They havent solved the problem but lawmakers and advocates say the Violence Against Women Act and its predecessor, the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, have been essential to the protection of victims and the decline in violent crime. Tightening the purse strings Federal grant programs are the lifeblood of domestic violence services programs and they have been threatened since the day Trump returned to office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His executive orders on gender and illegal diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility led to lists of banned words. Federal departments raced to sanitize their communications, eradicating decades of research and data. Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget issued a short-lived freeze on funding distributions pending evaluation of programs for compliance with executive orders. Nonprofits that relied on federal funds to provide services to victims of domestic violence scrambled for legal advice: Was their budget at risk because they had a pride flag on their website? Did they also have to erase all mentions of banned words? The National Domestic Violence Hotline, which is largely funded by appropriations from the Department of Health and Human Services, removed resources for LGBTQ+ survivors from its website. The majority of state domestic violence coalitions, the umbrella organizations that support direct service providers, took their websites offline though when asked if it was related to Trumps actions, most declined to answer on the record. So far, there has only been one reported case of a grant from the Office on Violence Against Women being revoked, but hundreds of grants already issued by the Office of Justice Programs were abruptly canceled because they no longer aligned with the administrations priorities. Even while some of the cuts were reversed, the moves created uncertainty that makes it impossible for victims services organizations to plan, increasing the stresses of work that is already difficult and traumatic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then it was not just current funding, but future provisions that came under fire. The Office on Violence Against Women removed all open notices of funding opportunities from its website on February 6. New versions werent released for three months, disrupting the grant cycle that must conclude by September 30, the end of the governments financial year. Revised notices included major changes to department priorities and a longer list of activities ineligible for funding. The U.S. attorney general has the authority to prioritize areas for grantmaking. Notices posted before Trump took office didnt have any; now applications are given bonus points in the review round if they combat human trafficking and transnational crime, particularly crimes linked to illegal immigration and cartel operations or seek to improve services in small towns, rural areas or tribal nations. The section defining what is ineligible for funding has ballooned. In addition to complying with executive orders on gender and DEI, the new restrictions put forth a more limited view of interventions around domestic violence. Activities that frame domestic violence or sexual assault as systemic social justice issues rather than criminal offenses (e.g., prioritizing criminal justice reform or social justice theories over victim safety and offender accountability) are banned, as well as activities that discourage collaboration with law enforcement. Initiatives that prioritize illegal aliens over U.S. citizens are also not allowed. Rita Smith, an international expert on violence against women, is publicly raising the alarm about these changes. As the Office on Violence Against Women announces new grants on LinkedIn, Smith reshares them to her large network with a warning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think if people apply for these grants and they get them, it may open them up to the kind of scrutiny that theyre not used to getting from the Department of Justice, Smith said in an interview. Shes worried that organizations will be subject to intrusive data collection or information gathering, especially around the immigration status of their clients. Smith used to work in direct services, and now has a more administrative role in the movement against domestic violence. We never required anyone to show us their immigration papers, she said. We didnt ask for documentation if people said they were in danger. If they processed through the intake questions that we had, and we determined that they were in danger, we gave them shelter. We didnt ask them for a green card. We didnt ask them for visas. We just brought them in to make them safe. The administrations priorities conflict with some recent moves to better reach diverse populations. The 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act created a funding scheme for culturally specific service providers, which are tailored to the needs of Asian, Black Native American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander or Latinx survivors. But how are those organizations supposed to operate when DEI is banned? How can nonprofits supporting LGBTQ+ survivors do their work without acknowledging the trans community? Guidance remains piecemeal and oftentimes unofficial no one knows exactly how to bulletproof their organization. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Smith sees the new restriction on funding as a way to redefine who is a victim in the eyes of the federal government. The requirements are so onerous that it can make it hard for nonprofits to serve their purpose: helping people escape violence. Some organizations have made the decision to refuse federal funds because it comes with conditions antithetical to their mission. But the gaps left will be hard to fill. With CDC cuts, federal prevention efforts decimated When the Trump administration fired nearly every federal employee within the CDCs Division of Violence Prevention, it did away with the only team at the federal level working specifically on domestic and intimate partner violence prevention. The program they oversaw called DELTA, or Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancements and Leadership Through Alliances was first created in 2002 to harness federally funded research and expertise on the causes of intimate partner violence, along with the connections of state and local domestic violence groups, so fewer people become victims in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Getting that work off the ground asked already strained groups trying to serve victims to shift some of their energy to prevention work, but staff at the CDC at the time, and until April, remained committed to what one laid-off worker referred to as the cultural norms change thats a key part of preventing domestic and intimate partner violence. Under DELTA, which currently funds 13 state-based domestic violence networks, the CDC helps state groups implement prevention programs and measures how successful they are at preventing violence. If you remember taking a class on healthy relationships, or seeing PSA about domestic violence, or anything like that in your school or communities those are some examples of our prevention work, said one former federal worker within the Division of Violence Prevention who was part of the administrations reduction in force. They declined to be named out of fear of losing their remaining federal benefits. People, I think, sometimes take it for granted, because its just something thats there. But those kinds of things are going to go away, and no one is going to be there to teach our kids about healthy relationships or help communities reshape the norms around whats acceptable in how we treat one another. All of that stuff will be gone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration has not clawed back funding for the current budget year from the 13 DELTA states, but staff in those states are doing without the expertise of staff at the CDC. The Trump administration has proposed slashing DELTA altogether next year, alongside the other programs under the Division of Violence Prevention, calling the spending duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary. The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which receives nearly half a million dollars in funding through DELTA, said the funding cut would be catastrophic. DELTA is the only dedicated federal funding source for the primary prevention of domestic violence and a critical tool for driving real, lasting change, said Jennifer Beittel, a spokesperson for the group. Hema Sarang-Sieminski, the executive director of Jane Doe Inc., the Massachusetts sexual assault and domestic violence coalition, said their CDC grant managers were all laid off. She found their advice and expertise invaluable; the team created resources for working with LGBTQ+ survivors and culturally specific communities. Jane Doe Inc.s grant was for five years, and Sarang-Sieminski just reapplied, as required for year two. Its unclear what support her organization will have moving forward. Of the 61 million women nationwide who say theyve experienced violence at the hands of a romantic partner, 16 million reported first experiencing it before they turned 18. The administrations staffing cuts and proposed budget cuts would also hit the CDCs team focused on teen dating violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That team developed a program called Dating Matters, the first comprehensive teen dating violence prevention effort in the United States using funding appropriated by Congress. The funding came after several high-profile cases of dating violence, in particular the 2005 death of Rhode Island student Lindsay Ann Burke, whose boyfriend was convicted of her murder. Her parents became advocates for teen dating violence education efforts, arguing that their daughter may not have had enough information about the dynamics of abusive relationships before her death. One longitudinal study on 6th through 8th graders across four cities that adopted the CDCs Dating Matters model for middle school found that by the 11th grade, the program had no only reduced dating violence, but also sexual violence, harrassment, substance use and delinquency. In 2024, the team published a guide specifically for LGBTQ+ youth, who face higher rates of dating and sexual violence. In January, after Trump took office, those resources were deleted to comply with the executive order on radical gender ideology. By April, the whole team had been laid off. An update and rebrand of the Dating Matters program was slated to publish later this year, but its unclear who will carry it to the finish line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dating Matters consumed a lot of my life and it was destroyed for no reason whatsoever, said Sarah DeGue, senior scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention, who led the CDCs Dating Matters program for the last decade. American teens are in the midst of a mental health crisis. This is the absolute worst possible time to eliminate effective programs and resources that teach kids healthy relationship skills. DeGue was part of the administrations so-called reduction in force. Since leaving the CDC, she has started her own consulting firm focused on violence prevention and is uploading deleted resources to her firms website. The former CDC employee who declined to make their name public said they hope lawmakers can intervene to protect the work. I believe that there are still people in Congress, in our government at that level who care But not the Trump administration. I dont believe that at all. Strategies of resistance In his first term, Trump only floated cuts to the Office on Violence Against Women and didnt follow through. Now, groups are acutely aware of how many people will suffer and die without the funding that makes their services possible. Two prominent lawsuits are challenging the constitutionality of these specific cuts. The American Bar Association won a preliminary injunction in a case alleging its five grants from the Office on Violence Against Women were canceled as retaliation for suing the administration. The $2 million of outstanding grants were to employ seven people to provide training to legal practitioners working with survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. FORGE, the only domestic violence services nonprofit dedicated solely to assisting transgender and nonbinary survivors, relies on the federal government for 90 percent of its operating budget. In February, it joined other LGBTQ+ organizations in suing the Trump administration over the constitutionality of the executive order about gender. In April, the Office of Justice Programs canceled FORGEs grants over $500,000 in total to produce a toolkit for providers working with trans victims of crime and a project addressing anti-trans hate . Arguments in FORGEs case were held on May 22 in a California district court. An order is expected soon. The federal funding freeze in January spooked Jane Doe Inc., Sarang-Sieminski said. Worried about conflicting with executive orders, the nonprofit took its website down. But after two days, it put the site back online. Reflecting on their core mission of racial equity is what changed the staffs minds, Sarang-Sieminski said. The site still has sections tailored to LGBTQ+ and immigrant survivors and speaks about building a more equitable world. Its so through and through who we are that we felt like theres nothing that we really could possibly take down that would protect us in any meaningful way, she said. Taking down the website would only do further harm to communities who are counting on us to speak up and to be present and available when others refuse to. What keeps me up at night is thinking about the stories we will tell about this time looking back, Sarang-Sieminski said. This is liberatory work, and what we want to see is a world where we can all thrive. And to me that means not leaving folks behind and standing up for our fundamental principles around this work. Half of the organizations funding is dependent on federal grants, but she doesnt want that to cloud our judgment around our values. On Thursday, Democratic Reps. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and Debbie Dingell of Michigan, and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, will join a coalition of intimate partner and sexual violence groups for a day of action on Capitol Hill to discuss the importance of federal funding. Both Moore and Dingell have led several letters to the administration pushing back on funding delays and staffing cuts. I am horrified, said Moore, who has detailed her experience as a victim of domestic violence. Maybe its not intentional, but its very dangerous as a survivor of domestic violence a survivor in the days where there was no crisis line to call, no information to be able to stand up for yourself. There was no shelter to go to. Weve made so much progress in the last decade, Dingell said. Were going backwards, and it really scares me. Domestic violence services remain operational throughout the United States. Confidential, anonymous help is available 24/7 through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (1-800-799-7233) or online. The post The Trump administration is making the country less safe for domestic violence victims appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law on Thursday. Trump administration increases pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions with public listing The state of Connecticut and six cities and towns were listed as deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities, according to the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The six municipalities in Connecticut that are on the list are: East Haven Hamden Hartford New Haven New London Windham Every jurisdiction listed will be notified of its non-compliance and all potential violations of federal criminal statutes. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law. President Trump and I will always put the safety of the American people first. Sanctuary politicians are on notice: comply with federal law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DHS stated that it demands the states, counties and municipalities listed to immediately revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws. This comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April directing the DHS and the U.S. Department of Justice to identify and publicly highlight jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Its quite simple obey the law, respect the law, and dont obstruct federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats from our nations communities, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said April 28, when Trump signed the order. Note that the list can be reviewed and changed at any time and will be updated regularly, the Trump administration said. No one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information. Response from state and local leaders House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) said that its no surprise that the Trump administration labeled Connecticut and six municipalities as sanctuary jurisdictions. Democrats in the legislature have taken extreme positions, expanding the Trust Act far beyond its original purpose of protecting victims and maintaining safety. Instead, it now shields illegal immigrants who are endangering our communities. This is reckless. Its time lawmakers take public safety and fiscal responsibility seriously, not pander to anti-Trump sentiment. If these federal designations are the wake-up call Democrats needso be it. House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.) released the following statement, saying Connecticut was falsely labeled. We want local law enforcement focused on maintaining the safety of our neighborhoods and helping to get those who commit serious crimes off our streets. Connecticuts Trust Act, which was originally bipartisan, is consistent with federal constitutional standards and reflects sound public safety priorities. I am focused on making sure people feel safe in our schools, churches, and elsewhere. Nothing about this makes Connecticut a sanctuary in any legal or practical sense it makes our state one that upholds the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and prioritizes the safety and well-being of our communities. Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.) Attorney General William Tong said the Trump administration falsely labeled Connecticut a sanctuary jurisdiction. There is nothing in our laws or statutes that says Connecticut is a sanctuary state. We are not. That is a meaningless term. It is the policy of the State of Connecticut to respect, honor and protect immigrants and immigrant families in compliance with the law. Trumps own administration certified Connecticuts compliance with 8 U.S.C. 1373 in 2017. Nothing has changed to alter that certification, other than Trumps unhinged fixation on defunding and commandeering our police. We sued the last time Trump attempted to defund our law enforcement, and we are prepared to defend Connecticut funding and public safety. Attorney General William Tong Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, a Democrat, issued the following statement. Hartford is a diverse and welcoming city, and we take pride in the vibrant community weve built. We have made community safety our top priority, and thanks to the hard work of our residents and local partners, Hartford is now the safest it has been in decades. As mayor, I am committed to building on this progress by ensuring that every resident, regardless of where they come from or what their story is, has the opportunity to succeed. While my administration remains laser-focused on real solutions that protect our community, it is clear that current federal policies do not share this commitment to safety and threaten to undermine the gains we have made. In Hartford, safety, unity, and opportunity are not just ideals they are realities we are achieving together. Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam (D) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, also a Democrat, held a 1 p.m. news conference on Friday. In part, he said theyre proud of the label. The full press conference can be watched in the video above. This is something that we expected and we are proud of it. New Haven is proudly a welcoming city, its one of our defining characteristics and values Our immigrant community are our neighbors, are our friends, theyre our coworkers, theyre members of our school communities, they serve us and we provide them services as well. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker (D) Lauren Garrett, the mayor of Hamden, released the following statement. The Trump administration uses provocative terms as a distraction to defund public services to pay for a tax cut to billionaires in this country. Hamden is a place that prides itself on diversity, we respect all of our neighbors, and we are in complete compliance with state and federal law. We will not be bullied by a federal administration that clearly does not understand how the law works, nor will we play into their game of shifting focus away from their campaign of defunding essential public services. We will not allow local police to be commandeered by this administration, which, time after time, has ignored the Constitution, in order to carry out a punitive agenda that aims to harm our town. If Donald Trump truly cared about Hamden residents, he would not cut SNAP and Medicaid, benefits that families rely on. Instead, he is robbing families of services in the middle of the night while trying to bully our local police to comply with his unconstitutional and hateful agenda. Here in Hamden, we plan on following the actual law outlined by the state and federal governments and will continue to help all of our residents. Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett (D) 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. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law on Thursday. The state of Rhode Island and the cities of Providence and Central Falls were listed as deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens, according to the Trump administration. The state of Massachusetts and Bristol County were also on the list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. We are exposing these sanctuary politicians who harbor criminal illegal aliens and defy federal law. President Trump and I will always put the safety of the American people first, Noem continued. Sanctuary politicians are on notice: comply with federal law. Every jurisdiction listed will be notified of its non-compliance and all potential violations of federal criminal statutes. Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera said her city stands by their values and their community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our ordinance is legal and makes our city safer building a stronger foundation for public trust in our local police department. Together with the city of Providence, we won this fight before during the first Trump Administration, Rivera said. We filed a lawsuit in 2018 to prevent the Department of Justice from forcing police officers to be agents of immigration and to keep our cities police funding under the Byrne JAG program. Our cities won two successive victories in the Federal District Court in Rhode Island, and again in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Rivera continued. Were focused on keeping our community safe, and standing by our citys nationally-awarded, effective community policing work. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said his city remains fully compliant with federal law and does not violate any federal regulations. The citys policy remains the same and will not change: Providence will not proactively collaborate with ICE to provide information, Smiley said. The Providence police are not and will not be immigration officers and are better able to keep our community safe with this policy. Providence remains committed to being a safe and welcoming city for all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DHS said it demands that these states, counties and cities revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws. This comes after President Trump signed an executive order directing the DHS and the U.S. Department of Justice to identify and highlight jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 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. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup 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 WPRI.com. Getty Images Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. Real estate mogul Grant Cardone isnt known for holding back, even when sharing his views on investing legends like Warren Buffett. Warren Buffet does not buy stocks, Cardone declared in a YouTube video. Its a bold claim, considering Buffett is one of the most successful stock market investors of all time. But Cardone quickly clarified his stance. Every company Warren Buffett has ever invested in from Coca-Cola to Apple Computers he was taking a major position in a company, not in a piece of paper, Cardone explained. Don't miss According to Cardone, theres a common thread in these investments. All those companies have one thing in common, what do you think it is? Cash flow, Cardone said. He [Buffett] didn't invest in Apple Computers until their cash flow was so stable. He's a coward investor. He wants to buy real companies that have real assets, and the cash flow. He wants a check every month. While calling Buffett a coward investor might sound like an insult, Cardone applies the same label to himself. Im a coward investor. I dont invest in stocks, Ive always been a coward, Cardone said in a recent interview. For Cardone, cash flow is king. Owning businesses that generate reliable cash flow allows investors to earn a return without constant involvement something Cardone sees as essential for long-term wealth. As he put it: if you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die. In my case, I'm going to work until I die, and my money will work after I die. If youre looking to put this strategy into action, here are some simple ways to get started. Collect passive income from real estate When it comes to assets that prioritize cash flow, Cardone has a clear favorite real estate. You only buy things that produce cash flow that cant be disrupted like the real estate I buy, Cardone told YouTuber Logan Paul during a 2019 appearance on the Impaulsive podcast. Cardone went on to describe the durability of his investments. The real estate I buy is indestructible, he said. When Paul asked why, Cardone explained that his properties generate rents of $1,500 a month, and no matter what happens, those rents arent likely to drop below that level. Trump administration puts 20 Minnesota counties, cities on 'sanctuary' notice originally appeared on Bring Me The News. The Trump administration has issued a list of so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions in the U.S. that it claims are in defiance of federal immigration orders, including 20 from Minnesota. The list issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identifies the State of Minnesota, the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and 17 counties among the "sanctuary jurisdictions" where local police do not assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with immigration enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The list of counties includes five of the seven metro counties: Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Carver, and Scott with Dakota and Washington not included but also a series of counties in more rural, traditionally-Republican parts of Minnesota, including Otter Tail, Lincoln, Watonwan and Lyon counties (see the full list at bottom of page). In a statement, the DHS claims these counties and cities are "deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens." "Each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance and all potential violations of federal criminal statutes," the order says. "DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens." The City of Minneapolis issued the following statement in response: "Minneapolis is a city that fosters inclusivity, safety, and belonging. Thats something worth standing up for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The law is on our side. Two U.S. District Courts have already blocked the Trump administration from freezing funding to Minneapolis on this unlawful basis. Well proudly be on any list that reflects our values and commitment to the people who call Minneapolis home. We will always stand with and fight for our neighbors." FBI Minneapolis It's estimated that there were around 95,000 undocumented immigrants living in Minnesota as of 2022, around half of which are of Mexican or Central American descent. Of those, around 70,000 are believed to be in the workforce, contributing just under $500 million in taxes and with a spending power of $1.7 billion per year. While there have been high-profile incidents of crimes perpetrated by undocumented immigrants in the U.S., a study in Texas by the federal National Institute of Justice found that the undocumented population is less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens. The Trump administration has since removed that study from its website. Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, there has been a mass deportation push in the U.S., but while the Trump administration initially said the focus would be on undocumented immigrants with violent criminal histories, there have been a myriad of cases where non-criminal immigrants, lawful permanent residents, and even U.S. citizens have been targets for enforcement action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In January, Minneapolis Police Department reaffirmed its longstanding policy of keeping immigration enforcement at arm's length, leaving it up to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The MPD policy which means that while MPD will not interfere with ICE investigations, it will not be involved in the enforcement of federal immigration law has already been in practice for more than 20 years. The updated policy includes language explicitly stating that the department does not operate with the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws. It also prohibits officers from questioning any person about their immigration status. Here's the full list of jurisdictions in Minnesota put on notice by the DHS. State Self-Identification as a State Sanctuary Jurisdiction Counties Anoka County Carver County Cottonwood County Goodhue County Hennepin County Le Sueur County Lincoln County Lyon County Martin County Nicollet County Nobles County Otter Tail County Pipestone County Ramsey County Scott County Stearns County Steele County Todd County Watonwan County Wright County Cities Minneapolis St. Paul This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestine activist detained by the Trump administration and threatened with deportation, thinks that government officials coordinated with anti-Palestinian groups and organizations to target him. Zeteo News reports that Khalil and his legal team from the Center of Constitutional Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request with several government agencies to document and expose the reported collaboration between federal officials and private, anti-Palestinian organizations who have identified, doxxed, and reported him and others for purposes of securing the deportation of student activists advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights. In their request, Khalils lawyers say that his arrest, as well as that of other pro-Palestine activists, shows patterns that indicate the government is working with outside groups who are working together to target such activists. These groups, which include the pro-Israel academic blacklist Canary Mission and far-right Betar USA, publicly take credit every time one of these arrests are announced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As early as January, Betar, a Revisionist Zionist organization that has been labeled extremist by the Anti Defamation League was recommending foreign students and teachers to the Trump administration for deportation because they protested against Israel. Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at what he thought was a U.S. citizenship interview, was also on Betars list. According to Zeteo, the FOIA request cites several examples of Betar and other organizations creating profiles for Khalil and attacking him on social media. Activists from these organizations, such as Betar head Ross Glick, reportedly met with Senator John Fetterman and the office of Senator Ted Cruz to discuss deportation efforts. Fetterman denied working with Betar, telling Zeteo that I do not support private organizations coming up with deportation lists, and in any event, I would never participate or assist in that. The State Department, on the other hand, didnt deny working with such organizations. Given our commitment to and responsibility for national security, the Department uses all available tools to receive and review concerning information when considering visa revocations about possible ineligibilities, a department spokesperson told Zeteo. If the Trump administration is taking deportation recommendations from extremist, antifree speech organizations like Betar and Canary Mission, it is violating the First Amendment to the Constitution in its immigration policies. But Trump and his associates have already shown the public that they dont care about such freedoms for the people they oppose, let alone the law. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) The Trump administration is increasing pressure on sanctuary cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, threatening federal action. A new list released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday names hundreds of jurisdictions nationwide accused of obstructing immigration efforts many of which are in the DMV. It is a danger to our democracy when the president is threatening state and local jurisdictions, by reducing their fines or holding those fines because they are simply serving and protecting their constituents, said Ninfa Amador-Hernandez, policy manager with local immigrant advocacy group CASA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump administration increases pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions with public listing Sanctuary cities are jurisdictions with policies in place to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, oftentimes not providing local resources for federal immigration enforcement. Prince Georges County, Montgomery County, Anne Arundel County, Charles County, Rockville, Takoma Park, Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Manassas, Prince William County and Washington, D.C. were among the jurisdictions on the list put out by DHS. The DHS claimed these jurisdictions undermine the rule of law and endanger the lives of Americans and Law Enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amador-Hernandez argued that local and state governments are within their rights to set policies that limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These states have laws in place that limit their cooperation with ICE because, once again, states and localities should not be doing ICEs job. That is the federal governments job, she said. According to DHS, the goal of the list is to improve public safety and urge local governments to review and revise their policies. Trump administration says its working to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, President Trump and I will always put the safety of the American people first. Sanctuary politicians are on notice: comply with federal law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CASA said these measures violate civil liberties and instill fear in immigrant communities. Weve seen ICE, quote unquote, do its job by violating constitutional rights. More and more immigrant families and even just families all around, regardless of their status are concerned, Amador-Hernandez said. D.C. is one jurisdiction looking to make changes to its policies with Mayor Muriel Bowser recently proposing to repeal the citys sanctuary statute. We dont think that having it [as] statute is the way to go, she said. The City of Alexandria, also named on the list, said the federal governments actions misrepresent the citys stance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Action by the federal government wrongly targets and mischaracterizes Alexandria and dismisses core principles that make up the foundation of our democracy. The City of Alexandria is committed to upholding the constitutional and civil rights of all people, regardless of their immigration status, city leaders said. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich shared a similar sentiment, writing, in part: This designation, like many other actions taken by this administration, is about criminalizing immigrants, not protecting public safety. We will not be complicit in efforts to stigmatize or target our immigrant communities. If these policies are carried out, they will not only tear families apart but also damage the economy. Immigrants are an essential part of our workforce and make vital contributions to our communitys culture and vibrancy. Businesses here and across the country would not function without them. Marc Elrich, Montgomery County Executive Amador-Hernandez emphasized that protecting immigrant communities does not equate to violating federal law. By having laws that simply serve and protect immigrants is not a simple or a direct violation of federal law, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. May 30 (UPI) -- The Trump administration is seeking to end all contracts it has with Harvard University, a move that adds to the strain between the federal government and America's researchers. The administration announced on Tuesday that it is in the process of reviewing its contracts with Harvard in preparation for their termination. The move may cost the United States a generation of top researchers, Sarah Spreitzer, vice president and chief of staff in the American Council of Education's government relations department, told UPI. "We're going to lose grad students or post-docs that might have been educated in those federally funded labs," Spreitzer said. "The undergrads are going to lose the opportunity of working alongside those researchers and learning from their work." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harvard has contracts partnering with government departments including NASA, Veterans Affairs, the Office of the Secretary in the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. Dozens of these contracts have been entered into, extended or otherwise updated since President Donald Trump took office. Harvard University did not respond to requests for comment from UPI. The Trump administration has cut research funding grants to several universities, many of them Ivy League schools. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI One of the largest contracts Harvard holds with the government is a $15 million contract from the Department of Health and Human Services. It is described in the Federal Procurement Data System as a "task order for human organ chip enabled development of radiation countermeasures." It was entered into on July 26. Another of its largest contracts is a $10.6 million contract with the National Institutes of Health for tuberculosis research. Harvard holds more than one contract with the government related to this work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They want to do more with less," Spreitzer said of the Trump administration. "They're making decisions based on budgetary impacts but that's layered on top of some of the regulatory actions that they are taking, which is really, again, slowing down or completely stalling the scientific process." The Trump administration has cut research funding grants to several universities, many of them Ivy League schools. It has also made cuts to programs in the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others that offer grant opportunities to universities. Since World War II, the U.S. government has leaned on universities to expand its research capabilities, leading to innovations in health, technology, economics and other disciplines. Spreitzer, who has been an advocate for higher education for 20 years. In that time she said she has interacted with nearly every federal agency, said the partnership has advanced the interests of the government and delivered value to U.S. taxpayers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Right now we are at this historical inflection point where the federal government is rethinking their partnership with our institutions of higher education," she said. "It's been a very profitable and very important partnership that's helped the entire United States. Whether you're talking about new drugs or medical research or the innovative products that might be spun out and have created jobs." The rethinking of the partnership between the government and universities goes beyond contracts and grants. It is also proposing a lower cap on its reimbursement to universities for indirect costs or facilities and administrative costs. These are overhead expenses that an institution has that are not related to specific projects, such as government-funded research. Prior to the current Trump administration, the National Institutes of Health reimbursed an average of 27% to 28% of direct costs to universities to help cover indirect costs. These rates were negotiated with some institutions being reimbursed at rates more than 50%. There has not been a cap on most reimbursements since Congress removed them in 1965. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In February, the National Institutes of Health announced a new policy to cap these reimbursements at 15%. The American Council on Education filed a lawsuit seeking to block the proposed cap, warning that it would greatly disrupt research across the country. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs granted a preliminary injunction against the Department of Energy from instituting a rate cap policy. The injunction succeeds a temporary restraining order Burroughs granted against the administration, shielding all institutions of higher education from rate caps. "It would have a huge impact on our institutions," Spreitzer said. "They've also made huge cuts in some of the fellowship programs. Whether it's the fellowship program for the next generation of NSF scientists or whether it's the Fulbright program -- those have all been suddenly stopped." The flurry of punitive measures taken against China by the Trump administration over the last few days was prompted by a belief among US officials that China has failed to live up to commitments it made in trade talks earlier this month, three administration officials told CNN. This week the administration made moves to revoke visas for Chinese students and suspend the sale of some critical technology to Chinese companies. The officials said they are frustrated that China failed to follow through on the commitments that were meant to deescalate the trade conflict between the two countries, as they seek an overall deal by the middle of August. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dispute underscores the highly fraught relationship between the worlds two largest economies. Even as the two sides emerged from the talks in Switzerland having agreed to reduce the withering tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump, the gulf appears to be widening on supply chains that each nation believes are critical to national security. Trump took to Truth Social to blast the trade negotiations with China on Friday morning, writing the nation has TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. Trump said that he made a fast deal with China to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation. But as Trump expressed his anger he added: So much for being Mr. NICE GUY! After the talks in Geneva this month the first substantive meeting on trade since Trump imposed the tariffs US officials had expected China to ease export restrictions of rare earth minerals, which are an essential part of everything from iPhones and electric vehicles to big-ticket weapons like F-35 fighter jets and missile systems. But the restrictions havent been lifted, causing intense displeasure inside the Trump administration and prompting the recent series of costs imposed on China, the three administration officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decisions in Washington to limit critical technology sales to China and restrict the number of Chinese students studying in the US reveals just how central the trade war is to the administrations overall foreign policy towards China. It is a unified administration strategy, said one senior administration official in describing the connective tissue. The actions taken in the last week will have a significant impact on Chinese tech companies and students. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Trump had effectively cut off some American companies from selling software used to design semiconductors to China. A Siemens spokesperson later told CNN that the US government on Friday informed the industry about new export controls on chip designing software to China and Chinese military end users globally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just days later Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Trump administration will aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. On day one, the President signed an Executive Order directing the Secretary of State to enhance federal screening and vetting of aliens coming to the United States, including visa holders. The Secretary made this decision in the Administrations ongoing effort to protect our homeland from espionage and other hostile actions, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The future of US-China trade talks Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who Trump tapped to lead the talks and run point on the bilateral relationship, has highlighted the importance of the process the Geneva talks put into place for negotiations to take place in the months ahead. But he has stressed the value of the mechanism established between the US and Chinese sides to prevent future escalations that would derail future talks or any eventual outcome. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bessent, who led the Geneva talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, has maintained a focus on a functioning relationship and has said a second in-person meeting between the two sides is likely in the future. But Bessent has also calibrated his public comments to make clear the US has no plans to slow or stop a strategic effort to decouple from China on supply chains deemed critical to US national security. I would say that they are a bit stalled, Bessent said of the China talks Thursday on Fox News. I believe that we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks. And I believe we may, at some point, have a call between the president and party chair Xi (Jinping). I think that given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity, that this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other, Bessent said. Growing concern within the administration in the leadup to the talks over Chinas moves to cut off access to rare earth minerals sparked a wide-ranging effort behind the scenes to find potential workarounds, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That effort, which included officials from several agencies and the West Wing, wasnt halted after the trade talks and remains a focus. But there was a view that the immediate pressure would ease as a result of the agreement reflected in the joint statement. When that did not happen, the US began to think about ways to impose costs on China. US officials said they were not concerned about the one-two hit derailing the future of the US-China trade talks. Instead, officials are looking to make clear that not effectively engaging in the ongoing trade talks comes with consequences for the country. It is clearly an escalation. But if you look at what Trump does when he thinks he is getting close to securing a deal, and its not there yet, he tries to elevate the rhetoric. They think that elevated rhetoric and action will move a deal faster, said one person close to the White House. There were signs that Beijing was initially caught off guard by the visa announcement. For much of Thursday, Chinas state-controlled media remained largely silent on the news that will significantly impact the fate of hundreds of thousands of Chinese students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson came out calling the move politically motivated and discriminatory. Any path towards steadying the relationship across the board remains uncertain. The Geneva agreement was a major first step towards securing a final, comprehensive trade deal with China, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. Discussions continue, and the Administration is monitoring compliance with the agreement. It isnt clear when the next round of trade talks between the US and China will take place. And despite saying for weeks he would talk soon with President Xi Jinping, Trump and the Chinese leader have not yet spoken amid the trade conflict. This story has been updated with additional details. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com President Donald Trump sent the nitty-gritty of his budget proposal to Congress on Friday, fleshing out which programs he wants Republicans to cut deeply or wipe out entirely when they vote to fund the government in September. Expanding upon the so-called skinny budget the White House transmitted to Capitol Hill earlier this month, the new documents detail the White House's ambitions for spending cuts across government agencies. They show which accounts the president wants GOP lawmakers to target as Trump seeks non-defense funding cuts of more than 22 percent in the upcoming fiscal year and a flat military budget. Besides the White House's release Friday of a more than 1,200-page appendix to Trump's May 2 budget request, individual agencies also posted their own "budget in brief" documents. Among the proposed cuts to most federal departments, the administration is asking Congress to slash $12 billion from federal education programs, $5 billion from agriculture efforts and a total of more than $60 billion from health, housing and community development work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senior GOP members of both the House and Senate have already scorned Trumps initial budget request, heightening the conflict between Republicans on Capitol Hill and those in the Trump administration as Congress races to head off a government shutdown in four months. The White House still owes Congress several other pieces of its budget, and White House budget director Russ Vought said this week that the full proposal won't be released until after Republicans enact their party-line megabill this year with tax cuts and funding increases for the military and border security. "A budget is a proposal. We are in the business of actually passing law, Vought said on Fox Business. Democrats mocked the Trump administration for failing to submit all of the required documents before lawmakers begin writing the dozen appropriations bills that fund the government each year. This is not a complete budget," the House's top Democratic appropriator, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the other side of the Capitol, the Senate's top Democratic appropriator, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, said it's "telling" that Trump "has chosen to release his budget on a Friday night with no fanfare whatsoever." The budget would "raise costs for working people, destroy basic services we all count on, and let our adversaries run circles around us," she added. Many of the budget documents the Trump administration posted Friday were full of zeros. The Education Department's brief, for example, contains entire pages of programs the Trump administration wants to eliminate, including federal grants that support preschools, education services for homeless children and those living in rural areas. The Environmental Protection Agency is asking Congress to eliminate funding for dozens of grant programs, including those that support the enforcement of pesticide rules, pollution control and restrictions on toxic substances. On Capitol Hill, top Republican appropriators have said they won't cut the EPA as deeply as Trump wants. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who chairs the EPA funding panel, knocked the Trump administration this month for indiscriminate funding freezes, an unserious budget request and massive reorganizations within agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just how deeply congressional Republicans are willing to slice into federal programs will start to become clear next week, when House GOP appropriators plan to debut the first of a dozen annual funding bills. That includes the measure that covers agriculture programs and the Food and Drug Administration, and the bill that funds initiatives supporting military construction and veterans. The White House has not threatened to veto funding bills that exceed, or depart sharply from, the presidents request. But Trumps budget chief has said the administration hasnt ruled out continuing to use impoundment to withhold congressionally approved funding the administration doesnt want to spend. Impoundment is still on the table and something we will consider, Vought said this week, repeating what he said earlier this month at the time of the skinny budgets initial release. That threat has irked Republican lawmakers who argue that the tactic is illegal under the 51-year-old law created to prevent presidents from undermining the power of the purse Congress is granted under the Constitution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whatever government funding legislation makes it to Trumps desk in the fall will first need the support of several Democrats in the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is under pressure to hold the line against drastic cuts after caving in March to help advance the stopgap bill Republicans unilaterally crafted after abandoning bipartisan negotiations. Attracting Democratic support in the Senate is likely to require higher funding levels, which could prompt Republican opposition across Capitol, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole acknowledged this month. Anything they do to get Democratic support in the Senate which they have to do under their own rules will almost certainly cost me Republican support over here, said the Oklahoma Republican. That was not the case earlier this year when House GOP leaders mustered near-unanimous GOP support in their chamber to pass a funding patch through September. However, several House Republicans have already warned they won't back another stopgap this fall, insisting instead on enactment of full-year appropriations bills. Lawmakers in both parties also want to pass updated funding levels, while locking in earmarks to ensure federal cash flows to specific projects in their districts. I don't want to do it again, Cole told reporters this month about the prospect of another short-term funding measure. I want to deal. Illustration: Kelly Caminero/HuffPost; Photo:Getty Images WASHINGTON If Donald Trump wants someone to blame for his still having to ride around in a 40-year-old Air Force One, he might consider starting with a long look in the mirror. And if Americans want someone to blame for their future presidents being saddled with a plane lacking a key wartime capability, they should consider taking a long look at the current president. The drama surrounding Trumps turn to the Qatari royal family for a 747 luxurious enough to meet his needs as he attacks Boeing for not finishing replacement jets quickly enough hides a pair of simple facts: The entire debacle began with Trumps self-image as a top-notch deal maker, and his meddling will leave future presidents with planes unable to refuel in flight, severely degrading their utility in an actual war. This story is part of HuffPosts commitment to fearlessly covering the Trump administration. You can support our work and protect the free press by contributing to our newsroom. Before he even took office the first time in 2017, Trump was already boasting that he would force Boeing which had been on pace to deliver two new, purpose-built 747s by the end of that term to slash its contract price. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To meet Trumps demands, the Air Force agreed to abandon a process already years in progress and instead purchase and retrofit two already built planes whose buyer had gone bankrupt. Among the features dropped from the required specifications list was in-flight refueling, thereby reducing the amount of time a commander-in-chief can remain aloft to only about 15 hours, rather than a week or more. If a plane carrying the president cannot refuel in midair, that severely limits how and where a president can travel and be kept out of harms way in the event of a major attack on the United States. That was a decision that was not made by the Air Force but made by the White House, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford told senators at a hearing in 2017, conceding that, in the event of an attack on the United States, the lack of midair refueling capabilities will certainly be a limiting factor and well have to plan accordingly. Whats more, its unclear whether Trumps interference in the program will have saved taxpayers a dime. While the fixed price contract means that Boeing was forced to absorb their cost overruns, the delays Trump caused have required the Air Force to spend millions more on repairs and upkeep of the existing 747s that entered service under George H. W. Bush in 1990. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And none of that includes the new burden taxpayers must now bear to transform Qatars gift to Trump the most expensive ever given by a foreign nation to an American president and an apparent violation of the Constitutions clear prohibition against them into an Air Force One before he takes it with him to his presidential library when he leaves office, as he says he intends to do. Modifying the plane could take many months or even years, meaning those hundreds of millions of dollars or more will be spent so Trump can use the plane for as little as several months or potentially not at all, assuming that he, in fact, leaves office in 2029 as the Constitution requires. White House officials did not respond to HuffPost queries on this topic, and the Air Force said the contract to modify the Qatari jet for Trumps interim use was deemed classified, even though it has previously put out routine press releases on the Air Force One program. A Qatar Amiri Flight Boeing 747 sits on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, Friday, Feb. 10, 2017. Wilfredo Lee / AP Trump himself, in a discussion of Qatars jet with Fox News host Sean Hannity, said he wanted the new plane because the current Air Force One is not big and impressive enough. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When you land and you see Saudi Arabia and you see UAE and you see Qatar and you see all these, and they have these brand-new Boeing 747s mostly, and you see ours next to it, Trump said en route to the Arabian Peninsula earlier this month. Its much smaller, its much less impressive. Military aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia pointed out that all the problems with the program are entirely of Trumps making, and that had the president kept his hands off the process that began during the Obama administration, he would likely already be flying in the replacement planes. This was Trump trying to look like a great negotiator, Aboulafia said. Almost certainly hed be flying in a new jet now. It Began With A Tweet. Like so much involving U.S. policy and controversy in recent years, it began with a Trump tweet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order! he wrote a month after winning the 2016 election for president, but a good six weeks before taking office. Trump had built his reputation by depicting a smart and savvy businessman as the host of the reality show The Apprentice, and his declaration that the U.S. government was being taken advantage of by Boeing in its still-under-negotiation contract for two replacement Air Force One jets pushed that same theme. I dont want a plane to fly around in that costs $4.2 billion, he told an audience at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania 10 days later. Were going to cut the price way down way, way down. Trump for years has presented himself as an expert on aircraft, possibly because he has owned some and briefly ran a small airline before it went under, yet expresses views that suggest he is not. For example, he once bragged that his personal Boeing 757 was actually larger than Air Force One, even though it was 75 feet shorter in length and a fraction of the weight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In any event, Trumps vows to save money on the new Air Force One contract led Boeings CEO to travel to Trumps country club home in Palm Beach, Florida, to lay out options for reducing costs for the two planes. Trump, barely a month after taking office, was already boasting he had cut $1 billion from the price. (The White House within weeks reduced the claimed savings to millions.) Part of the plan was to acquire the planes on the cheap. The Russian airline Transaero had ordered two 747-8s but had subsequently gone bankrupt. The planes were being stored in the Mojave Desert to avoid corrosion, and Boeing was eager to unload them. While the final sale price was never disclosed, it was believed the government paid considerably less than the $380 million per plane list price. But the primary mission of the jets that serve as Air Force One is actually to serve as command-and-control military platforms, if the need arises, and acquiring fuselages is a mere first step. The existing pair of 747-200s was built in the mid- and late-1980s and put in service in 1990. They have the plumbing for in-flight refueling, shielded electronics against the electromagnetic pulses from nuclear weapons blasts, advanced systems for encrypted communications, several different countermeasures against missiles and the ability to generate enough electricity to power it all. All these and likely more were on the list of features that the Air Force had wanted in the new 747s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It turns out, though, that tearing down an already completed passenger liner and installing the required configuration and equipment was considerably more difficult than building a new one in-line at Boeings assembly plant in Everett, Washington. Aboulafia compared it to building a house from scratch with all the amenities you want planned in ahead of time, compared to buying an existing house and having to tear out walls and floors, replacing all the wiring, plumbing and duct work and then finishing everything out. Its extremely difficult to do as a retrofit, he said of the major modifications needed. Its much easier to do that in-line. Among the first features to be dropped in the new contract was the in-flight refueling, a major structural modification which would have required new pipes running from where a flying tankers fueling boom attaches on a jets nose and then down and aft to the fuel tanks. Other changes were made, too, such as a reduction in power generation capacity to run all the systems and using Boeings standard environmental control system rather than a specialized one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump then insisted on a new red, white and dark blue color scheme to replace the iconic light blue and polished silver that Air Force Ones have had since the 1960s, but an analysis found dark blue paint on the bottom of the plane would cause excessive heating on sensitive components. The new colors were scrapped during the Biden administration, and it is unclear if Trump will once again insist on his preferred paint job. In late 2016, the Air Force was estimating the new 747-8s, built from scratch, would be in service by 2023 or 2024 more or less matching the timeframe required by the ones delivered in 1990. By late 2024, the Air Force was estimating that the two retrofitted planes acquired in 2017 their interiors and systems torn down and rebuilt would be ready by 2028 or 2029, possibly later. Because Trump demanded Boeing sign a fixed-price contract, the company began losing money at the start of the coronavirus pandemic because of supply chain disruptions and a shortage of skilled workers with the requisite security clearance. By 2023, its losses on the $3.9 billion contract it had been coerced into by Trump neared $2 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldnt have taken, CEO David Calhoun, who replaced the Boeing executive who had struck the deal with Trump, conceded in a 2022 earnings call. But we are where we are. Trump, while lying about how much money he has saved he told Hannity that Boeings not-yet-finalized contract in late 2016 was worth $5.7 billion, rather than the $4.2 billion even he was citing at the time still regularly blames Boeing. Im not happy with Boeing, Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One on Feb. 19, then hinted at the efforts that were already underway to solicit a plane from Qatar. We may do something else. We may go and buy a plane, or get a plane or something. A True War-Fighting Platform No More Trumps degradation of Air Force One as a military asset, ironically, comes as he simultaneously boasts of making war-fighting the top priority at the Defense Department, which he accuses of having gone soft under predecessor Joe Biden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a young man, Trump had the opportunity to serve in Vietnam but avoided doing so by producing a diagnosis of bone spurs from a doctor friendly with his father. As a candidate for president in 2015, he disparaged Sen. John McCain, who spent nearly six years in a Hanoi prison, as not a war hero. And as president, he called service members who die for their country suckers and losers, according to his own former chief of staff. Despite this, he continues to regale his audiences about his 2018 visit to Iraq aboard Air Force One with no running lights and window shades drawn as a feat of tremendous courage, even though similar trips had been done by presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama while Biden had visited Ukraine and Israel, two active war zones not under the control of the U.S. military, a first for a commander-in-chief. I got out of the plane and actually asked my people, You know, I said, Excuse me, I was very brave sitting in that cockpit. Am I allowed to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor? Trump said at a February speech in Miami Beach. Since winning back the presidency in November, Trump and his defense secretary, former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, have regularly bragged that they are bringing back a warrior ethos at the Pentagon to put the top priority on war-fighting. Yet Trump, by interjecting himself into the details of a technical contract, has made the future Air Force One planes from Boeing less capable war-fighting platforms than the current ones, with potentially an even less capable version poised to enter service, depending on how much or little is done to the Qatari plane. Air Force procurement officer Darlene Costello told Congress in testimony earlier this year that even more easing of requirements might be done to let one of the two already ordered planes enter service in 2027, although she provided no details. It is unclear whether Trump much cares about that aspect compared to the impression his plane leaves on his fellow world leaders. Were the United States of America, I believe that we should have the most impressive plane, Trump told Hannity. Apparently looking good is more important than protecting the country, Aboulafia said, adding that he still cannot wrap his head around a president flying around in a plane that had been owned and run by a foreign government. It would be a major flying security risk. MACKINAC ISLAND, Michigan President Donald Trump's allies are fuming at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for getting involved in Michigans Senate primary, a race that now threatens to divide Republicans. Duffy is headlining a planned June 4 fundraiser for Rep. Bill Huizenga, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO a move that puts Duffy at odds with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and 2024 Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita. Duffy has also been advising Huizenga, according to a person familiar with the race. Duffy, according to the two people close to Trump, never cleared his political engagement with the White House political shop and has now drawn the ire of Trumps top political hands. The transportation secretarys move to fundraise for Huizenga has now prompted threats of a crackdown on Cabinet secretaries political activities ahead of the midterms, POLITICO has learned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He did not ask for it to be approved, a person close to Trump and granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive political matter told POLITICO of Duffys decision. It would not have been approved. They are old friends, and its technically for the House so not going to embarrass him by standing it down, but the fact is, administration officials are not free agents politically, even in their spare time. You never get ahead of the President. Huizenga has told others that a second Cabinet official could fundraise for him, but they're settling on a date. One of the people familiar with Trump's thinking said they would not allow that to happen. The White House declined to comment. A spokesperson for Duffy did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Rogers declined to comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump hasnt decided who to endorse yet in Michigans Senate race, according to two people close to the president, a contest that arguably represents Republicans best chance to widen their majority. National Republicans have coalesced behind former Rep. Mike Rogers in the Republicans second run for the office, but Huizenga has been taking steps toward a run. Huizenga spent the week at a gathering of Michigan strategists and elected officials on Mackinac Island preparing a run against Rogers and courting prominent national donors, emphasizing in conversations that Rogers failed to beat Democrat Elissa Slotkin for an open Senate seat in the same year Trump won the state. I want to make sure we win, Huizenga told POLITICO when he said he could announce a Senate bid as early as this summer. The question is: Are we going to run the same play and expect a different result? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huizengas plans undermine the National Republican Senatorial Committee's plans to clear the field for Rogers, a former Trump critic. Rogers hired LaCivita as his senior adviser. The Republican establishment including the top echelons of Trump world have started to coalesce around Rogers as the nominee. On Wednesday, NRSC political director Brendan Jaspers reposted a poll on X showing Rogers outperforming Huizenga against potential Democratic rivals and suggesting that the numbers point to one candidate who can flip the seat for Republicans: Rogers. President Donald Trumps angry, unhinged rant on Truth Social over this weeks judicial ruling against his tariffs is getting attention for its fury at Leonard Leo, the mastermind of the conservative takeover of the courts. Trump blamed the Federalist Societywhich Leo championedfor the ruling, in which two judges appointed by GOP presidents, including Trump himself, found that Trumps tariffs dramatically overstepped his presidential authority. Thats absurd: The judge that Trump appointed to the three-judge U.S. Court of International Tradewhich issued the rulinghas protectionist sympathies, yet even he saw the tariffs as illegal. Whats more, the Federalist Societyand Leohave helped shape todays Supreme Court, which enabled Trump to evade accountability for his insurrection, making his 2024 victory possible. But Id like to highlight something else in Trumps tirade because it constitutes an actual argument on his part about his exercise of unilateral power on tariffs. Trump said this: The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential PowerThe Presidency would never be the same! Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, Trump fumed. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here Trump derides the very idea that Congress should have a good deal of authority over the levying of tariffs. Trump claims this cant apply in the case of his new tariffs because it prevents him from acting to protect the country in an emergency. In this case, that emergency is the one Trump has invokedour trade deficitsto appropriate for himself virtually unlimited power to levy sweeping taxes on products imported from all over the world. This is what the court ruled illegal (though the tariffs can proceed for now). It found that the relevant statutethe International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, or IEEPAdoesnt afford Trump this authority at all. The statute doesnt mention tariffs as a remedy for emergencies, and it requires that emergencies pose an extraordinary and unusual threat, which trade deficits simply do not. But that aside, in saying all this, Trump is openly declaring that he should have the power to circumvent Congress in levying these tariffs to address emergencies. Yet as Trump himself demonstrates here, in claiming this authority, hes invoking an emergency that is not real. Trillions of dollars are not being lost by our country due to trade deficits, as his rant proclaims. That is not how trade deficits work, and they certainly do not constitute emergencies. As Trumps tirade plainly shows, he made up the emergency to grant himself extraordinarily sweeping authorities. All this demonstrates exactly why we want Trump to subject himself to Congresss directives in the first place. The key point to understand here is that Congress did delegate the president some powers over trade, but it circumscribed those powers. The IEEPA gave the president some authorities to act on economic emergencies. But Trump acted outside those authorities. As the ruling puts it, the statute only allows Trump to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat but not for any other purpose, and Trumps tariffs do not meet that condition. They do not address an unusual and extraordinary threat at all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his rant, Trump explicitly equates these lawful limits imposed on his powers by Congressand upheld by judgeswith the total destruction of presidential authority. Letting this ruling stand, he rages, would completely destroy Presidential Power. In other words, preserving presidential power by definition means not accepting such lawful limits on it. Congress did not intend to set up a trade dictator where all tariff rates can be changed on a whim by simply declaring a national emergency, Dartmouth professor Douglas Irwin, the author of many books about trade, told me. The broader aim here is obvious, and even Trump-appointed judges are taking note of it. Theres the current ruling on tariffs joined by a Trump appointee. And another federal judge picked by Trump recently blocked his deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act by sharply contesting his claim that were under invasion by a hostile foreign power, as the statute requires. This ruling said that letting Trump unilaterally define when an invasion is underway simply by decreewithout regard to factsthus justifying suspension of due process would remove all limitations to Trumps authority. To which top Trump adviser Stephen Miller in effect replied: Youre damn right. Thats exactly what we want: Stephen Miller says they are actively looking at suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which is only allowed when the US has been invaded or during an insurrection, which would not allow people to challenge their incarceration in court if they are arrested and detained. pic.twitter.com/vK3ELIMoYj Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 9, 2025 You see, Trump can suspend habeas corpus if were under invasion, which he can simply make true by decree. Judges should do the right thing by affirmatively ratifying that power, or be warned: Trump just might assume it for himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whats really at issue here is whether Trump can simply pull emergencies out of his rear to assume dictatorial powers for himself. The court is saying, No, you cant. Trumps rant basically says: Yes, I can. The real reason Trump and his minions are raging at the courts is that they want that latter proposition to be the controlling onewhich, not incidentally, would make great strides toward making his power to tyrannize over us quasi-absolute. That is their project, and theyre not even hiding it anymore. The only question at this point is whether they succeedor whether we stop them. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he planned to increase tariffs on steel from 25% to 50%. The increase will "even further secure the steel industry in the United States," Trump said. The president's sweeping tariff strategy remains in legal limbo. President Donald Trump on Friday announced plans to increase tariffs on steel imports from 25% to 50%. "We are going to be imposing a 25% increase," Trump said during a rally at a US Steel plant near Pittsburgh. "We're going to bring it from 25% to 50%, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody's going to get around that." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump was visiting the plant in support of an expected deal between United States Steel Corp. and Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. Last week, Trump wrote on social media that the new partnership between the steel companies "will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the US Economy." Shortly before leaving office, former President Joe Biden had blocked the partnership for national security reasons. Trump had also initially opposed the sale of the US steel company to the Japanese entity back in September. "I believe that this group of people that just made this investment right now are very happy, because that means that nobody's going to be able to steal your industry," Trump added at the rally in support of the deal. Aiming to boost the domestic steel industry, Trump had previously imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, on top of automobile tariffs and a baseline 10% tariff on all imports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Real estate experts have told Business Insider that tariffs on steel would slow down all types of construction, exacerbate America's housing shortage, and drive up rent. Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider TransAxle LLC recently announced plans to close all its locations across the U.S. and lay off 209 workers. Headquartered in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, TransAxle at one point was one of the largest East Coast remanufacturers and distributors of transmissions, differentials, hydraulic pumps and other specialized components for the medium- and heavy-duty truck markets. Company officials said they are preparing to cease operations after failing to find a buyer, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices filed in several states. TransAxle LLC has been engaged in efforts to sell the business for some time, the company said. 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. Its unclear why TransAxle was seeking a buyer. Company officials did not return a request for comment from FreightWaves. TransAxle at one point was one of the largest East Coast remanufacturers and distributors of auto parts for the medium- and heavy-duty truck markets in the country. (Photo: TransAxle LLC) TransAxle will close all 13 of its locations by the end of August, including operations in Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Maine. Impacted job titles in the layoffs include drivers, shop managers, mechanics, machinists, warehouse associates and team leads. TransAxle was founded in 1979 with a single location in Cinnaminson. The business was acquired in 2006 by Graham Partners, a private equity firm located in Philadelphia. By 2010, the company had grown to 28 distribution centers and six remanufacturing facilities. TransAxle was acquired by Dallas-based private equity firm Crossplane Capital in 2020. The post Heavy-duty truck parts maker, distributor to close after 46-year run appeared first on FreightWaves. As Donald Trump and his administration pursue crippling austerity measures across the country, theyre plunging millions of dollars into the presidents pet projects. And that includes reportedly giving hundreds of millions of dollars to a company thats expanding the governments ability to spy on its own citizens. The New York Times has a new report on the administration awarding contracts to the controversial tech company Palantir, which is apparently helping Trump develop a database of Americans private information, scraped from various government agencies, that could theoretically be used to track or persecute them. According to the Times: The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said. Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status. Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said. The White House did not respond to the Times request for comment, and Palantir declined to comment on its work with the Trump administration. It pointed to a company blog post that said organizations that license its products define what can and cannot be done with their data; they control the Palantir accounts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times report aligns with concerns about surveillance and the weaponization of federal data highlighted by Rachel Maddow during a recent episode featuring Times reporter Julia Angwin. Palantir is one of several private companies that have capitalized on Trumps authoritarian ambitions. The company has been tapped as a key player in Trumps mass deportation plans, and earlier this year, Palantir CEO Alex Karp gave investors a pretty grim summary of what the companys full slate of work for the Trump administration could entail. As the outlet Mother Jones reported: Im very happy to have you along for the journey, the CEO said. We are crushing it. We are dedicating our company to the service of the West and the United States of America, and were super-proud of the role we play, especially in places we cant talk about. Palantir is here to disrupt, he continued. And, when its necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them. (Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.) Needless to say, putting American data in the hands of a company whose CEO boasts about his companys capacity to kill and intimidate doesnt inspire confidence that the data will be handled responsibly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On that note, Ive been laser-focused on the governments surveillance capabilities in the age of artificial intelligence, particularly under the Trump administration. To learn more about the technologies that enable the sort of surveillance Trump and Palantir could soon unleash on Americans, check out my interview with surveillance and privacy expert Albert Fox Cahn from 2023. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon made history by drawing Communist China closer to the United States, giving Washington an advantage in its Cold War contest with the Soviet Union. Half a century later, President Donald Trump seems to be eyeing a similar diplomatic maneuver, but in reverse: drawing Russia closer to the United States in order to give Washington an advantage in its geopolitical competition with Communist China. If Trump were to pull this off, he, too, would change the course of historyisolating China, guaranteeing European security, and solidifying American global primacy. But the planknown as a reverse Nixon in foreign-policy circlescould easily backfire. On the face of it, trying to peel Russia off from China has a certain logic. The two countries have forged a partnership in recent years that could pose a serious threat to U.S. interestsBeijings support for Moscows invasion of Ukraine exemplifies this. The one thing you never want to happen is you never want Russia and China uniting, Trump said in an October interview, citing one of his college professors. Im going to have to un-unite them, and I think I can do that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This imperative could help explain why the Trump administration has sought rapprochement with Russia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested that Russia may otherwise become subservient to China. If Russia becomes a permanent junior partner to China in the long term, well, now youre talking about two nuclear powers aligned against the United States, he said in a February interview. Russian leaders could be forced to do whatever China says they need to do because of their dependence on them, he continued. I dont think thats a good outcome for Russia, and its not a good outcome for America or for Europe or for the world. [Michael Schuman: Trump hands the world to China] Publicly, Chinese officials have dismissed the possibility of losing Russia to Trump. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called the reverse-Nixon idea the obsolete Cold War mindset and insisted that ties between Beijing and Moscow were as solid and unshakable as mountains. Yet the fact that he felt the need to address the possibility may betray a degree of insecurity. Less than two weeks after Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone in February, Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, had his own conversation with the Russian president and made sure to stress that our two countries are true friends whose partnership had unique strategic value, according to the summary of his comments issued by the Chinese foreign ministry. Nixons task in the 70s was in some ways easier than the reverse Nixon promises to be today. The Chinese leaders Nixon wooed had already split with the Soviets and perceived them as a threat. Now China and Russia are closer than they have been in decades, and Putin has not evinced much inclination to change that. In early May, Putin hosted Xi at a World War II Victory Day celebration in Moscow and called the Chinese leader his dear friend. Nor has Putin shown much enthusiasm for a deal with Trump to end the war in Ukraine (Vice President J. D. Vance complained earlier this month that the Russians were asking for too much). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration may not fully appreciate the depth of the bond between Americas adversaries. In his October interview, Trump expressed the belief that Russia and China have drawn close mainly as a result of faulty U.S. policies, especially those of President Joe Biden. Trump was most likely referring to Washingtons tough stance on Ukraine, including sanctions on Russia, which arguably led Moscow to seek support and reprieve from China. We united them. Biden united them, Trump said. The stupidity of what theyve done. But focusing on Ukraine gives short shrift to the many political, economic, and strategic interests that Putin and Xi sharechief among them a mutual antipathy toward the United States. Their common mistrust of Washington and their hopes of becoming more powerful in an emerging multipolar orderat the United States expenseare likely to provide a strong enough foundation to keep the Chinese-Russian partnership stable and growing, Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, argued in a December analysis. Then there are the economic links. At this point, Putin may not be able to break free from China even if he wanted to. According to Gabuev, China now buys 30 percent of Russian exports; 40 percent of Russian imports come from China. China now buys more oil from Russia than from any other country. Even if the U.S. removes sanctions as part of a settlement of the Ukraine war, these arrangements might not change. Putin has no reason to give up Chinas extensive, concrete, and reliable support to Russias civilian economy and defense industry in exchange for ties to Washington that may not last past the end of Trumps term, the scholars Michael McFaul and Evan Medeiros argued in an essay in April. [Paul Mason: Trump brings Britains moron premium to the U.S. economy] Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Trump and Xi wind up competing for Putins attention, the Russian leader could play the U.S. and China off each other, to his own benefit. Russia could assume the pivot position in the triangular relation among the United States, China, and Russia, Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the German Marshall Funds Indo-Pacific program, told me, meaning that Moscow would have better ties with Beijing and Washington than either would with the other. A successful reverse Nixon could work to the advantage of the United States. But its a long shot, and failing means fracturing the American alliance with Europe without splitting Russia from China. With its large nuclear arsenal, Russia would remain a threat to global security, and by placing Putin in the pivot position, Trump would strengthen and embolden both him and Xi to increase their pressure on the United States. Article originally published at The Atlantic President Trump railed against China on Friday, saying Beijing violated a trade agreement with the U.S. amid ongoing tensions between the two countries. Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, civil unrest. I saw what was happening and didnt like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didnt want to see that happen, Trump wrote on Truth Social. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY! Under the agreement the Trump administration hashed out with China earlier this month, the U.S. lowered its tariff rate on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent, and Beijing lowered its rate on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that talks with China over trade are somewhat in limbo, telling Fox Newss Bret Baier they are a bit stalled. He also said there may be a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at some point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the trade deal two weeks ago, Trump said he thought China would have suffered more if the escalating trade war had been prolonged. On Wednesday, a federal court said an emergency law did not give Trump unilateral authority to impose tariffs on trade partners in a ruling that also blocked the presidents tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China related to curbing the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. An appeal court lifted the ruling blocking those tariffs, but many of them remain halted following a separate ruling Thursday that was issued by a federal judge 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 The Hill. President Donald Trump gave Larry Hoover, the former leader of notorious Chicago-based gang Gangster Disciples, a glimmer of hope this week when he announced the commutation of his federal sentence. But both men have to get through the Illinois governor firstand hes not going. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, Governor JB Pritzkers office says Hoover needs to continue serving his state sentence and would need to petition the states Prisoner Review Board, which makes parole decisions and recommendations for clemency. But the odds are not on his side, as the board has been turning down his requests since the 1970s. President Trumps commutation only guarantees Hoovers release from federal prison. The former gang leader who was convicted by the state of Illinois in 1973 on murder charges still faces a sentence of up to 200 years in the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoover, 74, was convicted in 1997 on charges of running a criminal enterprise from prison, He was serving six consecutive life sentences in a federal supermax prison in Colorado before Trumps May 28 announcement came. But while some are celebrating Hoovers commutation including the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who thanked the president in a May 28 post on X for Freeing Larry Hoover the reality is a lot more complicated than that. According to NBC News 5 Chicago, community leaders in the city have already appealed to Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to offer clemency to Hoover, who they say has been reformed during his time behind bars. I think if the Prisoner Review Board looks at the totality of this situation, I think that they will make a recommendation for the governor to provide a clemency to Mr. Hoover, said state Senator Willie Preston. I understand folks on both sides some who quite frankly felt a lot of pain, but also those who can believe in the power of redemption. Alice Marie Johnson, President Trumps pardon czar, who learned about Larry Hoovers case from Kanye West and Drake at their 2021 Free Larry Hoover concert, has also called for the governor to consider giving him a second chance at freedom. This man has been in solitary confinement for almost 30 years, not having seen daylight, not having had human touch, she told TMZ. This is not ceremonial, this is a step towards the door. Theyre now working on hoping that the governor of Illinois will have the same mercy President Trump had upon Larry Hoover. Elon Musks exit interview began like any other. The boss heaped praise on the departing employee while demonstrating a tenuous grasp of exactly what it is he did. The employee vastly inflated his achievements, and the pair made vague promises to stay in touch. From there, it veered into a freewheeling discussion about transgender mice, Musks alleged prolific use of horse tranquilizer, nuclear war between India and Pakistan, and a potential pardon for Sean Diddy Combs, should he be convicted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now that Musks legally limited 130-day term as a special government employee is over, the most destructive professional partnership since Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader shacked up in the Death Star has finally come to an end. Trump and Musk, the powerful bromance that shook the world, are taking a break for now at least. The hour-long farewell, in front of the worlds press, came just hours after a New York Times expose alleged the worlds richest man had taken so much Ketamine during the 2024 presidential campaign that it affected his bladder. Musk did little to calm those rumors as he turned up sporting a black eye (the result of mutual combat with his five-year-old son, he says), wearing a cap, a Dogefather t-shirt, and at one point rolling his head around to stare at the ceiling as the president spoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, Trump lauded his friend standing beside him for the savings he claimed to have made, which are almost certainly exaggerated. Elon Musk looks up to the sky as President Donald Trump talks about Musks achievements as a special government employee (Reuters) You know the kinds of things that he's found, and his people have found They found things that are pretty unbelievable. I have to say that the numbers that we're talking about are substantial, but they're going to be very much more substantial with time, Trump said. He praised the Tesla founder and CEO for delivering a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington. Musk indeed shattered norms by ignoring outdated hiring practices that prize experience and expertise and instead placing 19-year-old hackers with nicknames like Big Balls in charge of government departments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Or as President Trump put it: DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people in computers. The worlds richest person also broke new ground by becoming one of the most deadly bureaucrats in the history of the U.S. government, killing an estimated 15,000 people with his deep cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Trump could not have been more effusive in his praise, placing Musks four-month stint as a cost-cutting consultant in the ranks of Americas great heroes, somewhere between Miracle on the Hudson's Sully Sullenberger and Captain America. Elons service to America has been without comparison in modern history," Trump said, noting the huge sacrifice Musk had made by having to endure people being mean to him online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks, because he does love our country, Trump went on. Tesla CEO Elon Musks black eye is visible as he listens as Trump in the Oval Office (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Anyone hoping for an end to the friendship that ended thousands of government careers would be sorely disappointed. Elon is really not leaving, Trump said. He's going to be back and forth, I have a feeling. It's his baby, and I think he's going to be doing a lot of things. Musk agreed. "I expect to continue to provide advice, whatever the President would like advice... I expect to remain a friend and an advisor, and certainly, if there's anything the President wants me to do, I'm at the President's service," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for now, Musk is returning to his many businesses, which are all simultaneously suffering from significant brand damage due to their association with him. Trump, right, presented a key to Elon Musk as a token of appreciation during the Oval Office news conference on Friday (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) In one particularly awkward moment, Musk batted away a question from a journalist concerning Fridays published allegations about his drug use, which reportedly included Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and Adderall, in addition to ketamine. Is the New York Times is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? Is that the same organization? I think it is, he said, theatrically turning to Trump. I think it is. But Musk couldnt leave without first reeling off a list of excuses for why he didnt achieve what he set out to do. He claimed he could cut $1 trillion from the federal budget before September 30 by ending "waste, fraud, and abuse," but now even his own likely cooked numbers have failed to meet that target. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obviously, at times, when you cut expenses, those who are receiving the money, whether they receive whether they're receiving that money legitimately or not, they do complain, and you're not going to hear someone confessing that they receive money inappropriately. Never, he said. He even saw fit to appropriate Hannah Arendts famous "banality of evil" quote to draw a bizarre comparison with government spending and Nazi Germany. It's the banal evil of bureaucracy. It's sort of the frankly, largely uncaring nature of bureaucracy, he went on. And perhaps more ominously for anyone who relies on USAID for their lifesaving HIV medication, or anyone with a job in the U.S. government, or anyone who needs government healthcare to survive, Musk promised that his mission would continue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DOGE team will only grow stronger over time, the DOGE influence will only grow stronger. I liken it to a sort of Buddhism, it's like a way of life, he said, demonstrating a clear lack of understanding about Buddhism and life. In other words, this Rasputin for the McKinsey age is not going anywhere. US President Donald Trump has expressed confidence that a ceasefire in the Gaza war could be reached soon. The warring parties are "very close to an agreement on Gaza," Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. He said that the White House would have more details on the Gaza deal later Friday or on Saturday. According to the White House, Israel has accepted a US proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war. However, it is still unclear whether the militant Palestinian Hamas organization will also agree to the proposal. Hamas says it is currently reviewing the plan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Israeli media reports, the plan drawn up by US special envoy Steve Witkoff provides for a 60-day ceasefire. Under the plan, 10 hostages held in the Gaza Strip would be released in two stages within a week. In addition, the bodies of 18 abductees would be handed over. In return, 125 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,111 Gaza residents detained since the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, would be released. According to the reports, talks on ending the Gaza war are to be held during the two-month ceasefire. If Israel and Hamas reach an agreement, the remaining hostages and the remains of those abducted are to be handed over. Hamas had recently rejected a temporary ceasefire and demanded the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and an end to the war. In the days leading up to the anniversary of his own criminal conviction, President Donald Trump issued a flurry of clemency acts. On May 30, 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, the first time a former president had ever been convicted of a crime. Prosecutors argued Trump disguised reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment for porn star Stormy Daniels as legal expenses ahead of the 2016 election. In January, Judge Juan Merchan issued an "unconditional discharge sentence for Trump's conviction, meaning he received no prison time or probation. The other cases in which he was also indicted are not moving forward while he is in office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But back in the White House, Trump has used the presidential power of clemency to ease consequences for people convicted of tax evasion, murder and bribery, to name a few. But can Trump use his clemency power on himself? Trump pardons: Todd and Julie Chrisley, health care tax cheat, Jan. 6 rioters Can Trump pardon himself? A president issuing a self-pardon would be unprecedented, so its legality is unclear. If he did try it, it would not apply to the hush money case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal cases, not state cases. The Constitution states the president "shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." That text limits the pardoning power by excluding state criminal offenses and civil claims, according to the Constitution Annotated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Trump's latest wave of pardons includes rapper, GOP governor convicted of corruption Was Trump convicted in a state or federal case? Trump was convicted in a New York state case. The federal cases he was charged in, led by special counsel Jack Smith, were dismissed after Trump was elected to serve a second term. It is a longstanding policy at the Justice Department to prosecute a sitting president. Who has Trump pardoned in his second presidency? In addition to those convicted in the Jan. 6 riots, Trump has granted clemency, including pardons and sentence commutations, to more than 45 people as of May 29. In his first term, he granted 238 clemency acts, according to Pew Research Center, which also found former President Joe Biden had granted more clemency acts than any other president on record with 4,245 acts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some recent Trump pardons and sentence commutations that made headlines include: Paul Walczak, the son of a wealthy Republican donor who was convicted of tax evasion for siphoning more than $10.9 million in payroll taxes from the paychecks of doctors and nurses. He had been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas City Councilwoman who was convicted of federal charity fraud after misusing donations for a planned police memorial. She had not been sentenced when she was pardoned. Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery in what prosecutors called a "cash-for-badges scheme. He was set to start a 10-year prison sentence on May 27, 2025. Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV stars convicted of conspiring to defraud community banks, defraud the IRS and commit tax evasion in 2022. Todd Chrisley had been sentenced to 12 years in prison and Julie had been sentenced to seven years in prison. Larry Hoover, a Chicago gang leader serving multiple life sentences for charges including murder, extortion and money laundering, had his federal sentence commuted. Hoover attracted celebrity attention in calls to be freed, including from rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Hoover will remain behind bars to continue serving for state charges. Contributing: Jeffrey Meehan, Reno Gazette Journal; Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post; Bart Jansen, KiMi Robinson, Jay Stahl, Aysha Bagchi, Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY; C.A. Bridges, USA TODAY Network 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: Can Trump pardon himself? What to know on conviction anniversary Economists dont like tariffs not only because of the tariff itself but because of the uncertainty it creates, Fangzhou Jiang, a Chinese student at Harvard Kennedy School and co-founder of higher education consulting firm Crimson Education, tells TIME. Its the same situation. The uncertainty Jiang is dealing with is his education: while his student visa has so far not been affected, the changing situation around Harvards enrollment authorization and now new restrictions on Chinese students have made it difficult to navigate decisions around things like housing for the next academic year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the U.S. would start aggressively revoking Chinese student visas and enhance scrutiny of applications from mainland China and Hong Kong. Rubio gave sparse details on what exactly the criteria would be but said it would include those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China on Thursday condemned the decision, calling it discriminatory. The U.S. decision seriously hurts the lawful rights and interests of international students from China, and disrupts people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. China firmly opposes it and has protested to the U.S. over the decision, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. This politically motivated and discriminatory move exposes the U.S. hypocrisy over freedom and openness. It will further damage the image and reputation of the U.S. itself. The U.S. move comes at a time when the Trump Administration has imposed restrictions on the sales of chip design software and some jet engine parts to China, and soon after it warned that the sale of Huawei semiconductors anywhere in the world would violate U.S. export controlsprompting China to threaten legal action. Its also come amid the Administrations war on U.S. colleges, which has included slashing federal funding for a number of universities and an attempt to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students over the schools alleged noncompliance with a list of demands. The decision was celebrated by some. Ashley Moody, a Republican Senator from Florida, posted on X, the U.S. is no longer in the business of importing espionage. Moody introduced a bill in March to ban all Chinese students from the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others, however, condemned the move. The wholesale revocation of student visas based on national originand without an investigationis xenophobic and wrong, the Democratic-led Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus posted on X. Turning these students awaymany of whom simply wish to learn in a free and democratic societyis not just shortsighted but a betrayal of our values. Trump has restricted Chinese students before This policy doesnt come from nowhere, says David Weeks, co-founder and chief operating officer of Sunrise International, a consulting firm that advises overseas universities on recruiting Chinese students. You have adverse policies tracing back all the way to President Donald Trumps first term, Weeks says. In 2020, Trumps first-term Administration implemented Proclamation 10043, a restrictive visa policy on Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to Chinas military-civil universities. Around 1,000 Chinese scholars had their visas revoked under the policy, which persisted under the Biden Administration. The new restrictions may appear more expansive, but its a lot of chest thumping, Weeks says, adding that without further details, it doesnt appear to be substantively different from whats been in place for the last five years. Its almost domestic political posturing. Theres folks in the State Department that may want to seem tough on China, but this idea of limiting visas for students pursuing critical fields is nothing new. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ambiguity around the new policy and other recent decisions has thrown some Chinese students into a precarious position. The main change is that the criteria has been expanded from alleged military ties to ties to the CCPbut in effect, Weeks says, this will be logistically difficult to implement. A huge number of Chinese citizens have ties to the CCP: the party boasts a membership of around 100 million members, and even if someone isnt a member, its likely they can be linked through someone they know who is. But people join for reasons beyond direct political involvement. To be a civil servant or work in a state enterprise, its almost obligatory to be in the party, one member told AFP. Its like a diploma. It opens doors. On top of that, essentially every department of every Chinese university has a dual system of governance, where youve got the dean and you have the Communist Party Secretary, Weeks says. Students may have also joined the Communist Youth League at some point, but its almost akin to joining the Boy Scouts, he adds. The party is omnipresent in many Chinese universities, Weeks says, but that doesnt mean that students are actively politically involved. The effort to try to disentangle and identify who has a party affiliation is practically extremely difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If its about national security, Jiang says, then it might not be the most effective move to go after anyone with apparent affiliations with the CCP because you would have targeted a whole bunch of people that have nothing to do with politics or with national security matters. Theres a possibility that students could be vindictively targeted, especially if theyre at a university like Harvard thats picked a fight with the Administration, Weeks says. Theres certainly a risk that we could have a McCarthyist sort of sweep. American higher education risks losing critical international student base Chinese students account for nearly a quarteror more than 277,000of all international students in the U.S., the second highest nationality behind Indian students, according to a 2024 Open Doors report. Many of these students are financially pretty self-sustaining, Weeks says, which can be a significant contribution to university revenue. Chinese students also tend to have strong backgrounds in STEM and are typically highly academically motivated, he adds. They can be a critical lifeline for some programs. Theres just no market that is as big and as wealthy and as academically prepared as China, Weeks says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, among Chinese students and their families, theres concern, Weeks says, but not yet panic. U.S. universities have long held a tremendous amount of soft power, he adds. In China, theres still a perception that certain other countries are easy, because they dont have as selective of admissions processes as the U.S. does, the degrees are shorter and thus less rigorous. Many U.S. universities, even non-elite ones, have a kind of brand recognition among Chinese employers, while job opportunities in large American cities are unparalleled. Chinese families have also watched Trumps other policies go on rollercoasters, including imposing heavy tariffs on China and the rest of the world before backing out. I think Chinese families are seeing that theres sometimes a lot of noise and bluster, then the final outcome is not ideal, says Weeks, but its certainly not apocalyptic either. Still, if punitive policies towards Chinese international students persist, students may turn to alternative destinations, experts say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read More: These Asian Universities Are Seeking to Attract Harvard Transfers as Trump Targets International Students Chinese parents view this environment as one of toxic uncertainty, Weeks says. Chinese parents really gravitate towards the rule of law in a lot of these anglophone countries, so when they see that the rule of law in some places is under threat, thats deeply concerning to them. Move could erode trust between U.S. and China The Trump Administrations attitude towards Chinese students is a far cry from the counterpart view of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has for years advocated for more American students to come to China. Xi in 2023 launched an initiative to bring in 50,000 Americans for exchanges and studies over five years. Last year, 16,000 Americans participated. Theres recognition that when you dont have people-to-people exchanges, you lose an important bulwark against populist rhetoric on both sides, Weeks says. China thinks that we need more, not less, exchange if we have disagreements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday evening, the same day that Rubio announced the decision, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng touted people-to-people exchanges as foundational to U.S.-China relations. It is people-to-people ties that invigorate China-U.S. relations, he said at his embassy. We warmly welcome all American friends to travel in China, shop in China, succeed in China and take part in Chinese modernisation. Come and see the country with your own eyes. Jiang says when he thinks of his peers, friends, and faculty members, he feels very welcome in the U.S. But these moves by the Administration have spotlighted rhetoric that makes him feel less accepted. Some experts say the Administrations decision will lead to an erosion of trust between the two countries, which could ultimately impact trade negotiationsa key priority for the Trump Administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This policy is an unfair treatment of Chinese citizens, which will intensify diplomatic tensions between China and the United States, undermining the easing atmosphere that had emerged following the Geneva talks, Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua Universitys Centre for International Security and Strategy, told the South China Morning Post, referencing the agreement between the U.S. and China to temporarily lower tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Thursday Fox News interview that trade talks with China are a bit stalled and pushed for a call between Trump and Xiwho last spoke in January ahead of Trumps inauguration. I think China has made it clear that it would like to disentangle security disagreements and trade from people-to-people exchanges, Weeks says. Though he doesnt think the Trump Administrations education policies will ultimately undermine trade negotiations, he adds: I dont know if Trump or Rubio actually care that much about which student from what province is studying at what U.S. university, but I do think that they see international students unfortunately not as humans, but as bargaining chips. Contact us at letters@time.com. Shawano County was included on a Department of Homeland Security list of jurisdictions "defying federal immigration law" The U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed Shawano County along with Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee as Wisconsin jurisdictions defying immigration law on Thursday. The department released the list as part of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump requiring that sanctuary jurisdictions across the country be listed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities, the DHS announcement states. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril. Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee have enacted policies that limit local law enforcement agencies collaboration with federal immigration authorities. Earlier this year, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett announced that the county would no longer participate in a program that provides funding in exchange for telling federal agencies when an immigrant without legal status is in custody in the local jail. Milwaukee also refuses to share such information. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens, DHS stated. But Shawano County, which Trump won with 67% of its vote last year, is a Republican Party stronghold that appears out of place on the list. The DHS announcement states that no one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2021, the Shawano County board voted to declare the county a Second Amendment sanctuary county, which declared the county sheriff would not enforce any laws which unconstitutionally impedes our fundamental Second Amendment right to Keep and Bear Arms. The Shawano County administrator and sheriff did not respond to requests for comment. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Helrom, a German rail freight transportation and technology company, has finalised a 32.9m ($44.3m) green loan facility with Societe Generale and DAL Deutsche Anlagen-Leasing to support its growth and market development. The financing, provided on a 50/50 basis by Deutsche Leasing Finance and Societe Generale, reinforces Helroms role in decarbonising rail freight supply chains. This deal follows a similar 34.5m ($46.4m) loan agreement in June 2023, also split equally between Deutsche Leasing Finance and Societe Generale, with identical structuring and terms. The new funding will enable Helrom to acquire approximately 120 trailer wagons, expanding its transportation capacity. Furthermore, this investment aligns with the companys goal of achieving net-zero transportation and advancing its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. DAL Deutsche Anlagen-Leasing transportation and logistics head Gerald Wiencke said: By providing this tailored financing solution in partnership with Deutsche Leasing Finance and Societe Generale, we are continuing our successful collaboration with Helrom and supporting them in pursuing their next phase of growth. This transaction reflects our strategic objective of enabling the transition to low-emission logistics, and we are pleased to assist companies like Helrom in decarbonising supply chains through structured, long-term financing solutions. Secured under favourable terms in a challenging market, the seven-year asset-based finance facility serves as a platform for Helroms future financing initiatives. The loan adheres to the Loan Market Associations standards and Green Loan Principles. Helrom CFO Dr Matthias Herrmann said: We are delighted to have agreed another debt financing with our two great financing partners Societe Generale and DAL. We are particularly proud that we were able to present this loan as first green loan for Helrom. This loan will finance our Helrom trailer wagons for the next six trains. Helrom operates rail freight connections for truck semitrailers between Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy through its HELROM Trailer Rail service, contributing to CO 2 -neutral freight transport. "Helrom secures $44m green loan to boost sustainable rail freight" was originally created and published by Railway Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. MOSCOW (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance. Asked by U.S. network ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: "It's a fair concern." "We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that - you know I could probably give you four other countries in NATO and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to NATO," he told ABC late on Thursday. "That's one of the issues that Russia will bring up." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova," Kellogg said, adding that a decision on U.S. views of NATO enlargement was for Trump to make. Kellogg said the sequencing of the peace talks would include an attempt to merge the two memorandums drafted by Ukraine and Russia into one single document with talks in Turkey on Monday. "When we get into Istanbul next week we'll sit down and talk," Kellogg said, adding that the national security advisers from Germany, France and Britain would join discussions on the memorandum with the United States. Kellogg said Trump was "frustrated" with Russia because he had seen "a level of unreasonableness" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He scolded Russia for striking Ukrainian cities and said he had told Ukraine to turn up to talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A conservative estimate of dead and injured in the Ukraine war - from both sides combined - totals 1.2 million, Kellogg said. "That is a stunning number - this is war on an industrial scale," Kellogg told ABC. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Donald Trump biographer-slash-nemesis Maggie Haberman admitted that Trump has made her genuinely laugh one single time. Asked if there had been a time Trump made her laugh intentionally, not because of something silly hes done, during the On With Kara Swisher podcast, Haberman recalled the moment Trump mocked his former chief of staff Reince Priebus in 2015. It was the one time that he has ever made me laugh, Haberman prefaced, though I cant speak to whether it was intentional or not. Haberman wrote the 2022 Trump biography Haberman wrote the 2022 Trump biography Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America and covered his initial rise to the presidency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was right after Trump first entered the 2016 presidential race and Haberman called him to ask about a story that quoted Reince Priebusthen Republican National Committee chair and later Trumps chief of staff sternly lecturing him about his offensive rhetoric about Mexican immigrants. I was asking Trump about it, and he saidHe knows better than to lecture me. And then there was a pause, before he added, This is not a five star army general, she recalled. And it just, it made me laugh. Whether he was trying to make me laugh, I dont know. Maggie Haberman said Donald Trump only made her laugh Ive seen him try to make crowds laugh, she explained, but this was different. I think he was more justbeing sarcastic. Haberman then weighed in on whether anything Trump does is intentional. It is more calculated than it seems sometimes, and then other times its not, she said of his social media outbursts. The problem is figuring out which one is which. President Trump fired the National Portrait Gallery director on Friday for being highly partisan and a supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery, the president wrote in a Truth Social post. She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A White House official told The Hill that Sajet has donated to Vice President Harris presidential campaign through Act Blue. The Federal Elections Commission reported that she financially supported Democratic nominees including former President Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-N.Y.), former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison (D-S.C.) and others through ActBlue. Sajet is a Nigeria-born, Australian native and a citizen of the Netherlands, according to her profile on the National Portrait Gallery website. She has a doctoral degree from Georgetown University and completed arts leadership training at the Harvard Business School. The Trump administration has rattled both institutions over new deportation policies and campus culture. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sajet was notably at the helm of the portrait gallery when it temporarily removed the portraits of former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama to go on a more than two-year, five-city tour. Were a history museum and an art museum, and they are really great representations of both. This tour is an opportunity for audiences in different parts of the country to witness how portraiture can engage people, Sajet told The Washington Post at the time. Her removal comes after Trump ousted the Librarian of Congress, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Coast Guard Commandant over similar concerns. The president signed an executive order in March in an effort to combat divisive narratives promoted by certain museums. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the order, titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, Trump said the Smithsonian Institution, which operates numerous museums in the nations capital, has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. He also outlawed DEI practices from the federal government earlier this year. A judge recently declined to block certain aspects of the order, which was challenged in early May. Updated at 4:21 p.m. EDT. 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. President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is firing Kim Sajet, the longtime director of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, for being "a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI." The announcement, made on Truth Social, comes as Trump pushes to remake some of the highest profile national arts institutions so they align with his political agenda. In February, he dismissed much of the Kennedy Center board in order to have himself appointed chairman. In March, he targeted the Smithsonian Institution by issuing an executive order demanding an end to federal funding for exhibitions and programs based on racial themes that divide Americans. The National Portrait Gallery did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. It is unclear, as with many of Trump's social media decrees, if the organization was expecting the latest action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sajet was appointed director in 2013 by Wayne Clough, then the secretary of the Smithsonian. Sajet, the first woman to serve in the role, had come from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where she was president and chief executive. Sajet, a Dutch national, was born in Nigeria and raised in Australia. In his Truth Social post, Trump said he was terminating Sajet "upon the request and recommendation of many people." He said her support of diversity and inclusion was "totally inappropriate for her position." He promised to name her replacement soon. The National Portrait Gallery was founded by Congress in 1962 and houses more than 26,000 objects, including portraits of all the nation's presidents. It shares a building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and attracts about 1 million visitors a year. The gallery contains a photo portrait of Trump taken in 2017 by Matt McClain, with a caption that reads, in part, Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Im supposed to be dead, Donald Trump said, the day after he got shot at his rally last summer in Butler, Pennsylvania. Im not supposed to be here, he said four days after that. But something very special happened. Lets face it. Something happened, he said two days after that. Its an act of God, he said the month after that. God spared my life for a reason, he said in his victory speech at Mar-a-Lago in November. I was saved by God to make America great again, he said in his inaugural address at the Capitol in January. It changed something in me, he said in his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton in February. I feel even stronger. This is new. Its not how he talked for most of his long and voluble life. He has always, it should be said, seen himself as special, and he has always, of course, been notably self-aggrandizing. But the longtime self-described fatalist invariably maintained a sort of shoulder-shrugging acceptance that whatever was going to happen was beyond his or anyone elses control. Over the last 10 or so months since Butler, however, and especially since his reelection and the start of his second administration, Trumps outlook has shifted in essence from stuff happens and nothing much matters to something happened and it couldnt matter more. His rhetoric has gone from borderline nihilistic to messianic. For a while now, a roster of religious believers and leaders, grateful for the political victories Trump has bestowed in exchange for their votes, have suggested and sometimes outright said that Trump is chosen, or anointed, or a savior, or the second coming or the Christ for this age. Now, though, Trump does it, too. And that matters. It matters, some say, because it highlights how his well-documented narcissism and grandiosity has metastasized into notions of omnipotence, invincibility and infallibility. And it matters maybe most immediately because it offers a window into how he is approaching his second term even more emboldened, even more unilaterally oriented, even more apparently uncheckable and untouchable than the first. I run the country and the world, he said last month. Id like to be pope, he said kind of joking, but kind of not? before he and the White House posted on social media an AI image of himself adorned in archetypal papal attire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its worth asking. Does Trump think hes God? OK, he almost certainly doesnt think hes God but does he think hes God-like? Divinely sanctioned or inspired or empowered? Does he think hes somehow imbued with some special, sacred purpose for some special, sacred reason? Or did he just see and seize an opportunity to stamp his world-upending agenda with the ultimate justification a mandate from God? I have no reason to doubt that he would prefer to believe he was saved by a supreme being because he himself is special rather than the would-be assassin was a lousy shot or he got lucky, Alan Marcus, a former Trump consultant and publicist, told me. He prefers drama which fits into his make-believe narrative, a narrative which always has him being the best, the biggest, the strongest, the toughest, the brightest, et cetera none of which are even close to the truth, but he knows he can convince people, Marcus said. His world is fantasy, scripted like a movie not biblical unless, of course, that helps bring a particular scene or chapter to life. Perhaps opportunism and genuine belief in his own chosenness arent mutually exclusive, Marie Griffith, the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, told me. But whether he truly believes it or not, it is plainly in his interest to keep talking as if everything he does is sanctioned by God, she said. And I think just looking at the rhetoric, you have to wonder if Butler really shook him up and he thought, Maybe they are right. Maybe I really am the chosen one. I think he does believe he was saved to do great things as president, Stephen Mansfield, the author of the 2018 book Choosing Donald Trump: God, Anger, Hope, and Why Christian Conservatives Supported Him, told me. I think he does believe that he is a tool of God. There just has to be something thats far greater than us S ome say Trump believes nothing. Thats not true. He believes, for instance, in tariffs, and always has. He believes in the importance of genes and always has. He believes in the power of positive thinking, and he believes in the power of negative publicity. And Trump, at best an intermittently observant Christian who reportedly has mocked those more devout, nonetheless believes, and has for a long, long time, in something like predestination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im a great fatalist, he told a reporter from New Yorks Newsday in 1991. What scares you the most? Nothing, he said. Whatever happens, happens and you just have to go along with it. Unbelievable, he told Larry King on CNN in 1997. The famed fashion designer Gianni Versace had just been murdered outside his Miami Beach mansion by a celebrity-obsessed stalker named Andrew Cunanan. John Kennedy once said if someone wants to get you, and thats all they think about, youre in trouble, King said. True, Trump said. So, King said, Trump the fatalist has to be aware and give thought to the Cunanans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You have to be aware, Trump said. Otherwise, youre a fool but, again, I dont think you can change your entire life. Youre not going to go into a very safe little space and just lock the door and never come out. I just dont think you can do that. And I am a fatalist. I say, Hey, what happens, happens. And maybe its predestined. Who knows? Trump has had stray moments in which he seemed to be searching for something else something more meaningful? There has to be a reason we are here, he told Tim OBrien for OBriens Trump biography that came out in 2005. There has to be a reason that were going through this. There has to be a reason for everything, he said. I do believe in God. I think there just has to be something thats far greater than us. For the most part, though, Trumps expressed the opposite that basically the world is full of random this or that with no higher discernible purpose. People ask me, How do you handle pressure? he wrote in 2007 in his book Think Big and Kick Ass. The truth is, it does not matter. What the hell difference does it make? You see what is going on in Iraq; you have seen a tsunami wipe out hundreds of thousands of people. Think about how 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center on September 11 In 2015, Trump understood that such suffering or happenstance was not a message on which he could run to be president and that if he wanted to win, he would need the support of people for whom faith in a higher power is a determinant factor. The thrice-married philanderer and philistine said he was not sure hed ever asked God for forgiveness, and said Two Corinthians instead of Second Corinthians, and couldnt or wouldnt name a favorite verse in the Bible (until he did somewhat). But he knew evangelicals were a crucial bloc of voters and realized it was going to be a bit of a stretch to argue that he himself is a religious man, said Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, and so instead he adopted a quid pro quo approach dangling promises, policies and Supreme Court justices in line with their desires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He ran a campaign, too, that was what noted rhetoric expert Jen Mercieca calls a Biblical hero narrative a convoluted hero quest, as she put it to me, of defeating the corrupt (politicians, media, the politically correct) all around him and claimed that he had been purified to end corruption by the act of running for office. And a critical mass of evangelicals responded by casting Trump as a messiah, a modern-day Cyrus, an imperfect figure tapped to do Gods perfect work. Does he think, do you think, that his election that year was the result of God? pastor and Trump religious adviser Paula White-Cain was asked of his win in 2016. I say that all the time, and I say that to him, she answered. Hes not going to over-exaggerate himself that God is sitting there going, I chose you. But others are going to say to him, Youve been chosen by God. He was sworn in using the Bible he got from his mother as a kid at First Presbyterian Church in Queens in New York as well as the Bible Abraham Lincoln used in 1861. In his first National Prayer Breakfast appearance he took a swipe at former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about his lowly TV ratings as Trumps replacement as the host of Celebrity Apprentice. In his first term he had prominent pastors come to him in the Oval Office and pray with him and for him and lay their hands on him. He used a Bible as a photo-op prop amid the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. He switched from Presbyterian to non-denominational Christian. Conservative radio host and conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root said on Twitter the Jewish people in Israel love him like hes the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God and Trump retweeted Roots tweet and thanked him for the very nice words. On the lawn outside the White House, in the context of a conversation about a pending trade war with China, Trump held out his hands and looked up at the sky. I am the chosen one, he said. From his tone, though, it was clear at least to most that he was mostly joking. But then that bullet in Butler just missed. And then he won again. Totally compatible with a messiah complex S o now, four months into his term, Trump is on a spree of a show of supremacy. Hes pledged a Golden Age. Hes punished Trump and MAGA unbelievers. Hes exacted or attempted to exact subservience and acquiescence from media execs and tech titans and major law firms and top universities and both chambers of Congress that he and his party control. Hes tried to command the global economy and crack intractable issues of war and peace as if he were wielding a scepter over subjects far and wide. Hes declared a slew of national emergencies on everything from the border to mineral production, and hes dropped scores of executive orders, whitewashing history, targeting Biased Media and Criminal Aliens, establishing a Religious Liberty Commission and a White House Faith Office and eradicating Anti-Christian Bias decrees delivered like apocalyptic pronouncements of an (albeit uncouth, foul-mouthed) Old Testament prophet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement World leaders all want to kiss my ass, he told aides. Im actually surprised myself about the rolling-over of the law firms, he told ABC News. John Adams said were a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that? he was asked in an interview for TIME. John Adams said that? said Trump. I wouldnt agree with it 100 percent. He was asked by Kristen Welker of NBC News if he as president needed to uphold the Constitution. I dont know, Trump said. I think one of the biggest differences between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0 is that in Trump 1.0, his own staff, the people who surrounded him, were perfectly comfortable thinking: President Donald Trump is very wrong about this. His judgment is bad. His impulses need to be foiled. We are the resistance inside the Trump administration, the journalist Ezra Klein recently posited on his New York Times podcast with Times columnist Ross Douthat. In Trump 2.0, I dont think people around him are comfortable thinking that. There is both a sense that theyre there to serve him but also a sense there is something in Trump to them, not to me that exists beyond argumentation, Klein said. Yes, Douthat said, talking of the kind of mystic drama of his return to power. I think, Robert Jeffress, the Trump-supporting pastor from Dallas, said last month, he came to the conclusion the right conclusion that God has a purpose for him. Christian believers believe, of course, that God has a purpose for them, and for all of them that theyre all potential tools of his will, and beneficiaries of his grace. Most of them dont, though, think of themselves as the literal second coming of Christ. And the extent to which Trump might think that of himself, and that his supporters might agree, speaks to the unprecedented expansion of power he has asserted and that many in the country seem content to grant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No previous president in American history has claimed that he was saved by God to enact his political agenda, Mercieca, the rhetoric expert, recently wrote. Asking God to watch over the nation? Yes. Claiming to have been saved specifically by God to enable the enactment of political priorities? No. Invoking the power of the unified people and God gives Trump an awesome and unquestionable power whoever defies Trump is at risk of defying the people and God. Its impossible to argue against Trump when he claims the power of God If nothing else, in the assessment of his biographers, it means Trump as always is an opportunist. This is the logical next step from a half-century of continually pushing out the limits of what he can and will go after, Gwenda Blair, who wrote about Trumps family, told me. Starting back in that famous public debut in 1973 when he counter-sued DOJ for defamation, he has consistently reached way past what anyone expected or had a ready response for a strategy that has let him keep moving the goalposts ever forward. Its another example of Donald Trump playing to an audience to convince them hes with them and not at all to give you a window into his soul, because that blind is permanently drawn down, OBrien told me. The Apprentice gave the impression to a whole generation of people who didnt know his story that he was a great dealmaker and an entrepreneurial guru as opposed to a serial bankruptcy artist and stumblefuck. And he went to the presidency in part on that. And he got reelected in part on [being seen as] the chosen one who survived the assassination attempt at Butler. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other scholars and observers say hes an opportunist who also is a narcissist who also recognizes considerable political utility in wrapping himself in such a divine mantle. The authoritarian leader presents himself as a divine or messianic figure who is uniquely able to vanquish the forces of evil and make the world safe for the faithful. As God incarnate, the leader is by definition omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, David Livingstone Smith, a professor of philosophy at the University of New England, wrote before Trump won for the second time. Sacred leaders are messianic figures, who promise salvation for true believers. When a movement is headed by a sacred leader, it resembles a religion, he wrote after. Trump is a sacred leader. His evangelical followers often refer to him as a savior or anointed one chosen by God Trump was not, personally, a paragon of conventional religious devotion. Yet his political career depended on a hunger among his most dedicated supporters that can only be called spiritual, Molly Worthen, a history professor at the University of North Carolina and an expert on the intersection of religion, culture and politics, wrote in her book Spellbound that came out just this week. Hes a nihilist for whom the only source of meaning is the amassing of personal power, turning his will into personal, political, financial and territorial domination, and thats totally compatible with a messiah complex, Worthen told me. I dont see the recent turn in his language as a deviation from past patterns, but the fuller realization of those patterns. Sacred? Chosen? Messianic? As a Christian myself, the fact that he was spared and then was re-elected does have significance and I would say that even if it was the other party and the other candidate who had been spared and then elected, Scott Lamb, the co-author of The Faith of Donald J. Trump, told me. Its simply a matter of biblical reflection, Lamb added, pointing to Proverbs 16:9. The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Secular reality of course is more complicated. Trump has not been able to end Russias war on Ukraine with the wave of a proverbial wand. Hes not been able to ordain peace in the Middle East. And court after court has stymied the implementation of his edicts. Hes seemed at times frustrated and even flustered by this incapacity. Late Wednesday night, in the aftermath of the latest significant setback in the form of the decision of a federal court to overturn the tariffs at the heart of his economic program, Trump took to Truth Social. Among the barrage of his posts was a meme of Trump striding down a darkened city street. HES ON A MISSION FROM GOD, read the words. NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT IS COMING. Does the president mean with the post of this meme, I asked in a text message to White House communications director Steven Cheung, that hes literally on a mission from God? As people of faith, we are all on missions from God, Cheung responded. The President has the biggest mission to Make America Great Again and to help bring peace across the world. And hes doing just that. Trump lavished praise on Musk at an event marking the official end of the Tesla CEO's time as a special government employee. Musk has been the face of Trump's effort to reduce government spending. Trump gifted Musk a key and said DOGE's work would continue. It was a praise-filled display of mutual admiration between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon. To commemorate Musk's official last day with DOGE, Trump held a press conference with the Tesla CEO gifting Musk a large key in the process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president handed Musk a brown box containing the key, saying he reserves this gift for "very special people." Musk, standing next to the president in a black DOGE cap and a graphic tee reading "The Dogefather," accepted the present, saying it was "amazing" and admiring Trump's revamped golden Oval Office decor. Elon Musk accepts a key from President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on May 30, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Trump heaped compliments on Musk and repeatedly thanked him for his work during the event as the two answered questions from the press amid recent reports of fractures in their relationship. Trump said that DOGE's work would continue after Musk's departure. Trump said the DOGE employees are "geniuses," especially when it comes to computers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president said that DOGE's cost savings, which have fallen far short of the $1 trillion goal, could "double and triple," because many of the group's projects take time to complete. Trump flagged the Internal Revenue Service in particular, saying that rebuilding some of the agency's systems would take years. Friday is Musk's final day as a special government employee and face of the White House DOGE Office, but Trump signaled he may continue to visit and advise from time to time. "Elon is really not leaving," Trump said. "He's going to be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It's his baby." When asked by a reporter whether he'd continue advising the president, Musk said he expected to. Trump chimed in briefly, too: "I hope so." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk said he'd "expect to remain a friend and an advisor." "Certainly, if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service," he added. Musk also said that he thinks DOGE could save $1 trillion by its self-imposed deadline of July 4, 2026, so long as it has the support of Trump and Congress. He recently estimated the group has saved $160 billion, and Trump has asked Congress to approve $9 billion worth of suggested cuts. Musk also teased a potentially longer lifespan for DOGE during Friday's news conference, saying that the president "may choose to extend" its official end date. As for DOGE employees themselves, however long they're around, Musk said "the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time, the DOGE influence will grow stronger." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Musk first announced his departure from government earlier this month, he said DOGE's mission would live on. On Thursday, the White House confirmed that another prominent DOGE leader, Musk's right-hand man Steve Davis, had also left the team. Musk has said he's leaving to devote more time to his various companies. He also said he planned to cut back on political spending, after shelling out more than $270 million during the 2024 election. Read the original article on Business Insider President Trump denounced a court ruling blocking his tariffs in a lengthy Truth Social post Thursday night that targeted Leonard Leo, who played a central role in shaping Trumps judicial picks during his first term. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Backroom hustlers must not be allowed to destroy our Nation! Trump wrote. It marked the presidents first comments after a whirlwind 24 hours that saw the U.S. Court of International Trade block the bulk of Trumps tariffs before an appeals court lifted the order. The tariffs were also blocked by a separate court, but that ruling doesnt go into effect for two weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alongside his condemnation of the ruling, Trump went after Leo, who spent decades forming a conservative judicial pipeline as a longtime leader of the Federalist Society and advised Trump on judge selections during his first stint in the White House. I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges, Trump wrote in the Truth Social post. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real sleazebag named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions, the president continued. When reached for comment, Leo expressed praise for the presidents judicial picks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im very grateful for President Trump transforming the Federal Courts, and it was a privilege being involved, Leo said in a statement. Theres more work to be done, for sure, but the Federal Judiciary is better than its ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trumps most important legacy. Trump reshaped the courts during his first four years in the White House, including by appointing three Supreme Court justices who cemented its 6-3 conservative majority. Trumps nominees Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett came directly from a list compiled by Leo. But Trump has now soured on a handful of his appointees serving in various courts whove blocked his second administrations policies. The three-judge trade court panel that blocked Trumps tariffs included one of his picks, Judge Timothy Reif, a Democrat. I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations, Trump wrote Thursday. This is something that cannot be forgotten! With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though Leos influence on judicial selections has apparently waned, he expressed confidence in the presidents team in a March interview with The Hill. Both at the White House Counsels Office and some at the Department of Justice, these are individuals who are legal conservatives who understand the proper role of the court, have a lot of great contacts within the conservative legal community and I think will serve the president very well as a resource for identifying future nominees, Leo said. Trump announced his first judge nominees earlier this month. This week, he announced a new wave that includes his former personal criminal defense attorney, Emil Bove, who subsequently played a key role in Trumps Justice Department. Updated at 10:08 p.m. EDT. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. President Donald Trump leveled unusually pointed criticism of a prominent conservative legal activist and organization Thursday as he railed against a ruling that struck down his sweeping tariffs. The president, in a post on his social media platform, slammed Leonard Leo, the former chair of the Federalist Society, calling him a sleazebag who probably hates America. It was a striking characterization of Leo, who played a key role in working with Trump to shape the conservative Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court I hope that is not so, and dont believe it is!, Trump wrote. Trumps attack came after the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down his tariffs, a massive blow to the primary pillar of the administrations economic agenda. The ruling was temporarily stayed by an appellate court on Thursday. One of the judges on the three-person panel that blocked the tariffs is Timothy Reif, who was appointed by Trump in his first term. The blame, Trump said, lay with the Federalist Society. I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations, he wrote. This is something that cannot be forgotten! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leo, in a brief statement in response, did not criticize the president. "I'm very grateful for President Trump transforming the Federal Courts, and it was a privilege being involved," Leo said. "There's more work to be done, for sure, but the Federal Judiciary is better than it's ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump's most important legacy." Trump's relationship with the activist is known to have grown strained over Trump's disappointment that the three conservative justices he appointed to the court on Leo's advice did not intervene to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election. The Federalist Society worked with the Trump administration to develop a shortlist of candidates for the Supreme Court during his 2016 presidential campaign. Leo was a pivotal figure in the conservative legal group for more than two decades, and took leaves of absence to manage the selection and confirmation process for Trump's Supreme Court picks. Many people viewed the judicial selection process as essentially outsourced to the Federalist Society. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the falling out between Trump and Leo, many legal conservatives said in recent months that they expected him to remain influential in the choices Trump makes for judicial nominations in his second term. But the full-on rupture evident in Trump's social media post Thursday signals that Trump may now view nominees Federalist Society ties as toxic and any sign of a link to Leo could doom a potential nominee. That could lead to more extreme or inexperienced nominees for the federal bench, although all still require Senate confirmation. Trump's over-the-top trashing of Leo, a devout Catholic, as a sleazebag could further sour the president's relationship with some longtime legal conservatives. A few have already publicly broken ranks with the president. The Federalist Society did not immediately reply to a request for comment. And at a time when much of Trump's agenda is facing tests at the Supreme Court, Trump's vitriolic attack on Leo has the potential to further distance the president from the court's conservative justices. All three of Trump's high court nominees, as well as Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, are known to be close to Leo. President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Paul Ingrassia, a 30-year-old former right-wing podcast host, to head the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency in charge of protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing ethics rules. Ingrassias brief tenure in the Trump administration began earlier this year with a liaison role between the White House and Justice Department, including attending the release of some Capitol rioters in January. He was reportedly reassigned after clashing with another official over loyalty to Trump and currently serves as the White Houses liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. For several years, Ingrassia hosted a podcast with his sister, Olivia Ingrassia, called Right on Point, which featured discussions with right-wing political commentators and appears to have ended in June 2020. Paul Ingrassia (left), White House liaison to the Justice Department, announces the release of brothers Andrew and Matthew Valentin outside the D.C. Central Detention Facility on Jan. 20. President Donald Trump issued pardons to over 1,500 people who were charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt. Pete Kiehart for The Washington Post via Getty Images A Twitter account promoting the podcast, however, tweeted on: In December 2020, amid Trumps increasingly desperate battle to cling to the office of the presidency, the account posted that it was time for Trump to declare martial law and secure his re-election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The same month, the account said that secession is the ONLY option for true Americans if Trumps effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election failed. Support martial law, the account tweeted at another point. CNNs KFile was first to report on the alarming history of Paul Ingrassias podcast in February. In his Truth Social announcement, Trump praised Ingrassia as a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar with a law degree from Cornell. If confirmed by the Senate, Ingrassia would lead the Office of Special Counsel that was recently vacated by President Joe Biden appointee Hampton Dellinger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump quietly fired Dellinger just days after returning to the White House. The move kicked off a legal battle that led Dellinger to be temporarily reinstated before an appeals court sided with Trump on the firing, ending Dellingers nascent investigations into the abrupt firings of thousands of federal government employees. The OSC is not related to the individual special counsels that investigated Trumps links to Russian interference in the 2016 election, his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and other alleged crimes although it has a similar name. Related... Ahead of IAFA 2025 next month, IAB editor Zoya Malik spoke to Delphi Alliance CEO Christos S Christodoulou about his views on the accountancy profession and what he is most looking forward to about this years event The Accountant: Please tell us about the solution that you will be presenting on and how it will impact your clients businesses. Christos Christodoulou: Networking is not only for accountants and lawyers! Delphi Alliance, being the first multi-disciplinary alliance in the world, has 13 different disciplines within its alliance. Our main role is to provide the ultimate sharing of resources, knowledge and referrals, by creating both local alliances in each business centre in which it has a presence, and also develop a global alliance at the same time. The recent addition of our 13th discipline until the end of 2024 the alliance had 12 which deals with venture capital and funding, introduces a valuable new resource for all members and their clients as it provides access to capital and funds. Currently with a presence in 15 countries and with a target of 38, we aim to provide our members with added value both for their local and international clients. TA: Tell us about the key themes in the market that will impact the accounting industry and your business over the next 24 months. CC: From the accounting industry perspective and the Cyprus market where I come from, I believe that technology and human resources are the biggest challenges to face. Recruitment requires a very hard and intensive effort, often unfortunately with no substantial results, as the new generation is not attracted to the profession but to wider industry. Although AI and other IT tools seem to be increasingly becoming a need, it is still questionable at what level they will have an impact on demand from firms, in terms of matching compliance requirements and the documentation processes for assurance purposes. TA: What do you hope to gain by attending IAFA 2025? What are the objectives for you and your business? CC: There are several objectives for my attendance at IAFA 2025. On a personal level, Im looking forward to my participation on the panel about The Evolution of Accounting Firms: Strategy, Innovation and Market Leadership. As a delegate, Im also keen to hear the insights of the distinguished speakers on some very interesting subjects. Im also looking forward to engaging with leaders within the same category as Delphi Alliance, and discussing prospects and opportunities in what we all do. Its a great chance to push professional alliances to the next level. (NewsNation) President Trumps suggestion that billions in federal funding be redirected from Harvard University to U.S. trade schools is an idea that appeals to Republican Congressman Kevin Hern. The representative from Oklahoma has co-sponsored legislation to broaden the use of tax-advantaged 529 savings accounts for technical and vocational programs. Hern says he himself benefited from vocational training during high school, which paved the way for his engineering degree. As for throwing taxpayer money at trade schools, he advises caution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has Harvard Derangement Syndrome, professor says Weve got to make sure that these outcomes are people that are getting great jobs and not just people who are standing up businesses to get funding, Hern told The Hill Thursday. Trade schools offer training in high-demand fields such as HVAC, construction, electrical engineering and plumbing and are seen as an alternative for students who may not have the means or interest to pursue a four-year degree. Hern indicated he doesnt have a problem with higher education but said many students dont know what their professional path will be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Very few kids and I say kids that come out of high school know what theyre going to do in four years. And thats why we see runaway student debt, only second to mortgages in America, he said. His advice: Learn a skill, go to Harvard; learn a skill, go to the Naval Academy. Learn a skill and go somewhere. But learn how to make sure you can take care of yourself. 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. WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (AP) President Donald Trump on Friday told Pennsylvania steelworkers hes doubling the tariff on steel imports to 50% to protect their industry, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, autos and other goods. In a post later on his Truth Social platform, he added that aluminum tariffs would also be doubled to 50%. He said both tariff hikes would go into effect Wednesday. Trump spoke at U.S. Steels Mon Valley WorksIrvin Plant in suburban Pittsburgh, where he also discussed a details-to-come deal under which Japans Nippon Steel will invest in the iconic American steelmaker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump told reporters after he arrived back in Washington that he still has to approve the deal. I have to approve the final deal with Nippon and we haven't seen that final deal yet, but they've made a very big commitment and it's a very big investment, he said. Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmakers bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he reversed course and announced an agreement last week for partial ownership by Nippon. Its unclear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalized or how ownership would be structured. Nippon Steel has never said it is backing off its bid to outright buy and control U.S. Steel as a wholly owned subsidiary, even as it increased the amount of money it promised to invest in U.S. Steel plants and gave guarantees that it wouldnt lay off workers or close plants as it sought federal approval of the acquisition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company, Trump said as he opened an event at one of U.S. Steels warehouses. Youre going to stay an American company, you know that, right? As for the tariffs, Trump said doubling the levies on imported steel will even further secure the steel industry in the U.S. But such a dramatic increase could push prices even higher. Steel prices have climbed 16% since Trump became president in mid-January, according to the government's Producer Price Index. As of March 2025, steel cost $984 a metric ton in the United States, significantly more than the price in Europe ($690) or China ($392), according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The United States produced about three times as much steel as it imported last year, with Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea being the largest sources of steel imports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Analysts have credited tariffs going back to Trumps first term with helping strengthen the domestic steel industry, something that Nippon Steel wanted to capitalize on in its offer to buy U.S. Steel. The United Steelworkers union remained skeptical. Its president, David McCall, said in a statement that the union is most concerned with the impact that this merger of U.S. Steel into a foreign competitor will have on national security, our members and the communities where we live and work. Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the countrys supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the U.S. since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect U.S. manufacturing. U.S. Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed partnership but also has not disclosed terms. State and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy U.S. Steel and spend billions on U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the U.S. governments veto power in the form of a golden share. Unionized steelworkers said there is some split opinion in the ranks over Nippon Steels acquisition, but that sentiment has shifted over time as they became more convinced that U.S. Steel would eventually shut down their Pittsburgh-area plants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clifford Hammonds, a line feeder at the plant where Trump spoke, said at the very least the deal will help upgrade the aging plant and help increase production. Its putting money back into the plant to help rebuild it, because this plant is old, its falling apart. We aint really producing as much as we should be because, like I said, this place is old. Its falling apart. We need some type of investment to fix the machines that weve got working, Hammonds said. No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of U.S. Steel, as did former President Joe Biden. Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalization of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of U.S. Steel, once the worlds largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump said Sunday he wouldnt approve the deal if U.S. Steel did not remain under U.S. control. He said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh. The president closed his remarks Friday by thanking steelworkers. With the help of patriots like you, were going to produce our own metal, unleash our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our destiny, he said. We are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America like never before. In recent days, Trump and other U.S. officials began promoting Nippon Steels new commitment to invest $14 billion on top of its $14.9 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was joined onstage Friday by several U.S. Steel workers, including Jason Zugai, vice president of the United Steelworkers local union at the Irvin finishing plant that defied the international union in supporting Nippon Steels bid to buy U.S. Steel. Zugai, whose father had lost his job in a steel mill years earlier, lobbied local officials and members of Congress to support the deal, believing that U.S. Steel would otherwise shut down its Pittsburgh-area plants eventually. In his remarks, Zugai told Trump, I knew you wouldnt let us down and called Nippon Steels proposed $14 billion in investments into steel production in the U.S. life-changing. ___ Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Washington and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report. May 30 (UPI) -- President Donald on Friday announced a 50% tariff on steel made outside the United States as he touted a partnership between Japan's Nippon Steel Corporation and the United States Steel Corporation during a rally near Pittsburgh. Calling it the "heart of U.S. Steel," Trump spoke at the company's headquarters in Allegany County. The indoor rally began around 5:30 p.m. and ended one hour later. Steelworkers wearing hard hats sat behind him, with some called to the podium to praise the deal and Trump. During the appearance, he announced the tariff change. President Donald Trump points to the crowd before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday. The President spoke in Pennsylvania before returning to the White House on Friday evening. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI "We are going to be imposing a 25% increase, we're going to bring it from 25% to 50% the tariffs on steel into the United States of America," the president said to cheers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Feb. 11, Trump restored a 25% tariff on steel and increased the aluminum tariff from 10% to 25%. President Donald Trump waves to guests visiting the White House before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the European Union, Ukraine and Britain had received exemptions, "which prevented the tariffs from being effective," according to the order. He touted the efforts of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who were on hand. President Donald Trump boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on Friday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI One week ago, Trump announced a "planned partnership between the two steel giants, promising the U.S. Steel headquarters would remain on American soil rather than shift to Japan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump said the deal includes "vital protections to ensure that all steelworkers will keep their jobs and all facilities in the United States will remain open and thriving." The logo of U.S. Steel logo is seen at the Edgar Thomas Plant, a steel mill near Braddock, Pa., before President Donald Trump's arrival on Friday. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the new tariffs will take effect June 4. Also, he said U.S. Steel would also keep all of its blast furnace facilities at full capacity for at least the next decade and vowed that there would be "no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever." The logo of U.S. Steel logo is seen at the Edgar Thomas Plant, a steel mill near Braddock, Pa., before President Donald Trump's arrival on Friday. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI Trump, who opposed the acquisition during the 2024 campaign, is now touting the $14 billion investment that the president said would create at least 70,000 jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You're going to be very happy," Trump said Friday. "There's a lot of money coming your way." President Donald Trump touted the efforts of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett (pictured) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who were on hand for the steel tariff announcement on Friday. Photo by Francis Chung/UPI Every U.S. steelworker would be receiving a $5,000 bonus, he said. At one time, U.S. Steel dominated production worldwide, but over the years it has "melted away just like butter melts away" as China mainly poured what he said was "garbage steel" into the country. "If you don't have steel, you don't have a country," Trump said in citing national security. U.S. Steel, which was founded in 1901, has about 22,000 employees with revenue of $15.6 billion in 2024. Nippon, which traces its roots to Japan Iron & Steel Co. in 1934, has about 113,640 workers with revenue of $43 billion in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This week, CNBC reported Tokyo-based Nippon Steel will pay $55 per share to acquire U.S. Steel, citing sources familiar with the deal. Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel shares rose $0.59 or 1.11% to $53.82 at the close of the U.S. Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon. The two steel companies were working on a deal before Trump took office on Jan. 20. Days before leaving office in January, former President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel's proposed $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel. Biden cited national security concerns when rejecting the deal involving the second-largest American steel producer and Japan's largest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both firms later filed separate federal lawsuits in the District of Columbia and in Pennsylvania to move the deal ahead, citing "unlawful political influences." In April, Trump issued an executive order directing a review of the acquisition by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a branch of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. U.S. Steel stock surged at the time, climbing more than 10% in a single day. The president has said the deal will have a major positive economic effect. The deal "will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy. The bulk of that Investment will occur in the next 14 months," Trump said on Truth Social last week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also teased Friday's rally at U.S. Steel's Irvin Works factory. "President Trump is a bold leader and businessman who knows how to get the best deal for America, American workers and American manufacturing," Trump said in a statement to The Hill on Friday. "U.S. Steel greatly appreciates President Trump's leadership and personal attention to the futures of thousands of steelworkers and our iconic company." Trump touted other companies increasing production in the United States. During his speech, sometimes ad-libbed, he ventured into other areas, noting undocumented immigrants coming into the nation in "open borders." He also bragged about winning all the battleground states during the 2024 election, including Pennsylvania. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He blasted Biden and called Democrats "lunatics." He voiced his support for the U.S. budget bill, which is moving through Congress, including extension of the 2017 tax cuts, no taxes on tips or overtime, deductions on loan interest for U.S.-made cars and permanent extension of the $2,000 per child credit. He didn't mention Medicaid cuts and other program reductions. Former Steelers running back Rocky Bleier presented Trump with a Steelers 47 jersey as two current players also were called up to speak: quarterback Mason Rudolph and safety Miles Killbrew. The rally was about 35 miles south of Butler, where he survived an assassination attempt on July 13, two days before the National Republican Convention in Milwaukee, Wis. During his testimony on Capitol Hill earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took a swipe at Senator Chris Van Hollen, falsely accusing him of having had a margarita with Kilmar Abrego Garciaone of the Maryland Democrats constituents, who was mistakenly sent to an El Salvador megaprison more than two months ago and who remains there despite the Supreme Court ordering the Trump administration to facilitate his release. That guy is a human trafficker, and that guy is a gangbanger and the evidence is going to be clear, Rubio said of Abrego Garcia, repeating claims that have never been proved in court. He cant make unsubstantiated comments like that! Van Hollen shouted over the pounding gavel of the Republican chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Secretary Rubio should take that testimony to the federal court of the United States, because he hasnt done it under oath. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Van Hollens frustration centered on the frequent gap between what the Trump administration says about its mass-deportation campaign in court, where it is required to tell the truth, and what officials say in public as they attempt to blunt criticism of their immigration crackdown. By playing up the alleged criminality of deportees at every opportunity, they deflect attention from the more mundane issue of whether the government is following the law. [Read: A loophole that would swallow the Constitution] When the administrations attorneys appear before the court, and top officials are required to provide sworn testimony, the administration is more restrained and tethered to facts. Department of Justice attorneys insist that the administration is following judicial orders in good faith. They recognize errors made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even if they attempt to diminish their significance. And they provide data and logistical details about ICE deportations that they do not otherwise release voluntarily. Outside of court, President Donald Trump and his top aides depict deportees as terrorists and gang leaders regardless of whether theyve been convicted of a crime. They admit no mistakes. And if judges rule unfavorably, they denounce them as communists and lunatics and suggest that they wont respect their rulings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump and his top officials have dispensed with the usual conventions regarding public comment on pending cases. This has been a theme of Trumps litigation approach for yearsfrom the Manhattan hush-money trial to the January 6 investigationsand the top officials running his current administration have taken his cue. The political fight matters more than the legal one, one senior official told me. Instead of using the old playbook of saying no comment because theres pending litigation, you have top officials that are using the avenues they have to fight back and speak directly to the American people about what this administration is trying to do, said the official, who agreed to discuss the approach candidly on the condition that I would not publish their name. The official said the strategy is designed to challenge judges who are thwarting the duly elected president from implementing his policies. Although issuing public statements about ongoing litigation is unusual, the person said, thats exactly what everyone who is a supporter of the president is looking for from his senior team. The White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended that strategy. We are confident in the legality of our actions and do not apologize for acting to protect the American people, she told me in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the approach has at times left Department of Justice lawyers stuck between what Trump officials say publicly and their professional and legal obligations to make truthful statements in court. When a senior ICE official said in sworn testimony in March that Abrego Garcia had been deported to El Salvador because of an administrative error, the Justice Department attorney who initially represented the Trump administration, Erez Reuveni, relayed that characterization to the court. When asked why the administration hadnt taken steps to correct the error and bring Abrego Garcia back, Reuveni said his clientthe Trump administrationhadnt provided him with answers. The top Trump aide Stephen Miller soon began insisting publicly that Abrego Garcias deportation was not, in fact, an errorthe opposite of what the government admitted in court. Vice President J. D. Vance claimed that Abrego Garcia is a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here, even though he has no criminal convictions in the United States or El Salvador. Attorney General Pam Bondi cast the error as missing an extra step in paperwork and said that Abrego Garcia should not be returned. Reuveni was fired. Bondi said he had failed to zealously advocate for the government. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences, she told reporters. Trump and his top aides have made statements outside court that have undermined the legal positions staked out by government attorneysat times with more candor than his lawyers. The president acknowledged during an interview last month with ABC News, for instance, that he could bring Abrego Garcia back by placing a phone call to the Salvadoran president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Read: How the Trump administration flipped on Kilmar Abrego Garcia] Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, told me Trump and his top aides really are saying whatever they want to say in public, and then after the fact, trying to figure out what that means for their litigation, instead of the other way around, which is where they figure out what they want to do in their litigation and then they mold their public statements to that. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who presides over the Abrego Garcia case, said during a recent hearing that Trumps claim was clearly at odds with his attorneys contention that they could not compel a foreign government to release Abrego Garcia. Xinis also noted social-media statements by Department of Homeland Security officials saying Abrego Garcia will never be allowed to return to the United States. The judge said it sounded like an admission of your client that your client will not take steps to facilitate the return. Jonathan Guynn, the governments attorney, said Trumps statement needed to be read with the appropriate nuance and it was not inconsistent with our good-faith compliance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What world are we living in? Xinis said in frustration as Guynn ducked her questions. What sort of legal world are we living in? Similarly, Trump officials have depicted Venezuelans sent to the prison in El Salvador as invaders and terrorists to justify the administrations attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. But the majority have no criminal convictions in the United States, and at least 50 of the roughly 240 sent to El Salvador entered the United States legally and did not violate U.S. immigration law, according to a new analysis by the Cato Institute. When U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg asked about a statement by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noemwho said the megaprison in El Salvador was one of the tools it planned to use to scare migrants into leaving the United Stateshe questioned whether it was an admission that the U.S. government has control over the fate of the deportees it sends there. Another Justice Department attorney similarly argued that the statement lacked sufficient nuance. Is that another way of saying these statements just arent true? Boasberg said. When Boasberg asked if Trump was telling the truth when he said he could get Abrego Garcia released with a phone call, the administrations attorney, Abhishek Kambli, said the presidents statement should not be treated as a fact, but as an expression of the presidents belief about the influence that he has. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jeff Joseph, the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told me that Trump attorneys are twisting themselves into rhetorical knots because the administration officials conducting the deportation campaign are doing whatever they want, and coming up with a legal rationale later. The government attorneys have to sort of post hoc rationalize what theyre doing, Joseph said, but theyre running afoul of the fact that its actually against the law, and they just cant explain it. They cant just come in and admit that they broke the law, he added, so they have to come up with some sort of paltering way of addressing it. The Abrego Garcia ruling and the Alien Enemies Act litigation have left legal scholars warning of a constitutional crisis. But a more tangible effect, attorneys told me, has been the erosion of the presumption of regularitythe benefit of the doubt given to the government in court proceedings. Its based on the idea that federal officers and attorneys are operating in good faith, and not trying to achieve political goals through acts of subterfuge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As judges see the administration saying one thing in public and another in court, they have started to treat the governments claims with more skepticism and, sometimes, with outright suspicion of criminal contempt. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that the Trump administration has been losing the majority of its immigration-related motions and claims, regardless of whether the judges overseeing their cases were appointed by Democrats or Republicans. [Adam Serwer: A path of perfect lawlessness] The White House is focused on political wins, and it has pushed back even harder at judicial oversight as the losses pile up. In a case challenging its attempts to send deportees to third countries if their own nations wont take them back, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled in March that the government had to give deportees time to challenge the governments attempts to send them to potentially dangerous places. Despite the order, Trump officials tried last week to deport a group of men from Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, and other nations to South Sudan. Murphy ruled that the flight violated his previous order mandating due processbut the Department of Homeland Security still convened a press conference to recite the criminal records of the deportees, calling them uniquely barbaric monsters. The White House made an emergency appeal of Murphys ruling directly to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, bypassing the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adam Cox, a constitutional law professor at NYU, told me that the Trump administrations approach marks a sweeping transformation of past practices. But he said it has also affirmed the importance of the lower courts to function as a powerful fact-finding body at a time when other oversight mechanisms are weakened or under attack. The courts ability to compel sworn testimony is crucial to helping the public sort through political rhetoric to understand whats actually true. A lot of the focus of public debate around courts and politics has been (understandably) focused on the Supreme Court and big legal rulings, Cox wrote to me. But recent months have brought a nice reminder of just how important the well-developed fact-finding mechanisms of federal trial courts can be. Article originally published at The Atlantic In recent weeks, President Trump has called various federal judges "monsters who want our country to go to hell, "EVIL, "lunatics, "CORRUPT, "crooked, "unfair disaster[s], and "disgraceful. Down Pennsylvania Avenue, in the halls of Congress, Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) recently put up Western-style "wanted posters of various federal court judges. High-profile political actors from Elon Musk to Representative Marjorie Taylor Green to Arizonas own Representative Eli Crane have recently called for the impeachment of judges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All told, such words have unsurprisingly led to increased unpleasantness for federal judges death threats to Judge Amir Ali, bomb threats to the sister of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, suspicious deliveries to Judges Paul Engelmayer and Jeanette Vargas, etc. The U.S. Marshals Service reported 224 investigated threats to federal judges in 2021. That number grew to 457 in 2023. And 2025 is on pace for a new record. Justices speaking up on dangerous war on the judiciary U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently made a rare public rebuke of attacks on the federal judiciary: "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. So too did Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson ("relentless attacks undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, Congressional Democrats introduced a bill to transfer control of the U.S. Marshals the men and women who provide security for the courts from the executive branch to the federal judiciary. The authors of the bill fear that without the legislative change, judges will fear for their safety if they rule against President Trump. All of this is unfortunate. And while it might be worse than ever, none of this is new. We know that in Arizona. Arizona's own war against judges I clearly remember the lefts hostile reaction when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against the "Invest in Ed initiative in 2018. Some critics challenged the merits of the legal opinion. Thats fine. Its even healthy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others chose a different route. They questioned the ethics of the judges. Or their patriotism. Or their commitment to democracy. Similar charges were made following the Arizona Supreme Courts ruling that reinstated Arizonas 1864 abortion ban. Activists focused on Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King, saying they were "unfit to serve or that they were "abusing their positions for years to serve a political agenda. Former state legislator Athena Salman called into question the whole judicial process: "[This] corrupt Court completely disregards our rights. Nevermind that judges were being asked to make a specific legal determination on what the laws, as written, required. They werent being asked for their opinion on what the law should be, or whether or not it was absurd to return to Arizonas territorial law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I once proudly thought the political right was largely immune from such nonsensical actions. But then Abe Hamadeh and Kari Lake came on the scene. Following their various losses, they blamed anyone possible. And that included the judiciary. Hamadeh, now a Congressman, once wrote derogatorily of the political left that, "In their attempt to further destroy the rule of law, Democrats are going after judges who stand in their way. But his tune changed following his winless record in state trial courts, appellate courts, and the Arizona Supreme Court: "[Judicial] corruption must be rooted out completely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Marxist radical Democrat judges are destroying America while Republican judges are surrendering. "I wish our judges loved the rule of law more than they hate me. Never once did Hamadeh consider that he was simply wrong on the law and the facts. Instead it was the moral character of every single judge who ruled on his cases. He got so convinced of his own victimhood and judicial corruption that he took to the airwaves on the James T. Harris Show to call for the removal of Ducey-appointed Justice Clint Bolick. As for Kari Lake, after each legal loss and there are lots of them she takes to social media to boldly state that she only lost because of corruption, cowardice, cabals, or compromised judges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She even accused one judge of unlawfully handing over his judicial responsibilities to liberal attorney Marc Elias a ghostwritten legal decision. I know what attacks means. It needs to stop I witnessed first hand the effects of such comments. In May 2023, I sat in the courtroom of one Lake case when my team found a social media message from a Lake supporter threatening the judge in the case. We showed it to the court. The court paused the case until additional security could be provided. This needs to stop. The judiciarys role is to make decisions on facts and law. Inevitably, some litigants win, and some lose. Thats true even in emotionally fraught cases. Its true in political cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And sometimes, even if the public is overwhelmingly on one side, that side might lose because the facts and law dont support that side. Thats how the law works. And we are a country of law. The losing party must respect this process. You can of course disagree with a courts ruling. You can write or speak about how they got the law wrong. You can appeal. But comments to the effect of corruption, should be reserved for situations in which there is, in fact, corruption e.g. if a judge takes a monetary bribe to rule a certain way. Similarly, calls for impeachment or the removal of the judge shouldnt be made simply because you dislike a ruling. They should be limited to obviously deficient or illegal conduct. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the path were currently on continues, and if politicians like President Trump continue threatening our judiciary, then its trouble for the future independence of the judiciary. Judges wont be able to fairly evaluate facts and law if they fear that a ruling that aggravates one party may lead to the judges physical harm or removal from the position. Thats extortion. And who would even want to be a judge in such a setting? Only the corrupt. As Arizona Justice Clint Bolick wrote in these pages, "its game over if judges look over their shoulders. Stephen Richer is a former Maricopa County recorder. He is now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Governments Ash Center, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and CEO of Republic Affairs. Follow him on X: @stephen_richer. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump's attacks on judges threaten US rule of law | Opinion NEW YORK (AP) As he crisscrossed the country in 2024, Donald Trump pledged to supporters that voting him back into the presidency would be our final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state, he said repeatedly on the campaign trail. We will liberate our country from these tyrants and villains once and for all. Four months into his second term, Trump has continued to stoke dark theories involving his predecessors and other powerful politicians and attorneys most recently raising the specter of nefarious intent behind former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen to sign papers. The administration has pledged to reopen investigations and has taken steps to declassify certain documents, including releasing more than 63,000 pages of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Yet many of Trumps supporters say its not enough. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some who take him at his word are beginning to get restless as they ask why his administration, which holds the keys to chasing down these alleged government secrets, is denying them the evidence and retribution they expected. His Justice Department has not yet arrested hordes of deep state actors as some of his supporters had hoped it would, even as the president has been posting cryptic videos and memes about Democratic politicians. People are tired of not knowing, conservative commentator Damani Felder said on podcaster Tim Pools show last week. We actually demand answers and real transparency. Its not that hard to deliver. A promise to reveal and dismantle the deep state Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has long promised to dismantle the deep state a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes to build his base of support, said Yotam Ophir, a communications professor at the University at Buffalo. He built part of this universe, which at the end of the day is a fictional universe, he said. Now that Trump is in power and has stocked loyalists throughout his administration, his supporters expect all to be revealed. Delivering on that is difficult when many of the conspiracies he alleged arent real, said Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist who studies conspiracy theories at the University of Miami. To be sure, the president has prioritized retribution in his second administration. He has fired federal workers and targeted law firms he disfavors in executive orders. He has ordered the revocation of government security clearances for political rivals and former employees who dissented during his first term. His Justice Department has fired prosecutors who investigated him and scrutinized career FBI agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even so, Trumps administration hasnt gone as far as many of his supporters would like. They want to see steps taken against people he has long claimed were involved in sinister plots against him, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey. The administration also hasnt offered proof of the egregious crimes that Trump claims have corrupted the federal government for years. Conspiracy theorists focus on Epstein and Trump's assassination attempt Tensions erupted this month when FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, dismissed two of the unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that have animated Trumps base the most that financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in a cover-up, and that Trumps attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a government plot. You know a suicide when you see one, and thats what that was, Patel said about Epstein's death in a Fox News interview. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have seen the whole file, Bongino added. He killed himself. Conservatives online demanded to see the evidence, pointing to Bongino's past statements as a podcast host, when he suggested the government was hiding information about Epstein. No matter who gets elected, you get the same foreign policy, you get the same economic policy, and the Epstein videos remain secret, right-wing podcaster and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his show. They told us for months leading up to the Election that it wasnt suicide," Newsmax host Todd Starnes wrote on X.. But now they tell us it was suicide. He added: Pardon me, but what the heck is going on at DOJ? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney General Pam Bondi said this month that FBI officials were poring through tens of thousands of videos related to Epstein and would make more materials public once they took steps to protect the victims. In the same Fox News interview, Bongino and Patel said they had been briefed on the attempted assassination of Trump during a rally in July and there was no explosive conspiracy to be revealed. In some of these cases, the there youre looking for is not there, Bongino said. Skepticism among deep state believers Bongino appeared to try to throw a bone to Trumps base this week when he announced the agency would reopen some prominent cases that have attracted public interest. He said the FBI would investigate the planting of pipe bombs found near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the leak of the Supreme Courts Dobbs v. Jackson draft opinion in 2022 that overturned the constitutional right to abortion and the discovery of cocaine in the White House in 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But it wasnt enough for everyone who weighed in on his X account. Anything to distract from the Epstein files, one user replied to his announcement. No results, wrote another. In an interview Thursday on Fox & Friends, Bongino teased that the FBI would soon release video captured outside Epstein's jail cell and materials related to Trump's attempted assassination. He said he understands the public's demands for transparency but called for patience and noted not all information is the FBI's to declassify. That didn't satisfy everyone who wants answers to the conspiracy theories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am convinced that the deep state can only be defeated by God at this point, Philip Anderson, a right-wing influencer who participated in the riot at the Capitol, wrote Thursday on X. Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, and Pam Bondi are completely useless. Promoting conspiracy theories as a tactic to distract All the while, Trump has continued promoting conspiracy theories on his Truth Social platform and elsewhere. He shared a video this month about mysterious deaths allegedly being linked to the Clinton family and shared someone's image of himself with former President Barack Obama with the text, ALL ROADS LEAD TO OBAMA, RETRUTH IF YOU WANT MILITARY TRIBUNALS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ophir, the University at Buffalo professor, said it's a tactic that distracts Trump's base and helps inoculate him from criticism. When something good happens, its because Trump is great and his agenda is brilliant, Ophir said. When something bad happens, it's because of the Obamas or the Clintons or whatever forces are undermining him from within Washington. Trump this week fueled newer theories, without sharing evidence, that Bidens use of a mechanical device called an autopen during his presidency meant he didnt sign his executive orders willingly or that aides profited from controlling it. He has called for people who operated it to be charged with TREASON. The narrative has gained momentum on the right because of allegations that Biden's aides covered up his mental and physical decline. Presidents have used autopens for years to sign certain documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whoever used it was usurping the power of the Presidency, and it should be very easy to find out who that person (or persons) is, Trump wrote on Truth Social. At least one user of his platform was unimpressed and questioned why Trump and his allies, holding all the power, still didnt have any answers. IF ITS EASY, the commenter posted. WHY HASNT YOUR ADMINISTRATION FOUND THESE CRIMINALS ALREADY. ___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about the APs democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. NEW YORK The two top candidates for New York City Comptroller faced off Thursday evening for a debate that was laden with questions about the fiscal threat posed by President Donald Trump. The dueling Democratic officials City council member Justin Brannan and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine showed little daylight between their positions aside from delivery style. They vowed to stand up to attempts by the president to curtail New York Citys federal funding stream. They want to divest city pension funds from Tesla. They want to audit NYPD overtime. They shot down Mayor Eric Adams recent "Bit bond" proposal. They are proposing to invest pension funds into affordable housing and universal childcare. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And they really dont want to talk about Andrew Cuomo, who is leading the Democratic primary for mayor the very position they would be charged with keeping in check if elected. I care very much about who our next mayor is, so I haven't made a decision about that, Brannan, the Council finance chair, responded when asked if he had concerns about the former governor, eventually saying generally he had some qualms about Cuomos handling of Covid. Levine was similarly mum. There's a lot to weigh on former Gov. Cuomo, and I know voters are sorting through it, but I'm not going to make any kind of definitive endorsement here tonight, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The biggest difference between the duo was one of style. What you'll hear from me tonight is a positive platform about how I will get results for New Yorkers, Levine said. Brannan took a different tack. This moment calls for a fighter: someone who's going to stand up to Donald Trump, someone who's going to fight fire with fire, he said. President Trump nominated former right-wing podcaster Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a key role for protecting whistleblowers and enforcing laws against electioneering. Ingrassia is serving as a White House aide and formerly was a writer for the Daily Caller and hosted the podcast Right On Point. He is also an attorney and served on the legal team representing self-described misogynist Andrew Tate. I am pleased to nominate Paul Ingrassia to head the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC), Trump wrote on his social media site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paul is a highly respected attorney, writer, and Constitutional Scholar, who has done a tremendous job serving as my White House Liaison for Homeland Security. Ingrassia will take the reins of the OSC at a key time for the agency. Trump fired previous special counsel Hampton Dellinger, even after he was confirmed to a five-year term for the role under President Biden. Dellinger initially contested his firing and prevailed in court, staying in his post and forwarding challenges to Trumps plans for widespread firings of probationary employees those hired within the past year or two. But an appeals court then declined to keep Dellinger in his role while the legal battle advanced, pushing him to quit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without Dellinger on the job, the OSC has switched positions on cases now before the Merit Systems Protection Board another board where Trump has sought to fire leadership appointed to several-year terms. That includes fighting to keep probationary workers in their roles. If confirmed, Ingrassia would also be responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from campaigning for a candidate while on the job. During the first Trump administration, officials repeatedly ran afoul of the law, in particular then-aide Kellyanne Conway, who was cited for numerous violations. In his prior life as a conservative commentator, Ingrassia lavished praise on Tate, calling him the embodiment of the ancient ideal of excellence for his sheer physical prowess and being sharp as a tack and full of willpower and spirit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tate has been charged with human trafficking in Romania as well as rape in the United Kingdom. Ingrassia has also pushed for Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who has espoused white supremacist and antisemitic views, to be reinstated to Twitter, now known as X, calling it a First Amendment issue in a Substack post. 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. Boeings F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter has been pitched to Japan by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to reports. The idea of an export-configured F-47 was brought up by Trump when he announced Boeings win in the U.S. Air Forces Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) manned combat jet initiative in March. Meanwhile, Japan is reportedly also considering increasing its purchase of F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighters, prompted by concerns over the timeline for the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), a sixth-generation combat jet being pursued jointly by Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. A possible sale of the F-47 to Tokyo was raised during a phone call between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week, according to a report from the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun. According to this source, the short-notice call was confirmed by Ishiba administration officials and came just before a visit to the United States by Ryosei Akazawa, Japans top trade negotiator, for talks on Trumps economic tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 7, 2025. Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP JIM WATSON Trump and Ishiba are said to have discussed the strengthening of the U.S.-Japanese military alliance, with the U.S. leader asking whether the Japanese prime minister agreed that 47 is a good number. The new Boeing fighter received the Mission Design Series designation F-47, echoing the fact that Trump is the 47th U.S. president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Asahi Shimbun also reports that Trump praised the F-22 Raptor and the so-called F-55, a purported development of the F-35 that the U.S. president first mentioned while talking to the press earlier this month. Trump has described the F-55 as a twin-engined F-35, but there has been no confirmation from the manufacturer or the Pentagon that such an aircraft is in the works. According to Japanese officials, Trump asked whether Ishiba was interested in U.S.-made fighters and promised to get the best for Japan. The same officials noted that the offer of buying U.S. combat jets was not tied to any tariff negotiations. At this stage, theres no sign that Tokyo is actively looking to add a new type of fighter jet to its inventory, although earlier this year, Ishiba did disclose an interest in buying C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft from the United States. With Boeings C-17 production line now shuttered, any such aircraft would have to be transferred from the U.S. Air Force or from an allied operator inventory. Officially, at least, Japan is still committed to the GCAP program, which aims to field a sixth-generation crewed fighter, which is known in the United Kingdom as Tempest. You can read more about what we know of this aircraft and its planned capabilities here. A concept model showing the GCAP crewed fighter in Japanese markings. BAE Systems However, there are now indications that Japan may be concerned that the Tempest fighter will not be ready for service soon enough for its requirements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Citing two unnamed defense sources, Reuters reports today that Japan is looking at ways of filling a gap in its fighter fleet pending the likely delayed arrival of GCAP. One of those sources blamed a lack of urgency on the part of Italy and the United Kingdom for the slow pace of the GCAP initiative, while the other noted it was taking too long to align each countrys concept of how the aircraft will operate. A British Ministry of Defense spokesperson told Reuters that: The United Kingdom, Italy and Japan are focused on delivering a next-generation combat aircraft for 2035 and we are making strong progress. An official artists concept of an earlier GCAP configuration, with Mount Fuji in the background. MHI Recently, however, at least one senior British official in the GCAP team has mentioned the goal for Tempest replacing the U.K. Royal Air Forces Typhoon in the 2040s. The first option for Japan involves buying additional F-35s. Already, Japan is the largest overseas customer for the aircraft. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) is in the process of introducing 147 Joint Strike Fighters, in the form of 105 conventional takeoff and landing F-35As and 42 short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs. The STOVL jets will go aboard Japans two Izumo class helicopter carriers, which have been modified to operate F-35Bs. An F-35A of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at Misawa Air Base in Aomori prefecture. JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images JIJI PRESS Reuters reports that senior officials in Tokyo are now discussing the possibility of buying more F-35s, although the numbers involved are unclear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Currently, Japan has received 43 F-35As, while six F-35Bs have been delayed. Overall, delays in F-35 deliveries related to the introduction of critical upgrades have impacted the program significantly, and its unclear how quickly the aircraft could be provided to Japan, even if they were to be ordered imminently. We have already paid for many items, and they havent arrived, a senior lawmaker from Japans ruling Liberal Democratic Party told Reuters about the current F-35 delays. Its not right to be told to buy more when previous orders havent been fulfilled. However, if Japan does opt for more F-35s, that could come with a potential economic advantage, serving as a bargaining chip for Tokyo amid tariff talks with Washington. Japans purchase of defense equipment would contribute to the U.S. trade surplus, so in that sense, it could be considered [in trade talks], Ryosei Akazawa told reporters yesterday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The second option is to upgrade Japans existing fourth-generation fighters. These comprise around 85 Mitsubishi F-2s and approximately 200 F-15Js. Already, 68 of the F-15Js have been earmarked for a long-awaited upgrade that will take them to F-15JSI Japanese Super Interceptor standard with the addition of new radar, electronic warfare systems, weapons, and possibly more. An F-15DJ (left) and an F-2A of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force during a review ceremony at Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki prefecture. KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images KAZUHIRO NOGI An upgrade to the F-2s would be a new development, but it would help ensure combat air capability until the arrival of the GCAP. However, were Japan to buy more F-35s, that could threaten the future of its involvement in GCAP altogether, and if the Japanese were to leave the program, its far from certain whether Italy and the United Kingdom would be able to continue without them. Even with Japanese participation, there are questions about the feasibility of GCAP, not least because of the enormous pressure on the U.K. defense budget with various other big-ticket programs competing for funds. Provided that Trumps tentative offer of F-47s for Japan is firmed up, that would provide another route for Japan to acquire a sixth-generation fighter, on a similar or potentially more favorable timeline than GCAP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The F-22 was never offered for export, on account of the sensitive nature of its technologies, as you can read about here. But it seems increasingly likely that the F-47, or a version of it, might be sold. As one of Americas closest military allies, Japan would be well-positioned to buy it, should it be offered. An official rendering of the F-47. U.S. Air Force When announcing the F-47 contract award, Trump said that U.S. allies are calling constantly with a view to obtaining an export version of the NGAD fighter. He said that the United States would be selling them to certain allies perhaps toned-down versions. Wed like to tone them down about 10 percent, which probably makes sense, because someday, maybe theyre not our allies, right? For Japan, or any other potential export customer, the big problem is likely to be the cost, with the baseline F-47s unit cost expected to be at least twice that of an F-35, or in the $180 million to $200 million range, based on publicly available information. On the other hand, a somewhat downgraded NGAD crewed fighter, which should also be notably cheaper, could be a very interesting option for Japan, as an alternative to GCAP. It would give Japan the chance of operating Americas top fighter, something it was never allowed to do with the F-22. It would also allow the JASDF to integrate more seamlessly with its U.S. counterparts, which is even more important than for European allies. Moreover, it could open the door to other export opportunities, notably Australia, which is increasingly cooperating with both the United States and Japan. A U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron touches down at Kadena Air Base, Japan, on April 20, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Cedrique Oldaker Senior Airman Cedrique Oldaker For the U.S. Air Force, F-47 foreign sales would increase production numbers and could lower unit costs, as well as making maintenance less expensive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. officials are already talking about different future iterations of the NGAD combat jet. The former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Andrew Hunter, recently suggested that the baseline F-47 might just be Increment 1 of the NGAD crewed combat jet initiative. An export-optimized increment would seem to make a lot of sense. On the other hand, buying more F-35s or F-47s would come with disadvantages, including reliance on the United States for operational support and sustainment at a time when even close allies are having doubts about the reliability of Washington as a strategic partner. A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and four Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35As fly in formation over the Indo-Pacific area of responsibility. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Samantha White With Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) having a major stake in GCAP, Japan will have sovereign control of the aircraft once its delivered, meaning, for example, that it would be able to adapt or upgrade them without U.S. approval. Tokyo would also benefit from MHIs industrial partnership in GCAP, with revenues from every sale. For years now, Japan has been steadily increasing its military budget as it faces what its 2024 defense white paper described as the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II. The three primary threats are identified as Chinas ambitions toward its southwestern archipelago, as well as Russian and North Korean missile and nuclear programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While stepping away from the GCAP effort altogether would have considerable repercussions, far beyond Japan, further delays to that program might well force Tokyo to look at other options for its fighter force. Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com Donald Trump has offered Emmanuel Macron marital advice after the French president was shoved in the face by his wife Brigitte. Mr Macron and his wife sparked a global furore on Sunday after the French first lady was filmed pushing her husband into his face, moments before they exited their plane in Vietnam. Asked if he had any advice for his French counterpart, Mr Trump recommended they keep any physical confrontations out of public viewing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Make sure the door remains closed, he quipped to reporters in the Oval Office, during a joint press conference with Elon Musk to mark the Tesla billionaires departure from government. The president went on to pour cold water on speculation about a rift in the pairs marriage. Theyre fine, Mr Trump said. Theyre two really good people I know very well, and I didnt know what that was all about, but I know him very well. And theyre fine. Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron arrive in Singapore on Friday - LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP Mr Musk later joked that a black eye he was sporting during the press conference was not given to him by the French presidents wife. I wasnt anywhere near France, he said about the bruise, before explaining it was given to him by his five-year-old son, X, who he allegedly invited to punch him in the face. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Footage, shot by the Associated press news agency in Hanoi, showed Mr Macron standing alone as the planes door opened. Suddenly, the arms of his wife, who was off-camera, could be seen through the doorway emerging from the left before she pushed him in the face with both hands. Mr Macron appeared taken aback but swiftly regained his composure and turned to wave through the open door. Credit: Reuters The couple then walked down the planes staircase without Mrs Macron taking her husbands hand. Footage of the incident, along with photographs of Mr Macron appearing to look angry, quickly spread on social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Elysee Palace initially claimed the footage was AI-generated, only to later admit the images were real but were in fact a sign of closeness and horseplay after a 16-hour flight. It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh. It was a moment of closeness, said an Elysee aide. Mr Macron later blamed crackpot conspiracy theorists for seeking to intensify rumours around the state of his marriage. In a bid to quell speculation, Mr Macron and his wife made light of the shoving incident as they arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president performed a tongue-in-cheek wave for the cameras before appearing at the top of the stairs laughing. Instead of a shove, after a few seconds of suspense, Mrs Macron appeared, all smiles. The couple then locked arms, and descended the stairs side-by-side to greet officials. Addressing the shoving incident, Mr Macron said: My wife and I were squabbling, or rather we were joking, and I was taken by surprise. Now it has become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories. 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. Key Points Buffett advises most individual investors to invest in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500. If you have $10,000 to start out with and $100 to invest monthly, you'll end up with a well-padded nest egg. Even if you don't follow that exact formula, investing in an index ETF can be an important part of a wealth-building portfolio. 10 stocks we like better than S&P 500 Index Investors often chase the newest and hottest stocks. But any stock decision you make should be backed up by careful research, not the whims of the market. Slow and steady wins the race, even if it's less exciting. Investing in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks a market index offers incredible long-term opportunities for patient investors without the nail-biting of speculating, and with a long and hearty track record. In fact, all it takes is $100 a month invested consistently and over a long period of time for you to come out with some serious gains. Plus, this method is sanctioned by none other than Warren Buffett, widely considered to be the greatest investor of our time. Let's see how this works and why Buffett recommends it. Can you beat the market? It's a pretty well-known fact that most fund managers underperform the market in any given year. S&P Global's most recent data shows that 89.5% of large-cap U.S. fund managers underperformed the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and it's almost always a majority in any given year. However, Warren Buffett typically beats the market. In 2024, it was by a hairsbreadth; Berkshire Hathaway's per-share gain was 25.5%, versus a 25% increase for the S&P 500. Over time, it has been a fantastic difference, with Berkshire's annualized gain being 19.9%, versus 10.4% for the broader index. Image source: Getty Images. Buffett, though, recommends that the average individual investor invest most of their money in index funds. He's a professional investor and businessman, and he's paid to sift through mountains of financial statements and spend his time visiting potential investment candidates. The average investor has a different day job and won't necessarily have the time and the mindspace necessary to find great candidates. Of the money Buffett's putting away for his wife for after he dies, 90% of it is going into the S&P 500. He constantly talks about betting on the future of America, and that there's no better place to invest. Investing in an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 provides exposure to the country's growth while minimizing risk and having low costs. In a sweeping State Department overhaul, the Trump administration plans to create an Office of Remigration, embracing a term closely linked with the European far-right involving the race-based mass deportation of immigrants. The revamp is part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to deport millions of undocumented migrants. According to a document sent by the State Department to six congressional committees and obtained by multiple news outlets, the new office would serve as a hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking. The office would be part of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, a State Department official cited by Axios said. Marco Rubios State Department could soon have an Office of Remigration / JULIEN DE ROSA / via REUTERS The plan, sent for approval by July 1, has sparked alarm as the term remigration has become a buzzword for the global far right. In Europe, the ideology calls for the expulsion or forced repatriation of non-white immigrants and their descendants, regardless of their legal status. It has been used by far-right parties such as Austrias Freedom party (FPO) which in June 2024 urged the EU to name a remigration commissioner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Office of Remigration will serve as the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking, the document said. It will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the Presidents immigration agenda. In a nod to remigration ideology, the Office of Remigration will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status, Wired reported. The Daily Beast has reached out to the State Department for comment. Wendy Via, CEO and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, described the plans as outrageous. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no hiding from the fact that the ultimate goal of remigration is purely about ethnic cleansing. It is a terrible day for our country when remigration proponents are crediting the US and Trumps administration for normalizing the term, she told Wired. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, said on X: In a move likely intended to cause public outrage, Sec. Rubio is proposing eliminating the refugee and migration division at the State Department and replacing it with an Office of Remigration a term closely associated with the European far right and ethnic cleansing. DHS data revealed that Trumpdespite his fiery anti-immigrant rhetoricis actually deporting people at a slower pace than his predecessor Joe Biden. / TIMOTHY A. CLARY / TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images The way that it worked before, Population Refugee Migration was basically an entire bureau dedicated to bringing people into the United States, a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Axios. It had the migration functionits in the namewere just reversing the flow of migrants who shouldnt be here to go out of the country. The development comes weeks after DHS data revealed that Trumpdespite his fiery anti-immigrant rhetoricis actually deporting people at a slower pace than his predecessor Joe Biden. According to Reuters, the Trump administration deported 37,660 people in its first month in office. Thats below the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns during Bidens final year as president. Its been one year since President Trump was found guilty on all counts of falsifying business records to keep alleged affairs secret during his 2016 campaign, enshrining him in history as the first former commander in chief to be convicted of a felony. Now back in the White House, his world looks very different and those who remained by his side have reaped the benefits. Trumps defense attorneys are now serving at the Justice Departments highest levels. His allies who showed up to the trial have been rewarded with Cabinet posts and even the vice presidency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump is also continuing to fight his legal woes, with two major appeals court battles set for June. Heres where everything stands one year later. Trumps defense lawyers become the prosecution After retaking the White House, many of Trumps personal defense attorneys filled top Justice Department positions. Todd Blanche, Trumps lead counsel at the hush money trial, serves as deputy attorney general. His right-hand man, Emil Bove, now works as Blanches deputy. The duo has made aggressive moves, including the controversial dismissal of New York City Mayor Eric Adamss (D) corruption case. Boves tenure at the department may be quickly coming to a close, however. This week, Trump said he was nominating Bove to a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement D. John Sauer, who successfully argued Trumps presidential immunity claims before the Supreme Court that stymied several of his criminal cases, now spearheads the administrations efforts at the high court as solicitor general. Sauers office has brought more than a dozen emergency applications to the justices seeking to lift lower court injunctions blocking Trumps policies. Meanwhile, Harmeet Dhillon, who supported Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election and represented him in a 14th Amendment challenge to his 2024 candidacy, oversees the Justice Departments civil rights division. She has reshaped the divisions priorities, causing an exodus of lawyers. And Alina Habba came to the White House to serve as counselor to the president. Habba, known for her television appearances attacking the cases against Trump, worked on Trumps civil fraud prosecution brought by the New York attorney general and the defamation cases brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, Trump named Habba as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. In that role, she has brought criminal charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) over a scuffle at a Newark immigration facility. But not all lawyers entered the administration. Steve Sadow, Trumps lead counsel in his Georgia criminal case concerning his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, had no interest. Sadow is a longtime Atlanta-based defense attorney who has represented several other prominent clients, such as Usher and Rick Ross. I have never been a prosecutor and never will be. It just not in my makeup, Sadow said in November after Trumps election victory. Trumps allies rewarded Trumps criminal trial became a critical stop for his strongest GOP allies and those vying to join his future administration and showing up paid off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vice President Vance, then a Republican senator from Ohio, joined Trumps courtroom entourage on the first day of testimony from fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen. He questioned Cohens credibility as a witness on social media and, outside the courthouse, accused the Manhattan prosecutors trying the case of being Democratic political operatives. Then-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who called the proceeding a scam trial outside the courthouse, is now Interior secretary. On Thursday, Trump named Paul Ingrassia, who attended the trial and liveposted a flood of pro-Trump content, to lead the office charged with prosecuting misconduct in the federal workforce. And Susie Wiles, who was a senior adviser to Trumps presidential campaign, attended parts of the trial and was later named his White House chief of staff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some Republican allies initially rewarded have ultimately seen those rewards falter. Trump initially named ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general, but Gaetz withdrew after it became clear he would not earn enough support in Congress. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) was tapped as ambassador to the United Nations, but Trump later asked her to withdraw over fear of losing her congressional seat. And former presidential candidate-turned-Trump-surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy was set to join the Department of Government Efficiencys (DOGE) cost-cutting mission alongside billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk but departed to run for governor of Ohio. Where Trumps legal troubles stand Trumps personal legal woes fell into the background after he became president, but some of his biggest cases are returning to the limelight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On June 11, Trumps hush money conviction heads to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit for oral arguments. The president is attempting to move his case out of New York state court where Trump has long complained he isnt being treated fairly and into federal court. If successful, the move would provide Trump a pathway to assert immunity and other defenses that could see his 34-count felony conviction tossed. Sullivan & Cromwell now helms the presidents defense after many of his mainstay lawyers moved into the Justice Department. The Justice Department is now going to bat for Trump, filing a friend-of-the-court brief backing the presidents position. To hold otherwise would risk incentivizing state and local prosecutors to manipulate trial dates and the timing of evidentiary submissions in the most high-profile of cases, the Justice Department wrote in its brief. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps attorneys will face off against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs (D) office, which brought the hush money prosecution. The office argues Trumps bid to move courts is dead now that hes been sentenced. Nearly two weeks later, the same court on June 24 will hear Trumps appeal of a jurys verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million to Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s. The Justice Department is attempting to come to Trumps rescue in that case, too. In April, the department again asked to substitute the government as the defendant in Carrolls lawsuit. It had done so at the onset of the case before abandoning the effort in 2023, during the Biden administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont need to tell you that Robbie and I are ready for the fight, do I? Carroll wrote on Substack last month, referencing her attorney, Robbie Kaplan. The trial was the second time a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll. He also was ordered to hand over $5 million in her separate lawsuit, a verdict the 2nd Circuit upheld in December. And in the state courts in New York, Trump awaits an appeals panels decision in its review of the states civil fraud case against him, which ended in a nearly $500 million judgment against him and his business. The panel heard arguments in September and seemed wary of the massive financial penalty. A decision could come at any time. 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. A good chunk of the white-collar criminals pardoned by Donald Trump after his massive Day One pardoning spree either have a political or financial tie to him. The president has issued 60 pardons since he offered political forgiveness to some 1,600 individuals charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But out of those subsequent 60 unrelated to the attack, 12 peopleor roughly one in fivewere already in Trumps orbit, according to ABC News. They included several politicos, including former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on several counts of corruption, including for an attempt to sell Barack Obamas Senate seat after he left the position for the White House; former Republican Representative Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud; former Nevada gubernatorial candidate Michele Fiore, who allegedly stole public funds intended to commemorate a slain police officer; and former Tennessee state Senator Brian Kelsey, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump also pardoned major financiers of his presidential campaigns. Trevor Milton, the founder of the Nikola electric vehicle company, donated nearly $2 million toward Trumps 2024 campaign. Imaad Zuberi, who has donated to both parties, issued at least $800,000 to committees associated with Trump and the Republican Party, ABC reported. Others helped Trump advance his retribution campaign against his political enemies, or helped advance his own image in the broader Republican Party. Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, both former business partners of Hunter Biden, accused the younger Biden of leveraging his fathers name and influence in order to conduct business overseas. Archer had defrauded a Native American tribal entity, while Galanis was serving time for multiple offenses. Trump also forgave Todd and Julie Chrisleyreality TV stars known for their show Chrisley Knows Best who were sentenced to a combined 19 years on fraud and tax evasion chargesafter their daughter Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Speaking to press Friday after her parents release, Savannah Chrisley said that the biggest misconception right now is I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon, but she couldnt finish her sentence before Todd interjected: Thats something I would have done, he said. WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trumps pick to lead a federal watchdog agency is a former right-wing podcast host who has praised criminally charged influencer Andrew Tate as a extraordinary human being" and promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Paul Ingrassia would lead the Office of Special Counsel, an agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers that is also responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which restricts the partisan political activities of government workers. Trump described Ingrassia in a social media post on Thursday as a highly respected attorney, writer and Constitutional Scholar. Ingrassia was most recently working as the White House liaison for Homeland Security after briefly serving in the liaison position at the Justice Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ingrassia called his nomination the highest honor. Ingrassia didn't immediately respond to a message on Friday. As Special Counsel, my team and I will make every effort to restore competence and integrity to the Executive Branch with priority on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal workforce and revitalize the Rule of Law and Fairness in Hatch Act enforcement, Ingrassia wrote on social media. Ingrassia worked for a law firm whose clients included Andrew and Tristan Tate, the influencer brothers charged in Britain and Romania with rape and human trafficking. Ingrassia has described Andrew Tate, the former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist, as an extraordinary human being and the ancient ideal of excellence. It is for this reason that he and his brother have become public enemies number one and two in the eyes of the Matrix, the deep state, and the satanic elite that attempt to systematically program and oppress all men from womb-to-tomb a form of communism that not even Karl Marx, in his wildest dreams, could have imagined, Ingrassia wrote in a 2023 social media post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ingrassia that same year published a Substack post titled Free Nick Fuentes, criticizing then-Twitters decision to suspend the account of the far-right activist who has used his online platform to spew antisemitic and white supremacist rhetoric. Ingrassia was seen in 2024 at a rally where Fuentes spoke, The Intercept reported. Ingrassia previously told NPR that he did not intend to go the impromptu Fuentes rally, which was near another event, adding: I had no knowledge of who organized the event, observed for 5-10 minutes, then left." The day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Ingrassia wrote on social media: This war is yet another psyop to distract Americans from celebrating Columbus Day. Days later, he wrote: I think we could all admit at this stage that Israel/Palestine, much like Ukraine before it, and BLM before that, and covid/vaccine before that, was yet another psyop." Ingrassia has also promoted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, publishing a piece in November that argued that Trumps win over Kamala Harris proved beyond all doubt that the 2020 race was fraudulent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Office of Special Counsel is an independent agency separate from Justice Department special counsels, who are appointed by the attorney general for specific investigations, like Jack Smith. Trump in February fired the previous special counsel, Hampton Dellinger, leading to a legal battle. A federal judge in Washington initially ruled that Dellinger's firing was illegal, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit later ruled that the Trump administration could replace Dellinger while the legal battle played out. Dellinger ultimately abandoned his fight to get his job back, acknowledging that he was facing likely long odds before the Supreme Court. President Trump is making remigration, a racist plan popular among the European far right, a reality, according to Reuters. The State Department on Thursday announced its plans to establish an Office of Remigration, assuming it is approved by Congress, on July 1. The term remigration is a white supremacist concept pushed by Austrian neo-Nazi Martin Sellner that posits that all immigrants and non-assimilated citizens be forcibly removed, with the goal of establishing a white ethnostate. The Office of Remigration will serve as the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking, the plan the State Department submitted to Congress reads. It will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the Presidents immigration agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This isnt the first time Trump has floated remigration. As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America, he wrote on X in September. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamalas illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration). His deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, another proponent of right-wing white supremacist policy, backed him up. THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION! he wrote at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While remigration isnt a household term in the U.S., its taken off in certain European political circles. The first Remigration Summit took place earlier this month in Milan featuring multiple far-right leaders and chants of Save our nation, remigration. Its outrageous, Wendy Via, CEO and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told Wired. There is no hiding from the fact that the ultimate goal of remigration is purely about ethnic cleansing. It is a terrible day for our country when remigration proponents are crediting the US and Trumps administration for normalizing the term. Those on the far right, particularly Sellner himself, think that the U.S. has been well on its way toward establishing remigration for some time now. There are differences between Europe and the USA, but the common line is the same: preserving the cultural continuity by stopping replacement migration. Reversing the flows with border security, mass repatriations, and incentives to leave, Sellner told Wired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps immigration crackdown, his extrajudicial disappearances of students based on their beliefs, and his invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Actwhich asserts that the country is being invaded by immigrantsare all obvious indicators of remigration already occurring here. Remigration is in fact already taking place in the US, white nationalist author Cyan Quinn, who attended the Remigration Summit, told Wired. The first flight of 64 self-deportees following President Trumps stipend announcement have already arrived home safely in Honduras and Columbia. Donald Trump is seeking new powers to hit foreign businesses with taxes if they take money out of America, in a crackdown that could hit Britain. Proposals contained within Mr Trumps big, beautiful tax and spending bill would hand the president the ability to impose levies on individuals and companies from countries deemed to have discriminatory tax policies. It has raised fears that Mr Trump could use the powers on Britain. The president has repeatedly criticised digital taxes on US tech giants, claiming they are unfair. Prominent British businesses with major operations in the US include Barclays, BP and BAE Systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The so-called Section 899 powers would allow the president to impose levies of up to 20pc on money taken out of the US. Ron Estes, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, said: If foreign countries want to come into the United States and tax US businesses, then those foreign-based businesses ought to be taxed as well. Fears that the powers could be used on the UK come as the Trump administration continues to push Sir Keir Starmer to water down or scrap Britains digital service tax, which applies to US tech giants. Sir Keir Starmer could come under increased pressure over the UKs digital services tax if new powers are granted to the Trump administration - James Speakman/James Speakman The two sides continue to negotiate despite the trade deal struck earlier in May. Anna Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said the Section 899 powers would put more pressure on the Prime Minister in the talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It adds further pressure to the ongoing UK-US trade negotiations the terms for the deal announced on May 8 already commits (but does not legally bind) both the US and the UK to negotiating an ambitious set of digital trade provisions, she said. Scrapping or watering down the digital services tax, which is forecast to raise more than 1bn per year, would be a blow to Rachel Reeves, who is already facing pressure to find billions of pounds more to fund an about-turn on winter fuel payments to pensioners. Downing Street has previously insisted the tax is not up for negotiation. At present, businesses operating in the US are subject to various state and federal-level taxes, but the powers contained within the new bill would allow an additional levy to be added on top. It would apply not just to corporate profits but also gains from investments into US assets, potentially including government debt. The powers would only penalise companies that take money out of the US. It comes as Mr Trump pushes businesses to invest and keep more money in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peter Roskam, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives, and now head of law firm BakerHostetlers federal policy team, said the proposal brings a sledgehammer to the idea that the US will allow itself to be characterised as a tax haven by anyone. However, experts said the threat would make foreign investors and businesses less willing to commit to the US. Weaponisation of US markets Ms Leach said: This would stoke uncertainty further, undermine returns and reduce the attractiveness of the States as an investment destination. This is perhaps helpful to the Chancellor who is seeking to persuade investors to place their bets on the UK market. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chris Sanger, tax partner at EY, said: It would impose an additional cost on foreign businesses operating in the US. That might mean the governments outside the US would change their rules, or it might mean that companies, much as they are seeing with tariffs, have an additional cost of operating in the US, which may make them less competitive in the US market. George Saravelos at Deutsche Bank said the tax threat could pose a risk to the USs own public finances. The rule appears to allow Mr Trump to impose the border tax on foreign investors who buy US government bonds effectively lending to the country if they attempt to transfer the interest earned from those bonds back to their home countries. Mr Saravelos described it as a weaponisation of US capital markets that would put investors off financing the US state. He said: The adverse impact on demand for US Treasuries and funding the US twin deficit at a time when this is most needed is clear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jordan Rochester, at investment bank Mizuho, said investors would demand a higher rate of interest from the US government to compensate for any higher charges, driving up the White Houses borrowing costs. Just the threat of it being used could spook investors, trigger another sizeable market sell-off, and make the administration think twice about its actual use, he said. Mr Trumps tax and spending bill contains a wide range of provisions and policies, but predominantly sets out trillions of dollars of tax breaks partly funded through cuts to healthcare. The bill was narrowly passed by the House of Representatives earlier in May and has now moved to the Senate for approval. Commenting on its passage, Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social: This is arguably the most significant piece of legislation that will ever be signed in the history of our country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HM Treasury was contacted for comment. 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. Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. Theres a new legal process in America. It used to be that a guilty verdict or plea was followed by years of appeals and, perhaps years after that, a prayerful pardon application. This week showcased a new playbook: skirt your tax obligations by millions of dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle, plead guilty and, instead of going to prison or paying restitution, have your mom raise money for the president and then get pardoned. Thats the case of Paul Walczak in a nutshell, but hes not the only new clemency recipient. Among this weeks winning contestants were the reality television couple Todd and Julie Chrisley, whom President Donald Trump sprung from hefty prison terms for financial fraud. Their daughter spoke last summer at the Republican National Convention, where she likened her parents purported persecution to Trumps indictments. You could say theyre kindred spirits with the president when it comes to reality TV, fraud and, with those first two commonalities in mind, a knack for casting their cases as coming from unscrupulous prosecutors (in the Chrisleys case that prosecutor being a Trump appointee, by the way). Remember, Trumps pardon spree didnt start this week or even this year. In his first term, he kicked things off by pardoning Joe Arpaio, the Arizona lawman convicted of contempt for disobeying a court order to stop racial profiling people for immigration enforcement. That set the law and order tone that carries through to this day, when shirking court orders in the name of immigration enforcement sums up the Trump administrations legal work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another former sheriff was among the lucky winners on Trumps clemency show. When Scott Jenkins of Virginia was sentenced to 10 years for bribery in March, the acting U.S. attorney had the temerity to criticize him for having violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme. The prosecutors statement from that bygone era continued, We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable. That is, until well, you know. No MAGA left behind, Ed Martin tweeted upon Jenkins pardon. You may recall Martin as having effectively been deemed too extreme for confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate for Washington, D.C.s top prosecutor job. So the administration shifted his duties, and his portfolio now includes being the DOJs pardon attorney (the last one, Liz Oyer, was fired in March after she refused a speedy request to recommend restoring Mel Gibsons gun rights, which the Trump-supporting actor lost due to his domestic violence conviction). One gets the sense that corruption prosecutions are not a priority in the Trump administration. Thats evident not only through the presidents clemency but also through his Justice Departments actions in court perhaps most notably in moving to dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams corruption case for overtly political reasons. Ryan Reilly of NBC News observed a connection between the Adams and Jenkins cases, noting that theyre linked by the DOJs Public Integrity Section, which, he reported, has shrunk in both size and influence during the Trump administration. The Adams connection leads us to another big story this week: Trump announced his intention to nominate Emil Bove to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Bove came onto the scene as then-candidate Trumps criminal defense lawyer, losing the hush money trial alongside his co-counsel Todd Blanche. Blanche is now the DOJs deputy attorney general and Bove is principal associate deputy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Putting Bove on the bench would reward a sinister use of his law license with a lifetime judicial appointment. His handling of the Adams case is just one example but its enough to show that he hardly deserves to be a lawyer, much less a judge. Recall that Bove not only pushed for an overtly political dismissal of the corruption case but caused several ethical prosecutors to resign rather than do his dirty work. And after all that, Bove failed to get the case dismissed in the shady way he wanted to that is, in a way that wouldve given Trumps DOJ the option of holding the charges as political leverage over the Democratic mayor. The reason Bove failed in his corrupt mission was that the judge presiding over the case, Biden appointee Dale Ho, saw through the farce and refused to allow it. To be sure, Democrats are at fault for failing to confirm a deserving nominee to the Philadelphia-based circuit when they had the chance last year, leaving a vacant seat for Republicans to fill. The consequences of that failure shouldnt be forgotten, then, if Bove is privileged to be in the position of making decisions like the one Ho had to make, in rising above the base impulses of lawyers like Bove. Have any questions or comments for me? Please submit them on this form for a chance to be featured in the Deadline: Legal blog and newsletter. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com King Charles III opened a session of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa this week, and used the moment to challenge President Donald Trumps overtures to Canada, a member of the Commonwealth. Charles delivered a speech from the throne a tradition based on the continuing relationship between Canada and the United Kingdom. The speech is usually given by the governor general, the kings representative to Canada, but Charles delivered the remarks this year. In his speech on Tuesday, the king addressed Trumps statements about making Canada the 51st state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Specifically, Charles called the true north (Canada) ... indeed strong and free, per The Washington Post. Trump immediately and indirectly countered the kings statements by once again petitioning that Canada become the 51st state. This time, he attached a gift to the offer: missile protection in the form of the planned Golden Dome defense system. I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State, Trump posted to Truth Social. They are considering the offer! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Golden Dome, which is not yet under construction, will strengthen Americas defenses against elite weapons. What the king and the president want According to Politico, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney petitioned the king to help deliver his governments message of sovereignty to Trump amid the latters tariff and annexation threats. Though Charles did not refer to the president by name, he did emphasize that the U.S. and Canada are sovereign nations with a friendship rooted in mutual respect and founded on common interests. Canadian officials told the media that the speech was intended not just for Canadian listeners, but also for the White House. King Charles interacts with police officers while departing after a two-day visit in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. | Patrick Doyle Canadians overwhelmingly oppose joining the United States and so do, in fact, a majority of the U.S. public. Carneys successful campaign was based in part on an anti-Trump, pro-Canadian platform, per The Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nevertheless, both Canada and the United States are currently negotiating another trade deal, per The Wall Street Journal. If successful, Canada could see Trumps tariffs on Canadian production removed, including 25 percent taxes on Canadian steel, aluminum, vehicles and more. United States manufacturers would also see a reprieve from Canadas retaliatory tariffs, which tax about $43 billion of American imports at 25 percent. Trump has long expressed ambitions to take over Canada, which is home to vast expanses of natural resources including developable land, fishable and mineable waters and massive amounts of lumber, coal, oil, gold, per the BBC. Trump has also expressed serious interest in annexing Greenland. He has in fact insisted that Greenland is vital to American national security. On a May 4 interview, he told media that he would not rule out using military force to take over the island, per CNN. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We need Greenland very badly, Trump said. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which well take care of, and well cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security. Like Canada rejected his annexation proposal, so have Greenland and Denmark. The Trump administration has reversed course on a plan to close 34 Mine Safety and Health Administration offices. (Karen Kasmauski | Getty Images) President Donald Trumps administration has reversed course on a plan to close more than 30 mine safety offices, something union leaders and advocates said would compromise inspectors ability to protect coal miners lives. Leases of the office, which employ coal mine inspectors, were set to end this summer along with several other federal offices under a plan by the Department of Government Efficiency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for the Department of Labor confirmed Thursday that 34 Mine Safety and Health Adminsitration offices will be retained. They said the agency has been working closely with [the General Services Administration] to ensure our MSHA inspectors have the resources they need to carry out their core mission to prevent death, illness, and injury from mining and promote safe and healthy workplaces for American miners. The reversal comes amid a push back from the Black Lung Association, the United Mine Workers of America, and others on what advocates called the Trump administrations attacks on coal miner safety. In April, workers at the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety were put on administrative leave due to reorganizations at the federal level. According to an analysis from the Appalachian Citizens Law Center, the MSHA offices that were slated to close performed more than 16,600 safety and health inspections with more than 230 of those done in West Virginia between February 2024 and 2025. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered workers from NIOSHs Respiratory Health Division back to work, ending a reduction in force that prevented coal miners with black lung disease from having the option to transfer to less dusty areas of the mine to prevent further illness and injury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MSHA had delayed the implementation of a new silica rule aimed at protecting coal miners from the dust that causes black lung disease. The rule was set to be effective in April but will now be effective in August. Im happy theyre going to keep these MSHA offices open, Gary Hairston, president of the National Black Lung Association, said in a news release. We need these offices that are close to the mines so that MSHA can conduct safety inspections and respond to accidents in a timely way. Now we need MSHA to enforce the new silica rule, and we need Congress to give MSHA enough funding to do its job. In a statement Friday, the United Mine Workers of America, a labor union representing coal miners, said the organization is relieved by the decision but called on the Department of Labor to be transparent about which offices remain are still at risk, and to stop remaining efforts to reduce the governments mine safety infrastructure. The idea that anyone would even consider shuttering dozens of MSHA field offices, most of which are located in remote mining communities, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to keep miners safe, UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said in the statement. Weve said from day one that cutting these offices would compromise inspectors ability to respond quickly to accidents, enforce safety regulations, and protect the lives of our members and their coworkers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement Friday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, and chair of the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, said she was glad to hear that many of West Virginias MSHA offices will remain open. I have raised this issue directly with [Department of Labor] Secretary [Lori] Chavez-DeRemer because I was concerned about the impact these closures could have on mine safety and workers access to support, Capito said. Keeping these offices open is the right decision and a win for miners, inspectors, and the communities they serve. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trumps administration can begin taking steps to deport more than 500,000 immigrants who were granted emergency humanitarian protections to legally live and work in the United States. A brief order from the nations highest court on Friday allows the administration to revoke temporary legal status granted to roughly 532,000 immigrants during Joe Bidens administration. The end of legal protections for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela follows the Supreme Courts separate order ending those same protections for another 300,000 Venezuelans earlier this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taken together, the orders pave the way for the Trump administration to deport more than 800,000 people who have legally lived and worked in the United States for several years. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented to Fridays order. The Supreme Court on May 30 allowed the Trump administration to strip humanitarian protections for more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela allowed to legally live and work in the country (Getty) In her dissent, Justice Jackson warned that the court ignored the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending. Last month, District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts temporarily blocked an order from Homeland Security Kristi Noem that would have ended legal status for more than 530,000 people admitted to the program, called humanitarian parole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The judges order maintained temporary legal status for roughly 110,300 Cubans, 210,000 Haitians, 93,100 Nicaraguans and another 117,300 Venezuelans. Ending those protections would force targeted immigrants to choose between two injurious options: continue following the law and leave the country on their own, or await removal proceedings that put them at risk of arrest and detention and effectively kill any chances of receiving other forms of immigration relief in the future potentially permanently, Judge Talwani wrote. The cases before the Supreme Court are among more than a dozen based on emergency requests from the Trump administration for the courts intervention including in several case stemming from the presidents immigration agenda. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to cancel temporary protected status for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans who fled President Nicolas Maduros regime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawyers for the Trump administration said a Biden-era extension of those protections was not in the national interest and revoked them, a move that a federal judge said smacks of racism and threatened irreparable harm on hundreds of families. Taken together, the Supreme Courts orders revoking humanitarian parole could allow the Trump administration to deport more than 800,000 immigrants (AP) Thousands of Cubans and Vietnamese people were admitted to the United States though humanitarian parole programs in the 1960s and 1970s. The Biden administration opened the program to Ukrainians fleeing Russia in 2022. The Biden administration then extended the program for Venezuelans in late 2022 and for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in January 2023. Immigration authorities deported more than 17,200 people in April, marking the first time that removals under Trump have surpassed levels compared to the same period last year during the Biden administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, despite the figures representing a more than 50 percent spike since February, the administration isnt on track to meet the presidents promise to rapidly deport millions of people. The administration is deporting people at less than half the pace it would take to reach the single-year deportation record of roughly 430,000 people, which was set during Barack Obamas administration in 2013. Trumps efforts to summarily deport immigrants including alleged gang members and student activists has faced an avalanche of lawsuits alleging due process violations. Administration officials have reportedly resorted to pressing law enforcement to do more, with top White House aide Stephen Miller allegedly berating colleagues to make at least 3,000 arrests per day. Just six months ago, betting on European stock markets over their American counterparts seemed almost unthinkable. Following our previous article on the US equity markets strengths and limitations, its now time to turn our attention to Europe as a compelling alternative for investors. The European equity market is clearly attracting renewed interest. With improving macroeconomic conditions, increasingly discounted valuations, and a noticeable rise in institutional confidence, Europe is presenting compelling opportunities. However, structural challenges and geopolitical uncertainties remain. Opportunities and Strengths of the European Market Attractive Valuations and Yield European equities remain significantly less expensive than their U.S. counterparts. As of 2025, the Euro Stoxx 50 trades at approximately 15 times forward earnings, compared to over 20 times for the S&P 500. On a longer-term measure such as the CAPE (cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings) ratio, Europe is trading at only a 10% premium to its historical average, while the U.S. trades at a 30% premium. These more conservative valuations mean that European stocks might offer a better safety net for investors, as theyre not priced as aggressively. Whats more, European companies tend to pay higher dividends about 2% more than what youd get from the S&P 500 in the U.S. This makes them particularly appealing if youre an investor looking for regular income. Historically, European companies have favored giving cash back to shareholders through dividends, unlike many U.S. firms that often prefer stock buybacks to boost their earnings per share and investor confidence. Economic Stabilization and Policy Support Following a period of economic disruptionmostly due to the Ukraine war and energy price shocksmany European economies are now stabilizing. Lower borrowing costs, a more supportive monetary environment, and fiscal initiatives, particularly in Germany, are helping fuel this recovery. The largest economy in Europe will focus on infrastructure investment with a 500 billion fiscal stimulus plan over the next 12 years. Additionally, a growing consensus across Europe to increase defense spendingpotentially to 3.5% of GDP in the coming years and at 800bn over the next four years according to the European Commissionsignals a longer-term commitment to bolstering domestic demand and industrial capacity. J.P. Morgan suggests that Europes improving economic situation could lead to its overall economy (GDP) growing by 1% to 1.5% next year. They also believe that the profits of companies listed on the Euro Stoxx (a major European stock index) could see mid-to-high single-digit growth in 2026 and 2027. This means that European company earnings might start to catch up with those in the U.S., closing the performance gap between the two regions. By David Lawder, Michael Martina and Katharine Jackson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating a bilateral deal to roll back tariffs and announced a doubling of worldwide steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%, once again rattling international trade. Trump said China had violated an agreement with the U.S. to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals and issued a new veiled threat to get tougher with Beijing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. Later, at a rally in Pennsylvania promoting an impending "partnership" between Japan's Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, he announced the U.S. would double steel tariffs from 25% to 50%, effective next week, which he said "will even further secure the steel industry in the United States." He subsequently announced in a Truth Social post that aluminum tariffs would also double to 50% on Wednesday. While China is the world's largest steel producer and exporter, very little is sent to the United States, as a 25% tariff imposed in 2018 shut most Chinese steel out of the market. China ranks third among aluminum suppliers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On overall trade with China, Trump said he made a "fast deal" in mid-May with Chinese officials for both countries to back away from triple-digit tariffs for 90 days. He said he did this to save China from a "devastating" situation, factory closings and civil unrest caused by his tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports. Trump did not specify how China had violated the agreement made in Geneva, Switzerland, or what action he would take against Beijing. Asked later on Friday in the Oval Office about the China deal, Trump said: "I'm sure that I'll speak to President Xi, and hopefully we'll work that out." RARE EARTHS LICENSES Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But a U.S. official told Reuters that it appeared China was moving slowly on promises to issue export licenses for rare earths minerals. The deal called for China to lift trade countermeasures that restrict its exports of the critical metals needed for U.S. semiconductor, electronics and defense production. "The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable and it has to be addressed," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC, without specifying how that would happen. Indeed, Reuters reported on Friday that global auto executives are sounding the alarm on an impending shortage of rare-earths magnets from China used in everything from windshield-wiper motors to anti-lock braking sensors that could force the closure of car factories within weeks. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, said China has maintained communications on trade matters with U.S. counterparts since the Geneva talks, but raised concerns about U.S. export controls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "China once again urges the U.S. to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva," Liu said in a statement. Reuters reported earlier this week that the U.S. has ordered a broad swath of companies to stop shipping goods to China without a license and revoked some existing export licenses, according to three people familiar with the matter. Products affected include design software and chemicals for semiconductors, butane and ethane, machine tools and aviation equipment, these sources said. Spokespersons for the White House, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office did not respond to requests for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CHINA TALKS 'STALLED' On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News Channel that U.S. trade talks with China were "a bit stalled" and that getting a deal over the finish line will likely need the direct involvement of Trump and Xi. The U.S.-China agreement two weeks ago to dial back triple-digit tariffs for 90 days prompted a massive relief rally in global stocks, and along with other pauses on Trump's import taxes, lowered the effective U.S. tariff rate to the mid-teens from around 25% in early April. It was less than 3% when Trump took office in January. The temporary truce between Washington and Beijing, however, had done nothing to address the underlying reasons for Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods, mainly longstanding U.S. complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model, leaving those issues for future talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Major U.S. stock indexes ended little changed on Friday after Trump's complaint about China's compliance. Trump's social media post came two days after a reporter infuriated him by asking him about Wall Street's new term for bets that he will back off extreme tariff actions - the "TACO" trade, an acronym coined by a Financial Times columnist for "Trump Always Chickens Out." "I chicken out? Oh, I've never heard that. You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set, down to 100 and then to another number?" Trump said, later adding: "It's called negotiation." Trump's tariff strategy also suffered a major setback on Wednesday when the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that his broad global tariffs, including those on China, were invalid because he exceeded his authority under an emergency powers law used to back them. An appeals court has issued a temporary stay for the decision, allowing them to remain in place for now. (Reporting by David Lawder, Michael Martina and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, Susan Heavey and Gram Slattery in Washington, Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Chizu Nomiyama, Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman) (NewsNation) President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating a trade agreement with the United States as tensions between Washington and Beijing persist. In a social media post, Trump claimed China experienced civil unrest under his sweeping tariffs, leading Trump to make a fast deal for stabilization. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual, Trump wrote. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Are Trumps tariffs blocked? Where levies stand in legal saga The 90-day agreement, reached earlier this month, slashed Trumps sky-high tariffs on Chinese imports from 145% to 30%, while Beijing dropped its own from 125% to 10%. Trump has not yet clarified what China did to allegedly violate the deal, though White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Friday morning said, China has abrogated the agreement. The United States acted immediately and in good faith, as of course you all saw with the proclamation adjusting the tariff rate, he added. China is committed to keeping global industrial and supply chains stable. We firmly oppose the U.S.s malicious moves to block and suppress China, the nations Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Small-business owners sue Trump administration over tariffs On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that trade talks between the U.S. and China were a bit stalled and might require direct input from Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Trump administration is currently in a legal battle over whether the presidents sweeping tariffs can remain in place. 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. NEED TO KNOW President Donald Trump attacked his predecessor, Joe Biden, during a press conference on Friday, May 30. When asked about Biden's recent stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis, the president said, "If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry." The comments come just days after Trump called Biden "scum" and shared social media comments that referred to the former president as a "decrepit corpse." President Donald Trump continued his personal attacks on Joe Biden when asked about the former president's recent stage 4 cancer diagnosis on Friday, May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While speaking with the press on May 30, Trump was asked about Biden's "aggressive" cancer and pulled no punches. [Bidens] been a sort of moderate person over his lifetime, Trump, 78, said. Not a smart person, but a somewhat vicious person, I will say." "If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious," the president continued. "What he did with his political opponent and all of the people that he hurt he hurt a lot of people, Biden, so I really don't feel sorry for him. Trump did not elaborate on the hurt that he feels Biden, 82, has caused, but over the past few years, Trump repeatedly and baselessly accused the Biden administration of using the Justice Department to engage in a "witch hunt" against him, despite that many of his criminal charges and his 34 felony convictions happened in lower courts outside of the federal government's purview. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the same day as Trump's latest Oval Office press conference, Biden was in Delaware honoring his eldest son, Beau Biden, on the 10th anniversary of his death from aggressive brain cancer. Speaking with families of military veterans at a Memorial Day service at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware, the former president made his first public remarks since announcing his cancer diagnosis. "This day is the 10th anniversary of the loss of my son, Beau, who spent a year in Iraq. And to be honest, it's a hard day," Biden told the crowd. "Being with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier. It really does. So thank you for allowing me to grieve with you." Having signed up for the Delaware National Guard in 2003, Beau and his unit were activated to deploy to Iraq in 2008. He served a year in active duty and two full terms as Delawares attorney general, before dying of glioblastoma multiforme on May 30, 2015. "Just like the legacy of all our fallen heroes lives on, they live on in us and they live on in the strength and freedom of our nation," Biden said in his speech. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "So everyone who came here today to grieve with grief in your heart, please know: you're not alone," he said. "You'll never be alone, and your loved one will never be forgotten." KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Then-Vice President Joe Biden talks with his son, U.S. Army Capt. Beau Biden, near Baghdad on July 4, 2009 Then-Vice President Joe Biden talks with his son, U.S. Army Capt. Beau Biden, near Baghdad on July 4, 2009 Biden's office announced that he had been diagnosed with "aggressive" stage 4 prostate cancer on May 18, sharing a statement on social media. "Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms," the statement said. "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 continued. "While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a post on X the following day, Biden shared a message about his diagnosis alongside a photo of himself with his wife, former first lady Dr. Jill Biden, and their cat Willow. Cancer touches us all, Biden wrote. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support. Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 21, 2025 President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on March 21, 2025 Though Trump initially reacted to news of Biden's diagnosis by sending his "warmest and best wishes" to the Bidens in a statement and wishing for a "fast and successful recovery," he turned to more targeted comments in the days that followed. Prior to Friday's press conference, Trump called his predecessor "scum" on social media and shared a post that referred to Biden as a "decrepit corpse." 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. On Memorial Day, Trump made an all-caps post on his Truth Social page aimed at the Biden administration, members of the judicial branch, and other monsters who want our country to go to hell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, May 26. Read the original article on People Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who has led an effort in the Trump administration to cut jobs and programs across the federal government, stood by President Trump's side on Friday in the Oval Office, officially for the last time as a government employee. But neither man was clear whether Musk's active hand in government is truly over. Their display of unity comes after Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, issued a series of criticisms of Trump's policies, both directly and through his companies, and as reports emerge that the billionaire fought fierce battles with the president's aides and has relied on potent drugs while serving as Trump's confidante. "Nobody like him," Trump said of Musk at the White House event. "He had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame, because he's an incredible patriot." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: As Musk exits, he sees his projects unraveling, inside and outside government "Many of the DOGE people, Elon, are staying behind. So they're not leaving. And Elon's really not leaving," Trump added. "He's going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling. It's his baby." Musk praised the team of DOGE, an acronym for the Department of Government Efficiency program, for saving what he said was $175 billion in government spending. The program had initially set a more lofty goal of cutting $2 trillion, and it is unclear if Musk's team has even met its revised figure, with the Treasury Departments Bureau of the Fiscal Service documenting an increase in federal spending over this time last year. "The DOGE team is doing an incredible job," Musk said. "I'll continue to be visiting here, and be a friend and advisor to the president." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whether Musk continues in his role will have legal consequences. As a special government employee, Musk is obligated to end his service, now that the maximum work period allowed of 130 days has passed. A group of 14 states has sued, arguing that Musk's employee status was a ruse for the Trump administration to bring him into a powerful government role without having to go through a Senate confirmation process. A federal judge in Washington on Wednesday ruled that Musks initial appointment was questionable, stating he occupies a continuing position and exercises significant authority, opening up a broader legal challenge over the constitutionality of his work for DOGE. In a series of interviews leading up to his official departure from government, Musk has said that he plans to lessen his political spending going forward, and has criticized the Trump administration and congressional Republicans for pursuing legislation that would balloon the national deficit, a move he said was contrary to DOGE's mission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Arellano: Guess who suddenly has a 'TACO' allergy? How a tasty sounding acronym haunts Trump His departure this week comes after the New York Times reported on Musk's heavy use of ketamine, a potent anesthetic drug, and after a Wall Street Journal article detailed Musk's attempts to thwart Trump from pursuing partnerships on artificial intelligence in the Middle East that would benefit Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI and a personal nemesis of Musk's. Musk's time in government has been marked by multiple setbacks for his companies. SpaceX has failed to meet essential engineering milestones for Starship, a critical super-heavy rocket ship that is critical to the U.S. effort to return humans to the moon and his own personal goal of reaching Mars. And Tesla, his electric vehicle company, saw a 71% plunge in profits in the first quarter of 2025 and a 50% drop in stock value from its highs in December. "I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics," Musk told Ars Technica, a science and technology publication, in an interview on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's not like I left the companies," he added. "It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I've reduced that significantly in recent weeks." Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. When I get to office we are not going to charge taxes on tips, on people making tips, Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail. If youre a restaurant worker, a server, a valet, a bell hop, a bartender, one of my caddies your tips will be 100pc yours. The billionaire president has stayed true to his promise. The bulk of the tax cuts outlined in Trumps big, beautiful tax and spending bill, currently before the Senate, reward the wealthy. But one populist clause within the legislation is a plan to scrap federal tax on tips one of Trumps key campaign pledges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tax break is popular with US service workers everyone from hairdressers to restaurant staff but may not be so popular with customers. American tipping culture is already in overdrive, and people hate it. A policy that was once the sole domain of the restaurant and hospitality sector has rapidly proliferated since the pandemic. Takeaway coffee orders now prompt demands for a few bucks extra and even stopping by a news-stand for a paper or some gum can lead people to pay an extra 20pc on their bills. Many Americans have noticed this creep and dont like it. As one Reddit user put it online: What the f--- am I tipping for? Is it not bad enough that I just paid over $5 (3.7) for a small bottle of water? Trumps tax break is likely to push a wave of new jobs to adopt restaurant-style tipping policies and will incentivise businesses to restructure their employees pay, so that they receive a larger proportion of their income from tips. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maurice Obstfeld, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, says: Number one, this is going to induce new employers to classify more compensation as tips. It may already be happening. Chris Bakke, a San Francisco entrepreneur and investor, wrote on X recently: My barber just offered me a $1 haircut if I tipped him $50. https://t.co/gDaufndvJ4 Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) May 20, 2025 The message, which may have been a joke, was in response to news that the US Senate had passed the No Tax on Tips act a bipartisan bill proposing a tax deduction of up to $25,000 for cash tips. It is separate to the presidents proposals, showing the broad support for the policy across the political spectrum. $15bn bill Both Republicans and Democrats present the policy as a boost for blue-collar workers. However, economists warn that people could end up with lower baseline pay as a result of the changes, putting more pressure on customers to top up earnings. That means even more social pressure and financial pain at the checkout. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plans laid out in Trumps tax and spending bill offer the same level of tax break as the No Tax on Tips act. Under the current law, staff are required to report tips to their employer if they total $20 or more in a single month. Businesses then include the tips in salary calculations withholding federal income tax, social security tax and Medicare taxes. The new exemption will only apply to tips paid in cash, not by card. Workers must earn less than $160,000 per year to qualify and be working in occupations that customarily receive tips. The US Treasury will publish a list of these occupations when the bill is passed into law. The total cost to the public purse will be around $15bn per year. The impact on American consumers and tourists visiting the US will also be huge. Abir Mandal, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, says tax exemptions on tips will create perverse incentives for employers. It will encourage businesses to make employees source more of their wages from tips, with a lower proportion from their salaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Expectations for tips could also become far more widespread, and bigger. Chris Edwards, a tax expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says: I think different job types will shift their types of compensation. You can think of all kinds of professions where it could become more normal. Luggage handlers at airports are an obvious potential example, says Mandal. They are given a salary. You can give them like $1 or $2 for carrying a bag, but in general they are paid a wage. If this thing takes off, perhaps their income could be reconfigured so that they would make a lower wage but expect a larger tip per bag. Covid tipping point Tipping has always been the norm in US restaurants, but something changed during the pandemic. More people had food deliveries and wanted to show their appreciation for drivers, widening the tipping net. At the same time, wage growth accelerated sharply as the economy reopened but restaurant bosses and other small business owners struggled to match it. As a result, demands for tips grew. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The expectation of tipping has grown quite dramatically, says Stephen Barth, an attorney and hospitality law professor at the University of Houston. It was already growing and then during Covid it expanded exponentially. The share of bakeries asking for tips has soared from 36pc to 49pc in the five years to July 2024, for example, according to analysis of payroll data by Gusto. Among coffee shops, the proportion has jumped from 56pc to 72pc. For a lot of small businesses, they run on very tight margins, which means that owners couldnt always raise wages. Tips let them pay more to their employees without hitting their budgets, says Nich Tremper, senior economist at Gusto. The growth of electronic payment terminals, such as Square, has also made it easier to request tips. Whereas with cash it was up to a customers discretion, now they are confronted with a menu of tip options and have to actively opt out. Even some card machines now have this as the default option. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tips are even now entering shops. The share of retail businesses using tips as part of their employees pay nearly doubled in the five years to July 2024, rising from 3.86pc to 6.6pc. One in six health stores, 16.2pc, now pay their staff partly in tips. If Trumps bill passes, tipping will become even more important to staff wages, but potentially also more irritating to give. Only cash tips will be untaxed if this legislation passes. There may be added pressure on consumers to pay tips in cash. Itll make things awkward. And people already hate tips in America, says Mandal. The change to federal tax policy is likely to trigger a wave of similar policies at a state level, he adds. States typically try to conform their own taxable income in line with federal policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That may sound good for workers. But Barth says it amounts to just a subsidy for employers. The tax break will reduce pressure on employers to raise wages and companies could actually cut workers base pay as a result, demanding they make up the difference through tips. It hits at the heart of what many customers dislike about the recent transformation in tips. What was once a way of showing appreciation for good services has transformed into an expectation with no real link to the quality of experience. If you dont tip, its not a sign that youre unhappy with the service its a signal youre a bad person. Obstfeld is scathing: This was a campaign promise that was made to essentially pander to voters and the economic rationale for it is basically nil. The public may soon share his anger as demands for tips mount up. 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. After spending 130 days working to dismantle entire federal government agencies, firing tens of thousands of civil servants and sparking dozens of lawsuits over potential misuse of Americans personal data, the worlds wealthiest man was rewarded with a gold-plated skeleton key to the White House. Seated behind the Resolute Desk, President Donald Trump praised Elon Musk from the Oval Office for his four months of work leading the Department of Government Efficiency, a role from which Musk is required to depart due to his now-former status as a special government employee, which had let him work for free without complying with any financial disclosure rules but only for 130 days per year. He called the Tesla and SpaceX CEO one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced and hailed him for having led what Trump called the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elon gave an incredible service. Theres nobody like him, and he had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame, because he's an incredible patriot. The good news is that 90% of the country knows that, and they appreciate it, and they really appreciate what he did, he said. Trump then presented Musk with a trinket that dated back to the 47th presidents prior term as the 45th President of the United States: A Key to the White House. It was an over-size, gold-plated key in a wooden presentation box, with an engraving of the Executive Mansion on the inside of the lid. A gold-plated White House key like the one that Trump gifted to Musk can also be found for sale on eBay (AP) Musk was not by any means the first person to be gifted with this Trumpian trinket. In his 2022 memoir Breaking History, Trumps son-in-law and ex-senior adviser Jared Kushner recounted how hed whipped out the same gift for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a September 2020 meeting in the Oval Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the time, Trump called it a a special token of affection, given by myself and the First Lady to the Prime Minister and the First Lady of Israel. And its a key we call it a key to the White House. And its a key to our country and to our hearts, he said as he handed it over to Netanyahu. Kushner wrote that Trump had told Netanyahu that the key he gifted him was the first key Im giving to anyone and claimed that it would grant the Israeli leader entry to the White House even when Im not president anymore. As he handed Musk the same tchotchke nearly five years later, Trump said it was a little special something that he gives to very special people as a presentation from our country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not known how many of the souvenirs have been given out by Trump, but a search by The Independent revealed that identical items have been listed on eBay, with two current listings showing prices of $7,250 and $7,950. The auction site RR Auction also shows another of them having sold for $3,670. Musk, who wore a black Make America Great Again cap, a black suit and a t-shirt with the words The Dogefather on it and appeared to look around the Oval Office aimlessly as Trump spoke, accepted the box from the president as he told reporters that his time in the administration necessarily had to end and had been a limited time. But somewhat paradoxically, he said the DOGE team he put in place will only grow stronger over time and compared DOGE to sort of Buddhism. It's like a way of life. So it is permeating throughout the government, and I'm confident that over time, we will see a trillion dollars of savings and reduction in a trillion dollars of waste, he said. Elon Musk seems distracted as he stands alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on his last official day as a special government employee. (Screengrab / Pool) He added that he will continue to be visiting Washington as a friend and adviser to Trump and stressed that he looked forward to being back in the Oval Office as he praised the president for his redecorating efforts, which have seen the iconic space take on a distinctively gilded look through copious amounts of gold leaf on the walls and ceiling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While his tone was largely jovial and positive, he turned combative when pressed to respond about a New York Times story alleging that his time at Trumps side, dating back to the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign, saw him using drugs intensely and regularly, including chronically using the powerful anesthetic ketamine to the point where it affected his bladder. Musk reportedly was using Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and Adderall, which he kept in a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, according to the report. Asked about the bombshell story, detailing his erratic behavior in the days leading up to and after Trump entered office, including gestures on inauguration day that mirrored Nazi salutes, his repeated clashes with top administration officials and cabinet members, and his increasingly tumultuous family life, including custody battles and the revelation of his 14th child, Musk pivoted to attacking the newspaper over its accurate and prize-winning reporting on Trumps 2016 campaign and the federal probe into his ties with the Russian government. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate? That New York Times? Lets move on, Musk said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk also sported a noticeable black eye during the press conference, and when a reporter asked him what had happened to him, he blamed his young son, X A-12, who goes by Little X. I was horsing around with Little X, and I said go ahead, punch me in the face. And he did, he said. The billionaires face wasnt the only high-profile visage that was discussed during the hour-long session. After he and Musk spoke, Trump took questions on multiple topics, including one about a recent incident involving French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during which the French First Lady appeared to strike her husband as they were exiting an aircraft earlier this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked whether he had any advice for his French counterpart, Trump who has been married three times and divorced twice replied: Make sure the door remains closed. He added that hed spoken with Macron recently and said the French first couple was fine. They're two really good people. I know him very well, and I don't know what that was all about, but I know him very well, and they're fine, he said. The hour-long back-and-forth with reporters marked the formal end of Musks time in government, during which his DOGE organization was often at odds with members of Trumps cabinet and the wealthy GOP donor found himself on the outs with Trump after he donated millions and made personal appearances on behalf of a Wisconsin judicial candidate who lost badly despite his efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk also appeared to break with Trump over the presidents Big Beautiful Bill spending package, which doesnt lock in any of the slashing and burning the billionaire and his DOGE team have done during his time in government. His stated goal as the (apparently informal) head of DOGE was to slash government spending and save American taxpayers money. Before the inauguration, he claimed he could cut $1 trillion from the federal budget before September 30 by ending "waste, fraud, and abuse" already a downgrade from his $2 trillion promise on the campaign trail. He further claimed that most of the work required to make this happen would be done within 130 days. As of May 26, DOGE's online "wall of receipts" touts estimated savings of $175bn since the start of Trump's term, or $1,086.96 per taxpayer. The problem is that this figure may simply be nonsense. But Trump wasnt asked about Musks comments about his spending package as he sent off his erstwhile ally with the ersatz gold key. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He did, however, weigh in on the trial of hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs, a former contestant on the presidents reality television show, who is now in the dock on sex trafficking charges. Asked whether hed consider a pardon for the disgraced musician, who hed once called a good friend, Trump demurred by saying he hadnt been watching the trial too closely while leaving the door open by promising to look at whats happening. I haven't seen him. I haven't spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, he sort of that relationship busted up, from what I read, Trump said. I would certainly look at the facts if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact on me. Io Dodds contributed reporting from San Francisco By Francesco Canepa, Maria Martinez and John O'Donnell FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) -The safety of Germany's gold reserves held overseas and in New York in particular, until recently mainly a talking point for the country's far-right party and gold bugs, is becoming a matter of public debate with Donald Trump back in the White House. The Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, has the world's second largest stock of gold at 3,352 tonnes. One-third of it is stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for reasons dating back to the Cold War and the monetary system created in the wake of World War Two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those holdings have occasionally attracted scrutiny in the past, and the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) has embraced calls for a return of the country's gold back home. U.S. President Donald Trump's confrontations with longstanding allies over trade and security, and his attacks on the Fed, have revived the issue in recent weeks and more mainstream voices have joined the debate. Germany's Taxpayers Federation sent letters this week to the Bundesbank and the Finance Ministry calling on them to repatriate the gold stored in the United States. "Trump wants to control the Fed, which would also mean controlling the German gold reserves in the U.S." Michael Jaeger, the Taxpayers Federation's vice-president, told Reuters. "It's our money, it should be brought back." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Markus Ferber, an influential member of the European Parliament for Germany's ruling Christian Democrats, said the United States was "no longer the reliable partner it used to be." "Trump is erratic and one cannot rule out that someday he will come up with creative ideas how to treat foreign gold reserves," he told Reuters. "The Bundesbanks policy for gold reserves has to reflect the new geopolitical realities." Public broadcasters ZDF and ARD have also recently carried reports asking how safe Germany's gold is in New York. The Bundesbank said the New York Fed remained "an important storage location" for its gold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have no doubt that in the New York Fed we have a trustworthy, reliable partner for the storage of our gold holdings," the central bank said in response to a Reuters enquiry. The German Finance Ministry referred Reuters queries on the matter to the central bank, while stressing the Bundesbank's independence. Any hint that Germany might be considering moving gold out of New York would be politically sensitive as it could be interpreted as lack of confidence in the Federal Reserve and its independence. The European Central Bank last week stressed its trust in the Fed as a reliable partner. But Trump's frequent criticism of Fed chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in a year, has fuelled some concerns about the Fed's future independence and its long-standing commitments to its partners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peter Boehringer, the architect of the original decade-old gold campaign and now an AfD lawmaker, said he felt vindicated that the topic of repatriating gold reserves has now become a matter discussed by mainstream media and other lawmakers. "When I started asking about the gold, I was dismissed as a conspiracy theorist," he said. "Today, after Trump, my concerns are shared widely." Germany accumulated most of its gold during its 1950s-1960s export boom. A key advantage of storing some of it in New York during the Cold War was to keep it at a safe distance from Russia in case of an invasion. The gold also cemented a military alliance with the United States, which still has dozens of military bases around Germany, including Europe's largest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With the Soviet Union long gone, the Bundesbank brought back 300 tonnes of gold from New York between 2014 and 2017, saying it wanted to "build confidence at home". But Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the implicit threat it represents for the rest of Europe, was likely to complicate Germany's geopolitical calculus again. For Ferber, this underscored the need for greater diversification across several, and potentially new, locations. Today, Germany's gold reserves are held at the Bundesbank headquarters in Frankfurt, in New York, and at the Bank of England in London. "For gold reserves, diversification is key. Having all eggs in too few baskets is never advisable," Ferber said, without specifying where the gold should be brought. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fritz Guentzler, a spokesperson for the Christian Democrats in the German parliament, said he had no reason to mistrust the Fed but the Bundesbank should continue "regularly inspecting the stocks" of gold. The Bundesbank said it ran regular sample tests and had inspected 13% of stock in New York over the years. (Reporting by Francesco Canepa and John O'Donnell in Frankfurt and Maria Martinez in BerlinEditing by Tomasz Janowski) Watami, a restaurant group based in Japan, has announced plans to open a training centre in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, as reported by Nikkei Asia. The centre will train locals in farming, customer service, factory skills and food service, to send 3,000 individuals annually to Japan on specified skilled worker visas. The Japan Training Center, set to launch in October 2025, will be situated at the facilities of a Bangladeshi government agency. 1500 people will initially undergo a two-month training programme in skills such as customer service and factory work. Watami will leverage personnel from a Japanese language school operated by a group company to assist in the training. The development comes after Japan expanded its entry visa in 2023 to cover 11 industries, including the food service sector. The expansion allows foreign workers to engage in more complex roles such as store operations and management. Watami chairman and president Miki Watanabe stated: "Securing human resources is an obstacle to growth in the restaurant business. Being able to develop human resources in-house will be a strength." Established in 2020, Watami Agent, the human resources development unit of Watami, had welcomed 900 foreign workers by the end of March 2025. This included technical intern trainees and specified skilled workers, with 400 introduced to 107 companies. Japan is looking to recruit up to 100,000 workers from Bangladesh by 2030 to mitigate its labour shortage. Bangladesh's chief adviser Muhammad Yunus from the Bangladesh Seminar on Human Resources emphasised the interim government's commitment to facilitating employment opportunities for Bangladeshis in Japan. "Japans Watami to open training centre in Bangladesh" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand. First it was NPR and now PBS is punching back at Donald Trumps desire to slash funding for public broadcasters. In a document seeking injunctive and other expedited relief filed Friday in federal court in the District of Columbia, PBS and Northern Minnesota Public TV (Lakeland PBS) are declaring Trumps Executive Order of May 1, which directed federal agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to halt federal funding for NPR and PBS, to be illegal and unconstitutional. More from Deadline Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps executive order was inked with much fanfare as the president has alleged the entities trafficked in left-wing propaganda. Sorry Mr. President, but thats not the point, PBS says in so many words. A recent survey of a politically representative sample of U.S. adults (conducted by YouGov) showed that PBS is the number one most trusted institution in the United States, as compared to video streaming services, commercial cable television, news publications, commercial broadcast television, the federal government, Congress, courts of law, and social media platforms, todays generally understated complaint asserts. The same survey found that PBS is the most trusted news network. Thats the tone, and then theres the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBSs programming, including by attempting to defund PBS, reads the 51-page complaint filed by D.C. law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to hit home its point. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets around $500 million a year from the federal government, which is about 15% of its operating budget. A swath of that money goes to PBS, which also (as anyone who has watched an episode of American Masters knows) has support from corporate and private donors. Reading much like the lawsuit NPR hit the MAGA White House with three days ago, the former home of Big Bird and Downton Abbey goes on to say in its own suit that if allowed to stand, the EO would override Congresss decision to remove the administration of federal funding for public television from the governments editorial purview. Framing the matter as a clear attack on freedom of speech and the American system of checks and balances, the complaint adds: And it would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS Member Stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans. PBS and Lakeland PBS bring suit to preserve their ability to serve their viewers and communities without political interference, as both Congress and the First Amendment mandate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deadline reached out to the White House for comment on the new suit. Just like the NPR complaint, the PBS action named Trump; Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. Additionally, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noam and the DHS itself are named in the PBS suit, as are the soon-to-shutter Department of Education and its Secretary Linda McMahon, acting FEMA boss David Richardson and that agency. The lineup makes one think of one of the great lines from Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton: It always happens when you give these little people power, it goes to their heads like strong drink. Ted Johnson contributed to this report Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Donald Trumps administration has utterly disregarded a court order for information about a wrongly deported Venezuelan asylum seeker sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, told the mans attorneys to put together a record of the administrations lack of compliance all but ordering contempt hearings in one of several high-profile legal battles over the presidents use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport immigrants. Last month, Gallagher ordered the government to facilitate his release from that countrys brutal jail. But when ordered to cough up a status report about his condition, government attorneys essentially only told the court we havent done anything and dont intend to, Gallagher wrote on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gallagher previously found that the governments removal of a 20-year-old Venezuelan man named in court documents as Cristian violated a court settlement intended to protect young immigrants who have pending asylum claims. He was deported with dozens of alleged Venezuelan members of the Trend de Aragua gang under the presidents use of the Alien Enemies Act in March. Trump administration officials could face contempt proceedings in the case of a man identified in court documents as Cristian who was deported to El Salvador despite pending asylum protections (Getty Images) The administration was ordered to compile a status report about his current physical location and custodial status, as well as what steps, if any, the government is taking to facilitate his release from the prison, and what the government intends to do when he is returned. Instead, government attorneys not only blew past a deadline to answer, but also simply reiterated their well-worn talking points on their reasons for removing Cristian and failed to provide any of the information the court required, Gallagher wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Administration officials not only ignore the requirements of this court's orders but also make no attempt to offer any justification for their blatant lack of effort to comply, according to Gallagher. The governments response adds nothing to the underlying record and reflects zero effort to comply with court orders, she wrote. She called on Cristians lawyers to initiate a process to create an appropriate record on defendants lack of compliance with this courts orders and gave the administration until Monday to cure it. Cristian is one of three men the Trump administration has been ordered to return to the United States following legal battles over their removal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The order for Cristians return followed the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant living in Maryland who was deported to his home country despite an immigration judges 2019 order preventing removal from the United States for humanitarian reasons. The Supreme Court unanimously called his removal illegal and similarly ordered the government to facilitate his return. Last week, another judge ordered the administration to facilitate the return of a wrongly deported Guatemalan man sent to Mexico, where he says he survived rape and kidnapping. This week, government attorneys said they would obey the order and arranged a flight to return him. Demonstrators in New York protest the removal of immigrants to El Salvador, where the Trump administration summarily deported dozens of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, initiating a high-profile legal battle for their return (Getty Images) According to a sworn statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Robert Cerna, Cristian was arrested in Texas for cocaine possession in January. The Trump administration has argued that Cristians removal did not violate a settlement over his removal because his designation as an an alien enemy under the Alien Enemies Act results in him ceasing to be a member of the protected class in the settlement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration argues that anyone alleged to be a member of the gang is no longer eligible for asylum. Another court order striking at the presidents deportation agenda underscores a growing tension between the judiciary and the administration, which has been repeatedly accused of defying court orders and violating due process protections over his attempts to swiftly remove immigrants. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to continue blocking immigration officials from summarily deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act jailed in Texas while legal challenges play out. The 7-2 decision with conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting argues that the immigrants detained in Texas under the controversial war-time law must have sufficient time and information to reasonably be able to get in touch with lawyers and file legal challenges. Trump called the decision a bad and dangerous day for America. THE SUPREME COURT WONT ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! he wrote on Truth Social at the time. President Trump will hold a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday to celebrate the partnership between U.S. Steel and Japanese corporation Nippon Steel that Trump has touted as a boost to U.S. jobs. The president will travel to Allegheny County to visit U.S. Steel Corp.s Irvin Works plant outside of Pittsburgh for a rally at 5 p.m. EDT. Trump won Pennsylvania in November with more than 50 percent of the vote, defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in the critical battleground state. He had lost Pennsylvania to former President Biden in 2020 after winning it in 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, Trump announced the new partnership between U.S. Steel and Nippon on social media, saying it will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy. U.S. Steel lauded the partnership in a statement to The Hill, stating the company will remain American and grow bigger and stronger in collaboration with Nippon. President Trump is a bold leader and businessman who knows how to get the best deal for America, American workers and American manufacturing, the statement reads. U. S. Steel greatly appreciates President Trumps leadership and personal attention to the futures of thousands of steelworkers and our iconic company. Bloomberg News reported that Trump, just before announcing the partnership, had received the recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which he ordered last month to conduct a review of the acquisition of U.S. Steel for help in determining whether further action in this matter may be appropriate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump had previously vowed in December to block Nippon Steels acquisition. And, earlier this year, Biden announced he was going to stop the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel in the wake of a yearlong review of the possible acquisition. 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. U.S. President Donald Trump said on May 30 that he was "very surprised" at Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities amid ongoing peace negotiations with Kyiv. "I've gotten to see things I was very surprised at. Rockets being shot into cities like Kyiv during a negotiation that was maybe very close to ending," Trump said during a news conference in the Oval Office. "All of a sudden rockets got shot into a couple of cities and people died. I saw thing I was surprised at and I don't like being surprised, so I'm very disappointed in that way," Trump added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For three consecutive days over May 24-26, Russia launched a series of mass drone and missile attacks at Ukrainian cities, during which more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles were launched in one of the heaviest attacks of the war to date. On May 26, Russia carried out the largest drone attack of the full-scale war, which reportedly involved 355 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys. Trump said he disapproved of Russia's recent missile attacks on Ukrainian cities during ongoing diplomatic efforts. "I don't know what the hell happened to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, I've known him for a long time," Trump said on May 25 amid the onslaught of attacks. "He's killing a lot of people." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the barrage of attacks and Russia's ongoing rejection of a 30-day ceasefire, Trump on May 28 said that "it'll take about two weeks, or week and a half," to determine if Putin serious about ending war. A day earlier on May 27, Trump admitted that Russia would already be facing serious consequences, including sanctions, if not for his actions. "What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean really bad. He's playing with fire," he wrote on Truth Social. Despite repeatedly threatening additional sanctions against Moscow, Trump has thus far refused to implement a proposed sanctions package. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If I think I'm close to getting a deal, I don't want to screw it up by doing that," Trump told reporters on May 28. Despite the delays, key Trump ally and Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, said at a press briefing in Kyiv on May 30 that the U.S. Senate is expected to "start moving" next week on a bill introducing sweeping new sanctions against Russia White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on May 29 that Trump hopes that the forthcoming peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will "move the ball forward" on his efforts to broker a peace deal. Read also: Senate to start moving Russia sanctions bill next week, Graham says Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Davids view You dont hear much about the big, beautiful door anymore. During Donald Trumps first presidential campaign, when some Republicans were queasy about building a 1954-mile border wall, he liked to add a caveat. There would be a wall, but it would have a door big, beautiful, and sometimes even fat for the people coming in legally. That never happened in Trumps first term. Running again in 2024, after the Biden-era backlash to millions of new asylum-seekers, Trump never mentioned the door. The closest he came was an interview on the All In podcast, when co-host Jason Calacanis asked if Trump would promise to import the best and brightest around the world once he closed the border. Trump agreed. You graduate from a college, he said, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. The campaign walked most of this promise back, limiting it to the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America. But that didnt happen, either. Right now, any aspiring foreign student who didnt already have a visa cant get one; the president, conducting an ad hoc war on Harvard, is spitballing potential caps for how many foreign students the private university should be allowed to take. Eventually. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the elite media, tech, and business conversations, this is an obvious outrage, totally self-defeating, a threat to an American advantage that everybody took for granted. In Republican politics, it just makes sense: There is no issue that doesnt cut their way if framed as a choice between American citizens and non-citizens. Theyre selling the big, beautiful bill around its impact on immigration: Half a billion dollars in new immigration law enforcement, and cuts to Medicaid funding in states whose plans cover non-citizens. Theyre delighted to see Democrats defending Rep. LaMonica McIver after she was charged for allegedly assaulting ICE officers. Most of the DOGE cuts that the administration will ask Congress to approve next month were to foreign aid, another fight Republicans love having. To mass confusion from Democrats, Republicans are offering both zero-sum scarcity and endless abundance. In that story, Chuck Schumers party wants to keep you poor. Every dollar, job, or university spot that doesnt go to a non-citizen can go to an American and Democrats dont like that. Cryptocurrencies will create endless wealth for Americans with zero downsides or risk and Democrats dont like that, either. This is all more popular than the wall-with-a-door compromise Trump used to run on. Democrats, unsure how to counter this, are waiting for it to stop being so politically effective. Notable President Donald Trump has apparently suffered from mental anguish as a result of a CBS News 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last year, his lawyers alleged in court documents. Trumps attorneys made the claim Wednesday in a motion to deny Paramount Globals request to dismiss Trumps lawsuit, which First Amendment experts have called frivolous and dangerous, against CBS over the editing of the interview. (Paramount Global is the parent company of CBS.) In the October-filed lawsuit obtained by HuffPost, Trump accuses the network of partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion. This, according to the suit, was exhibited through two slightly differing clips of Harris discussing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with journalist Bill Whitaker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents filed Wednesday, Trumps attorneys claim this led to widespread confusion and mental anguish of consumers, including plaintiffs, regarding a household name of the legacy media apparently deceptively distorting its broadcasts, and then resisting attempts to clear the public record. The interview forced Trump to redirect significant time, money and effort to correcting the public record, the document said. The motion also called the president a content creator, whose content creation was damaged by the attention diverted to Defendants distorted programming. The network maintains that the interview was not doctored or deceitful. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews for time, space or clarity. In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public all while working within the constraints of broadcast television, CBS said in a February statement. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the president turned down a $15 million settlement offer, which falls short of his desired compensation: more than $25 million and a CBS News apology. The president has also threatened to file another lawsuit against the company over what he claims is biased reporting, according to the WSJ. Trump has repeatedly gone after 60 Minutes and has so far unsuccessfully called on CBS to lose its broadcast license on multiple occasions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In one of his countless social media rants in April, he slammed the show after choosing to hate-watch it. They are not a News Show, but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as News, and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing, the president wrote at the time. They should lose their license! At least two top executives, including CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, have stepped down as the network seeks to make a deal with Trump. Related... Anyone trying to explain President Donald Trumps pardon of former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld this week would be hard-pressed to find a reason in either mans words or deeds. Trump is the Republican, MAGA-hat-wearing populist who revels in mocking Democrats, while Sittenfeld is the liberal Democrat who once called Trump a buffoonish carnival barker. And yet, despite their obvious differences, something or someone motivated Trump to use one of his greatest presidential powers on Sittenfelds behalf. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Neither Trump nor Sittenfeld is saying who or what may have provided that motivation. But the two men are connected in at least a few ways that could have drawn Trumps attention to Sittenfelds political corruption case and opened the door to his decision to grant him a full and unconditional pardon. Their most obvious common ground is personal familiarity with a federal prosecution they deemed unfair and politically motivated. Before returning to the White House, Trump faced charges related to his handling of classified documents and his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. Sittenfeld, meanwhile, got a 16-month prison sentence in a bribery and extortion case that derailed a promising political career. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Trump has given no indication he's familiar with the details of Sittenfelds case, the president has complained repeatedly about what he describes as the weaponization of the legal system against him and others. Just one day before announcing Sittenfelds pardon, Trump pardoned a Virginia sheriff convicted on corruption charges, claiming he was a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice. Hes also recently pardoned a state senator in Tennessee, a city council member in Las Vegas, two reality TV stars and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who, like Sittenfeld, is a Democrat. Trump is just committed to emptying the prisons of anyone convicted of political corruption, said David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati who's been critical of Trump's pardons. I think thats the bottom line. Most Trump pardons go to Republicans, but not all The effect of Trumps pardons, Niven said, is to undermine the governments ability to prosecute corruption cases while also numbing the public to bad behavior by politicians. In this view, it doesnt matter that Sittenfeld is a Democrat and Trump is a Republican. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is much more about corruption than politics, Niven said. Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University who specializes in presidential powers, said Trump showed in his first term a willingness to help people who shared his political beliefs. This time, he said, the president has taken a keen interest in anyone whos faced a prosecution related to public corruption. Hes been pardoning people he identifies with, Kalt said. Most of those pardons have gone to Republicans or, in Blagojevichs case, to people whove publicly praised Trump. Trump advisor Ed Martin explained Trump's approach to pardons this way in a social media post this week: No MAGA left behind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sittenfeld doesnt appear to fall into that category. He ran for office as a Democrat and has not publicly said anything supportive of Trump. On the contrary, when Trump was on his way to the Republican nomination in 2015, Sittenfeld posted a short YouTube video critical of Trump and his rhetoric. "Donald Trump has gone from being a buffoonish carnival barker to something darker and far more dangerous," he said. The fearmongering, the wanton bigotry, the calls for mass deportation, ethnic registries and the scapegoating of religious minorities this isnt politics as usual." But Trump might have reason to look past such comments, said Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford University law professor who specializes in constitutional law. She said pardoning someone with whom he has little else in common might serve a purpose for Trump. She said its easier for the president to argue the public corruption pardons hes granting are based on legal reasons, rather than political reasons, if he gives them to both Republicans and Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It helps to legitimize his pardons of Republicans if he can say hes pardoned at least some people accused of similar things who are Democrats, Meyler said. Who made the case for Sittenfeld to Trump? How did Sittenfeld become one of the lucky few Democrats to make the list? Meyler said most people who get pardons have an advocate, either a lawyer or a prominent person known to the president, who can make the case for the presidents intervention. There are at least two lawyers who could fit that bill. After Sittenfelds indictment in 2020, he turned for help to James Burnham, a well-known Republican attorney and expert in corruption cases who worked in both the first and second Trump administration. Most recently, Burnham served as a general counsel in billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Another lawyer with ties to both Trump and Sittenfeld is Yaakov Roth, who argued Sittenfeld's case on appeal and now works as Trump's deputy assistant attorney general in the civil division of the Department of Justice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not known whether Burnham or Roth, neither of whom could be reached to comment, or anyone else brought Sittenfelds case to Trumps attention. Other prominent Sittenfeld supporters either couldnt be reached or declined to comment when asked about the pardon and whether theyd reached out to the president on his behalf. Dick Rosenthal, a Cincinnati philanthropist who in 2021 signed an open letter critical of Sittenfelds prosecution, said he wouldnt comment because, I dont think it would be helpful to your readers, or to P.G., or to my family. Political donors and supporters have for decades been beneficiaries of presidential pardons, but its become more difficult under Trump to track money flowing to the president or to his family. Trump recently hosted a dinner and White House tour for investors whod bought millions of dollars of $TRUMP memecoins, which benefits the Trump familys crypto business. Some of those who attended said they hoped their purchase of the memecoins might give them an opportunity to influence Trump on matters they care about. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Niven said Trumps mingling of family business and the presidency is another reason the president is eager to attack public corruption cases like Sittenfelds. This is just about normalizing political corruption, Niven said. Its very useful for him, as he auctions off the White House to the highest crypto bidder, that no one pays a price for political corruption. Kalt, the Michigan State law professor, said questions about pardons and the motivation for granting them are nothing new. Its the speed and scope of Trumps that have drawn so much attention and criticism. Ultimately, though, the president doesnt have to explain his reasons for pardoning anyone, including Sittenfeld. The pardon power requires no Congressional oversight and no judicial review. Its the presidents alone to use as he sees fit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ideally, there would be transparency and accountability, Kalt said. But legally the president has the power to do this however he wants. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: trump pardon of sittenfeld shocked many, but the move fits a pattern Six months ago, U.S.-Syrian enmity seemed locked in for good. Congress was set to renew the Caesar Civilian Protection Act, a set of economic sanctions designed to weaken the government of Bashar al-Assad by preventing postwar reconstruction. And it was only the latest in a set of economic sanctions imposed in 1979, when the U.S. State Department declared Syria a state sponsor of terrorism. Even the revolution that overthrew Assad in December 2024 did not seem to change the trajectory. As rebels led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, then nicknamed Abu Mohammad al-Golani, advanced on Damascus, the Biden administration insisted that Golani and his men were also terrorists. Congress went ahead with the Caesar Act renewal, and hawkish factions in Washington prepared to put impossible conditions on sanctions relief. This week, however, the Trump administration seems to have let bygones be bygones. On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a three-page waiver lifting almost all economic sanctions on Syria unconditionally. On Wednesday, an American flag flew over Damascus for the first time in a decade as the Syrian government handed back the old U.S. ambassador's residence to Thomas Barrack, who serves as both U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barrack said that President Donald Trump would soon be taking Syria off of the terrorism sponsors list, and claimed that the long-running Syrian-Israeli conflict is a "solvable problem," Reuters reported. "America's intent and the president's vision is that we have to give this young government a chance by not interfering, not demanding, by not giving conditions, by not imposing our culture on your culture," Barrack told the crowd at the residence. Later on his trip, Barrack followed up on the symbolism by signing off on a huge concrete investment: a $7 billion deal for a consortium of American, Turkish, and Qatari companies to build up Syrian electrical infrastructure. "Syria is OPEN FOR BUSINESS," Barrack declared on X. "Commerce not chaos!" It was the same tone Trump himself struck in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, where he denounced "so-called nation builders" who tried to impose their visions by force, bragged that "some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought wars against in generations past," and shook hands with Sharaa himself. Of course, a waiver isn't a permanent end to sanctions. The sanctions imposed by Congress have to be lifted by Congress. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it should do exactly that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration could have taken a different approach. Sharaa had fought for Al Qaeda in the past, and Syria still has active territorial disputes with Israel, which captured the Golan Heights in a 1967 war and seized additional land after Assad fell. Some figures in the administration wanted to slow-roll sanctions relief as a way to keep the new Syrian government on its toes. But Rubio argued to Congress that keeping post-revolutionary Syria economically isolated could cause dangerous instability. By lifting almost all sanctions at once, the Trump administration demonstrated another foreign policy principle: You can just do things. Despite the bureaucratic tangle of sanctions, which some officials hinted would be a complicated process to undo, Trump simply waived them all with a short, simple declaration. And unlike the former Biden administration, which often complained that its hands were tied by hawkish Senate Democrats on foreign policy, Trump doesn't seem to be paying any political price for his outreach to Syria. A bigger test will be whether Trump can pull off the same maneuver with Iran, whose nuclear program he is currently negotiating to restrict. Sharaa won Syria a fresh start by overthrowing Assad. Iran, on the other hand, has a whole collection of ongoing, high-stakes disagreements with the U.S. And the U.S.-Iranian rivalrywhich includes the 1979 embassy takeover and Iranian intervention in Iraqhas always been more emotionally charged than any U.S.-Syrian rivalry. Still, many of the same factors that led to "commerce not chaos" with Syria are aligned in favor of a deal with Iran. The Arab states now investing in Syria also want to do business with Iran without fear of U.S. sanctions, and have been reportedly lobbying Trump to deescalate that conflict. Trump himself seems pretty confident that a deal is around the cornerconfident enough that he warned Israel not to attack Iran in the meantime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I think we're going to see something very sensible," he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. "That could change at any moment. It could change with a phone call. But right now, I think they want to make a deal, and if we make a deal, it would save a lot of lives." The post Trump's Syrian Outreach Turns an Enemy Into a Friend appeared first on Reason.com. Turkey hopes that Ukraine and Russia can resolve the conflict in a potential second round of direct talks on a ceasefire, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday in Kiev. The two warring sides last met in Istanbul in mid-May, their first direct public contact in three years. "We are convinced that progress can certainly be made as long as we remain at the negotiating table," Fidan told a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A high-level meeting with the participation of the United States could follow the second round, Fidan said, adding that Turkey wants to see the war end as soon as possible. The call comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday announced Moscow's desire for new talks in Istanbul. The Russian delegation is ready to present a memorandum to the Ukrainian team in Turkey, Lavrov said. The document sets out the Russian position on "all aspects of a reliable overcoming of the root causes of the crisis," he said. Ukraine's Sybiha said his side needs to see the Russian proposal before they can prepare for the negotiations and work toward a tangible outcome. Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday that Kiev has already submitted its position to Moscow. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than three years. A major prisoner exchange followed the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul on May 16. The Japanese beauty company Pola Orbis Holdings has decided to shut down Orbis Beijing Inc., the groups China subsidiary in charge of its Orbis brand. The company will also shut down the brands online retail operations. Its official Tmall store and Douyin store will stop taking orders by June 30, according to Orbis e-commerce customer service. More from WWD With the Chinese economy stagnating and competition in the e-commerce market becoming increasingly intense, it is difficult to foresee an immediate improvement in profitability, and the group has been compelled to reduce the scale of business, said the company in a press release. Pola Orbis has yet to determine the dissolution date and will be working with the local authority to complete the necessary legal procedures, according to the press release. As a result, the company will record an extraordinary loss of around 1.3 billion yen, or $8.9 million, in its consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 2025. The loss will be offset by a 1.6 billion yen, or $11 million, in corporate tax deduction, which leaves the companys overall earnings forecast, which was published in February, unchanged. The Beijing subsidiary, established in 2008, has been in charge of operating the Orbis brand in China. The company has suffered a loss for three consecutive years, from 2022 to 2024, leaving the company with net liabilities of 3.33 billion yen, or $22.9 million. Pola Orbis entered the Chinese market in 2004 by setting up a subsidiary for its Pola brand in Shanghai. In November, the company established a new subsidiary based in Japan to oversee its China business. The reorganization comes as the company moves toward its Vision 2029 strategy to develop the cosmetics business globally; reform and enhance the brand portfolio, create new value and expand business domains, and strengthen research and technical strategy, the press release noted. The J-beauty giant is not only facing trouble in China, but it is also undergoing a reorganization process to enhance brand value. In recent years, the group axed beauty brands such as H2O+, Amplitude and Itrim to focus on its flagship brands, including Pola, Orbis, Jurlique, as well as newly developed brands such as Three, Decencia, Fujima and Fiveism x Three. For the three months ended March 31, the company reported a 1 percent increase in net sales, but profit attributable to owners fell by 58.1 percent. Recent clashes between pro-government militias in Tripoli once again threatened to unravel Libyas tenuous frozen conflict. Yet beyond the headline-grabbing instability, a quieter power struggle is unfolding, one in which Turkey and Russia are emerging as the most consequential actors, with both Ankara and Moscow utilizing the countrys stalemate to entrench their own influence. From a domestic perspective, the risk of that frozen conflict heating back up became clear in May, when clashes erupted between rival militias aligned with the Government of National Unity, or GNU, under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, killing at least eight people. The fighting broke out when a militia known as the 444th Brigade turned on Dbeibah, who relies on a coalition of armed groups to stay in power. Pro-GNU security forces managed to subdue the revolt, but amid the fighting, Abdel Ghani al-Kiklithe leader of the 444th Brigadewas assassinated. Dbeibah announced a ceasefire two days after the fighting began, but anti-GNU protests broke out in the capital, marking one of the largest such demonstrations since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and further highlighting the fragility of Libyas status quo. Indeed, speculation loomed that forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar and the House of Representatives, or HoRa rival government based in Tobruk, in eastern Libyamight also intervene, which would further destabilize the capital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the political and military fault lines that divide Libya are increasingly shaped by Turkey and Russia, who have settled into what analysts characterize as a managed rivalry or adversarial collaboration, as previously seen in other theaters where their interests simultaneously collide and overlap, such as Syria and the South Caucasus. To get more in-depth news and expert analysis on global affairs from WPR, sign up for our free Daily Review newsletter. The two powers backed opposing sides during Libyas civil war, with Turkey supporting the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord until it was superseded by the GNU in March 2021, while Russia backed Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army, LNA, which fought in support of the Tobruk-based government. Nevertheless, Ankara and Moscow ultimately reached a tacit agreement not to escalate the conflict, despite deepening their economic and military engagement with their respective camps. Turkeys Outreach Turkeys military intervention in 2020 decisively shifted the balance in Libyas civil war, repelling an offensive on Tripoli launched by Haftar in April 2019 and setting the stage for the United Nations-brokered ceasefire that ended the fighting between the Tripoli and Tobruk governments later that year. Since then, Turkey has remained the GNUs key patron, supplying military equipment such as Turkish-made armored vehicles, drones, air defense systems and artillery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Turkish parliament has continued to renew the military mandate for its forces in Libya, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan citing risks to Turkish interests if the GNU were to come under renewed assault. That deep level of support was almost certainly the decisive factor allowing Dbeibah and the GNU to retain the upper hand amid the recent unrest in Tripoli. While Turkeys military intervention had guaranteed it a seat at Libyas political table, Ankara has also secured oil and gas exploration deals with successive Tripoli-based administrations, beginning with a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the GNA in 2019 and later ratified by Dbeibahs government in October 2022. Although the Tripoli Court of Appeal ruled against the deal in February 2024, the GNU ultimately overrode the courts decision. That underscores how Ankaras outreach to Tripolis powerbrokers has advanced its maritime and energy interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, even as Turkeys offshore territorial claims sparked tensions with Greece and Egypt, which said they infringed upon their own sovereignty. Moreover, Turkeys decision to side with Dbeibah in a spat with former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, who was previously a key Turkish ally, demonstrated Ankaras willingness to recalibrate quickly to maintain its influence. Indeed, beyond securing Tripoli, Ankara has also set its sights on improving its position in eastern Libya. After Storm Daniel and the collapse of Dernas dams in September 2023described as Libyas 9/11Turkey provided swift humanitarian assistance, opening channels of communication with authorities in the East. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April, too, Turkey hosted Saddam Haftarthe son of Khalifa Haftarfor meetings with the Turkish defense minister and other military officials in Ankara, where they discussed supplying equipment and providing training to LNA forces. This marked a striking shift, considering that only a few years earlier, Khalifa Haftar denounced Turkish involvement in western Libya as an occupation. Yet, with Khalifa Haftar now 81, Ankara appears to be hedging its bets by cultivating ties with Saddam, who has positioned himself as his fathers successor. Evidently, Turkey is complementing its military power in the West with soft power and defense ties in the East, which would mean that any future political solution to Libyas divisions would almost certainly necessitate Turkish engagement. Russias Ambitions Russias engagement in Libya has also been consequential, but was previously subtler. Moscow had initially maintained a modest military presence in the form of Wagner mercenaries and Syrian fighters aligned with Haftars LNA. Since the October 2020 ceasefire, Russia has deepened its footprint, while cementing considerable influence in Libyas South and East. Moscow has become more open in its ties to Haftar, particularly following the fall of former dictator Bashar Al-Assads regime in Syria. In May, both Khalifa and Saddam Haftar traveled to Moscow for Russias World War II Victory Day celebrations, where they met senior officials and discussed expanding military cooperation, for which the elder Haftar expressed his gratitude. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The deepening relationship comes at a time when Moscow is looking to reassert its Mediterranean presence following its loss of influence in Syria, which had guaranteed it an Eastern Mediterranean naval base in Tartus. In February, satellite imagery showed Russias development of the Maaten Al Sarra airbase in southern Libya, where it had shipped S-300 and S-400 air defense systems. Around 1,000 Russian military personnel have also relocated to Libya from Syria. The added forces complement the former Wagner mercenariesofficially incorporated into Russias military as the Africa Corps following Yevgeny Prighozins death in 2023who are already embedded within the LNA. Moreover, Russia reportedly seeks a naval base in Libya, with Tobruk itself cited as a potential location. Russias growing influence with the LNA would likely make approval for building a naval base easier. Haftars forces depend on Russia for their logistical networks and reportedly even require Russian approval to use certain military installations, indicating how much leverage Moscow has established over him. Yet rather than being an unconditional ally, Russia arguably views Haftar as a means to an end, a tool to maintain influence in Libya and extend its reach into Africa. Still, the fact Haftar and his son have engaged with Ankara, too, shows that the family is willing to leverage the competing powers to gain recognition. Thus, Russia and Haftars ties can be deemed a marriage of convenience. Indeed, like Turkey, Russia has also looked to the rival camp to hedge its bets. Moscows outreach to Tripoli has gained momentum over the past two years, with a delegation traveling to Tripoli to meet with GNU officialsincluding Dbeibahas recently as April. Beyond potentially allowing Moscow to use western Libya as a launchpad for power projection deeper into Africa, this balancing act advances Russias energy interests, as Russian firms are now in talks with the Tripoli-based Presidential Council, which is aligned with the GNU, for exploration deals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russias entrenched role serves as a geopolitical bargaining chip, compelling European powers to engage with Moscow and advancing President Vladimir Putins stated vision of a multipolar world order. There is also a potential risk of Russia of weaponizing Libyas energy sector; Haftar has previously blockaded oil facilities to pressure Tripoli, a tactic Moscow could exploit to disrupt or manipulate European energy supplies. Even short of active sabotage, a future Russian naval base in Libya would almost certainly raise alarm in European capitals. Yet all of this would likely be consolidated within a frozen conflict, one increasingly sustained by competing Russian and Turkish involvement. Europe on the Sidelines Still, the balance is increasingly tilting in Ankaras favor. Thats showcased by how European states, which have remained reactive to events in Libya, have shifted their approach toward Turkey, especially in light of U.S. President Donald Trumps shaky support for NATO and Ukraine. While France was long a vocal critic of Turkish influence in the Eastern Mediterranean, it has softened its criticism of Ankaras foreign policy moves in recent years. Moreover, under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Italy has deepened engagement with Turkey, viewing Ankara as indispensable to securing its goals in Libya of stemming migration and securing energy contracts. This was highlighted in Melonis meeting with Erdogan on April 30, which also saw the two sides strengthen defense ties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Washington has largely disengaged from Libyas conflict, aside from recent inflammatory suggestions that it would relocate migrants and even displaced Palestinians from Gaza to Libya. Both proposals were swiftly condemned, in part due to the countrys lack of security and high risk of human trafficking. With Western involvement waning, any U.N.-backed efforts to unify the rival administrations under a single government, push for domestic reform or hold elections will almost certainly require Turkish buy-in. Persuading Moscow to scale back support for Haftar and relinquish its strategic foothold in the Mediterranean and Africa, will prove far more difficult. One pragmatic antidote to the stalemate could be deeper Western coordination with Turkey on Libya, aimed at forging a political solution. Yet with European Union member states showing varying appetites for engaging with Ankara, combined with Washingtons continued detachment, Turkey is likely to maintain its adversarial collaboration with Moscow. Turkey and Russia will likely continue their delicate balancing act and avoid risking direct confrontation. After all, the May 26 meeting in Moscow between President Putin and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan underscored their shared interest in maintaining communication, particularly over Ukraine and Black Sea stability, and avoiding a deeper rupture in ties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for Libya, a continued stalemate risks entrenching the countrys divisions rather than resolving them. If so, Mays clashes, like last years tensions in Tripoli that rattled oil markets and threatened Libyas banking system, may end up being a preview of even worse instability ahead. Jonathan Fenton-Harvey is a British analyst and journalist whose work has focused largely on Gulf Cooperation Council affairs, as well as geopolitical and economic issues pertaining to the wider Middle East and Indo-Pacific. He has worked with or written for a wide range of think tanks and publications based in the U.S., the U.K. and the Middle East. The post Turkey and Russia Hold the Keys to Libyas Future appeared first on World Politics Review. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday after meeting with Ukraines Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, has said that Russias war against Ukraine is approaching a turning point. Source: Ukrinform, as reported by European Pravda Quote: "We are approaching a turning point in the war. As noted at the beginning of the talks held in Istanbul on 16 May, we have two paths: either we close our eyes to the continuation of this war, or we achieve lasting peace within this year." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Fidan reported that the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, which took place in May, added a new dimension to diplomatic efforts. Turkiye also considers the prisoner exchange following the Istanbul meeting a sign that negotiations can lead to concrete results. The minister also noted that Russia announced its readiness to continue negotiations on 2 June, and now the exchange of views on the next meeting is taking place in Kyiv. "We believe that the next round is possible on the basis of a fundamental decision taken by the parties in Istanbul. We are ready for the next meetings... We want the war between Ukraine and Russia to end fairly and finally as soon as possible," Fidan said. Background: Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported that Fidan spoke in Kyiv about the results of his visit to Moscow. On 26-27 May, Turkiyes foreign minister visited Moscow, where he met with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and the chief Russian diplomat at the Istanbul talks, Vladimir Medinsky. Fidan also held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. On Thursday 29 May, Erdogan urged Russia and Ukraine not to close the door on dialogue ahead of a likely meeting between representatives of both countries on Monday in Istanbul. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has welcomed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Kyiv on 30 May after the ministers visit to Moscow this week. In Kyiv, the Turkish diplomat shared the results of negotiations in Russia. Source: European Pravda, citing the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Details: The ministers discussed in detail the bilateral and international agenda, the peace process, and the need for a complete ceasefire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Minister Fidan has just returned from Moscow and informed me in detail about what he heard and saw there. We discussed steps that will bring peace to Ukraine," Sybiha said. Details: The ministers paid special attention to the issue of security in the Black Sea region, the Foreign Ministry noted. "Ukraine and Turkiye have a common goal: the Black Sea should be a space of peace, free trade and freedom of navigation," he added. The diplomats also discussed joint work on the implementation of the agreements following the results of the first meeting of the Ukrainian-Turkish working group on reconstruction. In addition, Sybiha expressed special gratitude to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his role in peace efforts. "We appreciate that Turkiye unconditionally supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, in particular the return of Crimea, and also defends the rights of the Crimean Tatar people," the minister said. Background: On 26-27 May, Turkiyes foreign minister was in Moscow, where he met Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Russias chief negotiator for the Istanbul talks, Vladimir Medinsky. Fidan also held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia proposed that the second round of negotiations with Ukraine be held in Istanbul on 2 June, said Lavrov. At the same time, Kyiv noted that, to achieve results at the meeting, it needs to review Russias "peace memorandum" in advance. On Thursday 29 May, Erdogan urged Russia and Ukraine not to close the door on dialogue ahead of a likely meeting between representatives of both countries on Monday in Istanbul. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! JACKSON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) Soon, Jackson County residents will have the opportunity to give their input on a proposed Pumped Storage Hydro project. On June 12, TVA will host a public meeting from 6 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12, 2025, at Pisgah High School located at 60 Metcalf Street, Pisgah, Alabama, 35765. The Pumped Storage Hydro, or PSH, stores energy by pumping water to a higher elevation and releasing it back through turbines when energy demand is high. TVA currently operates a PSH facility near Chattanooga, Tenn., the 1,700-megawatt Raccoon Mountain . Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The public is encouraged to provide input on TVAs Pumped Storage Hydropower Draft Environmental Impact Statement, either at the public meeting, online or through the mail. You can find the DEIS on the TVA website. All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the administrative record and will be available for public inspection, TVA said. You can submit comments on the DEIS in person at the public meeting or via email to nepa@tva.gov . TVA said that any written comments should be sent to this address: Tennessee Valley Authority, ATTN: Elizabeth Smith, NEPA Specialist, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT-11D, Knoxville, TN 37902. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The public can provide feedback on the four options for the project below: Alternative A (No Action) TVA would not develop or expand PSH facilities at any of the project sites. TVA would continue to operate the existing Raccoon Mountain PSH with no changes to current operations. Alternative B TVA would build a new PSH located at Rorex Creek, near Pisgah, Alabama. The company said it would have an energy generation capacity ranging from 1,200 megawatts up to 1,600 megawatts. The TVA said this is the companys preferred alternative. Alternative C A new PSH located at Widows Creek, near Stevenson and Fabius, Alabama with an energy generation capacity ranging from 1,200 megawatt (MW) up to 1,600 MW. Alternative D An 800-MW expansion of the existing Raccoon Mountain PSH, located near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DEIS comments must be received or postmarked no later than July 14, 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 WHNT.com. Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. KEARNS, Utah (ABC4) The two 18-year-olds arrested in connection with a shooting in the Kearns High School parking lot that left a 17-year-old dead have been charged. Brandon Ray Hollins, 18, was arrested days after the shooting and faced a murder charge. However, now that charges have officially been filed, the Salt Lake County District Attorneys Office did not charge him with murder. He is instead charged with two counts of felony aggravated robbery, one count of felony discharge of a firearm with serious bodily injury, and one count of capital felony obstruction of justice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tesfaye Mebratu Shabi, 18, was also initially arrested on a murder and aggravated robbery charge. The DA also declined to file a murder charge against Shabi. He has been charged with two counts of felony aggravated robbery, one count of capital felony obstruction of justice, and one count of felony discharge of a firearm. The Unified Police Department previously told ABC4 that the adult man who fatally shot the 17-year-old victim did so in self-defense and will not be facing any charges connected to his death. PREVIOUSLY: Teen arrested for murder at Kearns High School parking lot Suspects connected to a previous gang shooting According to documents, police involvement began one month earlier than the shooting in the Kearns High School parking lot. On April 16, 2025, officers were called to Granite Credit Union in Millcreek on reports of shots fired. Shell casings were located nearby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later that night, a then 17-year-old a different 17-year-old than the one later killed in the shooting at the high school, who we will refer to as a survivor for clarity was taken to St. Marks Hospital and appeared to be dropped off by two strangers in a white van. The officer who watched surveillance video saw him crawl out of the sedan and onto the ground, and he had a gunshot wound to his left leg. The 17-year-old survivor told police that he and his friends, Hollins and Shabi, had used Snapchat to meet up with another group at the Granite Credit Union and buy cannabis vape carts from them. He told police things escalated, and that Hollins was the one to drive him to the hospital. The group selling the carts told police that when one of them exited the vehicle to meet with Hollins and his group, someone popped up at the car window with a gun and demanded that they empty their pockets. They got back in the car and fled the parking lot, hearing a gunshot after them. Surveillance video showed that struggle happened in the parking lot, and a flash of a gunshot is seen, which struck the 17-year-old survivor in the leg. He would later tell police that only Hollins had a gun at the altercation, and he was shot during a struggle after someone from the other group tried to wrestle it out of Hollins hands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 17-year-old killed in shooting at Kearns High School What happened the night of the deadly shooting During an interview after the deadly May 18 shooting, the 17-year-old survivor told police that another 17-year-old who we will refer to as the victim for clarity came to pick him up with Hollins and Shabi. The group were talking about going to a party and were driving around in a gray Honda Accord late Saturday or early Sunday night. Hollins was driving with Shabi in the passenger seat, and the two 17-year-olds were in the backseat. He told police that the 17-year-old victim wanted to cop some bottles, meaning purchase alcohol, and they went to the Kearns High School parking lot to meet up with someone. The 17-year-old survivor said he wasnt aware of what they were doing, but that they put on their ski masks and got out of the vehicle; he and Hollins stayed in the car. Surveillance video from the parking lot showed a gold Malibu enter the parking lot, and a short time later, a gray sedan arrived. An adult exited the Malibu and opened the trunk. Two individuals could then be seen rushing out of the gray sedan and rushing toward the Malibu driver. Detectives say they saw a scuffle, and then one individual running away while firing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syracuse police release photo of assault suspect, provide update According to documents, detectives saw the driver of the gray sedan exit and appear to touch or take things from [the victim] on the ground. Then, the three occupants of the vehicle sped away from the parking lot, leaving the 17-year-old victim behind. The Unified Police Department was called to the scene of the shooting. Officers say that they located the 17-year-old victim upon arrival, lying near the Malibu with a single gunshot wound to his chest. He was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Another officer, who was driving to the school to respond, noticed a man running in a crosswalk near the high school. The man, later identified as the adult who shot the 17-year-old, flagged the officer down. He told police, He tried to rob me with a big *** AR, and I shot his ***! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The adult man told police that he had discarded his gun on the side of the road. According to him, he had been contacted on Instagram to meet someone at Kearns High School and sell them bottles of champagne. When he arrived, he opened the trunk and waited for the other party to arrive. Man who allegedly held Millcreek family hostage for months charged with 13 felonies According to him, the adult man knew it was a robbery when he saw them exit the vehicle with ski masks. He closed his trunk, but he felt a handgun against the right side of his head. He heard one of them say, Give it up, we gonna kill you. The adult man said he then started shooting and running away. As he was running away, the adult man said he heard someone shout ah but he continued running and hid in a backyard across the street and up the hill. When he finally left his hiding spot, he flagged down the police officer. He told police that he believed the men were going to kill him, so he shot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Unified Police Department used surveillance footage to find the three individuals with the 17-year-old victim that night. During an interview with the 17-year-old survivor, he told police that the 17-year-old victim had an AR pistol, and Shabi had a glock. Kearns man charged with alleged kidnapping and sexual assault of 16-year-old girl He told police that Shabi had taken the handgun and hidden it in his bedroom air vent. Police located a Taurus handgun consistent with a bullet hole found on the gold Malibu during a search on his residence. A search of Hollins residence located the gray sedan with damage consistent with the vehicles appearance on surveillance footage. They also found a bullet hole on the front side of the sedan and an AR pistol in Hollins bedroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hollins and Shabi are both being held at the Salt Lake County Metro Jail without bail. Their initial appearances are set for June 3. 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. A man drowned while trying to rescue an angler who had fallen into the harbour basin in the north-eastern German town of Wolgast, authorities said. According to witnesses, the 27-year-old angler fell into the water Thursday evening and disappeared beneath the surface, police said. A group of passers-by saw the incident and a 40-year-old man jumped in to help but also failed to resurface. Emergency services launched an extensive search operation involving a helicopter, three boats, lifeguards, divers and thermal imaging drones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After about two and a half hours, police said both men were located and their lifeless bodies were pulled from the water by divers. Neither could be revived. Authorities have launched an investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the accident. ST. LOUIS Two men were shot and killed in the citys Walnut Park West neighborhood on Tuesday. St. Louis Metropolitan Police responded to a shooting around 3 a.m. on Tuesday in the 6000 block of Thekla. When they arrived, they found Shiquan Washington, 24, and Donovan Whitt, 37, both suffering from gunshot wounds inside a wrecked sedan at Lillian and Woodstock avenues. Big Give Back initiative turns parking lot into lifeline for tornado victims Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The men were taken to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police said an investigation is still ongoing. Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call the Homicide Division at 314-444-5371. Anyone with a tip who wants to remain anonymous and is interested in a cash reward can contact CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (8477). 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. ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. Two teenagers have been charged as adults after they allegedly plotted a robbery in north St. Louis County last year that led to another teenagers death, investigators say. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorneys Office has charged Zeon McDaniel and Kylen Evans, both 17 and from Florissant, Missouri, each with second-degree murder, first-degree attempted robbery and armed criminal action in connection with the case. Donate here: Help support St. Louis storm victims Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McDaniel and Evan are both accused in the death of 18-year-old Jacob Bell, who was shot, then crashed his car moments later before he died from his injuries. The events occurred on October 26, 2024, near the intersection of Dawson Place and Jennings Station Road. According to court documents obtained by FOX 2, police responded to the scene and found Bell suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds after he crashed into a utility pole. Bell was rushed to a hospital for treatment, but he later died from his injuries. Several weeks later, investigators developed McDaniel and Evans as potential suspects. A forensic review of their social media accounts revealed the two planned to rob Bell, while phone records placed both suspects at the scene at the time of the shooting. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Court documents allege that McDaniel and Evans agreed to meet the victim at a pre-planned meeting spot. A nearby doorbell camera reportedly captured two suspects and a vehicle matching their descriptions. Witnesses reported hearing a gunshot and seeing two individuals running away from the scene together. Prosecutors formally filed charges against McDaniel and Evans on Thursday. Both were booked into jail in St. Louis County on a $750,000 bond, per Missouri court records. 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. Jamaica is a popular travel destination for many people from the United States. The all-inclusive resorts and beaches draw a lot of people to the locale. However, if you're going to be traveling to Jamaica, it's worth checking out the U.S. Department of State's travel "warning" on the country. The State Department frequently reviews and even revises its travel advisories, and the agency did so for Jamaica on May 29, 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jamaica is listed as "Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution" by the Department of States. However, that's down from a Level 3 advisory just 10 days before. That advisory had urged people to reconsider traveling to the popular Caribbean nation. Although lower in severity, the new alert does warn travelers of possible issues in Jamaica. "Some areas have increased risk. Consider crime and limited medical services. Read the entire Travel Advisory," the State Department wrote. "While violent crime in Jamaica has decreased since 2024, it remains statistically high throughout the country. Tourist areas generally see lower rates of violent crime than other parts of the country," the advisory says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The homicide rate reported by the Government of Jamaica is among the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Armed robberies and sexual assaults are common. U.S. embassy employees are prohibited from using public buses and from driving between cities at night," it continues. "The U.S. Embassy routinely receives reports of sexual assaults, including from U.S. citizen tourists at resorts. U.S. citizens report slow or unsatisfactory response to serious criminal incidents. When arrests are made, cases are infrequently prosecuted to a final verdict and sentence," the advisory continues. There are also issues with medical care. "U.S. citizens should not expect the same level of health care available in Jamaica as is available in the United States. This includes slower emergency service response times and less availability of care for illness or injury," the State Department says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Private hospitals require payment up front before admitting patients and may not have the ability to provide specialized care. Ambulance services are not always staffed with EMTs and are not always readily available, especially in rural areas. U.S. citizens should bring extra prescription medication as common medications, such as insulin, can be difficult to obtain." U.S. Announces New Travel 'Warning' for Major Beach Destination first appeared on Men's Journal on May 30, 2025 In a research note on May 27, Jefferies increased its price target on Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) to $410 from $400, reiterating its Buy rating on the stock. The move follows stronger quarter-to-date trends and diminishing concerns over U.S. inbound travel, which had previously been flagged as a potential headwind. In a note to investors, the firm said Visa and Mastercard both appear to be on solid footing, with little near-term controversy or debate surrounding their fundamentals. This confidence stems from improved transaction trends and steady cross-border volumes, signaling resilience in the payments sector. Jefferies Raises Visa (V) Price Target, Maintains Buy Rating However, Jefferies also pointed out that much of the recent optimism may already be reflected in both companies strong year-to-date stock performance and elevated valuations. As a result, while the underlying business trends remain healthy, the firm acknowledged that the near-term upside for Visa shares may be less straightforward from here. Still, Jefferies views Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) as well-positioned in the long term, supported by its global reach, robust payment infrastructure, and exposure to ongoing growth in digital commerce. With travel-related concerns easing and consumer spending holding up, Visa remains a core holding for investors looking to tap into the broader shift toward electronic payments. While we acknowledge the potential of V 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 V and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now and 11 Oversold Global Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds Disclosure: None. HERMITAGE, Tenn. (WKRN) A woman wanted in Idaho for violating conditions of her parole was taken into custody Friday morning at a Hermitage business, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. A warrant for the arrest of 35-year-old Brittany Marie Wilson was reportedly issued by the State of Idaho Commission of Pardon and Parole on April 30. CRIME TRACKER | Read the latest crime-related reports from across Middle Tennessee Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said Wilson was wanted for violating the conditions of her parole after being convicted of sexual abuse, exploitation of vulnerable adults, and video voyeurism. Earlier this month, officials in Idaho learned that Wilson was residing in the Nashville area, which led them to request assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service Middle Tennessee Fugitive Task Force with finding and apprehending the 35-year-old. On Friday, May 30, the Middle Tennessee Task Force reportedly found Wilson at a business on Lebanon Pike in Hermitage. She was arrested without incident and taken to Metro Jail. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com The U.S. Marshals Service is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities by apprehending dangerous fugitives, wrote the agency in a release about the arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Records show Wilson was booked on a fugitive from justice charge. She now awaits extradition back to Idaho. No additional details about the incident were immediately released. 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. SUNBURY, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is seeking the publics assistance in locating the suspect in a Sunbury homicide that occurred at the courthouse and is offering a $2,500 reward. 26-year-old Denarii Springs has a warrant for homicide and other related charges for his alleged involvement in a shooting at the courthouse in Sunbury. Two other men, Naseir Robinson and Carnel Shelbourne Jr., have both pleaded guilty in relation to the shooting for terroristic threats and false reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Residents report citrus odor from kratom plant Springs is approximately 62 and weighs approximately 200 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. Springs has known connections to the Bronx, NY area. He is also associated with addresses in northeastern Pennsylvania, specifically Northumberland County. The USMS says Springs should be considered armed and dangerous. 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 28/22 News. The U.S. Navy has been party to some of historys largest maritime military operations including, in modern times, World War IIs Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Battle of Midway. But the largest airstrike from an aircraft carrier in naval history belongs to 2025. On Feb. 1, the USS Harry S. Truman and its strike group launched the largest airstrike in the history of the world from an aircraft carrier during recent operations near Somalia, Stars and Stripes reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About 125,000 pounds of munitions were fired into the African country, U.S. Navy Adm. James Kilby, the acting chief of naval operations, said earlier this month while speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations Robert B. McKeon Endowed Series on Military Strategy and Leadership. Navy Times reported that the USS Harry S. Truman a Nimitz class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier launched 27 F/A-18 Super Hornets as part of a coordinated airstrike against Islamic State operatives in Somalia in collaboration with the federal government of Somalia. Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. | Darko Bandic The joint airstrikes targeted senior IS leadership in Somalia in a series of cave complexes approximately 50 miles southeast of Bosaso. The command reported that approximately 14 ISIS-Somalia operatives were killed and no civilians were harmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among those killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, a key IS recruiter, financier, and external operations leader responsible for the deployment of jihadists into the United States and across Europe. Degrading ISIS and other terrorist organizations ability to plot and conduct attacks that threaten the U.S. homeland, our partners, and civilians remains central to U.S. Africa Commands mission, the report added. Over the years, U.S. Navy airstrikes against IS militants in Somalia have been relatively rare compared with those against the al-Shabab group, the largest terrorist organization in the country. However, there are indications that IS in Somalia is expanding, according to Stars and Stripes. Analysts estimate the IS ranks in Somalia at 1,000 members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a visit earlier this year to U.S. Africa Command headquarters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the massive Somalia airstrikes were an example of commanders now having more decision-making authority on such matters, Stars and Stripes reported. Thats a reflection of pushing authority down (and) untying the hands of warfighters, Hegseth said. (Such decisions) should be made at the four-star level or at the Secretary of Defense level more quickly based on the ability to degrade the enemy. Past large-scale U.S. airstrikes, like those conducted during Operation Desert Storm, involved multiple aircraft carriers and air wings, which would fly joint missions. But the Feb. 1 strike was unique in that it was conducted by a single air wing, according to Navy Times. An eventful, costly extended-deployment for the USS Truman The USS Truman arrived in the Red Sea on Dec. 14, 2024, to provide combat support against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, whove conducted missile and drone strikes against shipping and military vessels in the region since November 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While there, Carrier Air Wing 1, composed of eight embarked squadrons aboard the Truman, reportedly took part in operations striking over 1,100 targets. The strikes killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and multiple senior Houthi officials, Navy Times reported. Beyond its sizable combat activities, the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Groups eight-month deployment, which is arriving home this week at various homeports, encountered several challenges. In February, the Truman collided with a merchant ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The aircraft carrier suffered structural damage, and its commanding officer was relieved of duty, Virginias WVEC-TV reported. This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows exterior damage of the USS Harry S. Truman, viewed from a ship's rigid-hull inflatable boat following a collision with merchant vessel Besiktas-M, Feb. 12, 2025, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt. | Cody Beam The strike group also saw the loss of three F/A-18 Super Hornets during this deployment. The first happened in December, when one of the fighter jets was shot down in a friendly fire incident. Both Naval aviators were able to eject from the jet and were recovered safely. One of them sustained minor injuries, according to U.S. Central Command. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On April 28, another F/A-18 fell into the Red Sea as it was being towed by a tow craft. Then, just over a week later, an F/A-18 was coming in for landing on the aircraft carrier when the Navy said a failed arrestment occurred, leading to the fighter jet falling off the deck of the carrier and into the water, according to the WVEC-TV report. Both pilots in the jet ejected safely and suffered minor injuries. No one on the flight deck was hurt. The aircraft cost around $60 million each. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on May 30 to discuss joint efforts to counter Chinas growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. The high-level talks underscore Americas deepening military cooperation with Manila as tensions escalate in contested South China Sea waters. The meeting built upon prior discussions held in Manila on March 28, when Hegseth reaffirmed Americas commitment to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty the cornerstone of what officials describe as the ironclad U.S.-Philippines alliance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hegseth praised the Philippines for standing firm against Chinas aggressive tactics targeting lawful Philippine maritime activities. The Defense Department noted that the two leaders celebrated the recent conclusion of Exercise BALIKATAN. This years iteration marked the largest and most complex joint training exercise in the alliances history. The massive war games showcased Americas deployment of increasingly sophisticated military hardware to the region. Advanced systems included the Typhon missile system and the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System. The exercises also featured highly capable unmanned surface vessels, signaling a new era of autonomous warfare. Both secretaries emphasized how such joint training enhances deterrence against potential Chinese aggression and committed to continued progress in strengthening defense cooperation between their nations. The leaders stressed the importance of partnership and transparency in their approach to deterring China. Their discussions focused on practical steps to further enhance alliance readiness across the Pacific theater. President Donald Trump said China is violating a deal struck with the U.S. earlier this month to lower their respective tariffs temporarily and de-escalate a trade war to let negotiations play out. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who helped clinch that agreement in Switzerland, said China is still restricting the flow of key minerals. U.S. negotiations with China became increasingly public, with President Donald Trump accusing Beijing of violating a trade deal that was struck earlier this month. After talks in Geneva, Switzerland, both sides agreed on May 12 to slash their respective tariffs from prohibitively high levels for 90 days to let negotiations continue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US, Trump wrote in a social media post on Friday. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY! His tough talk comes after Wall Street has learned to expect a quick retreat from his harsh measures in whats been dubbed TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out. Notably, Trump did not threaten to hike tariffs on China again. Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of International Trade invalidated the extensive tariffs he rolled out on Liberation Day, though an appeals court reinstated them with the case likely heading to the Supreme Court. By contrast, he accused the European Union of slow-walking trade talks last Friday and announced a 50% tariff, then said on Sunday that it would be delayed to July 9. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similarly, the Trump administration claims China is dragging its feet on trade talks. On Friday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who helped clinch the agreement with China in Geneva, said China is slow rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable and has to be addressed. In particular, he claimed Beijing has not followed through on withdrawing additional retaliation to earlier U.S. tariffs, such as curbing exports of rare earths that are critical to the tech, auto, aerospace, and defense sectors. You can just read in the news that China continues to you know slow down and choke off things like critical minerals and rare earth magnets, Greer told CNBC on Friday. Like Trump, he also did not threaten punitive action to get China to increase its exports of rare earths. Instead, he said, were trying to work through that with them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, the Trump administration has imposed export curbs of its own this week, restricting critical U.S. technologies such as those related to jet engines, chips, as well as certain chemicals and machinery. Those are reportedly in response to Chinas lack of mineral exports. In a response to Trumps social-media post and Greers comments, a spokesperson for Chinas embassy in the U.S. pointed to Trumps trade restrictions. Recently, China has repeatedly raised concerns with the US regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices, Liu Pengyu told Fortune in a statement. China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Say goodbye to your penny jar. The United States Treasury has put in its final order of pennies, and production is expected to end early next year. The demise stems from an order in early February by President Donald Trump. The result: No more penny-pinching, forget about getting a penny for your thoughts, and Ben Franklin's quote about a penny saved being a penny earned may confuse future generations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's what you should know. When will this happen? Although production will cease, the coins will still qualify as U.S. currency. Stores will still be able to accept them, and consumers should still be able to use them in cash transactions. Why are pennies leaving? Pennies cost about 3.7 cents apiece to produce, according to the 2024 U.S. Mint annual report. On his Truth Social website, Trump said the production is wasteful. Nickels are produced at even more of a loss. In 2024, they cost 13.8 cents to make, according to the U.S. Mint report. Dimes, quarters and half-dollars still cost less than face value to produce. The Department of Treasury has said removing the penny would save the government $56 million a year in material costs, according to multiple sources. What will change as they fade away? Many businesses with cash transactions will likely round to the nearest nickel. What happens to your old pennies? James Sego, president of the Professional Numismatists Guild, a non-profit organization focusing on rare coins and paper money, told the Journal Sentinel that even after it stops being used in stores, a penny will still only be worth a penny. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They're probably not worth keeping in hopes that they may go up in value, because there's just too much supply out there," Sego said. Sego recommends that people with large amounts of pennies cash them in at a bank. "The reality is everybody has a giant jar of pennies at home. I don't know one person that doesn't. A big jar is worth $50 or maybe even $100," Sego said. What is the coin's history? First issued in 1793, the penny is one of the oldest coins produced by the U.S. Mint, which itself was established just a year earlier. The original coin was larger than the currrent one, and made of pure copper, according to the Mint. It featured a woman's head with flowing hair, signifying Lady Liberty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Multiple changes to the design have occurred through the decades. The head of Abraham Lincoln has been on one side since 1909; the "Union shield" has been on the other side since 2010. Have other countries done this? Canada ended its penny production in 2012 and Australia stopping minting one- and two-cent coins in 1992, according to Govmint website. New Zealand has stopped minting its one-cent, two-cent and five-cent coins, Govmint said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: US penny is being discontinued. What you should know about the coin The United States Department of State has updated its travel warning for a major destination. The country of Brazil now has a "Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution" travel advisory, which was updated on May 29, 2025 to add a risk warning for kidnapping. That same day, the U.S. also announced a new travel advisory for Jamaica. "Exercise increased caution in Brazil due to crime and kidnapping. Some areas have increased risk. Read the entire Travel Advisory," the State Department travel advisory for Brazil says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The warning urges people not to travel to the following areas due to crime: "Anywhere within 160 km/100 miles of Brazils land borders with Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. This restriction does not apply to the Foz do Iguacu National Park or Pantanal National Park." "Informal housing developments, such as favelas, vilas, comunidades, or conglomerados, at any time." "Brasilias 'Satellite Cities' at night. This includes Ceilandia, Santa Maria, Sao Sebastiao, and Paranoa." "Violent crime, including murder, armed robbery, and carjacking, can occur in urban areas, day and night. There was a kidnapping for ransom of U.S. travelers. Gang activity and organized crime are widespread and often tied to the recreational drug trade," the advisory says. "Assaults, including with sedatives and drugs placed in drinks, are common, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Criminals target foreigners through dating apps or at bars before drugging and robbing their victims. U.S. government employees are advised not to use municipal buses in Brazil because of a serious risk of robbery and assault, especially at night," it adds. Related: U.S. Announces Travel Warning That Urges Immediate Action U.S. Updates Travel Warning for Brazil first appeared on Men's Journal on May 30, 2025 SAN DIEGO (FOX5/KUSI) The future of many international students is in jeopardy again as the Trump administration halted interviews for student visas and announced it will revoke visas of Chinese nationals. The latest moves are impacting students at UC San Diego. Its just scary to think that if I came to UCSD next year, even if I got in, I wouldnt be able to come just because of the visa, said Rei Ishikawa, an international student from Japan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ishikawa said his interview process was fairly simple and included questions about what he wanted to study and his future career goals. San Diego international students stripped of visa have records restored The U.S. State Department temporarily halted those interviews while it works to expand its screening policies to include reviewing social media activity. People are scared to speak or post on social media in case they say the wrong thing, said Ishikawa. The State Department said it also plans to revise the criteria for future applicants from the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong after it announced it will revoke visas for Chinese students. They include those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or who are studying in critical fields. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I mean, what country is next? Which people are going to be booted next? Ishikawa questioned. In a statement about the halt, the University of California says it is very concerned, saying in part: It is critical that interviews resume as quickly as possible to ensure that applicants are able to go through the process and receive their visas on time so they can pursue their education. In April, the Trump administration revoked dozens of student visas at UC San Diego, but later reinstated some. My roommate came home one day and was just distraught because he got this call from the UCSD office that deals with this and he was told that his visa was revoked, said Ryan Peng, a recent graduate. He added that his roommates visa was reinstated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he thinks the Trump administration has the right to determine who comes into the country, but he believes there is some ambiguity. The process of my roommate getting reinstated also seemed confusing to the lawyers he talked to, so I hope there is some clarity in this situation moving forward, Peng said. There is no word yet on when student visa interviews will resume or how many Chinese international students at UC San Diego will be impacted by the Trump administrations latest move. 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. Russia launched over 900 drones against Ukraine over the course of three nights of aerial attacks from 23 to 26 May. This marked the largest combined attack in recent months and the most extensive use of loitering munitions since the war began. Source: UK Defence Intelligence update dated 30 May on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda Details: UK intelligence reports that Russias nighttime attacks from 23 to 26 May constituted the most extensive use of loitering munitions against Ukraine since the war began. These drone strikes were coupled with other weapons used by Russian forces, with many targeting Kyiv. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, Russia used more than 900 attack drones over the course of these three days. Moreover, strategic aircraft were employed to launch missiles on 25 and 26 May, marking the first instance of those warplanes being used on two consecutive days since August 2024. UK intelligence also noted that the previous use of Russian Long-Range Aviation (LRA) for a combined aerial attack occurred on 24 April. "Russia's post-strike rebuilding of its stockpile enables LRA to sit ready to conduct strikes such as these with little to no notice, at a time of Russias choosing," the update concludes. Background: One of the previous UK Defence Intelligence updates mentioned Russian general Sergei Surovikin, who disappeared after Yevgeny Prigozhin's death and recently appeared in a photo posted by the Russian Embassy in Algeria. [Prigozhin was the Wagner Group financier who led a failed mutiny in June 2023, during which he accused Russias military leadership of betraying Wagner fighters and briefly advanced towards Moscow before standing down after negotiations ed.] Earlier, UK intelligence suggested that Russia could suffer record losses in the war against Ukraine in 2025. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Says We Have No Idea Whats Really Going To Happen and Discusses These 12 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) is a mega-American hospital operator. Unlike its peer Tenet Healthcare, Cramer has discussed the firm in 2025. He remarked in March that he believed the shares had been punished enough. Since Cramers comments, HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)s shares have gained 11.9%. The stock jumped by 4.9% in mid-May as while Republicans did share their estimates to reduce healthcare spending, the reduction wasnt as drastic as some feared. However, a drop in spending is still on Cramers mind when it comes to HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA). Heres what he said: The ones Im [inaudible] worried about, Im worried about HCA. . .on the cutback in Medicaid. Because [it thrives] on Medicaid. . . .because theyre gonna delay reimbursement or theyre going to lower reimbursement. Because Medicaid, Medicaid is cut back. Jim Cramer Is Worried About HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) Due To Medicaid Cuts A team of healthcare professionals in lab coats and masks meeting at a hospital ward. L1 Capital mentioned HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in its Q1 2025 investor letter. Here is what the firm said: HCA Healthcare, Inc.s (NYSE:HCA) share price partially rebounded in the March 2025 Quarter, and was the only company to positively contribute over 1% to the Funds quarterly returns. We outlined in the December 2024 Quarterly Report that HCAs share price had over reacted to concerns that healthcare policy under the Trump administration would be materially adverse for HCA. We took advantage of the market concerns to add to our investment in HCA at a share price well below our assessment of fair value, and it was pleasing to see a partial recovery in the share price during the March 2025 quarter. Six other companies each positively contributed 0.5% or greater to the Funds returns, across a diverse range of industries. We believe our unique approach to assessing quality businesses of varying size across a number of diversified sectors provides the opportunity to deliver strong risk adjusted returns in a range of market conditions. Overall, HCA ranks 2nd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of HCA, 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 HCA and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. Ukraines Cabinet of Ministers (government) on 30 May approved the countrys next negotiating positions for joining the EU in two clusters. Source: Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a government meeting, as reported by European Pravda Details: Shmyhal noted that these are negotiating positions for cluster 2, "Internal Market", and cluster 6, "External Relations". He noted that the second cluster covers key areas of the EU Single Market, from the free movement of goods, services, labour and capital to competition rules and consumer protection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sixth cluster defines Ukraines role in the EUs common foreign policy, security and defence, including its contribution to Europes stability and protection against the Russian threat. Shmyhal stressed that these official documents containing Ukrainian proposals determine priorities and obligations on the path to EU membership. Background: 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 been taken, although officials are avoiding public statements on the matter. On 27 May, Janos Boka, Hungary's Minister for European Union Affairs, said that Hungary would continue to block Ukraines EU accession due to espionage concerns. Read also: "Plan B" for Ukraine's EU accession: how Brussels is preparing to overcome Hungary's veto Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! May 30 (UPI) -- Ukraine said it will not send a delegation for peace talks to Istanbul Monday until Russia provides details of its cease-fire proposal. Ukraine accused Russia, which has said it will send a delegation to Istanbul for the talks, of stalling in peace negotiations. "Russia is dragging out the war and doing everything to simply deceive countries that are still trying to influence Moscow with words, not pressure. Words with Moscow do not work. Even the so-called "memorandum" that they promised and supposedly prepared for more than a week has not yet been seen by anyone," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video posted to the presidential website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a joint press conference with Turkey's foreign minister, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia must accept an unconditional cease-fire. Ukraine has sent cease-fire proposal details to Russia. "We are interested in seeing these meetings continue because we want the war to end this year," Sybiha said. The Monday Istanbul meeting will not include Zelensky or Russian President Vladimir Putin. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian cease-fire proposal memo will be delivered at the Monday Istanbul meeting. He said it will focus on overcoming what he termed the "root causes" of the war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lavrov proposed a second round of Istanbul talks for June 2. Ukraine has not yet committed to that proposed meeting. "They are doing everything to make the meetings empty. And this is another reason to have sufficient sanctions - sufficient pressure on Russia," Zelensky said of Russia. The United States, France, Germany and Britain are all sending security advisors to the Monday Istanbul talks as Ukraine awaits details from Russia about its cease-fire proposal. Ukraine's position is that it must see details of the Russian cease-fire proposal before the next peace talks session happens. By Christian Lowe, Dmitry Antonov and Anastasiia Malenko KYIV/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Ukraine resisted U.S. and Russian pressure to commit to attending another round of peace talks on Monday, saying it first needed to see Russian proposals, while a leading U.S. senator warned Moscow it would be "hit hard" by new U.S. sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end their three-year-old war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kyiv has said it is committed to the search for peace, but that it was waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side setting out their proposals. "For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X on Friday after hosting Turkey's foreign minister for talks in Kyiv. "Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results," he said, citing the lack of a document from Russia. Delegations from the two countries met in Istanbul on May 16 but the session yielded little other than an agreement for a prisoner exchange. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zelenskiy said he and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday discussed in a phone call the conditions under which Ukraine would participate in the Monday meeting proposed by Russia. "There must be a ceasefire to move further toward peace. The killing of people must stop," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. "We share the view that this meeting cannot and should not be empty," Zelenskiy said. He did not commit Ukraine to attending on Monday, although he said he and Erdogan did discuss the possibility of organising a four-way meeting with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Erdogan said it was important that Russia and Ukraine send strong delegations to Istanbul and added that a leaders' meeting could contribute to the peace process, the Turkish presidency said. Some Republicans in the U.S. Congress and White House advisers have urged Trump to finally embrace new sanctions on Russia to put pressure on Moscow. Influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on a visit to Kyiv the Republican-led U.S. Senate is expected to move ahead with a bill on sanctions against Russia next week. Graham, who met Zelenskiy in Kyiv, told a news briefing he had talked with Trump before his trip and the U.S. president expects concrete actions now from Moscow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Graham accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to drag out the peace process and said he doubts the Istanbul meeting will amount to more than a "Russian charade." "The game that Putin has been playing is about to change. He is going to be hit, and hit hard by the United States, when it comes to sanctions," Graham said. Trump told reporters on Friday that both Putin and Zelenskiy were stubborn and that he had been surprised and disappointed by Russian bombing in Ukraine while he was trying to arrange a ceasefire. Trump made no mention of sanctions. The war, the biggest in Europe since World War Two, began with a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Expectations for the talks are modest because the positions staked out so far by the two sides are far apart and work between them has yet to begin in earnest on narrowing the gap. Nevertheless, both Kyiv and Moscow are keen to demonstrate to Trump they support his peace efforts. Kyiv wants more U.S. military aid, while Moscow hopes Trump will ease existing economic sanctions on Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation would be travelling to Istanbul and ready for talks with Ukraine on Monday morning. "Everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being developed," Peskov said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moscow has said its delegation for Istanbul would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a Kremlin aide who led the previous round on May 16. NO MORE NATO ENLARGEMENT? Reuters reported this week that Putin's conditions for ending the war include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards. Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said on Friday that Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and Washington did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance. Commenting on Kellogg's statement, Peskov said: "We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters in Kyiv that the next step after talks in Istanbul would be to try to host a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskiy. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv needed to see the Russian proposals in advance for the talks to be "substantive and meaningful," without spelling out what Kyiv would do if it did not receive the Russian document or a deadline for receiving it. "We want to end this war this year, and we are interested in establishing a truce, whether it is for 30 days, or for 50 days, or for 100 days," he said. Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that Moscow was ready to consider a ceasefire provided Western states stopped arming Ukraine and Kyiv stopped mobilising troops. (Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Anna Pruchnicka, Tom Balmforth, Anastasiia Malenko, Ronald Popeski and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Ros Russell, Gareth Jones, Daniel Wallis and Cynthia Osterman) KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine needs an initial 500 million euros ($566 million) to rebuild the most important infrastructure facilities at its Black Sea ports destroyed by constant Russian missile and drone attacks, a government minister said on Friday. Almost 400 port infrastructure facilities have been damaged as a result of Russian attacks during more than three years of war. Seaports are critical for Ukraine, which ships more than 90% of its exports by sea. "The main critical infrastructure facilities for ports and shipping that we have already lost have been identified ... and now we have to restore them," Andriy Kashuba, deputy minister of territorial development, told the Black Sea Security Forum in Odesa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine currently operates three major seaports in the Odesa area. Other Black Sea ports suspended operations after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Kashuba said the total cost of rebuilding the ports' infrastructure was estimated at around 1 billion euros. That figure is dwarfed by the total estimated cost for Ukraine's overall reconstruction and recovery. The World Bank last December put that cost at $524 billion (506 billion) over the next decade, or about 2.8 times the country's estimated nominal GDP for 2024. Many industrial and residential infrastructure facilities across Ukraine have been destroyed or severely damaged by Russian attacks. ($1 = 0.8828 euros) (Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, writing by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Gareth Jones) Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has approved a one-time payment of Hr 200,000 ($4,800) for medical school graduates who accept positions at health care facilities in rural areas or active combat zones, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on May 30, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. The new measure, set to take effect in 2025, is aimed at addressing critical staffing shortages in front-line and underserved regions from which many residents and professionals have fled due to ongoing Russian attacks. "Along with security and defense, investment in human capital is a cross-cutting policy of the government and the state," Shmyhal said. "This is effective support for young specialists and a means of overcoming the shortage of medical personnel in the regions." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine has faced growing difficulties maintaining access to essential services in embattled territories, with hospitals and clinics particularly affected by Russia's war. Taras Melnychuk, the Cabinet's representative in parliament, said the bonus will be available to interns beginning in 2025. To qualify, candidates must complete training in a medical specialty and sign a contract for at least three years with a state or municipal health care facility located either in a rural area or in an active combat zone. They must also apply for a vacancy listed at the time of submission via the Unified Job Portal and be employed at a facility where staffing in medical positions does not exceed 75%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The initiative is part of Ukraine's broader effort to stabilize front-line communities, which continue to face mounting pressure under Russian fire. Read also: Ukraine attacks elite Russian unit base nearly 7,000km away in Vladivostok, source claims Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine is ready to attend the second round of peace talks with the Russian delegation in Istanbul on June 2, but seeks to receive a draft of Russias proposed ceasefire memorandum before the meeting, said Presidential Office Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak on May 29. Ukraine and Russia held peace talks in Istanbul on May 16, where both sides agreed to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange. The peace negotiations were largely inconclusive, with Moscow reiterating maximalist demands and sending a delegation of lower-level officials. Moscow has proposed June 2 as the date for the next round of talks with Ukraine, despite escalating its attacks on the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 29 that the Russian delegation, led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, is prepared to present the memorandum to the Ukrainian side and provide necessary clarifications during the next Istanbul meeting. Kyiv insists on receiving the memorandum ahead of the new round of talks in order to understand Russias proposed steps toward a ceasefire. Ukraine has already submitted its own document to the Russian side. "Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion. This means it is important to receive Russias draft. There is enough time four days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents," Yermak said during a conversation with advisors to the leaders of the U.K., Germany, France, and Italy. Security advisors from the four countries are expected to attend the second round of peace talks in Istanbul, U.S. President Donald Trump's Special Envoy Keith Kellogg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia vowed to present its peace memorandum but has yet to deliver, drawing rebuke from Ukrainian, European, and U.S. officials. Trump has also repeatedly signaled he would exit the peace efforts unless progress is achieved soon. Reuters reported that Putin's conditions for ending Russia's war against Ukraine include a written pledge by NATO not to accept more Eastern European members, lifting of some sanctions, and Ukraine's neutral status, among other demands. Read also: Infighting around EU rearmament undermines grand ambitions for European defense Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Andrii Sybiha, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, has said that Ukraine is ready for the next round of talks with Russia, but it is still waiting for Moscow to sign the promised text of a ceasefire "memorandum". Source: Andrii Sybiha at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Kyiv on 30 May Quote from Andrii Sybiha: "Regarding the meetings in Turkiye. We are interested in having these meetings go on. We want to end this war this year. We are interested in establishing a ceasefire. Ukraine will openly discuss this directly with Russia. We confirmed this during the recent meetings of our delegations with the Russian side." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: The Ukrainian foreign minister added that Ukraine had already handed over its vision of further steps and conditions for a future ceasefire to the Russian side following the previous meeting in Istanbul. "We are also waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side, as it was announced. We expect it in advance [before the next meeting ed.]. This was also promised to the American side. It is important that the document is provided in advance for the next meeting to be productive," Sybiha said. Sybiha explained that this is important, as this will permit the delegation going to the talks to discuss the relevant positions. Background: Defence Minister of Ukraine Rustem Umierov, who headed Ukraine's delegation at the talks with Russia in Istanbul, gave Russia a document that reflects the Ukrainian position and is awaiting their own "memorandum" in response. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on what conditions for a ceasefire Russia would set out in its draft "memorandum", saying that this should be discussed privately. Heorhii Tykhyi, Spokesperson for Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Russia's unwillingness to officially hand over its "memorandum" for negotiations indicates that it contains unrealistic demands and is an attempt to stall the peace process. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine is ready to resume direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, following days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend a further meeting proposed by Moscow. But Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war, before the two delegations sit down to negotiate. Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion, Andrii Yermak said in a statement on the website of Ukraines Presidential Office late Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This means it is important to receive Russias draft. There is enough time four days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents, Yermak said. Ukraine and its European allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet in peace efforts, while it tries to press its bigger armys battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land. Kyivs Western partners, including the U.S., are urging Moscow to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, something Kyiv has embraced while the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking. Ukraines top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, also told reporters on Friday that Kyiv is waiting for Russia to clarify its proposals ahead of a next round of talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want to end this war this year. We are interested in establishing a ceasefire, whether it is for 30 days, 50 days, or 100 days. Ukraine is open to discussing this directly with Russia, Sybiha said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Sybiha and Fidan also held the door open to a future meeting between Presidents Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin of Russia, possibly also including U.S. President Donald Trump. Fidan said the ongoing peace push in Istanbul could be crowned with such a meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday told reporters that a Russian delegation will head to Istanbul and stand ready to take part in the second round of talks on June 2. Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday publicly invited Ukraine to hold direct negotiations with Moscow on that date. In a video statement, Lavrov said Russia would use Mondays meeting to deliver an outline of Moscows position on reliably overcoming what it calls the root causes of the war. Russian officials have said for weeks that such a document is forthcoming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Wednesday said that Ukraine isnt opposed to further direct talks with Russia, but that they would be empty if Moscow were to fail to clarify its terms. Umerov said he had personally handed a document setting out Ukraines position to the Russian side. Low-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years in Istanbul on May 16. The talks, which lasted two hours, brought no significant breakthrough, although both sides agreed to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. It was carried out last weekend and freed 1,000 captives on each side. Fidan on Friday voiced a belief that the successful swap has proved that negotiations can yield concrete results. There are two paths in front of us. Either we will turn a blind eye to the continuation of the war, or we will reach a lasting peace within the end of the year, he told reporters in Kyiv. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ___ Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Polands presidential race has never seen a first-round winner with so many reasons to worry, the far right so emboldened, and Ukraine so central to the campaign. The June 1 run-off between Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski of the ruling Civic Platform (PO) and Karol Nawrocki, backed by Law and Justice (PiS), will likely reshape not only Polands domestic political balance but also its approach to Ukraine. And the clash will be tight: in a first-round that saw a record 67.3% turnout, Trzaskowski secured 31.4% of the vote and Nawrocki 29.5%. Following Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland emerged as one of Kyivs staunchest allies sending weapons, sheltering millions of refugees, and rallying Western support. But over time, political tensions, economic fatigue, and disputes over grain imports and historical memory have strained the relationship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "These elections are crucial to Ukraine because they will either end the electoral cycle in Poland or open a new one, Ukrainian political analyst Yevhen Mahda told the Kyiv Independent. And amid global turmoil, we need a stable, friendly Poland." The first-round results have been described as a "yellow card" for the ruling coalition that has governed Poland since 2023 under Prime Minister Donald Tusk. If outgoing President Andrzej Duda is succeeded by Nawrocki, whom he endorsed, Civic Platform will face regular obstruction through presidential vetoes. Although the Polish president holds limited executive power, he plays a key role in foreign affairs and serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Polish presidents have historically been particularly active in shaping eastern policy. "The past three years have shown that it is politicians who set the temperature of relations between our nations," said Zbigniew Parafianowicz, a journalist and author of "Poland at War," which examines Polish-Ukrainian policy at the outset of Russias invasion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Neither candidate will work wonders for Ukraine, but Kyiv has good reason to pay close attention." Right-wing drift Traditionally divided between the pro-European liberal PO and the conservative nationalist PiS, Polands political scene has long been vulnerable to populist and anti-establishment forces. This time, it was the far right that surged to unprecedented strength and could now determine the outcome. Slawomir Mentzen, of the economically libertarian and socially conservative Confederation Party, came third with 14.8% of the vote. Although left-wing candidates Adrian Zandberg, Magdalena Biejat, and Joanna Senyszyn received a combined 10.2%, Mentzen is now widely seen as the elections kingmaker. In a bid to win over Mentzens electorate, both candidates agreed to be interviewed on his YouTube channel, and Nawrocki signed a list of demands he put forward. Hoping to capture some of those votes, Trzaskowski made a surprise visit to his pub, where they shared a beer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Pro-Russian narratives dont sell here, but anti-Ukrainian (ones) do." Trzaskowski a pro-European polyglot, son of a jazz musician, and senior figure in the Polish liberal establishment faces a delicate balancing act: maintaining support from the center-left while reaching out to mostly young radical voters drawn to the Confederation. He has twice won the mayoral election in Warsaw but lost the presidential race in 2020 to Duda by just 2%, or 422,000 votes. Rafal Trzaskowski, mayor of Warsaw and Civic Platforms presidential candidate, attends a campaign rally in Krakow, Poland, on May 13, 2025. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Mentzen has repeatedly criticized Polands support for Ukraine, opposing military aid and refugee assistance while promoting a nationalist narrative that frames Ukrainians as economic and cultural threats. He conditioned his sympathies in the second round on a promise not to send Polish troops to Ukraine and to oppose Ukraines NATO membership. "Theres a rise in anti-Ukrainian sentiment not just on the far right, but also in the mainstream electorate," said political analyst and president of the Batory Foundation Edwin Bendyk. "Its driven by societal fatigue with the war next door, housing competition in big cities, and communication failures on both sides. Pro-Russian narratives dont sell here, but anti-Ukrainian (ones) do." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It remains so despite positive developments such as the resumption of the long-stalled exhumation process of victims of the Volyn Massacre in the Ukrainian village of Puznyky, marking a symbolic step forward in addressing painful chapters of shared history, or Polands continued support of Kyivs defense needs and arms transit. Another far-right fringe politician, Grzegorz Braun who campaigned against what he called the "Ukrainization" of Poland, came fourth with 6.3% of the vote. The man who had earlier caused an international scandal by putting out Hanukkah candles with a fire extinguisher in the Polish Parliament, tore down a Ukrainian flag from the town hall in Bielsko-Biala during the campaign. Nawrocki is no Duda Nawrocki, previously a little-known director of the Institute of National Remembrance, openly embraced much of the far rights platform during the campaign. He pledged to lower taxes, reject what he called the EUs "sick" climate policies, and end what he described as Ukraines "indecent" treatment of Poland. He is officially not a member of PiS and positions himself as an independent candidate, not responsible for the policies of the party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski. "Nawrocki is no Duda," said Bendyk. "Hes a nationalist, not a conservative. His victory would likely slow Ukraines integration with the West." Parafianowicz, in turn, called Nawrocki who briefly met with Donald Trump during a U.S. visit a "Trumpian politician" who will likely try to align with the former presidents agenda. In a move unprecedented for the U.S., Trump sent his Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to support Nawrocki in the final days of the race. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If the most pro-Ukrainian candidate calls Ukraine a 'buffer zone,' thats a clear sign something has gone wrong." There have been ups and downs in Polish-Ukrainian relations since the start of the full-scale invasion from the emotional embraces between Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to mutual accusations and perceived insults. While the PiS-PO rivalry dominates Polands brutal election campaign, it has no obvious impact on Ukraine policy but that doesnt mean Kyiv isnt watching closely. "If the most pro-Ukrainian candidate calls Ukraine a 'buffer zone,' thats a clear sign something has gone wrong," Ukrainian historian and publicist Wasyl Rasevych told the Kyiv Independent, referring to a term Trzaskowski used repeatedly during the campaign. Karol Nawrocki, presidential candidate backed by Polands Law and Justice party, greets supporters in Warsaw after a debate on May 12, 2025. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images) "Russian propaganda undermines EU unity and spreads instability in countries aiding Ukraine, and Poland may unwittingly be playing into that scenario," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ahead of the vote, Polish authorities uncovered a foreign-funded disinformation campaign on Facebook and cyberattacks targeting government parties. Officials suspect Russia, which is also blamed for a 2024 arson attack on Warsaws Marywilska shopping center, viewing it as part of a wider hybrid warfare strategy to destabilize Ukraines allies. While Russian meddling is real, some argue its impact is overstated. "Weve inflated the idea of Russian influence so much," said Parafianowicz, "that weve lost sight of proportion." The true sources of discontent, he argues, lie in domestic politics on both sides of the border. Disappointed allies According to Parafianowicz, Polish political elites' disappointment with Zelensky is "an open secret." He cites the Ukrainian presidents refusal to acknowledge that the missile that killed two Poles in Przewodow was Ukrainian and his remarks about Poland at the UN in 2023, as examples of what he sees as a growing disregard for Warsaws leadership. "Ukraine would welcome a winner who truly pursues deeper cooperation with the EU and Germany." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite these frictions, Poland and Ukraine remain strategic allies. Both Trzaskowski and Nawrocki have pledged to increase defense spending, strengthen the Polish military, maintain a hardline stance on the Belarusian border, and continue supporting Ukraine militarily. But the key difference lies in their vision of international alliances and their willingness to sideline Ukraines interests. An elderly couple vote during the first round of Polands presidential election in Warsaw on May 18, 2025. (Omar Marques/Getty Images) "The Polish right is afraid of Ukrainian economic competition and Kyivs political alignment with Berlin," said Rasevych. "Ukraine would welcome a winner who truly pursues deeper cooperation with the EU and Germany." Trzaskowski appears to offer that option and promises to gain more leverage in the EU, together with heavyweight politicians such as Tusk or Polish hawkish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. But with traditional alliances shaken by unpredictable Trump, no one can foresee which cards will turn out lucky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The idea that Poles and Ukrainians truly understand each other is a dangerous myth," Mahda said. "Ukraine needs both a Plan A and a Plan B prepared for either Trzaskowski or Nawrocki, while staying focused on real issues in defense, energy, and the economy." Read also: A serious crisis pro-Russian leader in Bosnia threatening peace in the Balkans Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has called for a strong response to a statement by Russias UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, who has declared that Moscow intends to fight "as long as necessary". Source: Sybiha on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda Details: Sybiha drew attention to statements made by Nebenzya at a UN Security Council meeting, where he affirmed Russias intention "to continue and step up military activities as long as necessary". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When the entire world insists that it is time to stop the killing immediately and engage in meaningful diplomacy, Russia uses the highest fora to spew such belligerent rhetoric," the Ukrainian foreign minister said. Sybiha called Nebenzyas words a "slap in the face to all who advocate for peace. Not just Ukraine but also the United States, European countries, China, Brazil, and others". "We demand a response to Russias arrogant statements, which undermine the peace process," Sybiha emphasised. "We insist that the pressure on Moscow be increased already now. They do not understand normal attitude or diplomatic language; it is time to speak to them in the language of sanctions and increased support for Ukraine." Background: On Friday 30 May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the United States, European countries and all allies to show greater resolve in confronting Russian aggression after another night of Russian attacks, particularly on Kharkiv. Amid recent Russian statements and increased aerial terror against Ukraine, US President Donald Trump has said he is considering additional sanctions against Russia. Yet Trump said recently that he is refraining from imposing sanctions on Russia because he believes it could "screw up" the making of a "deal". Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Tesla seems to always be in the news, whether its about the companys groundbreaking technology, its delivery numbers or its mercurial CEO, Elon Musk. But over the past six months or so, politics has crept into the discussion regarding Tesla alongside its finances and some analysts, like those at J.P. Morgan, think that its a big problem for the company. Read Next: Im a Financial Advisor: 4 Investing Rules My Millionaire Clients Never Break Find Out: 4 Housing Markets That Have Plummeted in Value Over the Past 5 Years Here are the reasons Tesla has been a rollercoaster over the past six months, why J.P. Morgan analysts think the company has problems and whether or not Tesla shares may still make a good investment. Teslas Stock Performance Tesla has always been a wild stock, and investors have learned to anticipate big swings in its price. With a beta around 2.50, the stock is more than 2.5 times as volatile as the overall market. Whats that like for investors? It means you have to be prepared for big swings if youre a Tesla investor. Just over the past few months, the stock fell from a high of $483.99 on Dec. 17, 2024, to a low of $217.02 on Mar. 11, 2025 a 55% drop. Since then, the stock has rallied back to $339.34 as of May 24, a gain of 56%. A combination of factors has contributed to Teslas most recent wild ride. As CEO Elon Musk began collaborating with President Donald Trump, the stock soared as investors anticipated beneficial treatment for the company. But as Musk began to spend more time on his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), investors worried that Teslas CEO wasnt focusing on his own company. Coupled with falling deliveries, increased competition and political backlash towards Musk, the stock is still down 16% on a year-to-date basis. Check Out: Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Bought Over $73 Million in Shares of This Tech Company Heres Why What JP Morgan Thinks About the Stock Beyond the economics that are causing problems at Tesla currently, J.P. Morgan analysts are more concerned with the political damage that Musks close relationship with Trump has caused. The political divisiveness this relationship has caused, according to J.P. Morgan auto analyst Ryan Brinkman, is driving away far more buyers than it is gaining. This has led Brinkman to cut his estimate for global Tesla deliveries in Q1 to 355,000 vehicles, down from 444,000. As Brinkman wrote in a research note, We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly. By Marko Djurica KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -In the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, it's hard to escape the war with Russia. On some days, when the wind blows in the right direction, residents of the historic city can hear the boom of artillery fire from the front line, some 30 km (20 miles) away. Most nights, Russian kamikaze drones packed with explosives buzz over apartment buildings as parents put their children to bed. Frequently - but unpredictably - a Russian ballistic missile will slam into the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, for many people in Kharkiv, the war with its unrelenting, inescapable proximity, takes a mental toll. But there is a space in the city where for a few fleeting hours the war stops existing. In the dark, brick-walled basement of the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, a dance company has created a space protected from drones and bombs where audiences can lose themselves in performances of classic ballets. In April, the space was host to performances of "Chopiniana", an early 20th-century ballet with music by Frederic Chopin. Despite the makeshift setting, the ballet was performed with full classical pomp, complete with corps de ballet and orchestra. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That marked a milestone for Kharkiv's cultural life because it was the first full performance of a classical ballet in the city since February 2022, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine. "In spite of everything - the fact that bombs are flying, drones, and everything else - we can give a gift of something wonderful to people," said Antonina Radiievska, artistic director of Opera East, the ballet company which staged the performance. "They can come and, even if it's just for an hour or two, completely immerse themselves in a different world." Despite Ukraine's history of excellence in classical ballet, the art form seems far removed from the everyday lives of Ukrainians in wartime. Daily routines are given over to checking apps for drone attack warnings, sleeping on the metro station floor to escape an air raid or seeking news of relatives on the front line. Pirouettes, pas-de-deux and chiffon tutus feel a world away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NEW NORMAL Nevertheless, the journey of Kharkiv's ballet through the war mirrors the ways Ukrainian society has adapted and evolved. On February 23, 2022, the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre put on a performance of the ballet "Giselle". The following day, Russia launched its full-scale invasion. As Moscow's troops reached the outskirts of Kharkiv and threatened to capture the city, the theatre closed its doors and many of the ballet troupe moved away. Some of them reassembled in Slovakia and Lithuania, and began touring ballet productions outside Ukraine with help from European sponsors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By 2023, the war was grinding on, but the situation in Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, had stabilised after Russian ground forces pulled back. The realisation dawned on the city that this was a long game, a new, wartime reality. Local people started referring to the city - and themselves - using the Ukrainian word "nezlamniy", meaning invincible. It was that year that work began on converting the theatre basement into a performance space. In October 2023, it began to be used as a rehearsal space. In spring the following year, the theatre was granted permission to bring in an audience, and it held small-scale ballet performances such as children's concerts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The revival of "Chopiniana" represents the next milestone in Kharkiv's wartime cultural journey. Staging a classical opera again sends a message that Ukraine is still standing, according to Igor Tuluzov, Director-General of Opera East, the company staging the production. "We are demonstrating to the world that we really are a self-sufficient state, independent, in all its aspects, including cultural independence," he said. The auditorium seats 400 people on stackable chairs, compared to 1,750 in the main theatre upstairs, where the plush mustard seats lie empty. The stage downstairs is one quarter the size of the main stage. The aesthetic is grey-painted brick, concrete floors, pipes and electricity ducting running along the walls - a contrast to the varnished hardwood and marble of the space upstairs. The acoustic qualities of the basement, say the performers, don't match the lofty expanses of the main theatre. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What matters to artistic director Radiievska, though, is that after a long hiatus, she and her troupe can once again perform at their best, in front of an audience. "It means, you know, life," she said. "An artist cannot exist without the stage, without creativity, without dance or song. It's like a rebirth." (Writing by Christian Lowe;Editing by Ros Russell) Ukraines proposed memorandum to Russia includes provisions for a ceasefire on land, in the air, and at sea, to be monitored by international partners, the New York Times (NYT) reported on May 30, citing an unnamed senior Ukrainian official. Ukraine has submitted its document to the Russian side ahead of a second round of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow that may take place in Istanbul on June 2, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on May 28. The points reported by NYT echo Ukraines and its partners long-standing call for a comprehensive, unconditional ceasefire on land, in the air, and at sea for at least 30 days a proposal Russia has consistently ignored. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The peace talks in Istanbul also concluded on May 16 with no agreement between the two sides on a ceasefire. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsia, who was present at the Istanbul talks, said that Russia's negotiating team in Istanbul has repeatedly stated that "an unconditional ceasefire is categorically unacceptable." Moscow has proposed June 2 as the date for the next round of talks with Ukraine, despite escalating its attacks on the country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 29 that the Russian delegation, led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, is prepared to present the ceasefire memorandum to the Ukrainian side and provide necessary clarifications during the next Istanbul meeting. Presidential Office Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said that Ukraine is ready to hold the new round of talks next week but insists on receiving the memorandum in advance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reuters reported that Putin's conditions for ending Russia's war against Ukraine include a written pledge by NATO not to accept more Eastern European members, lifting of some sanctions, and Ukraine's neutral status, among other demands. Read also: Infighting around EU rearmament undermines grand ambitions for European defense Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has expressed satisfaction with the change in tone in Berlin after President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit this week. "There were clear results," Oleksii Makeiev told radio station WDR5 on Friday, referring to Wednesday's meeting between Zelensky and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "And on a personal level, it went very well," he said. "We are experiencing a new tone: more direct, clearer, more committed. The personal relationship between my president and Chancellor Merz is one of trust. And these are important things for diplomacy," Makeiev said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that he has "rarely experienced such an atmosphere." During the meeting, Merz promised Zelensky that Germany would support Ukraine in the production of long-range missiles. However, Germany still does not plan to supply Kiev with its much-discussed Taurus cruise missiles, and there will be no further public discussion on the issue, Merz said. Merz's predecessor, Olaf Scholz, clearly refused to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine. He repeatedly emphasized that Germany must not be drawn into the war. Since taking office, Merz has struck a tougher tone towards Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said that Ukraine will welcome the participation of US President Donald Trump in the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin. Source: Sybiha at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Kyiv on 30 May Details: Sybiha reiterated that at the previous meeting in Istanbul, three agreements were reached: on the prisoner swap, on the exchange of memoranda on the parameters of a ceasefire, and on starting work to determine the format, venue and timing of a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "And of course, we will welcome it if this meeting takes place in a broader format, in particular with the participation of President Trump," Sybiha said. Background: On 28 May, Zelenskyy told journalists that he was ready for a meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States in any format. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is possible, but only as a result of agreed decisions between the delegations of both sides. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! The UN delivered nearly 600 truckloads of aid into the Gaza Strip via the southern Kerem Shalom crossing, but distribution remains severely limited, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The routes designated by the Israeli military were in part too dangerous and overcrowded, and travel permits were sometimes cancelled at short notice, Laerke said in Geneva on Friday. "The occupying power is deliberately blocking aid from entering Gaza. This is drip-feeding food into an area of catastrophic hunger," he said in sharp criticism of Israeli policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He described the region as "the hungriest place on earth." The trucks are carrying flour and special food for malnourished children. Desperate people had thrown themselves onto the loads in those cases where the aid could be distributed, Laerke said. "The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations, not only in the world today, but in the recent history of global humanitarian response anywhere," the UN spokesman noted. Israel prevented aid from reaching the Gaza Strip after it resumed military operations on March 18 following a temporary ceasefire. The stated aim was to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages seized on October 7, 2023. Blockade was eased some 10 days ago Laerke said the UN had tens of thousands of pallets of food and other necessities ready, but was unable to distribute them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the UN, Israel is backing the work of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is distributing aid at a few locations under armed guard. Recipients are forced to trek for kilometres to access the aid, and this is dangerous, Laerke said, calling for the aid to be delivered directly to those in need. Israel charges that Hamas has been stealing the UN aid and selling it. Laerke cast doubt on this. "We have seen no major diversion of aid on our watch," he said. This should in any case not lead to 2 million people going without necessary supplies, he added. According to Laerke, 81% of the Gaza Strip has been declared a military or evacuation zone, with 635,000 people displaced since the end of the temporary ceasefire. Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth, the United Nations has said, as Israel continues to block all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering the Strip, where famine stalks the entire Palestinian population, and the Israeli military relentlessly bombs the besieged enclave. Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on Friday that 100 percent of the 2.3-million population of Gaza is now on the verge of catastrophic hunger. The limited number of truckloads coming in [Gaza] is a trickle its drip-feeding food, Laerk said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history, he added. What paucity of aid is entering the enclave is under the control of a new, shadowy NGO backed by Israel and the United States the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). On Friday, sources at Gaza hospitals told Al Jazeera that 20 people were shot by Israeli troops as they desperately tried to get food at a GHF aid distribution point. That distribution site, located near Israels Netzarim Corridor bisecting the territory, is the third to have been set up, after two distribution points were established in the southern city of Rafah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Armed surveillance is administered around the clock. People are telling us that the sites managed and operated by the GHF are metres away from where the Israeli military is stationed. They can see the tanks, they can see the armoured vehicles, said Al Jazeeras Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City. Ten people were killed earlier this week trying to access food distribution points, and images showed many being herded into cage-like lines. Palestinians doing all they can to get hold of any aid for their families must risk Israeli fire and military forces. There are also reports of enforced disappearances. A lot of families reported that many of their children, of their family members, who went to the sites have gone missing as they were trying to get food, Mahmoud said. The aid delivery scheme has been roundly condemned by UN officials and the humanitarian community, who have accused the group of aiding Israels war objectives by forcibly displacing Palestinians under the guise of aid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Critics maintain that the currently inadequate aid could be safely scaled up in Gaza, if Israel would allow access to aid and let the organisations that have decades of experience handle the flow. Through this dangerous and reckless approach, food is not being distributed where its needed most but is instead directed only to areas where Israeli forces choose to amass civilians, said Doctors Without Borders Secretary-General Christopher Lockyear. This means the most vulnerable especially the elderly and people with disabilities have virtually no chance of accessing the food they desperately need. Famine is declared in an area where at least 20 percent of households face an extreme lack of food. At famine levels of deprivation, 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and at least four children in every 10,000 die each day from starvation or malnutrition-linked disease. OCHA said at least 1 in 5 people in Gaza is currently facing starvation. Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, says its safe to say there is famine in Gaza. Fakhri told Al Jazeera that Israel is using aid as bait to corral people and push them out of the north and into militarised zones. The humanitarian situation in Gaza was already catastrophic when Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, causing conditions to deteriorate even further. After growing international pressure, Israeli authorities said they would allow minimal supplies of food and medicine into the Strip, but critical supplies are still not reaching the people. Frances sanctions threat The chorus of condemnation against Israel was underscored by Frances President Emmanuel Macron on Friday. The French leader warned that Paris could apply sanctions unless the Israeli government responds to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking during a visit to Singapore on Friday, Macron said the international community could not remain passive while Palestinians in Gaza face a deepening hunger crisis that is untenable. If there is no response in the coming hours and days in line with the humanitarian situation, we will have to harden our collective position, he added, suggesting that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers. Palestinian daily deaths as ceasefire remains uncertain At least 30 people have been killed since dawn on Friday in attacks in southern Deir el-Balah, northern Jabalia and on eastern Khan Younis. The Israeli army has also been expanding its military operation on the ground, issuing new forced displacement orders for five areas in northern Gaza. According to a UN spokesperson, nearly 200,000 people have been displaced in Gaza in the last two weeks by Israels displacement orders. Meanwhile, hopes for an elusive truce remained unrealised. Hamas said on Friday it is currently reviewing a new US ceasefire proposal that Washington says has been signed off on by Israel, but that in its current form will only result in the continuation of killing and famine in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Israel had signed off on the ceasefire proposal, and the Trump administrations Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had submitted it to Hamas for consideration. Trump said he believes his administration will have an announcement later on Friday, or maybe tomorrow. We have a chance of that, he told reporters from the Oval Office. The details of the new proposal have not been made public, but senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told the news agency Reuters that, crucially, it did not contain commitments from Israel to end its war on Gaza, withdraw from the enclave, or allow aid to freely enter the war-torn territory. Kroger dates back to 1883, so the brand has been helping Americans find quality groceries for more than a century at this point. Kroger has an upwards of 2,800 stores in 35 states and annual sales of more than $132.5 billion, according to the company, making it one of the world's largest retailers. Now, a development at a Kroger fulfillment center could cause some issues in the Kroger camp if it's not addressed. Unionized drivers at Kroger's Forest Park Fulfillment Center near Atlanta have voted to authorize a strike, according to the group. While the strike has not yet been scheduled, union leaders say they're ready to move forward if negotiations don't improve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Atlanta News First, "If a deal is not reached, the drivers are prepared to go on strike, which could lead to bare shelves at stores across the southeast and potentially higher prices." However, it's unclear how the potential strike could impact Kroger's ability to keep items in stock or change prices, so that's not a guarantee. "Kroger needs to stop dragging its feet and deliver a real offer that respects the work we do," Marion Jackson, a Kroger driver and Local 528 shop steward, said in a statement. "This company can more than afford what we're asking for. We are ready to strike if Kroger doesn't start taking our demands seriously." Atlanta News First also reports that the Teamsters said both sides will start negotiations again on June 9. "We don't want to take the next step. We don't want to strike. Nobody wants to be out of work at all, but we just want Kroger to come to the table with a fair equitable contract," driver Marion Jackson added, per Atlanta News First. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta president Rev. Shanan E. Jones also issued a statement about the strike. "The men and women who drive and deliver Kroger's products are the same ones driving Kroger's profits," Jones said via the Teamsters. "They deserve dignity, respect, and their fair share." Related: Wendy's Makes Big Menu Change Starting This Week Unionized Kroger Drivers in Georgia StrikeWhat It Could Mean for You first appeared on Men's Journal on May 30, 2025 On May 28, JP Morgan analyst Arun Jayaram upped Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)s stock from Neutral to an Overweight rating and set a price target of $30.00. JPMorgan Upgrades Noble Corporation (NE) Stock to Overweight A close-up of a drilling rig with its silhouette against a sunset sky. The analyst highlighted a shift in preference towards offshore projects compared to North American markets. Despite the broader market volatility in deepwater and harsh environment jackup sectors, Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)s leadership demonstrated optimism regarding the addition of term work for several rigs, such as BlackRhino, Noble Viking, and Noble Valiant. For 2025, Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)s revenue guidance is being aided by contracted backlog. The company has maintained its guidance ranges for total revenue of between $3,250 million - $3,450 million and adjusted EBITDA of $1,050 million - $1,150 million. Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)s management emphasized its commitment to maintain the dividend, thanks to its robust FCF generation, a healthy balance sheet, and improved backlog visibility. The companys marketed fleet of 25 floaters was 80% contracted during Q1 2025 as compared to 74% in the prior quarter. Furthermore, recent backlog additions since last quarter have added 15 rig years of total floater backlog. This enhanced contract coverage over the upcoming several years. In Q1 2025, the companys FCF came in at $173 million. Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE)s balance sheet (as of March 31, 2025) had total debt principal value of $1.98 billion and cash and cash equivalents of $304 million. Noble Corporation plc (NYSE:NE) operates as an offshore drilling contractor for the broader oil and gas industry. While we acknowledge the potential of NE 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 NE and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 13 Cheap AI Stocks to Buy According to Analysts and 11 Unstoppable Growth Stocks to Invest in Now Disclosure: None. Newark Liberty International Airport has been under fire for the past month due to air traffic control outages. However, better days are apparently ahead. The first outage at Newark occurred on April 28. The ATC computer screens went dark for roughly 60-90 seconds. That led to a handful of air traffic controllers going on medical trauma leave. Less than two weeks later, the radar screens went dark yet again. These power outages have left travelers seriously concerned about flying into out and out of Newark. That being said, there's one perk to flying to Newark over other airports on the East Coast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While at the Wall Street Journals Future of Everything event on Thursday, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said this will be the cheapest summer to fly at Newark Liberty International Airport. "Because we lost a lot of bookings, theres a lot more seats available," Kirby said. "Its going to be the cheapest its probably ever going to be in history. I dont really like that, but you ought to book and its going to be the least crowded." Earlier this week, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said a fiberoptic cable that's been placed between Philadelphia and New York should improve the ATC facility at Newark this summer. "Its been laid, and were doing some of the connections right now, and then we have to test it. I dont want to over promise and under deliver," Duffy said. "If it all goes well, we should be able to turn over this new fiber line at the start of July." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This summer could be a turning point for Newark Liberty International Airport. That is, of course, if its ATC-related issues are solved. United Airlines CEO Has Encouraging Newark Airport Update first appeared on Men's Journal on May 29, 2025 Several years ago, on the last day of my argumentation and debate class at the University of Wisconsin, where I taught before coming to the University of Texas, a student approached me. The semester is over, said the student, who sat in the front row with a bumper sticker for then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker on his computer. Will you tell me what your personal politics are? To be honest, Im very far left of the Democratic party, I told him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Damn, he said, I couldve sworn you were a Libertarian. My job as professor is to treat my students with respect. This student did the work: He defended his views with evidence, engaged with material from diverse viewpoints and learned the best scholarship my field had to offer, regardless of whether it lent itself to particular political conclusions. Column: Under SB 37, Texas universities will focus on educating, not indoctrinating | Opinion Karma Chavez, professor and chair of University of Texas' Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, says she is concerned that Senate Bill 37 "would place ideological litmus tests on courses in the state core curriculum." People from both sides of the political spectrum have accepted the premise that universities silence students. Research partly corroborates this view. A Knight Foundation-Ipsos study on campus free speech found that roughly two-thirds of students self-censor in classroom discussions, especially when the topics involve race, gender, LGBTQ issues or religion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That same study found 60% of students said that campus climate contributes to the stifling of free speech, but the nature of that climate is not defined. The Right has taken this as evidence that conservative students suffer, but the Knight study found that Black students, who are more likely to have liberal or left-leaning politics, are the most likely to report difficulty using their free speech rights. What are we to make of this information? There have always been students who dont feel safe sharing their views. The largest constituency of students who still feel that way are the ones that have historically felt that way. This certainly tracks with my experience as a university educator for the past 25 years. What is missing in analyses about campus free speech and safety is a discussion of power. Many college students are white, and Black students are a small minority. When it comes to national power, it is still unusual to find people of color in positions of power, from the government to the lectern to the board room. When the group you identify with does not have structural power, it is easy to understand why you wouldnt feel safe expressing yourself. This is not the situation that white students find themselves in on campuses, regardless of whether their opinions are in the minority. This is also why classes with Black professors who intervene in that power structure are vital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What to know: House moves to advance SB 37 on faculty senate, core curriculum review. Professors are not here to validate every opinion that may exist on a given issue. My role as professor is to create an affirming environment for students to learn how to defend their views with evidence, to critically interrogate the views they hold, and to learn the best scholarship in my field of study. My job is also to teach students how to think critically, to write well, to solve problems, and to understand those who are different from them. The Texas Legislature is poised to pass Senate Bill 37, which would place ideological litmus tests on courses in the state core curriculum. This proposal is based, at least in part, on the belief that conservative views are being stifled at our universities by professors like me. I vehemently disagree with this premise. I encourage our elected officials to use their critical thinking skills to discern what a university education is for. If it is to prevent students from engaging with diverse viewpoints in their required curriculum, then our democracy is truly at risk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Karma R. Chavez is the chair of the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Universities should foster debate. SB 37 will stifle that | Opinion By Laurie Chen, Larissa Liao, Sam Tabahriti and John Geddie TOKYO/BEIJING/LONDON (Reuters) -Universities around the world are seeking to offer refuge for students impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on academic institutions, targeting top talent and a slice of the billions of dollars in academic revenue in the United States. Osaka University, one of the top ranked in Japan, is offering tuition fee waivers, research grants and help with travel arrangements for students and researchers at U.S. institutions who want to transfer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Japan's Kyoto University and Tokyo University are also considering similar schemes, while Hong Kong has instructed its universities to attract top talent from the United States. China's Xian Jiaotong University has appealed for students at Harvard, singled out in Trump's crackdown, promising "streamlined" admissions and "comprehensive" support. Trump's administration has enacted massive funding cuts for academic research, curbed visas for foreign students - especially those from China - and plans to hike taxes on elite schools. Trump alleges top U.S. universities are cradles of anti-American movements. In a dramatic escalation, his administration last week revoked Harvard's ability to enrol foreign students, a move later blocked by a federal judge. Masaru Ishii, dean of the graduate school of medicine at Osaka University, described the impact on U.S. universities as "a loss for all of humanity". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Japan aims to ramp up its number of foreign students to 400,000 over the next decade, from around 337,000 currently. Jessica Turner, CEO of Quacquarelli Symonds, a London-based analytics firm that ranks universities globally, said other leading universities around the world were trying to attract students unsure of going to the United States. Germany, France and Ireland are emerging as particularly attractive alternatives in Europe, she said, while in the Asia-Pacific, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and mainland China are rising in profile. SWITCHING SCHOOLS Chinese students have been particularly targeted in Trump's crackdown, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday pledging to "aggressively" crack down on their visas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 275,000 Chinese students are enrolled in hundreds of U.S. colleges, providing a major source of revenue for the schools and a crucial pipeline of talent for U.S. technology companies. International students - 54% of them from India and China - contributed more than $50 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Trump's crackdown comes at a critical period in the international student application process, as many young people prepare to travel to the U.S. in August to find accommodation and settle in before term starts. Dai, 25, a Chinese student based in Chengdu, had planned to head to the U.S. to complete her master's but is now seriously considering taking up an offer in Britain instead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The various policies (by the U.S. government) were a slap in my face," she said, requesting to be identified only by her surname for privacy reasons. "I'm thinking about my mental health and its possible that I indeed change schools." Students from Britain and the European Union are also now more hesitant to apply to U.S. universities, said Tom Moon, deputy head of consultancy at Oxbridge Applications, which helps students in their university applications. He said many international students currently enrolled at U.S. universities were now contacting the consultancy to discuss transfer options to Canada, the UK and Europe. According to a survey the consultancy ran earlier this week, 54% of its clients said they were now "less likely" to enrol at an American university than they were at the start of the year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There has been an uptick in applications to British universities from prospective students in the U.S., said Universities UK, an organisation that promotes British institutions. It cautioned, however, that it was too early to say whether that translates into more students enrolling. REPUTATIONAL EFFECTS Ella Ricketts, an 18-year-old first year student at Harvard from Canada, said she receives a generous aid package paid for by the school's donors and is concerned that she won't be able to afford other options if forced to transfer. "Around the time I was applying to schools, the only university across the Atlantic I considered was Oxford... However, I realised that I would not be able to afford the international tuition and there was no sufficient scholarship or financial aid available," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Harvard's ability to enrol foreign students is revoked, she would most likely apply to the University of Toronto, she said. Analytics firm QS said overall visits to its 'Study in America' online guide have declined by 17.6% in the last year with interest from India alone down over 50%. "Measurable impacts on enrolment typically emerge within six to 18 months. Reputational effects, however, often linger far longer, particularly where visa uncertainty and shifting work rights play into perceptions of risk versus return," said QS' Turner. That reputational risk, and the ensuing brain drain, could be even more damaging for U.S. institutions than the immediate economic hit from students leaving. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If America turns these brilliant and talented students away, they will find other places to work and study," said Caleb Thompson, a 20-year-old U.S. student at Harvard, who lives with eight international scholars. (Reporting by John Geddie in Tokyo; Laurie Chen and Larissa Liao in Beijing and Sam Tabahriti in London; Editing by Michael Perry and Hugh Lawson) In May 2025, a claim spread online that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the U.S. discovered 8 million people fraudulently enrolled in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people. While U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that 8 million people are on Medicaid because of "fraud, waste and abuse," and that DOGE helped determine this, there is no evidence backing up the claim that this number originated from DOGE's work. However, the Congressional Budget Office did estimate that approximately 7.6 million or 7.7 million people would lose Medicaid coverage under U.S. President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which appears to be where Kennedy's numbers come from. Kennedy also claimed, as did many people online, that of the 8 million, 1 million are enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states, about 1 million enrollees are immigrants in the country illegally and another million are enrolled in plans under both Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. However, there is no publicly available documented proof of the double enrollment numbers for both multiple states and multiple plans and the enrollees who do not have legal immigration status are on Medicaid through state-sanctioned and -funded programming, not federal funding. In mid-2025, a rumor circulated online that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found 8 million people fraudulently enrolled in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people. The claim spread primarily on Facebook but could also be found on X. Snopes readers also searched the website for information on the claims about Medicaid fraud and DOGE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "DOGE drops the facts, and RFK Jr. confirms it 8 million people are on Medicaid who shouldn't be," many of the posts read. The text from the post above appears to be copypasta, or misinformation in the form of copied and pasted text, as it reads word-for-word the same in many of the claims reviewed by Snopes. U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did allege that 8 million people on Medicaid would be affected by the administration's efforts to cut "fraud, waste and abuse" in the program. However, there is no evidence that DOGE made this discovery nor did Kennedy provide any proof for his claim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, the number appears to come from preliminary estimates by the Congressional Budget Office on how many people may lose health insurance coverage if Trump's massive legislative budget package called the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" becomes law without undergoing any changes. Furthermore, Kennedy's claim that these 8 million people represent "fraud, waste and abuse" is in part a matter of opinion, not fact. Asked via email whether DOGE could be credited for this, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields requested Snopes provide an example of the claim. Snopes provided this post from a Facebook account titled, "Donald Trump For President," to which Fields said the White House would not comment on unofficial Republican accounts. After clarifying that the claim spread widely online and may have originated from Kennedy, we did not hear back. We also reached out to DOGE and await a response. The Department of Health and Human Services did not return a request for more information on where Kennedy's numbers came from. No announcement from DOGE As first reported by The Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Feb. 5, 2025, officials granted DOGE access to Medicaid systems in its widespread search for fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 14, 2025, Kennedy said during a committee hearing that "because of DOGE," the agency found 8 million people on Medicaid who would be affected by cuts made for reasons of "fraud, waste and abuse." However, if DOGE did make this discovery, they did not appear to make any public announcement about it. The public face of DOGE, tech billionaire Elon Musk, often makes major announcements through his X page and a search for "Medicaid" on his X profile returned no results concerning 8 million fraudulent enrollees. DOGE similarly uses X for public statements, and a search of its page for "Medicaid" also returned no relevant results as of this writing. Musk did claim in an X post on Feb. 10, 2025, without providing evidence, that the "magnitude of fraud in federal entitlements," including Medicaid, "exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you've ever heard by FAR." This post did not include hard data or any supposed number of fraudulent enrollees. DOGE releases dollar amounts of its purported savings on its website, but there was not a section for the number of people that the agency supposedly caught committing fraud as of this writing. No reputable news outlets have credited this supposed discovery to DOGE as of publication, and if the claim were true or if Musk even claimed it was it would certainly make news. CBO estimate on Medicaid cuts Kennedy's comments during the May 14 committee hearing were in reference to cuts that would be made to Medicaid under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Here is the full exchange between Kennedy and Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif.; see 1:53:00 (emphasis ours): KENNEDY: The cuts to Medicaid are for fraud, waste and abuse, and I'll tell you what that means. It means because of DOGE and it's about 8 million people who would be affected because of DOGE, we were able to determine that there are a million people who are claiming Medicaid from multiple states. That's illegal. It's theft. You're not allowed to do that. There are another million people who are collecting both under Obamacare and HARDER: Mr. Secretary. That has nothing to do with the budget that is actually being proposed KENNEDY: These are the only cuts that are being made. These are the only cuts that are being made to Medicaid. HARDER: That's not true. KENNEDY: Yes it is. There are another million illegal aliens. We announced the law yesterday, we're not going to pay illegal aliens anymore. The first public reference available of this "8 million" number appears to be a May 11 preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that "at least" 7.7 million people may lose health insurance coverage by 2034 if the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" became law without undergoing any changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An updated May 18, 2025, estimate from CBO, available for download here (go to the "Title IV Commerce and Energy" tab after downloading and scroll to the very end), said "the number of people without health insurance would increase by 8.6 million in 2034," with 7.6 million of that number attributable to Medicaid cuts and another 1 million attributable to the Affordable Care Act. CBO cautioned that it has not yet completed "estimates for effects on spending subject to appropriation and estimates of the effects of interactions among titles of the legislation," meaning these numbers are subject to change. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has also undergone changes since being passed by the House of Representatives on May 22, 2025, and is likely to undergo even more changes once it reaches debate in the Senate. It must pass both chambers and be signed by Trump in order to become law. Examining claims of 'fraud' Kennedy's explanation as to why the 8 million who would be cut from Medicaid represent "waste, fraud and abuse" largely matches with the text from the copypasta, seen below: Over 1 million are double-dipping, illegally getting Medicaid from two different states. Another 1.4 million are undocumented immigrants and they're being handed benefits funded by your tax dollars. On top of that, another million are illegally enrolled in both Medicaid and Obamacare. Not all of these numbers are available in public documents, making it impossible to check every claim made here, so let's start by looking at the claim that is possible to fact-check. 1.4 million undocumented immigrants on Medicaid? The claim that 1.4 million immigrants in the country illegally are on Medicaid comes from the May 18, 2025, CBO estimate (emphasis ours): Included in that 8.6 million total are an estimated 1.4 million people without verified citizenship, nationality, or satisfactory immigration status who, if section 41110 were enacted, would no longer be covered in state-only funded programs in 2034. While such immigrants are largely ineligible for federal health insurance, Medicaid is a joint state and federal program and some states offer Medicaid or Medicaid-like benefits to people without legal immigration status using state funds, which is what CBO references. Thus, legally speaking, those immigrants who enroll through state-sanctioned Medicaid programs aren't committing fraud or abuse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (On the federal spending level, noncitizen immigrants both with and without legal authorization can be eligible for emergency Medicaid services, but the government doesn't keep track of an immigrant's legal status when collecting data on emergency Medicaid usage, making it impossible to tell how many undocumented immigrants have benefited from these services, per a 2024 letter sent to U.S. representatives.) 1 million 'double-dipping' into Medicaid in multiple states? As for the claim that 1 million enrollees are "double-dipping" into Medicaid from two different states, that is both illegal and a legitimate issue, according to a 2022 audit by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General. (See Page 2 under "Federal Requirements" for the law on receiving benefits in two different states.) However, this audit found that the total number of beneficiaries concurrently enrolled in two different states was 327,497 as of August 2020; in August 2019, it was 208,254 (see pages 14 and 15). Thus, the most recent numbers available as of this writing aren't close to 1 million (see the first summary page). It is possible that the number of "double-dippers" has increased to 1 million, but that number isn't publicly available as of this writing. 1 million on plans under Medicaid and Obamacare? Finally, Snopes could not find any data on the number of people who are enrolled in both Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, and Medicaid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, in 2016, the federal government did crack down on duplicate enrollments, per a New York Times story; in that report, Judith Solomon, then-vice president of the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said there is not really a benefit to "double-dipping" into both insurance plans. Eligibility for either ACA plans or Medicaid can change based on a person's or family's income level or other factors, meaning Americans often find themselves swapping between the two types of plans. The federal government provides a guide online for ending one form of coverage or the other, as overlap between the two is common; the IRS also provides tax guidance on overlapping coverage. These numbers don't add up to 8 million Here's the math: According to the copypasta, 8 million people are fraudulently on Medicaid 1.4 million of whom are immigrants in the country illegally, 1 million who are double-dipping into Medicaid in multiple states and an additional 1 million on plans under both Medicaid and Obamacare. That totals 3.4 million, meaning there are 4.6 million people unaccounted for. During the May 14 committee hearing, Kennedy said about 4.8 million people cut from Medicaid under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would become ineligible because they aren't employed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The last category is adults who are able-bodied, who refuse to look for a job, to volunteer, to get a job or to show to take a part-time job," Kennedy said (at 1:54:25). Multiple Republican lawmakers also cited this number during a May 13 House committee hearing; at least one attributed it to CBO but if this is a CBO estimate, it has not yet been released publicly. Snopes reached out to several Republican lawmakers who shared the number in the hearing to ask for documented proof and await their reply. CBO would not share its estimate or related documents with Snopes. To summarize, there is no public evidence, aside from Kennedy's claim, that DOGE deserves credit for the alleged discovery of 8 million people fraudulently on Medicaid. The numbers and categories of supposedly fraudulent enrollees from the post come from either Kennedy, who did not provide proof, or estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. While enrollment in multiple states or multiple plans is a legitimate issue, it's unclear if the numbers shared are accurate. Furthermore, the 1.4 million immigrants in the country illegally on Medicaid as estimated by CBO are on the program through state funding, not federal. Sources: "Affordable Care Act - Return Preparer Best Practices." Https://Www.irs.gov, Internal Revenue Service, 7 Apr. 2016, www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/best-_practices_resolving_1095_conflicts.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Broder, Tanya. "Health Care Coverage (Maps)." NILC, 16 Oct. 2024, www.nilc.org/resources/healthcoveragemaps/. Accessed 21 May 2025. "CMS Statement on Collaboration with DOGE | CMS." Cms.gov, 5 Feb. 2025, www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-statement-collaboration-doge. Accessed 21 May 2025. Congressional Budget Office. Subject: E&c Reconciliation Recommendations. 11 May 2025, democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/cbo-emails-re-e%26c-reconcilation-scores-may-11%2C-2025.pdf. Accessed 23 May 2025. DOGE. "DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency." DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency, doge.gov/savings. Accessed 21 May 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Doge 8 Million People on Medicaid - Google Search." Google.com, 2024, www.google.com/search?q=doge+8+million+people+on+medicaid&oq=doge+8+million+people+on+medicaid&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg8MgYIAhBFGDwyBggDEEUYPdIBCDIyMjZqMGo0qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Accessed 21 May 2025. Dorning, Courtney, et al. "DOGE Sets Its Sights on Medicare and Medicaid." NPR, 10 Feb. 2025, www.npr.org/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5288835/doge-sets-its-sights-on-medicare-and-medicaid. Accessed 21 May 2025. "Estimated Budgetary Effects of a Bill to Provide for Reconciliation pursuant to Title II of H. Con. Res. 14, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act." Congressional Budget Office, 20 May 2025, www.cbo.gov/publication/61420. Accessed 23 May 2025. "From:DOGE Medicaid - Search / X." Archive.ph, 21 May 2025, archive.ph/l6v39. Accessed 21 May 2025. "From:elonmusk Medicaid - Search / X." Archive.ph, 21 May 2025, archive.ph/8fbQM. Accessed 21 May 2025. Grimm, Christi. " NEARLY ALL STATES MADE CAPITATION PAYMENTS for BENEFICIARIES WHO WERE CONCURRENTLY ENROLLED in a MEDICAID MANAGED CARE PROGRAM in TWO STATES." Https://Oig.hhs.gov/, Sept. 2022, oig.hhs.gov/documents/audit/7881/A-05-20-00025-Complete%20Report.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2025. House Appropriations Committee. "Budget Hearing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services." YouTube, 16 May 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=meYjG7vI5z8. Accessed 23 May 2025. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. "Full Committee Markup of Budget Reconciliation Text Part 1." Www.youtube.com, 13 May 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4fGR1CiNGg. Accessed 23 May 2025. MACPAC. "Overview of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid : MACPAC." Macpac.gov, 31 Mar. 2022, www.macpac.gov/subtopic/overview-of-the-affordable-care-act-and-medicaid/. Accessed 21 May 2025. Mathews, Anna Wilde, and Liz Essley Whyte. "DOGE Aides Search Medicare Agency Payment Systems for Fraud." Wall Street Journal, 5 Feb. 2025, www.wsj.com/politics/elon-musk-doge-medicare-medicaid-fraud-e697b162. Accessed 21 May 2025. Musk, Elon. "At This Point, I Am 100% Certain That the Magnitude of the Fraud in Federal Entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, Etc) Exceeds the Combined Sum of Every Private Scam You've Ever Heard by FAR. It's Not Even Close." X (Formerly Twitter), 10 Feb. 2025, x.com/elonmusk/status/1889198569518719122. Accessed 21 May 2025. Pear, Robert. "U.S. Officials Move to End Duplicate Health Care Coverage." Archive.ph, The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2016, archive.ph/yxw4R. Accessed 21 May 2025. "Press Room." Hhs.gov, www.hhs.gov/press-room/index.html?page=0. Accessed 21 May 2025. Snopes Staff. "Copypasta." Snopes, 21 Aug. 2019, www.snopes.com/collections/copypasta/. Accessed 21 May 2025. Swagel, Phillip. "Re: Emergency Medicaid Services for Certain Non-U.S. Nationals ." Https://Www.cbo.gov, 2024, www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-10/Arrington_Letter_EmergencyMedicaid_Immigration_final.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2025. "Take Action When You Have Marketplace Coverage along with Medicaid or CHIP Coverage." Https://Www.healthcare.gov/, www.healthcare.gov/downloads/marketplace-medicaid-chip-guide.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2025. USAGov. "How to Get Insurance through the ACA Health Insurance Marketplace | USAGov." Www.usa.gov, 6 Dec. 2023, www.usa.gov/health-insurance-marketplace. Accessed 21 May 2025. (WHTM) A doctor at UPMC Harrisburg who received a kidney from his high school prom date has an update on his recovery. Shawn Moyer received a kidney transplant when he was a 16-year-old student at Dallastown High. He needed a date to the prom, as the girl he was supposed to go with to the prom left him for a better offer, as he recalled. Elena Hershey a junior who couldnt go to prom unless invited by a senior stepped up to the plate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He needed a backup, Hershey told abc27. I would love an invite to a prom. What girl wouldnt? So I was happy to go. Colorado woman donates kidney to save Pennsylvania man 35 years after they went to prom together 20 years later, Moyer, now a UPMCs Chief Quality Officer and a practicing family physician, needed another transplant, which is common among kidney transplantees. Dr. Moyers wife, Alyssa, already donated one, and he returned to dialysis. Hershey, who now lives in Boulder, Colorado, heard from her good friend Julie, who is married to Shawn Moyers close childhood friend Kyle, that Dr. Moyer needed a kidney. Once again, Hershey stepped in as Moyers backup. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now WHTM Daily Digest A few weeks of having to rest and a few days of discomfort to extend someones life or save someones life? Hershey said. It really is kind of a no-brainer. Dr. Moyer has reported that he has officially returned to work, saving more lives at UPMC. 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 ABC27. ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) An Upstate man was taken into custody after he allegedly had several images and videos of child pornography. The Anderson County Sheriffs Office charged 28-year-old Devon Kaleb Black, of Starr, with 14 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. An investigation was initiated in July 2024, when detectives began looking into the Black after receiving more than a dozen tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, deputies executed a search at Blacks home and went through extensive evidence. Evidence collected showed that the suspect reportedly uploaded child sexual abuse images more than 100 times, mostly of infants and toddlers. The sheriffs office mentioned that the evidence provided some of the most disturbing content theyve come across. A judge granted Black a bond during a hearing Friday morning. He has since been released from the Anderson County Detention Center. Blacks case will be prosecuted by the SC 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 WSPA 7NEWS. GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) The family of a man who was shot and killed by a Greenville County deputy in 2024 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming he was mistaken for an assault suspect. 51-year-old Robert L. Campbell was shot and killed the night of January 26, 2024 while Greenville County deputies were responding to an assault at a business next door to Campbells property. The Greenville County Sheriffs Office later said that Campbell fired at deputies and deputies returned fire, killing him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit claims that deputies were on the wrong property and believed that Campbell was the assault suspect they were seeking. The suit said that Campbell believed he was dealing trespassers on his property and that he fired a warning shot into the air, not at deputies. The lawsuit alleges negligence by the deputies by failing to properly identify themselves or deescalate the situation. Deputies are also accused in the lawsuit of failing to provide aid or life-saving measures to Campbell until 35 minutes after the shooting. Four deputies, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis, and the Greenville County Sheriffs Office are named in the lawsuit which was filed last week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Greenville County Sheriffs Office declined to comment. Read the full lawsuit below: Robert-Campbell-Wrongful-Death-Lawsuit 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 WSPA 7NEWS. Upstate therapist discusses barriers to mental health care as demand rises GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) Licensed therapists in the Upstate want to get more people the help they need. They said the demand for mental health services is up, but so are the barriers to getting care. Ashlee Martin is a counselor at Thriveworks in Greenville who explained that therapy is not going to come immediately for those who are interested. Martin said many patients are facing issues with counselor availability, the cost of sessions, and their insurance. In-office therapists are difficult to find. Nowadays, there is a lot of telehealth therapy out there. But, there are still a lot of people who prefer in person, and thats what works best for them, so I know, even with ThriveWorks, that can be a challenge, said Martin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said some sessions can cost $130 an hour. She told 7NEWS some therapists stopped accepting insurance altogether because of the struggles with filing paperwork and getting reimbursed. Martin added that, in spite of this, many therapists will work with new patients to get them the help they need. She said its crucial people not wait until the last minute and know their options in advance. In reaching out to a therapist, check first, kind of, what their availability is, what their scheduled dates and times are. There are a lot of therapists, even with Thriveworks, who have weekend hours and appointments until 9-10 oclock. There is a way to fit it in if you really want to, Martin also said. Martin encourages shopping around for a new therapist if the one a patient picked initially is not a good fit. She said whats more important is that people continue to show up for appointments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think its important for people to know that if they cant do it every week, or if they cant do the cost upfront, that there can be a plan made for that, Martin went on to say. Even if youre switching insurances or taking on a new plan, if you know that you would like to be in therapy and receive therapy, then definitely look and see what the coverage is. 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 WSPA 7NEWS. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) Governor Bill Lee and Senator Marsha Blackburn were in East Tennessee Thursday, celebrating a new multi-billion dollar uranium enrichment facility that is coming to Oak Ridge. The development is called Project IKE, and is set to bring one of the largest uranium enrichment facilities in the country to an area already well-known for its contributions to nuclear power. State and local leaders joined the Orano group as they announced they will be opening offices in the area and will soon begin construction on the new facility. In my opinion, Orano will continue to add to the legacy of greatness and accomplishments, not only in Oak Ridge, but in our state, said Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man charged after brother fatally stabbed, dog drowned in Sevier County Local leaders like Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank said this will put Oak Ridge back on the map In terms of what it means for our area, it just means prosperity, increased growth, a lot of good things for the people who live and work here, said Frank. While the development will bring over 300 jobs to Oak Ridge and its surrounding counties, state leaders stressed how it will also help meet Americas need for more nuclear energy. America is learning that we are staring down the barrel of an energy crisis in this country, that is in part being created, in a good way, because of the advancement of AI technology, said Governor Bill Lee. We cannot afford to lose the AI war, and in order to do that, we cannot afford to lose the energy battle, and in order to win that battle, we have to be leaders in nuclear energy going forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaders like Governor Lee and Senator Marsha Blackburn said companies like Orano will push the US in the right direction. Because of what we have with Oak Ridge and with TVA, there is no excuse for us not to lead the way, said Blackburn. Inspector finds off temperatures, no sanitizer at Chinese restaurant in Morristown With this new uranium enrichment facility, Frank added it will be an investment not only in nuclear energy, but also in the community it is built in. Its drawing national attention, Its drawn international attention, other companies are saying, you know what? We need to take another look here, she said. Were getting more locations, a lot of industry interest, so its really been a spark. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the event was for the opening of the offices in Anderson County, the uranium enrichment center will be located in Roane County. According to Orano, operations at the facility wont start for a while, but they say they could begin in the early 2030s. 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. If youve been ignoring those pesky "suspicious login" alerts in your inbox, now might be the time to pay attention. Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler recently discovered an unprotected online database exposing over 184 million records including email addresses, passwords and login links stored in plain text. The leaked data is tied to major platforms like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and even government and financial services. Fowler is usually able to trace an exposed database back to its source spotting breadcrumbs like company names, employee records or customer information. But this time, the trail ran dry. There were no telltale signs of who the data belonged to or how it ended up online, making the breach even more unsettling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As far as the risk factor here, this is way bigger than most of the stuff I find, because this is direct access into individual accounts, Fowler told Wired. This is a cybercriminals dream working list. The breach could fuel fraud, identity theft and more. So while data leaks might feel like background noise these days, ignoring this one could come back to bite especially if your Netflix password doubles as your online banking login. Heres some smart steps you can take to keep your information safe. Don't miss The cloud comes at a cost In a small 10,000-record sample, Fowler found hundreds of compromised accounts including major consumer platforms like Netflix, PayPal, Amazon and Apple. A keyword search revealed 187 mentions of bank and 57 of wallet, suggesting the breach may have exposed financial data, too. Perhaps most concerning, however, was the discovery of 220 email addresses associated with .gov domains, raising the possibility of broader implications for national security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scale of cyberattacks isnt just growing but evolving in ways that are becoming much harder to contain, track and remediate. In 2023, data breaches jumped 72% compared to the year before, but the number of victims actually declined to about 353 million, according to The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) 2024 Annual Data Breach Report. But that all changed in 2024. While the number of breaches remained high, the number of people impacted surged by 312% a dramatic shift driven by mega-breaches that hit not just companies, but their entire digital ecosystems. As more companies shift to cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure to cut costs, theyre also opening their door to hackers. A recent IBM report found that 82% of data breaches last year involved information stored in the cloud, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. That kind of exposure can carry a hefty price tag and recent breaches are showing just how costly a single vulnerability can be. Take crypto exchange Coinbase: on May 11, the company received a ransom email after bad actors bribed overseas support agents to steal internal information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These insiders abused their access to customer support systems to steal the account data for a small subset of customers, the company said in a blog post. While the company says it didnt pay, the breach could cost up to $400 million to fix. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan works every single time to kill debt, get rich in America and that anyone can do it Protecting yourself Protecting your personal information online doesnt require a tech degree but it does take intention. This is perhaps a kick in the pants for some people whove been a little bit lax in doing some of the things we talk about, said Teresa Murray of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murray suggests changing your passwords now and says one of the easiest things you can do is regularly update your passwords and never reuse the same one (or even a similar one) across multiple sites. Your primary email and financial accounts should have strong, unique passwords that arent used anywhere else. Murray also recommends freezing your credit files with all three major credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and leaving them frozen until you need to make a major purchase. This wont affect your credit score, but it will make it much harder for criminals to open new accounts in your name. Another step you can take is to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever its available. This adds an extra layer of protection, even if a hacker does get their hands on your login credentials. You can also use free tools like Googles Password Checkup to see if your information has been compromised in a breach. If it has, update your login credentials as soon as possible. Finally, sign up for transaction alerts from your credit card provider and make sure your contact details are up to date. When it comes to cybersecurity, vigilance really does pay. What to read next Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like what you read? Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise straight to your inbox every week. Subscribe for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. By Ateev Bhandari (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on Friday that the U.S. should be taxing carried interest, joining the criticism of a loophole that enables private market investors to benefit from lower taxes. "We absolutely should be taxing carried interest," the biggest U.S. bank's top boss said in an interview at the Reagan National Economic Forum, aligning with U.S. President Donald Trump's recent campaign to close the provision long-cherished by investors. Dimon proposed using the revenue to double income tax credits, even for individuals without children, noting that the estimated $60 billion additional cost from this initiative would directly benefit communities, families and homes. He also warned of a "crack in the bond market", citing the U.S. government's overspending and quantitative easing, adding that while the market may panic when it happens, the bank would likely benefit. Market makers like JPMorgan often benefit from volatility, as frequent exchange of assets drives up brokerage fees for their trading desks. Trump's flip-flop on trade policies, along with suggested tax cuts and spending surge, have sent the bond markets tumbling in recent weeks. The rise in treasury yields post "Liberation Day" tariffs, which Trump described as the bond market acting "yippy", forced him to hit a 90-day pause on tariffs. "I'm hoping that we change both the trajectory of the debt and the ability of market makers to make markets," Dimon warned, while suggesting the "crack" could appear in "six months or six years". PRIVATE MARKET LOOPHOLE Carry, which refers to the part of private fund managers' compensation tied to profits generated, is currently taxed as a long-term capital gain, allowing fund managers to pay lower taxes compared to ordinary income. Closing the loophole has been a bipartisan issue for over a decade, with successive administrations promising to close the loophole. A 2021 Congressional Budget Office estimates that doing so would raise tax revenue by $14 billion over 10 years. Private equity and hedge funds have opposed such legislation, saying it could potentially hurt small businesses as well as institutional investors, such as endowments, foundations and pension funds. Industry groups in February had opposed Trump's plan to close the lucrative tax workaround. (Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal; Editing by Vijay Kishore) A second cryptocurrency investor has been arrested and charged in connection with the alleged weeks-long torture of an Italian tourist in an upscale Manhattan apartment, according to reports. William Duplessie was taken into custody on Tuesday in New York City and charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon, according to The Associated Press, The New York Times, and NBC 4. The 32-year-old cryptocurrency investor surrendered to police after his alleged co-conspirator and fellow cryptocurrency investor John Woeltz was taken into custody last Friday after their alleged victim, a 28-year-old Italian tourist, reportedly escaped from the Manhattan apartment and ran to the nearest police officer he could find outside. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PEOPLE previously reported that Woeltz, 37, was charged with two counts of second-degree assault and one charge each of kidnapping, imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm. The New York Police Department said in a statement to PEOPLE that the two cryptocurrency investors are alleged to have been holding the Italian man captive in a Manhattan apartment while torturing him over the course of two weeks in an effort to get him to give up the password to his Bitcoin account. The AP and NBC 4 reported that the victim was known to the two suspects, and described their relationship as a business partnership gone sour. Yuki Iwamura/AP William Duplessie William Duplessie A spokesperson with the Manhattan District Attorneys Office and Woeltzs attorney, Wayne Gosnell, have not responded to PEOPLEs request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether Duplessie had an attorney representing him. Over the course of two weeks, Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly tortured their victim in a number of ways, according to the AP and NBC 4, including bounding him by the wrists, shocking him with electrical wires, cutting his leg with a saw, urinating on him, and pistol-whipping him. On one occasion, the man reportedly told police his kidnappers dangled him by the feet from the eight-bedroom, six-story apartments top flight of stairs. On another occasion, the victim reportedly told police he was forced to smoke out of a crack pipe. Yuki Iwamura/AP William Duplessie William Duplessie New York City Police said in a statement over the weekend that the victim alleged he had been routinely assaulted during his captivity before finally agreeing to give up his password last Friday morning. When the two men went to get his laptop, the victim was allegedly able to escape and run out of the apartment. According to the AP, the victim, who has not been identified, ran up to a traffic guard outside of the apartment and told him what happened, leading to a police response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NBC 4 reported that a video taken by a bystander showed the victim was disheveled and shoeless when he approached the traffic cop, begging for help. 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. Kava Gorna via AP John Woeltz John Woeltz "The motive was over money, they knew each other. But under no circumstance in this world you have the right to kidnap somebody," NYPD Chief of Department John Chell said, according to NBC 4. Investigators found a Polaroid the suspects allegedly took, which appear to show the victim being tortured, The AP also reported. Police also discovered cocaine, chicken wire, a saw, body armor, and ammunition inside the Manhattan townhome from where the victim allegedly escaped, which Woeltz was renting. Read the original article on People Ukraine will receive nearly US$3 billion from Japan as part of the G7 countries' Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration for Ukraine (ERA) initiative. Source: Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Telegram Details: Shmyhal stated that the Cabinet of Ministers (the Government of Ukraine) had adopted a decision necessary to secure the funds, which will be backed by revenue from frozen Russian assets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We will direct these funds towards financing our priority budget expenditures," he said. Background: On 18 April, Ukraines Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine Masashi Nakagome signed an agreement on the provision of a loan in the amount of up to 471.9 billion Japanese yen (about US$3 billion) to Ukraine. Ukraine is expected to receive US$3 billion from the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets between 2025 and 2026. Finland signed an agreement with the European Commission to supply heavy munitions to Ukraine, purchased with funds from frozen Russian assets. The European Union officially announced plans to allocate nearly 1.9 billion in military support for Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United States and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violates U.N. sanctions and has helped Moscow increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. They made the accusations in their first report since joining forces to monitor sanctions against North Korea after Russia vetoed a resolution in March 2024 to continue the monitoring by a U.N. Security Council panel of experts. It had been issuing reports of Pyongyangs sanctions violations since 2010. The 29-page report produced by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team comprised of the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom said the evidence it gathered demonstrates that North Korea and Russia have engaged in myriad unlawful activities explicitly prohibited by U.N. sanctions resolutions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It said North Korea has transferred arms and related materiel by sea, air and rail, including artillery, ballistic missiles and combat vehicles, for Russias use in the war in Ukraine. Russia has transferred air defense systems to North Korea, and its forces trained the Norths troops deployed to support Russia's war, the team said. And Moscow also has supplied refined petroleum products to Pyongyang in far excess of the yearly cap under U.N. sanctions, and has maintained corresponding banking relations with the North in violation of sanctions. The 11 countries said this unlawful cooperation has contributed to Moscows ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure. The cooperation also has provided resources for North Korea to fund its military and banned ballistic missile programs., and it allowed the more than 11,000 troops Pyongyang has deployed to Russia since October 2024 to gain first-hand military experience, the team said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was no immediate response from the Russian Mission to the United Nations to a request for comment on the report. The report covers the period between Jan. 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, and points to evidence that Russia and North Korea intend to further deepen their military cooperation for at least the foreseeable future. It cites an unnamed country in the team reporting that Russian-flagged cargo vessels delivered as many as 9 million rounds of ammunition for artillery and multiple rocket launchers from North Korea to Russia in 2024. The report includes images of containers, which the team says were from North Korean and Russian ports and an ammunition dump in Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Citing an unnamed team member, the report says North Korea last year transferred at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia, which were launched into Ukraine to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorize populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia." It also transferred elements of three brigade sets of heavy artillery, the report said. It includes images of a North Korean 170mm self-propelled gun that it said was being transported through Russia, and North Korean multiple rocket launcher ammunition and an anti-tank missile it said were found in Ukraine. The team said in a joint statement that it will continue to monitor implementation of U.N. resolutions and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade U.N. sanctions. It urged North Korea to engage in meaningful diplomacy. The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Koreas first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking so far unsuccessfully to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, and have blocked all other U.N. action against North Korea. Congresss bill cutting taxes and spending will receive an advertising campaign from a major business lobby as it faces widespread criticism for redistributing wealth and resources toward the upper strata of American society. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the nations largest business lobbies, will run the six-figure campaign across various media in targeted states and congressional districts, though the group didnt specify in a Friday release where exactly those would be. The campaign will include a total of 32 billboards across the country and matching paid digital advertising. This initial ad buy will run for at least the next month with the intention to expand to additional states and districts, it said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ads will mention 14 congressional representatives and two senators and will [draw] attention to those Members of Congress who are not supportive of the bill, the group said. The campaign likely has an eye toward the 2026 midterm elections, which could see Republicans lose their trifecta. Republicans are gunning for seats currently held by retiring Democrats in Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota and have vulnerabilities in the Senate in North Carolina and Maine. The economy and languishing economic sentiment as a result of the White Houses frequently changing tariff policies factor significantly in Republicans 2026 strategy, according to reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their goal is to overcome negative economic sentiment by rekindling the energy Trump brings when he is on the ballot, according to one report by NBC News based on interviews with about a dozen GOP strategists. Public opinion surveys of Trumps big, beautiful bill are hard to come by, but some show that the public does not view it favorably. One poll from YouGov earlier this month on the budget proposed by Republicans and Donald Trump found that 43 percent of Americans oppose it, while 36 percent support it and 21 percent have no opinion. Along party lines, 76 percent of Republicans support it and 80 percent of Democrats oppose it, according to that poll. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A different March survey by McLaughlin & Associates that was paid for by the Chamber of Commerce found that 64 percent of respondents favored extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, while 20 percent opposed doing so. The 2017 tax cuts, which form the core of the current tax legislation now under consideration by the Senate, were opposed by the majority of Americans in Gallup polling from that year, with 56 percent of Americans disapproving and 29 percent approving. The tax-and-spending cuts are heavily skewed toward the rich, according to many different analyses of the legislation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that Americans in the highest tenth of the income distribution will gain wealth as a result of the bill, while those in the lowest tenth will lose wealth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tax cuts themselves, which would add $3.9 trillion to the deficit through 2034, are also much more advantageous to the wealthiest Americans, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). There will be hundreds of billions more in cuts for top earners than for the many more Americans making closer to the median income of about $80,000 per year, the JCT found. The legislation will kick millions off of public health insurance and food assistance programs, according to the CBO. Some Republicans have voiced opposition to the policies in the bill on various grounds. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has staked out territory as a defender of Medicaid, which his partys bill would cut through increased reporting of work requirements a barrier to the program by means of increased paperwork. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this month that cutting health care for working poor people is both morally wrong and politically suicidal. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) attacked the bill and voted against it on the grounds that it was a ticking debt bomb. All told, the legislation passed by the House could add in the ballpark of $2.3 trillion to the national deficit depending on how different parts of the bill interact with one another, estimates of which are forthcoming from the CBO. Thats roughly $255 billion on a yearly basis, or about 7 percent of the total $36 trillion national debt stock per year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. (Reuters) -U.S. trade talks with China are "a bit stalled" and getting a deal over the finish line will likely need the direct involvement of President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday. Two weeks after breakthrough negotiations led by Bessent that resulted in a temporary truce in the trade war between the world's two biggest economies, Bessent told Fox News that progress since then has been slow, but said he expects more talks in the next few weeks. "I believe we may at some point have a call between the president and party Chair Xi," Bessent said. "Given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity ... this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other," he said. "They have a good relationship, and I am confident that the Chinese will come to the table when President Trump makes his preferences known." The U.S.-China agreement to dial back triple-digit tariffs for 90 days prompted a massive relief rally in global stocks. But it did nothing to address the underlying reasons for Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods, mainly longstanding U.S. complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model, leaving those issues for future talks. Since the mid-May deal, the Trump administration has concentrated on tariff negotiations with other major trading partners, including India, Japan and the European Union. Trump last week threatened 50% tariffs on EU goods, only to delay that threat. A U.S. trade court on Wednesday ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing the bulk of his tariffs on imports from China and other countries under an emergency powers act. But less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court reinstated the tariffs, saying it was pausing the trade court ruling to consider the government's appeal. The appeals court ordered the plaintiffs to respond by June 5 and the administration to respond by June 9. Bessent said earlier that some trading partners, including Japan, were negotiating in good faith and that he detected no changes in their postures as a result of the trade court ruling. Bessent said he would meet with a Japanese delegation on Friday in Washington. (Reporting by David Lawder and Dan Burns; Editing by Leslie Adler) The White House and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are looking into a reported attempt at impersonating White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Two White House officials confirmed the effort to impersonate Wiles to NewsNation. The investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. People familiar with the message told the WSJ that an unknown individual sent text messages and made phone calls to multiple notable Republicans and business executives while pretending to be President Trumps chief of staff in recent weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated, a White House official told the Journal. Sources told the Journal that the FBI and the White House are investigating who is behind the calls and their goal. U.S. intelligence agencies have looked into the situation, the outlet noted. The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement to the Journal. Safeguarding our administration officials ability to securely communicate to accomplish the presidents mission is a top priority. Wiles reportedly told associates that her phone was hacked, with people noting that the phone in question is her personal phone, though the calls and text messages reportedly didnt come from Wiless phone number. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It could not be determined how the impersonator got access to Wiless contacts. The voice on the other end of the phone calls reportedly sounded like Wiles, according to those who heard them. Government officials say its possible that the individual used artificial intelligence (AI) to imitate her voice, according to the Journals report. There were a few moments during the exchanges that raised red flags for some of the lawmakers, most notably that the impersonator asked questions about Trump that Wiles wouldnt not have asked, as she would have already known the relevant information. In one reported example, the individual on the other end of the line asked for a cash transfer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In many cases, the Journal noted the impersonator used incorrect grammar and the messages were different than how Wiles usually communicates. Wiles reportedly warned her contacts about the impersonator, though some had already engaged with the individual before realizing it wasnt Trumps chief of staff, the Journal reported. Its reportedly not the first time Wiles was suspected of being hacked. The Journal noted that during last years presidential campaign, Iranian operatives hacked into Wiless email account and were able to access information on Trumps then-running mate, Vice President Vance. This story was updated at 1:25 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. In a Reddit forum focused on politics, one Redditor drew attention to a controversial request made by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: a $50 million private jet. Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois expressed outrage about "wasting taxpayer dollars on luxury travel." According to an article by Military.com, Noem requested a new $50 million long-range Gulfstream jet to replace the private jet she currently uses for travel. It was a last-minute addition to the Coast Guard's 2025 budget proposal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is reported that Underwood was horrified. On social media, she posted that "we should be investing in our national security." Executive chairman of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, recently came under similar scrutiny for his recent purchase of a fourth private jet. Noem's request seems to be sparking even greater outrage since she is requesting taxpayer dollars to fund her luxury jet. Private jet travel has a significant impact on the environment. It creates an incredibly high amount of pollution per traveler. The jets typically only transport a few people per flight. Though commercial flights are also huge offenders of creating air pollution, they carry many passengers at once, making private jet travel much more inefficient. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The exact environmental impact varies depending on the distance travelled and type of aircraft, but it is generally accepted that travelling by private jet is one of the least eco-friendly methods of travel. All of this pollution is a huge contributor to the warming of the planet. Private jet usage has come under increased scrutiny as people become more aware of the negative environmental impact. Countries like Canada are introducing a luxury tax on private jets and other luxury vehicles like yachts and high-end cars to discourage their purchase, which is viewed by many as frivolous and irresponsible in terms of environmental impact. Do you think billionaires spend their money wisely? Definitely No way Some do Most do Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Redditors were outraged about Noem's expensive and seemingly unnecessary request. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayers' money right here!" said one. "It's pretty hard to reduce the deficit when there's people like her wanting [their] own private jets," commented another Redditor. In reference to sweeping government cuts by DOGE, one commenter asked, "Is this part of saving money?" 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. (Reuters) -U.S. federal authorities are investigating an effort to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Thursday report said Wiles had told associates that some of her cellphone contacts had been hacked, allowing the impersonator to access private phone numbers. The incident affected her personal phone, not her government phone, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Journal reported that in recent weeks, senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and other figures received messages and calls from a person who claimed to be Wiles, citing the people familiar with the messages. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. "The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness. Safeguarding our administration officials ability to securely communicate to accomplish the presidents mission is a top priority," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Friday. The White House has struggled with information security. A hacker who breached the communications service used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier this month intercepted messages from a broad swathe of American officials, Reuters reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And late last year, a White House official said the United States believed that an alleged sweeping Chinese cyber espionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon targeted and recorded telephone calls of "very senior" American political figures. As Wiles is a key lieutenant to President Donald Trump and a lynchpin of the White Houses operation, the content of her personal phone would be of extraordinary interest to a range of foreign intelligence agencies and other hostile actors. Wiles has reportedly been targeted by hackers at least once before, in the final months of Trumps 2024 presidential campaign. At the time, hackers alleged by U.S. authorities to be acting on behalf of Iran approached journalists and a political operative with a variety of messages sent to and from Wiles, some of which were eventually published. (Reporting by Costas Pitas and Raphael Satter; Additional reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Michael Perry, Sonali Paul and Mark Porter) By Samia Nakhoul and Hatem Maher (Reuters) -The U.S. plan for Gaza, seen by Reuters on Friday, proposes a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages - alive and dead - in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians. The document, which says the plan is guaranteed by U.S. President Donald Trump and mediators Egypt and Qatar, includes sending humanitarian aid to Gaza as soon as Hamas signs off on the ceasefire agreement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The aid will be delivered by the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal. Israeli media said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted the deal presented by Trumps Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The prime minister's office declined to comment. The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it had received the Israeli response to the proposal, which it said "fails to meet any of the just and legitimate demands of our people" including an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hamas official Basem Naim said the Israeli response "fundamentally seeks to entrench the occupation and perpetuate policies of killing and starvation, even during what is supposed to be a period of temporary de-escalation". However, he said Hamas' leadership was carrying out a "thorough and responsible review of the new proposal". The U.S. plan provides for Hamas to release the last 30 of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages once a permanent ceasefire is in place. Israel will also cease all military operations in Gaza as soon as the truce takes effect, it shows. The Israeli army will also redeploy its troops in stages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March. Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely, be dismantled as a military and governing force and return all 58 hostages still held in Gaza before it will agree to end the war. Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The subsequent Israeli military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say, and has left the enclave in ruins. MOUNTING PRESSURE Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that are usually reluctant to criticise it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that Israel is blocking all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with almost no ready-to-eat food entering what its spokesperson described as "the hungriest place on earth". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to "sending out a new term sheet" about a ceasefire by the two sides in the conflict. "I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict," Witkoff said then. The 60-day ceasefire, according to the plan, may be extended if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire are not concluded within the set period. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Thursday the terms of the proposal echoed Israels position and did not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops or admit aid as Hamas has demanded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AID DISTRIBUTION The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the United States and endorsed by Israel, said it had distributed a total of more than 1.8 million meals this week and it expanded its aid distribution to a third site in Gaza on Thursday. GHF plans to open more sites in coming weeks. The group, heavily criticised by the United Nations and other aid groups as inadequate and flawed, began its operation this week in Gaza, where the U.N. has said 2 million people are at risk of famine after an 11-week blockade by Israel on aid entering the enclave. There were tumultuous scenes on Tuesday as thousands of Palestinians rushed to distribution points and forced private security contractors to retreat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The chaotic start to the operation has raised international pressure on Israel to get more food in and halt the fighting in Gaza. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that his country could harden its position if Israel continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza. (Reporting and writing by Samia Nakhoul and Hatem MaherAdditional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Washington and Cairo teamsEditing by Michael Perry, Clarence Fernandez and Frances Kerry) By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked security ally Australia to increase defence spending in a meeting with Defence Minister Richard Marles on Friday in Singapore. The defence chiefs also discussed the need to significantly lift U.S. submarine production rates to meet AUKUS targets. Australia is scheduled to pay the United States $2 billion by the end of 2025 to assist its submarine shipyards, in order to buy three Virginia-class submarines starting in 2032 -- its biggest ever defence project. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The defence ministers meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security forum, is only the second between the security allies since the Trump Administration took office. Hegseth had "respectfully" said Australia should increase defence spending, Marles said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation television interview after the meeting. "Clearly we have increased defence spending significantly and that is acknowledged, but we want to be making sure we are calibrating our defence spending to the strategic moment that we need to meet," he said. "We are very much up for the conversation, and the American position has been clear," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marles said they did not discuss a number, although a Pentagon official had previously said Australia should spend 3% of gross domestic product. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was re-elected this month and is yet to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, did not raise defence spending in this year's national budget, saying his government had already announced a A$50 billion boost over a decade. Albanese said on Thursday defence spending would rise to 2.4%. "In a rational world defence spending is a function of strategic threat - there is definitely strategic threat in the world today and we are rational people," Marles said. The AUKUS submarine partnership and working together to provide stability in the Indo-Pacific were also discussed, Marles said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "AUKUS is happening and we talked about the need to maintain the momentum," he said. "We want to be seeing a significant increase in the production and sustainment rate, the availability of Virginia class submarines for the United States fleet." U.S. production of Virginia class attack submarines has fallen behind U.S. Navy targets, and concern has been raised in Washington over selling used submarines to Australia under AUKUS if this reduces the fleet size. (Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry) Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has stated that the United States recognises the legitimacy of Russia's demands regarding the non-expansion of NATO to the east and is ready to discuss this matter as part of a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine. Source: Kellogg in an interview with ABC News Details: Kellogg confirmed during the interview that Trump is ready to promise Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin that NATO will not expand eastward if such a demand becomes a condition for ending the war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "That's one of the issues that Russia will bring up. And they're not just talking Ukraine they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova, they're talking, obviously, Ukraine. And we're saying 'Okay, comprehensively, you know, we can stop the expansion of NATO coming close to your border'. That's security concerns from them." Details: Kellogg also stressed that Ukraine's accession to NATO is not on the agenda and at least four NATO member states share this position. Quote: "We've said that, to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table. And we're not the only country that says that. You know, I can probably give you four other countries in NATO, and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come into NATO." Background: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that Ukraine's accession to the Alliance remains irreversible, but it would not be part of a potential peace agreement with Russia. On 28 May, Czech President Petr Pavel said he is convinced that Ukraine is unlikely to receive an invitation to NATO in the near future this is partly linked to Trump's position. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Israel has accepted the US proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, according to the White House. US President Donald Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that talks with all parties were ongoing and that the United States hopes for a ceasefire and the return of all hostages from Gaza. She stressed that if an agreement is reached, the White House would announce it but did not provide any details about the current ceasefire proposal. Hamas'studying the proposal' Palestinian extremist group Hamas confirmed on Thursday that it has received a new ceasefire proposal drawn up by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff from international mediators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a press statement, Hamas said it is studying the proposal responsibly and that any response will be based on the interests of the Palestinian people, with a focus on alleviating humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip and achieving a permanent ceasefire. Reports reveal details of the proposal The new proposal by Witkoff outlines a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that includes the release of 10 hostages in two groups within a week, according to Israeli media. Hamas would have to hand over the bodies of 18 abductees still held in Gaza, while the bodies of 180 Palestinians would also be returned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel would also release 125 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,111 Gaza residents who have been detained in Israeli jails since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023. The two-month truce is set to facilitate negotiations on an end to the almost 20-month-long conflict, according to the reports. Proposal calls for hostage release If Israel and Hamas manage to come to an agreement, the remaining hostages held in Gaza would be released under the latest proposal. The proposal also stipulates that aid distribution in the Gaza Strip will once again be handled by the United Nations and international aid organizations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli army is to withdraw to the positions it held before the start of the latest offensive in March, according to the proposal. According to Israeli sources, at least 20 hostages are still alive in the Gaza Strip. The fate of three other kidnapped people is unclear, while the bodies of 35 abductees are believed to be held in the sealed-off coastal area. Israel calls on northern Gaza residents to evacuate Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday called on civilians in several areas in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate immediately, saying "terrorist organizations" continue to operate there and so the IDF will expand its offensive there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The IDF will expand its offensive activity in the areas where you are present to destroy the capabilities of the terrorist organizations," the IDF's Arabic speaking spokesman, Avichay Adraee wrote on X, in Arabic. He said the areas are now considered a combat zone and that residents "have been warned several times" and should evacuate to the west. The post included a map with arrows pointing to the attack areas as well as the relocation zones. At least 23 killed in Israeli airstrike in central Gaza As the Israeli offensive continues, at least 23 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A building in the al-Bureij refugee camp was hit and in total, some 37 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since early morning, according to WAFA. The Israeli military has so far not commented on the reports relating to al-Bureij. Israel has repeatedly stressed it has taken steps to ensure the safety of civilians as it targets Hamas. More than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the latest war, according to the Hamas-controlled health authorities. These figures are considered largely credible by international organizations, including the UN. UN: Gaza Foundation aid plan puts civilians at risk United Nations officials have raised concerns over Israel's plan to allow only the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - established in February and backed by private US security firms - to distribute food aid in the war-torn Gaza Strip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The plan of the foundation puts people in need at risk," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement to dpa on Thursday. "They have to take long walks through a war zone to reach distribution points, and once they make their way home with food items they may themselves be targeted by looters." Laerke emphasized that in a humanitarian crisis as severe as Gaza's, food must be delivered directly to people where they are. If only small amounts of food are distributed at just a few locations, chaos and violence are almost inevitable, he warned. Recent reports from southern Gaza have described chaotic scenes at GHF-run distribution points, including overcrowding and unrest. The foundation has denied these accounts. By Andrew Chung (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday let President Donald Trump's administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president's drive to step up deportations. The court put on hold Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's order halting the administration's move to end the immigration "parole" granted to 532,000 of these migrants by Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal, while the case plays out in lower courts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Immigration parole is a form of temporary permission under American law to be in the country for "urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit," allowing recipients to live and work in the United States. Biden, a Democrat, used parole as part of his administration's approach to deter illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump called for ending humanitarian parole programs in an executive order signed on January 20, his first day back in office. The Department of Homeland Security subsequently moved to terminate them in March, cutting short the two-year parole grants. The administration said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place migrants in a fast-track deportation process called "expedited removal." As with many of the court's orders issued in an emergency fashion, Friday's decision was unsigned and gave no reasoning. Two of the nine-member court's three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, publicly dissented. The court botched its decision by failing to account for its impact, Jackson wrote in an accompanying opinion. The outcome, Jackson wrote, "undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case is one of many that Trump's administration has brought in an emergency fashion to the nation's highest judicial body seeking to undo decisions by judges impeding his sweeping policies, including several targeting immigrants. The Supreme Court on May 19 also let Trump end a deportation protection called temporary protected status that had been granted under Biden to about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, while that legal dispute plays out. Biden starting in 2022 let Venezuelans who entered the United States by air request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor. Biden expanded that to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023. A group of migrants granted parole and Americans who serve as their sponsors sued, claiming the administration violated federal law governing the actions of government agencies. Talwani in April found that the law governing such parole did not allow for the program's blanket termination, instead requiring a case-by-case review. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the judge's decision on hold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 'TRAUMATIC IMPACT' Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, one of the plaintiffs, expressed dismay at Friday's decision. "Once again, the Trump administration blatantly proves their disregard for the lives of those truly in need of protection by taking away their status and rendering them undocumented. We have already seen the traumatic impact on children and families afraid to even go to school, church or work," Jozef said. The administration called Friday's decision a victory, asserting that the migrants granted parole had been poorly vetted. Ending the parole programs "will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America First," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While many of those with parole status are at risk of deportation, at least 250,000 had pending applications for another legal status, according to Karen Tumlin, director of the Justice Action Center, one of the groups suing over the parole termination. Those applications had been frozen by Trump's administration but the freeze was lifted this week, said Tumlin, adding: "Those should be processed right now." Migrants with parole status reacted to Friday's decision with sadness and disappointment. Fermin Padilla, 32, waited two years in Chile to receive parole status and paid for his work permit. "We complied with all the requirements the United States government asked for," said Padilla, who lives in Austin, Texas, and delivers Amazon packages. "Now I'm left without security because we don't know what will happen. We're without anything after so much sacrifice. It's not fair." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Retired university professor Wilfredo Sanchez, 73, has had parole status for a year and a half, living in Denver with his U.S. citizen daughter, a doctor. "I was alone in Venezuela, with diabetes and hypertension," Sanchez said. "I have been relaxed here, happy with (my daughter), her husband and my grandkids. I have all my medical treatment up to date." "To return to Venezuela is to die, not just because of my medical conditions, but from loneliness," Sanchez added. Carlos Daniel Urdaneta, 30, has lived in Atlanta for three years with parole status, working in a restaurant, since coming to the United States to earn money to send to his ill mother in Venezuela. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If I have to work triple in my country, I will," said Urdaneta, whose wife and son are still in Venezuela. "I won't risk staying here undocumented with this government." (Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond and Ted Hesson; Editing by Will Dunham) Campaigner Ben Peck and former Rep. Brian King are the two major candidates seeking to lead the Utah Democratic Party. (Photos courtesy of Ben Peck and Brian King) Utah Democratic Party officials expect between 800 to 1,000 people to attend their organizing convention in person this year, one of the largest headcounts for a non-election year gathering the party has seen in recent years. Diane Lewis, who has chaired the partys Utah chapter for the last four years, didnt throw her hat in the ring for another term in her role. But, with four other candidates eager to pick up where she left off, shes hopeful for the future of organized Democrats in deep red Utah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have never seen as much excitement and turnout at our conventions. I would say that our turnouts probably have doubled (in different Democratic events across the state), Lewis said on Thursday. New people, young people, people wanting to get involved, run for office. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX There are two major candidates for chair this year former Rep. Brian King, a widely-known face in state politics for about 16 years who left his spot at the Utah House to compete in last years gubernatorial elections with no success, and newcomer Ben Peck, who has been behind campaigns that have flipped some red offices to blue. Jonathan Lopez, an IT technician who has been behind other Democratic campaigns and is also running for chair, didnt answer an interview request, and the fourth candidate, Archie A Williams III, didnt list his information on the partys website prior to the convention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Committing to such a role didnt come easy for King, he said on Thursday. But, after seeing President Donald Trumps election and bracing to witness another legislative session with a Republican supermajority, this time from the sidelines, he couldnt stand the idea of sitting on his hands. He sees that ubiquitous red presence in Utah politics as a monopoly that needs to be of lower intensity with more competition. People may not realize how damaging it is to have a monopoly of political power, like we do in Utah, King said. The Republicans have a supermajority in the legislature. They control the executive branch with the governor. They control the great majority of counties here in the state, and its not good for Utahns to not have more healthy competition. Most Democratic elected officers represent areas along the Wasatch Front. However, King believes that Utahns in rural counties are ready for a change of policies to tackle issues they deal with daily. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When youre in the supermajority for long enough, like the Republicans are, you get complacent. You think that you dont have to address peoples problems, you dont have to work hard, he said. During his campaign, he has also seen more engagement from affiliates who, since Trump took office, have felt the need to step up, he said, and push back against government overreach at the state level and the federal level. While King has been around for longer and has an extensive list of flashy endorsements, including Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County mayors, among other prominent Utah Democrats, Peck said hes cautiously optimistic about his chances on Saturday. Let us know what you think... My message seems to really be resonating with people, Peck said. I know its going to be an uphill battle. Brian has a long history here in the state and in the party, but I think that people are ready for a change, ready to try something new. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He knows what it takes to win in Utah, he said, highlighting the successful campaigns he ran that elected Natalie Pinkney in a tight race for a Salt Lake County Council seat, and Sheila Srivastava, the first woman elected to serve as Salt Lake County treasurer. At 25 years old, he also believes the party needs representation from younger people, as support appears to be slipping in that group and the state Legislature keeps its Republican supermajority. Its hard for people who have been involved in politics for decades to credibly tell people Im going to fix it. Things are going to change now, because people rightly come back with, well, why havent you done it yet? Peck said. The day will start and end early at Ogden High School, with delegates convening in smaller caucuses to discuss issues like approaches to health care, education and labor, among others, and to elect new leadership, including the partys vice chair, secretary and treasurer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delegates will also vote on a party platform highlighting Utah Democrats belief in economic security, equality of opportunity and investing in the common good for all. Additionally, theyll make their choice on two resolutions, one relating to veterans, and the other to take an official stand against presidents running for three terms. While Lewis is looking forward to her retirement, she is also excited about seeing where the party goes now. We have amazing leaders in each county party, and theyre willing to work. I hope that the new leadership of the state party sees that whole thing, and that they continue to build from where we are now, Lewis said. Because the only place we can go is up. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) A formerly endangered Utah native fish, the June sucker has been downlisted to threatened status, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR). The June sucker is a fish species native to Utah, inhabiting Utah Lake and using tributaries in the Provo River and Hobble creek among others to spawn. It is an omnivore that can live for 40 years and grows several feet in size. In an interview with ABC4.com, Native Aquatics Project Leader at DWR Keith Lawrence said, A few decades ago, it was believed that the population [of June suckers] was down to only a few hundred individuals, maybe as many as a thousand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, however, through conservation efforts, the June Sucker population has recovered, to numbers estimated today to be in the tens of thousands, probably somewhere between 30 and 50,000 fish, according to Lawrence. Its important to understand that Utah Lake has undergone many changes over the decades since Western settlers arrived. And many of them have not necessarily been good for the June sucker, at least, and other native fishes that lived there previously. The June sucker is one of the few that remain. Keith Lawrence, Native Aquatics Project Leader at DWS Lawrence explained that the June sucker is not a predator, but as an omnivore it feeds on invertebrates and zooplankton, so it plays a role in the ecosystem as a mid-level omnivore. Cat who survived 400-foot Bryce Canyon fall adopted by rescuing pilot The recovery program for the June sucker has been a large undertaking that began shortly after the species was listed as endangered, Lawrence said. Alongside partners, DWR has taken a myriad of measures to protect the species, including non-native management, water conservation especially in the Provo River, public information and outreach, habitat improvement, and a very aggressive stocking program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of the stocking program, conservationists took some of the remaining individuals and propagated them, mostly at the Logan Hatchery in northern Utah, Lawrence said. They are raised in these hatcheries and then they are stocked into the lake. Lawrence told ABC4.com that there have been hundreds of thousands of June suckers stocked into the lake over the years. Lawrence stated that while the recovery has been very successful, there are still threats to the June sucker population, including all the non-native potential predators and competitors that we have in the system. Additionally, water flow continues to be a major threat. The Supreme Court reinstates federal approval in Uinta Basin Railway project Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At one time, the Provo River ran completely dry, you know, during the summer, Lawrence said. Memory of the summers that that did happen, and so obviously thats not good for the fish, and so the program has spent tens of millions of dollars to try to purchase money and provide those flows when the fish need them. Lawrence stated that they are monitoring the spawning run into the Provo Delta and Oville Creek, using PIT tag antennas, which passively detect tags put into some of the fish. June suckers are most vulnerable after spawning. Theyre very vulnerable, as you might imagine, when theyre small, Lawrence said, and he described getting them from the larval stage to age one fish as a bottleneck. The research to figure out how to get over that bottleneck is key, he said. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. During Gov. Spencer Coxs Built Here housing summit Thursday, local officials were pressed to do more to help make his goal of building 35,000 starter homes in Utah by the end of 2028 a reality. But after the two-hour private discussion held in the stately Governors Mansion, Cox said at a news conference that his message to the 48 mostly Wasatch Front area municipalities represented wasnt about taking them to task. It was a collaboration moment more than anything else. It really was about sharing the good ideas. I mean, weve had lots of woodshed moments. It was about going over the numbers, the governor said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I said at the end, All Im asking is that you are all as passionate about this as I am, understanding that the very future of our state hangs in the balance here, Cox said, warning all of Utahs top rankings nationally go away if we dont solve this in the next five years. So far, just over 5,000 starter homes have been built since his Utah First Homes goal was announced in December 2023. Efforts are underway to allow starter condo projects to tap into the $300 million in public funds set aside for loans to builders. A new statewide housing dashboard launched Thursday by the governor shows the percentage of Utahns who cant afford a median-priced home by county as well as how many new units have been permitted since January 2024 and other data, although some is not yet available. Flanked by mayors of various Utah cities, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a press conference as part of a housing summit held at the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 29, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News It is rough to talk housing. It is rough to look at a situation that you know is a problem and know needs to be addressed, and figure out a way to solve it, Clearfield Mayor Mark Shepherd told reporters at the news conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It cant just be solved overnight. This problem didnt just all of a sudden pop up, Shepherd said, adding he did not believe any of the dozen or so mayors standing beside him disagreed with the need for more homes priced for first-time buyers. We recognize that we have a problem. He said cities are making massive efforts already to bring that housing to those that need it. The mayor said that even though hed been told that Clearfield was built out, in the last five years there have been more than 4,000 housing units either built or set to be soon. It takes time and can be costly, requiring local flexibility and technical assistance from the state, Shepherd said, adding many more housing units are expected in the reinvestment zones around transit stops created by state lawmakers several years ago. Weve got cities doing everything they can to try to make this happen, the mayor said, although some need to do more. We need them to stick shovels in the ground and really make an effort. But the vast majority of cities in this state are making huge strides in housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Spanish Fork Mayor Mike Mendenhall told reporters mayors across the state do share the governors passion on the issue and if we can find a way for this problem not to be political but to be practical, Im confident that we can solve the home ownership dilemma. Part of the discussion Thursday was about how other states have mandated that local governments accept restrictions on their power to control issues like density, something that has failed to gain traction in the Utah Legislature. Cox, who served in local government himself, said he understood the political consequences for local leaders who support sometimes unpopular housing projects. Everyone wants more affordable housing, he said, but only where it cant be seen. There is always a tension between the state and local government, the governor said, adding he has tremendous amount of respect, a tremendous amount of empathy for what theyre going through and that he pushed on them, and they pushed on me. Coxs senior adviser for housing, Steve Waldrip, said the new dashboard tracking state housing data may be a carrot-shaped stick to motivate local officials. He said when they were asked at the summit whether nothing needs to be done, not a single hand went up. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) Utahs House majority will hold elections for a new House Majority Leader on Tuesday, June 3, and several hopefuls could usher in a completely new leadership team under House Speaker Mike Schultz (R-Hooper). The announcement that Rep. Jefferson Moss (R-Eagle Mountain) will be moving to the executive branch to head the Governors Office of Economic Opportunity (GOEO) leaves a vacancy for the House majoritys number two leadership role, Majority Leader. Multiple sources with knowledge of internal communications with the caucus confirm to ABC4 that two members of the current leadership will be vying for it, Reps. Karianne Lisonbee (R-Syracuse) and Casey Snider (R-Logan). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under House rules, anyone currently serving in leadership and running for an open position must resign from their current leadership position. That means that Lisonbees current position as Majority Whip and Sniders current position as Assistant Whip will also open up. Lt. Gov. Henderson gets more death threats over Primary signature gathering issues How will they be handled? The following Republican representatives, listed in order alphabetically by last name, are running for the open positions: Majority Leader Karianne Lisonbee (R-Syracuse) Casey Snider (R-Logan) Majority Whip Jeff Burton (R-Spanish Fork) Candice Pierucci (R-Herriman) Jordan Teuscher (R-South Jordan) Ryan Wilcox (R-North Ogden) Assistant Whip Bridger Bolinder (R-Grantsville) Cory Maloy (R-Lehi) Karen Petersen (R-Clinton) Rex Shipp (R-Parowan) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Cox signs executive order to establish new council focused on Utahs future and quality of life Shifting positions and politics within the politics Another possible shift, Rep. Teuscher is currently the powerful House Rules Chair, who helps decide which bills make it out of the rules committee to be heard by the larger body. If he wins the Whip position, he would likely have to give up that role due to the time constraints. However, its at the Speakers discretion who he appoints as Rules Chair. One of the primary responsibilities of the Whip is to serve as a liaison with the Senate and to help unify and strengthen our caucus, said Teuscher. I believe I bring the right combination of experience, skills, temperament, and relationships to be effective in that roleand to ensure our caucus continues to drive the conversation on the most important issues facing our state and is successful in getting our policy objectives to the finish line. Teuscher has ushered in some controversial legislation in the past, most recently the ban on collective bargaining, HB267, which currently faces a referendum that will be put before voters to decide whether or not to overturn it after labor groups crushed their signature gathering efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the current field of candidates is pretty settled, the source said, representatives do have until Monday morning to declare their intent to run. Its also possible that representatives not included in this list could be nominated by the body during the election for any of the open positions. Utah unveils new housing dashboard in effort to hit moonshot goal of building 35,000 starter homes The vacancy by Rep. Moss is also adding another wrinkle to the elections. His seat has yet to be filled via a special election, decided by the Utah County Republican Party. That means that the House majority will have 60 members voting in the election, not 61, leaving the possibility for a tie. House majority elections require a simple majority vote, and its unclear exactly what would happen in that case, however, the rules would suggest that voting would continue until there is a majority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Political insiders who spoke with ABC4 about the race say it is unusual for two members of the current leadership to be running against each other. Typically, those already in leadership positions tend to slide into a vacant and more prominent role. Those insiders also say there is pent-up demand to be in leadership, as evidenced by the number of people running. The House majoritys elections are not public, but the new leadership team will be announced Tuesday evening after the vote. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) A Utah lawyer has been sanctioned by the Utah Court of Appeals after a filing he made was found to use ChatGPT and contain a reference to a nonexistent court case. The brief was written by a law clerk at the firm, and the false citations were not reviewed before filing. The Utah Court of Appeals has decided to impose sanctions on Richard Bednar, an attorney who they claim filed a brief that used false citations created by ChatGPT. The Supreme Court reinstates federal approval in Uinta Basin Railway project Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to documents, Bednar and Douglas Durbano, as the petitioners counsel, filed a timely petition for interlocutory appeal. When the respondents counsel reviewed this brief, they found it to reference cases that were incorrect or did not exist. It appears that at least some portions of the Petition may be AI-generated, including citations and even quotations to at least one case that does not appear to exist in any legal database (and could only be found in ChatGPT and references to cases that are wholly unrelated to the referenced subject matter, the respondents counsel wrote, according to documents. The referenced case was Royer v. Nelson, a case that did not exist in any legal database and was found to be an AI hallucinated case that does not exist anywhere other than on ChatGPT. In a phone call with Matthew C. Barneck, the attorney who represented Bednar at the hearing, he shared that Bednar was not aware that ChatGPT was used until the citations were called into question. At that point, Bednar owned up to what happened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following this response, Bednar acknowledged the errors contained in the petition and apologized, according to the document from the Utah Court of Appeals. He also offered to pay attorney fees incurred by the response to make amends. President Trump pardons rapper NBA YoungBoy At a Utah Court of Appeals hearing on April 22, 2025, documents say that Bednar and his attorney for the hearing acknowledged that the Petition contained fabricated legal authority, which was obtained from ChatGPT, and they accepted responsibility for the contents of the Petition. They told the court that an unlicensed law clerk had prepared the brief, and Bednar did not independently check the accuracy before he signed it and filed it with the court. Durbano was reportedly uninvolved in the creation and filing of the petition. The law firm did not have an AI policy in place at the time, but they told the court on April 22 that they had since initiated one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barneck clarified that most law clerks are not licensed, and the law clerk in question had previously been licensed and was a law school graduate. He has since been terminated from the law firm. Why are police asking for help with finding a woman who vanished nearly 50 years ago? According to the analysis by the Utah Court of Appeals, this is the first time a court filing has been created with AI, and it has not been previously addressed by the Utah State Courts. They turned to other cases to make their decision on the sanctions. We agree that the use of AI in the preparation of pleadings is a legal research tool that will continue to evolve with advances in technology. However, we emphasize that every attorney has an ongoing duty to review and ensure the accuracy of their court filings. In the present case, Petitioners counsel fell short of their gatekeeping responsibilities as members of the Utah State Bar when they submitted a petition that contained fake precedent generated by ChatGPT, the Utah Court of Appeals said in the document. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Utah Court of Appeals further stated that, while they appreciated Bednars acknowledgment of his wrongdoing, they still needed to place sanctions due to the mishandling of the filing and not thoroughly reviewing the document before he signed it. Bednar was ordered to pay the respondents attorney fees for the petition and hearing, refund fees to their client for the time used to prepare the AI filing and attend the hearing, and donate $1,000 to and Justice for all a Utah legal nonprofit within 14 days. Utah family prepares to bury WWII pilot who was MIA for 80 years Although the Office of Professional Conduct (OPC) is bound by strict confidentiality rules and cannot comment on pending or nonpublic matters, the OPC takes seriously any conduct that may compromise the integrity of the judiciary and the legal profession. Additionally, the Utah State Bar is actively engaging with practitioners and ethics experts to provide guidance and continuing legal education on the ethical use of AI in law practice, the Utah State Bar said in a statement to ABC4. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the ethics section of their site, the Utah State Bar discusses their thoughts on the use of AI. They offer the following advice to lawyers who are considering the use of ChatGPT: Treat AI-generated results like a draft from a law clerk. Check any propositions or citations that youre not 100% sure about. Barneck told ABC4 that what happened was an oversight, and the courts opinion indicates that they believe it was done negligently and not recklessly. He shared that he was glad that Bednar owned up to what happened instead of trying to sweep it under the rug like lawyers in a similar position have. 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. Key Points Lumen will sell its mass markets fiber business to AT&T for $5.75 billion. The telecom will likely use the proceeds to reduce debt and invest in its network. The question for investors is whether that move will draw more investors to Lumen stock. 10 stocks we like better than Lumen Technologies Telecom specialist Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) just announced the sale of its mass-market fiber business to AT&T for $5.75 billion. That move continues the transformation which began last summer when it partnered with Microsoft to leverage its existing network to strengthen connectivity among Microsoft's data centers. It has also agreed to provide similar services to Amazon and Meta Platforms. The sale of the mass markets fiber business seems to confirm that Lumen is pivoting toward business and away from the consumer market. The question for investors is whether that deal will boost Lumen's stock over the long term. Image source: Getty Images. The AT&T deal and its implications According to CEO Kate Johnson, the company will receive net proceeds of $4.8 billion. Lumen can use those funds to reduce its debt or support its growing need to increase its capital expenditures as the company tries to reinvent itself from what had been a declining wireline telco business. Still, one has to assume Lumen will focus on debt reduction at some level. As of the first quarter of 2025, it holds $17.3 billion in long-term debt. The company's book value is only $289 million, so that liability has put tremendous strain on the company's balance sheet. Moreover, the company has to build what it calls a "backbone" for artificial intelligence (AI) to serve its enterprise customers. To that end, Lumen plans to spend $4.1 billion to $4.3 billion in capex this year, presumably to help build that AI backbone. That is up 30% from the $3.2 billion in spending in 2024 but should enable the company to meet the needs of its new customers. Does the deal boost the case for Lumen stock? Nonetheless, investors may be right to question how much the deal helps Lumen as an investment. So far, the pivot toward enterprise has not boosted the company's financials. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue dropped 3% year over year to $3.2 billion. Although that is an improvement from the 10% drop in revenue in all of 2024, it still represents a decline. Despite a net loss of $201 million, Lumen generated $354 million in free cash flow in Q1. Unfortunately, Lumen expects $700 million to $900 million in free cash flow in 2025, down from $1.4 billion in 2024. However, free cash flow will fall because of the increase in capex spending, not poor financial performance. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) Governor Spencer Cox met with over 40 mayors and local officials around the state for a housing summit, addressing the efforts that are being made to build more starter homes, including a statewide dashboard to help streamline development. Gov. Cox announced plans at the beginning of the year to construct 35,000 starter homes within five years. He shared that since that announcement, 5,100 starter homes have been built and sold. We know thats not enough. Were on our way, but we desperately need to do more. With Utahs growing population and we need to do more and we need to move faster, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Part of the solution, he said, is working with individual cities. He admitted that sometimes there are bad actors, or a few cities that arent approving plans or trying to drive up costs to prevent development, who can make things more difficult. But more so, he focused on how cities are contributing to fix the problem, saying dozens and dozens of them are striving to improve the housing crisis. How Utah is working toward increasing more affordable housing The American dream of home ownership is slowly but surely slipping away from far too many, out of reach of our children and grandchildren. Reversing that trend requires collaboration. It requires courage and action from all levels of government, he said. We are committed to building 35,000 starter homes in the next four years. Thats our moonshot, and we are making progress. The governor announced there will be resources to help track and meet this goal, such as a statewide housing dashboard between city governments and the state, which will track progress and identify gaps in success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The summit also looked at reforms being adopted in other states, including parking mandates, legalizing accessory dwelling units and modernizing building codes. Were committed to ensuring Utah doesnt fall behind on housing reform. We know theres been news this week of other states that are passing major housing reform packages. Were watching those closely. Were looking at the reform packages that weve passed over the past couple of years, getting those implemented and watching those changes starting to take hold. These are bipartisan and practical reforms, not left or right, just smart. Utah has always been a leader in that area, and we intend to stay, he said. The Supreme Court reinstates federal approval in Uinta Basin Railway project Clearfield City Mayor Mark Shepherd said housing is an issue that needs to be addressed at every level. He added that legislation in recent years, such as H.B. 462 in 2022, known as Utah Housing Affordability Amendments, and Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zones (HTRZ), are now seeing success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without this, the market would have supported about 16,000 units, but with that, the HTRZs, were now expecting 42,000 units. We are in the process. We see it coming. Weve got cities doing everything they can to try to make this happen, he said. There are areas where we need cities help. We need them to delve in more. We need them to stick the shovels in the ground and really make an effort. But the vast majority of our cities in the state are making huge strides in housing. Herriman Mayor Lauren Palmer added that housing is a concern to everyone in the community, which is why its important for local leaders to come together. We have kids that are being impacted by the housing crisis right now, by the price of housing, so as we look forward to collaborating with our development partners, with the state, with other leaders around us, we look forward to finding ways to convert those entitled units into units that can be lived in by our children, he said. They can be an asset to this community that can help people stay in this wonderful state and our wonderful communities that we have helped develop. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. A doctor employed at a Veterans Affairs medical center in Massachusetts was indicted Thursday on federal charges of possessing sexually explicit images of children, prosecutors said. Sven Knudsen Ljaamo, 70, a physician at the VA facility in Bedford, is accused of storing child sexual abuse material on his devices, including a cell phone he kept in his office. He faces one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ljaamo was arrested in April and charged by criminal complaint, according to court records. He was released following a detention hearing on conditions, including a requirement to appear in court as ordered. A federal grand jury indicted Ljaamo on Wednesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned on June 12 in U.S. District Court in Boston. Law enforcement officers were tipped off that 100 files of potential sexual images of children had been uploaded to Ljaamos Google account, U.S. Attorney Leah Foleys office said. When he spoke with investigators, Ljaamo admitted to viewing, downloading and saving pornographic material involving female minors, federal prosecutors said. Several such files, along with tens of thousands of pornography files, were found on his devices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. More stories from federal court Read the original article on MassLive. GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Tennessees Instant Check System was down for days, causing sales losses for gun store owners across the state. The firearm purchase login page for Tennessee FlexCheck, which is the system used across the Volunteer State, displayed an error message reading, We are currently unable to run background checks. We are working quickly to resolve it. Please check your emails for more information and updates. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which helps oversee the system, told News 2 that the agency had been troubleshooting an outage. The TBI said that the outage was related to a planned system change from the agencys vendor, which was outside of the organizations control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The vendor told the TBI they were working as quickly as possible to resolve the issue. It was tentatively restored around midnight Friday. Phillip Arrington, who owns Goodlettsville Gun Shop and has been in the business for about 30 years, told News 2 the store had experienced about five or six outages so far this year each lasting more than 24 hours with other shorter outages throughout the year as well. This outage lasted for about three days. Its getting to a point where we cant tell customers, Yeah, well get your background check! Its an instant check! Arrington told News 2. Its no longer an instant check because there is no pattern to when its going to be reliable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The TBI told News 2 that in 2024, TICS had been fully operational 99.46% of the time and is only closed on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The agency did not provide outage statistics for this year. No firearms could be sold in the state of Tennessee due to the outage, Arrington said, nor could firearms be taken in on consignment or any pawned. Some customers have been unhappy and even angry as a result of the outage. Weve lost quite a bit [of money], but nothing compared to what some of the bigger stores have lost, Arrington added. We have nothing to tell our customers. It basically stops everything were doing. Theres no sense in advertising because we cant sell anything. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com Additionally, the TBI confirmed that some agencies lost access to the National Crime Information Center as a result of the outage. Law enforcement agencies utilize the NCIC to input information about missing children as well as information about crimes and criminals like apprehending fugitives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. NEVADA, Mo. Two men are charged in connection to a reported rape and sexual assault in Vernon County. Richard Fleig Junior, of Nevada, and Joshua Janizsewski, of Milo, are each charged with first degree sexual abuse, second degree rape and third degree assault. Vernon County deputies responded to Nevada Regional Medical Center yesterday for a sexual assault report. A woman told investigators the two men forced her into the back of a car and took turns sexually assaulting and raping her. FOUR STATES CRIME Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said at one point, she began to scream and Fleig held her down by her throat, restricting her breathing. She also told investigators one of the men hit her head on the side of the vehicle, causing her to black out. The woman said the baby of one of the men was also in the back seat during the entire incident. Both men are being held in the Vernon County Jail on a $250,000 cash-only bond. 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. Veterans across the United States will gather on June 6, 2025, to protest the Trump administrations cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the slashing of staff and programs throughout the government. Veteran-led protests will be held at the National Mall, 16 state capitol buildings and over 100 other venues across 43 states. Veterans are disproportionately affected by federal cuts, in part because they make up only 6.1% of the U.S. population but, because of veterans preference in federal hiring, they compose 24% of the 3 million federal workers facing mass layoffs under the Trump administration. Veterans also depend on comprehensive, free, federally funded health care through VA clinics throughout the country. But that care is deteriorating due to cuts, rule changes and return-to-work policies that make it impossible for many VA workers to effectively provide care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Looming cuts to the VA may cause an irreversible blow if the VA stops providing comprehensive care to veterans and, instead, pushes veterans into seeing doctors in private practice. This is not the first time that veterans have engaged in mass mobilization. Veterans groups in the U.S. have successfully mobilized for centuries, crossing traditional political divisions such as race, class and gender. They are powerful messengers, and their actions in the past have helped secure back pay and pensions for veterans, a Social Security and welfare system for U.S. civilians, and foreign policy changes to end wars abroad. Im a scholar of law, social movements and veterans benefits. Heres a brief history of veterans campaigns that illustrates how veterans developed their political clout and effectively advocated to protect themselves, and many others, from harmful federal policies. Veterans are an important political constituency. On Nov. 7, 1932 the day before Election Day Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New York governor running for president, visited the veterans hospital at Castle Point, near Beacon, N.Y. Bettman/Getty Images Fighting for pensions Veterans were not always politically popular, nor were they treated well by the federal government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, Gen. George Washington lobbied Congress to offer lifetime half-pay to officers who served until the end of the war. Given the federal governments financial precariousness at the end of the war, this effort failed. Veterans were unable to successfully mobilize to advocate for the pensions, given their small numbers and internal divisions between more privileged officers and less privileged soldiers. During the Civil War, Congress passed numerous laws designed to support veterans. The 1862 pension law allocated payouts in proportion to a soldiers permanent bodily injury or disability caused by their service. The benefits were generous in comparison with prior allocations, and more veterans began applying for them. Yet, by 1875 only 6.5% of veterans had signed up for pensions. Veterans began to organize to increase awareness about these benefits and to lobby for more. The Grand Army of the Republic became a leading veterans organization that demanded better pension and disability benefits. At the end of the 1800s, earning veterans votes became a priority for aspiring politicians. The Grand Army of the Republic directly lobbied Congress to pass bills expanding veterans pensions, one of which Democratic President Grover Cleveland vetoed in 1887. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organization then successfully mobilized its members to vote against Cleveland in the 1888 election, securing victory for presidential candidate William Henry Harrison and for Republicans in both houses of Congress. This secured the 1890 Arrears Act, which expanded veterans pensions and disability payments. By the turn of the 19th century, over 40% of federal expenditures went to veterans. Getting back pay As more veterans returned in 1898 from fighting in the Spanish-American War, and with a huge influx of veterans 20 years later from World War I, veterans mobilized to streamline and expand pension and disability benefits. In the 1920s, the two most prominent veterans organizations, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, or VFW, formed a national legislative committee dedicated to lobbying for improved benefits. Each group boasted thousands of members whom they could call on to barrage a veterans term congressmen with letters. By 1929, even as the federal budget ballooned, veterans benefits still represented 20% of the total federal budget. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 1924 Bonus Act, which Congress passed after overruling Calvin Coolidges presidential veto, offered WWI veterans a deferred bonus payment available in 1945. But veterans suffered immensely in the Great Depression, along with the rest of the country. Veterans tried a new campaign tactic in 1932, creating the Bonus Expeditionary Forces, or Bonus Army, march on Washington, D.C., to demand their promised pay be delivered sooner. Over the course of three months, from May through July 1932, 40,000 veterans set up encampments throughout the city. During their stay, they crowded congressional galleries and plazas during debates on the bill. When President Herbert Hoover called on the military to disband the encampments, he set himself up for electoral defeat later that year. It took another four years for Congress to pass a law offering an immediate payout, but the veterans got their bonuses in 1936, not 1945. Campaigning to prevent cuts Building from public support bolstered by the Bonus Army march, veterans fought publicly to protect their benefits in the Great Depression. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought to cut veterans benefits to help finance other relief programs during the Depression, but veterans successfully lobbied Congress to rescind the cuts. A 1933 VFW encampment in Milwaukee attracted 10,000 veterans who openly decried Roosevelts economic policies. The event featured left-wing Louisiana populist Sen. Huey P. Long and former Marine turned anti-Wall Street populist Smedley Butler. The U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. To avoid another spectacle, FDR began developing a compensation program for World War II veterans even before the wars end. During debates about these expenditures, veterans activism helped ensure the generous educational, housing and vocational benefits from the so-called GI Bill developed by FDR, and the soldier vote helped secure FDRs fourth-term election in 1944. Scholars credit the GI Bill with creating a booming U.S. economy from the 1950s through the 1970s and creating the contemporary middle class, an economic and social group now shrinking and under threat. Beyond benefits Vietnam veterans hold a silent march down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House on April 22, 1971, to protest the Vietnam War. Bettman/Getty Images After World War II, veterans mobilization expanded from a focus on benefits to foreign policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most famously, after its founding in 1967, Vietnam Veterans Against the War engaged in street theater and gathered testimonies about U.S. military abuses to condemn the U.S. government for violence against the Vietnamese. Vietnam Veterans Against the War helped organized a four-day protest in 1971 in Washington, D.C., including camping on the National Mall. The organization continued to mobilize in more traditional ways, drafting congressional legislation for benefits and promoting investment in psychological support for Vietnam veterans. Veterans have continued to protest wars, particularly the Iraq War, engaging in street protests and also through mainstream politics such as elections and television advertising. Given their experiences, veterans today know what they are standing up for on June 6: their own freedom and prosperity, as well as the countrys and the worlds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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: Jamie Rowen, UMass Amherst Read more: Jamie Rowen receives funding from National Science Foundation. Donald Trumps chaotic and cannibalistic plan to punish millions of federal employees by forcing them to return to the office has created quite a large problem for Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins. Veterans make up 30 percent of the federal workforce, and theyre feeling the squeeze as various agencies as well as veterans hospitals and military bases are being forced to take in an influx of employees who were hired under remote work authorities. The Washington Post reported this week that the Veterans Health Administration is short nearly 60,000 workstations, and that at one hospital a suicide prevention specialist had to take calls outside because too many people were trying to use the internet inside. The Post also notes that cramped employees have complained about working in closets, makeshift offices, and other undesirable locations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strain is taking a toll on morale, as is the specter of mass layoffs. The VAs plans to fire 15 percent of its workforce around 83,000 employees is yet another cruel act by Trump, Collins, and now-former government employee Elon Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that will further hurt federal employees, members of the military, and the veterans they serve. Details of the administrations plan to fire 83,000 VA employees are vague, constantly shifting, and cloaked behind nondisclosure agreements. The VA already suffers from a shortage of professionals like doctors and nurses, and many have taken voluntary retirement offers. Early retirement packages are being pushed on thousands of employees, many of whom are reportedly leaving because theyre afraid theyll be laid off anyway or dont want to continue to work in cramped and hostile work environments. Internal documents obtained by the Post show plans to merge suicide prevention, homelessness programs, LGBTQ+ outreach, and mental health offices all in the name of consolidation. But in practice, that means stripping specialized services from veterans who need them. Trumps deranged war on institutions like Columbia and Harvard isnt helping, either. Columbias Resilience Center for Veterans & Families which provides trauma-informed care, train clinicians, conduct cutting-edge mental health research, and offer free therapy to veterans and their families is at risk. The administration has already cut VA research contracts at Harvard, abruptly terminating critical efforts focused on suicide prevention, toxic exposure, and cancer screening. Gutting these life-saving programs isnt about budget-tightening; its part of a political war against universities and veterans are paying the price. Trump and Republicans in Congress are still trying to gaslight the American people with their big, beautiful reconciliation bill that cuts taxes for the richest Americans, raises them on the poorest, and adds trillions to the federal deficit. This is how we know Trumps cuts are not to save money. They are intended to cause pain and death in the veterans community he clearly does not care about. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Veterans groups are starting to sound the alarm, organizing rallies like the Unite for Veterans one set for June 6 D-Day to protest the cuts. The truth is that this isnt just bureaucratic restructuring. Its a purge, one that is debilitating for those who continue to risk life and limb for ungrateful politicians like Trump and Collins. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. VILLE PLATTE, La. (KLFY) Two people were arrested in Ville Platte in April after what started as a traffic violation turned into a drug bust, authorities said. Lionel Ardoin, 38, is charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, resisting arrest with force or violence, obstruction of justice and obstruction of public passage. Yvonne Savoy, 39, is charged with obstruction of justice, interfering with a law enforcement investigation and criminal conspiracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Evangeline Parish Sheriffs Office narcotics agents observed a vehicle parked on Soileau Street April 17 in the middle of the road facing the opposite lane of travel, obstructing the roadway, officials said. Upon conducting a license plate check, agents made contact with Ardoin, who Evangeline Parish authorities described as a known narcotic distributor within the community of Ville Platte. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KLFY Daily Digest Ardoin attempted to get into the vehicle to move it from the roadway when the agents instructed Ardoin not to get in the truck and move to the front of the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Agents advised Ardoin to place his hands on the truck. Ardoin was observed taking belongings out of his pocket and placing them on the hood of his vehicle, authorities said, including a digital scale, wallet, cell phone and cash. Ardoin was advised to place his hands on the hood of the vehicle, when he allegedly said he had cocaine in his possession while simultaneously pushing himself off the vehicle in an attempt to flee from agents. Lionel Ardoin (left) and Yvonne Savoy Officials said agents grabbed Ardoin as he attempted to discard narcotics by throwing them away from his person. Located approximately five feet from the altercation and next to the rear tire of the police vehicle was a tied plastic bag containing 29.50 grams of cocaine, authorities said. Savoy, whom officials described as Ardoins significant other, then exited a nearby residence, screaming and running towards the agents. Savoy allegedly moved closer to agents, yelling that the agents were harassing Ardoin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Savoy was informed not to interfere with agents and instructed to step back from agents numerous times, but did not comply, authorities said. Bond details were not released. Latest news 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. By Katya Golubkova and Anton Bridge TOKYO (Reuters) -Nippon Steel investors and analysts are asking if its $15-billion deal to buy U.S. Steel, backed but not yet approved by President Donald Trump, is positive for the near term, even if its hopes for strong U.S. demand materialise. Such a merger would create the world's third-largest steel producer by volume, after China's Baowu Steel Group and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, data from the World Steel Association (WorldSteel) shows. The "planned partnership" would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the U.S. economy via Nippon Steel's additional investments, Trump said last week. While full details of the deal remain unclear, U.S. Steel shares surged 21% on the news and Nippon Steel gained 7%. Nippon Steel did not exclude issuing new shares to fund the takeover, Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said in December, after having already raised some funds through hybrid financing and asset sales. "If the new equity is issued, investors will rightly be asking: is this the best possible use of capital at this moment?" said Fiona Deutsch, lead analyst with Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR). The company had pledged an investment of up to $4 billion in a new coal-dependent blast furnace, said Deutsch, whose climate activist group holds less than 1% of Nippon Steel's shares. That plan, part of a wider investment commitment of $14 billion, comes "at a time when the global steel sector is shifting towards low-carbon alternatives", she added. Unveiling the deal in late 2023, Nippon Steel offered $55 for each share of U.S. Steel, for a premium of 40% at the time. U.S. Steel shares closed at $53.3 on Wednesday. "There's a lot of immediate negative effects, even though the long-term effect may be positive," said an adviser to institutional investors on strategies for Nippon Steel. The adviser cited the dilution as a further deterrent, apart from the high offer price and additional investment commitments. Nippon Steel did not reply to a Reuters request for a comment. "In the short term, there are concerns about financing," said Shinichiro Ozaki, a senior analyst at Daiwa Securities. "Given that U.S. Steel reported a net loss for the January-March period, the stock market may worry about the limited likelihood of a short-term return on the investment." Shares of Nippon Steel were up 0.8% in Tokyo afternoon trade, underperforming a rise of 1.9% in the benchmark Nikkei index. STRATEGIC GOALS RICHMOND, Va. (AP) An acre of land owned by the city of Richmond contains potentially hundreds of unmarked graves, some of which could belong to Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War, according to a study released Friday. The city commissioned the land survey after drawing scrutiny for spending $16,000 to upgrade an area around a grave marker on the property that pays tribute to Confederate soldiers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The stone marker was placed there in 1939 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It honors more than 100 Confederate soldiers from South Carolina who died in a wartime hospital across the street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Richmond Free Press, a newspaper with a large Black readership, first reported on the upgrades, which had included fencing, landscaping and a new bench. The newspaper raised questions about city expenditures on the project in the wake of removing various other Confederate monuments in recent years. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. The city noted the scrutiny in the study, which sought to verify that the land had been used as a cemetery for Confederate soldiers. Using ground penetrating radar and other research methods, the study found that there are more than 472 probable graves and 270 possible graves there, if not more. The land was originally in the former Richmond suburb of Manchester, which was later encompassed by the city. Manchester bought the land in 1857, possibly for a cemetery, four years before the Civil War started in 1861. The study included a review of old municipal, hospital and burial records. Newspaper articles from the late 19th century and early 20th century reference people who died in the Civil War being buried there. Maps also show a cemetery existing in that spot in 1876, after the Civil War. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The study found a circumstantial case that the property was used for wartime burials," while the research also indicates that soldiers from states other than South Carolina may have also been buried here. The city bought the property in 1930. It now serves as a natural gas booster and storage facility. In its statement Friday, the city said it has consulted with historians and other officials to develop an access plan for the site. It would allow visitation to descendants of those believed to have been interred there and to others interested in genealogical research. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) An Alexandria man will spend 110 months in federal prison for smuggling fentanyl pills from California to the DMV, according to the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia (USAO). On Friday, 28-year-old Lamin Sesay was sentenced for participating in a widespread drug trafficking conspiracy that distributed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills from Southern California to destinations throughout the United States. In 2023, Sesay was one of 24 people arrested in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, San Diego and Los Angeles and charged with conspiracy. On Feb. 7, 2025, he pleaded guilty to several drug-related charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump administration targets DMV sanctuary cities, threatens federal action Court documents revealed that Sesay had entered the conspiracy after he was introduced to a Los Angeles-based drug trafficker, Hector David Valdez. Officials noted that Sesays role was to have fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills shipped by Valdez to D.C. He then plotted with other co-conspirators in the D.C. area to redistribute the pills. According to the attorneys office, the investigation into the conspiracy was sparked after a young D.C. mother, Diamond Lynch, died from an overdose. While investigating her death, law enforcement uncovered a large network of traffickers who transported fentanyl from Mexico to Los Angeles and then to the nations capital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, authorities have seized over 450,000 fentanyl pills, 1.5 kilograms of fentanyl powder and 30 guns, according to the USAO. 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. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)- On Friday, April 18th, 2025, The City of Abilene became aware of a cyber attack on city computer systems. Now, more than a month later, the investigation into that attack is ongoing, and an alleged deadline has come and gone the city stating no intention to pay any would-be ransom for the stolen data. KTAB/KRBC sat down with Cybersecurity expert and CEO of CyberCatch, Sai Huda, for insight into how attacks like this one have played out in the past and what might lie in the citys future. This is a wakeup call for the City of Abilene, Huda said. Despite todays deadline, City of Abilene says they still wont pay ransom in cyberattack Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City has been relatively quiet on the matter as investigation has been conducted but thats not without reason. Because this attack involves data theft and security measures, city staff is exercising an abundance of caution to mitigate the extent of the attack within city systems and prevent the investigation from becoming compromised. With that in mind, lets discuss what we know so far. Navigate this article What is a Ransomware attack? How has the City responded? What is at risk? What can we do now? What is a Ransomware attack? This kind of malicious software is something that Huda is quite familiar with, telling KTAB/KRBC that it is not uncommon for an entity such as the City of Abilene to be targeted by such an attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Very typical these days where the attackers, the bad actors, install the ransomware into the system, shut down file systems. But while they do that, they also are able to make a copy of valuable data and exfiltrate that. In other words, transmit that out, and then theyll use that to threaten the victim. In this case, the city of Abilene and say, hey, pay this ransom by this deadline. Otherwise, we will not only leave you encrypted and so you wont be able to access any file systems, but also will start to sell that data on the dark web or release it publicly in increments to embarrass you. And its all about really money at this point, said Huda. Cyber Security watchdog group, Comparitech published a research article into the Abilene Cyber attack in which they were able to identify the Russian-based ransomware group Qilin as having claimed responsibility for the attack. City of Abilene doesnt dispute report of cyber attack ransom from Russian ransomware gang In that same article, Comparitech states that Qilin mainly targets victims through phishing emails to gain access to computer systems and introduce the malicious software. The group claiming responsibility for 25 confirmed ransomware attacks in 2025 to date. Seven of which were against government entities all across the U.S. How has the City responded? An initial news release put out by the City of Abilene states that, upon receiving reports of unresponsive servers City staff began immediately executing the incident response plan in place. Affected servers and critical assets were disconnected from the network to mitigate further spread of the attack. And an investigation with industry-leading cybersecurity experts was launched. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cyber incident disrupts City of Abilenes network systems, including phones Since that day the City IT department has been working to restore affected city services and minimize downtime. Some systems were taken offline intentionally out of an abundance of caution, again to mitigate spread. While the city has neither confirmed nor disproven the claims of an alleged ransom placed on the data and deadline of May 27th, 2025 to pay that ransom. A statement was put out by the City of Abilene saying, the City of Abilene administration reiterates that it has decided no ransom will be paid related to the cyber incident that began on April 18, 2025. The city administration has collaborated closely with cybersecurity experts and legal counsel to reach this determination. Huda says that he feels this was the right decision for the city to make as he has seen similar situations play out to undesirable outcomes when the ransom is paid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think the city is doing the right thing which is not to pay the ransom because then thats sort of paying for bad behavior. youre rewarding for bad behavior, Huda going on to say, some of the victims, which include cities, have paid the ransom simply because theyve done a cost benefit analysis and said, you know what? Its gonna cost us this much money and time to recover when the impact is so severe. So lets just pay the ransom, get the decryption keys, unlock the files, and, you know, were going to have to have a good faith that these guys will not sell that data. Theyll destroy it. So some of them, unfortunately have paid. But, were seeing a trend now which is positive that theyre not paying the ransom. Huda stating that even if the city decided to pay the ransom there is no guarantee that the stolen data would have been released. And a lot of times the ransomware gangs actually will go away. All of a sudden theyre gone theyve taken the ransom payment. They havent provided the decryption keys and they certainly havent destroyed the data. So, you know, theyre really not trustworthy to begin with. And so why reward them? Huda said. What is at risk? With an entity like the City of Abilene that has connections to businesses, non-profits, and direct interaction with individuals, the data that was targeted could span a wide range of fields as Huda explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this case City of Abilenes customers. They could be businesses they could be individuals and as much information about them as possible, said Huda. In his professional opinion, Abilene may have become a more high priority target for cyber attacks due to recent increased notoriety through the announcement of the A.I Project Stargate. The City of Abilene has now appeared, if you will, big time on the map. The project Stargate, which is the largest investment in A.I in US history, which entails building this massive data center at City of Abilene, is really of importance to these bad actors. But imagine all the people that are already involved in that project. So the construction people, the different suppliers, there are high value targets for these bad actors because maybe they can be ransomed or maybe their data could be used to infiltrate other valuable information about the data center. And when it comes online, that becomes even more valuable, Huda said. While there is currently no evidence to believe that Stargate and the Lancium clean compute facility played a factor in the ransomware gangs decision to target Abilene, Huda says the sheer amount of data and information that are involved in the venture are no doubt of high value to bad actors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So plans, designs, how those chips are being made, where theyre being shipped to. What volume of chips are being made, what types? Thats a really strategic importance. And so, you know, these these that actors in this case might be a criminal gang, but, you know, they may be supported by adversary nation states such as Russia, suggested Huda. What can we do now? As the City continues to investigate and address the attack that has already happened, Huda says businesses and individuals should be taking a cybersecurity inventory to defend against potential future attacks, data loss, and identity theft. So first of all, businesses should be proactive right now and think that they possibly could be attack, target and therefore put some measures in place. So like an incident response plan, which is basically a plan that says, hey, can we recognize a potential incident happening? And if we do, can we quickly come together and prevent that ransomware, for example, from infecting all of our computers?Backup files should be regularly backed up. They should be offsite, offline, inaccessible to the ransomware, because frequently the ransomware will actually be programed to hunt for those backup files, Huda said. Huda advised individuals who may have been impacted by the attack to check their passwords and consider changing any passwords that are linked to City of Abilene accounts. Stating also that passwords should be varied between different accounts and not be made simple or easy to guess. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As far as any potential fallout from this attack for Abilene citizens, Huda says to be on guard for identity theft and keep a close monitor on all financial or banking accounts you utilize. Individuals should, number one be paying attention to their credit reports. Put a credit monitoring alert on. Maybe put some credit freezes but be especially on guard for potential identity theft. That could happen not necessarily from this gang, but, you know, other gangs, other criminals that they may sell that data to who may perpetrate that type of fraud, which is identity theft. Open up credit cards, open up bank loans, different types of other expenses, you know, using the identity of the consumer. So thats the risk to the consumer, said Huda. Prior to this report, KTAB/KRBC reached out to the City of Abilene with a list of questions. City staff stated that they are actively working to gather the relevant information, but were unable to respond in time for 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 KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. Cue up Cole Porter! The iconic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, once home to the great Broadway composer but closed for eight years, will finally reopen to guests in September months later than Hilton promised it would, and after four previous delays since the hotel closed in 2017. A Hilton Instagram post says, The iconic hotel is set to welcome guests once again this coming September. The iconic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which has beenclosed for eight years, will finally reopen to guests in September months later than Hilton promised it would. Christopher Sadowski A Waldorf-Astoria New York spokesperson told The Post, We expect to open our doors sooner. Our exact opening date is still being determined. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An industry source said, No wonder theyre being cautious. Every time they touted a reopening, it didnt happen. A reopening will be a relief to Hilton, which has 90 years left on a 100-year management contract. The Waldorf was first touted to reopen in 2021, 2023, 2024 and, most recently, this spring. The Waldorf-Astoria is beloved by New Yorkers and visitors for its Art Deco architecture and interior treasures such as Peacock Alley with Cole Porters piano, which will again be on display. Multiple media outlets have touted hotel managing director Luigi Romaniello, its decorators, a restaurant called Lex Yard run by Gramercy Tavern chef Michael Anthony and also the inaccurate opening schedules. The Waldorf-Astoria is beloved by New Yorkers and visitors for its Art Deco architecture and interior treasures such as Peacock Alley with Cole Porters piano (abovce), which will again be on display. A Hilton web site posting for staff uniforms designed by NO Uniform, the specialist design studio led by acclaimed British couture designer Nicholas Oakwell, also included the September reopening date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Construction sources told The Post in February that the Waldorfs spring target couldnt be met and the hotel wouldnt be ready to receive guests until as late as October. Hilton operates several dozen hotels and resorts around the world branded as the Waldorf Astoria Collection. But sources said Hilton suits were privately fuming over repeated delays to bringing back the original Waldorf on Park Avenue. Hilton sold the landmarked property to Chinas Anbang Insurance Group for $1.95 billion in 2015. Anbang was to convert more than half of the landmark to luxury condos while reducing 1,400 guest rooms and suites to 375, although the new ones would be larger than the originals. Construction sources told The Post in February that the Waldorfs spring target couldnt be met and the hotel wouldnt be ready to receive guests until as late as October. Christopher Sadowski But as the $2 billion-plus construction project inched along, Anbangs chief executive was imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2018. A new company, Daija Insurance Group, took over the Waldorf job but proved little more swift than its predecessor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new Waldorf boasts 375 luxury condo units, a few of which have begun receiving residents. Sources said Daijas frenzy to complete the condos from studios priced just below $2 million to lavish four-bedroom units up to $15 million got the most attention. The hotel part wasnt on the fast track, one source said. A lot depends on the circumstances under which you try to define or feel your own loneliness. Let me begin with my biography my recent story. I joined the army in the first days of Russias full-scale invasion in 2022, as an officer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I had never served in the military before, and I never thought I would. In fact, I considered myself an anti-militarist and still do. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet, I see no contradiction between that and being proudly a senior lieutenant in the Armed Forces. Within three and a half months of participating in the liberation of the Kyiv Oblast and other operations further east, half of my platoon eight of my subordinates and I was captured by Russian forces in Luhansk Oblast. What followed were two years and four months of Russian captivity. I was a prisoner of war, held the entire time in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory the very region we were defending. Maksym Butkevych, Ukrainian human rights activist, journalist, and member of the Ukrainian military, attends a meeting with human rights defenders in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 25, 2024. (Wikimedia) For some reason, keeping me as a POW wasnt enough perhaps because they learned I was a journalist and human rights activist. A few months into my captivity, they fabricated a criminal case against me. The following year, I was sentenced as a war criminal to 13 years in a penal colony for supposed heinous crimes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I felt lonely because of what I had experienced. The only evidence against me was a confession extracted under duress. I prefer that phrasing, as it avoids the word torture. I was part of a prisoner exchange in October of last year. Naturally, Im incredibly happy to be free. But it also breaks my heart almost everyone I spent those years with in captivity, except for two, are still there. And of my own platoon, four remain incarcerated. As a former POW, when youre released and return to your native city Kyiv, which Ive never loved more you meet hundreds, even thousands, of wonderful people, joyful to see you free. I felt an overwhelming lightness, warmth, and happiness. And yet, at the same time, I understood and so did many of them that something fundamental had changed between us. I felt lonely because of what I had experienced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive been to places and seen things they never have and I hope they never will. But I also realized that our worldviews had diverged. How we see and feel the world is no longer the same. People perform a Ukrainian folk dance at Saint Volodymyr Hill in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 3, 2023, amid the Russian invasion. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images) Most of them, when they thought about it without any prompting said, No, we dont know what you went through. And thats true for every former prisoner of war or civilian detainee. This is what distinguishes a war veteran or a civilian under occupation from everyone else. We are shaped by what we live through. Its a strange thing, to feel lonely in such a significant perhaps even defining part of your life. But its a kind of chosen loneliness, because you dont want others to feel what you felt. You dont want them to go through what you endured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In captivity, our guards deliberately tried to inflict another kind of loneliness. They worked to break us morally, psychologically, and yes, physically. Especially in the first several months, we were held incommunicado, with no contact with the outside world. They repeatedly told us: Youve been abandoned. Everyone has forgotten you. You are on your own. You're at our mercy. No one can reach you. We can do whatever we want. No one cares. Read also: Its okay, Mom, Im home Ukraine, Russia hold largest prisoner swap of the war I was lucky. I never believed it. Not for a single second not even in the darkest moments. I placed all my trust in my loved ones my family, my friends, my colleagues, and just kind people out there believing they remembered me, remembered us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other Ukrainian POWs came to hear me say it out loud: We are not forgotten. That kind of destructive loneliness didnt work. Physically, we were isolated but morally, we were not. You dont know whats happening. You dont understand. Wake up. The loneliness I felt after my release was of a different kind. It wasnt about isolation. It was more complex. At the same time, I knew I was free because of other people. They had written letters, led campaigns, given interviews, and posted on social media. In the final months of my captivity, I learned there was a campaign of solidarity for me but I couldnt have imagined the scale of it. After my release, I kept meeting strangers who had participated in it. And I know I am free, to the extent possible, because of them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I had plenty of time in captivity to reflect. My first degree is in philosophy it never fades. I realized I had never treasured people as deeply as I do now. I began to grasp how much I am human at my best because of others. Attendees hold portrait placards and sing Ukraines national anthem during a Defenders Day ceremony on Independence Square, Kyiv, Ukraine on Oct. 1, 2024. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images) I recently returned from an advocacy trip across Europe, specifically within the EU. And I felt something many Ukrainians abroad have shared with me being in a peaceful country untouched by what weve endured for more than three years now. I felt joy simply observing people. Watching groups of young people rushing through their day-to-day lives. I was so happy to see people living in normalcy. They should not endure what were living through. Thats a good thing. Thats human. War is a state of profound dehumanization. People arent meant to live through it. I was glad to see them. But at the same time, I felt like I knew something they didnt. I had this urge to walk up to someone, shake them, and say, You dont know whats happening. You dont understand. Wake up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a kind of loneliness rooted in experience that of a former prisoner of war. Weve lived through something I sincerely hope no other community or country will ever have to experience. And as terrible as it sounds, I want us to be alone in that experience. Because if were not, it means we failed to defend ourselves, and others had to share this tragedy with us. I would hope we rather remain lonely in that regard. Editors Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent. Submit an Opinion Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The chair of the Market Basket board on Thursday shed more light on the decision to place longtime CEO Arthur T. Demoulas on paid administrative leave. The Tewksbury-based grocery chains board of directors informed employees on Wednesday that litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquardt & Sullivan was investigating allegations that Artie T has been considering leading a work stoppage that could upend the grocery giants 90 New England locations and over 30,000 workers. The board said it believes that Demoulas alleged planned work stoppage was in retaliation against the board for requiring him to work collaboratively with them regarding basic company operations and plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two Market Basket directors who were put on leave spoke out against the decision to put them on paid leave in Reading on Friday. Ive given my life for this place, said Thomas Gordon, grocery director. I have zero regrets. Gordon and Joe Schmidt, director of operations, denied any wrongdoing. Schmidt continued, Theyre doing it so they can get to their ultimate goal, which is to remove [Demoulas] from CEO and president, and to remove individuals in support of him. The two say they were put on leave on Wednesday and given a letter with details of their suspension. Chairman Jay Hachigian said in a statement to Boston 25 Friday: Joseph Schmidt and Tom Gordon each received letters specifically notifying them of the basis for their suspensions with pay, including that they have been actively pressuring associates to participate in an improper work disruption. As we also informed them, we are conducting an investigation to get to the bottom of it. Therefore, any suggestion that they are not aware of the basis for their suspensions is simply not true. The board said they are investigating their involvement in claims that they were orchestrating a work stoppage alongside the longtime CEO. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gordon continued, This accusation that we are somehow conspiring to stage some kind of a work stoppage is absurd. In a statement shared with Boston 25 News on Thursday, Hachigian said that Demoulas essentially hijacked the company. Mr. Demoulas has acted for years as if he owns the entire company and can make every decision, big and small, without discussion or accountability to anyone, Hachigian alleged. He has essentially hijacked this company for himself, and when the board put its foot down, he started to make plans to boycott and harm the company. Demoulas daughter, Madeline, and son, Telemachus, were among several other Market Basket employees also placed on leave, according to Justine Griffin, a spokesperson for Demoulas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Griffin has alleged that Demoulas was ousted in a hostile takeover by his three sisters and three appointed board members: Hachigian, Steven Collins, and Michael Keyes. Hachigian fired back Thursday, criticizing Demoulas behavior. Its simple: he wants it his way or no way, Hachigian alleged. And thats not the way a CEO and minority owner like Arthur can be allowed to continue to conduct himself. The board assured employees that there would be no changes to their jobs, while also assuring customers that the investigation into Demoulas alleged actions wouldnt impact store operations. There is no insurgent group, there is no one looking to change pricing, there is no one looking to change employee comp or benefits or profit-sharing, Hachigian said Wednesday. Everything will remain the same. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All trucks made scheduled deliveries to Market Basket stores on Thursday, and the weekly deal flyer went out as well, according to the company. The board told Boston 25 they had a meeting Friday morning where they voted 3-0 with one abstention to uphold the suspension of Arthur T. Demoulas and others in light of an independent investigation. Demoulas suspension comes 10 years after he was fired by a board controlled by Arthur S. Demoulas, his cousin and rival. After being sacked, store workers staged a walkout in support of Arthur T. that lasted six weeks. To protest, hundreds of warehouse workers and drivers refused to deliver fresh produce, leaving shelves depleted. Not only did the workers stick together, but customers soon followed by boycotting the stores in solidarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Customers began to shop elsewhere because they couldnt find fresh food at Market Basket, while others stayed away in a show of support for workers and Arthur T. The usually crowded stores turned into ghost towns, with only a trickle of customers coming in. After weeks of pressure from suppliers suffering lost revenue, and the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire getting involved in work negotiations, the company announced that an agreement had been reached for Arthur T. to pay $1.6 billion for the 50.5 percent share of the company owned by Arthur S. and other family members. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW AUSTIN (KXAN) Police are working to arrest a man seen on video attacking a fruit vendor in northwest Austin. The attack happened over the weekend at North Loop 360 and Spicewood Springs Road. So I was here Friday, and came back Saturday as usual, as Ive been doing for the past three years, said Rosie, the vendor. She asked us not to use her last name or show her face out of fear for her safety. She believes the attack was a hate crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This past Saturday, however, was far from typical. Rosie said a man set up a canopy near her stand, came up to her while she was with customers, and demanded she move. I tried to reason with him and tell him we could share the space, Rosie said. Rosie has operated the stand for the past three years. Rosie believes the attack was motivated by hate. Man caught on camera attacking fruit vendor in northwest Austin. Then things escalated. Video from Rosies friend shows the man who police identified as Lucas Spradlin push over crates of peaches and then start pushing employees. He threw me on the ground and started punching me, Rosie said. She has to wear a wrist brace now, but its what the man said that stuck with her more than any physical injury. He started insulting me about my race and sexual orientation. Im a two-spirit Indigenous person, Rosie said. Calling me all types of names. Being very derogatory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police have a warrant out for Spradlin on three charges: Assault with Injury, Class A Misdemeanor (2) Criminal Mischief, Class B Misdemeanor It is still too early to determine whether law enforcement will officially pursue prosecution of this as a hate crime. Hate crimes are defined in Texas as an attack motivated by prejudice, hatred or advocacy of violence. Im just trying to do things in a good way. But people like him dont listen, they dont care about those things. they only care about hate. and hate doesnt get you far, Rosie said. At the writing of this article, Spradlin was not in custody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 man who police believe is responsible for the deadly shooting of Nasstylejah Wilkerson near an elementary school on April 28 has been arrested. Trevon McCrary, 30, was picked up by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, McKeesport Police and City of Washington Police in McKeesport Friday morning. McCrary is charged with criminal homicide, recklessly endangering another person and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City of Washington police filed charges against McCrary in April, and an arrest warrant was granted. Chief Steve Devenney says that while processing the crime scene for evidence, investigators identified and found a vehicle of interest. The amount of evidence collected in the first 24 hours after the crime is why police felt they had enough information to apply for an arrest warrant. Police say they believe the two men were half-brothers, and at this point, they are still working to determine a motive. It was not a drive-by. Some of the puzzle we hope to piece together is answers to what happened that day, said Detective John Hritz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Channel 11s Jatara McGee questioned the suspect after he was taken into custody, and he said he did not shoot him. Why are you being arrested for this? McGee asked. I dont know. Why you asking questions, dont yall know? McCreary said. McCreary is being held in the Butler County jail because of a federal parole detainer. He will be brought back to Washington. Devenney says McCrary is being held on a federal parole detainer and is in Butler County Jail. He will be extradited to Washington County to face the charges. The investigation is still ongoing as police make sure anyone and everyone responsible for the incident on April 28 is held accountable for their action, Devenney says. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ky. (FOX 56) One person is dead and several others were injured following what the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling at least an EF2 tornado on Friday morning in Washington County. FOX 56 chief meteorologist Justin Logan said that just before 7 a.m., the NWS issued an alert saying a tornado had been seen in southwest Mercer County, heading east at around 35 miles per hour. Around 7:30 a.m., the Washington County Sheriffs Office posted on Facebook that emergency crews are being dispatched to the Long Run Road and Deep Creek areas in response to weather-related emergencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tornado warnings were also issued but expired around 7:45 a.m. for Mercer, Boyle, Garrard, and Jessamine counties. Around 8:30 a.m., Washington County law enforcement asked the public to avoid roads in the area while crews responded to multiple emergency calls. There is serious and severe damage, Washington County deputies wrote. We are asking everyone to stay off the roads for the time being if at all possible. Gov. Andy Beshear posted on social media around 8:45 a.m. that officials are responding to tornado reports in Washington County. Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Flooding photographed by Washington County deputies on Mackville Road. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) Washington County law enforcement posted photos of storm damage on May 30, 2025. (Washington County Sheriffs Office) This level of severe weather was unexpected, with a system still moving through the state, Beshear wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sheriffs office said around 9:45 a.m. that one person had died and multiple people were injured in the wake of the storm. Around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, Kentucky State Police announced in a news release that the man who was killed during the tornado had been identified as 48-year-old Ronnie Hill of Springfield. An investigation into his death remains ongoing. During an 11 a.m. news conference, Washington County officials confirmed the first dispatch call came out around 7:11 a.m. regarding damaged homes and missing people. Washington County EMA Director Kevin Devine said seven people were injured: one was removed from one area, four patients were removed from a different house, and two people self-transported for evaluation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Beshear reported that 14 people required treatment for their injuries, with two adults and one child still being treated at UK Hospital, one adult still receiving care at Danvilles Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, and 10 others having been released. I hope everyone will join me in praying for the families affected by this mornings severe weather in Washington County, Beshear wrote on Facebook. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: According to Washington County Judge Executive Timothy Graves, two houses along Long Run Road were destroyed, along with various other buildings. It was a small part of the county that was hit, but the areas affected are devastating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Devine noted that there is no siren in the area, but he had received an alert on his phone. The sirens that we have in this county are in Springfield and other parts of the county, Devine said during the news conference. We do not have a siren out in this area of the county. An outdoor siren would not have gone off in this area. County leaders said the NWS is there now evaluating, and the community is beginning to clean up. Additional details on how others can help are to come. Read more of the latest Kentucky news One person is dead and several others were injured following what the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling at least an EF2 tornado on Friday morning in Washington County. (Jace OBarto/FOX 56 News) One person is dead and several others were injured following what the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling at least an EF2 tornado on Friday morning in Washington County. (Jace OBarto/FOX 56 News) One person is dead and several others were injured following what the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling at least an EF2 tornado on Friday morning in Washington County. (Jace OBarto/FOX 56 News) Around 12:15 p.m., NWS Louisville said its preliminary survey determined at least an EF1 tornado hit southeastern Washington County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By 2 p.m., NWS Louisville said it was an at least EF2 tornado, with wind speeds reaching up to 115 miles per hour. Crews continue to survey damage in Washington County, including a path that may extend into Mercer County. FOX 56 confirmed with the NWS on Saturday that the tornado had max winds of 125 mph, with a length of 5.55 miles and max width of 450 yards, which extended into Boyle County. For the Burgin area of Mercer County, officials said straight-line winds peaked between 70-80 mph. Despite a decent radar signature, NWS surveyors noted they couldnt find much to support tornadic circulation. For the latest weather alerts, download the FOX 56 Weather Authority App. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dustin Massengill contributed to this story. 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 56 News. THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Morgan Stanley said on Wednesday it will contest a Dutch public prosecutor's investigation into tax evasion related to dividends on Dutch shares. The Dutch public prosecution service said on Wednesday it would subpoena a foreign bank on suspicion of dividend tax evasion. It said that between 2009 and 2013, a subsidiary of a foreign bank based in Amsterdam submitted five corporate tax returns in which a total of 124 million euros in withholding tax was offset, related to 825 million euros in dividends that were distributed on Dutch listed shares. "Following an investigation...there is suspicion that the subsidiary has unlawfully offset the withholding tax and is therefore suspected of tax evasion," the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said, adding it was also holding the European parent company responsible. The prosecutor did not specify the foreign bank being investigated, but a source close to the investigation said the probe concerns Morgan Stanley. Asked about the report, a spokesperson for Morgan Stanley said the bank was aware of the probe and would defend its case. "Morgan Stanley rejects the Prosecutors allegations about this complex, decade-old matter and intends to contest them vigorously," the bank said. "Despite our full cooperation and the lack of clarity in the relevant tax legislation, the Prosecutor is basing this decision on an incomplete investigation and record, in violation of established process." Morgan Stanley offers a full range of banking services in the Netherlands since the opening of its Amsterdam office in 1997. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Bart Meijer; writing by GV De Clercq; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Leslie Adler) President Trump will travel Friday afternoon to the Pittsburgh area for a rally and remarks on the planned partnership between U.S. Steel and Japans Nippon Steel, which he announced last month. I am proud to announce that, after much consideration and negotiation, US Steel will REMAIN in America, and keep its Headquarters in the Great City of Pittsburgh. For many years, the name, United States Steel was synonymous with Greatness, and now, it will be again. This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy, Trump said on Truth Social. A Nippon Steel purchase of U.S. Steel was initially announced in December 2023. The Biden administration blocked the acquisition in January. Trump ordered a review of the offer in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch the video above. 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. President Donald Trump announced more details on the deal between Nippon Steel of Japan and U.S. Steel during a rally at U.S. Steels Irvin Works plant in West Mifflin. Oh youre going to be happy, oh youre going to be happy, Trump said. Theres a lot of money coming your way. A lot of money. Trump called the deal an incredible deal for American steelworkers. And Pittsburgh will very soon be respected around the world as the Steel City again, so I want to congratulate you, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump said Nippon is investing $14 billion in U.S. Steel. That includes a $2.2 billion investment to increase steel production in the Mon Valley. Trump said all steelworkers will keep their jobs, and every U.S. Steel worker will soon get a $5,000 bonus. For what youve gone through, youve gone through a lot, its closing its not closing, its opening, and you want to stay here! Trump said. The president also announced hes increasing the current 25% tariff on imported steel to 50%. Which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobodys going to get around that, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The United Steelworkers Union released a statement Friday night saying it was never involved in the discussions for the deal. We have not participated in the discussions involving U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel, and the Trump administration, nor were we consulted, so we cannot speculate about the meaning of the planned partnership between USS and Nippon or the golden share that some politicians have claimed will be issued to the federal government. Whatever the deal structure, our primary concern remains with the impact that this merger of U.S. Steel into a foreign competitor will have on national security, our members and the communities where we live and work. When the second CFIUS review was announced, we communicated to the Trump administration our concerns and objections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nippon has a long history of committing unfair trade practices. Indeed, the International Trade Commission determined that the company violated U.S. trade laws in 13 different trade cases. Just last month, the Department of Commerce imposed duties of more than 200 percent on Nippon for the illegal dumping of steel. Yet, despite ongoing injury and continuing penalties, Nippon is being rewarded. The USWs only concern has been and continues to be the long-term viability and sustainability of the current USS facilities, so as to safeguard the current and future economic, employment and retirement security of our members and their communities. There is a vast difference between public relations and putting commitments in writing, just as there is a vast difference between allowing shareholders and executives to cash-out and putting workers interests first. Any final deal that may emerge from discussions between the merger parties and the federal government must be viewed through that lens, and not the lens of wishful thinking that has been adopted by far too many politicians and others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Issuing press releases and making political speeches is easy. Binding commitments are hard. The devil is always in the details, and that is especially true with a bad actor like Nippon Steel that has again and again violated our trade laws, devastating steel communities in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Our members know from decades of negotiating contracts: Trust nothing until you see it in writing. Channel 11s Andrew Havranek also spoke with State Representative Malcom Kenyatta, who serves as the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee ahead of Trumps visit to West Mifflin. This entire process, this entire process never centered the people who make the damn steel, Kenyatta said. This process never centered what this meant for the workers. It was always about what it meant for the profits of these huge corporations. It was never about what was best for the workers. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW ST. LOUIS The Holy Joe Society, a nonprofit organization focused on government transparency, has sent a letter to St. Louis and Missouri officials calling for the removal of City of St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery. The Holy Joe Society sent the letter Friday to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore and St. Louis City Counselor Michael Garvin. The letter outlines four specific allegations against Sheriff Montgomery, asserting he has willfully neglected his duties with respect to the criminal laws of the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The allegations cited in the letter include Misuse of public resources The letter alleges Montgomery used government vehicles and employees of his office during work hours to transport his children to and from school. Abuse of authority The letter alleges Montgomery personally purported to arrest the citys Acting Corrections Commissioner, despite lacking the legal authority to do so. Unprofessional disciplinary practices The letter accuses Montgomery of forcing a deputy to roll dice to determine whether that deputy would be fired. Failure to fulfill core duties The letter alleges Montgomery has failed and refused to assign sufficient deputies for courthouse security and for transporting detainees in need of medical care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letter cites Missouri State Statute 106.220 behind the request, which allows for removal of elected officials who fail to devote time to their duties, willfully neglect their official duties or misuse their office. FOX 2 has reached out to a communications spokesperson for Sheriff Alfred Montgomerys Office for comment on the letter. The spokesperson said I dont have anything for you right now, and was unable to speak to the specific letter as of Friday afternoon, but said he would contact FOX 2 if that changes. It remains to be determined what comes next after the letter was sent to Missouri and St. Louis state officials. Just two years ago, former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner resigned after a legal challenge to remove her from office, a quo warranto from the Missouri 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 FOX 2. A water leak caused damage to Mukwonago Area School District network servers, leading officials to close schools for at least one day. A science lab sink at Mukwonago High School overflowed around 1:30 p.m. May 29, the district told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an emailed statement. The issue was not noticed for almost an hour. The district's server room is located directly beneath the lab where water seeped through the science lab floor. The district said in a May 29 Facebook post the leak resulted in a total loss of its internet-based systems, including email, phones, HVAC, data and security. The district's IT department determined repairs would not finish in time for school to open safely May 30, though the district's 4K partner sites remained open that day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district said it was confident it will have its systems functioning so classes can resume June 2. Mukwonago Area School District coordinator of assessment and data Ben Kossow said in an email the district does not have an estimate of damage at this time. He said the science lab was unoccupied at the time of the incident. Building maintenance staff discovered the leak and the district is still investigating the cause of the issue, he said. Kossow said no instructional time will need to be made up. Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at@AlecJohnson12. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mukwonago Area School District schools closed due to water leak WAVERLY, N.Y. (WETM) A Waverly woman has been arrested as a fugitive from justice out of Bradford County after police say they responded to a separate incident in the Village of Waverly. Mary Jane Pettit, 34, was arrested on Saturday, May 26, following an investigation into a domestic incident at a home in Waverly, as stated in a release from the Waverly Police Department. Bath man arrested on arson charge connected to February fire Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the incident, police say Pettit attempted to hide in a two-story garage area for a short time before she was taken into custody. Following an investigation into the incident, police say Pettit was charged with one count of criminal contempt and three counts of endangering the welfare of children. Police say Pettit was arrested as a fugitive for being wanted by the Bradford County Sheriffs Office for failing to appear in court and other related warrants of arrest from Pennsylvania. Elmira man arrested as fugitive out of Texas In addition, police say Pettit was also wanted by the Waverly Police Department for failing to appear on charges of harassment and endangering the welfare of children, as well as the Elmira Police Department on the charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a result, Pettit was placed in the Tioga County Jail in New York to await further court proceedings. 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 WETM - MyTwinTiers.com. PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WBTW) Authorities plan to resume searching Friday for a Waccamaw River boater who disappeared 10 days ago after leaving The Reserve Marina in Pawleys Island, the Georgetown County Sheriffs Office said. Kerry Van Arsdel of Indiana left the Georgetown County marina on May 19, and employees found his unmanned vessel a 41-foot blue and white sailboat named Harmony several days later near Butler Island, miles away from the docks. The sheriffs office and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources halted their search Thursday afternoon after bad weather forced crews back to the shore, but they plan to begin looking again on Friday Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriffs office at 843-546-5102. * * * 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. Behind every severe weather watch and warning, providing lifesaving information in critical moments, is a meteorologist pushing the button at the National Weather Service. But as cuts continue to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the people left to interpret the weather for the public are fewer. "NWS Weather Forecast Offices were already understaffed across the country, and now many offices are or will be below the critical mass necessary to maintain functionality," Kelsey Ellis, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee in the Department of Geography and Sustainability, said May 29. "This will severely affect weather forecast accuracy, no matter where people receive their forecasts." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over 11% of the weather service's employees were either let go, retired or took buyouts after President Donald Trump ordered a reduction in staff at federal departments, USA TODAY reported in May. It's unclear if the Nashville weather office lost any staff. Officials at the Nashville office were not authorized to speak about staffing levels and referred questions to a spokesperson for the weather service. Kim Doster, director of communications for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather service, did not directly answer questions about staffing at the Nashville office. "The National Weather Service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warnings and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders," Doster said in an email May 27. "In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nashville, at times, has offered their meteorologists to assist other offices in times of crisis. Regardless of the staffing situation in Nashville, this practice of mutual aid happening across weather service offices will simply mean less time for non-critical services. Forecasting suffering, staff pulling long hours Most of the 122 field weather offices across the nation are down between two and four people, John Gordon, a former meteorologist in charge of the Louisville office, said by phone May 28. Some offices are down seven or more people, he said. Gordon, whose career spanned Mississippi, Nashville and Alabama before ending in Louisville, took one of the first staff reduction proposals, known as "the fork in the road," offered by the Trump administration. Gordon is still getting paid, like he would if he were working, until his retirement date at the end of August. He dedicated 35 years to the weather service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With the staffing cuts, Gordon said, services are already being scaled back in places. Weather balloon launches, critical to understanding and developing forecasts, are being canceled in some places and reduced in others, Gordon said. Ellis said some offices are no longer covering overnight shifts, or cutting back. In a place like Memphis, Ellis said, two people read the radar because the coverage area is simply too large for one person during a big event. "In a state like Tennessee where a large amount of our severe weather is overnight, this would certainly result in loss of life," Ellis said. "Even if someone is working overnight, data may be lacking, the forecaster may be exhausted from picking up additional hours due to the office being understaffed, or may be doing the job of multiple people, which could cause warnings to be delayed. The average time between a warning and a tornado is only 14 minutes, and in East Tennessee, where many people lack a safe place to shelter, any minute lost could be fatal." Outreach scaled back When Nashville's meteorologists aren't monitoring severe weather, they're forecasting, visiting schools, working with event venues on best practices for weather events, or working with local media companies to better inform the public about incoming storms or extreme heat and cold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, offices have scaled back. "They're not going to schools like they used to. All these community engagements, a lot of them, it's just gone," Gordon said. "I know that in Louisville, I think it's almost nothing." Like Gordon, many employees who left the weather service had decades of experience under their belt. "Weather is a very humbling business," he said. "The more experience you have, the better you'll do in a big weather event. That's really why we're there. We do a lot of services in the weather service. We're there for the taxpayer. We're really there for the big events, and when you have less experience, that has a negative impact on big event operations." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the end of the day, the National Weather Service meteorologists will be there in times of severe weather, but there might be fewer of them. "I have seen people with the flu work radar while deathly sick because we were short-staffed for whatever reason or who missed their kid's high school graduation because of a tornado outbreak," Gordon said. "And the weather service people, even with more cuts, they're changing their operations model right now to meet the challenge that's going on right now. They always manage to pull through. I have seen people sacrifice so much because they love weather." This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville meteorologists persevere amid national cuts to staff A unique Weber State program geared to Latino immigrants and other Spanish speakers mustered interest from more than 100 students in the spring 2025 semester, and university leaders think the initiative has a bright future. During the fall 2024 semester, the programs first, just a handful of students took part in Building Puentes, which offers online instruction in Spanish and English, one of its unique features. Then interest ballooned. We knew there was a need for this program in Utah, but the leap from four students to more than 100 students was pretty staggering. It just confirms the demand for classes like this and how excited people are to participate, said Bryan Magana, spokesman for the Ogden-based university. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weber State has made outreach to Latinos a priority about 30% of Ogden residents are Hispanics and the launch of Building Puentes last fall figures in the efforts. In its initial phase, the focus of the bilingual program geared to those whose primary language is Spanish has been on helping business-minded students earn certificates of entrepreneurship to aid them in building their own businesses. Now, it also includes programming for those interested in getting early childhood education certificates, with plans in the works to create pathways to associate and bachelors degrees. This program is offering a unique opportunity for individuals who have postponed or perceived higher education as out of reach due to language barriers, said Yesenia Quintana, who helped develop Building Puentes and leads Weber States Community Education Center. Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake County also has some class offerings in Spanish. The focus of Building Puentes is to create a pool of professionals to meet the needs that university officials see in the community. Some of the first cohort of students have started businesses that offer care for the elderly, home cleaning, mental health services and more, according to Quintana. Looking ahead, plans are coming together to offer computer science-related certificates while additional elements call for the integration of English-as-a-second-language classes into the programming. Many of the Weber State students in line to secure entrepreneurship certificates in the Ogden school's new Building Puentes program took part in commencement exercises on April 25. | Benjamin Zack, Weber State University Of the students who took part during the 2024-2025 school year, 31 participated in commencement exercises on April 25, though they formally wont finish their classwork to get certificates until the summer semester. Seeing the pride in their childrens eyes was so moving. Its exciting to think about the ways our graduates will use the skills they learned here to bring new ideas and businesses to Utah, Magana said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement University officials characterize Building Puentes as helping serve Utahs Spanish-speaking population. These classes are for anyone who speaks Spanish, so weve seen people from all over, from Utah and beyond, Magana said. But its hardly Weber States only effort targeting Latinos. The university is also striving to become an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution with at least 15% of its students Latino. Becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution, with a student body thats 25% Latino, opens the door to additional federal funding. A $2.5 million grant from the Utah Governors Office of Economic Opportunity and private donations fund Building Puentes. It still faces years of development, as university officials describe it, but theyre optimistic. Its an innovative program that has expanded access to higher education in our region, said Doris Geide-Stevenson, interim dean of Weber States John B. Goddard School of Business and Economics. Were thrilled to recognize this milestone and look forward to expanding the program in the years ahead. Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa had a grim message for her constituents furious over proposed cuts to Medicaid that could end health coverage for millions of Americans. Over a chorus of groans from the crowd at a town hall in Butler County on Friday morning, Ernst said her Republican colleagues were making corrections to the federal healthcare program to stop overpayments and prevent illegals from receiving benefits. People are going to die, one person shouted out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, were all going to die, Ernst snarkily replied. When she was greeted with a mixture of stunned groans and shout-backs, the senator exasperatedly added: For heavens sakes, folks. Republican Senator Joni Ernst told her constituents were all going to die during a town hall warning her against deadly consequences of revoking Medicaid coverage for potentially millions of people (Senator Joni Ernst) Democratic officials and advocacy groups pounced on the moment, accusing Ernst of airing what the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called a stunningly callous remark that points to a wider failure among Republican members of Congress to face criticism over threats to a program that supports millions of lower-income Americans. Joni Ernst said the quiet part out loud: Republicans dont give a shit about whether their own constituents live or die as long as the richest few get richer, according to Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And thats precisely why theyre ramming through a budget bill that would rip away health care and food from millions of Americans, including kids and seniors, he added. Ernst and the Republican Party are putting American lives at risk to give a massive tax handout to billionaires while working families struggle to put food on the table and get basic medical care. This isnt just what Joni Ernst believes its what the entire Republican Party stands for. Donald Trumps Big, Beautiful Bill which contains $4 trillion in tax cuts that would largely benefit Americas wealthiest household also adds strict work requirements and other changes to Medicaid eligibility. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that proposed cuts and the expiration of funding for federal health insurance programs could strip coverage for more than 13.7 million Americans by 2034. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 78 million people are enrolled in Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, including more than 600,000 people in Ernsts home state. While Democrats fear monger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans, a spokesperson for the senator told The Independent. Theres only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and shes working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse, the statement added. More than 600,000 people are on Medicaid coverage in Ernsts home state of Iowa (Getty Images) Republicans have long opposed offering health coverage to younger, lower-income adults and families, arguing that Medicaid and other programs incentivize Americans to avoid working. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GOP lawmakers insist their new proposal wont directly cut benefits for low-income and disabled people, but Democrats and advocacy groups argue the bill threatens coverage from people who could fall between the cracks if they cant meet new requirements. Adult Medicaid recipients would need to prove theyre working or engaging in community service for at least 80 hours per month to maintain eligibility. Other requirements include verifying addresses, proving lawful immigration status and screening every six months. Speaking over uproar at her town hall, Ernst said the GOP proposal will focus on those that are the most vulnerable. OK, but no, what you dont want to do is listen to me when I say were going to focus on those that are the most vulnerable, she said. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said the federal government should leave those dollars for those that are eligible for Medicaid. Democratic Rep. Greg Casar called Ernsts remarks outrageous. Most might not say it this directly, but this is what any member of Congress who votes to slash Medicaid really means, he said. On Wednesday, May 28, Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE:MSI) announced its acquisition of privately held Silvus Technologies Inc., a wireless radio manufacturer specializing in MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) communication technology. The all-cash deal is valued at $4.4 billion. Silvus was previously owned by private equity firm TJC (earlier known as The Jordan Company), which acquired it in 2019. In addition to the cash consideration, certain Silvus employees holding equity will receive $20 million in restricted stock. The deal also includes a potential performance-based payout of up to $600 million, contingent upon achieving specific performance metrics during consecutive 12-month periods ending in 2027 and 2028. Motorola Solutions (MSI) Acquires Silvus Technologies for $4.4 Billion Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com According to Bloomberg data, this marks Motorolas only billion-dollar-plus acquisition in the past decade, despite the company completing around 40 acquisitions over that period. This underscores Motorolas conviction in Silvus' capabilities and the strategic value of its technology. The acquisition is particularly timely amid rising global conflicts, where demand for secure, resilient communication technologies is accelerating. Silvus mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET) technology enables decentralized, infrastructure-free communication, a key advantage in mission-critical and frontline situations. Motorola believes Silvus will strengthen its existing portfolio and expand its offerings to military, law enforcement, and commercial clients. The combination of Silvus cutting-edge engineering with Motorolas global scale aims to deliver more advanced and secure solutions across various industries. Motorola Solutions is a global technology, communications, and security company. It provides high-tech security and mission-critical communication products for businesses and governments. While we acknowledge the potential of MSI 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 MSI and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is the latest Republican to face an angry crowd of constituents, sparring with town hall attendees over President Donald Trumps signature piece of legislation. Constituents on Friday gathered in Butler County, Iowa, to hear Ernst defend the Trump administration's work, including efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency and Republicans congressional priorities. But when a constituent questioned Ernst about the reconciliation bill, things became heated. The woman, who said she had previously emailed Ernsts office with her concerns, argued the bills proposed cuts seemed neither compassionate nor fiscally responsible. She accused Ernst of supporting a tax shelter for the wealthy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the audience applauded the woman, she continued, expressing concerns about the bills proposed cuts to SNAP benefits and Medicaid spending. Ernst said those who would lose Medicaid were not currently eligible for Medicaid. You are arguing when youre arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, 1.4 million theyre not they are not eligible so they will be coming off, Ernst said. One audience member could then be heard shouting, People are going to die. Well, we all are going to die, Ernst responded. Audience members gasped and booed the senator, but Ernst seemed unbothered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable, Ernst said as constituents continued to shout at her. House Republicans passed the reconciliation bill which Trump dubbed the big beautiful bill after weeks of internal debate. Only two Republicans sided with Democrats in voting against the bill. But the bill faces another battle in the Senate, where Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) previously compared it to the Titanic and said hes going to make sure it sinks in the upper chamber. Initial estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that the bill could lead to 7.6 million people going uninsured. If you dont want to listen, thats fine but what Im doing is going through and telling you that those that are not eligible, those that are working and have benefits elsewhere, then they should receive those benefits elsewhere. Leave those dollars for those that are eligible for Medicaid, Ernst continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans from around the nation have faced hostile crowds of constituents in the months following Trumps election. Some GOP leaders including Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have offered unsubstantiated claims that people at the town halls are paid protesters. The videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places, Johnson told CNNs Kaitlin Collins earlier this year. This is an old playbook that they pulled out and ran, and it made it look like that what is happening in Washington is unpopular. House Republicans campaign arm also advised members in March to not hold in-person town halls. At a tense town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, faced backlash from constituents while defending the Big Beautiful Bill, a Trump-backed spending proposal that recently passed the House. In one exchange, an attendee challenged the senator over what they characterized as the devastating impact of proposed GOP cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits. While Ernst claimed that those who would lose Medicaid under the legislation are those who were already not eligible under the original definition of the program, an audience member could be heard shouting, People are going to die. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, were all going to die, Ernst responded, drawing boos and gasps from the crowd. Ernst appeared unmoved by the reaction, responding: What you dont want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable. One Democratic House aide called it Legit one of the worst politician quotes Ive ever seen." An Ernst spokesperson later defended the senator. While Democrats fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid, Senator Ernst is focused on improving the lives of all Iowans, they said in a statement. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the House-passed Republican spending bill could leave more than 7 million people uninsured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The town hall contained other contentious moments, including one attendee who likened the Trump administrations behavior to a Nazi blitzkrieg. This is not the first time that elected Republican officials have had negative experiences at town halls with angry constituents. In March, the chair of the National Republican Campaign Committee told House members to avoid holding in-person town hall events following backlash largely related to the efforts of Elon Musks DOGE to cut spending. Watch the full exchange here: https://youtu.be/8Bl85BWPZ8E?si=kWznTDVnQ3NOI5N May 29MALDEN, Wash. Five years after wildfire devastated this small town, residents on Thursday celebrated the opening of a new community center. The $3.6 million facility includes a new library, food pantry with a walk-in freezer, and a community meeting room for events. Mayor Dan Harwood said the building's grand opening marked the beginning of a new future for Malden. "We want to remember the past and honor the past, but we're moving forward," Harwood said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jim Jacobs, 93, was overcome with emotion over the new community building. "It is hard to believe," he said. "I mean, the whole town was devastated. For a town of this size, it just kind of overwhelms you that we could have this after all that happened." The home Jacobs and his late wife, Joy, built in the early 1990s was destroyed in the Babb Road fire. While he was among the first residents to have a new home built in Malden after the disaster, he still hopes to replicate what he can on his original lot. "After Joy died, you could never make me leave Malden again," he said. "I've got half of her house rebuilt now, and soon as I get enough money, I'm going to try to restore as much as I could. I'm here to stay, and I intend to try to get as much of her legacy built up as I can." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is much to be grateful for, Harwood said, despite the many challenges Malden has faced. No one died in the fire. Twenty-nine homes have been built out of the 67 that were destroyed. And the community has grown stronger through hardship. "Our community church is still standing today," Harwood said. 'People who don't think there's a higher power out there, think about that. There was no time to get out of town, and yet everyone was safe. Everybody did their job, and it was truly amazing." Chandelle Frick, director of the Pine Creek Community Restoration Long Term Recovery Organization, said she hopes the new community building will springboard Malden into increased economic development. "This event marks an important milestone in the ongoing revitalization of our town," she said. "We are especially excited about the walk-in coolers and freezers for the food bank, the high-speed fiber access in the library, and the event space where large groups can gather." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The facility also has an outdoor amphitheater, playground and bathrooms with showers accessible from the outside. These amenities will assist visitors on the Malden Palouse-to-Cascades Trailhead, part of the Great American Rail-Trail that traverses the country, from Washington, D.C., to La Push, Washington. The library opened in January ahead of the community center's grand opening. Librarian Vanessa Place said the library is a source of stability for children who may not remember life before the fire. "Their house might be gone, or their neighbors, you know, might have been gone, but they still had the stability and the comfort of something they knew, and that is the library," Place said. U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner said the residents of Malden "represent the best of America." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When that catastrophic fire came through this community, the devastation that it caused would have made it easy just to kind of think that's the end of Malden," Baumgartner said. "But that's not what you did. You had a lot of resolve, and you came together as a community. You put aside a lot of differences and brought out the best of each other, and today we celebrate this wonderful community center." There is still more recovery needed. Before the fire, the small village had 230 residents. As of 2025, that number is down to 140, according to the mayor. Three families who lost homes in the fire have been unable to rebuild and have been living in recreational vehicles the past five years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "One of these families have three small children," Harwood said. "That's a wake-up call for us. That is something that needs to be changed, and it's up to everyone in this room to push that to happen." Donations to the community can be made at pinecreekcommunityrestoration.org/givenow/. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Sheetz, a convenience store chain, is opening its 10th area location in West Carrollton on Tuesday, June 3. The companys brand new location, located at 2100 South Alex Road, will open at 8 a.m. on June 3. Customers can score free self-serve coffee and soda on opening day, according to the company. Individuals who bring in a non-perishable food item to donate on June 4 could receive a Sheetz-branded thermal bag from 9 to 11 a.m. All donated items will be sent to The Foodbank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at the store June 4 at 10:45 a.m. Both The Foodbank and Special Olympics of Ohio will each receive $2,500 in the form of a donation from Sheetz. A grand prize of Sheetz for a Year will be awarded to someone in the form of a Sheetz gift card totaling $2,500. The company is still looking to fill positions for the location. Click here to browse available jobs. 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. MEMPHIS, Tenn. A West Memphis police officer was arrested and charged with shoplifting from a Dollar General. Martrevius Bell is accused of taking about five containers of motor oil from the store in Edmondson, Arkansas, on Wednesday. He is charged with theft $1,000 or less. Video: Parents fight at West Memphis elementary school graduation A report states video surveillance showed Bell, who was carrying a baby and shopping with a female, grab several cans of oil. He then returns into view carrying only one can, and the babys diaper bag appears more full than before. Taelor Glasper and Martrevius Bell (Photos courtesy of Crittenden County Sheriffs Office) Authorities say Bell only paid for one can. The officers report lists Bell as a West Memphis Police officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The West Memphis Police Department said Bell is currently on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Internal Affairs is also investigating. Taelor Rae Glasper was also arrested and charged with Theft $1,000 or less. She is seen in her mugshot wearing a military uniform. 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. A juvenile who was killed in a shooting May 25 in West Palm Beach was recording a social-media video with friends when a gun discharged accidentally, police said. In a statement released May 28, police said the preliminary investigation showed that a group of juveniles had gathered inside a small bathroom early on the morning of May 25 and had multiple firearms present. At some point while recording the video, the weapon discharged, fatally striking the victim. Police did not say what led the gun to fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said the shooting occurred at about 12:15 a.m. at a residence on the 1400 block of Douglass Avenue, just north of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. Police did not the disclose the name, age or gender of the juvenile who died, or say whether any of the other juveniles or the owner of the home will face charges. At this time, there is no indication that the shooting was targeted or that there is any threat to the community, police said. As the end of the school year approaches for Palm Beach County public schools, police urged parents and guardians to remain vigilant in monitoring their child's activities, both online and in person. "The presence of firearms in social gatherings among youth continues to pose a grave danger, particularly when mixed with unsupervised social media content creation," city police said in their statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: 14-year-old facing murder charge after Riviera Beach police find man shot to death Washington, D.C., teen died days earlier while recording video The West Palm Beach death occurred days after a 14-year-old girl in Washington, D.C., accidentally shot and killed herself while recording a video for social media, according to a USA TODAY report. A preliminary investigation by the Metropolitan Police for the District of Columbia showed that a gun went off and struck the girl in the upper body as she was handling the weapon on the evening of May 21. A 15-year-old boy who was among several teens present during that incident was charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and tampering with physical evidence, according to published reports. This is a devastating reminder of the dangers of weapons getting into the hands of young people in our city, and our hearts go out to the family and friends of the decedent, D.C. Chief of Police Pamela A. Smith said in a statement to reporters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Firearms are not toys or props, and they must be properly secured in a place where they can only be accessed by lawful gun owners. The West Palm Beach incident remains under investigation and police are asking anyone with additional information to contact Detective Aaron Sam at 561-822-1675, or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 1-800-458-TIPS (8477) or by visiting the Crime Stoppers website. Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Police: Juvenile killed in shooting was filming video for social media CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WBOY) West Virginia now ranks 15th in the nation for FAFSA completion, even without a statewide FAFSA mandate. According to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, West Virginia accomplished the number through strategic outreach, data-driven coordination and intentional community engagement. Some of the approaches include: The WV FAFSA Day, which brings together multiple high schools and colleges and increases public visibility The CFWV Champions of College Access and Success Challenge, which rewards schools for FAFSA completion benchmarks TXT 4 Success, a text message program that provides guidance to students Special tools and resources for counselors, including a FAFSA completion portal and regular updates Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bill DeBaun, Senior Director at the National College Attainment Network in Washington, was happy to see West Virginias numbers. These are the best schools in West Virginia, new 2025 report says West Virginias success, and approach, offer a lot for other communities and states to learn from, DeBaun said. Thoughtful, coordinated efforts like these that support practitioners in districts and schools make a big difference. West Virginia is expanding students opportunities to access the financial aid that makes education after high school a more affordable possibility. The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is what high school seniors fill out to learn if they are eligible for grants, scholarships, work-study programs and loans for college or career school. You can learn more about the FAFSA, its requirements and deadlines here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 WBOY.com. Investing.com -- Western nations are planning to urge the United Nations nuclear watchdogs board to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation commitments for the first time in nearly two decades, according to a Reuters report on Friday. This move is anticipated to further strain the ongoing dialogue between the U.S. and Iran regarding imposing new restrictions on Irans advancing nuclear program. The U.S., along with its European allies Britain, France, and Germany, collectively known as the E3, have previously proposed resolutions that were adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA) 35-member Board of Governors. These resolutions urged Iran to promptly address concerns such as explaining the traces of uranium found by the IAEA at undisclosed locations. The IAEA is set to distribute its quarterly reports on Iran to member states prior to its next board meeting, scheduled to commence on June 9. Among these reports will be a comprehensive account detailing issues including Irans cooperation, as demanded by a board resolution in November. According to Bloomberg, this report is expected to contain critical findings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A European official has reportedly stated that they expect the comprehensive report to be rigorous, reinforcing existing concerns over Irans non-compliance with its non-proliferation obligations. Following the release of this report, the U.S. plans to draft a resolution text declaring Iran in violation of its safeguards obligations. The resolution text will be discussed with the board member countries in the upcoming days before being formally submitted to the board by the four Western powers during the quarterly meeting, a practice consistent with previous resolutions, the report added. Related articles Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Western powers to urge U.N. to declare Iran in breach of nuclear obligations Senate to advance bill on new Russia sanctions next week - Lindsey Graham Trump says Russia and Ukraine to begin ceasefire talks after call with Putin ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) An annual fan drive created to provide relief in the summer heat to those in need is entering the final stretch. Westlake Ace Hardware partnered with The Salvation Army to encourage patrons to donate in store or online. It gets hotter in the summer, and as we know, it gets that way here in Missouri," General Manager Mark Sidwell said. "Ace is always looking for ways to help the community around them." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All donations made by rounding up a purchase at checkout or donating through the website will be used to purchase fans. The Fan Drive runs through June 7. "With the rising prices of everything, some families just aren't able to afford air conditioning or even fans," Salvation Army Social Services Director Emily Bravo said. "And so our hope is that we can get a couple of fans in everyone's homes so that they can stay cool and safe." Sidwell said his employees are always eager to participate in the Fan Drive and other community initiatives like Childrens Miracle Network. "They get behind it, and they ask every customer, and we've been having a good response this year so far," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About 110 families received fans last year, and Bravo said she would like to see the number increase to 150. A start date for the fan distribution is not available yet, but it will be announced on the St. Joseph Salvation Army Facebook page. Residents will need proof of residency and identification to pick up a fan. "We're hoping, in the month of June, that can kind of be our focus (for) fan distribution, Bravo said. Anyone interested in donating to the Fan Drive can visit westlakehardware.com/fan-drive. A Westmoreland County attorney is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands from a womans estate. Robert C. Klingensmith, 61, of Murrysville, faces charges of theft, financial exploitation of an older adult or care-dependent person, theft by failure to make required payment or disposition of funds. The Westmoreland County District Attorneys Office shared information, saying Klingensmith was hired to handle the estate of a woman who died on April 5, 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police received a tip about suspicious activity happening on Klingensmiths iolta account. An iolta account is a trust account used by attorneys to hold a clients funds separate from a business and professional account. After reviewing the activity, police learned that more than $311,000 was removed from the account over the course of August 2021 to March 2024. The money was removed through ATM withdrawals and or checks. Investigators said he also failed to file an inheritance tax return, tax payments or distribute money to the victims four heirs. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW Nvidias billionaire CEO Jensen Huang says ignoring AI may be a one-way ticket to unemployment, with the tech set to unquestionably impact every job. But embracing AI could send 40 million people back to worka message thats in stark contrast to other CEOs, like Anthropics Dario Amodei, who are predicting massive unemployment in less than five years. If youre worried about generative AI replacing your job, get in line. Even tech CEOs like Nvidias Jensen Huang are sounding the alarm bells about the technologys impending impact on the job market. But the thing that workers fear most could also be their saving grace. Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable, Huang said at the Milken Institutes Global Conference earlier this month. Youre not going to lose your job to an AI, but youre going to lose your job to someone who uses AI. In fact, the 62-year-old billionaire predicted that AI will help reverse the global talent shortage and technology divide by putting 30 to 40 million workers back into the workplace. Everyone learning to use generative AI will be the secret to increasing global GDP, he said. I would recommend 100% of everybody take advantage of AI, Jensen added. Dont be that person who ignores this technology and as a result, loses your job. Fortune has reached Nvidia for comment. Tech CEOs are divided over AIs impact on jobs Not every tech leader is in agreement with Huang. In a bold prediction earlier this week, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could be eliminated within the next five years, leading to soaring unemployment levels. Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balancedand 20% of people dont have jobs, he predicted to Axios earlier this week. We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming, Amodei added. I dont think this is on peoples radar. Just last week, Anthropic released its most powerful AI models yetones that rival OpenAI and Googleand include whats self-described as the worlds best coding model. This may not be exciting news for some software engineers, in particular, who have already felt the impacts of AIs ability to replace coders. In fact, one former software engineerwho lost his job last year and has been unable to find new work, even after submitting 800 applicationstold Fortune its turned into an existential crisis for part of the tech industry. At the same time, there remain tech leaders who arent as cynical and agree more with Huang: that AI will enable job creation more so than loss. For example, billionaire Mark Cuban took to Bluesky yesterday to push back on Amodeis claim. WESTWOOD, Kan. Westwood, Kansas voters rejected an office project in April after filing a lawsuit to force a public vote. Thursday the clock was ticking on what to do next with a deadline looming Friday. What do you want your legacy to be 30 years from now? Lou Wetzel asked City Council during a special meeting. Kansas City book box company feeling the impact of federal tariffs Residents filed a lawsuit back in 2023 to block sale of Westwood park land to a developer who planned an office building on much of the land along Rainbow Boulevard that is now Joe D Dennis Park. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After last months vote rejecting the project and preserving the current park the city was still on the hook for $2.785 million to buy the former Westwood View Elementary the potential developers had planned to convert portions of to a new park. We have been put in a very challenging position on a very interesting timeline, Councilwoman Holly Wimer said. As Westwood faced a Friday deadline to extend the purchase agreement or walk away a third option was included in meeting materials. Option B that would require wiring money tomorrow if theres not already somebody lined up potentially to do that, resident James Spies said. That makes no sense to me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no boogeyman buyer, Mayor David Waters said trying to ease fears of many of the meetings early speakers. Commissioners approve ordinance on American Royal project Any discussion about extending the agreement, logically includes what goes in the schools place, as Shawnee Mission has already applied for permits to tear it down. A clear majority of Westwood residents want to see the Shawnee Mission property used for homes that actually fit our neighborhood, neighbor Tammy Carter said. Westwood is unified in trying to preserve as much green space as possible, Spies said. Thats something we tried to address with the previous project. There may still be opportunities with this or there may be opportunities with this to finance the current park that we do have to make some improvements there, Waters said following the unanimous vote to extend the deadline to November 28, the fourth such extension since the sale was first negotiated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Tacomas former chief of police took a new public-safety job this month in Topeka, Kansas after resigning in February in the wake of investigations related to his personal use of a city cell phone and his use of leave. The City of Topeka announced May 12 that Moore had been hired as an assistant city manager. When Moore resigned from the Tacoma Police Department, he said he was stepping away from his 35-year career in law enforcement. His new job is law enforcement adjacent, as hell oversee the citys police and fire departments, as well as its municipal court and emergency management. In Tacoma, the City of Topeka said, Moore led efforts to reduce crime, strengthen community trust and increase public engagement. In a news conference in Topeka, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal, Moore said hed had a three-year commitment in Tacoma and that he was successful at those three issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thank you for allowing me to come to this beautiful city, and thank you, Dr. Perez, for the opportunity, Moore said. I couldnt be more excited, couldnt be more grateful. Robert Perez is Topekas city manager. In a news release, he said Moore would be an asset, stating he brought decades of leadership experience and a deep understanding of public service. Efforts to reach Moore on Thursday through a representative from the City of Topeka werent immediately successful. It appears Moore will take a pay cut at his new job. He will earn $200,000, a city spokesperson for Topeka confirmed Thursday. In Tacoma, his annual salary was $326,934 when he resigned. Topeka is the capital of Kansas, about 63 miles from Kansas City, Missouri. The population is about 125,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moores resignation in Tacoma also came with a nearly $500,000 payout from the city for cooperating with litigation and not seeking future employment with Tacoma, among other agreements. In interviews with local media about the circumstances of his departure from Tacoma, Moore said you cant believe everything you read. I have an impeccable record, not perfect, Moore said, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Ive made mistakes. Ive owned every mistake Ive ever made, and Im proud of that. I dont make excuses. Investigations related to Moores time in Tacoma havent led to findings of any wrongdoing. An outside probe of Moores $1,000-plus bill on a city-issued phone while on a family vacation in Sweden found he didnt deliberately mislead city officials about his knowledge of the charges, which were for GPS navigation. He repaid the bill. The investigation itself cost more than $11,000. Tacoma has so far declined to release records regarding its internal review of Moores usage of leave, arguing that the records were exempt from disclosure citing a state statute indicating the review is ongoing. The Trump administration is escalating its campaign against Harvard University and looking for new ways to bring the storied institution to heel. The White House convened officials from nearly a dozen agencies on Wednesday to brainstorm additional punitive measures, according to one administration official and a second person familiar with the meeting, who were granted anonymity to share details. The administration official said that forthcoming actions are expected from the State, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Justice departments, among others, and could happen as early as next month. The push comes as the White House regroups after a federal judge blocked its move to bar Harvard from enrolling international students, and underscores how President Donad Trump has grown increasingly invested in the battle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even as some in the administration privately grouse that the aggressive posture is allowing Harvard to win public sympathy, Trump has kept up the attacks, threatening in a post last week to revoke its tax exempt status and chastising Harvard again Wednesday during an unrelated press conference. Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect and all theyre doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper, Trump told reporters Wednesday. But with the low-hanging policy options already underway, the administration knows it will need to get more creative to keep squeezing the school, according to two administration officials and another person familiar with the talks, who like others in the story were granted anonymity to share details of private conversations. The administration would not comment on what it is considering but some options include having the Department of Justice expand its investigation into the universitys admissions policies or cutting money to medical institutions affiliated with Harvard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latest moves against Harvard are truly just scratching the surface, said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields, without specifying what else the administration has to bring Harvard to heel. Harvard decided to litigate this on MSNBC, the now defunded NPR, and the ratings-disaster CNN instead of acting like adults like many of their competitors have done and engaging in fruitful conversations and actions that would have saved them from their self-inflicted demise. Harvard University declined to comment. The relentless focus has some inside the administration worrying that the longer the fight the greater the risk that the White House overplays its hand. Were fighting a losing battle, one of the administration officials said, acknowledging that the university has the narrative upper hand when it comes to the effort to revoke Harvards student visas. Weve taken one of the most evil institutions and made them the victim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fight comes amid the Trump administrations broader efforts to reshape not just American government but the institutions that have long surrounded it. In addition to Harvard, the White House has taken on a slate of other prestigious universities, including other Ivy League schools and the University of California system, as part of a broader siege against cultural institutions it sees as out of step with the administration, from Big Law firms to the Kennedy Center. The conflict between the Trump administration and the Ivy League university has been brewing since February, but it escalated dramatically after an April 11 letter replete with demands was mistakenly sent to Harvard at a time when a deal to avoid confrontation was a real possibility. Until that letter was sent, it seemed possible a deal could be reached. But once it was sent communication broke down. In the six weeks since the letter was mistakenly sent, the administration froze $2.2 billion in multiyear research grants and axed an additional $60 million in contracts; cut 500 grants from the National Institutes of Health for Harvard-affiliated institutions; barred the university from any future grants; and launched multiple investigations into Harvards practices by the departments of Justice, Health, Education and Homeland Security and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harvard, in response, took the administration to court, where on Thursday a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the administrations effort to bar international students. That block will remain in place as both sides negotiate over a potential injunction that would preserve the status quo while the case moves forward. One of the people familiar with the talks said that while the April 11 letter did inflame tensions, the university could have found a way to move on. Instead, it has refused to have any dialogue with the White House and stopped trying to appease the administration as it tries to win in the court of public opinion, the person said. They think their audience is the alumni, the funders and the students and the faculty, the person said. But there's another audience that they're totally not working with. I just don't think that's smart long term." The White House held a brainstorming session Wednesday to find new ways to attack Harvard, according to Politico. Officials from almost a dozen agencies took part in the meeting to come up with further disciplinary measures against the school. An administration official told the outlet that further actions are expected to come from the departments of State, Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Justice, as well as others. They may come to fruition as soon as next month. The meeting took place as the White House is taking further aim at Harvard after a federal judge blocked the administrations measure to prohibit the school from enrolling international students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, Trump threatened in a social media post to revoke Harvards tax-exempt status. During a press conference on Wednesday, the president slammed the school. Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all theyre doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper, he said. Harvard students graduated as the administration plotted ways to attack the university (AFP via Getty Images) Options to put the screws to the school include pushing the Justice Department to expand its probe into Harvards admissions policies or cutting funds to medical institutions with ties to the university. The latest moves against Harvard are truly just scratching the surface, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, told Politico. Harvard decided to litigate this on MSNBC, the now defunded NPR, and the ratings-disaster CNN, instead of acting like adults like many of their competitors have done and engaging in fruitful conversations and actions that would have saved them from their self-inflicted demise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, some administration officials are concerned that the White House may be overstepping. One official told the outlet that the administration is fighting a losing battle. The official noted that the school has a better hand to play when it comes to the narrative surrounding the measure to revoke student visas. Weve taken one of the most evil institutions and made them the victim, the official added. The Trump White House has also taken aim at other Ivy League schools and the University of California system. The tactic is part of a wider push against cultural institutions that the administration views as oppositional, including some law firms, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. A deal to avoid confrontation with Harvard was in the offing until a letter was mistakenly sent on April 11, which included a number of demands. Since the letter was sent, the administration has frozen $2.2 billion in research grants, and ended another $60 million in contracts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It has also cut 500 grants from the National Institutes of Health for institutions with ties to the university. In addition, the White House has barred Harvard from receiving grants in the future and launched a number of investigations by the departments of Justice, Health, Education, and Homeland Security, as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Harvard pushed back by suing the administration. On Thursday, a Massachusetts federal judge blocked the administrations attempt to stop international students from attending. The block will stay in place while Harvard and the administration negotiate a possible injunction that would hold the status quo in place as the case progresses. On Friday, the Trump administration made a big show of what they were calling Elon Musks last day as a special government employee even as few seem to believe Elon Musk is actually leaving for good. And that includes the president and vice president. Trump posted on his Truth Social account Thursday night that Musk is not really leaving and that the his top campaign contributor will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Vice President JD Vance said much the same thing in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday, when he claimed its totally wrong for media outlets to suggest the Elon era is over as far as the administration is concerned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, he has, obviously, a day job, and hes got to go back to his day job to run his companies, but the DOGE effort will continue, Vance said, adding, Elon will continue to be an important adviser for both me and the president. And most importantly, the job of making the government more efficient, of not wasting peoples money, that has to continue. Its worth noting that the White House hasnt been fully transparent about Musks role at DOGE in the past telling courts that he wasnt really in charge, even as they told the public something else so its hard to take their word about his departure now. Even if Musk is no longer there in an official capacity, it sounds they want to keep Musk involved in the administrations decision-making, just as some Democrats like Texas Rep. Greg Casar have warned. Of course, there are plenty of reasons why the administration and Musk may want to give the impression that they are parting ways in some substantial degree. Recent polling suggests that Musk is widely unpopular with Americans, as are many of the cuts hes sought to federal programs. And his self-described mission to slash trillions of dollars in so-called government waste have fallen far short of that goal. Even by Musks own metrics, his stint as a special government employee was a failure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For his part, Musks dubious foray into politics has also done a great deal of harm to the brand and bottom line of his company Tesla, whose investors are demanding he spend more time on his company to stop the bleeding. One wonders if Musks recent press tour and his airing of criticisms of House Republicans budget is part of this public relations maneuver. What we do know is that Musks involvement with the administration has coincided with some tremendous perks for him: It has given his team unprecedented access to Americans data, which at least one Democratic senator fears could be used to further his business ambitions. It appears to have given him a platform to try to derail federal investments and investigations that dont benefit his private companies, all while the Trump administration has pressured foreign countries to do deals to boost Musk. Its not common practice for billionaires (much less the richest man on earth) to give up such power and influence freely and completely. And as it turns out, hardly anyone seems to think thats whats going on with Musks last day. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com (WHTM) The White House on Friday released a list of hundreds of sanctuary jurisdictions allegedly breaking immigration law. Eleven Pennsylvania counties were listed, including Adams and Dauphin counties in the Midstate. Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Clarion, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery, Montour, and Northampton counties were also cited on the list. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe Now ICYMI: Top 5 Stories of the Week Five cities were also named on the list published by the Department of Homeland Security: Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, State College, and York. Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas (D) said Friday afternoon that hed received no formal communication regarding the list. I have a lot of questions of what qualifies us as a sanctuary county, said Douglas. Im not sure theres any actual legislation that weve passed of any kind. I dont know what the criteria theyre using for what theyre considering a sanctuary county is. The Department of Homeland Security says the list was generated as part of Executive Order 14287: Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities, said Homeland Security. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril. Homeland Security says each jurisdiction will receive formal notification of its non-compliance and will be asked to review policies to align with federal law. Douglas says he has more questions than answers regarding the list, but insisted that Dauphin County follows the law and will continue to do that. According to Nexstars Border Report, the list will be used by the Office of Management and Budget to determine which is receiving federal funding before terminating the grants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 ABC27. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said in a new interview that President Trump told her he would not pardon those convicted of a failed plot to kidnap her in 2020. Well, I think anything short of condemning political violence does a disservice to everyone. Ill be honest with you, I talked to the President about a month ago and he asked me how Id feel about this and I said I think it would be the wrong decision. I would oppose it and he said okay, Ill drop it. Now, we see this revelation. So, Im not sure how to process it, Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio. Whitmer noted she was one of the first public officials to condemn the attempted assassination of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., adding that she will again reach out to the White House regarding the potential pardons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We dont take up arms and harm one another. And so, Im going to make my thoughts on this known to the White House again, Whitmer said in the interview released Thursday. And I hope that its not an action that they take. The governors remarks came just a day after Trump showed openness to pardoning Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., two men convicted for a failed plot to kidnap the Michigan governor from her vacation home during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak due to being dissatisfied with restrictions imposed in the state. I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, Ill be honest with you. It looked to me like some people said some stupid things, you know they were drinking, and I think they said stupid things, Trump said Wednesday. But Ill take a look at that. A lot of people are asking me that question, from both sides actually. A lot of people think they got railroaded, the president added. A lot of people think they got railroaded, and probably some people dont. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fox was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison on two conspiracy charges connected to the kidnapping plot and one more for planning to utilize a weapon to distract law enforcement by blowing up a bridge. Croft was sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2022 for charges stemming from the plot, along with another charge for having an unregistered explosive. Three other men were found not guilty on all related counts in September 2023. 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. MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (WOOD) Business leaders and decision-makers gathered for the annual Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference are discussing what President Donald Trumps tariffs might mean for Michigan. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who offered the keynote speech at the conference Thursday, said there are many positive things to talk about in the state, but also some trepidation. I think one of the palpable feelings is concern (about the) uncertainty coming out of Washington, D.C., Whitmer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What happens to Trumps tariffs now that a court has knocked them down? The economic impact of trade policies being developed by Trumps administration, she said, could hit Michigan industries hard. The tariff talk takes a toll, and Michigan is uniquely vulnerable. We are a big manufacturing state, we have a ton of agriculture and were heavily in the autos. All three of those things make Michigan more susceptible to the hardship that comes with the uncertainty and paralysis that follows. And were already seeing it in Michigan, she said. Still, she said, there are things Michigan can do to move forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I cant control whats happening in Washington, D.C., in regards to tariffs. I can try to inform it and I take every opportunity to do that. But what I can do is make sure we shore up the fundamentals like roads; making sure we are educating our kids, a focus on literacy; and landing a chip plant, which would be diversifying. All these things are things that we can do in Michigan. Theyre hard, but we can do hard things. The policy conference wraps up Friday. 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. This article may contain affiliate links that Yahoo and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links. In January 2025, six months before the typical start of Californias wildfire season, a series of wildfires prompted the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people in the Los Angeles area. At its peak, seven different wildfires were blazing, and the fires lasted for 24 days. By the end of the 24 days of raging fires, entire neighborhoods were razed and at least 30 people died. The factors that cause wildfires can develop rapidly. In Los Angeles case, exceptionally strong Santa Ana winds raging past 80 miles per hour in some areas collided with extremes of wet and dry seasons. Drought had returned after a period of rainfall from 2022-2023 that supported vegetation growth. It would later become fire fuel. These realities are becoming more common and hard to control due to climate change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Eaton and Palisades fires only burned a fraction of the area of the largest fires in California history (about 1,000 wildfires occur each year), but they became the second and third most destructive blazes, earning the reputation as the big ones. Entire blocks in Altadena, a historically Black suburban enclave in Los Angeles County, and Malibu, a wealthy beachside city west of LA, were destroyed. Meanwhile, 11,000 single-family homes burned to the ground and those burned houses fed the flames. The 2025 wildfires proved how devastating and unrelenting the damage of these disasters can be when they collide with one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Los Angeles County already grappling with a housing crisis with the number of households growing by over 700,000 over the past three decades and the number of housing units by just under 500,000 now faces an even tighter crunch. At the very heart of the problem in Los Angeles, and increasingly across the country, is the number of housing units that are being built in whats called the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The WUI, per the U.S. Fire Administration, is the transition between unoccupied land and human development. It is the line, area, or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels. Data from SILVIS Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates about one-fifth of the countys housing stock is in the WUI. But the WUI isnt just an LA problem; nationally, an estimated 99 million people live in the WUI, about one-third of the total population. Housing Demand Pushes Into the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Increasing risk of evacuation and damage from wildfires isnt just due to more fires, but also the growth of people living on the front lines of the WUI. The most damaged regions in the LA fires the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu were largely located in the WUI. The share of housing stock located in the WUI has also been expanding across the country, growing from 29.5% in 1990 to 31.5% in 2020. Two percentage points may seem small, but it represents an additional 14 million units. Housing in the WUI is growing faster than it is in areas outside of them. Credit: Map & Data: Silvis Lab, Design: Apartment Therapy Credit: Map & Data: Silvis Lab, Design: Apartment Therapy Counties located along the periphery of San Antonio, in Virginias Piedmont region, as well as in Clark County (home to Las Vegas), Nevada, have seen some of the fastest growth in the percentage of WUI housing units over the last 30 years. Not every area has equal risk of wildfires, though Waldo County, Maine, for example, has seen an 11 percentage point growth in share of WUI housing units over the past 30 years, but the chance of a fire breaking out each year according to the USDA Forest Service is just 5%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By contrast, the Jacksonville, Florida, suburb St. Johns County has seen a 21.5 percentage point growth in WUI housing units, and an annual burn probability of 76.4%. Even with a lower chance of burning, living in the WUI can also increase proximity to bad air quality when fires do break out. And lower fire risk now doesnt necessarily mean low fire risk forever. Climate change is lengthening the number of fire-weather days across the U.S., including in Texas, the Eastern Carolinas, and Colorado. The downed trees and other vegetation in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last spring are providing fuel for a series of wildfires, prompting evacuations throughout North and South Carolina, both of which have seen hundreds of thousands of housing units added to WUI since 1990. (North Carolina accounted for just under 830,000 new housing units in the WUI, while South Carolina had over 530,000. Homes in the WUI can become fuel for fires and human activity plays a major part. In Horry County, South Carolina, where most land is zoned for single-family homes and the number of WUI housing units tripled from 1990-2020, one resident was arrested this year for causing a 2,000-acre wildfire after burning debris in her yard. Nearly 85% of all wildland fires are caused by humans. In California, the five most populous counties all have annual burn probabilities over 92%. Between population and fire risk, even marginal increases in WUI housing could mean devastating consequences. The Role of Single-Family Zoning in Wildfires and the WUI Los Angeles is a city known for its sprawl. An estimated 75% to 78% of land is zoned for detached single-family homes. By contrast, in New York City, known for its density and walkability, just 15% of residential land is zoned for single-family units. Sprawl-oriented design has been the standard for many U.S. cities since the early 20th century, spurred by the rise of the automobile and outdated beliefs around how multifamily housing units would negatively change neighborhoods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This restrictive zoning has fueled the cities housing crises for years. In Los Angeles, the median rent for a two-bedroom home is nearly double the national average, and the median sale price of all homes reached $1.1 million this year, according to Redfin. Single family homes sold for around $1.25 million. Homes in the WUI, especially those further from the city or popular areas, can be cheaper and offer a path to homeownership buyers may not find elsewhere. You can see that in most U.S. cities theres this pattern where areas that are safer tend to have more restricted housing supply, says Augusto Ospital, an economist and professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, who has studied how land-use regulations impact proximity to natural disasters. If building limitations were removed (lot size and multifamily bans, for instance), he found that the estimated average rent would fall as much as 28% and the share of people living in high risk zones could drop by 7%. Ospital recognizes that removing every zoning limitation isnt feasible, but even modest improvements he says could make a difference. By upzoning about 5% of the land in targeted central areas, you could get about 80% of the gains in well-being in terms of reduced prices and exposure to wildfire risk, he says. Passing upzoning programs isnt always easy, though. Why Its Hard to Upzone Housing Everywhere Under California law, cities must adopt a housing plan and update it every eight years, adding a specified number of housing units during that period. Based on LAs housing plan, they have to add over 450,000 units between 2021 and 2029. The citys existing zoning law is equipped to meet only about half of that demand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The citys housing plan included a number of programs to meet this shortfall, some of which involved rezoning lots currently zoned for detached single-family homes. The city, however, removed proposals for rezoning single family areas in the plans final version. Under the new plan, existing capacity will increase by 30%, but it wont be enough to reach the target of 456,000, UCLA researchers found. Instead, it will encourage higher housing costs and potentially sprawl from people seeking to escape them. Developing in the WUI California adopted wildfire building codes in 2008, and since then, new developments are required to have fire safety features. But the law didnt mandate retrofitting older homes, and other states dont have as stringent requirements. Even if not legally mandated, making fire safety upgrades can protect homeowners and also lower insurance rates. Kelly Berkompas, cofounder of Brandguard Vents, a fire-rated vent company that protects homes from flying embers during fires, says the first step for people already or considering living in the WUI is completing a wildfire risk assessment, usually available for free from a local fire department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homeowners can also get a wildfire prepared home certification which requires a 5-foot zone around the house of noncombustible material. This means removing any plants, flammable landscaping material, and combustible fencing. Other upgrades include using fire-rated roofing, ember-resistant vents, and metal gutters. Berkompas says the LA wildfires were a wakeup call for how people thought about fire safety. Ive been in this industry for almost 20 years, and there have been many fires in that time, she says. Theres always a little bit of an uptick in people calling and being more aware after a wildfire but nothing like what happened after these fires. According to Zachary Subin, associate research director at the Terner Center at Berkeley, the focus on making WUI housing more resilient shouldnt overshadow the need to also build density in areas that arent in high-risk zones. Subin, who studies the intersection of housing policy and climate change, warns that, in the aftermath [of the fires], its important to not lose sight of the rest of the city The more housing you can build that isnt at risk, the more opportunities you give people to live in that kind of housing. And the lower the cost of that housing can be because theres less of a constrained supply. The LA wildfires were brought on by a perfect storm of events, but scientists dont expect the level of devastation seen in January to be an anomaly. Across the country, climate change is increasing the frequency of billion-dollar natural disasters, and the places most at risk arent always expensive beachside villas, but may also be a starter home in a newly developed suburb or a house in a flood-prone valley. As cities like Los Angeles continue to grow, its not just a matter of building more housing, but building the right kind of housing that can both ease housing prices and keep more people away from the frontlines of wildfires. Further Reading I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (Its a Game-Changer!) See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Heres What They Said Sign up for Apartment Therapy's Daily email newsletter to receive our favorite posts, tours, products, and shopping guides in your inbox. Its never awesome when the police say they arent feeling particularly confident about capturing an escaped murderer. Even less so when that murderer is a former police sheriff nicknamed Devil in the Ozarks. But that is exactly what is happening right now in Arkansas, after 56-year-old convicted murderer and rapist Grant Hardin escaped from a medium-security prison in the middle of the afternoon on May 25. Since his escape, Hardin has not been located, and law enforcement is now saying that the search could be slow. This is due to the geography that Hardin fled into; the Ozark Mountains are filled with abandoned cabins, forests, and hundreds of caves. It is the perfect place to hide. According to the New York Post, this means that theres an innumerable list of places to search in the immediate area. Until we have credible evidence that he is not in the area, we assume that hes probably still in the area, Rand Champion, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, told the media at a press conference. According to locals who knew Hardin before his arrest, he has an intimate knowledge of the terrain, including the caves. One woman named Darla Nix, who knew Hardin when he was growing up, described the former police chief as very, very smart and a survivor. Thats one of the challenges of this area there are a lot of places to hide and take shelter, a lot of abandoned sheds, and there are a lot of caves in this area, so thats been a priority for the search team, Champion said during the press conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Hardin escaped from the Calico Rock prison, he had a thirty minute head start and was wearing an outfit that appeared to be a makeshift law enforcement uniform, according to surveillance footage. He was able to walk out of the prison when a prison guard opened the gate without checking his identity. Law enforcement is using dogs, helicopters, and ground search teams to find Hardin. If you live in the Arkansas Ozarks, authorities advise keeping your doors locked and calling 911 if you think youve spotted Hardin. Harden is described as white, bald, six feet tall, and just over 250 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, pants, and hat. Why Authorities Think Finding Escaped 'Devil in the Ozarks' Prisoner Will Be Hard first appeared on Men's Journal on May 29, 2025 By Arsheeya Bajwa, Stephen Nellis (Reuters) -Nvidia beat quarterly sales expectations as customers stockpiled its AI chips before fresh U.S. curbs on China exports took effect, but the same restrictions will slice off $8 billion in sales from the company's current quarter, forcing the company to offer a forecast below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday. Shares of the world's most valuable semiconductor firm still rose 5% in extended trading as investors digested news that the hit in the current fiscal second quarter was not as bad as feared, and Nvidia talked up demand for its new Blackwell chips from customers including Microsoft. The stock is relatively flat so far this year, compared with 2024 when the shares nearly tripled in value. Nvidia now faces trade restrictions on what it can sell, and the AI data center market is also maturing. Washington's years-long efforts to thwart Beijing's access to top-of-the-line U.S. technology have resulted in stricter restrictions on the export of Nvidia's AI chips - stifling the company's access to one of the largest markets for semiconductors. Midway through a conference call with analysts, CEO Jensen Huang made impassioned remarks about U.S.-China policy, saying that Nvidia was at risk of being cut off from China's massive AI developer base and arguing that China's chip industry was sophisticated and closing in on the United States' dominance. But he praised U.S. President Donald Trump's recent move to rescind a so-called AI diffusion rule that would have regulated global flows of U.S. AI chips. "President Trump wants America to win. And he also realizes that we're not the only country in the race," Huang said. Huang told analysts that Nvidia's Hopper chips could no longer be modified for the Chinese market but did not comment on its Blackwell chips. Reuters has reported that Nvidia is preparing a Blackwell variant for the Chinese market. Though unlikely to make up for the loss in Chinese revenue, a spate of new deals that Nvidia signed earlier this month in the Middle East could offer fresh avenues of growth - including the first phases of a 10-square-mile data center site in the United Arab Emirates that could eventually use 5 gigawatts' worth of AI infrastructure. The company has also announced similar deals in Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. "We have a line of sight to projects requiring tens of gigawatts of Nvidia AI infrastructure in the not-too-distant future," Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said on the conference call. Smoke from Canadian wildfires is creating unhealthy air quality readings to Michigan, particularly for residents in the western part of the Upper Peninsula on May 30. "A cold front moving down from Ontario early Friday (May 30) morning will bring wildfire smoke plumes from fires in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan into the region," according to MiAir division, part of Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. "As a result, we anticipate PM2.5 levels rising into the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG) range across the western portion of the Upper Peninsula. There is a possibility that hourly levels could reach the Unhealthy (Red AQI) range for a short period of time." Meteorologists at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) have issued air quality advisories for levels of fine particulate in the air statewide May 30 and into Saturday morning, the department said in a release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2023 Canadian wildfire event emphasized how important communication is when wildfire smoke may impact Michigans communities, said Annette Switzer, EGLEs Air Quality Division director, We want to ensure residents are informed and know how to protect themselves and their families. Baraga, Dickinson, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw, Marquette, Menominee and Ontonagon counties all previously were under an air quality advisories for Friday, May 30, because of high levels of fine particulate matter (PM). "The plume(s) of smoke will make the air unhealthy for sensitive groups. This applies to people with heart and lung disease, older adults, children, people with diabetes, and people of a lower socioeconomic status," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. The Air Quality Index monitor near Negaunee, in Marquette County, was at 86 Friday, May 30, in the moderate range. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of May 23, wildfires in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan prompted numerous closures and evacuations, Natural Resources Canada said. There were 29 uncontrolled, active fires, the Canadian agency said. In addition to the Upper Peninsula, smoke may move east and south, and impact northern Michigan cities. "As the boundary moves south, the increase in fine particulate also expands south. At this time, its uncertain how high fine particulate levels will get across the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula. Current models show that hourly fine particulate concentrations in the USG range are possible further south, but not until late on Friday," MiAir division said. Smoke high in the sky could be visible in Detroit, AccuWeather said on May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The major cities where the smoke is most likely to thicken enough to be noticeable will be in Fargo, North Dakota; Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota; Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Chicago; and perhaps as far to the south and east as Detroit and Indianapolis," AccuWeather said. More: Wildfire smoke can cause health problems, even death Under clear skies, the smoke will be more obvious. "Most of these areas in the Midwest will have days where there is little or no rain around and the sun is out over the weekend. So the smoke will be more noticeable," AccuWeather said. Here's more on the Canadian wildfires affecting Michigan: How to check air quality where you live Michigan residents can check current conditions through EGLE's MiAir Quality Index Dashboard. The interactive map provides AQI scores for cities across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, residents can use AirNow, apart of the U.S. Air Quality Index, and check local conditions by searching their ZIP Code or city. AccuWeather also has an AQI feature that lists the current pollutants in the air. What does the air quality index mean? The AQI shows the outdoor air quality for public health. It features six color-coded categories, from good (0-50) to hazardous (301 plus). More: Bad air days easier to identify and quantify with new EGLE air monitoring dashboard The AQI takes into account five air pollutants: ground-level ozone particle pollution (also known as particulate matter, including PM2.5 and PM10) carbon monoxide sulfur dioxide nitrogen dioxide Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are the ratings in the AQI: The air quality index ratings. Where are the wildfires in Canada 2025? According to Natural Resources Canada, the National Wildland Fire Situation Report says there are 29 uncontrolled fires; 13 being held; 35 controlled; and 13 modified responses. The priority fires are located in Ontario and Manitoba. More: It's wildfire season in North America: How to prepare for poor air quality "In Saskatchewan, there are fire bans and restrictions for central regions north of the provincial forest boundary, extending from the western border to the eastern edge of the province," the Canadian department said. What is the difference between an advisory and an alert? An advisory is called when two or more (or widespread) monitors are expected to reach or exceed the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG, Orange air quality index (AQI) threshold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An alert is called when two or more (or widespread) monitors are expected to reach or exceed the Unhealthy threshold. Contact Sarah Moore @ smoore@lsj.com This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan air quality advisory over Canadian wildfires. What to know WICHITA COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) Wichita Countys District Attorney issued a statement following the sentencing of a U.S. Army veteran convicted of 16 first-degree felonies after opening fire on law enforcement officers outside his home on October 13, 2021. Anthony Michael Kienlen, 38, of Wichita Falls, was found guilty by a Wichita County jury of attempted capital murder of a peace officer on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Kienlen also pleaded guilty to 15 counts of aggravated assault on a public servant pending against him. PREVIOUS STORY: Jury returns punishment for Anthony Kienlen Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, May 29, 2025, the jury sentenced Kienlen to 30 years for attempted capital murder of a peace officer and 10 years for each of the 15 counts of aggravated assault on a public servant. John Gillespie, Wichita County District Attorney, who represented the prosecution during Kienlens trial, issued a statement on Thursday evening following the jurys verdict on punishment. There are no winners in this case, Gillespie said. I deeply appreciate the jurors for their verdict. Their sentence was significant and appropriate for attempting to murder a police officer in our community. During closing arguments on Thursday morning, Gillespie said that a person shouldnt be given a minimum sentence for committing 16 first-degree felonies, arguing that Kienlens actions didnt warrant a minimum sentence or a probation sentence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opening fire on first responders in a Wichita County neighborhood with an AK-47 assault weapon can never be justified, Gillespie said., His actions required consequences. PREVIOUS STORY: Jury reaches verdict in Anthony Kienlens trial Gillespies full statement can be found below: There are no winners in this case. I deeply appreciate the jurors for their verdict. Their sentence was significant and appropriate for attempting to murder a police officer in our community. The defendant, as part of his homicidal rampage, fired a bullet that went a long way down the road and passed into a little girls bedroom. She thankfully was not there, but could have been killed. Opening fire on first responders in a Wichita County neighborhood with an AK-47 assault weapon can never be justified. His actions required consequences. Also, the defense psychologist admitted the defendant was sane, not suffering from diminished capacity, and legally responsible for his lethal actions that day. I respect the work the jurors did in protecting the lives of first responders in our community. Their verdict was thoughtful and appropriate. John Gillespie, Wichita County District Attorney Gillespie said during closing arguments that the sentences will run concurrently by law, meaning all 16 will be served simultaneously. This is a developing story. Stick with Texomas Homepage for updates as more information becomes 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 Texomashomepage.com. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) As Riverfest prepares to welcome thousands downtown starting Friday, Wichita police are ramping up security to keep festivalgoers safe during the nine-day event. The Wichita Police Department says it will deploy a full range of resources, including its SWAT team, bomb squad, K-9 units, drones, mounted officers, and traffic patrols. Spotters will also monitor crowds from elevated positions, while drones will help track activity from above. 19-year-old charged with murder of pregnant Wichita woman Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were going to have SWAT down there, were going to have the bomb squad down there, K-9s, the drones, the mounted unit, traffic officersso everything we can do to provide as much security as we can and to make everyone feel as safe and as comfortable as they can down there, said WPD Lieutenant Stephanie Neal. Neal said officers are prepared for a variety of scenarios, including those that have become increasingly common at large gatherings worldwide. Given the climate and everything thats happening not only in the United States but across the worldwhere people are driving through crowds at events, there are active shooters at eventswe try to plan as much as we can and as best as we can in the event any of those events would occur here, she said. Police emphasize that public awareness remains key. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If they do see something that makes them uncomfortable, that they think is suspicious, we encourage them to go report that to a police officer so we can address that, Neal said. Riverfest attendees should expect to pass through metal detectors at the gates to both the main festival area and the carnival. No weapons or pocketknives will be allowed inside the event footprint, and backpacks and wagons will be subject to search. Keep your weapons at home Dont leave any valuables in your car, especially not in plain sight, Neal warned. Many of the officers working at Riverfest are doing so on and off-duty, overtime basis, paid for by the festival. Neal noted this helps maintain regular police coverage for the rest of the city during the event. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So officers sign up and they get assigned to those positions. We try not to pull from any on-duty officers because we dont want to use resources that should go to the rest of the community, she said. Neal had one final message for festivalgoers: Just have fun and stay safe out there. 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. 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. I'm sure you've seen the pictures on social media of the town of Blatten in Switzerland completely covered by a mudslide from a melting glacier. ALEXANDRE AGRUSTI / AFP via Getty Images Here's the before: AP Images Here's the after: AP Images And a side by side: AP Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the BBC, the 300-person town was evacuated a few days prior to the disaster because geologists said the glacier was "unstable." JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT / AP Despite that evacuation, one 64-year-old man remains missing. Related: "I Know You Arent Trying To Hurt Me." Doctors, Nurses, And First Responders Are Revealing The Most "Haunting" Last Words They've Heard From A Patient Here's another before: Jean-christophe Bott / AP Here's the after: Jean-christophe Bott / AP And a side by side: Jean-christophe Bott / AP Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: 27 Grown-Ass Adults Who Threw Such Unbelievable Temper Tantrums, Even The Brattiest Toddler Couldn't Compete Here's a sattelite picture of the town before: Maxar / DigitalGlobe/Getty Images And after: Maxar / DigitalGlobe/Getty Images Maxar / DigitalGlobe/Getty Images The New York Times reports that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the Alps are heating up at about nearly twice the global average rate. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They also said that in 2022 and 2023, Swiss glaciers lost 10 percent of their water volume. ALEXANDRE AGRUSTI / AFP via Getty Images The BBC warns that all of the Swiss glaciers could be gone this century. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images One woman told Reuters she couldn't talk about the disaster, saying, "I lost everything yesterday. I hope you understand." FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images USA Today reports the mayor of Blatten told reporters at a press conference, "We've lost our village. The village is under rubble. We will rebuild." FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also in Internet Finds: 51 Wildly Fascinating Photos Of Disorders, Injuries, And Variations In The Human Body That I Cannot Stop Staring At Also in Internet Finds: 23 People Who Tried Their Best, But Crapped The Bed So Bad Also in Internet Finds: 19 Things Society Glorifies That Are Actually Straight-Up Terrible, And We Need To Stop Pretending Otherwise This article was originally published in EducationNC. In the last 18 years, Wilkes County has lost 56 child care programs, 67% of its child care capacity. This year, thanks to a scrappy community effort, local leaders saved the county from losing another. Sharon Phillips and her daughter Katy Hinson, owners of PlayWorks Early Care and Learning Center, cut the ribbon on their new location inside Wilkesboro United Methodist Church in April, expanding their business after months of wondering whether theyd survive at all. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter I consider what happened there a miracle, said Todd Maberry, former managing director of the Ormond Center, a project at Duke Divinity School focused on helping churches assess their communities needs and find new ways to meet them. The center, which is closing this summer, helped the Wilkesboro church decide how to use an empty wing to help address a local lack of child care and bring in new revenue. The owners of PlayWorks Early Care and Learning Center, Sharon Phillips and Katy Hinson, cut the ribbon on their new location, along with the community members that helped save their program. (Sharon Phillips) The specifics of the initiative, called Big Building, Little Feet both the people behind it and the speed at which they raised more than $600,000 as the five-star program faced eviction are specific to this community. But the model itself, Maberry said, has lessons for the entire state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres not one of the 100 counties that doesnt have a church that has an empty educational wing sitting there, Maberry said. This can be a blueprint. With pandemic-era child care funding gone and bipartisan state leaders prioritizing child care solutions, local leaders like those in Wilkes County are convening, collaborating, and raising money to make things work for their neighbors in the meantime. Communities need to think outside the box, said Michelle Shepherd, executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, the local Smart Start partnership. I think thats the biggest takeaway. These children deserve quality child care, and what does that look like, and what do communities have to offer? PlayWorks is expanding from 55 to 88 children in its new location. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) A child care need, a church need In 2023, Phillips and Hinson were touring every vacant building in town. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were looking for a larger space to expand their 10-year-old business and help fill child care gaps. That year, a study funded by the Leonard G Herring Family Foundation found that the county needed 836 additional child care slots, almost double the capacity it had. The reports findings, released by the Wilkes Economic Development Corporation (EDC), were starting conversations in the business community. The child care study revealed what a crisis we were in, Hinson said. Hinson and her mother were already struggling with a balance familiar to child care owners. They did not have enough revenue to pay teachers much more than minimum wage, couldnt raise tuition without pricing out families, and were unwilling to cut costs by lowering quality. Stabilization grants funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act were expected to dry up, leaving a large gap in the budgets of programs across the state. We just kind of felt like we had done all we could on our own two feet, Phillips said. Katy Hinson, co-owner of the center, feeds her own son and PlayWorks student Colter Hinson, and soothes Emma Patrick. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) Phillips and Hinson were coming up short in their search. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We had knocked on doors, we had toured all the vacant buildings, we had been to town officials, Phillips said. Then they started conversations with a local entity with its own financial struggles: Wilkesboro United Methodist Church. Our church has dramatically shrunk especially post-COVID, said Gilbert Cox, who has attended the church since 2008 and was the chair of its finance committee at the time. Wilkesboro United Methodist Church sits on downtown Wilkesboros main street. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) Cox recalled holidays when he first joined with people overflowing into the aisles and Sundays with regularly full pews. A couple of years after the pandemic, the church was lucky to have 50 members attending services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a very common story for a lot of congregations in the country, particularly in North Carolina, particularly in rural places, where mainline churches have just been decimated by a pandemic, by disagreements, Maberry said. And Wilkesboro is not immune to that. Plus, more than 90% of the churchs space was sitting unused more than 90% of the time, Cox said. Eventually, what was an asset was going to turn into a liability, he said. The maintenance of it, and it stored more and more. I think we found five pianos. There were two in a closet we didnt even know about. The church entered a six-week design sprint with the Ormond Center called the Community Craft Collaborative to figure out a different path forward. The process aims to helps churches better understand their community through data and interviews, and then encourages them to come up with an idea to experiment with. Gilbert Cox, a leader in the church, and Sharon Phillips, co-owner of PlayWorks, discuss the journey that led to their partnership. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) Through a conversation with the EDC, Cox learned about the child care studys findings. The organization connected him to Phillips and Hinson, who had recently reached out in their search for a new home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By the end of the sprint, the church presented its idea: house and expand PlayWorks. Phillips and Hinson toured the churchs facilities and heard from the churchs leadership that they were on board. How could we take what is becoming a liability, and better connect to the community? Cox said. A gut punch In April 2024, a contractor gave an estimate on the building renovations necessary to meet regulatory standards. It would cost about $1.6 million. Everyone involved agreed: It was insurmountable, Cox said. The potential collaboration felt like it had died, and Phillips and Hinson were back to square one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Everybody ghosted, Phillips said. While they were already down, they were hit with what Phillips described as a gut punch. In June 2024, the program received an eviction notice from its landlord, a local theater company that wanted to repurpose the space. PlayWorks had to be out by September. Their hunt for a new building became a make-or-break endeavor. I can just remember thinking, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? We dont have any choices, Phillips said. I immediately called Michelle at the partnership. Michelle Shepherd, executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, plays with PlayWorks students during a fire drill. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) Shepherd, who had been the executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children for about a year, said she immediately understood the urgency. With a background in K-12 education, Shepherd had spent her time at the partnership learning about just how dire her countys child care needs were and developing relationships with a whole new sector of educators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We just couldnt let them fold, she said. Shepherds leadership was a game-changer. When she wouldnt give up, I wouldnt give up, Phillips said. Through a $15,000 grant from the Ormond Center, the church paid an architect for renderings, moving forward without knowing whether things would work. Through a stroke of luck, a local contractor was called in to do the buildings measurements who was interested in bidding on the project. This time, the estimate came in at about $600,000. Michelle says, Dont give up, so it breathed new life into the possibility, Cox said. Even though the church didnt have $590,000, Michelle she deserves all the credit she said, Let me see what I can do. Time crunch Everyone got busy. Hinson and Phillips asked their landlord for an extension on the move-out date. The church began a deeper process with the Ormond Center to map out the details of the project. Shepherd, with no fundraising experience, started making calls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We all stepped out in faith that it would happen, Hinson said. PlayWorks students Layla Johnson and Max Warren follow their teachers to the parking lot for a fire drill. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) The child care study helped Shepherd tell potential donors the story of the communitys need, she said, and explain the importance of child care for workforce participation. This was not some Betty Froo Froo project; this was a necessity for our community, she said. That really played on the heart of business people in the community. Hinson and Phillips got an extension from their landlord for their move-out date to November, and then to April 2025. Once Shepherd received the first big yes a $250,000 donation from an anonymous community member others started following. Shepherd helps out in the infant room. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) That was my big driver, that we cant tell these kids, Youve got to go home, and parents that they cant work that really want to work, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She reached out to people with a connection to PlayWorks, who understood the importance of the high-quality care and education it provided for children and families. She received donations from dozens of individuals, including a large contribution from private donor Janice Story and funds from church members and partnership employees. She also reached out to foundations and community groups, securing grants from the Carson Foundation, the Leonard G Herring Family Foundation, the Cannon Foundation, the North Carolina Community Foundation, and United Way of North Carolina. The effort did not receive any local or state public funding. All of a sudden, Michelle had almost a half a million dollars in a matter of almost weeks, Cox said. PlayWorks student Colt Blankenship during recess. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) The Ormond process provided real estate and zoning expertise, as well as a video crew to help the community tell its story. It was rooted in asset mapping, Maberry said. Weve got a church with empty space, weve got an incredible child care center that is flexible and can move, and weve got a local nonprofit thats committed to the well-being of children in the county, he said. Those are great assets. They can begin to look at, OK, well, theres a child care crisis, and one of the better ones is about to go away. How do we solve that? Shepherd said her mother was a salesperson, and always told her that salesmanship requires a good product and a powerful why. She had both. We had people that gave $50 up to $250,000, she said. It truly was a community, dollar-by-dollar fundraiser. Making it to opening day From November 2024 to March 2025, the team reached their goal. The local contractor agreed to start construction before all the funding was secured to help Phillips and Hinson reach their move-out deadline. There were many obstacles. The team almost had to call off the project once again when they realized the extent of the plumbing needs to have appropriate sinks in each room. They coordinated between sanitation, the county inspector, fire safety, and the state child care licensing under the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE). There was not a single source that you could go to who could give you all the answers, Cox said. Teacher Jennifer Lumley talks to student Tate Whittington during lunch. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) PlayWorks closed on March 20 and 21, a Thursday and Friday, plus the following Monday. In that long weekend, they moved with the help of family and friends and set up every classroom. On Monday, the center had its final sanitation inspection and a visit from DCDEE. They opened their doors to children on Tuesday. The execution of the move, Phillips said, was a miracle in itself. Through the months of ups and downs, she kept thinking of the families she serves and the educators she employs. I kept going back to, how do we tell our staff? How do we tell our families? We are in such a child care crisis, there arent spots available in many places in the other child cares. How can we disperse 60 children in this county? You know, where are they going to go? On the day EdNC visited PlayWorks, Hinson and Phillips were moving in sync. Hinson went between classrooms, providing extra hands for fussy infants. Phillips met with licensing officials in the office during their second DCDEE check-in, which required a fire drill. We never really dreamed that something like this would happen, Phillips said. Were just the proud recipients. The day before, they had celebrated the teams accomplishments with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, during which church leaders called the moment a revival. But the next day, it was back to the work they both love and are challenged by. Mother-daughter team Sharon Phillips and Katy Hinson pose with their new temporary license in PlayWorks new location. Liz Bell/EducationNC The new space will allow PlayWorks to expand from serving 55 to 88 children as they add three new classrooms (for infants, toddlers, and 4-year-olds) in the coming months. The church is providing the space at less than $6 per square foot, Cox said, compared with the areas average commercial lease of $28 per square foot. It is also covering utility costs. Phillips said they do not expect any problem filling the new seats. They will first check with families on their waiting list. An interested family was visiting the program during the fire drill, during which all children were walked or rolled to a gazebo in the parking lot. Word of mouth is just really getting around, she said. Valuing educators Phillips and Hinson are still hiring and rearranging teachers to staff the new classrooms. Each room has three teachers for now, for an extra layer of quality. They start teachers, depending on education level and experience, at anywhere from $10 to $15 per hour. The median wage for the states child care teachers was $12.31 in 2022. Though PlayWorks is not immune to the staffing challenges experienced by the field, multiple teachers have stayed for several years. Teacher Rachel Brionez helps students wash their hands before lunch. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) Teacher Rachel Brionez has worked at PlayWorks since it opened because of the environment that Sharon and Katie have created among the staff, the families, and the children. Educators refer to Phillips and Hinson as the dynamic duo. They value us, and that makes coming to work so much better, Brionez said. You dont dread the alarm clock going off. Brionez said her experiences in child care have not always been positive. Phillips said the same about her early career experiences. Because of the low pay, high stress, and instability, Phillips had discouraged Hinson from going into the field. She pushed her to be a nurse instead. That all changed after one conversation, while Hinson, a high schooler at the time, was helping her mother with her pre-K class. She just broke down in tears, and she says, Im not going to be a nurse, Phillips said. We both cried. And she said, This is all I know through you. I told her, We will do something for your career. And thats why were here. PlayWorks teacher Angela Foster engages students during the fire drill. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) A slim margin Because of temporary state funding, the funding cliff that worried providers like Phillips and Hinson in 2023 was pushed back. In March 2025, programs received their final installment of the compensation grant, which has helped them raise teacher pay and plug the gap between what families can afford and what it costs to provide high-quality care. With the stabilization grant money from the state, we were able to give teachers those raises and bonuses, and were going to do all we can for that to continue, Hinson said. Advocates and DCDEE are asking the state legislature this session for child care investments to support the states child care subsidy program, which helps working low-income families afford care, and the early childhood workforce. None of the current proposals would provide the level of funding providers were receiving from stabilization grants. Its worrisome, Phillips said. I really put it on the back burner, just knowing that, with the move and everything, weve got to move forward. As Phillips and Hinson both breathe a sigh of relief, they know their future remains unclear. Well make it on a slim margin or I hope we will, Phillips said. Im just thinking very optimistically that well make it work, but its going to be very hard. A win-win model Shepherd said the mutually beneficial partnership required resources that not every community has. She sees the state playing an important role in providing grant money to repurpose space similar to the Rural Downtown Economic Development Grants. I just think this is a great model for a lot of places to look at underutilized space and how to bring in some revenue for both, she said. Students Stella Cooke and Elle Adams read a book in one of the newly outfitted classrooms in PlayWorks. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) Maberry is hoping to find a new way to continue the work of the Ormond Center, which had 55 relationships with churches. Some were working on child care projects, he said. Others were opening mental health services and helping their communities with affordable housing. Churches are at their best when they are meaningfully integrated into their community and are making their communities better places to be and to live, he said. The Wilkesboro project is an example of the power of dynamic partnerships and possibility in a time of disruption. For the church, its energized them, he said. Like theyve got kids in their building now, all day, every day, and theyre starting to think, like, OK, well, if we can do this, what else can we do? Imagination can be contagious. PlayWorks students explore in the toddler classroom. (Liz Bell/EducationNC) The children, staff, and administrators at PlayWorks are settling in. Across the street is an assisted living center whose residents can now see playing children on their walks. Phillips said she does not know whether Hinson will ever let her retire. They both said the new space feels like home. With some hard work and perseverance, weve made it, Phillips said. This story was originally published on EducationNC. OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) A $1 billion investment in Okaloosa County. UPDATE: Federal Bureau of Prisons responds to Todd Chrisleys allegations about FPC Pensacola After searching all over the country, Williams International is set to build a gas turbine engine plant at the Shoal River Industrial Park east of Crestview. Officials said the plant will create more than 330 jobs. These job opportunities in our area will be attractive to many individuals and certainly the paychecks that these 336 individuals earn will be spent in our local community, One Okaloosa Economic Development Council Executive Director Nathan Sparks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sparks said a wide range of positions will be available, from managerial positions to production, with positions paying an average of $70,000 annually. Sparks anticipates initial job postings to be listed late summer or early fall next year. These are jobs that will move the needle for our community, Sparks said. Sparks believes there are a number of reasons the company landed in Okaloosa County, including the Shoal River Industrial Park site itself, the educational partnerships in the area and Northwest Floridas history in supporting the aerospace industry. We have separating and transitioning military talent, many of whom would love to stay in the region for the right job opportunities. Many of them have skills that are closely aligned with what a company like Williams requires, Sparks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pensacola shooting under investigation, gunman at large Officials said the plant will be built in three stages, beginning with a 250,000 square foot facility later this year. PREVIOUS REPORTING OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG) A Williams International high-volume aviation gas turbine engine manufacturing facility is coming to Okaloosa County, Florida, according to state officials. Greyhound just added a Mobile bus stop and Escambia County is next According to a news release from Gov. Ron DeSantis office, the State of Florida and Williams International anticipate a major capital investment exceeding $1 billion, marking one of the largest projects in Northwest Floridas history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a monumental project that will have a lasting impact on both Okaloosa Countys economy and the entire region, Okaloosa County Commissioner Paul Mixon said. We are fortunate to have been able to invest in the infrastructure at Shoal River Industrial Park to attract an aerospace industry leader like Williams International, and I am thankful to One Okaloosa EDC and Florida Commerce for their hard work and support in this effort. Aerospace and aviation manufacturer Williams International began a multi-state search for a location in 2023. That search is now complete, as the new facility will be located in the Shoal River Industrial Park and will be constructed in three phases. This billion-dollar investment is a major win for the Free State of Florida and for Floridians, Gov. DeSantis said. Williams Internationals investment in the Florida Panhandle will create more than 330 jobs, and is a success story of the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund in Northwest Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis used the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to award $3.2 million to Okaloosa County in 2022. Construction is scheduled to begin on the 250,000-square-foot facility later in 2025, with completion expected by late 2026. More facilities are planned to be built in 2028; a final 500,000 square foot facility is scheduled for completion in 2035-2036, according to state officials. A release from the Gov. DeSantis office said FloridaCommerce partnered with CareerSource Florida, Floridas Great Northwest, Space Florida, Okaloosa County, and Triumph Gulf Coast to secure the project. Severe weather in Mobile: When it rains, it pours Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are very excited about starting our next phase of growth in Northwest Florida, Williams International Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Williams said. We are grateful to the Triumph board and for the strong, unified support from all of our Florida stakeholders that will enable us to create many high-quality, high-technology jobs producing the worlds best gas turbine engines. 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. Air quality in some parts of the United States is worsening as smoke from dozens of wildfires in Canada travels south, pushed by winds high in the atmosphere. Through parts of Minnesota and into Wisconsin, the air quality is deemed unhealthy for people and animals sensitive to pollution and other airborne particles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow page. As of Friday afternoon, the interactive air quality map showed a strip of orange moving northwest to southeast across Wisconsin. Most of the state showed moderate air quality as did all of Michigans Upper Peninsula. Eastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois also showed moderate air quality on the AirNow map. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the next day or so, particulates from the burning trees, leaves and other vegetation could reach further south into Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, said Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, Minnesota. Murray Kinsey, owner of a houseboat company just outside of Babbitt, Minnesota, said Friday afternoon the sky was hazy," but anglers still were fishing on nearby Birch Lake. It's getting a little hard to breathe, Kinsey said. But it's not terrible. We've had it before, but it's been way worse. What is AQI and who is at risk? The Air Quality Index AQI measures how clean or polluted the air we breathe is on a daily basis. The index focuses on the health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AQI is calculated based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution or particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that pose the greatest threat to human health in this country. The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow. On Friday morning, the AQI showed orange around the Arrowhead, Minnesota, area, which Ayd said is a concern for people with chronic conditions, the elderly and young children. They really should limit their time outdoors, he added. The path of the orange zone moved further south and southeast throughout Friday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The level below orange is yellow and considered moderate, where the air quality is acceptable. That is what maps showed Friday for some other parts of the Midwest. Any smoke from the Canadian wildfires may run into scattered thunderstorms forecast for Friday evening in the Chicago area. It looks like the smoke is moving in behind the cold front, NWS meteorologist Zachary Yack said. Most of the smoke is thinning behind the front, he said. But fine particle levels are expected to reach the red air quality index in northern Minnesota, a level that is unsafe for everyone, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality said it is monitoring air quality levels and advised individuals to limit prolonged outdoor activities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To limit exposure to unhealthy air quality, people should stay indoors with windows and doors closed. Avoid heavy exertion outdoors, using fans or swamp coolers that take air from outside, all wood-burning appliances, and lighting candles and incense. Where are the Canadian wildfires? Nearly two dozens wildfires were burning in the Canadian province of Manitoba, which is just north of Minnesota and North Dakota. So far this year, the province had had more than 100 wildfires. On Wednesday, Manitoba declared a state of emergency as the fires forced 17,000 people to evacuate homes in several communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Canadas wildfire season runs May through September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. We are getting the smoke, said Kevin Doom, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago. The winds way up in the atmosphere 10,000, 20,000 feet up are blowing in from the north today. Minnesota is kind of taking the brunt at the moment. The wind is going to drag that smoke down over the next day or two, Doom added. Doom said a little haze was showing Friday morning over Chicago. It will keep moving with the wind, he continued. But over time, it will continue to disperse, mix in with the air until it gets thinner and thinner until it fades away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How did past wildfires impact air quality? Last summer, fires burning in California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington state and other parts of the West, as well as Canada, filled the skies with smoke and haze, forcing some affected areas to declare air quality alerts or advisories. Two years ago, smoky air from wildfires in Canada also shrouded broad swaths of the U.S. and prompted warnings for people to stay inside. ___________________ Williams reported from Detroit. Raza reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. NEED TO KNOW Tray Chaney, who played Malik Poot Carr on 'The Wire,' said in an Instagram video that a tornado struck his Georgia house on May 29, injuring him and his son Malachi Malachi was later found in the woods behind the home and was taken to the ICU That s--- aint no movie," Chaney said in the clip An actor from The Wire painfully and emotionally recalled the moment a tornado hit his Georgia home, leaving it destroyed and sending his 18-year-old son to the ICU. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My son was thrown 300 feet out of his room, said Tray Chaney, who played Malik Poot Carr on the acclaimed HBO television series, said in an Instagram video about the tornado that struck his Henry County house on Thursday, May 29. At the beginning of the video, Chaney, who stood in front of his now-destroyed home, said he had just gotten out of the hospital and was planning to visit his son, identified by the family as Malachi, in the ICU. 3 pm today [May 29], a tornado came through every county I lost my house, I lost everything in it, he said in the clip. Chaney said that he and Malachi were having a beautiful day and relaxing before the tornados arrival. Then, 3 oclock today, in a split second, my house was gone, he said in the video. Tray Chaney/Instagram (2) Tray Chaney's Georgia home was destroyed by a tornado that struck on May 29, 2025 Tray Chaney's Georgia home was destroyed by a tornado that struck on May 29, 2025 He recalled sitting on his bed at home at the time. I heard the wind and I felt everything, he said. I was wrapped up in the damn coversFrom watching your house being built from the ground up in 2020, to five years later, that s--- gone, everything gone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement posted in a follow-up Instagram, Chaney recalled that he was unconscious on the ground after the tornado struck, with mud on his face and parts of the home on top of him. I woke up in a panic crawled from under my house screaming my sons name out, he wrote. My neighbors were there to assist me & finally we found my son 300 feet away in the woods behind my house. He further wrote that Malachi is in the hospital and that he and his wife have not left their sons side. 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 actor said in the video that he was able to find his phone in working condition underneath the rubble, but everything else in his home was gone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he sustained a bruise on his head from the incident and just returned from the hospital. I wish I could replace the pain with my son," he added. "I wish he was the one doing the video and I was still at [the] ICU. He thanks God for sparing his life, adding, That s--- aint no movie. The reason he posted the video, Chaney said in the clip, is to tell his followers to cherish life as much as they can. He also expressed a similar sentiment in his Instagram post, writing in all caps: Hug your loved ones now! Life just changed for me & mine! Well never be the same! PEOPLE contacted Chaney for further comment on Friday, May 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His neighbors' homes were also affected by Thursdays tornado, which saw damaged roofs and windows, ABC affiliate WSB reported. It almost sounded like thunder and lightning, but it had more of an impact like shaking walls, you know, I mean terrifying, Andreal Mallard, a neighbor, told the outlet. The National Weather Service said six tornadoes struck northern Georgia following severe storms on Sunday, May 25, and Tuesday, May 27, according to Fox affiliate WAGA. Read the original article on People Pierre Kory testifies in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. | Screenshot via CSPAN This story was published in partnership with the Center for Media and Democracy. Last month, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary and longtime anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended the funeral for the second unvaccinated child in Texas to have died in the ongoing measles outbreak. While in Texas, he met with the two grieving families along with two local doctors promoting unproven measles treatments, whom he called extraordinary healers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the first death, Childrens Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vax organization Kennedy led until recently, pushed its own narrative claiming that the 6-year-old Mennonite girl did not actually die from the measles. In this effort, CHD has relied heavily on Pierre Kory, a Wisconsin doctor who has both amplified that assertion and claimed that the measles virus has been weaponized by unknown conspirators. Kory is a Kennedy ally who has been widely criticized for spreading Covid misinformation during the pandemic, including pushing the use of ivermectin as a miracle drug for treating that virus. For years, CHD and Kennedy have promoted the debunked claim that the standard measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine given to almost all children in the U.S. is tied to autism. With an upsurge in the pandemic-era, right-wing embrace of the anti-vax movement and of Kennedy himself there has been a notable decrease in routine pediatric vaccinations in the U.S. Now that measles immunization rates have fallen below thresholds to maintain herd immunity in certain parts of the country, outbreaks such as the one in West Texas are expected to become more common. In February, Texas reported the countrys first measles death in a child in the more than two decades since the disease was classified as eradicated in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to this death, CHD posted a video on March 19 featuring Kory and Ben Edwards, another Texas doctor Kennedy applauded, discussing the girls medical records, which her parents released to the organization. Despite having no training in pediatric medicine and having had his board certifications in internal medicine and critical care revoked last year, Kory claimed the childs death was due to incorrect antibiotic management of a bacterial pneumonia infection that had little to do with measles. Edwards a family doctor who has been treating measles-stricken children in Texas with medications not indicated for measles and was accused of seeing pediatric patients while actively infected with measles himself concurred with Kory. Without being able to examine the medical records themselves, pediatricians consulted for this article were limited in their critique of Korys assessment. But they did question his understanding of empiric antibiotic recommendations for pediatric pneumonia. Secondary bacterial pneumonia infections following viral diseases are common, and pneumonia is a well-documented complication of a measles infection. These doctors also questioned the strong personal bias underpinning Korys assessment and pointed to his history of extreme claims about Covid made online and to right-wing media outlets as evidence against his reliability as an expert. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Furthermore, Kory has been inconsistent in his messaging around this measles death when addressing various audiences. When Alex Morozov, founder of the counter-misinformation group Eviva Partners, confronted Kory about his statements regarding the young girls cause of death at the so-called Summit for Truth & Wellness on March 29, the answer he got was very different. At that event, Kory suggested this was a case of the measles being weaponized. In an audio recording of their conversation published by Morozov, Kory said: Do you want to know the real story on this case? Quite a few of us believe that they weaponized the measles virus. And this measles is more. Theyre doing this on purpose. She got sicker from the measles probably because they monkeyed with the measles virus. Do you know how many bioweapons labs there are and what they can do? Like the unfounded claim of an error in medical treatment, this weaponized measles narrative has spread rapidly throughout the online crankosphere. However, this conspiratorial rhetoric has not been accompanied by urgent recommendations for increased vaccinations to prevent infection from a supposedly more virulent strain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedy, who promoted pandemic conspiracy theories along with ivermectin as an alternative to Covid vaccines, has called Kory honest, brave, and sincere and a brave dissident doctor. The doctor appeared with him at various campaign-related events in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, both before and after RFK Jr. suspended his own campaign and joined forces with Trump to launch the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. As ivermectin proved to be ineffective against Covid, Kory turned on the life-saving mRNA vaccines while cozying up to Kennedy and CHD. Kory and the ivermectin group he co-founded the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), now called the Independent Medical Alliance following a pro-MAHA rebrand have rallied with Kennedy and CHD on multiple occasions, including against Covid vaccine mandates during the deadly Omicron wave in late 2021 and early 2022. Kory has not just turned on Covid vaccines, but routine childhood immunizations in line with Kennedys and CHDs established anti-vax rhetoric as well. In 2023, Kory appeared in an FLCCC webinar about pediatric vaccines titled Your Child, Your Choice. The same year, despite his lack of pediatric credentials, he served as an expert on the issue of childhood vaccinations for Republicans in Wisconsin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That same year, Kory testified at the Wisconsin Capitol as part of a GOP-led effort to block adding the meningitis vaccine as a state requirement for school-aged children, which is required in many other states and has been recommended by the Center for Disease Controls Advisory Council on Immunization Practices since 2005. (While Kory and company were initially successful, the meningitis vaccine was eventually added to Wisconsins requirements as of the 2023/24 school year.) During this measles outbreak, both Kennedy and Kory have once again promoted alternative treatments. Kennedy has drawn heavy criticism for pushing vitamin A as a treatment for measles while simultaneously failing to provide a sorely needed, full-throated endorsement of the MMR vaccines. Following the second death, while the HHS secretary correctly called the vaccines the most effective way to prevent measles, he quickly undermined his own statement. In his tweet about the funeral, Kennedy included a shoutout to doctors Edwards and Richard Bartlett, his other extraordinary healer from Texas, for their use of unproven treatments on infected children in the local community. On March 31, Kory appeared in another CHD video about the first Texas childs death, claiming she should have received intravenous vitamin C, which is not indicated for measles-related pneumonia. Of note, prior to his co-authorship of questionable papers on the use of ivermectin to fight Covid, Kory co-authored a since-retracted paper on a Covid hospital protocol that featured vitamin C. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Given his past statements on Covid and routine pediatric vaccines as well as his ties to Kennedy and CHD, Kory would have a vested interest in distancing himself from childrens deaths from vaccine-preventable illness. But this is dangerous, experts warn, during a measles outbreak where vaccines play a vital role in stopping the spread of disease. A representative for the hospital that treated the first child spoke out against misleading and inaccurate claims about this case being circulated online. Our physicians and care teams follow evidence-based protocols and make clinical decisions based on a patients evolving condition, diagnostic findings, and the best available medical knowledge, the spokesperson said. CHD did not back down in the wake of the second pediatric measles death early last month. The organization requested hospital records for this case while offering a free e-book featuring a foreword by Kennedy on secrets the government and media arent telling you about measles and the measles vaccine. The book accuses the mainstream media of weaponizing outbreaks for political gain. In an email to their followers on April 7 the day after the second childs funeral CHD announced an April 17 webinar event called Inside the Measles Deception featuring Kory, Booker, and Edwards. The restricted event was available only to their donors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On April 8, CHD tweeted, Our mission hasnt changed. The MMR vaccine is dangerous and has caused more deaths than measles, a claim that is totally unsubstantiated. The next day, Kory returned for another CHD video claiming to have reviewed the medical records for the second case and, unsurprisingly, again maintained that the 8-year-old girl did not die from the measles. He said: This is just getting exhausting, this constant fear-mongering by the media. Ive already lost so much trust in the institutions of society. But to see them rampage like this on inaccuracies and peddling falsehoods and just distortions, its terrible. Its terrible for our health. They are scaring people into getting what I think is a very dangerous vaccine. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A social media app's location tracking feature helped investigators crack a gruesome double murder case in Wisconsin, where a son killed his parents after his web of lies about college and a fake job at SpaceX began to unravel. The case began on July 7, 2021, when 23-year-old Chandler Halderson reported his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, missing from their Windsor home. A new "20/20" episode, "Road Map To Murder," airing Friday, May 30, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu, examines the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week's episode by listening to "20/20: The After Show" weekly series right on your "20/20" podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by "20/20" co-anchor Deborah Roberts. PHOTO: Chandler Halderson reported his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, missing from their Wisconsin home on July 7, 2021 (Maria Falconer) Chandler claimed his parents had gone to their family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend but never returned. "He mentioned they were maybe going to a casino," Dane County Sheriff's Detective Sabrina Sims told "20/20." However, Sims noted that red flags quickly emerged. "We learned that it's out of character for them to go gambling, and that the Haldersons, especially Bart, were pretty frugal with money," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: DNA leads to arrest in graduate student's 2004 murder after yearslong investigation When investigators checked the family home, they said they found both parents' cars still in the garage. A visit to the family cabin in Wolf River revealed no signs of recent use. A breakthrough came from a resident of the nearby village of Cottage Grove. The witness reported seeing Chandler backing up his car near a wooded area on July 5, 2021. "She watched him walking from the wooded area...and found that to be unusual," Sims said. PHOTO: Chandler Halderson is seen in this undated photo from the Dane County Sheriffs Office. (Dane County Sheriff's Office) Police searched the location and made a horrific discovery -- a male torso that was later identified as Bart Halderson. In a nearby oil drum, investigators found scissors, a saw blade and bolt cutters. An autopsy revealed Bart had been shot and then dismembered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Menendez brothers win resentencing fight: What's next for their case? Detectives discovered that the farm in Cottage Grove belonged to the family of Chandler's girlfriend, Cathryn Mellender. Investigators asked Chandler and Mellender to come in voluntarily for interviews. Chandler was then arrested for allegedly providing false information to investigators. In the following days, he was held in jail on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide. The investigation took another turn when Mellender provided crucial evidence on her cellphone to police, from the social media app Snapchat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its "Snap Map" feature -- a personalized map that shares your location with friends on Snapchat -- showed Chandler at the Wisconsin River on July 3, 2021. Following this lead, and another tip from an eagle-eyed neighbor near the river, investigators discovered more human remains. This time, the remains belonged to Chandlers mother, Krista. PHOTO: Dane County Sheriffs Office Detectives Brian Shunk and Sabrina Sims told ABC News Ryan Smith they believed Krista and Bart Halderson were killed in the basement of their Wisconsin home. (ABC News) According to investigators, they determined early in the investigation that Mellender had nothing to do with the murders and cleared her. During the January 2022 trial, Chandler faced eight charges, including two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating corpses and providing false information about missing persons. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Rose petals and a blade: Pianist confesses in woman's 2021 stabbing death Madison College Enrollment Officer Omar Jobe said he will never forget his phone conversation with Bart, who called the school posing as Chandler, as he tried to get his sons college transcripts. It's a normal phone call that we receive every day. This person was trying to request a transcript, Jobe told "20/20" in an exclusive interview. According to investigators, Bart had been trying unsuccessfully for months to get the transcripts from his son Chandler and was becoming suspicious. Prosecutors said that Bart's phone call was a ruse to see if Chandler was enrolled in college, but it turned out that Chandler had actually failed out of school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The prosecution also alleged that Chandler set up fake email accounts in an attempt to deceive his father about why his college transcripts weren't coming. Chandler had made up fake emails with fake school employees to email back and forth about the transcript issue, Dane County Sheriffs Office Det. Brian Shunk told "20/20." PHOTO: Barbi Townsend spoke with ABC News Ryan Smith about her cousin, Krista Halderson. Townsend described Halderson as a very happy person who poured her heart into her two sons. (ABC News) Prosecutors also argued that the SpaceX job Chandler claimed he had lined up was also a lie. As Bart got closer to the truth, prosecutors alleged that Chandler grew desperate. "When Bart figured it out, Chandler realized he could lose everything," Caroline Dade, an anchor who covered the story for ABC's Wisconsin affiliate WKOW, told "20/20." "The story they [prosecutors] painted was that Chandler gave himself no other option." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At trial, prosecutors told the jury that Chandler killed both parents to prevent his lies from being exposed. The defense team challenged that theory. "All the State was able to prove is that Chandler is a liar, not a killer," lead attorney Crystal Vera said. The jury disagreed, and Chandler was found guilty on all eight charges. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In April 2023, two of Chandlers [lesser] convictions for hiding a corpse were vacated. Chandler has filed an appeal in the case. "They would have given everything and anything to help him," Krista's cousin, Barbi Townsend, told "20/20" about Bart and Krista. "They would have been there. That's the kind of people they were." Wisconsin parents murdered over college lies: How Snapchat helped uncover the truth originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Nvidia weathered a storm of tariff uncertainty and export controls to exceed Wall Streets lofty expectations for sales when the AI chip behemoth reported quarterly earnings Wednesday. The hit to profits and margins came in worse than expected, however. Revenue increased 69% from the same period last year to $44.1 billion, surpassing the Streets projection of $43.3 billion, per Visible Alpha. Profits came in at $18.8 billion, though, falling from $22 billion last quarter and missing the $19.5 billion mark analysts expected. That meant Nvidia posted diluted earnings per share of $0.76, down from $0.89 last quarter and below the projected $0.79. Global demand for Nvidias AI infrastructure is incredibly strong, CEO Jensen Huang said in the earnings release. Countries around the world are recognizing AI as essential infrastructurejust like electricity and the internetand Nvidia stands at the center of this profound transformation, he added. The top-line results allowed investors to breathe a sigh of relief. Shares jumped over 4% to hit the $140 mark in extended trading Wednesday evening. Will Rhind, founder and CEO of ETF issuer GraniteShares, told Fortune the results assured traders that the AI trade remains intact. And I think thats, at the end of the day, what the bulls wanted to see, said Rhind, whose firm manages leveraged and inverse ETFs for Nvidia and other companies. Nonetheless, gross margins dipped to 60%, falling below the 66% figure Wall Street had feared. Last quarter, CFO Colette Kress said the company expected margins to be in the low 70s to start the year as Nvidia continues to ramp up its next-generation Blackwell offering. Meanwhile, new restrictions on China chip sales will continue to hit revenue going forward. The company said it expects sales in the current quarter to come in at $45 billion, below the Streets $46 billion projection. Dave Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, told Fortune he thought revenue guidance of $45 billion or higher would keep most investors in the stock. For the first time since the company stormed to prominence, he said before the call, it felt like Nvidia had a relatively low bar to clear. Sentiment seems a little bit lower, he said. Scott Acheychek, the chief operating officer of Rex Financial, agreed that investors entered Wednesdays print guarded. I feel like nobody wanted to believe that it could be good, he told Fortune after the earnings release. As Nvidia emerged as the first major darling of the AI boomcompeting with Apple and Microsoft for the title of the worlds largest company by market capitalizationthe companys earnings calls became highly anticipated events for institutional and retail investors alike. WASHINGTON, DC (WLAX/WEUX) President Trump and Republicans call it the Big, Beautiful Bill. Wisconsins Republican Senator Ron Johnson thinks its a bit ugly. Johnson said, It just misses the moment. Its not even close to adequate. Johnson says he thinks there are enough no votes in the Senate to slow down the process. He wants cuts in the bill to go deeper. He wants a return to pre-pandemic spending levels. Johnson explained, It dont talk about cuts. Im talking about using the exact same expenditures that Clinton, Obama and Trump laid out. Thats not cutting, thats just returning to a reasonable spending level. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the tax changes add to Federal Deficits by $3.8 trillion from 2026 through 2034. It also finds cuts of about $1 trillion to Medicaid and Food Stamps. Wisconsins Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin said, I am here to speak on behalf of the nearly 14 million Americans whose healthcare is on the chopping block right now in this bill. Republicans are advancing a plan to take away care from working families, so that the super wealthy can get richer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The GOP-led House passed the bill. The debate will now turn to the US Senate. President Trump has been quoted as saying, Well see what happens it has a ways to go. Republicans can only lose 3 GOP votes in the Senate and still pass this bill. Theyll tweak the House bill to find those votes. If they can pass that version of the bill, then the House would have to ratify the changes. 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 FOX2548 & WIProud. Dr. Mehmet Oz downplayed concerns surrounding President Donald Trumps efforts to ban Harvard from accepting international students during an interview with POLITICO White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns. But Oz, a Harvard alum and current administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he believes Harvard will be able to recruit international students with vetting in the future. I think that will happen over time, but this is a bigger discussion about what is Harvard willing to do to truly represent the best interests of its students and the American people, Oz told Burns on the debut episode of The Conversation podcast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Oz said he has witnessed his alma mater lose its way. We will continue to train the best and the brightest of other parts of the world. We want there to be a brain drain towards America from those nations, Oz told Burns. But there's been a change in my alma mater, Harvard, that anyone who went to school with me would have to acknowledge. We witnessed our school lose its way. The administrations fight against Harvard has escalated in recent weeks, which began in April after the university refused to adopt new policies on student and faculty conduct and admissions demanded by the administration. Trumps most recent retaliatory efforts to ban foreign students, who make up 27 percent of Harvards student body, are at the center of a heated legal battle. A federal judge extended its block on the administrations ban Thursday. Trump has also pursued other pathways of retribution against the Ivy League university, such as rescinding grant money and floating redistributing it to trade schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps supporters have praised his attacks on Harvard and other institutions, saying they have facilitated woke ideology. But in the interview, Oz acknowledged the value of his Ivy League education and said he hoped it remained a path for people in the future. Trump, too, has said he is only reforming the university: "The last thing I want to do is hurt [Harvard], they're hurting themselves, he said this week. Burns cited families like Ozs, who is the son of a Turkish immigrant, as a prime example of the benefits of having smart, hardworking people from other countries come to the U.S. to pursue the American dream. No one from my family had ever gone to Harvard. My dad knew of Harvard because even in Turkey they knew of Harvard. And [it] was the only school he wanted me to apply to, Oz said. And it changed my life completely that I went there. I want others to have that opportunity as well. The full interview with Oz will be released in this Sundays debut episode of The Conversation with Dasha Burns. SMITH COUNTY, Texas (KETK) A woman was arrested after attempting to steal a wig from a corpse at a funeral home in Tyler. The funeral director notified the Tyler Police Department on May 23 that Tonya Boyd had gone into the preparation room and had removed the wig from a body, according to a Smith County arrest affidavit. Mugshot of Tonya Boyd, courtesy of Smith County Sheriffs Office Dead men cant testify: East Texas Justice of the Peace indicted on witness tampering, official oppression Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials spoke with the funeral director on May 28, who stated that Boyd had been at the funeral home earlier in the day before the incident and was asked to leave. Later that day, Boyd returned to the funeral home, and employees witnessed her exiting the building with a wig in hand but did not realize it belonged to one of their clients. According to the affidavit, the witness stated that he knew Boyd and that she had a problem with drugs. It was also reported that Boyd had been involved in several criminal activities around the funeral home in the past. The director reported that he had purchased a new wig to replace the stolen one and the family had been notified. Following the investigation, Boyd was charged with theft of property from a human corpse. 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 KETK.com | FOX51.com. ALEXANDRIA, Va. (DC News Now) A Howard County woman was sentenced in Alexandria after being convicted of bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and possession of a firearm by a felon. 36-year-old Loryn Dorsey stole the identity of two victims, identified as K.R. and Z.B, who had high credit scores in order to obtain a loan for a vehicle in November 2022. She also assumed the fake identity of Julia Ball as part of the conspiracy. On Dec. 6, 2022, Dorsey used K.R.s information to apply for a loan online in an attempt to purchase a vehicle from a car dealership in Fairfax County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DC police looking for two suspects after teen killed in Northwest shooting The dealership submitted the information to financial institutions to provide the requested credit. Ally Bank was among the banks that received and rejected the application. Later that day, Dorsey again attempted to apply for a loan to buy a car from the same dealership, this time using Z.B.s stolen information as the co-purchaser and Julia Ball as the co-owner. Through the dealerships website, Dorsey was granted conditional approval of a loan from Ally Bank based on Z.B.s good credit rating. Dorsey asked a male co-conspirator to pretend to be Z.B. and arranged for someone to create a fake document with Z.B.s information and the co-conspirators photograph. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two completed paperwork to purchase a 2015 Cadillac Escalade for $48,629.20, with a $1,000 cash down payment provided by Dorsey. The remaining sum of $47,629.20 was to be financed by Ally Bank. However, their plans were foiled when the Fairfax County police officers arrived at the dealership after the paperwork was completed. When Dorsey was arrested, she was in possession of a firearm. In 2016, Dorsey was convicted of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance in Maryland. As a felon, Dorsey cannot legally possess a firearm or ammunition. Dorsey was sentenced to four years in prison for her charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. LENOIR COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) A woman was arrested by deputies with the Lenoir County Sheriffs Office early Thursday morning, May 29, 2025. Desilen Devona Rochelle Dail, 25, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury as the result of a reported stabbing on South Croom Bland Road. The victim was taken to a medical facility for treatment. After an investigation, law enforcement found the incident happened on Addie Lane and Dail was identified as a suspect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dail was taken to the Lenoir County Magistrates Office and jailed without bond due to being out on pre-trial release. A bond of $10,000 was later set by a district court judge. 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. May 29A Metropolitan Detention Center inmate who had been booked into the jail a few days earlier died Wednesday. At about 5:30 a.m., a 45-year-old woman was found unresponsive, MDC spokesperson Candace Hopkins said in a news release. She died 18 minutes later, after MDC staff and first responders unsuccessfully attempted life-saving measures on the woman, she said. MDC will not release the woman's name until they have notified her family of her death, Hopkins said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman had been booked into MDC on Monday morning, she said. Hopkins did not say what the woman was booked into jail for or give any other details. The incident is being investigated by the MDC Office of Professional Standards and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office. The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator will determine the cause of the woman's death, Hopkins said. Since 2020, 36 people have died at MDC or died after falling ill at the facility. After pulling $20,000 from her bank account, a 73-year-old Massachusetts woman stopped returning her familys calls. Police found her at a Bitcoin ATM still on the phone with the scammer who sent her there. Around 2 p.m. on Thursday, family members went to the Lakeville Police Department, concerned that another family member was being scammed. The 73-year-old Lakeville woman had withdrawn $20,000 in cash from her bank account and was not answering phone calls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scammer told the woman her computer was infected with a virus. The only way to protect her money, the scammer claimed, was to withdraw it and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM. The scammer also told her not to answer any phone calls, including those from family members. She did as she was told. Police determined she was likely headed to Raynham and contacted the Raynham Police Department to be on the lookout. Raynham Police officers began checking local Bitcoin ATM locations. Soon they found the car at Colettis Market on North Main Street. Police found the woman while she was still on the phone with the scammer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Luckily, police said, they were able to stop the woman in time. This case is a powerful reminder of how sophisticated and manipulative these scams have become, said Lakeville Chief Matthew Perkins. Thanks to fast detective work, interagency cooperation including the quick response from Raynham Police and vigilant family, we were able to stop this in time. If not for those combined efforts, the victim could have lost a significant amount of money. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns people that no legitimate business is going to demand you send cryptocurrency in advance. Thats always a scam, the FTC wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scams can also include love interests, seemingly legitimate businesses or blackmail. Dont pay anyone who contacts you unexpectedly, demanding payment with cryptocurrency, the FTC wrote. More News Read the original article on MassLive. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A woman who was struck by a Henderson police sergeant said she is working with an attorney to file a lawsuit. Sgt. Scott Alward is seen on video striking Nakeisha Kelly, 38, on Oct. 26, 2024. Youre supposed to protect and serve the community, Kelly told the 8 News Now Investigators. Youre not protecting this community. Kelly said she did not know she could file a complaint against Alward at the police department, and she did not know how to prove Alward struck her. Then she saw the 8 News Now Investigators first report on the incident on May 5. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident occurred near Morrell Park by Boulder Highway and Basic Road. Kelly said she was drinking wine with her sister, and they had an altercation. Kellys family member and a bystander called for help. Alward responded. Follow simple instructions. Get in front of my car! Do it now! Alward said. Youre going to get taken to the ground if you dont listen to me now. Are you trying to shoot me? Kelly asked. Kelly recalled how Alward approached her. He was giving me the, like, its not like, not a safe, like, youre not safe. Something about you is, like, off, she said. Kelly did not immediately comply with Alwards commands. Alward wrote in his report he believed Kelly was going to spit in his face and used his open palm to strike her in the upper chest to redirect her body and the perceived attack. Alward used his knee to pin Kellys shoulder to the ground, she refused to show her other hand tucked under her waist, and there was a sharp pencil where she was lying and where she was concealing her hand, Alward wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kelly told the 8 News Now Investigators she was not going to spit at Alward and she did not have a pencil. I was scared at the moment because he was already putting on gloves and stuff, Kelly said. I was fearing for my life that day so when I turned around tried to ask him, thats when the incident happened. Kelly, who said she is 55 and 105 lbs., also recalled Alwards knee on her back. I was scared, she said. Additional officers arrived and assisted with Kellys arrest. They was all being rude and disrespectful, so I was being rude back towards them, Kelly said. Youre not gonna talk to me like Im an animal, so I gave em back what they deserve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kellys face appeared to be bruised in a booking photo obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators. Kelly pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges, including resisting a public officer and making a false statement to or obstructing a public officer. She said she was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The 8 News Now Investigators asked the Henderson police department if it believes the use of force incident was justified. HPD takes every UOF (use of force) seriously and follows their standard review protocol, the office of public information responded in a May 1 email. The city confirmed the incident was investigated by internal affairs. The 8 News Now Investigators also asked if Alward was reprimanded or faced any disciplinary action in connection with the incident. This matter was reviewed and handled accordingly through our internal affairs process, the city responded. It is our policy not to disclose personnel matters. Alward was still assigned to patrol, according to the city. To reach investigative reporter Vanessa Murphy, email vmurphy@8newsnow.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace during her speech on the House floor on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. The latest lawsuit filed in its aftermath on Thursday, May 29, 2025, comes from a woman identified as Jane Doe. No criminal charges from an investigation that began in December 2023 have been filed. (Screenshot from C-SPAN) A woman says in a civil lawsuit filed Thursday that she was a victim of three of the men U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace accused in a stunning speech on the U.S. House floor of being sexual predators. The lawsuit says the woman, identified as Jane Doe, was sexually assaulted by one of the men in a Sullivans Island home while she was unconscious as the other two filmed it and took photos. She suspects she was drugged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman says she is the victim Mace referenced during her nearly hour-long floor speech in February, when she said, I had to tell a woman shed been raped. Until Mace contacted her in April 2024, she had no idea what happened that night in October 2018, according to the lawsuit. Video of the assault was among the thousands of images the 1st District congresswoman said she found on her then-fiances cellphone in November 2023 before breaking up with him, according to the lawsuit. Mace says she turned all of it over to the State Law Enforcement Division, which confirmed in February that it began investigating her ex-fiance in December 2023 after receiving a call from U.S. Capitol Police. During a news conference Thursday at her congressional office on Daniel Island, Mace read from the lawsuit and applauded the womans strength in coming forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I told her the truth. It was one of the hardest conversations of my life, Mace told reporters about notifying her of what she found. I will stand with her under oath every step of the way. No criminal charges have been filed against any of the men for the accusations laid out in graphic detail in the lawsuit. It seeks unspecified damages for claims that include battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, negligence and conspiracy. Asked why she believed there hadnt been any charges filed yet, Marybeth Mullaney, the womans attorney, said she couldnt answer for SLED. A SLED spokeswoman said Thursday the investigation continues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit says an anonymous witness, identified as Jane Doe Witness, saw the crime happening from security cameras in the home. That video footage was deleted the next day, but the witness says she wrote about it that night in an online diary entry she emailed to herself hours later. I couldnt believe what I was seeing, reads an excerpt from that entry, according to the lawsuit. Mace said she found the video on her fiances phone five years later after the two went to couples counseling with two pastors, who suggested he needed to give Mace access to his phone to build trust. And he did. According to the lawsuit, Mace went to the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office in December 2023, and they asked SLED to investigate. A month later, Mace contacted the unnamed witness, thinking it might be her in the video. It wasnt, but the witness said she remembered what happened and told Mace about the diary entry. The lawsuit names Patrick Bryant (Maces ex-fiance), Eric Bowman, and John Osborne, all residents of Charleston County and longtime friends and business associates. Not mentioned in the suit is a fourth man Mace named from the House floor, another friend of Bryants who has since sued her in federal court for defamation. All four have vehemently and repeatedly denied Maces allegations since February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bowman and Bryant immediately denied the additional claims in the lawsuit, labeling it the latest in Maces political drama. This lawsuit is nothing more than a political stunt, said Bowman, adding that his estranged wife and Mace have a coordinated vendetta against him. Their agenda is personal, not principled and the allegations are 100% false, he said. Osborne declined to comment and directed questions to his attorney, Ryan Schwartz, who pointed the SC Daily Gazette to a deposition obtained by news outlets last week. Schwartz called it very telling. In an April 28 deposition given under subpoena, campaign consultant Wesley Donehue said Mace asked him in late 2023 to meet with Bryant and use the information she found as leverage to get full ownership in two homes the former couple owned together: one on the Isle of Palms and another in Washington, D.C. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said she would try to get more information from Bryants phone during an upcoming trip to the Caribbean with him and his friends. Donehue said he refused and told her to go to authorities, according to The Post and Courier and other outlets. In a statement to the Gazette, Mace downplayed the alleged blackmail attempt as deposition clickbait. The lawsuit also accuses Bowman and Bryant of trying to intimidate, shame, and embarrass the Jane Doe into not filing the lawsuit. Bryant called it Maces latest stunt in a long-running blackmail campaign against him. It is simply part of a narrative and continuing effort on her part designed to attempt to destroy me, and to somehow benefit politically from the publicity, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement provided by Mullaney, Jane Doe said she filed the lawsuit for myself and for other women who fear being publicly shamed if they report what happened to them. She went on to note that she and Mace, who is mulling a run for governor next year, do not share the same political ideology, saying whats important to me is her courage in bringing this to light. According to the lawsuit, Mace told her the anti-voyeurism bill shes working to pass in Congress, which would strengthen penalties for people who record explicit images without consent, would prevent what happened to her from happening to other women. The lawsuit also says that bill is why Mace made the speech on the House floor in February. Mace is separately suing Bowman in a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month in Charleston County, claiming he defamed her on social media following her public accusations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More lawsuits are likely forthcoming. The deposition reported about last week was conducted by Barrett Brewer, a lawyer of Bryants. Responding to the deposition, Maces office pointed to other parts of Donehues statement. He said she came to him emotionally distraught and feared for her safety. He saw bruises on her body, a spokesperson said. Nothing else matters. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Artificial intelligence technology bellwether Nvidia overcame a wave of tariff-driven turbulence to deliver another quarter of robust growth amid feverish demand for its high-powered chips that are making computers seem more human. The results announced Wednesday for the February-April period came against the backdrop of President Donald Trumps on-again, off-again trade war that has whipsawed Nvidia and other Big Tech companies riding AI mania to propel their revenue and stock prices upward. But Trumps tariffs many of which have been reduced or temporarily suspended hammered the market values of Nvidia and other tech powerhouses heading into the springtime earnings season as investors fretted about the trade turmoil dimming the industrys prospects. Those worries have eased during the past six weeks as most Big Tech companies lived up to or exceeded the analyst projections that steer investors, capped by Nvidias report for its fiscal first quarter. Nvidia earned $18.8 billion, or 76 cents per share, for the period, a 26% increase from the same time last year. Revenue surged 69% from a year ago to $44.1 billion. If not for a $4.5 billion charge that Nvidia absorbed to account for the U.S. governments restrictions on its chip sales to China, Nvidia would have made 96 cents per share, far above the 73 cents per share envisioned by analysts. In another positive sign, Nvidia predicted its revenue for the May-July period would be about $45 billion, roughly the level that investors had been anticipating. The forecast includes an estimated $8 billion loss in sales to China due to the export controls during its fiscal second quarter, after the restrictions cost it about $2.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter. In a conference call with analysts, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lamented that the U.S. government had effectively blocked off AI chip sales to China a market that he estimated at $50 billion. Huang warned the export controls have spurred China to build more of its own chips in a shift that he predicted the U.S. will eventually regret. The U.S. based its policy on the assumption that China cannot make AI chips. That assumption was always questionable, and now its clearly wrong, Huang said. Despite Nvidia's lost opportunities in China, investors were heartened by the company's first-quarter performance. Nvidia's shares gained more than 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out. Nvidias stock price ended Wednesdays regular trading session at $134.81, just slightly below where it stood before Trumps Jan. 20 inauguration. The price had plunged to as low as $86.62 last month during a nosedive that temporarily erased $1.2 trillion in shareholder wealth. GOSHEN A woman accused of robbing a victim of a box of doughnuts and battering her has been sentenced on a lesser crime. Callie Richardson, 22, received a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to battery resulting in moderate injury, a Level 6 felony. She and her codefendant, 35-year-old Stephen Ohrazda, were originally charged with robbery resulting in injury as a Level 3 felony following the Aug. 29 incident. Police said they were caught on camera battering a woman on the riverwalk and stealing food from her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elkhart police responded to a robbery report at 300 Riverwalk Drive on Aug. 29 at around 6:35 p.m. They found the victim bleeding from a 1-inch cut to her eyebrow and a small cut on the top of her nose. She said she was given $10 and some doughnuts by an unknown woman earlier in the day, and was later approached by a man and woman who demanded the cash and food. She said she was hit in the head by a wooden rolling pin before the couple stole from her and ran off. Police obtained surveillance footage of the robbery, which they said showed the victim holding a box of doughnuts and some grocery bags. A man and woman are seen approaching her and the woman starts to hit her in the face, according to police. Richardson told the court Thursday that her reaction to the woman was disproportional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yeah, it was a mistake, she told Circuit Court Judge Michael Christofeno. I took the time and realized what I did was very wrong, and Im sorry for that. Ive taken anger management in here. Im very grateful I had the time to sit down. Christofeno sentenced Richardson to two years in the Indiana Department of Corrections with one year suspended to probation. According to investigators, the victim could be seen on video backing away and trying to gather her belongings as the female suspect strikes her in the face with her hands more than a dozen times. The blows continued after the victim backed up and fell over a rock wall. The male suspect could be seen striking the victim in the face with his heel and shin. The two suspects eventually left with a grocery bag and a box of doughnuts, which they threw down after they were out of sight of the victim, according to police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspects faces and tattoos were clearly visible in the footage, police said. Officers later encountered Ohrazda and Richardson on the riverwalk and arrested them based on matching the description of the suspects. They claimed that the victim stole the doughnuts from someone else first and that she had a knife during the fight, police said. Police couldnt find the other alleged victim and say there was no weapon visible in the hands of the victim whose assault was captured on video. ST. LOUIS A man accused of stabbing a worker earlier this week at Joe Fassi Sausage Sandwich Factory, a longtime Italian restaurant in The Hill, is now behind bars. The St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office has charged Terrance Bise, 44, with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and resisting/interfering with arrest in connection with the case. According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the stabbing happened around 3:20 p.m. Wednesday at the restaurant, located in the 2300 block of Sublette Avenue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Big Give Back initiative turns parking lot into lifeline for tornado victims Court documents obtained by FOX 2 state the victim was working alone and behind the counter when Bise allegedly entered the restaurant, walked behind the counter and stabbed the victim in the throat and chest, causing serious injuries. Several hours later, officers located Bise near the 3100 block of Nebraska Avenue in St. Louis Benton Park West neighborhood. According to court documents, officers repeatedly ordered Bise to stop, though he attempted to run away before he was ultimately arrested. Bise was booked into jail in St. Louis and is being held without bond, according to online Missouri court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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. LA MESA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) Two American World War II veterans, Bob Wilson and Peter Sanzo, were honored with the French Legion of Honour on Thursday at the American Legion in La Mesa. The prestigious award, presented by the Consul General of France in Los Angeles, recognizes their outstanding service during the war. Wilson, 105, and Sanzo, 103, stood proudly as they received the medals, a testament to their bravery and dedication. I wish my wife was here, said Wilson, reflecting on the accomplishment and his 72-year marriage to his late wife. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Memorial Day: Hundreds pay tribute at Miramar National Cemetery This is amazing. Theres no words, expressed Sanzo, overwhelmed by the honor. Sanzo served as a tank operator in the U.S. Army, participating in significant campaigns such as Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. He saw really horrific battles, his daughter, Judi Sanzo, said. He nearly died at Battle of the Bulge. He was hospitalized for almost 12 months. His family thought he had died because they found his dog tags and they sent them home. Wilson, a U.S. Navy veteran, served during the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach and continued his military career through the Korean and Vietnam Wars. This service inspired his granddaughter to follow in his footsteps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the ceremony concluded, Sanzo issued a salute to the applause of the audience, while Wilson expressed his gratitude with a simple, Thank you very much. The ceremony was a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by these veterans, who remain humble and proud of their contributions to history. All facts from this article were gathered by FOX 5/KUSI journalists. This article was converted into this format with assistance from artificial intelligence. It has been edited and approved by FOX 5/KUSI staff. 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. As a wave of federal crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights collides with a historic anniversary, Washington, D.C., is bracing for what will be its first and the most politically charged WorldPride in history. From May 17 to June 8, millions are expected to converge on the nations capital, not just to celebrate but to protest. At the center of it all is Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, leading a team of more than 1,000 volunteers preparing for the largest Pride event the city has ever seen. WorldPride 2025 comes as a celebration and a clarion call. Hours after retaking office, Donald Trump signed an executive order stripping federal recognition of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex identities. IDs must now reflect a persons sex assigned at birth. Civil rights protections are being rolled back. Funding for gender-affirming care has been cut. The administration calls it biological truth. Advocates call it erasure. This is what Pride is for, Bos says. Whether youre marching in protest or dancing in the street, youre resisting being told you have no value. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This years WorldPride coincides with Capital Prides 50th anniversary and is planned as a direct rebuke. In addition to the Pride parade and festival, organizers are planning a protest rally at the Lincoln Memorial and a march to the Capitol on June 8. While protest is a constitutional right, permits are needed for structures and stages on federal land. Bos says his team is working with the National Park Service and expects approval. But he adds, If the federal government were to deny our permits, I think we would expect a national outcry. And if anything, it could galvanize our community in ways we havent seen in a long time. Even before the election, we were planning for a parade and protest, but now that march has a whole new urgency, he says. Its about defiance. Organizers expect more than 3 million attendees, and Bos believes Trumps policies may boost turnout. There are people who never thought of coming to WorldPride because they saw it as just a party. Now they see its purpose. Now they feel the need to show up. While some international groups like the African Human Rights Coalition have announced a boycott, Bos believes pulling out sends the wrong message. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its about being visible and heard, Bos says. Pride has always been protest. And protest, he adds, comes in many forms. Some people think it means signs and chants, Bos says. But the act of dancing in the street of showing joy when youre being told to disappear that is protest. Bos, who is white and cisgender, says those with privilege have a duty to show up. He acknowledges that many transgender people, especially those coming from abroad, may not feel safe attending WorldPride. Several countries have already advised their trans citizens about attending the event, and even Bos and his fellow D.C. organizers have cautioned trans and nonbinary visitors about potential trouble. Organizers warned trans and nonbinary travelers to exercise caution, given the Trump administrations requirement that visa applications reflect a persons sex assigned at birth. There will be those who choose to come, even though they are afraid and may be putting themselves at risk, he says. We want to do our due diligence to provide as much support as possible. But especially for those of us who are less at risk, we need to show up in droves for those who cant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For those unable to attend, a partnership with Outright Internationals March for All allows allies to march on their behalf, wearing bibs with their names. Despite the cultural backlash, WorldPride is moving forward. Booz Allen Hamilton pulled its sponsorship, and the Kennedy Center canceled programming. But others, like Wegmans, remain committed. Bos admits, There are moments I worry no one will come. And then I remember what were fighting for. This cover story is part of the The Advocate's Pride issue. Support queer media and subscribe or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting June 19. The North American pronghorn is a remarkable animal, elegant in stature and a speedster on the prairies, capable of sprinting at sustained speeds of 45 to 50 mph. But pronghorn, which often gather in herds, cannot outrun bullets. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced this week that it's investigating the poaching of 12 pronghorn that were shot and left to waste in a hunting zone north of Kemmerer in southwest Wyoming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident, sure to have angered even legitimate hunters, was believed to have occurred on the afternoon of April 26 or early on April 27. North American pronghorn in Yellowstone National Park. This incident is extremely disturbing, as all of the antelope were shot and left to rot, and no edible portions were taken from any of the antelope, Alex Poncelet, a Kemmerer game warden. The individual or individuals responsible targeted several mature bucks in this incident, showing a complete disregard for Wyomings wildlife and law-abiding hunters. The carcasses were discovered April 27 by a non-hunter who had been recreating on the Hams Fork Road north of Viva Naughton Reservoir. Anyone with potentially helpful information is asked to telephone Poncelet at 307-877-3278, or the Green River Game and Fish office at 307-875-3223. Tipsters can also leave information with the Stop Poaching Hotline at 877-943-3847. This article originally appeared on For The Win: Wyoming poachers open fire on pronghorn in disturbing incident SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) During a thunderstorm or an ice storm, theres always a chance you could lose electricity and nobody likes that. But one electric company is promising faster response times thanks to its new multi-million dollar state of the art facility in Sioux Falls where they held a ribbon cutting Thursday. Xcel Energy is on a bit of a power trip. Major gold find near Spearfish, South Dakota reported Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Xcel Energy has been powering Sioux Falls for over 120 years and we are growing with Sioux Falls, Xcel Energy CEO Bob Frenzel said. Today, Xcel showed off its new massive facility along North Minnesota Avenue. This is a state-of-the-art facility designed to enable our teams here in Sioux Falls and joining regions to recover from storms quickly, but also to build and construct the infrastructure for all the new businesses and economic development coming to the region, Frenzel said. Xcel Energy serves eight states with nearly $105,000 of its customers just in South Dakota. This new facility will allow linemen to better prepare for the unexpected if disaster strikes; like during the ice storm back in 2013. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obviously when you are getting ready for a storm or you have an outage or anything like that, if youre going to have to load up outside, its going to take you more time, its harder on the linemen, its harder on everyone, Xcel Energy State Director Steve Kolbeck said. The new facility is phase one, phase two is going to be renovating the old headquarters where linemen can hold safety and disaster briefings. During the derechos a few years ago, 23 hundred linemen from other states responded to South Dakota, providing mutual aid. Now with this new facility, including this huge warehouse, Xcel says itll be better equipped to keep your lights on if and when disaster strikes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To learn more about Xcel Energys new facility or to report an outage, 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 KELOLAND.com. Annabelle Chih / Bloomberg / Getty Images Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at a conference in Taipei, Taiwan, earlier this month. Nvidia briefly returned to the top of the list of the world's most valuable companies when its stock soared in early trading Thursday following a strong first-quarter earnings report. Nvidia (NVDA) shares jumped more than 6% in early trading on Thursday, adding more than $200 billion to the companys market value and pushing the company's market cap to $3.49 trillion, edging out Microsofts (MSFT) $3.41 trillion value. Nvidia stock gave up ground throughout the day, and Microsoft ultimately overtook the AI chip giant in market value by Thursday's close. Nvidia shares reacted on Thursday to a solid quarterly report on Wednesday afternoon. Nvidia reported record revenue in its fiscal first quarter as AI demand remained robust. Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple (AAPL) have been jostling to be the worlds most valuable company for nearly a year. The three are the only companies to have ever achieved a market value of more than $3 trillion. Nvidia reached that milestone almost exactly a year ago, while Apple first closed at $3 trillion in June 2023 and Microsoft reached $3 trillion in January 2024. All three stocks have been hit to a certain degree by economic and trade uncertainty this year, but only Microsoft and Nvidia have shaken off the worst of it. Nvidia's and Microsoft's stocks are up about 5% and 9%, respectively, since the start of the year. Apple shares, meanwhile, are down about 20%, battered by President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs on China, where the company assembles the majority of its products, and insistence that it move production to America. Nvidias market cap, despite Thursday's gains, remains below its record of $3.66 trillion from earlier January when shares set their all-time high. UpdateMay 29, 2025: This story has been updated with the latest share price and market value data. Read the original article on Investopedia RED LION, Pa. (WHTM) A York County resident has been indicted for bank fraud after allegedly depositing a counterfeit U.S. Treasury check. According to the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Red Lion resident Rashu D. Powell, 51, was indicted on May 28, 2025, on one count of bank fraud. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Breaking News Alerts Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus says Powell was allegedly a truck driver and had a business checking account for his company, R&D 2020 Trucking LLC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On or around July 29, 2024, Powell allegedly deposited a counterfeit U.S. Treasury check worth approximately $421,502 into that business checking account. The U.S. Secret Service investigated this case with assistance from the West Manchester Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ravi Romel Sharma is prosecuting the case. According to the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the maximum penalty for bank fraud is 30 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release, and a fine. abc27 news will keep you updated as more information becomes 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 ABC27. NEED TO KNOW Long Island man Tyson Carter was attacked when he stepped in to help a young woman who was being harassed by two men at a bus stop A fight ensued, and one of the men bit Carter's nose off He underwent a life-changing surgery, and his confidence has been restored A man whose nose was bitten off during a fight when he stepped in to defend a woman being harassed has undergone life-changing surgery that restored his face. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tyson Carter, 41, had observed two men harassing a young woman at a Brentwood, N.Y. bus stop on January 27, ABC-7 reports. But when he tried to offer assistance, he was attacked. "It was two-on-one and they stomped on my head and chest," Carter told the outlet. "But I wasn't going down. I guess he got frustrated. I knew he bit my nose. My jacket was bloody [but] I didn't realize how bad it was." Northwell Health The 3D model of Tyson Carter's face with the clay nose attached. The 3D model of Tyson Carter's face with the clay nose attached. The extent of his injuries was discovered when he sought medical care at Long Islands Northwell Health's South Shore University Hospital. His nose, Carter says, had been bitten off. But as Dr. Laurent Ganry, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Northwell Healths Jewish Medical Center, explained during a press conference, he was able to fashion a new nose for Carter using an old Egyptian technique combined with modern technology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He first 3D-printed Carters face, then used clay to make a nose model based on how it looked in past selfies. Now I have a template, he said, according to ABC-7. Taking skin and muscle from his forearm and forehead, Ganry was able to give Carter his nose back through a series of three surgeries. New blood vessels have grown, Ganry said, explaining, Basically, the nose is alive. The procedure to create new noses dates back to ancient Egyptians, the surgeon told the outlet, when people lost noses due to illness or torture. Now, Carter says his friends dont even notice anymore. "[For] most people that know me and haven't seen me in a while, it doesn't even register when they see my face," he said. He can also wear his eyeglasses again. As Carter explained, Without my glasses, I can see maybe six inches in front of me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And while he says, for me, its, like, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, for his medical team, who performs the procedure for people whove lost their noses to dog bites or skin cancer, its business as usual. 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. Read the original article on People A man wanted for charges of sex crimes involving a child in Georgia was arrested by New York State Police. According to state police, the New York State Police Computer Crime Unit got a request from the Duluth Police Department in Gwinnett County to find 41-year-old Oswin M. Guillen Padilla, of Hampton Bays. Police said he was accused of inappropriate communication with a minor in Duluth. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Police said the investigation started when the minor victims mother found photos and videos involving inappropriate content and messages sent back and forth between the victim and Padilla. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Duluth police investigated, they found that Padilla lives in Suffolk County, N.Y. TRENDING STORIES: N.Y. State Police found Padillas home in Hampton Bays and interviewed him for the Duluth investigation. During that interview, police said Padilla admitted to using multiple social media accounts including Messenger, WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, TikTok and Instagram to communicate and intentionally seek out explicit content from minors even when he knew their age. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a result, Padilla was charged with four counts of possession sexual performance by a child less than 16, a felony. Padilla was in custody awaiting arraignment in Suffolk County as of May 23. An arrest warrant for Padilla to be extradited to Georgia was sent by Duluth police, New York State Police said. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] ZACHARY, La. (Louisiana First) The Redwood Baptist Church was first organized in 1857 by slaves, according to the churchs pastor. Following the Nottoway fire this month, he reflected on the way slaves are contextualized in Louisianas history. Pastor Dale Flowers said he never visited Nottoway, which was finished in 1859 in White Castle. He said following the May 15 fire, he noticed online debates on social media about the plantations legacy. Some people were like, Hey, pass the marshmallows,' Flowers said. Others were extremely upset. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Support for the plantation began before the embers completely cooled. Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle called the fire a tragedy considering its history in the area. The preservation of history is so important, Daigle said in the fires aftermath. Nottoway constituted the Souths largest existing antebellum mansion, according to its website. The location has been popular for portraits, weddings, fine dining, and tours. The event is going to take a toll on Louisiana tourism, Daigle said. Daigle said at the time recent renovations did not include installing a sprinkler system. Its a day we were always afraid of, Daigle said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state fire marshal ended its investigation into the fire Tuesday without any conclusions on what caused it. Evidence was sent to the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Crime Lab in Georgia to be analyzed. Daigle discussed the controversy already beginning to take shape online, which included whether the fire burning down the structure was a blessing or a curse. Theres so much controversy with the past, Daigle said. We didnt live in that generation, but the preservation of history, even the uncomfortable parts, is important. The plantations owner shared that sentiment in a statement published soon after the fire. William Daniel Dyess, an attorney and preservationist from Natchitoches, did not respond to a Louisiana First News request placed through his law office by publication. In a statement to the New York Post, he dismissed much of the criticism while calling for people to move forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I take this position we are non-racist people, Dyess said in the article. I am a lawyer and my wife is a judge. We believe in equal opportunity rights for everyone, total equality and fairness. My wife and I had nothing to do with slavery, but we recognize the wrongness of it. We are trying to make this a better place. We dont have any interest in left wing radical stuff. We need to move forward on a positive note here and we are not going to dwell on past racial injustice. Dyess said he plans to rebuild the mansion. A couple of signs are posted outside the property, including one that suggests construction is already happening. Rebuild it, Flowers said. Slaves built that building. Slaves arent going to build this one. Flowers said there is a sentiment from many in America to romanticize the Antebellum period. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some people are nostalgic about that time, Flowers said. Flowers said the prioritization of weddings and the positive elements of history are part of the reason so many people have the opposite opinion: that Nottoway displayed a largely incorrect version of its history. People who view the website and click the History tab will be met with a list of named trees on the property. I honestly thought, I wonder how many people hung from those trees,' Flowers said. Flowers said a better representation of history can be found at Whitney Plantation. Located in Edgard, Whitney operated from 1752 to 1975, according to its website. Whitney has been open about its purpose, posting in 2020 that it would not hold weddings because of slaverys impact on the property. Plantations are sites of immense cruelty and violence, the Instagram post read. We do not allow any event that would overshadow this reality and disrespect the memory of all those who suffered, labored and died here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A recent trip to Whitney was emotional, Flowers said, but he said his children began to learn about the reality their ancestors experienced. Its honestly a hard place to visit, Flowers said. They present it as it is. Flowers said those slaves who directly ramped up Louisianas economy in the late 1800s also founded the church he now serves. He said the record is unclear on whether they got permission from their master to organize or secretly did so in a wooded area. It was actually organized by slaves, Flowers said. Flowers said he thinks the original congregation would be proud that the church carries on their legacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The work they started in 1857 is still going on today, Flowers said. Latest News 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 Louisiana First News. NEW DELHI (AP) New Zealands deputy prime minister said on Friday that talks over a free trade agreement between his country and India were ongoing, but he didn't provide a timeline for when the two nations could eventually sign a deal. Winston Peters, who is on a two-day visit to India, said that the negotiations were going with real meaning now," calling them a breakthrough in our economic relationship. India and New Zealand began negotiations in March for a trade pact, and had aimed to sign a deal in 60 days. The deal will significantly bolster economic ties between the two countries, but it has faced delays because of differences over tariffs on dairy products. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bilateral trade between India and New Zealand stood at $1.7 billion in the 2023-24 financial year. Talks between India and New Zealand were taking place amid global trade tensions, after U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to impose now-paused reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from several countries, including India. Earlier this month, India and the United Kingdom clinched a trade deal. India is also engaged in trade talks with Washington. Peters, who met with Indias Group of 20 emissary, Amitabh Kant, in New Delhi, said that India was New Zealands 12th-largest partner in trade and we are determined that were going to work to change that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our strengths, from food and beverage products to agriculture, forestry, horticulture, education and tourism are world class. And our innovation in areas like outer space and renewable energy will find a welcoming partner in India," he said. Peters said that the relationship between the two countries extended to defense and security, calling it a priority for New Zealand in the Indo-Pacific." "During a time of great uncertainty, instability and disorder, we have taken steps to work more closely on matters of defense and security with India," he said. President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed skepticism on May 30 that the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, tentatively scheduled for June 2 in Istanbul, will produce any results due to what he described as Moscow's deliberate inaction. "The Russians have been unable to present the so-called 'memorandum' for over a week, which they promised to prepare immediately after the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange," Zelensky wrote on Telegram. "Ukraine has not received any documents from them." The statement comes just days ahead of the proposed meeting, the second such round of direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022. The first session, held in Istanbul on May 16, ended without an agreement on a ceasefire but led to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zelensky's Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said on May 29 that Kyiv is open to the talks but insists that Russia share the memorandum ahead of the meeting. "For the meeting to be meaningful, it is necessary to understand its agenda and prepare properly for the negotiations. Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next possible meeting is fruitless," Zelensky added. Moscow's delegation, led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, will present its ceasefire memorandum in Istanbul and is ready to provide clarifications, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 29. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on May 28 that Ukraine has already shared its own memorandum, which includes a full ceasefire on land, in the air, and at sea, to be monitored by international partners, according to the New York Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya on May 30 reiterated that Moscow would only consider a ceasefire if Ukraine halts mobilization and stops receiving foreign military aid. Reuters reported that President Vladimir Putin's broader demands include a written pledge from NATO to stop expanding, the lifting of certain sanctions, and recognition of Ukraine's neutral status. Despite the standoff, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara remains open to hosting the upcoming talks. Fidan met with both sides during visits to Kyiv and Moscow and said Turkey would support a potential summit involving Zelensky, Putin, and U.S. President Donald Trump, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also present. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kremlin has said Putin is "fundamentally in favor" of meeting with Zelensky and Trump, according to spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, but insists that groundwork must be laid through successful negotiations between delegations. Ukraine continues to demand a complete and unconditional ceasefire. Moscow has so far refused, escalating aerial attacks across Ukraine while reportedly preparing a new summer offensive. Read also: The Hungary-Ukraine spy scandal and Russias possible role, explained Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 30 to discuss the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, tentatively scheduled for June 2 in Istanbul. "We both agree that such a meeting cannot and should not be empty," Zelensky said on social media following the call. "There must be a ceasefire to move further toward peace. The killings must stop." The phone call comes just days ahead of the proposed meeting, the second such round of direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022. The first session, held in Istanbul on May 16, ended without an agreement on a ceasefire but led to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The exchange of prisoners was an important achievement of that meeting, but unfortunately, it was the only one," Zelensky said, referring to the first round of talks. During the call the leaders also discussed the possibility of four-way peace talks that include Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. Earlier in the day on May 30, Zelensky expressed skepticism that the next round of talks will produce any results due to what he described as Moscow's deliberate inaction. Zelensky's Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said on May 29 that Kyiv is open to the talks but insists that Russia share their ceasefire memorandum ahead of the meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "For the meeting to be meaningful, it is necessary to understand its agenda and prepare properly for the negotiations. Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next possible meeting is fruitless," Zelensky said earlier in the day. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on May 28 that Ukraine has already shared its own memorandum, which includes a full ceasefire on land, in the air, and at sea, to be monitored by international partners, according to the New York Times. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya on May 30 reiterated that Moscow would only consider a ceasefire if Ukraine halts mobilization and stops receiving foreign military aid. Despite the standoff, in a separate readout of the call, the Turkish Presidential office called on talks to resume "without any further delay." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Stating that discussing the potential ceasefire in the second round of the talks planned to be held in Istanbul will pave the way for peace," the statement from Erdogan's office read. Reuters reported that President Vladimir Putin's broader demands include a written pledge from NATO to stop expanding, the lifting of certain sanctions, and recognition of Ukraine's neutral status. Read also: Zelensky doubts June 2 talks will yield results as Russia withholds ceasefire plan Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed his hope for tougher sanctions to be imposed on Russia's war machine during a meeting with US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal in Kiev. "Im grateful for the initiative the bipartisan sanctions bill already supported by 82 senators, Zelensky posted on the platform X on Friday. "We discussed this and other levers we can use to force Russia into peace. We will keep working on this together." Zelensky accused Moscow of mocking diplomatic initiatives and using negotiations as a cover to prepare a new offensive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia is carrying out strikes on Ukrainian cities and villages and rejecting all proposals for a ceasefire, Zelensky said. "That is why additional pressure is needed," he stressed. The president thanked Republican Graham and Democrat Blumenthal for their two political camps' support of Ukraine. "It is the United States' real involvement at every stage of the negotiations that can guarantee a reliable peace," Zelensky said. During their visit to the Ukrainian capital, Graham and Blumenthal also met Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to discuss expanding trade relations. Graham said that he expects that this business relationship will focus on the military sector, that the US military-industrial complex will sell weapons to Ukraine that it has developed. Other countries could buy them from the US and deliver them to Ukraine, he said at a press conference, according to the Interfax-Ukraine agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Graham and Blumenthal have prepared a package of new sanctions for Russia, which can count on a large, bipartisan majority in the US Senate. However, Graham does not want to pre-empt the mediation efforts of his party colleague, US President Donald Trump. Additionally, it is currently unclear whether the sanctions package could also count on a majority in the House of Representatives. During his visit to Kyiv on Friday 30 May, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has said that Turkiye is proposing to host a meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and Ukraine to bring the war in Ukraine closer to an end after potential second talks in Istanbul. Source: European Pravda, citing Hurriyet Daily News, a Turkish English-language newspaper Details: Fidan said Turkiye believes negotiations involving the three leaders and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could occur following possible second talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, which may take place next week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Fidan: "We sincerely think that it is possible to cap the first and second direct Istanbul talks with a meeting between Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy, under the direction of Mr. Erdogan. Progress is certainly possible if we remain at the negotiating table." Background: Earlier this week, Fidan held talks with senior officials in Moscow, particularly Putin. The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin would consider a summit with Zelenskyy, Trump and Erdogan only if talks with Kyiv yielded results. Moreover, Fidan said in Kyiv that the Russo-Ukrainian war is approaching a turning point. Earlier, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry noted that in Kyiv, Fidan had shared the results of his visit to Moscow. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Nvidia (NVDA) said it lost $2.5 billion in revenue from China during its fiscal first quarter and projected an additional $8 billion loss in the second quarter. Nvidia also said it took a $4.5 billion charge due to a write-down in inventory (chips it produced but now can't sell) in the first quarter due to the new export rules. However, that was less than the $5.5 billion hit expected. Nvidia's fiscal first quarter ended on April 27, shortly after the Trump administration enacted a ban on sales of Nvidia's H20 chips to China. China is one of Nvidia's biggest markets, and investors were closely watching the company's commentary about how the ban would impact future sales. Nvidia's first quarter revenue from China of $5.5 billion was below the $6.2 billion expected by Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg. The China market also accounted for a smaller share of Nvidia's revenue than the prior two quarters 12.5% in the first quarter, compared with roughly 14% and 15% in the prior two periods, respectively. "[T]he $50 billion China market is effectively closed to US industry," CEO Jensen Huang told analysts in a call following its earnings report. "The H20 export ban ended our Hopper data center business in China," he said, later adding, "The new set of limits are pretty much make it impossible for us to reduce Hopper any further for any productive use." Nvidia has made specialized chips called H20 based on the company's prior-generation Hopper AI graphics processing units (GPUs) for export to China to comply with US export controls. Huang said the company will "see if we can come up with interesting products that could continue to serve the Chinese market" but said "we don't have anything at the moment." Nvidia has repeatedly updated its chips for the Chinese market in the past several years to comply with ever-tightening trade restrictions, making the chips less and less powerful with each new iteration. Over that time frame, China has also declined as a share of Nvidia's total revenue. "China's AI moves on with or without US chips. ... The question is not whether China will have it. It already does," Huang said. "The question is whether one of the world's largest AI markets will run on American platforms." "Shielding Chinese chipmakers from US competition only strengthens them abroad and weakens America's position. Export restrictions have spurred China's innovation and scale," he added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he suspects the next round of Istanbul talks proposed by Russia may produce no results due to Moscow's inaction. Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter) Quote: "Russia continues to ignore all calls from the world to cease fire and continues its killings. Moreover, for over a week now, the Russians have been unable to present the so-called memorandum they had promised to prepare immediately after the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange. Ukraine has received no documents from them nor has Turkiye. For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared. Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Zelenskyy also said that he met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday 30 May and passed on his thanks to Turkiye and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their support for the peace efforts, particularly their role in organising the Ukraine-Russia meeting that ultimately led to the release of 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners from Russian captivity. They also discussed the diplomatic efforts being made by Ukraine and its partners. Quote: "We value all our cooperation with Turkiye aimed at making diplomacy effective. We are grateful for Turkiyes clear stance consistent and full support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity." The meeting between Zelenskyy and Fidan Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photo: Zelenskyy on social media Background: At a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Kyiv on 30 May, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv is ready for the next round of negotiations with Russia but is still waiting for Moscows promised ceasefire "memorandum". Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umierov has handed Russia a document outlining the Ukrainian position and is waiting for their "memorandum" in response. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the ceasefire terms Russia intends to propose in its "memorandum", saying such discussions should not be held publicly. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi stated that Russias unwillingness to formally submit its "memorandum" for talks indicates it likely contains unrealistic demands and is an attempt to delay the peace process. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hinted that dialogue on Taurus missiles between Ukraine and Germany is ongoing, but made it clear that all discussions are confidential and behind the scenes. Source: European Pravda; Zelenskyy in an interview with German TV channel RTL Details: Commenting on the issue of possible deliveries of these long-range cruise missiles, Zelenskyy said, "We are working in this direction". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There are certain topics that Chancellor Friedrich Merz and I have agreed not to discuss in public. I promised him this, and I am keeping my promise," said Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Merz, for his part, stated that he had not ruled out supplying cruise missiles "within the realms of possibility". Background: Merz has previously supported supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. However, when the Merz government came to power in early May, it decided to limit public information on what weapons systems it would supply. Germany's ruling CDU/CSU bloc is increasingly calling for Taurus missiles to be delivered to Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! NEED TO KNOW The Hawaii Department of Health is warning about a case of Zika virus on the island of Oahu the first case since 2019 Typical symptoms include rash, fever, headache, joint pain, and pink eye; the virus is more dangerous for pregnant women because it can be transmitted to the fetus Residents are warned to use insect repellent and remove standing The Hawaii Department of Health has confirmed at least one case of Zika on the island of Oahu, with two other suspected exposures to the virus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zika is spread when a mosquito bites someone who is infected but it can also spread through sex, the Cleveland Clinic explains. One in five people infected with Zika will develop symptoms, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms may include an itchy rash, fever, headache, joint pain, and pink eye. Getty Stock image of the Aedes mosquito, which carries Zika virus. Stock image of the Aedes mosquito, which carries Zika virus. This year, Hawaii's first case of Zika was travel-related meaning, it was not acquired on the island the HDOH said in a May 27 statement, where it asked for help in controlling the mosquito population and reducing the risk of bites. Zika is especially dangerous for pregnant women because it can be transmitted to the fetus, causing microcephaly (a smaller head), improper brain development, and cerebral palsy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is also risk of the fetus developing a condition called Congenital Zika Syndrome, which is a combination of severe conditions including a collapsed skull, severe microcephaly, a reduction in brain tissue, as well as problems with eyes, joints, and muscles. Hawaiians and visitors are urged to use insect repellent specifically, products registered with the Environmental Protection Agency that contain 2030% DEET or picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus and IR3535. Property owners are urged to make sure screens are intact, doors are left closed and to remove standing water that may encourage mosquitoes to breed. Andre Seale/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Stock image of the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. Stock image of the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. This is Hawaiis first case of Zika since 2019, the statement says, noting that the state has Aedes species of mosquitos that carry the Zika virus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The HDOH said theyve dispatched "vector control teams" to the areas of most concern, which include including Waialua and the popular surfer destination of Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu. The island is home to nearly 1 million residents, and is the location of popular destinations like Honolulu, Waikiki and Pearl Harbor and most recently is where the live-action Lilo & Stitch movie was filmed. Read the original article on People HONOLULU (KHON2) Zippys Restaurants is taking a big digital step forward while also planting deeper roots in the local community. Hawaii Foodbank giving keiki free meals this summer The iconic Hawaii eatery has launched a refreshed digital ordering platform, offering customers a faster, more convenient way to order their favorite local comfort food online, on their phones, or in-store. Customers can track their orders in real time, receive wait-time updates, and take advantage of digital perks and promotions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Convenience and efficiency are more important than ever, the company said in a statement. This upgrade is about streamlining service and continuing to improve how guests interact with Zippys. But the project isnt just about tech its also about people. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The initiative is part of Zippys broader mission to create more opportunities for kamaaina to come back home and build careers in tech. Kylie Tamashiro is one of them. A graduate of Iolani School, Tamashiro left the islands to attend Boston University and later built a tech career in Atlanta and Las Vegas. She recently returned to Hawaii to work as a user experience designer for Zippys, helping lead the new digital platforms development. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hawaii is, and will always be home for me, Tamashiro said. I wasnt sure Id ever be able to come back and work in tech here. But now, Im part of something that not only supports the communityit brings people like me home. Through its partnership with Piiku Co., Zippys is also giving local students and young professionals real-world tech experience. The nonprofit connects talent with hands-on projects like this one, helping to grow Hawaiis tech sector from within. Looking ahead, Zippys plans to roll out additional features, including in-store ordering kiosks and further upgrades to its online ordering experience. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More information on Zippys digital updates is available at zippys.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 KHON2. Support Local News Reporting Journalists at the Yakima Herald-Republic bring you timely, in-depth and credible local news. Your generous donation supports their work. Nvidia announced that it took in $44.06 billion as its data center business grew 73% year-over-year when it released its first quarter earnings May 28. The company recorded the revenue increase despite a $4.5 billion charge associated with excess inventory and purchase obligations after export restrictions were placed on the H20 chip designed for the Chinese market by the Trump administration. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on the company's investor call that "the H20 export ban ended our Hopper data center business in China" and that the $50 billion AI chip market in China is "effectively closed to U.S. industry." The company had expected to incur a $5.5 billion dollar charge according to Reuters but Nvidia said in CFO commentary that it was able to mitigate some of the impact by reusing materials. The chip giant reported that it lost $2.5 billion of H20 revenue in the quarter. Nvidia stock rose in after-hours trading Wednesday, bouncing between a 4% and 5% gain after the bell. Nvidia earnings hit by export charge The company said that its gross margin was 61% for the quarter but would have been 71.3% if not for the export restrictions. The same dynamic was reported for earnings as Nvidia posted an earnings per share of 81 cents that would have been 96 cents if not for the incurred charge. The company said it expects revenue for the current quarter to be around $45 billion, and anticipates an $8 billion loss in H20-related revenue due to the export restrictions. Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, pointed to the strength of the company's artificial intelligence business in a press release accompanying the release despite political tensions. "Countries around the world are recognizing AI as essential infrastructure just like electricity and the internet," Huang wrote. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nvidia earnings: Stock up despite export bite Brandon Bell / Staff / Getty Images Nvidia said it absorbed a $4.5 billion charge in the first quarter due to restrictions on the sale of its H20 chips to China Nvidia's (NVDA) first-quarter revenue rose to a record high, topping analysts expectations, but earnings missed as the chipmaker took a hit from new export curbs. Nvidia reported adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share on revenue that jumped 69% year-over-year to a record $44.06 billion. The gains came as sales from Nvidia's data center segment, representing the bulk of the company's revenue, grew 73% to a record $39.1 billion. (Investopedia's live coverage of the results is here.) Global demand for NVIDIAs AI infrastructure is incredibly strong," CEO Jensen Huang said in a release, adding AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year, and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate. Nvidia's quarterly sales exceeded analysts' estimates compiled by Visible Alpha, but earnings did not, as the company said it absorbed a $4.5 billion charge in the period due to restrictions on the sale of its H20 chips to China, less than the $5.5 billion the company said it anticipated last month. Without the charge and related tax impact, Nvidia said it would have reported EPS of 96 cents, above estimates. In the current quarter, Nvidia said it expects to take an $8 billion hit due to lost revenue from H20 sales. The chipmaker projected quarterly revenue of $45 billion, plus or minus 2%, and slightly below Street expectations. Shares of Nvidia surged over 5% to just above $141 in after-hours trading following the results, its highest level since February. If Nvidia can sustain those gains, it could surpass Microsoft (MSFT) tomorrow as the world's most valuable company by market capitalization. This article has been updated since it was first published to include additional information and reflect more recent share price values. Read the original article on Investopedia The Hungarian State Treasury has "unlawfully" withdrawn more than 10 billion forints (EUR 24.8m) from Budapest's accounts, and the municipality has halted payments to some municipality-owned companies to preserve liquidity, Gergely Karacsony, the city's mayor, told a press conference. The companies involved are public utility company Budapest Kozmuvek, transport company BKK and road and street lighting company Budapest Disz- es Kozvilagitasi, Karacsony said. Karacsony noted that the municipality on Tuesday submitted a request for immediate judicial protection over a dispute concerning the solidarity contribution City Hall is required to pay into the central budget. Immediate judicial protection should protect city funds until the court has made its decision, so the Treasury's step "is unlawful as well as immoral because it is putting the capital's operations at risk," Karacsony said. The municipality's "most important aim in the coming months and weeks" will be to pay the net wages of 27,000 employees of city institutions, he said. Botond Sara, the central government's Budapest official, said the capital's budget was "illegal and unsustainable" the moment the left-wing majority of the city assembly approved it. In a post on social media, he also said the Budapest administration's decision to take responsibility for the Rakosrezdo area of the city was "so big" that it could "imperil the city's financial situation and operations". Further, he said the state treasury's debt collection order had been legal as the courts had not ruled otherwise. He said Karacsony had turned to court but doing so in itself did not have the effect of suspending the payment into the treasury. "Anyone can have an opinion on the legality of something but the court decides in the end; it has indeed ruled several times but not in favour of the metropolitan council. The Kuria's latest ruling is also clear: the capital's budget is illegal," he added. He said "excessive government deductions" were behind the budget crisis. At the same time, the Kuria, Hungary's supreme court, has ruled that the main figures of the budget must be revised and the mayor failed to nominate a deputy, "which is why the City Hall is operating unlawfully". After scandals around public transport company BKV, the company's chief executive resigned, he noted, "and today the chief executive of [Budapest transport authority] BKK has also quit", he added. Vitezy noted the lack of boards of directors and supervisory boards in disarray, adding that the city assembly had rejected company reports submitted by various companies operating under the metropolitan council. "A complete crisis at an operational and financial level has taken hold in the capital and a crisis of trust between the mayor and the city assembly," he added. Marton Nagy, the national economy minister, responding to the mayors statement, said no one was above the law and everyone must pay the solidarity tax, adding that the state treasury had rightfully collected the tax. In a post on social media, Nagy said the legal protection could not prevent the collection, which was "a method of tax collection" rather than an administrative procedure. The solidarity tax, he added, was budget revenue and the treasury was obliged to take all possible measures to collect it. Szentkiralyi: "Tisza-Karacsony bankruptcy coalition" manage to make Hungary's richest city insolvent The "Tisza-Karacsony bankruptcy coalition" needed less than a year to bring Hungary's richest city to insolvency, Alexandra Szentkiralyi, the Fidesz-Christian Democrat group leader in the city assembly said in a video post on Facebook on Thursday, referring to the opposition Tisza Party and the city's mayor, Gergely Karacsony. She said there were more and more bankruptcy briefings and the heads of Budapest's key companies were quitting. "But all the mayor can do, instead of taking responsibility and seeking a solution, is point fingers," she said. Szentkiralyi said Karacsony, Tisza and David Vitezy, leader of the Podmaninszky Movement, "voted for an illegal 50 billion forint [EUR 123.8m] hole" in the city's budget. And referring to the Rakosredezo area of the city which requires a clean-up before investments there can go ahead, she said they "splashed 50 billion on landfill" at the site. She said Budapest had reserves of 214 billion forints when Karacsony was handed over the keys to City Hall, while "its industrial revenues doubled", "yet they have bankrupted the capital". Budapest residents, she added, wanted answers and for stable operations resume. MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only 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 ********************************* You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoops groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? Then just contact us here. New Delhi: Hyundai Creta dominates the mid-size SUV segment, which includes models like the Maruti Grand Vitara, Kia Seltos, Honda Elevate, Skoda Kushaq, MG Astor, Volkswagen Taigun, and others. Among them, the MG Astor is the only SUV in this segment to offer both a large 10-inch infotainment display and a panoramic sunroof under Rs 12.5 lakh (ex-showroom), the JSW MG Motor India claims. In an official press release, JSW MG Motor India stated, "The MY2025 Astor Blockbuster SUV is Indias only 1.5-litre mid-size SUV to offer a large 10-inch infotainment display and a panoramic sunroof under Rs 12.5 lakh (ex-showroom)." It also added, "The MG Astor is also the only vehicle in the 1.5L Mid-SUV Automatic segment to offer a wireless charging feature under Rs 15 lakh, with its 'Sharp Pro' trim." While the Astor features a 10-inch infotainment display as standard across the lineup, the panoramic sunroof is available from the Shine trim, priced at Rs 12,47,800 (ex-showroom). The full Astor range is priced between Rs 11,29,800 and Rs 17,55,800 (ex-showroom). Though it is among the most feature-rich SUVs in the segment, the Astor has struggled to gain traction and has failed to generate good sales volume so far. It offers over 50 safety features, 14 ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) features, and more than 80 connected features. Key Features Include: 6-way power adjustable drivers seat Blind spot detection 360-degree surround view camera Tyre pressure monitoring system Lane change assist Personalised AI assistant Electric parking brake with auto hold 7-inch fully digital instrument cluster 17-inch dual-tone alloy wheels Automatic headlamps Front fog lamps with cornering assist LED taillamps Powertrain Options It gets two engine options: a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol unit producing 110 hp and 144 Nm, and a 1.3-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine generating 140 hp and 220 Nm. The 1.5-litre unit comes with a 5-speed manual or an 8-speed CVT automatic gearbox, while the 1.3-litre turbo engine is paired with a 6-speed torque converter automatic transmission. New Delhi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Love & War is touted as one of Bollywoods biggest and most anticipated films. The buzz around the film is immense, and excitement continues to grow. Amid this, the film's lead actors Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal are going viral on social media after eagle-eyed fans discovered their posters in a shop. Recently, netizens spotted posters of Ranbir and Vicky sporting moustaches at a salon, sending fans into a frenzy. Social media is abuzz with reactions, with users sharing how they discovered the posters and expressing that they simply cant keep calm for Love & War. Check Out Netizen's Reaction On Ranbir And Vicky's Viral Posters A netizen wrote, Walked past this salon today and saw Ranbir Kapoor with a full vintage moustache on their wall?? Vicky too?? Likewhats happening?! #SanjayLeelaBhansali hasnt even dropped a frame and the vibe is already immaculate Walked past this salon today and saw Ranbir Kapoor with a full vintage moustache on their wall?? Vicky too?? Like-what's happening?!#SanjayLeelaBhansali hasn't even dropped a frame and the vibe is already immaculate #LoveAndWar pic.twitter.com/Jqx0mLZeML Anurag (@LekhakAnurag) May 29, 2025 Another fan shared the poster and wrote, Was just passing by a salon and spotted posters of Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal with those sharp moustache looks Waitis this a hint on their look? Coz its giving serious SLB mood #LoveAndWar is lowkey already in motion?? Was just passing by a salon and spotted posters of Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal with those sharp moustache looks _ Wait-is this a hint on their look? Coz it's giving serious SLB mood _#LoveAndWar is lowkey already in motion?? pic.twitter.com/f7pNUMPQp5 Manoj Kumar ____ (@manoj_begu) May 29, 2025 Just casually saw Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushals look posters at a salon moustaches, old-school charm, the works Bhansali hasnt even released a teaser and were already in the zone. #LoveAndWar is coming in hotttt , shared a fan. Just casually saw Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal's look posters at a salon - moustaches, old-school charm, the works ___ Bhansali hasn't even released a teaser and we're already in the zone.#LoveAndWar is coming in hotttt _ pic.twitter.com/voIBuXI5e4 Arpita Shaiva (@arpispeaks) May 29, 2025 Why did I just spot SLBs boys in full glam mode at a random salon wall?? Ranbir, Vicky moustache, mystery, mood This build-up to #LoveAndWar is so quiet but SO loud, read a fans tweet. Why did I just spot SLB's boys in full glam mode at a random salon wall?? Ranbir, Vicky_ moustache, mystery, mood _ This build-up to #LoveAndWar is so quiet but SO loud. pic.twitter.com/XZXL2U3tFH Sandeep kishore __ (@sandeepkishore_) May 29, 2025 A fan tweeted, Ummm did anyone else spot Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushals moustache look at that Bandra salon?? Its and now Im counting down to literally anything from #LoveAndWar Ummm did anyone else spot Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal's moustache look at that Bandra salon?? It's ___ and now I'm counting down to literally anything from #LoveAndWar _ pic.twitter.com/YccwUbO8Mh Balram Sharma (@Brsharma_In) May 29, 2025 Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushals look from Love & War has already set social media ablaze, raising anticipation sky-high. With each passing day, the excitement only grows stronger. According to reports, the film recently saw its three stellar leads, Alia Bhatt, Ranbir, and Vicky, come together for the first time to shoot an intense sequence. While the makers are keeping everything tightly under wraps, the buzz promises a cinematic spectacle unlike anything Bollywood has witnessed in recent years. Despite grooving to hits like Aayi Nai, Na Na Na Na Re, and Chor Bazari Phir Se, National Award-winner Rajkummar Rao says he prefers impactful roles over dance-centric ones, valuing films like Shahid, Maalik, and Newton for their rare depth. Asked what would he choose a Dancing Rajkummar or the one who has done films such as Shahid and Maalik, Rajkummar told IANS: Ill choose Shahid, Maalik, and Newton of the world because I can dance at a party too, make a video and upload it.'' He added: But opportunities like these dont come easily." Rajkummars action-drama Maalik has been postponed. The film was earlier scheduled to hit theatres on June 20, but will now be released on 11th July 2025. In the film, which is currently in post-production, Rao will be seen playing a ruthless gangster. His portrayal of a gangster promises to showcase a side of him that fans havent seen before, adding an intriguing edge to the film. Directed by Pulkit, "Maalik" is produced by Kumar Taurani under the Tips Films banner and Jay Shewakramani's Northern Lights Films. Talking about Shahid and Newton, the former film released in 2012. It is a biographical drama film directed by Hansal Mehta. Based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010, the film stars Rajkummar as Azmi; Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Prabhleen Sandhu and Baljinder Kaur appear in supporting roles. Meanwhile, Newton released in 2017, the black comedy-drama film directed by Amit V. Masurkar. The film stars Rajkummar in the title role of a government servant who is sent to a politically sensitive area of central India on election duty. Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil and Raghubir Yadav appeared in prominent roles. New Delhi: As was widely expected, the Indian economy grew by 6.5 per cent in real terms in the recently concluded financial year 2024-25, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's official data showed on Friday. According to NSO's second advance estimates, the country's economy was projected to grow at 6.5 per cent in 2024-25. The Reserve Bank of India had projected 6.5 per cent GDP growth for the fiscal year 2024-25. In 2023-24, India's GDP grew by an impressive 9.2 per cent, continuing to be the fastest-growing major economy. According to official data, the economy grew 8.7 per cent and 7.2 percent, respectively, in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The Ministry of Finance, in a report in March 2025, anticipated that Indian economy would achieve a growth rate of 6.5 per cent in 2024-25, despite considerable external headwinds. The Finance Ministry monthly report added that the performance of the economy in the past quarters was driven by strong agricultural and service sector performance on the supply side and a steady increase in consumption and core merchandise and services exports on the demand side. The official GDP growth data for the January-March quarter was also released today. The economy grew 7.4 per cent during the quarter. During the April-June, July-September, and October-December 2024 quarters, the country's economy, in real terms, observed a growth rate of 6.7 per cent, 5.6 per cent, and 6.2 per cent, respectively. In a projection on Thursday evening, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that India is set to remain the fastest-growing large economy in the world for the next 30 years. At the CII annual event, Minister Goyal said the country has maintained a steady growth rate of 6-7 per cent and aims to push it further to 8 per cent at constant prices. He noted that despite global uncertainties, India remains one of the best-performing emerging markets. This February, the World Bank said India will need to grow by 7.8 per cent on average over the next 22 years to achieve its aspirations of becoming a developed country by 2047. However, the World Bank asserted that getting there would require reforms and their implementation to be as ambitious as the target itself. To realise the vision of 'Viksit Bharat', a developed nation dream by 2047, India will need to achieve a growth rate of around 8 per cent at constant prices, on average, for about a decade or two, the Economic Survey document for 2024-25 tabled on January 31 asserted. India has made quite a turnaround, climbing the ladder of economic growth. This can be gauged from the 11th in 2013-14, India has positioned itself to become the fourth largest economy. Even as India has overtaken many countries in terms of the size of the economy over the past decade, the per capita income in India remains very low. In 2013, India was placed in the league of 'Fragile 5' economies. The term 'Fragile 5' was coined by a Morgan Stanley analyst and refers to a set of five emerging countries, including India, whose economies were not doing well. The other four countries were Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey. New Delhi: A 59-year-old employee has been shown the exit door by the company after more than 20 years of service. This issue was shared on Reddit by the employee's child. The Reddit post went viral, sparking outrage and sympathy from many who said that the employee should not resign and that the employer should fire him and give him severance. According to a Reddit post by the employee's child, the employee was initially scheduled to retire in January 2025 after 22 years of devoted service. But a two-year extension was added to his contract. "I need help understanding my father's employment situation. He is almost 2 years away from retirement and is being laid off under circumstances that seem questionable," the user wrote on Reddit. The user said, "Last week, he was asked by his boss to send a warning email to his reportee for constantly underperforming. This reportee retaliates against my father by writing a very diplomatic mail and ccing his boss and superiors. Now the company is painting my father as the bad person and hes also being asked to leave on these grounds apart from other reasons like companys poor performance, budget cuts and restructuring." "He has also been told that he is not entitled to severance because he was technically supposed to be retired already. In addition, his boss is now emotionally manipulating him to voluntarily resign, serve notice and leave honourably. I know once he voluntarily resigns, its game over for him," the user wrote. The user concluded the post by asking, "Should we consult and employment lawyer or something else?" Netizens react The Reddit post has triggered widespread anger and sympathy for the employee. One user said, "Your father should not resign under any circumstances." Another user said, "Your father shouldnt resign or retire volunterirarly. Most likely he isnt going to seek more employment, so he shouldnt be worried about ruining his resume with a termination. Let them terminate him without grounds, and he can take them to task for this." "Ask him to read his employment contract. there must be some paper work regarding the extension. consult a lawyer and Do not give into the demand of these bullies," commented one user. "First of all 22 years in the same company ?? And this is how the employer treats the employee who has been loyal for more than 2 decades," commented one user. "Not resign. Let them remove him and give severance," commented one user. New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the grant of Miniratna status Category-I for the Munitions India Limited (MIL), the Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL), and India Optel Limited (IOL), an official statement said on Thursday. Congratulating the three defence public sector undertakings for their transformation from a government organisation to a profit-making corporate entity in a short span of three years, the minister expressed satisfaction over the initiatives taken by the management of the MIL, the AVNL, and the IOL to increase the turnover of the companies, maximise indigenisation, and meet other performance parameters for the grant of Miniratna status. Munitions India Limited has achieved significant milestones after its inception, including stellar growth of over 200 per cent in sales from Rs 3,314 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 8,214 crore in FY 2024-25. On the export front, it has achieved a growth from Rs 22.55 crore in FY 2021-22 to Rs 3,081 crore in FY 2024-25. The major products of MIL include small, medium and high calibre ammunition, mortars, rockets, hand grenades, etc., with in-house manufacturing of initiatory compositions, propellants, and high explosives. Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited has witnessed a significant growth of about 190 per cent in sales from Rs 2,569.26 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 4,946 crore in FY 2024-25. AVNL has also achieved 100 per cent indigenisation of engines for all its three platforms-- the T-72 and T-90 tanks and BMP-II. The major products of AVNL include tanks and infantry combat vehicles, support vehicles (MPV, AERV, etc.) and defence mobility solutions (Stallion, LPTA, etc) India Optel Limited, over the past three years, has pushed its sales from Rs 562.12 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 1,541.38 crore in FY 2024-25, a growth of over 250 per cent. The main products of IOL include opto-electronic systems and vision equipment, which are used in land system platforms & weapons like T-90 and T-72 tanks, infantry combat vehicle BMP-II, artillery/naval guns, etc. The conferring of Miniratna status to the MIL, the AVNL, and the IOL will further empower these companies to achieve an accelerated growth trajectory and new heights in defence production and exports, the official statement said. To enhance functional autonomy, efficiency and unleash new growth potential and innovation, the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) was converted into seven defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs), including these three companies, with effect from October 1, 2021. While the MIL and the AVNL are Schedule A new (DPSUs), the IOL is a Schedule B DPSU under the administrative control of the Department of Defence Production. ICA CA Result 2025: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has announced the datesheet for the CA September Exam 2025. The timetable covers the Final, Intermediate, and Foundation courses. Candidates planning to appear for the exams can view the complete schedule on the official ICAI website at icai.org. Papers 3 and 4 of the Foundation Examination will have a duration of 2 hours. Similarly, Paper 6 of the Final Examination will be conducted over 4 hours. All other exams will be of 3 hours duration. For Papers 3 and 4 of the Foundation course, no advance reading time will be provided. However, for all other papers, candidates will be given a 15-minute advance reading period from 1:45 PM to 2:00 PM (IST). All candidates are required to submit their exam forms online through the ICAI Self Service Portal (SSP) available at https://eservices.icai.org. To log in, applicants must use their credentialsspecifically, their password and SRN@icai.org email ID. Candidates should ensure they follow the instructions provided on the official ICAI website, as the application process will be governed by the prescribed eligibility criteria and applicable restrictions. Course Group Exam Dates Final Group 1 September 3, 6, and 8, 2025 Final Group 2 September 10, 12, and 14, 2025 Intermediate Group 1 September 4, 7, and 9, 2025 Intermediate Group 2 September 11, 13, and 15, 2025 Foundation September 16, 18, 20, and 22, 2025 ICAI CA Date Sheet 2025: Here's how to download schedule here Visit the official ICAI website at icai.org. On the homepage, click on the Important Announcements section. A new page will appear displaying the latest updates. Look for the link to the ICAI CA September Exam 2025 datesheet. Click on the link to view the complete timetable. Review the exam dates and download the datesheet. Take a printout for future reference. No exams will be held on September 5, 2025 (Friday), as it is a compulsory gazetted holiday for Milad-un-Nabi, as per the Central Government schedule. SBI Clerk Mains Result 2025: The State Bank of India (SBI) is expected to release the Clerk Mains Result 2025 soon on its official website. The Mains examination took place on 10th April, 2025 and 12th April, 2025, for the recruitment of around 14,000 Junior Associate (Clerk) posts. Once declared, candidates can check their results on the official SBI website, i.e. sbi.co.in. The cut-off marks will also be published alongside the results. The SBI Clerk Mains scorecard will be released following the announcement of the results. It will display both the overall and section-wise marks obtained by the candidate. To view their scores, candidates will need to log in using their Registration ID and Password. The SBI Clerk Mains exam is conducted in three phases, first there are prelims exams, candidates who clear the preliminary round sit for the mains examination which will be followed by language proficiency exam and candidates who will clear the mains exam will proceed towards the next round, i.e. document verification phase. SBI Clerk Mains Result 2025: Heres How To Download Here Step 1: Go to the official website of the State Bank of India at sbi.co.in Step 2: Go to the Careers section you will see on the homepage. Step 3: Now find the link of SBI Clerk Notification and click on it. Step 4: Then find and open the link SBI Clerk Mains Result 2025 Step 5: Enter your login credentials correctly and submit it. Step 6: Your result will appear on the screen. Download and print a copy for future reference. Candidates who qualify the SBI Clerk Mains exam must also pass a local language proficiency test as part of the final selection process before appointment. The salary for selected candidates will range between Rs 17,900 and Rs 47,920. SBI Clerk Mains Result 2025: Number Of Vacancies This recruitment drive aims to fill 13,735 Junior Associate vacancies, including 5,870 for the Unreserved (UR) category, 3,001 for OBC, 2,118 for SC, 1,385 for ST, and 1,361 for EWS candidates. SBI Clerk Mains Result 2025: Exam Pattern The SBI Clerk Mains exam comprised a total of 190 questions, carrying a maximum of 200 marks. The questions were divided across key sections, including General/Financial Awareness, General English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning Ability, and Computer Aptitude. Candidates should note that for every incorrect answer, one-fourth of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as negative marking. All the candidates are advised to keep checking the official website for all the important updates. A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Bihar, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav launched a fierce counterattack, questioning the Prime Minister's silence on key issues facing the state. Taking to the social media platform X, LoP Yadav accused the NDA government of failing to develop Bihar despite being in power for 20 years in the state and 11 years at the Centre. In a strongly worded post, he wrote: "There is record-breaking unemployment, poverty, and migration in Bihar, all of which are the bitter gifts of the NDA's two-decade-long rule." He cited NITI Aayog data, saying that Bihar ranks at the bottom in critical sectors like education, healthcare, law and order, industry, and per capita income. Accusing PM Modi of ignoring real issues, LoP Yadav said: "The Prime Minister comes to Bihar only in election years, and each time, he repeats the same old announcements and inaugurations, some dating back to 2015." To drive home his point, he released a poster featuring a half-face image of PM Modi with the caption "Mouh Khula Hi Nahi", claiming the Prime Minister remained silent on the health status of CM Nitish Kumar, unemployment and job creation, the poor state of Bihar's healthcare, rising crime and lawlessness, failing education system, Bihar's long-pending demand for special state status, the safety of business owners and traders, absence of industrial development, lack of new investments, continued migration of Biharis and widespread poverty in the state. During his visit, PM Modi launched and inaugurated projects worth Rs 48,500 crore, including infrastructure and agricultural projects, and saluted the armed forces for their valour in Operation Sindoor. He also conducted a roadshow on Thursday and addressed a large rally in Karakat (Bikramganj) on Friday. However, LoP Yadav dismissed these as repetitive electoral stunts, arguing that the people of Bihar are now aware of such misleading statements and hollow promises. "This is Bihar and Biharis know exactly who is telling the truth and who is not," he asserted. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddys remark that Rahul Gandhi would have taken back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) if he were the Prime Minister has sparked a political row. Responding to this statement, Union Minister Jitendra Singh termed it hilarious and blamed former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for the division of Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "It is hilarious if any Congress leader says that if Rahul Gandhi was the PM of India, the PoK would have been India's part. But the fact is that had Rahul Gandhi's great maternal grandfather, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, not been the PM of India, the PoJK would not be what it is today. It is the result of his actions that first, the nation was divided, then Jammu and Kashmir was divided." #WATCH | Jammu | Union Minister Jitendra Singh says, "It is hilarious if any Congress leader says that if Rahul Gandhi was the PM of India, the PoK would have been India's part. But the fact is that had Rahul Gandhi's great maternal grandfather, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, not been pic.twitter.com/eo0imuzuyr ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Revanth Reddy's 'PoK' Remark Earlier, the Telangana CM at an event questioned why PM Modi had called a ceasefire to the military operations against Pakistan without consulting political parties, even though an All-Party meeting was held before military strikes began. He also stated that had Rahul Gandhi been the Prime Minister, India would have taken PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) back. While participating in Congress 'Jai Hind Yatra' in Nizampet, Hyderabad, on Thursday, Reddy said, "Why was no All-Party meeting called to seek the opinions of all the parties before declaring a ceasefire?" ANI quoted him as saying, "If a leader like Rahul Gandhi would have been Prime Minister of this country, then he would have taken (former PM) Indira Gandhi as inspiration and would have walked in Kaali's (Maata) way and would have made Pakistan into two parts and would have taken PoK back." Speaking about India's rift with China and Pakistan, Reddy said, "Indira Gandhi's grandson Rahul Gandhi should become the PM of this country. Only if he becomes PM, he'll defeat Pakistan on one side and China on the other side and uphold our self-respect." BJP's Reaction After Telangana CM made the statement, BJP MLA Dr. Ashishrao Deshmukh asked why the grand old party didnt try to bring PoK back to India when it was in power at the Centre. "This is a ridiculous statement. Can someone who cannot handle his own party bring PoK back to India? When Congress ruled the country, why did it not try to bring PoK back to India? Today, PM Modi is running the country and has become a symbol of nationalism... Revanth Reddy is trying to bring 'Rahulvaad'. This is the same Rahul Gandhi whose every statement is applauded in Pakistan... Rahul Gandhi is working to deny the glory of 'Operation Sindoor'," he said. Similarly, Union Minister and Telangana BJP President G Kishan Reddy said that Congress has no right to speak on PoK. "Whose government handed over PoK to Pakistan?... After the removal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the ISI network was removed from the state. Terror activities used to happen in each Indian state earlier, and we used to only light candles, accepting our fate. Now, we light Brahmos and strike Pakistan... Congress has no right to speak on PoK, because it is responsible for the very issue and terrorism," the Telangana BJP Chief said. Congress Doubles Down While the BJP criticised Reddy's statement, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said that when Rahul Gandhi comes to power, that day PoK will be a part of India. Speaking to ANI, Pramod Tiwari said, "The day Rahul Gandhi has power in his hands and will have the right to take decisions for India, that day, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will be a part of India. This is my belief because he is a very determined person." India-Pakistan Tensions After the barbaric terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives, the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, hitting terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Following this, Pakistan launched drone and missile attacks on India. After days of conflict between the two nations, a ceasefire agreement was reached on May 10. (with ANI inputs) The Counter Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) on Friday raided multiple locations across the valley in a case linked to terrorist activities. During searches, the agency said, it recovered and seized incriminating material, including SIM cards, mobile phones, tablets, and other digital devices. According to a statement issued by CIK during the investigation of the case, suspicious technical signatures were traced at different locations in Budgam, Pulwama, Kupwara, Shopian, and Srinagar. "The suspects were found using suspected encrypted messaging applications. During further analysis, various individual suspects were found using a 'specific encrypted messaging application' which is widely used by terrorists and handlers from across the border for coordinating and executing a variety of terrorist related activities, including recruitment into terrorist ranks," reads the statement. It reads that these individuals and users are suspected to be in touch with suspicious entities across the border. "As such, maintaining the element of surprise, the searches were meticulously planned and conducted". It added that during raids, incriminating material, including SIM cards, mobile phones, tablets, and other digital devices, has been recovered and seized. "Analysis of the data would follow, and leads that would emerge would become the basis for further investigation". The statement reads that the operation is aimed at uncovering crucial evidence, curbing illicit activities, preventing the misuse of communication devices, such as mobile phones, and dismantling the terror ecosystem in J&K by identifying terrorist associates supporting and abetting terrorism. A heated political debate has unfolded after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's comments on India's surgical strikes sparked controversy. Tharoor, leading a multi-party delegation to several countries, stated that India crossed the Line of Control for the first time in 2016 to conduct surgical strikes against terrorist bases. The Congress party quickly distanced itself from Tharoor's remarks and claimed that six such military operations were carried out during the UPA government. The grand old party shared a video on X and said, No Noise. No PR. Only Decisive Actions. 6 Surgical Strikes were carried out under Congress Govt. No Noise. No PR. Only Decisive Actions 6 Surgical Strikes Were Carried Out Under Congress Govt. pic.twitter.com/IBZxrA0pSc Congress (@INCIndia) May 29, 2025 Congress also shared a picture noting the dates of its six surgical strikes. BJP's Amit Malviya shared an RTI statement on X, stating that the given section does not hold any data pertaining to surgical strikes carried out before September 29, 2016. RTI Reply | April 9, 2018 This section (Integrated HQ of MoD ARMY DGMO) does NOT hold any data pertaining to SURGICAL STRIKES carried out BEFORE 29 Sept 2016. Let that sink in. No records. No data. No proof of any surgical strikes before 2016. pic.twitter.com/kvX0uM182S Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 29, 2025 Meanwhile, Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation in a global outreach programme, in Panama said, "When, for the first time, India breached the Line of Control between India and Pakistan to conduct a surgical strike on a terror base, a launch pad - the Uri strike in September 2015. That was already something we had not done before. Even during the Kargil War, we had not crossed the Line of Control." The Indian all-party delegation, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, on Friday concluded a productive visit to Saudi Arabia, reaffirming Indias zero tolerance and New Normal approach to terrorism. The delegation, a part of Indias 'Operation Sindoor' outreach campaign, conveyed Indias firm stance against terrorism and its continued efforts to combat this global menace in all its forms and manifestations. The visit reaffirmed the shared commitment of India and Saudi Arabia in the fight against terrorism. On departure, Abdulrahman Alharbi, Chair of the Saudi-India Friendship Committee of the Shura Council bid farewell to the delegation, Indian Embassy in Riyadh posted on X. The delegation on Thursday held extensive interactions with a cross-section of the Indian community highlighting Indias continued efforts to combat terrorism, and countering radicalism and extremism, to ensure peace and prosperity in the nation. The delegation also expressed satisfaction that the Indian community in Saudi Arabia has remained connected to Bharat's progress and continues to be law-abiding residents, and is contributing to further strengthening the growing IndiaSaudi Arabia partnership. They also appreciated that Saudi Arabia has always stood with India in condemning acts of terrorism. Our Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia continues to make India proud through its success, contributions & standing in local society. Today, our all-party delegation engaged with them, sharing Indias united national stance, the success of 'Operation Sindoor', and our unwavering commitment to combat cross-border terrorism with a zero-tolerance approach, Panda posted on X. They visited Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) in Riyadh and held interactions with the President of the University, Abdulmajeed Albanyan. The delegates shared strong concerns about cross-border terrorism and India's position of zero tolerance against terrorism. The delegation appreciated the ongoing cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia in security sciences, and between NAUSS and Indian institutions. It conveyed Indias approach to terrorism and explored avenues for collaborations in new technologies such as AI, Quantum in countering cross-border terrorism, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh said in a statement. The delegation also visited the Gulf Research Centre in Riyadh, a premier research institution in the country, and met with Chairman Abdulaziz Sager. The Indian delegates spoke on India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all forms and manifestations, underlining that India has suffered the menace of cross-border terrorism for more than three decades, leading to the loss of innocent lives and civilian property. The Indian delegation highlighted that 'Operation Sindoor' has carved out a new benchmark in Indias fight against terrorism, the statement added. The delegation, led by Panda, includes BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP Phangnon Konyak, BJP MP Rekha Sharma, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, BJP MP Satnam Singh Sandhu, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, and former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla. If P&C Insurance, a property and casualty (P&C) insurer in the Nordic region, has gone live on Socotra with an embedded car sharing product. The product, now available on Socotras cloud-native platform, was brought to market within a five-month period. Socotra is a policy and billing technology platform that helps insurers launch products and updates with the help of cloud technologies and application programming interfaces (APIs). The car sharing insurance product is designed to provide a digital experience with features that cater to the needs of car sharing platforms and their users. These include on-demand coverage, usage-based pricing and options for deductible reduction, aimed at delivering customised protection. The initial phase of the partnership involved a five-month proof of concept, where If P&C self-implemented the insurance product on Socotras platform, integrating it with their systems for payments, claims, accounting and reporting. If intends to continue leveraging Socotras open APIs and the platform's configurable nature for future product updates and integrations. Socotra CEO Dan Woods said: I applaud the tech-savvy team at If for launching an embedded car sharing product in only five months. I am proud that Socotras powerful and flexible core platform has enabled Ifs rapid deployment and innovative solution, and I look forward to accelerating their growth into new markets. Erik Granmar, CEO of If P&Cs subsidiary, Insrt AB, stated: "Choosing Socotra was a strategic decision that allowed If to go live quickly while maintaining autonomy. Socotras powerful and flexible policy core empowered our team to easily self-implement an embedded insurance product and connect it to an ecosystem of technology. By partnering with Socotra, If can deliver new products faster and more efficiently, positioning us for greater success in the Nordic and Baltic markets." In March this year, If P&C announced its first business release on the Guidewire Cloud Platform, utilising Guidewire InsuranceSuite. The Swedish insurer reports $7bn (Skr67.5bn) in gross written premiums. "If P&C Insurance launches car sharing product on Socotras cloud platform " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand. A delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor recently visited Colombia, where Tharoor expressed disappointment with the Colombian government's response to India's anti-terror operation. Tharoor emphasised that the Colombian government expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of the Pahalgam attack. Tharoor said, "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism..." #WATCH | Bogota, Colombia | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the pic.twitter.com/AgpOMpNpSt ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading Group 5 of the all-party MPs delegation, recalled the Pahalgam terror attack and said the world rose up to condemn the terrorist attack, but that was as far as it went. "India suffered a grievous terrorist attack on the 22nd of April... When this happened, of course, the world rose up to condemn the terrorist attack, but that was as far as it went. There was no action taken, not even by the country where these people had emerged from, Pakistan," he stated. Tharoor stated that India is conscious of China's significant role in supplying 81 per cent of Pakistan's defence equipment, much of which is used for attack purposes. "We are quite conscious that China supplies 81 per cent of all Pakistani defence equipment. Defence is a polite word, Pakistani military equipment. Much of it is not for defence but for attack," he said. In a significant diplomatic move after Turkey's overt support for Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, the Indian government has asked budget airline IndiGo to cancel its aircraft leasing agreement with Turkish Airlines. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has extended a final three-month reprieve to IndiGo, enabling it to keep two leased Boeing 777 planes in operation till August 31, 2025. The action comes at the heels of the Centre's decision to withdraw the security clearance of Turkey-associated ground handling firm Celebi Aviation that held presence at nine international airports across India, including Delhi. Citing national security, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said, "Turkey had openly supported Pakistan. In view of the current situation, this has become an issue of national security." Extension of damp lease of two B777-300ER aircraft by IndiGo Airlines from Turkish Airlines. DGCA says, "IndiGo is currently operating two B777-300ER aircraft under damp lease from Turkish Airline, which was permitted upto 31.05.2025. IndiGo requested for a further extension of pic.twitter.com/S2HijDq0Bx ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Final Extension For IndiGo-Turkish Pact IndiGo's initial lease authorisation was effective until May 31. The carrier had requested a six-month extension to keep the wide-body planes flying on international long-haul routes. The ministry, however, turned it down and gave a one-time final extension. "IndiGo has been granted a one-time last and final extension of three months up to 31.08.2025 for these damp-leased aircraft, based on the undertaking from the airline that they will terminate the lease with Turkish Airlines within this extension period, and shall not seek any further extension," stated the ministry in a release. IndiGo also has a codeshare agreement with Turkish Airlines. In an interview with NDTV earlier, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers confirmed that the airline is in line with Indian regulations but is ready to adjust if policies change. "If the government were to change its set of rules, of course we will comply, Elbers said. Our only pressure is ensuring service continuity for customers who have placed their trust in us." Turkey's Role During Operation Sindoor Turkey had infuriated India after giving firm diplomatic backing to Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack that resulted in the deaths of 26 individuals. While India carried out cross-border retaliation codenamed Operation Sindoor Turkish-made drones were said to have been used by Pakistan to launch a counterattack. The missiles and drones fired from across the border were largely countered by India's state-of-the-art air defense systems, including the S-400 and local missile systems, during three days of conflict. Legal Hurdles For Celebi Aviation After the ban on Celebi Aviation, the Turkish company approached several high courts questioning the decision of the government. While hearing one such petition, the Delhi High Court observed, "The rule is better safe than sorry," in effect supporting the government's cautious approach. Since diplomatic pressure continues, Centre's instruction to cut aviation relations with Turkish players is being viewed as part of a wider gamut to combat states openly supporting hostile activity against India. Operation Sindoor: In a fresh attack against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh reiterated that Operation Sindoor is not over yet. He also said that had the Indian Navy played a role in Operation Sindoor, Pakistan would have been divided into further parts. Singh also urged the forces to be ready terming the four-day-long Operation Sindoor a warm-up. He said that if India decides to deploy its navy against Pakistan, only god knows what will happen to them. "I want to tell all of you not to leave any shortcomings in your preparations. What has happened so far was just a warm-up; if Pakistan dares to act again, this time the Navy will also spring into action, and then only God knows what will happen to Pakistan," said the Defence Minister. Singh further warned Pakistan and said, "1971 is a witness that when the Indian Navy sprang into action, Pakistan was split into two. If, during Operation Sindoor, the Indian Navy had been in its full form, Pakistan would not have been merely divided into two parts, but I believe it might have been fragmented into four," said Singh. The Defence Minister was speaking during his visit to INS Vikrant, currently deployed in the Arabian Sea, where he reviewed operational readiness and praised the Navy's role in neutralising threats during the operation. Rajnath Singh said that the Indian Navy is no longer just the sentinel of the Indian Ocean, but has become a strategic force that strengthens Indias presence in the Indo-ocean region. He said the navy warns adversaries that India is no longer merely a regional power, but is moving toward becoming a global power. Singh commended the Indian Navy's silent but effective role in bottling up Pakistani naval assets, asserting that their aggressive deployment, maritime dominance, and high state of preparedness prevented Pakistan from challenging Indian interests at sea and kept its naval assets confined to their own shores. "During 'Operation Sindoor', the Indian Navy has impressed every Indian with its silent service. Despite remaining silent, the Indian Navy succeeded in tying down the Pakistani Army," he said. "The role of the Navy in this entire integrated operation has been glorious. During Operation Sindoor, when the Air Force destroyed the terror bases on Pakistani soil, your aggressive deployment in the Arabian Sea, unmatched maritime domain awareness and maritime supremacy confined the Pakistani Navy to its own shores. They could not even muster the courage to come into the open sea," the minister added. Singh further elaborated how the Navy stunned its adversary without firing a single shot. "Along with the forward deployment of our forces, the force projection of the Vikrant Carrier Battle Group also gave an effective indication of our intention and capability. Your strong preparation has already broken the morale of the enemy. Your preparation alone was enough for Pakistan. You did not even need to take action, the enemy was stunned by your preparation itself. Pakistan not only realized the tremendous power of the Indian Navy, its military acumen and destructive capabilities, but they were also afraid of it," Singh noted. During his address to Navy personnel aboard INS Vikrant, he warned that Pakistan was fortunate the Navy did not fully engage during the operation, hinting at the force's unmatched capability. New Delhi: The Karnataka Congress government is considering sending the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to President Droupadi Murmu after Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot returned it for the second time, insisting it be forwarded to the President for assent. The bill proposes a 4% reservation for Muslims in civil contracts up to Rs 1 crore, besides quotas for SCs, STs, and OBCs (Category I and II-A) in government tenders for goods and services. As per a TOI report, the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was passed by the state legislature in March, despite opposition from the BJP. The bill aims to provide reservations for Muslims in government contracts, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defending the bill as a means to strengthen economically and socially weak sections of society. Senior officials said the government had considered challenging Gehlot's decision in court. However, constitutional experts reportedly advised against legal action, urging the government to pursue alternative routes instead. The issue is likely to be informally discussed during a meeting that CM Siddaramaiah is scheduled to chair on Friday, the report further added. Law and parliamentary affairs minister HK Patil had planned to meet senior officials and legal experts to decide the next course of action, but the meeting was postponed. Senior officials said the government had considered challenging Gehlot's decision in court, but constitutional experts advised against it. The issue is likely to be discussed during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The government has re-sent the bill to Raj Bhavan with detailed explanations justifying its stance and requesting the Governor's approval. However, Gehlot remained firm and sent it back again, reiterating reference to the President. The government is now contemplating sending the bill to the President, following the Governor's insistence. BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government is inching toward liquor prohibition, following Gujarat's model, while also taking proactive measures to promote milk sales. Speaking at an event commemorating "Lord Jugal Kishore Lok" in Panna, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav indicated this shift, announcing that his government had already banned the sale of liquor within the municipal limits of 19 cities, with more restrictions to follow. Liquor destroys families. Our government is mulling over shutting down all liquor shops and replacing them with milk shops, as we are actively promoting animal husbandry, particularly cow protection, through various schemes across the state. In Indian tradition, a person who owns a cow is known as Gopal, while someone who cares for members of the cows family (kul in Hindi) -- the bovine -- is known as Gokul. Our goal is to establish as many Aadarsh Vrindavan villages with a population of one lakh, he said. Yadav has set a goal to increase Madhya Pradeshs contribution to India's total milk production from the current 9 per cent to 20 per cent. Also, a plan to cover half of the state geography through cooperative milk procurement centres. At present, the number of such cooperatives is very low, barely 7000. Beginning April 1, 2025, a blanket ban on the sale of liquor within the municipal limits of 19 designated "holy" cities will come into effect in Madhya Pradesh, including the temple town of Ujjain. Notably, the government had shut down 47 composite alcohol shops under the ban that will take effect in 19 locations, including 17 holy cities, from April 1 this year. Composite shops consist of separate outlets for Indian-made foreign liquor and country liquor. The move, announced by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav after the approval of the new excise policy, is expected to result in an estimated loss of Rs 450 crore in excise revenue for the state government. Officials note that there are approximately 3,600 composite liquor shops in Madhya Pradesh. The newly introduced excise policy mandates the closure of liquor outlets in revered locations such as Ujjain, Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, Mandleshwar, Orchha, Maihar, Chitrakoot, Datia, and several others. This initiative aims to uphold the sanctity of these towns by prohibiting the issuance of new liquor licenses from April 1 onward. Liquor sales, which play a crucial role in Madhya Pradesh's excise revenue, are expected to generate nearly Rs 17,500 crore in the 2025-26 fiscal year, compared to Rs 15,500 crore in 2024-25. In addition to the liquor ban, the latest excise policy introduces a new category known as "Low Alcoholic Beverage Bar." Under this policy, establishments will be allowed to serve only beer, wine, and ready-to-drink beverages with a maximum alcohol content of 10 per cent in restaurants, while the sale and consumption of spirits will be strictly prohibited. New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested Assistant Sub-Inspector Moti Ram Jat, a member of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), for allegedly sharing sensitive national security information with Pakistan Intelligence Officers (PIOs) since 2023. Jat, who was posted with the 116th battalion of CRPF in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, was transferred to Delhi five days before the April 22 terror attack that killed 26 civilians. According to sources, Jat was approached by a woman posing as a Chandigarh-based news reporter from a leading TV news channel, who requested him to share classified information. After initial contact, a man, allegedly a Pakistani intelligence officer, posed as a journalist from the same channel and continued to extract information from Jat. He was paid Rs 3,500 per month and an additional Rs 12,000 for crucial information, which he received in his and his wife's accounts, a report by The Indian Express noted. He was allegedly approached by a woman posing as a Chandigarh-based news reporter from a leading TV news channel, who requested that he share some information. After some messages and phone calls, including over video, Jat allegedly started sharing classified documents with her. After two-three months, a man, a Pakistan intelligence officer, started talking to him, posing as a journalist of the same news channel, said a CRPF source. Jat allegedly shared information about Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Jammu and Kashmir after the Pahalgam terror attack, the closure of 50 tourist spots due to security reasons, and the movement and strength of CRPF troops. Notably, he shared this information even after it was publicly available. The CRPF launched an internal inquiry after noticing unusual online activity and later handed Jat over to the NIA. He was arrested in Delhi and remanded to NIA custody until June 6. The NIA has confirmed that Jat was actively involved in espionage activities and received funds from PIOs through various conduits. We have arrested Jat. He was actively involved in espionage activity and had been sharing classified information related to national security with PIOs since 2023. We have also found that he was receiving funds from the PIOs through various conduits, an NIA spokesperson said. Following his arrest, Jat was dismissed from service. The NIA is further investigating the extent of the espionage network and its implications. PM Modi in Kanpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 15 development projects in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur. He also lauded the courage of the Indian Armed Forces and said that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the war. While addressing a gathering in Kanpur, PM Modi added that Operation Sindoor is not over yet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the war... I want to tell enemies who begged us to stop during the Operation Sindoor. Don't be fooled, Operation Sindoor is not over yet." #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, " We entered their (terrorists) camps and destroyed the terror sites in Pakistan. Our Armed Forces showed such courage that the Pakistan Army ended up begging to stop the war...I want to tell enemies who begged us to stop pic.twitter.com/jqEQga4vgR ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Additionally, PM Modi also flagged off Kanpur Metros new corridor between Chunniganj and Nayaganj. After he laid the foundation stones for development projects, PM Modi said, "This development programme was supposed to take place on April 24, but due to the Pahalgam terror attack, I had to cancel my Kanpur visit. In the cowardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kanpur's son Shubham Dwivedi also lost his life. We have all felt daughter Aishanya's pain and anger... the world saw the pain and anger of our daughters in the form of Operation Sindoor." India Will Give Befitting Reply...: PM During the address, the Prime Minister also said that India will not be scared of nuclear threats and will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack. "India will give a befitting reply to every terrorist attack. The time, way of reply, and terms of the reply will be decided by our Armed Forces themselves. India won't get scared of nuclear threats and won't take any decisions based on it either," the Prime Minister said. #WATCH | Kanpur, UP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, " India will give befitting reply to every terrorist attack. The time, way of reply and terms of the reply will be decided by our Armed Forces themselves. India won't get scared of nuclear threats and won't take any pic.twitter.com/753mbpcBXV ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2025 Operation Sindoor The Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor during the wee hours of May 7 and targeted nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. These steps were taken to avenge the gruesome terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam, in which 25 Indian citizens and one Nepali citizen were killed. After Operation Sindoor commenced, Pakistan launched a swarm of drone and missile attacks on Indian territory. On May 10, a ceasefire between the two countries was announced after the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of the Islamic State contacted his Indian counterpart. (with ANI inputs) Taking a giant leap towards self-sufficiency in defense technology, India is designing a locally developed long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system similar to Russia's S-400 under Project Kusha, an all-India collaborative project by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The native system is being developed to resemble the performance of the Russian-produced S-400 Triumph, which had lately come into action during Operation Sindoor, when Indian military forces were able to intercept more than 300 Pakistani drones and missile attacks following terror activities from the other side of the border. Project Kusha Timeline And Scope As per The Economic Times, the indigenous system's prototype is likely to be completed within the next 12 to 18 months. The user trials could then be stretched over 12 to 36 months to test operational effectiveness. BEL, one of the main defence PSUs that is engaged in air defence systems such as Akashteer, is also developing essential subsystems of Project Kusha, such as advanced control systems and radar technologies. BEL Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Jain replied on the March quarterly earnings call that the company is waiting to hear regarding the choice of a system integrator and would like to be among them if two are chosen by the government. NDTV Profit said Project Kusha had the potential to yield a Rs 40,000 crore defence order, making it a flagship project of India's missile defence capabilities. S-400 Triumph Still Relevant India had signed a USD 5.4 billion deal with Russia to buy five S-400 systems in 2018. So far, three have arrived, while the fourth is due next year and the fifth will come in 2026. Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will travel to Moscow from May 27 to 29 to attend the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues. He will be required to advocate for the early delivery of the rest of the S-400 systems. BEL's Other Defence Projects Besides Project Kusha, BEL is also undertaking the QRSAM system's development. Negotiations are on to close its contract, and a specialized team has been constituted to complete the project, which is likely to create orders worth Rs 30,000 crore. "We are the production agency for QRSAM, so the order will come to BEL," Jain stated. Operation Sindoor: Air Defence In Action During Operation Sindoor, India struck back at the April 22 terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgamwhich killed 26 peopleby carrying out precision attacks on nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Indian Air Force had fielded the S-400 system along with local missile defences such as Akash, Samar, Barak-8, and anti-drone capabilities through the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). The S-400 system's superior radar and engagement capabilities made it capable of countering aerial threats up to 400 km away, reiterating its strategic value. As India keeps ramping up its defence readiness in the face of regional security threats, Project Kusha is a key step towards indigenisation and technology independence in air defence. The success of this indigenous S-400 substitute has the potential to radically change India's strategic independence in missile defence capabilities. New Delhi: The Additional District and Session Judge's court in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand, has convicted three individuals in connection with the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari. The case drew widespread attention and sparked protests in the local community after Ankita, a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Pauri district's Yamkeshwar, was allegedly killed by resort operator Pulkit Arya and his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, on September 18, 2022. The conviction marks a significant development in the case, bringing closure to Ankita's family and loved ones. The case had taken a sensational turn as Pulkit Arya is the son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader and the local people had taken to the streets to protest over it. The BJP had shown Vinod Arya the door after the controversy erupted and the Uttarakhand government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter. The Uttarakhand court completed its hearing in the Ankita Bhandari murder case on Monday and announced the much-awaited verdict today. Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi on May 19 this year heard the final arguments between the defence and the prosecution in the case which had rocked Uttarakhand due to its political overtones. After hearing the closing arguments of both sides, the Judge had fixed May 30 as the date for pronouncing the verdict. The hearing of the case lasted for two years and eight months. During this time, 47 witnesses, including the Investigation Officer, were presented by the prosecution advocate Anuj Pundir. According to the prosecution, Ankita Bhandari and Pulkit Arya had a dispute over something, after which the man, along with Bhaskar and Gupta, allegedly pushed the woman into the Cheela canal in Rishikesh. After Ankita Bhandaris lifeless body was fished out of the Cheela canal, the three men were arrested by the police and sent to prison. Fearing leniency for the accused and his accomplices due to his political connections, the residents of Pauri district came out in large numbers to protest, and the Uttarakhand government formed a SIT to probe the matter and take the case to its logical conclusion. (With Inputs from IANS) JAMMU: Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that by accepting Indias airstrikes on terror infrastructure as an attack, Pakistan has exposed itself as a terrorist-harbouring country. Addressing a public meeting in Poonch town, Amit Shah said, We attacked terrorists, and Pakistan called it an attack on itself, thereby accepting that they are a country harbouring terrorists. Not a single soldier or civilian was killed in our targeted strikes. But, on the very second day, Pakistan started shelling our civilian areas along the LoC. The biggest damage was caused in Poonch, which witnessed such shelling first time after Independence." Damage also happened elsewhere...Today, the entire World condemns Pakistans attack on civilians. After this, our armed forces reacted and destroyed 11 Pakistani airfields. This forced them to come forward for a ceasefire, he said. Amit Shah started his address by offering heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. He said that he has come to condemn the Pakistani attack on civilians and religious places. A programme is being held here today to give appointment letters to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in recent Pakistan shelling in civilian areas. I know, these appointment letters cannot fill the void created in your lives by the loss of your loved ones. This is just a token from the nation to express solidarity with you and to assure you that the country stands with you in this hour of grief. The bravery shown by the people of Poonch and also by people from the Valley to the Kathua district has further strengthened the morale of the country," the minister said. The cowardly attack in Pahalgam was retaliated against under Prime Minister Narendra Modis policy to match the terror attacks with greater retaliatory force. During the night of May 7, our armed forces destroyed terror infrastructure deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Due to the efficiency of our intelligence agencies and the bravery of our armed forces, scores of terrorists were killed," he said. India will not tolerate aggression of any kind, and next time we will respond with even greater might. Lt Governor Sahib has informed me that the J&K government has provided assistance to the sufferers in Poonch. The Central government will soon announce a relief package for the victims of Poonch. I have come to assure that the progress of J&K will continue at the same pace with which it started in 2014 when Narendra Modi came to power. I am thankful to the Lt Governor, the CM and the local administration for standing by the people in the trying times. A senior civil servant also sacrificed his life during his service to the affected people," HM Shah said. People were moved to safer places; otherwise, our losses would have been much greater. After Narendra Modi came to power, we constructed more than 9,500 bunkers for border people. During the three days of hostilities, these bunkers saved many lives. Today morning I spoke to the Lt Governor and the local administration. More bunkers will be constructed for the future safety of our people," he said while assuring the people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that terror and trade, blood and water cannot go together. The defence of our country will be further strengthened. The present halt in J&Ks progress is a temporary one. Soon progress will resume at the same pace with which it started in 2014, HM Shah said. (Reuters) -A month into negotiations, Paramount Global has offered $15 million to settle U.S. President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS News, but the parties remain far apart on terms, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the situation. Trump's team wants more than $25 million and is also seeking an apology from CBS News; it has also threatened CBS with another lawsuit related to alleged bias of its news coverage, the report added. Paramount is expecting to nominate three new directors to its board in coming weeks, bringing the total to seven, while one current director plans to step down, as the company wants to make sure it has a full board in place in case the deal falls through, according to WSJ. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Paramount and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS in October, alleging the network deceptively edited an interview with then-vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris to "tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party" in the election. In an amended complaint filed in February, Trump bumped his claim for damages to $20 billion. In April, Bill Owens, the long-time executive producer of "60 Minutes," said he was stepping down over concerns about editorial independence, in a story first reported by Reuters. (Reporting by Yazhini MV in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona) The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has declared that the second phase of the countrywide civil defence mock drill, codenamed 'Operation Shield', will be held on May 31, 2025, along India's western border states, namely Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Chandigarh. The exercise is to test level of preparedness against likely hostile threats, keeping in view the recent security buildups. #WATCH | Chandigarh | On Civil Defence Exercise "Operation Shield", Additional Chief Secretary (Home, Jails) to the Government of Haryana, Dr Sunita Mishra says, "...The mock drill will be conducted throughout Haryana on 31st May. We will also be following the guidelines of the pic.twitter.com/XpTT7F7mHE May 30, 2025 The drill is being organised by the Additional Director General of Civil Defence and shall be carried out under Section 19 of the Civil Defence Rules, 1968. Backdrop Of Operation Shield The move comes after increased tensions with Pakistan, particularly since the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, which killed 26 people. India retaliated by beginning Operation Sindoor on May 7, which hit several terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Following such operations, defence departments recognized vulnerable gaps in civil readiness in high-risk areas. The May 31 simulation exercise seeks to evaluate and address these loopholes with real-time simulation and exercise in emergency responses. Key Features Of The Drill According to officials, Operation Shield will involve a comprehensive set of civil defence protocols, including: Activation of centrally controlled air raid sirens Enforcement of blackout protocols in civilian-populated areas Mock evacuation of families from military cantonments in response to hypothetical drone strikes Deployment of emergency medical teams and mobile hospitals Transportation of critical resources, including blood units The Directorate General of Fire Services and Home Guards had already observed that the initial phase of the drill, on May 7, identified significant readiness deficiencies. Subsequently, the Home Ministry issued orders on May 9, exercising emergency powers and sanctioning funds through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for remedial actions. The authorities said that these exercises are necessary to strengthen civilian and military coordination, particularly along India's unrest-prone western border. New Delhi: The wait is finally over for fans of the blockbuster Pushpa franchise! The much-anticipated sequel, Pushpa 2: The Rule, starring National Award-winning actor Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna in the lead roles, is all set for its world television premiere. Zee Cinema will air the action-packed entertainer on May 31 at 7:30 PM. The official handle of the film announced the news on social media, stating: 31 May ki shaam, har ghar goonjegi ek hi awaaz, Pushparaj! Dekhiye #TVParPehliBaar 'Pushpa 2: The Rule', 31 May, shaam 7:30 baje, sirf #ZeeCinema par. This television premiere is expected to draw massive viewership, following the phenomenal success of Pushpa: The Rise, which took the nation by storm with its raw storytelling, memorable dialogues, and chart-topping music. Allu Arjuns portrayal of red sandalwood smuggler Pushparaj earned him widespread acclaim, and fans have been eagerly awaiting the next chapter in his journey. The actor recently added another feather to his cap, having been honoured with the inaugural Best Actor award at the Telangana Governments prestigious Gaddar Telangana Film Awards. Directed by Sukumar, Pushpa 2: The Rule promises more high-octane drama, intense action sequences, and the powerful screen presence of Allu Arjun in his iconic role. With riveting performances and gripping storytelling, the film is already being hailed as a cinematic spectacle. Whether you missed it in theatres or simply want to relive the magic, May 31 at 7:30 PM on Zee Cinema is a date to mark on your calendar. New Delhi: Bollywood stunner Disha Patani is all set to headline Holiguards, a supernatural action-thriller marking the directorial return of Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey after more than two decades. Shot in Mexico, the film is packed with international star power but its Disha whos turning heads with her Hollywood debut. DISHA PATANI'S HOLLYWOOD DEBUT In Holiguards, Disha shares screen space with Hollywood heavyweights like Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV, The Expendables), Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious), and Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool, Lucifer), yet her presence is impossible to miss. The film, part of a planned franchise titled Statiguards vs. Holiguards, promises high-stakes supernatural action and has already generated serious buzz during post-production. Earlier, a behind-the-scenes photo of Disha went viral online, sparking excitement among fans. Last time the cast was seen filming in Durango, Mexico a major career milestone for Disha as she officially steps onto the global stage with her first Hollywood project. According to an industry insider, "Disha was in Durango, Mexico as early as January this year, to shoot for the pilot of the show alongside Tyrese Gibson and Harry Goodwins and the footage from those scenes looks absolutely stunning. The parts shes in are visually spectacular fans are truly in for a treat." Back home, Disha is also gearing up for Welcome to the Jungle, the third installment in the iconic Welcome franchise, set to hit theatres in 2025. New Delhi: Veer Pahariya's latest Instagram post proves he is a hardcore gym freak. In the viral video, The Sky Force actor can be seen working out. Veer is seen doing pistol squats with dedication, despite the gym being closed. As soon as Veer shared the post, friends and fans flooded the comment section with praise, Actress Janhvi Kapoor, Shikhar Pahariya, and Popular Influencer Orry were quick to comment on his post, shower praise, and express all the love for Veer Pahariya. Orry commented, "Sleek like you..practically disappearing like your waistline." Janhvi Kapoor wrote, "Veeru looking pistol squat king lol." Veer's brother Shikhar Pahariya also commented, "I will buy Samsung only because of you." Watch The Video Below! While Veer Pahariya established himself as a promising actor within his debut film, Sky Force, his latest collaboration with a mobile brand proves that he's becoming a brand favorite. With a genuine audience becoming his admirers, Veer Pahariya is adding flair to the reach of the brand's visibility and is also adding volume to his loyal fanbase. While the actor continues to hustle across the big screens, his admirers are keen about his upcoming projects. In an exciting Veer Pahariya has a few projects coming up, and he is also working on some musical treats for his audience. On personal front, Veer Pahariya and actress Tara Sutaria are reportedly dating. According to a report by ETimes, ''The two started dating just a couple of months ago. And they are trying to figure things out. They often keep going out for dates. '' a source told the portal. Earlier in March, the duo also caught attention in contrasting black and white outfits as showstoppers at the 25th Lakme Fashion Week. Neither Veer or Tara have commented on the realtionship buzz as yet. New Delhi: The teaser of the highly anticipated superhero film Mirai, starring Teja Sajja, Manchu Manoj, and Tanja Keller, has officially hit the big screens, sending fans into a frenzy across social media. Directed by Karthik Gattamneni and backed by TG Vishwa Prasad and Krithi Prasad under the People Media Factory banner, Mirai is set for a grand release on 5th September 2025. Described as a fusion of Indian Itihaasa and modern action adventure, the film introduces a bold cinematic universe where mythology meets superhero spectacle. At its core is Teja Sajja as a Super Yodhaentrusted with guarding nine sacred scriptures that determine the fate of humanity. Manchu Manoj stars as the dark and powerful antagonist, the Black Sword, adding intense gravitas to the narrative. The teaser, loaded with breathtaking visuals and an epic background score by GowraHari, has drawn widespread praise. Social media erupted with fan reactions, with one user calling it outstanding and another hailing it as epic with goosebump-worthy BGM. #Mirai Telugu Teaser Out Now - Looks good enough, excellent production quality and VFX https://t.co/ixeEj4wUYt pic.twitter.com/m20cEBhG2F SmartBarani (@SmartBarani) May 28, 2025 Just watched the #MiraiTeaser ahead of its release yesterday, looks EPIC! Fresh concept, stunning visuals, and a goosebump-worthy BGM. #TejaSajja as the underdog again rooting for this one pic.twitter.com/oba2k74qn9 The Cineprism (@TheCineprism) May 28, 2025 One netizen wrote "#MIRAI visuals are outstanding, Quality & content is so promising from @peoplemediafcy Blockbuster written ahead @Karthik_gatta, excellent score according to genre by hari anna @GowrahariK Seated for Mirai FDFS 05.09.2025" Even, actor Rana Daggubati prasied the teaser writing, "Just watched a trailer cut of #MIRAI with @tejasajja123 and @HeroManoj1 its the coolest trailer Ive seen in a while most impressive #Kartik rock on my man!! Cant wait to watch the film!! @tejasajja123, @Karthik_gatta, @peoplemediafcy" Just watched a trailer cut of #MIRAI with @tejasajja123 and @HeroManoj1 - its the coolest trailer Ive seen in a while most impressive #Kartik rock on my man!! Cant wait to watch the film!! @tejasajja123 @Karthik_gatta @peoplemediafcy Rana Daggubati (@RanaDaggubati) May 25, 2025 However, what truly ignited fan speculation was the teasers final shotan enigmatic figure walking through a horde of monkeys. This frame has sparked intense debate online, with fans questioning whether the figure represents Lord Rama or Lord Krishna, adding a divine layer of mystery to the films mythic narrative. Featuring an ensemble cast including Ritika Nayak, Jagapathi Babu, Jayaram, and Shriya Saran, Mirai is shaping up to be one of Indian cinemas most ambitious superhero films. With its high production values, VFX-driven spectacle, and mythological undercurrents, the film promises an unforgettable cinematic experience this September. Mumbai: Actor Shweta Tripathi is excited to make her debut as a theatre producer with the staging of the play 'Cock'. As per a press note, the play's premiere show will be held on June 6 in Delhi at Max Muller Bhavan and June 10 in Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre to commemorate Pride Month. Written by British playwright Mike Bartlett, and being directed by Manish Gandhi - Cock is "an explosive, emotionally charged drama that delves into themes of identity, sexuality, and the fluidity of love." On turning producer for the drama, Shweta said, "Theatre has always been my first love. It's raw, immediate, and leaves no space to hide--from the audience or from the truth. Producing a play like Cock is a personal and creative decision born out of my belief that storytelling should reflect the world in all its complexity and beauty." "We are living in a time where people are finally feeling empowered to own their identities, and Cock doesn't shy away from the discomfort or the beauty of that journey. It's messy, human, and real. That's what drew me to it. I want to be part of stories that make you uncomfortable in the best way--stories that spark conversations, empathy, and perhaps even change," she added. The play has roped in actors Rytasha Rathore, Tanmay Dhanania, Sahir Mehta, and Harssh Singh. New Delhi: Actor Sooraj Pancholi has opened up about his parents, Zarina Wahab and Aditya Pancholis relationship, and why his mother did not divorce his father despite public rumours of multiple affairs. In an interview with Hindi Rush, Sooraj said that while he is not in a position to comment on his parents arrangement, his mother is the one who holds the family together. In the podcast, Sooraj said, She holds the entire family together, and she has really been through a lot because of us. I have never, ever seen her break down. She has never complained about anything. He further added, If she wanted to leave, she could have done it long back. She has been acting since the age of 16. She is almost 65 now. She is self-made. She has four homes of her own. She doesnt come from money. If she wanted to leave, she could have done it long back. Sometimes, women dont leave because they dont have a backup My father never stopped her from working. He never questioned her about her work. If she had a route to go back to Hyderabad she has a home in Bandra as well. She has her mothers home in Bandra. She has four sisters, one of them is in America. She has four brothers. She could have left at any time, but its her decision to stay. I am nobody to judge this. Its an understanding between them, and I am in no position to comment on their arrangement, he added. Zarina and Aditya tied the knot in 1986. They are parents to actor Sooraj Pancholi and his sister, Sana Pancholi. Back in the day, Aditya Pancholi grabbed headlines for his rumoured affairs with actor Pooja Bedi in the 1990s and later with Kangana Ranaut. Kangana has also publicly revealed that the actor used to physically abuse her. On the work front, Sooraj was last seen in Kesari Veer, which hit theatres on May 23. Bengaluru: The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has banned the release of Kamal Haasan starrer Thug Life over the actor's controversial remark about the Kannada language during the audio launch of his movie in Chennai last week. During the media interaction in Bengaluru on Friday, Sa Ra Govindu, representative of KFCC, said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer 'Thug Life' in Karnataka as they stand firm with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations for their demands of halting the release of the film until the actor issues a pubic apology. The KFCC representative said that Kamal Haasan has not issued an apology yet for hurting the sentiments of Kannada people during his promotional event in Chennai. He said, "When there is pressure, I have to do. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike were present; whatever they say, we should do it. Even they would speak about it. Definitely, there is no 'Sorry' term being specified anywhere by Kamal Hassan. We will surely not release the film. We (KFCC) will stand with Rakshina Vedike and other Kannada organisations." Kamal Haasan and his movie 'Thug Life' came under the radar of controversy in Karnataka after the actor reportedly stated that "Kannada is born out of Tamil" during a promotional event in Chennai. Following it, the protests were held near the INOX cinema hall in Karnataka's Belagavi against Kamal Haasan. The protests were organised by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike organisation, which expressed its anger and demanded the actor's apology over the issue. On Wednesday, the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticised Kamal Haasan following his reported remark about the Kannada language, stating that he was not aware of the "long-standing" history of the language. "Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it," the Karnataka CM said. Congress MLA from Karnataka Rizwan Arshad expressed his disappointment over Haasan's remark, calling it unfortunate and questioning the necessity of such a debate at a time when national unity is paramount. "What kind of a debate is this? The Kannada language has a history of thousands of years... Kannada and Tamil are ancient languages and part of our country's foundation... Is this debate necessary at a time when all of us have to be united? ... I did not expect Kamal Haasan to make such a statement. It is unfortunate," Arshad said. 'Thug Life' is directed by Mani Ratnam and stars Kamal Haasan, Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan TR in the lead roles. New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, urged the Centre to withdraw Rs 500 currency notes in a bid to clamp down on corruption. Chandrababu Naidu who is also the president of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a BJP ally, made this request during the inaugural speech TDP Mahanadu --the partys annual three-day mega convention, at Kadapa district. Naidu during his address in the convention urged that government should introduce digital currency in the country, and demonetize Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes. Meanwhile, in a related currency/denomination news, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued latest notification on Dispensation of Rs 100 and Rs 200 denomination banknotes through ATMs. RBI said, as part of an endeavour towards enhancing public access to frequently used denominations of banknotes, it has been decided that all banks and White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs) shall ensure that their ATMs dispense Rs 100 and Rs 200 denomination banknotes on a regular basis as per following milestones: 1. By September 30, 2025: 75% of all ATMs shall dispense either Rs 100 or Rs 200 denomination banknotes from at least one cassette. 2. By March 31, 2026: 90% of all ATMs shall dispense either Rs 100 or Rs 200 denomination banknotes from at least one cassette. The Reserve Bank had introduced the Rs 200 denomination notes in 2017. RBI said that introduction of this denomination is expected to facilitate exchange transactions for the common man and provide complete series of denomination for transactions at the lower end. "These notes are available only through select RBI offices and banks as is normal when a new denomination of notes is introduced and the supply increases gradually. However, the production of these notes is being ramped up by the currency printing presses, and over time as more notes are printed, it will be distributed across the country through the banking channels and will be available for public in adequate quantity," RBI had said. 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Disclaimer: At IDPL, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. It should not be construed as an endorsement to buy. IDPL may make a very small commission from its sale if one chooses to buy the product from any of the links in this article. Technology and enterprise software platform PartsSource has opened a new Customer Experience Center at its headquarters in Hudson, Ohio, US, for healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals. The facility is designed to offer practical learning and demonstration experiences to these professionals aimed at improving healthcare equipment management, operational efficiency, and addressing the challenges faced by healthcare providers in managing mission-critical assets. The centre delivers real-world insights to support care professionals in cost reduction and risk mitigation. It also helps in improving the clinical availability of equipment via integrated evidence-based supply chain solutions. Providing industry-specific training and showcasing opportunities, the centre aims to develop expertise and strengthen equipment management. The College of Biomedical Equipment and Technologys (CBET) new HTM Training Center of Excellence North is a key feature of the centre, offering an on-site classroom and biomed laboratory for hands-on training and practice on portable medical devices. PartsSource president and CEO Phil Settimi said: This space will help healthcare leaders understand how to apply our integrated evidence-based solutions in parts, service, talent and asset management to achieve tangible savings, increased productivity, and ultimately improve clinical capacity within their communities. CBET's HTM Training Center of Excellence North, in partnership with PartsSource, began its first training course on infusion pumps on 13 May. The summer schedule includes courses on medical equipment technician, ventilators, and sterilisers, utilising the centres equipment and technologies. These resources enable healthcare professionals to learn how to apply PartsSource technology tools and solutions. CBET president Dr Richard Gonzalez said: Partnering with PartsSource plays a vital role in helping us fulfil our mission to provide industry-specific education and training in HTM and information technology, aligned with the changing needs of the healthcare industry. The facility demonstrates various settings of the hospital environment to cover the full spectrum of the critical care environment. This experience aims to allow hospital executives and technicians to enhance the value of PartsSource's technology-driven solutions for equipment management. Situated in PartsSource's Hudson-based headquarters, the space welcomes customers, healthcare professionals, and others. 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Disclaimer: At IDPL, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. It should not be construed as an endorsement to buy. IDPL may make a very small commission from its sale if one chooses to buy the product from any of the links in this article. In a surprising move ahead of Eid al-Adha, Pakistan has announced the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, raising global concerns over the potential misuse of cryptocurrency to secretly fund terrorist networks. At the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, the CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council, Bilal Bin Saqib, declared the country's intent to build a national Bitcoin reserve, comparing it to strategic oil or gold reserves held by other nations. This reserve, he said, would not be traded but stored for future use during economic crises. In todays DNA, Rahul Sinha, Managing Editor of Zee News, analysed Pakistans announcement of the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Watch The Full DNA Episode Here: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has appointed his son, Salman Shehbaz, to oversee the expansion of cryptocurrency in the country. This move marks a shift from investing in overseas properties to digital assets. The announcement has fueled speculation that not just the government, but also terror outfits like those led by Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar, may turn to Bitcoin to facilitate covert financial transactions, especially around Eid. The plan includes a proposal to allocate 2,000 megawatts of electricity for crypto mining, highlighting Pakistans ambitions to become a hub for digital innovation. Saqib also thanked the United States for support, which many interpret as an attempt to grow closer to the Trump family, especially since Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. attended the same conference where the announcement was made. Further deepening the US connection, Pakistan Crypto Council has partnered with World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform that reportedly has 60 percent ownership linked to the Trump family. This partnership is seen as a strategic move to strengthen diplomatic ties with influential figures in the US. While President Donald Trump once criticized cryptocurrencies, he has since embraced them. He has recently supported the idea of a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, though, unlike Pakistan, this reserve would be formed using confiscated Bitcoins, not taxpayer money. However, Pakistan's new crypto policy is being viewed with suspicion internationally due to its history of terror financing and placement on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in the past. Experts warn that digital currencies like Bitcoin, due to their borderless, decentralized nature, can be easily used to fund banned terror groups, bypass banking systems, and move funds through fake NGOs or the dark weball while evading global oversight. Concerns are mounting that Pakistans Bitcoin reserve could eventually be diverted towards terrorist activities. India is expected to raise the issue on global platforms, calling for tight international monitoring of Pakistans use of cryptocurrency, just as its conventional banking channels are watched. The Balochistan Human Rights Council (HRCB) has raised alarm over a sharp increase in extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances throughout the restive province, blaming the violence on so-called "death squads" that are purported to be backed by the Pakistan Army. In its latest report published on Friday, the rights organisation disclosed that at least 50 individuals were killed during April itself, and the figure would increase immensely by the end of May. "43 people were killed during April alone in Balochistan by Pakistani forces. Even in the last 10 days alone, seven more individuals including a journalist were killed in Awaran district," the report said. Civilians Treated To Late-Night Raids In a most grim development, the HRCB reported that security personnel stormed the Malar Machhi neighborhood of Awaran district during the late-night hours of May 2627, killing two civilians Naeem Baloch and his aunt, Hoori and leaving Naeem's mother, Dadi Baloch, critically wounded. "The raid included forced break-ins into homes and random shooting when citizens pushed back against illegal kidnappings. Though gravely injured, Dadi was denied immediate medical attention and arrived at the hospital late the following morning in critical condition," the statement added. The Baloch family has reportedly been targeted repeatedly in the past. In 2015, an aerial bombardment killed seven family members; Naeem himself was forcibly disappeared in 2023; and Dadi Baloch was previously detained. HRCB added that the following night, on May 28, the same group allegedly returned and attempted to abduct Dadi's seven-year-old son. Journalist Gunned Down, Student Abducted The rights organisation forcefully condemned the killing of veteran journalist Abdul Latif Baloch, who was gunned down while sleeping at his residence in Mashkay, Awaran district on May 24. Latif, head of Daily Intekhab's bureau, was a known critic through his reporting and had been abducted allegedly twice by security agencies previously. "This trend of violence indicates the state's systematic effort to silence political activists and journalists in Balochistan. We hold the Pakistani military establishment accountable," HRCB said. On May 24, another event occurred in Quetta as Mahjabeen Baloch, a polio victim and student, was reportedly kidnapped by Pakistani plainclothes officials and police from her hostel within the Civil Hospital. Her brother, Younus Baloch, had also been taken away from their residence in Washuk district five days ago. The HRCB called for their immediate release and called on authorities to, if charges are warranted, produce the detainees in a court of law. Mass Crackdown On Dissent The latest crackdown seems to be part of an overall crackdown in the country. The HRCB's April report signaled that Pakistan's security agencies had mounted their campaign against civil society organizations, academics, political activists, and the families of the disappeared. The HRCB alleged that the repressive methods involve terror home raids, illegal arrests, extended detentions under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, and registration of false police cases especially against the members of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC). Call For Global Attention The HRCB has called the situation "a humanitarian and human rights emergency" and appealed to the international community for prompt intervention and accountability. "We call for immediate international action, justice for Abdul Latif Baloch, and safety for all civilians under state-sponsored terror in Balochistan," the council appealed. The growing violence in the province is again highlighting Pakistan's ongoing conflict in Balochistan, which has seen military operations and human rights abuses claims for more than a decade. Operation Sindoor: In a big revelation, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has admitted before the global leaders that the Pakistani army planned a massive strike against India on May 10 morning. Speaking in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other leaders, Sharif said that Pakistan planned to strike India at 4.30 Am on May 10 after the Fajr prayers and its army was ready for the attack. "On the night of May 9-10 (after May 7 Operation Sindoor), we decided to respond in a measured fashion to Indian aggression. We had decided that at 4.30 in the morning after Fajr prayers, the Pakistan Armed Forces led very ably by our Field Marshal, Chief Army Staff sitting here, Sayyed Asim Munir, to teach a lesson to our enemy. But before that hour reached, India again launched missile attack using BrahMos, and hit various provinces of Pakistan, including the airport in Rawalpindi and other places," Sharif said during a speech in Azerbaijan in the presence of President Ilham Aliyev. Unknowingly, Sharif admitted the failure of its army and Field Marshal Asim Munir, confirming that India's pre-emptive strike foiled the Pakistani army's plan to attack India. Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 by India to avenge the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 civilians were killed by Pak-backed terrorists. Without crossing the Line of Control or international boundary, Indian forces struck terrorist infrastructure and eliminated multiple threats. On the night of 07-08 May 2025, Pakistan attempted to engage a number of military targets in Northern and Western India including Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj, using drones and missiles. These were neutralised by the Integrated Counter UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) Grid and Air Defence systems. However, the Indian Air Defence systems detected, tracked, and neutralised threats using a network of radars, control centres, artillery, and both aircraft- and ground-based missiles. On May 10, India's offensive strikes targeted key Pakistani airbases- Noor Khan and Rahimyar Khan with surgical precision. Loitering munitions were used to devastating effect, each finding and destroying high-value targets, including enemy radar and missile systems. This forced Pakistani army to beg for a ceasefire with India. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that the time has come to revive the Russia-India-China troika, citing improved relations between India and China. Lavrov stated that an understanding has been reached between the two nations on calming the border situation. "..Understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this Russia-India-China troika," Lavrov said. "..Understanding has been reached between India and China on how to calm the situation on the border, it seems to me that the time has come to revive this Russia India China troika.." Russian FM Lavrovpic.twitter.com/M68JouFnYo Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) May 30, 2025 Earlier in October 2024, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that after multiple rounds of talks, India and China have agreed to disengage from the contentious points. Misri further stated that both countries' negotiators have reached an agreement on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. "As a result of the discussions that have taken place over the last several weeks, an agreement has been arrived at on patroling arrangements along the line of actual control in the India-China border area and this is leading to dis-engagement and eventually a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020," Misri said. Misri's remark marked the major development between India and China after Galwan Clashes. The standoff between both countries began after the violent clash in the Galwan Valley. The relations between the two India and China deteriorated with India openly admitting that the relations are not cordial. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump praised Elon Musk, calling him "terrific" as Musk prepares to step down from his role in the administration. The two are set to appear together at a press conference scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) in the Oval Office. Trump expressed his admiration for Musk, stating, "Elon is terrific!" and hinting that Musk's involvement with the administration wouldn't necessarily end after his term as chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House," wrote Donald Trump in a post on social media platform Truth Social. Elon Musk has announced his departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a role he held since January 20, 2025, as part of President Donald Trump's administration. Musk's exit comes after 130 days of service, as mandated by federal regulations for special government employees. In his post on X, Musk thanked President Trump for the opportunity to serve and reduce wasteful government spending, emphasizing that DOGE's mission will continue to grow. "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," he wrote. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025 During a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Leavitt thanked Elon Musk for his service, saying, "We thank him for his service. We thank him for getting DOGE off the ground, and the efforts to cut waste, fraud, and abuse will continue." New Delhi: A recent federal appeals court ruling has dealt a significant blow to President Donald Trump's trade policy, overturning many of his new import duties. The Trump administration has vowed to escalate the dispute to the Supreme Court, demanding that the decision be suspended. "We will win this battle in court," declared White House Press Secretary Karine Leavitt during a press briefing. The administration is also working to address concerns over "rogue judges" in the judicial system. Despite the legal uncertainty, other countries have confirmed their intention to continue working with the United States. According to Leavitt, the US trade ambassador has received assurances from countries that they will continue trade negotiations. This commitment to negotiations was further emphasized during a phone call between Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where they exchanged views on tariff-related issues. "Countries around the world have faith in the negotiator in chief, President Donald J. Trump. And they also probably see how ridiculous this ruling is, and they understand the administration is going to win," Leavitt said. "And we intend to win. We already filed an emergency appeal, and we expect to fight this battle to the Supreme Court," the press secretary asserted. White House lawyers petitioned the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday to halt Wednesday's decision from taking effect. The move followed a second court ruling that found President Trump had exceeded his authority in implementing the tariffs. The rulings represent significant victories for small businesses and states that have mounted legal challenges to the measures, striking at policies central to Trump's economic and foreign policy agenda. Leavitt also criticised the court's tariff ruling as an example of "judicial overreach." She argued that Trump's tariffs were introduced to address U.S. trade deficits with other nations and described the taxes as "legally sound" and "long overdue." past." Meanwhile, a US team is scheduled to visit India on June 5-6 for the next round of negotiations on a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between the two countries. The India-US trade deal would mark a significant milestone in economic relations between the two big economies, potentially opening new avenues for bilateral commerce and investment. Additionally, Ray Vickery, a Former United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development, stated that the trade agreement between India and the US can't be reached with Washington's "bullying approach." "In Trump, 1.0, there was a negotiation that came close to getting a freer trade, not a free trade arrangement between the United States and India. One hopes that that would happen, but it's not going to happen with this bullying approach, which the Trump administration has indicated," Ray Vickery told ANI. President Donald Trump has made repeated claims that the US mediated the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan and offered them "a lot of trade." However, India has emphasised that the two nations' militaries negotiated directly and resolved the conflict through an agreement and understanding for a cessation of fire and military action. The cessation of hostilities was agreed upon following a call from Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, after India destroyed nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir under Operation Sindoor. Additionally, Vikrey said that the Trump administration has a "misunderstanding" regarding trade deficits, due to which the US is determined to impose tariffs on other countries. "The Trump administration has a misunderstanding regarding trade deficits. Trade deficits are not necessarily something imposed just by unfair trade practices by another country, but they have to do with the United States' own saving and spending habits, he said. (With Inputs from ANI) Who Is Anjali Sud: The Indian-American CEO of Tubi, Anjali Sud, is stepping in as a member of Harvard University's Board of Overseers. She will serve for two years and is replacing the recently elected Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. This takeover comes at a time when the Ivy League college is at odds with the Trump administration regarding the enrollment of foreign students. Who Is Anjali Sud? Anjali Sud is a technology and media executive, and since 2023, she has been serving as CEO of Tubi, which is a free TV and movie streaming service. Previously, she was the CEO of Vimeo. Anjali Sud pursued her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School in 2011. She was born in Detroit and grew up in Flint, Michigan. Now, she lives in New York and has two young sons. Anjali Sud- Work And Achievements According to the official website of Harvard University, Anjali Sud was named among Fortunes '40 Under 40' and Hollywood Reporters 'Most Powerful Women in Hollywood'. She is also a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. What Is Harvard's Board Of Overseers? The Harvard Gazette described the Board of Overseers as one of Harvards two governing boards, along with the President and Fellows, also known as the Corporation. It was formally established in 1642. The Board directs the visitation process, the primary means for periodic external assessment of Harvards Schools and departments. Through its standing committees and the around 50 visiting committees that report to them, the board probes the quality of Harvards programs, the Gazette added. Now, six alumni have been newly elected as members of Harvard Universitys Board of Overseers. In addition, six people are joining the board of directors of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA). The Overseers will assume their roles on May 30, and the HAA directors will commence their terms on July 1. Five of the new Overseers were elected for six-year terms, while Anjali Sud will serve the remaining two years of the unexpired term of Carney. Another Indian-American As HAA Director? Among the six newly elected HAA directors is Sanjay Seth, a climate and sustainability expert. He has worked in public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. He is originally from Bismarck, North Dakota, and was the Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor for Climate and Equity for the US Environmental Protection Agency in New England. As per the Harvard website, Sanjay Seth is co-founder and past co-president of Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment, an HAA Shared Interest Group with thousands of members. The new directors were elected for three-year terms. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Pasofino Gold Limited (TSXV: VEIN) (OTCQB: EFRGF) (FSE: N07A) ("Pasofino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will be in attendance for the Mining Investment Event taking place in Quebec City, Quebec, from June 3rd to June 5th 2025, inclusive. Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brett Richards, commented: "We are looking forward to the Mining Investment Event this coming week in Quebec City, and welcome Issuers and investors interested in hearing the new Pasofino Gold story, and its path to production." ABOUT THE DUGBE GOLD PROJECT The 2,078 km2 Dugbe Gold Project (the "Project") is in southern Liberia and situated within the southwestern corner of the Birimian Supergroup which is host to most West African gold deposits. To date, two deposits have been identified on the Project; Dugbe F and Tuzon discovered by Hummingbird in 2009 and 2011 respectively. The deposits are located within 4 km of the Dugbe Shear Zone which is thought to have played a role in large scale gold mineralization in the area. A significant amount of exploration in the area was conducted by Hummingbird up until 2012 including 74,497 m of diamond coring. Pasofino drilled an additional 14,584 m at Tuzon and Dugbe during 2021. These deposits have a combined Mineral Resource Estimates dated 17 November 2021 with total Measured and Indicated of 3.3 Moz with an average grade of 1.37 g/t Au, and 0.6 Moz in Inferred. Following the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study in June 2022 a Mineral Reserve Estimate was declared, based on the open-pit mining of both deposits over a 14-year Life of Mine. A technical report for the Dugbe Gold Project was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on the Company's website. In addition to the existing deposits there are many gold prospects within the Project including the Bukon Jedeh area and the DSZ target on the Tuzon-Sackor trend where Pasofino has discovered a broad zone of surface gold mineralisation in trench and outcrop along strike from Tuzon. At this and several of the other prospects no drilling has been carried out to date. In 2019, Hummingbird signed a 25-year Mineral Development Agreement ("MDA") with the Government of Liberia providing the necessary long-term framework and stabilization of taxes and duties. Under the terms of the MDA, the royalty rate on gold production is 3%, the income tax rate payable is 25% (with credit given for historic exploration expenditures), the fuel duty is reduced by 50%, and the Government of Liberia is granted a free carried interest of 10% in the Project. Perpetua Resources has received up to $6.9m in additional funding from the US Army through the Defence Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC). The funds will be used to test the feasibility of using material from Perpetua's Stibnite Gold Project to produce military-specification antimony trisulfide. This funding is a continuation of the $15.5m awarded in August 2023 under an Ordnance Technology Initiative Agreement (OTIA). The supplemental award will expand the research already under way and support the US Army's goal of establishing a fully domestic "ground-to-round" antimony trisulfide supply chain. The OTIA aims to fund the development and delivery of a flexible, modular pilot plant to the US Army to process antimony and other materials of interest to the Department of Defense (DOD). Under the OTIA, Perpetua will be reimbursed on a cost-plus fixed fee basis through the end of 2026. The total funding of up to $22.4m under the OTIA may be adjusted by the DOTC as the programme progresses. Perpetua is entitled to be reimbursed for all costs incurred under the agreement. With this additional funding, Perpetua Resources will expand material sampling and enhance the pilot plant's scope and size. Perpetua Resources president and CEO Jon Cherry said: We are honoured to continue our work with the US Army to secure a domestic source of antimony trisulfide. Advancing Americas capabilities to process minerals critical to national defence is essential for our long-term mineral independence and resilience. We are proud to play our part in furthering the Armys 'ground-to-round' critical minerals strategy. This award is part of a broader partnership with the DOD to secure domestic sources of critical minerals. Perpetua has now received more than $80m in total from the Department of Defense. The Stibnite Gold Project is expected to supply up to 35% of US antimony demand in its first six years, based on the 2023 US Geological Survey antimony commodity summary. This funding comes at a critical time, as China, which dominates the global antimony market, ceased exports to the US in 2024. The project will not only support national security but also generate jobs, improve water quality and address environmental issues at an abandoned mine site, according to the company. Recently, Perpetua applied to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for up to $2bn in potential debt financing for the construction of the Stibnite Gold Project. EXIM's due diligence and review will follow to determine the project's eligibility under its initiatives. We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Says We Have No Idea Whats Really Going To Happen and Discusses These 12 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) is a diversified American oil and gas company. The firm operates in the chemicals, oil refining, storage, and transportation industries. It made its way to Cramers morning appearance as activist Elliott Investment managed to secure two seats on the firms board. Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX)s shares dropped by 7.5% on the news as investors weighed whether Elliotts demands of business unit spinoffs would generate uncertainty for the firms future cash flows. For his part, Cramer attributed the fall to an overreaction: [On share price movement after activist investor Elliott won two board seats] Yeah thats a reaction. I think there are people who felt that there could be an immediate transaction or something which was never the case. I think thats an overreaction. Not a great group right now but its an overreaction. Phillips 66 (PSX) Suffered From An Overreaction After Elliot Victory, Says Jim Cramer A refinery manager walking through an array of pipes and pumping systems, recognizing the company's vast refining power. Cramer has discussed Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) several times this year. For instance, in May he remarked that the firm was being unfairly treated as an oil company while it was a refiner instead. In January, he praised Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX)s business acumen after the firm bought NGL assets for $2.2 billion. Heres what Cramer said: And listen, thats not even an exhaustive list of M&A activity this week. Well, on Monday, Phillips 66 announced a deal to acquire certain privately held natural gas infrastructure assets for over $2 billion Looking at the transactions weve seen just this week, while some of them likely wouldve been challenged by Bidens ideologically driven regulators, most of them seem pretty justifiable. All of them make great business sense Overall, PSX ranks 10th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of PSX, 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 PSX and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Wall Street positions investments in alternatives and private markets as an opportunity: Retail investors, firms say, should have the ability to access the potentially higher returns that private credit, private equity, real estate, and venture capital can yield relative to public equities and other more mainstream asset classes. The financial firms, of course, get potentially trillions more dollars to manage and all the fees that entails. Outside of 401(k)s, Percent, a private credit platform, has seen private credit investments in IRAs grow by more than 165% over the past two years, the company says. And State Street , the asset manager, plans to debut a second exchange-traded fund that tracks private debt, also in collaboration with Apollo. Its safe to say Wall Street is on board. Firms, including some of the U.S.s largest banks and asset managers, have been clamoring to get a piece of the $12.5 trillion 401(k) market. Theres been an influx of mass-market vehicles promising alternatives exposure and a range of public-private partnerships being introduced in recent months. Just one example: Empower, which oversees $1.8 trillion in assets for 19 million retail investors, recently announced it is partnering with firms like Apollo Global Management to allow investments in private credit, private equity, and real estate in some of the retirement accounts it administers. Allowing this option could increase investment opportunities for retail investors seeking to diversify their investment allocation in line with their investment time horizon and risk tolerance, Atkins said at an annual regulatory conference in May. The rules Atkins is seeking to revise were established 23 years ago for private funds, and require investments of at least $25,000 and restrict sales to those who meet accredited investor standards. The rules were established to ensure less experienced and financially savvy investors werent taking undue risk while investing in private markets, but the chairman says its time to rethink that as the private markets are booming : Over the past decade, theyve grown from $11.6 trillion to $30.8 trillion, Atkins said. Other reports have said the Trump administration is considering an executive order to bring private equity to 401(k)s, which could spur faster adoption. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins asked his agency this month to review decades-old rules that restrict who can invest in private markets. The request underscores how the wealth management industry is in the midst of a transformation that is resulting in private investments and alternatives becoming more accessible to everyday retail investors across the U.S. Story Continues Private markets also give investors access to companies that arent publicly traded, which is becoming increasingly attractive as businesses stay private longer, potentially creating vast wealth for early-stage stakeholders. The demand is there, and investors want more options, the firms say. Why, they ask shouldnt Main Street investors be able to tap into the investments that billionaires, institutions, pensions, and other wealthy players benefit from? But these new vehicles raise a number of questions, says Martin Gross, founder and president of Sandalwood Securities. The biggest being: How can investors tell if the new offerings are high-enough quality, especially when private markets dont have easily accessible valuations or data transparency like public markets do? The more portfolio tools, the better, but once youre inside that door, youve got to make sure that what youre being offered makes sense, says Gross. You have to understand what a good fund is from a bad fund. Theres a learning curve. While retirement savers might have a handle on the public companies they are currently invested in, adding privates and other alts adds complexity. Privates are generally classified as illiquid assets, meaning investors cannot quickly or easily sell their holdings, and many funds require investors to commit their dollars for five to 10 years or longer. As with all investing, there is no guarantee of high returns, and fees tend to be higher. And if something goes wrong, it isnt as easy to exit as a public investment. Even seasoned institutional investors struggle to get the clear valuations, data, and visibility they need to make smart decisions, says Simon Tang, U.S. director at private markets AI firm, Accelex. For retail investors adding to their retirement pots, this lack of clarity could mean taking on risks without having a full picture of the investment. That said, private markets do offer opportunities. In a time when just a handful of companies dominate public index funds and the number of public companies overall is shrinking, privates can give more diversification to portfolios, which helps in times of volatility. And given that many retirement savers have, in theory, long investment time horizons, privates can make sense. Different assets work for different time frames, says Gross. Private equity and venture capital are better for those with more time, while real estate can work shorter term. Its just a case by case analysis, he says. Public and private markets blur To appeal to retail investors, firms that stand at opposite ends of the asset-management spectrum are collaborating on new public-private markets, blurring the lines between the two, according to Morningstar. In addition to State Street and Apollos ETF, Vanguard and Blackstone, for example, recently announced an interval fund in partnership with Wellington, signaling how mainstream this is becoming. While Vanguard is known for its low-cost passive offerings primarily in the public markets, Blackstone is a major private markets and alternatives player. As Morningstar notes in its analysis of the growing public-private partnerships, whether these strategies will work out for retail investors remains to be seen. Despite the brand-name pedigree of the asset managers involved, most of these strategies are untested, Morningstars Jason Kephart and Bridget B. Hughes write. What is known is that private assets bring added complexity, reduced liquidity, and higher fees. Investors must weigh whether the potential benefits of private-market exposure are enough to clear those hurdles. While 401(k) plan sponsors have been allowed to include private investments in a multi-asset fund, like a target-date, since 2020, there is more traction now because there seems to be an expectation of less regulatory scrutiny from the SEC going forward, Kephart said. When it comes to the average Americans nest egg, investing experts say to tread carefully while these new investment vehicles are being established. If the private equity industry is set on expanding to access retail investors hard-earned cash, it must take strong measures to improve clarity over private assets valuations and performance to ensure investors can make informed decisions and have full visibility of where their retirement money is going, says Tang. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Qualcomm (QCOM) stock has taken a beating, sliding more than 30% over the past year, weighed down by investor concerns over smartphone market slowdowns and geopolitical tensions impacting chip demand. Yet the companys latest numbers tell a different story, showcasing robust growth, record revenues, and no signs of stalling. In fact, Qualcomms current valuation might be a screaming buy given its strong fundamentals and tailwinds in multiple sectors, hinting at serious upside for investors willing to look past the noise. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Qualcomm (QCOM) stock price history over the past twelve months My analysis indicates QCOM is set for a strong recovery following a year of sideways trade. Powering the 5G Revolution Qualcomms dominance in 5G technology remains its primary growth driver. In its latest Q2 report, the company achieved $9.5 billion in revenue from its Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) segment, up 18% year-over-year, driven by its Snapdragon processors and 5G modem platforms like the X85. These chips power premium smartphones from brands like Xiaomi, which recently extended its multi-year deal with Qualcomm, ensuring its flagship devices use Snapdragon 8-series chips through at least 2030. With global 5G connections projected to hit 2 billion by 2025, Qualcomms intellectual property and licensing arm (QTL) continues to vacuum in royalties, contributing $1.3 billion in Q2 alone. Qualcomm (QCOM) estimated and reported revenues history Also, Qualcomms 5G technology is now making inroads beyond mobile devices, powering transformative applications in new sectors. The company has secured partnerships to integrate 5G into private networks for industrial automation, enabling real-time data processing for smart factories, as seen in collaborations with firms like Siemens (SIE). Moreover, its chips are now driving connectivity in smart city projects, with deployments in urban infrastructure expected to grow as global investments in smart cities reach $1.8 trillion by 2030. Automotive and IoT Emerge as New Growth Engines Besides its core 5G offerings, Qualcomms diversification into automotive and IoT is paying off big time. In Q2, its automotive segment soared 59% year-over-year, generating notable revenue as carmakers adopt Snapdragon Digital Chassis for connected and autonomous vehicles. Partnerships with major automakers, including contracts to supply chips for next-gen electric cars, are pretty interesting (and relevant to the valuation argument I will make later), as they show Qualcomms pivot from smartphone reliance. The IoT segment wasnt far behind, growing 27% as demand for smart home devices and industrial IoT solutions surges. On Tuesday, May 27, RBC Capital Markets maintained an Outperform rating on The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) with a price target of $63. This decision came after insights from the EIC Conference. RBC analysts are more confident in the company as it is expected to announce new projects that lead to improved financial estimates. RBC Keeps Rating on Williams Companies (WMB) Aerial view of a power plant near a lake lit up at night, showing off the company's expansive electricity generation capabilities. The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) expects to see steady progress, even as Chad Zamarin becomes the new CEO. One key project is the development of Socrates, which is a fully integrated infrastructure project that will serve as the power solution for a connected data center. The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) has signed a 10-year contract for Socrates, which includes a provision for commercial reassessment at the end of the term. The company believes that if the equipment from Socrates is used as backup power after the 10-year contract, the price will be set based on the cost of replacement. According to The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), this will bring a good deal. The Socrates project is also seen as a strong venture, boasting a five times build multiple under the contract terms. RBCs reiterated positive outlook reflects the belief that these new projects and strategic developments will help The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) grow and improve its financial performance. The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) is an American energy company that specializes in natural gas processing and transportation. The company also has petroleum and electricity generation assets and invests in new energy technologies. While we acknowledge the potential of WMB 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 WMB and that has a 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 11 Stocks That Will Bounce Back According To Analysts and 11 Best Stocks Under $15 to Buy According to Hedge Funds. Disclosure: None. This story was originally published on Automotive Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Automotive Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Electric vehicle maker Rivian achieved its second consecutive quarterly gross profit in Q2, which triggered a $1 billion cash infusion from partner Volkswagen Group, CEO and founder RJ Scaringe said during a call with analysts May 6. The funds, which executives expect to receive by the end of June, will aid Rivian in deploying its technology and software stack to a wide array of vehicles by capitalizing on VWs scale as it pushes for broader EV adoption, according to Scaringe. The relationship there continues to progress really well, Scaringe said of the partnership. At this point, we're very focused on executing a lot of programs across the Volkswagen Group. Dive Insight: In addition to financial support from VW, Rivians efforts to scale production has also been bolstered by a $6.6 billion Department of Energy loan finalized in January to revive the companys stalled Georgia EV factory project, which is expected to start production by 2028. The company is also investing $120 million in Normal, Illinois, where it is constructing a supplier park meant to create an electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem next to its production plant where it is building the R2 SUV. However, like other automakers, Rivian also faces tariff-fueled headwinds necessitating plans to offset higher duties on automotive parts, especially battery components. CFO Claire McDonough said on the call that the company expected per unit direct impact from tariffs to be a couple thousand dollars for 2025 based off of the currently announced tariffs in place. Rivians chief concern is rising cost for battery materials. McDonough said while the companys stockpile of batteries is sufficient to carry its production through early 2026, it continues to monitor export restrictions on rare earth minerals from China. We are actively monitoring these developments and working to mitigate potential risks through a variety of initiatives, including strategic sourcing and proactive engagement with policymakers, she said. Higher component costs due to tariffs moved Rivian to raise its capital expenditure guidance to between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion. Uncertainty fueled by economic policies also led the company to revise its delivery outlook to 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles, down from 46,000 to 51,000 announced April 2. The three-week-long strike by Pratt & Whitney engine workers is likely to weigh on RTX Corporation (NYSE:RTX)s cash flow during the second quarter, CEO Chris Calio told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday. RTX Corporation (RTX) Says Pratt & Whitney Strike Will Constrain Q2 Cash Flow A person wearing a hardhat and safety glasses in a factory installing a LED high bay fixture. On Tuesday, about 3,000 machinists approved a new four-year contract, marking the end of the first strike at the engine-makers Connecticut sites since 2001, where the workers top priority was securing a commitment from RTX Corporation (NYSE:RTX) subsidiary Pratt & Whitney to maintain work on the F-35 fighters in the state. According to Calio, the strike hampered the companys ability to ship jet engines because of which he expects break-even to negative cash flow during Q2. However, the RTX Corporation (NYSE:RTX) CEO was confident about the companys ability to recover from the impact in the quarters ahead. RTX Corporation (NYSE:RTX)s shares were down 1% as of 2 PM EDT on Wednesday. Despite the dip, the company has had impressive year-to-date returns of nearly 15% on the back of notable high-value contract awards. During the conference, Calio described President Trumps proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield as a unique opportunity. He also added that RTX Corporation (NYSE:RTX) continues to expect strong weapons demand from Europe despite ongoing trade tensions. While we acknowledge the potential of RTX 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 RTX and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: ChatGPT Stock Advice: Top 12 Stock Recommendations and 10 Cheap Rising Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. By Zaheer Kachwala (Reuters) - Salesforce raised its revenue and adjusted profit forecasts for fiscal 2026 on Wednesday, as the enterprise software provider benefits from strong cloud spending while ramping up monetization of its artificial intelligence agents. Cloud spending from major enterprises has remained resilient even amid global macroeconomic uncertainty over the past few months, as companies invest heavily in artificial intelligence to modernize their digital infrastructure. Shares of the company were up around 1.5% in extended trading. Higher cloud spending bodes well for Salesforce's efforts to ramp up monetization for its AI agent platform, Agentforce, as it bets big on agentic technology to spur adoption of its software offerings. The company said it closed over 8,000 deals since launching Agentforce, with half of them already paid. Its Data Cloud and AI annual recurring revenue has exceeded $1 billion. While Agentforce's monetization has underperformed investors' expectations, "experts have cited a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity by the end of 2026, with the expectation that Agentforce will ultimately become Salesforce's largest revenue contributor," said Third Bridge analyst Charlie Miner. Salesforce bought data management platform Informatica for about $8 billion on Tuesday to bolster its data tools. The company's re-entry into big-ticket M&A after years on the sidelines sparks concerns about Salesforce's ability to return to double-digit growth without relying on acquisitions. "The acquisition of Informatica represents an attempt by the company to compensate for the slowing organic growth," said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. The company expects fiscal 2026 revenue to be between $41 billion and $41.3 billion, compared with its prior forecast range of $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion. It raised its full-year forecast for adjusted earnings per share to a range of $11.27 to $11.33, compared to its previous forecast of $11.09 to $11.17 per share. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $9.83 billion, beating estimates of $9.75 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona) While Taiwan Semi might not receive nearly as much coverage as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices , or Broadcom , don't be fooled by its quiet reputation. A year ago, Druckenmiller's portfolio had zero exposure to Taiwan Semi. And while the firm did buy the stock during the previous two quarters, the position itself was relatively nominal. Looked at a different way, the most recent purchase of TSMC stock during Q1 is a clear outlier compared to the previous two quarters. Sometimes when a hedge fund increases its position in a particular stock, you can begin identifying a pattern by looking at prior filings. In this case, however, I don't think these dynamics really hold up. Per its most recent 13F filing, the Duquesne Family Office recently plowed into Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) stock. In the table, I've summarized the fund's position in TSMC over the last year: Let's dig into the new artificial intelligence (AI) chip stock that the Duquesne Family Office just increased its stake in by a whopping 457%. Now may be a lucrative time to follow Druckenmiller's lead. Since making these comments, Druckenmiller has definitely had multiple chances to get back on the Nvidia train. After all, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest did just that after she too sold the semiconductor darling prior to its epic rally a couple of years ago. Nevertheless, recent filings indicate that Druckenmiller may have accepted his decision with Nvidia and is seeking opportunity elsewhere. Stanley Druckenmiller of the Duquesne Family Office admitted that he sold Nvidia stock far too early -- going as far as to say that he made a " big mistake " in doing so. What I find helpful, though, is when portfolio managers admit that they may have made a mistake. To me, this sheds light into how these investors think, and what strategies they may hone in order to mitigate making the same oversight. It's easy to think that institutional money managers somehow possess knowledge that's superior to the rest of the investment community. After all, these billionaires are called " smart money " for a reason. Per recent filings, the billionaire has just doubled down on another chip opportunity. Story continues Companies such as Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Amazon, Qualcomm, Apple, and many more all design or buy chips and integrated network equipment for AI data centers. Where TSMC comes into play is that they actually manufacture the equipment that is designed by these companies. So while Nvidia and its cohorts get to sell the best shovels that money can buy during the AI gold rush, Taiwan Semi is in the background actually making the shovels. In other words, a good chunk of the AI chip opportunity hinges on TSMC's ability to manufacture these products. What's even more encouraging is that Taiwan Semi is investing heavily into infrastructure in an effort to maintain its lead over the competition. The company has already built factories here in the U.S., and has plans to double down on this initiative over the next few years. These investments are strategic, as they should allow for more efficiencies and improved supply chain logistics with domestic chip partners -- a strategy that I think will further cement TSMC's market share lead. Wall Street seems to be bullish on Taiwan Semi, too. Per these estimates, analysts are forecasting impressive growth across both revenue and profits for TSMC over the next few years. I see these projections as a proxy for continued robust demand for AI chips, and Taiwan Semi's ability to win business over the competition such as Intel or Samsung. Image source: Getty Images. Is Taiwan Semi stock a buy right now? Right now, Taiwan Semiconductor's shares trade at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 20.8 -- essentially identical to its five-year average. Given how influential TSMC's foundry services are to the broader chip narrative, it's a little perplexing to see the company's forward valuation ratios trading in line with levels prior to the AI revolution. I think the recent valuation compression in TSMC can be attributed to two primary factors: uncertainty around tariff policies and geopolitical tensions with China. While I'll acknowledge both as potential risk factors, I think the bearish narrative surrounding each of them is overblown. Despite ongoing trade negotiations, demand for AI infrastructure remains incredibly high. These dynamics bode well for TSMC. Moreover, if management were questioning the long-term growth trajectory of the company, I'd be suspicious that it would be looking to expand its footprint beyond Asia. To me, Taiwan Semiconductor is humming along just fine -- and I don't see its tailwinds slowing down anytime soon. For these reasons, investors may want to follow Druckenmiller's lead and take advantage of Taiwan Semi's attractive price levels right now. More importantly, unlike what Druckenmiller did with Nvidia, TSMC looks primed for years to come, and growth investors may want to hold on tight for the long haul. Should you invest $1,000 in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now? Before you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $651,761!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $826,263!* Now, its worth noting Stock Advisors total average return is 978% a market-crushing outperformance compared to 170% for the S&P 500. Dont miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fools board of directors. Adam Spatacco has positions in Amazon, Apple, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Apple, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. After Saying Selling Nvidia Stock Was a "Big Mistake," Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller Just Increased His Fund's Stake by 457% in This Other Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Stock was originally published by The Motley Fool Henkell Freixenet workers in Spain began a four day strike yesterday (27 May) in reaction to planned layoffs of almost a quarter of its staff. The company announced plans last month to cut up to 180 jobs, pointing to existential challenges stemming from extreme climatic conditions affecting the Catalonia region. Jobs affected are in production operations at the Cava maker's Freixenet, based in Sant Sadurni dAnoia and Segura Viudas located in Torrelavit near Barcelona. The conditions have created severe disruptions across the industry, pushing the Cava sector into an unprecedented crisis, the business said in its statement last month, adding Cava production has decreased significantly across the industry." Local union Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) said it had called "the entire workforce" to take part in the walkout "in defense of jobs at Freixenet and Segura Viudas", which commenced yesterday evening. They will end on Friday (30 May). When asked whether the strikes would continue for longer than the four days, the CCOO told Just Drinks that it could go on "if the company doesn't start bargaining". Speaking to Just Drinks, Henkell Freixenet said it "respects the workers' right to protest" and highlighted difficult growing conditions. "As we seek solutions to the existential challenges posed by Catalonias multi-year drought, we are engaging with the workers' legal representatives to seek a constructive way forward," it added. The company said since 2022, Cava grape harvests have declined by 45% in the Penedes area of Catalonia, while raw material costs have increased. "This combination has created a profound mismatch between what the market demands and what we can actually produce, putting the long-term viability of our business at risk," it said. Henkell Freixenet had sought to furlough roughly 80% of staff or some 615 workers in April 2024, as drought conditions the Penedes area. However, the following month, Spains Catalan government rejected the companys force majeure reasoning for the worker stoppage. According to data from the Regulatory Board of the DO Cava and consumer research group Circana, total sector sales volumes fell 13.4% last year compared with 2023, reaching 218 million bottles. Of these, 78 million were sold in Spain, reflecting a 3.6% decline, while 140 million were exported, representing an 18.1% decrease in international sales. Henkell Freixenet was formed in 2018 following Henkell & Co.s purchase of a majority stake in Spanish Cava producer Freixenet. Stellantis and Amazon are discontinuing their partnership on the SmartCockpit in-car software project, initially aimed at enhancing the driving experience and showcasing their vehicle-tech capabilities. Both the firms have mutually decided to wind down their collaboration, reported Reuters. The SmartCockpit project was intended to integrate Amazon's technology into vehicles to create a more personalised and connected driving experience. The project's termination is emblematic of the challenges traditional automakers face in adopting advanced vehicle software in partnership with Silicon Valley. A statement from the firms said: "Stellantis remains a valuable partner for Amazon, and the companies continue to work together on a range of initiatives." The SmartCockpit project, announced in 2022, was expected to transform Stellantis vehicles into smart, connected environments, offering personalised settings and home automation features. The venture was part of Stellantis's strategy to compete with electric vehicle leaders like Tesla and BYD, leveraging Amazon's software prowess. Stellantis's former CEO Carlos Tavares had expressed his ambition for the partnership to make their vehicles "the most wanted, most captivating place to be, even when not driving." However, Tavares's abrupt departure last year and Stellantis's declining stock value, which fell by around 40% in 2024, have marked a period of difficulty for the automaker. The importance of automotive software has grown significantly, with it controlling various aspects of modern vehicles, including safety features and infotainment systems. Legacy automakers have been challenged to develop these systems efficiently, often resulting in partnerships or talent acquisition from tech companies. While the specific reasons for the SmartCockpit project's end are unclear, both companies have stated that the decision allows them to concentrate on solutions that align with their evolving strategies. Stellantis, which manages a complex array of models and suppliers, faces greater challenges in software implementation compared to companies with simpler lineups, like Tesla. The SmartCockpit was part of Stellantis's broader technological initiative, including the STLA Brain electrical architecture and the Autodrive driver-assistance system. Despite the end of this partnership, Stellantis will continue to use Amazon Web Services for data storage and updates, and Alexa will remain available in some of its vehicles. Stellantis may seek alternative operating systems, such as Google's Android platform, to continue the development of SmartCockpit. By Nora Eckert and Kalea Hall DETROIT (Reuters) -U.S. dealers of Jeep SUVs and Ram pickup trucks are pinning their hopes on new Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa to turn around months of disappointing sales and weakening trust. The 51-year-old Italian national, named on Wednesday to run the global automaker, has already had plenty of facetime with U.S. dealers as chief operating officer of the Americas since December, when Carlos Tavares abruptly quit as CEO. Sliding U.S. market share factored into Stellantis' search for a new leader. "He knows what he's doing. He has a manufacturing and quality background, which is important to us," said former Stellantis National Dealer Council Chairman Kevin Farrish of Filosa. Farrish was the top signature on a letter in September admonishing Tavares for a pricing strategy that retailers complained led to a steep sales decline. Tavares had pushed for cost cuts that alienated many car sellers, suppliers and unions. The company faced lawsuits from shareholders and unfair labor practice charges from the United Auto Workers union. Stellantis has since been working to repair these connections and lift the company's stock price and North American sales. It brought back longtime executives such as Ram Chief Tim Kuniskis to lead its brands. Filosa has been meeting with dealers around the country and is expected to speak with the Stellantis dealer council on Wednesday. The turnaround after Tavares' departure has been slow. First-quarter net revenues fell 14% year-over-year globally, and were down 25% in North America. Shipments in the region also faltered. Filosa is tasked with reversing this slump while facing billions in added costs from tariffs on imported cars that U.S. President Donald Trump implemented in April. Stellantis and some other automakers have suspended their annual guidance, citing uncertainty around the levies. The company in 2024 imported over 40% of the 1.2 million vehicles it sold in the United States, mostly from Mexico and Canada. Mark Trudell, general manager of Extreme Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealership in Jackson, Michigan, called Filosa's appointment the "right decision" at this time. "Everything I hear from the inside is that he knows the North America market better than his predecessor," Trudell said. Stellantis executives need to prioritize where to go with the electric-vehicle market and how to handle tariffs, he added. Thad Szott, dealer partner at Szott Auto Group, said Filosa came to his dealership in White Lake, Michigan, more than a year ago and talked to him for about an hour. Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Dubai's real estate market has been on a roll recently, with property values increasing by 70% in four years. This has caught the attention of Wall Street, and now, Bloomberg reports, some of New York's biggest investment banks want a piece of the action. According to Bloomberg, Brookfield is considering developing a mixed-use community in the Dubai Hills neighborhood, its first investment in the area. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Asia-based asset manager Hillhouse Investment have already invested heavily in Dubai real estate. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm Invest at $0.60/share before it's too late. Inspired by Uber and Airbnb Deloitte's fastest-growing software company is transforming 7 billion smartphones into income-generating assets with $1,000 you can invest at just $0.30/share! Record Commercial Sales Dubai's luxury residential market is renowned for its celebrity clientele. However, recently, the city's commercial sector has been making headlines. In the last two years, there have been eight office building sales, Bloomberg reports, more than in the prior decade. Hotel transactions have been equally as prolific, with real estate consultancy Knight Frank reporting 15 sales occurring over the last 30 months. "The past two years have been busier for us than the whole previous decade on the capital market side," Andrew Love, head of capital markets and commercial agency at Knight Frank, told Bloomberg. "Demand is growing from overseas buyers who are coming in search of better returns and lower taxes." Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing you can become an investor for $0.80 per share today. Oligarchs And Finance Titans Like many major cities, Dubai's real estate market has been on a roller coaster recently. Overbuilding before the financial crash of 2008 led to expat residents escaping the city once they could no longer afford the payments on their debts, Bloomberg says. However, Dubai real estate has been on a tear since the pandemic. The city opened before many other metro areas that were still in lockdown, attracting well-heeled investors to its sunny shores. The city has also benefited from the fallout of the war in Ukraine, with many oligarchs looking to shield cash from sanctions and international governments, Bloomberg reported. Financial firms are also drawn to Dubai's low taxes and central global position. (Reuters) -Synopsys forecast third-quarter revenue largely above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, driven by strong demand for its semiconductor design software as companies ramp up spending on AI chips. Shares of the company rose 3.8% in extended trading, after falling about 10% during the session following a media report that said the Trump administration had ordered U.S. chip design software firms to cease sales to Chinese groups. Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi said on a post-earnings call that the company had not received a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which enforces export controls. "We are aware of the reporting and speculations, but Synopsys has not received a notice from BIS. So our guidance reflects our current understanding of BIS export restrictions as well as our expectations for year-over-year decline in China," Ghazi said. While the company has been seeing a slowdown in China, which typically accounts for about 16% of its annual revenue, robust demand from other regions, including Europe and South Korea, helped offset the weakness. It reported revenue of $1.60 billion in the second quarter ended April 30, in line with estimates. The company projected current-quarter revenue between $1.76 billion and $1.79 billion, while analysts on average expect $1.76 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. In a further escalation of regulatory pressure on Synopsys, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that it would require Synopsys and software firm Ansys to divest certain assets to address antitrust concerns surrounding their $35 billion merger. However, during the earnings call earlier, Ghazi said that the company has regulatory clearances for its proposed merger with Ansys in all jurisdictions except China. "We are working cooperatively and actively negotiating ... to secure China regulatory clearance and we continue to anticipate closing in the first half of this year," Ghazi said. Synopsys, which counts companies such as Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm among its partners, provides the software and hardware used to design advanced processors. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi) Singapores Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) and Frances TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) announced that their joint venture, Singa Renewables, will develop a large-scale solar and battery energy storage project in Indonesias Riau Province. The project, which will be built in multiple phases, is designed to supply clean energy to industrial areas in Riau and export solar power to Singapore. This initiative aims to support Indonesias decarbonization goals while enhancing energy collaboration across the region. TotalEnergies and Singapore's RGE to Develop Solar and Battery Storage Project in Indonesia The official signing of the Co-Investment Agreement took place on May 28 at the Presidential Palace, witnessed by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and French President Emmanuel Macron. This event highlighted the project's strategic importance and the strong government backing from both nations. Helle Kristoffersen, president of TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) Asia and a member of its executive committee, made the following comment: "This project aims to drive the development of regional renewable energy infrastructure and advance the ASEAN Power Grid vision." RGEs Managing Director, Imelda Tanoto, noted that the partnership reflects the companys commitment to improving regional energy connectivity and advancing the broader energy transition. Beyond supporting emissions reduction efforts, the initiative is expected to position Indonesia as a key player in the global renewable energy sector. It is set to generate skilled jobs in solar, energy storage, and grid engineering, while also enhancing local supply chain capabilities. The project is aligned with broader ASEAN goals for cross-border clean energy trade and regional energy integration. TTE has surged by nearly 6% since the start of 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of TTE 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 TTE and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ MORE: Why These Energy Stocks are Losing This Week and 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now Disclosure. None. Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (DJT) announced a $2.5 billion fundraise from institutional investors to create one of the largest Bitcoin treasury allocations by a public company, according to a press release. The company entered subscription agreements with approximately 50 institutional investors for $1.5 billion in common stock and $1 billion in convertible notes, according to the filing. DJT shares fell 10% following Tuesday's announcement and dropped another 1.9% as of midday Wednesday. DJT Moves Into Financial Services The Bitcoin treasury strategy represents Trump Media's expansion from a social media platform into financial services, positioning the company to capitalize on cryptocurrency adoption while building reserves outside traditional banking systems. The offering is expected to close May 29, according to the company. Trump Media intends to use proceeds entirely for Bitcoin purchases, which will be held alongside $759 million in existing cash and short-term investments as of the first quarter. CEO Devin Nunes called Bitcoin an "apex instrument of financial freedom" in the announcement. The move aims to "defend our Company against harassment and discrimination by financial institutions," according to Nunes. Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital will provide custody services for the Bitcoin holdings, according to the filing. The same partnership recently enabled Trump Media's planned exchange-traded fund launch through its Truth.Fi brand. Read More: Trump Media and Crypto.com Team Up for Truth.Fi ETF Launch Bitcoin Treasury Expansion The fundraising follows Trump Media's broader financial services push, including trademark filings for three ETFs under Truth.Fi: the Truth.Fi Made in America ETF, the Truth.Fi U.S. Energy Independence ETF and the Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF. Those funds will combine digital assets with "Made in America" securities across multiple sectors. The company plans to invest up to $250 million of its own reserves into these products through Charles Schwab as custodian, according to previous filings. Bitcoin custody will be split between Crypto.com and Anchorage Digital. Trump Media operates the Truth Social and Truth+ streaming platforms alongside its expanding Truth.Fi financial brand. The company reported $3.6 million in revenue and a $400 million net loss in 2024, according to CNBC. The Bitcoin allocation joins a growing trend of politically aligned businesses converting corporate treasuries to cryptocurrency. Michael Saylor's Strategy Inc. (MSTR) popularized the strategy, holding over $40.6 billion in Bitcoin as of May 25, according to a company filing. Key Points Sam Altman of OpenAI is also the co-founder of an identity management project called World Network. World Network is looking to use biometric hardware to help combat the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) bots online. As part of the project, World Network also employs a transactional layer known as Worldcoin -- a cryptocurrency available to investors. 10 stocks we like better than Worldcoin The first half of 2025 has been anything but predictable in the stock market. It seems like ages ago that concerns around Chinese start-up DeepSeek and the intensifying competitive landscape in artificial intelligence (AI) sent shockwaves across the capital markets. As investors know all too well, just about the only things economists have been talking about for almost two months now are tariffs. In the wake of all this uncertainty in the equity market, some astute investors have turned elsewhere. Specifically, the cryptocurrency market has started to attract some new life. Although Bitcoin seems poised to reach new all-time highs, venture capital (VC) juggernauts Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) and Bain Capital just jointly plowed $135 million into a relatively new token called Worldcoin (CRYPTO: WLD) -- an initiative that was co-founded by Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI. Let's explore what Worldcoin is and assess why two of Silicon Valley's most prestigious VC firms just invested in the fledgling crypto project during this period of pronounced market uncertainty. What is Worldcoin? Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It serves as the transactional foundation for a project known as World Network. To put it simply, Altman and his co-founders are seeking to build a community (the World Network) that helps solve a use case known as "proof of human." Essentially, by becoming a member of the World Network, each user is then granted a unique identifier known as their custom World ID. In an effort to combat the same user signing up twice or having the network comprised by artificial intelligence (AI) bots, World IDs are verified using a technology called iris biometrics (eye scanning). Image source: Getty Images. Why might Silicon Valley be interested? Before joining The Motley Fool, I spent a decade working in investment banking as well as leading various financial projects at technology start-ups. Anecdotally speaking, I've seen VC investors become intrigued by ideas that may come across as off the beaten path. I see World Network as no different. On the surface, World Network parallels something out of an Orwellian novel. But digging a little deeper into its purpose, I can understand the need for solving the proof of human (PoH) use case. In its initial whitepaper, World Network outlines certain functions (such as voting online) that are currently difficult to perfect due to potential breaches of security protocols. UK car and commercial vehicle production fell by 15.8% to 59,203 units in April, according to the latest figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Vehicle output fell to the lowest level for the month since 1952, excluding 2020 when the first Covid lockdown effectively saw manufacturing cease. The result caps off the sectors lowest start to the year since 2009. The SMMT said Aprils decline in car output was driven by a combination of factors, notably the later timing of Easter which saw fewer production days in the month (and hence a factor behind the comparative rise in output in March) as well as model changeovers and lower demand in key export markets. As a result, car production fell 8.6% to 56,534 units. Commercial vehicle output also declined, by 68.6% to 2,669 units, driven primarily by a plant closure and normalising demand for new heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) following robust post-pandemic growth. Car production for export fell 10.1%, while production for the domestic market always a smaller proportion of volumes also decreased, by 3.3%. Shipments to the UKs two largest global markets, the EU and US, fell by 19.1% and 2.7% respectively, although the EU still took more than half of all exports while the US received 16.5%. Conversely, exports to China and Turkey rose by 44.0% and 31.2% respectively. Commercial vehicle export volumes, meanwhile, fell sharply by 75.8% with just over half (50.7%) of output heading overseas. The decline was driven by a 78.9% drop in shipments to the EU, but the bloc retained the lions share of exports at 84.9%. CV output for the domestic market also softened, down by 54.6%. The SMMT noted that production is being constrained by economic uncertainty and rapidly changing global trading conditions and said the UK industry awaits publication of governments industrial strategy, which must contain measures that boost the competitiveness of Britains most valuable export sector. It said a strategy with automotive and advanced manufacturing at its heart will enable the sector to take advantage of the UKs new trading arrangements, including those agreed with the EU and US while exploring possibilities for growth in other markets, notably India, delivering economic benefits across the UK. Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said: With automotive manufacturing experiencing its toughest start to the year since 2009, urgent action is needed to boost domestic demand and our international competitiveness. Government has recognised automotive manufacturings critical role in driving the UK economy, having successfully negotiated improved trading conditions for the sector with the US, EU and India in the space of a month. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has revealed a 15.8% drop in UK car and commercial vehicle production in April 2025. For the month, 59,203 units were manufactured, marking the lowest April output since 1952, barring the exceptional circumstances in 2020 during the first Covid lockdown. Car production in the UK experienced an 8.6% decline, totalling 56,534 units, influenced by the later timing of Easter, model changeovers, and reduced demand from key export markets. The commercial vehicle sector registered a decline of 68.6% to 2,669 units, primarily due to a plant closure and a return to normal demand levels for new heavy goods vehicles after a period of intense post-pandemic growth. Exports of cars saw a 10.1% drop, with the EU and US markets showing declines of 19.1% and 2.7%, respectively. Despite these drops, the EU remained the largest export destination, receiving more than half of all UK car exports, while the US accounted for 16.5%. In contrast, exports to China and Turkey increased by 44% and 31.2%, the report said. Commercial vehicle exports plummeted by 75.8%, with just over half of the production being sent abroad. Despite a 78.9% reduction in shipments, the EU continued to be the primary export market, accounting for 84.9% of the total. Domestic commercial vehicle output also saw a downturn, falling by 54.6%. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: With automotive manufacturing experiencing its toughest start to the year since 2009, urgent action is needed to boost domestic demand and our international competitiveness. Government has recognised automotive manufacturings critical role in driving the UK economy, having successfully negotiated improved trading conditions for the sector with the US, EU and India in the space of a month. To take advantage of these trading opportunities, we must secure additional investment, which will depend on the competitiveness and confidence that can be provided by a comprehensive and innovative long-term industrial strategy. Get this right and the jobs, economic growth and decarbonisation will flow across the UK. The industry is now awaiting the government's industrial strategy, which is expected to include measures to enhance the competitiveness of the UK's most valuable export sector, the body said. Last week, the SMMT reported a 49.8% surge in public service vehicle registrations in the UK in Q1 2025, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of growth. "UK vehicle production decline hits record low in April 2025: SMMT" was originally created and published by Motor Finance Online, a GlobalData owned brand. The US government is moving to restrict the sale of chip design software to China, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. This development is part of a broader policy evaluation by the US to curb China's semiconductor industry ambitions. The focus is on electronic design automation (EDA) software, with potential implications for companies such as Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, and Siemens. The Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security has reportedly sent letters to some EDA providers, instructing them to halt shipments to Chinese customers. The policy details are not yet public, and the extent of the restrictions remains unclear, the publication said. The publication cited an agency spokesperson as saying: The Commerce Department is reviewing exports of strategic significance to China. In some cases, Commerce has suspended existing export licenses or imposed additional license requirements while the review is pending. However, it could result in a significant impact on business operations in China, where Synopsys and Cadence derive 16% and 12% of their revenue, respectively. The US administrations approach to limiting China's semiconductor industry has been escalating, initially targeting equipment for advanced electronic components and gradually broadening the scope. Software from companies such as Cadence and Synopsys is crucial for designing high-end processors used by firms such as Nvidia and Apple, as well as simpler components for power regulation. The US has also aimed to prevent the sale of advanced semiconductors to China, with Nvidia being a primary target of export controls. Nvidia's chips are essential for training artificial intelligence models. The Trump administration banned Nvidia from selling its H20 chips to Chinese customers, marking the third round of restrictions since 2022. US export controls have become a contentious issue in trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing. Chinese officials argued that US restrictions, along with efforts to discourage allies from using Huawei Technologies' Ascend chip, contradict recent discussions in Geneva aimed at easing broader trade tensions initiated by President Donald Trump. "US planning restrictions on chip design software sales to China" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. James MacDonald / Bloomberg via Getty Images Vail Resorts affirmed its fiscal 2025 guidance as it replaced its CEO. Key Takeaways Vail Resorts ousted CEO Kirsten Lynch and replaced her with former CEO Rob Katz. Katz ran the ski lodge operator from 2006 to 2021. Vail Resorts also reiterated its fiscal 2025 guidance. It's "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" at Vail Resorts (MTN). Shares of the ski lodge operator jumped 15% Wednesday, a day after the company announced former chief executive and current Executive Chair Rob Katz is replacing CEO Kirsten Lynch. Katz ran Vail Resorts from 2006 to 2021, and Lynch took over after he stepped down. She will remain as an advisor to the company. Vail Resorts has struggled of late, with skier visits through April 20 having declined 3.1% year-over-year, and fiscal second-quarter results hurt by a patrol strike at its massive resort in Park City, Utah. Bruce Sewell, Lead Independent Director of the Board, said as the company "continues to execute its strategic priorities and transformational initiatives, the Board believes now is the right time for this leadership transition." Along with the executive change, Vail Resorts affirmed its guidance given last month, and expects full-year Resort Reported EBITDA to be in the lower half of the March 10 outlook of $841 million to $877 million. Despite today's gains, Vail Resorts shares are down about 7.5% year-to-date. TradingView Read the original article on Investopedia Key Points Clearway Energy has a clear strategy to increase its quarterly dividend. Energy Transfer aims to raise its big-time payout by 3% to 5% per year. W.P. Carey has dual growth drivers pushing its quarterly payout higher. 10 stocks we like better than Energy Transfer Most top dividend stocks strive to boost their payments at least once a year. However, some companies are even more generous. They aim to give their investors a raise every single quarter. That enables investors to collect a very steadily rising income stream. Clearway Energy (NYSE: CWEN.A)(NYSE: CWEN), Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET), and W.P. Carey (NYSE: WPC) have been hiking their high-yielding payouts each quarter for the past few years. While future payments are not guaranteed, these look like ideal stocks to buy to collect a very steadily rising stream of passive income. Image source: Getty Images. A powerful plan to grow its dividend Clearway Energy currently pays a $0.4384 per-share dividend ($1.75 annualized). The clean energy company has a 5.7% dividend yield at its current rate and share price. The company generates very stable cash flow by selling clean energy to utilities and large corporate customers under long-term, fixed-rate power purchase agreements (PPAs). The company has been raising its dividend each quarter (it hiked its payout by 1.7% last quarter), and it's targeting to pay a total of $1.76 per share in dividends this year. It aims to deliver 6.5% dividend-per-share growth next year and raise its payment in the bottom half of its 5%-8% long-term target range in 2027. Powering Clearway's growing dividend is its investments to expand its clean energy portfolio. For example, it recently bought an operational solar farm in California and a wind farm in Washington. The company also agreed to re-power the Mt. Storm Wind project in West Virginia by installing larger turbines. It will sell the power from that project to Microsoft under a 20-year PPA. The company uses its post-dividend free cash flow and balance sheet flexibility to fund growth investments. Lots of fuel to increase its lucrative payout Energy Transfer currently pays a quarterly distribution of $0.3275 per unit ($1.31 annualized). That gives the master limited partnership (MLP) a 7.3% yield at its recent unit price and distribution level. The energy midstream company aims to raise its distribution by $0.0025 per unit each quarter ($0.01 annualized), which works out to a 3% to 5% annual growth rate. The MLP, which sends its investors a Schedule K-1 federal tax form each year -- so unitholders will have a little extra paperwork -- generates very stable cash flow because fee-based assets supply about 90% of its annual earnings. Energy Transfer aims to distribute a little more than half of its stable earnings to investors, retaining the rest to invest in growing its operations and maintaining a rock-solid financial profile. Source: TradingView.com Key Takeaways Nvidia shares jumped in extended trading on Wednesday after the chip giant surpassed Wall Streets quarterly revenue expectations amid booming AI demand. The stock has broken out from a flag pattern, a move that has coincided with the 50-day moving average crossing above the 200-day MA to form a bullish golden cross. Investors should watch major overhead areas on Nvidia's chart around $143, $150 and $160, while also monitoring a crucial support level near $130. Nvidia (NVDA) shares jumped in extended trading on Wednesday after the AI chipmaker surpassed Wall Street's quarterly revenue expectations. The company announced after the closing bell that its fiscal first-quarter sales rose 69% to a record $44.06 billion, as major technology companies continue to ramp up spending on AI infrastructure. Profit was lower than analysts had estimated, as the company recorded a $4.5 billion charge in the quarter due to restrictions on the sale of its H20 chips to China, though the amount was less than the $5.5 billion the company said it anticipated last month. CEO Jensen Huang said global demand for Nvidia's AI infrastructure remains "incredibly strong", adding that he sees accelerating demand for AI computing with the use of AI agents becoming mainstream. Nvidia shares slumped between January and early April amid concerns of a slowdown in AI spending and the Trump administrations unpredictable trade policies. However, the stock has rebounded 56% from last months low as trade tensions eased and the chipmaker announced a partnership with an AI subsidiary of Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund. The stock rose nearly 5% to just above $141 in after-hours trading Wednesday. The stock hasn't traded above $140 during regular trading hours since February. Below, we dial into Nvidias four-hour chart and apply technical analysis to identify major price levels that investors will likely be watching. Flag Pattern Breakout Nvidia shares rallied sharply after breaking out from a pennant earlier this month, before consolidating again within a flag pattern above the closely watched 200-day moving average (MA). More recently, the stock has broken out above the flag patterns upper trendline, a move that has coincided with the 50-day moving average crossing above the 200-day MA to form a bullish golden cross. Indeed, the stocks upside momentum looks set to continue, though investors should watch if trading volume confirms the move higher. During the lead-up to earnings, share turnover had declined, indicating investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the highly anticipated results. On May 28, Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo reiterated a Buy rating on Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) with an unchanged price target of $56. Mayo believes that Bank of America has significantly strengthened its balance sheet over the last 15 years, as evidenced by its performance in the Federal Reserves stress tests. Additionally, the banks recent earnings growth provides it with a greater cushion to absorb unexpected losses. This signifies that the bank will be much more resilient in challenging economic conditions. Bank of Americas (BAC) Strong Fundamentals, Low Valuation Drive Bullish Case Pixabay/Public Domain The analyst also notes that stronger earnings reflect solid performance across key areas such as loan, deposit, and account growth, along with a more efficient cost structure. Based on his estimates, Bank of America is expected to grow EPS by over 40% over the next three years. Another reason behind Mayos optimistic thesis is its attractive valuation. BAC currently trades at the lower end of its historical forward price-to-earnings range, which the analyst finds appealing. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company. It is the second-largest banking institution in the United States and the second-largest bank globally by market capitalization. While we acknowledge the potential of BAC 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 BAC and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. Key Points Americans are snatching up used cars. Elevated new car prices could continue to spur demand for older vehicles and, as a result, used car parts. Advance Auto Parts still has a long road ahead. 10 stocks we like better than Advance Auto Parts Shares of the aftermarket automotive products company Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP) were climbing today after a report released this week showed that demand for used vehicles is rising. If Americans continue to hold on to their older vehicles, it could help spur more auto parts sales. Investors may have also been pleased to see that one of the company's rivals, AutoZone, reported solid same-store sales growth in its first quarter yesterday, indicating a strong demand for auto parts. Advance Auto Parts stock is up 5.3% as of 1:33 p.m. ET. Image source: Getty Images. A minor upside of automotive tariffs Investors may have been responding to a report this week by The Wall Street Journal showing that demand for used vehicles is on the rise because of automotive tariffs. Used car supply at dealer lots is falling fast and hasn't been this low since the COVID pandemic. Tariffs on imported vehicles and some auto parts have helped push new vehicle prices higher, to an average of about $49,000 in April, according to Cox Automotive. As a result, Americans are looking to buy used cars instead and holding on to existing vehicles longer. That's good news for Advance Auto Parts, which caters to both automotive mechanics and car owners looking to make vehicle repairs. Advance Auto Parts investors may also be responding to rival AutoZone's recent earnings report, released yesterday, in which the company's same-store sales rose 3.2% in the quarter. The rise in sales shows that demand for auto parts continues to be strong, and Advance Auto Parts investors were likely hoping that the company will be able to tap into that trend. A long road ahead Advance Auto Parts is in the midst of a turnaround, and the company still has its work cut out for it, as its sales fell 7% in the first quarter. Still, the company's revenue and earnings were both ahead of analysts' consensus estimates, and the company reiterated its guidance for the full year. Advance Auto Parts' share price is still down about 25% over the past 12 months, and investors will want to pay close attention to the next few quarters to see if the company can successfully tap into the surge in used car demand. There's plenty of uncertainty in the automotive market right now, which means that investors may want to sit this stock out until the company shows more signs of life. The share price of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) fell by 10.41% between May 20 and May 27, 2025, putting it among the Energy Stocks that Lost the Most This Week. Let's shed some light on the development. Here is Why The AES Corporation (AES) Declined This Week An executive in a power plant control booth overseeing the efficient energy production. The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES), together with its subsidiaries, operates as a power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. A number of factors have put downward pressure on the share price of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) this month. The company reported lower-than-expected results for its Q1 2025, missing estimates in both earnings and revenue. Moreover, AES has suffered a blow from President Trumps tax bill, with a potential slowdown expected in the renewable business outlook starting in 2027 and beyond. The wind and solar industries, in particular, have suffered a setback, and AES has been investing in these two renewable sectors since 2002. Lastly, The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) was recently downgraded by analysts at Jeffries and Argus Research due to concerns about the companys future, particularly in the renewable sector. While we acknowledge the potential of AES 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 AES and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Cheap Energy Stocks to Buy Now and 10 Most Undervalued Energy Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds Disclosure: None. We recently published a list of While Market Bleeds, These 10 Firms Soar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE:AG) stands against other best-performing stocks. First Majestic Silver rallied for a third day on Wednesday, adding 2.59 percent to close at $6.33 apiece as investor sentiment was boosted by its successful discovery of vein-hosted gold and silver mineralization sites at its Santa Elena mining property in Mexico. In a statement on Wednesday, First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE:AG) said it discovered a new gold-silver deposit one kilometer away from the Santa Elena mining property in Sonora, Mexico, and also increased production of the Navidad deposit following successful drilling operations. With the additions of Navidad and Santo Nino, the Santa Elena property now hosts four significant gold-silver deposits: Santa Elena, Ermitano, Navidad, and Santo Nino, underscoring the growing scale and potential of the district. Why First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) Soared On Wednesday An open-pit mine framed by a mountain range, highlighting the company's vast mining concessions. The Santo Nino discovery marks yet another exciting milestone for the district, and the drilling shows the vein remains open for expansion in most directions. At the same time, step-out drilling at the Navidad Discovery continues to intercept exceptionally high-grade mineralization and expand the resource envelope, said First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE:AG) President and CEO Keith Neumeyer. Overall, AG ranks 8th on our list of best-performing stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of AG, 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 AG and that has 10,000x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. We recently published a list of 10 Stocks Crash Harder Than Wall Street. In this article, we are going to take a look at where GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) stands against other worst-performing stocks. GameStop Corp. declined by 10.85 percent on Wednesday to finish at $31.21 apiece as investors resorted to profit-taking following three consecutive days of rally, while repositioning portfolios after pulling the trigger to buy $500 million of Bitcoins. In a statement, GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) said it purchased 4,710 Bitcoins as it looked to other industries to grow its business. It can be learned that GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) struggled to remain relevant amid the shifting consumer behavior in the gaming industry, pivoting to digital gaming purchases from physical ones. Why GameStop Corp. (GME) Went Down On Wednesday A gamer playing a game on one of the specialty retail company's gaming platforms. Meanwhile, the $500 million forms part of the companys $1.3 billion Bitcoin purchase program, an amount it planned to raise from offering convertible senior notes. It can be learned that the gaming company had already ventured into cryptocurrency in 2022 with the establishment of a now-defunct cryptocurrency wallet that sent its share prices skyrocketing for days after the launch. Overall, GME ranks 5th on our list of worst-performing stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of GME 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 GME and that has 10,000x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. We recently published a list of While Market Bleeds, These 10 Firms Soar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where QuantumScape Corporation (NYSE:QS) stands against other best-performing stocks. Quantumscape saw its share prices grow by 8.48 percent on Wednesday to finish at $4.3285 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by expectations that electric vehicle sales are expected to grow this year amid the looming end of tax credits. According to a study by Princeton University, President Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes a salient point seeking to end EV tax credits by the end of the year, would likely boost EV sales prior to the end date. Why QuantumScape Corporation (QS) Soared On Wednesday A line of electric vehicles parked in front of a research & development building in San Jose, California. This, in turn, could support sales of QuantumScape Corporation (NYSE:QS), one of the leading EV battery manufacturers in the US. However, the study said that without EV tax credits, EV sales would decline by 40 percent and planned battery cell manufacturing would result in large overcapacity in the long term, with US production capacity expected to hit 400 GWh per year, well in excess of demand. Overall, QS ranks 5th on our list of best-performing stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of QS, 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 QS and that has 10,000x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Photo by JHVEPhoto via iStock They say theres strength in numbers. Not-for-profit financial services group Thrivent aims to hire nearly 600 wealth managers by the end of 2025, which would see the organization increase its advisor pool by 2% this year. The industry average growth rate is at just 0.3% and has remained flat over the past decade, according to McKinsey & Co. Thrivent, along with some of its competitors, is setting lofty, competitive recruitment goals to meet growing client demands. Weve always been open for business, but this push is more about meeting the moment, said Nick Cecere, Thrivent chief distribution officer. While there is a shrinking pipeline of financial advisors, theres also a rising demand for financial guidance from younger clients, he added. READ ALSO: Does Gold Still Make Sense After Hitting All-Time Highs? and Theres Almost 600K More Millionaires. Thats Not Necessarily a Good Thing Man Your Battle Stations The industry is currently facing an advisor shortage, and its only supposed to get worse. McKinsey predicts firms will be short more than 100,000 wealth managers by 2034. The war on talent is absolutely here, and we see ourselves ready to lead, Cecere told Advisor Upside, adding that talent movements in the industry have become tectonic as more and more advisors reach retirement: Thrivent currently has 3,200 client-facing advisors, and is looking to attract experienced advisors as well as those who are new to the industry. The organization aims to expand its regional offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis, where advisors can remotely service clients across the country. We anticipate this competitive market will continue for a while and were investing in growth to meet client needs, Cecere said. Poached Eggs. Thrivent hasnt specifically mentioned targeting free-agent advisors in the wake of LPL Financials buyout of Commonwealth, but the timing of its announcement coincides with other firms efforts to poach talent away from the nations largest independent broker-dealer. Cetera President Todd Mackay published an open letter urging Commonwealth advisors to join his company, and Ameriprise has been meeting with advisors across the industry, including those from Commonwealth. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive financial advisor news, market insights, and practice management essentials, subscribe to our free Advisor Upside newsletter. Louisiana LNG is a game changer for Woodside, set to position our company as a global LNG powerhouse and deliver enduring shareholder value for decades to come. Louisiana LNG combines access to an abundant US gas resource, a prime location with best-in-class EPC and technology partners. It builds on Woodsides proven strengths in project execution, operational excellence, and LNG marketing to deliver significant cash generation potential and drive long-term shareholder value. Woodside Energy, (NYSE:WDS), Australias largest energy operator, has moved into the North American LNG market in a big way over the last 6-9 months. Beginning with its take-out of troubled LNG startup, Tellurian last fall, the company has moved at breakneck pace to move the fully permitted Driftwood LNG project along to FID. Just last month Woodside stunned the investing community by announcing FID approval for the first three trains of the 27.6 mpta Driftwood, now renamed Louisiana LNG. This is a bold move for this Australian energy producer that will bring on-line 16.5 mpta, and CEO Meg ONeill noted the profound impact on the company in the press release- Or you could just buy one off the shelf. One fully the biggest of these headaches, with ground already broken from an operator nearing bankruptcy and willing to sell for a song. It should also be noted that Driftwood was advantaged by sitting just below one of the largest gas fields in North America, with access to other basins already in place, and new, company-owned pipelines to bring gas already under development . Thats the position Woodside Energy found itself in last fall. It didnt hesitate long before picking this plum off the ground. Suppose you wanted to get into the LNG business in the U.S. to take advantage of the global low-cost of supply advantage held by America. So the desire and the rationale are there, but youd like to avoid some of the headaches associated with building a liquefaction facility. Site selection, permitting, financing, and associated infrastructure to support moving field gas to your site; essentially 7-10 years worth of work and trouble before you ever make a dime. In the meantime, maybe your stock tanks from upfront capex and interest charges, perhaps the commodity market turns against you, or a competitor beats you to the market and soaks up all the good offtake contracts. A myriad of stinging little flies to potentially beset you as you lurch toward FID. If youre a typical CEO, your consumption of aspirin and antacids begins to rise exponentially. Story Continues Perhaps this move shouldnt have been a surprise. The company has been building a portfolio in the LNG space for some time now as noted in the next slide. With ground already broken by the former operator and an EPIC contract in place with Bechtel, one of the top engineering and consulting companies, much of the uncertainty around pre-FID was resolved enabling WDS to move rapidly in this regard. Some challenges remain as only about 1 mpta of the plants approved 16.5 mpta output has been placed under long-term SPAs (Sales and Purchase Agreement), in a contract with Uniper-a, a German utility company. Other recent U.S. Gulf Coast LNG plants, notably Venture Global, and NextDecade, took the route of selling out 2/3 of their capacity before taking FID. By moving forward and entering the market in the late 2020s, WDS can leapfrog other potential projects and corner the market for supply gas. RBN in a recent blog post noted the impact that LA-LNG could have on projects still under FID review- An FID on a project of Louisiana LNGs magnitude again, three trains with a combined capacity of 16.5 MMtpa is sure to have an effect on developers promoting other, pre-FID projects along the Gulf Coast. These developers will now have a tougher job selling their projects, especially to investors and potential offtakers. Some pre-FID projects have large portions of their capacity contracted but these deals are done with Heads of Agreement (HOAs) rather than SPAs, the latter of which is a binding contract for offtake while the former is a less formal agreement that either party can back out of. Woodsides plan to derisk the project involves a significant reduction in its equity stake. One major announcement of an equity partner came last April, with Stonepeak taking a 40% equity interest in LA-LNG and funding 75% of the capital expense through 2026, thereby enabling WDS to defer its capex to 2027, when Scarborough is expected to be online. CEO Meg O Neill was quoted at CERAWeek in a WSJ article- Woodside is involved in intensive discussions with a couple of parties interested in participating in its newly approved $17.5 billion Louisiana LNG gas-export project. Woodside wants to reduce its capital commitments to roughly half the cost of developing the project, which will be built in phases and is targeting production of liquefied natural gas for the first time in 2029. Through the development of its Pacific Basin (Australian) projects, including Pluto and Scarborough, Woodside has emerged as an experienced LNG plant developer. The opportunity to acquire a derisked and permitted facility with access to low-cost U.S. gas was dangling in the market, and was ultimately seized by the company. The U.S. is the low-cost provider of natural gas globally and much of the current growth in supply from shale is being underpinned by export opportunities to capture more advantageous pricing in the Korean-JKM, and Dutch-TTF, markets. Your takeaway Woodside stock has taken a shellacking over the last year, down 25%. This is primarily due to the downdraft in commodity prices affecting cash flow, combined with high capex outlays for Scarborough. I think the company rates a buy at current levels irrespective of multiples in anticipation of a cash waterfall a few years hence for patient investors as sales ramp up and capex diminishes. With three trains online WDS has the capacity to be exporting a couple of hundred cargoes out of LA-LNG as the next decade starts, with an additional ~150 cargoes from the later brownfield development of trains 4-5. The buy case for WDS is certainly around Scarborough and LA-LNG coming on line as we head into the 2030's The company trades at a pretty attractive EV/EBITDA multiple-4.11X in comparison with other participants in the LNG cohort, including segment leader, Cheneire Energy, (NYSE:LNG) at 11X. It also pays a nearly 9% yielding dividend that is well covered by cash flow, with a payout ratio-68% that might bear a little watching. There are risks to this thesis, notably the $9.0 billion in debt the company has accumulated building Scarborough. In contrast, they have $4 billion in cash and an undrawn $6.5 billion RCF. Maturities are spaced out every 4 years, preventing any sort of a credit squeeze. The LNG market appears to have a long runway, thanks to increasing energy demand projections in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. If they dont pan out, the company could have some problems. Most analysts view the long-term market for LNG as being robust for the next several decades. If you're one of those investors who looked at Cheneire a dozen years ago at $15.00 and passed, and watched it ramp ever higher ever since, this could be your chance to get in on the fun. By David Messler for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Read this article on OilPrice.com This story was originally published on Restaurant Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Restaurant Dive newsletter. Yoshinoya America is hiring Paul Nishiyama as president, effective June 1, the company announced Wednesday. In the U.S., Yoshinoya has about 100 units, located in California. Outside the country, the Tokyo-based brand has over 2,000 restaurants. Nishiyama will join the chain from Better Buzz Coffee, where he served as chief operating officer. Previously, he held various positions at Rubios during a five-year stint with the company, where he rose to COO, according to his LinkedIn profile. He left Rubios about a year and a half before the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. Nishiyama joins Yoshinoya with a successful track record of sustained growth, improved profitability, and a commitment to quality, according to the press release. Yoshinoya has struggled to generate growth momentum in recent years, according to its Franchise Disclosure Document. The brand, which does not disclose information relating to unit economics in its FDD, saw its total number of units fall from 106 at the start of 2021 to 100 at the start of 2024. Last year, the brand appointed a new CEO for America, Glenn Lunde. Despite sluggish post-COVID growth, Yoshionya likely faces relatively favorable market conditions in the U.S. The brands menu, which is anchored by Gyudon Beef Bowls, fits within broader fast casual trend toward bowl-based meals. A similarly bowl-heavy menu has helped Cava outperform expectations. At the same time, the National Restaurant Association predicted 2025 would be a strong year for Asian concepts, though the NRA said that Japanese concepts have already achieved significant market penetration in the U.S. Asian brands, whether headquartered in the U.S. or abroad, have seen strong signs of recent growth. Yoshinoya may be able to capitalize on these trends and expand its U.S. presence. Recommended Reading Last December, a crowd gathered in the snow for an over-capacity hearing in the small town of Palmer Lake to determine whether a plan to annex land for a Buc-ee's travel store met legal requirements to move forward. Almost six months later, a similar crowd stood in the rain for the same meeting topic. The outcome of this meeting was similar as the last, with six of seven town trustees voting to approve the project to the next stage of scrutiny. The request was back before the Palmer Lake Board of Trustees on Thursday because developers of the travel store, a chain of supersized gas stations out of Texas, withdrew its successful application earlier this year. The Buc-ee's plan came back to the board with changes appearing to address some of the concerns raised on the previous request, including in a lawsuit filed by area nonprofits in El Paso County court in January. Stan Beard, Buc-ee's director of real estate and development, said in an emailed statement in March that the withdrawal was due to a "technical issue." The request would connect a 30-acre parcel next to Interstate 25 via a "flagpole" of land following County Line Road to the border of the town. The new request increased the area of the connecting land from half of the road to the full breadth of County Line Road, as well as extending the area past a piece of land recently de-annexed from Palmer Lake. If annexed, the land would have access to Palmer Lake utilities and pay sales tax revenue to the town of about 2,500 north of Colorado Springs. The Thursday meeting was to determine the application's eligibility under Colorado statute, not whether to approve the request outright. That did not stop at least 100 protesters and public commenters from vocalizing their opposition to Buc-ee's inside and outside the small town hall setting. "It's an out-of-state company, and they're coming in and drastically changing our way of life," said Linda VanMatre while standing outside the meeting with a "Stop Buc-ee's" sign. Sign up for free: Gazette Business Receive a weekly roundup of business news around El Paso County. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. Featured Local Savings Opposition was the overwhelming presence at the meeting, though trustee Kevin Dreher said that he was hearing some positive voices outside of the public sphere. "I get a lot of people who are afraid to come out because of the backlash," he said. The discussion on the request's legal eligibility centered on whether the plan had a "community of interest" according to the requirements of the state's annexation statutes. To Nina Ruiz, a project consultant with Vertex Inc., connection to the town and inclusion in the town's master plan meant it did. "The town has identified this land specifically as a retail node," she said. Trustee Atis Jurka disagreed. "I do not feel comfortable about the community of interest and integrating with the town of Palmer Lake," he said during his sole vote to oppose the request. The proposal will next come before the Palmer Lake Planning Commission on June 18. The defendant was not prohibited from owning a gun due to his prior conviction, even if the offense could have disqualified some other defendant under different circumstances Gov. Jared Polis looks out at the crowd while alongside other local and Sundance Institute leadership announce Boulder, Colo. as the host city of the Sundance Film Festival starting in 2027, in a press conference in front of the Boulder Theater on Thursday, March 27, 2025. Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter. The Air Force Academy's newly minted second lieutenants will need all the tenacity they developed over their four years to face a rapidly evolving global conflict, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told about 900 cadets during a cold and rainy ceremony Thursday morning. You are the owner of this article. The conversation took place more than a decade ago, but Pat Castle vividly remembers the day his daughter Grace, then 9, declared that she wanted to attend the Air Force Academy. I did everything I could to discourage her, said Castle, who graduated from the academy in 1993. Those were the hardest four years of my life, and I told her that. I told her the hardest stories I could think about, from basic training, to survival training, to getting up at 6 a.m. to march to breakfast, to having inspections." But young Grace would not be deterred, he said. "She listened to it all, and said, I want to do that, said Castle, a former chemistry professor at the academy. She was around the Air Force from a very young age. I guess she found it interesting and valuable, and she wanted to be a part of that. It just seemed like a really cool thing to be a part of, Grace recalled. By the time I was in high school, I knew for sure I wanted to go, and the rest is history. That dialogue was at the forefront of Castles mind on Wednesday as he stood before his daughter and administered the Oath of Office, commissioning her as an Air Force second lieutenant. It was an emotional, full-circle moment for Castle, whose second cousin, Marine Col. Richard Christiansen, administered the oath to him 32 years ago. They tell you at the academy that you cant do it for your family, only for yourself, Castle told The Gazette in 1993. But when I take a step back and think why I did do this, it comes down to the pride in my family and the examples they set. According to Castle, Grace enjoyed her academy experience in ways that he did not. I jumped out of airplanes. I found it terrifying, he said. Grace thought it was awesome. When I look back on survival training, I think, Ugh. Grace thought that was awesome, too. Grace said that, while being put on my face at 6 a.m. wasnt her idea of a good time, it was part of an experience she would not trade for anything. Being able to jump (from an aircraft) five times and earn my jump wings, being able to solo an aircraft here, and getting to know all the amazing people here its been a great experience, she said. I look back on it with fondness because I know it gave me a lot of discipline, and without it, I wouldnt be the person I am today. Grace approached her four years at the academy with the same determination and laser focus that she showed as a 9-year-old, when she grilled her dad about his academy experience, Castle said. She was a really strong performer as a cadet, he said. And shes mission-focused. Shes going to do great things. Administering the oath in the formal uniform he was issued as a cadet Still fits, he said proudly Castle ushered his daughter into familial military history that goes back for decades. Both of Castles grandfathers were World War II veterans, his father served in the Air Force, and other relatives served in the Marine Corps. (My familys) legacy has continued on through me, and now it will go even further through Grace, he said. Grace said she felt honored to extend the familys legacy of service. I think USAFA was built on legacy and tradition, so being able to uphold that, for my school and for my family, is an honor, she said. Grace will now head to pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. She hopes to fly the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, but honestly, Ill take anything that can fly, she said. Castle said he looks forward to following his daughters Air Force career. I almost feel sorry for our enemies now, he said. Theyll have to face Grace. The Colorado Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in a case challenging the Colorado Springs City Council's ability to rule on appeals involving Colorado Springs Utilities. The case centers around the 2023 construction of a Utilities water tower in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood. Utilities applied for a modified height permit mid-construction when neighbors noted the tower was 60 feet tall , even though the development plan capped the tower's maximum height at 45 feet. The Planning Commission ruled against the modification and Utilities appealed the decision to the City Council. The council, which also serves as the Utilities Board of Directors, voted 5-2 in November to allow the excess height. The nearby Flying W Ranch sued the city and Colorado Springs Utilities weeks after the vote, arguing that the council abused its quasi-judicial discretion and could not fairly consider neighbors' complaints because of its role on the Utilities board. The El Paso County District Court dismissed the case in July 2024, which Flying W appealed. Murray Weiner from the Mulliken Law Firm represented Flying W in the Appeals hearing Wednesday. Weiner argued that this was a unique circumstance where the council could not separate its two roles even if it declared its impartiality during the original hearing. "If they went left, they violated the one on the right. If they went right, they violated the one on the left, in this scenario, where we have CSU being an appellant in front of its own board," Weiner said. The appeals judges questioned Weiner about separating due process from the necessity of the City Council's role. Judge Ted Tow said the appellant seemed to request a special exemption to Colorado Springs city charter, which said that only council decisions on land use can be appealed, in order to offer due process. Featured Local Savings "What you're asking us to do is find an ordinance unconstitutional when we don't have to under established principles of law," Tow said. Tow asked Weiner if it were possible that the decision in favor of Utilities was also the decision supported by the impartial evidence. Weiner said the risk of bias in favor of Utilities was too great because of the Utilities Board's financial duties. Attorney Ann Turner, representing the city and Utilities, said that the city charter requires the council to hear and rule on every appeal made for a Planning Commission decision. Turner said the council decision is necessary to allow the next step of court challenges, which is a Rule 106 appeal. "In effect, you are saying the planning commission's decision will be unreviewable if you don't allow the City Council to hear the case," Judge David Yun said. Turned agreed. The judges asked Turner whether the council could get around the concerns by okaying the Planning Commission ruling without deciding on the merits of the case. Turner argued that there needed to be an active decision to appeal and not a recusal-based one. Tow challenged Turner on the limits of the city's ability to determine what counted as a conflict of interest for council members. He said there are clear differences between one member of the council being connected to an appeal and the entire body having a connection. Law enforcement officers from federal and local agencies get ready to raid an underground nightclub in April. More than 100 undocumented immigrants were detained after the drug and prostitution raid. China highly concerned about EU investigation into Chinese tyres Xinhua) 09:55, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China is highly concerned about the European Union's (EU's) anti-dumping investigation into imports of tyres for passenger cars and light lorries from China, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday. At a regular press briefing, ministry spokesperson He Yongqian said that protectionist trade practices only increase the consumer burden, create trade barriers, disrupt the stability and smooth functioning of value and supply chains, and harm the interests of all sides. China has consistently advocated for the reasonable, prudent use of trade remedy measures and urges the EU not to impose trade restrictions rashly, but instead to address mutual concerns through dialogue and consultation, the spokesperson said. China will monitor the EU's follow-up actions closely and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises firmly, she added. She noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and the EU, and that their bilateral agenda includes many important items. China will maintain dialogue and communication with the EU, handle economic and trade differences properly, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, work to move China-EU economic and trade relations forward on a positive trajectory, and inject more certainty and positive momentum into bilateral ties and the global economy, the spokesperson said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) CHATHAM Pittsylvania County leaders delivered bottled water to residents of Robin Court on Wednesday morning, the first of what will become a weekly occurrence until a new water line is in place by early next year. It was the first time officials had been out to the street of 17 homes since the board of supervisors on May 20 directed staff to provide drinking water to the homes plagued by a water situation. Its more symbolic than it is an actual weeks worth of water, Dave Arnold, the assistant county administrator, told the Register & Bee. Just to show our good faith and commitment to giving them drinking water until this water line is available. Arnold is also the acting administrator for the county until a new one is appointed, something thats expected to happen by July 1. Chris Adcock, director of public works for Pittsylvania County, accompanied Arnold by carrying large 24-bottle packages of water to residents. The county already had these bottles on hand. Going to each door, Arnold, Adcock and two other county staffers asked how many people lived in each house to get a better gauge of how much water would be needed for the weekly drops. We got a case of water here for you, Arnold said to the first resident to open her door. He then asked if she had received a letter from the county explaining what would be happening. The county sent the letter on Saturday. In the future, the water will likely be in gallon containers, Arnold said. Residents have complained about water issues on the small road thats outside of Chatham for years. Many say the water has a smell and odor. A developer who put in the subdivision in the 1970s also installed a well-style system for the homes. Over the years, the county inherited that to maintain. In 2019 and 2020, the water system exceeded acceptable radium contaminant levels, the county reported in 2023. The county had to enter a consent order with the Virginia Department of Health to find a solution, even though those levels subsided and havent been problematic since. The county staffers also announced to residents on Wednesday that their water bills would be waived until the new line is in place. On Tuesday night, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted for that during a special-called meeting on another matter. The project is expected to go out to bid soon, a process that will take about 30 days. Then itll be another 30 days to get a contract in order and approved. We are hoping mid-to-late summer, Adcock said of when things should get started. Arnold said construction may last up to 180 days. So to give you a rough idea, if things move along as we hope, probably early part of 2026, Arnold said, putting the completion date around January or February. He said the county has been working on the project for years. In fact, they had a certificate to construct about a year ago, only to learn they needed to do more environmental reviews, something thats more stringent when it comes to grant funding, he explained. We are going to work more diligently on providing updates because we recognize this is of particular interest to this community, Arnold said, suggesting details will be posted on the countys website. When going to another home, a resident was standing outside with a glass of water and asked Adcock if hed drink it. He looked at it and explained to her that what she was seeing was just air bubbles and would dissipate. Saying hed have no problem drinking it, he picked up the small glass and did just that. When asked why another neighbors water was much more cloudy, Adcock told the Register & Bee that it was the same principle of air in the water. When air gets in there, it gets little microbubbles, and makes it look cloudy, he explained. If the glass were to sit, the air would dissipate, and it would get clear. The neighbor with the cloudy water was David Jones, who last week filled a glass from his kitchen sink to show the Register & Bee. County officials also delivered water to Jones on Wednesday morning, something for which he said he was appreciative. Jones voiced issues with water pressure to Adcock, in addition to the taste and smell of the water. Adcock explained the new 6-inch line will run down the street, allowing for fire hydrants to be put in something the current well system cant handle. We are going to replace all the lines from the meter to the house, Adcock said of the county going and extra step versus whats normally done with just putting in a main line. We are committed to replacing all of the lines. He told Jones he should see a significant increase in pressure. The main thing is as long as we get some results out of this, Jones told the county group. I just want to be fair and treated fair, the homeowner said. I appreciate what you are doing now. Adcock said that although residents may see and smell issues, the water is and always has been safe to drink. Weve always passed the health department testing requirements, he said, with the exception of radium, which has since dropped to acceptable levels. The odor situation could come from sulfur, since its common in natural wells. Adcock said the new line should remedy the problems the residents are facing. This system does have higher levels of iron and manganese, he told the newspaper, two of what are known as secondary contaminants. Those are things that cause appearance issues, possibly taste issues, but they are not considered a health adverse issue, he explained. The county has about five of these kinds of well systems it maintains. Most are similar situations as Robin Court where a private developer put in the well and the county later took it over. Its kind of unique to this area, Adcock explained of the Robin Court well problem. The geography is what causes a lot of the situation here. Press Release May 30, 2025 "You are superstars in your own rights": Senator Bong Go engages with Iloilo councilors in bringing services closer to the people During the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) Iloilo Term End Assembly on Wednesday, May 28, in the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go applauded the local legislators for extending beyond crafting laws and taking more hands-on approach to serving their constituents, especially those in need. "Mataas po ang aking respeto sa ating mga konsehal kasi you are superstars in your own rights. Pareho po tayo ng trabaho. Sa amin lang, national lang ang aming scope. Ako naman, sinabi ko, I will not limit myself just by being a legislature. Ang trabaho ko ay to represent ang buong Pilipinas at ito pong oversight function. Hindi ko po matiis na nakaupo lang ako sa opisina habang 'yung mga kababayan natin ay nangangailangan ng tulong," said Senator Go. Go, who was number four in Iloilo Province during the recently concluded midterms senatorial election, thanked the Ilonggos for their support. "Number 4 pala ako dito sa Iloilo. Maraming salamat po. Hinding-hindi po ako magiging number one sa buong Pilipinas kung hindi po dahil sa inyong suporta," Go stated. Senator Go recognized the councilors from the Province of Iloilo for their dedication to public service and acknowledged the government's continuing efforts to improve healthcare access in the province. "Salamat sa mga konsehal natin from Iloilo. Parati po ako doon sa Iloilo at ito po yung lugar na mas marami akong napuntahan," he said. A member of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Senator Go, who has consistently championed the welfare of barangay officials and LGUs, reiterated his commitment to advancing legislation that supports their roles. He shared that he understands their work having spent around 20 years of his career in local government serving former President and then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Among his other initiatives is filing Senate Bill No. 197 (Magna Carta for Barangays), which aims to provide barangay officials with benefits equivalent to those of regular government employees if enacted into law. On February 3, the Senate also approved on third and final reading of SBN 2838, or the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), a measure that seeks to institutionalize compensation and benefits for the country's community health volunteers. As one of the authors and co-sponsors of the bill, Go emphasized the vital role of BHWs in delivering primary healthcare services, especially in underserved communities. Meanwhile, Go also filed SBN 2504, aimed at increasing the salaries of civilian personnel in the Philippine government. The proposed measure, also known as the "Salary Standardization Law VI," seeks to build upon the provisions of the previously enacted RA 11466 or the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 5 which Go served as one of its authors and co-sponsors in the Senate in 2019. Go then acknowledged the provincial government officials of Iloilo including Governor Toto Defensor and Vice Governor-elect Lee Ann Debuque. He also mentioned the Iloilo Chapter Officials such as Santa Barbara Vice Mayor-elect Board Member Ramon Sullano - President, Conception Councilor John Arcosa - Vice President, Guimbal Councilor Christy Margarico - Secretary General, Dumangas Councilor Guisseppe Gumban - Treasurer, and San Dionisio Councilor Christian Lopez - Auditor, among others. Senator Go also recognized New Lucena Mayor-elect Carl Mondejar and Ajuy Mayor-elect Loida Espinosa. Senator Go's remarks reinforced his advocacy for proactive governance and accessible healthcare, urging local officials to ensure that government programs reach those who need them the most. Go also mentioned the Malasakit Centers in the Province of Iloilo located at Western Visayas Medical Center and Western Visayas State University Medical Center in Iloilo City, Don Jose S. Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo, and Western Visayas Sanitarium and General Hospital in Sta. Barbara. The Malasakit Center, a one-stop shop, enables poor and indigent patients to access medical assistance programs conveniently. Senator Go is the principal author and sponsor of RA 11463, or the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program. Currently, 167 Malasakit Centers operate nationwide, providing assistance to patients with their medical expenses. According to the DOH, the program has provided aid to over 17 million Filipinos. "Sa lahat po ng mga konsehal na nandito, maraming salamat po sa inyong serbisyo. Naniniwala po ako na kayo ang kinabukasan ng bayang ito. Isa lang ang maipapayo ko sa inyo, mahalin niyo ang inyong pagseserbisyo, mahalin niyo ang kapwa niyo," Go ended. Earlier that day, the Senator attended the National Department of Health Employees' Association's (NADEA) 3rd National Convention at the Manila Hotel. The documents state that on Feb. 10, 2022, agents tried to meet with Jesse Belling, who agreed to speak without an attorney and denied dealing drugs, but admitted to using opioids. He told agents that Breneman and Lingle contacted him about a trip to Idaho, where they got 80 blue M30 pills laced with fentanyl and a candle that contained an ounce of heroin. Jesse Belling drove the drugs to Helena and gave them to Breneman. He also received 20 fentanyl pills and 4 grams of heroin as payment for making the trip, court documents state. The sentencing hearing was on a court docket for May 28, but was continued after a discrepancy over credit for time served could not be figured out by attorneys. The sentencing was moved to Thursday where Belling's attorney argued for over 150 more days for credit for time served than what was agreed to in the plea agreement. Lewis and Clark County prosecutor Daniel Baris argued there could have been a breach of plea agreement with the defense's request. McMahon sided with the prosecution's understanding of the precedent. Before Jesse Belling was sentenced to nine years in the Montana State Prison, he gave a statement about how he interpreted the credit for time served and expressed how sorry he was for his actions. "I know what I did was wrong and I hurt the community. I'm not proud of it," Jesse Belling said. "... I have asked for treatment and for help and I keep getting told no time after time." He said the incident was unfortunate, but he was sick at the time off of opioids. "I know what I did was wrong, but I would like to try to get treatment. I have a 7-year-old little girl, an 8-year-old little boy, an 11-year-old little boy and a 19-year-old boy and my wife is taking care of everything. It's just mind-blowing right now," he said. A Montana Supreme Court decision on attorney fees that went against the Republican governor this week featured an unusually hostile bit of sparring between justices. The case at hand turned on a refusal by Gov. Greg Gianfortes administration to turn over records related to his decision to remove a bad actor designation against a mining company CEO. The organizations that challenged the governors refusal, Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthworks, won their case in district court on the states constitutional right-to-know provision, but were denied their claim for attorneys fees. The Montana Supreme Court sided with the organizations on the matter in a decision handed down on Thursday, finding MEIC should have a presumption toward an award of attorneys fees for vindicating their rights under the constitution. Montanas Constitution guarantees the public right to know what government is up to, MEICs executive director Anne Hedges said in a statement on Thursday. Justice only works when every person has the ability to oversee their government. This decision will ensure the public can continue to access government documents and will prevent abuse when the government officials refuse to comply with the constitution. The high courts 4-3 decision noted, as the Lewis and Clark County District Court judge had, that MEICs lawsuit was filed for the publics benefit. The courts majority said denying them attorneys fees for such a public service was dissonant with the foundational purposes of Montanas constitutional right-to-know provisions requiring government actors to disclose their records to the public. In this case, Gianfortes office had largely ignored or delayed the records request by MEIC until the organization sued to compel those records be disclosed. Once the parties were in court, the governors office said it would not turn the documents over because of the lawsuit. District Court Judge Chris Abbott found that the governors office had essentially shirked its duty to disclose the records and ordered their release. For citizens to be able to enforce the provision against the government, litigation must be accessible; for litigation to be accessible, there should be a basic presumption towards awarding attorneys fees when the party seeking to enforce the right to know has prevailed on the merits, the Supreme Court majority wrote in Thursdays decision. Gianfortes administration has, with varying degrees of success, asserted executive privilege in ways not previously seen by Montana governors. Earlier this month, he vetoed a bill that would have scaled back such privileges. Dissenting disputes The majority opinion written by Justice Laurie McKinnon ran about 12 pages. Roughly 35 pages of the 61-page document, however, turn somewhat away from the underlying case and are spent on the justices responding to each other over the perception of politics on the court in some of the sharpest language aimed at another justice in recent years. Justice Jim Rice, for example, took issue with what he saw as the majority opinion turning away from statute and settled precedent, and filling that void with what he suggested were personal policy preferences when dealing with a particular political party. So what are the Republican defendant and Republicans in general and anyone concerned about impartiality supposed to make of this courts decision today, especially in the view of these prior fee decisions? Rice wrote. That this is simply another coincidental Republican defeat in a run of bad case outcomes resulting from the courts careful application of established legal principles? Or, that this is another case where the court has jettisoned long-established governing authority and backfilled the vacuum with its own preferences to weaponize the law, whether it be statute or the private attorney general doctrine, against them? Chief Justice Cory Swanson, elected to the position last year, co-signed Rices dissent. McKinnon, writing a concurring opinion to her own majority opinion, ripped Rice and Swanson for a highly inappropriate and unprofessional attack upon the court as an institution, and on the integrity of myself and my colleagues as jurists. Rarely, if ever, have I seen an attack on the integrity of my fellow colleagues motivations and judicial decisions that is as vitriolic as in the dissent of Justice Rice and Chief Justice Swanson, McKinnon wrote. McKinnon likewise cast Rices dissent against her as partisan and defended the majority opinion as a comprehensive analysis of the facts and the law. Justice Jim Shea, who was among the justices on the majority opinion, wrote another concurring opinion with a softer rebuttal to Rices dissent, stating, The sky is not falling. In an emailed statement on Friday, a spokesperson for Gianforte said the governor was "disappointed" in Thursdays ruling. The dissenting justices' concerns about judicial activism, particularly the Court ignoring the Legislature's laws and intent and instead making law from the bench, are well founded, spokesperson Kaitlin Price said. We need impartial courts that interpret laws, not impose their policy priorities and agendas. The backdrop to the quarrel are the longstanding accusations by Republicans who claim the judiciary is a bastion of Democrats standing against the GOPs rising success in Montanas elections. The GOP cheered on Swanson, then the Broadwater County Attorney, in his successful bid for chief justice to replace the retiring Mike McGrath, a former Democratic state attorney general. Republicans most controversial legislation signed into law by the GOP governor has many times failed to stand against legal challenges under Montanas relatively progressive constitution, but cases like these where the courts support attorney fees as an accountability measure against elected officials tend to be used as ammunition by Republicans in their campaigns against the courts. Swanson wrote in his own dissenting opinion that he read and re-read Rices dissent and countered that he found nothing unprofessional or bitter as McKinnon did. Swanson seemed to take the moment to be retrospective about his new role as chief justice of the judicial branch. That job includes supporting judicial officers, as well as acknowledging errors and bias to be reeled in, he said. We agree with each other far more than we disagree, Swanson wrote. And after more than a hundred published opinions this year, this is the first occasion when these differing views on the courts methodology have inflamed our public conversation. So being chief justice does not prevent me from articulating my interpretation of the laws and constitution, even if it rocks the boat. It is my duty. Have you ever tried to bottle a feeling? To boil down and condense a collection of life's fleeting moments into a tincture so you can keep it, treasure it, share it? Good food can do that. I remember a piece of tako sushi (octopus) from Yumz Asian Cuisine a few years ago that transported me back to the ocean. I don't know if I've ever made something that can break the laws of spacetime, but we're going to keep trying. So please join me this week as we jam out with some strawberries and make ... well ... jam. Zeaman Farms Andrew Zeaman grows his June-bearing strawberries at Zeaman Farms in Maroa and sells them at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market. But they sell out quickly, so you'll want to get there early to snag a quart for $7 or a container of 8 quarts (that's 2 gallons) for $50. Strawberries are notorious for growing runners or stringers offshoots of the main plant that grow their own roots. Every spring, "I'll come in and snip the runners. So, these are all the mother plants, and (this) way, you have these nice, even rows," Zeaman said. His strawberries grow close together, "so the berries are a little bit smaller. They're super sweet, way better than anything you would find in the grocery store," he said. I bought 2 quarts, one for eating and one for jamming. One thing needed for most any jam, jelly or preserve is something called fruit pectin, a naturally occurring gelling agent found in plants. It's sold in powder or liquid forms in most grocery stores. Now, I'd never made jam before. And I thought it wouldn't be that complicated, but I figured I'd ask one of the many jam-sellers at the market, Candice Dodson. "You want the fresh fruit. You're going to need lemon juice for the strawberries to acidify them," she said. "And then you need a bunch of sugar." Uh-oh. If you're new here, that five-letter-word is kind of like a four-letter-word in my kitchen. See, like millions of Americans, I have Type 2 diabetes, so I can't have "a bunch of sugar." Dodson sells jellies and jams that have no sugar added, but she uses alternate sweeteners like Splenda. However, I didn't want to overshadow the flavor of the strawberries, so I set out to find a process that didn't require sugar. The search As with all preservation methods, I recommend finding a local university extension, like the University of Illinois Extension, as they have helpful safety guides for just about everything. In my research, I found the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Extension had this nifty write-up here: https://tinyurl.com/UTIAjams. In it, William C. Morris, associate professor of food science and technology, explains the importance of sugar and what products to use if you're avoiding it. Sugar helps prevent spoilage, but it also helps to gel up the jams or jellies. He includes a recipe for Sparkling Strawberry Jam that uses gelatin instead of fruit pectin. But he also included a list of trusted pectin products for a "no sugar" jam. And I found one, Sure Jell Premium Fruit Pectin, at several local grocery stores that specifically reads, in a blue label: "For use in less or no sugar needed recipes." The process This recipe called for 3 cups mashed fruit, 3/4 cup water and the whole package of pectin. Following Sure Jell's instructions, I cleaned the strawberries and cut off the stems. Then, with the help of my niece, Kori Filliman, we mashed them to release their juices. Now, the cool thing about strawberries is they are not botanically berries, unlike the watermelon which is, botanically, a berry. Instead, strawberries are an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning each little seed on the strawberry is attached to fruit. Neat! As we were mashing the strawberries, we could see the individual fruit pieces coming apart. Then, we measured the mashed fruit, added the recommended water to the mixture and poured it into a stock pot. We slowly added the pectin powder until it was dissolved. Then, because I don't like following the rules, I added the juice of half of a lemon, no seeds. I reduced that a bit and, stirring constantly, brought it to a rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop even when stirred) and let it boil for 60 seconds. Once it was done, I took some clean mason jars that were warmed up and ladled the mixture into them. Important note: I did not process these to be preserved. I only had 3 cups of jam, and I didn't want to go through the hassle of water canning for two small jars. So, this is a fresh jam that must stay refrigerated and is not shelf stable. 'Tastes like summer' Something new we're going to try this year, which actually started in February with our cupcake edition, is getting the newsroom's thoughts on our creations. So, per editor Allison Petty's suggestion, I brought the strawberry jam to the office for a taste test. Kaitlyn Klepec said this would be good on French toast, which I have no doubt that it would. Mateusz Janik said this would be a good cheesecake topping or go well with kolaczki, the popular Polish desert. Kelsey Watznauer rather astutely pointed out that, yes, jam has a thick consistency. But I appreciate how Olivia Jacobs just said, "It tastes like summer!" If youre a farmer or a producer and would like to talk with me for this column, call me at 309-820-3275 or email Daniel.alkire@lee.net. And be sure to check back next time to find out what were chopping up on The Cutting Board. A young womans smiling face is plastered on a bench in downtown Hickory. The woman, Misty Potter, is not advertising for a business or selling a product. The bench serves as a memorial and reminder of the impact of the opioid crisis. Potter died at the age of 33 in 2018 in Pennsylvania. According to her mother, Catawba County resident Dawn Balthis, Potters death was the result of fentanyl poisoning. She thought she was getting one thing and got pure fentanyl, Balthis said. Balthis said Potter became addicted to opioids after being prescribed pain medication. Balthis has participated in an Adopt-a-Highway program on 16th Street NE in her daughters memory. She has purchased space on benches and started a pay it forward campaign where she purchases meals for others at restaurants and leaves a card with Mistys picture and story for the person to take with their food. Its been seven years and Im still struggling, Balthis said in a phone interview in February. I dont want any parent to have to deal with this. Balthis organized a fentanyl town hall event in Hickory in February. Its been my goal to raise awareness so no other family has to go through this, Balthis said. Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina founder Barb Walsh was invited to speak. Walsh tours the state, talking to parents, relatives and friends of fentanyl addiction or overdose victims about actions counties and the state can take to help those who use or are at risk of using opioids improperly. Catawba County and many other counties around North Carolina are still struggling to curb the number of deaths from illicit opioids. In 2023, the last year local data was available, there were 68 deaths linked to illicit opioids, up from 51 in 2022. In Hickory, Walsh encouraged people to carry naloxone with them. The medication can reverse opioid overdoses. She spoke about encouraging people to attend school board meetings and support policies making naloxone available in schools. Opioid settlement funds Having naloxone, or Narcan, in schools is a strategy counties can adopt using grants or money available to states from opioid lawsuit settlement funds. Catawba County school resource officers carry naloxone. The Catawba County Department of Public Health has worked with Newton-Conover Schools to have naloxone available in schools. States, counties and cities around the country began receiving money from settlements reached with companies associated with the manufacture and distribution of opioids in 2021. In North Carolina, local governments may use opioid settlement funds to pay for programs and personnel positions. Approved uses include evidence-based addiction treatment, recovery support services, employment-related services and early intervention services. Through 2038, the state expects to receive over $1 billion from opioid lawsuit settlements. The N.C. Department of Justice will disperse funds yearly to counties and cities. Catawba Countys share of that money is expected to be about $25 million, but that amount can change as more settlements are reached. Catawba County has received $7.4 million from opioid settlements as of April 2. Catawba County began allocating money in August 2023 when the county created an opioid and substance use disorder coordinator position. Jamie Todd was hired to fill that role in December 2023. Based on Todds advice, the Catawba County Commissioners have allocated $710,753, a little less than 10% of the amount it has received, to fund four strategies through the summer of 2025. The county has allocated opioid funds to pay for Todds position, a pilot program in Newton-Conover City Schools to build resiliency in children affected by trauma and other negative experiences, medication assisted treatment at Catawba County Jail and a post-overdose response team staffed by some Catawba County EMS paramedics. Todd works with community partners to create and implement programs aimed at addressing prevention, addiction and recovery. He also acts as a liaison between governmental and community agencies and making sure settlement funds are appropriately allocated. Catawba County Manager Mary Furtado said the jail program is being funded through an existing grant, but opioid settlement money is set aside to continue to fund the program after grant funds are used up. Catawba County Sheriffs Department Major Aaron Turk said more people are eligible for the medication assisted treatment program due to an increased population coming in to the jail with substance use disorder. He also said more people are choosing to participate in the program. The post-overdose response team will follow up with an individual who experienced an overdose with 24-72 hours after the incident. Catawba County EMS Manager Sylvia Fisher said staff were recently hired for the team. Fisher said policies and protocols for the team are still being developed. Catawba County Public Health Community Engagement Manager Emily Killian said money received from the state will be applied to the four strategies and others in future years. Because these funds are a one-time disbursement, as a community, we have to be strategic about where they are spent to ensure that we have a meaningful and lasting impact, Killian said in an email in March. Catawba County is choosing to fund preventative programs with opioid settlement dollars. Catawba County Public Health Director Jennifer McCracken said the strategy aligns with the countys goal of building a resilient community. Killian said the public health department has other programs in place that do not require settlement dollars. In future years, the county may work with other organizations sponsoring programs that align with the countys goals. One organization that would like to receive money for a treatment program is Exodus Homes. At Exodus Homes, we believe relapse prevention is absolutely imperative, Exodus Homes COO Carol Vandergrift said. The cost of incarceration in North Carolina can reach up to $55,000 a year per person, and that doesnt even begin to account for the lost potential of those battling addiction outside the prison system. When someone is stuck in addiction, theyre often unable to contribute meaningfully to their families, communities, or the economy. Relapse prevention isnt just about helping individuals its an investment that benefits all of us. Killian said Todd and the team that recommends funding request consider programs that will have a meaningful and lasting impact. Killian said the team will continue to discuss funding opportunities with organizations like Exodus Homes who are seeking money from the opioid settlement program. Assyrians At the Margins of Recognition The latest report submitted by the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) highlights the urgent and ongoing challenges facing the Assyrian people across Iraq, Syria and Turkey, where systemic discrimination, political exclusion, and cultural erosion threaten their very survival. As one of the region's oldest indigenous communities, Assyrians continue to endure grave human rights violations. As the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues prepares to visit Iraq, this moment presents a critical opportunity to spotlight the Assyrian people's demands for recognition, protection, and inclusion, and to ensure their concerns are reflected in international human rights assessments and recommendations. UNPO has long worked alongside Assyrian representatives advocating for their rights and bringing these issues to the attention of international and regional bodies. As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues prepares to visit Iraq, renewed international attention must be directed toward the situation of the Assyrian people, one of the Middle East's oldest surviving indigenous populations. Spread across Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, the Assyrian community faces existential threats to its cultural identity, political representation, and physical security. In its latest report, the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) underscores the entrenched patterns of discrimination, exclusion, and displacement that Assyrians continue to endure. Despite their historical roots as descendants of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations and their contributions to language, science, and religion, Assyrians remain structurally marginalized across the region. From constitutional invisibility and property dispossession to religious persecution and political tokenism, the violations suffered by Assyrians reflect broader regional dynamics of repression against indigenous and minority communities. Decades of war, authoritarian rule, and sectarian violence have fragmented Assyrian society, while weak legal protections and inadequate international engagement have failed to stem the tide of erosion. The Assyrian Universal Alliance's report calls for urgent action to halt the erasure of the Assyrian presence from its ancestral heartlands. Meaningful recognition, robust protection mechanisms, and pathways to political empowerment must form the cornerstone of any lasting solution. Iraq In Iraq, the Assyrian community continues to face severe challenges that undermine their rights, identity, and safety. Despite their long history in the region, Assyrians remain excluded from political processes, with systemic discrimination affecting their cultural and territorial integrity. One of the core issues is the absence of constitutional recognition of the Assyrians as an indigenous population. This legal void denies the community specific protections and undermines their political and cultural legitimacy within the Iraqi state. The long-postponed creation of a dedicated Assyrian Affairs Office further contributes to this lack of institutional representation, limiting avenues for effective advocacy and policy making at the federal level. Electoral mechanisms have also proven deeply flawed. Although five parliamentary seats are reserved for Christians in both the national parliament and that of the Kurdistan Region, these positions are frequently filled through the support of dominant political parties outside the Assyrian community. This practice exclude Assyrian voters and undermines genuine representation, effectively silencing a community that has historically contributed to the region's cultural fabric. Property rights constitute another major point of grievance. Corruption and targeted land appropriation, particularly in northern Iraq, have resulted in the loss of homes, farmland, and ancestral properties. Despite years of appeals and documented disputes, most legal claims have been ignored or indefinitely delayed, reinforcing patterns of injustice and displacement. Religious fundamentalism poses an increasing threat to Assyrian safety and cohesion. The violent attack on the Assyrian New Year celebrations in Nohadra/Duhok serves as a stark reminder of the community's vulnerability and the inadequacy of local security provisions. Such incidents also underscore the urgent need to reform educational curricula in provinces like Erbil and Duhok, where prejudice and hostility toward indigenous minorities persist. In light of these compounded challenges, the establishment of a unified Assyrian administration in the Nineveh Plain has emerged as a viable and strategic proposal. Centered in Bakhdedeh or Alqosh, this administrative structure would oversee governance, education, social services, and security, fostering coordination across Assyrian communities both inside and outside the Kurdistan Region. It could also serve as a foundation for the voluntary return of displaced families and the reconstruction of social and economic life in these areas. Security remains a critical concern. The formation of a local security force, composed of and accountable to Assyrian inhabitants, is essential for protecting these vulnerable populations and building confidence in local governance. Complementary to this effort is the need for transparent and fair budget allocations from the Iraqi central government, ensuring adequate support for administrative functions and infrastructure development. The full and proper implementation of Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution, which guarantees political, administrative, and cultural rights to minorities, must be prioritized. Infrastructural neglect in areas such as the Nineveh Plain, Ankawa, Nahla, Barwari, and Shaqlawa has severely undermined living conditions, and immediate investment is required to restore basic services and economic viability. Cultural preservation is also at risk. Historical Assyrian sites across Iraq face degradation or destruction, and urgent measures are needed to safeguard these landmarks. Recognizing Assyrian Martyrs Day on August 7th as a National Day of Remembrance, accompanied by the construction of a memorial at the site of the 1933 Simele massacre, would represent a meaningful step toward historical justice and acknowledgment of past atrocities. Finally, representation in parliament must be reconsidered. Unlike other ethnocultural groups, such as Kurds, Yazidis, Shabaks, and Sabean-Mandaeans, Assyrians have been grouped solely under the religious category of "Christians." This classification erases their distinct ethnic identity and limits their political agency. For a truly inclusive and equitable democratic process, parliamentary seats must reflect the ethnocultural identity of Assyrians, ensuring they are represented not only as a religious group but as a people with a unique historical and cultural legacy. Syria Similar challenges confront the Assyrian community in Syria, where longstanding structural discrimination continues to jeopardize their cultural survival, safety, and political participation. Despite a centuries-old presence in the region, Assyrians are not recognized as an indigenous people in the Syrian Constitution. This lack of recognition undermines their legal status and limits access to essential political and cultural rights, excluding them from the broader process of national reconstruction. One of the most pressing demands is the official recognition of the Syriac language. As one of the oldest languages in the Middle East, Syriac represents both a living cultural tradition and a vital component of Syria's multicultural heritage. Institutional recognition would serve as a strong step toward preserving the Assyrian identity and affirming its place in the national mosaic. Meaningful participation of Assyrian political actors in the national transitional process is also essential. Without genuine representation in the formation of new political frameworks, there can be no inclusive or lasting solutions that reflect the rights and aspirations of the Assyrian people. Concerns also persist around legal and property rights. Discriminatory laws must be repealed, and properties unjustly confiscated from Assyrian families--particularly in the Khabur region--must be returned. Facilitating the safe and dignified return of displaced persons remains a crucial step in restoring entire communities threatened by displacement and demographic change. To ensure long-term stability and inclusion, a decentralized system of governance should be implemented. This model would uphold Syria's territorial integrity while allowing for local self-administration, minority protection, and more equitable regional development. A full commitment to international human rights frameworks, including instruments protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, is critical. Transitional justice processes--based on truth, reconciliation, accountability, and reparations--are necessary to address the legacy of conflict and displacement. Gender equality must also be prioritized. Legal guarantees are needed to ensure women's full participation in decision-making at all levels, from local governance to national institutions. Likewise, empowering young people to engage in civic life is key to building a more inclusive and resilient society. Finally, the fair representation of all ethnic, religious, and cultural groups within state institutions must be guaranteed. Exceptional laws enacted by the previous regime must be repealed, and serious efforts made to reverse the demographic engineering carried out during decades of conflict and authoritarian rule. Only through such inclusive reforms can Syria rebuild a cohesive society grounded in justice, pluralism, and respect for diversity. Recognition, Rights, and Rebuilding The plight of the Assyrian people requires a sustained and principled commitment from national governments and the international community to uphold the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities under international law. Assyrians must no longer be seen solely through the lens of religious minority status -- they are distinct people with a millennia-old history and legitimate political aspirations. As the region continues to rebuild, ensuring the Assyrian people and other peoples a rightful place in its face is not only a matter of justice, it is a reflection of the global commitment to protect indigenous identities and promote justice for all peoples. GUEST RESEARCH: The vast majority of Australian organisations would disclose their emissions data irrespective of any political developments locally but many lack the confidence in their data and reporting technology. This is according to Workiva Inc., which following its flagship Accelerate 2025 Sydney event held at the Hyatt Regency on May 29 is releasing the Australian findings from its 2025 Executive Benchmark Survey of 1,600 global leaders. Key Findings: 81% of Australian executives who were intending to disclose greenhouse gas emissions planned to move forward with disclosures irrespective of any political developments within their country. 17% of Australian organisations responded they had no plans to disclose their emissions data, a rate that was lower than the USA (26%), Canada (21%) and Germany (27%). 97% of Australian executives say integrated financial and sustainability data helps identify performance gaps that enhance financial growth opportunities, in line with the global average (97%). The survey found that 94% of Australian organisations currently integrate reporting, with 5% planning to within 12 months. However, around a third (33%) of Australian executives do not fully trust their financial data, compared to just a quarter of their global counterparts. Concerningly, 94% of Australian executives agree the business reporting technology their company currently uses is insufficient for complying with new climate regulation; this is well above the global average of 73%. 94% of Australian executives agree that their current approach to the adoption of generative AI tools could introduce risk, an assessment that is well above the global average (77%). The study found that 81 per cent of Australian executives who were intending to disclose greenhouse gas emissions irrespective of any political developments within their country would continue to do so. That the majority would disclose emissions irrespective of policy is a great outcome, and shows that an understanding of the benefits of emissions reporting is becoming embedded, said Narain Viswanathan, Country Leader Australia and New Zealand, Workiva. Reporting climate disclosures should be the default setting for organisations across the country, but reporting is complex: it takes numerous factors to overcome, including improved data management, collaboration, and efficiency enabled by technology. The survey found that Australian organisations which responded they had no plans whatsoever to disclose their emissions data even if the political climate remained unchanged was lower just 17 per cent than the likes of the USA (26%), Canada (21%) and Germany (27%). This is a promising finding, and while it may be due to climate disclosure requirements being more imminent than in other countries, it does show Australian organisations overall are ahead of some of the worlds largest economic powers, said Mark Mellen, Industry Principal, Sustainability, Workiva. As the survey revealed, some of that remaining reluctance to disclose among organisations may come down to a lack of confidence in the technology required to enable accurate reporting. Australians Down on Confidence in Data and Reporting According to the 2025 Executive Benchmark Survey, around a third (33%) of Australian executives do not fully trust their financial data, compared to just a quarter of their global counterparts. More concerningly, 94 per cent of Australian executives believe the business reporting technology their company currently uses is insufficient for complying with new climate regulation; this is well above the global average of 73 per cent. This could again come down to the imminent nature of climate disclosure regulations compared to other countries; the closer they get, the more pressure they feel, said Mellen. But it's a prime opportunity for those organisations to take a look at upgrading the technologies and tools they can avail of to alleviate that pressure. Additionally, while 77 per cent of organisations across the globe agree that their current approach to the adoption of generative Artificial Intelligence tools could introduce risk, 94 per cent of Australian executives agree with that assessment. Were still in the relative infancy of AI, and with any new technology theres understandable caution but this should not cloud the incredible opportunity it presents with regards to its incredible efficiency and ability to provide actionable intelligence, said Viswanathan. Ultimately it comes down to trust, and if you trust your data you can trust how AI interprets it. Those executives across Australia need to look at how they can best upgrade their systems so that they can trust their data and, ultimately, trust the new tools available to them to make the most of it. Benefits of Integrated Reporting Endorsed by Australian Businesses Despite concerns around technology and data, overwhelmingly Australian organisations understand the benefits of reporting and, particularly, integrated reporting. The report revealed that 97 per cent of Australian executives say integrated financial and sustainability data helps identify performance gaps that enhance financial growth opportunities, in line with the global average (97%). Aligning with that belief, the survey found that 94 per cent of Australian organisations currently integrate reporting, with five per cent planning to do so within 12 months. In a rapidly changing world, businesses that can effectively integrate finance, sustainability, and investor relations are better positioned to thrive, said Supervisory Board Member, World Benchmarking Alliance and GRI, Lawyer and Economist, Jane Diplock AO. Investors are now focusing on companies that not only deliver solid financial returns, but also who correctly assess risks and opportunities, and positively contribute to society and the environment. Companies that embrace this integrated approach will likely benefit from stronger investor confidence, a more loyal customer base, and enhanced resilience to future risks. As executives across Australia further embrace sustainability as a profitability driver, they understand that ESG initiatives can deliver both environmental and financial benefits, said Mellen. In doing so, their organisations are able to make environmentally friendly decisions while significantly improving operational efficiency and cutting down costs. Seasoned business and IT executive leader to drive operational efficiency, scaling, increased profitability, and accelerated growth of the business Rimini Street, a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support, management and innovation solutions, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced the appointment of Vijay Kumar as executive vice president (EVP) and chief operating officer (COO). In this role, Mr. Kumar leads product management, service strategy and offerings for Rimini Streets Support, Optimise and Innovate solutions and oversees Rimini Streets Global Capability Centres (GCC). Mr. Kumar also drives operational efficiency and innovation of the portfolio to increase profitability and accelerate top line revenue growth. New COO Brings Broad Operational Experience and Capabilities Kumar is a seasoned technology executive with more than 25 years of experience in building and scaling go-to-market, post-sales, services, and product organisations. His expertise spans enterprise software, SaaS, product management, professional services, and global support across B2B, B2C and AI platforms. In his most recent role prior to joining Rimini Street, Kumar served as senior vice president at Genesys Cloud, leading global functions in operations, customer success, services, and delivery for the past seven years. He played a key role in accelerating customer expansion, driving revenue retention and operating margin. Previously, Kumar held executive leadership roles at HP Software leading services, sales & delivery, Kony Inc. as vice president and general manager of professional services, and at Vignette (acquired by OpenText) as vice president. I am thrilled to join the Rimini Street C-Level executive team at such a pivotal moment in the companys growth journey. Together we are building a path to a multi-billion-dollar revenue operation, driving top and bottom-line results, while delivering extraordinary value and innovation for our clients. said Kumar. Our Rimini Smart Path methodology is a game changer; we empower customers to unlock the latest innovation without the burden of ERP upgrades or migrations. I am excited to lead the team that will show our clients how to self-fund innovation without disruption, within their existing IT budgets. Vijays leadership is already making a positive impact as we continue scaling our business for increased profitability and accelerated revenue growth, said Seth Ravin, CEO and chairman of the board at Rimini Street. His broad operational expertise and experience and service roadmap vision make him an ideal fit for Rimini Street. Kumar holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA from Xavier School of Management, India. He is based in Rimini Streets North American region and reports directly to the CEO. [Provisional translation] More On May 30, 2025, Prime Minister Ishiba held a meeting with H.E. Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, at the Prime Ministers Office.The meeting was held following a salute and guard of honor ceremony. DECATUR As an audience of her heartbroken family and friends wept, Decatur mom Kelly J. Nichols was led out of a Macon County courtroom Thursday by security officers to start a six-year prison sentence as punishment for recording a video depicting the criminal sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 13. Nichols, 54, had also been convicted of nine counts of the possession of images of child sexual abuse involving members of her family. She was punished with a 24-month conditional discharge on those charges and also fined a total of $3,000. She will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life. Her husband, Douglas Nichols, who turned 57 on Tuesday, also was convicted on the same nine charges of possession after the couple were tried in a joint October bench trial in Macon County Circuit Court. He will be sentenced July 8 and remains free. Kelly Nichols had been swept up in a Decatur Police Department investigation of her husband who, on his own, is facing four pending counts of aggravated sexual assault and eight counts of criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 18. That case has yet to be tried. It was while detectives were investigating those charges that they came across the video, along with still pictures, of naked and semi-naked young girls, all determined to be pornographic by Judge Lindsey Shelton. The court sentencing hearing that ended with Nichols being led off to custody was emotionally grueling for the defendant and her family and stretched over more than four hours. Defense attorneys Robert Robertson and Michael Leonard from Chicago, who only took over the case April 4 after the couple fired their previous defense team, called in a string of character witnesses. There had been nine of them before the judge spoke up and said there was no need for repetitive entreaties about Nichols worth as a mother and member of the community. Multiple other witnesses didnt get the chance to speak but their views were presented to the judge in a batch of more than 20 letters. The two female child victims in the case, in charges that date back to 2014 and beyond, are now grown women and both spoke in support of Nichols. They said they did not see themselves as victims, having lived idyllic childhoods. One of them, now aged 24, said: I grew up in a family where I never felt anything but support and love the truth of my childhood has yet to be heard within these courtroom walls. Nichols also spoke, describing herself as someone who enjoyed taking family pictures and videos she never saw as harmful. Now she said the charges had torn her family's perfect life apart: she has lost her job and seen her reputation trashed. Absolutely the lowest point in my life she added. Sorrow I carry with me every day. Judge Shelton noted the many tributes witnesses had paid to her character but said she had to deal with the convictions now on the defendants record. And I do find that her conduct did threaten serious harm or mental harm, she said before pronouncing the sentence. Shelton said she could see the girl victims did not consider themselves to be victims. But the judge said creating and saving and possessing images and videos of child pornography over a course of years still posed very real risks of harm to the lives of those involved. The defense attorneys pleaded for the prison sentence to be delayed but that was rejected by the judge. The defense team had argued they should first be given a chance to argue motions seeking to overturn the verdicts against both Kelly Nichols and her husband, or see them granted a new trial. The issue had sparked some lively sparring with the judge who said she was concerned the late filing of the motions at 11:38 p.m. Tuesday and 12:15 a.m. Wednesday might be seen as a delaying tactic for sentencing. The lawyers protested this interpretation, but the judge also came back with another concern: one of the victims was quoted in the motion as saying she had in fact shot the video determined to be pornographic. Shelton said that woman should seek legal counsel because she might be exposing herself to a charge of perjury after testimony she gave at the bench trial. The motions as filed do concentrate on the video conviction of Kelly Nichols as they seek to pick apart the whole prosecution case. Attorney Leonard argued in the motion wording that clear digital forensic evidence was available now to show the offending video featuring a semi-naked child on a pogo stick was in fact recorded by the second of the child victims when she was 13. The motion claims this evidence was not properly pursued and the woman was not asked on the witness stand at trial if she had in fact recorded it. Having faulted the previous defense team for this, the motion goes on to say the proof of who shot the video was even deliberately suppressed by the previous defense lawyers. But it gets worse, said Leonard in the motion. Prior to trial, Mrs. Nichols knew, or at least suspected, that (the then 13-year-old) took the pogo stick video. However, her then defense team told Mrs. Nichols and Doug Nichols that, if (the child) were to testify at trial and admit that she took that video, she could be charged with manufacturing child pornography. That legal assessment and legal advice was likewise dead wrong. Separate and apart from the fact that it was far-fetched that the state would have charged a 13-year-old who was purportedly one of the alleged victims' with a Class X felony any such charge was clearly already barred by the statute of limitations. Leonard said Douglas Nichols' defense had also been compromised because the previous attorneys had failed to pursue evidence that showed he was unaware of the content of pictures and videos he stored on the family computer. And those images may have also been stored there by others. Moreover, under either of these scenarios, there would be no showing that Doug Nichols was ever knowingly in possession of pornographic material, Leonard claims. The motions are now set to be argued at the July 8 sentencing hearing for Douglas Nichols. SPRINGFIELD Jim Edgar was an ardent supporter of libraries and literacy during his tenure in state government. So much so that his staff affectionately referred to him as "The Reader." That support as both secretary of state and governor was celebrated Wednesday with the ceremony to dedicate the Illinois State Librarys Reading Room in his name. I think its one of the most beautiful buildings of government in the state of Illinois, Edgar said during the ceremony. Make use of this beautiful building. A Charleston native and Eastern Illinois University graduate, Edgar served two terms as a Republican representative in the Illinois House before becoming secretary of state in 1981. Among his achievements in that office was overseeing construction of the Illinois State Library building that was dedicated in June 1990. In 1991 he was elected the state's 38th governor, a position he held until 1999. After leaving office, he served as a distinguished fellow at both the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs and at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. He established the Edgar Speaker Series that brings state government experts to Eastern, his alma mater, and The Edgar Fellow Program at the University of Illinois, which provides training and networking opportunities to emerging leaders. Edgar has also remained active as an adviser and mentor to many in Illinois political circles, including several of the speakers at Wednesday's event. He publicly revealed in February that he has been battling pancreatic cancer. "Throughout his many years of public service, Governor Edgar was a champion of Illinois library system and literacy programs, and he took immense pride in our states rich literary heritage," said U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield. "I cant think of a better way to celebrate his legacy than by dedicating a reading room in the library he helped build." The Reading Room houses a collection of works by notable Illinois authors many of them first editions. The space is used for public meetings hosted by nonprofits and government entities and is also open to the public. Among the collection are books by former President Barack Obama and "The Wizard of Oz" series by L. Frank Baum. His true passion is why were all here today, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said. He was a champion and an advocate of all our libraries being represented recognizing the fundamental role they play every day in educating our youth and inspiring them to achieve every dream they could imagine. As secretary of state, Edgar launched several initiatives to support literacy, including the Read Illinois program in 1981, which promoted the work of Illinois authors through reading lists, author conferences, and a literary map highlighting authors hometowns. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Upton Sinclair, and Edna Ferber were featured as part of the initiative. He also spearheaded the creation of ILLINET Online a circulation system that, by the mid-1980s, allowed Illinois residents to search and borrow more than 18 million books, periodicals, videos, and films from libraries across the state. In 1984, Edgar directed the State Library to begin offering grants to support local literacy programs. The following year, the General Assembly approved $2 million to fund the effort, helping position Illinois as a national leader in combating adult illiteracy. We could fill an entire section of this library with ways that he (Edgar) has improved the state of Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker said during the ceremony. You can talk about his leadership during times of crisis and hardship, or the number of jobs that he created while he was in office the record really is endless." Pritzker went on to share an anecdote that he said summarized Edgar's most enduring contribution. When Edgar was first elected as secretary of state, he broke with tradition and kept many of the employees who had been hired by his Democratic predecessor. To his Republican colleagues who expressed surprise or consternation about the decision, Edgar reportedly responded: "To me, the best politics is good government. If you do your job well, then that's going to reflect well on me, and that's the best politics there is." "Good government is good politics, and good politics is good government," Pritzker said. "You don't really hear that enough anymore, do you? But that view, that honest loyalty to the people of Illinois, is what makes Jim Edgar an icon no matter what party you belong to." As of February, Forsyth County has 2,947 registered electric vehicles (EVs) and Guilford County has 4,745, marking year-over-year increases of about 42% and 45%, respectively. According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the number of registered EVs in Forsyth and Guilford counties rose from 442 and 799 in February 2020 to 927 and 1,454 in 2022, and further to 2,075 and 3,262 in February 2024. The numbers include both all-electric vehicles, which dont produce any exhaust emissions, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which dont release emissions when operating in electric mode. Timothy Johnson, professor of the Practice of Energy and the Environment at Duke University, noted that while both counties growth rates appear impressive, they still represent an increase from a relatively small number, a trend seen across much of the country, except in states like California, where demand is significantly higher. Youve seen a much greater market share of EVs in other countries Denmark, and some of the other Nordic countries, as well as China, are going gangbusters on electric vehicles. Were just not seeing that in the U.S. In a survey published by EY last year, only 34% of U.S. consumers intending to buy a new vehicle in the next 24 months planned to purchase an EV, marking a 14% decrease from 48% in 2023. A lack of charging stations, limited driving range, battery life and expensive maintenance fees were among the key factors contributing to this decline, as cited by the survey. How EVs help cut carbon Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Energy has aligned with the presidents pro-coal stance, often promoting his Drill, baby, drill slogan and praising Energy Secretary Chris Wrights calls to keep coal plants active in the country in its social media posts. Nonetheless, the departments website emphasizes a different message, stating that using hybrid vehicles and EVs supports the U.S. economy and helps diversify the U.S. transportation fleet. The multiple fuel sources used to generate electricity result in a more secure energy source for the electrified portion of the transportation sector, it adds. In North Carolina, former Gov. Roy Cooper set a statewide goal of reaching 1.25 million registered zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2030 under Executive Order 246. His earlier goal of reaching 80,000 registered EVs by 2025, outlined in Executive Order 80, was surpassed in November 2023, which Gov. Josh Stein praised the achievement then as a reflection of the states commitment to the EV sector. Most EVs will automatically reduce life-cycle GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by 50% from their gasoline powered counterparts, said Noah Kittner, an assistant professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. The U.S. Department of Energy states that a small electric SUV produces 52% fewer life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable gasoline vehicle. The transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States, and greenhouse gases are the key contributors to climate change, driving rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, and sea-level rise, which impact both the environment and public health, as noted by researchers and scientists around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The biggest environmental benefits of electric vehicles have to do with air quality and pollutant emissionsshifting from gasoline and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles moves the emissions to power plants, which are far fewer in number, and since they dont move around, theyre easier to control, Johnson said. Why EVs make economic sense but policy still lags Mark Curtis, associate professor and Reynolds Professor of Economics at Wake Forest University, explained that EVs are simply better products than internal combustion cars from an economic standpoint. They are cheaper to own over the life of the car, they require less maintenance, and they perform better, Curtis said. They accelerate faster, have fewer parts, and dont need oil changes or regular engine repairs. For most drivers, especially those who can charge at home, they are already the better option. According to a 2020 analysis by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL), drivers can save up to $14,500 in fuel costs over 15 years by choosing an electric vehicle instead of a similar gasoline-powered one. Gas-powered cars, Curtis added, create significant economic costs by negatively impacting peoples health and reducing their productivity. Yet under current rules, those damages are not priced into the cost of driving, Curtis said. Unlike states such as California and Colorado, North Carolina does not have state-level rebate programs or tax incentives. Instead, Duke Energy offers a one-time rebate of up to $1,133 to help households prepare for at-home EV charging, which Curtis noted as particularly relevant in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, where many residents live in single-family homes. Its worth noting that utilities have an interest in encouraging EV charging at certain times because it could actually save the utilities money in terms of grid operational costs and distribution system upgrades, Kittner said. Kittner expressed skepticism, however, about North Carolina adopting incentives or rebates, pointing out the recent decision by the N.C. General Assembly to raise the annual registration fee for fully electric vehicles from $140 to $180. Recent policies suggest that there may be additional fees levied on EV owners, he added. So it seems the current proposals are increasing costs of adoption rather than providing new rebates or incentives. Wells Fargo & Co. has reached the final of a 14-step regulatory gauntlet that has overshadowed the banks financial and reputational prowess for nearly nine years. Wells Fargo announced Thursday its primary federal regulator, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, has terminated its final consent order over the bank. It was the seventh regulatory consent order to be removed since the start of 2025. However, the most daunting consent order remains in the Federal Reserves $1.95 trillion asset cap that was established in 2018 in response to the banks fraudulent checking account scandal that erupted in September 2016. For banks, loans are considered assets. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in 2021 the asset cap would remain until the Fed is confident that Wells Fargo has resolved a series of internal governance and risk-control issues. The asset cap has put Wells Fargo at a competitive disadvantage compared with its national bank peers JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of American Corp. and Citigroup. Wells Fargo has admitted that from 2002 to 2016, the sales pressure of trying to increase the number of product accounts per customer known as cross selling led Community Bank personnel primarily tellers and other branch employees to open millions of accounts and other financial products that were unauthorized or fraudulent. In the CFPBs 11 years of existence, Wells Fargo has consistently been one of the most problematic repeat offenders of the banks and credit unions we supervise, former CFPB director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. The list could go on and on, from defrauding the government to labor abuses and more. In February 2020, the bank agreed to pay $3 billion to settle U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into fraudulent sales practices by its Community Bank division. Total penalties from a series of regulatory and other federal fines add up to at least $11.14 billion. Wells Fargo has been spending about $2 billion annually on risk and control platform expenses related to resolving the consent orders. Confidence is high Wells Fargo chief executive Charlie Scharf said Wednesday during a Bernstein Research investor presentation that our level of confidence in terms of where we are and how far we are down that road is extremely high. Weve have spent an awful lot of time inwardly focused to get these issues behind us. Were not done, but were a hell of a lot closer to the end than the beginning at this point, and we couldnt be more excited about what the future holds. Scharf said Wells Fargo addressed the customer account scandal by literally scaling back almost everything that we were doing to drive growth in the retail system, and then rebuild it from the bottom up to drive growth in the retail system ... so when we turns things back on that we can grow properly. Scharf said the ending of the consent order addressing customer sales practices was a hugely important point because that was confirmation that our regulators were comfortable that we now had the right processes and procedures in place to do the sort of things other banks have been doing successfully. We had been focused on preserving market share, Scharf said. Now it has gone to what do we need to do to increase market share. It will be a multi-prong effort of how we get there. Scharf cited changes to compensation plans, divesting product categories and businesses deemed not core to its overall financial structure, serving more less-affluent customers, increasing marketing spending and revamping its branch setups while enhancing digital product and service offerings. What happened During the 14-year active period of the fraudulent customer account scandal, Wells Fargo collected millions of dollars in fees and interest to which it was not entitled, harmed customers credit ratings, and unlawfully misused customers sensitive personal information. Examples of fraudulent accounts included: using existing customers identities without their consent to open accounts; forging customer signatures to open accounts without authorization; creating PINs to activate unauthorized debit cards; and moving money from millions of customer accounts to unauthorized accounts. Other examples included: opening credit cards and bill pay products without authorization; altering customers contact information to prevent customers from learning of unauthorized accounts and to prevent Wells Fargo employees from reaching customers to conduct customer satisfaction surveys; and encouraging customers to open accounts they neither wanted nor needed. Wells Fargo acknowledged in 2017 the opening and issuing of at least 3.53 million unauthorized checking and savings accounts, debit cards and credit cards between 2009 and October 2016. Although the bulk of the fraudulent accounts were established in California and Arizona, there were media reports of 38,722 unauthorized customer accounts being established in North Carolina and 23,327 in South Carolina. Banking analysts and economists say the speed of terminating seven consent orders so far this year reflects both Wells Fargos efforts at internal changes since Scharf took over as chief executive, and a focus on less-restrictive financial regulatory oversight by the second Trump administration. The latter represents an intriguing twist given most of the consent orders were issued by federal financial regulators during the first Trump administration. For instance, President Donald Trump said in December 2017 that he did not support easing up on sanctions and penalties against Wells Fargo related to the scandal. There is often some subjectivity in terms of deciding whether the terms for lifting a decree have been met, said Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, an economics professor at Winston-Salem State University. It is possible that the Trump administration is taking a more conciliatory approach towards Wells Fargos compliance efforts than the Biden administration did. Assyrian Patriarch Speaks on Challenges Facing Christendom in the Age of Pope Leo XIV Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Catholic Church of the East Mar Awa III censes during Christmas Eve service at the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles, within the complex of the Assyrian Catholic Patriarchate of the East, in the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region Arbil on December 24, 2024. ( Safin Hamid/Getty) Budapest -- Catholicos-Patriarch Awa III of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East recently visited Budapest with a stark warning: Christianity in the Middle East is vanishing. Entire communities are being erased, while the Western world looks away. Speaking at Pazmany Peter Catholic University on May 21, he testified to the strength and resilience of Christians in the Middle East. A few days earlier, he had attended the inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV, with whom he shares not only American nationality, but also the same birthplace, Chicago. Their first private meeting at the Vatican gave the patriarch cause to hope that the ecumenical dialogue between their two Churches would gain momentum, as he revealed in this interview with the Register. The Assyrian Church of the East is among the world's most ancient Christian communities, with roots in Mesopotamia. Its current patriarchal seat is located in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Though separated from the Catholic Church since the fifth century, it shares many essential tenets of faith and has engaged in sustained theological dialogue with Rome since the 1980s. A Vanishing Presence in the Middle East Patriarch Awa, who will turn 50 on July 4, painted a grave picture of Christian life in Iraq and Syria, where war, persecution and neglect have devastated once-flourishing communities. He warned that Christianity is disappearing from its birthplace at an alarming rate. In Iraq, entire towns have been emptied. In Syria, the decline is even more dramatic: From an estimated 12% of the population, Christians now account for only 2% to 3%, he told the Register. . The fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the rise of a new Islamist-influenced government has further deepened fears among Christian minorities, who now face growing uncertainty regarding religious freedom, security and representation in public life. "We are facing the erasure of our people and tradition in the region," he said, adding that parishes that once welcomed thousands now gather only dozens. While Christians in the Kurdistan region enjoy relative freedom to worship, build churches and run schools, the broader context remains bleak. Across Iraq and Syria, political instability and economic hardship continue to drive Christian families into exile. "Many of our people are now stuck in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, hoping to reach Australia, North America, Canada, the U.S. or Europe," the patriarch said. Providing consistent pastoral care to these scattered communities is increasingly difficult, given the scarcity of clergy and limited resources. "We try to visit and celebrate the sacraments as often as possible," he said, "but the Church is under strain." Western Silence -- and a Singular Ally In candid terms, Patriarch Awa criticized the indifference of Western powers. "Unfortunately, Christianity in the West has become very lethargic," he said, citing the cultural and moral upheavals of the 1960s as a turning point. Today, he warned, secularism is not neutral: It seeks to erase Christianity from public life. "Christianity made Europe what it is today. Now, Europe is turning away from that inheritance." By contrast, the patriarch praised Hungary's commitment through the Hungary Helps program -- a government initiative supporting Christian communities in crisis around the world. "Hungary has been really exemplary," he said, highlighting its work in education, infrastructure and diplomatic engagement. He called on Western Christians to become more conscious of their Eastern brothers and sisters. Raising awareness, he said, begins with understanding the legacy and struggles of the Eastern Churches. Globally, the Assyrian Christian population is estimated between 3 million and 5 million. Significant diaspora communities exist in the United States, Sweden, Germany and Australia. These communities face their own challenges: maintaining faith and identity in increasingly secularized societies. "One of our major challenges today is about staying open to integration without engaging in an assimilation that melts our identity," the patriarch said. Catechesis, youth engagement, and the continued use of Aramaic in liturgy are in his view essential to preserving that identity. The Path to Unity This conversation took place shortly after the 30th anniversary of "The Common Christological Declaration" signed in 1994 between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Catholic Church -- a milestone in bridging centuries of division. Patriarch Awa praised the progress it enabled, noting it laid the foundation for the continuing theological dialogue between the two Churches and the restoration of mutual understanding after centuries of separation. "We are in the third phase of our theological discussions, which focus on the constitution of our Churches, and deal with questions of communion and primacy at local, provincial and universal level," he stated, pointing to the increase in exchanges of theological students as tangible proof of the positive evolution of the ongoing dialogue. He also noted Pope Francis' inclusion of St. Isaac the Syrian -- a seventh-century Assyrian saint -- in the Roman martyrology as a powerful symbol of mutual respect. "Unity is a gift of the Holy Spirit," he said. "We cannot force it, but we walk toward it." Patriarch Awa met Pope Leo XIV privately in Rome shortly after Leo's installation, May 18. Though it was their first meeting, he described the new Pope as "very humble, open-minded and attentive." He expressed hope that Leo XIV would continue to strengthen bonds with the Eastern Churches -- including efforts to establish a common date for Easter, a possibility Pope Francis had endorsed in 2024. As heads of Churches with a global mission and a common U.S. origin, Patriarch Awa said he and Pope Leo XIV were afforded early insight into the realities of Western secularism. They now stand on the world stage at a crossroad of history, marked by heightened geopolitical tensions and rising persecution of Christians -- but also by a renewed opportunity for cooperation and witness. Smoke from Canadian wildfires has Wisconsin under an air quality advisory through 6 a.m. Saturday, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said Friday. The advisory is at the unhealthy for sensitive groups orange Air Quality Index level, with the potential to reach the unhealthy red level. Southwest Wisconsin will have the best chance to remain in the moderate AQI level. The latest information is available online. The AQI measures how clean or polluted the air we breathe is on a daily basis. The index focuses on the health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. AQI is calculated based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution or particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles are the two pollutants that pose the greatest threat to human health in this country. The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow page. The level below orange is yellow and considered moderate, where the air quality is acceptable. Officials say sensitive groups during the advisory should: Make outdoor activities shorter and less intense. Its OK to be active outdoors but take more breaks. Watch for symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath. People with asthma: Follow your asthma action plan and keep quick relief medicine handy. People with heart disease: Symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, or unusual fatigue may indicate a serious problem. If you have any of these, contact your health care provider. Public Health Madison and Dane County said the air quality forecast for Dane County is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups over the next few days, and offered tips to deal with the smoke. Air quality will degrade from north to south today as the Canadian wildfire smoke pushes in ahead of a cold front, the National Weather Service said. The front will move into northeast Wisconsin Friday evening and begin clearing the air from northeast to southwest, while pushing the smoke further south and west, and an additional air quality advisory may be needed on Saturday for western areas. We are getting the smoke, Kevin Doom, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago, told the Associated Press. The winds way up in the atmosphere 10,000, 20,000 feet up are blowing in from the north today. Minnesota is kind of taking the brunt at the moment. The wind is going to drag that smoke down over the next day or two, Doom added. It will keep moving with the wind. But over time, it will continue to disperse, mix in with the air until it gets thinner and thinner until it fades away. Scattered thunderstorms are expected and isolated severe storms with damaging winds and large hail are possible for south-central Wisconsin Friday afternoon and early evening with the passage of the cold front. Highs for Madison Friday through Thursday are expected near 77, 74, 78, 87, 88, 75 and 73, with sunny skies for the weekend into Monday, and the next chances for showers and storms starting Tuesday. The Canadian province of Manitoba has declared a state of emergency over a series of wildfires, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has agreed to send in the military to help as thousands flee, the Associated Press reported. "This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most peoples' living memory," Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said. "The military is being called for help here because of the sheer scale of the 17,000 folks that we move relatively quickly. The fire began Monday just north in neighboring Saskatchewan and has exploded in size. There are 22 active wildfires in Manitoba. Officials said firefighters from across Canada are helping to fight the flames. On Sunday, a Parks Canada firefighter was severely injured. So far this year, Manitoba has had 102 fires, which officials say is "well above" the province's average of 77 by this time. Canada's wildfire season runs May through September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America, including Wisconsin, with dangerous smoke for months. " " The Barrier Dunes along the beach at Emerald Isle look a lot less crowded than South Beach, Florida. john harding photography / Getty Images When people think of beach vacations, their minds might jump to Florida or California. But those in the know often head to the North Carolina beaches instead. From the southern stretches of the Crystal Coast to the sun-kissed sands of Bogue Banks, this coastal state offers a mix of fun, natural beauty and easy beach access that appeals to visitors of all ages. Advertisement North Carolina's coastline stretches for more than 300 miles (about 480 kilometers) along the Atlantic Ocean. Whether you're planning a weekend escape or a longer stay, there's a beach town here just waiting to be explored. We have come together to stay together: Uddhav > < 21:48 All 7 NCP MLAs in Nagaland join NDPP All seven Nationalist Congress Party MLAs in Nagaland joined the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party on Saturday, giving the CM Neiphiu Rio-led party an absolute majority in the 60-member assembly.With this merger, the NDPP's tally increased from 25 to 32.The NCP's Nagaland unit had... Read more > 21:05 Punjab Kings set to clash with Mumbai Indians tomorrow In a high-stakes clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the Indian Premiere League 2025 Qualifier 2 will witness Punjab Kings taking on Mumbai Indians on June 1 at 7:30 pm.The head-to-head record between the two sides is narrowly tilted in Mumbai's favor, with 17 wins to Punjab's 16... Read more > 21:00 Kerala has most number of active Covid cases In the last 24 hours, 685 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported and four people have died, according to data released by Union health ministry. Kerala has 1,336 active cases, Maharashtra 467, Delhi 375, Gujarat 265, Karnataka 234, West Bengal 205, Tamil Nadu 185 and Uttar Pradesh 117. Read more > 20:48 Kerala MLA breaks open 'attached house' Karunagappally MLA C R Mahesh A Kerala legislator on Saturday broke open a house, allegedly attached by a private financial firm, to help a family take essential documents and medicine in Karunagappally in this southern district.The firm attached the two-storied house and locked the building on May 30 when its owners were... Read more > 20:41 COVID-19: Karnataka govt issues updated advisory Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Karnataka, the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services on Saturday requested people to stay calm, remain vigilant, and work with health authorities to prevent further spread and ensure public safety.It issued an advisory to Health Care Workers (HCWs)... Read more > 20:12 Govt employees should not take benefit under Ladki Bahin scheme: Bawankule Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Saturday said government employees should not take the benefit of the Ladki Bahin Yojana for women.Under this flagship scheme of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, eligible women get Rs 1,500 per month.Responding to reports that... Read more > 19:22 Active Covid cases in India rise to 3,395 The number of active COVID-19 cases in India has crossed 3,000, with Kerala accounting for the highest at 1,336, followed by Maharashtra and Delhi, Union health ministry data released on Saturday showed.According to the data, four deaths -- one each in Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh... Read more > 18:54 Govt misled nation: Kharge after CDS' remarks Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday accused the government of misleading the nation on the India-Pakistan conflict and demanded holding a special session of Parliament immediately, following Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan's acknowledgement of aircraft loss in the... Read more > 18:23 Man walking around with sister-in-law's severed head held A man was arrested on Saturday in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district after he was found walking around with the severed head of his sister-in-law, police said.According to a senior police officer, the man was apprehended in Bharatgarh in the district's Basanti area on suspicion of killing... Read more > 18:14 Constitution should be credited for keeping country united during crises: CJI The Constitution has ensured that whenever the country has faced a crisis, it has remained united and strong, Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai said on Saturday. The CJI was addressing a function after the inauguration of advocate chambers and multi-level parking at the Allahabad... Read more > 17:55 Pak was violating Indus treaty through terrorism: India at UN India has said that Pakistan should stop blaming it for the breach of the Indus Water Treaty, as the unrelenting cross-border terrorism from its soil is interfering with the treaty's implementation. Addressing the plenary session of the first UN conference on glaciers in Tajikistan's... Read more > 17:26 Reveal truth to country: Cong to govt after CDS remarks The Congress asked the government on Saturday to tell the country the truth on what losses were suffered during the four-day conflict with Pakistan after Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan acknowledged aircraft loss in the hostilities. Gen Chouhan, however, dismissed as absolutely... Read more > 16:58 Karnataka notifies legislation raising age to buy tobacco to 21 Karnataka government has notified a legislation that prohibits hookah bars, raises the legal age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 21 years, and increases the fine for violations.The notification was issued on May 30, following the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of... Read more > 16:38 Kerala group in Dubai trolled for welcoming Shahid Afridi A Kerala expatriate community in Dubai, which is facing intense online backlash over a warm welcome extended to Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi in a recent programme, has apologised for the incident and clarified that it was not intentional.The Cochin University Btech Alumni Association (CUBAA),... Read more > 16:03 Instagram influencer arrested over post on Op Sindoor Kolkata police has arrested a female Instagram influencer, who allegedly uploaded a video with communal comments, claiming Bollywood actors were silence on Operation Sindoor, a source said on Saturday. The woman, enrolled in Pune's Law University, was arrested from... Read more > 15:51 Man killed, another injured as car parking lift collapses at Mumbai Representative image A man died and another suffered injuries after a car parking lift collapsed at a 21-storey residential building in Mumbai's Borivali West area on Saturday, civic officials said. The accident took place around 11 am at Prathamesh Building, located on Link Road, said the Mumbai Fire... Read more > 15:34 Court rejects Rahul's plea seeking info on Savarkar grand-nephew's lineage A court in Pune on Saturday rejected Rahul Gandhi's application seeking details of the maternal lineage of Satyaki Savarkar, the grand-nephew of V D Savarkar, over his defamation complaint filed against the Congress leader for his alleged objectionable remarks against the Hindutva... Read more > 15:33 Bomb threat at Jaipur hotel with 3 ministers turns out hoax Two high-end hotels in Jaipur were promptly evacuated on Saturday after they received bomb threats through email, an official said. Three Rajasthan ministers were in one of the hotels when the threat was made. The bomb threat at the Holiday Inn Hotel later turned out to be a hoax while a... Read more > 15:05 Did India lose fighter jets in Op Sindoor? CDS says... Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Saturday dismissed Pakistan's claim of downing six Indian fighter jets during Operation Sindoor as absolutely incorrect.I think what is important is that, not the jets being down, but why they were being down, General Anil Chauhan said in an... Read more > 14:32 Rename Churchgate station after...: Dhangar leader A Dhangar community leader on Saturday demanded that the Churchgate railway station in south Mumbai be renamed after Ahilyabai Holkar, the revered queen of the Maratha-ruled Malwa kingdom. Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Dhangar leader Prakash Shendage also launched a sharp attack on... Read more > 14:03 Sindoor has become symbol of valour: Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said 'sindoor' has become a symbol of valour following India's response to the Pahalgam terror attack, and warned Pakistan that bullets will be answered with cannon balls.He also described Operation Sindoor as the biggest and most successful anti-terror... Read more > 13:57 Mahatma Gandhi also believed in peace, but...: Tharoor Stressing that there cannot be any dialogue with Pakistan till it decides to dismantle terror operators constructed in its country, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation, said that India understands that disputes must be settled through dialogue, but it does not... Read more > 13:20 If children have Covid symptoms don't send them to school: K'taka govt Representative image In view of the Covid-19 situation in the state and the reopening of schools, Karnataka government, in a circular, has asked parents not to send their children to school, if they have fever, cough, cold and other symptoms.The Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare has issued the circular late for... Read more > 12:42 In 1947, Pak was ahead of us, but today...: CDS Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said India today is ahead of Pakistan on all fronts despite greater diversity than the neighbouring country due to its long-term strategy. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, CDS Chauhan noted that both countries gained independence at... Read more > 12:21 Expert team recovers shipwreck container washed ashore in Kanyakumari An expert team from Gujarat recovered a container from the shipwreck of Liberian vessel MSC Elsa 3, that was washed ashore in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu, an official said on Saturday.The container washed ashore at Vaniyakudi fishing village, about one km from Colachel, according to the... Read more > 12:00 Delhi reports 1st Covid death amid surge in cases Representative image A 60-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 has died in Delhi, officials said on Saturday. This is the first fatality in the capital amid the current surge in cases.According to official data, Delhi has 294 active COVID-19 cases.The woman was suffering from acute intestinal... Read more > 11:57 Many feared dead as 5 houses, hotel collapse in Mizoram Several people were feared dead after five houses and a hotel collapsed due to landslides triggered by heavy rain in south Mizoram's Lawngtlai town, officials said.The incident occurred around 10:30 pm on Friday in the border area of Bazar Veng and Chandmary localities in Lawngtlai when the... Read more > 11:36 HDFC, ICICI stocks May Feel Bank Nifty's Weight Rejig Pressure Samie ModakThe latest measures introduced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India for the futures & options (F&O) segment may adversely impact HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank stocks. Market participants anticipate a churn of nearly $1 billion as passive funds tracking the Bank Nifty... Read more > 11:27 Tiger conservation pioneer Valmik Thapar dies at 73 Valmik Thapar, one of India's most eminent wildlife conservationists and authors, died at his residence Saturday morning. He was 73. Born in New Delhi in 1952, Thapar dedicated his life to the study and conservation of wild tigers, especially in Rajasthan's Ranthambore National... Read more > 10:49 Banks' Gold Loan Growth Doubles Aathira VarierGrowth in gold loans by commercial banks rose sharply by 119.6 per cent to Rs 2.23 trillion in April from Rs 1.02 trillion in the year-ago period, driven by a rise in gold prices.Sequentially, gold loan growth was 6.9 per cent in April, the Reserve Bank of India data showed.The gold... Read more > 10:24 When will PM speak up?: Cong on Trump's truce claims The Congress on Saturday wondered when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would respond to US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly given more than an indication that it was he who brokered a truce between India and Pakistan during the latest armed conflict. In a series of posts on X,... Read more > 09:57 In Assam, 79 'Pak sympathiser' held since Pahalgam attack One more person, accused of being a Pakistan sympathiser, has been apprehended in Assam, taking the total number of such arrests to 79 in the state since the Pahalgam terror attack last month, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.The arrested person has been identified as Farijul Haque from... Read more > 09:33 In Pak, nobody seems to be in control: Salman Khurshid Former Minister of External Affairs and Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Friday noted that violations continued on the Pakistani side, suggesting a lack of control over its military actions even after a ceasefire was reached. In Indonesia, Khurshid, a member of the all-party... Read more > 09:26 Anti-drone system deployed for Taj Mahal's security An anti-drone system has been deployed at the Taj Mahal to enhance security around the wondrous monument, police said on Friday. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Taj Security) Syed Arib Ahmed said the system has been installed within the Taj Mahal premises and is capable of disabling any... Read more > 09:03 Over 2,200 Ladki Bahin beneficiaries found to be govt employees: Maha min Maharashtra Minister Aditi Tatkare has said that more than 2,200 beneficiaries of the Mukhyamantri Ladki Bahin Yojana were found to be government employees during scrutiny.In a post on X on Friday, Tatkare said verification of beneficiaries will be a regular process.After scrutinising nearly 2... Read more > 08:31 Diplomatic win: Colombia withdraws pro-Pak statement In a significant accomplishment for India in its global outreach effort to expose Pakistan and to convey its zero tolerance against terrorism, Colombia, which earlier in its statement sympathised with Pakistan over the loss of lives, has now withdrawn its statement. Congress MP Shashi... Read more > 01:06 Mega block: WR to cancel 162 Mumbai locals on weekend A 36-hour major block will be operated on fifth line and yard lines from Saturday afternoon to dismantle an elevated booking office at Kandivali Yard, a Western Railway official said. Suburban and mail express trains will be run on Fast Line during the block that will start at 1 pm on... Read more > 00:40 6 held for duping ex-Navy officer of over Rs 2 cr in UP Six people have been arrested for allegedly cheating a retired Navy officer of over Rs 2 crore in a fake share trading scheme, the police said on Friday. Superintendent of police Abhishek Kumar Jha said Bhupendra Singh, a resident of Lalpur village, was lured into investing Rs 2.08 crore... Read more > Chinese students studying in the U.S. are scrambling to figure out their futures after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced yesterday (Macau time) that some students would have their visas revoked. The U.S. will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in critical fields, and those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the announcement. China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the U.S. This is a new version of Chinese Exclusion Act, said Linqin, a Chinese student at Johns Hopkins University, who asked to be identified only by his first name out of fear of retaliation. He was referring to a 19th-century law that prohibited Chinese from immigrating to the U.S. and banned Chinese people already in the U.S. from getting citizenship. He said Wednesday was the first time he thought about leaving the U.S. after spending one third of his life here. Chinese international students are point of tension between US and China Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, called the U.S. decision unreasonable. Such a politicized and discriminatory action lays bare the U.S. lie that it upholds the so-called freedom and openness, she said yesterday, adding that China has lodged a protest with the U.S. The issue of Chinese students studying overseas has long been a point of tension in the bilateral relationship. During Trumps first term, in 2019, Chinas Ministry of Education warned students about visa issues in the U.S., with rising rejection rates and shortening of visas. Last year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry protested that a number of Chinese students have been unfairly interrogated and sent home upon arrival at U.S. airports. Chinese state media has long hyped gun violence in the U.S. and violent protests during the pandemic, and portrayed the U.S. as a dangerous place that wasnt safe for its citizens. The tense bilateral relationship has also meant that some Chinese students are opting to study in the U.K. or other countries over the U.S. after the pandemic. Zou Renge, a 27-year-old public policy masters student at the University of Chicago, said she had planned to take some time off and work in humanitarian aid programs abroad after graduating at the end of this year. But now, she will refrain from leaving the U.S. and will look for jobs in the meantime. In a very uncertain environment, Ill try my best to find myself a solution, she said. Hong Kong seeks to draw in talent amid uncertainty Some were eager to capitalize on the uncertainty facing international students in the U.S. Hong Kongs leader John Lee told lawmakers yesterday that the city would welcome any students who have been discriminated against by American policies to study in the city. The students who face unfair treatment can come from different countries beyond the U.S. I think this is an opportunity for Hong Kong, he said. We will work with our universities to provide the best support and assistance. That followed a widely shared post by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology inviting Harvard students to continue their academic pursuits there after Trump said he would revoke the universitys ability to accept international students. Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, is a popular destination for mainland Chinese students to pursue their university degrees because of its international image and relative freedoms. The city launched a new visa scheme in 2022 to counter the exodus of expatriates and local professionals that occurred after the national security law was imposed. Kitty Wu, director of education consultancy Litz USA Student Service in Hong Kong, said some students who planned to apply to American universities in the future are now also considering the University of Hong Kong, the citys top university and an option because of its high ranking something that had not happened before. Things are different every day now, we dont know how things will change in the future, so we dont know the impact for next year, she said. Will Kwong, managing director at Hong Kongs AAS Education Consultancy, said his company was helping students with offers from American universities to apply to other institutions, predominantly in Britain and Australia. US was known for diversity and this will hurt it, students say Having fewer international exchanges is definitely not good for Americas development, said Zhang Qi, a postdoctoral fellow in Beijing. This could be a positive change for Chinas development. More talented individuals may choose to stay at Tsinghua or Peking University, or with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other top institutions in China, which would benefit the development of domestic science and technology. For many, there is little they can do as they now wait for the fallout from the move. Chen, an incoming Chinese student at Purdue University who only gave his last name out of concern for retaliation by the Trump administration, has been waiting anxiously for his visa approval. But he was also angry. Currently in China, he said this was the exact opposite of what he thought the U.S. stood for. I was expecting freedom and tolerance. The U.S. was known for its diversity which allows international students to fit in, but it is a pity to see such kind of change, he said. FU TING, KANIS LEUNG, & HUIZHONG WU, HONG KONG, MDT/AP Elon Musk is leaving his government role as a top adviser to President Donald Trump after spearheading efforts to reduce and overhaul the federal bureaucracy. His departure, announced yesterday (Macau time), marks the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs, the evisceration of government agencies and reams of litigation. Despite the upheaval, the billionaire entrepreneur struggled in the unfamiliar environment of Washington, and he accomplished far less than he hoped. He dramatically reduced his target for cutting spending from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to $150 billion and increasingly expressed frustration about resistance to his goals. Sometimes he clashed with other top members of Trumps administration, who chafed at the newcomers efforts to reshape their departments, and he faced fierce political blowback for his efforts. Musks role working for Trump was always intended to be temporary, and he had recently signaled that he would be shifting his attention back to running his businesses, such as the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. But administration officials were often vague about when Musk would step back from his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, and he abruptly revealed that he was leaving in a post on X, his social media website. As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending, he wrote. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. A White House official, who requested anonymity to talk about the change, confirmed Musks departure. Musk announced his decision one day after CBS released part of an interview in which he criticized the centerpiece of Trumps legislative agenda by saying he was disappointed by what the president calls his big beautiful bill. The legislation includes a mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement. Musk described it as a massive spending bill that increases the federal deficit and undermines the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful, Musk said. But I dont know if it could be both. Trump, speaking in the Oval Office yesterday, defended his agenda by talking about the delicate politics involved with negotiating the legislation. Im not happy about certain aspects of it, but Im thrilled by other aspects of it, he said. Trump also suggested that more changes could be made. Were going to see what happens, he said. Its got a way to go. Republicans recently pushed the measure through the House and are debating it in the Senate. Musks concerns are shared by some Republican lawmakers. I sympathize with Elon being discouraged, said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson. Speaking at a Milwaukee Press Club event yesterday, Johnson added that he was pretty confident there was enough opposition to slow this process down until the president, our leadership, gets serious about reducing spending. He said there was no amount of pressure Trump could put on him to change his position. Speaker Mike Johnson has asked senators to make as few changes to the legislation as possible, saying that House Republicans reached a very delicate balance that could be upended with major changes. The narrowly divided House will have to vote again on final passage once the Senate alters the bill. Johnson thanked Musk for his work and promised to pursue more spending cuts in the future, saying the House is eager and ready to act on DOGEs findings. The White House is sending some proposed rescissions, a mechanism used to cancel previously authorized spending, to Capitol Hill to solidify some of DOGEs cuts. A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the package will include $1.1 billion from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and $8.3 billion in foreign assistance. Musk occasionally seemed chastened by his experience working in government. The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized, he told The Washington Post. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least. He also recently said that hell reduce his political spending, because I think Ive done enough. Musk had previously been energized by the opportunity to reshape Washington. After putting at least $250 million behind Trumps candidacy, he wore campaign hats in the White House, held his own campaign rallies, and talked about excessive spending as an existential crisis. He often tended to be effusive in his praise of Trump. The more Ive gotten to know President Trump, the more I like the guy, Musk said in February. Frankly, I love him. Trump repaid the favor, describing Musk as a truly great American. When Tesla faced declining sales, he turned the White House driveway into a makeshift showroom to illustrate his support. Its unclear what, if any, impact that Musks comments about the bill would have on the legislative debate, especially given his departure from the administration. During the transition period, when his influence was on the rise, he helped whip up opposition to a spending measure as the country stood on the brink of a federal government shutdown. His latest criticism could embolden Republicans who want bigger spending cuts. Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee reposted a Fox News story about Musks interview while also adding his own take on the measure, saying there was still time to fix it. CHRIS MEGERIAN, WASHINGTON, MDT/AP For the first time in its 17year existence, the governments Wealth Partaking Scheme which distributes cash handouts to residents yearly has been amended. Following public outcry that the government should use public funds more wisely and allocate them only to those residing full time in Macau, the Executive Council (ExCo) yesterday presented a new version of the scheme that includes a provision excluding those who did not stay in Macau for at least 183 days in 2024. As the Secretary for Administration and Justice and spokesperson for the ExCo, Andre Cheong noted during a press conference at Government Headquarters, there are eight exceptions to the 183 days rule. These include: those who have not reached 22 years of age by Dec. 31, 2024, with at least one eligible parent for the handout; those receiving disability or subsidy allowances as of Dec. 31, 2024; those abroad enrolled in tertiary education programs; and those hospitalized abroad; those over 65 living in mainland China or under 65 due to health reasons. Exceptions also apply to those working abroad for local companies and registered with the Social Welfare Fund locally; those working abroad who are responsible for their families livelihood in Macau; civil servants or public officials on official duty abroad; those living, working or studying in the Hengqin Cooperation Zone; and those working in any of the nine mainland municipalities of the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Asked about the topic by the media, Cheong said the government does not yet know how many residents will be affected by the new measures. He stated that only after people initially deemed ineligible begin to appeal the decision and submit documentary proof can the authorities compile accurate statistics. In response to repeated questions, Cheong said the government has a preliminary figure but refused to share it, claiming it might not be accurate. He noted that last year, the scheme reached 753,000 people. According to Chong Seng Sam, deputy director of the Financial Services Bureau, 162,000 of those handouts were dispatched to areas outside Macau. As previously announced, the handout amounts remain unchanged, with permanent residents receiving 10,000 patacas and nonpermanent residents receiving 6,000 patacas. Savings to be redirected to those in need Cheong remarked that more than simply saving resources, the measure aims to reallocate the money saved on cash handouts to other benefits, particularly subsidies for residents with greater needs. He reaffirmed that the money will not be returned to government reserves but will be used within the year on programs and initiatives for the underprivileged. Preserving the schemes original purpose In response to several media questions, especially regarding the exclusion of individuals who have lived and worked in Macau for years but now reside elsewhere, Cheong said the government is aiming to preserve the schemes original purpose. He recalled that when the scheme launched in 2008, its goal was to help residents in Macau cope with the hardships of the global financial crisis and the rising cost of rent and daily goods amid a booming casino-driven economy. We are not contradicting the idea of the original plan. We are sticking to the intention and purpose of the scheme. This was intended to help alleviate the difficulties faced by those living in Macau. Those abroad are living under different economic conditions and might not experience the same challenges that justify the distribution of funds locally, he said, adding that the government wants to restrict access to local financial resources to those with strong links to Macau. Public opinion factored in Justifying the amendment, Cheong said, After listening to the opinions of society, and considering the provisions on the extraordinary distribution of budget balances contained in Law No. 7/2017 (Non-mandatory Central Provident Fund Scheme), the Macau SAR government has drawn up the administrative regulation on the Wealth Partaking Scheme for 2025, which sets out the requirements and procedures for applying for the handout. Asked by the media about the scope of public opinion and the lack of a formal consultation Cheong responded, We have been listening to public views for some time. As mentioned during this years Policy Address, the government aims to save financial resources and reallocate them to those in more urgent need. This ensures we direct our limited resources to the right people. As we try to gather input, we dont rely on just one channel. We receive feedback from a wide range of sources including local associations, traditional media, and comments on social media platforms. This [measure] reflects all of those suggestions, he added. Mainland GBA cities an exception The decision to exempt those working in the nine mainland GBA cities but not those in neighboring Hong Kong sparked further questions from reporters. Cheong said the exemption is in line with government policies that encourage local residents, especially younger generations, to work in the GBA. Were also offering them a 5,000pataca monthly subsidy for this purpose. Distribution begins midJuly As announced at the press conference, cash handout distribution will begin on July 15 and continue through midAugust, when the youngest residents those born between 2018 and 2024 will receive their payments. Residents can check their eligibility through a new section in the Macao One Account mobile app or the website (www.planocp.gov.mo). Those who are deemed ineligible but believe they fall under one of the established exceptions can submit documentation via the same platforms from June 18 to Dec. 21, 2028. No plans to link handout to fiscal surplus There is no intention to link the annual cash handout to government fiscal performance, Secretary for Administration and Justice and Executive Council spokesperson Andre Cheong said yesterday. The statement came in response to media inquiries about the future of the scheme which has undergone amendments this year to reflect some of the criteria used for cash injections into Central Provident Fund accounts. Nonetheless, Cheong did not rule out future changes to the scheme, which he reminded residents is not a permanent measure. Asked about recent suggestions from associations proposing a shift toward a consumptionbased model similar to the electronic vouchers used during the pandemic Cheong said only that the government continues to listen to all views and take suggestions seriously. The Macau government has launched a raft of proactive employment support measures, including the establishment of a working group, to enhance efforts to address job opportunities for residents, especially young people. As approved by Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai on Wednesday, the working group was established under the name employment coordination, chaired by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Anton Tai. Its members include representatives from the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, the Office of the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), and other relevant functional entities. To implement the Special Administrative Region governments administration philosophy of putting people first, the chief executive approved the establishment of the employment promotion coordination working group on May 28, 2025. The working group will be led by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, who will coordinate cross-departmental resources to comprehensively advance efforts for local residents employment security, said Tais office. The statement outlines the main responsibilities of the working group. These include conducting scientific studies to understand human resources trends; gathering and researching information about the local job markets supply and demand; creating policies aimed at promoting employment for local residents; and regularly assessing how effective these employment initiatives are. Additionally, the working group has the flexibility to form special task forces when necessary and can invite representatives from relevant entities to participate in meetings or contribute their insights. Following the announcement of the working groups establishment, Tais office issued a separate statement indicating that the secretary had held two policy exchange meetings on Tuesday to discuss measures related to industrial development and resident employment, with around 40 representatives from community organizations and businesses in attendance. During the meeting on Supporting Resident Employment Development, Tai emphasized, as quoted by the statement, the governments commitment to local resident employment and development, highlighting multiple policy measures to strengthen employment support services. Notably, there is an active effort to establish a comprehensive vocational training platform that collaborates with demand-side entities to enhance the integration and optimization of vocational training, helping residents improve their employment competitiveness and facilitating upward or lateral mobility for high-quality, diversified employment. Participants reportedly offered a number of constructive opinions and suggestions, including strengthening career planning for young people, optimizing vocational training types and tiers, improving employment information in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and enhancing measures to encourage young people to pursue internships, practical training, or employment in mainland China. Journalists can only transcribe the content of these meetings based on the press release. Yesterday, several listeners called into the public broadcaster TDM radio program to question the government about the establishment of the working group, asking, Why is a working group needed for these tasks? Havent they been done before? One listener highlighted the poor current economic and employment environment, mentioning friends who have recently lost their jobs and are struggling to find work. Despite sending resumes to various institutions, they often receive no responses or only offers for insurance-related positions. Another listener noted that several friends who graduated three or four years ago have yet to secure formal, long-term employment. He also pointed out that language graduates are facing similar challenges. Some opinions expressed concerns about the research staff at local universities, questioning the presence of non-local residents and the newly established groups effectiveness in addressing local employment issues. While there is some hope for the governments employment promotion group, doubts remain regarding the authorities commitment to promoting appropriate economic diversification. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Legislative Assemblys Follow Committee for Public Finance Affairs held a meeting to discuss follow-up measures on labor policies and the importation of non-local workers. Zheng Anting, who chairs the committee, told the media afterward that the committee is concerned about public attention regarding non-local worker recruitment in Macau. While the current unemployment rate is relatively low, some young people have reported difficulties in finding jobs. During the meeting, several legislators raised concerns about the number of non-local workers being recruited, the alignment of targeted investment industries with the educational backgrounds and professional fields of local talent, and the distribution of non-local workers across various industries. Analysis Prominent cultural figures highlighted earlier this week that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area a thriving model of cultural integration could set a global benchmark for good governance by harnessing technological innovation to strengthen cultural preservation and exchange. Their remarks were made at the Forum on Building Cultural Strength and Promoting Digital Intelligence of the Greater Bay Area, one of the 10 parallel events that are part of the Forum on Building up Chinas Cultural Strength 2025 hosted on Monday and Tuesday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Wu Zhiliang, chairman of the Federation of Associations of Cultural Sectors of Macau, said during his thematic speech that the Greater Bay Area retains unique cultural genes shaped by the exploratory DNA from the ancient Baiyue community, enriched by the culture of the Central Plains, or Zhongyuan area, and refined through the progress of globalization. In Wus opinion, the convergence of different cultures fueled the regions inclusiveness. In Macau, we can see the Na Tcha Temple and the Ruins of Saint Pauls College are not far apart, and the Portuguese-style stone road blends with the Guangdong vernacular architectures, he said. Wu said he believes the centuries-old harmonious coexistence of the Eastern and the Western cultural architectures offers a blueprint for promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, providing an innovative model for todays global cultural governance. Wu proposed that the Greater Bay Area experience offers a third way for cultural engagement one that transcends both cultural hegemony and protectionism. He suggested this model could emerge as a new global paradigm for fostering cross-cultural dialogue. Within this framework, Wu said that digital technologies serve a dual purpose: preserving historical and cultural heritage, and generating economic value across industries. Technology is also seen as a key booster to strengthen cultural prowess, said Li Tsz-shu, vice-president of public affairs at Shenzhen-based IT colossus Tencent, during a speech at the event. Technology acts as the translator and catalyst of culture, helping traditional culture find the connection points with modern life, Li said. Li outlined Tencents endeavors in using digital technologies to preserve, revitalize and promote cultural heritage, adding that recent technological advancements, represented by artificial intelligence and virtual reality, have been reshaping means of communication and fostering deeper exchanges between cultures and people. Digital technology is building a digital vault that not only permanently preserves the original appearance of cultural heritage, but also enables viewers to dissolve spatiotemporal barriers to appreciate cultural treasures and establish sentimental bonds with them, Li said. Key Takeaways Greater Bay Area as global cultural model The regions blend of Eastern and Western cultures positions it as a potential benchmark for global cultural governance. Tech powers cultural preservation AI and VR are helping preserve heritage and expand access, with firms like Tencent building digital vaults for cultural treasures. Push for unity and youth involvement Experts urged stronger cultural cohesion and youth engagement in Hong Kong and Macau to boost national identity and creativity. Looked at in terms of there being a global cultural competition, the technology-culture fusion in the Greater Bay Area the frontier where Chinese and Western culture blends can help enhance the nations soft power and facilitate global exchanges, Li added. In a separate address, Liu Shuyong, deputy chief editor of the Hong Kong Chronicles Institute, said a priority in building the cultural strength of the Greater Bay Area is enhancing regional cultural cohesion. This year marks the 80th anniversary of Chinas victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), and Liu said this point in time can serve as an opportunity to promote the patriotism and the fighting spirit demonstrated in the anti-aggression war. This would help Hong Kongs and Macaus young people consciously integrate into the nations development, boost their confidence during difficult times, and contribute to world peace and development, said Liu. Also at the forum, Chinese actor Zhang Guoli, founder of a Shenzhen-based drama troupe, praised the Greater Bay Areas forward-looking and comprehensive policy support for the arts and cultural industry. Zhang said drama can serve as the glue for cultural integration in the Greater Bay Area and said he hopes more high-quality cultural content will be created within the favorable environment of Shenzhen, and then spread around the entire country. By William Xu, MDT/ChinaDaily On the agenda The fifth Asia Summit on Global Health opened earlier this week in Hong Kong, gathering more than 2,800 medical experts, policymakers, and industry leaders from around 40 countries and regions to explore opportunities in healthcare innovation and collaboration. Jointly organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the summit is being held in a hybrid format and is themed Fostering Global Collaboration for a Shared Future. As cited in a Xinhua report, Chief Executive John Lee said in his opening address that Hong Kong will continue promoting its role as an international hub for health and medical innovation, leveraging its strengths under the One country, two systems framework. Lee emphasized the citys commitment to supporting scientific research and health technology. He noted that the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute has officially launched in the Hong Kong Science Park, in collaboration with two local medical schools, to accelerate clinical trials. He also announced that Hong Kong is working toward establishing an internationally recognized regulatory system for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, including a 1+ new drug approval mechanism aimed at streamlining processes and attracting global innovators. Cao Xuetao, deputy head of Chinas National Health Commission, praised Hong Kongs strategic position, advanced infrastructure, and research capacity, calling them key assets in driving regional healthcare development. He said the Greater Bay Area continues to fuel the growth of health industries in Hong Kong and across Asia. In a video address, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for stronger multilateral cooperation to confront global health challenges, particularly those related to aging populations and chronic diseases. He urged countries to work together to build a healthier, safer, and fairer world. The two-day summit is one of the highlights of the fourth International Healthcare Week and runs alongside the 16th Hong Kong International Medical and Healthcare Fair. The fair features about 300 exhibitors from 13 countries and regions, as well as participation from seven local universities and more than 50 local startups and enterprises. Exhibits showcase the citys latest innovations in medical technology and healthcare solutions. Organizers say the event reflects Hong Kongs growing role in shaping the future of global health through policy, research, and international collaboration. A 60-year-old mainland man allegedly misappropriated RMB4 million in a car import scheme. He promised to help transport three U.S. vehicles to mainland China but delayed the process with excuses. After two cars arrived in Macau, he registered them under different plates to deceive the victim. The third vehicle remained in Hong Kong. The suspect was caught entering Macau on April 28 and admitted to misusing the funds, saying he could no longer pay for the vehicles expenses. Related Mr. Miyagi was known for waxing poetic. So the fact that Karate Kid: Legends has nothing to say is all the more disappointing. One of the most interesting aspects of the original The Karate Kid and its early sequels is Mr. Miyagis radical proclivity for mercy, often mistaken for cowardice by those around him. He doesnt just teach Daniel (Ralph Macchio) how to fight. He teaches him a subversive way of living, and, in doing so, becomes a kind of father figure to the fatherless boy. As is often the case, it seems the spirit of the franchise was lost somewhere in the creation of an entire universe including six films and six seasons of Cobra Kai. Although Karate Kid: Legends does eventually allude to this philosophy of compassion, it lacks both the heart and grit of those earlier films. Its neither entertaining, nor thought-provoking, which makes one wonder whether this was solely a means of capitalizing on the renewed audience the franchise boasts thanks to Cobra Kai. In some ways, the film follows the playbook of its predecessors. Li Fong (Ben Wang) moves to New York from Beijing with his mother and deals with the clashing of cultures and the struggles of being an outsider. And while Li does eventually, like in previous films, fight the jealous ex-boyfriend of his new romantic interest, their rivalry is hardly the focal point of the story. Instead, Lis main struggle is internal, as he deals with the grief of witnessing his brother get fatally stabbed by a disgruntled opponent after a kung fu match back home. But even that internal struggle is buried under other subplots and is hardly dealt with in the end. You might be wondering how Macchio and Jackie Chan fit into this story. They are, after all, on the movie poster. But neither is meaningfully in the film until about an hour into it, when they decide they need to help Li prepare for his karate match. Chan starred as a kung fu master in the 2010 remake, and the impressively choreographed fight scenes in this movie are more akin to his previous film the convergence between Macchios karate and Chans kung fu is never really fleshed out. Karate Kid: Legends is the first project in the franchise to connect Chan and Macchio, and does so in a way that feels forced. Once Chan and Macchio are finally on screen, there are a few endearing moments between the pair. But not enough to save the film. The attempt to tell a different story, while laudable, turns the film into a convoluted one, with no real character development or stakes. Part of the problem is that the movie takes itself so seriously, making some of the irreverent humor of Cobra Kai unattainable. (One of the best moments of the film is William Zabkas cameo as Johnny Lawrence in a light-hearted coda.) For the most part, the film struggles tonally, thanks in part to the upbeat music set against a backdrop of violence and trauma. Thats not to say the previous films havent always suffered from trying to do too many things. But there were moments of poignancy in the earlier movies that are absent in this latest installment of the franchise. Despite its sprawling universe, theres no need to have kept up with it to understand most of whats going on. But rewatching the first wouldnt hurt, even if it will make you nostalgic for whats missing in Karate Kid: Legends. KRYSTA FAURIA, MDT/AP Film Writer Karate Kid: Legends, a Sony Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for martial arts violence and some language. Running time: 94 minutes. More than a year after its sales launch, only 34% of the 4,070 flats at the Macau New Neighbourhood (MNN) project in Hengqin have been sold, according to the latest annual report from Macau Urban Renewal Limited (MUR). Between November 2023 and the end of 2024, only 1,388 units were sold, accounting for 34% of total flats. The purchase of parking spaces has also slowed only 462 of the 3,973 spots released in May 2024 were sold, representing just 11.6%. As cited in media reports, MUR noted that more than 2,500 Macau residents have moved into the complex, with numbers said to be steadily growing. The report noted that public services are fully operational and that most retail shops have opened, forming a 15-minute living circle. Over 80% of supermarkets, restaurants, banks, barbershops, laundry services, and retail stores are run by Macau-based merchants, reinforcing the projects mission of boosting local business integration in Hengqin. The MNN development is the first residential complex in the mainland exclusively available to Macau residents. It includes 27 residential towers with two- and three-bedroom units, sold at a base price of RMB30,000 per square meter. Twice in 2024, MUR relaxed purchase restrictions to stimulate demand. In May, the developer eliminated requirements that buyers must not own property in Zhuhai or more than one unit in Macau, removed the five-year resale ban, and lowered the minimum purchase age to 18. The company aims to create a livable community that meets the needs of all social groups and encourages Macau SMEs to integrate into the Greater Bay Area and bring in more local brands. The project is viewed as an initiative to deepen ties between Macau and mainland China, with expectations that between 12,000 and 15,000 residents from the Macau SAR will eventually relocate to the neighborhood. A primary school within the neighbourhood in Hengqin opened in 2024, and a secondary school is currently under construction, expected to begin operations by 2026. The development is part of broader government plans to encourage Macau residents to settle in Hengqin and integrate more deeply with the Greater Bay Area. In a policy address delivered in April, Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai reaffirmed that the development of Hengqin and strengthening cooperation with mainland China remains a top priority for the SAR Government. South Koreas presidential race has devolved into personal attacks and petty disputes, drowning out meaningful policy debate after former conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeols ouster over his martial law fiasco. The bitter mudslinging between liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung and conservative opponent Kim Moon Soo escalated during Tuesday nights final presidential debate, with Lee branding Kim Yoon Suk Yeols avatar and Kim denouncing Lee as a harbinger of monster politics and dictatorship. Here is a look at the words and controversies that have roiled the presidential contest as two days of early voting begins yesterday ahead of the June 3 election: Lee roasted over coffee beans Consistently trailing Lee in opinion polls, Kim has focused on dredging up his legal troubles and casting the outspoken Democratic Party candidate as a dangerous, hardline populist whose economic promises are detached from reality. For days, Kims camp has seized on what appeared to be a casual comment by Lee about the profitability of running coffee shops during a May 16 campaign rally in Gunsan city. Lee was touting his past policy as Gyeonggi Province governor in 2019, when he relocated unlicensed food vendors from the provinces popular mountain streams to clean up and revitalize tourist areas. Lee said he offered to help vendors transition to legitimate businesses and suggested it would be far more profitable to sell coffee than their labor-intensive chicken porridge. Lee said he noted that a cup of coffee could sell for 8,000 to 10,000 won ($5.8 to $7.3), while the raw cost of beans was just 120 won (9 cents). The remarks quickly struck a nerve in a country where the rapid spread of small coffee shops has come to symbolize the struggles of the self-employed in a decaying job market. Kims People Power Party accused Lee of driving a nail into the hearts of small business owners by portraying coffee shops as profiteering and said he misunderstood the factors behind retail pricing. Lee accused the conservatives of distorting his remarks, saying he was simply explaining how he had helped vendors operate in a better environment. Kim sidesteps a Chanel bag scandal Kims avoidance of direct criticism of Yoon over his martial law decree has been a major source of Lees political offensive against him. When Yoon appeared May 21 to view a documentary film justifying his martial law decree and raising unfounded claims about how the liberals benefited from election fraud, some PPP members lamented he was practically campaigning for Lee. Kim, formerly Yoons labor minister, only said he would do his best as president to eliminate suspicions of alleged election fraud. Kim also has not offered any notable reaction to various scandals surrounding Yoons wife, Kim Keon Hee. Prosecutors in Seoul are investigating fresh allegations that the former first lady received luxury gifts, including two Chanel bags, from a Unification Church official seeking business favors after Yoon took office in 2022. She previously faced several other allegations including receiving a Dior bag from a Korean American pastor and involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme. During the presidential debate, Lee claimed Yoon would return as a shadow ruler behind Kim, and Kim skirted Lees question about whether he would pardon Yoon. Allegations from a room salon The room salon is a long-standing symbol of South Koreas male-oriented nightlife culture. The expensive, private karaoke bar where hostesses drink and sing with male customers abruptly emerged as a hot election issue. Lees party alleged a judge handling Yoons rebellion trial visited one of the bars in affluent southern Seoul last year with two unidentified people. It said his companions paid the bill and they were likely linked to his work as a judge, representing a conflict of interest. The judge, Jee Kui-youn, has been at the center of bipartisan wrangling since he approved Yoons release from prison in March and allowed him to stand his trial without physical detention. We should strip him of his judge robe, party spokesperson Noh Jongmyun said. Isnt it preposterous for him to serve as chief judge for the rebellion trial where the fate of Koreas democracy lies? Jee denied the allegations, saying that like many ordinary people he enjoys samgyeopsal, grilled pork bellies, and somaek, shots mixing beer and the traditional Korean liquor soju. Conservative critics accuse the Democratic Party of trying to tame the judiciary branch as Lee faces five criminal trials over corruption and other allegations. Chaos over unifying candidacies South Korea does not hold a second round of runoff elections. Subsequently, when there is a clear frontrunner it is common for two remaining rivals to launch a unified campaign in which one withdraws and supports the other in exchange for a high-profile role in the government. With Lee maintaining a solid lead, this years race saw a similar maneuver among conservatives, but the extremely chaotic, undemocratic manner failed and hurt Kims campaign. Believing Han Duck-soo, Yoons former prime minister, had a better chance of defeating Lee, PPP leaders consisting primarily of Yoon loyalists held late night, emergency meetings to cancel Kims nomination and push a candidacy by Han, an independent. The attempt was rejected the next day in a vote by party members. Kim called the move an overnight political coup and later made efforts to align with Lee Joon-seok, the candidate of the smaller conservative party. Lee has flatly rejected the overture. KIM TONG-HYUNG & HYUNG-JIN KIM, SEOUL, MDT/AP Macau recorded 204,000 inbound package tour visitors in April 2025, a 12.1% year-on-year increase, according to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The rise was largely driven by a steady return of travelers from mainland China, which accounted for 178,000 of the total, up 11.8%. International package tour visitors grew by 4% to 20,000, with arrivals from South Korea rising 10.9% to 8,000. Hotel performance also improved, with the average occupancy rate reaching 87.8%, up 4.7 percentage points from April 2024. A total of 1.2 million guests stayed in local hotels, marking a 3.4% annual increase. Visitors from mainland China accounted for 861,000 of these guests, while international visitors climbed 12.3% to 106,000. Notable increases came from India (+64.4%), Thailand (+28.4%), and Japan (+5%). The average length of stay remained unchanged at 1.6 nights. As of the end of April, Macau had 147 licensed hotel establishments, four more than the same time last year, but total available guest rooms fell 4.3% to 45,000. Five-star hotels led occupancy rates at 90.9%. Meanwhile, outbound travel also saw gains. In April, 49,000 Macau residents purchased outbound services via travel agencies, up 10.7% year-on-year. Of these, 14,000 joined package tours, with 13,000 headed to mainland China. From January to April 2025, Macau welcomed 757,000 package tour visitors up 10.2% year-on-year and recorded a 5.1-point increase in average hotel occupancy, reaching 89.6%. LV West Mifflin Street is constantly changing. The famous student enclave between the UW-Madison campus and Capitol Square was a cradle for protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s. Its the home of the annual Mifflin Street Block Party, born in protest in 1969 and continued ever since as an end-of-the-year bacchanal. Its community is remade every August, when the previous years tenants depart and the next group moves in. Miffland, as the neighborhood around West Mifflin Street is known, doesnt look all that different from a half-century ago. Many of the single-family and multifamily houses with distinctive porches, balconies and yards that were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s are still there and are still sought after by students. But now the way the neighborhood looks is changing, too. Guided by a neighborhood plan adopted in 2019, the city is working with developers to increase the supply of housing in Miffland while preserving the areas identity. City staff learned, for example, that most people living in the area cared less about the buildings themselves than about the sense of community that the architecture created. So the Mifflandia Plan the neighborhood charter governing the 400 and 500 blocks of West Dayton Street, West Mifflin Street, West Washington Avenue and West Main Street limits how close new buildings can be to the street and encourages the inclusion of porches and balconies. The public-to-private space in the front of buildings was really something that was treasured, said Rebecca Cnare, a city planner. Redevelopment is not new to Miffland. The Ambassador West Apartments, one of the first large residential buildings to go up in the area, replaced several houses on the 400 block in the early 1970s. The houses were torn down and the building constructed in the aftermath of a lengthy and occasionally violent standoff between the houses beleaguered buyer and student tenants who refused to recognize him as their landlord or pay him rent. A four-story apartment building that was proposed next door to Ambassador West in 2010 faced opposition from residents who were concerned it would be too large for the neighborhood, allow for less sociability than the surrounding houses and replace cheaper rents with higher ones. It was very controversial, believe it or not, Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, who has represented the area since 1995, said of the 44-unit building now located at 424 W. Mifflin St. When you look at it, it almost seems sedate compared to whats being proposed in the neighborhood today. Five years since the Mifflandia Plan went into effect, a wave of redevelopment projects that began along West Washington Avenue is now working its way up to West Mifflin Street. Two recent proposals are poised to overhaul most of a block in the heart of the neighborhood that is still dominated by old houses. Madison Development Corp. constructed a four-story, 46-unit apartment building at 431 W. Mifflin St. shortly before the Mifflandia Plan was adopted. The local nonprofit, which develops and manages affordable workforce housing, recently received city approval for another four-story, 40-unit building next door. The design of the new building includes a large porch on the ground level, balconies on the second and third floors and a deep stepback on the fourth floor, all in accordance with the Mifflandia Plan, MDC President Lorrie Heinemann said. We think it fits nicely into the neighborhood, Heinemann said. Next door to the planned apartment building and to the rear of both MDC sites, CRG Acquisition of Chicago is proposing a six-story, 162-unit apartment building that would extend all the way through the block behind an existing row of houses that face North Broom Street. The bulk of the structure would be concentrated along West Washington Avenue, but the main entrance and garage door would open onto West Mifflin Street. There would be balconies and patios on both sides of the building. A pedestrian walkway would run between West Mifflin Street and West Washington Avenue. The citys Plan Commission approved the CRG project on Monday, advancing it to the City Council on Dec. 10. A mixed response to density The local neighborhood association, the Miffland District of Capitol Neighborhoods Inc., has been largely positive toward the two projects on the 400 block of West Mifflin Street. Members welcomed MDCs commitment to affordability and CRGs willingness to address concerns about driveway placement and traffic, said Linda Scott, the districts chair. Generally, were supportive of density, Scott said. Were just looking for a way to make these projects work within the community. The group is worried about the cumulative impact of redevelopment, Scott said. Traffic is top of mind for many members. Mifflin is a narrow street, Scott said. We see a lot of double-parking on there already, including from deliveries and student pickups and dropoffs. The neighborhood association worked with CRG to add a loading zone to the West Washington Avenue side of the building design that alleviates many of its immediate concerns about traffic and still leaves room for more street parking than is available today. I think it was a good solution, Scott said. Thats one of the ones Im more proud of. Verveer, a proponent of density, said he is excited to have additional, needed housing coming to his district. But he wishes more of it would be accessible to people with lower incomes. (He recently gave the same critique of a proposed 10-story student housing project two blocks away, just outside the Mifflandia Plans boundaries.) The vast majority of Downtown development proposals have no affordable component to them, Verveer said. MDCs, he said, is a rare exception. When properties Downtown limit rents in accordance with households income, their units tend to go quickly. MDC has seen a ton of demand for the existing apartments at 431 W. Mifflin St., Heinemann said. We are completely rented up within 15 minutes of our opening in that building, she said. We find we have a lot of graduate students that are in the building, and that theres just a huge need for affordable housing in downtown Madison. One block over, a different story In the race to increase the housing supply Downtown, buildings that have historic significance or are in good condition can still find themselves on the chopping block. Developer Brandon Cook captured the citys attention for several days this summer when he relocated a four-story apartment building from 438 W. Dayton St., where it was built, to the former site of a single-family house at 531 W. Mifflin St. The building, constructed in 2002, would otherwise have joined about 10 others that were flattened to make way for a 12-story housing project. Instead, it became one of the first new additions to the 500 block of West Mifflin Street, which once housed the Mifflin Street Community Co-op, a hub for Madisons counterculture movement. The block has so far seen less redevelopment than the rest of Miffland, though a small apartment building is currently underway at the site of a now-demolished Rastafarian church whose leaders were accused of distributing marijuana in exchange for donations from church members. The 500 block appears unlikely to see much more change for the time being. Members of the Suddeth family, who together own over half of the properties on the block, say they want to preserve the community feel and arent interested in redeveloping those buildings. Cook spent more than $1 million to transport his four-unit, 19-bed building to its new site on the 500 block. Hed always wanted to move a building, he said, and the project gave him the opportunity to replace a small house with a larger residential structure. The relocated building still needs some finishing touches, like a new set of front steps, before its ready to be lived in again. But its fully rented for next year. Cook plans to construct a second building on an empty foundation at the back of the West Mifflin Street lot. The brick building that now stands at the front of the lot, heavy as it was, would have cost much more to recreate than it did to relocate, Cook said. The building that I moved was just too big, too nice, too new, to say no, he said. People ask me all the time, theyre like, Would you do this again? Cook said. Well, it almost killed me, but absolutely I would. I would just do it better next time. Cook is now advising Peter Taglia, a Madison resident, on another West Mifflin Street relocation project. Taglia wants to move a four-unit building currently located at 427 W. Mifflin St. one of three structures that would be demolished for the MDC project to a lot near Brittingham Park. The building was designed by local architect Ferdinand Kronenberg and constructed in the 1920s. MDC has offered to contribute the equivalent cost of demolition to the relocation effort, but negotiations stalled after Taglia asked for about $30,000 more due to the poor condition of parts of the structure and the level of risk involved. Madisons Plan Commission voted last month to allow MDC to demolish all three buildings if the move falls through but urged the developer to work with anyone who might want to move the Kronenberg building. The City Council has also signed off on the developers plans for the site. What Miffland might have been The Mifflandia Plan wasnt the citys first attempt to shape the direction of the Miffland neighborhood. A much earlier revival push led essentially nowhere. Madisons City Council voted in 1971 to adopt the Mifflin Park Plan, which deemed close to half of the buildings on the 400 block of West Mifflin Street and most of the buildings on the 500 block deteriorated past the point of rehabilitation and envisioned replacing them with low-rise townhouses. The Mifflin Park Plan also called for the creation of a neighborhood plan that would guide the areas transformation. This plan should not be allowed to sit on countless shelves gathering dust, its final page reads. The neighborhood and its residents are too important, the problems and issues too complex and pressing to accept inaction. Its recommendations, for the most part, were never followed. Many of the buildings that the 1971 plan targeted are still there. If the neighborhood had been redeveloped in accordance with the Mifflin Park Plan, much of Mifflands character would have been lost, said Stuart Levitan, a local historian and author. It would have taken down the perfectly usable three-flats and put in these townhouses and even some small apartment buildings, he said. It would have completely changed the social dynamic of Downtown. Levitan is critical of the changes happening today, too. With the neighborhood plan now in place and redevelopment projects following suit, Miffland as we know it wont exist in 10 years, he said. He lamented not only the loss of the fluidity about the neighborhood that the buildings have long provided but also the loss of the buildings themselves. The history of the neighborhood is written on and in those buildings, he said. Levitan predicts that large-scale proposals will be more controversial along the historic and mostly intact 500 block of West Mifflin Street if the property owners acquiesce than they have been elsewhere. The 500 block is ground zero of Miffland, Levitan said. Somethings going to happen in the 500 block of West Mifflin that will open the floodgates. The Philippine government reaffirmed its stance on Thursday, contradicting the Chinese Embassy in Manila by asserting that Filipino activities on Pag-asa Island and the surrounding Pag-asa Cays are entirely lawful. In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) emphasized that Pag-asa Island and the Pag-asa Cays are part of the Kalayaan Island Group. The DFA underscored that these areas are integral to Philippine territory, over which the nation has maintained longstanding sovereignty and jurisdiction. - Advertisement - The Philippines is clearly within its rights to conduct routine maritime operations and scientific research in and around these features, and will continue to do so, said the DFA. The agency likewise emphasized that the actions of Philippine authorities in the area are a valid exercise of Philippine sovereignty and consistent with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award. China has no right to object much less interfere with these lawful and routine activities, the DFA added. With this, the Philippine government urged China anew to respect the Philippines sovereignty and jurisdiction, even as we continue to pursue peaceful and legal means to manage differences and the situation at sea. Chinas continued aggression in Philippine waters is borne out of a sweeping claim over most of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea. Parts of the South China Sea that fall within Philippine territory have been renamed by the government as West Philippine Sea to reinforce the countrys claim. The West Philippine Sea refers to the maritime areas on the western side of the Philippine archipelago including Luzon Sea and the waters around, within and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc. Shown here are (from left) Gary Del Castillo Technical Presales Manager, VST ECS Phils., Inc.; Mariza Soni Product Manager, VST ECS Phils., Inc.; Dave Rhi B. Esmama Sales and Marketing Manager, VST ECS Phils., Inc.; Joanne P. Manalac 3rd VP & GM, VST ECS Phils., Inc.; Jimmy D. Go President & CEO, VST ECS Phils., Inc.; Daniel Sim Sr. Director, IT Distribution and Partners, Vertiv Asia; Ma. Jovi Lynn Sapigao Channel Sales Manager, Vertiv Philippines; Michael Joseph Villanueva Service Sales Manager, Vertiv Philippines; Katrina Tirante-Uy Director, Marketing, Vertiv Asia; Olive Jao Rosario Technical Sales Manager, Vertiv Philippines; Reginald Castillo Sr. Manager, Services Management, Vertiv Philippines; and Chris Mandahl Interim Country Head, Vertiv Philippines and Senior Director, Customer Experience, Vertiv Asia. Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global leader in critical digital infrastructure, today announced the appointment of VST ECS Phils., Inc. as its newest distribution partner. The distribution partnership reflects Vertivs strategic focus on expanding nationwide access to critical digital infrastructure technologies and supporting business resilience amid accelerating digital transformation. With the Philippines fast-emerging as a data center hub in the ASEAN region and digital transformation accelerating across industries, the demand for reliable, scalable, and resilient IT systems has never been higher. Enabling continuity in critical environments now requires more than just power protectionit demands a holistic infrastructure strategy that includes advanced cooling, monitoring, and space optimization. - Advertisement - VST ECS is one of the leading ICT distributors across the country. With a rich legacy of providing transformative IT solutions from trusted global brands, the companys mission is to give organizations and individuals access to the latest technologies and solutions in the market. VST ECS prides itself on having a strong footprint, with an established presence across the Visayas and Mindanao regions as well. We are thrilled to welcome VST ECS as our newest distribution partner in the Philippines, said Daniel Sim, senior director for IT distribution and partners at Vertiv Asia. This partnership marks a significant milestone in Vertivs commitment to broadening access to critical digital infrastructure solutions nationwide. VST ECS brings not only an extensive distribution network but also deep market expertise and a strong track record of enabling digital transformation across industries. By joining forces, we are better positioned to address the growing demand for resilient, energy-efficient IT infrastructure in one of Southeast Asias most dynamic digital economies. Together, we aim to empower businesseslarge and smallwith the tools they need to build agile, future-ready operations. VST ECS will offer Vertivs comprehensive portfolio of end-to-end power and cooling systems and integrated solutions to enterprise, commercial, and government sectors. VST ECS also brings a track record of enabling channel growth through partner education, local market insights, and access to emerging technologiesaligning with Vertivs long-term strategy to support digital resilience across Southeast Asia. In todays fast-paced digital world, uninterrupted operation of vital IT infrastructure is paramount. Vertivs trusted business continuity solutions are an essential safeguard against power disruptions. This partnership strengthens our portfolio and presents significant growth opportunities for our channel partners, equipping them to meet the growing customer demand for cost-effective and reliable power. Vertivs local service center in the Philippines is a strategic advantage, providing rapid customer support and minimizing downtime. With the projected explosion of data centers in the Philippines, driven by government support to improve our countrys digital infrastructure, we foresee a significant demand for data center power management and cooling solutions, said Jimmy Go, president and CEO, VSTECS Phils., Inc. He concluded, VST ECS is committed to working hand-in-hand with our channel partners, leveraging Vertivs strong market presence and our extensive channel ecosystem and programs, to impactfully expand brand reach and presence. This collaboration signifies our focus on delivering comprehensive and reliable ICT solutions that empower our customers and fuel mutual success. VST ECS Phils. Inc. is a member of the VST ECS Group, a regional distribution network. Vertiv also has a distribution partnership with its Singapore affiliate, VST ECS (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. To know more about Vertiv, visit Vertiv.com. In February, Erik Helgeson, the national deputy chair and spokesperson of the Swedish Dockworkers Union, was fired. The reason? The union voted to block the handling of military equipment destined for Israel. In response to the workers decision, Gothenburg Roro Terminals (GRT), owned by Danish shipping giant DFDS, came down in full force against Helgeson, who was dismissed on the bogus grounds of being a threat to national security. This is an unprecedented attack on the Union and Helgeson, who has been a leading figure among the Dockworkers since the collective bargaining dispute of 2017. The union is alleged by the employer, not the state to have broken the law by compiling a dossier for the Swedish Labour Court "on the military trade exchange with Israel". But this is nothing more than a cheap excuse, since the dossier is based on public information. The union has taken the GRT to court over the illegitimate firing of Helgeson. The problem is that the multinational company operating the port can easily absorb the small fines that any court asks it to pay. DFDS reported a revenue of more than a billion euros in the first quarter of 2025 alone. Therefore, the union is now demanding an amendment to their collective bargaining agreement, where wrongful dismissals would incur damages of 1 percent of the employer's annual turnover. They are also demanding greater damages for other attempts to obstruct the work of elected worker representatives. In addition, they are demanding a strengthened obligation for the bosses to enter into negotiations, a ceiling on the use of temporary workers, a larger fund for supporting workers in need, and more. A threat to profits Capitalists use warmongering and nationalism to strike at workers. In this case, the real purpose of any talk about foreign threats and national security is obvious. It is simply meant to prevent a blockade by a militant union, which threatens the capitalists profits. With the dock workers' history of struggle, it is not difficult to understand the employers' desire to break their fighting spirit. At a time when the struggles between imperialist powers are on the rise, with governments investing ever more money in rearming their militaries, capitalists in the arms and transport industry see their chance to make big money from war and conflict. But war and militarisation have also meant the radicalisation of millions, especially among the youth, as we have seen around the world during the Palestine movement. In February, Erik Helgeson, the national deputy chair and spokesperson of the Swedish Dockworkers Union, was fired. The reason? The union voted to block the handling of military equipment destined for Israel / Image: Daniel Bernman The last thing the capitalists want is to see a section of the working class join that struggle and take action that, unlike street demonstrations and student protests, directly targets their profits. That is why the capitalists and the state are restricting democratic rights in an attempt to prevent struggle and organisation. But this comes at a price, as it will provoke even deeper anger towards the capitalists, the politicians and the entire capitalist system. Strike action The workers have not stopped at taking the GRT to court over the illegitimate firing of Helgeson. On 30 April, the Union's collective agreement with the Ports of Sweden expired with no new agreement in place. In order to force the employers to the negotiating table, the union went on strike in all the country's ports on 21 May, with 89 percent of union members voting in favour of the strike. The employers have refused to hold serious negotiations and have answered with lockouts and by using strikebreakers. They have not even put forward their demands. Instead, they are counting on an agreement with the broader transport union federation, which they argue will be the norm for all dock workers. Initially, this seemed to backfire, as the Transport union also called for strikes. But now they have come to an agreement, leaving it up to the Dockworkers' union to go it alone. This is not unfamiliar territory for the Dockworkers' union. The Dockworkers union are not part of the main trade union confederation, LO, which allows them to be more militant. They have also kept old democratic traditions like members having the right to vote for a strike and on whether the union should accept offers by the employers unlike the rest of the Swedish trade union movement, where the leadership decides everything. For this reason, the rest of the trade union movement, especially the leadership of the LO, have traditionally refused to support the dockworkers. Even now, when a basic trade union right is being attacked, they have remained silent. The dock workers are not alone, however. They have the support of all those who have protested the genocide in Gaza. They have been sent many messages of support by local branches of trade unions, a glimpse of the real support that exists among workers for their struggle. More importantly, the International Dockworkers Council (IDC) has promised support. On Monday, Belgian Dockworkers refused to unload a ship that came from Gothenburg, as this had been loaded by strikebreakers. This is the only ship that the employers have managed to send to sea using strikebreakers. It turns out that the office personnel and bosses who were used as scabs are not as efficient as actual dockworkers. So far, the Dockworkers' strike has been limited to a few days' action at a time to get the bosses to back down. However, as the bosses seem resolute, this conflict is likely to escalate, which would dig into the profits of Swedish capitalists. The overwhelming majority of imports and exports go through the ports. This would also be a source of inspiration for other Swedish workers who want to fight back, despite their trade union leaders' best efforts to stop them. In the Swedish section of the Revolutionary Communist International, we wholeheartedly support the dockers strike action and their previous blockade of Israeli military equipment. The cynical attempt of the employers to sabotage a militant trade union by firing Helgeson, and the international solidarity that he and the Swedish dockers have received reveals where the real dividing lines in society lie: not between nations, but along class lines. This attack highlights the need to broaden the struggle to also defend the working class's right to organise and democratic rights. An attack on the dockers is an attack on the entire working class. Following the victory of the Bolsheviks in October 1917, the imperialists of the world did their utmost to strangle the new workers state. As well as arming, financing, and supplying the counter-revolutionary White armies, they directly committed troops to intervene in the developing civil war. In this article, John Peterson uncovers the little-known history of the US imperialists involvement, and how the Bolsheviks responded on an internationalist class-basis to win the war. The article was orginally published as part of issue 47 of In Defence of Marxism magazine, the quarterly theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist International. Subscribe and get your copy here! In the summer of 1918, the Russian Revolution was at a crossroads. Tsar Nicholas II and the Provisional Government had been overthrown, one after another, and the new Soviet power had appealed to the worlds war-weary masses for a just and democratic peace [] without annexations and without indemnities[1]. But the First World War still raged, and the counter-revolution was gaining momentum. On 3 March of that year, German imperialism had imposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on the Soviet Republic, leading to a loss of 34 percent of its population, 54 percent of its industrial land, 26 percent of its railways, and 89 percent of its coalfields. Under the pretence of keeping Russian munition stores out of German hands, British troops landed at Murmansk on the very next day. Russias former allies were out for blood, keenly aware of the threat the revolution posed to bourgeois property relations. Winston Churchill was adamant that Bolshevism had to be strangled in its cradle. Wave upon wave of imperialist expeditions followed, with 21 military contingents from 16 countries joining the counter-revolutionary efforts of the proto-fascist White Armies. Surrounded and outgunned, the communist cause seemed hopeless. But the Russian masses had something none of the imperialist armies had: the indomitable spirit of revolution and genuine liberation. To be sure, there were countless acts of military brilliance and civilian sacrifice by the Soviet people. However, the Bolsheviks primary weapon was political. They systematically addressed the invaders troops on a class basis, appealing for proletarian unity against their common exploiters. Time and again, the morale of the imperialists rank-and-file soldiers was so undermined that they eventually had to be withdrawn. Imperialist hypocrisy Though it is again in vogue, it was President Woodrow Wilson who first popularised the isolationist slogan America First during his 1916 presidential campaign, when he promised to keep the US out of the war. But with the Allies and Central Powers slugging it out to determine who would rule Europe, the colonies and the high seas, US imperialism saw a golden opportunity to put its increasingly weighty thumb on the scale of world relations. Given the devastation in Europe, the American economy had boomed as it flooded the other side of the Atlantic with agricultural commodities and manufactured goods. With swathes of the Continent in ruins, the US would eventually emerge from the conflagration as the worlds greatest creditor and an economic, technological, diplomatic, military and cultural powerhouse. In April 1917 the Americans declared war on Germany. By entering the war at such a late stage, they hoped to mop up after years of slaughter. There was also the small matter of nearly $10 billion in loans that had been made to the Allies during the war, which would have been jeopardised in the event of a German victory. It was also no coincidence that they entered the fray just weeks after the February Revolution, which brought down the tsar and threatened to take Russia out of the war on the Eastern Front. Intervention as a consciously anti-Bolshevik operation was decided upon by American leaders within five weeks of the day Lenin and Trotsky took power. / Image: Public domain The Americans stated aim was to defeat the kaiser, while ensuring stability and cutting across the threat of a Europe-wide revolution. But by October of that year, events in Russia had taken a far more dangerous turn as far as the interests of imperialism and the capitalist system were concerned: the Bolsheviks were in power. Shortly after taking the reins, Lenin had issued his famous decrees on Peace, Land, and Nationalities, and Trotsky had published the Allies secret plans to carve up the world amongst themselves. All of this put pressure on Wilson, who was cynically posing as a peace-loving president. On 8 January 1918, Wilson issued his Fourteen Points, outlining US imperialisms vision for a new world order. Along with liberal rhetoric about peace and democracy, point 6 addressed Russia specifically: The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.[2] However, what kind of treatment was to be accorded to which Russians wasnt specified though Wilsons multiple military interventions against Mexico during its ongoing revolution offered some clues. At the same time these lofty words were issued, contingency plans to snuff out the Soviet Republic were already in motion. As the US Ambassador to France put it: Three or four Japanese or American divisions would suffice to ruin the authority of the Bolsheviks.[3] According to historian William A Williams: Intervention as a consciously anti-Bolshevik operation was decided upon by American leaders within five weeks of the day Lenin and Trotsky took power.[4] As is so often the case with imperialist invaders whether through naivety or cynicism the Americans believed they would be welcomed as liberators and that the local population would rise in revolt against the Bolsheviks. As Ambassador Francis wrote to Washington: Information from all sources demonstrates dissatisfaction with Soviet [government and] indicates that [an] Allied intervention would be welcomed by [the] Russian people.[5] On 17 July 1918, Wilson agreed to a limited military intervention. By 3 August, the US government publicly stated that it was in full accord with the other imperialist powers with their Russian intervention policy. But the imperialists woefully underestimated the depths of the revolution and the heroism and determination of the Soviet masses. Finding a pretext The US government set in motion operational plans for a series of military expeditions to the Soviet Republic. Publicly, they claimed that this was to keep strategic ports and arms depots out of the hands of the Germans. But their real aim was to keep these from the Bolsheviks. US imperialism had other motives as well. Japanese imperialism was on the rise, and the Wests Open Door to the East was under threat. The first contingent of Japanese troops had already landed at Vladivostok on 5 April 1918. But how to justify American military intervention in Eastern Siberia, which was thousands of miles from the German Imperial Army? The answer came in the form of the Czech Legion. During the First World War, 70,000 Czech and Slovak soldiers had volunteered to fight with the tsarist army against the Central Powers in exchange for independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But with the tsar gone and the Bolsheviks in power, they were stranded in Russia a seasoned and sizable foreign army in the midst of the revolution. They began moving slowly eastward on the Trans-Siberian Railway, hoping to evacuate the country via Vladivostok, to then travel by sea to rejoin the Allies side in Western Europe. However, in May 1918, after a series of minor clashes, the Czech Legion went into open revolt against the Bolshevik regime, occupying several important cities along the key transportation artery. This put them objectively in the camp of counter-revolution, and the White Armies seized on the chaos to set up a series of anti-Bolshevik governments across Siberia. The standoff between the Soviet power and the Czech Legion was the excuse the Americans had been looking for to intervene in support of Russias reputable and sound elements of order[6]. Doughboys and polar bears The US invasion of Soviet soil began on 15 August 1918, with 3,000 troops disembarking at Vladivostok. All told, nearly 9,000 American troops, nicknamed doughboys, would serve on that front, having been transferred mainly from the occupation of the Philippines. Then on 4 September, roughly 5,000 troops from the American Expeditionary Force, North Russia better known as the polar bears landed at Arkhangelsk, a key port on the White Sea with a direct line to Petrograd. The first order of business was the creation of an International Police Force composed of troops from 12 nations under the command of a Russian-born American officer, Major Samuel Ignatiev Johnson. The next task was to ensure the Trans-Siberian Railway remained operational so that the Czechs could reconsolidate their forces. Of course, officially speaking, none of this had anything to do with intervening in the civil war already raging between the Reds and the Whites. Nor did it have anything to do with counterbalancing the Japanese who had responded to the landing of US troops by beefing up their own contingent to 72,000 a clear message about their claim on the Far East. The Allied imperialists of Great Britain, France, Canada and Australia had also dispatched tens of thousands of troops to Siberia. For their part, the Reds were roughly 15,000 strong on this front, including some German-Austrian POWs who had defected to join the communist cause. The White Armies represented the forces of reaction in Russia. Financed and supported by the imperialists, they fought for the interests of the big landowners, Orthodox Church and the capitalists, and were willing to restore the pre-Bolshevik status quo by any means necessary. The proto-fascist warlord Alexander Kolchak organised the armies of counter-revolution in the Far East, along with Anton Denikin in Southern Russia, and Nikolai Yudenich in the Northwest. Under the Allies protective aegis, Kolchak declared himself Supreme Ruler of Russia and head of the Russian State, in opposition to the rule of the Bolsheviks. His was a horrifying regime of pogroms, torture, executions and forced labour. On the other hand, the Red Army represented the forces of revolution the working class and mass of poor peasants. To defend the new Soviet Republic and nationalised property upon which it rested, Leon Trotsky successfully built a new model army, virtually from scratch. Though he was forced to rely on former Tsarist officers who had technical skills and experience that could not be reproduced overnight he ensured loyalty to the revolutionary cause by appointing political commissars to oversee every unit. In a short span, the Red Army grew into a tightly disciplined, politically inspired force of millions that achieved miracles on the battlefield, eventually turning the tide against reaction and imperialist intervention. Aiding the Whites Needless to say, the Americans were entering a delicate situation. Officially, the US was neither at war, nor allied, with either side in the conflict. But the presence of thousands of boots on the ground in the midst of a civil war risked both political and military escalation. US Secretary of War, Newton Baker, told William Graves, the US general in charge of the Siberian adventure: Watch your step; youll be walking on eggs, loaded with dynamite.[7] The Americans defensive operations were ostensibly focused on enabling the Czech Legions exit from the country. In practice, of course, their presence aided and abetted the White reign of terror in the region. The Inter-Allied Railway Agreement of February 1919, which imposed military control on the Siberian railways, merely formalised the reality on the ground that the Allies were maintaining supply lines for Kolchaks troops. White control over the railways allowed them to attack or starve anyone not on board with Kolchaks dictatorship. The White Armies represented the forces of reaction in Russia. Financed and supported by the imperialists, they fought for the interests of the big landowners, Orthodox Church and the capitalists. On the other hand, the Red Army represented the forces of revolution / Image: Public domain Some 250 American soldiers were sent to defend the Souchan mines, located 75 miles northeast of Vladivostok. These shafts provided much of the coal used to operate the railways in Eastern Russia an essential resource for the counter-revolution. One of the Allies first acts had been to reinstate the mines former manager, who had been run out of the area by the workers. Another 2,000 Americans were stationed 1,700 miles west of Vladivostok to guard another vital node of the railway. Thousands more took up positions at other strategic locations on the rail lines. All of this led inevitably to a series of clashes with Red Army troops, the growing ranks of pro-Bolshevik partisans, and even White Cossacks opposed to the presence of foreign interlopers. Red partisan attacks on rail freight, tracks and bridges increased throughout March and April. By May, Graves decided that to maintain order, American troops would be given official licence to pursue the guerrillas who were harassing Kolchak. A summer of skirmishes, attacks, and combat patrols into the surrounding countryside followed, often alongside White Russian and Japanese troops. In June, the Battle of Romanovka saw the Reds launch a surprise attack on an American army camp, resulting in 24 Americans dead and 25 wounded. Five days later, the US Ambassador to Japan travelled to Kolchaks capital at Omsk. While not officially recognising him as the official leader of Russia, he took a sympathetic interest in Kolchaks organisation and activities[8]. However, the ambassador estimated an additional 40,000 US troops would be needed to ensure Kolchaks victory and stymie Japanese encroachment on the region. But this was impossible. Many American soldiers were more sympathetic to the Reds than to the Whites and were horrified by Kolchaks cruelty. On 1 October 1919, US soldiers had been arrested and flogged by Kolchaks Cossacks seemingly no one was exempt from their brutality. Similar scenes of fighting and eventual demoralisation took place around Arkhangelsk, where the polar bears were stationed and placed under the control of the British. Lets not forget that most of these operations took place after the First World War officially ended on 11 November 1918. Yet the occupation of parts of Soviet Russia continued so much for Wilsons non-intervention. Internationalist appeals The Reds did not just respond militarily, but politically, appealing to the invading troops on the basis of proletarian internationalism. Only days after the first US troops landed at Vladivostok, Pravda published a Letter to American Workers, written by Lenin himself. Appeals were also directed to the workers of Europe. Lenin was a supreme theoretician and strategist. But he was an equally skilled tactician and, of course, a fervent internationalist. He always saw the Russian Revolution as merely one component in the world revolution, and he was under no illusions that it could survive in isolation. As Lenin explained: We are counting on the inevitability of the international revolution. But that does not mean that we count upon its coming at some definite, nearby date. [] We know that revolutions cannot come neither at a word of command nor according to prearranged plans. We know that circumstances alone have pushed us, the proletariat of Russia, forward, that we have reached this new stage in the social life of the world not because of our superiority but because of the peculiarly reactionary character of Russia. But until the outbreak of the international revolution, revolutions in individual countries may still meet with a number of serious setbacks and overthrows.[9] Given its economic and military might and the weight of its working class, Lenin understood that the US was a vital key for that worldwide process and this remains the case today. In fact, the ideas outlined in his letter are more relevant today than ever. Only days after the first US troops landed at Vladivostok, Pravda published a Letter to American Workers, written by Lenin himself. Appeals were also directed to the workers of Europe. Lenins letter was smuggled into the USA and published / Image: Public domain In it, Lenin adopted an honest, frank, and open tone, laying bare the revolutions many problems and shortcomings, while pointing to its infinite potential and the cynical hypocrisy of those who sought to drown it in blood: Let the corrupt bourgeois press shout to the whole world about every mistake our revolution makes. We are not daunted by our mistakes. People have not become saints because the revolution has begun. The toiling classes who for centuries have been oppressed, downtrodden and forcibly held in the vice of poverty, brutality and ignorance cannot avoid mistakes when making a revolution. [...] "Every mistake committed in the course of such work, in the course of this most conscientious and earnest work of tens of millions of simple workers and peasants in reorganising their whole life, every such mistake is worth thousands and millions of lawless successes achieved by the exploiting minority successes in swindling and duping the working people. For only through such mistakes will the workers and peasants learn to build the new life, learn to do without capitalists; only in this way will they hack a path for themselves through thousands of obstacles to victorious socialism.[10] Lenin also displayed his rich knowledge of the revolutionary tradition in the life of the American people, with references to the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and Eugene V Debs. By highlighting the class divisions in American society, he sought to drive a wedge between the American workers and their exploiters. He counterposed the American plutocrats to the revolutionary proletariat of America, and called on them to perform the important task of ending the intervention. The real enemy, after all, is at home. As he explained: [The US imperialists] have made the greatest profits. They have made all, even the weakest countries, their debtors. They have amassed gigantic fortunes during the war. And every dollar is stained with the blood that was shed by millions of murdered and crippled men, shed in the high, honourable, and holy war of freedom.[11] In simple but profound terms, Lenin explained the class roots of the First World War and the foreign intervention against the Soviets, making it abundantly clear that both the Germans and the Allies were criminally responsible for the horrific slaughter. Far from pliable tools or agents of the kaiser, the Bolsheviks were German imperialisms mortal enemies, as evidenced by the terms of Brest-Litovsk. Lenin condemned all the imperialists with the most vivid language possible: The dead body of bourgeois society cannot simply be put into a coffin and buried. It rots in our midst, poisons the air we breathe, pollutes our lives, clings to the new, the fresh, the living with a thousand threads and tendrils of old customs, of death and decay.[12] Declining morale Outnumbered and unwelcome, many of the American workers and farmers in uniform had growing doubts about their role in Russia and chafed under the command of the British in Arkhangelsk. An American officer summed up the flagging mood among the troops: They stated that they were drafted to fight Germany, not the Bolsheviks. That they had been sent here to guard supplies and not carry on aggressive warfare; that after the signing of the Armistice with Germany their job was finished and if the government wanted them to stay on and fight Bolshevism it should say so and announce some definite policy regarding Russia.[13] Another informed Americas top general, Black Jack Pershing, that: The morale of our troops has been low since the signing of the armistice with Germany. The men and some of the officers seem unable to understand why they should be kept in Russia after fighting has stopped with Germany.[14] Due to their familiarity with cold weather, most of the polar bears stationed in North Russia came from the Upper Midwest. Once the Armistice was official, newspapers in Chicago, Detroit and Wisconsin increased the pressure to bring the troops home. Some even reprinted soldiers letters describing the harsh conditions they faced in full, in defiance of government censorship. A cartoon published in the Chicago Tribune depicted two American soldiers in Arkhangelsk asking each other: Say, when did we declare war on Russia? The American troops were subjected to a constant stream of proletarian internationalist appeals from the Soviets who added that the occupiers faced certain destruction if they remained on Russian soil. The presence of the imperialists was also used to rally the Russian peasantry to the side of the revolution. One leaflet depicted Uncle Sam and British capitalists holding the leashes of White leaders. The American Red Cross noted: The presence of the Allied Expedition in North Russia constitutes one of the strongest pillars of the Bolshevik government.[15] Political pressure grew to end the expedition, with Republican congressmen and senators spearheading the charge. The vote on the bill was dead-even along party lines, with the Democratic vice president breaking the tie in favour of prolonging the adventure. After this failed vote, morale among the soldiers plummeted even further. On 30 March 1919, a tipping point was reached when a sergeant in North Russia ordered four enlisted men to load their sleds and move to the front. They refused, and a general meeting of the men was called. According to a certain Lieutenant May, the soldiers complained that: They had never been supplied with an answer as to why they were there, but the Reds were trying to push them into the White Sea and that they were fighting for their lives.[16] Mutinous mood While there are conflicting accounts about what happened next, the Washington Post published an article on 11 April with the headline: US Troops Mutiny on Archangel Front. The article reported that after four soldiers had refused to go to the front, 250 more soldiers had been insubordinate, and predicted that a general mutiny was possible if the troops were not withdrawn immediately. These reports eventually made it back to the polar bears in Russia, driving spirits down even further. The Reds did not just respond militarily, but politically, appealing to the invading troops on the basis of proletarian internationalism. He always saw the Russian Revolution as merely one component in the world revolution, and he was under no illusions that it could survive in isolation / Image: Public domain At least some of the American soldiers had concluded that the British, who had overall command of the operation, dreamed of outright conquest. As one wrote in his diary: There were no supplies. Actually, the British wanted to occupy and conquer the state of North Russia in order to obtain the pine from the forests.[17] Fears that US troops might not obey orders from British officers grew. As one American commander wrote: Grave doubts were expressed by many of our officers that orders for aggressive operations would be obeyed.[18] The mood of the Russian peasants in the occupied regions was clearly swinging in favour of the Reds. The October Revolution had given land to the peasants, but wherever the Whites took control, they ruthlessly restored the former landowners, backed by a regime of terror. It was easy to decide which side had their best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Trotskys titanic effort to build a Red Army was achieving wondrous results. Even US military intelligence had to concede this: Within the last two months, the whole Bolshevik forces have been reorganised, and a serious attempt is being made to create a large, well-disciplined army on a European model.[19] As the Bolsheviks gained momentum, worries that the occupiers would be overrun intensified. Allied positions were regularly hit with long-range artillery, and the intelligence services reported that [the] enemy is systematically accumulating troops on all fronts with the view of a general offensive before the thaw.[20] One American commander, General Stewart, urgently wrote to the secretary of war: The enemy are becoming more numerous on all fronts and are more active. The allied command is small, and we have no reserves.[21] The final battle in North Russia occurred near the village of Bolshie Ozerki on 2 April 1919. By then, the US troops had run out of numbers, weapons, supplies and morale. That June, as soon as navigation reopened on the White Sea, American troops began their withdrawal, with British soldiers sent in to replace them. Soon after, the Bolsheviks overran those positions and retook Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. On 1 April 1920, the last US troops pulled out of Siberia. A combined 424 Americans had died in combat or due to disease or frostbite in North Russia and Siberia. Internationalism in action The Bolsheviks fight against US imperialism did not stop at Russias borders. Lenins letter was smuggled into the USA and published in a slightly abridged form in December 1918, in both the New York magazine, The Class Struggle, and the Boston weekly, The Revolutionary Age. Instrumental in getting the letter published in the US was none other than John Reed, the author of Ten Days That Shook the World. From there, the letter made its way into the bourgeois press in the US, France, Britain and Germany. In the US, in particular, it became a focal point for the revolutionary left, serving as a de facto foundational document for the embryonic communist movement and helping to raise opposition to Wilsons armed intervention against the revolution. Here we see the fruits of Lenins proletarian internationalism in action. Facing the threat of destruction from all sides he appealed to the workers of the world on a class basis, without the slightest hint of national chauvinism, and used his appeals to help build revolutionary parties within the imperialists own borders. The fate of US imperialisms ill-fated adventure in the young Soviet Republic offers many lessons for communists today. The hypocrisy of US imperialism has only grown since 1918. Today, while the US and its NATO allies fund wars and atrocities in both Ukraine and the Middle East all in the name of democracy and the self-determination of nations it is more important than ever that communists expose the lies and real interests of the imperialists, in the same bold and principled manner as Lenin. In the context of rising tensions between Western imperialism, Russia and China, with all the instability and proxy wars this entails, the need for a clear, class-based and internationalist stance is absolutely imperative. Rather than siding with one or another of the contending powers, communists must appeal to workers everywhere to fight their own imperialists and join forces for the victory of the world socialist revolution. Over 100 years since the US invaded Russia, the potential for world revolution has never been greater and we have every right to share Lenins inexhaustible confidence in the world working class: Let the socialist snivelers croak, let the bourgeoisie rage and fume, but only people who shut their eyes so as not to see, and stuff their ears so as not to hear, can fail to notice that all over the world the birth pangs of the old, capitalist society, which is pregnant with socialism, have begun.[22] [1] V I Lenin, Decree on Peace, Lenin Collected Works, Vol. 26, Progress Publishers, 1964, pg 249 [2] A S Link et al. (eds.), The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 45, Princeton University Press, 1984, pg 536, emphasis added [3] J V Fuller (ed.), The Ambassador in France (Sharp) to the Secretary of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Vol. 2, United States Government Printing Office, 1932, pg 33 [4] W A Williams, American Intervention in Russia, 1917-1920, Studies on the Left, No. 3, 1963, pg 35 [5] J V Fuller (ed.), The Ambassador in Russia (Francis) to the Secretary of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Vol. 1, United States Government Printing Office, 1931, pg 538 [6] W A Williams, American Intervention in Russia, 1917-1920, Studies on the Left, No. 3, 1963, pg 25 [7] W S Graves, Americas Siberian Adventure, Peter Smith Publishers, 1941, pg 7-8 [8] J V Fuller (ed.), The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Morris), Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Vol. 2, United States Government Printing Office, 1932, pg 388 [9] V I Lenin, A Letter to American Workingmen, The Socialist Publication Society, 1918, pg 15 [10] ibid. pg 11-12 [11] ibid. pg 4 [12] ibid. pg 11 [13] Historical Files of the American Expeditionary Force, North Russia, 1918-1919, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, M 924, Roll 1, 23-11.1. [14] ibid. [15] ibid. [16] D Habib, Playing Into the Hands of Isolationists: Woodrow Wilson's Russian Policy, 1918-1920, San Jose State University, 1995, pg 31 [17] H Otoupalik (ed.), Quartered in Hell: The Story of the American North Russia Expeditionary Force 1918-1919. Doughboy Historical Society, 1982, Pg 179 [18] Historical Files of the American Expeditionary Force, North Russia, 1918-1919, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, M 924, Roll 1, 23-11.1. [19] ibid. [20] ibid. [21] ibid. [22] V I Lenin, Prophetic Words, Lenin Collected Works, Vol. 27, Progress Publishers, 1965, pg 499 In his nearly two decades as a clinical professor at Stanford Medicine, Bryant Lin had never stood before a classroom of students as a patient let alone as a patient who, despite never inhaling "a single puff of smoke of any kind," has been afflicted with an incurable form of late-stage lung cancer. Therefore, it was little surprise when the focus of lesson No. 1 in his new fall class swerved toward Lin's tear ducts rather than his lungs. "I was hoping not to get choked up... but somebody, thoughtfully, left a Kleenex box up here," Lin said, reaching toward the nearby podium of a unique class he named MED 275: From Diagnosis to Dialogue: A Doctor's Real-Time Battle with Cancer. It was in early May, about a month before his 50th birthday, that he received the diagnosis of stage IV non-small cell cancer aka never-smoker lung cancer. To encapsulate for the students what drove him toward medicine, Lin began to read aloud a handwritten letter he received from an elderly patient with chronic kidney disease many years ago. "Dear Dr. Lin: I wanted to thank you for taking such good care of me in my old age. You treated me as you would treat your own father, with humor and care and great professional skills." That letter arrived two weeks after the man's death ... which means that he spent time in his final hours writing a letter for me. Bryant Lin "That letter arrived two weeks after the man's death ...," Lin said, his strong baritone voice now soft and crackly. "Which means that he spent time in his final hours writing a letter for me." As he spoke, the doctor-turned-patient stood before a small classroom at Li Ka-shing Hall that was overstuffed with people. Many among them were trying to control the commotion stirring in their own tear ducts. "I'm not sure how long I have. One year? Two years? Five years?" Lin told the group. "In a way, this class is part of my letter what I'm doing to give back to my community as I go through this." A no-brainer decision A longtime caretaker of very ill patients, Lin, MD, a primary care physician, educator and researcher, is now discovering what it's like to be on the opposite end of that arrangement. He admits that it can be difficult: "Doctors are notoriously bad patients," he said. He is a sharer and storyteller by nature, which explains why the man who directs Stanford Medicine's Medical Humanities and the Arts program decided quickly after he was diagnosed to turn his own experience into a real-time living laboratory to be observed; processed; and, he hoped, learned from. To Lin, it was simple logic: If medical students, and the greater Stanford School of Medicine community, can take something valuable from his fight against the deadliest form of cancer, the remainder of his life will have served a meaningful purpose. "It's an honor you would want to sign up for my class," he told the mix of Stanford School of Medicine medical students and Stanford University undergrads. "My dream is that you will go into cancer care. It would be great if even just one of you dedicated some part of your career to cancer." It's an honor you would want to sign up for my class. My dream is that you will go into cancer care. It would be great if even just one of you dedicated some part of your career to cancer. Bryant Lin Particularly, Lin noted, researching elusive cures and pushing for more widespread screening. As one of the world's experts on diseases that disproportionately affect people of Asian descent the Taiwanese-American Lin co-founded Stanford Medicine's Center for Asian Health Research and Education in 2018 he knows the stark data points. Though prostate (in men) and breast (in women) are the most prevalent forms of cancer, more people die from lung cancer than any other form. Some 200 million worldwide receive a lung cancer diagnosis each year. An estimated 125,000 people in the U.S. will die from it this year. Natalie Lui talks to the class during its first meeting about the deadliness of lung cancer. (Todd Holland) While smokers make up the majority of those cases, 15-20% of people with lung cancer are like Lin and never took a puff. Instead, like Lin, their plight is the result of a gene mutation that disproportionately affects those of Asian descent, particularly women. So why is the survival rate for lung cancer so stark? There was a lesson for that on day one of MED 275. And Lin selected his colleague Natalie Lui, MD, a thoracic surgeon who runs the lung cancer screening program at Stanford Medicine, to lead it. As Lui spelled out, lung cancer is largely a silent disease that goes undetected for a dangerously long period. "It doesn't cause symptoms until it's quite advanced," Lui explained. "And if someone goes to their primary care doctor and says, 'I have a cough,' it could be a million different things other than lung cancer. So, it's really hard to diagnose people early and the prognosis plummets with the later stages it's detected." Lin's primary care doctor, Paul Ford, MD, illustrated how that scenario played out in Lin's lungs, showing the class slides of the imaging that led to the diagnosis: X-ray, MRI, CT and PET scans. The MRI revealed cancer that had metastasized in his liver and bones. Most striking were the number of lesions on his brain. "Fifty spots of cancer on my brain ... that kinda blew me away," Lin said. "That drove it home." Students were captivated by the real-time cancer diagnosis on display during MED 275's first class. (Todd Holland) Inspiration 101 Longsha Liu, a medical student and one of three volunteer teaching assistants, refers to MED 275 as a "once-in-a-lifetime class." He said Lin helped mentor him as a budding medical entrepreneur, generously sharing his time and wisdom on how he balances what would seem to be impossible: teaching students, maintaining a clinical practice and launching successful companies. "To watch someone you really admire see their fate change so quickly is a very helpless feeling," Liu said. When he asked Lin how he could help, Lin told him about the class and asked him to be a TA. It was a done deal and little surprise, Liu said, that the class quickly filled and drew an immediate waiting list, and that they had an overflow crowd problem for the very first gathering. "Here's a guy diagnosed with cancer and what does he immediately think of?" Liu said. "'How can I help others by sharing this journey?'" Sasha Ronaghi is close to completing her Stanford undergraduate degree in computer science, but she won't pass up an interesting class when she sees one. Though she has no plans to go into medicine, she has become a regular in front of the room after classes, waiting to ask Lin additional questions. "We all know someone who has experienced cancer, but we wish we could understand that experience better," she said. "What really struck me was when Dr. Lin said that his life hasn't changed since his diagnosis. Even now knowing that he has a limited time on earth, he was already doing the things he loved. That's inspiring, and it helps guide me as I get close to graduating and figuring out my next steps in life." For first-year med student Melissa Maldonado Ogle, with an interest in both the equity of global oncology treatment and the humanistic side of medicine, Lin's class could not have been more on target. Getting into the course was like finding a golden ticket. "I feel so fortunate to have gotten in," she said. "For someone to have the bravery and vulnerability to do a class like this, I just thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." "We focus a lot on therapeutics and science, and sometimes we forget that there's a human being on the other side of it," Maldonado Ogle added. "To hear Dr. Lin's human perspective, then look at it from an epidemiological level, really helps contextualize the conversations we're having." Med students and Stanford undergrads were both invited to sign up for Lin's class. (Todd Holland) A full cancer slate Though Lin's journey is only five months old, the syllabus he mapped out for the 10-week course runs the full cancer gamut: the mental health impact; the role of caregivers; how spirituality, ethics and nutrition factor in; the access and availability of treatment; what the epidemiology says about cultural considerations such as genetic predisposition. Speakers will include his wife, Christine Chan; his oncologist, Heather Wakelee, MD; and a spiritual panel that includes representatives from four different faiths: Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism and Islam. The final class, after the Thanksgiving break, will explore cutting-edge advancements in cancer treatment, including CAR T-cell therapy, antibody-drug conjugates and next-generation drug inhibitors. The latest generation of drug inhibitors combined with chemotherapy have Lin feeling pretty well. Those 50 lesions on his brain are gone. As is the deep, angry cough that started this whole journey back in May when students and colleagues around him assumed he had pneumonia or bronchitis. Lin was able to get through his first class with hardly a cough, gladly talking to the many students who came up to greet and thank him afterward. He offered a few first-class reflections: He felt comfortable talking about his own symptoms as if they belonged to a patient; he was unexpectedly emotional while introducing the class; and, while the letter from the terminally ill patient always stirs his heart, it was particularly resonant in the context of how this new class fits into his journey. After all, how many patients with an incurable disease who, as Lin said "now have to think in terms of years rather than decades" get the chance to read their own letter of appreciation out loud? And before a packed house of mutually appreciative guests? "This is more emotional than I expected," Lin said. "I am truly grateful and overwhelmed that so many students were interested in taking my class." Bryant Lin smiles as his primary care doctor Paul Ford shows slides depicting the detection and diagnosis of his stage IV lung cancer. (Todd Holland) Top Image by Todd Holland Check out the new Health Compass podcast Breaking down complex science and highlighting the innovators inspiring you to make informed choices for a healthier life. WATCH IT HERE Mauritanian candidate Sidi Ould Tah secured the African Development Bank presidency Thursday, defeating Zambian rival Samuel Munzele Maimbo in the third round of voting to succeed Nigerias Akinwumi Adesina at the helm of Africas premier financial institution. The former president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) won decisively with 76.18% of votes, while Maimbo garnered 20.26% and Senegals Amadou Hott received 3.55%. The election required only three rounds to determine a winner among five candidates vying for the prestigious position. Ould Tahs victory reflects his solid continental reputation and extensive experience in African development finance. His candidacy successfully mobilized support from African member countries, capitalizing on his track record at BADEA and his vision for the institutions future direction. I would first like to thank Africa for this confidence. I thank you for this trust, and I fully understand the responsibility and duty that accompany it, Ould Tah stated following his election, acknowledging the significant mandate entrusted to him by member nations. The new president inherits an institution that has achieved remarkable growth under his predecessors decade-long leadership. During Adesinas tenure, the banks subscribed capital tripled from $93 billion to $318 billion, dramatically expanding its capacity to finance continental development projects. Recent AfDB initiatives include constructing Africas largest wastewater treatment plant in Gabal el Asfar, Egypt, building a strategic bridge connecting Senegal and Gambia, expanding Togos Lome port, and implementing sanitation projects in Lesotho alongside electricity access programs in Kenya. These projects exemplify the banks crucial role in addressing Africas infrastructure gap and promoting sustainable development across the continent. Morocco solidified its position as Africas tourism innovation hub Friday with the signing of a financial agreement establishing the continents first UN Tourism thematic bureau in Rabat, marking a significant milestone in the kingdoms strategy to lead African tourism development. Tourism Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor and UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili formalized the agreement during the 123rd UN Tourism Executive Council session in Spain, with Moroccos Ambassador to Spain Karima Benyaich witnessing the historic signing. The agreement operationalizes the first UN Tourism thematic bureau focused on innovation for Africa, defining administrative arrangements and mutual commitments under Article 5 of the headquarters agreement signed between the Moroccan government and UN Tourism in January 2025. The bureau will advance UN Tourisms 2030 agenda for Africa, positioning tourism as a development vector across the continent in alignment with King Mohammed VIs vision for unified African action. This initiative represents a major advancement for continental tourism development, leveraging Moroccos established leadership as an African tourism and innovation hub. By strengthening cooperation between African states and UN Tourism, the bureau will support socioeconomic transformation of African tourist destinations through innovative programs. The facility will serve as a catalyst for knowledge transfer, best practice sharing, and coordinated policy development across the continent. Moroccos selection reflects its robust tourism infrastructure, successful pandemic recovery with record visitor numbers, and commitment to sustainable tourism development. The bureaus establishment reinforces Moroccos role in shaping Africas tourism future, providing technical expertise, fostering innovation, and facilitating partnerships that unlock the continents vast tourism potential while ensuring benefits reach local communities through inclusive growth strategies. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain New research has found that men who carry a common genetic variant are twice as likely to develop dementia in their lifetime compared to women. The research, published in Neurology, used data from the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial to investigate whether people who had variants in the hemochromatosis (HFE) gene, which is critical for regulating iron levels in the body, might be at increased risk of dementia. The paper is titled "Haemochromatosis genotypes and incident dementia in a prospective study of older adults." Co-author Professor John Olynyk, from the Curtin Medical School, said one in three people carry one copy of the variant, known as H63D, while one in 36 carry two copies. "Having just one copy of this gene variant does not impact someone's health or increase their risk of dementia. However, having two copies of the variant more than doubled the risk of dementia in men, but not women," Professor Olynyk said. "While the genetic variant itself cannot be changed, the brain pathways which it affectsleading to the damage that causes dementiacould potentially be treated if we understood more about it." Credit: Curtin University Professor Olynyk said further research was needed to investigate why this genetic variant increased the risk of dementia for males but not females. "The HFE gene is routinely tested for in most Western countries, including Australia, when assessing people for hemochromatosisa disorder that causes the body to absorb too much iron. Our findings suggest that perhaps this testing could be offered to men more broadly," Professor Olynyk said. "While the HFE gene is critical for controlling iron levels in the body, we found no direct link between iron levels in the blood and increased dementia risk in affected men. "This points to other mechanisms at play, possibly involving the increased risk of brain injury from inflammation and cell damage in the body." Co-author Professor Paul Lacaze, from Monash University, said the findings could help improve outcomes for people at risk of developing dementia. "More than 400,000 Australians are currently living with dementia, with around a third of those being men. Understanding why men with the double H63D variant are at higher risk could pave the way for more personalized approaches to prevention and treatment," Professor Lacaze said. "This study is a great example of how diverse Australian research groups and universities can collaborate effectively to learn more about these progressive diseases and ultimately improve health outcomes for people around the world." The ASPREE trial was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of daily low-aspirin in 19,114 healthy older people in Australia and the U.S.. Primarily undertaken to evaluate the risks versus benefits of daily low-dose aspirin in this cohort, it created a treasure trove of healthy aging data that has underpinned a wealth of research studies. The research was a collaboration between Curtin University, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, The Royal Children's Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Fiona Stanley Hospital. More information: Chenglong Yu et al, Haemochromatosis Genotypes and Incident Dementia in a Prospective Study of Older Adults, Neurology (2025). DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000213743 Journal information: Neurology This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Communication challenges may result from a mismatch in perspectives between autistic and non-autistic individuals. While social interactions and behaviors differ across cultures, their impact on socio-cognitive abilities remains unclear. A cross-cultural analysis by researchers from Japan reveals differences in the mentalizing performance of Japanese and British autistic and non-autistic adults, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive measures to diagnose autism accurately. Credit: Bianca Schuster from Waseda University Autism spectrum disorders are associated with difficulties in social communication, long attributed to individual sociocognitive deficits. As a consequence of this perspective, stigma and pressure to conform to neurotypical social norms often lead to mental health challenges among autistic individuals. Emerging theories suggest that communication difficulties may rather arise from mismatches in perspectives between autistic and nonautistic partners. Addressing this mismatch collaboratively could transform the understanding of autism and improve communication outcomes. Social behavior also varies significantly across cultures. Gestures, eye contact, and body language that are considered appropriate in one culture may be perceived differently in another. Nevertheless, current sociocognitive assessments largely reflect Western norms, limiting their applicability to nonWestern populations. To bridge this gap, researchers from Japan conducted a crosscultural analysis to compare mentalizing difficulties, or challenges in understanding the thoughts and feelings of others, in British and Japanese autistic and nonautistic adults. Led by Dr. Bianca Schuster, a researcher at Waseda University, Japan, with coauthors Associate Professor Yuko Okamoto and Professor Rieko Osu from Waseda University, Professor Hirotaka Kosaka from the University of Fukui, and Dr. Masakazu Ide from the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons With Disabilities, the study highlights the importance of considering neurodivergent perspectives rather than attributing difficulties solely to autistic individuals. Explaining the rationale behind their work, Dr. Schuster says, "Autistic and nonautistic people have different experiences and therefore perceive and interact with the world differently. Such a mismatch in perspectives can lead to difficulties in understanding each other's respective social cuesa problem termed the 'double empathy problem.' This theory has received a lot of attention in recent years, but there are still very few studies that have formally tested it." Their findings were published in the journal Molecular Autism on May 14, 2025. The researchers used animations showing social scenes, depicted by moving triangles, and asked participants to interpret what was happening. They found that nonautistic British adults struggled to interpret animations created by their autistic peers. In contrast, British autistic adults demonstrated similar performances when interpreting animations made by both autistic and nonautistic people. The fact that British autistic adults did not perform better with animations made by their own neurotype may reflect that, in comparison to neurotypical groups, the perspectives of British neurodivergent individuals may be too varied. Conversely, Japanese autistic and nonautistic adults interpreted animations created by their own and the respective other group with comparable accuracy. Notably, crosscultural analyses revealed that while there was no difference in performance between Japanese and British nonautistic adults, Japanese autistic participants outperformed both groups of British participants. In addition, animations created by Japanese autistic adults were interpreted with higher accuracy by all autistic participants. Nevertheless, motor performance was comparable across all participants. Overall, these findings support a paradigm shift toward treating autism as a different way of experiencing and interpreting the world, while recognizing it as a social disability shaped by challenges within a predominantly neurotypical environment. An inclusive environment that values socially diverse behaviors can support autistic individuals and enhance their mental wellbeing. Furthermore, the observed results do not likely mean that Japanese people are better at mentalizing than British individuals, because realworld difficulties in communication and social understanding do exist between autistic and nonautistic people in Japan, too. Instead, the findings may indicate that the task used in the current study may not be sensitive enough to detect mentalizing differences in Japanese culture, highlighting the need to develop more culturally sensitive research and diagnostic tools. "Cultural differences related to the diagnosis of autism may be subtle but can still lead to misclassification of cases and therefore have a significant impact on the lives of individuals. The results of this study highlight the urgent need for culturally inclusive research and the development of diagnostic criteria and tools that accurately reflect and respect the diverse manifestations of autism in different cultural contexts," Dr. Schuster adds. More information: Bianca A. Schuster et al, A cross-cultural examination of bi-directional mentalising in autistic and non-autistic adults, Molecular Autism (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s13229-025-00659-z Journal information: Molecular Autism This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels The New South Wales government this week announced reforms that will allow some general practitioners (GPs) to treat and potentially diagnose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This aims to make ADHD care more accessible and less expensive and follows changes in Western Australia and Queensland, which have increased GPs' role in diagnosing and prescribing for ADHD. Previously, only specialists (usually pediatricians and psychiatrists) could diagnose ADHD and prescribe the most commonly used ADHD stimulant medications. This reform comes on the back of evidence of extensive wait times for ADHD care and costs too high for many people. But while up-skilling GPs to treat ADHD will benefit many patients, some people with more complex cases will still need to see a specialist. What's planned for NSW? Under this new framework, the NSW government proposes a two-stage plan. In phase one, around 1,000 GPs will be trained to support the ongoing prescribing of ADHD medications. In phase two, a smaller number, about 100 GPs, will receive more intensive training to conduct ADHD assessments, make diagnoses and initiate ADHD medications. For phase two, the initial focus will be on children and adolescents and then the trial will extend to adults. Why a diagnosis is crucial for people with ADHD The recent Senate inquiry into ADHD highlighted growing awareness about the daily struggles of people with ADHD across Australia. People with ADHD have serious difficulties with attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, which impact across the lifespan and many settings where people live, learn, work and play. ADHD is linked to many poor outcomes and is even associated with higher rates of accidental injury and death. ADHD treatments, such as stimulant medication, has been shown be safe, effective and to substantially lower risks of negative outcomes. But to receive these treatments, a person needs to first receive a diagnosis. GPs can play an important role managing ADHD There is also no question that GPs are more accessible than specialists, both in terms of availability and cost. They already provide ongoing management for a wide range of chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. They are highly skilled in monitoring outcomes and adjusting treatments. With the right training, they bring many transferable skills to ADHD care. Increasing their ability to take over ongoing prescribing for people diagnosed and stabilized on treatment is low risk and has shown to be effective in a range of studies. However, although the proposal to increase the role of GPs in ADHD care is a step in the right direction, it is not without challenges. GPs may struggle to assess complex patients Collaborative care involves general practitioners working with specialists and specialist teams to provide care. If GPs don't have specialists to rely on for expert advice about ongoing management, many will choose not to provide ADHD care. Ongoing support and strong links between specialist and primary care services will be essential. GPs may also struggle to assess and diagnose complex cases. The vast majority of people with ADHD will have other mental health conditions, but some of these other conditions (such as anxiety conditions) can also result in symptoms that appear like ADHD. For these complex situations, specialist services with multidisciplinary teams of doctors and allied health providers (such as psychologists and occupational therapists) will still be needed. To ensure high-quality care and reduce the potential for misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment, it will be even more important that specialists are available to provide additional services when required. There is little detail currently in the NSW proposal about how specialist multidisciplinary services will be supported to ensure this happens. And funding models for this will need to be established to support existing guidelines. Bringing GPs into the assessment and diagnosis to initiate treatment is positive but comes with added pressures to manage assessment and treatment. There are many cases in the media of poor diagnostic process, where patients were misdiagnosed with conditions such as ADHD after inadequate assessments. These practices may be driven by financial rewards and a poor application of evidence-based guidelines. Could this lead to over-diagnosis? Or correct under-diagnosis? In Australia, the debate about whether ADHD is under- or over-diagnosed is ongoing. There reality is that there is almost certainly a mixture of both. The real rates of ADHD are estimated at around 7% in Australian children and 2.5% in adults. While these rates have remained stable for many years, the rates of clinical diagnosis and treatment have increased dramatically, particularly in young women. Around 6% of children and adolescents currently receive ADHD medications, similar to the actual rates of ADHD in the population. For adults, the rates of ADHD medication use remain low for those over 45 years. For those between 18 and 44 years, rates now sit at around 2%. One interpretation of these figures is that most children, adolescents and adults with ADHD are now getting the support they need. However, if we remember the strong evidence that many Australians are struggling to access ADHD care, particularly in under-resourced, regional and remote areas, the more likely answer is that a combination of "misdiagnosis" and "missed diagnosis" means that sometimes diagnoses are not done correctly. This highlights the importance of focusing on the need for accurate assessment as the cornerstone of high quality ADHD care. In its answer to the question of who should assess and diagnose ADHD, the Australian ADHD guideline focuses on training and skills rather than which profession conducts the assessment. There is no reason that GPs cannot develop these skills, but they will require adequate training and ongoing support to do so, and they will need time to commit to these assessments. Finally, we need to make sure medication is not the only option available. Research shows ADHD medications provide effective treatment. But they should never be the only form of treatment offered. Sadly, reports show medical treatments are relied upon more frequently in more disadvantaged communities where access to other supports can be difficult. These reforms will do little to increase access to psychological and allied health supports to ensure the right care can be provided to people with ADHD. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The Minnesota Democratic trifecta voted in 2023 to open MinnesotaCare to undocumented immigrants, but since the program began in January, enrollment has far exceeded expectations. The state had projected about 5,800 people to sign up by the end of March, but more than 17,000 people entered the program. By the end of April, enrollments hit more than 20,000. Only about 4,300 enrollees have had appointments for which the state has paid out, but Republicans warn the costs of the program may balloon as additional claims roll in. Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders struck a budget agreement this month that would remove undocumented adults from MinnesotaCare but allow children to remain on the program. Approximately one-quarter of enrollees are minors, according to the state. The deal, which has not yet been approved by the Minnesota Legislature, has been met with backlash from progressive lawmakers and organizations that advocate for immigrants. In the two weeks since the deal was announced, protesters at the Capitol have shamed Walz and legislative leaders and accused them of abandoning immigrants. Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, criticized Republicans, who have made rolling back MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrants a priority this legislative session. "It is especially sad that they have injected into the conversation that some people must simply be left to die because their costs are too expensive," Agbaje said at a news conference at the Capitol. Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, said the costs to provide coverage are too great and Minnesota shouldn't "incentivize illegal immigration" by providing benefits like MinnesotaCare. He said his constituents and neighbors are glad to see the Legislature "put Minnesotans first." He noted that Illinois and California are scaling back coverage or pausing enrollment in health plans for undocumented immigrants because of the costs. "It's actually quite unusual to have a broad-based, taxpayer-funded health care benefit for illegal immigrants," Rasmusson said, "and in the states that have tried it, it hasn't worked." Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez's father faces the possibility of losing his access to health insurance as he undergoes treatment for cancer. Chavez spoke about his father's diagnosis in a news conference at the Capitol earlier this month. He had been keeping his father's illness relatively private, he said in an interview, but decided to go public in the hope that "maybesomeone would think about not stripping health care away from our most vulnerable community members." "For my father," Chavez said, "I had to." Chavez said his father did not want to be interviewed. Chavez joined Agbaje and other lawmakers in the People of Color and Indigenous, or POCI, Caucus at the Capitol to urge their colleagues to protect MinnesotaCare. He criticized Democratic legislative leaders for using health care "as a bargaining chip to balance a budget" and said Democrats' top priority had been protecting health care access "for all Minnesotans." "I'm disappointed that that isn't a priority anymore," he said. On social media, he said he was "extremely disappointed" that Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, signed off on the deal given Democrats control the Senate by a one-vote majority. "We won't forget that your re-election is next year," he wrote. POCI Caucus members pounded on the door of the governor's reception room as Walz, Murphy and House leaders announced their proposed budget deal, accusing them of "killing our communities." Faith groups have held news conferences at the Capitol and read stories of immigrants hoping to sway lawmakers. A factory worker in southern Minnesota lost a foot to diabetes she couldn't consistently manage, said Melissa Gonzalez, a pastor at Tapestry Richfield. Now on MinnesotaCare, she has access to insulin and regular doctor's appointments. Murphy and House Democratic Leader Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, have said the decision was a difficult one. "I'm not at all surprised that this is the response," Murphy said as DFL lawmakers and others pounded on the door two weeks ago. "They are Minnesotans," she said. "They work in our communities. They work with and alongside us. They go to church with us. They are our neighbors." With a tied House and a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate, legislative leaders are struggling to put together a budget. Lawmakers adjourned May 19 without a budget, and with each week that passes, Minnesota draws closer to a partial government shutdown. Whether to end MinnesotaCare has proven to be among the most contentious issues and could make it difficult for leaders to get DFL votes for a budget deal without health care for immigrants. Rep. Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, who volunteers as an emergency medical technician, said he feels compassion for those who need access to health care, but lawmakers have to ensure the system is solvent to serve "law-abiding Minnesotans." Backer, co-chair of the House Health Finance and Policy Committee, said he has to "look at the whole ecosystem of our health care system." 2025 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Treatment with norBNI normalizes sex-specific behavioral phenotypes of male and female DAT Val559 mice. Credit: Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03055-4 Dopamine, a small molecule derived from the amino acid tyrosine, plays a significant role in regulating multiple essential brain functions, including movement, mood and motivation as well as multiple cognitive functions, including attention and memory. Dopamine signaling in the brain is a complex process, with many mechanisms in place to accelerate or slow down dopamine's effects. When dopamine is released from nerve cells, its efficient removal to limit signaling occurs through the activity of special proteins called "transporters," ensuring a shorter action of dopamine in the brain. Disruptions in dopamine signaling have been linked to several neuropsychiatric disorders, including ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, substance use disorder and addiction. Current treatments for dopamine-related conditions use agents that can either block or enhance dopamine signaling, such as stimulants used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, including amphetamines, which can have unwanted side effects or lead to addiction. The power of dopamine to regulate brain mechanisms of thought, mood and reward has kept scientists searching for better ways to control its actions. In a newly published study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from Florida Atlantic University and their collaborators have discovered a potentially safer yet effective treatment for multiple disorders that display altered dopamine signaling. The "key?" A molecule that targets a specific protein called the kappa opioid receptor (KOR). Opioids are commonly known as powerful painkillers with strong psychoactive effects. They increase dopamine signaling in the brain, producing pleasurable sensations that can encourage repeated use and, over time, lead to addiction. Both endogenous and illicit opioid molecules act on signaling proteins termed receptors. But all opioid receptors are not the same. In the current study, the researchers targeted KOR, a subtype of opioid receptor that when activated can decrease synaptic dopamine levels by decreasing dopamine release and increasing the availability of synaptic dopamine transporters, thereby halting the dopamine signal. Instead of activating KOR, scientists used a drug that can block it. But wouldn't this cause addiction by elevating dopamine? "It all depends on whether dopamine levels are elevated or suppressed by the insult that produces the disorder to begin with," said Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D., senior author, executive director of the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, the David J.S. Nicholson Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience, and a professor of biomedical science in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. "For some people, a rare genetic mutation known as DAT Val559 causes the dopamine transporter to 'run backward,' leaking dopamine into the synapse rather than sucking it away, turning the transporter from an efficient nano-vacuum cleaner into a nano-leaky faucet." But shouldn't a leaking dopamine into the synapses elevate dopamine in the synapse and lead to addiction? According to Blakely, unlike the sharp rise in dopamine that triggers euphoria and can lead to addiction, dopamine that dribbles out through a leaky transporter makes it hard for a receptive brain cell to detect the normal rapid rise in dopamine that acts to fine tune our thinking and emotions. "The DAT Val559 genetic variant has been found in individuals with diagnoses of ADHD, ASD and BPD," said Blakely. "This led us to ponder whether blocking KORs could reduce the expression of leaky dopamine transporters and thereby actually normalize dopamine signaling and restore normal cognition and behavior." Results of the study reveal that this is indeed the case. More than a decade ago, Blakely's team and collaborators demonstrated that mice engineered to express the mutation show altered behaviors that can be aligned with features seen in individuals with cognitive and compulsive disorders and altered psychostimulant responses, interestingly, in a sex-dependent manner. When the researchers administered a long-acting KOR blocking drug to these mice, they found that the agent reduced the expression of the mutant transporter on the cell surface where it normally encounters dopamine, preventing dopamine leaks from reaching dopamine receptors and correcting multiple behavioral deficits seen in the mutant mice. "Our studies indicate that when there's an issue with how DAT is expressed, activated or inhibited, the brain can have altered states of dopamine availability, creating the traits that psychiatrists describe as inattention or compulsivity as well as altered patterns of reactivity and emotion," said Felix P. Mayer, Ph.D., first author and a former post-doctoral researcher in the Blakely lab, who is now a faculty member at the University of Copenhagen. Mayer says that by blocking KOR, they have found a way to help fix this issue, at least in mice. "Since the DAT mutation is rare, our findings might be considered of limited medical significance," said Blakely. "However, we and others have found that DAT proteins are sensitively regulated by multiple pathways inside cells. Changes in any one of these pathways, as well as changes that regulate how dopamine is released and acts, could cause behavioral disorders that would benefit from KOR blockers." Blakely notes, however, that antagonizing KOR could have opposite effects if dysregulation of dopamine signaling is not the issue underlying the diagnosis. The key will be defining the type of dopamine change that contributes to the disorder. Notably, for the behaviors assessed in the study, animals with normal DAT protein failed to show behavioral changes when exposed to the KOR antagonist at the doses given, suggesting a degree of protection against side effects. The researchers believe that further work on KOR blockers may give individuals affected with brain disorders that display these alterations better treatment options than what is currently available today. And although the DAT Val559 mutation produces sex-dependent behavioral changes, blocking KOR improved the distinct alterations seen in males and females, suggesting that the utility of KOR blockers, at least in mice, is not limited by sex. "The discovery of genetic variation in proteins that tightly regulate brain dopamine signaling, like DAT Val559, no matter how rare, can still offer insights into more common disease mechanisms," said Sammanda Ramamoorthy, Ph.D., co-corresponding author on the study and a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University. More information: Felix P. Mayer et al, Kappa opioid receptor antagonism restores phosphorylation, trafficking and behavior induced by a disease-associated dopamine transporter variant, Molecular Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-025-03055-4 Journal information: Molecular Psychiatry This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Anna Shvets from Pexels A nurses' union isn't satisfied with a Mass General Brigham investigation that found the brain tumor cluster at Newton-Wellesley Hospital is not connected to working conditions. The hospital has identified six nurses who have worked on the facility's fifth-floor maternity unit and reported benign (non-cancerous) brain tumors "occurring over many years," according to President Ellen A. Moloney. "An ongoing investigation has found no evidence that these medical conditions were caused by the work environment," Moloney wrote in a letter to the Newton-Wellesley hospital community earlier this week. She emphasized that Mass General Brigham's Department of Occupational Health and Safety's analysis is still taking place. "Based on the results of this rigorous ongoing investigation," Moloney wrote in the update on Tuesday, "we can assure you that no environmental risks have been identified at our hospital." In response to Moloney's update, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said in a statement that it does not believe the "testing presented so far is definitive." The MNA's division of health and safety, consisting of occupational health nurses, also launched its own investigation, which remains in progress. The union has said the hospital's environmental testing was not comprehensive. "We are discussing next steps with the hospital," the union said in a statement, "including sharing the results of our inquiry and bringing in an independent expert to review the situation." Moloney's update came after another former nurse at Newton-Wellesley Hospital reported earlier this month of being diagnosed with a brain tumor, bringing the reported case count up to seven. The nurses diagnosed with brain tumors have worked in the maternal care labor/delivery unit on the hospital's fifth floor at some point. Site visits from the state Department of Public Health and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in April found no issue with working conditions and environmental factors at Newton-Wellesley, according to reports from the agencies that accompanied Moloney's update. State officials noted that a site visit included observing "radiation surveys throughout the facility, and a record review of X-ray equipment calibration and maintenance logs." Only one staffer who has reported a brain tumor diagnosis has spoken with DPH, the agency noted. "DPH was not able to confirm or deny the diagnoses of brain tumors or other health conditions in other staff since no other staff have responded to DPH's offer to discuss their concerns," the agency stated. DPH added that "most brain tumors develop for no apparent reason and are not associated with specific risk factors," and that "typical latency after exposure is estimated to be 1050 years." "While there has been a great deal of misinformation shared on social media and in other forums, we want to make sure you have the facts," Moloney stated in her update. 2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Mika Brandt, Unsplash.com. Thirst is a crucial physiological signal that contributes to the survival of humans and other animals, by allowing them to detect when they are dehydrated so that they can drink. Drinking is essential for survival and for maintaining the balance of fluids in the body, also known as water homeostasis. The neural underpinnings of thirst and the maintenance of water homeostasis have been widely studied over the past decades. Nonetheless, until recently, neuroscientists had not yet identified the proteins that support the mammalian brain's ability to detect changes in the concentration of sodium and other solutes in the bloodstream, initiating the drive to drink. Researchers at Capital Medical University, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory and other institutes in China recently showed that the transmembrane protein TMEM63B could serve as a molecular "thirst sensor," ultimately prompting mammals to drink when their bodies need fluids. Their paper, published in Neuron, deepens the current understanding of the intricate neuro-genetic processes contributing to the maintenance of water homeostasis in mammals. "An increase in blood osmolality is thought to induce thirst by activating a hyperosmolar sensor expressed in the subfornical organ (SFO), but the molecular identity of this sensor remains elusive," wrote Wenjie Zou, Siqi Deng and their colleagues in their paper. "Here, we provide behavioral and functional evidence to show that TMEM63B functions as a mammalian hyperosmolar sensor for thirst in SFO neurons." TMEM63B, which stands for transmembrane protein 63B, is a protein that spans across the outer layer (i.e., membrane) of cells. As part of their study, the researchers carried out a series of experiments involving adult mice, which shed light on the role of this protein in the signaling of thirst. "First, we showed that TMEM63B is expressed in SFO excitatory neurons and required for the neuronal responses to hypertonic stimulation," wrote Zou, Deng and their colleagues. "More importantly, heterologously expressed TMEM63B is activated by hypertonic stimuli, and point mutations can alter the reversal potential of the channel. Additionally, purified TMEM63B in liposomes exhibits osmolarity-gated currents. Finally, Tmem63b knockout mice have profound deficits in thirst, and deleting TMEM63B within SFO neurons recapitulated this phenotype." The findings gathered by Zou, Deng and their colleagues suggest that the protein TMEM63B responds to changes in osmolarity (i.e., the concentration of solutes in the blood). When osmolarity becomes too high, the protein appears to prompt neurons in the SFO to generate electrical activity, which elicits the feeling of thirst experienced by animals. Notably, they also found that silencing the Tmem63b gene in mice impaired their ability to feel thirsty and thus seek water when necessary. This observation further highlights the crucial role of this gene for the maintenance of water homeostasis in the body, which is essential for the survival of all mammals. "Taken together, these results provide a molecular basis for thirst and suggest that TMEM63B is a mammalian hyperosmolar sensor for thirst," wrote Zou, Deng and their colleagues. This recent study offers precious new insight into the mechanisms contributing to the survival of both humans and other mammals, which could be validated in further studies spanning across a wider range of species. In addition to advancing the neuroscientific understanding of thirst, this insight unveils a new potential target for the treatment of rare genetic defects in fluid balance or thirst-related disorders. 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. More information: Wenjie Zou et al, TMEM63B functions as a mammalian hyperosmolar sensor for thirst, Neuron (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.02.012. Journal information: Neuron 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Researchers have discovered that, compared to breast cancer that is symptom-detected, patients with breast cancer detected via routine screening mammography are more likely to have improved clinical outcomes, according to a study published in Radiology: Imaging Cancer. While it is commonly understood that early detection of breast cancer results in better patient outcomes, national cancer registries in the U.S. and Canada don't track the method of cancer detection. Since improvements in patient outcomes may be incorrectly attributed solely to treatment advances, identifying the association between the method of breast cancer detection and clinical outcomes may have a direct impact on health care policy. "I observed a marked difference in the way breast cancers were being detected in my clinical practice," said lead study author Jean M. Seely, M.D., F.R.C.P.C., a professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Ottawa and head of the breast imaging section at Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada. "I noted that many women under the age of 50 and older than 75 were diagnosed because of symptomatic presentation." In a retrospective observational analysis, Dr. Seely and colleagues collected data of patients aged 40 years or older who were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. Of the 821 patients included in the study, 50.1% had breast cancer diagnosed as the result of a symptom, rather than as the result of a screening mammogram. Compared to patients with symptom-detected breast cancer, patients with screening-detected breast cancer had significantly lower odds of an advanced stage of breast cancer, lower odds of undergoing a mastectomy and a lower hazard ratio of death. Breast cancers detected from symptoms were more frequent in women aged 40 to 49 years and over 75 years of age, 72.9% and 70.4%, respectively. All-cause deaths were also higher among patients who were not undergoing regular screening. Most surprising was how many patients died shortly after their breast cancer was detected, Dr. Seely noted. "Within only 6.7 years of follow-up, almost 20% of the 821 breast cancer patients had died, half of them from breast cancer," Dr. Seely said. "The patients whose breast cancers were detected because of symptoms had a 63% higher likelihood of dying." The researchers concluded that reducing the barriers to breast cancer screening in women aged 40 to 74 will improve patient outcomes and reduce the number of patient deaths from cancer. Women over age 75 might also benefit from screening, as these patients were more likely to be diagnosed due to symptoms and required more intensive treatment. In 2024, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updated their breast cancer screening guidelines, recommending that women aged 40 to 75 years at average risk undergo breast cancer screening every two years. The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care recommends that women aged 50 to 74 years at average risk undergo breast cancer screening every two to three years. "The results of this study will likely support the move to reduce the breast cancer screening age to 40 in the U.S. and Canada," Dr. Seely said. "We have lowered the screening age in many provincial and territorial screening programs in Canada and are aiming to establish a single national policy for screening." More information: Impact of Method of Detection of Breast Cancer on Clinical Outcomes in Individuals Aged 40 Years or Older, Radiology Imaging Cancer (2025). This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Maksim Goncharenok from Pexels Popular eating and food challenge videos across social media are saturated with messages that could promote disordered eating and unrealistic body standards, new research reveals. Led by Flinders University Ph.D. Candidate Phoebe Wu, the study analyzed 180 high-engagement videos across YouTube, TikTok and Chinese video-sharing site Bilibili, finding consistent patterns in their portrayal of food consumption and body appearance. The paper, "'Mind your figure! Watch, but don't eat': A content analysis of eating and appearance-related messages in eating videos on social media," is published in the journal Body Image. "Over the last 10 years we have seen a rise in the popularity of eating challenge videos across social media, ranging from spicy food challenges to excessive consumption clips known as mukbangs," says Ms. Wu, from Flinders' Caring Futures Institute and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. "These videos are watched by millions of viewers around the world, so it's important we understand how audiences engage with them and how it impacts their views on food consumption and body image." Conducting the first content analysis of its kind across video-sharing platforms, the team looked at what types of food were being consumed and how, the body types of the hosts, alongside analyzing the comments and interactions of the viewers. They found that nearly three-quarters of the videos depicted overeating, with many also showcasing potentially dangerous behaviors such as eating extremely spicy or sugary foods or eating excessive amounts of food in a short timeframe. Despite this, almost half of the videos featured thin-bodied hosts, with Bilibili videos most likely to add appearance-enhancing filters. "Viewers are frequently watching individualsespecially young, thin hostsconsume large quantities of food without apparent consequences," says Ms. Wu. "This can send confusing and potentially harmful messages about eating habits and body image, including the suggestion of encouraging binge eating and purging to maintain a slim build. "We were able to see from the comments and interactions that people expressed envy towards thin hosts or commented on their own weight goals, which points to a deep engagement with appearance-based comparisons." Similarities across the three platforms included mukbang being the most popular type of video, a high proportion of thin or average-sized bodies and a propensity to show savory more than sweet dishes. However, clear differences across the platforms emerged, with YouTube most likely to depict extreme eating behaviors, while TikTok videos often involved younger, female hosts, and were shorter in length with less food consumed. Cultural differences also played a role, with Asian savory meals naturally dominating Bilibili, while fast food and Western-style eating challenges were more common on YouTube. "The prevalence of Asian hosts and Asian meals across all three platforms suggests that viewers from Asian backgrounds, regardless of where they reside, may be more susceptible to the influence of the videos on their eating behaviors and body image," says Ms. Wu. "We need to take into consideration the cultural differences at play, as well as the differences in platform features and user demographics, if we are to help viewers reflect critically on what they are watching and protect them from potential harm." The authors say while more research is needed, the study raises important questions about how social media platforms regulate content related to food, health, and body image, especially for younger audiences. "We were able to see that these videos are highly engaged with and have the potential to negatively impact viewers' eating behavior and body image and we need to be mindful of the impact should their popularity continue," says Ms. Wu. More information: Yu Wu et al, "Mind your figure! Watch, but don't eat": A content analysis of eating and appearance-related messages in eating videos on social media, Body Image (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2025.101883 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Micrograph of a plasmacytoma, the histologic correlate of multiple myeloma. H&E stain. Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 A new four-drug combination is highly effective and safe in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), held May 30 through June 3 in Chicago. The data emerged from the ADVANCE clinical trial led by Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The randomized, multi-center trial tests the effects of adding the targeted drug daratumumab to the standard three-part therapy regimen, called KRd (carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone). "This study shows that daratumumab added to KRd is a new standard of care for those patients who had previously been candidates for just KRd," said Sylvester Myeloma Institute Director and study head C. Ola Landgren, M.D., Ph.D., who presents the findings. From Manhattan to ADVANCE The new clinical trial has its roots in the MANHATTAN trial, a smaller trial also led by Landgren. In that trial, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients were also treated with daratumumab added to KRd, a combination called DKRd. The results of the MANHATTAN trial were "spectacular," said Landgren. Sensitive methods to assess for minimal residual disease (MRD) showed that 71% of patients had no detectable disease after completing their treatment. That trial, however, was a single-arm studyall 41 patients received DKRd. The ADVANCE trial goes further by directly comparing KRd to DKRd in a large, multi-center, randomized (1:1) clinical trial in the U.S. Improving outcomes Half of the 306 patients in the ADVANCE trial were randomly assigned to treatment with KRd and half to DKRd. The new results show that 59% of DKRd-treated patients were MRD-negative after eight cycles of treatment compared with 36% of KRd-treated patients. The longer-term durability of the response is an open question. However, the data so far are encouraging: at 32.7 months of follow-up, 86% of patients on DKRd showed progression-free survival, compared to 79% of patients on KRd. Adding daratumumab to KRd did not add any significant toxicities, added Landgrenin part because of the exclusion of patients with underlying cardiovascular disease or patients who were frail. Prior to study enrollment, all patients were screened and cleared by standard labs, a standard clinical exam, and EKG and cardiac ECHO, per the study protocol. "If you give it to the right patients, in the right way, it is an extremely safe and very effective therapy," said Landgren. The new four-drug combination leverages a range of therapeutic targets and modalities. Carfilzomib (brand name Kyprolis) inhibits the protein-degrading machinery in cells, and lenalidomide (Revlimid and other brand names) stimulates immune activity against tumors, among other actions. Dexamethasone has effects on immunity and inflammation. These three drugs may shrink tumors enough to enable daratumumab to finish the job, said Landgren. Daratumumab targets the CD38 protein on multiple myeloma cells and induces tumor cell death. Tumors from patients in the trial are undergoing detailed molecular scrutiny. Questions include why tumors respond differently to the drug regimens, and why some develop resistance. A new standard of care Newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients at Sylvester and other cancer centers are already routinely receiving the four-drug DKRd combination. "It has definitely changed my practice," said Sylvester physician Dickran Kazandjian, M.D., lead co-PI on the ADVANCE study. "Your best shot at getting your best response is with the first treatment." Landgren's research has changed clinical practice before. His studies helped lead to the adoption of carfilzomib as a less toxic substitute for bortezomib. He and his team may change clinical practice yet again. They are planning a new multiple myeloma trial that will test several drugs in combination with a bispecific T cell engager, a newer type of immunotherapy treatment. The ADVANCE trial also showcases a trend in which an increasing number of patients are forgoing up-front transplantation as a consequence of achieving MRD negativity with modern, effective combination therapy alone. Eligible patients in the study had stem cells collected after four cycles, in case they need a transplant after completing treatment. But the patients who achieved MRD-negative status kept their stem cells in the -80C freezer and deferred their transplant. Instead, they moved straight to lenalidomide maintenance therapy, per the study protocol. Landgren and Kazandjian credit the Sylvester clinical trial team for bringing the ADVANCE study to Sylvester locations throughout south Florida. Other institutions involved in the ADVANCE trial are MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Moffitt Cancer Center, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Huntsman Cancer Foundation and Stony Brook Cancer Center. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 36,110 people in 2025 will be newly affected by multiple myeloma, the second most common blood cancer. During WWII, roughly 1,200 Italian men and over 1,100 Japanese men, all of whom had been living in the U.S., were rounded up and shipped to the Fort Missoula Alien Detention Center. They were held there from 1941 to 1944 not because they had committed any crimes, but because the U.S. government thought they "might" be disloyal to America. What they endured during those hot summers and cold winters in poorly insulated, cramped barracks is something only those men know. But now, after eight years of coordination, planning and fundraising, visitors to the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula can get a little closer to seeing what it was like. On Saturday at noon, the museum is hosting a grand opening celebration for "Far From Home: An Internee Experience at Fort Missoula." The immersive exhibit, which is inside a restored barracks building, "allows museum visitors to connect on a personal level with individual internees that were wrongly imprisoned at Fort Missoula," the museum said in an announcement. "This has been a long time coming," said museum executive director Matt Lautzenheiser. "A space like this really lets you connect to the individuality. And it helps us not to see them as 1,200 Italian men and 1,100 Japanese men. It helps us to see them as people just like you and I. They lost their families, they lost their homes and their businesses. They were kind of uprooted and sent to this place." Inside the barracks building, which will be free to enter on Saturday, visitors can touch and feel objects that the men would have used during their detention. That includes a stove, a guitar, fishing poles and bunk beds. The barracks were not pleasant places, with 40-60 men crowded inside each building. "The Japanese men, they were all community leaders," Lautzenheiser explained. "With an average age of 50-60. They were orchard growers and judo teachers and actually a couple ran Japanese language newspapers. Imagine coming from California and coming to Missoula in mid-January. They didn't have appropriate clothes. So I think there's definitely an important story for us to understand. And being able to share some of this cool stuff that allows people to think about them as individuals and humans." On Friday, museum curator of collections Emma Selfors was busy carefully organizing the interactive items in the barracks. "The whole idea is of humanizing the humans that were here," Selfors said. "And so we picked five Italians and five Japanese men to feature in this space." You can read about one Italian man who was a chef at the World's Fair before he was sent to Missoula. You can learn about Alfredo Cipolato, who stayed in Missoula after his release, married a local woman, and ran an Italian deli called Cipolato's Broadway Market on the corner of Madison Avenue and East Broadway. The completion of this exhibit comes after years of effort and planning," Lautzenheiser said. "Fort Missoula is very unique and is the one of the most intact confinement sites in the nation, creating a space where the public can immerse themselves in an original barracks building is a truly powerful experience and we cant wait to share these stories. It makes it even more special to be opening in May, which is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We are incredibly thankful to the Missoula community as well as volunteers, donors and grant organizations who made this project possible." The second phase of the project involves constructing a matching barrack that will serve as a museum collections storage facility for over 50,000 objects. For the first phase, which is being celebrated on Saturday, the museum got two Japanese American Confinement Sites grants from the National Park Service, along with several other grants and support from the Friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is at noon on Saturday, May 31, at the grounds at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula and is free to attend. Missoula police officers issued dozens of citations for illegal camping on city property over the last five months, but just one person has been formally convicted under the law as local officials still get a grasp on the new regulations. The Missoula Police Department has written 44 citations for violating the city law from Jan. 1 to May 21, according to City Attorney Keithi Worthington. Of those, just 11 have been resolved, Worthington said. One person was found guilty under the law on April 9, according to a public records request filed by the Missoulian. The report said one person filed a "nolo contendre' plea, or no contest, six people deferred their charges and city prosecutors dismissed three cases. A deferment is a form of probation that, if followed, can clear the case from a person's record. Police officials said the number of fines issued for camping illegally on City of Missoula property have increased as weather conditions improve, but the figure still lags behind the number of resident complaints as officials work toward compliance under the regulations. Some city officials told the Missoulian they expect the full impact of the law will be felt this summer. The impact of urban camping could also be magnified by the the closure of the Johnson Street homeless shelter. In June the facility will again lower its nightly capacity and will slowly cease operations between now and August when its expected to officially close. "For tent camping in public places, we haven't had a summer high season yet to test the pros and cons of the law," City attorney for Civil Services Ryan Sudbury said. "So we will have a better sense in the fall after we've had a higher intensity implementation period." The urban camping law has several regulations that tell people where, when and how they can sleep on city property. The law bars people from setting up a tent from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and requires setbacks from residences and businesses. In December, the city council amended the law to outright ban camping in city parks. A fine for violating the law is $50. Some residents have brought concerns of a new state law that fines people $500 a day for violating city camping laws, but city officials said no increased fines will be imposed in Missoula. Data proves hard to track While 44 citations have been issued, the Missoula Police Department said it no longer tracks enforcement of the law in detail, according to MPD Public Information Officer Whitney Bennett. Bennett told the Missoulian that, generally, fewer than 10 citations had been issued each month. But Bennett said that did change in May, when the number of citations surpassed that number. Despite some limited data, Bennett could not provide the Missoulian with specific numbers. "After the new ordinance went into effect, (MPD's 24-hour front desk) no longer tracks either warnings or issued citations for the offense," Bennet said in an email. A previous version of the law passed by Missoula City Council in June 2024 required police officers to issue a formal warning to those camping illegally, but was changed in December to a fine-based process. The Missoulian reported in January that MPD issued 18 citations alone between Jan. 3 and Jan. 9, meaning the remaining 26 infractions have been spread out over the course of five months. Despite the lack of citations, calls for the urban camping ordinance appear often in police logs. A review of the county's daily public report showed 28 resident calls related to camping in the city were made from May 19 to May 26. Missoula Police Chief Mike Colyer clarified to the Missoulian before a speech on Wednesday that not all complaints lead to a citation. He said sometimes officers issue someone a warning instead, help move a person into a correct camping location, or sometimes a person camping outside is gone by the time officers are able to respond to a complaint. "Our officers have discretion for those situations," Colyer added. Bennett said some interactions from resident complaints could also be traced to cleanup operations organized by the city's code compliance department, which often clears encampments that violate health and safety regulations. The city also has several lesser-known urban camping laws, like a ban on sleeping on private property without permission or sleeping in RVs on the public right of way, which is different than the city's parking permit program. City says no new fines A new state law passed by the Montana State Legislature this spring, House Bill 642, shifted the state's general urban camping law to a public nuisance charge with a $500 per day fine. For now, that won't impact the City of Missoula's urban camping law, according to Sudbury, the city's civil attorney. Sudbury told the Missoulian in an email that the local government could choose to enforce the city law with its current regulations, or adopt the state regulations. Choosing the latter requires direction from city council. "Unless City Council changes the direction to staff, the City plans to continue charging these violations under the City Code," Sudbury said in an email. Challengers for Missoula City Council Wards 4 and 6 said they want to address housing and homelessness if they were elected to office. One candidate is also running for the same seat after a rare tie vote in 2023. Ward 6 covers the Franklin to the Fort and River Road neighborhoods. There are two elections for Ward 6, one four-year term and another two-year term required by state law after the tie vote. Retired electrician Chris Foster is challenging incumbent Kristen Jordan for the four-year term in Ward 6. Local farmer Sean McCoy and resident Lynette Jonessian are challenging Ward 6 incumbent Sandra Vasecka for the two-year term, potentially setting up a rematch from two years ago. In Ward 4, which covers the Missoula Midtown and South Hills neighborhood, David Quattrocchi stands as the lone challenger against incumbent Mike Nugent. Ward 5 Councilor Stacie Anderson continues to run unopposed. Candidates in Wards 1 and 2 do not feature any incumbents. Three newcomer candidates are running to unseat Ward 3 incumbent Daniel Carlino, in addition to Ward 1 incumbent Jennifer Savage, who moved districts this summer and is also running in Ward 3. More candidates could soon join the race, as the Missoula County Election Office reopened its candidate filing on May 27 to align with a new state law. Sean McCoy - Ward 6 (2-year) Sean McCoy, 50, is a small-scale farmer and bus driver who ran for Ward 6 last year, tying with incumbent Sandra Vasecka who was ultimately appointed to the seat by the city council. McCoy told the Missoulian in an interview he wishes to steer the city toward more infill development while addressing homelessness. McCoy said he generally thinks city council is working well, but he would like to see more creative thinking and leadership. "Often times I feel like some of our city council members vote how they feel like they should vote rather than what a leader should do," McCoy said. "Leaders are meant to lead for the entire city, not make decisions based on their own personal preferences." McCoy said he agreed with the city's decision to close the Johnson Street Shelter because of a lack of existing funds, but said the city should not abandon its part in providing shelter beds. He said the city should look into developing several small-scale shelters across town that can be focused on addressing specific needs, like substance abuse or a shelter for disabled people. "So far, I have yet to see anyone try to diversify and spread everything out," McCoy said. McCoy disagreed with parts of the city's urban camping law, arguing that enforcing a fine on homeless people will only cost city residents more money in the long run. McCoy is a member of the Missoula City-County Land Board and said that experience has given him insight toward how the city can increase affordable housing. He called for increased density within the city to boost the supply of housing while minimizing development on prime agricultural soils in the Missoula Valley. "The more affordable housing we can come up with, the better. Gentrification is real in Montana, at a big level," McCoy said. "There are Porsches and Lambos driving around this town, which 10 years ago was dominated by Subarus." McCoy also addressed his past activism efforts. In 2002, he was arrested for his part in stopping a logging truck on the Madison Bridge and rappelling off the side of the truck with a large banner. He said his time for that kind of activism is in the past, and he hopes he can be a voice the Missoula community can trust. "I have spent my whole life serving my community, whether it is in the Navy, as a wildland firefighter, as a farmer, and that has not changed," McCoy said. Lynette Jonessian - Ward 6 (2-year) Jonessian, 52, is a Missoula resident who is the leader of her apartment's tenants union and a member of the Missoula Tenants Union. She told the Missoulian in an interview that she is running to improve sidewalk infrastructure, improve relations with the homeless community and advocate for more affordable housing. "Infrastructure and the ADA is the main thing for me, I also have a homeless background," Jonessian said, adding she was homeless for five years. "I am tired of the homeless being treated like criminals, when they are just humans." Jonessian said she disagreed with the city's decision to close the Johnson Street Shelter, adding the closure will move more people into city streets and other neighborhoods. She floated the idea of developing an authorized camping site on vacant city property for those sleeping outdoors. She said establishing a small community could be beneficial, but a camping space would need strict regulations and proper security. She also called for better pedestrian infrastructure, especially for those with mobility disabilities. Jonessian uses a wheelchair, and said she often runs into barriers when trying to access city services. She called on the city to fund more sidewalk projects, which are partially on hold after residents brought concerns about the city's cost-sharing program. Jonessian also said the city needs to invest more in affordable housing, but did not expand on any specific policy or program. "I am working toward the goals that I have set, not forgetting about the veterans, not forgetting about mental health, not forgetting about addiction, not forgetting about homelessness, we are all human," Jonessian said. David Quattrocchi - Ward 4 Quattrocchi, 43, is a community organizer for Partnership Health Center in Missoula. He told the Missoulian in an interview he would like to see trust restored in city government and increase services for homeless people, while building more low-income housing. The huge overarching thing is restoring faith in how government works for people, and really making sure people understand that their representatives arent exactly that, representing, Quattrocchi said. I plan to be really active in not only understanding what people feel like is our pressing needs in Ward 4, but figuring out ways to get that implemented. Quattrocchi cited a recent city survey that showed less than half of city residents trusted the local government, although figures for the state and federal government were considerably lower. Quattrocchi said he plans to bridge the gap by prioritizing neighborhood councils and allowing more residents to have a say in decision-making. City council, he said, often relies on city staff to lead policy decisions, and he would focus more on resident opinion. Quattrocchi said he sees a need for providing emergency shelter like the Johnson Street Shelter. He said the city's decision to close the it will make it more difficult for service providers to support the homeless population. This is a very vital piece where service providers can actually connect with people, Quattrocchi said. He said he also disagrees with the city's urban camping law, saying the regulations will push people to the outskirts of town and cost taxpayers in legal fees for enforcement. He said the city should look to build more low-income housing instead of luxury developments, and said the city could limit any tax increases by prioritizing housing in its city budget. If we keep doing (expensive housing), it is a perfect recipe to continue gentrification, continue to make this more of a tourist attraction than a place where roots can be put down, Quattrocchi said. Chris Foster - Ward 6 (4-year) Chris Foster, 68, is a retired electrician who has previously led the city's River Road Neighborhood leadership team. He told the Missoulian in an interview he hopes to alleviate homelessness and affordable housing by increasing incentives for mixed-use developments and community asset corporations. "It is pretty clear that housing prices are a function of housing availability," Foster said. "If a municipality doesn't build enough housing, the prices are going to go up. That makes it harder for people to buy houses, but it also raises rents, which pushes people into homelessness. The two go hand-in-hand." Foster said he has done extensive research on the issue and has studied other cities like Minneapolis and Atlanta to see how they increased affordable housing options. Foster said Missoula has a strong opportunity to increase housing by building more vertical mixed-use housing under community asset corporations, which are nonprofit entities that hold land and invest in new construction. Front Step Community Land Trust currently operates in Missoula and has a hand in building the Scott Street-Ravara affordable housing development, but Foster would like to see similar groups added to the local economy. Foster would also like to see different options for homeless shelters, like having spaces specifically for those in need of mental health counseling or those simply needing a place while working. "There's all kind of different situations and I think the city should try to build places that meet those needs. That can be done," Foster, who supported closing the Johnson Street Shelter, said. "Putting people into one group isn't necessarily safe or good for everyone." Foster also said more mixed-use development would help alleviate local property taxes, as he said the higher value of the buildings can help offset the rates of single-family homes. "Ravara is great, it is just not enough," Foster said. "What I think the city should focus on is mixed-use developments." The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has decided to scrap the earlier tender process for the construction of the 8,000 crore Thane-Ghodbunder to Bhayandar road tunnel and Rs6,000 crore elevated road projects. The submission was made during the hearing a plea by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which had alleged that it was unfairly disqualified from the tender process at the stage of considering financial bids, without being informed about the outcome of its technical bid. The Supreme Court had earlier questioned L&T's exclusion, observing that the company was instrumental in the rescue of workers in Uttarakhand and has built key elements of projects like the Central Vista project. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih had emphasised that transparency is key in such tender processes. Today, a bench of CJI Gavai, Justice Masih and newly-sworn in Justice Atul Chandurkar was informed that the MMRDA has decided to scrap its earlier tender. Representing MMRDA, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi said, "We are scrapping the tender." CJI Gavai appreciated the MMRDA and its counsel for the development. "Yes, we are in the era of transparency. We should appreciate Solicitor General (Tushar) Mehta and Mr Rohatgi," the CJI said. The Court then proceeded to close L&T's plea. "It is fairly stated that the entire render process is scrapped in larger public interest. Thus the plea is disposed off as infructuous," the Court ordered. L&T had flagged procedural lapses and alleged unfair treatment in the bidding for the Thane-Ghodbunder to Bhayandar infrastructure project, a key part of Mumbais urban transport expansion. During yesterday's hearing, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appeared for L&T and highlighted that the company selected for the project lacked credentials and stressed that the process for selection was opaque. Yesterday, Senior Advocate Rohatgi argued that L&T's disqualification was not on fanciful grounds and that certain disclosures were restricted under the tender terms. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, also representing the MMRDA, had requested the matter to be posted today, citing discussions with the executive. Today, the matter was put to rest with MMRDA revealing that it has scrapped its earlier tender process. On a busy office day, Sushmita, a corporate executive, received an email in the name of her bank, asking her to update her know-your-customer (KYC) details immediately. It asked her to use a link provided in the email, or else her account would be blocked. Without giving it much thought, Sushmita clicked the link which opened a page with an online form. The page looked exactly like her bank website pages. To complete the 'required' KYC, she filled out the form by providing personal details such as name, bank account number, Aadhaar and registered email ID and mobile number. The form also prompted her to enter one-time passcodes (OTPs) received on her phone and email a step common in legitimate banking procedures. Minutes after submitting the form, unauthorised transactions began withdrawing funds from her account. Sushmitas experience mirrors a growing number of cases where victims are lured through phishing emails and defrauded after sharing sensitive personal and financial information on fake websites. This is a dual-layered attack: social engineering through alarming messages, followed by a fraudulent form designed to extract sensitive data under the guise of regulatory compliance. According to Avast's Q1 Gen Threat Report , online threats have become increasingly sophisticated, and phishing attacks are no exception. "Among the many tactics cybercriminals deploy, developing phishing campaigns by mimicking well-known companies and duplicating their online forms has emerged as a quick, cost-effective, and deceptively simple method for stealing sensitive user information. The alarming rise in the success of these campaigns speaks volumes about how cybercriminals are exploiting weaknesses in both technology and human trust." In todays digital landscape, where convenience and connectivity define our interactions, online forms have become an integral part of everyday life. Whether it is booking a doctors appointment, signing up for newsletters, or applying for jobs, we constantly submit personal data via web-based forms. But this convenience has also created a fertile ground for cybercriminals. Fraudsters are increasingly creating fake online forms to steal sensitive information, ranging from names, addresses and phone numbers to banking credentials and identity-proof documents. This form of cybercrime is surging, often integrated with phishing campaigns that mimic trusted brands to trick users into sharing data. These scams are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect, posing a significant risk to individual privacy and digital security. Let us first understand how fake online forms work. Fake online forms are essentially spoofed versions of legitimate web forms. These forms are often hosted on lookalike websites and pages or embedded within phishing emails, social media messages, or mobile applications. Phishing through online forms takes advantage of tools like website builders and dynamic DNS (DDNS) services to create fake login or data submission pages that appear genuine. These forms are designed to harvest data such as full names, email addresses, mobile numbers, Aadhaar, permanent account number (PAN), bank account or credit and debit card details and login credentials for financial transactions such as username and password. These forms may appear genuine, using logos and branding from well-known organisations, even copying layouts from legitimate sites. Once the user submits her information, it is transmitted to a server controlled by cybercriminals, who can then use it for identity theft, financial fraud, or to launch further targeted attacks. According to Avast, online website builders, like Weebly and Wix, are popular tools for creating websites without coding skills. "Their accessibility and user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces make them appealing not only to legitimate users but also to cybercriminals." Phishing and brand impersonation play a crucial role in the proliferation of fake online forms. These scams are meticulously crafted to mimic emails or websites of trusted brandsbanks, telecom operators, government agencies, or popular e-commerce platforms. A typical phishing message may include: Professional branding and logos Urgent messaging (like 'your account has been suspended' and 'claim your reward'.) Links that lead to counterfeit websites with forms. For example, SBIbank.weebly.com or updatefacebook.weebly.com. Further, cybercriminals often purchase lookalike domains (like amaz0n.in or facebok.com) and use HTTPS to lend legitimacy to them. When a user clicks on the provided link and lands on the fake page, they are less likely to detect the fraud, especially if distracted by urgency or fear tactics. "Some phishing pages are shockingly sophisticated, closely mimicking the legitimate login forms of major companies or institutions. Others are poorly constructed, with red flags like inconsistent layouts, mismatched fonts, or visible passwords. However, even low-effort phishing pages can succeed because they are often hosted on trusted domains, making them harder for filters to detect," Avast says. Over the years, cybersecurity researchers have been uncovering large phishing campaigns in India. In some cases, victims were directed to a fake Aadhaar update portal which captured scanned ID documents, email addresses and mobile numbers. This data was later sold on the dark web and used to create forged identity cards for financial fraud, reports say. In March this year, artificial intelligence (AI)-based threat intelligence company CloudSEK's investigation revealed how 'PrintSteal', a highly organised criminal network, was running over 1,800 fake domains, impersonating government websites, and using cyber cafes, Telegram groups, and illicit APIs to distribute fraudulent KYC documents. "A critical element in the PrintSteal operation's success is its use of deceptive QR codes to enhance the credibility of fraudulent documents. These QR codes, generated using the legitimate api.qrserver.com service, are embedded within the fraudulent documents (Aadhaar cards, birth certificates, death certificates). However, instead of linking to official government verification websites, these QR codes direct users to counterfeit URLs designed to mimic legitimate verification pages," CloudSEK says. The above example is just to demonstrate how and where your personal and financial details shared via fake online forms could end up. The question, therefore, is how and why fake online forms work. Several psychological and technical factors make fake online forms highly effective. It includes, Urgency and fear: Users are often tricked into acting quickly due to fear of losing access to an account or missing out on a reward. Trust in brand appearance: A familiar logo and layout create a false sense of security. Lack of technical awareness: Many users, especially the elderly or digitally untrained, do not verify URLs or SSL certificates. Mobile vulnerabilities: On smartphones, it is harder to verify URLs or identify suspicious design elements, increasing the risk. Fake online forms are distributed through various channels such as, Email: Classic phishing messages with embedded form links or HTML forms. SMS and WhatsApp: Messages pretending to be from banks or delivery services. Social media ads: Fraudulent job applications or survey forms offering cash rewards. Search engine ads: Paid ads leading to cloned websites with fake forms. Fake Apps: Android APKs that simulate government portals or service providers. The CloudSEK investigation shared above shows the extreme consequences of falling for fake online forms. For a common user, the aftermath of submitting data to a fake form can be devastating. The victim may suffer, Financial loss: Fraudsters use banking information and OTPs to drain funds. Identity theft: Aadhaar, PAN, and other personal data can be misused to open fraudulent accounts or commit crimes. Loss of privacy: Sensitive information can be posted online or sold on the dark web. Targeted attacks: Stolen data can be used to create more convincing scams in the future. This brings us to the most important question about how users can protect themselves from becoming a victim of fake online forms. Here are a few suggestions... 1. Verify the source Always double-check the source of a message or form. Never click on links received from unknown senders. If you receive a form link claiming to be from your bank, go directly to the official website or call customer support. 2. Inspect the URL Look closely at the website address. Watch for misspellings, extra characters, or incorrect domains (e.g., .net instead of .com). Legitimate government and bank websites generally use secure (HTTPS) connections and known domain names. For example, the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, uses a .sbi, a generic top-level domain (gTLD) for online banking. Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the banking regulator has asked all banks in the country to use an exclusive domain, bank.in to curb phishing attacks and online impersonation. 3. Avoid sharing sensitive data via links Legitimate companies and financial institutions, including banks, rarely ask for personal data or credentials through email, SMS, or online forms. Be suspicious of any form requesting Aadhaar numbers, OTPs, or passwords. 4. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) Enable MFA on all accounts, especially financial ones. Even if your password is compromised, an additional authentication mechanism can prevent misuse of your account. 5. Educate yourself and others Awareness is key. Stay updated about the latest scams and share information with friends and family, especially those less tech-savvy. 6. Use security tools Install good antivirus and anti-phishing browser extensions. They can warn you if you land on a malicious site. 7. Report suspicious forms Report fake websites and forms to CERT-In, your bank, or the platform where you found the link (e.g., Google, Facebook). Quick reporting helps in taking down fraudulent pages. The use of fake online forms to steal personal data is a rapidly growing menace in the digital world. With cybercriminals deploying increasingly convincing techniques that mimic trusted brands and institutions, even the most cautious users can fall victim. However, awareness, vigilance and the right digital hygiene practices can provide a strong defence against such scams. For every form you fill out online, ask yourself: Is this request genuine? A few seconds of verification can save you from months of financial distress, identity theft and emotional trauma. Remember, in the digital age, your data is your identityguard it with utmost care. Stay Alert, Stay Safe! Whatever you do, wherever you goyou will be a winner if you think differentlyand be different! You can begin being different when you are in high school, when you're in college, or when you have begun a working career. Some of us are people born with a 'questioning mind' and may end up with an attitude of 'destructive disobedience'to the great dismay of our parents, teachers and bosses! Others among us are also born with a questioning mind but with an attitude of 'constructive disobedience.' They are found welcome in the corporate world and are often encouraged by progressive organisations to become 'intrapreneurs'. That isact as if they are independent entrepreneurs (or businessmen) but work within the boundaries of the organisationand even with the support of the organisation. There is never a limit to how and when one can think differently. I was once stuck on the highway because I ran out of fuel. The fuel gauge of the car was not working. Fortunately, I was only 3km (kilometres) away from a petrol station and, more fortunately, I had an empty plastic can in the boot of the car which could be used to bring enough fuel to start the car. The petrol stations were forbidden from selling or lending cans. It was the government's attempt to curb the sales of 'loose fuel'. My son Samir, then 10, was with me and we managed to get a cab to the petrol stationbought four litres of fuel, paid the attendant and then found the can was leaking. There was a crack at the base of the can. Will the attendant help and loan us a can just for 15 minutes till we bring the car? No way. All our pleading was to no avail. 'But Dad, why don't we just seal the mouth of the can and turn it upside down? An obvious solution, which had not struck the pump attendant or me. That's what we did. We went back to the car and solved our problem! Samir had thought differently. He looked for a solution, rather than just moaning about a problem. In retrospect, it seemed so obvious and so simple. Always in retrospect! Samir is now an entrepreneur, running an event management company and still thinking on his feet! When you look around you, there are so many things that could be different, better, perhaps cheaper. I read in the Times of India some weeks ago about a US scientist who had used corn residues to develop a novel packaging film that could destroy Listeria monocytogenes, a rod-shaped bacterium that causes food poisoning in animals and humans. It is a biodegradable polyacid (PLA) film, from a renewable material. What a fantastic idea. Why didn't anyone think of this before? It is because Tony Jin of the US department of agriculture in Pennsylvania thought differentlyand thus made a difference to the US and to the world. And of course, there is a time and place for all new ideas. Many ideas are before their time, and therefore, do not create an impact. These new ideas must find fertile ground, so that the seeds will germinate and sprout and grow into plants. Would Amazon.com or eBay or Naukri.com or Shaadi.com have been a success, 15 or even 10 years ago, who knowsbut it is unlikely. It needed a certain population of computers and a certain population with a receptive mindset, to enable them to be a big success. These were great ideas which were delivered to us in palatable packaging just as we were hungry for them. And there are also some simple ideas that are practiced by street vendors, without the help or advice of marketing experts. There is a vendor with a portable stall or table at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, every morning between 6.30am and 9.30am, selling snacks and chilled drinks to the large crowds that come for a morning run to the park. At the end of the run, they crowd around his stall. He knows most of them by name. And he is at Shivaji Park again in the evening on the other side of the road, with his portable stall, with before and after drinks and snacks on the pavement outside the 'bar and rest'. Again, he knows most of his clientele by name and their likes and dislikes. Arun, the street vendor, brings creativity into his job, does things differently and thus brings success to himself. He is way beyond the other vendors in the area. This is always a 'tipping point'. It pays to think differentlyand be different. Going back to the Bible, where it mentions that out of 10 seeds sown, even if eight seeds fall on arable land and only two fall on fertile ground and these ideas succeed, they can help to change the immediate environment, or the community, or country and sometimes even the world! You may also want to read other articles written by the author. Here is the link https://moneylife.in/author/walter-vieira.html In a candid admission that underscores growing concerns within Indias defence establishment, air chief marshal (ACM) Amar Preet Singh on Thursday said that the country routinely signs defence contracts, despite being aware that the systems under procurement will not arrive on time. The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief made the remarks while addressing industry leaders at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025 in New Delhi. Timeline is a big issue, ACM Singh says, echoing his previous frustrations over missed deadlines and underperformance in the indigenous defence production sector. Not a single project that I can think of has been completed on time. Why should we promise something which cannot be achieved? Sometimes we know at the time of signing that its not going to come, yet we sign the contract, he added, calling for greater realism and transparency in Indias defence procurement processes. This isnt the first time the Air Force chief has flagged concerns. Nearly three months ago, he publicly criticised state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) over the delay in delivering Tejas Mk1A fighter jets. Under a Rs48,000-crore contract signed in February 2021, HAL was expected to begin delivery of the 83 light combat aircraft (LCA) from March 2024. However, not a single aircraft has been delivered so far. ACM Singh said the production delays have been exacerbated by a slow supply of engines from American manufacturer General Electric (GE), affecting HALs ability to meet deadlines. Deliveries of Tejas Mk1 are delayed. The prototype of Tejas Mk2 is yet to roll out. There is no prototype yet of the stealth AMCA fighter, he said. An accidental recording earlier this year also revealed the air chief expressing his lack of confidence in HAL, while seated inside an HJT-36 Yash as aircraft. I was promised that when I come here in February, 11 Tejas Mk1As would be ready. And not a single one is ready, he was heard saying. The air chiefs remarks come in the aftermath of Operation SindoorIndias four-day military campaign launched on 7 May 2025 in retaliation for the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives. Indian intelligence agencies have blamed the assault on Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, allegedly backed by elements of Pakistans military establishment. Lauding the operation as a 'national victory', ACM Singh said, This was an operation that was executed in a very professional manner by everybodyagencies and forces alike. We were taking the path of truth, and I think God was with us too. He credited the success of the operation to seamless coordination, saying, When truth is with you, everything happens on its own. He stressed that Operation Sindoor served as a wake-up call, offering clarity on the rapidly evolving character of warfare. Every day we are finding new technologies coming in. The character of war is changing. We need to realign our thought processes accordingly, he noted. Reinforcing the need for strategic autonomy under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the Air Force chief says the armed forces cannot afford to wait for indigenous manufacturing to catch up a decade from now. In 10 years, we may have more output from industry, but what we need today, we need today, he asserted. Calling for immediate action, ACM Singh urged the defence sector to fast-track 'Make in India' programmes that deliver capabilities now, even as longer-term 'Design in India' initiatives continue in parallel. He welcomed the governments decision to open the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) programme to private sector participation. The clearance of AMCA for private players marks a significant step. It shows the governments confidence in our private sector. This will pave the way for more meaningful industry involvement in the future, he says. The Air Force chief emphasised that the future of Indias defence ecosystem hinges on mutual trust and clear communication between the armed forces and industry stakeholders. We cannot just talk about producing in Indiawe need to talk about designing here too. We need both capability and capacity, he added. He urged industry players not to make unachievable promises. Once we have committed to something, we must deliver. The Air Force is doing its part to support Make in India, but we need industry to be in mission mode as well, he says. ACM Singhs forthright comments were echoed by other top officials at the summit. Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, chief of the naval staff, reiterated the importance of India's maritime growth and strategic geography. India is, was, and will always be a maritime nationnot just by design or geography, but also by destiny, he says. Defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh underlined the government's commitment to overhauling the defence manufacturing framework. Referring to efforts to streamline licensing processes and boost private sector participation, he says, Indias defence vision is intrinsically linked to Atmanirbharta, strategic autonomy, and our aspiration for a Viksit Bharat. As India aims to bolster its self-reliance in defence manufacturing, the air chiefs words strike a chord across the strategic spectrum. With adversaries rapidly modernising their military capabilities and the character of conflict constantly shifting, delays in defence procurement could have serious consequences for national security. The message from the top is clear: the time for slow processes and unmet promises is over. Indias armed forces need not just promises, but timely delivery and trusted partnerships to remain battle-ready in a world of unpredictable threats and fast-evolving warfare. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced plans to issue fresh guidelines aimed at curbing mis-selling of financial products and services by regulated entities (REs), including banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). The initiative comes amid growing concerns over unethical practices where consumers are misled or coerced into buying products, they neither need nor fully understand. According to the RBIs annual report for 202425, the central bank has acknowledged the need for suitable guidelines to address mis-selling of financial products and services by REstheir own as well as third-party offerings. The upcoming regulatory framework is expected to cover aspects such as product suitability, customer disclosure, and the roles and responsibilities of REs while distributing third-party financial products like insurance or investment schemes, the central bank says. Mis-selling has remained a persistent issue in Indias financial landscape, particularly as banks and NBFCs increasingly act as intermediaries for third-party products. In many cases, customers, especially senior citizens or rural borrowers, have been pressured into signing up for services that are unsuitable or carry hidden charges. RBI's move aims to enforce greater transparency and accountability in such transactions. During FY24-25, the central bank says, the office of RBI Ombudsman (ORBIOs) received 296,000 complaints, compared to 293,000 complaints during FY23-24, showing a marginal increase. "Complaints were mainly received against banks, followed by NBFCs, non-bank system participants and credit information companies (CICs). The majority of these complaints pertain to loans and advances and digital banking products." According to RBI, for FY25-26, its consumer education and protection department (CEPD) has identified three goals. It includes, "review of Reserve Bank-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021, including consumer education and protection cells, centralised receipt and processing centre and contact centre (Utkarsh 2.0), issuance of master direction on grievance redressal framework in REs and improve the complaint management system to better support the lodging of complaints and ensure greater consistency in decisions and outcomes." While RBI did not disclose a timeline for the release of the guidelines, the annual report indicated that the draft is under preparation and will likely follow the standard route of public consultation before being finalised. Read: Now, Bank FDs Sahi Hai!) As repeatedly pointed out by Moneylife, banks are hotbeds of mis-selling third-party products, mainly traditional insurance. We have come across innumerable cases where the banker encourages savers to put money from matured FDs into a traditional life insurance product, rather than renew the bank FD, because selling insurance earns them a hefty commission. Even public sector banks (PSBs) have high targets for selling insurance to boost their profits. ( Read: Insurance Cross Selling: Bank Officers Want Restriction on Targets, Pressure for Sales) As pointed out by Moneylife in 2018, the mis-selling of insurance policies by banks (bancassurance channel) is on the rise, thanks to high commissions and business links. Several banks have invested in life insurance companies and, hence, there is a push for selling policies to bank customers. However, bank officers are now demanding that top management be restricted from setting targets for bank employees to cross-sell insurance products to customers. ( Read: Moneylife Foundation memorandum to RBI on mis-selling by banks) After receiving numerous such complaints about banks cross-selling risky investment products, many of which are from senior citizens, in April 2013, Moneylife Foundation took up this issue with RBI. The memorandum asked RBI to free the system of mis-selling of financial products by bankers, misusing the savers' trust. ( Despite our efforts for the past several years, we have seen very little evidence on the ground of concrete action by the regulator to prevent institutionalised mis-selling of insurance and hybrid derivatives or to punish even egregious cases of unfair treatment of consumers. In one of its most extensive enforcement actions to date, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred 59 individuals and entities, including the company promoters, Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi and his wife, Maria Goretti from the markets for up to five years in connection with a coordinated pump-and-dump operation in the shares of Sadhna Broadcast Ltd, now known as Crystal Business System Ltd. SEBI also imposed a total penalty of Rs21.45 crore on these entities. The order, issued under Sections 11(1), 11(4) and 11B of the SEBI Act, outlines how Sadhna Broadcast promoters conspired to inflate the companys share price through false YouTube videos, structured trades and widespread retail misdirection before offloading their holdings at artificially high prices. SEBI has banned seven people from trading for five years and another 54 for one year. In a strongly-worded order, Ashwani Bhatia, whole-time member (WTM) of SEBI, says, "The overall conduct of the noticees has revealed a classic pump-and-dump scheme. The price was systematically pushed upward through collusive trading, followed by aggressive promotional activity to draw in retail investors, and finally, a coordinated sell-off by the promoters. The retail investors, misled by this staged market activity, were left holding the shares at distorted valuations once the manipulators that included the promoters had exited. The shares of SBL (now Crystal Business System) trade at around Rs2.60 per share against a peak of above Rs33 at the height of the pump phase. The fact that the company, without changing its object clause or stated business, has changed its name is indicative of attempts made by the promoters to cover their tracks." "The moot point from what we have seen is the manner in which the promoters brought down their shareholding at the cost of innocent retail shareholders, thereby making huge profits for themselves," Mr Bhatia says. "A question that needs to be asked of the promoters is why would any promoter, in their right mind, sell their holding if theirs was a well-managed and profitable company. The use of multiple YouTube channels to influence and mislead innocent investors in this case was well thought out by the perpetrators of the scheme or arrangement in connivance with the promoters. Such posts on social media would have led to emotional and spontaneous investment decisions. Not surprisingly, the number of retail investors jumped as a consequence thereof. In a way, the investors got caught in the crossfire and they only absorbed the liquidity on account of the distribution of shareholding by the promoters." "The events narrated in this order also paint a disturbing picture regarding the increasing use of social media platforms, which have immense reach and influence in the digital age, as tools for market manipulation. Paid advertising campaigns are undertaken through such platforms to reach a wide audience. These platformswhile benefiting from massive advertising revenuesappear not to have taken proactive steps in curbing such deceptive content. Given the magnitude of public money at stake and the growing trend of retail investors relying on social media for investment advice, it is imperative that these companies take greater responsibility for the material they host and promote. Their algorithms and monetisation models must not end up amplifying manipulation resulting in retail investors losing huge sums of money," the WTM added. The case originated from complaints received by SEBI in mid-2022 from a whistle-blower who alleged that misleading promotional videos had been uploaded to YouTube channels in a bid to lure retail investors into buying shares of Sadhna Broadcast. These videos falsely claimed that the company was the subject of a major takeover by the Adani group, had secured a Rs1,100 crore deal with an American company to produce devotional films and was set to become a multi-bagger stock. SEBIs investigation confirmed that the videos contained false and misleading information designed to influence unsuspecting investors. The regulator linked the content to a group of YouTubers and digital marketers, including Manish Mishra, Dipak Dwivedi and Vivek Chauhan, who collectively managed and operated several YouTube channels such as The Advisor, Moneywise, Profit Yatra, and Midcap Calls, among others. SEBI categorised these noticees as misleading message disseminators (MMD), net sellers or promoters and profit makers (NSs), volume creators (VCs) and information carriers (ICs). According to SEBIs findings, Manish Mishra, who was the MMD and VC, and his associates paid over Rs3.39 crore from personal and affiliated accounts towards Google Ads to boost the reach of these deceptive videos. Other connected individuals such as Purav Patel and Dipak Dwivedi also contributed Rs1.50 crore and Rs92.54 lakh, respectively to support the ad campaigns. "These efforts were highly successful, as many of the videos racked up millions of views within days. While retail investors flocked to purchase shares of Sadhna Broadcast, the accused group executed structured trades to inflate both price and volume, creating an illusion of demand," the market regulator observed. SEBI investigation further revealed that several promoter-linked entities and their associates sold massive quantities of shares at inflated prices during the period of heightened interest. SEBI identified the pattern of offloading across three key video promotion phases, with coordinated selling timed to follow each wave of deceptive content. Some of the largest beneficiaries of the scam included: Sadhna Bio Oils Pvt Ltd, which sold over 40 lakh shares worth Rs9.8 crore, Virtual Business Solution Pvt Ltd, which sold 20 lakh shares, and individuals such as Rajshree Goel, Sulabh Dikshit and Sunil Goel. Many of these sales coincided with videos being uploaded or heavily promoted online. Here are the names of key entities and individuals involved in the Sadhna Broadcast case, along with the profits they unlawfully earned through the pump-and-dump operation as determined by SEBI: Gaurav Gupta (Rs18.33 crore), Shreya Gupta (Rs3.28 crore), Saurabh Gupta (Rs17,602), Arpan Gupta (Rs7.39 lakh), Sadhna Bio Oils (Rs9.41 crore), Virtual Business Solution (Rs2.52 crore), Varun Media Pvt Ltd (Rs1.14 crore), Madhu Render Singh (Rs3.60 crore), Sulabh Dikshit (Rs1.50 crore), Pooja Aggarwal (Rs1.49 crore), Yogesh Kumar Gupta (Rs1.33 crore), Magnesh Bala (Rs1.18 crore), Rajshree Goel (Rs5.05 crore), Sunil Goel (Rs3.38 crore), Reena Goel (Rs7.70 lakh), Bhim Singh Chaudhary (Rs1.36 crore), Kavita Shah (Rs19.33 lakh), High Spirits Sales Agencies Pvt Ltd (Rs15.88 lakh), Chinnu (Rs10.53 lakh), Dipak Dwiwedi (Rs41.88 lakh), Swati Agarwal (Rs22.97 lakh), Mayank Kumar Agarwal (Rs21.38 lakh), Maria Goretti Warsi (Rs50.36 lakh), Arshad Hussain Warsi (Rs41.70 lakh), Aahuti Rasik Mistry (Rs57.83 lakh), Iqbal Hussain Warsi (Rs12.62 lakh), Heli Jatin Shah (Rs7.29 lakh), Karavan Tradelink OPC Pvt Ltd (Rs5.25 lakh), Angad Rathod (Rs5.64 lakh), Sachinkumar Bhagvandas Sahu (Rs4.18 lakh), Vijay Sureshbhai Udhani (Rs24.85 lakh), Ayushi Udhani (Rs2.31 lakh) and Krunal Chavda (Rs1.69 lakh). Some individuals and entities were noted as participants in the manipulation scheme but either did not trade or earned negligible profits and were not assigned a specific profit amount in the SEBI order. Using detailed analysis of call records, common addresses, WhatsApp conversations, trading data and KYC documents, SEBI was able to link the activities of the individuals involved and classify them into four main roles: those who created and disseminated misleading messages, those who offloaded shares (net sellers-NSs), those who executed trades to simulate volume (volume creators-VCs), and intermediaries who coordinated among the other groups. The manipulation spanned from March to November 2022 and was split into six time periods, each marked by either a spike or crash in the share price of Sadhna Broadcast, directly influenced by the groups activities. The share price rose dramatically from Rs2.55 to Rs33.15 between March and October 2022 before collapsing, hitting lower circuits on multiple consecutive days as the fraudulent interest vanished. SEBI's data showed that retail investors bore the brunt of the losses as those behind the manipulation exited with significant profits. In total, over 1.6 crore shares were offloaded during the key promotional phases, yielding gains exceeding Rs33 crore for the perpetrators. In its final order, SEBI held that the 64 named individuals and entities had violated the SEBI Act and the SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices Relating to Securities Market) Regulations, 2003. The regulator not only imposed a monetary penalty totalling Rs21.45 crore but also barred the individuals from accessing or associating with the securities market, some permanently and others for fixed durations. Prominent among those penalised and barred are Manish Mishra, Vivek Chauhan, Dipak Dwivedi, Shreya Gupta, Subhash Agarwal, and multiple promoter-linked entities and shell companies. SEBI imposed penalties on several individuals and entities involved in the Sadhna Broadcast market manipulation case. Gaurav Gupta was fined Rs1.6 crore, Shreya Gupta Rs28 lakh, Saurabh Gupta Rs2 lakh, and Arpan Gupta Rs6 lakh. Sadhna Bio Oils Pvt Ltd faced a penalty of Rs82 lakh, while Virtual Business Solution Pvt Ltd and Varun Media Pvt Ltd were fined Rs22 lakh and Rs10 lakh, respectively. Madhu Render Singh was penalised Rs31 lakh, Sulabh Dikshit and Pooja Aggarwal Rs13 lakh each, Yogesh Kumar Gupta Rs11 lakh, and Magnesh Bala Rs10 lakh. Promoter-linked individuals Rajshree Goel and Sunil Goel were fined Rs44 lakh and Rs29 lakh, respectively, while Reena Goel was fined Rs67,000. Bhim Singh Chaudhary received a penalty of Rs12 lakh, Kavita Shah Rs1.7 lakh, and High Spirits Sales Agencies Pvt Ltd Rs1.4 lakh. Chinnu was fined Rs92,000, Dipak Dwiwedi Rs3.7 lakh, Swati Agarwal Rs2 lakh, and Mayank Kumar Agarwal Rs1.9 lakh. Maria Goretti Warsi and Arshad Hussain Warsi were fined Rs4.4 lakh and Rs3.6 lakh, respectively. Aahuti Rasik Mistry faced a penalty of Rs5 lakh, Iqbal Hussain Warsi Rs1.1 lakh, Heli Jatin Shah Rs64,000, and Karavan Tradelink OPC Pvt Ltd Rs46,000. Angad Rathod was fined Rs49,000, Sachinkumar Bhagvandas Sahu Rs36,000, Vijay Sureshbhai Udhani Rs2.2 lakh, Ayushi Udhani Rs20,000, and Krunal Chavda Rs14,000. Seven individualsGaurav Gupta, Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Subhash Agarwal, Peeyush Agrawal, Lokesh Shah, Jatin Manubhai Shah, and Manish Mishrahave been restrained from the securities market for five years. The remaining 52 entities, including Mr Warsi and his wife Ms Goretti, have been barred from markets for one year. Additionally, proceedings against three noticeesNeha Aggarwal, Kishansinh Mansinh Rajput and Paresh Dhirajlal Shah were disposed of without any directions. The case marks a major precedent in tackling digital-era stock manipulation and sets a benchmark for regulatory vigilance in the face of tech-driven market abuse. In its concluding remarks, the regulator noted that the coordinated actions of these noticees had severely damaged investor confidence and market integrity and reiterated the need for public awareness and caution when relying on unverified financial advice online. This action reinforces SEBIs message that the use of digital platforms to mislead investors and manipulate markets will be met with stringent consequences. The crackdown is expected to serve as a deterrent to others who may seek to misuse technology for illicit gain in the securities market. Chinese military urges U.S. to stop fanning flames on Taiwan question Xinhua) 10:03, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday urged the U.S. side to stop fanning the flames on the Taiwan question, stressing that such behavior would only backfire. Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to reports of U.S. military commanders' groundless accusations against Chinese actions related to Taiwan. Taiwan is part of China. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, which brooks no external interference, Zhang reiterated at the press conference. "For the cross-Strait situation, there is no factor more destabilizing than the provocations made by the 'Taiwan independence' separatists and the disruptions by foreign forces," Zhang said. It is legitimate, necessary, lawful, and justified for the Chinese side to take actions to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Zhang told reporters. Responding to reports of the U.S. side building up its military presence against the so-called "China's threat," Zhang noted that mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation are the right path for the two countries to engage with each other. "The U.S. side should stop conjuring up a 'powerful enemy' for itself, whether intentionally or unintentionally," Zhang said. "Such imagination is irrational and extremely dangerous." The Chinese military will make all-out efforts to enhance its combat readiness and firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, the spokesperson added. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A week after U.S. House Republicans passed President Donald Trumps budget priorities, members of Iowas congressional delegation are doubling down on their support for it, including reductions to Medicaid spending. Dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the legislation, which passed the House 215-214, includes a $625 billion reduction in spending on Medicaid, a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for some people with limited income. These changes include placing work requirements on Medicaid benefit recipients, meaning able-bodied adults aged 19-64 without dependents would need to work, volunteer or go to school for 80 hours a month in order to maintain benefits. The current bill is expected to decrease Medicaid enrollment by 10.3 million, according to estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. That number includes 58,084 Medicaid recipients in Iowa, according to the CBO. All four of Iowas Republican U.S. representatives voted for the bill. Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, was met by boos, jeers and heckling during a pair of town halls Wednesday in northeast Iowa over her support of the bill. Constituents at the town halls shared concerns about access to Medicaid and other health care, funding cuts to university research, and Hinsons support of President Donald Trumps policies. Hinson decried what she called fear-mongering about the House-passed reconciliation bill. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Hinson highlighted the importance of using town halls to correct misinformation and discuss the administration's agenda with constituents. I had a question from a woman who is on Medicaid, for example, and was concerned that her benefits could be going away, Hinson said. She heard, you know, some misinformation about that. This bill exempts those who are medically frail and disabled. And so if you are legitimately getting these Medicaid benefits, you have nothing to worry about. If you're a 29-year-old man choosing not to work, sitting on the couch in your mom's basement, then you're going to have to have a conversation about getting a job if you want to continue to take a government benefit. Changes to revenue and spending White House officials say the sprawling tax bill is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to cut spending, fuel growth and level the fiscal footing of the American economy. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, posted to X arguing the CBOs calculations rely on an accounting gimmick. Income tax rates from the 2017 tax cut are set to expire in September. They were always planned to be permanent, Miller wrote. CBO says maintaining *current* rates adds to the deficit, but by definition leaving these income tax rates unchanged cannot add one penny to the deficit. The bills spending cuts REDUCE the deficit against the current law baseline, which is the only correct baseline to use. Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for Trade and Manufacturing, argued in an op-ed published by The Hill, that CBO and other forecasts fail to account for the bills contributions to economic growth and debt reduction, and claims that tariffs could generate substantial revenue. Remember here a key goal of Trumps fair-trade policies is to shift the U.S. tax base from one primarily reliant on income taxes to one that, with the vision of the new External Revenue Service, is also supported by tariff revenues, Navarro wrote. Consider, then, the impacts on the CBOs projected revenue shortfall of just the modest 10% global baseline tariff Trump recently put into effect." Such a tariff, depending on consumer response and enforcement, should generate between $2.3 trillion and $3.3 trillion in additional revenue over the ten-year forecast period, according to Navarro. Economists widely dispute Navarro's figures, considering them vastly inflated, as the tariff tax base is smaller than the income tax base, tariffs can reduce demand and thereby reduce tax revenue and retaliatory tariffs would hurt exports and overall tax revenue. Miller-Meeks speaks on vote Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks defended her vote for the big beautiful bill during a media availability with fellow Republican congressman Jim Jordan, of Ohio. Jordan was in town for a fundraiser for Miller-Meeks campaign Thursday morning at the Rhythm City Casino in Davenport. We voted to preserve and strengthen Medicaid. Had we not done that, the trajectory of Medicaid spending is unsustainable, Miller-Meeks said. What we have done are very common-sense reforms to the expansion population, having community engagement requirements for able-bodied adults." Miller-Meeks said Democrats are exaggerating coverage losses. If someone is not doing community engagement, if they're at home, receiving Medicaid, or receiving SNAP, and they are not either for 80 hours a month at work, looking for a job, in an educational program or volunteering, and they are a person without disabilities without raising dependent children, they aren't mentally ill, they aren't on a substance abuse program, they're not raising a dependent adult -- if they're not doing some community engagement, they may lose coverage, but that's their choice to lose coverage. Iowa Democrats respond But Democrats are stressing that the reduction in Medicaid spending is predicted to block access to health care for many Iowans. Democratic State Rep. Megan Srinivas, of Des Moines, who is a physician, said the cuts will hit nursing homes in the state, adding that 50% of patients in nursing homes have Medicaid as their primary payer. Issues facing facilities including bed availability, inspections and staffing shortages will only be exacerbated under the bill, Srinivas said. Medicaid in our state is not just integral for health care, but because of the reaches into maternal health, nursing homes, mental health, children's health, she told reporters Thursday during an Iowa Democratic Party press call. With these Medicaid cuts, we're endangering that ability for them to get the health care they need and the health care they deserve. The cuts could also impair access to labor and delivery care when Iowa is seeing an increase in maternal healthcare deserts, she said. Fifty-seven percent of Iowa counties dont have an obstetric facility and over the past 20 years, 40 birthing facilities have closed across the state, according to the American Medical Association. The cuts to Medicaid could also limit health care accessibility for Iowans in rural areas of the state, said Democratic Crawford County Supervisor David Muhlbauer, a farmer and board member of the Manning Regional Healthcare Center. Muhlbauer said the health care center is having tough conversations and Medicaid cuts could put them in a dire financial situation while they are already facing challenges dealing with managed care organizations. It really puts us in limbo, because we can't really make a plan going forward strategically of what services best fit our community and our needs, because we don't know what funding is going to be there, Muhlbauer told reporters Thursday. Medicaid funding cuts could really decimate our rural hospitals and the abilities that we provide for services. Wesley Longhofer, associate professor of organization and management in the Goizueta Business School, has been named the new senior director of Emory Universitys Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE) effective July 1, 2025. Longhofer succeeds Eric Weeks, current CFDE director and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics, who led the center for seven years and is returning full-time to the faculty. I am delighted to have Wesley step into the role of senior director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and assistant vice provost for faculty affairs, says Pearl Dowe, vice provost for faculty affairs and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Political Science and African American Studies. His leadership in research, teaching and public scholarship has advanced our understanding of how business can be a force for good. As director of the CFDE, he will foster deeper faculty collaboration and innovation, drawing on his expertise in organizational sociology, environmental sustainability and global systems. I am grateful to Eric for his thoughtful leadership and unwavering support of our faculty. His contributions will have a lasting impact on the CFDE and the broader Emory community. Since Longhofer joined Emory in 2012, he has been committed to engaging students and faculty in teaching, research and professional development. He is the recipient of the Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Marc F. Adler Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and was named one of the 40 Best Business Professors Under 40 by Poets & Quants, the leading business school publication. In his new role, Longhofer will oversee programs that support faculty in Emorys nine schools across all stages of their careers. Among its offerings, the CFDE provides personalized consultations, workshops, funding and resources on teaching, research and professional growth. Its comprehensive approach makes it a central hub for advancing faculty success in scholarship, pedagogy and community engagement. Im truly excited about this opportunity, says Longhofer. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Ive always felt at home with the CFDE its been a place Ive turned to with questions and found community. What makes the center so unique is its commitment to serving faculty from every school. That kind of inclusive, university-wide support is rare, and its what sets the CFDE and Emory apart from peer institutions. For the last five years, Longhofer served as the executive academic director of Goizuetas Business & Society Institute, which addresses challenges such as inequality and climate through research and business-oriented programming and policies. He hopes to introduce some of those innovative approaches to enhance the CFDEs programming and impact. Many of the centers programs were on display during the inaugural Teaching and Learning Showcase on Friday, April 25. During the event, faculty shared teaching projects, research, course designs and teaching and learning strategies, all of which were facilitated through CFDE offerings, including community-engaged learning grants, teaching fellowships, writing retreats and the public scholarship advancement fund. Longhofer plans to continue those successful, core programs while he and the CFDE team find new ways to include more faculty. There are wonderful resources within the CFDE, and I am looking forward to getting more of the professional schools and Oxford College involved because we are here to help all faculty, regardless of title, rank, department or campus, as they search for meaning and purpose in their own scholarship and teaching, he says. ATLANTA Emory Johns Creek Hospital has received its second Magnet designation for its continued commitment to nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program. Additionally, the hospital was designated Magnet with Distinction, a recognition of the highest-performing Magnet organizations around the world. Emory Johns Creek Hospital is one of eight Magnet facilities within Emory Healthcare, and one of 14 in Georgia. Less than 10% of U.S. health care organizations have achieved Magnet recognition. Receiving our second designation from the Magnet Commission along with Magnet with Distinction is a huge, phenomenal feat for our nurses, interdisciplinary team and the entire hospital, says Heather Redrick, BSN, RN, chief nursing officer and chief operating officer at Emory Johns Creek Hospital. Our patients who come into Emory Johns Creek Hospital should know that when they walk through our doors, that our nurses are top in the nation; that our hospital, our quality of care, the excellent service that we provide, is top in the in the nation, and that they are getting world class care right here in their community. achieved 80% or greater number of registered nurses who have earned a baccalaureate or higher degrees in nursing higher degrees in nursing outperformed the benchmark for registered nurse satisfaction/engagement on 81% of its inpatient units outperformed the benchmark on fall prevention, hospital-acquired pressure injuries and central line infections on 100% of its inpatient units outperformed the benchmark on patient experience for care coordination and patient education on 100% of its inpatient units, as well as patient education, courtesy and respect and careful listening in 100% in the outpatient/ambulatory settings During a virtual call with an ANCC representative, Emory Johns Creek Hospital was commended for its quality patient care through innovations in professional nursing practice, including recognition of 13 exemplars, or standards of excellence. Some of the items recognized include: Magnet recognition is a gold standard for nursing excellence and is often a factor when the public evaluates health care organizations. U.S. News & World Reports annual issue of Americas Best Hospitals includes Magnet recognition in its ranking criteria for quality of inpatient care. This Magnet designation means we, as a hospital, are focused on the quality of care we provide to our patients, says Sara Patrick, DPN, MSN, RN, director of the Magnet program and nursing clinical excellence at Emory Johns Creek Hospital. Nursing is central to excellent patient outcomes. We are successful because we have strong relationships with our physicians, interprofessional team members and nurse leaders which create the culture where nurses can deliver that excellence of care, leading to us having better patient outcomes. Research demonstrates that Magnet recognition provides specific benefits to health care organizations and their communities, such as: higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availability of help and receipt of discharge information lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue rates higher job satisfaction among nurses lower nurse reports of intentions to leave their positions Emory Johns Creek Hospital consistently demonstrates excellence in nursing professional practice, and we are so proud of this second Magnet designation and Magnet with Distinction for this team, says Sharon Pappas, PhD, RN, chief nurse executive for Emory Healthcare. They have followed the Magnet model for nurses to succeed in the workplace from decision making to practicing with professionalism and autonomy to advancing nursing science creating an excellent environment for nurses to grow and thrive. When we follow what Magnet prescribes, it makes care better for patients because of this foundation for nurses. To achieve Magnet recognition, organizations must pass a rigorous and lengthy process that encourages widespread participation from leadership and staff in demonstrating how Magnet program standards are met. This process includes an electronic application, written documentation, an on-site visit and a review by the Commission on Magnet Recognition. Health care organizations must reapply for Magnet recognition every four years based on adherence to Magnet concepts and demonstrated improvements in patient care and quality. About ANCCs Magnet Recognition Program The Magnet Recognition Program administered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the largest and most prominent nurses credentialing organization in the world identifies health care organizations that provide the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. The Magnet Recognition Program is the highest national honor for nursing excellence and provides consumers with the ultimate benchmark for measuring quality of care. For more information about the Magnet Recognition Program and current statistics, visit www.nursingworld.org/magnet. The Ministry of Finance on Friday said it has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ensure that the needs of small gold loan borrowers are not affected by the central bank's proposed new rules on lending against gold as collateral. The ministry, in a post on social media platform X, said that the Draft Directions on Lending Against Gold Collateral issued by the RBI have been reviewed by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the guidance of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The DFS has shared its suggestions with the RBI and asked the central bank to make sure that the new rules do not make it difficult for small borrowers to get gold loans. These borrowers often depend on small-ticket loans to meet urgent personal or business needs. The post said "@DFS India has given suggestions to the @RBI to ensure that the requirements of the small gold loan borrowers are not adversely affected". The finance ministry also said that these new guidelines may require time to be implemented properly at the ground level. Therefore, the DFS has suggested that the RBI implement the new directions from January 1, 2026. To further protect small borrowers, the ministry has proposed that those taking loans below Rs 2 lakh should be kept out of the new requirements. This, it said, would help ensure faster and smoother disbursal of small gold loans. The RBI is currently getting feedbacks from stakeholders on the draft guidelines. The Finance Ministry said that it expects the RBI to carefully consider the concerns raised by various stakeholders and suggestions from the public before finalising the rules. The Reserve Bank of India released draft guidelines to harmonise regulations for loans against gold as collateral. These rules apply to banks, cooperative banks, and NBFCs. RBI said loans against primary gold or bullion remain prohibited. The draft mandates standardised procedures for assaying gold, setting a maximum Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio of 75 per cent for consumption loans, and capping bullet repayment loans to 12 months. It restricts re-pledging and mandates clear documentation, borrower consent for surprise audits, and compensation for delays or collateral loss. RBI aims to ensure transparency, reduce risks, and protect borrowers, especially through stricter auction norms and mandatory borrower communication. (ANI) PRNewswire Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 30: OTM has once again been recognized as the leading travel trade show in both India and Asia, according to a comprehensive custom market research study commissioned by Fairfest Media and conducted by NielsenIQ, the leader in consumer intelligence. This recognition, for the second consecutive year, underscores OTM's continued leadership in the travel exhibition landscape. The latest study, conducted among travel industry professionals who attended multiple travel shows in 2025, revealed even higher satisfaction scores and stronger performance metrics compared to the previous year, with OTM decisively outperforming other major shows across the region. The customised study, commissioned by Fairfest Media and conducted by NielsenIQ, the leader in consumer intelligence, indicated that travel industry professionals who attended multiple trade shows in the region once again identified OTM as a leading travel trade show in India and Asia. The comprehensive custom survey, commissioned by Fairfest Media, evaluated 15 international travel trade shows across Asia and 19 regional shows in India. The study found a 'significantly higher quantum of respondents stating OTM to be the leading show at a National & Asia level', outperforming other major shows, including ITB Asia and SATTE. Overwhelming Industry Recognition The extensive 2025 study revealed: * Among professionals who participated in or visited 2 or more shows in India, 55% recognised OTM as the leading national show * Among those who attended multiple shows in Asia, 52% ranked OTM as the top show across Asia OTM has played a crucial role in major business transactions, with the majority of the attendees saying they made purchase decisions within 3 months of attending the event. Mr. Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman & CEO of Fairfest Media, commented: "At Fairfest Media, we're deeply committed to delivering measurable ROI for our exhibitors and visitors, which is why we commissioned this comprehensive custom study conducted by NielsenIQ. The consecutive recognition of OTM in the study confirms that OTM continues to set the standard for the industry, in India and globally. As we prepare for OTM 2026, we remain focused on further enhancing the experience and business outcomes for all participants." Future Growth Opportunities The study also identified expansion opportunities that will guide OTM's future development: * Travel professionals expressed interest in seeing increased representation from the Americas (particularly USA and Brazil), Europe (with emphasis on Switzerland and the Nordic countries), and Asia (especially Singapore and Turkey). * Enhanced conference programming has been identified as an opportunity area for future development. The comprehensive custom survey evaluated travel trade shows across Asia and regional shows in India. Countries covered in the customized study (conducted by NielsenIQ and commissioned by Fairfest Media) included India, Singapore, Egypt, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Maldives, Tanzania, Greece, Philippines, Russia, Netherlands, Vietnam & Republic of Korea. The population covered in the study includes exhibitors and visitors of travel trade shows. The total usable database of visitors shared with NielsenIQ by Fairfest Media was over 32,000, and of exhibitors was over 2,832. The sample size was overall (N=211); exhibitors (N=56), and visitors (N=155). The sampling method was online, purposive sampling. The next edition of OTM is scheduled for 5, 6 & 7 February 2026 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. Based on current projections and the strong satisfaction metrics from the 2025 event, OTM 2026 is expected to further strengthen its lead in both the country and the region. About OTM and Fairfest Media Limited OTM, organised by Fairfest Media Limited, is the leading travel trade show in Asia and India. Each year, it brings together a global network of exhibitors, buyers, and travel industry professionals to connect, showcase innovations, and generate business opportunities. Fairfest Media also organises TTF-branded travel shows in 7 Indian cities, making it the largest travel trade show organiser in India. As the leading travel show organiser in the region, Fairfest continues to shape the future of travel in the world's fastest-growing market. About NIQ NielsenIQ (NIQ) is a leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behaviour and revealing new pathways to growth. NIQ combined with GfK in 2023, bringing together two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. Our global reach spans over 90 countries, covering approximately 85% of the world's population and more than $7.2 trillion in global consumer spend. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights--delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms--NIQ delivers the Full View. For more information, please visit www.niq.com Media Contact Sandrine Clarac Director - Marketing and International Sales Fairfest Media LimitedPhone: +91-2245558555 Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2698957/FAIRFEST_OTM_Jio_World.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) Backed by APSEZ's strong financials and a 'AAA/Stable' domestic credit rating, the issue locked in a competitive coupon rate of 7.75 per cent per cent, and was fully subscribed by LIC, the Adani Group company said in a statement. Debentures are long-term financial instruments that companies issue to raise more money from investors. The debentures will be listed on the BSE. The Adani Group company claimed that the NCD issue shows APSEZ's deep access to long-term capital from diversified sources at attractive pricing and significantly enhances APSEZ's debt maturity profile. It added that the transaction highlights APSEZ's access to domestic markets for its longest tenure issuance to date, and one of the longest in Indian capital markets history. The proceeds will fund a proposed buyback of APSEZ's US Dollar bonds, pending board approval on May 31, 2025. A full subscription would extend the average debt maturity significantly longer, from 4.8 years to 6.2 years. "This isn't merely a financing exercise; it's a proactive execution of a meticulously developed Capital Management Plan for APSEZ, focused on maintaining conservative leverage, extending the debt maturity profile, lowering cost, and diversifying funding sources. This plan is designed to support APSEZ with its long-term vision to become the world's largest integrated transport utility," said Ashwani Gupta, Whole-time Director and CEO, APSEZ. APSEZ has set a target of handling 1 billion tonnes of cargo by 202-30, more than 2x the 2024-25 number. APSEZ has seven strategically located ports and terminals on the west coast and eight on the East coast, representing 27 per cent of the country's total port volumes. This extensive network provides capabilities to handle vast amounts of cargo from both coastal areas and the hinterland. Beyond India, the company is developing a transhipment port at Colombo, Sri Lanka, and operates the Haifa Port in Israel and Container Terminal 2 at Dar Es Salaam Port, Tanzania, significantly enhancing its international presence. (ANI) PNN New Delhi [India], May 30: ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital, a young and fast-growing wealth management firm, has raised INR 1 crore in seed funding from a group of family offices. This marks the company's first external raise. The funds will be dedicated to help ILIOS 72 in business expansion and expanding its presence beyond metros along with increased access to overseas markets. This funding is a significant milestone in ILIOS's journey to upgrade their technology platform, making it easier for clients to track portfolios and discover new opportunities. Further, the funding will enable ILIOS 72 to open a new office in Jaipur, where the team sees strong potential and a gap in quality financial advice. The funding will also be utilised in expanding the team to bring more research-backed investment ideas to a wider audience. Commenting on the fund-raise, Shivansh Sabharwal, Co-Founder, ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital, said, "We started ILIOS 72 in 2025 with a bold vision: to reshape how Indian families access and engage with alternative investments. In just a short time, we've built a research-led, client-first platform that stands apart in both philosophy and execution. This seed round is a testament to the trust we've earned and the team that's consistently delivered beyond expectations." Valmik Iyer, CFA and Co-Founder, ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital, opined, "ILIOS 72 is built to redefine wealth management, not as a transactional service, but as a trusted, research-led platform that empowers families to grow and protect their wealth. By combining access to private markets, global opportunities, and deep research within an open-architecture model, we have created a simple yet powerful way for clients to invest with clarity, confidence, and long-term purpose." A big part of ILIOS 72's mission is to make private markets more inclusive. Today, many of the investment opportunities come with steep minimums, making them inaccessible to most. The firm is working to lower those barriers and give more people the tools to build real wealth. Founded in 2025, ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital is a new-age wealth management platform redefining access to alternative investments for the long-term Indian investor. The '72' in 'ILIOS +72 Alternative Capital' represents a symbol of the firm's mission. 72 is the longitude of Mumbai and 'long' in finance means 'to buy'. In financial terms, to 'go long' means to invest, so 'Long Mumbai' becomes 'Long India', which implies 'Buy India'. And the company's primary goal is to channel overseas capital from global family offices into India's growth story. With over 100 clients already on board, including several prominent business families, ILIOS 72 is now focused on scaling responsibly, without losing sight of its core values. The company has a strong track record of managing large amount of assets for family offices and HNI/UHNI clients in their previous roles and a proven track record of transacting in the private markets that attracted the investors. The fund raise comes at a moment of major change in India's financial landscape. Wealth is growing, more families are learning about long-term investing, and the demand for personalized, research-driven advice is rising fast. That's where ILIOS 72 sees its role, not just as a service provider, but as a long-term partner for families navigating new financial opportunities. At its core, ILIOS 72 is about doing things differently. The firm operates on an open-architecture model and puts client outcomes ahead of sales goals. Compensation within the team is tied to how well client portfolios perform, not how much is sold. About ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital: ILIOS 72 Alternative Capital is a new-age wealth management platform redefining access to alternative investments for the long-term investor. The company helps individuals and families access alternative investments, from marquee listed equity strategies to private equity to venture capital to overseas investment opportunities, through a transparent, research-led approach. The firm is focused on building long-term wealth, not short-term wins. Website: https://ilios72altcap.co.in (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) Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], May 30: CARE Hospitals is proud to welcome Dr. Nagireddi Nageswara Rao, a distinguished Clinical Director & Senior Consultant - Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (MICS) & Heart Transplantation, to its flagship unit at CARE Hospitals, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. With a stellar career spanning decades in cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Nageswara Rao is widely respected for his clinical expertise in adult cardiac surgery, minimally invasive procedures, heart transplantation, and the use of ventricular assist devices. His leadership will further strengthen CARE's mission to deliver world-class cardiac care and consolidate its position as a premier destination for advanced heart surgeries and transplants. Dr. Rao brings to CARE Hospitals extensive experience in complex coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), valvular surgeries, thoracic procedures, and cutting-edge MICS techniques. He is also credited with performing the first LVAD (HeartMate III) procedure in the Telugu states, marking a major milestone in the region. His proven track record in high-risk surgeries and transplant success rates places him among the top cardiac surgeons in India. At CARE Hospitals, Banjara Hills, Dr. Rao will lead the development of a Center of Excellence in Cardiothoracic Surgery, integrating next-generation technology, evidence-based protocols, and a multidisciplinary heart team approach to deliver superior clinical outcomes. Expressing his vision, Dr. Nageswara Rao said, "CARE Hospitals has always been at the forefront of advanced medical care. I am excited to join this exceptional team and contribute to building a state-of-the-art heart center that focuses on precision, innovation, and compassion for every patient." Welcoming Dr. Rao, Biju Nair, Zonal COO, CARE Hospitals, stated, "Dr. Nageswara Rao's joining marks a significant step in expanding our cardiac services. His vast experience and leadership will be instrumental in elevating CARE Banjara Hills into a center of excellence for cardiac surgery and transplant care in India." With Dr. Rao's induction, CARE Hospitals aims to set new benchmarks in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, transplants, ventricular assist device implantation and complex cardiothoracic interventions, reinforcing its commitment to clinical excellence and patient-centric care. For consultations with Dr. Nagireddi Nageswara Rao, appointments can be scheduled at CARE Hospitals, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. About CARE Banjara Hospital Located in the heart of Hyderabad, CARE Banjara Hospital is the flagship tertiary care hospital of CARE Hospitals Group. With nearly three decades of legacy in delivering exceptional clinical outcomes, the hospital is a center of excellence across multiple specialties, including cardiac sciences, critical care, oncology, organ transplants, and robotic surgeries. CARE Banjara Hospital continues to pioneer innovations that bring world-class healthcare closer to the community. (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) PNN New Delhi [India], May 30: "As Tier 2 and 3 cities evolve into key hospitality centers, they're not only boosting local economies but also providing travelers with immersive cultural experiences that are distinct from the saturated metropolitan landscapes." - Deeksha Suri. For years, hospitality in India was synonymous with big cities and popular tourist destinations, leaving tier 2 and 3 cities overlooked in the race for luxury and service excellence. These smaller cities were often dismissed as mere transit points or secondary markets, lacking the infrastructure and allure of metropolitan hubs. However, the narrative is rapidly changing. Today, tier 2 and 3 cities have emerged as thriving centers for hospitality, driven by rising disposable incomes, improved connectivity, and evolving traveler preferences. Deeksha Suri, executive director of Lalit group discusses this transition, positioning tier 2 and tier 3 cities as future hospitality hot spots. The Rise of Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities in Indian Hospitality The Indian hospitality industry is undergoing a significant transformation, with Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities emerging as key growth hubs. This shift is driven by several factors, including the economic expansion and rising affluence of India's middle class. As these smaller cities become economic centers, supported by industrialization and government initiatives promoting tourism, they are attracting both business and leisure travelers. The growing disposable incomes of the middle class have made these cities appealing destinations, offering unique cultural experiences that are distinct from the more saturated metropolitan areas. "Once the hallmark of bustling cities and grand hotels, hospitality is now finding its soul in the charm of smaller towns and quaint destinations. As Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities step into the spotlight, they're proving that world-class experiences don't need skyscrapers--just a warm heart, a rich culture, and a dash of local flavor." Says Deeksha Suri. Travelers today are increasingly seeking personalized, culturally rich experiences, which Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities can offer due to their unique heritage and local flavor. Cities like Ayodhya, Jaipur, Vrindavan, and Siliguri are gaining recognition for their cultural significance and tourism potential. This demand for authentic experiences is complemented by a shift away from major metropolitan areas like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru, which have reached saturation in hotel development. The pandemic highlighted the resilience of hotels in smaller cities, as they sustained better occupancy rates compared to urban centers. This resilience has encouraged hospitality brands to explore untapped markets in these regions. The growth in corporate travel, weddings, and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions (MICE) activities is another significant driver of demand in these cities. This has led to higher Average Daily Rates (ADR) and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR), making them lucrative markets for hotel investments. Major hotel brands are aggressively expanding into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The majority of new hotel openings are concentrated in smaller cities, reflecting the industry's confidence in these emerging markets. To support this growth, initiatives are underway to equip local talent with hospitality skills tailored to regional needs. Programs like the Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council (THSC) and various platforms are training professionals to meet the specific demands of the local hospitality industry. Deeksha Suri opines, "As professionals return to their hometowns, a reverse migration trend is unfolding, where the hospitality sector becomes a beacon of opportunity. Smaller cities offer a double advantage: lower real estate costs allow hotels to thrive with competitive pricing, while their resilience during economic downturns--thanks to lower operational costs and steady domestic demand--makes them a haven for sustainable growth." The fusion of business travel with leisure, known as "Bleisure," is also gaining popularity in these cities, offering unique opportunities for hotels to cater to diverse traveler needs. Despite the promising growth trajectory, challenges such as infrastructure limitations and talent gaps remain significant hurdles for hospitality development in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. However, ongoing investments and skill development programs are addressing these issues progressively. As these regions continue to evolve, they are poised to redefine the future of Indian hospitality by offering a blend of cultural richness, affordability, and authentic travel experiences. (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 New Delhi [India], May 30: Artificial Intelligence (AI), which was once seen as a futuristic concept, is now invading the decision-making processes of finance. Due to robust AI development methodologies used by a well-known AI development company, Nadcab Labs, AI algorithms can now be capable of processing and examining a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data accurately in real-time, which is far beyond human capabilities. This inspires the financial institutions to become faster, smarter, and more efficient. Evidently, today's financial environments demand more than basic automation. It requires adaptive, learning-based intelligence, and it is only possible with advanced AI development. Hence, Nadcab Labs is playing a key role in the renovation of AI solutions to navigate financial sectors for long-term gains. The founder of Nadcab Labs, Aman Vaths, has also stated in this regard, "We're living in a time where finance is changing fast, and honestly, it has to. It's no longer just about big spreadsheets or quick transactions. It's about being smart, staying ahead of risks, and protecting people's trust. That's why our AI development experts are working diligently to put forward cutting-edge solutions for real-world use cases, such as fighting against cybercrimes and fraud." For long-term success, financial firms need more than just performance. And AI-driven solutions by Nadcab Labs that deliver both sustainable growth and digital security serve the purpose perfectly. Nadcab's AI Solutions Triggering Scalable Financial Operations They are fundamentally redesigning the way financial services operate. Now, financial firms are implementing AI algorithms that can evolve on the way, learn from new inputs, and make rigorous decisions across a wide range of applications. From credit risk assessment and portfolio management to predictive analytics and client onboarding, they are simplifying financial operations while increasing accuracy at the same time. Long-term Gains Through Predictive Insights The powerful capability to predict is one of the major advantages that Nadcab Labs offers through their AI services. And the best part of the predictive capability of AI is the assistance it provides to financial companies to forecast future outcomes, instead of just entirely relying on historical trends. These predictions encourage financial leaders to make proactive decisions that align with long-term objectives. The Cybersecurity Imperative in AI-Based Finance AI is now being deployed as a key weapon in the cybersecurity arsenal. Through behavioral analytics, AI algorithms monitor network activity in real-time, detect unusual behavior, and flag threats long before they turn into breaches. This includes everything from phishing attempts and insider threats to ransomware and automated bot attacks. Moreover, by recognizing deviations from normal behavior, AI systems developed by Nadcab Labs act as digital sentinels, constantly learning and adapting to stay one step ahead of attackers. Financial institutions are also using reliable AI development services for fraud detection, especially in high-risk areas like mobile banking, wire transfers, and card transactions. AI as a Growth Engine and Risk Guardian As we look forward, the role of AI in finance will only deepen. All this is possible through the dedication and hard work of industry-leading companies such as Nabcab Labs. Their contribution is accelerating the adoption and application of thriving AI algorithms for real-world challenges. Financial sectors that embrace this change now will not only secure short-term wins but also position themselves as future-ready leaders with sustained growth. For more information related to AI development and AI development services, visit www.nadcab.com. Media Contact Aman VathsFounder, Nadcab LabsEmail: info@nadcab.comPhone: +91 7985202681 Social Media Linkshttps://linktr.ee/nadcablabs Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2595209/5109428/Nadcab_Labs_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) IndiGo and Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (BIAL) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to build its own Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) infrastructure.Under the agreement, Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport will allocate around 31 acres of land to IndiGo for the development of MRO infrastructure to support the airline's expanding fleet."Partnering with BIAL underlines our shared commitment to drive long-term growth of the aviation ecosystem in Bengaluru and cement its status as, of the best and world-class international hubs in India.....we see this collaboration as a pivotal step towards building a significant global presence for IndiGo, as well as for India," said Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo. "We have had a very successful, long-term relationship with IndiGo, and this collaboration further strengthens our association with the airline," said Hari Marar, MD & CEO, Bangalore International Airport (BIAL). "This is a strong validation of the growth potential of BLR Airport and the City of Bengaluru as a premier aviation hub. The partnership reinforces our commitment to developing world-class aviation infrastructure and enhancing BLR Airport's role as India's premier aerospace and MRO hub," he added.Additionally, the partnership will also assist each other in various areas, including network expansion, infrastructure development, and joint marketing initiatives. IndiGo anticipates that the airline will surpass 600 aircraft in its fleet by 2030. It has joined hands "with Norse Atlantic Airways for the dry lease of six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, deliveries of which will be completed by early 2026, anticipating the arrival of the A350 in 2027."IndiGo has earlier announced the commencement of long-haul operations with non-stop, direct flights connecting Mumbai with Manchester and Amsterdam starting July 2025. Furthermore, the release also said that, "as IndiGo's fleet of damp-leased B787S expands later this year, the airline is planning to expand its long-haul network to London and Copenhagen."There are plans by the airline to add four new domestic destinations to its network, which will increase connectivity from 91 to 95 destinations. IndiGo is all set to become the first airline to start operations at the Navi Mumbai International Airport and the Noida International Airport in Jewar.At a press briefing, the CEO of Indigo highlighted that Indigo's loyalty program has already signed up 3 million members in just six months."The financial year 2025 has been a pivotal year in our journey as we took significant steps in our evolution into a truly global airline. This includes the introduction of IndiGoStretch, our tailor-made business offering, and BlueChip, our loyalty program, besides sizeable network expansion in the domestic as well as international market," Pieter Elbers said. (ANI) BusinessWire India New Delhi [India], May 30: In a world driven by narratives, visuals, and digital conversations, Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC), Dwarka, New Delhi, stands as a beacon of excellence -- shaping the next generation of storytellers, journalists, and media visionaries. For over two decades, AIMC has not only kept pace with the media revolution but has often been ahead of the curve, setting standards that others aspire to match. Recognised Among the Best Mass Communication Colleges in India Consistently ranked No. 1 in Delhi among private media institutes by India Today-MDRA and The Week-Hansa Research Survey for five consecutive years, AIMC has earned its place among the best mass communication colleges in India. From winning the Platinum Icon Award by Dainik Jagran INEXT to being conferred with the Best Media Institute in North India title during the 4th Asia Pacific Education and Technology Summit & Awards 2022 jointly organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Education Post at Hotel Taj Vivanta, Goa. AIMC's excellence is consistently recognized by top educational institutions and media surveys. These accolades are not merely rankings -- they are a reflection of AIMC's deep industry engagement, robust academic vision, and unwavering commitment to student success. Founded on Vision, Grown with Purpose Established in 2003 under the visionary leadership of Mrs. Sushma Paul Berlia, Chairman, Apeejay Education, AIMC was conceived as more than an institute -- it was designed to be a catalyst for transformation. Today, AIMC is synonymous with credibility, career-readiness, and cutting-edge pedagogy in the media landscape. Curriculum That Mirrors Industry, Shapes Leaders AIMC's programs aren't theoretical ivory towers. Every course is crafted with precision to mirror the realities of the media industry -- from the newsroom and the edit bay to campaign strategy and content innovation. Whether it's journalism, advertising, PR, digital media, content creation, or television production, AIMC offers an ecosystem where students learn by doing, thinking, failing, and rising -- much like the real world they're preparing to enter. Industry-relevant tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro, Mac Studios, and drone-based visual storytelling are integrated into the learning experience from day one. Niche subjects like OTT Management, Data Management and Backpack Journalism are included in the curriculum and teaching practices. Faculty That Inspires, Mentors That Guide The real hallmark of AIMC lies in its human capital. Led by Director Prof. Sajal Mukherjee, an acclaimed media strategist and academician, the faculty includes some of the finest minds from journalism, filmmaking, public relations, digital content, and brand communications. These are mentors who bring industry intensity into classrooms and prepare students not just for jobs -- but for leadership roles. Proven Placement Success AIMC's alumni speak for themselves. From leading newsrooms like NDTV, Zee News, India News, and The Indian Express, to global communication giants such as Burson, Ogilvy, McCann Erickson, Adfactors PR, Wunderman Thompson, and Josh Talks, AIMC graduates are driving change and commanding respect. This robust placement record is not by accident -- it's the outcome of rigorous training, professional mentoring, and real-world readiness. Flagship Initiatives Shaping Future Media Leaders AIMC's emphasis on experiential learning is reflected in its hallmark courses and events. The 21-day Industry cum Academic Orientation familiarizes students with the ground realities of the media world through interactions with media professionals, thinkers and leaders. The International We Care Film Festival, organized in association with UNESCO and the UN Information Centre, is dedicated to disability rights and inclusion. Media Chaupal, Brand Culture Gully, Meet the Author, and Meet the Filmmaker are some of the events that give students different spaces to interact with issues of the real world, creativity, and inter-disciplinary thinking. Special Lecture Series and the in-house journal AIMC Byline further endorse AIMC as a complete media education campus. These initiatives help develop critical thinking and an independent thought process amongst students, making them highly skilled and emotionally intelligent media professionals. Infrastructure That Powers Ideas AIMC differentiates itself from most others due to its unparalleled infrastructure. The institute boasts a High Definition Television Studio set up for multi-camera shoots, a fully equipped Radio Studio, and Photography Studio. A Press Room dedicated to the craft of press conferences, Video Editing suites, and Advertising Labs that house Adobe Creative Suite that make the students proficient with state-of-the-art tools. The institute also has a Drone and Mac Studios. Smart classrooms, large amphitheater, 500-seater auditorium, and state-of-the-art conference hall provide the backdrop for a thriving learning environment. The 24*7 digital library boasts an invaluable collection of audio-visual materials, journals and national and international authors. A Launchpad for the Visionaries of Tomorrow If you aspire to shape public discourse, influence opinion, create content that moves minds, and build a career that resonates across platforms -- AIMC is where it begins. As one of the best mass communication colleges in India, AIMC combines academic depth with practical breadth, creating graduates who are ready for everything the modern media world demands -- and more. Admissions Now Open Take the first step towards a fulfilling and future-proof career in media. Visit www.apeejay.edu/aimc or call +91-9910-222-777. Be curious. Be creative. Be AIMC. Where voices rise, and stories begin. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 30: Nikkhil K Masurkar, CEO of Mumbai-based ENTOD Pharmaceuticals, has been appointed as the Vice Chairperson of the R&D and Innovation Committee of the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) for the term 2025-2026. The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, India's largest pharmaceutical industry body, represents over 1,100 member companies, with a majority being Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Speaking on the occasion, Masurkar expressed his deep sense of responsibility and commitment, "It is an absolute honour to be entrusted with this role. I look forward to cultivating a robust culture of pharmaceutical R&D across India. Our vision is to spark an innovation wave that empowers MSMEs to become the vanguard of India's pharma growth story." Under the dynamic leadership of Chairperson Sanjiv Navangul (MD & CEO, Bharat Serums & Vaccines Ltd), and alongside an esteemed committee, Masurkar has pledged to help mobilise collaborative initiatives that promote research-led development, facilitate strategic engagement with scientific institutions, and accelerate the innovation momentum among MSMEs. The committee's efforts align with the Government of India's bold vision of expanding the pharmaceutical industry to $450 billion by 2047, a goal that will require transformative contributions from research-driven MSMEs. "India's pharmaceutical future rests on innovation, and MSMEs have the agility and drive to lead this transformation. Through targeted support, strategic partnerships, and a national innovation ecosystem, we aim to unlock their full potential," Masurkar added. The R&D and Innovation Committee of IDMA plays a vital role in shaping R&D policy recommendations, fostering academia-industry linkages, and advocating for regulatory reforms that strengthen India's position as a global pharmaceutical powerhouse. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by ENTOD Pharmaceuticals. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same.) VMPL New Delhi [India], May 30: In a rapidly evolving online furniture market, one brand is quickly gaining traction with Indian shoppers looking to furnish their homes in style and comfort-- Sofa Set Furniture. Known for its elegant, functional, and affordable range of home furniture, Sofa Set has become a go-to destination for modern buyers seeking premium quality without a premium price tag. Here are five key reasons Sofa Set Furniture is emerging as a top choice among online furniture shoppers: 1. Modern Aesthetic Meets Everyday Function Today's shoppers expect more than just looks--they want furniture that works for their lifestyle. Sofa Set delivers on both fronts. The brand's designs reflect a clean, modern aesthetic that works across Indian homes, whether it's a compact city apartment or a spacious suburban house. Among the standout offerings is the sofa come bed category, which combines space-saving utility with stylish design. These versatile pieces are ideal for urban living where functionality is key and every square foot counts. 2. Unmatched Product Variety for Every Room Unlike many niche furniture brands, Sofa Set provides a complete solution for home interiors. From sophisticated living room centerpieces to compact storage solutions, its product catalog is as diverse as the needs of Indian households. The brand's signature Sofa Set collection is a clear fan favorite, featuring everything from plush three-seaters to contemporary sectionals--all crafted with durable frames, premium upholstery, and a commitment to comfort. For customers seeking to upgrade their entryway or living room aesthetics, the console table options strike the perfect balance between elegance and practicality. 3. Affordable Luxury with Frequent Discounts Sofa Set has carved a niche by offering affordable luxury--premium-quality products at prices that don't feel inflated. Limited-time discounts and frequent sales across collections make luxury furniture more accessible to middle-class buyers, without compromising on material quality or design sensibility. The brand's pricing strategy reflects an understanding of Indian consumers who seek value over hype. Flash sales on pieces like bedsides, ottomans, and signature sofas routinely offer up to 60% off, helping budget-conscious buyers create luxurious spaces on a smart spend. 4. Smooth Online Shopping Experience Sofa Set's digital-first approach eliminates the typical hassles associated with furniture shopping. With a clean, mobile-optimized website, rich product visuals, and detailed descriptions, users can confidently browse, compare, and order right from their phone or laptop. Add to that free delivery, easy returns, and a responsive customer support team--Sofa Set's online buying experience is designed for convenience and trust. The brand has received high marks for its personalized service, with many buyers praising quick guidance over WhatsApp and smooth coordination during delivery and installation. 5. Quality, Comfort & Customization At its core, Sofa Set focuses on crafting furniture that people actually want to live with--pieces that feel as good as they look. Whether it's a lush velvet sofa or a sturdy wooden bed frame, every item is made with attention to detail and user comfort. The customization options offered across several collections let shoppers personalize their furniture to match their home's vibe--be it fabric choices, color preferences, or functional upgrades. For example, its range of mattresses caters to a spectrum of comfort needs, ensuring restful sleep tailored to individual preferences. What Customers Are Saying The customer feedback speaks volumes. "They made it so well that the look of my living area changed and it was beyond my expectations," wrote one buyer on Sofa Set's site. Another shared, "After endless searching, I found the perfect set online. The customer support team was incredibly helpful and patient." With glowing reviews on quality, support, and delivery speed, Sofa Set is earning loyalty and trust with every transaction. Final Word In a crowded market of online furniture sellers, Sofa Set is standing out for all the right reasons--design innovation, reliability, affordability, and genuine customer care. For shoppers looking to elevate their homes without the stress of in-store shopping or budget blowouts, Sofa Set offers a compelling alternative. As more Indian consumers embrace the convenience of e-commerce, brands like Sofa Set are leading the way by reimagining what furniture shopping should feel like--modern, easy, and built around the customer. (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 ambitious Dharavi Redevelopment Project, a unique slum rehabilitation project that aims to provide housing for all, received approval from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis this Wednesday. The proposed master plan is an attempt to build on the existing characteristics of Dharavi and create a world-class district for Dharavikars and reimagine a new heart for Mumbai. The Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) is a unique opportunity to transform the lives and 'live-work' conditions of Dharavikars aiming for a higher quality of life with great infrastructure and public amenities. As per the Dharavi Master Plan, it is being built on the foundation of three guiding principles: driving economic change through redevelopment, building resilient ecology and infrastructure, and fostering an equitable Dharavi. It will have an interconnected network of green and public spaces, ranging from large city parks to smaller community playgrounds, ensuring every resident can access vibrant, walkable open areas. This network shall strengthen ecological resilience and enhance Dharavi's quality of life every day. A large active public open space is being planned in the centre of Dharavi, which will not only serve the recreation needs of the residents but also of Mumbai city at large. This space will be a place where Dharavi and Mumbai residents can come together for celebrations and festivals. Dharavi shall be transformed into a highly transit-oriented development with seamless multi-modal connectivity, including a new metro corridor through its core. Bus feeder systems, dedicated infrastructure for non-motorised transport, and a fine-grain street network shall enhance last-mile connectivity and promote walkability across all neighbourhoods. At the heart of Dharavi, a Multi-Modal Transit Hub (MMTH) is planned around the fact that it would have the first-ever facility where inter-city, intra-city, suburban, metro, high-speed, and Airport express trains could be accessed, as well as city buses and other city transport, all at one location. This integrated hub shall connect Metro, rail, buses, feeder services, and non-motorised transport infrastructure, enabling efficient transfers across all modes in north-south-east-west directions. Those in transit can come to Dharavi, check in their bags, for flights later in the day, either from Mumbai or Navi Mumbai, and spend the day at various facilities at the MMTH. The MMTH, through underground elevators, escalators, and subways, shall provide 24x7 retail facilities, restaurants, cafes, and shopping, office and Hotel spaces, and Connectivity to Central Avenue. The Dharavi project will also have accessible social amenities. A clear hierarchy of social infrastructure shall be embedded within walkable neighbourhood nodes, ensuring every resident is within easy reach of schools, healthcare, and community facilities. These nodes shall also include open spaces and transit access, fulfilling the city's diverse needs. Residents can reach their nearest amenities within 5 to 15 minutes on foot. A state-of-the-art hospital network will be set up in Dharavi and other MMR locations along with polyclinics, first-aid centres and diagnostic facilities across Dharavi. This will eventually bolster the medical infrastructure in central Mumbai. The proposed waterfront development and Dharavi promenade - a linear open space is planned to make the river's edge accessible. The promenade shall be a place for people to come and enjoy the walks along the Mithi River and engage visually with the mangrove forest to the north. It will serve as a hangout space for young and old alike and encouraging people to come together, interact and socialise. This will potentially be the longest waterfront in the city after the Queen's Necklace (Marine Drive). The proposed road network includes widening of existing Development Plan (DP) roads and new networks of approximately 21Km road length. The proposed road network has varying right-of-way (ROW) widths of 9m, 12m, 15m, 18m, 21m, 24m, 27m, and 36m, each serving a specific purpose. A dense road network inside Dharavi will ensure that residents can commute using arterial routes without having to come on the main road. It ensures a well-connected network that links different neighbourhoods, promoting a balanced and inclusive transportation system. Dharavi's streets will be wide and interlinked every 125 metres. Besides everything, for the communities of different faiths, iconic religious complexes, which shall be of world-class standards, are being envisaged so that all the inhabitants of Dharavi will have access to a state-of-the-art religious complex catering to all faiths/religions near their place of living. (ANI) SMPL New Delhi [India], May 30: Foray in the much-needed application, a step forward for MRC Agrotech Ltd. with Vizexec Transformation Pvt. Ltd. for the agriculture sector. it is certainly an up-coming growth story that commenced with the handshake and commitment to a joint-work. A unique operational alignment of new generation sustainable approach and data interpretation with the help of satellite and tech with on-ground activation. On the occasion of finalising the path forward Ashokk Singh, CEO of MRC Agrotech ltd. says, "committed in carrying the company's vision in bring cost effective solution right in the hands of the farmers. And, steadfast mission to spearhead the development of an economical, sustainable, profitable, and scalable agriculture farming sector in India we have joined hands to work together to produce results." The tech craftmanship of Shailendra Jain the founder of Vizexec Transformation Pvt. Ltd. has pledge his life to bring easy solution for the farmers this time via, satellite-based crop monitoring paired with actionable recommendations, addressing key pain points starting from and with the farmers of Uttar Pradesh. Shailendra who has dedicated his life in the Tech Industry and providing solution easy to use for people at large says, "with MRC Agrotech he is looking forward to making the Tech and Solutions readily available for the farmers and no hardship in learning to operate the easy interface with no major cost implications." This collaboration shall help the farmers with tech solution for, Real Time Crop Health Monitoring, Optimized Pesticide and Fertilizer Application, Yield Forecasting and Planning, Water Resource Management, and in Support Sustainable Farming. The companies are schedule to start their pilot project at Basti, Uttar Pradesh with on-ground activation of the technology with more than 5,000 farmers right from educating about the usage and optimising the growth through satellite data analysis. It is certainly a "vision of the vision" right in the pragmatic hands of farmer who are, the providers of food. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by SMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) PNN Vidarbha (Maharashtra) [India], May 30: In a region once known for drought and farmer distress, Asmita Organic Farms is leading a quiet revolution--rooted in tradition, strengthened by technology, and driven by a profound sense of purpose. Founded by renowned urban development leader Muzaffar Hussain and his U.S.-educated entrepreneur son Mazhar Syed, Asmita Organic Farms has transformed acres of barren land in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region into a thriving model of regenerative agriculture using organic farming methods. Today, the farm supports hundreds of farmers, nurtures biodiversity, and produces ethically grown, fully traceable food consumed across urban India. "For far too long, food in India has come with vague labels and broken promises. At Asmita Organic Farms, we're building a movement--not just a brand--rooted in radical transparency, soil-to-shelf traceability, and respect for both people and the planet. This isn't about chasing trends; it's about reviving Indian farming wisdom, empowering our farmers with modern tools, and giving consumers clean, honest food they can trust. Our vision is to spark a quiet revolution--where every Indian knows their food's story and chooses nourishment that heals both body and earth," says Mazhar Syed, Co-Founder of Asmita Organic Farms. Spread across more than 150 acres, AsmitA Organic Farms is a model of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture. The farm grows black pepper, turmeric, ginger, black ginger, Khapli wheat, cinnamon, nutmeg, and bay leaves. It also cultivates four varieties of cashews, several types of tamarind, and 22 varieties of jackfruit. Trees such as bamboo, mahogany, silver oak, and kokum enrich the landscape. The orchards yield custard apples, sweet limes, oranges, coconuts, and cardamom bananas. A highlight is the mango collection, which features 15 premium varieties, including Gir Talala, Gujarat Kesar, Dussehri, and the rare Malihabad Chausa. The initiative operates on a farmer-first model, offering buyback guarantees, hands-on training programs, and access to high-quality organic inputs. Special emphasis is placed on gender equity, with dedicated programs to empower and train women farmers throughout the region. By leveraging precision farming techniques and AgriTech partnerships, Asmita integrates data-driven methods to optimize yields while protecting long-term soil health. The farm's clean-label product line, available in over 400 retail outlets across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Indore, features QR-coded biodegradable packaging--allowing customers to trace each item from soil to shelf. Asmita Organic's product portfolio--including monk fruit nut butters, brown rice crisps, and cold-pressed oils--is designed with both consumer health and environmental sustainability in mind. With a growing urban footprint and a deeply rooted rural mission, Asmita Organic Farms is redefining India's agricultural future--prioritizing transparency over trend, community over commerce, and purpose over profit. Website Link : https://asmitaorganicfarm.com/ (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) PNN Goa [India], May 30: Aralea Beach Resort, a premier property of Stone Wood Hotels & Resorts, is rapidly emerging as Goa's most sought-after destination for beach weddings, offering couples a perfect blend of luxury, natural beauty, and personalized service just right on the beach from the pristine shores of Morjim Beach. As the wedding season approaches, Aralea Beach Resort is enhancing its offerings to cater to the growing demand for beach weddings in Goa. The resort's beachfront mandap, which provides couples with a stunning backdrop of the Arabian Sea for their ceremonies, is being complemented with additional wedding amenities. The property's expansive lawns and elegant banquet hall are being reimagined with customizable decor options that reflect both contemporary trends and traditional elements, catering to intimate gatherings of up to 250 guests. The resort's 69 well-appointed rooms, offering either pool or lawn views, are being prepared to accommodate wedding parties with special amenities and services designed specifically for bridal parties and guests. The sea-view restaurant is expanding its catering menu to include more local Goan specialties alongside international cuisine, recognizing that culinary experiences have become a central element of modern wedding celebrations. Beach weddings have witnessed a significant surge in popularity, with Goa remaining India's premier coastal wedding destination. The combination of golden sands, spectacular sunsets, and the rhythmic sounds of waves creates an unmatched romantic ambiance that traditional venues cannot replicate. Aralea Beach Resort's location in Morjim offers couples the additional advantage of a less crowded, more exclusive beach setting compared to the more commercialized beaches in South Goa. "Goa's wedding market has evolved dramatically in recent years, with couples increasingly seeking immersive, experience-driven celebrations rather than conventional ceremonies," says Shikhar Kumar, Managing Director of Stone Wood Hotels & Resorts. "At Aralea Beach Resort, we've seen a 40% increase in beach wedding bookings over the past year alone, with couples particularly drawn to the intimacy and natural beauty of our Morjim location. The Goa wedding market is projected to grow by 25% annually, with beach venues like ours leading this transformation." Aralea Beach Resort is introducing customized wedding packages that embrace the growing trend of micro-weddings with high-end, personalized touches. The resort's wedding planning team has been expanded to include specialists in beach ceremony logistics, sustainable decor options, and immersive guest experiences unique to the Goan culture and landscape. "What sets Goa apart in India's wedding market is the perfect combination of natural beauty, cultural richness, and modern infrastructure," explains Abhijit Dey, Vice President Operations & Sales. "At Aralea, we're seeing couples book their beach weddings 8-12 months in advance, with a particular focus on creating authentic Goan experiences for their guests. From local cuisine showcases to beachfront cocktail ceremonies incorporating Goan traditions, couples are looking to give their guests a genuine taste of Goa while celebrating their union." Responding to the increasing demand for environmentally conscious celebrations, Aralea Beach Resort is implementing eco-friendly wedding practices that preserve the natural beauty of Morjim Beach. The resort has partnered with local artisans to create sustainable decor elements, reducing plastic use and incorporating reusable materials in wedding setups. These initiatives not only minimize environmental impact but also provide guests with authentic cultural touchpoints during the celebrations. The resort's proximity to Goa's Mopa Airport, just 30 kilometers away, has further enhanced its appeal for destination weddings, making it easily accessible for guests flying in from across India and internationally. This strategic location advantage has been a significant factor in the resort's growing popularity as a wedding destination, especially for couples based in major metropolitan areas looking for a coastal getaway wedding. Aralea Beach Resort is positioning itself as a catalyst for Goa's wedding tourism sector, which has become a significant contributor to the state's economy. By focusing on creating immersive, authentic Goan experiences within wedding celebrations, the resort is helping establish Morjim as a premier wedding destination that offers both luxury and cultural authenticity. About Stone Wood Hotels & Resorts Stone Wood Hotels & Resorts is a rapidly growing hospitality group offering unique stays and dining experiences across India. Established in 2017 with a 34-cottage resort in Mandrem, Goa, the brand has expanded to 16+ hotels and resorts across Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. With an inventory ranging from intimate boutique hotels with 30 rooms to luxurious beach resorts with up to 70 rooms, the group caters to leisure travelers, MICE events, and destination weddings. Known for its prime locations, Stone Wood properties include beachfront resorts, waterfront boutique stays, and nature resorts with adventure activities. The group also owns Spice Wood Cafe, a chain of restaurants offering flavorful culinary experiences, and some of Goa's most popular party destinations like Saz on the Beach and Slique Beach Club. Each property combines modern amenities, personalized service, and immersive local experiences, making every stay unforgettable. With upcoming projects in Jim Corbett, Tadoba, Chail, Mussoorie, and Coorg, Stone Wood Hotels & Resorts aims to expand its footprint to 50 hotels by 2030, driven by a commitment to exceptional hospitality, sustainable practices, and creating memorable experiences. Website: https://www.stonewoodresorts.com/ (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) New Delhi [India], May 30: Interrogation, the newly released psychological thriller now streaming on ZEE5, is fast becoming a word-of-mouth favorite among audiences who love intelligent, edge-of-the-seat cinema. With a sharp plot, intense performances, and unexpected twists, the film has struck a chord with viewers looking for something beyond the usual. Directed by Ajoy Verma Raja and produced by Piyush Dinesh Gupta under the banners Naam Mein Kya Rakha Hai and Aryan Brothers, the film brings together a powerhouse ensemble featuring Rajpal Yadav, Yashpal Sharma, Darshan Jariwala, Abhimanyu Singh, Girish Kulkarni, Rutuja Shinde, and introduces Manu Singh in a bold debut. A judge is murdered. Four suspects. And a chilling twist--each claims to be the killer. What begins as a routine investigation spirals into a psychological cat-and-mouse game where every confession deepens the mystery. Interrogation isn't just a whodunit--it's a ticking time bomb of secrets, lies, and mind games that keeps you guessing until the very last second. Audiences have taken to social media calling the film "a tightly-wound thriller that doesn't let go," and "a fresh, mind-bending take on the murder mystery genre." The smart use of confined spaces, sharp dialogue, and emotional intensity has made Interrogation a surprise streaming hit. While the film thrives on its ensemble strength, special attention has gone to actor Manu Singh, who makes a memorable debut as Vishal Parashar. Holding his own alongside veteran performers, Manu's performance is being noted for its subtlety and emotional weight. Without overshadowing the story, he brings a fresh energy that adds depth to the unfolding mystery. Producer Piyush Dinesh Gupta's vision in backing a content-forward film with a mix of known faces and new talent is being appreciated, with many applauding the team for delivering a rare combination of commercial appeal and artistic ambition. As viewership climbs, one thing's certain -- Interrogation is more than a thriller; it's a mind game packed with sharp storytelling and breakout talent. (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) As was widely expected, the Indian economy grew by 6.5 per cent in real terms in the recently concluded financial year 2024-25, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's official data showed on Friday. According to NSO's second advance estimates, the country's economy was projected to grow at 6.5 per cent in 2024-25. The Reserve Bank of India had projected 6.5 per cent GDP growth for the fiscal year 2024-25.In 2023-24, India's GDP grew by an impressive 9.2 per cent, continuing to be the fastest-growing major economy. According to official data, the economy grew 8.7 per cent and 7.2 percent, respectively, in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The Ministry of Finance, in a report in March 2025, anticipated that Indian economy would achieve a growth rate of 6.5 per cent in 2024-25, despite considerable external headwinds. The Finance Ministry monthly report added that the performance of the economy in the past quarters was driven by strong agricultural and service sector performance on the supply side and a steady increase in consumption and core merchandise and services exports on the demand side. The official GDP growth data for the January-March quarter was also released today. The economy grew 7.4 per cent during the quarter. During the April-June, July-September, and October-December 2024 quarters, the country's economy, in real terms, observed a growth rate of 6.7 per cent, 5.6 per cent, and 6.2 per cent, respectively. In a projection on Thursday evening, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that India is set to remain the fastest-growing large economy in the world for the next 30 years. At the CII annual event, Minister Goyal said the country has maintained a steady growth rate of 6-7 per cent and aims to push it further to 8 per cent at constant prices. He noted that despite global uncertainties, India remains one of the best-performing emerging markets. This February, the World Bank said India will need to grow by 7.8 per cent on average over the next 22 years to achieve its aspirations of becoming a developed country by 2047. However, the World Bank asserted that getting there would require reforms and their implementation to be as ambitious as the target itself. To realise the vision of 'Viksit Bharat', a developed nation dream by 2047, India will need to achieve a growth rate of around 8 per cent at constant prices, on average, for about a decade or two, the Economic Survey document for 2024-25 tabled on January 31 asserted. India has made quite a turnaround, climbing the ladder of economic growth. This can be gauged from the 11th in 2013-14, India has positioned itself to become the fourth largest economy. Even as India has overtaken many countries in terms of the size of the economy over the past decade, the per capita income in India remains very low. In 2013, India was placed in the league of 'Fragile 5' economies. The term 'Fragile 5' was coined by a Morgan Stanley analyst and refers to a set of five emerging countries, including India, whose economies were not doing well. The other four countries were Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey. (ANI) NewsVoir Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 30: On the occasion of World Interiors Day, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd., India's No. 1 fan brand, unveiled the SilentPro Fluido Wave--its latest innovation that blends high performance with design-forward thinking. With this launch, Crompton marks a new era of ceiling fans where form meets function, and design blends with performance. Crompton is redefining home design essentials by turning a functional product into a design masterpiece made with craftmanship. Today's consumers invest deeply in designing homes that reflect their personal style, often favouring minimalistic and contemporary aesthetics. They curate every element of decor to maintain a cohesive and visually pleasing space. However, most ceiling fans continue to serve as mere functional add-ons, failing to complement modern interiors. Consumers increasingly seek fans that deliver strong performance while blending seamlessly with their decor--enhancing the space rather than interrupting it. This shift in expectations has created a demand for thoughtfully designed fans that align with evolving tastes and reflect the growing importance of aesthetics in every aspect of the home. Crompton recognizes that innovation is no longer optional--it's essential. As homes evolve into curated expressions of individuality, Crompton leads the transformation of the category through SilentPro Fluido Wave. Inspired by nature's fluidity, every detail of the SilentPro Fluido Wave is sculpted to perfection, embodying the ethos of the campaign, 'Sculpted, Not Made.' Drawing from fluid motion and sculptural forms, the fan blends aerodynamic performance with Neo-Futuristic elegance. Designed to stir both air and emotion, the product introduces a new design language that flows into the future--reshaping expectations of what a ceiling fan can be. In a world where fluidic forms define architecture, fashion, and decor, this design goes beyond function--it stirs emotion. Crompton didn't want a replication of the ordinary; the idea was to craft a statement piece that is timeless, seamless, and expressive. With no visible nuts or bolts, every contour is intentional, every curve purposeful. Fluido isn't just about reimagining a fan--it's about owning the design space and redefining how fans complement today's curated, contemporary homes. Some of its defining features include: * 2X More Silent Performance: Engineered to deliver a noise-free experience, the SilentPro Fluido Wave is 2X more silent than any conventional fan--creating a serene environment that's perfect for work, relaxation, or quality time with family. * Aerodynamic Design: Inspired by fluidic motion, its sculpted blades ensure smooth airflow, minimizing noise while maximizing comfort. * Superior Air Delivery: Delivers powerful airflow at 230 CMM with a high-speed output of 320 RPM, ensuring fast and effective cooling. * Longer Motor Life: Designed to run 50% cooler, significantly increasing durability and operational longevity. * Powerful Motor: The new-age induction motor, built on the X-Tech platform, delivers powerful airflow, energy efficiency, and whisper-quiet operation--an innovation that perfectly complements the sleek design. * Premium ABS Body: Crafted from lightweight, corrosion-resistant material to ensure durability and easy installation. * Unibody Aesthetic: A seamless design with no visible nuts or bolts, engineered to support future tech integrations and maintain a sleek, clutter-free look. Speaking about the company's newly launched product, Mr. Rajat Chopra, Business Head - Home Electricals & Pumps, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. said, "Design has the power to add emotion, beauty and meaning, transforming how we experience everyday products. Where fans were once seen as purely functional, today they've become an extension of personal style and a key element of home decor. At Crompton, we've recognised this shift and are reimagining the fan category through a new design language inspired by the effortless flow of nature. With seamless, fluidic forms that reflect both movement and modernity, we're blending aesthetics with performance to create fans that don't just cool -- they elevate spaces. This marks a bold step forward in our journey to lead with innovation, where form and function come together in perfect harmony." The Crompton Silent Pro Fluido Wave fan has won the Red Dot Award 2025 in the 'Household Appliances and Household Accessories' category--an international symbol of design excellence. This recognition highlights our commitment to creating products that are both beautiful and functional. The collection is available in six different models such as: With a palette that complements diverse home decors, the Fluido range is available in elegant models designed to elevate the aesthetic experience: * Cinnamon Blush - A warm, earthy hue that brings understated elegance and richness to your space. * Conch Cream - Soft and soothing, it radiates simplicity and modern sophistication. * Fog Grey - A versatile neutral that blends seamlessly with contemporary interiors, offering a calm, composed vibe. * Matte Black - Bold and timeless, it adds a touch of modern luxury and contrast to minimalist setups. * Sheesham Wood - Evoking rustic charm, it reflects natural textures and organic beauty. * Snow White - Crisp and clean, it brightens any room while adding an aura of serenity and spaciousness. With Fluido, Crompton has redefined what a ceiling fan can be. It marks a bold new chapter in the category--capturing the essence of Neo-Futurism and directly responding to the modern consumer's desire for products that merge form with function. As homes continue to evolve into curated spaces of self-expression, Crompton's Fluidic Fans stand as a testament to the power of thoughtful design. This is not just a product launch--it's a design revolution. Fluido isn't made. It's sculpted--a perfect fusion of performance, aesthetics, and purpose. The Crompton SilentPro Fluido Wave is now available in six new models across India. It is available at all Crompton authorized retail outlets and leading e-commerce platforms. Price details are mentioned below. With a brand legacy of over 85 years, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. is India's market leader in the category of fans and residential pumps. Over the years, the organization has continuously strived to produce a range of innovative products that cater to the modern consumer including superior quality and high-performance fans, pumps, lighting solutions and a range of other categories like water heaters; air coolers; small kitchen appliances like mixer grinders, air fryers, OTG, electric kettles etc.; other home appliances like irons & built-in kitchen appliances. The company has further invested in brand and innovation to not only better understand and meet consumer needs, but to also help drive energy efficiency. The consumer business also has a well-established and organized distribution network driven by a strong dealer base across the country offering a wide service network and robust after sales service to its customers. The company's consistent dedication to developing energy-efficient products has led to significant recognition. It has been honored with three prestigious National Energy Consumer Awards (NECA) by BEE, Ministry of Power. The recent award was presented by the Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu for the company's storage water heater in 2023. In 2019, the brand won in two categories: Ceiling Fans and LED Bulbs. Additionally, it was recognized as one of India's Best Managed Companies 2022 by Deloitte Private and listed among 'India's Top 500 companies 2022' by Dun & Bradstreet India. The company has also been featured in Brand Top 75 most valuable Indian brands list for 2020 released by WPP and Kantar. Furthermore, Crompton was also recognized as the Brand of the Decade 2021 by Herald Global and BARC Asia in the Consumer Electrical category. (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 30: Submitting a health insurance claim might sound overwhelming if you are already in the midst of an illness or recuperating from your stay in a hospital. However, with a little foresight and the correct information, all of this can be managed seamlessly, without you having to run to collect papers or make phone calls. This guide aims to take you through the process step by step in a clear and simple manner for both cashless claims as well as reimbursement claims. Now, let us look at both routes (cashless claims and reimbursement claims) and how an ACKO insurance simplifies both without the hassle. Understanding What's Covered and What's Not Before you even think about filing a claim, it's important to know what your health insurance policy includes and excludes. Policies have limits, beyond which they cannot go. Sometimes, certain treatments aren't included, and you might have to wait before receiving help for specific conditions. Also, remember to scan the list of hospitals linked to your insurance company. This step is necessary if you'd like to process your claim without cash. A hospital in the insurer's network is the only place you can use a cashless service. If you require surgery in advance or in an emergency, select a hospital from the list given here. It will prevent you from wasting your time, being short of money and dealing with a lot of paperwork. Cashless Claims Cashless claims are a blessing when handled right. You don't have to run around collecting bills, you avoid paying huge sums upfront, and the insurer settles the eligible amount directly with the hospital. Step 1: Reach Out Early The moment you know that you will be admitted to a hospital, or if it is an emergency and you go to the hospital, inform the insurance desk at the hospital. You will have to directly contact the Third-Party Administrator (TPA) or your insurance company. They will send you a pre-authorisation form, which is basically asking you if you give permission for the claims process to begin. In the current phase, you will be required to show your Cashless Health Card and an ID proof. Step 2: Get Approved and Admitted As soon as your pre-authorisation form is arranged, the insurer has to check all of the details, after which it will send the requisite approval to the hospital. In short, this means treatment can begin, and you would not have to worry about the payments at least for the treatment and its associated expenses. Reimbursement Claims Sometimes, you might end up getting treated at a hospital that's not in your insurer's network. In such cases, a reimbursement claim is your go-to option. The idea here is simple: you pay the bills, submit the documents later, and the insurer refunds the amount as per the policy. Step 1: Inform Your Insurer It also makes sense to let your insurer know when you are hospitalised even if you are sure that you would want to make a claim for reimbursement later. This would assist in establishing documentation and expedite the process of assessing claims at a later stage. Maybe email or call them to register the event. Step 2: Gather and Organise All Documentation If you are discharged, please ensure that you have collected all documents. These are the claim form duly filled, hospital bills, discharge summary and prescriptions, diagnostic reports and payment receipts. This paperwork will become the basis of your case. This is where it gets a little easier, well, most insurances nowadays allow you to download your claim form straight from their website. Step 3: The Bills After Hospitalisation Also, remember that post-hospitalisation treatments are also covered by many policies. Save and submit these bills. Certain insurers may ask for a fitness certificate or follow-up reports, too. Once all this is aligned, your claim gets approved in a few weeks and the eligible payout is directly credited in your bank account. Selecting the Right Insurer Your insurer often shapes your experience during a claim. Some companies offer quicker processes, fewer documentation requirements, and better support. For example, ACKO General Insurance offers health policies with zero waiting periods, 100% bill payment on approved claims, and the convenience of a fully digital process. Wrapping Up Filing a health insurance claim doesn't have to be confusing or frustrating. The key lies in knowing your policy, staying organised, and keeping your insurer in the loop right from the start. Whether it's a planned hospital visit or an emergency, these steps can help you get through the claims process without feeling overwhelmed. Remember, your health insurance is there to support you, not add to your worries. A little preparation can make all the difference when you need it the most. (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) VMPL Gurugram (Haryana) [India], May 30: FNP Venues, India's leading luxury wedding venue brand under the Ferns N Petals group, has announced the grand launch of Udman Square, an exclusive multi-venue destination designed to elevate the wedding and social events experience in Gurugram. Strategically located behind The Leela Hotel at Ambience Island, NH-8, Udman Square is set to become a hub for high-end celebrations, offering a cluster of four thoughtfully designed venues - The Ritz, Club Riviera, Raffles, and Riviera House. With The Ritz and Club Riviera already operational and Raffles and Riviera House slated to open soon, Udman Square promises to provide a seamless blend of luxury, design, and world-class hospitality, catering to weddings, receptions, cocktail parties, and corporate functions ranging from 200 to 1500 guests. Vikaas Gutgutia, MD and Founder at Ferns N Petals, said: "With Udman Square, we aim to redefine the luxury event experience in the heart of Gurugram. Each venue has been conceptualized not just as a space, but as a canvas for unforgettable memories. Our goal has always been to innovate, inspire, and offer unmatched elegance -- and this project reflects that vision at its best." Positioned as a one-stop destination for upscale events, Udman Square stands out with its attention to detail, valet parking for over 1,000 vehicles, customizable decor themes, and easy accessibility from Delhi NCR. The venues are designed to suit both grand and intimate events, making it a versatile choice for discerning clients. With this launch, FNP Venues further strengthens its presence in the Delhi NCR region, now operating 13 luxury venues across Gurugram, Chattarpur, Rajokri, and Greater Noida. About FNP Venues FNP Venues, a unit of Ferns N Petals, is a leading name in India's luxury wedding and events industry. Known for its bespoke decor, expansive venues, and unmatched service standards, the brand caters to all types of celebrations -- from weddings and engagements to social and corporate gatherings. For more information, visit: www.fnpvenues.com (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) NewsVoir Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 30: As India's philanthropic landscape matures, a quiet revolution is underway-one that goes far beyond chequebooks and charity events. Social Venture Partners India (SVP India), a network of over 750 compassionate individuals across eight major cities, is reshaping how we give. SVP India's model of 'engaged philanthropy' reflects a deeper, more strategic way of giving: combining financial support with time, expertise and networks to transform grassroots NGOs into high-impact organisations. According to Bain & Company's India Philanthropy Report 2024, India's ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) are becoming more strategic in their giving. But beyond the top tier, even working professionals and mid-level donors are seeking deeper engagement. SVP India reflects this shift. Its members-49% of whom are senior working professionals and 34% business owners-don't just contribute financially. They actively work alongside NGOs to build capacity, improve governance, and enhance operational efficiency. Over the past decade, SVP India's partners have volunteered more than 25,000 hours with over 100 NGOs. The organization's structured process begins with rigorous NGO shortlisting, followed by the careful pairing of a Lead Partner whose professional experience aligns with the NGO's needs. These partnerships typically last for at least three years, allowing for deep collaboration and measurable progress. The result is not just stronger NGOs, but a cadre of philanthropists with firsthand insight into the challenges of the social sector. More than 90% of SVP India partners have stayed on for over five years-a testament to the community's impact and relevance. For NGOs, SVP India offers far more than financial support. Consider a Pune-based organisation working with hearing-impaired children. Despite a strong educational model, they faced scaling challenges. After partnering with SVP India, they were connected with a senior CSR consultant and a social sector strategist. This collaboration helped the NGO expand to a larger facility, secure job placements for students through corporate partnerships, build a robust fundraising network, and amplify awareness of their unique school model. This is not an isolated success. The strength of SVP India lies in its ability to mobilize sector-specific knowledge and networks. Partners have helped NGOs redesign governance frameworks, pitch to institutional funders, establish strategic collaborations, and even join policy advisory boards. The SVP staff-backed by over 180 years of collective social sector experience-curate tailored engagement programs based on partners' interests. Whether in healthcare, women's empowerment, waste management, disability rights, or employment generation, SVP ensures that partner involvement is both strategic and sustainable. A growing trend in Indian philanthropy is "beyond money" giving-volunteerism, pro bono services, and network access. The Hurun India Philanthropy List 2023 notes a 30% rise in non-financial philanthropic contributions by professionals. SVP India is a practical embodiment of this trend. Its ecosystem enables learning, cross-sector collaboration, and long-term partnerships. Many partners continue to support NGOs beyond their initial commitment, often taking up advisory roles or mentorship. For those looking to begin or deepen their philanthropic journey, SVP India offers a tested, thoughtful model. It's a space where giving is not an act of charity, but a strategy for systemic change. It's where seasoned professionals find purpose beyond corporate boardrooms, and where small NGOs gain access to resources typically reserved for large institutions. At a time when India's development challenges are complex and interconnected, SVP India's model of strategic, hands-on philanthropy is not just relevant-it is essential. (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) NewsVoir New Delhi [India], May 30: ColorBar Cosmetics, an iconic beauty brand, ushers in a bold new chapter with the launch of the new ColorBar - a striking reinvention that positions beauty as a powerful expression of individuality, creativity, and conscious luxury, with the philosophy of 'beauty backed by science'. At the helm of this transformation is Mr. Samir K Modi, Founder and Managing Director, whose vision goes beyond aesthetics to champion a deeper, more powerful message - beauty is personal, playful, and most importantly, limitless, setting the tone for ColorBar's evolution into a global beauty brand. After two decades of pioneering international-quality products for Indian consumers, ColorBar is now setting new benchmarks, globally and in India. With cutting-edge R&D, skin-loving formulations, and an elevated brand experience, ColorBar is set to redefine the future of beauty with products that surpass global standards. At the heart of this evolution lies the belief that magic already lives within you and ColorBar simply helps reveal it. "From the very beginning, my vision for ColorBar was never just to create a beauty brand, it was to spark a movement. A movement that empowers self-expression, celebrates individuality, and inspires every person to embrace their inner magic, unapologetically," shares Mr. Samir K Modi, Founder and Managing Director, ColorBar. "ColorBar 2.0 brings this vision to life in its boldest, most luxurious form yet, consciously built to reflect the evolving spirit of beauty today. As we expand our presence across India and enter new global markets like the USA and the Middle East, while already being present in Russia-we are well on our way to becoming a truly global brand. Our mission remains the same - to make every individual, wherever they are in the world, to feel seen, celebrated, and empowered. We're not here to follow trends. We're here to redefine beauty on our own terms, and to lead a global conversation rooted in purpose, inclusivity, and magic." In India, ColorBar's presence is set to grow with larger, more immersive retail spaces designed to inspire exploration and self-expression. Moving beyond simply buying beauty, the brand is embracing experience-led innovation. Building on the success of its Make Your Own Lipstick service, ColorBar will soon introduce Make Your Own Nail Lacquer and Make Your Own Foundation, allowing customers to co-create beauty in a way that's personal, playful, and engaging. As ColorBar evolves, so does its universe. The product portfolio is expanding to include skincare, perfumes, and a holistic 360-degree wellness line, striking a balance between cosmetics, care, and indulgence. The brand is also diversifying its audience, with offerings for tweens, teens, and consumers across every age and identity. This transformation goes beyond design, it's a reflection of modern beauty in all its fluidity and feeling. With a renewed identity, the new ColorBar champions the freedom to be unapologetically yourself. The powerful new brand campaign brings this vision to life through layered storytelling and striking visuals. Through its latest brand film, featuring five personas--Bold, Glam, Demure, Radiant, and Playful, ColorBar showcases its dedication to challenging conventions and embracing individuality beyond gender boundaries. Each persona is brought to life through a diverse cast of global faces, each reflecting a distinct cultural lens, resulting in a rich mosaic of perspectives, styles, and stories. This creative direction reinforces the brand's intent to resonate with a global audience and broaden its cultural relevance. Furthermore, the brand refresh establishes ColorBar's commitment to sustainability, with a goal to become extensively sustainable by 2026-27. New offerings across skincare, fragrances, and a 360 wellness line will join its portfolio, backed by science, innovation, and a commitment to high-performance, skin-loving formulations. With its long-standing commitment to being 100% vegan, cruelty-free, PETA-certified, ISO-certified, and on track to becoming extensively sustainable by 2026-27, ColorBar continues to blend ethical values with beauty backed by science - where innovation meets integrity. ColorBar, one of India's leading beauty brands, is a bold, inclusive celebration of self-expression - inviting you to reveal your magic, unapologetically. At its core lies a deep commitment to diversity, where uniqueness takes centre stage and self-expression becomes a form of art. Rooted in the belief that beauty follows no rulebook and that true magic lies within, ColorBar empowers people across gender, identity, age, and style to express their most authentic selves. Whether you're feeling bold, demure, playful, radiant, or glam, ColorBar gives you the freedom to embody every mood, every shade, and every facet of who you are, with confidence, creativity, and unmistakable flair. Born with a global outlook, ColorBar brings together the finest in international innovation and artistic sensibility. Its formulations are backed by science and cutting-edge technology, meeting global safety standards across world-class laboratories in France, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States. Every offering from ColorBar is 100% cruelty-free, ISO certified, and adheres to the most stringent global quality benchmarks, including US, EU, UK, and Japan FDA regulations. With a retail footprint of over 111 exclusive stores and a presence in more than 1600 multi-brand outlets across India, including Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, New U, and Pantaloons, ColorBar has a strong presence across India. Its online presence is equally dynamic, with products available on www.ColorBarcosmetics.com and leading e-commerce platforms such as Nykaa, Tira, Myntra, Flipkart, and others. ColorBar is 'Made for Magic,' and that Magic is You. For more information, please visit www.colorbarcosmetics.com (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) AESL is a private-sector transmission and distribution company and part of the Adani Group. The project, awarded under the Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) mechanism and coordinated by REC Power Development and Consultancy Ltd (RECPDCL), will be implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) named WRNES Talegaon Power Transmission Ltd, which has now been formally transferred to AESL, the company said in a release. The transmission project involves creating 3,000 megavolt-amperes (MVA) of substation capacity and associated infrastructure. It is expected to be commissioned by January 2028, it said. Once completed, the project will support the evacuation of 1.5 GW of green power from upcoming hydro Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) in the region, catering to the growing electricity demand in Mumbai and adjoining areas. This latest contract win takes AESL's overall transmission network to 26,696 circuit kilometers (ckm) and transformation capacity to 93,236 MVA. More notably, it boosts the company's transmission order book to approximately Rs 61,600 crore. "The development underlines AESL's growing role in India's energy transition, as it continues to expand its footprint in sustainable infrastructure while contributing to the country's renewable energy goals," the AESL release added. (ANI) VMPL Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 30: Network People Services Technologies (NPST), a leading digital payment and fintech infrastructure provider, delivered strong performance in fiscal year 2025, with profit after tax (PAT) rising to Rs45.20 crore and revenues reaching Rs180.62 crore. The company's strategic focus on innovation, market expansion, and operational excellence continues to accelerate its growth trajectory. Financial Highlights for FY25 * PAT surged 68.09% year-on-year to touch Rs45.20 crore, up from Rs26.89 crore in FY24. * FY25 revenue recorded a 38.68% year-on-year increase, growing to Rs180.62 crore, compared to Rs130.55 crore in FY24. * Q4 FY25 PAT grew 16.69% quarter-on-quarter to Rs6.01 crore, up from Rs5.15 crore in Q3 FY25. * Q4 FY25 revenue increased 20.93% quarter-on-quarter to Rs28.11 crore. * EBITDA for Q4 FY25 rose 22.49% quarter-on-quarter to Rs10.51 crore. The Board has recommended a final dividend of Rs2 per share (face value Rs10), for FY25, subject to shareholder approval at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. "FY25 was a pivotal year for NPST. We launched a broad-based growth agenda anchored in our 'Innovate, Transform, and Grow' strategy to set the future course for our business," said Deepak Chand Thakur, Co-founder and CEO of NPST. It was a year driven by product innovation, strong customer focus, revitalized talent pipeline, and enhanced agility - directed towards long-term organizational success. As we step into FY26, we are well-positioned to scale value delivery and deepen our engagement with customers." Ashish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director, NPST, added; "We have delivered strong revenue growth in FY25, our third year in a row. The strength and sustainability of NPST's performance is a reflection of our business model that generates consistent recurring revenue, strong incremental margin, and healthy cash flow." "Our strong financial performance in FY25 reflects NPST's focus on an innovation-led, execution-driven approach," said Savita Vashist, Co-founder and Executive Director of NPST. "Building on the positive momentum, we have strategically expanded into high-growth Middle East and North African (MENA) markets. The forward-looking move is aimed at scaling growth and broadening our impact, as we continue to execute against our strategy to deliver greater value across the payment ecosystem." Key Business Highlights * Major Offline Payments Contract: Secured a large order value from a major PSU bank to deploy the Qynx offline payments platform--encompassing QR and Soundbox--under both OPEX and CAPEX models. * International Expansion: Established a wholly owned subsidiary in Dubai to drive future growth across the MENA region. * Strategic Partnerships: Partnered with Hyperface to enable banks address credit gap in the country via instant UPI-based credit access. * Enterprise Wins: Secured multi-banking partnerships and repeat orders, reinforcing client confidence in NPST's platform reliability and service standards. * Product Adoption: Secured orders for the Risk Intelligence Decisioning Platform (RIDP), an AI/ML-based risk engine, further expanding the platform's footprint. * Talent Growth: Increased workforce strength by 20% to support innovation and business scalability. * Industry Recognition: Garnered top accolades at Bharat Fintech Summit 2025, Elets BFSI CXO Summit, and ET NOW Best BFSI Brands 2025 Awards, affirming NPST's leadership in the paytech space. (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) Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday that the government is working on a PhD programme so that the Artificial Intelligence mission could fund the basic fundamental research in AI. "It will really bring new opportunities for us and for the IT industry, which will go through a major transition period," the minister told an AI-focused event. "We should be able to capture this transition as an opportunity rather than getting disrupted by it, because whenever such a large technological change happens, it's very important that the industry and the government and the talent development ecosystem, they should all work together to make sure that we get prepared for the changing times," he supplemented. Speaking about the potential of AI, he said AI in itself may not mean much, but when it is applied to various sectors, it can really make a big difference in solving problems at the population level and on a large scale. The focus of his government is very clear - a vision of democratising technology, he said. "It's very important that technology should not be left in the hands of a few," he supplemented. "It's very important that a larger section of the society should have access to technology, should be able to develop new solutions, have better opportunities." Supplementing the democratisation of technology, he said about 19,000 GPUs have already been deployed. The second round of empanelment may create another 16,000 GPUs, taking the total to 34,000 GPUs. "It's a very big, large, significantly large number of compute. And this is a continuous process," Minister Vaishnaw said. "The 3rd round will also be completed very soon. That will bring another round of GPUs. In a sense, what we were some time back worried about whether India will be able to get that kind of compute facility or not. It was a big worry in the minds of many policymakers...but now practically those worries are over, with 34,000 GPUs, the compute facility is very significant," the minister said. On the AI front, India will soon have its first foundational Artificial Intelligence model, the minister has indicated on several occasions recently. The government is going to host an open-source model on Indian servers. This comes as Chinese startup DeepSeek has challenged the AI world. India is rapidly building a strong AI computing and semiconductor infrastructure to support its growing digital economy. With the approval of the IndiaAI Mission in 2024, the government allocated Rs 10,300 crore over five years to strengthen AI capabilities. A key focus of this mission is the development of a high-end common computing facility AI as a technology has just begun, and the number of innovations that one can see going forward is going to be phenomenal. (ANI) Indigo has been granted a one-time last and final extension of three months up to August 2025 for the "damp-leased" aircraft from Turkish Airlines, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Friday. Indigo is operating two B777-300ER aircraft under a "damp lease" from Turkish Airlines, which was permitted till May 31, 2025. Indigo had requested a further six-month extension, which the regulator did not agree to. "However, in order to avoid passenger inconvenience due to immediate flight disruption, Indigo has been granted a one-time last and final extension of three months," the DGCA said. "This extension is based on the undertaking from the airline that they will terminate the damp lease with Turkish Airlines within this extension period, and shall not seek any further extension for these operations," the DGCA added. With one new aircraft joining the fleet every week throughout 2025-26, IndiGo anticipates surpassing a fleet size of 600 aircraft by 2030, the airline said on the network expansion front. Additionally, the airline has signed an agreement with Norse Atlantic Airways for the damp lease of six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Deliveries will be completed by early 2026, and the A350S are anticipated to arrive in 2027. These additional aircraft strengthen the airline's long-haul capabilities. 2025-26 will also be the year in which the long-range A321XLR joins IndiGo's fleet, opening doors to new long-range international markets not previously connected directly to India. Continuing IndiGo's strategy of internationalisation, the airline is planning to add an impressive 10 new international destinations-in all directions from India- to its route network in the year to come, bringing it to over 50 international destinations. It has already announced commencement of long-haul operations with non-stop, direct flights connecting Mumbai with Manchester and Amsterdam starting July 2025, respectively. As IndiGo's fleet of damp leased B787s expands later this year, the airline is planning to expand its long-haul network to London and Copenhagen. With the extended range capabilities of the A321XLR aircraft joining the IndiGo fleet, will allow to further build its European network with direct connectivity to markets where Athens is planned to be introduced over the course of the coming year. The airline will continue to build on its strong regional international network, with four more Central Asian destinations being added. The airline will also re-activate services to Almaty and Tashkent with new non-stop services from Mumbai. Tbilisi will also see additional capacity with non-stop connectivity from Mumbai. Direct flights to Siem Reap will be IndiGo's foray in the India - Cambodia market, and yet another destination connected in Southeast Asia after the successful launch of services to Langkawi, Penang and Krabi last year. The airline will also add capacity to Denpasar Bali (Indonesia) as well as Ho Chi Mihn City and Hanoi in Vietnam. In the domestic market, IndiGo plans to add four more stations to its network, increasing it from 91 to 95 destinations to literally every corner of the nation. IndiGo is all set to become the first airline to start operations at the Navi Mumbai International Airport and Noida International Airport in Jewar (serving both the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi catchment area). In addition, IndiGo will launch flights to/from Adampur Airport in Jalandhar on July 1, 2025, and Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad in due course. (ANI) In furtherance of the commitment made during the high-level dialogue between India and Chile, the Terms of Reference for negotiating the India-Chile Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) were signed on May 8, 2025. According to a release from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the first round of negotiations commenced on May 26, 2025, with the Opening Ceremony inaugurated by Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal in the presence of the Ambassador of Chile to India, HE Juan Angulo. During the inauguration, Barthwal emphasised that the agreement would pave the way for a deeper economic partnership and the creation of strengthened global value chains between the two countries. The next round of negotiations is expected in July/August 2025 and will be preceded by intersessional discussions through virtual conferences to address outstanding issues before the upcoming meeting. The launch of the CEPA negotiations was welcomed by both nations during the State Visit of the President of Chile, HE Gabriel Boric Font, to India in April 2025 and his meeting with the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. President Boric conveyed that India is a priority partner for Chile in the global economy and highlighted the need to explore strategies for enhanced and diversified trade between the two countries. Both leaders welcomed the initiation of negotiations towards a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive, and mutually beneficial CEPA aimed at achieving deeper economic integration. The Chilean negotiating team, comprising 17 delegates, was led by Chief Negotiator Pablo Urria, Director for Asia & Oceanic at the Secretariat of International Economic Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile. The Indian delegation was headed by Chief Negotiator Vimal Anand, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce. Discussions during the round were held across 17 thematic tracks including: Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Movement of Natural Persons, Rules of Origin, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation, Initial Provisions and General Definitions, Core and Institutional Provisions, Final Provisions, Transparency, Dispute Settlement, Economic Cooperation, MSMEs, Women's Economic Empowerment, Critical and Strategic Minerals Trade & Sustainable Development, Global Value Chains, Investment Promotion & Cooperation, and Intellectual Property Rights. The CEPA aims to unlock the full potential of the trade and commercial relationship between India and Chile, boosting employment, bilateral trade, and economic growth. The modalities of negotiation will emerge through stakeholder consultations and industry feedback. Both sides are committed to a gainful and explorative approach to ensure a successful and meaningful agreement. (ANI) Veteran actor Yogendra Tiku, known for his suppporting roles in movies like 'Neerja', 'Fan', Queen' and 'Dabangg 2' has urged the government to reduce the theatre ticket prices so that more cinemagoers can watch in theatres. Actor Yogendra Tiku will be next seen in the film 'His Story of Itihaas' which features the battle of a Physics teacher against the inaccuracies present in the history textbooks. On the sidelines of preview of the film in the national capital on Tuesday, veteran actor Tiku shared his views on the ongoing debate between OTT and theatrical films releases in India. The actor believes that theatres are responsible for the film business in India but OTT has helped in producing more opportunities for the younger generation of actors. Speaking to ANI, the actor said, "Certainly if there is a film business, then it is because of theatres. There is no doubt about it. OTT has its own charm. The biggest advantage of that is that there are a lot of artists who don't get a place because there is a set trend of the film industry that this should be like this, this face should be like this, this should be like this, this much following should be there. There are a lot of things set there which are not on OTT. So many people, many children get a chance to work on OTT." The actor urged the Indian government to reduce tickets prices and make other facilities "affordable" in the theatres so that the general audience can visit the film theatres in large numbers. "I would say that these film theatres, they should not die. The public should come. But, the tickets have become so expensive, so the government should also do something. The food items, they should also do something. So, it should be so affordable that a normal person can come with his family and watch. Otherwise, slowly the film industry will end, the theatres will end, then it will become difficult," said Tiku. The 'Neerja' actor also predicts that Bollywood would be going through a big change soon which will consists of good stories, script, talent and music. He also criticised the trend of producing "remix" versions of songs in Bollywood. "I feel that very soon, a change will come in Bollywood. This is what I feel, my personal feeling. A very good change is going to come, where they will again start focussing on good stories, good script, good talent, and good music. Because, music is also getting lost, slowly. Every other day, a new remix comes. Every other day, something happens. So, I don't want that either. I feel that a change will come very soon in Bollywood," said Yogendra Tiku. Actress Akanksha Pandey, who is set to debut in the lead role in the film shared her affinity for taking challenges and reading books to distract herself from social media. On being asked about her inspiration for choosing such a challenging script for her debut movie, the actress said, "I think, challenging topics excite me. And, I couldn't get a more challenging topic. So, I think, when I heard about this, I felt, that there are very few people who are ready to do this." The actress also shared her love for books. "Whenever I feel that there is a lot of social media, because of, like, we are actors, we have to use it. So, I take the support of books, and I get detoxed." The director of "His Story of Itihaas", Manpreet Singh Dhami, shared his views on the standards of Hollywood and Bollywood films. He believes that India has a potential to outscore Hollywood if the directors receives support from the film industry. The director said, "To be honest, Hollywood is not that special anymore. I think their stories have been stale. Very few movies come from there. You see, and it's mathematical. We have a diverse culture, matematically, a lot of amount of stories can emerge from here. It is just that a system of support is created for a good movie then it will happen. You see, our movies, I am not saying because I am an Indian, will be better than Hollywood. And some movies like Malayalam and South Asian movies. Good movies It's not like that. It's just that there is no support. Sometimes, a good director is left behind without support. I was just lucky that I had the courage to do it. But there is no shortage of talent. And Hollywood is not that good anymore. Yes, they were a benchmark at one point of time. I don't think so anymore." "His Story of Itihaas" has released in the theatres today. Directed by Manpreet Singh Dhami, the film stars Subodh Bhave, Akanksha Pandey and Yogendra Tiku in the lead roles. The trailer of the film highlights cinematic inquiry into how deeply textbooks and taught narratives influence generations. The story follows Namit, a mild-mannered physics teacher whose life takes an unexpected turn when he stumbles upon blatant inaccuracies and ideological biases in his young daughter's history textbook. What begins as a concerned father's frustration soon transforms into an obsession with truth, sending him on a risky journey through India's bureaucratic maze, academic gatekeeping, and political interference, according to a press note shared by the makers. (ANI) The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has banned the release of Kamal Haasan starrer Thug Life over the actor's controversial remark about the Kannada language during the audio launch of his movie in Chennai last week. During the media interaction in Bengaluru on Friday, Sa Ra Govindu, representative of KFCC, said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer 'Thug Life' in Karnataka as they stand firm with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations for their demands of halting the release of the film until the actor issues a pubic apology. The KFCC representative said that Kamal Haasan has not issued an apology yet for hurting the sentiments of Kannada people during his promotional event in Chennai. He said, "When there is pressure, I have to do. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike were present; whatever they say, we should do it. Even they would speak about it. Definitely, there is no 'Sorry' term being specified anywhere by Kamal Hassan. We will surely not release the film. We (KFCC) will stand with Rakshina Vedike and other Kannada organisations." Kamal Haasan and his movie 'Thug Life' came under the radar of controversy in Karnataka after the actor reportedly stated that "Kannada is born out of Tamil" during a promotional event in Chennai. Following it, the protests were held near the INOX cinema hall in Karnataka's Belagavi against Kamal Haasan. The protests were organised by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike organisation, which expressed its anger and demanded the actor's apology over the issue. On Wednesday, the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticised Kamal Haasan following his reported remark about the Kannada language, stating that he was not aware of the "long-standing" history of the language. "Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it," the Karnataka CM said. Congress MLA from Karnataka Rizwan Arshad expressed his disappointment over Haasan's remark, calling it unfortunate and questioning the necessity of such a debate at a time when national unity is paramount. "What kind of a debate is this? The Kannada language has a history of thousands of years... Kannada and Tamil are ancient languages and part of our country's foundation... Is this debate necessary at a time when all of us have to be united? ... I did not expect Kamal Haasan to make such a statement. It is unfortunate," Arshad said. 'Thug Life' is directed by Mani Ratnam and stars Kamal Haasan, Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan TR in the lead roles. (ANI) Actor Kamal Haasan on Friday reiterated his faith in "law and democracy" while responding to the ongoing controversy around his purported remark on the Kannada language during the promotion of his movie 'Thug Life' in Chennai. Terming India as a "democratic country," the actor stated that he won't "apologise" to anyone for his actions if he is "not wrong". Pro-Kannada organisations have demanded a public apology from him for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Kannada people. Kamal Haasan and his movie 'Thug Life' got caught in a controversy in Karnataka after the actor reportedly stated that "Kannada is born out of Tamil" during a promotional event in Chennai. It led to several protests in Karanataka by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations. Responding to the warning by pro-Kannada groups who threatened to boycott his film if he does not apologise for his remarks, the actor said that he believes in "law" and "justice" since India is a "democratic" country. Speaking to media personnel outside the DMK party headquarters in Chennai, Haasan said, "It is a democracy. I believe in law and justice. My love for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala is true. Nobody will suspect it except for those who have an agenda. I've been threatened earlier too, and if I am wrong, I would apologise, if I'm not, I won't." Meanwhile, the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has banned the release of 'Thug Life' over the actor's purported remarks on Kannada language. Speaking to mediapersons in Bengaluru today Sa Ra Govindu, representative of KFCC, said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer 'Thug Life' in Karnataka as they stand firmly with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations for their demands of halting the release of the film until the actor issues a pubic apology. The KFCC representative said that Kamal Haasan has not yet issued an apology for hurting the sentiments of the Kannada people during his promotional event in Chennai. He said, "When there is pressure, I have to do. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike were present; whatever they say, we should do it. Even they would speak about it. Definitely, there is no 'Sorry' term being specified anywhere by Kamal Hassan. We will surely not release the film. We (KFCC) will stand with Rakshina Vedike and other Kannada organisations." On Wednesday, the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticised Kamal Haasan for his reported remark about the Kannada language, stating that he was not aware of the "long-standing" history of the language. "Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it," the Karnataka Chief Minister said. 'Thug Life,' directed by Mani Ratnam also stars Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan TR in lead roles. (ANI) Former filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, currently facing charges of rape and sexual assault, is reportedly "seriously contemplating" testifying in his ongoing trial. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the decision comes as his defence team carefully evaluated the pros and cons of putting the former film producer on the stand as the case approaches its final stages. Weinstein's attorney, Arthur Aidala, confirmed the uncertainty surrounding this choice and said, "We're going to make a game time, more or less, decision," as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. Aidala emphasised that the decision to testify is ultimately in the hands of the defendant himself, and revealed that one of his legal partners had spent Memorial Day weekend preparing Weinstein for the possibility. "Weinstein is considering the emotional and strategic aspects of a 'he-said, she-said' case," Aidala said, adding, "There is a part of him that is seriously contemplating whether human beings feel obligated to hear the other side of the story." Weinstein's decision to testify comes in the wake of a recent interview, in which he asserted his innocence, further fueling media attention surrounding the trial. As per The Hollywood Reporter, this trial marks a new chapter for Weinstein, who had previously chosen not to testify during his 2020 trial in New York or his California case on similar charges. Weinstein, who has remained present throughout the proceedings, is being retried on charges related to allegations from three women. The most notable of these claims come from former production assistant Miriam Haley, who alleges that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in his Manhattan apartment in 2006, and aspiring actress Jessica Mann, who claims she was raped by Weinstein in a Manhattan hotel in 2013. These allegations were central to Weinstein's original conviction in 2020, which was later overturned in April 2024. In addition to these charges, Weinstein is facing new accusations from a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who alleges that he forcibly performed oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in 2006. All three women have taken the stand over the past few weeks, providing testimony that the defence team has fiercely contested, as per The Hollywood Reporter. As the trial continued, the prosecution rested its case on Wednesday, having called a series of witnesses to testify about the encounters between Weinstein and the women involved. Weinstein's defence team began its case shortly after, calling upon medical professionals to discuss erectile dysfunction medications and their relevance to the accusations. On Thursday, the defence team brought in Helga Rose Samuelson, a former roommate of Kaja Sokola, to question the nature of the relationship between Sokola and Weinstein. Samuelson claimed that Weinstein had visited their apartment in 2005 and entered a bedroom with Sokola. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Sokola denied this encounter when she testified. The defence has also considered calling conservative pundit Candace Owens as a witness, citing potential communications between Owens and Jessica Mann regarding whether Mann viewed her encounter with Weinstein as rape. However, this line of questioning was swiftly struck from the record, with the judge instructing the jury to disregard it as having "no factual basis," as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. Despite the potential for additional witnesses, Aidala has clarified that they do not expect to call Owens to testify, given her recent childbirth and the lack of significant evidence to justify her appearance in court. As the defence continues to present its case, the question of whether Weinstein will testify remains one of the most significant decisions in the trial. According to The Hollywood Reporter, if Weinstein ultimately chooses not to take the stand, closing arguments are expected to take place on Tuesday, signalling the nearing conclusion of the high-profile case. In a final twist, Weinstein's legal team has issued subpoenas for attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Miriam Haley, but Aidala noted that they have not pursued the subpoena aggressively. (ANI) Director Wes Anderson and the entire cast of 'The Phoenician Scheme' were present in New York for the premiere of the film. The film's sprawling ensemble cast, including Benicio del Toro, Bryan Cranston, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and breakout lead Mia Threapleton, walked the carpet at Jazz at Lincoln Square, reported Variety. The 24-year-old actor, Mia Threapleton, recalled her meeting with Anderson for the first time during the audition, in a conversation with Variety. "He opened the door and said 'Hello!' and gave me a hug," she said as quoted by the outlet. "He was wearing hotel slippers and pink socks, and I was like 'Oh you're not scary, you're not a dragon, you're not gonna eat me!'" added Wes Anderson as quoted by Variety. Mia Threapleton is the daughter of actress Kate Winslet. She is starring opposite the veteran actors who have earlier worked with director Wes Anderson. 'Breaking Bad' actor Bryan Cranston also opened up about his experience with Wes Anderson on the red carpet during the premiere of the movie in New York. While talking with Variety, he said, "What is consistent in Wes Anderson's storytelling is that you cannot predict where it's gonna go. He is so unique, he is such an auteur, that you just have to buy in, put the seatbelt on and go for the ride." As per Variety, the movie stars del Toro as business magnate Zsa-zsa Korda, who happens to be one of the richest men in Europe. Threapleton stars as his daughter, a nun named Sister Liesel, with Cera making his long-awaited Anderson movie debut as her tutor Bjorn Lund. (ANI) This new album marks a significant milestone in Cyrus's nearly 20-year career, following the success of her 2023 album 'Endless Summer Vacation', which featured the global hit single 'Flowers'. Cyrus describes 'Something Beautiful' as "a unique visual experience fueled by fantasy" and a "one of a kind pop opera". The album explores themes of beauty, death, psychedelia, impermanence, heartbreak, and destruction, showcasing Cyrus's artistic growth and experimentation. According to Cyrus, the album is about embracing painful experiences and finding beauty in them, and said that it's about "taking these experiences, even when they're painful or we want to throw them away...and wrapping them in beautiful bows and ribbons and appreciating all these gifts and experiences". https://www.instagram.com/p/DKQ3gvasYZo/ A musical film accompanying the album will premiere on June 12 for one night only, with a Tribeca premiere scheduled for next week. Prior to the album's release, Cyrus hosted an intimate listening party at the Chateau Marmont, performing new tracks 'Easy Lover', 'More to Lose', and 'End of the World', alongside hits 'Flowers' and 'The Climb'. During the listening party, Cyrus hinted at more music to come, stating that "Something Beautiful is just the appetizer" and teasing her next album as "extremely experimental," as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. This suggests that fans can expect even more innovative and bold work from Cyrus in the near future. 'Something Beautiful' features 13 tracks, including collaborations with notable artists. The album's artwork showcases Cyrus draped in archival Thierry Mugler couture, reflecting the album's bold aesthetic and visual storytelling. (ANI) As per the Hollywood Reporter, in the film, Davidson plays Max, a young man sentenced to community service, caring for the elderly in a quiet retirement home with a dark secret. The trailer reveals Max's discovery of the off-limits fourth floor, where residents require "special care". As Max delves deeper, he uncovers chilling secrets and faces brutal violence. An elderly woman's ominous warning, "There's something very wrong with this place," sets the tone for the nightmarish events that unfold. James DeMonaco, creator of 'The Purge' franchise, directed and co-wrote 'The Home'. DeMonaco describes the film as a spine-chilling horror thriller that captures the eerie suspense of 1970s horror classics. "Joining me is my Staten Island brother, Pete Davidson, who unveils a darker, dramatic side as his character navigates a bizarre group of residents in an old age home," DeMonaco said. 'The Home' is set for a theatrical release on July 25, distributed by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. Fans of horror thrillers can expect a suspenseful and bloody finale, as DeMonaco promises an "epic blood-soaked finale, designed to leave audiences gasping, terrified, and cheering". (ANI) Ahaan Panday is all set to make his debut in Bollywood as the leading man in 'Saiyaara,' a passionate love story directed by Mohit Suri. The teaser for the upcoming film, which also marks Ahaan's Bollywood debut, was dropped on Friday. Produced by Yash Raj Films' CEO Akshaye Widhani, the film stars Ahaan opposite Big Girls Don't Cry breakout actor Aneet Padda. Described by YRF as "an intense love story," the teaser gives fans a first glimpse of the raw emotions and electric romance. Soon after the teaser was dropped, Ahaan's friends from the industry took to the comment section to express their excitement for his debut and wish him the best. Take a look https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKRBySFIgoh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Actor Tara Sutaria wrote, "AHAANIE! It's finally happening :) So proud of you. You both are just wonderful in the trailer!!!!" Meanwhile, Munjya actor Abhay Varma shared his joy for Aneet, saying, "It's unexplainable how happy I am, Aneet." According to YRF, Ahaan was groomed by Aditya Chopra and trained at YRF for over six years before signing the film. Prior to signing the film, the actor was introduced to director Mohit Suri for auditions and screen tests. "Ahaan was introduced to Mohit Suri so that the director could assess if he was the right actor to headline his film and be the quintessential romantic hero. Ahaan worked under Mohit's supervision and impressed him with his auditions and multiple screen tests! Mohit wanted a fresh, young actor with the charisma to be a hero on the big screen, and he is supremely excited about Ahaan's potential," informed a trade source. Directed by Mohit Suri, Saiyaara is set to hit theatres on July 18 later this year. (ANI) The pair, who have been linked since earlier this month, showed affection as they walked hand-in-hand through the city, as reported by E! News. Josh O'Connor and Alison Oliver's romance became more public when they attended the 2025 Cannes Film Festival premiere of O'Connor's new film, 'The Mastermind'. They posed on the red carpet with O'Connor's parents and later attended a cocktail event together, where they were seen enjoying each other's company. This isn't the first time O'Connor has spoken about his romantic interests. As per E! News, in a 2023 interview, he revealed that he had feelings for FKA Twigs when they attended high school together in the UK. O'Connor even formed a band called Orange Output in an attempt to get Twigs' attention, but she reportedly doesn't know who he is. As reported by E! News, sources said that O'Connor and Oliver share a strong connection, with their London stroll showing O'Connor wrapping his arm around Oliver's shoulder and planting a passionate kiss on her lips. The pair have not publicly addressed their relationship, though. (ANI) Brad Pitt has spoken publicly about his relationship with jewellery designer Ines de Ramon, shedding light on their romance and their decision to make their public debut at the British Grand Prix last year. According to E! News, in a recent interview, Pitt dismissed rumours that their appearance at the Formula One event was calculated to promote his new movie F1. Pitt described the evolution of their relationship as natural, and said, "Life just evolves. Relationships evolve." The 61-year-old actor, who began dating de Ramon in 2022, expressed his desire to live life without making calculated decisions about his public appearances. "If you're living, oh my God, how exhausting would that be? If you're living with making those kinds of calculations? No, life just evolves. Relationships evolve," he said, as quoted by E! News. Pitt and de Ramon's romance became more public when they made their first appearance together at the British Grand Prix, where they were seen holding hands and showing affection. The couple later made their red carpet debut at the Venice International Film Festival for the premiere of Pitt's film 'Wolfs.' Pitt also discussed how he has learned to deal with the constant attention to his personal life, and said, "My personal life is always in the news... It's been an annoyance I've had to always deal with in different degrees, large and small, as I do the things I really want to do," as quoted by E! News. Despite the challenges, Pitt described his life as "fairly contained" and "warm and secure" with his loved ones. (ANI) Actor Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault in London's Southwark Crown Court on Friday, reported Variety. The actor formally denied all five charges against him, including one allegation of rape, one allegation of indecent assault, one of oral rape and two further counts of sexual assault, as per the outlet. The alleged incidents relate to four separate women in incidents that occurred between 1999 and 2005. The 49-year-old will now face a trial, which, due to court delay,s won't begin June 3, 2026. Brand was charged by London's Metropolitan Police in early April following an investigation that began in September 2023. According to Variety, the actor first appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on May 2, where the chief magistrate granted him bail and, due to the severity of the allegations, referred the case to London's Central Criminal Court. The venue was later changed to the Crown Court, where Spacey's trial took place two years earlier. After the charges were first brought, Brand -- now living in the U.S. -- took to his social media channels to deny the allegations, as he has since they first arose. "When I was young and single, before I had my wife and family, I was a fool, was a fool before I lived in the light of the lord, I was a drug addict, sex addict and an imbecile," he said in a video. "But what I never was a rapist. I've never engaged in non-consensual activity. I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes," added the actor as quoted by Variety. The investigation was first launched after the police received several allegations in the wake of a major investigation made by both Channel 4's "Dispatches" documentary series and The Sunday Times. The 2023 expose saw Brand accused of "rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse." A rep for the show said that "Five women, four of whom asked to remain anonymous, agreed to share their stories of serious sexual allegations in the program," reported Variety. The plea of not guilty at Southwark marks the next chapter for Brand. The actor was a major figure on British TV and radio in the mid-2000s and would later find fame and fortune in the U.S which suffered a eventual downfall with time before the allegations came in place. (ANI) Savannah Chrisley seems to be having a good time with her father, Todd Chrisley, after he and his wife, Julie, were released from prison on May 28. On Thursday, Savannah took to her Instagram account to share pictures with her father. This also happens to be one of his first public appearances since leaving prison. The pictures show Todd wearing a grey T-shirt, black shorts, sunglasses, and a cap. Savannah, on the other hand, wore a black sweater and a pink "Make America Great Again" cap, with her hair tied up and a Louis Vuitton bag in hand. "To the paparazzi following us looking to pay your bills... here's your photo," read the caption of her post. Take a look https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKQhh6-tM47/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== A day earlier, she had shared a sneak peek of their journey home, without revealing Todd's face. Savannah also shared a photo showing Todd and Julie's legs during a quiet moment together. "Reunited and it feels so good!" read the sticker on the picture. According to People, Todd and Julie Chrisley had been serving time in separate prisons after being convicted of bank fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy. The couple, who were first indicted in 2019 and later sentenced in 2022, received a full pardon from former President Donald Trump, leading to their early release. (ANI) Actor Shweta Tripathi is excited to make her debut as a theatre producer with the staging of the play 'Cock'. As per a press note, the play's premiere show will be held on June 6 in Delhi at Max Muller Bhavan and June 10 in Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre to commemorate Pride Month. Written by British playwright Mike Bartlett, and being directed by Manish Gandhi - Cock is "an explosive, emotionally charged drama that delves into themes of identity, sexuality, and the fluidity of love." On turning producer for the drama, Shweta said, "Theatre has always been my first love. It's raw, immediate, and leaves no space to hide--from the audience or from the truth. Producing a play like Cock is a personal and creative decision born out of my belief that storytelling should reflect the world in all its complexity and beauty." "We are living in a time where people are finally feeling empowered to own their identities, and Cock doesn't shy away from the discomfort or the beauty of that journey. It's messy, human, and real. That's what drew me to it. I want to be part of stories that make you uncomfortable in the best way--stories that spark conversations, empathy, and perhaps even change," she added. The play has roped in actors Rytasha Rathore, Tanmay Dhanania, Sahir Mehta, and Harssh Singh. (ANI) The award-winning Indian documentary 'Turtle Walker,' directed by Taira Malaney and produced by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, has been selected for a special screening at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC). The event will take place in Nice, France, from June 9 to 13 later this year. 'Turtle Walker' follows the story of Satish Bhaskar, a sea turtle conservationist who spent decades studying and protecting endangered turtles along India's coast and islands. Starting in the late 1970s, Bhaskar traveled across remote areas to document turtle nesting sites and understand their behavior. His efforts helped bring attention to marine life conservation in India. The film began as a small independent project by a crew from Goa. Over seven years, it grew into a global production, backed by Indian studios Tiger Baby and Emaho Films, and U.S.-based HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, which was previously nominated for an Oscar. The film had its world premiere at the Doc NYC festival in 2024 and has since won several awards, including the Grand Teton Award at the Jackson Wild Media Awards--one of the highest honors in nature filmmaking. It also received recognition at other international festivals such as the Blue Water Film Festival, the International Ocean Film Festival, and Santiago Wild. As per a press release, Taira Malaney said, "From the remotest islands of India, Turtle Walker is a story of deep wonder and resilience, one that shows the ability of the natural world to recover from extreme events. This special screening at the United Nations Ocean Conference is an opportunity for us to inspire, give hope, and support global efforts to protect our life source, the most important place on Earth--our Ocean." Producer Zoya Akhtar added, "Turtle Walker is a quintessential Indian story focused on the wildlife of our country, and we believe the United Nations Ocean Conference is the best place for this screening, as our goals are aligned in protecting our shared oceans and supporting marine conservation." The film is part of an ongoing campaign to support marine conservation, and its inclusion at UNOC is seen as a key moment in that effort. (ANI) Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) is all set to pay tribute to legendary writer-director Raj Khosla to mark his 100th birth anniversary. The organisation has come up with a curated mini-retrospective titled 'Raj Khosla 100 - Bambai Ka Babu'. The day-long celebration at Regal Cinema on Saturday will feature a panel discussion with notable personalities, including veteran film actress Asha Parekh, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and Amborish Roychoudhury, author of 'Raj Khosla: The Authorized Biography'. Excited to attend the event, Asha Parekh in a press note said, "Do Badan, Chirag, Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki and Mera Gaon Mera Desh are still amongst my favourite films and I am very proud of my work in these films. Before my first film with Raj Khosla, I was known more for my dancing and glamorous roles. It was Do Badan that changed people's perception of me as an actress that could perform more serious roles." She added, "I shared a great rapport with Rajji and I enjoyed working with him. He was a very fine filmmaker and his song picturization was remarkable. I am so happy that the Film Heritage Foundation is celebrating his birth centenary by screening his films for the public on the big screen. Their unceasing efforts to preserve, restore and showcase the work of artists like Rajji will ensure that our legacy will not be forgotten." Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation stated, "I would describe Raj Khosla as the Howard Hawks of Indian cinema for his remarkable ability to successfully make films in every genre from thrillers, whodunits, musicals, action adventure to love stories and dacoit films. He excelled in song picturization and was known for having strong female characters in his films. It inspired me as an upcoming filmmaker when I saw images of his hoardings that had a director's chair with his name emblazoned on it." The event will also showcase screenings of Khosla's timeless classics: C.I.D. (1956), Bambai Ka Babu (1960) and Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971). In a commitment to preserving India's cinematic heritage, C.I.D. and Bambai Ka Babu have been meticulously restored in 4K resolution by the NFDC - National Film Archive of India, under the National Film Heritage Mission, an initiative supported by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. In a career spanning three decades and 27 films, Raj Khosla stands as an often-underappreciated architect of Hindi cinema, his influence extending far beyond the surface-level recognition of iconic characters, memorable song sequences, and evocative cityscapes. Alongside his mentor, Guru Dutt, and fellow visionary Vijay Anand, Khosla pioneered the art of song picturization in the 1950s and 60s, revolutionizing the way music was integrated into Indian film narratives. (ANI) Haryana Chief Minister,Nayab Singh Saini criticized the Congress, saying the party that enjoyed the pleasures of power for 55 years is responsible for the poor condition of farmers. In contrast, since taking charge as the 'Pradhan Sevak' of the country in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only consistently empowered and strengthened farmers but also considered them an important pillar of a 'Viksit Bharat' (Developed India) and worked to make them self-reliant. He was addressing farmers from across the state at the launch of the "Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan" held at Kurukshetra University in district Kurukshetra on Thursday. Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister, Shyam Singh Rana was also present at the event. He said that under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, the central government recently announced an increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, and he expressed gratitude for this decision. Targeting Congress, he said that during elections, Congress leaders tried to mislead farmers by saying that if Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, the MSP would be discontinued. According to the release, however, the reality is that since 2014, the Prime Minister has continually increased MSP in favor of farmers. The opposition should introspect before questioning the government on farmer welfare and refrain from making statements that harm farmers, said Saini. Nayab Singh Saini said that during Congress rule, Rs 7.41 lakh crore was given for MSP of crops, while the Modi government, in 10 years, provided Rs 23.61 lakh crore. Until 2014, Congress gave Rs 2.56 lakh crore MSP for wheat, while the Modi government has given Rs 5.65 lakh crore for wheat since then. Similarly, Congress gave Rs 1,900 crore for pulses, whereas the present government has provided Rs 98,000 crore. For oilseeds, Congress gave Rs 9,000 crore as MSP, while the Modi government transferred Rs 65,000 crore directly to farmers' accounts. For crops like cotton etc., Congress gave Rs 26,000 crore, while the present government has given Rs 1.33 lakh crore, informed the Chief Minister. He said that these figures clearly show that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently worked to empower farmers and increase their income. The Chief Minister said that the Haryana Government is also working continuously for the welfare of farmers. Haryana is the first state in the country to decide to purchase all crops at MSP. To shield farmers from market risks, the Bhavantar Bharpai Yojana was launched, under which around Rs 111 crore has been disbursed to farmers. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana, Rs 6,563 crore has been transferred to the accounts of around 20 lakh farmers in Haryana. Through the e-Kharid portal, Rs 1.48 lakh crore has been transferred to 12 lakh farmers for crop purchases at MSP over the last 10 seasons, saidNayab Singh Saini. He said that being the son of a farmer, he has worked in the fields and understands the struggles of the working class. For him, the welfare of farmers is paramount. Expressing his gratitude to the Prime Minister, he said only the Prime Minister could entrust a farmer's son with the responsibility of the state. During Congress rule, farmers were given compensation cheques of Rs 2 and Rs 5. Nayab Singh Saini said that everyone remembers the time before 2014 in Haryana when farmers received cheques of Rs 2 and Rs 5 as compensation for crop damage due to natural disasteRs The present state government, in contrast, has provided much higher compensation. He said that while senior Congress leaders remain silent in public, they are active on social media. They should recall that during 10 years of Congress rule, only Rs 1,155 crore was given as compensation to farmers, whereas the present state government has disbursed Rs 15,145 crore in the last 10 years. Recently, for farmers affected by fire damage to their crops, the government provided compensation at the rate of Rs 30,000 per acre. Every step of this government, he said, is aimed at strengthening the farmer. (ANI) The delegation will also comprise Harivansh, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha; Surendra Singh Nagar, Member of Parliament; Vijay Baghel, Member of Parliament; Vivek Thakur, Member of Parliament; Shabari Byreddy, Member of Parliament; Utpal Kumar Singh, Secretary General, Lok Sabha; and P.C. Mody, Secretary General, Rajya Sabha. According to the release, the overall theme of the Eleventh BRICS Parliamentary Forum is 'The Role of BRICS Parliaments in Building a More Inclusive and Sustainable, Global Governance'. Presiding Officers and Members of Parliament from BRICS countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran) and invited nations-- Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan--along with the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) H.E. Ms. Tulia Ackson will also participate in the Forum meetings. The Lok Sabha Speaker will address the forums on 'Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation for Responsible and Inclusive Artificial Intelligence' and 'BRICS Parliaments United for the Reform of the multilateral peace and security architecture'. According to the release, the Delegation will also participate in the proceedings during the Plenary Sessions on the sub-themes including 'BRICS Parliamentary Action in Search of New Paths for Economic Development'; 'Towards Stronger and More Durable BRICS Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation'; 'BRICS Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for Global Health'; 'BRICS Inter-Parliamentary Dialogue on Climate and Sustainability'. A Joint Statement will be adopted at the end of the Summit. The Speaker, Lok Sabha may also hold bilateral meetings with Presiding Officers of participating Parliaments on the sidelines of this Forum. (ANI) The 108.13 km project will connect Badvel-Gopavaram Village (NH-67) to Guruvindapudi (NH-16) and enhance infrastructure and industrial linkages in the state, according to a release statement. According to the official statement, the greenfield corridor will improve access to key industrial nodes in Andhra Pradesh and reduce the travel distance to Krishnapatnam Port by 33.9 km, from 142 km to 108.13 km. The Cabinet approved the project on Wednesday, and it is expected to generate over 43 lakh man-days of employment, including 20 lakh direct and 23 lakh indirect man-days. As per the statement, Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Patna on Thursday and conveyed his gratitude for the Cabinet's decision. "This decision reflects the Prime Minister's unwavering commitment to Andhra Pradesh's development and the vision of empowering states through world-class infrastructure," said Minister Ram Mohan Naidu. The Minister also apprised the Prime Minister of a major political development from the Telugu Desam Party's annual Mahanadu convention, held on Tuesday. At the event, the TDP, under the leadership of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, unanimously passed a political resolution backing Operation Sindoor and reaffirming its support to PM Modi's leadership. The statement said that this resolution, introduced by Union Minister Ram Mohan Naidu himself at Mahanadu, reflects the TDP's strong alignment with the prime minister's national vision. Minister Ram Mohan Naidu formally communicated this resolution to PM Modi today during his meeting in Patna, assuring the full and unwavering support of the people and government of Andhra Pradesh. (ANI) The Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Authority is monitoring the possibility of hazardous materials, spilt from the Liberia-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3, washing ashore the state's coast. As of now, no hazardous materials have been found on Tamil Nadu's coastline, the officials said. The ship was involved in an accident off the Kerala coast on May 24, during the onset of the southwest monsoon, resulting in the spillage of fuel, plastic particles, and hazardous cargo containers into the sea. Due to the intensifying southwest monsoon, plastic debris, containers, and other materials have been drifting and washing ashore along the coasts of Kerala and the southern coastal regions of Kanyakumari district. The ship's sinking has left a trail of debris along the Kerala coastline. Several containers from the vessel have washed ashore in various locations, including the Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts. Efforts are being made to remove them. The vessel, carrying 24 crew members, had reported technical issues and was tilting soon after departing from Vizhinjam port. The Indian Navy and Coast Guard responded promptly to the distress call, deploying ships INS Satpura and INS Sujatha to the scene. Despite adverse weather conditions, including wind speeds of up to 40 knots and debris in the water, the Coast Guard successfully rescued all 24 crew members. The crew member attributed the incident to a technical problem with some systems, rather than a collision. They mentioned that the situation worsened due to adverse weather conditions and the age of the vessel. Earlier, a meeting was held under the leadership of Chief Secretary A Jayathilak with officials and district collectors in the background of the sinking of the Liberian container ship MSC ELSA 3 off the Kochi coast. The ship completely sank 14.6 nautical miles from the Thottapalli spillway. About 100 containers may have fallen into the sea. The ship's fuel oil has also leaked. However, all the crew members of the ship have been rescued. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday slammed the former Manmohan Singh-led government, alleging that under pressure from the United States, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had decided to resume dialogue with Pakistan shortly after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. In a post shared on X, Dubey referred to the meeting between Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's then-Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in July 2009. This was the first formal engagement between the two countries after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Dubey questioned the timing of the meeting, saying, "Pakistan attacked Mumbai on 26 November 2008. 180 people died and 300 were injured, the fire of the pyre has not even cooled down. Was the dialogue started in December under US pressure without attacking Pakistan or not, is this the statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Lok Sabha?" The BJP leader alleged that the talks with Pakistan were not only premature but also influenced by external forces, especially the United States. He cited multiple instances from 2009 where Indian and Pakistani leaders engaged in diplomatic interactions. "Did the Foreign Ministers' meeting take place in January 2009 or not? Did he meet Pakistan President Zardari in Russia in June 2009 with the mediation of a third country or not? In July 2009, under American pressure, did Sharmal Sheikh go to Egypt and reach an agreement with the Prime Minister of Pakistan or not?" he asked. Referring to another major terror incident that occurred in 2011, Dubey said that such attacks highlighted Pakistan's continued support to terrorism, and criticised the Congress party's alleged "soft" approach. "In 2011, Mumbai blast happened again in which 26 people died and 200 people were injured. PM Modi raised our head high by doing Operation Sindoor, after years Pakistan is in a state of panic. Congress is completely hand in glove with terrorist Pakistan. The public can go to hell," he added. In an earlier post on Wednesday, Dubey had also targeted Congress over an alleged nuclear deal with Pakistan in 1988 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. According to Dubey, the agreement was signed under "American pressure". He posted a purportedly declassified letter that he claimed was sent by former US President Ronald Reagan to Rajiv Gandhi, which outlined America's role in setting the agenda for India-Pakistan discussions. "Why is Congress angry? When I saw this paper, I felt ashamed. US President Ronald Reagan sent this letter/telegram to the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Under American pressure, we spoke to Pakistani President General Zia. The agenda for the talks was set by the US President. What we understood after this letter was that Pakistan and we did the nuclear deal in 1988 under American pressure," Dubey said in his post. He further added, "Whatever we talked to our friend Soviet Russia about on the Afghanistan problem was an American agenda. Is this the Shimla Agreement? Is the Iron Lady the mentality of slavery? Were we a sovereign nation at that time? Is Congress abusing Modi Ji to make India stronger?" Dubey, the Member of Parliament from Godda in Jharkhand, is part of a multi-party parliamentary delegation currently visiting West Asia and North Africa. The group, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, has already visited Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The delegation is scheduled to arrive in Algeria on May 30 for the next leg of its official tour. (ANI) The Delhi government is planning to introduce an ordinance to regulate fees in private schools. The ordinance may be introduced within a week. The Delhi government is preparing to bring this ordinance to curb arbitrary fee hikes by private schools. According to sources, the draft of the proposed ordinance, under the 'Delhi School Education Bill, 2025', has already been sent to the Law Department. The ordinance proposes a fine of up to Rs50,000 for violations, and in cases of repeated violations, provision has been made for the confiscation of school property. Committees will be formed at the school, district, and review levels to determine fees. This bill was initially scheduled to be presented during the special session proposed on May 13-14, but the session could not be held. It will now be introduced as a bill in the upcoming Monsoon Session. On 16th April, show-cause notices were served to 10 schools about the arbitrary fee hike and to the schools that didn't submit their audit reports. The present Delhi government has already collected audited reports from 600 schools. Previously, while speaking to ANI on the issue of fee hike by private schools, Delhi education minister Ashish Sood said, "We will create a strong documentation system and tighten the noose around such schools. We will investigate how arbitrary fee hikes were approved in the past and whether any corrupt dealings took place with the previous government. We will not tolerate any such malpractice under any circumstances." The matter of an arbitrary fee hike came to the fore when several students in DPS Dwarka were disenrolled when they failed to pay the hiked school fee, and the court intervened. The government also sent a committee that investigated the matter, following which show-cause notices were served to the schools. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has also repeatedly announced that such fee hikes and harassment of parents and students will not be tolerated. Keeping this in mind, the government plans to introduce this ordinance to curb arbitrary fee hikes. The Rekha Gupta government aims to provide quality and modern education to every child in the state. The issue of arbitrary fee hikes by private schools in Delhi has been a longstanding concern, with the Delhi government taking various measures over the years to address it. (ANI) The incident was reported to the Dabri Police Station through a PCR call received at approximately 1:45 PM. Following the alert, local police and senior officers promptly arrived at the scene, where the girl, aged 13 years, was found dead. Preliminary investigations revealed no signs of sexual assault, according to police officials. The crime scene was inspected by the Crime Team and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) experts to collect evidence. A case of murder has been registered under relevant sections, and the investigation has been taken up to ascertain the cause of death and the circumstances surrounding the incident. Further details are awaited as the investigation progresses. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday slammed former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, alleging that under pressure from the United States, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government decided to resume dialogue with Pakistan shortly after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. In a post shared on X, Dubey referred to the meeting between Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's then-Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in July 2009. This was the first formal engagement between the two countries after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which left 180 people dead and over 300 injured. Dubey questioned the timing of the meeting, saying, "Pakistan attacked Mumbai on 26 November 2008. 180 people died and 300 were injured, the fire of the pyre has not even cooled down. Was the dialogue started in December under US pressure without attacking Pakistan or not, is this the statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Lok Sabha?" The BJP leader alleged that the talks with Pakistan were not only premature but also influenced by external forces, especially the United States. He cited multiple instances from 2009 where Indian and Pakistani leaders engaged in diplomatic interactions. "Did the Foreign Ministers' meeting take place in January 2009 or not? Did he meet Pakistan President Zardari in Russia in June 2009 with the mediation of a third country or not? In July 2009, under American pressure, did Sharmal Sheikh go to Egypt and reach an agreement with the Prime Minister of Pakistan or not?" he asked. Referring to another major terror incident that occurred in 2011, Dubey said that such attacks highlighted Pakistan's continued support to terrorism, and criticised the Congress party's alleged "soft" approach. "In 2011, Mumbai blast happened again in which 26 people died and 200 people were injured. PM Modi raised our head high by doing Operation Sindoor, after years Pakistan is in a state of panic. Congress is completely hand in glove with terrorist Pakistan. The public can go to hell," he added. In an earlier post on Wednesday, Dubey had also targeted Congress over an alleged nuclear deal with Pakistan in 1988 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. According to Dubey, the agreement was signed under "American pressure". He posted a purportedly declassified letter that he claimed was sent by former US President Ronald Reagan to Rajiv Gandhi, which outlined America's role in setting the agenda for India-Pakistan discussions. "Why is Congress angry? When I saw this paper, I felt ashamed. US President Ronald Reagan sent this letter/telegram to the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Under American pressure, we spoke to Pakistani President General Zia. The agenda for the talks was set by the US President. What we understood after this letter was that Pakistan and we did the nuclear deal in 1988 under American pressure," Dubey said in his post. He further added, "Whatever we talked to our friend Soviet Russia about on the Afghanistan problem was an American agenda. Is this the Shimla Agreement? Is the Iron Lady the mentality of slavery? Were we a sovereign nation at that time? Is Congress abusing Modi Ji to make India stronger?" Dubey, the Member of Parliament from Godda in Jharkhand, is part of a multi-party parliamentary delegation currently visiting West Asia and North Africa. The group, led by BJP MP Baijayant Jay Panda, has already visited Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The delegation is scheduled to arrive in Algeria on May 30 for the next leg of its official tour. (ANI) BJP leader Ravinder Raina stated that during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Poonch, he will meet with families affected by Pakistani shelling, inspect the impacted areas, and engage with personnel from the BSF, Indian Army, and J&K Police. "Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving in Poonch today, after the success of Operation Sindoor, carried out by our security forces, which destroyed the terrorist sites in Pakistan...Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet the families affected by Pakistani shelling, visit the affected areas and also interact with the bravehearts of BSF, Indian Army and J&K police...," he said. Meanwhile, the security arrangements have been stepped up in Poonch city of Jammu and Kashmir ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit today. Residents of the area expressed hopes for a relief package amid concerns over recent shelling incidents. Earlier, Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi visited Poonch, and after that, he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the letter, he requested a strong and generous relief and rehabilitation package for the people affected by Pakistani shelling in the border areas. "I urge the Government of India to come out with a solid and generous relief and rehabilitation package for Poonch and all other areas affected by Pakistani shelling," Gandhi wrote in the letter. He said that 14 people, including four children, had lost their lives. At the same time, dozens were injured in Pakistani shelling, which caused "massive destruction" in the common areas, with hundreds of houses and other structures damaged. "I recently visited Poonch, where 14 people, including four children, have tragically lost their lives and dozens have been injured in Pakistani shelling. This sudden and indiscriminate attack has caused massive destruction in the common areas. Hundreds of houses, shops, schools and religious places have been badly damaged. Many victims said that their years of hard work were wasted in one stroke," the letter stated. In a post on X earlier, the Congress leader said that the pain being felt by the people of Poonch can be understood only after visiting it. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 and struck nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir in response to a ghastly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam last month in which 26 people were killed. 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) A suspected criminal was shot in the leg during an encounter with police near Kalyan Apartment in Lucknow on Friday morning, according to the UP police officials. The man, identified as Farman, son of Sabir Ali, was injured after he allegedly opened fire on the police during a chase. According to DCP East Shashank Singh, the incident took place when Ghazipur police launched an intensive investigation campaign to search for suspicious persons in the area. "This morning, Ghazipur police was conducting intensive investigation campaign for suspicious persons. During checking, the entire team of SHO Ghazipur saw a white car without number plate coming. They tried to stop it for questioning. The driver recklessly drove the car forward. The police team chased him," said Singh. He added, "When they did so, the car went out of control and collided somewhere and the driver got down from the car and fired at the police team. In retaliation, the police team also fired. In this, the suspicious person got shot in the leg." After being injured, the accused was quickly overpowered and taken into custody. He was later identified as Farman, and further investigation revealed a criminal history. "He has been identified as Farman, son of Sabir Ali... When he was further interrogated, it was found that there were many more cases against him," the DCP said. The police said that medical assistance was provided to Farman, and a formal arrest was made. Further legal action is underway. Earlier, on Wednesday, two police personnel, including a constable, were injured during an encounter in Hapur, where Naveen Kumar, a notorious sharpshooter of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, was killed by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) and Delhi Police's Special Cell. A notorious criminal, Naveen Kumar, was wanted in several cases and was also an active member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Kumar was wanted in a murder and MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) case of Thana Farsh Bazar in Delhi. The wanted accused Naveen was an active member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and is a sharpshooter, the officials said. Additional SP, Noida, Raj Kumar Mishra, stated, "Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) Noida unit and Delhi Police's Special Cell yesterday got information that the absconding accused of a murder case of Farsh Bazar is visiting Hapur. When police intercepted the criminal, he started firing at our team. In retaliatory fire by the Police, the criminal was injured, and later In retaliatory fire by the Police, the criminal was injured, and later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. He had more than 20 cases registered against him. He was an active member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. In this operation, two police personnel, including a constable, sustained injuries." As per the officials, twenty cases, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery and MCOCA, were registered against him in Delhi and UP, and he had been sentenced by the court in two cases in Delhi. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anil Firojiya has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting permanent deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel at the Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, citing its religious importance and the heavy footfall of devotees. The anticipation of massive crowds, estimated at 20 to 25 crore devotees, during the 2028 Simhastha Maha Kumbh was also a key reason behind Firojiya's request for permanent CISF or CRPF deployment at the temple. In a letter dated May 3, 2025, the MP from Ujjain-Alot highlighted the need for stronger security measures at the temple, which is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas and a major pilgrimage site for followers of Sanatan Dharma. Firojiya wrote, "Being an elected MP from Ujjain-Alot Lok Sabha constituency, I would like to draw your attention towards the security arrangements of Shri Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Temple located in Ujjain, which is a major centre of faith for all the followers of Sanatan Dharma." He further mentioned, "After the inauguration of Mahakal Lok by Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, this holy place has become a special religious and cultural centre of attraction not only for devotees from all over the country but also for those coming from abroad." Firojiya pointed out that after the inauguration of the Mahakal Lok corridor by Prime Minister Modi, the temple has become a prominent spiritual and cultural destination, drawing devotees from across India and abroad. "'Baba Mahakal' is included in the most searched religious places of India. Every day, 2 to 2.5 lakh devotees come for darshan, while on special festivals, this number reaches 5 lakhs," he added. Quoting the President's speech, he said that around 5-6 crore devotees visited the temple last year. Firojiya also expressed concern over the expected turnout during the Simhastha Maha Kumbh in 2028. "In the upcoming Simhastha Maha Kumbh 2028, an estimated 20-25 crore devotees are expected to arrive, which will make it a huge religious event on a global level," he noted. The MP stressed that central forces like CISF or CRPF should be permanently stationed at the temple to manage security, particularly during major festivals and large-scale events like the Kumbh Mela. (ANI) In a coordinated operation, the North West District of Delhi Police apprehended 38 Bangladeshi nationals from different areas of Delhi. These individuals, including women and children, had previously resided in Nuh and came to Delhi via Bihar, Delhi Police said. According to officials, the arrested individuals had previously been residing in Nuh and later travelled through Bihar before reaching Delhi. As per police sources, these Bangladeshi nationals initially attempted to settle in Bihar but failed to establish any connections or find suitable means of livelihood there. Consequently, they moved to Delhi, where they began working in factories and residing in unauthorised settlements. The arrested group includes women and children, and all individuals are reported to be illegal immigrants without valid documents. On Thursday, the East District Police of Delhi apprehended five Bangladeshi nationals, including three minors, residing illegally in the National Capital Region. The apprehended individuals have been identified as Md Shaheen (30), his wife Rujeena (26), and their children: a 14-year-old son, a nine-year-old daughter, and a four-year-old son. All are residents of Shimulbari village, Police Station Phulbari, Kurigram district, Rangpur, Bangladesh. The individuals had reportedly entered India through unauthorised riverine routes along the Indo-Bangladesh border and lived covertly in the Anand Vihar area of East Delhi to avoid detection. DCP East Abhishek Dhania said, "The operation was conducted on May 28 by a Special Staff team and the overall guidance of senior district police officials. Acting on specific intelligence inputs, the team deployed a mix of human intelligence and technical surveillance to locate the suspects." This operation forms part of a broader drive launched on November 19, 2024, to identify and act against illegal immigrants in the district. Since the launch of the drive, 20 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been identified and deported, DCP Dhania said. Delhi Police reiterated their commitment to maintaining internal security and enforcing immigration laws, stressing that efforts to locate and remove illegal immigrants from the region will continue with unwavering focus. Similarly, sources said that around 160 Bangladeshi nationals were being deported from the capital city of Delhi to Bangladesh through the Hindon airbase on Thursday. (ANI) According to sources, Raghuvanshi was caught red-handed while allegedly accepting the first instalment of a bribe amounting to Rs 20 lakh. The CBI had laid a trap following a complaint and apprehended him at the scene. Investigations revealed that the bribe demand was part of a larger sum initially pegged at Rs 5 crore, which was later negotiated and settled for Rs 2 crore. The illegal gratification was reportedly sought in exchange for 'settling' a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). CBI further stated that the bribe was routed through Raghuvanshi's brother. The CBI has initiated further inquiry into the matter. In a separate incident, earlier, Odisha Vigilance intercepted Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) Pabitra Mohan Panigrahi of Chitrakonda Block in Malkangiri district and seized cash exceeding Rs 15 lakh, suspected to be ill-got. Acting on credible intelligence inputs about alleged bribe collection from contractors, a team of Odisha Vigilance officials intercepted Panigrahi near Gobindapally Chowk while he was travelling from his government residence in Chitrakonda to Bhubaneswar in a WagonR car bearing registration number OD-30-E-3096. He was reportedly taking a lift at the time. Upon interception, officials recovered Rs 5.07 lakh in cash from Panigrahi's possession. A further search at his government quarters in Chitrakonda led to the recovery of Rs 10 lakh more in cash. As Panigrahi failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the seized amount, the entire cash was confiscated by the Vigilance team. Subsequently, searches are underway at two additional premises linked to Panigrahi from a disproportionate assets (DA) angle. He is currently being questioned to determine the source of the recovered funds. Further investigation is in progress, and a detailed report is awaited. (ANI) PM Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation of multiple development projects worth over Rs 48,520 crore on Friday. He was joined by CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Samrat Chowdhary. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the steps being taken by the Union Government towards Bihar's development. Nitish Kumar also praised the Union Government's step to conduct the caste enumeration process in the next population census. "The development work that is being done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development of Bihar. He also announced assistance for Bihar in the budget. Whatever Bihar has received is a matter of pride. I salute the Centre for announcing the caste-based census. People from other parties were trying to create confusion ", Nitish Kumar said. Nitish Kumar asserted that as soon as the NDA came to power in Bihar, they began to work for the development of the state. He added that his government has paid special attention towards the health sector and is working to connect every household with roads. The Bihar CM stressed that many other developmental works, which include the construction of new houses and settlements, will be completed by June 2025. "Today, women can be seen in such large numbers. Did the previous government do any work for women before this? As soon as we came to power, we have worked for everyone since then. We are completely engaged in the development of Bihar, and Bihar is developing. Special attention was given to the health sector. We worked to connect every house with road, tap water and toll plazas with roads. This was an old work, now some new settlements and new houses are being built, and we are working for them as well. By June 2025 this year, all the work will be done. Government jobs and employment are being provided to young men and women. Our ministers have gone to different places and we have seen that there is no shortage", Nitish Kumar said. A major highlight of the Prime Minister's visit to Bihar is the foundation stone laying for Stage-II (3x800 MW) of the Nabinagar Super Thermal Power Project in Aurangabad district, valued at over Rs 29,930 crore. The project is expected to significantly boost electricity generation, industrial development, and employment in the region.PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone for key road infrastructure initiatives, including the four-laning of the Patna-Arrah-Sasaram section of NH-119A, six-laning of the Varanasi-Ranchi-Kolkata highway (NH-319B), the Ramnagar-Kacchi Dargah stretch (NH-119D), and a new Ganga bridge between Buxar and Bharauli. In addition, the PM will inaugurate the four-laning of the Patna-Gaya-Dobhi section of NH-22 and road upgrades at Gopalganj Town on NH-27.In the rail sector, the Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the third rail line between Son Nagar and Mohammad Ganj, constructed at a cost of over Rs1,330 crore, aimed at enhancing rail capacity and regional connectivity. The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of the new civil enclave at Bihta Airport, a Rs1,410 crore project aimed at serving the rapidly expanding educational and residential areas near Patna. (ANI) Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, accusing them of politicizing 'Operation Sindoor' and taking undue credit for the military operation conducted by Indian soldiers. "The politics of Operation Sindoor the Prime Minister of the country is going to every state and doing, this operation our soldiers have done it but there is competition to take credit for it, our Prime Minister is at the forefront of it, nobody can go and give the sacred system of Sindoor to anyone, if you send BJP workers to the women, then you are insulting Sindoor..," he said. Raut took a dig at the BJP, alleging that the six terrorists from Pahalgam remain at large, hinting they might join the BJP, as per a potential press note from the party. "The six terrorists from Pahalgam are not being caught because maybe one day you will get a press note from the BJP office that those six people have joined the BJP," he said. Meanwhile, Raut further announced that opposition parties have united to submit a letter, signed by all, requesting a special session under Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's leadership. "Opposition people have once again come forward, and we are giving a letter with everyone's signature for a special session under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi," he said. Earlier, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had reiterated the party's position in calling for a special session of Parliament to discuss Operation Sindoor. "We demanded that there should be an all-party meeting and the Prime Minister should preside over it. Two meetings have been held. It was a formality. The Defence Minister chaired it. Nothing came out of it; no discussion took place. The questions we asked were asked in a constructive, serious, and sensitive manner, but there was no response to that. The atmosphere was one of unity and cohesion. On May 10, both Kharge ji and Rahul ji wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to call a special session of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Why should it be called? So that we can repeat the special resolution that was passed unanimously on February 22, 1994, regarding PoK, regarding the issue of terrorism. In the last 30 years, both countries have become nuclear countries and more than that, the role of China has become deep in Pakistan; it is also a challenge for us. So there should be a debate on this. And a resolution should be passed unanimously, so that the message of a collective resolution is given to the world. He is silent on this, too," he said. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have written letters to the Prime Minister demanding a special session of Parliament. (ANI) Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief and actor Vijay honoured Class 10 and 12 toppers from 88 constituencies in Mahabalipuram, urging students to avoid exam-related anxiety and reject money-for-votes politics. He warned against electoral bribes while condemning caste-based divisions and a recent UPSC question referencing Periyar with his caste name. Vijay also urged people not to take money for votes, warning, without naming anyone, they could drop money in vehicles next year, but you all know what to do. Class 10 & 12 toppers from 88 constituencies as a first phase for felicitated with a certificate and cash prize by TVK Chief Vijay in an event which was held at a private resort in Mahaballipuram. While speaking at the event before felicitating the student, Vijay congratulated all the students for the achievement. Vijay said, " My dear young leaders and parents. Greetings to everyone. Yes...Young leaders and parents - how are you all? Very, very happy to meet you all. Congratulations on this beautiful achievement" Vijay also mentioned, "Education is achievement. I won't deny that. But that doesn't mean we need to achieve a particular subject. Don't get anxious by thinking about something repeatedly. Why am I saying this? Is NEET only a world? Beyond NEET, many things are there to achieve, and this world is big. Have democracy. If democracy exists, then only this world and various fields can be with freedom" He also noted, " Proper democracy gives equal opportunities. As a First step for this, ask everyone at home to do their Democratic duty. Doing your democratic duty is not a big deal, it is a simple thing. Ask them to elect good people, trustworthy people and those who haven't done any corruption so far. As simple as that. This is their duty". Vijay urged people not to take money for Votes and also warned that next year they could drop money in vehicles.. "Two years back, I said in a similar event that we shouldn't encourage money for votes. Follow that. You could see next year what is going to happen. They are going to drop money in vehicles. All that money is stolen from you. What are you going to do? You all know what to do. I don't need to make you realise," Vijay said. He also advised students not to fall into the idea of division based on caste and religion. "Don't go by the idea of division based on caste & religion. Never allow such things to disturb your mind. Are farmers harvesting seeing caste & religion?, Is a businessman selling products, seeing case & religion? Does nature like the Sun, Rain have caste & religion? How we avoid drugs, like that we need to keep Religion and caste so far away. That is good for everyone," Vijay said. Reacting to recent controversy over the UPSC exam, where the question was asked about Periyar with his caste name, Vijay said, "In recent times, Thanthai Periyar was painted with caste. In the UPSC exam, they have asked a question regarding Periyar with the caste name. We strongly condemn this" "Don't be emotional about everything. Have a scientific and technical approach. Now we have AI, and we need that approach to face the AI world. The sky is vast and white, and you have strong wings. So feel free to fly like a bird with courage and confidence," Vijay said. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hailed Operation Sindoor and emphasised that he had returned to the State after fullfilling his promise to retaliate and destroy terrorist camps following the Pahalgam terror attacks. Addressing a rally in Karakat, PM Modi said, "Even the name of the land Sasaram carries the name of Ram. The people of Sasaram know the customs of Lord Ram. 'Praan jaaye par vachan na jaaye'... Just a day after the dreadful terrorist attack in Pahalgam, I made a promise to the nation from the soil of Bihar that the hideouts of the masters of terrorism would be reduced to dust that they would face a punishment beyond their imagination. Today, I have come to Bihar, I have returned after fulfilling my promise." He pointed out that many innocent civilians had lost their lives in the heinous act of terror unleashed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22. PM Modi added that Pakistan and the world have seen the power of "sindoor" of daughters of India. He asserted that the terrorists felt safe under the protection of the Pakistan army, but they were brought to their "knees" by the Indian forces. "The power of 'Sindoor' of the daughters of India... this was seen by Pakistan as well as the world!. The terrorists considered themselves safe under the protection of the Pakistani Army... our forces brought them to their knees in one stroke", the Prime Minister said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was joined by the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Samrat Chowdhary at the rally. He inaugurated and lay the foundation of multiple development projects worth over Rs 48,520 crore. A major highlight is the foundation stone laying for Stage-II (3x800 MW) of the Nabinagar Super Thermal Power Project in Aurangabad district, valued at over Rs 29,930 crore. The project is expected to significantly boost electricity generation, industrial development, and employment in the region.PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone for key road infrastructure initiatives, including the four-laning of the Patna-Arrah-Sasaram section of NH-119A, six-laning of the Varanasi-Ranchi-Kolkata highway (NH-319B), the Ramnagar-Kacchi Dargah stretch (NH-119D), and a new Ganga bridge between Buxar and Bharauli. In addition, he has inaugurated the four-laning of the Patna-Gaya-Dobhi section of NH-22 and road upgrades at Gopalganj Town on NH-27.In the rail sector, the Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the third rail line between Son Nagar and Mohammad Ganj, constructed at a cost of over Rs1,330 crore, aimed at enhancing rail capacity and regional connectivity. On Thursday, PM Modi held a roadshow in Patna on Thursday evening. People were present in large numbers and greeted him enthusiastically.PM Modi waved to people, many of whom were carrying the Tricolour. They also raised slogans. People, having their homes along the route, came to the rooftops and balconies to have a glimpse of PM Modi. PM Modi inaugurated the New Terminal Building of Jayprakash Narayan International Airport in Patna on Thursday evening.PM Modi was accompanied by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Minister of Civil Aviation Rammohan Naidu. Built at a cost of around Rs 1,200 crore, the terminal will cater to one crore passengers annually. The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of the new civil enclave at Bihta Airport, a Rs1,410 crore project aimed at serving the rapidly expanding educational and residential areas near Patna. (ANI) According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on October 1, 2023, when three accused--Vishek, Aryan, and Ama allegedly attacked the complainants using iron pipes and wooden sticks. The victims sustained serious injuries, with one, Anil, suffering a severe head injury that prevented him from testifying in court. Advocate Ravi Drall, representing the accused, argued that they had been falsely implicated. He claimed that the complainant and his friends were riding motorcycles while intoxicated when they met with an accident and sustained grievous injuries. The complainants' medical reports confirmed their intoxication at the time. Drall further pointed out that the investigating officer had failed to seek expert medical opinion on whether the injuries could have resulted from the alleged weapons. Additionally, no weapons were recovered from the accused following their statements, and Drall contended that continued incarceration served no purpose. The prosecution opposed the bail plea, citing concerns that releasing the accused could result in witness intimidation and evidence tampering, particularly as key witness Anil had yet to be examined. The complainant's counsel also raised the possibility of escalating disputes between both families in the village. However, the court reviewed a medical report from April 2025, which indicated that Anil remained unable to speak or testify due to his injuries. Given this, the judge determined that the likelihood of Anil providing testimony was minimal. Following a thorough review, the court granted bail to Aryan under strict conditions. He is required to submit his contact and residential details to authorities and notify them of any changes. Additionally, he is strictly prohibited from contacting witnesses or interfering with evidence. Any violation of these conditions will result in the cancellation of his bail. (ANI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Poonch on Friday to meet families affected by the recent Pakistani shelling and distributed appointment letters to the next of kin of civilians killed during the attacks. Addressing the gathering, Shah condemned Pakistan's actions, stating, "Pakistan targeted the civilian areas in J&K, and Poonch suffered the most damage. For the first time, firing was done on Poonch post-independence...The entire world is condemning the attack by Pakistan...The Indian Armed Forces gave a befitting reply by destroying nine Pakistani air bases, and as a result, they had to come forward for a ceasefire" Shah further said that on the night of May 7, 2025, the Indian Armed Forces conducted a decisive operation, destroying terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He described the action as a "befitting reply" to terrorists on behalf of India's citizens, resulting in the elimination of hundreds of terrorists. "On the night of May 7, we destroyed the terrorist sites in Pakistan and PoK...This was a befitting reply given to terrorists on behalf of the crores of Indians...Hundreds of terrorists were killed in the operation...We launched an attack on terrorists, but Pakistan considered it an attack on itself. They showed the world that they are the ones who are sheltering terrorists,' he said. He added," We have sent a message that India will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians, Indian Armed Forces and every attack will be responded to with more precision and accuracy" During his visit, the Home Minister also interacted with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at their Unit Headquarters in Khanetar, praising their role in Operation Sindoor. Shah visited religious sites damaged in the shelling and reviewed the security situation ahead of the Amarnath Yatra. The visit followed the unprovoked Pakistani shelling in the civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir post Operation Sindoor, which was conducted on May 7. The operation was conducted in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, including a Nepali national. In the early hours of May 7, the Indian Armed Forces conducted strikes at nine terror hideouts in the deep areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the 'Operation Sindoor' in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. (ANI) For Ishita Sangwan, who was among the first batch of 17 newly commissioned cadets who graduated from the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune on Friday, every day at the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces "offered a new box of surprises". Reflected on her NDA journey, Sangwan said "...It feels amazing to be an ex-NDA. I had no idea about NDA as there was no one from a defence background in my family. When I joined, everything was new. It felt like every day was a new box of surprises, every day was something new..." The first batch of 17 female cadets graduated from the Academy today. The cadets celebrated their transformation into future officers of the Indian Armed Forces after three years of rigorous training at the premier tri-services academy. Cadet Harsimran Kaur, who also graduated in the first batch of female cadets, said, "I was actually preparing for JEE Mains and then NDA came in between as a blessing. I was told by one of my friends that NDA is open for women as well. Then I thought of giving it a try. I just want to say that don't be afraid of anything. You can do whatever you want, just believe in yourself and go for it." Cadet Udayveer Negi, who won the Commandant Silver Medal and the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Trophy for securing first position in B. Tech, expressed heartfelt emotions as he looked back at his training journey. Negi said, "It is a very surreal moment for me and I cannot explain it in words. There are a lot of emotions right now, a lot of anxiety. Feeling really happy that my parents are here and just find a moment with me. The journey has been an interesting one. All the members of my family, most of them, have served in the defence forces. So from the start, it was always an inspiration for me that I had to join the defence forces one way or the other." The graduation event was held at the NDA campus in Khadakwasla, Pune, and reviewed by General Vijay Kumar Singh (Retd), the current Governor of Mizoram and a former Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). The ceremony brought together cadets, proud parents, military officials, and dignitaries from across the country to witness the event. Calling it a "significant and historic" event, General VK Singh praised the achievement of the graduating women cadets. "Today is also a unique and significant day in the history of the academy. The first batch of women cadets will pass out today. This marks a historic milestone in our collective journey of our greatest inclusivity and empowerment. These women are a symbol of Nari Shakti. It's embodied not just in women's development but in women-led development," the former COAS said. In August 2021, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered that women should be allowed to join the National Defence Academy (NDA). This ruling came after the government had previously been taking steps to implement the allowance of women into the NDA. The Supreme Court's decision was based on pleas filed by women seeking to be admitted to the NDA. Entry to NDA is through a common National written examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) followed by selection by Service Selection Board (SSB) with no demarcation or quota for any State or Union Territory. The first batch of female cadets joined NDA in August, 2022 (i.e. from the148th NDA course). 126 female cadets have joined NDA from 148th course till date i.e. the 153rd course. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the opposition over the issue of social justice, saying that the people who cheated Bihar the most are now talking about "social justice" for the sake of power. PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation of multiple development projects worth over Rs 48,520 crore on Friday in Karakat. PM Modi said that during the opposition's tenure, poor and deprived sections of the society had to leave Bihar, and for decades, the Dalits and tribals of the state did not have toilets. He stated that their entry into banks was also not allowed. "Those who cheated Bihar the most, during whose tenure the poor and deprived sections of Bihar had to leave Bihar, are today the same people telling the lie of social justice to gain power. For decades, the Dalits, backward classes and tribals of Bihar did not even have toilets. For decades, these brothers and sisters of ours did not even have a bank account. Their entry into banks was banned", PM Modi said while addressing the gathering. The Prime Minister questioned RJD and Congress saying that during their tenure, crores of people didn't even have proper roofs over their heads. "Here, crores of people did not even have a proper roof over their heads. This plight, pain, and suffering of the people of Bihar, was this the social justice of Congress and RJD? There can be no greater injustice than this", the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister attacked RJD and Congress for never being bothered about the problems faced by the Dalits and the backwards. "Congress and RJD never bothered about the problems faced by Dalits and backward classes. These people used to bring foreigners around to show them the poverty of Bihar", the PM said. PM Modi asserted that Dalits and the backward class have left Congress because of their sins and are now talking about social justice to save their existence. He added that the new dawn of development and social justice began during the NDA era. He highlighted that the government has provided basic amenities of life to the poor sections of society. "A new dawn of social justice has been seen in Bihar and the country during the NDA era. We have provided basic amenities of life to the poor. We are working to provide those facilities to 100 per cent of the beneficiaries. Now, when the Dalit, deprived and backwards society, have abandoned the Congress because of its sins, they are remembering the talk of social justice to save their existence", PM Modi asserted. The Prime Minister said that the NDA government gave Bihar the Makhana board and a GI tag, which will benefit the farmers. He stated that the people of the state had been demanding the modernisation of the Patna airport, which has now been fulfilled. PM Modi highlighted that he inaugurated the new terminal of the Bihta airport, which can handle around 1 crore passengers. "Our government has announced the Makhana Board. We gave a GI tag to Makhana of Bihar, which greatly benefited Makhana farmers! In this year's budget, we have also announced a National Institute for Food Processing in Bihar. The people of Bihar had been demanding for a long time that the terminal of Patna airport be modernised... now this demand has also been fulfilled. Yesterday evening, I had the honour of inaugurating the new terminal building of Patna Airport. This new terminal can now handle 1 crore passengers, an investment of Rs 1,400 crore is also being made at Bihta Airport", the Prime Minister said. Speaking on the Bihar government's Bhimrao Ambedkar Samagra Seva Abhiyan, PM Modi stated that the initiative aims to reach every corner of the state with 22 new schemes. He added that the aim is to reach Dalits, the backwards, and poor households. To date, 30000 camps have been organised under the initiative. "The Bihar government has started Bhimrao Ambedkar Samagra Seva Abhiyan in which the government is reaching every corner of Bihar with 22 important schemes. We aim to reach every Dalit, backwards and poor person's house. Till now, more than 30 thousand camps have been organised under this campaign.... When the government directly reaches out to the beneficiaries, there is no discrimination or corruption. Only then true social justice happens", PM Modi said. (ANI) Congress MP Pramod Tiwari claimed that when Rahul Gandhi comes to power, that day Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) will be a part of India. Speaking to ANI, Pramod Tiwari said, "The day Rahul Gandhi will have power in his hands and will have the right to take decisions for India, that day, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will be a part of India. This is my belief because he is a very determined person..." Earlier, Congress leader and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and made a similar claim about Rahul Gandhi. CM Reddy called PM Modi an "expired rupee". Addressing the Jai Hind Yatra, he said, "Modi is expired rupee, Modi is like a 1000 rupees' invalid note. Today, this country needs Rahul Gandhi's leadership. If a leader like Rahul Gandhi would have been Prime Minister of this country, then he would have taken (former PM) Indira Gandhi as inspiration and would have walked in Kaali's (Maata) way and would have made Pakistan into two parts and would have taken PoK back." These statements have led to a war of words between Congress and the BJP. BJP MP Sambit Patra questioned Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy and Jairam Ramesh over not asking Pakistan regarding how many of their airbases were destroyed or terrorists were killed. The BJP MP stated that Congress' 'Jai Hind Yatra' looks like 'Pakistan Hind Yatra'. Patra said, "Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and Revanth Reddy are asking how many Rafales were shot down. 'Yeh jo Pakistan ke Babbar hain, woh Hindustan ke Gabbar hain'. Rahul Gandhi did not ask how many Pakistani airbases were destroyed, how many terrorists were killed; rather, he only asked how many Indian planes were shot down." "Today, there are two factions in Congress - one which supports Pakistan and the other which wants to raise a voice for the country but is unable to do so because of you," Sambit Patra added. (ANI) On May 29, BSF troops apprehended a Pakistani intruder near the International Border in the District Pathankot. On noticing suspicious movement, the alert troops acted swiftly to apprehend him ahead of the fence, when he illegally crossed the IB (International Border). He was handed over to the Narot Jaimal Singh Police Station after preliminary questioning. In another operation on May 24, Border Security Forces (BSF) on Friday night neutralised a Pakistani intruder attempting to enter Indian territory in Banaskantha district, Gujarat. According to a statement from the security forces, the troops spotted one suspicious person advancing towards the border fence after crossing the International Border. Taking swift action, BSF challenged the intruder, but the intruder continued to advance, prompting them to open fire. The intruder was neutralised on the spot, the statement added. Security forces have been on high alert after Pakistan committed ceasefire violations by cross-border shelling following Operation Sindoor. India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POJK). Earlier on Monday, the Border Security Force (BSF) showcased a range of weapons, including the 'Vidhwansak' anti-material rifle, which was used during Operation Sindoor to target Pakistani posts. The demonstration was held during a weapon exhibition at the BSF Frontier Headquarters in Jammu. The visuals from the event showed BSF personnel demonstrating the use of the anti-material rifle (AMR), the automatic grenade launcher system, and other heavy weaponry. BSF official Rakesh Kaushik said that the Vidhvansak has a range of 1800 m and 1300 m. The barrels, bolts and magazines are changed as per the need. One magazine has three rounds. It destroys the enemy's pillboxes, bunkers and armed cars. It is made in India and destroyed all the given targets during Operation Sindoor. A BSF officer said that the medium machine gun is operated by three personnel. This was used by the BSF to counter Pakistan's attacks during Operation Sindoor. He added that Pakistan's observation outpost was destroyed using Vidhwansak. During Operation Sindoor, the BSF worked closely with the Indian Armed Forces, which successfully targeted Pakistani airbases, damaging enemy infrastructure. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan's DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has said that the use of technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made education more effective and accessible. He was addressing MBB University's first convocation ceremony at Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhavan in Agartala, in the presence of Governor Indrasena Reddy Nallu. A total of 9,642 students, including those from three affiliated colleges, have completed their Graduate/Post-Graduate Degrees and Post-Graduate Diploma courses from this university. Among them, 135 meritorious students were awarded gold medals. Speaking at the event, Saha, who is also the Education Minister of the state, said that the state government has taken the initiative to develop Maharaja Bir Bikram University as an advanced university with overall quality, and in this regard, the government is moving forward with a far-reaching plan. He said that the convocation ceremony is a special moment in the lives of degree-winning students. "Our country has had a tradition of education systems since ancient times. Earlier, students from abroad used to come to study at Nalanda University in our country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously trying to revive this tradition of education. Based on the traditional culture and values of our country, a new National Education Policy has been launched after many years," he said. Saha said that the new National Education Policy is also being implemented in state educational institutions. India's contributions to mathematics, science, yoga, and philosophy are still recognised worldwide. The new National Education Policy-2020 has incorporated this glorious tradition into the modern curriculum. In line with this vision, a course on the Indian Knowledge System has been introduced at M.B.B. University. To further broaden the career opportunities of students, the Chief Minister also mentioned the plan to introduce B.B.A., M.B.A., B.C.A., M.C.A., B.Sc., and M.Sc. courses in Biotechnology at M.B.B. University," he said. The Chief Minister reiterated that the use of technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made education more effective and accessible. "Assistant Professors have already been appointed for colleges. New colleges are being opened under government initiatives. Tuition fees have been waived for girls. Schemes like the Mukhyamantri Kanya Atmanirbhar Yojana and the Mukhyamantri Yuva Samachar Yojana have also been launched. Free scooties are being distributed to eligible students," he said. The Chief Minister told the degree graduates that as they step into the next stage of life, they will have to face various challenges. "However, one has to face every challenge with competence and skill and move forward in life." He urged the students to show respect to everyone and remain humble, he added. (ANI) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two accused, including the Branch Manager of Bihar Gramin Bank, Babhangama Branch in Sitamarhi district, and a daily wager employee (private person), for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs. 10,000 from a complainant, according to an official release. The CBI registered a case against the accused on May 29, 2025, on allegations that they had demanded a bribe of Rs. 15,000 from the complainant in exchange for releasing the subsidy amount related to a PMEGP loan that had already been sanctioned and disbursed to the complainant in 2022. According to the statement, CBI laid a trap and caught both the accused red-handed while demanding and accepting Rs. 10,000 in bribes from the complainant. Both were subsequently arrested and will be produced before the Court of Special Judge, CBI, Patna, on May 30. Searches were conducted at the accused's residential and official premises in Sitamarhi, Bihar, where incriminating documents were recovered. Investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, in a separate operation in Assam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the Branch Manager of Central Bank of India, Dhamdhama Branch, District Nalbari, Assam, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs. 5000 from the complainant. As per the statement, a case was registered by the CBI on Thursday against the accused on the allegation that he demanded an undue advantage of Rs 5000 from the complainant to enhance his overdraft (OD) facility. CBI laid a trap and caught the accused red-handed for demanding and accepting the bribe of Rs. 5000. The accused was later arrested and will be produced before the CBI Court in Guwahati on May 30. Investigation is continuing, said the statement. Meanwhile, in Bhubaneshwar, the CBI arrested Enforcement Directorate Deputy Director Chintan Raghuvanshi (IRS) on corruption charges. (ANI) The states of Punjab and Haryana will carry out state-wide mock drills on Saturday under the nationwide exercise "Operation Shield", officials announced on Friday. The drills will include sirens, blackouts, and emergency scenarios designed to test the readiness of local authorities and citizens in case of attacks or disasters. Punjab's Special Director General of Police, Sanjeev Kalra, said the exercise would involve all districts and simulate large-scale emergency situations starting at 6 pm. Kalra said, "The mock drill is a part of Operation Shield and is being conducted in all districts of the bordering states on the Western border. The mock drill will be conducted by 6 pm tomorrow. " He added that a detailed meeting had already been held with the district administrations to prepare for the exercise. As part of the drill, sirens will be sounded and blackouts will be enforced to mimic real-life emergency conditions. "Blackout measures, rescue measures, fire services are a part of the mock drill...The representatives of the armed forces will also be involved in it," Kalra told ANI. In neighbouring Haryana, similar preparations are being made. Haryana Joint Secretary Sunita Mishra said that mock drills will begin at 5 pm on Saturday and follow guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). A total of 32,000 volunteers will take part across the state."The mock drill will be conducted throughout Haryana on 31st May. We will also be following the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)...The mock drill will prepare us for any future contingencies...32,000 volunteers will also participate in the mock drill...We are training and briefing these volunteers...The activities will be done after 5 pm," she said. Earlier, the civil defence mock drill, scheduled for May 29, has been postponed due to administrative reasons. However, the dates for the same are yet to be announced. A statement released by the Gujarat Information Department read, "It is hereby intimated that the Civil Defence Exercise 'Operation Shield', which was planned to be held on May 29, 2025, is hereby postponed due to administrative reasons. It is requested that necessary directions to all the Controllers of Civil Defence and other stakeholders may be issued accordingly. Next dates for the exercise shall be issued subsequently." Additionally, the civil defence exercise has also been postponed in Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Earlier on Wednesday, as per the orders from the Government of India and under the guidance of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, a civil defence exercise was scheduled to be conducted in Gujarat on Thursday at 5:00 PM. Regarding the Operation Shield mock drill, Chief Secretary of the Revenue Department (Gujarat), Jayanti Ravi, on Wednesday, virtually reviewed preparations made by the district administration. Along with this, she also gave necessary instructions to all the District Collectors for the successful implementation of a mock drill. Further, Jayanti Ravi said that during this exercise, various actions like ensuring the readiness of the local administration regarding civil security; taking the services of young volunteers like NCC, NSS, Bharat Scout and Guide; setting up a hotline between the Air Force and the Civil Security Control Room regarding enemy aircraft and missile attacks; activating the air raid siren; ensuring complete darkness and ensuring public safety and their property will be taken. Operation Sindoor targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). The operation was a retaliatory response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people, including one Nepalese national. (ANI) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has said that the primary goal of his government is to achieve food self-sufficiency through the use of advanced technology. "The state government is working with special emphasis on increasing the income of farmers. Farmers' income has increased significantly compared to the financial year 2015-16. The aim is to achieve food self-sufficiency through the use of advanced technology," he said. Saha was speaking at the Vikshit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan held at Bishramganj in Sepahijala district on Thursday, organised as part of a nationwide campaign. He was accompanied by Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath. "This campaign has been launched with the objective of empowering farmers through advanced technology. The government is committed to ensuring the welfare of farmers through technological advancement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given special emphasis on financially empowering farmers, and our state government is working in the same direction," the Chief Minister said. "One of the key goals of this Abhiyan is to raise awareness among farmers about modern agricultural technologies. As a result, the agricultural sector will witness further improvement, enabling the cultivation of high-quality crops," he added. Saha also highlighted the Rising Northeast Investors Summit held recently in New Delhi, where all eight northeastern states participated. "MoUs worth Rs 30,000 crore were signed at the summit, out of which Tripura alone accounted for over Rs 15,600 crore. This clearly shows that investors are now willing to come to Tripura," he stated. He asserted that the development of farmers is essential for the overall progress of the state and the country. "In various districts across the state, farmers are being supported through the adoption of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and drone technology. Work is in progress in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Union Ministry of Agriculture to improve the AI-based crop advisory system under the Digital Agriculture Mission in Tripura. This initiative has already yielded notable benefits," the Chief Minister said. He further noted that since the BJP government came to power in Tripura, paddy has been procured from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP). "Over Rs 446 crore has been disbursed so far, with paddy being purchased at Rs 23 per kilogram. Soil Health Cards have been distributed to more than 2.06 lakh farmers, and one Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) has been formed in each of the 58 blocks," he informed. The program was attended by Sepahijala Zilla Parishad Sabhadhipati Supriya Das Dutta, Agriculture Department Secretary Apurba Roy, Sepahijala District Magistrate Siddharth Shiv Jaiswal, and other senior officials. (ANI) Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, expressed gratitude towards Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as he was aboard Indian Naval Ship (INS) Vikrant and assured him that the Indian Navy is ready for the 'new normal'. Welcoming the Defence Minister, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi said, "This is a matter of pride for us that today you are present among those Navy officers who, during the Operation Sindoor, successfully enabled the plans of the Indian Navy...Your leadership has always been the force multiplier for the Indian Navy. Operation Sindoor is the best example of it..." Talking about Operation Sindoor, Admiral Tripathi added, "...Operation Sindoor tested our readiness, endurance and resolve, and I am happy to inform you that our naval personnel faced and overcame the challenge with courage, coordination and indomitable resolve." Assuring the Defence Minister of the Indian Navy's readiness, he said that they are ready for any challenge. "I assure you (Defence Minister Rajnath Singh) that the Indian Navy is always ready for this new normal and ready to face any challenge..." he said. Giving the credit for Operation Sindoor to the Defence Minister, Admiral Tripathi said, "...The credit for the success of Operation Sindoor goes not only to the navy personnel who fought valiantly at sea but also to you (Defence Minister Rajnath Singh), who trusted and supported the Indian Navy." Defence Minister Rajnath Singh aboard India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, on Friday warned Pakistan of the Indian Navy's unmatched strength, stating that had the Navy joined its sister forces in active combat during Operation Sindoor, Pakistan would have faced a worse outcome than in 1971, surmising that it could have been divided into four parts. "1971 is a witness to this, that when the Indian Navy came into action, Pakistan was divided from one to two. If the Indian Navy had come into action in Operation Sindoor, then Pakistan would not only have been divided into two parts, but I think it would have been divided into four parts," Singh proclaimed. Apart from INS Vikrant, the Raksha Mantri embarked on other key frontline warships, which were part of the Carrier Battle Group and played a pivotal role in compelling Pakistani Navy units to operate close to Makran Coast. (ANI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the Union Government on Friday and stated that bank frauds in the government have increased by 416 per cent. He stated that despite demonetisation in 2016, the fake Rs 500 currency notes have increased by 291 per cent. He said that no one knows what flows in the veins of Prime Minister Modi, but "fraud and fakery" flows in the veins of his government. "In the 11 years of the Modi government Rs bank frauds worth Rs 6,36,992 crore have taken place, which is an increase of 416%. Even after demonetisation, the number of fake currency notes of Rs 500 increased by 291% in the last 6 years. This year it is the highest. Modi Ji, we don't know what flows in your veins, but it is certain that Fraud & Fakery flows in the veins of your Government!", Kharge wrote in his 'X' post. On Thursday, Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP-led central government of consistently spreading misinformation about the economy to cover up its "massive failures." He claimed that over the past eleven years, the government has systematically weakened every sector of the Indian economy. In a post on X, Kharge wrote, "The Modi government has made it a habit to spread lies about the economy to hide its gross failures! For 11 consecutive years, this incompetent government has been destroying every sector of the economy. The truth is here." Earlier on Monday, Kharge had launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the government completed 11 years in office. The Congress president alleged that the Modi-led administration had "ruined" the country and that its promise of "achhe din" (good days) had turned into a "dreadful dream." He stated that a promise of doubling farmers' income was not fulfilled, so they had to eat rubber bullets, whereas women's security is currently in "tatters."Mallikarjun Kharge further alleged atrocities against the minorities of the country and believed that their participation in society is lost. (ANI) Rajasthan will carry out state-wide mock drills on Saturday under the nationwide exercise "Operation Shield", officials announced on Friday. A mock drill and blackout exercise under 'Operation Shield' was scheduled to be held across all 41 districts of Rajasthan, including Jaisalmer, to prepare for emergency response in case of an airstrike or wartime situation. Ahead of the operation, the district administration in Jaisalmer completed all necessary preparations, and Civil Defense teams conducted practice sessions under the supervision of trained officers. According to official sources, the mock drill will begin at 5:00 PM, although the exact location in Jaisalmer district has been kept confidential for security purposes. The exercise, mandated by the Rajasthan Home Department, aimed to test readiness for air attack scenarios, assess security protocols, and enhance emergency coordination among defense and administrative personnel. "We are being trained under the leadership of experienced officers. Along with the mock drill, we are always ready to deal with emergency situations," said a Civil Defense personnel during a briefing. As part of preparations in Jaisalmer, six locations were selected for airstrike warning sirens, and a total of 72 Civil Defense personnel were deployed for the operation. These sirens were to be used during the blackout phase to simulate an air attack environment. It is important to note that a similar drill was conducted earlier on May 7 on Shiv Road in Jaisalmer, where sirens were used to warn residents of mock airstrikes as part of public awareness and preparedness. Earlier in the day, the states of Punjab and Haryana will carry out state-wide mock drills on Saturday under the nationwide exercise "Operation Shield", officials announced on Friday. The drills will include sirens, blackouts, and emergency scenarios designed to test the readiness of local authorities and citizens in case of attacks or disasters. Punjab's Special Director General of Police, Sanjeev Kalra, said the exercise would involve all districts and simulate large-scale emergency situations starting at 6 pm. Kalra said, "The mock drill is a part of Operation Shield and is being conducted in all districts of the bordering states on the Western border. The mock drill will be conducted by 6 pm tomorrow. " He added that a detailed meeting had already been held with the district administrations to prepare for the exercise. As part of the drill, sirens will be sounded and blackouts will be enforced to mimic real-life emergency conditions. "Blackout measures, rescue measures, fire services are a part of the mock drill...The representatives of the armed forces will also be involved in it," Kalra told ANI. (ANI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday visited the Singh Sabha Gurudwara in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, which was damaged during Pakistan's cross-border shelling. During the visit, Shah offered prayers at the Gurudwara and interacted with families affected by the shelling. Locals who met the Union Minister shared their concerns and urged for compensation and relief. Speaking to ANI, Jaskiran Kaur, a district resident, said, "We told him who suffered what damage due to shelling. The people were terrified by the cowardly act Pakistan did here. We hope that Amit Shah will help us get compensation for our loss." Kaur added, "We are with him and hope he will be with us too... We were waiting since morning to catch a glimpse of him. We have full faith that he will do something for us." The Home Minister's visit drew attention from residents across the region, many of whom had gathered since early morning. Shah listened to the grievances of those impacted and offered assurances of support. During his visit, Shah also met families directly affected by the cross-border firing incidents. Earlier today, Shah visited Poonch to meet families affected by the recent Pakistani shelling and distributed appointment letters to the next of kin of civilians killed during the attacks. Addressing the gathering, Shah condemned Pakistan's actions, stating, "Pakistan targeted the civilian areas in J&K, and Poonch suffered the most damage. For the first time, firing was done on Poonch post-independence...The entire world is condemning the attack by Pakistan...The Indian Armed Forces gave a befitting reply by destroying nine Pakistani air bases, and as a result, they had to come forward for a ceasefire" Shah further said that on the night of May 7, 2025, the Indian Armed Forces conducted a decisive operation, destroying terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He described the action as a "befitting reply" to terrorists on behalf of India's citizens, resulting in the elimination of hundreds of terrorists. "On the night of May 7, we destroyed the terrorist sites in Pakistan and PoK...This was a befitting reply given to terrorists on behalf of the crores of Indians...Hundreds of terrorists were killed in the operation...We launched an attack on terrorists, but Pakistan considered it an attack on itself. They showed the world that they are the ones who are sheltering terrorists,' he said. He added," We have sent a message that India will not tolerate any attack on innocent civilians, Indian Armed Forces and every attack will be responded to with more precision and accuracy" During his visit, the Home Minister also interacted with Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at their Unit Headquarters in Khanetar, praising their role in Operation Sindoor. Shah visited religious sites damaged in the shelling and reviewed the security situation ahead of the Amarnath Yatra. The visit followed the unprovoked Pakistani shelling in the civilian areas of Jammu and Kashmir post Operation Sindoor, which was conducted on May 7. The operation was conducted in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, including a Nepali national. In the early hours of May 7, the Indian Armed Forces conducted strikes at nine terror hideouts in the deep areas of Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the 'Operation Sindoor' in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. (ANI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, addressing officers and sailors onboard India's first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant off the Goa coast, declared that "Operation Sindoor is not just a military action, but India's frontal assault against terrorism. "Operation Sindoor is not just a military action, but India's frontal assault against terrorism, and if Pakistan resorts to anything evil or unethical, it will, this time, face the firepower and ire of the Indian Navy," said the Defence Minister. Commending the Indian Navy's "silent service" during Operation Sindoor, Rajnath Singh stated that the mighty Carrier Battle Group ensured that the Pakistani Navy did not venture out, or else it would have faced the consequences. He sent a clear message to Pakistan that if it tries to cast an evil eye, the opening of New Delhi's response will be at the hands of the Indian Navy. Rajnath Singh asserted that Pakistan needs to understand that the time is up for the dangerous game of terrorism it has been playing since its Independence. "Now, if Pakistan instigates any terrorist act against India, it will have to bear the consequences and face defeat. India will not hesitate. It will use every method to root out the menace of terrorism," he said. Defence Minister added that anti-India activities are being carried out openly from Pakistani soil, and India is completely free to carry out every kind of operation against terrorists on both sides of the border and the sea. Today, the whole world is acknowledging India's right to protect its citizens against terrorism, he said, emphasising that Pakistan must uproot the nursery of terrorism operating on its soil with its own hands. Rajnath Singh called for the handing over of terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India. "Both of them are not only in India's list of 'Most Wanted Terrorists', they are also UN Designated Terrorists. Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the Mumbai attacks, has been brought to India recently. Hafiz Saeed is also guilty of the Mumbai attacks, and justice must be done for his crime," he said. On Pakistan's repeated offer of talks, Raksha Mantri again clarified: "If there are talks, it will only be on terrorism and PoK. If Pakistan is serious about talks, it should hand over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India so that justice is served." Describing the Indian Navy's role in the integrated operation as praiseworthy, Rajnath Singh stated that when the Indian Air Force destroyed the terror bases on Pakistani soil, the Navy's aggressive deployment in the Arabian Sea, its unmatched maritime domain awareness and supremacy confined the Pakistani Navy to its own shores. "Our Western Fleet ships deployed at sea, within 96 hours of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, carried out successful firings of surface-to-surface & surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes on the western & eastern coast. It demonstrated the combat readiness of our platforms, systems & crew and our intent & readiness, forcing the enemy to come into a defensive posture," he said. He added that the force projection of the Carrier Battle Group effectively indicated India's intent and capability. The tremendous power of the Indian Navy, its military acumen and destructive capabilities have broken the enemy's morale, he said. He urged the Navy to continue leaving no stone unturned in its preparations, reiterating Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's clear message that if any terrorist attack takes place on Indian soil, it will be considered as an 'Act of War' and respond in the same way. Rajnath Singh reasserted that Operation Sindoor is not yet over; it is just a pause, a warning. He added that if Pakistan makes the same mistake again, India's answer will be harsher. Lauding the speed, depth and clarity of the Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor, the Defence Minister stated that the precision strikes displayed seamless synergy among the three Services as well as coordination among Ministries and Government agencies. He added that the operation sent a clear message to the terrorists & its patrons that India will no longer tolerate and give a befitting reply. "Within a very short span of time, we destroyed Pakistan's terrorist base and its intentions. Our response was so strong that Pakistan pleaded to stop. We stopped our military actions on our own terms. Our forces had not even started showing their might," he said. On his interactions with the Army and Air Force personnel and now the Naval warriors post-Operation Sindoor, Rajnath Singh expressed satisfaction that whether land, sky or sea, India is fully prepared to deal with any situation anywhere. He recalled the contribution of the older version of INS Vikrant during the Liberation of Goa, stating that the aircraft carrier had led the Indian Navy's fleet during the operation in 1961, and now, in its new indigenous avatar, it is spearheading India's resolve against terrorism. He further concluded his address by saying: "Today, we are in an era where wars are not fought only with bullets and bombs, but also through cyberspace, data dominance and strategic deterrence. It is a matter of pride that the Navy is moving ahead in these areas." He described the Indian Navy as not just the sentinel of the Indian Ocean, but a strategic force that strengthens India's presence in the region. It warns the enemy that India is no longer just a regional power, but is moving towards becoming a global power, he said. Onboard INS Vikrant, Rajnath Singh was accompanied by the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi; Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Sanjay J Singh and other senior officials of the Indian Navy. (ANI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his proposed visit to the state capital Bhopal on Saturday on the occasion of the 300th birth anniversary of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar. PM Modi will address the 'Women Empowerment Maha Sammelan' program to be held at Jamboree Ground in the city on May 31, which will be centred on women. It is expected that around 2 lakh women will participate in the program from across the state. CM Yadav said, "Tomorrow is Devi Ahilyabai Holkar's birth anniversary, and I welcome PM Modi arriving in the state on this occasion. There has not been such a big program centred on women in the state so far. I extend my greetings to women, and I would also like to invite people from the tribal community so that they can learn from the life of Devi Ahilyabai. Tribal history is quite rich in Madhya Pradesh, be it Rani Durgavati, Rani Avantibai or Rani Ahilyabai; every queen has not only given a new direction to Madhya Pradesh through her life, but also made society proud by showing pride in women." He further explained that the PM's program centred on women has been designed in such a way that women will look after all the arrangements and management of the event. "The program has been designed such that everything will be managed by our sisters. As a result of this, it will be an amazing program and such a program has not been done yet. Along with safety, women pilots will fly planes if needed, all the management and security systems will be monitored by sisters. Today, a women's bike rally was also held here. Our culture is women-oriented, we are the only country across the globe that says 'Bharat Mata ki Jai. It is equivalent to respect for the matriarchy. It is our glorious culture and I salute it." Additionally, the Chief Minister wished that the almighty protect the culture from the evil eye and extended greetings that women should continuously move ahead in their lives in the state. (ANI) The accused, identified as Danish, son of Mohd Aneesh, was apprehended after an extensive investigation involving the analysis of over 250 CCTV cameras and scrutiny of criminal dossiers, said the police. On April 3, 2025, a woman residing in Nehru Vihar reported that her 7-year-old daughter was lured by an unknown man near Gali No. 11. The accused allegedly took the child to a house, inappropriately touched her, and fled upon hearing footsteps. The traumatised girl returned home crying, prompting her family to file a complaint. A case was registered under Section 137(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 10 of the POCSO Act at Dayalpur Police Station. Given the severity of the crime, a special team was formed to track down the perpetrator. Since the case had no initial leads, the police relied on technical surveillance and CCTV footage analysis. The team scanned over 250 cameras in the vicinity and gathered intelligence from local sources. After painstakingly reviewing footage, they obtained a photo of the suspect but struggled to identify him. The investigators then cross-checked criminal records of individuals involved in similar offences over the past five years. This led them to Danish, a painter from New Kardampuri, whose details matched the suspect's photo. Upon interrogation, Danish initially tried to mislead the police but eventually confessed to the crime. He had a prior criminal record in a similar case registered at PS Jafrabad, Delhi, said the police ACP Deepak Chandra (Gokalpuri) commended the team's efforts, stating that the arrest was a result of meticulous technical and field investigation. The police are continuing their investigation to determine if Danish was involved in other such crimes. (ANI) The Delhi High Court on Friday, in interim relief, stayed the UP irrigation department's proposed eviction/ demolition of 115 properties in Okhla. The high court has sought the department's response. Residents of these properties have approached the court against the notice. Justice Sachin Datta, after hearing the submissions by counsel for the petitioners, issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department. The High court, after seeking a response from the respondent department, listed the matter for hearing on August 4. Advocate Dr. Farrukh Khan, counsel for the petitioners, submitted that the proposed eviction/demolition notice is arbitrary and illegal, as the department has no title to the land. He sought a direction restraining Respondents/ their employees and agents from forcing the Petitioners to evict/remove/ demolish their respective properties situated in Khasra No. 277, situated as Muradi Road, Khizar Baba Colony, Jamia Nagar, Okhla, against which Respondents have issued Notices dated May 22. Javed Ahmed and 114 others have moved a petition against the State of Uttar Pradesh and the Head Works Division Agra Canal Okhla, challenging the notices issued on May 22. It is stated in a petition moved through advocate Ridhima Goyal that certain demolition, eviction and coercive action is proposed to be taken against properties/premises (commercial, residential, dwelling units), wherein the Petitioners have been residing, occupying, carrying on their business and have been in long and settled possession for more than several years, on account of the said properties/premises allegedly being on the land belonging to the Irrigation Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh. It is further stated that the suit titled "State Of Uttar Pradesh v Sh. Arjun & Ors" was instituted by the State of UP, against various individuals, including Petitioner Javed Ahmed, in the year 1991. The said civil suit was instituted by State of UP seeking relief of recovery of possession and mesne profits against land admeasuring 108 Bighas and 17 Biswas in Khasra No.277, Village Okhla, Tehsil Mehrauli, New Delhi. The civil judge dismissed the civil suit on December 13, 2005, because the Government of Uttar Pradesh has miserably failed to produce any ownership/title documents, original or photocopy, the plea said. The higher court dismissed the First appeal against the order on January 13, 2011, and the order of the civil judge was upheld. The petitioner said that the second appeal against the order of January 13, 2011, passed by the District Judge was also dismissed by the High Court on July 22, 2013, thereby upholding the order passed by the Trial Court. It is mentioned that more than 12 years have lapsed, and no further appropriate legal recourse/action has been taken by the State of UP to challenge the said order, which, therefore, has attained finality. It is contended that the notice/order issued on May 22 by the respondents was pasted on the walls of the different premises of the Petitioners for eviction and coercive action against the said Petitioners with respect to their respective properties. This notice is illegal, unconstitutional and an abuse of the exercise of sovereign power. (ANI) The Cyber Police Station in Delhi's Shahdara arrested a 37-year-old man, Himanshu Arora, for allegedly blackmailing, threatening, and sexually exploiting a woman over three years using fake Instagram accounts and email IDs. The victim, a resident of New Govindpura in Delhi, lodged a complaint detailing how the accused manipulated her into sharing private photos and videos and later used them to harass and extort her. The case dated May 28, 2025 (FIR No. 41/25) was registered under Sections 75, 77, 78, 79, 308(2) BNS and Sections 66E, 67, 67A of the IT Act. A dedicated team was formed for investigation under Inspector Shiv Prakash, with the guidance of Inspector Vijay Kumar, SHO Cyber Shahdara, and ACP Gurudev Singh. According to the complaint, the victim met Himanshu Arora on Instagram in 2021. Over time, he emotionally manipulated her into sharing sensitive content. Later, she began receiving threats, vulgar messages, and extortion attempts from multiple fake social media accounts. The woman revealed that the harassment included fake profiles made using her private pictures, coercion during Instagram and Google Meet video calls. The blackmailer threatened with kidnapping, acid attack, and harm to her family and demanded extortion of Rs 1 lakh. After the fake legal messages linked her to criminal cases and FIRs, She said, "He told me his laptop had been damaged and claimed a technician might have stolen the data. But the harassment never stopped." The cyber cell also traced nine fake Instagram accounts and one Gmail ID used in the blackmail. Technical analysis and data from Meta and Google helped the team trace the phone number 7011684572, linked to the fake accounts. Though the number was registered in Himanshu Arora's mother's name, it was found to be used by Himanshu himself. The accused was apprehended on May 29, 2025, and during interrogation, he confessed to the creation of fake profiles, the sharing of explicit content, and sexually exploiting the victim. Himanshu Arora, a graduate from Delhi University, worked in his family business in Shahdara. Police seized two mobile phones, which contained three nude and semi-nude photos of the victim, one screenshot of a fake Instagram ID with a password, and a laptop used in the crime. In a public appeal, the Delhi Police urged social media users, particularly young women and minors, to be cautious while sharing personal content online. "The Cyber Crime Unit remains committed to ensuring a safe digital environment and bringing such perpetrators to justice," said Prashant Gautam, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shahdara District. The accused has been sent to judicial custody, and investigations are ongoing to identify any additional victims or accomplices. (ANI) Delhi Police Special Cell started questioning the alleged Pakistani spy arrested from Deeg, Rajasthan. Interrogation revealed that the accused spy returned to India one week before the Pahalgam attack. The interrogation so far has revealed that Kasim has received about 2 lakh Pakistani rupees in different instalments from Pakistan in exchange for spying. During the interrogation, Kasim said that he had deleted all the data from the phone. He has said that when the spies started getting caught in India post the Pahalgam attack, he deleted the data from his phone. However, the police will get the phone forensically examined to verify his claims. The police are waiting for the forensic report of his mobile phone to identify his contacts in Pakistan. The police are trying to trace Kasim's call detail record (CDR) to know his contacts in India. According to police sources, Kasim's relatives live in Pakistan. Taking advantage of this, he went to Pakistan and came in contact with Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI. The interrogation revealed that the ISI told Kasim that his brother Anees works for them. ISI asked Kasim to join them like his brother did, as he is a 'Maulvi' and people trust him. As per police sources, his brother is absconding. As per the sources, the accused was given proper training in spying. He was training in making contact with the army and how not to get caught. Post Operation Sindoor, police across states are nabbing Pakistani spies. On May 18, Haryana Police arrested several individuals alleged to perform espionage activities for Pakistan. Among the recent arrests, YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, accused of spying against India, has made the headlines. On May 26, Haryana's Hisar District Court sent Jyoti into judicial custody, and the first hearing of her case is scheduled on June 9. (ANI) He will participate in Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai Mahila Sashaktikaran Mahasammelan at around 11:15 AM in Bhopal. As per the official statement, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects in Bhopal and address a public function. Prime Minister will participate in Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai Mahila Sashaktikaran Mahasammelan. He will also release a commemorative postage stamp and a special coin dedicated to Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai. The Rs 300 coin will feature a portrait of Ahilyabai Holkar. The Prime Minister will also present the National Devi Ahilyabai Award to a woman artist for her contribution to tribal, folk, and traditional arts. Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for ghat construction works worth over Rs 860 crore on the Kshipra River, related to the upcoming Simhastha Mahakumbh 2028 in Ujjain. Various structures like barrage, stop dam, and vented causeway to regulate the water flow of the rivers will also be built. In a major boost to last-mile air connectivity, the Prime Minister will inaugurate Datia and Satna airports, opening new opportunities for industry, tourism, education, and healthcare in the Vindhya region. In line with his commitment to improve travel infrastructure in the cities, the Prime Minister will inaugurate passenger services on the Super Priority Corridor of the Yellow Line of Indore Metro. It is expected to reduce traffic and pollution while offering a comfortable commute to passengers. Prime Minister will transfer the first installment for the construction of 1,271 Atal Gram Sushasan Bhawans worth over Rs 480 crore. These buildings will provide permanent infrastructure to gram panchayats, helping them manage administrative functions, conduct meetings, and maintain records more efficiently, as per the official statement. (ANI) Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera launched a sharp attack on the Centre's foreign policy on Friday, saying its result was seen during and after 'Operation Sindoor.' "No country called Pakistan a terrorist state," Khera said. While speaking to ANI, the senior Congress leader said, "The result of our failed foreign policy was seen post-Pahalgam, during Operation Sindoor. No country called Pakistan a terrorist state; this is the result of your failed foreign policy. Then you launched Operation Sindoor, and no country gave a statement in your favour. Now, after Operation Sindoor, Kuwait has lifted visa restrictions on Pakistan. Iran, UAE, and Gulf countries are signing MoUs with Pakistan, and the most shocking thing is that yesterday, Russia signed an MoU with Pakistan to revive its very old steel mill, under which Pakistan will get $2.6 billion from Russia..." He added, "This is the result of your failed foreign policy..." Khera also refuted BJP leader Sambit Patra's criticism, defending Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and reiterating Congress's right to question the government. "The questions asked by Revanth Reddy are the same ones their BJP leaders have been asking. Their senior leader, Subramanian Swamy, is asking these questions...It's the taxpayer's money that the Prime Minister uses to travel across the world. So we have every right to know what the result of your foreign trips is. It's the taxpayers' money with which you empowered the brave Indian Army and forces. Yesterday, the IAF chief said that every project is delayed. Every taxpayer needs to know the answers. Where have you failed?..." Earlier in the day, BJP MP Sambit Patra took aim at Revanth Reddy for his remarks on the alleged destruction of Rafale jets during Operation Sindoor. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Patra said, "Yeh jo Pakistan ke Babbar hain, woh Hindustan ke Gabbar hain (These so-called 'Babbar' of Pakistan are actually the 'Gabbar' of Hindustan"). He also questioned Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy, and Jairam Ramesh for not demanding answers from Pakistan about how many of its airbases were destroyed or how many terrorists were killed. On Thursday, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy had said that Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge attended the all-party meeting and extended their full support to the Centre, and made it clear that India should fight against Pakistan to merge the PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) with the country. (ANI) Rajasthan Police on Friday detained a government employee, Shakur Khan, on the allegations of spying, in Jaisalmer. According to Jaisalmer Superintendent of Police (SP) Sudhir Chaudhary, Khan is undergoing interrogation. Speaking to ANI, SP Sudhir Chaudhary said, "Shakur Khan, who is a government employee, has been detained and interrogation is being done..." The police had previously appealed to the public for information regarding suspicious individuals in the area. Several people have been detained for questioning, and action has been taken against those found to be sending sensitive information across the border. "We had appealed to the public to give us information regarding the presence of any suspicious person. We have already detained many persons for interrogation, and action has been taken against those who were sending important information across the border..," said Sudhir Chaudhary. Amid action against spies in the state, earlier today, the Delhi Police Special Cell started questioning the Pakistani spy arrested from Deeg, Rajasthan. Interrogation revealed that the accused spy returned to India one week before the Pahalgam attack. As per the police sources, the interrogation so far has revealed that Kasim has received about two lakh Pakistani rupees in different instalments from Pakistan in exchange for spying. Kasim has told during the interrogation that he deleted all the data from the phone. He has said that when the spies started getting caught in India post the Pahalgam attack, he deleted the data from his phone. However, the police will get the phone forensically examined to verify his claims. The police are waiting for the forensic report of his mobile phone to identify his contacts in Pakistan. The police are trying to trace Kasim's call detail record (CDR) to know his contacts in India. Post Operation Sindoor, police across states are nabbing Pakistani spies. On May 18, Haryana Police arrested several individuals alleged to perform espionage activities for Pakistan. Among the recent arrests, YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, accused of spying against India, has made the headlines. On May 26, Haryana's Hisar District Court sent Jyoti into judicial custody, and the first hearing of her case is scheduled on June 9. (ANI) Defense spokesperson slams Japan's irresponsible comments about China's military development Xinhua) 10:05, May 30, 2025 BEIJING, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday rejected Japan's irresponsible comments about China's military development. Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks at a press briefing when answering a question on the draft of Japan's defense white paper for 2025. Zhang pointed out, in the draft of its defense white paper, the Japanese side repeats its irresponsible comments about China's military development, and points fingers at China's legitimate military activities and external military cooperation. "We are strongly opposed to this." 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. At this special historical juncture, it is even more important for Japan to reflect on its behaviors, instead of making unfounded smears and accusations against others, Zhang noted. China urges Japan to follow the path of peaceful development, act prudently in the domain of military and security, and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the rest of the international community with concrete actions, Zhang said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said on Friday that the recent communal violence in the coastal Karnataka region had delivered a big blow to the region, warning that it could result in significant losses for both the area and the state. Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha and Palace Grounds, Shivakumar said, "We have taken steps to protect all sections of society. In addition to the official report, a team from the Party has also been sent to interact with the public and submit a report. We want peace to be restored in the region." He was referring to the recent incident in the Dakshina Kannada district, where a pickup driver was hacked to death in the Kolthamajal, Addoor area of Mangaluru. "This is not just about one or two deaths; the communal tension is a big blow to the region. It is important to understand that the people are anxious and the businesses are hesitant to invest in the region. I appeal to the BJP and other organisations to realise the gravity of the situation," he added. When asked why the situation remained volatile even after officials were transferred from Dakshina Kannada, Shivakumar said, "We are trying to control the situation. BJP and other organisations are trying to provoke on communal lines. The people of the region need to understand that they will eventually be affected. Youth are already migrating to other regions for employment." On complaints about officials allegedly not responding to locals, he added, "Our government has taken this seriously. Officials will have to respond." Earlier in the day, Karnataka cabinet minister and Dakshina Kannada district in-charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao, also hit out at what he called "vested interests" turning the region into a "communal experiment" and informed about the formation of a "Communal Violence Prevention Force." "Some vested interests, who have turned the D. Kannada district into a communal experiment school, are cooking their own rice by disturbing the peace of the district. The Communal Violence Suppression Task Force has been formed with the firm stance that such vested interests should be uprooted," Rao said in a post on X. He also criticised BJP leaders for "doing politics in the name of religion," calling them the "real enemies who are robbing the peace of Dakshina Kannada." His post read, "If BJP leaders stop playing politics of the grave, D Kannada district will naturally become a place of peace. But the BJP, who are doing politics by filling the people with the opium of religion, are the real enemies who are robbing the peace of D.Kannada district. People should understand this." (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday issued stern warning to Pakistan for "sponsoring" terrorism and said that India will respond strongly to every terrorist attack. He stated that India will not differentiate between state and non-state actors, and those responsible will be held accountable and punished, regardless of their location or affiliation. "If I say this straight in Kanpuriya, dushman kahin bhi ho honk diya jayega," PM Modi said while addressing the gathering here. Without mincing words, PM Modi emphasised that India will not be intimated of hollow nuclear threats. "India will not be scared of hollow threats of atom bomb and won't take decisions on this basis (of such a threat). India will look at the 'aaka' of terrorism and its sponsoring government with only one view: Pakistan's state and non-state actors...this game will not work anymore," PM Modi said. The Prime Minister laid down India's stand and its plan of action against terrorism, saying that any terrorist attack that happens, India will respond strongly to every terrorist attack, with the timing and terms of the response decided by the Armed Forces "In its fight against terrorism, India has decided on three rules: every terrorist attack will be answered strongly. The army will decide on how to answer and in what way to answer. The conditions to respond to a terrorist attack will also be decided by the army," PM Modi asserted. He emphasised the importance of self-reliance in defence and economy, citing the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" campaign as a key initiative. He highlighted India's growing strength and its ability to respond decisively to terrorist threats. PM Modi gave examples of Make in India and India's weapon systems through Operation Sindoor, where advanced weapons such as BrahMos entered deep into enemy territory and caused havoc. "The world witnessed the power of Make in India and its weapon through Operation Sindoor. Our Indian weapons (systems), including the BrahMos missile, entered the enemy territory and caused havoc. The explosions happened on target. We have received this power from our resolve for Aatmnirbhar Bharat," PM Modi said. Highlighting India's resolve to remain self-reliant, the Prime Minister recalled times when the country relied on other nations for its safety. He said that becoming Aatmanirbhar was crucial for the country's self-respect. "There was a time when India depended on other countries for its safety. We have tried to change these circumstances. India becomes Aatmanirbhar, it is good for the economy, but it is also important for the country's self-respect," PM Modi said. The Prime Minister mentioned Operation Sindoor, stating that it is not over yet and warning enemies not to be fooled. He recalled India's military action in Pakistan, where terror camps were destroyed, and the Pakistan Army begged for a ceasefire. "We destroyed terrorist camps deep inside (Pakistan). Our army performed with such courage that the Pakistani army was forced to demand a halt to the conflict. I salute the courage and valour of the armed forces. During Operation Sindoor, the enemy that was begging shouldn't remain in any delusion. Operation Sindoor has not finished yet," PM Modi said. He apprised about his meeting with the family members of slain victim Shubham Dwivedi, who was shot dead in the ghastly April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack, before his wife. The PM said that the outrage felt by "our sisters and daughters" has translated into Operation Sindoor. "This program was supposed to happen on April 24. However, I had to cancel my visit to Kanpur due to the Pahalgam attack. Our son from Kanpur, Shubham Dwivedi, was also a victim of the terrorist attack. We can feel the pain of our daughter Ashanya. The world witnessed the outrage felt by our sisters and daughters in the form of Operation Sindoor," PM Modi said. PM Modi was speaking at an event in Kanpur where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 15 development projects costing Rs 47,600 crores. He also flagged off Kanpur Metro's new corridor between Chunniganj and Nayaganj. (ANI) BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari, on Friday, criticised Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi's leadership, citing his response to the Pahalgam terror attack, calling him "casual leader and baalak buddhhi." While speaking to ANI, Bhandari contrasted Rahul Gandhi's actions during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, where he was seen partying while the nation was in mourning, with his recent activities. Bhandari accused Gandhi of having questionable priorities, suggesting that he is more interested in partying and practicing Jujutsu with Congress workers than addressing national concerns. He also criticised Gandhi for allegedly promoting narratives that favor Pakistan. "Rahul Gandhi has been exposed in front of the world again... When Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi were running the government through a remote control... after 26/11 terror attack, Rahul Gandhi was found partying. Now that he is the Leader of Opposition (LoP), he was found practising Jujutsu with his party workers. This proves that: Rahul Gandhi is a casual leader; and his childish mentality continues," Bhandari said. Bhandari questioned Rahul Gandhi's fitness for public life, stating that his actions and priorities make him unsuitable for leadership roles. He alleged that Gandhi's actions align with Pakistan's narrative, making him potentially more effective at promoting Pakistan's interests than Pakistan itself. "His priorities are to bat for Pakistan, promote Congress as the B team of Pakistan and that is why he promotes Jairam Ramesh to Udit Raj and makes Sanjay Raut call Operation Sindoor a failure. He himself either parties or trains in Jujutsu. This only points towards one thing that Rahul Gandhi is not fit to be in public life. He is fit for one thing, if there is anyone capable of furthering Pakistan's narrative better than Pakistan - it is Rahul Gandhi...," the BJP spokesperson added. Earlier on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National spokesperson Guarav Bhatia condemned the "MPs are roaming around, terrorists are roaming around too" remarks by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and said that the country sought to know whether Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge agree with what Jairam Ramesh said. Speaking to ANI, Bhatia said, "What Jairam Ramesh said is condemnable and concerning. It puts all Indian citizens to shame that how an Indian leader can compare Indian MPs to terrorists. It won't be wrong to say that after #OperationSindoor, the sole attempt of Lashkar-e-Pakistan Congress, at the behest of Nishan-e-Pakistan Rahul Gandhi has been to see how the successful initiatives by Narendra Modi-Government be weakned internally while being in India. This is another attempt in the same series.He questioned, "I would like to ask Jairam Ramesh, all-party delegation of our MPs which has gone abroad and is presenting India's side strongly by rising above bipartisan politics, should these MPs be compared to terrorists?" The BJP leader accused the Congress of weakening the country. Congress leader and the party's General Secretary (Communication), Jairam Ramesh, took a jibe at the Central government for sending out parliamentarians across the world while the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror attack are "roaming around." "It has been a month since the Pahalgam attack on April 22. Today, those terrorists are roaming around. They had a role in the December 2023 Poonch terror attack; the Ganderbal attack in October 2024; and in the same month, another attack took place--they had their role in that too. This means that the Pahalgam terrorists are responsible for four attacks in 18 months, and they are roaming around. Our MPs are roaming around, and our terrorists are roaming around too," Ramesh told ANI here. Seven groups of MPs have been sent to various countries to present India's stance against terrorism and expose Pakistan's links to it. The delegation of MPs is meeting various political leaders, think tanks and the Indian diaspora in various countries. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met the family of Shubham Dwivedi of Hathipur area of Kanpur, who was shot dead in cold blood in the name of religion in the brutal April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack, and got emotional while conversing with the parents and wife of the slain victim. The PM met the family of Shubham Dwivedi, a 31-year-old businessman who was killed at Chakeri airport after landing in Kanpur. The young man recently tied the knot on February 12, lost his life in a brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam while on a family trip with his wife and relatives. Sanjay Dwivedi, father of Shubham Dwivedi, said that PM Modi had a word with his daughter-in-law Ashanya Dwivedi about the ghastly terror attack since Shubham was shot dead before her and got emotional. "I think that this incident has pained him a lot. It was a really emotional moment when he was standing with us. I think he will rest only when terrorism ends," the grieving father told ANI. "I didn't intend to put forward any demands. I wanted to meet him to express my gratitude for the action he has taken against terrorism...PM talked to my daughter-in-law and Shubham about the incident. He got emotional, and everyone else did as well," he added. Dwivedi said that his only motive for meeting the Prime Minister was to express gratitude for initiating Operation Sindoor and for retaliating strongly against terrorism by striking deep into Pakistan's territory. "In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, India responded strongly against terrorism by destroying terror camps. The Indian army was given a free hand. For this, I expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister on behalf of my family. I told him that he was not alone in this fight against terrorism. My entire family and community stand with you. The PM expressed condolences to our family. He said that the fight against terrorism will continue, and we will destroy terrorism completely," he added. Ashanya Dwivedi, wife of slain victim Shubham Dwivedi, said that PM Modi offered his heartfelt condolences to the family and said that the fight against terrorism is long and will go on. "PM Modi said that the entire nation and the government are standing with us. He offered his condolences...PM Modi was very sad...PM Modi asked me about the Pahalgam terror attack...PM Modi said that the fight against terrorism has not ended," the grieving wife told ANI. She apprised about her conversation with the Prime Minister and said he acknowledged her opinion on why the incident happened. "He also heard my opinions and acknowledged when I told him that they (the terrorists) wanted to divide Hindus and Muslims internally or they wanted to end the peaceful situation in Kashmir. He told me that he also thinks the same...PM Modi assured us of another meeting," Dwivedi added. (ANI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that Operation Sindoor is not just a military operation but a direct attack on terrorism by India. Speaking onboard INS Vikrant in the Arabian Sea, Singh interacted with naval personnel and praised the Indian Navy's role in the operation, which he described as a strategic and symbolic move in the country's broader fight against terrorism. "'Operation Sindoor' is not just a military action but India's frontal assault against terrorism. We will use every method Pakistan can think of against terrorism, but we will not hesitate to use methods that Pakistan cannot even think of," he said. He praised the Indian Navy's strategic restraint and effectiveness during the operation. "During Operation Sindoor, the Indian Navy impressed every Indian with its silent service. By remaining silent, the Indian Navy succeeded in keeping the Pakistani army tied down. Just imagine what will happen when the one who can keep a country's army 'locked in a bottle' even by remaining silent," he added. Singh warned Pakistan of severe consequences if it continues to support terrorism. "This time Pakistan did not have to face the firepower of the Indian Navy, but the world knows that if Pakistan does any nefarious act this time, it is possible that this time the opening will be at the hands of our Navy," he said. He further asserted that Pakistan's longstanding involvement in terrorism has reached its end. "Pakistan needs to understand clearly that the dangerous game of terrorism that it has been playing since the time of independence, its time limit is now over. Whenever Pakistan instigates any terrorist act against India, it will not only have to bear the consequences but, like every time, it will also have to face defeat, he said. Reiterating India's right to self-defence, Singh said, "Anti-India activities are being carried out openly from Pakistani soil. India is completely free to carry out every kind of operation against terrorists, both on this side and that side of the border and the sea. Today, the whole world is acknowledging India's right to protect its citizens against terrorism. Today, no power in the world can stop India from doing this work." He further said that it will be in Pakistan's favour if it uproots the nursery of terrorism operating on its soil with its own hands. "It should start by handing over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India. Both of them are not only in the list of 'Most Wanted Terrorists' in India, but they are also in the list of UN-designated terrorists," Singh said. "Hafiz Saeed is the culprit of the 'Mumbai attacks'. Justice should be done for the crime committed by his organisation of spreading death in Mumbai through the sea route. This cannot happen in Pakistan." Referring to the recent extradition of Mumbai attack accused Tahawwur Rana to India, Singh said, "Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the Mumbai attacks, has been brought to India recently. Pakistan is repeatedly offering talks." Rajnath Singh was accompanied onboard INS Vikrant by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Sanjay J Singh, and other senior officials of the Indian Navy. (ANI) Visuals from the spot showed security personnel making announcements via loudspeakers, urging people to evacuate the premises as a precautionary measure. Further details are awaited. This incident comes days after a similar scare on May 22, when the Punjab and Haryana High Court also received a bomb threat. The court premises were evacuated, and proceedings were suspended. "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," Gagandeep Jammu, Secretary of the Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association, had told ANI. (ANI) As heavy rains lashed parts of Karnataka, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has assured citizens that the government is fully prepared to address any emergencies. Speaking to the media on Friday, Shivakumar outlined the proactive measures being taken by the state to manage the situation and told the media that all deputy commissioners have been asked to take the required action, and state ministers will be at their headquarters to look over the situation. "We have called all the deputy commissioners and asked them to take action. For emergency cases, we have authorised all the deputy commissioners and the officers to be alert. After the meeting, all the Ministers must be in their headquarters and help the people because we can't avoid nature...," he said. In Bengaluru, the state's capital and one of the most affected areas, Shivakumar confirmed that sensitive and flood-prone zones have already been identified. "In Bengaluru, we have already pinpointed (sensitive) places. My team is in full action," he said. Earlier, DK Shivakumar said on Thursday that he instructed officials to clear all encroachments under the Disaster Management Act to ensure the smooth flow of rainwater. Speaking to reporters after inspecting storm water drains at Manyata Tech Park, he said, "Officials have been instructed to clear all buildings that obstruct the smooth flow of rain water in the city. Action will be taken under the Disaster Management Act." "The CM and I have already visited the rain-affected areas. This is an important junction, and any issues here result in problems in other areas. Some people have brought a stay from the court to stop encroachments, and our officials are also not cooperating. Hence, we have asked officials to clear encroachments under the Disaster Management Act," he said. "We are not keen to take away anyone's property and give them trouble. I am visiting the problem spots myself to verify. Everyone has agreed to allow the works to continue. But it is important to find a permanent solution. We don't want to demolish any random building, but it is important to ensure that rainwater flows smoothly without causing a flood. We can't allow Bengaluru's reputation to go down the drain. We will compensate the building owners if there are technical issues, but we want the issues to be sorted out. We have given complete authority to the Commissioner and the Secretary to take necessary action in this regard," he added. (ANI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday released a list of 40 star campaigners for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly bye-elections, which are scheduled to be held on June 19. AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal tops the star campaigner list for the bypolls in Kadi and Visavadar constituencies in Gujarat. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia are also named as star campaigners. Other prominent party leaders listed as star campaigners include Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai, Gujarat AAP chief Isudan Gadhavi, Raghav Chadha, Imran Hussain, Durgesh Pathak, Gulab Singh Yadav, Hemant Khava, Umesh Makavana, Sudhir Vaghani, Mahraj Malik, and Pravin Ram, among others. The bye-elections will be held in Gujarat's Kadi and Visavadar assembly constituencies. These elections are to fill the seats left vacant by the passing of Karsanbhai Punjabhai Solanki in February this year and the resignation of Bhayani Bhupendrabhai Gandubhai, respectively. Earlier in April, Gujarat Congress President Shaktisinh Gohil announced that the party will contest the Visavadar and Kadi bye-elections independently, without allying with the AAP or other INDIA bloc partners. Gohil explained that the decision was taken unanimously after analysing past electoral trends in the state. "Gujaratis have never voted for a third front. Here, it is either Congress or the BJP," he said. He further added, "During the last elections, the AAP tried its best. All of the big leaders of the AAP campaigned for the party, but they were still only able to get 10.5-11 per cent of votes and damaged the Congress party in elections." According to the Election Commission, the last date for filing nominations is June 2, 2025. The date for the scrutiny of nominations is June 3. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is June 5. The bypolls are scheduled to be held on June 19, and votes will be counted on June 23. The EC has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs in the bye-election in all the polling stations. Adequate numbers of EVMs and VVPATs have been made available, and all steps have been taken to ensure that the poll is conducted smoothly with the help of these machines. (ANI) The demonisation announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the "first major blow to the economy," with the economy not recovering from the shock till date, said Congress leader and party's General Secretary in-charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh on Friday. Ramesh further said with 98.24 pc of Rs 2000 notes being returned to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which were introduced at the same time of demonisation, has proven that the whole "experiment" was a futile exercise. Criticising the demonisation policy in a post on X, Ramesh posted, "The demonetisation announcement made with much fanfare by the Prime Minister on the night of 8 November 2016 was the first major blow to our economy - and the economy has not fully recovered from this shock till date." https://x.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1928398911510888941 Talking about the introduction, and the subsequent withdrawal of the Rs 2000 notes from circulation, Ramesh's post added, "2000 rupee notes were introduced at the same time, in November 2016. But just as they were introduced suddenly, the announcement of demonetization of these notes on 30 September 2023 was also made suddenly. So far 98.24% of such notes have been deposited back to RBI. This clearly proves how futile and futile this entire experiment was." Calling back the claim that demonisation will "end fake currency," Ramesh said that there has been a 37 pc increase in fake 500 rupee notes in 2023, highlighting an article which quoted RBI's annual report 2024-25. On November 8, 2016, the 500 and 1000 rupee notes were demonetised overnight, and new Rs 2000 notes were issued. "Government of India vide their Notification no. 2652 dated November 8, 2016 have withdrawn the Legal Tender status of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations of banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series issued by the Reserve Bank of India till November 8, 2016," the RBI said in a press release in 2016. The decision was taken in order to tackle fake currency, nullify black money, and curb the funding of terrorism. (ANI) National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson, Vijaya Rahatkar, on Friday, paid tribute to Ahilyabai Holkar, a visionary reformer, ahead of her 300th birth anniversary tomorrow (May 31). As per Rahatkar, the Varanasi Municipal Corporation organised the event in Maharani Ahilyabai's honour. While speaking with ANI, Rahatkar said, "This is the year of the 300th birth anniversary of Ahilyabai Holkar. The Varanasi Municipal Corporation organised an event in her honour... She (Ahilyabai Holkar) established temples and served the people... She was a great ruler and a just leader." Ahilyabai is remembered for her people-centric policies, deep commitment to economic and socio-cultural issues, especially those that affected the lives of women. She encouraged the education of women and their participation in the social and religious life of the local community. She supported and encouraged women weavers to make Maheshwari sarees. Her contributions were wide-ranging, from infrastructure development (water bodies, roads, dharamshalas) to the reconstruction and revival of temples across the length and breadth of the land. The edifices she created have not only left an indelible mark on India's cultural and spiritual landscape but also stood the test of time. Union Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh government is commemorating the 300th birth anniversary of Ahilyabai Holkar, cultural patron in Bhopal on May 31. The event will be held at Jamboree Maidan in Madhya Pradesh's capital city and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest. The commemorative programme will be held in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel and state Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. This event forms a part of the Ministry of Culture's ongoing efforts to commemorate and celebrate India's heritage and remember and honour the great visionaries who have shaped the cultural and social foundations of Bharat. During the program, a 'Commemorative Coin and Stamp' will be released in honour of Ahilyabai's 300th birth anniversary. An exhibition will be displayed showcasing her remarkable life, works, and contributions to Indian society and culture. Additionally, the program will also include cultural presentations reflecting the ethos and values upheld by Ahilyabai Holkar throughout her life. (ANI) With the aim of strengthening consumer protection and regulatory oversight in the field of traditional medicine, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ayush, Prataprao Jadhav, launched the AyushSuraksha Portal at Ayush Bhawan in Delhi on Friday, according to a release from the Ministry of AYUSH. The portal was unveiled during a press briefing, marking a significant moment in the Ministry's efforts to enhance accountability and transparency across the Ayush sector. Speaking to ANI about the portal, Minister Jhadav said that in July 2024, the Supreme Court had raised concerns regarding misleading advertisements of AYUSH medicines on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. "Today, we have inaugurated the AYUSH Safety Portal through our AYUSH department. Back in July 2024, the Supreme Court had raised concerns regarding misleading advertisements of AYUSH medicines on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. As a result of such ads, many individuals were misled into selling or using incorrect medicines. With this newly launched portal, every state will now have access to information about ongoing actions related to specific medicines and advertisements," the Union Minister said. Earlier, while speaking at the launch, the minister said that the portal will empower "citizens and professionals alike to become active participants in safeguarding the integrity of Ayush systems." "This platform will serve as a vigilant watchtower against misleading advertisements and ensure that only safe and credible products reach the people," the minister added. The Ayush Suraksha Portal has been developed in accordance with the Supreme Court's order dated July 30, 2024, wherein the Court emphasized the need for a centralized dashboard for monitoring and publishing data related to misleading advertisements and adverse drug reactions. The court directed the central government to ensure that such a system is established to allow State Licensing Authorities to report complaints, share inter-state referrals, and update the status of actions taken. The Ministry of Ayush has met the directive well before the Court's deadline of June 2025. Secretary of Ayush ministry, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, highlighted how the portal represents a significant advancement in pharmacovigilance and regulatory convergence within the Ayush ecosystem. "By integrating data from State Licensing Authorities, national pharmacovigilance centres, and key regulatory stakeholders, the portal facilitates real-time monitoring, systematic analysis, and coordinated action on misleading advertisements and adverse drug reactions. We have made it accessible to the public so that any citizen can directly report misleading ads or ADRs via the portal," Ayush secretary said after the launch. The portal was developed with the technical support of the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) and aligned with the National Pharmacovigilance Program. It allows consumers, healthcare professionals, and regulatory authorities to report and monitor misleading advertisements and adverse drug reactions through a seamless digital process. The system integrates multiple authorities, including the Ayush vertical under CDSCO, MoI&B, CCPA, NCISM, NCH, PCI, FSSAI, and State Licensing Authorities, ensuring coordinated response and enforcement. The ministry's statement read that a pre-launch training session for nodal officers from these organisations was successfully conducted on April 9, 2025, under the chairmanship of Dr Kousthubha Upadhyaya, Adviser (Ayu.), Ministry of Ayush. The release added that with the launch of this portal, the Ministry of Ayush now has a centralised and accessible dashboard of reported cases, enabling real-time tracking, swift regulatory action, and detailed data analysis. The system also ensures that citizens have a direct channel to voice their concerns, with transparent visibility into the action taken on their reports. (ANI) A day after a tourist vehicle carrying 11 people, including 10 tourists and a driver, plunged nearly 1,000 feet into the Teesta River near Chubombu, Mangan District, rescue efforts to search for eight others are still underway. According to the initial report, one body was recovered, and two critically injured individuals were rescued from the accident site and were admitted to STNM Hospital, Gangtok. Army personnel, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Sikkim Police, and members of the North Sikkim Drivers' Welfare Association are searching for the eight missing tourists. The incident occurred on the night of May 29, when a tourist vehicle fell into the Teesta River near Chubombu, Mangan District, while travelling from Lachen to Lachung. Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi held talks with Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang to coordinate swift rescue, medical treatment, and safe return of the two Odia passengers injured in the bus accident in Sikkim. Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang also posted about the incident on X and said, "I am deeply saddened by the tragic road accident that occurred on the night of May 29 near Chubombu, Mangan District, where a tourist vehicle fell into the Teesta River while travelling from Lachen to Lachung." "Rescue operations began immediately under the supervision of SP Mangan, with the dedicated efforts of the police, ITBP, fire and medical teams, and local volunteers. Two individuals have been rescued and are receiving medical care. The search for others is ongoing, with NDRF teams joining the operation," his post read. Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo spoke to ANI and said, "The information that is available with us, as well as the state government, is that a group of 10 people had travelled to Sikkim on a holiday. There has been a mishap with the vehicle that they were travelling in, which rolled down a khud. As per the information available, two of the people who were passengers of the bus have been rescued and admitted to the hospital." "The NDRF team is at work over there trying to locate and rescue the other passengers on the bus. The information that we have is that one body is seen floating, and the rest of the bodies are not visible, or the vehicle is not visible. So, we have to wait till the entire rescue process is over," he said. (ANI) BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Friday responded to Congress leader Salman Khurshid's comments on Article 370, acknowledging that the former External Affairs Minister had admitted the provision was a blunder. Poonawalla highlighted the positive changes in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370, citing increased prosperity and people's voices being heard. Speaking to ANI, Poonawala said, "Salman Khurshid is a senior Congress leader and has been External Affairs Minister previously and today he also accepts how 'Pakistan-Parasti, Pattharbazi and Problem of Pakistan' was increasing. Now that Article 370 has been removed, there is Prosperity and People's voice is audible... Article 370 was a blunder of the then governments and especially Nehru, this is accepted by Salman Khurshid himself... But even today, some Congress leaders back the Article 370..." Poonawalla's remarks came after Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Thursday spoke about Article 370. He said that Article 370 had created a feeling that Jammu and Kashmir was separate from the rest of India. While addressing Indonesian think tanks and academics in Jakarta, Indonesia, Khurshid stated, "Kashmir had a major problem for a long time. Much of that was reflected in the thinking of the government in an article called 370 of the Constitution... But Article 370 was abrogated and it was finally put to an end." Also, earlier today, all-party delegation member Salman Khurshid, said that Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir must be given back to India. Khurshid, in conversation with ANI, said that India has clearly stated that talks can happen only when Pakistan's commitment to peace is clear, including talks on the Indus Water Treaty. "There is a long standing unanimous resolution of parliament of India saying that the Pakistan occupied Kashmir must be re-vacated and given back to India and as you know that even in the assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, the seats that should have been in that area are kept vacant just for this reason that we have we have a long term commitment that the area is to come back to us. That's one important factor," he said. Khurshid further said that attempts at making peace were negated by Pakistan, as it continued to attack India over the years. "The second is that the government has reiterated this because you know, often questions are asked about will you talk, will you not talk, etc. We have expressed our distress that repeated attempts to talk and negotiate have been betrayed by Pakistan by a subsequent attack and several attacks that happened over the years," he said. Khurshid is a part of an all-party delegation. The delegation, led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid and Mohan Kumar. The delegation is visiting many countries as part of India's global outreach against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The delegation has so far visited Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday apprised about his meeting with the family members of slain Pahalgam victim Shubham Dwivedi, a 31-year-old businessman from Kanpur who was shot dead in cold blood in the name of religion, and said that the spirit (passion) of the family towards the Indian army that launched Operation Sindoor was inspiring for the countrymen. "Today, I met the family members of our Kanpur son, Shubham Dwivedi, who lost his life in the cowardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam. He expressed his gratitude to our mighty army for Operation Sindoor against terrorism. Their spirit inspires the countrymen," PM Modi posted on X. Modi met the family of Shubham Dwivedi at Chakeri airport after landing in Kanpur, and got emotional while conversing with the parents and wife of the slain victim. Sanjay Dwivedi, father of Shubham Dwivedi, said that PM Modi had a word with his daughter-in-law Ashanya Dwivedi about the ghastly terror attack since Shubham was shot dead before her and got emotional. "I think that this incident has pained him a lot. It was a really emotional moment when he was standing with us. I think he will rest only when terrorism ends," the grieving father told ANI. "I didn't intend to put forward any demands. I wanted to meet him to express my gratitude for the action he has taken against terrorism...PM talked to my daughter-in-law and Shubham about the incident. He got emotional, and everyone else did as well," he added. Ashanya Dwivedi, wife of slain victim Shubham Dwivedi, said that PM Modi offered his heartfelt condolences to the family and said that the fight against terrorism is long and will go on. "PM Modi said that the entire nation and the government are standing with us. He offered his condolences...PM Modi was very sad...PM Modi asked me about the Pahalgam terror attack...PM Modi said that the fight against terrorism has not ended," the grieving wife told ANI. She apprised about her conversation with the Prime Minister and said he acknowledged her opinion on why the incident happened. "He also heard my opinions and acknowledged when I told him that they (the terrorists) wanted to divide Hindus and Muslims internally, or they wanted to end the peaceful situation in Kashmir. He told me that he also thinks the same...PM Modi assured us of another meeting," Dwivedi added. (ANI) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday attended the 'Ek Samvad: Veer Sainik Ke Saath' program on the success of Operation Sindoor at Doon Sainik Institute in Garhi Cantt, in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. While speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that a centre will be set up in the state to train retired soldiers. The Sainik Welfare Department will take action on this. CM Dhami further added that the unique example of bravery, sacrifice and unwavering dedication set by our soldiers in Operation Sindoor will continue to inspire generations to come. The Chief Minister said that due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong leadership and clear policy, this decisive action against terrorism was successful. "Under the leadership of the Prime Minister, along with boosting the morale of our soldiers, the army is being equipped with state-of-the-art technology and weapons. India is becoming self-reliant in the defence sector," he remarked. The Chief Minister said that the tough decisions taken under the leadership of the Prime Minister are breaking the backbone of the enemies of the country. Taking an immediate decision after the Pahalgam terror attack, the Indus Water Treaty was cancelled. All trade routes with Pakistan have been closed, because trade and terror cannot go together. The Chief Minister said that many important decisions are also being taken in the interest of the soldiers under the leadership of the Prime Minister. The One Rank-One Pension, construction of the National War Memorial, increase in defence budget, and infrastructure in border areas have been strengthened. He said that the state government is committed to the welfare of soldiers and their families. The ex-gratia amount given to the dependents of the fallen soldiers has been increased from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 50 lakhs. The lump sum and annuity amount given to soldiers decorated with all gallantry awards from Param Vir Chakra to Mention in Dispatch has also been increased. It has also been decided to accommodate one member of the fallen soldier's family in a government job in the state and the period for applying for this has been increased from 2 years to 5 years. Free travel in government buses has been arranged for gallantry award-winning soldiers and ex-servicemen in the state. Serving and ex-servicemen are also being provided with a 25 per cent discount in stamp duty on the purchase of permanent property worth Rs 25 lakh. In memory of the state's fallen soldiers, a grand military shrine is being constructed in Guniyal village of Dehradun. (ANI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Friday evening reviewed the preparations at Jamboree Ground in Bhopal ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state capital on Saturday, May 31, to mark the 300th birth anniversary of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar. CM Yadav also held discussions with party leaders and workers regarding the arrangement and overall management of the event. "Prime Minister is arriving in Madhya Pradesh tomorrow on the occasion of the 300th birth anniversary of Maharani Ahilyabai. The government has decided to celebrate the occasion throughout the year. Ahilyabai had an immense contribution to women's empowerment, creating employment opportunities, equality of backwards classes and the tribal section. I would like to congratulate the people of Madhya Pradesh on a huge program that will be organised in Bhopal, centred on women. The government is organising the event in Jamboree Maidan in the city," CM Yadav told reporters. He further said that all necessary arrangements for the event have been made. He, along with state ministers and party leaders, inspected the venue and reviewed preparations. "Today, we, along with our ministers and party leaders, have reviewed the venue for the event and assigned the responsibilities for the management of the event on the occasion. I am sure that it will be counted among the best programmes held so far," the CM added. PM Modi will attend a 'Women Empowerment Maha Sammelan' to be held at Jamboree Ground in the city and address the gathering on the occasion. The convention centered on women will be held to mark the 300th birth anniversary of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar in the city, expecting around 2 lakhs women to participate in it from across the state. In additiona, PM Modi will virtually inaugurate the Indore Metro and the newly constructed airports in Datia and Satna from Bhopal during the event. (ANI) Nearly 25 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs are meeting at the residence of party MLA Thongam Biswajit Singh in Imphal to push for the formation of a popular government in Manipur. On May 28, nearly 10 MLAs, including eight from the BJP, one from the National People's Party (NPP), and one Independent MLA, met Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla at the Raj Bhavan in Imphal to stake a claim to form a government in the state. Ten MLAs, including eight from the BJP, one from the NPP, and one Independent MLA, met Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla at the Raj Bhavan in Imphal on Wednesday, demanding the formation of a "popular" government in the ethnic violence-hit state. Their meeting with the governor came amid a civil disobedience campaign in the Imphal valley led by a Meitei organisation, which alleged that central armed forces had insulted the state's identity by masking the words "Manipur State Transport" on a state-run bus on May 20. "The majority of people want a popular government installed, which is why we came here to meet the Governor," Independent MLA Sapam Nishikanta Singh told reporters after the meeting. "We also discussed other things, like the functioning of the President's rule may not be the same after the formation of a popular government. Primarily and basically, the main point was the formation of a popular government. The response of the Governor was also nice," he added. President's Rule was imposed in Manipur on February 13, days after BJP leader N. Biren Singh resigned as Chief Minister. Ethnic conflict broke out in the State on May 3, 2023, causing the loss of lives of hundreds of people. (ANI) The Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, has launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain - 2025 campaign, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As part of this, construction of recharge wells has started in the Banaskantha, following Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari approach. Under the guidance of the Prime Minister and in line with the objectives of the "Catch the Rain" campaign, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel inaugurated the construction of recharge wells at Chodungri village in Dantiwada Taluka of Banaskantha district. Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Shankar Chaudhary, along with other ministers and dignitaries, graced the event. The Chief Minister and other dignitaries flagged off the JCB and tractor, ceremoniously marking the beginning of the recharge well construction work. CM Patel stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cultivated a tradition of involving people's strength--Jan Shakti--in the nation's development and has championed the philosophy of "Sauno Saath, Sauno Vikas." He said that at the core of Gujarat's inclusive development today lies the Prime Minister's vision, built on the pillars of Jal Shakti, Jan Shakti, Urja Shakti, Raksha Shakti and Gyan Shakti. The Chief Minister highlighted that the Prime Minister consistently underscores water as the cornerstone of development. When Narendra Modi assumed office as Chief Minister of Gujarat, the state grappled with severe shortages of both electricity and water. His visionary leadership empowered us to convert challenges into opportunities. He directed public efforts into a large-scale campaign dedicated to water conservation, storage, construction of check dams, and development of reservoirs to effectively address the water crisis. As a result of these efforts, Gujarat transitioned from being a water-deficient state to a water-surplus one. The Prime Minister has consistently guided us to stay prepared for any potential crisis, with foresight and strategic planning. With the noble aim of raising the groundwater levels across the country, the Prime Minister launched the nationwide Jal Shakti Abhiyan in 2019. Under his guidance, water conservation efforts involving public participation have been actively carried out throughout the nation. To raise the groundwater table in Banaskantha, the state government plans to construct nearly 50,000 recharge wells. Of these, 25,000 recharge wells are to be built with the support of Banas Dairy. CM congratulated Shankarbhai Chaudhary and his team for Banas Dairy's committed contribution to this initiative. Prime Minister Modi has given the mantra "Water from the border should stay within the border, and water from the village should serve the village," and under his leadership, water conservation efforts at all levels across the state have been initiated with active public participation. To support the irrigation system, boost agricultural production, and deepen groundwater levels, we have launched the Recharge Well Construction Campaign through rainwater storage and conservation, said CM. The Chief Minister stated that in our ancient culture, water is considered a divine blessing, and rivers are revered as mothers. Furthermore, water irrigation is a crucial element for farmers, who are the true pioneers of the agricultural revolution, to succeed in farming. Natural farming offers solutions to many problems. With adequate water availability in the state, agriculture and crop production have significantly increased. To further enrich farming, the focus has shifted towards chemical-free and natural farming practices. The use of chemical fertilisers harms both the soil and human health. Today, there is a rising incidence of serious health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart attacks, even among the youth. To address this, the Prime Minister has advocated the mantra of "Back to Basics" and strongly promoted the campaign for natural farming. PM Modi has inspired us with a vision that combines environmental preservation, patriotism, public awareness, and a deep sense of responsibility toward future generations to build a Viksit Bharat. Advocating for sustainable development in harmony with nature, he has launched nationwide initiatives like "Ek Ped, Maa ke Naam" to enhance green cover alongside water conservation. Under the mantra "Vocal for Local," the Prime Minister has also charted a path to strengthen indigenous production. By supporting natural farming, he has laid down a roadmap to protect the health of generations to come. Through these commitments, he has called upon the nation to realise the goal of a Viksit Bharat@ 2047. The Chief Minister was confident that the water conservation efforts underway today will secure water resources for future generations. CM Bhupendra Patel congratulated visionary Prime Minister and the nation's armed forces on the remarkable success of Operation Sindoor. He remarked that this achievement has once again showcased the courage and heroism of our military, uniting the entire country in pride through the "Tiranga Yatra." With great pride, he called upon everyone to honour and salute our soldiers by chanting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai." Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil stated that India is home to 18% of the world's livestock, with Banaskantha district having the highest number of animals. Water is an essential factor for these animals as well as for sustaining life. However, it may surprise you to know that only 4 per cent of the country's water is potable. Out of 700 districts in India, 150 are designated as dark zones in terms of water availability, including Banaskantha, one of the largest districts in North Gujarat. Efforts to lift Banaskantha out of this dark zone have been underway for the past year under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under his leadership, continuous efforts are being made nationwide to conserve water through initiatives like Amrit Sarovar, Narmada Yojana, and Sauni Yojana. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had emphasised the need to connect rivers, and the current Prime Minister is fulfilling this vision by working on linking rivers such as the Narmada, Sabarmati, and rivers in Kutch. Moreover, a Rs 77,000 crore project has been approved to connect three rivers across Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. To realise the Prime Minister's vision of a Viksit Bharat@ 2047, it is crucial to meet the country's water needs not merely by building dams but by adopting the "Catch the Rain" approach--harvesting rainwater and recharging groundwater resources. On this occasion, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Shankar Chaudhary, stated that PM Modi has launched a significant initiative to tackle water scarcity in the country's dark zone districts, with Banaskantha being the first selected in Gujarat. Under this effort, Banas Dairy will construct 25,000 recharge wells in the district, offering farmers 50 per cent assistance. He emphasised the need to continue this campaign for the next four years, with a vision extending over ten years. To further green Banaskantha, Banas Dairy has also worked on revitalising the mountains by dispersing seed balls. He also spoke about the success of Operation Sindoor. He said that everyone must make collective efforts to recharge more groundwater. Chaudhary urged that this campaign should continue for the next four years, with plans formulated for the next ten years accordingly. To make Banaskantha greener, Banaskantha Dairy has also worked on throwing seed balls on the hills to promote vegetation growth. He also spoke about the success of Operation Sindoor. Archana Varma, Managing Director of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, briefed the attendees about the ministry's ongoing work, while Banaskantha District Collector Mihir Patel warmly welcomed everyone. (ANI) Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury on Fridayreacted to Prime Minister Modi's promise to raze the hideout of the mastermind behind terrorism, questioning how this could be a personal promise. She emphasised that the response to terrorism is a collective effort, crediting the armed forces for their role. "This is not a single man's achievement. It is the collective achievement of every Indian. Please, do not take individual credit for political gain," Chowdhury told ANI. Chowdhury paid tribute to citizens living in border areas who face constant threats and praised the armed forces for their bravery. She highlighted that the fight against terrorism is not a single person's achievement but a collective effort by every Indian. "How can this be your (PM Modi) promise alone? Were you aware of the Pahalgam attack beforehand? It is our armed forces who have given a fitting response--give them the credit. It is the citizens who continue to live in border areas despite constant threats--salute them. There are people who have stood firm in the face of fear," she further added. This comes after PM Modi issued a stern warning to Pakistan for "sponsoring" terrorism and said that India would respond strongly to every terrorist attack. He stated that India will not differentiate between state and non-state actors, and those responsible will be held accountable and punished, regardless of their location or affiliation. "If I say this straight in Kanpuriya, dushman kahin bhi ho honk diya jayega," PM Modi said while addressing the gathering here. Without mincing words, PM Modi emphasised that India will not be intimidated by hollow nuclear threats. "India will not be scared of hollow threats of an atom bomb and won't take decisions on this basis (of such a threat). India will look at the 'aaka' of terrorism and its sponsoring government with only one view: Pakistan's state and non-state actors...this game will not work anymore," PM Modi said. The Prime Minister laid down India's stand and its plan of action against terrorism, saying that any terrorist attack that happens, India will respond strongly to every terrorist attack, with the timing and terms of the response decided by the Armed Forces. "In its fight against terrorism, India has decided on three rules: every terrorist attack will be answered strongly. The army will decide on how to answer and in what way to answer. The conditions to respond to a terrorist attack will also be decided by the army," PM Modi asserted. (ANI) Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Friday sentenced ex-MLA Kishore Samrite to six months of imprisonment for giving a threat to blow up Parliament in September 2022. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him. Samrite is an ex-MLA from Lanji and was convicted of making a threat to blow up the Parliament. On 18.02.2025, the court had convicted him for the offence punishable under section 506 Part II IPC for writing a letter containing a threat. Special judge Vishal Gogne, after hearing submissions on the quantum of sentence, awarded Kishore Samrite six months imprisonment and fined him Rs 50,000. The court has granted him bail to appeal against the judgment. Samrite was acquitted of the offence under the Explosives Act,1884, as the suspicious substance could not be proved an explosive. The court pointed out, "However, it still bears utmost reiteration that the threatening letter and the suspicious substance were sent to the Parliament of India, which is the temple of Indian democracy." An FIR under sections 5(a) of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 & 9B(1)(b) of the Explosive Act,1884 was registered by the Crime Branch, Delhi police. The allegation against him was that he threatened to blow up the Parliament of India and the then under construction building of the Parliament with dynamite at 11:00 o'clock on 30.09.2022 by sending a letter of threat (containing certain demands) and a suspicious substance to the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha on 16.09.2022. While sentencing Samrite for the offence under section 506 (II) IPC, the court said that the convict was not just an ordinary citizen. He is a former MLA from Lanji, District Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh. The court also said that being most acquainted and sensitised to the security of Parliamentary establishments and more so to the sanctity of such representative institutions, his dispatch of such a threatening letter to the Parliament acted to normalise the threat of violence towards the elected Houses of the Parliament. "If such conduct is not deterred, it raises the prospect of others emulating the course taken by Mr. Samrite for voicing his dissent towards government policies. Perhaps, every such threat would not be accompanied by harmless substances," the special judge observed. The court further said that Parliament It is a forum where issues of all hues and pertaining to national interest are expected to be discussed with decorum and in deference to public aspirations. "For the highest contemplative body of the country to be subjected to a threat of being blown up with dynamite and the threatening letter to actually be accompanied by a suspicious substance is indeed a grave circumstance which requires an appropriate sentence," the court said. "Considering the above-noted mitigating and aggravating circumstances, convict Kishore Samrite is sentenced to simple imprisonment for six months along with a fine of Rs 50,000 upon conviction under section 506 Part II IPC," Special Judge Gogne ordered on May 30. During arguments on sentence, the public prosecutor pressed for the maximum sentence of seven years provided under section 506, Part II, IPC. It was also argued that the convict willingly sent a threatening letter to the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha along with a suspicious substance and that even though the suspicious substance did not turn out to be an explosive or explosive substance, the convict is still guilty of causing grave alarm at the Parliament establishment. The Prosecution prayed that a suitably deterrent sentence was required to be imposed for discouraging such violation of the security of the Parliament of India. He is involved in as many as 20 criminal cases and has previously displayed violent tendencies and the inclination to violate the law. On the other hand, the Counsel for Samrite read the contents of the said letter and argued that the tenor of this letter was only to agitate issues of local, national or public concern including alleged scams, creation of new states, issues pertaining to women and youth, encroachment of public land and like issues. The counsel also cited the period of detention of three months and one day already undergone by the convict during trial and submitted that this period, along with the long duration of trial, has already served as severe punishment and time for reflection for the convict. The court noted that Samrite previously convicted under sections 435, 149, 332, 149, 427, 149 and 147 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 3(1)(x) of SC/ST Act by the Special Judge (SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act), Balaghat, District Balaghat, he is not entitled to be considered for release on probation. (ANI) The passenger was intercepted on Thursday (May 29) while attempting to smuggle the currency on Air India Express Flight IX 191, travelling from Amritsar to Dubai. According to a press release, the foreign currency was cleverly concealed in another bag in the main check-in baggage. Upon preliminary examination, it was found that the seized currency was unaccounted for and far exceeded the permissible limits as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. The currency was seized under the relevant provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. The initial investigation indicates that the accused was involved in the illegal smuggling of foreign currency for monetary gain. Further investigation is currently underway, the release added. Earlier on May 3, the DRI had seized foreign currency worth Rs 2.66 crore from another passenger at Amritsar Airport. In that case, the individual was arrested, and investigations are ongoing. (ANI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday visited the Geeta Bhawan Temple in Poonch, which was damaged in Pakistani firing. During his visit, he worshipped and paid his respects. Shah emphasised that through 'Operation Sindoor', India has sent a strong message to those who commit misdeeds, assuring them of a befitting reply. This operation underscored India's commitment to protecting its sovereignty and responding to acts of aggression https://x.com/AmitShah/status/1928432173922541855 "I visited and worshipped at the Geeta Bhawan Temple in Poonch, which was damaged in Pakistani firing after Operation Sindoor. Through 'Operation Sindoor', India has made it clear that those who commit such misdeeds will be given a befitting reply," Shah said in a post on X. Shah visited the area of the temple which had its roof destroyed, showing the damage the religious place had to endure due to Pakistani shelling. Shah also visited and paid obeisance at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha in the area, which also suffered damage due to Pakistani hostilities. Shah is on a visit to Poonch to meet the families affected by the recent Pakistani shelling. Earlier today he distributed appointment letters to the next of kin of civilians killed during the attacks. Addressing the gathering, Shah condemned Pakistan's actions, stating, "Pakistan targeted the civilian areas in J&K, and Poonch suffered the most damage. For the first time, firing was done on Poonch post-independence...The entire world is condemning the attack by Pakistan...The Indian Armed Forces gave a befitting reply by destroying nine Pakistani air bases, and as a result, they had to come forward for a ceasefire" Shah further said that on the night of May 7, 2025, the Indian Armed Forces conducted a decisive operation (Operation Sindoor), destroying terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). "On the night of May 7, we destroyed the terrorist sites in Pakistan and PoK...This was a befitting reply given to terrorists on behalf of the crores of Indians...Hundreds of terrorists were killed in the operation...We launched an attack on terrorists, but Pakistan considered it an attack on itself. They showed the world that they are the ones who are sheltering terrorists,' he said. Shah also visited the locals in the area, who shared their concerns and urged for compensation and relief. Speaking to ANI, Jaskiran Kaur, a district resident, said, "We told him who suffered what damage due to shelling. The people were terrified by the cowardly act Pakistan did here. We hope that Amit Shah will help us get compensation for our loss." The Home Minister's visit drew attention from residents across the region, many of whom had gathered since early morning. Shah listened to the grievances of those impacted and offered assurances of support. (ANI) Amid rising COVID-19 cases in parts of the country, Rajasthan Health Minister Gajendra Singh said on Friday that the state has reported 54 cases and one death so far. The minister clarified that the death was linked to comorbidities, particularly tuberculosis, and that the current variant in circulation resembles the common flu. "So far, 54 cases have been reported, and one death has occurred. However, the patient was severely affected by tuberculosis. As of now, only one patient is admitted to SMS Hospital--a child infected with the Omicron variant, which is not very serious. It presents symptoms similar to the common flu. There is no cause for concern at the moment. There's no significant spread at the moment, but people are still advised to take necessary precautions," Singh told ANI. According to the Information and Public Relations Department, 15 new cases were reported on Friday--one each from AIIMS Jodhpur, Rabindranath Tagore Medical College (RNT), Sawai Man Singh Medical College (SMS), Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS), and Government Medical College (GMC), Udaipur. District-wise COVID-19 cases in Rajasthan are: Jaipur - 33, Udaipur - 10, Jodhpur - 8, Bikaner - 5, Didwana - 5, Ajmer - 2, Balotra - 2, Dausa - 1, Phalodi - 1, Sawai Madhopur - 1, and others - 1. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has confirmed that while COVID-19 cases were reported again in parts of the country, the current variants in circulation were showing mild symptoms similar to the Omicron strain. Arjun Dang, Chief Executive Officer of Dr. Dangs Lab, said the rising number of cases was attributed to more transmissible sub-variants. "We must understand that the current spreading variants are again a sublineage of the Omicron virus. Additionally, in states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, we have certain other sub-variants that have been named Variants Under Monitoring, and these are basically of two types, LF7 and NV181. Currently, the cases that we are seeing are more transmissible. They can infect people easily, but again, from the severity perspective, till now, we have not seen any severe cases," Dang told ANI. (ANI) Jaitheerth E Joshi, Director General of BrahMos Aerospace, has stressed the urgent need for robust collaboration between defence research, academic institutions, and industry to create hands-on-ready engineers, particularly for the Indian Navy and other defence services. Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the 25th convocation Ceremony held at the Indian Naval Academy (INA) in Kerala's Kannur, Joshi underlined the transformative role of emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning in modern warfare and praised the Navy's proactive steps in adapting to these domains. Highlighting the unique training needs of naval engineers, who often operate without ground support, Joshi said, "Naval cadets trained in engineering must be prepared for onboard roles without base service support. Whether it's rectification, testing, or maintenance, they must operate independently. We plan to make them self-sufficient through advanced training modules." He noted that the vision would be realised through a training initiative run in coordination with the centres of excellence created by DRDO at IITs, NITs, and institutions like the Defence Institute of Armament Technology, along with close coordination with the Naval Academy. Applauding the INA's academic partnership with Jawaharlal Nehru University, he stressed that academic societies like the Indian Society for Non-Destructive Testing and the Institute of Electronics, in collaboration with premier engineering institutions, can enhance skill development and bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical defence needs. "This will provide intensive internships and hands-on training tailored to their respective engineering domains," he said, citing a plan to assign mechanical engineers to missile or armament clusters and electronic graduates to electronic warfare units. He described the initiative as tri-sector collaboration between academia, Research and Development and Industry. Joshi also detailed a structured research and production model in which academia handles initial research (Technology Readiness level (TRL) 1-3), applied research (TRL-4-6) is jointly undertaken with industry, and advanced production stages (TRL-79) are led by private manufacturers. "This synergy ensures faster innovation and production readiness," he said. He said the DRDO is actively supporting start-ups with funding and integrating students into the defence ecosystem as early as their third or fourth year. Many of these students are being trained in DRDO labs, gaining domain-specific exposure and working alongside defence personnel. Joshi further acknowledged the value of service officers' experience joining DRDO through secondment, post-retirement roles, or lateral entries. "They bring real-time warzone insight. Their understanding of frontline demands helps us design systems that are service-friendly," he said, stressing the importance of feedback from those who would eventually use these systems in combat. The BrahMos chief was also optimistic about reversing brain drain, saying that the pace at which people were leaving the country has slowed. "Global industrial turmoil and domestic growth have encouraged our talent to stay back. India's growing industrial ecosystem, improved job prospects, and initiatives under the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission are reversing the trend," he added. BrahMos Aerospace, which manufactures the supersonic cruise missile, is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya. The basic version of BrahMos missile has a flight range of upto 290 km with supersonic speed all through the flight, leading to shorter flight time, consequently ensuring lower dispersion of targets, quicker engagement time, and non-interception by any known weapon systems in the world, according to BrahMos Aerospace. The induction of the first version of BrahMos weapon complex in the Navy commenced in 2005. Army also has inducted many BRAHMOS regiments since 2007. The Air Force has also successfully launched cruise missile system armed with Sukhoi-30 MKI. (ANI) To honour the gallantry of Indian soldiers, veterans, and the families of fallen soldiers, a 'Jai Hind Sabha' function was organised here at Shimla on Friday during which Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu presented a cheque of Rs 30 lakh to the kin of Subedar Major Pawan who made "supreme sacrifice" during 'Operation Sindoor'. The cheque was received by Subedar Major's father, Garaj Singh, and son Abhishek. At the same time, Rs 15 lakh was given to Jamila, wife of Naik Dilbar Khan, a Kirti Chakra recipient, and Rs 10 lakh to Bharat Lakshmi, wife of Havildar Rohit Kumar. In addition, the Chief Minister honoured several former soldiers and the families of those who sacrificed their lives in service to the nation. Several senior Congress leaders attended the event at Peterhoff Grounds in Shimla. Addressing the 'Jai Hind Sabha', Sukhu paid heartfelt tributes to the brave soldiers of Himachal Pradesh and the Nation and said, "Today is a day to salute the sacrifices of our brave soldiers who have laid down their lives for the country." Sharing a recent experience, the Chief Minister mentioned his visit to Sharchi village in the Tirthan Valley, where he stayed at the home of former soldier Subedar Major Anoop Ram. The Chief Minster stated that Anoop Kumar discussed with him about the 1971 India-Pakistan war and he recalled how the address of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi instilled patriotic zeal and boosted the morale of the Indian Army. The outcome of that war was historic and India split Pakistan into two, and Shimla later became the witness to the landmark Simla Agreement, he said. Sukhu said that the valour of the soldiers of Himachal Pradesh was unmatched. "Our soldiers never hesitated to sacrifice their lives for the Nation. Himachali soldiers have the honour of being decorated with Four Param Vir Chakra, which is a testament to the state's legacy of courage and sacrifice," he added. Congress held 'Jai Hind Sabhas' from May 20 to May 30 across India to salute the Armed Forces. Earlier, Pratibha Singh, President of the Himachal Pradesh Congress, explained the event's national objective and refuted any political motivation behind the programme. Singh clarified that this event would be purely to honour our armed forces. "We have made no political statements. This is purely about honouring the brave hearts, be it from the Army, Indian Navel force or Air Force who have risked their lives to protect India. We salute them." Singh said. "Jai Hind Sabha is about nation, not politics," she added further. (ANI) Odisha BJP Mahila Morcha President Aiswarya Biswal on Friday expressed deep grief over the tragic bus accident in Sikkim involving her colleague and friend, Itishree Jena, secretary of the Odisha BJP Mahila Morcha. Speaking to ANI about the mishap, Odisha BJP Mahila Morcha President Aiswarya Biswal said, "It is a very tragic moment for the entire Mahila Morcha and the entire party. Itishree Jena was one of our colleagues and friends. She was very loving and caring. She went missing after she went for a trip to Sikkim." "Tragically, the minibus she travelled in fell into a river with strong currents. She was travelling with her two sons. As far as I know, her brother and sister-in-law also accompanied her. Her young son has been rescued. We are also awaiting the rest of the information," she said. "Nothing has been found as of now. The rescue operations are underway. The Sikkim Chief Minister is also trying his best to expedite the situation. The Mahila Morcha of Sikkim is also trying to locate Itishree Appa. Her family had gone to Sikkim for a vacation. We contacted her extended family and are keeping a tab," she said. "She was the secretary of the Odisha BJP Mahila Morcha. We all hope she survives," added Biswal. A day after a tourist vehicle carrying 11 people, including 10 tourists and a driver, plunged nearly 1,000 feet into the Teesta River near Chubombu, Mangan District, rescue efforts to search for eight others are still underway. According to the initial report, one body was recovered, and two critically injured individuals were rescued from the accident site and were admitted to STNM Hospital, Gangtok. Army personnel, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Sikkim Police, and members of the North Sikkim Drivers' Welfare Association are searching for the eight missing tourists. The incident occurred on the night of May 29, when a tourist vehicle fell into the Teesta River near Chubombu, Mangan District, while travelling from Lachen to Lachung. Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi held talks with Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang to coordinate swift rescue, medical treatment, and safe return of the two Odia passengers injured in the bus accident in Sikkim. Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang also posted about the incident on X and said, "I am deeply saddened by the tragic road accident that occurred on the night of May 29 near Chubombu, Mangan District, where a tourist vehicle fell into the Teesta River while travelling from Lachen to Lachung." "Rescue operations began immediately under the supervision of SP Mangan, with the dedicated efforts of the police, ITBP, fire and medical teams, and local volunteers. Two individuals have been rescued and are receiving medical care. The search for others is ongoing, with NDRF teams joining the operation," his post read. Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo spoke to ANI and said, "The information that is available with us, as well as the state government, is that a group of 10 people had travelled to Sikkim on a holiday. There has been a mishap with the vehicle that they were travelling in, which rolled down a khud. As per the information available, two of the people who were passengers of the bus have been rescued and admitted to the hospital." "The NDRF team is at work over there trying to locate and rescue the other passengers on the bus. The information that we have is that one body is seen floating, and the rest of the bodies are not visible, or the vehicle is not visible. So, we have to wait till the entire rescue process is over," he said. (ANI) A pro-Kannada activist was on Thursday arrested for allegedly setting fire to a photo of actor Kamal Haasan near Havanur Circle in Karnataka's Bengaluru, police said on Friday. According to Bengaluru Police officials, the activist Ravikumara (33), a Namma Karunada Yuva Sene member, was caught disrupting traffic and disturbing residents on Thursday. They said that a First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against him under Sections 270 and 283 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. The incident comes after recent controversy surrounding the actor's reported remark that "Kannada is born out of Tamil." The statement by the actor has led to several protests in Karnataka by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations. Earlier on Friday, Kamal Haasan responded to the protests and calls for a boycott of his upcoming film, Thug Life. Speaking to the media outside the DMK party headquarters in Chennai, he said, "It is a democracy. I believe in law and justice. My love for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala is true. Nobody will suspect it except for those who have an agenda. I've been threatened before too, and if I am wrong, I would apologise; if I'm not, I won't." Meanwhile, the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) announced a ban on the release of Thug Life in the state, citing the actor's remarks on the Kannada language. Sa Ra Govindu, KFCC representative, said that they have decided to ban the release of Kamal Haasan starrer 'Thug Life' in Karnataka as they stand firmly with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other Kannada organisations for their demands of halting the release of the film until the actor issues a pubic apology. Speaking to the media, the KFCC representative said that Kamal Haasan has not yet issued an apology for hurting the sentiments of the Kannada people during his promotional event in Chennai. "When there is pressure, I have to do. Even Karnataka Rakshana Vedike were present; whatever they say, we should do it. Even they would speak about it. Definitely, there is no 'Sorry' term being specified anywhere by Kamal Hassan. We will surely not release the film. We (KFCC) will stand with Rakshina Vedike and other Kannada organisations," he said. On Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticised Kamal Haasan for his remarks, saying he was unaware of Kannada's "long-standing" history. "Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it," the Chief Minister said. Thug Life, directed by Mani Ratnam, also stars Trisha Krishnan and Silambarasan TR in lead roles. (ANI) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday took a jibe at the remarks made by Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy regarding India taking back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) if Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi was the Prime Minister, stating that it was "hilarious". He asserted that PoK exists today due to decisions made by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who held him responsible for both the partition of the nation and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. "It is hilarious if any Congress leader says that if Rahul Gandhi were the PM of India, the PoK would have been India's part. But the fact is that had Rahul Gandhi's great maternal grandfather, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, not been the PM of India, the PoJK would not have been (in existence) today. It is the result of his actions that first, the nation was divided, then Jammu and Kashmir was divided," Singh told ANI. "We must not forget that when the India-Pakistan war was going on, and our forces were in a situation to win the PoK back, it was the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru who declared a unilateral ceasefire on the Akashvani without consulting with anyone," he added. Singh's remarks came in response to statements made by Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, who said that if Rahul Gandhi had been the Prime Minister, India would have taken back PoK. He was speaking at an event that raised questions on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called a ceasefire to the recent military operations against Pakistan without consulting political parties, even though an all-party meeting was held before military strikes began. "Why was no all-party meeting called to seek the opinions of all the parties before declaring a ceasefire?" asked Reddy on Thursday while participating in Congress 'Jai Hind Yatra' in Nizampet, Hyderabad. Addressing the event, Reddy called PM Modi an "expired rupee". He said, "Modi is expired rupee, Modi is like a 1000 rupees' invalid note. Today, this country needs Rahul Gandhi's leadership. If a leader like Rahul Gandhi would have been Prime Minister of this country, then he would have taken (former PM) Indira Gandhi as inspiration and would have walked in Kaali's (Maata) way and would have made Pakistan into two parts and would have taken PoK back." Reddy drew comparisons with the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's leadership and her decisive action against China and Pakistan, including the 1971 war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. (ANI) Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav on Thursday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Delhi for failing to deliver on key election promises and for the 'deteriorating' law and order of the national capital. Yadav further said that it is the party's "duty" to question the pain faced by the people of Delhi as the BJP-led government completes 100 days here. "We are constantly asking this question to the government of Delhi that you promised to give 2,500 rupees to women, where is that? You said that the cylinder will be given for five hundred rupees, where is that? You said that cylinder will be given in Holi, where is that?" the Delhi Congress president told ANI. Decrying the law and order situation in the national capital, he claimed that multiple rape, murders happen here, with Delhi becoming a 'drug capital.' "Today, six rapes happen in Delhi (daily), murders happen, there are three robberies, with chain snatching we don't even know. Delhi has become the capital of drugs today. Where are you? You also have a central government and the corporation, but have you done any work for the betterment of Delhi? If you keep talking schemes, keep holding meetings, then it is not going to do good to the people of Delhi," he said. "With the completion of 100 days (of Rekha Gupta-led Delhi government), it is our duty to question the pain faced by the people of Delhi," he added. He claimed that Congress used to "rule the hearts of people," referencing the 15 years of Sheila Dikshit as Chief Minister, adding, "We used to rule in the hearts of the people of Delhi before, we have a place in the hearts of Delhi. We have been raising our voice continuously in the past and will continue to raise the issues in the same way." Yadav further attacked former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that after losing elections, he had "completely disappeared." He claimed that while Congress is helping the people, AAP is running away from elections. "(Arvind) Kejriwal has disappeared from Delhi like it is said that 'gadhe ke sar se seengh gayab ho jate hai' (like how horns disappear from a donkey's head). Law and order deteriorate in Delhi, and the opposition is not angry. Who will raise their voice? Congress does. The prices of milk rise in Delhi, or water fills in Delhi, Congress is on the streets helping, while AAP has disappeared. After three consecutive years in the corporation, today they run away from the elections," he said. Earlier on Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta praised her cabinet ministers for their efforts and affirmed her government's commitment to development. "We are very happy and satisfied that the rights the people of Delhi deserve are being delivered with full dedication by the government. And surely, as Viksit Bharat progresses, Viksit Delhi will also move forward and witness significant development," CM Gupta said. The results of the Delhi Assembly elections, announced on February 8, saw the BJP secure a decisive mandate by winning 48 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was pushed into the opposition with 22 seats, while the Congress failed to win a single seat for the third consecutive time. (ANI Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday welcomed the conviction of the three accused in the high-profile Ankita Bhandari murder case, stating that the verdict sends a strong message that "crime never pays off." He reaffirmed the government's commitment to ensuring that no criminal is spared, regardless of status or influence. "Today's verdict sends a message that crime never pays off... No matter who a criminal is in Uttarakhand, the law will not spare him/her," Dhami said here. Talking about the investigation into the murder case, the Chief Minister said that from day one, the state government resolved to bring justice to the victim and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a female IPS officer. "The day we got information about this case, we resolved to bring justice to her (the victim)... The state government immediately directed the investigative agencies to arrest the accused, and so they were arrested. An SIT headed by a female IPS officer was formed, and an investigation was conducted in detail. The case was in court, and due to the investigation, the accused could not get bail. In about 3 years, they got life imprisonment," he added. On Friday, an Additional District and Sessions Judge Court in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand found Pulkit Arya and his associates, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code, along with provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. The court pronounced the verdict after a thorough trial, which upheld the charges against the trio, who were found guilty of the brutal murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari. Bhandari, a resident of Pauri district, was employed at the Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh. It was alleged that the resort owner, Pulkit Arya, along with Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, murdered her by pushing her into a nearby barrage. Earlier, while speaking to ANI, the victim's mother, Soni Devi, broke down in grief and urged the people of Uttarakhand to continue supporting the family and demanding capital punishment for the convicts. "May the criminals be sentenced to death...I appeal to the public of Uttarakhand to keep on supporting us and come to the Kotdwar court to boost our morale," she said. The body of Ankita Bhandari was recovered from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh on September 24. She was reported missing for at least six days before the officials found her body. An SIT headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police P Renuka Devi was initially probing the case. The first hearing of the case started on January 30, 2023, in the ADJ Court in Kotdwar. Following the SIT's investigation, a 500-page chargesheet was submitted to the court. Charges were then formally framed against the three accused. In the hearing that lasted for about two years and eight months, 47 witnesses, including the investigator, were examined in the court on behalf of the prosecution. However, the SIT had made 97 witnesses in this case, out of which only 47 important witnesses were produced in the court. (ANI) Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha on Friday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bihar, saying that the projects which were inaugurated by the PM are not being implemented properly. Jha further claimed that many of the schemes announced were previously introduced but never executed. "Today, you (PM Modi) have laid the foundation stone again for the same schemes which you have done twenty times, I can count each one. It does not suit the post of Prime Minister. We had said that Bihar should not be a state for labour supply. Capital is in Gujarat, and the concentration of money is there, but we did not say that the sweat and blood of workers should be supplied with Shramik trains," Jha said at a press conference in Patna. Several leaders from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), allied with the RJD for the upcoming Bihar elections, were also present at the briefing. Jha raised key issues such as the demand for special status for Bihar, the need to transform the state's economic image, and the lack of visible progress. "Honourable Prime Minister came on a two-day tour. What shall I say? 'tere aane aur tene jaane mein sadiyon ka faasla hai (there is a gap of many years with your comings and goings)....yesterday, the people of Mahagathbandan party had raised some questions, and they were about rocket science, they were about the employment of Bihar's land, progress and its special state status," Jha remarked. "I had said that like in 2015, do not ignore Bihar. Bihar does not like that attitude and that tossed money, thrown away in which there is no reality, we don't like that but you didn't agree," he added. Regarding reservations, Jha reiterated the demand to raise the cap to 65 per cent. He mentioned that this proposal had been made when RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was in alliance with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. "When Tejashwi (Yadav) was with Nitish Kumar in the Mahagathbandhan, then we had talked about sixty-five per cent reservation by increasing the quantum. We know who got the proxy done in the court, but we told the Prime Minister that you removed this from the court and put it in the Ninth Schedule so it would remain safe," he said. Jha also emphasised Bihar's repeated demand for special status and alleged that the Centre has ignored multiple letters sent by opposition leaders. "We had written letters to PM Modi regarding special status, Leader of Opposition, the whole Mahagathbandhan wrote letters, but PM did not listen. But looking at the schemes which were inaugurated, there has just been an announcement, but it is not going up from the ground. So you are simply just cutting the same chicken again and again. Bihar is innocent, but not stupid," he said. Hitting out at PM Modi, he said that he initially did not expect him to talk about social justice but hoped he would change his mind and listen to the opposition. "We did not expect talk of social justice from someone who is inspired by Gowalkar's 'Bunch of Thoughts', but we thought that maybe PM has changed, and might listen to us," he said. On Friday, PM Modi hit out at the opposition (RJD and Congress) over the issue of social justice, saying that the people who cheated Bihar the most are now talking about "social justice" for the sake of power. PM Modi said that during the opposition's tenure, poor and deprived sections of the society had to leave Bihar, and for decades, the Dalits and tribals of the state did not have toilets. He stated that their entry into banks was also not allowed. "Those who cheated Bihar the most, during whose tenure the poor and deprived sections of Bihar had to leave Bihar, are today the same people telling the lie of social justice to gain power. For decades, the Dalits, backward classes and tribals of Bihar did not even have toilets," PM Modi said. PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation of multiple development projects worth over Rs 48,520 crore on Friday in Karakat district. (ANI) Former US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development, Ray Vickery on Thursday [local time] said that a trade agreement between India and US will be mutually beneficial if they will be able to lower tariffs but warned Donald Trump administration over its "bullying approach" of reciprocal tariffs. Speaking to ANI, Vickery said, "It'll be mutually beneficial to be able to lower tariff and non-tariff barriers. In Trump, 1.0, there was a negotiation which came close to getting a freer trade, not a free trade arrangement between the United States and India. One hopes that that would happen, but it's not going to happen with this bullying approach, which the Trump administration has indicated, or indeed this so-called reciprocal tariff across the Board." A US team is scheduled to visit India on June 5-6 for the next round of negotiations on the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between both countries. Additionally, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has suggested that the talks for a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) with the United States are on track. Vickery also spoke with ANI on Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan and said that the Trump administration wants to "take credit for anything that it considers to be favourable to them." "The Trump administration wants to take credit for anything that it considers to be favourable to them, to President Trump, and a win. I have no doubt that the role of the United States in that ceasefire has been exaggerated. Indeed, the Indian government has indicated as much by not giving the kind of credit to President Trump and his administration that is being claimed," he said. Donald Trump has made repeated claims that the US offered both countries "a lot of trade" to put an end to the conflict, which started after the Pahalgam terror attack. India destroyed nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir under Operation Sindoor. Vickery suggested that it is unfair to economic relations as a "bullying tactic" for cessation of hostilities, and lauded India for keeping the emphasis on international terrorism "There is no question in my mind that security and economic considerations are intimately connected. That doesn't mean you use, as President Trump has indicated, Economic relations as a bullying tactic for a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, or for any other reason, but they are related in terms of how nations ultimately treat each other. In the case of the ceasefire, I think India is quite right in keeping the emphasis on international terrorism," he said. India has emphasised that the militaries of the two nations negotiated directly and resolved the conflict through an agreement and understanding for a cessation of fire and military action. Additionally, Vickery expressed concerns about the ongoing threat of terrorism on the Indian subcontinent. In his statement, Vickery highlighted the need for a coordinated and strong approach to tackle terrorism in the region. "In the past few years, we've kind of put aside the threat of international terrorism because it has been dampened down. But the incident of Pahalgam and the murder of 26 Indians and one Nepali citizen on a religious basis shows that terrorism, unfortunately, is alive and well on the Indian subcontinent, and it takes a very coordinated and strong approach to be able to do so." Vickery said. Vickery also commented on the role of the United States in the region, particularly in relation to Pakistan. "Did the United States and, particularly, Secretary Rubio, provide an off-ramp for Pakistan? Yes. I think that they did," he stated. The former official emphasized the importance of working closely with India to combat international terrorism. "There is an interest across the board and what it takes is working with India on a sustained basis, not a hyphenated basis, not looking at Pakistan and India, some sort of equivalences in the equation, but working with India particularly to be able to damp down international terrorism and that sometimes requires harsh measures," he said. Vickery drew parallels with the experiences of the United States in Afghanistan and Israel in Gaza, stating that a "generalised war approach" to eliminating radical Islamic terrorism is ineffective. "The United States experience, particularly in Afghanistan, and the Israeli experience in Gaza show that the generalised war approach to damping down or eliminating radical Islamic terrorism does not work," he said. (ANI) Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy NSA Ambassador Pavan Kapoor on Thursday (local time) held an interaction with leading US think tank experts on India-US cooperation in defence, technology, and trade, as well as key regional and global developments. In a social Media post on X, the Embassy of India in the US wrote, "Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy NSA Ambassador Pavan Kapoor held an engaging interaction with leading US think tank experts today. Wide-ranging discussions covered India-US cooperation in defence, technology, and trade, as well as key regional and global developments." Misri is currently in the United States for a three-day visit, during which he will meet with senior administration officials to discuss key areas of bilateral cooperation. Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Misri met Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler to advance India-US cooperation on critical and emerging technologies. "He led our delegation, comprising Deputy NSA for the Inter-Agency discussions on the India-US Compact for the 21st century. This meeting happened in the White House and focused on implementing trust initiatives which is about critical and emerging technology partnerships. They also discussed cooperation in area of defence and energy domains as well as strengthening the QUAD, IMEC, I2U2 initiatives," the spokesperson said. "Foreign Secretary also had a meeting with the Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and they discussed all aspects of India-US relationship, In particular they agreed that tech, trade and talent will shape the India-US partnership in the 21st century and they both reaffirmed the commitment to further strengthening the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership. All issues of mutual interest were discussed between India and the United States," he added. According to the Ministry of External Affairs statement, Misri's visit to Washington DC follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in February this year, when both nations launched the India-US COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century. MEA stated, "Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri will be visiting Washington, D.C., USA from 27-29 May 2025 to meet senior officials of the US Administration. The visit is a follow up to Prime Minister's visit to the United States in February 2025, when both sides had launched the India-U.S. COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century." (ANI) During the Group 7 all-party delegation visit to South Africa under the government's diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor, Indian MPs across party lines underlined India's commitment to countering terrorism and deepening cooperation under the BRICS framework. The delegation, led by NCP-SCP MP Supriya Sule, held a press conference highlighting the common resolve against terrorism. Additionally, AAP MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney highlighted India's focus on "South-South cooperation" and advocated for BRICS trade in local currencies, along with expanded investment through the New Development Bank to support Africa's agri-value chains and food security. Speaking at the press conference on Thursday (local time), Sahney said, "India has historic relations with South Africa and at that point of time, African National Congress (ANC) was the largest party but during this visit, our delegation had very fruitful discussions and interacted with all senior leaders of the ANC." He added, "We fully support the South-South cooperation and, as a member of the BRICS council, it was in Durban that the BRICS forum was launched in 2012. We are also looking at BRICS countries to conduct trade in local currencies. I think it is within our right to promote trade and investment, and promote, through the New Development Bank, of which India was a great supporter, to get the regional office opened in South Africa. We have laid emphasis that the BRICS Development Bank should also focus more on the agri-value chain for food security of Africa." BJP MP Anurag Thakur emphasised the global support India has received in light of repeated terror attacks. "We have been going places conveying the message of 1.4 billion Indians as we have been the victim of cross-border terrorism. The message is very loud and clear. Whatever we have been seeing from the reports that anywhere the other delegations have gone, the majority of the nations have come in favour because it is not only a threat to India but to the world," he said. BJP leader and delegation member V Muraleedharan also reiterated India's consistent and non-partisan foreign policy. He said, "India, whichever country we engage with, be it South Africa or any other country, we don't engage with a particular party in Government. We engage with the government irrespective of the party and with the people of that country." "India's relationship with South Africa is centuries old. We have been partners as people-to-people as well as in trade and economy and government-to-government. India continues to have its foreign policy which considers the interests of the international community, the global good and the rule of law. These two aspects have been kept of prime importance. We feel that the BRICS or the interests of the global south will be of paramount importance of India. We will continue to engage with South Africa as well as other partners in the same way that we have been doing." The members of the delegation comprise of MPs Supriya Sule, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Manish Tewari, Anurag Singh Thakur, Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce & Industry, V Muraleedharan, Former Minister of State for External Affairs, and Syed Akbaruddin, Former Permanent Representative of India to the UN. They visited Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, paid tribute at the Gandhi Statue, and viewed the Mandela-Gandhi Exhibition inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The visit comes in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, launched by India in response to the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, in which 26 people, including a Nepalese national, were killed. (ANI) US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Second Lady Usha Vance will attend the eighth edition of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit on Monday. Secretary Lutnick will share his insights on strengthening the U.S.-India strategic and economic partnership to achieve the goal set by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi for USD 500 billion in bilateral trade, according to a release. The Summit will also feature the Second Lady of the United States, Usha Vance, in a fireside chat. As the first Indian American in the role of Second Lady, Ms. Vance's presence symbolizes the deepening partnership between the world's oldest and largest democracies and highlights the robust strength of the people-to-people ties. USISPF will also present the 2025 Global Leadership Awards to three distinguished business leaders - Mr. Arvind Krishna, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group and Toshiaki Higashihara, Executive Chairman, Hitachi, Ltd. for their outstanding contributions in strengthening the US-India-Japan economic partnership, the release added. Under Birla's leadership, the Aditya Birla Group is the largest Indian greenfield investor in the United States, with investments exceeding $15 billion. IBM, led by Arvind Krishna, has accelerated global digital transformation through advancing cutting-edge research in AI, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain, with India playing a pivotal role in its global R&D and talent ecosystem. Hitachi, under the leadership of Toshiaki Higashihara, continues to expand its investments in infrastructure, mobility, and digital innovation, closely aligning with key U.S.-India-Japan collaboration in energy, transportation, and technology. This will be the first time that QUAD business leaders will be honoured at the USISPF summit, the release added. The summit will also feature conversations with Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra, Ambassador of India to the United States, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Representative Rich McCormick (R-GA-07), Co-Chair, Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, and USISPF Board members. "USISPF was founded with the single goal of uniting the two most powerful and robust democracies." said John Chambers, Chairman, USISPF; Founder & CEO, JC2 Ventures. He added "USISPF's strength and reach reflect with the growth, dynamism and optimism inherent in the U.S.-India strategic partnership". "As the most prestigious summit in the U.S.-India corridor, the Leadership Summit brings together key policy and decision makers and private sector leaders to discuss their vision and way forward for bilateral partnership". "We are proud to welcome Secretary Lutnick, Second Lady Usha Vance and recognise exemplary business leaders who have strengthened the U.S.-India-Japan corridor," said Dr. Mukesh Aghi, President & CEO, USISPF. "These three leading democracies--together representing well over $35 trillion--are united by a shared commitment to strengthening supply chains and upholding a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. With Japan's strength in advanced engineering manufacturing, India's robust economic growth, demographic dividend and engineering talent and the U.S. innovation economy and capital, this trilateral partnership is uniquely positioned to drive progress across critical sectors. This summit celebrates that shared vision and momentum." The USISPF Leadership Summit is the most prestigious gathering in Washington, DC focused on accentuating US-India ties and convening senior government leaders and officials, diplomats, Members of the U.S. Congress and Senate, USISPF Board members, leading business executives, media, think tanks, and global thought leaders, all working to advance cooperation and celebrate this important partnership, the release added. (ANI) An Indian all-party delegation led by NCP-SCP leader Supriya Sule held a joint press conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the ongoing diplomatic outreach mission following Operation Sindoor. Speaking at the press conference on Thursday (local time), Sule reflected on the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, whose shared values of non-violence and peace bind India and South Africa. "India has always globally led for peace and the deep relationship, friendship we have had with South Africa, the country of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela - two sons of this global soil who have always talked about non-violence. So, we feel very close to South Africa." Sule addressed the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives, including a Nepali National. "We have come here to South Africa to tell people of South Africa what really happened in India five weeks ago. There was a brutal attack on India's soul. Twenty-six innocent people on vacation were shot. It is a very unfortunate event," Sule said. Sule further stressed India's democratic ethos, stating, "In any vibrant democracy, we should accept what the will of the people is. That's the beauty of democracy. India is a vibrant democracy, and it globally accepts all democratically elected governments. India is very sensitive to any such thing happening anywhere in the world. We are very sensitive to such things, and if there's any way in which India can help, we would be glad to do that." Additionally, Congress MP Manish Tewari, also part of the delegation, highlighted the bipartisan nature of the group as a reflection of India's unified stance against terrorism. He said, "India is a very diverse multi-party democracy. So, on this platform you have people representing different political parties, from the Government to the Opposition." Tewari underscored India's position on cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. He said, "The manner in which this delegation has been structured and the way in which it has been constituted is to convey our national resolve that if terrorism keeps getting perpetrated against India from across the border, if Pakistan continues to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy, if you have a state on our western border where there is no distinction between the state and the semi-state actors that are its pawns then under those circumstances it is our national resolve that under no circumstances would that be tolerable. India then reserves the right to energise the full spectrum of options that are available to it in order to protect and defend its national interest." The members of the delegation comprise of MPs Supriya Sule, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Manish Tewari, Anurag Singh Thakur, Lavu Sri Krishna devarayalu, Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce & Industry, V Muraleedharan, Former Minister of State for External Affairs, and Syed Akbaruddin, Former Permanent Representative of India to the UN. Earlier, the delegation also visited Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, where Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned, and also saw the Mandela-Gandhi Exhibition inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi and paid floral tribute at the Gandhi Statue. On April 22, terrorists killed 26 people, including a Nepalese national, in Baisaran valley in the popular tourist destination of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. India launched 'Operation Sindoor' on May 7 in response to the attack, which targeted 9 terror bases and led to the death of terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen. (ANI) India and the European Union (EU) will conduct a three-day joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean from June 1 to June 3, reflecting their growing defence and strategic cooperation. The joint exercise will focus on advanced counter-piracy operations, interoperability, tactical manoeuvres, and enhanced communication protocols, reflecting the growing maritime security cooperation between the two sides. The respective Maritime Operations Centres (MOC) will control the exercise, according to a press release from the European Union The exercise will involve Indian Navy ships and two frigates of the European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Operation ATALANTA, Italian ship Antonio MARCEGLIA and Spanish ship REINA SOFIA, along with their respective air assets. The EU and India are increasing cooperation on maritime security. The EU and India share a strong commitment to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific region. This is underpinned by the respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, democracy, rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded lawful commerce, and peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international law, notably the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the release stated. This exercise builds on the visit of the College of Commissioners to India in February 2025. One of the key deliverables was to enhance engagement on maritime domain awareness with a view to promoting shared assessment, coordination and interoperability. The fourth EU-India Maritime Security Dialogue held in March 2025 also emphasised countering illicit maritime activities and exploring new joint maritime initiatives aligning with the objectives of this exercise. Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva Serrano, Operation Commander of EUNAVFOR ATALANTA, visited India in April to elevate bilateral cooperation with the Indian Navy. Naval cooperation between the EU and India has expanded in recent years with joint exercises in the Gulf of Guinea and Gulf of Aden. The Indian Navy has also been providing escort to World Food Programme chartered vessels, coordinated by EUNAVFOR Operation ATALANTA, according to the release. Launched in 2008 to tackle piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Aden, Operation ATALANTA's mandate has evolved. It encompasses a broad range of security challenges, including counter-narcotics, arms smuggling, and combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Horn of Africa and western Indian Ocean. EUNAVFOR ATALANTA warships deployed in the Indian Ocean have conducted "Passing Exercises" (PASSEX) at sea with the Indian Navy in the past. (ANI) Abu Dhabi [UAE], May 30 (ANI/WAM): UAE Attorney-General Counsellor Hamad Saif Mohammed Musallem Al Shamsi has received Fahd Saeed Al-Menhali, Ambassador of the Republic of Yemen to the United Arab Emirates, and his accompanying delegation at the Office of the Attorney-General and Federal Prosecutors in Abu Dhabi. During the meeting, ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two sides in legal fields were discussed, along with a number of topics of shared interest. Friendly conversations were also exchanged regarding prospects for developing relations between the two countries concerning the work of the Public Prosecution. The Attorney General welcomed the Yemeni ambassador, emphasising the importance of this meeting in supporting the paths of joint cooperation and strengthening the legal partnership between the two brotherly countries. (ANI/WAM) The Group-7 all-party delegation, led by NCP-SCP MP Supriya Sule, concluded its diplomatic visit to South Africa with a series of meetings involving political leaders, think tanks, and the Indian diaspora at India House in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa. The members of the delegation included Supriya Sule, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Manish Tewari, Anurag Singh Thakur, Lavu Sri Krishna devarayalu, Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce & Industry, V Muraleedharan, Former Minister of State for External Affairs, and Syed Akbaruddin, former Permanent Representative of India to the UN. The visit, part of India's broader diplomatic outreach following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam and the subsequent Operation Sindoor, aimed to deepen bilateral ties and convey India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism. Speaking about the delegation's engagements, Indian High Commissioner to South Africa Prabhat Kumar said, "Our MPs, who are members of the delegation, had a good meeting. Meetings were held with the political party, with the government, with the Indian community. After that, today at the think tank assembly, the ideas coming from India were shared with everyone. People understood them and expressed solidarity, acknowledging that yes, what India is saying is right." He added, "If we look at it, the visit of our committee and parliamentary delegation has been very successful." Kumar highlighted the strong historic ties between India and South Africa, recalling their joint struggle during apartheid. "Today, there was also a meeting with the African National Congress, and it was strongly emphasized that the relationship between India and South Africa is very old. We stood together during the apartheid struggle and supported them, so the African National Congress and South Africa will always stand with us." He further noted that the message of support came not only from the ANC but also from other parties such as the Democratic Alliance, which recognized the presence of a large Indian-origin community in South Africa. Addressing the purpose of the visit, Kumar said, "The main objective of the delegation that came was to convey what we are planning to do going forward. The idea of the 'new normal,' as presented by the Prime Minister, was conveyed very well to everyone." He added, "The relationship between South Africa and India is very deep and old. South Africa is with us, and whenever a moment comes on the international stage, I am confident that they will stand with us." Kumar explained that the delegation's focus was also on communicating India's response framework for terror attacks. "But the purpose of the current delegation was slightly different--it was to communicate how we will respond if we are attacked, or if we face a terrorist attack, how we will react. The 'new normal' that the Prime Minister talked about, that was presented here." The visit comes in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 people, including a foreign tourist. In response, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 targeting terror camps linked to multiple terror groups. (ANI) Abu Dhabi [UAE] May 30 (ANI/WAM): President of UAE Accountability Authority, Humaid Obaid Khalifa Obaid Abushibs, has received President of the State Audit Bureau, Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Emadi, and his accompanying delegation today in Abu Dhabi as part of an official visit aimed at expanding partnership and coordination in the fields of financial oversight and accountability. The meeting addressed ways to enhance institutional knowledge exchange, improve the efficiency of audit practices, and adopt innovative approaches that contribute to raising the effectiveness of auditing systems in the public sector. Both sides also discussed the importance of leveraging modern technologies--chief among them artificial intelligence--to improve operational quality, transparency, and accountability. Both parties emphasised the importance of building national capabilities and intensifying joint institutional coordination, thereby contributing to greater trust in Gulf auditing institutions at both regional and international levels. The visit is part of the efforts made by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to strengthen oversight integration and unify audit efforts to safeguard public resources and support sustainable development. (ANI/WAM) Al Ain [UAE], May 30 (ANI/WAM): Mohammed Saeed Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) has announced the commencement of operation of National Agriculture Centre, one of the key initiatives of the 'Plant the Emirates' National Programme. The Centre reflects the UAE leadership's vision to provide comprehensive support to Emirati farmers, boost the country's agricultural production, enhance the quality of produce, and improve the competitiveness of UAE-grown food in local and national markets. The announcement was made on the second day of the inaugural Emirates Agriculture Conference and Exhibition, held under the patronage of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Presidential Court. The event is taking place at the ADNEC Centre Al Ain and is held until 31 May 2025, with broad participation from government and private sector organisations, universities, schools, startups, Emirati farmers, and local farms. Al Nuaimi explained that the National Agriculture Centre aims to achieve ambitious goals, including a 20% increase in productive farms, a 25% growth in organic farms, expanding the share of climate-smart agriculture to 30%, and reducing agricultural waste by 50%. He added that the National Agriculture Centre will oversee the implementation of programmes to support innovative projects in agriculture, develop and execute initiatives to promote innovation, technology, and modern farming practices. The Centre will also empower farmers with specialised training programmes and support their training. In addition to these, it will provide agricultural advisory and consultancy services to assist them in developing their projects and marketing their products. Al Nuaimi also revealed that Sultan Salem Al Shamsi has been appointed as the Director of the National Agriculture Centre, which will operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. He emphasised that Al Shamsi's extensive 26-year career includes experience in a wide range of sectors, from agricultural value chains and integrated operations management to project management, institutional transformation, agricultural technology, government relations, and agricultural finance.Al Nuaimi highlighted Al Shamsi's leadership within prominent national institutions and his significant impact on the UAE's agricultural sector, particularly in the areas of dates, smart agriculture, and sustainable farming practices. Al Nuaimi expressed his confidence in the National Agriculture Centre team's ability to build a resilient and sustainable food future, in line with the UAE's vision for leadership in modern agriculture. During his opening speech, titled 'The Integrated Agricultural Ecosystem in the UAE - The Vision of the Founding Father,' Al Nuaimi emphasised the vision of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in establishing a strong and sustainable agricultural sector in the country. He explained that when the UAE was formed, agriculture was largely limited to traditional crops and varieties that had been cultivated for generations. Agricultural practices were not as widespread as they are today. However, our Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed, possessed a unique and forward-thinking vision. Al Nuaimi affirmed that Sheikh Zayed understood the importance of agriculture as a promising sector capable of laying a solid foundation for the nation. Sheikh Zayed prioritised the sector, providing financial support amounting to millions of Dirhams, which was invested in building an integrated infrastructure to support agriculture. This investment enabled human resources, created an empowered community of farmers across all Emirates, and expanded research and academic capabilities in the field. He noted that Sheikh Zayed supported farmers with land, seeds, fertilisers, and essential tools. Demonstrating remarkable foresight, he also acquired significant quantities of agricultural produce, even beyond the country's immediate needs. "Sheikh Zayed's legacy lies in laying the foundation for a strong and promising agricultural sector, one that future generations can build upon. The UAE's rapid agricultural expansion today, and the ease with which major companies establish both traditional and modern farms, is a direct result of the reliable infrastructure he initiated. The country's farming ecosystem thrives thanks to a skilled workforce, who inherited their agricultural expertise, and well-established research centres dedicated to agricultural experimentation," he added. Al Nuaimi highlighted the UAE's unique opportunity to drive its agricultural sector by fostering coordination among government and private sector organisations, research centres, and innovators. These collective efforts support the transition to modern, environmentally friendly, and climate-smart farming systems. He added: "This vision cannot be realised without empowering our farmers and driving agricultural innovation across the country. Our youth are at the forefront of this transformation, driving progress through scientific research and its practical application. As the cornerstone of the agricultural journey initiated by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, we are confident in their ability to lead a transformative shift in this critical sector, both now and in the years to come."A Panel Discussion: The National Agriculture Centre's Vision for the Future of Agriculture Day 2 of the conference hosted an insightful panel discussion under the theme 'The Vision and Strategy of the National Agriculture Centre in Supporting the Agricultural Sector'. The session was chaired by Sultan Salem Al Shamsi, Director of the National Agriculture Centre. The panellists included HE Mohammed Saeed Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary of MOCCAE; Rashid Mohammed Al Shariqi - Member of the Board of Directors of the National Agriculture Centre; Dhafer Al Qasimi - Chief Executive Officer - Silal; H.E Mohammed Khalifa Al Kaabi - Secretary-General of the Emirates Council for Rural Development. The panel highlighted the key strategies and roles that the Centre will undertake to drive development in the UAE's agricultural sector. The speakers focused on the Centre's future vision and some of its most ambitious initiatives supporting Emirati farmers to enhance sustainable national food security in the country. The discussions also addressed the Centre's plans to promote innovation in the agricultural sector and empower farmers by providing them with the necessary information and resources. Additionally, the panel explored ways to strengthen effective partnerships between the public and private sectors. It addressed the current challenges facing the agricultural sector, while also highlighting strategies to overcome them. The speakers also shed light on the policies to drive scientific research, advanced technologies, and sustainable farming practices. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment has invited all interested individuals, media representatives, and partners to register and participate in this pioneering national event via the following link: www.emiratesagriculture.ae. The full agenda, including sessions, events, and workshops, is available at: http://www.moccae.gov.ae/assets/d88f9d18/emiratesace2025-program.aspx The Emirates Agriculture Conference and Exhibition 2025 is organised within the framework of the 'Plant the Emirates' National Programme, launched to realise the vision of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan for expanding green spaces across the UAE. Launched last year, this programme supports the UAE's agricultural development goals and sustainable national food security strategy. It encourages the local community to engage in home-based food production, expand green areas, support environmental conservation efforts, and strengthen the positive perception of high-nutritional-value local products. The programme also enhances environmental sustainability by reducing the carbon footprint through the promotion of fresh, local products. (ANI/WAM) The all-party delegation led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda in Saudi Arabia informed that they held discussions with Saudi officials, policy think tanks, the media, and members of the Indian diaspora over two days in Riyadh. "We have had excellent discussions in Saudi Arabia. This is the third country that our delegation visited, and we had two full days of discussions with senior government officials, with think tanks who play the role of shaping policy in Saudi Arabia, with the media, and the Indian diaspora," Panda told ANI on Thursday (local time). Panda said discussions were open and direct, especially on terrorism, where both countries share a zero-tolerance stance. He added, "We have had free and frank discussions about the terrorism challenge we have been facing. Saudi Arabia has a policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism, like us. PM Narendra Modi was here when the terrorist attack happened and the joint statement given by the two governments made it very clear that there is no tolerance for any kind of terrorism." He also noted growing India-Saudi ties in defence, counterterrorism, and trade, calling Saudi Arabia a major regional power. "There have been a lot of developments between Saudi Arabia and India, including defence cooperation, joint military exercises, agreements on security and counter terrorism, and a very sharp growth in trade and investment. Saudi Arabia is very influential in this part of the world," Panda stated. The delegation also visited Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its traditional mud-brick architecture. Additionally, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said that the delegation held 7-8 meetings with Saudi officials, reaffirming close ties, especially with 27 lakh Indians living there. "We held 7-8 meetings. Saudi Arabia is as important for India as is for the world. India has good relations with Saudi Arabia. 27 lakh Indians live and work in Saudi. PM Narendra Modi has good relations with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman." Dubey said. He added, "PM Narendra Modi was here when the Pahalgam attack took place, and Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the attack. For the first time, Saudi Arabia has taken a big stand, and issued a joint statement with India, and stressed on two things -- to condemn cross-border terrorism and stop funding for terrorism. Saudi Arabia has now agreed to Pakistan's involvement in cross-border terrorism. The think tank here also believes that Pakistan is the only country in the world whose military decides and controls the government." Former Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who is also part of the delegation, said that the delegation met the Deputy Speaker of the Shura Council. "The delegation met the Deputy Speaker of the Shura Council, which is the Saudi Parliament. The delegation also had an extensive conversation with the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs. The outcomes are very good. Saudi Arabia is the most prominent country in the region. It has been involved in its region on many important issues," Shringla said. The delegation led by BJP MP Baijayant Panda also includes BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP Phangnon Konyak, BJP MP Rekha Sharma, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Satnam Singh Sandhu MP, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Ambassador Harsh Shringla. The visit comes in the aftermath of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 people, including a foreign tourist. In response, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 targeting terror camps linked to multiple terror groups. (ANI) Reiterating India's firm stance against terrorism, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday (local time) said that the country decided that the Pahalgam terror attack could not go unpunished and launched strikes against terrorist infrastructure under Operation Sindoor. Addressing the media at Bogota, Tharoor said, "India suffered a grievous terrorist attack on the 22nd of April... When this happened, of course, the world rose up to condemn the terrorist attack, but that was as far as it went. There was no action taken, not even by the country where these people had emerged from, Pakistan. Nobody was arrested, and there was no attempt at any prosecution. India decided that this kind of outrage could not go unpunished. On May 7, India chose to strike against known terror bases and launch pads." Tharoor also showed the picture of Pakistani Army officials attending the funerals of terrorists after India's strike on their terror bases. Tharoor said Pakistan provides terrorists a safe haven to continue their training. "There (in Pakistan) was a well-publicised funeral of one of the terrorists on the sanctions list. That funeral was attended by uniformed senior military and police personnel from Pakistan. That is the extent of complicity that we are seeing between the terrorists who perpetrate crimes of this nature and those who finance, guide, train, arm, and equip them and do provide them safe haven to continue their training and their other awful deeds," he said. Tharoor expressed disappointment with the Colombian government for expressing condolences over the loss of lives in Pakistan, rather than sympathising with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. "We were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," he said. The Congress MP, who is leading a multiparty delegation to Colombia, stated that India is only exercising our right of self-defence. "We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this core, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. We're very happy to talk to Colombia about the circumstances in detail. We have, as I said, very concrete proof. In fact, when this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The Resistance Front, which is a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba base in Muridke, Pakistan," Tharoor said. Shashi Tharoor-led delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayagi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora. (ANI) Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde-led delegation on Thursday (local time) met with Abdulai Caulker, National Security Coordinator of Sierra Leone, and his team, in Freetown. Deputy National Security Coordinator, Ahmed A. Sannoh, was also present at the meeting. Following the meeting, Sannoh said that they had a fruitful discussion around the issue of the global threat of terrorism. He extended Sierra Leone's support to fight against terrorism. "I am happy to report that we had a fruitful discussion around the issue of the global threat of terrorism. We believe that Sierra Leone must do whatever it is able to do in its own power to support the international fight against terrorism. So, we sympathise with all those who are victims of that carnage, we hope and pray that peace will reign in the world more than hostility and hatred," Sannoh said. Speaking with ANI, he added, "I think Sierra Leone is willing to be collaborative and would be prepared to do whatever it can in its power to be able to complement the global efforts towards fighting a crime of that nature." In an extraordinary gesture, Sierra Leone Parliament observed a moment of silence in honour of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 in the presence of the All-Party delegation. The delegation arrived in Sierra Leone yesterday, as part of a global outreach programme. The delegation was welcomed by Baisnab Charan Pradhan, the High Commissioner of India to Sierra Leone. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Bansuri Swaraj, Atul Garg, Manan Kumar Mishra, Indian Union Muslim League's ET Mohammed Basheer, Biju Janata Dal's Sasmit Patra, BJP leader SS Ahluwalia, and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy are also part of the Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde-led delegation. 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. (ANI) The multi-party delegation led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi arrived in Latvia's capital Riga. They were welcomed by India's ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar. Following the arrival of the multi-party delegation to Latvia, Indian Ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, stressed out the importance of Indian delegation's visit to Latvia. She said that the delegation will stress India's position on terrorism and its zero tolerance over the issue. She further mentioned that first high-level visit following the opening of resident mission in Latvia and the delegation will also speak about mobilising a global alliance for the fight against terrorism. "The delegation is here especially for a very specific objective to stress our position on terrorism, zero tolerance for terrorism and our continuous fight against terrorism. India and Latvia share very strong and friendly relations. This is also testified by the fact that last year we opened our resident Mission here, which shows that the bilateral relations between the two countries are growing. This is the first high-level visit after the opening of the resident mission in Latvia... Our delegation will speak about mobilising the global alliance for the fight against terrorism", she told ANI. Namrata Kumar further informed that the multi-party delegation will be meeting the Latvian parliamentarians. The delegation is also scheduled to meet with the Foreign Affairs Committee of Latvian Parliament, which is called "Saeima". "They are going to be meeting the parliamentarians - amongst the parliamentarians, they are specifically going to carry out meetings with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of their Parliament, which is called Saeima... When it comes to the Baltic Assembly, where the parliamentarians of the three Baltic countries - Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are represented. It means when our delegation, coming from India, is going to speak to the members of the Latvian parliamentarians, they are also going to promote the idea and the whole objective that they are coming with to the other two countries", Kumar further said. On Thursday, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, leading an all-party delegation to Greece, said India has made it clear that it will no longer distinguish between individual acts of terror and state-sponsored terrorism. While interacting with the Indian diaspora on Wednesday (local time), she added that the government's outreach, which includes opposition MPs, reflects a united stance against cross-border terrorism and a firm resolve to say "no more" after years of suffering. "Our Prime Minister and the Government of India have made a decision to reach out to countries. In our delegation, except Capt Brijesh Chowta, all of us are from the opposition parties. Our Prime Minister and the country have clearly stated that we will no longer differentiate between state-sponsored terrorism and terrorist activities of individuals and groups. India has suffered enough, and the time has come to say no more," Kanimozhi said. The delegation, led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, also includes Rajeev Rai (Samajwadi Party), Mian Altaf Ahmad (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Brijesh Chowta (BJP), Prem Chand Gupta (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Ashok Kumar Mittal (Aam Aadmi Party), and Former envoys Manjeev S Puri and Jawed Ashraf. (ANI) Salman Khurshid, Congress Leader and All-Party Delegation member, said that Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir must be given back to India. Khurshid, in conversation with ANI, said that India has clearly stated that talks can happen only when Pakistan's commitment to peace is clear, including talks on the Indus Water Treaty. "There is a long standing unanimous resolution of parliament of India saying that the Pakistan occupied Kashmir must be re-vacated and given back to India and as you know that even in the assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, the seats that should have been in that area are kept vacant just for this reason that we have we have a long term commitment that the area is to come back to us. That's one important factor," he said. Khurshid further said that attempts at making peace were negated by Pakistan, as it continued to attack India over the years. "The second is that the government has reiterated this because you know, often questions are asked about will you talk, will you not talk, etc. We have expressed our distress that repeated attempts to talk and negotiate have been betrayed by Pakistan by a subsequent attack and several attacks that happened over the years," he said. Khurshid said that talks can happen only when Pakistan's support for terrorism stops. Till then, the Indus Water Treaty will be in abeyance. "But the government has said clearly that talks can happen only when the commitment of Pakistan to peace is clear that their support for terrorism is cogently shown to have stopped, and only then can there be a conversation with Pakistan. And that includes the Indus Water treaty being put in abeyance, that even on that issue, further talks can only happen once terrorism is given a complete stop and completely given up," he said. Khurshid said that India took kinetic steps to eliminate terrorist hubs in Pakistan, and their retaliation thereafter was met with India neutralizing the basis of their offensive. "So it has been made clear that now we are taking several steps, steps that we took which are called kinetic steps of trying to eliminate the terrorist hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which is the first thing we did. And then when there was a retaliation without escalating any further, we responded to that retaliation by neutralising the basis from which retaliation was coming," he said. Khurshid also said Indonesia was more supportive than they expected. "I believe that Indonesia was far more supportive than we were even expecting, and we expressed our gratitude for that. They reiterated the condolence and the support messages that had already come from the president and have already come from the ASEAN headquarters, etc. and they took a lot of interest, reiterated the support that they've given," he said. Khurshid added that as of now, they had met the Secretary General of ASEAN, and it depends on the rest of the countries to take the matter up at their next meeting. "The issue now is of course ASEAN at its next meeting can take up the matter further because we will only talk to the Secretary General, but as far as the government and the representatives of Indonesia are concerned, they were very, very supportive, including the political parties, some of whom we will continue to meet today," he said. Khurshid said that Indonesia was supportive of the Indian stance, and Pakistan's false narratives on the attack were rejected. "They were extremely supportive of India's position. And the so-called narrative that was pushed by the chief of army staff in Pakistan, now a field marshal, that narrative was completely, completely negated and rejected in our conversations," he said. Khurshid is a part of an All-Party Delegation. The delegation, led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid and Mohan Kumar. The delegation is visiting many countries as part of India's global outreach against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The delegation has so far visited Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. (ANI) Israel has accepted a new US proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas from President Donald Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, according to several media reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostage families that he is prepared to move forward with Witkoff's latest temporary ceasefire and hostage deal proposal, the Times of Israel said on Thursday citing Axios news outlet. As per a Channel 12 report Netanyahu told the families that he "principally accepts" the proposal. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Israel had "signed off" on the ceasefire proposal, and the Trump administration's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had submitted it to Hamas for consideration. CNN reported that Israeli official told them that the proposal calls for the release of 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages, as well as a 60-day truce. The official provided no details about the beginning of negotiations for a permanent end to the war, a key Hamas demand that Israel has refused to accept. However, the official fell short of providing any details about ongoing discussions on a permanent ceasefire. The proposal comes months after the two parties have been unable to reach a truce. Hamas is said to have rejected the proposal. CNN cited Bassem Naim a member of the group's political bureau as saying that the latest framework comes from Israel and "does not respond to any of our people's demands, foremost among which is stopping the war and famine." "Nevertheless, the movement's leadership is studying, with all national responsibility, a response to the proposal, in light of the genocide to which our people are being subjected," the Hamas leader said in a post on Facebook. According to CNN, a senior Israeli official said that Hamas would agree to the new proposal if US assures that negotiations over a permanent ceasefire will continue and the fighting will not resume after the 60 days. The group also wants humanitarian assistance to be carried out through the United Nations channels. It also wants the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to pull back to the positions that they held on March 2 this year, before Israel re-launched its military operations. (ANI) After concluding their visit to South Africa, the all-party delegation led by NCP-SCP MP Supriya Sule departed for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday. The Group-7 all-party delegation, led by Supriya Sule, concluded its diplomatic visit to South Africa with a series of meetings involving political leaders, think tanks, and the Indian diaspora at India House in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa. Members of the delegation included Supriya Sule, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Manish Tewari, Anurag Singh Thakur, Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, Anand Sharma, former Minister of Commerce & Industry, V Muraleedharan, former Minister of State for External Affairs, and Syed Akbaruddin, former Permanent Representative of India to the UN. The visit, part of India's broader diplomatic outreach following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam and the subsequent Operation Sindoor, aimed to deepen bilateral ties and convey India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism. During their South Africa stopover, the delegation held important discussions, including a key meeting with Fikile Mbalula, Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC). Mbalula emphasized the strong political and social ties between South Africa and India and expressed solidarity with India in its fight against terrorism. Speaking in Johannesburg, Mbalula said, "It is important that today we managed to meet with the multi-party delegation from India. It is important for us to get that important briefing because India is an important partner, first and foremost with the South African government, but also politically as the African National Congress has strong roots with Indian political parties, as well as the biggest population of Indians in our country... We are all advocating peace, but we are against terror and terrorism in all its manifestations... In this particular instance, we advocate for peace and justice and co-existence among nations... A multilateral approach is very important in terms of intervention... We have pledged our solidarity with India in terms of engagement in the fight against terrorism..." The delegation's visit forms part of India's broader diplomatic engagement to strengthen international partnerships and build support against terrorism. (ANI) Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, Danish Ambassador to India noted that Denmark was among the first nations to denounce the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Kristensen, in conversation with ANI, said that Denmark, as a non-permanent UNSC member, has condemned terrorism and made it clear to the Indian government as well. "Denmark was among the first countries to not only express its sympathy and condolences to the Indian government and to the Indian people in the aftermath of the horrific terror attack that happened, but we were also very strong in condemning terrorism wherever it takes place, and this has been a consistent Danish line, so we have made that very clear to the Indian government. We have also made it very clear at the UN Security Council, where we are currently a non-permanent member," he said. Kristensen said that Denmark does not have any specific cooperation on counter terrorism with India. But Denmark cooperates with India in the UN and elsewhere. "As for the bilateral cooperation, we don't have any specific cooperation on counterterrorism, but of course we cooperate with India and other countries in multilateral fora, whether it's the UN Security Council or elsewhere to fight this fight terrorism wherever it occurs because this is a strong Danish position," he said. He said that Denmark has a strong relationship with India, where in 2021, both countries established a green strategic partnership. "I think Denmark today has a very strong relationship with India. Back in 2021, we established a green strategic partnership. This was the first, not the first strategic partnership, of course, that India has with other countries, but it's the first green one, and I think that that is also an indication of what it is that you know we can offer each other," he said. He added that India can use the extensive skills Denmark has to offer in the field of technology. "Denmark has a lot of experience within the green transition, whether it's energy, water, agriculture, or how you make that more sustainable, and India is already making a lot of progress, but it has a lot of scale that we don't have. So I think it's a perfect match in terms of Denmark offering some skills, and India has this massive scale where you can test and try out these technologies and solutions," he said. The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation, led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, arrived in Denmark on Friday. Indian Ambassador to Copenhagen, Manish Prabhat, received the delegation. https://x.com/IndiainDenmark/status/1928192105362452796 The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was given a detailed briefing by Prabhat on India-Denmark bilateral relations of "Green Strategic Partnership", shared values and issues of mutual concern, including the challenge of combating terrorism globally. The delegation, led by Ravi Shankar Prasad, includes BJP MPs Daggubati Purandeswari, M J Akbar, Ghulam Ali Khatana and Samik Bhattacharya; Amar Singh from Congress MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi from Shiv Sena (UBT) and former diplomat Pankaj Saran. 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 France, the UK, Germany, the EU, Italy and Denmark. (ANI) Naseem Baloch, the head of the Baloch National Movement, denounced the forced disappearance of Mahjabeen in Balochistan, highlighting the ongoing injustices occurring in the region. According to a post shared by Naseem Baloch X, he stated that "Mahjabeen, a young woman from Besema, was abducted in Quetta by Pakistani forces. This is a cruel and shocking act. But it is not new. In Balochistan, such abductions happen daily. The Pakistani army and paramilitary forces regularly abduct and forcibly disappear people, and many of them never return". "The enforced disappearance is a serious crime under international law. But Pakistan keeps doing it again and again. The world stays silent, and that silence gives Pakistan the freedom to continue these crimes. The international community must remember what happened in 1971, when Pakistan committed genocide against the Bengalis. Today, the same kind of genocide is happening in Balochistan", he stated. "It is time for the world to speak out", he asserted. On Thursday evening Mahjbeen, the daughter of Ghulam Mustafah and a resident of the Bisima area in Washuk district, Balochistan, was forcibly taken from Quetta. Witnesses indicate that she was kidnapped by individuals from the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Military Intelligence (MI), and the Pakistan Army Security Forces at the Quetta Civil Hospital, as per a post shared by Paank on X. Mahjbeen is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Library Science at the University of Balochistan. Her abduction is part of an alarming and ongoing trend of state-sponsored kidnappings in Balochistan. This act is a blatant infringement on fundamental human rights and poses a threat to academic freedom, according to Paank's statement. Enforced disappearances remain a significant human rights issue in Balochistan. International organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have consistently called on Pakistan to investigate these incidents and take measures to end this practice, which causes immense suffering and distress for families. (ANI) All-Party Delegation Leader and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that he was disappointed with the Colombian government, as they condoled the deaths of Pakistanis in Indian strikes, instead of sympathising with the victims of the terror attack in India. Tharoor said that there can be no equivalence between perpetrators of terrorism and those who resist it. "I have to say that we were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," he said. Tharoor added that his delegation is here to clear the air and explain India's stance to Colombia- how India exercised its right to self-defence. "We will say to our friends in Colombia, there can be no equivalence between those who dispatch terrorists and those who resist them. There can be no equivalence between those who attack and those who defend. We are only exercising our right of self-defence, and if there is any misunderstanding here on this call, we are here to dispel any such misunderstanding. We're very happy to talk to Colombia in some detail about the circumstances," he said. Tharoor explained how Pakistan-based 'The Resistance Front', a unit of Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack twice. "We have, as I said, very concrete proof. When this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The Resistance Front, which is a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba based in Muridke, Pakistan. There is no doubt that they reiterated this credit the next day. It is only after their handlers realised the damage this could do that they then deleted the claim two days later, but the claim has been made," he said. Tharoor said that just like India, Colombia too has endured several terror attacks and India has the right to self-defence. He said that it is a well-known fact that Pakistan has been a breeding ground for terrorism. "There is no doubt as to where this came from, and we will reserve the right to hit back. Just as Colombia has endured many terror attacks, so have we in India. We have endured a very large number of attacks for almost four decades. Frankly, it is now very well established that Pakistan has been breeding the monsters of terrorism for a very long time for their purposes," he said. In a post on X, Tharoor said, "Our Colombia visit got underway today with a briefing to the delegation from our Ambassador, Vanlalhuma, followed by a well-attended press interaction with more than a dozen local media outlets. I then did an interview with Colombian journalist Juan Camillo Ramirez. Getting the message out where it needs to be heard!" https://x.com/ShashiTharoor/status/1928218047031963685 The Tharoor-led multiparty delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora. The all-party delegation, consisting of representatives from seven national political groups, was initiated to counter Pakistan's misinformation and underscore India's zero-tolerance policy on terrorism. (ANI) Of the total, Japan will provide 418 million dollars as a Development Policy Loan for Bangladesh's economic reforms and climate resilience, it added. Tokyo will also lend 641 million dollars for the upgradation of the Joydevpur-Ishwardi railway track and another 4.2 million dollars as grants for scholarships, the statement said. Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus met with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru in Tokyo during his official working visit to Japan on Friday. They reiterated their shared vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) to ensure peace, stability, and shared prosperity for all, a Japan-Bangladesh Joint Press Release said on Friday. Yunus expressed gratitude to Japan for its continued support to foster sustainable economic growth and development in Bangladesh and for advancing Japan-Bangladesh bilateral relations, especially for the projects under the Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) Initiative, including the Moheskhali-Matarbari Integrated Infrastructure Development Initiative (MIDI), the joint press release said. MIDI targets the construction of a deep-sea port in the Bay of Bengal, which holds strategic importance. Bangladesh and Japan also signed MoUs and MoCs, including one on the One Stop Service system in BIDA, installation of prepaid gas meters, setting up a factory for battery-run cycles, launching a pilot project for information security, and land agreements with the Bangladesh Special Economic Zone (BSEZ) to promote Japanese investment in Bangladesh. Bangladesh and Japan are also discussing signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and an Agreement concerning the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology. (ANI) In a reaffirmation of the deepening strategic and cultural ties between India and Indonesia, KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board, underscored the shared challenges both countries face in combating terrorism and promoting peace. His remarks came during a meeting with the visiting Indian parliamentary delegation in Jakarta. "Both India and Indonesia have gone through this challenge of terrorism. I shared our experience of tackling the problem of extremism with our colleagues from India. Both countries have similar desires to achieve economic development, political stability, peace and harmony. We share a similar vision and aspirations," Abdalla said. Abdalla said that if people exploit religion to legitimise violence, then it can be very dangerous. "Of course, certain groups in Islam promote violence in the name of Islam. This is not right because Islam is a peace-loving religion and Muslims are peace-loving people. I said to our colleagues from India that the biggest victims of terrorism are not Hindus, Buddhists, or Christians. The biggest victims are Muslims themselves... That's why the first people who are concerned about tackling this problem are Muslims themselves... People living in South and Southeast Asia want peace and harmony because economic development and political stability cannot be achieved without it... If people do not have a proper and correct understanding of religions, and exploit religions to legitimise violence, that's dangerous... I told our colleagues from the Indian Parliament that the deepest geological layer in Indonesian history is shaped by Indian history and civilisation... So, India and Indonesia should collaborate on a people-to-people basis too," he said. Echoing these sentiments, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, who is leading Group 3 of the All-Party Delegation, shared insights from the same meeting, noting Abdalla's empathy towards India's concerns and his assurance of support within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Jha said that Abdalla, being a Muslim, expressed that he understands the pain of India. He also recalled visiting the Mahakumbh and pointed out that the Muslim population in India is larger than that of Pakistan. Yet, Pakistan mobilises support within the OIC to pass resolutions against India. Abdalla, Jha said, assured that he would look into the matter. Speaking about the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jha told ANI, "The innocent people were killed in Pahalgam after ascertaining their religion... They wanted to destroy the communal harmony of India. We conveyed our concerns to them... They also appreciated India's economic growth." The delegation also met with leaders of Indonesia's National Mandate Party (PAN), where Jha emphasised Pakistan's role in promoting terrorism while contrasting it with India's economic progress. The Indonesian leaders acknowledged the involvement of the Pakistan Army in supporting such activities and assured their full support. "This dialogue is part of our broader effort to counter misinformation about India's internal security challenges at international platforms like the OIC, while also showcasing India's economic trajectory," Jha said. In addition to political engagements, the delegation interacted with leading Indonesian think tanks and academic institutions such as the Indonesian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), The Habibie Center, Indo-Pacific Strategic Intelligence (ISI), Center for Indonesia Policy Studies (CIPS), University of Indonesia, and Indonesia Air Power Studies Center. According to the Embassy of India in Jakarta, the delegation conveyed a strong and unified national message of zero tolerance for cross-border terrorism. Discussions with Indonesian counterparts reflected an understanding of India's position and a shared commitment to tackle false narratives propagated by vested interests. The delegation includes MPs Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Kumar, alongside JD(U) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha. (ANI) The government is contemplating the regulation of the Chinese social media application Xiaohongshu, also known as Rednote, due to concerns that it could be utilized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for "united front" initiatives, as reported by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), according to the Taipei Times. During a meeting of the legislature's Internal Administration Committee, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng expressed these views while the committee was set to review proposed changes to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area and the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau, as stated by the Taipei Times. Chiu noted that this is the first instance of a Chinese expert linking the widely used application to unification efforts, adding that the council suspects the CCP may be leveraging the app to conduct its "united front" strategy, as mentioned in the Taipei Times report. "If this is true, individuals should exercise caution when using Xiaohongshu or Douyin, since these platforms might be aimed at preparing Taiwanese citizens for unification," he remarked, as cited in the Taipei Times. The council has been pressing agencies overseeing online activities to examine Xiaohongshu, he stated, mentioning that they have discovered content on the platform promoting unification through coercion and undermining national sovereignty. "We are in discussions with relevant agencies about this matter," he said. "We believe that the time has come when it is crucial to establish laws regulating the use of Chinese platforms," he asserted, as quoted by the Taipei Times. Chiu urged educational institutions to enhance media literacy education. He emphasised that students must be aware of the risks associated with using Chinese applications, including potential exposure of their personal information to the CCP and the influence of propaganda advocating for unification, he said, as reported by the Taipei Times. (ANI) Tel Aviv [Israel], May 30 (ANI/TPS): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo a "routine medical examination" on Friday, during which he is expected to be sedated, his office said. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who also serves as deputy prime minister, will act as premier during the procedure while Defense Minister Israel Katz will temporarily oversee the security cabinet. The check-up follows a series of health issues for Netanyahu, 75, including prostate surgery in December, when Levin similarly stepped in. That operation followed a test revealing a urinary tract infection caused by an enlarged prostate. In March, Netanyahu underwent hernia surgery under full anesthesia and later missed work due to the flu. In 2023, he had a pacemaker implanted after doctors diagnosed a long-standing heart conduction problem. That surgery came days after he was hospitalized for dehydration, though doctors later linked the incident to an undiagnosed heart issue. Netanyahu's most recent public medical report, issued in January 2023, described him as in a "completely normal state of health," with no signs of arrhythmia and the pacemaker functioning properly. The document, however, was not an official government health report but rather a summary compiled by his personal medical team. Despite government protocols urging prime ministers to release annual health summaries, Netanyahu issued no such report between 2016 and 2023, and none has been released this year. Those protocols are not legally binding, and he cannot be compelled to disclose his medical history. Netanyahu's office has not said how long Friday's exam is expected to take, nor when he will resume his duties. Following the prostate surgery, Netanyahu made headlines when he left the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center over the objections of his doctors to personally cast his vote over the "Trapped Profits Law." It passed by a vote of 59-58. Netanyahu was accompanied by his physician, Zvi Berkowitz in the Knesset plenum. (ANI/TPS) Herve Delphin, the Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to India, affirmed that the European Union recognised India's right to self-defence. Delphin said that the EU welcomed the decision by both parties on the cessation of violence. "We were all shocked by the barbaric terrorist attack against Indian citizens...the perpetrators of this attack should be brought to justice...we stated that the EU recognises the right of India to protect its citizens and defend itself. We welcome the cessation of hostilities (between India and Pakistan)...we should do our utmost to fight terrorism," he told ANI. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, he said that EU High Representative Kaja Kallas was in constant touch with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the issue. "I think on Operation Sindoor, the EU stated very clearly what its position was in the few hours after the terrorist attack. There was a strong condemnation by the EU of this barbaric act, and if you follow, there were constant exchanges between the EU and India on that matter between High Representative Kaja Kallas and EAM Jaishankar to keep each other informed about the developments," he said. He referred to the telephonic exchanges between Jaishankar and Kallas, which they announced on X. "I would like to refer to what the EU has stated on the 8th of May...on recognition by the EU of the right of India to protect itself, protect its citizens and to defend itself," he said. Delphin welcomed the ceasefire between the two parties. "Certainly, we welcome that there is a cessation of hostilities, and I mean it is a long-standing bilateral issue, but as the EU, we are a strong partner and important partner for India, of course, we look forward to more stability in the region. I think it's in everyone's interest," he said. Stating India is not just the "second largest partner" for Slovenia in Asia but also "the most important partner" for the European Union, National Council of Slovenia President Marko Lotric on Tuesday said the Pahalgam terror attack was "totally not acceptable." In an interview with ANI, he spoke spoke about the meeting with all-party delegation, led by DMK MP Kanimozhi, to inform nations about Pakistan's links to terrorism, he felt "deeply sorry" for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 people were brutally killed by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. (ANI) In a significant diplomatic push against terrorism, India has dispatched an all-party parliamentary delegation to Algeria from May 30 to June 2, 2025, aimed at strengthening global cooperation in counter-terrorism efforts. The move comes in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, which claimed 26 lives, including that of a foreign tourist. Led by Baijayant Jay Panda, Member of Parliament and former Minister, the delegation includes senior parliamentarians and officials such as Dr. Nishikant Dubey, S. Phangnon Konyak, Rekha Sharma, Asaduddin Owaisi, Satnam Singh Sandhu, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and former Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. This visit to Algeria follows prior stops in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia as part of India's wider diplomatic outreach under Operation Sindoor. According to the Embassy of India in Algiers, the delegation will focus on countering cross-border terrorism, with special emphasis on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, and aims to deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation between India and Algeria on counter-terrorism intelligence and strategy. Before arriving in Algeria, the delegation spent two days in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where they held extensive discussions with senior government officials, policy think tanks, media representatives, and the Indian diaspora. Baijayant Jay Panda told ANI that the talks were open and candid, particularly on the challenge of terrorism. "Saudi Arabia has a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism, like us. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia following the Pahalgam attack and the joint statement by both governments made it clear that there is no tolerance for any kind of terrorism," Panda said. He also highlighted the strengthening ties between India and Saudi Arabia in defence, counterterrorism, and trade, describing Saudi Arabia as a major regional power. The delegation also visited Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its traditional mud-brick architecture. The visit is part of India's broader Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7 to target terror camps linked to multiple terror groups following the Pahalgam attack. The parliamentary delegation's mission underscores India's firm resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and build stronger international partnerships to address this global menace. (ANI) BJP leader and Member of the All-Party Delegation Group 3, Hemang Joshi, praised Indonesia's inclusive governance and strong stance against extremism, noting the enthusiastic response the Indian delegation has received during its ongoing diplomatic visit to Southeast and East Asia. "This is our third day in Indonesia, and we have engaged with several high-ranking government officials and ministers who lead various political parties here. We've had meaningful discussions and gained insight into their perspectives," Joshi said. He further added, "Based on my experience and that of our entire delegation, I can confidently say that Indonesia can serve as a guiding light for other Islamic countries in terms of governance and how to function as a civil society. Indonesia wholeheartedly believes that terrorism, murder, or violence have no place in Islam." Reinforcing this shared commitment, KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board, highlighted the deepening strategic and cultural ties between India and Indonesia. Speaking during a meeting with the visiting Indian parliamentary delegation in Jakarta, he emphasized the common challenges both countries face in combating terrorism and promoting peace. "Both India and Indonesia have gone through this challenge of terrorism. I shared our experience of tackling the problem of extremism with our colleagues from India. Both countries have similar desires to achieve economic development, political stability, peace and harmony. We share a similar vision and aspirations," Abdalla said. Abdalla said that if people exploit religion to legitimise violence, then it can be very dangerous. "Of course, certain groups in Islam promote violence in the name of Islam. This is not right because Islam is a peace-loving religion and Muslims are peace-loving people. I said to our colleagues from India that the biggest victims of terrorism are not Hindus, Buddhists, or Christians. The biggest victims are Muslims themselves... That's why the first people who are concerned about tackling this problem are Muslims themselves... People living in South and Southeast Asia want peace and harmony because economic development and political stability cannot be achieved without it... If people do not have a proper and correct understanding of religions, and exploit religions to legitimise violence, that's dangerous... I told our colleagues from the Indian Parliament that the deepest geological layer in Indonesian history is shaped by Indian history and civilisation... So, India and Indonesia should collaborate on a people-to-people basis too," he said. Echoing the shared commitment to counter terrorism and promote peace, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, leader of Group 3 of the All-Party Delegation, highlighted KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla's empathy towards India's concerns during their meeting in Jakarta. Jha noted that Abdalla, a Muslim leader, expressed understanding of India's pain and assured support within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Jha recalled Abdalla mentioning his visit to the Mahakumbh and emphasizing that India's Muslim population is larger than Pakistan's. Yet, Pakistan often mobilizes the OIC to pass resolutions against India. Abdalla assured that he would look into the matter, signaling potential support for India within the Muslim world. The delegation, which includes MPs Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Kumar, alongside JD(U) leader Sanjay Kumar Jha, continues its diplomatic engagement aimed at strengthening India's international partnerships and counterterrorism efforts. (ANI) A report issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) revealed significant shortcomings in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act 2025 and urged for the complete repeal of the law, rejecting any coercive enforcement of its versions from 2016 to 2023, as reported by Dawn. Developed by HRCP's Legislation Watch Cell, the report was shared by digital rights activist Farieha Aziz during an advocacy meeting linked to an initiative funded by the European Union. At the start of the session, HRCP Director Farah Zia expressed concern over a recent trend of oppressive legislation, especially laws that erode civic spaces and are utilised to stifle dissent and freedom of expression, according to Dawn. Farieha Aziz, who authored the report, noted that Peca criminalises vague terms such as "fake and false information," with penalties that can reach up to three years in prison. It also creates a strong regulatory authority, a complaints council, and a tribunal, all under excessive executive oversight, as highlighted in the Dawn report. Other issues raised include the reclassification of previously bailable and non-cognisable offences into non-bailable and cognisable categories, thereby expanding the possibilities for coercive measures. Additionally, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has superseded the Federal Investigation Authority, operating without sufficient safeguards, the Dawn report indicated. Journalists stressed the state's obligation to safeguard individuals' rights, as conveyed in a statement from the HRCP. They called for the decriminalisation of free speech and recommended collaboration with political parties through inclusive representation. They criticised Peca for purportedly infringing on constitutional rights relating to free speech and access to information. Journalists urged their peers and civil society to come together to uphold these freedoms, as referenced in the Dawn report. Digital rights advocates called for the establishment of a national coalition comprising civil society members, journalists, and human rights defenders to address political parties about the swift increase in restrictions on freedom of expression and opinion, as noted by Dawn. HRCP Islamabad Vice Chair Nasreen Azhar concluded while suggesting that the coalition should identify all laws that oppose constitutional guarantees of fundamental freedoms, as outlined in the Dawn report. (ANI) The all-party parliamentary delegation led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, currently on an official visit to Indonesia, paid floral tribute to the Mahatma Gandhi Statue at the Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School in Jakarta on Friday. Building on this symbolic gesture of peace, the delegation spent the second day of their visit engaging in a series of high-level meetings and interactions across Jakarta, underscoring India's broader diplomatic efforts to strengthen international partnerships in combating terrorism and promoting global harmony under Operation Sindoor outreach. According to the Embassy of India in Jakarta, the delegation held in-depth discussions with prominent think tanks and scholars, including experts from the Indonesian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), The Habibie Center, Indo-Pacific Strategic Intelligence (ISI), Center for Indonesia Policy Studies (CIPS), and academics from the University of Indonesia and the Indonesia Air Power Studies Center. During these discussions, the Indian delegation conveyed a strong and unified national message of zero tolerance for cross-border terrorism. The think tanks acknowledged India's position and the necessity of jointly countering false narratives propagated by vested interests. In response to a query on the "endgame" of India's counterterrorism efforts, the delegation underscored that the complete relinquishment of terror activities by Pakistan, dismantling of its terror infrastructure, and the vacating of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) constituted India's ultimate objective. Later in the day, the delegation participated in a lunch interaction with Resident Ambassadors from nearly 20 friendly diplomatic missions in Indonesia. They shared detailed insights on Operation Sindoor, clearly outlining Pakistan's role in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. They also highlighted India's calibrated, targeted, and non-escalatory response to the incident. Reiterating India's stance, the MPs emphasized that "terror and talks cannot go together, and blood and water cannot flow together." They urged the international community to support efforts in bringing the perpetrators of terrorism to justice, referring to the United Nations Security Council's April 25, 2025 statement calling for coordinated diplomatic action against terrorism and its sponsors. In their final engagement of the day, the Indian delegation met with the leadership of Indonesia's National Mandate Party (PAN), a prominent modernist Muslim political party. PAN's Vice Chairman Eddy Soeparno--who is also Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian People's Assembly--along with senior leaders including Viva Yoga Mauladi, Deputy Minister for Transmigration, conveyed their condolences for the victims of the Pahalgam attack and extended full support to India's anti-terror efforts. PAN leaders affirmed that religion and race must not be used as a basis for spreading terrorism. Other attending PAN Members of Parliament included Dessy Ratnasari, Farah Putri Nahlia, Okta Kumala Dewi, Drajad Wibowo, Slamet Ariyadi, and A Bakrie. The all-party Indian delegation comprises MPs across party lines, including BJP, Congress, JD(U), and Shiv Sena (UBT), as part of India's broader diplomatic outreach on global counterterrorism efforts. (ANI) The all-party delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday met with Danish leaders to discuss terrorism and bilateral relations. The meetings included Christian Friis Bach, Chairperson of the Danish Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, and Danish MP Trine Pertou Mach. The Danish leaders expressed solidarity with India against terrorism, with Denmark being the first to convey support. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad thanked the Danish leaders for understanding India's position on terrorism. Speaking about the discussions, Prasad said, "We had a wonderful meeting with him. He understood the problem of terrorism, conveyed his views and Denmark was the first to convey solidarity. He understood India's position. We thank him from the core of our hearts." Meanwhile, former Union Minister MJ Akbar, part of the delegation, highlighted the recent Pahalgam terror attack, drawing parallels with communal terrorism witnessed in Europe. Europe. Akbar noted that the Danish leaders' remarks showed the impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to build international consensus against terrorism. He said, "The recent Pahalgam terror attack was a brutal form, barbaric form of communal terrorism of the kind that Europe had also witnessed. The remarks that they made were enough to show that the mission that the Prime Minister has sent is having an impact." The delegation included BJP members Daggubati Purandeswari and Samik Bhattacharya, Shiv Sena-UBT's Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress members Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, MJ Akbar, and Ambassador Pankaj Saran. Danish Ambassador to India Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen noted that Denmark was among the first nations to denounce the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Kristensen told ANI, "Denmark was among the first countries to not only express its sympathy and condolences to the Indian government and to the Indian people in the aftermath of the horrific terror attack that happened, but we were also very strong in condemning terrorism wherever it takes place, and this has been a consistent Danish line, so we have made that very clear to the Indian government. We have also made it very clear at the UN Security Council, where we are currently a non-permanent member." He added that Denmark does not have specific bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation with India but collaborates with India in multilateral forums, including the UN Security Council. Kristensen also highlighted the strong relationship between India and Denmark, recalling the establishment of a green strategic partnership in 2021. He said, "Denmark has a lot of experience within the green transition, whether it's energy, water, agriculture, or how you make that more sustainable, and India is already making a lot of progress, but it has a lot of scale that we don't have. So I think it's a perfect match in terms of Denmark offering some skills, and India has this massive scale where you can test and try out these technologies and solutions." 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 France, the UK, Germany, the EU, Italy, and Denmark. (ANI) The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) has vehemently denounced the reported enforced disappearance of Mahjabeen Baloch, a 24-year-old student from Basima, who was allegedly taken by security forces from Civil Hospital Quetta on Wednesday, as per a report by The Balochistan Post (TBP). According to the BWF, Mahjabeen, who studies Library Science at the University of Balochistan, was abducted around 3 a.m. by personnel from the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and Military Intelligence (MI), as stated by TBP. The forum characterised the event as part of a concerning pattern where Baloch women are increasingly being targeted by state entities. "Baloch women, like their male counterparts, face constant danger from state agencies," the BWF expressed in an official statement. "The forced disappearance of Mahjabeen Baloch signifies a worrisome escalation in the ongoing human rights abuses in Balochistan," the BWF stated, as reported by TBP. Enforced disappearances have long been a problem in the region, with men, children, and elderly individuals frequently reported as missing under similar conditions. However, the forum pointed out that the targeting of women in these actions represents a deeply troubling advancement that goes against national cultural customs and traditions, the TBP report emphasised. "This is not just an infringement on individual rights but also a direct insult to the honour and dignity of the Baloch community," the BWF continued, calling on the state to desist from what it termed the "excessive use of force," as cited by TBP. The forum brought attention to earlier occurrences where activists, particularly those affiliated with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), were reportedly detained without due process and subsequently presented in police custody under preventive detention laws such as the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), as stated in the TBP report. Appealing for national and international awareness, the BWF demanded the immediate and safe release of Mahjabeen Baloch and accountability for those to blame for her disappearance. "We call on the international community to shed light on the ongoing human rights violations in Balochistan," the statement declared. "We urge the public to oppose this escalating brutality and ensure that state institutions are held accountable," as quoted by the TBP report. (ANI) Mirza has demanded the immediate release of Ehsan Ali Advocate, Mumtaz Hussain Nagri, and other leaders of the protests who were taken into custody for opposing the controversial Land Reform Bill 2025, which he has termed a "Land Grab Bill" orchestrated by the Pakistani military. In an interview with ANI, Mirza remarked, "This purported land reform legislation is merely a calculated effort to seize the traditional pastures, valleys, and tourist destinations of PoGB. The Pakistani military is carrying out this land seizure through intermediary organisations while masquerading as reformers." Mirza emphasised that PoGB is a fundamental part of India, and thus Pakistan lacks any legal or moral right to enforce laws, detain local leaders, or change the demographics and land ownership in the region. He also urged international human rights organisations, including the United Nations, to promptly acknowledge the current situation and speak out against Pakistan's harsh suppression of civil rights in this contested area. "The assault on peaceful political dissent in PoGB constitutes a serious violation of international law and human rights. The global community must not remain passive while Pakistan perpetrates injustices against the indigenous population of this region," Mirza further stated. Mirza called upon international media, diaspora communities, and human rights organisations to unite with the people of PoGB and advocate for an end to this oppressive campaign. Residents of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) have been struggling with dire living conditions, experiencing economic difficulties, political disregard, and a lack of essential public services. Despite the region's wealth of natural resources, it continues to lag in development, exhibiting deteriorating infrastructure, frequent electricity shortages, inadequate healthcare services, and limited access to quality education. (ANI) New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, on Friday emphasised the strengthening partnership between New Zealand and India in various areas. He noted India's emergence as a geopolitical giant and vital security actor in the region. "In an increasingly multi-polar world, India is emerging as a geopolitical giant and a vital security actor both regionally and globally...", said New Zealand Dy PM Peters. Speaking at Ananta Aspen Centre in New Delhi, Peters highlighted the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Air New Zealand and Air India, which aims to explore codeshare agreements across 16 routes. This move is expected to boost tourism, educational exchanges, and business links between the two nations. "A significant step forward came with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Air New Zealand and Air India, aiming to explore a codeshare agreement across 16 routes covering India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand," he said. "This move will ease travel between our nations, strengthening tourism, educational exchanges, and business links... But our partnership with India extends far beyond economics. It reaches into defence and security -- a growing priority for New Zealand in the Indo-Pacific," he added. He further noted that both nations have taken deliberate steps to "build closer defence ties" with India, with a recently signed defence cooperation arrangement "paving the way for greater collaboration" between India and New Zealand's armed forces. "The New Zealand Navy currently leads Combined Task Force 150, tasked with securing vital trade routes and countering terrorism, smuggling, and piracy in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. India's role as deputy commander in this mission is a strong signal of our growing strategic alignment... The impact is real -- the taskforce has already disrupted over USD 600 million worth of illegal drug trade," he said. Highlighting the vast untapped potential of the India-New Zealand partnership. Peters stated, "For New Zealand, India represents immense untapped potential." Peters noted that despite India's significant economic scale, it remains New Zealand's 12th largest trade partner, accounting for only 1.5 per cent of New Zealand's exports. "Despite India's economic scale, it remains our 12th largest partner in trade, accounting for just 1.5 per cent of our exports. We are determined that we're going to work to change that. Our strengths, from food and beverage products to agriculture, forestry, horticulture, education and tourism, are world-class. And our innovation in areas like outer space and renewable energy will find a welcome partner in India," he said. Winston Peters has highlighted the potential for his country to support India in meeting its growing food demands. During a fireside chat with G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Peters stated, "We know that there are going to be certain areas of barrier of concern... For example, India will need 35 per cent more food in the next 35 years, and our country, rather than being an opponent, can be a serious help." New Zealand's Foreign Minister, Winston, also commended the stability and continuity in the Indian government, stating that it has facilitated more effective communication and cooperation. During a fireside chat, Peters said, "Until recent times, it was really hard to talk to the Indian government getting a breakthrough... The stability and continuity are a big help." Peters, who has known his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar since 2019, appreciated the consistency in the Indian government's leadership, stating, "I've known your foreign minister since 2019. And he's still there, and this is good because you can walk into the room and take up from what happened yesterday. I don't have to start all over again, if I can say that's been a blessing." Meanwhile, Peter also met with Union Minister JP Nadda during his two-day official visit to India. (ANI) The all-party delegation led by DMK MP Kanimozhi on Friday held a joint meeting in Latvia's Riga with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Friendship group of Parliamentarians for India. The meeting was held at the Latvian Saeima, which is a unicameral parliament of Latvia. The delegation members also interacted with think tank members and senior officers from the foreign and other ministries. The Kanimozhi-led delegation arrived in Latvia's capital, Riga, on Friday. India's ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, welcomed them. Following the arrival of the all-party delegation in Latvia, the Indian Ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, stressed the importance of the Indian delegation's visit to Latvia. She said that the delegation will stress India's position on terrorism and its zero tolerance for the issue. She further mentioned that the first high-level visit following the opening of the resident mission in Latvia, the delegation will also speak about mobilising a global alliance for the fight against terrorism. "The delegation is here especially for a very specific objective to stress our position on terrorism, zero tolerance for terrorism and our continuous fight against terrorism. India and Latvia share very strong and friendly relations. This is also testified by the fact that last year we opened our resident Mission here, which shows that the bilateral relations between the two countries are growing. This is the first high-level visit after the opening of the resident mission in Latvia... Our delegation will speak about mobilising the global alliance for the fight against terrorism", she told ANI. Namrata Kumar further informed that the all-party delegation will meet the Latvian parliamentarians. The delegation is also scheduled to meet with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Parliament, which is called "Saeima." "They are going to be meeting the parliamentarians - amongst the parliamentarians, they are specifically going to carry out meetings with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of their Parliament, which is called Saeima... When it comes to the Baltic Assembly, where the parliamentarians of the three Baltic countries - Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are represented. It means when our delegation, coming from India, is going to speak to the members of the Latvian parliamentarians, they are also going to promote the idea and the whole objective that they are coming with to the other two countries", Kumar further said. On Thursday, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, leading an all-party delegation to Greece, said India has made it clear that it will no longer distinguish between individual acts of terror and state-sponsored terrorism. While interacting with the Indian diaspora on Wednesday (local time), she added that the government's outreach, which includes opposition MPs, reflects a united stance against cross-border terrorism and a firm resolve to say "no more" after years of suffering. "Our Prime Minister and the Government of India have made a decision to reach out to countries. Our delegation, except Capt Brijesh Chowta, is made up of all of the opposition parties. Our Prime Minister and the country have clearly stated that we will no longer differentiate between state-sponsored terrorism and terrorist activities of individuals and groups. India has suffered enough, and the time has come to say no more," Kanimozhi said. The delegation, led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, also includes Rajeev Rai (Samajwadi Party), Mian Altaf Ahmad (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Brijesh Chowta (BJP), Prem Chand Gupta (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Ashok Kumar Mittal (Aam Aadmi Party), and Former envoys Manjeev S Puri and Jawed Ashraf. (ANI) Indian Ambassador to Indonesia, Sandeep Chakravorty, on Friday expressed concerns that anti-India resolutions by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hurt Indian Muslims. He also thanked Indonesia for supporting India's stand on terrorism, thwarting Pakistan's effort to criticise India on the Kashmir issue at a recent meeting of OIC Parliamentary Union held in Jakarta. Chakravorty questioned why countries friendly to India, including OIC members, would support such resolutions. Chakravorty highlighted that India is home to one of the largest Muslim populations globally, emphasizing the need for OIC countries to be mindful of this demographic reality. "Anti-India resolutions of OIC countries hurts Indian muslims... Indonesia is a friend of India, why should other friends of India and OIC countries support this kind of resolution? We should be mindful that India is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world...," said the Indian Ambassador to Indonesia. Notably, Pakistan's efforts to include criticism of India on the Kashmir issue in the OIC document were unsuccessful, thanks to the opposition from Indonesia, Egypt, and Bahrain. Pakistan's efforts to rally the 57-member OIC against India have been met with resistance. Many OIC member countries, which have cordial relations with India, have refused to toe Pakistan's line, dealing a blow to its diplomatic efforts. The Ambassador urged OIC countries that are friends of India to reconsider their stance on these resolutions. He emphasized the importance of recognizing India's diverse population and its commitment to unity in diversity. Chakravorty also emphasized the strong message conveyed by India's actions against terrorism, which has resonated with Indonesia, a country that has also faced terrorism. Both nations, with significant Muslim populations, share a mutual understanding of the threat posed by terrorism. "The message that has been conveyed strongly is that whole India is behind the action that the government has taken, terrorism has no place in the modern world, and the Government of India has a zero tolerance policy. I think this has found resonance from the Indonesian side, as Indonesia suffers from terrorism. It has the largest Muslim population in the world, while India has the second-largest population, so there is a mutual understanding," Chakravorty said. Chakravorty highlighted Indonesia's robust anti-terror program, including de-radicalisation initiatives, which India can learn from. He added, "What was discussed was the Indonesian anti-terror program. Indonesia has anti-terror cooperation with many countries, including India. It also has a robust de-radicalisation program against violent and online extremism. These are the learnings we have from Indonesia." As part of their official visit to Indonesia, the all-party parliamentary delegation from India, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, met with KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, MA, Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU), and Mr. Kholili Kholil, Committee Member of NU -- the world's largest Islamic organisation. The Indian delegation sought NU's unwavering support against violence and religious extremism. Emphasising the shared values of peace and unity between India and Indonesia, Sanjay Jha urged NU leaders to stand with India and condemn cross-border terrorism, sending a strong message to the global community. Both India and Indonesia, with the largest Muslim populations globally, uphold the principle of Unity in Diversity or Bhinneka Tunggal Ika as state policy and as a way of life. Condemning terrorism and attacks on innocent civilians, KH Ulil expressed deep solidarity with India, saying, "I felt the pain of India," and called for stronger cooperation between India and Indonesia to promote peace and economic development. The all-party delegation, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, included prominent MPs such as Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lala, Pradan Baruah, Hemang Joshi from BJP, Abhishek Banerjee from TMC, John Brittas from CPI-M, along with Salman Khurshid and Mohan Kumar. Together, they sought to strengthen ties and garner support against cross-border terrorism. (ANI) The all-party Indian parliamentary delegation, led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, held a series of high-level engagements in Denmark on Friday, receiving strong expressions of solidarity in the global fight against terrorism and deepening bilateral relations. During the visit, the delegation met with top Danish leaders, including Christian Friis Bach, Chairperson of the Danish Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, and MP Trine Pertou Mach. Friis Bach expressed heartfelt condolences over recent terror incidents and affirmed Denmark's unwavering support to India. "We are honoured to meet a very strong delegation from the Indian Parliament, and we have expressed our heartfelt condolences... We have expressed our strong solidarity and support to India during this difficult time," said Friis Bach. Congress MP Dr Amar Singh, a member of the delegation, emphasised the united political stance of Indian parties against terrorism. "All the political parties are united when it comes to the fight against terrorism... Denmark understands India's concerns and India is the sufferer (of terrorism)... They assured us that we will continue to support India," he said. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad thanked the Danish leadership for their clear and early expression of support. "We had a wonderful meeting with him. He understood the problem of terrorism, conveyed his views and Denmark was the first to convey solidarity. He understood India's position. We thank him from the core of our hearts," said Prasad. The delegation also met Deputy Speaker and Member of the Presidium Lars-Christian Brask, who received them warmly and took them on a guided tour of the Danish Parliament at Christiansborg Palace -- a symbolic gesture that underscored the strengthening diplomatic ties. Former Union Minister MJ Akbar, who is also part of the delegation, referred to the recent Pahalgam terror attack and highlighted how India's experience with terrorism echoes challenges faced in Europe from communal extremism. Other members of the Indian delegation included BJP MPs Daggubati Purandeswari and Samik Bhattacharya, Shiv Sena-UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress MPs Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, and Ambassador Pankaj Saran. The engagements mark a continued commitment between India and Denmark to counter terrorism and strengthen cooperation in peace, security, and democratic values. (ANI) The all-party delegation led by DMK MP Kanimozhi met with Andzejs Vilumsons, the State Secretary of Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Andrejs Pildegovics, Ambassador of Special Tasks of the Secretariat of the Candidate of Latvia to the UN Security Council and Permanent Representative of Latvia to the UN on Friday. Earlier in the day, the delegation led by Kanimozhi held a joint meeting in Latvia's Riga with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Friendship group of Parliamentarians for India. The meeting was held at the Latvian Saeima, which is a unicameral parliament of Latvia. The delegation members also interacted with think tank members and senior officers from the foreign and other ministries. The Kanimozhi-led delegation arrived in Latvia's capital, Riga, on Friday. India's ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, welcomed them. Following the arrival of the all-party delegation in Latvia, the Indian Ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, stressed the importance of the Indian delegation's visit to Latvia. She said that the delegation will stress India's position on terrorism and its zero tolerance for the issue. She further mentioned that during the first high-level visit following the opening of the resident mission in Latvia, the delegation will also speak about mobilising a global alliance for the fight against terrorism. "The delegation is here especially for a very specific objective to stress our position on terrorism, zero tolerance for terrorism and our continuous fight against terrorism. India and Latvia share very strong and friendly relations. This is also testified by the fact that last year we opened our resident Mission here, which shows that the bilateral relations between the two countries are growing. This is the first high-level visit after the opening of the resident mission in Latvia... Our delegation will speak about mobilising the global alliance for the fight against terrorism", she told ANI. Namrata Kumar further informed that the all-party delegation will meet the Latvian parliamentarians. The delegation is also scheduled to meet with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Parliament, which is called "Saeima." "They are going to be meeting the parliamentarians - amongst the parliamentarians, they are specifically going to carry out meetings with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of their Parliament, which is called Saeima... When it comes to the Baltic Assembly, where the parliamentarians of the three Baltic countries - Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are represented. It means when our delegation, coming from India, is going to speak to the members of the Latvian parliamentarians, they are also going to promote the idea and the whole objective that they are coming with to the other two countries", Kumar further said. On Thursday, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, leading an all-party delegation to Greece, said India has made it clear that it will no longer distinguish between individual acts of terror and state-sponsored terrorism. While interacting with the Indian diaspora on Wednesday (local time), she added that the government's outreach, which includes opposition MPs, reflects a united stance against cross-border terrorism and a firm resolve to say "no more" after years of suffering. "Our Prime Minister and the Government of India have made a decision to reach out to countries. Our delegation, except Capt Brijesh Chowta, is made up of all of the opposition parties. Our Prime Minister and the country have clearly stated that we will no longer differentiate between state-sponsored terrorism and terrorist activities of individuals and groups. India has suffered enough, and the time has come to say no more," Kanimozhi said. The delegation, led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, also includes Rajeev Rai (Samajwadi Party), Mian Altaf Ahmad (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Brijesh Chowta (BJP), Prem Chand Gupta (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Ashok Kumar Mittal (Aam Aadmi Party), and Former envoys Manjeev S Puri and Jawed Ashraf. (ANI) All-Party Delegation Leader and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said met with former President Cesar Augusto Gaviria Trujillo, leader of the Colombian Liberal Party. Speaking to ANI, Former Colombian President Cesar Augusto Gaviria Trujillo expressed Colombia's solidarity with India, stating that the country rejects any form of terrorism. Trujillo said, "I want to express to all the people of India that Colombia has solidarity with India. We are your friends and partners. We reject any kind of terrorist. Be certain that under any circumstances or situation, we will be on your side..." In a diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor, the Modi government has formed seven multi-party delegations to inform nations about Pakistan's links to terrorism and India's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Earlier, Shashi Tharoor said that he was disappointed with the Colombian government, as they condoled the deaths of Pakistanis in Indian strikes, instead of sympathising with the victims of the terror attack in India. Tharoor said that there can be no equivalence between perpetrators of terrorism and those who resist it. "I have to say that we were a little disappointed in the reaction of the Colombian government, which apparently expressed heartfelt condolences on the loss of lives in Pakistan after the Indian strikes, rather than sympathising with the victims of terrorism," he said. Tharoor added that his delegation is here to clear the air and explain India's stance to Colombia- how India exercised its right to self-defence. Tharoor also explained how Pakistan-based 'The Resistance Front', a unit of Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack twice. "We have, as I said, very concrete proof. When this terrorist attack occurred, it was immediately claimed by an organisation called The Resistance Front, which is a unit of the Lashkar-e-Taiba based in Muridke, Pakistan. There is no doubt that they reiterated this credit the next day. It is only after their handlers realised the damage this could do that they then deleted the claim two days later, but the claim has been made," he said. In a post on X, Tharoor said, "Our Colombia visit got underway today with a briefing to the delegation from our Ambassador, Vanlalhuma, followed by a well-attended press interaction with more than a dozen local media outlets. I then interviewed with Colombian journalist Juan Camillo Ramirez. Getting the message out where it needs to be heard!" The Tharoor-led multiparty delegation includes Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), G M Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejaswi Surya, Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora. The all-party delegation, consisting of representatives from seven national political groups, was initiated to counter Pakistan's misinformation and underscore India's zero-tolerance policy on terrorism. (ANI) The all-party parliamentary delegation member, JP MP Aparajita Sarangi on Friday highlighted that everyone they met in Indonesia condemned the Pahalgam terror attack and Pakistan and appreciated India's efforts to promote peace and eliminate terrorism. "I am delighted to tell you that everyone condemned the April 22 incident, everyone condemned Pakistan and everyone said that the efforts of delegations are appreciative. Pakistan should take this as a lesson and terrorism should be eliminated," said Sarangi. Sarangi noted that the Indonesian hosts, including members of the Islamic organization, strongly condemned Pakistan's role in terrorism and appreciated the Indian delegation's efforts to raise awareness about the issue. "The atmosphere here is very cordial. We have been meeting people from all sections of society here for the past two days. We met politicians, administrators, as well as people from different sections of society. Today, we also spoke with members of an Islamic Organisation. After this, we received the opportunity to visit an organisation, Gandhi Lok Seva which runs 7 major schools. When we speak of no war, eradication of terrorism of peace and harmony, I think the most relevant thing is the principles of Mahatma Gandhi," she added The all-party parliamentary delegation from India, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, visited the Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School in Jakarta, where they met with officials of Gandhi Seva Loka and planted a sapling to mark their visit. The delegation's visit to the school was a part of their continued engagement with diverse sections of Indonesian society during their official trip. As part of its Operation Sindoor outreach, the delegation spent the second day of their visit engaging in high-level meetings with Indonesia's leading policy institutions and think tanks. According to the Indian Embassy in Jakarta, discussions were held with experts from the Indonesian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), The Habibie Center, Indo-Pacific Strategic Intelligence (ISI), Center for Indonesia Policy Studies (CIPS), and leading academics from the University of Indonesia and the Indonesia Air Power Studies Center. These interactions underscored India's consistent message of zero tolerance for cross-border terrorism and the need to jointly counter false narratives spread by vested interests. The think tanks acknowledged and appreciated India's position. The all-party Indian delegation comprises MPs across party lines, including BJP, Congress, JD(U), and Shiv Sena (UBT), as part of India's broader diplomatic outreach on global counterterrorism efforts. (ANI) Both leaders had a "warm and engaging" conversation on strengthening ties between our two countries. In a Facebook post, Rahul Gandhi wrote, "Honoured to meet the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of New Zealand, Right Hon. Winston Peters, in New Delhi today." "We had a warm and engaging conversation on strengthening ties between our two countries, shared democratic values, and the importance of global cooperation in an increasingly complex world," he added. Earlier, he also met with Union Minister JP Nadda in New Delhi. During his Delhi address, he emphasised the strengthening partnership between New Zealand and India in various areas. He noted India's emergence as a geopolitical giant and vital security actor in the region."In an increasingly multi-polar world, India is emerging as a geopolitical giant and a vital security actor both regionally and globally...", said New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Peters. Speaking at Ananta Aspen Centre, Peters highlighted the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Air New Zealand and Air India, which aims to explore codeshare agreements across 16 routes. This move is expected to boost tourism, educational exchanges, and business links between the two nations. "A significant step forward came with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Air New Zealand and Air India, aiming to explore a codeshare agreement across 16 routes covering India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand," he said. "This move will ease travel between our nations, strengthening tourism, educational exchanges, and business links... But our partnership with India extends far beyond economics. It reaches into defence and security -- a growing priority for New Zealand in the Indo-Pacific," he added. He further noted that both nations have taken deliberate steps to "build closer defence ties" with India, with a recently signed defence cooperation arrangement "paving the way for greater collaboration" between India and New Zealand's armed forces. (ANI) CPI (M) MP John Brittas, who is part of the all-party delegation led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, said the country understands India's concerns about terrorism and has declared its intent to support India. Speaking to ANI on Thursday, Brittas also highlighted the "extensive" meetings in Indonesia for the last 3 days, with government agencies, ministers, parliamentarians, think tank members, and political parties of Indonesia Brittas stated, "Indonesia very well understands the concerns of India...they understand that such terror activities always pull back the country from its progressive and development trajectory." "They have understood and declared their intent to support India in our fight against terror...we want to progress mutually...our visit to Indonesia was very fruitful in every aspect," he added. On the third day of their visit to Jakarta, the all-party parliamentary delegation, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha, Member of Parliament, India, held interactions with the Executive Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), prominent media houses, business and community leaders from the Indian Diaspora in Indonesia, and met with Members of Parliament from Golkar and NasDem Party, as per the Embassy of India in Jakarta. The delegation also visited the Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School, Jakarta. The delegation had a meeting with KH Ulil Abshar Abdalla, MA, Chairman of the NahdlatulUlama (NU) Executive Board and Kholili Kholil, Committee Member of the NU, the largestIslamic organization in Indonesia. In this meeting, the delegation sought Indonesia's unwavering support against all forms of terrorism, recalling our shared values of peace and tolerance as the largest Muslim country in the world. Condemning terrorism and the attack on innocent civilians, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) leadership conveyed that it felt the pain of India and supports India's resolve to tackle terrorism. Ulil called for India and Indonesia to walk hand in hand to deal with the challenge of terrorism and to foster peace and economic development in the region, according to the Embassy of India in Jakarta. The delegation visited the Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School in Jakarta and paid floraltri tributesbutes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and planted tree saplings as part of the 'Ek Ped Maa ke Naam' initiative of the Prime Minister of India. The delegation also interacted with the Committee Members of Gandhi Seva Loka Association, calling upon the values of truth, justice, unified action, and unwavering courage in the face of national challenges, principles that Mahatma Gandhi espoused. The delegation had focused and lively interactions with the Press and Media at the Embassy of India, Jakarta. According to the Indian embassy statement, the delegation briefed the Indonesian media on India's 'New Normal' against cross-border attacks, zero tolerance for terrorism, and all-party resolve to stand united in all matters of national interest. A number of journalists/reporters of local and global media houses/press attended the interactive session. This was followed by an engaging interaction with prominent business and community leadersof the Indian diaspora associations at the Embassy of India. A minute of solemn silence inremembrance of the victims of the Pahalgam attack was observed at the event. Speaking to the audience, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Head of Parliamentary delegation, highlighted India's relentless efforts towards combating terrorism and ensuring peace and development. The delegation commended the Indian diaspora globally and in Indonesia for upholding the principles of tolerance, pluralism, and unity and urged them to stand resilient against terrorism and for amplifying the national resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms. Aparajita Sarangi, MP from Odisha, interacted separately with the members of the OdiyaSamaj. She also inaugurated the 'Biju Hall' of the Embassy and a commemorative plaque of the late Odiya leader Biju Patnaik, an Indian freedom fighter and aviator who played a key role during Indonesia's independence struggle, for which he received the highest civilian award of 'Bintang Jasa Utama'. Similarly, members of the Bengali Community Association in Jakarta, JABA, called upon the WB Lok Sabha MP, Abhishek Banerjee, and exchanged thoughts with the leader. The delegation ended the day with their interactions with members of Golkar and NasDemParty including Agung Laksono, Dave Agung Laksono, Nurdin Tampubolobn, Gavriel Novanto, Abraham Srijaya, Wibi Andrino, Martin Manurung, Azisoko Harmoko, Ms Andina Narang, Gias Kumari Putra, Jupiter Prof Dr. Ratlan Pardede, Lalu Sudarmadi, Izhari Mawatdi. The delegation spoke on India's national consensus and resolve to combating terrorism and sought the support of the Golkar and NasDem parties. The Indonesian side conveyed its support to India in the fight against terrorism. (ANI) Freddy Svane, former Danish Ambassador to India, on Friday lauded the all-party delegation's initiative to raise awareness about terrorism globally. He appreciated their efforts to convey the message that terror must be fought collectively. Svane expressed support for India's stance against Pakistan, emphasising the need for collective action against terrorism, saying "Pakistan has to be called out for atrocities." Speaking to ANI, Svane said, "We have this all-party delegation visiting Denmark is just really securing that we not only are listening but we also talk and we have a dialogue, and now it's time for us to stand shoulder to shoulder to take action." "Pakistan has to be called out for atrocties and Pakistan has to be brought to justice. So, the rope is very short, and be afraid if you don't follow what India has told you," he added. Further, the former envoy strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, describing it as "inhuman" and stating that it "should not be allowed." Svane said, "I saw a lot of the videos and this kind of thing where you are checking what is your faith and then you are either being killed if you have the in their view, a different and wrong faith or you survived. That's so inhuman and should not be allowed." Svane also praised India's response to the attack, stating, "I also praised in Danish media, the resolute actions by India...really said to the instigators and Pakistan - stop this, if not, then you will face even stronger consequences. So, all my praises for a resolute and very action-driven response to terror." He also praised India's efforts to combat terrorism, highlighting the importance of global cooperation. Svane said, "I think it was really outstanding to have this interaction with the all-party delegation coming to all the countries in Europe and across the world, willing to explain that terror has to come to an end; we have to fight it, we have to stand shoulder to shoulder." Svane emphasized that terrorism cannot coexist with trade and diplomacy, stressing the need for nations to stand together against this threat. He commended the Indian government and Prime Minister Modi for taking the initiative to engage with global leaders on this critical issue. "You can't have blood and water together, you can't have trade and terror together, and therefore, we need to stand up. I am really happy to see that the Government of India and PM Modi took this initiative to convey the message to all of our Speakers," he added. Meanwhile, Former Danish Minister Manu Sareen also spoke to ANI, expressing solidarity with India in its fight against terrorism. Sareen said, "India is not standing alone against terrorism. We all stand beside India. We will help each other." Sareen emphasised the importance of raising awareness about terrorism, and affirmed, "I have a family in India... They have been telling me what happens in India. They have told me about the terror attacks, and so many people have died in terror attacks, and nobody knows that in Denmark... Awareness regarding this is very important, and it starts today." Further, Sareen emphasised the importance of raising awareness about the situation between India and Pakistan, particularly regarding terrorism. Sareen said, "The most important thing is the awareness about what's happening between India and Pakistan... If you want to change the narrative and understand from the European perspective, you should know what is happening. It's a very important delegation." Regarding Operation Sindoor, Sareen stated, "India had to do what India had to do... The terror attack was so cruel... And I like what the delegation said: enough is enough. They are starting an awareness campaign about what really happened. Because we've read something in the newspapers, but having it from the delegation is very important." Former Danish MP Niels Ahlmann-Ohlsen welcomed a strong delegation from the Indian parliament, expressing solidarity with India against terrorism. Ahlmann-Ohlsen said, "It is a big day for democracy in Denmark that our democratic big brother... India comes forward. It's the first time we have seen such a strong delegation from your parliament coming over, expressing your concerns about these horrible terrorist attacks... It binds us together." Ohlsen emphasised the need for like-minded countries to stand together against terrorism, stating, "If somebody cruelly attacks your house, we have to respond. And this is what some of these terrorist groups have never understood, that it has a price... People who try to undermine democracy should pay the price." He also highlighted the importance of democracies fighting back against terrorism, saying, "We have to fight back together. We are really grateful that we have like-minded friends in India." Further, Ohlsen emphasised the importance of close cooperation between Denmark and India in combating terrorism. Ahlmann-Ohlsen said, "It is important that our intelligence services work closely together, that we exchange vital information whenever we see something going to happen in our respective backyards." He highlighted the significance of intelligence sharing in today's fast-paced world, stating, "That's a very important thing because these days, things go very fast on social media. But intelligence services can go even faster... We can work so closely with India in that area. That will also dampen down the enthusiasm among terrorists. I'm very sure of that..." Currently, the all-party Indian parliamentary delegation, led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, is in Denmark. Earlier in the day, the delegation held a series of high-level engagements in Denmark on Friday, receiving strong expressions of solidarity in the global fight against terrorism and deepening bilateral relations. During the visit, the delegation met with top Danish leaders, including Christian Friis Bach, Chairperson of the Danish Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, and MP Trine Pertou Mach. Friis Bach expressed heartfelt condolences over recent terror incidents and affirmed Denmark's unwavering support for India. In a diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor, the Modi government has formed seven multi-party delegations to inform nations about Pakistan's links to terrorism and India's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Seven all-party delegations are taking part in various outreach programmes in their countries they are assigned to. 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 France, the UK, Germany, the EU, Italy, and Denmark. Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pak-sponsored terrorists 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. The seven group of delegations will visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Algeria, the UK, France, Germany, the EU, Italy, Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Singapore, the UAE, Liberia, Congo, Sierra Leone, the US, Panama, Guyana, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia, Russia, Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa. (ANI) Tel Aviv [Israel], May 30 (ANI/TPS): Israel's security forces operated throughout Judea and Samaria this week to thwart terrorism. During that time, 80 wanted terrorists were arrested and seven weapons were confiscated. Also, more than seven million Shekels (USD 2 million) of terror funds were seized as part of an operation to confiscate terrorist funds. (ANI/TPS) The all-party delegation led by DMK MP Kanimozhi paid tribute to the Mahatma Gandhi bust installed in the National Library in Riga on Friday. DMK MP Kanimozhi garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. The other members of the delegation also paid their respects. Earlier in the day, the Kanimozhi-led delegation met with Andzejs Vilumsons, the State Secretary of Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Andrejs Pildegovics, the Ambassador of Special Tasks of the Secretariat of the Candidate of Latvia to the UN Security Council and Permanent Representative of Latvia to the UN on Friday. The delegation led by Kanimozhi also held a joint meeting in Latvia's Riga with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Friendship group of Parliamentarians for India. The meeting was held at the Latvian Saeima, which is a unicameral parliament of Latvia.The delegation members also interacted with think tank members and senior officers from the foreign and other ministries. The Kanimozhi-led delegation arrived in Latvia's capital, Riga, on Friday. India's ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, welcomed them. Following the arrival of the all-party delegation in Latvia, the Indian Ambassador to Latvia, Namrata Kumar, stressed the importance of the Indian delegation's visit to Latvia. She said that the delegation will stress India's position on terrorism and its zero tolerance for the issue and mentioned that during the first high-level visit following the opening of the resident mission in Latvia, the delegation will also speak about mobilising a global alliance for the fight against terrorism. "The delegation is here especially for a very specific objective to stress our position on terrorism, zero tolerance for terrorism and our continuous fight against terrorism. India and Latvia share very strong and friendly relations. This is also testified by the fact that last year we opened our resident Mission here, which shows that the bilateral relations between the two countries are growing. This is the first high-level visit after the opening of the resident mission in Latvia... Our delegation will speak about mobilising the global alliance for the fight against terrorism," she told ANI. Namrata Kumar further informed that the all-party delegation will meet the Latvian parliamentarians. The delegation is also scheduled to meet with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Parliament, which is called "Saeima." "They are going to be meeting the parliamentarians - amongst the parliamentarians, they are specifically going to carry out meetings with the chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of their Parliament, which is called Saeima... When it comes to the Baltic Assembly, where the parliamentarians of the three Baltic countries - Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are represented. It means when our delegation, coming from India, is going to speak to the members of the Latvian parliamentarians, they are also going to promote the idea and the whole objective that they are coming with to the other two countries," Kumar further said. On Thursday, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, leading an all-party delegation to Greece, said India has made it clear that it will no longer distinguish between individual acts of terror and state-sponsored terrorism. The delegation, led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, includes Rajeev Rai (Samajwadi Party), Mian Altaf Ahmad (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Brijesh Chowta (BJP), Prem Chand Gupta (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Ashok Kumar Mittal (Aam Aadmi Party), and Former envoys Manjeev S Puri and Jawed Ashraf. (ANI) Tel Aviv [Israel], May 30 (ANI/TPS): Hamas terrorists who infiltrated southern Israel during the October 7, 2023 massacre intended to capture a sensitive military intelligence base but made a critical navigation error that led them to attack the wrong target, according to an Israel Defense Forces investigation published Friday. The probe revealed that 10 Hamas infiltrators on five motorcycles were attempting to reach an intelligence facility located 16 kilometres from the Gaza border when they made a wrong turn at Urim Junction. Instead, they attacked an adjacent Home Front Command base, where eight Israeli soldiers were ultimately killed and several others wounded during a three-hour battle. "As a result, the terrorists carried out a killing spree inside the base until they were eliminated by IDF troops," the investigation stated. The probe concluded that while the defensive actions of soldiers and commanders ultimately foiled Hamas's original plans, "the base's defensive array was not properly prepared to handle such a broad infiltration and attack scenario." The Urim Base complex houses three separate units: the Home Front Command's Southern District headquarters, the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, and Unit 8200 of the Military Intelligence Directorate, known as Yarkon Base. Unit 8200 functions primarily as Israel's signals intelligence (SIGINT) and cyber intelligence division. Hamas had specifically targeted the intelligence facility, but the terrorists' navigational mistake redirected their assault to the Home Front Command installation. The attack began at 7:26 am when the terrorists detonated an explosive device on the base's eastern fence and breached the perimeter. At the time, only seven soldiers were on guard duty, though protocols called for 12, as it was a holiday weekend with minimal staffing. Two female soldiers who were conducting a shift change immediately took shelter following rocket alerts and remained hidden until the fighting concluded in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the terrorists quickly began their deadly assault, first killing Corporals Lior Levy and Ofir Davidian as they ran toward the command center, followed by Sergeant Itamar Ayash at the armory. The terrorists then methodically advanced toward the command center. At 8:02 am, the attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the command center building, hitting a conference room window. They subsequently breached multiple steel doors protecting the facility's nerve center, killing Sergeant Major Aharon Farash, Captain Alina Pravosudova, Sergeant Shir Shlomo, and Sergeant Danit Cohen during intense close-quarters combat. The terrorists spent approximately 10 minutes searching the command center for classified information before departing, unaware they were in the wrong facility entirely. Reinforcements from the neighboring 414th Unit began arriving at 8:15 am, splitting into three teams to engage the attackers. The battle continued for over two hours, with additional forces from elite Unit 5515 and Tzeelim Training Base joining the fight. The last two terrorists were eliminated at 10:40 am while hiding in a bomb shelter near the district commander's office, ending the prolonged engagement. Colonel Asher Benishti, who conducted the year-and-a-half investigation, noted that the probe examined every available source of information, including footage taken by the terrorists themselves, soldiers' text messages, surveillance videos, and radio communications. Friday's report is the latest in a series of detailed army probes -- summaries of which have been released in recent weeks -- of how 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. The investigations 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. 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 monsoon climatic effects have entered Nepal 15 days earlier than normal timings as the nation is expected to have above-average rainfall this year. According to the weather bulletin of the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, monsoon clouds have spread across most districts of Koshi province and have caused light to moderate rainfall. Usually, the monsoon clouds start entering Nepal from June 13, but this time, they entered a fortnight earlier than usual. They typically last until the end of September. "This year, monsoon clouds entered the country 15 days before the normal onset date," the met office announced in the bulletin issued on Friday. Further adding, "It will take a few days for the monsoon clouds to reach the rest of the places. Impacts of western winds and local winds continued in the rest of the areas." The Met Office has predicted that Nepal is likely to witness above-normal monsoon rainfall this year. Nepal, on an annual basis during the monsoon season, faces disasters such as floods, landslides, and inundation, resulting in loss of lives and properties. Continuous downpour over three days last year resulted in widespread damage to properties as well as loss of about 200 lives due to the monsoon-induced disaster. As the Himalayan Nation is bracing for above average rainfall this year, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) has predicted that around two million (19,97,731) people from 4,57145 households could be affected by monsoon-related disasters. According to the projection, the districts of Lumbini province will be affected the most in the monsoon, 5,23,656 people from 119,830 households will be affected. This is followed by the Bagmati--327, 376 people from 74,914 households, Gandaki--287,107 people from 65,699 households, Koshi 275,867 people from 63,127 households, Madhesh--228,687 people from 52,331 households, Sudurpaschim--227,730 people from 52,112 households, and Karnali province--127,308 people from 29,132 households. (ANI) Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is part of the all-party delegation currently in Indonesia, highlighted on Friday the importance of putting national interest above political interest. He said that while he might have his differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party, he will keep working towards what is best for the nation. "We have all been doing our bit...I might have differences with the ruling party, but I will not let my political interest come before my nation's interest. I will keep working towards what is in the best interest of my nation," he told the Indian diaspora in Jakarta. Confirming that while he still will fight the BJP "tooth and nail" he will not do anything against the country. "I am going to fight the ruling party tooth and nail, and I will not budge an inch from this fight, but I will not do anything that is against my country's interest....make no mistake," he said. Banerjee also appealed to the Indian diaspora to go to Jammu and Kashmir, and also spend some time for the betterment of the Indian economy. "Next time when you go to India, I want you to make a promise...my humble appeal before all of you. Next time, if you are planning to visit India for 7 days, make it 10 days...another 3 days, I want you to dedicate specially ...I want you and your family to go to Kashmir and spend 3 days for the betterment of the Indian economy," he said. Multiple other delegation members also interacted with the diaspora. BJP MP, Hemang Joshi, hit out at Pakistan for "going to the IMF every 3 months for funds," claiming that the country does not use the money for their infrastructure or education development, but instead increases its defence budget. "Our enemy country, who is our neighbour (Pakistan). They keep going to IMF every 3-4 months asking for funds. They don't ask for money for education, infrastructure development, or to reduce hunger...even now when IMF sanctioned them loan. Pakistan did not increase their budget for the health or education sector. They have increased their defence budget by 18 pc," the BJP MP said. Another BJP MP, Brijlal, highlighted the misinformation which Pakistan spreads, saying that while the country claimed that they hit Adampur air base, PM Modi debunked that claim by visiting the base. "None of our air bases were affected in this war. Shehbaz Sharif said that Adampur Air base and S-400 were destroyed, our PM landed at Adampur and stood with the S-400 in the background. They claimed that Srinagar and Bhuj air bases were destroyed. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh landed at Srinagar, and PM Modi addressed the jawans from Bhuj. Pakistan only peddled false narratives," Brijlal said. Challenging the Pakistani PM Shehbaz to visit his own bases, he added, "Can the Pakistan PM go to the Noor Khan Air Base?... As far as Pakistan's friendly nations are concerned, in this clash with Pakistan, it is not only Pakistan that lost, the ones who manufacture JF-17 (jets) and drones for them also lost." Earlier, the delegation led by Sanjay Kumar Jha held interactions with the Executive Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), prominent media houses, business and community leaders from the Indian Diaspora in Indonesia, and met with Members of Parliament from Golkar and NasDem Party, as per the Embassy of India in Jakarta. (ANI) AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Friday said that Pakistan is not a victim state but a terror state and said that the global community that continues to provide aid to Pakistan enables violence, not peace. Raghav Chadha was speaking at the 'Ideas for India Conference 2025' in London. "I called out Pakistan's decades-old terror machinery. Blood and water can't flow together.Lies and loans can't go together. Diplomacy and duplicity of Pakistan can't go together. Terror and Tolerance can't exist together," posted Raghav Chadha on X. Invited by the UK-based think tank Bridge India as a featured speaker alongside top Indian business leaders and policymakers, Raghav Chadha used the international stage to demand a decisive shift in global policy. "Diplomacy fails with duplicity, and terror nullifies tolerance," said Chadha. He warned the global community that continued aid to Pakistan enables violence, not peace. "We offer a hand of friendship--but it can turn into a fist of retribution if provoked," he said, making clear that India's patience is not limitless in the face of cross-border aggression. Addressing the conference, AAP MP Raghav Chadha stated, "Very recently there was an unfortunate terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. It becomes very important that we highlight India's strategic autonomy in this multi-polar world. It is also reflected in the fact that in the aftermath of the most cowardly attack in Pahalgam where 26 civilians were butchered, India didn't go around town seeking consent to retaliate." He emphasised, "India told its worthy partners in the world that we are all for peace but don't mistake our peacefulness for our weakness. While we extend the hand of friendship, if someone indulges in misadventures, that hand of friendship can very quickly become the fist of retribution." Raghav Chadha continued, "As a result, India responded. India responded in a non-escalatory, precise, measured, calculated, swift response where cross-border strikes were made and terror infrastructure across the border, not civilians, not military bases, but terror infrastructure was brought down. I think this has become a new norm and this underscores the fact that today cross-border strikes and demolishing terror infrastructure in Pakistan is not the exception." "It will be the expectation if Pakistan indulges in sponsoring, aiding, abetting terrorism within India. India and Pakistan started their journey from the very same day in 1947 when the British left the united India. We started the journey from the very same day. And look, India today has become the fourth largest economy," added the Rajya Sabha MP. He pointed out that Pakistan today is in economic turmoil and in an institutional crisis. "India today is known to export software, to export education, to export agricultural products, dairy products, so on and so forth. Pakistan today is known to export only one thing, terrorism. India is investing in healthcare, education, science and technology, research and development," he highlighted. Raghav Chadha stated, "Pakistan is investing in only and only military and radicalization. I appeal to the first world countries and the IMF in particular, that we should, quite frankly, have a relook at the way we fund Pakistan. Why is the IMF giving bailouts to Pakistan one after another? Where is the money going? Is that money being invested in healthcare? Is that money being invested in education? Is that money being invested in infrastructure? That money is going to fund nefarious activities and designs of the regime." He concluded by emphasising, "I think it's high time that the world realizes that lies and loans cannot go together. Diplomacy and duplicity of Pakistan cannot go together. Blood and water cannot flow together and terror and tolerance cannot be together. I'm not even part of the government. I speak as a pretty vocal member of the opposition. And yet, as an Indian on foreign soil, I say what 1.4 billion Indians feel." Participating in the special session titled "India in a Multipolar World" at the Ideas for India Conference 2025, AAP MP Raghav Chadha laid out a compelling vision for India's growing strategic autonomy and its emergence as a crucial bridge between the Global North and South. Addressing an audience of global policymakers and business leaders. Chadha highlighted India's recent achievements -- including the success of Operation Sindoor -- and spoke on the country's advances in defence, diplomacy, and technology. He also underscored the vital role of India's youth in shaping the nation's future as a confident, globally engaged power. Earlier this month, AAP MP Raghav Chadha was also invited as a keynote speaker at the prestigious Asian Leadership Conference (ALC) 2025, held in Seoul, South Korea -- often referred to as the "Davos of the East". At the event, he strongly condemned the Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attack in Pahalgam on a global stage. He lauded the Indian Army's courage during Operation Sindoor and emphasised that India no longer merely expresses sorrow over acts of terrorism but now responds with precise and decisive military action. Raghav Chadha affirmed India is the land of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, but it is also the land of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose. India believes in peace -- but those who support terrorism will not be spared. Notably, Raghav Chadha was recently selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum--a distinction awarded to the world's most promising leaders under the age of 40, recognized for their contributions to shaping a better future. During the 'Ideas for India' conference, part of India Week 2025, organised by Bridge India, BRS Working President KT Rama Rao also said, "Telangana is the state with the most ease of doing business in India as per govt of India and NITI Aayog." "Our leader KCR has chosen to disrupt the way we brought out laws and legislations. The first piece of legislation is TS-iPASS (Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self Certification System)," he added. (ANI) All-party delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad attended the luncheon interaction with former Danish parliamentarians in Copenhagen. The event, hosted by the Indian Ambassador, provided a platform for discussion and exchange of ideas. The delegation's engagement with former MPs, including Freddy Svane; former ambassador of Denmark to India, Manu Sareen; former MP and an author, Helle Degn; Vice-President of the Mandela Center and Niels Ahlmann-Ohlsen, former MP and currently CEO of Strategic Alliance International ApS aimed to foster stronger ties between India and Denmark. Earlier today, the delegation also met with Chairperson of Danish Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, Christian Friis Bach and Danish MP Trine Pertou Mach. After the interaction, BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya said that both Bach and Mach expressed concern and condemned the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. "Both of them expressed their concern and condemned the brutality that happened in Pahalgam. They said clearly that they stand with India. We also told them that terrorism is also going on in the financial sector," the BJP MP told ANI. He claimed that Pakistan is sending fake currency to "cripple the Indian economy." "They (Pakistan) are sending fake currency to cripple the Indian economy. Instead of socio-economic development with the help of international funds, they are encouraging their military operations and secret intelligence. Pakistani military personnel are looting the money... We are not concerned with Pakistan's internal matters. The only talks we can have with Pakistan now are on PoK," he said. He further claimed that Pakistan is converting Bangladesh into a "terrorist Launchpad" through illegal immigration, infiltration, and radicalisation. "We share a border with Pakistan and Bangladesh... The Pakistan border has some difficult terrain. But the Bangladeshi border is much more accessible. The border is porous, unscientific... Pakistan is converting Bangladesh into a terrorist launchpad through illegal immigration, infiltration, and radicalisation," Bhattacharya added. Friis Bach also reiterated his solidarity to India, while talking to ANI, "We are honoured to meet a very strong delegation from the Indian Parliament, and we have expressed our heartfelt condolences... We have expressed our strong solidarity and support to India during this difficult time." Apart from Ravi Shankar Prasad, other members of the Indian delegation included BJP MP Daggubati Purandeswari, Shiv Sena-UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress MPs Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, and Ambassador Pankaj Saran. (ANI) Former Minister of External Affairs and Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Friday clarified that India did not initiate contact with Pakistan, but rather received a call from Pakistan's DGMO for cessation of hostilities during Operation Sindoor. The all-party delegation member explained that India stopped its actions when Pakistan's DGMO requested for cessation of hostilities and India refrained from further attacks, dismissing claims as "complete hogwash." "... Because one of you asked, why did we stop? It's complete hogwash for anyone to say that we called them (Pakistan) first. Why would we call them first? Who was at the receiving end by the time the calls were made? It is more than clear to everybody that the call came from the DGMO of Pakistan to the DGMO of India. And we stopped when they said 'Let's stop'... And we then didn't send any further attacks on them," he said while interacting with the Indian community in Jakarta, addressing questions about India's response to Pakistan's actions. He also noted that violations continued on the Pakistani side, suggesting a lack of control over its military actions. Khurshid highlighted the apparent chaos within Pakistan, citing factions within the army vying for power and the civilian government's lack of control. Despite this, he praised India's restraint and patience in the face of such challenges. "But the shelling across the border and the LoC continued for at least three or four hours. There were violations of the ceasefire once again, making it very clear that in Pakistan, nobody seems to be in control. The civilian government doesn't seem to be in control. There are factions within the army, each vying with each other to become powerful. Nevertheless, we showed restraint and patience...," added Khurshid. Khurshid emphasised India's aspirations to greatness and stressed that no one should distract India from its path to achieving this goal. "India is waiting to be great. Nobody distract us or interfere with that passage of ours. That is why it is important for us to show our strength," said the Congress leader. Khurshid urged Pakistan to understand India's demand to give up terrorism, highlighting the importance of showing strength. He emphasized that India's message is clear and united, transcending party lines. He praised the all-party delegation's visit, comprising members from both the ruling party and opposition. Khurshid highlighted that their unity demonstrates India's collective commitment to the country's interests, rather than individual party affiliations. "If there is any sense in Pakistan, they will understand our only demand: give up terrorism... Some of my colleagues are not from the ruling party. The ruling party could have come alone to bring this message, but they came with us to give India's message... However, sadly, this is not what we hear from India. Somebody is saying that he is supporting the BJP or the Congress, but I am proud that we are here together because we are not supporting each other's parties, we are supporting one simple idea called India...," he said. The delegation, led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Brij Lala (BJP), John Brittas (CPI-M), Pradan Baruah (BJP), Hemang Joshi (BJP), Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Kumar. In a diplomatic outreach following Operation Sindoor, the Modi government has formed seven multi-party delegations to inform nations about Pakistan's links to terrorism and India's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Seven all-party delegations are taking part in various outreach programmes in their countries they are assigned to. 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 France, the UK, Germany, the EU, Italy, and Denmark. Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pak-sponsored terrorists 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. The seven group of delegations will visit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Algeria, the UK, France, Germany, the EU, Italy, Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Singapore, the UAE, Liberia, Congo, Sierra Leone, the US, Panama, Guyana, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia, Russia, Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa. (ANI) US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) praised Elon Musk for doing a "fantastic job" as head of the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and assured that the department, founded by Musk to cut unnecessary funding and boost the US economy, will remain functional. Addressing the press at the Oval Office with Elon Musk on his last day, Trump said. "Elon has worked tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reforms in generations." Trump also assured that many of the DOGE employees are staying behind and suggested that Musk will remain integral in the project. "Many of the DOGE people are staying behind, too, so they're not leaving, Elon is really not leaving. He's gonna be back and forth. I want to thank Elon for his time as a special government employee for coming and helping us." The President also listed the contracts that were terminated after DOGE recommendations to help boost the economy. "We have terminated many-many contracts and many contracts are being looked at and it may be six months or maybe a year or something in some cases. We are going through procedures, we are going through courts and we'll remember you (Elon Musk). DOGE cancelled USD 101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education. USD 59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City. USD 45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma. USD 42 million for social and behavioural change in Uganda, USD 40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of migrants. USD 8 million for mice transgenders," Trump said. Tesla CEO Musk reaffirmed that this is just the beginning of DOGE, and that the department's influence would only grow stronger with time. "This is not the end of DOGE but really the beginning. My time as a special government employee really had to end. It was a limited time. The DOGE will only grow stronger with time. The DOGE influence will go stronger. Musk added that he intends to give the president advice even as he closes out his time in the administration. "I expect to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like advice," Musk said in response to a question from a reporter. "I hope so," Trump chimed in. "I expect to remain a friend and an adviser and certainly, if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service," Musk added. Musk on Thursday announced his decision to step down as a 'Special Government Employee.' In a post on X, he wrote, "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Earlier, Musk has criticised Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill', saying "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing." "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both," he added. (ANI) US President Donald Trump once again claimed credit for brokering the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, asserting that he used trade as a negotiation tactic. Speaking at the Oval Office during an event marking Elon Musk's departure from his advisory role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump said, "We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned out into a nuclear disaster, and I want to thank the leaders of India and Pakistan, and I want to thank my people. Also, we talk trade, and we say we can't trade with people who are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons. They're great leaders in those countries, and they understood and they agreed." Trump's remarks come amid continued debate over the role of international influence in recent de-escalation efforts between the South Asian nations. Meanwhile, India has clarified that the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan took place on May 10 following contacts between the two DGMOs and while there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving situation since Operation Sindoor was launched, the issue of trade or tariff did not come up in any of those discussions. Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India's position on the stoppage of military action has been well-articulated. "Our position on this particular issue that you mentioned has been well articulated. I would refer you to our position that was made clear on May 13. From the time Operation Sindoor commenced on 7th May till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on May 10, there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation. "The issue of trade or tariff did not come up in any of those discussions. The External Affairs Minister has also made it clear that the cessation of firing was decided upon through direct contact with the DGMOs of India and Pakistan," Jaiswal said. India launched Operation Sindoor following the Pahalgam terror attack, conducting precision strikes on terror infrastructure across the border in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). India repelled subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries agreed to stop military action after the Pakistan DGMO contacted his Indian counterpart. (ANI) YOKOHAMA, May 30 (News On Japan) - Concordia Financial Group, which will change its name to Yokohama Financial Group in October, is seeking to reinforce its identity as a strong regional bank group centered on Yokohama Bank. President Tatsuya Kataoka, who also serves as head of Yokohama Bank, discussed the strategy behind the rebranding, the group's structural reforms, and its ambitions for stronger financial performance during a joint interview with Nikkei Financial. Concordia Financial Group was established in 2016 through the merger of Yokohama Bank and Higashi-Nippon Bank. It later expanded to include Bank of Kanagawa. Yokohama Bank, founded in 1920, now holds over 18 trillion yen in deposits, with the entire group managing more than 20 trillion yen in deposits and 16 trillion yen in loans, making it one of the top players in Japans regional banking sector. The decision to rebrand comes as the group marks its ninth year. According to Kataoka, the name "Concordia" was initially chosen to emphasize harmony and integration within the new organization. However, he admitted that the name had not adequately conveyed the group's core identity as a Yokohama-based regional financial institution. The shift to "Yokohama Financial Group" is intended to leverage the strong name recognition of Yokohama to solidify the group's brand and enhance its regional contribution. Two years ago, Kataoka surprised the market by pledging to achieve a price-to-book ratio (PBR) of 1.0, a goal that remains rare among regional banks. "Given our high proportion of foreign institutional investors, we have held ongoing discussions about how to improve corporate value and raise return on equity (ROE)," he explained. The group has since published a roadmap toward boosting its PBR and shared it with both internal stakeholders and shareholders. For the fiscal year ending March 2024, the groups PBR stood at 0.7, but improved to 0.86 in forecasts for the year ending March 2025. Still short of the 1.0 target, Kataoka said the group will continue efforts to raise ROE above the cost of equity capital while stabilizing earnings, thereby lowering shareholder costs. Among regional banks with the highest market capitalization, Concordia currently ranks top in PBR and second in ROE. A major driver of these gains has been its focus on structured finance, particularly in the Kanagawa and Tokyo areas where many companies face succession challenges or seek capital restructuring and compliance with updated stock exchange standards. "To support these clients, weve been strengthening our internal capabilities and expertise to offer tailored structured finance solutions," said Kataoka. By investing in talent development and accumulating specialized know-how, the group aims to generate higher returns with lower risk while responding to the evolving needs of its corporate customers. Source: BIZ U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst made a visit Wednesday to Council Bluffs to talk with small business owners. Ernst stopped at PowerTech to listen to how she can best serve business in rural parts of the country. PowerTech is a commercial and industrial maintenance service provider. The company also provides residential work and services in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and northern Kansas. Ernst kicked off her visit by greeting each employee and learning about their roles at the company. Then the conversation shifted to the two owners, Josh Kallsen and Cody Forristall, to talk about their hurdles. One of the main topics of the visit was about regulations surrounding small businesses. Ernst pointed out early that she sits on the Senate Small Business Committee and there has been a shift to help support the middle of the country rather than just big cities. In the last number of years, the Small Business Committee has really focused on small businesses, but along the coastlines, and that's because the former chairs were from the East Coast, and so a lot of regulation bills were focused on folks that live in major metropolitan areas on the coasts, Ernst said. My focus is very much on drawing attention back to the heartland. Ernst went on to talk about how the federal government is actively working to make things more efficient which will bleed into small business regulation. When you're working with different agencies and applying for grants or loan opportunities, it needs to be more efficient, Ernst said. "The regulations need to be right sized, not oversized." Forristall asked Ernst about artificial intelligence and how smaller businesses can work with evolving technology to prevent falling behind larger companies that have bandwidth. Another big area would be funds to help small businesses that don't have departments and people that can focus on things like technology adoption, Forristall said. Some of the policies are making that tougher and tougher to do. But how do we use some of the technology so we will not fall behind these large companies. Ernst said that, unfortunately, the federal government is also behind on evolving technology which makes it difficult to help others. Forristall also asked if Ernst saw any potential in movement for getting funds directed locally. While we see value in that, we have to have partners in Congress that also feel that same way. And there are many people I work with that really want the bureaucracy, Ernst said. So that's the internal struggles that we have and why it takes us so long to get something. Another major topic during the visit was President Donald Trumps tariffs. Forristall and Kallsen expressed their concerns on how the tariffs are harming small businesses from supply issues to prices. While Ernst is in support of tariffs, she does have concerns about things moving too slow. I worry about making sure that the tariffs move through very quickly, and that we get trade deals in place, so that our Iowa businesses know how to respond, how to budget, how to look to the future, but the goal is to balance our trade with other countries, Ernst said. We want to do the right thing, but yet we have to make sure that our businesses can last through it as well. Ernst also said that there are people in Washington D.C.., who understand how the trade policies affect Iowans. Everybody's trying to get better, putting some heart into policies to really impact people, giving people an opportunity. We're not asking for handouts. We're asking for opportunities to help, Forristall said. Kallsen also pointed out the good that the company is trying to do to give back to the community. Both Kallsen and Forristall agreed that helping the community is very important to them and would like to continue to do it. As for Ernsts takeaway of the visit, she said that it is clear to her that small businesses need help with regulations and she hopes her position on the Small Business Committee can help steer things in the right direction. Morocco is poised to enter race for hosting the prestigious Formula-One among two other African candidates, South Africa and Rwanda, vying for the event. To enhance its chances, the North African Kingdom has a $1.2 billion project, sited 20 kilometres south of the coastal city of Tangiers, according to online motorsport website RacingNews365. The Moroccan project includes a Grade 1 circuit fit to host F1, WEC and MotoGP, a theme park, a shopping mall, hotels and a marina. Up to 10,000 jobs could be created by this project which has attracted so far $800 million private investment. According to experts, the main draw of the Moroccan offer for F1 is that Tangiers is easy to reach from Europe. The industrial port of Tanger Med, located 45 km north-east of Tangiers, can be accessed by a short journey from the Spanish port of Algeciras, allowing the teams to construct their motorhomes in the paddock rather than work over a grand prix weekend out of temporary structures. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said he was in talks with three African countries in a bid to end the sports 32-year wait for a race on the continent. South Africa has long been mooted, but red tape and financial issues have plagued the possibility of a return to Kyalami, the circuit north of Johannesburg that last hosted F1 in 1993. At the end of last year, Rwanda President Paul Kagame announced during the FIA prize-giving ceremony in the capital Kigali that his country was launching an official bid. Eric Boullier, former McLaren and Lotus team principal, said the selected Moroccan site met all the criteria and creates a completely independent ecosystem, obviously based on tourism. The Moroccan project will have a huge impact on the region, based south of Tangiers, with additional hotels and the airport are all within 15 kilometers. Morocco and the UN World Tourism Organization have signed a financial agreement related to the establishment of the organizations first African innovation Office in Rabat, Morocco. The financial agreement was signed Thursday in Madrid by Moroccos Minister of Tourism, Fatim-Zahra Ammor, and UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. This agreement follows host country agreement signed between Morocco and the UNWTO in January. Morocco has been chosen for hosting the Africas first UN Tourism Innovation Office in recognition of the Kingdoms role as a key partner in supporting tourism growth across the continent. The WTO regional office will focus on capacity-building initiatives in Africa and support workshops, conferences, and forums centered on innovation. It will also host start-up competitions to encourage entrepreneurial ventures in tourism across the continent The new office will serve as a hub for innovation in African tourism, with a focus on advancing the UN Tourism 2030 Agenda across the continent. Its goal is to foster African tourism and ensure coordination with partners, while boosting UNWTOs actions for the benefit of African tourism. In 2024, Morocco welcomed 17.4 million international tourists, a 20% increase compared to 2023, making it the most-visited country in all of Africa. The diplomatic standoff between France and Algeria has escalated into a retaliatory spiral, with Paris now reportedly preparing to freeze the assets of 20 senior Algerian regime figures, according to French media outlets including LExpress. The measure, currently under review by the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior, would mirror the sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs, targeting financial holdings and real estate assets in France. This move comes in response to a series of provocations by Algiers, which began after France formally supported Moroccos sovereignty over the Sahara. Algeria has since refused to repatriate its nationals under deportation orders, imprisoned a French-Algerian writer, interfered in French domestic affairs, orchestrated the kidnapping of an opposition figure abroad via consular staff, expelled French diplomats, and imposed retaliatory economic measures against France. In a bid to expose the contradictions of Algerias ruling elite, who publicly attack France, Paris is reportedly compiling a list of 20 high-ranking officials with substantial assets in French banks and real estate portfolios. This follows an earlier decision to revoke visa-free entry for Algerian diplomats. The potential asset freeze would serve as a stark reminder to the Algerian nomenklatura of their vulnerability abroad, particularly in a country they routinely vilify for domestic and populist political gain. French legal frameworks allow for such measures in cases involving foreign interference, corruption, and money laundering. According to investigative reports, over 800 members of Algerias ruling class are believed to hold assets in France. Given Algerias strict currency controls, many observers suspect these funds were transferred illegally, raising further questions about the regimes financial practices. Kenyas support for Moroccos autonomy plan for the Sahara territory sent shockwaves across Africa and a blow to a weakening pro-Polisario alliance led by Algeria and South Africa. The new Kenyan volt-face on the Sahara issue in favor of Moroccos territorial integrity, was expressed in a joint statement during a visit by Kenyan foreign minister Musalia Mudavadi, who described autonomy as the only credible and serious solution and the only sustainable approach to end the conflict. As an east-African powerhouse with Nairobi as a hub of international organizations in the region, the Kenyan position is expected to trigger a domino effect in a region itself beset by armed separatism. The stance marks Kenyas breaking away with ideological anachronism sponsored by Algeria and South Africa along with some failed states that hover in their orbit. Kenya rather chose realism, pragmatism, trade, and cooperation as well as the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Kenya made it clear that the UN should be the only framework to settle the dispute over the Sahara region, dealing another blow to Algerias failed endeavor to enmesh the African Union in the dispute. With Kenya joining Moroccos allies, the days of the Polisario within the African Union are numbered. Morocco has always argued that the membership of a separatist militias with no attributes of a state is an anomaly and a prejudgement of the UN-led political process. Recognition of Moroccos autonomy plan as the only solution to the conflict, puts Kenya in line with superpowers such as the US and France and influential countries such as Spain, Israel and the Gulf cooperation council countries, who have all recognized Moroccos sovereignty over its south. The Kenyan position would usher a new era of economic cooperation with Morocco, an African industrial, agricultural, and tourist powerhouse. Kenyas farming sector has been hit by a shortage of fertilizer as the country struggles to feed its growing population. Instead of Algerian ideological approach to foreign relations, Morocco offers tangible cooperation. The two countries agreed in their joint statement to immediately accelerate their cooperation in food security and fertilizers. Kenya has also an interest in building stronger bridges with Morocco, including a direct route between Nairobi and Casablanca hubs. This would increase connectivity and tourism flows between the two countries. Kenyas stance signals a broader shift in African alliances and the beginning of the end of the Algerian-South African holy alliance against Moroccos territorial integrity. Dialogue and cooperation with Morocco remain a top strategic priority for the European Union, said the EU Special Representative for the Sahel region Joao Cravinho, who pointed out that the Kingdoms relationship with neighboring Sahel countries is, for the EU, a vital source of insight. The EU official made the remarks in a statement to the press following a meeting with Foreign minister Nasser Bourita in Rabat this Friday. The EU official who described ties with the Kingdom as being fruitful, robust, versatile, and multidimensional, pointed out that Moroccos relationship with neighboring Sahel countries is, for us, a vital source of insight, understanding, and joint action paths in favor of the peoples of the Sahel. The EU diplomat noted that the Sahel region is fragile from both safety and socio-economic perspectives, two interlinked dimensions that stand as a major challenge, emphasizing that both the EU and Morocco have significant roles to play in the region. He added that the purpose of his visit was to explore ways of deepening the EU-Morocco partnership regarding the Sahel region, with the aim of achieving shared objectives of peace and security in service of the regions populations.